A comprehensive model current system for high-latitude magnetic activity -II. The substorm component

Summary. In paper I of this series (Hughes & Rostoker) we have presented a composite model three-dimensional current system whose magnetic perturbation pattern is in good agreement with that observed at high latitudes during periods of moderate magnetospheric activity. In this paper we extend the model current system to demonstrate its ability to reproduce the magnetic perturbation pattern associated with the magnetospheric substorms. In agreement with previous workers, we find it necessary to include a region of intense equatorward current flow at the western edge of the westward travelling surge. For the particular substorm event presented in this paper, we find that the main eastward and westward electrojets intensified slightly before the appearance of the surge form, and we are able to evaluate quantitatively the amount of change involved.     

Equation for the field lines of an axisymmetric magnetic multipole

Summary. An exact equation is derived for the magnetic field lines of the general axisymmetric magnetic multipole of arbitrary degree ( n ). This new result has important applications in studies of the possible nature of solarterrestrial physics during geomagnetic polarity reversals. In the limiting case of a magnetic dipole ( n=1 ), the equation for the magnetic field lines of the general axisymmetric magnetic multipole simplifies correctly to the well-known dipolar form, which is used extensively in geomagnetism, magnetospheric physics and cosmic-ray physics as a first-order approximation to the actual configuration of the geomagnetic field.
It is also shown theoretically that suites of similar magnetic field lines of the general axisymmetric multipole attain their maximum radial distances from the origin on a set of circular conical surfaces, with coincident vertices at the centre of the Earth; this set includes the equatorial plane if the degree ( n ) of the multipole is odd. The magnetic field is horizontal everywhere on all these surfaces.
Palaeomagnetic studies have suggested that during some polarity reversals the magnetic field in the inner magnetosphere can be represented approximately either by a single, non-dipolar, low-degree (2 < n < 4), axisymmetric magnetic multipole or by a linear combination of such multipoles. In this situation, the equation for the field lines of an axisymmetric magnetic multipole of low degree (2 < n < 4) would be as fundamental to a proper understanding of magnetospheric, ionospheric and cosmic-ray physics during polarity reversals as is the equation for dipolar field lines in the case of the contemporary geomagnetic field.     

Quadrupole and octupole parameters of Jupiter's main magnetic field

Summary. The classical theory of multipoles is used to calculate the true quadrupole and octupole parameters for six different models of Jupiter's main magnetic field. These six magnetic-field models, which are based on measurements made by the Pioneer 10 and Pioneer 11 spacecraft, are specified in terms of the fifteen spherical harmonic coefficients required to define the Jovian dipole (3), quadrupole (5) and octupole (7). The set of five equations for the quadrupole parameters and the set of seven equations for the octupole parameters are each solved iteratively to give the corresponding true multipole moment and the directions of the associated multipole axes. It is found that the five quadrupole parameters are defined reasonably accurately by the Pioneer measurements, as are the three dipole parameters, but it is concluded that there are appreciable uncertainties in each of the seven octupole parameters. The true quadrupole and octupole magnetic moments are typically 14 and 5 per cent, respectively, of the dipole moment. These percentages are significantly different from the corresponding percentages for the pseudo-magnetic moments, namely 24 and 21 per cent, which are usually quoted in discussions of the higher multipoles of the Jovian magnetic field. Both the true and pseudo-multipole moments are larger for Jupiter than for the Earth. It is suggested finally that a proper multipole expansion of Jupiter's main magnetic field may have important applications in quantitative studies of several problems involving the Jovian magnetosphere, such as the decimetric and decametric radio emissions from Jupiter.     

A study of geomagnetic storms

Summary. An attempt is made to find interplanetary magnetic field and solar-wind parameters which control the development of geomagnetic storms. For this purpose, the interplanetary energy flux is estimated in terms of the Poynting flux ( E × B /4π), and its time variations are compared with the rate of energy dissipation in terms of the ring-current particle injection u _i( t ), Joule dissipation in the ionosphere u_j ( t ) and auroral particle injection u_p ( t ) for 15 major geomagnetic storms.
It is shown that the growth of geomagnetic storms, namely the time variations of the rate of the total energy dissipation, u ( t ) = u _i( t ) + u _j( t ) + u _p( t ), is closely related to the Poynting flux by the following relation:
where l ₀≅ 7 R _E and θ' is a measure of the angle between the interplanetary magnetic field vector and the magnetospheric field vector at the front of the magnetosphere in the equatorial plane. Further, it is shown that within a factor of 2 for each storm period.
A large increase of u ( t ) is associated with substorm activity. Thus, the energy flux ɛ( t ) entering the magnetosphere is dissipated through magneto-spheric substorm processes within the magnetosphere, and their accumulated effects can be understood as geomagnetic storm phenomena.     

Development of a polar magnetic substorm: a two-dimensional magnetometer array study

A polar magnetic substorm on 1974 September 11 was recorded by a two-dimensional array of 25 three-component magnetometers, so located that the westward ionospheric current passed over the array. The mean perturbation fields over five-minute intervals are presented at six representative epochs of the substorm, the first just before its onset and the sixth 21/2 hr later in the coda of the event. At four of the resulting 'time frames', the perturbation fields have been fitted, on a least-squares criterion, by calculated fields of three-dimensional current loops having downward field-aligned current at the east end of the ionospheric westward current, upward field-aligned current at the west end and closure in the magnetotail. The current density was constant across the width of each of these model currents. In three of the four time frames it proved necessary to introduce a bend to the northwest in the ionospheric current; this bend occurred within 27° (geomagnetic) west of geomagnetic midnight. An association with the Harang discontinuity is possible. The field-aligned current nearer to the array (in one time-frame the downward, east-end current, in two others the upward current at the west end) proved essential to secure any reasonable fit to the data. The ionospheric segment of the current loop moved at least 20° of longitude eastward, relative to the surface of the earth, between 07.48 and 08.58 UT. In this 70-min period the ionospheric segment moved at least 38° eastward relative to magnetic midnight.     

The extremely intense CNA events observed at Zhongshan Station in July, 2000

Using the ground observation data at Zhongshan Station of Antarctica during July 13 to 17, 2000, the intense absorption events associated with the activities of the solar active region R9077 are analyzed. It was shown that an intense polar cap absorption event lasted more than 3 days, which was caused by the solar proton event associated with the X5/3B major flare at 1024 UT on July 13. The polar cap event started at about 1040 UT on July 14, and lasted to about 1940 UT on July 17, with a typical day night variation. At the same time, the intense solar activities extremely disturbed the magnetosphere, therefore aurora substorms occurred frequently. The energetic particle precipitation from the magnetosphere caused several absorption spikes superposing on the background of polar cap absorption. One distinct event is the absorption enhancement that started at about 0300 UT on July 15, reached its peak of 26 dB at about 0645 UT and recovered at about 1110 UT on the same day, which was the strongest absorption event observed at Zhongshan Station since the imaging riometer installed in February, 1997. Another outstanding absorption spike with pulsation occurred at about 1753 UT on 14th, its peak reached to 6 dB.     

A study of two polar magnetic substorms with a two-dimensional magnetometer array

Summary. The paper reports studies of the three-dimensional magnetospheric—ionospheric current systems which produced polar magnetic substorms on 1974 September 7 and September 18. The data were magnetic perturbation fields observed with a two-dimensional array of 23 three-component magnetometers located in western Canada beneath the auroral oval. In an earlier study of a substorm of September 11 (Bannister & Gough) the fields fitted calculated field for a Boström Type 1 current loop with field-aligned currents at east and west ends of the ionospheric segment, and with uniform current density across the width. The substorms here reported could not be modelled with uniform current density. An inverse method due to Oldenburg was therefore used to estimate current density distributions, and satisfactory fits of calculated to observed field resulted. Each substorm was modelled at six representative epochs. In general the principal ionospheric current seem by the array was westward. At four epochs of the September 7 substorm and throughout the September 18 substorm, significant eastward ionospheric current (or its equivalent in terms of the fields produced) was observed north of the westward electrojet. Northwestward bends in the ionospheric current segments were found at four epochs on September 7 and at three epochs on September 18. As in the September 11 substorm (Paper 1), these bends were either west of or close to magnetic midnight. In some cases the bends may follow the auroral oval, but in others they are sharper and may be associated with the Harang discontinuity. East of geomagnetic the ionospheric currents tend to run in a constant geomagnetic midnight latitude range. The developments of the three substorms, of September 7, 11 (Paper 1) and 18, are compared. They showed a variety of shifts in longitude, though all moved eastward relative to magnetic midnight.     

The magnetic structure of convection-driven numerical dynamos

The generation of a magnetic field in numerical simulations of the geodynamo is an intrinsically 3-D and time-dependent phenomenon. The concept of magnetic field lines and the frozen-flux approximation can provide insight into such systems, but a suitable visualization method is required. This paper presents results obtained using the Dynamical Magnetic Field line Imaging (DMFI) technique, which is a representation of magnetic field lines accounting for their local magnetic energy, together with an algorithm for the time evolution of their anchor points. The DMFI illustrations are consistent with previously published dynamo mechanisms, and allow further investigation of spatially and temporally complex systems. We highlight three types of magnetic structures: (i) magnetic cyclones and (ii) magnetic anticyclones are expelled by, but corotate with axial flow vortices; (iii) magnetic upwellings are amplified by stretching and advection within flow upwellings, and show structural similarity with helical plumes found in rotating hydrodynamic experiments. While magnetic anticyclones are responsible for the regeneration of a stable axial dipole, here we show that excursions and reversals of the dipole axis are caused by the emergence of magnetic upwellings, which amplify and transport a generally multipolar magnetic field from the inner to the outer boundary of the models. Geomagnetic observations suggest the presence of magnetic structures similar to those found in our models; thus, we discuss how our results may pertain to Earth's core dynamo processes. In order to make DMFI a standard tool for numerical dynamo studies, a public software package is available upon request to the authors (supplementary material is available at: http://www.ipgp.jussieu.fr/~aubert/DMFI.html ).     

Modelling of solar quiet magnetic field variations near a conductivity anomaly

Summary. A simplified model of the solar quiet-time ionospheric current system is used to calculate the induced currents in a model earth. The conductivity is assumed to be constant below a depth of about 400 km and zero above that depth. The current induced in the north—south conductivity anomaly under the Rocky Mountains is then estimated from the time-varying potential difference between points at 30 and 45° latitude at the surface of the conducting sphere. The purpose of these calculations is to investigate whether variations in the latitude of the northern hemisphere current system vortex will substantially alter the relationship between the observed magnetic field components at the Earth's surface and the local magnetic field gradient caused by the conductivity anomaly. We find that a 10° shift in the latitude of the ionospheric current focus causes a change of 6 per cent or less in the transfer function from the field components to the gradient in the total field. Thus such latitude shifts cannot explain much of the magnetic field gradient variation at periods near 24 hr that has been observed near Boulder, Colorado.     

Nearest neighbor methods applied to dune field organization: The Coral Pink Sand Dunes,Kane County,Utah, USA

Dune fields have recently come to be recognized as self-organizing systems that can be seen progressing from states of disorganization or randomness to uniformity. Dune systems can be highly sensitive to changes in factors, such as climate and sediment transport, that determine system state. Changes in climate and sediment state can take time to work their way through a dune system; this, in turn, leads to spatial heterogeneity in dune field organization. Using the Coral Pink Sand Dunes in southern Utah as a model, this study tests nearest neighbor analysis adapted as a method to objectively identify and characterize differences in two dimensional dune patterns within a dune field and to identify changes in dune patterns over time. Reducing transverse and barchanoid dunes from linear to three-point features in planar space emphasizes the clustering that occurs when dune lengths and wavelengths are more disorganized or random. This clustering may be in response to a system perturbation, such as an influx of sediment, and is reflected in lower nearest neighbor index (R) values. As the system adjusts to the perturbation and moves towards steady state, dune length and spacing increase through migration and coalescing of smaller dunes; the resulting higher R values reflect this move towards greater uniformity in dune pattern. With the organizational states of dune systems recording feedback to changes in extrinsic climate and sediment factors, nearest neighbor analysis provides a proxy measure of system stability.     

On the nature of abnormal quiet days in Sq(H)

Summary. It is well known that the time of occurrence of the minimum in the horizontal component of the Earth's magnetic field ( H _min) on quiet days at a mid-latitude station on the poleward side of the Sq focus shows considerable variability from day to day. This variability has previously been discussed in terms of the incidence of so-called 'abnormal quiet days'(AQD), arbitrarily defined for the station Hartland as quiet days when H _min occurred outside an interval of ± 2½ hr centred on the most common time of 1130 LT. AQDs have some interesting properties, which have been documented, but their precise nature and cause have not been elucidated. In this paper we report the results of a study of AQDs as identified at Hartland using a chain of Northern hemisphere stations situated approximately along the 0° longitude meridian and extending on both sides of the Sq focus. It is found that there are two effects on AQDs: (i) a northward component field varying in LT is superposed at all latitudes throughout the day, so reducing the amplitude of the normal Sq(H) variation at stations poleward of the focus and increasing it on the equatorward side, (ii) a southward perturbation field, of most probable magnitude 6.0 nT for the period studied, is imposed for about 4 hr at a fixed UT at all latitudes, so constituting an 'AQD event' which can lead to the occurrence of H _min at an anomalous local time for a station poleward of the focus. It is shown that the AQD event may be of large geographical extent and that it is related to the interplanetary magnetic field. All the main properties of AQD occurrences are explained, and it is suggested that much of the day-to-day variability in the amplitude and phase of the normal Sq(H) variation probably also arises from the occurrence of AQD events at times close to the diurnal turning points.     

Crack propagation by differential insolation on desert surface clasts

In the southwest U.S., cracks in alluvial fan surface clasts have a preferred orientation independent of rock fabric and shape. In this paper, we show that differential insolation of incipient cracks of random orientations predicts a distribution of crack orientations consistent with field observations. In this model, crack growth by hydration and/or thermal weathering is primarily a function of local water content at the crack tip. Crack tips that experience minimal solar insolation maintain a greater average moisture and, hence, weather more rapidly than cracks that experience greater solar insolation. To show this, we used a numerical radiative transfer code to quantify the solar insolation of rectangular cracks at 35° N. latitude with a range of depths and orientations. The amount of solar energy reaching the bottom of each crack was calculated at 5-min intervals over the day for several days of the year to determine hourly, daily, seasonal, and annual energy deposition as a function of crack depth and orientation. By assuming that only crack orientations that effectively shield their interiors and minimize their water loss are able to grow, the pattern of cracks produced by the model is consistent with field observations. The annual average insolation, which controls water retention, is associated with the two primary modes of crack orientation. The effect of daily recharge by summer rains of the North American monsoon system is consistent with the observed deviations from these primary modes. Model results suggest that both the annual average insolation and the daily pattern of rainfall is recorded in the preferred crack orientations of surface clasts in the southwest U.S.     

Uplift by thermal expansion of the lithosphere

Summary. If one can measure the anomalous horizontal magnetic field associated with a (locally bounded) two-dimensional conductivity anomaly, the transfer function which results from correlating the vertical with the anomalous horizontal magnetic field directly indicates the depth to an equivalent line-current. A. numerical model can be used to illustrate this. If three-dimensional effects (including current channelling) produce the current anomaly, interpretation in terms of conductive structure would be less clear. It has been claimed (Babour & Mosnier etc.) that such three-dimensional effects are experimentally observed in the highly coherent transfer functions determined from differential geomagnetic sounding experiments. These effects are, specifically, the 'linear polarization' of the anomalous fields, and the invariance of the phase of the measured anomalous field across the anomaly. It is suggested in this present paper that both these effects can be explained in terms of simple local induction models.
If the embedded two-dimensional anomaly is sufficiently close to the Earth's surface, the transfer function (between the vertical and the total horizontal field) contains more information than is usually interpreted. With this in mind, the magnetovariational data collected by Rooney & Hutton in the Kenyan Rift is re-examined.     

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.     

中国乡村地域系统与乡村振兴战略

乡村地域系统是由人文、经济、资源与环境相互联系、相互作用下构成的、具有一定结构、功能和区际联系的乡村空间体系,是一个由城乡融合体、乡村综合体、村镇有机体、居业协同体等组成的地域多体系统。以乡村地域系统为对象,服务支撑国家乡村振兴战略,为新时期地理学创新研究提供了新机遇和新挑战。乡村振兴地理学研究,亟需以问题为导向、战略为指向,以人地关系地域系统理论和人地系统科学为指导,致力于地表人地系统交互作用下乡村地域系统结构、转型过程、演变机理、分异格局、地域功能,以及乡村振兴途径与模式综合研究,科学把握乡村地域系统类型及其分异规律。本文以全国39164个乡镇为基本单元,采用定量和定性相结合的研究方法,诊断识别了制约中国乡村地域系统可持续发展的主导因子,划分了中国乡村地域系统类型,揭示了乡村地域系统分异格局,探明了不同类型区乡村振兴科学途径。结果表明：① 地理环境、村镇化水平、资源禀赋、人口流动程度和老龄化水平等是乡村地域系统分异的主导因子,反映了乡村发展自然本底特征以及外援动力、内生动力的大小。② 通过主导要素聚类和空间叠加分析,将中国乡村地域系统划分为12个一级区、43个二级区。一级区采用“地理区位+主导要素驱动力/约束力”的方法命名,二级区采用“地域范围+主导要素驱动力/约束力+乡村经济发展水平”命名。③ 不同类型区乡村振兴地域模式和路径不同,乡村振兴战略与规划的落地要因地制宜、分类施策。     

IMF polarity and annual variations of the Dst index

Summary. The annual variations of the Dst index were studied separately for the towards and away polarities of the interplanetary magnetic field. It was found that: (a) the towards polarity is associated with a spring minimum and the away polarity with an autumn minimum of Dst; (b) that both polarities exhibit an asymmetry between the solstices, the Dst values for the December solstice being more negative than those for the June solstice; and (c) that a shift of the annual minima in Dst to earlier times with increasing level of activity seems to exist, irrespective of IMF polarity. The first effect is related to the similar effect found earlier in other measures of geomagnetic activity and is assumed to be caused by varying energy transfer from the solar wind into the magnetosphere depending on the sign of the north-south component of the IMF; the second effect is compatible with a proposed annual variation in the size of the magnetosphere, the reason of which is still unknown; and the third suggests to us that the solar magnetospheric coordinate system might not be adequate for describing the interaction between the IMF and the magnetosphere during disturbed times.     

A prefetching model based on access popularity for geospatial data in a cluster-based caching system

Geospatial tile popularity reflects the general characteristics of user preferences in tile access. However, tile access has both long-term popularity features (characterized as stable) and short-term popularity features (characterized as explosive). Specific features of tile popularity are an important theoretical basis for improving the accuracy of caching and prefetching. This article considers both long-term and short-term popularity features for tile access and presents a Markov prefetching model in a cluster-based caching system based on a Zipf distribution. First, it describes the navigation path and the transition probability path for tile access based on the global features of tile access to find a way to estimate the transition tile access probabilities based on the access pattern, which satisfies Zipf's law. Then, based on temporal and spatial local changes in tile access patterns, the basic Markov model is used to prefetch tiles with the highest probability in the follow-up state for current hot tiles and these tiles are labeled as the set of prefetched objects. Finally, based on the access probability for prefetched tiles, they are evenly distributed in a cluster-based caching system. This method takes into account both global and local space–time changes in tile access patterns. This method not only makes the set of cached objects relatively stable but also adapts to changes in access distribution. Experimental results reveal that this method has a higher prefetch hit rate and a shorter average response time for tile requests and thus can improve the efficiency and stability of cluster-based caching systems.     

对我国城市化研究的再考察

本文通过对当前我国城市化研究领域中一些观点的重新考察,以务实的态度提出有关我国城市化进程,城市规模,城市化转移空间,郊区化等问题的探讨性看法,指出城市化既要遵循经济规律,又要发挥政府的适当调控,不拘于西方模式与简单的现象分析,追求城市实质性的健康,有序,持续发展,才是城市化的主旨。     

网络约束点格局分析研究综述

随着信息通信技术高速发展,地理相关大数据使得传统的空间分析面临着机遇与挑战。平面空间分析方法在分析网络空间点要素空间过程、揭示其空间分布时的弊端日益凸显,由此对探索网络约束点要素特定的分析方法的关注度不断提高。本文定义了网络约束的思想,详细阐述了网络约束点格局分析方法体系,并分别从网络约束点格局的理论和应用出发,梳理了网络约束点格局分析的一阶方法、二阶方法及其他方法上的研究进展,总结了网络约束点格局分析在交通安全领域、犯罪学领域和其他城市点要素中的典型应用,最后在方法与应用层面,讨论近年重要的研究动向及未来的发展趋势。