FORMOSAT-3/COSMIC science mission update

The FORMOSAT-3/COSMIC mission is a microsatellite mission for weather forecast, climate monitoring, and atmospheric, ionospheric and geodesy research. This mission is a collaborative Taiwan-USA science experiment to deploy a constellation of six microsatellites in low Earth orbits. The mission life is 2 years with a goal of 5 years. The final mission orbit has an altitude of 750–800 km. Each satellite consists of three science payloads: global positioning system (GPS) occultation experiment (GOX) payload, tiny ionospheric photometer (TIP) and tri-band beacon (TBB). The GOX will collect the GPS signals for the study on atmosphere, ionosphere, and geodesy. The TIP and TBB can provide the electron distribution information for ionospheric research. The deployment of the FORMOSAT-3 constellation and the resulting influence on the occultation sounding distributions are reported. Details are also given on GOX, TIP, and TBB payload operations and the contributions of the Taiwan Science Team.     

Annual amphidromes: a common feature in the ocean?

The scientific term "amphidrome" is usually associated with tides in oceanography. The dozen tidal amphidromes observed in the ocean are critical points that determine the fundamental pattern of the global tidal system. Exploration of recently available satellite data with an unprecedented 1-2 decades duration suggests that an amphidrome is not a tide-only phenomenon in the ocean. Analysis of altimeter-derived sea level anomaly (SLA) data and radiometer-derived sea surface temperature (SST) data allows ten amphidromic points to be clearly identified in annual SLA and SST variations. These amphidromes are located in the tropical areas of the Pacific, Atlantic, and Indian oceans. Their existence implies that the annual cycle (in time) of the atmosphere-ocean system is translated into a rotary variation (in space) for many of the geophysical parameters. It can be concluded that annual amphidromes are common, the knowledge of which is of particular interest, given their annually "constant" nature, for the monitoring and understanding of oceanic, climatic, as well as biological variabilities at seasonal to decadal scales, which strongly affect many aspects of the natural and societal activities on the globe.     

Continental crust and lithospheric mantle interaction beneath North China: isotopic evidence from granulite xenoliths in Hannuoba, Sino-Korean craton

Mafic granulite and pyroxenite xenoliths from Cenozoic alkaline basalts at Hannuoba, Hebei Province, North China have been selected for a systematic geochemical and Sr–Nd–Pb isotopic study, which provides a unique opportunity to explore nature of the lower crust and the interaction between the continental crust and lithospheric mantle beneath an Archean craton. The major, compatible and incompatible elements and radiogenic isotopes of these xenoliths suggest great chemical heterogeneity of the lower crust beneath the Hannuoba region. Petrological and geochemical evidences indicate a clear cumulate origin, and most likely, they are related to basaltic underplating in different geological episodes. However, the Sr–Nd–Pb isotopic compositions of the xenoliths reveal a profound enriched source signature (EM I) with some influence of EM II, which implies that some portion of pre-existing, old metasomatized subcontinental lithospheric mantle could have played an important role in their genesis. It is suggested that the interaction between continental crust and subcontinental mantle as manifested by basaltic underplating would be closely related to regional tectonic episodes and geodynamic processes in the deep part of subcontinental lithospheric mantle.     

Predicting average annual groundwater levels from climatic variables: an empirical model

On the basis of one-dimensional theoretical water flow model, we demonstrate that the groundwater level variation follows a pattern similar to recharge fluctuation, with a time delay that depends on the characteristics of aquifer, recharge pattern as well as the distance between the recharge and observation locations. On the basis of a water budget model and the groundwater flow model, we propose an empirical model that links climatic variables to groundwater level. The empirical model is tested using a partial data set from historical records of water levels from more than 80 wells in a monitoring network for the carbonate rock aquifer, southern Manitoba, Canada. The testing results show that the predicted groundwater levels are very close to the observed ones in most cases. The overall average correlation coefficient between the predicted and observed water levels is 0.92. This proposed empirical statistical model could be used to predict variations in groundwater level in response to different climate scenarios in a climate change impact assessment.     

Improved treatments for evaluating horizontal magnetic components through the 3-D FDM in E -polarization induction problems

To improve the accuracy of the numerical evaluation through the 3-D finite difference method, the surface boundary conditions are added to modify the old program. The author has tested the new program by making calculations for the model constructed by Wanamaker, et al (1984). The comparison between the numerical results obtained from this paper and those by Wannamaker, et al (1984) indicates that a pronounced improvement is realized in the evaluation of the horizontal magnetic components. Moreover, better calculations for the vertical magnetic components are also obtainable by using the new program.     

Soil degradation: a global problem endangering sustainable development

1 Introduction Soil is not only the major natural resource on which human being depends for the production of food, feed, fiber, renewable energy and raw materials, but also plays a key role in maintaining the complex terrestrial ecosystems and climate systems of this planet. Recent rapid increase in the human population is placing a great strain on the worlds soil resources. Only about 11% of the global land surface covered by the soils are being used to raise crops and livestock, in other …     

西湖凹陷陆盆冲积体系河道演变规律探讨

西湖凹陷渐新统一中新统陆盆沉积发育了类型丰富的河道沉积，本文根据陆盆充填机制对盆地演化各阶段的控制作用，从沉积层序、沉积构造、岩性组合特征诸方面探讨了盆地演化过程的河道变迁特点。     

层序地层学研究及隐蔽油气藏预测--以南阳凹陷古近系为例

高精度层序地层学已被证明是寻找隐蔽圈闭行之有效的理论方法．运用该理论对南阳凹陷进行了研究，对地震剖面中反射界面的追踪，在古近系中识别出了各级别的层序界面，结合周缘露头、钻井、测井等资料，分析了主要目的层序内体系域的构成及高频单元变化规律，建立了层序地层模式，在此基础上预测南部陡崖式断坡带和北部缓坡式弯折带是低位域砂体和隐蔽岩性油气藏形成的有利区带．