An assessment of arctic sea ice concentration retrieval based on “HY-2” scanning radiometer data using field observations during CHINARE-2012 and other satellite instruments

A retrieval algorithm of arctic sea ice concentration (SIC) based on the brightness temperature data of “HY-2” scanning microwave radiometer has been constructed. The tie points of the brightness tempe...     

GNSS-R海洋遥感监测技术综述

介绍了GNSS-R海洋遥感的发展过程、技术原理和理论模型,进一步研究了GNSS-R在海洋遥感各应用领域的主要研究内容,探讨了GNSS-R海洋测风、测高、海冰监测、溢油检测和移动目标探测的技术途径,概述了GNSS-R海洋遥感监测技术所涉及的反演理论和信息提取方法,并根据现有研究成果和海洋遥感的应用需要,提出今后需解决的关键技术和未来的发展方向。     

逐步回归分析在渤海海冰等级预报中的应用

根据1951—2013年渤海海冰等级资料,利用最大熵谱法分析了渤海海冰等级的周期,结果表明渤海海冰具有明显的年际和年代际变化特征,其主要周期为2—7年和11年。相关分析及逐步回归分析表明:渤海海冰的年际变化与西太平洋副高面积及北界指数、太平洋副高面积指数、亚洲区极涡面积指数以及南方涛动指数都有显著的相关关系。利用逐步回归分析方法建立的海冰预报模型经过拟合和试预报都得到了很好的结果,具有较高的可信度。     

冰激直立腿海洋平台疲劳寿命分析

由于渤海特殊环境条件与油藏分布决定了该海域导管架油气平台属于典型的柔性抗冰结构。多年现场观测发现,该类结构存在显著的冰激振动现象。冰振不仅能激起较大的甲板加速度响应,还会引起明显的导管架管节点交变应力。在结构设计与安全保障中进行疲劳分析及寿命估计是必要的。对于直立腿抗冰结构,精确的冰激疲劳寿命计算方法还不成熟。基于多年的现场监测,首先分析了冰与直立腿抗冰结构相互作用过程;其次,提出了冰激直立腿平台的疲劳寿命分析流程;最后,选取渤海某典型直立腿平台,利用ANSYS数值模拟,对比了稳态冰力和随机冰力下结构的疲劳损伤,进而计算出疲劳寿命。本研究为寒区柔性结构抗冰设计与安全保障提供了理论基础。     

CryoSat-2卫星海冰区域波形识别及海冰干舷高确定

利用40%阈值法对CryoSat-2卫星波形数据进行重跟踪,将波形特征参数和海冰浓度相结合,对海冰和Lead(浮冰之间的开阔水域)进行有效识别。利用沿轨前后搜索算法计算海冰干舷高,并引用AWI结果,绘制2011~2013年北冰洋多年冰区域和一年冰区域平均海冰干舷高变化趋势图。比较本文结果与AWI结果的各年同期数据,验证本文结果的可靠性。     

Impacts of Two Ice Parameterization Schemes on the Cloud Microphysical Processes and Precipitation of a Severe Storm in Northern China

A severe storm that occurred over Beijing in northern China on 23 June 2011 was simulated with two different ice crystal parameterization schemes(the DeMott scheme and Meyers scheme) by using the Regional Atmospheric Modeling System. Compared with the DeMott scheme, the simulation results with the Meyers scheme have the following characteristics:(1) Updrafts are stronger and more numerous;(2) The cloud is better organized and contains a greater peak of ice-phase hydrometeor mixing ratios;(3) Cloud water and hail mixing ratios increase while graupel mixing ratios decrease;(4) The surface precipitation is initially greater. However, at the end of the simulation, less precipitation is produced. In short, the differences between the two schemes are not obvious, but the De Mott scheme has a relatively more reasonable result.     

Arctic sea ice and Eurasian climate: A review

The Arctic plays a fundamental role in the climate system and has shown significant climate change in recent decades,including the Arctic warming and decline of Arctic sea-ice extent and thickness. In contrast to the Arctic warming and reduction of Arctic sea ice, Europe, East Asia and North America have experienced anomalously cold conditions, with record snowfall during recent years. In this paper, we review current understanding of the sea-ice impacts on the Eurasian climate.Paleo, observational and modelling studies are covered to summarize several major themes, including: the variability of Arctic sea ice and its controls; the likely causes and apparent impacts of the Arctic sea-ice decline during the satellite era,as well as past and projected future impacts and trends; the links and feedback mechanisms between the Arctic sea ice and the Arctic Oscillation/North Atlantic Oscillation, the recent Eurasian cooling, winter atmospheric circulation, summer precipitation in East Asia, spring snowfall over Eurasia, East Asian winter monsoon, and midlatitude extreme weather; and the remote climate response(e.g., atmospheric circulation, air temperature) to changes in Arctic sea ice. We conclude with a brief summary and suggestions for future research.     

Microbial life in martian ice: A biotic origin of methane on Mars?

Despite the fact that microbial cells are unlikely to be found in the Martian soil in the near future, this paper is written on the assumption that some of the seasonally varying concentration of Martian methane is due to ongoing methanogenesis. It is first pointed out that life might have arisen on Mars first and been transported to Earth later. A case is made that an icy origin of life is more likely than a hot origin, especially if biomolecules take advantage of the high encounter rates and stability against hydrolysis, and that microorganisms feed on the ions that comprise eutectic solutions in ice. Although certain difficulties are avoided if RNA and DNA grow while adsorbed on clay grains, double strand-breaks of microbial DNA due to alpha radioactivity are a far greater threat to microbial survival on clay or other rock types than in ice. Developing a relation between the rate of microbial metabolism in ice and the experimentally determined rate of production of trapped gases of microbial origin, one can estimate the concentration of methanogens that could account for the methane production rate as a function of temperature of their habitat. The result, of order 1 cell cm⁻³ in the Martian subsurface, seems an attainable goal provided samples are taken from at least 1 or 2 m below the hostile surface of Mars. Instruments on NASA’s 2011 Mars Science Lab will measure stable isotopes for methane, water, and carbon dioxide, which on Earth served to distinguish abiotic, thermogenic, and microbial origins. Future measurements of chirality of biomolecules might also provide evidence for Martian life.     

On the recent warming of the southeastern Bering Sea shelf

During the last decade, the southeastern Bering Sea shelf has undergone a warming of 3 °C that is closely associated with a marked decrease of sea ice over the area. This shift in the physical environment of the shelf can be attributed to a combination of mechanisms, including the presence over the eastern Bering Sea shelf of a relatively mild air mass during the winter, especially from 2000 to 2005; a shorter ice season caused by a later fall transition and/or an earlier spring transition; increased flow through Unimak Pass during winter, which introduces warm Gulf of Alaska water onto the southeastern shelf; and the feedback mechanism whereby warmer ocean temperatures during the summer delay the southward advection of sea ice during winter. While the relative importance of these four mechanisms is difficult to quantify, it is evident that for sea ice to form, cold arctic winds must cool the water column. Sea ice is then formed in the polynyas during periods of cold north winds, and this ice is advected southward over the eastern shelf. The other three mechanisms can modify ice formation and melt, and hence its extent. In combination, these four mechanisms have served to temporally and spatially limit ice during the 5-year period (2001–2005). Warming of the eastern Bering Sea shelf could have profound influences on the ecosystem of the Bering Sea—from modification of the timing of the spring phytoplankton bloom to the northward advance of subarctic species and the northward retreat of arctic species.     

Periglacial climate at the 2.5 Ma onset of Northern Hemisphere glaciation inferred from the Whippoorwill Formation, northern Missouri, USA

The Whippoorwill Formation is a gleyed diamicton that is present locally within bedrock depressions beneath the oldest glacial till in northern Missouri, USA. Stratigraphy, paleomagnetism, and cosmogenic-nuclide burial ages show that it was deposited between the Matuyama-Gauss magnetostratigraphic boundary at 2.58 Ma and the first advance of the Laurentide ice sheet into Missouri at 2.47 ± 0.19 Ma. High cosmogenic-nuclide concentrations also show that the constituents of the Whippoorwill Formation experienced long exposure at a stable landscape surface with erosion rates of 1-2 m/Ma. However, cosmogenic-nuclide concentrations are invariant with depth below the Whippoorwill Formation surface, indicating active mixing of the soil profile shortly before burial by till. The Whippoorwill Formation retains numerous features indicative of cryoturbation. Therefore, we interpret it as a buried Gelisol, a soil formed under periglacial conditions in the presence of permafrost. At the onset of Northern Hemisphere glaciation, climate cooling established permafrost conditions and accelerated erosion by inducing landscape instability. Thus, weathered regolith materials were mobilized and redeposited by gelifluction shortly before the ice sheet overrode the landscape.