6.  Molinari, I., I. Dasović, J. Stipčević, V. Šipka, E. Kissling, J. Clinton, S. Salimbeni, S. Prevolnik, D. Giardini, S. Wiemer, the AlpArray-CASE Field Team and the AlpArray-CASE Working Group: Investigation of the Central Adriatic lithosphere structure with the AlpArray-CASE seismic experiment.

The tectonics of the Adriatic microplate is not well constrained and remains controversial, especially at its contact with the Dinarides, where it acts as the lower plate. While the northern part of the Adriatic microplate will be accurately imaged within the AlpArray project, its central and southern parts deserve detailed studies to obtain a complete picture of its structure and evolution. We set-up the Central Adriatic Seismic Experiment (CASE) as a AlpArray Complementary Experiment with a temporary seismic network to provide high-quality seismological data as a foundation for research with state-of-the-art methods and high-precision seismic images of the controversial area. The international AlpArray-CASE project involves four institutions: the Department of Earth Sciences and the Swiss Seismological Service of ETH Zürich (CH), the Department of Geophysics of the Faculty of Science at the University of Zagreb (HR), the Republic Hydrometeorological Service of the Republic of Srpska (BIH) and Istituto Nazionale di Geofisica e Vulcanologia (I). The established temporary seismic network will be operational for at least 18 months. It combines existing permanent and temporary seismic stations operated by the involved institutions together with newly deployed temporary seismic stations, installed in November and December 2016, managed by ETH Zürich and INGV: five in Croatia, four in Bosnia and Herzegovina and one in Italy. We present our scientific aims and network geometry as well as newly deployed stations sites and settings. In particular, the new stations show favourable noise level (power spectral density estimates). The new network improves considerably the theoretical ray coverage for ambient noise tomography and the magnitude threshold shown in the Bayesian magnitude of completeness threshold map.

Keywords: AlpArray, Adriatic microplate, Dinarides, lithosphere, seismic networks, noise level

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7.  Lakshmi, E. S. and K. Yarrakula: Review and critical analysis on digital elevation models.

Nowadays, digital elevation model (DEM) acts as an inevitable component in the field of remote sensing and GIS. DEM reflects the physical surface of the earth helps to understand the nature of terrain by means of interpreting the landscape using modern techniques and high-resolution satellite images. To understand and analyze the nature of the terrain, DEM is required in many fields in the improvement of developing the product and decision making, mapping purpose, preparing 3D simulations, estimating river channel and creating contour maps to extract the elevation and so on. DEM in various applications will be useful to replicate the overall importance of the availability of worldwide, consistent, high-quality digital elevation models. The present article represents the overall review of DEMs, its generation, development using various techniques derived from topographic maps and high- resolution satellite images over a decade to present. It is useful to understand the nature of topography, address the practical problems and fix them by applying innovative ideas, upcoming high-resolution satellite images and techniques.

Keywords: DEM, high resolution, satellite images, topography, accuracy, terminology, techniques and development

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8.  Orlić, M.: Exchange of dense water between the open North Adriatic and the Croatian coastal sea: Explicitly solving a nonlinear problem.

It has been known for a while that there are two sites of wintertime dense water formation in the North Adriatic - one in the open sea and the other in the Croatian coastal sea. Recently, it has been established that dense water is transported between the two basins, with both directions of the transport being possible. Here, a simple two-box model is developed in order to interpret the finding. The model allows for surface heat loss from the two basins and for an advective exchange of heat between the basins. Explicit solution is obtained, not only for the original, nonlinear problem but also for a simplified, linearized problem, when the initial temperature difference between the two basins vanishes. Moreover, the effect of the initial temperature difference is explored with the linearized model. The solutions point to a continuous temperature decrease in the two basins, with the temperature differences tending to limiting values. The temporal variability is controlled by the initial temperature differences, surface heat fluxes and basin dimensions and it suggests that the sum of surface heat loss and advective heat gain in one basin tends to become equal to the sum of surface and advective heat losses in the other basin. The solutions also indicate that the sign of the temperature difference between the two basins could be positive or negative, implying that the cold, dense water could be transported either way. Finally, an index, incorporating the initial temperatures, the surface heat fluxes and the basin depths, is proposed with the aim of quantifying relative importance of the two North Adriatic sites of dense water formation for each particular winter.

Keywords: dense water formation, advection, two-box model, North Adriatic

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9.  Bhattacharya, S. K., S. D. Kotal, S. Nath, S. K. Roy Bhowmik and P. K. Kundu: Tropical cyclone intensity prediction over the North Indian Ocean - An NWP based objective approach.

A Numerical Weather Prediction (NWP) based objective intensity prediction approach has been explored for prediction of tropical cyclone intensity over the North Indian Ocean (NIO) using ECMWF model outputs. The intensity of a tropical cyclone is classified by the maximum sustained wind (10-min mean) according to World Meteorological Organization (WMO). An empirical relationship between the difference of the model's maximum mean sea level pressure (MSLP) inside a 6° × 6° grid box around the centre of the system and the lowest mean sea level pressure at the centre of the system (ΔP) with the observed intensity is developed using over 100 analyses during 2010-2012. The same is used to predict intensity of very severe cyclonic storm Hudhud and a Deep Depression observed over the Bay of Bengal during 2014. The results show that the empirical equation is skillful in prediction of intensity as compared to predictions computed using the relationship V_max = K√ΔP with different constant values of K. The error analyses show that the relative error in intensity prediction using the empirical equation derived in the present study is 34% less than the same using K = 14.2 kt/√hPa in V_max = K√ΔP with an improvement which is significant at the level of 0.95.

Keywords: Numerical Weather Prediction (NWP), North Indian Ocean (NIO), intensity, mean sea level pressure, pressure defect, average absolute error, standard deviation

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10.  Bencetić Klaić, Z., J. Rubinić and S. Kapelj: Review of research on Plitvice Lakes, Croatia in the fields of meteorology, climatology, hydrology, hydrogeochemistry and physical limnology.

In lakes, several physical, chemical, and biological processes occur simultaneously, and these processes are interconnected. Therefore, the investigation of lakes requires a multidisciplinary approach that includes physics (including the physics of the atmosphere, i.e., meteorology), chemistry, geology, hydrogeology, hydrology and biology. Each of these disciplines addresses a lake from a different point of view. However, lake studies that primarily belong to one field, at least to some extent, report their findings in ways that are associated with other fields; this type of reporting is caused by the inherent interconnections between phenomena from different disciplines. Plitvice Lakes, Croatia, are composed of a unique cascading chain of karst lakes, and these lakes have been investigated by numerous authors. Here, we provide an overview of the studies of the Plitvice Lakes Area (PLA) that address meteorology, climatology, hydrology, hydrogeochemistry and physical limnology. Our aim is to synthesize the results from each of these disciplines and make them available to scientists from other related disciplines; thus, this review will facilitate further investigations of the PLA within the natural sciences. In addition, valuable results from early investigations of Plitvice Lakes are generally unavailable to the broader scientific community, and are written in Croatian. Here, we summarize these results and make them available to a wider audience.

Keywords: catchment, geosciences, hydrodynamics, karst, tufa barriers

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