Potential applications of ERS-1 SAR data in near real-time

Summary Some important principles of remote sensing using synthetic aperture radar data (SAR data) from the first European Remote Sensing Satellite ERS-1 are explained. Examples illustrate the potential applications of satellite radar information. The possibility of using near-on-line processed remote information for operational purposes is discussed in particular.The satellite information used was received, processed and presented to the visitors of the exhibition which took place as part of the 1992 International Space Year (ISY) at the Bonn offices of the EEC. The BSH and DLR co-operated with DARA and TELEKOM. The intention was to familiarize a broader public with the potential of remote sensing and to stress the necessity of using space technology in combatting environmental problems.

---

Zum Nutzungspotential von ERS-1-AAR-Daten in naher Echtzeit

Zusammenfassung Im vorliegenden Beitrag werden einige wichtige Grundlagen der Fernerkundung mit SAR-Daten des Ersten Europäischen Fernerkundungssatelliten ERS-1 erläutert und anhand einiger ausgewählter Beispiele Möglichkeiten der Nutzanwendung von Radar-Daten aufgezeigt. Dabei werden besonders die Möglichkeiten eines Nahe-Echtzeit-Einsatzes unter operationellen Gesichtspunkten aufgegriffen und diskutiert.Die verwendeten Daten wurden während einer Präsentation in der Vertretung der Kommission der Europäischen Gemeinschaft in Bonn anläßlich einer Veranstaltung zum Internationalen Weltraumjahr 1992 (ISY) von der BDDN-Fast-Delivery-Station des Bundesamts für Seeschiffahrt und Hydrographie (BSH) in Zusammenarbeit mit der Deutschen Forschungsanstalt für Luft- und Raumfahrt (DLR) und der TELEKOM aufgezeichnet, digital verarbeitet und den Besuchern der Ausstellung vorgestellt. Im Vordergrund stand, das Potential der Fernerkundung einer breiteren Öffentlichkeit zugänglich zu machen und die Notwendigkeit der Raumfahrt zur Erkundung unserer Umwelt zu bekräftigen.

---

Le potentiel d'application des données ERS-1 SAR en utilisation presqueimmédiate

Résumé Des propriétés importantes du radar d'ouverture synthétique du premier satellite européen ERS-1 d'observation de la Terre sont présentées. Des exemples choisis illustrent les possibilités d'utilisation appliquée de l'information radar. La possibilité d'une exploitation en temps très légèrement différé sous des aspects opérationnels est démontrée.L'information du satellite ERS-1 a été reçue, traitée et archivée lors d'une présentation à la Commission de la Communauté Européene à Bonn. À l'occasion de la manifestation de l'année internationale de l'espace 1992 (ISY), avec le concours de l'Agence Maritime et Hydrographique Fédérale (BSH), en coopération avec le Centre Allemand de Recherches Aérospatiales (DLR) et les TELEKOM. Le but était de présenter au public les possibilités de la télédétection et de montrer la nécessité de l'usage de la technologie pour aider à résoudre les problèmes de l'environment.

     

Reducing monitoring gaps at the aquifer–river interface by modelling groundwater–surface water exchange flow patterns

This study investigates spatial patterns and temporal dynamics of aquifer–river exchange flow at a reach of the River Leith, UK. Observations of sub‐channel vertical hydraulic gradients at the field site indicate the dominance of groundwater up‐welling into the river and the absence of groundwater recharge from surface water. However, observed hydraulic heads do not provide information on potential surface water infiltration into the top 0–15 cm of the streambed as these depths are not covered by the existing experimental infrastructure. In order to evaluate whether surface water infiltration is likely to occur outside the ‘window of detection’, i.e. the shallow streambed, a numerical groundwater model is used to simulate hydrological exchanges between the aquifer and the river. Transient simulations of the successfully validated model (Nash and Sutcliff efficiency of 0·91) suggest that surface water infiltration is marginal and that the possibility of significant volumes of surface water infiltrating into non‐monitored shallow streambed sediments can be excluded for the simulation period. Furthermore, the simulation results show that with increasing head differences between river and aquifer towards the end of the simulation period, the impact of streambed topography and hydraulic conductivity on spatial patterns of exchange flow rates decreases. A set of peak flow scenarios with altered groundwater‐surface water head gradients is simulated in order to quantify the potential for surface water infiltration during characteristic winter flow conditions following the observation period. The results indicate that, particularly at the beginning of peak flow conditions, head gradients are likely to cause substantial increase in surface water infiltration into the streambed. The study highlights the potential for the improvement of process understanding of hyporheic exchange flow patterns at the stream reach scale by simulating aquifer‐river exchange fluxes with a standard numerical groundwater model and a simple but robust model structure and parameterization. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Imaging the cosmic matter distribution using gravitational lensing of pre-galactic H i

21-cm emission from neutral hydrogen during and before the epoch of cosmic reionization is gravitationally lensed by material at all lower redshifts. Low-frequency radio observations of this emission can be used to reconstruct the projected mass distribution of foreground material, both light and dark. We compare the potential imaging capabilities of such 21-cm lensing with those of future galaxy lensing surveys. We use the Millennium Simulation to simulate large-area maps of the lensing convergence with the noise, resolution and redshift-weighting achievable with a variety of idealized observation programmes. We find that the signal-to-noise ratio of 21-cm lens maps can far exceed that of any map made using galaxy lensing. If the irreducible noise limit can be reached with a sufficiently large radio telescope, the projected convergence map provides a high-fidelity image of the true matter distribution, allowing the dark matter haloes of individual galaxies to be viewed directly, and giving a wealth of statistical and morphological information about the relative distributions of mass and light. For instrumental designs like that planned for the Square Kilometre Array, high-fidelity mass imaging may be possible near the resolution limit of the core array of the telescope.     

Impact of lateral transport on organic proxies in the Southern Ocean

Lateral transport of fine-grained organic carbon particles can complicate the interpretation of paleoclimate records based on organic proxies. Here we investigated the effect of lateral transport on newly developed temperature and soil organic matter proxies, TEX₈₆ and BIT index, respectively, in core MD88-769 recovered from the South East Indian Ridge. Our results show that TEX₈₆ and BIT records in comparison to diatom and foraminifera records were representative for more local climate changes while alkenones and n-alkanes originated from distant areas by oceanic and atmospheric transport, respectively. This suggests that TEX₈₆ and BIT paleoclimate records are primarily influenced by local conditions and less subjected to long-distance lateral transport than other organic proxies in the Southern Ocean.     

Occurrence and biomarker potential of 23-methyl steroids in diatoms and sediments

23-Methyl sterols have been reported to be synthesized by a few marine algae, but unambiguous identification of 23-methyl steroids in sediments and petroleum is lacking. We report the presence of 23-methylcholesta-5,22E-dien-3β-ol in 14 out of 106 diatom cultures, thereby showing that diatoms, together with dinoflagellates, may be an important environmental source for such steroids. Synthesis of authentic 23-methylcholestanes showed that their mass spectra are identical to those of 24-methylcholestanes, but that they elute earlier on apolar stationary phases during gas chromatography (GC) analysis. Co-injection of the authentic standards with sediment extracts revealed the presence of these compounds in the Skole unit of the Oligocene Menelite Formation, the Miocene Monterey Formation and the Messinian Vena del Gesso Formation. In addition, we tentatively identified 23,24-dimethyl-27-norcholestanes in some of these sediments. Molecular clock calculations suggest that diatoms are a possible source for 23-methyl steroids in sediments and petroleum from the late Jurassic onwards.     

Effects of long term oxic degradation on the U37K′, TEX86 and BIT organic proxies

One of the primary prerequisites for the application of organic proxies is that they should not be substantially affected by diagenesis. However, studies have shown that oxic degradation of biomarker lipids can affect their relative distribution. We tested the diagenetic stability of the $U_{37}^{K^{\prime }}$ and TEX₈₆ palaeothermometers upon long term oxygen exposure. For this purpose, we studied the distributions of alkenones and glycerol dialkyl glycerol tetraethers (GDGTs) in different sections of turbidites at the Madeira Abyssal Plain (MAP) that experienced different degrees of oxygen exposure. Sediments were deposited anoxically on the shelf and then transported by turbidity currents to the MAP, which has oxic bottom water. This resulted in partial degradation of the turbidite organic matter as a result of long term exposure to oxic bottom water. Concentrations of GDGTs and alkenones were reduced by one to two orders of magnitude in the oxidized parts of the turbidites compared to the unoxidized parts, indicating substantial degradation. High-resolution analysis of the Pleistocene F-turbidite showed that the $U_{37}^{K^{\prime }}$ index of long chain alkenones increased only slightly (0.01, corresponding to <0.5 °C) in the oxidized part of the turbidite, suggesting minor preferential degradation of the C_37:3 alkenone, in agreement with previous studies. TEX₈₆ values showed a small increase (0.02, corresponding to ～2 °C) in the F-turbidite, like $U_{37}^{K^{\prime }}$, while for other Pliocene/Miocene turbidites it either remained unchanged or decreased substantially (up to 0.06, corresponding to ～6 °C). Previous observations showed that the BIT index, a proxy for the contribution of soil organic matter to total organic carbon, was always substantially higher in the oxidized part in all the turbidites, as a result of preferential degradation of marine-derived GDGTs. This relative increase in soil-derived GDGTs affects TEX₈₆, as the isoprenoid GDGT distribution on the continent can be quite different from that in the marine environment. Our results indicate that the organic proxies are affected by long term oxic degradation to different extents; this should be taken into account when applying these proxies in palaeoceanographic studies of sediments which have been exposed to prolonged oxic degradation.     

激光剥蚀-等离子体质谱技术及其在地球化学宇宙化学和环境研究中的应用

激光剥蚀-等离子体质谱(LA-ICPMS)已成为地球化学、宇宙化学和环境研究领域元素和同位素原位分析最重要的技术之一。文章介绍了多种类型的质谱仪及其使用的激光器。用途最广的LA-ICPMS仪器之一是单接收器扇形磁场质谱仪,配有Nd:YAG激光剥蚀系统(激光波长分为193 nm和213 nm两种),MPI Mainz实验室使用的就是这套系统,文章对此作一详细介绍。文中阐述了数据优化技术及其多种校正过程;介绍LA-ICPMS在痕量元素和同位素分析领域的一些应用,包括参考物质的研制,Hawaiian玄武岩、Martian陨石、生物骨针和珊瑚虫中痕量元素分析及熔融包裹体和富钙-铝碳质球粒陨石中的铅和锶同位素测量。     

最早的栉水母动物化石——华南伊迪 卡拉纪的“八臂仙母虫”

华南伊迪卡拉系陡山沱组保存的磷酸盐化球状化石中有一部分被认为是最早的后生动物胚胎化石, 但由于缺乏成年或幼年过渡期的化石证据, 对这些最早微化石的动物属性还一直存在争议。最近在贵州江口县翁会地区伊迪卡拉(震旦)系陡山沱组的页岩中发现一个与“庙河生物群”相似的宏体碳质压膜化石群, 其中包含一个盘状的宏体化石新类型——八臂仙母虫(Eoandromeda octobrachiata, Tang et al. 2008), 具有八条螺旋状辐射的旋臂, 封闭在一个包膜内。这种八辐射结构在八射珊瑚和栉水母动物中都可见到, 但同时具有的螺旋特性与现生的所有类群都无法对比。在贵州陡山沱组的“瓮安生物群”中发现的球状胚胎化石同样具有螺旋性状, 尽管还没有直接的个体发育证据, 但我们认为新属种可能代表这些螺旋状胚胎化石的成年实体化石。最新报道的南澳大利亚Rawnsley石英岩层中也发现相似的印痕化石, 被归为同一类别, 表明华南的“庙河生物群”与澳大利亚的“伊迪卡拉生物群”时代相当。翁会化石库中少量出露的三辐射化石与俄罗斯“白海生物群”的典型分子—Albumares和Anfesta可以对比。新发现的倾斜保存的八臂仙母虫化石和碳质条带呈子午线状排列的核桃状化石, 可能是该类化石归属栉水母类的有力证据, 这一发现推测可将栉水母类的最早化石记录从“澄江生物群”的早寒武世推前大约3千万年。     

The geomagnetic power spectrum

Combining CHAMP satellite magnetic measurements with aeromagnetic and marine magnetic data, the global geomagnetic field has now been modelled to spherical harmonic degree 720. An important tool in field modelling is the geomagnetic power spectrum. It allows the comparison of field models estimated from different data sets and can be used to identify noise levels and systematic errors. A correctly defined geomagnetic power spectrum is flat (white) for an uncorrelated field, such as the Earth's crustal magnetic field at long wavelengths. It can be inferred from global spherical harmonic models as well as from regional grids. Marine and aeromagnetic grids usually represent the anomaly of the total intensity of the magnetic field. Appropriate corrections have to be applied in estimating the geomagnetic power spectrum from such data. The comparison of global and regional spectra using a consistently defined azimuthally averaged geomagnetic power spectrum facilitates quality control in field modelling and should provide new insights in magnetic anomaly interpretation.     

Wind-driven wave heights in the German Bight

Wind speed, friction velocity and significant wave height data from the FINO1 platform in the southern German Bight 45 km off the coast for the years 2004 to 2006 have been evaluated and related to each other. The data show a clear dependence of the hourly mean wave height to the hourly mean friction velocity and wind speed. Wave heights increase with decreasing stratification and increasing fetch. Synoptic weather patterns for the highest wave heights in the southern German Bight are determined. The analysis is made separately for four wind direction sectors. The two strongest storms in the evaluated period, “Britta” and “Erwin”, are analysed in more detail. Finally, the 50-year extreme significant wave height has been estimated to be about 11 m most probably coming from northerly directions.