Estimation of Sea Ice Thickness from SARAL/AltiKa in Drifting Orbit Phase

Abstract

Intra and inter-annual variations in the sea ice thickness are highly sensitive indicators of climatic variations undergoing in the earth’s atmosphere and oceans. This paper describes the method of estimating sea ice thickness using radar waveforms data acquired by SARAL/Altika mission during its drifting orbit phase from July 2016 onwards yielding spatially dense data coverage. Based on statistical analysis of return echoes, classification of the surface has been carried out in three different types, viz. floe, lead and mixed. Time delay correction methods were suitably selected and implemented to make corrections in altimetric range measurements and thereby freeboard. By assuming hydrostatic equilibrium, freeboard data were converted into sea ice thickness. Results show that sea ice thickness varies from 4 to 5?m near ice shelves and 1 to 2.5?m in the marginal sea ice regions. Freeboard and sea ice thickness estimates were also validated using NASA’s Operation Ice Bridge (OIB) datasets. Freeboard measurements show very high correlation (0.97) having RMSE of 0.13. Overestimation of approximately 1–2?m observed in the sea ice thickness, which could be attributed to distance between AltiKa footprint and OIB locations. Moreover, sensitivity analysis shows that snow depth and snow density over sea ice play crucial role in the estimation of sea ice thickness.     

Potential for small scale added value of RCM’s downscaled climate change signal

In recent decades, the need of future climate information at local scales have pushed the climate modelling community to perform increasingly higher resolution simulations and to develop alternative approaches to obtain fine-scale climatic information. In this article, various nested regional climate model (RCM) simulations have been used to try to identify regions across North America where high-resolution downscaling generates fine-scale details in the climate projection derived using the “delta method”. Two necessary conditions were identified for an RCM to produce added value (AV) over lower resolution atmosphere-ocean general circulation models in the fine-scale component of the climate change (CC) signal. First, the RCM-derived CC signal must contain some non-negligible fine-scale information—independently of the RCM ability to produce AV in the present climate. Second, the uncertainty related with the estimation of this fine-scale information should be relatively small compared with the information itself in order to suggest that RCMs are able to simulate robust fine-scale features in the CC signal. Clearly, considering necessary (but not sufficient) conditions means that we are studying the “potential” of RCMs to add value instead of the AV, which preempts and avoids any discussion of the actual skill and hence the need for hindcast comparisons. The analysis concentrates on the CC signal obtained from the seasonal-averaged temperature and precipitation fields and shows that the fine-scale variability of the CC signal is generally small compared to its large-scale component, suggesting that little AV can be expected for the time-averaged fields. For the temperature variable, the largest potential for fine-scale added value appears in coastal regions mainly related with differential warming in land and oceanic surfaces. Fine-scale features can account for nearly 60 % of the total CC signal in some coastal regions although for most regions the fine scale contributions to the total CC signal are of around ～5 %. For the precipitation variable, fine scales contribute to a change of generally less than 15 % of the seasonal-averaged precipitation in present climate with a continental North American average of ～5 % in both summer and winter seasons. In the case of precipitation, uncertainty due to sampling issues may further dilute the information present in the downscaled fine scales. These results suggest that users of RCM simulations for climate change studies in a delta method framework have little high-resolution information to gain from RCMs at least if they limit themselves to the study of first-order statistical moments. Other possible benefits arising from the use of RCMs—such as in the large scale of the downscaled fields– were not explored in this research.     

A Fourier transform method for the interpretation of self-potential anomalies due to two-dimensional inclined sheets of finite depth extent

The self-potential anomaly due to a two-dimensional inclined sheets of finite depth extent has been analysed in the frequency domain using the Fourier transform. Expression for the Fourier amplitude and phase spectra are derived. The Fourier amplitude and phase spectra are analysed so as to evaluate the parameters of the sheet. Application of this method on two anomalies (synthetic and field data) has given good results.     

Distribution of chaetognaths (Aphragmophora: Sagittidae) in Korean waters

The distribution of chaetognaths was investigated at 10 stations in the southern part of Korean waters (line S), at six stations in the eastern part of Korean waters (line E) and at 8 stations in the western part of Korean waters (line W). Ten species were present at the stations at line S and Flaccisagitta enflata and Zonosagitta bedoti were dominant among these species. Mean densities at line S ranged from 7 inds.m^-3 to 27 inds.m^-3. Five chaetognath species were found at the stations at line E and Zonosagitta nagae and Parasagitta elegans were the most abundant. Mean densities ranged from 1 to 10 inds.m-3. Four chaetognath species were present at line W and Aidanosagitta crassa and chaetognath juveniles were dominant in this line. Mean densities ranged from 21 to 199 inds.m^-3. The density of chaetognaths was highest at line W while the diversity of chaetognaths was highest at line S. Individuals of chaetognaths were divided into two groups, a group of line E and a mixed group of lines W and E. This study suggests that F. enflata is a warm water species; Z. nagae is a mixed water species; P. elegans is a cold water species; and A. crassa is a less saline water species. The mtCOI of F. enflata, which was a dominant species in the sampling area, was analyzed. F. enflata that are present in waters around Korean were genetically divided into two groups, which may be influenced by various oceanic factors.     

Prediction of Stellar Atmospheric Parameters using Instance-Based Machine Learning and Genetic Algorithms

In this article we present a method for the automated prediction of stellar atmospheric parameters from spectral indices. This method uses a genetic algorithm (GA) for the selection of relevant spectral indices and prototypical stars and predicts their properties, using the k-nearest neighbors method (KNN). We have applied the method to predict the effective temperature, surface gravity, metallicity, luminosity class and spectral class of stars from spectral indices. Our experimental results show that the feature selection performed by the genetic algorithm reduces the running time of KNN up to 92%, and the predictive accuracy error up to 35%. This revised version was published online in July 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

Drifting and Meandering of Olive Ridley Sea Turtles in the Bay of Bengal: Role of Oceanic Rossby Waves

Olive Ridley turtles in the Bay of Bengal are previously thought to migrate southward from their nesting ground, along the east coast of India (Orissa coast), towards Sri Lanka. Surprisingly, three of the four Platform Transmitter Terminal (PTT) attached turtles in April-June 2001 meandered off the east coast of India for about two months. It is found that these turtles meandered at the peripherals of cold core cyclonic eddy surrounded by warm core eddies on either side. Concentrations of prey for the turtles in those frontal regions are known to be abundant. Only one of the four PTT attached turtles migrated to the south along the frontal regions in the direction of geostrophic currents. It is found that the locations of these thermal fronts in the Bay of Bengal are primarily determined by the Oceanic Rossby waves and local Ekman pumping.     

Incoherent Cerenkov process as a source of low-latitude VLF emissions

Employing a realistic ionospheric model and a suitable energetic electron spectra, detailed power calculations are carried out to confirm the generation mechanism of low-latitude VLF emissions observed both in the satellites and on the ground. Raypaths of the radiated waves are also calculated to account for the attenuation and spreading losses. It is shown that 100 eV?1 keV electrons radiating incoherently in the Cerenkov mode are the main sources of these emissions.     

Location-based environmental factors contributing to rainfall-triggered debris flows in the Ba river catchment,northwest Viti Levu island,Fiji

Mass movements in tropical Pacific small island developing states (SIDS) can be devastating although studies are relatively few and contributing environmental factors are not often investigated in detail. On 25 January 2012, following 3 days of heavy monsoonal rainfall (c. 550 mm) during a La Niña episode, more than 150 debris flows were triggered in the western part of the Ba river catchment of northwest Viti Levu island, Fiji. Reconnaissance field survey and geographical information system (GIS) analyses using high-resolution satellite imagery were carried out to investigate factors that may have led to the occurrence of the debris flows in the catchment. We evaluated the correlation between the density of mass movements (number of mass movements/km²) and several continuous variables using data measured within the GIS. There was a weak but significant positive correlation between mass movement density and elevation (r = 0.38, p value < 0.01), cyclonic precipitation (r = 0.37, p value < 0.01) and stream density (r = 0.31, p value < 0.01). Ninety-three percent of the mass movements occur within a plantation of Pinus caribaea (Caribbean pine) on slopes oriented mainly to the northeast and east on (trade) windward slopes and may be significant factors for their development. Although forests generally have a stabilizing effect on slopes, the plantation at Ba was a mature stand on its second plantation cycle and is a species that has a shallow rooting system making it more susceptible to failure.