Background Fields (background + field)

Distribution by Scientific Domains


Selected Abstracts


Euler deconvolution of the analytic signal and its application to magnetic interpretation

GEOPHYSICAL PROSPECTING, Issue 3 2004
P. Keating
ABSTRACT Euler deconvolution and the analytic signal are both used for semi-automatic interpretation of magnetic data. They are used mostly to delineate contacts and obtain rapid source depth estimates. For Euler deconvolution, the quality of the depth estimation depends mainly on the choice of the proper structural index, which is a function of the geometry of the causative bodies. Euler deconvolution applies only to functions that are homogeneous. This is the case for the magnetic field due to contacts, thin dikes and poles. Fortunately, many complex geological structures can be approximated by these simple geometries. In practice, the Euler equation is also solved for a background regional field. For the analytic signal, the model used is generally a contact, although other models, such as a thin dike, can be considered. It can be shown that if a function is homogeneous, its analytic signal is also homogeneous. Deconvolution of the analytic signal is then equivalent to Euler deconvolution of the magnetic field with a background field. However, computation of the analytic signal effectively removes the background field from the data. Consequently, it is possible to solve for both the source location and structural index. Once these parameters are determined, the local dip and the susceptibility contrast can be determined from relationships between the analytic signal and the orthogonal gradients of the magnetic field. The major advantage of this technique is that it allows the automatic identification of the type of source. Implementation of this approach is demonstrated for recent high-resolution survey data from an Archean granite-greenstone terrane in northern Ontario, Canada. [source]


Can 4D-Var use dynamical information from targeted observations of a baroclinic structure?

THE QUARTERLY JOURNAL OF THE ROYAL METEOROLOGICAL SOCIETY, Issue 651 2010
E. A. Irvine
Abstract Targeted observations are generally taken in regions of high baroclinicity, but often show little impact. One plausible explanation is that important dynamical information, such as upshear tilt, is not extracted from the targeted observations by the data assimilation scheme and used to correct initial condition error. This is investigated by generating pseudo targeted observations which contain a singular vector (SV) structure that is not present in the background field or routine observations, i.e. assuming that the background has an initial condition error with tilted growing structure. Experiments were performed for a single case-study with varying numbers of pseudo targeted observations. These were assimilated by the Met Office four-dimensional variational (4D-Var) data assimilation scheme, which uses a 6 h window for observations and background-error covariances calculated using the National Meteorological Centre (NMC) method. The forecasts were run using the operational Met Office Unified Model on a 24 km grid. The results presented clearly demonstrate that a 6 h window 4D-Var system is capable of extracting baroclinic information from a limited set of observations and using it to correct initial condition error. To capture the SV structure well (projection of 0.72 in total energy), 50 sondes over an area of 1×106 km2 were required. When the SV was represented by only eight sondes along an example targeting flight track covering a smaller area, the projection onto the SV structure was lower; the resulting forecast perturbations showed an SV structure with increased tilt and reduced initial energy. The total energy contained in the perturbations decreased as the SV structure was less well described by the set of observations (i.e. as fewer pseudo observations were assimilated). The assimilated perturbation had lower energy than the SV unless the pseudo observations were assimilated with the dropsonde observation errors halved from operational values. Copyright © 2010 Royal Meteorological Society [source]


Use of GPS/MET refraction angles in three-dimensional variational analysis

THE QUARTERLY JOURNAL OF THE ROYAL METEOROLOGICAL SOCIETY, Issue 570 2000
X. Zou
Abstract The Spectral Statistical Interpolation (SSI) analysis system of the National Centers for Environmental Prediction (NCEP) is modified to include GPS/MET data (meteorological data from the Global Positioning Satellite system) using a GPS ray-tracing operator. The new system is tested by incorporating 30 actual GPS/MET observations of refraction angles obtained during the GPS/MET experiment. This is the first time that real radio occupation refraction angles and refractivities have been incorporated into a three-dimensional variational analysis system. We examine the magnitude and the vertical distribution of the analysis adjustments that result from using refraction-angle observations in the NCEP SSI analysis system. The average magnitudes of the adjustments in the temperature and specific-humidity fields are approximately 0.4 degC and 0.6 g kg,1, respectively. Individual changes can be as large as 4 degC and 4g kg,1, respectively. The greatest adjustments to the temperature occur in the middle and upper troposphere and stratosphere, while the major changes in specific humidity occur in the lower troposphere. An assessment of the impact of the GPS/MET observations on the analysis, verified by conventional (mostly radiosonde) data, is difficult because of the small number of GPS/MET data used. Nevertheless, it is found that, even over data-rich regions (regions containing many radiosonde observations), and even when the verification data were the radiosonde data themselves, the use of GPS/MET refraction angles makes a slight improvement, overall, to the analysed temperatures and winds. The impact on the water-vapour analyses, again as measured against radiosonde data, is mixed, with improvements shown in some layers and degradation in others. Compared with the background field, the use of refraction angles from one occultation results in an analysis whose simulated refraction angles are much closer to the withheld GPS/MET refraction angles at the two nearby occultation locations, and whose temperature and moisture profiles are also closer to those resulting from the direct assimilation of the two withheld occultations. Although the forward model used in this study, with the ray tracing being carried out in a two-dimensional plane, is much cheaper than a more accurate three-dimensional forward model, it is still quite expensive. In order to further reduce the computational requirement for the assimilation of GPS/MET data, we test a scheme in which the GPS/MET-retrieved refractivities (instead of refraction angles) are used above a selected height for each occupation. These heights are determined objectively based on the departures from spherical symmetry of the model field. It is shown that the mixed use of GPS/MET refraction angles and refractivities produces an analysis result similar to the one using refraction angles alone, while the computational cost is reduced by more than 30%. [source]


Center to limb variation of penumbral Stokes V profiles

ASTRONOMISCHE NACHRICHTEN, Issue 6 2010
M. Franz
Abstract We investigated the horizontal and the vertical component of the Evershed flow (EF). To this end, we computed average Stokes V profiles for various velocity classes in penumbrae at different heliocentric angles. Our results show that for blueshifted profiles an additional lobe with the same polarity as the spot is present in the blue side of the average Stokes V profile. The amplitude of the additional lobe grows with increasing blueshift and with increasing heliocentric angle. For small redshifts, the profiles show an additional lobe with the opposite polarity as the spot on the red side of the average Stokes V profile. Even at disk center, the original polarity of the average Stokes V profile is reversed for strong redshifts. The transition between the different types of Stokes V profiles is continuous and indicates that not only the vertical, but also the horizontal EF is a magnetized stream of plasma in a magnetic background field (© 2010 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim) [source]


Coherent state path integral and super-symmetry for condensates composed of bosonic and fermionic atoms

FORTSCHRITTE DER PHYSIK/PROGRESS OF PHYSICS, Issue 9-10 2007
B. Mieck
Abstract A super-symmetric coherent state path integral on the Keldysh time contour is considered for bosonic and fermionic atoms which interact among each other with a common short-ranged two-body potential. We investigate the symmetries of Bose-Einstein condensation for the equivalent bosonic and fermionic constituents with the same interaction potential so that a super-symmetry results between the bosonic and fermionic components of super-fields. Apart from the super-unitary invariance U(L | S) of the density terms, we specialize on the examination of super-symmetries for pair condensate terms. Effective equations are derived for anomalous terms which are related to the molecular- and BCS- condensate pairs. A Hubbard-Stratonovich transformation from ,Nambu'-doubled super-fields leads to a generating function with super-matrices for the self-energy whose manifold is given by the orthosympletic super-group Osp(S,S | 2L). A nonlinear sigma model follows from the spontaneous breaking of the ortho-symplectic super-group Osp(S,S | 2L) to the coset decomposition Osp(S,S | 2L) \ U(L | S), U(L | S). The invariant subgroup U(L | S) for the vacuum or background fields is represented by the density terms in the self-energy whereas the super-matrices on the coset space Osp(S,S | 2L) \ U(L | S) describe the anomalous molecular and BCS- pair condensate terms. A change of integration measure is performed for the coset decomposition Osp(S,S | 2L) \ U(L | S) , U(L | S), including a separation of density and anomalous parts of the self-energy with a gradient expansion for the Goldstone modes. The independent anomalous fields in the actions can be transformed by the inverse square root of the metric tensor of Osp(S,S | 2L) \ U(L | S) so that the non-Euclidean integration measure with super-Jacobi-determinant can be removed from the coherent state path integral and Gaussian-like integrations remain. The variations of the independent coset fields in the effective actions result in classical field equations for a nonlinear sigma model with the anomalous terms. The dynamics of the eigenvalues of the coset matrices is determined by Sine-Gordon equations which have a similar meaning for the dynamics of the molecular- and BCS-pair condensates as the Gross-Pitaevskii equation for the coherent wave function in BEC phenomena. [source]


The potential of variational retrieval of temperature and humidity profiles from Meteosat Second Generation observations

THE QUARTERLY JOURNAL OF THE ROYAL METEOROLOGICAL SOCIETY, Issue 638 2009
F. Di Giuseppe
Abstract The quality of temperature and humidity retrievals from the infrared Spinning Enhanced Visible and Infrared Imager (SEVIRI) sensors on the geostationary Meteosat Second Generation (MSG) satellites is assessed by means of a one-dimensional variational algorithm. The study is performed with the aim of improving the spatial and temporal resolution of available observations to feed analysis systems designed for high-resolution regional-scale numerical weather prediction (NWP) models. The non-hydrostatic forecast model COSMO in the ARPA-SIMC operational configuration is used to provide background fields. Only clear-sky observations over sea are processed. An optimized one-dimensional variational set-up comprised of two water-vapour and three window channels is selected. It maximizes the reduction of errors in the model backgrounds while ensuring ease of operational implementation through accurate bias correction procedures and correct radiative transfer simulations. The 1Dvar retrieval quality is first quantified in relative terms, employing statistics to estimate the reduction in the background model errors. Additionally the absolute retrieval accuracy is assessed by comparing the analysis with independent radiosonde observations. The inclusion of satellite data brings a substantial reduction in the warm and dry biases present in the forecast model. Moreover it is shown that the use of the retrieved profiles generated by the 1Dvar in the COSMO nudging scheme can locally reduce forecast errors. Copyright © 2009 Royal Meteorological Society [source]


The ERA-40 re-analysis

THE QUARTERLY JOURNAL OF THE ROYAL METEOROLOGICAL SOCIETY, Issue 612 2005
S. M. Uppala
Abstract ERA-40 is a re-analysis of meteorological observations from September 1957 to August 2002 produced by the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF) in collaboration with many institutions. The observing system changed considerably over this re-analysis period, with assimilable data provided by a succession of satellite-borne instruments from the 1970s onwards, supplemented by increasing numbers of observations from aircraft, ocean-buoys and other surface platforms, but with a declining number of radiosonde ascents since the late 1980s. The observations used in ERA-40 were accumulated from many sources. The first part of this paper describes the data acquisition and the principal changes in data type and coverage over the period. It also describes the data assimilation system used for ERA-40. This benefited from many of the changes introduced into operational forecasting since the mid-1990s, when the systems used for the 15-year ECMWF re-analysis (ERA-15) and the National Centers for Environmental Prediction/National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCEP/NCAR) re-analysis were implemented. Several of the improvements are discussed. General aspects of the production of the analyses are also summarized. A number of results indicative of the overall performance of the data assimilation system, and implicitly of the observing system, are presented and discussed. The comparison of background (short-range) forecasts and analyses with observations, the consistency of the global mass budget, the magnitude of differences between analysis and background fields and the accuracy of medium-range forecasts run from the ERA-40 analyses are illustrated. Several results demonstrate the marked improvement that was made to the observing system for the southern hemisphere in the 1970s, particularly towards the end of the decade. In contrast, the synoptic quality of the analysis for the northern hemisphere is sufficient to provide forecasts that remain skilful well into the medium range for all years. Two particular problems are also examined: excessive precipitation over tropical oceans and a too strong Brewer-Dobson circulation, both of which are pronounced in later years. Several other aspects of the quality of the re-analyses revealed by monitoring and validation studies are summarized. Expectations that the ,second-generation' ERA-40 re-analysis would provide products that are better than those from the firstgeneration ERA-15 and NCEP/NCAR re-analyses are found to have been met in most cases. © Royal Meteorological Society, 2005. The contributions of N. A. Rayner and R. W. Saunders are Crown copyright. [source]


The ECMWF operational implementation of four-dimensional variational assimilation.

THE QUARTERLY JOURNAL OF THE ROYAL METEOROLOGICAL SOCIETY, Issue 564 2000
I: Experimental results with simplified physics
Abstract This paper presents results of a comparison between four-dimensional variational assimilation (4D-Var). using a 6-hour assimilation window and simplified physics during the minimization, and three-dimensional variational assimilation (3D-Var). Results have been obtained at ,operational' resolution T213L31/T63L31. (T defines the spectral triangular truncation and L the number of levels in the vertical, with the first parameters defining the resolution of the model trajectory, and the second the resolution of the inner-loop.) The sensitivity of the 4D-Var performance to different set-ups is investigated. In particular, the performance of 4D-Var in the Tropics revealed some sensitivity to the way the adiabatic nonlinear normal-mode initialization of the increments was performed. Going from four outer-loops to only one (as in 3D-Var), together with a change to the 1997 formulation of the background constraint and an initialization of only the small scales, helped to improve the 4D-Var performance. Tropical scores then became only marginally worse for 4D-Var than for 3D-Var. Twelve weeks of experimentation with the one outer-loop 4D-Var and the 1997 background formulation have been studied. The averaged scores show a small but consistent improvement in both hemispheres at all ranges. In the short range, each two- to three-week period has been found to be slightly positive throughout the troposphere. The better short-range performance of the 4D-Var system is also shown by the fits of the background fields to the data. More results are presented for the Atlantic Ocean area during FASTEX (the Fronts and Atlantic Storm-Track Experiment), during which 4D-Var is found to perform better. In individual synoptic cases corresponding to interesting Intensive Observing Periods, 4D-Var has a clear advantage over 3D-Var during rapid cyclogeneses. The very short-range forecasts used as backgrounds are much closer to the data over the Atlantic for 4D-Var than for 3D-Var. The 4D-Var analyses also display more day-to-day variability. Some structure functions are illustrated in the 4D-Var case for a height observation inserted at the beginning, in the middle or at the end of the assimilation window. The dynamical processes seem to be relevant, even with a short 6-hour assimilation period, which explains the better overall performance of the 4D-Var system. [source]


Background magnetic fields during last three cycles of solar activity

ASTRONOMISCHE NACHRICHTEN, Issue 6 2008
O.A. Andryeyeva
Abstract This paper describes our studies of evolution of the solar magnetic field with different sign and field strength in the range from ,100 G to 100 G. The structure and evolution of large-scale magnetic fields on the Sun during the last 3 cycles of solar activity is investigated using magnetograph data from the Kitt Peak Solar Observatory. This analysis reveals two groups of the large-scale magnetic fields evolving differently during the cycles. The first group is represented by relatively weak background fields, and is best observed in the range of 3,10 Gauss. The second group is represented by stronger fields of 75,100 Gauss. The spatial and temporal properties of these groups are described and compared with the total magnetic flux. It is shown that the anomalous behaviour of the total flux during the last cycle can be found only in the second group. (© 2008 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim) [source]