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Journal articles on the topic "Our Dynamic Earth (Science centre)"
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Guimarães, Pedro Porfírio Coutinho. "The resilience of shopping centres: An analysis of retail resilience strategies in Lisbon, Portugal." Moravian Geographical Reports 26, no. 3 (2018): 160–72. http://dx.doi.org/10.2478/mgr-2018-0013.
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Abstract Retail is a dynamic sector and for several decades shopping centres have been the most successful format. Although such shopping centres have been held responsible for the decline of other retail concepts, they are not without problems and some retail precincts are losing their viability, becoming dead malls. Some other shopping centres however are quite resilient. In this study we analyse the different retail resilience strategies used by older shopping centres to overcome their declining trend. For empirical evidence we adopt a case study methodology and fieldwork to investigate the evolution of all old shopping centres in Lisbon, confirming that a general trend of decline is affecting a large majority of those retail precincts. Refining our analysis, we interviewed managers from three shopping centres that remain viable. We conclude that a wide range of strategies can be implemented, all of which enhance the relevance of the shopping centre management structures.
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Jaupart, Étienne, Étienne Parizot, and Denis Allard. "Contribution of the Galactic centre to the local cosmic-ray flux." Astronomy & Astrophysics 619 (November 2018): A12. http://dx.doi.org/10.1051/0004-6361/201833683.
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Context. Recent observations of unexpected structures in the Galactic cosmic ray (GCR) spectrum and composition, as well as growing evidence for episodes of intense dynamical activity in the inner regions of the Galaxy, call for an evaluation of the high-energy particle acceleration associated with such activity and its potential impact on the global GCR phenomenology. Aims. We investigate whether particles accelerated during high-power episodes around the Galactic centre can account for a significant fraction of the observed GCRs, or, conversely, what constraints can be derived regarding their Galactic transport if their contributions are negligible. Methods. Particle transport in the Galaxy is described with a two-zone analytical model. We solved for the contribution of a Galactic centre cosmic-Ray (GCCR) source using Green functions and Bessel expansion, and discussed the required injection power for these GCCRs to influence the global GCR phenomenology at Earth. Results. We find that, with standard parameters for particle propagation in the galactic disk and halo, the GCCRs can make a significant or even dominant contribution to the total CR flux observed at Earth. Depending on the parameters, such a source can account for both the observed proton flux and boron-to-carbon ratio (in the case of a Kraichnan-like scaling of the diffusion coefficient), or potentially produce spectral and composition features. Conclusions. Our results show that the contribution of GCCRs cannot be neglected a priori, and that they can influence the global GCR phenomenology significantly, thereby calling for a reassessement of the standard inferences from a scenario where GCRs are entirely dominated by a single type of sources distributed throughout the Galactic disk.
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Mengel, M., A. Levermann, C. F. Schleussner, and A. Born. "Enhanced Atlantic subpolar gyre variability through baroclinic threshold in a coarse resolution model." Earth System Dynamics 3, no. 2 (2012): 189–97. http://dx.doi.org/10.5194/esd-3-189-2012.
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Abstract. Direct observations, satellite measurements and paleo records reveal strong variability in the Atlantic subpolar gyre on various time scales. Here we show that variations of comparable amplitude can only be simulated in a coupled climate model in the proximity of a dynamical threshold. The threshold and the associated dynamic response is due to a positive feedback involving increased salt transport in the subpolar gyre and enhanced deep convection in its centre. A series of sensitivity experiments is performed with a coarse resolution ocean general circulation model coupled to a statistical-dynamical atmosphere model which in itself does not produce atmospheric variability. To simulate the impact of atmospheric variability, the model system is perturbed with freshwater forcing of varying, but small amplitude and multi-decadal to centennial periodicities and observational variations in wind stress. While both freshwater and wind-stress-forcing have a small direct effect on the strength of the subpolar gyre, the magnitude of the gyre's response is strongly increased in the vicinity of the threshold. Our results indicate that baroclinic self-amplification in the North Atlantic ocean can play an important role in presently observed SPG variability and thereby North Atlantic climate variability on multi-decadal scales.
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Friedl, Peter, Thorsten C. Seehaus, Anja Wendt, Matthias H. Braun, and Kathrin Höppner. "Recent dynamic changes on Fleming Glacier after the disintegration of Wordie Ice Shelf, Antarctic Peninsula." Cryosphere 12, no. 4 (2018): 1347–65. http://dx.doi.org/10.5194/tc-12-1347-2018.
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Abstract. The Antarctic Peninsula is one of the world's regions most affected by climate change. Several ice shelves have retreated, thinned or completely disintegrated during recent decades, leading to acceleration and increased calving of their tributary glaciers. Wordie Ice Shelf, located in Marguerite Bay at the south-western side of the Antarctic Peninsula, completely disintegrated in a series of events between the 1960s and the late 1990s. We investigate the long-term dynamics (1994–2016) of Fleming Glacier after the disintegration of Wordie Ice Shelf by analysing various multi-sensor remote sensing data sets. We present a dense time series of synthetic aperture radar (SAR) surface velocities that reveals a rapid acceleration of Fleming Glacier in 2008 and a phase of further gradual acceleration and upstream propagation of high velocities in 2010–2011.The timing in acceleration correlates with strong upwelling events of warm circumpolar deep water (CDW) into Wordie Bay, most likely leading to increased submarine melt. This, together with continuous dynamic thinning and a deep subglacial trough with a retrograde bed slope close to the terminus probably, has induced unpinning of the glacier tongue in 2008 and gradual grounding line retreat between 2010 and 2011. Our data suggest that the glacier's grounding line had retreated by ∼ 6–9 km between 1996 and 2011, which caused ∼ 56 km2 of the glacier tongue to go afloat. The resulting reduction in buttressing explains a median speedup of ∼ 1.3 m d−1 (∼ 27 %) between 2008 and 2011, which we observed along a centre line extending between the grounding line in 1996 and ∼ 16 km upstream. Current median ice thinning rates (2011–2014) along profiles in areas below 1000 m altitude range between ∼ 2.6 to 3.2 m a−1 and are ∼ 70 % higher than between 2004 and 2008. Our study shows that Fleming Glacier is far away from approaching a new equilibrium and that the glacier dynamics are not primarily controlled by the loss of the former ice shelf anymore. Currently, the tongue of Fleming Glacier is grounded in a zone of bedrock elevation between ∼ −400 and −500 m. However, about 3–4 km upstream modelled bedrock topography indicates a retrograde bed which transitions into a deep trough of up to ∼ −1100 m at ∼ 10 km upstream. Hence, this endangers upstream ice masses, which can significantly increase the contribution of Fleming Glacier to sea level rise in the future.
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Sword-Daniels, V. L., T. Rossetto, T. M. Wilson, and S. Sargeant. "Interdependence and dynamics of essential services in an extensive risk context: a case study in Montserrat, West Indies." Natural Hazards and Earth System Sciences 15, no. 5 (2015): 947–61. http://dx.doi.org/10.5194/nhess-15-947-2015.
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Abstract. The essential services that support urban living are complex and interdependent, and their disruption in disasters directly affects society. Yet there are few empirical studies to inform our understanding of the vulnerabilities and resilience of complex infrastructure systems in disasters. This research takes a systems thinking approach to explore the dynamic behaviour of a network of essential services, in the presence and absence of volcanic ashfall hazards in Montserrat, West Indies. Adopting a case study methodology and qualitative methods to gather empirical data, we centre the study on the healthcare system and its interconnected network of essential services. We identify different types of relationship between sectors and develop a new interdependence classification system for analysis. Relationships are further categorised by hazard conditions, for use in extensive risk contexts. During heightened volcanic activity, relationships between systems transform in both number and type: connections increase across the network by 41%, and adapt to increase cooperation and information sharing. Interconnections add capacities to the network, increasing the resilience of prioritised sectors. This in-depth and context-specific approach provides a new methodology for studying the dynamics of infrastructure interdependence in an extensive risk context, and can be adapted for use in other hazard contexts.
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Vettoretti, G., W. R. Peltier, and N. A. McFarlane. "Global water balance and atmospheric water vapour transport at last glacial maximum: climate simulations with the Canadian Climate Centre for Modelling and Analysis atmospheric general circulation model." Canadian Journal of Earth Sciences 37, no. 5 (2000): 695–723. http://dx.doi.org/10.1139/e99-092.
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A series of new simulations of the climate state at last glacial maximum has been performed using the Canadian second-generation atmospheric general circulation model and are described herein. The primary goal has been to assess the dynamic changes in the global water balance and water vapour transport that were characteristic of the climate state during this epoch of Earth's history. We pay special attention to comparisons of the atmospheric model simulations of last glacial maximum climate with those produced with a much simpler coupled energy balance-ice-sheet model, which has been designed to simulate the late Pleistocene cycle of glacial-interglacial ice volume variations. Our analyses, using the atmospheric model, demonstrate that the vigour of the hydrological cycle was markedly decreased under last glacial maximum conditions, as would be expected on the simplest thermodynamic grounds. The primary components of the hydrological cycle in the atmospheric model, namely precipitation and evaporation, constitute essential mechanisms that control ice-sheet mass balance. We also investigate changes in the Northern Hemisphere stationary wave patterns, as well as changes in the total and eddy moisture transport by the global circulation at last glacial maximum to illustrate the role played by the dynamics of the atmosphere in the maintenance of the Northern Hemisphere ice sheets. In particular, we find that the enhancement of the stationary wave pattern along with the convergence in atmospheric water vapour transport produces increased cooling and snow accumulation at last glacial maximum over the southeastern lobes of the Laurentide Ice Sheet. This suggests an explanation for the previously unexplained extension of these lobes deep into the New England states.
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Löffler, Michael, Sabine Brinkop, and Patrick Jöckel. "Impact of major volcanic eruptions on stratospheric water vapour." Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics 16, no. 10 (2016): 6547–62. http://dx.doi.org/10.5194/acp-16-6547-2016.
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Abstract. Volcanic eruptions can have a significant impact on the Earth's weather and climate system. Besides the subsequent tropospheric changes, the stratosphere is also influenced by large eruptions. Here changes in stratospheric water vapour after the two major volcanic eruptions of El Chichón in Mexico in 1982 and Mount Pinatubo on the Philippines in 1991 are investigated with chemistry–climate model simulations. This study is based on two simulations with specified dynamics of the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts Hamburg – Modular Earth Submodel System (ECHAM/MESSy) Atmospheric Chemistry (EMAC) model, performed within the Earth System Chemistry integrated Modelling (ESCiMo) project, of which only one includes the long-wave volcanic forcing through prescribed aerosol optical properties. The results show a significant increase in stratospheric water vapour induced by the eruptions, resulting from increased heating rates and the subsequent changes in stratospheric and tropopause temperatures in the tropics. The tropical vertical advection and the South Asian summer monsoon are identified as sources for the additional water vapour in the stratosphere. Additionally, volcanic influences on tropospheric water vapour and El Niño–Southern Oscillation (ENSO) are evident, if the long-wave forcing is strong enough. Our results are corroborated by additional sensitivity simulations of the Mount Pinatubo period with reduced nudging and reduced volcanic aerosol extinction.
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Liu, L., K. Schaefer, A. Gusmeroli, et al. "Seasonal thaw settlement at drained thermokarst lake basins, Arctic Alaska." Cryosphere Discussions 7, no. 6 (2013): 5793–822. http://dx.doi.org/10.5194/tcd-7-5793-2013.
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Abstract. Drained thermokarst lake basins (DTLBs) are ubiquitous landforms on arctic tundra lowlands, but their present-day dynamic states are seldom investigated. Here we report results based on high-resolution Interferometric Synthetic Aperture Radar (InSAR) measurements using space-borne data for a study area located near Prudhoe Bay, Alaska where we focus on the seasonal thaw settlement within DTLBs, averaged between 2006 and 2010. The majority (14) of the 18 DTLBs in the study area analyzed exhibited seasonal thaw settlement of 3–4 cm. However, four of the DTLBs analyzed exceeded 4 cm of thaw settlement, with one basin experiencing up to 12 cm. Combining the InSAR observations with the in situ active layer thickness measured using ground penetrating radar and mechanical probing, we calculated thaw strain, an index of thaw settlement strength along a transect across the basin that underwent large thaw settlement. We found thaw strains of 10–35% at the basin center, suggesting the seasonal melting of ground ice as a possible mechanism for the large settlement. These findings emphasize the dynamic nature of permafrost landforms, demonstrate the capability of the InSAR technique to remotely monitor surface deformation of individual DTLBs, and illustrate the combination of ground-based and remote sensing observations to estimate thaw strain. Our study highlights the need for better description of the spatial heterogeneity of landscape-scale processes for regional assessment of surface dynamics on arctic coastal lowlands.
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Liu, L., K. Schaefer, A. Gusmeroli, et al. "Seasonal thaw settlement at drained thermokarst lake basins, Arctic Alaska." Cryosphere 8, no. 3 (2014): 815–26. http://dx.doi.org/10.5194/tc-8-815-2014.
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Abstract. Drained thermokarst lake basins (DTLBs) are ubiquitous landforms on Arctic tundra lowland. Their dynamic states are seldom investigated, despite their importance for landscape stability, hydrology, nutrient fluxes, and carbon cycling. Here we report results based on high-resolution Interferometric Synthetic Aperture Radar (InSAR) measurements using space-borne data for a study area located on the North Slope of Alaska near Prudhoe Bay, where we focus on the seasonal thaw settlement within DTLBs, averaged between 2006 and 2010. The majority (14) of the 18 DTLBs in the study area exhibited seasonal thaw settlement of 3–4 cm. However, four of the DTLBs examined exceeded 4 cm of thaw settlement, with one basin experiencing up to 12 cm. Combining the InSAR observations with the in situ active layer thickness measured using ground penetrating radar and mechanical probing, we calculated thaw strain, an index of thaw settlement strength along a transect across the basin that underwent large thaw settlement. We found thaw strains of 10–35% at the basin center, suggesting the seasonal melting of ground ice as a possible mechanism for the large settlement. These findings emphasize the dynamic nature of permafrost landforms, demonstrate the capability of the InSAR technique to remotely monitor surface deformation of individual DTLBs, and illustrate the combination of ground-based and remote sensing observations to estimate thaw strain. Our study highlights the need for better description of the spatial heterogeneity of landscape-scale processes for regional assessment of surface dynamics on Arctic coastal lowlands.
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Alhassan, Abdullah, and Menggui Jin. "Evapotranspiration in the Tono Reservoir Catchment in Upper East Region of Ghana Estimated by a Novel TSEB Approach from ASTER Imagery." Remote Sensing 12, no. 3 (2020): 569. http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/rs12030569.
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Evapotranspiration (ET) is dynamic and influences water resource distribution. Sustainable management of water resources requires accurate estimations of the individual components that result in evapotranspiration, including the daily net radiation (DNR). Daily ET is more useful than the evaporative fraction (EF) provided by remote sensing ET models, and to account for daily variations, EF is usually combined with the DNR. DNR exhibits diurnal and spatiotemporal variations due to landscape heterogeneity. In the modified Two-Source Energy Balance (TSEB) approach by Zhuang and Wu, 2015, ecophysiological constraint functions of temperature and moisture of plants based on atmospheric moisture and vegetation indices were introduced, but the DNR was not spatially accounted for in the estimation of the daily ET. This research adopted a novel approach that accounts for spatiotemporal variations in estimated daily ET by incorporating the Bisht and Bras DNR model in the modified version of the TSEB model. Advanced Spaceborne Thermal Emission and Reflection Radiometer (ASTER) satellite imagery over the Tono irrigation watershed within the Upper East Region of Ghana and Southern Burkina Faso were used. We estimated the energy fluxes of latent and sensible heat as well as the net radiation and soil heat fluxes from the satellite images and compared our results with ground-based measurements from an eddy covariance (EC) station established by the West African Science Service Center on Climate Change and Adapted Land Use (WASCAL) within the watershed area. We noticed a similarity between our model estimated fluxes and ET with the ground-based EC station measurements. Eight different land use/cover types were identified in the study area, and each of these contributed significantly to the overall ET variations between the two study periods: December 2009 and December 2017. For instance, due to a higher leaf area index (LAI) for all vegetation types in December 2009 than in December 2017, the ET for December 2017 was higher than that for December 2009. We also noticed that the land use/cover types within the footprint area of the EC station were only six out of the eight. Generally, all the surface energy fluxes increased from December 2009 to December 2017. Mean ET varied from 3.576 to 4.486 (mm/d) for December 2009 while from 4.502 to 5.280 (mm/d) for December 2017 across the different land use/cover classes. Knowledge of the dynamics of evapotranspiration and adoption of cost-effective methods to estimate its individual components in an effective and efficient way is critical to water resources management. Our findings provide a tool for all water stakeholders within watersheds to manage water resources in an engaging and cost-effective way.
Books on the topic "Our Dynamic Earth (Science centre)"
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Our Dynamic Earth: The guide. Dynamic Earth Enterprises, 1999.
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California Inspire Science: Our Dynamic Earth. McGraw-Hill Higher Education, 2020.
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Judge, Philip. The Sun: A Very Short Introduction. Oxford University Press, 2020. http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/actrade/9780198832690.001.0001.
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The Sun: A Very Short Introduction explores the science, structure, origins, workings, and future evolution of the Sun and solar physics, and its impact on life on earth. What are sunspots, and why do they form? What dynamic forces govern the Sun’s magnetic fields? Has the Sun grown brighter, smaller, or slower with age? Solar physics remains an observationally driven subject and determining cause and effect can be hampered by the Sun’s complexity. However, studying the Sun has led to remarkable discoveries in astronomy and basic physics, and recent technological developments and missions—some of which are already being deployed—will almost certainly improve our knowledge of the Sun, our nearest star.
Book chapters on the topic "Our Dynamic Earth (Science centre)"
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Monmonier, Mark, and Robert B. McMaster. "Cartography." In Geography in America at the Dawn of the 21st Century. Oxford University Press, 2004. http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780198233923.003.0038.
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Summarizing a decade of cartographic research in a short chapter is difficult: bias is inevitable, randomness is indefensible, breadth is tricky, and coherence is essential. Rather than attempt a broad, shallow survey, we chose to focus on some of the period’s significant conceptual frameworks, and relate each model to one or more related research papers published since A. Jon Kimerling (1989) summarized cartographic research for the first volume of Geography in America. This has been a transition period in which the discipline has witnessed several significant changes, including: (1) the nearly complete automation of the cartographic process and a proliferation of maps produced by desktop mapping systems and GISs; (2) the inclusion of significant amounts of core cartographic research—such as terrain modeling, geographic data structures, generalization, and interpolation—within the growing discipline of GIS; and (3) the wide adoption of the term “geographic visualization” to describe the dynamic, interactive component of cartography. These developments and the migration of more and more cartographic interests into the newly created discipline of GIS have raised concern about whether our discipline would survive. These doubts are offset by growing recognition that research and education on representational issues in GIS is critical, and that research in map design, symbolization, and generalization cannot be neglected. Cartography remains an independent discipline. Our two journals, Cartography and Geographic Information Science (recently renamed with Science replacing Systems) and Cartographic Perspectives, are thriving. American cartographic researchers also publish their work in Cartographica, GeoInfo Systems, GIS World, and the International Journal of Geographic Information Science. The Mapping Science Committee of the National Academy of Sciences and the recently formed Committee on Geography represent our interests at the national level, as do the Cartography and Geographic Information Society (a member organization of the American Congress on Surveying and Mapping), the North American Cartographic Information Society, the University Consortium for Geographic Information Science, and the AAG’s Cartography Specialty Group. During the decade our educators, researchers, and essayists have published many textbooks and monographs, including the sixth edition of Elements of Cartography (Robinson et al. 1995); several new editions of Borden Dent’s Cartography: Thematic Map Design (most recently 1999); Terry Slocum’s Thematic Cartography and Visualization (1999); John Snyder’s (1993) seminal work on projections, Flattening the Earth: Two Thousand Years of Map Projections; Alan MacEachren’s How Maps Work (1995); Denis Wood’s (1992) social critique of cartography, The Power of Maps; and a series of books by Mark Monmonier, including Maps with the News: The Development of American Journalistic Cartography (1989b), How to Lie with Maps (1991, rev. 1996), Mapping it Out: Expository Cartography for the Humanities and Social Sciences (1993), Drawing the Line: Tales of Maps and Cartocontroversy (1995), Cartographies of Danger: Mapping Hazards in America (1997), and Air Apparent: How Meteorologists Learned to Map, Predict, and Dramatize the Weather (1999).
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Liu, Zhong, David Meyer, Chung-Lin Shie, and Angela Li. "NASA Global Satellite and Model Data Products and Services for Tropical Cyclone Research." In Current Topics in Tropical Cyclone Research. IntechOpen, 2020. http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.89720.
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The lack of observations over vast tropical oceans is a major challenge for tropical cyclone research. Satellite observations and model reanalysis data play an important role in filling these gaps. Established in the mid-1980s, the Goddard Earth Sciences Data and Information Services Center (GES DISC), as one of the 12 NASA data centers, archives and distributes data from several Earth science disciplines such as precipitation, atmospheric dynamics, atmospheric composition, and hydrology, including well-known NASA satellite missions (e.g., TRMM, GPM) and model assimilation projects (MERRA-2). Acquiring datasets suitable for tropical cyclone research in a large data archive is a challenge for many, especially for those who are not familiar with satellite or model data. Over the years, the GES DISC has developed user-friendly data services. For example, Giovanni is an online visualization and analysis tool, allowing users to visualize and analyze over 2000 satellite- and model-based variables with a Web browser, without downloading data and software. In this chapter, we will describe data and services at the GES DISC with emphasis on tropical cyclone research. We will also present two case studies and discuss future plans.
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Quattrochi, Dale A., and Stephen J. Walsh. "Remote Sensing." In Geography in America at the Dawn of the 21st Century. Oxford University Press, 2004. http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780198233923.003.0037.
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As noted in the first edition of Geography in America, the term “remote sensing” was coined in the early 1960s by geographers to describe the process of obtaining data by use of both photographic and nonphotographic instruments (Gaile and Wilmot 1989: 46). Although this is still a working definition today, a more explicit and updated definition as it relates to geography can be phrased as: “remote sensing is the science, art, and technology of identifying, characterizing, measuring, and mapping of Earth surface, and near Earth surface phenomena from some position above using photographic or nonphotographic instruments.” Both patterns and processes may be the object of investigation using remote sensing data. The science dimension of geographic remote sensing is rooted in the fact that: (1) it is dealing with primary data, wherein the investigator must have an understanding of the environmental phenomena under scrutiny, and (2) the investigator must understand something of the physics of the energy involved in the sensing instrument and the atmospheric pathway through which the energy passes from the energy source, to the Earth object, to the sensor. The art dimension of geographic remote sensing has to do with the creative ways that the scientific interpretations are presented for visualization and measurement. The technological dimension of geographic remote sensing has to do with the constantly evolving hardware, software, and algorithmic manipulation and modeling involved in the collection, processing, and interpreting of data regarding the Earth phenomena under investigation. It is the rapidly advancing combination of these three dimensions over recent decades that has brought remote sensing to be a vibrant and dynamic part of the discipline of geography today. We wish not to dwell at length on the historical aspects of remote sensing as it relates to geography. This has been done quite adequately in the first edition of Geography in America as well as in other publications, such as the American Society of Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing (ASPRS) Manual of Remote Sensing series (e.g. Colwell 1983), that is now going through a third edition and complete update, and is being presented as a compendium of individual volumes that deal with specific aspects of remote sensing science.
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Targowski, Andrew. "Theory of Critical Total History of Civilization." In Information Technology and Societal Development. IGI Global, 2009. http://dx.doi.org/10.4018/978-1-60566-004-2.ch008.
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The purpose of this chapter is to define information- based tools for the study of the human story in order to “informate” traditional historic findings. By “informate” one may understand a gain of additional information above that found by traditional processing of historical information, by applying modern cybernetic techniques that allow for the modeling and understanding of complexity. After literature, history is the most universal discipline of knowledge, passionately held (in their own particular versions) by millions of people on Earth. History makes us curious, perhaps because in it resides the puzzle of human existence, its successes and failures. We want to know the past because we want to learn “lessons of history” (Howard, 1991). Hence, history is popular and rich in its public role and its scientific methods are even the subject of philosophical debates. It is still debated, as Hegel (1956) stated, whether history is not chance but is rather a rational process operating according to laws of evolution and embodying the spirit of freedom. The 19th century’s positivism stipulated two roles for historians: to be disinterested observers and to find, in the records of the past, laws of human behavior. The 20th century’s tremendous progress in research and technology has influenced historians to consider history as a pure science with the emphasis on large-scale forces or structures instead of individuals (Breisach, 1983). As we move into the 21st century, new trends in the evolution of civilization, informatization and globalization, guide our awareness. These trends emphasize the application of information engineering skills and offer an expanded picture of human undertakings. The emerging world’s history of civilization in the making is no longer “sequential” and “slow” but now “instant” and “fast.” To understand such a dynamic civilization and take a pro-active role in it, one must develop new skills and new approaches to its study. Perhaps one should take examples from other sciences, for example, physics and chemistry, where modeling is applied in order to discover some common observations, rules, and laws. Of course, models do not completely reflect reality, but they are useful tools in grasping its essence and suggesting further investigations and quests for truth.
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Young, Kenneth R., and Mark A. Blumler. "Biogeography." In Geography in America at the Dawn of the 21st Century. Oxford University Press, 2004. http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780198233923.003.0011.
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Biogeographers study the distributions of organisms and the systems those species inhabit. Biogeography can be viewed both as a form of geographical enquiry applied to plants and animals, and also as a biological science concerned with geography. Thus, biogeography is interdisciplinary, like other “composite” sciences such as geomorphology (Bauer 1996; Osterkamp and Hupp 1996). Veblen (1989) provided an overview of biogeography in the late 1980s. He commented on the nature of biogeography as practiced in academic geography programs, finding most similarity in approach and subject matter with ecologists and ecology. Three broad research orientations can be identified (K. R. Young 1995): ecological, evolutionary, and applied. Each orientation includes both theoretical frameworks and empirical foundations. Ecological approaches relate plant and animal distributions to current biological and physical processes, including interactions among species, precipitation and temperature regimes, and soil nutrient dynamics. Evolutionary approaches accommodate genetic and population changes in species over long time-periods, in addition to historical processes as affected by Earth history, plate tectonics, and climate change; these approaches have been labeled as “classical biogeography” (Veblen 1989). Complete biogeographical explanations often require detailed information on both ecological conditions and historical changes over centuries or millennia or even millions of years. Biogeographical approaches also are applied to the evaluation of important societal issues, for example through the study of nature reserves. Of practical and theoretical concern are situations where species or their distributions and abundances are modified by human influences. This is the part of biogeography closest to geography’s mainstream research interests in human–nature interrelations, and is called “cultural biogeography.” Some people characterize geography as the study of the Earth as modified by humans; in this case, biological geography (biogeography) would include the study of how species and living land cover have been altered by people. Species distributions can change over short and long time-scales (Hengeveld 1990; Dingle 1996). Biogeographers who study the shifting spatial distribution patterns of specific species of plants or animals often focus their research on biophysical factors that determine the range limits of the species and how those factors change through time. These controls include the effects of other organisms, the physical conditions of the environment, and disturbance.
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Swanson, Frederick J. "Science, Citizenship, and Humanities in the Ancient Forest of H. J. Andrews." In Long-Term Ecological Research. Oxford University Press, 2016. http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780199380213.003.0012.
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The H. J. Andrews Experimental Forest Long-Term Ecological Research (LTER) program has nurtured a large, highly interdisciplinary community that has been a wonderful seedbed for emergence of ideas from our group, and for my own growth as a scientist, educator, collaborator, and communicator. Collaborations for me as an individual and within the Andrews forest group have grown over the decades: research–land management since the 1950s, ecology–earth sciences since the early 1970s, biophysical sciences–social sciences since the early 1990s, and humanities–arts–sciences over the past dozen years. As a US Forest Service scientist in seamless collaboration with academic and land manager colleagues, the stable yet dynamic community that the LTER program fosters has served as a great platform for connecting science lessons with society through many means, ranging from development of regional conservation strategies and landscape management plans to storytelling. This is a practice of citizenship by individual scientists and by a science-based team. The sustained learning that the LTER program has underwritten gives scientists a foundation for communicating findings from science and discussing their implications with the public, and the forest itself is a great stage for these conversations. I have had a career of immersion in the International Biological Program (IBP) and in the LTER program since its inception. After completing graduate studies in geology in 1972, I had the good fortune to join the early stages of IBP in the Coniferous Forest Biome Project at the H. J. Andrews Experimental Forest (AND) in the Cascade Range of Oregon. Our team of forest and stream ecologists, and a few earth scientists, had the decade of the 1970s to coalesce, mature, and craft stories of the ecosystems of the Pacific Northwest. The Andrews forest was a wonderful place to do that. It has a complex, ancient forest with nearly 100-m tall trees and fast, cold, clear, mountain streams whose beauty and chill takes your breath away. The year 1980 was pivotal for the group in three ways. First, Jerry Franklin led a synthesis of our team’s knowledge of old-growth forests, which set the stage for major transformation in public perception and policy toward federal forests a decade later and, incidentally, changed our lives.
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Sherratt, Thomas N., and David M. Wilkinson. "How will the Biosphere End?" In Big Questions in Ecology and Evolution. Oxford University Press, 2009. http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780199548606.003.0014.
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This fictional description of the destruction of much of life on Earth comes from a novel by the astronomer Fred Hoyle, co-authored with his son Geoffrey. In the story, the formation of a quasar in the centre of our galaxy leads to the destruction of all life on Earth, except at a few fortuitously sheltered locations. Quasars—first described in 1963—are colossally energetic astronomical objects with extremely high output of radio waves. The novel built on some of Fred Hoyle’s own scientific interests because in the early 1960s, along with the astrophysicist W.A. Fowler, he had predicted that the collapse of a super-massive object could form a distinctive radio source—just before the discovery of the real thing. Although Hoyle and Fowler had the theoretical head start in explaining quasars, being busy with other work they failed to follow up on this advantage, and the current best explanation for these objects is largely due to Donald Lyndon-Bell and Martin Rees. Building on the ideas of Hoyle and Fowler, they argued that a quasar is formed by a rotating super-massive black hole, fed by a disk of in-falling matter, with jets of matter flying away from the system along its axis of rotation. Like the Hoyles’ novel, this chapter focuses on ways the biosphere could end; a fitting question for the close of a book on the ecology and evolution of Earth-based life. However, any answer to a question set in the far future can necessarily be only speculative and, of course, nobody will be around to put the theory to its ultimate test. This raises a philosophical problem namely, has such a question a place in science, or should it be left to science fiction writers? We believe that such questions count as science, not least because it would be good to know the answer (especially if something could be done to postpone the end), but also because in attempting to answer the question, we can extend our understanding of processes that are currently operating. Indeed, J.B.S. Haldane, one of the greatest scientists of the past century, wrote an early essay on much the same topic we consider here.
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Zalasiewicz, Jan. "1. What is geology?" In Geology: A Very Short Introduction. Oxford University Press, 2018. http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/actrade/9780198804451.003.0001.
Full textAbstract:
Geology is a little like having the world’s biggest and best time machine at one’s disposal. The field of enquiry is the whole Earth, its 4.54-billion-year history, and everything that has formed on our planet over that time. ‘What is geology?’ explains that the geological record is a record of ancient worlds, of dynamic and evolving landscapes and submarine-scapes. Geology is a science encompassing virtually all the other sciences—chemistry, physics, biology, geography, oceanography, and many others—and involves or impinges upon many of the humanities and arts, and day-to-day life. It involves looking deep into the Earth’s structure, but also extends to the observation of other planets and moons.
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Crumley, Carole L. "The Archaeology of Global Environment Change." In Humans and the Environment. Oxford University Press, 2013. http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780199590292.003.0028.
Full textAbstract:
Recent, widely recognized changes in the Earth system are, in effect, changes in the coupled human–environment system. We have entered the Anthropocene, when human activity—along with solar forcing, volcanic activity, precession, and the like—must be considered a component (a ‘driver’) of global environmental change (Crutzen and Stoermer 2000; Levin 1998). The dynamic non-linear system in which we live is not in equilibrium and does not act in a predictable manner (see Fairhead, chapter 16 this volume for further discussion of non-equilibrium ecology). If humankind is to continue to thrive, it is of utmost importance that we identify the ideas and practices that nurture the planet as well as our species. Our best laboratory for this is the past, where long-, medium-, and short-term variables can be identified and their roles evaluated. Perhaps the past is our only laboratory: experimentation requires time we no longer have. Thus the integration of our understanding of human history with that of the Earth system is a timely and urgent task. Archaeologists bring two particularly useful sets of skills to this enterprise: how to collaborate, and how to learn from the past. Archaeology enjoys a long tradition of collaboration with colleagues in both the biophysical sciences and in the humanities to investigate human activity in all planetary environments. Archaeologists work alongside one another in the field, live together in difficult conditions, welcome collaboration with colleagues in other disciplines—and listen to them carefully—and tell compelling stories to an interested public. All are rare skills and precious opportunities. Until recently few practitioners of biophysical, social science, and humanities disciplines had experience in cross-disciplinary collaboration. Many scholars who should be deeply engaged in collaboration to avert disaster (for example, specialists in tropical medicine with their counterparts in land use change) still speak different professional ‘languages’ and have very different traditions of producing information. C. P. Snow, in The Two Cultures (1993 [1959]), was among the first to warn that the very structure of academia was leading to this serious, if unintended, outcome.
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McMichael, Anthony J. "Population health deficits due to biodiversity loss, climate change, and other environmental degradation." In Oxford Textbook of Nature and Public Health, edited by Matilda van den Bosch and William Bird. Oxford University Press, 2018. http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/med/9780198725916.003.0012.
Full textAbstract:
Humankind faces increasing disruptions to the ecological and biophysical foundations of health and life from large-scale, often global, and systemic human-driven changes. This is historically unfamiliar territory. Extraordinary prospects now face societies around the world. Among the environmental manifestations of this syndrome of human-driven changes to the Earth system are climate change, the loss of biodiversity, and the pervasive spread and persistence of toxic chemicals. These provide good, and contrasting, examples—including the intrinsic difficulties in detecting, modelling, and quantifying the health losses or deficits that result from these changes to components of nature’s life-supporting system. A much greater understanding and application of systems science, and the use of dynamic systems modelling, are needed if our societies (many of them largely ‘cocooned’ from the natural world) are to understand the population health risks we face now and in the future, and the optimal ways of averting and managing those risks.
Conference papers on the topic "Our Dynamic Earth (Science centre)"
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Shirai, Eiji, Kazutoshi Eto, Akira Umemoto, Toshiaki Yoshii, Masami Kondo, and Koichi Tai. "Inelastic Seismic Test of the Small Bore Piping and Support System: Part 3 — Simulation Analysis for the Piping Seismic Test." In ASME 2008 Pressure Vessels and Piping Conference. ASMEDC, 2008. http://dx.doi.org/10.1115/pvp2008-61352.
Full textAbstract:
Seismic safety is one of the major key issues of nuclear power plant safety in Japan. It is demonstrated that nuclear piping possesses large safety margins through the small bore piping and support system test, consisted of three dimensional piping, supports, U-bolts, and concrete anchorages, using the E-defense vibration table of National Research Institute for Earth Science and Disaster Prevention, Hyogo Earthquake Engineering Research Center at Miki city, by the extremely higher seismic excitation level [1, 2]. A simulation analysis for the piping system is described with a focus on the inelastic behavior of the support to the whole piping system response, and the subsequent interaction when both piping and support shows inelastic behavior. The analysis for the inelastic response of the piping seismic test was conducted using the FEM program ABAQUS. It requires a large amount of time to carry out a strain behavior analysis of the localized piping element and also calculate the dynamic inelastic response of the whole piping system, simultaneously. Therefore the following two steps analysis method is proposed. (Step 1) Seismic response analysis of the piping system. (Step 2) Evaluation for local strain of elbows. The simplified piping system model is adopted to solve the non-linear dynamic response both of the supports and elbows of the piping system in (Step 1). On the other hand, the piping system model with partially detailed elbow shell elements is applied to evaluate local strain behavior of the elbow in (Step 2).