Recurrent climate winter regimes in reconstructed and modelled 500hPa geopotential height fields over the North Atlantic/European sector 1659-1990

Recurrent climate winter regimes are examined from statistically reconstructed and modelled 500hPa geopotential height fields over the North Atlantic/European sector for the period 1659-1990. We investigate the probability density function of the state space spanned by the first two empirical orthogonal functions of combined winter data. Regimes are detected as patterns that correspond to areas of the state space with an unexpected high recurrence probability using a Monte Carlo approach. The reconstruction and the model reveal four recurrent climate regimes. They correspond to the two phases of the North Atlantic Oscillation and two opposite blocking patterns. Complemented by the investigation of the temporal evolution of the climate regimes this leads to the conclusion that the reconstructed and the modelled data for this geographic sector reproduce low-frequency atmospheric variability in the form of regime-like behaviour. The overall evidence for recurrent climate regimes is higher for the model than for the reconstruction. However, comparisons with independent data sources for the period 1659-1990 revealed a more realistic temporal evolution of the regimes for the reconstructed dat

Investigation of microstructure defects in EUROFER97 under He⁺/Fe³⁺ dual ion beam irradiation

Fusion like conditions for reduced activation ferritic/martensitic steels in the first wall are simulated with single Fe3+ and He+/Fe3+ dual ion beam irradiation of EUROFER97 at the Jannus laboratory, CEA Saclay, introducing a damage of 16 dpa and a helium content up to 260 appm. The samples are irradiated at temperatures of 330 °C, 400 °C and 500 °C. The quantitative determination of size distribution and density of dislocation loops is obtained using weak-beam dark-field imaging mode. Burgers vectors of a02〈111〉 are observed for the majority of dislocation loops at irradiation temperatures of 330 °C and 400 °C. At 500 °C no dislocation loops are found. The impact of single and dual ion beam irradiation on mechanical properties is determined by means of nanoindentation. An increase in nano-hardness of up to 35% due to irradiation was measured at samples irradiated at 400 °C. A kinetic rate model is applied for the description of nucleation and evolution of helium bubbles and compared with the experimental results. Evaluating the rate model with help of TEM-results for size and density of bubbles indicates the nucleation scheme as the main source for quantitative disagreement between the model and irradiation. Keywords: Radiation effects, Ion irradiation, Cluster dynamics, Fusion, Helium bubbles, RAFM steel

Regulatory landscape for the direct marketing of meat and poultry in Oklahoma

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Arctic Summer Sea Ice Melt and Related Atmospheric Conditions in Coupled Regional Climate Model Simulations and Observations

Observations from 1979 to 2014 show a positive trend in the summer sea ice melt rate with an acceleration particularly in June and August. This is associated with atmospheric circulation changes such as a tendency toward a dipole pattern in the mean sea level pressure (SLP) trend with an increase over the Arctic Ocean and a decrease over Siberia. Consistent with previous studies, we here show the statistical relationship between the summer sea ice melt rate and SLP and that more than one SLP pattern is associated with anomalously high melt rates. Most high melt rates occur during high pressure over the Arctic Ocean accompanied by low pressure over Siberia, but a strong Beaufort High and advection of warm air associated with a cyclone located over the Taymyr Peninsula can also trigger anomalous high ice melt. We evaluate 10-member ensemble simulations with the coupled atmosphere-ice-ocean Arctic regional climate model HIRHAM-NAOSIM. The simulations have systematically low acceleration of sea ice melt rate in August, related to shortcomings in representing the strengthening pressure gradient from the Barents/Kara Sea toward Northern Greenland in recent decades. In general, the model shows the same classification of SLP patterns related to anomalous melt rates as the observations. However, the evolution of sea ice melt-related cloud-radiation feedback over the summer reveals contrary effects from low-level clouds in the reanalysis and in the simulations

Comparative small angle neutron scattering (SANS) study of Eurofer97 steel neutron irradiated in mixed (HFR) and fast spectra (BOR60) reactors

AbstractThis contribution presents a comparative microstructural investigation, carried out by Small-Angle Neutron Scattering (SANS), of ferritic/martensitic steel Eurofer97 (0.12 C, 9 Cr, 0.2V, 1.08Wwt%) neutron irradiated at two different neutron sources, the HFR-Petten (SPICE experiment) and the BOR60 reactor (ARBOR experiment). The investigated “SPICE” sample had been irradiated to 16dpa at 250°C, the investigated “ARBOR” one had been irradiated to 32dpa at 330°C. The SANS measurements were carried under a 1 T magnetic field to separate nuclear and magnetic SANS components; a reference, un-irradiated Eurofer sample was also measured to evaluate as accurately as possible the genuine effect of the irradiation on the microstructure. The detected increase in the respective SANS cross-sections of these two samples under irradiation is attributed primarily to the presence of micro-voids, for neutron contrast reasons; it is quite similar in the two samples, despite the higher irradiation dose and temperature of the “ARBOR” sample with respect to the “SPICE” one. This is tentatively correlated with the higher helium content produced under HFR irradiation, playing an important role to stabilize the micro-voids under irradiation. In fact, the size distributions obtained by transformation of the SANS data yield a micro-void volume fraction of 1.3% for the “SPICE” sample and of 0.6% for the “ARBOR” one