Theoretical development of the differential scattering decomposition for the 3D resistivity experiment

In any numerical solution of the DC resistivity experiment, care must be taken to deal with strong heterogeneity of electrical conductivity. In order to examine the importance of conductivity contrasts, we develop a scattering decomposition of the DC resistivity equation in the sparse differential domain as opposed to the traditional dense integral formulation of scattering‐type equations. We remove the singularity in the differential scattered series via separation of primary and secondary conductivity, thereby avoiding the need to address the singularity in a Green's function. The differential scattering series is observed to diverge for large conductivity contrasts and to converge for small contrasts. We derive a convergence criterion, in terms of matrix norms for the weak‐form finite‐volume equations, that accounts for both the magnitude and distribution of heterogeneity of electrical conductivity. We demonstrate the relationship between the differential scattering series and the Fréchet derivative of the electrical potential with respect to electrical conductivity, and we show how the development may be applied to the inverse problem. For linearization associated with the Fréchet derivative to be valid, the perturbation in electrical conductivity must be small as defined by the convergence of the scattered series. The differential scattering formulation also provides an efficient tool for gaining insight into charge accumulation across contrasts in electrical conductivity, and we present a derivation that equates accumulated surface charge density to the source of scattered potential.     

Lessons learned in remediation and restoration in the Oklahoma prairie: A review

For almost a decade the Tallgrass Prairie Preserve in Oklahoma has been used as a field laboratory for the investigation of aspects of the remediation and restoration of oil and brine spills. Objectives of this work have included: (1) simplification of the remediation process and lowering the cost of remediation; (2) the development of methods to accelerate or jump-start the restoration process; and (3) determining appropriate metrics for assessing the status of soil ecosystem recovery. This research has resulted in a number of lessons learned that will be presented here which can be exported to other exploration and production sites, especially sites located in sensitive ecosystems. Key observations have included the role of a fertilizer amendment in linking the remediation and restoration process at an oil-impacted site, the use of nematodes as ecological indicators in the restoration of oil- and brine-impacted sites, and the development of a two-stage process for remediation of brine impacted sites that does not include significant use of gypsum.     

Evaluating essential processes and forecast requirements for meteotsunami-induced coastal flooding

Natural Hazards - Meteotsunamis pose a unique threat to coastal communities and often lead to damage of coastal infrastructure, deluge of nearby property, and loss of life and injury. The Great...     

Multi-instrument remote and in situ observations of the Erebus Volcano (Antarctica) lava lake in 2005: A comparison with the Pele lava lake on the jovian moon Io

The stable, persistent, active lava lake at Erebus volcano (Ross Island, Antarctica) provides an excellent thermal target for analysis of spacecraft observations, and for testing new technology. In the austral summer of 2005 visible and infrared observations of the Erebus lava lake were obtained with sensors on three space vehicles Terra (ASTER, MODIS), Aqua (MODIS) and EO-1 (Hyperion, ALI). Contemporaneous ground-based observations were obtained with hand-held infrared cameras. This allowed a quantitative comparison of the thermal data obtained from different instruments, and of the analytical techniques used to analyze the data, both with and without the constraints imposed by ground-truth. From the thermal camera data, in December 2005 the main Erebus lava lake (Ray Lake) had an area of ≈ 820 m². Surface colour temperatures ranged from 575 K to 1090 K, with a broad peak in the distribution from 730 K to 850 K. Total heat loss was estimated at 23.5 MW. The flux density was ≈ 29 kW m^− 2. Mass flux was estimated at 64 to 93 kg s^− 1. The best correlation between thermal emission and emitting area was obtained with ASTER, which has the best combination of spatial resolution and wavelength coverage, especially in the thermal infrared. The high surface temperature of the lava lake means that Hyperion data are for the most part saturated. Uncertainties, introduced by the need to remove incident sunlight cause the thermal emission from the Hyperion data to be a factor of about two greater than that measured by hand-held thermal camera. MODIS also over-estimated thermal output from the lava lake by the same factor of two because it was detecting reflected sunlight from the rest of the pixel area. The measurement of the detailed temperature distribution on the surface of an active terrestrial lava lake will allow testing of thermal emission models used to interpret remote-sensing data of volcanism on Io, where no such ground-truth exists. Although the Erebus lava lake is four orders of magnitude smaller than the lava lake at Pele on Io, the shape of the integrated thermal emission spectra are similar. Thermal emission from this style of effusive volcanism appears to be invariant. Excess thermal emission in most Pele spectra (compared to Erebus) at short wavelengths (< 3 μm) is most likely due to disruption of the surface on the lava lake by escaping volatiles.     

Improving bank erosion modelling at catchment scale by incorporating temporal and spatial variability

Bank erosion can contribute a significant portion of the sediment budget within temperate catchments, yet few catchment scale models include an explicit representation of bank erosion processes. Furthermore, representation is often simplistic resulting in an inability to capture realistic spatial and temporal variability in simulated bank erosion. In this study, the sediment component of the catchment scale model SHETRAN is developed to incorporate key factors influencing the spatio‐temporal rate of bank erosion, due to the effects of channel sinuosity and channel bank vegetation. The model is applied to the Eden catchment, north‐west England, and validated using data derived from a GIS methodology. The developed model simulates magnitudes of total catchment annual bank erosion (617–4063 t y^‐1) within the range of observed values (211–4426 t yr^‐1). In addition, the model provides both greater inter‐annual and spatial variability of bank eroded sediment generation when compared with the basic model, and indicates a potential 61% increase of bank eroded sediment as a result of temporal flood clustering. The approach developed within this study can be used within a number of distributed hydrologic models and has general applicability to temperate catchments, yet further development of model representation of bank erosion processes is required. © 2017 The Authors. Earth Surface Processes and Landforms published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.     

The solar occultation for ice experiment

The Solar Occultation For Ice Experiment (SOFIE) was launched onboard the Aeronomy of Ice in the Mesosphere (AIM) satellite on 25 April 2007, and began science observations on 14 May 2007. SOFIE conducts solar occultation measurements in 16 spectral bands that are used to retrieve vertical profiles of temperature, O₃, H₂O, CO₂, CH₄, NO, and polar mesospheric cloud (PMC) extinction at wavelengths from 0.330 to 5.006 μm. SOFIE performs 15 sunset measurements at latitudes from 65° to 85°S and 15 sunrise measurements from 65° to 85°N each day. This work describes the SOFIE instrument, measurement approach, and retrieval results for the northern summer of 2007.