Estimation of Sea Ice Thickness from SARAL/AltiKa in Drifting Orbit Phase

Abstract

Intra and inter-annual variations in the sea ice thickness are highly sensitive indicators of climatic variations undergoing in the earth’s atmosphere and oceans. This paper describes the method of estimating sea ice thickness using radar waveforms data acquired by SARAL/Altika mission during its drifting orbit phase from July 2016 onwards yielding spatially dense data coverage. Based on statistical analysis of return echoes, classification of the surface has been carried out in three different types, viz. floe, lead and mixed. Time delay correction methods were suitably selected and implemented to make corrections in altimetric range measurements and thereby freeboard. By assuming hydrostatic equilibrium, freeboard data were converted into sea ice thickness. Results show that sea ice thickness varies from 4 to 5?m near ice shelves and 1 to 2.5?m in the marginal sea ice regions. Freeboard and sea ice thickness estimates were also validated using NASA’s Operation Ice Bridge (OIB) datasets. Freeboard measurements show very high correlation (0.97) having RMSE of 0.13. Overestimation of approximately 1–2?m observed in the sea ice thickness, which could be attributed to distance between AltiKa footprint and OIB locations. Moreover, sensitivity analysis shows that snow depth and snow density over sea ice play crucial role in the estimation of sea ice thickness.     

Diet of albacore Thunnus alalunga from the waters of Mauritius (western Indian Ocean) inferred from stomach contents and fatty acid analysis

The diet of albacore Thunnus alalunga from their spawning ground in the waters of Mauritius was investigated. The stomach contents of 249 albacore individuals, caught by industrial longliners and artisanal fishers, was analysed, and the dominant prey taxa were selected for lipid and fatty acid (FA) analysis. The FA profiles of prey were compared with those of liver tissue of spawning-capable and post-spawning female albacore, using multivariate analysis. Whereas stomach content analysis identified cephalopods and crustaceans as the dominant prey items in number, FA-profile analysis identified crustaceans and fishes as the most-frequently consumed prey of post-spawning female albacore. In contrast, the FA profiles of spawning-capable albacore and those of prey showed very low similarity. Analysis of the prey suggests that although cephalopods, crustaceans and fishes could all provide albacore with the required lipids and FAs, cephalopod prey seem to be less desirable owing to their lower energy content (i.e. low in total lipid, triacylglycerol, 16:0, 18:0 and 18:1ω9). Instead, the most beneficial food appeared to be locally available fishes, which are more energy-rich and have a higher docosahexaenoic acid/ eicosapentaenoic acid ratio. These results provide new information on the trophic ecology of albacore, promote our understanding of the importance of prey type for successful reproduction of albacore, and highlight the advantages of FA profiling to study diet.     

大地形对正压扰动演变影响

本文着重研究大地形对正压大气迭加在非均匀纬向基本气流上挑动演变的影响。用WKBJ方法推导了正压扰动的频率和频散关系以及波作用量所满足的方程。当基本流场定常且存在无限长的东西向山脉时,则有波作用量守恒。据此,获得了正压不稳定的必要条件:即在所考察的平面域内至少在某点或某些点上含地形效应的某一物理量等于零,扰动就可能得到发展。对波包动能的倚时变化的讨论得知,在无摩擦正压纬向非均匀基流的情形,地形对扰动动能并无直接影响,即导波和曳波分别在西风急流的南侧和北侧得到加强,并分别在西风急流的北侧和南侧强度减弱。扰动的发展由扰动的结构所决定。导波和曳波的波长缩短总伴同其轴线倾向于东西向相联系,而它们的波长伸长总是与其轴线倾向于南北向同时发生。还指出,正压扰动的加强(或减弱)与波长的伸长(或缩短)不是必然的联系,它的成立是有条件的。     

非线性中立型时滞微分方程解的振动性

本文研究几类非线性中立型时滞微分方程解的振动性质 ,利用 Riccati不等式和某个不等式得到了保证方程振动的充分条件     

Cross-Calibration and Long-Term Monitoring of the Microwave Radiometers of ERS, TOPEX, GFO, Jason, and Envisat

The radiometers on board the satellites ERS-1, TOPEX/Poseidon, ERS-2, GFO, Jason-1, and Envisat measure brightness temperatures at two or three different frequencies to determine the total columnal water vapor content and wet tropospheric path delay, a major correction to the altimeter range measurements. In order to asses the long-term stability of the path delay, the radiometers are calibrated against vicarious cold and hot references, against each other, and against several atmospheric models. Four of these radiometers exhibit significant drifts in at least one of the channels, resulting in yet unmodeled errors in path delay of up to 1 mm/year, thus limiting the accuracy at which global sea level rise can be inferred from the altimeter range measurements.     

广西沿岸海平面变化的关联维数研究

采用相空间重构和关联维数方法，研究了广西沿岸月平均海平面变化的分形特征，结果表明，相空间重构的延迟时间τ为3△t，当关联维数趋于饱和时，石头埠，北海和龙尾的相空间维数为7，而涠洲岛为9，它们的关联维数平均值平均值分别为6.6507,6.5414,6.7059.     

碳水化合物的组合合成

碳水化合物的组合合成是一项新兴技术，该技术可以在短时间内合成大量用于进行生物活性筛选的寡糖及拟糖物。液相与固相合成技术可以极大地加快药物研究与开发进程。作者针对该技术在碳水化合物合成方面的研究进展情况进行讨论。     

Atmospheric Correction of SeaWiFS Data for the Retrieval of Suspended Sediment in East China Coastal Waters

The data of SeaWiFS (Sea-Viewing Wide Field-of-View Sensor), installed on SeaStar, has been used to generate SSC (suspended sediment concentration) of complex and turbid coastal waters in China. In view of the problems of the SeaDAS (SeaWiFS Data Analysis System) algorithm applied to China coastal waters, a new atmospheric correction algorithm is discussed, developed, and used for the SSC of East China coastal waters. The advantages of the new algorithm are described through the comparison of the restdts from different algorithms.