Doppler radar spectral width broadening due to beamwidth and wind shear

The spectral width observed by Doppler radars can be due to several effects including the atmospheric turbulence within the radar sample volume plus effects associated with the background flow and the radar geometry and configuration. This study re-examines simple models for the effects due to finite beam-width and vertical shear of the horizontal wind. Analytic solutions of 1- and 2-dimensional models are presented. Comparisons of the simple 2-dimensional model with numerical integrations of a 3-dimensional model with a symmetrical Gaussian beam show that the 2-dimensional model is usually adequate. The solution of the 2-dimensional model gives a formula that can be applied easily to large data sets. Analysis of the analytic solutions of the 2-dimensional model for off-vertical beams reveals a term that has not been included in mathematical formulas for spectral broadening in the past. This term arises from the simultaneous effects of the changing geometry due to curvature within a finite beamwidth and the vertical wind shear. The magnitude of this effect can be comparable to that of the well-known effects of beam-broadening and wind shear, and since it can have either algebraic sign, it can significantly reduce (or increase) the expected spectral broadening, although under typical conditions it is smaller than the beam-broadening effect. The predictions of this simple model are found to be consistent with observations from the VHP radar at White Sands Missile Range, NM.     

Helligkeitsschätzungen von 12 quasistellaren Objekten auf photographischen Himmelsaufnahmen

Twelve QSO's have been investigated for variability on plates of the “Sonneberger Himmelsüberwachung”. Besides for 3 C 273 and Ton 616 no variability exceeding the mean error (±0.08 mag for m < 17.0) was found. TON 616 shows variability of 0,4 mag on time scales from hours (1964 Apr. 15) to one year.     

The ordovician and other post-rosslare series Rocks in Southeast Co. Wexford

Ordovician sediments at Tagoat and Rosslare Harbour are re-described and their relationship to the underlying Rosslare Series discussed. A brief outline of their petrology is given, but it is shown that the fauna is in need of revision before reliable correlations can be made. Similar rocks are recorded near Tomhaggard; amongst these, spotted mudstones imply Ordovician or later intrusions. Undeformec dykes intrusive into the Rosslare Series are believed to be representatives of this phase.     

Petrology of the Proterozoic Potato River Layered Intrusion, Northern Wisconsin, USA

The Potato River intrusion is a Keweenawan (1100 Ma) mafic plutonemplaced in Keweenawan volcanics and earlier Proterozoic metasedimentaryrocks along the southeastern flank of the Lake Superior syncline.It comprises the following lithostratigraphic zones: a thinto absent Border zone of altered olivine gabbro; a Lower zoneof olivine gabbro; a Picritic zone of picrite and troctolite;a Middle zone of olivine gabbro and leucogabbro; an Upper zoneof quartz leucogabbro and ferrogabbro; and a Roof zone of granophyricand granitic rocks. Fractional crystallization is evident fromcompositional changes in the rocks and cumulus minerals withstratigraphic height. Elements concentrated in the cumulus mineralsolivine and plagioclase (Mg, Fe²⁺, Al, Ca, Ni, Co, Cr, Sr) decreasewith height; elements concentrated in the trapped liquid (Na,K, La, Y, Zr, Nb, Rb, Ba) increase with height; and other elements(Ti, Fe³⁺, P, Ga, V, Sc, Cu, Zn) show complicated behavior relatedto the appearance of additional cumulus phases such as clinopyroxene,Fe-Ti oxides, and apatite. Lower zone rocks contain some sulfide,probably from sulfur derived from the country rock, and theUpper zone has sulfides probably precipitated from an immisciblesulfide liquid. The sulfide-bearing rocks have similaritiesto those of other intrusions, such as Bushveld, Stillwater,and Skaergaard. The picritic and troctolitic rocks of the Picritic zone indicatethat the intrusion was open to additional injections of maficmagma. Roof zone granophyric rocks are residual liquids intrudedalong the upper margin of the intrusion during regional tilting,but Roof zone granitic rocks are probably melted country rock.An attempt is made to estimate by reverse stratigraphic summationthe compositional path of the magma that solidified above thePicritic zone. The first compositions are highly aluminous,which suggests that the upper part of the intrusion has beenenriched in plagioclase by convection-aided crystal sorting.A complementary unit of mafic rocks is not exposed, but it couldbe present down dip. Some of the later compositions are similarto typical Keweenawan high-Al tholeiites. The magma did notundergo extreme iron enrichment, probably because of oxygenfugacity buffering.     

Reconstruction of palaeosalinity using carbon isotopes and benthic associations: a comparison

Carbon and oxygen isotopes were determined on 40 recrystallized shells of Late Jurassic bivalves from the Lusitanian Basin of Portugal. In contrast with the oxygen isotopes, which exhibited considerable diagenetic distortion, the carbon isotopes are thought to preserve a record of the salinity of the Jurassic marginal marine seas in which these bivalves lived. The reconstructed palaeosalinities range from 35%o (euhaline) to 5% (oligohaline). Comparing these values with the palaeosalinity reconstructed from a palaeoecological analysis of 17 stratigraphic levels within the basin, the independently derived values agree in most cases. Strongly differing values are explained as being due to biotic factors and to diagenetic distortion of the isotopic signal; they are less likely to be due to smallscale time-averaging or insufficient microstratigraphic sampling. On the whole, the carbon isotope analyses are thought to produce reasonable palaeosalinity values, although data from infaunal, originally aragonitic bivalves appear to be less reliable than those from epifaunal bivalves with a predominantly or exclusively calcitic shell. As diagenetic alteration of the carbon isotope signal is, however, unpredictable and biotic effects on the isotopic composition are insufficiently known, palaeosalinity reconstructions based on stable isotope data should be supported by palaeoecological data.     

Improved Petrological Modal Analyses from X-ray Powder Diffraction Data by use of the Rietveld Method I. Selected Igneous, Volcanic, and Metamorphic Rocks

Mineral modes have been determined for specimens of eight rocktypes from CuK X-ray powder diffraction data using the Rietveldmethod. The samples include two granites, a granodiorite, adamellite,gabbro, basalt, trachyte, and two granulite-facies metamorphicrocks. Up to eight individual mineral components have been measuredin each sample (no glassy phases were observed), with a detectionlimit of {small tilde}1 wt.%, depending on the mineral assemblage.Marked variations in grain size (i.e., granite vs. trachyte)provide no difficulties for the X-ray method. The X-ray resultscompare very favourably with (1) optical modes determined forthe medium–coarse-grained samples by point counting, (2)normative calculations obtained using locally enhanced catanormand mesonorm software, and (3) corresponding Rietveld modesdetermined, for two samples, from neutron powder data. Wheredifferences occur, these are discussed in relation to the limitationsof each of the methods. The improved accuracy of the X-ray method is due primarily tothe incorporation of the full diffraction profile in the Rietveldanalysis calculations, and the elimination of preferred orientationby collecting the data from samples packed in glass capillaries(i.e., Debye–Scherrer mode). The good agreement of theX-ray and neutron modes shows that the usual problems encounteredwith microabsorption, extinction, and sampling are of littleconcern in these rocks. The results highlight one of the majoradvantages provided by Rietveld modal analysis over the moretraditional ‘reference intensity’ X-ray methods,namely, that the crystal chemistry (and thus the calibrationconstants) of the individual phases can be adjusted dynamicallyduring each individual analysis. This not only provides moreaccurate phase abundances, but also gives important supplementaryinformation about the mineralogy of the major components.     

Prediction of influence of global warming on biological cycle and carbon balance in forest ecosystems of the Volga River Basin

The gradient (ordination) analysis was used to find the tendencies and the rate of changes in discrete parameters of the cycle of forest phytomasses accompanying a growing thermoarid climatic trend. The prognostic estimates of biotic regulation of the carbon cycle by forest biogeocenoses according to the HadCM3 (version A2) climatic scenarios, describing the most powerful coming global warming, are presented.