Abstract Vertical profiles of nitric oxide (NO) concentration are derived between 120 and 250 km using updated NO emission rates measured by Sounding of the Atmosphere using Broadband Emission Radiometry (SABER) instrument on the NASA Thermosphere Ionosphere Mesosphere Energetics and Dynamics satellite. The Naval Research Laboratory Mass Spectrometer Incoherent Scatter Radar (MSIS) 2.1 model is used to provide the required parameters of temperature, atomic oxygen number density, and molecule oxygen number density needed to derive the NO concentrations using a non-local thermodynamic equil ..read more

Abstract Fault structure reconstruction is an important aspect of magnetic prospecting as it contributes to understanding tectonic history, hazard assessment, and infrastructure planning. Metaheuristics have proven useful in estimating fault structure parameters from geophysical anomalies. Recently, a modified version of the Backtracking Search Optimization Algorithm (BSA), named mBSA, has been proposed that combines mutation steps of BSA and Differential Evolution (DE) algorithms to achieve a better balance between exploration and exploitation. Here, we present imBSA as an efficient approach ..read more

Abstract Global sea wave monitoring is of utmost importance for tasks such as analysis of ocean climate change, offshore fisheries, and early warning of marine disasters. Significant wave height (SWH) is one of the most vital and widely used metrics for measuring sea waves in marine research. Hence, obtaining high precision and extensive coverage measurements of SWH is of great significance for comprehensive sea wave studies. A data set is constructed by combining wave spectrometer and scatterometer data from China-French Ocean Satellite, synthetic aperture radar (SAR) wave mode data from Sent ..read more

Abstract Lightning-induced volcanic spherules (LIVS) are glasses produced by the rapid melting and solidification of molten volcanic ash grains. High temperatures generated by lightning will alter the physical and chemical properties of minerals exposed to the discharge. Laboratory experiments reveal that LIVS glass composition varies depending on the starting material, exhibiting heterogeneous compositional features common in other glasses created by cloud-to-ground lightning, nuclear explosions, and high velocity impact events. This study uses scanning electron microscopy, energy dispersive ..read more

Abstract We investigate the representation of individual supercells and intriguing tornado-like vortices in a simplified, locally refined global atmosphere model. The model, featuring grid stretching, can locally enhance the model resolution and reach cloud-resolving scales with modest computational resources. Given a conditionally unstable sheared environment, the model can simulate supercells realistically, with a near-ground vortex and funnel cloud at the center of a rotating updraft reminiscent of a tornado. An analysis of the Eulerian vertical vorticity budget suggests that the updraft co ..read more

Abstract The high-speed video (HSV) images were taken as the input data of the nonlinear autoregressive network (NARX) to reconstruct the return-stroke channel base current (CBC). The integrated luminosity (IL) of discharge channel is firstly obtained by summing the pixel values in HSV images, and the correlation between the IL and CBC is analyzed as well. Then, a NARX model is trained by taking the IL and CBC as the input and output data, respectively. With the input of the IL of another discharge channel, the trained NARX model is applied to inverse the corresponding CBC. The inversed result ..read more

Abstract Large asteroid impacts have long been attributed to imparting long-lived heat in the upper crust, as well as widespread fracturing and porosity. When an impact occurs on or near an ocean environment, displaced water rushes back filling the crater and percolating down into the fractured crust. The significant heat and fracturing from impact allow for extensive hydrothermal activity. Hydrothermal alteration has been observed at the 180 km Chicxulub impact structure in Yucatán, Mexico. Previous studies estimate widespread hydrothermal transport and activity within the Chicxulub stru ..read more

Abstract Understanding distributions of cloud thermodynamic phases is important for accurately representing cloud radiative effects and cloud feedback in a changing climate. Satellite-based cloud phase data have been frequently used to compare with climate models, yet few studies validated them against in situ observations at a near-global scale. This study aims to validate three satellite-based cloud phase products using a compositive in situ airborne data set developed from 11 flight campaigns. Latitudinal-altitudinal cross sections of cloud phase occurrence frequencies are examined. The Clo ..read more

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Abstract Fragile geological features must undergo frequent structural health assessments to prevent catastrophic failure events. The mechanical behavior of natural sites is largely guided by vibrations of the earth and environmental exposure, but damage is rarely assessed, except empirically. The Chauvet-Pont d’Arc cave, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, represents a shining example of fragility that would benefit from monitoring. It is overhung by a rock column known as Abraham's pillar that extends out from the cliff like a natural tuning fork. For this study, we monitored dancing movements of t ..read more