Spatial patterns and trends of daily rainfall regime in Peninsular Malaysia during the southwest and northeast monsoons: 1975–2004

Model precipitation can be produced implicitly through convective parameterization schemes or explicitly through cloud microphysics schemes. These two precipitation production schemes control the spatial and temporal distribution of precipitation and consequently can yield distinct vertical profiles of heating and moistening in the atmosphere. The partition between implicit and explicit precipitation can be different as the model changes resolutions. Within the range of mesoscale resolutions (about 20 km) and cumulus scale, hybrid solutions are suggested, in which cumulus convection parameterization is acting together with the explicit form of representation. In this work, it is proposed that, as resolution increases, the convective scheme should convert less condensed water into precipitation. Part of the condensed water is made available to the cloud microphysics scheme and another part evaporates. At grid sizes smaller than 3 km, the convective scheme is still active in removing convective instability, but precipitation is produced by cloud microphysics. The Eta model version using KF cumulus parameterization was applied in this study. To evaluate the quantitative precipitation forecast, the Eta model with the KF scheme was used to simulate precipitation associated with the South Atlantic Convergence Zone (SACZ) and Cold Front (CF) events. Integrations with increasing horizontal resolutions were carried out for up to 5 days for the SACZ cases and up to 2 days for the CF cases. The precipitation partition showed that most of precipitation was generated by the implicit scheme. As the grid size decreased, the implicit precipitation increased and the explicit decreased. However, as model horizontal resolution increases, it is expected that precipitation be represented more explicitly. In the KF scheme, the fraction of liquid water or ice, generated by the scheme, which is converted into rain or snow is controlled by a parameter S ₁. An additional parameter was introduced into KF scheme and the parameter acts to evaporate a fraction of liquid water or ice left in the model grid by S ₁ and return moisture to the resolved scale. An F parameter was introduced to combine the effects of S ₁ and S ₂ parameters. The F parameter gives a measure of the conversion of cloud liquid water or ice to convective precipitation. A function dependent on the horizontal resolution was introduced into the KF scheme to influence the implicit and explicit precipitation partition. The explicit precipitation increased with model resolution. This function reduced the positive precipitation bias at all thresholds and for the studied weather systems. With increased horizontal resolution, the maximum precipitation area was better positioned and the total precipitation became closer to observations. Skill scores for all events at different forecast ranges showed precipitation forecast improvement with the inclusion of the function F.     

Halocarbon emissions from marine phytoplankton and climate change

Long-lived and short-lived halocarbons have long been known for their adverse effects on atmospheric chemistry, especially ozone depletion that may be directly or indirectly influenced by global climate change. Marine organisms including phytoplankton contribute shorter-lived halocarbon compounds to the atmosphere. Oceans cover more than 70% of the Earth’s surface making the marine phytoplankton a significant presence. Changes in the environment will inevitably affect this widely distributed group of organisms. Various predictions have been made about how phytoplankton will respond to climate change, but as yet little is known about the interactions between phytoplankton, climate change and halocarbon emissions. We provide a summary of studies on halocarbon emissions by marine phytoplankton isolated from different climatic zones that includes data from our recent studies on tropical marine phytoplankton. It is important to determine and characterize the contribution of the phytoplankton to the halocarbon load in the atmosphere to allow their interaction with the changing global climate to be understood. Using these data, we compare the range of halocarbons emitted by phytoplankton with halocarbon emission data for seaweeds, a well-known biogenic contributor of short-lived halocarbons. Sørensen’s coefficient of similarity of 0.50 was calculated, which suggests that half of the detected halocarbon species present in seaweeds are also present in phytoplankton.     

Metabolic and physiological regulation of Chlorella sp. (Trebouxiophyceae,Chlorophyta) under nitrogen deprivation

Journal of Oceanology and Limnology - A freshwater green microalgae Chlorella sp., UMACC344 was shown to produce high lipid content and has the potential to be used as feedstock for biofuel...     

Countermeasure of river bend scour using a combination of submerged vanes and riprap

A series of laboratory flume experiments were done in a large-scale 180° bend with non-cohesive sediment to find optimal or effective protection works at a bend. Detailed study of the scour and flow field dynamics with and without protection works was done. Spatially dense, high frequency velocity data were collected and analyzed to describe the pattern and magnitude of three-dimensional(3 D)velocity throughout the bend. Characterizing the role of flow field dynamics on the pattern of deposition and erosion through experimental measurements provided valuable data about how such flow features contribute to scour and about the performance of the protection works. From the experimental results, it is revealed that for a perennial river it is not possible to protect from scour either with riprap or with submerged vanes alone. Protection from scour at a bend can be achieved with proper combination of these two works. First, submerged vanes can protect the toe, and, second, riprap can protect the upper part of the slope if it is not damaged through toe erosion. The experiments convincingly demonstrate the efficiency of this bank protection technique.     

Urban and peri-urban precipitation and air temperature trends in mega cities of the world using multiple trend analysis methods

Theoretical and Applied Climatology - Urbanization plays an important role in altering local to regional climate. In this study, the trends in precipitation and the air temperature were...     

Sound speed variation in the coastal waters off Cochin and signature of subsurface maxima

Ocean Dynamics - We investigated the vertical and horizontal variation of the sound speed using the Thermodynamic Equation Of Seawater-2010 (TEOS-10) and monthly CTD observations at Cochin estuary...     

Impacts of future Indian greenhouse gas emission scenarios on projected climate change parameters deduced from MAGICC model

The MAGICC (Model for the Assessment of Greenhouse gas Induced Climate Change) model simulation has been carried out for the 2000–2100 period to investigate the impacts of future Indian greenhouse gas emission scenarios on the atmospheric concentrations of carbon dioxide, methane and nitrous oxide besides other parameters like radiative forcing and temperature. For this purpose, the default global GHG (Greenhouse Gases) inventory was modified by incorporation of Indian GHG emission inventories which have been developed using three different approaches namely (a) Business-As-Usual (BAU) approach, (b) Best Case Scenario (BCS) approach and (c) Economy approach (involving the country’s GDP). The model outputs obtained using these modified GHG inventories are compared with various default model scenarios such as A1B, A2, B1, B2 scenarios of AIM (Asia-Pacific Integrated Model) and P50 scenario (median of 35 scenarios given in MAGICC). The differences in the range of output values for the default case scenarios (i.e., using the GHG inventories built into the model) vis-à-vis modified approach which incorporated India-specific emission inventories for AIM and P50 are quite appreciable for most of the modeled parameters. A reduction of 7% and 9% in global carbon dioxide (CO₂) emissions has been observed respectively for the years 2050 and 2100. Global methane (CH₄) and global nitrous oxide (N₂O) emissions indicate a reduction of 13% and 15% respectively for 2100. Correspondingly, global concentrations of CO₂, CH₄ and N₂O are estimated to reduce by about 4%, 4% and 1% respectively. Radiative forcing of CO₂, CH₄ and N₂O indicate reductions of 6%, 14% and 4% respectively for the year 2100. Global annual mean temperature change (incorporating aerosol effects) gets reduced by 4% in 2100. Global annual mean temperature change reduces by 5% in 2100 when aerosol effects have been excluded. In addition to the above, the Indian contributions in global CO₂, CH₄ and N₂O emissions have also been assessed by India Excluded (IE) scenario. Indian contribution in global CO₂ emissions was observed in the range of 10%–26%, 6%–36% and 10%–38% respectively for BCS, Economy and BAU approaches, for the years 2020, 2050 and 2100 for P50, A1B-AIM, A2-AIM, B1-AIM & B2-AIM scenarios. CH₄ and N₂O emissions indicate about 4%–10% and 2%–3% contributions respectively in the global CH₄ and N₂O emissions for the years 2020, 2050 and 2100. These Indian GHG emissions have significant influence on global GHG concentrations and consequently on climate parameters like RF and ∆T. The study reflects not only the importance of Indian emissions in the global context but also underlines the need of incorporation of country specific GHG emissions in modeling to reduce uncertainties in simulation of climate change parameters.     

Variability of unconfined compressive strength in relation to number of test samples

Unconfined compressive strength is one of the most commonly used properties in rock engineering. Estimation or selection of an appropriate value of unconfined compressive strength for a given rock can be difficult as it can vary greatly within the same rock unit. Considering this large variability, unconfined compressive strength obtained by testing just a few samples is questionable. The purpose of this study was to investigate the variability of unconfined compressive strength for a given rock and, based on this information, determine the minimum number of samples required for obtaining a reliable value. Unconfined compressive strength values for approximately 50 NX-size (2.125 in./5.4 cm) core samples were determined for five different rock types. Statistical analyses were performed on subsets of cores to determine the minimum number of samples required to render a reliable estimate of the average strength of the entire set of cores. The results indicate that the minimum number of samples needed for strength determination depends on the statistical method used, the chosen confidence interval, and the acceptable deviation from the mean. For a 95% confidence interval and a 20% acceptable strength deviation from the mean, either 9 or 10 samples are needed to test for strength, depending on the statistical analysis used.