Summer cooling of the Arabian Sea—a review

The summer cooling of the Arabian Sea has been reviewed in relation to the dynamic and thermodynamic processes. The differences in the quantum of cooling in the coastal regions have been attributed to the variations in the strength of coastal upwelling along the respective coasts. In the central portions of the Arabian Sea, the thickness of the surface layer and the thermal structure appear to be predominantly governed by the turbulent mixing of cold waters entrained into the surface layer in association with the deepening of current shear zone. The surface heat losses during the passage of a cyclone over the east central Arabian Sea account for only 40% of the total heat change in the surface layer while the rest is lost into the interior. Also presented are climatological mean patterns of the forcing parameters and their variations during certain years.     

Magnetic anomalies across Bastar craton and Pranhita-Godavari basin in south of central India

Aeromagnetic anomalies over Bastar craton and Pranhita-Godavari (P-G) basin in the south of central India could be attributed to NW-SE striking mafic intrusives in both the areas at variable depths. Such intrusions can be explained considering the collision of the Bastar and Dharwar cratons by the end of the Archaean and the development of tensile regimes that followed in the Paleoproterozoic, facilitating intrusions of mafic dykes into the continental crust. The P-G basin area, being a zone of crustal weakness along the contact of the Bastar and Dharwar cratons, also experienced extensional tectonics. The inferred remanent magnetization of these dykes dips upwards and it is such that the dykes are oriented towards the east of the magnetic north at the time of their formation compared to their present NW-SE strike. Assuming that there was no imprint of magnetization of a later date, it is concluded that the Indian plate was located in the southern hemisphere, either independently or as part of a supercontinent, for some span of time during Paleoproterozoic and was involved in complex path of movement and rotation subsequently. The paper presents a case study of the utility of aeromagnetic anomalies in qualitatively deducing the palaeopositions of the landmasses from the interpreted remanent magnetism of buried intrusive bodies.     

A Birds Eye View of Debris-Avalanche on Miyar Glacier,Chenab Basin,India

The importance of mass wasting in glacier environments and its impacts on glacier dynamics is not fully understood. This is the first occurrence of a debris avalanche event onto a Himalayan glacier through satellite data analysis. The analysis of various factors indicates the slide was a climate-driven hill-slope event activated in 2009 masking the Miyar glacier surface up to ~1.5% including its both lateral moraines and medial moraines. Due to this addition the glacier had neither advance nor retreat from 2009 to 2014. Eventually the debris will contribute to the supraglacial and englacial debris of the glacier. This showcases the way of mass wasting an important contribution to the debris budget of the Himalayan glaciers.     

Spatial characteristics of landslides triggered by the 2015 M<Subscript>w</Subscript> 7.8 (Gorkha) and M<Subscript>w</Subscript> 7.3 (Dolakha) earthquakes in Nepal

High magnitude earthquakes trigger numerous landslides and their occurrences are mainly controlled by terrain parameters. We created an inventory of 15,551 landslides with a total area of 90.2 km² triggered by the 2015 M_w 7.8 (Gorkha) and M_w 7.3 (Dolakha) earthquakes in Nepal, through interpretation of very high resolution satellite images (e.g. WorldView, Pleiades, Cartosat-1 and 2, Resourcesat-2). Our spatial analysis of landslide occurrences with ground acceleration, slope, lithology and surface defomation indicated ubiquitous control of steep slope on landslides with ground acceleration as the trigger. Spatial distribution of landslides shows increasing frequency away from the Gorkha earthquake epicentre up to 130 km towards east, dropping sharply thereafter, which is an abnormal phenomenon of coseismic landslides. Landslides are laterally concentrated in three zones which matches well with the seismic rupture evolution of Gorkha earthquake, as reported through teleseismic measurements.     

Meteorological results of MONSOON-88 expedition (pre-monsoon period)

Mean atmospheric circulation, moisture budget and net heat exchange were studied during a pre-monsoon period (18th March to 3rd May, 1988), making use of the data collected on board Akademik Korolev in the central equatorial and southern Arabian Sea region. The net heat exchange (R _n ) is found to be about 20 W m^–2 for a small area (0–4° N; 55–60° E), 50% less than the dimatological value. The mean value of net radiation (140 W m^–2) is less than the climatological value, which was due to higher cloud amount. The higher SST enhanced both the latent and sensible heat fluxes.The mean atmospheric circulation obtained from the upper air data is quite convincing. The mean exchange coefficient (C _e ) estimated from the moisture budget is about 1.0 × 10^–3 for a wind speed of 4 m s^–1. This value is slightly lower than that obtained by the usual methods.National Institute of Oceanography, RC, 52-Kirlampudi layout, Visakhapatnam — 530 023.India Meteorological Department, Gauhati.     

Rainfall over Oman and its teleconnection with El Niño Southern Oscillation

The Sultanate of Oman is located in the south-eastern part of the Arabian Peninsula and covers the larger part of the southern coasts of the Arabian Peninsula in both arid and semi-arid environments except for the southern part which is swept by the monsoon affecting the Arabian Sea during the period from June to September. The summer rainfall over Oman shows year-to-year variability, and this is caused by oceanic and atmospheric influences. In the present study, we tried to explore the influence of El Niño on the rainfall over Oman using different data sets. The empirical orthogonal function (EOF) technique employed to the zonal wind at 850 hPa for the 30-year period shows that the second and third modes of EOF are showing high variability over the Oman regions. The corresponding PCs were subjected to FFT analysis, and it showed a peak about 5–6 years. In addition to this, the zonal wind over the Oman regions is correlated with the global zonal wind and found a significant correlation (1 % significant level). It has already been proved that the wind and rainfall during summer monsoon is in phase. Moreover, the spectral analysis of rainfall at Masirah station and the Niño3.4 index show the similar mode of variability indicating a direct relationship. The correlation between rainfall and the Niño3.4 index is also showing a positive significant value, and therefore, it can be concluded that the El Niño in the Pacific favours rainfall over the Oman region.     

Brightness,polarization and electron density of the solar corona of 1980 february 16

During the eclipse of 1980 February 16 we photographed the solar corona at an effective wavelength of 6300 å. Using a quadruple camera we also obtained the coronal pictures in polarized light for four Polaroid orientations. We have used these observations to derive the coronal brightness and polarization and from these the electron densities in the corona out to a distance of about 2.5 R⊙ from the centre of the disc. The coronal brightness matches well with that of the corona of 1958 October 12.     

Probabilistic analysis of groundwater and radionuclide transport model from near surface disposal facilities

As per the regulatory requirements controlling the disposal of radioactive waste, the performance of waste disposal facilities needs to be assessed quantitatively using predictive models. This estimates the potential impact of disposal on the environment and public health. Near Surface Disposal Facilities (NSDFs), constructed to contain the low level radioactive waste are considered to model the radionuclide migration from the system to the geo-sphere. The radiation dose experienced by an individual through drinking water pathway is the endpoint of assessment of the model. A three dimensional groundwater contaminant transport model with a decaying source is modelled numerically to determine the radiation dose for short-lived and long-lived radionuclides. The consideration of uncertainties constitutes an intrinsic part of modelling. The uncertain input parameters include porosity, longitudinal dispersivity, transverse dispersivity, diffusion coefficient and distribution coefficient. The uncertainty propagation and quantification is carried out using collocation based stochastic response surface method (CSRSM). To run the simulations for the huge set of input, a code is developed using built-in python interface in the numerical model. The results are processed further to obtain the sensitive parameters affecting the output concentrations. Further, the probability of radiation dose exceeding permissible value is estimated by subset simulation.     

Impact of land cover change on land surface temperature: A case study of Spiti Valley

Land surface temperature(LST) is the skin temperature of the earth surface. LST depends on the amount of sunlight received by any geographical area. Apart from sun light, LST is also affected by the land cover, which leads to change in land surface temperature. Impact of land cover change(LCC) on LST has been assessed using Landsat TM5, Landsat 8 TIRS/OLI and Digital Elevation Model(ASTER) for Spiti Valley, Himachal Pradesh, India. In the present study, Spiti valley was divided into three altitudinal zones to check the pattern of changing land cover along different altitudes and LST was calculated for all the four land cover categories extracted from remote sensing data for the years of 1990 and 2015. Matrix table was used as a technique to evaluate the land cover change between two different years. Matrix table shows that as a whole, about 2,151,647 ha(30%) area of Spiti valley experienced change in land cover in the last 25 years. The result also shows vegetation and water bodies increased by 107,560.2 ha(605.87%) and 45 ha(0.98%), respectively. Snow cover and barren land decreased by 19,016.5 ha(23.92%) and 88,589(14.14%), during the study period. A significant increase has been noticed in vegetation amongst all land cover types. Minimum, maximum and mean LST for three altitudinal zones have been calculated. The mean LST recorded was 11℃ in 1990 but it rose by 2℃ and reached to 13℃ in 2015. Changes in LST were obtained for each land cover categories. The mean temperature of different land cover types was calculated by averaging value of all pixels of a given land cover types. The mean LST of vegetation, barren land, snow cover and water body increased by 6℃, 9℃, 1℃, and 7℃, respectively. Further, relationships between LST, Normalized Difference Snow Index(NDSI), and Normalised Difference Vegetation Index(NDVI) were established using Linear Regression.     

Travel times of Friuli earthquakes propagating to the Bohemian Massif

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