Role of land state in a high resolution mesoscale model for simulating the Uttarakhand heavy rainfall event over India

In 2013, Indian summer monsoon witnessed a very heavy rainfall event (>30 cm/day) over Uttarakhand in north India, claiming more than 5000 lives and property damage worth approximately 40 billion USD. This event was associated with the interaction of two synoptic systems, i.e., intensified subtropical westerly trough over north India and north-westward moving monsoon depression formed over the Bay of Bengal. The event had occurred over highly variable terrain and land surface characteristics. Although global models predicted the large scale event, they failed to predict realistic location, timing, amount, intensity and distribution of rainfall over the region. The goal of this study is to assess the impact of land state conditions in simulating this severe event using a high resolution mesoscale model. The land conditions such as multi-layer soil moisture and soil temperature fields were generated from High Resolution Land Data Assimilation (HRLDAS) modelling system. Two experiments were conducted namely, (1) CNTL (Control, without land data assimilation) and (2) LDAS, with land data assimilation (i.e., with HRLDAS-based soil moisture and temperature fields) using Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) modelling system. Initial soil moisture correlation and root mean square error for LDAS is 0.73 and 0.05, whereas for CNTL it is 0.63 and 0.053 respectively, with a stronger heat low in LDAS. The differences in wind and moisture transport in LDAS favoured increased moisture transport from Arabian Sea through a convectively unstable region embedded within two low pressure centers over Arabian Sea and Bay of Bengal. The improvement in rainfall is significantly correlated to the persistent generation of potential vorticity (PV) in LDAS. Further, PV tendency analysis confirmed that the increased generation of PV is due to the enhanced horizontal PV advection component rather than the diabatic heating terms due to modified flow fields. These results suggest that, two different synoptic systems merged by the strong interaction of moving PV columns resulted in the strengthening and further amplification of the system over the region in LDAS. This study highlights the importance of better representation of the land surface fields for improved prediction of localized anomalous weather event over India.     

Investigation of Cycle Time Segments of Dragline Operation in Surface Coal Mine: A Statistical Approach

Dragline is highly capital intensive equipment to procure, operate and maintain in any surface mining operation. Given this, every second of operation of this capital intensive equipment is absolutely important. Improvement of even a single second in the total cycle time has a tremendous bearing on the overall performance of this equipment. In this light, the present paper is an endeavour to critically analyze the cycle time of dragline operations in a major surface coal mine in India. Rigorous statistical analysis has been performed on individual cycle time segments, of complete dragline cycle. The segmental cycle times have been found to be statistically significant and appear to be best represented by lognormal, normal and beta distributions. Furthermore, the mean time of the statistical distribution for segmental cycle time of dragline has revealed the dependence of cycle time on cut geometry and depth. Results have been illustrated in the form of figures, graphs and tables.     

Nonparametric Estimation of Undrained Shear Strength for Normally Consolidated Clays

For decades, various well-known empirical correlations have been established and commonly used to estimate the undrained shear strength of normally consolidated clays in geotechnical practice. However, there are still many contradictory cases regarding the validity of these correlations, so their applicability and reliability are questionable. In this study, an extensive geotechnical database for normally consolidated clays has been compiled. Next, a Bayesian nonparametric method is exploited to identify the most critical soil index properties in inferring the undrained shear strength and a new predictive model is proposed. Finally, the performance of the proposed predictive model is assessed and compared with two well-known correlations using an independent testing database. It confirms that the proposed model not only possesses high predictability, but also provides superior performance over other existing empirical correlations.     

Snowmelt runoff and groundwater discharge in Himalayan rivers: a case study of the Satluj River,NW India

The Himalayas are one of the largest cryospheric systems outside the Polar Regions, and include more than 12,000 glaciers spread over an area of about 33,000 km². The Himalayan glaciers and snow packs retreating at an accelerating rate, thereby creating an alarming situation for the huge population that resides in northwestern India and southeastern Pakistan, as they depend on surface water resources in the region and rivers emanating from the Himalayas. This work attempts to quantify the contribution of different sources such as glacial/ice/snow melt and groundwater discharge to the Satluj River using the stable isotopes based hydrograph separation method at Ropar (foot hill) and Yusufpur in plain of Punjab, India. A mass balance model of three-component mixing has been engaged using the values of δ¹⁸O and electrical conductivity of the river water, and its discharge fraction, to estimate the time-varying relative proportion of each component from July 2013 to January 2014. The proportion of glacier melt was found to peak up to ~?64% at Ropar and ~?15% at Yusufpur during the wet summer months. The fraction of groundwater discharge was found to vary between 10–20% at Ropar and 25–35% at Yusufpur (Punjab plain) over time. The observed trend of d-excess (deuterium excess) values of river water also suggests that the glaciers and snow packs at higher altitudes contain a significant fraction of snow derived from vapor originating in the Mediterranean region, driven by the mid-latitude westerlies known as western disturbances.     

Effect of loading duration on uncertainty in creep analysis of clay

Some studies suggest that creep parameters should be determined using a greater quantity of creep test data to provide more reliable prediction regarding the deformation of soft soils. This study aims to investigate the effect of loading duration on model updating. One‐dimensional consolidation data of intact Vanttila clay under different loading durations collected from the literature is used for demonstration. The Bayesian probabilistic method is used to identify all unknown parameters based on the consolidation data during the entire consolidation process, and their uncertainty can be quantified through the obtained posterior probability density functions. Additionally, the optimal models are also determined from among 9 model candidates. The analyses indicate that the optimal models can describe the creep behavior of intact soft soils under different loading durations, and the adopted method can evaluate the effect of loading duration on uncertainty in the creep analysis. The uncertainty of a specific model and its model parameters decreases as more creep data are involved in the updating process, and the updated models that use more creep data can better capture the deformation behavior of an intact sample. The proposed method can provide quantified uncertainty in the process of model updating and assist engineers to decide whether the creep test data are sufficient for the creep analysis.     

中尺度降水集合预报随机参数扰动方法敏感性试验

中尺度降水模式预报具有很大的不确定性,为更好地描述与模式降水预报密切相关的物理过程关键参数的不确定性,基于中国气象局GRAPES（Global/Regional Assimilation and Prediction System）中尺度区域集合预报模式,从对模式降水预报不确定性有较大影响的积云对流、云微物理、边界层及近地面层等4个参数化方案中选取了18个关键参数,设计了一种随机参数扰动方案（Stochastically Perturbed Parameterization,SPP）,并通过2015年6—7月总计10 d的随机扰动集合预报试验,对比分析了SPP方案对不同物理过程参数扰动敏感性、随机场时、空尺度敏感性、能量变化特征及其集合预报效果。结果显示,对所选择的任一物理过程参数化方案增加SPP扰动后,降水及等压面要素的概率预报技巧优于无SPP扰动的预报,而扰动积云对流和边界层过程中的参数较扰动云微物理过程中的参数影响更显著,且同时扰动积云对流、云微物理、边界层及近地面层参数化方案中的18个参数的集合预报效果优于扰动任何单一物理过程中的部分参数,表明SPP方案能够有效地提高中尺度降水概率预报技巧;从能量变化特征可知,不同物理过程的参数扰动对动能、内能和总能量的影响层次和特征有所不同,但总体而言,扰动前后各项能量基本相同;随机场时、空尺度敏感性试验发现,SPP扰动随机场时间、空间相关尺度对集合预报效果有明显影响,当扰动随机场选用12 h抗相关时间及截断波数20时,集合预报结果最优。上述结果表明,SPP随机参数扰动方案不仅能够有效提高集合概率预报效果,还能够提高集合降水概率预报技巧,具有良好的业务应用与发展前景。      

GRAPES区域集合预报两种侧边界扰动方法对比试验

中国气象局数值预报中心自2014年建立了区域集合预报业务系统,其使用的侧边界扰动由全球集合预报系统动力降尺度得到。为深入了解侧边界扰动对区域集合预报的影响,基于15 km水平分辨率的区域集合预报模式,使用动力降尺度方法和尺度化滞后平均法(scaled lagged average forecasting,SLAF)设计构造了两种侧边界扰动方案,并开展了2015年7月共6天的集合预报试验,利用集合均方根误差、集合离散度、连续分级概率评分、离群值、Brier Score及相对作用特征曲线面积等概率预报检验方法进行了多方面检验,分析了两种侧边界扰动方案对区域集合预报质量的影响。结果表明:动力降尺度侧边界扰动方案(DOWN)的扰动总能量在各垂直层次均大于SLAF方案,使得边界上前者的离散度大于后者,集合扰动增长更为合理;对于等压面要素和地面要素,DOWN方案的离散度、Outlier、CRPS等评分优于SLAF方案,反映了DOWN方案构造的侧边界扰动更加合理;在降水概率预报技巧方面,SLAF方案在评分上具有一定优势,但评分的提高没有通过显著性水平检验,因此认为两种方案对降水预报的改进基本相当。