Atmospheric gravity wave propagation direction observed by airglow imaging in the South American sector

Airglow all sky imaging observation has been carried out in three different locations in south America, at Cachoeira Paulista (22.7°S, 45.0°W) in 1999, São João do Cariri (7.5°S, 36.5°W) in 2001 and Boa Vista (2.8°N, 60.7°W) in 2002. Comparing the atmospheric gravity wave characteristics retrieved from the image data for the three different sites and including a previous work at Alcântara (2.3°S, 44.5°W) carried out by Taylor et al. [1997. Journal of Geophysical Research 102 (D22) 26,283–26,299], we found that there is a preferential propagation direction, from the Continent to the Atlantic Ocean. The observed wave propagation directions reveal that a major part of the waves have their direction from Continent toward Ocean. The possible source of the wave generation is discussed.     

On the gravity wave-driven instability of E layer at mid-latitude

The plasma instability process during internal gravity wave propagation through the ionospheric E region is considered. The growth rate of the instability has been found and it has been shown that it depends on perturbation wavelength, gravity wave parameters and direction of propagation. The conditions for the instability are favorable when the vorticity of the associated neutral motion becomes antiparallel to the geomagnetic field. In the proposed instability mechanism plasma irregularities could seed the large-scale sporadic E layer structuring because they are generated in situ as a part of the same neutral wind structure that serves to initiate the formation of the layer.     

Interannual variability of mesospheric mean winds observed with the MU radar

In an effort to study the interannual variation of mesospheric (65–90 km altitude) mean winds, 10 years (1986–1995) of wind data collected with the MU radar at Shigaraki, Japan (34.9°N, 136.1°E) have been analysed. The analysis reveals that the mean zonal wind circulation in the mesosphere is dominated by an annual variation. The summer westward flow in the mesosphere shows a smooth variation with a peak value in the range 40–60 m/s in June/July. In contrast to the summer westward winds, the winter eastward winds exhibit much more variability. In some years it is found that the winds exceed even 60 m/s and the peak value may occur in any one of the winter months. Scrutiny of the duration of the summer westward winds reveals a two-year periodicity, which has been compared with the quasi-biennial oscillation (QBO) phases at the equator. The search for a dependence of the mean wind on solar activity does not reveal any indications of it. Ten-year averaged winds are compared with the model atmosphere, CIRA-86, values and certain agreements and disagreements are pointed out.     

重力波诱导OH气辉分布的变化

利用全隐欧拉格式和全球热层-电离层-中间层-电动力学环流耦合模式（TIME GCM） ,本文分析了非线性重力波在向上传播过程中对OH气辉廓线的影响,结果表明,当较小垂直 尺度重力波经过OH气辉发射层时,对其峰值分布有明显的影响,有时会出现双峰现象,说明 非线性重力波传播是引起气辉双峰分布的一个直接原因;重力波在中层顶区域的破碎 在OH气辉分布均有不同程度的表现,这不仅可以解释一些实际的观测,同时也对利用OH气辉 观测分析重力波传播特性有明显的指示意义.      

Evidence of mesospheric bore formation from a breaking gravity wave event: simultaneous imaging and lidar measurements

A large wave event was observed in the three upper-mesospheric (80–105 km) airglow emissions of O(¹S), Na and OH by the Boston University all-sky imager, at the Arecibo Observatory, during the night of 3 May 2003. The airglow structures appeared to be due to a large upward propagating internal gravity wave, which subsequently became unstable near the 95 km height level and produced large-scale vertical motions and mixing. Simultaneous density and temperature lidar measurements indicated the presence of a large temperature inversion of 80 K valley-to-peak between 88 and 96 km during the time of the event. Near-simultaneous temperature profiles, made by the TIMED SABER instrument, provided evidence that the horizontal extent of the inversion was localized to within 500 km of Arecibo during the wave event. As the gravity wave dissipated, an internal bore was generated, apparently due to the deposition of momentum and energy into the region by the original wave. Although mesospheric gravity wave breaking has been reported previously (Swenson and Mende, 21(1994); Hecht et al., 102(1997); Yamada et al., 28(2001), for example), this was the first time that the phenomenon has been associated with the generation of an internal mesospheric bore. The event suggested that the breaking of a large mesospheric gravity wave can lead to the generation of an internal bore, as suggested by Dewan and Picard 106(2001). Such behavior is of particular interest since little is known of their origins.     

Sub-monthly gravity field recovery from simulated multi-GRACE mission type

Monthly solutions of the current GRACE mission are affected by the aliasing problem. In fact, sub-monthly temporal sampling may reduce the temporal aliasing errors but this will be done at the cost of reduced spatial sampling. Reducing the effects of temporal aliasing can be achieved by setting two pairs of satellites in different orbital planes. In this paper, we investigate the so-called Multi-GRACE constellation to improve temporal and spatial resolution for the GRACE-type mission without deteriorating accuracy. We investigate two scenarios: the Multi-GRACE ΔM that improves the temporal sampling only and the Multi-GRACE ΔΩ that improves the spatial sampling besides the temporal one in time span of only 12 days for the hydrological signal as a time-varying gravity field component. Our findings indicate that the hydrological signal can be submonthly recovered and the aliasing errors can be reduced as well by increasing temporal resolution (sub-month) via the Multi-GRACE ΔΩ constellations.     

Long-period fluctuations observed in the ionospheric absorption variations

Summary By subsequent application of power spectrum analysis, autocorrelation analysis and fast Fourier transform (FFT) of the day- and night-time absorption values of five LF radio-paths (164 kHz, 155 kHz, 185 kHz, 218 kHz and 272 kHz) in Europe during the interval 1 June 1979–30 June 1980, fluctuations with the following basic (fundamental), commonly recurrent periods were found: 3.5–5 days and 10.5–12 days. They exist in all investigated time series, while 6- and 9-day fluctuations are observed on the northern radio-paths (185 kHz and 272 kHz). Shorterperiod oscillations are most active during autumn and especially during winter, while the longerperiod oscillation (10.5–12-day) has significant amplitudes also in summer.

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n n¶rt;am nuu aaua nma mu, amu aaua u m maauu () ¶rt; u ¶rt;a n nu u nmu a¶rt;u ma (164 , 155 , 185 , 218 u 272 ) a¶rt; n nu¶rt; 1 u 1979–30 u 1980. u a¶rt; ¶rt;u (¶rt;ama) nmu nu¶rt;: 3.5–5 ¶rt; u 10.5–12 ¶rt. u nummm u¶rt;a ¶rt;a. 6- u 9-m au a¶rt;am m a¶rt;umaa (185 u 272 ). ama au a amu u u u. ¶rt;nu¶rt; (10.5–12 ¶rt;) um aum anum¶rt; u m.

     

Comparing predicted and observed ground motions from subduction earthquakes in the Lesser Antilles

This brief article presents a quantitative analysis of the ability of eight published empirical ground-motion prediction equations (GMPEs) for subduction earthquakes (interface and intraslab) to estimate observed earthquake ground motions on the islands of the Lesser Antilles (specifically Guadeloupe, Martinique, Trinidad, and Dominica). In total, over 300 records from 22 earthquakes from various seismic networks are used within the analysis. It is found that most of the GMPEs tested perform poorly, which is mainly due to a larger variability in the observed ground motions than predicted by the GMPEs, although two recent GMPEs derived using Japanese strong-motion data provide reasonably good predictions. Analyzing separately the interface and intraslab events does not significant modify the results. Therefore, it is concluded that seismic hazard assessments for this region should use a variety of GMPEs in order to capture this large epistemic uncertainty in earthquake ground-motion prediction for the Lesser Antilles.     

Global distribution,seasonal, and inter-annual variations of mesospheric semidiurnal tide observed by TIMED TIDI

Based on TIDI mesospheric wind observations, we analyzed the semidiurnal tide westward zonal wavenumber 1 and 2 (SW1 and SW2) component seasonal, inter-annual variations, and possible sudden stratospheric warming (SSW) related changes. Major findings are as follows: (1) The SW1 has a peak near the South Pole during the December solstice and near the North Pole during the March equinox. (2) The SW2 peaks at 60S and 60N mostly during winter solstices. The SW2 also peaks during late summer and early fall in the northern hemisphere. (3) The QBO effect on the semidiurnal tide is much weaker than that on the diurnal tide. The March equinox northern SW1 zonal amplitude appears to be stronger during the westward phase of the QBO, which is opposite of migrating diurnal tide QBO response. (4) Possible SSW event related changes in the semidiurnal tide are significant but not always consistent. Enhancements in the mid-latitude SW2 component during SSWs are observed, which may be related to the increase of total ozone at mid and high latitudes during SSW events. TIDI observations also show a decrease in the SW2 in the opposite hemisphere during a southern SSW event in 2002. Small increases in the high latitude SW1 in both hemispheres during the 2002 southern SSW event were recorded.     

Phase functions of polar mesospheric cloud ice as observed by the CIPS instrument on the AIM satellite

The Cloud Imaging and Particle Size (CIPS) instrument on the Aeronomy of the Ice in the Mesosphere (AIM) spacecraft is a 4-camera nadir pointed imager with a bandpass centered at 265 nm and a field of view of 120°×80°. CIPS observes polar mesospheric clouds (PMCs) against the sunlit Rayleigh-scattered background. At individual polar locations approximately 5 km×5 km in area, CIPS observes the same volume of air seven times over a range of scattering angles from about 35° to 150°. These multi-angle observations allow the identification and extraction of the PMC scattered radiance from the Rayleigh-scattered background. We utilize the fact that the former has a highly asymmetric phase function about 90° scattering angle, while the latter has a phase function that is symmetric. The retrieved PMC phase function can then be interpreted to obtain PMC particle size distributions. We describe a technique for identification of PMCs in the CIPS observations through the separation of the Rayleigh and PMC radiances. PMC phase function results are shown for the first season of CIPS observations. Assuming the particles are oblate spheroids with an axial ratio of 2, and a Gaussian distribution of width 14 nm, we find the phase functions are consistent with mean radii between 50 and 60 nm. These results are similar to those discussed by Hervig et al. [2009. Interpretation of SOFIE PMC measurements: cloud identification and derivation of mass density, particle shape, and particle size. J. Atmos. Sol. Terr. Phys., in review.] in this issue from the Solar Occultation for Ice Experiment (SOFIE) which also flies on the AIM satellite.     

Responses of polar mesospheric cloud brightness to stratospheric gravity waves at the South Pole and Rothera,Antarctica

We present the first observational proof that polar mesospheric cloud (PMC) brightness responds to stratospheric gravity waves (GWs) differently at different latitudes by analyzing the Fe Boltzmann lidar data collected from the South Pole and Rothera (67.5°S, 68.0°W), Antarctica. Stratospheric GW strength is characterized by the root-mean-square (RMS) relative density perturbation in the 30–45 km region and PMC brightness is represented by the total backscatter coefficient (TBC) in austral summer from November to February. The linear correlation coefficient (LCC) between GW strength and PMC brightness is found to be +0.09 with a 42% confidence level at the South Pole and ?0.49 with a 98% confidence level at Rothera. If a PMC case potentially affected by a space shuttle exhaust plume is removed from the Rothera dataset, the negative correlation coefficient and confidence level increase to ?0.61 and 99%, respectively. The Rothera negative correlation increases when shorter-period waves are included while no change is observed in the South Pole correlation. Therefore, observations show statistically that Rothera PMC brightness is negatively correlated with the stratospheric GW strength but no significant correlation exists at the South Pole. A positive correlation of +0.74 with a confidence level of 99.98% is found within a distinct subset of the South Pole data but the rest of the dataset exhibits a random distribution, possibly indicating different populations of ice particles at the South Pole. Our data show that these two locations have similar GW strength and spectrum in the 30–45 km region during summer. The different responses of PMC brightness to GW perturbations are likely caused by the latitudinal differences in background temperatures in the ice crystal growth region between the PMC altitude and the mesopause. At Rothera, where temperatures in this region are relatively warm and supersaturations are not as large, GW-induced temperature perturbations can drive subsaturation in the warm phase. Thus, GWs can destroy growing ice crystals or limit their growth, leading to negative correlation at Rothera. Because the South Pole temperatures in the mesopause region are much colder, GW-perturbed temperature may never be above the frost point and have less of an impact on crystal growth and PMC brightness. The observed phenomena and proposed mechanisms above need to be understood and verified through future modeling of GW effects on PMC microphysics and ray modeling of GW propagation over the South Pole and Rothera.     

熊本MW7.0地震近场地表与井下地震动对比研究

选取日本熊本M_W7.0地震断层距小于200 km的82个近场KiK-net台站记录到的三分量记录数据进行基线校正后,获得近场地面运动水平向的峰值加速度PGA、峰值速度PGV及周期为0.2,1,2,3,5和10 s的加速度反应谱数据,并与美国NGA-West2的地震动预测模型相比较,研究熊本地震地表和井下地震动峰值及反应谱的衰减特征,通过比较KiK-net台站地表与井下记录结果,探讨浅层场地放大效应的影响。研究结果表明:① 对于井下观测结果,NGA-West2的地震动模型对PGA和短周期0.2 s的反应谱的预测值与井下观测值相比整体偏高,而PGV和较长周期地震动（如1,2和3 s的反应谱）的预测值与井下观测值较为吻合;② 地表观测记录的PGA,PGV和周期为0.2—3 s的反应谱残差整体上随v_S30对数值的增大呈线性减小的趋势,而周期为5 s和10 s的长周期部分,其场地效应的影响很小;③ 相对于井下记录,地表记录的地震动PGA,PGV和周期为0.2,1和2 s的反应谱有明显的放大,这种放大作用随浅层场地剪切波速的增大而减小;周期为3,5和10 s时长周期地震动的放大效应很小。      

Interhemispheric comparison of mesospheric ice layers from the LIMA model

The new LIMA/ice model is used to study interhemispheric temperature differences at the summer upper mesosphere and their impact on the morphology of ice particle related phenomena such as noctilucent clouds (NLC), polar mesosphere clouds (PMC), and polar mesosphere summer echoes (PMSE). LIMA/ice nicely reproduces the mean characteristics of observed ice layers, for example their variation with season, altitude, and latitude. The southern hemisphere (SH) is slightly warmer compared to the NH but the difference is less than 3 K at NLC/PMC/PMSE altitudes and poleward of 70N/S. This is consistent with in situ temperature measurements by falling spheres performed at 69N and 68S. Earth's eccentricity leads to a SH mesosphere being warmer compared to the NH by up to approximately 85 km and fairly independent of latitude. In general, NH/SH temperature differences in LIMA increase with decreasing latitude and reach at 50. The latitudinal variation of NH/SH temperature differences is presumably caused by dynamical forcing and explains why PMSE are basically absent at midlatitudes in the SH whereas they are still rather common at similar colatitudes in the NH. The occurrence frequency and brightness of NLC and PMC are larger in the NH but the differences decrease with increasing latitude. Summer conditions in the SH terminate earlier compared to NH, leading to an earlier weakening and end of the ice layer season. The NLC altitude in the SH is slightly higher by 0.6–1 km, whereas the NLC altitudes itself depend on season in both hemispheres. Compared to other models LIMA/ice shows smaller interhemispheric temperature differences but still generates the observed NH/SH differences in ice layer characteristics. This emphasizes the importance of temperature controlling the existence and morphology of ice particles. Interhemispheric differences in NLC/PMC/PMSE characteristics deduced from LIMA/ice basically agree with observations from lidars, satellites, and radars.     

地磁数字与模拟观测资料对比分析

“九五”地震前兆数字化台站改造后，数字化的地磁观测仪器在全国各地磁台站推广应用已有两年多时间，两年来，数字化观测仪器和模拟记录仪器在武汉台一直进行并行观测工作，其观测资料稳定可靠。本文通过GM-3磁通门磁力仪与其它仪器进行数字和模拟观测资料的时均值、日均值、月均值、年均值对比分析。分析结果表明数字观测资料优于模拟观测资料，数字观测仪器完全可以取代模拟观测仪器。     

Comparison of polar mesospheric cloud measurements from the Cloud Imaging and Particle Size experiment and the solar backscatter ultraviolet instrument in 2007

We compare measurements from the Aeronomy of Ice in the Mesosphere (AIM) Cloud Imaging and Particle Size (CIPS) experiment to the NOAA-17 solar backscatter ultraviolet (SBUV/2) instrument during the 2007 Northern Hemisphere polar mesospheric cloud (PMC) season. Daily average Rayleigh scattering albedos determined from identical footprints from the CIPS nadir camera and SBUV/2 agree to better than ～5% throughout the season. Average PMC brightness values derived from the two instruments agree to within ±10%. PMC occurrence frequencies are on average ～5% to nearly a factor of two higher in CIPS, depending on latitude. Agreement is best at high latitudes where clouds are brighter and more frequent. The comparisons indicate that AIM CIPS data are valid for scientific analyses. They also show that CIPS measurements can be linked to the long time series of SBUV/2 data to investigate long-term variability in PMCs.     

Mesospheric gravity waves and ionospheric plasma bubbles observed during the COPEX campaign

During the Conjugate Point Experiment (COPEX) campaign performed at Boa Vista ($2.{80}^{°}\mathrm{N};60.{70}^{°}\mathrm{W}$, dip angle $21.7^{°}\mathrm{N}$) from October to December 2002, 15 medium-scale gravity waves in the OHNIR airglow images were observed. Using a Keogram image analysis, we estimate their parameters. Most of the waves propagate to Northwest, indicating that their main sources are Southeast of Boa Vista. Quasi-simultaneous plasma bubble activities in the OI 630 nm images were observed in seven cases. The distances between the bubble depletions have a linear relationship with the wavelengths of the gravity waves observed in the mesosphere, which suggests a direct contribution of the mesospheric medium-scale gravity waves in seeding the equatorial plasma bubbles.     

Statistical properties of nonlinear wave signatures in OH and O2 airglow brightness data observed at lower midlatitudes

Among 2187 nights of airglow observations of the OH(6-2) and O₂b(0-1) bands from Argentina (mainly from El Leoncito, 32°S 69°W), 132 show airglow brightness jumps (ABJs) of short duration (16 min median). ABJs are supposed to be related to mesospheric bores or similar nonlinear waves. Several occurrence patterns were identified, which a successful explanation must take into account. ABJs occur preferably in the OH layer at 87 km, and are less likely in the O₂ layer at 95 km, maybe because ducts prefer lower altitudes. The seasonal distribution of nights when ABJs are observed only in the OH layer clearly shows a winter maximum centered around solstice, and equinox minima. In contrast, the seasonal distribution of ABJ nights in O₂ is flat. Most ABJs simultaneously present in OH and O₂ show anticorrelated variation between both layers. ABJ nights tend to occur in clusters lasting several days, which probably reflects duct lifetime.     

Some space gravity formulas and the dimensions and the mass of the Earth

Summary Adopting thePizzetti-Somigliana method and using elliptic integrals we have obtained closed formulas for the space gravity field in which one of the equipotential surfaces is a triaxial ellipsoid. The same formulas are also obtained in first approximation of the equatorial flattening avoiding the use of the elliptic integrals. Using data from satellites and Earth gravity data the gravitational and geometric bulge of the Earth's equator are computed. On the basis of these results and on the basis of recent gravity data taken around the equator between the longitudes 50° to 100° E, 155° to 180° E, and 145° to 180° W, we question the advantage of using a triaxial gravity formula and a triaxial ellipsoid in geodesy. Closed formulas for the space field in which a biaxial ellipsoid is an equipotential surface are also derived in polar coordinates and its parameters are specialized to give the international gravity formula values on the international ellipsoid. The possibility to compute the Earth's dimensions from the present Earth gravity data is the discussed and the value ofMG=(3.98603×10²⁰ cm³ sec^–2) (M mass of the Earth,G gravitational constant) is computed. The agreement of this value with others computed from the mean distance Earth-Moon is discussed. The Legendre polinomials series expansion of the gravitational potential is also added. In this series the coefficients of the polinomials are closed formulas in terms of the flattening andMG.Publication Number 327, and Istituto di Geodesia e Geofisica of Università di Trieste.