Nonlinear Model of Coastal Flooding by a Highly Turbulent Tsunami

When a tsunami wave comes from ocean and propagates through the shelf, it is very important to predict several dangerous factors: (a) maximum flooding of the coast, (b) tsunami wave height on the coast, (c) velocity of the tsunami front propagation through the coast, and (d) time of tsunami arriving at a given point in the coast and around it. In this study we study the separate case where the angle of inclination α of the seacoast is equal to zero. A linear solution of this problem is unsatisfactory since it gives an infinite rate of the coastal inundation that means the coast is flooded instantly and without a frontal boundary. In this study, we propose a principally new exact analytical solution of this problem based on nonlinear theory for the reliable recognizing these essential tsunami characteristics. The obtained formulas indicate that the tsunami wave can be stopped (or very strongly eliminated) in the shelf zone until approaching the shoreline. For this aim, it is necessary to artificially raising several dozens of bottom protrusions to the level of the calm water.

Exploring the ‘Rolling Unmasking Effect’ of Downwind Odor Dispersion from Model Plant and Animal Sources

Solving environmental odor issues can be confounded by many analytical, technological, and socioeconomic factors. Considerable know-how and technologies can fail to properly identify odorants responsible for the downwind nuisance odor and mitigate it for the affected citizenry. We propose enabling solutions to environmental odor issues by utilizing troubleshooting techniques developed for the food, beverage, and consumer products industries. We showed that the downwind odorant impact-priority ranking process can be definable and relatively simple. The initial challenge is the prioritization of environmental odor character from the perspective of the impacted citizenry downwind. In this research, we aim at summarizing three natural models of the rolling unmasking effect (RUE) and discuss them more systematically in the context of the proposed downwind environmental odor prioritization approach. Regardless of the size and reach of an odor source, a simplification of odor character and composition typically develops with downwind dilution. The extreme odor simplification-upon-dilution was demonstrated for two plant varieties, prairie verbena and Virginia pepperweed. Their downwind odor frontal boundaries were dominated by single, character-defining odorants; p-cresol-dominated ‘barnyard’ odor, and benzyl mercaptan-dominated ‘burnt match’ odor, respectively. The P.T. porcupine downwind odor frontal boundary was dominated by two potent, character-defining odorants: (1) ‘onion’/‘body odor’ odorant #1 and (2) ‘onion’/‘grilled’ odorant #2. In contrast with their downwind boundary simplicities, each odor source presented considerable compositional complexity and composite character difference near the source. The proposed RUE approach’s ultimate significance is the illustration of naturally occurring phenomena that explain why some environmental odors and their sources can be challenging to identify and mitigate using the analytical only approach (focused on compound identities and concentrations). These approaches rarely move beyond comprehensive lists of compounds being emitted by the source.

The interaction between cold fronts and convection in the mid-latitudes

<p>Cold fronts provide an environment favourable for convective initiation in the mid-latitudes. Some studies also show the presence of a cold front can increase the chance of certain convective hazards, such as hail and heavy rain. Convection initiates in three locations in respect to cold fronts: <em>ahead</em> of the cold front in the warm sector of the cyclone, directly <em>at</em> the cold frontal boundary and also <em>behind</em> the cold front. Previous literature has typically focused on each initiation location independently, thus a comprehensive study investigating the link between cold fronts and convection is currently lacking from literature. This study seeks to better understand the climatology, scale interactions and forcing mechanisms of convection at each initiation location relative to the front (i.e., behind, at, ahead).</p><p>Automatic front detection methods are applied to reanalysis data and a convective cell-tracking dataset from the German Weather Service is used to build a climatology of cold fronts and convection between April–September. Convective cells are found to initiate most commonly 200–300km ahead of the cold front during late afternoon. Cells behind the front primarily initiate in north-western Germany and exhibit a strong diurnal cycle. On the contrary, cells at and ahead of the front initiate most frequently in southern Germany and exhibit a less prominent diurnal cycle, especially for cells at the frontal boundary. Lightning probability decreases with closing proximity to the cold front and the average number of cell initiations per day is significantly higher on days with cold fronts opposed to days without. The next stages of research will investigate the relative importance of various forcing mechanisms on the development of convective cells at different cell-front positions.</p>

Mesospheric fronts in airglow images and the variation of the bottomside sodium layer densities measured by a sodium lidar at Tromsø, Norway

<p>Mesospheric frontal systems are waves extending to hundreds of kilometers along their phase fronts and appear like a boundary. They are observed in the upper mesospheric airglow imaging observations of OH, sodium and OI greenline nightglow emissions. It is believed that the fronts result from gravity wave dynamics associated with favorable background conditions like thermal ducting. Many of the frontal systems are identified as mesospheric bores when they are accompanied with sudden airglow intensity changes across the frontal boundary. Most of the frontal systems propagate with phase locked undulations following the leading front, while some induce turbulence behind the front. Though the existence of the frontal systems in the mesosphere is known for more than two decades, their role and importance is not understood properly. In this work, we use airglow data from an all-sky imager located at Tromsø to identify the frontal systems, particularly using OH images. Collocated five-beam sodium lidar measurements are used to identify the structuring in sodium densities around time of passage of the frontal systems. The sodium lidar at Tromsø is a versatile system capable of measuring sodium densities, temperatures and winds in the upper mesospshere region. Hence, we obtain the wind and temperature information to study the background conditions during passage of the intense frontal systems. Though, mostly we focus on OH airglow images as they are observed with broad pass band resulting in higher signal strength, we also utilize images from other emissions like OI greenline and sodium whenever they are available and free from auroral features. Interestingly, we find formation of some unusual structuring in the bottomside sodium layer around the passage of the frontal systems. We show different cases during winter months of the years 2013-14 and 2014-15 and investigate the relationship between unusual bottomside structuring in the sodium layer and passage of the frontal systems.</p>

The influence of the coastal front on heavy rainfall events along the east coast

Coastal fronts are commonly found along the East Coast of the United States and can often be associated with intense rainfall and flooding due to elevated convection on the cold side of the boundary. Five heavy rainfall events ([greater to or equal than] 250 mm 24 hr-1) during the fall months along the East Coast were investigated using numerical weather prediction (NWP) models to determine the influence of an upper-level trough/cut-off low, an offshore tropical cyclone, a frontal boundary, and a moisture plume on the intense precipitation. Using experimental NWP simulations, it was determined that the tropical cyclone had an impact on the moisture plume and subsequent location of precipitation due to an associated deformation zone. The tropical cyclone prolonged the events by 6 hours, but inhibited the amount of moisture and resulting precipitation by deterring southeasterly flow. Evaporation from precipitation (surface heat fluxes) contributed to less than 25% (33%) of the precipitation, while latent heat release had the largest impact on the rain totals due to positive feedback from convection and an influence on the frontal boundary. Terrain also impacted the frontal boundary in each event, altering precipitation totals. Parcel trajectories confirmed regions of frontogenesis to be the main source of lift for the release of gravitational instability and convective initiation in each event, while the extratropical cyclone provided upper-level support for ascent and organized the plume of deep tropospheric moisture perpendicular to the front. Three of the five events lasted multiple days due to negative PV advection by the irrotational wind, in response to latent heat release in the region of convection, acting to slow the propagation of the upper-level low.

Interactions between a Nocturnal MCS and the Stable Boundary Layer as Observed by an Airborne Compact Raman Lidar during PECAN

Small-scale variations within the low-level outflow and inflow of an MCS can either support or deter the upscale growth and maintenance of the MCS. However, these small-scale variations, in particular in the thermodynamics (temperature and humidity), remain poorly understood, due to a lack of detailed measurements. The compact Raman lidar (CRL) deployed on the University of Wyoming King Air aircraft directly sampled temperature and water vapor profiles at unprecedented vertical and along-track resolutions along the southern margin of a series of mature nocturnal MCSs traveling along a frontal boundary on 1 July 2015 during the Plains Elevated Convection at Night (PECAN) campaign. Here, the capability of the airborne CRL to document interactions between the MCS inflow and outflow currents is illustrated. The CRL reveals the well-defined boundary of a cooler current. This is interpreted as the frontal boundary sharpened by convectively induced cold pools, in particular by the outflow boundary of the downstream MCS. In one CRL transect, the frontal/outflow boundary appeared as a distinct two-layer structure of moisture and aerosols formed by moist stable boundary layer air advected above the boundary. The second transect, one hour later, reveals a single sloping boundary. In both cases, the lofting of the moist stably stratified air over the boundary favors MCS maintenance, through enhanced elevated CAPE and reduced CIN. The CRL data are sufficiently resolved to reveal Kelvin–Helmholtz (KH) billows and the vertical structure of the outflow boundary, which in this case behaved as a density current rather than an undular bore.

Simulation of CH4 recovery from hydrate deposits by injection of CO2

The paper presents a mathematical model of CH4 recovery from gas hydrate deposits via injection of liquid CO2. The process of CH4 recovery is supposed to occur on the moving frontal boundary separating the deposit into two domains. The near domain is saturated with liquid CO2 and its hydrate while the far one is saturated with CH4 and its hydrate. Self-similar solutions describing the temperature and pressure fields were obtained. The effect of main parameters on the dynamics of the process under study was explored. It was revealed that at low temperatures of the CO2 being injected the temperature in the far domain did not exceed that of equilibrium for decomposition of CH4 gas hydrate. It was also found that with increasing pressure at which CO2 was injected into the gas hydrate do-main, the extension of the region saturated with CO2 hydrate was increasing.