中亚地区中生代以来的地貌巨变与岩石圈动力学

中亚地区的地貌自中生代以来发生过两次巨变：一次是青藏高原的隆起,另一次是中生代中国东部高原及其西侧共存的中亚准平原的兴衰。青藏高原的隆起引起了全球气候和中亚环境的巨变。对此,自80年代以来开展的国际合作已经在地质学和地球物理学等研究领域取得了丰硕的成果。不过,在解释高原隆升-气候变化-剥蚀作用的相互关系方面仍存歧见。相比之下,中亚地区中生代的地貌巨变尚属新的研究课题。人们认识到,中亚地区在中侏罗世至新近纪曾存在一个准平原,而在中国东部则存在一个中生代高原。这一中生代地貌巨变引发出许多新的思考,如：为什么这一中生代准平原能保存长达150 Ma？中国东部高原是怎样形成的,又是怎样消失的？这两次地貌巨变及其相关的岩石圈动力学将是“TOPO?CENTRAL?ASIA”这一国际岩石圈计划项目的研究主题。     

A test method for analyzing the deformation of landslide model

In order to study the overall deformation of geotechnical model conveniently, the worksite of landslide bridge foundation reinforced by the front and rear row anti-slide piles in Chenglan railway was taken as an example. On the basis of shaking tabe test of a 1/40 reduced scale model, the landslide deformation caused by vibration waves was monitored through burying self-made phosphor bronze strips in soil. Combined with the horizontal and vertical coordinates of the bending strain points on the phosphor bronze strips, the digital matrix was converted by applying Renka Cline random matrix generation method, and the two-dimensional contour plots were drawn based on it. The results showed that the two-dimensional contour plots reflected the basic law of landslide deformation reasonably, and it revealed the evolution process of landslide deformation and failure. The research conclusions were consistent with the test phenomenon, which met the basic requirements of overall deformation analysis of landslide model. This proposed method can monitor multiple cross sections and was practical for model test.     

The role of dark matter in the galaxy mass-size relationship

The observed relationship between stellar mass and effective radius for early type galaxies, pointed out by many authors, is interpreted in the context of Clausius’ virial maximum theory. In this view, it is strongly underlined that the key of the above mentioned correlation is owing to the presence of a deep link between cosmology and the existence of the galaxy Fundamental Plane. Then the ultimate meaning is: understanding visible mass-size correlation and/or Fundamental Plane means understanding how galaxies form. The mass-size relationship involves baryon (mainly stellar) mass and its typical dimension related to the light, but it gets memory of the cosmological mass variance at the equivalence epoch. The reason is that the baryonic component virializes by sharing virial energy in about equal amount between baryons and dark matter, this sharing depending, in turn, on the steepness of the dark matter distribution. The general strategy consists in using the two-component tensor virial theorem for determining the virialized baryonic configurations. A King and a Zhao density profile are assumed for the inner baryonic and the outer dark matter component, respectively, at the end of the relaxation phase. All the considerations are restricted to spherical symmetry for simplicity. The effect of changing the dark-to-baryon mass ratio, m, is investigated inside a ΛCDM scenario. A theoretical mass-size relation is expressed for the baryonic component, which fits fairly well to the data from a recently studied galaxy sample. Finally, the play of intrinsic dispersion on the mass ratio, m, is discussed in the light of the cusp/core problem and some consequences are speculated about the existence of a limit m_l expected by the theory.     

N-body simulation for self-gravitating collisional systems with a new SIMD instruction set extension to the x86 architecture, Advanced Vector eXtensions

We present a high-performance N-body code for self-gravitating collisional systems accelerated with the aid of a new SIMD instruction set extension of the x86 architecture: Advanced Vector eXtensions (AVX), an enhanced version of the Streaming SIMD Extensions (SSE). With one processor core of Intel Core i7-2600 processor (8 MB cache and 3.40 GHz) based on Sandy Bridge micro-architecture, we implemented a fourth-order Hermite scheme with individual timestep scheme (Makino and Aarseth, 1992), and achieved the performance of ∼20 giga floating point number operations per second (GFLOPS) for double-precision accuracy, which is two times and five times higher than that of the previously developed code implemented with the SSE instructions (Nitadori et al., 2006b), and that of a code implemented without any explicit use of SIMD instructions with the same processor core, respectively. We have parallelized the code by using so-called NINJA scheme (Nitadori et al., 2006a), and achieved ∼90 GFLOPS for a system containing more than N = 8192 particles with 8 MPI processes on four cores. We expect to achieve about 10 tera FLOPS (TFLOPS) for a self-gravitating collisional system with N ∼ 10⁵ on massively parallel systems with at most 800 cores with Sandy Bridge micro-architecture. This performance will be comparable to that of Graphic Processing Unit (GPU) cluster systems, such as the one with about 200 Tesla C1070 GPUs (Spurzem et al., 2010). This paper offers an alternative to collisional N-body simulations with GRAPEs and GPUs.     

降水对荒漠土壤水热性质强迫研究

利用“我国西北干旱区陆气相互作用试验”在甘肃省敦煌的观测资料,分析了不同大小的降水对土壤湿度、反照率以及地表温度的影响;随着降水量的增大,各地表物理量恢复到原先的状态也越慢;强降水时,5cm土壤湿度的驰豫期为7天．中降水为4天,微量降水为2天。由于降水性质(水和雪)和土壤状态的差异,冬季和夏季相比．降水对地表物理量的影响差不多,但冬季地表物理量的恢复时间要比夏季长得多。土壤湿度和反照率的驰豫期与降水有很好的相关。     

Fast detection of chaotic behavior in galactic potentials

In the present paper we apply a new method of distinction between ordered and chaotic motion in galactic potentials. The method uses the Fourier Transform of a series of time intervals each one representing the time that elapsed between two successive points on the Poincaré surface of section. Examples of the methods ability to achieve an early and clear detection of an orbit's behavior are provided using two galactic potentials. The new method can also be applied in order to have an early distinction between ordered and sticky orbits. The method is generalized in order to be used in models with more than two dimensions. Finally we have tried to find an one‐number index to give us the nature of the orbit instead of checking by eye the whole spectrum. (© 2008 WILEY‐VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)     

Dune-forming winds on Titan and the influence of topography

Numerous extended dunes on Saturn's moon Titan detected by the Cassini RADAR constrain the long-term pattern of surface winds. We analyse the statistics of surface wind speed and direction and their spatial and temporal variability predicted by a general circulation model (GCM) in order to constrain surface wind predictions of this GCM by dune observations. The model shows that modern winds are sufficient for saltation and dune formation at low latitudes, in agreement with the presence of dunes there. The best condition for the dune-forming wind occurs with a threshold friction speed of 0.02 m s⁻¹ or slightly less. The equatorial region is conducive to longitudinal dunes because of a combined effect of a high sand drift potential and obtuse bimodal wind pattern oblique to the equator caused by the seasonal reversal of the Hadley circulation. The cross-equatorial wind is steady, and is characterised by a high Weibull shape parameter (k∼4). The wind pattern at higher latitudes is more complex and gusty, and neither longitudinal nor transversal dunes would be able to form. Putative large-scale topography is found to have a profound influence on the near-surface wind pattern. Generally mountains cause a convergence and speeding up on the flank, while basins weaken the wind and cause a divergent flow. Longitudinal dunes can be deflected on the foot of mountains by up to 90°. If Xanadu is a hypothetical large mountain, a wind pattern converging in Xanadu that entirely disagrees with the dune observations is predicted. If instead Xanadu is a large basin, the wind arcs clockwise north of Xanadu and anti-clockwise west and southwest of Xanadu, in agreement with the dune orientations in the vicinity of Xanadu. The albedo pattern has comparatively little influence on the wind field. Isolated mountain chains cause only local-scale change in the wind pattern. However, the persistent surface easterlies in Belet, which are in conflict with the dune orientations, do not disappear by any combination of large-scale topography.     

Exchange of global mean angular momentum between an atmosphere and its underlying planet

This paper investigates the exchange of global mean angular momentum between an atmosphere and its underlying planet by a simple model. The model parameterizes four processes that are responsible for zonal mean momentum budget in the atmospheric boundary layer for a rotating planet: (i) meridional circulation that redistributes the relative angular momentum, (ii) horizontal diffusion that smoothes the prograde and retrograde winds, (iii) frictional drag that exchanges atmospheric angular momentum with the underlying planet, and (iv) internal redistribution of the zonal mean momentum by wave drag. It is shown that under a steady-state or a long-term average condition, the global relative angular momentum in the boundary layer vanishes unless there exists a preferred frictional drag for either the prograde or the retrograde zonal wind. We further show quantitatively that one cannot have either a predominant steady prograde or retrograde wind in the boundary layer of a planetary atmosphere. The parameter dependencies of the global relative angular momentum and the strength of the atmospheric circulation in the boundary layer are derived explicitly and used to explain the observational differences between the atmospheres of Earth and Venus.     

The Norma cluster (ACO 3627) – I. A dynamical analysis of the most massive cluster in the Great Attractor

A detailed dynamical analysis of the nearby rich Norma cluster (ACO 3627) is presented. From radial velocities of 296 cluster members, we find a mean velocity of 4871 ± 54 km s⁻¹ and a velocity dispersion of 925 km s⁻¹. The mean velocity of the E/S0 population (4979 ± 85 km s⁻¹) is offset with respect to that of the S/Irr population (4812 ± 70 km s⁻¹) by  Δ v = 164 km s⁻¹  in the cluster rest frame. This offset increases towards the core of the cluster. The E/S0 population is free of any detectable substructure and appears relaxed. Its shape is clearly elongated with a position angle that is aligned along the dominant large-scale structures in this region, the so-called Norma wall. The central cD galaxy has a very large peculiar velocity of 561 km s⁻¹ which is most probably related to an ongoing merger at the core of the cluster. The spiral/irregular galaxies reveal a large amount of substructure; two dynamically distinct subgroups within the overall spiral population have been identified, located along the Norma wall elongation. The dynamical mass of the Norma cluster within its Abell radius is  1–1.1 × 10¹⁵  h ⁻¹₇₃ M_⊙  . One of the cluster members, the spiral galaxy WKK 6176 which recently was observed to have a 70 kpc X-ray tail, reveals numerous striking low-brightness filaments pointing away from the cluster centre suggesting strong interaction with the intracluster medium.