Graphically interpreting how incision thresholds influence topographic and scaling properties of modeled landscapes

We examine the influence of incision thresholds on topographic and scaling properties of landscapes that follow a landscape evolution model (LEM) with terms for stream-power incision, linear diffusion, and uniform uplift. Our analysis uses three main tools. First, we examine the graphical behavior of theoretical relationships between curvature and the steepness index (which depends on drainage area and slope). These relationships plot as straight lines for the case of steady-state landscapes that follow the LEM. These lines have slopes and intercepts that provide estimates of landscape characteristic scales. Such lines can be viewed as counterparts of slope–area relationships, which follow power laws in detachment-limited landscapes but not in landscapes with diffusion. We illustrate the response of these curvature–steepness index lines to changes in the values of parameters. Second, we define a Péclet number that quantifies the competition between incision and diffusion, while taking the incision threshold into account. We examine how this Péclet number captures the influence of the incision threshold on the degree of landscape dissection. Third, we characterize the influence of the incision threshold using a ratio between it and the steepness index. This ratio is a dimensionless number in the case of the LEM that we use and reflects the fraction by which the incision rate is reduced due to the incision threshold; in this way, it quantifies the relative influence of the incision threshold across a landscape. These three tools can be used together to graphically illustrate how topography and process competition respond to incision thresholds.

The multiscale nature of leaf growth fields

A growing leaf is a prototypical active solid, as its active units, the cells, locally deform during the out-of-equilibrium process of growth. During this local growth, leaves increase their area by orders of magnitude, yet maintain a proper shape, usually flat. How this is achieved in the lack of a central control, is unknown. Here we measure the in-plane growth tensor of Tobacco leaves and study the statistics of growth-rate, isotropy and directionality. We show that growth strongly fluctuates in time and position, and include multiple shrinkage events. We identify the characteristic scales of the fluctuations. We show that the area-growth distribution is broad and non-Gaussian, and use multiscale statistical methods to show how growth homogenizes at larger/longer scales. In contrast, we show that growth isotropy does not homogenize in time. Mechanical analysis shows that with such growth statistics, a leaf can stay flat only if the fluctuations are regulated/correlated.

Characteristic Scales, Scaling, and Geospatial Analysis

Les phénomènes géographiques s’inscrivent dans deux catégories : les phénomènes dépendants d’échelle et les phénomènes invariants d’échelle. Les premiers ont des échelles caractéristiques, ce qui n’est pas le cas des seconds. Les méthodes quantitatives et mathématiques classiques ne peuvent être appliquées efficacement aux phénomènes géographiques dépendants d’échelle. L’auteur compare les systèmes géographiques dépendants d’échelle et invariants d’échelle au moyen de simples modèles mathématiques applicables à la géographie. Les perspectives sont essentiellement les suivantes. Premièrement, les phénomènes dépendants d’échelle peuvent être étudiés au moyen de méthodes mathématiques traditionnelles, alors que l’analyse des phénomènes invariants d’échelle devrait reposer sur une théorie fondée sur la mise en échelle comme celle de la géométrie fractale. Deuxièmement, les phénomènes dépendants d’échelle relèvent du géoespace basé sur la distance, tandis que les phénomènes invariants d’échelle relèvent du géoespace basé sur la dimension. Troisièmement, quatre méthodes permettant de distinguer les phénomènes invariants d’échelle des phénomènes dépendants d’échelle sont présentées : transformation d’échelle, distribution de probabilités, fonctions d’autocorrélation et d’autocorrélation partielle, et indice ht ( head/tail — tête/queue). En pratique, un système géographique complexe comporte des aspects dépendants d’échelle et des aspects invariants d’échelle. Il convient d’adapter les méthodologies aux différents types de systèmes géographiques ou aux différents aspects d’un même système géographique.

HelioSwarm: Leveraging Multi-Point, Multi-Scale Spacecraft Observations to Characterize Turbulence

<p>There are many fundamental questions about the temporal and spatial structure of turbulence in space plasmas. Answering these questions is complicated by the multi-scale nature of the turbulent transfer of mass, momentum, and energy, with characteristic scales spanning many orders of magnitude. The solar wind is an ideal environment in which to measure turbulence, but multi-point observations with spacecraft separations spanning these scales are needed to simultaneously characterize structure and cross-scale couplings. In this work, we use synthetic multi-point spacecraft data extracted from numerical simulations to demonstrate the utility of multi-point, multi-scale measurements, in preparation for data from future multi-spacecraft observatories. We use the baseline orbit design for the HelioSwarm mission concept to explore the effects of different inter-spacecraft separations and geometries on the accuracy of reconstructed magnetic fields, cascade rates, and correlation functions using well-established analysis techniques.</p>

Why switchbacks may be related to solar granulation

<p>Parker Solar Probe data below 0.3 AU have revealed a near-Sun magnetic field dominated by Alfvénic structures that display back and forth reversals of the radial magnetic field. They are called magnetic switchbacks, they display no electron strahl variation consistent with magnetic field foldings within the same magnetic sector, and are associated with velocity spikes during an otherwise calmer background. They are thought to originate either at the photosphere through magnetic reconnection processes, or higher up in the corona and solar wind through turbulent processes.</p><p>In this work, we analyze the spatial and temporal characteristic scales of these magnetic switchbacks. We define switchbacks as a deviation from the parker spiral direction and detect them automatically through perihelia encounters 1 to 6. We analyze the solid angle between the magnetic field and the parker spiral both over time and space. We perform a fast Fourier transformation to the obtained angle and find a periodical spatial variation with scales consistent with solar granulation. This suggests that switchbacks form near the photosphere and may be caused, or at least modulated, by solar convection.</p>

Spectrum of kinetic plasma turbulence at 0.3-0.9 AU from the Sun

<p>We investigate the spectral properties of the turbulence in the solar wind which is a weakly collisional astrophysical plasma, accessible by in-situ observations. Using the Helios search coil magnetometer measurements in the fast solar wind, in the inner heliosphere, we focus on properties of the turbulent magnetic fluctuations at scales smaller than the ion characteristic scales, the so-called kinetic plasma turbulence. At such small scales, we show that the magnetic power spectra between 0.3 and 0.9 AU from the Sun have a generic shape ~f<sup>-8/3</sup>exp(-f/f<sub>d</sub>) where the dissipation frequency f<sub>d</sub> is correlated with the Doppler shifted frequency f<sub>ρe</sub> of the electron Larmor radius. This behavior is statistically significant: all the observed kinetic spectra are well described by this model, with f<sub>d</sub>=f<sub>ρe</sub>/1.8. These results provide important constraints on the dissipation mechanism in nearly collisionless space plasmas.</p>

Detection likelihood of cluster-induced CMB polarization

Nearby galaxy clusters can potentially induce sub-microkelvin polarization signals in the cosmic microwave background (CMB) at characteristic scales of a few arcminutes. We explore four such polarization signals induced in a rich nearby fiducial cluster and calculate the likelihood of their detection by a telescope project with capabilities such as those of the Simons Observatory (SO). In our feasibility analysis, we include instrumental noise, primordial CMB anisotropy, statistical thermal Sunyaev-Zeldovich (SZ) cluster signal, and point source confusion, assuming a few percent of the nominal telescope observation time of an SO-like project. Our analysis indicates that the thermal SZ intensity can be sensitively mapped in rich nearby clusters and that the kinematic SZ intensity can be measured with high statistical significance toward a fast moving nearby cluster. The detection of polarized SZ signals will be quite challenging but could still be feasible toward several very rich nearby clusters with very high SZ intensity. The polarized SZ signal from a sample of ∼20 clusters can be statistically detected at S/N ∼ 3, if observed for several months.