Evaluation of gravitational curvatures of a tesseroid in spherical integral kernels

Proper understanding of how the Earth’s mass distributions and redistributions influence the Earth’s gravity field-related functionals is crucial for numerous applications in geodesy, geophysics and related geosciences. Calculations of the gravitational curvatures (GC) have been proposed in geodesy in recent years. In view of future satellite missions, the sixth-order developments of the gradients are becoming requisite. In this paper, a set of 3D integral GC formulas of a tesseroid mass body have been provided by spherical integral kernels in the spatial domain. Based on the Taylor series expansion approach, the numerical expressions of the 3D GC formulas are provided up to sixth order. Moreover, numerical experiments demonstrate the correctness of the 3D Taylor series approach for the GC formulas with order as high as sixth order. Analogous to other gravitational effects (e.g., gravitational potential, gravity vector, gravity gradient tensor), numerically it is found that there exist the very-near-area problem and polar singularity problem in the GC east–east–radial, north–north–radial and radial–radial–radial components in spatial domain, and compared to the other gravitational effects, the relative approximation errors of the GC components are larger due to not only the influence of the geocentric distance but also the influence of the latitude. This study shows that the magnitude of each term for the nonzero GC functionals by a grid resolution 15\(^{{\prime } }\,\times \) 15\(^{{\prime }}\) at GOCE satellite height can reach of about 10\(^{-16}\) m\(^{-1}\) s\(^{2}\) for zero order, 10\(^{-24 }\) or 10\(^{-23}\) m\(^{-1}\) s\(^{2}\) for second order, 10\(^{-29}\) m\(^{-1}\) s\(^{2}\) for fourth order and 10\(^{-35}\) or 10\(^{-34}\) m\(^{-1}\) s\(^{2}\) for sixth order, respectively.     

Determination of Phobos’ rotational parameters by an inertial frame bundle block adjustment

A functional model for a bundle block adjustment in the inertial reference frame was developed, implemented and tested. This approach enables the determination of rotation parameters of planetary bodies on the basis of photogrammetric observations. Tests with a self-consistent synthetic data set showed that the implementation converges reliably toward the expected values of the introduced unknown parameters of the adjustment, e.g., spin pole orientation, and that it can cope with typical observational errors in the data. We applied the model to a data set of Phobos using images from the Mars Express and the Viking mission. With Phobos being in a locked rotation, we computed a forced libration amplitude of \(1.14^\circ \pm 0.03^\circ \) together with a control point network of 685 points.     

Generating GPS satellite fractional cycle bias for ambiguity-fixed precise point positioning

With the development of precise point positioning (PPP), the School of Geodesy and Geomatics (SGG) at Wuhan University is now routinely producing GPS satellite fractional cycle bias (FCB) products with open access for worldwide PPP users to conduct ambiguity-fixed PPP solution. We provide a brief theoretical background of PPP and present the strategies and models to compute the FCB products. The practical realization of the two-step (wide-lane and narrow-lane) FCB estimation scheme is described in detail. With GPS measurements taken in various situations, i.e., static, dynamic, and on low earth orbit (LEO) satellites, the quality of FCB estimation and the effectiveness of PPP ambiguity resolution (AR) are evaluated. The comparison with CNES FCBs indicated that our FCBs had a good consistency with the CNES ones. For wide-lane FCB, almost all the differences of the two products were within ±0.05 cycles. For narrow-lane FCB, 87.8 % of the differences were located between ±0.05 cycles, and 97.4 % of them were located between ±0.075 cycles. The experimental results showed that, compared with conventional ambiguity-float PPP, the averaged position RMS of static PPP can be improved from (3.6, 1.4, 3.6) to (2.0, 1.0, 2.7) centimeters for ambiguity-fixed PPP. The average accuracy improvement in the east, north, and up components reached 44.4, 28.6, and 25.0 %, respectively. A kinematic, ambiguity-fixed PPP test with observation of 80 min achieved a position accuracy of better than 5 cm at the one-sigma level in all three coordinate components. Compared with the results of ambiguity-float, kinematic PPP, the positioning biases of ambiguity-fixed PPP were improved by about 78.2, 20.8, and 65.1 % in east, north, and up. The RMS of LEO PPP test was improved by about 23.0, 37.0, and 43.0 % for GRACE-A and GRACE-B in radial, tangential, and normal directions when AR was applied to the same data set. These results demonstrated that the SGG FCB products can be produced with high quality for users anywhere around the world to carry out ambiguity-fixed PPP solutions.     

Identifying geospatial services across heterogeneous taxonomies

Geospatial services with different functions are assembled together to solve complex problems. Different taxonomies are developed to categorize these services into classes. As differences in granularity and semantics exist among these taxonomies, the identification of services across different taxonomies has become a challenge. In this paper, an approach to identify geospatial services across heterogeneous taxonomies is proposed. Using formal concept analysis, existing heterogeneous taxonomies are decomposed into semantic factors and their various combinations. With these semantic factors, a super taxonomy is established to integrate the original heterogeneous taxonomies. Finally, with the super taxonomy as a cross-referencing system, geospatial services with classes in original taxonomies are identifiable across taxonomies. Experiments in service registries and a social media-based spatial-temporal analysis project are presented to illustrate the effectiveness of this approach.     

Student Learning in an Introductory GIS Course: Using a Project‐Based Approach

Introductory courses in Geographic Information Science (GIS) expose students to the concepts and practices necessary for future academic and professional use of GIS tools. Traditional GIS courses balance lectures in the theories of GIS with pre‐built and pre‐packaged lab activities to learn the practices of GIS. This article presents a case study of an experimental introductory course in which students conducted novel, independent project‐based group research under the supervision of graduate or advanced undergraduate students enrolled in the course, culminating in a class presentation and publication quality paper. Surveys and interviews indicated that students reacted more positively to project‐based group research than to traditional activities. Students felt the projects better prepared them for ‘real world’ applications of GIS, and recommend project‐based group research in other GIS coursework. Additionally, our findings indicate that students appreciate interactions with peers of varying skill levels and experiences, as these broaden their capabilities to work with other GIS users.     

一种利用历史DLG数据辅助优化数字正射影像镶嵌线生成的方法

为了提升大面积数字正射影像图生产的效率,介绍了一种利用历史DLG数据辅助优化数字正射影像镶嵌线生成的方法,通过对DLG数据处理,提取出区域具有地物的面层,生成避让区域,在此基础上再考虑镶嵌线尽可能穿过原始DLG中较少的面及色差较小的区域,使用贪婪蛇模型算法实现了优化镶嵌线的生成。通过生产试验,证明了该方法可部分减少镶嵌线编辑的工作量。     

人工心肺机流量计的研制

本文介绍了如何应用单片微型计算机和光电传感器组成人工心肺机(或称体外循环机)流量计。该仪器对人工心肺机的泵的各种转速能够准确地采集,对不同的患者能够精确地计算出所需血液流量,从而定量地控制输送给病人的血液流量,以保证心脏手术顺利进行,改变了临床手术时手工计算的落后情况。流量计是一台新型的智能化仪表。     

测绘工程专业《地图学》课程教学改革的探讨

基于测绘工程专业人才培养的需要，介绍测绘工程专业地图学课程的教学目标和特点以及当前教学中存在的问题，对教学改革的内容和方法进行探讨。