交通枢纽的空间演进与发展机理

长时间序列的交通枢纽空间分布格局的演进规律,一直是国内外交通地理学有待解决的问题。考察交通枢纽的长期演变规律,有助于把握交通枢纽的发展机理,为空间优化提供科学支撑。对秦汉时期以来中国交通枢纽分布格局的发展过程与空间特征进行系统解析,认为存在秦汉至南北朝、隋唐、宋朝至辽金时期、元明、清朝、民国至今等6个阶段。基于中国不同历史阶段交通枢纽的发展轨迹,总结了交通枢纽的基本形成条件和空间演变的一般过程,并对交通枢纽的生命周期进行了分析,在此基础上,深入研究了交通枢纽的基本发展模式,系统总结了中国交通枢纽空间布局的基本形态。相关研究既是对交通枢纽研究的理论完善,也是中国交通枢纽布局规划的理论基础。     

Time-dependent degradation of biotic carbonates and the search for past life on Mars

Searching for traces of extinct and/or extant life on the surface of Mars is one of the major objectives for remote-sensing and in-situ exploration of the planet. In the present paper we study the infrared (IR) spectral modifications induced by thermal processing on differently preserved calcium carbonate fossils, in order to discriminate them from their abiotic counterparts.The main conclusion of this study is that the degree of alteration of the fossils, derived from IR spectral analysis, seems to be well correlated with the sample age, and that terrestrial fossils after a billion years are so altered that it becomes impossible to trace their biotic origin. Since it is reasonable to assume that the putative Martian fossils should be at least 3.5 billion years old, this would imply that our spectroscopic method could not be able to detect them, if their degradation rate were the same as that we have found in usual conditions for the terrestrial fossils. However, due to the different climate evolution of the two planets, there is the possibility of having two different degradation rates, much lower for Mars than for Earth, especially if the fossils are embedded in a protective layer, such as a clay deposit. In this case IR spectroscopy, coupled with thermal processing, can be a useful tool for discriminating between abiotic and biotic (fossil) carbonate samples collected on the Martian surface.     

Resonance orbits of near-Earth asteroids

Asteroid 99942 Apophis is one of the most hazardous NEAs (near-Earth asteroids) today. Some specific features of its travel are the possibility of repeated Earth approaches, loss of forecast precision due to trajectory dispersions, and nondeterministic motion. These specific features do not only characterize Apophis. Special methods are needed to find possible collision trajectories among these travels. These trajectories are located in the vicinity of resonance collision orbits.The present paper discusses methods of detecting hazardous trajectories in the event of nondeterministic motion and characterizing these trajectories as applied to asteroid Apophis, precision losses in the event of trajectory dispersions, conditions of determinacy losses, and hazardous trajectories in the vicinity of resonance orbits.     

Forthcoming close angular approaches of planets to radio sources and possibilities to use them as GR tests

During close angular approaches of solar system planets to astrometric radio sources, the apparent positions of these sources shift due to relativistic effects and, thus, these events may be used for testing the theory of general relativity; this fact was successfully demonstrated in the experiments on the measurements of radio source position shifts during the approaches of Jupiter carried out in 1988 and 2002. An analysis, performed within the frames of the present work, showed that when a source is observed near a planet’s disk edge, i.e., practically in the case of occultation, the current experimental accuracy makes it possible to measure the relativistic effects for all planets. However, radio occultations are fairly rare events. At the same time, only Jupiter and Saturn provide noticeable relativistic effects approaching the radio sources at angular distances of about a few planet radii. Our analysis resulted in the creation of a catalog of forthcoming occultations and approaches of planets to astrometric radio sources for the time period of 2008–2050, which can be used for planning experiments on testing gravity theories and other purposes. For all events included in the catalog, the main relativistic effects are calculated both for ground-based and space (Earth-Moon) interferometer baselines.     

On the regime of the Earth’s polar motion based on data for the period 1962–2007

The view of the Earth’s polar motion as a completely deterministic process has been called into question in the past decades, because no long-term prediction can be made. At the same time, no fundamental restrictions currently exist in the problem of a long-term prediction of the Earth’s rotation. Determining the boundaries of predictability is related to identifying the regime of the Earth’s polar motion. IERS data for the period 1962–2007 have been used to study the regime of the Earth’s polar motion. Analysis of the plots of polhodes reveals peculiarities in the variations of the pole’s coordinates X and Y in certain intervals along the time axis. The data in the interval from 2003 to 2006 have been analyzed in greatest detail: a model for the Chandler and annual oscillations has been constructed and relations between the parameters of these oscillations have been determined; the shift of the instantaneous pole on the phase plane and the Poincare plane has been investigated. As a result, we have found features inherent in chaotic motion (intermittency) and calculated the period (32 years) of the possible repetitions of such anomalies, as confirmed by our analysis of the plots of polhodes. The intervals where the peculiarities in the motion of the Earth’s instantaneous pole manifest themselves are compared with the intervals of the inflections on the plots of variations in the length of the day (LOD).     

Analysis of the upper limit of the Southworth-Hawkins <Emphasis Type="Italic">D</Emphasis> criterion for the Pons-Winneckid and Perseid meteoroid streams

The value of the upper limit of the Southworth-Hawkins D criterion for the Pons-Winneckids (June Bootid) and Perseids meteor streams is analyzed on the basis of the comparison of the parent comet orbit with the model orbits of meteoroids ejected at different points of the comet orbit with the most likely ejection velocities. The change of the D values is investigated depending on the dynamic evolution of the streams by integrating forward the orbital elements of the model particles using the Cowell method taking into account the perturbations from all planets. It is shown that after ten rotations, for Pons-Winneckids the upper limit of the D criterion is higher than 0.5 and for Perseids the D criterion does not exceed 0.2.     

POLAR investigation of the Sun—POLARIS

The POLAR Investigation of the Sun (POLARIS) mission uses a combination of a gravity assist and solar sail propulsion to place a spacecraft in a 0.48 AU circular orbit around the Sun with an inclination of 75° with respect to solar equator. This challenging orbit is made possible by the challenging development of solar sail propulsion. This first extended view of the high-latitude regions of the Sun will enable crucial observations not possible from the ecliptic viewpoint or from Solar Orbiter. While Solar Orbiter would give the first glimpse of the high latitude magnetic field and flows to probe the solar dynamo, it does not have sufficient viewing of the polar regions to achieve POLARIS’s primary objective: determining the relation between the magnetism and dynamics of the Sun’s polar regions and the solar cycle.

GAUGE: the GrAnd Unification and Gravity Explorer

The GAUGE (GrAnd Unification and Gravity Explorer) mission proposes to use a drag-free spacecraft platform onto which a number of experiments are attached. They are designed to address a number of key issues at the interface between gravity and unification with the other forces of nature. The equivalence principle is to be probed with both a high-precision test using classical macroscopic test bodies, and, to lower precision, using microscopic test bodies via cold-atom interferometry. These two equivalence principle tests will explore string-dilaton theories and the effect of space–time fluctuations respectively. The macroscopic test bodies will also be used for intermediate-range inverse-square law and an axion-like spin-coupling search. The microscopic test bodies offer the prospect of extending the range of tests to also include short-range inverse-square law and spin-coupling measurements as well as looking for evidence of quantum decoherence due to space–time fluctuations at the Planck scale.     

Analysis of the optical emission of the young precataclysmic variables HS 1857+5144 and ABELL 65

We analyze the physical state and the properties of the close binary systems HS 1857+5144 and Abell 65. We took the spectra of both systems over a wide range of orbital phases with the 6-m telescope of the Special Astrophysical Observatory of the Russian Academy of Sciences (SAO RAS) and obtained their multicolor light curves with the RTT150 and Zeiss-1000 telescopes of the SAO RAS. We demonstrate that both Abell 65 and HS 1857+5144 are young precataclysmic variables (PV) with orbital periods of P _orb = 1. ^d 003729 and P _orb = 0. ^d 26633331, respectively. The observed brightness and spectral variations during the orbital period are due to the radiation of the cold component, which absorbs the short-wave radiation of the hot component and reemits it in the visual part of the spectrum. A joint analysis of the brightness and radial velocity curves allowed us to find the possible and optimum sets of their fundamental parameters. We found the luminosity excesses of the secondary components of HS 1857+5144 and Abell 65 with respect to the corresponding Main Sequence stars to be typical for such objects. The excess luminosities of the secondary components of all young PVs are indicative of their faster relaxation rate towards the quiescent state compared to the rates estimated in earlier studies.     

A mathematical model of water and sediment flow in open river channels

A one-dimensional mathematical model of water and sediment flow in open channels is proposed based on the forces influencing a water stream and bottom and stream sediments. The equations of water and sediment flow are closed by the equations of continuity of stream, velocity of particle motion in a stream, and the equation of balance of kinetic energy and moving particles: joint calculation of stream hydraulic characteristics and sediment discharge is performed. Hydraulic resistances are retrieved not from the Chezi formula, but based on the balance of forces and kinetic energy. A sediment discharge is calculated from velocities and the number of moving solid particles instead of empirical relationships whose accuracy is usually low. The model is verified against the data of experiments in hydraulic flumes with glass and sand bottom. Comparison with independent data in the glass flume in a wide range of water discharges and bottom inclinations showed a high accuracy of calculation of hydraulic characteristics (relative error is less than 4%). The experimental data showed that the accuracy of sediment discharge calculated by the model exceeds the accuracy of the calculation using traditional empirical formulas.