Subsidence fronts

Approximate analytical solution of the coupled momentum and heat transfer equations are obtained, using an integral method, for natural convection boundary layers which are produced by a step change of surface temperature. The accuracy of the laminar solution is shown to be good, especially at high Prandtl Number (Pr). The corresponding solutions for the turbulent fluid yield a model of a boundary layer in which the horizontal flow strengthens downstream and is fed by downward motion from above. We call this system, which could possibly simulate the initiation of a sea breeze circulation, a subsidence front. Interesting properties of the solution include the control of the boundary-layer development by the product (PrS), whereS is the slope of the boundary layer, and also the generation of log-linear velocity and temperature profiles by heat flux divergence.     

Relationship of Hyperspectral Reflectance Indices with Leaf N and P Concentration,Dry Matter Accumulation and Grain Yield of Wheat

A field experiment was conducted on wheat during rabi season of year 2010–2011 and 2011–2012 at IARI, New Delhi to study the reflectance response of wheat to the nutrient omissions and identify the appropriate indices for assessing the nutrient deficiencies. Treatments comprised omission of N, P, K, S and Zn, 50% omission of N, P, and K, absolute control and optimum dose of nutrition (150–26.4–50–15–3 kg/ha N–P–K–S–Zn). The R² were significant and higher for the hyperspectral indices than the broad band vegetation indices. GMI-I, RI-2 dB and RI-3d, GNDVI, VOGa, VOGb, VOGc, ND₇₀₅, PRI, PSNDc and REIP had higher R² (>0.61) for the leaf N concentration. The hyperspectral indices having highly significant correlation with leaf P concentration were PSSRc, GMI-1, ZM, RI-half, VOGa, VOGb, VOGc, mSR and REIP. Among the indices analysed PSSRc, GMI-I, VOGa, RI-2 dB, RI-3 dB, GNDVI, VOGb, VOGc and ND₇₀₅ had almost a similar degree of relationship with DM accumulation with R² values ranging from 0.70 to 0.73. However, REIP displayed a higher degree of relationship with leaf N concentration, drymatter accumulation and grain yield as indicated by R² of 0.85, 0.81 and 0.95 (P = ≤0.01), respectively. It can be concluded from the study that among the hyperspectral indices REIP had a highly significant relationship with leaf N concentration, DM accumulation and grain yield. However, for leaf P concentration several hyperspectral indices viz PSSRc, GMI-1, ZM, RI-half, VOGa, VOGb, VOGc, mSR had though significant but almost similar R² values.     

Soil and water conservation measures improve soil carbon sequestration and soil quality under cashews

Land degradation is becoming a serious problem in the west coast region of India where one of the world's eight biodiversity hotspots,the‘Western Ghats’,is present.Poor land management practices and high rainfall have led to increasing problems associated with land degradation.A long-term(13-year)experiment was done to evaluate the impact of soil and water conservation measures on soil carbon sequestration and soil quality at three different depths under cashew nut cultivation on a 19%slope.Five soil and water conservation measures-continuous contour trenches,staggered contour trenches,halfmoon terraces,semi-elliptical trenches,and graded trenches all with vegetative barriers of Stylosanthes scabra and Vetiveria zizanoides and control were evaluated for their influence on soil properties,carbon sequestration,and soil quality under cashews.The soil and water conservation measures improved significantly the soil organic carbon,soil organic carbon stock,carbon sequestration rate and microbial activity compared to the control condition(without any measures).Among the measures tested,continuous contour trenches with vegetative barriers outperformed the others with respect to soil organic carbon stock,sequestration rate,and microbial activity.The lower metabolic quotient with the measures compared to the control indicated alleviation of environmental stress on microbes.Using principal component analysis and a correlation matrix,a minimum dataset was identified as the soil available nitrogen,bulk density,basal soil respiration,soil pH,acid phosphatase activity,and soil available boron and these were the most important soil properties controlling the soil quality.Four soil quality indices using two summation methods(additive and weighted)and two scoring methods(linear and non-linear)were developed using the minimum dataset.A linear weighted soil quality index was able to statistically differentiate the effect of soil and water conservation measures from that of the control.The highest value of the soil quality index of 0.98 was achieved with continuous contour trenches with a vegetative barrier.The results of the study indicate that soil and water conservation measures for cashews are a potential strategy to improve the soil carbon sequestration and soil quality along with improving crop productivity and reducing the erosion losses.     

Vegetation Dynamics from Denoised NDVI Using Empirical Mode Decomposition

A novel approach to study vegetation dynamics is introduced, using the Empirical Mode Decomposition (EMD) to analyze NDVI time series. The NDVI time series which is nonlinear and nonstationary can be decomposed by EMD into components called intrinsic mode functions (IMFs), based on inherent temporal scales. The highest frequency component which has been found to represent noise is subtracted from the original NDVI series; thus smoothing the noisy signal. The different key features describing vegetation phenology have been extracted by analyzing the noise free signal. The lowest frequency component (last IMF) is the trend in the NDVI series. The trend in the series has been identified finding the Sen’s slope of last IMF, and the non-parametric seasonal Mann–Kendall test has been used to confirm the significance of the observed trend. The method has been applied on per–pixel basis to the SPOT Vegetation NDVI product covering Northeast India and surrounding regions for the time span of 1998–2009. Results show that the method has performed well in identifying the pixel clusters with significant trends. Hotspot regions with severe vegetation degeneration have been identified, and the relationship of the observed trends with the expected causative variables such as land use and land cover, topographic relief, and anthropogenic causes has been explored. The spatial locations of these critical regions closely matches with the findings of the previous studies carried out locally in the region, mainly indicating the shifting cultivation practice to be the main cause for land cover change.     

Snow Cover Area Mapping Using Synthetic Aperture Radar in Manali Watershed of Beas River in the Northwest Himalayas

The current study has used Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) satellite data to estimate the Snow Cover Area (SCA) in Manali watershed of Beas River in Northwest Himalayas of Himachal Pradesh, India. SAR data used in this study is of Radarsat-2 (RS2) and Environmental Satellite (ENVISAT), Advanced Synthetic Aperture Radar (ASAR). The SAR preprocessing was done with SAR image processing tools for converting raw SAR images into calibrated geo-coded backscatter images. Maps for forest, built area, layover and shadow were created and used for masking snow cover in these areas. The backscattering ratio of wet snow to reference image threshold method with value range from ?2 to ?3 db was used to estimate wet SCA for study area. In this technique, if the threshold is too high (≥-2 db) wet SCA is overestimated and if it is too low (≤-3db), this method underestimates the SCA. The wet SCA is under/over estimated (+6 % to?8 % on average) in late spring season due to the inherent terrain and SAR imaging effects of layover/foreshortening and shadow and also due to the masking of forest areas. Overall, the SCA derived from SAR data matches well when compared with total SCA derived from cloud free optical remote sensing data products, especially during wet season.     

Tsunami Intensity Mapping Along the Coast of Tamilnadu (India) During the Deadliest Indian Ocean Tsunami of December 26, 2004

This paper presents tsunami intensity mapping and damage patterns along the surveyed coast of Tamilnadu (India) of the deadly Indian Ocean tsunami of December 26, 2004. The tsunami caused severe damage and claimed many victims in the coastal areas of eleven countries bordering the Indian Ocean. A twelve-stage tsunami intensity scale proposed by Papadopoulos and Imamura (2001) was followed to assign the intensity at the visited localities. Along the coast of the Indian mainland, tsunami damage sustained exclusively. Most severe damage was observed in Nagapattinam Beach, Nabiyarnagar, Vellaipalyam, and the Nagapattinam Port of Nagapattinum District on the east coast and Keelamanakudy village of Kanyakumari District on the western coast of Tamilnadu. The maximum assigned tsunami intensity was X+ at these localities. Minimum intensity V⁺ was received along the coast of Thanjavur, Puddukkotai and Ramnathpuram Districts in Palk Strait. The general observation reported by many people was that the first arrival was a tsunami crest. The largest tsunami waves were first arrivals on the eastern coast and the second arrivals on the western coast. Along the coast, people were unaware of the tsunami, and no anomalous behavior of ocean animals was reported. Good correlation was observed between the severity of damage and the presence of shadow zone of Sri Lanka, reflected waves from Sri Lanka and the Maldives Islands, variation in the width of the continental shelf, elevation of the coast and the presence of breakwaters. The presence of medu (naturally elevated landmass very close to the sea shore and elongated parallel to the coast) reduced the impact of the tsunami on the built environment.     

Dynamics of sea-ice biogeochemistry in the coastal Antarctica during transition from summer to winter

The seasonality of carbon dioxide partial pressure(pCO_2).air-sea CO_2 fluxes and associated environmental parameters were investigated in the Antarctic coastal waters.The in-situ survey was carried out from the austral summer till the onset of winter[January 2012,February 2010 and March 2009) in the Enderby Basin.Rapid decrease in pCO_2 was evident under the sea-ice cover in January,when both water column and sea-ice algal activity resulted in the removal of nutrients and dissolved inorganic carbon(DIC) and increase in pH.The major highlight of this study is the shift in the dominant biogeochemical factors from summer to early winter.Nutrient limitation(low Si/N),sea-ice cover,low photosynthetically active radiation(PAR),deep mixed layer and high upwelling velocity contributed towards higher pCO_2during March(early winter).CO_2 fluxes suggest that the Enderby Basin acts as a strong CO_2 sink during January(-81 mmol m~2 d~(-1)),however it acts as a weak sink of CO_2 with-2.4 and-1.7 mmol m~(-2) d~(-1)during February and March,respectively.The present work,concludes that sea ice plays a dual role towards climate change,by decreasing sea surface PCO_2 in summer and enhancing in early winter.Our observations emphasize the need to address seasonal sea-ice driven CO_2 flux dynamics in assessing Antarctic contributions to the global oceanic CO_2 budget.     

On selection effects in pulsar searches

Selection effects are a major source of error in statistical studies of pulsar data since the observed sample is a biased subset of the full galactic pulsar population. It is important to identify all selection effects and make a reasonable model before attempting to determine pulsar properties. Here we discuss a hitherto neglected selection effect which is a function of the periodP of the pulsar. We find that short-P pulsars are more difficult to detect, particularly if their dispersion measures are high. We also discuss a declination-dependent selection effect in the II Molonglo Survey (II MS), and find some evidence for the existence of both selection effects in the pulsar data from this survey. We discuss the implications of these additional selection effects for the recently proposed ‘injection’ of pulsars whereby pulsars seem to switch on only at longerP. Using the II MS data we calculate that the observability of pulsars withP between 0.0 s and 0.5 s is about 18 per cent less with the new selection effects than hitherto believed; the mean correction is 6 per cent forP between 0.5 s and 1.0 s. We conclude that injection is not qualitatively affected by these corrections.     

Geochemistry and petrogenesis of radioactive Palaeoproterozoic granitoids of Kinwat crystalline inlier,Nanded and Yeotmal districts,Maharashtra

Kinwat crystalline inlier exposes Palaeoproterozoic granitoids belonging to the northern extensions of younger phase of Peninsular gneissic complex (PGC) within Deccan Trap country in Eastern Dharwar Craton (EDC) and bounded in south by a major NW-SE trending lineament (Kaddam fault). Geochemically, the Kinwat granitoids are similar to high-K, calc-alkaline to shoshonite magnesian granitoids and subdivided into two major groups, i.e. felsic group (pink and grey granites) and intermediate to felsic group (hybrid granitoids). The felsic group (∼67–74% SiO₂) shares many features with Neoarchaean to Palaeoproterozoic high potassic granites of PGC such as higher LILE and LREE content and marked depletion in Eu, P and HFSE, especially Nb, Ti, relative to LILE and LREE. The hybrid granitoids (∼58–67% SiO₂) have comparatively higher Ca, Mg and Na contents and slightly lower REE content than the granitoids of felsic group. Both, felsic and hybrid granitoids are metaluminous to weakly peraluminous and belong to highly fractionated I-type suite as evidenced by negative correlation of SiO₂ with MgO, FeO^t, CaO, Na₂O, Al₂O₃, whereas K₂O, Rb and Ba show sympathetic relationship with SiO₂. Moderate to strong fractionated REE patterns (Ce/Yb_N: ∼54–387) and strong negative Eu anomalies (Eu/Eu*: 0.13–0.41) are quite apparent in these granitoids. The geochemical characteristics together with mineralogical features such as presence of biotite±hornblende as the dominant ferromagnesian mineral phases point towards intracrustal magma source, i.e. derivation of magma by partial melting of probably tonalitic igneous protolith at moderate crustal levels for felsic granites, whereas hybrid granitoids appear to be products of juvenile mantle-crust interaction, in an active continental margin setting.