Northern Eurasia Future Initiative (NEFI): facing the challenges and pathways of global change in the 21st century

During the past several decades, the Earth system has changed significantly, especially across Northern Eurasia. Changes in the socio-economic conditions of the larger countries in the region have also resulted in a variety of regional environmental changes that can have global consequences. The Northern Eurasia Future Initiative (NEFI) has been designed as an essential continuation of the Northern Eurasia Earth Science Partnership Initiative (NEESPI), which was launched in 2004. NEESPI sought to elucidate all aspects of ongoing environmental change, to inform societies and, thus, to better prepare societies for future developments. A key principle of NEFI is that these developments must now be secured through science-based strategies co-designed with regional decision makers to lead their societies to prosperity in the face of environmental and institutional challenges. NEESPI scientific research, data, and models have created a solid knowledge base to support the NEFI program. This paper presents the NEFI research vision consensus based on that knowledge. It provides the reader with samples of recent accomplishments in regional studies and formulates new NEFI science questions. To address these questions, nine research foci are identified and their selections are briefly justified. These foci include: warming of the Arctic; changing frequency, pattern, and intensity of extreme and inclement environmental conditions; retreat of the cryosphere; changes in terrestrial water cycles; changes in the biosphere; pressures on land-use; changes in infrastructure; societal actions in response to environmental change; and quantification of Northern Eurasia's role in the global Earth system. Powerful feedbacks between the Earth and human systems in Northern Eurasia (e.g., mega-fires, droughts, depletion of the cryosphere essential for water supply, retreat of sea ice) result from past and current human activities (e.g., large scale water withdrawals, land use and governance change) and potentially restrict or provide new opportunities for future human activities. Therefore, we propose that Integrated Assessment Models are needed as the final stage of global change assessment. The overarching goal of this NEFI modeling effort will enable evaluation of economic decisions in response to changing environmental conditions and justification of mitigation and adaptation efforts

Modeling and simulation of single- and multiple-gate 2-D MESFET's

We describe a physically based model for a two-dimensional (2-D) MESFET, a novel hetero-dimensional transistor, The model is valid for a "single" gate in which the sidewall contacts are biased together, a dual-gate configuration in which the gates are biased independently, and a multiple-gate configuration for three or more side gates. The model has been implemented in the circuit simulator AIM-SPICE, The modeling results are in good agreement with the experimental data

Detection of terahertz radiation in gated two-dimensional structures governed by dc current

We present theoretical and experimental studies of the direct current effect on the detection of subterahertz and terahertz radiation in gated two-dimensional structures. We developed a theory of the current-driven detection both for resonant case, when the fundamental frequency of plasma oscillation is large compared to inverse scattering time, omega(0)tau >> 1, and for the nonresonant case, omega(0)tau << 1, when the plasma oscillations are damped. We predict that, in the nonresonant case, even a very small dc current would increase the detection amplitude up to two orders of magnitude. Physically, this increase is related to an abrupt transition from the linear to saturation region near the knee of the current-voltage characteristic. When the current increases up to the saturation value, the electron concentration near the drain becomes very low and can be strongly affected by a small external field. As a consequence, the two-dimensional channel becomes extremely sensitive to external perturbations. In the resonant case, the detection amplitude has maxima when the radiation frequency is equal to fundamental plasma frequency and its harmonics. We predict that the effective linewidths of the respective resonances would decrease with the increasing current. Physically, this happens because dc current shifts the system towards the plasma wave instability. At some critical current value, the width corresponding to the fundamental frequency would turn to zero, indicating the onset of plasma waves generation. Our experimental measurements performed on GaAs HEMT confirm the theoretical predictions