Review of Mercury's dynamic magnetosphere:Post-MESSENGER era and comparative magnetospheres

This review paper summarizes the research of Mercury’s magnetosphere in the Post-MESSENGER era and compares its dynamics to those in other planetary magnetospheres,especially to those in Earth’s magnetosphere.This review starts by introducing the planet Mercury,including its interplanetary environment,magnetosphere,exosphere,and conducting core.The frequent and intense magnetic reconnection on the dayside magnetopause,which is represented by the flux transfer event"shower",is reviewed on how they depend on magnetosheath plasma β and magnetic shear angle across the magnetopause,followed by how it contributes to the flux circulation and magnetosphere-surface-exosphere coupling.In the next,Mercury’s magnetosphere under extreme solar events,including the core induction and the reconnection erosion on the dayside magnetosphere,as well as the responses of the nightside magnetosphere,are reviewed.Then,the dawn-dusk properties of the plasma sheet,including the features of the ions,the structure of the current sheet,and the dynamics of magnetic reconnection,are summarized.The last topic is devoted to the particle energization in Mercury’s magnetosphere,which includes the energization of the Kelvin-Helmholtz waves on the magnetopause boundaries,reconnection-generated magnetic structures,and the cross-tail electric field.In each chapter,the last section discusses the open questions related to each topic,which can be considered by the simulations and the future spacecraft mission.We end this paper by summarizing the future Bepi Colombo opportunities,which is a joint mission of ESA and JAXA and is en route to Mercury.     

Existence,morphology and structure of the Yellow Sea Warm Current Branch approaching waters offshore Qingdao,China

In this study, we focused on full-region cruise survey data, near-bottom continuous mooring observations and sea surface wind products from the western South Yellow Sea in winter; after ensuring the data reliability and accuracy, we processed and analyzed the data. Image resolution experiments were carried out to determine the lowest recognition resolutions for all image types, which represent the resolution characteristics of the data. The existence of a warm water tongue originating from the Yellow Sea Warm Current(YSWC) that approached waters offshore Qingdao was confirmed. For the first time, a high salinity water tongue, corresponding to the warm water tongue, was described and found to be more representative of the YSWC branch path. This warm tongue is a sign of the branch originating from the YSWC, which we defined as the Yellow Sea Warm Current Branch approaching waters offshore Qingdao(YSWC-QDB). The pattern of the warm and salty water tongues showed remarkable rear, branching middle, shrinking neck and expanding top regions. These patterns showed a temporal feature of the tongues, and were the result of multi-temporal branches in front of the YSWC main section as well as the YSWC-QDB crossing the southwestward path of the extension of the North Shandong Coastal Current flowing along the southeast coast of the Shandong Peninsula(NSCC-SESE). Analysis using mooring data at a sensitive and representative station also showed the existence of the YSWC-QDB. It is a probabilistic event that manifests as a northwestward flow that decreases gradually from the bottom to the surface in the early cold air transit stage and consistent in the whole water column profile in the later stage. It varies quasi-periodically with weather processes. It also transports some of the YSWC water stored in the entrance area of the Bohai and Yellow seas under winter wind conditions to the western South Yellow Sea as a compensatory current. This current, caused by northerly winds, especially northwest winds and obstruction of the NSCC-SESE, was present, and strong water reduction and compensation caused significant residual sea level oscillations. The compensatory current, if caused by strong northwest wind,began to appear when its direction was opposite to the wind direction. In addition, confirmation of the YSWC-QDB provides an oceanographic basis for the short cooling time and rapid warming in the Qingdao area in winter. This research provides a basis for further studies of the YSWC-QDB at high spatial and temporal resolutions using large sea surface datasets. For monsoon basin dynamics, this study can also be extended to the whole Bohai and Yellow seas and closed or semi-closed basins on the continental margin.     

Recent progress of seismic research on tall buildings in China Mainland

To study the seismic behavior of high strength concrete fi lled double-tube(CFDT) columns,each consisting of an external square steel tube and an internal circular steel tube,quasi-static tests on eight CFDT column specimens were conducted.The test variables included the width-to-thickness ratio(β1) and the area ratio(β2) of the square steel tube,the wall thickness of the circular steel tube,and the axial force(or the axial force ratio) applied to the CFDT columns.The test results indicate that for CFDT columns with a square steel tube with β1 of 50.1 and 24.5,local buckling of the specimen was found at a drift ratio of 1/150 and 1/50,respectively.The lateral force-displacement hysteretic loops of all specimens were plump and stable.Reducing the width-to-thickness ratio of the square steel tube,increasing its area ratio,or increasing the wall thickness of the internal circular steel tube,led to an increased fl exural strength and deformation capacity of the specimens.Increasing the design value of the axial force ratio from 0.8 to 1.0 may increase the fl exural strength of the specimens,while it may also decrease the ultimate deformation capacity of the specimen with β1 of 50.1.     

Evaluation of vertical impact factor coefficients for continuous and integral railway bridges under high-speed moving loads

In the railway bridge analysis and design method,dynamic train loads are regarded as static loads enhanced by an impact factor(IF).The IF coefficients for various railway bridges have been reported as a function of span length or frequency of the bridges in Eurocode(2003).However,these IF coefficient values neglect the effects of very high speeds(>200 km/h)and soil-structure interaction(SSI).In this work,a comprehensive study to assess the impact factor coefficients of mid-span vertical displacements for continuous and integral railway bridges subjected to high-speed moving loads is reported.Three different configurations,each for the three-dimensional(3D)continuous and integral bridge,are considered.Also,single-track(1-T)and two-track(2-T)“real train”loading cases for both these bridge types are considered.Subsequently,finite element analysis of the full-scale 3D bridge models,to identify their IF values,considering the effects of SSI for three different soil conditions,is conducted.The IF values obtained from the study for both bridge types are comparable and are greater than the values recommended by Eurocode(2003).The results reveal that with a loss of soil stiffness,the IF value reduces;thus,it confirms the importance of SSI analysis.     

The intrinsic nonlinear multiscale interactions among the mean flow,low frequency variability and mesoscale eddies in the Kuroshio region

Using a new functional analysis tool, multiscale window transform(MWT), and the MWT-based localized multiscale energetics analysis and canonical transfer theory, this study reconstructs the Kuroshio system on three scale windows, namely,the mean flow window, the interannual-scale(low-frequency) window, and the transient eddy window, and investigates the climatological characteristics of the intricate nonlinear interactions among these windows. Significant upscale energy transfer is observed east of Taiwan, where the mean Kuroshio current extracts kinetic energy from both the interannual and eddy windows.It is found that the canonical transfer from the interannual variability is an intrinsic source that drives the eddy activities in this region. The multiscale variabilities of the Kuroshio in the East China Sea(ECS) are mainly controlled by the interaction between the mean flow and the eddies.The mean flow undergoes mixed instabilities(i.e., both barotropic and baroclinic instabilities) in the southern ECS, while it is barotropically stable but baroclinically unstable to the north. The multiscale interactions are found to be most intense south of Japan, where strong mixed instabilities occur; both the canonical transfers from the mean flow and the interannual scale are important mechanisms to fuel the eddies. It is also found that the interannual-scale energy mainly comes from the barotropically unstable jet, rather than the upscale energy transfer from the high frequency eddies.     

Geological and surfacial processes and major disaster effects in the Yellow River Basin

The Yellow River Basin(YRB) is characterized by active geological and tectonic processes, rapid geomorphological evolution, and distinct climatic diversity. Correspondingly, major disasters in the YRB are characterized by varied types,extensive distributions, and sudden occurrences. In addition, major disasters in the YRB usually evolve into disaster chains that cause severe consequences. Therefore, major disasters in the YRB destroy ecologies and environments and influence geological and ecological safety in the basin. This paper systematically reviews research on geological and surface processes, major disaster effects, and risk mitigation in the YRB, discusses the trends and challenges of relevant research, analyzes the key scientific problems that need to be solved, and suggests prospects for future research based on the earth system science concept. Themes of research that should be focused on include geological, surface and climatic processes in the YRB and their interlinking disaster gestation mechanisms;formation mechanisms and disaster chain evolutions of giant landslides in the upper reach of the YRB;mechanisms and disaster chain effects of loess water-soil disasters in the middle reach of the YRB;occurrence patterns and amplifying effects of giant flood chains in the lower reach of the YRB;and risk mitigations of major disasters in the YRB. Key scientific problems that need to be solved are as follows: how to reveal the geological, surface and climatic processes that are coupled and interlinked with gestation mechanisms of major disasters;how to clarify the mutual feedback effects between major disasters and ecology;and how to develop a human-environmental harmony-based integrated risk mitigation system for major disasters. Prospects for future studies that follow the earth system science concept include the following: highlighting interdisciplinary research to reveal the interlinked disaster gestation mechanisms of the geology, surface and climate in the YRB in the past, present, and future;forming theories to clarify the regional patterns, dynamic mechanisms, and mutual-feedback effects between disaster chains and ecology in the YRB on land and in rivers in the region;solving technological bottlenecks to develop assessment models and mitigation theories for integrated risks in the YRB by following the human-environment harmony concept;and finally, establishing a demonstratable application pattern characterized by "whole-basin coverage" and "zonal controls", thereby guaranteeing ecological and geological safety in the basin and providing scientific support for ecological conservation and high-quality development of the YRB.     

Distribution and structural characteristics of the Xi'an Section of the Weihe Fault

The results of seismic deep reflection,high resolution refraction and shallow artificial seismic exploration indicate that the fault on the northern bank of the Weihe river is composed of two faults,one is the Yaodian-Zhangjiawan fault and the other is the Chuanzhang-Zuitou fault.The 22 km long Yaodian-Zhangjiawan fault of EW-striking starts from Chenjiagou via Yaodian town,Qianpai village,Bili village,Wujia town and Zhangjiawan to Jiajiatan.The 15 km long Chuanzhang-Zuitou fault striking near EW starts from Chuanzhang via Mabei to Zuitou.The Weihe fault offset the basement and upper crust,the reflecting layers of TQ,TN,TE and Tg are ruptured at depth of about 15 km.In the deep part,the Weihe fault and the secondary fault form a Y-shaped structure or a synthetic low angle intersection.The Weihe fault is a listric normal fault.The fault has obvious structural characteristics of a reversed-drag normal fault and a normal drag normal fault with the depth of 1 000 m,and also has the characteris-tics of syngenetic sediment.The Weihe fault is one of the faults which control the basin sediment,and it is the boundary fault of Xi’an depression and Xianyang salient.The depth of the fault decreases from the west to east gradually,the deep part intersects with the Lintong-Chang’an fault at the intersection part of Weihe River,Jinghe River and Bahe River and the shallow part connects with the Weinan-Jingyang fault.The seismic exploration re-sults indicate that no fault exists on southern bank of the Weihe River.     

Prestack reverse-time depth migration of arbitrarily wide-angle wave equations

Based on arbitrarily wide-angle wave equations,a reverse-time propagation scheme is developed by substituting the partial derivatives of depth and time with central differences. The partial derivative of horizontal direction is replaced with high order difference. The imaging condition is computed by solving the eikonal equations. On the basis of above techniques,a prestack reverse-time depth migration algorithm is developed. The processing exam-ples of synthetic data show that the method can remove unwanted internal reflections and decrease the migration noise. The method also has the advantage of fidelity and is applicable of dip angle reflector imaging.     

Evaluation of the fishbone model in simulating the seismic response of multistory reinforced concrete moment-resisting frames

The fishbone model is a simplified numerical model for moment-resisting frames that is capable of modelling the effects of column-beam strength and stiffness ratios. The applicability of the fishbone model in simulating the seismic responses of reinforced concrete moment-resisting frames of different sets of column-beam strength and stiffness ratios are evaluated through nonlinear static, dynamic and incremental dynamic analysis on six prototype buildings of 4-, 8-and 12-stories. The results show that the fishbone model is practically accurate enough for reinforced concrete frames, although the assumption of equal joint rotation does not hold in all cases. In addition to the ground motion characteristics and the number of stories in the structures, the accuracy of the model also varies with the column-beam stiffness and strength ratios. The model performs better for strong column-weak beam frames, in which the lateral drift patterns are better controlled by the continuous stiffness provided by the strong columns. When the inelastic deformation is large, the accuracy of the model may be subjected to large record-to-record variability. This is especially the case for frames of weak columns.     

Causes and underlying dynamic processes of the mid-winter suppression in the North Pacific storm track

Baroclinic wave activity in the North Pacific exhibit peaks in late fall and early spring, and a local minimum in midwinter, when by linear baroclinic instability theory it should attain its maximum. This counterintuitive phenomenon, or"midwinter suppression"(MWM) as called, is investigated with a functional analysis apparatus, multiscale window transform(MWT), and the MWT-based theory of canonical transfer and localized multi-scale energetics analysis, together with a feature tracking technique, using the data from the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts ReAnalysis(ERA-40). It is found that the MWM results from a variety of different physical processes, including baroclinic canonical transfer, diabatic effect, energy flux divergence, and frictional dissipation. On one hand, baroclinic canonical transfer and diabatic effect achieve their respective maxima in late fall. More transient available potential energy is produced and then converted to transient kinetic energy, resulting in a stronger storm track in late fall than in midwinter. On the other hand, in early spring, although baroclinic instability and buoyancy conversion are weak, energy flux convergences are substantially strengthened, leading to a net energy inflow into the storm track. Meanwhile, frictional dissipation is greatly reduced in spring; as a result, less transient energy is dissipated in early spring than in midwinter. It is further found that the weakening of baroclinic canonical transfer in midwinter(compared to late fall) is due to the far distance between the storm and the jet stream(located at its southernmost point), which suppresses the interaction between them. Regarding the increase in energy flux convergence in early spring, it appears to originate from the increase(enhancement) in the number(strength) of storms from the upstream into the Pacific.     

江西省地震局虚拟专用网(VPN)建设

叙述了在FreeBSD环境下构建基于PPTP的VPN网关的过程和技术，分析了基本概念、实现方式以及在江西省地震信息网的实际应用等。     

兰州地震研究所发展的三段历史回顾

对兰州地震研究所的三段历史作回顾,分别为国家地震局、中国地震局兰州地震研究所的体制沿革变迁,中国科学院地球物理研究所;中国科学院兰州地球物理研究所观象台早期创建;兰州地震研究所硕士点早期阶段。     

山西大同数字遥测地震台网记录的震相特征

从地球及地壳的分层结构出发，使用较成熟的理论，从地震波传播的基本原理入手，结合多年的震相观察分析工作实践，选取了山西大同数字遥测地震台网近年来的一些典型震相进行了分析，得出本台网记录到震中距小于100km的地方震震相有Pg，P11，Sg，S11震中距在100km～500km的近震震相有Pn，Pg，P11，Sn，Sg,S11对比分析了在本台网内及周边地区发生的爆破与天然地震在震相上的差异性，并对其特征作了较详细的描述。     

山东数字地震台网子台背景噪声位移值的分布特征

利用山东数字地震台网的实时记录波形资料,采用在频率域积分方法,计算出各台站背景噪声的位移值。然后进行统计分析,得出了山东地区背景噪声位移值的空间分布和时间变化特征：台站背景噪声幅值与不同地区地质环境、岩性密切相关,位于第四系黄土覆盖层较厚的鲁西聊城、菏泽地区,鲁西北德州地区和鲁北东营、滨州地区各子台的背景噪声位移值较大,鲁中、鲁南山区和胶东半岛地区的基岩台站背景噪声位移值较小;同时,白天噪声值大于夜间噪声值,但深井观测台站的背景噪声值相对稳定。此项研究为绘制台网监测能力图提供基础数据,并为计算各台站的场地响应及震级修正值等测震学研究提供基础资料,促进台网的改建和发展。     

对齐误差对测试地震计自噪声的影响

本文在理论上研究了对齐误差对测试地震计自噪声的影响。指出对齐误差影响到2台仪器记录间的计算互功率谱密度, 进而影响到被测仪器记录间相干函数计算, 最终影响到被测仪器的自噪声计算。发现当存在对齐误差时, 在信噪比较高频段计算得到的自噪声水平比仪器的实际自噪声水平要高, 在一般的实际测试中可能高20 dB以上。为了消除对齐误差对自噪声测试的影响, 提出通过投影逆变换把观测记录变换到标准坐标系下, 再用变换后的观测记录来计算地震计自噪声。给出了基于以上思路和传感参数对比测试方法的地震计自噪声计算处理流程, 合成数据、 实际测试数据的处理检验计算结果表明, 本文方法可以有效克服地震计自噪声测试中对齐误差的影响。     

山西夏县中心地震台温泉水化学特征

采集夏县中心地震台温泉水及周边水点样品进行水化学组分特征分析。利用矩形图、Na-K-Mg三角图等方法,初步分析温泉水的水质类型、水-岩平衡状态、热储温度以及循环深度等,并结合氢氧同位素组成特征,初步分析温泉水补给来源。研究表明,夏县中心地震台温泉水化类型属于Na-Cl·SO₄型,水-岩反应属于部分成熟水,热储温度为148.8℃,循环深度为3.91 km,补给源主要为大气降水,温泉为断裂型温泉。以上结果可为该台流体异常分析提供基础研究资料,为夏县地区水化研究奠定基础。     

裂隙岩体渗透性空间分布的指示克里格估值

本文较详细介绍了指示克立格估值的基本方法和原理，以指示变异函数为基本工具分析了向家坝坝址区裂隙岩体渗透性空间分布的结构特征，表明该址区裂隙岩体渗透性存在明显的各向异性特征；在此基础上用指示克立格法对未采样点处进行估值，估值结果显示坝址区裂隙岩体渗透性存在明显的壳状渗透结构特征.通过这一实际应用，表明指示克立格法可以较好地描述裂隙岩体渗透性的空间分布规律.     

前兆场变化在地震空间位置判断上的应用

运用福建前兆观测台网资料,分析了形变应力场和水位震后效应场等前兆场的空间变化规律与福建区域地震的相关性.结果显示,福建多次ML＞4.5地震的孕育过程均伴随着形变应力及水位震后效应的成场.研究认为,当形变应力场与水位震后效应场的时空演化规律趋于一致时,这一区域就具备发生中强以上地震的背景条件,跟踪分析形变应力场及水位震后效应场的空间迁移规律,可对未来发生的地震的空间位置做出较为准确的判断.     

库水压力作用下不同类型断层诱发水库地震的可能性分析

根据断裂力学原理,研究了水库蓄水后,在原有产生断裂的地应力基础上库水产生的附加应力,并分析了张开和闭合断裂的应力强度因子的变化趋势和正断层、逆断层及走滑断层发生扩展的可能性,从而揭示不同断层诱发水库地震的可能性。     

Impacts of sparing use of water on farmer income of China

We examine relationships between nationwide sparing use of water and farmer income of China in this article. As increasing implementation of water projects and irrigation system, the cost of water use has increased in many regions. However, as local policy-oriented urban expansion and ecological restoration have carried out during the past decade, water demand has increased. The spatial distributions of water use and farmer income are uneven and their relationships are ambiguous over time, especially it is uncertain that farmers can benefit from those so called water-saving programs when urban expansion grows faster in China. Based on consumption theory, empirical results of Blundell–Bond dynamic panel-data model with generalized method of moments (GMM) estimators indicate saving one percent of water has positive impacts at 0.085–0.35 percent on farmer income in the following statistical year. Population has negative impacts on farmer income. Particularly in Central China, one percent of increase in population will statistically significantly decrease 0.276 percent of contemporaneous farmer income. Particularly, in Eastern China with large population during years 2004 through 2012, the total amount of water use increases one percent, contemporaneous farmer income loses 0.04 percent. Thus, saving water can benefit future farmer income, and it indicates that urban expansion may induce the diversion of resources and agricultural production from rural to urban area. Policy implication of relationships between water allocation and farmer income distribution caused by water-saving programs needs to be further studied at regional scale, in particularly to the regions with large population and urban expansion in China.