The terrestrial carbon sink, as of yet unidentified, represents 15-30% of annual global emissions of carbon from fossil fuels and industrial activities. Some of the missing carbon is sequestered in ...vegetation biomass and, under the Kyoto Protocol of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, industrialized nations can use certain forest biomass sinks to meet their greenhouse gas emissions reduction commitments. Therefore, we analyzed 19 years of data from remote-sensing spacecraft and forest inventories to identify the size and location of such sinks. The results, which cover the years 1981-1999, reveal a picture of biomass carbon gains in Eurasian boreal and North American temperate forests and losses in some Canadian boreal forests. For the 1.42 billion hectares of Northern forests, roughly above the 30th parallel, we estimate the biomass sink to be 0.68 ± 0.34 billion tons carbon per year, of which nearly 70% is in Eurasia, in proportion to its forest area and in disproportion to its biomass carbon pool. The relatively high spatial resolution of these estimates permits direct validation with ground data and contributes to a monitoring program of forest biomass sinks under the Kyoto protocol.
The relation between satellite measurements of the normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI), cumulated over the growing season, and inventory estimates of forest woody biomass carbon is ...estimated statistically with data from 167 provinces and states in six countries (Canada, Finland, Norway, Russia and the USA for a single time period and Sweden for two periods). Statistical tests indicate that the regression model can be used to represent the relation between forest biomass and NDVI across spatial, temporal and ecological scales for relatively long time scales. For the 1.42 billion ha of boreal and temperate forests in the Northern Hemisphere, the woody biomass carbon pools and sinks are estimated at a relatively high spatial resolution (8×8 km). We estimate the carbon pool to be 61±20 gigatons (10
9) carbon (Gt C) during the late 1990s and the biomass sink to be 0.68±0.34 Gt C/year between the 1982 and 1999. The geographic detail of carbon sinks provided here can contribute to a potential monitoring program for greenhouse gas emission reduction commitments under the Kyoto Protocol.
This paper reports on the nature and history of the mineral-rich frost heave mounds—lithalsas—developed on the first terrace of the Sentsa River in Okinsky District of Buryatia. An ice core of the ...lithalsa was exposed by drilling of a 20-m borehole. The most typical feature of the isotopic diagrams, which we obtained for the ice core, is their cyclical pattern illustrating isotope minima at depths of about 3–5 m, 9–12 m, and 18–21 m, separated by two distinct isotope maxima. Most likely, this demonstrates the cyclicity of the triple flooding of the growing frost heave mound and the subsequent active evaporation of lake-march waters, which are the main source of moisture for the lithalsa ice core. Based on the detailed radiocarbon dating of organic material from the upper horizons of the highest and surrounding lithalsas, we determined the time of their formation. Organic material in drained frost-susceptible soils was intensely accumulated during the period from 0.5 to 0.2 ka BP. This is the time of the beginning of the formation of permafrost, active ice-formation, and the associated frost heave and lithalsa growth. The age of at least three of four mounds studied is not older than 200 years, it coincides with the cooling at the beginning of the 19th century.
The first results of the comparison of subauroral luminosity dynamics in 557,7 and 630,0nm emission with simultaneous measurements of the ionospheric drift in the F2 region with a digisonde DPS-4 at ...the Yakutsk meridian (CGMC: 55–60N, 200°E) at Kp=2–6 are presented. It is shown from the analysis of individual events that during the magnetospheric convection intensification after the turn of the IMF Bz – component to the south the equatorward extension of diffuse aurora takes place. At the same time the westward ionospheric drift velocity increases both in the diffuse aurora region and much equatorward of it due to the occurrence of the northward polarization electric field. We suppose that the generation of polarization field can be associated with the development of the region 2 FAC during the intensification of magnetospheric convection. The comparison of ground-based observations with measurements of the plasma drift aboard the DMSP-F15 satellite has been carried out.
Our long-lasting (up to 600 days) experiments conducted at 300°C in hermetically sealed gold and platinum ampoules with the application of quenching techniques demonstrate that the equilibrium ...quartz-water system ceases to be such in 200 days of the experiments: the concentration of dissolved silica decreases below the quartz solubility, and silica is redeposited (in the form of opal) at the bottom and walls of the ampoules above the water meniscus. Upon the passage of 400 days, when initial quartz completely disappears, the concentration of dissolved silica further decreases and becomes hundreds of times lower than the quartz solubility; all silica deposited above the meniscus is then transformed into secondary quartz. Analysis of our and literature experimental data indicates that this paradoxical behavior of silica can not be explained by (1) procedure errors (leakage of the ampoules and the quenching effect), (2) the synthesis of a new mineral of lower solubility, (3) simple recrystallization, and (4) the effect of the small pores of the newly formed silica. This effect is caused by the low temperature gradient (the temperature increases from below upward) of 0.25°C/cm, preferential water evaporation at the margin of the meniscus, and the ensuing local temperature decrease that stimulates water influx from its main volume because of the surface tension effect (Marangoni effect). Silica can be deposited on ampoule walls at water evaporation if the water influx rate to the meniscus is greater than the silica diffusion rate into the opposite direction. This can take place in natural, experimental, and technological systems involving a solution-vapor boundary and some low temperature gradient.
Investigation results of a diffuse aurora (DA) and stable auroral red (SAR) arc dynamics based on spectrophotometric observations at the Yakutsk meridian (199°E geomagnetic longitude) are presented. ...The relationship of an equatorward extension of DA in the 557.7
nm emission to a substorm growth phase during the magnetospheric convection intensification after the turn of IMF
B
Z to the south is shown. The formation of SAR arc during the substorm expansion phase is investigated. The association of SAR arc dynamics with the development of asymmetric ring current (substorm injection) during the main phase of a storm is analyzed. It is shown how the pulsating precipitations of energetic ring current particles develop in the outer plasmasphere based on photometric observations.
At the present stage of development of any state, an important aspect of occupational health and public health is undoubtedly the protection of workers' health. In view of this, we have developed an ...automated system and algorithm for the approach to assessing professional risks. It is proposed to implement a campaign to manage occupational health risks for workers through the automated system “Software complex for monitoring and managing occupational health risks for workers at an industrial enterprise” developed in the Republic of Kazakhstan. This complex performs the necessary actions to create the foundations for making management decisions, it consists of the following components, which were analyzed and used at the industrial enterprise Joint Stock Company ‘Kostanay Minerals' in the Republic of Kazakhstan: 1) analysis of current information based on the definition and systematization of the information bases of the enterprise. Such databases include data on employees, working conditions, cases of injuries, morbidity, medical examinations, occupational morbidity and personal protective equipment;
2) the analytical component, carried out on the basis of statistical data, mathematical methods of information processing, conducts an analysis of professional risk both for each worker and for each enterprise.
The analysis of the data is presented by the system in the form of reports received by the interested person of the enterprise by specifying a sample of data in any form, with the specification of the conditions for sampling from the stored data in the database of the automated system. The developed and implemented approach to occupational risk management is aimed at the practical implementation of a comprehensive risk assessment at workplaces, allowing not only to identify risks, but also to manage them during the work shift, throughout the entire work experience, which is the basis for ensuring the safety and health of industrial workers.
Key messages
The introduction of new technologies in industry will lead to a sharp decrease in the intensity of production factors and occupational pathology and to conduct a correct assessment of health risks.
Professional risk monitoring consists in informing employees, employers, the public, administrative authorities about the risk factors at work and the necessary and applied measures to reduce it.
The occurrence rate of SAR arcs during 1997–2007 has been analyzed based on the photometric observations at the Yakutsk meridian (Maimaga station, corrected geomagnetic coordinates: 57°N, 200°E). SAR ...arcs appeared in 114 cases (∼500
h) during ∼370 nights of observations (∼3170
h). The occurrence frequency of SAR arcs increases to 27% during the growth phase of solar activity and has a clearly defined maximum at a decline of cycle 23. The SAR arc registration probability corresponds to the variations in geomagnetic activity in this solar cycle. The dates, intervals of UT, and geomagnetic latitudes of SAR arc observations at the Yakutsk meridian are presented.
The paper shows the designed gearbox reliability assessment and analysis on the basis of the real one. The basic diagram has been analyzed as well as the units' eventual failures. Based on the ...designed structural diagram of the SU gearbox reliability level has been estimated. The measures to raise the reliability level have been proposed.
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