A Tailored Computation of the Mean Dynamic Topography for a Consistent Integration into Ocean Circulation Models     

S. Becker  M. Losch  J. M. Brockmann  G. Freiwald  W.-D. Schuh 《Surveys in Geophysics》2014,35(6):1507-1525

Geostrophic surface velocities can be derived from the gradients of the mean dynamic topography—the difference between the mean sea surface and the geoid. Therefore, independently observed mean dynamic topography data are valuable input parameters and constraints for ocean circulation models. For a successful fit to observational dynamic topography data, not only the mean dynamic topography on the particular ocean model grid is required, but also information about its inverse covariance matrix. The calculation of the mean dynamic topography from satellite-based gravity field models and altimetric sea surface height measurements, however, is not straightforward. For this purpose, we previously developed an integrated approach to combining these two different observation groups in a consistent way without using the common filter approaches (Becker et al. in J Geodyn 59(60):99–110, 2012; Becker in Konsistente Kombination von Schwerefeld, Altimetrie und hydrographischen Daten zur Modellierung der dynamischen Ozeantopographie 2012). Within this combination method, the full spectral range of the observations is considered. Further, it allows the direct determination of the normal equations (i.e., the inverse of the error covariance matrix) of the mean dynamic topography on arbitrary grids, which is one of the requirements for ocean data assimilation. In this paper, we report progress through selection and improved processing of altimetric data sets. We focus on the preprocessing steps of along-track altimetry data from Jason-1 and Envisat to obtain a mean sea surface profile. During this procedure, a rigorous variance propagation is accomplished, so that, for the first time, the full covariance matrix of the mean sea surface is available. The combination of the mean profile and a combined GRACE/GOCE gravity field model yields a mean dynamic topography model for the North Atlantic Ocean that is characterized by a defined set of assumptions. We show that including the geodetically derived mean dynamic topography with the full error structure in a 3D stationary inverse ocean model improves modeled oceanographic features over previous estimates.  相似文献   

Evaluating the sensitivity of wetlands to climate change with remote sensing techniques   总被引：1，自引：0，他引：1       下载免费PDF全文

Zutao Ouyang  Richard Becker  Wade Shaver  Jiquan Chen 《水文研究》2014,28(4):1703-1712

Wetlands are valuable ecosystems that provide many valuable services, yet many of these important ecosystems are at risk because of current trends in climate change. The Prairie Pothole Region (PPR) in the upper‐midwest of the United States and south‐central Canada, characterized by glacially sculpted landscapes and abundant wetlands, is one such vulnerable region. According to regional/global climate model predictions, drought occurrence will increase in the PPR region through the 21st century and thus will probably cause the amount of water in wetlands to decline. Water surface area (WSA) of Kidder County, ND, from 1984–2011 was measured by classifying TM/ETM+(Landsat Thematic Mapper / Enhanced Thematic Mapper Plus) images through the modified normalized difference water index. We then developed a linear model based on the WSA of these wetlands and historical climate data and used this to determine the wetland sensitivity to climate change and predict future wetlands WSA in the PPR. Our model based on Palmer drought severity index (PDSI) of the current year (PDSI_{t ? 0}) and of the previous two years (PDSI_{t ? 2}) can explain 79% of the annual wetland WSA variance, suggesting a high sensitivity of wetlands to drought/climate change. We also predicted the PPR wetlands WSA in the 21st century under A1B scenario (a mid‐carbon emission scenario) using simulated PDSI based on Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change AR4 22‐model ensemble climate. According to our prediction, the WSA of the PPR wetlands will decrease to less than half of the baseline WSA (defined as the mean wetlands WSA of the 2000s) by the mid of the 21st century, and to less than one‐third by the 2080s, and will then slightly increase in the 2090s. This considerable future wetland loss caused only by climate change provides important implication to future wetland management and climate adaptation policy. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.  相似文献   

Transfer functions simulating the coprecipitation of trace elements in unsaturated soils     

Veith Becker  Tanja Lager  Horst D. Schulz 《Environmental Geology》2009,58(7):1601-1609

Transfer functions describing the coprecipitation of various trace elements (TE; As, Cd, Co, Cu, Cr, Mo, Ni, Pb, Zn), precipitating with iron(oxihydr)oxides from an aqueous solution, were developed and implemented in the computer model ‘Seeper’. ‘Seeper’ was developed to predict the progression of the concentrations of inorganic pollutants in unsaturated soils underneath contaminated areas and to evaluate the prospective contamination of the groundwater. Transfer functions provide a straight and simple relation between the coprecipitation of TE and easy to obtain standard soil parameters, without excessive repercussions on the usability and computation time of the model. Laboratory experiments were conducted to quantify coprecipitation in solutions with pH values ranging from 5 to 12 and containing various iron and TE concentrations. For the examined TE, the transfer functions describe the coprecipitated fraction as a function of the pH value and the concentration ratio between precipitated iron and a TE. The transfer functions yielded a good prediction of cadmium, cobalt, copper, molybdenum, nickel, and zinc (R ² from 0.73 to 0.83). As for arsenic, chromium, and lead the correlation was not as good albeit a significant influence of precipitating iron on the mobility of these elements was observed and represented in the corresponding transfer functions.  相似文献   

Erosive flood events on the surface of Mars: Application to Mangala and Athabasca Valles     

Alistair Simon Bargery  Lionel Wilson 《Icarus》2011,212(2):520-540

We address key factors involved in determining water flow conditions in outflow channels on Mars, including the temperature of the sub-surface water being released and the environmental conditions of low temperature, low atmospheric pressure, and low acceleration due to gravity. We suggest how some of the assumptions made in previous work may be improved. Our model considers the thermodynamic effects of simultaneous evaporation and freezing of water, and fluid dynamical processes including changes in flow rheology caused by assimilation of cold rock and ice eroded at the channel bed, and ice crystal growth due to water freezing. We model how far initially turbulent water could flow in a channel before it erodes and entrains enough material to become laminar, and subsequently ceases to erode the bed. An ice raft will begin to form on the flood while transition occurs between turbulent and laminar flow. Estimates are given for water transit times, ～17–19 h, initial water depths, 50–62 m, and average flow speeds, 5–12 m s^?1, in the Mangala and Athabasca Valles. We show that these two outflow channels, and by implication others like them, could plausibly have been formed in single water release events. Resulting mean erosion rates are approximately 0.7 mm s^?1, a factor of three greater than previous estimates based on combinations of estimates of flood duration and required water volumes. This is explained by the consideration of the effects of eroded ice and the physics of thermal erosion in the present study.  相似文献   

Diagnosis of river basins as CO2 sources or sinks subject to sediment movement     

Yao Yue  Jinren Ni  Alistair G. L. Borthwick  Chiyuan Miao 《地球表面变化过程与地形》2012,37(13):1398-1406

Sediment movement during erosion, transport and deposition greatly affects the ecosystem of river basins. However, there is presently no consensus as to whether particular river basins act as carbon dioxide (CO₂) sources or sinks related to these processes. This paper introduces a rule‐of‐thumb coordinate system based on sediment delivery ratio (SDR) and soil humin content (SHC) in order to evaluate the net effect of soil erosion, sediment transport and deposition on CO₂ flux in river basins. The SDR–SHC system delineates CO₂ source and sink areas, and further divides the sink into strong and weak areas according to the world‐average line. The Yellow River Basin, most severely suffering soil erosion in the world, only appears to be a weak erosion‐induced CO₂ sink in this system. The average annual CO₂ sequestration is ~0·235 Mt from 1960 to 2008, a relatively small value considering its 3·1% contribution to the World's sediment discharge. The temporal analysis shows that the Yellow River Basin was once a source in the 1960s, but changed its role to become a weak sink in the past 40 years due to both anthropogenic and climatic influences. The spatial analysis identifies the middle sub‐basin as the main source region, and the lower as the main sink. For comparison, sediment‐movement‐related CO₂ fluxes of eight other major basins in four continents are examined. It is found that the six basins considered in the Northern Hemisphere appear to be sinks, while the other two in the Southern Hemisphere act as sources. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.  相似文献   

Interpolation using a generalized Green's function for a spherical surface spline in tension   总被引：1，自引：0，他引：1  

P. Wessel  J. M. Becker 《Geophysical Journal International》2008,174(1):21-28

A variety of methods exist for interpolating Cartesian or spherical surface data onto an equidistant lattice in a procedure known as gridding. Methods based on Green's functions are particularly simple to implement. In such methods, the Green's function for the gridding operator is determined and the resulting gridding solution is composed of the superposition of contributions from each data constraint, weighted by the Green's function evaluated for all output–input point separations. The Green's function method allows for considerable flexibility, such as complete freedom in specifying where the solution will be evaluated (it does not have to be on a lattice) and the ability to include both surface heights and surface gradients as data constraints. Green's function solutions for Cartesian data in 1-, 2- and 3-D spaces are well known, as is the dilogarithm solution for minimum curvature spline on a spherical surface. Here, the spherical surface case is extended to include tension and the new generalized Green's function is derived. It is shown that the new function reduces to the dilogarithm solution in the limit of zero tension. Properties of the new function are examined and the new gridding method is implemented in Matlab® and demonstrated on three geophysical data sets.  相似文献   

Uncertainty estimation for operational ocean forecast products—a multi-model ensemble for the North Sea and the Baltic Sea     

Inga Golbeck  Xin Li  Frank Janssen  Thorger Brüning  Jacob W. Nielsen  Vibeke Huess  Johan Söderkvist  Bjarne Büchmann  Simo-Matti Siiriä  Olga Vähä-Piikkiö  Bruce Hackett  Nils M. Kristensen  Harald Engedahl  Ed Blockley  Alistair Sellar  Priidik Lagemaa  Jose Ozer  Sebastien Legrand  Patrik Ljungemyr  Lars Axell 《Ocean Dynamics》2015,65(12):1603-1631

  相似文献   

Environmental Radioxenon Levels in Europe: a Comprehensive Overview     

Paul R. J. Saey  Clemens Schlosser  Pascal Achim  Matthias Auer  Anders Axelsson  Andreas Becker  Xavier Blanchard  Guy Brachet  Luis Cella  Lars-Erik De Geer  Martin B. Kalinowski  Gilbert Le Petit  Jenny Peterson  Vladimir Popov  Yury Popov  Anders Ringbom  Hartmut Sartorius  Thomas Taffary  Matthias Zähringer 《Pure and Applied Geophysics》2010,167(4-5):499-515

Activity concentration data from ambient radioxenon measurements in ground level air, which were carried out in Europe in the framework of the International Noble Gas Experiment (INGE) in support of the development and build-up of a radioxenon monitoring network for the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty verification regime are presented and discussed. Six measurement stations provided data from 5 years of measurements performed between 2003 and 2008: Longyearbyen (Spitsbergen, Norway), Stockholm (Sweden), Dubna (Russian Federation), Schauinsland Mountain (Germany), Bruyères-le-Châtel and Marseille (both France). The noble gas systems used within the INGE are designed to continuously measure low concentrations of the four radioxenon isotopes which are most relevant for detection of nuclear explosions: ^131mXe, ^133mXe, ¹³³Xe and ¹³⁵Xe with a time resolution less than or equal to 24 h and a minimum detectable concentration of ¹³³Xe less than 1 mBq/m³. This European cluster of six stations is particularly interesting because it is highly influenced by a high density of nuclear power reactors and some radiopharmaceutical production facilities. The activity concentrations at the European INGE stations are studied to characterise the influence of civilian releases, to be able to distinguish them from possible nuclear explosions. It was found that the mean activity concentration of the most frequently detected isotope, ¹³³Xe, was 5–20 mBq/m³ within Central Europe where most nuclear installations are situated (Bruyères-le-Châtel and Schauinsland), 1.4–2.4 mBq/m³ just outside that region (Stockholm, Dubna and Marseille) and 0.2 mBq/m³ in the remote polar station of Spitsbergen. No seasonal trends could be observed from the data. Two interesting events have been examined and their source regions have been identified using atmospheric backtracking methods that deploy Lagrangian particle dispersion modelling and inversion techniques. The results are consistent with known releases of a radiopharmaceutical facility.  相似文献   

Full‐scale shaking table test of a base‐isolated medical facility subjected to vertical motions     

Sachi Furukawa  Eiji Sato  Yundong Shi  Tracy Becker  Masayoshi Nakashima 《地震工程与结构动力学》2013,42(13):1931-1949

Base isolation is a well known technology that has been proven to reduce structural response to horizontal ground accelerations. However, vertical response still remains a topic of concern for base‐isolated buildings, perhaps more so than in fixed‐base buildings as isolation is often used when high performance is required. To investigate the effects of vertical response on building contents and nonstructural components, a series of full‐scale shaking table tests were conducted at the E‐Defense facility in Japan. A four‐story base‐isolated reinforced concrete building was outfitted as a medical facility with a wide variety of contents, and the behavior of the contents was observed. The rubber base isolation system was found to significantly amplify vertical accelerations in some cases. However, the damage caused by the vertical ground motions was not detrimental when peak vertical floor accelerations remained below 2 g with three exceptions: (1) small items placed on shelves slid or toppled; (2) objects jumped when placed on nonrigid furniture, which tended to increase the response; and (3) equipment with vertical eccentricities rocked and jumped. In these tests, all equipment and nonstructural components remained functional after shaking. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.  相似文献   

A geocomputational analysis of Twitter activity around different world cities     

Muhammad Adnan  Alistair Leak  Paul Longley 《地球空间信息科学学报》2013,16(3):145-152

The penetration and use of social media services differs from city to city. This paper is aimed to provide a comparison of the use of Twitter between different cities of the world. We present a temporal analysis of activity on Twitter in 15 cities. Our study consists of two parts: First, we created temporal graphs of the activity in the 15 cities, through which hours of high and low activity could be identified. Second, we created heat map visualizations of the Twitter activities during the period of 19 September 2012–25 September 2013. The heat map visualizations make the periods of intense and sparse activity apparent and provide a snapshot of the activity during the whole year.  相似文献