Assessing the Comparability of Ammonium,Nitrate and Sulfate Concentrations Measured by Three Air Quality Monitoring Networks

Airborne fine particulate matter across the United States is monitored by different networks, the three prevalent ones presently being the Clean Air Status and Trend Network (CASTNet), the Interagency Monitoring of PROtected Visual Environment Network (IMPROVE) and the Speciation and Trend Network (STN). If combined, these three networks provide speciated fine particulate data at several hundred locations throughout the United States. Yet, differences in sampling protocols and samples handling may not allow their joint use. With these concerns in mind, the objective of this study is to assess the spatial and temporal comparability of the sulfate, nitrate and ammonium concentrations reported by each of these networks. One of the major differences between networks is the sampling frequency they adopted. While CASTNet measures pollution levels on seven-day integrated samples, STN and IMPROVE data pertain to 24-hour samples collected every three days. STN and IMPROVE data therefore exhibit considerably more short-term variability than their CASTNet counterpart. We show that, despite their apparent incongruity, averaging the data with a window size of four to six weeks is sufficient to remove the effects of differences in sampling frequency and duration and allow meaningful comparison of the signals reported by the three networks of concern. After averaging, all the sulfate and, to a lesser degree, ammonium concentrations reported are fairly similar. Nitrate concentrations, on the other hand, are still divergent. We speculate that this divergence originates from the different types of filters used to collect particulate nitrate. Finally, using a rotated principal component technique (RPCA), we determined the number and the geographical organization of the significant temporal modes of variation (clusters) detected by each network for the three pollutants of interest. For sulfate and ammonium, the clusters’ geographical boundaries established for each network and the modes of variations within each cluster seem to correspond. RPCA erformed on nitrate concentrations revealed that, for the CASTNet and IMPROVE networks, the modes of variation do not correspond to unified geographical regions but are found more sporadically. For STN, the clustered areas are unified and easily delineable. We conclude that the possibility of jointly using the data collected by CASTNet, IMPROVE and STN has to be weighed pollutant by pollutant. While sulfate and ammonium data show some potential for joint use, at this point, combining the nitrate data from these monitoring networks may not be a judicious choice.     

Observed Evolution of Linear and Nonlinear Effects at the Dahan Downhole Array,Taiwan: Analysis of the September 21, 1999 M 7.3 Chi-Chi Earthquake Sequence

— In this paper, the site characteristics of the Dahan downhole array are studied by analyzing the September 21, 1999 M 7.3 Chi-Chi earthquake sequence including the main shock and some aftershocks. The four-level array (0 m, 50 m, 100 m and 200 m) is located to the north of Hualien City in eastern Taiwan. Polarization analysis is used to check the orientation errors of the seismometers at different levels of depth. If the surface instrument is chosen as reference, the angle between the major polarization axes of the surface and any downhole records is the orientation error that must be corrected for the downhole accelerographs. The orientation errors at depths of 50 m, 100 m and 200 m are 32°, 120° and –84°. After the corrections, the coherency between the surface and downhole records is substantially improved. Spectral ratio analysis shows that the predominant frequency of the Chi-Chi main shock shifts to a lower frequency. We also simulate ground motions at different depths by using the Haskell method with a linear velocity structure model. The record at surface is chosen as the input motion. Compared with the observed data, ground acceleration can be well reproduced for the aftershocks (weak-motion events) of the September 21, 1999 M 7.3 Chi-Chi earthquake. However, for the Chi-Chi main shock, the synthetic waveform cannot match well with the observation neither in amplitude nor in phase. This indicates that large ground shaking probably induced the nonlinear site effect at that time, and the model used cannot support it.Acknowledgement. The authors would like to express their thanks to Dr. L.F. Bonilla and one anonymous reviewer for their valuable suggestions. This research was supported by the National Science Council under grant number NSC 89-2921-M-194-007. The Institute of Earth Sciences, Academia Sinica supplied the strong-motion data. The support of these organizations is gratefully acknowledged.     

Correcting method of eddy covariance fluxes over non-flat surfaces and its application in ChinaFLUX

Although Eddy Covariance (EC) technique is one of the best methods for estimating the energy and mass exchanges between underlying surface and atmosphere in micrometeorology, errors and uncertainties still exist without necessary corrections. In this paper, we will focus on the effect of coordinate system on the eddy fluxes. Based on the data observed over four sites (one farmland site, one grassland site and two forest sites), the effects of three coordinate system transforming methods (Double Rotation-DR, Triple Rotation-TR and Planar Fit-PF)on the turbulent fluxes are analyzed. It shows that (i) the corrected fluxes are more or less than the uncorrected fluxes, which is related mainly to the sloping degree of surface, wind speed and wind direction; and (ii) pitch angle has a sinusoidal dependence on wind direction, especially in the regular sloping terrain; and (iii) PF method is something like the simplification of TR or DR,and there are not obvious distinctions in correction in sloping grassland and flat farmland, but PF method is not suitable for uneven and irregular forest sites.     

Characteristics and genesis of maghemite in Chinese loess and paleosols: Mechanism for magnetic susceptibility enhancement in paleosols

Morphological characteristics and microstructures of magnetic minerals extracted from Chinese loess and paleosols were investigated using powder X-ray diffraction (XRD) and high-resolution transmission electron microscopy (HRTEM). Our results indicate that maghemite in loess–paleosol sequences was transformed from magnetite through oxidation of magnetite. Maghemite transformed from eolian magnetite during chemical weathering has low-angle grain boundaries among maghemite nano-crystals. Some nano-crystalline maghemites with nanoporous texture resulted from microbe-induced precipitation of magnetite or transformation of poorly crystalline ferric Fe (oxy)hydroxides in presence of Fe-reducing bacteria. Aggregates of euhedral maghemite nano-crystals were transformed from magnetite magnetosomes. Both microbe-induced nanoporous magnetite and microbe-produced magnetite magnetosomes are directly related to microbial activities and pedogenesis of the paleosols. It is proposed that the formation of nano-crystalline maghemite with superparamagnetic property in paleosol results in the enhancement of magnetic susceptibility, although the total amount (weight percent) of magnetic minerals in both paleosol and loess units is similar. Our results also show that nano-crystalline and nanoporous magnetite grains prefer to transform into maghemite in semi-arid soil environments instead of hematite, although hematite is a thermodynamically stable phase. This result also indicates that a decrease in crystal size will increase stability of maghemite. It is also inferred that surface energy of maghemite is lower than that of hematite.     

Least-squares wave-path migration

We present a new least-squares migration method called least-squares wave-path migration. The proposed method combines an iterative conjugate-gradient solver with a stationary-phase wave-path migration operator. Numerical tests demonstrate that (i) least-squares wave-path migration is computationally more efficient than and almost as accurate as Kirchhoff least-squares migration, and (ii) many of the artefacts seen in wave-path migration images are suppressed after several conjugate-gradient iterations. Previous results have shown that 3D wave-path migration is up to 100 times faster than a standard 3D Kirchhoff migration, but sometimes at the cost of reduced quality. With the proposed least-squares wave-path migration method, the image quality in wave-path migration can be improved at an acceptable increase in computational cost.     

中国海相油气田勘探实例(之一) 四川盆地罗家寨大型气田的发现和探明

罗家寨气田发现于2000年,是四川盆地迄今为止发现的储量规模最大的一个气田,2002年探明储量为581.08×108m3。其下三叠统飞仙关组储层由碳酸盐岩蒸发台地边缘优质鲕粒滩白云岩构成,圈闭面积大,构造幅度高,具有一定的埋藏隐蔽性。论述了气田的发现和探明过程,气藏地质的特征,以及对碳酸盐岩气藏勘探的启示。     

综合管理信息系统的应用是设计院规范管理体制提高市场竞争力的重要途径

本文针对国内勘察设计企业管理现状和存在的问题,阐述了综合信息管理系统开发的必要性及其实施时各方面的要求及策略。     

Microorganisms in Lianxian lateritic gold deposit in Guangdong and their effects on leaching of heavy metals

Microorganisms in the lateritic profiles of the Lianxian gold deposit in Guangdong were cultured, isolated and identified. The microorganisms include bacteria such as Bacillus, Enterobacter, Pseudomonas, Lactobacillus, Actinetobacter, Aeromona, Listeria, Agrobacteriura, Cotyttebacteriurn, and Moraxella, fungi such as Penicillium, Alter naria, Cladosporium, Saccharcornyces, Mucor, and the chemoautotrophic Thiobacillu.~. It is shown in a leaching experiment that the microorganisms can accelerate the leaching of Cu, Cd, Zn, and that the G- bacteria are most efficient for leaching Cu, Zn and the G^ bacteria are better for leaching Cd.     

Slope stability evaluation using Back Propagation Neural Networks

The Yudonghe landslide, located in western Hubei Province of China, consists of eastern and western subunits as well as a main landslide mass with upper and lower slip surfaces. As an important landslide close to Shuibuya Dam on the Qing River, its stability is crucial, as the slide might reactivate because of a change in ground-water level caused by filling of the Shuibuya Reservoir. Existing weakness zones, growth of ruptures, the downslope attitude of geologic strata, and water infiltration, which reduced the strength of rocks and soils, have been found to be the most important factors contributing to the Yudonghe landslide. With regard to the landslide processes, it can be noted that the original large-scale slide activity was due to erosion by the Qing River, the second sliding resulted from the fall of blocks from the head scarp, and the final activity was the growth of the eastern and western secondary slides. A base failure was the main type of slope movement, however, it was obvious that more than one sliding event occurred, as inferred from striations and fractures detected by microstructure analysis of soils along the failure surfaces. Slope instability was evaluated by the method of Back Propagation Neural Networks (BPNN), in which a four-layer BPNN model with five input nodes, two hidden layers, and two output nodes was constructed using a training data set of landslide samples throughout the Qing River area. The predicted results of this analysis showed that the factor of safety was 1.10, which indicates that the Yudonghe landslide is currently in a marginally stable condition.