SOME ASPECTS OF THE INTERACTION OF BLOWING SNOW WITH THE ATMOSPHERIC BOUNDARY LAYER

Several possible effects of blowing snow on the atmospheric boundary layer are investigated, mostly within the general framework of the Prairie Blowing Snow Model (PBSM). The processes of snow saltation and suspension are first described. Variations to the drift density profile are tested and the effects of stratification and density variation calculations are evaluated. Despite high density gradients of blowing snow, stratification effects on turbulence and the velocity profiles can generally be neglected. However, with saltating or suspended snow in a constant shear stress layer, part of the shear stress is carried by the particles. A highly simplified, single-phase approach, based on the density variation of the air–snow mixture coupled to a simple turbulent stress–strain relationship, is used to illustrate this. Sublimation rates in a column of blowing snow are calculated using the PBSM and results are compared with those obtained with a modified formulation which incorporates a spectrum of sublimating particles of varying sizes at each height in a steady-state surface boundary layer and different specifications of the ventilation velocity.     

VELOCITY–DISCHARGE RELATIONSHIPS DERIVED FROM DYE TRACER EXPERIMENTS IN GLACIAL MELTWATERS: IMPLICATIONS FOR SUBGLACIAL FLOW CONDITIONS

Repeated dye tracer tests were undertaken from individual moulins at Haut Glacier d'Arolla, Switzerland, over a number of diurnal discharge cycles during the summers of 1989–1991. It was hoped to use the concepts of at-a-station hydraulic geometry to infer flow conditions in subglacial channels from the form of the velocity–discharge relationships derived from these tests. The results, however, displayed both clockwise and anticlockwise velocity–discharge hysteresis, in addition to the simple power function relationship assumed in the hydraulic geometry approach. Clockwise hysteresis seems to indicate that a moulin drains into a small tributary channel rather than directly into an arterial channel, and that discharges in the two channels vary out of phase with each other. Anticlockwise hysteresis is accompanied by strong diurnal variations in the value of dispersivity derived from the dye breakthrough curve, and is best explained by hydraulic damming of moulins or sub/englacial passageways. Despite the complex velocity–discharge relationships observed, some indication of subglacial flow conditions may be obtained if tributary channels comprise only a small fraction of the drainage path and power function velocity–discharge relationships are derived from dye injections conducted during periods when the supraglacial discharge entering the moulin and the bulk discharge vary in phase. Analyses based on this premise suggest that both open and closed channel flow occur beneath Haut Glacier d'Arolla, and that flow conditions are highly variable at and between sites.     

D) UNITED Nations

Synopsis

In areas of accentuated relief, some of the basic assumptions made in the use of standard methods of assessing areal mean rainfall are often untenable. It is shown in this paper, that, not only does topography affect the actual rainfall distribution, but that the areal variability, measured as the correlation between any two points, is also dependent on the relief. Two methods are used to show this. Once method compares the areal variability of a flat area to one of accentuated relief, while the second method relates areal variability to topographic factors using a multiple regression technique.

The conclusions reached are then used for three purposed. The first is to develop a method of ascribing objectively areas or points to a particular raingauge, taking into account the nature of the terrain. The second is to establish a procedure for estimating the rainfall at ungauged points, by taking into account the rainfall at a selected nearby rainguage and the topographic situation of the points, and the third purpose is to provide means of establishing a correction factor to be applied to a raingauge reading in order that the reading may more accurately represent the area ascribed to it.     

AN INTEGRAL EQUATION FOR THE GEOELECTRIC RESPONSE OF THIN RESISTIVE BODIES1

Thin sheet-like forms are common target bodies in geoelectric prospecting. Depending on their mineralogy and other factors these bodies may be relatively conductive or relatively resistive with respect to their surroundings. For suitably remote field points (relative to the thickness) these features manifest themselves geoelectrically in terms of their conductivity-thickness product for relatively conductive bodies or in terms of their resistivity-thickness product for resistive forms. While the case of a conductive sheet has received some attention in the geophysical literature, resistive sheets have been largely ignored. Accordingly an efficient technique to model the geoelectric responses of a resistive lamina is presented here. The technique involves representing the lamina in terms of a distribution of normally directed current dipole moment whose density is shown to satisfy an inhomogeneous Fredholm integral equation of the second kind. The technique is rigorously tested in a 2D environment and is shown to produce reliable and suitably accurate results. An application of the method is presented in which the apparent resistivity and chargeability responses measured with a gradient array over a dipping resistive ribbon are computed. These are compared with the responses observed over a relatively conductive ribbon in the same orientation.     

A modified binary space partitioning tree for geographic information systems

We present a reactive data structure, that is, a spatial data structure with detail levels. The two properties, spatial organization and detail levels, are the basis for a geographic information system (GIS) with a multi-scale database. A reactive data structure is a novel type of data structure catering to multiple detail levels with rapid responses to spatial queries. It is presented here as a modification of the binary space partitioning tree that includes the levels of detail. This tree is one of the few spatial data structures that does not organize space in a rectangular manner. A prototype system has been implemented. An important result of this implementation is that it shows that binary space partitioning trees of real maps have O(n) storage space complexity in contrast to the theoretical worst case O(n² ), with n the number of line segments in the map.     

Petrology and Geochemistry of the Rhobell Volcanic Complex: Amphibole-Dominated Fractionation at an Early Ordovician Arc Volcano in North Wales

The Rhobell Volcanic Complex is a remnant of a late Tremadoc,dominantly calc-alkaline, arc volcano. It is the only substantiallypreserved representative in the southern British Caledonidesof an early phase of Ordovician ensialic arc volcanism whichfollowed the onset of southeasterly subduction of Iapetus oceaniclithosphere beneath the northern margin of Gondwanaland. Thecomplex includes extrusive basalts and associated breccias,known as the Rhobell Volcanic Group, which rest unconformablyon folded, uplifted and eroded rift-basin sediments of the earlierpassive margin of the Iapetus Ocean. Amongst the basalts arerelatively primitive pargasite-bearing varieties which containcognate cumulate blocks, dominantly of pargasite but also withcalcic clinopyroxene, Ti-magnetite, and (rarely) plagioclase.Basaltic rocks also occur in an associated feeder-sheet intrusioncomplex, and as numerous minor sills and dykes. In the intrusioncomplex, basaltic sheets are cut by microdiorites and scarcemicrotonalites. The compositional range in the volcanic complex,from low-SiO₂ basalts to microtonalites (SiO₂ 45–66 wt.per cent), is attributable to fractional crystallization, earlystages of which were dominated by removal of pargasite at (water-undersaturated)pressures close to 10 kb, within the mantle. The parental magmawas derived by hydrous partial melting of a supra-subductionzone mantle wedge. Trace-element patterns indicate that themantle was slightly depleted relative to the putative primordialcomposition (Ta/Yb = 0?1), prior to metasomatism by componentsfrom the subduction zone. Textural variations in cumulate blocks,and various phenocryst forms in basalts, are interpreted asindicating that the erupted magmas came from a thermally andcompositionally stratified magma chamber with associated layeredcrystal accumulations, and that materials from initially separatelayers were mixed prior to eruption.     

Melting Relationships in the System CaO-MgO-CO2-H2O, with Petrological Applications

Phase relationships on the vapor-saturated liquidus surfacein the system CaO-MgO-CO₂-H₂O have been deduced from data inthe systems CaO CO₂-H₂O, CaO-MgO-CO₂, and MgO-CO₂-H₂O, and frompreliminary experiments in the quaternary system. These areillustrated in composition tetrahedra, and in isobaric sectionsthrough the petrogenetic model. The univariant PT curve forthe beginning of melting lies between 625? C and 600? C in thepressure range 10 bars to 4 kilobars, in the presence of a vaporphase rich in H₂O. The curve is divided into three sectionsby two invariant points, each section having a different primarymagnesian phase involved in the melting reaction. Periclaseoccurs on the low-pressure section (less than about 1 kilobar),and with increasing pressure first brucite and then dolomitebecome stable on the liquidus. The pressure of the second invariantpoint, above which dolomite is stable on the liquidus, is notknown. The effect of FeO as an additional component is considered.Processes of crystallization resulting from changes in temperature,in pressure, and in the composition of the vapor phase are discussed.These processes are applied to the crystallization and differentiationof carbonatite magmas, and the reverse processes involving fusionare applied to the metamorphism of dolomites. Crystallizationdifferentiation of a carbonatite magma could produce the sequenceof intrusion observed at some carbonatite complexes: calcitics?vite, followed by ankeritic s?vite, and finally sideriticcarbonatite. Partial melting may occur during the thermal metamorphismof dolomites, but melting is unlikely during regional metamorphism.