GEOFLOW: simulation of convection in a spherical shell under central force field

Time-dependent dynamical simulations related to convective motion in a spherical gap under a central force field due to the dielectrophoretic effect are discussed. This work is part of the preparation of the GEOFLOW-experiment which is planned to run in a microgravity environment. The goal of this experiment is the simulation of large-scale convective motion in a geophysical or astrophysical framework. This problem is new because of, on the one hand, the nature of the force field (dielectrophoretic effect) and, on another hand, the high degree of symmetries of the system, e.g. the top-bottom reflection. Thus, the validation of this simulation with well-known results is not possible. The questions concerning the influence of the dielectrophoretic force and the possibility to reproduce the theoretically expected motions in the astrophysical framework, are open. In the first part, we study the system in terrestrial conditions: the unidirectional Earth's force is superimposed on the central dielectrophoretic force field to compare with the laboratory experiments during the development of the equipment. In the second part, the GEOFLOW-experiment simulations in weightless conditions are compared with theoretical studies in the astrophysical framework's, in the first instance a fluid under a self-gravitating force field. We present complex time-dependent dynamics, where the dielectrophoretic force field causes significant differences in the flow compared to the case that does not involve this force field

Siderophore purification with titanium dioxide nanoparticle solid phase extraction

Siderophores are metal chelators produced by microorganisms to facilitate binding and uptake of iron. The isolation and characterization of siderophores are impeded by typically low siderophore yields and the complexity of siderophore-containing extracts generated with traditional purification methods. We investigated titanium dioxide nanoparticle solid-phase extraction (TiO2 NP SPE) as a technique to selectively concentrate and purify siderophores from complex matrices for subsequent LC-MS detection and identification. TiO2 NP SPE showed a high binding capacity (15.7 ± 0.2 μmol mg−1 TiO2) for the model siderophore desferrioxamine B (DFOB) and proved robust to pH changes and the presence of EDTA. These are significant advances in comparison to immobilized metal affinity chromatography (IMAC). The TiO2 NP SPE was highly selective and recovered 77.6 ± 6.2% of DFOB spiked to a compositionally complex bacterial culture supernatant. The simple clean-up procedure removed the majority of contaminants and allowed direct detection of siderophores from the LC-MS base peak chromatogram. The ‘untargeted’ purification and analysis of an untreated supernatant of iron-deprived bacterial culture allowed for the direct identification of two known and three novel ferrioxamines. Thus, TiO2 NP SPE in combination with LC-MS offers great potential as a discovery platform for the purification and subsequent quantification or identification of novel siderophores of microbial origin

Pole-to-pole validation of GOME WFDOAS total ozone with groundbased data

International audienceThis paper summarises the validation of GOME total ozone retrieved using the Weighting Function Differential Optical Absorption Spectroscopy (WFDOAS) algorithm Version 1.0. This algorithm has been described in detail in a companion paper by Coldewey-Egbers et al. (2005). Compared to the operational GDP (GOME Data Processor) V3, several improvements to the total ozone retrieval have been introduced that account for the varying ozone dependent contribution to rotational Raman scattering, includes a new cloud scheme, and uses the GOME measured effective albedo in the retrieval. In this paper the WFDOAS results have been compared with selected ground-based measurements from the WOUDC (World Ozone and UV Radiation Data Centre) that collects total ozone measurements from a global network of stations covering all seasons. From the global validation excellent agreement between WFDOAS and ground data was observed. The agreement lies within ±1%, and very little seasonal variations in the differences are found. In the polar regions and at high solar zenith angles, however, a positive bias varying between 5 and 8% is found near the polar night period. As a function of solar zenith angle as well as of the retrieved total ozone, the WFDOAS differences to ground polar data, however, show a much weaker dependence as compared to the operational GOME Data Processor Version 3 of GOME that represents a significant improvement. Very few stations carry out simultaneous measurements by Brewer and Dobson spectrometers over an extended period (three years or more). Simultaneous Brewer and Dobson measurements from Hradec Kralove, Czech Republic (50.2N, 15.8E) and Hohenpeissenberg, Germany (47.8N, 11.0E) covering the period 1996-1999 have been compared with our GOME results. Agreement with Brewers are generally better than with the simultaneous Dobson measurements and this may be explained by the neglect of stratospheric (ozone) temperature correction in the standard ozone retrieval from the ground

Selective purification of catecholate, hydroxamate and α-hydroxycarboxylate siderophores with titanium dioxide affinity chromatography

Siderophores, high affinity iron chelators, play a key role in the uptake of iron by microorganisms and regulate many biological functions. Siderophores are categorized by their chelating group, e.g., catecholates, hydroxamates, α-hydroxycarboxylates. Natural concentrations of siderophores are often either too low or sample matrices are too complex for direct analysis by, e.g., liquid chromatography – mass spectrometry. Therefore, both concentration and purification are prerequisite for reliable analyses. However, a chromatographic technique that is selective for all siderophore classes and affords high levels of purification is lacking. We developed a titanium dioxide affinity chromatography (TDAC) solid-phase extraction (SPE) that affords the selective purification of these siderophore classes from complex sample matrices with recoveries up to 82%. The one-step purification removed most non-ligand sample ‘contaminants’, therefore, affording the straightforward identification of siderophore peaks in base peak chromatograms. As a proof of concept, the bioinformatic processing, dereplication of known features and selection of significant features in the TDAC eluates afforded a fast identification of six novel siderophores (woodybactines) from bacterial supernatants. We propose TDAC SPE as a fast and cost-effective methodology to screen for known or discover novel siderophores in natural samples in combination with untargeted bioinformatic processing by, e.g., XCMS. The method is scalable and yielded large amounts of highly purified siderophores from bacterial culture supernatants, providing an effective quantitative sample clean-up for, e.g., NMR structure elucidation

GeoFlow: European Microgravity Experiments on Thermal Convection in Rotating Spherical Shells under influence of Central Force Field

Abstract We report on the status of preparatory work in the GeoFlow Experiment which will take place on board Columbus Orbital Facility (COF) at the International Space Station (ISS). GeoFlow focus on investigations of the stability and dynamics of convective spherical gap flows under influence of a central force field. To exclude the unidirectional gravitational force which acts on earth's surface the planed long-time measurements have to take place in microgravity environment. After a introduction and an overview of experiment hardware preparation status which includes application of measurement techniques, preparatory 3D numerical flow simulations as well as experimental work and the way of experiment data analysis are presented. Also some aspects of the experiment operation phase will be given. The paper is then closed with concluding remarks and an outlook on possible future GeoFlow reflight campaigns

Global total ozone recovery trends attributed to ozone-depleting substance (ODS) changes derived from five merged ozone datasets

We report on updated trends using different merged zonal mean total ozone datasets from satellite and ground-based observations for the period from 1979 to 2020. This work is an update of the trends reported in Weber et al. (2018) using the same datasets up to 2016. Merged datasets used in this study include NASA MOD v8.7 and NOAA Cohesive Data (COH) v8.6, both based on data from the series of Solar Backscatter Ultraviolet (SBUV), SBUV-2, and Ozone Mapping and Profiler Suite (OMPS) satellite instruments (1978–present), as well as the Global Ozone Monitoring Experiment (GOME)-type Total Ozone – Essential Climate Variable (GTO-ECV) and GOME-SCIAMACHY-GOME-2 (GSG) merged datasets (both 1995–present), mainly comprising satellite data from GOME, SCIAMACHY, OMI, GOME-2A, GOME-2B, and TROPOMI. The fifth dataset consists of the annual mean zonal mean data from ground-based measurements collected at the World Ozone and Ultraviolet Radiation Data Centre (WOUDC). Trends were determined by applying a multiple linear regression (MLR) to annual mean zonal mean data. The addition of 4 more years consolidated the fact that total ozone is indeed slowly recovering in both hemispheres as a result of phasing out ozone-depleting substances (ODSs) as mandated by the Montreal Protocol. The near-global (60∘ S–60∘ N) ODS-related ozone trend of the median of all datasets after 1995 was 0.4 ± 0.2 (2σ) %/decade, which is roughly a third of the decreasing rate of 1.5 ± 0.6 %/decade from 1978 until 1995. The ratio of decline and increase is nearly identical to that of the EESC (equivalent effective stratospheric chlorine or stratospheric halogen) change rates before and after 1995, confirming the success of the Montreal Protocol. The observed total ozone time series are also in very good agreement with the median of 17 chemistry climate models from CCMI-1 (Chemistry-Climate Model Initiative Phase 1) with current ODS and GHG (greenhouse gas) scenarios (REF-C2 scenario). The positive ODS-related trends in the Northern Hemisphere (NH) after 1995 are only obtained with a sufficient number of terms in the MLR accounting properly for dynamical ozone changes (Brewer–Dobson circulation, Arctic Oscillation (AO), and Antarctic Oscillation (AAO)). A standard MLR (limited to solar, Quasi-Biennial Oscillation (QBO), volcanic, and El Niño–Southern Oscillation (ENSO)) leads to zero trends, showing that the small positive ODS-related trends have been balanced by negative trend contributions from atmospheric dynamics, resulting in nearly constant total ozone levels since 2000

The state of the Martian climate

60°N was +2.0°C, relative to the 1981–2010 average value (Fig. 5.1). This marks a new high for the record. The average annual surface air temperature (SAT) anomaly for 2016 for land stations north of starting in 1900, and is a significant increase over the previous highest value of +1.2°C, which was observed in 2007, 2011, and 2015. Average global annual temperatures also showed record values in 2015 and 2016. Currently, the Arctic is warming at more than twice the rate of lower latitudes

The use of QBO, ENSO, and NAO perturbations in the evaluation of GOME-2 MetOp A total ozone measurements

In this work we present evidence that quasi-cyclical perturbations in total ozone (quasi-biennial oscillation – QBO, El Niño–Southern Oscillation – ENSO, and North Atlantic Oscillation – NAO) can be used as independent proxies in evaluating Global Ozone Monitoring Experiment (GOME) 2 aboard MetOp A (GOME-2A) satellite total ozone data, using ground-based (GB) measurements, other satellite data, and chemical transport model calculations. The analysis is performed in the frame of the validation strategy on longer time scales within the European Organisation for the Exploitation of Meteorological Satellites (EUMETSAT) Satellite Application Facility on Atmospheric Composition Monitoring (AC SAF) project, covering the period 2007–2016. Comparison of GOME-2A total ozone with ground observations shows mean differences of about -0.7±1.4&thinsp;% in the tropics (0–30∘), about +0.1±2.1&thinsp;% in the mid-latitudes (30–60∘), and about +2.5±3.2&thinsp;% and 0.0±4.3&thinsp;% over the northern and southern high latitudes (60–80∘), respectively. In general, we find that GOME-2A total ozone data depict the QBO–ENSO–NAO natural fluctuations in concurrence with the co-located solar backscatter ultraviolet radiometer (SBUV), GOME-type Total Ozone Essential Climate Variable (GTO-ECV; composed of total ozone observations from GOME, SCIAMACHY – SCanning Imaging Absorption SpectroMeter for Atmospheric CHartographY, GOME-2A, and OMI – ozone monitoring instrument, combined into one homogeneous time series), and ground-based observations. Total ozone from GOME-2A is well correlated with the QBO (highest correlation in the tropics of +0.8) in agreement with SBUV, GTO-ECV, and GB data which also give the highest correlation in the tropics. The differences between deseazonalized GOME-2A and GB total ozone in the tropics are within ±1&thinsp;%. These differences were tested further as to their correlations with the QBO. The differences had practically no QBO signal, providing an independent test of the stability of the long-term variability of the satellite data. Correlations between GOME-2A total ozone and the Southern Oscillation Index (SOI) were studied over the tropical Pacific Ocean after removing seasonal, QBO, and solar-cycle-related variability. Correlations between ozone and the SOI are on the order of +0.5, consistent with SBUV and GB observations. Differences between GOME-2A and GB measurements at the station of Samoa (American Samoa; 14.25∘&thinsp;S, 170.6∘&thinsp;W) are within ±1.9&thinsp;%. We also studied the impact of the NAO on total ozone in the northern mid-latitudes in winter. We find very good agreement between GOME-2A and GB observations over Canada and Europe as to their NAO-related variability, with mean differences reaching the ±1&thinsp;% levels. The agreement and small differences which were found between the independently produced total ozone datasets as to the influence of the QBO, ENSO, and NAO show the importance of these climatological proxies as additional tool for monitoring the long-term stability of satellite–ground-truth biases.</p