Methane in Izena Cauldron,Okinawa Trough

Methane in the deep water of Izena Cauldron (maximum depth: ca. 1650 m) at the east side of mid-Okinawa Trough was studied by casting a CTD system with 12 Niskin bottles for water sampling at 11 stations inside and outside the cauldron. The water contained much methane up to 706 nmoles/l. The depths of maximum concentration varied widely from station to station, indicating the existence of a considerable number of vents emitting methane and heat. The waters containing less methane formed a straight line in theT-S diagram, while those containing more methane were more largely deviated from the line. The temperature anomaly was virtually proportional to the methane concentration, suggesting that the oxidation rate of methane inside the cauldron is negligibly small and methane can be used as a tracer of the cauldron water. The relation and the estimated vertical diffusivity gave the following fluxes. The emissions of methane and heat out of the bottom below 1450 m turn out to be 1400 moles/day and 7×10¹⁰ cal/day, respectively. The total emission rates inside the cauldron are presumed to be about twice the above values. The turnover time of methane has been estimated to be 240 days, which is also that of heat generated from the bottom and probably that of the bottom water.     

Multi-scale solution for building extraction from LiDAR and image data

This paper presents a multi-scale solution based on mathematical morphology for extracting the building features from remotely sensed elevation and spectral data. Elevation data are used as the primary data to delineate the structural information and are firstly represented on a morphological scale-space. The behaviors of elevation clusters across the scale-space are the cues for feature extraction. As a result, a complex structure can be extracted as a multi-part object in which each part is represented on a scale depending on its size. The building footprint is represented by the boundary of the largest part. Other object attributes include the area, height or number of stories. The spectral data is used as an additional source to remove vegetation and possibly classify the building roof material. Finally, the results can be stored in a multi-scale database introduced in this paper. The proposed solution is demonstrated using the data derived from a Light Detection And Ranging (LiDAR) surveying flight over Tokyo, Japan. The results show a reasonable match with reference data and prove the capability of the proposed approach in accommodation of diverse building shapes. Higher density LiDAR is expected to produce better accuracy in extraction, and more spectral sources are necessary for further classification of building roof material. It is also recommended that parallel processing should be implemented to reduce the computation time.     

Utilization of laser range finder and differential GPS for high‐resolution topographic measurement at Hacituğrul Tepe,Turkey

Topographic maps are fundamental for geoarchaeological field studies and archaeological excavations. However, traditional methods of topographic mapping, as well as modern high‐tech methods such as airborne laser scanning and photogrammetry of high‐resolution satellite images, are often cost‐ineffective for field studies in terms of time, money, and labor. We here propose a method to measure topography for archaeological sites and surrounding areas quickly and accurately, using a laser range finder (LRF) and differential global positioning system DGPS. Three‐dimensional coordinates of points on land surfaces are measured through the LRF, targeted from multiple measuring locations whose positions are acquired with the DGPS. The point data are then interpolated to produce a digital elevation model (DEM) using a geographic information system (GIS). High‐resolution DEMs can be obtained with this method, with horizontal and vertical accuracies on the order of 10 cm. We here demonstrate the method for measuring detailed topography of the Hacituğrul Tepe in central Turkey. Digital topography data incorporated in GIS can also be part of an archaeological database, providing opportunities for quantitative analyses of topography and archaeological materials. © 2009 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Reconstruction of the global lightning distribution from ELF electromagnetic background signals

The global lightning distribution has been obtained for the first time as the result of an inverse problem for the natural extremely low-frequency (ELF) electromagnetic background signals measured simultaneously at three stations: Lekhta (Karelia, Russia), Moshiri (Hokkaido, Japan), and West Greenwich (Rhode Island, USA). We employed a two-step technique consisting of: (1) inversion of ELF field spectra to a source distance distribution (distance profile) for each station of the network and (2) treating the obtained distance profiles as projections in the tomographic method. The structure of the source distance profiles reconstructed from experimental field spectra, varies during a day in a manner specific for each station, which can be explained generally by the temporal distribution of the sources in the tropical continental areas, so-called world thunderstorm centres (WTCs). The comparison of the obtained source distributions with the satellite data on lightning collected by Optical Transient Detector (OTD) and Lightning Imaging Sensor (LIS) shows satisfactory agreement, which proves that our newly developed inversion technique is a suitable method for mapping global lightning.     

Field experiments on remediation of coastal sediments using granulated coal ash

Field experiments were carried out to evaluate the effect of Granulated Coal Ash (GCA) on remediation of coastal sediments in terms of removing phosphates and hydrogen sulfide. Phosphate concentrations in the sediment were kept below 0.2 mg/l after the application of GCA, whereas those in the control sites increased up to 1.0 mg/l. The concentration of hydrogen sulfide in the sediment was maintained at almost zero in the experimental sites (GCA application sites) for over one year, whereas it ranged 0.1–2.4 mg S L⁻¹ in control sites. Meanwhile, individual number of benthos increased in the experimental sites by several orders of magnitude compared to the control sites. The major process involved in hydrogen sulfide removal by GCA was thought to be the increase in pH, which suppresses hydrogen sulfide formation. From our findings, we concluded that GCA is an effective material for remediating organically enriched coastal sediment.     

Damping systems that are effective over a wide range of displacement amplitudes using metallic yielding component and viscoelastic damper in series

A damper system that absorbs energy over a wide range of displacement amplitudes during building vibration was proposed. This system uses a serial connection of a metallic yielding component and viscoelastic damper with a displacement limit mechanism. Three types of the system were developed and tested: a diagonal bracing type, inverted V bracing type, and wall type. The test results showed that all these systems have damping ratios higher than 8% at small vibration amplitudes on the order of 0.1 mm. For a large vibration, a displacement limit mechanism with two pins limited the displacement of the viscoelastic damper as designed. Analytical simulations established that the system reduced the acceleration and the story drift to 60–70% and 80%, respectively, during a small earthquake compared with a conventional metallic yielding damper system. Furthermore, it showed an equivalent control performance during a severe earthquake. The damper system requires that a clearance be maintained for the displacement limit mechanism. However, this may be lost through construction error, residual displacement after an earthquake, and temperature effects. The changes in the clearance due to these effects were discussed. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Global Lightning Activity on the Basis of Inversions of Natural ELF Electromagnetic Data Observed at Multiple Stations around the World

The monitoring of global lightning activity and its spatial and temporal variations is known to be very essential for the study of global warming, the subject of greatest concern to human beings on planet Earth today. As a method of remote sensing for the global lightning distribution, we have proposed an inverse problem by using the data of natural electromagnetic noise in the ELF (extremely low frequency) Schumann resonance (SR) band observed simultaneously at a few stations around the world. The fundamentals of this inversion problem (or ELF tomography) to the SR data have been presented and the first attempt to deduce the global lightning distribution by means of the real SR data has been performed, which has indicated a possibility of snapshots of well-known thunderstorm centers on the globe. This ELF tomography consists of two stages. The first stage is the inversion of the ELF field power spectra to the distribution of lightning intensity by distance relative to an observation point. The obtained distance profiles of intensity of sources at a few stations are used as tomographic projections for reconstructing a spatial distribution of sources in the second stage. Maps of the global lightning distributions constructed by the result of inversions of ELF background field spectra obtained from three stations around the world show that the most active regions vary meridionally on the diurnal time scale being connected mainly with continental areas in the tropics. We do hope that this kind of inversion method to multi-stationed ELF data will be of great importance in the future.     

1993年8月8日关岛地震前后ULF磁场异常变化

给出了1993年8月8日关岛地震(Ms=7.1,深度60km)前后ULF(Ultra Low Frequency:超低频信号,频段为O.005～10Hz)地磁信号的分析结果.ULF观测系统位于日本关岛,距离震中约65km.对观测数据进行分析后得出以下结论:①建议用非常细致的统计分析(月均值,标准偏差)来判断ULF信号的强度和极化值(比如:Z/H比值);②ULF信号活动强度和∑Kp的对比,有助于区别空间地磁脉动和非空间源地磁辐射;③发现Z/H比值的使用在把可能来自震源的辐射从空间等离子波中识别出来非常重要;④从对极化值的时间序列的统计分析发现极化值在震前仅一个月时有一个显著的增强,表明这期间的电磁异常现象很可能是震磁前兆信号;⑤Z分量的时间变化类似于Loma Prieta地震前的变化,即在震前10天到两周有明显的增强,在震前几天出现另一次增强;⑥可能与地震有关的电磁辐射是一种类似噪音的自然现象,它们的主要频带范围0.02～0.05Hz(最大幅值约为0.1nT).