Heat Wave Hazards: An Overview of Heat Wave Impacts in Canada

Extreme heat events are natural hazards affecting Canada and many other regions of the world. This paper presents an overview of the issues involved in defining heat waves and harmful hot weather events, followed by a spatial and historical overview of heat waves across Canada, and an assessment of heat wave adaptation potential in selected cities. The Prairies, Southern Ontario, and areas in the St. Lawrence River Valley of both Ontario and Quebec demonstrate the highest temperatures and most frequent occurrences of heat waves, with minimal effects in the North, Pacific Coast, and Maritimes. Montreal frequently experiences extreme heat, and based on its low air conditioning rates and older, high-density housing, it demonstrates limited potential for adaptation to heat events. A scientific assessment was done to identify the effects of heat waves on various sectors of Canadian life including agriculture, livestock, fisheries, construction, transportation, utilities, the environment, and human health. Heat stress has been linked to excess human mortality and illness, violent behaviour, drought, forest fires, tornadoes, decreased agricultural and livestock productivity, construction and transportation difficulties, and reduced electrical power supply. Despite limited research on heat waves in Canada, this study demonstrates that the impacts of heat are profound and far-reaching.     

空间信息共享与服务的新趋势

网络技术的出现为跨区域、跨部门的空间信息共享与服务提供了可能,空间信息共享与服务呈现从单纯的数据共享向数据资源、硬件资源和软件资源     

SHEBA flux–profile relationships in the stable atmospheric boundary layer

Measurements of atmospheric turbulence made during the Surface Heat Budget of the Arctic Ocean Experiment (SHEBA) are used to examine the profile stability functions of momentum, φ _m , and sensible heat, φ _h , in the stably stratified boundary layer over the Arctic pack ice. Turbulent fluxes and mean meteorological data that cover different surface conditions and a wide range of stability conditions were continuously measured and reported hourly at five levels on a 20-m main tower for 11 months. The comprehensive dataset collected during SHEBA allows studying φ _m and φ _h in detail and includes ample data for the very stable case. New parameterizations for φ _m (ζ) and φ _h (ζ) in stable conditions are proposed to describe the SHEBA data; these cover the entire range of the stability parameter ζ = z/L from neutral to very stable conditions, where L is the Obukhov length and z is the measurement height. In the limit of very strong stability, φ _m follows a ζ ^1/3 dependence, whereas φ _h initially increases with increasing ζ, reaches a maximum at ζ ≈ 10, and then tends to level off with increasing ζ. The effects of self-correlation, which occur in plots of φ _m and φ _h versus ζ, are reduced by using an independent bin-averaging method instead of conventional averaging.     

Stratigraphy of the Caloris basin,Mercury

The 1300-km-diameter Caloris impact basin is surrounded by well-defined ejecta units that can be recognized from more than 1000 km, radially outward from the basin edge. A formal rock stratigraphic nomenclature is proposed for the Caloris ejecta units, which are collectively called the Caloris Group. Each of the individual formations within the Group are described and compared to similar rock units associated with the lunar Imbrium and Orientale basins. A crater degradation chronology, linked the the Caloris event, is also proposed to assist in stratigraphic correlation on a Mercury-wide basis.     

The Isocam Responsivity in Orbit. Standard star photometry

An overview is given of the absolute flux calibration of the ISOCAMdetectors. The flux calibration is based on observations of standard stars selected from the Ground Based Preparatory Programme, for which Kurucz stellar models are available. No dependencies of the responsivity on different configurations of thecamera were found. No trend of changing responsivity is found throughout the mission for the SW and LW detectors. There exists a decreasing responsivity of about 5% for LW during the orbit.     

Organic and inorganic matter in Louisiana coastal waters: Vermilion, Atchafalaya, Terrebonne, Barataria, and Mississippi regions

Chromophoric dissolved organic matter (CDOM) spectral absorption, dissolved organic carbon (DOC) concentration, and the particulate fraction of inorganic (PIM) and organic matter (POM) were measured in Louisiana coastal waters at Vermilion, Atchafalaya, Terrebonne, Barataria, and Mississippi River locations, in 2007-2008. The range of CDOM was 0.092 m⁻¹ at Barataria in June 2008 to 11.225 m⁻¹ at Mississippi in February 2008. An indicator of organic matter quality was predicted by the spectral slope of absorption coefficients from 350 to 412 nm which was between 0.0087 m⁻¹ at Mississippi in May 2008 and 0.0261 m⁻¹ at Barataria in June 2008. CDOM was the dominant component of light attenuation at Terrebonne and Barataria. Detritus and CDOM were the primary components of light attenuation at Vermilion, Atchafalaya, and Mississippi. DOC ranged between 65 and 1235 μM. PIM ranged between 1.1 and 426.3 mg L⁻¹ and POM was between 0.3 and 49.6 mg L⁻¹.