Modelling phosphorus transport in a surface irrigation drain

Understanding phosphorus (P) transport from agricultural land is essential to the development of effective management strategies that reduce the impact of agriculture on inland water quality. This paper describes the development and application of a process based model describing P transfer down a farm scale irrigation drain.     

Incipient weathering rind development on introduced machine‐polished granite discs in an Arctic alpine environment,northern Scandinavia

Weathering rinds, zones of alteration on the exterior surfaces of rock outcrops and coarse unconsolidated surficial debris are widely used by geomorphologists and Quaternary geologists as indicators of the relative age of landforms and landscapes. Additionally they provide unique insights into the earliest stages of rock and mineral weathering, yet the origin of these alteration zones is relatively poorly understood. This lack of understanding applies especially to the initial stages of rind formation. The study reported in this paper has two principal objectives. The first is to use lightly polished granite discs inserted in soil profiles under several different plant communities in an Arctic alpine environment for a period of four or five years to investigate the nature of incipient weathering rind development. The second is to investigate the factors responsible for spatial variability in the nature and rates of rind formation. Incipient weathering rind development on the outer edges of the granite discs is observable and measurable over a period of time as short as four years in the mild Arctic alpine environment of Swedish Lapland. The earliest stages of rind development involve the development of a porous structure consisting of a combination of pits and fractures which have been solutionally enlarged and modified. Solution appears to be preferentially concentrated on the surfaces of feldspars and, to a lesser extent, quartz. In addition, iron oxides are present along grain boundaries and in grain interiors and are interpreted to have been derived from the oxidation of ferromagnesian minerals. Spatial variability in weathering rind development appears to be particularly driven by differences in moisture but is not related to soil pH. Copyright © 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Scale in structure and dynamics

Ian Main, Bruce Malamud, Chris Bean and John McCloskey summarize the presentations and lively debate at the British Geophysical Association's annual British Discussion Meeting on Scale-Invariance and Scale-Dependence in Earth Structure and Dynamics.     

多波束测量中换能器瞬时精密高程的确定

分析了GPS高程信号和Heave信号的频段特征，利用数字信号处理技术，提取了GPS高程和Heave中的有效频段信号，合成了一个全新的信号。该合成信号能够全面反映多波束换能器的实际垂直运动，并能够克服传统多波束测量和数据处理方法的缺陷，大大提高了多波束在垂直方向的成果精度。实验证明了该方法的正确性和可行性。     

北京地区单双频地基GPS大气水汽遥测试验与研究

该文对北京地区单双频地基GPS大气水汽监测网布网依据、单频与双频地基GPS测量数据解算技术应用、GAMIT和Bernese地基GPS数据分析处理软件应用、远程遥控GPS数据采集与通讯系统、资料分析与数值同化应用等方面的工作进展进行简要介绍,重点讨论了单双频地基GPS大气水汽资料的解算技术及其应用效果。结果表明:在北京天气敏感区通过单双频地基GPS接收机合理组网布局,可构建并利用高分辨率电离层延迟订正技术将单频接收机的大气水汽监测精度提高到实用水平,为强降水天气预报提供有价值的产品。     

Precise orbit determination for the GRACE mission using only GPS data

The GRACE (gravity recovery and climate experiment) satellites, launched in March 2002, are each equipped with a BlackJack GPS onboard receiver for precise orbit determination and gravity field recovery. Since launch, there have been significant improvements in the background force models used for satellite orbit determination, most notably the model for the geopotential. This has resulted in significant improvements to orbit accuracy for very low altitude satellites. The purpose of this paper is to investigate how well the orbits of the GRACE satellites (about 470 km in altitude) can currently be determined using only GPS data and based on the current models and methods. The orbit accuracy is assessed using a number of tests, which include analysis of orbit fits, orbit overlaps, orbit connecting points, satellite Laser ranging residuals and K-band ranging (KBR) residuals. We show that 1-cm radial orbit accuracy for the GRACE satellites has probably been achieved. These precise GRACE orbits can be used for such purposes as improving gravity recovery from the GRACE KBR data and for atmospheric profiling, and they demonstrate the quality of the background force models being used.