Triggered-lightning properties inferred from measured currents and very close electric fields

Triggered-lightning properties, including dart-leader charge density, return-stroke propagation speed, dart-leader electric potential, dart-leader propagation speed, and dart-leader current, inferred from return-stroke current and very close electric field measurements, are presented. Although most of the estimates are based on relatively crude models, they are all generally in good agreement with independent measurements and/or theoretical considerations found in the literature. The results are likely to be applicable to subsequent strokes in natural lightning.     

泾阳4.8级地震前后重力变化探析

系统分析了泾阳Ms4．8地震前后陕西关中地区流动重力观测资料，探讨了重力场的时空变化及其映震特征。结果表明：①震前在震中区附近形成较显著地重力负异常区，且与沉降区基本吻合。②泾阳地震震中区既是重力变化梯度带，也是重力异常的正值区到负值区的过度带。③由于震源区应力作用方式是以水平为主的左旋走滑运动，震前局部重力异常不显著。     

砂土的抗剪强度与干密度的曲线拟合

利用曲线拟合的最小二乘法原理，确定砂土在某垂直压力下的抗剪强度与干密度的关系，并绘制曲线图，可避免人工处理数据的随意性，减小了误差。     

高密度电阻率法在东安金矿床勘探中的应用

本文论述了高密度电阻率法在逊克县东安岩金矿床勘探中的应用效果;阐明了该方法在地质勘查中解决高阻脉状金矿体产状及埋深的技术手段.     

安徽省旅游星级饭店地域差异研究

根据2000～2005年安徽省星级饭店统计资料,利用变异系数这一度量标准分析了安徽省饭店在时间序列上和星级结构上的地域差异,结果表明:随着时间的变化饭店总数在各市间的差异在渐渐缩小.星级结构上五星级饭店地域分异程度最大,其次依次为一星级、四星级、三星级和二星级,通过安徽省各市国内旅游收入区位商和餐饮住宿业就业人员区位商与各市星级饭店数量相对水平的比较,找出不符合一般趋势的城市加以讨论.最后,运用SPSS分析软件对安徽省17个地市的星级饭店发展水平进行聚类分析,并讨论了运行结果所分出的4类城市,提出了饭店业发展的若干建议.     

Bootstrapped discrete scale invariance analysis of geomagnetic dipole intensity

The technique of bootstrapped discrete scale invariance allows multiple time-series of different observables to be normalized in terms of observed and predicted characteristic timescales. A case study is presented using the SINT2000 time-series of virtual axial dipole moment, which spans the past 2 Myr. It is shown that this sequence not only bears a clear signature of a preferred timescale of about 55.6 Ka, but additionally predicts similar features (of shorter and longer duration) that are actually observed on the timescales of historical secular variation and dipole reversals, respectively. In turn, the latter two empirical sources both predict the characteristic timescale found in the dipole intensity sequence. These communal scaling characteristics suggest that a single underlying process could be driving dynamo fluctuations across all three observed timescales, from years to millions of years.     

Stochastic modelling of soil moisture dynamics in a grassland of Qilian Mountain at point scale

Stochastic modeling of soil moisture dynamics is crucial to the quantitative understanding of plant responses to water stresses,hydrological control of nutrient cycling processes,water competition among plants,and some other ecological dynamics,and thus has become a hotspot in ecohydrology at present.In this paper,we based on the continuously monitored data of soil moisture during 2002―2005 and daily precipitation date of 1992―2006,and tried to make a probabilistic analysis of soil moisture dynamics at point scale in a grassland of Qilian Mountain by integrating the stochastic model improved by Laio and the Monte Carlo method.The results show that the inter-annual variations for the soil moisture patterns at different depths are very significant,and that the coefficient of variance(CV) of surface soil moisture(20 cm) is almost continually kept at about 0.23 whether in the rich or poor rainy years.Interestingly,it has been found that the maximal CV of soil moisture has not always appeared at the surface layer.Comparison of the analytically derived soil moisture probability density function(PDF) with the statistical distribution of the observed soil moisture data suggests that the stochastic model can reasonably describe and predict the soil moisture dynamics of the grassland in Qilian Mountain at point scale.By extracting the statistical information of the historical precipitation data in 1994―2006,and inputting them into the stochastic model,we analytically derived the long-term soil moisture PDF without considering the inter-annual climate fluctuations,and then numerically derived the one when considering the inter-annual fluctuation effects in combination with a Monte-Carlo procedure.It was found that,though the peak position of the probability density distribution significantly moved towards drought when considering the disturbance forces,and its width was narrowed,accordingly its peak value was increased,no significant bimodality was observed in the soil moisture dynamics under the given intensity of random fluctuation disturbance.     

Impact of root architecture on the erosion‐reducing potential of roots during concentrated flow

Many studies focus on the effects of vegetation cover on water erosion rates, whereas little attention has been paid to the effects of the below ground biomass. Recent research indicates that roots can reduce concentrated flow erosion rates significantly. In order to predict this root effect more accurately, this experimental study aims at gaining more insight into the importance of root architecture, soil and flow characteristics to the erosion‐reducing potential of roots during concentrated flow. Treatments were (1) bare, (2) grass (representing a fine‐branched root system), (3) carrots (representing a tap root system) and (4) carrots and fine‐branched weeds (representing both tap and fine‐branched roots). The soil types tested were a sandy loam and a silt loam. For each treatment, root density, root length density and mean root diameter (D) were assessed. Relative soil detachment rates and mean bottom flow shear stress were calculated. The results indicate that tap roots reduce the erosion rates to a lesser extent compared with fine‐branched roots. Different relationships linking relative soil detachment rate with root density could be established for different root diameter classes. Carrots with very fine roots (D < 5 mm) show a similar negative exponential relationship between root density and relative soil detachment rate to grass roots. With increasing root diameter (5 < D < 15 mm) the erosion‐reducing effect of carrot type roots becomes less pronounced. Additionally, an equation estimating the erosion‐reducing potential of root systems containing both tap roots and fine‐branched roots could be established. Moreover, the erosion‐reducing potential of grass roots is less pronounced for a sandy loam soil compared with a silt loam soil and a larger erosion‐reducing potential for both grass and carrot roots was found for initially wet soils. For carrots grown on a sandy loam soil, the erosion‐reducing effect of roots decreases with increasing flow shear stress. For grasses, grown on both soil types, no significant differences could be found according to flow shear stress. The erosion‐reducing effect of roots during concentrated flow is much more pronounced than suggested in previous studies dealing with interrill and rill erosion. Root density and root diameter explain the observed erosion rates during concentrated flow well for the different soil types tested. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.