Preprints
Filtering by Subject: Physical Sciences and Mathematics
Increased air pollution exposure among the Chinese population during the national quarantine in 2020
Published: 2020-06-16
Subjects: Environmental Health and Protection, Environmental Sciences, Environmental Studies, Physical Sciences and Mathematics, Social and Behavioral Sciences
The COVID-19 quarantine in China is thought to have been beneficial for reducing the population exposure to ambient air pollution. The overall exposure also depends, however, on indoor air quality and human mobility and activities, which also changed during the pandemic. Here we integrate real-time mobility data, questionnaire survey on during-pandemic human activity patterns, advanced air [...]
Notes on statistical age dispersion in fission-track datasets: the chi-square test, annealing variability, and analytical considerations
Published: 2020-06-13
Subjects: Earth Sciences, Geochemistry, Geology, Physical Sciences and Mathematics
Notes on fission track statistics, the chi-square test, annealing (i.e. fission track age) variability, and analytical bias aimed at a general Earth scientist audience and for users of fission track data
Cryoegg: development and field trials of a wireless subglacial probe for deep, fast-moving ice
Published: 2020-06-13
Subjects: Earth Sciences, Electrical and Computer Engineering, Engineering, Glaciology, Physical Sciences and Mathematics, Systems and Communications
Subglacial hydrological systems require innovative technological solutions to access and observe. Wireless sensor platforms can be used to collect and return data, but their performance in deep and fast-moving ice requires quantification. We report experimental results from Cryoegg: a spherical probe that can be deployed into a borehole or moulin and transit through the subglacial hydrological [...]
The Whole Antarctic Ocean Model (WAOM v1.0): Development and Evaluation
Published: 2020-06-12
Subjects: Earth Sciences, Geophysics and Seismology, Physical Sciences and Mathematics
The Regional Ocean Modeling System (ROMS), including an ice shelf component, has been applied on a circum-Antarctic domain to derive estimates of ice shelf basal melting. Significant improvements made compared to previous models of this scale are the inclusion of tides and a horizontal spatial resolution of 2 km, which is sufficient to resolve onshelf heat transport by bathymetric troughs and [...]
Global wave-driven beach evolution; consequences for observation strategies
Published: 2020-06-12
Subjects: Civil and Environmental Engineering, Earth Sciences, Engineering, Life Sciences, Oceanography, Oceanography and Atmospheric Sciences and Meteorology, Physical Sciences and Mathematics
It is an illusion to think that one can observe monthly beach behaviour with monthly surveys. Current coastal observation strategies restrict understanding of beach evolution, preventing effective risk mitigation. In this article, we quantify the global spatiotemporal scales of coastal wave changes, which are the known dominant driver of beach evolution. Consequences and recommendations for beach [...]
Decomposing the Drivers of Polar Amplification with a Single Column Model.
Published: 2020-06-10
Subjects: Atmospheric Sciences, Oceanography and Atmospheric Sciences and Meteorology, Physical Sciences and Mathematics
The precise mechanisms driving Arctic amplification are still under debate. Previous attribution methods based on top-of-atmosphere energy budgets have assumed all forcings and feedbacks lead to vertically-uniform temperature changes, with any departures from this collected into the lapse-rate feedback. We propose an alternative attribution method using a single column model that accounts for the [...]
Is Net Zero by 2050 Possible?
Published: 2020-06-10
Subjects: Climate, Earth Sciences, Engineering, Environmental Indicators and Impact Assessment, Environmental Sciences, Oceanography and Atmospheric Sciences and Meteorology, Physical Sciences and Mathematics
Achieving Net Zero 2050 does not assure complying with a global warming temperature ceiling. The U.S. might achieve NZ(2050); the world almost certainly will not. For the U.S. to achieve NZ(2050) requires a massive transition of the economy, which is extremely unlikely.
Large model parameter and structural uncertainties in global projections of urban heat waves
Published: 2020-06-10
Subjects: Atmospheric Sciences, Civil and Environmental Engineering, Computer Sciences, Earth Sciences, Engineering, Oceanography and Atmospheric Sciences and Meteorology, Physical Sciences and Mathematics, Risk Analysis, Statistics and Probability
Urban heat waves (UHWs) are strongly associated with socioeconomic impacts. Reliable projections of these extremes are pressingly needed for local actions in the context of extreme event preparedness and mitigation. Such information, however, is not available because current multi-model projections largely lack a representation of urban areas. Here, we use a newly-developed urban climate emulator [...]
The sustainability of beach nourishments: A review of nourishment and environmental monitoring practice
Published: 2020-06-10
Subjects: Civil and Environmental Engineering, Earth Sciences, Engineering, Environmental Engineering, Environmental Monitoring, Environmental Sciences, Geomorphology, Physical Sciences and Mathematics, Sustainability
Beach nourishments are a widely used method to mitigate erosion along flood-prone sandy shorelines. In contrast to hard coastal protection structures, nourishments are considered as soft engineering, although little is known about the cumulative, long-term environmental effects of both marine sediment extraction and nourishment activities. Recent endeavours to sustain the marine ecosystem and [...]
Ancient siderites reveal hot and humid super-greenhouse climate
Published: 2020-06-10
Subjects: Earth Sciences, Geochemistry, Geology, Physical Sciences and Mathematics
Earth’s climate is warming as the rise in atmospheric CO2 (pCO2) contributes to increased radiative forcing. State-of-the-art models calculate a wide range in Earth’s climate sensitivities due to increasing pCO2, and, in particular, the mechanisms responsible for amplification of high latitude temperatures remain highly debated. The geological record provides a means to evaluate the consequences [...]
Sediment redox dynamics in an oligotrophic deep-water lake in Tierra del Fuego: insights from Fe isotopes
Published: 2020-06-10
Subjects: Earth Sciences, Fresh Water Studies, Geochemistry, Oceanography and Atmospheric Sciences and Meteorology, Physical Sciences and Mathematics, Sedimentology
Fe speciation and Fe isotopes have been widely used to reconstruct past basin dynamics and water redox conditions. However, sedimentation and early diagenesis of such proxies eventually alter any primary climate signal. In this work, we disentangled the processes occurring at the redox front below the sediment-water interface of a ventilated deep-water lake (Lago Fagnano, Argentina/Chile). A [...]
A systematic approach and software for the analysis of point patterns on river networks
Published: 2020-06-10
Subjects: Earth Sciences, Geomorphology, Physical Sciences and Mathematics
Many geomorphic phenomena such as bank failures, landslide dams, riffle-pool sequences and knickpoints can be modelled as spatial point processes. However, as the locations of these phenomena are constrained to lie on or alongside rivers, their analysis must account for the geometry and topology of river networks. Here, we introduce a new numeric class in TopoToolbox called Point Pattern on [...]
COVID-19 Pandemic – Possible implications and effects of monsoons in the Indian sub-continent.
Published: 2020-06-09
Subjects: Earth Sciences, Engineering, Environmental Health and Protection, Environmental Sciences, Environmental Studies, Physical Sciences and Mathematics, Social and Behavioral Sciences
The world is facing an unprecedented time owing to the ongoing COVID 19 pandemic. The research community is racing to find a solution to contain the outbreak, leading to the proposals of many possible routes of the virus transmission and its dynamics. The Indian sub-continent is about to experience the monsoon season, which often leads to heavy rainfall and flooding in the region, affecting the [...]
Heat does not physically flow in the ways assumed by greenhouse-warming theory
Published: 2020-06-07
Subjects: Climate, Earth Sciences, Oceanography and Atmospheric Sciences and Meteorology, Physical Sciences and Mathematics, Volcanology
Heat is currently defined as an amount of thermal energy flowing each second per unit area. Temperature is assumed to result from the net amount of heat flowing—the sum of all radiative forcings. Yet direct and unambiguous observations of Nature show that macroscopic temperature of solid matter results from a very broad spectrum of sub-microscopic oscillations of all the bonds holding matter [...]
Strain migration during multiphase extension, Stord Basin, northern North Sea rift
Published: 2020-06-07
Subjects: Earth Sciences, Geology, Physical Sciences and Mathematics
In multirifted regions, rift-related strain varies along and across the basin during and between each extensional event, and the location of maximum extension often differs between rift phases. Despite having a general understanding of multiphase rift kinematics, it remains unclear why some parts of the rift are abandoned, with strain accumulating in previously less deformed areas, and how [...]