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At least 55 records · Page 3

A New Coupled Biogeochemical Modeling Approach Provides Accurate Predictions of Methane and Carbon Dioxide Fluxes Across Diverse Tidal Wetlands

Abstract Tidal wetlands provide valuable ecosystem services, including storing large amounts of carbon. However, the net exchanges of carbon dioxide (CO 2 ) and methane (CH 4 ) in tidal wetlands are highly uncertain. While several biogeochemical models can operate in tidal wetlands, they have yet to be parameterized and validated against high‐frequency, ecosystem‐scale CO 2 and CH 4 flux measurements across diverse sites. We paired the Cohort Marsh Equilibrium Model (CMEM) with a version of the PEPRMT model called PEPRMT‐Tidal, which considers the effects of water table height, sulfate, and nitrate availability on CO 2 and CH 4 emissions. Using a model‐data fusion approach, we parameterized the model with three sites and validated it with two independent sites, with representation from the three marine coasts of North America. Gross primary productivity (GPP) and ecosystem respiration (R eco ) modules explained, on average, 73% of the variation in CO 2 exchange with low model error (normalized root mean square error (nRMSE) <1). The CH 4 module also explained the majority of variance in CH 4 emissions in validation sites ( R 2 = 0.54; nRMSE = 1.15). The PEPRMT‐Tidal‐CMEM model coupling is a key advance toward constraining estimates of greenhouse gas emissions across diverse North American tidal wetlands. Further analyses of model error and case studies during changing salinity conditions guide future modeling efforts regarding four main processes: (a) the influence of salinity and nitrate on GPP, (b) the influence of laterally transported dissolved inorganic C on R eco , (c) heterogeneous sulfate availability and methylotrophic methanogenesis impacts on surface CH 4 emissions, and (d) CH 4 responses to non‐periodic changes in salinity.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES

Demonstration of a Real Time Capability to Produce Tidal Heights and Currents for Naval Operational Use: A Cast Study for the West Coast of Africa (Liberia)

This report documents an existing capability to produce operationally relevant products on sea level and currents from a tides/storm surge model for any coastal region around the world within 48 hours from the time of the request. The model is ready for transition to the Naval Oceanographic Office (NAVOCEANO) for potential contingency use anywhere around the world. A recent application to naval operations offshore Liberia illustrates this. Mississippi State University, in collaboration with the University of Colorado and NAVOCEANO, successfully deployed the Colorado University Rapidly Relocatable Nestable Tides and Storm Surge (CURReNTSS) model that predicts sea surface height, tidal currents and storm surge, and provided operational products on tidal sea level and currents in the littoral region off south-western coast of Africa. This report summarizes the results of this collaborative effort in an actual contingency use of the relocatable model, summarizes the lessons learned, and provides recommendations for further evaluation and transition of this modeling capability to operational use.

CASE STUDIES

The effect of ocean tides on the earth's rotation as predicted by the results of an ocean tide model

The published ocean tidal angular momentum results of Seiler (1991) are used to predict the effects of the most important semidiurnal, diurnal, and long period ocean tides on the earth's rotation. The separate, as well as combined, effects of ocean tidal currents and sea level height changes on the length-of-day, UT1, and polar motion are computed. The predicted polar motion results reported here account for the presence of the free core nutation and are given in terms of the motion of the celestial ephemeris pole so that they can be compared directly to the results of observations. Outside the retrograde diurnal tidal band, the summed effect of the semidiurnal and diurnal ocean tides studied here predict peak-to-peak polar motion amplitudes as large as 2 mas. Within the retrograde diurnal tidal band, the resonant enhancement caused by the free core nutation leads to predicted polar motion amplitudes as large as 9 mas.

Gross, Richard S.

The Kepler Light Curves of V1504 Cygni and V344 Lyrae: A Study of the Outburst Properties

We examine the Kepler light curves of V1504 Cyg and V344 Lyr, encompassing approximately 460 d at 1 min cadence. During this span each system exhibited approximately 40 outbursts, including four superoutbursts. We find that, in both systems, the normal outbursts lying between two superoutbursts increase in duration by a factor approximately 1.2 - 1.7, and then reset to a small value after the following superoutburst. In V344 Lyr the trend of quiescent intervals between normal outbursts is to increase to a local maximum about half way through the supercycle the interval from one superoutburst to the next - and then to decrease back to a small value by the time of the next superoutburst, whereas for V1504 Cyg the quiescent intervals are relatively constant during the supercycle. Both of these trends are inconsistent with the Osaki's thermal-tidal model, which robustly predicts a secular increase in the quiescent intervals between normal outbursts during a supercycle. Also, most of the normal outbursts have an asymmetric, fast-rise/slower-decline shape, which would be consistent with outbursts triggered at large radii. The exponential rate of decay of the plateau phase of the superoutbursts is 8 d mag(sup -1) for approximately 1504 Cyg and 12 d mag(sup -1) for V344 Lyr. This time scale gives a direct measure of the VISCOUS time scale III the outer accretion disk given the expectation that the entire disk is in the hot, viscous state during superoutburst. The resulting constraint on the Shakura-Sunyaev parameter, alpha(sub hot) approximately equal to 0.1, is consistent with the value inferred from the fast dwarf nova decays. By looking at the slow decay rate for superoutbursts, which occur in systems below the period gap, in combination with the slow decay rate in one long outburst above the period gap (in U Gem), we infer a steep dependence of the decay rate on orbital period for long outbursts. We argue that this relation implies a steep dependence of alpha(sub cold) on orbital period, which may be consistent with recent findings of Patterson, and is consistent with tidal torquing as being the dominant angular momentum transport mechanism in quiescent disks in interacting binary systems.

Cannizzo, John K.

Microbial Ecology and Site Characteristics Underlie Differences in Salinity-Methane Relationships in Coastal Wetlands

Methane (CH 4 ) is a potent greenhouse gas emitted by archaea in anaerobic environments such as wetland soils. Tidal freshwater wetlands are predicted to become increasingly saline as sea levels rise due to climate change. Previous work has shown that increases in salinity generally decrease CH 4 emissions, but with considerable variation, including instances where salinization increased CH 4 flux. We measured microbial community composition, biogeochemistry, and CH 4 flux from field samples and lab experiments from four different sites across a wide geographic range. We sought to assess how site differences and microbial ecology affect how CH 4 emissions are influenced by salinization. CH 4 flux was generally, but not always, positively correlated with CO 2 flux, soil carbon, ammonium, phosphate, and pH. Methanogen guilds were positively correlated with CH 4 flux across all sites, while methanotroph guilds were both positively and negatively correlated with CH 4 depending on site. There was mixed support for negative relationships between CH 4 fluxes and concentrations of alternative electron acceptors and abundances of taxa that reduce them. CH 4 /salinity relationships ranged from negative, to neutral, to positive and appeared to be influenced by site characteristics such as pH and plant composition, which also likely contributed to site differences in microbial communities. The activity of site-specific microbes that may respond differently to low-level salinity increases is likely an important driver of CH 4 /salinity relationships. Our results suggest several factors that make it difficult to generalize CH 4 /salinity relationships and highlight the need for paired microbial and flux measurements across a broader range of sites.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES

Australian tidal currents – assessment of a barotropic model (COMPAS v1.3.0 rev6631) with an unstructured grid

While the variations of tidal range are large and fairly well known across Australia (less than 1 m near Perth but more than 14 m in King Sound), the properties of the tidal currents are not. We describe a new regional model of Australian tides and assess it against a validation dataset comprising tidal height and velocity constituents at 615 tide gauge sites and 95 current meter sites. The model is a barotropic implementation of COMPAS, an unstructured-grid primitive-equation model that is forced at the open boundaries by TPXO9v1. The mean absolute error (MAE) of the modelled M2 height amplitude is 8.8 cm, or 12 % of the 73 cm mean observed amplitude. The MAE of phase (10°), however, is significant, so the M2 mean magnitude of vector error (MMVE, 18.2 cm) is significantly greater. The root sum square over the eight major constituents is 26 % of the observed amplitude. We conclude that while the model has skill at height in all regions, there is definitely room for improvement (especially at some specific locations). For the M2 major axis velocity amplitude, the MAE across the 95 current meter sites, where the observed amplitude ranges from 0.1 to 156 cm s −1 , is 6.9 cm s −1 , or 22 % of the 31.7 cm s −1 observed mean. This nationwide average result is encouraging, but it conceals a very large regional variation. Relative errors of the tidal current amplitudes on the narrow shelves of New South Wales (NSW) and Western Australia exceed 100 %, but tidal currents are weak and negligible there compared to non-tidal currents, so the tidal errors are of little practical significance. Looking nationwide, we show that the model has predictive value for much of the 79 % of Australia's shelf seas where tides are a major component of the total velocity variability. In descending order this includes the Bass Strait, the Kimberley to Arnhem Land, and southern Great Barrier Reef regions. There is limited observational evidence to confirm that the model is also valuable for currents in other regions across northern Australia. We plan to commence publishing “unofficial” tidal current predictions for chosen regions in the near future based on both our COMPAS model and the validation dataset we have assembled.

Tidal currents

Earth and Ocean Physics Applications Program /EOPAP/

Abbreviated description of the objectives, experiments, spacecraft, and required schedules of a proposed NASA program blending geophysics, oceanography, and space technology in order to facilitate the prediction of earthquakes, storm surges, tidal waves, and the condition of ocean surfaces. Relevant measurements from space will be carried out by LAGEOS, SAESATS-1, GEOPAUSE, GRAVSAT, and SEASATS-2 satellites contributing data on earth dynamics, sea surface states, satellite dynamics, and earth gravity. The development of suitable mathematical models for predicting events on earth on the basis of satellite data is considered.

Vonbun, F. O.

Monitoring coastal water properties and circulation from ERTS-1

The author has identified the following significant results. Imagery and digital tapes from nine successful ERTS-1 passes over Delaware Bay during different portions of the tidal cycle have been analyzed with special emphasis on turbidity, current circulation, waste disposal plumes, and convergent boundaries between different water masses. ERTS-1 image radiance correlated well with Secchi depth and suspended sediment concentration. MSS band 5 seemed to give the best representation of sediment load in the upper one meter of the water column. Circulation patterns observed by ERTS-1 during different parts of the tidal cycle, agreed well with predicted and measured currents throughout Delaware Bay. During flood tide the suspended sediment as visible from ERTS-1 also correlated well with the depth profile. Convergent shear boundaries between different water masses were observed from ERTS-1, with foam lines containing high concentrations of lead, mercury, and other toxic substances. Several fronts have been seen. Those near the mouth of the bay are associated with the tidal intrusion of shelf water. Fronts in the interior of the bay on the Delaware side appear to be associated with velocity shears induced by differences in bottom topography. Waste disposal plumes have benn detected 36 miles offshore.

Klemas, V.

Turbulent viscosity and Jupiter's tidal Q

A recent estimate of tidal dissipation by turbulent viscosity in Jupiter's convective interior predicts that the current value of the planet's tidal Q is roughly 5 million. We point out a fundamental error in this calculation, and show that turbulent dissipation alone implies that at present Q is about 50 trillion. Our reduced estimate for the rate of tidal dissipation shows conclusively that tidal torques have produced only negligible modifications of the orbits of the Galilean satellites over the age of the solar system.

Goldreich, P.

Tidal interactions in the expanding universe - The formation of prolate systems

The study estimates the magnitude of the anisotropy that can be tidally induced in neighboring initially spherical protostructures, be they protogalaxies, protoclusters, or even uncollapsed density enhancements in the large-scale structure of the universe. It is shown that the linear analysis of tidal interactions developed by Peebles (1969) predicts that the anisotropy energy of a perturbation grows to first order in a small dimensionless parameter, whereas the net angular momentum acquired is of second order. A simple model is presented for the growth of anisotropy by tidal interactions during the nonlinear stage of the development of perturbations. A possible observational test is described of the alignment predicted by the model between the orientations of large-scale perturbations and the positions of neighboring density enhancements.

Binney, J.

Impact of dark matter on tidal signatures in neutron star mergers with the Einstein Telescope

If dark matter (DM) accumulates inside neutron stars (NS), it changes their internal structure and causes a shift of the tidal deformability from the value predicted by the dense-matter equation of state (EOS). In principle, this shift could be observable in the gravitational-wave (GW) signal of binary neutron star (BNS) mergers. We investigate the effect of fermionic, noninteracting DM when observing a large number of GW events from DM-admixed BNSs with the precision of the proposed Einstein telescope (ET). Specifically, we study the impact on the recovery of the baryonic EOS and whether DM properties can be constrained. For this purpose, we create event catalogs of BNS mock events with DM fraction up to 1%, from which we reconstruct the posterior uncertainties with the Fisher matrix approach. Using this data, we perform joint Bayesian inference on the baryonic EOS, DM particle mass, and DM particle fraction in each event. Here, our results reveal that when falsely ignoring DM effects, the EOS posterior is biased toward softer EOSs, though the offset is rather small. Further, we find that within our assumptions of our DM model and population, ET will likely not be able to test the presence of DM in BNSs, even when combining many events and adding Cosmic Explorer (CE) to the next-generation detector network. Likewise, the potential constraints on the DM particle mass will remain weak because of degeneracies with the fraction and EOS.

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS

Monitoring coastal water properties and current circulation with ERTS-1

Imagery and digital tapes from nine successful ERTS-1 passes over Delaware Bay during different portions of the tidal cycle have been analyzed with special emphasis on turbidity, current circulation, waste disposal plumes and convergent boundaries between different water masses. ERTS-1 image radiance correlated well with Secchi depth and suspended sediment concentration. Circulation patterns observed by ERTS-1 during different parts of the tidal cycle, agreed well with predicted and measured currents throughout Delaware Bay. Convergent shear boundaries between different water masses were observed from ERTS-1. In several ERTS-1 frames, waste disposal plumes have been detected 36 miles off Delaware's Atlantic coast. The ERTS-1 results are being used to extend and verify hydrodynamic models of the bay, developed for predicting oil slick movement and estimating sediment transport.

Klemas, V.

Monitoring coastal water properties and current circulation with ERTS-1

Imagery and digital tapes from nine successful ERTS-1 passes over Delaware Bay during different portions of the tidal cycle were analyzed with special emphasis on turbidity, current circulation, waste disposal plumes, and convergent boundaries between different water masses. ERTS-1 image radiance correlated well with Secchi depth and suspended sediment concentration. Circulation patterns observed by ERTS-1 during different parts of the tidal cycle, agreed well with predicted and measured currents throughout Delaware Bay.

Klemas, V.

New developments in studies of compact X-ray binaries

Several recent developments, both observational and theoretical, on the study of X-ray binaries and the compact objects they contain are discussed. The recent discovery of the first binary periods for the globular cluster X-ray sources has stimulated a new model for their origin. As a variant of the 'standard' tidal capture origin model, this predicts an enhanced number of neutron stars in globular clusters. Long term timing studies of X-ray binaries may be consistent with many of these systems, primarily X-ray burst sources, being in fact hierarchical triple systems. Finally, the radio studies of Cyg X-3 and other X-ray binaries suggest that nonthermal processes are as important, energetically, as accretion processes in these systems.

Grindlay, Jonathan E.

Atmospheric response in aurora experiment: Observations of E and F region neutral winds in a region of postmidnight diffuse aurora

The goal of the Atmospheric Response in Aurora (ARIA) experiment carried out at Poker Flat, Alaska, on March 3, 1992, was to determine the response of the neutral atmosphere to the long-lived, large-scale forcing that is characteristic of the diffuse aurora in the post midnight sector. A combination of chemical release rocket wind measurements, instrumented rocket composition measurements, and ground-based optical measurements were used to characterize the response of the neutral atmosphere. The rocket measurements were made at the end of a 90-min period of strong Joule heating. We focus on the neutral wind measurements made with the rocket. The forcing was determined by running the assimilated mapping of ionospheric electrodynamics (AMIE) analysis procedure developed at the National Center for Atmospheric Research. The winds expected at the latitude and longitude of the experiment were calculated using the spectral thermospheric general circulation model developed at the Danish Meteorological Institute. Comparisons of the observations and the model suggest that the neutral winds responded strongly in two height ranges. An eastward wind perturbation of approximately 100 m/s developed between 140 and 200 km altitude with a peak near 160 km. A southwestward wind with peak magnitude of approximately 150 m/s developed near 115 km altitude. The large amplitude winds at the lower altitude are particularly surprising. They appear to be associated with the upward propagating semidiurnal tide. However, the amplitude is much larger than predicted by any of the tidal models, and the shear found just below the peak in the winds was nominally unstable with a Richardson number of approximately 0.08.

Larsen, M. F.

Effects of Long Period Ocean Tides on the Earth's Rotation

The spectra of polar motion excitation functions exhibit enhanced power in the fortnightly tidal band. This enhanced power is attributed to ocean tidal excitation. Ocean tide models predict polar motion excitation effects that differ with each other, and with observations, by factors as large as 2-3. There is a need for inproved models for the effect of long-period ocean tides on Earth's rotation.

oceans tides Earth's rotation

Dynamical Core Damping of Thermal Tides in Martian Atmosphere

Atmospheric oscillations with daily periodicity are observed in in-situ near-surface pressure, temperature, and winds observations, and also in remotely sensed temperature and pressure observations of the Martian atmosphere. Such oscillations are interpreted as thermal tides driven by the diurnal cycle of solar radiation and occur at various frequencies, with the most prominent being the diurnal, semidiurnal, terdiurnal and quadiurnal tides. Mars global circulation models reproduce these tides with varying levels of success. Until recently, both the MarsWRF and newly developed MarsMPAS models were able to produce realistic diurnal and semidiurnal tide amplitudes but predicted higher-order mode amplitudes that were significantly weaker than observed. We use linear wave analysis to show that the divergence damping applied within both MarsWRF and MarsMPAS is responsible for suppressing the amplitude of thermal tides with frequency greater than 2 per sol, despite being designed to suppress only acoustic wave modes. Decreasing the strength of the divergence damping in MarsWRF and MarsMPAS allows for excellent prediction of the higher order tidal modes. This finding demonstrates that care must be taken when applying numerical dampers and filters that may eliminate some desired dynamical features in planetary atmospheres.

Yuan Lian

The application of Seasat-1 radar altimetry to continental shelf circulation modeling

Seasat-1 radar altimetry data have been used to verify a continental shelf circulation model subjected to tidal forcing on the open boundary. The model makes use of the semi-implicit mode of time integration, removing the surface gravity wave time step restriction. Both the altimetry and the model predictions are compared with empirically determined tidal fluctuations and generally good agreement is obtained.

Cornillon, P.