Preprints
Filtering by Subject: Physical Sciences and Mathematics
From strain to displacement: using deformation to enhance distributed acoustic sensing applications
Published: 2023-04-21
Subjects: Physical Sciences and Mathematics
Over a period of less than a decade, Distributed Acoustic Sensing (DAS) has become a well-established technology in seismology. For historical and practical reasons, DAS manufacturers usually provide instruments that natively record strain (rate) as the principal measurement. While at first glance strain recordings seem related to ground motion waveforms (displacement, velocity, acceleration), [...]
On Constructing Limits-of-Acceptability in Watershed Hydrology using Decision Trees
Published: 2023-04-20
Subjects: Physical Sciences and Mathematics
A hydrological model incurs three types of uncertainties: measurement, structural and parametric uncertainty. For instance, in rainfall-runoff models, measurement uncertainty exists due to errors in measurements of rainfall and streamflow data. Structural uncertainty exists due to errors in mathematical representation of hydrological processes. Parametric uncertainty is a consequence of our [...]
High-resolution geodetic strain rate field reveals dynamics of the India-Eurasia collision
Published: 2023-04-20
Subjects: Physical Sciences and Mathematics
Determining the distribution of seismic hazard in the continents requires an understanding of how much deformation is accommodated by major faults. Quantifying the role of major faults in continental deformation has been hampered by a lack of high-resolution observations in the deforming interiors of continents. By combining surface movement data derived from 22,000 satellite radar images with [...]
Context-aware UAV LiDAR reveals forest structure and improves tree diameter estimates in subalpine forest
Published: 2023-04-19
Subjects: Engineering, Life Sciences, Physical Sciences and Mathematics
Forest structure, tree diameter, and aboveground biomass (AGB) are central variables in trait‑based ecology and forest management, and recent advances in Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) and LiDAR surveys have substantially improved tree‑level phenotyping of these structural attributes. Building on these developments, machine‑learning (ML) applications are increasingly used to refine tree‑diameter [...]
Proposal of a new climate classification based on Köppen and Trewartha
Published: 2023-04-17
Subjects: Physical Sciences and Mathematics
A new and detailed climate classification based on Köppen-Geiger and Trewartha schemes is proposed, which uses four components (thermal zone, continentality, humidity, and seasonal distribution of precipitation) to determine a location’s climate type. It specifies thermal zones into nine types by subdividing tropical, subtropical, temperate, and polar zones, which are based on original Trewartha [...]
Calling for a National Model Benchmarking Facility
Published: 2023-04-14
Subjects: Biology, Computer Sciences, Earth Sciences, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Environmental Sciences, Life Sciences, Oceanography and Atmospheric Sciences and Meteorology, Other Life Sciences, Physical and Environmental Geography, Physical Sciences and Mathematics, Planetary Sciences, Systems Biology
The modern world uses predictive computer models for many important purposes, including weather predictions, epidemic management, flood forecasting and warnings, and economic policymaking. We need to know how much we can trust the projections of these models, not only to achieve more accurate projections for systems, but also to undertake scientific learning about systems by incrementally testing [...]
Plastic as a Sediment – A Universal and Objective practical solution to growing ambiguity in plastic litter classification schemes
Published: 2023-04-10
Subjects: Physical Sciences and Mathematics
The universal and growing challenge of inconsistency and ambiguity in plastic classification schemes restricts our ability to predict plastic routing, degradation, and accumulation in all environments worldwide. Global plastic production has risen exponentially, reaching approximately 9,200 million tons between 1950 and 2017. Of this, an estimated 5,300 million tons have been discarded, with a [...]
Examining the power supplied to Earth's dynamo by magnesium precipitation and radiogenic heat production
Published: 2023-04-06
Subjects: Earth Sciences, Geophysics and Seismology, Mineral Physics, Physical Sciences and Mathematics, Planetary Sciences
We examine magnesium and potassium solubility in liquid Fe mixtures, representative of Earth’s core composition, in equilibrium with liquid silicate mixtures representative of an early magma ocean. Our study is based on the calculation of the chemical potentials of MgO and K2O in both phases, using density functional theory. For MgO, we also study stability against precipitation of the solid [...]
DiadFit: An Open-Source Python3 Tool for Peak fitting of Raman Data from silicate melts and CO2 fluids
Published: 2023-04-04
Subjects: Earth Sciences, Geology, Mineral Physics, Physical Sciences and Mathematics, Volcanology
We present DiadFit - an open-source Python3 tool for efficient processing of Raman spectroscopy data collected from fluidinclusions, melt inclusions and silicate melts. DiadFit is optimized to fit the characteristic peaks from CO2 fluids (Fermi diads,hot bands, 13C), gas species such as SO2, N2, solid precipitates (e.g., carbonates), and Ne emission lines with easily tweakablebackground positions [...]
Has Tropical Cyclone Disaster Risk Increased in Bangladesh: Retrospective Analysis of Storm Information, Disaster Statistics, and Mitigation Measures
Published: 2023-03-31
Subjects: Physical Sciences and Mathematics, Risk Analysis, Social and Behavioral Sciences
Tropical cyclone (TC) disaster risk has likely increased in Bangladesh since the beginning of the 21st century. It is primarily due to the cumulative impact of rising coastal exposures such as population, insufficient funding to address disaster risks, and ineffective utilization of century-old early warning signals for TC. From 2000 to 2020, the average number of people affected by a Category [...]
Widespread Wood Placement and Regrading Drive Lateral Connectivity and Reworking of the Channel and Floodplain in a Valley Bottom Reset to Stage 0
Published: 2023-03-31
Subjects: Earth Sciences, Geomorphology, Physical Sciences and Mathematics
Valley bottom process reset, or the excavation of high surfaces and fill of incised channels combined with large wood addition, is a new method for creating multi-channel river-wetland corridors (also referred to as Stage 0 valley bottoms). Valley bottom process reset seeks to increase lateral flow and sediment connectivity to retain flow and sediment and kickstart geomorphic processes that may [...]
Reconciling fast and slow cooling during planetary formation as recorded in the main group pallasites
Published: 2023-03-31
Subjects: Cosmochemistry, Other Planetary Sciences, Physical Sciences and Mathematics, Planetary Geology, Planetary Sciences
Pallasite meteorites contain evidence for vastly different cooling timescales: rapid cooling at high temperatures (K/yrs) and slow cooling at lower temperatures (K/Myrs). Pallasite olivine also shows contrasting textures ranging from well-rounded to angular and fragmental, and some samples record chemical zoning. Previous pallasite formation models have required fortuitous changes to the parent [...]
A novel fluoro-electrochemical technique for classifying diverse marine nanophytoplankton
Published: 2023-03-31
Subjects: Life Sciences, Physical Sciences and Mathematics
To broaden our understanding of pelagic ecosystem responses to environmental change, it is essential that we improve the spatio-temporal resolution of in situ monitoring of phytoplankton communities. A key challenge for existing methods is in classifying and quantifying cells within the nanophytoplankton size range (2-20µm). This is particularly difficult when there are similarities in [...]
N-S versus E-W extension in the Tibetan plateau: Are they driven by the same dynamics?
Published: 2023-03-25
Subjects: Earth Sciences, Physical Sciences and Mathematics
The tectonic history of the Himalaya-Tibet Mountain Range records two important extensional tectonic events: 1) N-S extension in the Himalaya-Tibet transition zone, and 2) E-W extension in the southern and central Tibet, manifested in the form of east-west and north-south striking normal faults, respectively. The N-S extensional event (~22 Ma) started to commence earlier than the E-W extension [...]
Viscosity of anhydrous and hydrous peridotite melts
Published: 2023-03-24
Subjects: Physical Sciences and Mathematics
The melt viscosity (η) of anhydrous and hydrous peridotite was investigated using a multipronged approach combining micropenetration viscometry, conventional DSC, flash DSC and Brillouin spectroscopy. Raman spectroscopy measurements were used to verify the absence of crystallization and/or degassing during high-temperature measurements of these extremely reactive glasses and melts, ensuring that [...]