A Comparison of Risk Exposure in Aquaculture and Agricultural Businesses

Agriculture and aquaculture have common features associated with their biological nature affecting risk exposure of the businesses. The aim of this paper is to compare risk exposure in salmon farming and agricultural enterprises in Norway by using an implicit error component model to examine the risk structure of yields, prices and economic returns at the farm level. Results indicate a higher farm-level year-to-year variability in yields, prices and economic returns in salmon farming than in agricultural enterprises. The variability in livestock enterprises was generally lower than for crop enterprises. Return on assets was highest in salmon farming with an average annual return of 9.2%. All of the agricultural farm types exhibited a negative average return on assets on average. Stochastic dominance tests of the distribution of economic returns from aquaculture and agricultural farm types showed salmon farming to be the most risk efficient alternative and salmon farming was most attractive from an investor’s perspective.Risk analysis, variability, Norway, Risk and Uncertainty,

Detection of Coulomb Charging around an Antidot

We have detected oscillations of the charge around a potential hill (antidot) in a two-dimensional electron gas as a function of a perpendicular magnetic field B. The field confines electrons around the antidot in closed orbits, the areas of which are quantised through the Aharonov-Bohm effect. Increasing B reduces each state's area, pushing electrons closer to the centre, until enough charge builds up for an electron to tunnel out. This is a new form of the Coulomb blockade seen in electrostatically confined dots. We have also studied h/2e oscillations and found evidence for coupling of opposite spin states of the lowest Landau level.Comment: 3 pages, 3 Postscript figures, submitted to the proceedings of EP2DS-1

A search for solar neutrons on a long duration balloon flight

The EOSCOR 3 detector, designed to measure the flux of solar neutrons, was flown on a long duration RACOON balloon flight from Australia during Jan. through Feb, 1983. The Circum-global flight lasted 22 days. No major solar activity occurred during the flight and thus only an upper limit to the solar flare neutrons flux is given. The atmospheric neutron response is compared with that obtained on earlier flights from Palestine, Texas

Observing cirrus halos to constrain in-situ measurements of ice crystal size

International audienceIn this study, characteristic optical sizes of ice crystals in synoptic cirrus are determined using airborne measurements of ice crystal size distributions, optical extinction and water content. The measurements are compared with coincident visual observations of ice cloud optical phenomena, in particular the 22° and 46° halos. In general, the scattering profiles derived from the in-situ cloud probe measurements are consistent with the observed halo characteristics. It is argued that this implies that the measured ice crystals were small, probably with characteristic optical radii between 10 and 20 ?m. There is a current contention that in-situ measurements of high concentrations of small ice crystals reflect artifacts from the shattering of large ice crystals on instrument inlets. Significant shattering cannot be entirely excluded using this approximate technique, but it is not indicated. On the basis of the in-situ measurements, a parameterization is provided that relates the optical effective radius of ice crystals to the temperature in mid-latitude synoptic cirrus

Cloud vertical distribution from combined surface and space radar–lidar observations at two Arctic atmospheric observatories

Detailed and accurate vertical distributions of cloud properties (such as cloud fraction, cloud phase, and cloud water content) and their changes are essential to accurately calculate the surface radiative flux and to depict the mean climate state. Surface and space-based active sensors including radar and lidar are ideal to provide this information because of their superior capability to detect clouds and retrieve cloud microphysical properties. In this study, we compare the annual cycles of cloud property vertical distributions from space-based active sensors and surface-based active sensors at two Arctic atmospheric observatories, Barrow and Eureka. Based on the comparisons, we identify the sensors' respective strengths and limitations, and develop a blended cloud property vertical distribution by combining both sets of observations. Results show that surface-based observations offer a more complete cloud property vertical distribution from the surface up to 11 km above mean sea level (a.m.s.l.) with limitations in the middle and high altitudes; the annual mean total cloud fraction from space-based observations shows 25–40 % fewer clouds below 0.5 km than from surface-based observations, and space-based observations also show much fewer ice clouds and mixed-phase clouds, and slightly more liquid clouds, from the surface to 1 km. In general, space-based observations show comparable cloud fractions between 1 and 2 km a.m.s.l., and larger cloud fractions above 2 km a.m.s.l. than from surface-based observations. A blended product combines the strengths of both products to provide a more reliable annual cycle of cloud property vertical distributions from the surface to 11 km a.m.s.l. This information can be valuable for deriving an accurate surface radiative budget in the Arctic and for cloud parameterization evaluation in weather and climate models. Cloud annual cycles show similar evolutions in total cloud fraction and ice cloud fraction, and lower liquid-containing cloud fraction at Eureka than at Barrow; the differences can be attributed to the generally colder and drier conditions at Eureka relative to Barrow

Heavy rain effects on airplane performance

The objective is to determine if the aerodynamic characteristics of an airplane are altered while flying in the rain. Wind-tunnel tests conducted at the NASA Langley Research Center (LaRC) have shown losses in maximum lift, reduction in stall angle, and increases in drag when a wing is placed in a simulated rain spray. For these tests the water spray concentration used represented a very heavy rainfall. A lack of definition of the scaling laws for aerodynamic testing in a two-phase, two-component flow makes interpolation of the wind-tunnel test uncertain. Tests of a large-scale wing are to be conducted at the LaRC. The large-scale wing is mounted on top of the Aircraft Landing Dynamics Facility (ALDF) carriage. This carriage (which is 70-foot long, 30-foot wide, and 30-foot high) is propelled with the wing model attached down a 3000-foot long test track by a water jet at speeds of up to 170 knots. A simulated rain spray system has been installed along 500 feet of the test track and can simulate rain falls from 2 to 40 inches/hour. Operational checks are underway and the initial tests should be completed by the Fall of 1989

Integrable, oblique travelling waves in quasi-charge-neutral two-fluid plasmas

International audienceA Hamiltonian description of oblique travelling waves in a two-fluid, charge-neutral, electron-proton plasma reveals that the transverse momentum equations for the electron and proton fluids are exactly integrable in cases where the total transverse momentum flux integrals, Py(d) and Pz(d), are both zero in the de Hoffman Teller (dHT) frame. In this frame, the transverse electric fields are zero, which simplifies the transverse momentum equations for the two fluids. The integrable travelling waves for the case Py(d)=Pz(d)=0, are investigated based on the Hamiltonian trajectories in phase space, and also on the longitudinal structure equation for the common longitudinal fluid velocity component ux of the electron and proton fluids. Numerical examples of a variety of travelling waves in a cold plasma, including oscillitons, are used to illustrate the physics. The transverse, electron and proton velocity components ujy and ujz (j=e, p) of the waves exhibit complex, rosette type patterns over several periods for ux. The role of separatrices in the phase space, the rotational integral and the longitudinal structure equation on the different wave forms are discussed