Estimation of Sea Ice Thickness from SARAL/AltiKa in Drifting Orbit Phase

Abstract

Intra and inter-annual variations in the sea ice thickness are highly sensitive indicators of climatic variations undergoing in the earth’s atmosphere and oceans. This paper describes the method of estimating sea ice thickness using radar waveforms data acquired by SARAL/Altika mission during its drifting orbit phase from July 2016 onwards yielding spatially dense data coverage. Based on statistical analysis of return echoes, classification of the surface has been carried out in three different types, viz. floe, lead and mixed. Time delay correction methods were suitably selected and implemented to make corrections in altimetric range measurements and thereby freeboard. By assuming hydrostatic equilibrium, freeboard data were converted into sea ice thickness. Results show that sea ice thickness varies from 4 to 5?m near ice shelves and 1 to 2.5?m in the marginal sea ice regions. Freeboard and sea ice thickness estimates were also validated using NASA’s Operation Ice Bridge (OIB) datasets. Freeboard measurements show very high correlation (0.97) having RMSE of 0.13. Overestimation of approximately 1–2?m observed in the sea ice thickness, which could be attributed to distance between AltiKa footprint and OIB locations. Moreover, sensitivity analysis shows that snow depth and snow density over sea ice play crucial role in the estimation of sea ice thickness.     

An Ecosystem Model Coupled with Nitrogen-Silicon-Carbon Cycles Applied to Station A7 in the Northwestern Pacific

A model based on that of Kishi et al. (2001) has been extended to 15 compartments including silicon and carbon cycles. This model was applied to Station A7 off Hokkaido, Japan, in the Northwestern Pacific. The model successfully simulated the observations of: 1. a spring bloom of diatoms; 2. large seasonal variations of nitrate and silicate concentrations in the surface water; and 3. large inter-annual variations in chlorophyll-a. It also reproduced the observed features of the seasonal variations of carbon dioxide partial pressure (pCO₂)—a peak in pCO₂ in winter resulting from deep winter convection, a rapid decrease in pCO₂ as a result of the spring bloom, and an almost constant pCO₂ from summer through fall (when the effect of increasing temperature cancels the effect of biological production). A comparison of cases with and without silicate limitation shows that including silicate limitation in the model results in: 1. decreased production by diatoms during summer; and 2. a transition in the dominant phytoplankton species, from diatoms to other species that do not take up silicate. Both of these phenomena are observed at Station A7, and our results support the hypothesis that they are caused by silicate limitation of diatom growth. This revised version was published online in July 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

Distribution of nonlinear wave crests

The distribution of nonlinear wave crests is examined on the basis of a theoretical probability density previously given elsewhere (J. Eng. Mech. 120 (1994) 1009). Certain errors contained in the original theoretical density are corrected, and the corresponding exceedance distribution is derived. The resulting theoretical forms of the probability density and exceedance distribution are then slightly simplified and compared with nonlinear wave data gathered under hurricane conditions. The results indicate that the proposed theoretical forms describe the observed distributions of large wave crests better than the Rayleigh law. However, the quantitative accuracy of the predictions is somewhat poor, as is typical of approximate theories based on Gram–Charlier-type expansions.     

流形上的空间密度聚类算法研究

研究流形上的聚类分析，针对基于密度的空间聚类引入了流形概念，提出1种基于流形的密度聚类算法，该方法将流形的概念与聚类相结合，可以适用于样本为复杂分布的聚类。文中通过实例证明此算法的有效性。     

东海温度锋的分布特征及其季节变异

根据１９３４－１９８８年东海水文观测资料，重点分析东海温度锋的分布特征及其季节变异，并结合近期中日黑潮合作调查研究成果，初步探讨温度锋季节变异和水团演变的关系，所得主要结论是：（１）东海不仅常年存在浙闽沿岸锋，东海北部陆架锋和黑潮锋，而且、春、夏两季，在东海南部还出现一条东海中部出架锋。（２）江海温度锋季节变化的特点是：冬季，锋的宽度和强度皆是表层最强，夏季，表层温度锋仅出现在浙江近岸小范围海域。     

Anomalous change of the Antarctic sea ice and global sea level change

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Effects of sediment properties on surface-generated ambient noise in a shallow ocean

Surface-generalized ambient noise in a shallow ocean waveguide with a sediment layer possessing a specific class of density and sound speed distributions capable of describing a realistic seabed environment is considered in this analysis. This class of non-uniform sediment layer has the density and sound speed distributions varying with respect to depth as a generalized-exponential and an inverse-square function, respectively. The study invokes a formulation developed by Kuperman and Ingenito (Kuperman, W. A., Ingenito, F., 1980. Spatial correlation of surface-generated noise in a stratified ocean. J. Acoust. Soc. Am., 67, 1988-1996.) for surface noise generation, in conjunction with the analytical solutions for the Helmholtz equation corresponding to the sediment layer, to arrive at an analytical expression convenient for numerical implementation. The intensity and spatial correlation of the noise sound field are analyzed with respect to the variation of the system parameters, including frequency, sediment layer thickness, sound speed gradient, with emphasis on the effects of sediment properties on the ambient noise field. The results have demonstrated that the intensity of the noise field is relatively sensitive to the variation of the parameters, but the spatial correlation is affected to a less extent, suggesting that the energy distribution, rather than the spatial structure, of the noise field is more susceptible to the environmental variations.