The impact of fragment “L” of comet SL-9 on Jupiter

Filtergrams of high spatial and temporal resolution were obtained in the methane band centred at 892 nm during the impact of fragment L of comet Shoemaker-Levy 9 on Jupiter. The light curve shows two maxima of an emission ball observed above the limb shortly after the impact. The second maximum was the brightest and had a short life time of about 90 seconds. During it's life, the apparent height of the emission ball declined towards the surface of Jupiter; the amount of displacement is larger than the expected effect caused by Jupiter's rotation. About half an hour after the impact, a domelike feature became visible when the location of the impact rotated into the illuminated hemisphere of Jupiter.     

Modelling the outcomes of high-velocity impacts between small solar system bodies

We present a self-consistent numerical algorithm aimed at predicting the outcomes of high-velocity impacts between asteroids (or other small bodies of the solar system), based on a set of model input parameters which can be estimated from the available experimental evidence, and including the possible gravitational reaccumulation of ejected fragments whose velocity is less than a suitably defined escape velocity. All the fragment mass distributions are modelled by truncated power laws, and a possible correlation between fragment ejection velocity and mass is taken into account in different ways, including a probabilistic one. We analyze in particular the effectiveness of the gravitational reaccumulation process in terms of different choices of the collisional parameters and the assumed relationship between fragment speed and mass. Both the transition size beyond which solid targets are likely to reaccumulate a large fraction of the fragment mass and the collision energy needed to disperse most of the fragments are sensitive functions of the assumed fragment velocity versus mass relationship. We also give some examples of how our algorithm can be applied to study the origin and collisional history of small solar system bodies, including the asteroid 951 Gaspra (recently imaged by the Galileo probe) and the asteroid families.     

The NASA Lunar Impact Monitoring Program

NASA’s Meteoroid Environment Office has implemented a program to monitor the Moon for meteoroid impacts from the Marshall Space Flight Center. Using off-the-shelf telescopes and video equipment, the Moon is monitored for as many as 10 nights per month, depending on weather. Custom software automatically detects flashes which are confirmed by a second telescope, photometrically calibrated using background stars, and published on a website for correlation with other observations. Hypervelocity impact tests at the Ames Vertical Gun Range facility have begun to determine the luminous efficiency and ejecta characteristics. The purpose of this research is to define the impact ejecta environment for use by lunar spacecraft designers of the Constellation manned lunar program. The observational techniques and preliminary results will be discussed. The U.S. Government's right to retain a non-exclusive, royalty-free license in and to any copyright is acknowledged.     

安徽省人口年龄结构特征及其社会经济影响研究

根据人口普查和抽样调查的数据资料,采用对比分析、聚类分析等研究方法分析了1953~2015年安徽省人口年龄结构时间特征、空间特征。从时间上看,安徽省人口年龄结构不断演变,少儿人口数量从不断增加转变为不断减少,劳动适龄人口比重比较稳定,人口老龄化程度不断加深,总抚养系数和少年儿童抚养系数大幅度下降,老年抚养系数上升;从空间上看,人口年龄结构存在较大地区差异。安徽省人口年龄结构对社会经济发展的影响主要表现为：① 人口老年化导致劳动生产率和经济增长速度的减缓,家庭规模小型化,并对社会养老保障和医疗卫生的挑战;② 少儿人口的不断减少影响教育资源的配置;③ 人口年龄结构的区域差异进一步加剧了安徽区域发展的不平衡性。为了尽可能地减缓人口年龄结构演变对安徽省社会经济发展的不利影响,建议采取如下措施：一是充分利用“人口红利”机遇期,加快经济发展,不断促进社会进步;二是要加强引导,因地施策;三是完善社会保障制度,努力扩大社会保障制度的覆盖面,力争全覆盖,尽量减小城乡差距;四是大力发展养老产业,探索建立满足居家养老、社区养老、机构养老等多种方式需求的政府主导、政策扶持、社会参与、市场运作的社会化养老服务体系。     

基于人口特征的城市生态游憩空间配置——以常熟市为例

生态游憩空间配置是休闲城市建设的重要内容,对城市生态文明建设、城市优质生活环境营造具有重要意义。本文以国家休闲城市综合标准试点市——常熟市为研究对象,以人口特征为切入点,对该市不同功能区内各年龄段人口数量、可进行生态游憩的时间、生态游憩意愿、对不同生态游憩空间的偏好,以及全市不同功能区人口对生态游憩空间的配置需求进行了调查研究。人口特征影响城市生态游憩空间的配置需求,全市不同功能区的人口特征有显著差异,因此对各类生态游憩空间的配置需求不同。在人口量、人口平均生态游憩可能性、人口生态游憩空间类型偏好等因素的影响下,商业活动区内人口对各类生态游憩空间的配置需求指数均最高,其次为生活居住区、商务办公区、工业生产区;全市不同功能区内人口对草地游憩空间的配置需求指数均最高,其次为水域和林地。可根据城市不同功能区人口数量、类型、分布特征,以及对各类生态游憩空间的配置需求来指导城市规划建设中生态游憩空间的配置实践。     

气候波动对莱州湾地区水资源及极端旱涝事件的影响

通过对莱州湾地区１９６０～１９９３年气候波动水资源及极端旱涝事件的影响分析,楞以看出该地区水资源对气候波动敏感。当降水增加１０％,全区水资源总量可增加２２％;若降水减少１０％,全区水资源总量则减少２３％。在气候处于少雨时期,极端干旱频高远高于多雨时期。同时还分析了未来气候变化对莱州湾地区水资源的可能影响。     

BOOK REVIEWS

Books reviewed in this article: Aerial Photography and Remote Sensing. Terrain Analysis and Remote Sensing . JOHN R. G. TOWNSHEND , ed. Environmental Data Use in Computer-assisted Data Handling Systems: The Results of a Survey of Applications in the Pacific Northwest States . KENNETH E. GORDON . Applied Land Use: A Spatial Approach . JOHN F. LOUNSBURY , LAWRENCE M. SOMMERS , AND EDWARD A. FERNALD , eds. The Second Battle of New Orleans: A History of the Vieux Carre Riverfront-Expressway Controversy . RICHARD O. BAUMBACH , JR. AND WILLIAM E. BORAH . Cultural Environmental Archaeology . MYRA SHACKLEY . The Immoral landscape: Female Prostitution in Western Societies . RICHARD SYMANSKI . life Among the Poor in Cairo . UNNI WIKAN , translated by Ann Henning. Women, Work and Property in Northwest India . URSULA SHARMA . The Domestication of Women: Discrimination in Developing Societies . BARBARA ROGERS Economic Optimization in Locational and Transport Analysis . A. G. WILSON , J. D. COELHO , S. M. MACGILL , H. C. W. L. WILLIAMS . New Tools for Economic Development: The Enterprise Zone, Development Bank, and RFC . GEORGE STERNLIEB AND DAVID LISTOKIN , eds. Regional Wage Inflation . R. L. MARTIN , ed. Finding A Place For Energy-Siting Coal Conversion Facilities . FRANK J. CALZONETTI WITH MARK S. ECKERT . Environmental Management, Resources, and Systems Environmentalism. Second Edition . T. O'RIORDAN . Countryside Conservation . BRYN GREEN . Medical Spatial Diffusion: An Historical Geography of Epidemics in an Island Community . A. D. CLIFF , P. HAGGETT , J. K. ORD , AND G. R. VERSEY . Philosophy and Geographic Thought Order and Skepticism: Human Geography and the Dialectic of Science . RICHARD SZYMANSKI AND JOHN A. AGNEW . Measurement of Subjective Phenomena . D. F. JOHNSTON , ed. Conceptions of Space in Social Thought: A Geographic Perspective . ROBERT DAVID SACK . The Association of American Geographers: The First Seventy-five Years: 1904-1979 . PRESTON E. JAMES AND GEOFFREY J. MARTIN . The Life and Thought of Isaiah Bowman . GEOFFREY J. MARTIN . Physical River Basin Planning: Theory and Practice . SURANJIT K. SAHA AND CHRISTOPHER J. BARROW , eds. Soils and landforms: An Integration of Ceomorphology and Pedology . A. I. GERRARD Climatic Change and Society. Consequences of Increasing Atmospheric Carbon Dioxide . WILLIAM W. KELLOGG AND ROBERT SCHWARE . Political Political Redistrictings and Geographic Theory . RICHARD L. MORRILL . Population Studies in Spanish American Population History: Dell Plain Latin American Studies NO. 8 . DAVID J. ROBINSON , ed. Population Redistribution in the Midwest . CURTIS C. ROSEMAN , ANDREW J. SOFRANKO , AND JAMES D. WILLIAMS , eds. Geographical Perspectives on the Elderly . A. M. WARNES , ed. Regional Perspective On the American South . MERLE BLACK AND JOHN SHELTON REED , eds. The Prairies and Plains: Prospects for the 80s . JOHN R. ROGGE , ed. Rural Rural Settlement in an Urban World . MICHAEL BUNCE . Social Accident at Three Mile Island: The Human Dimensions . DAVID L. SILLS , C. P. WOLF , AND VIVIEN B. SHELANSKI , eds. The American Small Town: Twentieth-Century Place Images . JOHN JAKLE . Urban A House of My Own . SUSAN LOBO . The City: Patterns and Processes in the Urban Ecosystem . CHRISTOPHER H. EXLINE , GARY L. PETERS , AND ROBERT P. LARKIN . Movement in Cities . P. W. DANIELS AND A. M. WARNES . Urbanization and Urban Planning in Capitalist Society . MICHAEL DEAR AND ALLEN J. SCOT , eds.     

Human Modification of the Geomorphically Unstable Salt River in Metropolitan Phoenix

In‐stream gravel mining, massive bridge piers, and channelization have all contributed to the geomorphic instability of the Lower Salt River channel in Arizona. Dam closure, changing dam operating rules, and the frequent modification of the channel bed have decreased our ability to predict the Salt River hydrology. Engineering practice has adapted to this situation and to a public that is increasingly intolerant of service disruptions by constructing larger bridges and extending levees. Building these larger structures may be counterproductive; future construction should not constrict the channel and should re‐establish a braided river to decrease the energy available to the system.     

Controlling factors of gullying in the Maracujá Catchment,southeastern Brazil

Hundreds of gullies (‘voçorocas’) of huge dimensions (up to 400–500 m long, 150 m wide and 50 m deep) are very common in the small Maracujá Catchment in southeastern Brazil. These erosional features, which occur with an uneven intensity throughout the area, started due to bad soil management practices at the beginning of European settlement, at the end of the 17th century, and nowadays are still evolving, but at a slower rate. As surface soils are usually very resistant to erosion, the outcrop of the more erodible basement saprolites seems to be an essential condition for their beginning. An analysis of well known erosion controlling factors was performed, aiming to explain the beginning and evolution of these gullies and to understand the reasons for their spatial distribution. Data shows that geology and, mainly, geomorphology are the main controlling factors, since gullies tend to be concentrated in basement rock areas with lower relief (domain 2) of Maracujá Catchment, mainly at the fringes of broad and flat interfluves. At the detailed scale (1:10 000), gullies are more common in amphitheatre‐like headwater hollows that frequently represent upper Quaternary gullies (paleogullies), which demonstrate the recurrence of channel erosion. So, gullies occur in areas of thicker saprolites (domain 2), in places with a natural concentration of surface and underground water (hollows). Saprolites of the preserved, non‐eroded hollows are usually pressurized (confined aquifer) due to a thick seal of Quaternary clay layer, in a similar configuration to the ones found in hollows of mass movement (mudflow) sites in southeastern Brazil. Therefore, the erosion of the resistant soils by human activities, such as road cuts and trenches (‘valos’), or their mobilization by mudflow movements, seem to be likely mechanisms of gullying initiation. Afterwards, gullies evolve by a combination of surface and underground processes, such as wash and tunnel erosion and falls and slumps of gully walls. Copyright © 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.