SSQ-1 Digital Tape Recording Horizontal Pendulum Tiltmeter

The SSQ-1 Digital Tape Recording Horizontal Pendulum Tiltmeter is an instrument of high sensitivity to detect the changes of ground tilt. It uses a quartz horizontal pendulum held by Z?llner bifilar suspension to sense vertical displacement, the eddy-current transducer on the pendulum converts its displacements into electric signals. Then a microcomputer is used for data acquisition and printing as well as digit tape recording. And at the same time, a filtering pen recorder is used for visible recording. The scale value of the instrument is calibrated by computer using the known tilt angle of the bulging plate — mercury cup. The scale value is 0.3–0.5 m(″)/mV. The following are the testing results for the earth tide observation obtained from the east-west component at Baijiatan Seismic Station, Beijing: r(O₁): 0.6490±0.0179 α(O₁): −3.83°±1.58° r(K₁): 0.8049±0.0128 α(K₁): 1.40°±0.90° r(M₂): 0.6699±0.0040 α(M₂): −0.27°±0.34° r(S₂): 0.7316±0.0075 α(S₂): 2.83°±0.58° r(M₃): 0.8497±0.0964 α(M₃): 1.61°±6.51° The Chinese version of this paper appeared in the Chinese edition ofActa Seismologica Sinica,15, 353–359, 1993. In this work also participated Mr. Huai-Wen PAN and Wei-Jin ZHANG. And we here give special thanks to Yun-Zao XI, Qin-Wen XI, Bo-Xong TANG, Yi-Hui CHEN and An-Xu WU for their kind help in the development and test of the instrument. This paper is translated by Mr. Zhong ZHENG.     

Revising the paradigm of tidal analysis – the uses of non-stationary data

Surface elevation and current records contain non-tidal variance, often dismissed as noise. The processes responsible for the non-tidal component may also modulate the tidal signal, altering its strength and frequency structure. Because of their manner of generation and propagation, internal tides are inherently irregular. The non-stationary character of these and other tidal processes provides an integral and useful property of tidal records, because it provides an opportunity to obtain insights into tidal dynamics and the interaction of tidal and non-tidal processes. It is, moreover, productive to use multiple approaches in analyzing coastal and estuarine tidal processes so that both the time-varying and average frequency content are determined. Only by confronting the causes of non-stationary behaviour in this way can some of the remaining challenges in tidal analysis and prediction be overcome, e.g. shelf and estuarine currents, river tides, internal tides, tide-surge interactions and tidally influenced ecological processes. Several examples illustrate the utility of non-stationary tidal analysis methods.Responsible Editor: Jens Kappenberg     

Lithospheric Tidal Effects from Observations in Deep Wells

A number of deep and superdeep wells have been drilled in Russia. The wells where all drilling activities have been finished, but the research activities still continue, are of a great scientific and practical interest for studying the present-day geological processes taking place in the Earth's interior. Vorotilovo deep well (VDW), drilled in a central part of Russian platform, is one of those wells-geolaboratories. The depth of the well is 5374 m, the temperature at the bottom is 95°C, open borehole in the range 689–5374 m.As a result of geophysical fields monitoring, the complex nature of spatio-temporal variations that depend on the influence of various natural factors was determined in the VDW.Lunar tides are one of the important factors that define the geophysical fields' variations in the VDW. The relation between temperature variations in the VDW and the tide (monthly) phase is detected. The dependence of such influence on the depth of measurement agrees with the model of 'layered' Earth where every layer has a particular response on tidal force.The continuation of the measurements, improvement of data analyses methods and extension of collaboration of specialists from different branches of science, are required in order to obtain more exact results and improve their interpretation.     

Analysis of gravity waves in the tropical middle atmosphere over La Reunion Island (21°S, 55°E) with lidar using wavelet techniques

The capabilities of the continuous wavelet transform (CWT) and the multiresolution analysis (MRA) are presented in this work to measure vertical gravity wave characteristics. Wave properties are extracted from the first data set of Rayleigh lidar obtained between heights of 30 km and 60 km over La Reunion Island (21°S, 55°E) during the Austral winter in 1994 under subtropical conditions. The altitude-wavelength representations deduced from these methods provide information on the time and spatial evolution of the wave parameters of the observed dominant modes in vertical profiles such as the vertical wavelengths, the vertical phase speeds, the amplitudes of temperature perturbations and the distribution of wave energy. The spectra derived from measurements show the presence of localized quasi-monochromatic structures with vertical wavelengths <10 km. Three methods based on the wavelet techniques show evidence of a downward phase progression. A first climatology of the dominant modes observed during the Austral winter period reveals a dominant night activity of 2 or 3 quasi-monochromatic structures with vertical wavelengths between 1/2 km from the stratopause, 3/4 km and 6/10 km observed between heights of 30 km and 60 km. In addition, it reveals a dominant activity of modes with a vertical phase speed of –0.3 m/s and observed periods peaking at 3/4 h and 9 h. The characteristics of averaged vertical wavelengths appear to be similar to those observed during winter in the southern equatorial region and in the Northern Hemisphere at mid-latitudes.     

Surface Ice Flow Velocity and Tide Retrieval of the Amery Ice Shelf using Precise Point Positioning

Five days of continuous GPS observation data were collected in the frontal zone of the Amery ice shelf and subsequently post-processed using precise point position (PPP) technology based on precise orbit and clock products from the International GNSS service. The surface ice flow velocity of the observed point was derived from PPP to be 2.25 m/day toward the northeast with an azimuth of 41°. Major semi-diurnal and diurnal oceanic tide constituents could be recovered from the 5 days of PPP-derived height variations and compared well with a hydrodynamic ocean tide model. The PPP technique can replace double-difference GPS positioning in remote or hostile environments, and be used to retrieve the surface ice flow velocity without any reference station. Furthermore, the solution can be derived epoch-by-epoch with accuracy in the centimeters to decimeter range.     

辽宁深井承压水位潮汐响应函数的初步研究

介绍了辽宁省地震水动态监测网19口井固体潮汐响应函数的计算结果,基于M2波潮汐因子及其月离散相对误差,分析了各观测井潮汐响应函数对地壳应变的响应灵敏度、潮汐因子的动态稳定性和监测效能。结果表明:在所列19口观测井中,如果以M2波潮汐因子0.2m/10-9作为潮汐响应幅值的下限,则除甘沟子以外的18口井可用于潮汐响应函数的研究;如果以M2波潮汐因子的月离散相对误差20%作为选择观测井的上限,则除瓦房店楼房井、岫岩1井、周家井、丹东变电所井、牛四井、容2井和阜新市甘沟子等井以外的12口井可用于潮汐参数的动态特征研究。     

东经120°E中间层和低热层大气潮汐及其季节变化特征

利用为期一年的卫星遥感温度（SABER/TIMED）资料重建了120°E子午圈内中间层和低热层大气潮汐各主要频率分量（周日、半日和8小时潮汐）.这些主要频率分量随高度振幅增大，在97 km高度达到显著的振幅；其中迁移性周日潮汐在97 km高度出现极大振幅，然后随高度衰减.本文从考察迁移性成分和非迁移性成分各自在总潮汐中贡献角度出发，着重讨论了那些对形成该子午圈中97 km高度上整体潮汐扰动起控制作用的潮汐成分.结果显示，对周日和半日频率这两种潮汐而言，迁移性成分控制了它们的总体时空分布.在春分季节，迁移性周日潮的控制作用最显著，决定了赤道和两半球热带的活动中心；其中北半球副热带地区的季节变化形势与以往利用武汉（30°N，114°E）流星雷达风测量资料开展分析得到的结果是一致的；其他季节受非迁移性成分明显影响，例如，在本文关注的2005年中，夏至季节受（1，0）模、（1，-3）模和（1，-2）模的共同影响形成了从赤道向南延伸的活动中心，极值中心位于赤道附近，振幅达到了20 K以上，是全年的最大值.受迁移性成分控制，半日潮活动主要出现在两半球热带地区，北半球活动中心位于秋分季节（振幅达到13 K），南半球活动中心位于春分和夏至之间.其他季节受非迁移成分的影响，形成若干分布在两半球的活动中心.在本文关注的40°S～40°N范围内，与周日潮和半日潮相比，8小时潮汐具有显著较低的振幅；另外，虽然迁移性成分在一年中的大部分时间系统地分布在两半球热带地区，但是非迁移成分具有与迁移性成分相当或更大的振幅，在整体上控制了这种潮汐的时空分布.     

Diurnal atmospheric forcing and temporal variations of the nutation amplitudes

A 29-year time-series of four-times-daily atmospheric effective angular momentum (EAM) estimates is used to study the atmospheric influence on nutation. The most important atmospheric contributions are found for the prograde annual (77 μas), retrograde annual (53 as), prograde semiannual (45 as), and for the constant offset of the pole (δψsinɛ₀=−86 as, δɛ=77 as). Among them only the prograde semiannual component is driven mostly by the wind term of the EAM function, while in all other cases the pressure term is dominant. These are nonnegligible quantities which should be taken into account in the new theory of nutation. Comparison with the VLBI corrections to the IAU 1980 nutation model taking into account the ocean tide contribution yields good agreement for the prograde annual and semiannual nutations. We also investigated time variability of the atmospheric contribution to the nutation amplitudes by performing the sliding-window least-squares analysis of both the atmospheric excitation and VLBI nutation data. Almost all detected variations of atmospheric origin can be attributed to the pressure term, the biggest being the in-phase annual prograde component (about 30 as) and the retrograde one (as much as 100200 as). These variations, if physical, limit the precision of classical modeling of nutation to the level of 0.1 mas. Comparison with the VLBI data shows significant correlation for the retrograde annual nutation after 1989, while for the prograde annual term there is a high correlation in shape but the size of the atmospherically driven variations is about three times less than deduced from the VLBI data. This discrepancy in size can be attributed either to inaccuracy of the theoretical transfer function or the frequency-dependent ocean response to the pressure variations. Our comparison also yields a considerably better agreement with the VLBI nutation data when using the EAM function without the IB correction for ocean response, which indicates that this correction is not adequate for nearly diurnal variations. Received: 10 September 1997 / Accepted: 5 March 1998     

Incoherent scatter radar observations of AGW/TID events generated by the moving solar terminator

Observations of traveling ionospheric disturbances (TIDs) associated with atmospheric gravity waves (AGWs) generated by the moving solar terminator have been made with the Millstone Hill incoherent scatter radar. Three experiments near 1995 fall equinox measured the AGW/TID velocity and direction of motion. Spectral and cross-correlation analysis of the ionospheric density observations indicates that ST-generated AGWs/TIDs were observed during each experiment, with the more-pronounced effect occurring at sunrise. The strongest oscillations in the ionospheric parameters have periods of 1.5 to 2 hours. The group and phase velocities have been determined and show that the disturbances propagate in the horizontal plane perpendicular to the terminator with the group velocity of 300–400 m s^–1 that corresponds to the ST speed at ionospheric heights. The high horizontal group velocity seems to contradict the accepted theory of AGW/TID propagation and indicates a need for additional investigation.