Evolution of Magnetic fields in Bok Globules?

We study the influence and structure of the magnetic field in the early phases of low-mass star formation using polarization maps of Bok globules at a wavelength of 850 μm, obtained with the Submillimeter Common-User Bolometer Array (SCUBA) at the James Clerk Maxwell Telescope (JCMT). We discuss observations of the following sources: CB 26—a small globule with a nearly dispersed dense core and a young and large circumstellar disk, CB 54—a large globule with a massive dense core and a deeply embedded young stellar cluster, and B 335, CB 230, and CB 244—three nearby, relatively isolated small globules with low-mass protostellar cores. We find strongly aligned polarization vectors in the case of CB 26, B 335, and CB 230, whereas the vector orientations in the case of CB 54 and CB 244 are more or less randomly distributed. The degree of polarization, amounting to several percent, was found to decrease toward the center in each source. Assuming dichroic emission by aligned non-spherical grains as the polarization mechanism, where the magnetic field plays a role in the alignment process, we derive magnetic field strengths and structures from the observed polarization patterns. We compare the magnetic field topology with the morphology and outflow directions of the globules. In the Class 0 sources B 335, CB 230, and CB 244, the magnetic field is oriented almost perpendicular to the ouflow direction. In contrast, the inclination between outflow axis and magnetic field direction is much more moderate (36°) in the more evolved Class I source CB26.     

Composition of impact melt particles and the effects of post‐impact alteration in suevitic rocks at the Yaxcopoil‐1 drill core,Chicxulub crater,Mexico

Abstract Petrographical and chemical analysis of melt particles and alteration minerals of the about 100 m‐thick suevitic sequence at the Chicxulub Yax‐1 drill core was performed. The aim of this study is to determine the composition of the impact melt, the variation between different types of melt particles, and the effects of post‐impact hydrothermal alteration. We demonstrate that the compositional variation between melt particles of the suevitic rocks is the result of both incomplete homogenization of the target lithologies during impact and subsequent post‐impact hydrothermal alteration. Most melt particles are andesitic in composition. Clinopyroxene‐rich melt particles possess lower SiO₂ and higher CaO contents. These are interpreted by mixing of melts from the silicate basement with overlying carbonate rocks. Multi‐stage post‐impact hydrothermal alteration involved significant mass transfer of most major elements and caused further compositional heterogeneity between melt particles. Following backwash of seawater into the crater, palagonitization of glassy melt particles likely caused depletion of SiO₂, Al₂O₃, CaO, Na₂O, and enrichment of K₂O and FeO_tot during an early alteration stage. Since glass is very susceptible to fluid‐rock interaction, the state of primary crystallization of the melt particles had a significant influence on the intensity of the post‐impact hydrothermal mass transfer and was more pronounced in glassy melt particles than in well‐crystallized particles. In contrast to other occurrences of Chicxulub impactites, the Yax‐1 suevitic rocks show strong potassium metasomatism with hydrothermal K‐feldspar formation and whole rock K₂0 enrichment, especially in the lower unit of the suevitic sequence. A late stage of hydrothermal alteration is characterized by precipitation of silica, analcime, and Na‐bearing Mg‐rich smectite, among other minerals. This indicates a general evolution from a silica‐undersaturated fluid at relatively high potassium activities at an early stage toward a silica‐oversaturated fluid at relatively high sodium activities at later stages in the course of fluid rock interaction.     

Study of solar system planetary lightning with LOFAR

Radio signatures of lightning discharges have been detected by the Voyager spacecraft near Saturn and Uranus up to 40 MHz. Corresponding flux densities at the distance of the Earth are up to 1000 Jansky (Jy) for Saturn (1 event per minute above 50 Jy, with 30–300 ms duration) and up to a few tens of Jansky for Uranus. Low Frequency ARray LOFAR will allow us to detect and monitor the lightning activity at these two planets. Imaging will allow us to locate lightning sources on Saturn's disk (even if with moderate accuracy), which could then be correlated to optical imaging of clouds. Such observations could provide new information on electrification processes, atmospheric dynamics, composition, and geographical and seasonal variations, compared to the Earth. In addition, lightning may play a role in the atmospheric chemistry, through the production of non-equilibrium trace organic constituents potentially important for biological processes. LOFAR observations can also help us to assess the existence of lightning at Neptune (marginally detected by Voyager), at Venus (where their existence is very controversial), and at Mars (possibly resulting from dust cloud charging). At Jupiter, low-altitude ionospheric layers of meteoritic origin and/or intrinsically long discharge duration seem to prevent the emission and escape of high-frequency radio waves associated with lightning. LOFAR thus presents good possibilities for the detection and study of solar system planetary lightning; we also discuss its relevance to bring new information on Terrestrial lightning-related upper atmosphere transient phenomena (sprites, TIPPs…). Instrumental constraints are outlined.     

Identification and assessment of groundwater flow and storage components of the relict Schöneben Rock Glacier,Niedere Tauern Range,Eastern Alps (Austria)

More than 2,600 relict rock glaciers are known in the Austrian Alps but the knowledge of their hydraulic properties is severely limited. The relict Schöneben Rock Glacier (Niedere Tauern Range, Austria), with an extension of 0.17 km², was investigated based on spring data (2006–2014) and seismic refraction survey. Spring-discharge hydrographs and natural and artificial tracer data suggest a heterogeneous aquifer with a layered internal structure for the relict rock glacier. The discharge behavior exhibits a fast and a delayed flow component. The spring discharge responds to recharge events within a few hours but a mean residence time of several months can also be observed. The internal structure of the rock glacier (up to several tens of meters thick) consists of: an upper blocky layer with a few meters of thickness, which lacks fine-grained sediments; a main middle layer with coarse and finer-grained sediments, allowing for fast flow; and an approximately 10-m-thick basal till layer as the main aquifer body responsible for the base flow. The base-flow component is controlled by (fine) sandy to silty sediments with low hydraulic conductivity and high storage capacity, exhibiting a difference in hydraulic conductivity to the upper layer of about three orders of magnitude. The high storage capacity of relict rock glaciers has an impact on water resources management in alpine catchments and potentially regulates the risk of natural hazards such as floods and related debris flows. Thus, the results highlight the importance of such aquifer systems in alpine catchments.     

中国户外旅游回顾与展望——基于外国学者视角①

本文中我从一个外国学者的视角,透视了中国近30多年来户外旅游的成长与发展。虽然不懂中文,但在过去很多年中我屡次受中国科学院之邀,有幸探访了中国一些优秀的户外旅游目的地,观察到了其在社会、经济和环境方面发生的变化。外国学者的视角总会比中国学者有更大的局限性,但也仍然有可能提供一个有益的参照或者补充。     

Characterization of Strength of Intact Brittle Rock Considering Confinement-Dependent Failure Processes

As technologies for deep underground development such as tunneling underneath mountains or mass mining at great depths (>1,000 m) are implemented, more difficult ground conditions in highly stressed environments are encountered. Moreover, the anticipated stress level at these depths easily exceeds the loading capacity of laboratory testing, so it is difficult to properly characterize what the rock behavior would be under high confinement stress conditions. If rock is expected to fail in a brittle manner, behavior changes associated with the relatively low tensile strength, such as transition from splitting to the shear failure, have to be considered and reflected in the adopted failure criteria. Rock failure in tension takes place at low confinement around excavations due to tensile or extensional failure in heterogeneous rocks. The prospect of tensile-dominant brittle failure diminishes as the confinement increases away from the excavation boundary. Therefore, it must be expected that the transition in the failure mechanism, from tensile to shear, occurs as the confinement level increases and conditions for extensional failure are prevented or strongly diminished. However, conventional failure criteria implicitly consider only the shear failure mechanism (i.e., failure envelopes touching Mohr stress circles), and thus, do not explicitly capture the transition of failure modes from tensile to shear associated with confinement change. This paper examines the methodologies for intact rock strength determination as the basic input data for engineering design of deep excavations. It is demonstrated that published laboratory test data can be reinterpreted and better characterized using an s-shaped failure criterion highlighting the transition of failure modes in brittle failing rock. As a consequence of the bi-modal nature of the failure envelope, intact rock strength data are often misinterpreted. If the intact rock strength is estimated by standard procedures from unconfined compression tests (UCS) alone, the confined strength may be underestimated by as much as 50 % (on average). If triaxial data with a limited confinement range (e.g., σ₃ ? 0.5 UCS due to cell pressure limitations) are used, the confined strength may be overestimated. Therefore, the application of standard data fitting procedures, without consideration of confinement-dependent failure mechanisms, may lead to erroneous intact rock strength parameters when applied to brittle rocks, and consequently, by extrapolation, to correspondingly erroneous rock mass strength parameters. It follows that the strength characteristics of massive rock differ significantly in the direct vicinity of excavation from that which is remote with higher confinement. Therefore, it is recommended to adopt a differentiated approach to obtain intact rock strength parameters for engineering problems at lower confinement (near excavation; e.g., excavation stability assessment or support design), and at elevated confinement (typically, when the confinement exceeds about 10 % of the UCS) as might be encountered in wide pillar cores.     

Low elevation of the northern Lhasa terrane in the Eocene: Implications for relief development in south Tibet

The uplift history of Tibet is crucial for understanding the geodynamic and palaeoclimatologic evolution of Asia; however, the pattern of plateau uplift through space and time remains unresolved. We use stable isotope data from palaeosol carbonates to reconstruct the Eocene (~46 Ma) elevation of the Tangra Yum Co region (northern Lhasa terrane). The difference between the oxygen isotopic compositions of the studied palaeosols and Eocene surface water near the source of the Indian monsoon indicates a palaeoelevation of 2590 (+730/?910) m for Tangra Yum Co (present altitude: ~4600 m). A similar palaeoaltitude is obtained by comparing our data with modern soils and taking past environmental changes into account. Combining our results with published palaeoelevation estimates for Tibet suggests significant relief (~2 km) during the Eocene, when a low‐lying basin in the northern Lhasa terrane was bounded by the Qiangtang and Gangdese mountain belts to the north and south respectively.     

Generation of a consistent absolute phase-center correction model for GPS receiver and satellite antennas

The development and numerical values of the new absolute phase-center correction model for GPS receiver and satellite antennas, as adopted by the International GNSS (global navigation satellite systems) Service, are presented. Fixing absolute receiver antenna phase-center corrections to robot-based calibrations, the GeoForschungsZentrum Potsdam (GFZ) and the Technische Universität München reprocessed more than 10 years of GPS data in order to generate a consistent set of nadir-dependent phase-center variations (PCVs) and offsets in the z-direction pointing toward the Earth for all GPS satellites in orbit during that period. The agreement between the two solutions estimated by independent software packages is better than 1 mm for the PCVs and about 4 cm for the z-offsets. In addition, the long time-series facilitates the study of correlations of the satellite antenna corrections with several other parameters such as the global terrestrial scale or the orientation of the orbital planes with respect to the Sun. Finally, completely reprocessed GPS solutions using different phase-center correction models demonstrate the benefits from switching from relative to absolute antenna phase-center corrections. For example, tropospheric zenith delay biases between GPS and very long baseline interferometry (VLBI), as well as the drift of the terrestrial scale, are reduced and the GPS orbit consistency is improved.     

Importance of Air-Sea Coupling in Simulating Tropical Cyclone Intensity at Landfall

An atmosphere-only model system for making seasonal prediction and projecting future intensities of landfalling tropical cyclones (TCs) along the South China coast is upgraded by including ocean and wave models. A total of 642 TCs have been re-simulated using the new system to produce a climatology of TC intensity in the South China Sea. Detailed comparisons of the simulations from the atmosphere-only and the fully coupled systems reveal that the inclusion of the additional ocean and wave models enable differential sea surface temperature responses to various TC characteristics such as translational speed and size. In particular, interaction with the ocean does not necessarily imply a weakening of the TC, with the coastal bathymetry possibly playing a role in causing a near-shore intensification of the TC. These results suggest that to simulate the evolution of TC structure more accurately, it is essential to use an air-sea coupled model instead of an atmosphere-only model.