Smokejumper Magazine, January 2013

This issue of the National Smokejumper Association (NSA) Smokejumper Magazine contains the following articles: The CIA, Smokejumpers and B-17s, Development of Military Aviation Firefighting Systems (Jim Hickman), She Had the Look (Cameron Chambers), 1988 Alaska Paracargo Season (Mel Tenneson), Legacy/Retirement of Tony Loughton. Profiles Milford Preston, Doug Stinson, Alex Theios, and Jonathan L. Scott. Smokejumper Magazine continues Static Line, which was the original title of the NSA quarterly magazine.https://dc.ewu.edu/smokejumper_mag/1081/thumbnail.jp

Comparison of Two Different Pasture Species Compositions for Recovery of Deep Soil Nitrogen during Winter

Surplus nitrate (NO3-) beneath animal urine patches is highly vulnerable to leaching, particularly during winter when soil drainage is often highest. Most common pastures in New Zealand (i.e. Lolium perenne) have relatively shallow root systems and produce low dry matter (DM) yields during winter months. Recent investigations suggest that alternative pasture species may be able to recover more soil nitrogen (N) during winter and consequently reduce NO3- leaching losses (Moir et al., 2013; Malcolm et al., 2014; 2015). However, further work is required to better understand the importance of root system architecture and plant growth of these alternative species during this cool period. The objective was to determine the ability of L. multiflorum (Italian ryegrass) and F. arundinacea (tall fescue)-based pastures to recover mineral-N from different soil depths under simulated winter conditions and determine the relative importance of plant growth/metabolic activity and root system architecture

Modelling the impacts of space weather on UK railway signalling systems

This thesis presents an investigation to model geomagnetic effects on DC track circuit signalling for AC-electrified railways in the UK, using the Glasgow to Edinburgh via Falkirk line and the Preston to Lancaster section of the West Coast Main Line as examples. In Chapter 4, the electric field strengths needed to cause "right side" failures, where green signals for blocks that are unoccupied by trains are turned red, are examined. It is suggested that the threshold is equivalent to an electric field generated by a storm that occurs approximately once every 30 years. Chapter 5 expands this work to "wrong side" failures, where the red signals for blocks that contain trains are turned green, a potentially more hazardous misoperation mode. It is shown that the position of the train along the block or, more precisely, the distance between the rearmost axle and the relay, has a large impact on how susceptible the relay is to geomagnetic disturbances. Assuming each train is near the end of the block it is occupying in the modelling, the electric field strength needed to cause "wrong side" failures is lower than that for "right side" failures, equivalent to the electric field generated by a storm occurring approximately once every 10 to 20 years. In Chapter 6, time-varying electric fields from the March 1989 and October 2003 storms are applied to both routes, as well as 1-in-100 year and 1-in-200 year extreme storm proxies, obtained by scaling the March 1989 storm by 2 and 4 times respectively. For the historic storms, it is shown that there was the potential for a small number of "wrong side" failures, but no "right side" failures to occur. For the extreme storm estimates, it is suggested that a large number of misoperations of both types could occur across each route

The Impact of Space Weather on UK Railways

Some of the many manifestations of space weather’s effects on ground-based infrastructure are hazards to railway assets, with the potential of false signalling, damage to a train’s onboard transformer and even injury of track-side workers. Railway track circuits are key signalling mechanisms that are responsible for the safe and smooth operation of a railway network. By utilising track circuit modelling, geomagnetic field interpolation and UK conductivity models, the impact of space weather on the UK railways can be investigated. Initial results from a UK-focused modelling project will be presented and next steps proposed

Space weather impacts on the UK railway network

Some of the many manifestations of space weather’s effects on ground based infrastructure are hazards that affect the smooth and safe operation of railway networks, with the potential of signalling system failures, damage to locomotive on board transformers and disruptions caused by interference to a plethora of interdependent systems such as radio, GPS and grid power supply. This work focuses on the impacts on track circuits, signalling systems that use electrical currents to detect the presence or absence of a train in sections of a wider network, as such, they are affected by geomagnetically induced currents (GICs) arising from space weather. The impact on track circuits of various designs has been investigated during the 2015 St. Patrick’s Day storm, the first storm of solar cycle 24 to reach a level of “Severe” on the NOAA geomagnetic storm scale. This has been achieved by using the Spherical Elementary Current System (SECS) method of geomagnetic field interpolation, a conductivity model of the UK, estimations of the geoelectric field and track circuit modelling techniques developed by Boteler (2021)

Moving epidemic method (MEM) applied to virology data as a novel real time tool to predict peak in seasonal influenza healthcare utilisation. The Scottish experience of the 2017/18 season to date

Scotland observed an unusual influenza A(H3N2)- dominated 2017/18 influenza season with healthcare services under significant pressure. We report the application of the moving epidemic method (MEM) to virology data as a tool to predict the influenza peak activity period and peak week of swab positivity in the current season. This novel MEM application has been successful locally and is believed to be of potential use to other countries for healthcare planning and building wider community resilience

To green or not to green! That is the question. Does green infrastructure provide significant thermoregulation in a maritime temperate climate?

The ecosystem service delivery of urban green infrastructure (UGI) is now manifest. Types and level of service provision, however, can alter radically, based on factors such as location, species choice, planting design and vegetation management. The value of vegetation to provide a cooling service is generally understood in hot climates, but the merit in temperate climates remains ambiguous. Indeed, policy makers within cooler countries (e.g. UK) remain to be convinced that expenditure on UGI is justified, at least from the point of view of city cooling alone. Occasional warm days do occur of course, and climate change models predict that heat wave events will become more frequent within the UK, including those that pose a risk to human health. To help UK policy makers make better-informed decisions around UGI, a number of our research programmes have targeted the role vegetation plays in regulating temperature, but specifically within the context of a maritime-temperate climate. Two examples of ‘green interventions’ are discussed here. The first documents the role of green façades to cool a wall system and the second illustrates the cooling influence conferred by roadside trees. Both experiments used a replicated sampling approach to ensure statistical robustness, and hence convince policy makers that data is representative of UK scenarios and results are reproducible. In the first experiment, 10 separate wall sections are used to investigate the cooling influence of two different plant genotypes (Prunus and Phaseolus) on both exterior and interior wall spaces. In the second study, road surface temperatures are documented with respect to both built and green infrastructure, i.e. we compare the influence of buildings and street trees on the surface temperatures across a road profile. Again replicate data are used to provide a ‘generic’ summer temperature profile for the city of Sheffield, rather than just specific locations at one point in time. Results show that green facades can reduce exterior and interior (cavity) wall air temperature by 3oC and 5oC respectively. Likewise, large street trees have a mean cooling influence of 4.5oC on road surfaces near their base compared to comparable sections adjacent to buildings. To maximise cooling, the data suggests that trees need to be provided on both sides of a roadway, i.e. a single tree did not manage to cool the pavement at th