Assessing the Comparability of Ammonium,Nitrate and Sulfate Concentrations Measured by Three Air Quality Monitoring Networks

Airborne fine particulate matter across the United States is monitored by different networks, the three prevalent ones presently being the Clean Air Status and Trend Network (CASTNet), the Interagency Monitoring of PROtected Visual Environment Network (IMPROVE) and the Speciation and Trend Network (STN). If combined, these three networks provide speciated fine particulate data at several hundred locations throughout the United States. Yet, differences in sampling protocols and samples handling may not allow their joint use. With these concerns in mind, the objective of this study is to assess the spatial and temporal comparability of the sulfate, nitrate and ammonium concentrations reported by each of these networks. One of the major differences between networks is the sampling frequency they adopted. While CASTNet measures pollution levels on seven-day integrated samples, STN and IMPROVE data pertain to 24-hour samples collected every three days. STN and IMPROVE data therefore exhibit considerably more short-term variability than their CASTNet counterpart. We show that, despite their apparent incongruity, averaging the data with a window size of four to six weeks is sufficient to remove the effects of differences in sampling frequency and duration and allow meaningful comparison of the signals reported by the three networks of concern. After averaging, all the sulfate and, to a lesser degree, ammonium concentrations reported are fairly similar. Nitrate concentrations, on the other hand, are still divergent. We speculate that this divergence originates from the different types of filters used to collect particulate nitrate. Finally, using a rotated principal component technique (RPCA), we determined the number and the geographical organization of the significant temporal modes of variation (clusters) detected by each network for the three pollutants of interest. For sulfate and ammonium, the clusters’ geographical boundaries established for each network and the modes of variations within each cluster seem to correspond. RPCA erformed on nitrate concentrations revealed that, for the CASTNet and IMPROVE networks, the modes of variation do not correspond to unified geographical regions but are found more sporadically. For STN, the clustered areas are unified and easily delineable. We conclude that the possibility of jointly using the data collected by CASTNet, IMPROVE and STN has to be weighed pollutant by pollutant. While sulfate and ammonium data show some potential for joint use, at this point, combining the nitrate data from these monitoring networks may not be a judicious choice.     

Spatial character of the gaseous and particulate state compound correlation of urban atmospheric pollution in winter and summer

The spatial/temporal variation information of atmospheric dynamic-chemical processes at observation site points of the "canopy" boundary of Beijing urban building ensemble and over urban area "surface", as well as the seasonal correlation structure of the gaseous and particulate states of urban atmospheric pollution (UAP) and its seasonal conversion feature at observation points are investigated, using the comprehensive observation data of the Beijing City Air Pollution Observation Experiment (BECAPEX) in winter and summer 2003 with a "point-surface" combined research approach. By using "one dimension spatial empirical orthogonal function (EOF)" principal component analysis (PCA) mode, the seasonal change of gaseous and particulate states of atmospheric aerosols and the association feature of pollutant species under the background of the complicated structure of urban boundary layer (UBL) are analyzed. The comprehensive analyses of the principal components of particle concentrations,gaseous pollutant species, and meteorological conditions reveal the seasonal changes of the complex constituent and structure features of the gaseous and particulate states of UAP to further trace the impact feature of urban aerosol pollution surface sources and the seasonal difference of the component structure of UAP. Research results suggest that in the temporal evolution of the gaseous and particulate states of winter/summer UAP, NOx, CO, and SO2 showed an "in-phase" evolution feature, however, O3 showed an "inverse-phase" relation with other species,all possessing distinctive dependent feature. On the whole, summer concentrations of gaseous pollutants CO, SO2, and NOx were obviously lower than winter ones, especially, the reduction in CO concentration was most distinctive, and ones in SO2 and NOx were next. However, the summer O3 concentration was more than twice winter one. Winter/summer differences in PM10and PM2.5 particle concentrations were relatively not obvious, which indicates that responses of PM10 and PM2.5 particle concentrations to the difference of winter/summer heating period emission sources are far less distinctive than those of NOx, SO2, and CO. The correlation feature of winter/summer gaseous and particulate states depicts that both PM10 and PM2.5 particles were significantly correlated with NOx, and their correlations with NOx are more significant than those with other pollutants. Through PCA, it is found that there was a distinctive difference in the principal component combination structure of winter/summer PM10 and PM2.5 particles: SO2 and NOx dominated in the principal component of winter PM10 and PM2.5 particles; while CO and NOx played the major role in the principal component of summer PM10 and PM2.5 particles. For winter/summer PM10 and PM2.5 particles, there might exist the gaseous and particulate states correlation structures of different "combinations" of such dependent pollutant species. Research results also uncover that the interaction processes of gaseous and particulate states were also related with the vertical structure of UBL, that is to say, the low value layer of UBL O3 concentration was associated with the collocation of atmospheric vertical structures of the low level inversion,inverse humidity, and small wind, which depicts summer boundary layer atmospheric character, i.e.the compound impact of the dependent factor "combination" of wind, temperature, and humidity elements and their collocation structure on the variations of different gaseous pollutant concentrations. Such a depth structure of the extremely low value of O3 concentration in the UBL accords with its "inverse-phase" relation with other gaseous pollutant species. The PCA of meteorological factors associated with PM10 and PM2.5 concentrations also reveals the sensitivity of PM10 and PM2.5 concentration to the combinatory feature of local meteorological conditions.     

Sorption of carbon dioxide–methane mixtures

The paper reports the results of experiments concerning the sorption/desorption processes, observed under laboratory conditions, in two types of coal extracted from operational coal-mines in Poland, using CH₄ and CO₂ to observe their relative inter-reaction with the coal samples when introduced in varying proportions and conditions. Numerous studies concerning the sorption/desorption phenomena have described the operational mechanisms and the relationship of mine gases to the organically-created coal-body in mines. The differences in the behaviour of certain gases is twofold: firstly the essentially different characteristics of CO₂ and CH₄, and secondly the structure of the coal-bed itself: its degree of metamorphism and content of macerals. From the results yielded, it was observed that the divergence of the isotherms of sorption of CH₄ and other gases in comparison with the isotherms of sorption of CO₂ and a CO₂/CH₄ mixture differed and that the curve on the sorption isotherm was more clearly distinct after the introduction of CO₂ molecules to the system: coal with a higher degree of metamorphism—CH₄, which is closely related to the rigidity of the structure according to the level of metamorphism. Since coals with higher carbon content exhibit lower molecular bonding than low-carbonised coals, the characteristic feature of the bonds in the first case is their mobility. Knowledge of the physical and chemical properties of hard coals, as well as their interaction with mining gases, is of great use in solving problems concerned with the extraction of methane from mines or its storage in goafs.     

Frequency analysis of nonstationary annual maximum flood series using the time‐varying two‐component mixture distributions

The most popular practice for analysing nonstationarity of flood series is to use a fixed single‐type probability distribution incorporated with the time‐varying moments. However, the type of probability distribution could be both complex because of distinct flood populations and time‐varying under changing environments. To allow the investigation of this complex nature, the time‐varying two‐component mixture distributions (TTMD) method is proposed in this study by considering the time variations of not only the moments of its component distributions but also the weighting coefficients. Having identified the existence of mixed flood populations based on circular statistics, the proposed TTMD was applied to model the annual maximum flood series of two stations in the Weihe River basin, with the model parameters calibrated by the meta‐heuristic maximum likelihood method. The performance of TTMD was evaluated by different diagnostic plots and indexes and compared with stationary single‐type distributions, stationary mixture distributions and time‐varying single‐type distributions. The results highlighted the advantages of TTMD with physically‐based covariates for both stations. Besides, the optimal TTMD models were considered to be capable of settling the issue of nonstationarity and capturing the mixed flood populations satisfactorily. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

EMD-Wavelet-ICA耦合模型及其在GPS坐标序列降噪中的应用

在分析比较经验模态分解(EMD)、小波变换(Wavelet)和独立分量分析(ICA)优缺点的基础上,提出一种新的EMD-Wavelet-ICA耦合模型。该模型充分利用了EMD的自适应性,对原始信号进行分解获得不同频率的模态函数(IMF),采用标准化模量的累计均值对IMF进行尺度划分;进而分别采用Wavelet和ICA对高频和低频IMF进行降噪,将降噪后的IMF进行多尺度重构,获得降噪后的信号;采用信噪比、标准差、偏差和相关系数等指标对降噪效果进行评价。仿真数据和GPS坐标序列的处理结果表明:与EMD模型和EMD-ICA模型相比,新模型的标准差、偏差均有不同程度的减小;信噪比和相关系数有一定程度的增大,可以获得更好的降噪效果。     

Logistic判别模型在强降水预报中的应用

利用Logistiv判别模型进行强降水预报,并设计3种方案进行对比分析。方案1直接使用14个影响因子进行判别预报,受因子共线性作用及噪音信号影响,虽然拟合效果较好,但预报效果明显下降。方案2对14个影响因子进行主成分分析,利用前6个主成分建模,虽然拟合效果较方案1降低,但由于消除了因子共线性作用以及噪音信号影响,预报效果较方案1提高。方案3运用Bootstrap抽样技术得到符干样本并建模计算模型参数,打乱了原有时间序列中的波动,仪保留平稳信息,拟合自由度进一步降低,导致拟合效果较方案案2下降,但预报效果却是3种方案中最好且最稳定的。在上述研究基础上,利用欧洲中心数值预报模式的预报场资料,建立基于Logistic判别模型的强降水客观预报系统,并在中央气象台业务运行。2013和2014年连续两年汛期预报检验结果表明,概模型对强降水预报的TS评分高于数值模式本身,具有一定的业务参考价值。     

CINRAD/SA(B)发射机高压打火组件级故障诊断

新一代天气雷达技术保障中,发射机高压负载打火导致的综合故障的诊断和定位是比较复杂的,具有故障点多、故障涉及组件多、故障修复时间长等特点,是新一代天气雷达故障维修的难点。依据发射机高压控制和监控信号流程,提出了发射机高压打火组件级故障诊断流程。通过发射机组件级故障诊断流程快速修复发射机高压负载打火综合故障过程,表明发射机高压打火组件级故障诊断流程在雷达维修中具有规范化和适用性维修效果,进一步显示出故障分析诊断流程在新一代天气雷达技术保障中的重要作用。     

Landsat 8陆地成像仪影像的缨帽变换推导

针对Landsat 8陆地成像仪影像,该文提出了一种缨帽变换系数的推算方法。利用准同步的Landsat ETM+影像缨帽变换结果为目标值,采用普鲁克算法对不同地理分布下的陆地成像仪影像样本点的主成分轴分别进行旋转,得到相应的初始变换系数;通过广义普鲁克分析对所得初始变换系数进行平均化,并以格拉姆-施密特算法保持其正交性,最终得到基于陆地成像仪大气表观反射率数据的缨帽变换系数。验证结果表明,与现有陆地成像仪变换系数相比,该文提出的缨帽变换精度相对较高,误差较小,变换后的不同地物覆盖类型具有更好的可分性。     

不同营养条件下铜绿微囊藻(Microcystis aeruginosa)和小球藻(Chlorella vulgaris)的生长竞争行为

蓝藻的暴发通常是藻类之间竞争的结果,了解环境中蓝藻与其它藻类的竞争特点和生存策略对揭示藻华暴发的机制及治理具有重要意义。本文以营养竞争为例,以铜绿微囊藻(Microcystis aeruginosa)和小球藻(Chlorella vulgaris)为受试对象,通过测定细胞密度、胞内C、N、P、S四种主要元素含量以及培养基中总氮(TN)、总磷(TP)的消耗,研究不同营养等级(超富营养、富营养、中营养、贫营养)以及单独N、P限制下两种藻在单独培养和共生培养条件下的生长特征和竞争行为。结果表明:(1)在超富营养、富营养、中营养、贫营养条件时,单独培养下的两种藻生物量与营养丰富程度呈正相关;(2)共培养条件下,在高营养水平时铜绿微囊藻在竞争中占优势,低营养水平时小球藻具有竞争优势;(3)胞内C、N、P、S的测定发现,随着营养水平的下降,两种藻胞内N、P的百分含量逐渐减少,而C、S并未呈现显著变化;(4)N限制时,铜绿微囊藻的半饱和常数Ks及最大比增长率μmax均大于小球藻;P限制条件下铜绿微囊藻的半饱和常数Ks小于小球藻,而最大比增长率μmax大于小球藻。综合分析,同一营养条件下,铜绿微囊藻竞争优势的先决因子是N,小球藻是P。因此,从营养竞争与生物适应力角度考虑,降低水体中富余的N或适当提高P的浓度可让小球藻获得竞争优势,对限制单一物种的形成具有平衡作用,可作为防治藻华的潜在方法。     

东海内陆架沉积物敏感粒级构成及其地质意义

沉积物粒级包含了大量的沉积环境信息,在古环境恢复和重建中被广泛应用。基于采自东海内陆架的三根沉积物岩芯,作者利用激光粒度分析方法研究了沉积物的粒度组成,确定了敏感性粒级,探讨了搬运机制及其环境意义。研究表明:东海内陆架现代沉积物含有大致相同的三个敏感性粒级,分别是粒级1(12μm)、粒级2(12—225μm)和粒级3(225μm)。从北到南敏感粒级具有逐渐细化的趋势,该趋势与长江入海沉积物向南搬运过程中发生的沉积分异作用有关。粒级1和粒级2分别由均匀悬浮次总体和递变悬浮次总体构成,而粒级3则由生物过程产生。结合该区的海洋动力特征,作者认为,粒级2可较好地用来指示冬季海洋动力强度,并具有揭示东亚冬季风强度的潜在意义。