Stacking gravity tide observations in central Europe for the retrieval of the complex eigenfrequency of the nearly diurnal free-wobble

We have used tidal gravity measurements from six stations in central Europe to investigate the resonance in the diurnal tidal band, caused by inertial coupling between the mantle and outer core of the Earth. By the use of stacking it was possible to determine the eigenfrequency and quality factor of this eigenmode, commonly called the 'nearly diurnal free-wobble'. We assessed the effect of systematic errors from the ocean correction to the tidal measurements employing a Monte-Carlo method. The observed eigenfrequency is 1 + 1/(434 ± 7) cycles per sidereal day, and is significantly higher than predicted by theories. The observed quality factor is (2.8 ± 0.5) × 10³.     

The coupling and attenuation of nearly resonant multiplets in the Earth's free oscillation spectrum

Summary. The effect of attenuation on the coupling of nearly resonant multiplets in the Earth's free oscillation spectrum is investigated and numerical results are presented for several of the most strongly coupled low frequency multiplet pairs. The coupling influences considered are those of the Coriolis forces due to rotation and of the Earth's hydrostatic ellipticity of figure. It is found that the effects of attenuation (in particular the difference in Q ⁻¹ for the two multiplets) can significantly change the splitting diagrams and the degree to which coupling takes place. The Q values for the coupled singlets are, in general, all different and lie between the two Q values of the uncoupled multiplet pair. In addition it is shown that the diagonal sum rule may be readily extended to sets of coupled multiplets.     

A new discovery of transition rules for cellular automata by using cuckoo search algorithm

This paper presents an intelligent approach to discover transition rules for cellular automata (CA) by using cuckoo search (CS) algorithm. CS algorithm is a novel evolutionary search algorithm for solving optimization problems by simulating breeding behavior of parasitic cuckoos. Each cuckoo searches the best upper and lower thresholds for each attribute as a zone. When the zones of all attributes are connected by the operator ‘And’ and linked with a cell status value, one CS-based transition rule is formed by using the explicit expression of ‘if-then’. With two distinct advantages of efficient random walk of Lévy flights and balanced mixing, CS algorithm performs well in both local search and guaranteed global convergence. Furthermore, the CA model with transition rules derived by CS algorithm (CS-CA) has been applied to simulate the urban expansion of Nanjing City, China. The simulation produces encouraging results, in terms of numeric accuracy and spatial distribution, in agreement with the actual patterns. Preliminary results suggest that this CS approach is well suitable for discovering reliable transition rules. The model validation and comparison show that the CS-CA model gets a higher accuracy than NULL, BCO-CA, PSO-CA, and ACO-CA models. Simulation results demonstrate the feasibility and practicability of applying CS algorithm to discover transition rules of CA for simulating geographical systems.     

A diurnal resonance in the ocean tide and in the Earth's load response due to the resonant free 'core nutation'

Summary. The luni-solar forced nutations and body tide are believed to be resonant at frequencies near (1 + 1/460) cycle sidereal day⁻¹ as seen from the rotating Earth. This resonance is due to the Earth's rotating, elliptical fluid core. We show here that tides in the open ocean and the Earth's response to those tides must also be resonant at (1 + 1/460) cycle day⁻¹. We examine these resonant oceanic effects on the Earth's nutational motion and on the body tide. Effects on the forced nutations might be as large as 0.002 arcsec at 18.6 yr. The effects on the observed resonance in the body tide are more important. For tidal gravity, for example, the difference between K ₁ and 0 ¹ which is usually used to determine the resonance, can be perturbed by 30 per cent or more due to the oceanic resonance effects.     

A study of diurnal variation of the electromagnetic field in northern France using ancient recordings

Summary. From 1883 to 1901 magnetic elements were continuously recorded at the French Saint-Maur observatory. From 1893 to 1895, Earth potentials along two 15 km long orthogonal lines were also recorded. Moreover, from 1884 to 1885, Blavier,'Ingénieur des Télégraphes', used several some hundred kilométre long telegraphic lines to measure and record Earth potentials. Using this set of data we will study the daily variations of the telluric and magnetic fields and the way according to which these two fields are correlated.
The observed magnetotelluric tensor is antisymmétric when the long telluric lines are considered. It is not the case for the short lines. But, making use of a correction derived from the formalism developed by Le Mouel & Menvielle in the static distortion approximation, one can derive an impedance whose phase is equal to the phase of the impedance derived from the long line data.     

Location approximation for local search services using natural language hints

Local search services allow a user to search for businesses that satisfy a given geographical constraint. In contrast to traditional web search engines, current local search services rely heavily on static, structured data. Although this yields very accurate systems, it also implies a limited coverage, and limited support for using landmarks and neighborhood names in queries. To overcome these limitations, we propose to augment the structured information available to a local search service, based on the vast amount of unstructured and semi‐structured data available on the web. This requires a computational framework to represent vague natural language information about the nearness of places, as well as the spatial extent of vague neighborhoods. In this paper, we propose such a framework based on fuzzy set theory, and show how natural language information can be translated into this framework. We provide experimental results that show the effectiveness of the proposed techniques, and demonstrate that local search based on natural language hints about the location of places with an unknown address, is feasible.     

A search for the oceanic Lg phase

Summary. The Lg phase has been shown previously to be a collection of higher-mode surface waves guided by the continental crust (Knopoff, Schwab & Kausel). A simple scaling between continental and oceanic crustal thicknesses suggests that a search for an oceanic Lg phase should be made in the period range from 1 to 2s. In a search for SH polarized Lg arrivals over oceanic paths, we found that in addition to the fundamental mode, seismo-grams at relatively short ranges in the Pacific showed the presence of only the first higher mode with group velocities on the steep portion of the dispersion curve rather than at the group velocity minimum as expected. Numerical model analysis indicates that, contrary to the continental case, there is no strong confluence of stationary phases of higher-mode crustal waves in the appropriate period range to produce Lg wave packets; this is due to small but significant differences in scaled crustal structures. Further, lateral variations in the thickness of oceanic sediments are sufficient to scatter most of the crustal surface-wave energy within a relatively short distance. Even were this thickness uniform, attenuation in the sediments would be strong enough to absorb the Lg stationary phases in a short distance.     

CostMAP: an open-source software package for developing cost surfaces using a multi-scale search kernel

ABSTRACT

Cost surfaces are a crucial aspect of route optimization and least cost path (LCP) calculations and are used in awide range of disciplines including computer science, landscape ecology, and energy-infrastructure modeling. Linear features present akey weakness to traditional routing calculations along cost surfaces because they cannot identify whether moving from acell to its adjacent neighbors constitutes crossing alinear barrier (increased cost) or following acorridor (reduced cost). Following and avoiding linear features can drastically change predicted routes. We introduce an approach to address this adjacency issue using asearch kernel that identifies these critical barriers and corridors. We have built this approach into anew Java-based open-source software package– CostMAP (cost surface multi-layer aggregation program)– which calculates cost surfaces and cost networks using the search kernel. CostMAP allows users to input multiple GIS data layers and to set weights and rules for developing aweighted-cost network. We compare CostMAP performance with traditional cost surface approaches and show significant performance gains– both following corridors and avoiding barriers– by modeling the movement of alarge terrestrial animal– the Baird’s Tapir (Tapirus bairdii)– in amovement ecology framework and by modeling pipeline routing for carbon capture and storage (CCS).     

A guide to free films available for classroom use

Abstract

Educators Guide to Free Films. Compiled and edited by Mary Foley Horkheimer and John C. Diffor. 37th annual edition. Educators Progress Service, Inc., Randolph, Wisconsin 53956. xvii + 731 pages, 1977. $12.95. Paperbound.     

Serious problems in using equations to estimate bedload yields for coastal rivers in NSW

Bedload yields have been calculated using eight bedload equations at a total of 11 gauging sites in four coastal river basins in New South Wales. Comparisons of yields calculated by each equation at each site show enormous variations. Furthermore, on the Manning River, where calculations could be made on the four main tributaries and compared to those from the trunk channel below their combined confluence, there was no recognisable continuity of results. For the following reasons, the use of bedload formulae on these rivers appears to be a futile exercise. Firstly, the formulae appear to be inherently unstable under natural field conditions. Secondly, application of the formulae must rely on extrapolated flow data, as actual flow measurements are rarely conducted at discharges that are more than a small fraction of largest discharges recorded at any site. Thirdly, formulae must be applied assuming an unlimited availability of bed material; yet the rivers studied here behave as ‘conveyor belts’ of considerable power but with very low and irregular rates of sediment feed. Finally, temporal step‐functional shifts in climate and flow regimes are shown to have an important impact on estimation of sediment yields. The implication of these results is that, until there is a carefully monitored scientific program of bedload measurement or estimates of reservoir sedimentation on the rivers of south eastern Australia, there can be no reliable evaluation of sediment yields from these rivers. As a result, the impact of gravel extraction, the dispersal of mine tailings, or the construction of dams can not be adequately assessed for this region, nor probably for the rest of Australia.     

Mining query-driven contexts for geographic and temporal search

The explosive growth of geographic and temporal data has attracted much attention in information retrieval (IR) field. Since geographic and temporal information are often available in unstructured text, the IR task becomes a non-straightforward process. In this article, we propose a novel geo-temporal context mining approach and a geo-temporal ranking model for improving the search performance. Queries target implicitly ‘what’, ‘when’ and ‘where’ components. We model geographic and temporal query-dependent frequent patterns, called contexts. These contexts are derived based on extracting and ranking geographic and temporal entities found in pseudo-relevance feedback documents. Two methods are proposed for inferring the query-dependent contexts: (1) a frequency-based statistical approach and (2) a frequent pattern mining approach using a support threshold. The derived geographic and temporal query contexts are then exploited into a probabilistic ranking model. Finally, geographic, temporal and content-based scores are combined together for improving the geo-temporal search performance. We evaluate our approach on the New York Times news collection. The experimental results show that our proposed approach outperforms significantly a well-known baseline search, namely the probabilistic BM25 ranking model and state-of-the-art approaches in the field as well.     

Forward modelling of direct current and low-frequency electromagnetic fields using integral equations

We present a semi-analytical, unifying approach for modelling the electromagnetic response of 3-D bodies excited by low-frequency electric and magnetic sources. We write the electric and magnetic fields in terms of power series of angular frequency, and show that to obey Maxwell's equations, the fields must be real when the exponent is even, and imaginary when it is odd. This leads to the result that the scattering equations for direct current fields and for fields proportional to frequency can both be explicitly formulated using a single, real dyadic Green's function. Although the underground current flow in each case is due to different physical phenomena, the interaction of the scattering currents is of the same type in both cases. This implies that direct current resistivity, magnetometric resistivity and electric and magnetic measurements at low induction numbers can all be modelled in parallel using basically the same algorithm. We make a systematic derivation of the quantities required and show that for these cases they can all be expressed analytically. The problem is finally formulated as the solution of a system of linear equations. The matrix of the system is real and does not depend on the type of source or receiver. We present modelling results for different arrays and apply the algorithm to the interpretation of field data. We assume the standard dipoledipole resistivity array for the direct current case, and vertical and horizontal magnetic dipoles for induction measurements. In the case of magnetometric resistivity we introduce a moving array composed of an electric dipole and a directional magnetometer. The array has multiple separations for depth discrimination and can operate in two modes. The mode where the predominant current flow runs along the profile is called MMR-TM. This mode is more sensitive to lateral variations in resistivity than its counterpart, MMR-TE, where the mode of conduction is predominantly perpendicular to the profile.     

A world-wide search for the 11-yr solar cycle in mean sea-level records

Summary. Tide gauge records from throughout the world have been examined for evidence of the 11-yr solar cycle in mean sea-level (MSL). In Europe an amplitude of 10–15mm is observed with a phase relative to the sunspot cycle similar to that expected as a response to forcing from previously reported solar cycles in sea-level air pressure and winds. At the highest European latitudes the MSL solar cycle is in antiphase to the sunspot cycle while at mid-latitudes it changes to being approximately in phase. Elsewhere in the world there is no convincing evidence for an 11-yr component in MSL records.