The METCRAX II Field Experiment: A Study of Downslope Windstorm-Type Flows in Arizona\u2019s Meteor Crater

The second Meteor Crater Experiment (METCRAX II) was conducted in October 2013 at Arizona\u2019s Meteor Crater. The experiment was designed to investigate nighttime downslope windstorm 12type flows that form regularly above the inner southwest sidewall of the 1.2-km diameter crater as a southwesterly mesoscale katabatic flow cascades over the crater rim. The objective of METCRAX II is to determine the causes of these strong, intermittent, and turbulent inflows that bring warm-air intrusions into the southwest part of the crater. This article provides an overview of the scientific goals of the experiment; summarizes the measurements, the crater topography, and the synoptic meteorology of the study period; and presents initial analysis results

Use of reflectance band ratios to estimate suspended and dissolved matter concentrations in estuarine waters

In the Tamar estuary (south-west UK), the concentrations of coloured dissolved organic and suspended (total, organic and inorganic) matter were measured and related to in situ hyperspectral remote-sensing reflectance (R rs ) measurements. A simple method was used to determine the R rs signal from underwater optical measurements, in order to avoid any surface reflection effects. As previously observed in other estuaries, a large correlation was obtained between the R rs (850 nm)/R rs (550 nm) ratio and total suspended matter concentration. The same R rs ratio was also highly correlated to the inorganic suspended matter concentration. The corresponding relationships are linear. The R rs (400 nm)/ R rs (600 nm) ratio correlates with the coloured dissolved organic matter concentration, according to a power law regression. These relationships, which appeared to be invariant during the summer period (June-September) and valid for the whole estuary, may be applied to airborne remote sensing data to map the tidal movements of turbidity in the estuary