The virtual globe is the default visualization for Digital Earth applications, but it can only show one half of the Earth. This article introduces user-adjustable, on-the-fly projection of georeferenced raster images for web mapping and web GIS applications. This technique allows users to center a map on arbitrary locations, while still seeing the entire Earth surface. Modern web mapping libraries can apply map projection transformations to vector data in the browser, but they do not currently support the projection of raster images at interactive frame rates. We use the cross-platform WebGL (Web Graphics Library) graphics pipeline for hardware-accelerated projection of raster data in web browsers. Two algorithmic techniques – inverse per-fragment projection, and combined forward per-triangle and inverse per-fragment projection – for georeferenced raster imagery are documented. The resulting raster maps combine the ease of use and flexibility of interactive virtual globes with the ability to show the entire Earth. The adjustable projection of raster imagery allows users to observe global phenomena that are difficult to visualize on virtual globes or traditional maps with static projections. 相似文献
Eolian dusts collected after dust storms contain aggregates that are cemented by evaporitic salts, mainly halite. They vary in shape, fabrics, and surface roughness. Aggregation changes grainshape, density and size distribution of dust particles (i.e., characteristics determining erosion and transport); on deposition in the sea, cements dissolve and aggregates disintegrate, leaving the resultant eolo-marine sediment component with a misleading paleo-climatic record. The eolian transport of salts with dust from the arid coastal plain to the sea constitutes a portion of anticyclic salt movement and probably plays a role in the geochemical balance of the oceans. 相似文献
A combined 40Ar/39Ar, K/Ar, Rb/Sr and stable isotope study has been made of white micas from the Gummfluh klippe (Briançonnais domain of the Préalpes), Switzerland. The klippe consists mainly of Mesozoic to early Tertiary carbonate rocks metamorphosed from anchizonal to epizonal conditions. At the base of the klippe is a 10–50 m thick, ductilely deformed marble mylonite containing deformed authigenic quartz segregations. Stable isotope measurements of the coexisting calcite (18OSMOW=24.5) and quartz (18OSMOW=28.4) from the mylonite indicate relatively low temperatures (<300°C) during mylonitization. Analyses of white mica separates of varying size fractions from the mylonitic rocks by K/Ar and Rb/Sr techniques yield ages between 57 and 103 Ma. This variation is correlated with two parameters, the size of the mineral fraction, and the proportion of 2M1 (more phengitic) to 1M (more muscovitic) polytype in the sample. The K/Ar and Rb/Sr ages are generally younger in the smaller size fractions, which also containless 2M1 phengite. High precision 40Ar/39Ar age spectra from different size fractions of these micas record three distinct components, a small Hercynian component (ca. 200–300 Ma), a significant Eoalpine component (64–80 Ma) forming 40Ar/39Ar age plateaus, and a very minor Tertiary component (ca. 20–40 Ma). Characterization of the samples by SEM indicates the presence of two white mica populations, a coarser grained, deformed, detrital mica that probably corresponds to the 2M1 phengite and a finer grained neoformed 1M mica. Collectively these observations suggest that the Gummfluh samples contain a mixture of detrital phengites of Hercynian age together with neocrystallized muscovites grown during the late Eoalpine metamorphic event followed by minor argon loss during the Tertiary. The main geologic episode recorded in the 40Ar/39Ar age spectra of white micas in the mylonite is of Late Cretaceous/Early Tertiary age (64–80 Ma), representing the first reliable Eoalpine ages ever to be reported from the Préalpes. Contrary to tectonic models, the marble mylonite at the base of the Gummfluh klippe appears to be a Cretaceous thrust plane and not the thrust surface formed during transport of the klippe into its present position from the Penninic Alps during the Tertiary. The late Cretaceous thrust developed during marine sedimentation at a depth of 800 m below the seafloor at temperatures of 280°C, facilitated by warm fluids along the tectonic discontinuity. 相似文献
Knowledge of upper ocean currents is needed for trajectory forecasts and is essential for search and rescue operations and oil spill mitigation. This paper addresses effects of surface waves on ocean currents and drifter trajectories using in situ observations. The data set includes colocated measurements of directional wave spectra from a wave rider buoy, ocean currents measured by acoustic Doppler current profilers (ADCPs), as well as data from two types of tracking buoys that sample the currents at two different depths. The ADCP measures the Eulerian current at one point, as modelled by an ocean general circulation model, while the tracking buoys are advected by the Lagrangian current that includes the wave-induced Stokes drift. Based on our observations, we assess the importance of two different wave effects: (a) forcing of the ocean current by wave-induced surface fluxes and the Coriolis–Stokes force, and (b) advection of surface drifters by wave motion, that is the Stokes drift. Recent theoretical developments provide a framework for including these wave effects in ocean model systems. The order of magnitude of the Stokes drift is the same as the Eulerian current judging from the available data. The wave-induced momentum and turbulent kinetic energy fluxes are estimated and shown to be significant. Similarly, the wave-induced Coriolis–Stokes force is significant over time scales related to the inertial period. Surface drifter trajectories were analysed and could be reproduced using the observations of currents, waves and wind. Waves were found to have a significant contribution to the trajectories, and we conclude that adding wave effects in ocean model systems is likely to increase predictability of surface drifter trajectories. The relative importance of the Stokes drift was twice as large as the direct wind drag for the used surface drifter.
This paper examines Earth System Science as a novel approach to global environmental change research. Drawing upon Michel Foucault's governmentality concept, the paper opens up the Earth System metaphor to political analysis and asks what it does to our understanding of nature and society as a governable domain. We trace the scientific practices that have produced the Earth System as a thinkable analytical category back to the International Geophysical Year in 1957. We also identify ‘the Anthropocene’ as a central and yet ambiguous system of thought for Earth System Science that harbours different strategies for sustainability in terms of (1) the persons over whom government is to be exercised; (2) the distribution of tasks and actions between authorities; and (3) contrasting ideals or principles for how government should be directed. 相似文献
Polygonal impact craters (PICs) are craters whose shape in plan view is more or less angular instead of being circular or ellipsoidal. This type of craters are present and often common on the Moon, Mercury, Mars and several asteroids and icy moons and after the careful analysis we found on Venus 131 impact craters, which show at least two straight rim segments. This survey proves that there are polygonal impact craters on Venus and they may provide a good tool to analyse the properties of the planet’s surface/crust/lithosphere as well as the impact process itself. This study also collaborates our previous results, that PICs are not an anomaly among craters, but an integral part of all impact craters regardless of their size or environment. We compared the polygonal impact craters to “normal”-shaped craters by using different characteristics (diameter, altitude, geologic setting, morphologic class, floor reflectance, degradation stage, and wall terracing). It turned out that the smaller crater sizes favor the formation of straight rim segments, but otherwise these craters show similar characteristics to other craters. Our study also shows that there are regions where the straight segments of the crater rims most clearly follow the orientations of the dominant tectonic features of the area. Thus, the orientations of crater walls reflect–at least in some places–the local tectonics and zones of weakness also on Venus and could thus tell us about the directions and distributions of fractures or other zones of weakness in the crust. 相似文献
The vertical gradients of gravity anomaly and gravity disturbance can be related to horizontal first derivatives of deflection
of the vertical or second derivatives of geoidal undulations. These are simplified relations of which different variations
have found application in satellite altimetry with the implicit assumption that the neglected terms—using remove-restore—are
sufficiently small. In this paper, the different simplified relations are rigorously connected and the neglected terms are
made explicit. The main neglected terms are a curvilinear term that accounts for the difference between second derivatives
in a Cartesian system and on a spherical surface, and a small circle term that stems from the difference between second derivatives
on a great and small circle. The neglected terms were compared with the dynamic ocean topography (DOT) and the requirements
on the GOCE gravity gradients. In addition, the signal root-mean-square (RMS) of the neglected terms and vertical gravity
gradient were compared, and the effect of a remove-restore procedure was studied. These analyses show that both neglected
terms have the same order of magnitude as the DOT gradient signal and may be above the GOCE requirements, and should be accounted
for when combining altimetry derived and GOCE measured gradients. The signal RMS of both neglected terms is in general small
when compared with the signal RMS of the vertical gravity gradient, but they may introduce gradient errors above the spherical
approximation error. Remove-restore with gravity field models reduces the errors in the vertical gravity gradient, but it
appears that errors above the spherical approximation error cannot be avoided at individual locations. When computing the
vertical gradient of gravity anomaly from satellite altimeter data using deflections of the vertical, the small circle term
is readily available and can be included. The direct computation of the vertical gradient of gravity disturbance from satellite
altimeter data is more difficult than the computation of the vertical gradient of gravity anomaly because in the former case
the curvilinear term is needed, which is not readily available. 相似文献
Simulations of subtropical marine low clouds and their radiative properties by nine coupled ocean-atmosphere climate models
participating in the fourth assesment report (AR4) of the intergovernmental panel on climate change (IPCC) are analyzed. Satellite
observations of cloudiness and radiative fluxes at the top of the atmosphere (TOA) are utilized for comparison. The analysis
is confined to the marine subtropics in an attempt to isolate low cloudiness from tropical convective systems. All analyzed
models have a negative bias in the low cloud fraction (model mean bias of −15%). On the other hand, the models show an excess
of cloud radiative cooling in the region (model mean excess of 13 W m−2). The latter bias is shown to mainly originate from too much shortwave reflection by the models clouds rather than biases
in the clear-sky fluxes. These results confirm earlier studies, thus no major progress in simulating the marine subtropical
clouds is noted. As a consequence of the combination of these two biases, this study suggests that all investigated models
are likely to overestimate the radiative response to changes in low level subtropical cloudiness. 相似文献