Earth and Space science education Research Papers (original) (raw)

2025, A25-00892 Unprecedented Oxygen Isotope Signatur

We report the discovery and initial characterization of specimen A25-00892, a 500-gram fragment recovered from Minnesota, USA. The specimen exhibits an unprecedented oxygen isotope signature with δ¹⁸O = 9.3‰, δ¹⁷O = -6.7‰, and Δ¹⁷O = -11.54‰ (VSMOW), representing a more negative Δ¹⁷O value than any established meteorite group. Major element analysis reveals anomalous geochemistry including extremely elevated MnO (4.519 wt%) and CaO (24.04 wt%) contents that distinguish it from all established meteorite groups. The combination of mass-independent oxygen isotope fractionation and unique major element composition provides definitive evidence for extraterrestrial origin while indicating derivation from a previously unsampled parent body. These findings necessitate establishment of a new meteorite classification and provide new constraints on oxygen isotope reservoirs in the early solar system.

2025

The period of the 70s and 80s was marked by a drought in the Sahelian countries. However, since the beginning of the 21 st century, these countries have experienced a resurgence of heavy rainfall and devastating floods, causing inestimable socioeconomic damage and losses. The objective of this work is to study the dynamics of atmospheric conditions associated with seventeen extreme rainfall events listed in the database of the Directorate of Civil Protection of Senegal and having caused significant socioeconomic impacts between 2000 and 2017. This study was carried out using satellite products and atmospheric reanalysis data. The results of the analyses of the various atmospheric parameters studied show, at the synoptic scale, that extreme rainfall events are mainly modulated by African easterly waves. Strong moisture transport convergences in the lower tropospheric layers due to vortices associated with these waves are recorded. A response of this moisture convergence in the lower layers accompanied by vertical moisture transport is highlighted by strong anomalies and wind divergence. This configuration corresponds to the presence of a vertically well-structured convective system. The analysis of atmospheric parameters such as relative vorticity, wind, relative humidity and precipitable water shows that they are good indicators to characterize rainfall extremes. The behavior of the anomalies of these variables shows the presence of a significant amount of moisture in the tropospheric column and the most marked pressure levels are between 850 and 700-hPa, and in the upper layers around 200-hPa.

2025, Radio Science

The reception properties of the Radio Wave Instrument (RWI) onboard JUICE (Jupiter Icy Moons Explorer) have been determined using numerical methods applied to a mesh‐grid model of the spacecraft. The RWI is part of the RPWI (Radio and Plasma Wave Investigation) and consists of three perpendicular dipoles mounted on a long boom. We determined their effective lengths vectors and capacitive impedances of 8–9 pF. We also investigated the change in effective antenna angles as a function of solar panel rotation and calculated the directivity of the antennas at higher frequencies up to the maximum frequency of 45 MHz of the receiver. We found that the RWI dipoles can be used for direction‐finding with an accuracy of up to a frequency of 1.5 MHz. Additionally we calculated the influence of strong pulses from the JUICE active radar on RPWI and found that they should do no harm to its sensors and receivers.

2025, Advances in Space Research

On October 25th, 2006, NASA's two STEREO spacecraft were launched which are designed to increase our knowledge of the physics of the solar system. On board they carry a sophisticated radio experiment, called S/WAVES. The key technology, used by S/WAVES is the direction finding capability in addition to the use of two spacecraft which makes it possible to triangulate radio sources. Direction finding requires the reception properties of the antennas to be known very accurately. We applied several different methods to calibrate the S/WAVES antennas. In this paper the methods are described and compared and the results are presented and discussed with respect to advantages and disadvantages of the different methods.

2025, ACM SIGMOD Record

SIGMOD 2008 was the first database conference that offered to test submitters' programs against their data to verify the repeatability of the experiments published [1]. Given the positive feedback concerning the SIGMOD 2008... more

2025, Space Science Reviews

The WAVES investigation on the WIND spacecraft will provide comprehensive measurements of the radio and plasma wave phenomena which occur in Geospace. Analyses of these measurements, in coordination with the other onboard plasma, energetic particles, and field measurements will help us understand the kinetic processes that are important in the solar wind and in key boundary regions of the Geospace. These processes are then to be interpreted in conjunction with results from the other ISTP spacecraft in order to discern the measurements and parameters for mass, momentum, and energy flow throughout geospace. This investigation will also contribute to observations of radio waves emitted in regions where the solar wind is accelerated. The WAVES investigation comprises several innovations in this kind of instrumentation: among which the first use, to our knowledge, of neural networks in real-time on board a scientific spacecraft to analyze data and command observation modes, and the first use of a wavelet transform-like analysis in real time to perform a spectral analysis of a broad band signal.

2025, Eos

High school and middle school students mingled with scientists from all over the world when they presented their posters at the Joint Aquatic Sciences Meeting.

2025

During a 30 - year period numerous schools were visited to present an introduction to the subject of geology together with a donation of samples to the school plus free samples to each student. There was a need for science awareness in... more

2025, Geoscience Letters

This study develops and validates three photochemical inversion models to retrieve atomic oxygen ion density ([O + ]) profiles from 630.0 nm airglow emissions in the mid-latitude ionosphere during geomagnetically quiet period. Using passive ground-based instruments and empirical models, the models were tested and compared against electron density data from FORMOSAT-3/COSMIC (F3/C) and DPS-4 digisonde at Irkutsk. Among the models, Inversion Model 3 showed the strongest agreement with observations, particularly in capturing seasonal variations such as the June-July peak and a secondary March-April peak, which were absent in IRI-2012 predictions. These results highlight the potential of Inversion Model 3 for accurate [O + ] retrieval, offering a novel approach for monitoring ionospheric variability using passive photometric observations.

2025

We present work on the extension of the homogeneous prominence catalogue created for the epoch 1967 -2009 at the Lomnicky Peak Observatory (LSO) by incorporating new data acquired at the Kanzelhöhe Observatory for Solar and Environmental Research (KSO). We use data of 20 Hα prominences observed almost simultaneously at both observatories during four days in August/September 2009 to analyze the significance of differences of the determined parameters used in the Hα prominence catalogue. A reduction of the data from KSO and adaptation of the resulting parameters to fit the parameters of the LSO catalogue confirm that no special homogenization is needed to create a common catalogue data set. Thus, we justified that the LSO catalogue could be extended onward in the future using a more comprehensive database of observations from KSO.

2025, Earth and Space Science

Concept of fractals and power law in statistical and geometrical data sets is rather matured. However, the application part of the fractal theory is not yet commensurate with the theoretical literature available. In this invited review, we take a dig at the range of data sets to demonstrate their fractal/scaling behavior for instance well logs and geological features such as fractures, which exhibit scaling behavior. The range of topics discussed in this paper are based on the concept that physical and geometrical property of the Earth follows scaling behavior. Based on the observations and available research we aim to address the question "Is geology scaling?" Further, we elaborate on one of the applications of fractal concepts in designing an operator for the colored inversion of seismic data, which is very efficient, and does not need a background model to do the seismic inversion in contrast to classical seismic inversion methods.

2025, ALINEACIONES PLANETARIAS COMO RESPONSABLES DE GRANDES TERREMOTOS EN ACAPULCO Y CENTRO DE MÉXICO

La relación entre terremotos grandes en México durante alineaciones planetarias está bien establecida. En este artículo muestro cómo los terremotos más significativos fueron a causa de dichas alineaciones en el puerto y ciudad de Acapulco Guerrero. Los que vivimos en carne y espíritu propio mi preciosa esposa Maribel y yo el 25 de octubre de 2023 con el impacto del hiperhuracán OTIS solo viene a reafirmar por qué Acapulco se llama así.

2025, Earth and Space Science

At any given time, a tropical cyclone (TC) vortex has multiple intensity pathways that are possible. We conceptualize this problem as a scenario where each of the TC's intensity pathways is a distinct attractor basin, and a combination of several external and internal factors across multiple scales dictates as to which of the many pathways the TC vortex actually takes. As with any complex system, it is difficult to know the details of the multiscale processes that cause or initiate the tipping of the TC vortex into an attractor basin. A stochastic shock arising from any of the various scales within a TC vortex and the subsequent cross‐scale energy transactions may rapidly increase the probability of the vortex intensifying or weakening. To address this problem and apply our conceptual framework to actual TC case studies, we formulate a novel scale‐specific stochastic model that examines the multiscale energetics at and across individual wave numbers within the TC vortex. The sto...

2025, Earth and Space Science

Forest recovery following a disturbance lasts decades to centuries, and the rate depends on pre‐ and post‐disturbance condition and local environmental factors. Existing approaches of field observations, remote sensing, statistical chronosequence, and ecological modeling have one or more drawbacks, including short time frames, generalized details, indirect indicators, hard parameterization, and defective assumptions. Using aboveground live biomass (AGLB) as an example, we developed an approach called “Disturbance and Recovery Assessment across Space and Time (DRAST).” For a specific post‐disturbance year, DRAST utilizes Field Inventory and Analysis data sets and the Forest Vegetation Simulator, as well as pre‐ and post‐disturbance remote sensing to create two rasters: (1) what the AGLB would look like over the disturbed area had the disturbance not occurred and (2) what the AGLB would look like over the disturbed area in the actual presence of the disturbance. These two rasters are ...

2025, Earth and Space Science

We estimated Moho depths from data recorded by permanent and temporary broadband seismic stations deployed in northern Baja California, Mexico, using the receiver function technique. This region is composed of two subregions of contrasting geological and topographical characteristics: the Peninsular Ranges of Baja California (PRBC), a batholith with high elevations (up to 2,600 m); and the Mexicali Valley (MV) region, a sedimentary environment close to sea level. Crustal thickness derived from the P‐to‐S converted phases at 29 seismic stations were analyzed in three profiles: Two that cross the two subregions, in ∼W‐E direction, and the third one that runs over the PRBC in a N‐S direction. For the PRBC, Moho depths vary from 35 to 45 km, from 33°N to 32°N; and from 30 to 46 km depth from 32°N to 30.5°N. From a profile that crosses the subregions in the W‐E direction; Moho depths vary from 45 to ∼34 km under western and eastern PRBC, respectively; with an abrupt change of depth under...

2025

The interannual variability of the eastern equatorial Atlantic Cold Tongue (ACT) is closely linked to rainfall variability over the western African continent and particularly to the western Africa monsoon (WAM) jump. In this study we try to relate the variability of the ACT to the variability of the WAM. For this, several indexes are defined to characterize the ACT: mean

2025, Eos

For decades, scientists have probed Earth's remote mantle by analyzing how seismic waves of distant earthquakes pass through it. But we are still challenged by the technique's limitations.

2025

FROM LAUNCH TO SOL 40. W. T. Pike1, P. Lognonne2, W. B. Banerdt3, S. B. Calcutt4, I. M. Standley5, D. Giardini6, C. Charalambous1, A. E. Stott1, J. B. McClean1, T. Warren4, P. Zweifel6, D. Mance6, J. Ten Pierick6, D. Mimoun7, N. Murdoch7, K. Hurst3, N. Teanby8, J. Wookey8, R. Myhill8, A. Horleston8, E. Beucler9, J. Clinton6, S. Ceylan6, M. van Driel6, S. Stahler6 1Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering, Imperial College London, Exhibition Road, London, UK SW7 2AZ (w.t.pike@imperial.ac.uk), 2IPGP, France 3JPL, CA, USA 4University of Oxford, UK 5Kinemetrics, CA, USA, 6ETH-Zurich, Switzerland 7DEOS/SSPA, ISAE-SUPAERO, Toulouse, France, 8Bristol University, UK, 9University of Nantes, France

2025, Earth and Space Science

Landslides have been observed in different terrestrial environments and also on planets, satellites, and asteroids. Long runout landslides are strongly dependent on the initial mass position, material and slope path properties, topographic relief, and presence of volatiles. Therefore, landslides represent a means for the description of rock properties and environment of deposition prevailing at the time of occurrence and may assist in understanding the geological and climatological history of the planetary surfaces. Concerning Mars, previous studies have concentrated on Valles Marineris, where among the largest and longest landslides have been observed. Using different imagery, we present and analyze an original database of 3,118 Martian landslides of deposit area greater than 0.1 km2 throughout the planet between 60°N and 60°S, resulting in a data set far richer than previously done. After a distinction is made between different typologies of landslides, their position and the stat...

2025, Earth and Space Science

Forecast skill of three subseasonal-to-seasonal models and their ensemble mean outputs are evaluated in predicting the surface minimum and maximum temperatures at subseasonal timescales over South Africa. Three skill scores (correlation of anomaly, root-mean-square error, and Taylor diagrams) are used to evaluate the models. It is established that the subseasonal-to-seasonal models considered here have skill in predicting both minimum and maximum temperatures at subseasonal timescales. The correlation of anomaly indicates that the multimodel ensemble outperforms the individual models in predicting both minimum and maximum temperatures for the day 1-14, day 11-30, and full calendar month timescales during December months. The Taylor diagrams suggest that the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts model and MM performs better for the day 11-30 timescale for both minimum and maximum temperatures. In general, the models perform better for minimum than maximum temperatures in terms of root-mean-square error. In fact, the skill difference in terms of correlation of anomalies (CORA) is small.

2025

Future exploration efforts of the Moon, Mars and other bodies are poised to focus heavily on persistent and sustainable survey and research efforts. This is especially true for the Moon, as additional orbital and surface efforts have been made by a number of countries for the first time and given the recent interest in a long-term sustainable human presence at the Moon. Key to these efforts is understanding a number of important processes on the lunar surface for both scientific and operational purposes. We discuss the potential value of a powerful tool complementary to currently used reconnaissance techniques: in-situ artificial substrate witness plates. These tools can supplement familiar remote sensing and sample acquisition techniques and provide a sustainable way of monitoring processes in key locations on planetary surfaces while also maintaining a low environmental footprint. We examine and discuss unique case studies to show how key processes such as water transport/hydratio...

2025

Cave environments on Earth have long provided shelter to a variety of organisms, from microbes to humans. Though their scales of interest differ vastly, these two examples have sought the same comfort from caves: a stable and sheltered environment, protected from the woes of the surface world. Since the discovery of lava caves on Mars (see Sauro et al., 2020 for a review), they have become of renewed interest as targets for human shelter in future missions, as well as areas of astrobiological interest, with the potential of harboring traces of extant or extinct extraterrestrial life.

2025

ICON principles and practices are widely used in geoscience education to improve both research and practice. • Strengthened capacity for ICON practices is needed to advance current educational priorities. • A priority must be placed on... more

2025, Earth and Space Science

The 3D reconstruction of gravity waves (GW) is a difficult task with present observational techniques • The austral tip of South America is a well-known region of very intense GW, but their sources and effects are still unclear • With two close lidars in the hotspot zone and a satellite profile, the full 3D wavevector and the intrinsic frequency of observed GW may be determined

2025

Virtual field trips (VFTs) have become popular with both university students and teachers as a means of learning and teaching during the last decade. They are generally presented on computer by means of the Internet or on CD-ROM and generally take the form of a set of hot-linked web pages or a purpose specific computer aided learning package generated in Authorware or a similar package. VFTs are currently a 'hot topic' in discussions about the reform of geoscience teaching in China. They are thought to be convenient for students to practice on and to be a worthwhile teaching and learning experience. Many university teachers in China are coming to expect a VFT CD-ROM to be included in textbooks and there is a growing tendency to regard the provision of such resources as an indicator that the book is a particularly good or advanced one. There have even been suggestions by some that virtual field trips will probably replace traditional field excursions at some time in the mediu...

2025, Boletin De La Asociacion Matematica Venezolana

una invitación para participar, en París, en el prestigioso Liceo "Louis le Grand", en una reunión con el objetivo de intentar organizar, en toda Europa, un concurso de matemáticas que ya en aquella época era muy popular en Francia, y que llevaba el pintoresco nombre de Canguro Matemático. Los fines del concurso eran (y siguen siéndolo ahora) muy distintos de los de la Olimpiada : se trataba de popularizar las matemáticas, organizando un concurso de masas que, por tanto, no debía buscar la excelencia, como en el caso de las Olimpiadas, sino más bien al contrario, intentase lograr que incluso los alumnos menos dotados se divirtieran resolviendo problemas de matemáticas. A la reunión asistieron Jefes de Delegacion en la IMO de paises tan potentes como la URSS, Alemania o Hungría, que tradicionalmente obtienen excelentes resultados en la "elitista" IMO. Pero, naturalmente, la idea fué inmediatamente considerada excelente y prioritaria por todos los asistentes. Asistimos "in situ" al desarrollo del concurso en diferentes Centros franceses, y pudimos también ver como las hojas de respuesta recibían un tratamiento informático rapidísimo, mediante una lectora óptica de las mismas. Un año más tarde, en Estrasburgo, se constituyó de manera oficial la Asociación Internacional Kangourou sans Frontières, encargada de la gestión a nivel internacional del Concurso, y de la que forman parte los organizadores nacionales. Desde entonces, el concurso se realiza anualmente en los distintos países europeos.

2025

This article provides a commentary about the state of integrated, coordinated, open, and networked (ICON) principles in Earth and Planetary Science Processes (EPSP) and discussion on the opportunities and challenges of adopting them. This commentary focuses on the challenges with current inclusive, equitable, and accessible science and highlights how research undertaken in the earth and planetary surface processes community currently benefit from and would be able to grow as a discipline with more directed implementation of ICON principles.

2025, HoST - Journal of History of Science and Technology

In the context of the space race, space science became an area of collaboration between the Spanish dictatorship and the United States of America during the 1960s. The Francoist regime leveraged its collaboration in the space race as an internal tool for political legitimization. This article examines the role of science popularization in this legitimization process by focusing on the TV show Amigos del Espacio (“Friends of Outer Space”), broadcast between 1967 and 1969 and aimed at young audiences. Specifically, it analyses the available episodes of the show and the trajectory of its scriptwriter, science writer and PhD in Law Sebastià Estradé (1923-2016). The article examines three key dimensions of Amigos del Espacio: the celebration of Spanish science and technology; the portrayal of the relationship between Spain and the United States; and the program’s integration of Catholic faith with the popularization of space science.

2025, Remote Sensing

The aim of this study was to develop a robust methodology for evaluating the spatiotemporal dynamics of the inundation status in tropical wetlands with the currently available Global Navigation Satellite System-Reflectometry (GNSS-R) data by proposing a new quality control technique called the “precision index”. The methodology was applied over the Mekong Delta, one of the most important rice-production systems comprising aquaculture areas and natural wetlands (e.g., mangrove forests, peatlands). Cyclone Global Navigation Satellite System (CyGNSS) constellation data (August 2018–December 2021) were used to evaluate the spatiotemporal dynamics of the reflectivity Γ over the delta. First, the reflectivity Γ, shape and size of each specular footprint and the precision index were calibrated at each specular point and reprojected to a 0.0045° resolution (approximately equivalent to 500 m) grid at a daily temporal resolution (Lv. 2 product); then, the results were obtained considering bia...

2024, Enseñanza de las Ciencias de la Tierra

La Geología quiere sumarse a las olimpiadas científicas y, para ello, diversas asociaciones vinculadas

2024

We propose a new machine learning-based method for nowcasting earthquakes to image the time-dependent earthquake cycle. The result is a timeseries which may correspond to the process of stress accumulation and release. The timeseries is constructed by using Principal Component Analysis of regional seismicity. The patterns are found as eigenvectors of the cross-correlation matrix of a collection of seismicity timeseries in a coarse grained regional spatial grid (pattern recognition via unsupervised machine learning). The eigenvalues of this matrix represent the relative importance of the various eigenpatterns. Using the eigenvectors and eigenvalues, we then compute the weighted correlation timeseries (WCT) of the regional seismicity. This timeseries has the property that the weighted correlation generally decreases prior to major earthquakes in the region, and increases suddenly just after a major earthquake occurs. As in a previous paper (Rundle and Donnellan, 2020), we find that this method produces a nowcasting timeseries that resembles the hypothesized regional stress accumulation and release process characterizing the earthquake cycle. We then address the problem of whether the timeseries contains information regarding future large earthquakes. For this we compute a Receiver Operating Characteristic and determine the decision thresholds for several future time periods of interest (optimization via supervised machine learning). We find that signals can be detected that can be used to characterize the information content of the timeseries. These signals may be useful in assessing present and near-future seismic hazard.

2024, Annals of Environmental Science and Toxicology

The multidisciplinary approach of geoscientifi c research in the academic setting underscores the increasing necessity of integrating diverse fi elds of knowledge to
tackle complex interconnected issues. This multidisciplinary fi eld seeks to uncover the complex operations of the Earth, encompassing the analysis of its past movements
of tectonic plates, historical climates, and valuable natural resources like minerals and hydrocarbons. In this context, geospatial intelligence plays a crucial role by enabling
the effective analysis and interpretation of extensive geographic datasets, thus enhancing our understanding of environmental dynamics. Nevertheless, advancements in
technology, globalization, and the diffi culties posed by environmental and climatic transformations demand an even more profound collaboration among various disciplines,
facilitating an expansive viewpoint and yielding more holistic solutions to contemporary predicaments.

2024

But it snowed three times last winter! There’s no way the Earth is warming! Similar to some adults, some middle school students are skeptical of climate change, and they often confound their understandings of weather and climate (Bodzin et al. 2014; Leiserowitz, Smith, and Marlon 2011). Although the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS Lead States 2013) introduce the terms weather and climate prior to middle school, many states that have not adopted the standards fail to integrate more than basic weather terms prior to secondary school. In some states, the term climate does not appear in the science curriculum until middle school and climate change is not typically discussed until high school. This article describes activities that approximately 200 middle school students (grades 5–8) from four schools participated in during a two-hour, afterschool STEM career club meeting (Blanchard et al. 2017). The club focused on climate change topics for three meetings as part of a National ...

2024, Journal of geography, environment and earth science international

The aim of this study is to compare evolution of the CO2 in two different areas of the tropical Atlantic Ocean. We investigate the spatial and temporal variability of CO2 fluxes, Total Alkalinity (TA), Dissolved Inorganic Carbon (DIC) and hydrological parameters (Salinity and Temperature) in the western and eastern tropical Atlantic for three years (2005-2006-2007), using the data collected during the ARAMIS 7, 8 and 10, EGEE and ROAM cruises (2019-2020). Our results showed that Sea Surface Salinity (SSS), Sea Surface Temperature (SST), TA and DIC are higher on average in the western area than in the eastern tropical Atlantic, except the oceanic CO2 fugacity (fCO2sw). A north-south gradient is observed with high values in the south of the Equator and low values in the north. This gradient is due to the Equatorial upwelling, which upwelled CO2-rich deep water to the surface; in addition, the Guinea current (GC) transports low salinity and parameters of carbon in the

2024, Earth and Space Science

The Heatflow and Physical Properties Package (HP3) radiometer is currently operating on Mars, observing two spots approximately 1 and 3 m north‐north‐west of the InSight lander. The instrument has primary sensors that are sensitive in the range of 8 to 14 μm and two more sensors with more narrow spectral ranges per field of view. The radiometer underwent radiometric and geometric calibration at DLR—Berlin; and on Mars radiometric self‐calibration is performed regularly. The self‐calibration confirms that one of the two primary sensors has been stable since the ground calibration, but environmental parameters that are likely associated with the thermal contact of sensor and instrument main body may have slightly changed. The other primary sensor has increased in sensitivity for an unknown reason but is still within expectation from the sensor design. The uncertainty of the two primary sensors is approximately 3 K at night, with somewhat larger errors in the late afternoon. This estim...

2024, HAL (Le Centre pour la Communication Scientifique Directe)

The IPWG focuses the scientific community on operational and research satellite-based quantitative precipitation measurement issues and challenges. It provides a forum for operational and research users of satellite precipitation measurements to exchange information on methods for measuring precipitation and the impact of space borne precipitation measurements in numerical weather and hydrometeorological prediction and climate studies. GDAP was organized to bring together theoretical and experimental insights into the radiative interactions and climate feedbacks associated with cloud processes. The central question that governs the GDAP mission is: "how sensitive is the Earth's climate to changes in radiative and other forcings?" WCRP is co-sponsored by the World Meteorological Organization (WMO), the Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission (IOC) of UNESCO and the International Science Council (ISC), see www.wmo.int, www.ioc-unesco.org and council.science. Disclaimer The designations employed in WCRP publications and the presentation of material in this publication do not imply the expression of any opinion whatsoever on the part of neither the World Climate Research Programme (WCRP) nor its Sponsor Organizations-the World Meteorological Organization (WMO), the Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission (IOC) of UNESCO and the International Science Council (ISC)-concerning the legal status of any country, territory, city or area or of its authorities, or concerning the delimitation of its frontiers or boundaries. Foreword This report is a result of an interesting journey that originated in discussions between Reḿy Roca, chair of Global Energy and Water Exchanges (GEWEX) Data and Analysis Panel (GDAP), and Ziad Haddad, chair of International Precipitation Working Group (IPWG), during visits to Toulouse and to Pasadena as well as during many of the various workshops and conferences dedicated to precipitation. It culminated in the present report built from contributions by more than 20 scientists from all over the world. The first written draft was completed immediately following an open meeting for interested contributors that took place on a Saturday morning in a public library in the heights of San Diego (Haddad and Roca, 21 October 2017). From this initial plan, many objectives were successfully achieved without modification, while a few required maturation before we were able to include them in the completed assessment, all of this in spite of the ongoing pandemic. The current report completes the GEWEX assessment portfolio and follows the previous IPWG assessment by 10+ years (Gruber and Levizzani, 2008). Hopefully it is the first of a more frequent and regular series of precipitation assessments.

2024

From enabling global broadband access to supporting advanced IoT networks, the evolution of SATCOM systems showcases the profound impact of technological advancements. Learn more in SATCOM courses by Tonex.

2024, Earth and Space Science

Rocks around the InSight lander were measured in lander orthoimages of the near field (<10 m), in panoramas of the far field (<40 m), and in a high‐resolution orbital image around the lander (1 km2). The cumulative fractional area versus diameter size‐frequency distributions for four areas in the near field fall on exponential model curves used for estimating hazards for landing spacecraft. The rock abundance varies in the near field from 0.6% for the sand and pebble‐rich area to the east within Homestead hollow to ∼3–5% for the progressively rockier areas to the south, north, and west. The rock abundance of the entire near field is just over 3%, which falls between that at the Phoenix (2%) and Spirit (5%) landing sites. Rocks in the far field (<40 m) that could be identified in both the surface panorama and a high‐resolution orbital image fall on the same exponential model curve as the average near‐field rocks. Rocks measured in a high‐resolution orbital image (27.5 cm/pix...

2024, International Snow Science Workshop 2016 Proceedings, Breckenridge, CO, USA

On February 16, 2014 a large natural avalanche (HS-N-R5-D5) released in the Bull of the Woods avalanche path at milepost 156.5 on US 191 in the Hoback River Canyon near Jackson, WY. The dust cloud deposited 15 cm of snow onto the highway and destroyed many trees in excess of 100 years old with the associated air blast. The highway was spared from this large avalanche due to earthen avalanche defense mounds that were built in 1970. The mounds were effective in dissipating the avalanche's energy and arresting the debris before it reached the highway. The winter of 1949 was one of the largest winters on record in the Jackson area. During that winter a class 5 avalanche at the Bull of the Woods crossed the Hoback River and then gained 35 m in elevation to reach the old Highway. It is believed that this event was the catalyst for the avalanche defense mounds being built 20 years later. This type of passive avalanche defense was very progressive during the 1970's era of avalanche mitigation in the United States. The following case study explores the effectiveness of the mounds, the return interval of the event through dendrochronological analysis, and the historical significance of constructing passive avalanche defense for a low avalanche hazard index highway corridor.

2024

The Makkovik Province of eastern Labrador is part of an accretionary orogenic belt that formed during the Paleoproterozoic Makkovikian orogeny. The Aillik domain of the Makkovik Province is largely composed of: a) the Aillik Group, a package of Paleoproterozoic, polydeformed, bimodal volcano-sedimentary rocks, and b) abundant variably deformed Paleoproterozoic intrusive suites that intrude the Aillik Group. Two areas are the focus of this study. Middle Head is dominated by lower amphibolite facies arkosic sandstone, felsic tuff, rhyolite and basalt. Pomiadluk Point is composed primarily of lower amphibolite to upper greenschist facies felsic tuff and polymictic conglomerate with lesser preserved rhyolite and basalt. Recent detailed 1:10 000 scale bedrock mapping in conjunction with in situ Hf-isotopic geochemistry of zircon illustrate that the Aillik Group was deposited on ca 2.5 Ga crust at Middle Head, and mainly on ca 2.8 Ga crust at Pomiadluk Point. Hf-isotope data was collected...

2024, Earth and Space Science

Bimodal volcanism typifies extensional environments in a range of geodynamic environments. It occurs in continental rifts (

2024, Earth and Space Science

The first detailed validation of maximum temperature of Modern‐Era Retrospective analysis for Research and Application Version 2 (TMERRA‐2) against Indian Meteorological Department (TIMD) has been carried out for 35 years (1981–2015) over India. For this purpose, India has been divided into seven different zones, i.e Western Himalaya (WH), Northwest, North Central, Northeast (NE), West Peninsula India, East Peninsula India, and South Peninsula India. The descriptive statistics and correlation between TMERRA‐2 and TIMD have been determined for monthly, seasonal, and annual basis. A significant correlation (>0.9) has been found for monthly TMERRA‐2 and TIMD with a root‐mean‐square error value closer to 1 except for WH where a high root‐mean‐square error value of 18.2 is obtained. Seasonal analysis also indicates a significant correlation for all the zones except for WH and NE with a correlation value of <0.3 during monsoon season; this may be due to sparse network, cold climate,...

2024, Earth and Space Science

In this study, a series of fog events that occurred near Halifax, Canada, during 20 June to 31 July 2016 are investigated using the Weather Research and Forecasting Model Version 3.8.1 (WRF), in comparison with in situ and satellite remotely sensed observations from the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer. We evaluate five planetary boundary layer (PBL) schemes available in WRF. Results show that these five PBL schemes lead to overestimates in liquid water content, especially the nonlocal schemes, and that they are biased early, in terms of the predicting the onset of fog, and late, in terms of fog dissipation, although their spatial patterns of fog are in good agreement with those suggested by Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer imagery. The Kunkel equation is used to calculate visibility, based on WRF modeling of liquid water content. Comparisons with observed visibility show that this methodology sometimes fails to predict fog dissipation. We present a modific...

2024, New Dimension

This work deals with optimized geometry, ground state energy, bond length, bond angle, frequency of vibrational spectroscopy, ESP, MEP, ED and HOMO-LUMO energy gap of VC by means of ab initio methods (HF and DFT) using 6-31G basis set with B3LYP functional. In the VC molecule, five steps are necessary to establish stable energy conformations. The ground state energy of VC molecule is observed at -14609 eV for HF and -14645 eV for DFT for the H3-C1-C2-Cl6 position and resulting in a total energy difference of 36 eV. We conducted an analysis of the carbon-hydrogen, carbon-carbon, and carbon-chlorine bond lengths and different bond angles for the optimized state of the VC molecule. The C-H in-plane bending vibration is observed within the 1400-1050 cm-1 range, while the C-H out-of-plane bending vibrations occurred in the 1000-675 cm-1 range. The negative potential is concentrated around the chlorine atom, indicating a more electrophilic region while the positive potential is found on the remaining surface, signifying a nucleophilic region. The electronic properties, specifically the energy gap of -14.50851 eV and -7.17345 eV through HOMO and LUMO analysis when employing the HF and DFT method respectively.

2024, Journal of Geophysical Research: Atmospheres

Using CloudSat‐CALIPSO ice water, cloud fraction, and radiation; Clouds and the Earth's Radiant Energy System (CERES) radiation; and long‐term station‐measured surface air temperature (SAT), we identified a substantial underestimation of the total ice water path, total cloud fraction, land surface radiative flux, land surface temperature (LST), and SAT during Northern Hemisphere winter in Coupled Model Intercomparison Project Phase 5 (CMIP5) models. We perform sensitivity experiments with the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) Community Earth System Model version 1 (CESM1) in fully coupled modes to identify processes driving these biases. We found that biases in land surface properties are associated with the exclusion of downwelling longwave heating from precipitating ice during Northern Hemisphere winter. The land surface temperature biases introduced by the exclusion of precipitating ice radiative effects in CESM1 and CMIP5 both spatially correlate with winter bi...

2024, Earth and Space Science

When optical navigation images acquired by the OSIRIS‐REx (Origins, Spectral Interpretation, Resource Identification, and Security‐Regolith Explorer) mission revealed the periodic ejection of particles from asteroid (101955) Bennu, it became a mission priority to quickly identify and track these objects for both spacecraft safety and scientific purposes. The large number of particles and the mission criticality rendered time‐intensive manual inspection impractical. We present autonomous techniques for particle detection and tracking that were developed in response to the Bennu phenomenon but that have the capacity for general application to particles in motion about a celestial body. In an example OSIRIS‐REx data set, our autonomous techniques identified 93.6% of real particle tracks and nearly doubled the number of tracks detected versus manual inspection alone.

2024

An amateur built horizontal component accelerometer included a unique feature to prevent local long period ground tilt noise from saturating the acceleration output signal, during an investigation for seismic signals below 2 mHz. Acceleration data was collected during seismically quiet periods as well as immediately following moderate seismic events in 24 hour time series, and later fast Fourier Transformed (FFT) to produce spectrograms. Spectral peaks were shown to closely match, specifically in the range of 0.30-0.70 mHz, the theoretical center frequencies of t h e e a r t h ' s toroidal and spheroidal free modes. Given the overall simplicity of the i n s t r u me n t ' s d e s i g n and where it was installed, doubts prevail whether the enclosed spectrograms represent an informative seismic signal or only noise.

2024

The ISEE-3 SBH radio receiver has provided the first systematic observations of the quasi-thermal (plasma waves) noise in the solar wind plasma. The theoretical interpretation of that noise involves the particle distribution function so that electric noise measurements with long antennas provide a fast and independent method of measuring plasma parameters: densities and temperatures of a two component (core and halo) electron distribution function have been obtained in that way. The polarization of that noise is frequency dependent and sensitive to the drift velocity of the electron population. Below the plasma frequency, there is evidence of a weak noise spectrum with spectral index -1 which is not yet accounted for by the theory. The theoretical treatment of the noise associated with the low energy (thermal) proton population shows that the moving electrical antenna radiates in the surrounding plasma by Carenkov emission which becomes predominant at the low frequencies, below abou...