An Improved Calibration of Satellite Altimetric Heights Using Tide Gauge Sea Levels with Adjustment for Land Motion

Several major improvements to an existing method for calibrating satellite altimeters using tide gauge data are described. The calibration is in the sense of monitoring and correcting temporal drift in the altimetric time series, which is essential in efforts to use the altimetric data for especially demanding applications. Examples include the determination of the rate of change of global mean sea level and the study of the relatively subtle, but climatically important, decadal variations in basin scale sea levels. The improvements are to the method described by Mitchum (1998a), and the modifications are of two basic types. First, since the method depends on the cancellation of true ocean signals by differencing the altimetric data from the tide gauge sea level time series, improvements are made that produce a more complete removal of the ocean signals that comprise the noise for the altimetric drift estimation problem. Second, a major error source in the tide gauge data, namely land motion, is explicitly addressed and corrections are developed that incorporate space-based geodetic data (continuous GPS and DORIS measurements). The long-term solution, having such geodetic measurements available at all the tide gauges, is not yet a reality, so an interim solution is developed. The improved method is applied to the TOPEX altimetric data. The Side A data (August 1992?February 1999) are found to have a linear drift component of 0.55 + / 0.39 mm/yr, but there is also a significant quadratic component to the drift that is presently unexplained. The TOPEX Side B altimeter is estimated to be biased by 7.0 + / 0.7 mm relative to the Side A altimeter based on an analysis of the first 350 days of Side B data.     

英国新联合政府气候变化政策最新走向及其对中国的影响

2010年5月英国保守党和自由民主党组成联合政府执政,其气候变化政策也相应发生了一些变化。根据7月27日英国政府公布的首份《年度能源报告》、卡梅伦首相的文章及能源与气候变化大臣休恩的演讲,可粗线条勾勒出其气候变化政策的一些基本走向。在国际框架上,新政府把积极推动国际减排,维护英国低碳技术的国际商业利益作为其未来施政的一个重要方向,更加坚持发展中国家承担减排任务及"三可"机制。在英国本土,气候变化的重点则由原来的"减排"转而强调"适应"。英国新政府十分重视与中国在低碳领域的合作。对于中国而言,机遇与挑战并存,需要尽快尽早制定国家级的低碳发展战略。     

乌塘鳢Bostrichthys sinensis（Lacépède）的年龄研究

研究乌塘鳢年龄的鉴定材料采用胸鳍支鳍骨。结果表明：胸鳍支鳍骨上骨化环的数目与年轮数目相一致，体长频率分布与各年龄组体长分布曲线基本相符。用胸鳍支鳍骨的骨化环来鉴定乌塘鳢的年龄是可信的。     

Research Progress of Relative Humidity and Its Changing Annual Cycle

Studies on the characteristics of relative humidity annual cycle change include the frequency, phase, and amplitude of the time series and their changes. The effective diagnosis of the relative humidity annual cycle can provide important help in the monitoring and regulation of seasonal haze, the spatial distribution of epidemic outbreaks and their prevention and control, and the real-time forecasting and decision-making of monsoon precipitation. Different from studies on the trend of the relative humidity, the diagnosis in the annual cycle is scarce. This paper summarized the research status of relative humidity and its annual cycle, introduced several current methods for extracting common signals, and evaluated the feasibility of these methods for extracting annual cycle signals. Due to the time-varying characteristics of the annual cycle of relative humidity and complex structures such as asymmetric triangular waves, square-like waves, and state transients, harmonic-based extraction methods are difficult to succeed. The nonlinear signal extraction method with high noise immunity will solve this problem. At present, the relative humidity annual cycle studies urgently need to be improved and improve the quality of relative humidity observation data, accurately extract and quantify the time-varying characteristics and complex structure of the annual cycle. Moreover, combining the dynamic process and statistical analysis, we also need to study the physical mechanism of the change of relative humidity annual cycle (frequency, phase, amplitude, etc.) in China.     

临夏台地电阻率变化与震兆现象分析

以甘肃省临夏台1981年以来的地电阻率资料为基础,利用数理统计和相关分析方法,分析该台地电阻率的变化特征,探讨EW和NS两测向之间数据的相关性,以及与大夏河流量变化的对应关系,认为该台两测向数据间具有很高的相关性,可能与区域地下介质具有较均匀的电性结构有关;分析了该区降水和地下静水位对地电阻率的影响,认为地下静水位的影响更显著.此外,探讨了临夏台地电阻率资料作为地震前兆的意义,认为该台资料对甘东南及甘青交界地区的中强地震反应敏感,以下降型破年变异常为主,呈现出震级越大,异常持续时间越长的特点.该台资料同时对甘青地区成组中强地震有所反应,显示出异常持续时间长、幅度大和恢复慢的特点.     

地电阻率多极距观测系统及试验研究

目前, 我国用于地震前兆监测的地电阻率观测系统大部分都是单一极距的, 这种观测方法在实际观测中普遍存在着地电阻率季节性变化的现象, 这种季节性变化与地震异常变化一起叠加在观测值中, 给地震异常的识别和判定带来了一定困难。 而解决这一问题的有效途径就是进行地电阻率的多极距观测。 本文介绍了采用ZD8MI电阻率多极距观测系统在山丹地震台的试验观测情况, 该系统是最新研制的、 专用于地震前兆监测的地电阻率多极距观测系统。 一年多的台站试验观测和反演结果表明, 浅层电阻率的变化相对较大, 而深层的相对变化较小, 因此利用多极距观测系统进行不同层位的地电阻率观测, 对排除干扰和识别地震前兆信息显得尤为重要, 是地电阻率观测技术发展的一个趋势。     

Recent Sea Level and Sea Surface Temperature Changes Along the Maldives Coast

Maldives, a South Asian small island nation in the northern part of the Indian Ocean is extremely vulnerable to the impacts of Sea Level Rise (SLR) due to its low altitude from the mean sea level. This artricle attempts to estimate the recent rates of SLR in Maldives during different seasons of the year with the help of existing tidal data recorded in the Maldives coast. Corresponding Sea Surface Temperature (SST) trends, utilizing reliable satellite climatology, have also been obtained. The relationships between the SST and mean sea level have been comprehensively investigated. Results show that recent sea level trends in the Maldives coast are very high. At Male, the capital of the Republic of Maldives, the rising rates of Mean Tidal Level (MTL) are: 8.5, 7.6, and 5.8 mm/year during the postmonsoon (October-December), Premonsoon (March-May) and southwest monsoon (June-September) seasons respectively. At Gan, a station very close to the equator, the increasing rate of MTL is maximum during the period from June to September (which is 6.2 mm/year). These rising trends in MTL along the Maldives coast are certainly alarming for this small developing island nation, which is hardly one meter above the mean sea level. Thus there is a need for careful monitoring of future sea level changes in the Maldives coast. The trends presented are based on the available time-series of MTL for the Maldives coast, which are rather short. These trends need not necessarily reflect the long-term scenario. SST in the Maldives coast has also registered significant increasing trend during the period from June to September. There are large seasonal variations in the SST trends at Gan but SST and MTL trends at Male are consistently increasing during all the seasons and the rising rates are very high. The interannual mode of variation is prominent both in SST as well as MTL. Annual profile of MTL along the Maldives coast is bimodal, having two maxima during April and July. The April Mode is by far the dominant one. The SST appears to be the main factor governing the sea level variations along the Maldives coast. The influence of SST and sea level is more near the equatorial region (i.e., at Gan). There is lag of about two months for the maximum influence of SST on the sea level. The correlation coefficient between the smoothed SST and mean tidal level at Gan with lag of two months is as high as ~ +0.8, which is highly significant. The corresponding correlation coefficients at Male with the lags of one and two months are +0.5 and +0.3, respectively. Thus, the important finding of the present work for the Maldives coast is the dominance of SST factor in sea level variation, especially near the region close to the equator.     

An Improved Calibration of Satellite Altimetric Heights Using Tide Gauge Sea Levels with Adjustment for Land Motion

Several major improvements to an existing method for calibrating satellite altimeters using tide gauge data are described. The calibration is in the sense of monitoring and correcting temporal drift in the altimetric time series, which is essential in efforts to use the altimetric data for especially demanding applications. Examples include the determination of the rate of change of global mean sea level and the study of the relatively subtle, but climatically important, decadal variations in basin scale sea levels. The improvements are to the method described by Mitchum (1998a), and the modifications are of two basic types. First, since the method depends on the cancellation of true ocean signals by differencing the altimetric data from the tide gauge sea level time series, improvements are made that produce a more complete removal of the ocean signals that comprise the noise for the altimetric drift estimation problem. Second, a major error source in the tide gauge data, namely land motion, is explicitly addressed and corrections are developed that incorporate space-based geodetic data (continuous GPS and DORIS measurements). The long-term solution, having such geodetic measurements available at all the tide gauges, is not yet a reality, so an interim solution is developed. The improved method is applied to the TOPEX altimetric data. The Side A data (August 1992?February 1999) are found to have a linear drift component of 0.55 + / 0.39 mm/yr, but there is also a significant quadratic component to the drift that is presently unexplained. The TOPEX Side B altimeter is estimated to be biased by 7.0 + / 0.7 mm relative to the Side A altimeter based on an analysis of the first 350 days of Side B data.     

Annual and spatial variations of chemical and physical properties in the Ross Sea surface waters (Antarctica)

Temperature, salinity, meltwater percentage, water column stability, dissolved oxygen and nutrients were measured in seawater samples collected at three fixed depths (0, 20, 100 m) in 104 stations located in three different areas of the Ross Sea (Antarctica), during four Italian Antarctic surveys carried out between 1998 and 2006. Nutrient data were used to quantify the nutrient removal, which appears particularly high in 2006, especially in polynya area. The N:P and Si:N disappearance ratios were studied to estimate the dominant phytoplanktonic community. No significant differences in the nutrient drawdown ratio were observed, in fact the N:P ratio was always below the Redfield standard ratio.     

秦岭主脊区年降水量空间插值最优方法研究

利用ARCGIS软件,以研究区多年平均年降水量为数据源,开展以下研究：（1）采用反距离权重法、普通（泛）克里金法、样条函数法和趋势面法进行直接内插。（2）利用降水量随海拔递增率,再次利用以上方法进行插值。（3）分析站点数量的变化对插值精度的影响。（4）分析插值空间尺度变化对插值精度的影响。针对插值结果,使用交叉验证法来评估插值方法的优劣,旨在找出研究区年降水量空间插值的最优方法。结果表明：（1）研究区多年降水量与纬度呈现出很好的负相关,与其他各地理环境因子相关性很差或无相关性。（2）考虑降水随海拔的递增率后,研究区南坡西段和研究区海拔<600 m和>800 m的大部分观测站的空间内插精度得到有效提高,其它区域以及其它海拔区间的插值精度反而降低,因此使用单一线性数据作为整个研究区降水随海拔的变化率不够科学和严谨。（3）在缺少研究区不同剖面降水观测资料的情况下,权重为0.001 的正规则样条函数法是最优插值方法。（4）像元尺度在50～1 000 m间的变化对降水插值的不确定影响甚微;插值精度与选取的插值点个数无明显相关性,当站点个数为20个时,插值精度最高。