The Max-Planck-Institute global ocean/sea ice model with orthogonal curvilinear coordinates

The Hamburg Ocean Primitive Equation model has undergone significant development in recent years. Most notable is the treatment of horizontal discretisation which has undergone transition from a staggered E-grid to an orthogonal curvilinear C-grid. The treatment of subgridscale mixing has been improved by the inclusion of a new formulation of bottom boundary layer (BBL) slope convection, an isopycnal diffusion scheme, and a Gent and McWilliams style eddy-induced mixing parameterisation. The model setup described here has a north pole over Greenland and a south pole on the coast of the Weddell Sea. This gives relatively high resolution in the sinking regions associated with the thermohaline circulation. Results are presented from a 450 year climatologically forced integration. The forcing is a product of the German Ocean Model Intercomparison Project and is derived from the European Centre for Medium Range Weather Forecasting reanalysis. The main emphasis is on the model's representation of key quantities that are easily associated with the ocean's role in the global climate system. The global and Atlantic northward poleward heat transports have peaks of 1.43 and 0.84 PW, at 18degrees and 21degrees N respectively. The Atlantic meridional overturning streamfunction has a peak of 15.7 Sv in the North Atlantic and an outflow of 11.9 Sv at 30degrees S. Comparison with a simulation excluding BBL shows that the scheme is responsible for up to a 25% increase in North Atlantic heat transport, with significant improvement of the depths of convection in the Greenland, Labrador and Irminger Seas. Despite the improvements, comparison with observations shows the heat transport still to be too weak. Other outstanding problems include an incorrect Gulf Stream pathway, a too strong Antarctic Circumpolar Current, and a too weak renewal of Antarctic Intermediate Water. Nevertheless, the model has been coupled to the atmospheric GCM ECHAM5 and run successfully for over 250 years without any surface flux corrections. (C) 2002 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved

A Cretaceous carbonate delta drift in the Montagna della Maiella, Italy

The Upper Cretaceous (Campanian\u2013Maastrichtian) bioclastic wedge of the Orfento Formation in the Montagna della Maiella, Italy, is compared to newly discovered contourite drifts in the Maldives. Like the drift deposits in the Maldives, the Orfento Formation fills a channel and builds a Miocene delta-shaped and mounded sedimentary body in the basin that is similar in size to the approximately 350 km 2 large coarse-grained bioclastic Miocene delta drifts in the Maldives. The composition of the bioclastic wedge of the Orfento Formation is also exclusively bioclastic debris sourced from the shallow-water areas and reworked clasts of the Orfento Formation itself. In the near mud-free succession, age-diagnostic fossils are sparse. The depositional textures vary from wackestone to float-rudstone and breccia/conglomerates, but rocks with grainstone and rudstone textures are the most common facies. In the channel, lensoid convex-upward breccias, cross-cutting channelized beds and thick grainstone lobes with abundant scours indicate alternating erosion and deposition from a high-energy current. In the basin, the mounded sedimentary body contains lobes with a divergent progradational geometry. The lobes are built by decametre thick composite megabeds consisting of sigmoidal clinoforms that typically have a channelized topset, a grainy foreset and a fine-grained bottomset with abundant irregular angular clasts. Up to 30 m thick channels filled with intraformational breccias and coarse grainstones pinch out downslope between the megabeds. In the distal portion of the wedge, stacked grainstone beds with foresets and reworked intraclasts document continuous sediment reworking and migration. The bioclastic wedge of the Orfento Formation has been variously interpreted as a succession of sea-level controlled slope deposits, a shoaling shoreface complex, or a carbonate tidal delta. Current-controlled delta drifts in the Maldives, however, offer a new interpretation because of their similarity in architecture and composition. These similarities include: (i) a feeder channel opening into the basin; (ii) an excavation moat at the exit of the channel; (iii) an overall mounded geometry with an apex that is in shallower water depth than the source channel; (iv) progradation of stacked lobes; (v) channels that pinch out in a basinward direction; and (vi) smaller channelized intervals that are arranged in a radial pattern. As a result, the Upper Cretaceous (Campanian\u2013Maastrichtian) bioclastic wedge of the Orfento Formation in the Montagna della Maiella, Italy, is here interpreted as a carbonate delta drift

On the Linkage between Antarctic Surface Water Stratification and Global Deep-Water Temperature

The suggestion is advanced that the remarkably low static stability of Antarctic surface waters may arise from a feedback loop involving global deep-water temperatures. If deep-water temperatures are too warm, this promotes Antarctic convection, thereby strengthening the inflow of Antarctic Bottom Water into the ocean interior and cooling the deep ocean. If deep waters are too cold, this promotes Antarctic stratification allowing the deep ocean to warm because of the input of North Atlantic Deep Water. A steady-state deep-water temperature is achieved such that the Antarctic surface can barely undergo convection. A two-box model is used to illustrate this feedback loop in its simplest expression and to develop basic concepts, such as the bounds on the operation of this loop. The model illustrates the possible dominating influence of Antarctic upwelling rate and Antarctic freshwater balance on global deep-water temperatures

Extended Non-destructive Testing for Surface Quality Assessment

AbstractThis chapter introduces various extended non-destructive testing (ENDT) techniques for surface quality assessment, which are first characterized, then enhanced, and finally applied to assess the level of pre-bond contaminations intentionally applied to carbon fiber reinforced plastic (CFRP) adherends following the procedures described in the previous chapter. Based on two user cases comprising different scenarios that are characteristic of either aeronautical production or repair, the detailed tests conducted on two types of sample geometry, namely flat coupons and scarfed pilot samples with a more complex shape, form the basis for applying the advanced ENDT procedures for the monitoring of realistic and real aircraft parts, as will be described in Chap. 10.1007/978-3-319-92810-4_5. Specifically, the reported investigations were performed to assess the surface quality of first ground and then intentionally contaminated CFRP surfaces using the following ENDT tools: the aerosol wetting test (AWT), optically stimulated electron emission (OSEE), two differently implemented approaches based on electronic noses, laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS), Fourier-transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy, laser-induced fluorescence (LIF), and laser vibrometry

Morphology of the earliest reconstructable tetrapod Parmastega aelidae.

The known diversity of tetrapods of the Devonian period has increased markedly in recent decades, but their fossil record consists mostly of tantalizing fragments1-15. The framework for interpreting the morphology and palaeobiology of Devonian tetrapods is dominated by the near complete fossils of Ichthyostega and Acanthostega; the less complete, but partly reconstructable, Ventastega and Tulerpeton have supporting roles2,4,16-34. All four of these genera date to the late Famennian age (about 365-359 million years ago)-they are 10 million years younger than the earliest known tetrapod fragments5,10, and nearly 30 million years younger than the oldest known tetrapod footprints35. Here we describe Parmastega aelidae gen. et sp. nov., a tetrapod from Russia dated to the earliest Famennian age (about 372 million years ago), represented by three-dimensional material that enables the reconstruction of the skull and shoulder girdle. The raised orbits, lateral line canals and weakly ossified postcranial skeleton of P. aelidae suggest a largely aquatic, surface-cruising animal. In Bayesian and parsimony-based phylogenetic analyses, the majority of trees place Parmastega as a sister group to all other tetrapods

Thermodynamics in the hydrologic response: Travel time formulation and application to Alpine catchments

This paper presents a spatially-explicit model for hydro-thermal response simulations of Alpine catchments, accounting for advective and non-advective energy fluxes in stream networks characterized by arbitrary degrees of geomorphological complexity. The relevance of the work stems from the increasing scientific interest concerning the impacts of the warming climate on water resources management and temperature-controlled ecological processes. The description of the advective energy uxes is cast in a travel time formulation of water and energy transport, resulting in a closed form solution for water temperature evolution in the soil compartment. The application to Alpine catchments hinges on the boundary conditions provided by the fully-distributed and physically-based snow model Alpine3D. The performance of the simulations is illustrated by comparing modeled and measured hydrographs and thermographs at the outlet of the Dischma catchment (45 km2) in the Swiss Alps. The Monte Carlo calibration shows that the model is robust and that a simultaneous fitting of stream ow and stream temperature reduces the uncertainty in the hydrological parameters estimation. The calibrated model also provides a good fit to the measurements in the validation period, suggesting that it could be employed for predictive applications, both for hydrological and ecological purposes. The temperature of the subsurface flow, as described by the proposed travel time formulation, proves warmer than the stream temperature during winter and colder during summer. Finally, the spatially-explicit results of the model during snowmelt show a notable hydro-thermal spatial variability in the river network, owing to the small spatial correlation of infilltration and meteorological forcings in Alpine regions