arXiv subjects

D. Gibert

Publications and source records attributed to D. Gibert.

13 recordsLinked to original sources

arXiv2023

On the tilt of the Earth's polar axis (climat): Some 'impressionist' remarks

In this lengthy letter, we wanted to discuss the concept of climate based on definitions established for over a century and direct observations that we have been collecting for more than a century as well. To do this, we present and discuss the remarkably stable maps over time of the various physical parameters that make up the climate corpus: solar temperature, atmospheric pressure, winds, precipitation, temperature anomalies. This impressionistic tableau that we are gradually sketching as our reflection unfolds leads us to the following proposition: What if, as Laplace first proposed in 1799 and later Milankovi\{'}c in 1920, ground temperature were merely a consequence of climate and not a separate parameter of climate in its own right?

physics.geo-ph↗

arXiv2023

On variations of global mean surface temperature: When Laplace meets Milankovic

In his mathematical theory, Milankovic finds a link between the heat received by the Earth surface per unit time as a function of the solar ephemerids and derives a model of climate changes at periods longer than a few thousand years and more. In this paper, we investigate the potential connections of global temperature and Earth rotation at much shorter periods, in the complementary range of one to a few hundred years. For temperature, we select the HadCrut05. For Earth rotation, defined by pole coordinates and length of day, we use the IERS data sets. Using iterative Singular Spectrum Analysis (iSSA), we extract the trend and quasi-periodic components of these time series. The first quasi-periodic components (period ~80-90 years) are expressions of the Gleissberg cycle and are identical (at the level of uncertainty of the data). Taken together, the trend and Gleissberg components allow one to reconstruct 87% of the variance of the data for lod and 48% for temperature. The next four iSSA components, with periods ~40, 22, 15 and 9 years. The Lagrange and Laplace theories imply that the derivative of pole motion should be identical to lod variations: this strong check is passed by the trend + Gleissberg reconstructions. The annual oscillations of pole motion and lod are linked to annual variations in Sun-Earth distance, in agreement with an astronomical, but not a climatic origin. The results obtained in this paper for the observed temperature/rotation couple add to the growing list of evidence of solar and planetary forcings of gravitational nature on a number of geophysical processes (including sea-level, sea-level pressure, sea-ice extent, oceanic climate indices).

physics.geo-ph↗

arXiv2023

On the external forcing of global eruptive activity in the past 300 years

The decryption of the temporal sequence of volcanic eruptions is a key step in better anticipating future events. Volcanic activity is the result of a complex interaction between internal and external processes, with time scales spanning multiple orders of magnitude. We review periodicities that have been detected or correlated with volcanic eruptions/phenomena and interpreted as resulting from external forces. Taking a global perspective and longer time scales than a few years, we approach this interaction by analyzing three time series using singular spectral analysis: the global number of volcanic eruptions (NVE) between 1700 and 2022, the number of sunspots (ISSN), a proxy for solar activity, the polar motion (PM) and length of day (lod), two proxies for gravitational force. Several pseudo-periodicities are common to NVE and ISSN, in addition to the 11-year Schwabe cycle that has been reported in previous work, but NVE shares even more periodicities with PM. These quasi-periodic components range from ~5 to ~130 years. We interpret our analytical results in light of the Laplace's paradigm and propose that, similarly to the movement of Earth's rotation axis, global eruptive activity is modulated by commensurable orbital moments of the Jovian planets, whose influence is also detected in solar activity.

physics.geo-ph↗

arXiv2023

Is the Earth's magnetic field a constant ? a legacy of Poisson

In the report he submitted to the Acad\'emie des Sciences, Poisson imagined a set of concentric spheres at the origin of the Earth's magnetic field. It may come as a surprise to many that Poisson as well as Gauss both considered the magnetic field to be constant. We propose in this study to test this surprising assertion for the first time evoked by Poisson (1826). First, we will present a development of Maxwell's equations in the framework of a static electric field and a static magnetic field in order to draw the necessary consequences for the Poisson hypothesis. In a second step, we will see if the observations can be in agreement with Poisson (1826). To do so, we have chosen to compare 1) the polar motion drift and the secular variation of the Earth's magnetic field, 2) the seasonal pseudo-cycles of day length together with those of the sea level recorded by different tide gauges around the globe and those of the Earth's magnetic field recorded in different magnetic observatories. We then propose a mechanism, in the spirit of Poisson, to explain the presence of the 11-year in the magnetic field. We test this mechanism with observations and finally we study closely the evolution of the g10 coefficient of the IGFR over time.

physics.geo-ph↗

arXiv2022

On distributions law of planetary rotations and revolutions as a function of aphelia, following Lagrange's formulation

Earth rotation is determined by polar motion (PM) and length of day (lod). The excitation sources of PM are torques linked to fluid circulations ("geophysical excitations"), and those of lod to luni-solar tides ("astronomical excitations"). We explore the links between the rotations and revolutions of planets, following Lagrange's (1853) presentation of mechanics. The energy of a planet in motion in a central field is the sum of kinetic, centrifugal (planet dependent) and centripetal (identical for all planets) energies. For each planet, one can calculate a "constant of gravitation" Gp . For the giant planets, Gp decreases as a function of aphelia. There is no such organized behavior for the terrestrial planets. The perturbing potential of other planets generates a small angular contribution to the displacement : this happens to be identical to Einstein's famous formula for precession. Delays in the planet's perihelia follow a (-5/2) power law of a. This is readily understood in the Lagrange formalism (the centrifugal term takes over for small distances). The telluric planets have lost energy, probably transferred to the planets rotations. The ratio of areal velocities to rotation obeys a -5/2 power law of a. The ratio of areal velocity to integrated period R also fits a -5/2 power dependence, implying linearity of the energy exchange between revolution and rotation. For Einstein deformation of space-time by the Sun is the origin of the field perturbation. For Lagrange the perturbation could only be due to the interactions of torques. The perihelion delays, the areal velocities and the planetary rotations display power laws of aphelia, whose behavior contrasts with that of the kinetic moment. The areal velocity being linearly linked to the kinetic moment of planets, this must be the level at which the transfer is achieved.

physics.geo-ph↗

arXiv2022

On the Slow Drift of Solstices: Milankovic Cycles and Mean Global Temperature

The Earth's revolution is modified by changes in inclination of its rotation axis. Despite the fact that the gravity field is central, the Earth's trajectory is not closed and the equinoxes drift. Milankovic (1920) argued that the shortest precession period of solstices is 20,7kyr: the Summer solstice in one hemisphere takes place alternately every 11kyr at perihelion and at aphelion. We have submitted the time series for the Earth's pole of rotation, global mean surface temperature and ephemeris to iterative Singular Spectrum Analysis. iSSA extracts from each a trend, a 1yr and a 60yr component. Both the apparent drift of solstices of Earth around the Sun and the global mean temperature exhibit a strong 60yr oscillation. The "fixed dates" of solstices actually drift. Comparing the time evolution of the Winter and Summer solstices positions of the rotation pole and the first iSSA component (trend) of the temperature allows one to recognize some common features. A basic equation from Milankovic links the derivative of heat received at a given location on Earth to solar insolation, known functions of the location coordinates, solar declination and hour angle, with an inverse square dependence on the Sun-Earth distance. We have translated the drift of solstices as a function of distance to the Sun into the geometrical insolation theory of Milankovic. Shifting the inverse square of the 60yr iSSA drift of solstices by 15 years with respect to the first derivative of the 60yr iSSA trend of temperature, that is exactly a quadrature in time, puts the two curves in quasi-exact superimposition. The probability of a chance coincidence appears very low. Correlation does not imply causality when there is no accompanying model. Here Milankovic's equation can be considered as a model that is widely accepted. This paper identifies a case of agreement between observations and a mathematical formulation.

astro-ph.EP↗

arXiv2022

On the Nature and Origin of Atmospheric Annual and Semi-annual Oscillations

This paper proposes a joint analysis of variations of global sea-level pressure and of Earth's rotation (RP), expressed as the coordinates of the rotation pole and length of day. Sea-Level-Pressure (SLP) extracted components are a weak trend, eleven quasi-periodic or periodic components ($\sim$130, 90, 50, 22, 15, 4, 1.8 yr), an annual cycle and its first three harmonics. These periods are characteristic of the space-time evolution of the Earth's rotation axis and are present in many characteristic features of solar and terrestrial physics. We focus mainly on the annual and to a lesser extent semi-annual components. Maps of the first three components of SLP (that together comprise more than 85% of the data variance) reveal interesting symmetries. The trend is very stable and forms a triskel structure that can be modeled as Taylor-Couette flow of mode 3. The annual component is characterized by a large negative anomaly extending over Eurasia in the NH Summer (and the opposite in the NH Winter) and three large positive anomalies over Australia and the southern tips of South America and South Africa in the SH Spring (and the opposite in the SH Autumn) forming a triskel. The semi-annual component is characterized by three positive anomalies (an irregular triskel) in the NH Spring and Autumn (and the opposite in the NH Summer and Winter), and in the SH Spring and Autumn by a strong stable pattern consisting of three large negative anomalies forming a clear triskel within the 40$^{\circ}$-60$^{\circ}$ annulus formed by the southern oceans. A large positive anomaly centered over Antarctica, with its maximum displaced toward Australia, and a smaller one centered over Southern Africa complement the pattern.

physics.geo-ph↗

arXiv2022

On the annual and semi-annual components of variations in extent of Arctic and Antarctic sea-ice

The time series of northern hemisphere (NHSI) and southern hemisphere (SHSI) sea-ice extent are submitted to singular spectral analysis (SSA). The components are analyzed with Laplace's formulation of the Liouville-Euler system. As already shown in a previous work, the trends observed in the time series are quasi linear, decreasing for NHSI and increasing for SHSI. The amplitude of annual variations in the Antarctic is double that in the Arctic, they are in phase opposition, modulated. The semi-annual components are in quadrature. The first 3 components of both NHSI and SHSI at 1, 1/2 and 1/3 yr account for more than 95% of the signal variance. We complement previous analyses of variations in pole position (PM = m1, m2) and length of day (lod). Whereas SSA of lod is dominated by the same first 3 components as sea-ice, SSA of PM contains only the 1 yr and the Chandler components. The 1 yr component of NHSI is in phase with that of lod and in phase opposition with m1. The reverse holds for the 1 yr component of SHSI. We note that the semi-annual component appears in lod not in m1. The annual and semi-annual components of NHSI and SHSI are much larger than the trends observed since 1978, that leads us to test whether a first order geophysical or astronomical forcing should not be preferred to the mechanisms generally suggested as a forcing factor of the trends. The lack of modulation of the largest forced component suggests an alternate mechanism. In Laplace's paradigm, the torques exerted by the Moon, Sun and planets play the leading role as the source of forcing of many geophysical phenomena. These forces lead to changes in the inclination of the Earth's rotation axis, setting Earth masses in motion and resulting in thermal dissipation. It is variations in inclination of the rotation axis that lead to the large annual components of melting and re-freezing of sea-ice.

physics.geo-ph↗

arXiv2018

Abrupt changes of hydrothermal activity in a lava dome detected by combined seismic and muon monitoring

The recent 2014 eruption of the Ontake volcano in Japan recalled that hydrothermal fields of moderately active volcanoes have an unpredictable and hazardous behavior that may endanger human beings. Steam blasts can expel devastating ejecta and create craters of several tens of meters. The management of such hydrothermal hazards in populated areas is problematic because of their very short time constants. At present no precursory signal is clearly identified as a potential warning of imminent danger. Here we show how the combination of seismic noise monitoring and muon density tomography allows to detect, with an unprecedented space and time resolution, the increase of activity of a hydrothermal focus located 50 to 100 m below the summit of an active volcano, the La Soufrière of Guadeloupe, in the Lesser Antilles. The present study deals with hydrothermal activity events at timescales of few hours to few days. We show how the combination of those two methods improves the risk evaluation of short-term hazards and the localization of the involved volumes in the volcano. We anticipate that the deployment of networks of various sensors including temperature probes, seismic antennas and cosmic muon telescopes around such volcanoes could valuably contribute to early warning decisions.

physics.geo-ph↗

arXiv2017

Forward scattering effects on muon imaging

Muon imaging is one of the most promising non-invasive techniques for density structure scanning, specially for large objects reaching the kilometre scale. It has already interesting applications in different fields like geophysics or nuclear safety and has been proposed for some others like engineering or archaeology. One of the approaches of this technique is based on the well-known radiography principle, by reconstructing the incident direction of the detected muons after crossing the studied objects. In this case, muons detected after a previous forward scattering on the object surface represent an irreducible background noise, leading to a bias on the measurement and consequently on the reconstruction of the object mean density. Therefore, a prior characterization of this effect represents valuable information to conveniently correct the obtained results. Although the muon scattering process has been already theoretically described, a general study of this process has been carried out based on Monte Carlo simulations, resulting in a versatile tool to evaluate this effect for different object geometries and compositions. As an example, these simulations have been used to evaluate the impact of forward scattered muons on two different applications of muon imaging: archaeology and volcanology, revealing a significant impact on the latter case. The general way in which all the tools used have been developed can allow to make equivalent studies in the future for other muon imaging applications following the same procedure.

physics.ins-det↗

arXiv2013

Implementation of sub-nanoseconds TDC in FPGA: applications to time-of-flight analysis in muon radiography

Time-of-flight (tof) techniques are standard techniques in high energy physics to determine particles propagation directions. Since particles velocities are generally close to c, the speed of light, and detectors typical dimensions at the meter level, the state-of-the-art tof techniques should reach sub-nanosecond timing resolution. Among the various techniques already available, the recently developed ring oscillator TDC ones, implemented in low cost FPGA, feature a very interesting figure of merit since a very good timing performance may be achieved with limited processing ressources. This issue is relevant for applications where unmanned sensors should have the lowest possible power consumption. Actually this article describes in details the application of this kind of tof technique to muon tomography of geological bodies. Muon tomography aims at measuring density variations and absolute densities through the detection of atmospheric muons flux's attenuation, due to the presence of matter. When the measured fluxes become very low, an identified source of noise comes from backwards propagating particles hitting the detector in a direction pointing to the geological body. The separation between through-going and backward-going particles, on the basis of the tof information is therefore a key parameter for the tomography analysis and subsequent previsions.

physics.ins-det↗

arXiv2013

Effects of upward-going cosmic muons on density radiography of volcanoes

Muon tomography aims at deriving the density structure of geological bodies from their screening attenuation produced on the natural cosmic muons flux. Because of their open-sky exposure, muons telescopes are subject to noise fluxes with large intensities relative to the tiny flux of interest. A recognized source of noise flux comes from fake tracks caused by particles that fortuitously trigger the telescope detectors at the same time. Such a flux may be reduced by using multiple-detector telescopes so that fortuitous events become very unlikely. In the present study, we report on a different type of noise flux caused by upward-going muons crossing the detectors from the rear side. We describe field experiments on La Soufriére of Guadeloupe and Mount Etna, and give details on the high-resolution clocking system and the statistical procedure necessary to detect upward-going muons. We analyse several data sets acquired either in calibration or in volcano tomography situation. All data sets are shown clearly biased by upward-going noise flux whose intensity may amount to 50% of the measured total flux in given directions. Biases produced on density radiographies by this kind of flux are quantified and correction procedures are detailed. Examples for La Soufriére and Mount Etna are given.

physics.ins-det↗

arXiv2012

Muons tomography applied to geosciences and volcanology

Imaging the inner part of large geological targets is an important issue in geosciences with various applications. Dif- ferent approaches already exist (e.g. gravimetry, electrical tomography) that give access to a wide range of informations but with identified limitations or drawbacks (e.g. intrinsic ambiguity of the inverse problem, time consuming deployment of sensors over large distances). Here we present an alternative and complementary tomography method based on the measurement of the cosmic muons flux attenuation through the geological structures. We detail the basics of this muon tomography with a special emphasis on the photo-active detectors.

physics.ins-det↗