CO interferometric observations of M1-92 (the minkowski's footprint)

We present high spatial resolution observations of the CO emission at 2.6mm in the protoplanetary nebula M1-92 (Minkowski's Footprint), obtained with the Plateau de Bure interferometer. The total mass corresponding to the CO measured intensity is estimated to be large, of about 0.1–0.2 solar masses. The cartography is particularly rich and revealing. From the measured position-velocity distribution of brightness, we conclude that a strong dynamical interaction between the AGB and post-AGB winds is present.     

Numerical modelling of the turbulent flow developing within and over a 3-d building array,part ii: a mathematical foundation for a distributed drag force approach

In this paper, we lay the foundations of a systematic mathematical formulation for the governing equations for flow through an urban canopy (e.g., coarse-scaled building array) where the effects of the unresolved obstacles on the flow are represented through a distributed mean-momentum sink. This, in turn, implies additional corresponding terms in the transport equations for the turbulence quantities. More specifically, a modified k-- model is derived for the simulation of the mean wind speed and turbulence for a neutrally stratified flow through and over a building array, where groups of buildings in the array are aggregated and treated as a porous medium. This model is based on time averaging the spatially averaged Navier--Stokes equations, in which the effects of the obstacle--atmosphere interaction are included through the introduction of a volumetric momentum sink (representing drag on the unresolved buildings in the array).The k-- turbulence closure model requires two additional prognostic equations, namely one for the time-averaged resolved-scale kinetic energy of turbulence,, and another for the dissipation rate, , of . The transport equation for is derived directly from the transport equation for the spatially averaged velocity, and explicitly includes additional sources and sinks that arise from time averaging the product of the spatially averaged velocity fluctuations and the distributed drag force fluctuations. We show how these additional source/sink terms in the transport equation for can be obtained in a self-consistent manner from a parameterization of the sink term in the spatially averaged momentum equation. Towards this objective, the time-averaged product of the spatially averaged velocity fluctuations and the distributed drag force fluctuations can be approximated systematically using a Taylor series expansion. A high-order approximation is derived to represent this source/sink term in the transport equation for . The dissipation rate () equation is simply obtained as a dimensionally consistent analogue of the equation. The relationship between the proposed mathematical formulation of the equations for turbulent flow within an urban canopy (where the latter is treated as a porous medium) and an earlier heuristic two-band spectral decomposition for parameterizing turbulence in a plant canopy is explored in detail.     

SUMER - Solar Ultraviolet Measurements of Emitted Radiation

The instrument SUMER - Solar Ultraviolet Measurements of Emitted Radiation is designed to investigate structures and associated dynamical processes occurring in the solar atmosphere, from the chromosphere through the transition region to the inner corona, over a temperature range from 10⁴ to 2 × 10⁶ K and above. These observations will permit detailed spectroscopic diagnostics of plasma densities and temperatures in many solar features, and will support penetrating studies of underlying physical processes, including plasma flows, turbulence and wave motions, diffusion transport processes, events associated with solar magnetic activity, atmospheric heating, and solar wind acceleration in the inner corona. Specifically, SUMER will measure profiles and intensities of EUV lines; determine Doppler shifts and line broadenings with high accuracy; provide stigmatic images of the Sun in the EUV with high spatial, spectral, and temporal resolution; and obtain monochromatic maps of the full Sun and the inner corona or selected areas thereof. SUMER will be flown on the Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO), scheduled for launch in November, 1995. This paper has been written to familiarize solar physicists with SUMER and to demonstrate some command procedures for achieving certain scientific observations.     

新一代天气雷达产品在阿克苏大降水预报中的应用

利用新疆阿克苏CINRAD／CC多普勒天气雷达的探测资料，在新疆气象局新一代天气雷达网络应用软件和CINRAD PUP软件产品的基础上，分析研究了2003年11月5～7日发生在阿克苏地区的大降水天气，得出：此次天气的强度场、速度场、垂直剖面结构具有积层混合性降水回波与层状云降水回波的特征，低空偏东急流、暖平流中尺度系统和速度场分布对强降水的定时、定量、定点预报具有明确的指示意义。     

散射计资料的风场神经网络反演算法研究

建立一种神经网络反演海面风场的算法。该算法以ERS_1/2散射计数据和欧洲中期预报分析风场(ECM-WF)的配准点数据作为神经网络训练和检验数据集。研究表明,该算法具有运行速度快和精度高等特点,反演的风速和风向与C波段第4模型(COMD 4)和ECMWF吻合较好。     

The influence of context on lifeline behavior: Local policies under wind storm and earthquake scenarios

Local policies can play an important role in establishing a context that shapes vulnerability and influences subsequent recovery of lifelines under the natural hazards of extreme wind and seismic events. External factors, such as access availability, have long been known to influence the rate of restoration of utility systems following blackouts. Thus, since system performance takes place within a socio-technical-political context, it can be anticipated that selected local policies may also influence either the geographic extent of damage or the rate of restoration or both. This project empirically validates the assumption that selected local non-design policies establish a context that significantly (measurably) influences system functionality in terms of spatial extent and duration of outage.     

Sea surges in Camargue: Trends over the 20th century

The vulnerability to short-term and long-term sea-level rises is particularly high in subsiding deltaic areas, especially in microtidal seas, when surges (the differences between the observed sea heights and the simultaneous astronomical tide) are frequent. At the Grau-de-la-Dent tide-gauge in the Camargue (Rhone delta, France), daily sea-level records are available since 1905. Hourly tide data spanning the period 1979–1995 were obtained through the digitisation of the original paper records: the local harmonic constants and the surges for the whole 20th century have been computed from these hourly observations. It appears that the annual maximum observed sea-level height increases by 4 mm/yr at a rate that is two times faster than the average observed relative sea level. The increasing trend of the annual maximum positive sea surges (+1.9 mm/yr), which is equal to the average relative sea-level rise, is thus responsible for this difference. The most important meteorological factor associated with local sea-surge occurrences is wind blowing from 100° to 120° sectors, which tends to push the water toward the coasts. Since 1961, the frequency and the speed of wind from this sector increased, although with some variability, thus contributing in part to the increase in the frequency and intensity of the surges. Due to the changing hydrodynamics phenomenon in the Camargue, a positive feedback mechanism between extreme marine events and shoreline regression is another factor to explain the sea-surge rise over the long term. The increase in sea-surge frequency and height during the last century is especially of concern in the deltaic area if the near-future global sea-level rise predicted by climate models is also taken into account.     

The effect of wave-induced turbulence on intertidal mudflats: Impact of boat traffic and wind

Semi-diurnal and fortnightly surveys were carried out to quantify the effects of wind- and navigation-induced high-energy events on bed sediments above intertidal mudflats. The mudflats are located in the upper fluvial part (Oissel mudflat) and at the mouth (Vasière Nord mudflat) of the macrotidal Seine estuary. Instantaneous flow velocities and mudflat bed elevation were measured at a high frequency and high resolution with an acoustic doppler velocimeter (ADV) and an ALTUS altimeter, respectively. Suspended particulate matter concentrations were estimated by calibrating the ADV acoustic backscattered intensity with bed sediments collected at the study sites. Turbulent bed shear stress values were estimated by the turbulent kinetic energy method, using velocity variances filtered from the wave contribution. Wave shear stress and maximum wave–current shear stress values were calculated with the wave–current interaction (WCI) model, which is based on the bed roughness length, wave orbital velocities and the wave period (T_S). In the fluvial part of the estuary, boat passages occurred unevenly during the surveys and were characterized by long waves (T_S>50 s) induced by the drawdown effect and by short boat-waves (T_S<10 s). Boat waves generated large bottom shear stress values of 0.5 N m⁻² for 2–5 min periods and, in burst of several seconds, larger bottom shear stress values up to 1 N m⁻². At the mouth of the estuary, west south-west wind events generated short waves (T_S<10 s) of H_S values ranging from 0.1 to 0.3 m. In shallow-water environment (water depth <1.5 m), these waves produced bottom shear stress values between 1 and 2 N m⁻². Wave–current shear stress values are one order of magnitude larger than the current-induced shear stress and indicate that navigation and wind are the dominant hydrodynamic forcing parameters above the two mudflats. Bed elevation and SPM concentration time series showed that these high energy events induced erosion processes of up to several centimetres. Critical erosion shear stress (τ_ce) values were determined from the SPM concentration and bed elevation measurements. Rough τ_ce values were found above 0.2 N m⁻² for the Oissel mudflat and about 1 N m⁻² for the Vasière Nord mudflat.     

An Alternative Function For The Wind And Temperature Gradients In Unstable Surface Layers

The function ()=(1+|z/L|^2/3)^1/2,where z is the height, L the Obukhov length, and a constant,is proposed for the nondimensional wind speed and temperaturegradients (flux-profile relationships) in anunstable surface layer. This function agrees quite well withboth wind speed and temperature data,has the theoretically correct behaviour in convective conditions,and leads to simple results when integrated to produce the mean profiles.     

Modelling and in-situ measurements of intense currents during a winter storm in the Gulf of Aigues-Mortes (NW Mediterranean Sea)

While oceanic circulation in the Gulf of Lion (GoL) has often been studied in calm weather or with northerly winds (Tramontane or Mistral) through observations and numerical circulation models, few studies have focused on southeasterly storm events. Yet, correct representation of the circulation during storms is crucial if the suspension of sediments is to be correctly modelled throughout the Gulf. The purpose of this paper is to describe the hydrodynamics in the Gulf of Aigues-Mortes (NW of the GoL) during the storm of 18 February 2007 by using a set of data from an ADCP station placed at a depth of 65 m on the sea bed off the coast at Sète, supplemented by the ocean circulation model SYMPHONIE. This storm was characterized by a moderate south-easterly wind (15 m . s^?1) and waves of up to 5 m of significant height at its apex. At the ADCP, strong currents of up to 0.8 m . s^?1 near the surface and 0.5 m . s^?1 near the bottom were recorded, parallel to the coast, flowing towards the south-west. The simulated currents were widely underestimated, even taking the effect of waves into account in the model. It was suspected that the representation of the wind in the atmospheric model was an underestimation. A new simulation was therefore run with an arbitrarily chosen stronger wind and its results were in much better agreement with the measurements. A simplified theoretical analysis successfully isolated the wind-induced processes, responsible for the strong currents measured during the apex and the strong vertical shear that occurred at the beginning of the storm. These processes were: 1/ the barotropic geostrophic current induced by a wind parallel to the coast and 2/ the Ekman spiral. The duration of the storm (about 36 h at the apex) explains the continuous increase of the current as predicted by the theory. The frictionally induced Ekman transport explains the current shear in the surface layer in the rising stage of the storm, and the addition of high waves and strong wind at the apex is more in favour of strong vertical mixing in the surface layer.