一种浅海锚泊测流浮标系统的实验

早在五十年代,海洋科技工作者已开始利用浮标布设海洋调查仪器,进行海上观测的试验工作。目前被采用的浮标系统,大体有三种类型:(1)锚泊浮标系统,利用各类自含式海洋调査仪器进行测量,定期收回资料;(2)遥测浮标系统,利用无线电遥控和收发各种海洋观测数据;(3)漂移浮标系统,利用浮标本身的漂移,进行海流和其他要素的观测。本文主要介绍浅海锚泊浮标系统的设计和使用情况。 对锚泊浮标系统的研究和实验,许多国家已做了大量有成效的工作。目前关于浮标的设计和锚泊方法尚无統一意见,但是可以看出,大多趋向于采用水下浮标张缆锚泊。这种方法使得浮标系统比起遥测浮标系统来,较为轻小、经济、方便,适合于进行多站同步观测。国外在海洋调查中经常利用这种系统作较长期的海流观测。 我所在六十年代初就已开始了锚泊浮标系统的研究、实验,1964年进行了新的研究设计工作,并在“全国海洋仪器会战”期间,完成了整套系统的计算设计与海上实验,经过鉴定,建议作小批量生产。 近年来,国家海洋局第一海洋研究所、中国科学院南海海洋研究所利用该浮标系统作过多次海上试用,取得了海流长期观测资料,初步考验了该系统的性能。我们最近又对某些部件作了一定的改进,并进行了海上实验。但是,实验也表明:此方法不宜在渔场区和台风盛行季节使用,因易被渔网拖损和丢失。现综合报告如下。     

Cartography/Geographic Information Systems at Southwest Texas State University

Australia and New Zealand are adopting the Spatial Data Transfer Standard (SDTS) as their transfer standard for geographic data. The standard requires a number of modifications to suit Australia/New Zealand requirements. These modifications primarily involve coordinate reference systems for each country, references to those standards applicable to each country and new spatial feature dictionaries. For other countries adopting SDTS, future revisions to the standard should emphasize a framework for required modifications. Australia/New Zealand have established a support body to ensure the smooth introduction of the standard within these countries. This commercial venture has been successful in promoting the standard, in providing training and in related consulting work. The US Geological Survey has been the maintenance authority for the standard. It is essential that this function continues to be provided through this body to guarantee a single interpretation of the standard.     

Variable-scale Topological Data Structures Suitable for Progressive Data Transfer: The GAP-face Tree and GAP-edge Forest

This paper presents the first data structure for a variable scale representation of an area partitioning without redundancy of geometry. At the highest level of detail, the areas are represented using a topological structure based on faces and edges; there is no redundancy of geometry in this structure as the shared boundaries (edges) between neighbor areas are stored only once. Each edge is represented by a Binary Line Generalization (BLG)-tree, which enables selection of the proper representation for a given scale. Further, there is also no geometry redundancy between the different levels of detail. An edge at a higher importance level (less detail) does not contain copies of the lower-level edges or coordinates (more detail), but it is represented by efficiently combining their corresponding BLG trees. Which edges have to be combined follows from the generalization computation, and this is stored in a data structure. This data structure turns out to be a set of trees, which will be called the (Generalized Area Partitioning) GAP-edge forest. With regard to faces, the generalization result can be captured in a single tree structure for the parent-child relationships—the GAP face-tree. At the client side there are no geometric computations necessary to compute the polygon representations of the faces, merely following the topological references is sufficient. Finally, the presented data structure is also suitable for progressive transfer of vector maps, assuming that the client maintains a local copy of the GAP-face tree and the GAP-edge forest.     

The Scope and Conceptual Content of Analytical Cartography

Over the last three decades analytical cartography has grown from Tobler's concept of "solving cartographic problems" into a broader and deeper scientific specialization that includes the development and expansion of analytical/mathematical spatial theory and model building. In many instances Tobler himself has led the way to these new insights and developments. Fundamental concepts begin with Tobler's cartographic transformations; Nyerges' deep and surface structure and data levels; and Moellering's real and virtual maps; the sampling theorem; and concepts of spatial primitives and objects. This list can be expanded to include additional analytical concepts such as spatial frequencies, spatial surface neighborhood operators, information theory, fractals, Fourier theory, topological network theory, and analytical visualization, to name a few. This base of analytical theory can be employed to analyze and/or develop such things as spatial surfaces, terrain analysis, spatial data schemas, spatial data structures, spatial query languages, spatial overlay and partitioning, shape analysis, surface generalization, cartographic generalization, and analytical visualization. More analytical uses of theory, strategies of analysis, and implementations are being developed and continue to multiply as the field continues to grow and mature. A primary goal is to expand the mathematical/analytical theory of spatial data analysis, and theory building and analytical visualization as analytical cartography takes its place in the geographic information sciences. The research future for this area appears very bright indeed.     

Opportunities for Use of the Spatial Data Transfer Standard at the State and Local Level

Dramatic changes in the way that spatial data have been collected and processed over that last 20 years is leading to a rethinking and restructuring on the most efficient ways to handle geographical information. These changes are taking place at the federal, state, and local governmental levels with great potential for the private sector as well. The formal adoption of the Spatial Data Transfer Standard (SDTS) as the federal database transfer standard for spatial databases signals a new era in this long chain of developments. It offers more flexible and efficient database transfers than earlier tools, and will become the workhorse for implementing the new National Spatial Data Infrastructure. It offers organizations a standard that will make possible and practical a much wider sharing of databases than is currently being done today. Use of the SDTS presents an opportunity to many organizations to share data more easily and reduce the duplication of expensive spatial database resources.     

Conformance Testing for the Spatial Data Transfer Standard

The Spatial Oata Transfer Standard (SOTS) was approved as Federal Information Processing Standard (FIPS) 173, effective February 1993. Federal agencies and geographic information system vendors currently are developing SOTS encoding and decoding capabilities. A program is being developed to test encoders and decoders for conformance to the requirements of SOTS profiles. A series of test points will specify SOTS requirements that can be tested by software or by nonautomated methods. By certifying SOTS products, the conformance testing program will benefit both vendors and users of the SOTS.     

Explaining Map-reading Performance Efficiency: Gender,Memory, and Geographic Information

This paper explains the performance of a map-reading task that required subjects to locate a state on a map of the United States after being given the state's name. Response times and accuracy were hypothesized to be a function of differences among the decision makers and among the states. The cognitive science literature suggests that variation in performance can be explained by the interaction of biological and environmental variables. Individual differences in gender, working memory capacity, and brain lateralization were hypothesized to affect performance of the spatial task. Results indicated gender could be a more informative variable than sex. Subjects, who identified with both feminine and masculine characteristics, had the fastest mean response times. Subjects, who did not identify with feminine or masculine characteristics, had the most accurate responses. Subjects who combined higher verbal and spatial working memory capacities had both the fastest and most accurate performances. The results supported other studies indicating a non-linear relationship relating sex, brain lateralization, and accuracy. Covariates related to gravity model variables were also significantly related to performance.     

Recent Literature

This paper studies the role, impact, and effectiveness of geographic information technologies such as GIS. Contemporary frameworks—such as economic evaluation, organizational context, or diffusion—deal with some aspects only. Institutionalization of geographic information technologies is proposed as a paradigm for studying the impact and effectiveness more comprehensively. It refers to the ongoing process within a group or society whereby this technology itself is becoming institutionalized and gaining a strong (normative) impact on common perceptions of spatial problems and, subsequently, on collective actions to remedy these problems. Hence, it is a paradigm that encompasses value, as well as organizational and societal issues, and links these to the level of individual behavior patterns. The paradigm therefore may provide context for economic evaluation, organizational considerations, and diffusion, as well as for other interpretative perspectives. The paper outlines the concept of institutionalization of geographic information technologies and some of its salient factors and conditions. The focus is on feedback and participatory approaches in the design, and choice and implementation of geographic information technologies; whether these are institutionalized or not. Further (empirical) research is needed to explore the practical usefulness of the concept.     

GeoJabber: Enabling Geo-Collaborative Visual Analysis

The GeoJabber concept, protocol, and working prototype software introduced here enable same-time, different-place collaborative geovisualization. The key problem this work addresses is how to turn geovisual software states into persistent textual representations that can be shared between users. In the current implementation, GeoJabber leverages three key Open Source technologies: the GeoViz Toolkit, the Jabber protocol, and XStream. GeoJabber is the first project to support same-time different-place geovisualization tool state sharing. As part of this effort, this paper presents a typology of sharable geovisualization software states, rooted in the concepts of data, display, and category.