Impact of Satellite Altimetry on Simulations of Sea Level Variability by an Indian Ocean Model

This article describes the impact of satellite altimeter data on the simulations of sea level variability (SLV) by a nonlinear reduced gravity model of the entire Indian Ocean. The model has been forced by 6-hourly analyzed wind stress data containing SSM/I observations and has been able to produce realistic circulation features. However, SLV values observed by Topex/Poseidon altimeter do not fit these simulations because of imperfect initial data. Hence an attempt has been made to initialize the model using altimeter data. The initialized model-generated SLVvalues have been compared with SLV derived by altimeter for monsoon as well as nonmonsoon months of 1996. Experimental runs have been performed for 10 days, 20 days, and one month. It has been found that the initialized model results on the final day of these experiments are in very good agreement with altimeter data of the same day. It is thus possible, in principle, to hindcast and forecast sea level variations in the time scale of 10 days to one month with the availability of good quality wind data for forcing the model and altimeter observations of sea level for initializing it.     

Experimental study on loss factor for corrugated plates by bandwidth method

The material loss factor for technically orthotropic plates was measured by half-power bandwidth method. Rectangular and trapezoidal corrugated plates of steel were considered. A simple isotropic steel plate was also considered for comparison of the results. The concept of single degree of freedom system was adopted. The tests were undertaken at very low frequency range (0–100) Hz. The plate models were suspended freely with two wires to minimize or prevent excessive extraneous energy dissipation. Out of plane point force, random in nature was applied to the top middle of the plates and the responses were measured from the middle point of the plates by FFT analyzer using miniature small mass accelerometer as sensor. The aim of these tests is to investigate the effects of bending rigidity and mode orders over material loss factor. The values of estimated modal damping loss factors are compared and tabulated for the plates models considered. Natural frequencies of some of the initial modes of the plates are also presented.It is observed that the higher the value of bending rigidity of the plates, the larger the values of loss factor of it. There was a significant increase in value of loss factor in corrugated plates to that of the isotropic plate.     

Impact of horizontal resolution on prediction of tropical cyclones over Bay of Bengal using a regional weather prediction model

The present study is carried out to examine the performance of a regional atmospheric model in forecasting tropical cyclones over the Bay of Bengal and its sensitivity to horizontal resolution. Two cyclones, which formed over the Bay of Bengal during the years 1995 and 1997, are simulated using a regional weather prediction model with two horizontal resolutions of 165 km and 55 km. The model is found to perform reasonably well towards simulation of the storms. The structure, intensity and track of the cyclones are found to be better simulated by finer resolution of the model as compared to the coarse resolution. Rainfall amount and its distribution are also found to be sensitive to the model horizontal resolution. Other important fields, viz., vertical velocity, horizontal divergence and horizontal moisture flux are also found to be sensitive to model horizontal resolution and are better simulated by the model with finer horizontal grids.     

Kinematics of the Gondwana basins of peninsular India

The Gondwana successions (1–4 km thick) of peninsular India accumulated in a number of discrete basins during Permo-Triassic period. The basins are typically bounded by faults that developed along Precambrian lineaments during deposition, as well as affected by intrabasinal faults indicating fault-controlled synsedimentary subsidence. The patterns of the intrabasinal faults and their relationships with the respective basin-bounding faults represent both extensional and strike-slip regimes. Field evidence suggests that preferential subsidence in locales of differently oriented discontinuities in the Precambrian basement led to development of Gondwana basins with varying, but mutually compatible, kinematics during a bulk motion, grossly along the present-day E–W direction. The kinematic disparity of the individual basins resulted due to different relative orientations of the basement discontinuities and is illustrated with the help of a simple sandbox model. The regional E–W motion was accommodated by strike-slip motion on the transcontinental fault in the north.     

Simulation of Orissa Super Cyclone (1999) using PSU/NCAR Mesoscale Model

In this study a non-hydrostatic version of Penn State University (PSU) -- NationalCenter for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) mesoscale model is used to simulate thesuper cyclonic storm that crossed Orissa coast on 29 October 1999. The model isintegrated up to 123 h for producing 5-day forecast of the storm. Several importantfields including sea level pressure, horizontal wind and rainfall are compared with theverification analysis/observation to examine the performance of the model. The modelsimulated track of the cyclone is compared with the best-fit track obtained from IndiaMeteorological Department (IMD) and the track obtained from NCEP/NCAR reanalysis. The model is found to perform reasonably well in simulating the track and in particular, the intensity of the storm.     

Shallow lithosphere-asthenosphere boundary beneath Cambay Rift Zone of India: Inferred presence of carbonated partial melt

A vast area between Phalodi in Jodhpur and Pokaran in Jaisalmer district of western Rajasthan, is occupied distinctly by rocky, shallow gravelly surfaces and occasional hills. These surfaces exhibit quartz and quartzite pebbles, angular, sub-angular and few rounded sandstone gravels, have slightly convex outline and can be best described as desert pavements. Such land features assume significance because of their extent and variability under a dominantly dry aeolian environment. Morphology and distributional pattern of such formations indicate that sediments are either of in situ origin or may have been transported to a short distance. The present study is based on field level assessment of such surfaces in the above two desert districts. Over much of the area, the profile shows a surficial concentration of gravels followed by thick sand and silt mixed with gravels and then the parent material. There are also occasional rock outcrops of very low relief exhibiting vertical, horizontal and conchoidal pattern of fractures over these surfaces near Pokaran and north of Jaisalmer which indicate disintegration of rocks under extreme diurnal fluctuation of temperature. Such manifestations in the morphology indicate impact of both thermal as well as aeolian processes. In the east of Jaisalmer town near Basanpir and Bhojka, the pavement surfaces are found covered with abundant sub-rounded to rounded pebbles and cobbles. This type of condition would indicate a profound action by fluvial activities followed by wind sorting. Our study found significant spatial variability in the distribution of pavement surfaces, which carried imprints of climatic fluctuations and environment of deposition during Holocene.     

A numerical method for the solution of the nonlinear turbulent one-dimensional free surface flow equations

Free surface flow of an incompressible fluid over a shallow plane/undulating horizontal bed is characteristically turbulent due to disturbances generated by the bed resistance and other causes. The governing equations of such flows in one dimension, for finite amplitude of surface elevation over the bed, are the Continuity Equation and a highly nonlinear Momentum Equation of order three. The method developed in this paper introduces the “discharge” variable q = η U, where η = elevation of the free surface above the bed level, and U = average stream-wise forward velocity. By this substitution, the continuity equation becomes a linear first-order PDE and the momentum equation is transformed after introduction of a small approximation in the fifth term. Next, it is shown by an invertibility argument that q can be a function of η: q = F(η), rendering the momentum equation as a first order, second degree ODE for F(η), that can be be integrated by the Runge-Kutta method. The continuity equation then takes the form of a first order evolutionary PDE that can be integrated by a Lax-Wendroff type of scheme for the temporal evolution of the surface elevation η. The method is implemented for two particular cases: when the initial elevation is triangular with vertical angle of 120 ^° and when it has a sinusoidal form. The computations exhibit the physically interesting feature that the frontal portion of the propagating wave undergoes a sharp jump followed by tumbling over as a breaker. Compared to other discretization methods, the application of the Runge-Kutta and an extended version of the Lax-Wendroff scheme is much easier.     

RS & GIS-based landslide susceptibility mapping of the Balason River basin,Darjeeling Himalaya,using logistic regression (LR) model

The present study deals with the preparation of a landslide susceptibility map of the Balason River basin, Darjeeling Himalaya, using a logistic regression model based on Geographic Information System and Remote Sensing. The landslide inventory map was prepared with a total of 295 landslide locations extracted from various satellite images and intensive field survey. Topographical maps, satellite images, geological, geomorphological, soil, rainfall and seismic data were collected, processed and constructed into a spatial database in a GIS environment. The chosen landslide-conditioning factors were altitude, slope aspect, slope angle, slope curvature, geology, geomorphology, soil, land use/land cover, normalised differential vegetation index, drainage density, lineament number density, distance from lineament, distance to drainage, stream power index, topographic wetted index, rainfall and peak ground acceleration. The produced landslide susceptibility map satisfied the decision rules and ?2 Log likelihood, Cox &; Snell R-Square and Nagelkerke R-Square values proved that all the independent variables were statistically significant. The receiver operating characteristic curve showed that the prediction accuracy of the landslide probability map was 96.10%. The proposed LR method can be used in other hazard/disaster studies and decision-making.     

Anisotropic Continuous-in-Scale Universal Multifractal Cascades: Simulation,Analysis and Correction Methods

Continuous-in-scale multifractal cascades has long been an attractive choice for mathematically modeling turbulent and turbulent-like geophysical fields. These fields are usually anisotropic as they are subject to both stratification and rotation, thereby questioning the isotropy assumption often made to model them. The self-affine and generalized scale invariance approaches to scaling are used here to introduce anisotropy in such models. These anisotropic simulations have (1) unresolved large-scale features and (2) statistics that deviate from the desired power-law scaling mainly in the small scales. The former issue is solved via nesting, whereas the latter is attempted to be overcome using singularity correction methods. While earlier studies have proposed isotropic correction methods, here they have been generalized to correct anisotropic simulations. These singularity corrections seem to improve the small-scale statistical properties of mildly anisotropic simulations; nesting, on the other hand, appears to enhance statistics over almost all scales even for strongly anisotropic simulations. Both the correction and nesting techniques lead to a reduction in computational time and memory usage suggesting that nested singularity-corrected cascades offer a better framework for quantitatively modeling the atmosphere, ocean, solid earth, and associated fields.