10,896 research outputs found
A review of applied methods in Europe for flood-frequency analysis in a changing environment
The report presents a review of methods used in Europe for trend analysis, climate change projections and non-stationary analysis of extreme precipitation and flood frequency. In addition, main findings of the analyses are presented, including a comparison of trend analysis results and climate change projections. Existing guidelines in Europe on design flood and design rainfall estimation that incorporate climate change are reviewed. The report
concludes with a discussion of research needs on non-stationary frequency analysis for considering the effects of climate change and inclusion in design guidelines.
Trend analyses are reported for 21 countries in Europe with results for extreme precipitation, extreme streamflow or both. A large number of national and regional trend studies have been carried out. Most studies are based on statistical methods applied to individual time series of extreme precipitation or extreme streamflow using the non-parametric Mann-Kendall trend test or regression analysis. Some studies have been reported that use field significance or regional consistency tests to analyse trends over larger areas. Some of the studies also include analysis of trend attribution. The studies reviewed indicate that there is
some evidence of a general increase in extreme precipitation, whereas there are no clear indications of significant increasing trends at regional or national level of extreme streamflow. For some smaller regions increases in extreme streamflow are reported. Several studies from regions dominated by snowmelt-induced peak flows report decreases in extreme streamflow and earlier spring snowmelt peak flows. Climate change projections have been reported for 14 countries in Europe with results for extreme precipitation, extreme streamflow or both. The review shows various approaches for producing climate projections of extreme precipitation and flood frequency based on
alternative climate forcing scenarios, climate projections from available global and regional climate models, methods for statistical downscaling and bias correction, and alternative hydrological models. A large number of the reported studies are based on an ensemble modelling approach that use several climate forcing scenarios and climate model projections in order to address the uncertainty on the projections of extreme precipitation and flood frequency. Some studies also include alternative statistical downscaling and bias correction methods and hydrological modelling approaches. Most studies reviewed indicate an increase in extreme precipitation under a future climate, which is consistent with the observed trend of extreme precipitation. Hydrological projections of peak flows and flood frequency show both positive and negative changes. Large increases in peak flows are reported for some catchments with rainfall-dominated peak flows, whereas a general decrease in flood magnitude and earlier spring floods are reported for catchments with snowmelt-dominated peak flows. The latter is consistent with the observed trends. The review of existing guidelines in Europe on design floods and design rainfalls shows that only few countries explicitly address climate change. These design guidelines are based on climate change adjustment factors to be applied to current design estimates and may
depend on design return period and projection horizon. The review indicates a gap between the need for considering climate change impacts in design and actual published guidelines that incorporate climate change in extreme precipitation and flood frequency. Most of the studies reported are based on frequency analysis assuming stationary conditions in a certain time window (typically 30 years) representing current and future climate. There is a need for developing more consistent non-stationary frequency analysis methods that can account for the transient nature of a changing climate
Compact Toroidal Ion Trap Design and Optimization
We present the design of a new type of compact toroidal, or "halo", ion trap.
Such traps may be useful for mass spectrometry, studying small Coulomb cluster
rings, quantum information applications, or other quantum simulations where a
ring topology is of interest. We present results from a Monte Carlo
optimization of the trap design parameters using finite-element analysis
simulations that minimizes higher-order anharmonic terms in the trapping
pseudopotential, while maintaining complete control over ion placement at the
pseudopotential node in 3D using static bias fields. These simulations are
based on a practical electrode design using readily-available parts, yet can be
easily scaled to any size trap with similar electrode spacings. We also derive
the conditions for a crystal phase transition for two ions in the compact halo
trap, the first non-trivial phase transition for Coulomb crystals in this
geometry.Comment: 8 pages, 9 figure
Panel Discussion - Management of Eurasian watermilfoil in the United States using native insects: State regulatory and management issues
While researchers have evaluated the potential of native
insect herbivores to manage nonindigenous aquatic plant
species such as Eurasian watermilfoil (
Myriophyllum spicatum
L.), the practical matters of regulatory compliance and implementation
have been neglected. A panel of aquatic nuisance
species program managers from three state natural
resource management agencies (Minnesota, Vermont and
Washington) discussed their regulatory and policy concerns.
In addition, one ecological consultant attempting to market
one of the native insects to manage Eurasian watermilfoil
added his perspective on the special challenges of distributing
a native biological control agent for management of Eurasian
watermilfoil
Magnetoresistence engineering and singlet/triplet switching in InAs nanowire quantum dots with ferromagnetic sidegates
We present magnetoresistance (MR) experiments on an InAs nanowire quantum dot
device with two ferromagnetic sidegates (FSGs) in a split-gate geometry. The
wire segment can be electrically tuned to a single dot or to a double dot
regime using the FSGs and a backgate. In both regimes we find a strong MR and a
sharp MR switching of up to 25\% at the field at which the magnetizations of
the FSGs are inverted by the external field. The sign and amplitude of the MR
and the MR switching can both be tuned electrically by the FSGs. In a double
dot regime close to pinch-off we find {\it two} sharp transitions in the
conductance, reminiscent of tunneling MR (TMR) between two ferromagnetic
contacts, with one transition near zero and one at the FSG switching fields.
These surprisingly rich characteristics we explain in several simple resonant
tunneling models. For example, the TMR-like MR can be understood as a
stray-field controlled transition between singlet and a triplet double dot
states. Such local magnetic fields are the key elements in various proposals to
engineer novel states of matter and may be used for testing electron spin-based
Bell inequalities.Comment: 7 pages, 6 figure
Colour-singlet strangelets at finite temperature
Considering massless and quarks, and massive (150 MeV) quarks in
a bag with the bag pressure constant MeV, a colour-singlet
grand canonical partition function is constructed for temperatures
MeV. Then the stability of finite size strangelets is studied minimizing the
free energy as a function of the radius of the bag. The colour-singlet
restriction has several profound effects when compared to colour unprojected
case: (1) Now bulk energy per baryon is increased by about MeV making the
strange quark matter unbound. (2) The shell structures are more pronounced
(deeper). (3) Positions of the shell closure are shifted to lower -values,
the first deepest one occuring at , famous -particle ! (4) The shell
structure at vanishes only at MeV, though for higher
-values it happens so at MeV.Comment: Revtex file(8 pages)+6 figures(ps files) available on request from
first Autho
Strong Orientation Effects in Ionization of H by Short, Intense, High-Frequency Light Sources
We present three dimensional time-dependent calculations of ionization of
arbitrarily spatially oriented H by attosecond, intense, high-frequency
laser fields. The ionization probability shows a strong dependence on both the
internuclear distance and the relative orientation between the laser field and
the internuclear axis.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figure
Geometric phases in open tripod systems
We first consider stimulated Raman adibatic passages (STIRAP) in a closed
four-level tripod system. In this case, the adiabatic eigenstates of the system
acquire real geometric phases. When the system is open and subject to
decoherence they acquire complex geometric phases that we determine by a Monte
Carlo wave function approach. We calculate the geometric phases and the state
evolution in the closed as well as in the open system cases and describe the
deviation between these in terms of the phases acquired. When the system is
closed, the adiabatic evolution implements a Hadamard gate. The open system
implements an imperfect gate and hence has a fidelity below unity. We express
this fidelity in terms of the acquired geometric phases.Comment: 10 pages 7 figure
Cosmological model with non-minimally coupled fermionic field
A model for the Universe is proposed whose constituents are: (a) a dark
energy field modeled by a fermionic field non-minimally coupled with the
gravitational field, (b) a matter field which consists of pressureless baryonic
and dark matter fields and (c) a field which represents the radiation and the
neutrinos. The coupled system of Dirac's equations and Einstein field equations
is solved numerically by considering a spatially flat homogeneous and isotropic
Universe. It is shown that the proposed model can reproduce the expected
red-shift behaviors of the deceleration parameter, of the density parameters of
each constituent and of the luminosity distance. Furthermore, for small values
of the red-shift the constant which couples the fermionic and gravitational
fields has a remarkable influence on the density and deceleration parameters.Comment: Accepted for publication in Europhysics Letter
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