Evaluating some factors that affect feasility of using ground penetrating radar for landmine detection     

Mohamed Metwaly　Ahmed Ismail　Jun Matsushima 《应用地球物理》2007,4(3):221-230

Ground penetrating radar （GPR） is one of the promising technologies that can be used to detect landmines. Many factors may affect the ability of GPR to detect landmines. Among those factors are： 1） the type of landmine material （metallic or plastic）, 2） conditions of the host soil （soil texture and soil moisture）, and 3） the radar frequency utilized. The impact of these factors on the ability of GPR to detect landmines is investigated by studying their effect on the dielectric permittivity contrast between the landmine and the host soil, as well as on the attenuation of the radar waves. The impact of each factor was theoretically reviewed and modeled using the Matlab and Mathcad software packages. Results of the computer modeling were correlated with GPR data acquired for metallic and plastic landmine types. It was found that the ability of GPR to detect landmines depends to a great extent on the landmine type, water content of the host soil, utilized radar frequency, and soil texture. The landmines are much easier to detect than plastic landmines for any soil conditions and any radar frequency. Increasing the soil＇s moisture content, regardless of soil texture, eases the detection of the plastic landmine and worsens the detection of the metallic mines. Increasing the percentage of clay in the soil causes the same effect as the moisture content. However, higher radar frequency delivers better results for landmine detection as long as the percentage of clay and the moisture content in the soil remains low. The results of this study are expected to help in selecting optimum radar antennae and data acquisition parameters depending on the landmine type and environmental conditions.  相似文献   

Local geoid determination combining gravity disturbances and GPS/levelling: a case study in the Lake Nasser area, Aswan, Egypt   总被引：1，自引：0，他引：1  

C. C. Tscherning  Awar Radwan  A. A. Tealeb  S. M. Mahmoud  M. Abd El-Monum  Ramdan Hassan  I. El-Syaed  K. Saker 《Journal of Geodesy》2001,75(7-8):343-348

 The use of GPS for height control in an area with existing levelling data requires the determination of a local geoid and the bias between the local levelling datum and the one implicitly defined when computing the local geoid. If only scarse gravity data are available, the heights of new data may be collected rapidly by determining the ellipsoidal height by GPS and not using orthometric heights. Hence the geoid determination has to be based on gravity disturbances contingently combined with gravity anomalies. Furthermore, existing GPS/levelling data may also be used in the geoid determination if a suitable general gravity field modelling method (such as least-squares collocation, LSC) is applied. A comparison has been made in the Aswan Dam area between geoids determined using fast Fourier transform (FFT) with gravity disturbances exclusively and LSC using only the gravity disturbances and the disturbances combined with GPS/levelling data. The EGM96 spherical harmonic model was in all cases used in a remove–restore mode. A total of 198 gravity disturbances spaced approximately 3 km apart were used, as well as 35 GPS/levelling points in the vicinity and on the Aswan Dam. No data on the Nasser Lake were available. This gave difficulties when using FFT, which requires the use of gridded data. When using exclusively the gravity disturbances, the agreement between the GPS/levelling data were 0.71 ± 0.17 m for FFT and 0.63 ± 0.15 for LSC. When combining gravity disturbances and GPS/levelling, the LSC error estimate was ±0.10 m. In the latter case two bias parameters had to be introduced to account for a possible levelling datum difference between the levelling on the dam and that on the adjacent roads. Received: 14 August 2000 / Accepted: 28 February 2001  相似文献   

Textural attributes, mineralogy and provenance of sand dune fields in the greater Al Ain area, United Arab Emirates     

Mohamed M. Abu-Zeid  Ashraf R. Baghdady  Hassan A. El-Etr 《Journal of Arid Environments》2001,48(4):475

Sand dunes and interdune sediments around Al Ain city have markedly high carbonate contents which increase towards Jabal Hafit mountain and the Arabian Gulf coast. The dunes are composed predominantly of well-sorted fine sands, consisting of unstrained quartz and carbonate grains together with minor proportions of chert and feldspars. Scanning electron microscope (SEM) examination reveals that quartz grains display various mechanically- and chemically-formed surface textures. The heavy minerals are dominated by opaques and pyroxenes with minor tourmaline, garnet, rutile, epidote, monazite, zircon, hornblende and staurolite.Interdune sediments consist of fine and very fine, poorly- to extremely poorly-sorted sands together with small concentrations of gravel, silt and clay. The light sand fractions compositionally resemble those of dunes but contain, in addition, gypsum, anhydrite, halite and celestite. Percentages of pyroxenes are higher whereas those of zircon, tourmaline and rutile are lower than in dunes. X-ray diffractometry reveals that the clay fractions consist solely of palygorskite. Generally, interdune sediments are much less mature texturally and mineralogically than dune sands; the maturity of both types of sediments decreases toward the NE of the study area.Sand dunes in the various districts of the greater Al Ain area are genetically related. Also, there is a partial genetic relationship between the dunes and interdune sediments; both are mainly multicyclic. Their major parts were brought mainly by the dominant north-west (El Shamal) winds from older dune fields in other localities in U.A.E., Qatar and El-Rub El-Khali. Local contributions to the dune fields from Jabal Hafit mountain, the Oman Mountains and the calcareous coast of the Arabian Gulf were, in cases, significant. Also, authigenesis by groundwater under highly evaporitic conditions played a major role in the formation of interdune sediments through the genesis of the clay and some nonclay minerals.  相似文献   

Pollution vulnerability of the Quaternary aquifer near Cairo, Egypt, as indicated by isotopes and hydrochemistry   总被引：2，自引：1，他引：2  

M. Sadek  Abd S. El-Samie 《Hydrogeology Journal》2001,9(3):273-281

The present study was conducted to delineate the pollution vulnerability of the Quaternary aquifer in two areas, Imbaba and Shobra El-Khima, near Cairo, Egypt. Environmental isotopes combined with hydrochemistry were used for this purpose. The groundwater in the Imbaba area (average total dissolved solids about 900 mg/L; sodium/chloride, sulfate, and bicarbonate water types) is more mineralized than groundwater in the Shobra El-Khima area (average total dissolved solids 500 mg/L; calcium and sodium/bicarbonate water type). A high nitrate content and significant mineralization in the groundwater are probably due to contamination of recharge to the aquifer by irrigation drainage, deteriorated sewage networks, and septic tanks. The deuterium and oxygen-18 compositions of the groundwater are depleted compared to Nile River water, which is the main source of aquifer recharge. This less isotopically enriched water probably represents older Nile water recharge that flooded the region before construction of the Aswan High Dam in 1963, or it is a mixture of a young water and originally deposited paleowater that was in deeper horizons at a time of cooler and more humid climate. Intensive pumping has moved the paleowater higher in the aquifer. Groundwater in the Shobra El-Khima area has higher residence time, based on the tritium concentration, than groundwater in the Imbaba area. The percentage of the isotopically depleted water equals 75% in the Shobra El-Khima and 35% in Imbaba, and the thickness of the clay cap above the aquifer is 38 m in Shobra El-Khima and 20 m in Imbaba. These factors are indicative of the rate of recharge to the aquifer and were used to evaluate the pollution vulnerability in the two areas. Electronic Publication  相似文献   

Drought assessment in a south Mediterranean transboundary catchment     

Khouloud Gader  Ahlem Gara  Marnik Vanclooster  Slaheddine Khlifi  Mohamed Slimani 《水文科学杂志》2020,65(8):1300-1315

ABSTRACT

Predicting the impacts of climate change on water resources remains a challenging task and requires a good understanding of the dynamics of the forcing terms in the past. In this study, the variability of precipitation and drought patterns is studied over the Mediterranean catchment of the Medjerda in Tunisia based on an observed rainfall dataset collected at 41 raingauges during the period 1973–2012. The standardized precipitation index and the aridity index were used to characterize drought variability. Multivariate and geostatistical techniques were further employed to identify the spatial variability of annual rainfall. The results show that the Medjerda is marked by a significant spatio-temporal variability of drought, with varying extreme wet and dry events. Four regions with distinct rainfall regimes are identified by utilizing the K-means cluster analysis. A principal component analysis identifies the variables that are responsible for the relationships between precipitation and drought variability.  相似文献   

Neoproterozoic magmatism in NW Sinai,Egypt: magma source and evolution of collision-related intracrustal anatectic leucogranite     

Mohamed?M.?El-SayedEmail author 《International Journal of Earth Sciences》2003,92(2):145-164

The present study deals with tectonomagmatic evolution of the collision-related leucogranite located near the northwest corner of exposed basement in Sinai, Egypt. The area is composed of: (1) a gabbroic complex; (2) amphibolite; (3) post-orogenic leucogranite; (4) Feiran gneisses. The amphibolite and gabbroic suites, generated in an island arc environment, have a high Fe-tholeiitic affinity and were derived from two independent magmas. On the basis of rare earth element (REE) patterns, the gabbroic melts could have been generated from a garnet- and amphibole-bearing, enriched mantle, and were subsequently modified by fractional crystallization of pyroxene and amphibole with minor plagioclase, whereas the amphibolite melts could be derived from garnet-free depleted mantle.The leucogranite has high Al₂O₃ content (>13 wt%), alumina saturation index (ASI) mostly >1, and normative corundum, indicating a peraluminous nature. Chondrite-normalized REE patterns for the leucogranite show light REE enrichment (La/Sm_N=2.7–4.86), general flattening of the heavy REE (Gd/Lu_N=1.2–2), and negative europium (Eu) anomalies (Eu/Eu*=0.24–0.47). The peraluminous nature and enrichment of the incompatible elements (K, Rb, Ba and Th) in the leucogranite strongly suggest derivation from a crustal source. The most probable source for the leucogranite magmas is represented by the adjacent Feiran gneisses, which could have generated the leucogranite by dehydration melting under water-undersaturated conditions. It appears likely that the restite unmixing model is responsible for the chemical variations within the leucogranite. In accordance with this model, the chemical variation of the leucogranite can be attributed to varying degrees of separation of restitic material from the melt during its emplacement and solidification and fractional crystallization could have played a minor role during magma ascent through the crust.  相似文献   

Butterfly pitch-angle distributions observed by ISEE-1     

Theodore A. Fritz  Mohamed Alothman  Jyotirmoyee BhattacharjyaDavid L. Matthews  Jiasheng Chen 《Planetary and Space Science》2003,51(3):205-219

  相似文献   

Hydro-mechanical evaluation of stabilized mine tailings   总被引：3，自引：0，他引：3  

A. Mohamed  M. Hossein  F. Hassani 《Environmental Geology》2002,41(7):749-759

. In this study, mine tailings waste was stabilized using a combination of lime, fly ash type "C", and aluminum. Treated samples were subjected to mineral identification for evaluating the formation of ettringite and gypsum. Also, unconfined compression, hydraulic conductivity, and cyclic freeze and thaw tests were performed to evaluate the hydro-mechanical properties of the stabilized samples. Experimental results have shown that the application of lime and fly ash type "C" to high sulfate content tailings has improved its plasticity, workability, and volume stability. Moreover, upon addition of aluminum to lime and fly ash in a sulfate-rich environment, ettringite and calcium sulfo-aluminate hydrate are formed in these samples. Application of 5% lime, 10% fly ash type "C", in combination with 110 ppm aluminum, resulted in the formation of a solid monolith capable of producing more than 1,000 kPa of unconfined compressive strength, and reduced tailings permeability to 1.96᎒^–6 cm s^–1, which is less than the recommended permeability of 10^–5 cm s^–1 by most environmental protection agencies for reusability of solidified/stabilized samples. The permeability of the treated tailings samples remained below the recommended permeability, even after exposing the treated samples to 12 freeze and thaw cycles. Therefore, based on the experimental results, it is concluded that treatment of high sulfate-content tailings with lime and fly ash, combined with the availability of aluminum for reactions, is a successful method of solidifying highly reactive mine tailings.  相似文献   

Impact of Climate Change on Agricultural Production in the Sahel – Part 1. Methodological Approach and Case Study for Millet in Niger     

A. Ben Mohamed  N. van Duivenbooden  S. Abdoussallam 《Climatic change》2002,54(3):327-348

In the last 30 years the climate of the West African Sahel has shown various changes, especially in terms of rainfall, of which inter-annual variabilityis very high. This has significant consequences for the poor-resource farmers, whose incomes depend mainly on rainfed agriculture. The West African Sahel is already known as an area characterized by important interaction between climate variability and key socio-economic sectors such as agriculture and water resources. More than 80% of the 55 million population of West African Sahel is rural, involved in agriculture and stock-farming, the two sectors contributing almost 35% of the countries' GDPs. It is thereforeobvious that climate change seriously affects the economies of these countries. Adding to this situation the high rate of population increase(3%), leading to progressive pressure upon ecosystems, and poorsanitary facilities, one comes to the conclusion that Sahelian countries, Niger amongst them, will be highly vulnerable to climate change.This paper investigates the impact of current climate variability and future climate change on millet production for three major millet-producing regions in Niger. Statistical models have been used to predict the effects of climate change on future production on the basis of thirteen available predictors. Based on the analysis of the past 30-years of rainfall and production data, the most significant predictors of the model are (i) seasurface temperature anomalies, (ii) the amount of rainfall in July, August and September, (iii) the number of rainy days and (iv) the wind erosion factor. In 2025, production of millet is estimated to be about 13% lower as a consequence of climate change, translated into a reduction of the total amount of rainfall for July, August and September, combined with an increase in temperature while maintaining other significant predictors at a constant level. Subsequently,various potential strategies to compensate this loss are evaluated, including those to increase water use efficiency and to cultivate varieties that are adapted to such circumstances.  相似文献   

The factors controlling the distribution of carbonate content in Kuwait Bay sediments     

Mamdouh A. Mohamed  Ali A. Al-Shamlan 《International Journal of Earth Sciences》1979,68(2):622-630

The present study has been undertaken to determine the nature and the factors controlling the distribution of carbonate content in Kuwait Bay sediments. The carbonate content that may be deposited with Kuwait Bay sediments is attributed to the interplay of the deposits fallout from the dust storms over Kuwaiti territory, the deposits carried in suspension by the currents from Shatt Al-Arab area and to the skeletal parts of microorganisms that may be originated in the sediments. The carbonate content increases in the coarse sediments rather than in the fine sediments. The mineral components of the carbonate present are in the form of calcite, aragonite and some dolomite. Therefore, the texture of the sediments, the rate of deposition in addition to the biological interference may exert a considerable control over carbonate distribution.  相似文献