Long term variations in the mesospheric mean flow observed at Grahamstown (South Africa) and Adelaide (Australia)

The seasonal and interannual behaviour of monthly mean winds at a height of 90 km recorded at Grahamstown (33.3°S, 26.5°E) and Adelaide (34.5°S, 138.5°E) between 1987 and 1994 are compared. The zonal wind is found to be consistently stronger at Grahamstown and is always eastward, whereas at Adelaide it sometimes reverses. Maxima tend to occur near the solstices, the primary maximum during summer at Grahamstown, in agreement with satellite results, and during winter at Adelaide. The meridional wind also tends to be stronger at Grahamstown, but at both stations is predominantly northward with a maximum in summer and generally not as strong as the zonal component. This seasonal behaviour is reasonably well understood in terms of the interaction of the mean flow with gravity waves propagating up from below, with coriolis forces also playing an important role in the case of the meridional wind. Satellite observations do not generally support the idea that longitudinal differences between the stations could be attributed to the presence of a tropospheric/stratospheric stationary wave. It is suggested that these differences are more probably associated with local effects. Interannual zonal wind patterns at the two sites are similar over the summer months but are less well correlated during the rest of the year. The underlying causes of this variability are not well understood but are most probably global in nature, at least during the summer.     

Global scale annual and semi-annual variations of daytime NmF2 in the high solar activity years

The annual and semi-annual variations of the ionosphere are investigated in the present paper by using the daytime F2 layer peak electron concentration (NmF2) observed at a global ionosonde network with 104 stations. The main features are outlined as follows. (1) The annual variations are most pronounced at magnetic latitudes of 40–60° in both hemispheres, and usually manifest as winter anomalies; Below magnetic latitude of 40° as well as in the tropical region they are much weaker and winter anomalies that are not obvious. (2) The semi-annual variations, which are usually peak in March or April in most regions, are generally weak in the near-pole regions and strong in the far-pole regions of both hemispheres. (3) Compared with their annual components, the semi-annual variations in the tropical region are more significant.In order to explain the above results, we particularly analyze the global atomic/molecular ratio of [O/N2] at the F2 layer peak height by the MSIS90 model. The results show that the annual variation of [O/N2] is closely related with that of NmF2 prevailing in mid-latitudes and [O/N2] annual variation usually may lead to the winter anomalies of NmF2 occurring in the near-pole region. Moreover, NmF2 semi-annual variations appearing in the tropical region also have a close relationship with the variation of [O/N2]. On the other hand, the semi-annual variations of NmF2 in the far-pole region cannot be simply explained by that of [O/N2], but the variation of the solar zenith angle may also have a significant contribution.     

Matuyama-Brunhes reversal and Kamikatsura event on Maui: paleomagnetic directions, Ar/Ar ages and implications

Eighty-nine basaltic lava flows from the northwest wall of Haleakala caldera preserve a concatenated paleomagnetic record of portions of the Matuyama-Brunhes (M-B) reversal and the preceding Kamikatsura event as well as secular variation of the full-polarity reversed and normal geomagnetic field. They provide the most detailed volcanic record to date of the M-B transition. The 24 flows in the transition zone show for the first time transitional virtual geomagnetic poles (VGPs) that move from reverse to normal along the Americas, concluding with an oscillation in the Pacific Ocean to a cluster of VGPs east of New Zealand and back finally to stable polarity in the north polar region. All but one of the 16 Kamikatsura VGPs cluster in central South America. The full-polarity flows, with ⁴⁰Ar/³⁹Ar ages spanning a total of 680 kyr, pass a reversal test and give an average VGP insignificantly different from the rotation axis, with standard deviation consistent with that for other 0-5 Ma lava flows of similar latitude. Precise ⁴⁰Ar/³⁹Ar dating consisting of 31 incremental heating experiments on 12 transitional flows yields weighted mean ages of 775.6±1.9 and 900.3±4.7 ka for the M-B and Kamikatsura transitional flows, respectively. This Matuyama-Brunhes age is ∼16 kyr younger than ages for M-B flows from the Canary Islands, Tahiti and Chile that were dated using exactly the same techniques and standards, suggesting that this polarity transition may have taken considerably longer to complete and been more complex than is generally believed for reversals.     

Ar/Ar ages of tephras intercalated in astronomically tuned Neogene sedimentary sequences in the eastern Mediterranean

We present new ⁴⁰Ar/³⁹Ar data for sanidine and biotite derived from volcanic ash layers that are intercalated in Pliocene and late Miocene astronomically dated sequences in the Mediterranean with the aim to solve existing inconsistencies in the intercalibration between the two independent absolute dating methods. ⁴⁰Ar/³⁹Ar sanidine ages are systematically younger by 0.7-2.3% than the astronomical ages for the same ash layers. The significance of the discrepancy disappears except for the upper Ptolemais ashes, which reveal the largest difference, if an improved full error propagation method is applied to calculate the absolute error in the ⁴⁰Ar/³⁹Ar ages. The total variance is dominated by that of the activity of the decay of ⁴⁰K to ⁴⁰Ar (∼70%) and that the amount of radiogenic ⁴⁰Ar_p in the primary standard GA1550 biotite (∼15%). If the ⁴⁰Ar/³⁹Ar ages are calculated relative to an astronomically dated standard, the influence of these parameters is greatly reduced, resulting in a more reliable age and in a significant reduction of the error in ⁴⁰Ar/³⁹Ar dating.Astronomically calibrated ages for Taylor Creek Rhyolite (TCR) and Fish Canyon Tuff (FCT) sanidine are 28.53±0.02 and 28.21±0.04 Ma (±1 S.E.), respectively, if we start from the more reliable results of the Cretan A1 ash layer. The most likely explanation for the large discrepancy found for the younger Ptolemais ash layers (equivalent to FCT of 28.61 Ma) is an error in the tuning of this part of the sequence.     

~(40)Ar/~(39)Ar dating of shear deformation of the Xianshuihe fault zone in west Sichuan and its tectonic significance

TheNW-SEstrikingXianshuihefaultzoneslicesthesoutheasternTibetanPlateauandconnectssoutheastwardwiththeAnninghe-Zemuhe-Xiaojiangfaultzone,whichformahuge,activesinistralstrike-slipfaultzone(fig.1).ThisfaultzoneisanimportantseismicfaultineastTibet[1-5].EarthquakegeologystudiesandoffsetpatternsofyounggeologicalfeatureshaveshownthatlateQuaternarysinistralsliprateoftheXianshuihefaultzonereaches13mm/a[1,2].TheXianshuhefaultzoneconsistsoftwomainbranches,theDaofufaultbranchinthewestandtheXianshuih…     

长江中下游旱涝中期预报方法及其业务应用

介绍了双层多因子综合相似的长江中下游旱涝中期预报模型。该模型引入了具有明确动力学和热力学意义的地转西风动量经向输送和经向温度梯度诊断量，同时强调了西太平洋副热带高压对长江中下游夏季降水的关键作用，并考虑了对流层中、低层500hPa高度和850hPa温度的大尺度环流背景场。与过去业务应用的单层相似预报模型相比较，不仅物理意义和天气学含义明确，而且更符合对具有复杂动力和热力机制的降水预报的考虑。5年的预报试验和业务应用结果表明，该方法对长江中下游地区旱涝的中期趋势预报有较好的预报能力。     

沈阳近百年的温度变化特征及其环流形势分析

沈阳地处全球温度变化的敏感带，在近百年的温度观测记录中，沈阳的温度变化呈逐渐上升之势，近百年增高约1．7℃，这种上升趋势在冬季远比夏季明显。沈阳的年平均温度变化有一个12a的周期，各周期温度基本呈阶梯状上升，20世纪末的周期冬季平均温度比世纪初的周期升温2．8℃左右。从近50a的极端温度的变化趋势来看，极端最低温度明显升高，而极端最高温度并没有上升，变化趋势甚至略下降，以致冬、夏两季温差缩小。从沈阳的最低平均温度和最高平均温度变化来看，两者均随时间逐渐升高，说明沈阳市的增温不仅是最低温度升高造成的，最高温度的增温作用亦十分重要。从冬季环流形势分析来看，东亚大槽及其后弱脊和地面蒙古高压在上世纪80年代、90年代明显减弱，使得冷空气向南侵袭的径向气流减弱，是导致位于冷空气通道中的沈阳冬季增温明显的原因之一。     

Assessing land use/cover changes: a nationwide multidate spatial database for Mexico

A nationwide multidate GIS database was generated in order to carry out the quantification and spatial characterization of land use/cover changes (LUCC) in Mexico. Existing cartography on land use/cover at a 1:250,000 scale was revised to select compatible inputs regarding the scale, the classification scheme and the mapping method. Digital maps from three different dates (the late 1970s, 1993 and 2000) were revised, evaluated, corrected and integrated into a GIS database. In order to improve the reliability of the database, an attempt was made to assess the accuracy of the digitalisation procedure and to detect and correct unlikely changes due to thematic errors in the maps. Digital maps were overlaid in order to generate LUCC maps, transition matrices and to calculate rates of conversion. Based upon this database, rates of deforestation between 1976 and 2000 were evaluated as 0.25 and 0.76% per year for temperate and tropical forests, respectively.     

峨嵋玄武岩流体包裹体中铂钯的测定方法研究

峨嵋玄武岩同生流体包裹体在800℃爆裂后，2．0g／L NH4Cl溶液提取流体中Pt、Pd，C-410树脂富集-电感耦合等离子体质谱测定，方法相对误差小于25％。激光拉曼光谱与四级质谱测定包裹体的气液成分结果表明：流体中存在一定量的有机组分，这对Pt、Pd以有机螯合态形式进入流体提供了可能。     

通用洪水预报模型库设计建设研究

在介绍洪水预报模型库的基本概念和性质的基础上，分析了各类洪水预报模型的输入、输出数据类型，规定了各类数据文件格式，设计了洪水预报模型库的通用数据接口，并在中国洪水预报系统中实现了通用洪水预报模型库的建设。