Sediment Transport in Rivers and Coastal Waters

Following Bagnold's approach, a relationship between sediment transport and energy dissipation is developed. The major assumption made in the study is that the near bed velocity plays a dominant role in the process of sediment transport. A general relationship between energy dissipation and sediment transport is first proposed. Then the equations for total sediment transport are derived by introducing the appropriate expression of energy dissipation rate under different conditions, such as open channel flows, combination of wave and current, as well as longshore sediment transport. Within the flows investigated, the derived relationships are fairly consistent with the available data over a wide range of conditions.     

Monitoring the Kuroshio Extension with Dynamically Constrained Synthesis of the Acoustic Tomography, Satellite Altimeter and in situ Data

A finite-difference quasigeostrophic (QG) model of an open ocean region has been employed to produce a dynamically constrained synthesis of acoustic tomography and satellite altimetry data with in situ observations. The assimilation algorithm is based upon the 4D variational data interpolation scheme controlled by the model's initial and boundary conditions. The data sets analyzed include direct and differential travel times measured at the array of five acoustic transceivers deployed by JAMSTEC in the region of the Kuroshio Extension in 1997, Topex/Poseidon altimetry, CTD soundings, and ADCP velocity profiles. The region monitored is located within the area 27.5°–36.5°N, 143°–155°. The results of assimilation show that mesoscale variability can be effectively reconstructed by five transceivers measuring direct and reciprocal travel times supported by relatively sparse in situ measurements. The misfits between model and data lie within the observational error bars for all the data types used in assimilation. We have compared the results of assimilation with the statistical inversion of travel time data and analyzed energy balances of the optimized model solution. Energy exchange between the depth-averaged and shear components of the observed currents reveals a weak decay of the barotropic mode at the rate of 0.2 ± 0.7⋅10⁻⁵ cm²/s³ due to topographic interaction. Mean currents in the region are unstable with an estimate of the available potential energy flux from the mean current to the eddies of 4.7 ± 2.3⋅10⁻⁵ cm²/s³. Kinetic energy transition has the same sign and is estimated as 2.8 ± 2.5⋅10⁻⁵ cm²/s³. Potential enstrophy is transferred to the mesoscale at a rate of 5.5 ± 2.7⋅10⁻¹⁸ s⁻³. These figures provide observational evidence of the properties of free geostrophic turbulence which were predicted by theory and observed in numerical experiments. This revised version was published online in July 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

水下滑翔器的运动建模与分析

介绍了水下滑翔器的工作机理，对其沉浮阶段的滑翔过程进行了动力学分析，推导了滑翔器在垂直剖面上的动力学方程。论文深入分析了水下滑翔器稳态时的运动规律，以水下滑翔器试验模型为例，推导了其稳态运动参数，通过线性化与适当的简化，得到模型在垂直剖面上的运动状态方程，讨论了系统的可控性与可观测性，为水下滑翔器系统的开发设计和控制提供了理论依据，具有重要的指导意义。     

The Working Mechanism and An Analytic Method of the Deep Embedded Large Cylinder Structure

The large cylinder is a new-type structure that has been applied to harbor and offshore engineering. An analytic method of the relationship between loads and the structure displacement is developed based on the failure mode of deep embedded large cylinder structures. It can be used to calculate directly the soil resistance and the ultirnate bearing capacity of the structure under usage. A new criterion of the large cylinder structure, which discriminates the deep embedded cylinder from the shallow embedded cylinder, is defined. Model tests prove that the proposed method is feasible for the analysis of deep embedded large cylinder structures.     

The intertidal erosion rate of cohesive sediment: a case study from Long Island Sound

Over the past decades, many attempts have been made to generate useful bottom erosion models for the study of cohesive sediment movement. This study addresses some of the key questions involved in determining the functional relationship between erosion rate and bottom shear stress. Current, wave, and turbidity data were collected from a bottom mounted instrument array in a moderately energetic estuarine environment. The bottom shear stress was calculated from a wave–current interaction model. The erosion rate was derived from the observed sediment concentration using a vertical mixing model. Examination of the relationship between erosion rate and bottom stress showed that the erosion rate varied at intertidal frequency. When averaged over the tidal fluctuation, the erosion rate remained approximately constant at low stress, but increased sharply when the shear stress rose above a critical value. This suggests two-stage erosion. The bed has a layered structure, in which a thin layer of loose, high water content material overlies a more consolidated bed. The top layer of high water content material (fluff) was easily disturbed and re-suspended by tidal currents, but the consolidated bottom layer was eroded only under conditions of high shear stress.     

海洋中液-固界面作用的分形研究Ⅰ.SAXS法测量固体交换剂的分维

本文将分形作为一个新概念,应用到海洋化学的液-固界面作用的一系列的研究上。根据用SAXS法测定一些常见的粘土矿物(高岭石,蒙脱石)和水合氧化物(水锰矿、δ-MnO_2、氧化铁凝胶、针铁矿、无定形氧化铁)的分维结果,可将这些结果划分成三类:(1)小尺度模量下具有表面分形;大尺度模量下具有质量分形。(2)只有一种分维值的表面分形。(3)在小尺度模量下和大尺度模量下分别具有不同分维值的表面分形。     

Inverse reconstructions of ecosystem flows in investigating regime shifts: impact of the choice of objective function

Inverse analysis is increasingly used in ecosystem modelling to objectively reconstruct a large number of unknown flows or interactions from a small number of observations. This type of analysis may be useful in relating observed regime shifts in ecosystem structure to underlying processes. Inversions of ecosystem flow networks currently use a constrained least-squares solution which at the same time minimizes the squared norm (the sum of squares) of the reconstructed flows. This minimum norm (MN) inversion is thought to be a parsimonious solution to the ecosystem flow inverse problem, but it may well not reflect how ecosystems are organised. It has been proposed instead that ecosystems evolve to maximize energy/mass flows or that they maximize the information content of the network weighted by ecosystem flows (ascendancy). We used simulated inverse experiments, where inverse analyses are applied to simulations of flow networks, to explore objective functions different than the MN generally used. We could not compute inverse solutions that maximize ascendancy because the objective function is unbounded. We could calculate inversions that maximize flows; however, these generally overestimated the simulated flows, even though the simulations were designed to maximize flows. It appears that the ecosystem flow inverse problem is too under-determined (too few data relative to the number of unknowns) to allow the use of these maximizing goal functions. We introduce a new minimization that simultaneously minimizes the squared flows and the squared differences between flows. This smoothing minimization makes the inverse flows as even as possible and it helps with some technical issues with MN inversions. The simulated inverse experiments indicated that this smoothed norm (SM) is the most robust in comparative analyses of contrasting ecosystem states, such as those that can be associated with regime shifts. Like the MN inversion, the SM inversion has no ecological basis. However, it is a conservative norm that is less likely to produce false differences between the dynamics of regimes.     

A dynamic response analysis of tension leg platforms including hydrodynamic interaction in regular waves

A numerical procedure is described for predicting the motion and structural responses of tension leg platforms (TLPs) in waves. The developed numerical approach, in a TLP is assumed to be flexible instead of rigid, is based on a combination of the three dimensional source distribution method and the finite-element method. The hydrodynamic interactions among TLP members, such as columns and pontoons, are included in the motion and structural response analysis. Numerical results are compared with the experimental and numerical ones. The results of comparison confirmed the validity of the proposed approach.     

Progress in Scatterometer Application

Progress in the scientific application of space-based scatterometer data over the past two decades is reviewed. There has been continuous improvement in coverage, resolution, and accuracy. Besides the traditional applications in weather and ocean-atmosphere interaction, which are based on ocean surface wind vectors, emerging applications over land and ice are also described. Future missions and new technology are introduced. This revised version was published online in August 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.