On the application of asymptotic analysis to the dynamical theory of the pole tide

Summary. This article examines the effects of boundaries on the pole tide in an ocean of constant depth. The cyclically continuous global ocean solutions to Laplace's tidal equations with the pole tide forcing are used as the particular solutions to the problem. The approach here is to find approximate asymptotic solutions to the homogeneous tidal equations which can be added to the global particular solutions so that the normal component of velocity will vanish at the boundary. At the very long period of the pole tide, the unforced motions are assumed to be non-divergent, and so only the homogeneous vorticity equation must be solved.
The first case considered is a zonal ocean bounded by parallels of latitude equidistant from the equator. Asymptotic solutions are found in order to satisfy the zonal boundary condition, and this gives rise to a narrow zonal boundary current. The contribution of these solutions is exponentially small compared to the forced global pole tide except in the immediate vicinity of the northern and southern boundaries.
Next, the effect of meridional boundaries is considered. When a linear form of bottom friction is assumed, two approximate homogeneous solutions are found to construct a general solution that satisfies the meridional boundary conditions. One solution decays exponentially in longitude and gives rise to a western boundary current, while the other solution is independent of longitude. The meridional boundary conditions are used to match the homogeneous and particular solutions, and so the solution for the interior of the ocean satisfies the eastern boundary condition. The resulting solution for the pole tide has a western boundary current term, while over the majority of the ocean domain the solution has a term varying with the wavelength of the forcing (the global solution) and a zonal motion term used to satisfy the eastern boundary condition. Comparisons are made with the wind-driven ocean circulation problem.     

Abundance and distribution of ichthyoplankton in the upwelling zone off Oregon during anomalous El Niño conditions

The abundance and distribution patterns of nearshore ichthyoplankton were investigated during a year of anomalously high sea temperatures off Oregon. Samples collected from 2 to 18 km offshore from April through September of 1983 showed increased occurrences and higher abundances of taxa usually found at distances offshore of 37 km in other years. The dominant species collected, comprising more than half of the total larval fish abundance, was the northern anchovy (Engraulis mordax). Larval anchovy have rarely been collected inshore in previous studies. Many of the dominant taxa normally found inshore, especially osmerids, were present in reduced numbers in 1983. Changes in the hydrographic conditions associated with onshore surface drift and reduced summer upwelling during the 1983 El Niño could explain the distributional patterns observed. The warm inshore waters apparently provided a substantial spatial and temporal expansion of the spawning habitat for E. mordax.     

Isotopic study of alluvial groundwaters,south-west lockyer valley,queensland, australia

The isotopic chemistry of alluvial groundwaters from two adjacent valleys are described and hydrological processes within related aquifers are identified as evidenced by oxygen-¹⁸, deuterium, tritium and chloride data. A plot of δ¹⁸O against δD values reveals isotopic enrichment of the groundwater by the recycling of spray irrigation water. A plot of tritium versus chloride concentrations displays separate linear correlations for alluvial groundwaters within the two valleys. The salinity has a common source, therefore the separate correlations are interpreted as the past transfer of low salinity groundwater from the alluvial aquifers in one valley to the underlying sandstone aquifers.     

AIDS NORTH AND SOUTH: DIFFUSION PATTERNS OF A GLOBAL EPIDEMIC AND A RESEARCH AGENDA FOR GEOGRAPHERS *

Apart from the tragic certainty of death which accompanies AIDS everywhere, the means of its transmission, the spatial patterns of its diffusion, and the groups at highest risk of infection vary considerably among world regions. This paper reviews the disease and its transmission, then proposes three models of AIDS diffusion to assess the implications of the epidemic on various regions. AIDS North, of North America and western Europe, is urban based and primarily confined to homosexuals and IV drug abusers. AIDS South, in central Africa and the Caribbean, is spreading from cities into rural regions and affects primarily heterosexuals. The third, an AIDS North/South hybrid, is postulated as a model of diffusion of the disease in other Third World regions. The final section addresses the potential contribution of geographic research to policy-makers in attempting to cope with the diffusion of AIDS and in curbing the epidemic's advance.     

THE USE OF CITATION INDICES IN COMPARING GEOGRAPHY PROGRAMS: AN EXPLORATORY STUDY*

Citation information is discussed as a means for ranking the research and publication visibility of eleven graduate programs in geography. It is suggested that the ranks produced by this objective method correspond better to the peer-based ranks of the 1982 NRC survey of graduate programs than those derived from publication counts. Citation information also provides a means of evaluating the differences between programs' inter- and intradisciplinary visibility.     

Long-term evolution of a high-latitude active region

We describe the decay phase of one of the largest active regions of solar cycle 22 that developed by the end of June 1987. The center of both polarities of the magnetic fields of the region systematically shifted north and poleward throughout the decay phase. In addition, a substantial fraction of the trailing magnetic fields migrated equatorward and south of the leading, negative fields. The result of this migration was the apparent rotation of the magnetic axis of the region such that a majority of the leading polarity advanced poleward at a faster rate than the trailing polarity. As a consequence, this region could not contribute to the anticipated reversal of the polar field.The relative motions of the sunspots in this active region were also noteworthy. The largest, leading, negative polarity sunspot at N24 exhibited a slightly slower-than-average solar rotation rate equivalent to the mean differential rotation rate at N25. In contrast, the westernmost, leading, negative polarity sunspot at N21 consistently advanced further westward at a mean rate of 0.13 km s^–1 with respect to the mean differential rotation rate at its latitude. These sunspot motions and the pattern of evolution of the magnetic fields of the whole region constitute evidence of the existence of a large-scale velocity field within the active region.Solar Cycle Workshop Paper.     

Stability considerations for one-dimensional inverse problems

Summary. We investigate the issues of stability and conditioning for the one-dimensional seismic inverse problem. We show that these issues are distinct; i.e. that numerically stable implementations of solutions to the inverse problem will not give accurate results if the problem is ill-conditioned. In addition, we identify the factors which determine the condition of the inverse problem. These are the total variation of the acoustic impedance profile being sought and the accuracy of the low-frequency content of the reflection data. We illustrate these results on implementations of two numerically stable algorithms for the inverse problem, one of which has a reputation for being unstable. A comparison shows nearly identical results for the two methods on noise-contaminated and frequency band limited reflection data. In fact, we conjecture that all of the well-known 'layer-stripping' inverse scattering methods share the same mathematical stability characteristics. On the other hand, we also show that ill-conditioning can lead to failure of such algorithms, through amplification of error due either to inaccurate data or to discretization or roundoff. Finally, we observe that appropriate smoothing of the seismic data for an ill-conditioned inverse problem (high-variation impedance profile) can cause the problem to become well-conditioned (lower-variation profile). As is typical with regularizations, the price paid for the newly-acquired ability to solve the problem is a loss of accuracy in the solution.