Meso-scale testing and development of test procedures to maintain mass balance

The Conrad Blucher Institute for Surveying and Science (Texas A&M University––Corpus Christi) has conducted numerous petroleum experiments at the Shoreline Environmental Research Facility (Corpus Christi, Texas, USA). The meso-scale facility has multiple wave tanks, permitting some control in experimental design of the investigations, but allowing for real-world conditions. This paper outlines the evolution of a materials balance approach in conducting petroleum experiments at the facility. The first attempt at a materials balance was during a 1998 study on the fate/effects of dispersant use on crude oil. Both water column and beach sediment samples were collected. For the materials balance, the defined environmental compartments for oil accumulation were sediments, water column, and the water surface, while the discharge from the tanks was presumed to be the primary sink. The “lessons learned” included a need to quantify oil adhesion to the tank surfaces. This was resolved by adhering strips of the polymer tank lining to the tank sides that could be later removed and extracted for oil. Also, a protocol was needed to quantify any floating oil on the water surface. A water surface (oil slick) quantification protocol was developed, involving the use of solid-phase extraction disks. This protocol was first tested during a shoreline cleaner experiment, and later refined in subsequent dispersant effectiveness studies. The effectiveness tests were designed to simulate shallow embayments which created the need for additional adjustments in the tanks. Since dispersant efficacy is largely affected by hydrodynamics, it was necessary to scale the hydrodynamic conditions of the tanks to those expected in our prototype system (Corpus Christi Bay, Texas). The use of a scaled model permits the experiment to be reproduced and/or evaluated under different conditions. To minimize wave reflection in the tank, a parabolic wave dissipater was built. In terms of materials balance, this design reduced available surface area as a sink for oil adsorption.     

Observational estimation of heat budgets on drifting ice and open water over the Arctic Ocean

It is of major scientific interests to determine the parameters of momentum, heat and vapor exchange in the planetary boundary layer in order to study the effects of ocean-ice-atmosphere interactions and their feedback mechanisms on global climate[1]. Lin…     

Development and sensitivity analysis of a model for assessing stratification and safety of Lake Nyos during artificial degassing

To prevent the recurrence of a disastrous eruption of carbon dioxide (CO₂) from Lake Nyos, a degassing plan has been set up for the lake. Since there are concerns that the degassing of the lake may reduce the stability of the density stratification, there is an urgent need for a simulation tool to predict the evolution of the lake stratification in different scenarios. This paper describes the development of a numerical model to predict the CO₂ and dissolved solids concentrations, and the temperature structure as well as the stability of the water column of Lake Nyos. The model is tested with profiles of CO₂ concentrations and temperature taken in the years 1986 to 1996. It reproduces well the general mixing patterns observed in the lake. However, the intensity of the mixing tends to be overestimated in the epilimnion and underestimated in the monimolimnion. The overestimation of the mixing depth in the epilimnion is caused either by the parameterization of the k-epsilon model, or by the uncertainty in the calculation of the surface heat fluxes. The simulated mixing depth is highly sensitive to the surface heat fluxes, and errors in the mixing depth propagate from one year to the following. A precise simulation of the mixolimnion deepening therefore requires high accuracy in the meteorological forcing and the parameterization of the heat fluxes. Neither the meteorological data nor the formulae for the calculation of the heat fluxes are available with the necessary precision. Consequently, it will be indispensable to consider different forcing scenarios in the safety analysis in order to obtain robust boundary conditions for safe degassing. The input of temperature and CO₂ to the lake bottom can be adequately simulated for the years 1986 to 1996 with a constant sublacustrine source of 18 l s^–1 with a CO₂ concentration of 0.395 mol l^–1 and a temperature of 26 °C. The results of this study indicate that the model needs to be calibrated with more detailed field data before using it for its final purpose: the prediction of the stability and the safety of Lake Nyos during the degassing process.Responsible Editor: Hans Burchard     

GIS-based determination of the mean long-term groundwater recharge in Lower Saxony

This paper presents the findings of a collaborative research project of the Geological Survey of Lower Saxony (NLfB) and the Programme Group Systems Analysis and Technology Evaluation (STE) of Research Centre Jülich on the GIS-based determination of the mean long-term groundwater recharge in Lower Saxony using high-resolution digital data (Dörhöfer and others 2001). The model calculations were performed on the basis of the water-balance model GROWA (Kunkel and Wendland 2002) with a spatial resolution of 100x100 m². The accuracy of the calculated groundwater recharge values for the period 1961–1990 was verified on the basis of data from gauging stations and displayed a good agreement between observed runoff values and model results.     

聊城市水资源可持续利用中存在的问题及对策浅析

聊城市属于资源性缺水地区,为实现以有限的水资源支持和保障经济社会的持续稳定发展,必须作好水资源可持续利用这篇大文章.本文分析了聊城市水资源特点及利用中存在的问题,并就实现水资源可持续利用应采取的工程与非工程措施进行了研究和探讨.     

青藏高原地区能量水分循环：地表能量平衡和湍流热通量

文章给出了青藏高原能量水分循环研究的概况和总结，着重估计了能量平衡各分项和湍流热通量等。在能量平衡的计算基础上，尽管能量不平衡的原因解释仍有争论并且没有解决，但我们揭示了GAME/Tibet试验观测资料中能量不平衡现象。我们发现估算的潜热通量比实际观测的要高许多。然而，根据能量平衡假设的计算结果和SEBS的估算一致性很好。在此基础上可以归纳出差异主要由GAME/Tibet试验观测资料中能量不平衡引起，潜热通量的实际观测可能偏小。     

Global force balance of region 1 current system

At times of strong solar wind forcing such as those that produce major magnetic storms, the region 1 current system dominates over the Chapman–Ferraro current system in mediating the transfer of force between the solar wind and the terrestrial system. The global force balance can be broken into two components, one involving the high-altitude part of the region 1 current system that is in contact with the solar wind (labeled here the HRS) and the other involving the low-altitude part of the region 1 current system that lies in the ionosphere (the LRS). Both communicate their J×B force to the geomagnetic dipole via a gradient in the magnetic field that they generate. In the HRS case the force acts to push the dipole away from the sun. This is the region 1 analog of the Chapman–Ferraro mechanism for transmitting the solar wind's force to the Earth. However, in the LRS case, the force (which is much stronger than in the HRS case) acts to push the dipole toward the sun, seemingly paradoxically. The LRS balances the ‘paradoxical’ sunward force on the dipole with an opposite force on the atmosphere. This paper uses MHD simulations to demonstrate the presence of both the normal force-transmitting gradient generated by the Chapman–Ferraro and the counter-Chapman–Ferraro gradient in the magnetic field generated by the region 1 current system.     

Study of a model for correcting the effects of horizontal advection on surface fluxes measurement based on remote sensing

As well known, the methods of remote sensing and Bowen Ratio for retrieving surface flux are based on energy balance closure; however, in most cases, surface energy observed in experiment is lack of closure. There are two main causes for this: one is from the errors of the observation devices and the differences of their observational scale; the other lies in the effect of horizontal advection on the surface flux measurement. Therefore, it is very important to estimate the effects of horizontal advection quantitatively. Based on the local advection theory and the surface experiment, a model has been proposed for correcting the effect of horizontal advection on surface flux measurement, in which the relationship between the fetch of the measurement and pixel size for remote sensed data was considered. By means of numerical simulations, the sensitivities of the main parameters in the model and the scaling problems of horizontal advection were analyzed. At last, by using the observational data acquired in agricultural field with relatively homogeneous surface, the model was validated.     

曙光4000A上三维叠前深度偏移并行计算的应用设计

波动方程叠前深度偏移在地震勘探成像处理方面起着不可替代的作用。随着高性能大规模并行计算机技术的发展,波动方程叠前深度偏移计算在地震勘探中的应用有了很大进步。在波动方程叠前深度偏移处理中,庞大的数据规模与海量计算对计算性能提出了很高的要求。曙光4000A超级计算机系统是我国目前峰值速度最快的商用超级计算机系统,无论是硬件平台建设还是应用软件的配置方面,都具有良好的应用性能。基于该系统设计的三维波动方程叠前深度偏移(炮域)PSDM软件,采用动态负载平衡并行计算模式,具有较高的计算效率,高度的可扩展性和可靠性。