Preprints
Filtering by Subject: Earth Sciences
Earth System Data Cubes: Avenues for advancing Earth system research
Published: 2023-07-11
Subjects: Computer Sciences, Earth Sciences, Environmental Sciences
Recent advancements in Earth system science have been marked by the exponential increase in the availability of diverse, multivariate datasets characterised by moderate to high spatio-temporal resolutions. Earth System Data Cubes (ESDCs) have emerged as one suitable solution for transforming this flood of data into a simple yet robust data structure. ESDCs achieve this by organising data into an [...]
Satellite-derived shorelines for monitoring of sandy beaches: a benchmark study
Published: 2023-07-10
Subjects: Civil and Environmental Engineering, Earth Sciences, Engineering, Environmental Engineering, Geomorphology, Oceanography, Oceanography and Atmospheric Sciences and Meteorology, Other Earth Sciences, Physical Sciences and Mathematics
Satellite remote sensing is becoming a widely used monitoring technique in coastal sciences. Yet, no benchmarking studies exist that compare the performance of popular satellite-derived shoreline (SDS) mapping algorithms against standardized sets of inputs and validation data. Here we present a new benchmarking framework to evaluate the accuracy of shoreline change observations extracted from [...]
Transporting Heat Flux From the US and Europe to Antarctica Guided by Regional Seismic Structure
Published: 2023-07-08
Subjects: Earth Sciences, Geophysics and Seismology, Glaciology, Physical Sciences and Mathematics
Subglacial geothermal heat flux affects the dynamics of the Antarctic ice sheet but is poorly known. We estimate heat flux across West Antarctica and the interior of East Antarctica by transporting heat flux observations from the contiguous US and Europe, based on seismic structure with a lateral resolution of about \qty{100}{km}. We transport with three Machine Learning models across a hierarchy [...]
Improved representation of laminar and turbulent sheet flow in subglacial drainage models
Published: 2023-07-07
Subjects: Earth Sciences, Glaciology, Physical Sciences and Mathematics
Subglacial hydrology models struggle to reproduce seasonal drainage patterns that are consistent with observed subglacial water pressures and surface velocities. We modify the standard sheet-flow parameterization within a coupled sheet--channel subglacial drainage model to smoothly transition between laminar and turbulent flow based on the locally computed Reynolds number in a physically [...]
Demystifying the Dynamics of Global and Regional Sea Level Trends from 1993 to 2021
Published: 2023-07-07
Subjects: Applied Statistics, Earth Sciences, Physical Sciences and Mathematics, Statistical Models
As global sea levels rise, questions persist about the robustness of trends and their dynamics. Here, we offer a fresh perspective by examining the dynamics of global and regional mean sea-level trends using a probabilistic framework applied to the altimetric record. We show that the global mean sea-level (GMSL) rise accelerated from 2.5 mm/yr (1993-2000) to 4.2 mm/yr (2014-2021) with an average [...]
Assessing Precipitation Trends that may inform Aging Dam Overtopping across the USA
Published: 2023-07-07
Subjects: Civil and Environmental Engineering, Climate, Earth Sciences, Hydrology, Risk Analysis
In many cases, persistent or recurrent synoptic circulation patterns lead to multiple wet days that precede an extreme rainfall event. The joint occurrence of high antecedent rainfall and extreme rainfall defines a compound event that may pose a high risk for overtopping of aging dams. Our novel analysis assesses whether there are significant trends across the conterminous United States (CONUS) [...]
360-day to Gregorian calendar climate model output conversion
Published: 2023-07-06
Subjects: Climate, Earth Sciences, Meteorology, Physical Sciences and Mathematics
Data from some climate model simulations is in a 360 days per year format, that is, every month is 30 days long. The main reason for this is analytical convenience in creating seasonal, annual and multi-annual means which are an integral part of climate model development and evaluation. This work illustrates a method to convert daily-mean, 360-day calendar climate model data into 'real', [...]
Mountains of plastic: Mismanaged plastic waste along the Carpathian watercourses
Published: 2023-07-05
Subjects: Earth Sciences, Environmental Sciences
Plastic waste poses numerous risks to mountain river ecosystems due to their high biodiversity and specific physical characteristics. Here, we provide a baseline assessment for future evaluation of such risks in the Carpathians, one of the most biodiverse mountain ranges in East-Central Europe. We used high-resolution river network and mismanaged plastic waste (MPW) databases to map MPW along the [...]
Cosmogenic nuclide dating conundrum for retreat of the Laurentide Ice Sheet and the critical roles of geomagnetic and heliomagnetic modulation of cosmic ray flux
Published: 2023-07-01
Subjects: Earth Sciences
What we regard as anomalously old 10Be exposure dates reported from the terminal moraine of the Laurentide Ice Sheet (LIS) in northeastern North America, such as recently published for Allamuchy NJ, ostensibly point to the start of deglaciation at 25 thousand calendar years before present (cal. ka). These dates are well within the conventional age span of the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM) and are in [...]
Sedimentology and sequence stratigraphy of shallow-marine, coarse-grained siliciclastic deposits in the southern Utsira High: the Late Jurassic intra-Draupne Formation sandstones in the Johan Sverdrup Field (Norwegian North Sea).
Published: 2023-06-30
Subjects: Earth Sciences, Geology, Sedimentology, Stratigraphy, Tectonics and Structure
Thin, condensed coarse-grained shallow-marine successions can be difficult to describe and interpret, especially in the subsurface because they commonly lack finer grained intervals which are typically associated with sequence stratigraphic surfaces. This lack of mudstones and siltstones means that they also typically make excellent reservoir intervals. The Oxfordian to Volgian intra-Draupne [...]
Global 1km Land Surface Parameters for Kilometer-Scale Earth System Modeling
Published: 2023-06-28
Subjects: Atmospheric Sciences, Biogeochemistry, Climate, Earth Sciences, Hydrology, Meteorology, Oceanography and Atmospheric Sciences and Meteorology
Earth system models (ESMs) are progressively advancing towards the kilometer scale (k-scale). However, the surface parameters for Land Surface Models (LSMs) within ESMs running at the k-scale are typically derived from coarse resolution and outdated datasets. This study aims to develop a new set of global land surface parameters with a resolution of 1 km for multiple years from 2001 to 2020, [...]
Near-surface characterization using Distributed Acoustic Sensing in an urban area: Granada, Spain
Published: 2023-06-28
Subjects: Earth Sciences
The Granada Basin in southeast Spain is an area of moderate seismicity. Yet, it hosts some of the highest seismic hazards in the Iberian Peninsula due to the presence of shallow soft sediments amplifying local ground motion. In urban areas, seismic measurements often suffer from sparse instrumentation. An enticing alternative to conventional seismometers is the Distributed Acoustic Sensing (DAS) [...]
Notes on the Pens Collection of Australites in the Tate Museum, University of Adelaide
Published: 2023-06-26
Subjects: Earth Sciences, Other Planetary Sciences
The Tate Museum holds a large collection of (tektites) australites including the Pens Collection from the Florieton area in east-central South Australia. Many of these specimens are intact or near-so and have the various forms ascribed to their behaviour as they entered the Earth’s atmosphere. However, a significant number, some of which may have been initially fractured and broken by erosional [...]
Decoding the Dynamics of Climate Change Impact: Temporal Patterns of Surface Warming and Melting on the Nivlisen Ice Shelf, Dronning Maud Land, East Antarctica
Published: 2023-06-23
Subjects: Earth Sciences, Environmental Sciences
Surface melting in Antarctica can result in the formation of meltwater ponds and streams, which can encourage glacier basal sliding and ice flow; long-term severe surface melting can result in the formation of melt ponds and, eventually, supraglacial lakes (SGLs), raising the prospect of hydrofracturing. Measurements of these surface melting characteristics are useful for studying glacier and ice [...]
The longest-lived Pacific hotspots reveal a plume tail for the largest oceanic plateau
Published: 2023-06-23
Subjects: Earth Sciences, Geochemistry, Physical Sciences and Mathematics, Tectonics and Structure
Volcanic hotspots are thought to initially form by melting in an upwelling mantle plume head followed by melting of the plume tail. Plate motion then generates an age progressive volcanic track originating from a large igneous province and connecting to a presently active hotspot. However, the most voluminous large igneous province, the ~120 Ma Ontong-Java Nui Plateau (OJP-Nui) in the [...]