The coupled rotation of the inner core

The rotation of the inner core (IC) is influenced by the rest of the Earth through a number of coupling mechanisms. Among four possible coupling mechanisms, gravitational, pressure, viscous and electromagnetic, the first two torques are dominant. Numerous existing IC gravitational torque estimates have been shown to agree very well with one another Xu & Szeto 1996 ). It is shown in this paper that different estimates of the IC pressure torque are also in good agreement.
The coupled rotation of the IC has been investigated in the frequency domain by several research groups (Mathews et al. 1991a,b; De Vries & Wahr 1991 ; Dehant et al. 1993; Jiang 1993 ). Not all of these efforts obtained two IC-related rotational modes, the inner-core wobble (ICW) and the free-inner-core nutation (FICN). We investigate this problem in the time domain and confirm the existence of the two modes. The periods of ICW and FICN are in good agreement with those obtained by other researchers. In studying the effects of coupling torques on the IC rotational modes we have found that depending on whether the IC net torque is 'restoring' or otherwise, an increased torque magnitude will respectively shorten or lengthen the ICW period. We have also found that the sense of FICN is determined by the orientation of the net coupling torque on the IC.     

Characteristics of the Variation of Cross Fault Short-Baseline and Short-Range Leveling in Western Yunnan Earthquake Test Site Before Lijiang M_S7.0 Earthquake

Results of analysis of variation of cross fault short-baseline and short-range leveling in Western Yunnan Earthquake Test Site (WYETS), results show that among five observation stations of cross fault short-baseline and short-range leveling in WYETS before the Lijiang MS7.0 Earthquake occurred in February 1996 only Yongsheng observation station (epicentral distance 82 km) located at Chenghai fault shows great variation about one year before the earthquake. And the nearest observation station, Lijiang (epicentral distance 42 km); presents great coseismic variation, but does not show obvious anomalous variation before the earthquake. There are no significant variations related to the earthquake at the other three observation stations. Two methods are used in analysis of the observed data and some valuable results have been obtained.     

RESERVOIR SEDIMENTATION AND LAND USE IN TAIWAN WUSHEH WATERSHED

ＲＥＳＥＲＶＯＩＲＳＥＤＩＭＥＮＴＡＴＩＯＮＡＮＤＬＡＮＤＵＳＥＩＮＴＡＩＷＡＮＷＵＳＨＥＨＷＡＴＥＲＳＨＥＤＳｕＣｈｉｎＣＨＥＮ１ＡＢＳＴＲＡＣＴＷｕｓｈｅｈＲｅｓｅｒｖｏｉｒｉｓａｇｏｒｇｅｔｙｐｅｈｙｄｒｏｐｏｗｅｒＲｅｓｅｒｖｏｉｒｏｎＷ...     

Annual and seasonal variations in the low-latitude topside ionosphere

Annual and seasonal variations in the low-latitude topside ionosphere are investigated using observations made by the Hinotori satellite and the Sheffield University Plasmasphere Ionosphere Model (SUPIM). The observed electron densities at 600 km altitude show a strong annual anomaly at all longitudes. The average electron densities of conjugate latitudes within the latitude range ±25° are higher at the December solstice than at the June solstice by about 100% during daytime and 30% during night-time. Model calculations show that the annual variations in the neutral gas densities play important roles. The model values obtained from calculations with inputs for the neutral densities obtained from MSIS86 reproduce the general behaviour of the observed annual anomaly. However, the differences in the modelled electron densities at the two solstices are only about 30% of that seen in the observed values. The model calculations suggest that while the differences between the solstice values of neutral wind, resulting from the coupling of the neutral gas and plasma, may also make a significant contribution to the daytime annual anomaly, the E × B drift velocity may slightly weaken the annual anomaly during daytime and strengthen the anomaly during the post-sunset period. It is suggested that energy sources, other than those arising from the 6% difference in the solar EUV fluxes at the two solstices due to the change in the Sun-Earth distance, may contribute to the annual anomaly. Observations show strong seasonal variations at the solstices, with the electron density at 600 km altitude being higher in the summer hemisphere than in the winter hemisphere, contrary to the behaviour in NmF2. Model calculations confirm that the seasonal behaviour results from effects caused by transequatorial component of the neutral wind in the direction summer hemisphere to winter hemisphere.     

以伽师地震为例试论临震预报的可能性与局限性

地震前兆十分复杂,时空分布很不均匀,某些地方在某些时候,有可能表现出较为明显的地震前兆,只要我们有相应的监测能力和分析预报能力,是有可能实现地震预报的。     

三分量磁饱和式磁力仪

本文概述了为青藏科考大地电磁测深工作研制的三分量磁饱和式磁力仪的原理、性能、用途和野外使用情况。 仪器的技术指标为:分辨率0.2伽（亻马）;灵敏度100毫伏/伽（亻马）;温度系数l伽（亻马）/℃;记录频带0-1.0赫兹;耗电量18瓦。 在青藏高原的地球物理考察中,用本仪器先后在藏南、藏北五个点进行了连续数月的野外地磁测量。从工作情况看,仪器工作正常,记录了一次完整的磁暴,为研究青藏高原地壳与上地幔的电性结构提供了一批有意义的资料。     

Application of Astronomic Time-latitude Residuals in Earthquake Prediction

After the earthquake (Ms = 6.1) occurred in Luquan county of Yunnan province on April 18, 1985, the relationship between major earthquakes and astronomical time-latitude residuals (ATLR) of a photoelectric astrolabe in Yunnan Observatory was analyzed. ATLR are the rest after deducting the effects of Earth’s whole motion from the observations of time and latitude. It was found that there appeared the anomalies of the ATLR before earthquakes which happened in and around Yunnan, a seismic active region. The reason of the anomalies is possibly from change of the plumb line due to the motion of the groundmass before earthquakes. Afterwards, using studies of the anomalous characters and laws of ATLR, we tried to provide the warning information prior to the occurrence of a few major earthquakes in the region. The significant synchronous anomalies of ATLR of the observatory appeared before the earthquake of magnitude 6.2 in Dayao county of Yunnan province, on July 21, 2003. It has been again verified that the anomalies possibly provide the prediction information for strong earthquakes around the observatory.     

Biogas charging and dissipating process and its accumulation in the Sebei gasfield,Qaidam Basin,China

The Sebei gasfield is the largest biogas accumulation found in China and many reservoirs and seal rocks superposed on a syndepositional anticline in Quaternary. The biogas charging and dissipating process and its distribution have been a research focus for many years. The authors suggest a diffusing and accumulating model for the biogas, as they find that the shallower the gas producer, the more methane in the biogas, and the lighter stable carbon isotope composition of methane. Based on the diffusing model, diffused biogas is quantitatively estimated for each potential sandy reservoir in the gasfield, and the gas charging quantity for the sandy reservoir is also calculated by the diffused gas quantity plus gas reserve in-place. A ratio of diffusing quantity to charging quantity is postulated to describe biogas accumulating state in a sandy reservoir, if the ratio is less than 0.6, the reservoir forms a good gas-pool and high-production layer in the gasfield, which often occurs in the reservoirs deeper than 900 m; if the ratio is greater than 0.6, a few gas accumulated in the reservoir, which frequently exists in the reservoirs shallower than 900 m. Therefore, a biogas accumulation model is built up as lateral direct charging from gas source for the sands deeper than 900 m and indirect charging from lower gas-bearing sands by diffusion at depth shallower than 900 m. With this charging and diffusion quantitative model, the authors conducted re-evaluation on each wildcat in the central area of the Qaidam Basin, and found many commercial biogas layers.

     

Evaluating the role of climate and tectonics during non-steady incision of the Yellow River: evidence from a 1.24 Ma terrace record near Lanzhou,China

The competing roles of bedrock uplift and climatic change in the formation of fluvial terraces remain uncertain. Most of recent studies have attributed terrace formation to climatic changes and held that, even in tectonically active settings, climate variations control cycles of terrace planation and abandonment. Based on field investigations of loess-paleosol sequences, magnetostratigraphy and optically stimulated luminescence (OSL) dating, we develop a new chronology for a spectacular flight of terraces along the Yellow River near Lanzhou, China over past 1.24 Ma. All the terraces are strikingly similar in that they have several meters of paleosol developed directly above fluvial deposits on the terrace treads, suggesting that the abandonment of each terrace due to river incision occurs during the transition from glacial to interglacial climates. However, the ages of terraces cluster in two relatively short time periods (1.24–0.86 Ma and 0.13 Ma – present). During the intervening time between 0.86 Ma and 0.13 Ma, terraces either did not form or were not preserved. We suggest that this record indicates that rock uplift rates varied through time and influenced terrace formation/preservation. Thus, our results demonstrate the utility of deep chronologic records from fluvial terraces for deconvolving the effects of tectonics and climate on fluvial incision.     

Simulating CO2 flux of three different ecosystems in ChinaFLUX based on artificial neural networks

The nonlinearity of the relationship between CO₂ flux and other micrometeorological variables flux parameters limits the applicability of carbon flux models to accurately estimate the flux dynamics. However, the need for carbon dioxide (CO₂) estimations covering larger areas and the limitations of the point eddy covariance technique to address this requirement necessitates the modeling of CO₂ flux from other micrometeorological variables. Artificial neural networks (ANN) are used because of their power to fit highly nonlinear relations between input and output variables without explaining the nature of the phenomena. This paper applied a multilayer perception ANN technique with error back propagation algorithm to simulate CO₂ flux on three different ecosystems (forest, grassland and cropland) in ChinaFLUX. Energy flux (net radiation, latent heat, sensible heat and soil heat flux) and temperature (air and soil) and soil moisture were used to train the ANN and predict the CO₂ flux. Diurnal half-hourly fluxes data of observations from June to August in 2003 were divided into training, validating and testing. Results of the CO₂ flux simulation show that the technique can successfully predict the observed values with R ² value between 0.75 and 0.866. It is also found that the soil moisture could not improve the simulative accuracy without water stress. The analysis of the contribution of input variables in ANN shows that the ANN is not a black box model, it can tell us about the controlling parameters of NEE in different ecosystems and micrometeorological environment. The results indicate the ANN is not only a reliable, efficient technique to estimate regional or global CO₂ flux from point measurements and understand the spatiotemporal budget of the CO₂ fluxes, but also can identify the relations between the CO₂ flux and micrometeorological variables.