A semi-continuous measurement of gaseous ammonia and particulate ammonium concentrations in PM<Subscript>2.5</Subscript> in the ambient atmosphere

Ammonia has a short residence time in the atmosphere and rapidly neutralizes acid gases that occur near its source, requiring a rapid measurement system for ammonia and particulate ammonium concentrations to better understand their sources, temporal variation of ammonia emissions, and the formation of secondary ammonium aerosols. A semi-continuous measurement system, consisting of a diffusion scrubber, a particle growth chamber, an air-liquid separator, and a fluorescent detector, was developed to determine both gaseous ammonia (NH₃) and particulate ammonium (NH ₄ ⁺ ) in PM_2.5 in the ambient atmosphere of Gwangju, South Korea, during the months of March, April, July, and September of 2007. During the sampling periods, the average concentrations of ammonia and ammonium were found to be 2.33?±?1.29 μg/m³ and 1.89?±?0.99 μg/m³, respectively. Although the average gaseous ammonia concentration was highest in March, the particulate ammonium concentration was higher during the warmer season, reaching 2.08?±?1.07 μg/m³ and 2.32?±?0.94 μg/m³ in April and July, respectively, while only 1.68?±?0.61 μg/m³ in March and 1.24?±?0.99 μg/m³ in September. It is proposed that the higher availability of acid species during the warmer months produced a significant amount of particulate ammonium sulfate. Diurnal fluctuation of ammonia and ammonium during the warmer months showed that their peak time occurred at approximately 10:00 am. Both ammonia and ammonium concentrations were better correlated during the warmer months than during the cooler months. Further, the data suggest that the ammonia and ammonium were measured under well dispersed conditions, and multiple sources contributed to the ammonia at the sampling site.     

STATISTICAL ANALYSIS OF CYCLONE TRACKS IN WESTERN ANTARCTIC REGION

The paper shows the statistical analysis of cyclone tracks that have influence on the western Antarcticregion.Based on the conditions of cyclone movement and its impact upon the weather,cyclone tracks areclassified into three categories,i.e.,the track moving towards the northern tip of the Antarctic Peninsula,southern track,and northern track.Moreover,in this paper,the frequency distributions of cyclone tracks,the major tracks with higherfrequencies,the original region of Antarctic cyclones and the seasonal features of Antarctic cyclones have beenanalyzed.The results show that there are higher cyclogeneses in summer,whereas relatively fewer cycloge-neses in winter,and cyclone numbers in transitional seasons are close to the climatological average.Theanalysis also shows that the moving velocity of Antarctic cyclone is about the same in winter and summer.It obviously speed up during the transitional season.     

Evaluating the suitability of different terrains for sustaining human settlements according to the local elevation range in China using the ASTER GDEM

The topographical suitability assessment of human settlements(SAHS) creates a solid foundation for regional population distribution and socio-economic development. Local elevation range(LER) is an important factor that can be used to assess the suitability of different terrains for sustaining human settlements. However, current digital elevation model(DEM)-based LER products suffer from some challenges typically because of their subjectively selected neighborhood scales and coarser spatial resolution. In this study, we initially determined the optimal statistical window and then calculated the appropriate LER with the finer resolution data of the Advanced Spaceborne Thermal Emission and Reflection Radiometer Global DEM(ASTER GDEM) products for China. Then, the appropriate LER was used to evaluate the topographical SAHS and its correlations with the national gridded population distribution(1 km × 1 km) in 2010. The results show that the optimal statistical window for calculating a 1 arc-second(about 30 m) resolution GDEM LER for China can be determined using a 51 × 51 grid unit(width × height) within a rectangular neighborhood, corresponding to an area of about 2.34 km~2. Secondly, the LER values in the southern and western China were greater than those of the north and east, showing a trend which consistently reflects the general spatial features of landforms. Finally, the relationship between GDEM LER and population density was highly correlated with the R~2 value of 0.81. It showed that 85.22% of the Chinese population was located in areas where the LER is lower than 500 m. The topographically suitable area within China decreased from the southeastern coastal zone towards the northwestern inland areas due to transition from plains and basins to plateaus and mountains. The total area of moderate to high suitable level was 423.84 × 10~4 km~2, or 44.15% of the total land area, with 88.17% of the national population. Our study demonstrates the usefulness of appropriate LER in evaluating the topographical SAHS as well as its significant impact on population distribution.     

通勤时间、社区活动对社区社会资本的影响：基于北京26个社区的调查研究

城市扩张和郊区化显著增加居民的通勤时间,减少居民在社区内及周边开展的日常活动,进而可能对居民的社区社会资本产生消极影响。基于2017年北京市26个社区居民的社区融合与活动日志问卷调查数据,通过构建结构方程模型,探讨通勤时间、社区活动对社区社会资本的影响机制。结果发现,控制居民社会经济属性和社区区位后,长时间通勤会减少居民在社区及周边1 000 m范围内开展的活动,并进一步对社区社交网络结构、社会信任和共同价值等社区社会资本的不同维度产生负面影响。此外,社区活动中社交娱乐活动的中介效应显著,而个人和家庭事务活动中介效应不显著。最后,证实了促进职住平衡、减少职住分离的规划政策对于增加居民社区活动及培育社区社会资本的重要意义。     

新疆城市化过程及机制分析

城市人则城市化研究的核心问题。在分析新疆城市化现状特征的基础上，围绕新疆城市发展的阶段和过程，采用多因素的灰色关联分析和比较分析等手段，对新疆1978－2000年间城市化发展过程进行分析和探讨，寻求并探索新疆城市化发展的特征、水平和演化机制。研究结果发现各因素与城市化的关联度不仅在横向上存在着指标间的差异，在纵向上显示出1990－2000间各指标与城市化的相关性明显高于1978－1989年间，部分指标与城市化关系发生了负向变化。表明近20多年来新疆城市化稳定发展，城市化系统条件（农村和城市的控制性次系统及整个社会经济文化）有一定的提高，体现了系统各因素与城市化发展的同向性以及区域发展的合理趋势，但整体薄弱的社会经济基础是新疆城市化落后的根本原因，产业结构升级转换仍将是新疆城市化的主要动力。     

Small-scale vegetation dynamics in semi-arid steppe in Inner Mongolia

Small-scale vegetation dynamics were followed for ecotones and in uniform stands inArtemisia-dominated steppe vegetation under grazing and when recovering from heavy grazing. Species composition was followed annually for 5 years in 1 m²and 0·25 m²plots for (1) presence–absence; (2) density; and (3) biomass.More rapid vegetation dynamics, in terms of change of type of vegetation and distance moved in DCA species space between sampling occasions, were observed in smaller plots and in early seral stages, where species were few and alpha diversity low. Only the plots recently protected from grazing showed a directional vegetation change; those protected for more than 3 years and those under continued grazing showed, at this scale, non-directional dynamics.     

Hydrochemical and Multivariate Statistical Evaluation of Heavy Metals in Shallow Alluvial Aquifers of North Brahmaputra Plain,India

The aim of this study was to display distribution and relationships of heavy elements in the unconfined, shallow alluvial aquifers of the lower Jia Bharali catchment and adjoining areas in central part of North Brahmaputra Plain (NBP), India using hydrochemical as well as multivariate statistical techniques such as principal component analysis (PCA) and cluster analysis. The original matrix was made up of 10 trace elements (As, Cd, Cu, Co, Cr, Fe, Mn, Pb, Ni and Zn) estimated from 50 shallow alluvial dug wells in both the wet and the dry season for a duration of 3 hydrological years (2008–2011). Except As, Cu and Zn all the other toxic metals in the shallow aquifers were found exceeding the WHO maximum permissible limits for drinking water. PCA extracted five varimax factors as geogenic, agricultural and anthropogenic explaining about 71.2% of the total variance in the wet season and 69.3% total variance in the dry season. Hierarchical cluster analysis classified the dug wells into two groups in the wet season and three groups in the dry season with respect to the heavy elements. The results emphasized the need for routine monitoring and management in order to avoid contamination of groundwater sources in the NBP with respect to the dissolved trace elements.     

On the circulation in the East Frisian Wadden Sea: numerical modeling and data analysis

 In this paper we use a combination of numerical modeling and data analysis to gain a better understanding of the major characteristics of the circulation in the East Frisian Wadden Sea. In particular, we concentrate on the asymmetry of the tidal wave and its modulation in the coastal area, which results in a complex pattern of responses to the sea-level forcing from the North Sea. The numerical simulations are based on the 3-D primitive equation General Estuarine Transport Model (GETM) with a horizontal resolution of 200 m and terrain-following vertical coordinates. The model is forced at its open boundaries with sea-level data from an operational model for the German Bight (German Hydrographic Office). The validation data for our model simulations include time series of tidal gauge data and surface currents measured at a pile in the back-barrier basin of the Island Langeoog, as well as several ADCP transects in the Accumer Ee tidal inlet. Circulation and turbulence characteristics are investigated for typical situations driven by spring and neap tides, and the analysis is focused on dominating temporal and spatial patterns. By investigating the response of five back-barrier basins with rather different morphologies to external forcing, an attempt is made to elucidate the dominating physical balances controlling the circulation in the individual sub-basins. It is demonstrated that the friction at the seabed tends to slow down the tidal signal in the shallow water. This leads to the establishment of flood dominance in the shallow sea north of the barrier islands. South of the islands, where the water volume of the channels at low tide is smaller than the tidal prism, the asymmetry of the tidal signal is shifted towards ebb dominance, a feature which is particularly pronounced at spring tide. At the northern open boundary, the tidal wave propagating from west to east generates a sea-level difference of ∼1 m along the boundary, and thereby triggers vigorous alongshore currents. The frictional control in the model is located in the inlets, as well as along the northern boundary. The correlation between velocity and turbulent kinetic energy tends to the establishment of a net southward transport, giving theoretical support to the observed accumulation of sediments on the intertidal flats. Weak turbulence along the northern shores of the barrier islands and the small magnitude of the residual currents there promote accumulation of suspended matter in these areas, although wave action will generally counteract this effect. Received: 29 May 2002 / Accepted: 26 September 2002 Responsible Editor: Jean-Marie Beckers Acknowledgements We are indebted to S. Dick for providing the data from the operational model of BSH and to B. Flemming for the useful discussions. The topography data and Fig. 1 have been prepared in cooperation with F. Meyer. Figure 2 has been prepared by G. Brink-Spalink. We also thank for the comments from an anonymous reviewer which helped to improve our paper.     

SAR image despeckling with a multilayer perceptron neural network

Speckle noise in synthetic-aperture radar (SAR) images severely hinders remote sensing applications; therefore, the appropriate removal of speckle noise is crucial. This paper elaborates on the multilayer perceptron (MLP) neural-network model for SAR image despeckling by using a time series of SAR images. Unlike other filtering methods that use only a single radar intensity image to derive their parameters and filter that single image, this method can be trained using archived images over an area of interest to self-learn the intensity characteristics of image patches and then adaptively determine the weights and thresholds by using a neural network for image despeckling. Several hidden layers are designed for feedforward network training, and back-propagation stochastic gradient descent is adopted to reduce the error between the target output and neural-network output. The parameters in the network are automatically updated in the training process. The greatest advantage of MLP is that once the despeckling parameters are determined, they can be used to process not only new images in the same area but also images in completely different locations. Tests with images from TerraSAR-X in selected areas indicated that MLP shows satisfactory performance with respect to noise reduction and edge preservation. The overall image quality obtained using MLP was markedly higher than that obtained using numerous other filters. In comparison with other recently developed filters, this method yields a slightly higher image quality, and it demonstrates the powerful capabilities of computer learning using SAR images, which indicate the promising prospect of applying MLP to SAR image despeckling.     

Geochemistry of sedimentary rocks from Permian–Triassic boundary sections of Tethys Himalaya: implications for paleo-weathering,provenance, and tectonic setting

The geochemical characteristics of two sections—the Permian–Triassic boundary (PTB) Guryul Ravine section, Kashmir Valley, Jammu and Kashmir, India; and the Attargoo section, Spiti Valley, Himachal Pradesh, India—have been studied in the context of provenance, paleo-weathering, and plate tectonic setting. These sections represent the siliciclastic sedimentary sequence from the Tethys Himalaya. The PTB siliciclastic sedimentary sequence in these regions primarily consists of sandstones and shales with variable thickness. Present studied sandstones and shales of both sections had chemical index of alteration values between 65 and 74; such values reveal low-to-moderate degree of chemical weathering. The chemical index of weathering in studied samples ranged from 71 to 94, suggesting a minor K-metasomatism effect on these samples. Plagioclase index of alteration in studied sections ranged from 68 to 92, indicating a moderate degree of weathering of plagioclase feldspars. The provenance discriminant function diagram suggests that the detritus involved in the formation of present studied siliciclastic sedimentary rocks fall in quartzose sedimentary and felsic igneous provenances. These sediments were deposited in a passive continental margin plate tectonic setting according to their location on a Si₂O versus K₂O/Na₂O tectonic setting diagram.