An Atlas on Global Water Cycle

What do climate models predict for the rainfall where you live? What about evaporation or runoff? Should your local community consider constructing new dams or do the existing water storages appear adequate? What about the availability of water for irrigation farming? Do the predictions differ between different climate models or do all the models basically predict the same changes in water availability where you live? These are all simple questions but it is surprisingly hard for an individual, whether they be a farmer, water resources engineer, teacher or interested citizen, to answer them. As researchers active in the field we could not answer the questions either. In fact, we had never seen a compilation of the rainfall, evaporation and runoff predictions made by all the different climate models. The Atlas contains maps and tables that document model predictions contributed by international climate modelling groups to the 2007 4th Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. The predictions are made available here via the wonders of the internet and ongoing cooperation by the international climate modelling community who routinely archive their results. The maps and tables in the Atlas document rainfall, evaporation and runoff estimates for the 20th century along with predictions of the same quantities at the end of the 21st century. Whatever your interest, we hope you find the Atlas as helpful as we do

The contribution of reduction in evaporative cooling to higher surface air temperatures during drought

Higher temperatures are usually reported during meteorological drought and there are two prevailing interpretations for this observation. The first is that the increase in temperature (T) causes an increase in evaporation (E) that dries the environment. The second states that the decline in precipitation (P) during drought reduces the available water thereby decreasing E, and in turn the consequent reduction in evaporative cooling causes higher T. To test which of these interpretations is correct, we use climatic data (T, P) and a recently released database (CERES) that includes incoming and outgoing shortwave and longwave surface radiative fluxes to study meteorological drought at four sites (parts of Australia, US, and Brazil), using the Budyko approximation to calculate E. The results support the second interpretation at arid sites. The analysis also showed that increases in T due to drought have a different radiative signature from increases in T due to elevated CO₂.This research was supported by the Australian Research Council (CE11E0098), the National Natural Science Foundation of China (91125018), and the China Scholarship Council (201306210089)

Evaluation of a wind tunnel designed to investigate the response of evaporation to changes in the incoming long-wave radiation at a water surface

To investigate the sensitivity of evaporation to changing long-wave radiation we developed a new experimental facility that locates a shallow water bath at the base of an insulated wind tunnel with evaporation measured using an accurate digital balance. The new facility has the unique ability to impose variations in the incoming long-wave radiation at the water surface whilst holding the air temperature, humidity and wind speed in the wind tunnel at fixed values. The underlying scientific aim is to isolate the effect of a change in the incoming long-wave radiation on both evaporation and surface temperature. In this paper, we describe the configuration and operation of the system and outline the experimental design and approach. We then evaluate the radiative and thermodynamic properties of the new system and show that the shallow water bath naturally adopts a steady-state temperature that closely approximates the thermodynamic wet-bulb temperature. We demonstrate that the long-wave radiation and evaporation are measured with sufficient precision to support the scientific aims.</p

An Atlas on Global Water Cycle : Based on the IPCC AR4 Climate Models

What do climate models predict for the rainfall where you live? What about evaporation or runoff? Should your local community consider constructing new dams or do the existing water storages appear adequate? What about the availability of water for irrigation farming? Do the predictions differ between different climate models or do all the models basically predict the same changes in water availability where you live? These are all simple questions but it is surprisingly hard for an individual, whether they be a farmer, water resources engineer, teacher or interested citizen, to answer them. As researchers active in the field we could not answer the questions either. In fact, we had never seen a compilation of the rainfall, evaporation and runoff predictions made by all the different climate models. The Atlas contains maps and tables that document model predictions contributed by international climate modelling groups to the 2007 4th Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. The predictions are made available here via the wonders of the internet and ongoing cooperation by the international climate modelling community who routinely archive their results. The maps and tables in the Atlas document rainfall, evaporation and runoff estimates for the 20th century along with predictions of the same quantities at the end of the 21st century. Whatever your interest, we hope you find the Atlas as helpful as we do

High Temperature Electrochemical Engineering and Clean Energy Systems

Global power demand is projected to more than double by 2050 and meeting this increased power demand will require maintaining or increasing power output from all existing energy sources while adding a large amount of new capacity. The power sources that have the greatest opportunity to fulfill this demand gap over this time period are clean energy sources including solar and nuclear power. One of the areas of expertise that SRNL has been applying to help with a variety of clean energy technologies is in high temperature electrochemistry. Savannah River National Laboratory (SRNL) in collaboration with industrial and university partners has used high temperature electrochemical engineering to make improvements in solar power, nuclear fuel reprocessing, and fusion energy technologies. This article describes how high temperature electrochemistry has been applied at SRNL to mitigate corrosion in high temperature CSP systems, develop novel methods of nuclear fuel processing, and recover tritium in fusion energy technologies

Changes in New Zealand pan evaporation since the 1970s,

ABSTRACT Several previous studies have reported declines in pan evaporation rate throughout the Northern Hemisphere of about 2-4 mm a −2 for various periods since the 1950s. A recent analysis of Australian pan evaporation reported a similar decline and raises the possibility that part of the phenomenon may be related to the greenhouse effect. To assess that possibility, one needs to know whether the decline in evaporative demand is happening in other parts of the Southern Hemisphere. As a first step to addressing the latter question, we examined the trend in pan evaporation at 19 New Zealand sites. We found statistically significant declines in pan evaporation rate at 6 of the 19 sites. There were no sites with statistically significant increases in pan evaporation. When averaged across all 19 sites, the decline in pan evaporation rate was roughly 2 mm a −2 (i.e. mm per annum per annum) since the 1970s. Over a 30-year period, this is equivalent to a decline of about 60 mm a −1 in annual pan evaporation. These results are generally consistent with those reported throughout the Northern Hemisphere and in Australia. We conclude that the trend for decreasing evaporative demand previously reported throughout the Northern Hemisphere terrestrial surface may also be widespread in the Southern Hemisphere. This may be, in part, a greenhouse-related phenomenon

Human Oral Mucosa Tissue-Engineered Constructs Monitored by Raman Fiber-Optic Probe

In maxillofacial and oral surgery, there is a need for the development of tissue-engineered constructs. They are used for reconstructions due to trauma, dental implants, congenital defects, or oral cancer. A noninvasive monitoring of the fabrication of tissue-engineered constructs at the production and implantation stages done in real time is extremely important for predicting the success of tissue-engineered grafts. We demonstrated a Raman spectroscopic probe system, its design and application, for real-time ex vivo produced oral mucosa equivalent (EVPOME) constructs noninvasive monitoring. We performed in vivo studies to find Raman spectroscopic indicators for postimplanted EVPOME failure and determined that Raman spectra of EVPOMEs preexposed to thermal stress during manufacturing procedures displayed correlation of the band height ratio of CH2 deformation to phenylalanine ring breathing modes, giving a Raman metric to distinguish between healthy and compromised postimplanted constructs. This study is the step toward our ultimate goal to develop a stand-alone system, to be used in a clinical setting, where the data collection and analysis are conducted on the basis of these spectroscopic indicators with minimal user intervention.Peer Reviewedhttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/140248/1/ten.tec.2013.0622.pd