The Southern Annular Mode and opposite-phased Basin Mode of the Southern Ocean circulation

Over the Southern Ocean the dominant modes of the atmospheric field are known as the Southern Annular Mode (SAM) or Antarctic Oscillation, and the Pacific South American (PSA) pattern. Statistical analysis of sea surface wind (SSW) from satellite observation revealed two leading modes of SAM-like and PSA patterns. In the high latitudes, the SAM-like pattern of the SSW had a large amplitude over the Bellingshausen Basin and Australian-Antarctic Basin, with opposite phase between the two basins. On the intraseasonal time scale, large-scale sea surface height (SSH) also had notable variability, showing a basin-scale anti-phase mode over the two basins. To explain the response of oceanic variations to these atmospheric modes, we analyzed the relationship between the dominant modes of wind stress and large-scale SSH on the intraseasonal time scale. The SAM-like pattern of wind stress was correlated with the SSH variation over the two basins. The SSH basin mode was most simply explained by a simple barotropic response to the SAM-like mode of wind stress, with the curl of opposite phase between the two basins. We conclude that the zonal asymmetry of the wind field of the SAM plays an important role in driving the antiphase SSH basin modes.     

Determination of plastic regions around underground openings by a coupled boundary-element-characteristics method

A two-dimensional hybrid method for solving elastoplastic problems in engineering is presented by coupling two existing methods, namely, the boundary element method and the characteristics method. The formulation of this method is presented, as well as an excellent procedure for the determination of the boundary between elastic and plastic regions. It is shown not only that this method is a powerful and accurate method for evaluating the shape and extent of the plastic region around rock caverns, which is of prime importance for the construction of rock caverns, but also applicable to a given range of the initial stress field ratio where only compressive failure occurs. Then, some typical examples are solved in order to check the accuracy of the solution by this method. Furthermore, its successful applications are presented and discussed to determine the shape and the extent of the plastic regions around parallel, circular and rectangular openings.     

Large-scale landslides in Toyama Prefecture,central Japan,and their probable relationship with earthquakes

Large-scale landslides along the Kubusu and Besso rivers in Toyama Prefecture are developed in the Miocene Iwaine Formation, which is composed of andesitic lava, tuff, and tuff breccia. In the middle member of this formation, the tuff is easily altered to montmorillonite-bearing rock, and subsequently plays an important role in the development of landslides events, which tend to be large-scale events, as the massive lava of the upper member forms a cap rock over the tuff. The Kiritani and Koinami basins, which are flat intermontane basins located along the Kubusu and Besso rivers, respectively, are interpreted as landslide-dammed lakes, later filled with sediment. Accelerator mass spectrometry ¹⁴C ages show that the landslides forming each dam occurred simultaneously, at approximately 2500 BP. These ages were measured from wood fragments embedded in the landslide material of Kiritani, and from an in situ stump drowned during the impoundment of Koinami. If the trigger of these landslides was an earthquake, it is most likely to have been the penultimate event along the Atotsugawa fault zone.     

Nutrient and Phytoplankton Dynamics in Harima-Nada, Eastern Seto Inland Sea, Japan During a 35-Year Period from 1973 to 2007

Long-term monitoring of water quality and phytoplankton was conducted at 19 sampling stations in Harima-Nada, eastern Seto Inland Sea, Japan for 35 years from 1973 to 2007. There were two significant long-term changes, an increase in winter water temperatures of 0.042°C year^?1, and a decrease in dissolved inorganic nitrogen (DIN) from about 10 μM in the 1970s to ~5 μM in the late 1990s due to the reduction in nutrient inputs. DIN concentrations and total phytoplankton cell density were both higher during the 1970s to the early 1980s and then exhibited a significant decrease in the mid 1980s and remained relatively constant thereafter. Diatoms were the dominant phytoplankton group (>90%) over the 35-year period, and there was a dramatic shift from Skeletonema dominance (~70%) to Chaetoceros in the mid 1980s. This shift in diatom species may be attributed to differences in the life cycle of Skeletonema and Chaetoceros and the response to the decrease in DIN concentration.     

Aeolian dust experiment on climate impact: An overview of Japan–China joint project ADEC

The Aeolian Dust Experiment on Climate Impact (ADEC) was initiated in April 2000 as a joint five-year Japan–China project. The goal was to understand the impact of aeolian dust on climate via radiative forcing (RF). Field experiments and numerical simulations were conducted from the source regions in northwestern China to the downwind region in Japan in order to understand wind erosion processes temporal and spatial distribution of dust during their long-range transportation chemical, physical, and optical properties of dust and the direct effect of radiative forcing due to dust. For this, three intensive observation periods (IOP) were conducted from April 2002 to April 2004.The in situ and network observation results are summarized as follows: (1) In situ observations of the wind erosion process revealed that the vertical profile of moving sand has a clear size dependency with height and saltation flux and that threshold wind velocity is dependent on soil moisture. Results also demonstrated that saltation flux is strongly dependent on the parent soil size distribution of the desert surface. (2) Both lidar observations and model simulations revealed a multiple dust layer in East Asia. A numerical simulation of a chemical transport model, CFORS, illustrated the elevated dust layer from the Taklimakan Desert and the lower dust layer from the Gobi Desert. The global-scale dust model, MASINGAR, also simulated the dust layer in the middle to upper free troposphere in East Asia, which originated from North Africa and the Middle East during a dust storm in March 2003. Raman lidar observations at Tsukuba, Japan, found the ice cloud associated with the dust layer at an altitude of 6 to 9 km. Analysis from lidar and the radio-sonde observation suggested that the Asian dust acted as ice nuclei at the ice-saturated region. These results suggest the importance of dust's climate impact via the indirect effect of radiative forcing due to the activation of dust into ice nuclei. (3) Studies on the aerosol concentration indicated that size distributions of aerosols in downwind regions have bimodal peaks. One peak was in the submicron range and the other in the supermicron range. The main soluble components of the supermicron peak were Na⁺, Ca²⁺, NO₃⁻, and Cl⁻. In the downwind region in Japan, the dust, sea salt, and a mixture of the two were found to be dominant in coarse particles in the mixed boundary layer. (4) Observation of the optical properties of dust by sky-radiometer, particle shoot absorption photometer (PSAP), and Nephelometer indicated that unpolluted dust at source region has a weaker absorption than originally believed.A sensitivity experiment of direct RF by dust indicated that single scattering albedo is the most important of the optical properties of dust and that the sensitivity of instantaneous RF in the shortwave region at the top of the atmosphere to the refractive index strongly depends on surface albedo. A global scale dust model, MASINGAR, was used for evaluation of direct RF due to dust. The results indicated the global mean RF at the top and the bottom of the atmosphere were − 0.46 and − 2.13 W m^− 2 with cloud and were almost half of the RF with cloud-free condition.     

Simulation of an Inertial Acoustic Navigation System With Range Aiding for an Autonomous Underwater Vehicle

This paper presents an integrated navigation system for underwater vehicles to improve the performance of a conventional inertial acoustic navigation system by introducing range measurement. The integrated navigation system is based on a strapdown inertial navigation system (SDINS) accompanying range sensor, Doppler velocity log (DVL), magnetic compass, and depth sensor. Two measurement models of the range sensor are derived and augmented to the inertial acoustic navigation system, respectively. A multirate extended Kalman filter (EKF) is adopted to propagate the error covariance with the inertial sensors, where the filter updates the measurement errors and the error covariance and corrects the system states when the external measurements are available. This paper demonstrates the improvement on the robustness and convergence of the integrated navigation system with range aiding (RA). This paper used experimental data obtained from a rotating arm test with a fish model to simulate the navigational performance. Strong points of the navigation system are the elimination of initial position errors and the robustness on the dropout of acoustic signals. The convergence speed and conditions of the initial error removal are examined with Monte Carlo simulation. In addition, numerical simulations are conducted with the six-degrees-of-freedom (6-DOF) equations of motion of an autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV) in a boustrophedon survey mode to illustrate the effectiveness of the integrated navigation system.     

Molecules of Non-Photospheric Origin in Red Giants and Supergiants Revealed by the ISO SWS

Overall SEDs based on ISO SWS observations show fair agreement with photospheric model predictions for red (super)giant stars. However, some details of molecular spectra cannot be explained by a photospheric origin. In particular, fine structure in the H2O 2.7 μm band can be clearly resolved by the SWS and is identified in an early M giant, whose photosphere will never produce H2O. This is definite evidence for H2O of non-photospheric origin in an early M giant. Also, the observed H2O and CO2 bands in a late M giant are too strong to be explained by a photospheric origin alone. Further, the H2O 2.7 μm band is found in four early M supergiants in the h + χ Persei clusters (three of which show UIRs) and is especially strong in the M4 supergiant S Per (which also shows a highly peculiar SED). Thus, against a belief that H2O is found only in the latest M giants such as Miras, the SWS has revealed the presence of H2O in a wider region of the HR diagram. The origin of this H2O is unknown but is probably in a non-photospheric extra envelope. Such a H2O envelope appears to be a general feature through early M (super)giants to cool supergiants such as S Per, where the envelope has finally developed to be optically thick. This revised version was published online in August 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

Geochemical and geochronological constraints on the origin and emplacement of the Shimo-ondori diorites in Shikoku,Southwest Japan

In this study, the LA-ICP-MS zircon U–Pb dating of the Shimo-ondori diorites in the Shimanto accretionary complex of SW Japan provides ~130 Ma, representing the timing of their crystallization ages. Combined with the geological occurrence, that age clearly indicates that the diorites occur as blocks, not as intrusive rocks as suggested by previous studies. Moreover, the ages of the Shimo-ondori diorites are suggesstive that they could be influential for the estimate of the early-Cretaceous tectonic evolution for the eastern Asian margin. Their whole-rock chemical compositions show high MgO, Ni and Cr contents, and low total FeO/MgO ratios, indicating that they were crystallized from high magnesian andesite (HMA) magmas. Moreover, their TiO₂ and REE compositions suggest that they were formed by the same processes as the sanukites. And, the zircon Hf isotopic ratios (ε_Hf [~130 Ma] = +9.9 − +17.5), which is close to or slightly lower than that of the ~130 Ma depleted mantle, suggest that the wedge-mantle materials were predominantly involved in the formation of the dioritic magmas. Their geochronological and geochemical similarities of the Shimo-ondori diorites with the early Cretaceous adakites and HMAs in the eastern Asian margin suggest that they might have been formed possibly by the same slab rollback of the Izanagi plate at the early Cretaceous. After the crystallization of the Shimo-ondori diorites, they were delivered and deposited as blocks in a trench site with the surrounding sedimentary rocks of the Shimanto accretionary complex.     

U–Pb zircon age from the radiolarian‐bearing Hitoegane Formation in the Hida Gaien Belt,Japan

The dating of radiolarian biostratigraphic zones from the Silurian to Devonian is only partially understood. Dating the zircons in radiolarian‐bearing tuffaceous rocks has enabled us to ascribe practical ages to the radiolarian zones. To extend knowledge in this area, radiometric dating of magmatic zircons within the radiolarian‐bearing Hitoegane Formation, Japan, was undertaken. The Hitoegane Formation is mainly composed of alternating beds of tuffaceous sandstones, tuffaceous mudstones and felsic tuff. The felsic tuff and tuffaceous mudstone yield well‐preserved radiolarian fossils. Zircon grains showing a U–Pb laser ablation–inductively coupled plasma–mass spectrometry age of 426.6 ± 3.7 Ma were collected from four horizons of the Hitoegane Formation, which is the boundary between the Pseudospongoprunum tauversi to Futobari solidus–Zadrappolus tenuis radiolarian assemblage zones. This fact strongly suggests that the boundary of these assemblage zones is around the Ludlowian to Pridolian. The last occurrence of F. solidus is considered to be Pragian based on the reinterpretation of a U–Pb sensitive high mass‐resolution ion microprobe (SHRIMP) zircon age of 408.9 ± 7.6 Ma for a felsic tuff of the Kurosegawa belt, Southwest Japan. Thus the F. solidus–Z. tenuis assemblage can be assigned to the Ludlowian or Pridolian to Pragian. The present data also contribute to establishing overall stratigraphy of the Paleozoic rocks of the Fukuji–Hitoegane area. According to the Ordovician to Carboniferous stratigraphy in this area, Ordovician to Silurian volcanism was gradually reduced to change the sedimentary environment into a tropical lagoon in the early Devonian. And the quiet Carboniferous environment was subsequently interrupted, throwing it once more into the volcanic conditions in the Middle Permian.