Frontal Precipitation Research Articles

Structure and Evolution of a Warm Frontal Precipitation Band during the GPM Cold Season Precipitation Experiment (GCPEx)

AbstractThis paper describes the evolution of an intense precipitation band associated with a relatively weak warm front observed during the Global Precipitation Measurement (GPM) Mission Cold Season Precipitation Experiment (GCPEx) over southern Ontario, Canada, on 18 February 2012. The warm frontal precipitation band went through genesis, maturity, and decay over a 5–6-h period. The Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) Model nested down to 1-km grid spacing was able to realistically predict the precipitation band evolution, albeit somewhat weaker and slightly farther south than observed. Band genesis began in an area of precipitation with embedded convection to the north of the warm front in a region of weak frontogenetical forcing at low levels and a weakly positive to slightly negative moist potential vorticity (MPV*) from 900 to 650 hPa. A midlevel dry intrusion helped reduce the midlevel stability, while the precipitation band intensified as the low-level frontogenesis intensified in a sloping layer with the warm front. Aggregates of unrimed snow occurred within the band during early maturity, while more supercooled water and graupel occurred as the upward motion increased because of the frontogenetical circulation. As the low-level cyclone moved east, the low-level deformation decreased and the column stabilized for vertical and slantwise ascent, and the warm frontal band weakened. A WRF experiment turning off latent heating resulted in limited precipitation band development and a weaker warm front, while turning off latent cooling only intensified the frontal precipitation band as additional midlevel instability compensated for the small decrease in frontogenetical forcing.

Impact of Mineral Precipitation on Flow and Mixing in Porous Media Determined by Microcomputed Tomography and MRI.

Precipitation reactions influence transport properties in porous media and can be coupled to advective and dispersive transport. For example, in subsurface environments, mixing of groundwater and injected solutions can induce mineral supersaturation of constituents and drive precipitation reactions. Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and microcomputed tomography (μ-CT) were employed as complementary techniques to evaluate advection, dispersion, and formation of precipitate in a 3D porous media flow cell. Two parallel fluids were flowed concentrically through packed glass beads under two relative flow rates with Na2CO3 and CaCl2 in the inner and outer fluids, respectively. CaCO3 became supersaturated and formed a precipitate at the mixing interface between the two solutions. Spatial maps of changing local velocity fields and dispersion in the flow cell were generated from MRI, while high resolution μ-CT imaging visualized the precipitate formed in the porous media. Formation of a precipitate minimized dispersive and advective transport between the two fluids and the shape of the precipitation front was influenced by the relative flow rates. This work demonstrates that the combined use of MRI and μ-CT can be highly complementary in the study of reactive transport processes in porous media.

Increase in the number of extremely strong fronts over Europe? A study based on ERA‐Interim reanalysis (1979–2014)

AbstractEvidence is presented that the frequency of extremely strong fronts, which occur mainly in summer, has increased over Europe in ERA‐Interim reanalyses data (1979–2014). Fronts are defined using a common detection scheme based on gradients of equivalent potential temperature (θe) at 850 hPa. The frequency increase is due to increasing atmospheric humidity, which in turn is reported as statistically significant over Europe in the Fifth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC AR5). There is no trend in the frequency of extremely strong fronts in North America where humidity trends are, according to the IPCC AR5, close to zero. Because frontal precipitation increases with frontal strength, measured by the θe gradient, the increase in the number of extremely strong fronts may help explain regional patterns of longer‐term trends in strong precipitation events.

Understanding Orographic Effects on Surface Observations at Macquarie Island

AbstractThe meteorological observations on Macquarie Island have become of increasing value for efforts to understand the unique nature of atmospheric processes over the Southern Ocean. While the island is of modest elevation (peak altitude of 410 m), the orographic effects on observations on this island are still not clear. High-resolution numerical simulations [Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) Model] with and without terrain have been used to identify orographic effects for four cases representing common synoptic patterns at Macquarie Island: a cold front, a warm front, postfrontal drizzle, and a midlatitude cyclone. Although the simulations cannot capture every possible feature of the precipitation, preliminary results show that clouds and precipitation can readily be perturbed by the island with the main enhancement of precipitation normally in the lee in accordance with the nondimensional mountain height being much less than 1. The weather station is located at the far north end of the island and is only in the lee to southerly and southwesterly winds, which are normally associated with drizzle. The station is on the upwind side for strong northwesterly winds, which are most common and can bring heavier frontal precipitation. Overall the orographic effect on the precipitation record is not found to be significant, except for the enhancement of drizzle found in southwesterly winds. Given the strong winds over the Southern Ocean and the shallow height of the island, the 3D nondimensional mountain height is smaller than 1 in 93.5% of the soundings. As a result, boundary layer flow commonly passes over the island, with the greatest impact in the lee.

Modulation of precipitation by conditional symmetric instability release

Although many theoretical and observational studies have investigated the mechanism of conditional symmetric instability (CSI) release and associated it with mesoscale atmospheric phenomena such as frontal precipitation bands, cloud heads in rapidly developing extratropical cyclones and sting jets, its climatology and contribution to precipitation have not been extensively documented. The aim of this paper is to quantify the contribution of CSI release, yielding slantwise convection, to climatological precipitation accumulations for the North Atlantic and western Europe. Case studies reveal that CSI release could be common along cold fronts of mature extratropical cyclones and the North Atlantic storm track is found to be a region with large CSI according to two independent CSI metrics. Correlations of CSI with accumulated precipitation are also large in this region and CSI release is inferred to be occurring about 20% of the total time over depths of over 1 km. We conclude that the inability of current global weather forecast and climate prediction models to represent CSI release (due to insufficient resolution yet lack of subgrid parametrization schemes) may lead to errors in precipitation distributions, particularly in the region of the North Atlantic storm track.

Temporal characteristics of rainfall events under three climate types in Slovenia

Temporal rainfall distribution can often have significant influence on other hydrological processes such as runoff generation or rainfall interception. High-frequency rainfall data from 30 stations in Slovenia were analysed in order to improve the knowledge about the temporal rainfall distribution within a rainfall event. Using the pre-processed rainfall data Huff curves were determined and the binary shape code (BSC) methodology was applied. Although Slovenia covers only about 20,000km2, results indicate large temporal and spatial variability in the precipitation pattern of the analysed stations, which is in agreement with the different Slovenian climate types: sub-Mediterranean, temperate continental, and mountain climate. Statistically significant correlation was identified between the most frequent BSC types, mean annual precipitation, and rainfall erosivity for individual rainfall stations. Moreover, different temporal rainfall distributions were observed for rainfall events with shorter duration (less than 12h) than those with longer duration (more than 24h). Using the analysis of the Huff curves it was shown that the variability in the Huff curves decreases with increasing rainfall duration. Thus, it seems that for shorter duration convective storms a more diverse temporal rainfall distribution can be expected than for the longer duration frontal precipitation where temporal rainfall distribution shows less variability.

Exploring the Diabatic Role of Ice Microphysical Processes in Two North Atlantic Summer Cyclones

AbstractNumerical simulations are performed with the Weather Research and Forecasting Model to elucidate the diabatic effects of ice phase microphysical processes on the dynamics of two slow-moving summer cyclones that affected the United Kingdom during the summer of 2012. The first case is representative of a typical midlatitude storm for the time of year, while the second case is unusually deep. Sensitivity tests are performed with 5-km horizontal grid spacing and at lead times between 1 and 2 days using three different microphysics schemes, one of which is a new scheme whose development was informed by the latest in situ observations of midlatitude weather systems. The effects of latent heating and cooling associated with deposition growth, sublimation, and melting of ice are assessed in terms of the impact on both the synoptic scale and the frontal scale. The results show that, of these diabatic processes, deposition growth was the most important in both cases, affecting the depth and position of each of the low pressure systems and influencing the spatial distribution of the frontal precipitation. Cooling associated with sublimation and melting also played a role in determining the cyclone depth, but mainly in the more intense cyclone case. The effects of ice crystal habit and secondary ice production are also explored in the simulations, based on insight from in situ observations. However in these two cases, the ability to predict changes in crystal habit did not significantly impact the storm evolution, and the authors found no obvious need to parameterize secondary ice crystal production at the model resolutions considered.

Analyses of suspended sediment loads in Slovenian rivers

ABSTRACTSuspended solids are present in every river, but high quantities can worsen the ecological conditions of streams; therefore, effective monitoring and analysis of this hydrological variable are necessary. Frequency, seasonality, inter-correlation, extreme events, trends and lag analyses were carried out for peaks of suspended sediment concentration (SSC) and discharge (Q) data from Slovenian streams using officially monitored data from 1955 to 2006 that were made available by the Slovenian Environment Agency. In total more than 500 station-years of daily Q and SSC data were used. No uniform (positive or negative) trend was found in the SSC series; however, all the statistically significant trends were decreasing. No generalization is possible for the best fit distribution function. A seasonality analysis showed that most of the SSC peaks occurred in the summer (short-term intense convective precipitation produced by thunderstorms) and in the autumn (prolonged frontal precipitation). Correlations between Q and SSC values were generally relatively small (Pearson correlation coefficient values from 0.05 to 0.59), which means that the often applied Q–SSC curves should be used with caution when estimating annual suspended sediment loads. On average, flood peak Q occurred after the corresponding SSC peak (clockwise-positive hysteresis loops), but the average lag time was rather small (less than 1 day).Editor M.C. Acreman; Associate editor Y. Gyasi-Agyei

Parametrical study of the cementitious materials degradation under external sulfate attack through numerical modeling

Underground concrete structures may be subjected to external sulfate attack and their long-term performance is of concern. A coupled transport/chemical numerical model has been compared to experimental data obtained on a cement paste exposed to external sulfate attack thanks to recent developments in experimental analysis such as scanning electron microscopy and image analysis that provided total ion concentration profiles for a given species in cement paste specimens. As other studies the model succeeded in calculating the position of the ettringite precipitation front and the position of the first decrease due to the portlandite dissolution whereas the leaching of portlandite and ettringite was not accurately assessed in the first millimeters because of the necessity to take into account change of the transport properties in the degraded zone. Then a numerical parametric study was carried on. The influence of permanent solution renewal, pH control, and dissolved CO2 concentration were analyzed. The accelerating effect of permanently renewing the solution was confirmed. The influence of the pH control was found dependent of the renewing of solution. The presence of CO2 did not play a significant role.

Can the CMIP5 models represent winter frontal precipitation?

Much of the day-to-day variability of rainfall in the midlatitudes is controlled by the passage of extratropical cyclones and their related fronts. A good representation of fronts and their associated rainfall in climate models is essential to have confidence in future projections of midlatitude precipitation. An objective front identification method has been applied to the data from ERA-Interim and 18 Coupled Model Intercomparison Project, version 5 (CMIP5) models and the fronts linked with daily precipitation estimates to investigate how winter front-related precipitation is represented in the models. While the front frequency is well represented, the frequency of frontal precipitation is too high and the intensity is too low, thus adding little bias to the rainfall total. Although the intensity of the modeled frontal precipitation is too low, the intensity of other precipitation is even lower; thus, the ratio of frontal precipitation to total precipitation is higher in the models than in the reanalysis.

Mineral precipitation-induced porosity reduction and its effect on transport parameters in diffusion-controlled porous media.

BackgroundIn geochemically perturbed systems where porewater and mineral assemblages are unequilibrated the processes of mineral precipitation and dissolution may change important transport properties such as porosity and pore diffusion coefficients. These reactions might alter the sealing capabilities of the rock by complete pore-scale precipitation (cementation) of the system or by opening new migration pathways through mineral dissolution. In actual 1D continuum reactive transport codes the coupling of transport and porosity is generally accomplished through the empirical Archie’s law. There is very little reported data on systems with changing porosity under well controlled conditions to constrain model input parameters. In this study celestite (SrSO4) was precipitated in the pore space of a compacted sand column under diffusion controlled conditions and the effect on the fluid migration properties was investigated by means of three complementary experimental approaches: (1) tritiated water (HTO) tracer through diffusion, (2) computed micro-tomography (µ-CT) imaging and (3) post-mortem analysis of the precipitate (selective dissolution, SEM/EDX).ResultsThe through-diffusion experiments reached steady state after 15 days, at which point celestite precipitation ceased and the non-reactive HTO flux became constant. The pore space in the precipitation zone remained fully connected using a 6 µm µ-CT spatial resolution with 25 % porosity reduction in the approx. 0.35 mm thick dense precipitation zone. The porosity and transport parameters prior to pore-scale precipitation were in good agreement with a porosity of 0.42 ± 0.09 (HTO) and 0.40 ± 0.03 (µ-CT), as was the mass of SrSO4 precipitate estimated by µ-CT at 25 ± 5 mg and selective dissolution 21.7 ± 0.4 mg, respectively. However, using this data as input parameters the 1D single continuum reactive transport model was not able to accurately reproduce both the celestite precipitation front and the remaining connected porosity. The model assumed there was a direct linkage of porosity to the effective diffusivity using only one cementation value over the whole porosity range of the system investigated.ConclusionsThe 1D single continuous model either underestimated the remaining connected porosity in the precipitation zone, or overestimated the amount of precipitate. These findings support the need to implement a modified, extended Archie’s law to the reactive transport model and show that pore-scale precipitation transforms a system (following Archie’s simple power law with only micropores present) towards a system similar to clays with micro- and nanoporosity.Graphical abstract:Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s12932-015-0027-z) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

The development of a bursty precipitation front with intense localized parallel electric fields driven by whistler waves

AbstractThe dynamics and structure of whistler turbulence relevant to electron acceleration in the Earth's outer radiation belt are explored with simulations and comparisons with observations. An initial state with an electron temperature anisotropy in a spatially localized domain drives whistlers which scatter electrons. An outward propagating front of whistlers and hot electrons nonlinearly evolves to form regions of intense parallel electric field with structure similar to observations. The precipitating hot electrons propagate away from the source region in intense bunches rather than as a smooth flux.

Synchronization of dissolution and precipitation fronts during infiltration‐driven replacement in porous rocks

AbstractCoupled dissolution‐precipitation reactions, where two minerals share a common ion, occur frequently in geological replacement; the reactions are driven by an inflow of precipitating secondary ions and an outflow of dissolved primary ions. Although crystallization pressure is frequently invoked to explain volume‐preserving replacement, it cannot be operative if the chemical reactions lead to a loss of mineral volume; here the host rock that should confine the precipitating mineral is dissolving faster than the grains are growing. In this paper we propose two chemical mechanisms by which a rapid dissolution front and a slower precipitation front can be synchronized, and volume‐for‐volume replacement preserved. We analyze these mechanisms within the framework of reactive transport theory and show that morphological features observed in calcite replacement can be correlated with predictions of the models.

Using stable isotopes of oxygen from tree-rings to study the origin of past flood events: first results from the iberian peninsula

Tree-ring studies have been used for over fifty years to date and quantify past flood events. Stable C and O isotopes in tree-rings have also been extensively applied to the reconstruction of past environmental conditions and their changes over time. However, the two approaches have not previously been combined. In this study we explore whether the meteorological origin of precipitation causing past flood events might be assessed by investigating oxygen stable isotopes in tree rings. It is well known that floods may have different origins, e.g. heavy convective rainstorms, frontal precipitation, snow melting, etc.; each of these floodwater sources bears a particular isotopic fingerprint. This paper presents the first results of this methodology applied to a recent flash flood event occurring in Central Spain. For this purpose, a well-known heavy-rain convective event was chosen from the recent flood record. In the forested area affected by this event, six cores from each of four selected species (Pinus sylvestris L., Pinus pinaster Ait., Quercus pyrenaica L. and Alnus glutinosa (L) Gaertn), were sampled using an incremental borer. After α-cellulose extraction, the oxygen-isotope composition (δ18O) in tree-rings was analyzed and compared with climate data and δ18O values in precipitation. The isotope signal in tree-ring cellulose was dominated by spring climatic conditions but, after removing this “spring signal”, a clear and site-specific signal in latewood δ18O emerged, which was associated with the heavy-rain event. These preliminary results encourage more in-depth analyses aimed at recognizing specific precipitation sources and separating different populations of past floods according to their cause.

East Asian Monsoon controls on the inter-annual variability in precipitation isotope ratio in Japan

Abstract. To elucidate the mechanism for how the East Asian Monsoon (EAM) variability have influenced the isotope proxy records in Japan, we explore the primary driver of variations of precipitation isotopes at multiple temporal scales (event, seasonal and inter-annual scales). Using a new 1-year record of the isotopic composition of event-based precipitation and continuous near-surface water vapor at Nagoya in central Japan, we identify the key atmospheric processes controlling the storm-to-storm isotopic variations through an analysis of air mass sources and rainout history during the transport of moisture to the site, and then apply the identified processes to explain the inter-annual isotopic variability related to the EAM variability in the historical 17-year long Tokyo station record in the Global Network of Isotopes in Precipitation (GNIP). In the summer, southerly flows transport moisture with higher isotopic values from subtropical marine regions and bring warm rainfall enriched with heavy isotopes. The weak monsoon summer corresponds to enriched isotopic values in precipitation, reflecting higher contribution of warm rainfall to the total summer precipitation. In the strong monsoon summer, the sustaining Baiu rainband along the southern coast of Japan prevents moisture transport across Japan, so that the contribution of warm rainfall is reduced. In the winter, storm tracks are the dominant driver of storm-to-storm isotopic variation and relatively low isotopic values occur when a cold frontal rainband associated with extratropical cyclones passes off to the south of the Japan coast. The weak monsoon winter is characterized by lower isotopes in precipitation, due to the distribution of the cyclone tracks away from the southern coast of Japan. In contrast, the northward shift of the cyclone tracks and stronger development of cyclones during the strong monsoon winters decrease the contribution of cold frontal precipitation, resulting in higher isotopic values in winter precipitation. Therefore, year-to-year isotopic variability in summer and winter Japanese precipitation correlates significantly with changes in the East Asian summer and winter monsoon intensity (R=-0.47 for summer, R=0.42 for winter), and thus we conclude that the isotope proxy records in Japan should reflect past changes in the East Asian Monsoon. Since our study identifies the climate drivers controlling isotopic variations in summer and winter precipitation, we highlight the retrieval of a record with seasonal resolution from paleoarchives as an important priority.

Formation of iddingsite veins in the martian crust by centripetal replacement of olivine: Evidence from the nakhlite meteorite Lafayette

The Lafayette meteorite is an olivine clinopyroxenite that crystallized on Mars ∼1300million years ago within a lava flow or shallow sill. Liquid water entered this igneous rock ∼700million years later to produce a suite of secondary minerals, collectively called ‘iddingsite’, that occur as veins within grains of augite and olivine. The deuterium/hydrogen ratio of water within these secondary minerals shows that the aqueous solutions were sourced from one or more near-surface reservoirs. Several petrographically distinct types of veins can be recognised by differences in their width, shape, and crystallographic orientation. Augite and olivine both contain veins of a very fine grained hydrous Fe- and Mg-rich silicate that are ∼1–2μm in width and lack any preferred crystallographic orientation. These narrow veins formed by cementation of pore spaces that had been opened by fracturing and probably in response to shock. The subset of olivine-hosted veins whose axes lie parallel to (001) have serrated walls, and formed by widening of the narrow veins by interface coupled dissolution–precipitation. Widening started by replacement of the walls of the narrow precursor veins by Fe–Mg silicate, and a crystallographic control on the trajectory of the dissolution–precipitation front created micrometre-scale {111} serrations. The walls of many of the finely serrated veins were subsequently replaced by siderite, and the solutions responsible for carbonation of olivine also partially recrystallized the Fe–Mg silicate. Smectite was the last mineral to form and grew by replacement of siderite. This mineralization sequence shows that Lafayette was exposed to two discrete pulses of aqueous solutions, the first of which formed the Fe–Mg silicate, and the second mediated replacement of vein walls by siderite and smectite. The similarity in size, shape and crystallographic orientation of iddingsite veins in the Lafayette meteorite and in terrestrial basalts demonstrates a common microstructural control on water–mineral interaction between Mars and Earth, and indicates that prior shock deformation was not a prerequisite for aqueous alteration of the martian crust.

Categorisation of northern California rainfall for periods with and without a radar brightband using stable isotopes and a novel automated precipitation collector

During landfall of extratropical cyclones between 2005 and 2011, nearly 1400 precipitation samples were collected at intervals of 30-min time resolution with novel automated collectors at four NOAA sites in northern California [Alta (ATA), Bodega Bay (BBY), Cazadero (CZD) and Shasta Dam (STD)] during 43 events. Substantial decreases were commonly followed hours later by substantial increases in hydrogen isotopic composition (δ2HVSMOW where VSMOW is Vienna Standard Mean Ocean Water) and oxygen isotopic composition (δ18OVSMOW) of precipitation. These variations likely occur as pre-cold frontal precipitation generation transitions from marine vapour masses having low rainout to cold cloud layers having much higher rainout (with concomitant brightband signatures measured by an S-band profiling radar and lower δ2HVSMOW values of precipitation), and finally to shallower, warmer precipitating clouds having lower rainout (with non-brightband signatures and higher δ2HVSMOW values of precipitation), in accord with ‘seeder–feeder’ precipitation. Of 82 intervals identified, a remarkable 100.5 ‰ decrease in δ2HVSMOW value was observed for a 21 January 2010 event at BBY. Of the 61 intervals identified with increases in δ2HVSMOW values as precipitation transitioned to shallower, warmer clouds having substantially less rainout (the feeder part of the seeder–feeder mechanism), a remarkable increase in δ2HVSMOW value of precipitation of 82.3 ‰ was observed for a 10 February 2007 event at CZD. All CZD and ATA events having δ2HVSMOW values of precipitation below −105 ‰ were atmospheric rivers (ARs), and of the 13 events having δ2HVSMOW values of precipitation below −80 ‰, 77 % were ARs. Cloud echo-top heights (a proxy for atmospheric temperature) were available for 23 events. The mean echo-top height is greater for higher rainout periods than that for lower rainout periods in 22 of the 23 events. The lowest δ2HVSMOW of precipitation of 28 CZD events was −137.9 ‰ on 16 February 2009 during an AR with cold precipitating clouds and very high rainout with tops >6.5 km altitude. An altitude effect of −2.5 ‰ per 100 m was measured from BBY and CZD δ2HVSMOW data and of −1.8 ‰ per 100 m for CZD and ATA δ2HVSMOW data. We present a new approach to categorise rainfall intervals using δ2HVSMOW values of precipitation and rainfall rates. We term this approach the algorithmic-isotopic categorisation of rainfall, and we were able to identify higher rainout and/or lower rainout periods during all events in this study. We conclude that algorithmic-isotopic categorisation of rainfall can enable users to distinguish between tropospheric vapour masses having relatively high rainout (typically with brightband rain and that commonly are ARs) and vapour masses having lower rainout (commonly with non-brightband rain).

Climatological characteristics of fronts in the western North Pacific based on surface weather charts

AbstractComposite front climatology in the western North Pacific is determined using a newly developed 1.0° gridded data set. Here we propose a research strategy for determining the spatiotemporal distribution of fronts using weather chart images published by the Japan Meteorological Agency, one of the major data providers in the region. A preliminarily investigation of the internal data characteristics for the period of 2000–2010 is undertaken, and the final 4 years of data are used for an analysis of front climatology to avoid the effect of any spurious trends. This enables in‐depth analyses to be conducted, which have not previously been possible in the region, including the composites of cross‐sectional patterns for the thermal fields and precipitation near fronts, front length seasonality, and the significance of the thermal gradient near the fronts, in addition to determining the frontal frequency and spatial distribution of frontal precipitation. Pixel‐wise analysis reveals that 56% of the local precipitation maximum is located on the warm side of a cold front caused by less tilted upward motion on the warm side, with the intrusion of the upper level cold dry air into the warm side. This new data set also enables a further analysis of the occluded fronts, which are not correctly distinguished in the existing objective detection method.

Rate of H2S and CO2 attack on pozzolan-amended Class H well cement under geologic sequestration conditions

Experiments were conducted to investigate the rates of H2S and CO2 alteration of pozzolan-amended wellbore cement (35vol% pozzolan–65vol% cement), so as to evaluate the potential impact of H2S and CO2 induced degradation of existing cemented wells present at acid gas co-sequestration sites. In the exposure experiments, pozzolan-amended cement samples were mixed, cured and exposed to mixtures of H2S and CO2 under lab-simulated geologic sequestration conditions (50°C and 15.2MPa) for 2.5, 9, 28 and 90 days. Measurement of the carbon alteration front was used to calculate the rate of CO2 alteration of pozzolan-amended cement exposed to a mixture of 79mol% CO2 and 21mol% H2S under geologic sequestration conditions in exposure periods of 0–90 days. Average CO2 alteration rates (rate of movement of CaCO3 precipitation front) were 3.3×10−3mm/day and 3.2×10−3mm/day for cement samples exposed to a 1% NaCl solution saturated with CO2 and H2S, and those in contact with a supercritical mixture of CO2 and H2S, respectively. Two scenarios were considered for measuring and quantifying alteration caused by H2S over the exposure periods of 0–90 days: sulfur-rich zone thickness, and sulfur alteration index. The average rate of H2S alteration determined by sulfur-rich zone thickness divided by exposure duration was 4.3×10−3mm/day for cement exposed to 1% NaCl solution saturated with CO2 and H2S, and the average rate of H2S alteration determined by sulfur alteration index divided by exposure duration was 8.2×10−3day−1. Cement exposed to a supercritical mixture of CO2 and H2S result in H2S alteration rates determined by sulfur-rich zone thickness divided by exposure duration of 3.1×10−3mm/day, and average rates of H2S alteration determined by sulfur alteration index divided by exposure duration of 6.3×10−3day−1. Sulfur alteration index results also show that H2S was able to penetrate to the core of pozzolan-amended wellbore cement after 2.5 days of exposure, though this was not readily apparent in the sulfur-rich zone thickness results. Sulfur-rich zone thickness is best used to describe high-level sulfur alteration in the rim of samples. The results indicate that (1) an aqueous environment is more favorable for H2S attack on pozzolan-amended cement than a supercritical CO2 and H2S environment; (2) for 90 days of exposure significant alteration induced by H2S and CO2 occurs at regions very close to the fluid/cement interface; (3) H2S penetrates pozzolan-amended cement more rapidly than CO2 in aqueous contact environments. In contrast, under supercritical liquid environment, H2S and CO2 have similar penetration rates in pozzolan-amended cement.

Atmospheric processes responsible for generation of the 2008 Boothbay meteotsunami

We investigated the atmospheric processes and physics that were active during a tsunami-like event hitting Boothbay Harbor area (Maine, USA) on 28 October 2008. The data collected by tide gauges, ground and sounding stations and meteo–ocean buoys in the area were analyzed, together with satellite and radar images. The atmospheric processes were reproduced by the weather research and forecasting model, verified by in situ and remote sensing data. A cold front moved over the area at the time of the event, with embedded convective clouds detected by satellite and radar data and the internal gravity waves (IGWs) detected by radar and reproduced by the model at the rear of the frontal precipitation band. According to the model, the IGWs that passed over Boothbay Harbor generated strong ground air-pressure oscillations reaching 2.5 hPa/3 min. The IGWs were ducted towards the coast without significant dissipation, propagating in a stable near-surface layer capped by an instability at approximately 3.5 km height and satisfying all conditions for their maintenance over larger areas. The intensity, speed and direction of the IGWs were favourable for generation of a meteotsunami wave along the Gulf of Maine shelf. Operational observation systems were not capable of sufficiently capturing the ground disturbance due to a too coarse sampling rate, while the numerical model was found to be a useful tool in eventual future detection and warning systems.