Cosmogenic isotope (Cl) surface exposure dating of the Norber erratics, Yorkshire Dales: Further constraints on the timing of the LGM deglaciation in Britain     

Peter J. Vincent  Peter Wilson  Tom C. Lord  Christoph Schnabel 《Proceedings of the Geologists' Association. Geologists' Association》2010,121(1):24-31

Cosmogenic isotope (³⁶Cl) surface exposure dating of four of the erratic boulders at Norber in the Yorkshire Dales National Park, northwest England, yielded mean ages of ∼22.2 ± 2.0 ka BP and ∼18.0 ± 1.6 ka BP for their emplacement. These two mean values derive from different ³⁶Cl production rates used for exposure age calculation. The ages are uncorrected for temporal variations in production rates and may underestimate the true ages by 5-7%. The former age, although implying early deglaciation for this area of the British ice sheet, is not incompatible with minimum deglaciation ages from other contexts and locations in northwest England. However, the latter age is more consistent with the same minimum deglaciation ages and geochronological evidence for ice-free conditions in parts of the northern sector of the Irish Sea. Within uncertainties, the younger of the mean ages from Norber may indicate that boulder emplacement was associated with North Atlantic Heinrich event 1. The limited spatial (downvalley) extent of the Norber boulders implies that at the time of their deposition the ice margin was coincident with the distal margin of the erratic train. Loss of ice cover at Norber was followed by persistent stadial conditions until the abrupt opening of the Lateglacial Interstadial when large carnivorous mammals colonised the area. The ³⁶Cl ages are between ∼3.0 ka and ∼13.0 ka older than previous estimates based on rates of limestone dissolution derived from the heights of pedestals beneath the erratics.  相似文献   

A bottom-up approach to estimating cost elements of REDD+ pilot projects in Tanzania     

E Merger  C Held  T Tennigkeit  T Blomley 《Carbon balance and management》2012,7(1):9-14

Background

Several previous global REDD+ cost studies have been conducted, demonstrating that payments for maintaining forest carbon stocks have significant potential to be a cost-effective mechanism for climate change mitigation. These studies have mostly followed highly aggregated top-down approaches without estimating the full range of REDD+ costs elements, thus underestimating the actual costs of REDD+. Based on three REDD+ pilot projects in Tanzania, representing an area of 327,825 ha, this study explicitly adopts a bottom-up approach to data assessment. By estimating opportunity, implementation, transaction and institutional costs of REDD+ we develop a practical and replicable methodological framework to consistently assess REDD+ cost elements.

Results

Based on historical land use change patterns, current region-specific economic conditions and carbon stocks, project-specific opportunity costs ranged between US$ -7.8 and 28.8 tCO_xxxx for deforestation and forest degradation drivers such as agriculture, fuel wood production, unsustainable timber extraction and pasture expansion. The mean opportunity costs for the three projects ranged between US$ 10.1 ?C 12.5 tCO₂. Implementation costs comprised between 89% and 95% of total project costs (excluding opportunity costs) ranging between US$ 4.5 - 12.2 tCO₂ for a period of 30 years. Transaction costs for measurement, reporting, verification (MRV), and other carbon market related compliance costs comprised a minor share, between US$ 0.21 - 1.46 tCO₂. Similarly, the institutional costs comprised around 1% of total REDD+ costs in a range of US$ 0.06 ?C 0.11 tCO₂.

Conclusions

The use of bottom-up approaches to estimate REDD+ economics by considering regional variations in economic conditions and carbon stocks has been shown to be an appropriate approach to provide policy and decision-makers robust economic information on REDD+. The assessment of opportunity costs is a crucial first step to provide information on the economic baseline situation of deforestation and forest degradation agents and on the economic incentives required to halt unsustainable land use. Since performance based REDD+ carbon payments decrease over time (as deforestation rates drop and for each saved ha of forest payments occur once), investments in REDD+ implementation have a crucial role in triggering sustainable land use systems by investing in the underlying assets and the generation of sustainable revenue streams to compensate for opportunity costs of land use change. With a potential increase in the land value due to effective REDD+ investments, expenditures in an enabling institutional environment for REDD+ policies are crucial to avoid higher deforestation pressure on natural forests.  相似文献   

Comparison between in situ cone resistance and laboratory strength for overconsolidated north sea clays     

Oddvar Kjekstad  Tom Lunne  Carl J.F. Clausen 《Marine Georesources & Geotechnology》2013,31(1):23-36

Abstract

Cone resistance and laboratory strength measurements have been compared for stiff overconsolidated clays from five oil and gas fields in the North Sea. The clays considered are glacial in origin. The best agreement between cone resistance and laboratory strength is found by using an N_k factor equal to 17 in the formula

q_c = N_k . S_u + γZ.

The study shows that the cone gives highly reproducible results, whereas there is a considerable scatter in the laboratory strength determinations. When making use of CPTs for preliminary design, the authors recommend assuming an N_k of 15–20, depending on the type of problem under consideration.  相似文献   

Magnetic Discontinuities in the Near-Earth Solar Wind: Evidence of In-Transit Turbulence or Remnants of Coronal Structure?     

M. J. Owens  R. T. Wicks  T. S. Horbury 《Solar physics》2011,269(2):411-420

Fluctuations in the solar wind plasma and magnetic field are well described by the sum of two power law distributions. It has been postulated that these distributions are the result of two independent processes: turbulence, which contributes mainly to the smaller fluctuations, and crossing the boundaries of flux tubes of coronal origin, which dominates the larger variations. In this study we explore the correspondence between changes in the magnetic field with changes in other solar wind properties. Changes in density and temperature may result from either turbulence or coronal structures, whereas changes in composition, such as the alpha-to-proton ratio are unlikely to arise from in-transit effects. Observations spanning the entire ACE dataset are compared with a null hypothesis of no correlation between magnetic field discontinuities and changes in other solar wind parameters. Evidence for coronal structuring is weaker than for in-transit turbulence, with only ∼ 25% of large magnetic field discontinuities associated with a significant change in the alpha-to-proton ratio, compared to ∼ 40% for significant density and temperature changes. However, note that a lack of detectable alpha-to-proton signature is not sufficient to discount a structure as having a solar origin.  相似文献   

<Emphasis Type="Italic">In Situ</Emphasis> Signatures of Interchange Reconnection between Magnetic Clouds and Open Magnetic Fields: A Mechanism for the Erosion of Polar Coronal Holes?     

Benoit Lavraud  Mathew J. Owens  Alexis P. Rouillard 《Solar physics》2011,270(1):285-296

We outline a method to determine the direction of solar open flux transport that results from the opening of magnetic clouds (MCs) by interchange reconnection at the Sun based solely on in-situ observations. This method uses established findings about i) the locations and magnetic polarities of emerging MC footpoints, ii) the hemispheric dependence of the helicity of MCs, and iii) the occurrence of interchange reconnection at the Sun being signaled by uni-directional suprathermal electrons inside MCs. Combining those observational facts in a statistical analysis of MCs during solar cycle 23 (period 1995 – 2007), we show that the time of disappearance of the northern polar coronal hole (1998 – 1999), permeated by an outward-pointing magnetic field, is associated with a peak in the number of MCs originating from the northern hemisphere and connected to the Sun by outward-pointing magnetic field lines. A similar peak is observed in the number of MCs originating from the southern hemisphere and connected to the Sun by inward-pointing magnetic field lines. This pattern is interpreted as the result of interchange reconnection occurring between MCs and the open field lines of nearby polar coronal holes. This reconnection process closes down polar coronal hole open field lines and transports these open field lines equatorward, thus contributing to the global coronal magnetic field reversal process. These results will be further constrainable with the rising phase of solar cycle 24.  相似文献   

Assessment of interpolated ERA-40 reanalysis temperature and precipitation against observations of the Balkan Peninsula   总被引：1，自引：1，他引：0  

Effie Kostopoulou  Christos Giannakopoulos  Tom Holt  Philippe Le Sager 《Theoretical and Applied Climatology》2010,102(1-2):115-124

Due to their ready availability and temporal and spatial consistency, reanalysis data are widely used within the climate community. Nevertheless, higher spatial resolutions are often required and statistical interpolation techniques are applied to increase the data resolution. This work aims to derive a set of high spatial resolution data through three-dimensional interpolation of daily temperature and precipitation. Thin plate spline interpolation has been chosen and used to interpolate ERA-40 temperature and precipitation from a coarse grid (110 km) into a finer one of 1-km spatial resolution. The study evaluates the method by comparing the simulated variables with available in situ meteorological measurements. The chosen stations are distributed over the study region and, most importantly, contain information from a range of altitudes. The results indicate that accounting for the topography in the interpolation process improves the comparisons, with the biggest improvements being evident in the most mountainous areas. The method is found to be better in estimating temperature than precipitation fields. Moreover, the method performs better for maximum temperature in high altitudes and for minimum temperature in low altitudes.  相似文献   

National forest carbon inventories: policy needs and assessment capacity     

Krister Andersson  Tom P. Evans  Kenneth R. Richards 《Climatic change》2009,93(1-2):69-101

Previous research has identified the importance of the role of land cover in the global carbon cycle. In particular, forests have been identified as a significant carbon sink that can mitigate the rate of global climate change. Policy makers are faced with complex and difficult challenges in getting timely and useful information in monitoring global forest resources. Recent advances in the tools and methods of forest carbon accounting have produced new, innovative approaches to forest-based carbon inventories. But it is important as new tools are developed that scientists understand the needs of policy makers and that policy makers understand the capabilities and limitations of forest inventory methods. This paper explores four different policy applications that rely, or could benefit from, national carbon inventories. The goal is to help build a bridge between the communities of climate policy makers and scientists specialized in forest carbon inventories. To this end, we pursue three specific objectives: First we provide an overview for policy makers about approaches to forest carbon inventories, paying particular attention to the contributions of remote sensing technologies. Second, we outline the issues particularly relevant to forest inventory scientists who are interested in responding to public policy needs. We then discuss the tradeoffs between information cost, accuracy, precision, transparency and timeliness that need to be balanced in long-term monitoring of forest carbon. Finally, the article concludes with a series of observations and recommendations for the implementation of forest carbon inventories as increasingly central components of global climate change policy.  相似文献   

The radius and other fundamental parameters of the F9 V star β Virginis     

J. R. North  J. Davis  J. G. Robertson  T. R. Bedding  H. Bruntt  M. J. Ireland  A. P. Jacob  S. Lacour  J. W. O'Byrne  S. M. Owens  D. Stello  W. J. Tango  P. G. Tuthill 《Monthly notices of the Royal Astronomical Society》2009,393(1):245-252

We have used the Sydney University Stellar Interferometer (SUSI) to measure the angular diameter of the F9 V star β Virginis (β Vir). After correcting for limb darkening and combining with the revised Hipparcos parallax, we derive a radius of  1.703 ± 0.022 R_⊙  (1.3 per cent). We have also calculated the bolometric flux from published measurements which, combined with the angular diameter, implies an effective temperature of  6059 ± 49 K  (0.8 per cent). We also derived the luminosity of β Vir to be   L = 3.51 ± 0.08 L_⊙  (2.1 per cent). Solar-like oscillations were measured in this star by Carrier et al. and using their value for the large frequency separation yields the mean stellar density with an uncertainty of about 2 per cent. Our constraints on the fundamental parameters of β Vir will be important to test the theoretical models of this star and its oscillations.  相似文献   

The Outer Part of the Scattered Disc from the Simulation of the Formation of Small-body Reservoirs     

Marián Jakubík  Tomáš Paulech  Luboš Neslušan  Piotr A. Dybczyński  Giuseppe Leto 《Earth, Moon, and Planets》2009,105(2-4):379-383

Considering the model of the initial disc of planetesimals consisting of 10,038 test particles, we simulated the formation of small-body reservoirs in the outer Solar System for the 2-Gyr period. We present the results from the simulation, which concern the part of the scattered disc with objects that have the semi-major axes larger than 50 AU and do not cross the Neptune’s orbit. A suitable border between the scattered disc and the inner Oort cloud, in terms of semi-major axis, appears to be no more than 2,500 AU. The simulated and observed values of perihelion distance and inclination to the Ecliptic typically cover the range between 30 and 40 AU and from 0° to 30°, respectively. No simulated or observed values of the inclination exceed 45°. The distributions of eccentricity and inclination in the simulation are more consistent with their observed counterparts, if the primary observational selection effects are imitated in the simulated distributions.  相似文献   

The 6dF Galaxy Survey: final redshift release (DR3) and southern large-scale structures     

D. Heath Jones  Mike A. Read  Will Saunders  Matthew Colless  Tom Jarrett  Quentin A. Parker  Anthony P. Fairall †  Thomas Mauch  Elaine M. Sadler  Fred G. Watson  Donna Burton  Lachlan A. Campbell  Paul Cass  Scott M. Croom  John Dawe †  Kristin Fiegert  Leela Frankcombe  Malcolm Hartley  John Huchra  Dionne James  Emma Kirby  Ofer Lahav  John Lucey  Gary A. Mamon  Lesa Moore  Bruce A. Peterson  Sayuri Prior  Dominique Proust  Ken Russell  Vicky Safouris  Ken-ichi Wakamatsu  Eduard Westra  Mary Williams 《Monthly notices of the Royal Astronomical Society》2009,399(2):683-698

We report the final redshift release of the 6dF Galaxy Survey (6dFGS), a combined redshift and peculiar velocity survey over the southern sky  (| b | > 10°)  . Its 136 304 spectra have yielded 110 256 new extragalactic redshifts and a new catalogue of 125 071 galaxies making near-complete samples with  ( K , H , J , r _F, b _J) ≤ (12.65, 12.95, 13.75, 15.60, 16.75)  . The median redshift of the survey is 0.053. Survey data, including images, spectra, photometry and redshifts, are available through an online data base. We describe changes to the information in the data base since earlier interim data releases. Future releases will include velocity dispersions, distances and peculiar velocities for the brightest early-type galaxies, comprising about 10 per cent of the sample. Here we provide redshift maps of the southern local Universe with   z ≤ 0.1  , showing nearby large-scale structures in hitherto unseen detail. A number of regions known previously to have a paucity of galaxies are confirmed as significantly underdense regions. The URL of the 6dFGS data base is http://www-wfau.roe.ac.uk/6dFGS .  相似文献