Sound velocity,density, and related properties along a transect across the Bay of Bengal

Physical properties, sound velocity and density of 95 core samples from ten locations along a transect (parallel to 15°N latitude) across the Bay of Bengal were measured. Results indicate that sound velocities range from 1,482 to 1,679 m/s (av: 1,583 m/s) and densities from 1,338 to 1,757 kg/m³ (av: 1,527 kg/m³). It has been observed that dark colored clays and sandy clays show higher values of sound velocity and density than the average values. A comparative study of the same with that of the sediment cores collected from the Norwegian basin, Mediterranean Sea, and Hatteras, Nares Abyssal plains, western North Atlantic Ocean was done.     

Virgin rock temperatures from well logs — accuracy analysis for some advanced inversion models

Temperature data from 18 measurement series obtained during logging of the Oseberg field in the northern North Sea are presented. Because the measurement series are taken at approximately the same depth, they should give identical temperatures after depth correction, and are suitable for assessing the performance of different models used to determine virgin rock temperatures from well log information.We have used this data set to test the properties of the different models given by Shen and Beck (1986). Although these models were built to simulate closely the thermal recovery of a well and are unbiased, the uncertainties in the temperature estimates when applied to real data are found to be no less than those from simpler (biased) models. This fact confirms the conclusion of Hermanrud (1989a) who showed that physical factors other than those presently accounted for significantly influence the thermal recovery of a borehole.     

Wave transmission and reflection characteristics of a rigid surface and submerged horizontal plate

The wave transmission and reflection characteristics of a rigidly fixed surface and submerged horizontal plate were investigated experimentally in detail for a wide range of incident wave steepnesses and for different depths of submerge of the plate in deep water conditions in regular water wave fields. The experiments were conducted at the Ocean Engineering Centre, Indian Institute of Technology, Madras, India, in a wave flume 10 m long, 0.3 m wide and in a constant water depth of 0.8 m. The horizontal plate is 0.22 m thick and 1.2 m in length, covering the enrire width of the flume. From the present investigation, it is found that for a rigid surface plate, the coefficient of transmission is a minimum and the coefficient of reflection is a maximum, but the maximum value of the coefficient of energy loss occurs for plates submerged closer to the still-water level (SWL) and not for the surface plate. It is also found that the value of the coefficient of reflection increases with the increase in the value of the Reddy-Neelamani (RN) number, the ratio of horizontal water particle excursion at the bottom of the plate in its absence to the length of the plate. The coefficient of transmission is found to decrease rapidly with increase in the value of RN number up to 0.1. The wave transmission is only 5% for RN from 0.1 to 0.2. It is also found that for RN number greater than 0.04, the minimum energy dissipation is consistently about 60% of the incident wave energy.     

Multipole expansions for wave diffraction and radiation in deep water

A multipole expansion of the velocity potential is described for two- and three-dimensional wave diffraction and radiation problems. The velocity potential is expressed in terms of a series of multipole potentials. The wave terms and the local disturbance terms are represented by separated multipole potentials. Floating bodies and submerged bodies are treated in the same way. This approach differs from that of some other authors, who considered floating bodies and submerged bodies separately and derived entirely different multipoles. Semi-analytical solutions for a circular cylinder in two-dimensional motions are given. It is found that the local disturbance decays rapidly and steadily. The general application of the multipole expansion to arbitrary geometries is also presented, based on a method coupling multipoles to a boundary integral expression. Numerical results for several floating and submerged cylinders are presented.     

Estimates of the characteristics of the horizontal turbulent exchange in the northwestern part of the Pacific Ocean

Estimates of the characteristics of the horizontal turbulent exchange (coefficients of horizontal exchange, scales of deviations of the velocity of geostrophic currents from the background flows, and horizontal scales of perturbations) in the upper ocean layer were obtained on the basis of the data of expeditions held in 1978 and 1980 in the northwestern part of the Pacific Ocean. It is shown that the characteristics of the horizontal turbulent exchange strongly depend on the structure of the background flows, and one of the causes of their variability is related to tropical cyclones. A tendency to a decrease (to different degrees) of the turbulent coefficients in the wake of a tropical cyclone is noted.     

On the use of poorly soluble hygroscopic substances for modification of warm clouds and fogs

From analysis of the relationships between the equilibrium state of condensation nuclei and the relative humidity, a conclusion is made concerning the preferred use of poorly soluble substances for the generation of artificial condensation nuclei (ACN) designed for modification of warm clouds and fogs with the purpose of their dissipation and precipitation formation. The advantage of poorly soluble substances over commonly used soluble salts is that the finely dispersed part of the spectrum of the poorly soluble ACN does not deliquesce and so is not involved in the formation of cloud droplets. For experimental testing of the conclusions, preference was given to cement, whose main soluble substance is calcium oxide with a solubility of about 1 g/l. The spectrum of dispersed cement particles was measured and compared with the spectra of pyrotechnic flares widely used for modification at present. The process of formation of the cloud droplet spectra was simulated in the aerosol chamber of the Institute of Experimental Meteorology by decreasing the preliminarily generated excess pressure. It was found in these experiments that, compared to the spectra of particles formed on background condensation nuclei, the introduction of dispersed cement leads to the broadening of spectra and to a decrease in the concentration of droplets. Even at the early stage of condensation, droplets with radii of ∼20 μm appear. In this case, no “overseeding” phenomenon is observed, which, for soluble substances, manifests itself in an increase in the concentration of cloud droplets with a large ACN concentration. These effects indicate that, according to the existing concepts about the mechanism of warm-cloud modification with hygroscopic substances, the introduction of poorly soluble ACN (in particular, dispersed cement) below the base of cumulus clouds should stimulate coagulation processes and accelerate rain-formation processes. Considerations are given that the introduction of poorly soluble ACN into the already existing cumulus or stratocumulus clouds or fogs should also result in the acceleration of precipitation-formation processes or cloud dispersal. Comparison of cement powder with the well-known means of warm-cloud and fog modification is carried out. Original Russian Text ? N.P. Romanov, A.S. Drofa, N.S. Kim, A.V. Savchenko, G.F. Yaskevich, 2006, published in Izvestiya AN. Fizika Atmosfery i Okeana, 2006, Vol. 42, No. 1, pp. 80–91.     

Measurements of higher harmonic wave forces on a vertical truncated circular cylinder

Wave forces on a vertical truncated circular cylinder in Stokes waves with the wave slopes ranging from 0.06 to 0.24, are measured in a wave tank. The higher harmonic wave forces are compared with the available values from theories of the FNV (Faltisen–Newman–Vinje) model and Varyani solution. The first harmonic horizontal forces measured are much larger than the theoretical values from the FNV model, while the first harmonic vertical forces are well predicted by the Varyani theory. It was also found that the FNV model significantly overpredicts the second harmonic horizontal forces in high frequency waves, but under predicts the third harmonic forces. The differences between the actual measurement and the theory, in the second and third harmonic horizontal forces, become smaller at low wave frequencies as the wave slope increases. In addition, the transverse instabilities in the incoming waves with high wave slope were observed, which is due to the nonlinear modulation. Measurements were, thus, carried out before the instability occurred.     

Transient biouptake flux and accumulation by microorganisms: The case of two types of sites with Langmuir adsorption

The uptake of a chemical species by an aquatic microorganism is modelled considering two kinds of sites where Langmuirian adsorption is followed by first order internalisation kinetics. Simpler models, such as only one internalisation route (while most of the adsorption takes place on non-internalising sites) or a linear isotherm for adsorption on one or both sites, become limiting cases of this double-Langmuirian model. The model considers the sites located on the spherical (or semi-spherical) surface of the organism, and takes diffusion from the medium into explicit account. The numerical solution for the internalisation flux shows a maximum. We provide an estimate for the time needed to reach a certain proximity to steady state. The transient solution confirms that the analytical expressions for the steady-state flux are usually valid and that the accumulated amounts reflect the impact of the short-time uptake. The Instantaneous Steady-State Approximation (ISSA), where an intercept of the linear regression of accumulated amount as a function of time is interpreted as an adsorbed amount, can be critically assessed with the transient numerical code for two cases: (i) when the total burden of metal on the cell is the input data and (ii) when an extraction procedure provides further information on the adsorbed and internalised amount.     

A climatology of mesoscale model simulated low-level wind jets over Cook Inlet and Shelikof Strait, Alaska

Weather in the North Gulf of Alaska is characterized by a high frequency of deep synoptic-scale low-pressure systems, especially during the cold season. The strong pressure gradients of these storms interact with the extremely rugged terrain of the coastal mountains to produce a variety of channeled flows. These surface wind regimes are not well documented in the scientific community, due to the paucity of observations. Modeling of these phenomena in regions of complex terrain is of great interest to those working with hydrodynamic, wave, and pollutant transport models in coastal and shelf areas. Such models, when coupled with ocean and coastal-ecology counterparts, give a broad view of the role surface winds play in shaping local coastal marine ecosystem in this region. This paper presents a climatology of simulated low-level wind jets over the domain of Cook Inlet and Shelikof Strait along Alaska's south-central coast. Daily simulations using the RAMS model were conducted in a 36-h forecast mode for the cold-season period 10/1/03 to 3/31/04. Systematic analysis of the resulting simulated low-level wind field makes it possible to characterize these jets and gap flows in spatial and temporal detail. The comparison between the RAMS winds and the Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR)-derived winds when available verifies the existence of these wind jets and the capability of the model to simulate these cases. Clearly, the results of a study in this region depend on the fidelity of the model at these scales (O[5 km]). The SAR comparisons attempt to help establish this. From the 6 months of simulations over Cook Inlet and Shelikof Strait, the low-level wind jets are classified into 10 different regimes by location and orientation. These regimes are categorized into four more general groups: cross-channel westerly, easterly, and up and down Inlet flows. The nature of a particular regime is largely a function of pressure gradient orientation and local topography. Jets in the same group have a similar occurrence distribution with time. Some form of jet occurred in the study region almost daily each month of the period, with December 2003 having the highest frequency of wind jets.