Geochemistry of hydroxy acids in sediments—I. Some freshwater and brackish water lakes in Japan

Series of α, β, ω and (ω-1) hydroxy fatty acids (FAOHs) were determined in several freshwater and brackish water lacustrine sediments in Japan. Analytical procedure used was digestion of the solvent-extracted sediment with HF/HCl followed by solvent and saponification extraction of the residue. Abundances of α/β and ω-FAOH determined by this procedure were 2–3 times higher than those obtained by single alkaline saponification and of the same order with those provided by HCl hydrolysis. Major portion of α/β-FAOH was obtained by solvent extraction of the acid-treated sediments, while subsequent alkaline saponification was needed for the majority of ω-FAOH to be recovered. Thus determined FAOHs comprised 33–61% (Av. = 42%) of the “bound” acid constituents in the lacustrine surface sediments. The α/β and ω-FAOH composition was principally the same among the samples examined, except for relative proportions of the iso to anteiso C₁₅ and C₁₇ ß(α)-FAOH, which showed significant variations in the ranges of 0.30–1.1 and 0.46–1.5, respectively. In the holomictic lakes, the ratios together with the same ratios of the “bound” branched monocarboxylic acids tended to decrease with increasing water depth of the lakes, suggesting that the ratios may indicate an extent of the early diagenetic alteration of the bacteria-derived lipids either in water column or in surface sediment.     

Recursive computation of oblate spheroidal harmonics of the second kind and their first-, second-, and third-order derivatives

A recursive method is developed to compute the ratios of the oblate spheroidal harmonics of the second kind and their first-, second-, and third-order derivatives. The recurrence formulas consist of three kinds: (1) fixed-degree increasing-order, (2) mixed-degree increasing-order, and (3) fixed-order decreasing-degree. The three seed values are evaluated by rapidly convergent series. The derivatives of the ratios are recursively obtained from the values and lower-order derivatives of the same harmonic order and of the same or higher degrees. The new method precisely and quickly computes the ratios and their low-order derivatives. It provides 13 correct digits of the ratios of degree as high as 262,000 and runs 20–100 times faster than the existing methods.     

Tropospheric delay correction with dense GPS network in L1-SAIF augmentation

The L1-SAIF (L1 Submeter-class Augmentation with Integrity Function) signal is one of the Quasi-Zenith Satellite System (QZSS) navigation signals, which provides an augmentation function for mobile users in Japan. The tropospheric delay correction in the L1-SAIF augmentation is discussed in detail. Because the topographical features in Japan are complicated, the correction information is generated from GPS observation data collected at 200 GPS stations which are densely distributed over Japan. A total of 210 Tropospheric Grid Points (TGPs) are arranged to fully cover Japan. The TGPs that provide the correction information are selected adaptively to achieve the expected correction accuracy. This selection of TGPs is provided by the TGP mask message. Mobile users acquire the zenith tropospheric delay (ZTD) value at neighboring TGPs from the correction messages, and can estimate the local ZTD value accurately by using a suitable ZTD model. Only up to seven L1-SAIF messages are sufficient to provide the full correction information. Accuracy evaluations have proven that it is possible to achieve a correction accuracy of 13.4 mm RMS. The strategy presented here has been implemented into the augmentation system using the L1-SAIF signal, and its application guidance is presented in the QZSS interface specification.     

Measurements of the log-irradiance distribution of a laser wave propagated through the turbulent atmosphere

Log-irradiance fluctuations of He-Ne laser light were simultaneously measured at three different points in the receiving plane. The cumulative probability distributions of log-irradiance show excellent agreement with the Rice-Nakagami distribution in the region of weak fluctuations. The irradiance distributions strongly depend upon the locations of the observing points with respect to the center of the beam, as expected from recent theory.     

Atmospheric correction scheme for GLI with absorptive aerosol correction

The present study proposes an atmospheric correction scheme for Advanced Earth Observation Satellite II (ADEOS-II)/Global Imager (GLI) ocean color retrieval that corrects for the atmospheric absorptive aerosol effect. Radiative transfer simulations were conducted assuming a non-absorptive model aerosol with a soot-type aerosol at various mixture ratios. The results indicate that while the spectral dependency of aerosol reflectance does not change in the longer (>550 nm) wavelength region, the reflectance at shorter wavelengths is highly variable and depends on the mixture ratio. The influence of aerosol absorption was also investigated using GLI data from ocean areas adjacent to Japan in the presence of absorptive Siberian fire smoke aerosol in the spring of 2003. The spectral curvature of the aerosol was estimated from the data obtained. An empirical, iterative scheme that detects and evaluates the influence of absorptive aerosols was developed by comparing 380 nm GLI-observed aerosol reflectance with predicted reflectances derived using an in-water optical model. To evaluate the performance of this scheme, satellite-derived normalized water-leaving radiances were compared with those measured from a ferry servicing Nagasaki and Fukue. The results of data acquired on March 20, 2003, indicate that this absorption correction scheme improved root mean square estimation error for normalized water-leaving radiance by approximately 40% in the 380, 400, and 412 nm bands. This atmospheric correction algorithm was used as a part of the second version of the GLI standard ocean color data process system at Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA).     

Effects of bacterial films on diatom attachment in the initial phase of marine fouling

The effects of bacterial films on diatom attachment were examined in short-term laboratory experiments, comparing the density of immotile pennate diatoms attached to plates previously coated with bacterial films (BP) with that of sterile plates (SP). The predominant diatom and bacterium wereSynedra sp. andAlcaligenes sp., respectively. There was no significant difference between densities of diatoms on SP and those on BP at each contact time (2, 5, 10, 30, 60 min), although bacterial densities on BP were 17 to 185 times those on SP. Moreover, SEM observations showed that the percentage of diatoms in contact with bacteria on SP were quite low. The results of this study indicate that a bacterial film is not always necessary for diatoms to attach to substrata and that the film ofAlcaligenes sp. had no effect on the attachment ofSynedra sp.     

High Ash Content in Net-Plankton Samples from Shallow Coastal Water: Possible Source of Error in Dry Weight Measurement of Zooplankton Biomass

Annual examination of net-plankton biomass in dry weight, ash-free dry weight, organic carbon, and nitrogen weight at the Manazuru harbor, central Japan revealed that net-plankton samples from shallow coastal water contained considerable amount of ash (53±13% of dry weight) which would be caused by contamination of inorganic materials from re-suspendion of sediments, terrestrial runoff and chain-forming diatoms. Therefore, in coastal water, dry weight is inadequate fro determination of zooplankton biomass in volving the possibility of over-estimation. Practical estimation of net-plankton biomass in shallow coastal waters, ash-free dry weight, organic carbon, and/or nitrogen are more adequate.     

A Fast Procedure Solving Gauss' Form of Kepler's Equation

We developed a procedure solving Gauss' form of Kepler's equation, which is suitable for determining position in the nearly parabolic orbits. The procedure is based on the combination of asymptotic solutions, the method of bisection, and the Newton method of succesive correction. It runs 3–4 times faster than the original Gauss' method. This revised version was published online in July 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

Attenuation characteristics of peak ground acceleration from fault trace of the 1999 Kocaeli (Turkey) earthquake and comparison of spectral acceleration with seismic design code

The 17 August 1999 Kocaeli earthquake in Turkey produced a majorsurface rupture. We traced this surface rupture from Gölcük toDüzce and located it accurately by using GPS. The closest distancefrom the surface rupture to the strong motion observation sites weredetermined. Then the attenuation characteristics of the observed peakground acceleration were compared with the attenuation relation given byFukushima and Tanaka (1992), which is suitable for the near-fault zone inJapan and gives results that closely match data recorded during the 1995Hyogo-ken Nanbu earthquake in Japan. Although this attenuation relationwas developed for Japan, we found that it agreed well with the KOCAELIearthquake. Furthermore, the observed spectral acceleration of 5%damping was compared with the building design code of Turkey and theobserved level was lower than the code.