Awkward geographies: Spatializing academic responsibility, encountering Sri Lanka

This paper responds to recent postcolonial geographical scholarship that sets forth transformative agendas in order to create more cosmopolitan theoretical projects within the discipline. For many geographers the challenges they face are located within not only their own disciplinary parameters, but also those of other specific research communities within which their work situates them. By bringing geography and area studies into productive conversation, this paper explores the tensions between negotiating one's academic voice, position and responsibility within geography as well as within a specific area studies community. More specifically, as a UK-based geographer I reflect on some of my own fairly unremarkable, yet extremely awkward, encounters during the course of scholarly praxis in Sri Lanka in order to raise questions over the spatialities of responsibility and political engagement in such academic praxis. I seek to theorize the chasms that open in such awkward encounters between notionally situated 'local' and 'foreign' scholars respectively and, in particular, develop ways of engaging and reorienting those chasms in ways that might enable the production of theoretically rich, yet richly contextualized postcolonial knowledges committed to the site of one's scholarly praxis – not just to the advancement of a more cosmopolitan theoretical project within geography.     

Thermal surface characteristics of coal fires 1 results of in-situ measurements

Natural underground coal fires are fires in coal seams occurring subsurface. The fires are ignited through a process named spontaneous combustion, which occurs based on a natural reaction but is usually triggered through human interaction. Coal mining activities expose coal to the air. This leads to the exothermal oxidation of the carbon in the coal with the air's oxygen to CO₂ and – under certain circumstances – to spontaneous combustion. Coal fires occur in many countries world wide – however, currently the Chinese coal mining industry faces the biggest problems with coal fires. Coal fires destroy the valuable resource coal and furthermore lead to many environmental degradation phenomena such as the deterioration of surrounding vegetation, land subsidence and the emission of toxic gasses (CO, N₂O). They additionally contribute to the emission of green house relevant gasses such as CO₂ and CH₄ to the atmosphere.In this paper we present thermal characteristics of coal fires as measured in-situ during a field campaign to the Wuda coal fire area in south-central Inner Mongolia, China. Thermal characteristics include temperature anomaly measurements at the surface, spatial surface temperature profiles of fire areas and unaffected background areas, diurnal temperature profiles, and temperature measurements inside of coal fire induced cracks in the overlying bedrock. For all the measurements the effects of uneven solar heating through influences of slope and aspect are considered.Our findings show that coal fires result in strong or subtle thermal surface anomalies. Especially the latter can easily be influenced by heating of the surrounding background material through solar influences. Temperature variation of background rocks with different albedo, slope, aspect or vegetation cover can substantially influence the detectability of thermal anomalies. In the worst case coal fire related thermal anomalies can be completely masked by solar patterns during the daytime. Thus, night-time analysis is the most suitable for thermal anomaly mapping of underground coal fires, although this is not always feasible. The heat of underground coal fires only progresses very slowly through conduction in the rock material. Anomalies of coal fires completely covered by solid unfractured bedrock are very weak and were only measured during the night. The thermal pattern of underground coal fires manifested on the surface during the daytime is thus the pattern of cracks and vents, which occur due to the volume loss underground and which support radiation and convective energy transport of hot gasses. Inside coal fire temperatures can hardly be measured and can only be recorded if the glowing coal is exposed through a wider crack in the overlaying bedrock. Direct coal fire temperatures measured ranged between 233 °C and 854 °C. The results presented can substantially support the planning of thermal mapping campaigns, analyses of coal fire thermal anomalies in remotely sensed data, and can provide initial and boundary conditions for coal fire related numerical modeling.In a second paper named “Thermal Characteristics of Coal Fires 2: results of measurements on simulated coal fires” [Zhang J., Kuenzer C., Tetzlaff A., Oettl D., Zhukov B., Wagner W., 2007. Thermal Characteristics of Coal Fires 2: Result of measurements on simulated coal fires. Accepted for publication at Journal of Applied Geophysics. doi:10.1016/j.jappgeo.2007.08.003] we report about thermal characteristics of simulated coal fires simulated under simplified conditions. The simulated set up allowed us to measure even more parameters under undisturbed conditions — especially inside fire temperatures. Furthermore we could demonstrate the differences between open surface coal fires and covered underground coal fires. Thermal signals of coal fires in near range thermal remotely sensed imagery from an observing tower and from an airplane are presented and discussed.     

Influence of the Kunlun Mountain Ms8.1 Earthquake on Horizontal Crustal Deformation in the Sichuan and Yunnan Area

In order to track the space-time variation of regional strain field holistically(in a large scale) and to describe the regional movement field more objectively,the paper uses a nonlinear continuous strain model focused on extracting medium-low frequency strain information on the basis of a region with no rotation.According to the repeated measurements(1999～2001～2004) from GPS monitoring stations in the Sichuan and Yunnan area obtained by the Project of "China Crust Movement Measuring Network",and with the movement of 1999～2001(stage deformation background) as the basic reference,we separated the main influencing factors of the Kunlun Mountain M-S8.1 earthquake in 2001 from the data of 2001 and 2004,and the results indicate:(1) the Kunlun Mountain M-S8.1 earthquake has a discriminating effect on the Sichuan and Yunnan area,moreover,the deformation mode and background had not only certain similitude but also some diversity;(2) The movement field before the earthquake was very ordinal,while after the earthquake,order and disorder existed simultaneously in the displacement field;The displacement quantities of GPS monitoring stations were generally several millimeters;(3) The principal strain field before earthquake was basically tensile in an approximate EW direction and compressive in the SN direction,and tension was predominant.After the earthquake,the principal strain field in the Sichuan area was compressive in the EW direction and tensile in the SN direction,and the compression was predominant.In the Yunnan area,it was tensional in the NE direction and compressive in the NW direction,and tension was predominant;(4) The surficial strain before the earthquake was dominated by superficial expansion,the contractive area being located basically in the east boundary of Sichuan and Yunnan block and its neighborhood.After the earthquake,the Sichuan area was surface contractive(the further north,the greater it was),and south of it was an area of superficial expansion.Generally speaking,the Kunlun Mountain M-S8.1 earthquake played an active role in the accumulation of energy in the Sichuan and Yunnan area.Special attention shall be focused on the segment of Xichang-Dongchuan and its neighborhood.     

An equal area conversion model for rasterization of vector polygons

Vector-raster conversion is one of the classic research topics in the field of Geographical Information Systems (GIS). The algorithms commonly used in GIS are devoted to maintaining the vector polygons' shape characteristics, but neglect the gain and loss of a polygon's area, which is another important attribute. This paper proposes an equal-area conversion model based on an area compensation optimization principle. According to the topological relationship among polygons and boundary grids, a neighborhood compensation principle was adopted to assign the attributes of boundary grids and a global optimization algorithm was developed to minimize area distortion in the whole data set. Two experiments were designed and the results indicated that this algorithm not only guaranteed the area error is as small as possible, but also has the advantage as being adaptive to polygon shape and spatial structure.     

GIS中地籍宗地面积的方差分量估计

探讨在地籍宗地数字化的面积处理问题中,把已知面积数据和数字化坐标同时作为观测值的面积处理方法.采用方差分量估计,解决已知面积数据参与平差时的权的确定.通过实例分析,认为采用条件平差方差分量估计方法来对宗地面积处理,能够更加合理地调整已有面积与由数字化坐标得到的面积值之间的差异.     

遥感技术在云南中甸地区煤炭资源调查中的应用

以卫星遥感技术为主要手段,通过遥感地质解译,结合适量的野外调查,综合常规地质资料分析,认为云南中甸地区的含煤目的层为新第三系上新统和第四系更新统。并对该区新生代盆地的形成机制及煤层聚集、赋存规律进行了总结,圈定了5个含煤远景区,为该区进一步进行煤炭资源勘探提供了靶区和基础资料,对解决滇西北严重缺煤的现状有一定的实际意义。     

北京地区春末-秋初气溶胶理化特性的观测研究

分析了1997年5～9月和1998年4～9月北京整层大气气溶胶光学厚度、近地面气溶胶粒子数浓度的日变化、季节变化及其与气象要素的关系,还分析了 1997年5月16日、7月21日和8月2日收集的北京单个气溶胶粒子样品的形态、大小和化学元素组成.结果显示,北京地区春末-秋初整层大气气溶胶光学厚度在0.1～1.6之间变化;气溶胶数浓度(D>0.3μm)为几～几百个/cm3;整层大气气溶胶光学厚度的日变化型式与近地面气溶胶数浓度呈现相反的走向;气溶胶光学厚度和数浓度的日、季节变化显示了整层大气和近地面大气气溶胶与该地区气象、气候条件的关系.气溶胶数浓度与大气相对湿度呈正相关,与风向的关系是偏东风数浓度大,西、西南风数浓度小.电子显微镜分析的结果表明:颗粒物的形态以不规则形、丸形、液态滴形和方形为主;颗粒物化学元素组成有Si、K、S、Al、Mg、Ca、Fe等元素;人类活动排放的Zn、P、Ti、pb、Ba等元素也探测到;北京近地面粒子的一个显著特点是富含Ca和K元素,它们可能分别来自建筑粉尘和有机物的燃烧;给出了一个典型的碳黑粒子和一个粒子经过凝结过程的"卫星"滴环绕的矿物粒子的照片和元素谱图.     

塔里木灌区近40年来气候变化特征

根据塔里木灌区阿拉尔气象站1961年1月－1999年12月的气温及降水资料，分析了塔里木灌区近40年的气候变化，得出近40年来塔里木灌区降水量呈上升趋势（4．60mm/10年），秋季降水量却呈下降趋势（－3．45mm／10年）；年平均气温呈上升趋势（0．065℃／10年），冬季变暖的趋势（0．849℃／10年）；年平均气温呈上升趋势（－0．171℃／10年）；年极端低温的上升趋势（0．569℃／10年）大于年极端高温的下降趋势（－0．095℃／10年）。可以70年代末为界将近40年塔里木塔区气候分为冷、暖两个阶段，前为冷期，后为暖期。     

光电式互感器的研究和发展及其在电力系统中的应用

在电力系统中，光学传感器较之传统的电气传感器具有本质上的优越性。叙述了近年来电流互感器（OCT）、光学电压互感器（OVT）在实际电力系统中的应用方面的研究及发展，详细总结了从110kV三相OCT到500k V组合式光学电流电压测量系统（OMU）等实际项目的研究工作。对光学电流互感器的一些新型设计进行了探讨，并展望了应用于电站的基于光纤传感、光纤监控、光纤通信及光纤继电保护的光纤局域网。