Preprints
There are 6567 Preprints listed.
Unified theoretical framework for mixing state of black carbon
Published: 2022-08-31
Subjects: Atmospheric Sciences
Black carbon (BC) plays an important role in the climate system due to its strong warming effect, yet the magnitude of this effect is highly uncertain due to the complex mixing state of aerosols. Here we build a unified theoretical framework to describe BC’s mixing states, linking dynamic processes to BC coating thickness distribution, and show its self-similarity for sites in diverse [...]
Autonomous Passage Planning for a Polar Vessel
Published: 2022-08-31
Subjects: Artificial Intelligence and Robotics, Computer Sciences, Earth Sciences, Environmental Sciences, Oceanography and Atmospheric Sciences and Meteorology, Other Earth Sciences, Other Oceanography and Atmospheric Sciences and Meteorology, Physical Sciences and Mathematics, Sustainability
We introduce a method for long-distance maritime route planning in polar regions, taking into account complex changing environmental conditions. The method allows the construction of optimised routes, describing the three main stages of the process: discrete modelling of the environmental conditions using a non-uniform mesh, the construction of mesh-optimal paths, and path smoothing. In order to [...]
A review of coarse mineral dust in the Earth system
Published: 2022-08-31
Subjects: Earth Sciences, Oceanography and Atmospheric Sciences and Meteorology, Physical Sciences and Mathematics
Mineral dust particles suspended in the atmosphere span more than three orders of magnitude in diameter, from less than 0.1 µm to more than 100 µm. This wide size range makes dust a unique aerosol species with the ability to interact with many aspects of the Earth system, including radiation, clouds, hydrology, atmospheric chemistry, and biogeochemistry. This review focuses on coarse and [...]
Fingerprinting construction sand supply-networks for traceable sourcing
Published: 2022-08-31
Subjects: Earth Sciences, Environmental Sciences, Physical Sciences and Mathematics
Globally increasing demand for construction sand needs to be met with transparent and responsible supply-networks. Currently, there are no scalable methods for tracing construction sand distribution without direct observation. We examined sand “fingerprinting” as a potential tool to trace construction sand supply-networks from “source to sink” in a case study from Texas, USA. Both natural bulk [...]
Generation of Reproducible Model Freshwater Particulate Matter Analogues to Study the Interaction with Particulate Contaminants.
Published: 2022-08-31
Subjects: Environmental Chemistry, Environmental Health and Protection, Environmental Sciences, Fresh Water Studies
Aquatic fate models and risk assessment require experimental information on the potential of contaminants to interact with riverine suspended particulate matter (SPM). While for dissolved contaminants partition or sorption coefficients are used, the underlying assumption of chemical equilibrium is invalid for particulate contaminants, such as engineered nanomaterials, incidental nanoparticles, [...]
Ocean Surface Gravity Wave Excitation of Flexural Gravity and Extensional Lamb Waves in Ice Shelves
Published: 2022-08-30
Subjects: Earth Sciences, Glaciology, Numerical Analysis and Scientific Computing
Flexure and extension of ice shelves in response to incident ocean surface gravity waves have been linked to iceberg calving, rift growth, and even disintegration of ice shelves. Most modeling studies utilize a plate bending model for the ice, focusing exclusively on flexural gravity waves. Ross Ice shelf seismic data shows not only flexural gravity waves, with dominantly vertical displacements, [...]
Pumped Storage Hydropower: A Grid Intermittency Solution
Published: 2022-08-30
Subjects: Environmental Studies
As public pressure and state emissions targets increasingly promote grid decarbonization, society must find solutions to the intermittency problem of renewable energy. While several emerging battery technologies provide a solution to this problem, pumped storage hydropower (PSH) is the most promising given its long lifecycle and widespread deployment. This paper will analyze and compare PSH with [...]
Subglacial hydrology modeling predicts high winter water pressure and spatially variable transmissivity at Helheim Glacier, Greenland
Published: 2022-08-26
Subjects: Engineering, Physical Sciences and Mathematics
Sliding velocity of glaciers is influenced by water pressure at the bed. Subglacial hydrology models are helpful for gaining insight into basal conditions, but models depend on several unconstrained physical parameters, and reproducing elevated water pressures in winter has been a challenge. We eliminate terms in the SHAKTI model that rely on uncertain parameters and apply this model to Helheim [...]
Fusing physics-based and data-driven models to forecast and mitigate landslide collapse
Published: 2022-08-26
Subjects: Engineering, Physical Sciences and Mathematics
Deep-seated landslides represent one of the most devastating natural hazards on earth, typically creeping at inappreciable velocities over several years be- fore suddenly collapsing with catastrophic speeds. They can have detrimental consequences to society, causing fatalities and prone to affect transportation infrastructures. In this study, we validate that monitoring the basal temperature of a [...]
A genetic model of the magnetite-apatite deposits on El Laco volcano by extrusion of iron-rich melt
Published: 2022-08-25
Subjects: Dynamical Systems, Earth Sciences, Fluid Dynamics, Geochemistry, Geology, Numerical Analysis and Scientific Computing, Physical Sciences and Mathematics, Tectonics and Structure, Volcanology
Magnetite-apatite deposits are important sources of iron and other metals. A prominent exam- ple are the magnetite lavas at the El Laco volcano, Northern Chile. Their formation processes remain debated. Here, we test the genetic hypothesis that an Fe-rich melt separated from silicate magma and ascended along collapse-related fractures. We complement recent analy- ses with thermodynamic modelling [...]
Groundwater deeper than 500 m contributes less than 0.1% of global river discharge
Published: 2022-08-25
Subjects: Physical Sciences and Mathematics
Groundwater is one of the largest reservoirs of water on Earth but has relatively small fluxes compared to its volume. This behaviour is exaggerated at depths below 500 m, where the majority of groundwater exists and where residence times of millions to even a billion years have been documented. However, the extent of interactions between deep groundwater (>500 m) and the rest of the terrestrial [...]
Lithology, pore-filling media, and pore closure depth beneath InSight on Mars inferred from shear wave velocities
Published: 2022-08-25
Subjects: Physical Sciences and Mathematics
We quantify the volume and distribution of water, cement, sediments, and fractured rocks within the Martian crust beneath NASA's InSight (Interior Exploration using Seismic Investigations, Geodesy, and Heat Transport mission) lander by using rock physics models to interpret shear wave velocities Vs measured from InSight data. The models assume that Mars' crust comprises sediments and fractured [...]
Much of Zero Emissions Commitment Occurs Before Reaching Net Zero Emissions
Published: 2022-08-25
Subjects: Biogeochemistry, Climate, Earth Sciences, Environmental Sciences
We explore the response of the Earth’s climate and carbon system to an idealized sequential addition and removal of CO2 to the atmosphere, following a symmetric and continuous emissions pathway, in contrast to the discontinuous emissions pathways that have largely informed our understanding of the climate response to net-zero and net-negative emissions to date. We find, using both an Earth [...]
The salmonid and the subsurface: Hillslope storage capacity determines the quality and distribution of fish habitat
Published: 2022-08-25
Subjects: Life Sciences, Physical Sciences and Mathematics
Water in rivers is delivered via the critical zone that mantles landscapes. Consequently, the success of stream-rearing salmonids depends on the structure and resulting water storage and release processes of this zone. Physical processes below the land surface (the subsurface component of the critical zone) ultimately determine how landscapes ‘filter’ climate to manifest ecologically significant [...]
HydroLang Markup Language: Community-Driven Web Components for Hydrological Analyses
Published: 2022-08-25
Subjects: Civil and Environmental Engineering, Computational Engineering, Environmental Engineering, Science and Mathematics Education
We introduce HydroLang Markup Language (HL-ML), a programming interface that uses markup language to perform environmental analyses using the hydrological and environmental framework HydroLang. The software acts as a self-contained interface that uses HTML tags powered by the web components specification to generate simple hydrological computations that enable data analysis, visualization and [...]