WorldWideScience

Sample records for microburst producing storms

  1. Dynamics of Laboratory Simulated Microbursts

    Science.gov (United States)

    Alahyari, Abbas Alexander

    1995-01-01

    A downburst (or microburst) is an intense, localized downdraft of cold air which reaches the Earth and spreads radially outward after it impinges on the ground. Downdrafts are typically induced by rapid evaporation of moisture or melting of hail. The divergent outflow created by a microburst produces strong winds in opposite directions. The sudden changes in the speed and direction of both horizontal and vertical winds within a microburst can create hazardous conditions for aircraft within 1000 ft of the ground, particularly during takeoff and landing. The objective of this investigation was to obtain detailed measurements within a laboratory -simulated version of this flow. The flow was modeled experimentally by releasing a small volume of heavier fluid into a less dense ambient surrounding. The heavier fluid impinged on a horizontal plate which represented the ground. Indices of refraction of the light and heavy fluid were matched to yield clear photographic images. Particle image velocimetry (PIV) was used to obtain detailed maps of the instantaneous velocity fields within horizontal and vertical cross sections through the flow. Laser-induced fluorescence (LIF) was used to determine the local concentration of heavy fluid within the downburst flow at different times. PIV measurements showed that the leading edge of the falling fluid rolled up into a vortex ring which then impacted on the ground and expanded radially outward. After touchdown, the largest horizontal velocities occurred beneath the vortex ring but also extended over some distance upstream of the vortex core. PIV results showed small vertical velocity gradients in the region below the core of the vortex ring. The effects of parameters such as initial release height and release volume shape were investigated. Using appropriate length and time scales, the measured velocities were scaled to and compared with previously studied atmospheric microbursts. The experimental data generally agree well with

  2. The microburst - Hazard to aircraft

    Science.gov (United States)

    Mccarthy, J.; Serafin, R.

    1984-01-01

    In encounters with microbursts, low altitude aircraft first encounter a strong headwind which increases their wing lift and altitude; this phenomenon is followed in short succession by a decreasing headwind component, a downdraft, and finally a strong tailwind that catastrophically reduces wing lift and precipitates a crash dive. It is noted that the potentially lethal low altitude wind shear of a microburst may lie in apparently harmless, rain-free air beneath a cloud base. Occasionally, such tell-tale signs as localized blowing of ground dust may be sighted in time. Microbursts may, however, occur in the heavy rain of a thunderstorm, where they will be totally obscured from view. Wind shear may be detected by an array of six anemometers and vanes situated in the vicinity of an airport, and by Doppler radar equipment at the airport or aboard aircraft.

  3. JAWS data collection, analysis highlights, and microburst statistics

    Science.gov (United States)

    Mccarthy, J.; Roberts, R.; Schreiber, W.

    1983-01-01

    Organization, equipment, and the current status of the Joint Airport Weather Studies project initiated in relation to the microburst phenomenon are summarized. Some data collection techniques and preliminary statistics on microburst events recorded by Doppler radar are discussed as well. Radar studies show that microbursts occur much more often than expected, with majority of the events being potentially dangerous to landing or departing aircraft. Seventy events were registered, with the differential velocities ranging from 10 to 48 m/s; headwind/tailwind velocity differentials over 20 m/s are considered seriously hazardous. It is noted that a correlation is yet to be established between the velocity differential and incoherent radar reflectivity.

  4. FIREBIRD: A Dual Satellite Mission to Examine the Spatial and Energy Coherence Scales of Radiation Belt Electron Microbursts

    Science.gov (United States)

    Klumpar, D. M.; Spence, H. E.; Larsen, B. A.; Blake, J. B.; Springer, L.; Crew, A. B.; Mosleh, E.; Mashburn, K. W.

    2009-12-01

    FIREBIRD (Focused Investigations of Relativistic Electron Burst Intensity, Range, and Dynamics), a mission under NSF’s “CubeSat-based Science Missions for Space Weather and Atmospheric Research”, will address the broad scientific question: What is the role of microburst electron precipitation in radiation belt dynamics? There are four major candidate processes for losses of relativistic electrons from the outer radiation belt [Millan and Thorne, 2007]: wave-particle interactions with whistler-mode chorus, wave-particle interactions with electromagnetic ion-cyclotron (EMIC) waves, outward radial diffusion to the magnetopause, and loss of adiabaticity on stretched magnetic field lines. FIREBIRD will further investigate the role of whistler-mode chorus, by examining the microburst electron precipitation phenomenon attributed to chorus. Microbursts are thought to be a hallmark of rapid radiation belt losses, possibly removing the entire pre-storm outer zone in a single day [Lorentzen 2001b; O'Brien et al., 2004], yet they are also intimately tied to in-situ acceleration mechanisms. FIREBIRD’s two 1.5U (10 x 10 x 15 cm) CubeSats, each weighing up to 2 kg, will be placed into a common high-inclination bead-on-a-string orbit. The two satellites will remain within ~500 km of one another for six to twelve months, allowing characterization over the spatial scale regime from 10 - 500 km. Each satellite will carry an identical co-aligned pair of solid-state detectors sensitive to electrons from 30 keV to ~3 MeV with 100 msec time resolution. Simultaneous dual measurements provided by the twin FIREBIRD satellites will permit, for the first time, the determination of spatial scales of single microburst events. Along with energy-resolved spectra, these measurements will provide the critically needed answers on the radiation belt loss rate attributed to microbursts. There are three critical questions about relativistic electron microbursts that FIREBIRD can answer: 1) What

  5. Anisotropic pitch angle distribution of ~100 keV microburst electrons in the loss cone: measurements from STSAT-1

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    J. J. Lee

    2012-11-01

    Full Text Available Electron microburst energy spectra in the range of 170 keV to 360 keV have been measured using two solid-state detectors onboard the low-altitude (680 km, polar-orbiting Korean STSAT-1 (Science and Technology SATellite-1. Applying a unique capability of the spacecraft attitude control system, microburst energy spectra have been accurately resolved into two components: perpendicular to and parallel to the geomagnetic field direction. The former measures trapped electrons and the latter those electrons with pitch angles in the loss cone and precipitating into atmosphere. It is found that the perpendicular component energy spectra are harder than the parallel component and the loss cone is not completely filled by the electrons in the energy range of 170 keV to 360 keV. These results have been modeled assuming a wave-particle cyclotron resonance mechanism, where higher energy electrons travelling within a magnetic flux tube interact with whistler mode waves at higher latitudes (lower altitudes. Our results suggest that because higher energy (relativistic microbursts do not fill the loss cone completely, only a small portion of electrons is able to reach low altitude (~100 km atmosphere. Thus assuming that low energy microbursts and relativistic microbursts are created by cyclotron resonance with chorus elements (but at different locations, the low energy portion of the microburst spectrum will dominate at low altitudes. This explains why relativistic microbursts have not been observed by balloon experiments, which typically float at altitudes of ~30 km and measure only X-ray flux produced by collisions between neutral atmospheric particles and precipitating electrons.

  6. Three-dimensional numerical simulation of the 20 June 1991, Orlando microburst

    Science.gov (United States)

    Proctor, Fred H.

    1992-01-01

    On 20 June 1991, NASA's Boeing 737, equipped with in-situ and look-ahead wind-shear detection systems, made direct low-level penetrations (300-350 m AGL) through a microburst during several stages of its evolution. This microburst was located roughly 20 km northeast of Orlando International Airport and was monitored by a Terminal Doppler Weather Radar (TDWR) located about 10 km south of the airport. The first NASA encounter with this microburst (Event 142), at approximately 2041 UTC, was during its intensification phase. At flight level, in-situ measurements indicated a peak 1-km (averaged) F-factor of approximately 0.1. The second NASA encounter (Event 143) occurred at approximately 2046 UTC, about the time of microburst peak intensity. It was during this penetration that a peak 1-km F-factor of approximately 17 was encountered, which was the largest in-situ measurement of the 1991 summer deployment. By the third encounter (Event 144), at approximately 2051 UTC, the microburst had expanded into a macroburst. During this phase of evolution, an in-situ 1-km F-factor of 0.08 was measured. The focus of this paper is to examine this microburst via numerical simulation from an unsteady, three-dimensional meteorological cloud model. The simulated high-resolution data fields of wind, temperature, radar reflectivity factor, and precipitation are closely examined so as to derive information not readily available from 'observations' and to enhance our understanding of the actual event. Characteristics of the simulated microburst evolution are compared with TDWR and in-situ measurements.

  7. Study of microburst-induced wind flow and its effects on cube-shaped buildings using numerical and experimental simulations of an impinging jet

    Science.gov (United States)

    Sengupta, Anindya

    Microbursts are a major cause of concern for structures both on ground as well as those in air, namely aircrafts. The velocity profile of a microburst is completely different compared to natural boundary-layer wind profiles. The current research is directed to simulation of microburst phenomenon using an impinging jet model. This research reports the first 3D numerical simulation of microbursts and its effects on buildings. Broadly the major accomplishments of the current research can be focused in three major directions. In the first case, extensive research on velocity profiles of the wall jet that is formed after jet impingement has been conducted experimentally. The main motivation was to develop empirical equations for boundary layer growth based on experimental data, using hot-wire, PIV and pressure rake. Numerical simulations were carried out with different turbulence models so as to find the best turbulence model to simulate this kind of flow. In the second case, both mean and peak loads on building models under static microburst wind loadings were studied, using both experimental as well as numerical techniques. Parametric study by varying the height of jet impingement, jet exit velocities and size of building models was conducted. It was found that the large eddy simulation (LES) produced results in excellent agreement with the experimental data. The flow field around the building model was obtained using PIV and comparisons were made with the LES results. Thirdly, and the most important part of this research work was to simulate a translating microburst and study the loads on buildings using a moving impinging jet. Numerical simulation was validated with the experimental data for one jet translation speed. LES results again matched the experimental data for translating microburst loads on building, with reference to the drag and lift coefficients. The peak loads predicted by LES were within experimental limits. Effects of increased jet translation speeds

  8. Comparison of torsional and microburst longitudinal phacoemulsification: a prospective, randomized, masked clinical trial.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Vasavada, Abhay R; Raj, Shetal M; Patel, Udayan; Vasavada, Vaishali; Vasavada, Viraj

    2010-01-01

    To compare intraoperative performance and postoperative outcome of three phacoemulsification technologies in patients undergoing microcoaxial phacoemulsification through 2.2-mm corneal incisions. The prospective, randomized, single-masked study included 360 eyes randomly assigned to torsional (Infiniti Vision System; Alcon Laboratories, Fort Worth, TX), microburst with longitudinal (Infiniti), or microburst with longitudinal (Legacy Everest, Alcon Laboratories) ultrasound. Assessments included surgical clock time, fluid volume, and intraoperative complications, central corneal thickness on day 1 and months 1 and 3 postoperatively, and endothelial cell density at 3 months postoperatively. Comparisons among groups were conducted. Torsional ultrasound required significantly less surgical clock time and fluid volume than the other groups. There were no intraoperative complications. Change in central corneal thickness and endothelial cell loss was significantly lower in the torsional ultrasound group at all postoperative visits (P < .001, Kruskal-Wallis test) compared to microburst longitudinal ultrasound modalities. Torsional ultrasound demonstrated quantitatively superior intraoperative performance and showed less increase in corneal thickness and less endothelial cell loss compared to microburst longitudinal ultrasound. Copyright 2010, SLACK Incorporated.

  9. Flight-management strategies for escape from microburst encounters. M.S. Thesis - George Washington Univ.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hinton, David A.

    1988-01-01

    An effort is underway by NASA, FAA, and industry to reduce the threat of convective microburst wind shear phenomena to aircraft. The goal is to develop and test a candidate set of strategies for recovery from inadvertent microburst encounters during takeoff. Candidate strategies were developed and evaluated using a fast-time simulation consisting of a simple point-mass performance model of a transport-category airplane and an analytical microburst model. The results indicate that the recovery strategy characteristics that best utilize available airplane energy include an initial reduction in pitch attitude to reduce the climb rate, followed by an increase in pitch up to the stick shaker angle of attack. The stick shaker angle of attack should be reached just as the airplane is exiting the microburst. The shallowest angle of climb necessary for obstacle clearance should be used. If the altitude is higher than necessary, an intentional descent to reduce the airspeed deceleration should be used. Of the strategies tested, two flight-path-angle based strategies had the highest recovery altitudes and the least sensitivity to variations in the encounter scenarios.

  10. Evaluation of NO{sub x} produced by storms

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Laroche, P; Mary, C; Defer, E [Office National d` Etudes et de Recherches Aerospatiales (ONERA), 92 - Chatillon (France)

    1998-12-31

    The evaluations of NO{sub x} production by lightning within storms are commonly based on modeling, laboratory and field experiments. To apply laboratory experiment and physical modeling to observed storms or at global scale, a schematic representation of a lightning flash is used. The actually observed 3D structure of a lightning flash is described, and the NO{sub x} production process is evaluated. Case studies are presented of actual storm observation, and the evaluation of NO{sub x} produced is compared to what could be derived from the literature. (author) 12 refs.

  11. Evaluation of NO{sub x} produced by storms

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Laroche, P.; Mary, C.; Defer, E. [Office National d`Etudes et de Recherches Aerospatiales (ONERA), 92 - Chatillon (France)

    1997-12-31

    The evaluations of NO{sub x} production by lightning within storms are commonly based on modeling, laboratory and field experiments. To apply laboratory experiment and physical modeling to observed storms or at global scale, a schematic representation of a lightning flash is used. The actually observed 3D structure of a lightning flash is described, and the NO{sub x} production process is evaluated. Case studies are presented of actual storm observation, and the evaluation of NO{sub x} produced is compared to what could be derived from the literature. (author) 12 refs.

  12. Verification and implementation of microburst day potential index (MDPI) and wind INDEX (WINDEX) forecasting tools at Cape Canaveral Air Station

    Science.gov (United States)

    Wheeler, Mark

    1996-01-01

    This report details the research, development, utility, verification and transition on wet microburst forecasting and detection the Applied Meteorology Unit (AMU) did in support of ground and launch operations at Kennedy Space Center (KSC) and Cape Canaveral Air Station (CCAS). The unforecasted wind event on 16 August 1994 of 33.5 ms-1 (65 knots) at the Shuttle Landing Facility raised the issue of wet microburst detection and forecasting. The AMU researched and analyzed the downburst wind event and determined it was a wet microburst event. A program was developed for operational use on the Meteorological Interactive Data Display System (MIDDS) weather system to analyze, compute and display Theta(epsilon) profiles, the microburst day potential index (MDPI), and wind index (WINDEX) maximum wind gust value. Key microburst nowcasting signatures using the WSR-88D data were highlighted. Verification of the data sets indicated that the MDPI has good potential in alerting the duty forecaster to the potential of wet microburst and the WINDEX values computed from the hourly surface data do have potential in showing a trend for the maximum gust potential. WINDEX should help in filling in the temporal hole between the MDPI on the last Cape Canaveral rawinsonde and the nowcasting radar data tools.

  13. Dual-Polarization Radar Observations of Upward Lightning-Producing Storms

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lueck, R.; Helsdon, J. H.; Warner, T.

    2013-12-01

    The Upward Lightning Triggering Study (UPLIGHTS) seeks to determine how upward lightning, which originates from the tips of tall objects, is triggered by nearby flash activity. As a component of this study we analyze standard and dual-polarization weather radar data. The Correlation Coefficient (CC) in particular can be used to identify and quantify the melting layer associated with storms that produce upward lightning. It has been proposed that positive charge generation due to aggregate shedding at the melting layer results in a positive charge region just above the cloud base. This positive charge region may serve as a positive potential well favorable for negative leader propagation, which initiate upward positive leaders from tall objects. We characterize the horizontal coverage, thickness and height of the melting layer in addition to cloud base heights when upward lightning occurs to determine trends and possible threshold criteria relating to upward lightning production. Furthermore, we characterize storm type and morphology using relevant schemes as well as precipitation type using the Hydrometer Classification Algorithm (HCA) for upward lightning-producing storms. Ice-phase hydrometeors have been shown to be a significant factor in thunderstorm electrification. Only a small fraction of storms produce upward lightning, so null cases will be examined and compared as well.

  14. A concentrated outbreak of tornadoes, downbursts and microbursts, and implications regarding vortex classification

    Science.gov (United States)

    Forbes, G. S.; Wakimoto, R. M.

    1983-01-01

    A remarkable case of severe weather occurred near Springfield, Illinois on 6 August 1977. Aerial and ground surveys revealed that 17 cyclonic vortices, an anticyclonic vortex, 10 downbursts and 19 microbursts occurred in a limited (20 km x 40 km) area, associated with a bow-shaped radar echo. About half of the vortices appeared to have occurred along a gust front. Some of the others appear to have occurred within the circulation of a mesocyclone accompanying the bow echo, but these vortices seem to have developed specifically in response to localized boundary-layer vorticity generation associated with horizontal and vertical wind shears on the periphery of microbursts. Some of these vortices, and other destructive vortices in the literature, do not qualify as tornadoes as defined in the Glossary of Meteorology. A more pragmatic definition of a tornado is suggested.

  15. Nonlinear Coherent Structures, Microbursts and Turbulence

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lakhina, G. S.

    2015-12-01

    Nonlinear waves are found everywhere, in fluids, atmosphere, laboratory, space and astrophysical plasmas. The interplay of nonlinear effects, dispersion and dissipation in the medium can lead to a variety of nonlinear waves and turbulence. Two cases of coherent nonlinear waves: chorus and electrostatic solitary waves (ESWs) and their impact on modifying the plasma medium are discussed. Chorus is a right-hand, circularly-polarized electromagnetic plane wave. Dayside chorus is a bursty emission composed of rising frequency "elements" with duration of ~0.1 to 1.0 s. Each element is composed of coherent subelements with durations of ~1 to 100 ms or more. The cyclotron resonant interaction between energetic electrons and the coherent chorus waves is studied. An expression for the pitch angle transport due to this interaction is derived considering a Gaussian distribution for the time duration of the chorus elements. The rapid pitch scattering can provide an explanation for the ionospheric microbursts of ~0.1 to 0.5 s in bremsstrahlung x-rays formed by ~10-100 keV precipitating electrons. On the other hand, the ESWs are observed in the electric field component parallel to the background magnetic field, and are usually bipolar or tripolar. Generation of coherent ESWs has been explained in terms of nonlinear fluid models of ion- and electron-acoustic solitons and double layers (DLs) based on Sagdeev pseudopotential technique. Fast Fourier transform of electron- and ion-acoustic solitons/DLs produces broadband wave spectra which can explain the properties of the electrostatic turbulence observed in the magnetosheath and plasma sheet boundary layer, and in the solar wind, respectively.

  16. Sprite-producing Convective Storms within the Colorado Lightning Mapping Array

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lyons, W. A.; Cummer, S. A.; Rison, W.; Krehbiel, P. R.; Lang, T. J.; Rutledge, S. A.; Lu, G.; Stanley, M. A.; Ashcraft, T.; Nelson, T. E.

    2012-12-01

    The multi-year, multi-institution effort entitled Physical Origins of Coupling to the Upper Atmosphere from Lightning (PhOCAL), has among its goals to qualitatively understand the meteorology and lightning flash characteristics that produce the unusual and/or very energetic lightning responsible for phenomena such as sprites, halos, elves, blue jets and gigantic jets, collectively known as Transient Luminous Events (TLEs). A key task is to obtain simultaneous video, ideally with a high-speed imager (HSI), of both a TLE and its parent lightning discharge, within the domain of a 3-D Lightning Mapping Array (LMA). While conceptually simple, this task is logistically quite complicated. In 2012, a new 15-station Colorado LMA (COLMA) became operational, covering northeastern Colorado, with the Yucca Ridge Field Station (YRFS) near its western edge. The National Charge Moment Change Network (CMCN), which since 2007 has been documenting sprite-class +CGs (those with impulse change moment changes >100 C km), indicates that a strong gradient of energetic +CGs exists west-to-east through the COLMA, with the most likely region for sprite-producing storms being in the COLMA eastern fringes (western Kansas and Nebraska). Yet, on 8 and 25 June, 2012, intense convective systems formed in the COLMA along and just east of the Front Range, producing severe weather and intense lightning. On the 8th, four sprite parent +CGs were captured at 3000 fps from YRFS with the sprites confirmed by dual (conventional speed) cameras in New Mexico. In a second storm on the 25th, viewing conditions prevented +CG video acquisition, but sprites were logged over the COLMA and detailed reconstructions of the discharges are being made. The parent discharges often began as upward negative leaders propagating into a mid-level positive charge layer at 8-10 km. They often originated within or near the convective core before expanding outward into a stratiform region and involving several hundred square

  17. Retrieving 3D Wind Field from Phased Array Radar Rapid Scans

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Xiaobin Qiu

    2013-01-01

    Full Text Available The previous two-dimensional simple adjoint method for retrieving horizontal wind field from a time sequence of single-Doppler scans of reflectivity and/or radial velocity is further developed into a new method to retrieve both horizontal and vertical winds at high temporal and spatial resolutions. This new method performs two steps. First, the horizontal wind field is retrieved on the conical surface at each tilt (elevation angle of radar scan. Second, the vertical velocity field is retrieved in a vertical cross-section along the radar beam with the horizontal velocity given from the first step. The method is applied to phased array radar (PAR rapid scans of the storm winds and reflectivity in a strong microburst event and is shown to be able to retrieve the three-dimensional wind field around a targeted downdraft within the storm that subsequently produced a damaging microburst. The method is computationally very efficient and can be used for real-time applications with PAR rapid scans.

  18. Permian storm current-produced offshore bars from an ancient shelf sequence : Northwestern Karoo basin, republic of South Africa

    Science.gov (United States)

    Smith, A. M.; Zawada, P. K.

    The Ecca-Beaufort transition zone from the Karoo Basin comprises upward-coarsening sequences which are interpreted as prograding, storm-produced offshore bars. Eight facies are recognised: (A) dark-grey shale, (B) thinly interbedded siltstone and mudstone, (C) thinly interbedded siltstone and very fine-grained sandstone, (D) blue-grey coarse-grained siltstone, (E) low-angle truncated and flat-laminated sandstone, (F) wave-rippled sandstone, (G) planar cross-bedded sandstone, (H) intraformational clay-pellet conglomerate. Four sub-environments are recognised, these being: (1) the bar crest which comprises proximal tempestites, (2) the bar slope consisting of soft-sediment deformed siltstone, (3) the bar fringe/ margin which is composed of storm layers and offshore siltstones and (4) the interbar/offshore environment comprising siltstone and distal storm layers. These bars formed in response to wave and storm processes and migrated across a muddy shelf environment. The orientation of bars was probably coast-parallel to subparallel with respect to the inferred north-northwest-south-southeast coastline. These proposed, storm-produced bars acted as major depo-centres within the shelf setting of the study area. As shelf sediments are recorded from almost the entire northwestern Karoo Basin it is anticipated that bar formation was an important sedimentary factor in the deposition of the sediments now referred to as the Ecca-Beaufort transition zone.

  19. NASA airborne radar wind shear detection algorithm and the detection of wet microbursts in the vicinity of Orlando, Florida

    Science.gov (United States)

    Britt, Charles L.; Bracalente, Emedio M.

    1992-01-01

    The algorithms used in the NASA experimental wind shear radar system for detection, characterization, and determination of windshear hazard are discussed. The performance of the algorithms in the detection of wet microbursts near Orlando is presented. Various suggested algorithms that are currently being evaluated using the flight test results from Denver and Orlando are reviewed.

  20. Simulation of Flash-Flood-Producing Storm Events in Saudi Arabia Using the Weather Research and Forecasting Model

    KAUST Repository

    Deng, Liping; McCabe, Matthew; Stenchikov, Georgiy L.; Evans, Jason P.; Kucera, Paul A.

    2015-01-01

    The challenges of monitoring and forecasting flash-flood-producing storm events in data-sparse and arid regions are explored using the Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) Model (version 3.5) in conjunction with a range of available satellite

  1. Solar micro-bursts of 22. 2 GHz and their relationship to events observed at lower frequencies

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Blakey, J R [Universidade Mackenzie, Sao Paulo (Brazil). Centro de Radio-Astronomia e Astrofisica

    1976-01-01

    Observations of McMath region 10433 at 22 GHz using a telescope with a 4 minutes of arc beam during July 1974 revealed the existence events or 'microbursts' with intensities below the sensitivity limit of normal solar patrol instruments. Many of these events were simply the high frequency counterpart of more intense bursts observed at lower frequencies. This note considers the small number of events which suggest that the gyro-synchrotron mechanism alone is incapable of explaining the observations and indicates that a thermal mechanism is needed to explain the high frequency event.

  2. Analysis of satellite data for sensor improvement (detection of severe storms from space)

    Science.gov (United States)

    Fujita, T. T.

    1984-01-01

    Stereo photography of clouds over southeast Asia was obtained using NOAA-7 and the Japanese GMS. Due to the breakdown of GMS2, GMS1, which had been retired, is being used as the replacement satellite. The launch of GMS should permit the US-Japan stereo experiment to be reactivated. The Lear jet experiment based at Grand Island, Nebraska was successful and provided data on the Redwood Falls clouds & Grand Island thunderstorm; an anvil-top cirrus deck; a circular thunderstorm; and jumping cirrus. The IR temperature field of the thunderstorm which induced the Andrews AFB microburst was analyzed with 1 C accuracy. The microburst and severe thunderstorm project is being planned.

  3. Impact of storm runoff on Salmonella and Escherichia coli prevalence in irrigation ponds of fresh produce farms in southern Georgia.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Harris, C S; Tertuliano, M; Rajeev, S; Vellidis, G; Levy, K

    2018-03-01

    To examine Salmonella and Escherichia coli in storm runoff and irrigation ponds used by fresh produce growers, and compare Salmonella serovars with those found in cases of human salmonellosis. We collected water before and after rain events at two irrigation ponds on farms in southern Georgia, USA, and collected storm runoff/storm flow within the contributing watershed of each pond. Salmonella and E. coli concentrations were higher in ponds after rain events by an average of 0·46 (P storm runoff from fields and forests were not significantly higher than in ponds before rain events, but concentrations in storm flow from streams and ditches were higher by an average of 1·22 log 10 MPN per 100 ml (P storm runoff/storm flow and ponds. Seven of the serovars, including five of the shared serovars, were present in cases of human illness in the study region in the same year. However, several serovars most commonly associated with human illness in the study region (e.g. Javiana, Enteritidis, and Montevideo) were not found in any water samples. Salmonella and E. coli concentrations in irrigation ponds were higher, on average, after rain events, but concentrations of Salmonella were low, and the ponds met FDA water quality standards based on E. coli. Some similarities and notable differences were found between Salmonella serovars in water samples and in cases of human illness. This study directly examined storm runoff/storm flow into irrigation ponds and quantified increases in Salmonella and E. coli following rain events, with potential implications for irrigation pond management as well as human health. © 2018 The Society for Applied Microbiology.

  4. Nuclear magnetohydrodynamic EMP, solar storms, and substorms

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Rabinowitz, M.; Meliopoulous, A.P.S.; Glytsis, E.N.

    1992-01-01

    In addition to a fast electromagnetic pulse (EMP), a high altitude nuclear burst produces a relatively slow magnetohydrodynamic EMP (MHD EMP), whose effects are like those from solar storm geomagnetically induced currents (SS-GIC). The MHD EMP electric field E approx-lt 10 - 1 V/m and lasts approx-lt 10 2 sec, whereas for solar storms E approx-gt 10 - 2 V/m and lasts approx-gt 10 3 sec. Although the solar storm electric field is lower than MHD EMP, the solar storm effects are generally greater due to their much longer duration. Substorms produce much smaller effects than SS-GIC, but occur much more frequently. This paper describes the physics of such geomagnetic disturbances and analyzes their effects

  5. Atmospheric Science: It's More than Meteorology.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Smith, David R.; Krockover, Gerald H.

    1988-01-01

    Indicates that atmospheric science is not just forcasting the weather. Gives an overview of current topics in meteorology including ozone depletion, acid precipitation, winter cyclones, severe local storms, the greenhouse effect, wind shear and microbursts. Outlines the Atmospheric Sciences Education Program at Purdue University to produce…

  6. The Joint Airport Weather Studies Project - Current analysis highlights in the aviation safety context

    Science.gov (United States)

    Mccarthy, J.

    1984-01-01

    The principal objective of the Joint Airport Weather Studies Project was to obtain high-resolution velocity, turbulence, and thermodynamic data on a convective outflow called a microburst, an intense downdraft and resulting horizontal outflow near the surface. Data collection occurred during the summer of 1982 near Denver, CO. Data sensors included three pulsed-microwave Doppler and two pulsed CO2 lidar radars, along with 27 Portable Automated Mesonet surface weather stations, the FAA's low-level-wind-shear alert system (LLWSAS), and five instrumented research aircraft. Convective storms occurred on 75 of 91 operational days, with Doppler data being collected on at least 70 microbursts. Analyses reported included a thorough examination of microburst-climatology statistics, the capability of the LLWSAS to detect adequately and accurately the presence of low-altitude wind shear danger to aircraft, the capability of a terminal Doppler radar system development to provide improved wind-shear detection and warning, and progress toward improved wind-shear training for pilots.

  7. Short-duration Electron Precipitation Studied by Test Particle Simulation

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Jaejin Lee

    2015-12-01

    Full Text Available Energy spectra of electron microbursts from 170 keV to 340 keV have been measured by the solid-state detectors aboard the low-altitude (680 km polar-orbiting Korean STSAT-1 (Science and Technology SATellite. These measurements have revealed two important characteristics unique to the microbursts: (1 They are produced by a fast-loss cone-filling process in which the interaction time for pitch-angle scattering is less than 50 ms and (2 The e-folding energy of the perpendicular component is larger than that of the parallel component, and the loss cone is not completely filled by electrons. To understand how wave-particle interactions could generate microbursts, we performed a test particle simulation and investigated how the waves scattered electron pitch angles within the timescale required for microburst precipitation. The application of rising-frequency whistler-mode waves to electrons of different energies moving in a dipole magnetic field showed that chorus magnetic wave fields, rather than electric fields, were the main cause of microburst events, which implied that microbursts could be produced by a quasi-adiabatic process. In addition, the simulation results showed that high-energy electrons could resonate with chorus waves at high magnetic latitudes where the loss cone was larger, which might explain the decreased e-folding energy of precipitated microbursts compared to that of trapped electrons.

  8. Storm and cloud dynamics

    CERN Document Server

    Cotton, William R

    1992-01-01

    This book focuses on the dynamics of clouds and of precipitating mesoscale meteorological systems. Clouds and precipitating mesoscale systems represent some of the most important and scientifically exciting weather systems in the world. These are the systems that produce torrential rains, severe winds including downburst and tornadoes, hail, thunder and lightning, and major snow storms. Forecasting such storms represents a major challenge since they are too small to be adequately resolved by conventional observing networks and numerical prediction models.Key Features* Key Highlight

  9. Numerical Simulation of A Right-moving Storm Over France

    Science.gov (United States)

    Chancibault, K.; Ducrocq, V.; Lafore, J.-Ph.

    A three-dimensional non-hydrostatic mesoscale model is used to simulate the right- moving storm produced through storm splitting, on 30 may 1999, over northern France. The initial state is provided by the French 3D-var ARPEGE analysis and the simuation is performed with two interactive nested domains. The aim of this study is to improve our understanding of such storm dynamics. A vor- ticity analysis has been carried out, with emphasis on stretching and tilting terms of the vertical vorticity equation, thanks to the backward trajectories. The baroclinic produc- tion and stretching terms of the horizontal vorticity equation have also been studied to understand the interaction between the horizontal vorticity and a mesoscale thermal line. Finally, the spatial and temporal variation of the Storm Relative Environmental Helicity has been examined. Most of the results compare well with previous results on right-moving storms ob- tained from theoritical or numerical studies from idealized homogeneous base state.

  10. Magnetic storms and induction hazards

    Science.gov (United States)

    Love, Jeffrey J.; Rigler, E. Joshua; Pulkkinen, Antti; Balch, Christopher

    2014-01-01

    Magnetic storms are potentially hazardous to the activities and technological infrastructure of modern civilization. This reality was dramatically demonstrated during the great magnetic storm of March 1989, when surface geoelectric fields, produced by the interaction of the time-varying geomagnetic field with the Earth's electrically conducting interior, coupled onto the overlying Hydro-Québec electric power grid in Canada. Protective relays were tripped, the grid collapsed, and about 9 million people were temporarily left without electricity [Bolduc, 2002].

  11. Storms

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Kai, Keizo; Melrose, D.B.; Suzuki, S.

    1985-01-01

    At metre and decametre wavelengths long-lasting solar radio emission, consisting of thousands of short-lived spikes superimposed on a slowly varying continuum, is observed. This type of storm emission may continue for periods ranging from a few hours to several days; the long duration is one of the characteristics which distinguish storms from other types of solar radio emission. These events are called storms or noise storms by analogy with geomagnetic storms. (author)

  12. Eruptive prominences and long-delay geomagnetic storms

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Wright, C.S.

    1983-01-01

    The relationship between disappearing solar fragments and geomagnetic disturbances was investigated. It is shown that long-delay storms are associated with filaments well removed from the disc centre, and particularly in the case of large filaments and prominences, the proportion of events that produce long-delay storms increases with angular distance from the centre

  13. Lightning mapping and dual-polarization radar observations of electrified storms at Langmuir Laboratory

    Science.gov (United States)

    Krehbiel, P. R.; Hyland, P. T.; Edens, H. E.; Rison, W.

    2013-12-01

    Observations being made at Langmuir Laboratory with the NM Tech Lightning Mapping Array (LMA) and the University of Oklahoma ARRC PX-1000 dual polarization X-band radar strongly confirm and expand upon the normal polarity tripolar electrical structure of central New Mexico storms. This is in sharp contrast with the anomalously electrified storm structures observed in northern Colorado during and subsequent to the 2012 DC3 field campaign, as seen with North Colorado LMA and CSU CHILL dual-polarization radar observations. In this presentation we focus on the New Mexico observations, and several modes in which the tripolar structure appears initially to develop and evolve with time. Central New Mexico storms are often prolific producers of negative cloud-to-ground (CG) flashes, but rarely produce positive CGs. By contrast, many or most north Colorado storms are CG-deficient, with the relatively few CG discharges being of predominantly positive polarity. In addition, NM storms commonly produce bolt-from-the-blue (BFB) negative CGs, whereas anomalously electrified Colorado storms produce none. The occurrence of BFBs is indicative of a relatively weak lower positive charge region, while the occurrence of normal downward -CGs is indicative of a somewhat stronger lower positive charge. The lack of -CGs in Colorado storms results from lower positive charge being a dominant storm charge that is elevated in altitude. These and other basic features of the electrically activity of storms, coupled with dual polarization and Doppler radar observations of hydrometeor types and motions, are leading to a better understanding of the storm electrification processes.

  14. What does the magnetic storm development depend on?

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Wodnicka, E.B.

    1991-01-01

    Adiabatic drift model applied to the magnetic storm development simulation reveals the significance of initial energy, initial pitch angle and the site of ions injection for the intensity, growth time and growth rate of a storm produced by two ion species - H + and O + . The most severe storms are caused by the ring current intensified by low initial pitch angle ions injected at low radial distance in the postmidnight local time region. (author)

  15. Mapping Hurricane Rita inland storm tide

    Science.gov (United States)

    Berenbrock, Charles; Mason, Jr., Robert R.; Blanchard, Stephen F.; Simonovic, Slobodan P.

    2009-01-01

    Flood-inundation data are most useful for decision makers when presented in the context of maps of effected communities and (or) areas. But because the data are scarce and rarely cover the full extent of the flooding, interpolation and extrapolation of the information are needed. Many geographic information systems (GIS) provide various interpolation tools, but these tools often ignore the effects of the topographic and hydraulic features that influence flooding. A barrier mapping method was developed to improve maps of storm tide produced by Hurricane Rita. Maps were developed for the maximum storm tide and at 3-hour intervals from midnight (0000 hour) through noon (1200 hour) on September 24, 2005. The improved maps depict storm-tide elevations and the extent of flooding. The extent of storm-tide inundation from the improved maximum storm-tide map was compared to the extent of flood-inundation from a map prepared by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA). The boundaries from these two maps generally compared quite well especially along the Calcasieu River. Also a cross-section profile that parallels the Louisiana coast was developed from the maximum storm-tide map and included FEMA high-water marks.

  16. Modeling the refraction of microbaroms by the winds of a large maritime storm.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Blom, Philip; Waxler, Roger

    2017-12-01

    Continuous infrasonic signals produced by the ocean surface interacting with the atmosphere, termed microbaroms, are known to be generated by a number of phenomena including large maritime storms. Storm generated microbaroms exhibit axial asymmetry when observed at locations far from the storm due to the source location being offset from the storm center. Because of this offset, a portion of the microbarom energy will radiate towards the storm center and interact with the winds in the region. Detailed here are predictions for the propagation of microbaroms through an axisymmetric, three-dimensional model storm. Geometric propagation methods have been utilized and the predicted horizontal refraction is found to produce signals that appear to emanate from a virtual source near the storm center when observed far from the storm. This virtual source near the storm center is expected to be observed only from a limited arc around the storm system with increased extent associated with more intense wind fields. This result implies that identifying the extent of the arc observing signal from the virtual source could provide a means to estimate the wind structure using infrasonic observations far from the storm system.

  17. Hindicast and forecast of the Parsifal storm

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Bertotti, L.; Cavaleri, L. [Istituto Studio Dinamica Grandi Masse, Venice (Italy); De girolamo, P.; Magnaldi, S. [Rome, Univ. `La Sapienza` (Italy). Dip. di Idraulica, Trasporti e Strade; Franco, L. [Rome, III Univ. (Italy). Dip. di Scienze dell`Ingegneria Civile

    1998-05-01

    On 2 November 1995 a Mistral storm in the Gulf of Lions sank the 16 metre yacht Parsifal claiming six lives out of the nine member crew. The authors analyse the storm with different meteorological and wave models, verifying the results against the available buoy and satellite measurements. Then the authors consider the accuracy of the storm forecasts and the information available the days before the accident. The limitations related to the resolution of the meteorological models are explored by hind casting the storm also with the winds produced by some limited area models. Finally, the authors discuss the present situation of wind and wave hind cast and forecast in the Mediterranean Sea, and the distribution of these results to the public.

  18. Multi-Instrument Observations of a Geomagnetic Storm and its Effects on the Arctic Ionosphere: A Case Study of the 19 February 2014 Storm

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Durgonics, Tibor; Komjathy, Attila; Verkhoglyadova, Olga

    2017-01-01

    We present a multi-instrumented approach for the analysis of the Arctic ionosphere during the 19 February 2014 highly complex, multiphase geomagnetic storm, which had the largest impact on the disturbance storm-time (Dst) index that year. The geomagnetic storm was the result of two powerful Earth......-directed coronal mass ejections (CMEs). It produced a strong long lasting negative storm phase over Greenland with a dominant energy input in the polar-cap. We employed GNSS networks, geomagnetic observatories, and a specific ionosonde station in Greenland. We complemented the approach with spaceborne measurements...... specifically found that, (1) Thermospheric O/N2 measurements demonstrated significantly lower values over the Greenland sector than prior to the storm-time. (2) An increased ion flow in the topside ionosphere was observed during the negative storm phase. (3) Negative storm phase was a direct consequence...

  19. Simulation of spontaneous and variable global dust storms with the GFDL Mars GCM

    OpenAIRE

    Basu, Shabari; Wilson, John; Richardson, Mark; Ingersoll, Andrew

    2006-01-01

    We report on the successful simulation of global dust storms in a general circulation model. The simulated storms develop spontaneously in multiyear simulations and exhibit significant interannual variability. The simulated storms produce dramatic increases in atmospheric dustiness, global-mean air temperatures, and atmospheric circulation intensity, in accord with observations. As with observed global storms, spontaneous initiation of storms in the model occurs in southern spring and summer,...

  20. Probabilistic storm surge inundation maps for Metro Manila based on Philippine public storm warning signals

    Science.gov (United States)

    Tablazon, J.; Caro, C. V.; Lagmay, A. M. F.; Briones, J. B. L.; Dasallas, L.; Lapidez, J. P.; Santiago, J.; Suarez, J. K.; Ladiero, C.; Gonzalo, L. A.; Mungcal, M. T. F.; Malano, V.

    2015-03-01

    A storm surge is the sudden rise of sea water over the astronomical tides, generated by an approaching storm. This event poses a major threat to the Philippine coastal areas, as manifested by Typhoon Haiyan on 8 November 2013. This hydro-meteorological hazard is one of the main reasons for the high number of casualties due to the typhoon, with 6300 deaths. It became evident that the need to develop a storm surge inundation map is of utmost importance. To develop these maps, the Nationwide Operational Assessment of Hazards under the Department of Science and Technology (DOST-Project NOAH) simulated historical tropical cyclones that entered the Philippine Area of Responsibility. The Japan Meteorological Agency storm surge model was used to simulate storm surge heights. The frequency distribution of the maximum storm surge heights was calculated using simulation results of tropical cyclones under a specific public storm warning signal (PSWS) that passed through a particular coastal area. This determines the storm surge height corresponding to a given probability of occurrence. The storm surge heights from the model were added to the maximum astronomical tide data from WXTide software. The team then created maps of inundation for a specific PSWS using the probability of exceedance derived from the frequency distribution. Buildings and other structures were assigned a probability of exceedance depending on their occupancy category, i.e., 1% probability of exceedance for critical facilities, 10% probability of exceedance for special occupancy structures, and 25% for standard occupancy and miscellaneous structures. The maps produced show the storm-surge-vulnerable areas in Metro Manila, illustrated by the flood depth of up to 4 m and extent of up to 6.5 km from the coastline. This information can help local government units in developing early warning systems, disaster preparedness and mitigation plans, vulnerability assessments, risk-sensitive land use plans, shoreline

  1. Preliminary Analysis of IR Cloudtop Temperatures of Sprite Producing Storms over Argentina Observed from Brazil, and Comparison with US Case Study

    Science.gov (United States)

    Sao Sabbas, F. T.; Pautet, P.; Taylor, M. J.; Pinto, O.; Thomas, J.; Solorzano, N.; Holzworth, R.; Bailey, M.; Schuch, N.; Michels, M.

    2006-12-01

    We will present the preliminary results of the cloudtop temperature characteristics of two very active sprite- producing Mesoscale Convective System (MCS) which occurred over Argentina in the evening of February 22, and March 04, 2006. These were prolific storms, e.g. the first one produced more than 400 TLEs, including sprites, halos and possibly elves. The events were observed from the INPE Observatorio Espacial Sul-OES (Southern Space Observatory), located at the center of Rio Grande do Sul State, the most Southern State of Brazil. Except for the lack of triangulated locations for the sprites and halos recorded, the methodology used for this study is the same as for the paper Sao Sabbas and Sentman [2003], where a sprite producing storm over the central U.S. was observed during the night of July 22, 1996. We analyzed the IR satellite data provided by GOES-12 and the lightning information from the Brazilian Lightning Detection Network in combination with data from the World Wide Lightning Location Network WWLLN. We will also show a comparison between the obtained results and the results presented at the Sao Sabbas and Sentman [2003] paper. Sao Sabbas, F.T. and D. D. Sentman, Dynamical Relationship of IR Cloudtop Temperatures With Occurrence Rates of Cloud-to-Ground Lightning and Sprites, Geophys. Res. Lett., 30 (5), 40-1-40-4, 2003.

  2. Predicting severe winter coastal storm damage

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Hondula, David M; Dolan, Robert

    2010-01-01

    Over the past 40 years residents of, and visitors to, the North Carolina coastal barrier islands have experienced the destructive forces of several 'named' extratropical storms. These storms have caused large-scale redistributions of sand and loss of coastal structures and infrastructure. While most of the population living on the islands are familiar with the wintertime storms, the damage and scars of the 'super northeasters'-such as the Ash Wednesday storm of 7 March 1962, and the Halloween storm of 1989-are slipping away from the public's memory. In this research we compared the damage zones of the 1962 Ash Wednesday storm, as depicted on aerial photographs taken after the storm, with photos taken of the same areas in 2003. With these high-resolution aerial photos we were able to estimate the extent of new development which has taken place along the Outer Banks of North Carolina since 1962. Three damage zones were defined that extend across the islands from the ocean landward on the 1962 aerial photos: (1) the zone of almost total destruction on the seaward edge of the islands where the storm waves break; (2) the zone immediately inland where moderate structural damage occurs during severe storms; and (3) the zone of flood damage at the landward margin of the storm surge and overwash. We considered the rate of coastal erosion, the rate of development, and increases in property values as factors which may contribute to changing the financial risk for coastal communities. In comparing the values of these four factors with the 1962 damage data, we produced a predicted dollar value for storm damage should another storm of the magnitude of the 1962 Ash Wednesday storm occur in the present decade. This model also provides an opportunity to estimate the rate of increase in the potential losses through time as shoreline erosion continues to progressively reduce the buffer between the development and the edge of the sea. Our data suggest that the losses along the North

  3. Predicting severe winter coastal storm damage

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Hondula, David M; Dolan, Robert, E-mail: hondula@virginia.edu [Department of Environmental Sciences, University of Virginia, PO Box 400123, Charlottesville, VA 22903 (United States)

    2010-07-15

    Over the past 40 years residents of, and visitors to, the North Carolina coastal barrier islands have experienced the destructive forces of several 'named' extratropical storms. These storms have caused large-scale redistributions of sand and loss of coastal structures and infrastructure. While most of the population living on the islands are familiar with the wintertime storms, the damage and scars of the 'super northeasters'-such as the Ash Wednesday storm of 7 March 1962, and the Halloween storm of 1989-are slipping away from the public's memory. In this research we compared the damage zones of the 1962 Ash Wednesday storm, as depicted on aerial photographs taken after the storm, with photos taken of the same areas in 2003. With these high-resolution aerial photos we were able to estimate the extent of new development which has taken place along the Outer Banks of North Carolina since 1962. Three damage zones were defined that extend across the islands from the ocean landward on the 1962 aerial photos: (1) the zone of almost total destruction on the seaward edge of the islands where the storm waves break; (2) the zone immediately inland where moderate structural damage occurs during severe storms; and (3) the zone of flood damage at the landward margin of the storm surge and overwash. We considered the rate of coastal erosion, the rate of development, and increases in property values as factors which may contribute to changing the financial risk for coastal communities. In comparing the values of these four factors with the 1962 damage data, we produced a predicted dollar value for storm damage should another storm of the magnitude of the 1962 Ash Wednesday storm occur in the present decade. This model also provides an opportunity to estimate the rate of increase in the potential losses through time as shoreline erosion continues to progressively reduce the buffer between the development and the edge of the sea. Our data suggest that the

  4. Predicting severe winter coastal storm damage

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hondula, David M.; Dolan, Robert

    2010-07-01

    Over the past 40 years residents of, and visitors to, the North Carolina coastal barrier islands have experienced the destructive forces of several 'named' extratropical storms. These storms have caused large-scale redistributions of sand and loss of coastal structures and infrastructure. While most of the population living on the islands are familiar with the wintertime storms, the damage and scars of the 'super northeasters'—such as the Ash Wednesday storm of 7 March 1962, and the Halloween storm of 1989—are slipping away from the public's memory. In this research we compared the damage zones of the 1962 Ash Wednesday storm, as depicted on aerial photographs taken after the storm, with photos taken of the same areas in 2003. With these high-resolution aerial photos we were able to estimate the extent of new development which has taken place along the Outer Banks of North Carolina since 1962. Three damage zones were defined that extend across the islands from the ocean landward on the 1962 aerial photos: (1) the zone of almost total destruction on the seaward edge of the islands where the storm waves break; (2) the zone immediately inland where moderate structural damage occurs during severe storms; and (3) the zone of flood damage at the landward margin of the storm surge and overwash. We considered the rate of coastal erosion, the rate of development, and increases in property values as factors which may contribute to changing the financial risk for coastal communities. In comparing the values of these four factors with the 1962 damage data, we produced a predicted dollar value for storm damage should another storm of the magnitude of the 1962 Ash Wednesday storm occur in the present decade. This model also provides an opportunity to estimate the rate of increase in the potential losses through time as shoreline erosion continues to progressively reduce the buffer between the development and the edge of the sea. Our data suggest that the losses along the

  5. Space storms as natural hazards

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    L. I. Dorman

    2008-04-01

    Full Text Available Eruptive activity of the Sun produces a chain of extreme geophysical events: high-speed solar wind, magnetic field disturbances in the interplanetary space and in the geomagnetic field and also intense fluxes of energetic particles. Space storms can potentially destroy spacecrafts, adversely affect astronauts and airline crew and human health on the Earth, lead to pipeline breaking, melt electricity transformers, and discontinue transmission. In this paper we deal with two consequences of space storms: (i rise in failures in the operation of railway devices and (ii rise in myocardial infarction and stroke incidences.

  6. Evaluation of geomagnetic storm effects on the GPS derived Total Electron Content (TEC)

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Purohit, P K; Atulkar, Roshni; Mansoori, Azad A; Khan, Parvaiz A; Bhawre, Purushottam; Tripathi, Sharad C; Khatarkar, Prakash; Bhardwaj, Shivangi; Aslam, A M; Waheed, Malik A; Gwal, A K

    2015-01-01

    The geomagnetic storm represents the most outstanding example of solar wind- magnetospheric interaction, which causes global disturbances in the geomagnetic field as well as triggers ionospheric disturbances. We study the behaviour of ionospheric Total Electron Content (TEC) during the geomagnetic storms. For this investigation we have selected 47 intense geomagnetic storms (Dst ≤ -100nT) that were observed during the solar cycle 23 i.e. during 1998- 2006. We then categorized these storms into four categories depending upon their solar sources like Magnetic Cloud (MC), Co-rotating Interaction Region (CIR), SH+ICME and SH+MC. We then studied the behaviour of ionospheric TEC at a mid latitude station Usuda (36.13N, 138.36E), Japan during these storm events produced by four different solar sources. During our study we found that the smooth variations in TEC are replaced by rapid fluctuations and the value of TEC is strongly enhanced during the time of these storms belonging to all the four categories. However, the greatest enhancements in TEC are produced during those geomagnetic storms which are either caused by Sheath driven Magnetic cloud (SH+MC) or Sheath driven ICME (SH+ICME). We also derived the correlation between the TEC enhancements produced during storms of each category with the minimum Dst. We found the strongest correlation exists for the SH+ICME category followed by SH+MC, MC and finally CIR. Since the most intense storms were either caused by SH+ICME or SH+MC while the least intense storms were caused by CIR, consequently the correlation was strongest with SH+ICME and SH+MC and least with CIR. (paper)

  7. Geomagnetic storm forecasting service StormFocus: 5 years online

    Science.gov (United States)

    Podladchikova, Tatiana; Petrukovich, Anatoly; Yermolaev, Yuri

    2018-04-01

    Forecasting geomagnetic storms is highly important for many space weather applications. In this study, we review performance of the geomagnetic storm forecasting service StormFocus during 2011-2016. The service was implemented in 2011 at SpaceWeather.Ru and predicts the expected strength of geomagnetic storms as measured by Dst index several hours ahead. The forecast is based on L1 solar wind and IMF measurements and is updated every hour. The solar maximum of cycle 24 is weak, so most of the statistics are on rather moderate storms. We verify quality of selection criteria, as well as reliability of real-time input data in comparison with the final values, available in archives. In real-time operation 87% of storms were correctly predicted while the reanalysis running on final OMNI data predicts successfully 97% of storms. Thus the main reasons for prediction errors are discrepancies between real-time and final data (Dst, solar wind and IMF) due to processing errors, specifics of datasets.

  8. Solar noise storms

    CERN Document Server

    Elgaroy, E O

    2013-01-01

    Solar Noise Storms examines the properties and features of solar noise storm phenomenon. The book also presents some theories that can be used to gain a better understanding of the phenomenon. The coverage of the text includes topics that cover the features and behavior of noise storms, such as the observable features of noise storms; the relationship between noise storms and the observable features on the sun; and ordered behavior of storm bursts in the time-frequency plane. The book also covers the spectrum, polarization, and directivity of noise storms. The text will be of great use to astr

  9. Empirical STORM-E Model. [I. Theoretical and Observational Basis

    Science.gov (United States)

    Mertens, Christopher J.; Xu, Xiaojing; Bilitza, Dieter; Mlynczak, Martin G.; Russell, James M., III

    2013-01-01

    Auroral nighttime infrared emission observed by the Sounding of the Atmosphere using Broadband Emission Radiometry (SABER) instrument onboard the Thermosphere-Ionosphere-Mesosphere Energetics and Dynamics (TIMED) satellite is used to develop an empirical model of geomagnetic storm enhancements to E-region peak electron densities. The empirical model is called STORM-E and will be incorporated into the 2012 release of the International Reference Ionosphere (IRI). The proxy for characterizing the E-region response to geomagnetic forcing is NO+(v) volume emission rates (VER) derived from the TIMED/SABER 4.3 lm channel limb radiance measurements. The storm-time response of the NO+(v) 4.3 lm VER is sensitive to auroral particle precipitation. A statistical database of storm-time to climatological quiet-time ratios of SABER-observed NO+(v) 4.3 lm VER are fit to widely available geomagnetic indices using the theoretical framework of linear impulse-response theory. The STORM-E model provides a dynamic storm-time correction factor to adjust a known quiescent E-region electron density peak concentration for geomagnetic enhancements due to auroral particle precipitation. Part II of this series describes the explicit development of the empirical storm-time correction factor for E-region peak electron densities, and shows comparisons of E-region electron densities between STORM-E predictions and incoherent scatter radar measurements. In this paper, Part I of the series, the efficacy of using SABER-derived NO+(v) VER as a proxy for the E-region response to solar-geomagnetic disturbances is presented. Furthermore, a detailed description of the algorithms and methodologies used to derive NO+(v) VER from SABER 4.3 lm limb emission measurements is given. Finally, an assessment of key uncertainties in retrieving NO+(v) VER is presented

  10. Numerical Simulations of Precipitation Processes, Microphysics, and Microwave Radiative Properties of flood Producing Storms in Mediterranean & Adriatic Basins

    Science.gov (United States)

    Smith, Eric A.; Einaudi, Franco (Technical Monitor)

    2001-01-01

    A comprehensive understanding of the meteorological and microphysical nature of Mediterranean storms requires a combination of in situ data analysis, radar data analysis, and satellite data analysis, effectively integrated with numerical modeling studies at various scales. An important aspect of understanding microphysical controls of severe storms, is first understanding the meteorological controls under which a storm has evolved, and then using that information to help characterize the dominant microphysical processes. For hazardous Mediterranean storms, highlighted by the October 5-6, 1998 Friuli flood event in northern Italy, a comprehensive microphysical interpretation requires an understanding of the multiple phases of storm evolution. This involves intense convective development, Sratiform decay, orographic lifting, and sloped frontal lifting processes, as well as the associated vertical motions and thermodynamical instabilities governing physical processes that effect details of the size distributions and fall rates of the various types of hydrometeors found within the storm environment. This talk overviews the microphysical elements of a severe Mediterranean storm in such a context, investigated with the aid of TRMM satellite and other remote sensing measurements, but guided by a nonhydrostatic mesoscale model simulation of the Friuli flood event. The data analysis for this paper was conducted by my research groups at the Global Hydrology and Climate Center in Huntsville, AL and Florida State University in Tallahassee, and in collaboration with Dr. Alberto Mugnai's research group at the Institute of Atmospheric Physics in Rome. The numerical modeling was conducted by Professor Oreg Tripoli and Ms. Giulia Panegrossi at the University of Wisconsin in Madison, using Professor Tripoli's nonhydrostatic modeling system (NMS). This is a scalable, fully nested mesoscale model capable of resolving nonhydrostatic circulations from regional scale down to cloud scale

  11. A synoptic study of geomagnetic storms and related solar phenomena during 1976 through 1978

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Marubashi, K.

    1979-01-01

    An attempt has been made to identify the causes of geomagnetic storms which occurred during the three year period from 1976 through 1978. Of the 114 storms with D sub(st) = 25 investigated in this paper, 52 storms are found to be caused by corotating streams, 16 storms by solar flares, and 19 storms by compound effects of both corotating streams and flares. The causes of the remaining 27 storms could not be identified. By examining the characteristics of those solar flares which were taken to be responsible for geomagnetic storms, a semiquantitative conclusion has been obtained about the criteria for the flares which can produce magnetic storms. In addition, clear semiannual variation has been found in geomagnetic activity caused by flare-free corotating streams. (author)

  12. Learning Storm

    CERN Document Server

    Jain, Ankit

    2014-01-01

    If you are a Java developer who wants to enter into the world of real-time stream processing applications using Apache Storm, then this book is for you. No previous experience in Storm is required as this book starts from the basics. After finishing this book, you will be able to develop not-so-complex Storm applications.

  13. Current understanding of magnetic storms: Storm-substorm relationships

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Kamide, Y.; Gonzalez, W.D.; Baumjohann, W.; Daglis, I.A.; Grande, M.; Joselyn, J.A.; Singer, H.J.; McPherron, R.L.; Phillips, J.L.; Reeves, E.G.; Rostoker, G.; Sharma, A.S.; Tsurutani, B.T.

    1998-01-01

    This paper attempts to summarize the current understanding of the storm/substorm relationship by clearing up a considerable amount of controversy and by addressing the question of how solar wind energy is deposited into and is dissipated in the constituent elements that are critical to magnetospheric and ionospheric processes during magnetic storms. (1) Four mechanisms are identified and discussed as the primary causes of enhanced electric fields in the interplanetary medium responsible for geomagnetic storms. It is pointed out that in reality, these four mechanisms, which are not mutually exclusive, but interdependent, interact differently from event to event. Interplanetary coronal mass ejections (ICMEs) and corotating interaction regions (CIRs) are found to be the primary phenomena responsible for the main phase of geomagnetic storms. The other two mechanisms, i.e., HILDCAA (high-intensity, long-duration, continuous auroral electrojet activity) and the so-called Russell-McPherron effect, work to make the ICME and CIR phenomena more geoeffective. The solar cycle dependence of the various sources in creating magnetic storms has yet to be quantitatively understood. (2) A serious controversy exists as to whether the successive occurrence of intense substorms plays a direct role in the energization of ring current particles or whether the enhanced electric field associated with southward IMF enhances the effect of substorm expansions. While most of the Dst variance during magnetic storms can be solely reproduced by changes in the large-scale electric field in the solar wind and the residuals are uncorrelated with substorms, recent satellite observations of the ring current constituents during the main phase of magnetic storms show the importance of ionospheric ions. This implies that ionospheric ions, which are associated with the frequent occurrence of intense substorms, are accelerated upward along magnetic field lines, contributing to the energy density of the

  14. Automatic Detection of Storm Damages Using High-Altitude Photogrammetric Imaging

    Science.gov (United States)

    Litkey, P.; Nurminen, K.; Honkavaara, E.

    2013-05-01

    The risks of storms that cause damage in forests are increasing due to climate change. Quickly detecting fallen trees, assessing the amount of fallen trees and efficiently collecting them are of great importance for economic and environmental reasons. Visually detecting and delineating storm damage is a laborious and error-prone process; thus, it is important to develop cost-efficient and highly automated methods. Objective of our research project is to investigate and develop a reliable and efficient method for automatic storm damage detection, which is based on airborne imagery that is collected after a storm. The requirements for the method are the before-storm and after-storm surface models. A difference surface is calculated using two DSMs and the locations where significant changes have appeared are automatically detected. In our previous research we used four-year old airborne laser scanning surface model as the before-storm surface. The after-storm DSM was provided from the photogrammetric images using the Next Generation Automatic Terrain Extraction (NGATE) algorithm of Socet Set software. We obtained 100% accuracy in detection of major storm damages. In this investigation we will further evaluate the sensitivity of the storm-damage detection process. We will investigate the potential of national airborne photography, that is collected at no-leaf season, to automatically produce a before-storm DSM using image matching. We will also compare impact of the terrain extraction algorithm to the results. Our results will also promote the potential of national open source data sets in the management of natural disasters.

  15. The 2015 Summer Solstice Storm: One of the Major Geomagnetic Storms of Solar Cycle 24 Observed at Ground Level

    Science.gov (United States)

    Augusto, C. R. A.; Navia, C. E.; de Oliveira, M. N.; Nepomuceno, A. A.; Raulin, J. P.; Tueros, E.; de Mendonça, R. R. S.; Fauth, A. C.; Vieira de Souza, H.; Kopenkin, V.; Sinzi, T.

    2018-05-01

    We report on the 22 - 23 June 2015 geomagnetic storm that occurred at the summer solstice. There have been fewer intense geomagnetic storms during the current solar cycle, Solar Cycle 24, than in the previous cycle. This situation changed after mid-June 2015, when one of the largest solar active regions (AR 12371) of Solar Cycle 24 that was located close to the central meridian, produced several coronal mass ejections (CMEs) associated with M-class flares. The impact of these CMEs on the Earth's magnetosphere resulted in a moderate to severe G4-class geomagnetic storm on 22 - 23 June 2015 and a G2 (moderate) geomagnetic storm on 24 June. The G4 solstice storm was the second largest (so far) geomagnetic storm of Cycle 24. We highlight the ground-level observations made with the New-Tupi, Muonca, and the CARPET El Leoncito cosmic-ray detectors that are located within the South Atlantic Anomaly (SAA) region. These observations are studied in correlation with data obtained by space-borne detectors (ACE, GOES, SDO, and SOHO) and other ground-based experiments. The CME designations are taken from the Computer Aided CME Tracking (CACTus) automated catalog. As expected, Forbush decreases (FD) associated with the passing CMEs were recorded by these detectors. We note a peculiar feature linked to a severe geomagnetic storm event. The 21 June 2015 CME 0091 (CACTus CME catalog number) was likely associated with the 22 June summer solstice FD event. The angular width of CME 0091 was very narrow and measured {˜} 56° degrees seen from Earth. In most cases, only CME halos and partial halos lead to severe geomagnetic storms. We perform a cross-check analysis of the FD events detected during the rise phase of Solar Cycle 24, the geomagnetic parameters, and the CACTus CME catalog. Our study suggests that narrow angular-width CMEs that erupt in a westward direction from the Sun-Earth line can lead to moderate and severe geomagnetic storms. We also report on the strong solar proton

  16. Coastal Storm Surge Analysis: Storm Forcing. Report 3. Intermediate Submission No. 1.3

    Science.gov (United States)

    2013-07-01

    The storm surge study considers both tropical storms and extratropical cyclones for determination of return period storm surge elevations. The...Appendix B: Extratropical Cyclone Selection in Support of FEMA Region III Storm Surge Modeling...stations applied in the storm selection process. ............................................. 56  Table B2. Extratropical cyclones selected from the

  17. Evaluation of Deep Learning Representations of Spatial Storm Data

    Science.gov (United States)

    Gagne, D. J., II; Haupt, S. E.; Nychka, D. W.

    2017-12-01

    The spatial structure of a severe thunderstorm and its surrounding environment provide useful information about the potential for severe weather hazards, including tornadoes, hail, and high winds. Statistics computed over the area of a storm or from the pre-storm environment can provide descriptive information but fail to capture structural information. Because the storm environment is a complex, high-dimensional space, identifying methods to encode important spatial storm information in a low-dimensional form should aid analysis and prediction of storms by statistical and machine learning models. Principal component analysis (PCA), a more traditional approach, transforms high-dimensional data into a set of linearly uncorrelated, orthogonal components ordered by the amount of variance explained by each component. The burgeoning field of deep learning offers two potential approaches to this problem. Convolutional Neural Networks are a supervised learning method for transforming spatial data into a hierarchical set of feature maps that correspond with relevant combinations of spatial structures in the data. Generative Adversarial Networks (GANs) are an unsupervised deep learning model that uses two neural networks trained against each other to produce encoded representations of spatial data. These different spatial encoding methods were evaluated on the prediction of severe hail for a large set of storm patches extracted from the NCAR convection-allowing ensemble. Each storm patch contains information about storm structure and the near-storm environment. Logistic regression and random forest models were trained using the PCA and GAN encodings of the storm data and were compared against the predictions from a convolutional neural network. All methods showed skill over climatology at predicting the probability of severe hail. However, the verification scores among the methods were very similar and the predictions were highly correlated. Further evaluations are being

  18. The Role of Ionospheric Outflow Preconditioning in Determining Storm Geoeffectiveness

    Science.gov (United States)

    Welling, D. T.; Liemohn, M. W.; Ridley, A. J.

    2012-12-01

    It is now well accepted that ionospheric outflow plays an important role in the development of the plasma sheet and ring current during geomagnetic storms. Furthermore, even during quiet times, ionospheric plasma populates the magnetospheric lobes, producing a reservoir of hydrogen and oxygen ions. When the Interplanetary Magnetic Field (IMF) turns southward, this reservoir is connected to the plasma sheet and ring current through magnetospheric convection. Hence, the conditions of the ionosphere and magnetospheric lobes leading up to magnetospheric storm onset have important implications for storm development. Despite this, there has been little research on this preconditioning; most global simulations begin just before storm onset, neglecting preconditioning altogether. This work explores the role of preconditioning in determining the geoeffectiveness of storms using a coupled global model system. A model of ionospheric outflow (the Polar Wind Outflow Model, PWOM) is two-way coupled to a global magnetohydrodynamic model (the Block-Adaptive Tree Solar wind Roe-type Upwind Scheme, BATS-R-US), which in turn drives a ring current model (the Ring current Atmosphere interactions Model, RAM). This unique setup is used to simulate an idealized storm. The model is started at many different times, from 1 hour before storm onset to 12 hours before. The effects of storm preconditioning are examined by investigating the total ionospheric plasma content in the lobes just before onset, the total ionospheric contribution in the ring current just after onset, and the effects on Dst, magnetic elevation angle at geosynchronous, and total ring current energy density. This experiment is repeated for different solar activity levels as set by F10.7 flux. Finally, a synthetic double-dip storm is constructed to see how two closely spaced storms affect each other by changing the preconditioning environment. It is found that preconditioning of the magnetospheric lobes via ionospheric

  19. Representation of Northern Hemisphere winter storm tracks in climate models

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Greeves, C.Z.; Pope, V.D.; Stratton, R.A.; Martin, G.M. [Met Office Hadley Centre for Climate Prediction and Research, Exeter (United Kingdom)

    2007-06-15

    Northern Hemisphere winter storm tracks are a key element of the winter weather and climate at mid-latitudes. Before projections of climate change are made for these regions, it is necessary to be sure that climate models are able to reproduce the main features of observed storm tracks. The simulated storm tracks are assessed for a variety of Hadley Centre models and are shown to be well modelled on the whole. The atmosphere-only model with the semi-Lagrangian dynamical core produces generally more realistic storm tracks than the model with the Eulerian dynamical core, provided the horizontal resolution is high enough. The two models respond in different ways to changes in horizontal resolution: the model with the semi-Lagrangian dynamical core has much reduced frequency and strength of cyclonic features at lower resolution due to reduced transient eddy kinetic energy. The model with Eulerian dynamical core displays much smaller changes in frequency and strength of features with changes in horizontal resolution, but the location of the storm tracks as well as secondary development are sensitive to resolution. Coupling the atmosphere-only model (with semi-Lagrangian dynamical core) to an ocean model seems to affect the storm tracks largely via errors in the tropical representation. For instance a cold SST bias in the Pacific and a lack of ENSO variability lead to large changes in the Pacific storm track. Extratropical SST biases appear to have a more localised effect on the storm tracks. (orig.)

  20. Geomagnetic storms, super-storms, and their impacts on GPS-based navigation systems

    Science.gov (United States)

    Astafyeva, E.; Yasyukevich, Yu.; Maksikov, A.; Zhivetiev, I.

    2014-07-01

    Using data of GPS receivers located worldwide, we analyze the quality of GPS performance during four geomagnetic storms of different intensity: two super-storms and two intense storms. We show that during super-storms the density of GPS Losses-of-Lock (LoL) increases up to 0.25% at L1 frequency and up to 3% at L2 frequency, and up to 0.15% (at L1) and 1% (at L2) during less intense storms. Also, depending on the intensity of the storm time ionospheric disturbances, the total number of total electron content (TEC) slips can exceed from 4 to 40 times the quiet time level. Both GPS LoL and TEC slips occur during abrupt changes of SYM-H index of geomagnetic activity, i.e., during the main phase of geomagnetic storms and during development of ionospheric storms. The main contribution in the total number of GPS LoL was found to be done by GPS sites located at low and high latitudes, whereas the area of numerous TEC slips seemed to mostly correspond to the boundary of the auroral oval, i.e., region with intensive ionospheric irregularities. Our global maps of TEC slips show where the regions with intense irregularities of electron density occur during geomagnetic storms and will let us in future predict appearance of GPS errors for geomagnetically disturbed conditions.

  1. Proxy records of Holocene storm events in coastal barrier systems: Storm-wave induced markers

    Science.gov (United States)

    Goslin, Jérôme; Clemmensen, Lars B.

    2017-10-01

    Extreme storm events in the coastal zone are one of the main forcing agents of short-term coastal system behavior. As such, storms represent a major threat to human activities concentrated along the coasts worldwide. In order to better understand the frequency of extreme events like storms, climate science must rely on longer-time records than the century-scale records of instrumental weather data. Proxy records of storm-wave or storm-wind induced activity in coastal barrier systems deposits have been widely used worldwide in recent years to document past storm events during the last millennia. This review provides a detailed state-of-the-art compilation of the proxies available from coastal barrier systems to reconstruct Holocene storm chronologies (paleotempestology). The present paper aims (I) to describe the erosional and depositional processes caused by storm-wave action in barrier and back-barrier systems (i.e. beach ridges, storm scarps and washover deposits), (ii) to understand how storm records can be extracted from barrier and back-barrier sedimentary bodies using stratigraphical, sedimentological, micro-paleontological and geochemical proxies and (iii) to show how to obtain chronological control on past storm events recorded in the sedimentary successions. The challenges that paleotempestology studies still face in the reconstruction of representative and reliable storm-chronologies using these various proxies are discussed, and future research prospects are outlined.

  2. Temporal variations of isotopes in arid rain storms

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Adar, E.M.; Dodi, A.; Geyh, M.A.; Yair, A.

    1999-01-01

    The distribution of isotopes in rainfall has long been used to elaborate on hydrological systems. Both isotopic composition of stable isotopes (oxygen-18 and deuterium) and tritium content are used to illuminate on sources of groundwater recharge and as tracers upon which groundwater fluxes are assessed. As runoff is concerned, stable isotopes have been used to identify flow paths and the precise location of the rain storm which produced the floods. Analyses of stable isotopes in arid storms in the Negev desert revealed clear discrepancy between the spatial isotopic composition in floods versus the spatial and temporal isotopic composition in rainfall. In addition, simple water balance revealed that the entire flood volume is equivalent to a very small portion of the rain storm, suggesting that a specific flood is produced by a very short and intensive portion of the rainfall. Therefore, knowledge of the weighted isotopic average of a rainfall can not serve as an adequate input function for modeling of desert floods. Since in arid environment, floods are considered as major source of groundwater recharge it also can not be used as input function for modeling of groundwater systems. This paper summarizes detailed isotopic study of short segments (∼2 mm each) of desert rainstorms as sampled in the Negev desert, Israel

  3. A Regional GPS Receiver Network For Monitoring Mid-latitude Total Electron Content During Storms

    Science.gov (United States)

    Vernon, A.; Cander, Lj. R.

    A regional GPS receiver network has been used for monitoring mid-latitude total elec- tron content (TEC) during ionospheric storms at the current solar maximum. Differ- ent individual storms were examined to study how the temporal patterns of changes develop and how they are related to solar and geomagnetic activity for parameter de- scriptive of plasmaspheric-ionospheric ionisation. Use is then made of computer con- touring techniques to produce snapshot maps of TEC for different study cases. Com- parisons with the local ionosonde data at different phases of the storms enable the storm developments to be studied in detail.

  4. Multivariate Hybrid Modelling of Future Wave-Storms at the Northwestern Black Sea

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Jue Lin-Ye

    2018-02-01

    Full Text Available The characterization of future wave-storms and their relationship to large-scale climate can provide useful information for environmental or urban planning at coastal areas. A hybrid methodology (process-based and statistical was used to characterize the extreme wave-climate at the northwestern Black Sea. The Simulating WAve Nearshore spectral wave-model was employed to produce wave-climate projections, forced with wind-fields projections for two climate change scenarios: Representative Concentration Pathways (RCPs 4.5 and 8.5. A non-stationary multivariate statistical model was built, considering significant wave-height and peak-wave-period at the peak of the wave-storm, as well as storm total energy and storm-duration. The climate indices of the North Atlantic Oscillation, East Atlantic Pattern, and Scandinavian Pattern have been used as covariates to link to storminess, wave-storm threshold, and wave-storm components in the statistical model. The results show that, first, under both RCP scenarios, the mean values of significant wave-height and peak-wave-period at the peak of the wave-storm remain fairly constant over the 21st century. Second, the mean value of storm total energy is more markedly increasing in the RCP4.5 scenario than in the RCP8.5 scenario. Third, the mean value of storm-duration is increasing in the RCP4.5 scenario, as opposed to the constant trend in the RCP8.5 scenario. The variance of each wave-storm component increases when the corresponding mean value increases under both RCP scenarios. During the 21st century, the East Atlantic Pattern and changes in its pattern have a special influence on wave-storm conditions. Apart from the individual characteristics of each wave-storm component, wave-storms with both extreme energy and duration can be expected in the 21st century. The dependence between all the wave-storm components is moderate, but grows with time and, in general, the severe emission scenario of RCP8.5 presents

  5. Toward an integrated storm surge application: ESA Storm Surge project

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lee, Boram; Donlon, Craig; Arino, Olivier

    2010-05-01

    Storm surges and their associated coastal inundation are major coastal marine hazards, both in tropical and extra-tropical areas. As sea level rises due to climate change, the impact of storm surges and associated extreme flooding may increase in low-lying countries and harbour cities. Of the 33 world cities predicted to have at least 8 million people by 2015, at least 21 of them are coastal including 8 of the 10 largest. They are highly vulnerable to coastal hazards including storm surges. Coastal inundation forecasting and warning systems depend on the crosscutting cooperation of different scientific disciplines and user communities. An integrated approach to storm surge, wave, sea-level and flood forecasting offers an optimal strategy for building improved operational forecasts and warnings capability for coastal inundation. The Earth Observation (EO) information from satellites has demonstrated high potential to enhanced coastal hazard monitoring, analysis, and forecasting; the GOCE geoid data can help calculating accurate positions of tide gauge stations within the GLOSS network. ASAR images has demonstrated usefulness in analysing hydrological situation in coastal zones with timely manner, when hazardous events occur. Wind speed and direction, which is the key parameters for storm surge forecasting and hindcasting, can be derived by using scatterometer data. The current issue is, although great deal of useful EO information and application tools exist, that sufficient user information on EO data availability is missing and that easy access supported by user applications and documentation is highly required. Clear documentation on the user requirements in support of improved storm surge forecasting and risk assessment is also needed at the present. The paper primarily addresses the requirements for data, models/technologies, and operational skills, based on the results from the recent Scientific and Technical Symposium on Storm Surges (www

  6. Healthcare4VideoStorm: Making Smart Decisions Based on Storm Metrics.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Zhang, Weishan; Duan, Pengcheng; Chen, Xiufeng; Lu, Qinghua

    2016-04-23

    Storm-based stream processing is widely used for real-time large-scale distributed processing. Knowing the run-time status and ensuring performance is critical to providing expected dependability for some applications, e.g., continuous video processing for security surveillance. The existing scheduling strategies' granularity is too coarse to have good performance, and mainly considers network resources without computing resources while scheduling. In this paper, we propose Healthcare4Storm, a framework that finds Storm insights based on Storm metrics to gain knowledge from the health status of an application, finally ending up with smart scheduling decisions. It takes into account both network and computing resources and conducts scheduling at a fine-grained level using tuples instead of topologies. The comprehensive evaluation shows that the proposed framework has good performance and can improve the dependability of the Storm-based applications.

  7. Development of VLF noise storm and its relation to dynamics of magnetosphere during geomagnetic storms

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Fedyakina, N.I.; Khorosheva, O.V.

    1989-01-01

    Dependence between the development of geomagnetic storm and VLF noise storm is studied. Two conditions should be met for the development of noise storm in VLF-hiss (f ≅ 0.5-10 kHz): a) threshold intensity of electron fluxes with E e > 40 keV in plasma layers; b) the presence of substorms resulting to widening of electron belt and its collision with cold plasma of plasmasphere. The noise storm at the fixed longitude begins about midnight independently of the phase of magnetic storm; Noise storm duration is connected with geomagnetic storm intensity by direct linear relationship

  8. Geomagnetic Storm Sudden Commencements

    Data.gov (United States)

    National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Department of Commerce — Storm Sudden Commencements (ssc) 1868 to present: STORM1 and STORM2 Lists: (Some text here is taken from the International Association of Geomagnetism and Aeronomy...

  9. DE 2 observations of disturbances in the upper atmosphere during a geomagnetic storm

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Miller, N.J.; Brace, L.H.; Spencer, N.W.; Carignan, G.R.

    1990-01-01

    Data taken in the dusk sector of the mid-latitude thermosphere at 275-450 km by instruments on board Dynamics Explorer 2 in polar orbit are used to examine the response of the ionosphere- thermosphere system during a geomagnetic storm. The results represent the first comparison of nearly simultaneous measurements of storm disturbances in dc electric fields, zonal ion convection, zonal winds, gas composition and temperature, and electron density and temperature, at different seasons in a common local time sector. The storm commenced on November 24, 1982, during the interaction of a solar wind disturbance with the geomagnetic field while the north-south component of the interplanetary magnetic field, B z , was northward. The storm main phase began while B z was turning southward. Storm-induced variations in meridional de electric fields, neutral composition, and N e were stronger and spread farther equatorward in the winter hemisphere. Westward ion convection was intense enough to produce westward winds of 600 m s - 1 via ion drag in the winter hemisphere. Frictional heating was sufficient to elevate ion temperatures above electron temperatures in both seasons and to produce large chemical losses of O + by increasing the rate of O + loss via ion-atom interchange. Part of the chemical loss of O + was compensated by upward flow of O + as the ion scale height adjusted to the increasing ion temperatures. In this storm, frictional heating was an important subauroral heat source equatorward to at least 53 degree invariant latitude

  10. Arctic Storms and Their Influence on Surface Climate in the Chukchi-Beaufort Seas

    Science.gov (United States)

    Yang, Y.; Zhang, X.; Rinke, A.; Zhang, J.

    2017-12-01

    Increases in the frequency and intensity of Arctic storms and resulting weather hazards may endanger the offshore environment, coastal community, and energy infrastructure in the Arctic as sea ice retreats. Advancing ability to identify fine-scale variations in surface climate produced by progressively stronger storm would be extremely helpful to resources management and sustainable development for coastal community. In this study, we analyzed the storms and their impacts on surface climate over the Beaufort-Chukchi seas by employing the date sets from both the hindcast simulations of the coupled Arctic regional climate model HIRHAM-NAOSIM and the recently developed Chukchi-Beaufort High-resolution Atmospheric Reanalysis (CBHAR). Based on the characteristics of spatial pattern and temporal variability of the Arctic storm activity, we categorized storms to three groups with their different origins: the East Siberia Sea, Alaska and the central Arctic Ocean. The storms originating from the central Arctic Ocean have the strongest intensity in winter with relatively less storm number. Storms traveling from Alaska to the Beaufort Sea most frequently occurred in autumn with weaker intensity. A large portion of storms originated from the East Siberia Sea region in summer. Further statistical analysis suggests that increase in surface air temperature and wind speed could be attributed to the increased frequency of storm occurrence in autumn (September to November) along the continental shelf in the Beaufort Sea.

  11. Energetics of small electron acceleration episodes in the solar corona from radio noise storm observations

    Science.gov (United States)

    James, Tomin; Subramanian, Prasad

    2018-05-01

    Observations of radio noise storms can act as sensitive probes of nonthermal electrons produced in small acceleration events in the solar corona. We use data from noise storm episodes observed jointly by the Giant Metrewave Radio Telescope (GMRT) and the Nancay Radioheliograph (NRH) to study characteristics of the nonthermal electrons involved in the emission. We find that the electrons carry 1021 to 1024 erg/s, and that the energy contained in the electrons producing a representative noise storm burst ranges from 1020 to 1023 ergs. These results are a direct probe of the energetics involved in ubiquitous, small-scale electron acceleration episodes in the corona, and could be relevant to a nanoflare-like scenario for coronal heating.

  12. Shoreline resilience to individual storms and storm clusters on a meso-macrotidal barred beach

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Angnuureng, Donatus Bapentire; Almar, Rafael; Senechal, Nadia; Castelle, Bruno; Addo, Kwasi Appeaning; Marieu, Vincent; Ranasinghe, Roshanka

    2017-01-01

    This study investigates the impact of individual storms and storm clusters on shoreline recovery for the meso-to macrotidal, barred Biscarrosse beach in SW France, using 6 years of daily video observations. While the study area experienced 60 storms during the 6-year study period, only 36 storms

  13. The effects of storms and storm-generated currents on sand beaches in Southern Maine, USA

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hill, H.W.; Kelley, J.T.; Belknap, D.F.; Dickson, S.M.

    2004-01-01

    Storms are one of the most important controls on the cycle of erosion and accretion on beaches. Current meters placed in shoreface locations of Saco Bay and Wells Embayment, ME, recorded bottom currents during the winter months of 2000 and 2001, while teams of volunteers profiled the topography of nearby beaches. Coupling offshore meteorological and beach profile data made it possible to determine the response of nine beaches in southern Maine to various oceanographic and meteorological conditions. The beaches selected for profiling ranged from pristine to completely developed and permitted further examination of the role of seawalls on the response of beaches to storms. Current meters documented three unique types of storms: frontal passages, southwest storms, and northeast storms. In general, the current meter results indicate that frontal passages and southwest storms were responsible for bringing sediment towards the shore, while northeast storms resulted in a net movement of sediment away from the beach. During the 1999-2000 winter, there were a greater percentage of frontal passages and southwest storms, while during the 2000-2001 winter, there were more northeast storms. The sediment that was transported landward during the 1999-2000 winter was reworked into the berm along moderately and highly developed beaches during the next summer. A northeast storm on March 5-6, 2001, resulted in currents in excess of 1 m s-1 and wave heights that reached six meters. The storm persisted over 10 high tides and caused coastal flooding and property damage. Topographic profiles made before and after the storm demonstrate that developed beaches experienced a loss of sediment volume during the storm, while sediment was redistributed along the profile on moderately developed and undeveloped beaches. Two months after the storm, the profiles along the developed beaches had not reached their pre-storm elevation. In comparison, the moderately developed and undeveloped beaches

  14. Mapping and Visualization of Storm-Surge Dynamics for Hurricane Katrina and Hurricane Rita

    Science.gov (United States)

    Gesch, Dean B.

    2009-01-01

    The damages caused by the storm surges from Hurricane Katrina and Hurricane Rita were significant and occurred over broad areas. Storm-surge maps are among the most useful geospatial datasets for hurricane recovery, impact assessments, and mitigation planning for future storms. Surveyed high-water marks were used to generate a maximum storm-surge surface for Hurricane Katrina extending from eastern Louisiana to Mobile Bay, Alabama. The interpolated surface was intersected with high-resolution lidar elevation data covering the study area to produce a highly detailed digital storm-surge inundation map. The storm-surge dataset and related data are available for display and query in a Web-based viewer application. A unique water-level dataset from a network of portable pressure sensors deployed in the days just prior to Hurricane Rita's landfall captured the hurricane's storm surge. The recorded sensor data provided water-level measurements with a very high temporal resolution at surveyed point locations. The resulting dataset was used to generate a time series of storm-surge surfaces that documents the surge dynamics in a new, spatially explicit way. The temporal information contained in the multiple storm-surge surfaces can be visualized in a number of ways to portray how the surge interacted with and was affected by land surface features. Spatially explicit storm-surge products can be useful for a variety of hurricane impact assessments, especially studies of wetland and land changes where knowledge of the extent and magnitude of storm-surge flooding is critical.

  15. In the Eye of the Storm: A Participatory Course on Coastal Storms

    Science.gov (United States)

    Curtis, Scott

    2013-01-01

    Storm disasters are amplified in the coastal environment due to population pressures and the power of the sea. The upper-division/graduate university course "Coastal Storms" was designed to equip future practitioners with the skills necessary to understand, respond to, and mitigate for these natural disasters. To accomplish this, "Coastal Storms"…

  16. Acquisition and use of Orlando, Florida and Continental Airbus radar flight test data

    Science.gov (United States)

    Eide, Michael C.; Mathews, Bruce

    1992-01-01

    Westinghouse is developing a lookdown pulse Doppler radar for production as the sensor and processor of a forward looking hazardous windshear detection and avoidance system. A data collection prototype of that product was ready for flight testing in Orlando to encounter low level windshear in corroboration with the FAA-Terminal Doppler Weather Radar (TDWR). Airborne real-time processing and display of the hazard factor were demonstrated with TDWR facilitated intercepts and penetrations of over 80 microbursts in a three day period, including microbursts with hazard factors in excess of .16 (with 500 ft. PIREP altitude loss) and the hazard factor display at 6 n.mi. of a visually transparent ('dry') microburst with TDWR corroborated outflow reflectivities of +5 dBz. Range gated Doppler spectrum data was recorded for subsequent development and refinement of hazard factor detection and urban clutter rejection algorithms. Following Orlando, the data collection radar was supplemental type certified for in revenue service on a Continental Airlines Airbus in an automatic and non-interferring basis with its ARINC 708 radar to allow Westinghouse to confirm its understanding of commercial aircraft installation, interface realities, and urban airport clutter. A number of software upgrades, all of which were verified at the Receiver-Transmitter-Processor (RTP) hardware bench with Orlando microburst data to produce desired advanced warning hazard factor detection, included some preliminary loads with automatic (sliding window average hazard factor) detection and annunciation recording. The current (14-APR-92) configured software is free from false and/or nuisance alerts (CAUTIONS, WARNINGS, etc.) for all take-off and landing approaches, under 2500 ft. altitude to weight-on-wheels, into all encountered airports, including Newark (NJ), LAX, Denver, Houston, Cleveland, etc. Using the Orlando data collected on hazardous microbursts, Westinghouse has developed a lookdown pulse Doppler

  17. Nippon Storm Study design

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Takashi Kurita

    2012-10-01

    Full Text Available An understanding of the clinical aspects of electrical storm (E-storms in patients with implantable cardiac shock devices (ICSDs: ICDs or cardiac resynchronization therapy with defibrillator [CRT-D] may provide important information for clinical management of patients with ICSDs. The Nippon Storm Study was organized by the Japanese Heart Rhythm Society (JHRS and Japanese Society of Electrocardiology and was designed to prospectively collect a variety of data from patients with ICSDs, with a focus on the incidence of E-storms and clinical conditions for the occurrence of an E-storm. Forty main ICSD centers in Japan are participating in the present study. From 2002, the JHRS began to collect ICSD patient data using website registration (termed Japanese cardiac defibrillator therapy registration, or JCDTR. This investigation aims to collect data on and investigate the general parameters of patients with ICSDs, such as clinical backgrounds of the patients, purposes of implantation, complications during the implantation procedure, and incidence of appropriate and inappropriate therapies from the ICSD. The Nippon Storm Study was planned as a sub-study of the JCDTR with focus on E-storms. We aim to achieve registration of more than 1000 ICSD patients and complete follow-up data collection, with the assumption of a 5–10% incidence of E-storms during the 2-year follow-up.

  18. Biological effects of geomagnetic storms

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Chibisov, S.M.; Breus, T.K.; Levitin, A.E.; Drogova, G.M.; AN SSSR, Moscow; AN SSSR, Moscow

    1995-01-01

    Six physiological parameters of cardio-vascular system of rabbits and ultrastructure of cardiomyocytes were investigated during two planetary geomagnetic storms. At the initial and main phase of the storm the normal circadian structure in each cardiovascular parameter was lost. The disynchronozis was growing together with the storm and abrupt drop of cardia activity was observed during the main phase of storm. The main phase of storm followed by the destruction and degradation of cardiomyocytes. Parameters of cardia activity became substantially synchronized and characterized by circadian rhythm structure while the amplitude of deviations was still significant at the recovery stage of geomagnetic storm. 3 refs.; 7 figs

  19. Quasi-coherent chorus properties: 1. Implications for wave-particle interactions

    Czech Academy of Sciences Publication Activity Database

    Tsurutani, B. T.; Falkowski, B. J.; Verkhoglyadova, O. P.; Pickett, J. S.; Santolík, Ondřej; Lakhina, D. G.

    2011-01-01

    Roč. 116, - (2011), A09210/1-A09210/18 ISSN 0148-0227 R&D Projects: GA ČR GAP205/10/2279; GA MŠk(CZ) ME10001 Institutional research plan: CEZ:AV0Z30420517 Keywords : WHISTLER-MODE CHORUS * RELATIVISTIC ELECTRON MICROBURSTS * PITCH ANGLE SCATTERING * RADIATION BELT * AURORAL-ZONE * RESONANT DIFFUSION * MAGNETIC STORMS * GENDRIN MODE * VLF WAVES * MAGNETOSPHERE Subject RIV: BL - Plasma and Gas Discharge Physics Impact factor: 3.021, year: 2011 http://www.agu.org/pubs/crossref/2011/2010JA016237.shtml

  20. What is the Relationship between the Solar Wind and Storms/Substorms?

    Science.gov (United States)

    Fairfield, D. H.; Burlaga, L. F.

    1999-01-01

    The interplanetary magnetic field (IMF) carried past the Earth by the solar wind has long been known to be the principal quantity that controls geomagnetic storms and substorms. Intervals of strong southward IMF with durations of at least a significant fraction of a day produce storms, while more typical, shorter intervals of less-intense southward fields produce substorms. The strong, long-duration southward fields are generally associated with coronal mass ejections and magnetic clouds or else they are produced by interplanetary dynamics initiated by fast solar wind flows that compress preexisting southward fields. Smaller, short-duration southward fields that occur on most days are related to long period waves, turbulence, or random variations in the IMF. Southward IMF enhances dayside reconnection between the IMF and the Earth's dipole with the reconnected field lines supplementing open field lines of the geomagnetic tail and producing an expanded polar cap and increased tail energy. Although the frequent storage of solar wind energy and its release during substorms is the most common mode of solar wind/magnetosphere interaction, under certain circumstances, steady southward IMF seems to produce intervals of relatively steady magnetosphere convection without substorms. During these latter times, the inner magnetosphere remains in a stressed tail-like state while the more distant magnetotail has larger northward field and more dipolar-like field lines. Recent evidence suggests that enhanced magnetosphere particle densities associated with enhanced solar wind densities allow more particles to be accelerated for the ring current, thus creating larger storms.

  1. IRI STORM validation over Europe

    Science.gov (United States)

    Haralambous, Haris; Vryonides, Photos; Demetrescu, Crişan; Dobrică, Venera; Maris, Georgeta; Ionescu, Diana

    2014-05-01

    The International Reference Ionosphere (IRI) model includes an empirical Storm-Time Ionospheric Correction Model (STORM) extension to account for storm-time changes of the F layer peak electron density (NmF2) during increased geomagnetic activity. This model extension is driven by past history values of the geomagnetic index ap (The magnetic index applied is the integral of ap over the previous 33 hours with a weighting function deduced from physically based modeling) and it adjusts the quiet-time F layer peak electron density (NmF2) to account for storm-time changes in the ionosphere. In this investigation manually scaled hourly values of NmF2 measured during the main and recovery phases of selected storms for the maximum solar activity period of the current solar cycle are compared with the predicted IRI-2012 NmF2 over European ionospheric stations using the STORM model option. Based on the comparison a subsequent performance evaluation of the STORM option during this period is quantified.

  2. Lightning Evolution In Two North Central Florida Summer Multicell Storms and Three Winter/Spring Frontal Storms

    Science.gov (United States)

    Caicedo, J. A.; Uman, M. A.; Pilkey, J. T.

    2018-01-01

    We present the first lightning evolution studies, via the Lightning Mapping Array (LMA) and radar, performed in North Central Florida. Parts of three winter/spring frontal storms (cold season) and two complete summer (warm season) multicell storms are studied. Storm parameters measured are as follows: total number of flashes, flash-type classification, first flashes, flash initiation altitude, flash initiation power, flash rate (flashes per minute), charge structure, altitude and temperature ranges of the inferred charge regions, atmospheric isotherm altitude, radar base reflectivity (dBZ), and radar echo tops (EET). Several differences were found between summer multicell and winter/spring frontal storms in North Central Florida: (1) in winter/spring storms, the range of altitudes that all charge regions occupy is up to 1 km lower in altitude than in summer storms, as are the 0°C, -10°C, and -20°C isotherms; (2) lightning activity in summer storms is highly correlated with changes in radar signatures, in particular, echo tops; and (3) the LMA average initiation power of all flash types in winter/frontal storms is about an order of magnitude larger than that for summer storms. In relation to storms in other geographical locations, North Central Florida seasonal storms were found to have similarities in most parameters studied with a few differences, examples in Florida being (1) colder initiation altitudes for intracloud flashes, (2) charge regions occupying larger ranges of atmospheric temperatures, and (3) winter/spring frontal storms not having much lightning activity in the stratiform region.

  3. Two-Step Forecast of Geomagnetic Storm Using Coronal Mass Ejection and Solar Wind Condition

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kim, R.-S.; Moon, Y.-J.; Gopalswamy, N.; Park, Y.-D.; Kim, Y.-H.

    2014-01-01

    To forecast geomagnetic storms, we had examined initially observed parameters of coronal mass ejections (CMEs) and introduced an empirical storm forecast model in a previous study. Now we suggest a two-step forecast considering not only CME parameters observed in the solar vicinity but also solar wind conditions near Earth to improve the forecast capability. We consider the empirical solar wind criteria derived in this study (Bz = -5 nT or Ey = 3 mV/m for t = 2 h for moderate storms with minimum Dst less than -50 nT) (i.e. Magnetic Field Magnitude, B (sub z) less than or equal to -5 nanoTeslas or duskward Electrical Field, E (sub y) greater than or equal to 3 millivolts per meter for time greater than or equal to 2 hours for moderate storms with Minimum Disturbance Storm Time, Dst less than -50 nanoTeslas) and a Dst model developed by Temerin and Li (2002, 2006) (TL [i.e. Temerin Li] model). Using 55 CME-Dst pairs during 1997 to 2003, our solar wind criteria produce slightly better forecasts for 31 storm events (90 percent) than the forecasts based on the TL model (87 percent). However, the latter produces better forecasts for 24 nonstorm events (88 percent), while the former correctly forecasts only 71 percent of them. We then performed the two-step forecast. The results are as follows: (i) for 15 events that are incorrectly forecasted using CME parameters, 12 cases (80 percent) can be properly predicted based on solar wind conditions; (ii) if we forecast a storm when both CME and solar wind conditions are satisfied (n, i.e. cap operator - the intersection set that is comprised of all the elements that are common to both), the critical success index becomes higher than that from the forecast using CME parameters alone, however, only 25 storm events (81 percent) are correctly forecasted; and (iii) if we forecast a storm when either set of these conditions is satisfied (?, i.e. cup operator - the union set that is comprised of all the elements of either or both

  4. A Basis Function Approach to Simulate Storm Surge Events for Coastal Flood Risk Assessment

    Science.gov (United States)

    Wu, Wenyan; Westra, Seth; Leonard, Michael

    2017-04-01

    Storm surge is a significant contributor to flooding in coastal and estuarine regions, especially when it coincides with other flood producing mechanisms, such as extreme rainfall. Therefore, storm surge has always been a research focus in coastal flood risk assessment. Often numerical models have been developed to understand storm surge events for risk assessment (Kumagai et al. 2016; Li et al. 2016; Zhang et al. 2016) (Bastidas et al. 2016; Bilskie et al. 2016; Dalledonne and Mayerle 2016; Haigh et al. 2014; Kodaira et al. 2016; Lapetina and Sheng 2015), and assess how these events may change or evolve in the future (Izuru et al. 2015; Oey and Chou 2016). However, numeric models often require a lot of input information and difficulties arise when there are not sufficient data available (Madsen et al. 2015). Alternative, statistical methods have been used to forecast storm surge based on historical data (Hashemi et al. 2016; Kim et al. 2016) or to examine the long term trend in the change of storm surge events, especially under climate change (Balaguru et al. 2016; Oh et al. 2016; Rueda et al. 2016). In these studies, often the peak of surge events is used, which result in the loss of dynamic information within a tidal cycle or surge event (i.e. a time series of storm surge values). In this study, we propose an alternative basis function (BF) based approach to examine the different attributes (e.g. peak and durations) of storm surge events using historical data. Two simple two-parameter BFs were used: the exponential function and the triangular function. High quality hourly storm surge record from 15 tide gauges around Australia were examined. It was found that there are significantly location and seasonal variability in the peak and duration of storm surge events, which provides additional insights in coastal flood risk. In addition, the simple form of these BFs allows fast simulation of storm surge events and minimises the complexity of joint probability

  5. Thermal tides and Martian dust storms: Direct evidence for coupling

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Leovy, C.B.; Zurek, R.W.

    1979-01-01

    Observations of surface pressure oscillations at the Viking 1 and Viking 2 lander sites on Mars indicate that the thermally driven global atmospheric tides were closely coupled to the dust content of the Martian atmosphere, especially during northern fall and winter, when two successive global dust storms occurred. The onset of each of these global storms was marked by substantial, nearly simultaneous increases in the dust opacity and in the range of the daily surface pressure variation observed at both lander sites. Although both the diurnal and semidiurnal tidal surface pressure components were amplified at Lander 1 during the onset of a global dust storm, the semidiurnal component was greatly enhanced in relation to the diurnal tide. Semidiurnal wind components were prominent at both lander sites during the height of the global dust storm. We have attempted to interpret these observations using simplified dynamical models. In particular, the semidiurnal wind component can be successfully related to the observed surface pressure variation using a simplified model of a semidiurnally forced Ekman boundary layer. On the other hand, a classical atmospheric tidal model shows that the preferential enhancement of the semidiurnal surface pressure oscillation at Lander 1 can be produced by a tidal heating distribution which places most of the heating (per unit mass) above 10-km altitude. Furthermore, when a dust storm expands to global scale, it does so rather quickly, and the total atmospheric heating at the peak of the dust storm can represent more than 50% of the available insolation. The Viking observations suggest that a number of mechanisms are important for the generation and decay of these episodic Martian global dust storms

  6. [Diagnosis and treatment of thyroid storm].

    Science.gov (United States)

    Akamizu, Takashi

    2012-11-01

    Thyrotoxic storm is a life-threatening condition requiring emergency treatment. Neither its epidemiological data nor diagnostic criteria have been fully established. We clarified the clinical and epidemiological characteristics of thyroid storm using nationwide surveys and then formulate diagnostic criteria for thyroid storm. To perform the nationwide survey on thyroid storm, we first developed tentative diagnostic criteria for thyroid storm, mainly based upon the literature (the first edition). We analyzed the relationship of the major features of thyroid storm to mortality and to certain other features. Finally, based upon the findings of these surveys, we revised the diagnostic criteria. Thyrotoxic storm is still a life-threatening disorder with over 10% mortality in Japan.

  7. Using Satellite Altimetry to Calibrate the Simulation of Typhoon Seth Storm Surge off Southeast China

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Xiaohui Li

    2018-04-01

    Full Text Available Satellite altimeters can capture storm surges generated by typhoons and tropical storms, if the satellite flies over at the right time. In this study, we show TOPEX/Poseidon altimeter-observed storm surge features off Southeast China on 10 October 1994 during Typhoon Seth. We then use a three-dimensional, barotropic, finite-volume community ocean model (FVCOM to simulate storm surges. An innovative aspect is that satellite data are used to calibrate the storm surge model to improve model performance, by adjusting model wind forcing fields (the National Center for Environment Prediction (NCEP reanalysis product in reference to the typhoon best-track data. The calibration reduces the along-track root-mean-square (RMS difference between model and altimetric data from 0.15 to 0.10 m. It also reduces the RMS temporal difference from 0.21 to 0.18 m between the model results and independent tide-gauge data at Xiamen. In particular, the calibrated model produces a peak storm surge of 1.01 m at 6:00 10 October 1994 at Xiamen, agreeing with tide-gauge data; while the peak storm surge with the NCEP forcing is 0.71 m only. We further show that the interaction between storm surges and astronomical tides contributes to the peak storm surge by 34% and that the storm surge propagates southwestward as a coastally-trapped Kelvin wave.

  8. Influence of storm characteristics on soil erosion and storm runoff

    Science.gov (United States)

    Johnny M. III Grace

    2008-01-01

    Unpaved forest roads can be major sources of sediment from forested watersheds. Storm runoff from forest roads are a concern due to their potential delivery of sediments and nutrients to stream systems resulting in degraded water quality. The volume and sediment concentrations of stormwater runoff emanating from forest roads can be greatly influenced by storm...

  9. Thermospheric storms and related ionospheric effects

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Chandra, S.; Spencer, N.W.

    1976-01-01

    A comparative study of thermospheric storms for the equinox and winter conditions is presented based on the neutral composition measurements from the Aeros-A Nate (Neutral Atmosphere Temperature Experiment) experiment. The main features of the two storms as inferred from the changes in N 2 , Ar, He, and O are described, and their implications to current theories of thermospheric storms are discussed. On the basis of the study of the F region critical frequency measured from a chain of ground-based ionospheric stations during the two storm periods, the general characteristics of the ionospheric storms and the traveling ionospheric disturbances are described. It is suggested that the positive and negative phases of ionospheric storms are the various manifestations of thermospheric storms

  10. Storm Identification, Tracking and Forecasting Using High-Resolution Images of Short-Range X-Band Radar

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Sajid Shah

    2015-05-01

    Full Text Available Rain nowcasting is an essential part of weather monitoring. It plays a vital role in human life, ranging from advanced warning systems to scheduling open air events and tourism. A nowcasting system can be divided into three fundamental steps, i.e., storm identification, tracking and nowcasting. The main contribution of this work is to propose procedures for each step of the rain nowcasting tool and to objectively evaluate the performances of every step, focusing on two-dimension data collected from short-range X-band radars installed in different parts of Italy. This work presents the solution of previously unsolved problems in storm identification: first, the selection of suitable thresholds for storm identification; second, the isolation of false merger (loosely-connected storms; and third, the identification of a high reflectivity sub-storm within a large storm. The storm tracking step of the existing tools, such as TITANand SCIT, use only up to two storm attributes, i.e., center of mass and area. It is possible to use more attributes for tracking. Furthermore, the contribution of each attribute in storm tracking is yet to be investigated. This paper presents a novel procedure called SALdEdA (structure, amplitude, location, eccentricity difference and areal difference for storm tracking. This work also presents the contribution of each component of SALdEdA in storm tracking. The second order exponential smoothing strategy is used for storm nowcasting, where the growth and decay of each variable of interest is considered to be linear. We evaluated the major steps of our method. The adopted techniques for automatic threshold calculation are assessed with a 97% goodness. False merger and sub-storms within a cluster of storms are successfully handled. Furthermore, the storm tracking procedure produced good results with an accuracy of 99.34% for convective events and 100% for stratiform events.

  11. Substorms during different storm phases

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    N. Partamies

    2011-11-01

    Full Text Available After the deep solar minimum at the end of the solar cycle 23, a small magnetic storm occurred on 20–26 January 2010. The Dst (disturbance storm time index reached the minimum of −38 nT on 20 January and the prolonged recovery that followed the main phase that lasted for about 6 days. In this study, we concentrate on three substorms that took place (1 just prior to the storm, (2 during the main phase of the storm, and (3 at the end of the recovery of the storm. We analyse the solar wind conditions from the solar wind monitoring spacecraft, the duration and intensity of the substorm events as well as the behaviour of the electrojet currents from the ground magnetometer measurements. We compare the precipitation characteristics of the three substorms. The results show that the F-region electron density enhancements and dominant green and red auroral emission of the substorm activity during the storm recovery resembles average isolated substorm precipitation. However, the energy dissipated, even at the very end of a prolonged storm recovery, is very large compared to the typical energy content of isolated substorms. In the case studied here, the dissipation of the excess energy is observed over a 3-h long period of several consecutive substorm intensifications. Our findings suggest that the substorm energy dissipation varies between the storm phases.

  12. Nonparametric Tree-Based Predictive Modeling of Storm Outages on an Electric Distribution Network.

    Science.gov (United States)

    He, Jichao; Wanik, David W; Hartman, Brian M; Anagnostou, Emmanouil N; Astitha, Marina; Frediani, Maria E B

    2017-03-01

    This article compares two nonparametric tree-based models, quantile regression forests (QRF) and Bayesian additive regression trees (BART), for predicting storm outages on an electric distribution network in Connecticut, USA. We evaluated point estimates and prediction intervals of outage predictions for both models using high-resolution weather, infrastructure, and land use data for 89 storm events (including hurricanes, blizzards, and thunderstorms). We found that spatially BART predicted more accurate point estimates than QRF. However, QRF produced better prediction intervals for high spatial resolutions (2-km grid cells and towns), while BART predictions aggregated to coarser resolutions (divisions and service territory) more effectively. We also found that the predictive accuracy was dependent on the season (e.g., tree-leaf condition, storm characteristics), and that the predictions were most accurate for winter storms. Given the merits of each individual model, we suggest that BART and QRF be implemented together to show the complete picture of a storm's potential impact on the electric distribution network, which would allow for a utility to make better decisions about allocating prestorm resources. © 2016 Society for Risk Analysis.

  13. Thromboembolic complications of thyroid storm.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Min, T; Benjamin, S; Cozma, L

    2014-01-01

    Thyroid storm is a rare but potentially life-threatening complication of hyperthyroidism. Early recognition and prompt treatment are essential. Atrial fibrillation can occur in up to 40% of patients with thyroid storm. Studies have shown that hyperthyroidism increases the risk of thromboembolic events. There is no consensus with regard to the initiation of anticoagulation for atrial fibrillation in severe thyrotoxicosis. Anticoagulation is not routinely initiated if the risk is low on a CHADS2 score; however, this should be considered in patients with thyroid storm or severe thyrotoxicosis with impending storm irrespective of the CHADS2 risk, as it appears to increase the risk of thromboembolic episodes. Herein, we describe a case of thyroid storm complicated by massive pulmonary embolism. Diagnosis of thyroid storm is based on clinical findings. Early recognition and prompt treatment could lead to a favourable outcome.Hypercoagulable state is a recognised complication of thyrotoxicosis.Atrial fibrillation is strongly associated with hyperthyroidism and thyroid storm.Anticoagulation should be considered for patients with severe thyrotoxicosis and atrial fibrillation irrespective of the CHADS2 score.Patients with severe thyrotoxicosis and clinical evidence of thrombosis should be immediately anticoagulated until hyperthyroidism is under control.

  14. Dynamic and Thermodynamic Characteristics of a Microburst-Producing Storm in Colorado Determined from JAWS (Joint Airport Weather Studies) Dual-Doppler Data.

    Science.gov (United States)

    1986-01-01

    amplitude gain function G, based 189 on the theoretical formulas derived by Testud and Chong (1983). GI is the amplitude gain for n = I (first order...theoretical formulas derived by Testud and Chong (1983). Values of kt, and AL are 0.1584 km and 0.0251 km respectively. For comparison, values of D...from Barnes (1973) scheme (D’) with Y=0.3 and R=2.5 km and theo:etical formulas derived by Testud and Chong (1983) for n=l (GI) and n=2 (G2). Fig. BI

  15. Perfect storm: Therapeutic plasma exchange for a patient with thyroid storm.

    Science.gov (United States)

    McGonigle, Andrea M; Tobian, Aaron A R; Zink, Jennifer L; King, Karen E

    2018-02-01

    Thyroid storm is a potentially lethal complication of hyperthyroidism with increased thyroid hormones and exaggerated symptoms of thyrotoxicosis. First-line therapy includes methimazole (MMI) or propylthiouracil (PTU) to block production of thyroid hormones as a bridge toward definitive surgical treatment. Untreated thyroid storm has a mortality rate of up to 30%; this is particularly alarming when patients cannot tolerate or fail pharmacotherapy, especially if they cannot undergo thyroidectomy. Therapeutic plasma exchange (TPE) is an ASFA category III indication for thyroid storm, meaning the optimum role of this therapy is not established, and there are a limited number of cases in the literature. Yet TPE can remove T3 and T4 bound to albumin, autoantibodies, catecholamines and cytokines and is likely beneficial for these patients. We report a patient with thyroid storm who could not tolerate PTU, subsequently failed therapy with MMI, and was not appropriate for thyroidectomy. TPE was therefore performed daily for 4 days (1.0 plasma volume with 5% albumin replacement and 2 U of plasma). Over the treatment course, the patient's thyroid hormones normalized and symptoms of thyroid storm largely resolved; his T3 decreased from 2.27 to 0.81 ng/mL (normal 0.8-2.0), T4 decreased from 4.8 to 1.7 ng/mL (0.8-1.8), heart rate normalized, altered mental status improved, and he converted to normal sinus rhythm. He was ultimately discharged in euthyroid state. He experienced no side effects from his TPE procedures. TPE is a safe and effective treatment for thyroid storm when conventional treatments are not successful or appropriate. © 2017 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

  16. Magnetic Storms at Mars and Earth

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Vennerstrøm, Susanne; Falkenberg, Thea Vilstrup

    In analogy with magnetic storms at the Earth, periods of significantly enhanced global magnetic activity also exist at Mars. The extensive database of magnetic measurements from Mars Global Surveyor (MGS), covering almost an entire solar cycle, is used in combination with geomagnetic activity...... indices at Earth to compare the occurrence of magnetic storms at Mars and Earth. Based on superposed epochs analysis the time-development of typical magnetic storms at Mars and Earth is described. In contradiction to storms at Earth, most magnetic storms at Mars are found to be associated...... with heliospheric current sheet crossings, where the IMF changes polarity. While most storms at the Earth occur due to significant southward excursions of the IMF associated with CMEs, at Mars most storms seem to be associated with the density enhancement of the heliospheric current sheet. Density enhancements...

  17. Forecasting severe ice storms using numerical weather prediction: the March 2010 Newfoundland event

    OpenAIRE

    J. Hosek; P. Musilek; E. Lozowski; P. Pytlak

    2011-01-01

    The northeast coast of North America is frequently hit by severe ice storms. These freezing rain events can produce large ice accretions that damage structures, frequently power transmission and distribution infrastructure. For this reason, it is highly desirable to model and forecast such icing events, so that the consequent damages can be prevented or mitigated. The case study presented in this paper focuses on the March 2010 ice storm event that took place in eastern Newfoundland. We apply...

  18. The role of storm scale, position and movement in controlling urban flood response

    Science.gov (United States)

    ten Veldhuis, Marie-claire; Zhou, Zhengzheng; Yang, Long; Liu, Shuguang; Smith, James

    2018-01-01

    The impact of spatial and temporal variability of rainfall on hydrological response remains poorly understood, in particular in urban catchments due to their strong variability in land use, a high degree of imperviousness and the presence of stormwater infrastructure. In this study, we analyze the effect of storm scale, position and movement in relation to basin scale and flow-path network structure on urban hydrological response. A catalog of 279 peak events was extracted from a high-quality observational dataset covering 15 years of flow observations and radar rainfall data for five (semi)urbanized basins ranging from 7.0 to 111.1 km2 in size. Results showed that the largest peak flows in the event catalog were associated with storm core scales exceeding basin scale, for all except the largest basin. Spatial scale of flood-producing storm events in the smaller basins fell into two groups: storms of large spatial scales exceeding basin size or small, concentrated events, with storm core much smaller than basin size. For the majority of events, spatial rainfall variability was strongly smoothed by the flow-path network, increasingly so for larger basin size. Correlation analysis showed that position of the storm in relation to the flow-path network was significantly correlated with peak flow in the smallest and in the two more urbanized basins. Analysis of storm movement relative to the flow-path network showed that direction of storm movement, upstream or downstream relative to the flow-path network, had little influence on hydrological response. Slow-moving storms tend to be associated with higher peak flows and longer lag times. Unexpectedly, position of the storm relative to impervious cover within the basins had little effect on flow peaks. These findings show the importance of observation-based analysis in validating and improving our understanding of interactions between the spatial distribution of rainfall and catchment variability.

  19. Ionospheric Responses to the July 15 - 16, 2000 Magnetic Storm around Geographic Longitude 121E

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Yu-Jung Chuo

    2008-01-01

    Full Text Available This study presents observed behavior of ionospheric responses using vertical total electron contents (VTEC and NmF2. The data were collected from global positioning system (GPS networks and ionosondes around the geographic longitude of 121°E from mid- to low-latitudes for the severe magnetic storm on 15 July 2000. The results show that the severe magnetic storm caused significant density depletion and a G-condition occurrence in the western Pacific region on 15 - 16 July 2000. The G-condition is observed on the ionograms at Chung-Li station around 2330 UT on July 15. Furthermore, the variation of the F-peak height (HmF2 at Cebu indicates that a zonal electric field produced an upward drift and enhanced the fountain effect from 1000 UT on July 15. The observation of a G-condition indicates that a storm-induced neutral-wind circulation was the main cause of compositional change; i.e., an increase in the N2/O ratio and its associated loss coefficients that produced a negative storm phase along the chain of geographic longitude 121°E.

  20. Relationship between substorms and storms

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Kamide, Y.

    1980-01-01

    In an attempt to deduce a plausible working model of the relationship between magnetospheric substorms and storms, recent relevant studies of various processes occurring during disturbed periods are integrated along with some theoretical suggestions. It has been shown that the main phase of geomagnetic storms is associated with the successive occurrence of intense substorms and with the sustained southward component of the interplanetary magnetic field (IMF). However, these relations are only qualitatively understood, and thus basic questions remain unanswered involving the hypothesis whether a magnetic storm is a non-linear (or linear) superposition of intense substorms, each of which constitutes an elementary storm, or the main phase of magnetic storms occurs as a result of the intense southward IMF which enhances magnetospheric convection and increases occurrence probability of substorms. (Auth.)

  1. NCDC Storm Events Database

    Data.gov (United States)

    National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Department of Commerce — Storm Data is provided by the National Weather Service (NWS) and contain statistics on personal injuries and damage estimates. Storm Data covers the United States of...

  2. Ionospheric effects at low latitudes during the March 22, 1979, geomagnetic storm

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Fesen, C.G.; Crowley, G.; Roble, R.G.

    1989-01-01

    This paper investigates the response of the equatorial ionosphere to the neutral atmosphere perturbations produced by the magnetic storm of March 22, 1979. A numerical model of the equatorial ionosphere is used to calculate the maximum electron densities and F layer heights associated with a storm-perturbed neutral atmosphere and circulation model. Possible electric field perturbations due to the storm are ignored. The neutral atmosphere and dynamics are simulated by the National Center for Atmospheric Research thermospheric general circulation model (TGCM) for the storm day of March 22, 1979, and the preceding quiet day. The most striking feature of the TGCM storm day simulations is the presence of waves in the neutral composition, wind, and temperature fields which propagate from high latitudes to the equator. The TGCM-calculated fields for the two days are input into a low-latitude ionosphere model which calculates n max and h max between ±20 degree dip latitude. The calculated nighttime 6300-angstrom airglow emission and the altitude profiles of electron concentration are also highly perturbed by the storm. Examination of ionosonde data for March 22, 1979, shows remarkable agreement between the measured and predicted changes in f 0 F 2 and h max near 140 degree W. Poorer agreement near 70 degree W may be due to the neglect of electric field perturbations and the approximations inherent in the modeling. The results of these simulations indicate that the major factor influencing the storm time ionospheric behavior in this case is the neutral wind

  3. Predicting the occurrence of super-storms

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    N. Srivastava

    2005-11-01

    Full Text Available A comparative study of five super-storms (Dst<-300 nT of the current solar cycle after the launch of SoHO, to identify solar and interplanetary variables that influence the magnitude of resulting geomagnetic storms, is described. Amongst solar variables, the initial speed of a CME is considered the most reliable predictor of the strength of the associated geomagnetic storm because fast mass ejections are responsible for building up the ram pressure at the Earth's magnetosphere. However, although most of the super-storms studied were associated with high speed CMEs, the Dst index of the resulting geomagnetic storms varied between -300 to -472 nT. The most intense storm of 20 November 2003, (Dst ~ -472 nT had its source in a comparatively smaller active region and was associated with a relatively weaker, M-class flare while all other super-storms had their origins in large active regions and were associated with strong X-class flares. However, this superstorm did not show any associated extraordinary solar and interplanetary characteristics. The study also reveals the challenge in the reliable prediction of the magnitude of a geomagnetic storm from solar and interplanetary variables.

  4. The structure of the big magnetic storms

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Mihajlivich, J. Spomenko; Chop, Rudi; Palangio, Paolo

    2010-01-01

    The records of geomagnetic activity during Solar Cycles 22 and 23 (which occurred from 1986 to 2006) indicate several extremely intensive A-class geomagnetic storms. These were storms classified in the category of the Big Magnetic Storms. In a year of maximum solar activity during Solar Cycle 23, or more precisely, during a phase designated as a post-maximum phase in solar activity (PPM - Phase Post maximum), near the autumn equinox, on 29, October 2003, an extremely strong and intensive magnetic storm was recorded. In the first half of November 2004 (7, November 2004) an intensive magnetic storm was recorded (the Class Big Magnetic Storm). The level of geomagnetic field variations which were recorded for the selected Big Magnetic Storms, was ΔD st=350 nT. For the Big Magnetic Storms the indicated three-hour interval indices geomagnetic activity was Kp = 9. This study presents the spectral composition of the Di - variations which were recorded during magnetic storms in October 2003 and November 2004. (Author)

  5. Global evolution of storm-time effects in the-F region during 17-18 December 1971

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Alamelu, V.; Mukunda Rao, M.; Sethuraman, R.

    1982-01-01

    The latitudinal variation of the effect of the great storm of 17 Dec. 71 is investigated by choosing stations of varying latitudes but of approximately the same longitude. In addition, three stations, one each in the American, African and Indian zone, are chosen to find the longitudinal changes produced during this storm. It is seen that the storm is mainly a negative one in the southern hemisphere of this longitude sector. The noon biteout is enhanced on the major storm day, viz., 17 Dec. 71, at the American equator, with large evening peaks on both 17th and 18th. The northern hemisphere does not exhibit any large change in the critical frequency of the F layer. The reported changes in TEC measurements are not reflected in the parameter f 0 F 2 at Lindau

  6. Evaluation of the STORM model storm-time corrections for middle latitude

    Czech Academy of Sciences Publication Activity Database

    Burešová, Dalia; McKinnell, L.- A.; Šindelářová, Tereza; de la Morena, B. A.

    2010-01-01

    Roč. 46, č. 8 (2010), s. 1039-1046 ISSN 0273-1177 R&D Projects: GA ČR GA205/08/1356; GA AV ČR 1QS300120506 Institutional research plan: CEZ:AV0Z30420517 Keywords : Ionosphere * Geomagnetic storms * STORM model * International Reference Ionosphere (IRI) Subject RIV: DG - Athmosphere Sciences, Meteorology Impact factor: 1.076, year: 2010

  7. Meteorology, Macrophysics, Microphysics, Microwaves, and Mesoscale Modeling of Mediterranean Mountain Storms: The M8 Laboratory

    Science.gov (United States)

    Starr, David O. (Technical Monitor); Smith, Eric A.

    2002-01-01

    Comprehensive understanding of the microphysical nature of Mediterranean storms can be accomplished by a combination of in situ meteorological data analysis and radar-passive microwave data analysis, effectively integrated with numerical modeling studies at various scales, from synoptic scale down through the mesoscale, the cloud macrophysical scale, and ultimately the cloud microphysical scale. The microphysical properties of and their controls on severe storms are intrinsically related to meteorological processes under which storms have evolved, processes which eventually select and control the dominant microphysical properties themselves. This involves intense convective development, stratiform decay, orographic lifting, and sloped frontal lifting processes, as well as the associated vertical motions and thermodynamical instabilities governing physical processes that affect details of the size distributions and fall rates of the various types of hydrometeors found within the storm environment. Insofar as hazardous Mediterranean storms, highlighted in this study by three mountain storms producing damaging floods in northern Italy between 1992 and 2000, developing a comprehensive microphysical interpretation requires an understanding of the multiple phases of storm evolution and the heterogeneous nature of precipitation fields within a storm domain. This involves convective development, stratiform transition and decay, orographic lifting, and sloped frontal lifting processes. This also involves vertical motions and thermodynamical instabilities governing physical processes that determine details of the liquid/ice water contents, size disi:ributions, and fall rates of the various modes of hydrometeors found within hazardous storm environments.

  8. Geomagnetic storms

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    McNamara, A.G.

    1980-01-01

    Disturbances due to geomagnetic storms can affect the functioning of communications satellites and of power lines and other long conductors. Two general classes of geomagnetic activity can be distinguished: ionospheric current flow (the auroral electrojet), and magnetospheric compression. Super magnetic storms, such as the one of August 1972, can occur at any time and average about 17 occurrences per century. Electrical transmission systems can be made more tolerant of such events at a price, but the most effective way to minimize damage is by better operator training coupled with effective early warning systems. (LL)

  9. Predicting the occurrence of super-storms

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    N. Srivastava

    2005-11-01

    Full Text Available A comparative study of five super-storms (Dst<-300 nT of the current solar cycle after the launch of SoHO, to identify solar and interplanetary variables that influence the magnitude of resulting geomagnetic storms, is described. Amongst solar variables, the initial speed of a CME is considered the most reliable predictor of the strength of the associated geomagnetic storm because fast mass ejections are responsible for building up the ram pressure at the Earth's magnetosphere. However, although most of the super-storms studied were associated with high speed CMEs, the Dst index of the resulting geomagnetic storms varied between -300 to -472 nT. The most intense storm of 20 November 2003, (Dst ~ -472 nT had its source in a comparatively smaller active region and was associated with a relatively weaker, M-class flare while all other super-storms had their origins in large active regions and were associated with strong X-class flares. However, this superstorm did not show any associated extraordinary solar and interplanetary characteristics. The study also reveals the challenge in the reliable prediction of the magnitude of a geomagnetic storm from solar and interplanetary variables.

  10. Thyroid storm: an updated review.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Chiha, Maguy; Samarasinghe, Shanika; Kabaker, Adam S

    2015-03-01

    Thyroid storm, an endocrine emergency first described in 1926, remains a diagnostic and therapeutic challenge. No laboratory abnormalities are specific to thyroid storm, and the available scoring system is based on the clinical criteria. The exact mechanisms underlying the development of thyroid storm from uncomplicated hyperthyroidism are not well understood. A heightened response to thyroid hormone is often incriminated along with increased or abrupt availability of free hormones. Patients exhibit exaggerated signs and symptoms of hyperthyroidism and varying degrees of organ decompensation. Treatment should be initiated promptly targeting all steps of thyroid hormone formation, release, and action. Patients who fail medical therapy should be treated with therapeutic plasma exchange or thyroidectomy. The mortality of thyroid storm is currently reported at 10%. Patients who have survived thyroid storm should receive definite therapy for their underlying hyperthyroidism to avoid any recurrence of this potentially fatal condition. © The Author(s) 2013.

  11. The electric storm of November 1882

    Science.gov (United States)

    Love, Jeffrey J.

    2018-01-01

    In November 1882, an intense magnetic storm related to a large sunspot group caused widespread interference to telegraph and telephone systems and provided spectacular and unusual auroral displays. The (ring current) storm time disturbance index for this storm reached maximum −Dst ≈ 386 nT, comparable to Halloween storm of 29–31 October 2003, but from 17 to 20 November the aa midlatitude geomagnetic disturbance index averaged 214.25 nT, the highest 4 day level of disturbance since the beginning of aa index in 1868. This storm contributed to scientists' understanding of the reality of solar‐terrestrial interaction. Past occurrences of magnetic storms, like that of November 1882, can inform modern evaluations of the deleterious effects that a magnetic superstorm might have on technological systems of importance to society.

  12. Ionospheric storms at geophysically-equivalent sites – Part 1: Storm-time patterns for sub-auroral ionospheres

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    M. Mendillo

    2009-04-01

    Full Text Available The systematic study of ionospheric storms has been conducted primarily with groundbased data from the Northern Hemisphere. Significant progress has been made in defining typical morphology patterns at all latitudes; mechanisms have been identified and tested via modeling. At higher mid-latitudes (sites that are typically sub-auroral during non-storm conditions, the processes that change significantly during storms can be of comparable magnitudes, but with different time constants. These include ionospheric plasma dynamics from the penetration of magnetospheric electric fields, enhancements to thermospheric winds due to auroral and Joule heating inputs, disturbance dynamo electrodynamics driven by such winds, and thermospheric composition changes due to the changed circulation patterns. The ~12° tilt of the geomagnetic field axis causes significant longitude effects in all of these processes in the Northern Hemisphere. A complementary series of longitude effects would be expected to occur in the Southern Hemisphere. In this paper we begin a series of studies to investigate the longitudinal-hemispheric similarities and differences in the response of the ionosphere's peak electron density to geomagnetic storms. The ionosonde stations at Wallops Island (VA and Hobart (Tasmania have comparable geographic and geomagnetic latitudes for sub-auroral locations, are situated at longitudes close to that of the dipole tilt, and thus serve as our candidate station-pair choice for studies of ionospheric storms at geophysically-comparable locations. They have an excellent record of observations of the ionospheric penetration frequency (foF2 spanning several solar cycles, and thus are suitable for long-term studies. During solar cycle #20 (1964–1976, 206 geomagnetic storms occurred that had Ap≥30 or Kp≥5 for at least one day of the storm. Our analysis of average storm-time perturbations (percent deviations from the monthly means showed a remarkable

  13. The role of storm scale, position and movement in controlling urban flood response

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    M.-C. ten Veldhuis

    2018-01-01

    Full Text Available The impact of spatial and temporal variability of rainfall on hydrological response remains poorly understood, in particular in urban catchments due to their strong variability in land use, a high degree of imperviousness and the presence of stormwater infrastructure. In this study, we analyze the effect of storm scale, position and movement in relation to basin scale and flow-path network structure on urban hydrological response. A catalog of 279 peak events was extracted from a high-quality observational dataset covering 15 years of flow observations and radar rainfall data for five (semiurbanized basins ranging from 7.0 to 111.1 km2 in size. Results showed that the largest peak flows in the event catalog were associated with storm core scales exceeding basin scale, for all except the largest basin. Spatial scale of flood-producing storm events in the smaller basins fell into two groups: storms of large spatial scales exceeding basin size or small, concentrated events, with storm core much smaller than basin size. For the majority of events, spatial rainfall variability was strongly smoothed by the flow-path network, increasingly so for larger basin size. Correlation analysis showed that position of the storm in relation to the flow-path network was significantly correlated with peak flow in the smallest and in the two more urbanized basins. Analysis of storm movement relative to the flow-path network showed that direction of storm movement, upstream or downstream relative to the flow-path network, had little influence on hydrological response. Slow-moving storms tend to be associated with higher peak flows and longer lag times. Unexpectedly, position of the storm relative to impervious cover within the basins had little effect on flow peaks. These findings show the importance of observation-based analysis in validating and improving our understanding of interactions between the spatial distribution of rainfall and catchment variability.

  14. Data Assimilation within the Advanced Circulation (ADCIRC) Modeling Framework for Hurricane Storm Surge Forecasting

    KAUST Repository

    Butler, T.

    2012-07-01

    Accurate, real-time forecasting of coastal inundation due to hurricanes and tropical storms is a challenging computational problem requiring high-fidelity forward models of currents and water levels driven by hurricane-force winds. Despite best efforts in computational modeling there will always be uncertainty in storm surge forecasts. In recent years, there has been significant instrumentation located along the coastal United States for the purpose of collecting data—specifically wind, water levels, and wave heights—during these extreme events. This type of data, if available in real time, could be used in a data assimilation framework to improve hurricane storm surge forecasts. In this paper a data assimilation methodology for storm surge forecasting based on the use of ensemble Kalman filters and the advanced circulation (ADCIRC) storm surge model is described. The singular evolutive interpolated Kalman (SEIK) filter has been shown to be effective at producing accurate results for ocean models using small ensemble sizes initialized by an empirical orthogonal function analysis. The SEIK filter is applied to the ADCIRC model to improve storm surge forecasting, particularly in capturing maximum water levels (high water marks) and the timing of the surge. Two test cases of data obtained from hindcast studies of Hurricanes Ike and Katrina are presented. It is shown that a modified SEIK filter with an inflation factor improves the accuracy of coarse-resolution forecasts of storm surge resulting from hurricanes. Furthermore, the SEIK filter requires only modest computational resources to obtain more accurate forecasts of storm surge in a constrained time window where forecasters must interact with emergency responders.

  15. Coastal Storm Surge Analysis: Storm Surge Results. Report 5: Intermediate Submission No. 3

    Science.gov (United States)

    2013-11-01

    Vickery, P., D. Wadhera, A. Cox, V. Cardone , J. Hanson, and B. Blanton. 2012. Coastal storm surge analysis: Storm forcing (Intermediate Submission No...CONTRACT NUMBER 5b. GRANT NUMBER 5c. PROGRAM ELEMENT NUMBER 6. AUTHOR(S) Jeffrey L. Hanson, Michael F. Forte, Brian Blanton

  16. Transport of Formaldehyde to the Upper Troposphere In Deep Convective Storms During the 2012 DC3 Study

    Science.gov (United States)

    Fried, A.; Weibring, P.; Richter, D.; Walega, J.; Olson, J. R.; Crawford, J. H.; Barth, M. C.; Apel, E. C.; Hornbrook, R. S.; Bela, M. M.; Toon, O. B.; Blake, D. R.; Blake, N. J.; Luo, Z. J.

    2014-12-01

    The Deep Convective Clouds and Chemistry (DC3) campaign in the summer of 2012 provided an opportunity to study the impacts of deep convection on reactive and soluble precursors of ozone and HOx radicals, including CH2O, in the upper troposphere and lower stratosphere (UTLS) over North America. Formaldehyde measurements were acquired in the inflow and outflow of numerous storms on the NASA DC-8 and NSF/NCAR GV-aircraft employing fast, sensitive, and accurate difference frequency generation infrared absorption spectrometers. Since our Fall 2013 AGU Meeting poster, we have developed an improved methodology based upon 3 independent approaches, to determine the amount of CH2O that is scavenged by deep convective storms. The first approach is based upon WRF-Chem model simulations, which provides greater confidence in the determination of CH2O scavenging efficiencies and allows the estimation of CH2O ice retention factors.The second approach is a modified mixing model employing 4 non-reactive passive tracers (n,i-butane, n,i-pentane) to estimate altitude-dependent lateral entrainment rates. This information is coupled with time-dependent measurements in the outflow of various storms, which when extrapolated to time zero in the storm core, results in estimates of CH2O scavenging efficiencies. This analysis includes estimates of photochemically produced CH2O in the storm core. A third approach is based upon CH2O/n-butane ratio comparisons in both the storm inflow and outflow. Results from various storms over Oklahoma, Colorado, and Alabama will be presented. However, the analysis will primarily focus on the May 29, 2012 supercell storm in Oklahoma. During this storm, the 4 passive tracers produced a very consistent lateral entrainment rate of 0.083 ± 0.008 km-1, a value that broadly agrees with entrainment rates determined previously from analyzing moist static energy profiles (Luo et al., Geophys. Res. Lett., 2010). For this storm, the 3-independent approaches give CH2O

  17. Great magnetic storms

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Tsurutani, B.T.; Yen Te Lee; Tang, F.; Gonzalez, W.D.

    1992-01-01

    The five largest magnetic storms that occurred between 1971 and 1986 are studied to determine their solar and interplanetary causes. All of the events are found to be associated with high speed solar wind streams led by collisionless shocks. The high speed streams are clearly related to identifiable solar flares. It is found that (1) it is the extreme values of the southward interplanetary magnetic fields rather than solar wind speeds that are the primary causes of great magnetic storms, (2) shocked and draped sheath fields preceding the driver gas (magnetic cloud) are at least as effective in causing the onset of great magnetic storms (3 of 5 events ) as the strong fields within the driver gas itself, and (3) precursor southward fields ahead of the high speed streams allow the shock compression mechanism (item 2) to be particularly geoeffective

  18. Integration of coastal inundation modeling from storm tides to individual waves

    Science.gov (United States)

    Li, Ning; Roeber, Volker; Yamazaki, Yoshiki; Heitmann, Troy W.; Bai, Yefei; Cheung, Kwok Fai

    2014-11-01

    Modeling of storm-induced coastal inundation has primarily focused on the surge generated by atmospheric pressure and surface winds with phase-averaged effects of the waves as setup. Through an interoperable model package, we investigate the role of phase-resolving wave processes in simulation of coastal flood hazards. A spectral ocean wave model describes generation and propagation of storm waves from deep to intermediate water, while a non-hydrostatic storm-tide model has the option to couple with a spectral coastal wave model for computation of phase-averaged processes in a near-shore region. The ocean wave and storm-tide models can alternatively provide the wave spectrum and the surface elevation as the boundary and initial conditions for a nested Boussinesq model. Additional surface-gradient terms in the Boussinesq equations maintain the quasi-steady, non-uniform storm tide for modeling of phase-resolving surf and swash-zone processes as well as combined tide, surge, and wave inundation. The two nesting schemes are demonstrated through a case study of Hurricane Iniki, which made landfall on the Hawaiian Island of Kauai in 1992. With input from a parametric hurricane model and global reanalysis and tidal datasets, the two approaches produce comparable significant wave heights and phase-averaged surface elevations in the surf zone. The nesting of the Boussinesq model provides a seamless approach to augment the inundation due to the individual waves in matching the recorded debris line along the coast.

  19. Assessing storm erosion hazards

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Ranasinghe, Ranasinghe W M R J B; Callaghan, D.; Ciavola, Paolo; Coco, Giovanni

    2017-01-01

    The storm erosion hazard on coasts is usually expressed as an erosion volume and/or associated episodic coastline retreat. The accurate assessment of present-day and future storm erosion volumes is a key task for coastal zone managers, planners and engineers. There are four main approaches that can

  20. 46 CFR 169.329 - Storm rails.

    Science.gov (United States)

    2010-10-01

    ... 46 Shipping 7 2010-10-01 2010-10-01 false Storm rails. 169.329 Section 169.329 Shipping COAST GUARD, DEPARTMENT OF HOMELAND SECURITY (CONTINUED) NAUTICAL SCHOOLS SAILING SCHOOL VESSELS Construction and Arrangement Rails and Guards § 169.329 Storm rails. Suitable storm rails or hand grabs must be...

  1. 46 CFR 72.40-10 - Storm rails.

    Science.gov (United States)

    2010-10-01

    ... 46 Shipping 3 2010-10-01 2010-10-01 false Storm rails. 72.40-10 Section 72.40-10 Shipping COAST... and Guards § 72.40-10 Storm rails. (a) Suitable storm rails shall be installed in all passageways and at the deckhouse sides where passengers or crew might have normal access. Storm rails shall be...

  2. Thyroid Storm Precipitated by Duodenal Ulcer Perforation

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Shoko Natsuda

    2015-01-01

    Full Text Available Thyroid storm is a rare and life-threatening complication of thyrotoxicosis that requires prompt treatment. Thyroid storm is also known to be associated with precipitating events. The simultaneous treatment of thyroid storm and its precipitant, when they are recognized, in a patient is recommended; otherwise such disorders, including thyroid storm, can exacerbate each other. Here we report the case of a thyroid storm patient (a 55-year-old Japanese male complicated with a perforated duodenal ulcer. The patient was successfully treated with intensive treatment for thyroid storm and a prompt operation. Although it is believed that peptic ulcer rarely coexists with hyperthyroidism, among patients with thyroid storm, perforation of a peptic ulcer has been reported as one of the causes of fatal outcome. We determined that surgical intervention was required in this patient, reported despite ongoing severe thyrotoxicosis, and reported herein a successful outcome.

  3. Thyroid storm precipitated by duodenal ulcer perforation.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Natsuda, Shoko; Nakashima, Yomi; Horie, Ichiro; Ando, Takao; Kawakami, Atsushi

    2015-01-01

    Thyroid storm is a rare and life-threatening complication of thyrotoxicosis that requires prompt treatment. Thyroid storm is also known to be associated with precipitating events. The simultaneous treatment of thyroid storm and its precipitant, when they are recognized, in a patient is recommended; otherwise such disorders, including thyroid storm, can exacerbate each other. Here we report the case of a thyroid storm patient (a 55-year-old Japanese male) complicated with a perforated duodenal ulcer. The patient was successfully treated with intensive treatment for thyroid storm and a prompt operation. Although it is believed that peptic ulcer rarely coexists with hyperthyroidism, among patients with thyroid storm, perforation of a peptic ulcer has been reported as one of the causes of fatal outcome. We determined that surgical intervention was required in this patient, reported despite ongoing severe thyrotoxicosis, and reported herein a successful outcome.

  4. Simulation of Flash-Flood-Producing Storm Events in Saudi Arabia Using the Weather Research and Forecasting Model

    KAUST Repository

    Deng, Liping

    2015-05-01

    The challenges of monitoring and forecasting flash-flood-producing storm events in data-sparse and arid regions are explored using the Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) Model (version 3.5) in conjunction with a range of available satellite, in situ, and reanalysis data. Here, we focus on characterizing the initial synoptic features and examining the impact of model parameterization and resolution on the reproduction of a number of flood-producing rainfall events that occurred over the western Saudi Arabian city of Jeddah. Analysis from the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF) interim reanalysis (ERA-Interim) data suggests that mesoscale convective systems associated with strong moisture convergence ahead of a trough were the major initial features for the occurrence of these intense rain events. The WRF Model was able to simulate the heavy rainfall, with driving convective processes well characterized by a high-resolution cloud-resolving model. The use of higher (1 km vs 5 km) resolution along the Jeddah coastline favors the simulation of local convective systems and adds value to the simulation of heavy rainfall, especially for deep-convection-related extreme values. At the 5-km resolution, corresponding to an intermediate study domain, simulation without a cumulus scheme led to the formation of deeper convective systems and enhanced rainfall around Jeddah, illustrating the need for careful model scheme selection in this transition resolution. In analysis of multiple nested WRF simulations (25, 5, and 1 km), localized volume and intensity of heavy rainfall together with the duration of rainstorms within the Jeddah catchment area were captured reasonably well, although there was evidence of some displacements of rainstorm events.

  5. 46 CFR 116.920 - Storm rails.

    Science.gov (United States)

    2010-10-01

    ... 46 Shipping 4 2010-10-01 2010-10-01 false Storm rails. 116.920 Section 116.920 Shipping COAST GUARD, DEPARTMENT OF HOMELAND SECURITY (CONTINUED) SMALL PASSENGER VESSELS CARRYING MORE THAN 150... and Guards § 116.920 Storm rails. Suitable storm rails or hand grabs must be installed where necessary...

  6. 46 CFR 177.920 - Storm rails.

    Science.gov (United States)

    2010-10-01

    ... 46 Shipping 7 2010-10-01 2010-10-01 false Storm rails. 177.920 Section 177.920 Shipping COAST GUARD, DEPARTMENT OF HOMELAND SECURITY (CONTINUED) SMALL PASSENGER VESSELS (UNDER 100 GROSS TONS) CONSTRUCTION AND ARRANGEMENT Rails and Guards § 177.920 Storm rails. Suitable storm rails or hand grabs must be...

  7. 46 CFR 127.320 - Storm rails.

    Science.gov (United States)

    2010-10-01

    ... 46 Shipping 4 2010-10-01 2010-10-01 false Storm rails. 127.320 Section 127.320 Shipping COAST GUARD, DEPARTMENT OF HOMELAND SECURITY (CONTINUED) OFFSHORE SUPPLY VESSELS CONSTRUCTION AND ARRANGEMENTS Rails and Guards § 127.320 Storm rails. Suitable storm rails must be installed in each passageway and at...

  8. Examine Precipitation Extremes in Terms of Storm Properties

    Science.gov (United States)

    Jiang, P.; Yu, Z.; Chen, L.; Gautam, M. R.; Acharya, K.

    2017-12-01

    The increasing potential of the extreme precipitation is of significant societal concern. Changes in precipitation extremes have been mostly examined using extreme precipitation indices or Intensity-Duration-Frequency (IDF) analyses, which often fail to reveal the characteristics of an integrated precipitation event. In this study, we will examine the precipitation extremes in terms of storm properties including storm duration, storm intensity, total storm precipitation, and within storm pattern. Single storm event will be identified and storm properties will be determined based on the hourly precipitation time series in the selected locations in southwest United States. Three types of extreme precipitation event will be recognized using the criteria as (1) longest storm duration; (2) Highest storm intensity; and (3) largest total precipitation over a storm. The trend and variation of extreme precipitation events will be discussed for each criterion. Based on the comparisons of the characteristics of extreme precipitation events identified using different criteria, we will provide guidelines for choosing proper criteria for extreme precipitation analysis in specific location.

  9. Local time and cutoff rigidity dependences of storm time increase associated with geomagnetic storms

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Kudo, S.; Wada, M.; Tanskanen, P.; Kodama, M.

    1987-01-01

    The cosmic ray increases due to considerable depressions of cosmic ray cutoff rigidity during large geomagnetic storms are investigated. Data from a worldwide network of cosmic ray neutron monitors are analyzed for 17 geomagnetic storms which occurred in the quiet phase of the solar activity cycle during 1966-1978. As expected from the longitudinal asymmetry of the low-altitude geomagnetic field during large geomagnetic storms, a significant local time dependence of the increment in the cosmic ray during large geomagnetic storms, a significant local time dependence of the increment in the cosmic ray intensity is obtained. It is shown that the maximum phases of the local time dependence occur at around 1800 LT and that the amplitudes of the local time dependence are consistent with presently available theoretical estimates. The dependence of the increment on the cutoff rigidity is obtained for both the local time dependent part and the local time independent part of the storm time increase. The local time independent part, excluding the randomizing local time dependent part, shows a clear-cut dependence on cutoff rigidity which is consistent with theoretical estimates

  10. Ice storm 1998 : lessons learned

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    McCready, J. [Eastern Ontario Model Forest, Kemptville, ON (Canada)

    2006-07-01

    This paper presented details of a partnership formed in response to the ice storm of 1998, which caused extensive damage to trees in woodlots and urban settings in eastern Ontario and western Quebec. The aim of the Ice Storm Forest Recovery Group was to assist in the recovery of eastern forests, collect information on the extent of the damage to trees as well as contribute to the development of assistance programs for woodlot owners and municipalities. In response to the group's request, an initial aerial survey was conducted by the Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources to map the extent of the damage in eastern Ontario, which was followed by a more scientific survey with the Canadian Forest Service through the development of a flying grid pattern to observe the status of trees, followed by extensive ground checks. Damage was variable, depending on tree species, stand age and composition, management practices, wind direction, topography and ice deposition patterns. A summary of the severity of damage indicated that conifers suffered less than hardwoods. Consultants were hired to prepare news releases and extension notes to the public in order to provide information for the caring of trees. Various educational workshops were held which attracted large numbers of landowners and homeowners. A literature review was undertaken to produce a summary of current published knowledge covering the effects of storms and ice damage to trees and forests. Science efforts were published in a series of papers, and financial assistance programs were then organized by governmental agencies. It was concluded that cooperation between all agencies, groups and levels of government is needed in order to coordinate effective emergency strategies. 7 refs., 1 tab., 1 fig.

  11. Satellite remote sensing and cloud modeling of St. Anthony, Minnesota storm clouds and dew point depression

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hung, R. J.; Tsao, Y. D.

    1988-01-01

    Rawinsonde data and geosynchronous satellite imagery were used to investigate the life cycles of St. Anthony, Minnesota's severe convective storms. It is found that the fully developed storm clouds, with overshooting cloud tops penetrating above the tropopause, collapsed about three minutes before the touchdown of the tornadoes. Results indicate that the probability of producing an outbreak of tornadoes causing greater damage increases when there are higher values of potential energy storage per unit area for overshooting cloud tops penetrating the tropopause. It is also found that there is less chance for clouds with a lower moisture content to be outgrown as a storm cloud than clouds with a higher moisture content.

  12. 46 CFR 108.221 - Storm rails.

    Science.gov (United States)

    2010-10-01

    ... 46 Shipping 4 2010-10-01 2010-10-01 false Storm rails. 108.221 Section 108.221 Shipping COAST GUARD, DEPARTMENT OF HOMELAND SECURITY (CONTINUED) A-MOBILE OFFSHORE DRILLING UNITS DESIGN AND EQUIPMENT Construction and Arrangement Rails § 108.221 Storm rails. Each unit must have a storm rail in the following...

  13. Er Storm P. en hardcore vagabond?

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Sortkær, Allan

    2002-01-01

    Den vagabond, som vi kender som Storm P.s, er ikke en figur, der kom fra en guddommelig inspiration eller deslige. Den var en allerede velkendt figur, før Storm P. tog den til sig, og figuren gennemgik radikale forandringer gennem Storm P.s liv: Krads social satire, hypervoldelig eller hyggelig...

  14. Extreme Geomagnetic Storms – 1868–2010

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Vennerstrøm, Susanne; Lefèvre, L.; Dumbović, M.

    2016-01-01

    presents our investigation of the corresponding solar eventsand their characteristics. The storms were selected based on their intensity in the aa index,which constitutes the longest existing continuous series of geomagnetic activity. They areanalyzed statistically in the context of more well...... occurring in May 1921 and the Quebec storm from March 1989. We identifykey characteristics of the storms by combining several different available data sources, listsof storm sudden commencements (SSCs) signifying occurrence of interplanetary shocks,solar wind in-situ measurements, neutron monitor data...... %), Forbushdecreases (100 %), and energetic solar proton events (70 %). A quantitative comparison ofthese associations relative to less intense storms is also presented. Most notably, we findthat most often the extreme storms are characterized by a complexity that is associated with multiple, often interacting, solar...

  15. Electrical storm: clinical manifestations and management.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Littmann, L; Rennyson, S L

    2007-10-01

    Electrical storm is the clustering of hemodynamically destabilizing ventricular tachycardia or ventricular fibrillation that typically requires multiple electrical cardioversions or defibrillations within a 24-hour period. Electrical storm is frequently seen in the acute phase of myocardial infarction, in patients with the genetic arrhythmia syndromes, and in patients with implanted cardioverters-defibrillators. The evaluation and management should focus on the immediate suppression of the arrhythmia, a search for possible reversible causes, and attempts to prevent recurrences. In this review we present the most common conditions associated with electrical storm, therapeutic options for suppression of electrical storm, and new investigational techniques emerging for the treatment of electrical storm in refractory cases. The management of this life threatening arrhythmia typically requires the coordinated efforts of emergency medicine, critical care, cardiology, cardiac electrophysiology, and pacemaker experts.

  16. Overview of the ARkStorm scenario

    Science.gov (United States)

    Porter, Keith; Wein, Anne; Alpers, Charles N.; Baez, Allan; Barnard, Patrick L.; Carter, James; Corsi, Alessandra; Costner, James; Cox, Dale; Das, Tapash; Dettinger, Mike; Done, James; Eadie, Charles; Eymann, Marcia; Ferris, Justin; Gunturi, Prasad; Hughes, Mimi; Jarrett, Robert; Johnson, Laurie; Le-Griffin, Hanh Dam; Mitchell, David; Morman, Suzette; Neiman, Paul; Olsen, Anna; Perry, Suzanne; Plumlee, Geoffrey; Ralph, Martin; Reynolds, David; Rose, Adam; Schaefer, Kathleen; Serakos, Julie; Siembieda, William; Stock, Jonathan; Strong, David; Wing, Ian Sue; Tang, Alex; Thomas, Pete; Topping, Ken; Wills, Chris; Jones, Lucile

    2011-01-01

    The U.S. Geological Survey, Multi Hazards Demonstration Project (MHDP) uses hazards science to improve resiliency of communities to natural disasters including earthquakes, tsunamis, wildfires, landslides, floods and coastal erosion. The project engages emergency planners, businesses, universities, government agencies, and others in preparing for major natural disasters. The project also helps to set research goals and provides decision-making information for loss reduction and improved resiliency. The first public product of the MHDP was the ShakeOut Earthquake Scenario published in May 2008. This detailed depiction of a hypothetical magnitude 7.8 earthquake on the San Andreas Fault in southern California served as the centerpiece of the largest earthquake drill in United States history, involving over 5,000 emergency responders and the participation of over 5.5 million citizens. This document summarizes the next major public project for MHDP, a winter storm scenario called ARkStorm (for Atmospheric River 1,000). Experts have designed a large, scientifically realistic meteorological event followed by an examination of the secondary hazards (for example, landslides and flooding), physical damages to the built environment, and social and economic consequences. The hypothetical storm depicted here would strike the U.S. West Coast and be similar to the intense California winter storms of 1861 and 1862 that left the central valley of California impassible. The storm is estimated to produce precipitation that in many places exceeds levels only experienced on average once every 500 to 1,000 years. Extensive flooding results. In many cases flooding overwhelms the state's flood-protection system, which is typically designed to resist 100- to 200-year runoffs. The Central Valley experiences hypothetical flooding 300 miles long and 20 or more miles wide. Serious flooding also occurs in Orange County, Los Angeles County, San Diego, the San Francisco Bay area, and other

  17. Progress in the Study of Coastal Storm Deposits

    Science.gov (United States)

    Xiong, Haixian; Huang, Guangqing; Fu, Shuqing; Qian, Peng

    2018-05-01

    Numerous studies have been carried out to identify storm deposits and decipher storm-induced sedimentary processes in coastal and shallow-marine areas. This study aims to provide an in-depth review on the study of coastal storm deposits from the following five aspects. 1) The formation of storm deposits is a function of hydrodynamic and sedimentary processes under the constraints of local geological and ecological factors. Many questions remain to demonstrate the genetic links between storm-related processes and a variety of resulting deposits such as overwash deposits, underwater deposits and hummocky cross-stratification (HCS). Future research into the formation of storm deposits should combine flume experiments, field observations and numerical simulations, and make full use of sediment source tracing methods. 2) Recently there has been rapid growth in the number of studies utilizing sediment provenance analysis to investigate the source of storm deposits. The development of source tracing techniques, such as mineral composition, magnetic susceptibility, microfossil and geochemical property, has allowed for better understanding of the depositional processes and environmental changes associated with coastal storms. 3) The role of extreme storms in the sedimentation of low-lying coastal wetlands with diverse ecosystem services has also drawn a great deal of attention. Many investigations have attempted to quantify widespread land loss, vertical marsh sediment accumulation and wetland elevation change induced by major hurricanes. 4) Paleostorm reconstructions based on storm sedimentary proxies have shown many advantages over the instrumental records and historic documents as they allow for the reconstruction of storm activities on millennial or longer time scales. Storm deposits having been used to establish proxies mainly include beach ridges and shelly cheniers, coral reefs, estuary-deltaic storm sequences and overwash deposits. Particularly over the past few

  18. Storm track response to climate change: Insights from simulations using an idealized dry GCM.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Mbengue, Cheikh; Schneider, Tapio

    2013-04-01

    The midlatitude storm tracks, where the most intense extratropical cyclones are found, are an important fixture in the general circulation. They are instrumental in balancing the Earth's heat, momentum, and moisture budgets and are responsible for the weather and climatic patterns over large regions of the Earth's surface. As a result, the midlatitude storm tracks are the subject of a considerable amount of scientific research to understand their response to global warming. This has produced the robust result showing that the storm tracks migrate poleward with global warming. However, the dynamical mechanisms responsible for this migration remain unclear. Our work seeks to broaden understanding of the dynamical mechanisms responsible for storm track migration. Competing mechanisms present in the comprehensive climate models often used to study storm track dynamics make it difficult to determine the primary mechanisms responsible for storm track migration. We are thus prompted to study storm track dynamics from a simplified and idealized framework, which enables the decoupling of mean temperature effects from the effects of static stability and of tropical from extratropical effects. Using a statistically zonally symmetric, dry general circulation model (GCM), we conduct a series of numerical simulations to help understand the storm track response to global mean temperatures and to the tropical convective static stability, which we can vary independently. We define storm tracks as regions of zonally and temporally averaged maxima of barotropic eddy kinetic energy (EKE). This storm track definition also allows us to use previously found scalings between the magnitude of bulk measures of mean available potential energy (MAPE) and EKE, to decompose MAPE, and to obtain some mechanistic understanding of the storm track response in our simulations. These simulations provide several insights, which enable us to extend upon existing theories on the mechanisms driving the

  19. A superposed epoch analysis of geomagnetic storms

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    J. R. Taylor

    1994-06-01

    Full Text Available A superposed epoch analysis of geomagnetic storms has been undertaken. The storms are categorised via their intensity (as defined by the Dst index. Storms have also been classified here as either storm sudden commencements (SSCs or storm gradual commencements (SGCs, that is all storms which did not begin with a sudden commencement. The prevailing solar wind conditions defined by the parameters solar wind speed (vsw, density (ρsw and pressure (Psw and the total field and the components of the interplanetary magnetic field (IMF during the storms in each category have been investigated by a superposed epoch analysis. The southward component of the IMF, appears to be the controlling parameter for the generation of small SGCs (-100 nT< minimum Dst ≤ -50 nT for ≥ 4 h, but for SSCs of the same intensity solar wind pressure is dominant. However, for large SSCs (minimum Dst ≤ -100 nT for ≥ 4 h the solar wind speed is the controlling parameter. It is also demonstrated that for larger storms magnetic activity is not solely driven by the accumulation of substorm activity, but substantial energy is directly input via the dayside. Furthermore, there is evidence that SSCs are caused by the passage of a coronal mass ejection, whereas SGCs result from the passage of a high speed/ slow speed coronal stream interface. Storms are also grouped by the sign of Bz during the first hour epoch after the onset. The sign of Bz at t = +1 h is the dominant sign of the Bz for ~24 h before the onset. The total energy released during storms for which Bz was initially positive is, however, of the same order as for storms where Bz was initially negative.

  20. Storm water permitting for oil and gas facilities

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    de Blanc, P.C.

    1991-01-01

    After several false starts, the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) published new federal storm water regulations in the November 16, 1990 Federal Register. These regulations identify facilities which must apply for a storm water permit and detail permit application requirements. The regulations appear at 40 CFR 122 Subpart B and became effective December 17, 1990. An outline of these regulations and their applicability to oil and gas facilities is presented. They are: facilities which require a storm water permit; types of storm water permits; permit application deadlines; permit application forms; facilities with existing storm water permits; storm water permit application data requirements; storm water sampling and analysis requirements; and EPA contacts for additional information

  1. No Calm After the Storm: A Systematic Review of Human Health Following Flood and Storm Disasters.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Saulnier, Dell D; Brolin Ribacke, Kim; von Schreeb, Johan

    2017-10-01

    Introduction How the burden of disease varies during different phases after floods and after storms is essential in order to guide a medical response, but it has not been well-described. The objective of this review was to elucidate the health problems following flood and storm disasters. A literature search of the databases Medline (US National Library of Medicine, National Institutes of Health; Bethesda, Maryland USA); Cinahl (EBSCO Information Services; Ipswich, Massachusetts USA); Global Health (EBSCO Information Services; Ipswich, Massachusetts USA); Web of Science Core Collection (Thomson Reuters; New York, New York USA); Embase (Elsevier; Amsterdam, Netherlands); and PubMed (National Center for Biotechnology Information, National Institutes of Health; Bethesda, Maryland USA) was conducted in June 2015 for English-language research articles on morbidity or mortality and flood or storm disasters. Articles on mental health, interventions, and rescue or health care workers were excluded. Data were extracted from articles that met the eligibility criteria and analyzed by narrative synthesis. The review included 113 studies. Poisonings, wounds, gastrointestinal infections, and skin or soft tissue infections all increased after storms. Gastrointestinal infections were more frequent after floods. Leptospirosis and diabetes-related complications increased after both. The majority of changes occurred within four weeks of floods or storms. Health changes differently after floods and after storms. There is a lack of data on the health effects of floods alone, long-term changes in health, and the strength of the association between disasters and health problems. This review highlights areas of consideration for medical response and the need for high-quality, systematic research in this area. Saulnier DD , Brolin Ribacke K , von Schreeb J . No calm after the storm: a systematic review of human health following flood and storm disasters. Prehosp Disaster Med. 2017;32(5):568-579.

  2. Electrical Activity in Martian Dust Storms

    Science.gov (United States)

    Majid, W.; Arabshahi, S.; Kocz, J.

    2016-12-01

    Dust storms on Mars are predicted to be capable of producing electrostatic fields and discharges, even larger than those in dust storms on Earth. Such electrical activity poses serious risks to any Human exploration of the planet and the lack of sufficient data to characterize any such activity has been identified by NASA's MEPAG as a key human safety knowledge gap. There are three key elements in the characterization of Martian electrostatic discharges: dependence on Martian environmental conditions, frequency of occurrence, and the strength of the generated electric fields. We will describe a recently deployed detection engine using NASA's Deep Space Network (DSN) to carry out a long term monitoring campaign to search for and characterize the entire Mars hemisphere for powerful discharges during routine tracking of spacecraft at Mars on an entirely non-interfering basis. The resulting knowledge of Mars electrical activity would allow NASA to plan risk mitigation measures to ensure human safety during Mars exploration. In addition, these measurements will also allow us to place limits on presence of oxidants such as H2O2 that may be produced by such discharges, providing another measurement point for models describing Martian atmospheric chemistry and habitability. Because of the continuous Mars telecommunication needs of NASA's Mars-based assets, the DSN is the only instrument in the world that combines long term, high cadence, observing opportunities with large sensitive telescopes, making it a unique asset worldwide in searching for and characterizing electrostatic activity at Mars from the ground.

  3. Statistical Relationship between Sawtooth Oscillations and Geomagnetic Storms

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Jae-Hun Kim

    2008-06-01

    Full Text Available We have investigated a statistical relationship between sawtooth oscillations and geomagnetic storms during 2000-2004. First of all we selected a total of 154 geomagnetic storms based on the Dst index, and distinguished between different drivers such as Coronal Mass Ejection (CME and Co-rotating Interaction Region (CIR. Also, we identified a total of 48 sawtooth oscillation events based on geosynchronous energetic particle data for the same 2000-2004 period. We found that out of the 154 storms identified, 47 storms indicated the presence of sawtooth oscillations. Also, all but one sawtooth event identified occurred during a geomagnetic storm interval. It was also found that sawtooth oscillation events occur more frequently for storms driven by CME (˜62% than for storms driven by CIR (˜30%. In addition, sawtooth oscillations occurred mainly (˜82% in the main phase of storms for CME-driven storms while they occurred mostly (˜78% during the storm recovery phase for CIR-driven storms. Next we have examined the average characteristics of the Bz component of IMF, and solar wind speed, which were the main components for driving geomagnetic storm. We found that for most of the sawtooth events, the IMF Bz corresponds to --15 to 0 nT and the solar wind speed was in the range of 400˜700 km/s. We found that there was a weak tendency that the number of teeth for a given sawtooth event interval was proportional to the southward IMF Bz magnitude.

  4. The StoRM Certification Process

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Ronchieri, Elisabetta; Dibenedetto, Michele; Zappi, Riccardo; Dal Pra, Stefano; Aiftimiei, Cristina; Traldi, Sergio

    2011-01-01

    StoRM is an implementation of the SRM interface version 2.2 used by all Large Hadron Collider (LHC) experiments and non-LHC experiments as SRM endpoint at different Tiers of Worldwide LHC Computing Grid. The complexity of its services and the demand of experiments and users are increasing day by day. The growing needs in terms of service level by the StoRM users communities make it necessary to design and implement a more effective testing procedure to quickly and reliably validate new StoRM candidate releases both in code side (for example via test units, and schema valuator) and in final product software (for example via functionality tests, and stress tests). Testing software service is a very critical quality activity performed in a very ad-hoc informal manner by developers, testers and users of StoRM up to now. In this paper, we describe the certification mechanism used by StoRM team to increase the robustness and reliability of the StoRM services. Various typologies of tests, such as quality, installation, configuration, functionality, stress and performance, defined on the base of a set of use cases gathered as consequence of the collaboration among the StoRM team, experiments and users, are illustrated. Each typology of test is either increased or decreased easily from time to time. The proposed mechanism is based on a new configurable testsuite. This is executed by the certification team, who is responsible for validating the release candidate package as well as bug fix (or patch) package, given a certain testbed that considers all possible use cases. In correspondence of each failure, the package is given back to developers waiting for validating a new package.

  5. Radio Emissions from Electrical Activity in Martian Dust Storms

    Science.gov (United States)

    Majid, W.; Arabshahi, S.; Kocz, J.; Schulter, T.; White, L.

    2017-12-01

    Dust storms on Mars are predicted to be capable of producing electrostatic fields and discharges, even larger than those in dust storms on Earth. There are three key elements in the characterization of Martian electrostatic discharges: dependence on Martian environmental conditions, event rate, and the strength of the generated electric fields. The detection and characterization of electric activity in Martian dust storms has important implications for habitability, and preparations for human exploration of the red planet. Furthermore, electrostatic discharges may be linked to local chemistry and plays an important role in the predicted global electrical circuit. Because of the continuous Mars telecommunication needs of NASA's Mars-based assets, the Deep Space Network (DSN) is the only facility in the world that combines long term, high cadence, observing opportunities with large sensitive telescopes, making it a unique asset worldwide in searching for and characterizing electrostatic activity from large scale convective dust storms at Mars. We will describe a newly inaugurated program at NASA's Madrid Deep Space Communication Complex to carry out a long-term monitoring campaign to search for and characterize the entire Mars hemisphere for powerful discharges during routine tracking of spacecraft at Mars on an entirely non-interfering basis. The ground-based detections will also have important implications for the design of a future instrument that could make similar in-situ measurements from orbit or from the surface of Mars, with far greater sensitivity and duty cycle, opening up a new window in our understanding of the Martian environment.

  6. Elusive Ethylene Detected in Saturns Northern Storm Region

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hesman, B. E.; Bjoraker, G. L.; Sada, P. V.; Achterberg, R. K.; Jennings, D. E.; Romani, P. N.; Lunsford, A. W.; Fletcher, L. N.; Boyle, R. J.; Simon-Miller, A. A.; hide

    2013-01-01

    The massive eruption at 40 deg. N (planetographic latitude) on Saturn in 2010 December has produced significant and lasting effects in the northern hemisphere on temperature and species abundances. The northern storm region was observed on many occasions in 2011 by Cassini's Composite Infrared Spectrometer (CIRS). In 2011 May, temperatures in the stratosphere greater than 200 K were derived from CIRS spectra in the regions referred to as "beacons" (warm regions in the stratosphere). Ethylene has been detected in the beacon region in Saturn's northern storm region using CIRS. Ground-based observations using the high-resolution spectrometer Celeste on the McMath-Pierce Telescope on 2011 May 15 were used to confirm the detection and improve the altitude resolution in the retrieved profile. The derived ethylene profile from the CIRS data gives a C2H4 mole fraction of 5.9 +/- 4.5 x 10(exp -7) at 0.5 mbar, and from Celeste data it gives 2.7 +/- 0.45 x 10(exp -6) at 0.1 mbar. This is two orders of magnitude higher than the amount measured in the ultraviolet at other latitudes prior to the storm. It is also much higher than predicted by photochemical models, indicating that perhaps another production mechanism is required or a loss mechanism is being inhibited.

  7. Database of Low-e Storm Window Energy Performance across U.S. Climate Zones

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Culp, Thomas D.; Cort, Katherine A.

    2014-09-04

    This is an update of a report that describes process, assumptions, and modeling results produced Create a Database of U.S. Climate-Based Analysis for Low-E Storm Windows. The scope of the overall effort is to develop a database of energy savings and cost effectiveness of low-E storm windows in residential homes across a broad range of U.S. climates using the National Energy Audit Tool (NEAT) and RESFEN model calculations. This report includes a summary of the results, NEAT and RESFEN background, methodology, and input assumptions, and an appendix with detailed results and assumptions by cliamte zone.

  8. European extra-tropical storm damage risk from a multi-model ensemble of dynamically-downscaled global climate models

    Science.gov (United States)

    Haylock, M. R.

    2011-10-01

    Uncertainty in the return levels of insured loss from European wind storms was quantified using storms derived from twenty-two 25 km regional climate model runs driven by either the ERA40 reanalyses or one of four coupled atmosphere-ocean global climate models. Storms were identified using a model-dependent storm severity index based on daily maximum 10 m wind speed. The wind speed from each model was calibrated to a set of 7 km historical storm wind fields using the 70 storms with the highest severity index in the period 1961-2000, employing a two stage calibration methodology. First, the 25 km daily maximum wind speed was downscaled to the 7 km historical model grid using the 7 km surface roughness length and orography, also adopting an empirical gust parameterisation. Secondly, downscaled wind gusts were statistically scaled to the historical storms to match the geographically-dependent cumulative distribution function of wind gust speed. The calibrated wind fields were run through an operational catastrophe reinsurance risk model to determine the return level of loss to a European population density-derived property portfolio. The risk model produced a 50-yr return level of loss of between 0.025% and 0.056% of the total insured value of the portfolio.

  9. European extra-tropical storm damage risk from a multi-model ensemble of dynamically-downscaled global climate models

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    M. R. Haylock

    2011-10-01

    Full Text Available Uncertainty in the return levels of insured loss from European wind storms was quantified using storms derived from twenty-two 25 km regional climate model runs driven by either the ERA40 reanalyses or one of four coupled atmosphere-ocean global climate models. Storms were identified using a model-dependent storm severity index based on daily maximum 10 m wind speed. The wind speed from each model was calibrated to a set of 7 km historical storm wind fields using the 70 storms with the highest severity index in the period 1961–2000, employing a two stage calibration methodology. First, the 25 km daily maximum wind speed was downscaled to the 7 km historical model grid using the 7 km surface roughness length and orography, also adopting an empirical gust parameterisation. Secondly, downscaled wind gusts were statistically scaled to the historical storms to match the geographically-dependent cumulative distribution function of wind gust speed.

    The calibrated wind fields were run through an operational catastrophe reinsurance risk model to determine the return level of loss to a European population density-derived property portfolio. The risk model produced a 50-yr return level of loss of between 0.025% and 0.056% of the total insured value of the portfolio.

  10. Vulnerability of Amazon forests to storm-driven tree mortality

    Science.gov (United States)

    Negrón-Juárez, Robinson I.; Holm, Jennifer A.; Magnabosco Marra, Daniel; Rifai, Sami W.; Riley, William J.; Chambers, Jeffrey Q.; Koven, Charles D.; Knox, Ryan G.; McGroddy, Megan E.; Di Vittorio, Alan V.; Urquiza-Muñoz, Jose; Tello-Espinoza, Rodil; Alegria Muñoz, Waldemar; Ribeiro, Gabriel H. P. M.; Higuchi, Niro

    2018-05-01

    Tree mortality is a key driver of forest community composition and carbon dynamics. Strong winds associated with severe convective storms are dominant natural drivers of tree mortality in the Amazon. Why forests vary with respect to their vulnerability to wind events and how the predicted increase in storm events might affect forest ecosystems within the Amazon are not well understood. We found that windthrows are common in the Amazon region extending from northwest (Peru, Colombia, Venezuela, and west Brazil) to central Brazil, with the highest occurrence of windthrows in the northwest Amazon. More frequent winds, produced by more frequent severe convective systems, in combination with well-known processes that limit the anchoring of trees in the soil, help to explain the higher vulnerability of the northwest Amazon forests to winds. Projected increases in the frequency and intensity of convective storms in the Amazon have the potential to increase wind-related tree mortality. A forest demographic model calibrated for the northwestern and the central Amazon showed that northwestern forests are more resilient to increased wind-related tree mortality than forests in the central Amazon. Our study emphasizes the importance of including wind-related tree mortality in model simulations for reliable predictions of the future of tropical forests and their effects on the Earth’ system.

  11. Magnetic field of the magnetospheric ring current and its dynamics during magnetic storms

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Feldstein, Y.I.; Grafe, A.; Pisarsky, V.Yu.; Prigansova, A.; Sumaruk, P.V.

    1990-01-01

    This review examines models existing in the literature which describe the magnetic field produced by the ring current (DR) at the Earth's surface based on the energy balance equation. The parameters of this equation, the injection function F and decay parameter τ are considered to depend on parameters of the interplanetary medium and the DR intensity. The existing models are shown to be able to describe the DR variations with sufficient accuracy (r.m.s. deviation δ between the experimental and modelled values of DR for 170 magnetic storms is 5 < δ < 15 nT, and the correlation coefficient between the two is 0.85 < r < 1). The models describe that part of the geomagnetic field variation at low latitudes during a magnetic storm that is controlled by the geoeffective characteristics of the interplanetary medium and which thus responds immediately to its variations (the driven part). The values of τ are significantly less during the main phase of a magnetic storm than during the recovery phase. This reflects the difference in the main mechanisms of ion loss from the ring current during the two phases of the storm. These are the interaction of ions with hydromagnetic waves during the main phase of the storm with its intervals of intense plasma injection into the inner magnetosphere, and charge exchange with the cold hydrogen geocorona during the recovery phase. (author)

  12. Improvement of Storm Forecasts Using Gridded Bayesian Linear Regression for Northeast United States

    Science.gov (United States)

    Yang, J.; Astitha, M.; Schwartz, C. S.

    2017-12-01

    Bayesian linear regression (BLR) is a post-processing technique in which regression coefficients are derived and used to correct raw forecasts based on pairs of observation-model values. This study presents the development and application of a gridded Bayesian linear regression (GBLR) as a new post-processing technique to improve numerical weather prediction (NWP) of rain and wind storm forecasts over northeast United States. Ten controlled variables produced from ten ensemble members of the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) real-time prediction system are used for a GBLR model. In the GBLR framework, leave-one-storm-out cross-validation is utilized to study the performances of the post-processing technique in a database composed of 92 storms. To estimate the regression coefficients of the GBLR, optimization procedures that minimize the systematic and random error of predicted atmospheric variables (wind speed, precipitation, etc.) are implemented for the modeled-observed pairs of training storms. The regression coefficients calculated for meteorological stations of the National Weather Service are interpolated back to the model domain. An analysis of forecast improvements based on error reductions during the storms will demonstrate the value of GBLR approach. This presentation will also illustrate how the variances are optimized for the training partition in GBLR and discuss the verification strategy for grid points where no observations are available. The new post-processing technique is successful in improving wind speed and precipitation storm forecasts using past event-based data and has the potential to be implemented in real-time.

  13. Storm surge modeling of Superstorm Sandy in the New York City Metropolitan area

    Science.gov (United States)

    Benimoff, A. I.; Blanton, B. O.; Dzedzits, E.; Fritz, W. J.; Kress, M.; Muzio, P.; Sela, L.

    2013-12-01

    Even though the New York/New Jersey area does not lie within the typical 'hurricane belt', recent events and the historical record indicate that large infrequent tropical storms have had direct hits on the region, with impacts being amplified due to the nearly right angle bend in the coastline. The recent plan unveiled by New York City's Mayor Bloomberg lays out mitigation strategies to protect the region's communities, infrastructure, and assets from future storms, and numerical simulation of storm surge and wave hazards driven by potential hurricanes plays a central role in developing and evaluating these strategies. To assist in local planning, recovery, and decision-making, we have used the tide, storm surge, and wind wave model ADCIRC+SWAN to simulate storm surge in one of the most populated areas of the United States: the New York City (NYC) metropolitan area. We have generated a new high-resolution triangular finite-element model grid for the region from recent USGS data as well as recent city topographic maps at 2-foot (0.6m) contour intervals, nautical charts, and details of shipping channels. Our hindcast simulations are compared against Superstorm Sandy. We used the City University of New York High Performance Computing Center's Cray XE6tm at the College of Staten Island for these simulations. Hindcasting and analysis of the Superstorm Sandy storm surge and waves indicates that our simulations produce a reasonable representation of actual events. The grid will be used in an ADCIRC-based forecasting system implementation for the region.

  14. The evaluation and management of electrical storm.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Eifling, Michael; Razavi, Mehdi; Massumi, Ali

    2011-01-01

    Electrical storm is an increasingly common and life-threatening syndrome that is defined by 3 or more sustained episodes of ventricular tachycardia, ventricular fibrillation, or appropriate shocks from an implantable cardioverter-defibrillator within 24 hours. The clinical presentation can be dramatic. Electrical storm can manifest itself during acute myocardial infarction and in patients who have structural heart disease, an implantable cardioverter-defibrillator, or an inherited arrhythmic syndrome. The presence or absence of structural heart disease and the electrocardiographic morphology of the presenting arrhythmia can provide important diagnostic clues into the mechanism of electrical storm. Electrical storm typically has a poor outcome.The effective management of electrical storm requires an understanding of arrhythmia mechanisms, therapeutic options, device programming, and indications for radiofrequency catheter ablation. Initial management involves determining and correcting the underlying ischemia, electrolyte imbalances, or other causative factors. Amiodarone and β-blockers, especially propranolol, effectively resolve arrhythmias in most patients. Nonpharmacologic treatment, including radiofrequency ablation, can control electrical storm in drug-refractory patients. Patients who have implantable cardioverter-defibrillators can present with multiple shocks and may require drug therapy and device reprogramming. After the acute phase of electrical storm, the treatment focus should shift toward maximizing heart-failure therapy, performing revascularization, and preventing subsequent ventricular arrhythmias. Herein, we present an organized approach for effectively evaluating and managing electrical storm.

  15. Thyroid storm induced by TSH-secreting pituitary adenoma: a case report.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Fujio, Shingo; Ashari; Habu, Mika; Yamahata, Hitoshi; Moinuddin, F M; Bohara, Manoj; Arimura, Hiroshi; Nishijima, Yui; Arita, Kazunori

    2014-01-01

    Thyroid stimulating hormone-secreting pituitary adenomas (TSHomas) are uncommon tumors of the anterior pituitary gland. Patients with TSHomas may present with hyperthyroidism, but the incidence of thyroid storm due to TSHomas has yet to be determined. We report a rare case of thyroid storm caused by TSHoma in a 54-year-old woman. Preoperatively she had symptoms of excessive sweating and palpitation. Blood tests showed inappropriate secretion of TSH with blood TSH 6.86 μ U/mL, fT3 19.8 pg/mL, and fT4 5.95 ng/dL. Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) revealed a pituitary tumor with maximum diameter of 13 mm that was extirpated through transsphenoidal route. After operation the patient was stuporous and thyroid storm occurred presenting with hyperthermia, hypertension, and tachycardia. It was well managed with nicardipine, midazolam, steroids, and potassium iodide. Immunohistochemical staining of tumor specimen was positive for TSH and growth hormone (GH). One year after operation, fT3 and fT4 levels were still high. As her tumor was diagnosed to be GH- and TSH-producing adenoma, octreotide injection therapy was started, which normalized thyroid hormone levels. This is the second reported case with thyroid storm due to TSHoma and emphasizes the importance of strategies with interdisciplinary cooperation for prevention of such emergency conditions.

  16. The Role of Jet Adjustment Processes in Subtropical Dust Storms

    Science.gov (United States)

    Pokharel, Ashok Kumar; Kaplan, Michael L.; Fiedler, Stephanie

    2017-11-01

    Meso-α/β/γ scale atmospheric processes of jet dynamics responsible for generating Harmattan, Saudi Arabian, and Bodélé Depression dust storms are analyzed with observations and high-resolution modeling. The analysis of the role of jet adjustment processes in each dust storm shows similarities as follows: (1) the presence of a well-organized baroclinic synoptic scale system, (2) cross mountain flows that produced a leeside inversion layer prior to the large-scale dust storm, (3) the presence of thermal wind imbalance in the exit region of the midtropospheric jet streak in the lee of the respective mountains shortly after the time of the inversion formation, (4) dust storm formation accompanied by large magnitude ageostrophic isallobaric low-level winds as part of the meso-β scale adjustment process, (5) substantial low-level turbulence kinetic energy (TKE), and (6) emission and uplift of mineral dust in the lee of nearby mountains. The thermally forced meso-γ scale adjustment processes, which occurred in the canyons/small valleys, may have been the cause of numerous observed dust streaks leading to the entry of the dust into the atmosphere due to the presence of significant vertical motion and TKE generation. This study points to the importance of meso-β to meso-γ scale adjustment processes at low atmospheric levels due to an imbalance within the exit region of an upper level jet streak for the formation of severe dust storms. The low level TKE, which is one of the prerequisites to deflate the dust from the surface, cannot be detected with the low resolution data sets; so our results show that a high spatial resolution is required for better representing TKE as a proxy for dust emission.

  17. High-resolution refinement of a storm loss model and estimation of return periods of loss-intensive storms over Germany

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    M. G. Donat

    2011-10-01

    Full Text Available A refined model for the calculation of storm losses is presented, making use of high-resolution insurance loss records for Germany and allowing loss estimates on a spatial level of administrative districts and for single storm events. Storm losses are calculated on the basis of wind speeds from both ERA-Interim and NCEP reanalyses. The loss model reproduces the spatial distribution of observed losses well by taking specific regional loss characteristics into account. This also permits high-accuracy estimates of total cumulated losses, though slightly underestimating the country-wide loss sums for storm "Kyrill", the most severe event in the insurance loss records from 1997 to 2007. A larger deviation, which is assigned to the relatively coarse resolution of the NCEP reanalysis, is only found for one specific rather small-scale event, not adequately captured by this dataset.

    The loss model is subsequently applied to the complete reanalysis period to extend the storm event catalogue to cover years when no systematic insurance records are available. This allows the consideration of loss-intensive storm events back to 1948, enlarging the event catalogue to cover the recent 60+ years, and to investigate the statistical characteristics of severe storm loss events in Germany based on a larger sample than provided by the insurance records only. Extreme value analysis is applied to the loss data to estimate the return periods of loss-intensive storms, yielding a return period for storm "Kyrill", for example, of approximately 15 to 21 years.

  18. Combined TOPEX/Poseidon TEC and ionosonde observations of negative low-latitude ionospheric storms

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    K. J. W. Lynn

    2004-09-01

    Full Text Available Ionospheric storms showing a strong depression in daytime foF2 values were sought which penetrated to low-latitudes, as identified by vertical ionosondes operating at Darwin and Townsville over the period 1992-1998. The 32 storms thus identified showed a seasonal occurrence peaking near the equinoxes with a bias to the summer side. Of these storms, three (27 March 1995, 25 October 1997, 8 November 1997 combined Australian and South East Asian ionosonde observations with local afternoon TOPEX/Poseidon measurements of TEC. The equatorial anomaly is usually well developed at this time of day and consequently these storms were chosen for detailed study. The TOPEX/Poseidon satellite provided vertical profiles of the ionosphere across both hemispheres, thus allowing the totality of storm behaviour to be observed for the first time at low-latitudes and related directly to the ionosonde observations. The three storms were remarkably consistent in their behaviour, the negative ionospheric storm day followed some 24-36h after the beginning of a magnetic storm and the development of the equatorial anomaly was suppressed. However, the suppression of the equatorial anomaly was not the main cause of the strong depression in foF2 observed by the Southern Hemisphere ionosondes. The latter was associated with an additional bite-out in both TEC and foF2 that occurred on the southern side of the magnetic equator. None of the three storms produced any major negative disturbance outside the range of normal variability of TEC and foF2 at the northern latitude sites for which data was available, despite the absence of the anomaly. The satellite measurements show the strength of the anomaly to be highly variable from day-to-day and anomaly peaks are frequently not present even on magnetically quiet days. Thus, an absence of anomaly peaks is contained within the normal variability of non-storm days. The north-south asymmetry and seasonal occurrence are consistent with

  19. Impacts of a Destructive and Well-Observed Cross-Country Winter Storm.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Martner, Brooks E.; Rauber, Robert M.; Ramamurthy, Mohan K.; Rasmussen, Roy M.; Prater, Erwin T.

    1992-02-01

    A winter storm that crossed the continental United States in mid-February 1990 produced hazardous weather across a vast area of the nation. A wide range of severe weather was reported, including heavy snowfall; freezing rain and drizzle; thunderstorms with destructive winds, lightning, large hail, and tornadoes; prolonged heavy rain with subsequent flooding; frost damage to citrus orchards; and sustained destructive winds not associated with thunderstorms. Low-end preliminary estimates of impacts included 9 deaths, 27 injuries, and $120 million of property damage. At least 35 states and southeastern Canada were adversely affected. The storm occurred during the field operations of four independent atmospheric research projects that obtained special, detailed observations of it from the Rocky Mountains to the eastern great Lakes.

  20. The effect of wave current interactions on the storm surge and inundation in Charleston Harbor during Hurricane Hugo 1989

    Science.gov (United States)

    Xie, Lian; Liu, Huiqing; Peng, Machuan

    The effects of wave-current interactions on the storm surge and inundation induced by Hurricane Hugo in and around the Charleston Harbor and its adjacent coastal regions are examined by using a three-dimensional (3-D) wave-current coupled modeling system. The 3-D storm surge and inundation modeling component of the coupled system is based on the Princeton ocean model (POM), whereas the wave modeling component is based on the third-generation wave model, simulating waves nearshore (SWAN). The results indicate that the effects of wave-induced surface, bottom, and radiation stresses can separately or in combination produce significant changes in storm surge and inundation. The effects of waves vary spatially. In some areas, the contribution of waves to peak storm surge during Hurricane Hugo reached as high as 0.76 m which led to substantial changes in the inundation and drying areas simulated by the storm surge model.

  1. Storm real-time processing cookbook

    CERN Document Server

    Anderson, Quinton

    2013-01-01

    A Cookbook with plenty of practical recipes for different uses of Storm.If you are a Java developer with basic knowledge of real-time processing and would like to learn Storm to process unbounded streams of data in real time, then this book is for you.

  2. Stochastic Optical Reconstruction Microscopy (STORM).

    Science.gov (United States)

    Xu, Jianquan; Ma, Hongqiang; Liu, Yang

    2017-07-05

    Super-resolution (SR) fluorescence microscopy, a class of optical microscopy techniques at a spatial resolution below the diffraction limit, has revolutionized the way we study biology, as recognized by the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 2014. Stochastic optical reconstruction microscopy (STORM), a widely used SR technique, is based on the principle of single molecule localization. STORM routinely achieves a spatial resolution of 20 to 30 nm, a ten-fold improvement compared to conventional optical microscopy. Among all SR techniques, STORM offers a high spatial resolution with simple optical instrumentation and standard organic fluorescent dyes, but it is also prone to image artifacts and degraded image resolution due to improper sample preparation or imaging conditions. It requires careful optimization of all three aspects-sample preparation, image acquisition, and image reconstruction-to ensure a high-quality STORM image, which will be extensively discussed in this unit. © 2017 by John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Copyright © 2017 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

  3. Geoelectric hazard assessment: the differences of geoelectric responses during magnetic storms within common physiographic zones

    Science.gov (United States)

    Cuttler, Stephen W.; Love, Jeffrey J.; Swidinsky, Andrei

    2018-03-01

    Geomagnetic field data obtained through the INTERMAGNET program are convolved with with magnetotelluric surface impedance from four EarthScope USArray sites to estimate the geoelectric variations throughout the duration of a magnetic storm. A duration of time from June 22, 2016, to June 25, 2016, is considered which encompasses a magnetic storm of moderate size recorded at the Brandon, Manitoba and Fredericksburg, Virginia magnetic observatories over 3 days. Two impedance sites were chosen in each case which represent different responses while being within close geographic proximity and within the same physiographic zone. This study produces estimated time series of the geoelectric field throughout the duration of a magnetic storm, providing an understanding of how the geoelectric field differs across small geographic distances within the same physiographic zone. This study shows that the geoelectric response of two sites within 200 km of one another can differ by up to two orders of magnitude (4484 mV/km at one site and 41 mV/km at another site 125 km away). This study demonstrates that the application of uniform 1-dimensional conductivity models of the subsurface to wide geographic regions is insufficient to predict the geoelectric hazard at a given site. This necessitates that an evaluation of the 3-dimensional conductivity distribution at a given location is necessary to produce a reliable estimation of how the geoelectric field evolves over the course of a magnetic storm.

  4. Geoelectric hazard assessment: the differences of geoelectric responses during magnetic storms within common physiographic zones

    Science.gov (United States)

    Cuttler, Stephen W.; Love, Jeffrey J.; Swidinsky, Andrei

    2018-01-01

    Geomagnetic field data obtained through the INTERMAGNET program are convolved with with magnetotelluric surface impedance from four EarthScope USArray sites to estimate the geoelectric variations throughout the duration of a magnetic storm. A duration of time from June 22, 2016, to June 25, 2016, is considered which encompasses a magnetic storm of moderate size recorded at the Brandon, Manitoba and Fredericksburg, Virginia magnetic observatories over 3 days. Two impedance sites were chosen in each case which represent different responses while being within close geographic proximity and within the same physiographic zone. This study produces estimated time series of the geoelectric field throughout the duration of a magnetic storm, providing an understanding of how the geoelectric field differs across small geographic distances within the same physiographic zone. This study shows that the geoelectric response of two sites within 200 km of one another can differ by up to two orders of magnitude (4484 mV/km at one site and 41 mV/km at another site 125 km away). This study demonstrates that the application of uniform 1-dimensional conductivity models of the subsurface to wide geographic regions is insufficient to predict the geoelectric hazard at a given site. This necessitates that an evaluation of the 3-dimensional conductivity distribution at a given location is necessary to produce a reliable estimation of how the geoelectric field evolves over the course of a magnetic storm.

  5. Examples of storm impacts on barrier islands: Chapter 4

    Science.gov (United States)

    Plant, Nathaniel G.; Doran, Kara; Stockdon, Hilary F.

    2017-01-01

    This chapter focuses on the morphologic variability of barrier islands and on the differences in storm response. It describes different types of barrier island response to individual storms, as well as the integrated response of barrier islands to many storms. The chapter considers case study on the Chandeleur Island chain, where a decadal time series of island elevation measurements have documented a wide range of barrier island responses to storms and long-term processes that are representative of barrier island behaviour at many other locations. These islands are low elevation, extremely vulnerable to storms and exhibit a diversity of storm responses. Additionally, this location experiences a moderately high rate of relative sea-level rise, increasing its vulnerability to the combined impacts of storms and long-term erosional processes. Understanding how natural processes, including storm impacts and intervening recovery periods interact with man-made restoration processes is also broadly relevant to understand the natural and human response to future storms.

  6. Earlier vegetation green-up has reduced spring dust storms.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Fan, Bihang; Guo, Li; Li, Ning; Chen, Jin; Lin, Henry; Zhang, Xiaoyang; Shen, Miaogen; Rao, Yuhan; Wang, Cong; Ma, Lei

    2014-10-24

    The observed decline of spring dust storms in Northeast Asia since the 1950s has been attributed to surface wind stilling. However, spring vegetation growth could also restrain dust storms through accumulating aboveground biomass and increasing surface roughness. To investigate the impacts of vegetation spring growth on dust storms, we examine the relationships between recorded spring dust storm outbreaks and satellite-derived vegetation green-up date in Inner Mongolia, Northern China from 1982 to 2008. We find a significant dampening effect of advanced vegetation growth on spring dust storms (r = 0.49, p = 0.01), with a one-day earlier green-up date corresponding to a decrease in annual spring dust storm outbreaks by 3%. Moreover, the higher correlation (r = 0.55, p storm outbreak ratio (the ratio of dust storm outbreaks to times of strong wind events) indicates that such effect is independent of changes in surface wind. Spatially, a negative correlation is detected between areas with advanced green-up dates and regional annual spring dust storms (r = -0.49, p = 0.01). This new insight is valuable for understanding dust storms dynamics under the changing climate. Our findings suggest that dust storms in Inner Mongolia will be further mitigated by the projected earlier vegetation green-up in the warming world.

  7. Identification of storm surge vulnerable areas in the Philippines through the simulation of Typhoon Haiyan-induced storm surge levels over historical storm tracks

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lapidez, J. P.; Tablazon, J.; Dasallas, L.; Gonzalo, L. A.; Cabacaba, K. M.; Ramos, M. M. A.; Suarez, J. K.; Santiago, J.; Lagmay, A. M. F.; Malano, V.

    2015-07-01

    Super Typhoon Haiyan entered the Philippine Area of Responsibility (PAR) on 7 November 2013, causing tremendous damage to infrastructure and loss of lives mainly due to the storm surge and strong winds. Storm surges up to a height of 7 m were reported in the hardest hit areas. The threat imposed by this kind of natural calamity compelled researchers of the Nationwide Operational Assessment of Hazards (Project NOAH) which is the flagship disaster mitigation program of the Department of Science and Technology (DOST) of the Philippine government to undertake a study to determine the vulnerability of all Philippine coastal communities to storm surges of the same magnitude as those generated by Haiyan. This study calculates the maximum probable storm surge height for every coastal locality by running simulations of Haiyan-type conditions but with tracks of tropical cyclones that entered PAR from 1948-2013. One product of this study is a list of the 30 most vulnerable coastal areas that can be used as a basis for choosing priority sites for further studies to implement appropriate site-specific solutions for flood risk management. Another product is the storm tide inundation maps that the local government units can use to develop a risk-sensitive land use plan for identifying appropriate areas to build residential buildings, evacuation sites, and other critical facilities and lifelines. The maps can also be used to develop a disaster response plan and evacuation scheme.

  8. Identification of storm surge vulnerable areas in the Philippines through the simulation of Typhoon Haiyan-induced storm surge levels over historical storm tracks

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    J. P. Lapidez

    2015-07-01

    Full Text Available Super Typhoon Haiyan entered the Philippine Area of Responsibility (PAR on 7 November 2013, causing tremendous damage to infrastructure and loss of lives mainly due to the storm surge and strong winds. Storm surges up to a height of 7 m were reported in the hardest hit areas. The threat imposed by this kind of natural calamity compelled researchers of the Nationwide Operational Assessment of Hazards (Project NOAH which is the flagship disaster mitigation program of the Department of Science and Technology (DOST of the Philippine government to undertake a study to determine the vulnerability of all Philippine coastal communities to storm surges of the same magnitude as those generated by Haiyan. This study calculates the maximum probable storm surge height for every coastal locality by running simulations of Haiyan-type conditions but with tracks of tropical cyclones that entered PAR from 1948–2013. One product of this study is a list of the 30 most vulnerable coastal areas that can be used as a basis for choosing priority sites for further studies to implement appropriate site-specific solutions for flood risk management. Another product is the storm tide inundation maps that the local government units can use to develop a risk-sensitive land use plan for identifying appropriate areas to build residential buildings, evacuation sites, and other critical facilities and lifelines. The maps can also be used to develop a disaster response plan and evacuation scheme.

  9. Development of Storm Surge Hazard Maps and Advisory System for the Philippines

    Science.gov (United States)

    Santiago, Joy; Mahar Francisco Lagymay, Alfredo; Caro, Carl Vincent; Suarez, John Kenneth; Tablazon, Judd; Dasallas, Lea; Garnet Goting, Prince

    2016-04-01

    The Philippines, located in the most active region of cyclogenesis in the world, experiences an average of 20 tropical cyclones annually. Strong winds brought by tropical cyclones, among other factors, cause storm surges that inundate the coastal areas of the country. As an archipelago with the fourth longest coastline in the world, the country is expose to the threats of storm surges. This was manifested by Typhoon Haiyan on 8 November 2013, which devastated the country and left 6,293 deaths and approximately USD 2 billion worth of damages. To prevent such disaster from happening again, the Nationwide Operational Assessment of Hazards (Project NOAH) developed a Storm Surge Advisory (SSA) that aims to warn communities in coastal areas against impending floods due to storm surges. The Japan Meteorological Agency storm surge model was used to simulate 721 tropical cyclones that entered the Philippine Area of Responsibility from 1951-2013. The resulting storm surge time series from the simulations were added to the maximum tide levels from the WXTide software for the 4,996 observation points placed nearshore in the entire country. The storm tide levels were categorized into four groups based on their peak height to create the SSA - SSA 1 (0.01m to 2m), SSA 2 (2.01m to 3m), SSA 3 (3.01m to 4m), and SSA 4 (4m and above). The time series for each advisory level was used in inundation modelling using FLO-2D, a two-dimensional flood modeling software that uses continuity and dynamic wave momentum equation. The model produced probable extent, depth of inundation, and hazard level for each advisory level. The SSA hazard maps are used as reference to warn communities that are likely to be affected by storm surges. Advisory is released 24 hours in advance and is updated every six hours in the Project NOAH website. It is also being utilized in the pre-disaster risk assessment of the national government agencies and local government units in designing appropriate response to

  10. Non-storm irregular variation of the Dst index

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    S. Nakano

    2012-01-01

    Full Text Available The Dst index has a long-term variation that is not associated with magnetic storms. We estimated the long-term non-storm component of the Dst variation by removing the short-term variation related to magnetic storms. The results indicate that the variation of the non-storm component includes not only a seasonal variation but also an irregular variation. The irregular long-term variation is likely to be due to an anti-correlation with the long-term variation of solar-wind activity. In particular, a clear anti-correlation is observed between the non-storm component of Dst and the long-term variation of the solar-wind dynamic pressure. This means that in the long term, the Dst index tends to increase when the solar-wind dynamic pressure decreases. We interpret this anti-correlation as an indication that the long-term non-storm variation of Dst is influenced by the tail current variation. The long-term variation of the solar-wind dynamic pressure controls the plasma sheet thermal pressure, and the change of the plasma sheet thermal pressure would cause the non-storm tail current variation, resulting in the non-storm variation of Dst.

  11. The storm time central plasma sheet

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    R. Schödel

    2002-11-01

    Full Text Available The plasma sheet plays a key role during magnetic storms because it is the bottleneck through which large amounts of magnetic flux that have been eroded from the dayside magnetopause have to be returned to the dayside magnetosphere. Using about five years of Geotail data we studied the average properties of the near- and midtail central plasma sheet (CPS in the 10–30 RE range during magnetic storms. The earthward flux transport rate is greatly enhanced during the storm main phase, but shows a significant earthward decrease. Hence, since the magnetic flux cannot be circulated at a sufficient rate, this leads to an average dipolarization of the central plasma sheet. An increase of the specific entropy of the CPS ion population by a factor of about two during the storm main phase provides evidence for nonadiabatic heating processes. The direction of flux transport during the main phase is consistent with the possible formation of a near-Earth neutral line beyond ~20 RE.Key words. Magnetospheric physics (plasma convection; plasma sheet; storms and substorms

  12. Models of bright storm clouds and related dark ovals in Saturn's Storm Alley as constrained by 2008 Cassini/VIMS spectra

    Science.gov (United States)

    Sromovsky, L. A.; Baines, K. H.; Fry, P. M.

    2018-03-01

    A 5° latitude band on Saturn centered near planetocentric latitude 36°S is known as "Storm Alley" because it has been for several extended periods a site of frequent lightning activity and associated thunderstorms, first identified by Porco et al. (2005). The thunderstorms appeared as bright clouds at short and long continuum wavelengths, and over a period of a week or so transformed into dark ovals (Dyudina et al., 2007). The ovals were found to be dark over a wide spectral range, which led Baines et al. (2009) to suggest the possibility that a broadband absorber such as soot produced by lightning could play a significant role in darkening the clouds relative to their surroundings. Here we show that an alternative explanation, which is that the clouds are less reflective because of reduced optical depth, provides an excellent fit to near infrared spectra of similar features obtained by the Cassini Visual and Infrared Mapping Spectrometer (VIMS) in 2008, and leads to a plausible scenario for cloud evolution. We find that the background clouds and the oval clouds are both dominated by the optical properties of a ubiquitous upper cloud layer, which has the same particle size in both regions, but about half the optical depth and physical thickness in the dark oval regions. The dark oval regions are also marked by enhanced emissions in the 5-μm window region, a result of lower optical depth of the deep cloud layer near 3.1-3.8 bar, presumably composed of ammonium hydrosulfide (NH4SH). The bright storm clouds completely block this deep thermal emission with a thick layer of ammonia (NH3) clouds extending from the middle of the main visible cloud layer probably as deep as the 1.7-bar NH3 condensation level. Other condensates might also be present at higher pressures, but are obscured by the NH3 cloud. The strong 3-μm spectral absorption that was displayed by Saturn's Great Storm of 2010-2011 (Sromovsky et al., 2013) is weaker in these storms because the contrast is

  13. The Hachioji Experimental Basin Study — Storm runoff processes and the mechanism of its generation

    Science.gov (United States)

    Tanaka, T.; Yasuhara, M.; Sakai, H.; Marui, A.

    1988-09-01

    The study discusses storm runoff processes and the mechanism of its generation in relation to dynamic responses of subsurface water in a small forested drainage basin located in the western suburbs of Tokyo, Japan. Intensive field observations were carried out for the period 1980-1983. In the drainage basin overland flow occurred from restricted areas on the valley floor. No significant overland flow was produced on the steep hillside slopes even during a heavy storm event. The maximum extent of the saturated area occupied only 1-4% of the total basin area. The main source of storm runoff was groundwater flow. More than 90% of the total discharge was due to groundwater flow and the surface flow component contributed less than 10%. The rapid and large amounts of groundwater discharge during a storm event could not be explained solely by the traditional concept of Darcian matrix flow. These phenomena were mainly attributed to rapid flow such as pipe flow which has velocities about as high as those of surface flows. The pulsating flow phenomenon was observed as a characteristic of pipe flow.

  14. Rain storm models and the relationship between their parameters

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Stol, P.T.

    1977-01-01

    Rainfall interstation correlation functions can be obtained with the aid of analytic rainfall or storm models. Since alternative storm models have different mathematical formulas, comparison should be based on equallity of parameters like storm diameter, mean rainfall amount, storm maximum or total

  15. 46 CFR 190.25-10 - Storm rails.

    Science.gov (United States)

    2010-10-01

    ... 46 Shipping 7 2010-10-01 2010-10-01 false Storm rails. 190.25-10 Section 190.25-10 Shipping COAST... ARRANGEMENT Rails and Guards § 190.25-10 Storm rails. (a) On vessels in ocean and coastwise service, suitable storm rails shall be installed in all passageways and at the deckhouse sides where persons on board...

  16. 40 CFR 35.925-21 - Storm sewers.

    Science.gov (United States)

    2010-07-01

    ... 40 Protection of Environment 1 2010-07-01 2010-07-01 false Storm sewers. 35.925-21 Section 35.925... STATE AND LOCAL ASSISTANCE Grants for Construction of Treatment Works-Clean Water Act § 35.925-21 Storm... treatment works for control of pollutant discharges from a separate storm sewer system (as defined in § 35...

  17. 46 CFR 92.25-10 - Storm rails.

    Science.gov (United States)

    2010-10-01

    ... 46 Shipping 4 2010-10-01 2010-10-01 false Storm rails. 92.25-10 Section 92.25-10 Shipping COAST... ARRANGEMENT Rails and Guards § 92.25-10 Storm rails. (a) On vessels in ocean and coastwise service, suitable storm rails shall be installed in all passageways and at the deckhouse sides where persons on board...

  18. New storm water regulations impact industry

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Gemar, C.

    1991-01-01

    In November 1990, new Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) regulations aimed at governing the discharge of storm water from industrial facilities became effective. Because some industrial runoff contains toxics and other pollutants, the EPA considers storm water a major source of water contamination. The new regulations will have a profound impact on the National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) permit requirements for industry. This paper summarizes the new storm water regulations, focusing on the requirements for industrial facilities. It also presents suggestions for compliance

  19. Monitoring Hurricane Rita Inland Storm Surge: Chapter 7J in Science and the storms-the USGS response to the hurricanes of 2005

    Science.gov (United States)

    McGee, Benton D.; Tollett, Roland W.; Goree, Burl B.

    2007-01-01

    Pressure transducers (sensors) are accurate, reliable, and cost-effective tools to measure and record the magnitude, extent, and timing of hurricane storm surge. Sensors record storm-surge peaks more accurately and reliably than do high-water marks. Data collected by sensors may be used in storm-surge models to estimate when, where, and to what degree stormsurge flooding will occur during future storm-surge events and to calibrate and verify stormsurge models, resulting in a better understanding of the dynamics of storm surge.

  20. Storm, rogue wave, or tsunami origin for megaclast deposits in western Ireland and North Island, New Zealand?

    Science.gov (United States)

    Dewey, John F; Ryan, Paul D

    2017-12-12

    The origins of boulderite deposits are investigated with reference to the present-day foreshore of Annagh Head, NW Ireland, and the Lower Miocene Matheson Formation, New Zealand, to resolve disputes on their origin and to contrast and compare the deposits of tsunamis and storms. Field data indicate that the Matheson Formation, which contains boulders in excess of 140 tonnes, was produced by a 12- to 13-m-high tsunami with a period in the order of 1 h. The origin of the boulders at Annagh Head, which exceed 50 tonnes, is disputed. We combine oceanographic, historical, and field data to argue that this is a cliff-top storm deposit (CTSD). A numerical model for CTSDs is developed which indicates that boulder shape in addition to density and dimensions should be taken into account when applying hydrodynamic equations to such deposits. The model also predicts that the NE Atlantic storms are capable of producing boulderites that, when size alone is considered, cannot be distinguished from tsunamites. We review the characteristics that identify the origins of these two deposits.

  1. Dust storms and their impact on ocean and human health: dust in Earth's atmosphere

    Science.gov (United States)

    Griffin, Dale W.; Kellog, Christina A.

    2004-01-01

    Satellite imagery has greatly influenced our understanding of dust activity on a global scale. A number of different satellites such as NASA's Earth-Probe Total Ozone Mapping Spectrometer (TOMS) and Se-viewing Field-of-view Sensor (SeaWiFS) acquire daily global-scale data used to produce imagery for monitoring dust storm formation and movement. This global-scale imagery has documented the frequent transmission of dust storm-derived soils through Earth's atmosphere and the magnitude of many of these events. While various research projects have been undertaken to understand this normal planetary process, little has been done to address its impact on ocean and human health. This review will address the ability of dust storms to influence marine microbial population densities and transport of soil-associated toxins and pathogenic microorganisms to marine environments. The implications of dust on ocean and human health in this emerging scientific field will be discussed.

  2. Thyroid storm precipitated by acute biliary pancreatitis

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Mehrdad Karimi

    2017-01-01

    Full Text Available Thyroid storm is an acute, life-threatening exacerbation and sudden releasing large amounts of thyroid hormone in a short period of time. Nevertheless, critical aggravation of hyperthyroidism typically resulted from concurrent disorder. Synchronous management of thyroid storm along with its precipitant, such as infection is recommended. We described the case of an acute biliary pancreatitis complicated with a thyroid storm. The patient was successfully managed with a quick surgical intervention and further critical care for thyroid storm. Although it is widely believed that pancreatitis is seldom concurrent with thyrotoxicosis, thyroid storm can be precipitated by a variety of factors, including intra-abdominal infections such as acute pancreatitis or perforated peptic ulcer. In conclusion, acute pancreatitis in patients with thyrotoxicosis seems to be extremely rare, but such patients should be managed intensively against underlying thyroid disorders as well as pancreatitis.

  3. Magnetic storm effects in electric power systems and prediction needs

    Science.gov (United States)

    Albertson, V. D.; Kappenman, J. G.

    1979-01-01

    Geomagnetic field fluctuations produce spurious currents in electric power systems. These currents enter and exit through points remote from each other. The fundamental period of these currents is on the order of several minutes which is quasi-dc compared to the normal 60 Hz or 50 Hz power system frequency. Nearly all of the power systems problems caused by the geomagnetically induced currents result from the half-cycle saturation of power transformers due to simultaneous ac and dc excitation. The effects produced in power systems are presented, current research activity is discussed, and magnetic storm prediction needs of the power industry are listed.

  4. Observing Storm Surges from Space: A New Opportunity

    Science.gov (United States)

    Han, Guoqi; Ma, Zhimin; Chen, Dake; de Young, Brad; Chen, Nancy

    2013-04-01

    Coastal tide gauges can be used to monitor variations of a storm surge along the coast, but not in the cross-shelf direction. As a result, the cross-shelf structure of a storm surge has rarely been observed. In this study we focus on Hurricane Igor-induced storm surge off Newfoundland, Canada. Altimetric observations at about 2:30, September 22, 2010 UTC (hours after the passage of Hurricane Igor) reveal prominent cross-shelf variation of sea surface height during the storm passage, including a large nearshore slope and a mid-shelf depression. A significant coastal surge of 1 m derived from satellite altimetry is found to be consistent with tide-gauge measurements at nearby St. John's station. The post-storm sea level variations at St. John's and Argentia are argued to be associated with free equatorward-propagating continental shelf waves (with phase speeds of 11-13 m/s), generated along the northeast Newfoundland coast hours after the storm moved away from St. John's. The cross-shelf e-folding scale of the shelf wave was estimated to be ~100 km. We further show approximate agreement of altimetric and tide-gauge observations in the Gulf of Mexico during Hurricane Katrina (2005) and Isaac (2012). The study for the first time in the literature shows the robustness of satellite altimetry to observe storm surges, complementing tide-gauge observations for the analysis of storm surge characteristics and for the validation and improvement of storm surge models.

  5. Enhanced poleward propagation of storms under climate change

    Science.gov (United States)

    Tamarin-Brodsky, Talia; Kaspi, Yohai

    2017-12-01

    Earth's midlatitudes are dominated by regions of large atmospheric weather variability—often referred to as storm tracks— which influence the distribution of temperature, precipitation and wind in the extratropics. Comprehensive climate models forced by increased greenhouse gas emissions suggest that under global warming the storm tracks shift poleward. While the poleward shift is a robust response across most models, there is currently no consensus on what the underlying dynamical mechanism is. Here we present a new perspective on the poleward shift, which is based on a Lagrangian view of the storm tracks. We show that in addition to a poleward shift in the genesis latitude of the storms, associated with the shift in baroclinicity, the latitudinal displacement of cyclonic storms increases under global warming. This is achieved by applying a storm-tracking algorithm to an ensemble of CMIP5 models. The increased latitudinal propagation in a warmer climate is shown to be a result of stronger upper-level winds and increased atmospheric water vapour. These changes in the propagation characteristics of the storms can have a significant impact on midlatitude climate.

  6. Giant boulders and Last Interglacial storm intensity in the North Atlantic

    Science.gov (United States)

    Rovere, Alessio; Casella, Elisa; Harris, Daniel L.; Lorscheid, Thomas; Nandasena, Napayalage A. K.; Dyer, Blake; Sandstrom, Michael R.; Stocchi, Paolo; D'Andrea, William J.; Raymo, Maureen E.

    2017-11-01

    As global climate warms and sea level rises, coastal areas will be subject to more frequent extreme flooding and hurricanes. Geologic evidence for extreme coastal storms during past warm periods has the potential to provide fundamental insights into their future intensity. Recent studies argue that during the Last Interglacial (MIS 5e, ˜128–116 ka) tropical and extratropical North Atlantic cyclones may have been more intense than at present, and may have produced waves larger than those observed historically. Such strong swells are inferred to have created a number of geologic features that can be observed today along the coastlines of Bermuda and the Bahamas. In this paper, we investigate the most iconic among these features: massive boulders atop a cliff in North Eleuthera, Bahamas. We combine geologic field surveys, wave models, and boulder transport equations to test the hypothesis that such boulders must have been emplaced by storms of greater-than-historical intensity. By contrast, our results suggest that with the higher relative sea level (RSL) estimated for the Bahamas during MIS 5e, boulders of this size could have been transported by waves generated by storms of historical intensity. Thus, while the megaboulders of Eleuthera cannot be used as geologic proof for past “superstorms,” they do show that with rising sea levels, cliffs and coastal barriers will be subject to significantly greater erosional energy, even without changes in storm intensity.

  7. Giant boulders and Last Interglacial storm intensity in the North Atlantic.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Rovere, Alessio; Casella, Elisa; Harris, Daniel L; Lorscheid, Thomas; Nandasena, Napayalage A K; Dyer, Blake; Sandstrom, Michael R; Stocchi, Paolo; D'Andrea, William J; Raymo, Maureen E

    2017-11-14

    As global climate warms and sea level rises, coastal areas will be subject to more frequent extreme flooding and hurricanes. Geologic evidence for extreme coastal storms during past warm periods has the potential to provide fundamental insights into their future intensity. Recent studies argue that during the Last Interglacial (MIS 5e, ∼128-116 ka) tropical and extratropical North Atlantic cyclones may have been more intense than at present, and may have produced waves larger than those observed historically. Such strong swells are inferred to have created a number of geologic features that can be observed today along the coastlines of Bermuda and the Bahamas. In this paper, we investigate the most iconic among these features: massive boulders atop a cliff in North Eleuthera, Bahamas. We combine geologic field surveys, wave models, and boulder transport equations to test the hypothesis that such boulders must have been emplaced by storms of greater-than-historical intensity. By contrast, our results suggest that with the higher relative sea level (RSL) estimated for the Bahamas during MIS 5e, boulders of this size could have been transported by waves generated by storms of historical intensity. Thus, while the megaboulders of Eleuthera cannot be used as geologic proof for past "superstorms," they do show that with rising sea levels, cliffs and coastal barriers will be subject to significantly greater erosional energy, even without changes in storm intensity.

  8. The Storm Time Evolution of the Ionospheric Disturbance Plasma Drifts

    Science.gov (United States)

    Zhang, Ruilong; Liu, Libo; Le, Huijun; Chen, Yiding; Kuai, Jiawei

    2017-11-01

    In this paper, we use the C/NOFS and ROCSAT-1 satellites observations to analyze the storm time evolution of the disturbance plasma drifts in a 24 h local time scale during three magnetic storms driven by long-lasting southward IMF Bz. The disturbance plasma drifts during the three storms present some common features in the periods dominated by the disturbance dynamo. The newly formed disturbance plasma drifts are upward and westward at night, and downward and eastward during daytime. Further, the disturbance plasma drifts are gradually evolved to present significant local time shifts. The westward disturbance plasma drifts gradually migrate from nightside to dayside. Meanwhile, the dayside downward disturbance plasma drifts become enhanced and shift to later local time. The local time shifts in disturbance plasma drifts are suggested to be mainly attributed to the evolution of the disturbance winds. The strong disturbance winds arisen around midnight can constantly corotate to later local time. At dayside the westward and equatorward disturbance winds can drive the F region dynamo to produce the poleward and westward polarization electric fields (or the westward and downward disturbance drifts). The present results indicate that the disturbance winds corotated to later local time can affect the local time features of the disturbance dynamo electric field.

  9. The Complex Relationship Between Heavy Storms and Floods: Implication on Stormwater Drainage design and Management

    Science.gov (United States)

    Demissie, Y.; Mortuza, M. R.; Moges, E.; Yan, E.; Li, H. Y.

    2017-12-01

    Due to the lack of historical and future streamflow data for flood frequency analysis at or near most drainage sites, it is a common practice to directly estimate the design flood (maximum discharge or volume of stream for a given return period) based on storm frequency analysis and the resulted Intensity-Duration-Frequency (IDF) curves. Such analysis assumes a direct relationship between storms and floods with, for example, the 10-year rainfall expected to produce the 10-year flood. However, in reality, a storm is just one factor among the many other hydrological and metrological factors that can affect the peak flow and hydrograph. Consequently, a heavy storm does not necessarily always lead to flooding or a flood events with the same frequency. This is evident by the observed difference in the seasonality of heavy storms and floods in most regions. In order to understand site specific causal-effect relationship between heavy storms and floods and improve the flood analysis for stormwater drainage design and management, we have examined the contributions of various factors that affect floods using statistical and information theory methods. Based on the identified dominant causal-effect relationships, hydrologic and probability analyses were conducted to develop the runoff IDF curves taking into consideration the snowmelt and rain-on-snow effect, the difference in the storm and flood seasonality, soil moisture conditions, and catchment potential for flash and riverine flooding. The approach was demonstrated using data from military installations located in different parts of the United States. The accuracy of the flood frequency analysis and the resulted runoff IDF curves were evaluated based on the runoff IDF curves developed from streamflow measurements.

  10. From pre-storm activity to magnetic storms: a transition described in terms of fractal dynamics

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    G. Balasis

    2006-12-01

    Full Text Available We show that distinct changes in scaling parameters of the Dst index time series occur as an intense magnetic storm approaches, revealing a gradual reduction in complexity. The remarkable acceleration of energy release – manifested in the increase in susceptibility – couples to the transition from anti-persistent (negative feedback to persistent (positive feedback behavior and indicates that the occurence of an intense magnetic storm is imminent. The main driver of the Dst index, the VBSouth electric field component, does not reveal a similar transition to persistency prior to the storm. This indicates that while the magnetosphere is mostly driven by the solar wind the critical feature of persistency in the magnetosphere is the result of a combination of solar wind and internal magnetospheric activity rather than solar wind variations alone. Our results suggest that the development of an intense magnetic storm can be studied in terms of "intermittent criticality" that is of a more general character than the classical self-organized criticality phenomena, implying the predictability of the magnetosphere.

  11. Water quality of storm runoff and comparison of procedures for estimating storm-runoff loads, volume, event-mean concentrations, and the mean load for a storm for selected properties and constituents for Colorado Springs, southeastern Colorado, 1992

    Science.gov (United States)

    Von Guerard, Paul; Weiss, W.B.

    1995-01-01

    The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency requires that municipalities that have a population of 100,000 or greater obtain National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System permits to characterize the quality of their storm runoff. In 1992, the U.S. Geological Survey, in cooperation with the Colorado Springs City Engineering Division, began a study to characterize the water quality of storm runoff and to evaluate procedures for the estimation of storm-runoff loads, volume and event-mean concentrations for selected properties and constituents. Precipitation, streamflow, and water-quality data were collected during 1992 at five sites in Colorado Springs. Thirty-five samples were collected, seven at each of the five sites. At each site, three samples were collected for permitting purposes; two of the samples were collected during rainfall runoff, and one sample was collected during snowmelt runoff. Four additional samples were collected at each site to obtain a large enough sample size to estimate storm-runoff loads, volume, and event-mean concentrations for selected properties and constituents using linear-regression procedures developed using data from the Nationwide Urban Runoff Program (NURP). Storm-water samples were analyzed for as many as 186 properties and constituents. The constituents measured include total-recoverable metals, vola-tile-organic compounds, acid-base/neutral organic compounds, and pesticides. Storm runoff sampled had large concentrations of chemical oxygen demand and 5-day biochemical oxygen demand. Chemical oxygen demand ranged from 100 to 830 milligrams per liter, and 5.-day biochemical oxygen demand ranged from 14 to 260 milligrams per liter. Total-organic carbon concentrations ranged from 18 to 240 milligrams per liter. The total-recoverable metals lead and zinc had the largest concentrations of the total-recoverable metals analyzed. Concentrations of lead ranged from 23 to 350 micrograms per liter, and concentrations of zinc ranged from 110

  12. Ionospheric behaviour during storm recovery phase

    Science.gov (United States)

    Buresova, D.; Lastovicka, J.; Boska, J.; Sindelarova, T.; Chum, J.

    2012-04-01

    Intensive ionospheric research, numerous multi-instrumental observations and large-scale numerical simulations of ionospheric F region response to magnetic storm-induced disturbances during the last several decades were primarily focused on the storm main phase, in most cases covering only a few hours of the recovery phase following after storm culmination. Ionospheric behaviour during entire recovery phase still belongs to not sufficiently explored and hardly predictable features. In general, the recovery phase is characterized by an abatement of perturbations and a gradual return to the "ground state" of ionosphere. However, observations of stormy ionosphere show significant departures from the climatology also within this phase. This paper deals with the quantitative and qualitative analysis of the ionospheric behaviour during the entire recovery phase of strong-to-severe magnetic storms at middle latitudes for nowadays and future modelling and forecasting purposes.

  13. Storm surge climatology report

    OpenAIRE

    Horsburgh, Kevin; Williams, Joanne; Cussack, Caroline

    2017-01-01

    Any increase in flood frequency or severity due to sea level rise or changes in storminess would adversely impact society. It is crucial to understand the physical drivers of extreme storm surges to have confidence in the datasets used for extreme sea level statistics. We will refine and improve methods to the estimation of extreme sea levels around Europe and more widely. We will do so by developing a comprehensive world picture of storm surge distribution (including extremes) for both tropi...

  14. Alternative salvage technique during postcardiotomy electrical storm.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ryu, Y G; Baek, M J; Kim, H J

    2010-08-01

    Cardiac electrical storm is generally treated with antiarrhythmic drugs, electrical cardioversion, or catheter ablation. However, these conservative treatment modalities are considered neither curative nor preventive with regard to recurrent arrhythmias in postoperative electrical storm after open heart surgery. We present a case of surgical ventricular assist device placement for postcardiotomy electrical storm in a 38-year-old patient. Copyright (c) Georg Thieme Verlag KG Stuttgart-New York.

  15. On the robustness of aerosol effects on an idealized supercell storm simulated with a cloud system-resolving model

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    H. Morrison

    2012-08-01

    Full Text Available A cloud system-resolving model (the Weather Research and Forecasting model with 1 km horizontal grid spacing is used to investigate the response of an idealized supercell storm to increased cloud droplet concentrations associated with polluted conditions. The primary focus is on exploring robustness of simulated aerosol effects in the face of complex process interactions and feedbacks between the cloud microphysics and dynamics. Simulations are run using sixteen different model configurations with various microphysical or thermodynamic processes modified or turned off. Robustness of the storm response to polluted conditions is also explored for each configuration by performing additional simulations with small perturbations to the initial conditions. Differences in the domain-mean accumulated surface precipitation and convective mass flux between polluted and pristine conditions are small for almost all model configurations, with relative differences in each quantity generally less than 15%. Configurations that produce a decrease (increase in cold pool strength in polluted conditions also tend to simulate a decrease (increase in surface precipitation and convective mass flux. Combined with an analysis of the dynamical and thermodynamic fields, these results indicate the importance of interactions between microphysics, cold pool evolution, and dynamics along outflow boundaries in explaining the system response. Several model configurations, including the baseline, produce an overall similar storm response (weakening in polluted conditions despite having different microphysical or thermodynamic processes turned off. With hail initiation turned off or the hail fallspeed-size relation set to that of snow, the model produces an invigoration instead of weakening of the storm in polluted conditions. These results highlight the difficulty of foreseeing impacts of changes to model parameterizations and isolating process interactions that drive the system

  16. nuSTORM Costing document

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Bross, Alan D. [Fermi National Accelerator Lab. (FNAL), Batavia, IL (United States)

    2013-10-01

    Detailed costing of the nuSTORM conventional facilities has been done by the Fermilab Facilities Engineering Services Section (FESS) and is reported on in the nuSTORM Project Definition Report (PDR) 6-13-1. Estimates for outfitting the primary proton beam line, the target station, the pion capture/transport line and decay ring are based on either experience from existing Fermilab infrastructure (NuMI) or is based on the detailed costing exercises for DOE CD-1 approval for future experiments (mu2e and LBNE). The detector costing utilized the Euronu costing for the Neutrino Factory Magnetized Iron Neutrino Detector (MIND), extrapolations from MINOS as-built costs and from recent vendor quotes. Costs included all manpower and are fully burdened (FY2013 dollars). The costs are not escalated, however, beyond the 5-year project timeline, since a project start for nuSTORM is unknown. Escalation can be estimated from various models (see Figure 1). LBNE has used the Jacob’s model to determine their cost escalation.

  17. Operational aerosol and dust storm forecasting

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Westphal, D L; Curtis, C A; Liu, M; Walker, A L

    2009-01-01

    The U. S. Navy now conducts operational forecasting of aerosols and dust storms on global and regional scales. The Navy Aerosol Analysis and Prediction System (NAAPS) is run four times per day and produces 6-day forecasts of sulfate, smoke, dust and sea salt aerosol concentrations and visibility for the entire globe. The Coupled Ocean Atmosphere Mesoscale Prediction System (COAMPS (registered) ) is run twice daily for Southwest Asia and produces 3-day forecasts of dust, smoke, and visibility. The graphical output from these models is available on the Internet (www.nrlmry.navy.mil/aerosol/). The aerosol optical properties are calculated for each specie for each forecast output time and used for sea surface temperature (SST) retrieval corrections, regional electro-optical (EO) propagation assessments, and the development of satellite algorithms. NAAPS daily aerosol optical depth (AOD) values are compared with the Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer (AVHRR) and Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) AOD values. Visibility forecasts are compared quantitatively with surface synoptic reports.

  18. Storm/substorm signatures in the outer belt

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Korth, A.; Friedel, R.H.W.; Mouikis, C.; Fennell, J.F.

    1998-01-01

    The response of the ring current region is compared for periods of storm and substorm activity, with an attempt to isolate the contributions of both processes. The authors investigate CRRES particle data in an overview format that allows the display of long-term variations of the outer radiation belt. They compare the evolution of the ring current population to indicators of storm (Dst) and substorm (AE) activity and examine compositional changes. Substorm activity leads to the intensification of the ring current at higher L (L ∼ 6) and lower ring current energies compared to storms (L ∼ 4). The O + /H + ratio during substorms remains low, near 10%, but is much enhanced during storms (can exceed 100%). They conclude that repeated substorms with an AE ∼ 900 nT lead to a ΔDst of ∼ 30 nT, but do not contribute to Dst during storm main phase as substorm injections do not form a symmetric ring current during such disturbed times

  19. Coastal Storm Hazards from Virginia to Maine

    Science.gov (United States)

    2015-11-01

    secondary terms • integration of joint probability of storm responses, including extratropical events. A diagram summarizing the JPM methodology is... Extratropical Cyclones. The GPD- based approach defined above was used to compute the final storm response statistics for XCs. ERDC/CHL TR-15-5 39...from the numerical modeling of all storms , tropical and extratropical . As discussed in Section 2.1.2, JPM methodology generally consists of the

  20. Acceleration and loss of relativistic electrons during small geomagnetic storms.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Anderson, B R; Millan, R M; Reeves, G D; Friedel, R H W

    2015-12-16

    Past studies of radiation belt relativistic electrons have favored active storm time periods, while the effects of small geomagnetic storms ( D s t  > -50 nT) have not been statistically characterized. In this timely study, given the current weak solar cycle, we identify 342 small storms from 1989 through 2000 and quantify the corresponding change in relativistic electron flux at geosynchronous orbit. Surprisingly, small storms can be equally as effective as large storms at enhancing and depleting fluxes. Slight differences exist, as small storms are 10% less likely to result in flux enhancement and 10% more likely to result in flux depletion than large storms. Nevertheless, it is clear that neither acceleration nor loss mechanisms scale with storm drivers as would be expected. Small geomagnetic storms play a significant role in radiation belt relativistic electron dynamics and provide opportunities to gain new insights into the complex balance of acceleration and loss processes.

  1. Positive and negative ionospheric storms occurring during the 15 May 2005 geomagnetic superstorm

    Science.gov (United States)

    Horvath, Ildiko; Lovell, Brian C.

    2015-09-01

    This study focuses on the 15 May 2005 geomagnetic superstorm and aims to investigate the global variation of positive and negative storm phases and their development. Observations are provided by a series of global total electron content maps and multi-instrument line plots. Coupled Thermosphere-Ionosphere-Plasmasphere electrodynamics (CTIPe) simulations are also employed. Results reveal some sunward streaming plumes of storm-enhanced density (SED) over Asia and a well-developed midlatitude trough over North America forming isolated positive and negative storms, respectively. The simultaneous development of positive and negative storms over North America is also shown. Then, some enhanced auroral ionizations maintained by strong equatorward neutral winds appeared in the depleted nighttime ionosphere. Meanwhile, the northern nighttime polar region became significantly depleted as the SED plume plasma could not progress further than the dayside cusp. Oppositely, a polar tongue of ionization (TOI) developed in the daytime southern polar region. According to CTIP simulations, solar heating locally maximized (minimized) over the southern (northern) magnetic pole. Furthermore, strong upward surges of molecular-rich air created O/N2 decreases both in the auroral zone and in the trough region, while some SED-related downward surges produced O/N2 increases. From these results we conclude for the time period studied that (1) composition changes contributed to the formation of positive and negative storms, (2) strengthening polar convection and increasing solar heating of the polar cap supported polar TOI development, and (3) a weaker polar convection and minimized solar heating of the polar cap aided the depletion of polar plasma.

  2. Red Storm usage model :Version 1.12.

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Jefferson, Karen L.; Sturtevant, Judith E.

    2005-12-01

    Red Storm is an Advanced Simulation and Computing (ASC) funded massively parallel supercomputer located at Sandia National Laboratories (SNL). The Red Storm Usage Model (RSUM) documents the capabilities and the environment provided for the FY05 Tri-Lab Level II Limited Availability Red Storm User Environment Milestone and the FY05 SNL Level II Limited Availability Red Storm Platform Milestone. This document describes specific capabilities, tools, and procedures to support both local and remote users. The model is focused on the needs of the ASC user working in the secure computing environments at Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL), Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL), and SNL. Additionally, the Red Storm Usage Model maps the provided capabilities to the Tri-Lab ASC Computing Environment (ACE) requirements. The ACE requirements reflect the high performance computing requirements for the ASC community and have been updated in FY05 to reflect the community's needs. For each section of the RSUM, Appendix I maps the ACE requirements to the Limited Availability User Environment capabilities and includes a description of ACE requirements met and those requirements that are not met in that particular section. The Red Storm Usage Model, along with the ACE mappings, has been issued and vetted throughout the Tri-Lab community.

  3. Impact of Short Interval SMS Digital Data on Wind Vector Determination for a Severe Local Storms Area

    Science.gov (United States)

    Peslen, C. A.

    1979-01-01

    The impact of 5 minute interval SMS-2 visible digital image data in analyzing severe local storms is examined using wind vectors derived from cloud tracking on time lapsed sequence of geosynchronous satellite images. The cloud tracking areas are located in the Central Plains, where on 6 May 1975, hail-producing thunderstorms occurred ahead of a well defined dry line. The results demonstrate that satellite-derived wind vectors and their associated divergence fields complement conventional meteorological analyses in describing the conditions preceding severe local storm development.

  4. The Effect of Storm Driver and Intensity on Magnetospheric Ion Temperatures

    Science.gov (United States)

    Keesee, Amy M.; Katus, Roxanne M.; Scime, Earl E.

    2017-09-01

    Energy deposited in the magnetosphere during geomagnetic storms drives ion heating and convection. Ions are also heated and transported via internal processes throughout the magnetosphere. Injection of the plasma sheet ions to the inner magnetosphere drives the ring current and, thus, the storm intensity. Understanding the ion dynamics is important to improving our ability to predict storm evolution. In this study, we perform superposed epoch analyses of ion temperatures during storms, comparing ion temperature evolution by storm driver and storm intensity. The ion temperatures are calculated using energetic neutral atom measurements from the Two Wide-Angle Imaging Neutral-Atom Spectrometers (TWINS) mission. The global view of these measurements provide both spatial and temporal information. We find that storms driven by coronal mass ejections (CMEs) tend to have higher ion temperatures throughout the main phase than storms driven by corotating interaction regions (CIRs) but that the temperatures increase during the recovery phase of CIR-driven storms. Ion temperatures during intense CME-driven storms have brief intervals of higher ion temperatures than those during moderate CME-driven storms but have otherwise comparable ion temperatures. The highest temperatures during CIR-driven storms are centered at 18 magnetic local time and occur on the dayside for moderate CME-driven storms. During the second half of the main phase, ion temperatures tend to decrease in the postmidnight to dawn sector for CIR storms, but an increase is observed for CME storms. This increase begins with a sharp peak in ion temperatures for intense CME storms, likely a signature of substorm activity that drives the increased ring current.

  5. Solute Response To Arid-Climate Managed-River Flow During Storm Events

    Science.gov (United States)

    McLean, B.; Shock, E.

    2006-12-01

    Storm pulses are widely used in unmanaged, temperate and subtropical river systems to resolve in-stream surface and subsurface flow components. Resulting catchment-scale hydrochemical mixing models yield insight into mechanisms of solute transport. Managed systems are far more complicated due to the human need for high quality water resources, which drives processes that are superimposed on most, if not all, of the unmanaged components. As an example, an increasingly large portion of the water supply for the Phoenix metropolitan area is derived from multiple surface water sources that are impounded, diverted and otherwise managed upstream from the urban core that consumes the water and produces anthropogenic impacts. During large storm events this managed system is perturbed towards natural behavior as it receives inputs from natural hydrologic pathways in addition to impervious surfaces and storm water drainage channels. Our goals in studying managed river systems during this critical transition state are to determine how the well- characterized behavior of natural systems break down as the system responds then returns to its managed state. Using storm events as perturbations we can contrast an arid managed system with the unmanaged system it approaches during the storm event. In the process, we can extract geochemical consequences specifically related to unknown urban components in the form of chemical fingerprints. The effects of river management on solute behavior were assessed by taking advantage of several anomalously heavy winter storm events in late 2004 and early 2005 using a rigorous sampling routine. Several hundred samples collected between January and October 2005 were analyzed for major ion, isotopic, and trace metal concentrations with 78 individual measurements for each sample. The data are used to resolve managed watershed processes, mechanisms of solute transport and river mixing from anthropogenic inputs. Our results show that concentrations of

  6. Analysis of Storm Surge in Hong Kong

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kao, W. H.

    2017-12-01

    A storm surge is a type of coastal flood that is caused by low-pressure systems such as tropical cyclones. Storm surges caused by tropical cyclones can be very powerful and damaging, as they can flood coastal areas, and even destroy infrastructure in serious cases. Some serious cases of storm surges leading to more than thousands of deaths include Hurricane Katrina (2005) in New Orleans and Typhoon Haiyan (2013) in Philippines. Hong Kong is a coastal city that is prone to tropical cyclones, having an average of 5-6 tropical cyclones entering 500km range of Hong Kong per year. Storm surges have seriously damaged Hong Kong in the past, causing more than 100 deaths by Typhoon Wanda (1962), and leading to serious damage to Tai O and Cheung Chau by Typhoon Hagupit (2008). To prevent economic damage and casualties from storm surges, accurately predicting the height of storm surges and giving timely warnings to citizens is very important. In this project, I will be analyzing how different factors affect the height of storm surge, mainly using data from Hong Kong. These factors include the windspeed in Hong Kong, the atmospheric pressure in Hong Kong, the moon phase, the wind direction, the intensity of the tropical cyclone, distance between the tropical cyclone and Hong Kong, the direction of the tropical cyclone relative to Hong Kong, the speed of movement of the tropical cyclone and more. My findings will also be compared with cases from other places, to see if my findings also apply for other places.

  7. Geometric effects of ICMEs on geomagnetic storms

    Science.gov (United States)

    Cho, KyungSuk; Lee, Jae-Ok

    2017-04-01

    It has been known that the geomagnetic storm is occurred by the interaction between the Interplanetary Coronal Mass Ejection (ICME) and the Earth's magnetosphere; especially, the southward Bz component of ICME is thought as the main trigger. In this study, we investigate the relationship between Dst index and solar wind conditions; which are the southward Bz, electric field (VBz), and time integral of electric field as well as ICME parameters derived from toroidal fitting model in order to find what is main factor to the geomagnetic storm. We also inspect locations of Earth in ICMEs to understand the geometric effects of the Interplanetary Flux Ropes (IFRs) on the geomagnetic storms. Among 59 CDAW ICME lists, we select 30 IFR events that are available by the toroidal fitting model and classify them into two sub-groups: geomagnetic storms associated with the Magnetic Clouds (MCs) and the compression regions ahead of the MCs (sheath). The main results are as follows: (1) The time integral of electric field has a higher correlation coefficient (cc) with Dst index than the other parameters: cc=0.85 for 25 MC events and cc=0.99 for 5 sheath events. (2) The sheath associated intense storms (Dst ≤-100nT) having usually occur at flank regions of ICMEs while the MC associated intense storms occur regardless of the locations of the Earth in ICMEs. The strength of a geomagnetic storm strongly depends on electric field of IFR and durations of the IFR passages through the Earth.

  8. Combined effect of storm movement and drainage network configuration on flood peaks

    Science.gov (United States)

    Seo, Yongwon; Son, Kwang Ik; Choi, Hyun Il

    2016-04-01

    This presentation reports the combined effect of storm movement and drainage network layout on resulting hydrographs and its implication to flood process and also flood mitigation. First, we investigate, in general terms, the effects of storm movement on the resulting flood peaks, and the underlying process controls. For this purpose, we utilize a broad theoretical framework that uses characteristic time and space scales associated with stationary rainstorms as well as moving rainstorms. For a stationary rainstorm the characteristic timescales that govern the peak response include two intrinsic timescales of a catchment and one extrinsic timescale of a rainstorm. On the other hand, for a moving rainstorm, two additional extrinsic scales are required; the storm travel time and storm size. We show that the relationship between the peak response and the timescales appropriate for a stationary rainstorm can be extended in a straightforward manner to describe the peak response for a moving rainstorm. For moving rainstorms, we show that the augmentation of peak response arises from both effect of overlaying the responses from subcatchments (resonance condition) and effect of increased responses from subcatchments due to increased duration (interdependence), which results in maximum peak response when the moving rainstorm is slower than the channel flow velocity. Second, we show the relation between channel network configurations and hydrograph sensitivity to storm kinematics. For this purpose, Gibbs' model is used to evaluate the network characteristics. The results show that the storm kinematics that produces the maximum peak discharge depends on the network configuration because the resonance condition changes with the network configuration. We show that an "efficient" network layout is more sensitive and results in higher increase in peak response compared to "inefficient" one. These results imply different flood potential risks for river networks depending on network

  9. Characterizing Spatial Organization of Cell Surface Receptors in Human Breast Cancer with STORM

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lyall, Evan; Chapman, Matthew R.; Sohn, Lydia L.

    2012-02-01

    Regulation and control of complex biological functions are dependent upon spatial organization of biological structures at many different length scales. For instance Eph receptors and their ephrin ligands bind when opposing cells come into contact during development, resulting in spatial organizational changes on the nanometer scale that lead to changes on the macro scale, in a process known as organ morphogenesis. One technique able to probe this important spatial organization at both the nanometer and micrometer length scales, including at cell-cell junctions, is stochastic optical reconstruction microscopy (STORM). STORM is a technique that localizes individual fluorophores based on the centroids of their point spread functions and then reconstructs a composite image to produce super resolved structure. We have applied STORM to study spatial organization of the cell surface of human breast cancer cells, specifically the organization of tyrosine kinase receptors and chemokine receptors. A better characterization of spatial organization of breast cancer cell surface proteins is necessary to fully understand the tumorigenisis pathways in the most common malignancy in United States women.

  10. Dynamic interactions between coastal storms and salt marshes: A review

    Science.gov (United States)

    Leonardi, Nicoletta; Carnacina, Iacopo; Donatelli, Carmine; Ganju, Neil K.; Plater, Andrew James; Schuerch, Mark; Temmerman, Stijn

    2018-01-01

    This manuscript reviews the progresses made in the understanding of the dynamic interactions between coastal storms and salt marshes, including the dissipation of extreme water levels and wind waves across marsh surfaces, the geomorphic impact of storms on salt marshes, the preservation of hurricanes signals and deposits into the sedimentary records, and the importance of storms for the long term survival of salt marshes to sea level rise. A review of weaknesses, and strengths of coastal defences incorporating the use of salt marshes including natural, and hybrid infrastructures in comparison to standard built solutions is then presented.Salt marshes are effective in dissipating wave energy, and storm surges, especially when the marsh is highly elevated, and continuous. This buffering action reduces for storms lasting more than one day. Storm surge attenuation rates range from 1.7 to 25 cm/km depending on marsh and storms characteristics. In terms of vegetation properties, the more flexible stems tend to flatten during powerful storms, and to dissipate less energy but they are also more resilient to structural damage, and their flattening helps to protect the marsh surface from erosion, while stiff plants tend to break, and could increase the turbulence level and the scour. From a morphological point of view, salt marshes are generally able to withstand violent storms without collapsing, and violent storms are responsible for only a small portion of the long term marsh erosion.Our considerations highlight the necessity to focus on the indirect long term impact that large storms exerts on the whole marsh complex rather than on sole after-storm periods. The morphological consequences of storms, even if not dramatic, might in fact influence the response of the system to normal weather conditions during following inter-storm periods. For instance, storms can cause tidal flats deepening which in turn promotes wave energy propagation, and exerts a long term

  11. Dynamic interactions between coastal storms and salt marshes: A review

    Science.gov (United States)

    Leonardi, Nicoletta; Carnacina, Iacopo; Donatelli, Carmine; Ganju, Neil Kamal; Plater, Andrew James; Schuerch, Mark; Temmerman, Stijn

    2018-01-01

    This manuscript reviews the progresses made in the understanding of the dynamic interactions between coastal storms and salt marshes, including the dissipation of extreme water levels and wind waves across marsh surfaces, the geomorphic impact of storms on salt marshes, the preservation of hurricanes signals and deposits into the sedimentary records, and the importance of storms for the long term survival of salt marshes to sea level rise. A review of weaknesses, and strengths of coastal defences incorporating the use of salt marshes including natural, and hybrid infrastructures in comparison to standard built solutions is then presented. Salt marshes are effective in dissipating wave energy, and storm surges, especially when the marsh is highly elevated, and continuous. This buffering action reduces for storms lasting more than one day. Storm surge attenuation rates range from 1.7 to 25 cm/km depending on marsh and storms characteristics. In terms of vegetation properties, the more flexible stems tend to flatten during powerful storms, and to dissipate less energy but they are also more resilient to structural damage, and their flattening helps to protect the marsh surface from erosion, while stiff plants tend to break, and could increase the turbulence level and the scour. From a morphological point of view, salt marshes are generally able to withstand violent storms without collapsing, and violent storms are responsible for only a small portion of the long term marsh erosion. Our considerations highlight the necessity to focus on the indirect long term impact that large storms exerts on the whole marsh complex rather than on sole after-storm periods. The morphological consequences of storms, even if not dramatic, might in fact influence the response of the system to normal weather conditions during following inter-storm periods. For instance, storms can cause tidal flats deepening which in turn promotes wave energy propagation, and exerts a long term detrimental

  12. A Thermodynamic, kinematic and microphysical analysis of a jet and gigantic jet-producing Florida thunderstorm

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lazarus, S. M.; Splitt, M. E.; Brownlee, James; Spiva, Nicholas; Liu, Ningyu

    2015-08-01

    This paper presents a meteorological analysis of a storm that produced two jets, four gigantic jets (GJ), and a starter, which were observed by two radars as well as the Kennedy Space Center 4-Dimensional Lightning Surveillance System on 3 August 2013 in Central Florida. The work is the first application of dual polarization data to a jet-producing storm and is the fifth case related to a tropical disturbance. The storm environment is consistent with the moist tropical paradigm that characterizes about three quarters of the surface and aircraft observed jet and GJ events. The most unstable (MU) convective available potential energy is not unusual for Florida summer convection and is below the climatological mean for these events. An unusual speed shear layer is located near the storm equilibrium level (EL) and the storm exhibits a tilted structure with CGs displaced upshear. The turbulence, as measured by the eddy dissipation rate, is extreme near the storm top during the event window, consistent with the GJ mixing hypothesis. The individual events are collocated with, and track along, the center axis of the divergent outflow at the EL and occur within the region of the coldest GOES IR temperatures—placing the events within the overshoot. The dual polarization data indicate a deep graupel column, extending above the mixed phase layer, to a 13 km altitude.

  13. Living with storm damage to forests

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Gardiner, B.; Schuck, A.; Schelhaas, M.J.; Orazio, C.; Blennow, K.; Nicoll, B.

    2013-01-01

    Windstorms are a major disturbance factor for European forests. In the past six decades wind storms have damaged standing forest volume, which on a yearly average equals about the size of Poland's annual fellings. The evedence also indicates that the actual severity of storms in the wake of climatic

  14. Movie-maps of low-latitude magnetic storm disturbance

    Science.gov (United States)

    Love, Jeffrey J.; Gannon, Jennifer L.

    2010-06-01

    We present 29 movie-maps of low-latitude horizontal-intensity magnetic disturbance for the years 1999-2006: 28 recording magnetic storms and 1 magnetically quiescent period. The movie-maps are derived from magnetic vector time series data collected at up to 25 ground-based observatories. Using a technique similar to that used in the calculation of Dst, a quiet time baseline is subtracted from the time series from each observatory. The remaining disturbance time series are shown in a polar coordinate system that accommodates both Earth rotation and the universal time dependence of magnetospheric disturbance. Each magnetic storm recorded in the movie-maps is different. While some standard interpretations about the storm time equatorial ring current appear to apply to certain moments and certain phases of some storms, the movie-maps also show substantial variety in the local time distribution of low-latitude magnetic disturbance, especially during storm commencements and storm main phases. All movie-maps are available at the U.S. Geological Survey Geomagnetism Program Web site (http://geomag.usgs.gov).

  15. ELUSIVE ETHYLENE DETECTED IN SATURN'S NORTHERN STORM REGION

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Hesman, B. E.; Achterberg, R. K.; Nixon, C. A. [Department of Astronomy, University of Maryland, College Park, MD 20742 (United States); Bjoraker, G. L.; Romani, P. N. [NASA/GSFC Code 693, Greenbelt, MD 20771 (United States); Sada, P. V. [Departamento de Fisica y Matematicas, Universidad de Monterrey, Garza Garcia, NL 66238 (Mexico); Jennings, D. E. [NASA/GSFC Code 693 and Code 500, Greenbelt, MD 20771 (United States); Lunsford, A. W. [Department of Physics, Catholic University of America, Washington, DC 20064 (United States); Fletcher, L. N.; Irwin, P. G. J. [Atmospheric, Oceanic and Planetary Physics, Clarendon Laboratory, Parks Road, Oxford OX1 3PU (United Kingdom); Boyle, R. J. [Department of Physics and Astronomy, Dickinson College, Carlisle, PA 17013 (United States); Simon-Miller, A. A., E-mail: brigette.e.hesman@nasa.gov [NASA/GSFC Code 690, Greenbelt, MD 20771 (United States)

    2012-11-20

    The massive eruption at 40 Degree-Sign N (planetographic latitude) on Saturn in 2010 December has produced significant and lasting effects in the northern hemisphere on temperature and species abundances. The northern storm region was observed on many occasions in 2011 by Cassini's Composite Infrared Spectrometer (CIRS). In 2011 May, temperatures in the stratosphere greater than 200 K were derived from CIRS spectra in the regions referred to as 'beacons' (warm regions in the stratosphere). Ethylene has been detected in the beacon region in Saturn's northern storm region using CIRS. Ground-based observations using the high-resolution spectrometer Celeste on the McMath-Pierce Telescope on 2011 May 15 were used to confirm the detection and improve the altitude resolution in the retrieved profile. The derived ethylene profile from the CIRS data gives a C{sub 2}H{sub 4} mole fraction of 5.9 {+-} 4.5 Multiplication-Sign 10{sup -7} at 0.5 mbar, and from Celeste data it gives 2.7 {+-} 0.45 Multiplication-Sign 10{sup -6} at 0.1 mbar. This is two orders of magnitude higher than the amount measured in the ultraviolet at other latitudes prior to the storm. It is also much higher than predicted by photochemical models, indicating that perhaps another production mechanism is required or a loss mechanism is being inhibited.

  16. Analysis of dust storms observed in Mongolia during 1937-1999

    Science.gov (United States)

    Natsagdorj, L.; Jugder, D.; Chung, Y. S.

    Climatology of dust storms in Mongolia is compiled based on observational data of 49 meteorological stations from 1960 to 1999 and compared them with data between 1937 and 1989. Three different maps of the distribution of dust storms, drifting dust and the number of dusty days are presented. The results of the analysis show that the number of days with dust storms is hollow of west Mongolia. It is found that 61% of dust storms occur in the spring in Mongolia and a dust storm lasts on average from 3.1 to 6.0 h. About 65.5-91.0% of dust storms occur in daytime and 9.0-34.5% at night. Dust storms occur more frequently in the city region and are accompanied by surface wind speeds usually from 6 to 20 ms -1. Dust storms usually occur when soil and air are dry, and 70% of dust storms occur in dry soil conditions. When dust storms occur, relative humidity averages 20-40% in Mongolia. An important outcome of this study is the trend of dusty days between 1960 and 1999. It shows that the number of dusty days has tripled from the 1960s to 1990s and has decreased since 1990.

  17. Identification of Storm Surge Vulnerable Areas in the Philippines Through Simulations of Typhoon Haiyan-Induced Storm Surge Using Tracks of Historical Tropical Cyclones

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lapidez, John Phillip; Suarez, John Kenneth; Tablazon, Judd; Dasallas, Lea; Gonzalo, Lia Anne; Santiago, Joy; Cabacaba, Krichi May; Ramos, Michael Marie Angelo; Mahar Francisco Lagmay, Alfredo; Malano, Vicente

    2014-05-01

    Super Typhoon Haiyan entered the Philippine Area of Responsibility (PAR) 07 November 2013, causing tremendous damage to infrastructure and loss of lives mainly due to the typhoon's storm surge and strong winds. Storm surges up to a height of 7 meters were reported in the hardest hit areas. The threat imposed by this kind of natural calamity compelled researchers of the Nationwide Operational Assessment of Hazards, the flagship disaster mitigation program of the Department of Science and Technology, Government of the Philippines, to undertake a study to determine the vulnerability of all Philippine coastal communities to storm surges of the same magnitude as those generated by Haiyan. This study calculates the maximum probable storm surge height for every coastal locality by running simulations of Haiyan-type conditions but with tracks of tropical cyclones that entered PAR from 1948-2013. DOST-Project NOAH used the Japan Meteorological Agency (JMA) Storm Surge Model, a numerical code that simulates and predicts storm surges spawned by tropical cyclones. Input parameters for the storm surge model include bathymetric data, storm track, central atmospheric pressure, and maximum wind speed. The simulations were made using Haiyan's pressure and wind speed as the forcing parameters. The simulated storm surge height values were added to the maximum tide level obtained from WXTide, software that contains a catalogue of worldwide astronomical tides, to come up with storm tide levels. The resulting water level was used as input to FLO-2D to generate the storm tide inundation maps. One product of this study is a list of the most vulnerable coastal areas that can be used as basis for choosing priority sites for further studies to implement appropriate site-specific solutions. Another product is the storm tide inundation maps that the local government units can use to develop a Risk-Sensitive Land Use Plan for identifying appropriate areas to build residential buildings

  18. Storm Data Publication

    Data.gov (United States)

    National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Department of Commerce — 'Storm Data and Unusual Weather Phenomena' is a monthly publication containing a chronological listing, by state, of hurricanes, tornadoes, thunderstorms, hail,...

  19. Modeling of the outer electron belt during magnetic storms

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Desorgher, L.; Buehler, P.; Zehnder, A.; Daly, E.; Adams, L.

    1999-01-01

    The flux dropout of relativistic electrons in the earth's outer radiation belt, during the main phase of the 26 March 1995 magnetic storm is examined. Outer belt measurements by the Radiation Environment Monitor, REM aboard the STRV-1b satellite are presented to characterize this dropout. In order to simulate the dynamics of the electron belt during the storm main phase a particle tracing code was developed which allows to trace the trajectories of equatorially mirroring electrons in a dynamic magnetospheric electromagnetic field. Two simulations were performed in a non-stationary magnetic field, one taking only the induced electric field into account (fully adiabatic motion), and one with an additional non-stationary convection electric field. The simulations show, that adiabatic deceleration can produce the observed count rate decrease and also the observed inward motion of the count rate peak. The convection electric field causes diffusion, which can take particles from low L values out to the magnetopause and contribute to an additional loss of particles, which is suggested by the observations

  20. Natural Disasters under the Form of Severe Storms in Europe: the Cause-Effect Analysis

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Virginia Câmpeanu

    2009-07-01

    Full Text Available For more than 100 years, from 1900 to 2008, there were almost 400 storms natural disasters in Europe, 40% of which occurred in the 1990s. The international prognoses for the world weather suggest a tendency toward increasing in frequency and intensity of the severe storms as the climate warms. In these circumstances, for a researcher in the field of Environmental Economics, a natural question occurs, on whether people can contribute to reducing the frequency and the magnitude of severe storms that produce disastreous social and economic effects, by acting on their causes. In researching an answer to support the public policies in the field, a cause-effect analysis applied to Europe might make a contribution to the literature in the field. This especially considering the fact that international literature regarding the factors influencing global warming contains certainties in regard to the natural factors of influence, but declared incertitudes or skepticism in regard to anthropogenic ones. Skepticism, and even tension arised during the international negotiations in Copenhagen (December 2009 in regard to the agreement for limiting global warming, with doubts being raised about the methods used by experts of the International Climate Experts Group (GIEC, and thus the results obtained, which served as a basis for the negotiations. The object of critics was in regard to the form, and at times in regard to the content. It was not about contesting the phenomenon of Global warming during the negotiations, but the methods of calculation. The methodology relies on qualitative (type top down and quantitative (type correlations bottom up cause-effect analysis of the storm disasters in Europe. Based on the instruments used, we proposed a dynamic model of association of the evolution of storm disasters in Europe with anthropogenic factors, with 3 variants. Results: The diagram cause-effect (Ishikawa or fishbone diagram and quantitative correlation of sub

  1. Wave modelling to assess the storm conditions in the Black Sea

    Science.gov (United States)

    Rusu, Liliana; Raileanu, Alina

    2014-05-01

    The work proposed herewith presents the results of a ten-year wave hindcast performed in the Black Sea and focused on the storm conditions. A wave modelling system, SWAN based, was implemented in the basin of the Black Sea. Validations have been performed both against in situ and remotely sensed data for the entire ten-year period considered (1999-2008). The wind field provided by NCEP-CFSR (United States National Centers for Environmental Prediction, Climate Forecast System Reanalysis) with a spatial resolution of 0.312ºx0.312º and a temporal resolution of 3 hours was considered for forcing the wave model. In statistical terms, the results are in general in line with those provided by similar wave prediction systems implemented in enclosed or semi-enclosed seas, the most important factors in increasing the general system reliability being the accuracy and resolution of the wind fields considered. As regards the physical processes, the calibration tests performed show that whitecapping still represents the weak link in deep water wave modelling. The most relevant storm conditions encountered in this ten-year period considered were further analysed. This analysis was performed from the point of view of the intensity, location of occurrence, duration and propagation in the geographical space of the storms. Following the results of the work, the western side of the sea is more energetic and almost each year storms with significant wave heights of about eight meters are encountered in this part of the Black Sea, while in the case of the extreme storms significant wave heights even greater than eleven meters may occur. From this perspective, it can be concluded that the present work provides valuable information about the characteristics of the storm conditions and on their dynamics in the Black Sea. Moreover, this marine environment is currently subjected to high navigation traffic and to offshore operations and the strong storms that systematically occur may produce

  2. Storm Sewage Dilution in Smaller Streams

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Larsen, Torben; Vestergaard, Kristian

    1987-01-01

    A numerical model has been used to show how dilution in smaller streams can be effected by unsteady hydraulic conditions caused by a storm sewage overflow.......A numerical model has been used to show how dilution in smaller streams can be effected by unsteady hydraulic conditions caused by a storm sewage overflow....

  3. [Thyroid Storm and Myxedema Coma].

    Science.gov (United States)

    Milkau, Malte; Sayk, Friedhelm

    2018-03-01

    Thyroid storm and myxedema coma are the most severe clinical forms of thyroid dysfunction. While both hyper- and hypothyroidsm are common diseases, thyroid storm and myxedema coma are rare. Due to their unspecific signs and symptoms they are often difficult to diagnose. Both disorders are medical emergencies, which still show a significant mortality. The following article summarizes diagnostic tools and treatment options for these disorders. © Georg Thieme Verlag KG Stuttgart · New York.

  4. Basin-Wide Amazon Forest Tree Mortality From a Large 2005 Storm

    Science.gov (United States)

    Negron Juarez, R. I.; Chambers, J. Q.; Guimaraes, G.; Zeng, H.; Raupp, C.; Marra, D. M.; Ribeiro, G.; Saatchi, S. S.; Higuchi, N.

    2010-12-01

    Blowdowns are a recurrent characteristic of Amazon forests and are produced, among others, by squall lines. Squall lines are aligned clusters (typical length of 1000 km, width of 200 km) of deep convective cells that produce heavy rainfall during the dry season and significant rainfall during the wet season. These squall lines (accompanied by intense downbursts from convective cells) have been associated with large blowdowns characterized by uprooted, snapped trees, and trees being dragged down by other falling trees. Most squall lines in Amazonia form along the northeastern coast of South America as sea breeze-induced instability lines and propagate inside the continent. They occur frequently (~4 times per month), and can reach the central and even extreme western parts of Amazonia. Squall lines can also be generated inside the Amazon and propagate toward the equator. In January 2005 a squall line propagated from south to north across the entire Amazon basin producing widespread forest tree mortality and contributed to the elevated mortality observed that year. Over the Manaus region (3.4 x104 km2), disturbed forest patches generated by the squall produced a mortality of 0.3-0.5 million trees, equivalent to 30% of the observed annual deforestation reported in 2005 over the same area. The elevated mortality observed in the Central Amazon in 2005 is unlikely to be related to the 2005 Amazon drought since drought did not affect Central or Eastern Amazonia. Assuming a similar rate of forest mortality across the basin, the squall line could have potentially produced tree mortality estimated at 542 ± 121 million trees, equivalent to 23% of the mean annual biomass accumulation estimated for these forests. Our results highlight the vulnerability of Amazon trees to wind-driven mortality associated with convective storms. This vulnerability is likely to increase in a warming climate with models projecting an increase in storm intensity.

  5. Normothermic thyroid storm: an unusual presentation

    Science.gov (United States)

    Sabir, Anas Ahmad; Sada, Kabiru; Yusuf, Bashir O.; Aliyu, Idris

    2016-01-01

    Thyroid storm is a rare life-threatening emergency due to thyrotoxicosis. A 30-year-old female presented with restlessness, tachycardia and vomiting but with normothermia which is an unusual presentation. There is the need for clinicians to be aware of atypical clinical features that can make the diagnosis of thyroid storm difficult. PMID:27540465

  6. Storm: A Manager for Storage Resource in Grid

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Ghiselli, A.; Magnoni, L.; Zappi, R.

    2009-01-01

    Nowadays, data intensive applications demand high-performance and large-storage systems capable of serving up to various Peta bytes of storage space. Therefore, common solutions adopted in data centres include Storage Area Networks (San) and cluster parallel file systems, such as GPFS from IBM and Lustre from Sun Microsystems. In order to make these storage system solutions available in modern Data Grid architectures, standard interfaces are needed. The Grid Storage Resource Manager (SRM) interface is one of these standard interfaces. Grid storage services implementing the SRM standard provide common capabilities and advanced functionality such as dynamic space allocation and file management on shared storage systems. In this paper, we describe Storm (Storage Resource Manager). Storm is a flexible and high-performing implementation of the standard SRM interface version 2.2. The software architecture of Storm allows for an easy integration to different underlying storage systems via a plug-in mechanism. In particular, Storm takes advantage from storage systems based on cluster file systems. Currently, Storm is installed and used in production in various data centres, including the WLCG Italian Tier-1. In addition, Economics and Financial communities, as represented by the EGRID Project, adopt Storm in production as well.

  7. Climate change and wind erosion by dust storms

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Wheaton, E.E.; Wittrock, V.

    1991-01-01

    Dust storms and their associated wind erosion are thought to be almost synonymous with drought. Dust storms have varying impacts including sandblasting and burying crops, wind erosion of soil, health effects and traffic accidents. A comparison of drought periods for southern Saskatchewan with dust storm frequencies for the period 1977-1988 revealed that the worst drought conditions coincided with the greatest April dust storm frequencies, with 1981 having the worst drought, and secondary spring droughts occurring in 1977, 1988, 1980 and 1982, and spring dust storm peaks occurring, in order of magnitude, in 1981, 1977, 1987, and 1982. An increase in atmospheric dust particles may lead to enhanced atmospheric subsidence and associated drought, and could be a positive feedback for drought intensity. Wind erosion potential may rise with rising temperature due to decreased vegetation cover, but the effect might be offset by rising precipitation

  8. Electrical Storm: Incidence, Prognosis and Therapy.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Sagone, Antonio

    2015-12-01

    The term "electrical storm" indicates a life-threatening clinical condition characterized by the recurrence of hemodynamically unstable ventricular tachycardia and/or ventricular fibrillation, in particular in patients with ICD implanted for primary or secondary prevention. Although there isn't a shared definition of electrical storm, nowadays the most accepted definition refers to three or more separate arrhythmia episodes leading to ICD therapies including antitachycardia pacing or shock occurring over a single 24 hours' time period. Clinical presentation can be dramatic and triggering mechanism are not clear at all yet, but electrical storm is associated with high mortality rates and low patients quality of life, both in the acute phase and in the long term. The first line therapy is based on antiarrhythmic drugs to suppress electrical storm, but in refractory patients, interventions such as catheter ablation or in some cases surgical cardiac sympathetic denervation might be helpful. Anyhow, earlier interventional management can lead to better outcomes than persisting with antiarrhythmic pharmacologic therapy and, when available, an early interventional approach should be preferred.

  9. Mathematical modeling of the moderate storm on 28 February 2008

    Science.gov (United States)

    Eroglu, Emre

    2018-04-01

    The sun is an active star with plasma-filled prominences. The sudden ejection of the solar plasma creates storms in the form of bursting or spraying. A magnetospheric storm is a typical phenomenon that lasts 1-3 days and involves all magnetosphere from the earth's ionosphere to the magnetotail. The storms are known by different categorical names such as weak, moderate, strong, intense. One of these is the moderate geomagnetic storm on February 28, 2008, which occurred in the 24th solar cycle. The reason for discussing this storm is that it is the first moderate storm in the 24th solar cycle. In this study, we investigate the storm and entered the 24th solar cycle. The correlation among the parametres has been investigated via statistics. The solar wind parameters and the zonal geomagnetic indices have been analyzed separately and then the interaction with each other has been exhibited. The author has concluded the work with two new nonlinear mathematical models. These explain the storm with 79.1% and 87.5% accuracy.

  10. Interannual Similarity in the Martian Atmosphere During the Dust Storm Season

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kass, D. M.; Kleinboehl, A.; McCleese, D. J.; Schofield, J. T.; Smith, M. D.

    2016-01-01

    We find that during the dusty season on Mars (southern spring and summer) of years without a global dust storm there are three large regional-scale dust storms. The storms are labeled A, B, and C in seasonal order. This classification is based on examining the zonal mean 50 Pa (approximately 25 km) daytime temperature retrievals from TES/MGS and MCS/MRO over 6 Mars Years. Regional-scale storms are defined as events where the temperature exceeds 200 K. Examining the MCS dust field at 50 Pa indicates that warming in the Southern Hemisphere is dominated by direct heating, while northern high latitude warming is a dynamical response. A storms are springtime planet encircling Southern Hemisphere events. B storms are southern polar events that begin near perihelion and last through the solstice. C storms are southern summertime events starting well after the end of the B storm. C storms show the most interannual variability.

  11. Leonid storm research

    CERN Document Server

    Rietmeijer, Frans; Brosch, Noah; Fonda, Mark

    2000-01-01

    This book will appeal to all researchers that have an interest in the current Leonid showers It contains over forty research papers that present some of the first observational results of the November 1999 Leonid meteor storm, the first storm observed by modern observing techniques The book is a first glimpse of the large amount of information obtained during NASA's Leonid Multi-Instrument Aircraft Campaign and groundbased campaigns throughout the world It provides an excellent overview on the state of meteor shower research for any professional researcher or amateur meteor observer interested in studies of meteors and meteoroids and their relation to comets, the origin of life on Earth, the satellite impact hazard issue, and upper atmosphere studies of neutral atom chemistry, the formation of meteoric debris, persistent trains, airglow, noctilucent clouds, sprites and elves

  12. Global Electric Circuit Diurnal Variation Derived from Storm Overflight and Satellite Optical Lightning Datasets

    Science.gov (United States)

    Mach, Douglas M.; Blakeslee, R. J.; Bateman, M. J.; Bailey, J. C.

    2011-01-01

    We have combined analyses of over 1000 high altitude aircraft observations of electrified clouds with diurnal lightning statistics from the Lightning Imaging Sensor (LIS) and Optical Transient Detector (OTD) to produce an estimate of the diurnal variation in the global electric circuit. Using basic assumptions about the mean storm currents as a function of flash rate and location, and the global electric circuit, our estimate of the current in the global electric circuit matches the Carnegie curve diurnal variation to within 4% for all but two short periods of time. The agreement with the Carnegie curve was obtained without any tuning or adjustment of the satellite or aircraft data. Mean contributions to the global electric circuit from land and ocean thunderstorms are 1.1 kA (land) and 0.7 kA (ocean). Contributions to the global electric circuit from ESCs are 0.22 kA for ocean storms and 0.04 kA for land storms. Using our analysis, the mean total conduction current for the global electric circuit is 2.0 kA.

  13. Topographic Correction Module at Storm (TC@Storm)

    Science.gov (United States)

    Zaksek, K.; Cotar, K.; Veljanovski, T.; Pehani, P.; Ostir, K.

    2015-04-01

    Different solar position in combination with terrain slope and aspect result in different illumination of inclined surfaces. Therefore, the retrieved satellite data cannot be accurately transformed to the spectral reflectance, which depends only on the land cover. The topographic correction should remove this effect and enable further automatic processing of higher level products. The topographic correction TC@STORM was developed as a module within the SPACE-SI automatic near-real-time image processing chain STORM. It combines physical approach with the standard Minnaert method. The total irradiance is modelled as a three-component irradiance: direct (dependent on incidence angle, sun zenith angle and slope), diffuse from the sky (dependent mainly on sky-view factor), and diffuse reflected from the terrain (dependent on sky-view factor and albedo). For computation of diffuse irradiation from the sky we assume an anisotropic brightness of the sky. We iteratively estimate a linear combination from 10 different models, to provide the best results. Dependent on the data resolution, we mask shades based on radiometric (image) or geometric properties. The method was tested on RapidEye, Landsat 8, and PROBA-V data. Final results of the correction were evaluated and statistically validated based on various topography settings and land cover classes. Images show great improvements in shaded areas.

  14. Patterns of Storm Injury and Tree Response

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kevin Smith; Walter Shortle; Kenneth Dudzik

    2001-01-01

    The ice storm of January 1998 in the northeastern United States and adjacent Canada was an extreme example of severe weather that injures trees every year. Broken branches, split branch forks, and snapped stems are all examples of storm injury.

  15. Weathering the storm: Improving therapeutic interventions for cytokine storm syndromes by targeting disease pathogenesis.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Weaver, Lehn K; Behrens, Edward M

    2017-03-01

    Cytokine storm syndromes require rapid diagnosis and treatment to limit the morbidity and mortality caused by the hyperinflammatory state that characterizes these devastating conditions. Herein, we discuss the current knowledge that guides our therapeutic decision-making and personalization of treatment for patients with cytokine storm syndromes. Firstly, ICU-level supportive care is often required to stabilize patients with fulminant disease while additional diagnostic evaluations proceed to determine the underlying cause of cytokine storm. Pharmacologic interventions should be focused on removing the inciting trigger of inflammation and initiation of an individualized immunosuppressive regimen when immune activation is central to the underlying disease pathophysiology. Monitoring for a clinical response is required to ensure that changes in the therapeutic regimen can be made as clinically warranted. Escalation of immunosuppression may be required if patients respond poorly to the initial therapeutic interventions, while a slow wean of immunosuppression in patients who improve can limit medication-related toxicities. In certain scenarios, a decision must be made whether an individual patient requires hematopoietic cell transplantation to prevent recurrence of disease. Despite these interventions, significant morbidity and mortality remains for cytokine storm patients. Therefore, we use this review to propose a clinical schema to guide current and future attempts to design rational therapeutic interventions for patients suffering from these devastating conditions, which we believe speeds the diagnosis of disease, limits medication-related toxicities, and improves clinical outcomes by targeting the heterogeneous and dynamic mechanisms driving disease in each individual patient.

  16. The analysis of dependence between extreme rainfall and storm surge in the coastal zone

    Science.gov (United States)

    Zheng, F.; Westra, S.

    2012-12-01

    Flooding in coastal catchments can be caused by runoff generated by an extreme rainfall event, elevated sea levels due to an extreme storm surge event, or the combination of both processes occurring simultaneously or in close succession. Dependence in extreme rainfall and storm surge arises because common meteorological forcings often drive both variables; for example, cyclonic systems may produce extreme rainfall, strong onshore winds and an inverse barometric effect simultaneously, which the former factor influencing catchment discharge and the latter two factors influencing storm surge. Nevertheless there is also the possibility that only one of the variables is extreme at any given time, so that the dependence between rainfall and storm surge is not perfect. Quantification of the strength of dependence between these processes is critical in evaluating the magnitude of flood risk in the coastal zone. This may become more important in the future as the majority of the coastal areas are threatened by the sea level rise due to the climate change. This research uses the most comprehensive record of rainfall and storm surge along the coastline of Australia collected to-date to investigate the strength of dependence between the extreme rainfall and storm surge along the Australia coastline. A bivariate logistic threshold-excess model was employed to this end to carry out the dependence analysis. The strength of the estimated dependence is then evaluated as a function of several factors including: the distance between the tidal gauge and the rain gauge; the lag between the extreme precipitation event and extreme surge event; and the duration of the maximum storm burst. The results show that the dependence between the extreme rainfall and storm surge along the Australia coastline is statistically significant, although some locations clearly exhibit stronger dependence than others. We hypothesize that this is due to a combination of large-scale meteorological effects as

  17. Automated detection of geomagnetic storms with heightened risk of GIC

    Science.gov (United States)

    Bailey, Rachel L.; Leonhardt, Roman

    2016-06-01

    Automated detection of geomagnetic storms is of growing importance to operators of technical infrastructure (e.g., power grids, satellites), which is susceptible to damage caused by the consequences of geomagnetic storms. In this study, we compare three methods for automated geomagnetic storm detection: a method analyzing the first derivative of the geomagnetic variations, another looking at the Akaike information criterion, and a third using multi-resolution analysis of the maximal overlap discrete wavelet transform of the variations. These detection methods are used in combination with an algorithm for the detection of coronal mass ejection shock fronts in ACE solar wind data prior to the storm arrival on Earth as an additional constraint for possible storm detection. The maximal overlap discrete wavelet transform is found to be the most accurate of the detection methods. The final storm detection software, implementing analysis of both satellite solar wind and geomagnetic ground data, detects 14 of 15 more powerful geomagnetic storms over a period of 2 years.

  18. Storming the Bastille: the effect of electric fields on the ionospheric F-layer

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    H. Rishbeth

    2010-04-01

    Full Text Available We discuss different phenomena occurring during ionospheric F-region storms that in principle might be caused by electric fields and point out challenges that must be faced when considering the physical processes at work. We consider the transport of plasma across many degrees of latitude at sub-auroral latitudes, the origin of patches of so-called "storm enhanced density" at high mid-latitudes, and the very high reported heights of the F2 peak at low latitudes. We discuss the role that electric fields might play in changing locally the net production of ionization as well as transporting it. We suggest that the local change in ionization production should be considered as a more important process for producing plasma density enhancements than transport from a more remote source of enhanced density.

  19. Spotter's Guide for Identifying and Reporting Severe Local Storms.

    Science.gov (United States)

    National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (DOC), Rockville, MD.

    This guide is designed to assist personnel working in the National Weather Service's Severe Local Storm Spotter Networks in identifying and reporting severe local storms. Provided are pictures of cloud types for severe storms including tornadoes, hail, thunder, lightning, heavy rains, and waterspouts. Instructions for key indications to watch for…

  20. Event storm detection and identification in communication systems

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Albaghdadi, Mouayad; Briley, Bruce; Evens, Martha

    2006-01-01

    Event storms are the manifestation of an important class of abnormal behaviors in communication systems. They occur when a large number of nodes throughout the system generate a set of events within a small period of time. It is essential for network management systems to detect every event storm and identify its cause, in order to prevent and repair potential system faults. This paper presents a set of techniques for the effective detection and identification of event storms in communication systems. First, we introduce a new algorithm to synchronize events to a single node in the system. Second, the system's event log is modeled as a normally distributed random process. This is achieved by using data analysis techniques to explore and then model the statistical behavior of the event log. Third, event storm detection is proposed using a simple test statistic combined with an exponential smoothing technique to overcome the non-stationary behavior of event logs. Fourth, the system is divided into non-overlapping regions to locate the main contributing regions of a storm. We show that this technique provides us with a method for event storm identification. Finally, experimental results from a commercially deployed multimedia communication system that uses these techniques demonstrate their effectiveness

  1. StormReady in a Box: Enhancing NOAA's Presence in Schools

    Science.gov (United States)

    Grondin, N. S.; Franks, C.

    2015-12-01

    The National Weather Service StormReady Supporter program exists to give schools, companies, TV stations, and other facilities the opportunity to earn recognition for their weather preparedness and awareness. Requirements to earn StormReady Supporter status include having a facility warning point, use of NOAA Weather Radios, and weather hazard Emergency Operation Plans. Despite the increasing importance of weather preparedness in schools, only 1.2% of Minnesota schools are deemed StormReady by the National Weather Service. It was determined that the major impedance for schools becoming StormReady Supporters is the lack of time for administrators to engage in anything "extra" beyond their listed duties. As part of a 2015 Hollings Scholar project, the StormReady in a Box concept was developed to remedy this, by empowering teachers and students to take charge and complete the StormReady Supporter application for their school. StormReady in a Box is a project developed for Junior High School students to learn about weather preparedness and to help their school acquire StormReady status. The project was designed to be relevant to the Minnesota State Education Standards in Science, be simple for teachers to do with their students, and most importantly, to be enjoyable for Junior High School age students to do. The project was also designed to enhance critical thinking skills and logical reasoning abilities, as they relate to the StormReady Supporter application. This presentation will present the overall rationale for the undertaking of this project, the creation of, and the logical next steps for the StormReady in a Box project.

  2. Combined Aircraft and Satellite-Derived Storm Electric Current and Lightning Rates Measurements and Implications for the Global Electric Circuit

    Science.gov (United States)

    Mach, Douglas M.; Blakeslee, Richard J.; Bateman, Monte G.

    2010-01-01

    curve) to within 4% for all but two short periods of time. This excellent agreement with the Carnegie curve was obtained without any tuning or adjustment of the satellite or aircraft data. Given our data and assumptions, mean contributions to the global electric circuit are 0.7 kA (ocean) and 1.1 kA (land) from lightning-producing storms, and 0.22 kA (ocean) and 0.04 (land) from electrified shower clouds, resulting in a mean total conduction current estimate for the global electric circuit of 2.0 kA. Breaking the results down into mean storm counts reveals 1100 for land storms with lightning, 530 for ocean storms without lightning, 390 for ocean storms with lightning, and 330 for land storms without lightning.

  3. Changes in electron precipitation inferred from spectra deduced from D region electron densities during a post--magnetic storm effect

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Montbriand, L.E.; Belrose, J.S.

    1976-01-01

    The occurrence of enhanced ionization after geomagnetic storms, commonly referred to as storm aftereffect, is investigated on the hypothesis that the enhancement is due to a 'drizzle' of energetic electrons from the radiation belts. The study utilized electron density-height profiles obtained from the partial reflection experiment at Ottawa and available information on the height profile of the steady state loss coefficient for energetic electron events in combination with the ion pair production treatments of Ress (1963) and Berger et al. (1974) to deduce two-component differential energy spectra of the electron drizzle. The period studied, December 13--20, 1970, was unique for examining poststorm effects in that the geomagnetic storm on December 14--15 was intense and brief, and it was preceded and followed by periods of geomagnetic calm. The results indicate that the drizzle deduced was minimal before the storm and on the storm day and maximized 2--3 days after the peak of the storm at a time when geomagnetic activity had returned to calm. The results also suggest that the spectrum was hardest shortly after the drizzle maximized. No satisfactory source for the enhanced ionization during the poststorm other than particle drizzle could be found that would produce both the magnitude and the diurnal variation of the effect observed, a conclusion which establishes the validity of the hypothesis made

  4. Real-time analytics with Storm and Cassandra

    CERN Document Server

    Saxena, Shilpi

    2015-01-01

    If you want to efficiently use Storm and Cassandra together and excel at developing production-grade, distributed real-time applications, then this book is for you. No prior knowledge of using Storm and Cassandra together is necessary. However, a background in Java is expected.

  5. Clustering of European winter storms: A multi-model perspective

    Science.gov (United States)

    Renggli, Dominik; Buettner, Annemarie; Scherb, Anke; Straub, Daniel; Zimmerli, Peter

    2016-04-01

    The storm series over Europe in 1990 (Daria, Vivian, Wiebke, Herta) and 1999 (Anatol, Lothar, Martin) are very well known. Such clusters of severe events strongly affect the seasonally accumulated damage statistics. The (re)insurance industry has quantified clustering by using distribution assumptions deduced from the historical storm activity of the last 30 to 40 years. The use of storm series simulated by climate models has only started recently. Climate model runs can potentially represent 100s to 1000s of years, allowing a more detailed quantification of clustering than the history of the last few decades. However, it is unknown how sensitive the representation of clustering is to systematic biases. Using a multi-model ensemble allows quantifying that uncertainty. This work uses CMIP5 decadal ensemble hindcasts to study clustering of European winter storms from a multi-model perspective. An objective identification algorithm extracts winter storms (September to April) in the gridded 6-hourly wind data. Since the skill of European storm predictions is very limited on the decadal scale, the different hindcast runs are interpreted as independent realizations. As a consequence, the available hindcast ensemble represents several 1000 simulated storm seasons. The seasonal clustering of winter storms is quantified using the dispersion coefficient. The benchmark for the decadal prediction models is the 20th Century Reanalysis. The decadal prediction models are able to reproduce typical features of the clustering characteristics observed in the reanalysis data. Clustering occurs in all analyzed models over the North Atlantic and European region, in particular over Great Britain and Scandinavia as well as over Iberia (i.e. the exit regions of the North Atlantic storm track). Clustering is generally weaker in the models compared to reanalysis, although the differences between different models are substantial. In contrast to existing studies, clustering is driven by weak

  6. Storm-surge flooding on the Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta, Alaska

    Science.gov (United States)

    Terenzi, John; Ely, Craig R.; Jorgenson, M. Torre

    2014-01-01

    Coastal regions of Alaska are regularly affected by intense storms of ocean origin, the frequency and intensity of which are expected to increase as a result of global climate change. The Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta (YKD), situated in western Alaska on the eastern edge of the Bering Sea, is one of the largest deltaic systems in North America. Its low relief makes it especially susceptible to storm-driven flood tides and increases in sea level. Little information exists on the extent of flooding caused by storm surges in western Alaska and its effects on salinization, shoreline erosion, permafrost thaw, vegetation, wildlife, and the subsistence-based economy. In this paper, we summarize storm flooding events in the Bering Sea region of western Alaska during 1913 – 2011 and map both the extent of inland flooding caused by autumn storms on the central YKD, using Radarsat-1 and MODIS satellite imagery, and the drift lines, using high-resolution IKONOS satellite imagery and field surveys. The largest storm surges occurred in autumn and were associated with high tides and strong (> 65 km hr-1) southwest winds. Maximum inland extent of flooding from storm surges was 30.3 km in 2005, 27.4 km in 2006, and 32.3 km in 2011, with total flood area covering 47.1%, 32.5%, and 39.4% of the 6730 km2 study area, respectively. Peak stages for the 2005 and 2011 storms were 3.1 m and 3.3 m above mean sea level, respectively—almost as high as the 3.5 m amsl elevation estimated for the largest storm observed (in November 1974). Several historically abandoned village sites lie within the area of inundation of the largest flood events. With projected sea level rise, large storms are expected to become more frequent and cover larger areas, with deleterious effects on freshwater ponds, non-saline habitats, permafrost, and landscapes used by nesting birds and local people.

  7. Cardiorespiratory Failure in Thyroid Storm: Case Report and Literature Review.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Nai, Qiang; Ansari, Mohammad; Pak, Stella; Tian, Yufei; Amzad-Hossain, Mohammed; Zhang, Yanhong; Lou, Yali; Sen, Shuvendu; Islam, Mohammed

    2018-04-01

    Thyroid storm is a potentially fatal manifestation of thyrotoxicosis. Cardiopulmonary failure is the most common cause of death in thyroid storm. Clinicians should keep in mind that thyroid storm complicated with cardiopulmonary failure can be the first presentation of thyrotoxicosis. As early intervention is associated with improved patient outcome, prompt diagnosis based on clinical grounds is of paramount importance in the management of thyrotoxicosis. A high index of suspicion and the ability of early recognition of impending thyroid storm depends on a thorough knowledge of both the typical and atypical clinical features of this illness. Herein, we report a case of thyroid storm presenting as cardiopulmonary failure in a 51-year-old woman with undiagnosed Grave's disease. Additionally, we review the pathophysiology of cardiopulmonary failure associated with thyrotoxicosis and various treatment modalities for thyroid storm.

  8. Thyrotoxicosis and Choledocholithiasis Masquerading as Thyroid Storm

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Christian L. Horn

    2017-01-01

    Full Text Available A 26-year-old female, thirteen months postpartum, presented to the emergency department for four weeks of epigastric abdominal pain, pruritus, new onset jaundice, and 11.3 kgs (25 lbs unintentional weight loss. On examination, she was afebrile, tachycardic, alert, and oriented and had jaundice with scleral icterus. Labs were significant for undetectable TSH, FT4 that was too high to measure, and elevated total bilirubin, direct bilirubin, alkaline phosphatase, and transaminases. Abdominal ultrasound revealed cholelithiasis without biliary ductal dilation. Treatment for presumed thyroid storm was initiated. Further work-up with magnetic resonance cholangiopancreatography (MRCP revealed an obstructing cholelith within the distal common bile duct. With the presence of choledocholithiasis explaining the jaundice and abdominal pain, plus the absence of CNS alterations, the diagnosis of thyroid storm was revised to thyrotoxicosis complicated by choledocholithiasis. Endoscopic retrograde cholangiopancreatogram (ERCP with sphincterotomy was performed to alleviate the biliary obstruction, with prompt symptomatic improvement. Thyroid storm is a rare manifestation of hyperthyroidism with a high rate of morbidity and mortality. The diagnosis of thyroid storm is based on clinical examination, and abnormal thyroid function tests do not correlate with disease severity. Knowledge of the many manifestations of thyroid storm will facilitate a quick and accurate diagnosis and treatment.

  9. Understanding Variability in Beach Slope to Improve Forecasts of Storm-induced Water Levels

    Science.gov (United States)

    Doran, K. S.; Stockdon, H. F.; Long, J.

    2014-12-01

    The National Assessment of Hurricane-Induced Coastal Erosion Hazards combines measurements of beach morphology with storm hydrodynamics to produce forecasts of coastal change during storms for the Gulf of Mexico and Atlantic coastlines of the United States. Wave-induced water levels are estimated using modeled offshore wave height and period and measured beach slope (from dune toe to shoreline) through the empirical parameterization of Stockdon et al. (2006). Spatial and temporal variability in beach slope leads to corresponding variability in predicted wave setup and swash. Seasonal and storm-induced changes in beach slope can lead to differences on the order of a meter in wave runup elevation, making accurate specification of this parameter essential to skillful forecasts of coastal change. Spatial variation in beach slope is accounted for through alongshore averaging, but temporal variability in beach slope is not included in the final computation of the likelihood of coastal change. Additionally, input morphology may be years old and potentially very different than the conditions present during forecast storm. In order to improve our forecasts of hurricane-induced coastal erosion hazards, the temporal variability of beach slope must be included in the final uncertainty of modeled wave-induced water levels. Frequently collected field measurements of lidar-based beach morphology are examined for study sites in Duck, North Carolina, Treasure Island, Florida, Assateague Island, Virginia, and Dauphin Island, Alabama, with some records extending over a period of 15 years. Understanding the variability of slopes at these sites will help provide estimates of associated water level uncertainty which can then be applied to other areas where lidar observations are infrequent, and improve the overall skill of future forecasts of storm-induced coastal change. Stockdon, H. F., Holman, R. A., Howd, P. A., and Sallenger Jr, A. H. (2006). Empirical parameterization of setup

  10. Storm Surge Modeling of Typhoon Haiyan at the Naval Oceanographic Office Using Delft3D

    Science.gov (United States)

    Gilligan, M. J.; Lovering, J. L.

    2016-02-01

    The Naval Oceanographic Office provides estimates of the rise in sea level along the coast due to storm surge associated with tropical cyclones, typhoons, and hurricanes. Storm surge modeling and prediction helps the US Navy by providing a threat assessment tool to help protect Navy assets and provide support for humanitarian assistance/disaster relief efforts. Recent advancements in our modeling capabilities include the use of the Delft3D modeling suite as part of a Naval Research Laboratory (NRL) developed Coastal Surge Inundation Prediction System (CSIPS). Model simulations were performed on Typhoon Haiyan, which made landfall in the Philippines in November 2013. Comparisons of model simulations using forecast and hindcast track data highlight the importance of accurate storm track information for storm surge predictions. Model runs using the forecast track prediction and hindcast track information give maximum storm surge elevations of 4 meters and 6.1 meters, respectively. Model results for the hindcast simulation were compared with data published by the JSCE-PICE Joint survey for locations in San Pedro Bay (SPB) and on the Eastern Samar Peninsula (ESP). In SPB, where wind-induced set-up predominates, the model run using the forecast track predicted surge within 2 meters in 38% of survey locations and within 3 meters in 59% of the locations. When the hindcast track was used, the model predicted within 2 meters in 77% of the locations and within 3 meters in 95% of the locations. The model was unable to predict the high surge reported along the ESP produced by infragravity wave-induced set-up, which is not simulated in the model. Additional modeling capabilities incorporating infragravity waves are required to predict storm surge accurately along open coasts with steep bathymetric slopes, such as those seen in island arcs.

  11. A comprehensive analysis of the geomagnetic storms occurred dur

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Essam Ghamry

    2016-06-01

    Full Text Available The Geomagnetic storms are considered as one of the major natural hazards. Egyptian geomagnetic observatories observed multiple geomagnetic storms during 18 February to 2 March 2014. During this period, four interplanetary shocks successively hit the Earth’s magnetosphere, leading to four geomagnetic storms. The storm onsets occurred on 18, 20, 23 and 27 February. A non-substorm Pi2 pulsation was observed on 26 February. This Pi2 pulsation was detected in Egyptian observatories (Misallat and Abu Simbel, Kakioka station in Japan and Carson City station in US with nearly identical waveforms. Van Allen Probe missions observed non-compressional Pc4 pulsations on the recovery phase of the third storm. This Pc4 event is may be likely attributed to the decay of the ring current in the recovery phase.

  12. Motivations and sensation seeking characteristics of recreational storm chasers

    Science.gov (United States)

    Shuangyu Xu; Sonja Wilhelm Stanis; Carla Barbieri; Jiawen. Chen

    2012-01-01

    Little is known about recreational storm chasing, a type of risk recreation that has increased in popularity since the 1990s. This study was conducted to understand factors associated with participation in recreational storm chasing in the United States. Particularly, this study assessed the motivations and sensation seeking attributes of recreational storm chasers, as...

  13. The assessment of Urban Storm Inundation

    Science.gov (United States)

    Setyandito, Oki; Wijayanti, Yureana; Alwan, Muhammad; Chayati, Cholilul; Meilani

    2017-12-01

    A Sustainable and integrated plan in order to solve urban storm inundation problem, is an urgent issue in Indonesia. A reliable and complete datasets of urban storm inundation area in Indonesia should become its basis to give clear description of inundation area for formulating the best solution. In this study, Statistics Indonesia data in thirty three provinces were assessed during 2000 until 2012 providing data series of urban flood area, flood frequency and land cover changes. Drainage system condition in big cities should be well understood to ensure its infrastructure condition and performance. If inundation occurred, it can be concluded that there is drainage system problem. Inundation data is also important for drainage system design process in the future. The study result is provided estimation of urban storm inundation area based on calculation of Statistics Indonesia data. Moreover, this study is preceded by analyzing and reviewing the capacity of existing drainage channel, using case study of Mataram, West Nusa Tenggara. Rainfall data was obtained from three rainfall stations surround Mataram City. The storm water quantity was calculated using three different approaches as follows: 1) Rational Method; 2) Summation of existing inundation and surface run off discharge; 3) Discharge calculation from existing channel dimensions. After that, the result of these approaches was compared. The storm water quantity gap was concluded as quantity of inundation. The result shows that 36% of drainage channel in Brenyok Kanan River sub system could not accommodate the storm water runoff in this area, which causing inundation. The redesign of drainage channel using design discharge from Rational Method approach should be performed. Within area with the lowest level topography, a construction of detention or storage pond is essential to prevent inundation in this area. Furthermore, the benefits and drawbacks of the statistics database are discussed. Recommendations

  14. Geomagnetic Storm Impact On GPS Code Positioning

    Science.gov (United States)

    Uray, Fırat; Varlık, Abdullah; Kalaycı, İbrahim; Öǧütcü, Sermet

    2017-04-01

    This paper deals with the geomagnetic storm impact on GPS code processing with using GIPSY/OASIS research software. 12 IGS stations in mid-latitude were chosen to conduct the experiment. These IGS stations were classified as non-cross correlation receiver reporting P1 and P2 (NONCC-P1P2), non-cross correlation receiver reporting C1 and P2 (NONCC-C1P2) and cross-correlation (CC-C1P2) receiver. In order to keep the code processing consistency between the classified receivers, only P2 code observations from the GPS satellites were processed. Four extreme geomagnetic storms October 2003, day of the year (DOY), 29, 30 Halloween Storm, November 2003, DOY 20, November 2004, DOY 08 and four geomagnetic quiet days in 2005 (DOY 92, 98, 99, 100) were chosen for this study. 24-hour rinex data of the IGS stations were processed epoch-by-epoch basis. In this way, receiver clock and Earth Centered Earth Fixed (ECEF) Cartesian Coordinates were solved for a per-epoch basis for each day. IGS combined broadcast ephemeris file (brdc) were used to partly compensate the ionospheric effect on the P2 code observations. There is no tropospheric model was used for the processing. Jet Propulsion Laboratory Application Technology Satellites (JPL ATS) computed coordinates of the stations were taken as true coordinates. The differences of the computed ECEF coordinates and assumed true coordinates were resolved to topocentric coordinates (north, east, up). Root mean square (RMS) errors for each component were calculated for each day. The results show that two-dimensional and vertical accuracy decreases significantly during the geomagnetic storm days comparing with the geomagnetic quiet days. It is observed that vertical accuracy is much more affected than the horizontal accuracy by geomagnetic storm. Up to 50 meters error in vertical component has been observed in geomagnetic storm day. It is also observed that performance of Klobuchar ionospheric correction parameters during geomagnetic storm

  15. Next-generation storm tracking for minimizing service interruption

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Sznaider, R. [Meteorlogix, Minneapolis, MN (United States)

    2002-08-01

    Several technological changes have taken place in the field of weather radar since its discovery during World War II. A wide variety of industries have benefited over the years from conventional weather radar displays, providing assistance in forecasting and estimating the potential severity of storms. The characteristics of individual storm cells can now be derived from the next-generation of weather radar systems (NEXRAD). The determination of which storm cells possess distinct features such as large hail or developing tornadoes was made possible through the fusing of various pieces of information with radar pictures. To exactly determine when and where a storm will hit, this data can be combined and overlaid into a display that includes the geographical physical landmarks of a specific region. Combining Geographic Information Systems (GIS) and storm tracking provides a more complete, timely and accurate forecast, which clearly benefits the electric utilities industries. The generation and production of energy are dependent on how hot or cold it will be today and tomorrow. The author described each major feature of this next-generation weather radar system. 9 figs.

  16. Cardiorespiratory Failure in Thyroid Storm: Case Report and Literature Review

    Science.gov (United States)

    Nai, Qiang; Ansari, Mohammad; Pak, Stella; Tian, Yufei; Amzad-Hossain, Mohammed; Zhang, Yanhong; Lou, Yali; Sen, Shuvendu; Islam, Mohammed

    2018-01-01

    Thyroid storm is a potentially fatal manifestation of thyrotoxicosis. Cardiopulmonary failure is the most common cause of death in thyroid storm. Clinicians should keep in mind that thyroid storm complicated with cardiopulmonary failure can be the first presentation of thyrotoxicosis. As early intervention is associated with improved patient outcome, prompt diagnosis based on clinical grounds is of paramount importance in the management of thyrotoxicosis. A high index of suspicion and the ability of early recognition of impending thyroid storm depends on a thorough knowledge of both the typical and atypical clinical features of this illness. Herein, we report a case of thyroid storm presenting as cardiopulmonary failure in a 51-year-old woman with undiagnosed Grave’s disease. Additionally, we review the pathophysiology of cardiopulmonary failure associated with thyrotoxicosis and various treatment modalities for thyroid storm. PMID:29511425

  17. VLF Wave Properties During Geomagnetic Storms

    Science.gov (United States)

    Blancarte, J.; Artemyev, A.; Mozer, F.; Agapitov, O. V.

    2017-12-01

    Whistler-mode chorus is important for the global dynamics of the inner magnetosphere electron population due to its ability to scatter and accelerate electrons of a wide energy range in the outer radiation belt. The parameters of these VLF emissions change dynamically during geomagnetic storms. Presented is an analysis of four years of Van Allen probe data, utilizing electric and magnetic field in the VLF range focused on the dynamics of chorus wave properties during the enhancement of geomagnetic activity. It is found that VLF emissions respond to geomagnetic storms in more complicated ways than just by affecting the waves' amplitude growth or depletion. Oblique wave amplitudes grow together with parallel waves during periods of intermediate geomagnetic activity, while the occurrence rate of oblique waves decreases during larger geomagnetic storms.

  18. The Use of a Statistical Model of Storm Surge as a Bias Correction for Dynamical Surge Models and its Applicability along the U.S. East Coast

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Haydee Salmun

    2015-02-01

    Full Text Available The present study extends the applicability of a statistical model for prediction of storm surge originally developed for The Battery, NY in two ways: I. the statistical model is used as a biascorrection for operationally produced dynamical surge forecasts, and II. the statistical model is applied to the region of the east coast of the U.S. susceptible to winter extratropical storms. The statistical prediction is based on a regression relation between the “storm maximum” storm surge and the storm composite significant wave height predicted ata nearby location. The use of the statistical surge prediction as an alternative bias correction for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA operational storm surge forecasts is shownhere to be statistically equivalent to the existing bias correctiontechnique and potentially applicable for much longer forecast lead times as well as for storm surge climate prediction. Applying the statistical model to locations along the east coast shows that the regression relation can be “trained” with data from tide gauge measurements and near-shore buoys along the coast from North Carolina to Maine, and that it provides accurate estimates of storm surge.

  19. The differences between storms driven by helmet streamer CIRs and storms driven by pseudostreamer CIRs

    OpenAIRE

    Borovsky, Joseph E.; Denton, Michael

    2013-01-01

    A corotating interaction region (CIR) is formed when fast coronal hole origin solar wind overtakes slow solar wind and forms a region of compressed plasma and magnetic field. The slow wind upstream of the coronal hole fast wind can be either of helmet streamer origin or pseudostreamer origin. For a collection of 125 CIR-driven geomagnetic storms, the slow wind ahead of each CIR is examined; for those storm not containing ejecta, each CIR is categorized as a helmet streamer CIR (74 of the 125 ...

  20. Reconnaissance level study Mississippi storm surge barrier

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Van Ledden, M.; Lansen, A.J.; De Ridder, H.A.J.; Edge, B.

    2012-01-01

    This paper reports a reconnaissance level study of a storm surge barrier in the Mississippi River. Historical hurricanes have shown storm surge of several meters along the Mississippi River levees up to and upstream of New Orleans. Future changes due to sea level rise and subsidence will further

  1. Magnetic storm effects on the mid-latitude plasmasphere

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Smith, A.J.; Clilverd, M.A.

    1991-01-01

    Whistler mode group delays observed at Faraday, Antarctica (65 o S,64 0 W) decrease after the onset of magnetic storms, and slowly recover to normal levels in 1 or 2 days. This is interpreted as a decrease (typically of ∼50%) and recovery of the plasmaspheric electron density at L = 2.5. Within 1 day of the main phase of storms with K p (max) between 6 and 8, the number of observed whistler ducts increases by a factor of 2 or 3, recovering in a few days. During the most intense storms (K p > 8) the duct number decreases. The frequency of occurrence of observed whistler mode signals increases during storms, due probably to enhanced ionospheric propagation of the signals; the storm time dependence implies that there is no link with the apparent increase in duct numbers. The amplitudes of received whistler mode signals are increased by up to a factor of 10 during storms: this is interpreted in terms of magnetospheric amplification through wave-particle interactions, though the evidence suggests that amplification is not necessarily the mechanism by which increased duct numbers are observed. There appears to be a real increase in the duct formation rate, consistent with Walker's (1978) theory in which ring current penetration of the plasmasphere creates a preferential region for duct formation 1.5 R E inside the plasmapause. (author)

  2. Acute and emergency care for thyrotoxicosis and thyroid storm

    Science.gov (United States)

    2015-01-01

    Thyroid hormones affect all organ systems and, in excess, can cause increased metabolic rate, heart rate, ventricle contractility, and gastrointestinal motility as well as muscle and central nervous system excitability. Thyroid storm is the extreme manifestation of thyrotoxicosis with an estimated incidence of 0.20 per 100,000 per year among hospitalized patients in Japan. The mortality of thyroid storm without treatment ranges from 80% to 100%; but with treatment, the mortality rate is between 10% and 50%. The diagnostic strategy for thyroid storm may take into consideration Burch–Wartofsky scoring or Akamizu's diagnostic criteria. Multiple treatment aims need to be addressed in managing thyroid storm effectively. This paper puts together all aspects to be considered for the management of hyperthyroidism and thyroid storm during the acute and emergency phase as well as consideration of special populations. PMID:29123713

  3. Acute and emergency care for thyrotoxicosis and thyroid storm.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Idrose, Alzamani Mohammad

    2015-07-01

    Thyroid hormones affect all organ systems and, in excess, can cause increased metabolic rate, heart rate, ventricle contractility, and gastrointestinal motility as well as muscle and central nervous system excitability. Thyroid storm is the extreme manifestation of thyrotoxicosis with an estimated incidence of 0.20 per 100,000 per year among hospitalized patients in Japan. The mortality of thyroid storm without treatment ranges from 80% to 100%; but with treatment, the mortality rate is between 10% and 50%. The diagnostic strategy for thyroid storm may take into consideration Burch-Wartofsky scoring or Akamizu's diagnostic criteria. Multiple treatment aims need to be addressed in managing thyroid storm effectively. This paper puts together all aspects to be considered for the management of hyperthyroidism and thyroid storm during the acute and emergency phase as well as consideration of special populations.

  4. Interannual Modulation of Northern Hemisphere Winter Storm Tracks by the QBO

    Science.gov (United States)

    Wang, Jiabao; Kim, Hye-Mi; Chang, Edmund K. M.

    2018-03-01

    Storm tracks, defined as the preferred regions of extratropical synoptic-scale disturbances, have remarkable impacts on global weather and climate systems. Causes of interannual storm track variation have been investigated mostly from a troposphere perspective. As shown in this study, Northern Hemisphere winter storm tracks are significantly modulated by the tropical stratosphere through the quasi-biennial oscillation (QBO). The North Pacific storm track shifts poleward during the easterly QBO winters associated with a dipole change in the eddy refraction and baroclinicity. The North Atlantic storm track varies vertically with a downward shrinking (upward expansion) in easterly (westerly) QBO winters associated with the change of the tropopause height. These results not only fill the knowledge gap of QBO-storm track relationship but also suggest a potential route to improve the seasonal prediction of extratropical storm activities owing to the high predictability of the QBO.

  5. Ice Storms in a Changing Climate

    Science.gov (United States)

    2016-06-01

    CHANGING CLIMATE by Jennifer M. McNitt June 2016 Thesis Advisor: Wendell Nuss Co-Advisor: David W. Titley THIS PAGE INTENTIONALLY LEFT...SUBTITLE ICE STORMS IN A CHANGING CLIMATE 5. FUNDING NUMBERS 6. AUTHOR(S) Jennifer M. McNitt 7. PERFORMING ORGANIZATION NAME(S) AND ADDRESS...increase in global temperatures, due to climate change, could affect the frequency, intensity, and geographic location of ice storms. Three known ice

  6. Mathematical modeling of tornadoes and squall storms

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Sergey A. Arsen’yev

    2011-04-01

    Full Text Available Recent advances in modeling of tornadoes and twisters consist of significant achievements in mathematical calculation of occurrence and evolution of a violent F5-class tornado on the Fujita scale, and four-dimensional mathematical modeling of a tornado with the fourth coordinate time multiplied by its characteristic velocity. Such a tornado can arise in a thunderstorm supercell filled with turbulent whirlwinds. A theory of the squall storms is proposed. The squall storm is modeled by running perturbation of the temperature inversion on the lower boundary of cloudiness. This perturbation is induced by the action of strong, hurricane winds in the upper and middle troposphere, and looks like a running solitary wave (soliton; which is developed also in a field of pressure and velocity of a wind. If a soliton of a squall storm gets into the thunderstorm supercell then this soliton is captured by supercell. It leads to additional pressure fall of air inside a storm supercell and stimulate amplification of wind velocity here. As a result, a cyclostrophic balance inside a storm supercell generates a tornado. Comparison of the radial distribution of wind velocity inside a tornado calculated by using the new formulas and equations with radar observations of the wind velocity inside Texas Tornado Dummit in 1995 and inside the 3 May 1999 Oklahoma City Tornado shows good correspondence.

  7. Mars atmospheric phenomena during major dust storms, as measured at surface

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Ryan, J.A.; Henry, R.M.

    1979-01-01

    Meteorological instrumentation aboard the Viking Mars Landers measures wind, temperature, and pressure. Two global dust storms occurred during northern autumn and winter, observed both by the orbiters and by the landers. The meteorological data from the landers has been analyzed for the period just before first storm arrival to just after second storm arrival, with the objectives being definition of meteorological phenomena during the storm period, determination of those associated with storm and dust arrival, and evaluation of effects on synoptic conditions and the general circulation. Times of dust arrival over the sites could be defined fairly closely from optical and pressure (solar tide) data, and dust arrival was also accompanied by changes in diurnal temperature range, temperature maxima, and temperature minima. The arrivals of the storms at VL-1 were accompanied by significant increase in wind speed and pressure. No such changes were observed at VL-2. It is possible that surface material could have been raised locally at VL-1. Throughout the period except following the second dust storm synoptic picture at VL-2 was one of eastward moving cyclonic and anticyclonic systems. These disappeared following the second storm, a phenomenon which may be related to the storm

  8. Thyroid storm complicated by bicytopenia and disseminated intravascular coagulation.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Tokushima, Yoshinori; Sakanishi, Yuta; Nagae, Kou; Tokushima, Midori; Tago, Masaki; Tomonaga, Motosuke; Yoshioka, Tsuneaki; Hyakutake, Masaki; Sugioka, Takashi; Yamashita, Shu-ichi

    2014-07-24

    Male, 23. Thyroid storm. Delirium • diarrhea • fever • hypertension • hyperventilation • tachycardia • weight loss. -. -. Endocrinology and Metabolic. Unusual clinical course. The clinical presentation of thyroid storm includes fever, tachycardia, hypertension, and neurological abnormalities. It is a serious condition with a high mortality rate. Furthermore, some other complications affect the clinical course of thyroid storm. Although it is reported that prognosis is poor when thyroid storm is complicated by disseminated intravascular coagulation syndrome (DIC) and leukopenia, reports of such cases are rare. A 23-year-old man presented with delirium, high pyrexia, diarrhea, and weight loss of 18 kg over 2 months. According to the criteria of Burch and Wartofsky, he was diagnosed with thyroid storm on the basis of his symptom-complex and laboratory data that confirmed the presence of hyperthyroidism. Investigations also found leukopenia, thrombocytopenia, and disseminated intravascular coagulation, all of which are very rare complications of thyroid storm. We successfully treated him with combined therapy including anti-thyroid medication, despite leukopenia. Early diagnosis and treatment are essential in ensuring a good outcome for patients with this rare combination of medical problems.

  9. Idealised modelling of storm surges in large-scale coastal basins

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Chen, Wenlong

    2015-01-01

    Coastal areas around the world are frequently attacked by various types of storms, threatening human life and property. This study aims to understand storm surge processes in large-scale coastal basins, particularly focusing on the influences of geometry, topography and storm characteristics on the

  10. Observations of the upper ocean response to storm forcing in the South Atlantic Roaring Forties

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    R. Marsh

    1995-10-01

    Full Text Available In the austral summer of 1992–1993 the passage of a storm system drove a strong upper ocean response at 45°S in the mid-South Atlantic. Good in situ observations were obtained. CTD casts revealed that the mixed layer deepened by ~40 m over 4 days. Wind stirring dominated over buoyancy flux-driven mixing during the onset of high winds. Doppler shear currents further reveal this to be intimately related to inertial dynamics. The penetration depth of inertial currents, which are confined to the mixed layer, increases with time after a wind event, matched by a downward propagation of low values of the Richardson number. This suggests that inertial current shear is instrumental in producing turbulence at the base of the mixed layer. Evolution of inertial transport is simulated using a time series of ship-observed wind stress. Simulated transport is only 30–50% of the observed transport, suggesting that much of the observed inertial motion was forced by an earlier (possibly remote storm. Close proximity of the subtropical front further complicates the upper ocean response to the storm. A simple heat balance for the upper 100 m reveals that surface cooling and mixing (during the storm can account for only a small fraction of an apparent ~1 °C mixed layer cooling.

  11. Assessing storm events for energy meteorology: using media and scientific reports to track a North Sea autumn storm.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kettle, Anthony

    2016-04-01

    Important issues for energy meteorology are to assess meteorological conditions for normal operating conditions and extreme events for the ultimate limit state of engineering structures. For the offshore environment in northwest Europe, energy meteorology encompasses weather conditions relevant for petroleum production infrastructure and also the new field of offshore wind energy production. Autumn and winter storms are an important issue for offshore operations in the North Sea. The weather in this region is considered as challenging for extreme meteorological events as the Gulf of Mexico with its attendant hurricane risk. The rise of the Internet and proliferation of digital recording devices has placed a much greater amount of information in the public domain than was available to national meteorological agencies even 20 years ago. This contribution looks at reports of meteorology and infrastructure damage from a storm in the autumn of 2006 to trace the spatial and temporal record of meteorological events. Media reports give key information to assess the events of the storm. The storm passed over northern Europe between Oct.31-Nov. 2, 2006, and press reports from the time indicate that its most important feature was a high surge that inundated coastal areas. Sections of the Dutch and German North Sea coast were affected, and there was record flooding in Denmark and East Germany in the southern Baltic Sea. Extreme wind gusts were also reported that were strong enough to damage roofs and trees, and there was even tornado recorded near the Dutch-German border. Offshore, there were a series of damage reports from ship and platforms that were linked with sea state, and reports of rogue waves were explicitly mentioned. Many regional government authorities published summaries of geophysical information related to the storm, and these form part of a regular series of online winter storm reports that started as a public service about 15 years ago. Depending on the

  12. Enhanced object-based tracking algorithm for convective rain storms and cells

    Science.gov (United States)

    Muñoz, Carlos; Wang, Li-Pen; Willems, Patrick

    2018-03-01

    This paper proposes a new object-based storm tracking algorithm, based upon TITAN (Thunderstorm Identification, Tracking, Analysis and Nowcasting). TITAN is a widely-used convective storm tracking algorithm but has limitations in handling small-scale yet high-intensity storm entities due to its single-threshold identification approach. It also has difficulties to effectively track fast-moving storms because of the employed matching approach that largely relies on the overlapping areas between successive storm entities. To address these deficiencies, a number of modifications are proposed and tested in this paper. These include a two-stage multi-threshold storm identification, a new formulation for characterizing storm's physical features, and an enhanced matching technique in synergy with an optical-flow storm field tracker, as well as, according to these modifications, a more complex merging and splitting scheme. High-resolution (5-min and 529-m) radar reflectivity data for 18 storm events over Belgium are used to calibrate and evaluate the algorithm. The performance of the proposed algorithm is compared with that of the original TITAN. The results suggest that the proposed algorithm can better isolate and match convective rainfall entities, as well as to provide more reliable and detailed motion estimates. Furthermore, the improvement is found to be more significant for higher rainfall intensities. The new algorithm has the potential to serve as a basis for further applications, such as storm nowcasting and long-term stochastic spatial and temporal rainfall generation.

  13. Zonal wind observations during a geomagnetic storm

    Science.gov (United States)

    Miller, N. J.; Spencer, N. W.

    1986-01-01

    In situ measurements taken by the Wind and Temperature Spectrometer (WATS) onboard the Dynamics Explorer 2 spacecraft during a geomagnetic storm display zonal wind velocities that are reduced in the corotational direction as the storm intensifies. The data were taken within the altitudes 275 to 475 km in the dusk local time sector equatorward of the auroral region. Characteristic variations in the value of the Dst index of horizontal geomagnetic field strength are used to monitor the storm evolution. The detected global rise in atmospheric gas temperature indicates the development of thermospheric heating. Concurrent with that heating, reductions in corotational wind velocities were measured equatorward of the auroral region. Just after the sudden commencement, while thermospheric heating is intense in both hemispheres, eastward wind velocities in the northern hemisphere show reductions ranging from 500 m/s over high latitudes to 30 m/s over the geomagnetic equator. After 10 hours storm time, while northern thermospheric heating is diminishing, wind velocity reductions, distinct from those initially observed, begin to develop over southern latitudes. In the latter case, velocity reductions range from 300 m/s over the highest southern latitudes to 150 m/s over the geomagnetic equator and extend into the Northern Hemisphere. The observations highlight the interhemispheric asymmetry in the development of storm effects detected as enhanced gas temperatures and reduced eastward wind velocities. Zonal wind reductions over high latitudes can be attributed to the storm induced equatorward spread of westward polar cap plasma convection and the resulting plasma-neutral collisions. However, those collisions are less significant over low latitudes; so zonal wind reductions over low latitudes must be attributed to an equatorward extension of a thermospheric circulation pattern disrupted by high latitude collisions between neutrals transported via eastward winds and ions

  14. [Electrical storm in patients with prophylactic defibrillator implantation].

    Science.gov (United States)

    Rodríguez-Mañero, Moisés; González-Cambeiro, Cristina; Moreno-Arribas, Jose; Expósito-García, Víctor; Sánchez-Gómez, Juan Miguel; González-Torres, Luis; Arce-León, Álvaro; Arguedas-Jiménez, Hugo; Gaztañaga, Larraitz; Salvador-Montañés, Oscar; Iglesias-Bravo, Jose Antonio; Huerta, Ana Andrés La; Fernández-Armenta, Juan; Arias, Miguel Ángel; Martínez-Sande, Luis

    2016-01-01

    Little is known about the prevalence of electrical storm, baseline characteristics and mortality implications of patients with implantable cardioverter defibrillator in primary prevention versus those patients without electrical storm. We sought to assess the prevalence, baseline risk profile and survival significance of electrical storm in patients with implantable defibrillator for primary prevention. Retrospective multicenter study performed in 15 Spanish hospitals. Consecutives patients referred for desfibrillator implantation, with or without left ventricular lead (at least those performed in 2010 and 2011), were included. Over all 1,174 patients, 34 (2,9%) presented an electrical storm, mainly due to ventricular tachycardia (82.4%). There were no significant baseline differences between groups, with similar punctuation in the mortality risk scores (SHOCKED, MADIT and FADES). A clear trigger was identified in 47% of the events. During the study period (38±21 months), long-term total mortality (58.8% versus 14.4%, pstorm patients. Rate of inappropriate desfibrillator intervention was also higher (14.7 versus 8.6%, pstorm was 2.9%. There were no baseline differences in the cardiovascular risk profile versus those without electrical storm. However, all cause mortality and cardiovascular mortality was increased in these patients versus control desfibrillator patients without electrical storm, as was the rate of inappropriate desfibrillator intervention. Copyright © 2015 Instituto Nacional de Cardiología Ignacio Chávez. Published by Masson Doyma México S.A. All rights reserved.

  15. Navigating the storm: report and recommendations from the Atlantic Storm exercise.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Smith, Bradley T; Inglesby, Thomas V; Brimmer, Esther; Borio, Luciana; Franco, Crystal; Gronvall, Gigi Kwik; Kramer, Bradley; Maldin, Beth; Nuzzo, Jennifer B; Schuler, Ari; Stern, Scott; Henderson, Donald A; Larsen, Randall J; Hamilton, Daniel S; O'Toole, Tara

    2005-01-01

    Atlantic Storm was a tabletop exercise simulating a series of bioterrorism attacks on the transatlantic community. The exercise occurred on January 14, 2005, in Washington, DC, and was organized and convened by the Center for Biosecurity of UPMC, the Center for Transatlantic Relations of Johns Hopkins University, and the Transatlantic Biosecurity Network. Atlantic Storm portrayed a summit meeting of presidents, prime ministers, and other international leaders from both sides of the Atlantic Ocean in which they responded to a campaign of bioterrorist attacks in several countries. The summit principals, who were all current or former senior government leaders, were challenged to address issues such as attaining situational awareness in the wake of a bioattack, coping with scarcity of critical medical resources such as vaccine, deciding how to manage the movement of people across borders, and communicating with their publics. Atlantic Storm illustrated that much might be done in advance to minimize the illness and death, as well as the social, economic, and political disruption, that could be caused by an international epidemic, be it natural or the result of a bioterrorist attack. These lessons are especially timely given the growing concerns over the possibility of an avian influenza pandemic that would require an international response. However, international leaders cannot create the necessary response systems in the midst of a crisis. Medical, public health, and diplomatic response systems and critical medical resources (e.g., medicines and vaccines) must be in place before a bioattack occurs or a pandemic emerges.

  16. EFFECTS OF ALFVEN WAVES ON ELECTRON CYCLOTRON MASER EMISSION IN CORONAL LOOPS AND SOLAR TYPE I RADIO STORMS

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Zhao, G. Q.; Chen, L.; Wu, D. J. [Purple Mountain Observatory, CAS, Nanjing 210008 (China); Yan, Y. H., E-mail: djwu@pmo.ac.cn [Key Laboratory of Solar Activity, National Astronomical Observatories, CAS, Beijing 100012 (China)

    2013-06-10

    Solar type I radio storms are long-lived radio emissions from the solar atmosphere. It is believed that these type I storms are produced by energetic electrons trapped within a closed magnetic structure and are characterized by a high ordinary (O) mode polarization. However, the microphysical nature of these emissions is still an open problem. Recently, Wu et al. found that Alfven waves (AWs) can significantly influence the basic physics of wave-particle interactions by modifying the resonant condition. Taking the effects of AWs into account, this work investigates electron cyclotron maser emission driven by power-law energetic electrons with a low-energy cutoff distribution, which are trapped in coronal loops by closed solar magnetic fields. The results show that the emission is dominated by the O mode. It is proposed that this O mode emission may possibly be responsible for solar type I radio storms.

  17. Performance analysis and technical assessment of coherent lidar systems for airborne wind shear detection

    Science.gov (United States)

    Huffaker, R. Milton; Targ, Russell

    1988-01-01

    Detailed computer simulations of the lidar wind-measuring process have been conducted to evaluate the use of pulsed coherent lidar for airborne windshear monitoring. NASA data fields for an actual microburst event were used in the simulation. Both CO2 and Ho:YAG laser lidar systems performed well in the microburst test case, and were able to measure wind shear in the severe weather of this wet microburst to ranges in excess of 1.4 km. The consequent warning time gained was about 15 sec.

  18. Predicting Typhoon Induced Storm Surges Using the Operational Ocean Forecast System

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Sung Hyup You

    2010-01-01

    Full Text Available This study was performed to compare storm surges simulated by the operational storm surges/tide forecast system (STORM : Storm surges/Tide Operational Model of the Korea Meteorological Administration (KMA with observations from 30 coastal tidal stations during nine typhoons that occurred between 2005 and 2007. The results (bias showed that for cases of overestimation (or underestimation, storm surges tended to be overestimated (as well as underestimated at all coastal stations. The maximum positive bias was approximately 6.92 cm for Typhoon Ewiniar (2006, while the maximum negative bias was approximately -12.06 cm for Typhoon Khanun (2005. The maximum and minimum root mean square errors (RMSEs were 14.61 and 6.78 cm, which occurred for Typhoons Khanun (2005 and Usagi (2007, respectively. For all nine typhoons, total averaged RMSE was approximately 10.2 cm. Large differences between modeled and observed storm surges occurred in two cases. In the first, a very weak typhoon, such as Typhoon Khanun (2005, caused low storm surges. In the other, exemplified by Typhoon Nari (2007, there were errors in the predicted typhoon strength used as input data for the storm surge model.

  19. 40 CFR 420.08 - Non-process wastewater and storm water.

    Science.gov (United States)

    2010-07-01

    ... 40 Protection of Environment 28 2010-07-01 2010-07-01 true Non-process wastewater and storm water...-process wastewater and storm water. Permit and pretreatment control authorities may provide for increased loadings for non-process wastewaters defined at § 420.02 and for storm water from the immediate process...

  20. The relationship between gorgonian coral (Cnidaria: Gorgonacea) diseases and African dust storms

    Science.gov (United States)

    Weir-Brush, J. R.; Garrison, V.H.; Smith, G.W.; Shinn, E.A.

    2004-01-01

    The number of reports of coral diseases has increased throughout the world in the last 20 years. Aspergillosis, which primarily affects Gorgonia ventalina and G. flabellum, is one of the few diseases to be characterized. This disease is caused by Aspergillus sydowii, a terrestrial fungus with a worldwide distribution. Upon infection, colonies may lose tissue, and ultimately, mortality may occur if the infection is not sequestered. The spores of A. sydowii are African dust storms transport and deposit pathogens, we collected air samples from both dust storms and periods of nondust in St. John, U.S. Virgin Islands. Because we focused on fungal pathogens and used A. sydowii as a model, we isolated and cultured fungi on various types of media. Fungi including Aspergillus spp. were isolated from air samples taken from dust events and non-dust events. Twenty-three separate cultures and seven genera were isolated from dust event samples whereas eight cultures from five genera were isolated from non-dust air samples. Three isolates from the Virgin Islands dust event samples morphologically identified as Aspergillus spp. produced signs of aspergillosis in seafans, and the original pathogens were re-isolated from those diseased seafans fulfilling Koch's Postulates. This research supports the hypothesis that African dust storms transport across the Atlantic Ocean and deposit potential coral pathogens in the Caribbean.

  1. Ventricular Arrhythmic Storm after Initiating Sacubitril/Valsartan.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Vicent, Lourdes; Juárez, Miriam; Martín, Irene; García, Jorge; González-Saldívar, Hugo; Bruña, Vanesa; Devesa, Carolina; Sousa-Casasnovas, Iago; Fernández-Avilés, Francisco; Martínez-Sellés, Manuel

    Sacubitril/valsartan was approved recently for the treatment of patients with heart failure and reduced ejection fraction. We present 6 cases of ventricular arrhythmia, that occurred shortly after sacubitril/valsartan initiation, that required drug withdrawal. Other potential triggering factors of electrical storm were ruled out and, from the arrhythmic perspective, all of the patients were stable in the previous year. Our aim is to describe the possible association of sacubitril/valsartan with arrhythmic storm. This was an observational monocentric study performed in the first 7 months of sacubitril/valsartan commercialization in Spain (October 2016). All patients were included in the SUMA (Sacubitril/Varsartan Usado Ambulatoriamente en Madrid [Sacubitril/Valsartan Used in Outpatients in Madrid]) registry. Patients were consecutively enrolled on the day they started the drug. Ventricular arrhythmic storm was defined as ≥2 episodes of sustained ventricular arrhythmia or defibrillator therapy application in 24 h. From 108 patients who received the drug, 6 presented with ventricular arrhythmic storm (5.6%). Baseline characteristics were similar in the patients with and without ventricular arrhythmic storm. The total number of days that sacubitril/valsartan was administered to each patient was 5, 6, 44 (8 since titration), 84, 93, and 136 (105 since titration), respectively. Our data are not enough to infer a cause-and-effect relationship. Further investigations regarding a potential proarrhythmic effect of sacubitril/valsartan are probably needed. © 2018 S. Karger AG, Basel.

  2. Factors Associated With Mortality of Thyroid Storm

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ono, Yosuke; Ono, Sachiko; Yasunaga, Hideo; Matsui, Hiroki; Fushimi, Kiyohide; Tanaka, Yuji

    2016-01-01

    Abstract Thyroid storm is a life-threatening and emergent manifestation of thyrotoxicosis. However, predictive features associated with fatal outcomes in this crisis have not been clearly defined because of its rarity. The objective of this study was to investigate the associations of patient characteristics, treatments, and comorbidities with in-hospital mortality. We conducted a retrospective observational study of patients diagnosed with thyroid storm using a national inpatient database in Japan from April 1, 2011 to March 31, 2014. Of approximately 21 million inpatients in the database, we identified 1324 patients diagnosed with thyroid storm. The mean (standard deviation) age was 47 (18) years, and 943 (71.3%) patients were female. The overall in-hospital mortality was 10.1%. The number of patients was highest in the summer season. The most common comorbidity at admission was cardiovascular diseases (46.6%). Multivariable logistic regression analyses showed that higher mortality was significantly associated with older age (≥60 years), central nervous system dysfunction at admission, nonuse of antithyroid drugs and β-blockade, and requirement for mechanical ventilation and therapeutic plasma exchange combined with hemodialysis. The present study identified clinical features associated with mortality of thyroid storm using large-scale data. Physicians should pay special attention to older patients with thyrotoxicosis and coexisting central nervous system dysfunction. Future prospective studies are needed to clarify treatment options that could improve the survival outcomes of thyroid storm. PMID:26886648

  3. Shifting Pacific storm tracks as stressors to ecosystems of western North America.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Dannenberg, Matthew P; Wise, Erika K

    2017-11-01

    Much of the precipitation delivered to western North America arrives during the cool season via midlatitude Pacific storm tracks, which may experience future shifts in response to climate change. Here, we assess the sensitivity of the hydroclimate and ecosystems of western North America to the latitudinal position of cool-season Pacific storm tracks. We calculated correlations between storm track variability and three hydroclimatic variables: gridded cool-season standardized precipitation-evapotranspiration index, April snow water equivalent, and water year streamflow from a network of USGS stream gauges. To assess how historical storm track variability affected ecosystem processes, we derived forest growth estimates from a large network of tree-ring widths and land surface phenology and wildfire estimates from remote sensing. From 1980 to 2014, cool-season storm tracks entered western North America between approximately 41°N and 53°N. Cool-season moisture supply and snowpack responded strongly to storm track position, with positive correlations to storm track latitude in eastern Alaska and northwestern Canada but negative correlations in the northwestern U.S. Ecosystems of the western United States were greener and more productive following winters with south-shifted storm tracks, while Canadian ecosystems were greener in years when the cool-season storm track was shifted to the north. On average, larger areas of the northwestern United States were burned by moderate to high severity wildfires when storm tracks were displaced north, and the average burn area per fire also tended to be higher in years with north-shifted storm tracks. These results suggest that projected shifts of Pacific storm tracks over the 21st century would likely alter hydroclimatic and ecological regimes in western North America, particularly in the northwestern United States, where moisture supply and ecosystem processes are highly sensitive to the position of cool-season storm tracks.

  4. Developing an early warning system for storm surge inundation in the Philippines

    Science.gov (United States)

    Tablazon, J.; Caro, C. V.; Lagmay, A. M. F.; Briones, J. B. L.; Dasallas, L.; Lapidez, J. P.; Santiago, J.; Suarez, J. K.; Ladiero, C.; Gonzalo, L. A.; Mungcal, M. T. F.; Malano, V.

    2014-10-01

    A storm surge is the sudden rise of sea water generated by an approaching storm, over and above the astronomical tides. This event imposes a major threat in the Philippine coastal areas, as manifested by Typhoon Haiyan on 8 November 2013 where more than 6000 people lost their lives. It has become evident that the need to develop an early warning system for storm surges is of utmost importance. To provide forecasts of the possible storm surge heights of an approaching typhoon, the Nationwide Operational Assessment of Hazards under the Department of Science and Technology (DOST-Project NOAH) simulated historical tropical cyclones that entered the Philippine Area of Responsibility. Bathymetric data, storm track, central atmospheric pressure, and maximum wind speed were used as parameters for the Japan Meteorological Agency Storm Surge Model. The researchers calculated the frequency distribution of maximum storm surge heights of all typhoons under a specific Public Storm Warning Signal (PSWS) that passed through a particular coastal area. This determines the storm surge height corresponding to a given probability of occurrence. The storm surge heights from the model were added to the maximum astronomical tide data from WXTide software. The team then created maps of probable area inundation and flood levels of storm surges along coastal areas for a specific PSWS using the results of the frequency distribution. These maps were developed from the time series data of the storm tide at 10 min intervals of all observation points in the Philippines. This information will be beneficial in developing early warnings systems, static maps, disaster mitigation and preparedness plans, vulnerability assessments, risk-sensitive land use plans, shoreline defense efforts, and coastal protection measures. Moreover, these will support the local government units' mandate to raise public awareness, disseminate information about storm surge hazards, and implement appropriate counter

  5. An application of importance-performance analysis to recreational storm chasing

    Science.gov (United States)

    Jiawen Chen; Sonja Wilhelm Stanis; Carla Barbieri; Shuangyu. Xu

    2012-01-01

    Since the release of the movie "Twister" in 1996, storm chasing has become an increasingly popular form of recreation. Storm chasing tour agencies have emerged to provide technical assistance and guidance to individuals wishing to participate in this activity. However, little is known about the participants' perceptions of their storm chasing tours....

  6. Sediment-driven mercury transport in post-fire storm runoff

    Science.gov (United States)

    Burke, M. P.; Ferreira, M.; Hogue, T. S.; Jay, J.; Rademacher, L. K.

    2009-12-01

    Wildfire alters terrestrial stores of mercury (Hg) within a watershed, releasing Hg to the atmosphere and creating conditions that can be conducive to Hg export in streamwater. Hg transport to terrestrial waters is often associated with suspended sediments and organic matter, and particulate-bound Hg delivery to downstream water bodies may be enhanced following wildfire. Burned watersheds experience increased overland flow, soil erosion, sediment transport, and, consequently, transport of sediment bound contaminants during early post-fire storm events. Southern California’s September 2006 Day Fire consumed 660km2 and almost 50% of the 512km2 Piru Creek watershed. Piru Creek drains into Pyramid Lake, a storage reservoir for the California State Water Project, which provides drinking water for Los Angeles. Streamwater was collected from Piru Creek watershed over a 1.5 year period following the Day Fire, on a monthly basis during low flow periods, and every two hours during storm events using an automated sampler. Samples were analyzed for both dissolved and total Hg, total suspended solids, and basic anions and cations. Low Hg concentrations (> 1ng Hg/ L dissolved and > 5ng Hg/L total) were measured in inter-storm samples. The first winter (2006-07) following the Day Fire was one of the driest on record, with precipitation totals (130mm) less than one third of normal. The only significant storm measured total Hg concentrations just slightly higher than the inter-storm samples, while no change was observed in the dissolved Hg concentrations. However, these total Hg concentrations were well correlated to TSS measurements (r2 = 0.91) and followed the storm hydrograph. The following winter (2007-08) brought higher precipitation totals (370mm) and more intense storms. Elevated, turbid stream flow was observed in Piru Creek during many of the 2007-08 storms. Little change was observed in the dissolved Hg concentrations of the storm samples; however, a two-order magnitude

  7. "Storms of crustal stress" and AE earthquake precursors

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    G. P. Gregori

    2010-02-01

    Full Text Available Acoustic emission (AE displays violent paroxysms preceding strong earthquakes, observed within some large area (several hundred kilometres wide around the epicentre. We call them "storms of crustal stress" or, briefly "crustal storms". A few case histories are discussed, all dealing with the Italian peninsula, and with the different behaviour shown by the AE records in the Cephalonia island (Greece, which is characterized by a different tectonic setting.

    AE is an effective tool for diagnosing the state of some wide slab of the Earth's crust, and for monitoring its evolution, by means of AE of different frequencies. The same effect ought to be detected being time-delayed, when referring to progressively lower frequencies. This results to be an effective check for validating the physical interpretation.

    Unlike a seismic event, which involves a much limited focal volume and therefore affects a restricted area on the Earth's surface, a "crustal storm" typically involves some large slab of lithosphere and crust. In general, it cannot be easily reckoned to any specific seismic event. An earthquake responds to strictly local rheological features of the crust, which are eventually activated, and become crucial, on the occasion of a "crustal storm". A "crustal storm" lasts typically few years, eventually involving several destructive earthquakes that hit at different times, at different sites, within that given lithospheric slab.

    Concerning the case histories that are here discussed, the lithospheric slab is identified with the Italian peninsula. During 1996–1997 a "crustal storm" was on, maybe elapsing until 2002 (we lack information for the period 1998–2001. Then, a quiet period occurred from 2002 until 26 May 2008, when a new "crustal storm" started, and by the end of 2009 it is still on. During the 1996–1997 "storm" two strong earthquakes occurred (Potenza and

  8. Cloud Spirals and Outflow in Tropical Storm Katrina

    Science.gov (United States)

    2005-01-01

    On Tuesday, August 30, 2005, NASA's Multi-angle Imaging SpectroRadiometer retrieved cloud-top heights and cloud-tracked wind velocities for Tropical Storm Katrina, as the center of the storm was situated over the Tennessee valley. At this time Katrina was weakening and no longer classified as a hurricane, and would soon become an extratropical depression. Measurements such as these can help atmospheric scientists compare results of computer-generated hurricane simulations with observed conditions, ultimately allowing them to better represent and understand physical processes occurring in hurricanes. Because air currents are influenced by the Coriolis force (caused by the rotation of the Earth), Northern Hemisphere hurricanes are characterized by an inward counterclockwise (cyclonic) rotation towards the center. It is less widely known that, at high altitudes, outward-spreading bands of cloud rotate in a clockwise (anticyclonic) direction. The image on the left shows the retrieved cloud-tracked winds as red arrows superimposed across the natural color view from MISR's nadir (vertical-viewing) camera. Both the counter-clockwise motion for the lower-level storm clouds and the clockwise motion for the upper clouds are apparent in these images. The speeds for the clockwise upper level winds have typical values between 40 and 45 m/s (144-162 km/hr). The low level counterclockwise winds have typical values between 7 and 24 m/s (25-86 km/hr), weakening with distance from the storm center. The image on the right displays the cloud-top height retrievals. Areas where cloud heights could not be retrieved are shown in dark gray. Both the wind velocity vectors and the cloud-top height field were produced by automated computer recognition of displacements in spatial features within successive MISR images acquired at different view angles and at slightly different times. The Multi-angle Imaging SpectroRadiometer observes the daylit Earth continuously, viewing the entire globe

  9. Winter storm intensity, hazards, and property losses in the New York tristate area.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Shimkus, Cari E; Ting, Mingfang; Booth, James F; Adamo, Susana B; Madajewicz, Malgosia; Kushnir, Yochanan; Rieder, Harald E

    2017-07-01

    Winter storms pose numerous hazards to the Northeast United States, including rain, snow, strong wind, and flooding. These hazards can cause millions of dollars in damages from one storm alone. This study investigates meteorological intensity and impacts of winter storms from 2001 to 2014 on coastal counties in Connecticut, New Jersey, and New York and underscores the consequences of winter storms. The study selected 70 winter storms on the basis of station observations of surface wind strength, heavy precipitation, high storm tide, and snow extremes. Storm rankings differed between measures, suggesting that intensity is not easily defined with a single metric. Several storms fell into two or more categories (multiple-category storms). Following storm selection, property damages were examined to determine which types lead to high losses. The analysis of hazards (or events) and associated damages using the Storm Events Database of the National Centers for Environmental Information indicates that multiple-category storms were responsible for a greater portion of the damage. Flooding was responsible for the highest losses, but no discernible connection exists between the number of storms that afflict a county and the damage it faces. These results imply that losses may rely more on the incidence of specific hazards, infrastructure types, and property values, which vary throughout the region. © 2017 The Authors. Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences published by Wiley Periodicals Inc. on behalf of The New York Academy of Sciences.

  10. Resolution doubling in 3D-STORM imaging through improved buffers.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Olivier, Nicolas; Keller, Debora; Gönczy, Pierre; Manley, Suliana

    2013-01-01

    Super-resolution imaging methods have revolutionized fluorescence microscopy by revealing the nanoscale organization of labeled proteins. In particular, single-molecule methods such as Stochastic Optical Reconstruction Microscopy (STORM) provide resolutions down to a few tens of nanometers by exploiting the cycling of dyes between fluorescent and non-fluorescent states to obtain a sparse population of emitters and precisely localizing them individually. This cycling of dyes is commonly induced by adding different chemicals, which are combined to create a STORM buffer. Despite their importance, the composition of these buffers has scarcely evolved since they were first introduced, fundamentally limiting what can be resolved with STORM. By identifying a new chemical suitable for STORM and optimizing the buffer composition for Alexa-647, we significantly increased the number of photons emitted per cycle by each dye, providing a simple means to enhance the resolution of STORM independently of the optical setup used. Using this buffer to perform 3D-STORM on biological samples, we obtained images with better than 10 nanometer lateral and 30 nanometer axial resolution.

  11. Resolution doubling in 3D-STORM imaging through improved buffers.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Nicolas Olivier

    Full Text Available Super-resolution imaging methods have revolutionized fluorescence microscopy by revealing the nanoscale organization of labeled proteins. In particular, single-molecule methods such as Stochastic Optical Reconstruction Microscopy (STORM provide resolutions down to a few tens of nanometers by exploiting the cycling of dyes between fluorescent and non-fluorescent states to obtain a sparse population of emitters and precisely localizing them individually. This cycling of dyes is commonly induced by adding different chemicals, which are combined to create a STORM buffer. Despite their importance, the composition of these buffers has scarcely evolved since they were first introduced, fundamentally limiting what can be resolved with STORM. By identifying a new chemical suitable for STORM and optimizing the buffer composition for Alexa-647, we significantly increased the number of photons emitted per cycle by each dye, providing a simple means to enhance the resolution of STORM independently of the optical setup used. Using this buffer to perform 3D-STORM on biological samples, we obtained images with better than 10 nanometer lateral and 30 nanometer axial resolution.

  12. Thyroid storm precipitated by radioactive iodine therapy

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Redkar, Neelam N.; Rawat, Kavita J.; Yelale, Abhijit; Shivchand, Akshay

    2015-01-01

    Thyroid storm or thyrotoxic crisis is a rare but life-threatening condition requiring immediate treatment, preferably in an intensive care unit. Its incidence is about 1-2% among patients with overt hyperthyroidism. A thyrotoxic crisis occurs predominantly in the elderly and is three to five times more common in women than in men. The overall mortality is 10-20%. Even though the pathogenesis is still not fully understood, an increased sensitivity to catecholamines appears to be an important mechanism, and a number of endogenous and exogenous stress factors that can provoke the onset of a thyrotoxic storm have been identified. Authors presented a case where the cause of precipitation of thyroid storm was improper preparation of patient for Radioactive iodine treatment

  13. Flood Losses Associated with Winter Storms in the U.S. Northeast

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ting, M.; Shimkus, C.

    2015-12-01

    Winter storms pose a number of hazards to coastal communities in the U.S. Northeast including heavy rain, snow, strong wind, cold temperatures, and flooding. These hazards can cause millions in property damages from one storm alone. This study addresses the impacts of winter storms from 2001 - 2012 on coastal counties in the U.S. Northeast and underscores the significant economic consequences extreme winter storms have on property. The analysis on the types of hazards (floods, strong wind, snow, etc.) and associated damage from the National Climatic Data Center Storm Events Database indicates that floods were responsible for the highest damages. This finding suggests that winter storm vulnerability could grow in the future as precipitation intensity increases and sea level rise exacerbate flood losses. Flood loss maps are constructed based on damage amount, which can be compared to the flood exposure maps constructed by the NOAA Office of Coastal Management. Interesting agreements and discrepancies exist between the two methods, which warrant further examination. Furthermore, flood losses often came from storms characterized as heavy precipitation storms and strong surge storms, and sometimes both, illustrating the compounding effect of flood risks in the region. While New Jersey counties experienced the most damage per unit area, there is no discernable connection between population density and damage amount, which suggests that societal impacts may rely less on population characteristics and more on infrastructure types and property values, which vary throughout the region.

  14. Morphology of geomagnetic storms, recorded at Hurbanovo, and its relation to solar activity

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Ochabova, P.; Psenakova, M.

    1977-01-01

    The morphological structure of geomagnetic storms was investigated using the data on 414 storms, recorded in the years 1949 to 1968 at the Geomagnetic Observatory of Hurbanovo (phi=47.9 deg N, lambda=18.2 deg E). These data also formed a suitable basis for investigating the effect of the solar activity on the characteristic features of storms. The storm-time variation of the geomagnetic field was considered after the Sq-variation had been eliminated. The sets of storms, i.e. 263 storms recorded at a time of high sunspot activity and 151 storms recorded at a time of low activity, were divided into 7 groups, depending on the duration of their initial phase. In 92% of the investigated storms the increase in the horizontal component lasted from 0 to 15 hrs. The effect of the solar activity was markedly reflected in the occurrence of very severe storms, as well as in the maximum decrease in the H-component in the main phase. This can also be seen in the rate at which the storms recover. (author)

  15. Onset of frequent dust storms in northern China at ~AD 1100.

    Science.gov (United States)

    He, Yuxin; Zhao, Cheng; Song, Mu; Liu, Weiguo; Chen, Fahu; Zhang, Dian; Liu, Zhonghui

    2015-11-26

    Dust storms in northern China strongly affect the living and health of people there and the dusts could travel a full circle of the globe in a short time. Historically, more frequent dust storms occurred during cool periods, particularly the Little Ice Age (LIA), generally attributed to the strengthened Siberian High. However, limited by chronological uncertainties in proxy records, this mechanism may not fully reveal the causes of dust storm frequency changes. Here we present a late Holocene dust record from the Qaidam Basin, where hydrological changes were previously reconstructed, and examine dust records from northern China, including the ones from historical documents. The records, being broadly consistent, indicate the onset of frequent dust storms at ~AD 1100. Further, peaked dust storm events occurred at episodes of high total solar irradiance or warm-dry conditions in source regions, superimposed on the high background of frequent dust storms within the cool LIA period. We thus suggest that besides strong wind activities, the centennial-scale dust storm events over the last 1000 years appear to be linked to the increased availability of dust source. With the anticipated global warming and deteriorating vegetation coverage, frequent occurrence of dust storms in northern China would be expected to persist.

  16. Statistical Study of False Alarms of Geomagnetic Storms

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Leer, Kristoffer; Vennerstrøm, Susanne; Veronig, A.

    . A subset of these halo CMEs did not cause a geomagnetic storm the following four days and have therefore been considered as false alarms. The properties of these events are investigated and discussed here. Their statistics are compared to the geo-effective CMEs. The ability to identify potential false......Coronal Mass Ejections (CMEs) are known to cause geomagnetic storms on Earth. However, not all CMEs will trigger geomagnetic storms, even if they are heading towards the Earth. In this study, front side halo CMEs with speed larger than 500 km/s have been identified from the SOHO LASCO catalogue...

  17. The NASA Severe Thunderstorm Observations and Regional Modeling (NASA STORM) Project

    Science.gov (United States)

    Schultz, Christopher J.; Gatlin, Patrick N.; Lang, Timothy J.; Srikishen, Jayanthi; Case, Jonathan L.; Molthan, Andrew L.; Zavodsky, Bradley T.; Bailey, Jeffrey; Blakeslee, Richard J.; Jedlovec, Gary J.

    2016-01-01

    The NASA Severe Storm Thunderstorm Observations and Regional Modeling(NASA STORM) project enhanced NASA’s severe weather research capabilities, building upon existing Earth Science expertise at NASA Marshall Space Flight Center (MSFC). During this project, MSFC extended NASA’s ground-based lightning detection capacity to include a readily deployable lightning mapping array (LMA). NASA STORM also enabled NASA’s Short-term Prediction and Research Transition (SPoRT) to add convection allowing ensemble modeling to its portfolio of regional numerical weather prediction (NWP) capabilities. As a part of NASA STORM, MSFC developed new open-source capabilities for analyzing and displaying weather radar observations integrated from both research and operational networks. These accomplishments enabled by NASA STORM are a step towards enhancing NASA’s capabilities for studying severe weather and positions them for any future NASA related severe storm field campaigns.

  18. Gamma ampersand beta-gamma storm water monitor operability

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Tshiskiku, E.M.

    1993-01-01

    High Level Waste (HLW) facilities have nine storm water monitors that monitor storm water run off from different process areas for Cesium 137, a Gamma emitter. F - Area has three monitors: 907-2F, 907-3F and 907-4F while H - Area has six monitors: 907-2H, 907-3H, 907-4H, 907-5H, 907-6H and 907-7H (See attachments number-sign 1, number-sign 2 and number-sign 3 for location). In addition to monitoring for Cesium, 907-6H and 907-7H monitor for Strontium-90, a Beta emitter. Each monitor is associated with one of the following diversion gate encasements 907-1H, 241-15H, 241-51H, 907-1F or 241-23F. Normal flow of storm water from these diversion gate encasements is to the Four Mile Creek. When a storm water monitor detects radioactivity at a level exceeding the Four Mile Creek discharge limit, the monitor causes repositioning of the associated diversion gate to discharge to the H - Area retention basin 281-8H or the F - Area retention basin 281-8F. In response to recent OSR interpretation of storm water monitor calibration requirements, this report is provided to document operability and accuracy of radiation detection

  19. Polarization reversal during the solar noise storm activity of August 1971

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Kurihara, Masahiro

    1975-01-01

    Reversals of the sense of circular polarization of solar radio emission were observed for active type I storms in August 1971. Observations with a 160-MHz interferometer revealed that the reversals were caused by sudden growth and decay of a secondary storm source whose sense of polarization was opposite to that of the long-lasting main source. The time variations of both the associated S-component sources and sunspots are compared with that of the storm sources. The role of the magnetic field, which presumably connects the storm sources, the S-component sources, and the sunspots, is discussed in relation to the origin of the storm activity. (author)

  20. Relative outflow enhancements during major geomagnetic storms – Cluster observations

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    A. Schillings

    2017-12-01

    Full Text Available The rate of ion outflow from the polar ionosphere is known to vary by orders of magnitude, depending on the geomagnetic activity. However, the upper limit of the outflow rate during the largest geomagnetic storms is not well constrained due to poor spatial coverage during storm events. In this paper, we analyse six major geomagnetic storms between 2001 and 2004 using Cluster data. The six major storms fulfil the criteria of Dst  < −100 nT or Kp  > 7+. Since the shape of the magnetospheric regions (plasma mantle, lobe and inner magnetosphere are distorted during large magnetic storms, we use both plasma beta (β and ion characteristics to define a spatial box where the upward O+ flux scaled to an ionospheric reference altitude for the extreme event is observed. The relative enhancement of the scaled outflow in the spatial boxes as compared to the data from the full year when the storm occurred is estimated. Only O+ data were used because H+ may have a solar wind origin. The storm time data for most cases showed up as a clearly distinguishable separate peak in the distribution toward the largest fluxes observed. The relative enhancement in the outflow region during storm time is 1 to 2 orders of magnitude higher compared to less disturbed time. The largest relative scaled outflow enhancement is 83 (7 November 2004 and the highest scaled O+ outflow observed is 2  ×  1014 m−2 s−1 (29 October 2003.

  1. Storm water monitoring report for the 1995 reporting period

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Braun, D.R.; Brock, T.A.

    1995-10-01

    This report includes sampling results and other relevant information gathered in the past year by LITCO's Environmental Monitoring and Water Resources Unit. This report presents analytical data collected from storm water discharges as a part of the Environmental Monitoring Storm Water Monitoring Program for 1994--1995 for facilities located on the Idaho National Engineering Laboratory (INEL). The 1995 reporting period is October 1, 1994 through September 30, 1995. The storm water monitoring program tracks information about types and amounts of pollutants present. Data are required for the Environmental Protection Agency and are transmitted via Discharge Monitoring Reports. Additional information resulting from the program contributes to Best Management Practice to control pollution in runoff as well as Storm Water Pollution Prevention Plans

  2. Cerebrovascular Accident due to Thyroid Storm: Should We Anticoagulate?

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Alex Gonzalez-Bossolo

    2016-01-01

    Full Text Available Thyroid storm is a life-threatening condition that occurs secondary to an uncontrolled hyperthyroid state. Atrial fibrillation is a cardiovascular complication occurring in up to 15% of patients experiencing thyroid storm, and if left untreated this condition could have up to a 25% mortality rate. Thyroid storm with stroke is a rare presentation. This case report details a left middle cerebral artery (MCA stroke with global aphasia and thyroid storm in a 53-year-old Hispanic male patient. Although uncommon, this combination has been reported in multiple case series. Although it is well documented that dysfunctional thyroid levels promote a hypercoagulable state, available guidelines from multiple entities are unclear on whether anticoagulation therapy is appropriate in this situation.

  3. Database of Low-E Storm Window Energy Performance across U.S. Climate Zones (Task ET-WIN-PNNL-FY13-01_5.3)

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Cort, Katherine A. [Pacific Northwest National Lab. (PNNL), Richland, WA (United States); Culp, Thomas D. [Pacific Northwest National Lab. (PNNL), Richland, WA (United States)

    2013-09-01

    This report describes process, assumptions, and modeling results produced in support of the Emerging Technologies Low-e Storm Windows Task 5.3: Create a Database of U.S. Climate-Based Analysis for Low-E Storm Windows. The scope of the overall effort is to develop a database of energy savings and cost effectiveness of low-E storm windows in residential homes across a broad range of U.S. climates using the National Energy Audit Tool (NEAT) and RESFEN model calculations. This report includes a summary of the results, NEAT and RESFEN background, methodology, and input assumptions, and an appendix with detailed results and assumptions by cliamte zone. Both sets of calculation results will be made publicly available through the Building America Solution Center.

  4. Geomagnetic storm under laboratory conditions: randomized experiment

    Science.gov (United States)

    Gurfinkel, Yu I.; Vasin, A. L.; Pishchalnikov, R. Yu; Sarimov, R. M.; Sasonko, M. L.; Matveeva, T. A.

    2017-10-01

    The influence of the previously recorded geomagnetic storm (GS) on human cardiovascular system and microcirculation has been studied under laboratory conditions. Healthy volunteers in lying position were exposed under two artificially created conditions: quiet (Q) and storm (S). The Q regime playbacks a noise-free magnetic field (MF) which is closed to the natural geomagnetic conditions on Moscow's latitude. The S regime playbacks the initially recorded 6-h geomagnetic storm which is repeated four times sequentially. The cardiovascular response to the GS impact was assessed by measuring capillary blood velocity (CBV) and blood pressure (BP) and by the analysis of the 24-h ECG recording. A storm-to-quiet ratio for the cardio intervals (CI) and the heart rate variability (HRV) was introduced in order to reveal the average over group significant differences of HRV. An individual sensitivity to the GS was estimated using the autocorrelation function analysis of the high-frequency (HF) part of the CI spectrum. The autocorrelation analysis allowed for detection a group of subjects of study which autocorrelation functions (ACF) react differently in the Q and S regimes of exposure.

  5. Geomagnetic storm under laboratory conditions: randomized experiment.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Gurfinkel, Yu I; Vasin, A L; Pishchalnikov, R Yu; Sarimov, R M; Sasonko, M L; Matveeva, T A

    2018-04-01

    The influence of the previously recorded geomagnetic storm (GS) on human cardiovascular system and microcirculation has been studied under laboratory conditions. Healthy volunteers in lying position were exposed under two artificially created conditions: quiet (Q) and storm (S). The Q regime playbacks a noise-free magnetic field (MF) which is closed to the natural geomagnetic conditions on Moscow's latitude. The S regime playbacks the initially recorded 6-h geomagnetic storm which is repeated four times sequentially. The cardiovascular response to the GS impact was assessed by measuring capillary blood velocity (CBV) and blood pressure (BP) and by the analysis of the 24-h ECG recording. A storm-to-quiet ratio for the cardio intervals (CI) and the heart rate variability (HRV) was introduced in order to reveal the average over group significant differences of HRV. An individual sensitivity to the GS was estimated using the autocorrelation function analysis of the high-frequency (HF) part of the CI spectrum. The autocorrelation analysis allowed for detection a group of subjects of study which autocorrelation functions (ACF) react differently in the Q and S regimes of exposure.

  6. Plasmaspheric noise radiation during geomagnetic storms

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Larkina, V.I.; Likhter, Ya.I.

    1981-01-01

    Variations of plasmospheric background radiations during geomagnetic storms of different intensity are investigated. Used are results of ELF and VLF radiation measurements as well as electron fluxes of energies Esub(e)>40 keV carried out by Intercosmos 3 and Intercosmos 5 satellites. Dependences of radiation amplitude variations at 1.6 and 25 kHz frequencies on L shell for various geomagnetic activity in the day-time as well as data on variations of quasicaptured electron fluxes at Esub(e)>40 keV, are given. It is shown that experimental data agree with the existing theories of plasmospheric noise excitation. It is concluded that the plasmospheric noise excitation area Lsub(max) is always in the region of gap between radiation belts and inner slope of external radiation belt during magnetic storms. During magnetic storms Lsub(max) area moves simultaneously with the area, where particle flux of the external radiation belt is the most intensive [ru

  7. Overview and Design Considerations of Storm Surge Barriers

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Mooyaart, L.F.; Jonkman, S.N.

    2017-01-01

    The risk of flooding in coastal zones is expected to increase due to sea level rise and economic development. In larger bays, estuaries, and coastal waterways, storm surge barriers can be constructed to temporarily close off these systems during storm surges to provide coastal flood protection.

  8. Report on Damage in Storm 05.01.08

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Kofoed, Jens Peter; Friis-Madsen, Erik; Christensen, Lars

    The report describes a number of observations at the energy converter Wave Dragon, Nissum Bredning, during the storm on January 8th 2005.......The report describes a number of observations at the energy converter Wave Dragon, Nissum Bredning, during the storm on January 8th 2005....

  9. [Electrical storm].

    Science.gov (United States)

    Barnay, C; Taieb, J; Morice, R

    2007-11-01

    Electrical storm is defined as repeated occurrence of severe ventricular arrhythmias requiring multiple cardioversions, two or more or three or more following different studies. The clinical aspect can sometimes be made of multiple, self aggravating, life threatening accesses. There are three main clinical circumstances of occurrence: in patients equipped with intracardiac defibrillators, during the acute phase of myocardial infarction and in Brugada syndrome. 10 to 15% of patients with cardiac defibrillators are subject to electrical storms in a period of two years. The causative arrhythmia is most often ventricular tachycardia than ventricular fibrillation, especially in secondary prevention and if the initial arrhythmias justifying the device was a ventricular tachycardia. Precipitaing factors are present in one third of cases, mainly acute heart failure, ionic disorders and arrhythmogenic drugs. Predictive factors are age, left ventricular ejection fractionelectrical shock in 50% of cases, antitachycardi stimulation in 30% and in 20% by association of the two. Treatment, after elimination of inappropriate shocks, is mainly based on beta-blockers and amiodarone, class I antiarrhythmics, lidocaïne or bretylium in some cases, and sedation pushed to general anesthesia in some cases. Radio-frequency ablation and even heart transplantation have been proposed in extreme cases. Quinidine has been proved efficient in cases of Brugada syndrome.

  10. Toward a new paradigm for boulder dislodgement during storms

    Science.gov (United States)

    Weiss, Robert; Sheremet, Alex

    2017-07-01

    Boulders are an important coastal hazard event deposit because they can only be moved by tsunamis and energetic storms effects of storms. Storms and tsunami are competing processes for coastal change along many shorelines. Therefore, distinguishing the boulders that were moved during a storm from those moved by a tsunami is important. In this contribution, we present the results of a parameter study based on the TRIADS model for wave shoaling on mildly sloping beaches, coupled with a boulder-dislodgement model that is based on Newton's Second Law of Motion. The results show how smaller slopes expose the waves longer to the nonlinear processes, thus increasing the energy in the infragravity wave band. More energy in the infragravity wave band means that there are more energy wave lengths that can dislodge larger boulders. At the same time, a steeper slope lowers the threshold for boulder dislodgement (critical angle of dislodgement), making it more likely for larger boulders to be dislodged on a steeper slope. The competition between these two processes govern boulder dislodgement during storms and is investigated inhere.

  11. Analysis of synoptic situation for dust storms in Iraq

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Al-Jumaily, Kais J.; Ibrahim, Morwa K. [Department of Atmospheric Sciences, College of Science, Al-Mustansiriyah University, Baghdad (Iraq)

    2013-07-01

    Dust storms are considered major natural disasters that cause many damages to society and environment in Iraq and surrounded deserted regions. The aim of this research is to analyze and study the synoptic patterns leading to the formation of dust storms in Iraq. Analysis are based on satellite images, aerosols index and synoptic weather maps. Two severe dust storms occurred over Iraq on February 22, 2010, and on December 10, 2011 were analyzed. The results showed that dust storms form when a low-pressure system forms over Iran causing Shamal winds blow; they carry cool air from that region towards warmer regions like eastern Syria and Iraq. In some cases, this low-pressure system is followed by a high-pressure system brining more cold air to the region and pushing dust toward south. Dust storms are initiated from source regions near Iraq-Syria borders by the existence of negative vertical velocity, which causes dust particles to be lifted upwards, and the strong westerly wind drives dust to travel eastward.

  12. Mangroves can provide protection against wind damage during storms

    Science.gov (United States)

    Das, Saudamini; Crépin, Anne-Sophie

    2013-12-01

    Research has established that mangroves can protect lives and property from storms by buffering the impacts of storm surges. However, their effects in attenuating wind velocity and providing protection from wind damage during storms are not known. This study examined whether mangroves attenuate damage from cyclonic winds and found that they provide substantial protection to properties, even relatively far away from mangroves and the coast. We devised a theoretical model of wind protection by mangroves and calibrated and applied this model using data from the 1999 cyclone in the Odisha region of India. The model predicted and quantified the actual level of damage reasonably accurately and showed that mangroves reduced wind damage to houses. The wind protection value of mangroves in reducing house damage amounted to approximately US$177 per hectare at 1999 prices. This provides additional evidence of the storm protection ecosystem services that mangroves supply in the region and an additional reason to invest in mangrove ecosystems to provide better adaptability to coastal disasters such as storms.

  13. Measuring and building resilience after big storms: Lessons learned from Super-Storm Sandy for the Harvey, Irma, Jose, and Maria coasts

    Science.gov (United States)

    Murdoch, P. S.; Penn, K. M.; Taylor, S. M.; Subramanian, B.; Bennett, R.

    2017-12-01

    As we recover from recent large storms, we need information to support increased environmental and socio-economic resilience of the Nation's coasts. Defining baseline conditions, tracking effects of mitigation actions, and measuring the uncertainty of resilience to future disturbance are essential so that the best management practices can be determined. The US Dept. of the Interior invested over $787 million dollars in 2013 to understand and mitigate coastal storm vulnerabilities and enhance resilience of the Northeast coast following Super-Storm Sandy. Several lessons-learned from that investment have direct application to mitigation and restoration needs following Hurricanes Harvey, Irma, Jose and Maria. New models of inundation, overwash, and erosion, developed during the Sandy projects have already been applied to coastlines before and after these recent storms. Results from wetland, beach, back-bay, estuary, and built-environment projects improved models of inundation and erosion from surge and waves. Tests of nature-based infrastructure for mitigating coastal disturbance yielded new concepts for best-practices. Ecological and socio-economic measurements established for detecting disturbance and tracking recovery provide baseline data critical to early detection of vulnerabilities. The Sandy lessons and preliminary applications on the recent storms could help define best-resilience practices before more costly mitigation or restoration efforts are required.

  14. Calculation of Voltages in Electric Power Transmission Lines During Historic Geomagnetic Storms: An Investigation Using Realistic Earth Impedances

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lucas, Greg M.; Love, Jeffrey J.; Kelbert, Anna

    2018-02-01

    Commonly, one-dimensional (1-D) Earth impedances have been used to calculate the voltages induced across electric power transmission lines during geomagnetic storms under the assumption that much of the three-dimensional structure of the Earth gets smoothed when integrating along power transmission lines. We calculate the voltage across power transmission lines in the mid-Atlantic region with both regional 1-D impedances and 64 empirical 3-D impedances obtained from a magnetotelluric survey. The use of 3-D impedances produces substantially more spatial variance in the calculated voltages, with the voltages being more than an order of magnitude different, both higher and lower, than the voltages calculated utilizing regional 1-D impedances. During the March 1989 geomagnetic storm 62 transmission lines exceed 100 V when utilizing empirical 3-D impedances, whereas 16 transmission lines exceed 100 V when utilizing regional 1-D impedances. This demonstrates the importance of using realistic impedances to understand and quantify the impact that a geomagnetic storm has on power grids.

  15. Storm surge and wave simulations in the Gulf of Mexico using a consistent drag relation for atmospheric and storm surge models

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    D. Vatvani

    2012-07-01

    Full Text Available To simulate winds and water levels, numerical weather prediction (NWP and storm surge models generally use the traditional bulk relation for wind stress, which is characterized by a wind drag coefficient. A still commonly used drag coefficient in those models, some of them were developed in the past, is based on a relation, according to which the magnitude of the coefficient is either constant or increases monotonically with increasing surface wind speed (Bender, 2007; Kim et al., 2008; Kohno and Higaki, 2006. The NWP and surge models are often tuned independently from each other in order to obtain good results. Observations have indicated that the magnitude of the drag coefficient levels off at a wind speed of about 30 m s−1, and then decreases with further increase of the wind speed. Above a wind speed of approximately 30 m s−1, the stress above the air-sea interface starts to saturate. To represent the reducing and levelling off of the drag coefficient, the original Charnock drag formulation has been extended with a correction term.

    In line with the above, the Delft3D storm surge model is tested using both Charnock's and improved Makin's wind drag parameterization to evaluate the improvements on the storm surge model results, with and without inclusion of the wave effects. The effect of waves on storm surge is included by simultaneously simulating waves with the SWAN model on identical model grids in a coupled mode. However, the results presented here will focus on the storm surge results that include the wave effects.

    The runs were carried out in the Gulf of Mexico for Katrina and Ivan hurricane events. The storm surge model was initially forced with H*wind data (Powell et al., 2010 to test the effect of the Makin's wind drag parameterization on the storm surge model separately. The computed wind, water levels and waves are subsequently compared with observation data. Based on the good

  16. Two-dimensional numerical modeling of the cosmic ray storm

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Kadokura, A.; Nishida, A.

    1986-01-01

    A numerical model of the cosmic ray storm in the two-dimensional heliosphere is constructed incorporating the drift effect. We estimate the effect of a flare-associated interplanetary shock and the disturbed region behind it (characterized by enhancement in velocity and magnetic field, and decrease in mean free path) on the density and anisotropy of cosmic rays in the heliosphere. As the disturbance propagates outward, a density enhancement appears on the front side, and a density depression region is produced on the rear side. The effect of drift on the cosmic ray storm appears most clearly in the higher-latitude region. For the parallel (antiparallel) state of the solar magnetic field which corresponds to the pre(post-) 1980 period, the density in the higher-latitude region decreases (increases) before the shock arrival. The maximum density depression near the earth for the parallel state is greater than for the antiparallel state, and the energy spectrum of the density depression in percentage is softer for the parallel state than for the antiparallel state. Prior to the arrival of the shock, the phase of solar diurnal anisotropy begins to shift to the earlier hours, and its amplitude becomes greater for both polarity states. North-south anisotropy also becomes greater because of the enhanced drift for both polarity states

  17. Microphysical and Kinematic Characteristics of Regions of Flash Initiation in a Supercell Storm and a Multicell Storm Observed During the DC3 Field Program

    Science.gov (United States)

    DiGangi, E.; MacGorman, D. R.; Ziegler, C.; Betten, D.; Biggerstaff, M. I.

    2017-12-01

    Lightning initiation in thunderstorms requires that the local electric field magnitude exceed breakdown values somewhere, and this tends to occur between regions of positive and negative charge, where the largest electric field magnitudes tend to occur. Past studies have demonstrated that, near updrafts, storms with very strong updrafts tend to elevate regions of charge and of flash initiations higher, as well as to have more flashes initiated by small pockets of charge, than in storms with much weaker updrafts. In all thunderstorms, the source of these charge regions is generally thought to be microscopic charge separation via the relative growth rate noninductive mechanism, followed by macroscopic charge separation via sedimentation, although other charge generation mechanisms can contribute to charge in some regions. Charge generation and lightning initiation are therefore inherently dependent on the microphysical and kinematic characteristics of a given storm. This study compares the results of a hydrometeor classification algorithm applied to C-band mobile radar data with mixing ratios calculated by a diabatic Lagrangian analysis retrieval from the dual-Doppler wind fields for two storms, the 29-30 May 2012 supercell storm and the 21 June 2012 multicell storm, observed during the Deep Convective Clouds and Chemistry experiment. Using these data, we then compare the inferred microphysical and kinematic characteristics of regions in which the Oklahoma Lightning Mapping Array indicated that flashes were initiated in these two very different storms.

  18. Coping with EPA's new petroleum industry storm water permits

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Veal, S.C.; Whitescarver, J.P.

    1994-01-01

    The United States Environmental Protection Agency has just released for public comment its so-called multi-sector industry specific storm water permit. This permit -- developed in response to the 730 group storm water permit applications submitted in 1992 to EPA -- proposes the establishment of specific runoff sampling and facility design requirements for at least two petroleum industry sectors. This proposed permit establishes specific conditions for the oil and gas extraction section (SIC group 13) and for lubricant manufacturers (SIC 2992). Permit conditions are also established for allied industrial sectors such as the chemical, transportation and asphalt materials industries. By most standards, the proposed permit is much tougher than EPA's baseline general permit for storm water discharges which was released in September of 1992. For example, under the proposal, most industries are required to perform periodic storm water sampling. EPA has also established storm water effluent and performance standards for several industrial categories. This paper will discuss the petroleum industry specific conditions of the new permit. The paper will also discuss the results of the industry-wide storm water sampling efforts undertaken by more than 300 oil patch facilities across the country. In particular, sampling results will be discussed in the context to the permit conditions proposed by EPA. The paper will also discuss strategies for dealing with the new permits

  19. Coastal emergency managers' preferences for storm surge forecast communication.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Morrow, Betty Hearn; Lazo, Jeffrey K

    2014-01-01

    Storm surge, the most deadly hazard associated with tropical and extratropical cyclones, is the basis for most evacuation decisions by authorities. One factor believed to be associated with evacuation noncompliance is a lack of understanding of storm surge. To address this problem, federal agencies responsible for cyclone forecasts are seeking more effective ways of communicating storm surge threat. To inform this process, they are engaging various partners in the forecast and warning process.This project focuses on emergency managers. Fifty-three emergency managers (EMs) from the Gulf and lower Atlantic coasts were surveyed to elicit their experience with, sources of, and preferences for storm surge information. The emergency managers-who are well seasoned in hurricane response and generally rate the surge risk in their coastal areas above average or extremely high-listed storm surge as their major concern with respect to hurricanes. They reported a general lack of public awareness about surge. Overall they support new ways to convey the potential danger to the public, including the issuance of separate storm surge watches and warnings, and the expression of surge heights using feet above ground level. These EMs would like more maps, graphics, and visual materials for use in communicating with the public. An important concern is the timing of surge forecasts-whether they receive them early enough to be useful in their evacuation decisions.

  20. Phosphorus Dynamics along River Continuum during Typhoon Storm Events

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Ming Fai Chow

    2017-07-01

    Full Text Available Information on riverine phosphorus (P dynamics during typhoon storm events remains scarce in subtropical regions. Thus, this study investigates the spatial and temporal dynamics of riverine phosphorus in a headwater catchment during three typhoon events. Continuous sampling (3 h intervals of stormwater samples and discharge data were conducted at five locations, which represent the upstream, transitional zone, and downstream areas of the main inflow river. The results revealed that the average event mean concentrations (EMCs for total dissolved phosphorus (TDP and particulate phosphorus (PP in the upstream catchment of Fei-Tsui reservoir were 15.66 μg/L and 11.94 μg/L, respectively. There was at least a 1.3-fold increase in flow-weighted concentrations of TDP and PP from the upper to lower reaches of the main stream. PP and TDP were transported either in clockwise or anticlockwise directions, depending on storm intensity and source. The transport of TDP was primarily regulated by the subsurface flow during the storm event. Soluble reactive phosphorus (SRP contributes more than 50% of the TDP load in moderate storms, while extreme storms supply a greater dissolved organic phosphorus (DOP load into the stream. TDP accounted for approximately 50% of TP load during typhoon storms. Mobilization of all P forms was observed from upstream to downstream of the river, except for DOP. A decrease of DOP load on passing downstream may reflect the change in phosphorus form along the river continuum. Peak discharge and antecedent dry days are correlated positively with P fluxes, indicating that river bank erosion and re-suspension of within-channel sediment are the dominant pathways of P during typhoon storm periods.

  1. LibrarySTORM

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Breüner, Niels; Bech, Tine

    2013-01-01

    Når flere uddannelser samles i en nybygning til Campus C på Ceres grunden i Aarhus, skal der også indrettes et fælles bibliotek. Når der samtidig er midler til at arbejde med brugerdreven innovation, lå det lige for at inddrage de studerende og få deres visioner for fremtidens bibliotek. Der blev...... arrangeret en udviklingsdag, hvor der skulle brainstormes – og projektet blev kaldt LibrarySTORM....

  2. Risk assessment of storm surge disaster based on numerical models and remote sensing

    Science.gov (United States)

    Liu, Qingrong; Ruan, Chengqing; Zhong, Shan; Li, Jian; Yin, Zhonghui; Lian, Xihu

    2018-06-01

    Storm surge is one of the most serious ocean disasters in the world. Risk assessment of storm surge disaster for coastal areas has important implications for planning economic development and reducing disaster losses. Based on risk assessment theory, this paper uses coastal hydrological observations, a numerical storm surge model and multi-source remote sensing data, proposes methods for valuing hazard and vulnerability for storm surge and builds a storm surge risk assessment model. Storm surges in different recurrence periods are simulated in numerical models and the flooding areas and depth are calculated, which are used for assessing the hazard of storm surge; remote sensing data and GIS technology are used for extraction of coastal key objects and classification of coastal land use are identified, which is used for vulnerability assessment of storm surge disaster. The storm surge risk assessment model is applied for a typical coastal city, and the result shows the reliability and validity of the risk assessment model. The building and application of storm surge risk assessment model provides some basis reference for the city development plan and strengthens disaster prevention and mitigation.

  3. On the improvement of wave and storm surge hindcasts by downscaled atmospheric forcing: application to historical storms

    Science.gov (United States)

    Bresson, Émilie; Arbogast, Philippe; Aouf, Lotfi; Paradis, Denis; Kortcheva, Anna; Bogatchev, Andrey; Galabov, Vasko; Dimitrova, Marieta; Morvan, Guillaume; Ohl, Patrick; Tsenova, Boryana; Rabier, Florence

    2018-04-01

    Winds, waves and storm surges can inflict severe damage in coastal areas. In order to improve preparedness for such events, a better understanding of storm-induced coastal flooding episodes is necessary. To this end, this paper highlights the use of atmospheric downscaling techniques in order to improve wave and storm surge hindcasts. The downscaling techniques used here are based on existing European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts reanalyses (ERA-20C, ERA-40 and ERA-Interim). The results show that the 10 km resolution data forcing provided by a downscaled atmospheric model gives a better wave and surge hindcast compared to using data directly from the reanalysis. Furthermore, the analysis of the most extreme mid-latitude cyclones indicates that a four-dimensional blending approach improves the whole process, as it assimilates more small-scale processes in the initial conditions. Our approach has been successfully applied to ERA-20C (the 20th century reanalysis).

  4. Storm surge model based on variational data assimilation method

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Shi-li Huang

    2010-06-01

    Full Text Available By combining computation and observation information, the variational data assimilation method has the ability to eliminate errors caused by the uncertainty of parameters in practical forecasting. It was applied to a storm surge model based on unstructured grids with high spatial resolution meant for improving the forecasting accuracy of the storm surge. By controlling the wind stress drag coefficient, the variation-based model was developed and validated through data assimilation tests in an actual storm surge induced by a typhoon. In the data assimilation tests, the model accurately identified the wind stress drag coefficient and obtained results close to the true state. Then, the actual storm surge induced by Typhoon 0515 was forecast by the developed model, and the results demonstrate its efficiency in practical application.

  5. Geomagnetic storms, the Dst ring-current myth and lognormal distributions

    Science.gov (United States)

    Campbell, W.H.

    1996-01-01

    The definition of geomagnetic storms dates back to the turn of the century when researchers recognized the unique shape of the H-component field change upon averaging storms recorded at low latitude observatories. A generally accepted modeling of the storm field sources as a magnetospheric ring current was settled about 30 years ago at the start of space exploration and the discovery of the Van Allen belt of particles encircling the Earth. The Dst global 'ring-current' index of geomagnetic disturbances, formulated in that period, is still taken to be the definitive representation for geomagnetic storms. Dst indices, or data from many world observatories processed in a fashion paralleling the index, are used widely by researchers relying on the assumption of such a magnetospheric current-ring depiction. Recent in situ measurements by satellites passing through the ring-current region and computations with disturbed magnetosphere models show that the Dst storm is not solely a main-phase to decay-phase, growth to disintegration, of a massive current encircling the Earth. Although a ring current certainly exists during a storm, there are many other field contributions at the middle-and low-latitude observatories that are summed to show the 'storm' characteristic behavior in Dst at these observatories. One characteristic of the storm field form at middle and low latitudes is that Dst exhibits a lognormal distribution shape when plotted as the hourly value amplitude in each time range. Such distributions, common in nature, arise when there are many contributors to a measurement or when the measurement is a result of a connected series of statistical processes. The amplitude-time displays of Dst are thought to occur because the many time-series processes that are added to form Dst all have their own characteristic distribution in time. By transforming the Dst time display into the equivalent normal distribution, it is shown that a storm recovery can be predicted with

  6. Flow of Energy through the Inner Magnetosphere during the March 17, 2015 solar storm as observed by the Van Allen Probes Radiation Belt Storm Probes Ion Composition Experiment (RBSPICE)

    Science.gov (United States)

    Manweiler, J. W.; Madanian, H.; Gerrard, A. J.; Patterson, J. D.; Mitchell, D. G.; Lanzerotti, L. J.

    2017-12-01

    On March 17, 2015, a large solar storm impacted the Earth's magnetosphere with a maximum negative Dst of -232 nT. We report on the temporal and spatial evolution of the proton energetic particle distributions in phase space during this storm, as measured by the Radiation Belt Storm Probes Ion Composition Experiment (RBSPICE) instrument on board each of the Van Allen Probes. We characterize the distribution prior to onset of the storm to provide a definition of quiet time conditions. We then show how the distribution evolves during the storm noting key changes of the distribution as a function of L and MLT and showing how the pitch angle distributions change throughout the storm. These observations displayed a number of interesting features of the storm including high beta plasma conditions and multiple injections of protons into the inner magnetosphere. We present the radial changes of the distribution at storm onset and following the evolution of the distribution during storm recovery. We compare observations of the East/West asymmetry in the proton distribution before versus after onset using both Van Allen Probes A and B spacecraft observations. Finally, we note interesting changes in the distribution showing an anomalous dropout in mid-energies of the distribution and observe an outward radial propagation of this dropout during recovery.

  7. Noise storm coordinated observations

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Elgaroey, Oe.; Tlamicha, A.

    1983-01-01

    The usually accepted bipolar model of noise storm centers is irrelevant for the present observations. An alternative model has been proposed in which the different sources of a noise storm center are located in different flux tubes connecting active regions with their surroundings. Radio emission is observed from the wide, descending branch of the flux tubes, opposite to the flaring site. The relation between the sense of circular polarization of the radio emission and the magnetic polarity, has been more precisely defined. The radiation is in the ordinary mode with respect to the underlying large scale photospheric magnetic polarity. Thus the ''irregular'' polarity of noice storm center ''B'' is explained. As regards center ''C'', one should note that although the observed radio emission is polarized in the ordinary mode with respect to the leading spot of region HR 17653, center ''C'' is not situated in flux tubes originating from the leading part of this region according to the proposed model. Rather, the radio sources are located in the wide and descending part of flux tubes connecting a large, quiet area of south magnetic polarity with the following part of the region HR 17653 (of north magnetic polarity). Thus it is the polarity of the extended area which determines the polarization of the radio emission. The observed polarization should result rather from the emission process than from complicated conditions of propagation for the radio waves

  8. Dave Storm esitleb singlit

    Index Scriptorium Estoniae

    2002-01-01

    7. märtsil klubis Spirit ja 8. märtsil klubis Terminal presenteerib tallinlane DJ Dave Storm oma uut singlit "Ride", millel teeb laulmisega kaasa ameeriklane Charlie C. Singelplaadi annab peadselt välja Inglise plaadifirma Refunkt

  9. On the Initiation of an Isolated Convective Storm Near the Central Urban Area of Beijing Metropolitan Region

    Science.gov (United States)

    LI, H.; Cui, X.; Zhang, D. L.

    2017-12-01

    An isolated heavy-rain-producing convective storm was unexpectedly initiated in the early afternoon of 9 August 2011 near the central urban area of Beijing metropolitan region (BMR), which occurred at some distance from BMR's northwestern mountains and two pre-existing mesoscale convective systems (MCSs) to the north and west, respectively. An observational analysis shows the presence of large-scale quasi-geostrophic conditions but a favorable regional environment for the convective initiation (CI) of storms, including conditional instability, a low-level southerly flow and high-θe (equivalent potential temperature) area. A nested-grid (4/1.333 km) cloud-resolving model simulation of the case is performed to examine the CI of the storm. Results reveal that the growth of the mixed boundary layer, enhanced by the urban heat island (UHI) effects, accounts for the formation of a thin layer of clouds at the boundary-layer top at the CI site. However, this storm may not take place without sustained low-level convergence of high-θe air between a southerly flow and a northerly flow ahead of a cold outflow boundary associated with the northern MCS. The latter is driven by the latent heating of the shallow layer of clouds during the earlier CI stage and then a cold mesohigh associated with the northern MCS. The results indicate the important roles of the urban effects, mountain morphology, and convectively generated pressure perturbations in determining the CI location and timing of isolated convective storms over the BMR during the summer months.

  10. Introduction: Geomorphic studies of the storm and flood of November 3-5, 1985, in the upper Potomac and Cheat River basins: Chapter A in Geomorphic studies of the storm and flood of November 3-5, 1985, in the upper Potomac and Cheat River basins in West Virginia and Virginia

    Science.gov (United States)

    Jacobson, Robert B.

    1993-01-01

    The heavy rains of November 3-5, 1985, produced record floods and extensive landsliding in the Potomac and Cheat River basins in West Virginia and Virginia (pl. 1). Although rainfall intensity was moderate, the storm covered a very large area and produced record floods for basins in the size range of 1000-10,000 km2. In addition, thousands of landslides were triggered on slopes underlain by shale bedrock. The total social cost of the storm amounted to 70 lives lost and an estimated $1.3 billion in damage to homes, businesses, roads, and productive land in West Virginia and Virginia (Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) 1985a, b). These extreme costs were incurred despite the fact that the affected area is sparsely populated. To understand the origins and geomorphic effects of the 1985 storm, studies were undertaken by the U.S. Geological Survey, University of Maryland, West Virginia University, Cornell University, University of Virginia, The Johns Hopkins University, and Carleton College. Personnel were also consulted from the National Weather Service, Nuclear Regulatory Commission, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Soil Conservation Service, and Interstate Commission on the Potomac River basin. This cooperative effort serves to document the effects of the storm as an example of an extreme geomorphic event in the central Appalachian Mountains. The following chapters comprise observations and preliminary analyses for some of the observed phenomena. Subsequent publications by the contributors to this volume will expand the scope of this research.

  11. 'RCHX-1-STORM' first Slovenian meteorological rocket program

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kerstein, Aleksander; Matko, Drago; Trauner, Amalija; Britovšek, Zvone

    2004-08-01

    Astronautic and Rocket Society Celje (ARSC) formed a special working team for research and development of a small meteorological hail suppression rocket in the 70th. The hail suppression system was established in former Yugoslavia in the late 60th as an attempt to protect important agricultural regions from one of the summer's most vicious storm. In this time Slovenia was a part of Yugoslavia as one of the federal republic with relative high developed agricultural region production. The Rocket program 'RCHX-STORM' was a second attempt, for Slovenia indigenously developed in the production of meteorological hail suppression rocket. ARSC has designed a family of small sounding rocket that were based on highly promising hybrid propellant propulsion. Hybrid propulsion was selected for this family because it was offering low cost, save production and operation and simple logistics. Conventional sounding rockets use solid propellant motor for their propulsion. The introduction of hybrid motors has enabled a considerable decrease in overall cost. The transportation handling and storage procedures were greatly simplified due to the fact that a hybrid motor was not considered as explosive matter. A hybrid motor may also be designed to stand a severe environment without resorting to conditioning arrangements. The program started in the late 70th when the team ARSC was integrated in the Research and Development Institute in Celje (RDIC). The development program aimed to produce three types of meteorological rockets with diameters 76, 120 and 160 mm. Development of the RCHX-76 engine and rocket vehicle including flight certification has been undertaken by a joint team comprising of the ARCS, RDIC and the company Cestno podjetje Celje (CPC), Road building company Celje. Many new techniques and methods were used in this program such as computer simulation of external and internal ballistics, composite materials for rocket construction, intensive static testing of models and

  12. Solar radio continuum storms and a breathing magnetic field model. Final report

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    1975-01-01

    Radio noise continuum emissions observed in metric and decametric wave frequencies are, in general, associated with actively varying sunspot groups accompanied by the S-component of microwave radio emissions. These continuum emission sources, often called type I storm sources, are often associated with type III burst storm activity from metric to hectometric wave frequencies. This storm activity is, therefore, closely connected with the development of these continuum emission sources. It is shown that the S-component emission in microwave frequencies generally precedes, by several days, the emission of these noise continuum storms of lower frequencies. In order for these storms to develop, the growth of sunspot groups into complex types is very important in addition to the increase of the average magnetic field intensity and area of these groups. After giving a review on the theory of these noise continuum storm emissions, a model is briefly considered to explain the relation of the emissions to the storms

  13. Impact of storms on coastlines: preparing for the future without forgetting the past? Examples from European coastlines using a Storm Impact Database

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ciavola, Paolo; Garnier, Emmanuel; Ferreira, Oscar; Spencer, Thomas; Armaroli, Clara

    2017-04-01

    Severe storms have historically affected many European coastlines but the impact of each storm has been evaluated in different ways in different countries, often using local socio-economic impact criteria (e.g. loss of lives and damage to properties). Although the Xynthia (2010) storm, Atlantic coast of France, was the largest coastal disaster of the last 50 years, similar events have previously impacted Europe. The 1953 storm surge in the southern North Sea, resulted in over 2000 deaths and extensive flooding and was the catalyst for post WWII improvements in flood defences and storm early warning systems. On a longer timescale, the very extreme storm of 1634 AD re-configured Wadden Sea coastlines, accompanied by thousands of deaths. Establishing patterns of coastal risk and vulnerability is greatly helped by the use of historical sources, as these allow the development of more complete time series of storm events and their impacts. The work to be presented was supported by the EU RISC-KIT (Resilience-Increasing Strategies for Coasts - toolKIT) Project. RISC-KIT (http://www.risckit.eu/np4/home.html) is a EU FP7 Collaborative project that has developed methods, tools and management approaches to reduce risk and increase resilience to low frequency, high-impact hydro-meteorological events in the coastal zone. These products will enhance forecasting, prediction and early warning capabilities, improve the assessment of long-term coastal risk and optimize the mix of prevention, mitigation and preparedness measures. We analyse historical large-scale events occurred from The Middle Ages to the 1960s at the case study sites of North Norfolk Coast (UK), the Charente-Maritime and Vendée coast (France), the Cinque Terre-Liguria (Italy), the Emilia-Romagna coast (Italy), and the Ria Formosa coast (Portugal). The work presented here uses a database of events built by the project, examining records for the last 300 years, including the characteristics of the storms as well as

  14. The Framework of a Coastal Hazards Model - A Tool for Predicting the Impact of Severe Storms

    Science.gov (United States)

    Barnard, Patrick L.; O'Reilly, Bill; van Ormondt, Maarten; Elias, Edwin; Ruggiero, Peter; Erikson, Li H.; Hapke, Cheryl; Collins, Brian D.; Guza, Robert T.; Adams, Peter N.; Thomas, Julie

    2009-01-01

    The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) Multi-Hazards Demonstration Project in Southern California (Jones and others, 2007) is a five-year project (FY2007-FY2011) integrating multiple USGS research activities with the needs of external partners, such as emergency managers and land-use planners, to produce products and information that can be used to create more disaster-resilient communities. The hazards being evaluated include earthquakes, landslides, floods, tsunamis, wildfires, and coastal hazards. For the Coastal Hazards Task of the Multi-Hazards Demonstration Project in Southern California, the USGS is leading the development of a modeling system for forecasting the impact of winter storms threatening the entire Southern California shoreline from Pt. Conception to the Mexican border. The modeling system, run in real-time or with prescribed scenarios, will incorporate atmospheric information (that is, wind and pressure fields) with a suite of state-of-the-art physical process models (that is, tide, surge, and wave) to enable detailed prediction of currents, wave height, wave runup, and total water levels. Additional research-grade predictions of coastal flooding, inundation, erosion, and cliff failure will also be performed. Initial model testing, performance evaluation, and product development will be focused on a severe winter-storm scenario developed in collaboration with the Winter Storm Working Group of the USGS Multi-Hazards Demonstration Project in Southern California. Additional offline model runs and products will include coastal-hazard hindcasts of selected historical winter storms, as well as additional severe winter-storm simulations based on statistical analyses of historical wave and water-level data. The coastal-hazards model design will also be appropriate for simulating the impact of storms under various sea level rise and climate-change scenarios. The operational capabilities of this modeling system are designed to provide emergency planners with

  15. Validation of Storm Water Management Model Storm Control Measures Modules

    Science.gov (United States)

    Simon, M. A.; Platz, M. C.

    2017-12-01

    EPA's Storm Water Management Model (SWMM) is a computational code heavily relied upon by industry for the simulation of wastewater and stormwater infrastructure performance. Many municipalities are relying on SWMM results to design multi-billion-dollar, multi-decade infrastructure upgrades. Since the 1970's, EPA and others have developed five major releases, the most recent ones containing storm control measures modules for green infrastructure. The main objective of this study was to quantify the accuracy with which SWMM v5.1.10 simulates the hydrologic activity of previously monitored low impact developments. Model performance was evaluated with a mathematical comparison of outflow hydrographs and total outflow volumes, using empirical data and a multi-event, multi-objective calibration method. The calibration methodology utilized PEST++ Version 3, a parameter estimation tool, which aided in the selection of unmeasured hydrologic parameters. From the validation study and sensitivity analysis, several model improvements were identified to advance SWMM LID Module performance for permeable pavements, infiltration units and green roofs, and these were performed and reported herein. Overall, it was determined that SWMM can successfully simulate low impact development controls given accurate model confirmation, parameter measurement, and model calibration.

  16. Dynamics Of Saturn'S Mid-scale Storms In The Cassini Era.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Del Rio Gaztelurrutia, Teresa; Hueso, R.; Sánchez-Lavega, A.

    2010-10-01

    Convective storms, similar to those in Earth, but of much larger scale, develop often in Saturn's atmosphere. During the Voyagers’ flybys of Saturn in 1981 mid-scale storms, with an horizontal extension of the order of 1000-3000 km were observed to occur mainly in a narrow tropical-latitude band in the Northern hemisphere at latitudes 38-40 deg North. Contrasting with the Voyagers’ era, since the starting of the Cassini mission in 2004, a similar mid-scale convective activity has concentrated in the so-called "storm alley", a narrow band at a symmetric Southern latitude of 38 deg.. In this work, we characterize this storm activity using available visual information provided by Cassini ISS cameras and the continuous survey from the Earth by the International Outer Planets Watch (IOPW) and its online database PVOL (Hueso et al., Planetary and Space Science, 2010). We study the frequency of appearance of storms with sizes above 2000 km, their characteristic size and life-time, as well as their interaction with surrounding dynamical features. In particular we examine the possibility that storms might provide a mechanism of injection of energy into Saturn's jets, the influence of storms in the generation of atmospheric vortices, and the analogies and differences of Voyagers’ and present day jet structure at the relevant latitudes. Acknowledgments: This work has been funded by the Spanish MICIIN AYA2009-10701 with FEDER support and Grupos Gobierno Vasco IT-464

  17. Particle precipitation influence in the conductivity of the auroral ionosphere during magnetic storms

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Monreal M, R.; Llop, C.

    2002-01-01

    The study of the energy transfer between the different regions of the solar wind - magnetosphere - ionosphere system is probably the main goal in Solar-Terrestrial Physics. In the magnetosphere - ionosphere coupling, the ionosphere power dissipation is highly sensitive to the conductivity in such a way that a detailed knowledge of this property in the auroral and polar ionosphere is of great interest because it is important not only to determine Joule heat, but also for electric fields and currents models including the field aligned currents coupling the magnetosphere and ionosphere. The main sources of ionization and subsequent conductivity in the ionosphere are due to the emission of electromagnetic radiation and charged energetic particles from the sun. In this work it is analysed the influence of the precipitating electrons on the auroral ionosphere conductivity during magnetic storms. It is shown that the conductance values appear sub estimated for high levels of activity due to the saturation produced during very intense magnetic storms. (Author)

  18. Mesoscale storm and dry period parameters from hourly precipitation data: program documentation

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Thorp, J.M.

    1984-09-01

    Wet deposition of airborne chemical pollutants occurs primarily from precipitation. Precipitation rate, amount, duration, and location are important meteorological factors to be considered when attempting to understand the relationship of precipitation to pollutant deposition. The Pacific Northwest Laboratory (PNL) has conducted studies and experiments in numerous locations to collect data that can be incorporated into theories and models that attempt to describe the complex relationship between precipitation occurrence and chemical wet desposition. Model development often requires the use of average rather than random condition as input. To provide mean values of storm parameters, the task, Climatological Analysis of Mesoscale Storms, was created as a facet of the Environmental Protection Agency's related-service project, Precipitation Scavenging Module Development. Within this task computer programs have been developed at PNL which incorporate hourly precipitation data from National Weather Service stations to calculate mean values and frequency distributions of precipitation periods and of the interspersed dry periods. These programs have been written with a degree of flexibiity that will allow user modification for applications to different, but similar, analyses. This report describes in detail the rationale and operation of the two computer programs which produce the tables of average and frequency distributions of storm and dry period parameters from the precipitation data. A listing of the programs and examples of the generated output are included in the appendices. 3 references, 3 figures, 6 tables.

  19. Storm runoff analysis using environmental isotopes and major ions

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Fritz, P.; Cherry, J.A.; Sklash, M.; Weyer, K.U.

    1976-01-01

    At a given locality the oxygen-18 content of rainwater varies from storm to storm but within broad seasonal trends. Very frequently, especially during heavy summer storms, the stable isotope composition of rainwater differs from that of the groundwater in the area. This isotopic difference can be used to differentiate between 'prestorm' and 'rain' components in storm runoff. This approach to the use of natural 18 O was applied in four hydrogeologically very different basins in Canada. Their surface areas range from less than 2km 2 to more than 700km 2 . Before, during and after the storm events samples of stream water, groundwater and rain were analysed for 18 O and in some cases for deuterium, major ions and electrical conductance. The 18 O hydrograph separations show that groundwater was a major component of the runoff in each of the basins, and usually exceeded 50% of the total water discharged. Even at peak stream flow most of discharge was subsurface water. The identification of geographic sources rather than time sources appears possible if isotope techniques are used in conjunction with chemical analyses, hydrological data - such as flow measurements - and visual observations. (author)

  20. Thyroid storm and warm autoimmune hemolytic anemia.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Moore, Joseph A; Gliga, Louise; Nagalla, Srikanth

    2017-08-01

    Graves' disease is often associated with other autoimmune disorders, including rare associations with autoimmune hemolytic anemia (AIHA). We describe a unique presentation of thyroid storm and warm AIHA diagnosed concurrently in a young female with hyperthyroidism. The patient presented with nausea, vomiting, diarrhea and altered mental status. Laboratory studies revealed hemoglobin 3.9g/dL, platelets 171×10 9 L -1 , haptoglobin storm and warm AIHA. She was started on glucocorticoids to treat both warm AIHA and thyroid storm, as well as antithyroid medications, propranolol and folic acid. Due to profound anemia and hemodynamic instability, the patient was transfused two units of uncrossmatched packed red blood cells slowly and tolerated this well. She was discharged on methimazole as well as a prolonged prednisone taper, and achieved complete resolution of the thyrotoxicosis and anemia at one month. Hyperthyroidism can affect all three blood cell lineages of the hematopoietic system. Anemia can be seen in 10-20% of patients with thyrotoxicosis. Several autoimmune processes can lead to anemia in Graves' disease, including pernicious anemia, celiac disease, and warm AIHA. This case illustrates a rarely described presentation of a patient with Graves' disease presenting with concurrent thyroid storm and warm AIHA. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  1. Detection of Hail Storms in Radar Imagery Using Deep Learning

    Science.gov (United States)

    Pullman, Melinda; Gurung, Iksha; Ramachandran, Rahul; Maskey, Manil

    2017-01-01

    In 2016, hail was responsible for 3.5 billion and 23 million dollars in damage to property and crops, respectively, making it the second costliest weather phenomenon in the United States. In an effort to improve hail-prediction techniques and reduce the societal impacts associated with hail storms, we propose a deep learning technique that leverages radar imagery for automatic detection of hail storms. The technique is applied to radar imagery from 2011 to 2016 for the contiguous United States and achieved a precision of 0.848. Hail storms are primarily detected through the visual interpretation of radar imagery (Mrozet al., 2017). With radars providing data every two minutes, the detection of hail storms has become a big data task. As a result, scientists have turned to neural networks that employ computer vision to identify hail-bearing storms (Marzbanet al., 2001). In this study, we propose a deep Convolutional Neural Network (ConvNet) to understand the spatial features and patterns of radar echoes for detecting hailstorms.

  2. Piping Plover response to coastal storms occurring during the nonbreeding season

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Nadine R. Bourque

    2015-06-01

    Full Text Available The increase in coastal storm frequency and intensity expected under most climate change scenarios is likely to substantially modify beach configuration and associated habitats. This study aimed to analyze the impact of coastal storms on a nesting population of the endangered Piping Plover (Charadrius melodus melodus in southeastern New Brunswick, Canada. Previous studies have shown that numbers of nesting Piping Plovers may increase following storms that create new nesting habitat at individual beaches. However, to our knowledge, no test of this pattern has been conducted over a regional scale. We hypothesized that Piping Plover abundance would increase after large coastal storms occurring during the nonbreeding season. However, we expected a delay in the colonization of newly created habitat owing to low-density populations, combined with high site fidelity of adults and high variability in survival rate of subadults. We tested this hypothesis using a 27-year (1986-2012 data set of Piping Plover abundance and productivity (nesting pairs and fledged young collected at five sites in eastern New Brunswick. We identified 11 major storms that could potentially have modified Piping Plover habitat over the study period. The number of fledged young increased three years after a major storm, but the relationship was much weaker for the number of nesting pairs. These findings are consistent with the hypothesized increase in suitable habitat after coastal storms. Including storm occurrence with other factors influencing habitat quality will enhance Piping Plover conservation strategies.

  3. Multivariate return periods of sea storms for coastal erosion risk assessment

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    S. Corbella

    2012-08-01

    Full Text Available The erosion of a beach depends on various storm characteristics. Ideally, the risk associated with a storm would be described by a single multivariate return period that is also representative of the erosion risk, i.e. a 100 yr multivariate storm return period would cause a 100 yr erosion return period. Unfortunately, a specific probability level may be associated with numerous combinations of storm characteristics. These combinations, despite having the same multivariate probability, may cause very different erosion outcomes. This paper explores this ambiguity problem in the context of copula based multivariate return periods and using a case study at Durban on the east coast of South Africa. Simulations were used to correlate multivariate return periods of historical events to return periods of estimated storm induced erosion volumes. In addition, the relationship of the most-likely design event (Salvadori et al., 2011 to coastal erosion was investigated. It was found that the multivariate return periods for wave height and duration had the highest correlation to erosion return periods. The most-likely design event was found to be an inadequate design method in its current form. We explore the inclusion of conditions based on the physical realizability of wave events and the use of multivariate linear regression to relate storm parameters to erosion computed from a process based model. Establishing a link between storm statistics and erosion consequences can resolve the ambiguity between multivariate storm return periods and associated erosion return periods.

  4. Space Weather Monitoring for ISS Geomagnetic Storm Studies

    Science.gov (United States)

    Minow, Joseph I.; Parker, Linda Neergaard

    2013-01-01

    The International Space Station (ISS) space environments community utilizes near real time space weather data to support a variety of ISS engineering and science activities. The team has operated the Floating Potential Measurement Unit (FPMU) suite of plasma instruments (two Langmuir probes, a floating potential probe, and a plasma impedance probe) on ISS since 2006 to obtain in-situ measurements of plasma density and temperature along the ISS orbit and variations in ISS frame potential due to electrostatic current collection from the plasma environment (spacecraft charging) and inductive (vxB) effects from the vehicle motion across the Earth s magnetic field. An ongoing effort is to use FPMU for measuring the ionospheric response to geomagnetic storms at ISS altitudes and investigate auroral charging of the vehicle as it passes through regions of precipitating auroral electrons. This work is challenged by restrictions on FPMU operations that limit observation time to less than about a third of a year. As a result, FPMU campaigns ranging in length from a few days to a few weeks are typically scheduled weeks in advance for ISS engineering and payload science activities. In order to capture geomagnetic storm data under these terms, we monitor near real time space weather data from NASA, NOAA, and ESA sources to determine solar wind disturbance arrival times at Earth likely to be geoeffective (including coronal mass ejections and high speed streams associated with coronal holes) and activate the FPMU ahead of the storm onset. Using this technique we have successfully captured FPMU data during a number of geomagnetic storm periods including periods with ISS auroral charging. This presentation will describe the strategies and challenges in capturing FPMU data during geomagnetic storms, the near real time space weather resources utilized for monitoring the space weather environment, and provide examples of auroral charging data obtained during storm operations.

  5. Magnetospheric signature of some F layer positive storms

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Miller, N.J.; Mayr, H.G.; Grebowsky, J.M.; Harris, I.; Tulunay, Y.K.

    1981-01-01

    Calculations using a self-consistent model of the global thermosphere-ionosphere system perturbed by high-latitude thermospheric heating show that the resultant electron density disturbances within the mid-latitude F layer can propagate upward along magnetic field lines to the equator. The F layer disturbances described by the model calculations correspond to the evolution of enhancements or reductions in electron density that is called the positive or negative phase of an F layer storm. We deduce that the positive phase of dayside F layer storms is initiated when high-latitude thermospheric heating generates equatorward winds. These winds raise the mid-latitude F layer along the geomagnetic field B through momentum transfer from neutral atoms to F layer ons that pull electrons with them. For Lapprox.3 or less the upward movement of ionospheric plasma results in ionization increases at all altitudes along B from the F2 maximum to the equator. An increase in the average magnitude of the equatorial dawn-dusk magnetospheric electric field retards the dayside development of a positive storm phase by drifting plasma away from mid-latitude field lines along which the electron density is increasing. During an F layer storm in June 1972, instruments on Explorer 45 and Ariel 4 detected dayside electron density enhancements simultaneously at 550 km over mid-latitudes and near the equatorial plane in the magnetosphere. These in situ measurements support the model prediction that disturbances in the magnetospheric plasma near the equator can arise through interactions occuring at lower altitudes along a magnetic field line. Our study demonstrates that some storm time enhancements of dayside magnetospheric plasma near Lapprox.2--3 may be signatures of the positive phase of an F layer storm

  6. ARkStorm@Tahoe: Stakeholder perspectives on vulnerabilities and preparedness for an extreme storm event in the greater Lake Tahoe, Reno, and Carson City region

    Science.gov (United States)

    Albano, Christine M.; Cox, Dale A.; Dettinger, Michael; Shaller, Kevin; Welborn, Toby L.; McCarthy, Maureen

    2014-01-01

    Atmospheric rivers (ARs) are strongly linked to extreme winter precipitation events in the Western U.S., accounting for 80 percent of extreme floods in the Sierra Nevada and surrounding lowlands. In 2010, the U.S. Geological Survey developed the ARkStorm extreme storm scenario for California to quantify risks from extreme winter storms and to allow stakeholders to better explore and mitigate potential impacts. To explore impacts on natural resources and communities in montane and adjacent environments, we downscaled the scenario to the greater Lake Tahoe, Reno and Carson City region of northern Nevada and California. This ArkStorm@Tahoe scenario was presented at six stakeholder meetings, each with a different geographic and subject matter focus. Discussions were facilitated by the ARkStorm@Tahoe team to identify social and ecological vulnerabilities to extreme winter storms, science and information needs, and proactive measures that might minimize impacts from this type of event. Information collected in these meetings was used to develop a tabletop emergency response exercise and set of recommendations for increasing resilience to extreme winter storm events in both Tahoe and the downstream communities of Northern Nevada.Over 300 individuals participated in ARkStorm@Tahoe stakeholder meetings and the emergency response exercise, including representatives from emergency response, natural resource and ecosystem management, health and human services, public utilities, and businesses. Interruption of transportation, communications, and lack of power and backup fuel supplies were identified as the most likely and primary points of failure across multiple sectors and geographies, as these interruptions have cascading effects on natural and human systems by impeding emergency response efforts. Other key issues that arose in discussions included contamination risks to water supplies and aquatic ecosystems, especially in the Tahoe Basin and Pyramid Lake, interagency

  7. Thyroid gland disorder emergencies: thyroid storm and myxedema coma.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hampton, Jessica

    2013-01-01

    Although thyroid dysfunction will develop in more than 12% of the US population during their lifetimes, true thyroid emergencies are rare. Thyroid storm and myxedema coma are endocrine emergencies resulting from thyroid hormone dysregulation, usually coupled with an acute illness as a precipitant. Careful assessment of risk and rapid action, once danger is identified, are essential for limiting morbidity and mortality related to thyroid storm and myxedema coma. This article reviews which patients are at risk, explains thyroid storm and myxedema coma, and describes pharmacological treatment and supportive cares.

  8. A case study of the Thunderstorm Research International Project storm of July 11, 1978: 1. Analysis of the data base

    Science.gov (United States)

    Nisbet, John S.; Barnard, Theresa A.; Forbes, Gregory S.; Krider, E. Philip; Lhermitte, Roger; Lennon, Carl L.

    1990-04-01

    A coordinated analysis of the Thunderstorm Research International Project storm of July 11, 1978, from 1900 to 2000 UT at the Kennedy Space Center is presented using data from three Doppler radars, a lightning detection and ranging system and a network of 25 electric field mills, and rain gages. This storm produced two cells for which the center of the updraft remained within range of the observational network. Electric field measurements were used to analyze the charge moments transferred by lightning flashes. An attempt was made to analyze as large a percentage as possible of the flashes so that the measurements would be usable to study the charge moment transferred by lightning in the storm. These data were fitted to Weibull distributions which were used to estimate statistical parameters of the lightning for both intracloud and cloud-to-ground flashes and to estimate the fraction of the flashes which were below the observation threshold for the two cells studied. The displacement and conduction current densities were calculated throughout the storm from electric field measurements between flashes, and data are presented of values at 5-min intervals throughout the storm. These values were used to derive the magnitudes and locations of dipole and monopole generators by least squares fitting the measured Maxwell current densities to the displacement-dominated equations. Constrained fitting was used to examine the uniqueness of the solutions.

  9. Statistical Characteristics of Solar Wind Dynamic Pressure Enhancements During Geomagnetic Storms

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    C.-R. Choi

    2008-06-01

    Full Text Available Solar wind dynamic pressure enhancements are known to cause various types of disturbances to the magnetosphere. In particular, dynamic pressure enhancements may affect the evolution of magnetic storms when they occur during storm times. In this paper, we have investigated the statistical significance and features of dynamic pressure enhancements during magnetic storm times. For the investigation, we have used a total of 91 geomagnetic storms for 2001-2003, for which the Dst minimum (Dst_min is below -50 nT. Also, we have imposed a set of selection criteria for a pressure enhancement to be considered an event: The main selection criterion is that the pressure increases by ≥50% or ≥3nPa within 30 min and remains to be elevated for 10 min or longer. For our statistical analysis, we define the storm time to be the interval from the main Dst decrease, through Dst_min, to the point where the Dst index recovers by 50%. Our main results are summarized as follows. (i ~81% of the studied storms indicate at least one event of pressure enhancements. When averaged over all the 91 storms, the occurrence rate is 4.5 pressure enhancement events per storm and 0.15 pressure enhancement events per hour. (ii The occurrence rate of the pressure enhancements is about three times higher for CME-driven storm times than for CIR-driven storm times. (iii Only 21.1% of the pressure enhancements show a clear association with an interplanetary shock. (iv A large number of the pressure enhancement events are accompanied with a simultaneous change of IMF By and/or Bz: For example, 73.5% of the pressure enhancement events are associated with an IMF change of either |∆Bz|>2nT or |∆By|>2nT. This last finding suggests that one should consider possible interplay effects between the simultaneous pressure and IMF changes in many situations.

  10. Storm-time ionization enhancements at the topside low-latitude ionosphere

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    A. Dmitriev

    2008-05-01

    Full Text Available Ion density enhancements at the topside low-latitude ionosphere during a Bastille storm on 15–16 July 2000 and Halloween storms on 29–31 October 2003 were studied using data from ROCSAT-1/IPEI experiment. Prominent ion density enhancements demonstrate similar temporal dynamics both in the sunlit and in the nightside hemispheres. The ion density increases dramatically (up to two orders of magnitude during the main phase of the geomagnetic storms and reaches peak values at the storm maximum. The density enhancements are mostly localized in the region of a South Atlantic Anomaly (SAA, which is characterized by very intense fluxes of energetic particles. The dynamics of near-Earth radiation was studied using SAMPEX/LEICA data on >0.6 MeV electrons and >0.8 MeV protons at around 600 km altitude. During the magnetic storms the energetic particle fluxes in the SAA region and in its vicinity increase more than three orders of magnitude. The location of increased fluxes overlaps well with the regions of ion density enhancements. Two mechanisms were considered to be responsible for the generation of storm-time ion density enhancements: prompt penetration of the interplanetary electric field and abundant ionization of the ionosphere by enhanced precipitation of energetic particles from the radiation belt.

  11. Ionosphere and thermosphere responses during August 1972 storms - a review

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Matsushita, S.

    1976-01-01

    Various reports of ionospheric responses during the August 1972 storm events are reviewed with respect to the phenomena in three major world sectors, N-S America, Afro-Europe, and Austro-Asia, in order to have a global picture. Emphasized highlights are (1) extensive investigation of the sudden increase of the total electron content estimated from Faraday-rotation measurements of satellite signals; (2) a dramatic upward surge above 300 km latitude, soon after a flare, measured by the Millstone Hill incoherent scatter radar; (3) electron density profiles, electric fields and conductivities, and neutral winds, at the time of the geomagnetic storm sudden commencement and during the succeeding storms, measured by the Chatanika incoherent scatter radar; and, (4) approximately 2.5-h oscillatory F2 density variations in Eastern Asia during the F2 storm main phase. To show temporal variations of the latitudinal distributions of storm-time F2 electron densities, in three longitudinal sectors separated about 60 0 longitude each, newly investigated results of the F2 hourly data at 35 stations in the Asia-Australia-Pacific sector are then exhibited. Finally, current theories or at least theoretical ideas of ionospheric storm mechanisms are briefly introduced, and a few remarks on the August events in the light of those theories are presented. (Auth.)

  12. Storm Surge and Tide Interaction: A Complete Paradigm

    Science.gov (United States)

    Horsburgh, K.

    2014-12-01

    Estimates show that in 2005, in the largest 136 coastal cities, there were 40 million people and 3,000 billion of assets exposed to 1 in 100 year coastal flood events. Mean sea level rise will increase this exposure to 150 million people and 35,000 billion of assets by 2070. Any further change in the statistics of flood frequency or severity would impact severely on economic and social systems. It is therefore crucial to understand the physical drivers of extreme storm surges, and to have confidence in datasets used for extreme sea level statistics. Much previous research has focussed on the process of tide-surge interaction, and it is now widely accepted that the physical basis of tide-surge interaction is that a phase shift of the tidal signal represents the effect of the surge on the tide. The second aspect of interaction is that shallow water momentum considerations imply that differing tidal states should modulate surge generation: wind stress should have greater surge-generating potential on lower tides. We present results from a storm surge model of the European shelf that demonstrate that tidal range does have an effect on the surges generated. The cycle-integrated effects of wind stress (i.e. the skew surge) are greater when tidal range is low. Our results contradict the absence of any such correlation in tide gauge records. This suggests that whilst the modulating effect of the tide on the skew surge (the time-independent difference between peak prediction and observations) is significant, the difference between individual storms is dominant. This implies that forecasting systems must predict salient detail of the most intense storms. A further implication is that flood forecasting models need to simulate tides with acceptable accuracy at all coastal locations. We extend our model analysis to show that the same modulation of storm surges (by tidal conditions) applies to tropical cyclones. We conduct simulations using a mature operational storm surge model

  13. Competition Between Radial Loss and EMIC Wave Scattering of MeV Electrons During Strong CME-shock Driven Storms

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hudson, M. K.; Jaynes, A. N.; Li, Z.; Malaspina, D.; Millan, R. M.; Patel, M.; Qin, M.; Shen, X.; Wiltberger, M. J.

    2017-12-01

    The two strongest storms of Solar Cycle 24, 17 March and 22 June 2015, provide a contrast between magnetospheric response to CME-shocks at equinox and solstice. The 17 March CME-shock initiated storm produced a stronger ring current response with Dst = - 223 nT, while the 22 June CME-shock initiated storm reached a minimum Dst = - 204 nT. The Van Allen Probes ECT instrument measured a dropout in flux for both events which can be characterized by magnetopause loss at higher L values prior to strong recovery1. However, rapid loss is seen at L 3 for the June storm at high energies with maximum drop in the 5.2 MeV channel of the REPT instrument coincident with the observation of EMIC waves in the H+ band by the EMFISIS wave instrument. The rapid time scale of loss can be determined from the 65 minute delay in passage of the Probe A relative to the Probe B spacecraft. The distinct behavior of lower energy electrons at higher L values has been modeled with MHD-test particle simulations, while the rapid loss of higher energy electrons is examined in terms of the minimum resonant energy criterion for EMIC wave scattering, and compared with the timescale for loss due to EMIC wave scattering which has been modeled for other storm events.2 1Baker, D. N., et al. (2016), Highly relativistic radiation belt electron acceleration, transport, and loss: Large solar storm events of March and June 2015, J. Geophys. Res. Space Physics, 121, 6647-6660, doi:10.1002/2016JA022502. 2Li, Z., et al. (2014), Investigation of EMIC wave scattering as the cause for the BARREL 17 January 2013 relativistic electron precipitation event: A quantitative comparison of simulation with observations, Geophys. Res. Lett., 41, 8722-8729, doi:10.1002/2014GL062273.

  14. Vulnerability assessment of storm surges in the coastal area of Guangdong Province

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    K. Li

    2011-07-01

    Full Text Available Being bordered by the South China Sea and with long coastline, the coastal zone of Guangdong Province is often under severe risk of storm surges, as one of a few regions in China which is seriously threatened by storm surges. This article systematically analyzes the vulnerability factors of storm surges in the coastal area of Guangdong (from Yangjing to Shanwei. Five vulnerability assessment indicators of hazard-bearing bodies are proposed, which are social economic index, land use index, eco-environmental index, coastal construction index, and disaster-bearing capability index. Then storm surge vulnerability assessment index system in the coastal area of Guangdong is established. Additionally, the international general mode about coastal vulnerability assessment is improved, and the vulnerability evolution model of storm surges in the coastal area of Guangdong is constructed. Using ArcGIS, the vulnerability zoning map of storm surges in the study region is drawn. Results show that there is the highest degree of storm surge vulnerability in Zhuhai, Panyu, and Taishan; second in Zhongshan, Dongguan, Huiyang, and Haifeng; third in Jiangmen, Shanwei, Yangjiang, and Yangdong; fourth in Baoan, Kaiping, and Enping; and lowest in Guangzhou, Shunde, Shenzhen, and Longgang. This study on the risk of storm surges in these coastal cities can guide the land use of coastal cities in the future, and provide scientific advice for the government to prevent and mitigate the storm surge disasters. It has important theoretical and practical significance.

  15. On the Reduced Geoeffectiveness of Solar Cycle 24: A Moderate Storm Perspective

    Science.gov (United States)

    Selvakumaran, R.; Veenadhari, B.; Akiyama, S.; Pandya, Megha; Gopalswamy, N,; Yashiro, S.; Kumar, Sandeep; Makela, P.; Xie, H.

    2016-01-01

    The moderate and intense geomagnetic storms are identified for the first 77 months of solar cycles 23 and 24. The solar sources responsible for the moderate geomagnetic storms are indentified during the same epoch for both the cycles. Solar cycle 24 has shown nearly 80% reduction in the occurrence of intense storms whereas it is only 40% in case of moderate storms when compared to previous cycle. The solar and interplanetary characteristics of the moderate storms driven by coronal mass ejection (CME) are compared for solar cycles 23 and 24 in order to see reduction in geoeffectiveness has anything to do with the occurrence of moderate storm. Though there is reduction in the occurrence of moderate storms, the Dst distribution does not show much difference. Similarly, the solar source parameters like CME speed, mass, and width did not show any significant variation in the average values as well as the distribution. The correlation between VBz and Dst is determined, and it is found to be moderate with value of 0.68 for cycle 23 and 0.61 for cycle 24. The magnetospheric energy flux parameter epsilon (epsilon) is estimated during the main phase of all moderate storms during solar cycles 23 and 24. The energy transfer decreased in solar cycle 24 when compared to cycle 23. These results are significantly different when all geomagnetic storms are taken into consideration for both the solar cycles.

  16. Use of Remote Sensing Data to Enhance NWS Storm Damage Toolkit

    Science.gov (United States)

    Jedlove, Gary J.; Molthan, Andrew L.; White, Kris; Burks, Jason; Stellman, Keith; Smith, Mathew

    2012-01-01

    In the wake of a natural disaster such as a tornado, the National Weather Service (NWS) is required to provide a very detailed and timely storm damage assessment to local, state and federal homeland security officials. The Post ]Storm Data Acquisition (PSDA) procedure involves the acquisition and assembly of highly perishable data necessary for accurate post ]event analysis and potential integration into a geographic information system (GIS) available to its end users and associated decision makers. Information gained from the process also enables the NWS to increase its knowledge of extreme events, learn how to better use existing equipment, improve NWS warning programs, and provide accurate storm intensity and damage information to the news media and academia. To help collect and manage all of this information, forecasters in NWS Southern Region are currently developing a Storm Damage Assessment Toolkit (SDAT), which incorporates GIS ]capable phones and laptops into the PSDA process by tagging damage photography, location, and storm damage details with GPS coordinates for aggregation within the GIS database. However, this tool alone does not fully integrate radar and ground based storm damage reports nor does it help to identify undetected storm damage regions. In many cases, information on storm damage location (beginning and ending points, swath width, etc.) from ground surveys is incomplete or difficult to obtain. Geographic factors (terrain and limited roads in rural areas), manpower limitations, and other logistical constraints often prevent the gathering of a comprehensive picture of tornado or hail damage, and may allow damage regions to go undetected. Molthan et al. (2011) have shown that high resolution satellite data can provide additional valuable information on storm damage tracks to augment this database. This paper presents initial development to integrate satellitederived damage track information into the SDAT for near real ]time use by forecasters

  17. Klaus, an exceptional winter storm over Northern Iberia and Southern France - a comparison between storm diagnostics

    Science.gov (United States)

    Liberato, M. L. R.; Pinto, J. G.; Trigo, I. F.; Trigo, R. M.

    2010-05-01

    The synoptic evolution and dynamical characteristics of storm "Klaus" (23 and 24 January 2009) are analysed. "Klaus" was an extratropical cyclone which developed over the subtropical North Atlantic Ocean on the 21st January 2009, then moved eastward embedded in the strong westerly flow and experienced a notorious strengthening on the 23rd January. The storm moved into the Bay of Biscay and deepened further before hitting Northern Spain and Southwestern France with gusts of up to 198 km/h. Afterwards, it steered southeastwards across Southern France into Northern Italy and the Adriatic. "Klaus" was the most intense and damaging wind storm in the region in a decade, provoked more than 20 casualties and insured losses of several billion Euros. The evolution of "Klaus" is analysed using two standard cyclone detecting and tracking schemes: a) the vorticity maxima based algorithm originally developed by Murray and Simmonds [1991], adapted for Northern Hemisphere cyclone characteristics [Pinto et al. 2005]; and b) the pressure minima based algorithm first developed for the Mediterranean region [Trigo et al. 1999; 2002] and later extended to a larger Euro-Atlantic region [Trigo 2006]. Additionally, the synoptic and mesoscale features of the storm are analysed. The vorticity based method detects the storm earlier than the pressure minima one. Results show that both tracks exhibited similar features and positions throughout almost all of their lifecycles, with minor discrepancies being probably related to different ways of both methods handling the spatio-temporal evolution of multiple candidates for cyclonic centres. In its strengthening phase, "Klaus" presents deepening rates above 37 hPa/24h, a value that after geostrophically adjusted to the reference latitude of 60°N increases to 44 hPa/24h, implying an exceptional event with bomb characteristics. During maximum intensity change within 24 hours was 1.165hPa/(deglat)2. References: Murray RJ, Simmonds I (1991) Aust

  18. StoRMon: an event log analyzer for Grid Storage Element based on StoRM

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Zappi, Riccardo; Dal Pra, Stefano; Dibenedetto, Michele; Ronchieri, Elisabetta

    2011-01-01

    Managing a collaborative production Grid infrastructure requires to identify and handle every issue, which might arise, in a timely manner. Currently, the most complex problem of the data Grid infrastructure relates to the data management because of its distributed nature. To ensure that problems are quickly addressed and solved, each site should contribute to the solution providing any useful information about services that run in its administrative domain. Often Grid sites' administrators to be effective must collect, organize and examine the scattered logs events that are produced from every service and component of the Storage Element. This paper focuses on the problem of gathering the events logs on a Grid Storage Element and describes the design of a new service, called StoRMon. StoRMon will be able to collect, archive, analyze and report on events logs produced by each service of Storage Element during the execution of its tasks. The data and the processed information will be available to the site administrators by using a single contact-point to easily identify security incidents, fraudulent activity, and the operational issues mainly. The new service is applied to a Grid Storage Element characterized by StoRM, GridFTP and YAMSS, and collects the usage data of StoRM, transferring and hierarchical storage services.

  19. Origin-Dependent Variations in the Atmospheric Microbiome in Eastern Mediterranean Dust Storms

    Science.gov (United States)

    Rudich, Y.; Gat, D.

    2017-12-01

    Microorganisms carried by dust storms are transported through the atmosphere and may affect human health and the functionality of microbial communities in various environments. Characterizing the dust-borne microbiome in dust storms of different origins, or that followed different trajectories, provides valuable data to improve our understanding of global health and environmental impacts. We present a comparative study on the diversity of dust- borne bacterial communities in dust storms from three distinct origins—North Africa, Syria and Saudi Arabia—and compare them with local bacterial communities sampled on clear days, all collected at a single location, in Israel. Storms from different dust origins exhibited distinct bacterial communities, with signature bacterial taxa for each source. Dust storms were characterized by a lower abundance of selected antibiotic resistance genes (ARGs) compared with ambient dust, asserting that the origin of these genes is local, possibly anthropogenic. With the progression of the storm, the storm-borne bacterial community showed increasing resemblance to ambient dust, suggesting mixing with local dust. We will also discuss how exposure to dust containing biological components affect lung epithelial cells. These results show, for the first time, that dust storms from different sources display distinct bacterial communities, suggesting possible distinct effects on the environment and public health.

  20. Understanding the varied response of the extratropical storm tracks to climate change.

    Science.gov (United States)

    O'Gorman, Paul A

    2010-11-09

    Transient eddies in the extratropical storm tracks are a primary mechanism for the transport of momentum, energy, and water in the atmosphere, and as such are a major component of the climate system. Changes in the extratropical storm tracks under global warming would impact these transports, the ocean circulation and carbon cycle, and society through changing weather patterns. I show that the southern storm track intensifies in the multimodel mean of simulations of 21st century climate change, and that the seasonal cycle of storm-track intensity increases in amplitude in both hemispheres. I use observations of the present-day seasonal cycle to confirm the relationship between storm-track intensity and the mean available potential energy of the atmosphere, and show how this quantitative relationship can be used to account for much of the varied response in storm-track intensity to global warming, including substantially different responses in simulations with different climate models. The results suggest that storm-track intensity is not related in a simple way to global-mean surface temperature, so that, for example, a stronger southern storm track in response to present-day global warming does not imply it was also stronger in hothouse climates of the past.

  1. Hurricane storm surge and amphibian communities in coastal wetlands of northwestern Florida

    Science.gov (United States)

    Gunzburger, M.S.; Hughes, W.B.; Barichivich, W.J.; Staiger, J.S.

    2010-01-01

    Isolated wetlands in the Southeastern United States are dynamic habitats subject to fluctuating environmental conditions. Wetlands located near marine environments are subject to alterations in water chemistry due to storm surge during hurricanes. The objective of our study was to evaluate the effect of storm surge overwash on wetland amphibian communities. Thirty-two wetlands in northwestern Florida were sampled over a 45-month period to assess amphibian species richness and water chemistry. During this study, seven wetlands were overwashed by storm surge from Hurricane Dennis which made landfall 10 July 2005 in the Florida panhandle. This event allowed us to evaluate the effect of storm surge overwash on water chemistry and amphibian communities of the wetlands. Specific conductance across all wetlands was low pre-storm (marine habitats are resistant to the effects of storm surge overwash. ?? 2010 Springer Science+Business Media B.V.

  2. Adaptive optics stochastic optical reconstruction microscopy (AO-STORM) by particle swarm optimization.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Tehrani, Kayvan F; Zhang, Yiwen; Shen, Ping; Kner, Peter

    2017-11-01

    Stochastic optical reconstruction microscopy (STORM) can achieve resolutions of better than 20nm imaging single fluorescently labeled cells. However, when optical aberrations induced by larger biological samples degrade the point spread function (PSF), the localization accuracy and number of localizations are both reduced, destroying the resolution of STORM. Adaptive optics (AO) can be used to correct the wavefront, restoring the high resolution of STORM. A challenge for AO-STORM microscopy is the development of robust optimization algorithms which can efficiently correct the wavefront from stochastic raw STORM images. Here we present the implementation of a particle swarm optimization (PSO) approach with a Fourier metric for real-time correction of wavefront aberrations during STORM acquisition. We apply our approach to imaging boutons 100 μm deep inside the central nervous system (CNS) of Drosophila melanogaster larvae achieving a resolution of 146 nm.

  3. Effect of geomagnetic storms on VHF scintillations observed at low latitude

    Science.gov (United States)

    Singh, S. B.; Patel, Kalpana; Singh, A. K.

    2018-06-01

    A geomagnetic storm affects the dynamics and composition of the ionosphere and also offers an excellent opportunity to study the plasma dynamics. In the present study, we have used the VHF scintillations data recorded at low latitude Indian station Varanasi (Geomag. latitude = 14^{°}55^' }N, long. = 154^{°}E) which is radiated at 250 MHz from geostationary satellite UFO-02 during the period 2011-2012 to investigate the effects of geomagnetic storms on VHF scintillation. Various geomagnetic and solar indices such as Dst index, Kp index, IMF Bz and solar wind velocity (Vx) are used to describe the geomagnetic field variation observed during geomagnetic storm periods. These indices are very helpful to find out the proper investigation and possible interrelation between geomagnetic storms and observed VHF scintillation. The pre-midnight scintillation is sometimes observed when the main phase of geomagnetic storm corresponds to the pre-midnight period. It is observed that for geomagnetic storms for which the recovery phase starts post-midnight, the probability of occurrence of irregularities is enhanced during this time and extends to early morning hours.

  4. Dust Storm Feature Identification and Tracking from 4D Simulation Data

    Science.gov (United States)

    Yu, M.; Yang, C. P.

    2016-12-01

    Dust storms cause significant damage to health, property and the environment worldwide every year. To help mitigate the damage, dust forecasting models simulate and predict upcoming dust events, providing valuable information to scientists, decision makers, and the public. Normally, the model simulations are conducted in four-dimensions (i.e., latitude, longitude, elevation and time) and represent three-dimensional (3D), spatial heterogeneous features of the storm and its evolution over space and time. This research investigates and proposes an automatic multi-threshold, region-growing based identification algorithm to identify critical dust storm features, and track the evolution process of dust storm events through space and time. In addition, a spatiotemporal data model is proposed, which can support the characterization and representation of dust storm events and their dynamic patterns. Quantitative and qualitative evaluations for the algorithm are conducted to test the sensitivity, and capability of identify and track dust storm events. This study has the potential to assist a better early warning system for decision-makers and the public, thus making hazard mitigation plans more effective.

  5. Restoration of STORM images from sparse subset of localizations (Conference Presentation)

    Science.gov (United States)

    Moiseev, Alexander A.; Gelikonov, Grigory V.; Gelikonov, Valentine M.

    2016-02-01

    To construct a Stochastic Optical Reconstruction Microscopy (STORM) image one should collect sufficient number of localized fluorophores to satisfy Nyquist criterion. This requirement limits time resolution of the method. In this work we propose a probabalistic approach to construct STORM images from a subset of localized fluorophores 3-4 times sparser than required from Nyquist criterion. Using a set of STORM images constructed from number of localizations sufficient for Nyquist criterion we derive a model which allows us to predict the probability for every location to be occupied by a fluorophore at the end of hypothetical acquisition, having as an input parameters distribution of already localized fluorophores in the proximity of this location. We show that probability map obtained from number of fluorophores 3-4 times less than required by Nyquist criterion may be used as superresolution image itself. Thus we are able to construct STORM image from a subset of localized fluorophores 3-4 times sparser than required from Nyquist criterion, proportionaly decreasing STORM data acquisition time. This method may be used complementary with other approaches desined for increasing STORM time resolution.

  6. The extreme solar storm of May 1921: observations and a complex topological model

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    H. Lundstedt

    2015-01-01

    Full Text Available A complex solid torus model was developed in order to be able to study an extreme solar storm, the so-called "Great Storm" or "New York Railroad Storm" of May 1921, when neither high spatial and time resolution magnetic field measurements, solar flare nor coronal mass ejection observations were available. We suggest that a topological change happened in connection with the occurrence of the extreme solar storm. The solar storm caused one of the most severe space weather effects ever.

  7. California's Perfect Storm

    Science.gov (United States)

    Bacon, David

    2010-01-01

    The United States today faces an economic crisis worse than any since the Great Depression of the 1930s. Nowhere is it sharper than in the nation's schools. Last year, California saw a perfect storm of protest in virtually every part of its education system. K-12 teachers built coalitions with parents and students to fight for their jobs and their…

  8. A novel ice storm manipulation experiment in a northern hardwood forest

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lindsey E. Rustad; John L. Campbell

    2012-01-01

    Ice storms are an important natural disturbance within forest ecosystems of the northeastern United States. Current models suggest that the frequency and severity of ice storms may increase in the coming decades in response to changes in climate. Because of the stochastic nature of ice storms and difficulties in predicting their occurrence, most past investigations of...

  9. Apollo 12 - On the Ocean of Storms

    CERN Document Server

    Harland, David

    2011-01-01

    With its two moonwalks, deployment of a geophysical station and geological sampling, Apollo 12 did what many had hoped would be achieved by the first men to land on the Moon. It spectacularly demonstrated the precision landing capability required for the success of future lunar surface explorations. Apollo 12 - On the Ocean of Storms contains over 30 page of color images, including high-resolution scans recently produced by NASA from the original Hasselblad film; covers the mission from its planning through to completion; includes conversations among the crew in the spacecraft that were not transmitted; in the definitive 'popular' account of this mission. This is the first time in 40 years that the story of the Apollo 12 mission to the Moon has bene told in its entirety, using official documents, flight transcripts, and post-mission debriefing to recreate the drama.

  10. Analysis of Tide and Offshore Storm-Induced Water Table Fluctuations for Structural Characterization of a Coastal Island Aquifer

    Science.gov (United States)

    Trglavcnik, Victoria; Morrow, Dean; Weber, Kela P.; Li, Ling; Robinson, Clare E.

    2018-04-01

    Analysis of water table fluctuations can provide important insight into the hydraulic properties and structure of a coastal aquifer system including the connectivity between the aquifer and ocean. This study presents an improved approach for characterizing a permeable heterogeneous coastal aquifer system through analysis of the propagation of the tidal signal, as well as offshore storm pulse signals through a coastal aquifer. Offshore storms produce high wave activity, but are not necessarily linked to significant onshore precipitation. In this study, we focused on offshore storm events during which no onshore precipitation occurred. Extensive groundwater level data collected on a sand barrier island (Sable Island, NS, Canada) show nonuniform discontinuous propagation of the tide and offshore storm pulse signals through the aquifer with isolated inland areas showing enhanced response to both oceanic forcing signals. Propagation analysis suggests that isolated inland water table fluctuations may be caused by localized leakage from a confined aquifer that is connected to the ocean offshore but within the wave setup zone. Two-dimensional groundwater flow simulations were conducted to test the leaky confined-unconfined aquifer conceptualization and to identify the effect of key parameters on tidal signal propagation in leaky confined-unconfined coastal aquifers. This study illustrates that analysis of offshore storm signal propagation, in addition to tidal signal propagation, provides a valuable and low resource approach for large-scale characterization of permeable heterogeneous coastal aquifers. Such an approach is needed for the effective management of coastal environments where water resources are threatened by human activities and the changing climate.

  11. Solar wind-magnetosphere coupling during intense magnetic storms (1978-1979)

    Science.gov (United States)

    Gonzalez, Walter D.; Gonzalez, Alicia L. C.; Tsurutani, Bruce T.; Smith, Edward J.; Tang, Frances

    1989-01-01

    The solar wind-magnetosphere coupling problem during intense magnetic storms was investigated for ten intense magnetic storm events occurring between August 16, 1978 to December 28, 1979. Particular attention was given to the dependence of the ring current energization on the ISEE-measured solar-wind parameters and the evolution of the ring current during the main phase of the intense storms. Several coupling functions were tested as energy input, and several sets of the ring current decay time-constant were searched for the best correlation with the Dst response. Results indicate that a large-scale magnetopause reconnection operates during an intense storm event and that the solar wind ram pressure plays an important role in the energization of the ring current.

  12. Large-scale coastal impact induced by a catastrophic storm

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Fruergaard, Mikkel; Andersen, Thorbjørn Joest; Johannessen, Peter N

    breaching. Our results demonstrate that violent, millennial-scale storms can trigger significant large-scale and long-term changes on barrier coasts, and that coastal changes assumed to take place over centuries or even millennia may occur in association with a single extreme storm event....

  13. Depth-area-duration characteristics of storm rainfall in Texas using Multi-Sensor Precipitation Estimates

    Science.gov (United States)

    McEnery, J. A.; Jitkajornwanich, K.

    2012-12-01

    This presentation will describe the methodology and overall system development by which a benchmark dataset of precipitation information has been used to characterize the depth-area-duration relations in heavy rain storms occurring over regions of Texas. Over the past two years project investigators along with the National Weather Service (NWS) West Gulf River Forecast Center (WGRFC) have developed and operated a gateway data system to ingest, store, and disseminate NWS multi-sensor precipitation estimates (MPE). As a pilot project of the Integrated Water Resources Science and Services (IWRSS) initiative, this testbed uses a Standard Query Language (SQL) server to maintain a full archive of current and historic MPE values within the WGRFC service area. These time series values are made available for public access as web services in the standard WaterML format. Having this volume of information maintained in a comprehensive database now allows the use of relational analysis capabilities within SQL to leverage these multi-sensor precipitation values and produce a valuable derivative product. The area of focus for this study is North Texas and will utilize values that originated from the West Gulf River Forecast Center (WGRFC); one of three River Forecast Centers currently represented in the holdings of this data system. Over the past two decades, NEXRAD radar has dramatically improved the ability to record rainfall. The resulting hourly MPE values, distributed over an approximate 4 km by 4 km grid, are considered by the NWS to be the "best estimate" of rainfall. The data server provides an accepted standard interface for internet access to the largest time-series dataset of NEXRAD based MPE values ever assembled. An automated script has been written to search and extract storms over the 18 year period of record from the contents of this massive historical precipitation database. Not only can it extract site-specific storms, but also duration-specific storms and

  14. Increases of equatorial total electron content (TEC) during magnetic storms

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Yeboah-Amankwah, D.

    1976-01-01

    This paper is a report on the analysis of equatorial electron content, TEC, during magnetic storms. Storms between 1969 and 1972 have been examined as part of an on-going study of TEC morphology during magnetically disturbed days. The published magnetic Ksup(p) indices and TEC data from the Legon abservatory have been employed. The general picture arising from the analysis is that the total electron content of the ionosphere is significantly enhanced during magnetic storms. (author)

  15. Nitrate Removal Rates in Denitrifying Bioreactors During Storm Flows

    Science.gov (United States)

    Pluer, W.; Walter, T.

    2017-12-01

    Field denitrifying bioreactors are designed to reduce excess nitrate (NO3-) pollution in runoff from agricultural fields. Field bioreactors saturate organic matter to create conditions that facilitate microbial denitrification. Prior studies using steady flow in lab-scale bioreactors showed that a hydraulic retention time (HRT) between 4 and 10 hours was optimal for reducing NO3- loads. However, during storm-induced events, flow rate and actual HRT fluctuate. These fluctuations have the potential to disrupt the system in significant ways that are not captured by the idealized steady-flow HRT models. The goal of this study was to investigate removal rate during dynamic storm flows of variable rates and durations. Our results indicate that storm peak flow and duration were not significant controlling variables. Instead, we found high correlations (p=0.004) in average removal rates between bioreactors displaying a predominantly uniform flow pattern compared with bioreactors that exhibited preferential flow (24.4 and 21.4 g N m-3 d-1, respectively). This suggests that the internal flow patterns are a more significant driver of removal rate than external factors of the storm hydrograph. Designing for flow patterns in addition to theoretical HRT will facilitate complete mixing within the bioreactors. This will help maximize excess NO3- removal during large storm-induced runoff events.

  16. About novelty of radiation drug 'Storm in cells'

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Korchubekov, B.

    2005-01-01

    Drugs 'Storm in cells' is intended for treatment of infection wounds and burns in medical practice. The preparation represents the electro- activated mixture consisting uranium and thorium masses in the mumie base, table salt, activated carbon and water. Advantage of the drug 'Storm in cells' in comparison with prototype is increase of wound and burns repair effectiveness in 10-11 %

  17. Changing statistics of storms in the North Atlantic?

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Storch, H. von; Guddal, J.; Iden, K.A.; Jonsson, T.; Perlwitz, J.; Reistad, M.; Ronde, J. de; Schmidt, H.; Zorita, E.

    1993-01-01

    Problems in the present discussion about increasing storminess in the North Atlantic area are discusesd. Observational data so far available do not indicate a change in the storm statistics. Output from climate models points to an itensified storm track in the North Atlantic, but because of the limited skill of present-day climate models in simulating high-frequency variability and regional details any such 'forecast' has to be considered with caution. A downscaling procedure which relates large-scale time-mean aspects of the state of the atmosphere and ocean to the local statistics of storms is proposed to reconstruct past variations of high-frequency variability in the atmosphere (storminess) and in the sea state (wave statistics). First results are presented. (orig.)

  18. Electrical storm presages nonsudden death: the antiarrhythmics versus implantable defibrillators (AVID) trial.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Exner, D V; Pinski, S L; Wyse, D G; Renfroe, E G; Follmann, D; Gold, M; Beckman, K J; Coromilas, J; Lancaster, S; Hallstrom, A P

    2001-04-24

    Electrical storm, multiple temporally related episodes of ventricular tachycardia (VT) or ventricular fibrillation (VF), is a frequent problem among recipients of implantable cardioverter defibrillators (ICDs). However, insufficient data exist regarding its prognostic significance. This analysis includes 457 patients who received an ICD in the Antiarrhythmics Versus Implantable Defibrillators (AVID) trial and who were followed for 31 +/- 13 months. Electrical storm was defined as > or = 3 separate episodes of VT/VF within 24 hours. Characteristics and survival of patients surviving electrical storm (n = 90), those with VT/VF unrelated to electrical storm (n = 184), and the remaining patients (n = 183) were compared. The 3 groups differed in terms of ejection fraction, index arrhythmia, revascularization status, and baseline medication use. Survival was evaluated using time-dependent Cox modeling. Electrical storm occurred 9.2 +/- 11.5 months after ICD implantation, and most episodes (86%) were due to VT. Electrical storm was a significant risk factor for subsequent death, independent of ejection fraction and other prognostic variables (relative risk [RR], 2.4; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.3 to 4.2; P = 0.003), but VT/VF unrelated to electrical storm was not (RR, 1.0; 95% CI, 0.6 to 1.7; P = 0.9). The risk of death was greatest 3 months after electrical storm (RR, 5.4; 95% Cl, 2.4 to 12.3; P = 0.0001) and diminished beyond this time (RR, 1.9; 95% CI, 1.0 to 3.6; P=0.04). Electrical storm is an important, independent marker for subsequent death among ICD recipients, particularly in the first 3 months after its occurrence. However, the development of VT/VF unrelated to electrical storm does not seem to be associated with an increased risk of subsequent death.

  19. Future changes in extratropical storm tracks and baroclinicity under climate change

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Lehmann, Jascha; Coumou, Dim; Frieler, Katja; Eliseev, Alexey V; Levermann, Anders

    2014-01-01

    The weather in Eurasia, Australia, and North and South America is largely controlled by the strength and position of extratropical storm tracks. Future climate change will likely affect these storm tracks and the associated transport of energy, momentum, and water vapour. Many recent studies have analyzed how storm tracks will change under climate change, and how these changes are related to atmospheric dynamics. However, there are still discrepancies between different studies on how storm tracks will change under future climate scenarios. Here, we show that under global warming the CMIP5 ensemble of coupled climate models projects only little relative changes in vertically averaged mid-latitude mean storm track activity during the northern winter, but agree in projecting a substantial decrease during summer. Seasonal changes in the Southern Hemisphere show the opposite behaviour, with an intensification in winter and no change during summer. These distinct seasonal changes in northern summer and southern winter storm tracks lead to an amplified seasonal cycle in a future climate. Similar changes are seen in the mid-latitude mean Eady growth rate maximum, a measure that combines changes in vertical shear and static stability based on baroclinic instability theory. Regression analysis between changes in the storm tracks and changes in the maximum Eady growth rate reveal that most models agree in a positive association between the two quantities over mid-latitude regions. (letter)

  20. Hybrid vs Adaptive Ensemble Kalman Filtering for Storm Surge Forecasting

    Science.gov (United States)

    Altaf, M. U.; Raboudi, N.; Gharamti, M. E.; Dawson, C.; McCabe, M. F.; Hoteit, I.

    2014-12-01

    Recent storm surge events due to Hurricanes in the Gulf of Mexico have motivated the efforts to accurately forecast water levels. Toward this goal, a parallel architecture has been implemented based on a high resolution storm surge model, ADCIRC. However the accuracy of the model notably depends on the quality and the recentness of the input data (mainly winds and bathymetry), model parameters (e.g. wind and bottom drag coefficients), and the resolution of the model grid. Given all these uncertainties in the system, the challenge is to build an efficient prediction system capable of providing accurate forecasts enough ahead of time for the authorities to evacuate the areas at risk. We have developed an ensemble-based data assimilation system to frequently assimilate available data into the ADCIRC model in order to improve the accuracy of the model. In this contribution we study and analyze the performances of different ensemble Kalman filter methodologies for efficient short-range storm surge forecasting, the aim being to produce the most accurate forecasts at the lowest possible computing time. Using Hurricane Ike meteorological data to force the ADCIRC model over a domain including the Gulf of Mexico coastline, we implement and compare the forecasts of the standard EnKF, the hybrid EnKF and an adaptive EnKF. The last two schemes have been introduced as efficient tools for enhancing the behavior of the EnKF when implemented with small ensembles by exploiting information from a static background covariance matrix. Covariance inflation and localization are implemented in all these filters. Our results suggest that both the hybrid and the adaptive approach provide significantly better forecasts than those resulting from the standard EnKF, even when implemented with much smaller ensembles.

  1. Chasing storms in an agricultural catchment: the stream DOM story

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hernes, P. J.; Spencer, R. G.; Pellerin, B. A.; Downing, B. D.; Saraceno, J.; Dyda, R. Y.; Bergamaschi, B. A.

    2011-12-01

    Storm events are notorious for mobilizing large amounts of dissolved and particulate substances in streams and rivers. Conversion of natural landscapes to agricultural land-use can significantly amplify this effect. We investigated the impacts of two storm events on stream dissolved organic matter (DOM) in 2008 in Willow Slough, a California/Sacramento Valley agricultural catchment. The tools utilized included carbon stable isotopes, fluorescence, ultraviolet-visible absorbance, lignin, disinfection byproduct formation potential, and biodegradation experiments. Dissolved organic carbon (DOC) concentrations at the mouth at peak discharge during the storms ranged from 9-10 mg/L compared to baseline conditions of 2-4 mg/L. Other storm effects included increased dissolved organic nitrogen, depleted carbon stable isotopes, increased humic fluorescence intensity, increased specific UV absorbance (SUVA), decreased spectral slopes, increased bioavailability, and increased carbon-normalized yields of lignin. Increased frequency and intensity of storms due to climate change are likely to have a non-linear effect on riverine exports and water quality, with subsequent impacts on carbon loading, mercury transport, and drinking water quality.

  2. Morphological records of storm floods exemplified by the impact of the 1872 Baltic storm on a sandy spit system in south-eastern Denmark

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Clemmensen, Lars B; Bendixen, Mette; Hede, Mikkel Ulfeldt

    2014-01-01

    Beach-ridge systems are important geo-archives providing evidence for past wave climate including catastrophic storm flood events. This study investigates the morphological impacts of the 1872 Baltic storm flood on a beach-ridge system (sandy spit) in south-eastern Denmark and evaluates the frequ...

  3. Complexities of the storm-time characteristics of ionospheric total electron content

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Kane, R.P.

    1982-01-01

    The complexities of the storm-time variations of the ionospheric total electron content are briefly reviewed. It is suggested that large variations from storm to storm may be due to irregular flows from the auroral region towards equator. A proper study of such flows needs an elaborate network of TEC measuring instruments. The need of planning and organizing such a network is emphasized

  4. Boulder Dislodgment Reloaded: New insights from boulder transport and dislodgement by tsunamis and storms from three-dimensional numerical simulations with GPUSPH

    Science.gov (United States)

    Weiss, R.; Zainali, A.

    2014-12-01

    Boulders can be found on many coastlines around the globe. They are generally thought to be moved either during coastal storms or tsunamis because they are too heavy to be moved by more common marine or coastal processes. To understand storm and tsunami risk at given coastline, the event histories of both events need to be separated to produce a robust event statistics for quantitative risk analyses. Because boulders are most likely only moved by coastal storms or tsunamis, they are very suitable to produce the data basis for such event statistics. Boulder transport problem has been approached by comparing the driving with resisting forces acting on a boulder. However, we argue that this approach is not sufficient because the comparison of resisting and driving forces only constitutes boulder motion, but not for boulder dislodgment. Boulder motion means that the boulder starts to move out of its pocket. However, this motion does not guarantee that the boulder will reach the critical dislodgment position. Boulder dislodgment is a necessary condition to identify whether or not a boulder has moved. For boulder dislodgement, an equation of motion is needed, and that equation is Newtons Second Law of Motion (NSL). We perform fully coupled three-dimensional numerical simulation of boulders moved by waves where the boulders move according to NSL. Our numerical simulations are the first of their kind applied to tsunami and storm boulder motion. They show how storm and tsunami waves interact with boulders in a more realistic physical setting, and highlight the importance of submergence. Based on our simulations we perform a dimensional analysis that identifies the Froude number as important parameter, which can be considered large only in the front of tsunami waves, but small in the rest of tsunami wave and also generally small in storm waves. From a general point of view, our results indicate that the boulder transport problem is more complex than recently considered, and

  5. Anticipating and Communicating Plausible Environmental and Health Concerns Associated with Future Disasters: The ShakeOut and ARkStorm Scenarios as Examples

    Science.gov (United States)

    Plumlee, G. S.; Morman, S. A.; Alpers, C. N.; Hoefen, T. M.; Meeker, G. P.

    2010-12-01

    Disasters commonly pose immediate threats to human safety, but can also produce hazardous materials (HM) that pose short- and long-term environmental-health threats. The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) has helped assess potential environmental health characteristics of HM produced by various natural and anthropogenic disasters, such as the 2001 World Trade Center collapse, 2005 hurricanes Katrina and Rita, 2007-2009 southern California wildfires, various volcanic eruptions, and others. Building upon experience gained from these responses, we are now developing methods to anticipate plausible environmental and health implications of the 2008 Great Southern California ShakeOut scenario (which modeled the impacts of a 7.8 magnitude earthquake on the southern San Andreas fault, http://urbanearth.gps.caltech.edu/scenario08/), and the recent ARkStorm scenario (modeling the impacts of a major, weeks-long winter storm hitting nearly all of California, http://urbanearth.gps.caltech.edu/winter-storm/). Environmental-health impacts of various past earthquakes and extreme storms are first used to identify plausible impacts that could be associated with the disaster scenarios. Substantial insights can then be gleaned using a Geographic Information Systems (GIS) approach to link ShakeOut and ARkStorm effects maps with data extracted from diverse database sources containing geologic, hazards, and environmental information. This type of analysis helps constrain where potential geogenic (natural) and anthropogenic sources of HM (and their likely types of contaminants or pathogens) fall within areas of predicted ShakeOut-related shaking, firestorms, and landslides, and predicted ARkStorm-related precipitation, flooding, and winds. Because of uncertainties in the event models and many uncertainties in the databases used (e.g., incorrect location information, lack of detailed information on specific facilities, etc.) this approach should only be considered as the first of multiple steps

  6. Calculation of voltages in electric power transmission lines during historic geomagnetic storms: An investigation using realistic earth impedances

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lucas, Greg M.; Love, Jeffrey J.; Kelbert, Anna

    2018-01-01

    Commonly, one-dimensional (1-D) Earth impedances have been used to calculate the voltages induced across electric power transmission lines during geomagnetic storms under the assumption that much of the three-dimensional structure of the Earth gets smoothed when integrating along power transmission lines. We calculate the voltage across power transmission lines in the mid-Atlantic region with both regional 1-D impedances and 64 empirical 3-D impedances obtained from a magnetotelluric survey. The use of 3-D impedances produces substantially more spatial variance in the calculated voltages, with the voltages being more than an order of magnitude different, both higher and lower, than the voltages calculated utilizing regional 1-D impedances. During the March 1989 geomagnetic storm 62 transmission lines exceed 100 V when utilizing empirical 3-D impedances, whereas 16 transmission lines exceed 100 V when utilizing regional 1-D impedances. This demonstrates the importance of using realistic impedances to understand and quantify the impact that a geomagnetic storm has on power grids.

  7. Effects of Asian dust storm events on daily mortality in Taipei, Taiwan

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Chen, Y.-S.; Sheen, P.-C.; Chen, E.-R.; Liu, Y.-K.; Wu, T.-N.; Yang, C.-Y.

    2004-01-01

    In spring, windblown dust storms originating in the deserts of Mongolia and China make their way to Taipei City. These occurrences are known as Asian dust storm events. The objective of this study was to assess the possible effects of Asian dust storms on the mortality of residents in Taipei, Taiwan, during the period from 1995 to 2000. We identified 39 dust storm episodes, which were classified as index days. Daily deaths on the index days were compared with deaths on the comparison days. We selected two comparison days for each index day, 7 days before the index day and 7 days after the index day. The strongest estimated effects of dust storms were increases of 7.66% in risk for respiratory disease 1 day after the event, 4.92% for total deaths 2 days following the dust storms and 2.59% for circulatory diseases 2 days following the dust storms. However, none of these effects were statistically significant. This study found greater specificity for associations with respiratory deaths, and this increases the likelihood that the association between dust events and daily mortality represents a causal relationship

  8. Modelling of flow and settling in storm water sedimentation tanks

    OpenAIRE

    Kluck, J.

    1994-01-01

    In the near future in the Netherlands many reservoirs will have to be built to abate the pollution of the surface water by overflowing storm water from combined sewer systems [Kluck, 1992-a]. These reservoirs, called storm water sedimentation tanks, reduce the pollution in two ways. The most important is by simply storing a part of the sewage (waste water and storm water) and thus reducing the quantity of overflowing water. The second is by providing flow conditions in which particles can set...

  9. Transequatorial magnetic flux loops on the sun: a possible new source of geomagnetic storms

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Takao Saito

    2009-11-01

    Full Text Available Following the traditional way of expression, geomagnetic storms have been classified into three types; flare-type Sc storms, CH-type Sg storms, and DB-type Sc storms (Sc:sudden commencement;CH:coronal hole;g:gradual;DB:disparition brusque.We have discovered that some transequatorial loops (TEL give rise to geomagnetic storms, when the TEL explodes near the central meridian of the sun. The axial magnetic direction of the TEL can be inferred, since TELs connect sunspot groups or remnant magnetic regions between the northern and southern hemispheres. Since the axial fields tend to have a large Bz component in interplanetary space, we have examined various effects on the configuration of geomagnetic storms. Topics are proposed for future works on the TEL-type Sc storms.

  10. Selection of an appropriately simple storm runoff model

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    A. I. J. M. van Dijk

    2010-03-01

    Full Text Available An appropriately simple event runoff model for catchment hydrological studies was derived. The model was selected from several variants as having the optimum balance between simplicity and the ability to explain daily observations of streamflow from 260 Australian catchments (23–1902 km2. Event rainfall and runoff were estimated from the observations through a combination of baseflow separation and storm flow recession analysis, producing a storm flow recession coefficient (kQF. Various model structures with up to six free parameters were investigated, covering most of the equations applied in existing lumped catchment models. The performance of alternative structures and free parameters were expressed in Aikake's Final Prediction Error Criterion (FPEC and corresponding Nash-Sutcliffe model efficiencies (NSME for event runoff totals. For each model variant, the number of free parameters was reduced in steps based on calculated parameter sensitivity. The resulting optimal model structure had two or three free parameters; the first describing the non-linear relationship between event rainfall and runoff (Smax, the second relating runoff to antecedent groundwater storage (CSg, and a third that described initial rainfall losses (Li, but which could be set at 8 mm without affecting model performance too much. The best three parameter model produced a median NSME of 0.64 and outperformed, for example, the Soil Conservation Service Curve Number technique (median NSME 0.30–0.41. Parameter estimation in ungauged catchments is likely to be challenging: 64% of the variance in kQF among stations could be explained by catchment climate indicators and spatial correlation, but corresponding numbers were a modest 45% for CSg, 21% for Smax and none for Li, respectively. In gauged catchments, better

  11. On the Variability of Wilson Currents by Storm Type and Phase

    Science.gov (United States)

    Deierling, Wiebke; Kalb, Christina; Mach, Douglas; Liu, Chuntao; Peterson, Michael; Blakeslee, Richard

    2014-01-01

    Storm total conduction currents from electrified clouds are thought to play a major role in maintaining the potential difference between the earth's surface and the upper atmosphere within the Global Electric Circuit (GEC). However, it is not entirely known how the contributions of these currents vary by cloud type and phase of the clouds life cycle. Estimates of storm total conduction currents were obtained from data collected over two decades during multiple field campaigns involving the NASA ER-2 aircraft. In this study the variability of these currents by cloud type and lifecycle is investigated. We also compared radar derived microphysical storm properties with total storm currents to investigate whether these storm properties can be used to describe the current variability of different electrified clouds. The ultimate goal is to help improve modeling of the GEC via quantification and improved parameterization of the conduction current contribution of different cloud types.

  12. On the Representation of an Early Modern Dutch Storm in Two Poems

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Katrin Pfeifer

    2015-10-01

    Full Text Available On 19th December 1660, a severe storm raged over the Dutch isle of Texel, causing severe damage. It proceeded to destroy parts of the city of Amsterdam. Both the sailor and merchant Gerrit Jansz Kooch and the priest Joannes Vollenhove wrote a poem about this natural disaster, presumably independently of each other. The poets perceived the storm differently: Kooch, an eyewitness of the storm, matter-of-factly portrays the calamity and details a feud between his son-in-law and a colleague to commemorate the day of the disaster. In contrast, Vollenhove personifies the winter storm and struggles to understand it. Their poems are valuable sources for a cultural historical analysis. After a brief review of historical severe storm research, I will analyse these poems from a cultural historical point of view. I will shed light on how this severe storm was represented poetically in the Early Modern Period.

  13. Developing Local Scale, High Resolution, Data to Interface with Numerical Storm Models

    Science.gov (United States)

    Witkop, R.; Becker, A.; Stempel, P.

    2017-12-01

    High resolution, physical storm models that can rapidly predict storm surge, inundation, rainfall, wind velocity and wave height at the intra-facility scale for any storm affecting Rhode Island have been developed by Researchers at the University of Rhode Island's (URI's) Graduate School of Oceanography (GSO) (Ginis et al., 2017). At the same time, URI's Marine Affairs Department has developed methods that inhere individual geographic points into GSO's models and enable the models to accurately incorporate local scale, high resolution data (Stempel et al., 2017). This combination allows URI's storm models to predict any storm's impacts on individual Rhode Island facilities in near real time. The research presented here determines how a coastal Rhode Island town's critical facility managers (FMs) perceive their assets as being vulnerable to quantifiable hurricane-related forces at the individual facility scale and explores methods to elicit this information from FMs in a format usable for incorporation into URI's storm models.

  14. Observations and global numerical modelling of the St. Patrick's Day 2015 geomagnetic storm event

    Science.gov (United States)

    Foerster, M.; Prokhorov, B. E.; Doornbos, E.; Astafieva, E.; Zakharenkova, I.

    2017-12-01

    With a sudden storm commencement (SSC) at 04:45 UT on St. Patrick's day 2015 started the most severe geomagnetic storm in solar cycle 24. It appeared as a two-stage geomagnetic storm with a minimum SYM-H value of -233 nT. In the response to the storm commencement in the first activation, a short-term positive effect in the ionospheric vertical electron content (VTEC) occurred at low- and mid-latitudes on the dayside. The second phase commencing around 12:30 UT lasted longer and caused significant and complex storm-time changes around the globe with hemispherical different ionospheric storm reactions in different longitudinal ranges. Swarm-C observations of the neutral mass density variation along the orbital path as well as Langmuir probe plasma and magnetometer measurements of all three Swarm satellites and global TEC records are used for physical interpretations and modelling of the positive/negative storm scenario. These observations pose a challenge for the global numerical modelling of thermosphere-ionosphere storm processes as the storm, which occurred around spring equinox, obviously signify the existence of other impact factors than seasonal dependence for hemispheric asymmetries to occur. Numerical simulation trials using the Potsdam version of the Upper Atmosphere Model (UAM-P) are presented to explain these peculiar M-I-T storm processes.

  15. Thyroid Echography-induced Thyroid Storm and Exacerbation of Acute Heart Failure.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Nakabayashi, Keisuke; Nakazawa, Naomi; Suzuki, Toshiaki; Asano, Ryotaro; Saito, Hideki; Nomura, Hidekimi; Isomura, Daichi; Okada, Hisayuki; Sugiura, Ryo; Oka, Toshiaki

    2016-01-01

    Hyperthyroidism and thyroid storm affect cardiac circulation in some conditions. Several factors including trauma can induce thyroid storms. We herein describe the case of a 57-year-old woman who experienced a thyroid storm and exacerbation of acute heart failure on thyroid echography. She initially demonstrated a good clinical course after medical rate control for atrial fibrillation; however, thyroid echography for evaluating hyperthyroidism led to a thyroid storm and she collapsed. A multidisciplinary approach stabilized her thyroid hormone levels and hemodynamics. Thus, the medical staff should be prepared for a deterioration in the patient's condition during thyroid echography in heart failure patients with hyperthyroidism.

  16. Tree Survival and Growth Following Ice Storm Injury

    Science.gov (United States)

    Walter C. Shortle; Kevin T. Smith; Kenneth R. Dudzik

    2003-01-01

    Nearly 25 million acres of forest from northwestern New York and southern Quebec to the south-central Maine coast were coated with ice from a 3-day storm in early January 1998. This storm was unusual in its size and the duration of icing. Trees throughout the region were injured as branches and stems broke and forks split under the weight of the ice. These injuries...

  17. Impacts of storm chronology on the morphological changes of the Formby beach and dune system, UK

    Science.gov (United States)

    Dissanayake, P.; Brown, J.; Karunarathna, H.

    2015-07-01

    Impacts of storm chronology within a storm cluster on beach/dune erosion are investigated by applying the state-of-the-art numerical model XBeach to the Sefton coast, northwest England. Six temporal storm clusters of different storm chronologies were formulated using three storms observed during the 2013/2014 winter. The storm power values of these three events nearly halve from the first to second event and from the second to third event. Cross-shore profile evolution was simulated in response to the tide, surge and wave forcing during these storms. The model was first calibrated against the available post-storm survey profiles. Cumulative impacts of beach/dune erosion during each storm cluster were simulated by using the post-storm profile of an event as the pre-storm profile for each subsequent event. For the largest event the water levels caused noticeable retreat of the dune toe due to the high water elevation. For the other events the greatest evolution occurs over the bar formations (erosion) and within the corresponding troughs (deposition) of the upper-beach profile. The sequence of events impacting the size of this ridge-runnel feature is important as it consequently changes the resilience of the system to the most extreme event that causes dune retreat. The highest erosion during each single storm event was always observed when that storm initialised the storm cluster. The most severe storm always resulted in the most erosion during each cluster, no matter when it occurred within the chronology, although the erosion volume due to this storm was reduced when it was not the primary event. The greatest cumulative cluster erosion occurred with increasing storm severity; however, the variability in cumulative cluster impact over a beach/dune cross section due to storm chronology is minimal. Initial storm impact can act to enhance or reduce the system resilience to subsequent impact, but overall the cumulative impact is controlled by the magnitude and number

  18. Study of the mid-latitude ionospheric response to geomagnetic storms in the European region

    Science.gov (United States)

    Berényi, Kitti Alexandra; Barta, Veronika; Kis, Arpad

    2016-07-01

    Geomagnetic storms affect the ionospheric regions of the terrestrial upper atmosphere through different physical and atmospheric processes. The phenomena that can be regarded as a result of these processes, generally is named as "ionospheric storm". The processes depend on altitude, segment of the day, the geomagnetic latitude and longitude, strength of solar activity and the type of the geomagnetic storm. We examine the data of ground-based radio wave ionosphere sounding measurements of European ionospheric stations (mainly the data of Nagycenk Geophysical Observatory) in order to determine how and to what extent a geomagnetic disturbance of a certain strength affects the mid-latitude ionospheric regions in winter and in summer. For our analysis we used disturbed time periods between November 2012 and June 2015. Our results show significant changing of the ionospheric F2 layer parameters on strongly disturbed days compared to quiet ones. We show that the critical frequencies (foF2) increase compared to their quiet day value when the ionospheric storm was positive. On the other hand, the critical frequencies become lower, when the storm was negative. In our analysis we determined the magnitude of these changes on the chosen days. For a more complete analysis we compare also the evolution of the F2 layer parameters of the European ionosonde stations on a North-South geographic longitude during a full storm duration. The results present the evolution of an ionospheric storm over a geographic meridian. Furthermore, we compared the two type of geomagnetic storms, namely the CME caused geomagnetic storm - the so-called Sudden impulse (Si) storms- and the HSS (High Speed Solar Wind Streams) caused geomagnetic storms -the so-called Gradual storms (Gs)- impact on the ionospheric F2-layer (foF2 parameter). The results show a significant difference between the effect of Si and of the Gs storms on the ionospheric F2-layer.

  19. US Weather Bureau Storm Reports

    Data.gov (United States)

    National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Department of Commerce — Weather Bureau and US Army Corps and other reports of storms from 1886-1955. Hourly precipitation from recording rain gauges captured during heavy rain, snow,...

  20. The Use of Pre-Storm Boundary-Layer Baroclinicity in Determining and Operationally Implementing the Atlantic Surface Cyclone Intensification Index

    Science.gov (United States)

    Cione, Joseph; Pietrafes, Leonard J.

    The lateral motion of the Gulf Stream off the eastern seaboard of the United States during the winter season can act to dramatically enhance the low-level baroclinicity within the coastal zone during periods of offshore cold advection. The ralative close proximity of the Gulf Stream current off the mid-Atlantic coast can result in the rapid and intense destabilization of the marine atmospheric boundary layer directly above and shoreward of the Gulf Stream within this region. This airmass modification period often precedes either wintertime coastal cyclogenesis or the cyclonic re-development of existing mid-latitude cyclones. A climatological study investigating the relationship between the severity of the pre-storm, cold advection period and subsequent cyclogenic intensification was undertaken by Cione et al. in 1993. Findings from this study illustrate that the thermal structure of the continental airmass as well as the position of the Gulf Stream front relative to land during the pre-storm period (i.e., 24-48 h prior to the initial cyclonic intensification) are linked to the observed rate of surface cyclonic deepening for storms that either advected into or initially developed within the Carolina-southeast Virginia offshore coastal zone. It is a major objective of this research to test the potential operational utility of this pre-storm low level baroclinic linkage to subsequent cyclogenesis in an actual National Weather Service (NWS) coastal winter storm forecast setting.The ability to produce coastal surface cyclone intensity forecasts recently became available to North Carolina State University researchers and NWS forecasters. This statistical forecast guidance utilizes regression relationships derived from a nine-season (January 1982-April 1990), 116-storm study conducted previously. During the period between February 1994 and February 1996, the Atlantic Surface Cyclone Intensification Index (ASCII) was successfully implemented in an operational setting by

  1. Storm-generated coral fragments - A viable source of transplants for reef rehabilitation

    Science.gov (United States)

    Garrison, V.; Ward, G.

    2008-01-01

    Coral reefs throughout the world have been damaged by storms, diseases, coral predators, temperature anomalies, and human activities. During the past three decades, recovery has been limited and patchy. Although a damaged coral reef cannot be restored to its original condition, interest in reef restoration is increasing. In a pilot project in the Caribbean (US Virgin Islands), storm-produced fragments of Acropora palmata, A. cervicornis, and Porites porites were collected from donor reefs and transplanted to nearby degraded reefs. Sixty coral fragments were attached to dead-coral substrate (usually A. palmata skeletons), at similar depths from which they had been collected (1-3.5 m), using nylon cable ties. Seventy-five intact colonies were designated as controls. Study colonies were assessed at 6-month intervals for 2 years (1999-2001) and annually thereafter (through 2004). One-fourth of the 135 colonies and fragments monitored were alive at the conclusion of the 5-year study. Survival of control and transplanted A. cervicornis and P. porites was very low (median survival 2.4 and 1.8 years, respectively), with no significant differences between transplant and control colonies. Site and depth did not contribute significantly to A. palmata colony survival, but colony size and transplant/control status did. Probability of survival increased with colony size. Median survival for A. palmata was 1.3 years for transplant and 4.3 years for natural colonies when not controlled for size. A. palmata was the only viable candidate for reef rehabilitation. Storm swells were the primary cause of mortality.

  2. Swashed away? Storm impacts on sandy beach macrofaunal communities

    Science.gov (United States)

    Harris, Linda; Nel, Ronel; Smale, Malcolm; Schoeman, David

    2011-09-01

    Storms can have a large impact on sandy shores, with powerful waves eroding large volumes of sand off the beach. Resulting damage to the physical environment has been well-studied but the ecological implications of these natural phenomena are less known. Since climate change predictions suggest an increase in storminess in the near future, understanding these ecological implications is vital if sandy shores are to be proactively managed for resilience. Here, we report on an opportunistic experiment that tests the a priori expectation that storms impact beach macrofaunal communities by modifying natural patterns of beach morphodynamics. Two sites at Sardinia Bay, South Africa, were sampled for macrofauna and physical descriptors following standard sampling methods. This sampling took place five times at three- to four-month intervals between April 2008 and August 2009. The second and last sampling events were undertaken after unusually large storms, the first of which was sufficiently large to transform one site from a sandy beach into a mixed shore for the first time in living memory. A range of univariate (linear mixed-effects models) and multivariate (e.g. non-metric multidimensional scaling, PERMANOVA) methods were employed to describe trends in the time series, and to explore the likelihood of possible explanatory mechanisms. Macrofaunal communities at the dune-backed beach (Site 2) withstood the effects of the first storm but were altered significantly by the second storm. In contrast, macrofauna communities at Site 1, where the supralittoral had been anthropogenically modified so that exchange of sediments with the beach was limited, were strongly affected by the first storm and showed little recovery over the study period. In line with predictions from ecological theory, beach morphodynamics was found to be a strong driver of temporal patterns in the macrofaunal community structure, with the storm events also identified as a significant factor, likely

  3. Thyroid storm complicated by fulminant hepatic failure: case report and literature review.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hambleton, Catherine; Buell, Joseph; Saggi, Bob; Balart, Luis; Shores, Nathan J; Kandil, Emad

    2013-11-01

    Thyroid storm is a presentation of severe thyrotoxicosis that has a mortality rate of up to 20% to 30%. Fulminant hepatic failure (FHF) entails encephalopathy with severe coagulopathy in the setting of liver disease. It carries a high mortality rate, with an approximately 60% rate of overall survival for patients who undergo orthotopic liver transplantation (OLT). Fulminant hepatic failure is a rare but serious complication of thyroid storm. There have been only 6 previously reported cases of FHF with thyroid storm. We present a patient from our institution with thyroid storm and FHF. A literature review was performed to analyze the outcomes of the 6 additional cases of concomitant thyroid storm and FHF. Our patient underwent thyroidectomy followed by OLT. Her serum levels of thyroid-stimulating hormone, triiodothyronine, thyroxine, and transaminase normalized, and she was ready for discharge within 10 days of surgery. She has survived without complication. There is a 40% mortality rate for the reported patients treated medically with these conditions. Of the 7 total cases of reported FHF and thyroid storm, 2 patients died. Only 2 of the 7 patients underwent thyroidectomy and OLT--both at our institution. Both patients survived without complications. Thyroid storm and FHF each independently carry high mortality rates, and managing patients with both conditions simultaneously is an extraordinary challenge. These cases should compel clinicians to investigate liver function in hyperthyroid patients and to be wary of its rapid decline in patients who present in thyroid storm with symptoms of liver dysfunction. Patients with rapidly progressing thyroid storm and FHF should be considered for total thyroidectomy and OLT.

  4. Adaptive mesh refinement for storm surge

    KAUST Repository

    Mandli, Kyle T.; Dawson, Clint N.

    2014-01-01

    An approach to utilizing adaptive mesh refinement algorithms for storm surge modeling is proposed. Currently numerical models exist that can resolve the details of coastal regions but are often too costly to be run in an ensemble forecasting framework without significant computing resources. The application of adaptive mesh refinement algorithms substantially lowers the computational cost of a storm surge model run while retaining much of the desired coastal resolution. The approach presented is implemented in the GeoClaw framework and compared to ADCIRC for Hurricane Ike along with observed tide gauge data and the computational cost of each model run. © 2014 Elsevier Ltd.

  5. Adaptive mesh refinement for storm surge

    KAUST Repository

    Mandli, Kyle T.

    2014-03-01

    An approach to utilizing adaptive mesh refinement algorithms for storm surge modeling is proposed. Currently numerical models exist that can resolve the details of coastal regions but are often too costly to be run in an ensemble forecasting framework without significant computing resources. The application of adaptive mesh refinement algorithms substantially lowers the computational cost of a storm surge model run while retaining much of the desired coastal resolution. The approach presented is implemented in the GeoClaw framework and compared to ADCIRC for Hurricane Ike along with observed tide gauge data and the computational cost of each model run. © 2014 Elsevier Ltd.

  6. Electrical storm: case series and review of management.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Srivatsa, Uma N; Ebrahimi, Ramin; El-Bialy, Adel; Wachsner, Robin Y

    2003-09-01

    Electrical storm is defined as a recurrent episode of hemodynamically destabilizing ventricular tachyarrhythmia that usually requires electrical cardioversion or defibrillation. We describe three cases presenting with electrical storm under differing circumstances: (1) a 57-year-old man with ST-elevation myocardial infarction within 1 week of a posterior circulation stroke who developed refractory sustained ventricular tachycardia 10 days after an acute myocardial infarction; (2) a 65-year-old man who developed polymorphic ventricular tachycardia and ventricular fibrillation following dobutamine echocardiography; and (3) a 20-year-old woman who developed intractable ventricular fibrillation following an overdose of a weight-reduction pill. The management of electrical storm is discussed, and evolving literature supporting the routine use of intravenous amiodarone and beta-blockers in place of intravenous lidocaine is critically examined.

  7. VLF emissions and whistlers observed during geomagnetic storms

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ondoh, T.; Tanaka, Y.; Nishizaki, R.; Nagayama, M.

    1974-01-01

    Whistler-triggered emissions and a narrowband hiss are described which were observed over Japan by ISIS 2 during the main phase of the geomagnetic storm of August 9, 1972. The characteristics of the narrowband hiss and increases in the whistler rate during the storm are discussed, and the ISIS-2 data are compared with data on whistler cutoffs and VLF noise breakups obtained by OGO 4 and Alouette I. Since the whistlers and narrowband hiss are usually observed inside and outside the plasmapause, it is thought that the plasmapause may have been located near the low-latitude end of the narrowband hiss during the main phase of the storm. It is suggested that the increases in the whistler rate may have been caused by the formation of whistler ducts in the disturbed plasmapause.

  8. Characterisation of atmospheric deposited particles during a dust storm in urban areas of Eastern Australia

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Gunawardena, Janaka, E-mail: j.gunawardena@qut.edu.au; Ziyath, Abdul M., E-mail: mohamed.ziyath@qut.edu.au; Bostrom, Thor E., E-mail: t.bostrom@qut.edu.au; Bekessy, Lambert K., E-mail: l.bekessy@qut.edu.au; Ayoko, Godwin A., E-mail: g.ayoko@qut.edu.au; Egodawatta, Prasanna, E-mail: p.egodawatta@qut.edu.au; Goonetilleke, Ashantha, E-mail: a.goonetilleke@qut.edu.au

    2013-09-01

    The characteristics of dust particles deposited during the 2009 dust storm in the Gold Coast and Brisbane regions of Australia are discussed in this paper. The study outcomes provide important knowledge in relation to the potential impacts of dust storm related pollution on ecosystem health in the context that the frequency of dust storms is predicted to increase due to anthropogenic desert surface modifications and climate change impacts. The investigated dust storm contributed a large fraction of fine particles to the environment with an increased amount of total suspended solids, compared to dry deposition under ambient conditions. Although the dust storm passed over forested areas, the organic carbon content in the dust was relatively low. The primary metals present in the dust storm deposition were aluminium, iron and manganese, which are common soil minerals in Australia. The dust storm deposition did not contain significant loads of nickel, cadmium, copper and lead, which are commonly present in the urban environment. Furthermore, the comparison between the ambient and dust storm chromium and zinc loads suggested that these metals were contributed to the dust storm by local anthropogenic sources. The potential ecosystem health impacts of the 2009 dust storm include, increased fine solids deposition on ground surfaces resulting in an enhanced capacity to adsorb toxic pollutants as well as increased aluminium, iron and manganese loads. In contrast, the ecosystem health impacts related to organic carbon and other metals from dust storm atmospheric deposition are not considered to be significant. - Highlights: • The dust storm contributed a large fraction of fine particles to pollutant build-up. • The dust storm increased TSS, Al, Fe and Mn loads in build-up on ground surfaces. • Dust storm did not significantly increase TOC, Ni, Cu, Pb and Cd loads in build-up. • Cr and Zn in dust storm deposition were contributed by local anthropogenic sources.

  9. Characterisation of atmospheric deposited particles during a dust storm in urban areas of Eastern Australia

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Gunawardena, Janaka; Ziyath, Abdul M.; Bostrom, Thor E.; Bekessy, Lambert K.; Ayoko, Godwin A.; Egodawatta, Prasanna; Goonetilleke, Ashantha

    2013-01-01

    The characteristics of dust particles deposited during the 2009 dust storm in the Gold Coast and Brisbane regions of Australia are discussed in this paper. The study outcomes provide important knowledge in relation to the potential impacts of dust storm related pollution on ecosystem health in the context that the frequency of dust storms is predicted to increase due to anthropogenic desert surface modifications and climate change impacts. The investigated dust storm contributed a large fraction of fine particles to the environment with an increased amount of total suspended solids, compared to dry deposition under ambient conditions. Although the dust storm passed over forested areas, the organic carbon content in the dust was relatively low. The primary metals present in the dust storm deposition were aluminium, iron and manganese, which are common soil minerals in Australia. The dust storm deposition did not contain significant loads of nickel, cadmium, copper and lead, which are commonly present in the urban environment. Furthermore, the comparison between the ambient and dust storm chromium and zinc loads suggested that these metals were contributed to the dust storm by local anthropogenic sources. The potential ecosystem health impacts of the 2009 dust storm include, increased fine solids deposition on ground surfaces resulting in an enhanced capacity to adsorb toxic pollutants as well as increased aluminium, iron and manganese loads. In contrast, the ecosystem health impacts related to organic carbon and other metals from dust storm atmospheric deposition are not considered to be significant. - Highlights: • The dust storm contributed a large fraction of fine particles to pollutant build-up. • The dust storm increased TSS, Al, Fe and Mn loads in build-up on ground surfaces. • Dust storm did not significantly increase TOC, Ni, Cu, Pb and Cd loads in build-up. • Cr and Zn in dust storm deposition were contributed by local anthropogenic sources

  10. Treatment of Storm Fears Using Virtual Reality and Progressive Muscle Relaxation.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lima, Jessica; McCabe-Bennett, Hanna; Antony, Martin M

    2018-03-01

    The present study examined the efficacy of virtual reality (VR) exposure therapy for treating individuals with storm fears by comparing a one-session VR exposure treatment with a one-session progressive muscle relaxation (PMR) and psychoeducation session. It was predicted that there would be a reduction in storm-related fear post-treatment for individuals in both conditions, but that this reduction would be greater for those in the VR exposure condition. It was predicted that improvements would be maintained at 30-day follow-up only for those in the VR exposure condition. Thirty-six participants each received one of the two treatment conditions. Those in the PMR treatment group received approximately 30 minutes of PMR and approximately 15 minutes of psychoeducation regarding storms. Those in the VR treatment group received approximately 1 hour of VR exposure. Additionally, participants were asked to complete a pre-treatment and post-treatment 5-minute behavioural approach test to assess changes in storm fears. They were also asked to complete a measure assessing storm phobia. There was a significant interaction between treatment group and self-reported fear at post-treatment, such that fear decreased for both groups, although the reduction was stronger in the VR group. Results also showed that reductions in storm fear were maintained at 30-day follow-up for both groups. Although this study used a small non-clinical sample, these results offer preliminary support for the use of VR exposure therapy in the treatment of storm-related fear.

  11. Storm water pollution prevention plan for the Oak Ridge Y-12 Plant

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    NONE

    1995-09-01

    The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) published the final storm water regulation on November 16, 1990. The storm water regulation is included in the National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) regulations. An NPDES permit was issued for the Y-12 Plant on April 28, 1995, and was effective on July 1, 1995. The permit requires that a Storm Water Pollution Prevention Plan (SWP3) be developed by December 28, 1995, and be fully implemented by July 1, 1996; this plan has been developed to fulfill that requirement. The outfalls and monitoring points described in this plan contain storm water discharges associated with industrial activities as defined in the NPDES regulations. For storm water discharges associated with industrial activity, including storm water discharges associated with construction activity, that are not specifically monitored or limited in this permit, Y-12 Plant personnel will meet conditions of the General Storm Water Rule 1200-4-10. This document presents the programs and physical controls that are in place to achieve the following objectives: ensure compliance with Section 1200-4-10-.04(5) of the TDEC Water Quality Control Regulations and Part 4 of the Y-12 Plant NPDES Permit (TN0002968); provide operating personnel with guidance relevant to storm water pollution prevention and control requirements for their facility and/or project; and prevent or reduce pollutant discharge to the environment, in accordance with the Clean Water Act (CWA) and the Tennessee Water Quality Control Act.

  12. Storm water pollution prevention plan for the Oak Ridge Y-12 Plant

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    1995-09-01

    The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) published the final storm water regulation on November 16, 1990. The storm water regulation is included in the National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) regulations. An NPDES permit was issued for the Y-12 Plant on April 28, 1995, and was effective on July 1, 1995. The permit requires that a Storm Water Pollution Prevention Plan (SWP3) be developed by December 28, 1995, and be fully implemented by July 1, 1996; this plan has been developed to fulfill that requirement. The outfalls and monitoring points described in this plan contain storm water discharges associated with industrial activities as defined in the NPDES regulations. For storm water discharges associated with industrial activity, including storm water discharges associated with construction activity, that are not specifically monitored or limited in this permit, Y-12 Plant personnel will meet conditions of the General Storm Water Rule 1200-4-10. This document presents the programs and physical controls that are in place to achieve the following objectives: ensure compliance with Section 1200-4-10-.04(5) of the TDEC Water Quality Control Regulations and Part 4 of the Y-12 Plant NPDES Permit (TN0002968); provide operating personnel with guidance relevant to storm water pollution prevention and control requirements for their facility and/or project; and prevent or reduce pollutant discharge to the environment, in accordance with the Clean Water Act (CWA) and the Tennessee Water Quality Control Act

  13. 3DCORE: Forward modeling of solar storm magnetic flux ropes for space weather prediction

    Science.gov (United States)

    Möstl, C.; Amerstorfer, T.; Palmerio, E.; Isavnin, A.; Farrugia, C. J.; Lowder, C.; Winslow, R. M.; Donnerer, J. M.; Kilpua, E. K. J.; Boakes, P. D.

    2018-05-01

    3DCORE forward models solar storm magnetic flux ropes called 3-Dimensional Coronal Rope Ejection (3DCORE). The code is able to produce synthetic in situ observations of the magnetic cores of solar coronal mass ejections sweeping over planets and spacecraft. Near Earth, these data are taken currently by the Wind, ACE and DSCOVR spacecraft. Other suitable spacecraft making these kind of observations carrying magnetometers in the solar wind were MESSENGER, Venus Express, MAVEN, and even Helios.

  14. Interview with Gert Storm

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Storm, Gerrit

    2013-01-01

    Gert Storm studied biology at the Utrecht University, The Netherlands, and obtained his PhD degree in 1987 at the Department of Pharmaceutics of the same university. He is now Professor of targeted drug delivery at the University of Utrecht, as well as Professor of targeted therapeutics at the MIRA

  15. Impact of storm water on groundwater quality below retention/detention basins.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Zubair, Arif; Hussain, Asif; Farooq, Mohammed A; Abbasi, Haq Nawaz

    2010-03-01

    Groundwater from 33 monitoring of peripheral wells of Karachi, Pakistan were evaluated in terms of pre- and post-monsoon seasons to find out the impact of storm water infiltration, as storm water infiltration by retention basin receives urban runoff water from the nearby areas. This may increase the risk of groundwater contamination for heavy metals, where the soil is sandy and water table is shallow. Concentration of dissolved oxygen is significantly low in groundwater beneath detention basin during pre-monsoon season, which effected the concentration of zinc and iron. The models of trace metals shown in basin groundwater reflect the land use served by the basins, while it differed from background concentration as storm water releases high concentration of certain trace metals such as copper and cadmium. Recharge by storm water infiltration decreases the concentration and detection frequency of iron, lead, and zinc in background groundwater; however, the study does not point a considerable risk for groundwater contamination due to storm water infiltration.

  16. SURVEI PENANGANAN BROADCAST STORM PROBLEM PADA PROTOKOL ROUTING AODV DI MANET

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Indera Zainul Muttaqien

    2015-07-01

    Full Text Available Komunikasi multi-hop pada lingkungan MANET dapat melibatkan broadcast paket dalam proses route discovery. Protokol routing pada MANET akan melakukan broadcast paket RREQ dan menjalarkannya ke node tujuan secepat dan seefisien mungkin, dimana paket RREQ dari rute yang optimal adalah paket RREQ yang terlebih dahulu sampai ke tujuan. Aktifitas broadcast yang tidak terkontrol dapat menyebabkan suatu kondisi yang disebut broadcast storm problem. Broadcast storm problem dapat berdampak pada terganggunya kinerja dari protokol routing akibat adanya packet redundancy, contention, dan collision. Broadcast storm problem dapat ditangani dengan membatasi jumlah node yang dapat melakukan broadcast. Tujuan utama dari pembuatan makalah ini adalah merangkum beberapa mekanisme terbaru yang telah diakukan oleh para peneliti untuk menangani broadcast storm problem. Kami juga menyajikan perbandingan dari mekanisme tersebut berdasarkan karakteristik dari mekanisme ditinjau dari kesesuaian dengan beberapa skema penanganan broadcast storm problem yang diajukan oleh peneliti sebelumnya, kebutuhan informasi tertentu antar node, lingkungan uji coba dan apakah mekanisme ini dapat diterapkan pada protokol routing lainnya.

  17. 7X performance results - final report : ASCI Red vs Red Storm.

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Dinge, Dennis C. (Cray Inc., Albuquerque, NM); Davis, Michael E. (Cray Inc., Albuquerque, NM); Haskell, Karen H.; Ballance, Robert A.; Gardiner, Thomas Anthony; Stevenson, Joel O.; Noe, John P.

    2011-04-01

    The goal of the 7X performance testing was to assure Sandia National Laboratories, Cray Inc., and the Department of Energy that Red Storm would achieve its performance requirements which were defined as a comparison between ASCI Red and Red Storm. Our approach was to identify one or more problems for each application in the 7X suite, run those problems at multiple processor sizes in the capability computing range, and compare the results between ASCI Red and Red Storm. The first part of this report describes the two computer systems, the applications in the 7X suite, the test problems, and the results of the performance tests on ASCI Red and Red Storm. During the course of the testing on Red Storm, we had the opportunity to run the test problems in both single-core mode and dual-core mode and the second part of this report describes those results. Finally, we reflect on lessons learned in undertaking a major head-to-head benchmark comparison.

  18. Coastal Storm Surge Analysis: Modeling System Validation. Report 4: Intermediate Submission No. 2.0

    Science.gov (United States)

    2013-07-01

    Hurricane Isabel, Hurricane Ernesto, and Extratropical Storm Ida. Model skill was accessed by quantitative comparison of model output to wind, wave...25. Extratropical Storm Nor’Ida maximum wind speeds. ......................................................... 41  Figure 26. Extratropical Storm ...Nor’Ida wind validation stations. ........................................................ 42  Figure 27. Comparisons of Extratropical Storm Nor’Ida wind

  19. Impacts on coralligenous outcrop biodiversity of a dramatic coastal storm.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Núria Teixidó

    Full Text Available Extreme events are rare, stochastic perturbations that can cause abrupt and dramatic ecological change within a short period of time relative to the lifespan of organisms. Studies over time provide exceptional opportunities to detect the effects of extreme climatic events and to measure their impacts by quantifying rates of change at population and community levels. In this study, we show how an extreme storm event affected the dynamics of benthic coralligenous outcrops in the NW Mediterranean Sea using data acquired before (2006-2008 and after the impact (2009-2010 at four different sites. Storms of comparable severity have been documented to occur occasionally within periods of 50 years in the Mediterranean Sea. We assessed the effects derived from the storm comparing changes in benthic community composition at sites exposed to and sheltered from this extreme event. The sites analyzed showed different damage from severe to negligible. The most exposed and impacted site experienced a major shift immediately after the storm, represented by changes in the species richness and beta diversity of benthic species. This site also showed higher compositional variability immediately after the storm and over the following year. The loss of cover of benthic species resulted between 22% and 58%. The damage across these species (e.g. calcareous algae, sponges, anthozoans, bryozoans, tunicates was uneven, and those with fragile forms were the most impacted, showing cover losses up to 50 to 100%. Interestingly, small patches survived after the storm and began to grow slightly during the following year. In contrast, sheltered sites showed no significant changes in all the studied parameters, indicating no variations due to the storm. This study provides new insights into the responses to large and rare extreme events of Mediterranean communities with low dynamics and long-lived species, which are among the most threatened by the effects of global change.

  20. Role of neutral wind and storm time electric fields inferred from the storm time ionization distribution at low latitudes: in-situ measurements by Indian satellite SROSS-C2

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    P. Subrahmanyam

    2005-11-01

    Full Text Available Recently, there has been a renewal of interest in the study of the effects of solar weather events on the ionization redistribution and irregularity generation. The observed changes at low and equatorial latitudes are rather complex and are noted to be a function of location, the time of the storm onset and its intensity, and various other characteristics of the geomagnetic storms triggered by solar weather events. At these latitudes, the effects of geomagnetic storms are basically due to (a direct penetration of the magnetospheric electric fields to low latitudes, (b development of disturbance dynamo, (c changes in atmospheric neutral winds at ionospheric level and (d changes in neutral composition triggered by the storm time atmospheric heating.

    In the present study an attempt is made to further understand some of the observed storm time effects in terms of storm time changes in zonal electric fields and meridional neutral winds. For this purpose, observations made by the Retarding Potential Analyzer (RPA payload on board the Indian satellite SROSS-C2 are examined for four prominent geomagnetic storm events that occurred during the high solar activity period of 1997-2000. Available simultaneous observations, from the GPS satellite network, are also used. The daytime passes of SROSS-C2 have been selected to examine the redistribution of ionization in the equatorial ionization anomaly (EIA region. In general, EIA is observed to be weakened 12-24 h after the main phase onset (MPO of the storm. The storm time behaviour inferred by SROSS-C2 and the GPS satellite network during the geomagnetic storm of 13 November 1998, for which simultaneous observations are available, is found to be consistent. Storm time changes in the delay of received GPS signals are noted to be ~1-3 m, which is a significant component of the total delay observed on a quiet day.

    An attempt is made to identify and

  1. The effect of geomagnetic storm on GPS derived total electron content (TEC) at Varanasi, India

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Kumar, Sanjay; Singh, A K

    2010-01-01

    In this paper we studied the effect of geomagnetic storm on Global Positioning System (GPS) derived total electron content (TEC) at low latitude Varanasi (Geomagnetic lat 14 0 , 55' N, geomagnetic long 154 0 E) during the period of May 2007 to April 2008. During this period 2 storms were found, which were occurred on 20 November 2007 and 9 March 2008. In this study vertical total electron content (VTEC) of single Pseudorandom Noise (PRN) and average of VTEC of same PRN before 10 days of storm, which is called background TEC, were used to see the effect of these storms on the variation of TEC. From this study this is found that during the storm of March 2008 the TEC increases in main phase of storm while in the case of November 2007 storm, TEC decreases during the main phase of storm but increases in the recovery phase (next day) of storm.

  2. The dichotomous response of flood and storm extremes to rising global temperatures

    Science.gov (United States)

    Sharma, A.; Wasko, C.

    2017-12-01

    Rising temperature have resulted in increases in short-duration rainfall extremes across the world. Additionally it has been shown (doi:10.1038/ngeo2456) that storms will intensify, causing derived flood peaks to rise even more. This leads us to speculate that flood peaks will increase as a result, complying with the storyline presented in past IPCC reports. This talk, however, shows that changes in flood extremes are much more complex. Using global data on extreme flow events, the study conclusively shows that while the very extreme floods may be rising as a result of storm intensification, the more frequent flood events are decreasing in magnitude. The study argues that changes in the magnitude of floods are a function of changes in storm patterns and as well as pre-storm or antecedent conditions. It goes on to show that while changes in storms dominate for the most extreme events and over smaller, more urbanised catchments, changes in pre-storm conditions are the driving factor in modulating flood peaks in large rural catchments. The study concludes by providing recommendations on how future flood design should proceed, arguing that current practices (or using a design storm to estimate floods) are flawed and need changing.

  3. Tornadic storm avoidance behavior in breeding songbirds

    Science.gov (United States)

    Streby, Henry M.; Kramer, Gunnar R.; Peterson, Sean M.; Lehman, Justin A.; Buehler, David A.; Andersen, David E.

    2015-01-01

    Migration is a common behavior used by animals of many taxa to occupy different habitats during different periods. Migrant birds are categorized as either facultative (i.e., those that are forced to migrate by some proximal cue, often weather) or obligate (i.e., those that migrate on a regular cycle). During migration, obligate migrants can curtail or delay flights in response to inclement weather or until favorable winds prevail, and they can temporarily reorient or reverse direction when ecological or meteorological obstacles are encountered. However, it is not known whether obligate migrants undertake facultative migrations and make large-scale movements in response to proximal cues outside of their regular migration periods. Here, we present the first documentation of obligate long-distance migrant birds undertaking a facultative migration, wherein breeding golden-winged warblers (Vermivora chrysoptera) carrying light-level geolocators performed a >1,500 km 5-day circumvention of a severe tornadic storm. The birds evacuated their breeding territories >24 hr before the arrival of the storm and atmospheric variation associated with it. The probable cue, radiating >1,000 km from tornadic storms, perceived by birds and influencing bird behavior and movements, is infrasound (i.e., sound below the range of human hearing). With the predicted increase in severity and frequency of similar storms as anthropogenic climate change progresses, understanding large-scale behavioral responses of animals to such events will be an important objective of future research.

  4. Low-e Storm Windows: Market Assessment and Pathways to Market Transformation

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Cort, Katherine A.

    2013-06-08

    Field studies sponsored by the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) have shown that the use of low-e storm windows can lead to significant heating and cooling energy savings in residential homes. This study examines the market for low-e storm windows based on market data, case studies, and recent experience with weatherization deployment programs. It uses information from interviews conducted with DOE researchers and industry partners involved in case studies and early deployment efforts related to low-e storm windows. In addition, this study examines potential barriers to market acceptance, assesses the market and energy savings potential, and identifies opportunities to transform the market for low-e storm windows and overcome market adoption barriers.

  5. [Geochemical characteristics and sources of atmospheric particulates in Shanghai during dust storm event].

    Science.gov (United States)

    Qian, Peng; Zheng, Xiang-min; Zhou, Li-min

    2013-05-01

    Atmospheric particulates were sampled from three sampling sites of Putuo, Minhang and Qingpu Districts in Shanghai between Oct. , 2009 and Oct. , 2010. In addition, particulate samples were also collected from Nantong, Zhengzhou, Xi'an, and Beijing city where dust storm dust transported along during spring. Element compositions of atmospheric particulates were determined by XRF and ICP-MS. The concentrations of major and trace elements in atmospheric particulates from Putuo, Minhang and Qingpu Districts were similar, indicating their common source. The UCC standardization distribution map showed that the major element composition of dust storm samples was similar to that of loess in northwestern China, indicating that the dust storm dust was mainly derived from Western desert and partly from local area. The REE partition patterns of dust storm dusts among different cities along dust transport route were similar to each other, as well as to those of northern loess, which indicates that the dust storm samples may have the same material source as loess, which mainly comes from crust material. However, the REE partition patterns of non-dust storm particulates were different among the studied cities, and different from those of loess, which suggests that the non-dust storm samples may be mixed with non-crust source material, which is different from dust storm dust and loess. The major element composition and REE partition pattern are effective indicators for source tracing of dust storm dust.

  6. Reconstructed storm tracks reveal three centuries of changing moisture delivery to North America.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Wise, Erika K; Dannenberg, Matthew P

    2017-06-01

    Moisture delivery to western North America is closely linked to variability in the westerly storm tracks of midlatitude cyclones, which are, in turn, modified by larger-scale features such as the El Niño-Southern Oscillation system. Instrumental and modeling data suggest that extratropical storm tracks may be intensifying and shifting poleward due to anthropogenic climate change, but it is difficult to separate recent trends from natural variability because of the large amount of decadal and longer variation in storm tracks and their limited instrumental record. We reconstruct cool-season, midlatitude Pacific storm-track position and intensity from 1693 to 1995 CE using existing tree-ring chronologies along with a network of newly developed chronologies from the U.S. Pacific Northwest, where small variations in storm-track position can have a major influence on hydroclimate patterns. Our results show high interannual-to-multidecadal variability in storm-track position and intensity over the past 303 years, with spectral signatures characteristic of tropical and northern Pacific influences. Comparison with reconstructions of precipitation and tropical sea surface temperature confirms the relationship between shifting drought patterns in the Pacific Northwest and storm-track variability through time and demonstrates the long-term influence of El Niño. These results allow us to place recent storm-track changes in the context of decadal and multidecadal fluctuations across the long-term record, showing that recent changes in storm-track intensity likely represent a warming-related increase amplified by natural decadal variability.

  7. A dynamic system to forecast ionospheric storm disturbances based on solar wind conditions

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    L. R. Cander

    2005-06-01

    Full Text Available For the reliable performance of technologically advanced radio communications systems under geomagnetically disturbed conditions, the forecast and modelling of the ionospheric response during storms is a high priority. The ionospheric storm forecasting models that are currently in operation have shown a high degree of reliability during quiet conditions, but they have proved inadequate during storm events. To improve their prediction accuracy, we have to take advantage of the deeper understanding in ionospheric storm dynamics that is currently available, indicating a correlation between the Interplanetary Magnetic Field (IMF disturbances and the qualitative signature of ionospheric storm disturbances at middle latitude stations. In this paper we analyse observations of the foF2 critical frequency parameter from one mid-latitude European ionospheric station (Chilton in conjunction with observations of IMF parameters (total magnitude, Bt and Bz-IMF component from the ACE spacecraft mission for eight storm events. The determination of the time delay in the ionospheric response to the interplanetary medium disturbances leads to significant results concerning the forecast of the ionospheric storms onset and their development during the first 24 h. In this way the real-time ACE observations of the solar wind parameters may be used in the development of a real-time dynamic ionospheric storm model with adequate accuracy.

  8. State-shifting at the edge of resilience: River suspended sediment responses to land use change and extreme storms

    Science.gov (United States)

    Abbott, Samantha; Julian, Jason P.; Kamarinas, Ioannis; Meitzen, Kimberly M.; Fuller, Ian C.; McColl, Samuel T.; Dymond, John R.

    2018-03-01

    The interaction of climate, geomorphology, and land use dictates catchment sediment production and associated river sediment loads. Accordingly, the resilience of catchments to disturbances can be assessed with suspended sediment regimes. This case study in the hill country of the lower North Island of New Zealand was a decade-long examination of the short- and long-term effects of an extreme storm event on sediment supply and exhaustion in the Oroua and Pohangina catchments, two catchments that have experienced intense land use changes and frequent broad-scale landslides. Indicators of Hydrologic Alteration, a program developed to characterize hydrologic regimes, was used to analyze daily suspended sediment records over a period of a decade in order to characterize sediment regimes of the Oroua and Pohangina. An aggregated data set of sediment-bearing events for the period of record was analyzed to examine the suspended sediment response of individual storms relative to runoff magnitudes. The findings of this study demonstrate that large storms that generate extreme landsliding and flooding have the ability to produce enough sediment to temporarily convert catchments from a supply-limited state to a transport-limited state. Landsliding and thus sediment supply was disproportionately high in locations where livestock grazing occurred on steep hillslopes. The timing and intensity of previous storms, or the antecedent catchment condition, was also shown to influence the response of the catchments. In both catchments, suspended sediment loads were elevated for a period of 4 years following the landslide-generating February 2004 storm. The methods and findings we present are useful for assessing the resilience of catchments exposed to frequent disturbances such as land use changes and landslides.

  9. Development of storm hydrographs for three rivers within drainage ...

    African Journals Online (AJOL)

    The design storm hydrographs corresponding to.the excess rainfall values were determined based on the unit hydrograph ordinates established through convolution. The design storm hydrograph obtain~d for Moro River catchment based on 5-yr, 20~yr~ 50-yr, 100-yr and 200-yr return period ranged between 245.29m3/s ...

  10. A study of the effect of geomagnetic storms on low latitude whistlers

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Rao, Manoranjan; Somayajulu, V.V.; Dikshit, S.K.

    1974-01-01

    This paper presents the results of a detailed study of the influence of geomagnetic storms on low latitude whistlers recorded on ground. Studied in detail is the effect of the geomagnetic storm of March 6-10, 1970 on whistlers recorded at Gulmarg (Geomagnetic coordinates: 24 0 10'N; 147 0 24'E); results of analysis for the earlier storm of January 13-15, 1967 are included for comparison. Some of the important results of the present study are: (i) Both the whistler occurrence rate and dispersion increase simultaneously with Kp, (ii) During the decaying phase of the storm, changes in occurrence rate and in dispersion lag behind those in Kp, (iii) There is an indication of the existence of a cross-over latitude where tube contents may not change appreciably during storm periods, (iv) Multipath whistlers are observed only during disturbed conditions, (v) Duct life ranges between several hours to few days and (vi) Maximum number of ducts is observed during the main and recovery phases of the storm. (auth.)

  11. Pre-storm NmF2 enhancements at middle latitudes: delusion or reality?

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    A. V. Mikhailov

    2009-03-01

    Full Text Available A critical analysis of recent publications devoted to the NmF2 pre-storm enhancements is performed. There are no convincing arguments that the observed cases of NmF2 enhancements at middle and sub-auroral latitudes bear a relation to the following magnetic storms. In all cases considered the NmF2 pre-storm enhancements were due to previous geomagnetic storms, moderate auroral activity or they presented the class of positive quiet time events (Q-disturbances. Therefore, it is possible to conclude that there is no such an effect as the pre-storm NmF2 enhancement as a phenomenon inalienably related to the following magnetic storm. The observed nighttime NmF2 enhancements at sub-auroral latitudes may result from plasma transfer from the plasma ring area by meridional thermospheric wind. Enhanced plasmaspheric fluxes into the nighttime F2-region resulted from westward substorm-associated electric fields is another possible source of nighttime NmF2 enhancements. Daytime positive Q-disturbances occurring under very low geomagnetic activity level may be related to the dayside cusp activity.

  12. Multiscale Aspects of the Storm Producing the June 2013 Flooding in Uttarakhand, India

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Houze, R. A. [Department of Atmospheric Sciences, University of Washington, Seattle, and Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, Richland, Washington; McMurdie, L. A. [Department of Atmospheric Sciences, University of Washington, Seattle, Washington; Rasmussen, K. L. [Department of Atmospheric Science, Colorado State University, Fort Collins, Colorado; Kumar, A. [NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, and Earth System Science Interdisciplinary Center, University of Maryland, College Park, College Park, Maryland; Chaplin, M. M. [Department of Atmospheric Sciences, University of Washington, Seattle, Washington

    2017-11-01

    Conditions producing disastrous flooding in Uttarakhand, India, in June 2013 differed from conditions that produced other notorious floods in the Himalayan region in recent years. During the week preceding the Uttarakhand flood, deep convection moistened the mountainsides, making them vulnerable to flooding. However, the precipitation producing the flood was not associated with a deep convective event. Rather, an eastward-propagating upper-level trough in the westerlies extended abnormally far southward, with the jet reaching the Himalayas. The south end of the trough merged with a monsoon low moving westward across India. The merged system produced persistent moist low-level flow oriented normal to the Himalayas that advected large amounts of water vapor into the Uttarakhand region. The flow was moist neutral when it passed over the Himalayan barrier, and orographic lifting produced heavy continuous rain over the region for 2–3 days. The precipitation was largely stratiform in nature although embedded convection of moderate depth occurred along the foothills, where some mild instability was being released. The Uttarakhand flood had characteristics in common with major 2013 floods in the Rocky Mountains in Colorado and Alberta, Canada.

  13. A Stealth CME Bracketed between Slow and Fast Wind Producing Unexpected Geoeffectiveness

    Science.gov (United States)

    He, Wen; Liu, Ying D.; Hu, Huidong; Wang, Rui; Zhao, Xiaowei

    2018-06-01

    We investigate how a weak coronal mass ejection (CME) launched on 2016 October 8 without obvious signatures in the low corona produced a relatively intense geomagnetic storm. Remote sensing observations from SDO, STEREO, and SOHO and in situ measurements from Wind are employed to track the CME from the Sun to the Earth. Using a graduated cylindrical shell model, we estimate the propagation direction and the morphology of the CME near the Sun. CME kinematics are determined from the wide-angle imaging observations of STEREO A and are used to predict the CME arrival time and speed at the Earth. We compare ENLIL MHD simulation results with in situ measurements to illustrate the background solar wind where the CME was propagating. We also apply a Grad–Shafranov technique to reconstruct the flux-rope structure from in situ measurements in order to understand the geoeffectiveness associated with the CME magnetic field structure. Key results are obtained concerning how a weak CME can generate a relatively intense geomagnetic storm: (1) there were coronal holes at low latitudes, which could produce high speed streams (HSSs) to interact with the CME in interplanetary space; (2) the CME was bracketed between a slow wind ahead and an HSS behind, which enhanced the southward magnetic field inside the CME and gave rise to the unexpected geomagnetic storm.

  14. Monitoring Inland Storm Surge and Flooding from Hurricane Rita

    Science.gov (United States)

    McGee, Benton D.; Tollett, Roland W.; Mason, Jr., Robert R.

    2006-01-01

    Pressure transducers (sensors) and high-water marks were used to document the inland water levels related to storm surge generated by Hurricane Rita in southwestern Louisiana and southeastern Texas. On September 22-23, 2005, an experimental monitoring network of sensors was deployed at 33 sites over an area of about 4,000 square miles to record the timing, extent, and magnitude of inland hurricane storm surge and coastal flooding. Sensors were programmed to record date and time, temperature, and barometric or water pressure. Water pressure was corrected for changes in barometric pressure and salinity. Elevation surveys using global-positioning systems and differential levels were used to relate all storm-surge water-level data, reference marks, benchmarks, sensor measuring points, and high-water marks to the North American Vertical Datum of 1988 (NAVD 88). The resulting data indicated that storm-surge water levels over 14 feet above NAVD 88 occurred at three locations, and rates of water-level rise greater than 5 feet per hour occurred at three locations near the Louisiana coast.

  15. Design an effective storm water pollution prevention plan

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Vivona, M.A.

    1995-01-01

    A case history shows ''how'' to plan and organize a storm water pollution prevention program (SWPPP). Using easy-to-use worksheets and guidelines, hydrocarbon processing industry (HPI) operators can build upon existing best management practices (i.e., housekeeping procedures, visual inspections, spill prevention programs, etc.) to meet tighter restrictions set by National Pollutant Discharge Elimination system (NPDES) permits. Especially in high rainfall areas, storm water poses an intermittent, but large volume problem. The facility's site size is another factor that impacts the scope and cost for SWPPP. The five steps to implementing a SWPPP are: Planning and organization; Assessment; Best management practice (BMP) identification; Implementation; Evaluation and monitoring. Initially, HPI operators must identify all potential contamination sources and past spills and leak areas. Following the SWPP guidelines, operators can map out a cost-effective storm water program that meets all NPDES requirements

  16. Ionospheric variations during the 13 September 1967 storm

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Goel, M.K.; Rao, B.C.N.

    1980-01-01

    The storm time variations in N sub(e), T sub(e), and ion drifts are studied for a mid-latitude station, St. Santin (44.11 0 N, 2.3 0 E) using incoherent scatter radar data. It is observed that there is an increase in N sub(e) with a corresponding decrease in T sub(e) at 350 km and the drifts are upward when compared with the quiet time drifts. These drifts are shown to be related to changes in magnetic field and hence they may be due to an electrodynamic effect. It is established from the N sub(e) and T sub(e) profile changes that the differences in the ionospheric effects at different times reported earlier by the authors for the same storm are due to the storm-time effect and not due to a longitude effect. (author)

  17. Return Period of a Sea Storm with at Least Two Waves Higher than a Fixed Threshold

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Felice Arena

    2013-01-01

    Full Text Available Practical applications in ocean engineering require the long-term analysis for prediction of extreme waves, that identify design conditions. If extreme individual waves are investigated, we need to combine long-term statistical analysis of ocean waves with short-term statistics. The former considers the distribution of standard deviation of free surface displacement in the considered location in a long-time span, of order of 10 years or more. The latter analyzes the distribution of individual wave heights in a sea state, which is a Gaussian process in time domain. Recent advanced approaches enable the combination of the two analyses. In the paper the analytical solution is obtained for the return period of a sea storm with at least two individual waves higher than a fixed level. This solution is based on the application of the Equivalent Triangular Storm model for the representation of actual storms. One of the corollaries of the solution gives the exact expression for the probability that at least two waves higher than fixed level are produced during the lifetime of a structure. The previous solution of return period and the relative probability of exceedance may be effectively applied for the risk analysis of ocean structures.

  18. Observations Directly Linking Relativistic Electron Microbursts to Whistler Mode Chorus: Van Allen Probes and FIREBIRD II

    Czech Academy of Sciences Publication Activity Database

    Breneman, A. W.; Crew, A.; Sample, J.; Klumpar, D.; Johnson, A.; Agapitov, O.; Shumko, M.; Turner, D. L.; Santolík, Ondřej; Wygant, J. R.; Cattell, C. A.; Thaller, S. A.; Blake, B.; Spence, H.; Kletzing, C. A.

    2017-01-01

    Roč. 44, č. 22 (2017), s. 11265-11272 ISSN 0094-8276 R&D Projects: GA ČR GA17-07027S Grant - others:AV ČR(CZ) AP1401 Program:Akademická prémie - Praemium Academiae Institutional support: RVO:68378289 Keywords : VLF-CHORUS * RADIATION BELT * ZONE ELECTRONS * SOURCE REGION * AURORAL-ZONE * GEM STORMS * PRECIPITATION * ASSOCIATION * RESOLUTION * EMISSIONS Subject RIV: BL - Plasma and Gas Discharge Physics OBOR OECD: Fluids and plasma physics (including surface physics) Impact factor: 4.253, year: 2016 http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/2017GL075001/epdf

  19. Thyroid storm associated with Graves' disease covered by diabetic ketoacidosis: A case report

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Osada Erika

    2011-04-01

    Full Text Available Abstract Background Thyroid storm is a condition in which multiple organ dysfunction results from failure of the compensatory mechanisms of the body owing to excessive thyroid hormone activity induced by some factors in patients with thyrotoxicosis. While diabetic ketoacidosis (DKA is an important trigger for thyroid storm, simultaneous development of DKA and thyroid storm is rare. Case presentation A 59-year-old woman with no history of either diabetes mellitus or thyroid disease presented to our hospital because of developing nausea, vomiting and diarrhea for 2 days. Physical examination showed mild disturbance of consciousness, fever, and tachycardia. There were no other signs of thyrotoxicosis. Laboratory studies revealed elevation of random blood glucose and glycosylated hemoglobin, strongly positive of urine acetone, and metabolic acidosis. Since DKA was diagnosed, we initiated the patient on treatment with administration of insulin and adequate fluid replacement. Although the hyperglycemia and acidosis were immediately relieved, the disturbance of consciousness and tachycardia remained persistent. Levels of FT3 and FT4 were extremely high and TSH was below the detectable limit. TRAb was positive. The thyroid storm score of Burch & Wartofsky was 75/140, and the thyroid storm diagnostic criteria of the Japan Thyroid Association were satisfied. Oral administration of thiamazole, potassium iodide and propranolol resulted in immediate relief of the tachycardia. Discussion We encountered a case of thyroid storm associated with Graves' disease covered by DKA. Thyroid storm and DKA are both potentially fatal, and the prognosis varies depending on whether or not these conditions are detected and treated sufficiently early. The thyroid storm diagnostic criteria prepared in 2008 by the Japan Thyroid Association are very simple as compared to the Burch & Wartofsky scoring system for thyroid storm. The Japanese criteria may be useful in the diagnosis

  20. Thyroid storm associated with Graves' disease covered by diabetic ketoacidosis: A case report.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Osada, Erika; Hiroi, Naoki; Sue, Mariko; Masai, Natsumi; Iga, Ryo; Shigemitsu, Rika; Oka, Reiko; Miyagi, Masahiko; Iso, Kaoru; Kuboki, Koji; Yoshino, Gen

    2011-04-14

    Thyroid storm is a condition in which multiple organ dysfunction results from failure of the compensatory mechanisms of the body owing to excessive thyroid hormone activity induced by some factors in patients with thyrotoxicosis. While diabetic ketoacidosis (DKA) is an important trigger for thyroid storm, simultaneous development of DKA and thyroid storm is rare. A 59-year-old woman with no history of either diabetes mellitus or thyroid disease presented to our hospital because of developing nausea, vomiting and diarrhea for 2 days. Physical examination showed mild disturbance of consciousness, fever, and tachycardia. There were no other signs of thyrotoxicosis. Laboratory studies revealed elevation of random blood glucose and glycosylated hemoglobin, strongly positive of urine acetone, and metabolic acidosis. Since DKA was diagnosed, we initiated the patient on treatment with administration of insulin and adequate fluid replacement. Although the hyperglycemia and acidosis were immediately relieved, the disturbance of consciousness and tachycardia remained persistent. Levels of FT3 and FT4 were extremely high and TSH was below the detectable limit. TRAb was positive. The thyroid storm score of Burch & Wartofsky was 75/140, and the thyroid storm diagnostic criteria of the Japan Thyroid Association were satisfied. Oral administration of thiamazole, potassium iodide and propranolol resulted in immediate relief of the tachycardia. We encountered a case of thyroid storm associated with Graves' disease covered by DKA. Thyroid storm and DKA are both potentially fatal, and the prognosis varies depending on whether or not these conditions are detected and treated sufficiently early. The thyroid storm diagnostic criteria prepared in 2008 by the Japan Thyroid Association are very simple as compared to the Burch & Wartofsky scoring system for thyroid storm. The Japanese criteria may be useful in the diagnosis of this condition since they enable clinicians to identify a broad

  1. Oxidant enhancement in martian dust devils and storms: implications for life and habitability.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Atreya, Sushil K; Wong, Ah-San; Renno, Nilton O; Farrell, William M; Delory, Gregory T; Sentman, Davis D; Cummer, Steven A; Marshall, John R; Rafkin, Scot C R; Catling, David C

    2006-06-01

    We investigate a new mechanism for producing oxidants, especially hydrogen peroxide (H2O2), on Mars. Large-scale electrostatic fields generated by charged sand and dust in the martian dust devils and storms, as well as during normal saltation, can induce chemical changes near and above the surface of Mars. The most dramatic effect is found in the production of H2O2 whose atmospheric abundance in the "vapor" phase can exceed 200 times that produced by photochemistry alone. With large electric fields, H2O2 abundance gets large enough for condensation to occur, followed by precipitation out of the atmosphere. Large quantities of H2O2 would then be adsorbed into the regolith, either as solid H2O2 "dust" or as re-evaporated vapor if the solid does not survive as it diffuses from its production region close to the surface. We suggest that this H2O2, or another superoxide processed from it in the surface, may be responsible for scavenging organic material from Mars. The presence of H2O2 in the surface could also accelerate the loss of methane from the atmosphere, thus requiring a larger source for maintaining a steady-state abundance of methane on Mars. The surface oxidants, together with storm electric fields and the harmful ultraviolet radiation that readily passes through the thin martian atmosphere, are likely to render the surface of Mars inhospitable to life as we know it.

  2. Cold-front driven storm erosion and overwash in the central part of the Isles Dernieres, a Louisiana barrier-island arc

    Science.gov (United States)

    Dingler, J.R.; Reiss, T.E.

    1990-01-01

    Tropical and extratropical storms produce significant erosion on the barrier islands of Louisiana. Over the past 100 years, such storms have produced at least 2 km of northward beach-face retreat and the loss of 63% of the surface area of the Isles Dernieres, a low-lying barrier-island arc along the central Louisiana coast. Elevations on the islands within the arc are typically less than 2 m above mean sea level. The islands typically have a washover-flat topography with occasional, poorly developed, dune-terrace topography consisting of low-lying and broken dunes. The central part of the arc consists of salt-marsh deposits overlain by washover sands along the Gulf of Mexico shoreline. Sand thicknesses range from zero behind the beach, to less than 2 m under the berm crest, and back to zero in the first nearshore trough. The sand veneer is sufficiently thin that storms can strip all the sand from the beach face, exposing the underlying marsh deposits. The geomorphic changes produced by cold fronts, a type of extratropical storm that commonly affect the Isles Dernieres between late fall and early spring are described. Between August 1986 and September 1987, repeated surveys along eleven shore-normal transects that covered 400 m of shoreline revealed the timing and extent of cold-front-produced beach change along a typical section of the central Isles Dernieres. During the study period, the beach face retreated approximately 20 m during the cold-front season but did not rebuild during the subsequent summer. Because the volume of sand deposited on the backshore (5600 m3) was less than the volume of material lost from the beach face (19,200 m3), approximately 13,600 m3 of material disappeared. Assuming that underlying marsh deposits decrease in volume in direct proportion to the amount of beach-face retreat, an estimate of the mud loss during the study period is 14,000 m3. Thus, the decrease in volume along the profiles can be accounted for without removing any sand

  3. Significantly Increased Extreme Precipitation Expected in Europe and North America from Extratropical Storms

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hawcroft, M.; Hodges, K.; Walsh, E.; Zappa, G.

    2017-12-01

    For the Northern Hemisphere extratropics, changes in circulation are key to determining the impacts of climate warming. The mechanisms governing these circulation changes are complex, leading to the well documented uncertainty in projections of the future location of the mid-latitude storm tracks simulated by climate models. These storms are the primary source of precipitation for North America and Europe and generate many of the large-scale precipitation extremes associated with flooding and severe economic loss. Here, we show that in spite of the uncertainty in circulation changes, by analysing the behaviour of the storms themselves, we find entirely consistent and robust projections across an ensemble of climate models. In particular, we find that projections of change in the most intensely precipitating storms (above the present day 99th percentile) in the Northern Hemisphere are substantial and consistent across models, with large increases in the frequency of both summer (June-August, +226±68%) and winter (December-February, +186±34%) extreme storms by the end of the century. Regionally, both North America (summer +202±129%, winter +232±135%) and Europe (summer +390±148%, winter +318±114%) are projected to experience large increases in the frequency of intensely precipitating storms. These changes are thermodynamic and driven by surface warming, rather than by changes in the dynamical behaviour of the storms. Such changes in storm behaviour have the potential to have major impacts on society given intensely precipitating storms are responsible for many large-scale flooding events.

  4. Oxidant enhancement in martian dust devils and storms: storm electric fields and electron dissociative attachment.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Delory, Gregory T; Farrell, William M; Atreya, Sushil K; Renno, Nilton O; Wong, Ah-San; Cummer, Steven A; Sentman, Davis D; Marshall, John R; Rafkin, Scot C R; Catling, David C

    2006-06-01

    Laboratory studies, numerical simulations, and desert field tests indicate that aeolian dust transport can generate atmospheric electricity via contact electrification or "triboelectricity." In convective structures such as dust devils and dust storms, grain stratification leads to macroscopic charge separations and gives rise to an overall electric dipole moment in the aeolian feature, similar in nature to the dipolar electric field generated in terrestrial thunderstorms. Previous numerical simulations indicate that these storm electric fields on Mars can approach the ambient breakdown field strength of approximately 25 kV/m. In terrestrial dust phenomena, potentials ranging from approximately 20 to 160 kV/m have been directly measured. The large electrostatic fields predicted in martian dust devils and storms can energize electrons in the low pressure martian atmosphere to values exceeding the electron dissociative attachment energy of both CO2 and H2O, which results in the formation of the new chemical products CO/O- and OH/H-, respectively. Using a collisional plasma physics model, we present calculations of the CO/O- and OH/H- reaction and production rates. We demonstrate that these rates vary geometrically with the ambient electric field, with substantial production of dissociative products when fields approach the breakdown value of approximately 25 kV/m. The dissociation of H2O into OH/H- provides a key ingredient for the generation of oxidants; thus electrically charged dust may significantly impact the habitability of Mars.

  5. Terminal weather information management

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lee, Alfred T.

    1990-01-01

    Since the mid-1960's, microburst/windshear events have caused at least 30 aircraft accidents and incidents and have killed more than 600 people in the United States alone. This study evaluated alternative means of alerting an airline crew to the presence of microburst/windshear events in the terminal area. Of particular interest was the relative effectiveness of conventional and data link ground-to-air transmissions of ground-based radar and low-level windshear sensing information on microburst/windshear avoidance. The Advanced Concepts Flight Simulator located at Ames Research Center was employed in a line oriented simulation of a scheduled round-trip airline flight from Salt Lake City to Denver Stapleton Airport. Actual weather en route and in the terminal area was simulated using recorded data. The microburst/windshear incident of July 11, 1988 was re-created for the Denver area operations. Six experienced airline crews currently flying scheduled routes were employed as test subjects for each of three groups: (1) A baseline group which received alerts via conventional air traffic control (ATC) tower transmissions; (2) An experimental group which received alerts/events displayed visually and aurally in the cockpit six miles (approx. 2 min.) from the microburst event; and (3) An additional experimental group received displayed alerts/events 23 linear miles (approx. 7 min.) from the microburst event. Analyses of crew communications and decision times showed a marked improvement in both situation awareness and decision-making with visually displayed ground-based radar information. Substantial reductions in the variability of decision times among crews in the visual display groups were also found. These findings suggest that crew performance will be enhanced and individual differences among crews due to differences in training and prior experience are significantly reduced by providing real-time, graphic display of terminal weather hazards.

  6. CALCULATION: PRECIPITATION CHARACTERISITICS FOR STORM WATER MANAGEMENT

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    D. Ambos

    2000-01-01

    This Calculation is intended to satisfy engineering requirements for maximum 60-minute precipitation amounts for 50 and 100-year return periods at and near Yucca Mountain. This data requirement is documented in the ''Interface Control Document for Support Operations to Surface Facilities Operations Functional and Organizational Interfaces'' (CRWMS M and O 1998a). These developed data will supplement the information on 0.1 hour to 6-hour (in 0.1-hour increments) probable maximum precipitation (PMP) presented in the report, ''Precipitation Design Criteria for Storm Water Management'' (CRWMS M and O 1998b). The Reference Information Base (RIB) item, Precipitation ''Characteristics for Storm Water Management'' (M09902RIB00045 .OOO), was developed based on CRWMS M and O (1998b) and will be supplemented (via revision) with the information developed in this Calculation. The ''Development Plan for the Calculation: Precipitation Characteristics for Storm Water Management'' (CRWMS M and O 2000) was prepared in accordance with AP-2.l3Q, ''Technical Product Development Planning''. This calculation was developed in accordance with AP-3.12Q, Rev. O/ICN 2

  7. The value of wetlands in protecting southeast louisiana from hurricane storm surges.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Barbier, Edward B; Georgiou, Ioannis Y; Enchelmeyer, Brian; Reed, Denise J

    2013-01-01

    The Indian Ocean tsunami in 2004 and Hurricanes Katrina and Rita in 2005 have spurred global interest in the role of coastal wetlands and vegetation in reducing storm surge and flood damages. Evidence that coastal wetlands reduce storm surge and attenuate waves is often cited in support of restoring Gulf Coast wetlands to protect coastal communities and property from hurricane damage. Yet interdisciplinary studies combining hydrodynamic and economic analysis to explore this relationship for temperate marshes in the Gulf are lacking. By combining hydrodynamic analysis of simulated hurricane storm surges and economic valuation of expected property damages, we show that the presence of coastal marshes and their vegetation has a demonstrable effect on reducing storm surge levels, thus generating significant values in terms of protecting property in southeast Louisiana. Simulations for four storms along a sea to land transect show that surge levels decline with wetland continuity and vegetation roughness. Regressions confirm that wetland continuity and vegetation along the transect are effective in reducing storm surge levels. A 0.1 increase in wetland continuity per meter reduces property damages for the average affected area analyzed in southeast Louisiana, which includes New Orleans, by $99-$133, and a 0.001 increase in vegetation roughness decreases damages by $24-$43. These reduced damages are equivalent to saving 3 to 5 and 1 to 2 properties per storm for the average area, respectively.

  8. Space weather effects on radio propagation: study of the CEDAR, GEM and ISTP storm events

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    D. V. Blagoveshchensky

    2008-06-01

    Full Text Available The impact of 14 geomagnetic storms from a list of CEDAR, GEM and ISTP storms, that occurred during 1997–1999, on radio propagation conditions has been investigated. The propagation conditions were estimated through variations of the MOF and LOF (the maximum and lowest operation frequencies on three high-latitude HF radio paths in north-west Russia. Geophysical data of Dst, Bz, AE as well as some riometer data from Sodankyla observatory, Finland, were used for the analysis. It was shown that the storm impact on the ionosphere and radio propagation for each storm has an individual character. Nevertheless, there are common patterns in variation of the propagation parameters for all storms. Thus, the frequency range Δ=MOF−LOF increases several hours before a storm, then it narrows sharply during the storm, and expands again several hours after the end of the storm. This regular behaviour should be useful for the HF radio propagation predictions and frequency management at high latitudes. On the trans-auroral radio path, the time interval when the signal is lost through a storm (tdes depends on the local time. For the day-time storms an average value tdes is 6 h, but for night storms tdes is only 2 h. The ionization increase in the F2 layer before storm onset is 3.5 h during the day-time and 2.4 h at night. Mechanisms to explain the observed variations are discussed including some novel possibilities involving energy input through the cusp.

  9. Storm Water Management Model (SWMM)

    Science.gov (United States)

    Stormwater discharges continue to cause impairment of our Nation’s waterbodies. Regulations that require the retention and/or treatment of frequent, small storms that dominate runoff volumes and pollutant loads are becoming more common. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (E...

  10. Response of wave-dominated and mixed-energy barriers to storms

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Masselink, G.; Heteren, S. van

    2014-01-01

    Wave-dominated and mixed-energy barriers are extremely dynamic landforms, responding to processes operating over a spectrum of time scales, ranging from daily-to-monthly fluctuations related to storm and post-storm conditions, to century-to-millennium-scale evolution driven by relative sea-level

  11. A framework for modeling scenario-based barrier island storm impacts

    Science.gov (United States)

    Mickey, Rangley; Long, Joseph W.; Dalyander, P. Soupy; Plant, Nathaniel G.; Thompson, David M.

    2018-01-01

    Methods for investigating the vulnerability of existing or proposed coastal features to storm impacts often rely on simplified parametric models or one-dimensional process-based modeling studies that focus on changes to a profile across a dune or barrier island. These simple studies tend to neglect the impacts to curvilinear or alongshore varying island planforms, influence of non-uniform nearshore hydrodynamics and sediment transport, irregular morphology of the offshore bathymetry, and impacts from low magnitude wave events (e.g. cold fronts). Presented here is a framework for simulating regionally specific, low and high magnitude scenario-based storm impacts to assess the alongshore variable vulnerabilities of a coastal feature. Storm scenarios based on historic hydrodynamic conditions were derived and simulated using the process-based morphologic evolution model XBeach. Model results show that the scenarios predicted similar patterns of erosion and overwash when compared to observed qualitative morphologic changes from recent storm events that were not included in the dataset used to build the scenarios. The framework model simulations were capable of predicting specific areas of vulnerability in the existing feature and the results illustrate how this storm vulnerability simulation framework could be used as a tool to help inform the decision-making process for scientists, engineers, and stakeholders involved in coastal zone management or restoration projects.

  12. Impacts of extratropical storm tracks on Arctic sea ice export through Fram Strait

    Science.gov (United States)

    Wei, Jianfen; Zhang, Xiangdong; Wang, Zhaomin

    2018-05-01

    Studies have indicated regime shifts in atmospheric circulation, and associated changes in extratropical storm tracks and Arctic storm activity, in particular on the North Atlantic side of the Arctic Ocean. To improve understanding of changes in Arctic sea ice mass balance, we examined the impacts of the changed storm tracks and cyclone activity on Arctic sea ice export through Fram Strait by using a high resolution global ocean-sea ice model, MITgcm-ECCO2. The model was forced by the Japanese 25-year Reanalysis (JRA-25) dataset. The results show that storm-induced strong northerly wind stress can cause simultaneous response of daily sea ice export and, in turn, exert cumulative effects on interannual variability and long-term changes of sea ice export. Further analysis indicates that storm impact on sea ice export is spatially dependent. The storms occurring southeast of Fram Strait exhibit the largest impacts. The weakened intensity of winter (in this study winter is defined as October-March and summer as April-September) storms in this region after 1994/95 could be responsible for the decrease of total winter sea ice export during the same time period.

  13. Searching for storm water inflows in foul sewers using fibre-optic distributed temperature sensing.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Schilperoort, Rémy; Hoppe, Holger; de Haan, Cornelis; Langeveld, Jeroen

    2013-01-01

    A major drawback of separate sewer systems is the occurrence of illicit connections: unintended sewer cross-connections that connect foul water outlets from residential or industrial premises to the storm water system and/or storm water outlets to the foul sewer system. The amount of unwanted storm water in foul sewer systems can be significant, resulting in a number of detrimental effects on the performance of the wastewater system. Efficient removal of storm water inflows into foul sewers requires knowledge of the exact locations of the inflows. This paper presents the use of distributed temperature sensing (DTS) monitoring data to localize illicit storm water inflows into foul sewer systems. Data results from two monitoring campaigns in foul sewer systems in the Netherlands and Germany are presented. For both areas a number of storm water inflow locations can be derived from the data. Storm water inflow can only be detected as long as the temperature of this inflow differs from the in-sewer temperatures prior to the event. Also, the in-sewer propagation of storm and wastewater can be monitored, enabling a detailed view on advection.

  14. Coherent radar observations of a storm sudden commencement having a preliminary reverse impulse

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    McDiarmid, D.R.; Nielsen, E.

    1987-01-01

    Observations of the February 4, 1983, storm sudden commencement (ssc) by the STARE and SABRE radar systems are presented. The observing stations were in the dusk sector, where the ssc was accompanied by a preliminary reverse impulse (PRI). The radar data show the PRI to be a consequence of the ssc compression wave producing an initial antisunward flow. The polarization of the ssc electric field in the ionosphere is seen to have both longitudinal and latitudinal structure. The observations are discussed in terms of the propagation of the ssc disturbance throughout the magnetosphere

  15. Severe Autumn storms in future Western Europe with a warmer Atlantic Ocean

    Science.gov (United States)

    Baatsen, Michiel; Haarsma, Reindert J.; Van Delden, Aarnout J.; de Vries, Hylke

    2015-08-01

    Simulations with a very high resolution (~25 km) global climate model indicate that more severe Autumn storms will impact Europe in a warmer future climate. The observed increase is mainly attributed to storms with a tropical origin, especially in the later part of the twentyfirst century. As their genesis region expands, tropical cyclones become more intense and their chances of reaching Europe increase. This paper investigates the properties and evolution of such storms and clarifies the future changes. The studied tropical cyclones feature a typical evolution of tropical development, extratropical transition and a re-intensification. A reduction of the transit area between regions of tropical and extratropical cyclogenesis increases the probability of re-intensification. Many of the modelled storms exhibit hybrid properties in a considerable part of their life cycle during which they exhibit the hazards of both tropical and extratropical systems. In addition to tropical cyclones, other systems such as cold core extratropical storms mainly originating over the Gulf Stream region also increasingly impact Western Europe. Despite their different history, all of the studied storms have one striking similarity: they form a warm seclusion. The structure, intensity and frequency of storms in the present climate are compared to observations using the MERRA and IBTrACS datasets. Damaging winds associated with the occurrence of a sting jet are observed in a large fraction of the cyclones during their final stage. Baroclinic instability is of great importance for the (re-)intensification of the storms. Furthermore, so-called atmospheric rivers providing tropical air prove to be vital for the intensification through diabatic heating and will increase considerably in strength in the future, as will the associated flooding risks.

  16. Morphodynamic Modeling Using The SToRM Computational System

    Science.gov (United States)

    Simoes, F.

    2016-12-01

    The framework of the work presented here is the open source SToRM (System for Transport and River Modeling) eco-hydraulics modeling system, which is one of the models released with the iRIC hydraulic modeling graphical software package (http://i-ric.org/). SToRM has been applied to the simulation of various complex environmental problems, including natural waterways, steep channels with regime transition, and rapidly varying flood flows with wetting and drying fronts. In its previous version, however, channel bed was treated as static and the ability of simulating sediment transport rates or bed deformation was not included. The work presented here reports SToRM's newly developed extensions to expand the system's capability to calculate morphological changes in alluvial river systems. The sediment transport module of SToRM has been developed based on the general recognition that meaningful advances depend on physically solid formulations and robust and accurate numerical solution methods. The basic concepts of mass and momentum conservation are used, where the feedback mechanisms between the flow of water, the sediment in transport, and the bed changes are directly incorporated in the governing equations used in the mathematical model. This is accomplished via a non-capacity transport formulation based on the work of Cao et al. [Z. Cao et al., "Non-capacity or capacity model for fluvial sediment transport," Water Management, 165(WM4):193-211, 2012], where the governing equations are augmented with source/sink terms due to water-sediment interaction. The same unsteady, shock-capturing numerical schemes originally used in SToRM were adapted to the new physics, using a control volume formulation over unstructured computational grids. The presentation will include a brief overview of these methodologies, and the result of applications of the model to a number of relevant physical test cases with movable bed, where computational results are compared to experimental data.

  17. A numerical storm surge forecast model with Kalman filter

    Institute of Scientific and Technical Information of China (English)

    Yu Fujiang; Zhang Zhanhai; Lin Yihua

    2001-01-01

    Kalman filter data assimilation technique is incorporated into a standard two-dimensional linear storm surge model. Imperfect model equation and imperfect meteorological forcimg are accounted for by adding noise terms to the momentum equations. The deterministic model output is corrected by using the available tidal gauge station data. The stationary Kalman filter algorithm for the model domain is calculated by an iterative procedure using specified information on the inaccuracies in the momentum equations and specified error information for the observations. An application to a real storm surge that occurred in the summer of 1956 in the East China Sea is performed by means of this data assimilation technique. The result shows that Kalman filter is useful for storm surge forecast and hindcast.

  18. Radioiodine-induced thyroid storm. Case report and literature review

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    McDermott, M.T.; Kidd, G.S.; Dodson, L.E. Jr.; Hofeldt, F.D.

    1983-08-01

    Thyroid storm developed following radioiodine therapy in a 43-year-old man with Graves' disease, weight loss, myopathy, severe thyrotoxic hypercalcemia, and a pituitary adenoma. The hypercalcemia may have been a significant, and previously unreported, predisposing factor for the radioiodine-associated thyroid storm. This case and 15 other well-documented cases of radioiodine-associated storm found in the literature are reviewed, as are several other cases of less severe exacerbations of thyrotoxicosis associated with radioiodine therapy. Although not often seen, these complications are often fatal. High-risk patients, such as the elderly, those with severe thyrotoxicosis, and those with significant underlying diseases, may benefit from preventive measures such as the judicious use of thyrostatic medications during the periods before and after isotope administration.

  19. Radioiodine-induced thyroid storm. Case report and literature review

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    McDermott, M.T.; Kidd, G.S.; Dodson, L.E. Jr.; Hofeldt, F.D.

    1983-01-01

    Thyroid storm developed following radioiodine therapy in a 43-year-old man with Graves' disease, weight loss, myopathy, severe thyrotoxic hypercalcemia, and a pituitary adenoma. The hypercalcemia may have been a significant, and previously unreported, predisposing factor for the radioiodine-associated thyroid storm. This case and 15 other well-documented cases of radioiodine-associated storm found in the literature are reviewed, as are several other cases of less severe exacerbations of thyrotoxicosis associated with radioiodine therapy. Although not often seen, these complications are often fatal. High-risk patients, such as the elderly, those with severe thyrotoxicosis, and those with significant underlying diseases, may benefit from preventive measures such as the judicious use of thyrostatic medications during the periods before and after isotope administration

  20. Magnetospheric storm dynamics in terms of energy output rate

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Prigancova, A.; Feldstein, Ya.I.

    1992-01-01

    Using hourly values of both the global magnetospheric disturbance characteristic DR, and AE index of auroral ionospheric currents during magnetic storm intervals, the energy output rate dynamics is evaluated for a magnetic storm main/recovery phase and a whole storm interval. The magnetospheric response to the solar wind energy input rate under varying interplanetary and magnetospheric conditions is considered from the temporal variability point of view. The peculiarities of the response are traced separately. As far as quantitative characteristics of energy output rate are concerned, the time dependence pattern of the ring current decay parameter is emphasized to be fairly important. It is pointed out that more insight into the plasma processes, especially at L = 3 - 5, is needed for adequate evidence of the dependence. (Author)

  1. Effects of cluster land reclamation projects on storm surge in Jiaojiang Estuary, China

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Zhi-lin Sun

    2017-01-01

    Full Text Available Variations in coastline geometry caused by coastal engineering affect tides, storm surges, and storm tides. Three cluster land reclamation projects have been planned for construction in the Jiaojiang Estuary during the period from 2011 to 2023. They will cause significant changes in coastline geometry. In this study, a surge-tide coupled model was established based on a three-dimensional finite-volume coastal ocean model (FVCOM. A series of numerical experiments were carried out to investigate the effects of variations in coastline geometry on tides, storm surges, and storm tides. This model was calibrated using data observed at the Haimen and Ruian gauge stations and then used to reproduce the tides, storm surges, and storm tides in the Jiaojiang Estuary caused by Typhoon Winnie in 1997. Results show that the high tide level, peak storm surge, and high storm tide level at the Haimen Gauge Station increased along with the completion of reclamation projects, and the maximum increments caused by the third project were 0.13 m, 0.50 m, and 0.43 m, respectively. The envelopes with maximum storm tide levels of 7.0 m and 8.0 m inside the river mouth appeared to move seaward, with the latter shifting 1.8 km, 3.3 km, and 4.4 km due to the first project, second project, and third project, respectively. The results achieved in this study contribute to reducing the effects of, and preventing storm disasters after the land reclamation in the Jiaojiang Estuary.

  2. Atmospheric circulation and storm events in the Black Sea and Caspian Sea

    Science.gov (United States)

    Surkova, Galina V.; Arkhipkin, Victor S.; Kislov, Alexander V.

    2013-12-01

    Extreme sea storms are dangerous and a potential source of damage. In this study, we examine storm events in the Black Sea and Caspian Sea, the atmosphere circulation patterns associated with the sea storm events, and their changes in the present (1961-2000) and future (2046-2065) climates. A calendar of storms for the present climate is derived from results of wave model SWAN (Simulating WAves Nearshore) experiments. On the basis of this calendar, a catalog of atmospheric sea level pressure (SLP) fields was prepared from the NCEP/NCAR reanalysis dataset for 1961-2000. The SLP fields were subjected to a pattern recognition algorithm which employed empirical orthogonal decomposition followed by cluster analysis. The NCEP/NCAR reanalysis data is used to evaluate the occurring circulation types (CTs) within the ECHAM5-MPI/OM Atmosphere and Ocean Global Circulation Model (AOGCM) for the period 1961-2000. Our analysis shows that the ECHAM5-MPI/OM model is capable of reproducing circulation patterns for the storm events. The occurrence of present and future ECHAM5-MPI/OM CTs is investigated. It is shown that storm CTs are expected to occur noticeably less frequently in the middle of the 21st century.

  3. Solar wind drivers of geomagnetic storms during more than four solar cycles

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Richardson Ian G.

    2012-05-01

    Full Text Available Using a classification of the near-Earth solar wind into three basic flow types: (1 High-speed streams associated with coronal holes at the Sun; (2 Slow, interstream solar wind; and (3 Transient flows originating with coronal mass ejections (CMEs at the Sun, including interplanetary CMEs and the associated upstream shocks and post-shock regions, we determine the drivers of geomagnetic storms of various size ranges based on the Kp index and the NOAA “G” criteria since 1964, close to the beginning of the space era, to 2011, encompassing more than four solar cycles (20–23. We also briefly discuss the occurrence of storms since the beginning of the Kp index in 1932, in the minimum before cycle 17. We note that the extended low level of storm activity during the minimum following cycle 23 is without precedent in this 80-year interval. Furthermore, the “typical” numbers of storm days/cycle quoted in the standard NOAA G storm table appear to be significantly higher than those obtained from our analysis, except for the strongest (G5 storms, suggesting that they should be revised downward.

  4. Simulation and Interpretation of the Genesis of Tropical Storm Gert (2005) as Part of the NASA Tropical Cloud Systems and Processes Experiment

    Science.gov (United States)

    Braun, Scott A.; Montgomery, Michael T.; Mallen, Kevin

    2009-01-01

    Several hypotheses have been put forward for the how tropical cyclones (tropical storms and hurricanes in the Atlantic) first develop circulation at the surface, a key event that needs to occur before a storm can begin to draw energy from the warm ocean. One hypothesis suggests that the surface circulation forms from a "top-down" approach in which a storm s rotating circulation begins at middle levels of the atmosphere and builds down to the surface through processes related to light "stratiform" (horizontally extensive) precipitation. Another hypothesis suggests a bottom-up approach in which deep thunderstorm towers (convection) play the major role in spinning up the flow at the surface. These "hot towers" form in the area of the mid-level circulation and strongly concentrate this rotation at low levels within their updrafts. Merger of several of these hot towers then intensifies the surface circulation to the point in which a storm forms. This paper examines computer simulations of Tropical Storm Gert (2005), which formed in the Gulf of Mexico during the National Aeronautics and Space Administration s (NASA) Tropical Cloud Systems and Processes (TCSP) Experiment, to investigate the development of low-level circulation and, in particular, whether stratiform or hot tower processes were responsible for the storm s formation. Data from NASA satellites and from aircraft were used to show that the model did a good job of reproducing the formation and evolution of Gert. The simulation shows that a mix of both stratiform and convective rainfall occurred within Gert. While the stratiform rainfall clearly acted to increase rotation at middle levels, the diverging outflow beneath the stratiform rain worked against spinning up the low-level winds. The hot towers appeared to dominate the low-level flow, producing intense rotation within their cores and often being associated with significant pressure falls at the surface. Over time, many of these hot towers merged, with each

  5. Noninvasive optical monitoring multiple physiological parameters response to cytokine storm

    Science.gov (United States)

    Li, Zebin; Li, Ting

    2018-02-01

    Cancer and other disease originated by immune or genetic problems have become a main cause of death. Gene/cell therapy is a highlighted potential method for the treatment of these diseases. However, during the treatment, it always causes cytokine storm, which probably trigger acute respiratory distress syndrome and multiple organ failure. Here we developed a point-of-care device for noninvasive monitoring cytokine storm induced multiple physiological parameters simultaneously. Oxy-hemoglobin, deoxy-hemoglobin, water concentration and deep-tissue/tumor temperature variations were simultaneously measured by extended near infrared spectroscopy. Detection algorithms of symptoms such as shock, edema, deep-tissue fever and tissue fibrosis were developed and included. Based on these measurements, modeling of patient tolerance and cytokine storm intensity were carried out. This custom device was tested on patients experiencing cytokine storm in intensive care unit. The preliminary data indicated the potential of our device in popular and milestone gene/cell therapy, especially, chimeric antigen receptor T-cell immunotherapy (CAR-T).

  6. Remote sensing of severe convective storms over Qinghai-Xizang Plateau

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hung, R. J.; Liu, J. M.; Tsao, D. Y.; Smith, R. E.

    1984-01-01

    The American satellite, GOES-1 was moved to the Indian Ocean at 58 deg E during the First GARP Global Experiment (FGGE). The Qinghai-Xizang Plateau significantly affects the initiation and development of heavy rainfall and severe storms in China, just as the Rocky Mountains influence the local storms in the United States. Satelite remote sensing of short-lived, meso-scale convective storms is particularly important for covering a huge area of a high elevation with a low population density, such as the Qinghai-Xizang Plateau. Results of this study show that a high growth rate of the convective clouds, followed by a rapid collapse of the cloud top, is associated with heavy rainfall in the area. The tops of the convective clouds developed over the Plateau lie between the altitudes of the two tropopauses, while the tops of convective clouds associated with severe storms in the United States usually extend much above the tropopause.

  7. Thyroid storm causing placental abruption: Cardiovascular and management complications for the Intensivist.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lane, Andrew S; Tarvade, Sanjay

    2015-08-01

    Thyroid storm is a rare and serious complication of pregnancy which can lead to spontaneous abortion, preterm delivery, preeclampsia and cardiac failure. It is also associated with high maternal and foetal mortality if not diagnosed and managed promptly. The diagnosis of thyroid storm in pregnancy can pose significant challenges due to its presentation being similar to other pregnancy-related complications. We present a patient who developed thyroid storm at 29 weeks of pregnancy, which resulted in pre-term delivery, cardiac failure and thyroidectomy. We discuss the treatment of thyroid storm in pregnancy, the decision making involved in proceeding to thyroidectomy or to use radio-iodine, and foetal thyroid status in thyrotoxicosis.

  8. Thyroid Storm Triggered by Strangulation in a Patient with Undiagnosed Graves’ Disease

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Jorge I. Conte

    2018-01-01

    Full Text Available Thyroid storm is the life-threatening end-organ manifestation of severe thyrotoxicosis. If left untreated, thyroid storm may cause acute heart failure, multiorgan dysfunction, and death. A high degree of suspicion is necessary to make the diagnosis and start antithyroid medications to decrease mortality. Thyroid storm is generally seen in patients with Graves’ disease but should also be suspected in patients with fever, tachycardia, altered mental status, and risk factors including local trauma to the neck, such as strangulation. Based on our review, we report the first case of thyroid storm after strangulation as the presentation of previously undiagnosed Graves’ disease.

  9. Space weather effects on radio propagation: study of the CEDAR, GEM and ISTP storm events

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    D. V. Blagoveshchensky

    2008-06-01

    Full Text Available The impact of 14 geomagnetic storms from a list of CEDAR, GEM and ISTP storms, that occurred during 1997–1999, on radio propagation conditions has been investigated. The propagation conditions were estimated through variations of the MOF and LOF (the maximum and lowest operation frequencies on three high-latitude HF radio paths in north-west Russia. Geophysical data of Dst, Bz, AE as well as some riometer data from Sodankyla observatory, Finland, were used for the analysis. It was shown that the storm impact on the ionosphere and radio propagation for each storm has an individual character. Nevertheless, there are common patterns in variation of the propagation parameters for all storms. Thus, the frequency range Δ=MOF−LOF increases several hours before a storm, then it narrows sharply during the storm, and expands again several hours after the end of the storm. This regular behaviour should be useful for the HF radio propagation predictions and frequency management at high latitudes. On the trans-auroral radio path, the time interval when the signal is lost through a storm (tdes depends on the local time. For the day-time storms an average value tdes is 6 h, but for night storms tdes is only 2 h. The ionization increase in the F2 layer before storm onset is 3.5 h during the day-time and 2.4 h at night. Mechanisms to explain the observed variations are discussed including some novel possibilities involving energy input through the cusp.

  10. 3-Dimensional simulations of storm dynamics on Saturn

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hueso, R.; Sanchez-Lavega, A.

    2000-10-01

    The formation and evolution of convective clouds in the atmosphere of Saturn is investigated using an anelastic three-dimensional time-dependent model with parameterized microphysics. The model is designed to study the development of moist convection on any of the four giant planets and has been previously used to investigate the formation of water convective storms in the jovian atmosphere. The role of water and ammonia in moist convection is investigated with varying deep concentrations. Results imply that most of the convective activity observed at Saturn may occur at the ammonia cloud deck while the formation of water moist convection may happen only when very strong constraints on the lower troposphere are met. Ammonia storms can ascend to the 300 mb level with vertical velocities around 30 ms-1. The seasonal effect on the thermal profile at the upper troposphere may have important effects on the development of ammonia storms. In the cases where water storms can develop they span many scale heights with peak vertical velocities around 160 ms-1 and cloud particles can be transported up to the 150 mb level. These predicted characteristics are similar to the Great White Spots observed in Saturn which, therefore, could be originated at the water cloud base level. This work has been supported by Gobierno Vasco PI 1997-34. R. Hueso acknowledges a PhD fellowship from Gobierno Vasco.

  11. Meteorological aspects associated with dust storms in the Sistan region, southeastern Iran

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kaskaoutis, D. G.; Rashki, A.; Houssos, E. E.; Mofidi, A.; Goto, D.; Bartzokas, A.; Francois, P.; Legrand, M.

    2015-07-01

    Dust storms are considered natural hazards that seriously affect atmospheric conditions, ecosystems and human health. A key requirement for investigating the dust life cycle is the analysis of the meteorological (synoptic and dynamic) processes that control dust emission, uplift and transport. The present work focuses on examining the synoptic and dynamic meteorological conditions associated with dust-storms in the Sistan region, southeastern Iran during the summer season (June-September) of the years 2001-2012. The dust-storm days (total number of 356) are related to visibility records below 1 km at Zabol meteorological station, located near to the dust source. RegCM4 model simulations indicate that the intense northern Levar wind, the high surface heating and the valley-like characteristics of the region strongly affect the meteorological dynamics and the formation of a low-level jet that are strongly linked with dust exposures. The intra-annual evolution of the dust storms does not seem to be significantly associated with El-Nino Southern Oscillation, despite the fact that most of the dust-storms are related to positive values of Oceanic Nino Index. National Center for Environmental Prediction/National Center for Atmospheric Research reanalysis suggests that the dust storms are associated with low sea-level pressure conditions over the whole south Asia, while at 700 hPa level a trough of low geopotential heights over India along with a ridge over Arabia and central Iran is the common scenario. A significant finding is that the dust storms over Sistan are found to be associated with a pronounced increase of the anticyclone over the Caspian Sea, enhancing the west-to-east pressure gradient and, therefore, the blowing of Levar. Infrared Difference Dust Index values highlight the intensity of the Sistan dust storms, while the SPRINTARS model simulates the dust loading and concentration reasonably well, since the dust storms are usually associated with peaks in model

  12. Storm-time radiation belt electron dynamics: Repeatability in the outer radiation belt

    Science.gov (United States)

    Murphy, K. R.; Mann, I. R.; Rae, J.; Watt, C.; Boyd, A. J.; Turner, D. L.; Claudepierre, S. G.; Baker, D. N.; Spence, H. E.; Reeves, G. D.; Blake, J. B.; Fennell, J. F.

    2017-12-01

    During intervals of enhanced solar wind driving the outer radiation belt becomes extremely dynamic leading to geomagnetic storms. During these storms the flux of energetic electrons can vary by over 4 orders of magnitude. Despite recent advances in understanding the nature of competing storm-time electron loss and acceleration processes the dynamic behavior of the outer radiation belt remains poorly understood; the outer radiation belt can exhibit either no change, an enhancement, or depletion in radiation belt electrons. Using a new analysis of the total radiation belt electron content, calculated from the Van Allen probes phase space density (PSD), we statistically analyze the time-dependent and global response of the outer radiation belt during storms. We demonstrate that by removing adiabatic effects there is a clear and repeatable sequence of events in storm-time radiation belt electron dynamics. Namely, the relativistic (μ=1000 MeV/G) and ultra-relativistic (μ=4000 MeV/G) electron populations can be separated into two phases; an initial phase dominated by loss followed by a second phase dominated by acceleration. At lower energies, the radiation belt seed population of electrons (μ=150 MeV/G) shows no evidence of loss but rather a net enhancement during storms. Further, we investigate the dependence of electron dynamics as a function of the second adiabatic invariant, K. These results demonstrate a global coherency in the dynamics of the source, relativistic and ultra-relativistic electron populations as function of the second adiabatic invariant K. This analysis demonstrates two key aspects of storm-time radiation belt electron dynamics. First, the radiation belt responds repeatably to solar wind driving during geomagnetic storms. Second, the response of the radiation belt is energy dependent, relativistic electrons behaving differently than lower energy seed electrons. These results have important implications in radiation belt research. In particular

  13. MetaStorm: A Public Resource for Customizable Metagenomics Annotation.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Gustavo Arango-Argoty

    Full Text Available Metagenomics is a trending research area, calling for the need to analyze large quantities of data generated from next generation DNA sequencing technologies. The need to store, retrieve, analyze, share, and visualize such data challenges current online computational systems. Interpretation and annotation of specific information is especially a challenge for metagenomic data sets derived from environmental samples, because current annotation systems only offer broad classification of microbial diversity and function. Moreover, existing resources are not configured to readily address common questions relevant to environmental systems. Here we developed a new online user-friendly metagenomic analysis server called MetaStorm (http://bench.cs.vt.edu/MetaStorm/, which facilitates customization of computational analysis for metagenomic data sets. Users can upload their own reference databases to tailor the metagenomics annotation to focus on various taxonomic and functional gene markers of interest. MetaStorm offers two major analysis pipelines: an assembly-based annotation pipeline and the standard read annotation pipeline used by existing web servers. These pipelines can be selected individually or together. Overall, MetaStorm provides enhanced interactive visualization to allow researchers to explore and manipulate taxonomy and functional annotation at various levels of resolution.

  14. MetaStorm: A Public Resource for Customizable Metagenomics Annotation.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Arango-Argoty, Gustavo; Singh, Gargi; Heath, Lenwood S; Pruden, Amy; Xiao, Weidong; Zhang, Liqing

    2016-01-01

    Metagenomics is a trending research area, calling for the need to analyze large quantities of data generated from next generation DNA sequencing technologies. The need to store, retrieve, analyze, share, and visualize such data challenges current online computational systems. Interpretation and annotation of specific information is especially a challenge for metagenomic data sets derived from environmental samples, because current annotation systems only offer broad classification of microbial diversity and function. Moreover, existing resources are not configured to readily address common questions relevant to environmental systems. Here we developed a new online user-friendly metagenomic analysis server called MetaStorm (http://bench.cs.vt.edu/MetaStorm/), which facilitates customization of computational analysis for metagenomic data sets. Users can upload their own reference databases to tailor the metagenomics annotation to focus on various taxonomic and functional gene markers of interest. MetaStorm offers two major analysis pipelines: an assembly-based annotation pipeline and the standard read annotation pipeline used by existing web servers. These pipelines can be selected individually or together. Overall, MetaStorm provides enhanced interactive visualization to allow researchers to explore and manipulate taxonomy and functional annotation at various levels of resolution.

  15. MetaStorm: A Public Resource for Customizable Metagenomics Annotation

    Science.gov (United States)

    Arango-Argoty, Gustavo; Singh, Gargi; Heath, Lenwood S.; Pruden, Amy; Xiao, Weidong; Zhang, Liqing

    2016-01-01

    Metagenomics is a trending research area, calling for the need to analyze large quantities of data generated from next generation DNA sequencing technologies. The need to store, retrieve, analyze, share, and visualize such data challenges current online computational systems. Interpretation and annotation of specific information is especially a challenge for metagenomic data sets derived from environmental samples, because current annotation systems only offer broad classification of microbial diversity and function. Moreover, existing resources are not configured to readily address common questions relevant to environmental systems. Here we developed a new online user-friendly metagenomic analysis server called MetaStorm (http://bench.cs.vt.edu/MetaStorm/), which facilitates customization of computational analysis for metagenomic data sets. Users can upload their own reference databases to tailor the metagenomics annotation to focus on various taxonomic and functional gene markers of interest. MetaStorm offers two major analysis pipelines: an assembly-based annotation pipeline and the standard read annotation pipeline used by existing web servers. These pipelines can be selected individually or together. Overall, MetaStorm provides enhanced interactive visualization to allow researchers to explore and manipulate taxonomy and functional annotation at various levels of resolution. PMID:27632579

  16. Modelling of flow and settling in storm water sedimentation tanks

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Kluck, J.

    1994-01-01

    In the near future in the Netherlands many reservoirs will have to be built to abate the pollution of the surface water by overflowing storm water from combined sewer systems [Kluck, 1992-a]. These reservoirs, called storm water sedimentation tanks, reduce the pollution in two ways. The most

  17. Evaluation of Loss Due to Storm Surge Disasters in China Based on Econometric Model Groups.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Jin, Xue; Shi, Xiaoxia; Gao, Jintian; Xu, Tongbin; Yin, Kedong

    2018-03-27

    Storm surge has become an important factor restricting the economic and social development of China's coastal regions. In order to improve the scientific judgment of future storm surge damage, a method of model groups is proposed to refine the evaluation of the loss due to storm surges. Due to the relative dispersion and poor regularity of the natural property data (login center air pressure, maximum wind speed, maximum storm water, super warning water level, etc.), storm surge disaster is divided based on eight kinds of storm surge disaster grade division methods combined with storm surge water, hypervigilance tide level, and disaster loss. The storm surge disaster loss measurement model groups consist of eight equations, and six major modules are constructed: storm surge disaster in agricultural loss, fishery loss, human resource loss, engineering facility loss, living facility loss, and direct economic loss. Finally, the support vector machine (SVM) model is used to evaluate the loss and the intra-sample prediction. It is indicated that the equations of the model groups can reflect in detail the relationship between the damage of storm surges and other related variables. Based on a comparison of the original value and the predicted value error, the model groups pass the test, providing scientific support and a decision basis for the early layout of disaster prevention and mitigation.

  18. Evaluation of Loss Due to Storm Surge Disasters in China Based on Econometric Model Groups

    Science.gov (United States)

    Shi, Xiaoxia; Xu, Tongbin; Yin, Kedong

    2018-01-01

    Storm surge has become an important factor restricting the economic and social development of China’s coastal regions. In order to improve the scientific judgment of future storm surge damage, a method of model groups is proposed to refine the evaluation of the loss due to storm surges. Due to the relative dispersion and poor regularity of the natural property data (login center air pressure, maximum wind speed, maximum storm water, super warning water level, etc.), storm surge disaster is divided based on eight kinds of storm surge disaster grade division methods combined with storm surge water, hypervigilance tide level, and disaster loss. The storm surge disaster loss measurement model groups consist of eight equations, and six major modules are constructed: storm surge disaster in agricultural loss, fishery loss, human resource loss, engineering facility loss, living facility loss, and direct economic loss. Finally, the support vector machine (SVM) model is used to evaluate the loss and the intra-sample prediction. It is indicated that the equations of the model groups can reflect in detail the relationship between the damage of storm surges and other related variables. Based on a comparison of the original value and the predicted value error, the model groups pass the test, providing scientific support and a decision basis for the early layout of disaster prevention and mitigation. PMID:29584628

  19. Evaluation of Loss Due to Storm Surge Disasters in China Based on Econometric Model Groups

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Xue Jin

    2018-03-01

    Full Text Available Storm surge has become an important factor restricting the economic and social development of China’s coastal regions. In order to improve the scientific judgment of future storm surge damage, a method of model groups is proposed to refine the evaluation of the loss due to storm surges. Due to the relative dispersion and poor regularity of the natural property data (login center air pressure, maximum wind speed, maximum storm water, super warning water level, etc., storm surge disaster is divided based on eight kinds of storm surge disaster grade division methods combined with storm surge water, hypervigilance tide level, and disaster loss. The storm surge disaster loss measurement model groups consist of eight equations, and six major modules are constructed: storm surge disaster in agricultural loss, fishery loss, human resource loss, engineering facility loss, living facility loss, and direct economic loss. Finally, the support vector machine (SVM model is used to evaluate the loss and the intra-sample prediction. It is indicated that the equations of the model groups can reflect in detail the relationship between the damage of storm surges and other related variables. Based on a comparison of the original value and the predicted value error, the model groups pass the test, providing scientific support and a decision basis for the early layout of disaster prevention and mitigation.

  20. Comprehensive Condition Survey and Storm Waves, Circulation, and Sediment Study, Dana Point Harbor, California

    Science.gov (United States)

    2014-12-01

    waters; 3) west to northwest local sea; 4) prefrontal local sea; 5) tropical storm swell; and 6) extratropical cyclone in the southern hemisphere...14-13 58 Prefrontal local sea The coastal zone within the south Orange County area is vulnerable under extratropical winter storm conditions (a...wave characteristics for severe extratropical storms during the 39 yr time period (1970–2008) are comparable to peak storm wave heights that were

  1. Measuring the Storm: Methods of Quantifying Hurricane Exposure in Public Health

    Science.gov (United States)

    Increasing coastal populations and storm intensity may lead to more adverse health effects from tropical storms and hurricanes. Exposure during pregnancy can influence birth outcomes through mechanisms related to healthcare, infrastructure disruption, stress, nutrition, and inju...

  2. Investigating and Modeling Ecosystem Response to an Experimental and a Natural Ice Storm

    Science.gov (United States)

    Fakhraei, H.; Driscoll, C. T.; Rustad, L.; Campbell, J. L.; Groffman, P.; Fahey, T.; Likens, G.; Swaminathan, R.

    2017-12-01

    Our understanding of ecosystem response to the extreme events is generally limited to rare observations from the natural historical events. However, investigating extreme events under controlled conditions can improve our understanding of these natural phenomena. A novel field experiment was conducted in a northern hardwood forest at the Hubbard Brook Experimental Forest in New Hampshire in the northeastern United States to quantify the influence of ice storms on the ecological processes. During subfreezing conditions in the winters of 2016 and 2017, water from a nearby stream was pumped and sprayed on the canopy of eight experimental plots to accrete ice to a targeted thickness on the canopy. The experiment was conducted at three levels of icing thickness (0.25, 0.5, 0.75 in.) in 2016 comparable to the naturally occurring 1998 ice storm and a second 0.5 in. treatment 2017 which were compared with reference plots. The most notable response of the icing treatments was a marked increase in fine and course litter fall which increased exponentially with increases in the icing thickness. Post-treatment openings in the canopy caused short-term increases in soil temperature in the ice-treatment plots compared to the reference plots. No response from the ice storm treatments were detected for soil moisture, net N mineralization, net nitrification, or denitrification after both natural and experimental ice storm. In contrast to the marked increase in the stream water nitrate after the natural occurring 1998 ice storm, we have not observed any significant change in soil solution N concentrations in the experimental ice storm treatments. Inconsistency in the response between the natural and experimental ice storm is likely due to differences in geophysical characteristics of the study sites including slope and lateral uptake of nutrient by the trees outside the experimental plots. In order to evaluate the long-term impacts of ice storms on northern hardwood forests, we used

  3. Perceptions and Expected Immediate Reactions to Severe Storm Displays.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Jon, Ihnji; Huang, Shih-Kai; Lindell, Michael K

    2017-11-09

    The National Weather Service has adopted warning polygons that more specifically indicate the risk area than its previous county-wide warnings. However, these polygons are not defined in terms of numerical strike probabilities (p s ). To better understand people's interpretations of warning polygons, 167 participants were shown 23 hypothetical scenarios in one of three information conditions-polygon-only (Condition A), polygon + tornadic storm cell (Condition B), and polygon + tornadic storm cell + flanking nontornadic storm cells (Condition C). Participants judged each polygon's p s and reported the likelihood of taking nine different response actions. The polygon-only condition replicated the results of previous studies; p s was highest at the polygon's centroid and declined in all directions from there. The two conditions displaying storm cells differed from the polygon-only condition only in having p s just as high at the polygon's edge nearest the storm cell as at its centroid. Overall, p s values were positively correlated with expectations of continuing normal activities, seeking information from social sources, seeking shelter, and evacuating by car. These results indicate that participants make more appropriate p s judgments when polygons are presented in their natural context of radar displays than when they are presented in isolation. However, the fact that p s judgments had moderately positive correlations with both sheltering (a generally appropriate response) and evacuation (a generally inappropriate response) suggests that experiment participants experience the same ambivalence about these two protective actions as people threatened by actual tornadoes. © 2017 Society for Risk Analysis.

  4. Evaluation of Loss Due to Storm Surge Disasters in China Based on Econometric Model Groups

    OpenAIRE

    Xue Jin; Xiaoxia Shi; Jintian Gao; Tongbin Xu; Kedong Yin

    2018-01-01

    Storm surge has become an important factor restricting the economic and social development of China’s coastal regions. In order to improve the scientific judgment of future storm surge damage, a method of model groups is proposed to refine the evaluation of the loss due to storm surges. Due to the relative dispersion and poor regularity of the natural property data (login center air pressure, maximum wind speed, maximum storm water, super warning water level, etc.), storm surge disaster is di...

  5. Delayed storm-time increases in the whistler rate at mid-latitudes

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Andrews, M.K.

    1975-01-01

    The occurrence of whistlers during 105 magnetic storms in the period 1963 to 1968 is studied. Evidence that more whistlers occur during the storm recovery period is presented. Assuming that the increased whistler rate implies the presence of more ducts, similarities are noted between the storm-time duct population and the incidence of mid-latitude spread-F in both time and space. It is suggested that a fresh examination of the physical processes involved in spread-F may aid understanding of the formation of whistler ducts. (author)

  6. Simulating the meteorology and PM10 concentrations in Arizona dust storms using the Weather Research and Forecasting model with Chemistry (Wrf-Chem).

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hyde, Peter; Mahalov, Alex; Li, Jialun

    2018-03-01

    Nine dust storms in south-central Arizona were simulated with the Weather Research and Forecasting with Chemistry model (WRF-Chem) at 2 km resolution. The windblown dust emission algorithm was the Air Force Weather Agency model. In comparison with ground-based PM 10 observations, the model unevenly reproduces the dust-storm events. The model adequately estimates the location and timing of the events, but it is unable to precisely replicate the magnitude and timing of the elevated hourly concentrations of particles 10 µm and smaller ([PM 10 ]).Furthermore, the model underestimated [PM 10 ] in highly agricultural Pinal County because it underestimated surface wind speeds and because the model's erodible fractions of the land surface data were too coarse to effectively resolve the active and abandoned agricultural lands. In contrast, the model overestimated [PM 10 ] in western Arizona along the Colorado River because it generated daytime sea breezes (from the nearby Gulf of California) for which the surface-layer speeds were too strong. In Phoenix, AZ, the model's performance depended on the event, with both under- and overestimations partly due to incorrect representation of urban features. Sensitivity tests indicate that [PM 10 ] highly relies on meteorological forcing. Increasing the fraction of erodible surfaces in the Pinal County agricultural areas improved the simulation of [PM 10 ] in that region. Both 24-hr and 1-hr measured [PM 10 ] were, for the most part, and especially in Pinal County, extremely elevated, with the former exceeding the health standard by as much as 10-fold and the latter exceeding health-based guidelines by as much as 70-fold. Monsoonal thunderstorms not only produce elevated [PM 10 ], but also cause urban flash floods and disrupt water resource deliveries. Given the severity and frequency of these dust storms, and conceding that the modeling system applied in this work did not produce the desired agreement between simulations and

  7. Modeling and simulation of storm surge on Staten Island to understand inundation mitigation strategies

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kress, Michael E.; Benimoff, Alan I.; Fritz, William J.; Thatcher, Cindy A.; Blanton, Brian O.; Dzedzits, Eugene

    2016-01-01

    Hurricane Sandy made landfall on October 29, 2012, near Brigantine, New Jersey, and had a transformative impact on Staten Island and the New York Metropolitan area. Of the 43 New York City fatalities, 23 occurred on Staten Island. The borough, with a population of approximately 500,000, experienced some of the most devastating impacts of the storm. Since Hurricane Sandy, protective dunes have been constructed on the southeast shore of Staten Island. ADCIRC+SWAN model simulations run on The City University of New York's Cray XE6M, housed at the College of Staten Island, using updated topographic data show that the coast of Staten Island is still susceptible to tidal surge similar to those generated by Hurricane Sandy. Sandy hindcast simulations of storm surges focusing on Staten Island are in good agreement with observed storm tide measurements. Model results calculated from fine-scaled and coarse-scaled computational grids demonstrate that finer grids better resolve small differences in the topography of critical hydraulic control structures, which affect storm surge inundation levels. The storm surge simulations, based on post-storm topography obtained from high-resolution lidar, provide much-needed information to understand Staten Island's changing vulnerability to storm surge inundation. The results of fine-scale storm surge simulations can be used to inform efforts to improve resiliency to future storms. For example, protective barriers contain planned gaps in the dunes to provide for beach access that may inadvertently increase the vulnerability of the area.

  8. XBeach-G: a tool for predicting gravel barrier response to extreme storm conditions

    Science.gov (United States)

    Masselink, Gerd; Poate, Tim; McCall, Robert; Roelvink, Dano; Russell, Paul; Davidson, Mark

    2014-05-01

    Gravel beaches protect low-lying back-barrier regions from flooding during storm events and their importance to society is widely acknowledged. Unfortunately, breaching and extensive storm damage has occurred at many gravel sites and this is likely to increase as a result of sea-level rise and enhanced storminess due to climate change. Limited scientific guidance is currently available to provide beach managers with operational management tools to predict the response of gravel beaches to storms. The New Understanding and Prediction of Storm Impacts on Gravel beaches (NUPSIG) project aims to improve our understanding of storm impacts on gravel coastal environments and to develop a predictive capability by modelling these impacts. The NUPSIG project uses a 5-pronged approach to address its aim: (1) analyse hydrodynamic data collected during a proto-type laboratory experiment on a gravel beach; (2) collect hydrodynamic field data on a gravel beach under a range of conditions, including storm waves with wave heights up to 3 m; (3) measure swash dynamics and beach response on 10 gravel beaches during extreme wave conditions with wave heights in excess of 3 m; (4) use the data collected under 1-3 to develop and validate a numerical model to model hydrodynamics and morphological response of gravel beaches under storm conditions; and (5) develop a tool for end-users, based on the model formulated under (4), for predicting storm response of gravel beaches and barriers. The aim of this presentation is to present the key results of the NUPSIG project and introduce the end-user tool for predicting storm response on gravel beaches. The model is based on the numerical model XBeach, and different forcing scenarios (wave and tides), barrier configurations (dimensions) and sediment characteristics are easily uploaded for model simulations using a Graphics User Interface (GUI). The model can be used to determine the vulnerability of gravel barriers to storm events, but can also be

  9. Impacts of Changed Extratropical Storm Tracks on Arctic Sea Ice Export through Fram Strait

    Science.gov (United States)

    Wei, J.; Zhang, X.; Wang, Z.

    2017-12-01

    Studies have indicated a poleward shift of extratropical storm tracks and intensification of Arctic storm activities, in particular on the North Atlantic side of the Arctic Ocean. To improve understanding of dynamic effect on changes in Arctic sea ice mass balance, we examined the impacts of the changed storm tracks and activities on Arctic sea ice export through Fram Strait through ocean-sea ice model simulations. The model employed is the high-resolution Massachusetts Institute of Technology general circulation model (MITgcm), which was forced by the Japanese 25-year Reanalysis (JRA-25) dataset. The results show that storm-induced strong northerly wind stress can cause simultaneous response of daily sea ice export and, in turn, exert cumulative effects on interannual variability and long-term changes of sea ice export. Further analysis indicates that storm impact on sea ice export is spatially dependent. The storms occurring southeast of Fram Strait exhibit the largest impacts. The weakened intensity of winter storms in this region after 1994/95 could be responsible for the decrease of total winter sea ice export during the same time period.

  10. Climatological properties of summertime extra-tropical storm tracks in the Northern Hemisphere

    OpenAIRE

    Dos Santos Mesquita, Michel; Kvamstø, Nils Gunnar; Sorteberg, Asgeir; Atkinson, David E.

    2008-01-01

    This paper presents climatological properties of Northern Hemisphere summer extratropical storm tracks using data extracted from an existing, relative-vorticity-based storm database. This database was constructed using the NCEPNCAR ‘Reanalysis I’ data set from 1948 to 2002. Results contrasting summer and winter patterns for several storm parameters indicated general similarity at the largest scales, including the prominent track corridors of the middle latitude ocean regions and the mid-conti...

  11. An analysis of simulated and observed storm characteristics

    Science.gov (United States)

    Benestad, R. E.

    2010-09-01

    A calculus-based cyclone identification (CCI) method has been applied to the most recent re-analysis (ERAINT) from the European Centre for Medium-range Weather Forecasts and results from regional climate model (RCM) simulations. The storm frequency for events with central pressure below a threshold value of 960-990hPa were examined, and the gradient wind from the simulated storm systems were compared with corresponding estimates from the re-analysis. The analysis also yielded estimates for the spatial extent of the storm systems, which was also included in the regional climate model cyclone evaluation. A comparison is presented between a number of RCMs and the ERAINT re-analysis in terms of their description of the gradient winds, number of cyclones, and spatial extent. Furthermore, a comparison between geostrophic wind estimated though triangules of interpolated or station measurements of SLP is presented. Wind still represents one of the more challenging variables to model realistically.

  12. Longitudinal differences observed in the ionospheric F-region during the major geomagnetic storm of 31 March 2001

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Y. Sahai

    2004-09-01

    Full Text Available A new ionospheric sounding station using a Canadian Advanced Digital Ionosonde (CADI was established for routine measurements by the "Universidade do Vale do Paraiba (UNIVAP" at São José dos Campos (23.2° S, 45.9° W, Brazil, in August 2000. A major geomagnetic storm with gradual commencement at about 01:00 UT was observed on 31 March 2001. In this paper, we present and discuss salient features from the ionospheric sounding measurements carried out at S. J. Campos on the three consecutive UT days 30 March (quiet, 31 March (disturbed and 1 April (recovery 2001. During most of the storm period, the foF2 values showed negative phase, whereas during the two storm-time peaks, large F-region height variations were observed. In order to study the longitudinal differences observed in the F-region during the storm, the simultaneous ionospheric sounding measurements carried out at S. J. Campos, El Arenosillo (37.1° N, 6.7° W, Spain, Okinawa (26.3° N, 127.8° E, Japan and Wakkanai (45.5° N, 141.7° E, Japan, during the period 30 March-1 April 2001, have been analyzed. A comparison of the observed ionospheric parameters (h'F and foF2 in the two longitudinal zones (1. Japanese and 2. Brazilian-Spanish shows both similarities and differences associated with the geomagnetic disturbances. Some latitudinal differences are also observed in the two longitudinal zones. In addition, global ionospheric TEC maps from the worldwide network of GPS receivers are presented, showing widespread TEC changes during both the main and recovery phases of the storm. The ionospheric sounding measurements are compared with the ASPEN-TIMEGCM model runs appropriate for the storm conditions. The model results produce better agreement during the quiet period. During the disturbed period, some of the observed F-region height variations are well reproduced by the model results. The model foF2 and TEC results differ considerably during the recovery period and indicate much

  13. Longitudinal differences observed in the ionospheric F-region during the major geomagnetic storm of 31 March 2001

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Y. Sahai

    2004-09-01

    Full Text Available A new ionospheric sounding station using a Canadian Advanced Digital Ionosonde (CADI was established for routine measurements by the "Universidade do Vale do Paraiba (UNIVAP" at São José dos Campos (23.2° S, 45.9° W, Brazil, in August 2000. A major geomagnetic storm with gradual commencement at about 01:00 UT was observed on 31 March 2001. In this paper, we present and discuss salient features from the ionospheric sounding measurements carried out at S. J. Campos on the three consecutive UT days 30 March (quiet, 31 March (disturbed and 1 April (recovery 2001. During most of the storm period, the foF2 values showed negative phase, whereas during the two storm-time peaks, large F-region height variations were observed. In order to study the longitudinal differences observed in the F-region during the storm, the simultaneous ionospheric sounding measurements carried out at S. J. Campos, El Arenosillo (37.1° N, 6.7° W, Spain, Okinawa (26.3° N, 127.8° E, Japan and Wakkanai (45.5° N, 141.7° E, Japan, during the period 30 March-1 April 2001, have been analyzed. A comparison of the observed ionospheric parameters (h'F and foF2 in the two longitudinal zones (1. Japanese and 2. Brazilian-Spanish shows both similarities and differences associated with the geomagnetic disturbances. Some latitudinal differences are also observed in the two longitudinal zones. In addition, global ionospheric TEC maps from the worldwide network of GPS receivers are presented, showing widespread TEC changes during both the main and recovery phases of the storm. The ionospheric sounding measurements are compared with the ASPEN-TIMEGCM model runs appropriate for the storm conditions. The model results produce better agreement during the quiet period. During the disturbed period, some of the observed F-region height variations are well reproduced by the model results. The model foF2 and TEC results differ considerably during the

  14. Dynamics of a longitudinal current during a magnetic storm

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Dolginov, S.Sh.; Zhuzgov, L.N.; Kosacheva, V.P.; Strunnikova, L.N.; Tyurmina, L.O.; Sharova, V.A.; Shkol'nikova, S.I.

    1984-01-01

    Results, investigating a spatial distribution and the structure of longitudinal currents during a magnetic storm at 18-19.09.81, are presented. It is shown that during the main phase of the storm the large-scale current system expands to the equator, and current density increases. Inside the current layer and to the pole of it there appears intensive small scale longitudinal l currents. During magnetic storm restopation phase the current system segregates into several pairs of opposite directed currents. During further decreasing of geomagnetic activity the large-scale current system is restored+ and its center is shifted to the pole, longitudinal current density being decreased. The invariant width of longitudinal currents is decreased, while the magnitude, Dsub(st), being increased, that is connected to the displacement of an auroral oval to the equator

  15. easySTORM: a robust, lower-cost approach to localisation and TIRF microscopy.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kwakwa, Kwasi; Savell, Alexander; Davies, Timothy; Munro, Ian; Parrinello, Simona; Purbhoo, Marco A; Dunsby, Chris; Neil, Mark A A; French, Paul M W

    2016-09-01

    TIRF and STORM microscopy are super-resolving fluorescence imaging modalities for which current implementations on standard microscopes can present significant complexity and cost. We present a straightforward and low-cost approach to implement STORM and TIRF taking advantage of multimode optical fibres and multimode diode lasers to provide the required excitation light. Combined with open source software and relatively simple protocols to prepare samples for STORM, including the use of Vectashield for non-TIRF imaging, this approach enables TIRF and STORM imaging of cells labelled with appropriate dyes or expressing suitable fluorescent proteins to become widely accessible at low cost. © 2016 The Authors. Journal of Biophotonics published by WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim.

  16. Comparison of two recent storm surge events based on results of field surveys

    Science.gov (United States)

    Nakamura, Ryota; Shibayama, Tomoya; Mikami, Takahito; Esteban, Miguel; Takagi, Hiroshi; Maell, Martin; Iwamoto, Takumu

    2017-10-01

    This paper compares two different types of storm surge disaster based on field surveys. Two cases: a severe storm surge flood with its height of over 5 m due to Typhoon Haiyan (2013) in Philippine, and inundation of storm surge around Nemuro city in Hokkaido of Japan with its maximum surge height of 2.8 m caused by extra-tropical cyclone are taken as examples. For the case of the Typhoon Haiyan, buildings located in coastal region were severely affected due to a rapidly increase in ocean surface. The non-engineering buildings were partially or completely destroyed due to their debris transported to an inner bay region. In fact, several previous reports indicated two unique features, bore-like wave and remarkably high speed currents. These characteristics of the storm surge may contribute to a wide-spread corruption for the buildings around the affected region. Furthermore, in the region where the surge height was nearly 3 m, the wooden houses were completely or partially destroyed. On the other hand, in Nemuro city, a degree of suffering in human and facility caused by the storm surge is minor. There was almost no partially destroyed residential houses even though the height of storm surge reached nearly 2.8 m. An observation in the tide station in Nemuro indicated that this was a usual type of storm surge, which showed a gradual increase of sea level height in several hours without possessing the unique characteristics like Typhoon Haiyan. As a result, not only the height of storm surge but also the robustness of the buildings and characteristics of storm surge, such as bore like wave and strong currents, determined the existent of devastation in coastal regions.

  17. AI techniques in geomagnetic storm forecasting

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lundstedt, Henrik

    This review deals with how geomagnetic storms can be predicted with the use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) techniques. Today many different Al techniques have been developed, such as symbolic systems (expert and fuzzy systems) and connectionism systems (neural networks). Even integrations of AI techniques exist, so called Intelligent Hybrid Systems (IHS). These systems are capable of learning the mathematical functions underlying the operation of non-linear dynamic systems and also to explain the knowledge they have learned. Very few such powerful systems exist at present. Two such examples are the Magnetospheric Specification Forecast Model of Rice University and the Lund Space Weather Model of Lund University. Various attempts to predict geomagnetic storms on long to short-term are reviewed in this article. Predictions of a month to days ahead most often use solar data as input. The first SOHO data are now available. Due to the high temporal and spatial resolution new solar physics have been revealed. These SOHO data might lead to a breakthrough in these predictions. Predictions hours ahead and shorter rely on real-time solar wind data. WIND gives us real-time data for only part of the day. However, with the launch of the ACE spacecraft in 1997, real-time data during 24 hours will be available. That might lead to the second breakthrough for predictions of geomagnetic storms.

  18. Ring Current Response to Different Storm Drivers. Van Allen Probes and Cluster Observations.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Bingham, S.; Mouikis, C.; Kistler, L. M.; Spence, H. E.; Gkioulidou, M.; Claudepierre, S. G.; Farrugia, C. J.

    2015-12-01

    The ring current responds differently to the different solar and interplanetary storm drivers such as coronal mass injections, (CME's), co-rotating interaction regions (CIR's), high-speed streamers and other structures. The resulting changes in the ring current particle pressure change the global magnetic field, which affects the transport of the radiation belts. In order to determine the field changes during a storm it is necessary to understand the transport, sources and losses of the particles that contribute to the ring current. The source population of the storm time ring current is the night side plasma sheet. However, it is not clear how these convecting particles affect the storm time ring current pressure development. We use Van Allen Probes and Cluster observations together with the Volland-Stern and dipole magnetic field models to determine the contribution in the ring current pressure of the plasma sheet particles convecting from the night side that are on open drift paths, during the storm evolution. We compare storms that are related to different interplanetary drivers, CME and CIR, as observed at different local times.

  19. Modeling storm waves

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Benoit, M.; Marcos, F.; Teisson, Ch.

    1999-01-01

    Nuclear power stations located on the coast take the water they use to cool their circuits from the sea. The water intake and discharge devices must be able to operate in all weathers, notably during extreme storms, with waves 10 m high and over. To predict the impact of the waves on the equipment, they are modeled digitally from the moment they form in the middle of the ocean right up to the moment they break on the shore. (authors)

  20. Modeling urban storm rainfall runoff from diverse underlying surfaces and application for control design in Beijing.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ouyang, Wei; Guo, Bobo; Hao, Fanghua; Huang, Haobo; Li, Junqi; Gong, Yongwei

    2012-12-30

    Managing storm rainfall runoff is paramount in semi-arid regions with urban development. In Beijing, pollution prevention in urban storm runoff and storm water utilization has been identified as the primary strategy for urban water management. In this paper, we sampled runoff during storm rainfall events and analyzed the concentration of chemical oxygen demand (COD), total suspended solids (TSS) and total phosphorus (TP) in the runoff. Furthermore, the first flush effect of storm rainfall from diverse underlying surfaces was also analyzed. With the Storm Water Management Model (SWMM), the different impervious rates of underlying surfaces during the storm runoff process were expressed. The removal rates of three typical pollutants and their interactions with precipitation and underlying surfaces were identified. From these rates, the scenarios regarding the urban storm runoff pollution loading from different designs of underlying previous rates were assessed with the SWMM. First flush effect analysis showed that the first 20% of the storm runoff should be discarded, which can help in utilizing the storm water resource. The results of this study suggest that the SWMM can express in detail the storm water pollution patterns from diverse underlying surfaces in Beijing, which significantly affected water quality. The scenario analysis demonstrated that impervious rate adjustment has the potential to reduce runoff peak and decrease pollution loading. Copyright © 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.