多回击负地闪先导通道的辐射和光学特征

利用闪电VHF窄带干涉仪辐射源定位系统和高速摄像系统,对青海大通地区一次有5次回击的负地闪放电过程进行了同步观测,对比分析了通道传输过程的辐射和光学特征.结果表明,光学通道亮度能补充VHF干涉仪定位先导通道的电流特征,VHF干涉仪定位弥补了光学设备拍摄弱放电和云内流光通道的不足;在通道分枝结构上,干涉仪定位的通道和光学通道呈现出很好对应.干涉仪定位分枝通道的辐射源点较明显,但分枝光学通道的出现明显落后于干涉仪定位辐射源通道.对用两种不同观测手段探测的先导通道进行速度计算,发现两者计算的直窜先导和直窜梯级先导速度量级一致,均为106m·s-1,但干涉仪在时间的获取及精确量化上有优势,干涉仪定位计算先导速度的精确度高于光学通道定位.     

青藏高原大地形对华南持续性暴雨影响的数值试验

利用新一代中尺度数值预报模式WRF3.2及NCEP/NCAR 逐日4次1°×1°的FNL再分析资料,通过有、无青藏高原以及将高原高度降低到临界高度的数值试验,研究了青藏高原大地形对我国华南地区2010 年5 月一次持续性暴雨过程的影响。试验结果表明:高原大地形对降水的影响显著,随着高原高度的升高,降水增多,高原以东地区的雨带也由北向南移动;高原地形的机械阻挡作用使迎风坡一侧的近地面层附近为强上升运动,背风坡为下沉运动,并分别对应降水的峰值和谷值区;高原对西风气流的爬流、绕流作用明显,高原升高后爬坡作用减弱,以绕流作用为主;高原的加热作用使气流过高原时南支减弱,北支加强,并加强了高原及其东部地区低层的正涡度和高层的负涡度,使高原上空为强烈的上升运动;高原的热力作用使西太平洋副热带高压位置偏南、偏西并稳定维持;高原大地形对形成稳定的高原季风环流圈有重要作用;高原地形高度的作用有利于定常波的形成,波动中心对应强上升运动,形成降水的大值区,稳定维持的定常波使得降水持续集中在同一地区,造成持续性暴雨。     

Extragalactic Astronomy with the VLTI: a new window on the Universe

Interferometry in the optical and near infrared has so far played a marginal role in Extragalactic Astronomy. Active Galactic Nuclei are the brightest and most compact extragalactic sources, nonetheless only a very limited number could be studied with speckle interferometry and none with long baseline interferometry. The VLTI will allow the study of moderately faint extragalactic objects with very high spatial resolution thus opening a new window on the universe. With this paper we focus on three scientific cases to show how AMBER and MIDI can be used to tackle open issues in extragalactic astronomy. This revised version was published online in July 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

The Wolf-Rayet stars at high (spatial) resolution

The Wolf-Rayet stars represent an advanced stage of evolution of the most massive stars. Their next immediate stadium will be supernova explosion. The most striking property of this very rare but exceptionally hot and bright objects is their extreme mass loss, of the order of 10^-5 solar mass per year. In turn of evolution before and during the Wolf-Rayet phase such stars eject a lot of matter (∼ 10 M_⊙) with velocity up to 3000 km/s that surrounds the min the form of gas and dust. In the case of binary Wolf-Rayet star such expanding envelope may interact with a companion (usually hot OB star) wind forming a tail extended for ∼ 100 AU. This spectacular phenomenon as well as some other connected with Wolf-Rayet stars that can be studied with high spatial resolution instruments (both astrometric and imaging) are reviewed. This revised version was published online in July 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

PRIMA for the VLTI – Science

The four main scientific objectives of PRIMA – the Phase-Referenced Imaging and Micro-arc second Astrometry facility for the VLTI – will be described:– extra-solar system characterization with astrometry, to detect planets and evaluate their mass, and imaging of the dust accretion disk,– galactic center study with astrometry(dynamics of the bulge stars) and imaging at 10μm (piercing the gas and dust clouds surrounding the galactic center),– observations of AGNs and other extra-galactic objects, too faint to be observed without PRIMA, for which partial imaging is needed to constrain their structuremodels,– micro-gravitational lensing event resolution (imaging and astrometry of their photo-center) in the Galactic Bulge and Magellanic Clouds, helping to determine directly the lens mass and distance. This revised version was published online in July 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

Measuring the sizes of stars

The Chatterton Astronomy Department aims to apply interferometers with very high resolving power to optical astronomy. The programme of the stellar intensity interferometer at Narrabri Observatory was completed in 1972 and since then the work has been directed towards building a more sensitive instrument with higher resolving power. As a first step a much larger intensity interferometer was designed but was not built because it was large, expensive and not as sensitive as desired. Efforts are now being made to design a more sensitive and cheaper instrument. A version of Michelson’s stellar interferometer is being built using modern techniques. It is hoped that it will reach stars of magnitude +8 and will work reliably in the presence of atmospheric scintillation. It is expected to cost considerably less than an intensity interferometer of comparable performance. The pilot model of this new instrument is almost complete and should be ready for test in 1984. Text of an Academy Lecture delivered at the Raman Research Institute, Bangalore on January 27, 1984.     

A review of pollutants in the sea-surface microlayer (SML): a unique habitat for marine organisms

Boundary layers between different environmental compartments represent critical interfaces for biological, chemical and physical processes. The sea-surface microlayer (uppermost 1-1000 microm layer) forms the boundary layer interface between the atmosphere and ocean. Environmental processes are controlled by the SML, and it is known to play a key role in the global distribution of anthropogenic pollutants. Due to its unique chemical composition, the upper organic film of the SML represents both a sink and a source for a range of pollutants including chlorinated hydrocarbons, organotin compounds, petroleum hydrocarbons, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAH) and heavy metals. These pollutants can be enriched in the SML by up to 500 times relative to concentrations occurring in the underlying bulk water column. The SML is also a unique ecosystem, serving as an important habitat for fish eggs and larvae. Concentration ranges and enrichment factors of pollutants in the SML in different areas of the world's oceans have been critically reviewed, together with available toxicity data for marine biota found within the SML. Overall, the SML is highly contaminated in many urban and industrialized areas of the world, resulting in severe ecotoxicological impacts. Such impacts may lead to drastic effects on the marine food web and to fishery recruitment in coastal waters. Studies of the toxicity of fish eggs and larvae exposed to the SML contaminants have shown that the SML in polluted areas leads to significantly higher rates of mortality and abnormality of fish embryos and larvae.     

DInSAR技术对不同方位形变的敏感性研究

以DEM数据为假想的地面目标,只考虑距离对相位的影响,模拟竖直向、距离向和方位向形变的干涉纹图,从而研究DInSAR技术对空间不同方位形变的敏感性。在所有模拟参数和形变位移大小都相同的情况下,三个不同方位形变所产生的相位从0到2π变化的完整干涉环的数目是各不相同的,揭示DInSAR技术对不同方位地表形变的敏感性存在差异,且敏感性由大到小依次为:竖直向、距离向和方位向。     

利用最小二乘的雷达干涉PS相位解缠方法

常规DInSAR技术中,时空失相关及大气延迟等因素的影响限制了相位解缠结果的精度。永久散射体(PS)InSAR方法间接克服了常规雷达干涉中的时空失相关问题,单独对PS这种高相干目标进行相位解缠可以避免失相关噪声对解缠结果的影响。本文在已有相位解缠方法的基础上,提出基于最小二乘的稀疏PS点相位解缠方法,陈述了相应的建模思想及相关数据处理方法;分别基于模拟数据和真实数据(日本ALOS卫星获取的PALSAR L波段数据)对所提方法进行了实验验证。结果表明,该方法能够有效地对PS数据集进行相位解缠。     

Mapping glacier velocities on Svalbard using ERS tandem DInSAR data

The results presented show how glacier velocities can be measured and calculated from Earth Resources Satellite (ERS) tandem interferometric synthetic aperture radar (InSAR) data by the use of geographical information systems (GIS) and non-interferometric software. A semi-automatic algorithm using existing and newly implemented modules in ESRI's GIS software Arc has been developed to unwrap existing height differentiated interferometric SAR (DInSAR) data. The algorithm is applied to a data set covering glaciers from the arctic archipelago Svalbard. Estimated DInSAR velocities are decomposed into the glacier surface flow direction using a digital elevation model (DEM). Velocity fields for the glaciers Isachsenfonna, Akademikerbreen and Nordbreen on Svalbard are presented.