Monitoring cryosphere and associated flood hazards in high mountain ranges of Pakistan using remote sensing technique     

Arshad Ashraf  Rakhshan Roohi  Rozina Naz  Naveed Mustafa 《Natural Hazards》2014,73(2):933-949

Knowledge of Himalayan cryosphere seems to be an outstanding requirement for assessment of glacier storage, water balance analysis, planning of water resources and flood hazard monitoring. A stepwise approach through mapping glaciers and glacial lakes using satellite remote sensing data and investigating potential glacial lake outburst flood (GLOF) hazards was adopted for the three Hindukush, Karakoram and Himalayan (HKH) ranges of Pakistan. The findings of the study revealed 5,218 glaciers in the cryosphere of HKH ranges. The cumulative glacial cover of over 15,000 km² contains ice reserves of about 2,738 km³. About 46 % of the Karakoram glaciers are contributing 77 % to the total glacial cover and 87 % to the cumulative ice reserves of the country. The 33 % Himalayan glaciers and 21 % Hindukush glaciers contribute only 3 and 10 % ice reserves, respectively. Among 2,420 glacial lakes identified in the three HKH ranges, 52 were classified as critical lakes that can pose GLOF hazard for the downstream communities. Most of the potential hazardous lakes lie in the Karakoram and Himalayan ranges, the monitoring of which is crucial to reduce high risk of future floods hazard in this fragile mountain ecosystem of the Himalayan region.  相似文献   

Determinants of farmers’ choice of coping and adaptation measures to the drought hazard in northwest Balochistan,Pakistan   总被引：2，自引：0，他引：2  

Muhammad Ashraf  Jayant K. Routray  Muhammad Saeed 《Natural Hazards》2014,73(3):1451-1473

This study identifies the coping and adaptation behavior of the farm households and also examines the factors that influence farmers’ choice for drought-induced adaptation strategies. The study employs a multivariate probit model on 215 farm households’ survey data from northwest Balochistan, Pakistan. The findings reveal that the farmers have shown considerable fortitude in coping with the impacts of drought on their agro-based practices and employed several adaptation initiatives both at on-farm and off-farm levels. These include crop management, water management, adjustment in agricultural inputs, income diversification, economization of expenditure and consumption smoothing, migrating to other places to seek alternative sources of income, assets depletion, and borrowing. Empirically, it is depicted that landholding, annual income, livestock ownership, credit access, farmer-to-farmer extension, GOs/NGOs support increase the probability of farmers’ decision to cope and adapt better with drought hazard. This study implies for specific policy and practice-oriented solutions in order to cope with and adapt in drought situation.  相似文献   

Delineation of Egyptian mud bricks using magnetic gradiometer techniques     

Ahmed El Emam  Tareq Abdallatif  Mancheol Suh  Hatem Odah 《Arabian Journal of Geosciences》2014,7(2):489-503

A near-surface magnetic gradiometer survey of a site at Hawara, Fayoum city is used to delineate archaeological features made by mud bricks at shallow depths in the northeast of the pyramid of Amenemhat III. Magnetic survey data were processed to a precise forward processing sequence, including clipping, de-sloping, removing stripes and edge discontinuities, de-spiking, filtering, interpolating, and finally detecting statistically significant results. The processed magnetic data indicate high amplitude anomalies in the northeastern part of the pyramid Amenemhat III, suggesting the presence of shallow cemeteries of mud brick walls. Low pass filtering of the vertical gradient data helped reveal the relatively deep mud brick features in the generally shallow section. These features were isolated using a statistical detection technique, and verified by the correlation with the surrounding mud brick discoveries. This required the analysis of the magnetic behavior of exposed mud bricks and man-made objects for comparison with the magnetic signature of buried material. These were then matched with the vertical magnetic gradients of the exposed mud brick features from here and three other Egyptian localities. They are mostly the extension of the 12th Dynasty cemeteries, which exist in the western and southwestern parts of the study area.  相似文献   

Infinitesimal Orbits Around the Libration Points in the Elliptic Restricted Three Body Problem     

Ashraf Hamdy  Mostafa K. Ahmed  Mohamad Radwan  Fawzy Ahmed Abd El-Salam 《Earth, Moon, and Planets》2003,93(4):261-273

The objective of the present work is to develope explicit analytical expressions for the small amplitude orbits of the infinitesimal mass about the equilibrium points in the elliptic restricted three body problem. To handle this dynamical problem, the Hamiltonian for the elliptic problem is formed with the true anomaly and then with the eccentric anomaly as independent variables. The origin is then transformed to a fixed point and the Hamiltonian is developed up to O(4) in the eccentricity, e, (which plays the role of the small parameter of the problem) of the primaries. The integration of the model problem under consideration is undertaken by means of a perturbation technique based on Lie series developments, which leads to the solution of the canonical equations of motion.  相似文献   

Mineral chemistry and geochemical aspects of Gebel Filat granites, South Eastern Desert, Egypt     

N. M. Moghazy  A. A. Emam  E. M. Abdel Rahman 《Arabian Journal of Geosciences》2011,4(5-6):689-702

Gebel Filat granites form one of Egyptian younger granite intrusions in Wadi Allaqi region, South Eastern Desert of Egypt. They are perthitic monzogranites composed mainly of K-feldspars, plagioclase, and quartz with minor biotite. Plagioclase feldspars are Na-rich and have low anorthite content (An_2–3). Potash feldspars are mainly perthitic microcline and have chemical formula as (Or_96–96.6 Ab_3.4–4 An₀). Biotite is Mg-rich and seems to be derived from calc-alkaline magma. Chlorite is pycnochlorite with high Mg content, revealing its secondary derivation from biotite. The estimated formation temperatures of biotite and chlorite are (689–711°C) and (602–622°C), respectively. Gebel Filat monzogranites are metaluminous, high-K calc-alkaline, I-type granites. They are late orogenic granites related to subduction-related volcanic arc magmatism. They are enriched in LILE and depleted in HSFE indicating highly differentiation character. The REE patterns display an enrichment in LREE due to presence of zircon and allanite as accessories and depletion in HREE with slight negative Eu anomaly $ \left( {{\text{Eu}}/{\text{Eu}} * = 0.51 - 0.97} \right) $ . The parent magma of Gebel Filat monzogranites were emplaced at moderate depths (20–30 km) under moderate conditions of water-vapor pressure (1–5 kbar) and crystallization temperature [700–750°C]. The source magma of these granites seems to be derived from partial melting of lower crust material rather than upper mantle. The geochemical characteristics of pegmatites revealed that they are related to post orogenic within plate magmatism and not genetically related to the parent magma of Gebel Filat monzogranites. Distribution of radioactive elements (U and Th) in the studied rocks indicates normal U–Th contents for Filat monzogranites and U–Th bearing pegmatites. The positive correlations of each of Zr and Y versus U and Th are attributed to presence of zircon and allanite as accessories which incorporate U and Th in their crystal lattice.  相似文献   

Drowned and buried valleys on the southern New England continental shelf     

Robert L. McMaster  ASAF Ashraf 《Marine Geology》1973,15(4):249-268

Bathymetry and seismic reflection profiling have revealed a sequence of seven post-Jurassic drowned or buried drainage systems on the southern New England shelf. The basement and younger stream patterns have a dominant southward trend with preferred drainage avenues from the mainland to the middle shelf indicated by superposed valley ground positions from unconformity to unconformity over time. Fluvial action under stable tectonic conditions is inferred by low valley height/width ratios with higher ratios related to ice modification of inner shelf pre-glacial river valleys.Fluvial processes responding to sea-level withdrawals have greatly influenced the shelf's later development. Periodically during post-Paleocene time, sediment from subaerial erosion has been transported to the shelf edge by streams. Deltaic deposition on a subsiding base has controlled outbuilding on the outer shelf where the frequent presence of overlying drainage networks is the result of numerous sea-level regressions. Since Eocene time, sediment has been channelled to the deep sea via Block Canyon and its progenitor.Locally structures created by erosion and glacial deposition have governed drainage direction. On the inner shelf, late Tertiary - early Pleistocene streams were diverted southeastward and southwestward by the magnitude of Long Island's Coastal Plain escarpment and by secondary cuestas between eastern Long Island and Block Island. The probable eastern reach of Dana's southern Sound River valley can be traced from northeastern Long Island across Block Island Sound. An early Woodfordian end moraine of the Wisconsin stage impounded melt waters in Block Island and Rhode Island Sounds. Where the moraine was breached near Block Island, fans were formed adjacent to the water gaps. In Rhode Island Sound the earlier and later Woodfordian end moraines deflected some mainland drainage toward the southwest.  相似文献   

Palaeoenvironmental Evolution During the Holocene in Itapeva Lake, RS, Brazil:Palynological and Geochemical Records     

Meyer K.E.B  Reichnart K  Marques T.M  Ashraf A.R  Mosbrugger V 《世界地质(英文版)》2002,5(2)

Based on palynological and geochemical data (Organic Carbon-Corg and Sulphur-S) of sedimentary samples from a vibrocore, considerations about the palaeoenvironmental evolution of Itapeva Lake region during the Holocene are made. The analysed core (BOXVI) consists in its lowermost part of a fine to medium sand packet, rich in glauconitic minerals, whose upper limit is considered to be the Holocene-Pleistocene contact. Using Cluster analysis on palynomorphs combined with Corg and S data, it was possible to distinguish four zones related to the Holocene transgression-regression cycle. Variations in Corg and S data permitted the recognition of changes in palaeosalinity. Zone 1 represents the beginning of the Holocene sedimentation; palynomorphs composition reveals a marsh environment under predominating freshwater conditions. In Zone 2, the occurrence of dinoflagellate cysts and high S values, indicating brackish water, reflects Holocene sea level highstand around 5100yrs. B.P. High concentration of Cyperaceae associated with a significant increase in Corg in Zone 3 indicates a typical marsh environment influenced at least sometimes by higher saline water, reflecting a regression phase. Salvinia natans (L)All. and Cyperaceae grains are considered to be the most significant palynomorpha in Zone 4, characterising a freshwater marsh. Based on the occurrence of dinoflagellates sample 2, Operculodinium sp., related to marine to estuarine environments, a question arises regarding about the time at which Barrier Ⅳ became completely closed.  相似文献   

Alternative climate data sources for distributed hydrological modelling on a daily time step   总被引：1，自引：0，他引：1  

Ashraf El‐Sadek  Max Bleiweiss  Manoj Shukla  Steve Guldan  Alexander Fernald 《水文研究》2011,25(10):1542-1557

Two major criteria in choosing climate data for use in hydrological modelling are the period of record of the data set and the proximity of the collection platform(s) to the basin under study. Conventional data sets are derived from weather stations; however, in many cases there are no weather stations sufficiently close to a basin to be representative of climate conditions in that basin. In addition, it is often the case either that the period of record for the weather station(s) does not cover the period of the proposed simulation or that there are gaps in the data. Therefore, the objectives of this study are to investigate alternative climate data sources for use in hydrological modelling and to develop a protocol for creating hydrological data sets that are spatially and temporally harmonized. The methods we used for constructing daily, spatially distributed, climatic data sets of precipitation, maximum and minimum temperature, wind speed, solar radiation, potential evapotranspiration, and relative humidity are described. The model used in this study was the Soil and Water Assessment Tool implemented on the Mimbres River Basin located in southwestern New Mexico, USA, for the period 2003–2006. Our hydrological simulations showed that two events in January and February 2005 were missed, while an event in August 2006 was well simulated. We have also investigated the usefulness of several other precipitation data sets and compared the simulation results. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.  相似文献   

Nonlinear propagation of dust-acoustic waves in a magnetized nonextensive dusty plasma     

S. Ashraf  S. Yasmin  M. Asaduzzaman  A. A. Mamun 《Astrophysics and Space Science》2013,348(2):495-500

A theoretical investigation has been made of obliquely propagating dust-acoustic solitary waves in a magnetized three-component dusty plasma, which consists of a negatively charged dust fluid, ions, and nonextensive electrons. The reductive perturbation method has been employed to derive the Korteweg-de Vries equation which admits a solitary wave solution. It has been shown that the combined effects of external magnetic field (obliqueness), ions, and electron nonextensivity change the behavior of these electrostatic solitary structures that have been found to exist with positive and negative potential in this dusty plasma model. The implications of our results in astrophysical and cosmological scenarios like vicinity of the Moon, magnetospheres of Jupiter and Saturn, dark-matter halos, hadronic matter, quark-gluon plasma, protoneutron stars, stellar polytropes etc. have been mentioned.  相似文献   

In Situ Time Series Estimation of Downwelling Diffuse Attenuation Coefficient at Southern Bay of Bengal     

P. Muhamed Ashraf  S. S. Shaju  D. Gayatri  P. Minu  B. Meenakumari 《Journal of the Indian Society of Remote Sensing》2013,41(3):725-730

The present study is aimed to determine the bio-optical characteristics of oceanic waters during South west monsoon in Bay of Bengal using hyperspectral radiometer. The variability of diffuse attenuation coefficient, K_d(λ), with chlorophyll a showed a good relation at shorter wavelengths, indicating the effect of phytoplankton on K_d(λ). The determination coefficient, R² at 412, 443, 490 and 555 nm were greater than 0.931. A good linear relation between K_d(490) and K_d(λ) was observed at shorter wavelengths. These relationships of K_d(λ) provides a platform to study the underwater light field during Southwest monsoon in Bay of Bengal.  相似文献