On the interaction of pure and impure supercritical CO2 with rock forming minerals in saline aquifers: An experimental geochemical approach

The aim of this experimental study was to evaluate and compare the geochemical impact of pure and impure CO₂ on rock forming minerals of possible CO₂ storage reservoirs. This geochemical approach takes into account the incomplete purification of industrial captured CO₂ and the related effects during injection, and provides relevant data for long-term storage simulations of this specific greenhouse gas. Batch experiments were conducted to investigate the interactions of supercritical CO₂, brine and rock-forming mineral concentrates (albite, microcline, kaolinite, biotite, muscovite, calcite, dolomite and anhydrite) using a newly developed experimental setup. After up to 42 day (1000 h) experiments using pure and impure supercritical CO₂ the dissolution and solution characteristics were examined by XRD, XRF, SEM and EDS for the solid, and ICP–MS and IC for the fluid reactants, respectively. Experiments with mixtures of supercritical CO₂ (99.5 vol.%) and SO₂ or NO₂ impurities (0.5 vol.%) suggest the formation of H₂SO₄ and HNO₃, reflected in pH values between 1 and 4 for experiments with silicates and anhydrite and between 5 and 6 for experiments with carbonates. These acids should be responsible for the general larger amount of cations dissolved from the mineral phases compared to experiments using pure CO₂. For pure CO₂ a pH of around 4 was obtained using silicates and anhydrite, and 7–8 for carbonates. Dissolution of carbonates was observed after both pure and impure CO₂ experiments. Anhydrite was corroded by approximately 50 wt.% and gypsum precipitated during experiments with supercritical CO₂ + NO₂. Silicates do not exhibit visible alterations during all experiments but released an increasing amount of cations in the reaction fluid during experiments with impure CO₂. Nonetheless, precipitated secondary carbonates could not be identified.     

The IWAS-ToolBox: Software coupling for an integrated water resources management

Numerical modeling of interacting flow and transport processes between different hydrological compartments, such as the atmosphere/land surface/vegetation/soil/groundwater systems, is essential for understanding the comprehensive processes, especially if quantity and quality of water resources are in acute danger, like e.g. in semi-arid areas and regions with environmental contaminations. The computational models used for system and scenario analysis in the framework of an integrated water resources management are rapidly developing instruments. In particular, advances in computational mathematics have revolutionized the variety and the nature of the problems that can be addressed by environmental scientists and engineers. It is certainly true that for each hydro-compartment, there exists many excellent simulation codes, but traditionally their development has been isolated within the different disciplines. A new generation of coupled tools based on the profound scientific background is needed for integrated modeling of hydrosystems. The objective of the IWAS-ToolBox is to develop innovative methods to combine and extend existing modeling software to address coupled processes in the hydrosphere, especially for the analysis of hydrological systems in sensitive regions. This involves, e.g. the provision of models for the prediction of water availability, water quality and/or the ecological situation under changing natural and socio-economic boundary conditions such as climate change, land use or population growth in the future.     

The electron–cyclotron maser for astrophysical application

The electron–cyclotron maser is a process that generates coherent radiation from plasma. In the last two decades, it has gained increasing attention as a dominant mechanism of producing high-power radiation in natural high-temperature magnetized plasmas. Originally proposed as a somewhat exotic idea and subsequently applied to include non-relativistic plasmas, the electron–cyclotron maser was considered as an alternative to turbulent though coherent wave–wave interaction which results in radio emission. However, when it was recognized that weak relativistic corrections had to be taken into account in the radiation process, the importance of the electron–cyclotron maser rose to the recognition it deserves. Here we review the theory and application of the electron–cyclotron maser to the directly accessible plasmas in our immediate terrestrial and planetary environments. In situ access to the radiating plasmas has turned out to be crucial in identifying the conditions under which the electron–cyclotron maser mechanism is working. Under extreme astrophysical conditions, radiation from plasmas may provide a major energy loss; however, for generating the powerful radiation in which the electron–cyclotron maser mechanism is capable, the plasma must be in a state where release of susceptible amounts of energy in the form of radiation is favorable. Such conditions are realized when the plasma is unable to digest the available free energy that is imposed from outside and stored in its particle distribution. The lack of dissipative processes is a common property of collisionless plasmas. When, in addition, the plasma density becomes so low that the amount of free energy per particle is large, direct emission becomes favorable. This can be expressed as negative absorption of the plasma which, like in conventional masers, leads to coherent emission even though no quantum correlations are involved. The physical basis of this formal analogy between a quantum maser and the electron–cyclotron maser is that in the electron–cyclotron maser the free-space radiation modes can be amplified directly. Several models have been proposed for such a process. The most famous one is the so-called loss-cone maser. However, as argued in this review, the loss-cone maser is rather inefficient. Available in situ measurements indicate that the loss-cone maser plays only a minor role. Instead, the main source for any strong electron–cyclotron maser is found in the presence of a magnetic-field-aligned electric potential drop which has several effects: (1) it dilutes the local plasma to such an extent that the plasma enters the regime in which the electron–cyclotron maser becomes effective; (2) it generates energetic relativistic electron beams and field-aligned currents; (3) it deforms, together with the magnetic mirror force, the electron distribution function, thereby mimicking a high energy level sufficiently far above the Maxwellian ground state of an equilibrium plasma; (4) it favors emission in the free-space RX mode in a direction roughly perpendicular to the ambient magnetic field; (5) this emission is the most intense, since it implies the coherent resonant contribution of a maximum number of electrons in the distribution function to the radiation (i.e., to the generation of negative absorption); (6) it generates a large number of electron holes via the two-stream instability, and ion holes via the current-driven ion-acoustic instability which manifest themselves as subtle fine structures moving across the radiation spectrum and being typical for the electron–cyclotron maser emission process. These fine structures can thus be taken as the ultimate identifier of the electron–cyclotron maser. The auroral kilometric radiation of Earth is taken here as the paradigm for other manifestations of intense radio emissions such as the radiation from other planets in the solar system, from exoplanets, the Sun and other astrophysical objects.     

Stability of S-type Orbits in Binaries

This numerical investigation is concerned with the stability of planets moving around one component of a double star system. Since the discovery of four extra solar planets moving in such orbits, there is a growing interest of stability studies thereto. We determined the stable regions in the elliptic restricted three body problem, for the whole range of mass-ratios from 0.1 to 0.9, by means of the Fast Lyapunov Indicators. The computations have been carried out for eccentricities of the binary and of the planet in the range 0–0.5. Therefore, we present for the first time the variation of the stable regions when the initial eccentricity of the planet is increased. We have found a correlation between the reduction of the stable zones if the eccentricity of the planet or of the binary is increased — of course the latter one is more effective.This revised version was published online in October 2005 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

Semantic Interoperability through the Definition of Conceptual Model Transformations

The integration of distributed geospatial data is a great issue in GI Science. Hereby, the collection of data from different systems and different structures as well as across country borders is a problem. We explain a model‐based four‐step approach to conceptual data modelling. Within this approach, we introduce a methodology to map data models on the conceptual level without touching data formats. First, we developed a conceptual mapping language called “UMLT” which is the core of our approach. Furthermore, we integrated UMLT into the Model‐Driven Architecture where a conceptual model mapping is referred to as a platform independent model mapping. Finally, the data format transformation is deduced from the model mapping automatically. This represents the implementation mapping from a platform independent model to a platform specific model. Together with transformation operations for attribute mapping, this approach is a means for effective and enhanced semantic interoperability.     

Where are the Uranus Trojans?

The area of stable motion for fictitious Trojan asteroids around Uranus’ equilateral equilibrium points is investigated with respect to the inclination of the asteroid’s orbit to determine the size of the regions and their shape. For this task we used the results of extensive numerical integrations of orbits for a grid of initial conditions around the points L ₄ and L ₅, and analyzed the stability of the individual orbits. Our basic dynamical model was the Outer Solar System (Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune). We integrated the equations of motion of fictitious Trojans in the vicinity of the stable equilibrium points for selected orbits up to the age of the Solar system of 5 × 10⁹ years. One experiment has been undertaken for cuts through the Lagrange points for fixed values of the inclinations, while the semimajor axes were varied. The extension of the stable region with respect to the initial semimajor axis lies between 19.05 ≤ a ≤ 19.3 AU but depends on the initial inclination. In another run the inclination of the asteroids’ orbit was varied in the range 0° < i < 60° and the semimajor axes were fixed. It turned out that only four ‘windows’ of stable orbits survive: these are the orbits for the initial inclinations 0° < i < 7°, 9° < i < 13°, 31° < i < 36° and 38° < i < 50°. We postulate the existence of at least some Trojans around the Uranus Lagrange points for the stability window at small and also high inclinations.     

Multitracer test approach to characterize reactive transport in karst aquifers

A method to estimate reactive transport parameters as well as geometric conduit parameters from a multitracer test in a karst aquifer is provided. For this purpose, a calibration strategy was developed applying the two-region nonequilibrium model CXTFIT. The ambiguity of the model calibration was reduced by first calibrating the model with respect to conservative tracer breakthrough and later transferring conservative transport parameters to the reactive model calibration. The reactive transport parameters were only allowed to be within a defined sensible range to get reasonable calibration values. This calibration strategy was applied to breakthrough curves obtained from a large-scale multitracer test, which was performed in a karst aquifer of the Swabian Alb, Germany. The multitracer test was conducted by the simultaneous injection of uranine, sulforhodamine G, and tinopal CBS-X. The model succeeds to represent the tracer breakthrough curves (TBCs) of uranine and sulforhodamine G and verifies that tracer-rock interactions preferably occur in the immobile fluid region, although the fraction of this region amounts to only 3.5% of the total water. However, the model failed to account for the long tailing observed in the TBC of tinopal CBS-X. Sensitivity analyses reveal that model results for the conservative tracer transport are most sensitive to average velocity and volume fraction of the mobile fluid region, while dispersion and mass transfer coefficients are least influential. Consequently, reactive tracer calibration allows the determination of sorption sites in the mobile and immobile fluid region at small retardation coefficients.     

Monthly, seasonal and annual temperature reconstructions for Central Europe derived from documentary evidence and instrumental records since AD 1500

Monthly temperature series for Central Europe back to AD 1500 are developed from documentary index series from Germany, Switzerland and the Czech Republic (1500–1854) and 11 instrumental temperature records (1760–2007). Documentary evidence from the Low Countries, the Carpathian Basin and Poland are used for cross-checking for earlier centuries. The instrumental station records are corrected for inhomogeneities, including insufficient radiation protection of early thermometers and the urban heat island effect. For overlapping period (1760–1854), the documentary data series correlate with instrumental temperatures, most strongly in winter (86% explained variance in January) and least in autumn (56% in September). For annual average temperatures, 81% of the variance is explained. Verification statistics indicate high reconstruction skill for most months and seasons. The last 20 years (since 1988) stand out as very likely the warmest 20-year period, accounting for the calibration uncertainty and decreases in proxy data quality before the calibration period. The new reconstruction displays a previously unobserved long-term decrease in DJF, MAM and JJA temperature variability over last five centuries. Compiled monthly, seasonal and annual series can be used to improve the robustness of gridded large-scale European temperature reconstructions and possible impact studies. Further improvement of the reconstruction would be achieved if documentary data from other European countries are further developed.