High resolution gravimetric geoid heights and gravimetric vertical deflections of Europe including marine areas

Gravimetric geoid heights and gravimetric vertical deflections have been detemined for Europe including the Mediterranean Sea, North Sea, Norwegian Sea, Baltic Sea and parts of the North Atlantic Ocean in a 12′×20′ grid. The computation has been carried out by least squares spectral combination using closed integral formulas, combining 104 000 mean free air gravity anomalies in 6′×10′ blocks, 12 000 mean free air gravity anomalies in 1⁰×1⁰ blocks and the sherical harmonic model GEM9. The precision of the computed geoid heights has been estimated to ±1 m, the precision of the computed vertical deflections has been estimated to ±2″. Comparisons of the gravimetric geoid heights and vertical deflections with a number of other solutions have been carried out, confirming the precision estimation.     

Are Global Tide Gauge Data Stationary in Variance?

Tide gauges distributed all over the world provide valuable information for monitoring mean sea level changes. The statistical models used in estimating sea level change from the tide gauge data assume implicitly that the random model components are stationary in variance. We show that for a large number of global tide gauge data this is not the case for the seasonal part using a variate-differencing algorithm. This finding is important for assessing the reliability of the present estimates of mean sea level changes because nonstationarity of the data may have marked impact on the sea level rate estimates, especially, for the data from short records.     

Multi-scale variability of beach profiles at Duck: A wavelet analysis

Beach profiles have been observed to change over a range of spatial and temporal scales; however techniques for quantifying this variability have not been fully established. In this paper, a wavelet technique is introduced as a method to study the multi-scale variability of beach profiles. The beach profile data comprising a 22-year time series surveyed at the US Army Corps of Civil Engineers Field Research Facility (FRF) at Duck are analysed using the adapted maximal overlap discrete wavelet transform (AMODWT). The analysis successfully identifies strong local features in the variability of beach profiles in time and space separately that cannot be isolated by traditional statistical methods. The analysis of spatial wavelet variances provides a new means of investigating the depth of closure. Analysis of variances by temporal scales shows that the combined effects of several temporal scales with one or two dominant scales can be seen at particular points across profiles whilst the dominant temporal scales are different at different portions of the profiles. The method allows for the extremely nonstationary behaviour of beach profile to be analysed into separate frequency bands that can facilitate the interpretation of morphological changes in terms of physical processes.     

Northward transport of pacific summer water along the Northwind Ridge in the Western Arctic Ocean

The recent sea-ice reduction in the Arctic Ocean is not spatially uniform, but is disproportionally large around the Northwind Ridge and Chukchi Plateau compared to elsewhere in the Canada Basin. In the Northwind Ridge region, Pacific Summer Water (PSW) delivered from the Bering Sea occupies the subsurface layer. The spatial distribution of warm PSW shows a quite similar pattern to the recent ice retreat, suggesting the influence of PSW on the sea-ice reduction. To understand the regionality of the recent ice retreat, we examine the dynamics and timing of the delivery of the PSW into this region. Here, we adopt a two-layer linearized potential vorticity equation to investigate the behavior of Rossby waves in the presence of a topographic discontinuity in the high latitude ocean. The analytical results show a quite different structure from those of mid-latitude basins due to the small value of β. Incident barotropic waves excited by the sea-ice motion with large annual variation can be scattered into both barotropic and baroclinic modes at the discontinuity. Since the scattered baroclinic Rossby wave with annual frequency cannot propagate freely, a strong baroclinic current near the topographic discontinuity is established. The seasonal variation of current near the topographic discontinuity would cause a kind of selective switching system for shelf water transport into the basin. In our simple analytical model, the enhanced northward transport of summer water and reduced northward transport of winter water are well demonstrated. The present study indicates that these basic dynamics imply that a strengthening of the surface forcing during winter in the Canada Basin could cause sea-ice reduction in the Western Arctic through the changes of underlying Pacific Summer Water.     

Notes The Ocean Drilling Program (ODP)

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A Preliminary Study of Shear Wave in Seafloor Surface Sediments

This article preliminarily reports and analyses the transmission characteristics and behaviors of shear wave in the offshore seafloor surface sediments in China, discusses the relationships between the physical and mechanical features of the shear wave and the compression wave, and compares the testing results with that of Hamilton and Chen et al. The result shows that the shear wave can be tested if the seafloor surface sediment has tangent modulus. The shear wave velocity ranges from 50-600 m/s and the measuring frequency from 50-200 kHz. The sound velocity rate of shear wave and compression wave can be used to appraise the stress-strain feature of seafloor surface sediments. This study provides a basis for further describing and appraising the seafloor sedimentary acoustic-mechanical feature and building a geological-acoustic model on China's offshore sea area.     

湄洲湾夏季油的分布特征与防护对策

本文根据１９９２年夏季对湄洲湾水质环境质量调查资料，对该海区海水中油的含量及分布特征进行了分析研究。结果表明：湄洲湾夏季表层海水油的含量为５－５１μｇ／ｄｍ＾３，平均值为１９．８μｇ／ｄｍ＾３。海水的混合系数较小，高潮和低潮时油含量分布的差异，除了与陆源污染源分布有关外，主要是由水文动力学条件所决定。     

黄渤海底层盐度预报方法的研究

根据二维流体动力学方程和深度平均盐度扩散方程在河口径流量以及蒸发和降水之差为已知情况下构成的闭合方程组,预报出深度平均盐度,然后利用底层盐度与深度平均盐度、水深和时间(月)之间的经验关系,给出底层盐度的二维预报。为了检验试报结果的可靠性,文中将黄渤海底层盐度的试报结果(1979年7月11日,时效为3d)与标准断面观测资料(7月4—14日观测,124.5°E以西,共104站)作一粗略比较。比较表明,试报结果与实测值的相关系数为0.96,均方误差为α=0.26,绝对误差小于0.2和0.3的站数分别占总站数的63.5％和77.0％,而总均绝差为0.19。由此可见,试报的效果是令人满意的。