INCOMING LONGWAVE RADIATION ENHANCEMENT BY CLOUD COVER

The effect of cloud cover on incoming longwave radiation reaching the ground surface is investigated using an analytic procedure. Results show that the contribution of a cloud deck depends not only on cloud type, but also on cloudless emissivity. The widely accepted notion that the enhancement factor for a cloud deck depends only on the cloud type is misleading and could lead to inconsistent results. Results in this paper explain the difference between observed and empirically derived incoming longwave radiation during overcast conditions in cold and mountainous regions. The effect of cloudless emissivity should be taken into account to represent adequately the contribution of cloud cover on incoming longwave radiation. The enhancement factor of all cloud types spans a wide range; it reaches its maximum values during dry atmospheric conditions and diminishes, almost linearly, as atmospheric humidity increases. The difference in the enhancement factor could reach as much as 100%. [Key words: longwave radiation enhancement, cloud contribution, clear-sky emissivity, atmospheric radiation, cloud emissivity.]     

Selection of a Landfill Site for Solid Waste Management: An Application of AHP and Spatial Analyst Tool

Selection of a suitable landfill site for Solid Waste Management (SWM) forms an important component of urban planning. The problem of SWM has assumed significant proportion for the municipal authorities in the wake of rapid industrialization, urbanization and resultant pressure on existing resources. Many criteria such as distance from residential locations, transport connectivity, presence of water-bodies (drains, ponds, rivers etc.) and forests, ground water table and geology are taken into consideration while planning for suitable sites. Spatial Analyst Tool along with Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) model is extremely useful in such multicriteria decision making process. The present study, based on these tools/techniques, endeavours to identify a suitable location for landfill site in a part of the National Capital Territory of Delhi. The study identifies six potential sites out of which one has been proposed and recommended as the best suitable site.     

Earthquake hazards and community resilience in Baluchistan

Resilience is widely used from a variety of research perspectives; however, community resilience in particular is applied to a number of natural hazards and disasters-related studies, programs, and activities. It is also acknowledged that its measurement is cumbersome but not impossible. The prime objective of this paper is to measure the community resilience of an earthquake-prone area in Baluchistan. The article presents the concept of resilience, its approaches, selection of indicators, formulation of subjective assessment method for weighting the indicators, and finally, developing the community resilience index. For the community resilience measurement, a survey was conducted among 200 households in two earthquake risk zones of Quetta city, using simple random sampling method. The overall composite community resilience index revealed that the resilience is low in both the zones??A and B. However, it is revealed that there is a significant difference between the zones when compared against the components and indicators. Community resilience components such as economic, institutional, and physical have received higher index values in Zone B as compared to Zone A. Based on the findings, it is recommended to improve the socioeconomic, institutional, and structural (housing) conditions of the community by raising the community awareness and preparedness, implementing building codes, and providing income-generating activities in order to enhance the community resilience to cope up with earthquake hazards in the future.     

Occurrence of scheelite-powellite in the rocks of Mahakoshal Group, Wyndhamganj area, Sonbhadra district, Uttar Pradesh

Scheelite and Powellite occur as dissemination and fractures filling in the hornfels and tourmaline-garnet granite in the Palaeoproterozoic rocks of Mahakoshal Group, at about 2.5 km north of Wyndhamganj, Sonbhadra district, Uttar Pradesh. This new find opens new vistas for the search of tungsten mineralization along the contact zones of Mahakoshal Group and the younger granite.     

Exploring Real‐Time Geoprocessing in Cloud Computing: Navigation Services Case Study

Today, many real‐time geospatial applications (e.g. navigation and location‐based services) involve data‐ and/or compute‐intensive geoprocessing tasks where performance is of great importance. Cloud computing, a promising platform with a large pool of storage and computing resources, could be a practical solution for hosting vast amounts of data and for real‐time processing. In this article, we explored the feasibility of using Google App Engine (GAE), the cloud computing technology by Google, for a module in navigation services, called Integrated GNSS (iGNSS) QoS prediction. The objective of this module is to predict quality of iGNSS positioning solutions for prospective routes in advance. iGNSS QoS prediction involves the real‐time computation of large Triangulated Irregular Networks (TINs) generated from LiDAR data. We experimented with the Google App Engine (GAE) and stored a large TIN for two geoprocessing operations (proximity and bounding box) required for iGNSS QoS prediction. The experimental results revealed that while cloud computing can potentially be used for development and deployment of data‐ and/or compute‐intensive geospatial applications, current cloud platforms require improvements and special tools for handling real‐time geoprocessing, such as iGNSS QoS prediction, efficiently. The article also provides a set of general guidelines for future development of real‐time geoprocessing in clouds.     

A Methodology for Clustering Lakes in Alberta on the basis of Water Quality Parameters

In this study, a methodology for clustering 18 lakes in Alberta, Canada using the data of 19 water quality parameters for a period of 11 years (1988–2002) is presented. The methods consist of (i) principal component analysis (PCA) to determine the dominant water quality parameters, (ii) cluster analysis techniques to develop the characteristics of the clusters, and (iii) pattern‐match lakes to determine the appropriate cluster for each of the lakes. The PCA revealed that three principal components (PCs) were able to explain ～88% of the variability and the dominant water quality parameters were total dissolved solids, total phosphorus, and chlorophyll‐a. We obtained five clusters for the period 1994–1997 by using the dominant parameters with water quality deteriorating as the cluster number increased from 1 to 5. Upon matching cluster patterns with the entire dataset, it was observed that some of the lakes belonged to the same cluster all the time (e.g., cluster 1 for lakes Elkwater, Gregg, and Jarvis; cluster 3 for Sturgeon; cluster 4 for Moonshine; and cluster 5 for Saskatoon), while others changed with time. This methodology could be applied in other regions of the world to identify the most suitable source waters and prioritize their management. It could be helpful to analyze the natural controlling processes, pollution types, impact of seasonal changes and overall quality of source waters. This methodology could be used for monitoring water bodies in a cost effective and efficient way by sampling only less number of dominant parameters instead of using a large set of parameters.     

Application of snowmelt runoff model for water resource management

Snow‐covered areas (SCAs) are the fundamental source of water for the hydrological cycle for some region. Accurate measurements of river discharge from snowmelt can help manage much needed water required for hydropower generation and irrigation purposes. This study aims to apply the snowmelt runoff model (SRM) in the Upper Indus basin by the Astore River in northern Pakistan for the years 2000 to 2006. The Shuttle Radar Topographic Mission (SRTM) data are used to generate the Digital Elevation Model (DEM) of the region. Various variables (snow cover depletion curves (SCDCs), temperature and precipitation) and parameters (degree‐day factor, recession coefficient, runoff coefficients, time lag, critical temperature and temperature lapse rate) are used as input in the SRM. However, snow cover data are direct and an important input to the SRM. Satellite data from the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) are used to estimate the SCA. Normalized difference snow index (NDSI) algorithm is applied for snow cover mapping and to differentiate snow from other land features. Nash–Sutcliffe coefficient of determination (R²) and volume difference (D_V) are used for quality assessment of the SRM. The results of the current research show that for the study years (2000–2006), the average value of R² is 0·87 and average volume difference D_V is 1·18%. The correlation coefficient between measured and computed runoff is 0·95. The results of the study further show that a high level of accuracy can be achieved during the snowmelt season. The simulation results endorse that the SRM in conjunction with MODIS snow cover product is very useful for water resource management in the Astore River and can be used for runoff forecasts in the Indus River basin in northern Pakistan. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Stratigraphy of the Cenomanian–Turonian Oceanic Anoxic Event OAE2 in shallow shelf sequences of NE Egypt

Two shallow water late Cenomanian to early Turonian sequences of NE Egypt have been investigated to evaluate the response to OAE2. Age control based on calcareous nannoplankton, planktic foraminifera and ammonite biostratigraphies integrated with δ¹³C stratigraphy is relatively good despite low diversity and sporadic occurrences. Planktic and benthic foraminiferal faunas are characterized by dysoxic, brackish and mesotrophic conditions, as indicated by low species diversity, low oxygen and low salinity tolerant planktic and benthic species, along with oyster-rich limestone layers. In these subtidal to inner neritic environments the OAE2 δ¹³C excursion appears comparable and coeval to that of open marine environments. However, in contrast to open marine environments where anoxic conditions begin after the first δ¹³C peak and end at or near the Cenomanian–Turonian boundary, in shallow coastal environments anoxic conditions do not appear until the early Turonian. This delay in anoxia appears to be related to the sea-level transgression that reached its maximum in the early Turonian, as observed in shallow water sections from Egypt to Morocco.     

Seasonal Changes in Mayfly Communities and Abundance in Relation to Water Physicochemistry in Two Rivers at Different Elevations in Northern Peninsular Malaysia

A field study was performed at rivers in Gunung Jerai forest reserve(Kedah,Malaysia) to assess seasonal changes in mayfly community structure and abundance in relation to altitude and water physicochemistry.Rivers at lower(Batu Hampar River) and higher(Teroi River) elevations were visited through dry and wet seasons in September 2007 to August 2008.Monthly visits were made to 20 sites on each river,and water and aquatic insects were sampled using D-pond aquatic nets.Water was warmer,more acid,and more turbid in Teroi River during wet season.Ammonia was the only nutrient exhibiting significant seasonal variations(greater during wet season).Chemical oxygen demand content was higher in Teroi River where biochemical oxygen demand content was low during wet season.Species richness was higher in Batu Hampar River,but displayed seasonal variations only in Teroi River.Among the eight families encountered,Baetidae was the commonest.Baetid abundance was usually high during wet season,and those belonging to the dominant genus(Baetis) were more abundant in Teroi River.Heptageniidae was the second commonest family;its predominant genus,Thalerospyrus was more abundant in Teroi River during dry season.Caenidae,Leptophlebiidae and Oligoneuriidae were only found in Batu Hampar River where their abundances peaked during dry season,i.e.,Habrophlebiodes sp.and Isonychia sp.Ephemerellidae and Teloganodidae occurred only in Teroi River,with the first found only during dry season.Mayflies were recorded under very distinct physicochemical conditions,illustrating their potential usefulness for assessing water quality.Caenids,leptophlebids,oligoneurids ephemerellids and teloganodids seem to be particularly sensitive to temperature,acidity,turbidity,chemical oxygen demand and biochemical oxygen demand,parameters that varied with river altitude.     

The planetary spin and rotation period: a modern approach

Using a new approach, we have obtained a formula for calculating the rotation period and radius of planets. In the ordinary gravitomagnetism the gravitational spin (S) orbit (L) coupling, $\vec{L}\cdot\vec{S}\propto L^{2}$ , while our model predicts that $\vec{L}\cdot\vec{S}\propto\frac{m}{M}L^{2}$ , where M and m are the central and orbiting masses, respectively. Hence, planets during their evolution exchange L and S until they reach a final stability at which MS∝mL, or $S\propto\frac{m^{2}}{v}$ , where v is the orbital velocity of the planet. Rotational properties of our planetary system and exoplanets are in agreement with our predictions. The radius (R) and rotational period (D) of tidally locked planet at a distance a from its star, are related by, $D^{2}\propto\sqrt{\frac{M}{m^{3}}}R^{3}$ and that $R\propto\sqrt{\frac {m}{M}}a$ .