Prospects for Scrutiny of Pulsars with Polish Part of LOFAR

LOFAR (LOw Frequency ARray) is a new generation digitally controlled radio telescope consisting of phased array antenna stations with sensitivity, bandwidth, range of frequency, and digital processing power that makes it an excellent tool for observations of pulsars. This interferometric instrument is able to work in a single-station mode as well as in group-of-selected-stations mode. This article discusses the great opportunity for conducting unique and independent research of pulsar sources with the three LOFAR stations located in Poland and maintained by the POLFAR consortium.     

Tide–surge interactions and their effects on total sea levels in Irish coastal waters

The research presented in this paper involves the application of the joint probability method to the estimation of extreme water levels resulting from astronomical tides and surge residuals and the investigation of the effects of tide–surge interactions on extreme water levels. The distribution of tide peaks was analysed from field records (<20 years) and a 46-year dataset of monthly maximum tidal amplitudes. Large surges were extracted from both field records and a numerical model hindcast covering the 48 largest storm events in the Irish Sea over the period 1959–2005. Extreme storm surges and tides were independently modelled using the generalised extreme value statistical model, and derived probability distributions were used to compute extreme water levels. An important, and novel, aspect of this research is an analysis of tide–surge interactions and their effects on total water level; where interactions exist, they lead to lower total water levels than in the case of independency. The degree of decrease varies with interaction strength, magnitude of surge peak at a particular phase of tide and the distribution of peaks over a tidal cycle. Therefore, including interactions in the computation of extreme levels may provide very useful information at the design stage of coastal protection systems.     

Analysis and usage of linear relationships between the magnetic field components recorded by INTERMAGNET

An analysis of linear relationships between the ground-level components of the Earth’s magnetic field measured at different sites is a relatively new topic compared to the analysis of data at a single location. The data collected by the INTERMAGNET observation network provide perfect set of data to which this analysis can be used. An important tool in this analysis may be developing a method of determination of the impulse response for linear systems in the time domain. An advantage of calculations in the time domain over the generally known and applied methods in the frequency domain is the possibility of determining prediction of output signals. By that, simultaneously with the analysis of linear relationships, a tool for recovering missing records in incomplete observation data is obtained. Filling-in the missing data may increase interest and possibility of using the observational data by researchers experimenting with the analysis in the frequency domain where gaps in data records are a significant limitation.     

Multi‐Criteria Analysis for Optimization of Sodium Chromate Production from Chromic Waste

The proposal of application of multi‐criteria analysis and technological quality method for optimization of technological processes on the case study of sodium chromate production variants from waste was presented. The research on the use of chromic waste for the production of sodium chromate made it possible to determine the optimal process parameters. Technological quality method was used to define the value of criterions for multi‐criteria analysis while multi‐criteria analysis allowed determining the impact of criterions weights for ranking variants of technological process. Both methods in a complex way evaluate the degree of modernization of technologies, describing them qualitatively within the area of environmental, technical, and the economic effects of the proposed technological variants. Based on the proposed evaluating criteria both methods yield comparable results. The most advantageous alternatives provided realization of the sodium chromate production process with the use of in‐process recycling of chromic mud, off‐site recycling of chromic tannery waste and on‐site recycling of waste from the old chromic heaps.     

Privacy, reconsidered: New representations, data practices, and the geoweb

Blogging, social networking, and other Web 2.0 practices have sparked widespread debate about the status and future of privacy. This paper examines an explicitly geographical aspect of Web 2.0 with respect to these debates: the geospatial web, or ‘geoweb’. As part of fundamental shifts in the kinds of geographic information available, its circulation, and representative forms it assumes, the geoweb implies new objects of privacy concern and subsequent privacy-related negotiations over the aggregate of its component information, technologies, and data praxes. Thus we argue that privacy must not only be revisited, but indeed re-conceptualized. Whereas prior research on privacy vis-à-vis geographic information technologies has tended to question what privacy ‘is’, we focus instead on the constitutive outcomes of societal struggles over privacy. We examine how privacy is being negotiated around two geoweb services - Google Street View and the Twitter GeoAPI - to illustrate that these contestations produce privacy as a social object in particular ways. We show that public discourse around actual or anticipated privacy harms stemming from geoweb services and their uses, as well as the preventatives and remedies proposed or implemented to address such harms, reconstitute the objects and practices of privacy concern, and alter the roles and relationships of state, civil and corporate actors in the construction of privacy. Finally we suggest that the geoweb raises new privacy concerns because some of its representational forms - namely geo-tagged images and self-authored texts - facilitate identification and disclosure with more immediacy and less abstraction.     

Distribution of Mytilus taxa in European coastal areas as inferred from molecular markers

The genetic constitution of mussels (Mytilus spp.) was studied by means of three nuclear (Me 15/16, EF-bis, ITS) and one mtDNA (ND2-COIII) marker on a large European scale. In addition to a sharp cline between Atlantic and Mediterranean M. galloprovincialis, we observed a clear genetic distinction between the Black Sea and Mediterranean populations and a higher incidence of M. trossulus than reported so far in northern European populations. The frequency of M. galloprovincialis nuclear alleles was high along the Iberian Peninsula and decreased abruptly along the French coasts with a high frequency of M. edulis alleles in the Bay of Biscay, The Netherlands, Germany, Iceland, Barents and White Seas, and with little evidence of introgression between the two taxa. M. trossulus alleles were observed in the Baltic Sea and Danish Straits as expected. In addition, occurrence of M. trossulus alleles in cold waters of Iceland, Barents Sea and White Sea is reported for the first time.     

Meltwater discharge through the subglacial bed and its land‐forming consequences from numerical experiments in the Polish lowland during the last glaciation

Numerical experiments suggest that the last glaciation severely affected the upper lithosphere groundwater system in NW Poland: primarily its flow pattern, velocities and fluxes. We have simulated subglacial groundwater flow in two and three spatial dimensions using finite difference codes for steady‐state and transient conditions. The results show how profoundly the ice sheet modifies groundwater pressure heads beneath and some distance beyond the ice margin. All model runs show water discharge at the ice forefield driven by ice‐sheet‐thickness‐modulated, down‐ice‐decreasing hydraulic heads. In relation to non‐glacial times, the transient 3D model shows significant changes in the groundwater flow directions in a regionally extensive aquifer ca. 90 m below the ice–bed interface and up to 40 km in front of the glacier. Comparison with empirical data suggests that, depending on the model run, only between 5 and 24% of the meltwater formed at the ice sole drained through the bed as groundwater. This is consistent with field observations documenting abundant occurrence of tunnel valleys, indicating that the remaining portion of basal meltwater was evacuated through a channelized subglacial drainage system. Groundwater flow simulation suggests that in areas of very low hydraulic conductivity and adverse subglacial slopes water ponding at the ice sole was likely. In these areas the relief shows distinct palaeo‐ice lobes, indicating fast ice flow, possibly triggered by the undrained water at the ice–bed interface. Owing to the abundance of low‐permeability strata in the bed, the simulated groundwater flow depth is less than ca. 200 m. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

The stochastic estimation of satellite clock correction information in WADGPS

1 IntroductionChnventional DGPS is limited by the range overwhich the differential corrections are valid due tothe rapid decorrelation of the error sources with in-creasing distance from the reference station to user.In wide area differential GPS (WWPS) errorsources in GPS measurements are medeled sepa-rately,on the basis of a limited number of referencestaitOns, to overcome this drawback. The main er-ror sources are regarded as broadcast ephemeris er-ror,atmospheric refraction and satel…     

Trends in water quality variations in the Odra River the day before implementation of the Water Framework Directive

This paper contains an account of UN/EEC-sponsored research on water quality monitoring and assessments in the catchments areas of Europe's 10 transboundary rivers. In this context, water quality assessments established on the basis of monitoring data for Poland's rivers are discussed. Consideration is also given to the water quality assessment methods recommended by the EU Directives. The problem has been exemplified by the analysis of water quality variations in the transboundary river Odra in the time span of 1973–2003. For the years 1993–2003, the trends in water quality variations are calculated and the rates of variation are analysed. The points in time when the water quality will have attained the second class purity values are predicted, taking into account the requirements specified in Polish, Czech and German standards. Analysis of the trends in the variations of pollution parameters has revealed that the achievability of good water quality depends on the limit values adopted for the assessment.