Winter fog over the Indo-Gangetic Plains: mapping and modelling using remote sensing and GIS

Almost every year in the winter months (December–February), the vast Indo-Gangetic Plain south of the Himalaya is affected by dense fog. This fog is considered as radiational fog, and sometime it becomes smog (when it mixes with smoke). The typical meteorological, topographic and increasing pollution conditions over the Indo-Gangetic Plain are perhaps the common contributing factors for fog formation. In the present study, the North Indian fog has been successfully mapped and analysed using NOAA-AVHRR satellite data. In the winter seasons of 2005–06, 2006–07 and 2007–08, the fog-affected area has been found to cover about 575,800 km², 594,100 km² and 478,000 km², respectively. Less fog in 2007–08 may be the consequence of high fluctuations in the meteorological parameters like temperature, relative humidity and wind speed as related to the prevailing synoptic regime for that season. The dissipation and migration pattern of fog in the study area has also been interpreted on the basis of the analysis of both meteorological and satellite data. Further analysis of the fog-affected area allowed identifying more fog-prone regions. Analysis of past fog-affected days and corresponding meteorological conditions enabled us to identify favourable conditions for fog formation viz. air temperature 3–13°C, relative humidity >87%, wind speed <2 m/s and elevation <300 m. Based on the observations of past fog formation and corresponding governing parameters, fog for few selected days could be predicted in hind-sight and later verified with NOAA images.     

A circular statistical method for extracting rotation measures

We propose a new method for the extraction of Rotation Measures from spectral polarization data. The method is based on maximum likelihood analysis and takes into account the circular nature of the polarization data. The method is unbiased and statistically more efficient than the standard χ² procedure.     

Variations in Oscillation Frequencies From Minimum to Maximum of Solar Activity

The temporal variation in intermediate-degree-mode frequencies is analysed using helioseismic data which cover the minimum to the maximum phase of the current solar cycle. To study the variation in detail, the measured frequency shifts of f and p modes are decomposed into two components, viz., oscillatory and non-oscillatory. The f-mode frequencies exhibit prominent oscillatory behavior in contrast to p modes where the oscillatory nature of the frequencies is not clearly seen. Also, the oscillatory part contributes significantly to the f-mode frequencies while p-mode frequencies have maximum contribution from the non-oscillatory part. The amplitude of both oscillatory and non-oscillatory parts is found to be a function of frequency. The non-oscillatory part is observed to have a strong correlation with solar activity.     

Comparative assessment of three approaches for deriving stream power plots along long profiles in the upper Hunter River catchment, New South Wales, Australia

The downstream distribution of stream power is derived and analysed for 11 different streams in the upper Hunter River catchment, Australia. Stream long profiles were produced in a GIS environment using DEM data and catchment area–discharge analysis. These profiles were analysed using three approaches, namely long profile smoothing, curve fitting and a theoretical model. The methodology for deriving stream power profiles using these three approaches is discussed. The long profile smoothing method provides a good approximation of the subcatchment variability in stream power trends. The curve fitting method shows that higher-order exponential curves provide a better fit for long profile data. For the streams of the upper Hunter River catchment, second-order exponential curves fit well with significantly less error. The curve fitting method predicts a bimodal (upstream and midstream) distribution of stream power, which is a deviation from our earlier understanding of a single midstream peak. The theoretical approach provides a mathematical expression of the observed bimodal stream power distribution. The bimodal distribution emphasises the erosion potential of headwater reaches. The resultant stream power distribution provides a catchment-scale characterisation of the distribution of available energy in any given system. Using these approaches, the variability of stream power in headwater reaches is explained by discharge variability, while variability in midstream and downstream reaches is related to high variability in channel gradient.     

Characteristics of Enhanced and Low Amplitude Anisotropic Wave Trains and Interplanetary Transients

The occurrence of a large number of high and low amplitude anisotropic wave train events over the years 1981–1994 has been examined along with the different solar features. The results indicate that the time of maximum of diurnal variation significantly remains in the 18-h direction for majority of the high and low amplitude wave trains. The amplitude of diurnal anisotropy remains significantly high and phase shifts towards earlier hours as compared to the quite day annual average values for majority of the HAEs. The diurnal amplitude remains significantly low and phase shifts towards earlier hours as compared to the quiet day annual average values for majority of the LAEs. The occurrence of these enhanced/low amplitude events is found to be dominant during the positive polarity of the Bz component of the interplanetary magnetic field. The amplitude of the diurnal anisotropy of these events is found to increase on the days of magnetic cloud as compared to the days prior to the event and it found to decrease during the later period of the event as the cloud passes the Earth. The high-speed solar wind streams do not play any significant role in causing these types of events. The interplanetary disturbances (magnetic clouds) are also effective in producing cosmic ray decreases.     

Groundwater investigation of the artesian wells on the palaeochannels in parts of the Great Rann of Kachchh,Gujarat, India,using remote sensing and geophysical techniques

The Great Rann of Kachchh (GRK) in Gujarat, India, is the largest salt desert in the world, which is usually filled with seawater ingression during high tide from the Arabian Sea. As a result, the soil gets saturated with saline water that has percolated down for several meters. Groundwater exploration in Rann area is a challenging task due to the prevailing hostile environment. For this purpose, multisensor satellite data have been used to delineate the palaeochannels in search of an alternate source of drinking water. In GRK, palaeochannels represent the zone of elevated fluvial sediments with respect to the surroundings. Evolutionary history of the palaeochannels indicates upliftment of GRK area during Allah Bund faulting. For assessing the groundwater potential of the palaeochannels, high-resolution electrical resistivity tomography (HERT) surveys have been carried out with the pole-dipole method. Electrical resistivity tomograms along 710 m traverses to a depth of 250 m in Dharmsala and Gainda area show higher-resistivity zones (medium to coarse sand with brackish water) below a thick low-resistivity layer (clay with saline water). A few exploratory drillings in the area confirm the existence of the palaeochannels, which act as a confined aquifer below 100 m depth. The artesian condition of the two drilled wells at Gainda and Khardoi along the northern boundary of GRK may be attributed to hydraulic gradient along the confined layers from the Tharparkar region in Pakistan. Thus, HERT is found to be a faster and more cost-effective geophysical survey technique for study of the deep aquifer.

     

Copper Ore Identification using Spectral Similarity Measurement from Hyperion Image,Mapping of Porphyry Copper Mineralized Zone

This work illustrates the effectiveness of hyperspectal image spectroscopy and lab spectroscopy in identification techniques of minerals in alteration zone of ore body. The adopted procedure involves testing of Hyperion image spectra, their processing for noise, spectral matching and spectral similarity measurement with selected library spectra. Average weighted spectral similarity; visual and statistical matching techniques were used to select end-members from image spectra. Minimum noise fraction and pixel purity index technique were used to retrieve end-member spectra from hyperion image. Hyperspectral image like hyperion has the capability to deliver laboratory standard spectroscopic result. This paper illustrates the capability of hyperion image spectra in copper ore identification and mapping of chalcopyrite outcrop. A systematic approach has been made in this paper. This approach describes how image end member spectra and laboratory spectra can be co-related to fetch accurate spectral form of chalcopyrite ores. Thus, statistical and graphical comparison has been carried out between image derived end member spectra and laboratory spectra of chalcopyrite for better accuracy. The visual measurements is satisfactory, R = 0.973 for fine and 0.976 for medium grained chalcopyrite ore. Excellent statistical significance levels (90–97%) are found while comparing these spectra. There are many success stories of sub-pixel and N-dimensional feature space methods to separate the hydrothermal alteration zones from iron oxide mixed ore bodies. Thus, unmixing methods are very useful for mapping of most dominating mineral parts of a pixel from hyperspectral images which have coarse spatial resolution. Finally, mapping of mineralized zone has been achieved through sub-pixel based classifiers like spectral angle mapper (SAM), constrained energy minimization (CEM) and adaptive coherence estimator (ACE) techniques.     

Mapping of hydrothermally altered zones in Aravalli Supergroup of rocks around Dungarpur and Udaipur,India, using Landsat-8 OLI and spectroscopy

We explored the utilization of Landsat-8 Operational Land Imager (OLI) data for mapping of hydrothermal alteration zones. The region in and around the cities of Dungarpur and Udaipur of Rajasthan state in India was selected for this study. The rock types of Dungarpur and Udaipur are serpentinites, talc-carbonate, talc-schist, and quartzite of the Aravalli Supergroup. Hydrothermally altered zones and resultant hydrous minerals play an important role in the genesis of these rocks. We aimed to identify possible locations of hydrothermally altered zones in regional context around Dungarpur and Udaipur using Landsat-8 OLI data. False-color composite maps and band ratios were prepared from Landsat-8 bands. Band ratios such as band 6/band 7 (short-wave infrared 1 (SWIR1)/short wave infrared 2 (SWIR2)), band 4/band 3 (red/green), and band 5/band 6 (near infrared (NIR)/SWIR1) and visual interpretation techniques were used to identify the hydrothermally altered zones. Spectroscopic analyses of field rock samples were done to validate the hydrothermal alteration zones delineated from the analysis of Landsat-8 data. We present the combined results of Landsat-8 and field spectroradiometer analysis which brings out the hydrothermal alteration zones associated with hydrous minerals (antigorite, lizardite, montmorillonite, vermiculite, talc, and saponite). The study demonstrates the utility Landsat-8 OLI (with field spectroradiometer data) in the mapping of hydrothermally altered zones as a key in understanding geological processes.