Assessment of PPP integer ambiguity resolution using GPS,GLONASS and BeiDou (IGSO,MEO) constellations

Although integer ambiguity resolution (IAR) can improve positioning accuracy considerably and shorten the convergence time of precise point positioning (PPP), it requires an initialization time of over 30 min. With the full operation of GLONASS globally and BDS in the Asia–Pacific region, it is necessary to assess the PPP–IAR performance by simultaneous fixing of GPS, GLONASS, and BDS ambiguities. This study proposed a GPS + GLONASS + BDS combined PPP–IAR strategy and processed PPP–IAR kinematically and statically using one week of data collected at 20 static stations. The undifferenced wide- and narrow-lane fractional cycle biases for GPS, GLONASS, and BDS were estimated using a regional network, and undifferenced PPP ambiguity resolution was performed to assess the contribution of multi-GNSSs. Generally, over 99% of a posteriori residuals of wide-lane ambiguities were within ±0.25 cycles for both GPS and BDS, while the value was 91.5% for GLONASS. Over 96% of narrow-lane residuals were within ±0.15 cycles for GPS, GLONASS, and BDS. For kinematic PPP with a 10-min observation time, only 16.2% of all cases could be fixed with GPS alone. However, adding GLONASS improved the percentage considerably to 75.9%, and it reached 90.0% when using GPS + GLONASS + BDS. Not all epochs could be fixed with a correct set of ambiguities; therefore, we defined the ratio of the number of epochs with correctly fixed ambiguities to the number of all fixed epochs as the correct fixing rate (CFR). Because partial ambiguity fixing was used, when more than five ambiguities were fixed correctly, we considered the epoch correctly fixed. For the small ratio criteria of 2.0, the CFR improved considerably from 51.7% for GPS alone, to 98.3% when using GPS + GLONASS + BDS combined solutions.     

Test method for single interior right angle in a corner cube prism

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On the accuracy of atmospheric forcing for extra-tropical storm surge prediction

The ability of the SMARA storm surge numerical prediction system to reproduce local effects in estuarine and coastal winds was recently improved by considering one-way coupling of the air–sea momentum exchange through the wave stress, and best forecasting practices for downscaling. The inclusion of long period atmospheric pressure forcing in tide and tide/surge calculations corrected a systematic error in the surge, produced by the South Atlantic Ocean quasi-stationary pressure patterns. The maximum forecast range for the storm surge at Buenos Aires provided by the real-time use of water level observations is approximately 12 h. The best available water level prediction is the 6-h forecast (nowcast) based on the closest water level observations. The 24-h forecast from the numerical models slightly improves this nowcast. Although the numerical forecast accuracy degrades after the first 48 h, the improvement to the full range observation-based prediction is maintained at the inner Río de la Plata area and extends to the first 3 days at the intermediate navigation channels.     

三疣梭子蟹和华溪蟹主要器官比较组织学的初步研究

近年来随着养殖业的发展,蟹类病害频繁发生,日趋严重。在开展病害研究过程中,由于三疣梭子蟹Portunus trituberculatus的SPF(无特定病原体)材料难于获得,而试验蟹的获得又受到养殖条件、养殖周期等因素的限制,因此阻碍了相关研究的开展,尤其是病毒学研究的进展。筛选一种可替代的模式生物,并开展相关研究显得尤为迫切。华溪蟹Sinopotamon和三疣梭子蟹亲缘关系较近,作为野生的蟹类容易获得,价格低廉,也容易在实验室条件下饲养。笔者在梭子蟹病原研究中发现,华溪蟹不带梭子蟹病原,但在实验条件下可感染相关病原,是开展此两类蟹病原体研究的较好实验动物,有必要开展这两种蟹的组织比较形态学的基础研究,以支持相关的应用研究。笔者经过对三疣梭子蟹和华溪蟹的组织石蜡切片观察发现,两种蟹的各组织器官结构基本相似,各组织结构都由4层构成,即粘膜层、粘膜下层、肌层和外膜。上皮细胞分泌物形成几丁质板,覆盖在上皮细胞表面。三疣梭子蟹的食管粘膜下层较发达。华溪蟹食管粘膜下层的肌层均相对较薄,食管腔较小。这两种蟹的胃壁结构无明显差别。在三疣梭子蟹的局部胃壁,可见嗜酸性几丁质层,上皮细胞顶部间有间隙,间隙中有一些嗜碱性物质。三疣梭子蟹肠粘膜下层不明显。华溪蟹的中肠非常细小,被肝胰腺等组织包裹,难以分离,管腔小,管壁外结缔组织少。两种蟹肝胰腺均由许多分枝的肝小管组成,小管间为结缔组织,血窦。肝小管由单层柱状上皮构成,高低不等,可以明显区分出分泌细胞、吸收细胞、储存细胞和胚性细胞4种形态的细胞,其功能也不同。三疣梭子蟹鳃轴基本弯曲,窄处鳃轴与鳃丝粗细相当,鳃丝和鳃小片间隔较大。华溪蟹鳃轴笔直延伸,窄处鳃轴明显粗于鳃丝,鳃丝间隔较小。两者鳃小片均由扁平上皮组成,外侧有薄层几丁质板。华溪蟹的鳃血管中可以明显看到较多染成红色的血细胞。三疣梭子蟹心肌纤维排列松散,线粒体较少,形态多样。华溪蟹心肌纤维排列致密,线粒体多呈群分布,且数量更多。心肌由梭形心肌细胞组成,有横纹,彼此相连成网,其周围有少量原生质。肌细胞的核呈棒状。     

Characterization of diurnal cycles in ZTD from a decade of global GPS observations

The diurnal cycle of the tropospheric zenith total delay (ZTD) is one of the most obvious signals for the various physical processes relating to climate change on a short time scale. However, the observation of such ZTD oscillations on a global scale with traditional techniques (e.g. radiosondes) is restricted due to limitations in spatial and temporal resolution. Nowadays, the International GNSS Service (IGS) provides an important data source for investigating the diurnal and semidiurnal cycles of ZTD and related climatic signals. In this paper, 10 years of ZTD data from 1997 to 2007 with a 2-hour temporal resolution are derived from global positioning system (GPS) observations taken at 151 globally distributed IGS reference stations. These time series are used to investigate diurnal and semidiurnal oscillations. Significant diurnal and semidiurnal oscillations of ZTD are found for all GPS stations used in this study. The diurnal cycles (24 hours period) have amplitudes between 0.2 and 10.9 mm with an uncertainty of about 0.5 mm and the semidiurnal cycles (12 h period) have amplitudes between 0.1 and 4.3 mm with an uncertainty of about 0.2 mm. The larger amplitudes of the diurnal and semidiurnal ZTD cycles are observed in the low-latitude equatorial areas. The peak times of the diurnal cycles spread over the whole day, while the peak value of the semidiurnal cycles occurs typically about local noon. These GPS-derived diurnal and semidiurnal ZTD signals are similar with the surface pressure tides derived from surface synoptic pressure observations, indicating that atmospheric tides are the main driver of the diurnal and semidiurnal ZTD variations.     

Late Quaternary clay minerals off Middle Vietnam in the western South China Sea: Implications for source analysis and East Asian monsoon evolution

High-resolution clay mineral records combined with oxygen isotopic stratigraphy over the past 450 ka during late Quaternary from Core MD05-2901 off Middle Vietnam in the western South China Sea are re-ported to reconstruct a history of East Asian monsoon evolution. Variations in Illite, chlorite, and kaolinite contents indicate a strong glacial-interglacial cyclicity, while changes in smectite content present a higher frequency cyclicity. The provenance analysis indicates a mixture of individual clay minerals from various sources surrounding the South China Sea. Smectite derived mainly from the Sunda shelf and its major source area of the Indonesian islands. Illite and chlorite originated mainly from the Mekong and Red rivers. Kaolinite was provided mainly by the Pearl River. Spectral analysis of the kaolin-ite/(illite chlorite) ratio displays a strong eccentricity period of 100 ka, implying the ice sheet-forced win-ter monsoon evolution; whereas higher frequency changes in the smectite content show an ice sheet-forced obliquity period of 41 ka, and precession periods of 23 and 19 ka and a semi-precession period of 13 ka as well, implying the tropical-forced summer monsoon evolution. The winter monsoon evolution is generally in coherence with the glacial-interglacial cyclicity, with intensified winter monsoon winds during glacials and weakened winter monsoon winds during interglacials; whereas the summer monsoon evolution provides an almost linear response to the summer insolation of low latitude in the Northern Hemisphere, with strengthened summer monsoon during higher insolation and weakened summer monsoon during lower insolation. The result suggests that the high-latitude ice sheet and low-latitude tropical factor could drive the late Quaternary evolution of East Asian winter and summer monsoons, respectively, implying their diplex and self-contained forcing mechanism.     

On the period of the periodic orbits of the restricted three body problem

We will show that the period T of a closed orbit of the planar circular restricted three body problem (viewed on rotating coordinates) depends on the region it encloses. Roughly speaking, we show that, \(2 T=k\pi +\int _\Omega g\) where k is an integer, \(\Omega \) is the region enclosed by the periodic orbit and \(g:{\mathbb {R}}^2\rightarrow {\mathbb {R}}\) is a function that only depends on the constant C known as the Jacobian constant; it does not depend on \(\Omega \). This theorem has a Keplerian flavor in the sense that it relates the period with the space “swept” by the orbit. As an application we prove that there is a neighborhood around \(L_4\) such that every periodic solution contained in this neighborhood must move clockwise. The same result holds true for \(L_5\).     

Earthquakes in Switzerland and surrounding regions during 2006

This report of the Swiss Seismological Service summarizes the seismic activity in Switzerland and surrounding regions during 2006. During this period, 572 earthquakes and 91 quarry blasts were detected and located in the region under consideration. Of these earthquakes, two occurred in conjunction with the construction of the new Gotthard railway tunnel and 165 were induced artificially by the stimulation of a proposed geothermal reservoir beneath the city of Basel. With 20 events with M _L ≥ 2.5, five of which were artificially induced, the seismic activity in the year 2006 was far below the average over the previous 31 years. Nevertheless, six events were felt by the public, most prominently the strongest of the induced Basel events (M _L 3.4), which caused some non-structural building damage. Noteworthy are also the two earthquakes near Cortaillod (M _L 3.2), on the shore of Lake Neuchatel, and in Val Mora (M _L 3.5), between the Engadin and Val Müstair, as well as the 42 aftershocks of the M _L 4.9 Vallorcine earthquake, between Martigny and Chamonix, of September 2005. Editorial handling: Stefan Bucher     

Late Carboniferous porphyry copper mineralization at La Voluntad,Neuquén,Argentina: Constraints from Re–Os molybdenite dating

The La Voluntad porphyry Cu–Mo deposit in Neuquén, Argentina, is one of several poorly known porphyry-type deposits of Paleozoic to Early Jurassic age in the central and southern Andes. Mineralization at La Voluntad is related to a tonalite porphyry from the Chachil Plutonic Complex that intruded metasedimentary units of the Piedra Santa Complex. Five new Re–Os molybdenite ages from four samples representing three different vein types (i.e., quartz–molybdenite, quartz–sericite–molybdenite and quartz–sericite–molybdenite ± chalcopyrite–pyrite) are identical within error and were formed between ~312 to ~316 Ma. Rhenium and Os concentrations range between 34 to 183 ppm and 112 to 599 ppb, respectively. The new Re–Os ages indicate that the main mineralization event at La Voluntad, associated to sericitic alteration, was emplaced during a time span of 1.7 ± 3.2 Ma and that the deposit is Carboniferous in age, not Permian as previously thought. La Voluntad is the oldest porphyry copper deposit so far recognized in the Andes and indicates the presence of an active magmatic arc, with associated porphyry style mineralization, at the proto-Pacific margin of Gondwana during the Early Pennsylvanian.