Climate Change and Health Impacts in Pakistan

Conferring to the Global Risk Index, Pakistan is ranked as the 7th most susceptible country to the inexorable influence of climate change. Before this century ends, the annual mean temperature in Pakistan is expected to rise from 3°C to 5°C for a focal worldwide discharge situation. Usually, annual precipitation is not relied upon to have a critical long haul pattern. Ocean level is relied upon to ascend further by 60 centimeters. All these climatic events are likely to disrupt the economy, lives, and the socio-political aspects of human life. Pakistan has already witnessed massive loss in terms of human, infrastructural, and economic aspects. The chapter is designed to understand both the direct and indirect health risks associated with frequent climatic events like floods, drought, and heat waves in Pakistan. After analyzing the available literature, it was observed that floods and drought have direct and indirect health risks associated with them while in case of heat waves, health risks cannot be established precisely as multiple variables are involved, playing a significant role.

CHANGE IN THE GLOBAL DENUDATION BASE IN THE LATE MESOZOIC AND CENOZOIC AND ITS INFLUENCE ON THE FORMATION OF GEOMORPHOLOGICAL STRUCTURE IN AREAS WITH VARIOUS NEOTECTONIC REGIMES

The data on regional geology, stratigraphy and geomorphology accumulated by now permit one to compile a reliable and fairly complete model of changes in the World Ocean level in the interval from the Cretaceous period to the present. Global changes in the level of the World Ocean are primarily associated with slow and prolonged (107–108 y.) manifestations of plate tectonics (spreading of the ocean floor and decrease in the area of continents against the background of the formation of mountain relief due to collision processes at their borders) and faster, but short-term (103–106 y.) processes associated with the withdrawal of large amounts of water during the formation of large continental ice sheets and its return to the World Ocean during interglacial periods. The impact of the tectonic factor throughout the entire period under review was unidirectional, but uneven and led to intermittent decrease in the World Ocean level from 250–300 m above the present level to the current level, taken as 0 m. Prolonged periods of stable position of the World Ocean level in the second half of the Cretaceous, Paleogene and Early Neogene at 300, 250, 200 and 150 m led to the formation of regional peneplanation planes near these levels. Moreover, younger surfaces have never completely cut off the previous, higher level, leaving its relics in the form of table elevations on the surface of the younger peneplain. In tectonically passive areas, the hypsometric position of these geomorphological elements and associated sediments has stratigraphic significance, allowing the researchers to estimate their age, and in the case of their displacement, to evaluate the age and amplitudes of neotectonic movements.

Detection and Analysis of the Causes of Intensive Harmful Algal Bloom in Kamchatka Based on Satellite Data

In this paper, the causes of the anomalous harmful algal bloom which occurred in the fall of 2020 in Kamchatka have been detected and analyzed using a long-term time series of heterogeneous satellite and simulated data with respect to the sea surface height (HYCOM) and temperature (NOAA OISST), chlorophyll-a concentration (MODIS Ocean Color SMI), slick parameters (SENTINEL-1A/B), and suspended matter characteristics (SENTINEL-2A/B, C2RCC algorithm). It has been found that the harmful algal bloom was preceded by temperature anomalies (reaching 6 °C, exceeding the climatic norm by more than three standard deviation intervals) and intensive ocean level variability followed by the generation of vortices, mixing water masses and providing nutrients to the upper photic layer. The harmful algal bloom itself was manifested in an increase in the concentration of chlorophyll-a, its average monthly value for October 2020 (bloom peak) approached 15 mg/m3, exceeding the climatic norm almost four-fold for the region of interest (Avacha Gulf). The zones of accumulation of a large amount of biogenic surfactant films registered in radar satellite imagery correlate well with the local regions of the highest chlorophyll-a concentration. The harmful bloom was influenced by river runoff, which intensively brought mineral and biogenic suspensions into the marine environment (the concentration of total suspended matter within the plume of the Nalycheva River reached 10 mg/m3 and more in 2020), expanding food resources for microalgae.

Influence of the Arctic Oscillation on the Formation of Water Circulation Regimes in the Sector of the North, Norwegian and Barents Seas

The article studies the influence of wind forcing associated with the Arctic Oscillation on the water circulation regimes in the sector of the World Ocean (65–81.5 N, 0–70 E), which consolidates the North, Norwegian and Barents Seas. The study aims at establishing quantitative patterns of variability of the ocean level and surface geostrophic current velocities depending on the value of the Arctic Oscillation index. In general, the response of the sea level averaged over the ocean sector under consideration is in an antiphase with this index. However, there are periods of mismatch between antiphase fluctuations of the sea level and the Arctic Oscillation index. After 2009, an increase in the amplitude and a decrease in the duration of the phases of the Arctic Oscillation index are noted. The difference between the areas of positive and negative values of sea level anomalies creates a pressure gradient that causes surface geostrophic currents carrying Atlantic waters along the shelf edge eastward in a cyclonic regime (the Arctic Oscillation index is greater than 0) and westward in an anticyclonic regime (the index is less than 0). The article provides estimates of the linear regression coefficients: for the sea level they are ~ 2 cm in the shelf zone and about minus 1 cm in the deep-water part of the sector. Thus, the level difference between the shelf and the deeper part of the considered water area is ~ 3 cm per 1 unit of the Arctic Oscillation index. Estimates of the linear regression coefficients for anomalies of the geostrophic currents velocity were ~ 0.5 cm/s per 1 unit of the index. Analysis of the longterm variability of the steric component of the ocean level showed a better relationship with the interannual variability of the Arctic Oscillation index as compared to the ocean level.

Measurements of Bicarbonate in Water Containing Ocean-Level Sulfate Using a Simple Multi-Pass Optical Raman System

The concentration of dissolved inorganic carbon in the oceans at depths of a few meters to thousands of meters is a critical parameter for understanding global warming. The concentration is both pH dependent and depth dependent. Current analysis that employs pH meters must account for several other parameters, such as salinity, temperature, pressure, and the dissolved carbon’s form, carbon dioxide, bicarbonate, or carbonate. Recently, Raman spectroscopy has been used to measure these forms directly in water at ~1000 ppm, which is unfortunately insufficient for typical ocean concentrations, such as ~115 ppm bicarbonate near the surface. Here, we employed a simple multi-pass optical system, a flat mirror to reflect the laser back through the sample, and a concave mirror opposite the entrance slit that effectively doubled the laser power and the collected Raman photons, respectively. This multi-pass optical Raman system with a 1.5 W, 532 nm laser was used to measure 30 ppm bicarbonate in water that contained 2650 ppm sulfate to simulate ocean water, a bicarbonate concentration well below that near the ocean surface. Furthermore, spectral analysis employed the bicarbonate C=O symmetric stretch at 1360 cm−1 instead of the C–OH stretch at 1015 cm−1 to avoid the intense, overlapping sulfate SO4 symmetric stretch at 985 cm−1. The calculated standard deviation of ~5 ppm for the described approach suggests that accurate measurement of bicarbonate in situ is possible, which has been, heretofore, either calculated based on pH or measured in a lab.

Geomorphology and Neotectonics of Southwestern Crimea

—The area of southwestern Crimea includes the ending of the Crimean Mountains that arose during the neotectonic activation at the place of the Cretaceous–Paleogene denudation plain and the adjacent shallow-water carbonate sedimentation basin. The Crimean Mountains are one of the links of the Alpine–Himalayan orogenic belt formed during the collision of the Eurasian, African, and Indo–Australian plates. Their area includes late Cenozoic marine terraces of the complete Mediterranean series and a staircase of Neogene, Paleogene and Cretaceous planation surfaces over them. The planation surfaces of different ages resulted from the successive lowering of the World Ocean level. Their subsequent deformations make it possible to outline the area of the neotectonic uplifting and determine its parameters. The main mechanism of the neotectonic activation was the thrust of the East Black Sea microplate under the Scythian one and the formation of a ramp fold structure. The amplitude of the neotectonic uplifting of southwestern Crimea for the past 2 Myr varies from 0 to 800 m, i.e., is up to 0.04 mm/year. The recent neotectonic structure of the area is formed by the northern flank of the ramp fold; it is a monocline of NW dip consisting of “keys” of NW strike separated by the latest faults with vertical displacements of 10 to 120 m. The uplifting of the area and the lowering of the World Ocean level led to a widespread of denudation surfaces. Their good preservation makes it possible to refine the sequence of neotectonic events, whose first pulses reached the study area in the Oligocene, and the main activation phase began in the Pliocene.

Application of GNSS-reflectometry for monitoring world ocean level

Рассмотрен вопрос применения метода ГНСС-рефлектометрии для мониторинга уровня Мирового океана. Выполнен эксперимент по оценке точности определения уровня Атлантического океана на станции Роскоф (Франция). По результатам проведенного эксперимента установлено, что средняя квадратическая погрешность, определенная по результатам сравнения трехмесячных измерений, полученных по показаниям мареографа радарного типа и метода ГНСС-рефлектометрии, составила 0,617 м при среднем арифметическом значении 0,048 м.

Ice sheet velocity tracking by Sentinel-1 satellite images at Graham Coast Kyiv Peninsula

The study of Antarctic glaciers and ice sheets velocity is one of the most discussed topics. Such high interest in this topic is primarily because the ice from the Antarctic glaciers, which gets to the ocean, significantly affects the ocean level and the global climate. Development of modern satellite technologies for Earth remote sensing made it possible to elaborate a number of methods for ice sheets’ displacements estimation and calculation of such displacements velocities. This work uses remote sensing data from the satellite system Copernicus Sentinel-1 to estimate the ice cover velocities in the Kyiv Peninsula in the time interval from December 2020 to March 2021. To this end, 10 radar images of the study area from early December to the end of March were used with an interval of 12–14 days. All selected images were analyzed in pairs to establish changes on the surface for the selected time interval. GRD-format images from Copernicus Sentinel-1 satellite, corrected for Earth's ellipsoid shape, were used. Based on the offset tracking operation, we calculated the speeds of ice cover movements within the Kyiv Peninsula for each pair of images with approximately two weeks' time difference. As a result, the speed of ice movements varies considerably and at the glacier mouth can reach 3.5–4 meters per day. Also, the rate of ice displacement in the glacier body changed over time. Thus, the highest ice velocities were in the glacier's mouth. However, short-term time intervals of intensification were recorded for the rear and even the marginal parts of the glaciers in contact with the ice sheet. Thus, the lowest part of the glacier activating sequence leads to the upper part shifting. Notably, this increase in the displacement of ice cover was recorded in February, one of the warmest months in this part of Antarctica.

The Kasei Valles, Mars: a unified record of episodic channel flows and ancient ocean levels

There is widespread evidence across Mars of past flows in major channel systems as well as more than one palaeo ocean level. However, evidence for the timing of channel flows and ocean levels is based on geographically diverse sources with a limited number of dates, making reconstructions of palaeo flows and ocean levels patchy. Here, based on high-resolution topography, image analysis and crater statistics, we have dated 35 different surfaces in Kasei Valles, that are predominantly found within erosional units enabling us to reconstruct a fascinating timeline of episodic flooding events (ranging from 3.7 to 3.6 Ga to ca. 2.0 Ga) interacting with changing ocean/base levels. The temporal correlation of the different surfaces indicates five periods of channel flows driving the evolution of Kasei Valles, in conjunction with the development of (at least) two ocean levels. Furthermore, our results imply that such ocean rose in elevation (ca. 1000 m) between ca. 3.6 Ga and 3.2 Ga and soon afterwards disappeared, thereby indicating a complex ancient Martian hydrosphere capable of supporting a vast ocean, with an active hydrological cycle stretching into the Amazonian.