Defining a Digital Earth System

In a 1998 speech before the California Science Center in Los Angeles, then US Vice‐President Al Gore called for a global undertaking to build a multi‐faceted computing system for education and research, which he termed “Digital Earth.” The vision was that of a system providing access to what is known about the planet and its inhabitants’ activities – currently and for any time in history – via responses to queries and exploratory tools. Furthermore, it would accommodate modeling extensions for predicting future conditions. Organized efforts towards realizing that vision have diminished significantly since 2001, but progress on key requisites has been made. As the 10 year anniversary of that influential speech approaches, we re‐examine it from the perspective of a systematic software design process and find the envisioned system to be in many respects inclusive of concepts of distributed geolibraries and digital atlases. A preliminary definition for a particular digital earth system as: “a comprehensive, distributed geographic information and knowledge organization system,” is offered and discussed. We suggest that resumption of earlier design and focused research efforts can and should be undertaken, and may prove a worthwhile “Grand Challenge” for the GIScience community.     

Unregelmässigkeit und Regelmässigkeit der SporadischenE-Schicht

Summary From station's observations much information on top-frequencyfEs, less on blanketing frequencyfbEs is obtained. The results must be interpretated in statistical terms. Time- and distance-correlation functions are established. Daily, seasonal and geographic regularities are discussed. A sharp maximum exists at the magnetic equator but only for the top-frequency. No well defined influence of the solar cycle has been found, only a very weak one of lunar tides.Apart the routine evaluation observations of the variation of the reflection coefficient with frequency have been made. In temperate latitudes in about 1/3 of all cases there is no partial reflection; in the other cases local variations of electron concentration up to 1:2 are found, higher values are rare. At low latitudes the variation may be more important. This is found by a qualitative classification of ionograms of different stations. Such classification has been made for transparency, scatter, angle of incidence and layer developpement. Diffuse echoes exist often near the magnetic equator.Es is always vertically sounded at temperate latitudes. In most cases the ionization originates as a thin layer of constant altitude. Transitory phenomena coming downwards are responsible for «E2s» in daytine.It appears that a cumulo-cirrus-cloud layer is a good model forEs-ionization. An atmospheric ionization process using stored energy from dissociation or ion existence seems to be most probable.     

末次冰消期以来巽他陆架高分辨率的孢粉记录

根据南海南部巽他陆坡上的柱状剖面SONNE 18287的高分辨率的孢粉记录, 重建16500 a以来该地区植被和气候的变化历史. 研究结果发现冰消期的16.5~13.9 ka BP期间, 植被是以低山雨林和低地雨林为主, 蕨类的低含量及大量的低山雨林成分, 反映了较为凉湿的气候. 在13.9~10.2 ka BP期间, 热带低地雨林含量和蕨类植物含量的迅速增长说明了气温升高, 而花粉沉积速率的降低反映海平面逐渐上升, 研究点与植被源地的距离加大. 全新世(10.2 ka BP以来), 花粉沉积速率进一步降低, 仅约为冰消期的1/10, 说明巽他陆架已完全被淹没, 孢粉主要来自周围岛屿植被. 10.2~7 ka BP期间的早全新世, 低含量的蕨类孢子反映了气温降低; 到中全新世(7~3.6 ka BP)蕨类孢子含量突然升高, 反映了一个相对暖期.