Sr-isotopic ratios trace mixing and dispersion in CO2 push-pull injection experiments at the CO2CRC Otway Research Facility, Australia

Analysis of 87Sr/86Sr ratios and modelling of formation water, injection water and produced water compositions from the CO2CRC Otway Research Facility in Victoria, Australia are used to test tracer behaviour and response in push-pull experiments. Such experiments are an essential pre-requisite to understanding the controls imposed by reservoir heterogeneities on CO2 dissolution rates which may be an important stabilising mechanism for geological carbon storage. The experiments (Otway stage 2B extension in 2014) comprised two sequential tests in which ~100 t of CO2-saturated water was injected with combinations of Sr and Br or Li and Fluorescein tracers, each injection being followed by two staged extractions of ~10 t and a final extraction of ~50 t all spaced at ~10 day intervals. Analysis of the 87Sr/86Sr ratios of the produced fluids from the first injection, spiked with SrCl2 and NaBr, is consistent with Sr behaving conservatively. This contrasts with previous interpretations in which Br was argued to have behaved conservatively while Sr, which dilutes ~three times as fast as Br, was thought to be lost to a mineral phase. Such Sr-loss cannot explain the evolution of 87Sr/86Sr ratios. The analysis of 87Sr/86Sr ratios in the waters produced after the second injection episode, spiked with LiCl and Fluorescein tracers, allows calculation of the fractions of the formation waters and the injection waters from both tests 1 and 2. The Sr, Li and SO4 tracers (the later formed by oxidation of formation sulphide) all indicate similar rates of dilution that is consistent with conservative behaviour. The results of the two injection episodes with spaced extractions are compared with two subsequent push-pull injections in which the produced waters, spiked with methanol, were extracted continuously. These continuous extraction experiments exhibited significantly less dilution over the same range of produced to injected water volumes (up to only ~0.6) than the earlier experiments with spaced extractions. This implies that some process related to the pauses in extraction enhances mixing of injected and formation waters. Achieving the objective of using push-pull experiments to assess reservoir heterogeneities and CO2 dissolution rates will require better assessment of the various tracers to establish which behave conservatively followed a proper understanding of the causes of the variations in mixing as fluids are extracted from the formations

Global silicate weathering flux over-estimated because of sediment-water cation exchange

Rivers carry the dissolved and solid products of silicate mineral weathering, a process that removes CO2 from the atmosphere and provides a key negative climate feedback over geological timescales. Here we show that in some river systems, a reactive exchange pool on river suspended particulate matter, bonded weakly to mineral surfaces, increases the mobile cation flux by 50%. The chemistry of both river waters and the exchange pool demonstrate exchange equilibrium, confirmed by Sr isotopes. Global silicate weathering fluxes are calculated based on riverine dissolved sodium (Na+) from silicate minerals. The large exchange pool supplies Na+ of non- silicate origin to the dissolved load, especially in catchments with widespread marine sediments, or where rocks have equilibrated with saline basement fluids. We quantify this by comparing the riverine sediment exchange pool and river water chemistry. In some basins, cation exchange could account for the majority of sodium in the river water, significantly reducing estimates of silicate weathering. At a global scale, we demonstrate that silicate weathering fluxes are over-estimated by 12-28%. This over-estimation is greatest in regions of high erosion and high sediment loads where the negative climate feedback has a maximum sensitivity to chemical weathering reactions. In the context of other recent findings that reduce the net CO2 consumption through chemical weathering, the magnitude of the continental silicate weathering fluxes and its implications for solid Earth CO2 degassing fluxes needs to be further investigated.NER

Design and Performance of A High Resolution Micro-Spec: An Integrated Sub-Millimeter Spectrometer

Micro-Spec is a compact sub-millimeter (approximately 100 GHz--1:1 THz) spectrometer which uses low loss superconducting microstrip transmission lines and a single-crystal silicon dielectric to integrate all of the components of a diffraction grating spectrometer onto a single chip. We have already successfully evaluated the performance of a prototype Micro-Spec, with spectral resolving power, R=64. Here we present our progress towards developing a higher resolution Micro-Spec, which would enable the first science returns in a balloon flight version of this instrument. We describe modifications to the design in scaling from a R=64 to a R=256 instrument, as well as the ultimate performance limits and design concerns when scaling this instrument to higher resolutions

WISE/NEOWISE Preliminary Analysis and Highlights of the 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko Near Nucleus Environs

On January 18-19 and June 28-29 of 2010, the Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE) spacecraft imaged the Rosetta mission target, comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko. We present a preliminary analysis of the images, which provide a characterization of the dust environment at heliocentric distances similar to those planned for the initial spacecraft encounter, but on the outbound leg of its orbit rather than the inbound. Broad-band photometry yields low levels of CO2 production at a comet heliocentric distance of 3.32 AU and no detectable production at 4.18 AU. We find that at these heliocentric distances, large dust grains with mean grain diameters on the order of a millimeter or greater dominate the coma and evolve to populate the tail. This is further supported by broad-band photometry centered on the nucleus, which yield an estimated differential dust particle size distribution with a power law relation that is considerably shallower than average. We set a 3-sigma upper limit constraint on the albedo of the large-grain dust at <= 0.12. Our best estimate of the nucleus radius (1.82 +/- 0.20 km) and albedo (0.04 +/- 0.01) are in agreement with measurements previously reported in the literature

A Lack of Variability Between Repeated Spitzer Phase Curves of WASP-43b

Though the global atmospheres of hot Jupiters have been extensively studied using phase curve observations, the level of time variability in these data is not well constrained. To investigate possible time variability in a planetary phase curve, we observed two full-orbit phase curves of the hot Jupiter WASP-43b at 4.5 microns using the Spitzer Space Telescope, and reanalyzed a previous 4.5 micron phase curve from Stevenson et al. (2017). We find no significant time variability between these three phase curves, which span timescales of weeks to years. The three observations are best fit by a single phase curve with an eclipse depth of 3907 +- 85 ppm, a dayside-integrated brightness temperature of 1479 +- 13 K, a nightside-integrated brightness temperature of 755 +- 46 K, and an eastward-shifted peak of 10.4 +- 1.8 degrees. To model our observations, we performed 3D general circulation model simulations of WASP-43b with simple cloud models of various vertical extents. In comparing these simulations to our observations, we find that WASP-43b likely has a cloudy nightside that transitions to a relatively cloud-free dayside. We estimate that any change in WASP-43bs vertical cloud thickness of more than three pressure scale heights is inconsistent with our observed upper limit on variation. These observations, therefore, indicate that WASP-43bs clouds are stable in their vertical and spatial extent over timescales up to several years. These results strongly suggest that atmospheric properties derived from previous, single Spitzer phase curve observations of hot Jupiters likely show us the equilibrium properties of these atmospheres.Comment: 24 pages, 9 figures, Published in the Astronomical Journal (AJ

Overview of the Design, Fabrication and Performance Requirements of Micro-Spec, an Integrated Submillimeter Spectrometer

Micro-Spec is a compact submillimeter (350-700 GHz) spectrometer which uses low loss superconducting niobium microstrip transmission lines and a single-crystal silicon dielectric to integrate all of the components of a grating-analog spectrometer onto a single chip. Here we present details of the fabrication and design of a prototype Micro-Spec spectrometer with resolution, R64, where we use a high-yield single-flip wafer bonding process to realize instrument components on a 0.45 m single-crystal silicon dielectric. We discuss some of the electromagnetic design concerns (such as loss, stray-light, cross-talk, and fabrication tolerances) for each of the spectrometer components and their integration into the instrument as a whole. These components include a slot antenna with a silicon lens for optical coupling, a phase delay transmission line network, parallel plate waveguide interference region, and aluminum microstrip transmission line kinetic inductance detectors with extremely low cross-talk and immunity to stray light. We have demonstrated this prototype spectrometer with design resolution of R64. Given the optical performance of this prototype, we will also discuss the extension of this design to higher resolutions suitable for balloon-flight

Integrating Suspended Sediment Flux in Large Alluvial River Channels: Application of a Synoptic Rouse‐Based Model to the Irrawaddy and Salween Rivers

A large portion of freshwater and sediment is exported to the ocean by a small number of major rivers. Many of these megarivers are subject to substantial anthropogenic pressures, which are having a major impact on water and sediment delivery to deltaic ecosystems. Due to hydrodynamic sorting, sediment grain size and composition vary strongly with depth and across the channel in large rivers, complicating flux quantification. To account for this, we modified a semi‐empirical Rouse model, synoptically predicting sediment concentration, grain‐size distribution, and organic carbon (%OC) concentration with depth and across the river channel. Using suspended sediment depth samples and flow velocity data, we applied this model to calculate sediment fluxes of the Irrawaddy (Ayeyarwady) and the Salween (Thanlwin), the last two free‐flowing megarivers in Southeast Asia. Deriving sediment‐discharge rating curves, we calculated an annual sediment flux of urn:x-wiley:jgrf:media:jgrf21236:jgrf21236-math-0001 Mt/year for the Irrawaddy and urn:x-wiley:jgrf:media:jgrf21236:jgrf21236-math-0002 Mt/year for the Salween, together exporting 46% as much sediment as the Ganges‐Brahmaputra system. The mean flux‐weighted sediment exported by the Irrawaddy is significantly coarser (D84 = 193 ± 13 μm) and OC‐poorer (0.29 ± 0.08 wt%) compared to the Salween (112 ± 27 μm and 0.59 ± 0.16 wt%, respectively). Both rivers export similar amounts of particulate organic carbon, with a total of urn:x-wiley:jgrf:media:jgrf21236:jgrf21236-math-0003 Mt C/year, 53% as much as the Ganges‐Brahmaputra. These results underline the global significance of the Irrawaddy and Salween rivers and warrant continued monitoring of their sediment flux, given the increasing anthropogenic pressures on these river basins

Possible thermochemical disequilibrium in the atmosphere of the exoplanet GJ 436b

The nearby extrasolar planet GJ 436b--which has been labelled as a 'hot Neptune'--reveals itself by the dimming of light as it crosses in front of and behind its parent star as seen from Earth. Respectively known as the primary transit and secondary eclipse, the former constrains the planet's radius and mass, and the latter constrains the planet's temperature and, with measurements at multiple wavelengths, its atmospheric composition. Previous work using transmission spectroscopy failed to detect the 1.4-\mu m water vapour band, leaving the planet's atmospheric composition poorly constrained. Here we report the detection of planetary thermal emission from the dayside of GJ 436b at multiple infrared wavelengths during the secondary eclipse. The best-fit compositional models contain a high CO abundance and a substantial methane (CH4) deficiency relative to thermochemical equilibrium models for the predicted hydrogen-dominated atmosphere. Moreover, we report the presence of some H2O and traces of CO2. Because CH4 is expected to be the dominant carbon-bearing species, disequilibrium processes such as vertical mixing and polymerization of methane into substances such as ethylene may be required to explain the hot Neptune's small CH4-to-CO ratio, which is at least 10^5 times smaller than predicted