Multi‐sensor Image Maps from SPOT,ERS and JERS

Abstract

Image mapping using data from visible and infrared sensors has, as a major drawback, the frequent cloud cover experienced in many countries. This is one of the main reasons why topographic maps at 1:100,000 scale and larger are often outdated. The results of a study which investigated the possibilities of fusing up‐to‐date spaceborne microwave data with existing images from optical sensors for topographic map updating at a scale of 1:100, 000 are presented in this paper. A key issue researched was the influence of geometric distortions and corrections of remote sensing data on the results of pixel based digital image fusion. After having terrain‐geocoded and radiometrically enhanced imagery from the Landsat, SPOT, ERS‐1 and JERS‐1 satellites, the data were fused applying a variety of colour transformation techniques as well as statistical or arithmetic methods. Initially, the image fusion was implemented using images covering a test site in the north of The Netherlands in order to calibrate specified combinations and techniques in a rather flat area. With the experience gained, the remote sensing data acquired over the research site were processed. The research test site is located in a typical Developing Country in the humid Tropics, on the mountainous south‐west coast of Sumatra in Indonesia. The results of the various applied techniques and image combinations were evaluated with reference to their capability to overcome the cloud cover problem. New combinations of techniques and images were developed as result of an optimisation process. The research produced two prototypes of annotated 1:100,000 scale image maps containing fused, cloud‐free optical/microwave imagery.     

Analytical methods for error propagation in planar space–time prisms

The space–time prism demarcates all locations in space–time that a mobile object or person can occupy during an episode of potential or unobserved movement. The prism is central to time geography as a measure of potential mobility and to mobile object databases as a measure of location possibilities given sampling error. This paper develops an analytical approach to assessing error propagation in space–time prisms and prism–prism intersections. We analyze the geometry of the prisms to derive a core set of geometric problems involving the intersection of circles and ellipses. Analytical error propagation techniques such as the Taylor linearization method based on the first-order partial derivatives are not available since explicit functions describing the intersections and their derivatives are unwieldy. However, since we have implicit functions describing prism geometry, we modify this approach using an implicit function theorem that provides the required first-order partials without the explicit expressions. We describe the general method as well as details for the two spatial dimensions case and provide example calculations.     

Sedimentation on the Ionian active margin (Hellenic arc) — Provenance of sediments and mechanisms of deposition

Lithological, sedimentological, mineralogical and faunal analyses of twenty cores from the western Peloponnesus margin and adjacent Matapan Trench permit the origin of the sediments and the processes of sedimentation to be defined in some detail.Except for the ash layers derived from the Ischian Province, the major part of the sediment is local in origin (Peloponnesus). Analyses of heavy, light and clay minerals enable three main provinces to be distinguished. Each of these provinces includes one or more slope basins and a portion of trench, without lateral connection between them and mixing of inputs.The diversity and complexity of sedimentary structures, the granulometric characters, the mixed fauna (molluscs and ostracods) and the variability of rates of sedimentation all testify to the prevalence of reworking phenomena and gravitative processes.These data confirm and elaborate on the model of sedimentation deduced from seismic studies in which sediments are successively trapped, released by the slope basins and transferred via channels and canyons towards the underlying trench basins. This “cascade feeding” appears characteristics of this subductive sedimentary environment.     

Thermodynamic controls on element partitioning between titanomagnetite and andesitic–dacitic silicate melts

Titanomagnetite–melt partitioning of Mg, Mn, Al, Ti, Sc, V, Co, Ni, Cu, Zn, Ga, Zr, Nb, Mo, Hf and Ta was investigated experimentally as a function of oxygen fugacity (fO₂) and temperature (T) in an andesitic–dacitic bulk-chemical compositional range. In these bulk systems, at constant T, there are strong increases in the titanomagnetite–melt partitioning of the divalent cations (Mg²⁺, Mn²⁺, Co²⁺, Ni²⁺, Zn²⁺) and Cu²⁺/Cu⁺ with increasing fO₂ between 0.2 and 3.7 log units above the fayalite–magnetite–quartz buffer. This is attributed to a coupling between magnetite crystallisation and melt composition. Although melt structure has been invoked to explain the patterns of mineral–melt partitioning of divalent cations, a more rigorous justification of magnetite–melt partitioning can be derived from thermodynamic principles, which accounts for much of the supposed influence ascribed to melt structure. The presence of magnetite-rich spinel in equilibrium with melt over a range of fO₂ implies a reciprocal relationship between a(Fe²⁺O) and a(Fe³⁺O_1.5) in the melt. We show that this relationship accounts for the observed dependence of titanomagnetite–melt partitioning of divalent cations with fO₂ in magnetite-rich spinel. As a result of this, titanomagnetite–melt partitioning of divalent cations is indirectly sensitive to changes in fO₂ in silicic, but less so in mafic bulk systems.     

Acid mine drainage at Cerro Rico de Potosí I: unabated high-strength discharges reflect a five century legacy of mining

Intensive mining and processing of Ag, Sn, Pb and Zn ores have occurred in various locations within and around the city of Potosí, Bolivia since 1545. Surface and subsurface waters, stream sediments and soils are contaminated with various ecotoxic metals in the headwaters of the economically vital, yet highly impacted, upper Rio Pilcomayo watershed. Previous studies have documented downstream trace metal contamination, however, not addressed specific sources. The AMD discharges identified in this study help link downstream pollution to primary origins. The majority of AMD would be considered high-strength due to metal concentrations and acidity orders of magnitude greater than typical AMD. Discharges from both operating and abandoned portals as well as tailings-related deposits displayed a high degree of heterogeneity with total metal concentrations ranging from 0.11 to 7480, <0.022 to 889, <0.0006 to 65.3, <0.001 to 310, 0.12 to 72,100, 0.3 to 402, <0.012 to 34.8, and 0.24 to 19,600 mg/L of Al, As, Cd, Cu, Fe, Mn, Pb and Zn, respectively. Net acidity and pH ranged from −10 to 246,000 mg/L as CaCO₃ equivalent and 0.90–6.94 standard units, respectively. Data were gathered during two sampling events centered around the most extreme periods of the dry and wet seasons of one water-year. Loadings to local streams were marginally greater for most metals in the wet season. If observed loadings are historically representative, Cerro Rico AMD has contributed thousands of tonnes of ecotoxic metals to the upper Rio Pilcomayo over the last five centuries. Metal and hydrogen ion concentrations in the majority of AMD sampled were several orders of magnitude above discharge limits set by the Bolivian government, yet no action has historically or contemporarily been taken.     

Central Europe: Active or residual tectonic stresses

The regional stress field in the Western Alps and their northern foreland has been investigated byin situ stress determinations. More than 600 strain relief measurements were made with resistance strain gages in boreholes carried out in mines, tunnels and quarries. The stresses calculated and data obtained from other papers were used to get a detailed idea of the stress conditions in Central Europe.The measurements confirm a continuous flux of compressive stress from the Alps to the northern foreland east of the Rhinegraben. The largest stresses are observed in the Central Alps, the lowest in the Rhinegraben rift system. The horizontal stresses exceed at nearly all places the vertical ones. Evidently the excess of horizontal stress is generated by active plate tectonics in the Alps. A tectonic model to explain the observed stress pattern is presented.     

Chemical composition of Russian Arctic precipitation in 2007-2015

The results of observations of the chemical composition of precipitation in the Russian Arctic in 2007-2015 are summarized including the data from NP-35 drifting ice station obtained in 2007-2008 in the framework of the joint program of Arctic and Antarctic Research Institute and Voeikov Main Geophysical Observatory. The qualitative and quantitative difference in the chemical composition of precipitation in the Atlantic, Siberian, and Pacific sectors of the Russian Arctic is revealed. It is found that the concentration of microelements (heavy metals) in precipitation at NP-35 ice station did not exceed 12% of total ions at the lowest mineralization. The comparative analysis is presented of the concentration of sulfate ions in precipitation in Norilsk and at NP-35 ice stations.     

Observations of rapid mean flow produced in mercury by a moving heater

Abstract

Experimental and theoretical results are described for the moving flame experiment, where a heat source moves under a horizontal, annular channel filled with liquid mercury. The physical range under discussion consists of the creep flow limit, in which inertial forces are less than viscous forces. A mean surface flow was observed on the mercury. This flow was up to four times greater than the heater speed, and in an opposite direction. The ratio of mean flow to heater speed was theoretically and experimentally found to be proportional to the square of the thermal amplitude, in agreement with a special limit of Davey's earlier results. The basic flow here, as contrasted to those flows analyzed by earlier theories, appears to be generated by surface tension. However, the Reynolds stress mechanism which generates the mean flow is the same. Some experimental flows were so rapid that the range of validity of the present, as well as some earlier theories, was exceeded. The present theory suggests that the higher order nonlinearities may have cancellative effects, which implies that the present and some earlier theories are valid beyond their normal range of validity.     

Age and isotopic studies of some Pan-African granites from North-Central Nigeria

Twenty-nine Rb-Sr whole-rock isotopic analyses and three U-Pb zircon analyses on foliated granites and largely unfoliated charnockitic rocks indicate that the central part of the Pan-African belt in west Africa was characterised by intense orogenic plutonism. These data and Rb-Sr analyses on muscovite books from late cross-cutting pegmatites indicate that the peak of magmatic activity occurred 610 ± 10 m.y. ago.Initial ⁸⁷Sr/⁸⁶Sr ratios for the granitic and charnockitic rocks are in the range 0.7065–0.7125, and indicate a significantly older crustal component in the magmas.