ALBERT

Description: Temperature distribution and Hadley circulation in an axisymmetric model Nonlinear Processes in Geophysics Discussions, 1, 1621-1655, 2014 Author(s): N. Tartaglione The impact of the temperature distribution on the Hadley circulation simulated by an axisymmetric model is studied. The temperature distributions that drive the model are modulated here by two parameters, n and k , the former controlling the horizontal broadness and the latter defining change in the vertical lapse rate. In the present study, the changes of the temperature distribution mimic changes of the energy input of the atmospheric system leaving as an invariant the equator-poles difference. Both equinoctial and time-dependent Hadley circulations are simulated and results compared. The results give evidence that concentrated temperature distributions enhance the meridional circulation and jet wind speed intensities even with a lower energy input. The meridional circulation and the subtropical jet stream widths are controlled by the broadness of horizontal temperature rather than the vertical lapse rate k , which is important only when the temperature distribution is concentrated at the equator. The jet stream position does not show any dependence with n and k , except when the temperature distribution is very wide and in such a case the jet is located at the mid-latitude. Using n = 2 and k = 1 we have the formulation of the potential temperature adopted in classical literature. A comparison with other works is performed and our results show that the model running in different configurations (equinoctial, solstitial and time-dependent) yields results similar to one another.

Description: The double layers in the plasma sheet boundary layer during magnetic reconnection Nonlinear Processes in Geophysics Discussions, 1, 1657-1671, 2014 Author(s): J. Guo and B. Yu We studied the evolutions of double layers which appear after the magnetic reconnection through two-dimensional electromagnetic particle-in-cell simulation. The simulation results show that the double layers are formed in the plasma sheet boundary layer after magnetic reconnection. At first, the double layers which have unipolar structures are formed. And then the double layers turn into bipolar structures, which will couple with another new weak bipolar structure. Thus a new double layer or tripolar structure comes into being. The double layers found in our work are about several ten Debye lengths, which accords with the observation results. It is suggested that the electron beam formed during the magnetic reconnection is responsible for the production of the double layers.

Description: Elastic envelope inversion using multicomponent seismic data without low frequency Nonlinear Processes in Geophysics Discussions, 1, 1757-1802, 2014 Author(s): C. Huang, L. Dong, Y. Liu, and B. Chi Low frequency is a key issue to reduce the nonlinearity of elastic full waveform inversion. Hence, the lack of low frequency in recorded seismic data is one of the most challenging problems in elastic full waveform inversion. Theoretical derivations and numerical analysis are presented in this paper to show that envelope operator can retrieve strong low frequency modulation signal demodulated in multicomponent data, no matter what the frequency bands of the data is. With the benefit of such low frequency information, we use elastic envelope of multicomponent data to construct the objective function and present an elastic envelope inversion method to recover the long-wavelength components of the subsurface model, especially for the S-wave velocity model. Numerical tests using synthetic data for the Marmousi-II model prove the effectiveness of the proposed elastic envelope inversion method, especially when low frequency is missing in multicomponent data and when initial model is far from the true model. The elastic envelope can reduce the nonlinearity of inversion and can provide an excellent starting model.

Description: The transient variation of the complexes of the low latitude ionosphere within the equatorial ionization anomaly region of Nigeria Nonlinear Processes in Geophysics Discussions, 1, 1855-1903, 2014 Author(s): A. B. Rabiu, B. O. Ogunsua, I. A. Fuwape, and J. A. Laoye The quest to find an index for proper characterization and description of the dynamical response of the ionosphere to external influences and its various internal irregularities has led to the study of the day to day variations of the chaoticity and dynamical complexity of the ionosphere. This study was conducted using Global Positioning System (GPS) Total Electron Content (TEC) time series, measured in the year 2011, from 5 GPS receiver stations in Nigeria which lies within the Equatorial Ionization Anomaly region. The nonlinear aspect of the TEC time series were obtained by detrending the data. The detrended TEC time series were subjected to various analyses for phase space reconstruction and to obtain the values of chaotic quantifiers which are Lyapunov exponents LE, correlation dimension, and Tsallis entropy for the study of dynamical complexity. The results show positive Lyapunov exponents for all days which indicate chaoticity of the ionosphere with no definite pattern for both quiet and disturbed days. However values of LE were lower for the storm period compared to its nearest relative quiet periods for all the stations. Considering all the days of the year the daily/transient variations show no definite pattern for each month but day to day values of Lyapunov exponent for the entire year show a wavelike semiannual variation pattern with lower values around March, April, September and October, a change in pattern which demonstrates the self-organized critical phenomenon of the system. This can be seen from the correlation dimension with values between 2.7 and 3.2 with lower values occurring mostly during storm periods demonstrating a phase transition from higher dimension during the quiet periods to lower dimension during storms for most of the stations. The values of Tsallis entropy show similar variation pattern with that of Lyapunov exponent with a lot of agreement in their comparison, with all computed values of Lyapunov exponent correlating with values of Tsallis entropy within the range of 0.79 to 0.82. These results show that Lyapunov quantifiers can be used together as indices in the study of the variations of the dynamical complexity of the ionosphere. The presence of chaos and high variations in the dynamical complexity, even at quiet periods in the ionosphere may be due to the internal dynamics and inherent irregularities of the ionosphere which exhibit non-linear properties. However, this inherent dynamics may be complicated by external factors like geomagnetic storms. This may be the main reason for the drop in the values of Lyapunov exponent and Tsallis entropy during storms. The results also show a strong interplay between determinism and stochasticity, as the ionosphere shows its response to changes in solar activities and in its internal dynamics. The dynamical behavior of the ionosphere throughout the year as described by these quantifiers, were discussed in this work.

Description: Evaluation of empirical mode decomposition for quantifying multi-decadal variations in sea level records Nonlinear Processes in Geophysics Discussions, 1, 1833-1854, 2014 Author(s): D. P. Chambers The ability of empirical mode decomposition (EMD) to extract multidecadal variability from sea level records is tested using three simulations: one based on a series of purely sinusoidal modes, one based on scaled climate indices of El Niño and the Pacific Decadal Oscillation (PDO), and the final one including a single month with an extreme sea level event. All simulations include random noise of similar variance to high-frequency variability in the San Francisco tide gauge record. The intrinsic mode functions (IMFs) computed using EMD were compared to the prescribed oscillations. In all cases, the longest-period modes are significantly distorted, with incorrect amplitudes and phases. This affects the estimated acceleration computed from the longest periodic IMF. In these simulations, the acceleration was underestimated in the case with purely sinusoidal modes, and overestimated by nearly 100% in the case with prescribed climate modes. Additionally, in all cases, extra low-frequency modes uncorrelated with the prescribed variability are found. These experiments suggest that using EMD to identify multidecadal variability and accelerations in sea level records should be used with caution.

Description: Benjamin–Feir instability of waves in the presence of current Nonlinear Processes in Geophysics Discussions, 1, 1803-1832, 2014 Author(s): I. V. Shugan, H. H. Hwung, and R. Y. Yang The development of Benjamin–Feir instability of Stokes waves in the presence of variable current is presented. We employ a model of a resonance system having three coexisting nonlinear waves and nonuniform current. The model is free from the narrow-band approximation for surface waves and relatively weak adverse current. The modulation instability of Stokes waves in nonuniform moving media has special properties. Interaction with countercurrent accelerates the growth of sideband modes on a short spatial scale. An increase in initial wave steepness intensifies the wave energy exchange accompanied by wave breaking dissipation, results in asymmetry of sideband modes and a frequency downshift with an energy transfer jump to the lower sideband mode, and depresses the higher sideband and carrier wave. Nonlinear waves may even overpass the blocking barrier produced by strong adverse current. The frequency downshift of the energy peak is permanent and the system does not revert to its initial state. We find reasonable correspondence between the results of model simulations and available experimental results for wave interaction with blocking opposing current. Large transient or freak waves with amplitude and steepness several times those of normal waves may form during temporal nonlinear focusing of the resonant waves accompanied by energy income from sufficiently strong opposing current. We employ the resonance model for the estimation of the maximum amplification of wave amplitudes as a function of gradually increasing opposing current and compare the result obtained with recently published experimental results and modeling results obtained with the nonlinear Schrödinger equation.

Description: Non-Gaussian interaction information: estimation, optimization and diagnostic application of triadic wave resonance Nonlinear Processes in Geophysics Discussions, 1, 1539-1602, 2014 Author(s): C. A. L. Pires and R. A. P. Perdigão Non-Gaussian multivariate probability distributions, derived from climate and geofluid statistics, allow for nonlinear correlations between linearly uncorrelated components, due to joint Shannon negentropies. Triadic statistical dependence under pair-wise (total or partial) independence is thus possible. Synergy or interaction information among triads is estimated. We formulate an optimization method of triads in the space of orthogonal rotations of normalized principal components, relying on the maximization of third-order cross cumulants. Its application to a minimal one-dimensional, periodic, advective model, leads to enhanced triads that occur between oscillating components of circular or locally confined wave-trains satisfying the triadic wave resonance condition.

Description: Self-organization of ULF electromagnetic wave structures in the shear flow driven dissipative ionosphere Nonlinear Processes in Geophysics Discussions, 1, 1431-1464, 2014 Author(s): G. Aburjania, K. Chargazia, O. Kharshiladze, and G. Zimbardo This work is devoted to investigation of nonlinear dynamics of planetary electromagnetic (EM) ultra-low-frequency wave (ULFW) structures in the rotating dissipative ionosphere in the presence of inhomogeneous zonal wind (shear flow). Planetary EM ULFW appears as a result of interaction of the ionospheric medium with the spatially inhomogeneous geomagnetic field. The shear flow driven wave perturbations effectively extract energy of the shear flow increasing own amplitude and energy. These perturbations undergo self organization in the form of the nonlinear solitary vortex structures due to nonlinear twisting of the perturbation's front. Depending on the features of the velocity profiles of the shear flows the nonlinear vortex structures can be either monopole vortices, or dipole vortex, or vortex streets and vortex chains. From analytical calculation and plots we note that the formation of stationary nonlinear vortex structure requires some threshold value of translation velocity for both non-dissipation and dissipation complex ionospheric plasma. The space and time attenuation specification of the vortices is studied. The characteristic time of vortex longevity in dissipative ionosphere is estimated. The long-lived vortices transfer the trapped medium particles, energy and heat. Thus they represent structural elements of turbulence in the ionosphere.

Description: Analysis of stochastic model for non-linear volcanic dynamics Nonlinear Processes in Geophysics Discussions, 1, 1735-1755, 2014 Author(s): D. Alexandrov, I. Bashkirtseva, and L. Ryashko Motivated by important geophysical applications we consider a dynamic model of the magma-plug system previously derived by Iverson et al. (2006) under the influence of stochastic forcing. Due to strong nonlinearity of the friction force for solid plug along its margins, the initial deterministic system exhibits impulsive oscillations. Two types of dynamic behavior of the system under the influence of the parametric stochastic forcing have been found: random trajectories are scattered on both sides of the deterministic cycle or grouped on its internal side only. It is shown that dispersions are highly inhomogeneous along cycles in the presence of noises. The effects of noise-induced shifts, pressure stabilization and localization of random trajectories have been revealed with increasing the noise intensity. The plug velocity, pressure and displacement are highly dependent of noise intensity as well. These new stochastic phenomena are related with the nonlinear peculiarities of the deterministic phase portrait. It is demonstrated that the repetitive stick-slip motions of the magma-plug system in the case of stochastic forcing can be connected with drumbeat earthquakes.

Description: Estimation of the total magnetization direction of approximately spherical bodies Nonlinear Processes in Geophysics Discussions, 1, 1465-1507, 2014 Author(s): V. C. Oliveira Jr., D. P. Sales, V. C. F. Barbosa, and L. Uieda We have developed a fast total-field anomaly inversion to estimate the magnetization direction of multiple sources with approximately spherical shape and known centres. Our method can be applied to interpret multiple sources with different magnetization directions. It neither requires the prior computation of any transformation like reduction to the pole nor the use of regularly spaced data on a horizontal grid. The method contains flexibility to be implemented as a linear or non-linear inverse problem, which results, respectively, in a least-squares or robust estimate of the components of the magnetization vector of the sources. Applications to synthetic data show the robustness of our method against interfering anomalies and errors in the location of the sources' centre. Besides, we show the feasibility of applying the upward continuation to interpret non-spherical sources. Applications to field data over the Goiás Alkaline Province (GAP), Brazil, show the good performance of our method in estimating geological meaningful magnetization directions. The results obtained for a region of the GAP, near from the alkaline complex of Diorama, suggest the presence of non-outcropping sources marked by strong remanent magnetization with inclination and declination close to -70.35° and -19.81°, respectively. This estimated magnetization direction leads to predominantly positive reduced-to-the-pole anomalies, even for other region of the GAP, in the alkaline complex of Montes Claros de Goiás. These results show that the non-outcropping sources near from the alkaline complex of Diorama have almost the same magnetization direction of that ones in the alkaline complex of Montes Claros de Goiás, strongly suggesting that these sources have emplaced the crust almost within the same geological time interval.