Palaeovariations in the East-Asian Monsoon Regime Geochemically Recorded in Varved Sediments of Lake Sihailongwan (Northeast China, Jilin Province). Part 2: a 200-Year Record of Atmospheric Lead-210 Flux Variations and its Palaeoclimatic Implications

Palaeovariations of the atmospheric ²¹⁰Pb flux in Northeast China (Long Gang area, Jilin province), quantified by high resolution ²¹⁰Pb measurements on seasonally laminated sediments of Lake Sihailongwan are presented on decadal scale. The mean flux of unsupported ²¹⁰Pb between 1790 and 1970 for the centre of the lake basin is 517 Bq m⁻² yr⁻¹ with maximum deviations between −23% and +27% of this value. Flux rates above this average were found between 1783 and 1813, around 1836, and between 1860 and 1901. The mean ²¹⁰Pb^exc flux rates derived were clearly lower around 1821, 1908, 1930, and 1953. The ²¹⁰Pb^exc flux reached its minimum of 344 Bq m⁻² yr⁻¹ during the period 1977–1982. The atmospheric flux of unsupported ²¹⁰Pb is correlated with the precipitation frequency during the summer monsoon and shows coinciding variability with geochemical proxies that document the groundwater inflow into the lake. Al₂O₃-rich dust of remote provenance scavenged by wet-deposition in the rainy season is the major carrier of the atmospheric ²¹⁰Pb^exc flux.     

Synergetic efficiency of Lidar and WorldView-2 for 3D urban cartography in Northeast Mexico

Three-dimensional urban cartography is needed for city changes’ assessment. The variety of studies using 3D calculations of urban elements grows each year. Building and vegetation volumes are necessary to assess and understand spatio-temporal urban changeable environments. However, there are technical questions as to which method can improve 3D urban cartographic accuracy. The innovative part of this current study is the creation of a six-band hybrid obtained from LIDAR and WorldView2 synergy. Two different enhancement algorithms demonstrated the most important spectral features for the urban development and vegetation classes. Results indicated an improvement in accuracy by up to 21.3%, according to the Kappa coefficient. Both infra-red band and intensity band were the most significant, according to the principal components analysis. The synergy delimited classes and polygons, as well as the direct display of information regarding heights of elements and improving the extraction of roads, buildings and vegetation classes.     

Study on the urban heat island effects and its relationship with surface biophysical characteristics using MODIS imageries

This study assesses surface urban heat island (UHI) and its associated surface physical characteristics using remote sensing approaches. TERRA/MODIS images acquired in 2005 in three different seasons were selected to generate land surface tem-perature and surface characteristics for the Changsha-Zhuzhou-Xiangtan metropolitan area in China. The intensity of urban heat is-land effects and its seasonal variations were examined. The result showed that UHI effects were significant both in the summer and the spri...     

Kinematic precise point positioning at remote marine platforms

Precise kinematic differential positioning using the global positioning system (GPS) at a marine platform usually requires a relatively short distance (e.g. <500 km) to a land-based reference station. As an alternative, precise point positioning (PPP) is normally considered free from this limiting requirement. However, due to the prerequisite of network-based satellite products, PPP at a remote marine platform may still be affected by its distance to the reference network. Hence, this paper investigates this scenario by configuring rings of reference stations with different radii centered on a to-be-positioned marine platform. Particularly, we applied ambiguity resolution at a single station to PPP by estimating uncalibrated phase delays (UPDs). We used three rings of reference stations centered on a vessel, with radii of roughly 900, 2,000 and 3,600 km, to determine satellite clocks and UPDs independently. For comparison, we also performed differential positioning based on a single reference station with baseline lengths of about 400, 1,700 and 2,800 km. We demonstrate that, despite the increasing ring-network radius to a few 1,000 km, the overall change in accuracy of the satellite clocks that are used at the vessel is smaller than 0.02 ns, and the RMS values of differences between the three sets of narrow-lane UPD estimates are around 0.05 cycles only. Moreover, the kinematic positioning accuracy of PPP is affected by the increasing ring-network radius, but can still achieve several centimeters after ambiguity resolution when the vessel is over a few 1,000 km away from the ring network, showing better performance than that of differential positioning. Therefore, we propose that ambiguity-fixed PPP can be used at remote marine platforms that support precise oceanographic and geophysical applications in open oceans.     

Safety factor nomograms for homogeneous earth dams less than ten meters high

Homogeneous earth dams that are waterproofed with geomembranes are a suitable option for storing water and other sorts of liquids, like leachates from landfills. Such dams do not require complicated engineering technical calculations, their cost is usually low and they are not difficult to construct. To ensure the geotechnical safety of the dam, the slopes of the embankment must be correctly designed and constructed. This paper provides a set of nomograms which allow the user to get the safety factor of the slopes immediately. In some cases, it is only necessary to know previously the material classification according to the Unified Soil Classifications System. From this information it can be determined whether the material is appropriate or not. If the material classification is not available, geotechnical data of the material used in the construction of the embankment are needed. Examples of the application of nomograms are presented. Secondly, the paper includes a set of equations to calculate quickly the safety factor of a slope of earth upper than 7.5 m height.     

Automatic Change Detection in Very High Resolution Images With Pulse-Coupled Neural Networks

A novel approach based on pulse-coupled neural networks (PCNNs) for image change detection is presented. PCNNs are based on the implementation of the mechanisms underlying the visual cortex of small mammals, and, with respect to more traditional NNs architectures, such as multilayer perceptron, own interesting advantages. In particular, they are unsupervised and context sensitive. This latter property may be particularly useful when very high resolution images are considered as, in this case, an object analysis might be more suitable than a pixel-based one. The qualitative and more quantitative results are reported. The performance of the algorithm has been evaluated on a pair of QuickBird images taken over the test area of Tor Vergata University, Rome.      

Analysis of the Effects of Pansharpening in Change Detection on VHR Images

In this letter, we investigate the effects of pansharpening (PS) applied to multispectral (MS) multitemporal images in change-detection (CD) applications. Although CD maps computed from pansharpened data show an enhanced spatial resolution, they can suffer from errors due to artifacts induced by the fusion process. The rationale of our analysis consists in understanding to which extent such artifacts can affect spatially enhanced CD maps. To this end, a quantitative analysis is performed which is based on a novel strategy that exploits similarity measures to rank PS methods according to their impact on CD performance. Many multiresolution fusion algorithms are considered, and CD results obtained from original MS and from spatially enhanced data are compared.      

Automated GPS Data Analysis Service

Automatic analysis of geodetic-quality GPS data is available with the use of e-mail and ftp (file transfer program) as an interface to a computer at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), where precise transmitter parameters – GPS ephemerides and clock errors – are computed regularly. The interface is such that e-mail from an external user causes the JPL computer to fetch the user's data. The computer than analyzes the data, and places the results in an area accessible to the user. An e-mail to the user gives information on the location of the analysis results, which the user can subsequently fetch. Operations on the JPL computer are entirely automatic, and require essentially no labor. ? 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.     

A GPS-Supported Gravity Survey in the Amazon of Ecuador

The growing importance and effectiveness of the Global Positioning System (GPS) in positioning geophysical surveys is now well established. In Ecuador's Amazon basin the use of GPS was the determining factor in the successful completion of a gravity survey carried out in 1994. Over 500 gravity stations, spaced from 1 to 5 km apart and positioned by GPS, were collected in the jungle environment in the country's southeast, where the preexisting data, of variable and unknown quality, were mostly confined to areas along the major rivers. This station densification, which includes the reoccupation of selected points, contributed to increase the gravity coverage; it also allowed us to evaluate and correct 1100 preexisting data points in the area, so that the different surveys can be merged. The composite data set is used for a geologic analysis of the study area, where previously unknown structures are discovered. ? 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.