the west runton freshwater bed and the west runton mammoth summary and conclusions 1 introductionthis paper aims to synthesize the main conclusions from thevariouscontributionstothisissuecoveringthepalaeoenvironment palaeoclimate and age of the west runton freshwater bed wrfb as well as the life and death of the west runton mammoth wrm itself selectedpreviousresearchisalsobrie ydiscussed thewealthand breadth of the available information for the wrfb is almostunprecedented for any pleistocene site although there are somerelativelyminordifferencesininterpretation forthemostpartthereis verygood agreement between the various lines of evidence for completeness several mammalian taxa not otherwiseconsidered in this volume are included in table 1 which lists thecomplete vertebrate fauna so far recorded from the wrfb 2 sediments and depositional environmentasdiscussedbygibbardetal 2010 fieldandpeglar 2010 andmaul and par tt 2010 west 1980 described a composite vege tational sequence pieced together from pollen and plant macro fossil assemblages at several localities along the wrfb exposure he distinguished a beestonian late glacial cold assemblage l be atthe base of the sequence succeeded by a series of cromeriantemperate interglacial assemblages pollen subzones cr ia cr ib criia and cr iib of the cromerian interglacial although the entiresequence is not present at any one place and the depositsundoubtedly include hiatuses and some reworking see gibbardet al 2010 the various phases of vegetational development ofthe rst part of the cromerian are represented however siltshigherinthecliffwestofwestruntongap whichwestassignedtothe second half of the cromerian interglacial almost certainlybelong to a distinct younger episode zagwijn 1996 preece andpar tt 2000 gibbard et al 2010 consider that the wrfb sediments weredeposited in a uvial valley oor accumulation at least 100 mwide which trended west to east sub parallel to the modern cliffline the internal sequence of the wrfb is highly complex andshows considerable lateral and vertical discontinuity of individualunits representing widely varying rates of deposition and hiatusesduetonon depositionand orsubsequenterosion the depositionalbasin was subject to episodes of ooding on the one hand andperiodic drying out on the other nevertheless gibbard et al consider that as a whole the wrfb represents the late part of thebeestonian and the rst half of the cromerian interglacial which isconsistent with the pollen sequence described bywest 1980 thisinterpretation implies that the composite wrfb sequence spansseveral thousand years although there was never continuity ofdeposition at any one location according to gibbard et al deposition of thewrfb began duringthelate glacial partof thebeestonian cold stage in lling an unevengravel surface that was inherited from a pre existing braided cold climate stream and continued into the rst half of a temperate climate interglacial event the cromerian stage s s initial activestreamchannelswerefollowedbylowerenergyconditionsinwhich ne grained silt was deposited in standing water punctuated byshort intermittent ood events which washed in sand while localerosion of channel banks and oors also occurred subsequentdecreased ood intensity resulted in vertical accretion of ne grained organic fossiliferous sediments in carbonate rich springwater followed by increased organic deposition that producedatransitiontoblackdetritalsediment run offandriver owvelocitydiminished later as forest vegetation stabilised catchment andvalley oor ground surfaces the lower part of the wrfb wasdisturbed syndepositionally by water release structures and bio turbation by large mammals the mollusc fauna preece 2010 alsoindicates faster owing conditions at the base of the sequence

the palaeontology and dating of the weybourne crag an important marker horizon in the early pleistocene of the southern north sea basin abstract in the north sea basin the marine bivalve macoma balthica first appears within the early pleistocene weybourne crag which forms an important biostratigraphical datum here we review the fossil assemblages from sites of this age prompted by new discoveries from sidestrand norfolk uk the molluscan assemblages from this horizon are dominated by intertidal species with some colder deeper water taxa and a few temperate non marine species a high boreal low arctic marine environment with reduced salinities is indicated an extensive assemblage of small mammals dominated by voles includes two species mimomys hordijki and ungaromys dehmi previously unknown from the british pleistocene the assemblage can be assigned to tesakov s mammal biozone mnr1 mn17 middle villafranchian which according to current estimates corresponds to a date of 2 2 2 1 ma mis 84 79 it matches another assemblage from 61 m to 65 m in the zuurland 2 borehole in the netherlands and is similar to that from the dutch tiglian type site at tegelen although this has more temperate elements a late tiglian age is consistent with the co occurrence of the marine bivalves macoma balthica mya arenaria and the freshwater gastropod viviparus glacialis in the zuurland 2 borehole and in a north sea borehole bgs 52 02 472 a macoma balthica mya arenaria concurrent range zone is defined for this assemblage which can be traced across the north sea basin amino acid dating provides strong independent support for these correlations and indicates that the baventian cold stage post dates the bramertonian norwich crag it also confirms that early pleistocene molluscan assemblages with m balthica are younger than those without it the correlation of this marine marker horizon with mammal biozone mnr1 provides a secure link between continental and marine sequences during the early pleistocene it also provides a basis for dating events in the pre glacial fluvial drainage history and linking it to the east european mammal zonation

effect of surface roughness on bidirectional reflectance of antarctic snow the angular pattern of sunlight reflected by snow is altered by surface roughness which in the interior of antarctica is usually in the form of meter scale longitudinal erosional features sastrugi whose axes align with the direction of strong winds the bidirectional reflectance distribution function brdf changes over the course of a day as the solar azimuth changes relative to the sastrugi axis the normalized brdf or anisotropic reflectance factor r was measured at south pole station from a 22 m tower at 600 660 and 900 nm wavelengths the r pattern was similar at the three wavelengths it probably varies little from 300 to 900 nm measurements were made at solar zenith angles 0 from 67 to 90 over the full range of viewing zenith angle r azimuth angle between sun and view and azimuth angle between sun and sastrugi sas variation of r with sas was notable sastrugi oriented perpendicular to the solar beam cause a reduction of the forward peak and sastrugi at an oblique angle cause r to lose its symmetry about the solar azimuth however the effects of sastrugi are mostly restricted to large viewing zenith angles so remote sensing of albedo and atmospheric properties can be carried out accurately without knowledge of sastrugi height and orientation if only near nadir views are used this recommendation is opposite that for observations of broken clouds over dark surfaces for which large r is preferred a parameterization of r is developed valid for viewing angles r 50 sastrugi can cause a reduction of the snow albedo by altering the angle of incidence and by trapping of photons for the small sastrugi of the antarctic plateau the albedo is unaffected at visible wavelengths but can be reduced by a few percent at near infrared wavelengths when the sun is low

retrieving forest background reflectance in a boreal region from multi angle imaging spectroradiometer misr data studies of the bidirectional behavior of forest canopy have shown that the total reflectance of a forest canopy is the combination of illuminated and shaded components of the tree crown as well as the background in this study we estimate the background portion from the bidirectional reflection observed by multi angle imaging spectroradiometer misr instrument which scans the earth in nine different view angles in an oblique plane relative to the sun the nadir and 60 forward directions of the misr images were used to derive the reflectivity of the forest background based on the probabilities of viewing the illuminated tree crown and background on those view angles the probabilities were estimated using the four scale model in the study background reflectivity mosaic images in red and nir wavelengths covering the boreas region during winter and spring seasons were obtained the mosaic images of winter show high background reflectivity in both wavelengths and in most of the areas the reflectivity was more than 0 3 in mosaic images of spring the spatial variations in the background reflectivity were considerable the seasonal changes in the background reflectivity were also studied with multi temporal misr data and a similarity in the temporal pattern was found between the retrieved forest background reflectivity and grass land reflectance these spatial and temporal patterns of the background component retrieved from misr would be critically important in retrieving the biophysical parameters of vegetation and in ecosystem modeling

detecting induced in situ erodibility of a dust producing playa in australia using a bi directional soil spectral reflectance model abstract two sites on a playa claypan in south western queensland australia were chosen to represent the variability in soil surface conditions known to control wind erosion and dust production in the region the material was very fine and comprised of large amounts and different types of salts high electrical conductivity a propensity for slaking and the presence of cyanobacteria the surfaces of 4 plots at each site were modified using in situ rainfall simulation and wind tunnel abrasion the changes in the surface conditions were recorded using digital images and multi angular spectral measurements of reflectance and inverted against a soil bi directional spectral reflectance model optimised values of the model parameters produced the single scattering albedo ssa and a description of the scattering behaviour of the soil surfaces that included an estimate of microscopic roughness the model parameters removed the effect of the measurement conditions illumination and viewing geometry on the spectral reflectance abrasion of the untreated surfaces demonstrated that the variability in the antecedent surface conditions played an important role in their response rainfall drying and subsequent abrasion appeared to reset the soil surface conditions and controlled the spatial and temporal variation in the soil surface conditions redundancy analyses conducted separately for ssa of selected wavebands model parameter values and treatments elucidated the subtle and interactive effects of the treatments and surface responses the results showed that high intensity rainfall and abrasion was associated with wavebands in the visible region and reduced roughness low intensity rainfall was associated with wavebands in the near infrared and short wave infrared regions and increased roughness the analysis was interpreted as the result of eluviation due to rainsplash impact which caused size segregation and the preferential translocation of iron oxides to the surface and the creation of a thick surface seal and caused a thin crust which enabled the movement of salts and or mineral clays to the surface because of the strong evaporation gradient a poor relationship between aerodynamic resistance and microscopic roughness suggested that features of soil surface erodibility created by natural environmental processes such as rainsplash and wind erosion required a correction for macroscopic roughness the values of the model parameters appeared to be insensitive to the directional nature of the abrasion process the findings are significant for the development of this work towards an airborne or satellite based assessment of soil surface erodibility and erosion

calabrian eopleistocene micromammal assemblages from the lacustrine and fluvial deposits of the southern trans urals and chronological position of some regional stratigraphic units abstract in the southern trans urals the quaternary deposits dated back to the early pleistocene 2 58 0 77 ma are scarce incomplete and often severely eroded data scarcity is a major challenge for accurate geological correlation and for integration of regional data into continent wide stratigraphic frameworks we provide a review of stratotypes and type localities for regional stratigraphic subdivisions of the eopleistocene the units correlated with the calabrian stage of the western european stratigraphical timescale 1 8 0 77 ma with particular focus on small mammals and their biochronological significance subdivisions of the eopleistocene which have been officially accepted in russia include three regional chronostratigraphic units horizons starting from uvel ka to chumlyak and sarykul we show that the calabrian deposits are characterized in the southern trans urals by sequential changes in the evolutionary level of micromammal assemblages that could be directly correlated with the mammal based biochronological zones mqr of russia vangengeim and tesakov 2008 tesakov and titov 2013 within the interval from mqr 10 to mqr 8 analysis of micromammal assemblages reveals incongruent positioning of the officially accepted uvel ka chumlyak and sarykul horizons in the regional stratigraphic chart the revealed incongruences appear to be a result of the difficulty to delineate chronostratigraphic units using the highly eroded and reworked sediments of fluvial origin the complete cycles of alternating fluvial lacustrine sedimentation and subaerial exposure provide the most reliable sections to establish the chronostratigraphic units of the calabrian stage of the early pleistocene in the southern trans urals the position of chumlyak and sarykul horizons in the regional stratigraphic chart of the southern trans urals is proposed to be changed the validity of the uvel ka formation as a chronostratigraphic unit should be further verified with a particular focus on faunal proxies mollusks ostracods and small mammals

fluvial deposits as an archive of early human activity river terraces are well established as an important source of lower and middle palaeolithic artefacts in europe large collections having been assembled there during the years of manual gravel extraction now that many terrace sequences can be reliably dated and correlated with the oceanic record potentially useful patterns can be recognized in the distribution of artefacts the earliest appearance of artefacts in terrace staircases marking the arrival of the first tool making hominins in the region in question is the first of several archaeological markers within fluvial sequences the lower to middle palaeolithic transition with the appearance of levallois is another others may be more regional in significance the occurrences of clactonian mode 1 industry twisted ovate handaxes and bout coupe handaxes for example igcp project no 449 instigated the compilation of fluvial records from all over the old world comparison between british and central european sequences confirms the established view that there is a demarcation between handaxe making in the west and flake core industries in the east other centres of activity reported here have been in the middle east syria south africa and india data from such areas will be key in deciphering the story of the earlier out of africa migration that by pre homo sapiens people there is clear evidence for diachroneity between the first appearances of different industries in keeping with the well established idea of northward migration

stepwise expansion of desert environment across northern china in the past 3 5 ma and implications for monsoon evolution abstract a systematic study of the last glacial cycle along three transects across the chinese loess plateau shows that sand sized particle content within loess decreases rapidly from north to south and that markedly high sand particle contents in loess horizons occur only in the northern part of the plateau this suggests that variation in the sand sized particle fraction within loess near the desert margin is closely linked to migration of the southern desert border in northern china where sand grains move mainly in saltation or modified saltation mode near the ground surface as desert margin shift is essentially controlled by the amount of monsoon precipitation the sand sized particle content within loess near desert margin is regarded as a new and readily applied proxy for variations in the strength of the east asian summer monsoon a continuous record of sand content in loess along the loess desert transitional zone shows that the mu us desert migrated southward at 2 6 1 2 0 7 and 0 2 ma suggesting a stepwise weakening of the east asian summer monsoon during the past 3 5 ma this evolutionary pattern is significantly different from that previously inferred from loess magnetic susceptibility records a widely used monsoon proxy our results further suggest that changes in global ice volume may have been an essential factor in controlling plio pleistocene monsoon evolution and that the anticipated future melting of polar ice cover may lead to a northward migration of the monsoon rainfall belt in northern china

exsolution of ca amphibole from glaucophane and the miscibility gap between sodic and calcic amphiboles transmission and analytical electron microscopy tem aem of glaucophane from glaucophane ca amphibole bearing blueschist and eclogite from two vermont localities ecologite brook and tillotson peak and one california locality cazadero has revealed the first evidence from exsolution for the miscibility gap between sodie and calcic amphiboles the tillotson peak samples and the cazadero samples contain coarsegrained glaucophane actinolite pairs while the eclogite brook samples contain coexisting glaucophane and actinolitic hornblende ca rich glaucophanes contain abundant fine scale lamellae of ca rich amphibole these lamellae are usually oriented near 100 and overline 2 01 high resolution tem hrtem images show them to be coherent the exsolution lamellae are so narrow beyond the resolution of aem that their true ca contents are obscured by analytical contributions from the surrounding host the aem data suggest that the lamellae are either winchite or actinolite depending on the true ca concentration in most cases the exsolution lamellae have very curved interfaces and show variable orientation this is attributed to the close similarity of unit cell parameters for the two amphiboles three dimensional optimal phase boundary calculations using eplag fleet 1982 show that the observed 100 and overline 2 01 orientations are consistent with the minimization of area strain between the two lattices along the interface some samples show evidence for incipient exsolution in the form of homogeneously distributed fine scale precipitates these results suggest that ca rich glaucophanes from other glaucophane actinolite assemblages may be exsolved at the tem scale the coexisting amphiboles from eclogite brook also have been studied using the electron microprobe emp the compositional gap defined by the eclogite brook pairs is consistent with previously reported results but shows a wider break along the glaucophane actinolite pseudobinary join suggesting very limited solid solution up to temper atures of about 500 550 c the glaucophanes are relatively poor in ca except for one anomalous grain containing ca amphibole lamellae ferric iron estimated by normalization to fixed cation numbers is strongly partitioned into the actinolitic hornblende and the glaucophanes are very poor in the riebeckite component

g function and hot spot ghost reflectance model application to multi scale airborne polder measurements abstract the complex architecture of conifer species affects the radiation scattering processes that influence the bidirectional reflectance distribution function brdf characteristics an interesting brdf signature is the hot spot effect that yields a maximum of reflectance in the sun direction it has been shown that the hot spot phenomenon is sensitive to the foliage structure the present work introduces the g function and hot spot ghost model that simulates the brdf of boreal forest in accounting for the arrangement and the structure of the stems the model represents the medium by a distribution of conical crowns whose size and shape are accounted for in the g function expression ghost compares quite well with airborne polarization and directionality of earth reflectances polder reflectances acquired during the boreas experiment at various scale resolutions ranging from 2 helicopter up to 35 m aircraft the inversion procedure exploits the multidirectionality of measurements with emphasis on the hot spot observations and the angular range of dominant influence of each parameter the retrieved parameters translate optical and structural properties of the canopy they are used to calculate a new architectural parameter x that allows to get the clumping index of the patch vegetation

a luminescence dating study of loess deposits from the beglitsa section in the sea of azov russia abstract the loess palaeosol deposits at the beglitsa section in the east european plain play an important role in the understanding of climate and environmental changes in eurasia however the absence of absolute geochronology has restricted the interpretation of the loess sedimentation process and its relevance to palaeoenvironmental change in this paper a detailed chronology was obtained from the beglitsa section using a quartz optically stimulated luminescence osl dating technique in the southern area of the east european plain grains with a diameter of 38 63 m extracted from 8 samples and a single aliquot regenerative dose sar protocol were applied for equivalent dose de determination the results showed that the osl ages are generally in agreement with the field observed stratigraphic order and no age inversions were apparent compared with magnetic susceptibility and previously published radiocarbon ages the osl dating results showed great potential to provide a reliable chronology sequence for loess sediments in the sea of azov with a span ranging from 5 4 0 4 to 203 8 18 0 ka deposition of the azov loess may have begun during the penultimate glaciation based on a comparative analysis of the stratigraphic composite the sedimentary thickness differences between sections around the azov region were likely affected by the local topography and the location

multi angular reflectance properties of a hemiboreal forest an analysis using chris proba data abstract forest types differ in their hyperspectral anisotropy patterns mainly due to species specific geometrical structure spatial arrangement of canopies and subsequent shadow patterns this paper examines the multi angular hyperspectral reflectance properties of typical hemiboreal forests during summer time using three simultaneous chris proba mode 3 scenes and stand inventory data from the jarvselja training and experimental forestry district in southeastern estonia we investigated the magnitude and reasons for the differences in the anisotropy patterns of deciduous and coniferous stands at three backward viewing angles a forest reflectance model frt was used as a tool to provide a theoretical basis to the discussion and to estimate the directional contribution of scattering from crowns and ground to total stand reflectance for the two forest types the frt model simulated successfully the hdrf hemispherical directional reflectance factor curves of the study stands to match those obtained from the chris image yet it produced a smaller and less wavelength dependent angular reflectance effect than was observed in the satellite image the main results of this study provide new information for separating the spectral contribution of the forest floor or understory layer from the tree canopy layer 1 the red edge domain was identified to have the largest contribution from forest understory and 2 the more oblique the viewing angle the smaller the contribution from the understory in addition coniferous stands were observed to have a specific angular effect at the red and red edge domain possibly as a result of the hierarchical structure and arrangement of coniferous canopies

merging the minnaert k parameter with spectral unmixing to map forest heterogeneity with chris proba data the compact high resolution imaging spectrometer chris mounted onboard the project for onboard autonomy proba spacecraft is capable of sampling reflected radiation at five viewing angles over the visible and near infrared regions of the solar spectrum with high spatial resolution we combined the spectral domain with the angular domain of chris data in order to map the surface heterogeneity of an alpine coniferous forest during winter in the spectral domain linear spectral unmixing of the nadir image resulted in a canopy cover map in the angular domain pixelwise inversion of the rahman pinty verstraete rpv model at a single wavelength at the red edge 722 nm yielded a map of the minnaert k parameter that provided information on surface heterogeneity at a subpixel scale however the interpretation of the minnaert k parameter is not always straightforward because fully vegetated targets typically produce the same type of reflectance anisotropy as non vegetated targets merging both maps resulted in a forest cover heterogeneity map which contains more detailed information on canopy heterogeneity at the chris subpixel scale than is possible to realize from a single source optical data set

surface bidirectional reflectance distribution function observed at global scale by polder adeos the spaceborne polder instrument presents the unique capability of sampling the surface bidirectional reflectance distribution function brdf up to about 60 viewing angle for the full azimuth range of every point on earth at 6 km resolution when atmospheric conditions are favorable this paper presents examples of brdf signatures acquired at this resolution on several terrestrial biomes desert steppe grassland boreal forest savanna wetland well identified directional signatures for all azimuths are obtained and shown to be different for each biome specific directional effects in the hot spot and specular directions are well observed in the data

variability of biome reflectance directional signatures as seen by polder reflectance measurements acquired with the spaceborne polder instrument are used to analyze the variability of land surface directional signatures as a function of vegetation cover type the reflectance directional signatures are quantified by the three parameters of a modified version of the ross li reflectance model the variability of the estimated parameters with respect to the seven modis biome classes was found to be higher within the classes than between classes with the exception of the desert targets that show more isotropic reflectances a limited number of standard brdfs typically 5 in the red and near infrared capture most of the variability of the directional reflectance measurements supporting the idea that different land surfaces have similar directional signatures over vegetation targets they are characterized by a strong increase toward backscattering and much smaller variations in forward directions the results express the diversity in structural situations within a given biome class and indicate that at the resolution of the polder sensor i e a few kilometers the brdf contains little information on the dominant vegetation type we show that standard directional signatures may be used to correct the reflectance measurements for directional effects with an rms error on the order of 0 011 in the red and 0 015 in the near infrared

estimating aerodynamic resistance of rough surfaces using angular reflectance abstract current wind erosion and dust emission models neglect the heterogeneous nature of surface roughness and its geometric anisotropic effect on aerodynamic resistance and over estimate the erodible area by assuming it is not covered by roughness elements we address these shortfalls with a new model which estimates aerodynamic roughness length z0 using angular reflectance of a rough surface the new model is proportional to the frontal area index directional and represents the geometric anisotropy of z0 the model explained most of the variation in two sets of wind tunnel measurements of aerodynamic roughness lengths z0 field estimates of z0 for varying wind directions were similar to predictions made by the new model the model was used to estimate the erodible area exposed to abrasion by saltating particles vertically integrated horizontal flux fh was calculated using the area not covered by non erodible hemispheres the approach embodied in dust emission models under the same model conditions fh estimated using the new model was up to 85 smaller than that using the conventional area not covered these fh simulations imply that wind erosion and dust emission models without geometric anisotropic sheltering of the surface may considerably over estimate fh and hence the amount of dust emission the new model provides a straightforward method to estimate aerodynamic resistance with the potential to improve the accuracy of wind erosion and dust emission models a measure that can be retrieved using bi directional reflectance models from angular satellite sensors and an alternative to notoriously unreliable field estimates of z0 and their extrapolations across landform scales

the reset project constructing a european tephra lattice for refined synchronisation of environmental and archaeological events during the last c 100 ka this paper introduces the aims and scope of the reset project response of humans to abrupt environmental transitions a programme of research funded by the natural environment research council uk between 2008 and 2013 it also provides the context and rationale for papers included in a special volume of quaternary science reviews that report some of the project s findings reset examined the chronological and correlation methods employed to establish causal links between the timing of abrupt environmental transitions aets on the one hand and of human dispersal and development on the other with a focus on the middle and upper palaeolithic periods the period of interest is the last glacial cycle and the early holocene c 100 8 ka during which time a number of pronounced aets occurred a long running topic of debate is the degree to which human history in europe and the mediterranean region during the palaeolithic was shaped by these aets but this has proved difficult to assess because of poor dating control in an attempt to move the science forward reset examined the potential that tephra isochrons and in particular non visible ash layers cryptotephras might offer for synchronising palaeo records with a greater degree of finesse new tephrostratigraphical data generated by the project augment previously established tephra frameworks for the region and underpin a more evolved tephra lattice that links palaeo records between greenland the european mainland sub marine sequences in the mediterranean and north africa the paper also outlines the significance of other contributions to this special volume collectively these illustrate how the lattice was constructed how it links with cognate tephra research in europe and elsewhere and how the evidence of tephra isochrons is beginning to challenge long held views about the impacts of environmental change on humans during the palaeolithic

a physical model for predicting bidirectional reflectances over bare soil abstract radiative processes at the earth s surface are affected by the soil optical properties a good understanding of radiative transfer over a bare soil surface is therefore a prerequisite to addressing more complex cases of discontinuous vegetation canopies while most attempts at retrieving surface characteristics are made by fitting empirical functions to the data we have applied an optimization technique to a physically based surface reflectance model initially developed to study planetary surfaces this inversion procedure allows the direct estimation of the following five parameters the single scattering coefficient two parameters describing the hot spot phenomenon and two parameters describing the scattering phase function the approach is validated by testing the inversion procedure against both synthetic data and actual observations the model is able to predict the observed bidirectional reflectances as well as the directional hemispherical reflectances and to build the complete field of radiances over the upward hemisphere the anisotropic behavior of bare soils is investigated and the prospect for inferring other basic soil properties such as the soil porosity is discussed

large and small mammal distribution patterns and chronostratigraphic boundaries from the late pliocene to the middle pleistocene of the italian peninsula abstract over the last 50 years the studies on terrestrial mammals of the italian peninsula have provided a large volume of data and a more detailed knowledge of faunal events during the late pliocene and quaternary moreover geological sedimentological palynological and magnetostratigraphical investigations on the pliocene pleistocene continental sedimentary basins have yielded the possibility of a detailed calibration of the faunal successions thus palaeontologists have been able to reconstruct faunal sequences and to propose biochronological scales based on large and small mammals respectively in the present contribution an integration of the two biochronological scales is proposed and the successions of bioevents are carefully compared this integrated approach allows the constraint of the sequence of large and small mammal events in a more reliable way and therefore it results in a more detailed and consistent chronological use of mammalian assemblages particular attention is paid to the faunal changes that correspond to the middle late pliocene 2 6 ma pliocene pleistocene 1 8 ma and early middle pleistocene gauss matuyama transition chronostratigraphical boundaries

mid ir bands of synthetic calcic amphiboles of tremolite pargasite series and of natural calcic amphiboles mid ir spectra 4000 400 cm 1 of synthetic calcic amphiboles in the tremolite pargasite series and of various natural calcic amphiboles have been investigated the pargasite substitution a combination of the tschermak 4 al 6 al 6 mg 1 4 si 1 and edenite 4 al a na 4 si 1 a 1 substitutions causes the following features in the region 1200 600 cm 1 1 weak 4 al o stretching bands appear at 895 and 815 cm 1 that are distinct from the 955 and 925 cm 1 si o stretching bands in tremolite 2 there is a reduction in the intensity and frequency of the si o si symmetric bending band chain breathing mode at 750 cm 1 in tremolite and there is an appearance of medium strong composite bands having a weak shoulder on the high frequency side near 690 cm 1 these bands are assigned to si o al deformation bands 3 two oh libration bands at 690 and 650 cm 1 become weak and broad composite bands from 720 to 610 cm 1 and 4 because the intensity and frequency of the band at 640 cm 1 in tremolite is affected neither by deuteration nor by the pargasite substitution this band is ascribed to o t2 si o bending even in pargasite most t2 sites are occupied by si so that the o2 t2 si o4 bending mode will be dominant in this amphibole the same behavior occurs for the synthetic fluorogallian tremolite pargasite series but with larger downward frequency shifts ga o stretching bands appear at 880 and 780 cm 1 and an si o ga bending band appears at 605 cm 1 the major t o t and o t o deformation bands in synthetic amphiboles are readily apparent in natural calcic amphiboles whose compositions are near the tremolite pargasite join

a general method to normalize landsat reflectance data to nadir brdf adjusted reflectance abstract the landsat satellites have been providing spectacular imagery of the earth s surface for over 40 years however they acquire images at view angles 7 5 from nadir that cause small directional effects in the surface reflectance there are also variations with solar zenith angle over the year that can cause apparent change in reflectance even if the surface properties remain constant when landsat data from adjoining paths or from long time series are used a model of the surface anisotropy is required to adjust all landsat observations to a uniform nadir view primarily for visual consistency vegetation monitoring or detection of subtle surface changes here a generalized approach is developed to provide consistent view angle corrections across the landsat archive while this approach is not applicable for generation of landsat surface albedo which requires a full characterization of the surface bidirectional reflectance distribution function brdf or for correction to a constant solar illumination angle across a wide range of sun angles it provides landsat nadir brdf adjusted reflectance nbar for a range of terrestrial monitoring applications the landsat nbar is derived as the product of the observed landsat reflectance and the ratio of the reflectances modeled using modis brdf spectral model parameters for the observed landsat and for a nadir view and fixed solar zenith geometry in this study a total of 567 conterminous united states conus january and july 2010 landsat 5 thematic mapper tm and landsat 7 enhanced thematic mapper etm images that have swath edge overlapping paths sensed in alternating backscatter and forward scattering orientations were used the average difference between landsat 5 tm and landsat 7 etm surface reflectance in the forward and backward scatter directions at the overlapping landsat scan edges was quantified the conus july view zenith brdf effects were about 0 02 in the landsat visible bands and about 0 03 0 05 and 0 06 in the 2 1 m 1 6 m and near infrared bands respectively comparisons of landsat 5 tm and landsat 7 etm nbar derived using modis brdf spectral model parameters defined with respect to different spatial and temporal scales and defined with respect to different land cover types were undertaken the results suggest that because the brdf shapes of different terrestrial surfaces are sufficiently similar over the narrow 15 landsat field of view a fixed set of modis brdf spectral model parameters may be adequate for landsat nbar derivation with little sensitivity to the land cover type condition or surface disturbance a fixed set of brdf spectral model parameters derived from a global year of highest quality snow free modis brdf product values are provided so users may implement the described landsat nbar generation method

the rare holsteinian mazovian interglacial limnic deposits in the ksiąznica outcrop at krzczonow near świdnica sudetic foreland abstract the article presents the results of research on peats muds and sands filling a palaeocavity within alluvial fans of the bystrzyca river valley in the sudetic foreland of sw poland in the 534 cm deep research profile in the central part of a palaeolake 267 samples were collected at an interval of 2 cm and lithologically structural and textural studies palaeobotanically studies of diatoms pollen plant macrofossils and fossil wood palaeozoologically cladocera mollusca and ostracoda geochemically chemical elements and isotopes and palaeomagnetically analyzed the profile consists of three parts organic with mineral layers lower mineral middle and organic upper the palynological diagram was divided into three zones that represent local sets of pollen zones this diagram although incomplete is clearly indicative of the younger part of the holsteinian mazovian pollen iii and iv periods interglacial the upper part of the diagram consists of four local pollen zones that are correlated with stadial and interstadial periods analysis of several samples of fossil wood shows the widespread presence of pinus remains and numerous fragments of rhytidome bark of betula development of the peat layer 1 36 0 68 m depth started with paludification of the forest with the betula forest analysis of cladocera shows the presence of chitin armor components species chydorus sphaericus alona rectangula and ephippia of alona rectangula in three samples lithological cladocera and palaeo magnetic research supported by geochemical studies indicate the existence of at least three main phases the lake originated during the younger part of the holsteinian mazovian intergalcial as an oxbow within the valley where the deposition of variously thick up to 1 5 m depth peats organic and minerogenic silts the first stage in the second phase a closed fairly deep late holsteinian lake continued to exist under relatively warm conditions with mainly mineral deposition from the slope the lake became shallower and wider and then more open and better oxygenated with through flow in the final phase the lake was completely filled by organic sediments under interglacial conditions the absence of diatom molluscan and ostracod communities indicates an acid lacustrine environment at this time the fluvial and limnic deposits are sealed by overlaying saalian odranian till

middle to late pleistocene topography evolution of the north eastern azov region abstract the structure of loess soil sequences of the north eastern azov region was studied in coastal outcrops and boreholes within four key areas of the terraces of different age based on the positions of paleosols in geological sections of interfluve areas the palaeotopography during interglacial epochs of the last 500 ka was reconstructed the analysis of the topography evolution showed that the most significant features of the primary fluvial marine relief remained in subaerial stage of the surface development and were inherited even in modern relief at the same time in subaerial stage the surface of interfluves experienced considerable reworking due to loess accumulation on the one hand and erosion on the other hand it has been established that these processes were controlled by the glacial interglacial climatic cycles however their intensity varied from cycle to cycle generally before the valdai weichselian glacial epoch loess accumulation prevailed on the interfluve areas the intensity of erosion at that time was relatively low during the valdai epoch by indirect evidence during its final stage mis 2 29 12 ka a phase of exceptionally intensive erosion was detected due to it linear erosion and slope processes developed even within fairly gently slope 2 4 areas it has been determined that during this time the upper parts of gullies were growing rapidly towards watersheds in the modern topography a branched pattern of relic hollows inherits their position

early pleistocene tiglian sites in the netherlands a revised view on the significance for quaternary stratigraphy abstract the tiglian a b and c form the main subdivision of the early pleistocene tiglian stage in northwest european chronostratigraphy since the 1960 s we re evaluated the sedimentary context and new and legacy pollen assemblages of the classic type localities of these tiglian pollen zones in the dutch german border area and roer valley graben following recalculation of new upland pollen sums we found that the three fold subdivision of the tiglian stage is too simplistic and lacks a sound stratigraphic basis the tiglian a is only found locally and cannot be positively identified in the rvg the tiglian b in the tegelen maalbeek area is not unique since similar occurrences are present at other depths in the rvg sedimentary and pollen analysis suggests tiglian c as defined in the tegelen maalbeek type area could have been deposited in a very short amount of time although this does contradict mammal data the t b c cycle preserved in the type area likely represent a single example of multiple similar early pleistocene climate cycles the sediments of the so called cool or cold phase of pollen zone t c 4c in the stratotype of the tiglian c substage are interpreted as having formed during the onset of crevassing and therefore its significance as a regional climate indicator is discussed we conclude that the extrapolation of the tiglian pollen zones into chronostratigraphical substages is questioned and it is concluded that the chronostratigraphical subdivision of the early pleistocene based on palynological characteristics and palaeobotanical analyses requires reconsideration based on independent dating and land sea record integration

characterization of surface heterogeneity detected at the misr terra subpixel scale vegetation structure can have a significant impact on the degree of anisotropy in the reflected radiation field with the appropriate characterization of these effects the analysis of multiangular data such as provided by the multi angle imaging spectroradiometer misr instrument on board terra can yield statistical information about the type of surface heterogeneity that exists at the subpixel scale

geomorphology of sand dunes in the northeast taklimakan desert three types of sand dunes exist in the taklimakan desert namely compound complex crescent dunes and crescent chains compound dome dunes and compound complex linear dunes besides these three compound complex types single simple dunes are also distributed throughout the sand sea the compound complex linear dunes are developed under acute bimodal wind regimes though the ratios of the resultant drift potential rdp and the drift potential dp are the same as that near the border and adjacent area of the sand sea the compound complex crescent and dome dunes are developed respectively because of divergence of the sand available the stress of the sand moving winds and the time scales of dune formation the sand supply for the dunes is not from lopo nor in the east as previous studies suggested but mainly from local alluvial or lacustrine deposits the grain size component does not correlate evidently to the morphology parameters of the sand dunes analyses of the dp and drift direction suggest that the northeast taklimakan is an area of low wind energy and the resultant drift direction rdd coincides well with the distribution morphology and scales of the dunes

small mammals from the early pleistocene of the granada basin southern spain the pliocene and pleistocene continental sedimentary records of the western sector of the granada basin southern spain consist of alternating fluvial and lacustrine palustrine sediments two quaternary sections from this sector have been sampled huetor tajar and tojaire they have yielded remains of rodents insectivores and lagomorphs the presence in the huetor tajar and tojaire sections of mimomys apodemus atavus castillomys rivas and two different species of allophaiomys indicates an early pleistocene age these deposits which are related to a fluvio lacustrine system can be differentiated from an older pliocene braided fluvial system their dating has important repercussions on the paleogeographic reconstruction of the basin the conditions inferred from the ecological preferences of the small mammal associations are wet and cold these associations suggest a predominance of open herbaceous habitats followed by forested habitats semiaquatic habitats are the least represented

early middle pleistocene transitions linking terrestrial and marine realms abstract marked by a progressive increase in the amplitude of climate oscillations an evolving waveform and a shift towards a quasi 100 ky frequency the early middle pleistocene transition empt previously known as the mid pleistocene transition or mid pleistocene revolution 1 4 0 4 ma represents a fundamental transformation in the earth s climate state the empt began with a substantial change in climate dynamics and ended with the mid brunhes event signaling the establishment of a new steady state the reasons for the empt while uncertain appear to involve a non linear response of the earth climate system the physical and biotic responses to this transition amplified by the growth of northern hemisphere ice sheets have been profound two important chronostratigraphic markers characterize the empt the jaramillo subchron 1 070 0 988 ma and the matuyama brunhes chron boundary 773 ka the latter has been chosen as the primary guide for the lower middle pleistocene subseries boundary as it lies at the approximate midpoint of the empt and aids in global recognition both in marine and terrestrial deposits the jaramillo subchron has received less attention but the late early pleistocene is important in europe because it saw the progressive transition from the villafranchian to galerian mammal faunas and expansion of hominins into western and northern europe the jaramillo subchron is represented by marine isotope stages mis 31 to 28 with mis 30 already showing the asymmetrical sawtooth pattern characteristic of the middle pleistocene indeed while variation in the 40 ky band obliquity remains strong throughout the empt low frequency variability begins at around 1250 1200 ky which coincides with a progressive increase in global ice volume against a backdrop of increasingly severe glacial cycles notably during mis 36 34 24 22 the so called 0 9 ma event 16 and 12 pronounced phases of warming are also documented globally including the super interglacial mis 31 the early phase of the empt is characterized by important glaciations beginning with mis 36 and continuing to mis 24 22 a major intensification of the east asian monsoon system intensification of loess deposition in northern europe development of open landscapes in western siberia increased fluvial incision higher amplitude sea level change and spread of large mammals across northern eurasia and a strong reduction in the north atlantic thermohaline circulation in europe the loss of thermophilous plant taxa during the empt and indeed throughout the quaternary is a reminder of the progressive cooling that took place here and elsewhere

amino acid geochronology of the type cromerian of west runton norfolk uk aminostratigraphic studies of continental deposits in the uk have hitherto relied almost exclusively on data from the aragonitic shells of non marine molluscs for dating pleistocene sequences this is usually based on the d l value of a single amino acid d alloisoleucine l isoleucine a i in the total shell proteins two genera of freshwater gastropods valvata and bithynia are used to explore the value of using multiple amino acids from the intra crystalline fraction which should be more protected from the effects of diagenesis than the inter crystalline component results are compared from both the aragonitic shells and opercula composed of calcite a more stable form of calcium carbonate in order to put the amino acid data from the west runton freshwater bed into perspective statistical analyses are used to compare them with results from the hoxnian mis 11 site at clacton on sea essex twelve protein decomposition indicators revealed that the results from the shells were not as clear cut as those from the opercula five indicators from the valvata shell suggest that west runton is older than clacton at a 95 significance level but two actually suggested a younger age seven indicators show that the bithynia shells from west runton are older than congeneric shells from clacton in marked contrast all 12 indicators isolated from the opercula demonstrate that west runton is significantly older than clacton the data are also compared with results from waverley wood an important archaeological site in the english midlands falling within the cromerian complex contrary to earlier interpretations the new amino acid data from bithynia opercula indicate that west runton is older than waverley wood a relationship now consistent with the available biostratigraphy

a chronological framework for the british quaternary based on bithynia opercula the british quaternary spanning roughly the past 2 6 million years is unmatched for the biodiversity and abundance of its fossil localities and its record of climatic contrasts however with all but the most recent deposits beyond radiocarbon range and with no readily datable volcanic rocks it has been difficult to get accurate dates for many british pleistocene deposits penkman et al have developed new analytical methods based on the intra crystalline proteins of stable biominerals in the opercula shell closure of the freshwater gastropod bithynia common in quaternary deposits they obtain confident assignments for various strata to global marine isotope stages securely placing britain s rich record of faunal and archaeological change into a broader context marine and ice core records show that the earth has experienced a succession of glacials and interglacials during the quaternary last 2 6 million years although it is often difficult to correlate fragmentary terrestrial records with specific cycles aminostratigraphy is a method potentially able to link terrestrial sequences to the marine isotope stages mis of the deep sea record1 2 we have used new methods of extraction and analysis of amino acids preserved within the calcitic opercula of the freshwater gastropod bithynia to provide the most comprehensive data set for the british pleistocene based on a single dating technique a total of 470 opercula from 74 sites spanning the entire quaternary are ranked in order of relative age based on the extent of protein degradation using aspartic acid asparagine asx glutamic acid glutamine glx serine ser alanine ala and valine val this new aminostratigraphy is consistent with the stratigraphical relationships of stratotypes sites with independent geochronology biostratigraphy and terrace stratigraphy3 4 5 6 the method corroborates the existence of four interglacial stages between the anglian mis 12 and the holocene in the terrestrial succession it establishes human occupation of britain in most interglacial stages after mis 15 but supports the notion of human absence during the last interglacial mis 5e 7 suspicions that the treeless optimum of the upton warren interstadial at isleworth pre dates mis 3 are confirmed this new aminostratigraphy provides a robust framework against which climatic biostratigraphical and archaeological models can be tested

scaling based forest structural change detection using an inverted geometric optical model in the three gorges region of china we use the li strahler geometric optical model combined with a scaling based approach to detect forest structural changes in the three gorges region of china the physical based li strahler model can be inverted to retrieve forest structural properties one of the main input variables for the inverted model is the fractional component of sunlit background which is calculated by using pure reflectance spectra endmembers of surface components in this study we extract these endmembers from moderate spatial resolution modis data using two scaling based methods namely a regional based linear unmixing and a purest pixel approach relying on corresponding high spatial resolution landsat tm images then the forest structural property crown closure cc is estimated by inverting the li strahler model based on the extracted endmembers changes in cc are mapped using modis mosaics dated 2002 and 2004 for the whole three gorges region validation of the estimated cc using 25 sample sites indicates that the regional scaling based endmembers extracted using linear unmixing are more suitable to be used in combination with the inverted li strahler model for monitoring the forest cc than the purest pixel approach and results in significantly better estimates in both years r 2002 2 0 614 rmse2002 6 r 2004 2 0 631 and rmse2004 5 2 a change detection map of the model derived cc in 2002 and 2004 shows a decrease in cc in the eastern counties of the three gorges region located close to the three gorges dam an increase in cc has been observed in other counties of the three gorges region implying a preliminary positive feedback on certain policy measures taken safeguarding forest structure c 2008 elsevier inc all rights reserved

mapping shrub abundance in desert grasslands using geometric optical modeling and multi angle remote sensing with chris proba this work examines the application of a geometric optical canopy reflectance model to provide measures of woody shrub abundance in desert grasslands at the landscape scale the approach is through inversion of the non linear simple geometric model sgm against 631 nm multi angle reflectance data from the compact high resolution imaging spectrometer chris flown on the european space agency s project for on board autonomy proba satellite separation of background and upper canopy contributions was effected by a linear scaling of the parameters of the walthall bidirectional reflectance distribution function model with the weights of a kernel driven model the relationship was calibrated agains ta small number of sample locations with highly contrasting background upper canopy configurations before application over an area ofabout 25 km 2 the results show that with some assumptions the multi angle remote sensing signal from chris proba can be explained in terms of a combined soil understory background response and woody shrub cover and exploited to map this important structural attribute of desert grasslands

a sphere scanning radiometer for rapid directional measurements of sky and ground radiance abstract accurate interpretation and maximum use of multispectral data acquired from spaceborne and aircraft instruments requires increased knowledge and understanding of the bidirectional reflectance characteristics of earth scene elements the complexities of the angular distribution of bidirectional reflectance from earth terrain surfaces particularly vegetation have become more evident from field studies that attempt to advance the state of the art of remote sensing currently available field instrumentation however has proven inadequate for acquiring multiple viewing angle radiometric measurements of target surfaces in a short enough time period to effectively eliminate the effects of changing solar position sky conditions and biophysical parameter states or conditions while coincidentally measuring the irradiance distribution characteristics a unique new field instrument called the parabola has been designed along with a collapsable support boom to be self contained and easily transportable to remote sites to enable the acquisition of radiance data for almost the complete 4 sr sky and ground looking hemispheres in 11 s the parabola samples in 15 instantaneous field of view sectors in three narrow handpass spectral channels currently filtered for visible near infrared and shortwave infrared wavelengths simultaneously laboratory tests and calibrations have been performed data processing software has been developed and instrument modifications have been made based on field use evaluations field measurement studies have been performed on a variety of earth surface cover types using a truck boom a specially designed pickup truck mounting system and a hot air balloon in addition to the improved capability for better measurements to understand the nature of the bidirectional reflectance properties of earth cover types the parabola has obvious potential for climatological and other studies requiring the distribution of diffuse solar radiation within the sky hemisphere

classification of glacier zones in western greenland using albedo and surface roughness from the multi angle imaging spectroradiometer misr the greenland ice sheet has been the subject of mass balance and melt measurements over the past two decades and its margins have shown significant thinning in recent years surface characteristics of the ice sheet margins are strongly modified by the annual process of snow accumulation and melt in this work we explore spatial and temporal relationships between near infrared albedo and surface roughness from the multi angle imaging spectroradiometer misr aboard nasa s terra satellite our study area is a region in western greenland in the vicinity of jakobshavn glacier and its upland drainage basin we compute near infrared albedo from misr data using imagery over the april to september period for 2000 through 2005 near infrared albedo is inversely related to both snow age and melt intensity we map surface roughness using the normalized difference angular index ndai applied to misr atmospherically corrected surface hemispherical directional reflectance in previous work the ndai has been correlated with surface roughness on the scale of about 70 m we have further substantiated that relationship here the ndai and albedo images for each of the six years are used in an isodata unsupervised classification classification results for the individual years show year to year differences which appear to depend on the number and temporal distribution of images with minimal cloud cover as well as interannual differences in ice sheet surface properties the year 2003 which had the greatest number of images with minimal cloud cover shows good correspondence with previously mapped glacier zones however we do not have an isodata class that corresponds to the dry snow zone and we see greater differentiation between zones at lower elevations within each isodata class distinct relationships between near infrared albedo and surface roughness emerge and in all cases but one there is an inverse temporal relationship between albedo and roughness the one class that shows a direct relationship between albedo and surface roughness is hypothesized to be the superimposed ice zone while still somewhat preliminary these results suggest that concurrent measurements of near infrared albedo and surface roughness have significant potential for ice sheet surface characterization as well as for ongoing monitoring

krotovinas pedogenic processes and stratigraphic ambiguities of the upper palaeolithic sites kostenki and borshchevo russia abstract the excavations of the upper palaeolithic sites of kostenki and borshchevo located in the middle russian plain bear several meters of loess derived colluvial deposits of the middle and late valdai which cover alluvial sediments of the don floodplain at least four cultural layers and more than three paleosol units occur within the colluvial deposits a high number of krotovinas is most obvious mainly the burrows of cricetus cricetus and lagurus lagurus which on first view seem only to disturb sediment and soil stratigraphy to disprove this assumption the present paper investigates the significance of krotovina fillings within soil research by applying micromorphological analysis the study gives insight into different filling materials soil forming processes inside abandoned and filled burrow systems and surrounding material in some cases krotovina fillings in this part of the middle russian plain can be areas of bulking and compaction of preferential paths of infiltration followed by calcium carbonate depletion and of drying followed by secondary calcification further burrows are paths for second and third generations of soil faunal activities

experimental and infrared characterization of the miscibility gap along the tremolite glaucophane join knowledge of the thermodynamic mixing properties of amphiboles whose compositions lie along the tremolite glaucophane join is of interest to those studying high pressure metamorphic rocks as well as rocks transitional between the greenschist and blueschist facies this study is the second of a two part investigation of the tremolite glaucophane join with the first study jenkins et al 2013 devoted to the volume composition and crystal chemical relations and the current study focused on defining the location and extent of asymmetry of the miscibility gap solvus along this join a series of experiments was done over the temperature range of 500 800 c at pressures of 1 6 1 9 gpa to determine the location of the miscibility gap using both two amphibole dissolution experiments including time series experiments at 700 750 and 800 c lasting up to 670 h as well as various end member and intermediate amphibole overgrowth techniques to approach the boundary from different compositional directions these results which placed some important limits on the location of the miscibility gap were combined with an autocorrelation analysis of the mid and far infrared spectra of single phase amphiboles formed in the first study jenkins et al 2013 to refine the shape of the miscibility gap derived values of the relative change in the autocorrelation parameter corr were fairly constant over all of the frequency ranges analyzed and indicated that the miscibility gap is steeper at the glaucophane rich compared to tremolite rich side of the binary join combining the compositional re equilibration experiments with the infrared autocorrelation results permitted deriving the ratio of the parameters gl tr 0 5 and wtrgl 67 70 kj using asymmetric formalism theory the calculated boundary has a critical point temperature that falls in the range of 760 800 c in this iron free system the asymmetry of the calculated miscibility gap appears to be confirmed by amphibole pairs in nature the implications of this study are that this technique of combining compositional re equilibration experiments with autocorrelation analysis of single phase solid solutions is a potentially powerful method of locating miscibility gaps at low temperatures and for chemically complex binary joins it is also suggested that the miscibility gaps presented here provide a basis for interpreting the degree of equilibrium reached in assemblages with complexly zoned or intergrown amphiboles

geometric optical bidirectional reflectance modeling of the discrete crown vegetation canopy effect of crown shape and mutual shadowing in the case where a vegetation cover can be regarded as a collection of individual discrete plant crowns the geometric optical effects of the shadows that the crowns cast on the background and on one another strongly condition the brightness of the vegetation cover as seen from a given viewpoint in the hemisphere an asymmetric hotspot in which the shape of the hotspot is related to the shape of the plant crowns in the scene is created at large zenith angles illumination shadows will preferentially shadow the lower portions of adjacent crowns further these shadows will be preferentially obscured since adjacent crowns will also tend to obscure the lower portions of other crowns this effect produces a bowl shaped bidirectional reflectance distribution function brdf in which the scene brightness increases at the function s edges formulas describing the hotspot and mutual shadowing effects are derived and examples that show how the shape of the brdf is dependent on the shape of the crowns their density their brightness relative to the background and the thickness of the layer throughout which the crown centers are distributed are presented

loess paleosol cryogenic formation and structure near the northern limit of loess deposition east european plain russia abstract quaternary loess paleosol series and cryogenic phenomena within the east european plain russia are less studied near their northern limit than at their southern extents the multi disciplinary study of two loess paleosol cryogenic sections were carried out in the moscow and vladimir regions of central european russia not far from the glacial limits of the middle and late pleistocene generally loess deposition within these regions has undergone syn to post deposition processes as evident from the laminated character as well as post depositional soil moisture and temperature conditions that have commonly given rise to gleyzation and cryogenic deformations the middle pleistocene dnieper loess is calcareous here but the upper pleistocene loess has been leached of carbonates both upper and middle pleistocene paleosols have strong pedogenic features allowing their genesis to be determined whereas cryogenic deformations and other post depositional features allow for the more detailed interpretation of cold epoch processes given these loess characteristics the moscow and vladimir loess region may be considered as a specific facies of the east european loess area the proposed moscow vladimir loess region exhibits the complete sequence of stratigraphic units that are correlative with well known sequences along the southern part of the east european plain in the moscow vladimir region however several horizons exhibit well developed cryogenic phenomena that indicate permafrost conditions and sufficient moistening during most of the cold epochs cryomorphic and hydromorphic processes have a strong influence on the composition and structure of loess formation the salyn paleosol of the mikulino eemian interglacial time demonstrates strong clay illuviation as well as kamenka and inzhavino paleosols of the middle pleistocene age both of which developed under boreal to sub boreal climatic conditions in contrast the bryansk and romny interstadial paleosols have gleyic properties that suggest formation during incipient discontinuous permafrost conditions

dehydration of glaucophane in the system na2o mgo al2o3 sio2 h2o and the effects of nacl co2 and silicate bearing aqueous fluids

plio pleistocene geological record and small mammal faunas eastern shore of the azov sea southern european russia the shoreline of the taganrog gulf of the azov sea at the mouth of don river provides a series of extended upper pliocene and quaternary sections that have been actively studied in the last century this extraglacial region had a complex sedimentary history combining subaerial aggradation with marine fluvial and deltaic sedimentation the well exposed stratigraphical sequence and abundant palaeontological record continuously attract geologists and highlight the region as one of international importance for the addressing of numerous problems of late pliocene and quaternary stratigraphy and palaeogeography fossil mammalian faunas of the region include important eurasian biostratigraphical markers such as stenocranius ex gr hintoni gregaloides lagurini spp and mimomys savini for many years fossil remains of mammals provide decisive clues to the geological history of the region recent geological studies of reference sections have provided data on small mammals palaeomagnetism and palaeogeographical reconstructions in the northeastern part of the azovian region mammalian assemblages indicate the presence of the late pliocene late early pleistocene middle pleistocene and late pleistocene levels and in addition provide a clear biostratigraphical context for the early middle pleistocene transition

late cenozoic sequences of mammalian sites in eurasia an updated correlation abstract a review of the geochronological sequence of late cenozoic mammalian sites in eurasia covering the time span from the vallesian up to the toringian is given an updated correlation chart of mammalian localities in eastern europe and asia with the chronology of the neogene and the magnetic polarity time scale is presented some new data on the phylogeny evolution distribution and biochronology of voles and lemmings in eurasia are briefly discussed

retrieving soil surface roughness with the hapke photometric model confrontation with the ground truth abstract surface roughness can be defined as the mean slope angle integrated over all scales from the grain size to the local topography it controls the energy balance of bare soils in particular the angular distribution of scattered and emitted radiation this provides clues to understand the intimate structure and evolution of planetary surfaces over ages in this article we investigate the capacity of the hapke photometric model the most widely used in planetary science to retrieve surface roughness from multiangular reflectance data its performance is still a question at issue and we lack validation experiments comparing model retrievals with ground measurements to address this issue and to show the potentials and limits of the hapke model we compare the mean slope angle determined from very high resolution digital elevation models of volcanic and sedimentary terrains sampled in the asal ghoubbet rift republic of djibouti to the photometric roughness estimated by model inversion on multiangular reflectance data measured on the ground chamelon field goniometer and from space pleiades images the agreement is good on moderately rough surfaces in the domain of validity of the hapke model and poor on others

enhanced discrimination of boreal forest covers with directional reflectances from the airborne polarization and directionality of earth reflectances polder instrument during the boreal ecosystem atmosphere study boreas directional and spectral reflectance measurements were acquired from may to july 1994 with the polarization and directionality of earth reflectances polder instrument on board a nasa c 130 aircraft the instrument has a wide field of view optics a two dimensional ccd array and a rotating wheel carrying filters in the visible and near infrared measurements were obtained 1 over coniferous forests at the young and old jack pine and old black spruce sites 2 over a deciduous forest at the old aspen site and 3 over a fen at the fen site a prominent hot spot feature was apparent at each site with an additional strong peak in the specular direction for the fen site strong variations of the bidirectional reflectance distribution function brdf with sun zenith angle were observed for a constant sun zenith angle the variation of the brdf of conifer stands between may and july was relatively weak a key objective of this paper is to quantify the improvement of discrimination of various forest covers when remotely sensed directional signatures are added to the more conventional spectral signatures the experimental protocol consisted of the following steps first 150 pixels pertaining to five different classes of forest covers were selected on land cover maps available in the boreas information system boris data base second the brdf measurements acquired by polder at each pixel were adjusted against a three parameter semiempirical brdf model and processed to retrieve the reflectance seen in three different viewing directions third the results of supervised classifications were compared on all selected pixels using as input either the reflectances in only one direction this simulates the case of conventional spectral signatures or reflectances acquired in three directions this simulates the case of spectral directional signatures the results showed that when only one spectral band was used the proportion of correctly classified pixels increased from 36 59 with one viewing direction to 64 84 with three viewing directions when three spectral bands were considered this proportion improved from 72 87 to 83 97 these results demonstrate that the account of directional information enhances the ability to discriminate forest covers by remotesensing

palaeoclimatic implications of the magnetic record from loess palaeosol sequence viatovo ne bulgaria summary loess palaeosol deposits in the lower danube area represent the southeastern edge of the loess cover in europe detailed rock magnetic investigations of the loess palaeosol sequence in viatovo in ne bulgaria reveal that magnetite and maghemite of very fine superparamagnetic grain size are responsible for the magnetic enhancement of palaeosol units a detailed palaeoclimatic record is obtained through high resolution measurements of magnetic susceptibility frequency dependent magnetic susceptibility and caco3 content magnetic proxies indicate a more warm and humid climate during the development of the older palaeosol units s4 s6

roughness reflectance relationship of bare desert terrain an empirical study a study of the bidirectional reflectance distribution function brdf in relation to surface roughness properties was conducted in arid land near fowlers gap research station new south wales australia such empirical study is necessary for investigating the possibility of determining terrain geomorphological parameters from bidirectional reflectance data a new apparatus was developed to take accurate hemispherical directions radiance measurements hdrm a digitizer for three dimensional in situ roughness measurements was also developed more than 70 hemispherical data sets were collected for various illumination conditions and surface types of desert stony pavements and rocky terrain slopes in general it was found that most of the surfaces exhibited an anisotropic reflection combining a major component of backscattering the brdf of different surface types in relation to their roughness properties as determined by the field digitizer were then examined results showed that sites that are considered to differ significantly from a geomorphological point of view would not necessarily form a different brdf

non lambertian effects on remote sensing of surface reflectance and vegetation index this paper discusses the effects of non lambertian reflection from a homogeneous surface on remote sensing of the surface reflectance and vegetation index from a satellite remote measurement of the surface characteristics is perturbed by atmospheric scattering of sun light this scattering tends to smooth the angular dependence of non lambertian surface reflectances an effect that is not present in the case of lambertian surfaces this effect is calculated to test the validity of a lambertian assumption used in remote sensing for the three types of vegetations considered in this study the assumption of lambertian surface can be used satisfactorily in the derivation of surface reflectance from remotely measured radiance for a view angle outside the backscattering region within the backscattering region however the use of the assumption can result in a considerable error in the derived surface reflectance accuracy also deteriorates with increasing solar zenith angle the angular distribution of the surface reflectance derived from remote measurements is smoother than that at the surface the effect of surface non lambertianity on remote sensing of vegetation index is very weak since the effect is similar in the visible and near infrared part of the solar spectrum for the vegetations treated in this study it is canceled in deriving the vegetation index the effect of the diffuse skylight on surface reflectance measurements at ground level is also discussed

ungulate dietary adaptations and palaeoecology of the middle pleistocene site of fontana ranuccio anagni central italy abstract the middle pleistocene site of fontana ranuccio anagni basin central italy has yielded nearly 25 000 remains belonging to large and small vertebrates including four isolated teeth of homo sp and a rich lithic assemblage containing bone tools here we provide new dental wear analyses of the ungulate community to improve the palaeoenvironmental reconstruction for the site analyses indicate a mostly browsing diet for the cervids and a grazing diet for the perissodactyls stephanorhinus sp and equus cf e mosbachensis suggesting a range of habitats that spanned from forests to open grasslands a discrepancy between mesowear and microwear results is observed in the case of the bovid bos primigenius this can be tentatively explained as resulting from a temporal switch towards a sub optimal diet possibly reflecting the effects of marked seasonality findings shed new light on the structure of the 400 kyr ecosystems that existed during the early occupation of homo in europe

aminostratigraphical test of the east european mammal zonation for the late neogene and quaternary abstract an aminostratigraphical study was undertaken to provide an independent test of the veracity of the east european mammal zonation this important biostratigraphical scheme was originally defined from reference sites in the azov black sea region of southern russia but is now widely used to correlate late neogene and quaternary sediments across much of europe and western asia as well as yielding a series of mammal assemblages these reference sites which range in age from the late pliocene piacenzian ca 3 0 ma to late pleistocene 0 1 ma also contain calcitic opercula of two genera bithynia and parafossarulus of freshwater gastropod snails that are suitable for amino acid dating the intra crystalline protein decomposition icpd of four amino acids aspartic acid alanine valine and glutamic acid was analysed from the opercula of these two genera which showed similar patterns of protein degradation allowing both to be used for aminostratigraphy the icpd data are consistent with the relative ages inferred from the mammal biostratigraphy and also with stratigraphical hiatuses interpreted from the fossil record the temporal resolution provided by icpd data from opercula is amino acid dependent and declines in samples older than 2 ma the high variability of icpd between opercula samples at some sites suggests reworking anomalously high levels of icpd in samples from the early pleistocene site of tizdar may be due to geothermal heating from local mud volcanism this study provides the first large scale application of icpd based aminostratigraphy for the quaternary of continental europe and highlights its importance in testing regional stratigraphic schemes for the late pliocene and the pleistocene

the colle curti mammal site in the colfiorito area umbria marchean apennine italy geomorphology stratigraphy paleomagnetism and palynology abstract an approximately 90 m thick sequence has been studied in the colle curti basin colfiorito area umbria marchean apennine it was deposited in a drainage system characterized by a mature landscape without a clear watershed separating the adriatic and tyrrhenian sides close to the end of the early pleistocene this landscape was dismembered by the activation of extensional faults linked to an uplifting of the chain that reached its greatest magnitude at the beginning of the middle pleistocene from a sedimentological point of view the sequence can be roughly divided into three parts with gravel deposition in a braidplain environment dominating the lower and upper parts and a phase of clay deposition in a lacustrine environment separating these an ar ar analysis on the sanidine contained in a vertisol in the upper part of the sequence gave an age not older than 427 ka an early galerian fauna was collected in clay layers where the jaramillo paleomagnetic event was recognized cold periods are documented in the lower and upper part of the sequence although in the latter the intense weathering caused by the development of a soil with tropical features precludes further investigations the palynological data supported by sedimentological and palaeomagnetic evidence indicate that the sequence can be related to a large part of the bavelian and part of the menapian in the middle part where clay layers outcrop two cool and humid phases are followed by colder and drier periods biological and geological evidence suggests that around 1 my the basin of colle curti was probably located at an elevation of about 600 m

planetary regolith surface analogs optimized determination of hapke parameters using multi angular spectro imaging laboratory data this work presents a method for a determination of the global set of parameters involved in hapke s model for planetary surface analogs when dealing with a set of angular conditions representative of the usual range of observation in planetary exploration for spaceborne optical instruments the present approach is founded on a genetic algorithm the whole set of hapke parameters is treated simultaneously without any a priori assumptions it limits the risk of meeting a local extreme and the stability and repeatability of the determination are improved moreover it requires less computational time than a monte carlo routine as a demonstration using multi angular measurements acquired by a new laboratory wide field multispectral imaging facility parameter values for various grain sizes and material compositions of planetary regolith surface analogs are derived and their potential wavelength dependence is studied the results coherent with the literature validate all the steps in our methodology we focus our interest in the understanding of the physical meaning of hapke s parameters in particular of the parameter of the shadowing function for macroscopic roughness it appears that the features smaller than the centimeter scale contribute predominantly to the photometric effect related to the rocky aspect of planetary soil surfaces the parameter may thus be mainly considered as an integral of the roughness properties in the submillimetric centimetric range indeed the most representative case for describing natural regolith surface lies in texture classes in the millimeter range not involving necessarily a high macroscopic roughness with large surface slopes at hundreds of meters scale these findings strengthen the case that depends on both the grain size and the material geological properties

eastern european rodent rodentia mammalia faunas from the early middle pleistocene transition abstract the rodent faunas from nine sites on the russian plain and taman peninsula corresponding to the early middle pleistocene transition have been analyzed these localities are situated in the dnieper don dniester and danube drainage basins and in the northern regions of the black and azov seas seven of the sites are associated with the upper part of matuyama reversed polarity chron and located between the beginning of jaramillo event and the brunhes matuyama boundary one of the sites was recovered from the chauda marine deposits of the black sea and referred to the very beginning of brunhes epoch the species composition of the rodent fauna sequence has been established the faunas referred to the jaramillo event 1 1 1 0 ma contain the advanced mimomys steppe lemmings prolagurus pannonicus and lagurodon arankae and allophaiomys pliocaenicus faunas were recovered from korotoyak ostrogozhsk suite roksolany zapadnye kairy and ushkalka localities the more advanced rodent faunas of the morozovian assemblage port katon site include also the first representatives of terricola karai dubina and shamin localities have been found below the brunhes matuyama boundary 0 85 ma including the first representatives of microtus microtus ex gr oeconomus and microtus arvalinus the pitymys like voles microtus stenocranius hintoni steppe lemming p pannonicus and yellow steppe lemming eolagurus argyropuloi compose the core of these faunas the litvin locality located in the deposits of the chauda transgression of the black sea and corresponding to the very beginning of the middle pleistocene contains a rodent fauna closely resembling the shamin one it yielded the remains of mimomys savini advanced a pliocaenicus p pannonicus microtus stenocranius hintoni microtus ex gr oeconomus and mcirotus arvalinus thus numerous data permit elucidation of the history of rodent faunas of the russian plain during early middle pleistocene transitions and reveal the definitive stages in their evolution

retrieving photometric properties of desert surfaces in china using the hapke model and misr data abstract the retrieval of photometric properties of desert surfaces is an important first step in the parameterization of land surface components of regional dust emission and global radiation models and in earth system modeling in this study the values of hapke s photometric parameters h b c b0 and were retrieved from the multi angle imaging spectroradiometer misr instrument at locations in china s deserts four pixels represented the typical surface characteristics of the taklimakan desert sand dunes of kumtag desert relatively smooth areas of the kumtag desert and the aeolian sandy soil of loulan in contrast to earlier studies we found that the retrieved parameter values were largely affected by the initial value to combat this problem we used a monte carlo method with physical constraints and a conformity indicator to ensure physically meaningful inversion the results showed that the angular domain of misr observations was sufficiently large to determine confidently the values of hapke s photometric parameters with the exception of the opposition effect width h retrieved values for the single scattering albedo and macroscopic roughness were consistent with qualitative observations about the structure and composition of the surface material and the nature of the dune forms respectively at loulan where the surface was smoother than other sites retrieved values exhibited the strongest backward scattering these results indicated that at the sensor scale a rough surface e g dunes does not necessarily mean more backward scattering than a smooth surface this finding has significant implications for empirical methods e g using the normalized index of backward scattered radiance minus forward scattered radiance as an indicator to indicate surface roughness which should be used carefully for analyzing surface roughness from remote sensing data future research is needed to 1 understand how surface roughness at the sub pixel scale modifies the angular characteristics of reflectance and to 2 find practical methods for rapid whole image processing for mapping the photometric parameters

parageneses and compositions of amphiboles from franciscan jadeite glaucophane type facies series metabasites at cazadero california sodic amphiboles are common in franciscan type ii and type iii metabasites from cazadero california they occur as 1 vein fillings 2 overgrowths on relict augites 3 discrete tiny crystals in the groundmass and 4 composite crystals with metamorphic ca na pyroxenes in low grade rocks they become coarse grained and show strong preferred orientation in schistose high grade rocks in the lowest grade only riebeckite to crossite appears with increasing grade sodic amphibole becomes first enriched in glaucophane component later coexists with actinolite and finally at even higher grade becomes winchite actinolite first appears in foliated blueschists of the upper pumpellyite zone it occurs 1 interlayered on a millimetre scale with glaucophane prisms and 2 as segments of composite amphibole crystals actinolite is considered to be in equilibrium with other high pressure phases on the basis of its restricted occurrence in higher grade rocks textural and compositional characteristics and fe mg distribution coefficient between actinolite and chlorite detailed analyses delineate a compositional gap for coexisting sodic and calcic amphiboles at the highest grade winchite appears at the expense of the actinolite glaucophane pair compositional characteristics of franciscan amphiboles from ward creek are compared with those of other high p t facies series the amphibole trend in terms of major components is very sensitive to the metamorphic field gradient na amphibole appears at lower grade than actinolite along the higher p t facies series e g franciscan and new caledonia whereas reverse relations occur in the lower p t facies series e g sanbagawa and new zealand available data also indicate that at low temperature conditions such as those of the blueschist and pumpellyite actinolite facies large compositional gaps exist between ca and na amphiboles and between actinolite and hornblende whereas at higher temperatures such as in the epidote amphibolite greenschist and eclogite facies the gaps become very restricted common occurrence of both sodic and calcic amphiboles and ca na pyroxene together with albite quartz in the ward creek metabasites and their compositional trends are characteristic of the jadeite glaucophane type facies series in new caledonia blueschists ca na pyroxenes are also common na amphiboles do not appear alone at low grade in metabasites instead na amphiboles coexist with ca amphiboles throughout the progressive sequence however for metabasites of the intermediate pressure facies series such as those of the sanbagawa belt japan and south island new zealand ca na pyroxene and glaucophane are not common sodic amphiboles are restricted to crossite and riebeckite in composition and clinopyroxenes to acmite and sodic augite and occur only in fe2o3 rich metabasites the glaucophane component of na amphibole systematically decreases from ward creek new caledonia through sanbagawa to new zealand this relation is consistent with estimated pressure decrease employing the geobarometer of maruyama et al 1986 similarly the decrease in tschermakite content and increase in nam4 of ca amphiboles from new zealand through sanbagawa to new caledonia is consistent with the geobarometry of brown 1977b therefore the difference in compositional trends of amphiboles can be used as a guide for p t detail within the metamorphic facies series

lidar based geometric reconstruction of boreal type forest stands at single tree level for forest and wildland fire management vegetation structure is an important parameter in fire risk assessment and fire behavior modeling we present a new approach deriving the structure of the upper canopy by segmenting single trees from small footprint lidar data and deducing their geometric properties the accuracy of the lidar data is evaluated using six geometric reference targets with the standard deviation of the lidar returns on the targets being as low as 0 06 m the segmentation is carried out by using cluster analysis on the lidar raw data in all three coordinate dimensions from the segmented clusters tree position tree height and crown diameter are derived and compared with field measurements a robust linear regression of 917 tree height measurements yields a slope of 0 96 with an offset of 1 m and the adjusted r 2 resulting at 0 92 however crown diameter is not well matched by the field measurements with r 2 being as low as 0 2 which is most certainly due to random errors in the field measurements finally a geometric reconstruction of the forest scene using a paraboloid model is carried out using values of tree position tree height crown diameter and crown base height

quaternary time scales for the pontocaspian domain interbasinal connectivity and faunal evolution the pontocaspian black sea caspian sea region has a very dynamic history of basin development and biotic evolution the region is the remnant of a once vast paratethys sea it contains some of the best eurasian geological records of tectonic climatic and paleoenvironmental change the pliocene quaternary co evolution of the black sea caspian sea is dominated by major changes in water lake and sea levels resulting in a pulsating system of connected and isolated basins understanding the history of the region including the drivers of lake level and faunal evolution is hampered by indistinct stratigraphic nomenclature and contradicting time constraints for regional sedimentary successions in this paper we review and update the late pliocene to quaternary stratigraphic framework of the pontocaspian domain focusing on the black sea basin caspian basin marmara sea and the terrestrial environments surrounding these large mostly endorheic lake sea systems

the early pleistocene site of kermek in western ciscaucasia southern russia stratigraphy biotic record and lithic industry preliminary results abstract the discovery of the early pleistocene sites of bogatyri sinyaya balka and rodniki 1 on the taman peninsula in western ciscaucasia led to the recognition of a distinctive tamanian industry with a time range of 1 6 1 2 ma and with characteristics that are transitional between oldowan and acheulean archaic acheulean the site of kermek was discovered by v e shchelinsky in 2008 during investigation of the older lower pleistocene sediments exposed in the coastal cliff of the sea of azov in the vicinity of previously studied sites in this paper we present preliminary data from a multidisciplinary study of the early pleistocene site of kermek situated near to the sites of bogatyri sinyaya balka and rodniki 1 but which is significantly older this site is connected with a well studied early pleistocene late kujalnikian fluviatile shallow marine sequence these reverse magnetized deposits are characterized by freshwater and brackish water mollusks with dreissena theodori and by a small mammal fauna with allophaiomys deucalion and are dated to the latest gelasian or early calabrian ca 2 1 1 8 ma the lithic industry from the site can be attributed to the classic oldowan but with distinctive local features that include indications of advanced technologies such as the manufacture of large flakes and picks in this respect this industry is assumed to have been a genetic precursor of the later early pleistocene tamanian industry which has a well pronounced acheulean component

middle and late pleistocene loess sequences at batajnica vojvodina serbia abstract loess sequences in the vojvodina region northern serbia reveal a continuous record of paleoclimatic variations during the middle and late pleistocene the most detailed stratigraphic information comes from remarkable exposures on the cliffs of the right danube bank from vukovar to belgrade the batajnica loess section has been recognized as one of the most complete middle and late pleistocene records in this region a more than 40 m thick loess paleosol succession represents environmental transition from relative thin loess layers and rubified soils in lower part of profile to thick loess and fossil chernozems characterizing the last three glacial interglacial cycles the proposed stratigraphic model is based on a detailed magnetic susceptibility ms record which is related to the deep sea isotope stratigraphy and on correlation with other eurasian loess records using the distinct ms pattern of selected loess paleosol couplets this new stratigraphic model suggests serious revision of previous chronological interpretations ms as function of depth shows a well known pattern of low values in loess and high values in paleosols indicating strong enhancement of magnetic minerals during soil formation with the exception of the recent soil v s0 which is strongly contaminated by archaeological artifacts the third paleosol v s3 reveals the highest values in ms and a very distinct double peak the rock magnetic signal at batajnica resembles the typical pattern of the enviromagnetic records determined from other eurasian loess sites the paleopedological interpretations rubification index values and rock magnetic record at batajnica yield valuable data for the reconstruction of paleoclimatic fluctuations for the last 5 glacial interglacial cycles at least moreover the record provides an important link between the classical central european loess sites and the central asian and chinese loess provinces

the effect of crown shape on the reflectance of coniferous stands abstract the kuusk nilson forest reflectance model was used to study the effect of crown shape on the reflectance of scots pine and norway spruce stands in the first part of the study we examined spruce and pine stands with an age range of 20 100 years and compared their simulated hemispherical directional reflectance factors hdrfs at nadir in red 661 nm nir 838 nm and mir 1677 nm when crowns were modeled as ellipsoids or cones in all the cases when a stand was modeled with conical crowns it had a smaller reflectance factor than the same stand with ellipsoidal crowns to analyze the sensitivity of hdrf on crown shape in the second part of the study we simulated the angular distributions of hdrf of two pine stands with different leaf area index lai and canopy closure values at 661 nm assuming four different crown shapes cone cylinder ellipsoid and cylinder bottom cone top and separated the components forming the hdrf considerable difference in the hdrf between the four crown shapes was observed the larger the crown volume the higher the canopy reflectance at similar lai and canopy closure a comparison of the two stands revealed that in denser stands with a higher canopy closure single scattering from tree crowns was responsible for the difference in hdrf between the different crown shapes whereas in stands with a smaller canopy closure the single scattering from ground dominated the hdrf finally the role of crown shape for the retrieval of lai by inversion from remotely sensed data is discussed

uniqueness of multiangular measurements i an indicator of subpixel surface heterogeneity from misr the recent availability of quasi simultaneous multispectral and multidirectional measurements from space as provided by the multi angle imaging spectroradiometer misr on board the terra platform offers new and unique opportunities to document the anisotropy of land surfaces at critical solar wavelengths this paper presents simple physical principles supporting the interpretation of the anisotropy of spectral radiances exiting terrestrial surfaces in terms of a signature of surface heterogeneity the shape of the anisotropy function is represented with two model parameter values which may be mapped and interpreted in their own right the value of one of these parameters also permits identifying geophysical conditions where the surface heterogeneity becomes significant and where three dimensional 3d radiation transfer effects have to be explicitly accounted for this paper documents these findings on the basis of results from a number of 3d radiation transfer model simulations the latter are used to perform an extensive sensitivity study which includes issues related to the scale of investigation a preliminary validation of these results conducted with a dataset collected by the airmisr instrument over the konza prairie is also discussed

krotovinas soil archives of steppe landscape history abstract krotovinas the burrows of small mammals are common phenomena in steppe landscapes and for a long time they have been a major point of discussions about the genesis of holocene chernozems in addition krotovinas provide a very valuable archive of the biological activities of soil which is essential when stratigraphical ambiguities are to be solved despite this krotovinas have received little attention within pedostratigraphical research using the example of the upper palaeolithic excavations kostienki and borshchevo in the middle russian steppe an integrative soil scientific approach highlights the importance of burrowing small mammals and of krotovina fillings resulting from both bioturbation and soil erosion in the late pleistocene based on field and laboratory data of sediments inside and outside krotovinas and 14c dating results from two sections this systematic approach demonstrates the high value of the burrow fillings black and humus speckled fillings belong to deep burrows of hamsters dating to the period of early holocene chernozem formation at the very beginning of the preboreal 10 8 ka cal bc greyish sediments originate either from ag bg horizons of the gmelin soil 25 22 ka or from other as yet unknown late valdai paleosols these fillings are the result of the activities of shallow burrowing lemmings in addition burrow fillings have provided optimal material for worms also fossil bones and teeth found within krotovina fillings give new insights into the occurrence of cricetus cricetus and lagurus lagurus in this part of the middle russian steppe

an introduction to the middle and upper pleistocene loess paleosol sequence at ruma brickyard vojvodina serbia abstract six loess units and five paleosols are preserved in the 20 m thick exposure of middle and late pleistocene sediments at ruma brickyard vojvodina serbia amino acid geochronology provides stratigraphic correlations between loess paleosol units sl l1 s1 sl l2 s2 sl l3 s3 and sl l4 at ruma with loess of glacial cycles b c and d and e respectively at other central and southeastern european localities the profile represents one of the best potential sections in the region for reconstructing detailed paleoclimates and paleoenvironments of the last ca 350 000 yr initial sedimentological magnetic and malacological evidence indicate many episodes of drier conditions in the region than in other parts of central and southeastern europe during the later part of the middle and late pleistocene

examination of sentinel 2a multi spectral instrument msi reflectance anisotropy and the suitability of a general method to normalize msi reflectance to nadir brdf adjusted reflectance abstract the sentinel 2a multi spectral instrument msi acquires multi spectral reflective wavelength observations with directional effects due to surface reflectance anisotropy and changes in the solar and viewing geometry directional effects were examined by considering two ten day periods of sentinel 2a data acquired close to the solar principal and orthogonal planes over approximately 20 10 of southern africa more than 6 6 million january 2016 and 10 6 million april 2016 pairs of reflectance observations sensed 3 or 7 days apart in the forward and backscatter directions in overlapping sentinel 2a orbit swaths were considered the sentinel 2a data were projected into the modis sinusoidal projection but first had to be registered due to a misregistration issue evident in the overlapping orbits the top of atmosphere reflectance data were corrected to surface reflectance using the sen2cor atmospheric correction software only pairs of forward and backward reflectance values that were cloud and snow free unsaturated and had no significant change in their 3 or 7 day separation were considered the maximum observed sentinel 2a view zenith angle was 11 93 greater brdf effects were apparent in the january data acquired close to the solar principal plane than the april data acquired close to the orthogonal plane and at higher view zenith angle for the january data the average difference between the surface reflectance in the forward and backward scatter directions at the sentinel 2a scan edges increased with wavelength from 0 035 blue 0 047 green 0 057 red 0 078 nir to about 0 1 swir these differences may constitute a significant source of noise for certain applications the suitability of a recently published methodology developed to generate landsat nadir brdf adjusted reflectance nbar was examined for sentinel 2a application the methodology uses fixed modis brdf spectral parameters and is attractive because it has little sensitivity to the land cover type condition or surface disturbance and can be derived in a computationally efficient manner globally it was applied to the southern africa sentinel 2a data and shown to reduce sentinel 2a brdf effects the average difference between the reflectance in the forward and backward scatter directions at the sentinel 2a scan edges was smaller in the nbar data than in the corresponding surface reflectance data residual brdf effects in the sentinel 2a nbar data occurred likely because of atmospheric correction and sensor calibration errors and inadequacies in the nbar derivation approach these issues are discussed with recommendations for future research including global and red edge sentinel 2a nbar derivation that were not considered in this study

geometric optical bidirectional reflectance modeling of a conifer forest canopy a geometric optical forest canopy model that treats conifers as cones casting shadows on a contrasting background explains the major anisotropies in bidirectional reflectance measurements of a conifer forest canopy taken from the literature the model uses parallelray geometry to describe the illumination and viewing of conifers as three dimensional cones cones are randomly placed and overlap freely cone size height is distributed lognormally and cone form described by the apex angle of the cone is a negative exponential function of height the cones are first presumed to be solid dark gray lambertian objects located on a lighter gray lambertian background to add realism translucence is added and light is allowed to pass through cones with negative exponential attenuation both computer simulation and analytical closed form expressions are implemented the results show a good qualitative agreement with the directional reflectance measurements of the conifer stand indicating that the three dimensional nature of the canopy is a key factor in determining its directional reflectance

canopy attributes of desert grassland and transition communities derived from multiangular airborne imagery abstract the surface bidirectional reflectance distribution function brdf contains valuable information on canopy physiognomy for desert grassland and grass shrub transition communities this information may be accessed by inverting a brdf model against sets of observations which encompass important variations in viewing and illumination angles this paper shows that structural canopy attributes can be derived through inversion of the simple geometric model sgm of the brdf developed in this paper it is difficult to sample brdf features from the ground because of the discontinuous nature of the canopies and long intrinsic length scales in remotely sensed spectral measures 10 m a multispectral digital camera was therefore used to derive spatial multiangular reflectance data sets from the air and the sgm was validated against and inverted with these it was also validated using 3 d radiosity simulations driven with maps of field measured plant dimensions the interpretation of the retrieved parameter maps shrub density shrub width and canopy height reveals variations in canopy structure within desert grassland and grassland shrubland transition communities which are clearly related to structural and optical features in high resolution panchromatic and vegetation index images to our knowledge this paper reports on the first attempts to acquire structural canopy attributes of desert landscapes using multiple view angle data at scales less than 1 km the results point to further opportunities to exploit multiangular data from spaceborne sensors such as the multiangle imaging spectroradiometer misr and the compact high resolution imaging spectrometer chris on the nasa terra and european space agency s proba satellites respectively

early middle pleistocene transitions an overview and recommendation for the defining boundary the early middle pleistocene transition c 1 2 0 5 ma sometimes known as the mid pleistocene revolution represents a major episode in earth history low amplitude 41 ka obliq uity forced climate cycles of the earlier pleistocene were replaced progressively in the later pleistocene by high amplitude 100 ka cycles these later cycles are indicative of slow ice build up and subsequent rapid melting and imply a transition to a strongly non linear forced climate system changes were accompanied by substantially increased global ice volume at 940 ka these climate transformations particularly the increasing severity and duration of cold stages have had a pro found effect on the biota and the physical landscape especially in the northern hemisphere this review assesses and integrates the marine and terrestrial evidence for change across this transition based on the literature and especially the following 17 chapters in the present volume orbital and non orbital climate forcing palaeoceanography stable isotopes organic geochemistry marine micropalaeontology glacial history loess palaeosol sequences pollen analysis large and small mammal palaeoecology and stratigraphy and human evolution and dispersal are all considered and a series of discrete events is identified from marine isotope stage mis 36 c 1 2 ma to mis 13 c 540 460 ma of these the cold mis 22 c 880 870 ka is perhaps the most profound however we here endorse earlier views that on practical grounds the matuyama brunhes palaeomagnetic chron boundary mid point at 773 ka with an estimated duration of 7 ka would serve as the best overall guide for establishing the early middle pleistocene subseries boundary

angular signatures of surface reflectances from airborne polder data abstract thanks to its optical design the airborne polder instrument allows a multidirectional measurement of the surface reflectance during the la crau 91 experiment the radiometer has been flying over a study area of 10 km x 10 km composed of various cultivated fields the measurements have been registered on a regular grid of resolution 100 m for each grid point up to 50 directional measurements provide an adequate description of the surface reflectance directional signature these signatures are discussed for a few selected targets representative of the area the measurements show typical features of the reflectance angular signature including the hot spot and specular reflection the quality of the measurements is shown to be satisfactory a simple directional model is then applied to the measurements it provides for each of the l0 4 grid points a normalized reflectance corrected for the angular effects together with two parameters that give a quantitative assessment of the directional signature the article discusses these parameters and the ability of the model to represent the measurements some spatial structure of directional signature is apparent in the study area and is consistent with a land use map of this area the squared correlation coefficient r2 of the fit between model and observations is larger than 0 8 for 50 of the area and smaller than 0 5 for about 20 of it at 550 nm and 850 nm the part of the area for which the model is not satisfactory corresponds primarily to pixels with a larger specular reflection signal or with few directional measurements angular signatures of reflectances are measured here at the regional scale a key step for the preparation of the operational processing of spaceborne polder measurements at the global scale

coexisting amphiboles in an eclogite from the western alps new constraints on the miscibility gap between sodic and calcic amphiboles crystal chemical relationships between coexisting sodic and calcic amphiboles have been studied in eclogitic metagabbros from the aosta valley western alps textural analysis gives evidence of three successive high pressure parageneses 1 pre kinematic high grade blueschist assemblages preserved as polymineralic inclusions in garnet cores and made of glaucophane and actinolite stage a 2 synkinematic eclogite assemblages composed of garnet omphacite glaucophane actinolite white mica clinozoisite quartz rutile stage b 3 post kinematic epitactic overgrowths of barroisitic amphibole on glaucophane and actinolite stage c p t conditions of the eclogitic metamorphism have been estimated at around 500 550 c 16 kbar glaucophane and actinolite coexist as discrete grains in stage a and b assemblages this texture and the chemistry of the amphiboles unambiguously denotes the existence of a miscibility gap between sodic and calcic amphiboles from nam4 0 80 in actinolite to nam4 1 70 in glaucophane at t 500 550 c a comparison with published analyses allows a new solvus along the glaucophane actinolite join to be drawn the later barroisitic amphibole stage c exhibits strong chemical zonation indicating disequilibrium growth this amphibole cannot either be used to define a miscibility gap with glaucophane or actinolite or be considered as an intermediate stage between these two end members

an aminostratigraphy for the british quaternary based on bithynia opercula aminostratigraphies of quaternary non marine deposits in europe have been previously based on the racemization of a single amino acid in aragonitic shells from land and freshwater molluscs the value of analysing multiple amino acids from the opercula of the freshwater gastropod bithynia which are composed of calcite has been demonstrated the protocol used for the isolation of intra crystalline proteins from shells has been applied to these calcitic opercula which have been shown to more closely approximate a closed system for indigenous protein residues original amino acids are even preserved in bithyniid opercula from the eocene showing persistence of indigenous organics for over 30 million years geochronological data from opercula are superior to those from shells in two respects first in showing less natural variability and second in the far better preservation of the intra crystalline proteins possibly resulting from the greater stability of calcite these features allow greater temporal resolution and an extension of the dating range beyond the early middle pleistocene here we provide full details of the analyses for 480 samples from 100 horizons 75 sites ranging from late pliocene to modern these show that the dating technique is applicable to the entire quaternary data are provided from all the stratotypes from british stages to have yielded opercula which are shown to be clearly separable using this revised method further checks on the data are provided by reference to other type sites for different stages including some not formally defined additional tests are provided by sites with independent geochronology or which can be associated with a terrace stratigraphy or biostratigraphy this new aminostratigraphy for the non marine quaternary deposits of southern britain provides a framework for understanding the regional geological and archaeological record comparison with reference to sites yielding independent geochronology in combination with other lines of evidence allows tentative correlation with the marine oxygen isotope record

middle and late pleistocene loess of the western ciscaucasia stratigraphy lithology and composition due to the high preservation of the loess series and the availability of coastal outcrop sections loess cover of western ciscaucasia has ample opportunities for spatial paleogeographical reconstructions for the middle and late pleistocene currently the level of knowledge on the structure and composition of the loess paleosol sequences of western ciscaucasia remains unequal the azov coast is studied in more detail in comparison with the inner part of the region the structure and composition of the loess paleosol sequences of different parts of western ciscaucasia the sea of azov coast and western macroslope of the stavropol upland for the middle and late pleistocene are compared comparison of the loess paleosol sequences key sections are based on investigations of litho and pedostratigraphy magnetic susceptibility grain size elemental and mineral composition and luminescence dating recent results of luminescence dating allowed correcting the structure of the mezin pedocomplex s1 it was found out that this pedocomplex includes three phases of soil formation s1ss1 s1ss2 s1ss3 which approximately correspond to the warm stages of marine isotope stage 5 mis 5 5a 5c 5e in all sections a clear trend towards an increase in the accumulation rates over the last three climatic macrocycles is observed the last interglacial glacial macrocycle miss 2 5 is characterized by the most significant increase in average accumulation rates which were 1 8 times higher compared to miss 6 7 and 2 3 times higher than during the miss 8 9 a likely reason for the regional increase in the average dust accumulation rate was the directional increase in climate aridity the patterns of the spatial distribution of the loess thickness and material composition indicate that the main source of aeolian dust is situated in the east we suppose that the main sources of dust are sand masses of the alluvial plains of lover volga terek kuma and kura rivers in the caspian lowland the lower don sandy province is reconstructed to be a secondary source dust is blown from the sandy terraces of the don and in the past from the don deltas during the period when the sea of azov dried up

micromammals from the 1995 mammoth excavation at west runton norfolk uk morphometric data biostratigraphy and taxonomic reappraisal abstract in this paper the small mammals recovered from sediments associated with the west runton elephant have been analysed and compared with sites in other parts of europe major taxonomical problems are indicated and we suggest ways of utilising such morphological complexity to refine biostratigraphical and chronostratigraphic attributions the micromammal assemblage from the west runton elephant site so far totals 16 species from the west runton freshwater bed wrfb there are strong similarities with the arvicolid spectrum of basal layer h8 in the kon prusy c 718 profile czech republic which accumulated under cooler conditions preceding the thermal maximum of an early middle pleistocene interglacial rare steppic indicators e g cricetus at west runton also imply a somewhat cooler and more continental climate than the present day but overall the fauna is fully temperate in character west runton shares several stratigraphically significant small mammal taxa with voigtstedt central germany and morphometric comparisons suggest that voigtstedt may be slightly younger than west runton the presence of mimomys savini with a latest occurrence in the early part of marine isotope stage mis 15 together with the palaeomagnetic evidence suggests the wrfb may have been emplaced during the early part of mis 17 however given the complexity of the marine isotope curve during the early part of the brunhes chron and differences between global and regional climatic evolution it is difficult to assign the normally magnetised wrfb to a particular marine isotope stage mis

developing clear sky cloud and cloud shadow mask for producing clear sky composites at 250 meter spatial resolution for the seven modis land bands over canada and north america abstract a new technology was developed at the canada centre for remote sensing ccrs for generating canada wide and north america continental scale clear sky composites at 250 m spatial resolution for all seven modis land spectral bands b1 b7 the modis level 1b mod02 swath level data are used as input to circumvent the problems with image distortion in the mid latitude and polar regions inherent to the global sinusoidal sin projection utilized for the standard modis data products the modis 500 m land bands b3 to b7 are first downscaled to 250 m resolution using an adaptive regression and normalization scheme for compatibility with the 250 m bands b1 and b2 a new method has been developed to produce the mask of clear sky cloud and cloud shadow at 250 m resolution it shows substantial advantages in comparison with the modis 250 m standard cloud masks the testing of new cloud mask showed that it is in reasonable agreement with the modis 1 km standard product once it is aggregated to 1 km scale while the cloud shadow detection looks more reliable with the new methodology nevertheless more quantitative analyses of the presented scene identification technique are required to understand its performance over the range of input scenes in various seasons the new clear sky compositing scheme employs a scene dependent decision matrix it is demonstrated that this new scheme provides better results than any others based on a single compositing criterion such as maximum ndvi or minimum visible reflectance to account for surface bi directional properties two clear sky composites for the same time period are produced by separating backward scattering and forward scattering geometries which separate pixels with the sun satellite relative azimuth angles within 90 270 and outside of this range comparison with landsat imagery and with modis standard composite products demonstrated the advantage of the new technique for screening cloud and cloud shadow and generating high spatial resolution modis clear sky composites the new data products are mapped in the lambert conformal conic lcc projection for canada and the lambert azimuthal equal area laea projection for north america presently this activity is limited to modis terra due to known problems with band to band registration and noisy swir channels on modis aqua

airborne measurement of hot spot reflectance signatures the so called hot spot is a fine directional signature of the surface reflectance observed for phase angles close to zero in this paper we analyze and discuss several such signatures acquired from the airborne polder and hymap instruments during the daisex 99 campaign over agricultural crops the observed signatures are very similar to those acquired from space at a resolution of several tens of kilometers j geophys res 107 2002 which provides further evidence that the hot spot is a scale free feature the hot spots can be fitted by a two parameter function amplitude and width of the phase angle derived from canopy radiative transfer modeling the model predicts that the amplitude is directly related to the leaf reflectance while the width is a function of the canopy structure the retrieved leaf reflectance values over a wide spectral range are in very good agreement with noncoincident laboratory measurement the retrieved half widths are on the order of 1 with no significant variability between the analyzed targets there is an apparent spectral variability in the half width a feature in contradiction with the modeling although the variations are not larger than the uncertainties

characterizing winter landfast sea ice surface roughness in the canadian arctic archipelago using sentinel 1 synthetic aperture radar and the multi angle imaging spectroradiometer

building a forward mode three dimensional reflectance model for topographic normalization of high resolution 1 5 m imagery validation phase in a forested environment the aim of the topographic normalization of remotely sensed imagery tnrsi is to reduce reflectance variability caused by steep terrain and subsequently to improve land cover classification recently multiple forward mode fm mfm reflectance models for topographic normalizations of medium resolution 20 30 m satellite imagery have improved the classification of forested covers with respect to more conventional topographic corrections we propose an fm 3 d reflectance fm3dr model based on the discrete anisotropic radiative transfer simulator for the topographic normalization of high resolution 1 5 m imagery the feasibility of this approach was first verified on real ikonos imagery for three forest types within major biomes oak pine and high tropical forest in mexico next we formalized the topographic normalization performance index and variability as relevant criteria to test tnrsi across incident angles in terms of maximum likelihood classification effectiveness the fm3dr model outperformed five previously published topographic corrections cosine minnaert sun canopy sensor scs civco two stage and slope matching corrections and image based statistical strategies civco two stage and slope matching corrections tended to perform better than more analytical strategies cosine minnaert and scs corrections an asset of this approach versus former models is the realistic account of terrain related variation of understory and crown cover within a cover type on top of that once validated across forest types the model is sufficient for the application of a full mfm 3 d reflectance based topographic normalization without additional field measurement

synthesis and characterization of amphiboles along the tremolite glaucophane join actinolite and glaucophane are the principal amphiboles in greenschist and blueschist facies metamafic rocks respectively and constitute an important mineral pair for deducing the conditions of medium and high pressure metamorphism here we present the crystal chemical properties of amphiboles synthesized along the tremolite glaucophane join as an important starting point for the more chemically complex samples occurring in nature amphiboles were synthesized in 10 mol increments at conditions ranging from 840 c and 0 6 gpa for tremolite rich to 750 c and 2 5 gpa for glaucophane rich amphiboles the amphibole yields were generally high 95 wt though minor quartz pyroxene and amorphous material either glass or quenched solute were often present electron microprobe analysis of the amphibole showed that deviations from the nominal or intended compositions occurred with the observed compositions showing solid solution primarily toward the katophorite component and reaching a maximum near the middle of the join unit cell dimensions showed a pronounced positive deviation from ideality even after linear correction for the non join components suggesting a strong tendency toward exsolution single crystal refinements of a couple of selected amphiboles confirmed the deviation from nominal composition and confirmed the presence of ana tal and cal the latter disordered between the m 2 and m 3 sites infrared spectra in the oh stretching region were measured on samples that were heated to 250 350 c to remove absorbed moisture the spectra consist of a main band centered in the 3675 3660 cm 1 region and two minor absorptions on both sides of the dominant central peak which are centered at 3720 and 3640 cm 1 and can be attributed to oh next to ana and cal respectively the main band is evidently composed of several overlapping components due to local arrangements of b cations typical of tremolite caca glaucophane nana and cummingtonite mgmg examination of several intermediate amphiboles by both single crystal xrd and by high resolution tem analysis could not identify evidence of reflections or ordered domains that would violate the c 2 m symmetry of the end member amphiboles comparing the compositions of the synthetic amphiboles from this study with winchite rich amphiboles in nature shows that deviations from the tremolite glaucophane join are common the inability to make pure winchite or even winchite rich amphiboles on the tremolite glaucophane join suggests that this structure is unstable