Contingency Planning and Execution. Planning for the Modern Battlefield

The United States Marine Corps is the world’s premier fighting force and has been in action against our Nation’s foes for over 200 years. As successful as the Marines have been on the battlefield, the current planning process is in dire need of an overhaul if they are to maintain their combat superiority. The planning process is outdated and does not have the faith of the commanders and ground troops. Faced with the myriad of changes on the modern battlefield, today’s military member is forced to rely solely on commander’s intent for guidance. This is largely due to the inability of senior leadership to change the planning process, allowing it to adapt and keep up with the evolution of warfare. There is a considerable void left when planning is not accurate or missing critical elements and scenarios faced by our forces in contingency operations. This project will examine the current planning process and how it is implemented in the Marine Corps today. Solutions will be developed and instituted into all levels of command, pending senior leadership approval. The goal is to have significant changes made to the planning process in time for the upcoming deployment of Marine forces to Afghanistan. Long term solutions will also be developed for approval and full implementation in all future contingency exercises and operations

Master of Science

thesisQUIC EnvSim (QES) is a complete building-resolving urban microclimate modeling system developed to rapidly compute mass, momentum, and heat transport for the design of sustainable cities. One of the more computationally intensive components of this type of modeling system is the transport and dispersion of scalars. In this paper, we describe and evaluate QESTransport, a Reynolds-averaged Navier-Stokes (RANS) scalar transport model. QESTransport makes use of light-weight methods and modeling techniques. It is parallelized for Graphics Processing Units (GPUs), utilizing NVIDIA's OptiX application programming interfaces (APIs). QESTransport is coupled with the well-validated QUIC Dispersion Modeling system. To couple the models, a new methodology was implemented to efficiently prescribe surface flux boundary conditions on both vertical walls and flat surfaces. In addition, a new internal boundary layer parameterization was introduced into QUIC to enable the representation of momentum advection across changing surface conditions. QESTransport is validated against the following three experimental test cases designed to evaluate the model's performance under idealized conditions: (i) flow over a step change in moisture, roughness, and temperature, (ii) flow over an isolated heated building, and (iii) flow through an array of heated buildings. For all three cases, the model is compared against published simulation results. QESTransport produces velocity, temperature, and moisture fields that are comparable to much more complex numerical models for each case. The code execution time performance is evaluated and demonstrates linear scaling on a single GPU for problem sizes up to 4.5 x 4.5 km at 5 m grid resolution, and is found to produce results at much better than real time for a 1.2 x 1.2 km section of downtown Salt Lake City, Utah

Chandra Reveals Variable Multi-Component X-ray Emission from FU Orionis

FU Orionis is the prototype of a class of eruptive young stars (``FUors'') characterized by strong optical outbursts. We recently completed an exploratory survey of FUors using XMM-Newton to determine their X-ray properties, about which little was previously known. The prototype FU Ori and V1735 Cyg were detected. The X-ray spectrum of FU Ori was found to be unusual, consisting of a cool moderately-absorbed component plus a hotter component viewed through an absorption column density that is an order of magnitude higher. We present here a sensitive (99 ks) follow-up X-ray observation of FU Ori obtained at higher angular resolution with Chandra ACIS-S. The unusual multi-component spectrum is confirmed. The hot component is centered on FU Ori and dominates the emission above 2 keV. It is variable (a signature of magnetic activity) and is probably coronal emission originating close to FU Ori's surface viewed through cool gas in FU Ori's strong wind or accretion stream. In contrast, the X-ray centroid of the soft emission below 2 keV is offset 0.20 arcsec to the southeast of FU Ori, toward the near-IR companion (FU Ori S). This offset amounts to slightly less than half the separation between the two stars. The most likely explanation for the offset is that the companion contributes significantly to the softer X-ray emission below 2 keV (and weakly above 2 keV). The superimposed X-ray contributions from FU Ori and the companion resolve the paradox posed by XMM-Newton of an apparently single X-ray source viewed through two different absorption columns.Comment: 21 pages, 3 tables, 6 figure

The XMM-Newton Optical Monitor Survey of the Taurus Molecular Cloud

The Optical Monitor (OM) on-board XMM-Newton obtained optical/ultraviolet data for the XMM-Newton Extended Survey of the Taurus Molecular Cloud (XEST), simultaneously with the X-ray detectors. With the XEST OM data, we aim to study the optical and ultraviolet properties of TMC members, and to do correlative studies between the X-ray and OM light curves. In particular, we aim to determine whether accretion plays a significant role in the optical/ultraviolet and X-ray emissions. The Neupert effect in stellar flares is also investigated. Coordinates, average count rates and magnitudes were extracted from OM images, together with light curves with low time resolution (a few kiloseconds). For a few sources, OM FAST mode data were also available, and we extracted OM light curves with high time resolution. The OM data were correlated with Two Micron All Sky Survey (2MASS) data and with the XEST catalogue in the X-rays. The XEST OM catalogue contains 2,148 entries of which 1,893 have 2MASS counterparts. However, only 98 entries have X-ray counterparts, of which 51 of them are known TMC members and 12 additional are TMC candidates. The OM data indicate that accreting stars are statistically brighter in the U band than non-accreting stars after correction for extinction, and have U-band excesses, most likely due to accretion. The OM emission of accreting stars is variable, probably due to accretion spots, but it does not correlate with the X-ray light curve, suggesting that accretion does not contribute significantly to the X-ray emission of most accreting stars. In some cases, flares were detected in both X-ray and OM light curves and followed a Neupert effect pattern, in which the optical/ultraviolet emission precedes the X-ray emission of a flare, whereas the X-ray flux is proportional to the integral of the optical flux.Comment: Accepted by A&A, to appear in a special section/issue dedicated to the XMM-Newton Extended Survey of the Taurus Molecular Cloud (XEST). Version with higher resolution figures available at this http://www.issibern.ch/teams/Taurus/papers.htm

Macropore structure and permeability of clay fill samples from a historic clay fill earthwork

Near surface macropores and macro features (e.g. cracks and fissures) provide pathways for rapid water infiltration into the core of clay fill earthworks. However it is more difficult to measure the size and distribution of macropores located below the weathered soil surface (>1.5 m depth) and hence assess their influence on water flow through the clay fill core of an earthwork. This paper explores the influence of macropores on the rate of water flow within the core of a historic railway earthwork. Samples were excavated from the core (1.5 m – 6.5 m depth) of a clay fill railway embankment and subjected to laboratory saturated hydraulic conductivity testing. The samples were scanned using X -ray computed tomography (XCT) before and after laboratory testing. XCT was used to measure the size and distribution of macropores (>63 ×10-6 m) within the samples and compare with the saturated hydraulic conductivity measurements. The results showed that the distribution of macropores and the saturated hydraulic conductivity of the samples from the embankment core was not dependant on the depth of excavation. The total macroporosity of the samples was very small relative to the total porosity (less than 10%). The saturated hydraulic conductivity of the samples was more closely related to the connectivity of the macropores (mean length) than to the total porosity or the total macroporosity. The macropores were variably distributed within the core of the clay fill embankment, they did not show a clear relationship with depth and they were connected over relatively short lengths (the mean macropore length was not greater than 1.6 ×10-3 m). Therefore water flow through the core of the embankment is likely to be through the clay fill matrix, rather than through the connected macropore pathways which allow rapid water infiltration at the near soil surface (<1.5 m depth)

The classification and structure of megafaunal assemblages in the Venezuela Basin, Caribbean Sea

Data from 23 benthic trawls collected from the Venezuela Basin (3411–5062 m water depth) indicate that megafauna are less abundant than in basins of similar depths in the Atlantic and are segregated by sedimentary province. Taxonomic assemblages, in terms of abundance and biomass, from three sites coincide with distinctions of sedimentary characteristics among the pelagic, hemipelagic and turbidite sedimentary provinces. Mollusks, decapods and fishes are most abundant in trawls collected from the pelagic and hemipelagic provinces and anemones and holothurians are most abundant in trawls collected from the turbidite province. Sponges dominate the biomass of fauna in trawls collected in the turbidite and hemipelagic provinces and fishes dominate the biomass of trawls collected in the pelagic province. Several biological and physical aspects of the basin contribute to the segregation of the megafauna into distinct communities. Sponges and anthropogenic debris (coal, coal clinker and tar balls) reaching the sea floor create a habitat that is exploited by sessile suspension feeders requiring a hard substrate. Filter-feeding anemones attached to debris occur in such abundance that it elevates the importance of suspension feeders and depresses species diversity at the turbidite site. Biomass and average size of megafaunal deposit feeders in the basin decrease with decreasing amounts of organic carbon and nitrogen content of the sediment. Distribution and composition of filter-feeding megafaunal biomass in the Venezuela Basin are explained largely by proximity to sources of organic matter. Detrital carbonate may also play a role in controlling distribution and density of megafauna by diluting food resources in the sediments