Preprints
Filtering by Subject: Environmental Sciences
Addressing Model Data Archiving Needs for the Department of Energy’s Environmental Systems Science Community
Published: 2020-05-08
Subjects: Computer Sciences, Environmental Sciences, Environmental Studies, Physical Sciences and Mathematics, Social and Behavioral Sciences
Researchers in the Department of Energy’s ESS program use a variety of models to advance robust, scale-aware predictions of terrestrial and subsurface ecosystems. ESS projects typically conduct field observations and experiments coupled with modeling exercises using a model-experimental (ModEx) approach that enables iterative co-development of experiments and models, and ensures that experimental [...]
On doing large-scale hydrology with Lions: Realising the value of perceptual models and knowledge accumulation
Published: 2020-05-08
Subjects: Earth Sciences, Engineering, Environmental Sciences, Hydrology, Physical Sciences and Mathematics
Moving the study domain in hydrology to larger and larger regions leaves us with significant knowledge gaps because we are unable to observe the hydrology of many parts of the world, while in-depth hydrologic studies cover only a fraction of our landscape. On medieval maps, knowledge gaps were shown as images of lions. How do we best acknowledge and reduce these gaps in hydrology, i.e. our [...]
How waves are accelerating global coastal overtopping
Published: 2020-05-07
Subjects: Climate, Earth Sciences, Environmental Sciences, Oceanography and Atmospheric Sciences and Meteorology, Physical Sciences and Mathematics
The world’s coastal areas are home to about 10% of the human population and support unique and dynamic ecosystems, offering € trillions worth of environmental and societal benefits. Climate change and anthropogenic pressures are however exacerbating devastating hazards such as episodic coastal flooding, the magnitudes of which remain highly uncertain to date. This study, for the first time, [...]
Lower air pollution during COVID-19 lock-down: improving models and methods estimating ozone impacts on crops (accepted 01.07.2020)
Published: 2020-05-07
Subjects: Agriculture, Agronomy and Crop Sciences Life Sciences, Environmental Sciences, Life Sciences, Physical Sciences and Mathematics, Plant Sciences
We suggest that the unprecedented and unintended decrease of emissions of air pollutants during the COVID-19 lockdown in 2020 could lead to declining seasonal ozone concentrations, and positive impacts on crop yields. An initial assessment of the potential effects of COVID-19 emission reductions was made using a set of six scenarios that variously assumed annual European and global emission [...]
EC-Earth Global Climate Simulations: Ireland’s Contributions to CMIP6
Published: 2020-05-07
Subjects: Earth Sciences, Environmental Sciences, Oceanography and Atmospheric Sciences and Meteorology, Physical Sciences and Mathematics
The global climate simulations described in this report constitute Ireland’s contribution to the Coupled Model Intercomparison Project (CMIP) (phase 6) (CMIP6) and will be included for assessment in the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Sixth Assessment Report (AR6). Since 1995, CMIP has co-ordinated climate model experiments involving multiple international [...]
A radial hydraulic fracture with pressure-dependent leak-off
Published: 2020-05-06
Subjects: Earth Sciences, Environmental Sciences, Hydrology, Oil, Gas, and Energy, Physical Sciences and Mathematics, Volcanology
This paper investigates the problem of a radial (or penny-shaped) hydraulic fracture propagating in a permeable reservoir. In particular, we consider the fluid exchange between the crack and ambient porous media as a pressure-dependent process. In most of the existing models, the fluid exchange process is represented as one-dimensional pressure-independent leak-off described by Carters law. We [...]
Unrealistic phytoplankton bloom trends in global lakes derived from Landsat measurements
Published: 2020-05-06
Subjects: Earth Sciences, Environmental Monitoring, Environmental Sciences, Hydrology, Physical Sciences and Mathematics, Water Resource Management
Given its advantages for synoptic and large-scale observations, satellite remote sensing has been widely used to effectively monitor the water quality of inland and coastal environments. Using satellite-derived reflectance data from the Landsat 5 Thematic Mapper (L5TM) as a proxy for algal bloom intensity, Ho et al. 1 showed an increase in peak summertime bloom intensity in 68% of the 71 large [...]
Constraining global changes in temperature and precipitation from observable changes in surface radiative heating
Published: 2020-04-30
Subjects: Climate, Earth Sciences, Environmental Sciences, Oceanography and Atmospheric Sciences and Meteorology, Physical Sciences and Mathematics, Physics
Changes in the atmospheric composition alter the magnitude and partitioning between the downward propagating solar and atmospheric longwave radiative fluxes heating the Earths surface. These changes are computed by radiative transfer codes in Global Climate Models and measured with high precision at surface observation networks. Changes in radiative heating signify changes in the global surface [...]
Streamflow depletion from groundwater pumping in contrasting hydrogeological landscapes: Evaluation and sensitivity of a new management tool
Published: 2020-04-29
Subjects: Earth Sciences, Environmental Sciences, Hydrology, Physical Sciences and Mathematics, Sustainability, Water Resource Management
Groundwater pumping can reduce streamflow by reducing groundwater discharge and/or inducing streamflow infiltration, which together are referred to as streamflow depletion. Recently, analytical depletion functions (ADFs) have been suggested as rapid and accurate tools for streamflow depletion assessment, but their performance has only been tested in a few hydrogeological settings. To evaluate [...]
Global projections of compound coastal meteorological extremes
Published: 2020-04-29
Subjects: Environmental Sciences, Oceanography and Atmospheric Sciences and Meteorology, Physical Sciences and Mathematics
Compound coastal and inland flooding can result in catastrophic impacts in densely populated low-lying coastal areas. The dynamics and interactions between the underlying meteorological drivers in view of climate change are not fully understood at global scale. Here, we show that under a high emissions scenario the concurrence probability of extreme meteorological tides and inland precipitation [...]
Using large-scale NO2 data from citizen science for air quality compliance and policy support
Published: 2020-04-21
Subjects: Earth Sciences, Engineering, Environmental Monitoring, Environmental Sciences, Life Sciences, Physical Sciences and Mathematics
Citizen science projects that monitor air quality have recently drastically expanded in scale. Projects involving thousands of citizens generate spatially dense datasets using low-cost passive samplers for nitrogen dioxide (NO2), which complement data from the sparse reference network operated by environmental agencies. However, there is a critical bottleneck in using these citizen-derived [...]
Lockdown caused by COVID-19 pandemic reduces air pollution in cities worldwide
Published: 2020-04-18
Subjects: Environmental Monitoring, Environmental Sciences, Life Sciences, Medicine and Health Sciences, Physical Sciences and Mathematics
Drastic measures such as lockdown taken by countries worldwide to contain spread of COVID-19 have influenced air pollution dynamics substantially, at a planetary scale. Several media reported the lockdown induced air pollution reduction based on quickly assembled satellite observations. However, a global-scale analysis of such reduction in air pollution backed by quality data collected from [...]
Evaluating UK natural hazards: the national risk assessment
Published: 2020-04-15
Subjects: Earth Sciences, Environmental Indicators and Impact Assessment, Environmental Sciences, Other Environmental Sciences, Physical Sciences and Mathematics
Despite its relatively temperate climate and stable geography, natural hazards present multiple risks to human activity in the UK. These range from small-scale local occurrences, such as landslides, through regional incidents, such as flooding, to major high impact, low probability events, such as space weather. The impacts of such hazards can be wide-ranging but may include disruption to [...]
Do atmospheric plastics act as fomites for novel viruses?
Published: 2020-04-15
Subjects: Atmospheric Sciences, Civil and Environmental Engineering, Engineering, Environmental Health and Protection, Environmental Sciences, Life Sciences, Oceanography and Atmospheric Sciences and Meteorology, Physical Sciences and Mathematics
Plastic particles are ubiquitous in various environmental compartments, the atmosphere being the least explored compartment in terms of plastic pollution. The way that atmospheric plastics affect the biological systems has not yet been explored when compared to aquatic ecosystems. There are many speculated human health impacts, one definite and direct impact of atmospheric plastics would be [...]
A mixed $RT_0 - P_0$ Raviart-Thomas finite element implementation of Darcy Equation in GNU Octave
Published: 2020-04-13
Subjects: Applied Mathematics, Bioresource and Agricultural Engineering, Chemical Engineering, Computational Engineering, Earth Sciences, Engineering, Environmental Sciences, Hydrology, Numerical Analysis and Computation, Partial Differential Equations, Physical Sciences and Mathematics, Water Resource Management
In this paper we shall describe mixed formulations -differential and variational- of Darcys flow equation, an important model of elliptic problem. We describe * Galerkin method with finite dimensional spaces; * Local matrices and assembling; * Raviart-Thomas $RT_0 - P_0$ elements; * Edge basis and local matrices for $RT_0 - P_0$ FEM; * Model problem with corresponding local matrices, right hand [...]