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Aiswarya Padmadas

Ben-Gurion University, Israel

Project: Unlocking Fluvial Dynamics: Distinguishing Turbulence from Bedload Movement Across Varied Fluvial Environments using Seismic Techniques.

My research objectives: My research primarily focuses on analyzing seismic signals generated during bedload producing events. These signals consist of a complex combination of generating processes: bedload flux, turbulence, and background noise. The objective is to distinguish and differentiate between seismic signals attributed to bedload flux and those to turbulence dynamics. To achieve this for various fluvial and environmental variables, I'm studying rivers in different climato-regional settings (arid gravelly-sandy USA; arid sandy-gravel Israel; lowland alpine Austria; highland alpine Austria; volcanically active humid small and large rivers - Japan; and tectonically active gorge - Taiwan)

Last News (Newsletter #2 - February 2024): 

Over the past two months, I’ve been deeply engaged in understanding our work’s fundamentals and context, often seeking guidance from John, my principal investigator. I’ve also been analyzing data from two events in Arroyo de los Pinos (ADLP), New Mexico, on August 10th, 2023, and July 5th, 2021. Unfortunately, the ECM (Electromagnetic Current Meter) was damaged during both incidents, limiting data availability to just 5 to 8 minutes per event. Despite setbacks, I find the ECM data more intriguing than seismic data. As an engineer, I’ve explored ECM’s principles and discovered that its velocity component doesn’t precisely reflect actual velocity, but rather the rotational component. This has piqued my curiosity about its correlation with Turbulent Kinetic Energy (TKE). Although establishing correlations with other parameters has been challenging, I remain dedicated. Awaiting instrument deployment consumes a significant portion of my time, along with anticipation for an upcoming collaborative experiment at the end of next month with the University of Texas, Austin, and New Mexico Tech.