Geometry and accuracy of reflecting points in bistatic satellite altimetry

The analysis of the time and space distribution of specular (reflecting) points in bistatic altimetry between GPS and CHAMP satellites or SAC-C (taken as examples) is extended from Wagner and Klokočník (2003 J. Geod 77: 128–138). We demonstrate a significantly higher number and density of reflecting points in bistatic altimetry in comparison with traditional monostatic altimetry. After an outline of our older accuracy assessment for the vertical position of the reflecting point, we add a new independent derivation and compare both approaches. We account for orbit errors of both the transmitters (GPS) and receiver (CHAMP) satellites, and the measurement (delay) error. We found that the accuracy of the vertical position of the reflecting point decreases only slowly with increasing off-nadir angle and that the orbit errors must be accounted for if decimeter and better accuracy is required. In this paper, we do not study errors such as state of the ocean, technical parameters of the receiving system, and atmospheric corrections.     

Low-low satellite-to-satellite tracking: a comparison between analytical linear orbit perturbation theory and numerical integration

Low-low satellite-to-satellite tracking (ll-SST) range-rate observations have been predicted by two methods: one based on a linear perturbation theory in combination with the Hill equations, and one based on solving the equations of motion of two low-flying satellites by numerical integration. The two methods produce almost equivalent Fourier spectra of the range-rate observations after properly taking into account a few resonant terms. For a typical GRACE-type configuration, where the two satellites trail each other at a distance of 300 km at an altitude of 460 km, and in the presence of the EGM96 gravity field model, complete to spherical harmonic degree and order 70, the agreement between the Fourier spectra is about 1 mm/s compared to a root-mean-square (RMS) value of more than 220 mm/s for the range-rate signal. The discrepancy of 1 mm/s can be reduced significantly when not taking into account perturbations caused by the J₂ term. Excluding the J₂ term, the agreement between the two methods improves to 0.4 mm/s compared to a RMS value of 6 mm/s for the range-rate signal. These values are 0.01 and 2.3 mm/s when ignoring the spectrum for frequencies below two cycles per orbital revolution, reducing the discrepancy even further to about 0.5% of the signal. The selected linear perturbation theory is thus capable of modeling gravity field induced range-rate observations with very high precision for a large part of the spectrum.     

Outlier detection algorithms and their performance in GOCE gravity field processing

The satellite missions CHAMP, GRACE, and GOCE mark the beginning of a new era in gravity field determination and modeling. They provide unique models of the global stationary gravity field and its variation in time. Due to inevitable measurement errors, sophisticated pre-processing steps have to be applied before further use of the satellite measurements. In the framework of the GOCE mission, this includes outlier detection, absolute calibration and validation of the SGG (satellite gravity gradiometry) measurements, and removal of temporal effects. In general, outliers are defined as observations that appear to be inconsistent with the remainder of the data set. One goal is to evaluate the effect of additive, innovative and bulk outliers on the estimates of the spherical harmonic coefficients. It can be shown that even a small number of undetected outliers (<0.2 of all data points) can have an adverse effect on the coefficient estimates. Consequently, concepts for the identification and removal of outliers have to be developed. Novel outlier detection algorithms are derived and statistical methods are presented that may be used for this purpose. The methods aim at high outlier identification rates as well as small failure rates. A combined algorithm, based on wavelets and a statistical method, shows best performance with an identification rate of about 99%. To further reduce the influence of undetected outliers, an outlier detection algorithm is implemented inside the gravity field solver (the Quick-Look Gravity Field Analysis tool was used). This results in spherical harmonic coefficient estimates that are of similar quality to those obtained without outliers in the input data.     

World-wide synthetic tide parameters for gravity and vertical and horizontal displacements

The response of the Earth’s crust to the direct effect of lunisolar gravitational forcing is known as the body tide. The body tide is superimposed by surface-loading forces due to the pressure of the periodically varying ocean tide acting on the Earth, called ocean tide loading (OTL). Both body tide and OTL can be decomposed into components of the same frequency known as tidal parameters. However, OTL is more complicated than body tides because of the dynamic effects of the ocean. Estimating OTL requires a model of the ocean tides and knowledge of the elastic properties of the solid Earth. Thus, synthetic tide parameters (amplitude factors and phase leads) have been developed here on a world-wide grid for gravity and positional displacements. The body tide contributions were added to the oceanic contribution to provide the Earth tide response. The accuracy and reliability of the synthetic tidal parameters have been estimated by comparing observed gravity and vertical-displacement tide parameters with those interpolated from our synthetic model, which shows good agreement. Tests also indicate that the synthetic tide parameters provide realistic gravimetric and displacements for practical use in tidal prediction.     

淮河流域土壤湿度异常的时空分布特征及其与气候异常关系的初步研究

利用中国东部1990~2000年旬平均土壤湿度、降水和气温观测资料，通过对0~50 cm层次土壤湿度进行旋转主分量分析 (REOF)，重点分析了淮河流域土壤湿度的时空分布特征, 并初步研究了土壤湿度与前期、同期和后期不同时段降水与气温的关系。发现春季以30 cm为界，30 cm以上各层土壤湿度异常的第一旋转空间模态十分相似, 其大值中心主要位于淮河流域，而30 cm以下 (30~50 cm) 各层的第二旋转空间模态与之亦十分类似, 因此称该模态为“淮河型”，而夏季和秋季虽然该模态也很显著, 但特征不如春季突出。该模态在各层次土壤中具有明显的持续性特征，均存在40旬左右的显著周期；并与前期和同期降水（气温）呈显著正 (负) 相关关系，与约半年后的降水 (气温) 呈负 (正) 相关关系。     

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     

波包传播诊断的理论基础和计算方法

文中提出了一种新的利用实际观测资料研究波包传播的诊断方法 (WPD) ,并通过理想资料和实际资料的计算证明了该方法的可用性和广泛性     

近百年中国东部夏季降水的时空变率

利用中国东部25°N以北28个站1880-1999年夏季季降水序列,用旋转复经验正交函数（RCEOF）方法,研究了中国东部地区百年干湿的时空演变规律。结果表明,夏季降水空间变率大值区依次为:长江中下游地区、淮河流域、江南、华北、西南及东北。除西南外的5个关键区大体上反映了从6月到8月夏季雨带自南向北椎进所滞留的地区。旋转空间位相分布揭示了长江中下游地区、江南、东北的旱涝异常主要表现为驻波振动特征;而淮河流域、华北、西南地区显示出降水异常信号具有部分的行波特征。尤其第4空间模显示出旱涝异常信号从东北南部可沿着黄淮下游传到长江下游地区。对于近百年中国东部地区夏季于湿变化,长江中下游地区、淮河流域、华北及东北四个地区都存在20-25年时间尺度的周期振荡;长江中下游地区及华北地区都存在准60年时间尺度的振荡周期;东北地区主要表现出36年时间尺度的振荡周期;淮河流域存在明显的70-80年时间尺度的振荡周期;华北地区存在的11年时间尺度的振荡周期恰好与太阳黑子活动的11年周期相一致。在年代际时间尺度（包括次年代际时间尺度）上,长江中下游、淮河流域及华北地区的夏季降水的变化与太阳活动有显著的正相关。     

当代气候研究计划

就气候系统问题，国际上与气候及其变化有关的重要科学计划、尤其是气候变化及可预报性研究（CLIVAR）计划，作了简要介绍，同时还就气候预测问题作了讨论。     

暴雨时程方程在中吉乌铁路(中国段)暴雨估算中的应用

根据中吉乌铁路（中国段）沿线10多个气象水文观测站40多年（建站至2000年）各历时最大降水量资料，对中吉乌铁路（中国段）暴雨强度进行系统的研究。应用熵气象学导出的暴雨时程方程，预测了中吉乌铁路（中国段）各历时最大降水量。这对于中吉乌铁路（中国段）工程设计和施工及未来铁路客运等具有重要的科学意义和工程价值。