183,141 research outputs found

    Explicit representation and parametrised impacts of under ice shelf seas in the z∗ coordinate ocean model NEMO 3.6

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    Ice-shelf-ocean interactions are a major source of freshwater on the Antarctic continental shelf and have a strong impact on ocean properties, ocean circulation and sea ice. However, climate models based on the ocean-sea ice model NEMO (Nucleus for European Modelling of the Ocean) currently do not include these interactions in any detail. The capability of explicitly simulating the circulation beneath ice shelves is introduced in the non-linear free surface model NEMO. Its implementation into the NEMO framework and its assessment in an idealised and realistic circum-Antarctic configuration is described in this study. Compared with the current prescription of ice shelf melting (i.e. at the surface), inclusion of open sub-ice-shelf cavities leads to a decrease in sea ice thickness along the coast, a weakening of the ocean stratification on the shelf, a decrease in salinity of high-salinity shelf water on the Ross and Weddell sea shelves and an increase in the strength of the gyres that circulate within the over-deepened basins on the West Antarctic continental shelf. Mimicking the overturning circulation under the ice shelves by introducing a prescribed meltwater flux over the depth range of the ice shelf base, rather than at the surface, is also assessed. It yields similar improvements in the simulated ocean properties and circulation over the Antarctic continental shelf to those from the explicit ice shelf cavity representation. With the ice shelf cavities opened, the widely used "three equation" ice shelf melting formulation, which enables an interactive computation of melting, is tested. Comparison with observational estimates of ice shelf melting indicates realistic results for most ice shelves. However, melting rates for the Amery, Getz and George VI ice shelves are considerably overestimated

    The great 2012 Arctic Ocean summer cyclone enhanced biological productivity on the shelves

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    A coupled biophysical model is used to examine the impact of the great Arctic cyclone of early August 2012 on the marine planktonic ecosystem in the Pacific sector of the Arctic Ocean (PSA). Model results indicate that the cyclone influences the marine planktonic ecosystem by enhancing productivity on the shelves of the Chukchi, East Siberian, and Laptev seas during the storm. Although the cyclone\u27s passage in the PSA lasted only a few days, the simulated biological effects on the shelves last 1 month or longer. At some locations on the shelves, primary productivity (PP) increases by up to 90% and phytoplankton biomass by up to 40% in the wake of the cyclone. The increase in zooplankton biomass is up to 18% on 31 August and remains 10% on 15 September, more than 1 month after the storm. In the central PSA, however, model simulations indicate a decrease in PP and plankton biomass. The biological gain on the shelves and loss in the central PSA are linked to two factors. (1) The cyclone enhances mixing in the upper ocean, which increases nutrient availability in the surface waters of the shelves; enhanced mixing in the central PSA does not increase productivity because nutrients there are mostly depleted through summer draw down by the time of the cyclone\u27s passage. (2) The cyclone also induces divergence, resulting from the cyclone\u27s low‐pressure system that drives cyclonic sea ice and upper ocean circulation, which transports more plankton biomass onto the shelves from the central PSA. The simulated biological gain on the shelves is greater than the loss in the central PSA, and therefore, the production on average over the entire PSA is increased by the cyclone. Because the gain on the shelves is offset by the loss in the central PSA, the average increase over the entire PSA is moderate and lasts only about 10 days. The generally positive impact of cyclones on the marine ecosystem in the Arctic, particularly on the shelves, is likely to grow with increasing summer cyclone activity if the Arctic continues to warm and the ice cover continues to shrink

    Estuary-enhanced upwelling of marine nutrients fuels coastal productivity in the U.S. Pacific Northwest

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    Š 2014. American Geophysical Union. The Pacific Northwest (PNW) shelf is the most biologically productive region in the California Current System. A coupled physical-biogeochemical model is used to investigate the influence of freshwater inputs on the productivity of PNW shelf waters using realistic hindcasts and model experiments that omit outflow from the Columbia River and Strait of Juan de Fuca (outlet for the Salish Sea estuary). Outflow from the Strait represents a critical source of nitrogen to the PNW shelf-accounting for almost half of the primary productivity on the Vancouver Island shelf, a third of productivity on the Washington shelf, and a fifth of productivity on the Oregon shelf during the upwelling season. The Columbia River has regional effects on the redistribution of phytoplankton, but does not affect PNW productivity as strongly as does the Salish Sea. A regional nutrient budget shows that nitrogen exiting the Strait is almost entirely (98%) of ocean-origin-upwelled into the Strait at depth, mixed into surface waters by tidal mixing, and returned to the coastal ocean. From the standpoint of nitrogen availability in the coastal euphotic zone, the estuarine circulation driven by freshwater inputs to the Salish Sea is more important than the supply of terrigenous nitrogen by rivers. Nitrogen-rich surface waters exiting the Strait follow two primary pathways-to the northwest in the Vancouver Island Coastal Current and southward toward the Washington and Oregon shelves. Nitrogen flux from the Juan de Fuca Strait and Eddy Region to these shelves is comparable to flux from local wind-driven upwelling

    Mapping a Continental Shelf and Slope in the 1990s: A Tale of Three Multibeams

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    Increasing societal pressures on the U.S. continental shelves adjacent to dense population centers have brought to light the lack of accurate base maps in these areas. Existing bathymetric maps and random sidescan sonar surveys are either not accurate enough or do not provide the coverage necessary to make policy decisions. Until the mid 1990s, it was not financially prudent nor technically efficient to map the shallow shelves. However, the availability of high-resolution multibeam mapping systems now allow efficient and accurate mapping of the continental margins. In 1996 the U.S. Geological Survey began a large-scale seafloor mapping campaign on the continental shelf and slope adjacent to Los Angeles, CA. The first survey used a Kongsberg Simrad EM1000 (95 kHz). The survey continued in 1998 by mapping the slope and proximal basins from Newport to Long Beach, CA, using a Kongsberg Simrad EM300 (30 kHz). The area was completed in May 1999 by mapping the entire shelf adjacent to Long Beach, CA using an EM3000D (a dual-headed 300-kHz system). The mapping used both INS from the vehicle motion sensor and DGPS to provide position accuracies of ~1 m. All the data were processed in the field in near realtime using software developed at the Univ. of New Brunswick. Because of the different systems used and the range of water depths, the spatial resolution of the processed data varies from \u3c0.5 m on the inner shelf to 8 m on the basin floors. Perspective overviews of backscatter draped over bathymetry reveals a host of geological features unknown to exist in this area. These features include shallow, linear gullys, barchan dunes, small-scale bedforms in shallow troughs, major canyon system complexes, large- and smallscale mass movements, faults, and large areas of outcrop. The effects on sediment transport of man-made features, such as sewer outfall pipes and dredge-disposal fields, are clearly delineated on the new maps. The maps provide the fundamental base maps for studies as varied as those involving benthic habitats, marine disposal sites, sediment transport, and tectonic ma

    The library is changing

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    An interior view of people studying at Roesch Library like this could not be seen before, because the book shelves would have been in the way. The yellow rectangles of carpet are where the shelves once stood. Studying physics here on the second floor are (from left): Victoria Boehlert-Somohano, sophomore MCM pre-med and pharmacy chemistry major from Lansing, Michigan, and Brian Hughes, sophomore pre-med major from Akron, Ohio

    Tinjauan Kebutuhan Rak Penyimpanan (Filling) di Rumah Sakit Umum Hidayah Tahun 2019

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    Storage rack is one of the hospital equipment that functions to store medical record documents, with the availability of medical record documents storage rack will not be placed on the floor of a patient on the floor. This research aims to find out the estimated needs of storing documents and documents at the Hospital General Hospital in 2019. This research aims to find out the estimated needs of storing documents and documents at the Hospital General Hospital in 2019. The time of the study was carried out in May at the General Hospital of the Hidayah. The population that was used was the document of medical and storage storage. The instrument used in the data collection was observation. The results of this study show that the number of visits of patients in 2017-2018 was 8,316 people. The amount of storage rack available at the Hospital General Hospital is 4 racks. If there are 3 storage shelves available at Hospice, there are 4 storage shelves, hospital gases, and 3 storage shelves, so that the needs of sufficient storage shelves and can accommodate documents on the patient, systematically, without making it difficult for the patients in the storage process

    Nanotechnology in the context of organic food processing

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    Nanotechnology, the science of the ultra small, is up-and-coming as the technological platform for the next wave of development and transformation of agri-food systems. It is quickly moving from the laboratory onto supermarket shelves and our kitchen tables (Scrinis and Lyons, 2007). Therefore we investigated in a literature review and a comparison of the findings with the EU regulation of organic farming to what degree nanotechnology can be applied in organic food production. The regulations do not restrict the use of nanotechnology in general. Because little is known about the impact on environment and human health, precaution should be taken when it comes to applying this technology in organic food production

    Basal crevasses in Larsen C Ice Shelf and implications for their global abundance

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    Basal crevasses extend upwards from the base of ice bodies and can penetrate more than halfway through the ice column under conditions found commonly on ice shelves. As a result, they may locally modify the exchange of mass and energy between ice shelf and ocean, and by altering the shelf's mechanical properties could play a fundamental role in ice shelf stability. Although early studies revealed that such features may be abundant on Antarctic ice shelves, their geometrical properties and spatial distribution has gained little attention. We investigate basal crevasses in Larsen C Ice Shelf using field radar survey, remote sensing and numerical modelling. We demonstrate that a group of features visible in MODIS imagery are the surface expressions of basal crevasses in the form of surface troughs, and find that basal crevasses can be generated as a result of stresses well downstream of the grounding line. We show that linear elastic fracture mechanics modelling is a good predictor of basal crevasse penetration height where stresses are predominantly tensile, and that measured surface trough depth does not always reflect this height, probably because of snow accumulation in the trough, marine ice accretion in the crevasse, or stress bridging from the surrounding ice. We conclude that all features visible in MODIS imagery of ice shelves and previously labelled simply as "crevasses", where they are not full thickness rifts, must be basal crevasse troughs, highlighting a fundamental structural property of many ice shelves that may have been previously overlooked

    Enhanced chemical weathering of rocks during the last glacial maximum: a sink for atmospheric CO2?

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    It has been proposed that increased rates of chemical weathering and the related drawdown of atmospheric CO2 on the continents may have at least partly contributed to the low CO2 concentrations during the last glacial maximum LGM.. Variations in continental erosion could thus be one of the driving forces for the glacialrinterglacial climate cycles during Quaternary times. To test such an hypothesis, a global carbon erosion model has been applied to a LGM scenario in order to determine the amount of CO2 consumed by chemical rock weathering during that time. In this model, both the part of atmospheric CO2 coming from silicate weathering and the part coming from carbonate weathering are distinguished. The climatic conditions during LGM were reconstructed on the basis of the output files from a computer simulation with a general circulation model. Only the predicted changes in precipitation and temperature have been used, whereas the changes in continental runoff were determined with an empirical method. It is found that during the LGM, the overall atmospheric CO2 consumption may have been greater than today by about 20%., mainly because of greater carbonate outcrop area related to the lower sea level on the shelves. This does not, however, affect the atmospheric CO2 consumption by silicate weathering, which alone has the potential to alter atmospheric CO2 on the long-term. Silicate weathering and the concomitant atmospheric CO2 consumption decreased together with a global decrease of continental runoff compared to present-day both by about 10%.. Nevertheless, some uncertainty remains because the individual lithologies of the continental shelves as well as their behavior with respect to chemical weathering are probably not well enough known. The values we present refer to the ice-free continental area only, but we tested also whether chemical weathering under the huge ice sheets could have been important for the global budget. Although glacial runoff was considerably increased during LGM, weathering under the ice sheets seems to be of minor importance
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