The response of CO2 flux to rain pulses at a saline desert

As the substantial component of the ecosystem respiration, soil CO₂ flux is strongly influenced by infrequent and unpredictable precipitation in arid region. In the current study, we investigated the response of soil CO₂ flux to rain pulses at a saline desert in western China. Soil CO₂ flux was measured continuously during the whole growing season of 2009 at six sites. We found that there were remarkable changes in amplitude or diurnal patterns of soil CO₂ flux induced by rainfall events: from bimodal before rain to a single peak after that. Further analysis indicated that there is a significant linear relationship (P < 0.001) between soil CO₂ flux and soil temperature (T_soil). However, a hysteresis between the waveform of diurnal course of CO₂ flux and T_soil was observed: with soil CO₂ flux always peaked earlier than T_soil. Furthermore, a double exponential decay function was fitted to the soil CO₂ flux after rainfall, and total carbon (C) releases were estimated by numerical integration for rainfall events. The relative enhancement and total C release, in association with the rain pulses, was linearly related to the amount of precipitation. According to the size and frequency of rainfall events, the total amount of C release induced by rain pulses was computed as much as 7.88 g C·m^–2 in 2009, equivalent to 10.25% of gross primary production. These results indicated that rain pulses played a significant role in the carbon budget of this saline desert ecosystem, and the size of them was a good indicator of rain‐induced flux enhancement. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

A physically constrained wavelet-aided statistical model for multi-decadal groundwater dynamics predictions

A physically constrained wavelet-aided statistical model (PCWASM) is presented to analyse and predict monthly groundwater dynamics on multi-decadal or longer time scales. The approach retains the simplicity of regression modelling but is constrained by temporal scales of processes responsible for groundwater level variation, including aquifer recharge and pumping. The methodology integrates statistical correlations enhanced with wavelet analysis into established principles of groundwater hydraulics including convolution, superposition and the Cooper–Jacob solution. The systematic approach includes (1) identification of hydrologic trends and correlations using cross-correlation and multi-time scale wavelet analyses; (2) integrating temperature-based evapotranspiration and groundwater pumping stresses and (3) assessing model prediction performances using fixed-block k-fold cross-validation and split calibration-validation methods. The approach is applied at three hydrogeologicaly distinct sites in North Florida in the United States using over 40 years of monthly groundwater levels. The systematic approach identifies two patterns of cross-correlations between groundwater levels and historical rainfall, indicating low-frequency variabilities are critical for long-term predictions. The models performed well for predicting monthly groundwater levels from 7 to 22 years with less than 2.1 ft (0.7 m) errors. Further evaluation by the moving-block bootstrap regression indicates the PCWASM can be a reliable tool for long-term groundwater level predictions. This study provides a parsimonious approach to predict multi-decadal groundwater dynamics with the ability to discern impacts of pumping and climate change on aquifer levels. The PCWASM is computationally efficient and can be implemented using publicly available datasets. Thus, it should provide a versatile tool for managers and researchers for predicting multi-decadal monthly groundwater levels under changing climatic and pumping impacts over a long time period.     

Input data resolution‐induced uncertainty in watershed modelling

The temporal‐spatial resolution of input data‐induced uncertainty in a watershed‐based water quality model, Hydrologic Simulation Program‐FORTRAN (HSPF), is investigated in this study. The temporal resolution‐induced uncertainty is described using the coefficient of variation (CV). The CV is found to decrease with decreasing temporal resolution and follow a log‐normal relation with time interval for temperature data while it exhibits a power‐law relation for rainfall data. The temporal‐scale uncertainties in the temperature and rainfall data follow a general extreme value distribution and a Weibull distribution, respectively. The Nash‐Sutcliffe coefficient (NSC) is employed to represent the spatial resolution induced uncertainty. The spatial resolution uncertainty in the dissolved oxygen and nitrate‐nitrogen concentrations simulated using HSPF is observed to follow a general extreme value distribution and a log‐normal distribution, respectively. The probability density functions (PDF) provide new insights into the effect of temporal‐scale and spatial resolution of input data on uncertainties involved in watershed modelling and total maximum daily load calculations. This study exhibits non‐symmetric distributions of uncertainty in water quality modelling, which simplify weather and water quality monitoring and reducing the cost involved in flow and water quality monitoring. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

近42年雅鲁藏布江中游四季气温变化特征分析

利用 1957～ 1998年雅鲁藏布江中游拉萨、日喀则、泽当、江孜 4个站各月平均气温资料 ,通过线性趋势估计和多项式函数拟合分析了该流域春、夏、秋、冬 4季气温长期趋势变化和周期变化 ,并利用滑动T检验等方法讨论了气温突变的问题。结果表明 :在过去 4 2年里 ,雅鲁藏布江中游地区各季气温均有明显的上升趋势 ,其中冬春季增温显著 ,80年代初沿江四季气温除秋季外都出现了明显的增温突变     

Parameters affect foaming and foam stability during foam drilling

The authors presented indoor practice experiments of parameters affect on foaming and foam stability. Experiments were carried out and special equipments were used to determine foaming and foam stability; tests were tabulated and charted. The effects of chemical and physical parameters on foaming and foam stability have been conducted.     

矿物热电系数及其在地质找矿中的应用

作者的研究表明,在非本征激发区,矿物热电系数随着活化温度的增高而增大;在本征激发区,随活化温度的增高而减小。矿物晶体中所含杂质的种类和含量多少决定矿物的导电类型。矿物热电系数可广泛应用于地质找矿和矿床评价中,以黄铁矿为例,在同一水平面上的含金矿脉,矿脉中黄铁矿热电系数正值高时,其矿石含金量也高。应用黄铁矿热电系数的正高值、混合型和负值可确定矿体和矿体的剥蚀深度。     

Advances in understanding of the mechanism for generation of earthquake thermal precursors detected by satellites

Stresses building up during an earthquake preparation phase also manifest themselves in the form of a so called increased land surface temperature (LST) leading to a thermal precursor prior to the earthquake event. This phenomenon has now been validated by our observations of short-term thermal anomalies detected by infrared satellite sensors for several recent past earthquakes around the world. The rise in infrared radiance temperature was seen to vary between 5 and 12 °C for different earthquakes. We discuss in this paper different explanations for the generation of such anomalies that have been offered. Emission of gases due to the opening and closure of micropores upon induced stresses and also the participation of ground water have been propounded as a possible cause for generation of thermal anomalies. Seismo-ionosphere coupling, by which gases like radon move to the earth–atmosphere interface and cause air ionization thus bringing about a change in air temperature, relative humidity, etc., has been put forth by some workers. A mechanism of low frequency electromagnetic emission was tested and experimented by scientists with rock masses in stressed conditions as those that exist at tectonic locations. The workers proposed the positive hole pair theory, which received support from several scientific groups. Positive holes (sites of electron deficiency) are activated in stressed rocks from pre-existing yet dormant positive hole pairs (PHPs) and their recombination at rock–air interface leads to a LST rise. A combination of remote sensing detection of rock mechanics behavior with a perception of chemistry and geophysics has been applied to propose the remote sensing rock mechanics theory. Remote sensing detections of such anomalies confirm so far proposed lab theories for such a hotly debated field as earthquake precursor study by providing unbiased observations with consistency in time and space distribution.     

SOHM型氢钟在国家授时中心的运行情况分析

上海天文台研制的型号为SOHM-3和SOHM-4的3台氢原子钟在中国科学院国家授时中心(NTSC)已经运行了一年多时间。收集了每个氢原子钟与NTSC主钟的时间比对数据。数据的分析结果给出了这几台氢钟在不同采样间隔上的频率稳定度,也显示出1台氢钟明显的相位跳变,讨论了这种相位跳变的原因。比较了这3台氢钟和从美国进口的Symmetricom公司制造的氢钟的频率稳定度的温度变化效应,指出了上海天文台研究制的氢钟存在的主要问题。     

A modified land surface temperature split window retrieval algorithm and its applications over China

Due to the difficulties in correcting the influences of the atmosphere absorbability and the Earth surface emissivity diversification, the retrieval of LST (land surface temperature) from satellite data is a challenging task. In this paper, a modified Becker's split window LST inversion algorithm is developed for retrieving LST from the NOAA-16/17 AVHRR data. A new set of parameters for Becker's LST algorithm is proposed. The algorithm is developed from a surface brightness temperature dataset generated from the MODTRAN program, which uses a range of surface parameters and atmospheric quantities as inputs. The 10-day composites of the channels 4 and 5 brightness temperature data of NOAA-17 AVHRR (1-km resolution) are used to generate the clear-sky LST. As a validation of the algorithm, the retrieved LST is compared with MODIS LST of same period and area. The two LST products are found to be consistent, with the absolute difference being about 2.5 K for most areas. The NOAA retrieved LST is also compared with in-situ ground surface 0-cm measurements taken from 257 meteorological stations, which cover overall China area for the three periods of satellite observations. The comparison shows that the correlation between the retrieved LST and in-situ measurements is over 0.90 and the RMSE (root mean square error) is about 3.4 K.