Investigation of the Coronal Magnetic Field Using a Type II Solar Radio Burst

The type II solar radio burst recorded on 13 June 2010 by the Hiraiso Solar Observatory Radio Spectrograph was employed to estimate the magnetic-field strength in the solar corona. The burst was characterized by a well-pronounced band splitting, which we used to estimate the density jump at the shock and Alfvén Mach number using the Rankine–Hugoniot relation. We convert the plasma frequency of the type II burst into height [R] in solar radii using an appropriate density model, and then we estimated the shock speed [V _s], coronal Alfvén velocity [V _A], and the magnetic-field strength at different heights. The relative bandwidth of the band splitting was found to be in the range 0.2?–?0.25, corresponding to a density jump of X=1.44?–?1.56, and an Alfvén Mach number of M _A=1.35?–?1.45. The inferred mean shock speed was on the order of V≈667 km?s^?1. From the dependencies V(R) and M _A(R) we found that the Alfvén speed slightly decreases at R≈1.3?–?1.5 R_⊙. The magnetic-field strength decreases from a value between 2.7 and 1.7 G at R≈1.3?–?1.5 R_⊙, depending on the coronal-density model employed. Our results are in good agreement with the empirical scaling by Dulk and McLean (Solar Phys. 57, 279, 1978) and Gopalswamy et al. (Astrophys. J. 744, 72, 2012). Our results show that the type II band-splitting method is an important tool for inferring the coronal magnetic field, especially when independent measurements are made from white-light observations.     

Growth of accretionary wedges and pulsed ophiolitic mélange formation by successive subduction of trench‐parallel volcanic elevations

Fault‐bounded coherent belts alternating with belts of mélanges are common in accretionary wedges and are usually interpreted as a result of imbrication along subduction zone megathrusts. Using the Neoproterozoic/early Cambrian Blovice accretionary complex (BAC), Bohemian Massif, as a case example, we present a new model for the origin of alternating belts through the repetition of several cycles of (1) offscraping and deformation of trench‐fill sediments to form the coherent units, interrupted by (2) arrival and subduction of linear, trench‐parallel volcanic elevations. The latter process leads to an increase in the wedge taper, triggering mass‐wasting and formation of olistostromes. At the same time, ophiolitic mélanges form by disruption of an upper part of the volcanic ridge and incorporation of the disrupted ocean‐floor succession into the olistostromes. Specifically, the BAC represents a complete section across an accretionary wedge and records three such major pulses of ophiolitic mélange formation through subduction of an outboard back‐arc basin.     

Modeling compositional compressible two-phase flow in porous media by the concept of the global pressure

We derive a new formulation for the compositional compressible two-phase flow in porous media. We consider a liquid–gas system with two components: water and hydrogen. The formulation considers gravity, capillary effects, and diffusivity of each component. The main feature of this formulation is the introduction of the global pressure variable that partially decouples the system equations. To formulate the final system, and in order to avoid primary unknowns changing between one-phase and two-phase zones, a second persistent variable is introduced: the total hydrogen mass density. The derived system is written in terms of the global pressure and the total hydrogen mass density. The system is capable of modeling the flows in both one and two-phase zones with no changes of the primary unknowns. The mathematical structure is well defined: the system consists of two nonlinear parabolic equations, the global pressure equation, and the total hydrogen mass density equation. The derived formulation is fully equivalent to the original one. Numerical simulations show ability of this new formulation to model efficiently the phase appearance and disappearance.     

Sensitivity of Ceres-Maize Yields to Statistical Structure of Daily Weather Series

To study impacts of climate variations on cropproduction, the growth models are used to simulateyields in present vs. changed climate conditions.Met&Roll is a four-variate (precipitation amount,solar radiation, minimum and maximum temperatures) stochasticweather generator used to supply synthetic dailyweather series for the crop growth model CERES-Maize.Three groups of experiments were conducted in thisstudy: (1) Validation of Met&Roll reveals some discrepanciesin the statistical structure of synthetic weatherseries, e.g., (i) the frequency of occurrence of longdry spells, extreme values of daily precipitationamount and variability of monthly means areunderestimated by the generator; (ii) correlations andlag-1 correlations among weather characteristicsexhibit a significant annual cycle not assumed by themodel. On the whole, the best fit of the observed andsynthetic weather series is experienced in summermonths. (2) The Wilcoxon test was employed to comparedistributions of maize yields simulated with use ofobserved vs. synthetic weather series. As nostatistically significant differences were detected,it is assumed that the generator imperfections inreproducing the statistical structure of weatherseries negligibly affect the model yields. (3) Thesensitivity of model yields to selectedcharacteristics of the daily weather series wasexamined. Emphasis was placed on the characteristicsnot addressed by typical GCM-based climate changescenarios: daily amplitude of temperature, persistenceof the weather series, shape of the distribution ofdaily precipitation amount, and frequency ofoccurrence of wet days. The results indicate that someof these characteristics may significantly affect cropyields and should therefore be considered in thedevelopment of climate change scenarios.