Methods of measuring wind stress over a water surface — Discussions of displacement height and von Karman constant

Experiments were conducted in a wind-wave tank to study the long-standing discrepancy between wind stresses over a water surface determined with the profile and eddy-correlation methods. Inasmuch as the eddy-correlation method measures the turbulence flux directly, such a discrepancy is considered as an error in the way the profile data are analyzed. Uncertainties in selections of the zero reference plane for the logarithmic velocity profile and of the value for the von Karman constant are suggested to be major sources of the error. To match the results obtained with two methods, the displacement height needs to vary with wave conditions, and the value of the von Karman constant is also discussed.     

Hawking radiation and entropy in de Sitter spacetime

Using the analytic extension method, we study Hawking radiation of an (n+4)-dimensional Schwarzschild-de Sitter black hole. Under the condition that the total energy is conserved, taking the reaction of the radiation of particles to the spacetime into consideration and considering the relation between the black hole event horizon and cosmological horizon, we obtain the radiation spectrum of de Sitter spacetime. This radiation spectrum is no longer a strictly pure thermal spectrum. It is related to the change of the Bekenstein-Hawking (B-H) entropy corresponding the black hole event horizon and cosmological horizon. The result satisfies the unitary principle. At the same time, we also testify that the entropy of de Sitter spacetime is the sum of the entropy of black hole event horizon and the one of cosmological horizon.     

Seismic analysis of long multiple-span highway bridges

Mathematical models and three-dimensional non-linear dynamic analysis procedures are described for determining the seismic response of long, curved (or straight), multiple-span, reinforced concrete highway bridges. Under the action of strong earthquakes, the columns (or piers) of such structures may experience large cyclic inelastic deformations of a coupled form. Also, cyclic slippage of the Coulomb type can take place in the expansion joints of the deck causing multiple impacts and separations to occur. These separations may be sufficiently large to cause tensile yielding of the longitudinal expansion joint restrainer bars (or cables) and, if not controlled, can permit deck spans to fall off their supports resulting in partial or total collapse of the structure. In this paper, a three-dimensional elasto-plastic mathematical model suitable for representing the coupled inelastic flexural behaviour of reinforced concrete columns under cyclic deformations is presented along with a non-linear mathematical model for simulating the non-linear discontinuous behaviour of expansion joints. The procedures used for non-linear seismic response analysis are described and a numerical example is given to illustrate the method.     

龙须菜(Gracilariopsis lemaneiformis)中两种分支酸代谢酶对温度和水杨酸的响应及其原核表达研究

龙须菜(Gracilariopsislemaneiformis)在我国主要用作鲍饵料和琼胶生产原料,但是南方夏季高温限制了龙须菜的栽培和产业化。抗逆植物激素水杨酸(salicylicacid,SA)与分支酸代谢之间存在着密切的联系。本文以两种分支酸代谢酶——异分支酸合成酶(isochorismate synthase,ICS)和分支酸变位酶(chorismatemutase,CM)为研究对象,分析了23℃(常温)和33℃(高温)条件下添加SA对龙须菜中两种分支酸代谢酶编码基因转录水平的影响。结果表明高温和SA不同程度地刺激了两种分支酸代谢酶转录水平的表达,如在3—12h,SA添加后ics表达量分别提高到常温对照组的2.84—4.76倍和高温对照组的1.25—1.62倍;在24h时,cm表达量分别提高到常温对照组的2.73倍和高温对照组的1.82倍。然后,我们将两种酶的编码基因分别转化到原核表达载体pET28a中,结果得到了多以包涵体形式大量表达的重组ICS和CM蛋白,其最佳诱导条件为0.1mmol/LIPTG在16℃诱导24h,并用镍柱初步纯化了重组蛋白。该研究为阐明温度和外源SA对龙须菜中两种分支酸代谢酶的影响规律,以及为从蛋白水平研究这两种代谢酶提供了资料。     

Assessment of Cryosat-2 and SARAL/AltiKa altimetry for measuring inland water and coastal sea level variations: A case study on Tibetan Plateau lake and Taiwan Coast

Satellite altimetry has been proven as an effective technology to accurately measure water level, ice elevation, and flat land surface changes since the 1990s. To overcome limitations of pulse-limited altimetry, new altimetric missions such as Cryosat-2 and Satellite with ARgos and AltiKa (SARAL/AltiKa), have been designed to have higher along-track spatial resolution to measure more accurately inland water levels for small water bodies, and coastal sea level changes. In this study, we evaluate the performance of Cryosat-2 low-resolution (LRM) and SARin modes and SARAL/AltiKa Ka-band data on two connected lakes in central Tibetan Plateau, and in the coastal region of Taiwan. Results are compared with in situ tide gauge data in Taiwan and altimetric lake level time series from the CNES Hydroweb database. Our results show that water level change trends observed by Cryosat-2 20-Hz retracked observations, the SARAL/AltiKa 40-Hz Ice-1 retracked data, and the Hydroweb measurements are consistent with the estimated water level trend of ～0.30?m/y, during 2011–2017, and 2013–2015, for the Tibetan Migriggyangzham Co and Dorsoidong Co, respectively. For the coastal region, the performance of SARAL/AltiKa is better than that of Cryosat-2 LRM data in Taiwan. This finding demonstrates the superiority of the Ka-band over Ku-band radar altimetry.     

Unit panel node detection by CNN on FAST reflector

The Five-hundred-meter Aperture Spherical radio Telescope(FAST) has an active reflector.During observations, the reflector will be deformed into a paraboloid 300 meters in diameter. To improve its surface accuracy, we propose a scheme for photogrammetry to measure the positions of 2226 nodes on the reflector. The way to detect the nodes in the photos is the key problem in this application of photogrammetry. This paper applies a convolutional neural network(CNN) with candidate regions to detect the nodes in the photos. Experimental results show a high recognition rate of 91.5%, which is much higher than the recognition rate for traditional edge detection.     

Seasonal and interannual variability of carbon cycle in South China Sea: A three-dimensional physical-biogeochemical modeling study

The South China Sea (SCS) exhibits strong variations on seasonal to interannual time scale, and the changing Southeast Asian Monsoon has direct impacts on the nutrients and phytoplankton dynamics, as well as the carbon cycle. A Pacific basin-wide physical-biogeochemical model has been developed and used to investigate the physical variations, ecosystem responses, and carbon cycle consequences. The Pacific basin-wide circulation model, based on the Regional Ocean Model Systems (ROMS) with a 50-km spatial resolution, is driven with daily air-sea fluxes derived from the National Centers for Environmental Prediction (NCEP) reanalysis between 1990 and 2004. The biogeochemical processes are simulated with the Carbon, Si(OH)₄, Nitrogen Ecosystem (CoSINE) model consisting of multiple nutrients and plankton functional groups and detailed carbon cycle dynamics. The ROMS-CoSINE model is capable of reproducing many observed features and their variability over the same period at the SouthEast Asian Time-series Study (SEATS) station in the SCS. The integrated air-sea CO₂ flux over the entire SCS reveals a strong seasonal cycle, serving as a source of CO₂ to the atmosphere in spring, summer and autumn, but acting as a sink of CO₂ for the atmosphere in winter. The annual mean sea-to-air CO₂ flux averaged over the entire SCS is +0.33 moles CO₂ m⁻²year⁻¹, which indicates that the SCS is a weak source of CO₂ to the atmosphere. Temperature has a stronger influence on the seasonal variation of pCO₂ than biological activity, and is thus the dominant factor controlling the oceanic pCO₂ in the SCS. The water temperature, seasonal upwelling and Kuroshio intrusion determine the pCO₂ differences at coast of Vietnam and the northwestern region of the Luzon Island. The inverse relationship between the interannual variability of Chl-a in summer near the coast of Vietnam and NINO₃ SST (Sea Surface Temperature) index in January implies that the carbon cycle and primary productivity in the SCS is teleconnected to the Pacific-East Asian large-scale climatic variability.     

Anomalous hydrographic and biological conditions in the northern South China Sea during the 1997–1998 El Niño and comparisons with the equatorial Pacific

It is demonstrated that weakened wind mixing and strengthened water column stratification resulted in the anomalously low sea surface chlorophyll in the northern South China Sea during the 1997–1998 El Niño event. Remotely sensed sea surface temperature, wind and chlorophyll, which were validated by shipboard observations at the SouthEast Asian Time-series Study (SEATS) station (18°N, 116°E) in the northern South China Sea (SCS) provided the basis for this study. During the 1997–1998 winter at the SEATS station, the sea surface temperature was elevated by about 2 °C above the climatological mean, while the wind speed of the northeast monsoon was reduced from a climatological mean of 9.4 to 6.8 m/s. The concentration of surface chlorophyll-a dropped from 0.2 to 0.1 mg/m³. The monthly area-averaged integrated primary production estimated for the northern SCS area (112–119°E, 15–21°N) was reduced by about 40% of the normal winter value. Under the anomalously high sea surface temperature and weak monsoon, the mixed-layer depth would have been reduced from an average of 65 to 45 m and the nutrients in the mixed layer would have been reduced by half, according to observations at the SEATS station in more recent years. During the 1997–1998 El Niño event, the onset of warming in the northern SCS lagged behind that in the eastern equatorial Pacific by about 5 months and lingered for 11 months. This course of change resembled that of the western Pacific warm pool region. However, contrary to the northern SCS, the sea surface chlorophyll was enhanced in the warm pool region during the event, probably mainly because of the uplifted nutricline. Unlike the eastern equatorial Pacific, the dramatic recovery of biological production did not happen in the SCS in the summer of 1998. These distinctive biogeochemical responses reflect fundamental differences between the SCS and the equatorial Pacific in terms of upper water column dynamics.     

Improving debris flow monitoring in Taiwan by using high-resolution rainfall products from QPESUMS

Debris flow is commonly initiated by torrential rain and its triggering is correlated to the hydrological, geological, and geomorphic conditions on site. In spite of the important effects of geology and topography, rainfall characteristic is the main external triggering factor to debris flow and is a predominant parameter for real-time monitoring. Due to the scarcity of sufficient spatial ground-based rainfall data in hill areas, quantitative precipitation estimation using remote-sensing techniques such as radar and satellite is needed for debris flow pre-warning. The QPESUMS (Quantitative Precipitation Estimation and Segregation Using Multiple Sensors) system was acquired to retrieve spatial rainfall data during the rainfall period from June 30 to July 6 in 2004 when Typhoon Mindulle and southwesterly flow struck Taiwan. The retrieved data were used for setting up the debris flow monitoring algorithm. With the aid of multiple platforms of meteorological observations, a rainfall threshold isohyet in a pilot area was mapped for debris flow monitoring. The rainfall monitoring algorithm based on QPESUMS provides more detailed information than the limited number of ground-based rainfall stations for interpreting the spatial distributions of rainfall events, and therefore is more suitable for debris-flow monitoring.     

The carbonate system in the East China Sea in winter

Measurements of dissolved inorganic carbon (DIC), pH, total alkalinity (TA), and partial pressure of CO₂ (pCO₂) were conducted at a total of 25 stations along four cross shelf transects in the East China Sea (ECS) in January 2008. Results showed that their distributions in the surface water corresponded well to the general circulation pattern in the ECS. Low DIC and pCO₂ and high pH were found in the warm and saline Kuroshio Current water flowing northeastward along the shelf break, whereas high DIC and pCO₂ and low pH were mainly observed in the cold and less saline China Coastal Current water flowing southward along the coast of Mainland China. Difference between surface water and atmospheric pCO₂ (ΔpCO₂), ranging from ~ 0 to ? 111 μatm, indicated that the entire ECS shelf acted as a CO₂ sink during winter with an average flux of CO₂ of ?13.7 ± 5.7 (mmol C m^? 2 day^? 1), and is consistent with previous studies. However, pCO₂ was negatively correlated with temperature for surface waters lower than 20 °C, in contrast to the positive correlation found in the 1990s. Moreover, the wintertime ΔpCO₂ in the inner shelf near the Changjiang River estuary has appreciably decreased since the early 1990s, suggesting a decline of CO₂ sequestration capacity in this region. However, the actual causes for the observed relationship between these decadal changes and the increased eutrophication over recent decades are worth further study.