No abstract

An operational nonhydrostatic mesoscale model has been developed by the Numerical Prediction Division (NPD) of the Japan Meteorological Agency (JMA) in partnership with the Meteorological Research Institute (MRI). The model is based on the MRI/NPD unified nonhydrostatic model (MRI/NPD-NHM), while several modifications have been made for operational numerical weather prediction with a horizontal resolution of 10 km. A fourth-order advection scheme considering staggered grid configuration is implemented. The buoyancy term is directly evaluated from density perturbation. A time-splitting scheme for advection has been developed, where the low-order (second order) part of advection is modified in the latter half of the leapfrog time integration. Physical processes have also been revised, especially in the convective parameterization and PBL schemes. A turbulent kinetic energy (TKE) diagnostic scheme has been developed to overcome problems that arise to predict TKE. The model performance for mesoscale NWP has been verified by comparison with a former operational hydrostatic mesoscale model of JMA. It is found that the new nonhydrostatic mesoscale model outperforms the hydrostatic model in the prediction of synoptic fields and quantitative precipitation forecasts.

No abstract

The polarization changes caused by applying mechanical stresses to a lead zirconate titanate (PZT) thin film were investigated. Both the remnant and spontaneous polarizations decreased when the PZT film was loaded with tensile stress. For compressive stresses, the remnant polarization increased, but spontaneous polarization did not change. In fatigue with tensile stress state, the polarization decreased earlier than when there was no stress, which depend on whether or not the initial polarization value was high. Conversely, in fatigue with compressive stress, the initial higher remnant polarization value was maintained compared with the polarization in the unstress condition.

We use temperature-dependent viscous remanent magnetization to estimate the emplacement age of tsunamigenic coral boulders along the shorelines of Ishigaki Island, Japan. The boulders consist of the hermatypic coral Porites, and the time of their deposition by tsunamis has been established using radiocarbon dating. Recently deceased corals at reef edges around Ishigaki Island record the Earth's current magnetic fi eld (present Earth fi eld, PEF) as a remanence parallel to the fi eld in the skeleton. Since the time when the coral skeletons were emplaced on the shorelines as boulders by destructive tsunami waves, a new viscous magnetization was partially overprinted in the boulder parallel to the PEF. The results of thermal demagnetization indicated that the boulders were rotated at least once, and their emplacement ages determined from L. Néel's relaxation theory for single-domain magnetite agree well with the radiocarbon ages, although there are traces of multidomain magnetites. New application of Néel's theory to tsunamigenic coral boulders gives us an opportunity to ascertain the age and transportation mode of individual tsunamigenic coral boulders in this area.

The stress of Pt films deposited at various temperatures and its correlation with the formation of hillocks during heat treatment were investigated. The residual stress changes from compressive to tensile as the deposition temperature increases. The compressive residual stress of a Pt film deposited at room temperature is initially relaxed by the shrinkage of the film thickness and then by hillock formation at a certain maximum compressive stress when the Pt film is heat-treated. On the other hand, Pt films deposited at higher temperatures (up to 500°C) have a high tensile residual stress. The Pt film maintains its smooth surface and no hillocks appear during the heat treatment at 500°C when the residual stress is tensile, since the threshold temperature at which hillocks form increases.

No abstract

No abstract