975 research outputs found
Spatially Explicit Decision Support for Watershed Management on Military Lands: Stream Integrity, Interactive Programming, and Best Management Practices
2012 S.C. Water Resources Conference - Exploring Opportunities for Collaborative Water Research, Policy and Managemen
The vibrational stability and electronic structure of B80 fullerene-like cage
We investigate the vibrational stability and the electronic structure of the
proposed icosahedral fullerene-like cage structure of B80 [Szwacki, Sadrzadeh,
and Yakobson, Phys. Rev. Lett. {\bf 98}, 166804 (2007)] by an all electron
density functional theory using polarized Gaussian basis functions containing
41 basis functions per atom. The vibrational analysis of B indicates
that the icosahedral structure is vibrationally unstable with 7 imaginary
frequencies. The equilibrium structure has symmetry and a {\em smaller}
gap of 0.96 eV between the highest occupied and lowest unoccupied molecular
orbital energy levels compared to the icosahedral structure. The static dipole
polarizability of B cage is 149 \AAA and the first ionization energy is
6.4 eV. The B cage has rather large electron affinity of 3 eV making it
useful candidate as electron acceptor if it is synthesized. The infra-red and
Raman spectra of the highly symmetric structure are characterized by a few
absorption peaks.Comment: RevTex, 4 figure
Dirac cones in two-dimensional borane
We introduce two-dimensional borane, a single-layered material of BH
stoichiometry, with promising electronic properties. We show that, according to
Density Functional Theory calculations, two-dimensional borane is semimetallic,
with two symmetry-related Dirac cones meeting right at the Fermi energy .
The curvature of the cones is lower than in graphene, thus closer to the ideal
linear dispersion. Its structure, formed by a puckered trigonal boron network
with hydrogen atoms connected to each boron atom, can be understood as
distorted, hydrogenated borophene (Science \textbf{350}, 1513 (2015)). Chemical
bonding analysis reveals the boron layer in the network being bound by
delocalized four-center two-electron bonds. Finally, we suggest
high-pressure could be a feasible route to synthesise two-dimensional borane.Comment: 5 pages, 3 figures, 1 tabl
MPAS-Albany Land Ice (MALI): a variable-resolution ice sheet model for Earth system modeling using Voronoi grids
We introduce MPAS-Albany Land Ice (MALI) v6.0, a new variable-resolution land ice model that uses unstructured Voronoi grids on a plane or
sphere. MALI is built using the Model for Prediction Across Scales (MPAS)
framework for developing variable-resolution Earth system model components
and the Albany multi-physics code base for the solution of coupled systems of
partial differential equations, which itself makes use of Trilinos solver
libraries. MALI includes a three-dimensional first-order momentum balance
solver (Blatter–Pattyn) by linking to the Albany-LI ice sheet velocity
solver and an explicit shallow ice velocity solver. The evolution of ice
geometry and tracers is handled through an explicit first-order horizontal
advection scheme with vertical remapping. The evolution of ice temperature is
treated using operator splitting of vertical diffusion and horizontal
advection and can be configured to use either a temperature or enthalpy
formulation. MALI includes a mass-conserving subglacial hydrology model that
supports distributed and/or channelized drainage and can optionally be
coupled to ice dynamics. Options for calving include eigencalving, which
assumes that the calving rate is proportional to extensional strain rates. MALI is
evaluated against commonly used exact solutions and community benchmark
experiments and shows the expected accuracy. Results for the MISMIP3d
benchmark experiments with MALI's Blatter–Pattyn solver fall between
published results from Stokes and L1L2 models as expected. We use the model
to simulate a semi-realistic Antarctic ice sheet problem following the
initMIP protocol and using 2 km resolution in marine ice sheet regions. MALI
is the glacier component of the Energy Exascale Earth System Model (E3SM)
version 1, and we describe current and planned coupling to other E3SM
components.</p
Compensating errors in inversions for subglacial bed roughness: same steady state, different dynamic response
Subglacial bed roughness is one of the main factors
controlling the rate of future Antarctic ice-sheet retreat and also one of
the most uncertain. A common technique to constrain the bed roughness using
ice-sheet models is basal inversion, tuning the roughness to reproduce the
observed present-day ice-sheet geometry and/or surface velocity. However,
many other factors affecting ice-sheet evolution, such as the englacial
temperature and viscosity, the surface and basal mass balance, and the
subglacial topography, also contain substantial uncertainties. Using a basal
inversion technique intrinsically causes any errors in these other
quantities to lead to compensating errors in the inverted bed roughness.
Using a set of idealised-geometry experiments, we quantify these
compensating errors and investigate their effect on the dynamic response of
the ice sheet to a prescribed forcing. We find that relatively small errors
in ice viscosity and subglacial topography require substantial compensating
errors in the bed roughness in order to produce the same steady-state ice
sheet, obscuring the realistic spatial variability in the bed roughness.
When subjected to a retreat-inducing forcing, we find that these different
parameter combinations, which per definition of the inversion procedure
result in the same steady-state geometry, lead to a rate of ice volume loss
that can differ by as much as a factor of 2. This implies that ice-sheet
models that use basal inversion to initialise their model state can still
display a substantial model bias despite having an initial state which is
close to the observations.</p
Exploring the ability of the variable-resolution Community Earth System Model to simulate cryospheric–hydrological variables in High Mountain Asia
Earth system models (ESMs) can help to improve the understanding of climate-induced cryospheric–hydrological impacts in complex mountain regions, such as High Mountain Asia (HMA). Coarse ESM grids, however, have difficulties in representing cryospheric–hydrological processes that vary over short distances in complex mountainous environments. Variable-resolution (VR) ESMs can help to overcome these limitations through targeted grid refinement. This study investigates the ability of the VR Community Earth System Model (VR-CESM) to simulate cryospheric–hydrological variables such as the glacier surface mass balance (SMB) over HMA. To this end, a new VR grid is generated, with a regional grid refinement up to 7 km over HMA. Two coupled atmosphere–land simulations are run for the period 1979–1998. The second simulation is performed with an updated glacier cover dataset and includes snow and glacier model modifications. Comparisons are made to gridded outputs derived from a globally uniform 1∘ CESM grid, observation-, reanalysis-, and satellite-based datasets, and a glacier model forced by a regional climate model (RCM). Climatological biases are generally reduced compared to the coarse-resolution CESM grid, but the glacier SMB is too negative relative to observation-based glaciological and geodetic mass balances, as well as the RCM-forced glacier model output. In the second simulation, the SMB is improved but is still underestimated due to cloud cover and temperature biases, missing model physics, and incomplete land–atmosphere coupling. The outcomes suggest that VR-CESM could be a useful tool to simulate cryospheric–hydrological variables and to study climate change in mountainous environments, but further developments are needed to better simulate the SMB of mountain glaciers.</p
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Remapping of Greenland ice sheet surface mass balance anomalies for large ensemble sea-level change projections
Future sea-level change projections with process-based stand-alone ice sheet models are typically driven with surface mass balance (SMB) forcing derived from climate models. In this work we address the problems arising from a mismatch of the modelled ice sheet geometry with the geometry used by the climate model. We present a method for applying SMB forcing from climate models to a wide range of Greenland ice sheet models with varying and temporally evolving geometries. In order to achieve that, we translate a given SMB anomaly field as a function of absolute location to a function of surface elevation for 25 regional drainage basins, which can then be applied to different modelled ice sheet geometries. The key feature of the approach is the non-locality of this remapping process. The method reproduces the original forcing data closely when remapped to the original geometry. When remapped to different modelled geometries it produces a physically meaningful forcing with smooth and continuous SMB anomalies across basin divides. The method considerably reduces non-physical biases that would arise by applying the SMB anomaly derived for the climate model geometry directly to a large range of modelled ice sheet model geometries
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