Geometry and accuracy of reflecting points in bistatic satellite altimetry

The analysis of the time and space distribution of specular (reflecting) points in bistatic altimetry between GPS and CHAMP satellites or SAC-C (taken as examples) is extended from Wagner and Klokočník (2003 J. Geod 77: 128–138). We demonstrate a significantly higher number and density of reflecting points in bistatic altimetry in comparison with traditional monostatic altimetry. After an outline of our older accuracy assessment for the vertical position of the reflecting point, we add a new independent derivation and compare both approaches. We account for orbit errors of both the transmitters (GPS) and receiver (CHAMP) satellites, and the measurement (delay) error. We found that the accuracy of the vertical position of the reflecting point decreases only slowly with increasing off-nadir angle and that the orbit errors must be accounted for if decimeter and better accuracy is required. In this paper, we do not study errors such as state of the ocean, technical parameters of the receiving system, and atmospheric corrections.     

Low-low satellite-to-satellite tracking: a comparison between analytical linear orbit perturbation theory and numerical integration

Low-low satellite-to-satellite tracking (ll-SST) range-rate observations have been predicted by two methods: one based on a linear perturbation theory in combination with the Hill equations, and one based on solving the equations of motion of two low-flying satellites by numerical integration. The two methods produce almost equivalent Fourier spectra of the range-rate observations after properly taking into account a few resonant terms. For a typical GRACE-type configuration, where the two satellites trail each other at a distance of 300 km at an altitude of 460 km, and in the presence of the EGM96 gravity field model, complete to spherical harmonic degree and order 70, the agreement between the Fourier spectra is about 1 mm/s compared to a root-mean-square (RMS) value of more than 220 mm/s for the range-rate signal. The discrepancy of 1 mm/s can be reduced significantly when not taking into account perturbations caused by the J₂ term. Excluding the J₂ term, the agreement between the two methods improves to 0.4 mm/s compared to a RMS value of 6 mm/s for the range-rate signal. These values are 0.01 and 2.3 mm/s when ignoring the spectrum for frequencies below two cycles per orbital revolution, reducing the discrepancy even further to about 0.5% of the signal. The selected linear perturbation theory is thus capable of modeling gravity field induced range-rate observations with very high precision for a large part of the spectrum.     

Outlier detection algorithms and their performance in GOCE gravity field processing

The satellite missions CHAMP, GRACE, and GOCE mark the beginning of a new era in gravity field determination and modeling. They provide unique models of the global stationary gravity field and its variation in time. Due to inevitable measurement errors, sophisticated pre-processing steps have to be applied before further use of the satellite measurements. In the framework of the GOCE mission, this includes outlier detection, absolute calibration and validation of the SGG (satellite gravity gradiometry) measurements, and removal of temporal effects. In general, outliers are defined as observations that appear to be inconsistent with the remainder of the data set. One goal is to evaluate the effect of additive, innovative and bulk outliers on the estimates of the spherical harmonic coefficients. It can be shown that even a small number of undetected outliers (<0.2 of all data points) can have an adverse effect on the coefficient estimates. Consequently, concepts for the identification and removal of outliers have to be developed. Novel outlier detection algorithms are derived and statistical methods are presented that may be used for this purpose. The methods aim at high outlier identification rates as well as small failure rates. A combined algorithm, based on wavelets and a statistical method, shows best performance with an identification rate of about 99%. To further reduce the influence of undetected outliers, an outlier detection algorithm is implemented inside the gravity field solver (the Quick-Look Gravity Field Analysis tool was used). This results in spherical harmonic coefficient estimates that are of similar quality to those obtained without outliers in the input data.     

World-wide synthetic tide parameters for gravity and vertical and horizontal displacements

The response of the Earth’s crust to the direct effect of lunisolar gravitational forcing is known as the body tide. The body tide is superimposed by surface-loading forces due to the pressure of the periodically varying ocean tide acting on the Earth, called ocean tide loading (OTL). Both body tide and OTL can be decomposed into components of the same frequency known as tidal parameters. However, OTL is more complicated than body tides because of the dynamic effects of the ocean. Estimating OTL requires a model of the ocean tides and knowledge of the elastic properties of the solid Earth. Thus, synthetic tide parameters (amplitude factors and phase leads) have been developed here on a world-wide grid for gravity and positional displacements. The body tide contributions were added to the oceanic contribution to provide the Earth tide response. The accuracy and reliability of the synthetic tidal parameters have been estimated by comparing observed gravity and vertical-displacement tide parameters with those interpolated from our synthetic model, which shows good agreement. Tests also indicate that the synthetic tide parameters provide realistic gravimetric and displacements for practical use in tidal prediction.     

淮河流域土壤湿度异常的时空分布特征及其与气候异常关系的初步研究

利用中国东部1990~2000年旬平均土壤湿度、降水和气温观测资料，通过对0~50 cm层次土壤湿度进行旋转主分量分析 (REOF)，重点分析了淮河流域土壤湿度的时空分布特征, 并初步研究了土壤湿度与前期、同期和后期不同时段降水与气温的关系。发现春季以30 cm为界，30 cm以上各层土壤湿度异常的第一旋转空间模态十分相似, 其大值中心主要位于淮河流域，而30 cm以下 (30~50 cm) 各层的第二旋转空间模态与之亦十分类似, 因此称该模态为“淮河型”，而夏季和秋季虽然该模态也很显著, 但特征不如春季突出。该模态在各层次土壤中具有明显的持续性特征，均存在40旬左右的显著周期；并与前期和同期降水（气温）呈显著正 (负) 相关关系，与约半年后的降水 (气温) 呈负 (正) 相关关系。     

2003年 8月 21-22日辐合气流暴雨天气过程总结

本文综合应用天气图、静止卫星云图、物理量诊断场,分析了 2003年 8月 21～ 22日黑龙江省大范围强降水过程.分析了乌拉尔山阻高、副热带高压和冷暖空气在暴雨天气过程中的作用.得出有预报指示意义的特征.并对日本传真图的降水预报能力进行了检验分析.在暴雨预报中也具有一定的预报意义.     

波包传播诊断的理论基础和计算方法

文中提出了一种新的利用实际观测资料研究波包传播的诊断方法 (WPD) ,并通过理想资料和实际资料的计算证明了该方法的可用性和广泛性     

新疆冰雹天气过程的基本特征

通过对新疆39a冰雹天气资料的普查，得到76次系统性冰雹天气过程和1279次局地冰雹天气过程，局地冰雹天气的发生远远多于系统性雹天气。冰雹天气过程与地形密切相关，主要发生在山区，冰雹天气以1天为主，多发生于夏季，系统性冰雹天气均由中尺度高压造成。     

台风活动对副热带高压位置和强度的影响

利用一个浅水模式，实施了6组时间积分为4－5个模式日的试验，研究了台风对副热带高压中心位置及强度的影响。结果表明：台风和副热带高压的相互作用可以使高压中心位置西移,强度增加。据此讨论了台风活动和西北地区东部干旱之间统计联系的可能机制。     

近百年中国东部夏季降水的时空变率

利用中国东部25°N以北28个站1880-1999年夏季季降水序列,用旋转复经验正交函数（RCEOF）方法,研究了中国东部地区百年干湿的时空演变规律。结果表明,夏季降水空间变率大值区依次为:长江中下游地区、淮河流域、江南、华北、西南及东北。除西南外的5个关键区大体上反映了从6月到8月夏季雨带自南向北椎进所滞留的地区。旋转空间位相分布揭示了长江中下游地区、江南、东北的旱涝异常主要表现为驻波振动特征;而淮河流域、华北、西南地区显示出降水异常信号具有部分的行波特征。尤其第4空间模显示出旱涝异常信号从东北南部可沿着黄淮下游传到长江下游地区。对于近百年中国东部地区夏季于湿变化,长江中下游地区、淮河流域、华北及东北四个地区都存在20-25年时间尺度的周期振荡;长江中下游地区及华北地区都存在准60年时间尺度的振荡周期;东北地区主要表现出36年时间尺度的振荡周期;淮河流域存在明显的70-80年时间尺度的振荡周期;华北地区存在的11年时间尺度的振荡周期恰好与太阳黑子活动的11年周期相一致。在年代际时间尺度（包括次年代际时间尺度）上,长江中下游、淮河流域及华北地区的夏季降水的变化与太阳活动有显著的正相关。