Estimation of non-CO2 GHGs emissions by analyzing burn severity in the Samcheok fire, South Korea

This study was performed to estimate the emission of non-CO 2 greenhouse gases(GHGs) from biomass burning at a large fire area.The extended methodology adopted the IPCC Guidelines(2003) equation for use on data from the Samcheok forest fire gathered using 30 m resolution Landsat TM satellite imagery,digital forest type maps,and growing stock information per hectare by forest type in 1999.Normalized burn ratio(NBR) technique was employed to analyze the area and severity of the Samcheok forest fire that occurred in 2000.The differences between NBR from pre-and post-fire datasets are examined to determine the extent and degree of change detected from burning.The results of burn severity analysis by dNBR of the Samcheok forest fire area revealed that a total of 16,200 ha of forest were burned.The proportion of the area characterized by a ’Low’ burn severity(dNBR below 152) was 35%,with ’Moderate’(dNBR 153-190) and ’High’(dNBR 191-255) areas were at 33% and 32%,respectively.The combustion efficiency for burn severity was calculated as 0.43 for crown fire where burn severity was ’High’,as 0.40 for ’Moderate’ severity,and 0.15 for ’Low’ severity surface fire.The emission factors for estimating non-CO 2 GHGs were separately applied to CO 130,CH 4 9,NO x 0.7 and N 2 O 0.11.Non-CO 2 GHGs emissions from biomass burning in the Samcheok forest fire area were estimated to be CO 44.100,CH 4 3.053,NO x 0.238 and N 2 O 0.038 Gg.     

A new, automatic hydrothermal fluid sampler using a shape-memory alloy

A new hydrothermal fluid sampler has been developed to provide more maneuverability in underwater operation. The sampler characteristically employs a shape-memory alloy, which senses high temperature and actuates the suction mechanism. A shape-memory alloy is also used to switch the intake valve of the sampler, the intention being to avoid missampling when the inlet is in low temperature water. Prototype samplers were designed to collect the fluids hotter than 80°C. Test sampling was performed at hydrothermal vents (1372–1374 m deep) in the submarine volcano, Suiyo Seamount, Izu-Bonin Arc, northwestern Pacific. Observed fluid temperature was between 138 and 298°C, while the ambient seawater temperature was 3.1°C. Each prototype collected about 100 ml fluid as designed. The magnesium concentration in the samples indicated a seawater content of 47.5–90.8%, which indicates the entrainment of ambient seawater. Microscopic observatinn revealed the occurrence of microorganisms in the sample fluids at a population density of 10⁵ to 10⁶ cells ml⁻¹, which is 2–3 orders of magnitude higher than those in seawater at that depth. The use of the newly developed fluid sampler will greatly facilitate the collection of vent-associated microorganisms, which are of potential biological and biotechnological interest.     

A New Specimen of Liaoceratops yanzigouensis (Dinosauria:Neoceratopsia) from the Early Cretaceous of Liaoning Province, China

A new specimen of basal neoceratopsian dinosaur Liaoceratops yanzigouensis is described. The specimen comes from the Lujiatun Bed of the Lower Cretaceous Yixian Formation in Beipiao City of western Liaoning Province, and is represented by a very well preserved three-dimensional partial skull and mandible. It is also the smallest among the three specimens of L. yanzigouensis, and several features in the new specimen, such as the short preorbital length and the round rostroventral orbital rim, can be ontogenetically-related. The superb exposure of the palatal complex may be caused by the removing of its brain by a small predator in the contemporary Jehol Biota.     

Estimating areal production of intertidal microphytobenthos based on spatio-temporal community dynamics and laboratory measurements

In situ Microphytobenthic community dynamics were combined with laboratory measurement of predominant species by fluorescence methods to estimate the areal primary production. Field investigation of community dynamics of microphytobenthos (MPB) was conducted from August 2006 to August 2007 in intertidal flats of the Nakdong River estuary, Korea. MPB Biomass varied between 0.47 and 16.58 μg cm^?3 in the surface 1 cm sediment, with two dominant diatom species, Amphora coffeaeformis and Navicula sp., occupying average 77.2 ± 14.9% of total number of MPB cells. The biomass was higher in the slightly muddy sand sites than that in the sand site, and showed different pattern of seasonal variation. The profile of vertical distribution of biomass was an exponential decrease trend with depth in sediments. The biomass proportions in the uppermost 3 mm were 57.6% and 37.8% with and without the presence of biofilm, respectively. The two dominant species were cultured in laboratory, and their photosynthetic parameters, rETR_max (relative maximum electron transport rate), α (light utilization coefficient) and E _k (light saturation parameter) were derived from rETR (relative ETR)-irradiance curves by Imaging- PAM (pulse amplitude modulated) fluorometry. The rETR-irradiance curves showed no significant difference of photosynthetic activities between the two species. The areal potential production ranged from 0.74 to 2.22 g C m^?2 d^?1.     

Cloud computing and virtualization within the regional climate model and evaluation system

The Regional Climate Model Evaluation System (RCMES) facilitates the rapid, flexible inclusion of NASA observations into climate model evaluations. RCMES provides two fundamental components. A database (RCMED) is a scalable point-oriented cloud database used to elastically store remote sensing observations and to make them available using a space time query interface. The analysis toolkit (RCMET) is a Python-based toolkit that can be delivered as a cloud virtual machine, or as an installer package deployed using Python Buildout to users in order to allow for temporal and spatial regridding, metrics calculation (RMSE, bias, PDFs, etc.) and end-user visualization. RCMET is available to users in an “offline”, lone scientist mode based on a virtual machine dynamically constructed with model outputs and observations to evaluate; or on an institution’s computational cluster seated close to the observations and model outputs. We have leveraged RCMES within the content of the Coordinated Regional Downscaling Experiment (CORDEX) project, working with the University of Cape Town and other institutions to compare the model output to NASA remote sensing data; in addition we are also working with the North American Regional Climate Change Assessment Program (NARCCAP). In this paper we explain the contribution of cloud computing to RCMES’s specifically describing studies of various cloud databases we evaluated for RCMED, and virtualization toolkits for RCMET, and their potential strengths in delivering user-created dynamic regional climate model evaluation virtual machines for our users.     

Radiation–hydrodynamical collapse of pre-galactic clouds in the ultraviolet background

To explain the effects of the ultraviolet (UV) background radiation on the collapse of pre-galactic clouds, we implement a radiation–hydrodynamical calculation, combining one-dimensional spherical hydrodynamics with an accurate treatment of the radiative transfer of ionizing photons. Both absorption and scattering of UV photons are explicitly taken into account. It turns out that a gas cloud contracting within the dark matter potential does not settle into hydrostatic equilibrium, but undergoes run-away collapse even under the presence of the external UV field. The cloud centre is shown to become self-shielded against ionizing photons by radiative transfer effects before shrinking to the rotation barrier. Based on our simulation results, we further discuss the possibility of H₂ cooling and subsequent star formation in a run-away collapsing core. The present results are closely relevant to the survival of subgalactic Population III objects as well as to metal injection into intergalactic space.     

Seepage and consolidation of bentonite saturated with pure- or salt-water by the method of unified molecular dynamics and homogenization analysis

Bentonite clay is a micro-inhomogeneous material, which consists of clay minerals (mainly montmorillonite), macro-grains (mainly quartz), water, air and others. Properties of the saturated bentonite clay are essentially characterized by the montmorillonite and water (i.e. montmorillonite hydrate). We analyze the molecular behavior of sodium montmorillonite hydrate Na_1/3Al₂[Si_11/3Al_1/3]O₁₀(OH)₂·nH₂O by applying a molecular dynamics (MD) simulation method. And by using the MD results we calculate the swelling property of the montmorillonite hydrate, and compare with an experimental result. Next, by using the same MD procedure we treat a montmorillonite mineral with a large number of external water molecules to check the properties of the water. Here we treat pure- and salt-water. Then we calculate the diffusivity and viscosity of water molecules and Na⁺ and Cl⁻ ions.

For extending the microscopic characteristics of constituent materials to a macroscopic seepage behavior of the micro-inhomogeneous material we apply a homogenization analysis (HA). That is, starting with the Navier–Stokes equation with distributed viscosity that is calculated by the former MD procedure we determine macroscopic permeability characteristics of bentonite for both cases of pure- and salt-water. Then, by using the permeability property we calculate long-term consolidation behavior of buffering clay, which is planed to be used for high-level radioactive waste (HLRW) management. Here the deformation is treated under the well-defined Cam clay model.     

Thermal evolution of flare plasma

The evolution of hot thermal plasma in solar flares is analyzed by a single-temperature model applied to continuum emission in the 5 keV < E ? 13 keV spectral range. The general trend that the thermal plasma observed in soft X-rays is heated by the non-thermal electrons that emit as the hard X-ray bursts is confirmed by the observation of an electron temperature increase at the time interval of hard X-ray spikes and a quantitative comparison between thermal energy content and hard X-ray energy input. Non-thermal electrons of 10 keV < E < 30 keV energy may play an important role in pre- and post-burst phases.     

Seismic loss assessment of seismically isolated buildings designed by the procedures of ASCE/SEI 7-16

Bulletin of Earthquake Engineering - This paper investigates the seismic loss assessment of seismically isolated and non-isolated buildings with steel moment or braced frames, designed by the...     

Increases of wet deposition at remote sites in Japan from 1991 to 2009

Temporal trends in wet deposition of major ions were explored at nationwide remote sites in Japan from April 1991 to March 2009 by using the seasonal Kendall slope estimator and the nonparametric seasonal Kendall test. For the trend analysis, datasets from eight remote sites (Rishiri, Echizenmisaki, Oki, Ogasawara, Shionomisaki, Goto, Yakushima, and Amami) were selected from the Japanese Acid Deposition Survey (JADS) conducted by the Ministry of the Environment. Deposition of H⁺ has been increasing at remote sites in Japan on a national scale. Significant (p????0.05) increases in H⁺ deposition were detected with changes of +3?C+9?%?year^?1 at seven sites, while insignificant increases were observed at one site. Depositions of non-sea salt (nss)-SO ₄ ^2? and NO ₃ ^? significantly increased at four and six sites, respectively, with changes of +1?C+3?%?year^?1. Significant increases in precipitation at four sites would have contributed to the increase in depositions of H⁺, nss-SO ₄ ^2? , and NO ₃ ^? . The emission trends of SO₂ and NO_x did not corresponded to the deposition trends of nss-SO ₄ ^2? and NO ₃ ^? . The different trends indicated that temporal variation of precipitation amount trend dominated the deposition trends.