MAXIPOL: a balloon-borne experiment for measuring the polarization anisotropy of the cosmic microwave background radiation

We discuss MAXIPOL, a bolometric balloon-borne experiment designed to measure the E-mode polarization anisotropy of the cosmic microwave background radiation (CMB) on angular scales of 10^′ to 2°. MAXIPOL is the first CMB experiment to collect data with a polarimeter that utilizes a rotating half-wave plate and fixed wire-grid polarizer. We present the instrument design, elaborate on the polarimeter strategy and show the instrument performance during flight with some time domain data. Our primary dataset was collected during a 26 h turnaround flight that was launched from the National Scientific Ballooning Facility in Ft. Sumner, New Mexico in May 2003. During this flight five regions of the sky were mapped. Data analysis is in progress.     

MM5-HPAC simulation experiments

Summary We evaluate mesoscale model predicted boundary-layer flow and the subsequent HPAC (Hazard Prediction and Assessment Capability) dispersion computation. The HPAC software allows for prediction of the effects of surface release of hazardous material into the atmosphere and collateral damage on civilian populations using either observed or numerical weather model data. The advanced mesoscale weather model MM5 was employed in the study. The real-data MM5 model simulations were verified with high-resolution observations from the West Texas Mesonet. MM5 worked well in simulating meteorologically relatively quiescent conditions. We examined the sensitivity of HPAC computations to the MM5 model’s grid resolution, lateral boundary conditions, and input weather data. Results suggest that the MM5-HPAC conjugation can provide useful prediction of airborne transport of hazardous materials near the surface. However, the accuracy of diffusion computations strongly depends on the performance of MM5, which in turn is likely to be a function of weather scenarios. A given state-of-the-art mesoscale model may perform well in some cases but not in others. There is a potential benefit of using several different model winds separately to run HPAC. A composite result of the HPAC runs could give a more comprehensive depiction of the transport of surface hazardous agents.     

流体 花岗岩 金矿

流体地质研究是当代地学研究中的重要前沿课题，已成为发展地质科学、建立新的知识体系的一个主要支柱和知识生长点。本文阐述了当今国内外流体的研究现状、发展水平、流体的涵义、性质、研究方法和研究重点及其与板块构造、变质作用、岩浆作用、成矿作用、成矿作用的重要意义。流体地质为地质科学提出了许多新的研究机会和挑战。该文在简要评述当今花岗岩研究现状的基础上，对花岗岩与金矿的关系进行了深入的讨论，指出了不同成因类型的花岗岩与金矿有着完全不同的关系。人们所说的花岗岩与金矿关系多数情况下应考虑是流体作用的结果。最后指出加强流体地质研究对提高河南地质与金矿的研究水平具有十分重要的实际意义和理论意义。     

腾格里沙漠周边地区1960-2012年气候变化特征

根据腾格里沙漠周边地区9个气象站点1960-2012年逐月平均气温、平均最高气温、平均最低气温、降水量、平均相对湿度、日照时数和平均风速的观测资料,利用线性回归、滑动平均和Mann-Kendall突变检验分析了该区1960-2012年气候变化特征。结果表明:1960-2012年,腾格里沙漠周边地区年平均气温以0.34 ℃/10a的速率呈显著上升的趋势,并于1989年发生显著突变;从季节变化来看,冬季升温幅度最大,达0.52 ℃/10a;年平均最高、最低气温均呈显著上升的趋势,但是年平均最低气温的升温速率0.44 ℃/10a明显大于最高气温升温速率0.25 ℃/10a,增暖的不对称性导致年平均气温日较差以0.18 ℃/10a的速率显著减小。年降水量以1.08 mm/10a的速率增加,但变化趋势不显著,四季降水量均有不同程度的增加;湿润指数的变化亦不显著,年、春季、夏季和秋季湿润指数均有减小趋势,冬季湿润指数有增加趋势;年、季平均风速皆呈显著减小的趋势,年平均风速减小的速率为0.15 m·s^-1·(10a)^-1,日照时数以5.6 h/10a的速率呈不显著的增加趋势,各季节日照时数有不同的变化趋势,春季和夏季日照时数呈增加趋势,而秋季和冬季的日照时数呈减小趋势。     

The role of the border city Hunchun on Tumen River, China

Since the Tumen River Area Development Project(TRADP) was launched in 1991, Hunchun city located between North Korea and Russia along the river corridor, has become an important and unique border city. Hunchun, formerly a strategic military city, is emerging as an international trade linkage center through Satouz and Quanhe on the North Korea side and through Changlinzi on the Russian side. Furthermore, the establishment and operation of the Hunchun Border Economic Cooperation Zone (HBECZ) in the city is becoming the main source of the growth, providing a new role for the border city. Its underlying economic momentum comes from the combination of the Chinese-Korean labor force and foreign investment and technology transferred from Korea, Japan, and others. The most important expected new role for Hunchun is as a new 21st century entrepot connection between the Pacific rim and Eurasia by rail and trunk lines, and as a new regional center of the border region based on both a newly generated urban subsystem and the increasing informal sector of cross border business. However, there are many obstacles to overcome in the near future, such as the possible military tensions among the three border nations, the guarantee of free entries and sailing on the Tumen river, and agreements concerning environmental conservation. This revised version was published online in August 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

Massive sedimentation of fine sediment with organic matter and enhanced benthic-pelagic coupling by an artificial dyke in semi-enclosed Chonsu Bay, Korea

To assess the impact of an artificial dyke in Chonsu Bay (CBD) on the organic carbon (C(org)) cycle, we measured excess (210)Pb activities, C(org) and nitrogen content in sediment cores. The C(org) oxidation rates (C(ox)) on the surface sediment and benthic nutrient fluxes were also quantified with an in situ benthic chamber. The higher excess (210)Pb inventory, C(org) and nitrogen in cores near the CBD indicated lateral transport and local, massive deposition of particulate matter due to tidal circulation altered by artificial dyke construction. The C(ox) in sediment near the CBD was about twice as high as that out of the bay, suggesting the importance of benthic remineralization of organic matter. The benthic fluxes of dissolved inorganic nitrogen and phosphate were four to six times higher than those outside the bay, corresponding to 141% and 131% respectively, of the requirements for primary production.     

The Injection, Acceleration, and Dynamical Influence of Interstellar Pickup Ions at the Solar Wind Termination Shock

The interaction of interstellar pickup ions with the solar wind termination shock is reviewed and assessed. The pickup ions mass and momentum load the wind and increase its pressure, effects which decrease the strength of the shock and its distance from the Sun. The pickup hydrogen may contribute substantially to the "reflected" ion population, which should provide most of the dissipation at the supercritical quasi-perpendicular shock. A fraction of the pickup ions impinging on the shock is "injected" into the process of diffusive shock acceleration to form the anomalous cosmic ray component. An injection mechanism which accounts for the apparent absence of solar wind ions in the anomalous component is "shock surfing", in which pickup ions which approach the shock slowly may be trapped between the upstream Lorentz force and the shock potential and accelerated in the motional electric field beyond the energy threshold for diffusive shock acceleration. However, the simplest interpretation of shock surfing would favor less massive pickup ion species, in contradiction with Voyager observations of anomalous component composition. A possible extension of the shock surfing mechanism is considered, as well as other injection mechanisms. Finally, the pressure of the anomalous component may modify the structure of the termination shock, which in turn may influence injection rates. This revised version was published online in July 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

Retrieving multi-scale climatic variations from high dimensional time-series MODIS green vegetation cover in a tropical/subtropical mountainous island

【Title】
There are knowledge gaps in our understanding of vegetation responses to multi-scale climate-related variables in tropical/subtropical mountainous islands in the Asia-Pacific region. Therefore, this study investigated inter-annual vegetation dynamics and regular/irregular climate patterns in Taiwan. We applied principal component analysis （PCA） on 11 years （2001~2011） of high-dimensional monthly photosynthetically active vegetation cover （PV） derived from the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer （MODIS） and investigated the relationships between spatiotemporal patterns of the eigenvectors and loadings of each component through time and multi-scale climate-related variations. Results showed that the first five components contributed to 96.4% of the total variance. The first component （PC1, explaining 94.5% of variance） loadings, as expected, were significantly correlated with the temporal dynamics of the PV （r = 0.94）, which was mainly governed by regional climate. The temporal loadings of PC2 and PC3 （0.8% and 0.6% of variance, respectively） were significantly correlated with the temporal dynamics of the PV of forests （r = 0.72） and the farmlands （r = 0.80）, respectively. The low-order components （PC4 and PC5, 0.3% and 0.2% of variance, respectively） were closely related to the occurrence of drought （r = 0.49） and to irregular ENSO associated climate anomalies （r = -0.54）, respectively. Pronounced correlations were also observed between PC5 and the Southern Oscillation Index （SOI） with one to three months of time lags （r = -0.35 ~ -0.43, respectively）, revealing biophysical memory effects on the time-series pattern of the vegetation through ENSO-related rainfall patterns. Our findings reveal that the sensitivity of the ecosystems in this tropical/subtropical mountainous island may not only be regulated by regional climate and human activities but also be susceptible to large-scale climate anomalies which are crucial and comparable to previous large scale analyses. This study demonstrates that PCA can be an effective tool for analyzing seasonal and inter-annual variability of vegetation dynamics across this tropical/subtropical mountainous islandin the Pacific Ocean, which provides an opportunity to forecast the responses and feedbacks of terrestrial environments to future climate scenarios.