ALBERT

Description: Denton and Hughes (1983, Quaternary Research 20, 125–144) postulated that sea level linked a global ice-sheet system with both terrestrial and grounded marine components during late Quaternary ice ages. Summer temperature changes near Northern Hemisphere melting margins initiated sea-level fluctuations that controlled marine components in both polar hemispheres. It was further proposed that variations of this ice-sheet system amplified and transmitted Milankovitch summer half-year insolation changes between 45 and 75°N into global climatic changes. New tests of this hypothesis implicate sea level as a major control of the areal extent of grounded portions of the Antarctic Ice Sheet, thus fitting the concept of a globally interlocked ice-sheet system. But recent atmospheric modeling results (Manabe and Broccoli, 1985, Journal of Geophysical Research 90, 2167–2190) suggest that factors other than areal changes of the grounded Antarctic Ice Sheet strongly influenced Southern Hemisphere climate and terminated the last ice age simultaneously in both polar hemispheres. Atmospheric carbon dioxide linked to high-latitude oceans is the most likely candidate (Shackleton and Pisias, 1985, Atmospheric carbon dioxide, orbital forcing, and climate. In “The Carbon Cycle and Atmospheric CO2: Natural Variations Archean to Present” (E. T. Sundquest and W. S. Broecker, Eds.), pp. 303–318. Geophysical Monograph 32, American Geophysical Union, Washington, D.C.), but another potential influence was high-frequency climatic oscillations (2500 yr). It is postulated that variations in atmospheric carbon dioxide acted through an Antarctic ice shelf linked to the grounded ice sheet to produce and terminate Southern Hemisphere ice-age climate. It is further postulated that Milankovitch summer insolation combined with a warm high-frequency oscillation caused marked recession of Northern Hemisphere ice-sheet melting margins and the North Atlantic polar front about 14,000 14C yr B.P. This permitted renewed formation of North Atlantic Deep Water, which could well have controlled atmospheric carbon dioxide (W. S. Broecker, D. M. Peteet, and D. Rind, 1985, Nature (London) 315, 21–26). Combined melting and consequent sea-level rise from the three warming factors initiated irreversible collapse of the interlocked global ice-sheet system, which was at its largest but most vulnerable configuration.

Description: Thermal convection in the Antarctic and Greenland ice sheets has been dismissed on the grounds that radio-echo stratigraphy is undisturbed for long distances. However, the undisturbed stratigraphy lies, for the most part, above the density inversion in polar ice sheets and therefore does not disprove convection. An echo-free zone is widespread below the density inversion, yet nobody has cited this as a strong indication that convection is indeed present at depth. A generalized Rayleigh criterion for thermal convection in elastic-viscoplastic polycrystalline solids heated from below is developed and applied to ice-sheet convection. An infinite Rayleigh number at the onset of primary creep decreases with time and becomes constant when secondary creep dominates, suggesting that any thermal buoyancy stress can initiate convection but convection cannot be sustained below a buoyancy stress of about 3 kPa. An analysis of the temperature profile down the Byrd Station core hole suggests that about 1000 m of ice below the density inversion will sustain convection. Creep along the Byrd Station strain network, radar sounding in East Antarctica, and seismic sounding in West Antarctica are examined for evidence of convective creep superimposed on advective creep. It is concluded that the evidence for convection is there, if we look for it with the intention of finding it.

Description: The effect of an adverse pressure gradient on the stability of a laminar boundary layer is considered in the limiting case when the skin friction at the wall vanishes, i.e. when U′(0) = 0. Such flows are not absolutely unstable as might have been expected but have a minimum critical Reynolds number of the order of 25. General results are given for the asymptotic behaviour of both the upper and lower branches of the neutral curve and a complete neutral curve is obtained for Pohlhausen's simple fourth-degree polynomial profile at separation. © 1965, Cambridge University Press. All rights reserved.

Description: This paper presents a discussion of some aspects of the linear stability problem for the asymptotic suction profile. An exact solution of the inviscid equation is first obtained in terms of the usual hypergeometric function and its analytical continuation. This exact solution provides both a corrected version of an earlier treatment by Freeman and an independent check on the more general method suggested for solving the inviscid equation numerically. Various approximations to the characteristic equation, and hence to the curve of neutral stability, are then considered. In particular, it is found that, in a consistent asymptotic treatment of the related adjoint problem, at least one viscous correction to the singular inviscid solution must be considered. Based on the present results for the adjoint problem, it is suggested that Tollmien's original treatment of the viscous corrections must be slightly modified. © 1965, Cambridge University Press. All rights reserved.

Description: Motivated by considerations of the solar toroidal magnetic field we have studied the behaviour of a layer of uniform magnetic field embedded in a convectively stable atmosphere. Since the field can support extra mass, such a configuration is top-heavy and thus instabilities of the Rayleigh-Taylor type can occur. For both static and rotating basic states we have followed the evolution of the interchange modes (no bending of the field lines) by integrating numerically the nonlinear compressible MHD equations. The initial Rayleigh-Taylor instability of the magnetic field gives rise to strong shearing motions, thereby exciting secondary Kelvin-Helmholtz instabilities which wrap the gas into regions of intense vorticity. The subsequent motions are determined primarily by the strong interactions between vortices which are responsible for the rapid disruption of the magnetic layer. © 1988, Cambridge University Press. All rights reserved.

Description: Temperature and velocity fluctuations have been recorded in the open sea and in a tidal channel, and power spectra have been determined from the records. The one-dimensional spectra of temperature fluctuations are found to have an inertial subrange. At larger wave-numbers the data can be fitted by Batchelor's spectrum function for the viscous-convective range. The spectra are inconsistent with the form proposed by Pao for the viscous-convective range.Estimates are given for the constants in Batchelor's spectrum function, but these depend upon knowledge of the rate of dissipation of kinetic energy, which is determined from the velocity spectra. There is doubt about the validity of some of the velocity spectra, and in other cases there is reason to suspect that the turbulence is not locally isotropic.