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Now showing 1 - 10 of 11
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    Intercomparison and evaluation of global aerosol microphysical properties among AeroCom models of a range of complexity
    (München : European Geopyhsical Union, 2014) Mann, G.W.; Carslaw, K.S.; Reddington, C.L.; Pringle, K.J.; Schulz, M.; Asmi, A.; Spracklen, D.V.; Ridley, D.A.; Woodhouse, M.T.; Lee, L.A.; Zhang, K.; Ghan, S.J.; Easter, R.C.; Liu, X.; Stier, P.; Lee, Y.H.; Adams, P.J.; Tost, H.; Lelieveld, J.; Bauer, S.E.; Tsigaridis, K.; van Noije, T.P.C.; Strunk, A.; Vignati, E.; Bellouin, N.; Dalvi, M.; Johnson, C.E.; Bergman, T.; Kokkola, H.; von Salzen, K.; Yu, F.; Luo, G.; Petzold, A.; Heintzenberg, J.; Clarke, A.; Ogren, J.A.; Gras, J.; Baltensperger, U.; Kaminski, U.; Jennings, S.G.; O'Dowd, C.D.; Harrison, R.M.; Beddows, D.C.S.; Kulmala, M.; Viisanen, Y.; Ulevicius, V.; Mihalopoulos, N.; Zdimal, V.; Fiebig, M.; Hansson, H.-C.; Swietlicki, E.; Henzing, J.S.
    Many of the next generation of global climate models will include aerosol schemes which explicitly simulate the microphysical processes that determine the particle size distribution. These models enable aerosol optical properties and cloud condensation nuclei (CCN) concentrations to be determined by fundamental aerosol processes, which should lead to a more physically based simulation of aerosol direct and indirect radiative forcings. This study examines the global variation in particle size distribution simulated by 12 global aerosol microphysics models to quantify model diversity and to identify any common biases against observations. Evaluation against size distribution measurements from a new European network of aerosol supersites shows that the mean model agrees quite well with the observations at many sites on the annual mean, but there are some seasonal biases common to many sites. In particular, at many of these European sites, the accumulation mode number concentration is biased low during winter and Aitken mode concentrations tend to be overestimated in winter and underestimated in summer. At high northern latitudes, the models strongly underpredict Aitken and accumulation particle concentrations compared to the measurements, consistent with previous studies that have highlighted the poor performance of global aerosol models in the Arctic. In the marine boundary layer, the models capture the observed meridional variation in the size distribution, which is dominated by the Aitken mode at high latitudes, with an increasing concentration of accumulation particles with decreasing latitude. Considering vertical profiles, the models reproduce the observed peak in total particle concentrations in the upper troposphere due to new particle formation, although modelled peak concentrations tend to be biased high over Europe. Overall, the multi-model-mean data set simulates the global variation of the particle size distribution with a good degree of skill, suggesting that most of the individual global aerosol microphysics models are performing well, although the large model diversity indicates that some models are in poor agreement with the observations. Further work is required to better constrain size-resolved primary and secondary particle number sources, and an improved understanding of nucleation and growth (e.g. the role of nitrate and secondary organics) will improve the fidelity of simulated particle size distributions.
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    Comparing projections of future changes in runoff from hydrological and biome models in ISI-MIP
    (München : European Geopyhsical Union, 2013) Davie, J.C.S.; Falloon, P.D.; Kahana, R.; Dankers, R.; Betts, R.; Portmann, F.T.; Wisser, D.; Clark, D.B.; Ito, A.; Masaki, Y.; Nishina, K.; Fekete, B.; Tessler, Z.; Wada, Y.; Liu, X.; Tang, Q.; Hagemann, S.; Stacke, T.; Pavlick, R.; Schaphoff, S.; Gosling, S.N.; Franssen, W.; Arnell, N.
    Future changes in runoff can have important implications for water resources and flooding. In this study, runoff projections from ISI-MIP (Inter-sectoral Impact Model Intercomparison Project) simulations forced with HadGEM2-ES bias-corrected climate data under the Representative Concentration Pathway 8.5 have been analysed for differences between impact models. Projections of change from a baseline period (1981–2010) to the future (2070–2099) from 12 impacts models which contributed to the hydrological and biomes sectors of ISI-MIP were studied. The biome models differed from the hydrological models by the inclusion of CO2 impacts and most also included a dynamic vegetation distribution. The biome and hydrological models agreed on the sign of runoff change for most regions of the world. However, in West Africa, the hydrological models projected drying, and the biome models a moistening. The biome models tended to produce larger increases and smaller decreases in regionally averaged runoff than the hydrological models, although there is large inter-model spread. The timing of runoff change was similar, but there were differences in magnitude, particularly at peak runoff. The impact of vegetation distribution change was much smaller than the projected change over time, while elevated CO2 had an effect as large as the magnitude of change over time projected by some models in some regions. The effect of CO2 on runoff was not consistent across the models, with two models showing increases and two decreases. There was also more spread in projections from the runs with elevated CO2 than with constant CO2. The biome models which gave increased runoff from elevated CO2 were also those which differed most from the hydrological models. Spatially, regions with most difference between model types tended to be projected to have most effect from elevated CO2, and seasonal differences were also similar, so elevated CO2 can partly explain the differences between hydrological and biome model runoff change projections. Therefore, this shows that a range of impact models should be considered to give the full range of uncertainty in impacts studies.
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    Shape-adaptive single-molecule magnetism and hysteresis up to 14 K in oxide clusterfullerenes Dy2O@C72 and Dy2O@C74 with fused pentagon pairs and flexible Dy-(μ2-O)-Dy angle
    (Cambridge : Royal Society of Chemistry, 2020) Velkos, G.; Yang, W.; Yao, Y.-R.; Sudarkova, S.M.; Liu, X.; Büchner, B.; Avdoshenko, S.M.; Chen, N.; Popov, A.A.
    Dysprosium oxide clusterfullerenes Dy2O@Cs(10528)-C72 and Dy2O@C2(13333)-C74 are synthesized and characterized by single-crystal X-ray diffraction. Carbon cages of both molecules feature two adjacent pentagon pairs. These pentalene units determine positions of endohedral Dy ions hence the shape of the Dy2O cluster, which is bent in Dy2O@C72 but linear in Dy2O@C74. Both compounds show slow relaxation of magnetization and magnetic hysteresis. Nearly complete cancelation of ferromagnetic dipolar and antiferromagnetic exchange Dy⋯Dy interactions leads to unusual magnetic properties. Dy2O@C74 exhibits zero-field quantum tunneling of magnetization and magnetic hysteresis up to 14 K, the highest temperature among Dy-clusterfullerenes.
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    Unraveling the Orbital Physics in a Canonical Orbital System KCuF3
    (College Park, Md. : APS, 2021) Li, Jiemin; Xu, Lei; Garcia-Fernandez, Mirian; Nag, Abhishek; Robarts, H.C.; Walters, A.C.; Liu, X.; Zhou, Jianshi; Wohlfeld, Krzysztof; van den Brink, Jeroen; Ding, Hong; Zhou, Ke-Jin
    We explore the existence of the collective orbital excitations, orbitons, in the canonical orbital system KCuF3 using the Cu L3-edge resonant inelastic x-ray scattering. We show that the nondispersive high-energy peaks result from the Cu2+  dd orbital excitations. These high-energy modes display good agreement with the ab initio quantum chemistry calculation, indicating that the dd excitations are highly localized. At the same time, the low-energy excitations present clear dispersion. They match extremely well with the two-spinon continuum following the comparison with Müller ansatz calculations. The localized dd excitations and the observation of the strongly dispersive magnetic excitations suggest that the orbiton dispersion is below the resolution detection limit. Our results can reconcile with the strong local Jahn-Teller effect in KCuF3, which predominantly drives orbital ordering.
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    Attosecond electron thermalization in laser-induced nonsequential multiple ionization: Hard versus glancing collisions
    (College Park, MD : Institute of Physics Publishing, 2008) Liu, X.; De Morisson Faria, C.F.; Becker, W.
    A recollision-based largely classical statistical model of laser-induced nonsequential multiple (N-fold) ionization of atoms is further explored. Upon its return to the ionic core, the first-ionized electron interacts with the other N - 1 bound electrons either through a contact or a Coulomb interaction. The returning electron may leave either immediately after this interaction or join the other electrons to form a thermalized complex which leaves the ion after the delay Δt, which is the sum of a thermalization time and a possible additional dwell time. Good agreement with the available triple and quadruple ionization data in neon and argon is obtained with the contact scenario and delays of Δt = 0.17 T and 0.265 T, respectively, with T the laser period. © IOP Publishing Ltd and Deutsche Physikalische Gesellschaft.
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    Spin-orbit-driven magnetic structure and excitation in the 5d pyrochlore Cd2Os2O7
    (London : Nature Publishing Group, 2016) Calder, S.; Vale, J.G.; Bogdanov, N.A.; Liu, X.; Donnerer, C.; Upton, M.H.; Casa, D.; Said, A.H.; Lumsden, M.D.; Zhao, Z.; Yan, J.-Q.; Mandrus, D.; Nishimoto, S.; van den Brink, J.; Hill, J.P.; McMorrow, D.F.; Christianson, A.D.
    Much consideration has been given to the role of spin-orbit coupling (SOC) in 5d oxides, particularly on the formation of novel electronic states and manifested metal-insulator transitions (MITs). SOC plays a dominant role in 5d5 iridates (Ir4þ), undergoing MITs both concurrent (pyrochlores) and separated (perovskites) from the onset of magnetic order. However, the role of SOC for other 5d configurations is less clear. For example, 5d3 (Os5þ) systems are expected to have an orbital singlet with reduced effective SOC. The pyrochlore Cd2Os2O7 nonetheless exhibits a MIT entwined with magnetic order phenomenologically similar to pyrochlore iridates. Here, we resolve the magnetic structure in Cd2Os2O7 with neutron diffraction and then via resonant inelastic X-ray scattering determine the salient electronic and magnetic energy scales controlling the MIT. In particular, SOC plays a subtle role in creating the electronic ground state but drives the magnetic order and emergence of a multiple spin-flip magnetic excitation.
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    Human impact parameterizations in global hydrological models improve estimates of monthly discharges and hydrological extremes: A multi-model validation study
    (Bristol : IOP Publishing, 2018) Veldkamp, T.I.E.; Zhao, F.; Ward, P.J.; de Moel, H.; Aerts, J.C.J.H.; Müller Schmied, H.; Portmann, F.T.; Masaki, Y.; Pokhrel, Y.; Liu, X.; Satoh, Y.; Gerten, D.; Gosling, S.N.; Zaherpour, J.; Wada, Y.
    Human activity has a profound influence on river discharges, hydrological extremes and water-related hazards. In this study, we compare the results of five state-of-the-art global hydrological models (GHMs) with observations to examine the role of human impact parameterizations (HIP) in the simulation of mean, high- and low-flows. The analysis is performed for 471 gauging stations across the globe for the period 1971–2010. We find that the inclusion of HIP improves the performance of the GHMs, both in managed and near-natural catchments. For near-natural catchments, the improvement in performance results from improvements in incoming discharges from upstream managed catchments. This finding is robust across the GHMs, although the level of improvement and the reasons for it vary greatly. The inclusion of HIP leads to a significant decrease in the bias of the long-term mean monthly discharge in 36%–73% of the studied catchments, and an improvement in the modeled hydrological variability in 31%–74% of the studied catchments. Including HIP in the GHMs also leads to an improvement in the simulation of hydrological extremes, compared to when HIP is excluded. Whilst the inclusion of HIP leads to decreases in the simulated high-flows, it can lead to either increases or decreases in the low-flows. This is due to the relative importance of the timing of return flows and reservoir operations as well as their associated uncertainties. Even with the inclusion of HIP, we find that the model performance is still not optimal. This highlights the need for further research linking human management and hydrological domains, especially in those areas in which human impacts are dominant. The large variation in performance between GHMs, regions and performance indicators, calls for a careful selection of GHMs, model components and evaluation metrics in future model applications.
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    Relationships between submicrometer particulate air pollution and air mass history in Beijing, China, 2004–2006
    (München : European Geopyhsical Union, 2008) Wehner, B.; Birmili, W.; Ditas, F.; Wu, Z.; Hu, M.; Liu, X.; Mao, J.; Sugimoto, N.; Wiedensohler, A.
    The Chinese capital Beijing is one of the global megacities where the effects of rapid economic growth have led to complex air pollution problems that are not well understood. In this study, ambient particle number size distributions in Beijing between 2004 and 2006 are analysed as a function of regional meteorological transport. An essential result is that the particle size distribution in Beijing depends to large extent on the history of the synoptic scale air masses. A first approach based on manual back trajectory classification yielded differences in particulate matter mass concentration by a factor of two between four different air mass categories, including three main wind directions plus the case of stagnant air masses. A back trajectory cluster analysis refined these results, yielding a total of six trajectory clusters. Besides the large scale wind direction, the transportation speed of an air mass was found to play an essential role on the PM concentrations in Beijing. Slow-moving air masses were shown to be associated with an effective accumulation of surface-based anthropogenic emissions due to both, an increased residence time over densely populated land, and their higher degree of vertical stability. For the six back trajectory clusters, differences in PM1 mass concentrations by a factor of 3.5, in the mean air mass speed by a factor of 6, and in atmospheric visibility by a factor of 4 were found. The main conclusion is that the air quality in Beijing is not only degraded by anthropogenic aerosol sources from within the megacity, but also by sources across the entire Northwest China plain depending on the meteorological situation.
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    Electronic properties of intercalated single-wall carbon nanotubes and C60 peapods
    (Milton Park : Taylor & Francis, 2003) Pichler, T.; Liu, X.; Knupfer, M.; Fink, J.
    This paper reviews recent investigations of the electronic structure and the optical properties of intercalated single-wall carbon nanotubes (SWCNTs) and C60 filled SWCNTs (peapods) using electron energy-loss spectroscopy (EELS) in transmission as a probe. The results from these one-dimensional nanostructures are compared to C60 fullerides and intercalated graphite, which are well understood prototypes of carbon-based intercalation compounds. In detail, the structural changes were analysed by electron diffraction and the doping level and the matrix element weighted unoccupied density of states (DOS) by an analysis of the C 1s core-level excitations. Regarding the optical properties, the intercalation gives rise to a charge transfer to the peapods (SWCNTs) which leads to the formation of a free charge carrier plasmon in the loss function which is analysed within the framework of an effective Drude–Lorentz model.
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    Transient magnetic gratings on the nanometer scale
    (Melville, NY : AIP Publishing LLC, 2020) Weder, D.; von Korff Schmising, C.; Günther, C.M.; Schneider, M.; Engel, D.; Hessing, P.; Strüber, C.; Weigand, M.; Vodungbo, B.; Jal, E.; Liu, X.; Merhe, A.; Pedersoli, E.; Capotondi, F.; Lüning, J.; Pfau, B.; Eisebitt, S.
    Laser-driven non-local electron dynamics in ultrathin magnetic samples on a sub-10 nm length scale is a key process in ultrafast magnetism. However, the experimental access has been challenging due to the nanoscopic and femtosecond nature of such transport processes. Here, we present a scattering-based experiment relying on a laser-induced electro- and magneto-optical grating in a Co/Pd ferromagnetic multilayer as a new technique to investigate non-local magnetization dynamics on nanometer length and femtosecond timescales. We induce a spatially modulated excitation pattern using tailored Al near-field masks with varying periodicities on a nanometer length scale and measure the first four diffraction orders in an x-ray scattering experiment with magnetic circular dichroism contrast at the free-electron laser facility FERMI, Trieste. The design of the periodic excitation mask leads to a strongly enhanced and characteristic transient scattering response allowing for sub-wavelength in-plane sensitivity for magnetic structures. In conjunction with scattering simulations, the experiment allows us to infer that a potential ultrafast lateral expansion of the initially excited regions of the magnetic film mediated by hot-electron transport and spin transport remains confined to below three nanometers.