New analytical and numerical approaches for geopotential modeling

 The standard analytical approach which is applied for constructing geopotential models OSU86 and earlier ones, is based on reducing the boundary value equation to a sphere enveloping the Earth and then solving it directly with respect to the potential coefficients _n,m . In an alternative procedure, developed by Jekeli and used for constructing the models OSU91 and EGM96, at first an ellipsoidal harmonic series is developed for the geopotential and then its coefficients _n,m ^e are transformed to the unknown _n,m . The second solution is more exact, but much more complicated. The standard procedure is modified and a new simple integral formula is derived for evaluating the potential coefficients. The efficiency of the standard and new procedures is studied numerically. In these solutions the same input data are used as for constructing high-degree parts of the EGM96 models. From two sets of _n,m (n≤360,|m|≤n), derived by the standard and new approaches, different spectral characteristics of the gravity anomaly and the geoid undulation are estimated and then compared with similar characteristics evaluated by Jekeli's approach (`etalon' solution). The new solution appears to be very close to Jekeli's, as opposed to the standard solution. The discrepancies between all the characteristics of the new and `etalon' solutions are smaller than the corresponding discrepancies between two versions of the final geopotential model EGM96, one of them (HDM190) constructed by the block-diagonal least squares (LS) adjustment and the other one (V068) by using Jekeli's approach. On the basis of the derived analytical solution a new simple mathematical model is developed to apply the LS technique for evaluating geopotential coefficients. Received: 12 December 2000 / Accepted: 21 June 2001     

Chemical analysis of natural objects by ion chromatographic method in combination with a priori calculations using IONCHROM software

This paper briefly describes original developments in the theoretical and practical ion chromatography. It is demonstrated that new methods may be applied for the highly-selective analysis of complex natural objects. The determination of different species of sulfur and other ions in the condensates of fumarolic gases is considered in detail as an example.     

The Bashilsky swell: an Upper Pleistocene extrusion in the Verkhnechegemskaya caldera (Northern Caucasus)

This work describes a young extrusive massif in the uppermost reaches of the Chegem River (Bashilauzu-su River), which had been considered as a feeder of the great sequence of Upper Pliocene rhyolite ignimbrites of the Verkhnechegemskaya caldera. The Upper Pleistocene age of the stratum, extrusive origin of automagmatic breccias and fluidolites, as well as its difference from rhyolites of the caldera are proven. The Bashilsky swell, located in the Late Pleistocene glacial trough, is evidence of young volcanism in this area, which has not been previously proposed.     

The upper Bajocian of the Crimean Mountains: Paleogeography and sedimentation conditions from palynological data

Based on the spore-pollen data, the mineral composition of clay rocks, analyzed structures and facies, and a general paleogeographic analysis, the sedimentation conditions and landscapes of islands located during the Late Bajocian in the region of the present-day the Crimean Mountains have been reconstructed. It is shown that the sublatitudinally elongated insular land zone had a width of 30 km, the heights of the islands were no more than 1 km, with steep mudflow-affected northern slopes and with an extensive river system on the southern slopes.     

Geochemistry of dispersed sedimentary matter and its fluxes in the water column of the Caspian Sea

The first data on the chemical composition of dispersed matter from sedimentary traps are reported. The suspended components of sedimentary matter (amorphous silica, organic matter, carbonates, and lithogenic material, as well as Fe, Mn, and minor elements) are considered. As a result, it is shown that the intraannual variability in vertical fluxes of sedimentary matter is characterized by a seasonal increase in spring and autumn. The high fluxes of the components of sedimentary matter on the northern and southern slopes of the Derbent Basin in winter are explained by precipitation of material from the nepheloid layer that forms over the contour current.     

Modeling meso- and sub-mesoscale circulation along the eastern Crimean coast using numerical calculations

A numerical experiment has been carried out using a hydrodynamical model with nonlinear equations of motion and heat and salt advection to reconstruct the fields of hydrophysical parameters taking into account the real atmospheric forcing for the autumn season along the southern coast of the Crimean Peninsula. The studied part of the coast is situated at 44.25°N 33.95°E/44.72°N 34.55°E. High spatial resolution is used for modeling: 350 m in the horizontal plane with 38 layers in the vertical; the bottom topography is described in detail with ~500 m resolution. Detected and studied meso- and sub-mesoscale structures in the current field agree well with the observational data, which is impossible or hard to identify in numerical experiments with coarser resolution. Their kinematic characteristics and the lifetime are defined and some mechanisms of their origin are suggested.     

Ionospheric response to a rocket launch from the Vostochnyi Cosmodrome

The atmospheric disturbances caused by the first rocket launch from the Vostochnyi Cosmodrome on April 28, 2016, were registered 10–24 min after the launch using the signals of the GPS/GLONASS global navigation satellite systems. The analysis of the spatial distribution of the disturbances allowed the conclusion that the launch vehicle moved northwest from the cosmodrome, which corresponds to a trajectory of the satellite movement to the orbit with an inclination of 98º.     

The Nature and Age of Plagioclasites in the Ultrabasic Rai-Iz Massif (Polar Urals)

Corundum-containing and corundum-free plagioclasites localized in chromite-bearing ultramafites of the Rai-Iz Massif were explored for the composition and age. The composition of rock-forming minerals was studied, and the geochemical characteristics of the rocks were ascertained. The isotope age of plagioclasites determined by zircons using the U–Pb mode with a SHRIMP II device was equal to 398 ± 3 Ma. The age found conformed to the boundary on most of the Rai-Iz Massif took place against the background of a starting powerful collision, which caused the formation of the chromium mineralization of a high-chromic type, as well as the separation of a series of essentially plagioclase rocks of ruby mineralization at the discharge zones of the vein series.