Measurement of the radius of Mercury by radio occultation during the MESSENGER flybys

The MErcury Surface, Space ENvironment, GEochemistry, and Ranging (MESSENGER) spacecraft completed three flybys of Mercury in 2008–2009. During the first and third of those flybys, MESSENGER passed behind the planet from the perspective of Earth, occulting the radio-frequency (RF) transmissions. The occultation start and end times, recovered with 0.1 s accuracy or better by fitting edge-diffraction patterns to the RF power history, are used to estimate Mercury's radius at the tangent point of the RF path. To relate the measured radius to the planet shape, we evaluate local topography using images to identify the high-elevation feature that defines the RF path or using altimeter data to quantify surface roughness. Radius measurements are accurate to 150 m, and uncertainty in the average radius of the surrounding terrain, after adjustments are made from the local high at the tangent point of the RF path, is 350 m. The results are consistent with Mercury's equatorial shape as inferred from observations by the Mercury Laser Altimeter and ground-based radar. The three independent estimates of radius from occultation events collectively yield a mean radius for Mercury of 2439.2±0.5 km.     

Intermediate time error growth and predictability: tropics versus mid-latitudes

The evolution of identical twin errors from an atmospheric general circulation model is studied in the linear range (small errors) through intermediate times and the approach to saturation. Between forecast day 1 and 7, the normalized error variance in the tropics is similar to that at higher latitudes. After that, tropical errors grow more slowly. The predictability time τ taken for tropical errors to reach half their saturation values is larger than that for mid-latitudes, especially for the planetary waves, thus implying greater potential predictability in the tropics.
The discrepancy between mid-latitude and tropical τ is more pronounced at 850 hPa than at 200 hPa, is largest for the planetary waves, and is more pronounced for errors arising from wave phase differences (than from wave amplitude differences).
The spectra of the error in 200 hPa zonal wind show that for forecast times up to about 5 d, the tropical error peaks at much shorter scales than the mid-latitude errors, but that subsequently tropical and mid-latitude error spectra look increasingly similar.
The difference between upper and lower level tropical τ may be due to the greater influence of mid-latitudes at the upper levels.     

Mercury: Internal structure and thermal evolution

Astronomical observations and cosmochemical calculations suggest that the planet Mercury may be composed of materials which condensed at relatively high temperatures in the primitive solar nebula and may have a basaltic crust similar to parts of the moon. These findings, plus the long standing inference that Mercury is much richer in metallic iron than the other terrestrial planets, provide important constraints which we apply to models of the thermal evolution and density structure of the planet. The thermal history calculations include explicitly the differing thermal properties of iron and silicates and account for core segregation, melting and differentiation of heat sources, and simulated convection during melting. If the U and Th abundances of Mercury are taken from the cosmochemical model of Lewis, then the planet would have fully differentiated a metal core from the silicate mantle for all likely initial temperature distributions and heat transfer properties. Density distributions for the planet are calculated from the mean density and estimates of the present-day temperature. For the fully differentiated model, the moment of inertia C/MR² is 0.325 (J₂=0.302×10^?6). For models with lower heat source abundances, the planet may not yet have differentiated. The density profiles for such models give C/MR²=0.394 (J₂=0.487×10^?6). These results should be useful for preliminary interpretation of the Mariner 10 measurements of Mercury's gravitational field.     

Defining rock types by composition ranges

Moderate increase in the number of composition ranges used in the definition of a rock type drastically reduces the number of specimens qualifying for membership in the type. Classifications based on more than a very small number of rather broad ranges will be unrealistically exclusive.     

Genesis of the Shear Zone-related Gold Vein Mineralization of the Lega Dembi Gold Deposit, Adola Gold Field, Southern Ethiopia

The Lega Dembi Primary Gold Deposit in southern Ethiopia is related to the shear zone-hosted vein in the Neoproterozoic metamorphosed volcano-sedimentary succession of greenschist- to amphibolite-facies metamorphism. The rocks consists of a sequence of biotite-feldspar-quartz schists, carbonaceous mica-schists, amphibolites and basic to ultrabasic rocks. This unit is separated from a foot wall biotite gneiss by a major shear zone. The ore bodies are hosted in the volcano-sedimentary sequence and consist of swarms of quartz veins, lenses, and stockworks that propagated along mesoscale ductile to brittle-ductile shear zones.The mineralization is defined by a complex paragenesis of gold in association with Cu-Pb-Zn-Fe sulphides, tellurides and sulphosalts. The presence of Ni-bearing minerals in amphibolites of the host sequence, together with the ore mineral association, suggests an origin related to mafic volcanism.     

阿拉善高原近60年的气候变化

阿拉善高原处于季风边缘区,生态环境极其脆弱,对气候干湿变化的响应极为敏感。利用近60a的逐月气温和降水量资料,采用非参数Mann-Kendall和Mann-whitney阶段性转换检验方法,分析了其变化趋势。结果表明,研究区气温在1988年前后发生突变,在该跃点后的19882010年的平均气温比19551987年要高1℃以上,有明显的增温趋势。而年降水量则无明显的增加趋势,尽管部分站点在1991年前后有微弱的增加迹象,但是区域尺度的降水突变还不存在,气候仍以暖干化为主,暂不能得出气候向暖湿转变的结论。     

基于EOS/MODIS的若尔盖高原湿地定量遥感研究

研究旨在探讨EOS/MODIS影像提取若尔盖高原湿地信息的定量遥感方法.先计算MODIS影像的NDVI并将其线性变换到0～255;然后经多次试验确定区分湿地与非湿地的MODIS-NDVI阀值,并用人机交互式调整的方法消除误判像元及云的干扰,再多次试验得到区分湿地内部沼泽地和水体的阀值;通过统计不同类型湿地像元数计算湿地面积.研究表明,若尔盖高原湿地空间分布和面积具有季节差异,这与该地区降水和气温季节变化相关;采用MODIS-NDVI阀值并结合人机交互式调整的方法提取若尔盖高原夏半年的湿地信息是可行的,精度达到82%,而利用该方法提取冬半年湿地信息效果不甚理想,冬半年的MODIS影像湿地判识方法有待进一步探讨.     

四川盆地下寒武统膏盐岩发育特征与封盖有效性分析

四川盆地下寒武统广泛发育一套膏盐岩,主要沉积于早寒武世龙王庙期。基于四川盆地深井及实测剖面中膏盐岩的识别和统计,发现下寒武统有川南和鄂西两大聚盐区,最厚达690.40m;川南聚盐区西部以含泥含云质石膏岩类和含膏砂泥岩类为主,东部及颚西聚盐区主要为含膏白云岩类。结合前人研究,认为膏盐岩发育于浅水缓坡沉积环境,有潮上萨布哈和缓坡蒸发两类成因。通过对川南聚盐区储盖匹配关系及后期构造与膏盐岩封盖性分析,表明下寒武统膏盐岩与盐下震旦系优质的白云岩储层在空间上具有良好的匹配关系;四川盆地边界大断裂及边界外寒武系的抬升暴露让膏盐岩在盆地外封盖性失效,而在盆地内膏盐岩的封盖性较好。威远气田解剖表明有膏盐岩分布的威远地区成藏,而无膏盐岩分布的资阳地区气藏被破坏,显示了下寒武统膏盐岩在四川盆地油气成藏中具有重要的作用。