ALBERT

Description: Although catchment storage is an intrinsic control on the rainfall-runoff response of streams, direct measurement remains a major challenge. Coupled models that integrate long-term hydrometric and isotope tracer data are useful tools that can provide insights into the dynamics of catchment storage and the volumes of water involved. In this study, we use a tracer-aided hydrological model to characterize catchment storage as a dynamic control on system function related to streamflow generation, which also allows direct estimation of the non-stationarity of water ages. We show that in a wet Scottish upland catchment dominated by runoff generation from riparian peats (histosols) with high water storage, non-stationarity in water age distributions are only clearly detectable during more extreme wet and dry periods. This is explained by the frequency and longevity of hydrological connectivity and the associated relative importance of flow paths contributing younger or older waters to the stream. Generally, these saturated riparian soils represent large mixing zones that buffer the time variance of water age and integrate catchment-scale partial mixing processes. Although storage simulations depend on model performance, which is influenced by input variability and the degree of isotopic damping in the stream, a longer-term storage analysis of this model indicates a system which is only sensitive to more extreme hydroclimatic variability. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.

Description: Technical Note: Reducing the spin-up time of integrated surface water–groundwater models Hydrology and Earth System Sciences, 18, 5169-5179, 2014 Author(s): H. Ajami, J. P. Evans, M. F. McCabe, and S. Stisen One of the main challenges in the application of coupled or integrated hydrologic models is specifying a catchment's initial conditions in terms of soil moisture and depth-to-water table (DTWT) distributions. One approach to reducing uncertainty in model initialization is to run the model recursively using either a single year or multiple years of forcing data until the system equilibrates with respect to state and diagnostic variables. However, such "spin-up" approaches often require many years of simulations, making them computationally intensive. In this study, a new hybrid approach was developed to reduce the computational burden of the spin-up procedure by using a combination of model simulations and an empirical DTWT function. The methodology is examined across two distinct catchments located in a temperate region of Denmark and a semi-arid region of Australia. Our results illustrate that the hybrid approach reduced the spin-up period required for an integrated groundwater–surface water–land surface model (ParFlow.CLM) by up to 50%. To generalize results to different climate and catchment conditions, we outline a methodology that is applicable to other coupled or integrated modeling frameworks when initialization from an equilibrium state is required.

Description: Extending periodic eddy covariance latent heat fluxes through tree sapflow measurements to estimate long-term total evaporation in a peat swamp forest Hydrology and Earth System Sciences Discussions, 11, 13607-13661, 2014 Author(s): A. D. Clulow, C. S. Everson, M. G. Mengistu, J. S. Price, A. Nickless, and G. P. W. Jewitt A combination of measurement and modelling was used to find a pragmatic solution to estimate the annual total evaporation (ET) from the rare and indigenous Nkazana Peat Swamp Forest (PSF) on the east coast of Southern Africa to improve the water balance estimates within the area. Total evaporation was measured during three window periods (between seven and nine days each) using an eddy covariance (EC) system on a telescopic mast above the forest canopy. Sapflow of an understory and an emergent tree was measured using a low maintenance heat pulse velocity system for an entire hydrological year (October 2009 to September 2010). An empirical model was derived, describing the relationship between the observed ET of the Nkazana PSF measured during two of the window periods ( R 2 = 0.92 and 0.90) which, overlapped with sapflow measurements, thereby providing hourly estimates of predicted ET of the Nkazana PSF for a year, totalling 1125 mm (while rainfall was 650 mm). In building the empirical model, it was found that including the understory tree sapflow provided no benefit to the model performance. In addition, the observed emergent tree sapflow relationship with observed ET between the two field campaigns was consistent and could be represented by a single empirical model ( R 2 = 0.90; RMSE = 0.08 mm). During the window periods of EC measurement, no single meteorological variable was found to describe the Nkazana PSF ET satisfactorily. However, in terms of evaporation models, the hourly FAO56 Penman–Monteith equation best described the observed ET from EC during the August 2009 ( R 2 = 0.75), November 2009 ( R 2 = 0.85) and March 2010 ( R 2 = 0.76) field campaigns, compared to the Priestley–Taylor model ( R 2 = 0.54, 0.74 and 0.62 during the respective field campaigns). From the empirical model of ET and the FAO56 Penman–Monteith equation, a monthly crop factor ( K c ) was derived for the Nkazana PSF providing a method of estimating long-term swamp forest ET from meteorological data. The monthly crop factor indicated two distinct periods. From February to May, it was between 1.2 and 1.4 compared with June to January, when the crop factor was 0.8 to 1.0. The derived monthly K c values were verified as accurate (to one significant digit) using historical data measured at the same site, also using EC, from a~previous study. The measurements provided insights into the microclimate within a subtropical peat swamp forest and the contrasting sapflow of emergent and understory trees. They showed that expensive, high maintenance equipment can be used during manageable window periods in conjunction with low maintenance systems, dedicated to individual trees, to derive a model to estimate long-term ET over remote heterogeneous forests. In addition, the contrast in ET and rainfall emphasises the reliance of the Nkazana PSF on groundwater.

Description: Long-term variability of storm surge frequency in the Venice Lagoon: an update thanks to eighteenth century sea level observations Natural Hazards and Earth System Sciences Discussions, 2, 7465-7486, 2014 Author(s): F. Raicich Sea level observations made in the Venice Lagoon between 1751 and 1792 have been recovered, consisting of two time series of daily data on high and low waters at Venice and Chioggia. From comparisons with modern observations the quality of the 18th century data appears to be good enough to allow a useful analysis. A composite time series of daily mean sea level is obtained by merging the 18th century data and 1872–2004 observations at Venice Punta della Salute. The absence of reliable information on vertical references prevents the connection of the two 18th century time series with each other and with modern observations. However, daily sea level anomalies relative to the mean sea level enable to recognize storm surge events, that appear to occur more frequently in the second half of the 18th century than in the late 19th and 20th centuries, particularly during the 1751–1769 period. The record-breaking storm surge of 4 November 1966 turns out to be a remarkable event also in comparison with the events extracted from the 18th century time series. Further work is required to fill the gap between the old and modern observations.

Description: Ground-penetrating radar observations for estimating the vertical displacement of rotational landslides Natural Hazards and Earth System Sciences Discussions, 2, 7487-7506, 2014 Author(s): C. Lissak, O. Maquaire, J.-P. Malet, F. Lavigne, C. Virmoux, C. Gomez, and R. Davidson The objective of this paper is to demonstrate the applicability of Ground Penetrating Radar (GPR) for monitoring the displacement of slow-moving landslides. GPR data is used to estimate the vertical movement of rotational slides in combination with other surveying techniques. The experimental site is located along the Normandy coast (North East France) here several rotational landslides are continuously affected by a seasonal kinematic pattern (low displacement rates of 0.01 to 0.10 m yr −1 ) and periodically by major acceleration events (high displacement of 1.0 to 7.0 m per event).

Description: A smart monitoring system for superconducting cable test is proposed with an adaptive current control of a superconducting transformer secondary. The design, based on Fuzzy Gain Scheduling, allows the controller parameters to adapt continuously, and finely, to the working variations arising from transformer nonlinear dynamics. The control system is integrated in a fully digital control loop, with all the related benefits, i.e., high noise rejection, ease of implementation/modification, and so on. In particular, an accurate model of the system, controlled by a Fuzzy Gain Scheduler of the superconducting transformer, was achieved by an experimental campaign through the working domain at several current ramp rates. The model performance was characterized by simulation, under all the main operating conditions, in order to guide the controller design. Finally, the proposed monitoring system was experimentally validated at European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN) in comparison to the state-of-the-art control system [P. Arpaia, L. Bottura, G. Montenero, and S. Le Naour, “Performance improvement of a measurement station for superconducting cable test,” Rev. Sci. Instrum.83, 095111 (2012)] of the Facility for the Research on Superconducting Cables, achieving a significant performance improvement: a reduction in the system overshoot by 50%, with a related attenuation of the corresponding dynamic residual error (both absolute and RMS) up to 52%.

Description: This paper presents a method which uses the characteristics of the etch pits induced in a polyallyl-diglycol-carbonate (PADC) detector of the CR-39/PM-355 type to estimate particle energy. This method is based on the data provided by a semiautomatic system that selects tracks according to two parameters, crater diameters, and mean gray level values. In this paper we used the results of the calibration measurements that were obtained in our laboratory in the period 2000–2014. Combining the information on the two parameters it is possible to determine unambiguously the incident projectile energy values. The paper presents the results of an attempt to estimate the energy resolution of the method when analyzing the tracks produced in the CR-39/PM-355 detector by energetic ions such as alpha particles, protons, and deuterons. We discuss the energy resolution of the measurement of light charged particle energy which is based on the parameters (crater diameter and mean gray level value) of tracks induced in solid state nuclear track detectors of the PADC type.

Description: In this work, an automated apparatus for driving single electrostatic probes and acquiring the plasma-related data has been designed and fabricated. The voltage range of the present system is ±110 V with an adjustable voltage step as low as 3 mV. Voltage and current measurements are carried out with high resolution and high accuracy circuits, both based on 16 bit analog-to-digital converters. The code embedded in a micro-controller, schedules the operation of the device and transfers the experimental data to a personal computer. The modular design of the system makes possible its modification and thus increases its adaptability to different plasma setups. Finally, the reliable operation of the entire device is confirmed by tests in Electron Cyclotron Resonance plasma.

Description: Continental Portuguese Territory Flood Susceptibility Index – contribution for a vulnerability index Natural Hazards and Earth System Sciences Discussions, 2, 7521-7552, 2014 Author(s): R. Jacinto, N. Grosso, E. Reis, L. Dias, F. D. Santos, and P. Garrett This work defines a national flood susceptibility index for the Portuguese continental territory, by proposing the aggregation of different variables which represent natural conditions for permeability, runoff and accumulation. This index is part of the national vulnerability index developed in the scope of Flood Maps in Climate Change Scenarios (CIRAC) project, supported by the Portuguese Association of Insurers (APS). This approach expands on previous works by trying to bridge the gap between different floods mechanisms (e.g. progressive and flash floods) occurring at different spatial scales in the Portuguese territory through: (a) selecting homogeneously processed datasets, (b) aggregating their values to better translate the spatially continuous and cumulative influence in floods at multiple spatial scales. Results show a good ability to capture, in the higher susceptibility classes, different flood types: progressive floods and flash floods. Lower values are usually related to: mountainous areas, low water accumulation potential and more permeable soils. Validation with independent flood datasets confirmed these index characteristics, although some overestimation can be seen in the southern region of Alentejo where, due to a dense hydrographic network and an overall low slope, floods are not as frequent as a result of lower precipitation mean values. Future work will focus on: (i) including extreme precipitation datasets to represent the triggering factor, (ii) improving representation of smaller and stepper basins, (iii) optimizing variable weight definition process, (iii) developing more robust independent flood validation datasets.

Description: Dye tracing for investigating flow and transport properties of hydrocarbon-polluted Rabots glaciär, Kebnekaise, Sweden Hydrology and Earth System Sciences Discussions, 11, 13711-13744, 2014 Author(s): C. C. Clason, C. Coch, J. Jarsjö, K. Brugger, P. Jansson, and G. Rosqvist Over 11 000 L of hydrocarbon pollution was deposited on the surface of Rabots glaciär on the Kebnekaise Massif, northern Sweden, following the crash of a Royal Norwegian Air Force aircraft in March 2012. An environmental monitoring programme was subsequently commissioned, including water, snow and ice sampling. The scientific programme further included a series of dye tracing experiments during the 2013 melt season, conducted to investigate flow pathways for pollutants through the glacier hydrological system, and to gain new insight to the internal hydrological system of Rabots glaciär. Results of dye tracing reveal a degree of homogeneity in the topology of the drainage system throughout July and August, with an increase in efficiency as the season progresses, as reflected by decreasing temporary storage and dispersivity. Early onset of melting likely led to formation of an efficient, discrete drainage system early in the melt season, subject to decreasing sinuosity and braiding as the season progressed. Analysis of turbidity-discharge hysteresis further supports the formation of discrete, efficient drainage, with clockwise diurnal hysteresis suggesting easy mobilisation of readily-available sediments in channels. Dye injection immediately downstream of the pollution source zone revealed prolonged storage of dye followed by fast, efficient release. Twinned with a low dye recovery, and supported by sporadic detection of hydrocarbons in the proglacial river, we suggest that meltwater, and thus pollutants in solution, may be released periodically from this zone of the glacier hydrological system. The here identified dynamics of dye storage, dispersion and breakthrough indicate that the ultimate fate and permanence of pollutants in the glacier system is likely to be governed by storage of pollutants in the firn layer and ice mass, or within the internal hydrological system, where it may refreeze. This shows that future studies on the fate of hydrocarbons in pristine, glaciated mountain environments should address the extent to which pollutants in solution act like water molecules or whether they are more susceptible to, for example, refreezing into the surrounding ice, becoming stuck in micro-fractures and pore spaces, or sorption onto subglacial sediments.

Description: A pulsed slow-positron beam generated by an electron linear accelerator was directly used for positron annihilation lifetime spectroscopy without any positron storage devices. A waveform digitizer was introduced to simultaneously capture multiple gamma-ray signals originating from positron annihilation events during a single accelerator pulse. The positron pulse was chopped and bunched with the chopper signals also sent to the waveform digitizer. Time differences between the annihilation gamma-ray and chopper peaks were calculated and accumulated as lifetime spectra in a computer. The developed technique indicated that positron annihilation lifetime spectroscopy can be performed in a 20 μ s time window at a pulse repetition rate synchronous with the linear accelerator. Lifetime spectra of a Kapton sheet and a thermally grown SiO 2 layer on Si were successfully measured. Synchronization of positron lifetime measurements with pulsed ion irradiation was demonstrated by this technique.

Description: ABSTRACT A reactive transport modeling framework is presented that allows simultaneous assessment of groundwater flow, water quality evolution including δ 13 C, and 14 C activity or “age”. Through application of this framework, simulated 14 C activities can be directly compared with measured 14 C activities. This bypasses the need for interpretation of a 14 C age prior to flow simulation through factoring out processes other than radioactive decay, which typically involves simplifying assumptions regarding spatial and temporal variability in reactions, flow, and mixing. The utility of the approach is demonstrated for an aquifer system with spatially variable carbonate mineral distribution, multiple organic carbon sources, and transient boundary conditions for 14 C activity in the recharge water. In this case the simulated 14 C age was shown to be relatively insensitive to isotopic fractionation during DOC oxidation and variations in assumed DOC degradation behaviour. We demonstrate that the model allows quantitative testing of hypotheses regarding controls on groundwater age and water quality evolution for all three carbon isotopes. The approach also facilitates incorporation of multiple environmental tracers and combination with parameter optimization techniques. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.

Description: Water scarcity is likely to increase in the coming years, making improvements in irrigation efficiency increasingly important. An emerging technology that promises to increase irrigation efficiency substantially is a wireless irrigation sensor network that uploads sensor data into irrigation management software, creating an integrated system that allows real-time monitoring and control of moisture status that has been shown in experimental settings to reduce irrigation costs, lower plant loss rates, shorten production times, decrease pesticide application, and increase yield, quality, and profit. We use an original survey to investigate likely initial acceptance, ceiling adoption rates, and profitability of this new sensor network technology in the nursery and greenhouse industry. We find that adoption rates for a base system and demand for expansion components are decreasing in price, as expected. The price elasticity of the probability of adoption suggests that sensor networks are likely to diffuse at a rate somewhat greater than that of drip irrigation. Adoption rates for a base system and demand for expansion components are increasing in specialization in ornamental production: Growers earning greater shares of revenue from greenhouse and nursery operations are willing to pay more for a base system and are willing to purchase larger numbers of expansion components at any given price. We estimate that growers who are willing to purchase a sensor network expect investment in this technology to generate significant profit, consistent with findings from experimental studies. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.

Description: Air temperature variability over three glaciers in the Ortles-Cevedale (Italian Alps): effects of glacier disintegration, intercomparison of calculation methods, and impacts on mass balance modeling The Cryosphere Discussions, 8, 6147-6192, 2014 Author(s): L. Carturan, F. Cazorzi, F. De Blasi, and G. Dalla Fontana Glacier mass balance models rely on accurate spatial calculation of input data, in particular air temperature. Lower temperatures (the so-called glacier cooling effect), and lower temperature variability (the so-called glacier damping effect) generally occur over glaciers, compared to ambient conditions. These effects, which depend on the geometric characteristics of glaciers and display a high spatial and temporal variability, have been mostly investigated on medium- to large-size glaciers so far, while observations on smaller ice bodies are scarce. Using a dataset from 8 on-glacier and 4 off-glacier weather stations, collected in summer 2010 and 2011, we analyzed the air temperature variability and wind regime over three different glaciers in the Ortles-Cevedale. The magnitude of the cooling effect and the occurrence of katabatic boundary layer (KBL) processes showed remarkable differences among the three ice bodies, suggesting the likely existence of important reinforcing mechanisms during glacier decay and disintegration. None of the methods proposed in the literature for calculating on-glacier temperature from off-glacier data fully reproduced our observations. Among them, the more physically-based procedure of Greuell and Böhm (1998) provided the best overall results where the KBL prevail, but it was not effective elsewhere (i.e. on smaller ice bodies and close to the glacier margins). The accuracy of air temperature estimations strongly impacted the results from a mass balance model which was applied to the three investigated glaciers. Most importantly, even small temperature deviations caused distortions in parameter calibration, thus compromising the model generalizability.

Description: Since 2007 a large decline in Arctic sea ice has been observed. The large-scale atmospheric circulation response to this decline is investigated in ERA-Interim reanalyses and HadGEM3 climate model experiments. In winter, post-2007 observed circulation anomalies over the Arctic, North Atlantic and Eurasia are small compared to interannual variability. In summer, the post-2007 observed circulation is dominated by an anticyclonic anomaly over Greenland which has a large signal-to-noise ratio. Climate model experiments driven by observed SST and sea ice anomalies are able to capture the summertime pattern of observed circulation anomalies, although the magnitude is a third of that observed. The experiments suggest warm SSTs and reduced sea ice in the Labrador Sea lead to warm temperature anomalies in lower troposphere which weaken the westerlies over North America through thermal wind balance. The experiments also capture cyclonic anomalies over north-western Europe, which are consistent with downstream Rossby wave propagation.

Description: Are seasonal calving dynamics forced by buttressing from ice mélange or undercutting by melting? Outcomes from full-Stokes simulations of Store Glacier, West Greenland The Cryosphere, 8, 2353-2365, 2014 Author(s): J. Todd and P. Christoffersen We use a full-Stokes 2-D model (Elmer/Ice) to investigate the flow and calving dynamics of Store Glacier, a fast-flowing outlet glacier in West Greenland. Based on a new, subgrid-scale implementation of the crevasse depth calving criterion, we perform two sets of simulations: one to identify the primary forcing mechanisms and another to constrain future stability. We find that the mixture of icebergs and sea ice, known as ice mélange or sikussak, is principally responsible for the observed seasonal advance of the ice front. On the other hand, the effect of submarine melting on the calving rate of Store Glacier appears to be limited. Sensitivity analysis demonstrates that the glacier's calving dynamics are sensitive to seasonal perturbation, but are stable on interannual timescales due to the strong topographic control on the flow regime. Our results shed light on the dynamics of calving glaciers and may help explain why neighbouring glaciers do not necessarily respond synchronously to changes in atmospheric and oceanic forcing.

Description: Deglaciation of the Caucasus Mountains, Russia/Georgia, in the 21st century observed with ASTER satellite imagery and aerial photography The Cryosphere, 8, 2367-2379, 2014 Author(s): M. Shahgedanova, G. Nosenko, S. Kutuzov, O. Rototaeva, and T. Khromova Changes in the map area of 498 glaciers located on the Main Caucasus ridge (MCR) and on Mt. Elbrus in the Greater Caucasus Mountains (Russia and Georgia) were assessed using multispectral ASTER and panchromatic Landsat imagery with 15 m spatial resolution in 1999/2001 and 2010/2012. Changes in recession rates of glacier snouts between 1987–2001 and 2001–2010 were investigated using aerial photography and ASTER imagery for a sub-sample of 44 glaciers. In total, glacier area decreased by 4.7 ± 2.1% or 19.2 ± 8.7 km 2 from 407.3 ± 5.4 km 2 to 388.1 ± 5.2 km 2 . Glaciers located in the central and western MCR lost 13.4 ± 7.3 km 2 (4.7 ± 2.5%) in total or 8.5 km 2 (5.0 ± 2.4%) and 4.9 km 2 (4.1 ± 2.7%) respectively. Glaciers on Mt. Elbrus, although located at higher elevations, lost 5.8 ± 1.4 km 2 (4.9 ± 1.2%) of their total area. The recession rates of valley glacier termini increased between 1987–2000/01 and 2000/01–2010 (2000 for the western MCR and 2001 for the central MCR and Mt.~Elbrus) from 3.8 ± 0.8, 3.2 ± 0.9 and 8.3 ± 0.8 m yr −1 to 11.9 ± 1.1, 8.7 ± 1.1 and 14.1 ± 1.1 m yr −1 in the central and western MCR and on Mt. Elbrus respectively. The highest rate of increase in glacier termini retreat was registered on the southern slope of the central MCR where it has tripled. A positive trend in summer temperatures forced glacier recession, and strong positive temperature anomalies in 1998, 2006, and 2010 contributed to the enhanced loss of ice. An increase in accumulation season precipitation observed in the northern MCR since the mid-1980s has not compensated for the effects of summer warming while the negative precipitation anomalies, observed on the southern slope of the central MCR in the 1990s, resulted in stronger glacier wastage.

Description: Inversion method for initial tsunami waveform reconstruction Natural Hazards and Earth System Sciences Discussions, 2, 7735-7772, 2014 Author(s): V. V. Voronin, T. A. Voronina, and V. A. Tcheverda This paper deals with the application of r-solution method to recover the initial tsunami waveform in a tsunami source area by remote water-level measurements. Wave propagation is considered within the scope of a linear shallow-water theory. An ill-posed inverse problem is regularized by means of least square inversion using a truncated SVD approach. The properties of obtained solution are determined to a large extent by the properties of an inverse operator, which were numerically investigated. The method presented allows one to control instability of the numerical solution and to obtain an acceptable result in spite of ill-posedness of the problem. It is shown that the accuracy of tsunami source reconstruction strongly depends on the signal-to-noise ratio, the azimuthal coverage of recording stations with respect to the source area and bathymetric features along the wave path. The numerical experiments were carried out with synthetic data and various computational domains including a real bathymetry. The method proposed allows us to make a preliminary prediction of the efficiency of the inversion with a given set of the recording stations and to find out the most informative part of the existing observation system. This essential property of the method can prove to be useful in designing a monitoring system for tsunamis.

Description: Stratospheric Sounding Units (SSU) on the NOAA polar orbiting satellites measured infrared radiances in the 15 micron CO 2 band between late 1978 and mid-2006. From these radiances a time series of layer mean stratospheric temperatures has been derived by several groups. Discrepancies in these temperature analyses have been highlighted recently and efforts are now underway to resolve the differences between them. This paper is the Met Office response summarising the issues to be resolved in creating a climate data record from the different SSUs, including corrections for radiometric, spectroscopic and tidal differences. Calibration issues identified include the SSU space view anomaly and radiometric anomalies in the NOAA-9 observations. The spectroscopic correction required for changing pressures in the pressure modulator cells is also outlined. The most important correction for the time series is for the solar diurnal and semi-diurnal tides as the satellite overpass local times change. Comparisons with other stratospheric temperature trend analyses are made and the reasons for the differences discussed. The time series presented here show sustained drops in stratospheric temperatures at all levels after the El Chichon and Pinatubo eruptions but only small trends to lower temperatures between eruptions.

Description: A high-order global shallow water model on Yin-Yang grid has been developed by using the multi-moment constrained finite volume (MCV) method. Different from the traditional finite volume method, more degrees of freedom (DOFs) which are the values at the solution points within each mesh element are defined and updated in time. The time evolution equations for these point values are derived from a set constraint conditions in terms of the so-called multi-moment quantities, such as the point value (PV), the volume-integrated average (VIA) and derivative (DV). Different moments use different forms of equations which are all consistent with the shallow water equations, among which the VIA moment is computed from a finite volume formulation of flux form that guarantees the rigorous numerical conservation. A fourth-order formulation is devised with the third-order reconstruction built over each element using the DOFs locally available. A simple and orthogonal overset grid, the Yin-Yang grid, is used to represent the spherical geometry with quasi-uniform grid spacing. The resulting global shallow water model is attractive in algorithmic simplicity and computational efficiency. The model has been validated by widely used benchmark tests. The numerical results of the present model are competitive to most existing advanced models.

Description: A major goal of nanotechnology is to develop the capability to arrange matter at will by placing individual atoms at desired locations in a predetermined configuration to build a nanostructure with specific properties or function. The scanning tunneling microscope has demonstrated the ability to arrange the basic building blocks of matter, single atoms, in two-dimensional configurations. An array of various nanostructures has been assembled, which display the quantum mechanics of quantum confined geometries. The level of human interaction needed to physically locate the atom and bring it to the desired location limits this atom assembly technology. Here we report the use of autonomous atom assembly via path planning technology; this allows atomically perfect nanostructures to be assembled without the need for human intervention, resulting in precise constructions in shorter times. We demonstrate autonomous assembly by assembling various quantum confinement geometries using atoms and molecules and describe the benefits of this approach.

Description: We developed a silicon avalanche photodiode (Si-APD) linear-array detector for use in nuclear resonant scattering experiments using synchrotron X-rays. The Si-APD linear array consists of 64 pixels (pixel size: 100 × 200 μm 2 ) with a pixel pitch of 150 μm and depletion depth of 10 μm. An ultrafast frontend circuit allows the X-ray detector to obtain a high output rate of 〉10 7 cps per pixel. High-performance integrated circuits achieve multichannel scaling over 1024 continuous time bins with a 1 ns resolution for each pixel without dead time. The multichannel scaling method enabled us to record a time spectrum of the 14.4 keV nuclear radiation at each pixel with a time resolution of 1.4 ns (FWHM). This method was successfully applied to nuclear forward scattering and nuclear small-angle scattering on 57 Fe.

Description: We describe a nanosecond time-resolved fluorescence spectrometer that acquires fluorescence decay waveforms from each well of a 384-well microplate in 3 min with signal-to-noise exceeding 400 using direct waveform recording. The instrument combines high-energy pulsed laser sources (5–10 kHz repetition rate) with a photomultiplier and high-speed digitizer (1 GHz) to record a fluorescence decay waveform after each pulse. Waveforms acquired from rhodamine or 5-((2-aminoethyl)amino) naphthalene-1-sulfonic acid dyes in a 384-well plate gave lifetime measurements 5- to 25-fold more precise than the simultaneous intensity measurements. Lifetimes as short as 0.04 ns were acquired by interleaving with an effective sample rate of 5 GHz. Lifetime measurements resolved mixtures of single-exponential dyes with better than 1% accuracy. The fluorescence lifetime plate reader enables multiple-well fluorescence lifetime measurements with an acquisition time of 0.5 s per well, suitable for high-throughput fluorescence lifetime screening applications.

Description: Diagnostic for investigating and distinguishing different laser ion acceleration mechanisms has been developed and successfully tested. An ion separation wide angle spectrometer can simultaneously investigate three important aspects of the laser plasma interaction: (1) acquire angularly resolved energy spectra for two ion species, (2) obtain ion energy spectra for multiple species, separated according to their charge to mass ratio, along selected axes, and (3) collect laser radiation reflected from and transmitted through the target and propagating in the same direction as the ion beam. Thus, the presented diagnostic constitutes a highly adaptable tool for accurately studying novel acceleration mechanisms in terms of their angular energy distribution, conversion efficiency, and plasma density evolution.

Description: Glacier-like forms on Mars The Cryosphere, 8, 2047-2061, 2014 Author(s): B. Hubbard, C. Souness, and S. Brough More than 1300 glacier-like forms (GLFs) are located in Mars' mid-latitudes. These GLFs are predominantly composed of ice–dust mixtures and are visually similar to terrestrial valley glaciers, showing signs of downhill viscous deformation and an expanded former extent. However, several fundamental aspects of their behavior are virtually unknown, including temporal and spatial variations in mass balance, ice motion, landscape erosion and deposition, and hydrology. Here, we investigate the physical glaciology of martian GLFs. We use satellite images of specific examples and case studies to build on existing knowledge relating to (i) GLF current and former extent, exemplified via a GLF located in Phlegra Montes; (ii) indicators of GLF motion, focusing on the presence of surface crevasses on several GLFs; (iii) processes of GLF debris transfer, focusing on mapping and interpreting boulder trains on one GLF located in Protonilus Mensae, the analysis of which suggests a best-estimate mean GLF flow speed of 7.5 mm a −1 ; and (iv) GLF hydrology, focusing on supra-GLF gulley networks. On the basis of this information, we summarize the current state of knowledge of the glaciology of martian GLFs and identify future research avenues.

Description: Strategy of valid 14 C dates choice in syngenetic permafrost The Cryosphere Discussions, 8, 5589-5621, 2014 Author(s): Y. K. Vasil'chuk and A. C. Vasil'chuk The main problem of radiocarbon dating within permafrost is the uncertain reliability of the 14 C dates. Syngenetic sediments contain allochthonous organic deposit that originated at a distance from its present position. Due to the very good preservation of organic materials in permafrost conditions and numerous re-burials of the fossils from ancient deposits into younger ones the dates could be both younger and older than the true age of dated material. The strategy for the most authentic radiocarbon date selection for dating of syncryogenic sediments is considered taking into account the fluvial origin of the syngenetic sediments. The re-deposition of organic material is discussed in terms of cyclic syncryogenic sedimentation and also the possible re-deposition of organic material in subaerial-subaqueous conditions. The advantages and the complications of dating organic micro-inclusions from ice wedges by the accelerator mass spectrometry (AMS) method are discussed applying to true age of dated material search. Radiocarbon dates of different organic materials from the same samples are compared. The younger age of the yedoma from cross-sections of Duvanny Yar in Kolyma River and Mamontova Khayata in the mouth of Lena River is substantiated due to the principle of the choice of the youngest 14 C date from the set.

Description: Modeling the elastic transmission of tidal stresses to great distances inland in channelized ice streams The Cryosphere, 8, 2007-2029, 2014 Author(s): J. Thompson, M. Simons, and V. C. Tsai Geodetic surveys suggest that ocean tides can modulate the motion of Antarctic ice streams, even at stations many tens of kilometers inland from the grounding line. These surveys suggest that ocean tidal stresses can perturb ice stream motion at distances about an order of magnitude farther inland than tidal flexure of the ice stream alone. Recent models exploring the role of tidal perturbations in basal shear stress are primarily one- or two-dimensional, with the impact of the ice stream margins either ignored or parameterized. Here, we use two- and three-dimensional finite-element modeling to investigate transmission of tidal stresses in ice streams and the impact of considering more realistic, three-dimensional ice stream geometries. Using Rutford Ice Stream as a real-world comparison, we demonstrate that the assumption that elastic tidal stresses in ice streams propagate large distances inland fails for channelized glaciers due to an intrinsic, exponential decay in the stress caused by resistance at the ice stream margins. This behavior is independent of basal conditions beneath the ice stream and cannot be fit to observations using either elastic or nonlinear viscoelastic rheologies without nearly complete decoupling of the ice stream from its lateral margins. Our results suggest that a mechanism external to the ice stream is necessary to explain the tidal modulation of stresses far upstream of the grounding line for narrow ice streams. We propose a hydrologic model based on time-dependent variability in till strength to explain transmission of tidal stresses inland of the grounding line. This conceptual model can reproduce observations from Rutford Ice Stream.

Description: Simulating the Antarctic ice sheet in the Late-Pliocene warm period: PLISMIP-ANT, an ice-sheet model intercomparison project The Cryosphere Discussions, 8, 5539-5588, 2014 Author(s): B. de Boer, A. M. Dolan, J. Bernales, E. Gasson, H. Goelzer, N. R. Golledge, J. Sutter, P. Huybrechts, G. Lohmann, I. Rogozhina, A. Abe-Ouchi, F. Saito, and R. S. W. van de Wal In the context of future climate change, understanding the nature and behaviour of ice sheets during warm intervals in Earth history is of fundamental importance. The Late-Pliocene warm period (also known as the PRISM interval: 3.264 to 3.025 million years before present) can serve as a potential analogue for projected future climates. Although Pliocene ice locations and extents are still poorly constrained, a significant contribution to sea-level rise should be expected from both the Greenland ice sheet and the West and East Antarctic ice sheets based on palaeo sea-level reconstructions. Here, we present results from simulations of the Antarctic ice sheet by means of an international Pliocene Ice Sheet Modeling Intercomparison Project (PLISMIP-ANT). For the experiments, ice-sheet models including the shallow ice and shelf approximations have been used to simulate the complete Antarctic domain (including grounded and floating ice). We compare the performance of six existing numerical ice-sheet models in simulating modern control and Pliocene ice sheets by a suite of four sensitivity experiments. Ice-sheet model forcing fields are taken from the HadCM3 atmosphere–ocean climate model runs for the pre-industrial and the Pliocene. We include an overview of the different ice-sheet models used and how specific model configurations influence the resulting Pliocene Antarctic ice sheet. The six ice-sheet models simulate a comparable present-day ice sheet, although the models are setup with their own parameter settings. For the Pliocene simulations using the Bedmap1 bedrock topography, some models show a small retreat of the East Antarctic ice sheet, which is thought to have happened during the Pliocene for the Wilkes and Aurora basins. This can be ascribed to either the surface mass balance, as the HadCM3 Pliocene climate shows a significant increase over the Wilkes and Aurora basin, or the initial bedrock topography. For the latter, our simulations with the recently published Bedmap2 bedrock topography indicate a significantly larger contribution to Pliocene sea-level rise from the East Antarctic ice sheet for all six models relative to the simulations with Bedmap1.

Description: Fluctuations of a Greenlandic tidewater glacier driven by changes in atmospheric forcing: observations and modelling of Kangiata Nunaata Sermia, 1859–present The Cryosphere, 8, 2031-2045, 2014 Author(s): J. M. Lea, D. W. F. Mair, F. M. Nick, B. R. Rea, D. van As, M. Morlighem, P. W. Nienow, and A. Weidick Many tidewater glaciers in Greenland are known to have undergone significant retreat during the last century following their Little Ice Age maxima. Where it is possible to reconstruct glacier change over this period, they provide excellent records for comparison to climate records, as well as calibration/validation for numerical models. These glacier change records therefore allow for tests of numerical models that seek to simulate tidewater glacier behaviour over multi-decadal to centennial timescales. Here we present a detailed record of behaviour from Kangiata Nunaata Sermia (KNS), SW Greenland, between 1859 and 2012, and compare it against available oceanographic and atmospheric temperature data between 1871 and 2012. We also use these records to evaluate the ability of a well-established one-dimensional flow-band model to replicate behaviour for the observation period. The record of terminus change demonstrates that KNS has advanced/retreated in phase with atmosphere and ocean climate anomalies averaged over multi-annual to decadal timescales. Results from an ensemble of model runs demonstrate that observed dynamics can be replicated. Model runs that provide a reasonable match to observations always require a significant atmospheric forcing component, but do not necessarily require an oceanic forcing component. Although the importance of oceanic forcing cannot be discounted, these results demonstrate that changes in atmospheric forcing are likely to be a primary driver of the terminus fluctuations of KNS from 1859 to 2012. We propose that the detail and length of the record presented makes KNS an ideal site for model validation exercises investigating links between climate, calving rates, and tidewater glacier dynamics.

Description: In this study we first present updated riverine total alkalinity (TA) loads to the various Baltic Sea sub-basins, based on monthly measurements in 82 of the major rivers that represent 85% of the total runoff. Simulations in the coupled physical-biogeochemical BALTSEM model show that these river loads together with North Sea water inflows are not sufficient to reproduce observed TA concentrations in the system, demonstrating the large influence from internal sources. Budget calculations indicate that the required internal TA generation must be similar to river loads in magnitude. The non-riverine source in the system amounts to about 2.4 mmol m -2 d -1 on average. We argue here that the majority of this source is related to denitrification together with unresolved sediment processes such as burial of reduced sulfur and/or silicate weathering. This hypothesis is supported by studies on sediment processes on a global scale, and also by data from sediment cores in the Baltic Sea. In a model simulation with all internal TA sources and sinks switched on, the net absorption of atmospheric CO 2 increased by 0.78 mol C m -2 y -1 compared to a simulation where TA was treated as a passive tracer. Our results clearly illustrate how pelagic TA sources together with anaerobic mineralization in coastal sediments generate a significant carbon sink along the aquatic continuum, mitigating CO 2 evasions from coastal and estuarine systems.

Description: Hydrogeology of an Alpine rockfall aquifer system and its role in flood attenuation and maintaining baseflow Hydrology and Earth System Sciences, 18, 4437-4452, 2014 Author(s): U. Lauber, P. Kotyla, D. Morche, and N. Goldscheider The frequency and intensity of extreme hydrological events in Alpine regions is projected to increase with climate change. The goal of this study is to better understand the functioning of aquifers composed of complex alluvial and rockfall deposits in Alpine valleys and to quantify the role of these natural storage spaces in flood attenuation and baseflow maintenance. Geomorphological and hydrogeological mapping, tracer tests, and continuous flow measurements were conducted in the Reintal (German Alps), where runoff from a karst spring infiltrates a series of postglacial alluvial/rockfall aquifers. During high-flow conditions, groundwater velocities of 30 m h −1 were determined along 500 m; hydrograph analyses revealed short lag times (5 h) between discharge peaks upstream and downstream from the aquifer series; the maximum discharge ratio downstream (22) and the peak recession coefficient (0.196 d −1 ) are low compared with other Alpine catchments. During low-flow conditions, the underground flow path length increased to 2 km and groundwater velocities decreased to 13 m h −1 . Downstream hydrographs revealed a delayed discharge response after 101 h and peaks damped by a factor of 1.5. These results indicate that alluvial/rockfall aquifers might play an important role in the flow regime and attenuation of floods in Alpine regions.

Description: Observed groundwater temperature response to recent climate change Hydrology and Earth System Sciences, 18, 4453-4466, 2014 Author(s): K. Menberg, P. Blum, B. L. Kurylyk, and P. Bayer Climate change is known to have a considerable influence on many components of the hydrological cycle. Yet, the implications for groundwater temperature, as an important driver for groundwater quality, thermal use and storage, are not yet comprehensively understood. Furthermore, few studies have examined the implications of climate-change-induced groundwater temperature rise for groundwater-dependent ecosystems. Here, we examine the coupling of atmospheric and groundwater warming by employing stochastic and deterministic models. Firstly, several decades of temperature time series are statistically analyzed with regard to climate regime shifts (CRSs) in the long-term mean. The observed increases in shallow groundwater temperatures can be associated with preceding positive shifts in regional surface air temperatures, which are in turn linked to global air temperature changes. The temperature data are also analyzed with an analytical solution to the conduction–advection heat transfer equation to investigate how subsurface heat transfer processes control the propagation of the surface temperature signals into the subsurface. In three of the four monitoring wells, the predicted groundwater temperature increases driven by the regime shifts at the surface boundary condition generally concur with the observed groundwater temperature trends. Due to complex interactions at the ground surface and the heat capacity of the unsaturated zone, the thermal signals from distinct changes in air temperature are damped and delayed in the subsurface, causing a more gradual increase in groundwater temperatures. These signals can have a significant impact on large-scale groundwater temperatures in shallow and economically important aquifers. These findings demonstrate that shallow groundwater temperatures have responded rapidly to recent climate change and thus provide insight into the vulnerability of aquifers and groundwater-dependent ecosystems to future climate change.

Description: μLaue diffraction with a polychromatic X-ray beam can be used to measure strain fields and crystal orientations of micro crystals. The hydrostatic strain tensor can be obtained once the energy profile of the reflections is measured. However, this remains a challenge both on the time scale and reproducibility of the beam position on the sample. In this review, we present a new approach to obtain the spatial and energy profiles of Laue spots by using a pn-junction charge-coupled device, an energy-dispersive area detector providing 3D resolution of incident X-rays. The morphology and energetic structure of various Bragg peaks from a single crystalline Cu micro-cantilever used as a test system were simultaneously acquired. The method facilitates the determination of the Laue spots’ energy spectra without filtering the white X-ray beam. The synchrotron experiment was performed at the BM32 beamline of ESRF using polychromatic X-rays in the energy range between 5 and 25 keV and a beam size of 0.5 μ m × 0.5 μ m. The feasibility test on the well known system demonstrates the capabilities of the approach and introduces the “3D detector method” as a promising tool for material investigations to separate bending and strain for technical materials.

Description: A short prototype (847-mm-long) of an Insertion Device (ID) with the dynamic compensation of ID magnetic forces has been designed, built, and tested at the Advanced Photon Source (APS) of the Argonne National Laboratory. The ID magnetic forces were compensated by the set of conical springs placed along the ID strongback. Well-controlled exponential characteristics of conical springs permitted a very close fit to the ID magnetic forces. Several effects related to the imperfections of actual springs, their mounting and tuning, and how these factors affect the prototype performance has been studied. Finally, series of tests to determine the accuracy and reproducibility of the ID magnetic gap settings have been carried out. Based on the magnetic measurements of the ID B eff , it has been demonstrated that the magnetic gaps within an operating range were controlled accurately and reproducibly within ±1 μ m. Successful tests of this ID prototype led to the design of a 3-m long device based on the same concept. The 3-m long prototype is currently under construction. It represents R&D efforts by the APS toward APS Upgrade Project goals as well as the future generation of IDs for the Linac Coherent Light Source (LCLS).

Description: A description is given of an ultra-high vacuum surface-analysis chamber that incorporates an internal cell for performing atomic layer deposition at a pressure of up to ∼1 Torr. The apparatus permits the growth process to be interrupted in stages during which data can be obtained using infrared and x-ray photoemission spectroscopies together with other electron-based techniques. Demonstration results are given for the adsorption of H 2 O on Si (100) at a pressure of ∼0.3 Torr. The system described is generally applicable in the study of any surface reaction under non-high-vacuum conditions in which there is a need for both infrared and electron spectroscopies.

Description: We recently reported the development of a high pressure electrical conductivity probe (HP-ECP) for experimental studies of formation of gas hydrates from electrolytes. The onset of the formation of methane-propane mixed gas hydrate from salt solutions was marked by a temporary upward spike in the electrical conductivity. To further understand hydrate formation a second generation of window-less HP-ECP (MkII), which has a much smaller heat capacity than the earlier version and allows access to faster cooling rates, has been constructed. Using the HP-ECP (MkII) the electrical conductivity signal responses of NaCl solutions upon the formation of ice, tetrahydrofuran hydrates, and methane–propane mixed gas hydrate has been measured. The concentration range of the NaCl solutions was from 1 mM to 3M and the driving AC frequency range was from 25 Hz to 5 kHz. This data has been used to construct an “electrical conductivity response phase diagrams” that summarize the electrical conductivity response signal upon solid formation in these systems. The general trend is that gas hydrate formation is marked by an upward spike in the conductivity at high concentrations and by a drop at low concentrations. This work shows that HP-ECP can be applied in automated measurements of hydrate formation probability distributions of optically opaque samples using the conductivity response signals as a trigger.

Description: In thermomechanical testing of hypersonic materials and structures, direct observation and quantitative strain measurement of the front surface of a test specimen directly exposed to severe aerodynamic heating has been considered as a very challenging task. In this work, a novel quartz infrared heating device with an observation window is designed to reproduce the transient thermal environment experienced by hypersonic vehicles. The specially designed experimental system allows the capture of test article's surface images at various temperatures using an optical system outfitted with a bandpass filter. The captured images are post-processed by digital image correlation to extract full-field thermal deformation. To verify the viability and accuracy of the established system, thermal strains of a chromiumnickel austenite stainless steel sample heated from room temperature up to 600 °C were determined. The preliminary results indicate that the air disturbance between the camera and the specimen due to heat haze induces apparent distortions in the recorded images and large errors in the measured strains, but the average values of the measured strains are accurate enough. Limitations and further improvements of the proposed technique are discussed.

Description: Snow mass decrease in the Northern Hemisphere (1979/80–2010/11) The Cryosphere Discussions, 8, 5623-5644, 2014 Author(s): Z. Li, J. Liu, L. Huang, N. Wang, B. Tian, J. Zhou, Q. Chen, and P. Zhang Snow cover has a key effect on climate change and hydrological cycling, as well as water supply to a sixth of the world's population across the Northern Hemisphere. However, reliable data on trends in snow cover in the Northern Hemisphere is lacking. Snow water equivalent (SWE) is a common measure of the amount of equivalent water of the snow pack. Here we verify the accuracy of three existing global SWE products and merge the most accurate aspects of them to generate a new SWE product covering the last 32 years (1979/80–2010/11). Using this new SWE product, we show that there has been a significant decreasing trend in the total mass of snow in the Northern Hemisphere. The most notable changes in total snow mass are −16.45 ± 6.68 and −13.55 ± 7.80 Gt year −1 in January and February, respectively. These are followed by March and December, which have trends of −12.58 ± 6.88 and −10.70 ± 5.62 Gt year −1 , respectively, from 1979/80 to 2010/11. During the same period, the temperature in the study area raised 0.17 °C decade −1 , which is thought to be the main reason of SWE decline.

Description: Factors controlling Slope Environmental Lapse Rate (SELR) of temperature in the monsoon and cold-arid glacio-hydrological regimes of the Himalaya The Cryosphere Discussions, 8, 5645-5686, 2014 Author(s): R. J. Thayyen and A. P. Dimri Moisture, temperature and precipitation interplay forced through the orographic processes sustains the Himalayan cryospheric system. However, factors controlling the Slope Environmental Lapse Rate (SELR) of temperature along the higher Himalayan mountain slopes across various glacio-hydrologic regimes remain as a key knowledge gap. Present study dwells on the orographic processes driving the moisture–temperature interplay in the monsoon and cold-arid glacio-hydrological regimes of the Himalaya. Systematic data collection at three altitudes between 2540 and 3763 m a.s.l. in the Garhwal Himalaya (hereafter called monsoon regime) and between 3500 and 5600 m a.s.l. in the Ladakh Himalaya (herefater called cold-arid regime) revealed moistrue control on temperature distribution at temporal and spatial scales. Observed daily SELR of temperature ranges between 9.0 to 1.9 °C km −1 and 17.0 to 2.8 °C km −1 in the monsoon and cold-arid regimes respectively highlighting strong regional variability. Moisture influx to the region, either from Indian summer monsoon (ISM) or from Indian winter monsoon (IWM) forced lowering of SELR. This phenophena of "monsoon lowering" of SELR is due to the release latent heat of condensation from orographically focred lifted air parcel. Seasonal response of SELR in the monsoon regime is found to be closly linked with the variations in the local lifting condensation levels (LCL). Contrary to this, cold-arid system is characterised by the extremely high values of daily SELR upto 17 °C km −1 signifying the extremely arid conditions prevailing in summer. Distinctly lower SELR devoid of monsoon lowering at higher altitude sections of monsoon and cold-arid regimes suggests sustained wetter high altitude regimes. We have proposed a SELR model for both glacio-hydrological regimes demostrating with two sections each using a derivative of the Clausius–Clapeyron relationship by deriving monthly SELR indices. It has been proposed that the manifestations of presence or absence of moisture is the single most important factor determining the temperature distribution along the higher Himalayan slopes driven by the orographic forcings. This work also suggests that the arbitary use of temperature lapse rate to extrapolate temperature to the higher Himalaya is extremely untenable.

Description: ABSTRACT In a review of the role of plants in river systems, Gurnell (2014) explains how living riparian vegetation can exert physical controls that enable it to modify and manipulate many fluvial processes. Those traits, in combination with their tendency to speed up the recovery of river systems between extreme flow events through their stabilising influence, imply that plants may act as ‘river system engineers’. In this sense, vegetation may be important in attenuating erosion during high flow and stabilising river features both during and after extreme flow conditions. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.

Description: ABSTRACT This paper is a response to commentary on the review by Gurnell (2014). It covers three themes. First, it explains how the review focused on physical ecosystem engineering by plants, particularly in the northern humid temperate zone. Second, it explains how the review was structured to address that theme and why annual species were not highlighted. Within the humid temperate zone, mature plants of annual species are not present during the seasons of the year when fluvial processes are most active: they survive as seeds or young seedlings, and so their ability to act as river ecosystem engineers is limited. Third, some comments are made regarding the annual species, Himalayan balsam ( Impatiens glandulifera ), including the traits that enable it to be successful in riparian environments, its competitive ability, its potential role in influencing fluvial sediment dynamics, and the need for controlled experiments to characterise and quantify the latter over one or more complete years. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.

Description: Evaluation of the satellite-based Global Flood Detection System for measuring river discharge: influence of local factors Hydrology and Earth System Sciences, 18, 4467-4484, 2014 Author(s): B. Revilla-Romero, J. Thielen, P. Salamon, T. De Groeve, and G. R. Brakenridge One of the main challenges for global hydrological modelling is the limited availability of observational data for calibration and model verification. This is particularly the case for real-time applications. This problem could potentially be overcome if discharge measurements based on satellite data were sufficiently accurate to substitute for ground-based measurements. The aim of this study is to test the potentials and constraints of the remote sensing signal of the Global Flood Detection System for converting the flood detection signal into river discharge values. The study uses data for 322 river measurement locations in Africa, Asia, Europe, North America and South America. Satellite discharge measurements were calibrated for these sites and a validation analysis with in situ discharge was performed. The locations with very good performance will be used in a future project where satellite discharge measurements are obtained on a daily basis to fill the gaps where real-time ground observations are not available. These include several international river locations in Africa: the Niger, Volta and Zambezi rivers. Analysis of the potential factors affecting the satellite signal was based on a classification decision tree (random forest) and showed that mean discharge, climatic region, land cover and upstream catchment area are the dominant variables which determine good or poor performance of the measure\-ment sites. In general terms, higher skill scores were obtained for locations with one or more of the following characteristics: a river width higher than 1km; a large floodplain area and in flooded forest, a potential flooded area greater than 40%; sparse vegetation, croplands or grasslands and closed to open and open forest; leaf area index 〉 2; tropical climatic area; and without hydraulic infrastructures. Also, locations where river ice cover is seasonally present obtained higher skill scores. This work provides guidance on the best locations and limitations for estimating discharge values from these daily satellite signals.

Description: Sampling frequency trade-offs in the assessment of mean transit times of tropical montane catchment waters under semi-steady-state conditions Hydrology and Earth System Sciences Discussions, 11, 12443-12488, 2014 Author(s): E. Timbe, D. Windhorst, R. Celleri, L. Timbe, P. Crespo, H.-G. Frede, J. Feyen, and L. Breuer Stream and soil waters were collected on a weekly basis in a tropical montane cloud forest catchment for two years and analyzed for stable water isotopes in order to infer transit time distribution functions and to define the mean transit times. Depending on the water type (stream or soil water), lumped distribution functions such as Exponential-Piston flow, Linear-Piston flow and Gamma models using temporal isotopic variations of precipitation event samples as input, were fitted. Samples were aggregated to daily, weekly, biweekly, monthly and bimonthly time scales in order to check the sensitivity of temporal sampling on model predictions. The study reveals that the effect of decreasing sampling frequency depends on the water type. For soil waters with transit times in the order of weeks to months, there was a clear trend of over prediction. In contrast, the trend of prediction for stream waters, with a dampened isotopic signal and mean transit times in the order of 2 to 4 years, was less clear and depending on the type of model used. The trade-off to coarse data resolutions could potentially lead to misleading conclusions on how water actually moves through the catchment, while at the same time predictions can reach better fitting efficiencies, lesser uncertainties, errors and biases. For both water types an optimal sampling frequency seems to be one or at most two weeks. The results of our analyses provide information for the planning (in particular in terms of cost-benefit and time requirements) of future fieldwork in similar Andean or other catchments.

Description: The comprehensive general circulation model ECHAM6 is used in a radiative-convective equilibrium configuration. It is coupled to a perfectly conducting slab. To understand the local impact of thermodynamic surface properties on the land-ocean warming contrast, the surface latent heat flux and surface heat capacity are reduced stepwise, aiming for a land-like climate. Both ocean- and land-like RCE simulation reproduce the tropical atmosphere over ocean and land in a satisfactory manner and lead to reasonable land-ocean warming ratios. A small surface heat capacity induces a high diurnal surface temperature range which triggers precipitation during the day and decouples the free troposphere from the diurnal mean temperature. With increasing evaporation resistance, the net atmospheric cooling rate decreases because cloud base height rises, causing a reduction of precipitation. Climate sensitivity depends more on changes in evaporation resistance than on changes in surface heat capacity. A feedback analysis with the partial radiation perturbation method shows that amplified warming over idealized land can be associated with disproportional changes in the lapse rate versus the water vapor feedback. Cloud feedbacks, convective aggregation and changes in global mean surface temperature confuse the picture.

Description: A simplified method for calibrating atomic force microscope cantilevers was recently proposed by Sader et al. [Rev. Sci. Instrum.83, 103705 (2012); Sec. III D] that relies solely on the resonant frequency and quality factor of the cantilever in fluid (typically air). This method eliminates the need to measure the hydrodynamic function of the cantilever, which can be time consuming given the wide range of cantilevers now available. Using laser Doppler vibrometry, we rigorously assess the accuracy of this method for a series of commercially available cantilevers and explore its performance under non-ideal conditions. This shows that the simplified method is highly accurate and can be easily implemented to perform fast, robust, and non-invasive spring constant calibration.

Description: There exist a number of algorithms to map the phase to amplitude in direct digital synthesis (DDS). For DDS with more than 14 output bits, the Coordinate Rotation Digital Computer (CORDIC) algorithm is well known for its high precision. Also, it is effective in solutions where there is the need of in-phase and quadrature components simultaneously because the algorithm calculates both. In this paper, a Taylor expansion based method was proposed to calculate both in-phase and quadrature at the same time. Numerical simulations for different data format, e.g., double and finite bits, were carried out in Matlab and Quartus, which were followed by the hardware implementation in Field Programmable Gate Array. The results demonstrated that the proposed method possessed higher precision and exhausted less logic elements than the CORDIC algorithm.

Description: We present a Time-to-Digital Converter (TDC) card with a compact form factor, suitable for multichannel timing instruments or for integration into more complex systems. The TDC Card provides 10 ps timing resolution over the whole measurement range, which is selectable from 160 ns up to 10 μ s, reaching 21 ps rms precision, 1.25% LSB rms differential nonlinearity, up to 3 Mconversion/s with 400 mW power consumption. The I/O edge card connector provides timing data readout through either a parallel bus or a 100 MHz serial interface and further measurement information like input signal rate and valid conversion rate (typically useful for time-correlated single-photon counting application) through an independent serial link.

Description: This paper proposes a new pulse-mixing scheme utilizing both pulse-shrinking and pulse-stretching mechanisms to improve the performance of time-to-digital converters (TDCs). The temporal resolution of the conventional pulse-shrinking mechanism is determined by the size ratio between homogeneous and inhomogeneous elements. The proposed scheme which features double-stage operation derives its resolution according to the time difference between pulse-shrinking and pulse-stretching amounts. Thus, it can achieve greater immunity against temperature and ambient variations than that of the single-stage scheme. The circuit area also can be reduced by the proposed pulse-mixing scheme. In addition, this study proposes an improved cyclic delay line to eliminate the undesirable shift in the temporal resolution successfully. Therefore, the effective resolution can be controlled completely by the pulse-mixing unit to improve accuracy. The proposed TDC composed of only one cyclic delay line and one counter is fabricated in a TSMC CMOS 0.35-μm DPQM process. The chip core occupies an extremely small area of 0.02 mm 2 , which is the best among the related works. The experimental result shows that an effective resolution of around 53 ps within ±13% variation over a 0–100 °C temperature range is achieved. The power consumption is 90 μW at a sample rate of 1000 samples/s. In addition to the reduced area, the proposed TDC circuit achieves its resolution with less thermal-sensitivity and better fluctuations caused by process variations.

Description: Real time, in situ , multiframe, diffraction, and imaging measurements on bulk samples under high and ultrahigh strain-rate loading are highly desirable for micro- and mesoscale sciences. We present an experimental demonstration of multiframe transient x-ray diffraction (TXD) along with simultaneous imaging under high strain-rate loading at the Advanced Photon Source beamline 32ID. The feasibility study utilizes high strain-rate Hopkinson bar loading on a Mg alloy. The exposure time in TXD is 2–3 μs, and the frame interval is 26.7–62.5 μs. Various dynamic deformation mechanisms are revealed by TXD, including lattice expansion or compression, crystal plasticity, grain or lattice rotation, and likely grain refinement, as well as considerable anisotropy in deformation. Dynamic strain fields are mapped via x-ray digital image correlation, and are consistent with the diffraction measurements and loading histories.

Description: We report techniques developed to utilize three-dimensional momentum information as feedback in adaptive femtosecond control of molecular dynamics. Velocity map imaging is used to obtain the three-dimensional momentum map of the dissociating ions following interaction with a shaped intense ultrafast laser pulse. In order to recover robust feedback information, however, the two-dimensional momentum projection from the detector must be inverted to reconstruct the full three-dimensional momentum of the photofragments. These methods are typically slow or require manual inputs and are therefore accomplished offline after the images have been obtained. Using an algorithm based upon an “onion-peeling” (also known as “back projection”) method, we are able to invert 1040 × 1054 pixel images in under 1 s. This rapid inversion allows the full photofragment momentum to be used as feedback in a closed-loop adaptive control scheme, in which a genetic algorithm tailors an ultrafast laser pulse to optimize a specific outcome. Examples of three-dimensional velocity map image based control applied to strong-field dissociation of CO and O 2 are presented.

Description: In order to improve the atom spin gyroscope's operational accuracy and compensate the random error caused by the nonlinear and weak-stability characteristic of the random atomic spin gyroscope (ASG) drift, the hybrid random drift error model based on autoregressive (AR) and genetic programming (GP) + genetic algorithm (GA) technique is established. The time series of random ASG drift is taken as the study object. The time series of random ASG drift is acquired by analyzing and preprocessing the measured data of ASG. The linear section model is established based on AR technique. After that, the nonlinear section model is built based on GP technique and GA is used to optimize the coefficients of the mathematic expression acquired by GP in order to obtain a more accurate model. The simulation result indicates that this hybrid model can effectively reflect the characteristics of the ASG's random drift. The square error of the ASG's random drift is reduced by 92.40%. Comparing with the AR technique and the GP + GA technique, the random drift is reduced by 9.34% and 5.06%, respectively. The hybrid modeling method can effectively compensate the ASG's random drift and improve the stability of the system.

Description: This paper describes the design and performance of an extremely low-noise differential transimpedance amplifier, which takes its two inputs from separate photodiodes. The amplifier was planned to serve as the front-end electronics for a highly sensitive shadow-displacement sensing system, aimed at detecting very low-level “Violin-Mode” ( VM ) oscillations in 0.4 mm diameter by 600 mm long fused-silica suspension fibres. Four such highly tensioned fibres support the 40 kg test-masses/mirrors of the Advanced Laser Interferometer Gravitational wave Observatory interferometers. This novel design of amplifier incorporates features which prevent “noise-gain peaking” arising from large area photodiode (and cable) capacitances, and which also usefully separate the DC and AC photocurrents coming from the photodiodes. In consequence, the differential amplifier was able to generate straightforwardly two DC outputs, one per photodiode, as well as a single high-gain output for monitoring the VM oscillations—this output being derived from the difference of the photodiodes’ two, naturally anti-phase, AC photocurrents. Following a displacement calibration, the amplifier's final VM signal output was found to have an AC displacement responsivity at 500 Hz of (9.43 ± 1.20) MV(rms) m −1 (rms), and, therefore, a shot-noise limited sensitivity to such AC shadow- (i.e., fibre-) displacements of (69 ± 13) picometres/√Hz at this frequency, over a measuring span of ±0.1 mm.

Description: A model study of Abrahamsenbreen, a surging glacier in northern Spitsbergen The Cryosphere Discussions, 8, 5687-5726, 2014 Author(s): J. Oerlemans and W. J. J. van Pelt The climate sensitivity of Abrahamsenbreen, a 20 km long surge-type glacier in northern Spitsbergen, is studied with a simple glacier model. A scheme to describe the surges is included, which makes it possible to account for the effect of surges on the total mass budget of the glacier. A climate reconstruction back to AD 1300, based on ice-core data from Lomonosovfonna and climate records from Longyearbyen, is used to drive the model. The model is calibrated by requesting that it produces the correct Little Ice Age maximum glacier length and simulates the observed magnitude of the 1978-surge. Abrahamsenbreen is strongly out of balance with the current climate. If climatic conditions will remain as they were for the period 1989–2010, the glacier will ultimately shrink to a length of about 4 km (but this will take hundreds of years). For a climate change scenario involving a 2 m yr −1 rise of the equilibrium line from now onwards, we predict that in the year 2100 Abrahamsenbreen will be about 12 km long. The main effect of a surge is to lower the mean surface elevation and to increase the ablation area, thereby causing a negative perturbation of the mass budget. We found that the occurrence of surges leads to a somewhat stronger retreat of the glacier in a warming climate. Because of the very small bed slope, Abrahamsenbreen is sensitive to small perturbations in the equilibrium-line altitude E . For a decrease of E of only 160 m, the glacier would steadily grow into the Woodfjorddalen until after 2000 years it would reach the Woodfjord and calving could slow down the advance.

Description: This technical note presents a useful methodology for studying how the variance of hydraulic and/or reactive attributes of an aquifer are linked to the multi-scaled and hierarchical sedimentary architecture of the aquifer. A new recursive equation is derived which quantitatively describes how the variance is related to sedimentary facies defined at all scales across an entire stratal hierarchy. As compared to prior published equations that emphasize differences in means among facies populations within a hierarchical level, it emphasizes differences across levels. Because of the hierarchical relationships among the terms of the equation, we find it to be useful for conducting a holistic analysis of the relative contributions to the variance arising from all facies types defined across all scales. The methodology is demonstrated using appropriate field data, and is shown to be useful in defining parsimonious classification systems.

Description: ABSTRACT A primary concern for geologic carbon storage is the potential for leakage of stored carbon dioxide (CO 2 ) into the shallow subsurface where it could degrade the quality of groundwater and surface water. In order to predict and mitigate the potentially negative impacts of CO 2 leakage, it is important to understand the physical processes that CO 2 will undergo as it moves through naturally heterogeneous porous media formations. Previous studies have shown that heterogeneity can enhance the evolution of gas phase CO 2 in some cases, but the conditions under which this occurs have not yet been quantitatively defined, nor tested through laboratory experiments. This study quantitatively investigates the effects of geologic heterogeneity on the process of gas phase CO 2 evolution in shallow aquifers through an extensive set of experiments conducted in a column that was packed with layers of various test sands. Soil moisture sensors were utilized to observe the formation of gas phase near the porous media interfaces. Results indicate that the conditions under which heterogeneity controls gas phase evolution can be successfully predicted through analysis of simple parameters, including the dissolved CO 2 concentration in the flowing water, the distance between the heterogeneity and the leakage location, and some fundamental properties of the porous media. Results also show that interfaces where a less permeable material overlies a more permeable material affect gas phase evolution more significantly than interfaces with the opposite layering.

Description: We present a novel high-precision two-way optic-fiber time transfer scheme. The Inter-Range Instrumentation Group (IRIG-B) time code is modified by increasing bit rate and defining new fields. The modified time code can be transmitted directly using commercial optical transceivers and is able to efficiently suppress the effect of the Rayleigh backscattering in the optical fiber. A dedicated codec (encoder and decoder) with low delay fluctuation is developed. The synchronization issue is addressed by adopting a mask technique and combinational logic circuit. Its delay fluctuation is less than 27 ps in terms of the standard deviation. The two-way optic-fiber time transfer using the improved codec scheme is verified experimentally over 2 m to100 km fiber links. The results show that the stability over 100 km fiber link is always less than 35 ps with the minimum value of about 2 ps at the averaging time around 1000 s. The uncertainty of time difference induced by the chromatic dispersion over 100 km is less than 22 ps.

Description: Neutrons spectra from most of known sources require being collimated for numerous applications; among them one is the Neutron Activation Analysis. High energy neutrons are collimated through a mechanical procedure as one of the most promising methods. The output energy of the neutron beam depends on the velocity of the rotating Polyethylene disks. The collimated neutrons are then measured by an innovative detection technique with high accuracy.

Description: Technical Note: On the Matt–Shuttleworth approach to estimate crop water requirements Hydrology and Earth System Sciences, 18, 4341-4348, 2014 Author(s): J. P. Lhomme, N. Boudhina, and M. M. Masmoudi The Matt–Shuttleworth method provides a way to make a one-step estimate of crop water requirements with the Penman–Monteith equation by translating the crop coefficients, commonly available in United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) publications, into equivalent surface resistances. The methodology is based upon the theoretical relationship linking crop surface resistance to a crop coefficient and involves the simplifying assumption that the reference crop evapotranspiration (ET 0 ) is equal to the Priestley–Taylor estimate with a fixed coefficient of 1.26. This assumption, used to eliminate the dependence of surface resistance on certain weather variables, is questionable; numerical simulations show that it can lead to substantial differences between the true value of surface resistance and its estimate. Consequently, the basic relationship between surface resistance and crop coefficient, without any assumption, appears to be more appropriate for inferring crop surface resistance, despite the interference of weather variables.

Description: Variational assimilation of remotely sensed flood extents using a 2-D flood model Hydrology and Earth System Sciences, 18, 4325-4339, 2014 Author(s): X. Lai, Q. Liang, H. Yesou, and S. Daillet A variational data assimilation (4D-Var) method is proposed to directly assimilate flood extents into a 2-D dynamic flood model to explore a novel way of utilizing the rich source of remotely sensed data available from satellite imagery for better analyzing or predicting flood routing processes. For this purpose, a new cost function is specially defined to effectively fuse the hydraulic information that is implicitly indicated in flood extents. The potential of using remotely sensed flood extents for improving the analysis of flood routing processes is demonstrated by applying the present new data assimilation approach to both idealized and realistic numerical experiments.

Description: Quantitative high-resolution observations of soil water dynamics in a complicated architecture with time-lapse Ground-Penetrating Radar Hydrology and Earth System Sciences Discussions, 11, 12365-12404, 2014 Author(s): P. Klenk, S. Jaumann, and K. Roth High-resolution time-lapse Ground-Penetrating Radar (GPR) observations of advancing and retreating water tables can yield a wealth of information about near-surface water content dynamics. In this study, we present and analyze a series of imbibition, drainage and infiltration experiments which have been carried out at our artificial ASSESS test site and observed with surface based GPR. The test site features a complicated but known subsurface architecture constructed with three different kinds of sand. It allows studying soil water dynamics with GPR under a wide range of different conditions. Here, we assess in particular (i) the accurate determination of soil water dynamics averaged over the whole vertical extent by evaluating the bottom reflection and (ii) the feasibility of monitoring the dynamic shape of the capillary fringe reflection. The phenomenology of the GPR response of a dynamically changing capillary fringe is developed from a soil physical point of view. We then explain experimentally observed phenomena based on numerical simulations of both the water content dynamics and the expected GPR response.

Description: Translating aboveground cosmic-ray neutron intensity to high-frequency soil moisture profiles at sub-kilometer scale Hydrology and Earth System Sciences, 18, 4363-4379, 2014 Author(s): R. Rosolem, T. Hoar, A. Arellano, J. L. Anderson, W. J. Shuttleworth, X. Zeng, and T. E. Franz Above-ground cosmic-ray neutron measurements provide an opportunity to infer soil moisture at the sub-kilometer scale. Initial efforts to assimilate those measurements have shown promise. This study expands such analysis by investigating (1) how the information from aboveground cosmic-ray neutrons can constrain the soil moisture at distinct depths simulated by a land surface model, and (2) how changes in data availability (in terms of retrieval frequency) impact the dynamics of simulated soil moisture profiles. We employ ensemble data assimilation techniques in a "nearly-identical twin" experiment applied at semi-arid shrubland, rainfed agricultural field, and mixed forest biomes in the USA. The performance of the Noah land surface model is compared with and without assimilation of observations at hourly intervals, as well as every 2 days. Synthetic observations of aboveground cosmic-ray neutrons better constrain the soil moisture simulated by Noah in root-zone soil layers (0–100cm), despite the limited measurement depth of the sensor (estimated to be 12–20cm). The ability of Noah to reproduce a "true" soil moisture profile is remarkably good, regardless of the frequency of observations at the semi-arid site. However, soil moisture profiles are better constrained when assimilating synthetic cosmic-ray neutron observations hourly rather than every 2 days at the cropland and mixed forest sites. This indicates potential benefits for hydrometeorological modeling when soil moisture measurements are available at a relatively high frequency. Moreover, differences in summertime meteorological forcing between the semi-arid site and the other two sites may indicate a possible controlling factor to soil moisture dynamics in addition to differences in soil and vegetation properties.

Description: Large-scale 3-D modeling by integration of resistivity models and borehole data through inversion Hydrology and Earth System Sciences, 18, 4349-4362, 2014 Author(s): N. Foged, P. A. Marker, A. V. Christansen, P. Bauer-Gottwein, F. Jørgensen, A.-S. Høyer, and E. Auken We present an automatic method for parameterization of a 3-D model of the subsurface, integrating lithological information from boreholes with resistivity models through an inverse optimization, with the objective of further detailing of geological models, or as direct input into groundwater models. The parameter of interest is the clay fraction, expressed as the relative length of clay units in a depth interval. The clay fraction is obtained from lithological logs and the clay fraction from the resistivity is obtained by establishing a simple petrophysical relationship, a translator function, between resistivity and the clay fraction. Through inversion we use the lithological data and the resistivity data to determine the optimum spatially distributed translator function. Applying the translator function we get a 3-D clay fraction model, which holds information from the resistivity data set and the borehole data set in one variable. Finally, we use k -means clustering to generate a 3-D model of the subsurface structures. We apply the procedure to the Norsminde survey in Denmark, integrating approximately 700 boreholes and more than 100 000 resistivity models from an airborne survey in the parameterization of the 3-D model covering 156 km 2 . The final five-cluster 3-D model differentiates between clay materials and different high-resistivity materials from information held in the resistivity model and borehole observations, respectively.

Description: Simulating long-term past changes in the balance between water demand and availability and assessing their main drivers at the river basin management scale Hydrology and Earth System Sciences Discussions, 11, 12315-12364, 2014 Author(s): J. Fabre, D. Ruelland, A. Dezetter, and B. Grouillet The aim of this study was to assess the balance between water demand and availability and its spatial and temporal variability from 1971 to 2009 in the Herault (2500 km 2 , France) and the Ebro (85 000 km 2 , Spain) catchments. Natural streamflow was evaluated using a conceptual hydrological model. The regulation of river flow was accounted for through a widely applicable demand-driven reservoir management model applied to the largest dam in the Herault basin and to 11 major dams in the Ebro basin. Urban water demand was estimated from population and monthly unit water consumption data. Water demand for irrigation was computed from irrigated area, crop and soil data, and climatic forcing. Finally, a series of indicators comparing water supply and water demand at strategic resource and demand nodes were computed at a 10 day time step. Variations in water stress in each catchment over the past 40 years were successfully modeled, taking into account climatic and anthropogenic pressures and changes in water management strategies over time. Observed changes in discharge were explained by separating human and hydro-climatic pressures on water resources: respectively 20 and 3% of the decrease in the Ebro and the Herault discharges were linked to human-induced changes. Although key areas of the Herault basin were shown to be highly sensitive to hydro-climatic variability, the balance between water uses and availability in the Ebro basin appears to be more critical, owing to high agricultural pressure on water resources. The proposed modeling framework is currently being used to assess water stress under climatic and socio-economic prospective scenarios. Further research will investigate the effectiveness of adaptation policies aimed at maintaining the balance between water use and availability.

Description: Time-series analysis of the long-term hydrologic impacts of afforestation in the Águeda watershed of North-Central Portugal Hydrology and Earth System Sciences Discussions, 11, 12223-12256, 2014 Author(s): D. Hawtree, J. P. Nunes, J. J. Keizer, R. Jacinto, J. Santos, M. E. Rial-Rivas, A.-K. Boulet, F. Tavares-Wahren, and K.-H. Feger The north-central region of Portugal has undergone significant afforestation of the species Pinus pinaster and Eucalyptus globulus since the early 1900s; however, the long-term hydrologic impacts of this land cover change are not fully understood. To contribute to a better understanding of the potential hydrologic impacts of this land cover change, this study examines the temporal trends in 7 years of data from the Águeda watershed (part of the Vouga Basin) over the period of 1936 to 2010. Meteorological and hydrological records were analysed using a combined Thiel–Sen/Mann–Kendall trend testing approach, to assess the magnitude and significance of patterns in the observed data. These trend tests indicated that there had been no significant reduction in streamflow yield over either the entire test period, or during sub-record periods, despite the large-scale afforestation which had taken place. This lack of change is attributed to both the characteristics of the watershed and the nature of the land cover change. By contrast, a number of significant trends were found for baseflow index, which showed positive trends in the early data record (primarily during Pinus pinaster afforestation), followed by a reversal to negative trends later in the data record (primarily during Eucalyptus globulus afforestation). These changes are attributed to vegetation impacts on streamflow generating processes, both due to the species differences and to alterations in soil properties (i.e. promoting water repellency of the topsoil). These results highlight the importance of considering both vegetation types/dynamics and watershed characteristic when assessing hydrologic impacts, in particular with respect to soil properties.

Description: Reply to D. L. Peters' comment on "Streamflow input to Lake Athabasca, Canada" by Rasouli et al. (2013) Hydrology and Earth System Sciences Discussions, 11, 12257-12270, 2014 Author(s): K. Rasouli, M. A. Hernández-Henríquez, and S. J. Déry This paper provides a reply to a comment from Peters (2014) on our recent effort focused on evaluating changes in streamflow input to Lake Athabasca, Canada. Lake Athabasca experienced a 21.2% decline in streamflow input between 1960 and 2010 that has led to a marked decline in its water levels in recent decades. A reassessment of trends in naturalized Lake Athabasca water levels shows insignificant changes from our previous findings reported in Rasouli et al. (2013), and hence our previous conclusions remain unchanged. The reply closes with recommendations for future research to minimize uncertainties in historical assessments of trends in Lake Athabasca water levels and to better project its future water levels driven by climate change and anthropogenic activities in the Athabasca Lake Basin.

Description: Is sinuosity a function of slope and bankfull discharge? – A case study of the meandering rivers in the Pannonian Basin Hydrology and Earth System Sciences Discussions, 11, 12271-12290, 2014 Author(s): J. Petrovszki, G. Timár, and G. Molnár Pre-regulation channel sinuosities of the meandering rivers of the Pannonian Basin are analysed in order to define a mathematical model to estimate the influence of the bankfull discharge and the channel slope on them. As a primary database, data triplets of slope, discharge and sinuosity values were extracted from historical and modern datasets and pre-regulation historical topographic maps. Channel slope values were systematically modified to estimate figures valid before the river regulation works. The bankfull discharges were estimated from the average discharges using a robust yet complex method. The "classical" graphs of Leopold and Wolman (1957), Ackers and Charlton (1970b) and Schumm and Khan (1972) were compiled to a set up a theoretical surface, whose parameters are estimated by the real values of the above database, containing characteristics of the Pannonian Basin rivers. As a result it occurred that there is a two-dimensional function of the bankfull discharges, which provides a good estimation of the most probable sinuosity values of the rivers with the given slope and discharge characteristics. The average RMS error of this estimation is around 15% on this dataset and believed to be the effect of the non-analysed changes in the sediment discharge and size distribution.

Description: Technical Note: Field experiences using UV/VIS sensors for high-resolution monitoring of nitrate in groundwater Hydrology and Earth System Sciences Discussions, 11, 12291-12314, 2014 Author(s): M. Huebsch, F. Grimmeisen, M. Zemann, O. Fenton, K. G. Richards, P. Jordan, A. Sawarieh, P. Blum, and N. Goldscheider Two different in-situ spectrophotometers are compared that were used in the field to determine nitrate-nitrogen (NO 3 -N) concentrations at two distinct spring discharge sites. One sensor was a double wavelength spectrophotometer (DWS) and the other a multiple wavelength spectrophotometer (MWS). The objective of the study was to review the hardware options, determine ease of calibration, accuracy, influence of additional substances and to assess positive and negative aspects of the two sensors as well as troubleshooting and trade-offs. Both sensors are sufficient to monitor highly time-resolved NO 3 -N concentrations in emergent groundwater. However, the chosen path length of the sensors had a significant influence on the sensitivity and the range of detectable NO 3 -N. The accuracy of the calculated NO 3 -N concentrations of the sensors can be affected, if the content of additional substances such as turbidity, organic matter, nitrite or hydrogen carbonate significantly varies after the sensors have been calibrated to a particular water matrix. The MWS offers more possibilities for calibration and error detection, but requires more expertise compared with the DWS.

Description: A catalog of high-impact windstorms in Switzerland since 1859 Natural Hazards and Earth System Science, 14, 2867-2882, 2014 Author(s): P. Stucki, S. Brönnimann, O. Martius, C. Welker, M. Imhof, N. von Wattenwyl, and N. Philipp In recent decades, extremely hazardous windstorms have caused enormous losses to buildings, infrastructure and forests in Switzerland. This has increased societal and scientific interest in the intensity and frequency of historical high-impact storms. However, high-resolution wind data and damage statistics mostly span recent decades only. For this study, we collected quantitative (e.g., volumes of windfall timber, losses relating to buildings) and descriptive (e.g., forestry or insurance reports) information on the impact of historical windstorms. To define windstorm severity, normalized and declustered quantitative data were processed by extreme value statistics. Descriptive information was classified using a conceptual guideline. Validation with independent damage information, as well as comparison with wind measurements and a reanalysis, indicates that the most hazardous winter storms are captured, while too few moderate windstorms are detected. Strong storms in the wind measurements and reanalysis are thus added to the catalog. The final catalog encompasses approximately 240 high-impact windstorms in Switzerland since 1859. It features three robust severity classes and contains eight extreme windstorms. Evidence of high winter storm activity in the early and late 20th century compared to the mid-20th century in both damage and wind data indicates a co-variability of hazard and related damage on decadal timescales.

Description: Generalized drought assessment in Dongliao river basin based on water resources system Natural Hazards and Earth System Sciences Discussions, 2, 6703-6746, 2014 Author(s): B. S. Weng, D. H. Yan, H. Wang, T. L. Qin, and J. Yin Drought is firstly a resource issue, and with its development it transforms into a disaster issue. The occurrences of drought events usually feature determinacy and randomness. Drought issue has become one of the major factors to affect sustainable economic and social development. In this paper, we propose the generalized drought assessment index (GDAI) based on water resources system for assessing drought events. The GDAI considers water supply and water demand using a distributed hydrological model. We demonstrate the use of the proposed index in the Dongliao river basin (DRB) in the northeast China. The results simulated by the GDAI are then compared to observed drought disaster records in DRB. As second, the temporal distribution of drought events and the spatial distribution of drought frequency from the GDAI are compared with the traditional approach (i.e. the SPI, the PDSI, and the RWD). Then, generalized drought times (GDT), generalized drought duration (GDD), and generalized drought severity (GDS) were calculated by theory of runs. Application of the GDT, the GDD, and the GDS of various drought levels (i.e. mild drought, moderate drought, severe drought, and extreme drought) to the period 1960–2010 shows that the centers of gravity of them are all distributed in the middle reached of DRB, and change with time. The proposed methodology helps water managers in water-stressed regions to quantify the impact of drought, consequently, to make decisions regarding coping with drought issue.

Description: A GIS-based model to estimate flood consequences and the degree of accessibility and operability of strategic emergency response structures in urban areas Natural Hazards and Earth System Science, 14, 2847-2865, 2014 Author(s): R. Albano, A. Sole, J. Adamowski, and L. Mancusi Efficient decision-making regarding flood risk reduction has become a priority for authorities and stakeholders in many European countries. Risk analysis methods and techniques are a useful tool for evaluating costs and benefits of possible interventions. Within this context, a methodology to estimate flood consequences was developed in this paper that is based on GIS, and integrated with a model that estimates the degree of accessibility and operability of strategic emergency response structures in an urban area. The majority of the currently available approaches do not properly analyse road network connections and dependencies within systems, and as such a loss of roads could cause significant damages and problems to emergency services in cases of flooding. The proposed model is unique in that it provides a maximum-impact estimation of flood consequences on the basis of the operability of the strategic emergency structures in an urban area, their accessibility, and connection within the urban system of a city (i.e. connection between aid centres and buildings at risk), in the emergency phase. The results of a case study in the Puglia region in southern Italy are described to illustrate the practical applications of this newly proposed approach. The main advantage of the proposed approach is that it allows for defining a hierarchy between different infrastructure in the urban area through the identification of particular components whose operation and efficiency are critical for emergency management. This information can be used by decision-makers to prioritize risk reduction interventions in flood emergencies in urban areas, given limited financial resources.

Description: Modeling rapid mass movements using the shallow water equations Natural Hazards and Earth System Sciences Discussions, 2, 6775-6809, 2014 Author(s): S. Hergarten and J. Robl We propose a new method to model rapid mass movements on complex topography using the shallow water equations in Cartesian coordinates. These equations are the widely used standard approximation for the flow of water in rivers and shallow lakes, but the main prerequisite for their application – an almost horizontal fluid table – is in general not satisfied for avalanches and debris flows in steep terrain. Therefore, we have developed appropriate correction terms for large topographic gradients. In this study we present the mathematical formulation of these correction terms and their implementation in the open source flow solver GERRIS. This novel approach is evaluated by simulating avalanches on synthetic and finally natural topographies and the widely used Voellmy flow resistance law. The results are tested against analytical solutions and the commercial avalanche model RAMMS. The overall results are in excellent agreement with the reference system RAMMS, and the deviations between the different models are far below the uncertainties in the determination of the relevant fluid parameters and involved avalanche volumes in reality. As this code is freely available and open source, it can be easily extended by additional fluid models or source areas, making this model suitable for simulating several types of rapid mass movements. It therefore provides a valuable tool assisting regional scale natural hazard studies.

Description: Magnetotelluric investigation in the High Agri Valley (southern Apennine, Italy) Natural Hazards and Earth System Sciences Discussions, 2, 6747-6773, 2014 Author(s): M. Balasco, A. Giocoli, S. Piscitelli, G. Romano, A. Siniscalchi, T. A. Stabile, and S. Tripladi In this paper we present the result of a Magnetotelluric (MT) investigation carried out across the High Agri Valley (HAV), southern Italy. Several MT soundings were carried out in order to obtain a ~15 km long 2-D resistivity model with an investigation depth of ~10 km. The main aim was to provide valuable data on the geological and structural setting of the HAV. The MT model was compared with pre-existing geological, geophysical and seismic data. The MT model can be schematized as a superposition of three stack lateral varying layers with different thickness and resistivity values: a surficial low-medium resistivity layer, associated to the Quaternary deposits and to the allochthonous units, and a deeper high resistivity layer, related to the Apulia Platform, separated by a thin layer connected to the mélange zone and to the Pliocene terrigenous marine deposits. Sharp lateral resistivity variations are interpreted as faults that, on the basis of accurate focal mechanism computations, display normal-faulting kinematics.

Description: Linear instability of warm core eddies of constant potential vorticity (PV) is studied in a two layer, finite depth, shallow water ocean. The basic state flow in the constant PV eddy that obeys the gradient balance cannot be described by explicit expressions and can only be solved numerically. The various cases of gradient balance are classified by constructing a canonical formulation that relates any PV value to a value of the angular velocity that has to prevail near the center of the constant PV eddy. The growth-rates of perturbations imposed on the basic state are calculated for a variety of values of the (constant) PV and the depth of the surrounding ocean. The growth-rates i.e. the eigenvalues are calculated numerically by employing a shooting to fitting point method that guarantees that the corresponding eigenfunctions are regular at all singular points. The maximal growth-rates are contoured as functions of PV and ocean depth for azimuthal wavenumber 2 and 3 and the maximum of these growth-rates is of the order of 1 day which is similar to that of a solidly rotating eddy. However, the range angular velocity and ocean depth where the constant PV eddy is unstable is greatly reduced compared to that of a solidly rotating eddy. The instabilities found here are classified in terms of wave-wave interactions by comparing our results in each PV value with the known instabilities of the solidly rotating eddy with the same angular velocity. In the constant PV eddy the Baroclinic instability is filtered out and the range of angular velocity where the Hybrid instability exists is significantly reduced. All instabilities decay monotonically with the increase in ocean depth.

Description: Acceleration in development of additional conventional hydropower requires tools and methods to perform laboratory and in-field validation of turbine performance and fish passage claims. The new-generation Sensor Fish has been developed with more capabilities to accommodate a wider range of users over a broader range of turbine designs and operating environments. It provides in situ measurements of three-dimensional (3D) linear accelerations, 3D rotational velocities, 3D orientation, pressure, and temperature at a sampling frequency of 2048 Hz. It also has an automatic floatation system and built-in radio-frequency transmitter for recovery. The relative errors of the pressure, acceleration, and rotational velocity were within ±2%, ±5%, and ±5%, respectively. The accuracy of orientation was within ±4° and accuracy of temperature was ±2 °C. The new-generation Sensor Fish is becoming a major technology and being deployed for evaluating the conditions for fish passage of turbines or other hydraulic structures in both the United States and several other countries.

Description: Regional parent flood frequency distributions in Europe – Part 2: Climate and scale controls Hydrology and Earth System Sciences, 18, 4391-4401, 2014 Author(s): J. L. Salinas, A. Castellarin, S. Kohnová, and T. R. Kjeldsen This study aims to better understand the effect of catchment scale and climate on the statistical properties of regional flood frequency distributions. A database of L-moment ratios of annual maximum series (AMS) of peak discharges from Austria, Italy and Slovakia, involving a total of 813 catchments with more than 25 yr of record length is presented, together with mean annual precipitation (MAP) and basin area as catchment descriptors surrogates of climate and scale controls. A purely data-based investigation performed on the database shows that the generalized extreme value (GEV) distribution provides a better representation of the averaged sample L-moment ratios compared to the other distributions considered, for catchments with medium to higher values of MAP independently of catchment area, while the three-parameter lognormal distribution is probably a more appropriate choice for drier (lower MAP) intermediate-sized catchments, which presented higher skewness values. Sample L-moment ratios do not follow systematically any of the theoretical two-parameter distributions. In particular, the averaged values of L-coefficient of skewness (L-Cs) are always larger than Gumbel 's fixed L-Cs. The results presented in this paper contribute to the progress in defining a set of "process-driven" pan-European flood frequency distributions and to assess possible effects of environmental change on its properties.

Description: Wind waves in the Black Sea: results of a hindcast study Natural Hazards and Earth System Science, 14, 2883-2897, 2014 Author(s): V. S. Arkhipkin, F. N. Gippius, K. P. Koltermann, and G. V. Surkova In this study we describe the wind wave fields in the Black Sea. The general aims of the work were the estimation of statistical wave parameters and the assessment of interannual and seasonal wave parameter variability. The domain of this study was the entire Black Sea. Wave parameters were calculated by means of the SWAN wave model on a 5 × 5 km rectangular grid. Initial conditions (wind speed and direction) for the period between 1949 and 2010 were derived from the NCEP/NCAR reanalysis. According to our calculations the average significant wave height on the Black Sea does not exceed 0.7 m. Areas of most significant heavy sea are the southwestern and the northeastern parts of the sea as expressed in the spatial distribution of significant wave heights, wave lengths and periods. Besides, long-term annual variations of wave parameters were estimated. Thus, linear trends of the annual total duration of storms and of their quantity are nearly stable over the hindcast period. However, an intensification of storm activity is observed in the 1960s–1970s.

Description: Estimation of three-dimensional crustal movements in the 2011 Tohoku-oki, Japan earthquake from TerraSAR-X intensity images Natural Hazards and Earth System Sciences Discussions, 2, 7383-7408, 2014 Author(s): W. Liu, F. Yamazaki, M. Matsuoka, T. Nonaka, and T. Sasagawa The Tohoku-Oki earthquake on 11 March 2011 caused significant widespread crustal movements. In a previous study, we proposed a method for capturing two-dimensional (2-D) surface displacements from a pair of pre- and post-event TerraSAR-X (TSX) intensity images. However, it is difficult to detect three-dimensional (3-D) displacements from one pair of TSX images. In this study, three pairs of pre- and post-event TSX images taken on different paths were used to estimate 3-D crustal movements. The relationship between the actual 3-D displacements and the converted 2-D movements in the SAR images was derived based on the observation model of a SAR sensor. The 3-D movements were then calculated from three sets of detected 2-D movements that occurred within a short time period. Compared with GPS observations, the proposed method was found to be capable of detecting the 3-D crustal movements with sub-pixel accuracy.

Description: Fluvial sediment loads are frequently calculated with rating curves fit to measured sediment transport rates. Rating curves are often treated as statistical representations in which the fitted parameters have little or no physical meaning. Such models, however, may produce large errors when extrapolation is needed, and they provide no insight into the sediment transport process. It is shown that log-linear least squares, the usual method for fitting rating curves, does not generally produce physically meaningful parameter values. In addition, it cannot accommodate data that include zero-transport samples. Alternative fitting methods based non-linear least squares and on maximum likelihood parameter estimation are described and evaluated. The maximum likelihood approach is shown to fit synthetic data better than linear or non-linear least squares, and to perform well with data that include zero-transport samples. In contrast, non-linear least squares methods produce large errors in the parameter estimates when zero-transport samples are present or when the variance structure of the data is incorrectly specified. Analyses with fractional bedload data from a mountain stream suggest that bedload transport rates are gamma distributed, that the arrivals of bedload particles in a sampler conform to a Poisson distribution, and that the variance of non-zero samples can be expressed as a power function of the mean. Preliminary physical interpretations of variations in the rating curve parameters fit to fractional bedload data with the maximum likelihood method are proposed, and their relation to some previous interpretations of rating curve parameters are briefly discussed. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.

Description: Quantification of hydrologic impacts of climate change in a Mediterranean basin in Sardinia, Italy, through high-resolution simulations Hydrology and Earth System Sciences, 18, 5201-5217, 2014 Author(s): M. Piras, G. Mascaro, R. Deidda, and E. R. Vivoni Future climate projections robustly indicate that the Mediterranean region will experience a significant decrease of mean annual precipitation and an increase in temperature. These changes are expected to seriously affect the hydrologic regime, with a limitation of water availability and an intensification of hydrologic extremes, and to negatively impact local economies. In this study, we quantify the hydrologic impacts of climate change in the Rio Mannu basin (RMB), an agricultural watershed of 472.5 km 2 in Sardinia, Italy. To simulate the wide range of runoff generation mechanisms typical of Mediterranean basins, we adopted a physically based, distributed hydrologic model. The high-resolution forcings in reference and future conditions (30-year records for each period) were provided by four combinations of global and regional climate models, bias-corrected and downscaled in space and time (from ~25 km, 24 h to 5 km, 1 h) through statistical tools. The analysis of the hydrologic model outputs indicates that the RMB is expected to be severely impacted by future climate change. The range of simulations consistently predict (i) a significant diminution of mean annual runoff at the basin outlet, mainly due to a decreasing contribution of the runoff generation mechanisms depending on water available in the soil; (ii) modest variations in mean annual runoff and intensification of mean annual discharge maxima in flatter sub-basins with clay and loamy soils, likely due to a higher occurrence of infiltration excess runoff; (iii) reduction of soil water content and actual evapotranspiration in most areas of the basin; and (iv) a drop in the groundwater table. Results of this study are useful to support the adoption of adaptive strategies for management and planning of agricultural activities and water resources in the region.

Description: Complex networks, streamflow, and hydrometric monitoring system design Hydrology and Earth System Sciences Discussions, 11, 13663-13710, 2014 Author(s): M. Halverson and S. Fleming Network theory is applied to an array of streamflow gauges located in the Coast Mountains of British Columbia and Yukon, Canada. The goal of the analysis is to assess whether insights from this branch of mathematical graph theory can be meaningfully applied to hydrometric data, and more specifically, whether it may help guide decisions concerning stream gauge placement so that the full complexity of the regional hydrology is efficiently captured. The streamflow data, when represented as a complex network, has a global clustering coefficient and average shortest path length consistent with small-world networks, which are a class of stable and efficient networks common in nature, but the results did not clearly suggest a scale-free network. Stability helps ensure that the network is robust to the loss of nodes; in the context of a streamflow network, stability is interpreted as insensitivity to station removal at random. Community structure is also evident in the streamflow network. A community detection algorithm identified 10 separate communities, each of which appears to be defined by the combination of its median seasonal flow regime (pluvial, nival, hybrid, or glacial, which in this region in turn mainly reflects basin elevation) and geographic proximity to other communities (reflecting shared or different daily meteorological forcing). Betweenness analyses additionally suggest a handful of key stations which serve as bridges between communities and might therefore be highly valued. We propose that an idealized sampling network should sample high-betweenness stations, as well as small-membership communities which are by definition rare or undersampled relative to other communities, while retaining some degree of redundancy to maintain network robustness.

Description: Santín et al. (2014) report the conversion of different boreal forest biomass pools to pyrogenic organic matter (PyOM) during a forest fire, and suggest that ~100 Tg C y −1 may be converted to PyOM in boreal forests globally. They further suggest that PyOM formation represents a missing C sink. The phrase ‘missing C sink’ derives from a lack of closure in the atmospheric C budget. Approximately ⅓ of the CO 2 emitted to the atmosphere via burning of fossil fuels and land use change cannot be accounted for after oceanic uptake and atmospheric accumulations are tallied (Schlesinger and Bernhardt 2013). This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.

Description: A significant part of the soil organic carbon that is eroded in uplands is deposited and buried in colluvial settings. Understanding the fate of this deposited soil organic carbon (SOC) is of key importance for the understanding of the role of (accelerated) erosion in the global C cycle: the residence time of the deposited carbon will determine if, and for how long, accelerated erosion due to human disturbance will induce sequestration of SOC from the atmosphere to the soil. Experimental studies may provide useful information, but, given the time scale under consideration, the response of the colluvial SOC can only be simulated using numerical models which need careful calibration using field data. In this study, we present a depth explicit SOC model (ICBM-DE) including soil profile evolution due to sedimentation to simulate the long-term C dynamics in colluvial soils. The SOC profile predicted by our model is in good agreement with field observations. The C burial efficiency (the ratio of current C content of the buried sediments to the original C content at the time of sedimentation) of deposited sediments exponentially decreases with time and gradually reached an equilibrium value. This equilibrium C burial efficiency is positively correlated with the sedimentation rate. The sedimentation rate is crucial for the long-term dynamics of the deposited SOC as it controls the time that buried sediments spend at a given soil depth, thereby determining its temporal evolution of C input and decomposition rate during the burial process: C input and decomposition rate vary with depth due to the vertical variation of root distribution and soil environmental factors such as (but not limited to) humidity, temperature and aeration. The model demonstrates that, for the profiles studied, it takes ca. 300 yr for the buried SOC to lose half of its C load. It would also take centuries for the SOC accumulated in colluvial soils over the past decades due to soil redistribution under mechanized agriculture to be released to the atmosphere after the application of soil conservation measures such as conservation tillage.

Description: High-speed atomic force microscopy has attracted much attention due to its unique capability of visualizing nanoscale dynamic processes at a solid/liquid interface. However, its usability and resolution have yet to be improved. As one of the solutions for this issue, here we present a design of a high-speed Z -tip scanner with screw holding mechanism. We perform detailed comparison between designs with different actuator size and screw arrangement by finite element analysis. Based on the design giving the best performance, we have developed a Z tip scanner and measured its performance. The measured frequency response of the scanner shows a flat response up to ∼10 kHz. This high frequency response allows us to achieve wideband tip-sample distance regulation. We demonstrate the applicability of the scanner to high-speed atomic-resolution imaging by visualizing atomic-scale calcite crystal dissolution process in water at 2 s/frame.

Description: A suspension system of classical geophone was developed, adopting multiple pairs of leaf springs as a substitute for one pair. The finite element analysis was used as the solving means, and the results indicated that the geophone performance with developed suspension system was more favorable than that with conventional suspension system. First, the operating broadband of the improved geophone was wider than that of the conventional geophone. Second, the distortion of output signal for a geophone was slightly reduced, which was usually enlarged with improving the ratio of spurious resonant frequency to natural frequency.

Description: A liquid membrane electrochemical etching process for preparing nano-tips is proposed by the introduction of buoyant force to the lower tip, in which the lower portion of the anodic wire is immersed into a floating layer. A mathematical model of this method is derived. Both calculation and experimental results demonstrate that the introduction of buoyant force can significantly decrease the tip radius. The lubricating oil and deionized water floating layers were tested for the processing of nano-tips. Further, high-aspect-ratio nano-electrodes were prepared by applying a relative vertical movement to the anodic wire.

Description: Construction and characterization of a multichannel photodiode detector based on commercially available components with high signal to noise of ∼10 6 and a rapid frame rate, suitable for time resolved femtosecond spectroscopy with high repetition femtosecond sources, is presented.

Description: The neutron imaging system at the National Ignition Facility (NIF) is an important diagnostic tool for measuring the two-dimensional size and shape of the neutrons produced in the burning deuterium-tritium plasma during the stagnation stage of inertial confinement fusion implosions. Since the neutron source is small (∼100 μ m) and neutrons are deeply penetrating (〉3 cm) in all materials, the apertures used to achieve the desired 10- μ m resolution are 20-cm long, triangular tapers machined in gold foils. These gold foils are stacked to form an array of 20 apertures for pinhole imaging and three apertures for penumbral imaging. These apertures must be precisely aligned to accurately place the field of view of each aperture at the design location, or the location of the field of view for each aperture must be measured. In this paper we present a new technique that has been developed for the measurement and characterization of the precise location of each aperture in the array. We present the detailed algorithms used for this characterization and the results of reconstructed sources from inertial confinement fusion implosion experiments at NIF.

Description: Laser-based time-domain thermoreflectance (TDTR) and frequency-domain thermoreflectance (FDTR) techniques are widely used for investigating thermal transport at micro- and nano-scales. We demonstrate that data obtained in TDTR measurements can be represented in a frequency-domain form equivalent to FDTR, i.e., in the form of a surface temperature amplitude and phase response to time-harmonic heating. Such a representation is made possible by using a large TDTR delay time window covering the entire pulse repetition interval. We demonstrate the extraction of frequency-domain data up to 1 GHz from TDTR measurements on a sapphire sample coated with a thin layer of aluminum, and show that the frequency dependencies of both the amplitude and phase responses agree well with theory. The proposed method not only allows a direct comparison of TDTR and FDTR data, but also enables measurements at high frequencies currently not accessible to FDTR. The frequency-domain representation helps uncover aspects of the measurement physics which remain obscured in a traditional TDTR measurement, such as the importance of modeling the details of the heat transport in the metal transducer film for analyzing high frequency responses.

Description: The ability to synchronize a femtosecond laser to x-ray pulses is crucial for performing ultrafast time-resolved x-ray scattering experiments at synchrotrons. Conventionally, the task has been achieved by locking a harmonic frequency of the laser oscillator to the storage ring master radio-frequency (RF). However, when the frequency mismatch between the two sources cannot be compensated by small adjustments to the laser cavity length, synchronization to a harmonic frequency requires modifying the optical components of the laser system. We demonstrate a novel synchronization scheme, which is a flexible alternative for synchronizing these two sources operating at arbitrarily different frequencies. First, we find the greatest common divisor (GCD) of the two frequencies that is still within the limited tuning range of the laser cavity length. The GCD is generated by dividing down from the storage ring RF, and is separately multiplied up to provide a feedback signal for synchronizing the laser cavity. Unique to our scheme, the GCD also serves as a harmonic RF source for the laser amplifier such that only laser oscillator pulses at fixed integer multiples of the storage ring RF are selected for amplification and delivery to experiments. Our method is implemented at the Photon Test Facility beamline of Pohang Light Source where timing-jitter less than 4 ps (r.m.s.) is measured using a new shot-to-shot method.

Description: A semi-adiabatic isoperibol solution calorimeter has been indigenously developed. The measurement system comprises modules for sensitive temperature measurement probe, signal processing, data collection, and joule calibration. The sensitivity of the temperature measurement module was enhanced by using a sensitive thermistor coupled with a lock-in amplifier based signal processor. A microcontroller coordinates the operation and control of these modules. The latter in turn is controlled through personal computer (PC) based custom made software developed with LabView. An innovative summing amplifier concept was used to cancel out the base resistance of the thermistor. The latter was placed in the dewar. The temperature calibration was carried out with a standard platinum resistance (PT100) sensor coupled with an 8½ digit multimeter. The water equivalent of this calorimeter was determined by using electrical calibration with the joule calibrator. The experimentally measured values of the quantum of heat were validated by measuring heats of dissolution of pure KCl (for endotherm) and tris (hydroxyl methyl) amino-methane (for exotherm). The uncertainity in the measurements was found to be within ±3%.

Description: Assessing winter cover crop nutrient uptake efficiency using a water quality simulation model Hydrology and Earth System Sciences, 18, 5239-5253, 2014 Author(s): I.-Y. Yeo, S. Lee, A. M. Sadeghi, P. C. Beeson, W. D. Hively, G. W. McCarty, and M. W. Lang Winter cover crops are an effective conservation management practice with potential to improve water quality. Throughout the Chesapeake Bay watershed (CBW), which is located in the mid-Atlantic US, winter cover crop use has been emphasized, and federal and state cost-share programs are available to farmers to subsidize the cost of cover crop establishment. The objective of this study was to assess the long-term effect of planting winter cover crops to improve water quality at the watershed scale (~ 50 km 2 ) and to identify critical source areas of high nitrate export. A physically based watershed simulation model, Soil and Water Assessment Tool (SWAT), was calibrated and validated using water quality monitoring data to simulate hydrological processes and agricultural nutrient cycling over the period of 1990–2000. To accurately simulate winter cover crop biomass in relation to growing conditions, a new approach was developed to further calibrate plant growth parameters that control the leaf area development curve using multitemporal satellite-based measurements of species-specific winter cover crop performance. Multiple SWAT scenarios were developed to obtain baseline information on nitrate loading without winter cover crops and to investigate how nitrate loading could change under different winter cover crop planting scenarios, including different species, planting dates, and implementation areas. The simulation results indicate that winter cover crops have a negligible impact on the water budget but significantly reduce nitrate leaching to groundwater and delivery to the waterways. Without winter cover crops, annual nitrate loading from agricultural lands was approximately 14 kg ha −1 , but decreased to 4.6–10.1 kg ha −1 with cover crops resulting in a reduction rate of 27–67% at the watershed scale. Rye was the most effective species, with a potential to reduce nitrate leaching by up to 93% with early planting at the field scale. Early planting of cover crops (~ 30 days of additional growing days) was crucial, as it lowered nitrate export by an additional ~ 2 kg ha −1 when compared to late planting scenarios. The effectiveness of cover cropping increased with increasing extent of cover crop implementation. Agricultural fields with well-drained soils and those that were more frequently used to grow corn had a higher potential for nitrate leaching and export to the waterways. This study supports the effective implementation of cover crop programs, in part by helping to target critical pollution source areas for cover crop implementation.

Description: Amalgamation in landslide maps: effects and automatic detection Natural Hazards and Earth System Sciences Discussions, 2, 7651-7678, 2014 Author(s): O. Marc and N. Hovius Inventories of individually delineated landslides are a key to understanding landslide physics and mitigating their impact. They permit assessment of area-frequency distributions and landslide volumes, and testing of statistical correlations between landslides and physical parameters such as topographic gradient or seismic strong motion. Amalgamation, i.e. the mapping of several adjacent landslides as a single polygon, can lead to potentially severe distortion of the statistics of these inventories. This problem can be especially severe in datasets produced by automated mapping. We present 5 inventories of earthquake-induced landslides mapped with different materials and techniques and affected by varying degrees of amalgamation. Errors on the total landslide volume and power-law exponent of the area-frequency distribution, resulting from amalgamation, may be up to 200 and 50%, respectively. We present an algorithm based on image and DEM analysis, for automatic identification of amalgamated polygons. On a set of about 2000 polygons larger than 1000 m 2 , tracing landslides triggered by the 1994 Northridge earthquake, the algorithm performs well, with only 2.7–3.6% wrongly amalgamated landslides missed and 3.9–4.8% correct polygons wrongly identified as amalgams. This algorithm can be used broadly to check landslide inventories and allow faster correction by automating the identification of amalgamation.

Description: A biomedical microwave tomography system with 3D-imaging capabilities has been constructed and translated to the clinic. Updates to the hardware and reconfiguration of the electronic-network layouts in a more compartmentalized construct have streamlined system packaging. Upgrades to the data acquisition and microwave components have increased data-acquisition speeds and improved system performance. By incorporating analog-to-digital boards that accommodate the linear amplification and dynamic-range coverage our system requires, a complete set of data (for a fixed array position at a single frequency) is now acquired in 5.8 s. Replacement of key components (e.g., switches and power dividers) by devices with improved operational bandwidths has enhanced system response over a wider frequency range. High-integrity, low-power signals are routinely measured down to −130 dBm for frequencies ranging from 500 to 2300 MHz. Adequate inter-channel isolation has been maintained, and a dynamic range 〉110 dB has been achieved for the full operating frequency range (500–2900 MHz). For our primary band of interest, the associated measurement deviations are less than 0.33% and 0.5° for signal amplitude and phase values, respectively. A modified monopole antenna array (composed of two interwoven eight-element sub-arrays), in conjunction with an updated motion-control system capable of independently moving the sub-arrays to various in-plane and cross-plane positions within the illumination chamber, has been configured in the new design for full volumetric data acquisition. Signal-to-noise ratios (SNRs) are more than adequate for all transmit/receive antenna pairs over the full frequency range and for the variety of in-plane and cross-plane configurations. For proximal receivers, in-plane SNRs greater than 80 dB are observed up to 2900 MHz, while cross-plane SNRs greater than 80 dB are seen for 6 cm sub-array spacing (for frequencies up to 1500 MHz). We demonstrate accurate recovery of 3D dielectric property distributions for breast-like phantoms with tumor inclusions utilizing both the in-plane and new cross-plane data.

Description: In situ x-ray absorption spectroscopy (XAS) provides element-specific characterization of both crystalline and amorphous phases and enables direct correlations between electrochemical performance and structural characteristics of cathode and anode materials. In situ XAS measurements are very demanding to the design of the experimental setup. We have developed a sample chamber that provides electrical connectivity and inert atmosphere for operating electrochemical cells and also accounts for x-ray interactions with the chamber and cell materials. The design of the sample chamber for in situ measurements is presented along with example XAS spectra from anode materials in operating pouch cells at the Zn and Sn K-edges measured in fluorescence and transmission modes, respectively.

Description: The light intensity of 6 Li III line spectrum at λ = 516.7 nm was observed during 6 Li 3+ beam tuning at the Hyper-Electron Cyclotron Resonance (ECR) ion source. Separation of ion species of the same charge to mass ratio with an electromagnetic mass analyzer is known to be an exceptionally complex process. However, 6 Li III line intensity observation conducted in this study gives new insights into its simplification of this process. The light intensity of 6 Li III line spectrum from the ECR plasma was found to have a strong correlation with the extracted 6 Li 3+ beam intensity from the RIKEN Azimuthal Varying Field cyclotron.

Description: The paper describes a time- and angle-resolved photoemission apparatus consisting of a hemispherical analyzer and a pulsed laser source. We demonstrate 1.48-eV pump and 5.92-eV probe measurements at the ⩾10.5-meV and ⩾240-fs resolutions by use of fairly monochromatic 170-fs pulses delivered from a regeneratively amplified Ti:sapphire laser system operating typically at 250 kHz. The apparatus is capable to resolve the optically filled superconducting peak in the unoccupied states of a cuprate superconductor, Bi 2 Sr 2 CaCu 2 O 8 + δ . A dataset recorded on Bi(111) surface is also presented. Technical descriptions include the followings: A simple procedure to fine-tune the spatio-temporal overlap of the pump-and-probe beams and their diameters; achieving a long-term stability of the system that enables a normalization-free dataset acquisition; changing the repetition rate by utilizing acoustic optical modulator and frequency-division circuit.

Description: Factors affecting flood insurance purchase in residential properties in Johor, Malaysia Natural Hazards and Earth System Science, 14, 3297-3310, 2014 Author(s): U. G. Aliagha, T. E. Jin, W. W. Choong, M. Nadzri Jaafar, and H. M. Ali High-impact floods have become a virtually annual experience in Malaysia, yet flood insurance has remained a grossly neglected part of comprehensive integrated flood risk management. Using discriminant analysis, this study seeks to identify the demand-side variables that best predict flood insurance purchase and risk aversion between two groups of residential homeowners in three districts of Johor State, Malaysia: those who purchased flood insurance and those who did not. Our results revealed an overall 34% purchase rate, with Kota Tinggi district having the highest (44%) and thus the highest degree of flood risk aversion. The Wilks' lambda F test for equality of group means, standardised discriminant function coefficients, structure correlation, and canonical correlation has clearly shown that there are strong significant attribute differences between the two groups of homeowners, based on the measures of objective flood risk exposure, subjective risk perception, and socio-economic cum demographic variables. However, the measures of subjective risk perception were found to be more predictive of flood insurance purchase and flood risk aversion.

Description: Tree-ring analysis is often used to assess long-term trends in tree growth. A variety of growth-trend detection methods (GDMs) exist to disentangle age/size trends in growth from long-term growth changes. However, these detrending methods strongly differ in approach, with possible implications for their output. Here we critically evaluate the consistency, sensitivity, reliability and accuracy of four most widely used GDMs: Conservative Detrending applies mathematical functions to correct for decreasing ring-widths with age; Basal Area Correction transforms diameter into basal-area growth; Regional Curve Standardization detrends individual tree-ring series using average age/size trends; and Size Class Isolation calculates growth trends within separate size classes. First, we evaluated whether these GDMs produce consistent results applied to an empirical tree-ring dataset of Melia azedarach , a tropical tree species from Thailand. Three GDMs yielded similar results – a growth decline over time – but the widely used Conservative Detrending method did not detect any change. Second, we assessed the sensitivity (probability of correct growth trend detection), reliability (1- probability of detecting false trends), and accuracy (whether the strength of imposed trends is correctly detected) of these GDMs, by applying them to simulated growth trajectories with different imposed trends: no trend, strong trends (-6% and +6% change per decade), and weak trends (-2%, +2%). All methods except Conservative Detrending, showed high sensitivity, reliability and accuracy to detect strong imposed trends. However, these were considerably lower in the weak or no-trend scenarios. Basal Area Correction showed good sensitivity and accuracy, but low reliability, indicating uncertainty of trend-detection using this method. Our study reveals that the choice of GDM influences results of growth-trend studies. We recommend applying multiple methods when analysing trends and encourage performing sensitivity and reliability analysis. Finally, we recommend Size Class Isolation and Regional Curve Standardization, as these methods showed highest reliability to detect long-term growth trends. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.