Intercomparison of Oceansat-2 and ASCAT Winds with In Situ Buoy Observations and Short-Term Numerical Forecasts

Sea surface winds from the Oceansat-2 scatterometer (OSCAT) are important inputs to Numerical Weather Prediction (NWP) models. The Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) recently updated the OSCAT retrieval algorithm in order to generate better products. An attempt has been made in this study to evaluate the updated OSCAT winds using buoy observations and the 6-hour short-term forecasts from the T574L64 model from the National Centre for Medium Range Weather Forecasting (NCMRWF) during the 2011 monsoon. The results of the OSCAT evaluation are also compared with those from the Advanced Scatterometer (ASCAT) on-board the Meteorological Operational Satellite-A (MetOp-A) which were evaluated in the same way. The root mean square differences (RMSDs) for wind speed and direction, are within 2?m?s^?1 and 20° for both scatterometers. The RMSDs for OSCAT are slightly higher than those for ASCAT, and this difference may be attributed in part to the difference in frequency and resolution of the scatterometer payloads. The bias and standard deviation for ASCAT winds are also lower than those for OSCAT winds with respect to the model short-range forecast, and this can be attributed to the regular assimilation of ASCAT winds in the model.     

Temporal change detection in river courses and flood plains in an arid environment through satellite remote sensing

Temporal changes in ephemeral river courses and associated flood plains, which could not be detected by Landsat MSS due to its poor spatial resolution of 80m, have been identified and mapped within 10% accuracy by Landsat TM False colour composite because of its higher spectral and spatial resolution of 30 m. Over a period of 28 years (1958–86) the river courses widened upto 1.8 times through bank erosion due to the recurring flash floods. The flash floods have also caused morphological, soil fertility and landuse changes in the associated flood plains, which could also be monitored by the Landsat TM.     

Design principles for origin-destination flow maps

Origin-destination flow maps are often difficult to read due to overlapping flows. Cartographers have developed design principles in manual cartography for origin-destination flow maps to reduce overlaps and increase readability. These design principles are identified and documented using a quantitative content analysis of 97 geographic origin-destination flow maps without branching or merging flows. The effectiveness of selected design principles is verified in a user study with 215 participants. Findings show that (a) curved flows are more effective than straight flows, (b) arrows indicate direction more effectively than tapered line widths, and (c) flows between nodes are more effective than flows between areas. These findings, combined with results from user studies in graph drawing, conclude that effective and efficient origin-destination flow maps should be designed according to the following design principles: overlaps between flows are minimized; symmetric flows are preferred to asymmetric flows; longer flows are curved more than shorter or peripheral flows; acute angles between crossing flows are avoided; sharp bends in flow lines are avoided; flows do not pass under unconnected nodes; flows are radially distributed around nodes; flow direction is indicated with arrowheads; and flow width is scaled with represented quantity.     

Integrating terrain and vegetation indices for identifying potential soil erosion risk area

The present paper offers an innovative method to monitor the change in soil erosion potential by integrating terrain and vegetation indices derived from remote sensing data. Three terrain indices namely, topographic wetness index (TWI), stream power index (SPI) and slope length factor (LS), were derived from the digital elevation model. Normalized vegetation index (NDVI) was derived for the year 1988 and 2004 using remote sensing images. K-mean clustering was performed on staked indices to categorize the study area into four soil erosion potential classes. The validation of derived erosion potential map using USLE model showed a good agreement. Results indicated that there was a significant change in the erosion potential of the watershed and a gradual shifting of lower erosion potential class to next higher erosion potential class over the study period.     

Magnetic properties of some tertiary basalts from West Greenland

Summary Measurements of bulk magnetic properties, including the natural remanent magnetization (NRM), susceptibility and the Königsberger ratio, on over 250 samples of Tertiary basalts from Disko and Nûgssuaq, West Greenland are reported.The NRM intensities in basalts (geometric mean value 3.3 A/m in SI units) were on average three to four times as large as the induced magnetization intensities. The susceptibilities (geometric mean value 2.1×10^–2 SI units) were much more uniform than the NRM intensities. In the majority of samples, the NRM was predominantly of reverse (R) polarity, but samples from a few sites showed a remanence of normal (N) polarity.The NRM of both polarity classes (N, R) was very stable against alternating field (AF) demagnetization with median destructive fields of the order of 20,000–30,000 A/m (250–350 Oe), comparable to those for many stable continental and oceanic basalts. The viscous remanence intensity, as studied by storage tests on some specimens, was found to be an insignificant fraction of the original NRM, except in few cases.The low field hysteresis loops (Rayleigh loops) were studied for some specimens. A qualitative association was noted between wide hysteresis loop and relatively low AF stability, but no correlation was apparent between the loop type and the Königsberger ratio (Q _n) of a specimen.Contribution no. 6 Institute of Geophysics, University of Copenhagen.     

Velocity Distribution and the Moments of Turbulent Flow over a Sand-Gravel Mixture Bed

Water Resources - The current study performed the laboratory flume to examine the velocity distribution and the velocity moments of turbulent flow over a sand-gravel mixture bed. The 3D...     

Experimental assessment and prediction of temporal scour depth around a spur dike

Spur dikes are river training structures that have been extensively used worldwide for towards enhancing flood control and the stability of embankments and riverbanks.However,scour around spur dikes can be a major problem affecting their stability and hydraulic performance.The precise computation of temporal scour depth at spur dikes is very important for the design of economical and safe spur dikes.This study focuses on experimentally assessing the temporal variation of scour depth around a vertical wall spur dike and identifying the parameters,which mostly influence spur dike performance for a channel bed surface comprised of sand-gravel mixtures.In the current study,the authors did physical experiments in a flume based study to obtain new data,aimed at deriving a new predictive model for spur dike scour and comparing its performance to others found in the literature.It was found that the dimensionless temporal scour depth variation increases with an increase in(i)the threshold velocity ratio,(ii)the densimetric Froude number of the bed surface sediment mixture,(iii)the flow shallowness(defined as the ratio of the approach flow depth,y,to the spur dike’s transverse length,l),and(iv)the flow depth-particle size ratio.It is also concluded that the temporal scour depth variation in the sediment mixture is influenced by the non-uniformity of sediment and decreases with an increase in the non-uniformity of the sediment mixture.A new mathematical model is derived for the estimation of temporal scour depths in sand-gravel sediment mixtures.The proposed equation has been calibrated and validated with the experimental data,demonstrating a good predictive capacity for the estimation of temporal scour depth evolution.     

Variation of Seismic Coda Wave Attenuation in the Garhwal Region, Northwestern Himalaya

Seismic coda wave attenuation ( $ Q_{\text{c}}^{ - 1} $ ) characteristics in the Garhwal region, northwestern Himalaya is studied using 113 short-period, vertical component seismic observations from local events with hypocentral distance less than 250?km and magnitude range between 1.0 to 4.0. They are located mainly in the vicinity of the Main Boundary Thrust (MBT) and the Main Central Thrust (MCT), which are well-defined tectonic discontinuities in the Himalayas. Coda wave attenuation ( $ Q_{\text{c}}^{ - 1} $ ) is estimated using the single isotropic scattering method at central frequencies 1.5, 3, 5, 7, 9, 12, 16, 20, 24 and 28?Hz using several starting lapse times and coda window lengths for the analysis. Results show that the ( $ Q_{\text{c}}^{ - 1} $ ) values are frequency dependent in the considered frequency range, and they fit the frequency power law ( $ Q_{\text{c}}^{ - 1} \left( f \right) = Q_{0}^{ - 1} f^{ - n} $ ). The Q ₀ (Q _c at 1?Hz) estimates vary from about 50 for a 10?s lapse time and 10?s window length, to about 350 for a 60?s lapse time and 60?s window length combination. The exponent of the frequency dependence law, n ranges from 1.2 to 0.7; however, it is greater than 0.8, in general, which correlates well with the values obtained in other seismically and tectonically active and highly heterogeneous regions. The attenuation in the Garhwal region is found to be lower than the Q _c ^?1 values obtained for other seismically active regions of the world; however, it is comparable to other regions of India. The spatial variation of coda attenuation indicates that the level of heterogeneity decreases with increasing depth. The variation of coda attenuation has been estimated for different lapse time and window length combinations to observe the effect with depth and it indicates that the upper lithosphere is more active seismically as compared to the lower lithosphere and the heterogeneity decreases with increasing depth.     

Rainstorm-generated sediment yield model based on soil moisture proxies (SMP)

This study develops improved Soil Moisture Proxies (SMP) based suspended sediment yield (SMPSY) models corresponding to three antecedent moisture conditions (AMCs) (i.e., AMC-I-AMC-III) by coupling the improved initial abstraction (I_a-λ) model, the SMA procedure and the SMP concept for modelling the rainfall generated suspended sediment yield. The SMPSY models specifically incorporate a watershed storage index (S) model to accentuate the transformation from storm to storm and to avoid the sudden jumps in sediment yield computation. The workability of the SMPSY models is tested using a large dataset of rainfall and sediment yield (98 storm events) from twelve small watersheds and a comparison has been made with the existing MSY model. The goodness-of-fit (GOF) statistics is evaluated in terms of the Nash Sutcliffe efficiency (NSE), and error indices, i.e., root mean square error (RMSE), normalized root mean square error (nRMSE), standard error (SE), mean absolute error (MAE), and RMSE-observations standard deviation ratio (RSR). The NSE values vary from 74.31% to 96.57% and from 75.21% to 91.78%, respectively for the SPMSY and MSY model. The NSE statistics indicate that the SMPSY model has lower uncertainty in simulating sediment yield as compared to the MSY model. The error indices are lower for the SMPSY model than the MSY model for most of the watersheds. These results show that the SMPSY model has less uncertainty and performs better than the MSY model. A sensitivity analysis of the SMPSY model shows that the parameter β is most sensitive followed by parameter S, α and A. Overall, the results show that the characterization of soil moisture variability in terms of SMPs and incorporation of improved delivery ratio and runoff coefficient relationship improves the simulation of the erosion and sediment yield generation process.