Assimilative capacity of the atmosphere at Gorakhpur with respect to air pollution

The present study aims at seasonal and diurnal pollution potential at Gorakhpur in east Uttar Pradesh. To assess the pollution potential, meteorological data for five year period (1982-86) of Gorakhpur have been analyzed for four seasons viz; winter (December-February), summer (March-May), monsoon (June-September) and post monsoon (October-November). Season wise wind roses, stability, stability wind roses have been prepared and season wise diurnal variation of mixing height and ventilation coefficient have also been worked out. It is found that Gorakhpur has a better diffusion capacity in summer and poor in post monsoon followed by winter. Afternoon hours are better for vertical mixing. The winds are predominantly from southwest to west in all seasons except in monsoon when it blows from northeast to east. Based on this study, an appropriate location for industrialization has been suggested.

Quantifying biological carbon pump pathways with a data-constrained mechanistic model ensemble approach

The ability to constrain the mechanisms that transport organic carbon into the deep ocean is complicated by the multiple physical, chemical, and ecological processes that intersect to create, transform, and transport particles in the ocean. In this manuscript we develop and parameterize a data-assimilative model of the multiple pathways of the biological carbon pump (NEMUROBCP). The mechanistic model is designed to represent sinking particle flux, active transport by vertically migrating zooplankton, and passive transport by subduction and vertical mixing, while also explicitly representing multiple biological and chemical properties measured directly in the field (including nutrients, phytoplankton and zooplankton taxa, carbon dioxide and oxygen, nitrogen isotopes, and 234Thorium). Using 30 different data types (including standing stock and rate measurements related to nutrients, phytoplankton, zooplankton, and non-living organic matter) from Lagrangian experiments conducted on 11 cruises from four ocean regions, we conduct an objective statistical parameterization of the model and generate one million different potential parameter sets that are used for ensemble model simulations. The model simulates in situ parameters that were assimilated (net primary production and gravitational particle flux) and parameters that were withheld (234Thorium and nitrogen isotopes) with reasonable accuracy. Model results show that gravitational flux of sinking particles and vertical mixing of organic matter from the surface ocean are more important biological pump pathways than active transport by vertically-migrating zooplankton. However, these processes are regionally variable, with sinking particles most important in oligotrophic areas of the Gulf of Mexico and California, sinking particles and vertical mixing roughly equivalent in productive regions of the CCE and the subtropical front in the Southern Ocean, and active transport an important contributor in the Eastern Tropical Pacific. We further find that mortality at depth is an important component of active transport when mesozooplankton biomasses are high, but that it is negligible in regions with low mesozooplankton biomass. Our results also highlight the high degree of uncertainty, particularly amongst mesozooplankton functional groups, that is derived from uncertainty in model parameters, with important implications from results that rely on non-ensemble model outputs. We also discuss the implications of our results for other data assimilation approaches.

Subsurface warm biases in the tropical Atlantic and their attributions to the role of wind forcing and ocean vertical mixing

Realistic ocean subsurface simulations of thermal structure and variation are critically important to the success in climate prediction and projection; currently, substantial systematic subsurface biases still exist in the state-of-the-art ocean and climate models. In this paper, subsurface biases in the tropical Atlantic (TA) are investigated by analyzing simulations from OMIP and conducting POP2-based ocean-only experiments. The subsurface biases are prominent in almost all OMIP simulations, characterized by two warm bias patches off the equator. By conducting two groups of POP2-based ocean-only experiments, two potential origins of the biases are explored, including uncertainties in wind forcing and vertical mixing parameterization, respectively. It is illustrated that the warm bias near 10° N can be slightly reduced by modulating prescribed wind field, and the warm biases over the entire basin are significantly reduced by reducing background diffusivity in the ocean interior in ways to match observations. By conducting heat budget analysis, it is found that the improved subsurface simulations are attributed to the enhanced cooling effect by constraining the vertical mixing diffusivity in terms of the observational estimate, implying that the overestimation of vertical mixing is primarily responsible for the subsurface warm biases in the TA. Since the climate simulation is very sensitive to the vertical mixing parameterization, more accurate representations of ocean vertical mixing are clearly needed in ocean and climate models.

Relationship of Spatial Phytoplankton Variability during Spring with Eutrophic Inshore and Oligotrophic Offshore Waters in the East Sea, Including Dokdo, Korea

The area near the subpolar front of the East Sea has high primary productivity during the spring season. We conducted two surveys, one in early spring and another in late spring, to assess environmental factors that influence phytoplankton community structure during these times. During early spring, vertical mixing supplied abundant nutrients to the surface. Due to the well-mixed water column, there were high nutrient levels, but total phytoplankton abundances and diversity were relatively low and were dominated by the diatom Chaetoceros spp. During late spring, the water column gradually stratified, with relatively high levels of nutrients in the surface layers near the coastal areas. Phytoplankton abundance and diversity at that time were higher, and there were diatoms (Pseudo-nitzschia spp. and Chaetoceros spp.), cryptophytes, and small flagellates. Pseudo-nitzschia spp. were especially abundant in re-sampled areas. The presence of a stratified and stable water mass and sufficient nitrate led to high phytoplankton growth, even in the open sea during late spring. These findings provide a better understanding of how phytoplankton population dynamics in the East Sea depend on water column stability during both early and late spring seasons.

A simple thermodynamical model to estimate the rate of depletion of nocturnal low level inversion layer

The low level inversion, be it that of ground based or elevated, plays a significant role in the dispersion of polluted particles and in aviation meteorology. The rate of rise of the ground based inversion top and the base of elevated inversion causes the decrease of inversion strength and thereby permits vertical mixing of pollutants as the stability of the atmosphere is reduced. A simple thermodynamical model using the global radiation and vertical temperature profile has been proposed to estimate the rate of rise of (i) the ground based inversion top and (ii) the base of the elevated inversion. The depth of inversion thus estimated can be used in the pollution/fog dispersion models. The model is simple and operationally practicable. The limitations of the model are also discussed.

Subsurface iron accumulation and rapid aluminum removal in the Mediterranean following African dust deposition

Mineral dust deposition is an important supply mechanism for trace elements in the low-latitude ocean. Our understanding of the controls of such inputs has been mostly built on laboratory and surface ocean studies. The lack of direct observations and the tendency to focus on near-surface waters prevent a comprehensive evaluation of the role of dust in oceanic biogeochemical cycles. In the frame of the PEACETIME project (ProcEss studies at the Air-sEa Interface after dust deposition in the MEditerranean sea), the responses of the aluminum (Al) and iron (Fe) cycles to two dust wet deposition events over the central and western Mediterranean Sea were investigated at a timescale of hours to days using a comprehensive dataset gathering dissolved and suspended particulate concentrations, along with sinking fluxes. Dissolved Al (dAl) removal was dominant over dAl released from dust. The Fe / Al ratio of suspended and sinking particles revealed that biogenic particles, and in particular diatoms, were key in accumulating and exporting Al relative to Fe. By combining these observations with published Al / Si ratios of diatoms, we show that adsorption onto biogenic particles, rather than active uptake, represents the main sink for dAl in Mediterranean waters. In contrast, systematic dissolved Fe (dFe) accumulation occurred in subsurface waters (∼ 100–1000 m), while dFe input from dust was only transient in the surface mixed layer. The rapid transfer of dust to depth, the Fe-binding ligand pool in excess to dFe in subsurface (while nearly saturated in surface), and low scavenging rates in this particle-poor depth horizon are all important drivers of this subsurface dFe enrichment. At the annual scale, this previously overlooked mechanism may represent an additional pathway of dFe supply for the surface ocean through diapycnal diffusion and vertical mixing. However, low subsurface dFe concentrations observed at the basin scale (

Seasonal dispersal of fjord meltwaters as an important source of iron and manganese to coastal Antarctic phytoplankton

Glacial meltwater from the western Antarctic Ice Sheet is hypothesized to be an important source of cryospheric iron, fertilizing the Southern Ocean, yet its trace-metal composition and factors that control its dispersal remain poorly constrained. Here we characterize meltwater iron sources in a heavily glaciated western Antarctic Peninsula (WAP) fjord. Using dissolved and particulate ratios of manganese to iron in meltwaters, porewaters, and seawater, we show that surface glacial melt and subglacial plumes contribute to the seasonal cycle of iron and manganese within a fjord still relatively unaffected by climate-change-induced glacial retreat. Organic ligands derived from the phytoplankton bloom and the glaciers bind dissolved iron and facilitate the solubilization of particulate iron downstream. Using a numerical model, we show that buoyant plumes generated by outflow from the subglacial hydrologic system, enriched in labile particulate trace metals derived from a chemically modified crustal source, can supply iron to the fjord euphotic zone through vertical mixing. We also show that prolonged katabatic wind events enhance export of meltwater out of the fjord. Thus, we identify an important atmosphere–ice–ocean coupling intimately tied to coastal iron biogeochemistry and primary productivity along the WAP.

Percampuran vertikal di Perairan Laut Maluku dan Talaud pada bulan Februari 2021

<strong>Vertical mixing in the northern Maluku Sea and Talaud Waters in February 2021. </strong>The spatial variability of water mass mixing in the northern Maluku Sea and Talaud waters are presented based on the results of Eastern Indonesia Expedition (EIT) 2021 using RV Baruna Jaya VIII-LIPI. The turbulent kinetic energy dissipation rate was obtained using the Kunze-Williams-Briscoe (KWB) Method calculated from CTD (Conductivity, Temperature, Depth) and LADCP (Lowered Acoustic Doppler Current Profiler) datasets. We found the dissipation rate in the core layer of North Pacific Subtropical Water (NPSW) and North Pacific Intermediate Water (NPIW) are in the order of 10^-6 W/kg and 10^-8 W/kg, respectively. The KWB Method used in this study is also proven comparable with the Thorpe Method.

The Emission Spectrum of the Hot Jupiter WASP-79b from HST/WFC3

Here we present a thermal emission spectrum of WASP-79b, obtained via Hubble Space Telescope Wide Field Camera 3 G141 observations as part of the PanCET program. As we did not observe the ingress or egress of WASP-79b’s secondary eclipse, we consider two scenarios: a fixed mid-eclipse time based on the expected occurrence time, and a mid-eclipse time as a free parameter. In both scenarios, we can measure thermal emission from WASP-79b from 1.1 to 1.7 μm at 2.4σ confidence consistent with a 1900 K brightness temperature for the planet. We combine our observations with Spitzer dayside photometry (3.6 and 4.5 μm) and compare these observations to a grid of atmospheric forward models that span a range of metallicities, carbon-to-oxygen ratios, and recirculation factors. Given the strength of the planetary emission and the precision of our measurements, we found a wide range of forward models to be consistent with our data. The best-match equilibrium model suggests that WASP-79b’s dayside has a solar metallicity and carbon-to-oxygen ratio, alongside a recirculation factor of 0.75. Models including significant H− opacity provide the best match to WASP-79b’s emission spectrum near 1.58 μm. However, models featuring high-temperature cloud species—formed via vigorous vertical mixing and low sedimentation efficiencies—with little day-to-night energy transport also match WASP-79b’s emission spectrum. Given the broad range of equilibrium chemistry, disequilibrium chemistry, and cloudy atmospheric models consistent with our observations of WASP-79b’s dayside emission, further observations will be necessary to constrain WASP-79b’s dayside atmospheric properties.

A Comparative Study of Atmospheric Chemistry with VULCAN

We present an update of the open-source photochemical kinetics code VULCAN to include C–H–N–O–S networks and photochemistry. The additional new features are advection transport, condensation, various boundary conditions, and temperature-dependent UV cross sections. First, we validate our photochemical model for hot Jupiter atmospheres by performing an intercomparison of HD 189733b models between Moses et al., Venot et al., and VULCAN, to diagnose possible sources of discrepancy. Second, we set up a model of Jupiter extending from the deep troposphere to upper stratosphere to verify the kinetics for low temperature. Our model reproduces hydrocarbons consistent with observations, and the condensation scheme successfully predicts the locations of water and ammonia ice clouds. We show that vertical advection can regulate the local ammonia distribution in the deep atmosphere. Third, we validate the model for oxidizing atmospheres by simulating Earth and find agreement with observations. Last, VULCAN is applied to four representative cases of extrasolar giant planets: WASP-33b, HD 189733b, GJ 436b, and 51 Eridani b. We look into the effects of the C/O ratio and chemistry of titanium/vanadium species for WASP-33b, we revisit HD 189733b for the effects of sulfur and carbon condensation, the effects of internal heating and vertical mixing (K zz) are explored for GJ 436b, and we test updated planetary properties for 51 Eridani b with S8 condensates. We find that sulfur can couple to carbon or nitrogen and impact other species, such as hydrogen, methane, and ammonia. The observable features of the synthetic spectra and trends in the photochemical haze precursors are discussed for each case.