Simulation of the annual and diurnal cycles of rainfall over South Africa by a regional climate model

The capability of a current state-of-the-art regional climate model for simulating the diurnal and annual cycles of rainfall over a complex subtropical region is documented here. Hourly rainfall is simulated over Southern Africa for 1998–2006 by the non-hydrostatic model weather research and forecasting (WRF), and compared to a network of 103 stations covering South Africa. We used five simulations, four of which consist of different parameterizations for atmospheric convection at a 0.5 × 0.5° resolution, performed to test the physic-dependency of the results. The fifth experiment uses explicit convection over tropical South Africa at a 1/30° resolution. WRF simulates realistic mean rainfall fields, albeit wet biases over tropical Africa. The model mean biases are strongly modulated by the convective scheme used for the simulations. The annual cycle of rainfall is well simulated over South Africa, mostly influenced by tropical summer rainfall except in the Western Cape region experiencing winter rainfall. The diurnal cycle shows a timing bias, with atmospheric convection occurring too early in the afternoon, and causing too abundant rainfall. This result, particularly true in summer over the northeastern part of the country, is weakly physic-dependent. Cloud-resolving simulations do not clearly reduce the diurnal cycle biases. In the end, the rainfall overestimations appear to be mostly imputable to the afternoon hours of the austral summer rainy season, i.e., the periods during which convective activity is intense over the region.     

红柳江区域陆地水储量变化及其驱动因素分析EI北大核心CSCD

本文利用CSR-RL06和Tongji-Grace2018时变重力场模型反演了2003年1月—2016年12月红柳江区域陆地水储量变化,并联合降水、蒸散、径流和人类活动耗水等多源数据建立了区域水量平衡方程,定量评估了该区域陆地水储量变化的主要驱动因素。结果表明:①考虑人类活动耗水为区域陆地水储量输出项时,由水量平衡方程闭合差计算的均方根误差降低了39%。②气象水文因素贡献率仅于2009、2011和2016年为负,其均值为-22.5%,其余年份正贡献率均值为47.7%;人类活动耗水贡献率始终为负,其均值为-34.8%。③龙滩水库蓄水变化与该区域陆地水储量变化相关系数为0.66,均存在一年和两年主周期信号。     

印度尼西亚卢瓦斯砂金矿床地质特征

卢瓦斯砂金矿位于印度尼西亚共和国苏门答腊岛东南部卢瓦斯河道及一侧阶地。矿区所处大地构造位置属喜马拉雅—马来西亚—苏门答腊火山活动带之东段。依据该砂金矿床的成矿地貌特征、地质特征、重砂矿物组合,初步认定该矿属近源型冲积型砂金矿,其砂金的物质来源于萨温河上游含金地质体,特别是火山碎屑岩中的含金石英脉和硅化脉。该砂金矿聚集于河道河漫滩及一级、二级河谷阶地中的泥、砂、砾等现代沉积物中。矿体产状受河流及两侧地形、地貌控制。     

中国西部地区方沸石胶结相与碎屑岩次生优质储集层形成机制

含油气盆地碎屑岩次生优质储集层的发育,除了与广泛发育的方解石胶结相有关外,在中国西部还有一类与沸石族自生矿物胶结的成岩相有关,其中以溶蚀方沸石胶结相形成的次生优质储集层与油气聚集成藏又有十分密切的关联。经实例分析:与自生方沸石胶结有关的成岩相主要受控于扇(辫状河)三角洲前缘相带、火山岩物源和成岩早期的碱性环境;次生优质储集层的形成在时间上主要处于成岩中期A阶段,在空间上受控于邻近的烃源岩、圈闭和输导体的沟通。方沸石矿物在物理性质上具有抗压易溶(有机酸)作用,较其他常见的自生矿物(胶结物)相对优越,就方沸石易于溶蚀的特点而言是较为理想的自生矿物(胶结物)。其溶蚀对孔隙度的贡献率在50％～75％之间,发育几率占绝对优势。所以,在方沸石发育的相带中寻找以粒间溶蚀孔为主的优质储集层,具有可靠的操作性和现实性。     

Geological characteristics and tectonic signifcance of unconformities in Mesoproterozoic successions in the northern margin of the North China Block

Several stratigraphic breaks and unconformities exist in the Mesoproterozoic successions in the northern margin of the North China Block.Geologic characters and spatial distributions of fve of these unconformities,which have resulted from different geological processes,have been studied.The unconformity beneath the Dahongyu Formation is interpreted as a breakup unconformity,representing the time of transition from continental rift to passive continental margin.The unconformities beneath the Gaoyuzhuang and the Yangzhuang formations are considered to be the consequence of regional eustatic fuctuations,leading to the exposure of highlands in passive margins during low sea-level stands and transgressive deposition on coastal regions during high sea-level stands.The unconformity atop the Tieling Formation might be caused by uplift due to contractional deformation in a back-arc setting,whereas the uplift after the deposition of the Xiamaling Formation might be attributed to a continental collision event.It is assumed that the occurrences of these unconformities in the Mesoproterozoic successions in the northern margin of the North China Block had a close bearing on the assemblage and breakup of the Columbia and Rodinia supercontinents.     

Pressure-assisted cyclic washing of heavy-metal-contaminated sediments

Remediation of heavy-metal-contaminated sediment is often hampered by the availability of heavy metals to the added chemical agents because the heavy metals are often shielded by the sediment matrix. Effective heavy-metal extraction technique becomes an important factor in enhancing the treatment efficiency. A novel extraction/washing technique utilizing chelating agent and elevated pressure in consecutive cycles of compression and decompression has been developed for heavy-metal-contaminated sediment washing in the presence of chelating agent. In this study, the optimal operational conditions of pressure-assisted cyclic washing of Cu-contaminated sediments (initial Cu concentration = 23.177 mg/kg) were determined in a laboratory-scale system. The control factors included applied pressure level, washing time, applied chelant [ethylenediamine-tertraacetic (EDTA)] concentration (0.01–0.5 M), pressure times, and application of consecutive batches washing. Results from the bench-scale study showed that up to 70 % of Cu can be removed from the sediments when 10 atm of pressure was applied for washing. The efficiency dropped to 55 % when the pressure dropped to 6 atm. Under the same operational conditions, the optimal cyclic washing time was 60 min. Results from the particle size analyses indicate that the mean particle size dropped from 100 to 50 μm after the pressure-assisted cyclic washing. Thus, cyclic pressure caused the fracture of sediment aggregates resulting in the exposure of Cu to chelating agents. With the assistance of pressure cyclic system, the total washing time and the amount of added chemical agent used can be significantly reduced.     

Evaluation of adsorption potential of bamboo biochar for metal-complex dye: equilibrium,kinetics and artificial neural network modeling

Metal-complex dyes are widely used in textile industry, but harmful to the environment and human health due to aromatic structure and heavy metal ions. The objective of this work was to evaluate the adsorption potential of bamboo biochar for the removal of metal-complex dye acid black 172 from solutions. Freundlich model was more suitable for the adsorption process of bamboo biochar than Langmuir isotherm, indicating multilayer adsorption of acid black 172 on a heterogeneous bamboo biochar surface. Adsorption kinetics analysis of pseudo-second-order and Weber–Morris models revealed that intraparticle transport was not the only rate-limiting step. The bamboo biochar exhibited a good adsorption performance even at high ionic strength. Analysis based on the artificial neural network indicated that the temperature with a relative importance of 29 % appeared to be the most influential parameter in the adsorption process for dye removal, followed by time, ionic strength, pH and dye concentration.     

Investigating soil thermodynamic parameters of the active layer on the northern Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau

The soil thermodynamic parameters, including thermal conductivity, diffusivity and volumetric capacity within the active layer on the northern Tibetan Plateau, were calculated using the measured data of soil temperature gradient, heat flux, and moisture at four stations from October 2003 to September 2004. The results showed that the soil thermodynamic parameters exhibited clear seasonal fluctuation. The thermal conductivity and diffusivity in summer and autumn at Beiluhe, Kexinling, and Tongtianhe were larger than those in winter. The volumetric thermal capacity causes an opposite change; it was larger in autumn and winter than in summer. In spring, the soil thermal conductivity at the Kekexili station was larger than that in summer. Generally, fine-grained soils and lower saturation degrees in the topsoil might be a reason for the lower soil thermal conductivity in winter. For a given soil, soil moisture was the main factor influencing the thermodynamic parameters. The unfrozen water content that existed in frozen soils greatly affected the soil thermal conductivity, whose contribution rate was estimated to be 55 %. The thermodynamic parameters of frozen soils could be expressed as a function of soil temperature, volumetric ice content and soil salinity, while for the unfrozen ground the soil moisture content is the dominant factor for those thermal parameters. As for the soil thermal diffusivity, there exists a critical value of soil moisture content. When the soil moisture content becomes less than a critical value, the soil thermal diffusivity increases as the soil moisture content rises.     

Exploring the effects of data quality,data worth,and redundancy of CO2 gas pressure and saturation data on reservoir characterization through PEST inversion

This study examined the impacts of reservoir properties on carbon dioxide (CO₂) migration after subsurface injection and evaluated the possibility of characterizing reservoir properties using CO₂ monitoring data such as spatial–temporal distributions of gas pressure, which can be reasonably monitored in practice. The injection reservoir was assumed to be located 1,400–1,500 m below the ground surface such that CO₂ remained in the supercritical state. The reservoir was assumed to contain layers with alternating conductive and resistive properties, which is analogous to actual geological formations such as the Mount Simon Sandstone unit. The CO₂ injection simulation used a cylindrical grid setting in which the injection well was situated at the center of the domain, which extended out 8,000 m from the injection well. The CO₂ migration was simulated using the latest version of the simulator, subsurface transport over multiple phases (the water–salt–CO₂–energy module), developed by Pacific Northwest National Laboratory. A nonlinear parameter estimation and optimization modeling software package, Parameter ESTimation (PEST), is adopted for automated reservoir parameter estimation. The effects of data quality, data worth, and data redundancy were explored regarding the detectability of reservoir parameters using gas pressure monitoring data, by comparing PEST inversion results using data with different levels of noises, various numbers of monitoring wells and locations, and different data collection spacing and temporal sampling intervals. This study yielded insight into the use of CO₂ monitoring data for reservoir characterization and how to design the monitoring system to optimize data worth and reduce data redundancy. The feasibility of using CO₂ saturation data for improving reservoir characterization was also discussed.     

Scale matching of multiscale digital elevation model (DEM) data and the Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) model: a case study of meteorological simulation in Hong Kong

It is becoming easier to combine geographical data and dynamic models to provide information for problem solving and geographical cognition. However, the scale dependencies of the data, model, and process can confuse the results. This study extends traditional scale research in static geographical patterns to dynamic processes and focuses on the combined scale effect of multiscale geographical data and dynamic models. The capacity for topographical expression under the combined scale effect was investigated by taking multiscale topographical data and meteorological processes in Hong Kong as a case study. A meteorological simulation of the combined scale effect was evaluated against data from Hong Kong Observatory stations. The experiments showed that (1) a digital elevation model (DEM) using 3 arc sec data with a 1 km resolution Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) model gives better topographical expression and meteorological reproduction in Hong Kong; (2) a fine-scale model is sensitive to the resolution of the DEM data, whereas a coarse-scale model is less sensitive to it; (3) better topographical expression alone does not improve weather process simulation; and (4) uncertainty arising from a scale mismatch between the DEM data and the dynamic model may account for 38 % of the variance in certain meteorological variables (e.g., temperature). This case study gives a clear explanation of the significance and implementation of scale matching for multiscale geographical data and dynamic models.