8,879 research outputs found
A Long-Term Hydrologically-Based Data Set of Land Surface Fluxes and States for the Conterminous United States
A frequently encountered difficulty in assessing model-predicted land–atmosphere exchanges of moisture and energy is the absence of comprehensive observations to which model predictions can be compared at the spatial and temporal resolutions at which the models operate. Various methods have been used to evaluate the land surface schemes in coupled models, including comparisons of model-predicted evapotranspiration with values derived from atmospheric water balances, comparison of model-predicted energy and radiative fluxes with tower measurements during periods of intensive observations, comparison of model-predicted runoff with observed streamflow, and comparison of model predictions of soil moisture with spatial averages of point observations. While these approaches have provided useful model diagnostic information, the observation-based products used in the comparisons typically are inconsistent with the model variables with which they are compared—for example, observations are for points or areas much smaller than the model spatial resolution, comparisons are restricted to temporal averages, or the spatial scale is large compared to that resolved by the model. Furthermore, none of the datasets available at present allow an evaluation of the interaction of the water balance components over large regions for long periods. In this study, a model-derived dataset of land surface states and fluxes is presented for the conterminous United States and portions of Canada and Mexico. The dataset spans the period 1950–2000, and is at a 3-h time step with a spatial resolution of ⅛ degree. The data are distinct from reanalysis products in that precipitation is a gridded product derived directly from observations, and both the land surface water and energy budgets balance at every time step. The surface forcings include precipitation and air temperature (both gridded from observations), and derived downward solar and longwave radiation, vapor pressure deficit, and wind. Simulated runoff is shown to match observations quite well over large river basins. On this basis, and given the physically based model parameterizations, it is argued that other terms in the surface water balance (e.g., soil moisture and evapotranspiration) are well represented, at least for the purposes of diagnostic studies such as those in which atmospheric model reanalysis products have been widely used. These characteristics make this dataset useful for a variety of studies, especially where ground observations are lacking
A spatially distributed model for the dynamic prediction of sediment erosion and transport in mountainous forested watersheds
Erosion and sediment transport in a temperate forested watershed are predicted with a new sediment model that represents the main sources of sediment generation in forested environments (mass wasting, hillslope erosion, and road surface erosion) within the distributed hydrology-soil-vegetation model (DHSVM) environment. The model produces slope failures on the basis of a factor-of-safety analysis with the infinite slope model through use of stochastically generated soil and vegetation parameters. Failed material is routed downslope with a rule-based scheme that determines sediment delivery to streams. Sediment from hillslopes and road surfaces is also transported to the channel network. A simple channel routing scheme is implemented to predict basin sediment yield. We demonstrate through an initial application of this model to the Rainy Creek catchment, a tributary of the Wenatchee River, which drains the east slopes of the Cascade Mountains, that the model produces plausible sediment yield and ratios of landsliding and surface erosion when compared to published rates for similar catchments in the Pacific Northwest. A road removal scenario and a basin-wide fire scenario are both evaluated with the model
Vortex spectrum in superfluid turbulence: interpretation of a recent experiment
We discuss a recent experiment in which the spectrum of the vortex line
density fluctuations has been measured in superfluid turbulence. The observed
frequency dependence of the spectrum, , disagrees with classical
vorticity spectra if, following the literature, the vortex line density is
interpreted as a measure of the vorticity or enstrophy. We argue that the
disagrement is solved if the vortex line density field is decomposed into a
polarised field (which carries most of the energy) and an isotropic field
(which is responsible for the spectrum).Comment: Submitted for publication
http://crtbt.grenoble.cnrs.fr/helio/GROUP/infa.html
http://www.mas.ncl.ac.uk/~ncfb
Linking Classical and Quantum Key Agreement: Is There "Bound Information"?
After carrying out a protocol for quantum key agreement over a noisy quantum
channel, the parties Alice and Bob must process the raw key in order to end up
with identical keys about which the adversary has virtually no information. In
principle, both classical and quantum protocols can be used for this
processing. It is a natural question which type of protocols is more powerful.
We prove for general states but under the assumption of incoherent
eavesdropping that Alice and Bob share some so-called intrinsic information in
their classical random variables, resulting from optimal measurements, if and
only if the parties' quantum systems are entangled. In addition, we provide
evidence that the potentials of classical and of quantum protocols are equal in
every situation. Consequently, many techniques and results from quantum
information theory directly apply to problems in classical information theory,
and vice versa. For instance, it was previously believed that two parties can
carry out unconditionally secure key agreement as long as they share some
intrinsic information in the adversary's view. The analysis of this purely
classical problem from the quantum information-theoretic viewpoint shows that
this is true in the binary case, but false in general. More explicitly, bound
entanglement, i.e., entanglement that cannot be purified by any quantum
protocol, has a classical counterpart. This "bound intrinsic information"
cannot be distilled to a secret key by any classical protocol. As another
application we propose a measure for entanglement based on classical
information-theoretic quantities.Comment: Accepted for Crypto 2000. 17 page
Differential Dynamic Microscopy to characterize Brownian motion and bacteria motility
We have developed a lab work module where we teach undergraduate students how
to quantify the dynamics of a suspension of microscopic particles, measuring
and analyzing the motion of those particles at the individual level or as a
group. Differential Dynamic Microscopy (DDM) is a relatively recent technique
that precisely does that and constitutes an alternative method to more
classical techniques such as dynamics light scattering (DLS) or video particle
tracking (VPT). DDM consists in imaging a particle dispersion with a standard
light microscope and a camera. The image analysis requires the students to code
and relies on digital Fourier transform to obtain the intermediate scattering
function, an autocorrelation function that characterizes the dynamics of the
dispersion. We first illustrate DDM on the textbook case of colloids where we
measure the diffusion coefficient. Then we show that DDM is a pertinent tool to
characterize biologic systems such as motile bacteria i.e.bacteria that can
self propel, where we not only determine the diffusion coefficient but also the
velocity and the fraction of motile bacteria. Finally, so that our paper can be
used as a tutorial to the DDM technique, we have joined to this article movies
of the colloidal and bacterial suspensions and the DDM algorithm in both Matlab
and Python to analyze the movies
Close to Uniform Prime Number Generation With Fewer Random Bits
In this paper, we analyze several variants of a simple method for generating
prime numbers with fewer random bits. To generate a prime less than ,
the basic idea is to fix a constant , pick a
uniformly random coprime to , and choose of the form ,
where only is updated if the primality test fails. We prove that variants
of this approach provide prime generation algorithms requiring few random bits
and whose output distribution is close to uniform, under less and less
expensive assumptions: first a relatively strong conjecture by H.L. Montgomery,
made precise by Friedlander and Granville; then the Extended Riemann
Hypothesis; and finally fully unconditionally using the
Barban-Davenport-Halberstam theorem. We argue that this approach has a number
of desirable properties compared to previous algorithms.Comment: Full version of ICALP 2014 paper. Alternate version of IACR ePrint
Report 2011/48
Homothetic Wyman Spacetimes
The time-dependent, spherically symmetric, Wyman sector of the Unified Field
Theory is shown to be equivalent to a self-gravitating scalar field with a
positive-definite, repulsive self-interaction potential. A homothetic symmetry
is imposed on the fundamental tensor, and the resulting autonomous system is
numerically integrated. Near the critical point (between the collapsing and
non-collapsing spacetimes) the system displays an approximately periodic
alternation between collapsing and dispersive epochs.Comment: 15 pages with 6 figures; requires amsart, amssymb, amsmath, graphicx;
formatted for publication in Int. J. Mod. Phys.
Polarization of superfluid turbulence
We show that normal fluid eddies in turbulent helium II polarize the tangle
of quantized vortex lines present in the flow, thus inducing superfluid
vorticity patterns similar to the driving normal fluid eddies. We also show
that the polarization is effective over the entire inertial range. The results
help explain the surprising analogies between classical and superfluid
turbulence which have been observed recently.Comment: 3 figure
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