当今中国岩石圈物理学研究中的几个重要问题与思考

我国多年来在岩石圈物理学研究中已取得了一系列的重要成果,并促进了我国地球科学的发展.然而在这21世纪之际,基于国家战略需求和自主创新的方针对岩石圏物理学是挑战,也是机遇.为此,必须厘定其今后的发展导向,并凝炼出前瞻性、并具有带动性的创新性核心科学问题.本文在这样的思维前提下对岩石圈物理学的科学内涵和发展导向进行了较全面的分析、研究和思考,并明确指出当今在这一学科领域应该做些什么,核心问题是什么,又存在哪些关键性的科学问题.研究结果提出,高精度的地球物理场观测与岩石圏内壳、幔精细结构(2维和3维)的刻划;在地球内部力系作用下,深部物质和能量的交换;深部物质运移的物理—力学—化学作用过程及深层动力学响应乃是深化对地球本体的认识和揭示成山、成盆、成岩、成矿和成灾的根本机理所在.为此,在本世纪的上、中叶,在地球科学领域中地球物理学研究必为先导!本文最后对岩石圈物理研究中尚存在的一些问题及困惑进行了分析和讨论,并提出了有关统一规划和观测仪器与设备的自主研发以及有序进行国际合作等方面的意见.     

杭州湾南岸互花米草生物海岸表层沉积物粒度分析

互花米草盐沼可显著改变潮滩的水动力条件、沉积特征和地貌演化过程。分析杭州湾南岸互花米草滩内外表层沉积物的粒度特征,互花米草生物海岸沉积物包括粘土质粉砂、粉砂、粉砂质砂和砂质粉砂4类,由东向西各断面草滩内、外沉积物中值粒径逐渐变粗,分选性变好;从低潮滩向高潮滩沉积物的中值粒径Φ值增大,分选性变差。互花米草滩外边界处形成沉积物中值粒径及分选系数的突变点。杭州湾南岸生物海岸表层沉积物以跃移质为主,悬移质次之,推移质最少;由海向岸悬移质、跃移质和推移质均有变细趋势。     

快速筑堤技术——鲎式轻质堤坝的结构和筑堤方法

针对软基堤坝稳定性差,容易沉陷滑移,土石方堆不上,工期长,无法快速施工等问题,提出了鲎式轻质堤坝结构和筑堤方法,又称"松垒筑堤法".它减轻了易沉陷部位的质量,均衡堤坝荷重,增强整体稳定性,提高强度,使堤坝与地基溶为一体,消除了堤坝的不均匀沉降;是一种在软弱地基上应用仿生结构的筑堤方法.     

许氏平鲉(Sebastes schlegelii)速生选育群体的生长性能与遗传特征分析

本研究目的为开展许氏平鲉(Sebastes schlegelii)遗传改良和优质新品系选育,选取荣成(R)和长岛(C)的野生许氏平鲉为基础群体,采用群体选育(群体内和群体间)和家系选育相结合的方法,获得R-F1、RC-F1两个群体选育群体和R-F2、RC-F2、R-F3、RC-F3四个家系选育群体。对4个选育家系的生长性能进行比较分析,并利用20对高多态性的微卫星标记对8个群体进行遗传多样性检测。结果表明:(1)群体内和群体间家系选育子3代比家系选育子2代生长速度分别提高21.59%和30.99%。4个选育家系后代的绝对增重率随着天数的增加而上升,群体内家系选育(R-F3)的生长速度、绝对增重率显著大于群体间的杂交选育系(RC-F3),杂交系未表现出生长的杂种优势。(2)20对微卫星位点在所有群体中均表现出较高多态性,8个群体的平均有效等位基因数(Νe)为2.9849—7.9598,平均观测杂合度(oH)和期望杂合度(He)分别为0.7230—0.8405和0.6315—0.8716,平均多态信息含量(PIC)为0.6472—0.8478。经两代家系选育的R-F3和RC-F3平均等位基因数显著降低,但观测杂合度(Ho)和期望杂合度(He)均值仍达到0.7230、0.7549和0.6527、0.6315,还有维持了较高的遗传多样性水平,遗传潜力较大。Hardy-Weinberg平衡检测结果和遗传偏离指数(d)表明各群体在大约10个位点上表现出一定程度的杂合子缺失现象。群体间平均遗传分化系数(Fst)为0.1279,各群体间存在中等遗传分化程度。R与R-F1分别与RC-F3遗传距离最远(0.9959、0.9848),预测利用两组群体中生长优良个体分别进行杂交育种有可能获得杂种优势。     

Conjugate observations of the day-side reconnection electric field: A GEM boundary layer campaign

Data from HF-radars are used to make the first simultaneous conjugate measurements of the day-side reconnection electric field. A period of 4 h around local magnetic noon are studied during a geospace environment modeling (GEM) boundary layer campaign. The interplanetary magnetic field (IMF) was southward whilst the eastward component (By) was variable. The flow patterns derived from the radar data show the expected conjugate asymmetries associated with IMF |By| ≥ 0. High-time resolution data (50 and 100 s) enable the flow of plasma across the open/closed field line boundary (the separatrix) to be studied in greater detail than in previous work. The latitude of the separatrix follows the same general trend in both hemispheres but shows a hemispherical difference of 4°, with the summer cusp at higher latitude, as expected from dipole tilt considerations. However, the short-time scale motion of the separatrix cannot be satisfactorily resolved within the best resolution (300 m s⁻¹) of the experiment. The orientation of the separatrix with respect to magnetic latitude is found to follow the same trend in both hemispheres and qualitatively fits that predicted by a model auroral oval. It shows no correlation with IMF By. However, the degree of tilt in the Northern (summer) Hemisphere is found to be significantly greater than that given by the model oval. The convection pattern data show that the meridian at which throat flow occurs is different in the two hemispheres and is controlled by IMF By, in agreement with empirically derived convection patterns and theoretical models. The day-side reconnection electric field values are largest when the radar’s meridian is in the throat flow or early afternoon flow regions. In the morning or afternoon convection cells, the reconnection electric field tends to zero away from the throat flow region. The reconnection electric field observed in the throat flow region is bursty in nature.     

Dynamics and local boundary properties of the dawn-side magnetopause under conditions observed by Equator-S

Magnetic field measurements, taken by the magnetometer experiment (MAM) on board the German Equator-S spacecraft, have been used to identify and categorise 131 crossings of the dawn-side magnetopause at low latitude, providing unusual, long duration coverage of the adjacent magnetospheric regions and near magnetosheath. The crossings occurred on 31 orbits, providing unbiased coverage over the full range of local magnetic shear from 06:00 to 10:40 LT. Apogee extent places the spacecraft in conditions associated with intermediate, rather than low, solar wind dynamic pressure, as it processes into the flank region. The apogee of the spacecraft remains close to the magnetopause for mean solar wind pressure. The occurrence of the magnetopause encounters are summarised and are found to compare well with predicted boundary location, where solar wind conditions are known. Most scale with solar wind pressure. Magnetopause shape is also documented and we find that the magnetopause orientation is consistently sunward of a model boundary and is not accounted for by IMF or local magnetic shear conditions. A number of well-established crossings, particularly those at high magnetic shear, or exhibiting unusually high-pressure states, were observed and have been analysed for their boundary characteristics and some details of their boundary and near magnetosheath properties are discussed. Of particular note are the occurrence of mirror-like signatures in the adjacent magnetosheath during a significant fraction of the encounters and a high number of multiple crossings over a long time period. The latter is facilitated by the spacecraft orbit which is designed to remain in the near magnetosheath for average solar wind pressure. For most encounters, a well-ordered, tangential (draped) magnetosheath field is observed and there is little evidence of large deviations in local boundary orientations. Two passes corresponding to close conjunctions of the Geotail spacecraft are analysed to confirm boundary orientation and motion. These further show evidence of an anti-sunward moving depression on the magnetopause (which is much smaller at Equator-S). The Tsyganenko model field is used routinely to assist in categorising the crossings and some comparison of models is carried out. We note that typically the T87 model fits the data better than the T89 model during conditions of low to intermediate K_p index near the magnetopause and also near the dawn-side tail current sheet in the dawnside region.     

Spacecraft potential control aboard Equator-S as a test for Cluster-II

The payload of Equator-S was complemented by the potential control device (PCD) to stabilise the electric potential of the spacecraft with respect to the ambient plasma. Low potentials are essential for accurate measurements of the thermal plasma. The design of PCD is inherited from instruments for Geotail and Cluster and utilises liquid metal ion sources generating a beam of indium ions at several keV. The set-up of the instrument and its interaction with the plasma instruments on board is presented. When the instrument was switched on during commissioning, unexpectedly high ignition and operating voltages of some ion emitters were observed. An extensive investigation was initiated and the results, which lead to an improved design for Cluster-II, are summarised. The cause of the abnormal behaviour could be linked to surface contamination of some emitters, which will be monitored and cured by on-board procedures in future. The mission operations on Equator-S were not at all affected, because of the high redundancy built into the instrument so that a sufficient number of perfectly operating emitters were available and were turned on routinely throughout the mission. Observations of the effect of spacecraft potential control on the plasma remained limited to just one event on January 8, 1998, which is analysed in detail. It is concluded that the ion beam lead to the predicted improvement of the particle measurements even outside the low density regions of the magnetosphere where the effect of spacecraft potential control would have been much more pronounced, and that the similar instruments for the four Cluster-II spacecraft to be launched in 2000 will be very important to ensure accurate plasma data from this mission.     

Study of the magnetic turbulence in a corotating interaction region in the interplanetary medium

We study the geometry of magnetic fluctuations in a CIR observed by Pioneer 10 at 5 AU between days 292 and 295 in 1973. We apply the methodology proposed by Bieber et al. to make a comparison of the relative importance of two geometric arrays of vector propagation of the magnetic field fluctuations: slab and two-dimensional (2D). We found that inside the studied CIR this model is not applicable due to the restrictions imposed on it. Our results are consistent with Alfvenic fluctuations propagating close to the radial direction, confirming Mavromichalaki et al.’s findings. A mixture of isotropic and magnetoacoustic waves in the region before the front shock would be consistent with our results, and a mixture of slab/2D and magnetoacoustic waves in a region after the reverse shock. We base the latter conclusions on the theoretical analysis made by Kunstmann. We discuss the reasons why the composite model can not be applied in the CIR studied although the fluctuations inside it are two dimensional.     

Stationary magnetospheric convection on November 24, 1981. 2.Small-scale structures in the dayside cusp/cleft

A case study of the dayside cusp/cleft region during an interval of stationary magnetospheric convection (SMC) on November, 24, 1981 is presented, based on detailed measurements made by the AUREOL-3 satellite. Layered small-scale field-aligned current sheets, or loops, superimposed to a narrow V-shaped ion dispersion structure, were observed just equatorward from the region of the “cusp proper”. The equatorward sheet was accompanied by a very intense and short (less than 1 s) ion intensity spike at 100 eV. No major differences were noted of the characteristics of the LLBL, or “boundary cusp”, and plasma mantle precipitation during this SMC period from those typical of the cusp/cleft region for similar IMF conditions. Simultaneous NOAA-6 and NOAA-7 measurements described in Despirak et al. were used to estimate the average extent of the “cusp proper” (defined by dispersed precipitating ions with the energy flux exceeding 10⁻³ erg cm⁻² s⁻¹) during the SMC period, as ≈0.73∼ ILAT width, 2.6–3.4 h in MLT, and thus the recently merged magnetic flux, 0.54–0.70 × 10⁷ Wb. This, together with the average drift velocity across the cusp at the convection throat, ≈0.5 km s⁻¹, allowed to evaluate the cusp merging contribution to the total cross-polar cap potential difference, ≈33.8–43.8 kV. It amounts to a quite significant part of the total cross-polar cap potential difference evaluated from other data. A “shutter” scenario is suggested for the ion beam injection/penetration through the stagnant plasma region in the outer cusp to explain the pulsating nature of the particle injections in the low- and medium-altitude cusp region.     

INTERBALL-Auroral observations of 0.1–12 keV ion gaps in the diffuse auroral zone

We examine ion flux dropouts detected by INTERBALL-Auroral upon traversal of the auroral zone at altitudes of ≈13 000 up to 20 000 km. These dropouts which we refer to as “gaps”, are frequently observed irrespectively of longitudinal sector and appear characteristic of INTERBALL-Auroral ion spectrograms. Whereas some of these gaps display a nearly monoenergetic character (≈12 keV), others occur at energies of a few hundreds of eV up to several keV. INTERBALL-Auroral data exhibit the former monoenergetic gap variety essentially in the evening sector. As examined in previous studies, these gaps appear related to transition from particle orbits that are connected with the magnetotail plasma source to closed orbits encircling the Earth. The latter gap variety, which spreads over several hundreds of eV to a few keV is often observed in the dayside magnetosphere. It is argued that such gaps are due to magnetospheric residence times well above the ion lifetime. This interpretation is supported by numerical orbit calculations which reveal extremely large (up to several tens of hours) times of flight in a limited energy range as a result of conflicting E × B and gradient-curvature drifts. The characteristic energies obtained numerically depend upon both longitude and latitude and are quite consistent with those measured in-situ.