Aerosol characteristics during winter fog at Agra,North India     

P. D. Safai  S. Kewat  G. Pandithurai  P. S. Praveen  K. Ali  S. Tiwari  P. S. P. Rao  K. B. Budhawant  S. K. Saha  P. C. S. Devara 《Journal of Atmospheric Chemistry》2008,61(2):101-118

Simultaneous measurements on physical, chemical and optical properties of aerosols over a tropical semi-arid location, Agra in north India, were undertaken during December 2004. The average concentration of total suspended particulates (TSP) increased by about 1.4 times during intense foggy/hazy days. Concentrations of SO₄ ²⁻, NO₃ ⁻, NH₄ ⁺ and Black Carbon (BC) aerosols increased by 4, 2, 3.5 and 1.7 times, respectively during that period. Aerosols were acidic during intense foggy/hazy days but the fog water showed alkaline nature, mainly due to the neutralizing capacity of NH₄ aerosols. Trajectory analyses showed that air masses were predominantly from NW direction, which might be responsible for transport of BC from distant and surrounding local sources. Diurnal variation of BC on all days showed a morning and an evening peak that were related to domestic cooking and vehicular emissions, apart from boundary layer changes. OPAC (Optical properties of aerosols and clouds) model was used to compute the optical properties of aerosols. Both OPAC-derived and observed aerosol optical depth (AOD) values showed spectral variation with high loadings in the short wavelengths (<1 μm). AOD value at 0.5 μm wavelength was significantly high during intense foggy/hazy days (1.22) than during clear sky or less foggy/hazy days (0.63). OPAC-derived Single scattering albedo (SSA) was 0.84 during the observational period, indicating significant contribution of absorbing aerosols. However, the BC mass fraction to TSP increased by only 1% during intense foggy/hazy days and thereby did not show any impact on SSA during that period. A large increase was observed in the shortwave (SW) atmospheric (ATM) forcing during intense foggy/hazy days (+75.8 W/m²) than that during clear sky or less foggy/hazy days (+38 W/m²), mainly due to increase in absorbing aerosols. Whereas SW forcing at surface (SUF) increased from −40 W/m² during clear sky or less foggy/hazy days to −76 W/m² during intense foggy/hazy days, mainly due to the scattering aerosols like SO₄ ^2-.  相似文献   

Study of the Diurnal Variation of Cosmic Rays during Different Phases of Solar Activity     

Anil Kumar Tiwari  Ambika Singh  S. P. Agrawal 《Solar physics》2012,279(1):253-267

The pressure-corrected hourly counting rate data of ground-based super neutron monitor stations, situated in different latitudes, have been employed to study the characteristics of the long-term variation of cosmic-ray diurnal anisotropy for a long (44-year) period (1965?–?2008). Some of these super neutron monitors are situated in low latitudes with high cutoff rigidity. Annual averages of the diurnal amplitudes and phases have been obtained for each station. It is found that the amplitude of the diurnal anisotropy varies with a period of one solar activity cycle (11 years), whereas the diurnal phase varies with a period of 22 years (one solar magnetic cycle). The average diurnal amplitudes and phases have also been calculated by grouping the days on the basis of ascending and descending periods of each solar cycle (Cycles 20, 21, 22, and 23). Systematic and significant differences are observed in the characteristics of the diurnal variation between the descending periods of the odd and even solar cycles. The overall vector averages of the descending periods of the even solar cycles (20 and 22) show significantly smaller diurnal amplitudes compared to the vector averages of the descending periods of the odd solar cycles (21 and 23). In contrast, we find a large diurnal phase shift to earlier hours only during the descending periods of even solar cycles (20 and 22), as compared to almost no shift in the diurnal phase during the descending periods of odd solar cycles. Further, the overall vector average diurnal amplitudes of the ascending period of odd and even solar cycles remain invariant from one ascending period to the other, or even between the even and odd solar cycles. However, we do find a significant diurnal phase shift to earlier hours during the ascending periods of odd solar cycles (21 and 23) in comparison to the diurnal phase in the ascending periods of even solar cycles (20 and 22).  相似文献   

Bianchi type-I cosmological models with time dependent G and Λ     

R. K. Tiwari 《Astrophysics and Space Science》2008,318(3-4):243-247

Einstein field equations with variable gravitational and cosmological constants are considered in the presence of perfect fluid for Bianchi type-I universe by assuming the cosmological term proportional to the Hubble parameter. This variation law for vacuum density has recently been proposed by Schützhold on the basis of quantum field estimations in the curved and expanding background. The model obtained approaches isotropy. The cosmological term tends asymptotically to a genuine cosmological constant, and the model tends to a deSitter universe. We obtain that the present universe is accelerating with a large fraction of cosmological density in the form of cosmological term.  相似文献   

Software for interactively visualizing solar vector magnetograms of udaipur solar observatory     

Sanjay Gosain  Sanjiv Tiwari  Jayant Joshi  P. Venkatakrishnan 《Journal of Astrophysics and Astronomy》2008,29(1-2):107-111

The Solar Vector Magnetograph (SVM) at Udaipur Solar Observatory saw its first light in April 2005. The retrieval of vector fields from the imaging spectro-polarimetric observational data requires a substantial amount of computer post-processing. The GUI-based data reduction and analysis software have been developed to make the data processing pipeline user-friendly and less time-consuming. In this paper we describe these software packages.  相似文献   

High-Resolution Quasi-3D Electric Resistivity Tomography for Deciphering Groundwater Potential Zones in Lateritic Terrain     

Rupesh  Tiwari  Prarabdh  Sharma  S. P. 《Natural Resources Research》2021,30(5):3339-3353

Natural Resources Research - Groundwater is under constant threat of exploitation with increasing demands. Therefore, there is a need for more advanced methods for exploring potential groundwater...  相似文献   

Soft classification for sub-pixel land cover extraction     

R. S. Tiwari  Manoj K. Arora  T. Kailash 《Journal of the Indian Society of Remote Sensing》1999,27(4):225-234

With increasing resolution of the remotely sensed data the problems of images contaminated by mixed pixels arc frequent. Conventional classification techniques often produce erroneous results when applied to images dominated by mixed pixels. This may load to unrealistic representation of land cover, thereby, affecting efficient planning, management and monitoring of natural resources. Consequently, soft classification techniques providing sub-pixel land cover information may have to be utilised. From a range of soft classification techniques, the present study focuses on the utility of conventional maximum likelihood classifier and linear mixture modelling for sub-pixel. land cover classifications. The accuracy of the soft classifications has been assessed using distance measures and correlation co-efficient. The results show that linear mixture modelling has produced accuracies comparable to maximum likelihood classifier. Besides this the correlations between actual land cover proportions and proportions from linear mixture modelling, though not strong, arc statistically significant at 95% level of confidence. It has also been observed that the normalised likelihoods of maximum likelihood classifier also show strong correlations with the actual land cover proportions on ground and therefore has the potential to be used as a soft classification technique.  相似文献   

Characteristics of moderate- to large-scale landslides triggered by the <Emphasis Type="Italic">M</Emphasis><Subscript><Emphasis Type="Italic">w</Emphasis></Subscript> 7.8 2015 Gorkha earthquake and its aftershocks     

Binod Tiwari  Beena Ajmera  Smriti Dhital 《Landslides》2017,14(4):1297-1318

The M _w 7.8 2015 Gorkha earthquake and its aftershocks significantly impacted the lives and economy of Nepal. The consequences of landslides included fatalities, property losses, blockades of river flow, and damage to infrastructural systems. Co-seismic landslides triggered by this earthquake were significantly widespread and pose a major geodisaster. There were tens of thousands of landslides triggered by the earthquake, majority of which were distributed in between the epicenter of the main shock and the M _w 7.3 aftershock. Although 14,670 landslides triggered by this earthquake were identified, only approximately 23% of them were of moderate to large scale with areas greater than 100 m². Of the moderate- to large-scale landslides identified, just over 90% were triggered by the main shock and smaller aftershocks prior to the major (M _w 7.3) aftershock, while nearly 10% were triggered by the ground shaking induced by the major aftershock. Moreover, the number of landslides triggered by the 2015 Gorkha earthquake, specifically by the main shock, was slightly more than the expected number of landslides for the recorded maximum peak ground acceleration (PGA) in comparison to the co-seismic landslides triggered by 26 earthquakes. Over 90% of those moderate- to large-scale landslides were concentrated within the estimated fault rupture surface. Majority of these moderate- to large-scale landslides were disrupted failures with over 96% of which were classified as earth falls. However, the majority of small-scale landslides were rock or boulder falls. The most number of moderate- to large-scale landslides were triggered in the slate, shale, siltstone, phyllite, and schist of the Lesser Himalayan formation followed by an equally significant number in both schist, gneiss, etc. of the Higher Himalayan formation and the phyllite, metasandstone, schist, etc. of the Lesser Himalayan formation. The sizes (i.e., areas) of the landslides were lognormally distributed, with a mode area of 322.0 m². Slope inclinations of the moderate- to large-scale landslides followed a normal distribution with a mean slope inclination of 32.6° and standard deviation of 13.5°. There exists a strong correlation between the number of landslides and the peak ground acceleration within the study area, specific for different geological formations.  相似文献   

Evaluation of hydrogeochemical processes and groundwater quality for suitability of drinking and irrigation purposes: a case study in the Aosta Valley region,Italy     

Ashwani Kumar Tiwari  Raffaella Ghione  Marina De Maio  Muriel Lavy 《Arabian Journal of Geosciences》2017,10(12):264

The present study aims to discuss the hydrogeochemical processes in the Aosta Valley region and assess the quality of its groundwater for suitability of drinking and irrigation purposes. One hundred twenty-two samples were collected from the Aosta Valley region in the years 2007 and 2008 (61 per year), and analysed for pH, electrical conductivity, total dissolved solids (TDS), total hardness, major cations and anions. The pH of the samples in both years indicated a near-neutral to alkaline nature of the groundwater. The cation and anion chemistry showed the general ionic abundance as: Ca²⁺ > Mg²⁺ > Na⁺ > K⁺ and HCO₃ ^?>SO₄ ^2?>Cl^?>NO₃ ^?>F^? in both years. Ca²⁺-Mg²⁺-HCO₃ ^? and Ca²⁺-Mg²⁺-Cl^?-SO₄ ^2? were the dominant hydrogeochemical facies. The computed saturation indices demonstrated that the groundwater was supersaturated with respect to dolomite and calcite in both years. The groundwater chemistry of the study area was mainly controlled by the dissolution of carbonate, sulphate and silicate minerals, as well as ion exchange processes. A comparison of the groundwater quality in relation to drinking water standards showed that most of the water samples were suitable for drinking and domestic uses. The computed water quality index (WQI) values of the study area groundwater ranged from 24 to 84 in the year 2007 and from 22 to 82 in the year 2008, and all the location fell under the Excellent to Good category. Quality assessment for irrigation uses revealed that the groundwater was good to permissible quality for irrigation; however, locally higher salinity, residual sodium carbonate (RSC) and magnesium hazard (MH) restricted its suitability for irrigation at a few sites. These results will be useful in implementing future measures in groundwater resource management at regional and national level.  相似文献   

Dynamical downscaling approach for wintertime seasonal-scale simulation over the Western Himalayas     

Pushp R. Tiwari  Sarat C. Kar  Uma C. Mohanty  Sagnik Dey  Palash Sinha  P. V. S. Raju  M. S. Shekhar 《Acta Geophysica》2014,62(4):930-952

The performance of RegCM4 for seasonal-scale simulation of winter circulation and associated precipitation over the Western Himalayas (WH) is examined. The model simulates the circulation features and precipitation in three distinct precipitation years reasonably well. It is found that the RMSE decreases and correlation coefficient increases in the precipitation simulations with the increase of model horizontal resolutions. The ETS and POD for the simulated precipitation also indicate that the performance of model is better at 30 km resolution than at 60 and 90 km resolutions. This improvement comes due to better representation of orography in the high-resolution model in which sharp orography gradient in the domain plays an important role in wintertime precipitation processes. A comparison of model-simulated precipitation with observed precipitation at 17 station locations has been carried out. Overall, the results suggest that 30 km model produced better skill in simulating the precipitation over the WH and this model is a useful tool for further regional downscaling studies.  相似文献   

Triaxial shear testing of polished slickensided surfaces   总被引：1，自引：1，他引：0  

Christopher L. Meehan  Binod Tiwari  Thomas L. Brandon  J. Michael Duncan 《Landslides》2011,8(4):449-458

A series of consolidated-drained triaxial tests were performed on precut and polished clay specimens to measure their drained residual strength. Two soils were tested during this research program: Rancho Solano Clay and San Francisco Bay Mud. Specimens were tested using a specially modified triaxial compression device which was developed to minimize the effects of end-platen restraint on the measured strengths. Special attention was paid to the influence of changing specimen area and membrane effects during the test. Triaxial test results were compared with baseline measurements of drained residual shear strength that were made for each of the clay soils using Bromhead ring shear tests and polished-specimen direct shear tests. Residual strength values measured in the triaxial device were higher than the drained residual strengths measured in the Bromhead ring shear apparatus and the direct shear device, indicating that this test approach is more challenging than the use of direct shear tests conducted on polished slickensided surfaces. Comparison of single stage and multistage triaxial test data indicates that multistage triaxial testing may work well for specimens that fail along a well-defined plane, provided that careful attention is given to the effects of end platen restraint, membrane restraint, and changes in specimen area during shear.  相似文献