Improved network-based single-epoch ambiguity resolution using centralized GNSS network processing

Network real-time kinematic (NRTK) positioning is today’s industry standard for high-precision applications. Once network ambiguities are fixed, the network engine processes simultaneous observations from a number of continuously operating reference stations to compute corrections for users operating within the network area. Users are treated as passive nodes of the network. However, if two-way communication is available, then users could transmit their observations to the central processing facility where the network can treat them as active nodes, densifying the existing network infrastructure. This multiple rover network (MRN) concept exploits the additional information provided by users in a GNSS network. One application is to use the shorter inter-receiver distances to improve the success rate of single-epoch ambiguity resolution. This is also the goal of the subset ambiguity resolution algorithm, which improves the single-epoch success rate by allowing a subset of ambiguities to be resolved. We present an enhanced processing strategy to complement centimeter-level single-epoch NRTK positioning. This approach combines a single-baseline and an MRN solution with the partial ambiguity resolution algorithm and is only possible for a centralized GNSS network architecture. The algorithm is tested against the standard network ambiguity resolution strategy of full-set ambiguity fixing with respect to the nearest reference station. A 24-h dataset from the Southern California Integrated GNSS network is used with a configuration of three reference stations and four users. The enhanced solution achieves a mean ambiguity resolution success rate of 83% over all four users and all epochs, compared to 32% for the conventional technique.     

Suspended Sediment Yield from the Ansager Å river basin,Denmark

Geografisk Tidsskrift, Danish Journal of Geography 98: 38–45.

Water samples have been collected since 1969, at the Lavborg Bridge gauging station, on the river Ansager Å in South-West Jutland. Different regression equations of concentration versus discharge have been tested. The regression equations are used together with daily discharges to compute the daily suspended loads. Comparisons between measured and computedloads for different periods when water samples were taken twice a day suggest that the 25 computed annual load values have an uncertainty of less than ± 10%. The variation in annual loads shown is therefore significant and probably caused by increased rainfall in the eigthies. The average total suspended sediment yield for the 25 year period was 7 t/km²/year, of which the organic load contributed 3.2 t/km²/year.     

The Košice meteorite fall: Atmospheric trajectory,fragmentation, and orbit

The Ko?ice meteorite fall occurred in eastern Slovakia on February 28, 2010, 22:25 UT. The very bright bolide was imaged by three security video cameras from Hungary. Detailed bolide light curves were obtained through clouds by radiometers on seven cameras of the European Fireball Network. Records of sonic waves were found on six seismic and four infrasonic stations. An atmospheric dust cloud was observed the next morning before sunrise. After careful calibration, the video records were used to compute the bolide trajectory and velocity. The meteoroid, of estimated mass of 3500 kg, entered the atmosphere with a velocity of 15 km s^?1 on a trajectory with a slope of 60° to the horizontal. The largest fragment ceased to be visible at a height of 17 km, where it was decelerated to 4.5 km s^?1. A maximum brightness of absolute stellar magnitude about ?18 was reached at a height of 36 km. We developed a detailed model of meteoroid atmospheric fragmentation to fit the observed light curve and deceleration. We found that Ko?ice was a weak meteoroid, which started to fragment under the dynamic pressure of only 0.1 MPa and fragmented heavily under 1 MPa. In total, 78 meteorites were recovered in the predicted fall area during official searches. Other meteorites were found by private collectors. Known meteorite masses ranged from 0.56 g to 2.37 kg. The meteorites were classified as ordinary chondrites of type H5 and shock stage S3. The heliocentric orbit had a relatively large semimajor axis of 2.7 AU and aphelion distance of 4.5 ± 0.5 AU. Backward numerical integration of the preimpact orbit indicates possible large variations of the orbital elements in the past due to resonances with Jupiter.     

Book reviews

Geographical, seasonal, and day-to-day variations in the vertical distributions of atmospheric density and temperature must be considered in the design and operation of reentry vehicles. This work is part of a continuing effort to compile, analyze, and present information on the distribution of the atmospheric temperature in a form suitable for use in the design and operation of aerospace vehicles. We have used temperature data obtained from rockets which are mostly based on the datasonde system throughout the decade 1969–1978. Profiles and the individual arrays of coefficients of correlation of the temperature at 20 km with temperature at higher altitudes up to 60 km are shown for each season for locations in the low, middle, and high latitudes.     

Electrokinetic potentials of mineral oxides and calcium carbonate in artificial seawater

Electroacoustic method was used to measure the zeta potentials of mineral oxides and calcium carbonate in artificial sea water (pH 8), and the following values were obtained: synthetic hematite: 0.87 mV; goethite: 1.01 mV; fumed silica: -3.56 mV; quartz: -1.38 mV; calcium carbonate: 1.91 mV. The absolute values of the zeta potentials obtained in the present study are substantially lower than the zeta potentials in seawater reported by other authors. Our results indicate that the effect of electrostatic repulsion in the interactions between the particles of these materials in seawater is negligible.     

The Yarle Lakes 001 meteorite: A H5 chondrite from South Australia

Abstract— The Yarle Lakes 001 meteorite was a single stone of 913 g found approximately 20 km north of Watson, South Australia, in 1990 October. It consists of olivine (Fa_{18.7 ± 0.4}, n = 30), low-Ca pyroxene (Fs_{16.6 ± 0.2} Wo _{12 + 0.4}, n = 15). feldspar, high-Ca pyroxene, metallic Fe-Ni and troilite. Based on texture and mineral chemistry, Yarle Lakes 001 is classified as a H5 chondrite of shock stage S3.     

New data on the Neoproterozoic – Cambrian geotectonic setting of the Teplá-Barrandian volcano-sedimentary successions: geochemistry,U-Pb zircon ages,and provenance (Bohemian Massif,Czech Republic)

The Teplá-Barrandian unit (TBU) of the Bohemian Massif was a part of the Avalonian-Cadomian belt at the northern margin of Gondwana during Neoproterozoic and Early Cambrian times. New detrital zircon ages and geochemical compositions of Late Neoproterozoic siliciclastic sediments confirm a deposition of the volcano-sedimentary successions of the TBU in a back-arc basin. A change in the geotectonic regime from convergence to transtension was completed by the time of the Precambrian-Cambrian boundary. The accumulation of around 2,500 m Lower Cambrian continental siliciclastics in a Basin-and-Range-type setting was accompanied by magmatism, which shows within-plate features in a few cases, but is predominantly derived from anatectic melts displaying the inherited island arc signature of their Cadomian source rocks. The geochemistry of clastic sediments suggests a deposition in a rift or strike-slip-related basin, respectively. A marine transgression during Middle Cambrian times indicates markedly thinned crust after the Cadomian orogeny. Upper Cambrian magmatism is represented by 1,500 m of subaerial andesites and rhyolites demonstrating several geochemical characteristics of an intra-plate setting. Zircons from a rhyolite give a U-Pb-SHRIMP age of 499±4 Ma. The Cambrian sedimentary and magmatic succession of the TBU records the beginning of an important rifting event at the northern margin of Gondwana.