REAL-TIME SNOW SIMULATION MODEL FOR THE MONONGAHELA RIVER BASIN1

ABSTRACT: The Pittsburgh District, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, is responsible for operating two multipurpose reservoirs in the 7384 square mile (19198 square kilometer) Monongahela Basin. A third reservoir, presently under construction, will soon be operating. The real-time forecasting of runoff for operational purposes requires simulation of snow accumulation and snowmelt throughout the Basin during the winter season. This article describes capabilities of SNOSIM, a model being developed for performing such simulation. The application of this model as part of a comprehensive system of water control software, and some initial simulation results are presented.     

Mangrove Mapping Using Landsat Imagery and Aerial Photographs: Kemaman District, Terengganu, Malaysia

Classification and distribution of mangrove vegetation are vital information for the proper development of a mangrove management plan. In this study, classification for the mangroves of the district of Kemaman were done using both 1 : 5000 aerial photographs and Landsat TM imageries. The coverage by aerial photographs is limited to the coastal and estuarine areas only. Thus, for areas further upstream of the aerial photo coverage, Landsat TM imageries were used. Analysis of aerial photographs and remote sensing images revealed that the mangroves of Kemaman could be classified into 14 different classes of vegetation. All the 14 classes were identified from areas covered by the aerial photographs. For areas covered by the Landsat images only 7 classes of vegetation were identified. The accuracy for aerial photograph and Landsat images are 91.2% and 87.8%, respectively. It can be concluded that although both techniques are useful in determining the mangrove vegetation classes, the large 1 : 5000 aerial photographs are more accurate and provided more detailed information comparatively.     

Neues vom Ontong-Java-Plateau (Westpazifik)

For the investigation of climatic history for the last 65 million years, several holes were drilled in 1990 on the Ontong Java Plateau by the drilling vessel Joides Resolution, under the auspices of the international Ocean Drilling Program. The Ontong Java Plateau is the largest basalt plateau on earth, and was formed in the Middle Cretaceous. From the core material, seismic reflectors from the overlying sediments can be associated with specific, climate-related oceanic events. For the cyclic sediments of the last 2 million years, high-resolution isotope curves were generated which depict the two dominant Milankovitch cycles with periods of 100 000 and 41000 years.