Peatland development at the arctic tree line (Québec, Canada) influenced by flooding and permafrost

In this study, we documented the Holocene history of a peat plateau at the arctic tree line in northern Québec using stratigraphic and macrofossil analyses to highlight the effects of geomorphic setting in peatland development. Paludification of the site began about 6800 cal yr BP. From 6390 to 4120 cal yr BP, the peatland experienced a series of flooding events. The location of the peatland in a depression bounded by two small lakes likely explains its sensitivity to runoff. The proximity of a large hill bordering the peatland to the south possibly favored the inflow of mineral-laden water. The onset of permafrost aggradation in several parts of the peatland occurred after 3670 cal yr BP. Uplifting of the peatland surface caused by permafrost stopped the flooding. According to radiocarbon dating of the uppermost peat layers, permafrost distribution progressed from the east to the west of the peatland, indicating differential timing for the initiation of permafrost throughout the peatland. Most of the peatland was affected by permafrost growth during the Little Ice Age. Picea mariana macroremains at 6450 cal yr BP indicate that the species was present during the early stages of peatland development, which occurred soon after the sea regression.     

气象条件对大气波导的影响

在介绍大气折射基本类型及其对电磁波影响的基础上,概述了三种类型大气波导的形成机制,分析了不同天气系统、气象要素和天气现象对大气波导的影响,总结了易于出现大气波导现象的天气条件。研究气象条件对大气波导的影响,对于研究和预测电磁波在大气中的传播特性以及在军事上的应用都具有十分重要的意义。     

Damage distribution during the 1994 Northridge, California, earthquake relative to generalized categories of surficial geology

The spatial distributions of severely damaged buildings (red-tagged) and of breaks in the water distribution system following the 1994 Northridge, California, earthquake (M_L = 6·4) are investigated relative to the local characteristics of surficial geology. The pipe breaks are used as an indicator of nonlinear soil response, and the red-tagged buildings as indicator of severe shaking. The surficial geology is described by several generalized categories based on age, textural character and thickness of the near surface layer. Two regions are studied: the San Fernando Valley and Los Angeles-Santa Monica. The analysis shows that there is no simple correlation between damage patterns and surficial geology. Single family wood-frame buildings were damaged less when built on fine silt and clay (0–3 m thick) from the late Holocene.     

Estimating open boundary conditions from coastal tidal observations by adjoint approach

A numerical study for estimating the tidal open boundary conditions of a shelf current modrl from tb coastal tidal observations is presented. The method is based on the optimal control/adjoint method. A lrast square fitting of the model state to simulated data is used. Two ideal domains and coastlines are considered. Using the IAP shallow. water model and its adjoint model, some identical twin experiments are carried out to test efficiency and lirnilsd of the method. The results show that the adjoint method can efficiently estimate the open boundary conditions well for gulf/bay like domains. The adjoint method seems to have great potential to improve the accuracy of tide and shelf current modeling in coastal regions. Project supported hy the National Natural Science Fuundation of China (Grant No. 49376256)     

The working class, minorities and housing in Paris, the rise of fragmentations

Which places are left to minorities in the housing and labour markets in metropolitan Paris? Over the last two decades, job structures have evolved dramatically, eroding the formerly prominent Paris working-class, shaking the social and political roots of its identity. These indicators would lead one to diagnose a growing fragmentation of metropolitan society. In the political debate, the burning issue of the crisis of suburbs has replaced outdated debate of the class struggle. This paper aims first to re-examine the interactions between social status and national origins, then analyses the housing conditions of different social strata, and finally demonstrates the pre-eminence of social status over national origins in the pattern of residential segregation.     

General absorbing boundary conditions for dynamic analysis of fluid-saturated porous media

General absorbing boundary conditions based on Biot's two-phase mixture theory and paraxial approximation is presented for the dynamic analysis of fluid-saturated porous media with isotropic, transverse isotropic, and anisotropic properties. For the last two cases, the equivalent Lame's constants, under conditions of uniqueness, are introduced to facilitate the analytical solutions. The numerical results show that the proposed absorbing boundary can greatly suppress spuriously reflected waves and efficiently model the far field of the system with sufficient accuracy.     

On the conception ‘Fair weather condition’ in atmospheric electricity

Measurements of atmospheric electrical and meteorological parameters during different meteorological conditions indicate that the use of the conception Fair weather condition in atmospheric electricity is discussable. Fair weather contains a very broad stability range, from very unstable to strong stable stability of the atmosphere. For turbulent fluctuations of the electric parameters (the most local variations) the variations are determined by the micrometeorological processes for all stability conditions.These fluctuations represent frequencies greater than one period per four minutes. For lower frequencies (less local variations), however, the stability dependency increases. During stable conditions the electric field and vertical current density were nearly wholly influenced by the charges and their transfer in the nearest layer. During near-neutral and unstable conditions the electrical parameters were influenced by more separated sources. Measurements of how well Ohm's law was fulfilled also indicate the difficulties by using the conception fair weather. The measurements also indicate the importance of taking the convection current density into consideration in studies of the electric charge transfer in the atmosphere.In the more large scale of variations measurements of the electric field by radiosoundings show that 88% of the ionospheric potential is derived from the troposphere, where the meteorological processes are of fundamental character for the atmospheric electrical phenomena. The relatively great stability of the diurnal variation of the large scale or global electric field is also valid for the meteorological processes in this scale of variations.     

Radiative Effects on Temperature in the Stable Surface Layer

The interaction between longwave radiation and temperature fluctuations plays a role in the dissipation of temperature variance. This interaction is most easily described by spectral models of atmospheric turbulence and a spectral radiative dissipation function which gives the intensity of the damping at each radiative wavelength and wavenumber k. We have used a Corrsin–Pao closure for the spectral budgets of turbulent kinetic energy and temperature to study the coupling of radiation to turbulence. The spectral radiative dissipation function and a related integral have been fitted by analytical approximations with the correct asymptotic behavior. This resulted in a simple analytical formula for the dimensionless temperature spectrum as a function of Monin-Obukhov stability, and a new dimensionless parameter describing the relative importance of radiation in the temperature spectral budget. The radiative effects both on the temperature spectrum and on the dimensionless temperature variance can then be calculated. Based on typical values of the radiative dimensionless parameters for the surface layer, we conclude that radiative dissipation is probably negligible there.     

湖泊水位资料与模型模拟恢复的6000年前全球湿润状况的对比研究

本项研究是ＰＭＩＰ（ＰａｌａｅｏｃｌｉｍａｔｅＭｏｄｅｌｉｎｇＩｎｔｅｒｃｏｍｐａｒｉｓｏｎＰｒｏｊｅｃｔ）国际合作项目中有关模型模拟与观测资料对比的一部分。模型试验对象是６０００ｙｒ．ＢＰ的全球湿润状况。模拟试验以检测太阳辐射变化对全球大尺度气候系统的影响为主要目的。观测资料是利用地质证据恢复的古湖泊水位变化,实际上是某一地区的有效降水（降水减蒸发）的变化。通过两者的比较发现,所有模拟试验均能重现６０００ｙｒ．ＢＰ在亚洲南部与非洲北部的湿润环境,从而证实了因太阳辐射变化导致的亚洲与非洲季风的增强。但模拟的季风增强无论是强度还是范围均小于地质记录。原因很可能是模拟试验中下垫面特征用“现代”的来处理。模拟试验对北半球夏季辐射增加造成的西风带北移及由此引起的中纬度地区的气候变化不够成功。绝大多数模拟对受洋流与海温影响较大的地区是失败的。主要原因可能是所有ＰＭＩＰ中的模拟试验都未考虑海洋的作用。     

Tests and applications of an approach to absorbing reflected waves towards incident boundary

If the upstream boundary conditions are prescribed based on the incident wave only, the time-dependent numerical models cannot effectively simulate the wave field when the physical or spurious reflected waves become significant. This paper describes carefully an approach to specifying the incident wave boundary conditions combined with a set sponge layer to absorb the reflected waves towards the incident boundary. Incorporated into a time-dependent numerical model, whose governing equations are the Boussinesq-type ones, the effectiveness of the approach is studied in detail. The general boundary conditions, describing the down-wave boundary conditions are also generalized to the case of random waves. The numerical model is in detail examined. The test cases include both the normal one-dimensional incident regular or random waves and the two-dimensional oblique incident regular waves. The calculated results show that the present approach is effective on damping the reflected waves towards the incident wave boundary.