Pre-CME Onset Fuses – Do the STEREO Heliospheric Imagers Hold the Clues to the CME Onset Process?     

Richard A. Harrison  Christopher J. Davis  Jackie A. Davies 《Solar physics》2009,259(1-2):277-296

Understanding the onset of coronal mass ejections (CMEs) is surely one of the holy grails of solar physics today. Inspection of data from the Heliospheric Imagers (HI), which are part of the SECCHI instrument suite aboard the two NASA STEREO spacecraft, appears to have revealed pre-eruption signatures which may provide valuable evidence for identifying the CME onset mechanism. Specifically, an examination of the HI images has revealed narrow rays comprised of a series of outward-propagating plasma blobs apparently forming near the edge of the streamer belt prior to many CME eruptions. In this pilot study, we inspect a limited dataset to explore the significance of this phenomenon, which we have termed a pre-CME ‘fuse’. Although, the enhanced expulsion of blobs may be consistent with an increase in the release of outward-propagating blobs from the streamers themselves, it could also be interpreted as evidence for interchange reconnection in the period leading to a CME onset. Indeed, it is argued that the latter could even have implications for the end-of-life of CMEs. Thus, the presence of these pre-CME fuses provides evidence that the CME onset mechanism is either related to streamer reconnection processes or the reconnection between closed field lines in the streamer belt and adjacent, open field lines. We investigate the nature of these fuses, including their timing and location with respect to CME launch sites, as well as their speed and topology.  相似文献   

Vulnerability to epidemic malaria in the highlands of Lake Victoria basin: the role of climate change/variability, hydrology and socio-economic factors     

Shem O. Wandiga  Maggie Opondo  Daniel Olago  Andrew Githeko  Faith Githui  Michael Marshall  Tim Downs  Alfred Opere  Christopher Oludhe  Gilbert O. Ouma  Pius Z. Yanda  Richard Kangalawe  Robert Kabumbuli  James Kathuri  Eugene Apindi  Lydia Olaka  Laban Ogallo  Paul Mugambi  Rehema Sigalla  Robinah Nanyunja  Timothy Baguma  Pius Achola 《Climatic change》2010,99(3-4):473-497

Endemic malaria in most of the hot and humid African climates is the leading cause of morbidity and mortality. In the last twenty or so years the incidence of malaria has been aggravated by the resurgence of highland malaria epidemics which hitherto had been rare. A close association between malaria epidemics and climate variability has been reported but not universally accepted. Similarly, the relationship between climate variability, intensity of disease mortality and morbidity coupled with socio-economic factors has been mooted. Analyses of past climate (temperature and precipitation), hydrological and health data (1961–2001), and socio-economics status of communities from the East African highlands confirm the link between climate variability and the incidence and severity of malaria epidemics. The communities in the highlands that have had less exposure to malaria are more vulnerable than their counterparts in the lowlands due to lack of clinical immunity. However, the vulnerability of human health to climate variability is influenced by the coping and adaptive capacities of an individual or community. Surveys conducted among three communities in the East African highlands reveal that the interplay of poverty and other socio-economic variables have intensified the vulnerability of these communities to the impacts of malaria.  相似文献   

Storage of carbon in U.S. forests predicted from satellite data,ecosystem modeling,and inventory summaries     

Christopher Potter  Peggy Gross  Steven Klooster  Matthew Fladeland  Vanessa Genovese 《Climatic change》2008,90(3):269-282

A plant and soil simulation model based on satellite observations of vegetation and climate data was used to estimate the potential carbon pools in standing wood biomass across all forest ecosystems of the conterminous United States up to the year 1997. These modeled estimates of vegetative carbon potential were compared to aggregated measurements of standing wood biomass from the U. S. Forest Service’s national Forest Inventory and Analysis (FIA) data set and the Carbon Online Estimator (COLE) to understand: 1) predominant geographic variations in tree growth rate and 2) local land cover and land use history including the time since the last stand-replacing disturbance (e.g., from wildfire or harvest). Results suggest that although wood appears to be accumulating at high rates in many areas of the U.S. (Northwest and Southeast), there are still extensive areas of relatively low biomass forest in the late 1990s according to FIA records. We attribute these low biomass accumulation levels to the high frequency of disturbances, which can be observed even in high production areas such as the Southeast due to frequent forest harvests. Ecosystem models like the one presented in this study have been coupled with satellite observations of land cover and green plant density to uniquely differentiate areas with a high potential for vegetative carbon storage at relatively fine spatial resolution.  相似文献   

Performance and Sustainability of District-Scale Ground Coupled Heat Pump Systems     

Ayşe Özdoğan Dölçek  Ian Atkins  Matthew K. Harper  James M. Tinjum  Christopher Y. Choi 《Geotechnical and Geological Engineering》2017,35(2):843-856

This study proposes a solution to the problem of maintaining the performance and sustainability of district-scale, cooling-dominated ground coupled heat pump (GCHP) systems. These systems tend to overheat because heat dissipates slowly in relation to the size of the borefields. To demonstrate this problem, a 2000-borehole field is considered at a district-scale GCHP system in the Upper Midwest, US. The borefield’s ground and fluid temperature responses to its design heating and cooling loads are simulated using computational fluid dynamics implemented by applying the finite volume method. The ground temperature is predicted by applying the thermal loads uniformly over the borefield and simulating heat dissipation to the surrounding geology through conduction coupled with advection due to groundwater flow. The results show that a significant energy imbalance will develop in the ground after the first few years of GCHP operation, even with high rates of groundwater flow. The model presented in this study predicts that the temperature at the center of the borefield will reach 18 °C after 5 years and approximately 50 °C after 20 years of operation in the absence of any mitigation strategies. The fluid temperature in the boreholes is then simulated using a single borehole model to estimate the heat pump coefficient of performance, which decreases as the modeled system heats up. To balance the energy inputs/outputs to the ground—thus maintaining the system’s performance—an operating scheme utilizing cold-water circulation during the winter is evaluated. Under the simulated conditions, this mitigation strategy carries the excess energy out of the borefield. Therefore, the proposed mitigation strategy may be a viable measure to sustaining the operating efficiency of cooling-dominated, district-scale borefields in climates with cold winters.  相似文献   

A radar survey of M- and X-class asteroids II. Summary and synthesis     

Michael K. Shepard  Beth Ellen Clark  Michael C. Nolan  Christopher Magri  Lance A.M. Benner  Alan W. Harris  Robert D. Stephens 《Icarus》2010,208(1):221-494

Using the S-band radar at Arecibo Observatory, we observed six new M-class main-belt asteroids (MBAs), and re-observed one, bringing the total number of Tholen M-class asteroids observed with radar to 19. The mean radar albedo for all our targets is , significantly higher than the mean radar albedo of every other class (Magri, C., Nolan, M.C., Ostro, S.J., Giorgini, J.D. [2007]. Icarus 186, 126-151). Seven of these objects (Asteroids 16 Psyche, 129 Antigone, 216 Kleopatra, 347 Pariana, 758 Mancunia, 779 Nina, 785 Zwetana) have radar albedos indicative of a very high metal content , and consistent with a remnant iron/nickel core interpretation (irons) or exotic high metal meteorite types such as CB. We propose designating these high radar albedo objects as Mm. Two asteroids, 110 Lydia and 678 Fredegundis, have more moderate radar albedos , but exhibit high values at some rotation phases suggesting a significant metal content. The remaining 10 objects have moderate radar albedos at all rotation phases. Most of our targets have visible/near-infrared spectra (Hardersen, P.S., Gaffey, M.J., Abell, P.A. [2005]. Icarus 175, 141-158; Fornasier, S., Clark, B.E., Dotto, E., Migliorini, A., Ockert-Bell, M., Barucci, M.A. [2009]. Icarus, submitted for publication) that indicate the presence of at least some silicate phases. All of the non-Mm asteroids show a positive correlation between visual and radar albedo but the reasons for this are not clear. All of the higher radar albedo targets (the 7 Mm asteroids, Lydia, and Fredegundis) show moderate to large variations in radar albedo with rotation phase. We suggest that their high radar reflectivity exaggerates irregularities in the asteroid shape to cause this behavior. One-third of our targets show evidence for asteroid-scale concavities or bifurcation. Based on all the evidence available, we suggest that most Tholen M-class asteroids are not remnant iron cores or enstatite chondrites, but rather collisional composites of silicates and irons with compositions more analogous to stony-iron meteorites and high-iron carbonaceous chondrites.  相似文献   

Titan's highly dynamic magnetic environment: A systematic survey of Cassini magnetometer observations from flybys TA-T62     

Sven Simon  Alexandre Wennmacher  Cesar L. Bertucci  Hendrik Kriegel  Christopher T. Russell 《Planetary and Space Science》2010,58(10):1230-1251

We analyze the variability of the ambient magnetic field near Titan during Cassini encounters TA-T62 (October 2004-October 2009). Cassini magnetometer (MAG) data show that the moon's magnetic environment is strongly affected by its proximity to Saturn's warped and highly dynamic magnetodisk. In the nightside sector of Saturn's magnetosphere, the magnetic field near Titan is controlled by intense vertical flapping motions of the magnetodisk current sheet, alternately exposing the moon to radially stretched lobe-type fields and to more dipolar, but highly distorted current sheet fields. In southern summer, when most of the Cassini encounters took place, the magnetodisk current sheet was on average located above Titan's orbital plane. However, around equinox in August 2009, the distortions of Titan's magnetic environment due to the rapidly moving current sheet reached a maximum, thus suggesting that the equilibrium position of the sheet at that time was significantly closer to the moon's orbital plane. In the dayside magnetosphere, the formation of the magnetodisk lobes is partially suppressed due to the proximity of the magnetopause. Therefore, during most encounters that took place near noon, Titan was embedded in highly distorted current sheet fields. Within the framework of this study, we not only provide a systematic classification of all Titan flybys between October 2004 and October 2009 as lobe-type or current sheet scenarios, but we also calculate the magnetospheric background field near Titan's orbit whenever possible. Our results show that so far, there is not a single Cassini flyby that matches the frequently applied picture of Titan's plasma interaction from the pre-Cassini era (background field homogeneous, stationary and perpendicular to the moon's orbital plane). The time scales upon which the ambient magnetospheric field close to Titan undergoes significant changes range between only a few minutes and up to several hours. The implications for the development of numerical models for Titan's local plasma interaction are discussed as well.  相似文献   

Acoustic imagery using a multibeam bathymetric system     

Stephen C. Lingsch  Christopher S. Robinson 《Marine Geodesy》2013,36(2-3):81-95

Historically, measurement and collection of deep‐ocean acoustic imagery are accomplished by towed sidescan systems. Recently, work has been performed to extract acoustic imagery from current hull‐mounted wide‐swath bathymetric sonars with minimal hardware modification. Past work of deriving acoustic imagery from swath sonars has been performed primarily with SeaBeam's sixteen 2^2/3 ° preformed beams. The Navy is investigating the feasibility of extracting an acoustic image from the Sonar Array Survey Systems (SASS), a high‐resolution (1^o beams) wide‐fan (90°) bathymetric system. Due to the large data volume (approximately 1 MB per ping), SASS normally discards the raw acoustic returns once bathymetry is calculated. In early 1991 the Naval Air Development Center (NADC) installed the hardware on board the USNS Maury to capture and record the raw acoustic signal (inphase and quadrature) from the SASS's 144 hydrophones for later inversion to a backscatter image. Preliminary qualitative mosaics of the sidescan images show promising results and warrant further development.  相似文献   

Avoidance behaviour of freshwater fish and shrimp exposed to ammonia and low dissolved oxygen separately and in combination     

Jody Richardson  Erica K. Williams  Christopher W. Hickey 《新西兰海洋与淡水研究杂志》2013,47(3):625-633

Abstract

The responses of common smelt (Retropinna retropinna Richardson), inanga (Galaxias maculatus Jenyns), common bully (Gobiomorphus cotidianus McDowall), and shrimp (Paratya curvirostris Heller) to ammonia and low dissolved oxygen (DO), separately and in combination, were measured in a fluvarium. Only common smelt avoided high or low ammonia (c. 8.5 and 2.0 g m^?3 NH3, respectively) and low DO (c. 2 g m^?3) alone and in combination. Shrimp avoided high ammonia and low DO+ammonia but not low DO on its own. Inanga and bullies showed no significant negative response to either contaminant; rather, inanga were strongly attracted to low ammonia and bullies to low DO. These results parallel those from toxicity experiments that show common smelt and shrimp are usually among the most sensitive native species to various contaminants. The consistent and appropriate avoidance behaviour shown by common smelt, in particular, suggests this species would be a good indicator organism for assessing the health of lowland waterways.  相似文献   

Feeding ecology of the banded wrasse Notolabrus fucicola (Labridae) in southern New Zealand: Prey items,seasonal differences,and ontogenetic variation     

Christopher M. Denny  David R. Schiel 《新西兰海洋与淡水研究杂志》2013,47(5):925-933

Notolabrus fucicola Richardson, a large common labrid inhabiting shallow waters around New Zealand and southern Australia, were collected monthly (December 1996‐February 1998) around Kaikoura on the east coast of the South Island, New Zealand. Their diet, temporal variation in prey and gut fullness, and ontogenetic differences were examined. N. fucicola is a generalist predator, the major prey items being bivalves, amphipods, and crabs, which varied temporally in their diet. There were size specific changes in their diet. Small fish (100–180 mm) ate mostly amphipods and isopods, whereas larger fish (> 180 mm) ate mainly bivalves, crabs, and gastropods. There was a temporal variation in gut fullness but no significant difference between sexes.  相似文献   

A Multi‐Objective,Multi‐Criteria Approach to Improve Situational Awareness in Emergency Evacuation Routing Using Mobile Phone Data     

Christopher Oxendine  Mukul Sonwalkar  Nigel Waters 《Transactions in GIS》2012,16(3):375-396

Emergency services personnel face risks and uncertainty as they respond to natural and anthropogenic events. Their primary goal is to minimize the loss of life and property, especially in neighborhoods with high population densities, where response time is of great importance. In recent years, mobile phones have become a primary communication device during emergencies. The portability of cell phones and ease of information storage and dissemination has enabled effective implementation of cell phones by first responders and one of the most viable means of communication with the population. Using cellular location data during evacuation planning and response also provides increased awareness to emergency personnel. This article introduces a multi‐objective, multi‐criteria approach to determining optimum evacuation routes in an urban setting. The first objective is to calculate evacuation routes for individual cell phone locations, minimizing the time it would take for a sample population to evacuate to designated safe zones based on both distance and congestion criteria. The second objective is to maximize coverage of individual cell phone locations, using the criteria of underlying geographic features, distance and congestion. In summary, this article presents a network‐based methodology for providing additional analytic support to emergency services personnel for evacuation planning.  相似文献