ALBERT

Description: The role of aerial dispersal in shaping patterns of biodiversity remains poorly understood, mainly due to a lack of coordinated efforts in gathering data at appropriate temporal and spatial scales. It has been long known that the rate of dispersal to an ecosystem can significantly influence ecosystem dynamics, and that aerial transport has been identified as an important source of biological input to remote locations. With the considerable effort devoted in recent decades to understanding atmospheric circulation in the south-polar region, a unique opportunity has emerged to investigate the atmospheric ecology of Antarctica, from regional to continental scales. This concept note identifies key questions in Antarctic microbial biogeography and the need for standardized sampling and analysis protocols to address such questions. A consortium of polar aerobiologists is established to bring together researchers with a common interest in the airborne dispersion of microbes and other propagules in the Antarctic, with opportunities for comparative studies in the Arctic.

Description: Triples of GPS radio occultation (RO) temperature data are used to derive horizontal and vertical gravity wave (GW) parameters in the stratosphere between 20 km and 40 km from which the vertical flux of horizontal momentum is determined. Compared to previous studies using RO data, better limiting values for the sampling distance (Δd≤250 km) and the time interval (Δt≤15 min) are used. For several latitude bands the mean momentum fluxes (MFs) derived in this study are considerably larger than MF from other satellite missions based on horizontal wavelengths calculated between two adjacent temperature profiles along the satellite track. Error sources for the estimation of MF from RO data and the geometrical setup for the applied method are investigated. Another crucial issue discussed in this paper is the influence of different background separation methods to the final MF. For GW analysis a measured temperature profile is divided into a fluctuation and a background and it is assumed that the fluctuation is caused by GWs only. For the background separation, i.e., the detrending of large-scale processes from the measured temperature profile, several methods exist. In this study we compare different detrending approaches and for the first time an attempt is made to detrend RO data with ERA-Interim data from the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts. We demonstrate that the horizontal detrending based on RO data and ERA-Interim gives more consistent results compared with a vertical detrending.

Description: Permafrost regions are highly sensitive to climate change. Bringing research data and metadata from diverse sources together and visualising them within a publicly available worldwide system would have an enormous impact on data accessibility and availability and would significantly promote scientific work. The CarboPerm WebGIS, a case study focusing on the Lena River Delta in the Laptev Sea Region (Siberia), shows how a WebGIS infrastructure can support scientific work, data management, data visualisation, and data publication. CarboPerm is an interdisciplinary German project with Russian cooperation, investigating the formation, turnover and release of carbon in Siberian permafrost landscapes. There, the Lena River formed the largest delta in the Arctic and is place of long-term Russian-German scientific cooperation in permafrost research. The CarboPerm WebGIS is being set up to visualise and emphasise the spatial context of local samples, measurements, and analyses versus the thematic background information (e.g., geomorphology, pedology, geology and vegetation), using the WebGIS infrastructure “maps@awi” at the Alfred Wegener Institute, Helmholtz Centre for Polar and Marine Research (AWI). The CarboPerm WebGIS database includes historical data from long-term Russian-German cooperation and recent field campaigns as well as environmental datasets that are freely available via the internet or research data repositories.

Description: Permafrost-Landschaften reagieren sehr sensibel auf den Klimawandel. Die Synthese von Forschungsdaten und Metadaten über diese Gebiete und deren Visualisierung in einem interoperablen, weltweit zugänglichen System ist von hohem Nutzen für Wissenschaft und Gesellschaft. Innerhalb des Permafrost-Forschungsprojektes CarboPerm wird für das Lena- Delta und die Laptevmeer-Region ein WebGIS-Projekt entwickelt, welches die wissenschaftliche Forschertätigkeit durch Datenmanagement, Datenvisualisierung und Datenpublikation unterstützt. CarboPerm ist ein interdisziplinäres deutsch-russisches Kooperationsprojekt, das die Bildung, den Umsatz und die Freisetzung von Kohlenstoff in sibirischen Permafrost-Landschaften untersucht. Der Fluss Lena hat das größte Delta in der Arktis ausgebildet und ist gleichzeitig ein Kerngebiet langjähriger russisch-deutscher Kooperation in der Permafrost-Forschung. Das CarboPerm WebGIS wurde ins Leben gerufen, um den räumlichen Bezug von lokalen Probennahmen, Messergebnissen und Analysen mit thematischen Hintergrundinformationen, wie z.B. Geomorphologie, Pedologie, Geologie und Vegetation zu visualisieren. Die CarboPerm-WebGIS-Datenbank entstand unter Nutzung der WebGIS-Infrastruktur „maps@awi“ am Alfred-Wegener-Institut, Helmholtz-Zentrum für Polar- und Meeresforschung (AWI). Sie beinhaltet sowohl historische Daten aus der langjährigen russisch-deutschen Kooperation als auch von aktuellen Geländekampagnen, sowie umweltrelevante räumliche Datensätze, die aus öffentlich zugänglichen Datenquellen und Daten-Repositorien stammen.

Description: The ability of any satellite gravity mission concept to monitor mass transport processes in the Earth system is typically tested well ahead of its implementation by means of various simulation studies. Those studies often extend from the simulation of realistic orbits and instrumental data all the way down to the retrieval of global gravity field solution time-series. Basic requirement for all these simulations are realistic representations of the spatio-temporal mass variability in the different sub-systems of the Earth, as a source model for the orbit computations. For such simulations, a suitable source model is required to represent (i) high-frequency (i.e., subdaily to weekly) mass variability in the atmosphere and oceans, in order to realistically include the effects of temporal aliasing due to non-tidal high-frequency mass variability into the retrieved gravity fields. In parallel, (ii) low-frequency (i.e., monthly to interannual) variability needs to be modelled with realistic amplitudes, particularly at small spatial scales, in order to assess to what extent a new mission concept might provide further insight into physical processes currently not observable. The new source model documented here attempts to fulfil both requirements: Based on ECMWF’s recent atmospheric reanalysis ERA-Interim and corresponding simulations from numerical models of the other Earth system components, it offers spherical harmonic coefficients of the time-variable global gravity field due to mass variability in atmosphere, oceans, the terrestrial hydrosphere including the ice-sheets and glaciers, as well as the solid Earth. Simulated features range from sub-daily to multiyear periods with a spatial resolution of spherical harmonics degree and order 180 over a period of 12 years. In addition to the source model, a de-aliasing model for atmospheric and oceanic high-frequency variability with augmented systematic and random noise is required for a realistic simulation of the gravity field retrieval process, whose necessary error characteristics are discussed. The documentation of the updated ESA Earth System Model (updated ESM) for gravity mission simulation studies is organized as follows: The characteristics of the updated ESM along with some basic validation is presented in Volume 1. A detailed comparison to the original ESA ESM (Gruber et al., 2011) is provided in Volume 2, while Volume 3 contains the description of a strategy to derive realistic errors for the de-aliasing model of high-frequency mass variability in atmosphere and ocean.

Description: Our knowledge of the origin of Love waves in the ambient seismic noise is extremely limited. This applies in particular to constraints on source locations and source mechanisms for Love waves in the secondary microseism. Here three‐component beamforming is used to distinguish between the differently polarized wave types in the primary and secondary microseismic noise fields, recorded at several arrays across Europe. We compare characteristics of Love and Rayleigh wave noise, such as source directions and frequency content, measure Love to Rayleigh wave ratios for different back azimuths, and look at the seasonal behavior of our measurements by using a full year of data in 2013. The beamforming results confirm previous observations that back azimuths for Rayleigh and Love waves in both microseismic bands mainly coincide. However, we observe differences in relative directional noise strength between both wave types for the primary microseism. At those frequencies, Love waves dominate on average, with kinetic Love‐to‐Rayleigh energy ratios ranging from 0.6 to 2.0. In the secondary microseism, the ratios are lower, between 0.4 and 1.2. The wave type ratio is directionally homogeneous, except for locations far from the coast. In the primary microseism, our results support the existence of different generation mechanisms. The contribution of a shear traction‐type source mechanism is likely.

Description: The application of thermo-sensitive tracers is a promising technique for evaluating the thermal state of geothermal reservoirs. To extend the compound spectrum for hydrolyzable compounds to reservoir temperatures between 100 and 200 °C carboxamides were studied. The kinetic parameters of 17 self-synthesized amides were determined in hydrothermal batch and autoclave experiments. The influence of the molecular structure and the role of pH/pOH on hydrolysis kinetics were studied. Additionally, the thermal stabilities of the hydrolysis products were evaluated. The results demonstrate the high potential of tracers based on amide hydrolysis for use in medium enthalpy reservoirs.

Description: Madagascar occupies a key position in the assembly and breakup of the supercontinent Gondwana. It has been used in numerous geological studies to reconstruct its original position within Gondwana and to derive plate kinematics. Seismological observations in Madagascar to date have been sparse. Using a temporary, dense seismic profile across southern Madagascar, we present the first published study of seismic anisotropy from shear wave splitting analyses of teleseismic phases. The splitting parameters obtained show significant small-scale variation of fast polarization directions and delay times across the profile, with fast polarization rotating from NW in the center to NE in the east and west of the profile. The delay times range between 0.4 and 1.5 s. A joint inversion of waveforms at each station is applied to derive hypothetical one-layer splitting parameters. We use finite-difference, full-waveform modeling to test several hypotheses about the origin and extent of seismic anisotropy. Our observations can be explained by asthenospheric anisotropy with a fast polarization direction of 50°, approximately parallel to the absolute plate motion direction, in combination with blocks of crustal anisotropy. Predictions of seismic anisotropy as inferred from global mantle flow models or global anisotropic surface wave tomography are not in agreement with the observations. Small-scale variations of splitting parameters require significant crustal anisotropy. Considering the complex geology of Madagascar, we interpret the change in fast-axis directions as a ~150 km wide zone of ductile deformation in the crust as a result of the intense reworking of lithospheric material during the Pan-African orogeny. This fossil anisotropic pattern is underlain by asthenospheric anisotropy induced by plate motion.

Description: In the present paper we describe the on-land field operations integrated in the TOMO-ETNA experiment carried out in June-November 2014 at Mt. Etna volcano and surrounding areas. This terrestrial campaign consists in the deployment of 90 short-period portable three-component seismic stations, 17 Broadband seismometers and the coordination with 133 permanent seismic station belonging to Italy’s Istituto Nazionale di Geofisica e Vulcanologia (INGV). This temporary seismic network recorded active and passive seismic sources. Active seismic sources were generated by an array of air-guns mounted in the Spanish oceanographic vessel “Sarmiento de Gamboa” with a power capacity of up to 5200 cubic inches. In total more than 26,000 shots were fired and more than 450 local and regional earthquakes were recorded. We describe the whole technical procedure followed to guarantee the success of this complex seismic experiment. We started with the description of the location of the potential safety places to deploy the portable network and the products derived from this search (a large document including full characterization of the sites, owners and indication of how to arrive to them). A full technical description of the seismometers and seismic sources is presented. We show how the portable seismic network was deployed, maintained and recovered in different stages. The large international collaboration of this experiment is reflected in the participation of more than 75 researchers, technicians and students from different institutions and countries in the on-land activities. The main objectives of the experiment were achieved with great success.

Description: Ground motion intensity measures such as the peak ground acceleration (PGA) and the pseudo-spectral acceleration (PSA) at two sites due to the same seismic event are correlated. The spatial correlation needs to be considered when modeling ground-motion fields for seismic loss assessments, since it can have a significant influence on the statistical moments and probability distribution of aggregated seismic loss of a building portfolio. Empirical models of spatial correlation of ground motion intensity measures exist only for a few seismic regions in the world such as Japan, Taiwan and California, since for this purpose a dense observation network of earthquake ground motion is required. The Istanbul Earthquake Rapid Response and Early Warning System (IERREWS) provides one such dense array with station spacing of typically 2 km in the urban area of Istanbul. Based on the records of eight small to moderate (Mw3.5–Mw5.1) events, which occurred since 2003 in the Marmara region, we establish a model of intra-event spatial correlation for PGA and PSA up to the natural period of 1.0 s. The results indicate that the correlation coefficients of PGA and short-period PSA decay rapidly with increasing interstation distance, resulting in correlation lengths of approximately 3–4 km, while correlation lengths at longer natural periods (above 0.5 s) exceed 6 km. Finally, we implement the correlation model in a Monte Carlo simulation to evaluate economic loss in Istanbul's district Zeytinburnu due to a Mw7.2 scenario earthquake.