Serendipitous Asteroid Lightcurve Survey Using SuperWASP

The SuperWASP project is an ultra-wide angle search for extra solar planetary transits. However, it can also serendipitously detect solar system objects, such as asteroids and comets. Each SuperWASP instrument consists of up to eight cameras, combined with high-quality peltier-cooled CCDs, which photometrically survey large numbers of stars in the magnitude range 7–15. Each camera covers a 7.8 × 7.8 degree field of view. Located on La Palma, the SuperWASP-I instrument has been observing the Northern Hemisphere with five cameras since its inauguration in April 2004.The ultra-wide angle field of view gives SuperWASP the possibility of discovering new fast moving (near to Earth) asteroids that could have been missed by other instruments. However, it provides an excellent opportunity to produce a magnitude-limited lightcurve survey of known main belt asteroids. As slow moving asteroids stay within a single SuperWASP field for several weeks, and may be seen in many fields, a survey of all objects brighter than magnitude 15 is possible. This will provide a significant increase in the total number of lightcurves available for statistical studies without the inherent bias against longer periods present in the current data sets.We present the methodology used in the automated collection of asteroid data from SuperWASP and some of the first examples of lightcurves from numbered asteroids.     

The impact of correlated noise on SuperWASP detection rates for transiting extrasolar planets

The evolution of the Alfvén turbulence due to three-wave interactions is discussed using kinetic theory for a collisionless, thermal plasma. There are three low-frequency modes, analogous to the three modes of compressible magnetohydrodynamics (MHD). When only Alfvén waves are considered, the known anisotropy of turbulence in incompressible MHD theory is reproduced. Inclusion of a fast mode wave leads to the separation of turbulence into two regimes: small wave numbers where three-wave processes involving a fast mode are dominant, and large wave numbers where the three Alfvén wave process is dominant. Possible application of the anisotropic Alfvén turbulence to the interstellar medium and dissipation of magnetic energy in magnetars are discussed.     

Late middle pleistocene interglacial deposits at upper strensham,worcestershire, england

Pleistocene deposits containing the disarticulated skeleton of a mammoth, and associated faunal and floral remains, were discovered in July 1990 at Upper Strensham, Worcestershire. The environmental evidence from the fauna and flora together with limited geological evidence, indicates that the deposits accumulated within a low energy fluvial environment with a surrounding marsh and restricted tree cover on, or close to, the floodplain. The patchy occurrence of trees in a species-rich grassland is discussed, and the climatic significance of the fauna and flora is considered. The Strensham site lies within the valley of the River Avon, which is known to contain at least five altitudinally distinct river terraces. The deposits at Strensham lie beneath a terraced surface that cannot be accommodated within the existing framework of terrace development in the valley, and evidence is presented which may suggest that these deposits form a previously unrecognised fluvial unit, the Strensham Member of the Avon Valley Formation. Amino-acid age estimates from shells taken from the fossiliferous sediments of the Strensham Member suggest a correlation with Oxygen Isotope Stage 7. This correlation suggests that the temperate deposits at this site should be correlated with the temperate phase recorded at Marsworth, Buckinghamshire and Stoke Goldington in the valley of the Great Ouse.     

Controls on runoff components on a forested slope and implications for N transport

Transfer of atmospheric N deposition on shallow‐soil forested basins on the Canadian Shield to receiving water bodies may be enhanced by rapid preferential flow along the soil–bedrock interface (BR runoff) on basin slopes. Controls on BR runoff, partitioning of event and pre‐event water contributions to this flow, and implications of this partitioning for N fluxes in BR runoff were studied under natural and artificial inputs to an instrumented slope. BR runoff as a fraction of water inputs to the slope increased with antecedent soil wetness and input depth. Event water contributions to BR runoff initially increased with antecedent soil wetness, but then declined at large antecedent soil wetness. Export of applied NH₄⁺ from the slope was maximized when event water contributions containing large NH₄⁺ concentrations dominated BR runoff; however, there was no relationship between the fraction of NO₃^? application transported in BR runoff and either application input or the event water fraction of that runoff. The applicability of our results to other shallow‐soil areas of the Canadian Shield is limited by artificial N inputs to the slope in excess of natural loads and by low rates of N mineralization and negligible nitrification in the slope's soils. Nevertheless, the study reinforces the need to consider how the hydrologic, geometric and pedologic properties of forest slopes interact with biotic and abiotic soil processes to control N transport and transformation. Copyright © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

青藏铁路格尔木至安多段沿线高寒植被、土壤特性与人工植被恢复研究

 对青藏铁路格尔木至安多段沿线不同海拔梯度下高寒植被与土壤特征进行研究。沿线高寒植被的主要分布种有91个,主要建群种为:紫花针茅(Stipa purpurea)、青藏苔草(Carex moorcroftii Falc)、藏异燕麦(Helictotrichon tibeticum)、黄芪(Astragalus)、棘豆(Oxytropis)、粗壮嵩草(Kobresia robusta Maximowicz)、矮嵩草(Kobresia robusta Maximowicz)等。高寒植被物种数、平均盖度、地下生物量和总生物量与海拔呈正相关性,而平均高度和地上生物量与海拔呈负相关性。沿线高寒植物群落主要可划分为海拔小于4 000 m的高寒荒漠植被、海拔4 000~4 500 m的高寒河谷灌丛植被、海拔4 500~4 700 m的高寒草原植被、海拔4 700~4 800 m的高寒垫状植被、海拔4 800~4 900 m的高寒草甸植被和海拔5 000 m左右的高寒沼泽和高寒流石坡植被。土壤全氮和有机质含量都与海拔高度呈正相关性,但全磷、全钾及pH值则在高海拔地区达到最低。沿线土壤颗粒组成主要以中、细沙(d＜0.4 mm)为主,占到了总含量的85%以上,因此,中、细沙是构成沿线土壤的最主要颗粒。沿线植被恢复比较有效的方法是选择紫花针茅、垂穗披碱草、燕麦、棘豆、黄芪、蒿草、梭罗草等当地草种,采取原生植物种子异地繁殖,再经沿线播种或栽培抚育,从而达到植被恢复的目的。该研究对青藏铁路沿线的植被恢复与植物防沙工程具有一定的指导意义。     

山东荣成马草夼大理岩中的榴辉岩岩石地球化学特征及成因

山东荣成马草夼榴辉岩呈条带状或透镜状产出于大理岩中,对其进行了岩石学和地球化学研究。研究表明,其原岩可能为辉石质岩石,且经过了一定程度的分异作用,暗色矿物发生堆晶作用,在微量元素原始地幔标准化蛛网图中,Th明显的亏损,U强烈富集,Ce也呈微弱程度亏损,在稀土元素球粒陨石标准配分模式图中,呈左倾分布模式。岩石的原岩构造环境分析表明其接近板内构造环境,其原岩可能为结晶分异之后矿物堆晶作用形成的辉石质岩石。     

时空间行为研究动态及其实践应用前景

随着国内外时空间行为研究的数据采集、计算挖掘、三维可视化与时空模拟等理论与技术的不断革新,时空间行为研究日益呈现出研究数据多源化、研究方法科学化、研究对象个体化、研究主题应用化等趋势。海外的时空间行为研究在结构化理论、GIS 以及其他社会科学领域中得到广泛的理论应用,中国的时空间行为研究经历了时间地理学的引入与描述性统计、城市空间与时空间行为的互动机理研究、基于位置感知设备的数据采集与规划应用等3 个阶段,正在步入实践应用的重要时期。时空间行为研究在城市规划、社会管理、居民服务等领域具有广泛的应用前景。     

定性GIS在时空间行为研究中的应用

定性GIS已经成为地理学混合研究方法的重要组成部分,通过扎根理论并与可视化结合、GIS和民族志整合等途径,对时空间行为研究产生了深远的影响。其通过文本或非文本质性材料与GIS地理特征的整合,形成了时空行为研究中独特的地理环境系统与空间机制分析,一个重要的前沿领域就是地理叙事在时间地理学研究中的应用。时间地理学是研究人类时空行为的重要视角,但由于对个体主观性及行为的社会文化因素的相对忽视等原因,受到了一定的质疑。近年来以GIS为代表的地理空间技术的定性分析与表达,为时间地理学融入质性分析提供了方法论基础。关美宝创建的基于GIS的地理叙事方法,通过借鉴叙事分析的一般方法尤其是三维叙事空间分析,结合时间地理学概念框架,开发了基于GIS平台的计算机辅助叙事分析组件(3D-VQGIS),实现了在GIS内可视化的、循环交互的叙事分析,为定性GIS发展中GIS与叙事分析方法的融合做出了贡献。将地理叙事方法用于时空行为研究,可以为时间地理学方法创造一个更便于理解与解释研究对象日常行为的地理环境,为其融入行为与主体的质性分析提供从数据整合、数据分析到解释与展示的一整套研究方法与具体操作工具。