A SOAP Web Service for accessing MODIS land product subsets

Remote sensing data from satellites have provided valuable information on the state of the earth for several decades. Since March 2000, the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) sensor on board NASA’s Terra and Aqua satellites have been providing estimates of several land parameters useful in understanding earth system processes at global, continental, and regional scales. However, the HDF-EOS file format, specialized software needed to process the HDF-EOS files, data volume, and the high spatial and temporal resolution of MODIS data make it difficult for users wanting to extract small but valuable amounts of information from the MODIS record. To overcome this usability issue, the NASA-funded Distributed Active Archive Center (DAAC) for Biogeochemical Dynamics at Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) developed a Web service that provides subsets of MODIS land products using Simple Object Access Protocol (SOAP). The ORNL DAAC MODIS subsetting Web service is a standard based way of serving satellite data that exploits a fairly established and popular Internet protocol to allow users access to massive amounts of remote sensing data. The Web service provides MODIS land product subsets up to 201 × 201 km in a non-proprietary comma delimited text file format. Users can programmatically query the Web service to extract MODIS land parameters for real time data integration into models, decision support tools or connect to workflow software. Information regarding the MODIS SOAP subsetting Web service is available on the World Wide Web (WWW) at .     

Adaptation to climate change impacts on urban storm water: a case study in Arvika, Sweden

Already today, the functionality of many sewer and storm water systems are not up to the required standards and consequently flooding problems are experienced in case of heavy storms. System upgrades are required, which are however complicated by the expected future increase in short-term rainfall intensities as a result of climate change. In this case study, focusing on the town of Arvika, Sweden, this issue is investigated in three main steps. In the first, extreme value analyses of 30-min rainfall from an ensemble of climate projections are carried out to estimate the future increase and generate a future design storm. In the second, the existing system’s response to both today’s and future design storms are simulated by a coarse sewer model setup (MOUSE) and a detailed coupled surface-sewer model setup (TSR). In the third and final step, system upgrades are designed and evaluated by both models. The results indicate an increase by 10–30 % of today’s short-term rainfall extremes by the end of the century. Upgrading the system to achieve a satisfactory performance for the future design storm would cost approximately twice as much as an upgrade based on today’s design storm.     

Predictions of large stress reversals in true triaxial tests on cross‐anisotropic sand

A rotational kinematic hardening constitutive model with the capability of predicting the behavior of soil during three‐dimensional stress reversals has been developed. An existing elasto‐plastic constitutive model, the Single Hardening Model, utilizing isotropic hardening serves as the basic framework in these formulations. The framework of the kinematic hardening model was discussed in a companion paper. The previously proposed cross‐anisotropic Single Hardening Model is added to the present kinematic hardening mechanism to capture inherent anisotropy of sands in addition to the stress reversals. This model involves 13 parameters, which can be determined from simple laboratory experiments, such as isotropic compression, drained triaxial compression and triaxial extension tests. The results from a series of true triaxial tests with large three‐dimensional stress reversals performed on medium dense cross‐anisotropic Santa Monica Beach sand are employed for comparison with predictions. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Rotational kinematic hardening model for three‐dimensional stress reversals in sand

A kinematic hardening mechanism has previously been proposed to capture the behavior of soil during large stress reversals in the triaxial plane. This mechanism is now extended to the principal stress space. It incorporates rotation and intersection of yield surfaces to achieve a consistent and physically rational fit with experimentally observed soil behavior during large three‐dimensional stress reversals. An existing elasto‐plastic model with isotropic hardening is used as the basic framework to which the rotational kinematic hardening mechanism has been added. The new combined model preserves the behavior of the isotropic hardening model under monotonic loading conditions, and the extension from isotropic to rotational kinematic hardening under three‐dimensional conditions is accomplished without introducing new material parameters. The framework of the model is presented here with some comparisons between theoretical and experimental directions of strain increment vectors to indicate the potential of the model. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Flow of Canadian basin deep water in the Western Eurasian Basin of the Arctic Ocean

The LOMROG 2007 expedition targeted the previously unexplored southern part of the Lomonosov Ridge north of Greenland together with a section from the Morris Jesup Rise to Gakkel Ridge. The oceanographic data show that Canadian Basin Deep Water (CBDW) passes the Lomonosov Ridge in the area of the Intra Basin close to the North Pole and then continues along the ridge towards Greenland and further along its northernmost continental slope. The CBDW is clearly evident as a salinity maximum and oxygen minimum at a depth of about 2000 m. The cross-slope sections at the Amundsen Basin side of the Lomonosov Ridge and further south at the Morris Jesup Rise show a sharp frontal structure higher up in the water column between Makarov Basin water and Amundsen Basin water. The frontal structure continues upward into the Atlantic Water up to a depth of about 300 m. The observed water mass division at levels well above the ridge crest indicates a strong topographic steering of the flow and that different water masses tend to pass the ridge guided by ridge-crossing isobaths at local topographic heights and depressions. A rough scaling analysis shows that the extremely steep and sharply turning bathymetry of the Morris Jesup Rise may force the boundary current to separate and generate deep eddies.     

Wave-driven circulation patterns in the lee of groynes

Surf zone drifters and a current meter were used to study the nearshore circulation patterns in the lee of groynes at Cottesloe Beach and City Beach in Western Australia. The circulation patterns revealed that a persistent re-circulation cell was present in the lee of the groyne which was driven by changes in wave set-up resulting from lower wave heights in the lee of the groyne. The re-circulation consisted of a longshore current directed towards the groyne which was deflected offshore due to groyne resulting in a rip current along the groyne face. The offshore-flowing rip current and the incoming waves converged at the offshore extent of this circulation cell, with the deflection of the rip current parallel to the shoreline and then completing the recirculation through an onshore component. The Eulerian measurements revealed that 55% of the currents on the lee side of the groyne were directed offshore and that these currents had a maximum speed of 2 m s^?1. Spectral analysis of the wave heights and the currents revealed several corresponding peaks in the measured spectral densities with timescales between 12 s and 50 min. Numerical simulations of an idealised beach with a shore-normal groyne were conducted using a circulation model driven by waves, and confirmed the formation of a persistent eddy in the lee of the groyne. Sensitivity studies indicated that the incident wave angle, wave period, and especially the wave height controlled the circulation. The eddy vorticity, a measure of an eddy's strength, increased roughly proportional to an increase in the incident wave energy flux.     

The existence of internal solitary waves in a two-fluid system near the KdV limit

Abstract

Two fluid layers of constant density lying one over the other on top of a rigid horizontal lower boundary with either a free upper surface or a rigid upper boundary can support solitary waves. The existence of a unique branch of such waves emanating from the horizontal flow at a critical speed U _? is demonstrated in both cases by use of the Nash—Moser implicit function theorem. These results complement the global results of Amick and Turner (1986) and are analogous to the work of Friedrichs and Hyers (1954) and Beale (1977) for surface waves. It is also noted that the most obvious variational principle which characterizes these waves as constrained extremals (Benjamin, 1984) is of indefinite type, having a Hessian with infinitely many positive and infinitely many negative eigenvalues.     

Large stress reversals in true triaxial tests on cross‐anisotropic sand

The results of a series of true triaxial tests with stress paths involving large reversals under 3D conditions are presented. These tests were performed on medium dense Santa Monica Beach sand to provide experimental evidence for the rotational kinematic hardening hypothesis presented in a companion paper and to provide stress–strain and volume change relations for experiments with 3D stress paths and large stress reversals to be predicted by the rotational kinematic hardening model. The experimental equipment and the testing procedures are briefly explained followed by a presentation of the experimental results and their sensitivity to unknown causes as well as effects of cross‐anisotropy on the sand behavior. The stress paths are presented in a σ₃′‐plane and in an octahedral plane and the directions of experimental strain increment vectors are compared with those obtained from the rotational kinematic hardening model. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.