| 1. |
- Khosravi, Maryam, 1975
(författare)
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Diurnal variation of stratospheric short-lived species
- 2012
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Licentiatavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Diurnal variation of stratospheric short-lived speciesMaryam KhosraviChalmers University of TechnologyDepartment of Earth and Space SciencesAbstractThe depletion of ozone in the stratosphere has a direct impact on the amount of ultravioletradiation reaching the Earth’s surface. The ozone abundance and distributionis controlled by the photo-chemical reactions and catalytic cycles involving halogens(chlorine and bromine), odd hydrogen and odd nitrogen species as well as by atmospherictransport.An introduction to ozone related chemistry of the stratosphere and modelling ofshort-lived species using photo-chemical models is presented. A one dimensional (1D)atmospheric model is used in two distinct studies: modeling of short-lived species inthe Arctic lower stratosphere (paper I) and in the tropical mid to upper stratosphere(paper II).The first part of this thesis describes the diurnal variation of chlorine monoxide,ClO, which is the most important short-lived species controlling ozone in the polarlower stratosphere during winter and early-spring. The ClO-dimer cycle, involvingClO and its nighttime reservoir Cl2O2, contributes to about 75%of the polar ozone loss.ClO measurements from an airborne submillimeter radiometer in the Arctic twilighthave been compared with the results from a 1D photo-chemical model (MISU-1D), inorder to validate the model and to test the kinetics of the reactions controlling the partitioningof chlorine species during the course of a day. The results show that crosssections leading to faster photolysis rates of Cl2O2 match best with the ClO observations.This is consistent with the recent version of the chemical kinetics evaluation bythe Jet Propulsion Laboratory. Slower photolysis rates can not be reconciled with theobservations since active chlorine higher than the total available chlorine would be required.The model reproduces higher nighttime ClO than the observations, howeverthe nighttime ClOmodelled using recent JPL recommendations of the thermal equilibriumconstant agree within the uncertainty range of the observations. The sensitivityof the model to the assumed albedo and temperature are also tested. Neither the temperaturenor the albedo uncertainties allow us to reconcile the model with the lowerobserved nighttime ClO. Moreover, it is found that the ClO-BrO cycle decreases ClOmostly around sunrise and sunset.The second part of the thesis presents the partitioning and diurnal variation of chlorine,bromine, hydrogen, nitrogen and oxygen species in the tropics from the stratosphereto the lower mesosphere. Model results of the diurnal variation of HOCl (asone of the chlorine reservoirs), the related short-lived species ClO and HO2 and HCl(as the main chlorine reservoir) for the tropics and three altitudes (35, 45 and 55 km)are compared with measurements from five satellite instruments. The model resultsgenerally agree with the observations both in terms of the absolute values and the differencesbetween day and night.
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| 2. |
- Cai, Yiting, 1994
(författare)
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The impact of loading-induced stress variation on the seismicity of active faults
- 2023
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Licentiatavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Surface loads such as the ocean, atmosphere, and continental water, constantly modify the stress field of the Earth’s crust. Most earthquakes occur at tectonic plate boundaries and such stress perturbations on the active faults at the plate boundaries may trigger earthquakes. Several previous studies reported that tides or hydrological loading could modulate seismicity in some areas. We elaborate on this idea and further investigate the accumulative effect of various loadings. In this work, we compute the total Coulomb stress change created by hydrological loading, atmospheric loading, and non-tidal ocean loading from 2011 to 2016 in the Kamchatka-Kuril Islands-Japan region, and then compare it to the background earthquakes in the same period. This thesis contributes to our understanding of the complex interactions between surface loading and induced seismicity, which has important implications for earthquake hazard assessment and risk mitigation.
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| 3. |
- Pendrill, Florence, 1983
(författare)
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Felling Forests from Afar: Quantifying Deforestation Driven by Agricultural Expansion and International Trade
- 2019
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Licentiatavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Deforestation is a major source of human-caused greenhouse gas emissions and the largest threat to terrestrial biodiversity. Most forest loss is due to the expansion of agricultural land use increasingly driven by international demand for food, fuel and fibre. However, there is still limited understanding of the extent to which different agricultural commodities are contributing to deforestation. It has therefore also been difficult to evaluate the role of international trade in driving deforestation. This dissertation aims at quantifying the agricultural drivers of tropical deforestation (Papers I and II) and the associated carbon emissions (Paper III). It further assesses the role of international trade, by following the agricultural commodities with embodied deforestation through international supply chains using trade models (Papers II and III). The results show that a few commodity types, primarily cattle meat and oilseed products, account for a large part of tropical deforestation. Much (26–39%) of the embodied deforestation and concomitant emissions were found to be associated with international demand (from products and services). Looking closer at the countries that import embodied deforestation, Paper II finds that many countries that are increasing their forest cover at home, import products associated with deforestation elsewhere, thereby offsetting about a third of their forest gains. Paper III finds that imports of embodied deforestation emissions for many developed countries are similar in size to their national agricultural emissions amounting, e.g., for the EU, to around 15% of the carbon footprint of an average diet. Put together, the results add to the evidence that combating deforestation can benefit from complementing domestic policies with measures that target international demand. The results also indicate that tackling deforestation and its associated impacts at the global level is probably even more challenging than at the national level, although international trade can also provide efficiency gains by optimising land use globally.
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| 4. |
- Diamantidis, Periklis, 1988
(författare)
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Exploring Strategies for the Combination of Multiple Space-geodetic Techniques
- 2020
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Licentiatavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Space-geodetic techniques are based on signal acquisition from extraterrestrial radio sources that can be used to infer geodetic positioning and define Earth-fixed and inertial reference systems. These techniques, which include Very Long Baseline Interferometry (VLBI) and Global Navigation Satellite Systems (GNSS) among others, exhibit different strengths and weaknesses in recovering parameters of interest. VLBI, for example, has access to all parameters linking Earth-fixed and inertial reference systems, so-called Earth Orientation Parameters (EOP), while GNSS is superior at determining in one of the EOP, Polar Motion (PM), due to the ubiquity and global distribution of the GNSS network of permanent receivers. The combination of different space-geodetic techniques shows promise in suppressing technique-specific biases and determining parameters with greater precision. This thesis presents the principles of VLBI and GNSS, and then explores the different combination strategies that can be used in the aim of generating of high-quality space-geodetic products.
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| 5. |
- Karlsson, Emma, 1980-
(författare)
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Organic geochemical investigation of sources, transport and fate of terrestrial organic matter in the southeast Laptev Sea
- 2012
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Licentiatavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Permafrost carbon stores have been suggested to react to warming trends with increased terrestrial loading to its coastal waters. Presently, the warming has been seen to be especially high in the East Siberian Arctic and the fate of the major release of terrestrial matter to these coasts is yet to be detailed.Our work is focused on the East Siberian Shelf (ESS) – which is the largest continental shelf in the world. It receives substantial inputs of terrestrial organic matter both from the large Russian rivers and from eroding coastlines. The largest of its rivers, the Lena, discharges in Buor-Khaya Bay, which is also a hot spot for coastal erosion.Previous studies of molecular and δ¹3C and Δ¹⁴C composition of terrestrial organic matter received by Arctic coastal waters have suggested a different propensity of different terrestrial source materials towards bacterial degradation. This detailed isotopic and molecular marker survey which is the basis for this thesis reveals clearly distinguished source patterns both between surface water (POC) and sea floor (SOC) as well as with distance away from the sources. The heavy terrestrial dominance over marine/planktonic sources are clearly detected in gradients of high POC and SOC levels, as well as depleted δ13C -OC and high HMW/LMW n-alkane ratios. Furthermore, data suggests that terr-OC was substantially older yet less degraded in the surface sediment than in the surface waters. This unusual vertical degradation trend was only recently found also for the coastal and central East Siberian Sea. It seems that the riverine terr-OC component comprising mainly annual thaw layer surface soil dominates the buoyant surface water POC and is readily degraded. This is in contrast to the coastline-erosion terr-OC which is associated with minerals and therefore ballasted to the sediments where it makes up the key OC component and seems relatively protected from degradation.The study area of this work is a region with strong terrestrial influence hosting many of the important carbon cycling processes, and data reveal two important OC contributors of different origin, mineral associated coastal erosion matter and riverine borne surface soil matter. These two components may well represent different propensities to contribute to a positive feedback to climate warming by converting OC from coastal and inland permafrost into CO₂.
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| 6. |
- Nylund, Amanda, 1989
(författare)
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Turbulent ship wakes and their spatiotemporal extent
- 2021
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Licentiatavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Shipping activities occur in almost every part of the global oceans and in intensely trafficked shipping lanes there can be up to one ship passage every ten minutes. All these ships impact the marine environment in different ways through pollution or physical disturbance. This thesis is focused on the turbulent ship wake, a physical disturbance from ships and previously overlooked as an environmental impact. When a ship moves through water, the turbulence induced by the propeller and hull, will create a turbulent wake that remains and expands after the ship passage. The turbulence in the wake will govern the spread of contaminants and affect gas exchange in the wake water, physically perturb plankton, and potentially impact local biogeochemistry through increased vertical mixing. To be able to assess the environmental impact of ship-induced turbulence in areas with intense ship traffic, knowledge of the spatiotemporal extent and development of the turbulent wake is necessary. The aim of this thesis is to increase that knowledge, by conducting in situ observations of turbulent ship wakes, which can be used to estimate the spatiotemporal extent of the turbulent wake. By using a collection of methods, the thesis work has resulted in a first estimate of the spatiotemporal extent of the turbulent ship wake, based on more than 200 field observations of different real-size ships in natural conditions. The observed turbulent wakes showed large variation in their spatiotemporal extent, and further studies are needed to fully disentangle how environmental conditions and vessel specifications affect the intensity and extent of the turbulent wake. The results and experiences gained from the in situ observations, give an indication of the complexity entailed in characterising the development of the turbulent wake, and provide valuable input regarding the relevant parameters and spatiotemporal scales to include in future studies. The work of this thesis constitutes the first step in addressing the knowledge gap regarding the environmental impact of ship-induced turbulence and can be used as a road map for further studies within the field.
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| 7. |
- Acosta Navarro, Juan Camilo
(författare)
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Historical anthropogenic radiative forcing of changes in biogenic secondary organic aerosol
- 2015
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Licentiatavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Human activities have lead to changes in the energy balance of the Earth and the global climate. Changes in atmospheric aerosols are the second largest contributor to climate change after greenhouse gases since 1750 A.D. Land-use practices and other environmental drivers have caused changes in the emission of biogenic volatile organic compounds (BVOCs) and secondary organic aerosol (SOA) well before 1750 A.D, possibly causing climate effects through aerosol-radiation and aerosol-cloud interactions. Two numerical emission models LPJ-GUESS and MEGAN were used to quantify the changes in aerosol forming BVOC emissions in the past millennium. A chemical transport model of the atmosphere (GEOS-Chem-TOMAS) was driven with those BVOC emissions to quantify the effects on radiation caused by millennial changes in SOA.The specific objectives of this licentiate thesis are: 1) to understand what drove the changes in aerosol-forming BVOC emissions (i.e. isoprene, monoterpenes and sesquiterpenes) and to quantify these changes; 2) to calculate for the first time the combined historical aerosol direct and aerosol-cloud albedo effects on radiation from changing BVOC emissions through SOA formation; 3) to investigate how important the biological climate feedback associated to BVOC emissions and SOA formation is from a global climate perspective.We find that global isoprene emissions decreased after 1800 A.D. by about 12% - 15%. This decrease was dominated by losses of natural vegetation, whereas monoterpene and sesquiterpene emissions increased by about 2% - 10%, driven mostly by rising surface air temperatures. From 1000 A.D. to 1800 A.D, isoprene, monoterpene and sesquiterpene emissions decline by 3% - 8% driven by both, natural vegetation losses, and the moderate global cooling between the medieval climate anomaly and the little ice age. The millennial reduction in BVOC emissions lead to a 0.5% to 2% reduction in climatically relevant aerosol particles (> 80 nm) and cause a direct radiative forcing between +0.02 W/m² and +0.07 W/m², and an indirect radiative forcing between -0.02 W/m² and +0.02 W/m². The suggested biological climate feedback seems to be too small to have observable consequences on the global climate in the recent past.
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| 8. |
- Grieco, Francesco, 1992
(författare)
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Recovery and validation of Odin/SMR measurements of mesospheric CO and H2O
- 2020
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Licentiatavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Although life on Earth is concentrated in the troposphere, not only the processes happening here are of interest, since tropospheric processes are not the only ones that have an impact on the climate. Coupling mechanisms between different layers are such that changes in middle atmospheric dynamics and composition have an effect on what happens at lower altitudes. Therefore there is the need to extend climate models to include higher altitudes and to perform measurements of the middle atmosphere. Among the species that can be observed in the middle atmosphere, carbon monoxide (CO) and water vapour (H2O) are of high scientific interest thanks to their aptness to being used as circulation tracers. This is due to their long photochemical lifetime which is longer or equal to zonal, meridional and vertical transport time scales. Moreover, H2O plays a decisive role for O3 chemistry. In the mesosphere, meridional circulation is driven by momentum deposition from breaking gravity waves. This originates an annual cycle which affects mostly high latitudes: with measurements it can be observed how CO-rich dry air descends towards the lower mesosphere at the winter pole while moist and CO-poor air is uplifted towards upper mesosphere and lower thermosphere at the summer pole. Gravity waves also give rise to the Semi- Annual Oscillation (SAO) in zonal winds resulting in concentration oscillations that can be observed in CO and H2O measurements, mostly at the tropics. Among the satellite instruments currently performing remote sensing of the middle atmosphere, the Sub-Millimetre Radiometer (SMR) on board the Odin satellite is one of the most long-lived. In fact, SMR has been performing limb sounding of the middle atmosphere for 19 years, providing valuable long term datasets. However, the CO and H2O datasets are both affected by instrumental artifacts that resulted in a misestimation of the two species’ concentration. The two papers included in this thesis focus on identifying the causes and correcting such artifacts. CO observation modes were affected by a malfunctioning of the Phase-Lock Loop (PLL) of the local oscillator (LO) which was causing frequency shifts in the spectra and line broadening. An algorithm that shifts the line back to its theoretical position has been developed and the line broadening has been quantified and taken into account when performing new retrievals. Regarding the H2O observation modes, underestimation of sideband leakage resulted in artifacts in the spectra that caused the misestimation of the retrieved concentration and temperature. For this reason SMR agreed poorly with other instruments measurements. An improvement was brought by assuming a larger sideband leakage than previously thought. For both species new inversions have been performed using the Optimal Estimation Method (OEM) with the Atmospheric Radiative Transfer Simulator (ARTS) as forward model. The recovery and correction of these products resulted in two new long-term and global data sets that are now available to the scientific community to study middle atmospheric dynamics.
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| 9. |
- André, Hampus, 1989
(författare)
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Resource and Environmental Impacts of Resource-Efficiency Measures Applied to Electronic Products
- 2018
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Licentiatavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Natural resources such as ecosystems, land, water and metals underpin the functioning of economies and human well-being, and are becoming increasingly scarce due to growth in population and affluence. Metals are increasingly demanded for their specific properties as modern technology develops. The dependence on metals is of growing concern due to the environmental impacts related, for example, to energy use and local impacts from mining, as well as the scarcity risks posed by socio-economic, geological and geopolitical constraints. Thus, there is a clear need to use metals and other natural resources more efficiently. The vision of a circular economy has been proposed as a way to do this, for example by improving durability, reusing, repairing and recycling. Such so-called resource-efficiency (RE) measures are commonly assumed to be environmentally beneficial, although the evidence is not plentiful. It is plausible that focusing on recirculating products and materials could shift burdens to other environmental impacts or life cycle stages. It has therefore been argued that a life cycle-based approach, such as in life cycle assessment (LCA), is useful to critically assess the environmental implications of RE measures. LCA aims to quantify the environmental impacts of products over their entire life cycles - from cradle to grave - assessing a wide range of impacts such as toxicity, climate change and metal resource use. For metal resource use, however, there are a number of perspectives as to what constitutes the actual environmental problem. These perspectives are represented in a variety of life cycle impact assessment methods (LCIA) which have previously been shown to give diverging results. Electronic products are emblematic of metal resource use challenges since they deploy a broad spectrum of scarce metals. This thesis aims to provide knowledge on the potential for RE measures to reduce the environmental impacts of electronic products, by addressing the following research questions: (1) What resource-efficiency measures result in reduced potential environmental impacts and resource use – for what types of products and under what conditions? (2) How does extended use of electronic products through design for increased technical lifetime, reuse and repair affect environmental impacts, particularly metal resource use? (3) How does the application of different LCIA methods for metal resource use influence interpretations of resource-efficiency measures applied to electronic products? This thesis builds on three appended papers which are all based on comparative assessments of resource efficiency, studied as resource use and environmental impacts per function delivered, using LCA and material flow analysis. The results indicate that extended use of electronic products through increasing technical lifetimes, reusing and repairing, is generally resource-efficient. Exceptions may occur, however, if extended use is insufficient to motivate impacts from producing more durable products or spare parts. Use extension of electronic products leads to resource efficiency in two distinct ways: through the intended use extension and by increasingly steering material flows into recycling. Further resource efficiency could be realised by combining RE measures over the entire life cycles of products. With regards to metal resource use, the choice of LCIA method can influence the interpretation of the results of RE measures for electronic products. Therefore, it is advisable to use several complementary LCIA methods to minimise the risks of overlooking potentially important resources issues. Furthermore, better understanding and transparency of such issues is valuable in order to provide more comprehensive information to decision-makers.
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| 10. |
- Löfgren, Johan, 1983
(författare)
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Observing Sea Level Using Reflected Global Navigation Satellite System Signals
- 2011
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Licentiatavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Sea-level rise due to global warming is predicted to have a large impact on human society, especially for populations living in coastal regions and on islands. It is therefore of great importance to monitor the sea level and to increase the understanding of the local hydrodynamic and meteorological responses to a global sea-level rise.Presented in this thesis is a technique to measure local sea level using Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) signals. This GNSS-based tide gauge acquires both the directly received GNSS signals and the GNSS signals that are reflected off the sea surface, using standard geodetic GNSS receivers. With the directly received signals the installation measures land-surface height changes, whereas the reflected signals are used to measure sea-surface height changes. Both measurements are done with respect to the Earth's centre of mass. By combining these observations it is possible to estimate the local sea level, which is directly related to the volume of the ocean.Several GNSS-based tide gauge campaigns have been carried out at the Onsala Space Observatory (OSO) on the west coast of Sweden. Today the installation is still in place and continues to record GNSS data with a sampling frequency of 1 Hz. In this thesis, data from the campaigns are analysed in a post-processing mode with an in-house developed software. Sea-level estimates are produced with a temporal resolution from 5 s to 20 min and compared to independent sea-level observations from stilling well gauges located approximately 18 km south and 33 km north of OSO. The results for three months of GNSS-derived sea level show an agreement, with respect to the stilling well gauge sea level, with typical root-mean-square differences of better than 6 cm and correlation coefficients of higher than 0.95.Additionally, using an ocean-tide analysis of three months of sea-level observations from the GNSS-based tide gauge, it was possible to determine several tidal components, i.e., M2, S2, N2, O2, and M4. The amplitudes and phases show reasonable agreement with the ones derived from one year of stilling well gauge sea-level data.
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