Expériences de drainage et estimation de paramètres en milieu poreux non saturé

Two drainage experiments were carried out to identify the hydraulic parameters of a quartz sand by using inverse modelling. Our results, based on sensitivity and error analyses, show that (i) water content measurements are essential to estimate the parameters of the van Genuchten–Mualem retention curve, (ii) the saturated conductivity ($K_{\mathrm{s}}$) has a low sensitivity to pressure data and is not sensitive to other measures (water content and measured outflow), (iii) the inverse approach can be verified by comparing the simulated outflow to the measured one. To cite this article: H. Beydoun, F. Lehmann, C. R. Geoscience 338 (2006).     

贺兰山至吉兰泰盐湖的水化学特征及演化规律

在对吉兰泰盐湖南部地下水化学组分特征分析的基础上,利用PHREEQC软件对水文地球化学演化规律进行模拟研究。结果表明,从贺兰山西侧山前到吉兰泰盐湖,水化学类型由HCO-3型过渡到Cl-—SO24-型、最后变为Cl-型;Ca2＋、Mg2＋与SO24-相关分析表明发生石膏溶解出的Ca2＋置换了MgCO3中Mg2＋,从而产生了CaCO3沉淀的水岩反应,而白云石、石膏、岩盐、CO2（g）的溶解是常量离子增加的物质来源,同时伴有强烈的蒸发浓缩作用及阳离子交换作用。特别是深层地下水具有较高的mNa/Cl值与较低的mCa/Na值,表明发生强烈的阳离子交换作用,这对认识吉兰泰盐湖地区及干旱区沙漠地区水体发生的水岩相互作用与演化机制具有借鉴作用。     

采用SilviScan-3TM研究木材性质的方法及其在气候变化研究中的应用

系统介绍了利用SilviScan-3TM测量细胞结构、木材密度、微纤丝角和划分年轮界线的方法,并以祁连山青海云杉为例,分析青海云杉6个木材性质参数(年轮细胞直径、年轮细胞壁厚、年轮宽度、年轮密度、年轮微纤丝角、年轮弹性模量)与气候因子的关系,以期为利用多个树轮参数研究气候提供参考。结果表明:6个木材性质参数与月平均气温和月降水量都有显著相关的月份,但显著相关的时间段不同,并且微纤丝角和细胞结构参数中包含的气候信息强于常用的年轮宽度和年轮密度。SilviScan-3TM测量木材性质参数的优越性体现在:测量精度高、速度快,能在同一个试样上测量多个参数并能精确定年。     

Model Analysis of the Anthropogenic Aerosol Effect on Clouds over East Asia

A coupled meteorology and aerosol/chemistry model WRF-Chem(Weather Research and Forecast model coupled with Chemistry) was used to conduct a pair of simulations with present-day(PD) and preindustrial(PI) emissions over East Asia to examine the aerosol indirect effect on clouds.As a result of an increase in aerosols in January,the cloud droplet number increased by 650 cm-3 over the ocean and East China,400 cm-3 over Central and Southwest China,and less than 200 cm-3 over North China.The cloud liquid water path(LWP) increased by 40-60 g m-2 over the ocean and Southeast China and 30 g m-2 over Central China;the LWP increased less than 5 g m-2 or decreased by 5 g m-2 over North China.The effective radius(Re) decreased by more than 4 μm over Southwest,Central,and Southeast China and 2μm over North China.In July,variations in cloud properties were more uniform;the cloud droplet number increased by approximately 250-400 cm-3,the LWP increased by approximately 30-50 g m-2,and Re decreased by approximately 3 ?m over most regions of China.In response to cloud property changes from PI to PD,shortwave(SW) cloud radiative forcing strengthened by 30 W m-2 over the ocean and 10 W m-2 over Southeast China,and it weakened slightly by approximately 2-10 W m-2 over Central and Southwest China in January.In July,SW cloud radiative forcing strengthened by 15 W m-2 over Southeast and North China and weakened by 10 W m-2 over Central China.The different responses of SW cloud radiative forcing in different regions was related to cloud feedbacks and natural variability.     

目标颜色和入射角对Trimble GX扫描点云精度的影响

介绍三维激光扫描仪的误差分类及近年来国外在目标反射特性对点云精度影响方面的研究进展,大量实验表明点云精度与目标表面反射特性存在较强关系。通过对纸质贴片点云分析得出如下结论:Trimble GX三维激光扫描仪所测点云标准偏差与反射激光亮度符合乘幂函数关系;目标颜色对该扫描仪测量精度有较大影响,白、绿、黄、蓝等颜色对绿色激光反射率较好;纸质贴片旋转一个较小角度可使扫描点云质量最优;纸质贴片反射特性服从朗伯余弦定律。     

Aerosol characteristics during winter fog at Agra,North India

Simultaneous measurements on physical, chemical and optical properties of aerosols over a tropical semi-arid location, Agra in north India, were undertaken during December 2004. The average concentration of total suspended particulates (TSP) increased by about 1.4 times during intense foggy/hazy days. Concentrations of SO₄ ²⁻, NO₃ ⁻, NH₄ ⁺ and Black Carbon (BC) aerosols increased by 4, 2, 3.5 and 1.7 times, respectively during that period. Aerosols were acidic during intense foggy/hazy days but the fog water showed alkaline nature, mainly due to the neutralizing capacity of NH₄ aerosols. Trajectory analyses showed that air masses were predominantly from NW direction, which might be responsible for transport of BC from distant and surrounding local sources. Diurnal variation of BC on all days showed a morning and an evening peak that were related to domestic cooking and vehicular emissions, apart from boundary layer changes. OPAC (Optical properties of aerosols and clouds) model was used to compute the optical properties of aerosols. Both OPAC-derived and observed aerosol optical depth (AOD) values showed spectral variation with high loadings in the short wavelengths (<1 μm). AOD value at 0.5 μm wavelength was significantly high during intense foggy/hazy days (1.22) than during clear sky or less foggy/hazy days (0.63). OPAC-derived Single scattering albedo (SSA) was 0.84 during the observational period, indicating significant contribution of absorbing aerosols. However, the BC mass fraction to TSP increased by only 1% during intense foggy/hazy days and thereby did not show any impact on SSA during that period. A large increase was observed in the shortwave (SW) atmospheric (ATM) forcing during intense foggy/hazy days (+75.8 W/m²) than that during clear sky or less foggy/hazy days (+38 W/m²), mainly due to increase in absorbing aerosols. Whereas SW forcing at surface (SUF) increased from −40 W/m² during clear sky or less foggy/hazy days to −76 W/m² during intense foggy/hazy days, mainly due to the scattering aerosols like SO₄ ^2-.     

Splash detachment of sand particles under varying contact stress field of wind-driven raindrop impact

The effects of wind-driven rain (WDR) on sand detachment were studied under various raindrop obliquities. Results suggested a significant reduction in compressive stress on sand surfaces for a two-dimensional experimental set-up in a wind tunnel. During experiments, sand particles in splash cups were exposed to both wind-free rain (WFR) and WDR driven by horizontal winds of 6.4, 8.9 and 12.8 m s⁻¹ and rainfall intensities of 50, 60, 75 and 90-mm h⁻¹ to assess the sand detachment rate (D, in g m⁻² s⁻¹). The effects of sand moisture state (dry and wet) on the detachment of different-sized particles (0.20–0.50 and 0.50–2.00 mm, respectively) were also tested. Factorial analysis of variance showed that shear and compressive stress components evaluated by horizontal and vertical kinetic energy flux terms (KE_x and KE_y, respectively, in J m⁻² s⁻¹) along with their vector sum (KE_r, in J m⁻² s⁻¹) explained the variation in D. Neither sand size nor sand moisture was statistically significant alone although binary interactions of KE_r, KE_x and KE_y with the sand size and three-way interaction of KE_x, sand size and moisture were statistically significant. These results can be explained by size-dependent variation in sand compressibility and surface friction related to the total stress field developed by a given partition of shear and compressive stresses of wind-driven oblique raindrops (KE_x/KE_y). Further analysis of the variation of the unit sand detachment rate (D_u = D/KE_r = g J⁻¹) with rain inclination (α, in degrees) better revealed the effect of WDR obliquity on D_u that further changed with sand size class and moisture state. Finally, the difference in the resulting stress field differentiable by the oblique raindrop trajectories of the experiment over sand surface significantly affected the non-cohesive particle detachment rates, to some extent interacted with size-dependent compressibility and interface shear strength of sand grains.     

Formation of smooth terrains on Comet Tempel 1

We suggest that the regions of smooth terrain which were observed on Comet 9P/Tempel 1 by the Deep Impact spacecraft were formed by blowing ice grains in an outburst of gas from the comet interior. When gas is released from 10 to 20 m deep layers which were heated to 135 K, it is released quiescently onto the surface by individual conduits. If large amounts of gas are released, the drainage system cannot release them fast enough and wider interconnected channels are formed, leading to sudden outburst of gas. Instability triggering a sudden shift of flow is well known in subglacial drainage of water. The ballistic trajectory of the ice particles reach a distance of 3 km in the atmosphereless comet, whose gravity is 0.034 cm s⁻¹, if ejected at an angle of 45° at a speed of 95 cm s⁻¹. This speed is close to the speeds measured in laboratory experiments: 167, 140×sini and 167 cm s⁻¹, for particles of 0.3, 1000 and 14-650 μm, respectively. Blowing of ice grains can overcome the 1650 m long horizontal section of smooth terrain i1 (Fig. 1), whereas simple flow of material downhill would stop close to the foot of the hill. The ice particles at the end of their trajectory have a horizontal velocity component and this low velocity ballistic sedimentation would lead to formation of lineaments on the smooth terrain, like in solid-particulate volcanic eruptions.     

Tidally driven stress accumulation and shear failure of Enceladus's tiger stripes

Straddling the south polar region of Saturn's moon Enceladus, the four principal “tiger stripe” fractures are a likely source of tectonic activity and plume generation. Here we investigate tidally driven stress conditions at the tiger stripe fractures through a combined analysis of shear and normal diurnal tidal stresses and accounting for additional stress at depth due to the overburden pressure. We compute Coulomb failure conditions to assess failure location, timing, and direction (right- vs left-lateral slip) throughout the Enceladus orbital cycle and explore a suite of model parameters that inhibit or promote shear failure at the tiger stripes. We find that low coefficients of friction (μf=0.1-0.2) and shallow overburden depths (z=2-4 km) permit shear failure along the tiger stripe faults, and that right- and/or left-lateral slip responses are possible. We integrate these conditions into a 3D time-dependent fault dislocation model to evaluate tectonic displacements and stress variations at depth during a tiger stripe orbital cycle. Depending on the sequence of stress accumulation and subsequent fault slip, which varies as a function of fault location and orientation, frictional coefficient, and fault depth, we estimate resolved shear stress accumulation of ∼70 kPa prior to fault failure, which produces modeled strike-slip displacements on the order of ∼0.5 m in the horizontal direction and ∼5 mm in the vertical direction per slip event. Our models also indicate that net displacements on the order of 0.1 m per orbital cycle, in both right- and left-lateral directions, are possible for particular fault geometries and frictional parameters. Tectonic activity inferred from these analyses correlates with observed plume activity and temperature anomalies at Enceladus's south polar region. Moreover, these analyses provide important details of stress accumulation and the faulting cycle for icy satellites subjected to diurnal tidal stress.