Southern Ocean warming: Increase in basal melting and grounded ice loss

We apply a global finite element sea ice/ice shelf/ocean model (FESOM) to the Antarctic marginal seas to analyze projections of ice shelf basal melting in a warmer climate. The model is forced with the atmospheric output from two climate models: (1) the Hadley Centre Climate Model (HadCM3) and (2) Max Planck Institute’s ECHAM5/MPI-OM. Results from their 20th-century simulations are used to evaluate the modeled present-day ocean state. Sea-ice coverage is largely realistic in both simulations. Modeled ice shelf basal melt rates compare well with observations in both cases, but are consistently smaller for ECHAM5/MPI-OM. Projections for future ice shelf basal melting are computed using atmospheric output for IPCC scenarios E1 and A1B. While trends in sea ice coverage, ocean heat content, and ice shelf basal melting are small in simulations forced with ECHAM5 data, a substantial shift towards a warmer regime is found in experiments forced with HadCM3 output. A strong sensitivity of basal melting to increased ocean temperatures is found for the ice shelves in the Amundsen Sea. For the cold-water ice shelves in the Ross and Weddell Seas,decreasing convection on the continental shelf in the HadCM3 scenarios leads to an erosion of the continental slope front and to warm water of open ocean origin entering the continental shelf. As this water reaches deep into the Filchner-Ronne Ice Shelf (FRIS) cavity, basal melting increases by a factor of three to six compared to the present value of about 100 Gt/yr. Highest melt rates at the deep FRIS grounding line causes a retreat of > 200km, equivalent to an land ice loss of 110 Gt/yr

Predictive modeling of soluble sulfate ion concentration in the Las Vegas Valley

This study investigates the process of identifying soluble sulfate ion concentrations in the Las Vegas Valley. Data utilized in this study were obtained from Clark County Department of Development Services records. Once collected, the data were reviewed and analyzed with traditional non-spatial statistics and spatial-based geostatistical modeling. This study was undertaken in an effort to identify factors that may correlate with soluble sulfate ion concentrations and to determine the feasibility of producing a predictive model capable of estimating soluble sulfate ion concentrations within the Las Vegas Valley; The study showed that relief, spatial location, soil grain size classification and Clark County Soils Guideline Map Areas may all provide useful correlations in predicting soluble sulfate ion concentrations. The study also produced a preliminary geospatial statistical model capable of identifying large scale trends in the distribution of soluble sulfate ion concentrations. It is likely that this preliminary model will be optimized in the future and serve as the basis for a more accurate and robust predictive model. This study represents the first steps in an effort to better understand the nature of soluble sulfate ion distribution and should be of interest to local geotechnical designers who routinely identify these concentrations in their professional activities

The International DOVETAIL Program

The "Deep Ocean Ventilation Through Antarctic Intermediate Layers"(DOVETAIL) program is an international field and modeling study of thedense deep and bottom waters of the northwestern Weddell Sea. Aprimary program goal has been to estimate the volume transport andpathways of these waters, long considered to be a major source ofAntarctic Bottom Water, as they escape from the Weddell Sea over andthrough the South Scotia Ridge into the Scotia Sea. Corollary goalsare to assess modification of the stratification during passage throughthe narrow, steep-sided and irregular channels that transect the Ridge.The program has evolved, since its start in 1997 as a primarily process-oriented project, into a multiyear observational study of the northwesternWeddell Sea-southern Scotia Sea including the Weddell-ScotiaConfluence region. An additional program goal has, therefore, becomethe estimation of interannual variability in the physical system. Thisvolume contains a collection of papers that present recent field andmodel-derived results from the DOVETAIL program

Bottleneck Profiles and Discrete Prokhorov Metrics for Persistence Diagrams

In topological data analysis (TDA), persistence diagrams have been a succesful tool. To compare them, Wasserstein and Bottleneck distances are commonly used. We address the shortcomings of these metrics and show a way to investigate them in a systematic way by introducing bottleneck profiles. This leads to a notion of discrete Prokhorov metrics for persistence diagrams as a generalization of the Bottleneck distance. They satisfy a stability result and bounds with respect to Wasserstein metrics. We provide algorithms to compute the newly introduced quantities and end with an discussion about experiments.Comment: 31 pages, 12 figures; improved exposition, fixed various inaccuracies, added another experimen

Weddell Sea iceberg drift: Five years of observations

Since 1999, 52 icebergs have been tagged with GPS buoys in the Weddell Seato enable monitoring of their position. The chosen icebergs were of small tomedium size, with a few icebergs larger than 10 km associatedwith the calving of icebergs A38 and A43 from the Ronne Ice Shelf.The majority of icebergs were tagged off Neumayer Station (8E, 70S).It was found that smaller bergs with edges shorter than 200 m had the shortestlife cycle (< 0.5 yr). Iceberg and thus freshwater export out of theWeddell Sea was found to be highly variable. In one year the majority of buoysdeployed remained in the Weddell Sea, constituting about 40 % of the NCEP P-Efreshwater input, whereas in other years all of the tagged icebergs were exported.The observed drifts of icebergs and sea-ice showed a remarkably coherent motion.The analysis of an iceberg - sea-ice buoy array in the western Weddell Seaand an iceberg array in the eastern Weddell Sea showed a coherent sea-iceiceberg drift in sea-ice concentrations above 86 %. Dynamic kinematic parameter(DKP) during the course of coherent movement were low and deviations from the meancourse associated with the passage of low-pressure system. The length scale ofcoherent movement was estimated to be less than 250km; about half the value found forthe Arctic Ocean

The Experience of Implementation of Innovative Technology of Quarry Waste Water Purifying in Kuzbass Open Pit

Among all industries in Kuzbass (Western Siberia, Russia) the coal industry provides the most environmental threat. However, the construction of new and maintenance of existing open pit mines do not often correspond to the tasks of improving the environmental safety of surface mining. So the article describes the use of innovative quarry waste water purifying technology implemented in Kuzbass open pit mine "Shestaki". This technology is based on using artificial filter arrays made of overburden rock

The origin of green icebergs in Antarctica

A comparison of samples from a translucent green iceberg with a core from the Ronne Ice Shelf revealed an excellent agreement in isotopic composition, crystal structure, and incorporated sediment particles. Marine shelf ice which constitutes the basal portion of some ice shelves is considered to be the source of green icebergs. It most likely results from "ice pump" processes which produce large amounts of ice platelets in the water column beneath ice shelves. These subsequently accumulate and become compacted into bubble-free, desalinated ice. Iceberg and drift-buoy trajectories indicate that green icebergs observed in the Weddell Sea originate from the Amery Ice Shelf rather than from the Ronne Ice Shelf, although the latter ice shelf is also a potential source

Untersuchung putativer Kaliumkanäle und Na+/H+ Antiporter von Methanococcus jannaschii anhand heterologer Expression in Escherichia coli

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Identification of Institutional Traps of Wellbeing in De-industrializing and Structural De-socializing Conditions

The key role of social wellbeing in the development of modern economy is determined by the requirements that modern society brings to the government. These requirements regard to the constitutive institutions and form the basis of state-and-society contract. They include: the creation of conditions for human development, self-realization in profession, business or art, a lifetime social security guarantee, the right for benefit from investments, etc. In order to meet these requirements at the level of the 21st century society the national economy should be based on the latest technologies which form its structure so that high-tech industries producing a product with high added value dominate in it. This is the only way to maximize social wellbeing for all citizens. However, in Russia the innovative development of economy is constrained by a complex of resistant negative rules which do not allow initiating the industrial sector's recovery on a new technological basis. These rules form the “institutional traps” which are able to reproduce themselves even in changing environment conditions, giving place to de-industrialization and structural de-socialization of economy. Overcoming these institutional traps requires the state to create the institutional foundations of economic policy, in which the technological modernization and innovative development of the industry will be linked to the imperative of social wellbeing growth