Unsupervised regionalization of the United States into landscape pattern types

We present a pattern-based regionalization of the conterminous US – a partitioning of the country into a number of mutually exclusive and exhaustive regions that maximizes the intra-region stationarity of land cover patterns and inter-region disparity between those patterns. The result is a discretization of the land surface into a number of landscape pattern types (LPTs) – spatial units each containing a unique quasi-stationary pattern of land cover classes. To achieve this goal, we use a recently developed method which utilizes machine vision techniques. First, the entire National Land Cover Dataset (NLCD) is partitioned into a grid of square-size blocks of cells, called motifels. The size of a motifel defines the spatial scale of a local landscape. The land cover classes of cells within a motifel form a local landscape pattern which is mathematically represented by a histogram of co-occurrence features. Using the Jensen–Shannon divergence as a dissimilarity function between patterns we group the motifels into several LPTs. The grouping procedure consists of two phases. First, the grid of motifels is partitioned spatially using a region-growing segmentation algorithm. Then, the resulting segments of this grid, each represented by its medoid, are clustered using a hierarchical algorithm with Ward’s linkage. The broad-extent maps of progressively more generalized LPTs resulting from this procedure are shown and discussed. Our delineated LPTs agree well with the perceptual patterns seen in the NLCD map.     

中国城市流动人口户籍迁移意愿的空间格局及影响因素——基于2012年全国流动人口动态监测调查数据

基于2012年全国流动人口动态监测调查数据和相关统计年鉴数据,对中国地级以上城市流动人口的户籍迁移意愿、空间格局及影响因素进行了系统分析。研究发现,中国城市流动人口户籍迁移意愿的整体水平并不高;等级高、规模大的城市流动人口的户籍迁移意愿高,而等级低、规模小的城市流动人口的户籍迁移意愿低;沿海城市群流动人口的户籍迁移意愿高,其他城市流动人口的户籍迁移意愿低,但内陆部分省会城市和交通区位与资源禀赋较好的中小城市也已经形成了一批流动人口的户籍迁移意愿高值区。中国城市流动人口户籍迁移意愿的空间分布特征受到流入城市和流动人口自身双重力量的影响,流入城市因素的正向影响作用大于流动人口自身因素。其中,流入城市的社会、经济发展水平和流动人口在流入城市的社会融合程度是核心要素,对城市流动人口户籍迁移意愿的提升具有正向的促进作用,而流动人口过于集中在次级劳动力市场的就业特征和较高的家庭财富与收入对户籍迁移意愿的提升却具有显著的抑制作用。最后,提出了相关政策启示。     

High-reliability zircon separation for hunting the oldest material on Earth: An automatic zircon separator with image-processing/microtweezers-manipulating system and double-step dating

Despite the recent development in radiometric dating of numerous zircons by LA-ICPMS, mineral separation still remains a major obstacle, particularly in the search for the oldest material on Earth. To improve the efficiency in zircon separation by an order of magnitude, we have designed/developed a new machine-an automatic zircon separator(AZS). This is designed particularly for automatic pick-up of100 μm-sized zircon grains out of a heavy mineral fraction after conventional separation procedures. The AZS operates in three modes:(1) image processing to choose targeted individual zircon grains out of all heavy minerals spread on a tray,(2) automatic capturing of the individual zircon grains with microtweezers, and(3) placing them one-by-one in a coordinated alignment on a receiving tray. The automatic capturing was designed/created for continuous mineral selecting without human presence for many hours. This software also enables the registration of each separated zircon grain for dating, by recording digital photo-image, optical(color) indices, and coordinates on a receiving tray. We developed two new approaches for the dating; i.e.(1) direct dating of zircons selected by LA-ICPMS without conventional resin-mounting/polishing,(2) high speed U-Pb dating, combined with conventional sample preparation procedures using the new equipment with multiple-ion counting detectors(LA-MIC-ICPMS).With the first approach, Pb-Pb ages obtained from the surface of a mineral were crosschecked with the interior of the same grain after resin-mounting/polishing. With the second approach, the amount of time required for dating one zircon grain is ca. 20 s, and a sample throughput of 150 grains per hour can be achieved with sufficient precision(ca. 0.5%).We tested the practical efficiency of the AZS, by analyzing an Archean Jack Hills conglomerate in Western Australia with the known oldest(4.3 Ga) zircon on Earth. Preliminary results are positive; we were able to obtain more than 194 zircons that are over 4.0 Ga out of ca. 3800 checked grains, and 9 grains were over 4300 Ma with the oldest at 4371 ± 7 Ma. This separation system by AZS, combined with the new approaches, guarantees much higher yield in the hunt for old zircons.     

Seismicity and fault aseismic deformation caused by fluid injection in decametric in-situ experiments

Seismicity induced by fluid perturbations became an important societal concern since felt earthquakes (M_w up to 6) occurred after anthropogenic activities. In order to mitigate the risks associated with undesired seismicity, as well as to be able to use the micro-seismicity as a probe for in-depth investigation of fluid-driven processes, it is of crucial importance to understand the links between seismicity, fluid pressure and flow. We have developed a series of in-situ, decameter-scale experiments of fault zone reactivation by controlled fluid injection, in order to improve the near-source geophysical and hydromechanical observations. The deployed geophysical monitoring close to the injection allows one to cover the full frequency range of the fault responses from the static deformation to the very high-frequency seismic emissions (up to 4 kHz). Here, we focus on the microseismicity (M_w ∼ –4 to –3) recorded during two fluid injection experiments in low-permeable shale and highly-fractured limestone formations. In both experiments, the spatio-temporal distribution of the seismic events, the energy balance, and the seismic velocity changes of the fractured medium show that most of the deformation does not actually emit seismic signals. The induced deformation is mainly aseismic. Based on these high-resolution multiparametric observations in the near-field, we therefore proposed a new model for injection-induced seismicity: the seismicity is not directly induced by the increasing fluid pressure, but it is rather triggered by the stress perturbations transferred from the aseismic motion caused by the injection.     

积雪升华过程对高寒湿地陆气相互作用的影响

利用青海玉树隆宝地区2014年12月积雪升华过程的观测资料,分析了积雪升华过程中高寒湿地陆气相互作用特征及积雪深度对陆气相互作用的影响。结果表明：在降雪和积雪升华过程中,高寒湿地浅层土壤温度在短时期内有所升高,而深层土壤温度和土壤体积含水量对降雪过程的响应不敏感。积雪升华过程中净辐射、感热通量和潜热通量的日平均值增加,向上短波辐射的日平均值减少。积雪逐渐升华导致地表吸收的能量增加,同时地表向大气传递的能量也随之增加。随着积雪的逐步升华,感热占比和潜热占比逐渐升高,而土壤热通量占比和热储存占比逐渐降低。积雪深度增加会导致地表反照率和地表比辐射率增大,感热输送系数减小。     

基于岩石图像深度学习的岩性自动识别与分类方法

岩石岩性的识别与分类对于地质分析极为重要,采用机器学习的方法建立识别模型进行自动分类是一条新的途径。基于Inception-v3深度卷积神经网络模型,建立了岩石图像集分析的深度学习迁移模型,运用迁移学习方法实现了岩石岩性的自动识别与分类。采用此方法对所采集的173张花岗岩图像、152张千枚岩图像和246张角砾岩图像进行了学习和识别分类研究,通过训练学习建立岩石图像深度学习迁移模型,并分别采用训练集和测试集中的岩石图像对模型进行了检验分析。对于训练集中的岩石图像,每组岩石分别用3张图像测试,三种岩石的岩性分类均正确,且分类概率值均达到90%以上,显示了模型良好的鲁棒性;对于测试集中的岩石图像,每组岩石分别采用9张图像进行识别分析,三种岩石的岩性分类均正确,并且千枚岩组图像分类概率均高于90%,但是花岗岩组2张图像和角砾岩组的1张图像分类概率值不足70%,概率值较其他岩石图像低,推测其原因是训练集中相同模式的岩石图像较少,导致模型的泛化能力减小。为了提高识别精确度,对准确率较低的岩石图像进行截取,分别取其中的3张图像加入训练集进行再训练,增加与测试图像具有相同模式的训练样本;在新的模型中,对3张图像进行二次检验,测试概率值均达到85%以上,说明在数据足够的状况下模型具有良好的学习能力。与传统的机器学习方法相比,所提出的岩石图像深度学习方法具有以下优点:第一,模型通过搜索图像像素点提取物体特征,不需要手动提取待分类物体特征;第二,对于图像像素大小,成像距离及光照要求低;第三,采用适当的训练集可获得较好的识别分类效果,并具有良好鲁棒性和泛化能力。     

一次自上向下发展的高原涡的多尺度动力学分析

高原涡作为经常给我国带来暴雨等灾害的天气系统,其形成一般认为是通过感热和潜热自下而上激发的,然而,2013年5月下旬发生的一次引发其下游灾害性强降水的高原涡却是由对流层高层天气尺度低涡诱发的。为此,基于新发展的多尺度子空间变换和多尺度能量涡度方法以及ERA5再分析资料对其动力学过程进行了详尽的探讨,先将原始场重构到三个尺度子空间,即背景环流尺度子空间、天气尺度子空间和高频尺度子空间,重构场上首次显示此次过程生成于青藏高原西北侧,其成因为对流层高层基本气流尺度向天气尺度的跨尺度动能正则传输,即正压失稳,并且表现为从高层向下。在发展阶段,其能量最终来源为基本气流向天气尺度的有效位能传输和非绝热加热,然而这些过程只发生于涡旋低层的西侧。进一步分析发现,天气尺度内存在一个能量再分配“路径”:首先,低层西侧获得的有效位能转换为动能,西侧垂直的气压梯度力做功将低层获得动能向高层分配;在高层,水平的气压梯度力做功进而将西侧获得的动能向东侧分配;东侧垂直的气压梯度力做功再将动能向低层分配;至此,低层西侧获得的能量被分配到整个涡旋空间中,使得涡旋能够均匀发展。     

Novel fusion approach on automatic object extraction from spatial data: case study Worldview-2 and TOPO5000

The automatic extraction of information content from remotely sensed data is always challenging. We suggest a novel fusion approach to improve the extraction of this information from mono-satellite images. A Worldview-2 (WV-2) pan-sharpened image and a 1/5000-scaled topographic vector map (TOPO5000) were used as the sample data. Firstly, the buildings and roads were manually extracted from WV-2 to point out the maximum extractable information content. Subsequently, object-based automatic extractions were performed. After achieving two-dimensional results, a normalized digital surface model (nDSM) was generated from the underlying digital aerial photos of TOPO5000, and the automatic extraction was repeated by fusion with the nDSM to include individual object heights as an additional band for classification. The contribution was tested by precision, completeness and overall quality. Novel fusion technique increased the success of automatic extraction by 7% for the number of buildings and by 23% for the length of roads.     

On the origin of bleaching phenomena in red bed sediments of Triassic Buntsandstein deposits in Central Germany

The Lower Triassic Buntsandstein in Central Germany comprises one of the major clastic, lithified hydrocarbon reservoirs, it is a major groundwater aquifer and it is considered as a potential underground gas storage lithology. Thus, sandstones of the Buntsandstein from Thuringia and NE Hesse were used to analyse their geochemical composition combined with mineralogical data in order to investigate the origin of several bleaching phenomena in primary red beds, since these give a hint for mineral alteration, mineral formation and mineral reactivity in the course of fluid-rock-interactions. This is relevant for e.g. recent Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) efforts. The origin of the observed bleaching phenomena is diverse and it is linked to certain stages of diagenesis and different episodes of fluid flow: (1) eodiagenetic bleaching coupled with palaeosoil formation and iron mobilisation, (2) mesodiagenetic bleaching as a result of hydrocarbon migration, (3) Tertiary bleaching due to CO₂ degassing from Miocene volcanism, (4) Tertiary telodiagenetic bleaching due to weathering under humid climate conditions, and (5) weathering processes related to recent telodiagenesis/pedogenesis. This study emphasizes the multiple nature of fluids, which can induce iron mobilisation and bleaching of red beds.