GPU accelerated marine data visualization method

The study of marine data visualization is of great value. Marine data, due to its large scale, random variation and multiresolution in nature, are hard to be visualized and analyzed. Nowadays, constructing an ocean model and visualizing model results have become some of the most important research topics of ‘Digital Ocean'. In this paper, a spherical ray casting method is developed to improve the traditional ray-casting algorithm and to make efficient use of GPUs. Aiming at the ocean current data, a 3D view-dependent line integral convolution method is used, in which the spatial frequency is adapted according to the distance from a camera. The study is based on a 3D virtual reality and visualization engine, namely the VV-Ocean. Some interactive operations are also provided to highlight the interesting structures and the characteristics of volumetric data. Finally, the marine data gathered in the East China Sea are displayed and analyzed. The results show that the method meets the requirements of real-time and interactive rendering.     

Re-Os同位素在沉积地层精确定年及古环境反演中的应用进展

Re-Os同位素亲有机质的性质,使得富有机质沉积岩在沉积的过程中能够吸附富集海水中的Re、Os,沉积岩的沉积压实过程也是其中Re-Os同位素体系封闭计时的过程,沉积岩Re-Os同位素等时线年龄代表地层沉积时代,Os同位素初始比值187Os/188Os反映沉积时海水的Os同位素比值。Re-Os同位素体系在富有机质沉积岩中的成功应用,能够直接确定地层沉积时代,从而对地层界线进行直接厘定,并且能够对一些沉积矿床形成时代、冰川事件发生时代进行厘定和限制。通过沉积岩Re-Os同位素特征,可以对古环境进行反演,有助于了解全球大气海洋的演化,气候的变化,对研究生物灭绝等重大地质事件发生的时限和机制以及金属矿床的成矿物质来源具有重要意义。文章阐述了Re-Os同位素在富有机质沉积岩中应用的原理,并列举了Re-Os同位素在沉积地层精确定年及古环境反演中应用实例,说明了富有机质沉积岩Re-Os同位素分析精度及其影响因素,以使Re-Os同位素体系作为一种强有力的工具,解决更多的沉积地层时代问题以及更好地对古环境进行反演。     

利用地震模拟技术研究逆断层的断点位置

在地震资料解释阶段,可根据解释结果进行正演模拟,以验证解释结果的可靠性,并通过模型正演方式了解地下波场的细微变化,提高解释精度。依据内蒙古鄂托克前旗沙章图矿区DF2逆断层的赋存形态,建立的地质模型,并围绕其逆断层的断点位置、埋深、地层速度等,对各种接收排列进行射线追踪实验。通过改变开动的道数、道距及偏移距,观察各种参数下射线追踪的分布情况及模拟时间剖面的面貌。正演结果表明利用射线模型追踪的模拟地震反射剖面与实际时间剖面完全吻合,其确定的逆断层断点位置及断面倾角合理。     

无射线追踪层析静校正技术及其应用研究

静校正技术在近地表条件复杂地区的地震资料处理中具有重要意义,其校正的准确性直接影响后续的处理和解释工作。在众多静校正方法中,无射线追踪层析静校正法兼具稳定性和灵活性的优点。这里对无射线追踪层析静校正的原理和主要参数进行了分析;而后将其应用于鄂尔多斯盆地某工区黄土塬地区地震资料的处理,把处理效果与其他几种不同静校正方法进行了对比。结果表明,该方法可使单炮记录和叠加剖面的质量得到较大改善,地震记录同相轴的连续性得到增强。     

Changes to sediment sources following wildfire in a forested upland catchment,southeastern Australia

Few investigations link post‐fire changes to sediment sources and erosion processes with sediment yield response at the catchment scale. This linkage is essential if downstream impacts on sediment transport after fire are to be understood in the context of fire effects across different forest environments. In this study, we quantify changing source contributions to fine sediment (<63 µm) exported from a eucalypt forest catchment (136 ha) burnt by wildfire. The study catchment is one of a pair of research catchments located in the East Kiewa River valley in southeastern Australia that have been the subject of a research program investigating wildfire effects on runoff, erosion, and catchment sediment/nutrient exports. This previous research provided the opportunity to couple insights gained from a range of measurement techniques with the application of fallout radionuclides ¹³⁷Cs and ²¹⁰Pb_ex to trace sediment sources. It was found that hillslope surface erosion dominated exports throughout the 3·5‐year post‐fire measurement period. During this time there was a pronounced decline in the proportional surface contribution from close to 100% in the first six months to 58% in the fourth year after fire. Over the study period, hillslope surface sources accounted for 93% of the fine sediment yield from the burnt catchment. The largest decline in the hillslope contribution occurred between the first and second years after fire, which corresponded with the previously reported large decline in sediment yield, breakdown of water repellency in burnt soils, substantial reduction in hillslope erodibility, and rapid surface vegetation recovery. Coupling the information on sediment sources with hillslope process measurements indicated that only a small proportion of slopes contributed sediment to the catchment outlet, with material derived from near‐channel areas dominating the post‐fire catchment sediment yield response. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

The sensitivity of EGRET to gamma-ray polarization

A Monte Carlo simulation shows that the EGRET gamma-ray telescope aboard the GRO satellite does not have sufficient sensitivity to detect linear polarization, even for 100% polarized gamma-ray sources. This is confirmed by analysis of calibration data. Several data selection techniques suggested to enhance polarization sensitivity have been evaluated and found to not significantly improve sensitivity.NRC/NAS RESEARCH ASSOCIATE     

SCATTERING PHASE MATRICES OF ICE CRYSTALS WITH HEXAGONAL PRISM AND TRIANGULAR PYRAMID FORM—A VECTOR RAY TRACING METHOD

The work presented previously by the authors(Cai and Liou,1982)has been extended in this paper.By making use of our improved model the calculations on scattering phase matrices of hexagonal prismice crystals(HPIC)have been conducted for monodisperse and polydisperse systems.Compared with themodel of Cai and Liou,the required computational quantity is decreased by about two orders of magni-tude and the errors of results are less for the new model.Meanwhile,the scattering phase matrices of triangularpyramid ice crystals(TPIC)are also computed in the paper,and the comparison between the scatterings of thetwo forms of ice crystals is performed.     

Reverse time migration with Gaussian beams using optimized ray tracing systems in transversely isotropic media

Prestack depth migration is a key technology for imaging complex reservoirs in media with strong lateral velocity variations. Prestack migrations are broadly separated into ray-based and wave-equation-based methods. Because of its efficiency and flexibility, ray-based Kirchhoff migration is popular in the industry. However, it has difficulties in dealing with the multi-arrivals, caustics and shadow zones. On the other hand, wave-equation-based methods produce images superior to that of the ray-based methods, but they are expensive numerically, especially methods based on two-way propagators in imaging large regions. Therefore, reverse time migration algorithms with Gaussian beams have recently been proposed to reduce the cost, as they combine the high computational efficiency of Gaussian beam migration and the high accuracy of reverse time migration. However, this method was based on the assumption that the subsurface is isotropic. As the acquired azimuth and maximum offsets increase, taking into account the influence of anisotropy on seismic migration is becoming more and more crucial. Using anisotropic ray tracing systems in terms of phase velocity, we proposed an anisotropic reverse time migration using the Gaussian beams method. We consider the influence of anisotropy on the propagation direction and calculate the amplitude of Gaussian beams with optimized correlation coefficients in dynamic ray tracing, which simplifies the calculations and improves the applicability of the proposed method. Numerical tests on anisotropic models demonstrate the efficiency and accuracy of the proposed method, which can be used to image complex structures in the presence of anisotropy in the overburden.     

一种基于规则格网的等值线生成方法

随着规则格网数据的获取手段不断发展,规则格网数据趋于海量化,而现有的一些软件对于大数据规则格网追踪等值线无法应对。针对传统方法较为占用内存问题,文章研究并提出了一种基于规则格网数据的逐行追踪等值线的方法:通过编程实现,与传统方法对比,该方法在处理大数据规则格网时的速度优于传统方法,在算法执行时,逐行追踪等值线方法对于计算机内存占用与传统方法相比大大减少;为了解决传统的等值线光滑与精简方法中出现等值线交叉的问题,文章提出采用规则格网插值与抽稀的方式来完成。     

Brief history of ground-based very high energy gamma-ray astrophysics with atmospheric air Cherenkov telescopes

The discovery of the Crab Nebula as the first source of TeV gamma rays in 1989, using the technique of ground-based imaging air Cherenkov telescope, has marked the birthday of observational gamma astronomy in very high energy range. The team led by Trevor Weekes, after twenty years of trial and error, success and misfortune, step-by-step improvements in both the technique and understanding of gamma shower discrimination methods, used the 10 m diameter telescope on Mount Hopkins in Arizona, and succeeded measuring a 9σ signal from the direction of Crab Nebula. As of today over 160 sources of gamma rays of very different types, of both galactic and extra-galactic origin, have been discovered due to this technique. This is a really fast evolving branch in science, rapidly improving our understanding of the most violent and energetic sources and processes in the sky.The study of these sources provides clues to many basic questions in astrophysics, astro-particle physics, physics of cosmic rays and cosmology. Today’s telescopes, despite the young age of the technique, offer a solid performance. The technique is still maturing, leading to the next generation large instrument. This article is devoted to outlining the milestones in a long history that step-by-step have made this technique emerge and have brought about today’s successful source hunting.