Microwave Remote Sensing of Tropical Cyclones from Space

This article reviews several microwave instruments employed in research and analysis of tropical cyclones (TCs), typhoons, and hurricanes. The instruments discussed include scatterometers, microwave radiometers, synthetic aperture radars (SARs), and rain radar from space. Examples of the particular contribution by one or more of these instruments in analysis of several storms illustrate the comprehensive new views provided by the SeaWinds scatterometers, the detailed high-resolution wind field provided by RADARSAT-1 SAR, particularly inside and in the vicinity of hurricane “eyes,” and the presence of secondary flows in the region between rainbands in TCs. The high spatial resolution of precipitation data from the Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission's rain radar, combined with scatterometer or SAR data, give a significant improvement in the details that can be seen from space, at the surface, and in the precipitating areas of TCs. The microwave instruments provide a penetrating view below the upper level cirrus clouds. This revised version was published online in August 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

“Calcic amphibole equilibria and a new amphibole-plagioclase geothermometer”—reply to the comment of Poli and Schmidt

Conclusions Although only Al^iv appears in our thermometer expression, this in no way infers that we believe tschermakite (or katophorite, kaersutite and other) substitutions to be unimportant. A careful reading of our earlier papers makes it clear that the reverse is true, e.g. Holland and Richardson 1979; Will et al. 1990a, b; Guiraud et al. 1990. Indeed in B and H (p. 211) we state that natural and synthetic amphiboles are dominated by a combination of edenite, pargasite, hornblende and hastingsite substitutions. What we endeavoured to point out was that because of the nature of reaction (1) and the use of mixing-on-sites activity models the extent of Al substitutions on M2 or Na on M4 do not materially influence our expression for K₁ and consequently our thermometer. Certainly any sophisticated activity model for amphibole explicitly should account for all cross-site interactions between M-, Tl- and A-site cations, as alluded to by P and S in reference to Docka et al. (1987), as well as O3-site anions. However, such a day currently is well away and mixing-on-sites, with modifications as outlined above and to be detailed in T.J.B. Holland and J.D. Blundy (in preparation), seems rather promising for the purposes of amphibole thermometry. We do not share the rather negative and pessimistic outlook on activity models and thermobarometry implicit in P and S comments.     

Dating in the Craven Dales

The Craven Dales of North Yorkshire contain some of the finest examples of limestone geology and landscape in the UK. The extensive limestone pavements with their clints, grikes and other water‐worn features, are a key attraction for both scientists and recreational visitors. Likewise the cave systems attract attention with their remarkable sediment accumulations, some of which are in excess of 500 000 years old and others contain the bones of mammals that are either extinct or no longer present in the British Isles. The glacial erratic boulders at Norber and the loessic sediments that, in places, mask the limestone have also provided stimulus for investigation. Summarized below are the findings of several recent studies that focussed on establishing the age of various features. Whilst the reports answer some long‐standing questions, they also demonstrate that there is still much that can be learned about this seemingly familiar territory.     

Statistical testing of a new testate amoeba‐based transfer function for water‐table depth reconstruction on ombrotrophic peatlands in north‐eastern Canada and Maine,United States

Proxy reconstructions of climatic parameters developed using transfer functions are central to the testing of many palaeoclimatic hypotheses on Holocene timescales. However, recent work shows that the mathematical models underpinning many existing transfer functions are susceptible to spatial autocorrelation, clustered training set design and the uneven sampling of environmental gradients. This may result in over‐optimistic performance statistics or, in extreme cases, a lack of predictive power. A new testate amoeba‐based transfer function is presented that fully incorporates the new recommended statistical tests to address these issues. Leave‐one‐out cross‐validation, the most commonly applied method in recent studies to assess model performance, produced over‐optimistic performance statistics for all models tested. However, the preferred model, developed using weighted averaging with tolerance downweighting, retained a predictive capacity equivalent to other published models even when less optimistic performance statistics were chosen. Application of the new statistical tests in the development of transfer functions provides a more thorough assessment of performance and greater confidence in reconstructions based on them. Only when the wider research community have sufficient confidence in transfer function‐based proxy reconstructions will they be commonly used in data comparison and palaeoclimate modelling studies of broader scientific relevance. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Deglacial history of glacial lake windermere,UK: implications for the central British and Irish Ice Sheet

In the UK, a combination of outcrop mapping, satellite digital elevation models, high‐resolution marine geophysical data and a range of dating techniques have constrained the maximum limit and overall retreat behaviour of the British and Irish Ice Sheet (BIIS). The changing styles of deglaciation have been most extensively studied in the west and north‐western sectors of the BIIS, primarily using offshore geophysical surveys. The surviving record in the southern, terrestrial sector is fragmentary, permitting only large‐scale (tens of kilometres) and longer timescale (c. 1 ka) reconstructions of ice‐margin movement, with limited information on deglacial processes. Here we present a high‐resolution study of the retreat behaviour for a section of the southern ice‐margin from Windermere in the Lake District, using high‐resolution two‐dimensional multi‐channel seismic data, processed using prestack depth migration. By combining the seismic stratigraphy with landform morphologies, extant cores and seismic velocity measurements, we are able to distinguish between: over‐consolidated till; recessional moraines; De Geer moraines; flowed till/ice‐front fan; supra‐/en‐glacial melt‐out till; and subsequent glaciolacustrine/lacustrine sedimentation. The results reveal a complex and active valley glacier withdrawal from Windermere that changed character between basins and produced two small, localized areas of ice‐stagnation and downwasting. This study indicates that similar active ice‐margin retreats probably took place in other valleys of the Lake District during the Late Devensian deglaciation rather than the previously held view of rapid ice‐stagnation and downwasting. When combined with the regional terrestrial record, this supports a model of early ice loss in terrestrial England compared with other parts of the UK. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

The intrinsic permeability of microcracks in porous solids: Analytical models and Lattice Boltzmann simulations

The paper presents a synthesis of analytical modeling and computational simulations of the intrinsic permeability of microcracks, embedded in porous materials taking into account the interaction of the fluid flow in the microcrack with the surrounding porous material. In the first part of the paper, using the DARCY , STOKES , BRINKMAN , and the BEAVERS–JOSEPH approximations, we derive the intrinsic permeability of a plain non‐rough microcrack in terms of the microcrack geometry and the permeability of the porous material surrounding the microcrack. In the second part of the paper, the intrinsic permeability of a microcrack is determined by means of computational simulations using the framework of the lattice Boltzmann method with partial bounceback conditions. The comparison of predictions from the analytical model and the numerical simulations show an excellent agreement. Copyright © 2017 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.