Study of Solid-Fluid Interaction in Body-Fixed Non-Inertial Frame of Reference

Abstract

The South Urals of Russia have been a centre for mining and metals production for well over 3000 years which has left a catastrophic environmental legacy. One of the most polluted areas is within and around the town of Karabash, which contains a number of abandoned mines and waste dumps and is centred on a Cu smelter which emits high levels of SO2 and metal-rich particulate. A 14 year time series of 10-daily Normalized Difference Vegetation Index images from SPOTVegetation has been analyzed. The 10-daily time series was smoothed and monthly maximum value composites were created. To remove seasonal vegetation changes and thus facilitate the interpretation through the historical record, a Standardized Difference Vegetation Index (SDVI) was calculated for each pixel and for each record of the time series. Linear least squares trend analyses of SDVI depict a general tendency of increasing photosynthetic activity in the area 10-50 km distance from the smelter, which is confirmed by other authors and can be related to climate change. However, with closer proximity to Karabash (< 10 km), the trend gradually decreases, reaching a steady-state situation on the outskirts of Karabash town. This relative impediment is strongly related to the distance to the smelter and to Pb concentrations observed in lichens. Rededge positions, derived from 32 in-situ ASD vegetation spectra, correlate with the slope of the SDVI trend over time, confirming vegetation stress hampers the increase in photosynthetic activity which is observed at larger distances from Karabash.