A quantitative characterization of the seasonal Lagrangian circulation of the Gulf of California from a three-dimensional numerical model

A set of four indices that quantify Lagrangian properties of the Gulf of California seasonal circulation were implemented from outputs of a three-dimensional numerical model. From trajectories of particles seeded over the entire Gulf, we calculated for 12 one-month periods the following indices: net and total distance traveled by the particles, the number of particles that are found within an area centered on the release positions after one month, and time taken by particles to escape from a 50-km-radius circle. These indices can be used for studies on transport of inert properties and passive planktonic organisms such as eggs and early-stage larvae; their use is illustrated for typical summer and winter conditions in the Gulf of California. These indices show the potential for connecting areas separated by a few hundreds of km along the eastern side of the Gulf, due to the strong seasonal up-gulf and down-gulf current. In the Northern Gulf, large displacements occur at the borders of the basin-wide seasonally reversing eddy that dominates the large-scale circulation (cyclonic in summer, anticyclonic in winter). On the other hand, the potential for self-recruitment areas is found as particles can be trapped for longer than one month within these eddies, as well as in smaller ones in the Northern Gulf, and near the coast of the peninsular side of the Southern Gulf, where current speeds are slow and many small capes and islands are present.     

用sPn计算四川省攀枝花地震的震源深度

本文推导了sPn与Pn波走时差与震源深度的方程,方程中sPn与Pn波的走时差与震中距无关,只与震源深度和区域地壳模型有关.根据该方程,提出用sPn与Pn的走时差来测定地震深度.2008年8月30日和8月31日在四川省攀枝花和会理交界处分别发生了Ms6.1、Ms5.6两次地震.但是,在四川省地震台网地震目录中缺少8月30...     

On far field occurrence of seismically induced landslides

Earthquakes may induce landslides at large distances from the epicentral area. In the last two decades, there have been many studies of this phenomenon to determine the causes that contribute to the occurrence of landslides at very long distances from earthquake epicenter. In this study, which is based on previously published works, a worldwide database comprising 270 earthquakes, including 150 during the instrumental period, was compiled to analyse the features of those landslides that occur at much further distances than maximum expected distances. From the analysis of the compiled data, it was observed that susceptible slopes can be grouped into five broad geological categories: jointed rock, marly–clayey (cohesive) soils, granular alluvial and/or colluvial sediments, volcanic soils, and residual soil slopes. These categories were equally likely to be associated with far field disrupted landslides, whereas far field coherent landslides were more frequent on cohesive soil slopes. Other factors, along with slope susceptibility may also contribute to far field landslides and increase the size of the area affected. Among these factors, site effects, antecedent rain and occurrence of seismic series have been cited. The analysis of available data also showed that for events of the same magnitude, far field disrupted landslides may occur at greater distances than coherent ones. The same database has also been employed to determine, for the first time, the upper bound curves for the maximum observed epicentral distances of several types of landslides and the maximum area observed to be affected by landslides, both based on the epicentral intensity of the events.     

珠穆朗玛峰国家自然保护区沼泽湿地提取及其退化风险评价

以珠穆朗玛峰国家自然保护区为研究区域,选取2009年23幅MODIS NDVI影像,采用傅里叶变换的HA-NTS算法去除云干扰,并重构NDVI时间序列图像.(1)根据研究区沼泽湿地与其他地物类型物候特征的差异,利用光谱角制图方法(SAM)获取了研究区2009年沼泽湿地的分布图.研究区沼泽湿地共有2 481.13km2,...     

An energy-based methodology for the assessment of seismic demand

A methodology for the assessment of the seismic energy demands imposed on structures is proposed. The research was carried out through two consecutive phases. Inelastic design input energy spectra for systems with a prescribed displacement ductility ratio were first developed. The study of the inelastic behavior of energy factors and the evaluation of the response modification in comparison with the elastic case were performed by introducing two new parameters, namely: (1) the Response Modification Factor of the earthquake input energy (R_E), representing the ratio of the elastic to inelastic input energy spectral values and (2) the ratio α of the area enclosed by the inelastic input energy spectrum in the range of periods between 0.05 and 4.0 s to the corresponding elastic value. The proposed design inelastic energy spectra, resulting from the study of a large set of strong motion records, were obtained as a function of ductility, soil type, source-to-site distance and magnitude.Subsequently, with reference to single degree of freedom systems, the spectra of the hysteretic to input energy ratio were evaluated, for different soil types and target ductility ratios. These spectra, defined to evaluate the hysteretic energy demand of structures, were described by a piecewise linear idealization that allows to distinguish three distinct regions as a function of the vibration period. In this manner, once the inelastic design input energy spectra were determined, the definition of the energy dissipated by means of inelastic deformations followed directly from the knowledge of hysteretic to input energy ratio.The design spectra of both input energy and hysteretic to input energy ratio were defined considering an elasto-plastic behavior. Nevertheless, other constitutive models were taken into account for comparison purposes.     

Computational and experimental study on performance of sails of a yacht

It is important to understand flow characteristics and performances of sails for both sailors and designers who want to have efficient thrust of yacht. In this paper the viscous flows around sail-like rigid wings, which are similar to main and jib sails of a 30 feet sloop, are calculated using a CFD tool. Lift, drag and thrust forces are estimated for various conditions of gap distance between the two sails and the center of effort of the sail system are obtained. Wind tunnel experiments are also carried out to measure aerodynamic forces acting on the sail system and to validate the computation. It is found that the combination of two sails produces the lift force larger than the sum of that produced separately by each sail and the gap distance between the two sails is an important factor to determine total lift and thrust.     

2011—2016年莱州市海水入侵发展趋势分析

基于莱州市2个海水入侵监测断面2011—2016年的监测数据, 分析了研究区域地下水氯度、海水入侵距离和速率的发展变化趋势, 探讨了海水入侵距离与降水量的关系。分析结果表明: 研究区域2013年地下水氯度最高, 2011—2016年呈现波动变化; 离岸距离与地下水氯度服从幂函数分布,海庙断面海水入侵距离远大于朱旺断面且变化较大, 朱旺断面海水入侵趋势较为稳定; 研究区域2014年海水入侵速度最快, 之后呈减轻趋势, 海水入侵距离与降水量呈现明显的负相关关系, 2014年降水量的急剧减少, 是当年海水入侵严重的主要因素之一。本研究为莱州市防灾减灾管理提供参考依据。     

Region-based classification of PolSAR data using radial basis kernel functions with stochastic distances

Region-based classification of PolSAR data can be effectively performed by seeking for the assignment that minimizes a distance between prototypes and segments. Silva et al. [“Classification of segments in PolSAR imagery by minimum stochastic distances between wishart distributions.” IEEE Journal of Selected Topics in Applied Earth Observations and Remote Sensing 6 (3): 1263–1273] used stochastic distances between complex multivariate Wishart models which, differently from other measures, are computationally tractable. In this work we assess the robustness of such approach with respect to errors in the training stage, and propose an extension that alleviates such problems. We introduce robustness in the process by incorporating a combination of radial basis kernel functions and stochastic distances with Support Vector Machines (SVM). We consider several stochastic distances between Wishart: Bhatacharyya, Kullback-Leibler, Chi-Square, Rényi, and Hellinger. We perform two case studies with PolSAR images, both simulated and from actual sensors, and different classification scenarios to compare the performance of Minimum Distance and SVM classification frameworks. With this, we model the situation of imperfect training samples. We show that SVM with the proposed kernel functions achieves better performance with respect to Minimum Distance, at the expense of more computational resources and the need of parameter tuning. Code and data are provided for reproducibility.     

山东省线状中尺度对流系统与多单体风暴的合并特征

利用济南多普勒天气雷达产品和华北区域雷达拼图等资料,普查了2012—2016年影响山东的线状中尺度对流系统(linear mesoscale convective system,LMCS),分析了LMCS与多单体风暴的合并方式以及合并后的演变趋势等特征,得到如下几条结论:1) LMCS(A)与多单体风暴(B)有A追B,A扩展,A、B相向和B追A四种合并方式; 2) LMCS与多单体风暴合并的临界距离为30 km;3) LMCS与多单体风暴合并后,强度增强或维持,尺度增大,生命史延长,长轴将可能转向; 4) LMCS与多单体风暴合并时,其本身合并部分将减弱,多单体风暴合并进入LMCS,成为LMCS的一部分;5)合并是雷暴的传播运动造成的; 6) 63. 3%的合并案例会产生雷暴大风、冰雹或强降水灾害,雷暴大风灾害出现的概率最大。