Triggered-lightning properties inferred from measured currents and very close electric fields

Triggered-lightning properties, including dart-leader charge density, return-stroke propagation speed, dart-leader electric potential, dart-leader propagation speed, and dart-leader current, inferred from return-stroke current and very close electric field measurements, are presented. Although most of the estimates are based on relatively crude models, they are all generally in good agreement with independent measurements and/or theoretical considerations found in the literature. The results are likely to be applicable to subsequent strokes in natural lightning.     

Simulated effect of a forest road on near‐surface hydrologic response: redux

In the work reported here the comprehensive physics‐based Integrated Hydrology Model (InHM) was employed to conduct both three‐ and two‐dimensional (3D and 2D) hydrologic‐response simulations for the small upland catchment known as C3 (located within the H. J. Andrews Experimental Forest in Oregon). Results from the 3D simulations for the steep unchannelled C3 (i) identify subsurface stormflow as the dominant hydrologic‐response mechanism and (ii) show the effect of the down‐gradient forest road on both the surface and subsurface flow systems. Comparison of the 3D results with the 2D results clearly illustrates the importance of convergent subsurface flow (e.g. greater pore‐water pressures in the hollow of the catchment for the 3D scenario). A simple infinite‐slope model, driven by subsurface pore‐water pressures generated from the 3D and 2D hydrologic‐response simulations, was employed to estimate slope stability along the long‐profile of the C3 hollow axis. As expected, the likelihood of slope failure is underestimated for the lower pore pressures from the 2D hydrologic‐response simulation compared, in a relative sense, to the higher pore pressures from the 3D hydrologic response simulation. The effort reported herein provides a firm quantitative foundation for generalizing the effects that forest roads can have on near‐surface hydrologic response and slope stability at the catchment scale. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Long‐term landscape evolution: linking tectonics and surface processes

Research in landscape evolution over millions to tens of millions of years slowed considerably in the mid‐20th century, when Davisian and other approaches to geomorphology were replaced by functional, morphometric and ultimately process‐based approaches. Hack's scheme of dynamic equilibrium in landscape evolution was perhaps the major theoretical contribution to long‐term landscape evolution between the 1950s and about 1990, but it essentially ‘looked back’ to Davis for its springboard to a viewpoint contrary to that of Davis, as did less widely known schemes, such as Crickmay's hypothesis of unequal activity. Since about 1990, the field of long‐term landscape evolution has blossomed again, stimulated by the plate tectonics revolution and its re‐forging of the link between tectonics and topography, and by the development of numerical models that explore the links between tectonic processes and surface processes. This numerical modelling of landscape evolution has been built around formulation of bedrock river processes and slope processes, and has mostly focused on high‐elevation passive continental margins and convergent zones; these models now routinely include flexural and denudational isostasy. Major breakthroughs in analytical and geochronological techniques have been of profound relevance to all of the above. Low‐temperature thermochronology, and in particular apatite fission track analysis and (U–Th)/He analysis in apatite, have enabled rates of rock uplift and denudational exhumation from relatively shallow crustal depths (up to about 4 km) to be determined directly from, in effect, rock hand specimens. In a few situations, (U–Th)/He analysis has been used to determine the antiquity of major, long‐wavelength topography. Cosmogenic isotope analysis has enabled the determination of the ‘ages’ of bedrock and sedimentary surfaces, and/or the rates of denudation of these surfaces. These latter advances represent in some ways a ‘holy grail’ in geomorphology in that they enable determination of ‘dates and rates’ of geomorphological processes directly from rock surfaces. The increasing availability of analytical techniques such as cosmogenic isotope analysis should mean that much larger data sets become possible and lead to more sophisticated analyses, such as probability density functions (PDFs) of cosmogenic ages and even of cosmogenic isotope concentrations (CICs). PDFs of isotope concentrations must be a function of catchment area geomorphology (including tectonics) and it is at least theoretically possible to infer aspects of source area geomorphology and geomorphological processes from PDFs of CICs in sediments (‘detrital CICs’). Thus it may be possible to use PDFs of detrital CICs in basin sediments as a tool to infer aspects of the sediments' source area geomorphology and tectonics, complementing the standard sedimentological textural and compositional approaches to such issues. One of the most stimulating of recent conceptual advances has followed the considerations of the relationships between tectonics, climate and surface processes and especially the recognition of the importance of denudational isostasy in driving rock uplift (i.e. in driving tectonics and crustal processes). Attention has been focused very directly on surface processes and on the ways in which they may ‘drive’ rock uplift and thus even influence sub‐surface crustal conditions, such as pressure and temperature. Consequently, the broader geoscience communities are looking to geomorphologists to provide more detailed information on rates and processes of bedrock channel incision, as well as on catchment responses to such bedrock channel processes. More sophisticated numerical models of processes in bedrock channels and on their flanking hillslopes are required. In current numerical models of long‐term evolution of hillslopes and interfluves, for example, the simple dependency on slope of both the fluvial and hillslope components of these models means that a Davisian‐type of landscape evolution characterized by slope lowering is inevitably ‘confirmed’ by the models. In numerical modelling, the next advances will require better parameterized algorithms for hillslope processes, and more sophisticated formulations of bedrock channel incision processes, incorporating, for example, the effects of sediment shielding of the bed. Such increasing sophistication must be matched by careful assessment and testing of model outputs using pre‐established criteria and tests. Confirmation by these more sophisticated Davisian‐type numerical models of slope lowering under conditions of tectonic stability (no active rock uplift), and of constant slope angle and steady‐state landscape under conditions of ongoing rock uplift, will indicate that the Davis and Hack models are not mutually exclusive. A Hack‐type model (or a variant of it, incorporating slope adjustment to rock strength rather than to regolith strength) will apply to active settings where there is sufficient stream power and/or sediment flux for channels to incise at the rate of rock uplift. Post‐orogenic settings of decreased (or zero) active rock uplift would be characterized by a Davisian scheme of declining slope angles and non‐steady‐state (or transient) landscapes. Such post‐orogenic landscapes deserve much more attention than they have received of late, not least because the intriguing questions they pose about the preservation of ancient landscapes were hinted at in passing in the 1960s and have recently re‐surfaced. As we begin to ask again some of the grand questions that lay at the heart of geomorphology in its earliest days, large‐scale geomorphology is on the threshold of another ‘golden’ era to match that of the first half of the 20th century, when cyclical approaches underpinned virtually all geomorphological work. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

山东省飞机增雨天气系统云水资源转化特征分析

利用水汽辐合法和水汽凝结法，对山东省1997－1999年春秋季18个降水过程的水汽辐合率、凝结率及降水效率等表征云水资源及其转化的特征量进行计算。分析了南方气旋、西北冷锋等主要降水天气系统以上特征量的地域分布和差别。可为人工增雨作业区域选择和航线设计提供气候背景。     

遥感和GIS技术在全球海面风速分析中的应用

将遥感技术和地理信息系统（GIS）技术相结合，建立了一个基于TOPEX卫星的全球海面风速分析的海洋地理信息系统（MGIS）。阐述了全球海面风速分析模型的建立方法，定义了描述风场特征的相关参数，介绍了全球海面风速海洋地理信息系统的结构、功能和工作流程，另外，对系统的3个应用实例进行了地学分析。     

上海市磁悬浮轨道交通线工程岩土工程概况

文章概述了上海市磁县浮轨道交通工程，并对工程沿线的岩土工程特性作了简要的分析评价。     

利用遥感技术监测船舶航速的方法研究

主要讨论了两种利用遥感技术提取水面运动船舶的航速方法：利用波高谱信息提取航速和利用船尾迹中的横波信息提取航速。作者介绍了这两种方法的原理，描述了利用遥感技术提取船舶航速的工作流程，并利用模拟和实测的船尾迹波高数据对这两种方法进行了验证。从计算结果看，两种方法精度都能满足仅要求航速量级的需求者，利用波高谱信息的方法误差（10％左右）小于利用横波信息的方法误差（20％左右）。该项研究为实时或近实时探测运动船舶航速提供了新的方法。     

盆地超压层段非幕式突破期的地热场模型数值解法

盆地超压层段的地热场模拟对超压成因研究及油气生成，排放机理分析有重要意义，但求解超压层段的热传递方程的数值解法至今仍没有被很好地解决，问题的关键在于确定超压流体速度场，由于超压流体发生幕式突破之前的排出速率极低，其速度场v=vxi vzk近似满足条件Эux/Эx Эuz/Эz＝0，可将其近似地视为稳定的不可压缩的无源流体，利用这一条件及相应的边界压力条件，可使整个计算过程得到简化，在此基础上所建立的地热场模型有限元数值解法和模拟软件，能够实现对含油气盆地在幕式突破之前的超压层段地热场进行动态模拟。     

我国航空客流网络发展及其地域系统研究

“极化”效应是高速交通网络引导客货流演进的空间表象,由此导致空间作用关系的变化和空间结构的演化。轴心—附属式的“轴—辐”空间模式已经成为航空客流网络发展的基本模式。本文以航空客流为分析对象,探讨了我国城市间的相互作用特征,以及高速运输网络发展的社会经济意义。结果表明,我国大陆航空客流的网络体系形成了明显的地域分异现象,产生了以三个一级枢纽为核心的“轴—辐”系统,即北京、广州和上海系统,以及两个相对独立的次级系统——乌鲁木齐和昆明系统;航空客流存在显著的距离衰减规律,绝大部分客流发生的距离在2400km之内;超大城市是航空客流的集聚地,以其为枢纽的航空网络的合理组织具有重大的社会经济意义     

试析台湾高速铁路的规划建设

高速铁路的规划建设是台湾地区至今单项投资和规模最大的公共工程。采用了与以往不同的融资模式。当局的意图在于，适应岛上西线铁路客运不断增长的需求，追赶国际上铁路运输技术现代化的先进水平，同时扩大内需市场，激活重心所在的西部走廊经济的进一步发展。在一个地域配置布局高速铁路运输生产力，要求区域有发达的经济、客运量大的市际高速客运和铁路客货分流任务、新线沿路网已形成的既有铁路线方向修筑等背景条件。有别于一般陆运线路。台湾在具备这些背景条件下规划建设高铁。它在背景时机条件的选择、技术适用性的论证，以及新融资模式的采用各方面，提供了有益的经验和借鉴。本文的分析论证提供了一个认识世界铁路运输新发展的案例。