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.     

非均匀陆面条件下区域蒸散量计算的遥感模型

非均匀陆面条件下的区域蒸散计算是一个复杂的问题。文中首先在利用遥感资料求取地表特征参数 (如植被覆盖度、地表反照率等 )的基础上 ,建立了裸露地表条件下的裸土蒸发和全植被覆盖条件下植被蒸腾计算模型 ,然后结合植被覆盖度 (植被的垂直投影面积与单位面积之比 )给出非均匀陆面条件下的区域蒸散计算方法。实测资料验算表明该模型具有较高的计算精度。文章最后利用该模型对中国北方地区的蒸散量进行了计算 ,并对该研究区蒸散的特点进行了分析     

全球陆地年降水量与ENSO关系的初步研究

用全球陆地月降水资料（PREC／L），研究了1948－2000年期间的ENSO事件与全球陆地年降水量的关系，对全盛分析的结果进行了蒙特卡洛模拟经验。结果表明，暖事件年全球陆地年降水量大范围地明显减小，显著的地区是：赤道西太平洋区，中国的华北，赤道中美洲区，孟加拉湾北部及尼泊尔，东澳大利亚区，印度西部及巴基斯坦南部，勒拿河以东地区，西欧及南极的威尔克斯等区域。在暖事件年，陆地年降水量增加地区不多，主要是南美的智利和阿根廷，东非索马里，肯尼亚和坦桑亚，中东的土耳其，伊拉克及伊朗，北非的利比亚和阿尔及利亚，西南非的纳米比亚及非洲南部的博茨瓦纳和津巴布韦。统计检验表明，暖事件年全球陆地年降水量减少的面积比降水量增加的面积要大，而且更为显著，将本文结果与早期的研究结果进行了比较，研究还指出，ENSO的年代际变化对上述地区降水的年代际变化影响不明显。但是80年代以后的暖事件对东澳大利亚干旱，中国的华北的干旱的影响比80年代前的影响更大。     

离散裂隙渗流方法与裂隙化渗透介质建模

流体渗流模拟的连续介质方法通常适用于多孔地质体，并不一定适用于裂隙岩体，由于裂隙分布及其特征与孔隙差异较大。若流体渗流主要受裂隙的控制，对于一定尺寸的裂隙岩体，多孔介质假设则较难刻划裂隙岩体的渗流特征。离散裂隙渗流方法不但可直接用于模拟裂隙岩体非均质性和各向异性等渗流特征，而且可用其确定所研究的裂隙岩体典型单元体及其水力传导（渗透）张量大小。主要讨论了以下问题：（1）饱和裂隙介质中一般的离散流体渗流模拟；（2）裂隙岩体中的REV（典型单元体）及其水力传导（渗透）张量的确定；（3）利用离散裂隙网络流体渗流模型研究裂隙方向几何参数对水力传导系数和REV的影响；（4）在二维和三维离散裂隙流体渗流模型中对区域大裂隙和局部小裂隙的处理方法。调查结果显示离散裂隙流体渗流数学模型可用来评价不同尺度上的裂隙岩体的水力特征，以及裂隙方向对裂隙化岩体的水力特征有着不可忽视的影响。同时，局部小裂隙、区域大裂隙应当区别对待，以便据其所起的作用及水力特征，建立裂隙化岩体相应的流体渗流模型。     

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.