Geography Education: The Glass Is Half Full and It's Getting Fuller

This article examines the recent progress of geography education as an academic subfield of geography and as an area of activity in K–12 education. Challenges to both endeavors are described. A restructuring of geography education's research program that focuses on spatial thinking and reasoning and merges applied and theoretical research is proposed.     

The diurnal and seasonal characteristics of urban heat island variation in Beijing city and surrounding areas and impact factors based on remote sensing satellite data

Based on the land surface temperature (LST), the land cover classification map,vegetation coverage, and surface evapotranspiration derived from EOS-MODIS satellite data, and by the use of GIS spatial analytic technique and multivariate statistical analysis method, the urban heat island (UHI) spatial distribution of the diurnal and seasonal variabilities and its driving forces are studied in Beijing city and surrounding areas in 2001. The relationships among UHI distribution and landcover categories, topographic factor, vegetation greenness, and surface evapotranspiration are analyzed. The results indicate that: (i) The significant UHI occur in Beijing city areas in the four seasons due to high heat capacity and multi-reflection of compression building, as well as with special topographic features of its three sides surrounded by mountains,especially in the summer. The UHI spatial distribution is corresponding with the urban geometry structure profile. The LST difference is approximately 4-6℃ between Beijing city and suburb areas, comparatively is 8- 10℃ between Beijing city area and outer suburb area in northwestern regions. (ii) The UHI distribution and intensity in daytime are different from nighttime in Beijing city area, the nighttime UHI is obvious. However, in the daytime, the significant UHI mainly appears in the summer, the autumn takes second place, and the UHI in the winter and the spring seem not obvious. The surface evapotranspiration in suburb areas is larger than that in urban areas in the summer, and high latent heat exchange is evident, which leads to LST difference between city area and suburb area. (iii) The reflection of surface landcover categories is sensitive to the UHI, the correlation between vegetation greenness and UHI shows obviously negative.The scatterplot shows that there is the negative correlation between NDVI and LST (R2 = 0.6481).The results demonstrate that the vegetation greenness is an important factor for reducing the UHI,and large-scale construction of greenbelts can considerably reduce the UHI effect.     

Effect of the Initial Vortex Structure on Intensity Change During Eyewall Replacement Cycle of Tropical Cyclones: A Numerical Study

This study investigates the effect of the initial tropical cyclone (TC) vortex structure on the intensity change during the eyewall replacement cycle (ERC) of TCs based on two idealized simulations using the Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) model. Results show that an initially smaller TC with weaker outer winds experienced a much more drastic intensity change during the ERC than an initially larger TC with stronger outer winds. It is found that an initially larger TC vortex with stronger outer winds favored the development of more active spiral rainbands outside the outer eyewall, which slowed down the contraction and intensification of the outer eyewall and thus prolonged the duration of the concentric eyewall and slow intensity evolution. In contrast, the initially smaller TC with weaker outer winds corresponded to higher inertial stability in the inner core and weaker inertial stability but stronger filamentation outside the outer eyewall. These led to stronger boundary layer inflow, stronger updraft and convection in the outer eyewall, and suppressed convective activity outside the outer eyewall. These resulted in the rapid weakening during the formation of the outer eyewall, followed by a rapid re-intensification of the TC during the ERC. Our study demonstrates that accurate in- itialization of the TC structure in numerical models is crucial for predicting changes in TC intensity during the ERC. Additionally, monitoring the activity of spiral rainbands outside the outer eyewall can help to improve short-term intensity forecasts for TCs experiencing ERCs.     

辽宁省精细化暴雨洪涝灾害风险评估与预评估

基于辽宁省61个国家气象站1961—2020年和998个区域自动气象观测站建站至2020年逐小时、逐日降水资料,分析了辽宁省暴雨洪涝灾害主要致灾因子,计算了暴雨洪涝孕灾环境指标,完成了辽宁省暴雨洪涝灾害危险性评估。结果表明：暴雨洪涝高危险性地区主要位于丹东;暴雨洪涝灾害人口高风险区主要位于沈阳和大连市区;经济高风险区主要位于大连和盘锦市区;水稻、玉米高风险区主要位于锦州、盘锦和丹东。利用辽宁省无缝隙智能网格预报数据对2022年7月28—29日的暴雨过程灾害风险进行了预评估,发现暴雨灾害危险性高值区域主要分布在朝阳、葫芦岛以及辽宁中部。暴雨灾害可能造成的人口、经济高风险区域主要位于辽宁西部和中部地区;暴雨灾害可能造成的水稻和玉米高风险区主要位于沈阳、铁岭和朝阳北部等地区。预计高风险区主要影响人口约为449万人,经济损失约为1432万元,受影响的水稻面积约为1.028万公顷、玉米面积约为1.798万公顷。通过灾后效果检验,发现预评估模型效果良好,可在实际的暴雨洪涝灾害风险评估业务中使用。     

三峡库区重庆段水土流失的时空格局特征

在TM 解译的三峡库区重庆段1999 年和2004 年水土流失数据及相关辅助数据的支持下, 借助GIS 技术, 分析了研究区5 年来水土流失的时空演变及地理空间分异特征与规律。 研究结果表明: (1) 研究区水土流失总体呈现好转趋势, 极强度和剧烈水土流失面积下降变幅最大。(2) 水土流失主要分布在紫色土、黄壤、石灰(岩) 土、水稻土和黄棕壤分布区。(3) 水 土流失主要发生在受人类活动影响最为剧烈的旱坡地和疏林地。(4) 水土流失表现出明显的垂直分异特征, 主要集中于高程200~1500 m 的低山、丘陵地区。(5) 水土流失与坡度具有很好的相关性, 主要分布在15^o以上的陡坡地。(6) 水土流失与坡向分异无明显的相关关系。各坡向水土流失面积和强度分布基本相当。(7) 水土流失主要集中在300~320 和320~340 j.cm/hm². h 的降雨侵蚀力(R) 值分布区。剧烈水土流失与高降雨侵蚀力具有较好的对应关系。     

Correspondence Between Astronomical Periods and Sedimentary Cycles

The term of geological cycle was used firstly inHutton's" The Earth Theory" in 1788 (Williams,1980). The geological cycles including tectonic cycles and sedimentary cycles have been describedwidely since than. Some researchers have perceivedthat the geolo…     

长岭凹陷潜在地热初步探讨

根据长岭凹陷石油井地温测量和物探资料,从地热形成的4要素——储、盖、通、源以及地热具备的地质特征入手,分析了长岭凹陷潜在着地热资源。目前长岭盆地基本具备了储和盖,需要进一步寻找的是通和源。     

RESEARCH ON AUTOMATIC FOG IDENTIFICATION TECHNOLOGY BY METEOROLOGICAL SATELLITE REMOTE SENSING

There is an urgent need for the development of a method that can undertake rapid, effective, and accurate monitoring and identification of fog by satellite remote sensing, since heavy fog can cause enormous disasters to China’s national economy and people's lives and property in the urban and coastal areas. In this paper, the correlative relationship between the reflectivity of land surface and clouds in different time phases is found, based on the analysis of the radiative and satellite-based spectral characteristics of fog. Through calculation and analyses of the relative variability of the reflectivity in the images, the threshold to identify quasi-fog areas is generated automatically. Furthermore, using the technique of quick image run-length encoding, and in combination with such practical methods as analyzing texture and shape fractures, smoothness, and template characteristics, the automatic identification of fog and fog-cloud separation using meteorological satellite remote sensing images are studied, with good results in application.