Jason-1 Altimeter Ground Processing Look-Up Correction Tables

Poseidon-2 is the dual frequency radar altimeter embarked on the CNES/NASA oceanographic satellite Jason-1 that was launched on 7 December 2001. The primary objective of the Jason-1 mission is to continue the high accuracy time series of altimeter measurements that began with TOPEX in 1992. To achieve this goal, it is necessary to improve each component of the ground processing continually. Among these components are the look-up correction tables that are used to correct the estimations (range, significant waveheight, and sigma naught) issued from the retracking algorithms (on-board and ground). Look-up tables were first computed taking into account the prelaunch characteristics of the altimeter. They have to be updated to take into account better all the in-flight characteristics of the altimeter and all the updated ground algorithms that can impact the estimation process. The aim of this article is to describe the radar altimeter simulator of performances that has been used to compute look-up tables, to display the freshly computed look-up tables, and to discuss the consequences of these new corrections on the products provided to the users. The updated look-up correction tables allow improvement of SWH estimation, in particular with respect to TOPEX SWH data. It is also shown that no range dependency on SWH has to be looked for in these tables, and that the on-board TOPEX and Poseidon-2 tracking systems may contain the differences explaining the relative sea state bias between both altimeters.     

Hydrology of stockpiled industrial coal exposed to rainfall

The movement of water and particulate matter through a simulated coal pile using a rainfall–coal‐pile simulator is investigated. In conjunction with coal‐pile management practices, this study indicates that coal‐pile systems change their internal and surficial structure with successive rainstorm events. This change in coal‐pile structure alters the proportions, rates and suspended solid concentrations within surface runoff and infiltration during subsequent storm events. Results demonstrate the need to determine the optimal coal‐pile slope that minimizes water contact time, but at the same time minimizes the potential for mass wasting and rill erosion. Promotion of a compacted surface is beneficial for the minimization of solids removal, and a stormwater detention pond with potential flocculant additive is suggested as a viable remedial measure for the containment and treatment of coal‐pile runoff. Copyright © 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

The interaction between hydrology and geomorphology in a landscape simulator experiment

An experimental landscape simulator has been developed which uses a rainfall simulator to create overland flow and erosion. The simulator uses rainfall sprinklers that eliminate rainsplash and an artificial soil which has little cohesion. Experimental landscapes developed in the simulator evolved according to Howard's headward growth model. Elements of Glock's model could be identified during evolution (i.e. initiation and maximum extension), but other stages of this model were not observed (i.e. extension and integration). The Horton concept of cross‐grading and micropiracy and stream piracy was not observed despite the dominance of overland flow, nor the groundwater headward growth mechanism proposed by Dunne, the latter due to experimental design, which eliminated any perched groundwater table. The experimental apparatus produced model landscapes that are scaled‐down analogues of real world processes. Copyright © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Large-scale physical facility and experimental dataset for the validation of urban drainage models

Numerical models are currently the main tool used to simulate the effects of urban flooding. The validation of these models requires thorough and accurate observed data in order to test their performance. The current study presents a series of laboratory experiments in a large-scale urban drainage physical facility of approximately 100 m² that includes roofs, streets, inlets, manholes and sewers. The facility is equipped with a rainfall simulator as well as a surface runoff and pipe inflows generators. The experiments were divided in two sets. In Set 1 the surface runoff was generated exclusively by the rainfall input, while in Set 2 the rainfall simulator was used in combination with the runoff generators. In all the tests the water discharge was measured at points on the inlets, roofs, and outfall. The water depth at different locations of the facility was also measured. The experimental tests were replicated numerically using the urban drainage model Iber-SWMM. Experimental results show that, even in a relatively small catchment the peaks in the hydrographs generated at each element of the facility during intermittent rainfalls are significantly attenuated at the catchment outlet. The agreement between the experimental and numerical results show that there are some differences in the hydrographs generated at each element, but that these differences compensate each other and disappear at the outfall. The results generated provide the research community with a thorough and high-resolution dataset obtained under controlled laboratory conditions in a large-scale urban drainage facility, something which has not previously been available.     

Impact of the simulation algorithm, magnitude of ergodic fluctuations and number of realizations on the spaces of uncertainty of flow properties

 Geostatistical simulation algorithms are routinely used to generate conditional realizations of the spatial distribution of petrophysical properties, which are then fed into complex transfer functions, e.g. a flow simulator, to yield a distribution of responses, such as the time to recover a given proportion of the oil. This latter distribution, often referred to as the space of uncertainty, cannot be defined analytically because of the complexity (non-linearity) of transfer functions, but it can be characterized algorithmically through the generation of many realizations. This paper compares the space of uncertainty generated by four of the most commonly used algorithms: sequential Gaussian simulation, sequential indicator simulation, p-field simulation and simulated annealing. Conditional to 80 sample permeability values randomly drawn from an exhaustive 40×40 image, 100 realizations of the spatial distribution of permeability values are generated using each algorithm and fed into a pressure solver and a flow simulator. Principal component analysis is used to display the sets of realizations into the joint space of uncertainty of the response variables (effective permeability, times to reach 5% and 95% water cuts and to recover 10% and 50% of the oil). The attenuation of ergodic fluctuations through a rank-preserving transform of permeability values reduces substantially the extent of the space of uncertainty for sequential indicator simulation and p-field simulation, while improving the prediction of the response variable by the mean of the output distribution. Differences between simulation algorithms are the most pronounced for long-term responses (95% water cut and 50% oil recovery), with sequential Gaussian simulation yielding the most accurate prediction. In this example, utilizing more than 20 realizations generally increases only slightly the size of the space of uncertainty.     

降雨冲刷对黄土公路边坡植物防护影响的试验研究

通过对裸露黄土公路边坡、厚层基材植草公路边坡、三维网植草公路边坡以及平台植树公路边坡的现场降雨冲刷试验,阐述了不同防护型式的公路黄土边坡在降雨条件下的坡面径流、含泥量以及坡面冲刷情况,得出了降雨对边坡坡面的侵蚀过程,首先是从雨滴直接打击土体开始,进而引起溅蚀,分散土粒,紧接着发生超渗径流造成坡面冲刷。以及对坡面破坏最大的是坡顶上方来水等重要结论。验证了坡面植物防护以及平台植树等防护方法可以有效降低降雨冲刷对坡面的侵蚀破坏,为黄土地区公路边坡植物防护的设计施工以提供了可靠的依据。     

AREM模拟云参数与卫星观测的比较研究

数值模式模拟计算云量与卫星观测云量的定义不同, 难以进行定量比较, 从而限制了对云模拟误差的检验和修正.作者介绍了可把数值模式输出云参数转换成ISCCP卫星反演云参数的云模拟器, 并将其试用于AREM区域模式中, 定量分析了模拟云参数和ISCCP反演云参数的差异.结果表明, AREM模式可以再现中国东部冬季云的基本分布特征, 但与观测相比, 四川地区云量模拟偏大20%, 华东地区则偏小20%左右, 云量中心的云顶高度比ISCCP反演值偏低一个高度段, 云光学厚度偏大一个厚度段.模拟与观测云参数的定量比较, 为评估和改进模式性能提供了依据.     

基于计算机仿真的火灾时人员安全疏散可靠度分析

火灾中的人员疏散是个复杂的过程,受到诸多因素的共同影响,传统的人员疏散可靠度分析常常忽略这些因素之间的相互作用。为更准确地计算出火灾中人员疏散的可靠度,本文以某地铁车站为例,借助人员疏散仿真软件buildingEXODUS与火灾模拟程序FDS,分别得到人员所需安全疏散时间（RSET）和可利用安全疏散时间（ASET）。在此基础上,构造人员安全疏散极限状态方程,利用一次二阶矩理论求得安全疏散可靠概率。由于能够较好地反映疏散过程中各影响因素之间的相互作用,因此,采用本文提出的可靠度分析方法能够得到更舍理的结果。     

Parallel implementations of streamline simulators

We discuss various strategies for parallelizing streamline simulators and present a single-phase shared memory implementation. The choice of a shared memory programming model is motivated by its suitability for streamline simulation, as well as the rapid advance of multicore processors, which are readily available at low-cost. We show that streamline-based methods are easily parallelizable on shared memory architectures through their decomposition of the multidimensional transport equations into a large set of independent 1D transport solves. We tested both a specialized explicit load balancing algorithm that optimizes the streamline load distribution across threads to minimize the time that any of the threads are idle, and the dynamic load balancing algorithms provided by OpenMP on the shared memory machines. Our results clearly indicate that built-in schedulers are competitive with specialized load balancing strategies as long as the number of streamlines per thread is sufficiently high, which is the case in field applications. The average workload per thread is nominally insensitive to workload variations between individual streamlines, and any load balancing advantage offered by explicit strategies is not sufficient to overcome associated computational and parallel overhead. In terms of the allocation of streamlines or streamline segments to threads, we investigated both the distributed approach, in which threads are assigned streamline segments, and the owner approach, in which threads own complete streamlines. We found that the owner approach is most suitable. The slight advantage that the distributed approach has in terms of load balancing is not enough to compensate for the additional overheads. Moreover, the owner approach allows straightforward re-use of existing sequential codes, which is not the case for the distributed approach in case of implicit or adaptive implicit solution strategies. The tracing and mapping stages in streamline simulation have low parallel efficiency. However, in real-field models, the computational burden of the streamline solves is significantly heavier than that of the tracing and mapping stages, and therefore, the impact of these stages is limited. We tested the parallelization on three shared memory systems: a 24 dual-core processor Sun SPARC server; an eight-way Sun Opteron server, representative of the state-of-the-art shared memory systems in use in the industry; and the very recently released Sun Niagara II multicore machine that has eight floating point compute units on the chip. We test a single-phase flow problem on three heterogeneous reservoirs with varying well placements (this system gives the worst case scenario as the tracing and mapping costs are not negligible compared to the transport costs). For the SPARC and Opteron system, we find parallel efficiencies ranging between 60 and 75 for the tracer flow problems. The sublinear speedup is mostly due to communication overheads in the tracing and mapping stages. In applications with more complex physics, the relative contributions of these stages will decrease significantly, and we predict the parallel performance to be nearly linear. On the Niagara II, we obtain almost perfect linear scalability even for the single-phase flow problem thanks to the lowered communication costs on these architectures that have a shared cache. This result is all the more satisfactory considering that future server designs will be akin to this system.     

The production of digital elevation models for experimental model landscapes

Automated digital photogrammetry was used to produce digital elevation models of experimental model landscapes under controlled laboratory conditions as part of a series of rainfall erosion experiments looking at the evolution of landforms in response to erosion. The method allowed the elevations of the experimental landscapes to be studied in great detail on a regular grid digital terrain map with relatively very little effort. Digital photogrammetry produced elevation data at a resolution of 6 mm with a standard deviation of 2·0 mm over an experimental catchment relief of approximately 200 mm; this resolution is considerably better than that achievable by conventional manual photogrammetry. The density of grid points was sufficiently high that small‐scale details such as knickpoints developing in channels were represented. The method can facilitate the study of both experimental and natural landscapes in great detail. Copyright © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.