Generation of equatorial jets by large-scale latent heating on the giant planets

Three-dimensional numerical simulations show that large-scale latent heating resulting from condensation of water vapor can produce multiple zonal jets similar to those on the gas giants (Jupiter and Saturn) and ice giants (Uranus and Neptune). For plausible water abundances (3-5 times solar on Jupiter/Saturn and 30 times solar on Uranus/Neptune), our simulations produce ∼20 zonal jets for Jupiter and Saturn and 3 zonal jets on Uranus and Neptune, similar to the number of jets observed on these planets. Moreover, these Jupiter/Saturn cases produce equatorial superrotation whereas the Uranus/Neptune cases produce equatorial subrotation, consistent with the observed equatorial-jet direction on these planets. Sensitivity tests show that water abundance, planetary rotation rate, and planetary radius are all controlling factors, with water playing the most important role; modest water abundances, large planetary radii, and fast rotation rates favor equatorial superrotation, whereas large water abundances favor equatorial subrotation regardless of the planetary radius and rotation rate. Given the larger radii, faster rotation rates, and probable lower water abundances of Jupiter and Saturn relative to Uranus and Neptune, our simulations therefore provide a possible mechanism for the existence of equatorial superrotation on Jupiter and Saturn and the lack of superrotation on Uranus and Neptune. Nevertheless, Saturn poses a possible difficulty, as our simulations were unable to explain the unusually high speed (∼) of that planet’s superrotating jet. The zonal jets in our simulations exhibit modest violations of the barotropic and Charney-Stern stability criteria. Overall, our simulations, while idealized, support the idea that latent heating plays an important role in generating the jets on the giant planets.     

Modeling and monitoring of mine water rebound in an abandoned coal mine complex: Siersza Mine, Upper Silesian Coal Basin, Poland

A variable-volume, head-dependent mine water filling model (MIFIM) has been utilized to simulate the post-abandonment flooding of the Siersza coal mine in the Upper Silesian Coal Basin of southern Poland. It is demonstrated that desaturated pore space in the aquifer adjacent to the mine comprises a significant component of the resaturable mine-related void. The model results are very sensitive to the value of this poorly constrained parameter. Nevertheless, the model successfully predicted the first appearance of mine water in an observation well and its subsequent rise. Despite this apparent success, it is concluded that such modeling approaches generally lack predictive power for mines in permeable, porous host rocks. As real monitoring data accumulate, however, such models can be calibrated and their utility increased.     

Sea level rise and tigers: predicted impacts to Bangladesh’s Sundarbans mangroves

The Sundarbans mangrove ecosystem, shared by India and Bangladesh, is recognized as a global priority for biodiversity conservation. Sea level rise, due to climate change, threatens the long term persistence of the Sundarbans forests and its biodiversity. Among the forests’ biota is the only tiger (Panthera tigris) population in the world adapted for life in mangrove forests. Prior predictions on the impacts of sea level rise on the Sundarbans have been hampered by coarse elevation data in this low-lying region, where every centimeter counts. Using high resolution elevation data, we estimate that with a 28 cm rise above 2000 sea levels, remaining tiger habitat in Bangladesh’s Sundarbans would decline by 96% and the number of breeding individuals would be reduced to less than 20. Assuming current sea level rise predictions and local conditions do not change, a 28 cm sea level rise is likely to occur in the next 50–90 years. If actions to both limit green house gas emissions and increase resilience of the Sundarbans are not initiated soon, the tigers of the Sundarbans may join the Arctic’s polar bears (Ursus maritimus) as early victims of climate change-induced habitat loss.     

Origin and contrasting succession pathways of the Western Carpathian calcareous fens revealed by plant and mollusc macrofossils

Calcareous fens are unique environments whose history is almost unexplored. The radiocarbon dates of the basal layers of 49 undisturbed calcareous fens showed that in the Western Carpathians (central Europe) many of the extant fen sites originated fairly recently, with two peaks in the High Middle and Roman Ages, the former corresponding to human‐induced changes of the landscape. Conspicuous number of fens also appeared in the Lateglacial and later in the Bronze Age owing to suitable environmental conditions. The Lateglacial calcareous fens were of semi‐open character with coniferous trees, a heliophilous understorey, and mollusc communities composed of several snail species typical of glacial landscapes. We found wood of Taxus baccata in six localities between 7390 and 600 cal. a BP, suggesting that calcareous fens could have represented a refugial habitat for this red‐listed species during the middle Holocene. Using plant macrofossil and mollusc analyses of three representative profiles we illustrate the most common developmental types: (i) fens originating in the Lateglacial, having an open or semi‐open character during the whole Holocene; (ii) open fens originating as wooded wetlands; and (iii) open fens starting their development de novo in the late Holocene. Human activities were responsible for the formation of a high number of calcareous fens, especially in the Outer Western Carpathians, and became important drivers of fen biodiversity development. Only a few recently existing calcareous fens contain old sequences of calcareous deposits. They represent unique natural archives and harbour highly endangered relic populations of fen specialists, making their strict protection urgent.     

Patterns of hydrologic connectivity in the McMurdo Dry Valleys,Antarctica: a synthesis of 20 years of hydrologic data

Streams in the McMurdo Dry Valleys (MDVs) of Antarctica moderate an important hydrologic and biogeochemical connection between upland alpine glaciers, valley‐bottom soils, and lowland closed‐basin lakes. Moreover, MDV streams are simple but dynamic systems ideal for studying interacting hydrologic and ecological dynamics. This work synthesizes 20 years of hydrologic data, collected as part of the MDVs Long‐Term Ecological Research project, to assess spatial and temporal dynamics of hydrologic connectivity between glaciers, streams, and lakes. Long‐term records of stream discharge (Q), specific electrical conductance (EC), and water temperature (T) from 18 streams were analysed in order to quantify the magnitude, duration, and frequency of hydrologic connections over daily, annual, and inter‐annual timescales. At a daily timescale, we observe predictable diurnal variations in Q, EC, and T. At an annual timescale, we observe longer streams to be more intermittent, warmer, and have higher median EC values, compared to shorter streams. Longer streams also behave chemostatically with respect to EC, whereas shorter streams are more strongly characterized by dilution. Inter‐annually, we observe significant variability in annual runoff volumes, likely because of climatic variability over the 20 record years considered. Hydrologic connections at all timescales are vital to stream ecosystem structure and function. This synthesis of hydrologic connectivity in the MDVs provides a useful end‐member template for assessing hydrologic connectivity in more structurally complex temperate watersheds. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Agricultural cropland extent and areas of South Asia derived using Landsat satellite 30-m time-series big-data using random forest machine learning algorithms on the Google Earth Engine cloud

ABSTRACT

The South Asia (India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Nepal, Sri Lanka and Bhutan) has a staggering 900 million people (~43% of the population) who face food insecurity or severe food insecurity as per United Nations, Food and Agriculture Organization’s (FAO) the Food Insecurity Experience Scale (FIES). The existing coarse-resolution (≥250-m) cropland maps lack precision in geo-location of individual farms and have low map accuracies. This also results in uncertainties in cropland areas calculated from such products. Thereby, the overarching goal of this study was to develop a high spatial resolution (30-m or better) baseline cropland extent product of South Asia for the year 2015 using Landsat satellite time-series big-data and machine learning algorithms (MLAs) on the Google Earth Engine (GEE) cloud computing platform. To eliminate the impact of clouds, 10 time-composited Landsat bands (blue, green, red, NIR, SWIR1, SWIR2, Thermal, EVI, NDVI, NDWI) were derived for each of the three time-periods over 12 months (monsoon: Days of the Year (DOY) 151–300; winter: DOY 301–365 plus 1–60; and summer: DOY 61–150), taking the every 8-day data from Landsat-8 and 7 for the years 2013–2015, for a total of 30-bands plus global digital elevation model (GDEM) derived slope band. This 31-band mega-file big data-cube was composed for each of the five agro-ecological zones (AEZ’s) of South Asia and formed a baseline data for image classification and analysis. Knowledge-base for the Random Forest (RF) MLAs were developed using spatially well spread-out reference training data (N = 2179) in five AEZs. The classification was performed on GEE for each of the five AEZs using well-established knowledge-base and RF MLAs on the cloud. Map accuracies were measured using independent validation data (N = 1185). The survey showed that the South Asia cropland product had a producer’s accuracy of 89.9% (errors of omissions of 10.1%), user’s accuracy of 95.3% (errors of commission of 4.7%) and an overall accuracy of 88.7%. The National and sub-national (districts) areas computed from this cropland extent product explained 80-96% variability when compared with the National statistics of the South Asian Countries. The full-resolution imagery can be viewed at full-resolution, by zooming-in to any location in South Asia or the world, at www.croplands.org and the cropland products of South Asia downloaded from The Land Processes Distributed Active Archive Center (LP DAAC) of National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) and the United States Geological Survey (USGS): https://lpdaac.usgs.gov/products/gfsad30saafgircev001/.     

Mean densities of Pre-Devonian sedimentary rocks in Poland and their depth dependence

Summary Since 1945 in Poland density measurements have been completed on drilling samples to obtain data for reduction and interpretation of geophysical results. In this paper the developments in density measurements techniques and data processing in Poland are reviewed. Mean density maps have been constructed for the following Pre-Devonian divisions: Volhynian, Valdai and Subholmian Cambrian, Holmian and Protoolenus Cambrian, Middle Cambrian, Lower Ordovician, Middle Ordovician, Upper Ordovician, Lower Silurian, Middle Silurian, Upper Silurian. On the basis of the same data the dependence of mean densities on the present depth of all the above divisions has been examined. This dependence has been approximated by regression equations of the following type: (h)= ah + b , (h) = ah² + bh + c, (h)= alnh + b((h): mean density,h: present depth). In addition to the coefficients of these equations the correlation coefficient, regression standard error, and confidence intervals have been calculated. Analysis of the results obtained revealed a dominant effect of compaction on the mean density values. Hypotheses have been presented concerning other geological factors responsible for the variation of these values. Regression curves constructed for the individual stratigraphic horizons served to estimate the maximum earlier depth of the Palaeozoic rocks of the Holy Cross Mountains and their vertical displacement. Similar studies have been completed for two adjacent boreholes situated in the Bug River depression. Their results indicate that mean density values can readily serve to estimate the amount of vertical tectonic displacement.     

A confirmation of the correlation between hydrocarbons and chlorophyll a in the upper euphotic zone

The average hydrocarbon content found in 14 water samples from the euphotic zone off Northwest Africa was 4.4 μg l.^?1 with no extreme values. The average chlorophyll $\text{a}$ content was 1.9 μg l.^?1. The data fit a model proposed in a previous paper (Zsolnay, 1977). The resulting equation was $\text{HC}\text{= ?2.7 + 4.82}\text{Ch}\text{?0.942}\text{Ch}{}^2$ and could explain 59% of the variance in the hydrocarbon distribution. This indicates a correlation that is significant at the 0.002 level.     

Ice ages and the thermal equilibrium of the earth,II

The energy required to sustain midlatitude continental glaciations comes from solar radiation absorbed by the oceans. It is made available through changes in relative amounts of energy lost from the sea surface as net outgoing infrared radiation, sensible heat loss, and latent heat loss. Ice sheets form in response to the initial occurrence of a large perennial snowfield in the subarctic. When such a snowfield forms, it undergoes a drastic reduction in absorbed solar energy because of its high albedo. When the absorbed solar energy cannot supply local infrared radiation losses, the snowfield cools, thus increasing the energy gradient between itself and external, warmer areas that can act as energy sources. Cooling of the snowfield progresses until the energy gradients between the snowfield and external heat sources are sufficient to bring in enough (latent plus sensible) energy to balance the energy budget over the snowfield. Much of the energy is imported as latent heat. The snow that falls and nourishes the ice sheet is a by-product of the process used to satisfy the energy balance requirements of the snowfield. The oceans are the primary energy source for the ice sheet because only the ocean can supply large amounts of latent heat. At first, some of the energy extracted by the ice sheet from the ocean is stored heat, so the ocean cools. As it cools, less energy is lost as net outgoing infrared radiation, and the energy thus saved is then available to augment evaporation. The ratio between sensible and latent heat lost by the ocean is the Bowen ratio; it depends in part on the sea surface temperature. As the sea surface temperature falls during a glaciation, the Bowen ratio increases, until most of the available energy leaves the oceans as sensible, rather than latent heat. The ice sheet starves, and an interglacial period begins. The oscillations between stadial and interstadial intervals within a glaciation are caused by the effects of varying amounts of glacial meltwater entering the oceans as a surface layer that acts to reduce the amount of energy available for glacial nourishment. This causes the ice sheet to melt back, which continues the supply of meltwater until the ice sheet diminishes to a size consistent with the reduced rate of nourishment. The meltwater supply then decreases, the rate of nourishment increases, and a new stadial begins.