Experimental Studies of Aerosols in the Atmosphere of Semiarid Landscapes of Kalmykia: 1. Microphysical Parameters and Mass Concentration of Aerosol Particles

Izvestiya, Atmospheric and Oceanic Physics - This paper summarizes the results of long-term (2004–2016) comprehensive experimental studies of microphysical parameters and the mass...     

Development of a Software Package for Environmental Risk Assessment Based on Materials of Repeated Remote Surveys

Izvestiya, Atmospheric and Oceanic Physics - This paper presents the development of a model version of a software package for analyzing the dynamics of dangerous exogenous processes in view of the...     

Helicopter Crash on the Spitsbergen Archipelago: Infrasound and Seismic Signals Decryption

Izvestiya, Atmospheric and Oceanic Physics - A Convers Avia Airline Mi-8 helicopter crashed near the Russian settlement of Barentsburg on October 26, 2017. The moment of impact was recorded by the...     

Cosmic weather,physical-chemical systems,and the technosphere

This paper is a short review of publications on the influence that solar activity and geomagnetic disturbances (cosmic weather) have on physical-chemical systems. The effects of cosmic weather may some-times be detected by the presence of an uncontrolled factor in these experiments. Direct reactions to cosmic weather are reliably identified in quantitative observations over various test systems, mainly water solutions. The effects of cosmic weather are also found from the data obtained by monitoring some simple physical systems, including semiconductors. All these effects are either cosmic physical rhythms or they are easily registered sporadic heliogeophysical events (e.g., magnetic storms). There are convincing data that demonstrate the influence that cosmic weather has on the accident rate in various engineering and physical systems. Researchers are at odds on the physical nature of the main physical agent, but the contribution of electromagnetic fields to these processes is considered important.     

Optical characteristics of coastal waters and atmosphere near the south coast of the crimea at the end of summer 2008

We present the results of measurements of optical characteristics of waters (the beam attenuation coefficient, volume scattering function, sea water reflectance, and Secchi depth) and optical characteristics of the atmosphere (aerosol optical thickness, content of vapors, and the ?ngstr?m exponent) carried out in September 2008 on the oceanographic platform near Katsiveli. We carried out the comparative analysis of hydrooptical characteristics measured in various years. The optical type of sea waters in the period of observations is determined.     

Crossing Filaments

Solar filaments show the position of large-scale polarity-inversion lines and are used for the reconstruction of large-scale solar magnetic field structure on the basis of Hα synoptic charts for the periods that magnetographic measurements are not available. Sometimes crossing filaments are seen in Hα filtergrams. We analyze daily Hα filtergrams from the archive of Big Bear Solar Observatory for the period of 1999 – 2003 to find crossing and interacting filaments. A number of examples are presented and filament patterns are compared with photospheric magnetic field distributions. We have found that all crossing filaments reveal quadrupolar magnetic configurations of the photospheric field and presume the presence of null points in the corona.     

Natural attenuation, biostimulation and bioaugmentation on biodegradation of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) in mangrove sediments

The biodegradability of a mixture of PAHs, namely fluorene (Fl), phenanthrene (Phe) and pyrene (Pyr), in mangrove sediment slurry was investigated. At the end of week 4, natural attenuation based on the presence of autochthonous microorganisms degraded more than 99% Fl and Phe but only around 30% of Pyr were degraded. Biostimulation with addition of mineral salt medium degraded over 97% of all three PAHs, showing that nutrient amendment could enhance Pyr degradation. Bioaugmentation with inoculation of a PAH-degrading bacterial consortium enriched from mangrove sediments did not show any promotion effect and the degradation percentages of three PAHs were similar to that by natural attenuation. Some inhibitory effect was observed in bioaugmentation treatment in week 1 with only 50% Fl and 70% Phe degraded. These results indicate that autochthonous microbes may interact and even compete with the enriched consortium during PAH biodegradation. Natural attenuation appeared to be the most appropriate way to remedy Fl- and Phe-contaminated mangrove sediments while biostimulation was more capable to degrade Pyr-contaminated sediments. The study also shows that although a large portion of the added PAHs (more than 95%) was adsorbed onto the sediments at the beginning of the experiment, most PAHs were degraded in 4 weeks, suggesting that the degraders could utilize the adsorbed PAHs efficiently.     

A hydrothermal deposit from explorer ridge in the northeast Pacific Ocean

Crusts composed of nontronite and ferromanganese oxides were recovered from Explorer Ridge, a spreading ridge segment in the northeastern Pacific Ocean located off the west coast of Canada. The chemical and mineralogical composition of the crusts closely resembles that of the mound-like hydrothermal deposits recently discovered at the FAMOUS site on the Mid-Atlantic Ridge and on the Galapagos spreading centre. Compositional anomalies suggest that the crusts are precipitates of hydrothermal vent solutions which were ejected discontinuously and subsequently mixed with seawater.     

Block removal and step backwearing as erosion processes on rock shore platforms: a preliminary case study of the chalk shore platforms of south‐east England

Shore platforms frequently exhibit steps or risers facing seaward, landwards or obliquely across‐shore. A combination of soft copy photogrammetry, ortho‐rectification, geo referencing and field measurement of step height are linked in a GIS environment to measure step retreat on chalk shore platforms at sample sites in the south of England over two periods, 1973–2001, 2001–2007. The methods used allow for the identification, delineation and measurement of historic change at high spatial resolution. The results suggest that while erosion of chalk shore platforms by step backwearing is highly variable, it appears to be of similar magnitude to surface downwearing of the same platforms measured by micro‐erosion meters (MEMs) and laser scanning, in a range equivalent to 0·0006 – 0·0050 m y^?1 of surface downwearing. This equates to annual chalk volume loss from the platforms, by the two erosion processes combined, of between 0·0012 m³ m^?2 and 0·0100 m³ m^?2. Results from the more recent years' data suggests that step retreat has variability in both space and time which does not relate solely to climatic variability. The results must be viewed with caution until much larger numbers of measurements have been made of both downwearing and step erosion at higher spatial and temporal resolution. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.