Resonant dynamics of Medium Earth Orbits: space debris issues

The Medium Earth Orbit region is the home of the navigation constellations. It is shown how the orbits of these constellations of satellites are strongly affected by the so-called inclination dependent luni-solar resonances. The analytical theory of these resonances is recalled and a large set of numerical integrations is used to investigate the stability of the orbits of the constellations over very long time spans. The stability issue is important in the definition of possible disposal strategies for the constellation spacecraft, after their end-of-life. Two possible disposal strategies are envisaged involving either stable or unstable orbits (from the eccentricity growth point of view). In particular it is shown how, to have disposal orbits with moderately short lifetime (of the orders of 40–50 years), a very large disposal maneuver would be required to rise the inital eccentricity to values above ~ 0.3.     

Statistical Evaluation of the Jason-1 Operational Sensor Data Record Special Issue: Jason-1 Calibration/Validation

The Jason-1 satellite altimeter mission represents a first step towards operational oceanography from satellite altimeter missions. An operational data product, the Operational Sensor Data Record (OSDR), provides measurements from the on-board altimeter and radiometer within 3–5 h of real time. This data product is a wind and wave product that is aimed towards near-real–time meteorological applications. A higher accuracy and more detailed data product, the Interim Geophysical Data Record (IGDR), that is better suited to detailed scientific studies of ocean topography, is available no sooner than 2–3 days from real time. The measurements reported on the OSDR primarily differ from those on the IGDR in that the OSDR reports measurements derived from on-board processing of the altimeter waveforms, while ground retracking of the waveforms is performed for the IGDR. The altimeter-derived measurements on the OSDR are validated through a statistical evaluation of the differences between data on the OSDR and IGDR. In doing so, the impact of ground retracking of the altimeter waveforms is also illustrated.     

Wave–ice interactions in the marginal ice zone. Part 2: Numerical implementation and sensitivity studies along 1D transects of the ocean surface

The theoretical foundation of a wave–ice interaction model is reported in Part 1 of this study. The model incorporates attenuation of ocean surface waves by sea ice floes and the concomitant breaking of the floes by waves that determines the structure of the marginal ice zone (MIZ). A numerical implementation of the method is presented here. Convergence of the numerical method is demonstrated, as temporal and spatial grids are refined. A semi-analytical method, which does not require time-stepping, is also developed to validate the numerical results, when dispersion is neglected. The wave energy lost during ice breakage is parameterized, as part of the numerical method. Sensitivity studies are conducted in relation to the energy loss and also dispersive effects, the choice of the attenuation model, the properties of the wave field, and sea ice properties such as concentration, thickness and breaking strain. Example simulations intended to represent conditions in the Fram Strait in 2007, which exploit reanalyzed wave and ice model data, are shown to conclude the results section. These are compared to estimates of MIZ widths based on a concentration criteria, and obtained from remotely-sensed passive microwave images.     

近地空间环境的GNSS无线电掩星探测技术

从GPS/MET计划开始,基于GNSS的无线电掩星技术已成为一种强大的近地空间环境探测手段.截至到目前,已经有20多颗发射的低轨道卫星带GPS掩星接收机,其中COSMIC是首个专门用于掩星探测的卫星星座.这些掩星数据被广泛应用于气象预报、气候与全球变化研究、及空间天气监测和电离层研究.由于COSMIC的成功,相关合作单位目前正积极推动COSMIC-2计划,该计划将总共有12颗卫星,于2016年与2019年各发射6颗.COSMIC-2将携带一个高级的GNSS掩星接收机,它将接受GPS与GLONASS信号,并具备接受其他可获得信号源的能力(如中国北斗定位信号),其每日观测的掩星数量将是COSMIC的4~6倍.同时COSMIC-2还将携带两个空间天气载荷,加强空间天气的监测能力.本文以COSMIC与COSMIC-2计划为主线,对掩星的发展历史、技术要点进行了简单介绍,并简要综述了COSMIC取得的部分科学成果,同时对未来包括技术发展和众多的掩星观测进行了展望.     

Dynamics of submerged intake towers including interaction with dam and foundation

The dynamics of a coupled concrete gravity dam-intake tower–reservoir water–foundation rock system is numerically studied considering two hollow slender towers submerged in reservoir of gravity dam. The system is investigated in the frequency-domain using frequency response functions of the dam and the towers, and in the time-domain using time-history seismic analysis under a real earthquake ground motion. The analyzes are separately conducted under horizontal and vertical ground motions. The coupled system is three-dimensionally modeled using finite elements by Eulerian–Lagrangian approach. It is shown that presence of the dam significantly influences the dynamic response of the towers under both horizontal and vertical excitations; however the dam is not affected by the towers. When the dam is present in the model, the water contained inside the towers has different effects if the foundation is rigid, but it alleviates the towers motion if the foundation is flexible. It is concluded that the effects of foundation interaction are of much importance in the response of tall slender towers when they are located near concrete gravity dams.     

Quantification of the effect of forest harvesting versus climate on streamflow cycles and trends in an evergreen broadleaf catchment

ABSTRACT

A new method known as Unobserved Components–Dynamic Harmonic Regression (UC-DHR) was applied to a 39-year record of rainfall and streamflow for three sub-catchments of the Sarukawa Experimental Watershed in southwestern Japan. Some 25% of the timber was harvested from one of the sub-catchments in May–July 1982 and the objective was to quantify the magnitude of this effect relative to the effects of climate cycles (e.g. Southern Oscillation Index). The observed effects of inter-annual climate cycles (i.e. 0.89–1.36 mm/d) were seen to be comparable (i.e. 0.70–1.17 mm/d) to the effects of harvesting 25% of the standing timber. This result underlines the importance of always quantifying the effect of climate on streamflow response when harvesting impacts are studied.

Editor D. Koutsoyiannis; Associate editor T. Okruszko     

Dynamic responses of structure–soil–structure systems with an extension of the equivalent linear soil modeling

A three-dimensional problem of cross interaction of adjacent structures through the underlying soil under seismic ground motion is investigated. The story shears and lateral relative displacements (drifts) are the targets of the computations. These are calculated using a detailed modeling of soil, the foundations and the two adjacent structures. An equivalent linear behavior is assumed for the soil by introducing reduced mechanical properties consistent with the level of ground shaking for the free-field soil. Then a distinctive soil zone (the near-field soil) is recognized in the vicinity of the foundations where the peak shear strain under the combined effect of a severe earthquake and the presence of structures is much larger than the strain threshold up to which the soil can be modeled as an equivalent linear medium. It is shown that it is still possible to use an equivalent linear behavior for the near-field soil if its shear modulus is further reduced with a factor depending on the dynamic properties of the adjacent structures, the near-field soil, and the design earthquake. Variations of the dynamic responses of different adjacent structures with their clear distances are also discussed.     

In-plane soil–structure interaction in layered,fluid-saturated,poroelastic half-space I: Structural response

Linear in-plane soil–structure interaction in two dimensions (2D) is studied in fluid-saturated, poroelastic, layered half-space using the Indirect Boundary Element Method (IBEM). The structure is a shear wall supported by a rigid embedded foundation. Exact stiffness matrices for the soil layer and half-space, and Green׳s functions of uniformly distributed loads and pore pressure on an inclined line are derived. Results of the system response in the frequency domain are presented for the special case of single soil layer over bedrock, semi-circular foundation and zero seepage force. The effects of water saturation, soil porosity, depth of soil layer, rigidity contrast between layer and bedrock are investigated in the frequency domain for incident plane P- and SV waves. The results suggest that water saturation may cause increase of the system frequency by more than 10%.     

Influence of fines content on the undrained cyclic shear strength of sand–clay mixtures

A series of undrained cyclic triaxial tests were performed on sand–clay mixtures with various sand–clay mixing ratios. Prior to the primary tests, the threshold fines content was examined by consistency tests, which was found to be approximately 20%. For sand–clay mixtures with a sand-matrix (fines content less than the threshold fines content), the cyclic shear strength of low-density mixtures increases and that of high-density mixtures decreases with increasing fines content. However, for sand–clay mixtures with a fines-matrix (fines content greater than the threshold fines content), there exists a unique correlation between the cyclic shear strength and global void ratio for different fines content. The equivalent granular void ratio is introduced in this paper to account for the contribution ratio of the fines to soil skeleton. As a result, a unique relationship between cyclic shear strength and equivalent granular void ratio was observed for pure sand and sand–clay mixtures with a sand-matrix.     

Geostatistical radar–raingauge merging: A novel method for the quantification of rain estimation accuracy

Compared to other estimation techniques, one advantage of geostatistical techniques is that they provide an index of the estimation accuracy of the variable of interest with the kriging estimation standard deviation (ESD). In the context of radar–raingauge quantitative precipitation estimation (QPE), we address in this article the question of how the kriging ESD can be transformed into a local spread of error by using the dependency of radar errors to the rain amount analyzed in previous work. The proposed approach is implemented for the most significant rain events observed in 2008 in the Cévennes-Vivarais region, France, by considering both the kriging with external drift (KED) and the ordinary kriging (OK) methods. A two-step procedure is implemented for estimating the rain estimation accuracy: (i) first kriging normalized ESDs are computed by using normalized variograms (sill equal to 1) to account for the observation system configuration and the spatial structure of the variable of interest (rainfall amount, residuals to the drift); (ii) based on the assumption of a linear relationship between the standard deviation and the mean of the variable of interest, a denormalization of the kriging ESDs is performed globally for a given rain event by using a cross-validation procedure. Despite the fact that the KED normalized ESDs are usually greater than the OK ones (due to an additional constraint in the kriging system and a weaker spatial structure of the residuals to the drift), the KED denormalized ESDs are generally smaller the OK ones, a result consistent with the better performance observed for the KED technique. The evolution of the mean and the standard deviation of the rainfall-scaled ESDs over a range of spatial (5–300 km²) and temporal (1–6 h) scales demonstrates that there is clear added value of the radar with respect to the raingauge network for the shortest scales, which are those of interest for flash-flood prediction in the considered region.