Sea-ice retreat in the Sea of Okhotsk and the ice–ocean albedo feedback effect on it

Sea-ice retreat processes are examined in the Sea of Okhotsk. A heat budget analysis in the sea-ice zone shows that net heat flux from the atmosphere at the water surface is about 77 W m⁻² on average in the active ice melt season (April) due to large solar heating, while that at the ice surface is about 12 W m⁻² because of the difference in surface albedo. The temporal variation of the heat input into the upper ocean through the open water fraction corresponds well to that of the latent heat required for ice retreat. These results suggest that heat input into the ice–upper ocean system from the atmosphere mainly occurs at the open water fraction, and this heat input into the upper ocean is an important heat source for ice melting. The decrease in ice area in the active melt season (April) and the geostrophic wind just before the melt season (March) show a correlation: the decrease is large when the offshoreward wind is strong. This relationship can be explained by the following process. Once ice concentration is decreased (increased) by the offshoreward (onshoreward) wind just before the melt season, solar heating of the upper ocean through the increased (decreased) open water fraction is enhanced (reduced), leading to (suppressing) a further decrease in ice concentration. This positive feedback is regarded as the ice–ocean albedo feedback, and explains in part the large interannual variability of the ice cover in the ice melt season.     

SOFIE project – 3D shaking table test on a seven‐storey full‐scale cross‐laminated timber building

Multi‐storey buildings made of cross‐laminated timber panels (X‐lam) are becoming a stronger and economically valid alternative in Europe compared with traditional masonry or concrete buildings. During the design process of these multi‐storey buildings, also their earthquake behaviour has to be addressed, especially in seismic‐prone areas such as Italy. However, limited knowledge on the seismic performance is available for this innovative massive timber product. On the basis of extensive testing series comprising monotonic and reversed cyclic tests on X‐lam panels, a pseudodynamic test on a one‐storey X‐lam specimen and 1D shaking table tests on a full‐scale three‐storey specimen, a full‐scale seven‐storey building was designed according to the European seismic standard Eurocode 8 and subjected to earthquake loading on a 3D shaking table. The building was designed with a preliminary action reduction factor of three that had been derived from the experimental results on the three‐storey building. The outcomes of this comprehensive research project called ‘SOFIE – Sistema Costruttivo Fiemme’ proved the suitability of multi‐storey X‐lam structures for earthquake‐prone regions. The buildings demonstrated self‐centring capabilities and high stiffness combined with sufficient ductility to avoid brittle failures. The tests provided useful information for the seismic design with force‐based methods as defined in Eurocode 8, that is, a preliminary experimentally based action reduction factor of three was confirmed. Valid, ductile joint assemblies were developed, and their importance for the energy dissipation in buildings with rigid X‐lam panels became evident. The seven‐storey building showed relatively high accelerations in the upper storeys, which could lead to secondary damage and which have to be addressed in future research. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Metal enrichment history of the proto-galactic interstellar medium

To investigate the metal enrichment history of the primordial interstellar medium (ISM), we have studied the long-term evolution of supernova remnants (SNRs) and how SNRs distribute the heavy metals into the ISM when they explode. With the assumed IMF for massive stars, we have computed the multiple supernova explosions and evolution in an inhomogeneous ISM. We compare the predicted metallicity distribution of metal deficient halo stars with the observed one. This revised version was published online in September 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

Numerical modeling of galaxy evolution

A very significant problem in the modeling of disk-galaxy formation in the cold dark matter (CDM) cosmology is the so-called `angular momentum problem'. This problem arises when we numerically model the collapse of baryons within a dark halo in the CDM model. The formed baryonic disk has much less angular momentum than observed disk galaxies due to the considerable loss of angular momentum during the progressive merger of small clumps. As a result of efficient radiative cooling, the gas component collapses too deeply within the dark halo. When two such systems are merging, the angular momentum of the material near the center is effectively transported outwards by the tidal force. This is a physical reason for this problem, however, there may be a numerical origin due to the nature of the Smoothed Particle Hydrodynamics (SPH) method widely used in galaxy formation models. To address the numerical origin of the `angular momentum problem' with a much higher-resolution SPH model, we are developing our Parallel Tree-SPH code. After evolving four initial models with different mass and force resolution, we compare the angular momentum content of SPH particles. We find that both mass and force resolutions clearly affect the evolution of radiative cosmological SPH models. In most previous radiative cosmological SPH models, a mass ratio between SPH and dark matter particles is .However, we find that this mass ratio is a crucial parameter when we consider the angular momentum content of SPH particles and it is better to make the mass ratio ∼ 1.0 in such models. This revised version was published online in August 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.