2,391 research outputs found
Spatial analysis of storm depths from an Arizona raingage network
Eight years of summer rainstorm observations are analyzed by a dense network of 93 raingages operated by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, Agricultural Research Service, in the 150 km Walnut Gulch experimental catchment near Tucson, Arizona. Storms are defined by the total depths collected at each raingage during the noon-to-noon period for which there was depth recorded at any of the gages. For each of the resulting 428 storm days, the gage depths are interpolated onto a dense grid and the resulting random field analyzed to obtain moments, isohyetal plots, spatial correlation function, variance function, and the spatial distribution of storm depth
Space-time modeling of soil moisture: Stochastic rainfall forcing with heterogeneous vegetation
The present paper complements that of Isham et al. (2005), who introduced a space-time soil moisture model driven by stochastic space-time rainfall forcing with homogeneous vegetation and in the absence of topographical landscape effects. However, the spatial variability of vegetation may significantly modify the soil moisture dynamics with important implications for hydrological modeling. In the present paper, vegetation heterogeneity is incorporated through a two dimensional Poisson process representing the coexistence of two functionally different types of plants (e.g., trees and grasses). The space-time statistical structure of relative soil moisture is characterized through its covariance function which depends on soil, vegetation, and rainfall patterns. The statistical properties of the soil moisture process averaged in space and time are also investigated. These properties are especially important for any modeling that aggregates soil moisture characteristics over a range of spatial and temporal scales. It is found that particularly at small scales, vegetation heterogeneity has a significant impact on the averaged process as compared with the uniform vegetation case. Also, averaging in space considerably smoothes the soil moisture process, but in contrast, averaging in time up to 1 week leads to little change in the variance of the averaged process
A stronger topology for the Brownian web
We propose a metric space of coalescing pairs of paths on which we are able
to prove (more or less) directly convergence of objects such as the persistence
probability in the (one dimensional, nearest neighbor, symmetric) voter model
or the diffusively rescaled weight distribution in a silo model (as well as the
equivalent output distribution in a river basin model), interpreted in terms of
(dual) diffusively rescaled coalescing random walks, to corresponding objects
defined in terms of the Brownian web.Comment: 22 page
Spatial characteristics of observed precipitation fields: A catalog of summer storms in Arizona, Volume 1
Eight years of summer raingage observations are analyzed for a dense, 93 gage, network operated by the U. S. Department of Agriculture, Agricultural Research Service, in their 150 sq km Walnut Gulch catchment near Tucson, Arizona. Storms are defined by the total depths collected at each raingage during the noon to noon period for which there was depth recorded at any of the gages. For each of the resulting 428 storms, the 93 gage depths are interpolated onto a dense grid and the resulting random field is anlyzed. Presented are: storm depth isohyets at 2 mm contour intervals, first three moments of point storm depth, spatial correlation function, spatial variance function, and the spatial distribution of total rainstorm depth
Scaling in the structure of directory trees in a computer cluster
We describe the topological structure and the underlying organization
principles of the directories created by users of a computer cluster when
storing his/her own files. We analyze degree distributions, average distance
between files, distribution of communities and allometric scaling exponents of
the directory trees. We find that users create trees with a broad, scale-free
degree distribution. The structure of the directories is well captured by a
growth model with a single parameter. The degree distribution of the different
trees has a non-universal exponent associated with different values of the
parameter of the model. However, the distribution of community sizes has a
universal exponent analytically obtained from our model.Comment: refined data analysis and modeling, completely reorganized version, 4
pages, 2 figure
Tailoring the frictional properties of granular media
A method of modifying the roughness of soda-lime glass spheres is presented,
with the purpose of tuning inter-particle friction. The effect of chemical
etching on the surface topography and the bulk frictional properties of grains
is systematically investigated. The surface roughness of the grains is measured
using white light interferometry and characterised by the lateral and vertical
roughness length scales. The underwater angle of repose is measured to
characterise the bulk frictional behaviour. We observe that the co-efficient of
friction depends on the vertical roughness length scale. We also demonstrate a
bulk surface roughness measurement using a carbonated soft drink.Comment: 10 pages, 17 figures, submitted to Phys. Rev.
Redistribution and Subsidies for Higher Education
The financing of higher education through public spending imposes a transfer of resources from taxpayers to university students and their parents. We provide an explanation for this phenomenon. Those who attend higher education will earn more income in the future and will pay more taxes. People whose children do not attend higher education, however should agree to help pay the cost of such education, providing that the taxes are sufficiently high to ensure that there will be an adequate redistribution in favor of their own children at some time in the future.Higher Education, Taxation, Redistribution
Structure, Scaling and Phase Transition in the Optimal Transport Network
We minimize the dissipation rate of an electrical network under a global
constraint on the sum of powers of the conductances. We construct the explicit
scaling relation between currents and conductances, and show equivalence to a a
previous model [J. R. Banavar {\it et al} Phys. Rev. Lett. {\bf 84}, 004745
(2000)] optimizing a power-law cost function in an abstract network. We show
the currents derive from a potential, and the scaling of the conductances
depends only locally on the currents. A numerical study reveals that the
transition in the topology of the optimal network corresponds to a
discontinuity in the slope of the power dissipation.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figure
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