bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Uncertainty and Impact of Aerosol-Cloud Interaction in the Unified Forecast System
Authors: Yang Fanglin , Cheng Anning
Published: March 2024

NOAA is collaborating with the US weather and climate science community to develop the fully coupled Unified Forecast System (UFS) for both research and operations across different temporal and spatial scales.  Active development and evaluation are underway to improve the representation of aerosols and its interaction with radiation and clouds in UFS applications.  Aerosols, acting as cloud condensation nuclei and ice nuclei,  affect cloud droplet number concentration and size, cloud lifetime and consequently cloud radiative properties.   Up to now, the impact of aerosols on clouds has not been included in UFS global applications for operation.  In this study we activate the interactions of aerosols with clouds in the Thompson double moment microphysics scheme used by the UFS-based  Global Forecast System (GFS) application.  MERRA2 aerosol climatologies instead of prognostic aerosols are employed for this study to reduce the complexity and uncertainty in aerosol prediction itself.  GFS free forecasts at the 13-km horizontal resolution for the summer of 2020 were conducted to investigate the uncertainty of the representation of aerosol-cloud interaction and the associated impact on GFS medium-range weather forecasts.   The experiment with aerosol-cloud interaction produced an overall larger number concentration of cloud droplets and cloud liquid mixing ratio, and larger number concentration of cloud ice and ice mixing ratio in the low-middle troposphere, but less above the upper troposphere.  The relationships between aerosol optical depth and cloud droplet number concentration were analyzed and compared with MODIS retrievals. In addition, the relationships between aerosol loading and optical properties with liquid water path, shortwave and long wave radiation were examined.  CCPP single column model was also used to help understand the uncertainty of aerosol-cloud interaction algorithms employed by the UFS.  
A piping erosion susceptibility map of Europe
Authors: Bernatek-Jakiel Anita , Vanmaercke Matthias , Poesen Jean , Biernacka Anna , Borrelli Pasquale , Derii Anastasiia , Hałys Joanna , Holden Joseph , Jakab Gergely , Jakiel Michał , Panagos Panos , Piątek Dawid , Regensburg Taco H. , Rodzik Jan , Nadal-Romero Estela , Stolarczyk Mateusz , Verachtert Els , Wacławczyk Patryk , Zgłobicki Wojciech
Published: March 2024

Soil erosion represents a crucial environmental issue worldwide that threatens land, freshwater, and oceans. Subsurface erosion by soil piping occurs in almost all climatic zones of the world and in various soil types. Its occurrence changes the conditions for controlling measures to reduce soil degradation. However, it remains one of the most overlooked soil erosion processes, and its global and regional recognition is poorly documented. This project aims to construct a piping erosion susceptibility map of Europe in order to identify locations affected by this process, and where specific erosion control measures should be taken. Firstly, we compiled a database of soil piping-related features, i.e. pipe roof collapses (PCs) and pipe outlets in the European Union and the UK that consists of 6841 locations having piping-related features (6171 PCs and 670 outlets), among which the location of 88% features is known at a resolution of 25 m. Then, this database is used to model the susceptibility of soils to piping erosion at the European scale. We applied the logistic regression model using the scikit-learn library in Python. The following environmental factors are tested: topography (such as slope and height difference), pedology (content of silt, clay, sand, and coarse fragments), land use and land cover, and climate (such as effective precipitation). Our preliminary result clearly shows that it is feasible to accurately identify the European hotspots susceptible to piping erosion, based on a combination of land use, topographic and soil variables (AUC >0.75). The presented map is an important step towards incorporating subsurface soil erosion into regional and global soil erosion models. This research is part of a project “Building excellence in research of human-environmental systems with geospatial and Earth observation technologies” funded by the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No 952327. The research has also been supported by a grant from the Faculty of Geography and Geology under the Strategic Programme Excellence Initiative at Jagiellonian University.
Advancing Data Management: A Novel Digital Ecosystem for FAIR Time Series Data Management in Earth System Sciences
Authors: Hemmen Joost , Schäfer David , Abbrent Martin , Gransee Florian , Kuhnert Tobias , Palm Bert , Schaldach Maximilian , Schulz Christian , Schrön Martin , Schnicke Thomas , Bumberger Jan
Published: March 2024

Robust infrastructures for managing and accessing high volume data are an essential foundation for unraveling complex spatiotemporal processes in the earth system sciences. Addressing multifaceted research questions demands data from diverse sources; however, isolated solutions hinder effective collaboration and knowledge advancement.We present a novel digital ecosystem for FAIR time series data management, deeply rooted in contemporary software engineering and developed at the Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research (UFZ) in Leipzig, Germany. Designed to flexibly address discipline-specific requirements and workflows, the system emphasizes user-centric accessibility, ensuring the reliability, efficiency, and sustainability of time series data across different domains and scales.Our time series ecosystem includes a user-centric web-based frontend for (real-time) data flow and metadata management, a versatile data integration layer, a robust time series database, efficient object storage, near real-time quality control, and comprehensive data visualization capabilities. Supporting modern and classical data transfer protocols, the system ensures compliance with OGC standards for data access, facilitating efficient progress in the data lifecycle through high-performance computing. This fully integrated and containerized solution enables swift deployment and seamless integration with existing services.Illustrating the practical application of the system, we showcase its success in managing Cosmic Ray Neutron Sensing data from the TERENO project. This success story underscores the system's effectiveness in addressing challenges associated with time series data management in earth system sciences, fostering more efficient research and facilitating informed decision-making processes.This contribution aligns seamlessly with the session's focus on connecting RDIs. We aim to promote transferable approaches, use existing standards, and facilitate collaborations transcending barriers among RDI providers, developers, and researchers. By presenting our experiences and best practices, this presentation invites engagement and discussions to collectively address the challenges in bringing research data infrastructures together.
Impact of datum definition on transient velocities from GNSS displacement time series in Networks mode: A Case Study of Cascadia Subduction Zone and Hikurangi margin.
Authors: Garcia Cristian , Bedford Jonathan , Männel Benjamin , Glaser Susanne
Published: March 2024

In earthquake research, the discovery and ongoing investigation of interseismic transient processes has revealed that faults are non-steady between large earthquakes. These transients are typically identified in continuously operating tectonic GNSS stations, whereby an acceleration away from the average interseismic rates of displacement can be identified with a variety of time series analysis methods. However, the features of these transients can vary depending on the processing strategy employed to derive displacement time series from the raw GNSS observables.In the processing strategy, the definition of the geodetic datum is necessary to determine global terrestrial reference frames (TRFs), providing an accurate and stable absolute reference of Earth's locations. It is essential for comprehending the dynamic changes in Earth's geometry driven by factors like tidal and non-tidal loading, plate tectonic seismic activity, and ongoing climate change. Therefore, just as geodesy aims for accuracy and stability in the TRF, the datum definition—i.e., the realization of the TRF-defining parameters origin, orientation, and scale—may emerge as a critical factor in processing GNSS networks for geodynamic purposes.The purpose of this study is to assess up to what extent the transient velocities obtained from GNSS-derived displacement time series change under different regional and global datum definitions for the Cascadia subduction zone and Hikurangi margin; regions with very well-known catalog of interseismic transient tectonic events. In our study, we process data from Cascadia to produce network solutions both NNR (No-Net-Rotation) and NNR+NNT (No-Net-Translation) constraint for regional and global datum definition, respectively. We employed dual-frequency ionosphere-free linear combination observations from 125 GNSS stations for the time between 2015 and 2020. The same GNSS processing strategy is then followed for the Hikurangi subduction zone using a set of 72 stations from the GeoNet project as well as the same control stations used for Cascadia spanning from 2002 to 2010.For the Cascadia displacement time series, we find variations in transient velocities under different datum definitions emphasizing the need for a comprehensive understanding of its impact on dynamic geophysical processes. Processing and analyses of the New Zealand data is ongoing and results will be presented, along with recommendations for both regions on how to reduce the occurrence of likely non-tectonic transients in the displacement time series. Ultimately, our results may have implications for improving the estimate of the slip budget at plate boundaries that is released aseismically.
Exploring earthquake recurrence and nucleation processes with Foamquake and a variety of asperity configurations
Authors: Latypova Elvira , Corbi Fabio , Mastella Giacomo , Bedford Jonathan , Funiciello Francesca
Published: March 2024

The short seismic record with respect to the return time of large subduction earthquakes and the spatial fragmentation of available geophysical data represent unfavourable conditions for robust hazard assessment. Over the last decade, data from scaled seismotectonic models have become useful in filling the observational gaps of seismic and geodetic networks. Such models allow reproducing hundreds of analogue seismic cycles in a few minutes of experimental time and with the advantage of known and controllable boundary conditions. Here we present experimental results from Foamquake – an established 3D seismotectonic model, which simulates megathrust subduction. Recent technical advances in experimental monitoring have allowed us to include into our research a high-frequency camera to record model surface deformation at 50 Hz and a network of 5 accelerometers (located on the model surface) that measure the three components of acceleration at 1 kHz. To analyse the camera data, we used particle image velocimetry (PIV) to derive surface displacements, such as in a dense, homogeneously distributed geodetic network spanning updip to scaled depths that are often offshore and, therefore, typically under-monitored in natural subduction zones.We performed 33 experiments exploring 10 different geometrical configurations of asperities along the analog megathrust. In particular, we varied the number of asperities, their size, location, and extra normal load. We observed that the rupture pattern of analogue earthquakes predictably changes as the extra normal load varies and the distribution of asperity configurations becomes more complex. Depending on the number and size of the asperities and the size of the barrier between them, we noticed different ratios between full and partial ruptures with different recurrence time (Rt) intervals. In some experiments we detected cascades of ruptures. We used the coefficient of variation (CoV) of recurrence time to quantify analog earthquakes periodicity. Most of our models display quasi-periodic analog earthquakes recurrence with CoV
 Observation of large volume change in the western Baltic Sea between September 2022 and February 2023
Authors: Purkiani Kaveh , Jochumsen Kerstin , Fischer Jens-George , Herklotz Kai , Kruschke Tim
Published: March 2024

Hydrographic data collected in the western Baltic Sea was used to study the hydrodynamics of the region between September 2022 and February 2023. The amount of volume change and salt transported into the Baltic Sea were quantified directly from observations and estimated using an operational model. Salinity, temperature, dissolved oxygen concentration, and current velocities were measured at several stations: Fehmarn Belt, Darss Sill, Arkona Basin, and Bornholm Basin. Using sea level height data, two large volume change events were identified. The events, characterized by saline (S>20 psu) and warm near-bottom water (up to 2°C warmer than the sea surface) with high dissolved oxygen concentration (> 6 ml l-1), were identified between 14 September and 10 October 2022, and 5 December 2022 and 15 January 2023. From September to October 2022, the first event transported 126 km3 of water into the Baltic Sea. Based on the salinity of the inflowing water, this corresponds to an estimated salt transport of about 0.55 Gt. The second event in December 2022-January 2023 transported approximately 140 km3 of water and carried 1.1 Gt of salt into the Baltic Sea. Both instances have exhibited remarkable warm water, categorizing them as significant warm water inflows into the western Baltic Sea. While the properties of the water column at the Darss Sill station did not show the typical characteristics of a major Baltic inflow (MBI) during either of the two events, the amount of salt transport, especially during the second inflow event, is equivalent to that of a weak MBI.
Seismic Network Station Infrastructure as the Basis for Multi-Disciplinary Geophysical Stations
Authors: Perlin Michael , Trerice Neil , Somerville Ted , Jusko Marian
Published: March 2024

Geophysical monitoring requires the highest level of performance and reliability from purpose-built and tightly integrated instrumentation and infrastructure. Parallel and separate efforts between different scientific disciplines seen in the past came at the expense of duplicated infrastructure, telemetry and power subsystems, and even land use permits. This duplication increases costs, ultimately limiting station counts and reducing “the reach” of monitoring networks. Recent ambitions to combine multi-disciplinary geophysical applications into streamlined deployments led to initiatives such as the European Plate Observing System (EPOS) and the recent amalgamation of the SAGE and GAGE programs in the United States.Modern seismic dataloggers, such as the Nanometrics Centaur, support a wide range of seismo-acoustic sensor interfaces and sensor types while maintaining ultra-low power consumption, precise timing, and reliable data transport with automatic back-fill features over flexible telemetry mediums. These properties transformed the Centaur’s capabilities to act as a highly versatile foundation in multi-disciplinary geophysical station deployments. Despite initially being designed as a high-performance data recorder for seismic applications, Centaur’s applicability has evolved to include data collection for the infrasonic, geodetic, magnetic, and meteorological domains. This triggered the development and addition of purpose-built features to support multi-disciplinary use cases with the same proven performance and reliability of a Centaur seismic station.Both existing and planned capabilities that enable reliable and efficient multi-disciplinary science are discussed.
Oxygen dynamics in the Baltic Sea under reduced nutrient input
Authors: Naumov Lev , Meier H.E. Markus , Neumann Thomas
Published: March 2024

The Baltic Sea is a semi-enclosed sea located in the Northern Europe. Due to the limited exchange with the Global Ocean, which leads to the long residence time (approx. 30 years), and permanent halocline, the Baltic Sea is naturally prone to hypoxic conditions, especially in the deep basins. However, the hypoxic area in the deep Baltic Sea has been rapidly increasing since the second half of the 20th century following the elevated nutrient input caused by human activity. To mitigate the eutrophication of the Baltic Sea, countries surrounding it started to reduce their nutrient loads following the Baltic Sea Action Plan. Despite the substantial nutrient input reduction, no significant decrease in the hypoxic area has yet been observed. In addition, climate change might promote deoxygenation of the Baltic Sea, further hampering nutrient load reduction efforts. The non-linear response to changes in nutrient input raises the question of when to expect the robust reduction of the hypoxic area, whether it is possible for the Baltic Sea to return to its natural state with a limited hypoxic area, and how the composition of the oxygen budget will change following the reduction of hypoxia.To answer those questions, we conducted two sensitivity simulations utilizing a 3-dimensional coupled physical-biogeochemical model. The simulations followed the two nutrient reduction pathways – Baltic Sea Action Plan Maximum Allowable Input (BSAP) and the more radical half of the BSAP MAI (0.5 BSAP). Both simulations spanned 71 years and were compared to the reference scenario (Ref.) employing observed nutrient loads from 1948 to 2018. The lowering of the hypoxic area was observed in both scenarios. Most rapid re-oxidation was observed in the remote northern and western Gotland Basins, especially in the 0.5 BSAP scenario. The redistribution of the biggest oxygen consumption from the water column to the sediments followed it. Changes in nutrient loads explain more than 60% of the oxygen sources and sinks variability, making it the dominant driver of changes in the oxygen budget of the Baltic Sea, at least in the near future. The Baltic Sea could return to its initial state (1948) within the simulation period, but only following the radical 0.5 BSAP scenario.
Graz Climate Change Indicators: A data portal backing climate narratives towards reaching the Paris climate goals
Authors: Kirchengast Gottfried , Pichler Moritz
Published: March 2024

The University of Graz Wegener Center has recently opened a new data portal termed Graz Climate Change Indicators (GCCI). It is accessible via https://gcci.earth (present version v2) and is currently receiving a substantial further upgrade (to GCCI v3) that will be released later in 2024. The data portal helps to bridge climate science, narratives and action and provides, in an easy-to-use way with focus on informative time series, reliable recent-past monitoring information jointly with current-state nowcasting and Paris-compliant future projection information, over the critical climate change timeframe from 1960 via the present to 2050.In doing so, the GCCI portal focuses on three indicator classes that span the climate change problem, and projected solution pathways, from causes to impacts: greenhouse gas emissions (GEM-GHG Emissions Monitoring), global warming (CWM-Climate Warming Monitoring), and climate change impacts in terms of weather and climate extremes (EWM-Extreme Weather Monitoring, released spring 2024). The geographic domains included (GeoDomains) range from Global (GLO) via Europe (EUR) to Austria (AT), with the countries and regions within a domain (GeoRegions) covered by relevant indicator time series (GCCI v2 including GLO-EUR-AT domains for GEM and GLO for CWM).We briefly introduce the overall GCCI design, including its open data and open science approach, which is made to enable broad uptake and to support climate solution narratives on “pathways to Paris”, also linking to the co-developed climate solutions framework “Carbon Management – carbsmart2Paris” (website https://carbmanage.earth). We then discuss climate action and policy relevant example use cases, from backing emission reduction policymaking to creating awareness for and understanding the links from emissions via greenhouse gas concentrations and radiative forcing to global warming in terms of global surface temperature increase and other changes. These exemplary uses and related narratives intend to highlight how the easy-to-use availability, and simple-to-add expandability, of scientifically reliable recent, current, and projected climate change key data may encourage and empower actors to exercise more climate-change-aware and climate-solutions-oriented decision making.Overall, the GCCI data portal wants to bring, besides its value also for research and teaching, a clear added-value to policy makers, other stakeholders and the broader public, by helping science-back their climate narratives and action efforts towards reaching the Paris climate goals.
Ensemble Sensitivity-Based Subsetting for Convection: Progress Toward Operational Use
Authors: Ancell Brian , Coleman Austin
Published: March 2024

Ensemble sensitivity is a statistical tool applied within an ensemble that reveals the atmospheric flow features (e.g. position of a jet streak, or magnitude of a low-level moisture plume) at early forecast times that are related to a chosen forecast response later in the forecast window.  The response function is chosen to diagnose high-impact forecast features such as maximum updraft helicty over a specified area, or number of grid points of simulated reflectivity exceeding 40 dBZ in a chosen region.  Since ensemble sensitivity highlights the features early in a forecast important to the prediction of high-impact features later in the forecast, a subset of members with the smallest errors in sensitive regions can be chosen that might improve probabilistic forecasts of the response relative to the full ensemble. Similar to ensemble data assimilation, this process incorporates observational information to beneficially update forecast distributions.  The subsetting procedure can be done quickly once an ensemble has been run, and sensitivity-based subsets can typically be generated well before the next extended forecast can be run within a cycling storm-scale data assimilation and forecasting system. In turn, the subsetting procedure, if shown to improve forecasts, could be a unique and useful operational forecasting tool. Ensemble sensitivity-based subsetting has been tested within the Texas Tech University operational ensemble system in both an idealized framework and in more operational settings in real time during several years of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Hazardous Weather Testbed (HWT).  Response functions that diagnose severe convective hazards, such as updraft helicity, hail size, and simulated reflectivity have been tested to gain an understanding of both the general capability of the technique and the perception of forecasters regarding its value in a real-time forecasting environment.  Here we discuss this effort and its associated results, the technique’s current status, and future plans toward ultimate operational implementation.
Evolution history of the Knipovich-Mohns ridge intersection (Artic Ocean) during the last 20 Ma
Authors: Ficini Eleonora , Marco Cuffaro , Marco Ligi , Edie Miglio , Alessio Sanfilippo
Published: March 2024

Mid-ocean ridges (MORs) form as a result of upwelling and partial melting of the underlying mantle, leading to seafloor spreading and new lithosphere formation. They result from an interplay between different geological forces shaping ocean seafloors and offer insights into Earth's mantle convection and lithospheric evolution. Recent advances in numerical models contributed to describe oceanic rift processes, although complex geodynamic settings remain relatively unexplored.Knipovich and Mohns ultraslow spreading ridges are located in the Arctic Ocean, separated from Kolbensey and Gakkel ridges by the Jan Mayen transform and Lena Trough. They do not present any evidence of transform fault along their entire length and are characterized by a high obliquity (~35°-50°) with respect to their spreading direction, constituting some of the most intriguing MORs worldwide. At their intersection, geophysical data revealed a focused mantle upwelling along a narrow, oblique, and strongly asymmetric zone, coinciding with uneven surface uplift. These asymmetrical features have been associated to i) the control on passive upwelling of slow and asymmetric motion of the North America and Eurasia plates, or ii) the results of a major spreading reorganization in the area. However, asymmetries are tipically observed in other geodynamic settings, such as for example subduction zones, where they have been related to the relative motion of lithospheric plates with respect to the asthenosphere. In this work we carried out 3D numerical models reproducing the geodynamic evolution of a ~800-km long segment of the Knipovich and Mohns ridges (extending from ~76°N to ~71°N), including their migration with respect to the asthenosphere. The model uses a visco-plastic rheology which approximate both the asthenospheric and the lithospheric mantle, providing information on the temperature and deformation patterns within the mantle. We also computed the degrees of melting beneath each area of the MOR segment. In agreement with previous geophysical and petrological data, our results suggest that mantle upwelling is focused in a narrow zone, where the MOR makes a sharp bend, providing the inferred asymmetric patterns. On this basis, we propose a mechanism which could have led to the asymmetrical features (e.g., topography, spreading rate, mantle temperature and composition, etc.) characterizing the Knipovich-Mohns segments area. 
Azimuthal and radial anisotropy in the upper mantle from global adjoint tomography
Authors: Bozdag Ebru , Orsvuran Ridvan , Liu Lijun , Peter Daniel
Published: March 2024

Earth’s upper mantle and lithosphere show significant evidence for anisotropy related to deformation and composition. First-generation GLAD (GLobal ADjoint) models (GLAD-M15 (Bozdag et al. 2016), GLAD-M25 (Lei et al. 2020), GLAD-M35 (Cui et al. submitted)) are radially anisotropic in the upper mantle. Starting from GLAD-M25, we performed 25 conjugate gradient iterations and constructed model GLAD-M50-AZI by including azimuthal anisotropy in the parameterization of the inverse problem. We inverted azimuthally anisotropic normalized parameters Gc’ and Gs’ simultaneously with vertically and horizontally polarized shear waves beta_v and beta_h, respectively. Due to our parameterization, our data set consists of only minor- and major-arc Rayleigh and Love waves from 300 globally distributed earthquakes. GLAD-M50-AZI captures plate motions globally well, which are also supported by the transverse isotropy, specifically at the subducted slabs and mid-ocean ridges. Furthermore, it approaches continental-scale resolution in regions with good data coverage depicting smaller-scale tectonic and flow patterns, giving us a chance to have a more detailed and unified view of the anisotropy globally. In the next step, we explore how anisotropy derived from seismic tomography compares to geodynamical modeling observations to have better insight into mantle dynamics. We perform numerical simulations to compute synthetic seismograms and full-waveform inversion on Texas Advanced Computing Center’s Frontera system. 
Thermodynamic indicators decipher the molecular composition of organic matter in phase transition
Authors: Maurischat Philipp , Seidel Michael , Donnerhack Oliver , Liebmann Patrick , Guggenberger Georg
Published: March 2024

With promising methods such as ultrahigh-resolution mass spectrometry (FT ICR MS), soil scientists have more opportunity than ever to gain a comprehensive picture of the composition and transformation of soil organic matter (SOM).  With soils as central mediators for carbon capture and storage this understanding is key when it comes to tackling major challenges, such as climate change and soil health. However, as novel techniques are often imported from other scientific fields, the evaluation and interpretation of data with regard to the heterogeneous pedosphere often remains a major challenge. For FT ICR MS, several commonly used indices were developed from empirical observations of the deep ocean. While these indices seem statistically transferable from ocean DOM to the terrestrial realm, there is legitimate concern that no causality ultimately ensures this applicability. Indices are needed that allow interpretation of the data from a conceptual perspective. Viewing SOM as a thermodynamically driven mediator of energy fluxes in the soil food web provides an opportunity to put a foot on the ground of data analysis with more general applicability. We aim to show that bioenergetic and thermodynamic molecular indices allow a better understanding of soil organic matter transformation by comparing FT ICR MS samples from complex, mixed sources and single source endmembers.We investigated the molecular composition of stream DOM and soil leachates along a biome gradient between alpine meadow and alpine steppe, including a chronosequence of degradation in the southern Tibetan Nam Co watershed. Our results suggest a certain match of commonly used DOM molecular indices, such as the ‘island of stability‘, the ‘degradation index‘ and the ‘terrestrial index‘, applied to marine settings for terrestrial DOM and SOM. However, when comparing SOM and DOM phase transitions within endmember sources, we noted inconsistencies. In contrast, indicators representing the bioenergetics of organic matter composition, such as the ‘nominal oxidation state of carbon’ and the ‘Gibbs free energy for carbon oxidation’, show good agreement for the key phase transition between SOM and DOM. These results provide reasonable evidence in line with conceptual understanding, such as more oxidised DOM and SOM in degraded areas and generally less oxidised molecular formulae in mainly allochthonous stream DOM compared to extracted SOM. Our data support the notion that bioenergetic and thermodynamic indicators may be a way forward to better understand the complex nature of organic matter transformation in soils with FT ICR MS. These indicators can serve as important building blocks for molecular fingerprinting.
Investigating the Seismicity of Eastern Marmara Using Machine Learning Algorithms
Authors: Konca Ali Özgün , Can Birsen , Özakın Arkadaş , Aktar Mustafa
Published: March 2024

In this study we explore the seismicity along the Eastern Marmara Sea using machine learning techniques to improve the detection threshold and improve the earthquake locations. The Sea of Marmara comprises network of faults including the northern strand of the North Anatolian Fault, the Main Marmara Fault (MMF). MMF features a ~150 km seismic gap that did not rupture in the last 250 years. In addition to the MMF, other normal and strike-slip faults generate seismicity in the vicinity especially to the south of the Princes’ Islands.  It is therefore crucial to understand whether this seismicity is related to the MMF or other faults.Here by employing a convolutional neural network detection and phase picking algorithm (Mousavi et al., 2020) and using a phase associator based on a grid search of locations (Zhang et al., 2019) we show that we can increase the detected number of earthquakes significantly and obtain a catalog with very low travel time residuals. Our primary objective is to acquire an improved earthquake catalog to facilitate subsequent clustering and focal mechanism analysis, thereby illuminating the underlying fault system responsible for these seismic events.(This study is funded by TÜBİTAK Project No 121Y407).
Embedding EDI in Geoscience Publications – Examples from the AGU 
Authors: Giampoala Matthew , Ricci Mia , Wooden Paige
Published: March 2024

The American Geophysical Union understands an expansive and inclusive geoscience community is key to furthering knowledge about the Earth and the universe and finding solutions to current societal challenges. Though the geosciences have historically been dominated by a few homogenous groups, the collaborative and global nature of our science impels us to change our systems to include historically marginalized voices. Supported by AGU’s 2018 Diversity and Inclusion Strategic Plan, in 2023, AGU Publications signed the Joint Commitment for Action on Inclusion and Diversity in Publishing.  Signatories agree to collect self-reported gender and race/ethnicity data, develop baselines, and set minimum standards for inclusion. We provide a demographic overview of our authors, reviewers, and editors over time, detail how we collect data while following privacy laws, and discuss how data informs our DEIA strategies. We provide reports to our journal editors who set baselines and develop journal goals. We launched various initiatives to increase diversity and equity and decrease bias in peer review processes, and used the data to assess outcomes of these initiatives. In addition, we present examples of policy and structural changes we have implemented to weave DEIA in the scientific publishing environment, including our equitable approach to Open Access, our Community Science Exchange, and the recently launched Inclusion in Global Research policy to improve equity and transparency in research collaborations.
Towards the complete gamification of an "Environmental Impact Assessment" MSc teaching course
Authors: Segoni Samuele
Published: March 2024

The teaching course ‘Environmental Impact Assessment’ is included in the master’s degree (2nd cycle degree) programs of ‘Human and Natural sciences’ and ‘Geological sciences and technologies’ of the University of Firenze (Italy). The course covers a multisciplinary program, including the following topics: EIA regulations, characterization of environmental components, identification of the possible sources of interference from human activities, resulting impacts, definition of possible measures of mitigation and compensation. Given the master's degree topics, the course doeas not cover sociological, political and psichological aspects (which may be relevant during EIA procedures). As a consequence, for several years now, the course has been complemented by a role playing game session (Segoni, 2022), in which the students play the roles of different characters involveved in a public debate concerning a geothermal plant project and learn how contrasting objectives, political reasons and communication strategies (sadly) may be more important than technical analysises when taking a decision about public works. During the years, this activity has always been very successful, therefore other elements of gamification have been progressively added to the lessons of the teaching course. The gamification elements include some playful collaborative activities concieved by the teacher and some games presented at the "Games for Geosciences" session during past EGU General Assemblies, such as "Cranky Uncle" (Winkler and Cook, 2022) (used for the lesson about climate change and related impacts) and "Dirty Matters" (Burak and Van Midden, 2023) (used in place of a frontal lesson to explain soil properties, impacts and mitigation measures). Last year, almost 50% of the lessons were interested by gamification elements and two lessons were actually turned into game sessions.  This work summarizes the gamification process, reports on the feedback received from the students, gives credit to the colleagues whose games were introduced in the course, and seeks advices from the audience to further advance the gamification process of the course.      ReferencesBurak, E. and Van Midden, C.: Dirty Matters: The Soil Game, EGU General Assembly 2023, Vienna, Austria, 24–28 Apr 2023, EGU23-17593, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu23-17593, 2023. Segoni, S.: A role-playing game to complement teaching activities in an ‘environmental impact assessment’teaching course, Environmental Research Communications, 4(5), 051003, 2022.Winkler, B., and Cook, J. : Cranky Uncle-a multi-lingual critical thinking game to build resilience against climate misinformation, EGU General Assembly 2022, Vienna, Austria, 2022.
Severe wind induced by orographic effects during cold airmass advection over Carpathian Mountains
Authors: Fedor Tomáš
Published: March 2024

Advection of the cold arctic airmass represents a major cause of severe wind cases in East Slovakia. It is caused by cold and dry airmass separated by orographic barrier, descending, and rapidly flowing on its leeward side. Local open and narrowing topography of the East Slovakia further increase the windspeed in Kosice basin and Zemplin area. Different characteristics of the windspeed and wind gusts were observed when categorizing the situations for cold maritime and continental origin of the airmass. The most representative case studies for each category were analysed using numerical weather prediction model, field observations and reported wind damage. Maritime airmass tends to be defined in deeper vertical profile and its advection is often accompanied by stronger wind gusts, of which some may also by partly convective considering the unstable vertical profile in the later stage of the advection within the cold sector of the low. The continental airmass is shallower and topped by strong stable layer and tends to produce higher sustained wind speed during the advection. Considering the right height of the stable layer in relation to the orographic barrier a downslope catabatic winds were observed on the leeward side of the orography.
Mapping changes in structural diversity of the agricultural landscape of Saxony using historical remote sensing data
Authors: Kosczor Eric
Published: March 2024

The agricultural landscape of Central Europe underwent big changes over the last decades, especially between the 1960s and 1980s. Through measures like land consolidation, collectivization and profit-driven agriculture policies the structure of rural areas has changed significantly which affected not only farming activity but also led to the destruction of species habitats and wildlife corridors. In order to quantify these shifts in landscape structure and their impact on biodiversity, we analyzed historic CORONA spy imagery from the years 1965 and 1975 together with digital orthophotos from current years in the German federal state of Saxony. Specifically, we used the presence and absence of agricultural boundaries and field margin strips as a proxy for landscape heterogeneity. By applying a feature detection algorithm, we found a significant decline of field boundaries in all of Saxony between 1965 and 1975 which has either not or partly recovered until the present day. The findings of the analysis are considerably affected by the differences in data quality which complicates comparison between time steps. Research is ongoing with focus on optimizing the workflow and minimizing detection errors as well as assessing ecological records to link the findings to biodiversity trends.
PyMDS, a Bayesian inversion algorithm for chlorine 36 dating based on the last No-UTurn Sampler (NUTS)
Authors: Llinares Maureen , Benedetti Lucilla , Gassier Ghislain , Viseur Sophie
Published: March 2024

Markov Chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) algorithms are sampling approaches relying on Bayesian inference, theorized in the late 1940s and used in many applications (multi-dimensional integral computations, probability law explorations, inversion problems, etc.). MCMC methods are computationally expensive and many variants have been proposed to optimize them Today, MCMC algorithms are used as inversion tools in different contexts: from receiver functions in seismology . The success and efficiency of those methodologies depends on: the complexity of the forward function, the efficiency of the MCMC strategy and the implementation language. The last MCMC sampler is the No U-Turn Sampler or NUTS (Hoﬀman and Gelman, 2011), an evolution of the Metropolis Hastings (HMC).Estimating seismic history along fault scarps from 36Cl profiles is a typical inversion problem. Thus, previous studies have proposed MCMC routines to the forward function described in (Schlagenhauf et al., 2011), to invert 36Cl data and to infer seismic histories on fault scarps  (Beck et al., 2018; Mechernich et al., 2023; Tesson and Benedetti, 2019). The complexity of the forward function implies the necessity of a powerful MCMC sampler such as NUTS (Liesenfeld and Richard, 2008).Here, we discuss these different approaches and present a new approach, termed as PyMDS, which relies on the NUTS algorithm. We implemented the code in python and performed synthetic tests to evaluate the algorithm ability to retrieve seismic histories.The results for three earthquakes synthetics tests will be presented and show that the algorithm is capable of finding the seismic scenario (ages, slips and slip rate) with a precision of few hundred years on the ages, 10 to 30 cm on the slips and inferior 0.05 mm/yr on the slip rate with a runtime of 4 hours (faster than the previous Fortran code published by Tesson & Benedetti (2019) that required 3 days to complete). We will also present preliminary results obtained on the five sites located on the Velino-Magnola fault system and the implication on seismic cycle. Finally, we will discuss potential improvement and development perspectives, such as the optimization of the forward function, the necessity to invert slips and the parametrization of the NUTS algorithm.
Advancing NOAA's Global Ensemble Forecast System (GEFS) through the Integration of Prognostic Aerosols
Authors: Montuoro Raffaele , Fu Bing , Barton Neil , Bhattacharjee Partha , Pan Li , Baker Barry , Zhang Kate , McQueen Jeffery , Mehra Avichal , Yang Fanglin , Stajner Ivanka , Frost Gregory , Tallapragada Vijay , Zhu Yuejian
Published: March 2024

Ongoing efforts at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), National Weather Service (NWS) are aimed at increasing the realism of the physical processes represented in both global and regional operational numerical weather prediction systems. These efforts include enhancing the description of atmospheric composition and its impact on the atmosphere by incorporating prognostic aerosols and aerosol radiative feedback in each member of the NOAA Global Ensemble Forecast System (GEFS).Modern Earth system prototypes, built upon the community-based Unified Forecast System (UFS) framework and coupling atmosphere, land, ocean, sea ice, waves, and prognostic aerosols components are being developed and evaluated at the Environmental Modeling Center (EMC) in the process of identifying candidates for the planned operational upgrade of GEFS to version 13.Prognostic aerosols are integrated in GEFS through the coupled UFS-Aerosols component, developed at EMC in collaboration with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Global Modeling and Assimilation Office (GMAO). UFS-Aerosols embeds NASA's 2nd-generation Goddard Chemistry Aerosol Radiation and Transport (GOCART) model and incorporates updates to the dust scheme and anthropogenic and biogenic emissions from NOAA’s Air Resources Laboratory (ARL), along with wildfire emissions provided by NOAA's National Environmental Satellite, Data, and Information Service (NESDIS).The impact of radiative feedback from prognostic aerosols on atmospheric predictions in preliminary experiments with GEFS version 13 prototypes will be reviewed. 
Degradation of oxytetracycline in saturated porous media by in-situ chemical oxidation using oxygen-doped graphitic carbon nitride and peroxymonosulfate (PMS)
Authors: Ko Seokoh , Nguyen Thanh Tuan , Kim Dogun
Published: March 2024

Oxytetracycline (OTC) is one of the popular antibiotics accumulated in soils and groundwater, posing harmful effects on ecological systems and human health. The objective of this work is to examine the feasibility of OTC degradation using a new catalyst, oxygen-doped graphitic carbon nitride (O-gC3N) for in-situ oxidation remediation. In-situ oxidation system was simulated with column experiments to investigate the performance of PMS activation and OCT removal in saturated porous media. Numerical modeling as HYDRUS 1D was used to analyze OTC's transport behaviors in saturated porous media. The results show that OTC transport in saturated porous media is non-equilibrium. O-gC3N can efficiently activate PMS to degrade OTC and the increase of PMS and O-gC3N can enhance OTC removal. A wide pH range is beneficial for OTC degradation in saturated porous media. EBCT significantly affects OTC degradation and the optimal velocity was 0.4 cm/min. The findings of this work suggest that O-gC3N catalyst can effectively be utilized for the in-situ oxidation of organic pollutants in contaminated sites.
A Review of Regional and National Meteorological Networks offering soil moisture sensors and a review of the analytical methodology
Authors: Farsad Alan , Bellingham Keith
Published: March 2024

Soil moisture is a significant factor in Earth’s hydrological cycles that influences weather, drought, climate, and water resources on land and in water bodies. However, throughout most of the 20th century, soil moisture received less attention and was not included in many hydrological studies. In the 1978, J. W. Deardorff with the United States’ National Center for Atmospheric Research started to demonstrate the relationship between soil moisture and meteorologic conditions. Just two years later in 1980, G. C. Topp at the University of Toronto developed the Topp Equation - the first empirical calibration for soil moisture using time domain reflectometry (TDR). Additionally, that same year, M. T. van Genuchten published the van Genuchten Equation, which established a numerical relationship between soil moisture an unsaturated hydrologic head. Starting in the 1990s, the United States Department of Agriculture began using impedance-based soil moisture sensor technology to equip SNOTEL sites for water shed scale water supply forecasts. Since then, numerous large-scale regional meteorological networks incorporate soil moisture sensors, often referred to as ‘mesonets’, have emerged worldwide. Soil water dynamics is complex often not well understood. Analytical methods using electromagnetic principles rely on the behavior and distribution electromagnetic energy in soil, making the operational theory of commercial sensors unclear at times. Soil moisture exhibits significant variabilities in space and time, as well as being influenced by hydrological and mineralogical properties of the soil. These factors give rise to several misconceptions about soil moisture monitoring. This presentation discusses the growing importance of soil moisture as a critical parameter of the Earth’s hydrological cycle. This discussion also focuses on the objective and goals of North American soil moisture monitoring networks. Furthermore, the availability and emerging electromagnetic sensor technologies are reviewed. Lastly, calibration and validation soil sensors are also examined.