Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Sensitivity of stratospheric geoengineering with black carbon to aerosol size and altitude of injection

[1] Simulations of stratospheric geoengineering with black carbon (BC) aerosols using a general circulation model with fixed sea surface temperatures show that the climate effects strongly depend on aerosol size and altitude of injection. 1 Tg BC a−1 injected into the lower stratosphere would cause little surface cooling for large radii but a large amount of surface cooling for small radii and stratospheric warming of over 60°C. With the exception of small particles, increasing the altitude of injection increases surface cooling and stratospheric warming. Stratospheric warming causes global ozone loss by up to 50% in the small radius case. The Antarctic shows less ozone loss due to reduction of polar stratospheric clouds, but strong circumpolar winds would enhance the Arctic ozone hole. Using diesel fuel to produce the aerosols is likely prohibitively expensive and infeasible. Although studying an absorbing aerosol is a useful counterpart to previous studies involving sulfate aerosols, black carbon geoengineering likely carries too many risks to make it a viable option for deployment.
Paléomagnétisme et datation du volcanisme permien, triasique et crétacé du Maroc

Paleomagnetism and K–Ar dating of Permian, Triassic, and Cretaceous rocks from Morocco. We have sampled and studied volcanic rocks from the whole of Morocco. Permo-Carboniferous rocks give a magnetic pole situated at 36°N and 238°E (four sites, K = 23, A95 = 20°). Triassic dolerites dated on plagioclases from 205–180 Ma have a mean pole at 72°N, 218°E (34 sites, K = 17, A95 = 6°). Middle Jurassic and Lower Cretaceous basalts and dolentes from l'Atlas de Beni Mellal (ages from 170–120 Ma) have a pole at 45°N and 251°E (13 sites, K = 26, A95 = 8°). The results may be interpreted by clockwise rotation within Morocco. We compare them also with those from other continents.
Gaze estimation using a hybrid appearance and motion descriptor

It is a challenging problem to realize a robust and low cost gaze estimation system. Existing appearance-based and feature-based methods both have achieved impressive progress in the past several years, while their improvements are still limited by feature representation. Therefore, in this paper, we propose a novel descriptor combining eye appearance and pupil center-cornea reflections (PCCR). The hybrid gaze descriptor represents eye structure from both feature level and topology level. At the feature level, a glints-centered appearance descriptor is presented to capture intensity and contour information of eye, and a polynomial representation of normalized PCCR vector is employed to capture motion information of eyeball. At the topology level, the partial least squares is applied for feature fusion and selection. At last, sparse representation based regression is employed to map the descriptor to the point-of-gaze (PoG). Experimental results show that the proposed method achieves high accuracy and has a good tolerance to head movements.
Dynamic measurements of serum inhibin B and estradiol: apredictive evaluation of ovarian response to gonadotrophin stimulation in the early stage of IVF treatment

ObjectiveWe dynamically measured serum inhibin B and estradiol in the early stage of hormonal stimulation to predict the ovarian response in in vitro fertilization (IVF) treatment.MethodsA total of 57 patients (<40 years of age) who underwent the first cycle of long protocol IVF or introcytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI) treatment were included. Serum inhibin B, estradiol, follicle stimulating hormone (FSH) and luteinizing hormone (LH) levels were measured four times: (1) on Day 3 of the menstrual cycle (basal); (2) on the day before the first administration of gonadotrophin (Gn) (Day 0); (3) on Day 1 of Gn therapy; and (4) on Day 5 of Gn therapy. Comparisons of these measurements with ovarian responses and pregnancy outcomes were made and analyzed statistically.Results(1) On Day 1 and Day 5 of recombinant FSH (rFSH) stimulation, ovarian response, i.e., numbers of follicles, oocytes, fertilized oocytes, and embryos, had a positive correlation (rs=0.46∼0.61, P=0.000) with raised inhibin B and estradiol concentrations, but a negative correlation (rs=−0.67∼−0.38, P=0.000 or P<0.01) with total rFSH dose and total days of rFSH stimulation. (2) No significant variation (P>0.05) between the pregnant and non-pregnant groups on the basis of mean age or on all hormone concentrations at four times of the IVF cycle was observed. However, all the seven patients aged >35 years did not reach pregnancy.Conclusions(1) Serum inhibin B and estradiol concentrations obtained shortly after Gn therapy may offer an accurate and early prediction of ovarian response; (2) Low levels of serum inhibin B and estradiol obtained shortly after Gn stimulation indicate the need for a longer period of Gn treatment and a higher daily dosage; (3) No obvious pregnancy difference among patients of age <35 years was found; however, IVF pregnancy outcome is significantly lower in women of age >35 years.
A simple kinetic theory calculation of terrestrial atomic hydrogen escape fluxes induced by charge exchange collisions

A simple kinetic theory model is presented for the calculation of atomic hydrogen escape fluxes from earth induced by charge exchange collisions with hot protons. An analytical expression is derived for the nonthermal flux in terms of atmospheric and dynamical variables. The results, which indicate an increase in the nonthermal flux with decreasing exospheric temperature, are in good agreement with the earlier estimates by Bertaux (1975).
Correlation between particle injections observed at geosynchronous orbit and the Dst index during geomagnetic storms

[1] To understand the relationship between geomagnetic storms and substorms, we examine the correlation between dispersionless proton injections observed by geosynchronous satellites and the Dst index during geomagnetic storms. It is not possible to deduce the amount of the total energy injection into the inner magnetosphere from measurements only by one or two satellites. Nonetheless, we may obtain a quantity that is proportional to the true injection rate during magnetic storms by estimating the flux increase expressed in terms of the flux ratio (fmax/fpre_ave) and the number of injections, where fpre_ave and fmax represent the average flux of prestorm level and onset level, respectively. Thus we propose to introduce a parameter, “total energy injection parameter” (TEIP), defined by the product of the flux ratio and the number of injections, as an indicator of the energy injected into the inner magnetosphere. Several interesting points are noted, particularly for the main phase of storms. First, the number of particle injections tends to increase with the storm size. Second, the flux ratio (fmax/fpre_ave) also tends to increase with the storm size. Third, there is also a significantly high correlation between TEIP and Dstmin. In particular, the correlation coefficients are very high, above 0.85, for those channels of energy, 50–400 keV, which represent the typical energy range of ring current particles. These results indicate that the substorm expansion activity is higher during the main phase than the recovery phase, suggesting that the substorm expansion activity seems to be closely associated with the development of magnetic storms.
Research on glaciers and snow in New Zealand

The glaciers and snowfields of the Southern Alps of New Zealand are the most significant in the Southern Hemisphere outside Antarctica and South America. The most substantial data on Southern Hemisphere glacier fluctuations come from New Zealand. The nature and behaviour of New Zealand's glaciers are also of wider scientific interest, because they are highly sensitive, high input-output systems that represent the temperate, maritime end of the glacier process-behaviour continuum. The areal extent and volume of glaciers and snow are outlined and an assessment is made of their scientific relevance and of their importance as resources and hazards. The main themes and progress of research on glaciers and snow, including snow avalanches, are reviewed. Glacier research has concentrated on only a few key glaciers and has focused on understanding glacier change. Main topics covered in this review relate to this focus and include fluctuations in termini, other mass balance signals and response to climate variability. Research on mass balance processes, glacier dynamics and glacier hydrology is also outlined. Seasonal snow has received less attention until recently. The main emphasis has been on quantification and past variability and its contribution to river flow, particularly in the most important hydroelectric power catchments of the South Island. Some field measurements have been made of the energy balance over snow. Research on snow avalanches has grown as the demands of winter recreation and alpine tourism have increased the hazard. Research first concentrated on production of avalanche atlases for the most hazardous areas and on quantifying the nature of the hazard. Subsequently, there has been a shift towards more process studies that are related to avalanche formation and runout distance. The main gaps in research on glaciers and snow are identified and key areas for future work proposed. There is an urgent need, in particular, for glacier mass-balance measurements. Extensive data on snow structure need to be synthesized. Satellite imagery should be used for monitoring of seasonal snow. Snow melt during northwest storms needs to be better defined. A more developed engineering approach is required for the study of snow avalanches. New Zealand offers exciting possibilities for the study of cryospheric processes, including response to future climate change.
Evaluating some proposed matrices for scoring sub-optimal red-cockaded woodpecker foraging habitat in relation to the 2003 recovery plan

We have used RCWFAT (an ARC-INFO program that evaluates RCW habitat) to examine the 2003 Red Cockaded Woodpecker (RCW) Recovery Plan, which will influence silvicultural activities on large tracts of southeastern forests. The new plan includes 11 specific characteristics of forest stands that constitute ? Good Quality Foraging Habitat? (GQFH) and requires 120 to 200 acres of GQFH for each RCW group. To evaluate the criteria requires a minimum data set that is not met by most product-based forest inventory data. The criteria of GQFH also define ideal RCW habitat. When used as a pass-fail system, the criteria of the Recovery Plan are a poor ecosystem management tool. On the Oakmulgee Ranger District, where the RCW population is declining, only 2 of 189 clusters had sufficient GQFH. On Ft. Bragg, NC, where the RCW population is increasing, only 19 of 496 clusters had sufficient GQFH. Few foraging areas met all of the criteria, and few would meet the criteria after a single silvicultural treatment. An effort has been underway to develop a method to rank less-than-ideal habitat. We examine three alternatives considered in the pursuit of such a method. Scoring of individual stands has proven relatively consistent in all three alternatives. Due to the complexity of interaction among the 11 criteria, efforts to establish scores for entire cluster forage partitions have produced inconsistent results.
Climate impact of air traffic emissions in dependency of the emission location and altitude

Within the present work, the dependency of air traffic climate effects with respect to the emission location and altitude is investigated by means of the three-dimensional chemistry-climate-model ECHAM4.L39(DLR)/CHEM/ATTILA. Numerous simulations employing idealized aircraft-like emissions are carried out to systematically study effects of air traffic on contrail coverage, water vapour, ozone and methane and air traffic induced radiative forcing with respect to the emission location and altitude. For the composition of present day air traffic emissions, the overall radiative forcing from non-CO2 effects increases strongly with emission altitude and slightly from the extra-tropics to the tropics, with the largest potential contributions resulting from ozone and stratospheric water vapour. The results of these idealized simulations are used to test whether the climate impact of a realistic air traffic inventory can be reconstructed by linearly recombining these pre-calculated idealized data. This methodology may be particularly useful for the optimization of flight paths with respect to minimum climate impact, as this off-line reconstruction of air traffic perturbations could bypass time consuming global three-dimensional simulations. Perturbations determined by the linear recombination indeed compare well with effects determined by comprehensive chemistry-climate-model simulations. Furthermore, the findings indicate a high potential to reduce non-CO2 air traffic climate effects through optimized flight routing.
A three‐dimensional transport model study of PSC processing during EASOE

A 3D transport model has been used to investigate the extent of processing of air by polar stratospheric clouds (PSCs) during the northern winter 1991–92 and the potential for subsequent ozone destruction. The model is forced using the winds and temperatures from the European Centre for Medium Range Weather Forecasts analyses and the transport of tracers is performed using a non-diffusive scheme, which is important when dealing with localised regions of PSCs. Model experiments have been performed from late November 1991 to the end of February 1992 with tracers introduced in the model to indicate the amount of air which has been processed by PSCs and the amount of time that this perturbed air has subsequently been exposed to sunlight. In the model experiments PSC processing started sporadically in December. By early January air in the polar lower stratosphere had been extensively processed. The occurrence of large-scale PSCs terminated with a minor warming in January. The inferred chemical ozone loss in the model experiments, while sensitive to some assumed parameters, is small and limited by the availability of sunlight.
Seasonal and long‐term dynamics of the upper ocean carbon cycle at Station ALOHA near Hawaii

Long‐term trends and average seasonal variability in the upper ocean carbon cycle are investigated at Station ALOHA, the site of the U.S. JGOFS Hawaii Ocean Time series program (HOT), on the basis of a 14‐year time series (1988–2002) of dissolved inorganic carbon (DIC), alkalinity, and 13C/12C ratio of DIC data. Salinity‐normalized DIC (sDIC) and computed oceanic pCO2 show distinct upward trends of 1.2 ± 0.1 μmol kg−1 yr−1 and 2.5 ± 0.1 μatm yr−1, respectively, while the 13C/12C isotopic ratio of DIC (expressed as δ13Coc) decreases at a mean rate of −0.027 ± 0.001‰ yr−1. More than half of the rates of change in sDIC and oceanic pCO2, and most of the change in 13C/12C, are attributed to the uptake of isotopically light anthropogenic CO2 from the atmosphere. The residual trends appear to be caused mainly by a regional change in the net freshwater budget, perhaps associated with a regime change of the North Pacific climate system near 1997. Computed oceanic pCO2 is below atmospheric pCO2 for nearly the entire year, leading to an annual mean surface ocean pCO2 undersaturation of about 18 μatm, and to an annual uptake of CO2 from the atmosphere, which we compute to be 1.0 ± 0.1 mol m−2 yr−1. We estimate that about 30% of this flux relates to the uptake of anthropogenic CO2, and the remainder to biologically mediated export of organic carbon. Using a modified version of the diagnostic model of Gruber et al. [1998] , constrained by δ13Coc, we infer net community production of organic carbon (NCP) to be the dominant process generating the observed seasonal variability in sDIC. The annual integral of NCP, 2.3 ± 0.8 mol m−2 yr−1, is comparable to previous estimates of biological production in the subtropical North Pacific. Annually integrated fluxes of air‐sea gas exchange and NCP at Station ALOHA are each about two thirds of those computed for the upper ocean near Bermuda using similar methods of estimation [ Gruber et al., 1998 , 2002 ]. However, the seasonal amplitudes of sDIC and δ13Coc near Hawaii are only half as large as near Bermuda, because air‐sea gas exchange and NCP tend to oppose each other near Hawaii, but reinforce each other near Bermuda.
Evolution of the Lorenz Energy Cycle in the Intertropical Convergence Zone in the South American Sector of the Atlantic Ocean

AbstractThe intertropical convergence zone (ITCZ) in the South American sector of the Atlantic Ocean is identified using outgoing longwave radiation (OLR) data in order to investigate the evolution of the Lorenz energy cycle in the region dominated by this large-scale feature. The NCEP reanalysis data are utilized to calculate the zonal and eddy components (denoted by Z and E, respectively) of kinetic energy K and available potential energy A (i.e., KZ, KE, AZ, and AE) and their conversions, on a daily basis. A wavelet decomposition of the time series is performed to detect long-term cycles/trends in the Atlantic ITCZ region. This work also investigates trends in sea surface temperature (SST) and sea level pressure (SLP) in the ITCZ region and connections between the ITCZ and the Southern Oscillation index (SOI). A strong annual cycle in all the energy components with high peaks in austral summer is observed. Approximately 91% of the zonal component of energy is contained on decadal or longer time scales.
An Early Miocene biserial foraminiferal event in the Transylvanian Basin (Romania)

An Early Miocene biserial foraminiferal event in the Transylvanian Basin (Romania) Investigations of the Lower Miocene of the Transylvanian Basin reveal particularly high abundances (> 90 % of total foraminifera) of small sized biserial foraminifera (Bolivina/Streptochilus). This biotic event has not been noticed in the Transylvanian Basin so far probably owing to the facies misinterpretation and the small size of the specimens. SEM investigations allow more precise identification of biserial planktonic taxa and more accurate taxonomic interpretations. The high abundance of Bolivina/Streptochilus assemblages provide evidence for paleogeographic connections to the Indo-Pacific area and support new paleoenvironmental interpretations at the transition from the Early to Middle Miocene in relation to the paleoceanographic events. Both planktonic foraminifera and calcareous nannoplankton suggest a late Burdigalian age. A new Bolivina/Streptochilus Abundance Biozone is proposed just below the Early/Middle Miocene boundary.
Post-fire recovery of leaf area index in California chaparral: A remote sensing-chronosequence approach

Fire is a major driver of land surface transformation in California Mediterranean-type shrublands (i.e. chaparral). The re-growth of leaves following fire impacts a wide variety of ecosystem processes and information on the post-fire recovery of leaf area index (LAI) is often required in eco-hydrologic modelling studies. A few studies have reported LAI values for chaparral, but none have tracked LAI dynamics over the entire post-fire recovery sequence. In this study we used a chronosequence approach with satellite imagery to determine the post-fire development sequence of LAI for chaparral shrublands in central California. Moreover, we explored how LAI varied with differences in annual antecedent precipitation conditions (APC) and physical site factors. LAI recovery following fire was most rapid during the first 15 years, after which it remained relatively constant with increasing stand age. For a given stand age, LAI varied nonlinearly with annual APC, while spatial variations in LAI were associated with differences in topographic aspect and landscape wetness potential. However, a better understanding of the nature and interaction of these controls on LAI is needed if realistic post-fire LAI trajectories (for historic, present and future periods) for eco-hydrological modelling studies in chaparral catchments are to be developed in the future.
The Occurrence of Metallic Iron in Ancient Copper

Abstract Of the many thousands of chemical or spectrochemical analyses of ancient copper, principally from central and northern Europe, and available in the literature, only a few report iron in excess of 1% and, in general, of these the iron occurs in Iron Age metal. On the other hand, some recent articles report much higher iron, these data being supplemented by our own investigations. These high-iron coppers are from Sardinia, Greece, Israel, Egypt, and India, and range in date from the Chalcolithic and Early Bronze Age through the Iron Age.Of 61 copper specimens found at Nichoria, a recently excavated site in the sw Peloponnese, 11 were found to be ferromagnetic, and ranged in age from Early Bronze Age to Byzantine. In a number of specimens, which have been examined spectrochemically and metallographically, the magnetic response is closely proportional to the total iron in the sample.Although Iron Age copper that contains appreciable iron can be explained by accidental addition of the impurity, no suc.
Winter temperature extremes in China and their possible causes

Cold and warm temperature extremes predominantly occurring in winter gained much more attention than mean temperatures. On the basis of daily maximum and minimum surface air temperature records at 303 meteorological stations in China, the spatial and temporal distributions of five indices for winter (DJF: December, subsequent January and February) temperature extremes are analysed during 1961–2003. For the majority of stations, the frequency of cold days/nights decreases by − 1.33/− 2.98 and warm days/nights increases by 0.92/2.35 d/decade, respectively. Cold days/nights are significantly negatively correlated with the Arctic Oscillation (AO) index, while warm days/nights are positively correlated with the AO. The diurnal temperature range (DTR) has a declining trend with rate of − 0.25 °C/decade and positive correlation with the AO index. Compared with other regions in China, stations in the northern China have larger trend magnitudes and stronger correlations with the AO index, and the AO can explain more than 50% of winter temperature extreme change in China. Compared with the annual basis, the winter temperature extremes have larger trend magnitudes, which reflect the rapid warming. During strongly positive AO index years, enhanced contrast tropospheric temperature (defined as the average of air temperature vertically integrated between 200 hPa and 1000 hPa based on the National Centers for Environmental Prediction/National Center for Atmospheric Research reanalysis) between the north of China and the southern China weakens the East Asian winter monsoon which in turn reduces cold outbreaks in the northern and eastern China. The composites of large‐scale atmospheric circulation are consistent with the asymmetrical changes of the geopotential height, zonal and meridional winds at high and mid latitudes at troposphere. Meanwhile, the linkage between the AO and solar activity also modulates the winter temperature extremes, while the mechanism needs to be investigated. Copyright © 2012 Royal Meteorological Society
Activity patterns of the spotted-necked otter in the Natal Drakensberg, South Africa

Activity patterns of the spotted-necked otter Lutra maculicollis were determined in a Drakensberg catchment of KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa. Analysis showed that the spotted-necked otter is active when its efficiency in detecting its fish prey by sight is high, that is during daylight and moonlight.