Ratios of stable carbon isotopes in some High Arctic plants and lake sediments

¹³C/¹²C ratios for a number of High Arctic vascular plants (51 determinations), mosses (11), and freshwater algae (11) show considerable variation, particularly among the freshwater algae (range from-6.9 to -36.3). In some cases the stable carbon ratios on modern and fossil materials provide guidance as to whether marine waters formerly occupied a given pond or lake basin. In other cases the ¹³C values for algae collected along the present-day shore of a pond or lake bear no relation to the values obtained on constituents preserved within the bottom sediments, suggesting that major changes have occurred in the last few thousand years.Geological Survey of Canada Contribution No. 17291. Contribution No. 41 from the Cape Herschel Project.     

Permanent Scatterers for landslide investigations: outcomes from the ESA-SLAM project

Within the SLAM project (Service for Landslide Monitoring), launched in 2003 by the European Space Agency (ESA) the Permanent Scatterers (PS) technique, a multi-image interferometric approach, coupled with the interpretation of aerial-photos and optical satellite images, was carried out for landslide investigations. The PS analysis was applied at a regional scale as support for landslide inventory mapping and at local scale for the monitoring of single well-known slope movements. For the integration of the PS measurements within a landslide inventory the Arno river basin (Italy) was chosen as test site for the presence of a high number of mass movements (to date about 300 areas at high landslide risk and more than 27,000 individual landslides mapped by the institutional authorities). About 350 SAR images have been interferometrically processed by means of the PS technique, with the detection of about 600,000 PS. The use of optical images contributed spatial meaning to the point-wise information provided by the PS, making it easier to identify terrain features related to slope instability and the landslide boundaries. Here we describe the employed methodology and its impact in the updating of a preexisting landslide inventory. 6.8% of the total number of landslides were characterized by ground displacement measurements from the PS: 6.1% of already mapped landslides and 0.8% of new unstable areas detected through the PS analysis. Moreover, most of the PS are located in urban areas, showing that the proposed methodology is suitable for landslide mapping in areas with a quite high density of urbanization, but that over vegetated areas it still suffers from the limitations induced by the current space-borne SAR missions (e.g. temporal de-correlation). On the other hand, the use of InSAR for the monitoring of single slow landslides threatening built-up areas has provided satisfactory results, allowing the measurement of superficial deformations with high accuracy on the landslide sectors characterized by a good radar reflectivity and coherence.     

On global forces of nature driving the Earth’s climate. Are humans involved?

The authors identify and describe the following global forces of nature driving the Earth’s climate: (1) solar radiation as a dominant external energy supplier to the Earth, (2) outgassing as a major supplier of gases to the World Ocean and the atmosphere, and, possibly, (3) microbial activities generating and consuming atmospheric gases at the interface of lithosphere and atmosphere. The writers provide quantitative estimates of the scope and extent of their corresponding effects on the Earth’s climate. Quantitative comparison of the scope and extent of the forces of nature and anthropogenic influences on the Earth’s climate is especially important at the time of broad-scale public debates on current global warming. The writers show that the human-induced climatic changes are negligible.     

Energy transfer among Pb, Ce and Mn in fluorescent calcite from Kuerle, Xinjiang, China

Natural calcite from Kuerle, Xinjiang, China, shows orange-red fluorescence when exposed to short-wave ultraviolet (UV) light (Hg 253.7 nm). Photoluminescence (PL) emission and excitation spectra of the calcite are observed at room temperature in detail. The PL emission spectrum under 208 nm excitation consists of three bands: two UV bands at 325 and 355 nm and an orange-red band at 620 nm. The three bands are ascribed to Pb²⁺, Ce³⁺ and Mn²⁺, respectively, as activators. The Pb²⁺ excitation band is observed at 243 nm, and the Ce³⁺ excitation band at 295 nm. The Pb²⁺ excitation band is also observed by monitoring the Ce³⁺ fluorescence, and the Pb²⁺ and Ce³⁺ excitation bands, in addition to six Mn²⁺ excitation bands, are also observed by monitoring the Mn²⁺ fluorescence. These indicate that four types of the energy transfer can occur in calcite through the following processes: (1) Pb²⁺ → Ce³⁺, (2) Pb²⁺ → Mn²⁺, (3) Ce³⁺ → Mn²⁺ and (4) Pb²⁺ → Ce³⁺ → Mn²⁺.     

Synchrotron IR study of hydrous ringwoodite (γ-Mg2SiO4) up to 30 GPa

High-pressure synchrotron infrared (IR) absorption spectra were collected between 650 and 4,000 cm⁻¹ at ambient temperature for hydrous Mg-ringwoodite (γ-Mg₂SiO₄) up to 30 GPa. The main feature in the OH⁻ stretching region is an extremely broad band centred at 3,150 cm⁻¹. The hydrogen bond is strong for most protons and the most probable site for protonation is the tetrahedral edge. With increasing pressure, this band shifts downward while decreasing its integrated intensity until disappearance at a pressure of 25 GPa. Only one band at 2,450 cm⁻¹ and an absorption plateau persist with a maximum wavenumber of 3,800 cm⁻¹. This behaviour is reversible upon pressure release. We interpret this as a second-order phase transition occurring in hydrated Mg-ringwoodite at high pressure (beyond ∼ 25 GPa). This result is compatible with the observation by Kleppe et al. (Phys Chem Miner 29:473–476, 2002a) who suggested the presence of Si–O–Si linkages and/or partial increase in the coordination of Si. Beyond the phase transition, the protons are delocalized and their environment on the ringwoodite structure is probably quite different from that at low pressure. Data obtained in situ at high pressures and temperatures are needed to better understand the effect of protonation on the structure and to better constrain this phase transition.     

夏季青藏高原加热和北半球环流年际变化的相关分析

利用 195 8～ 1997年NCEP/NCAR再分析数据集中加热率和环流资料 ,采用相关分析和对比分析相结合的方法 ,诊断和分析了夏季青藏高原的非绝热加热与北半球环流系统的年际变化的联系。分析结果表明 :夏季青藏高原的加热强 (弱 )的年份 ,高原及邻近地区的上升运动、下层辐合及上层辐散均增强 (减弱 ) ,使高原加热对周边地区低层暖湿空气的抽吸效应和对高层大气向周边地区的排放作用加强 (减弱 )。从而影响着高原和周边地区的环流以及亚洲季风区大尺度环流系统。而且高原的加热强迫能够激发产生一支沿亚欧大陆东部海岸向东北方向传播的Rossby波列 ,其频散效应可影响到更远的东太平洋以至北美地区的大气环流     

冷暖事件对大气能量循环和纬向平均环流影响的模拟研究

利用中国科学院大气物理研究所大气科学与地球流体力学数值模拟国家重点实验室新发展的GOALS 5全球海 陆 气耦合模式研究了暖事件 (ElNi no)和冷事件 (LaNina)对大气能量循环和纬向平均环流的影响 ,并用观测资料进行了对比分析。结果表明 :对于纬向平均资料来说 ,冷、暖事件在热带和副热带地区的大气环流相关量的反相变化特征非常清晰 ,中高纬度地区并不明显。此外 ,还发现 ,暖事件时定常涡动的经向热通量的变化是北半球对流层热带外地区温度异常的主要原因 ,而瞬变波的影响则起抵消作用。冷事件时定常波和瞬变波相互抵消的局地特征也依然存在 ,但瞬变波的影响有所增强。     

青藏高原地面-对流层系统的能量收支

利用CCM3中的辐射模式CRM，计算了1月和7月地－气系统、地面－对流层系统和地面辐射能收支，研究了青藏高原地面－对流层系统辐射能收支的冬、夏季节特征及其与地面和地－气系统辐射能收支的关系，并与东部平原地区和高原北侧干旱地区比较。文中还讨论了云和高原冬季地面积雪对辐射能收支的影响，比较了大气辐射加热和地面感热通量对夏季高原对流层大气加热的贡献。     

Electrical aerosol spectrometer of Tartu University

The electrical aerosol spectrometer (EAS) of the parallel measuring principle at Tartu University is an efficient instrument for rapid measurement of the unstable size spectrum of aerosol particles. The measuring range from 10 nm to 10 μm is achieved by simultaneously using a pair of differential mobility analyzers with two different particle chargers. The particle spectrum is calculated and measurement errors are estimated in real time by using a least-squares method. Experimental calibration ensures reliability of measurement. The instrument is well suited for continuous monitoring of atmospheric aerosol.