The Upper Pleistocene to Holocene sediments on the Mediterranean island of Lampedusa (Italy)

The island of Lampedusa lies on the northern edge of the African continental shelf, but during some Quaternary marine lowstands it was joined to the African continent. The study and dating of the aeolian, alluvial, detrital sediments, calcareous crusts and speleothems have established that the climatic–environmental variations recorded on the island can be related chronologically to those known for northern Libya, Tunisia and the Italian peninsula. During the Last Glacial Maximum, phases of Saharan dust accumulation on Lampedusa occurred, and were coeval with dust accumulation in crater lakes and on high mountains in central‐southern Italy, and with phases of glacial advance in the Apennines and in the Alps. During the late Holocene, accumulation of Saharan dust on Lampedusa occurred but there was little accumulation of dust on the northern side of the Mediterranean Sea. With the new data from Lampedusa, it is possible to envisage two different scenarios of atmospheric circulation relating to the Last Glacial Maximum and to the late Holocene. During the Last Glacial Maximum, southerly atmospheric circulation brought rainfall to the southern slopes of the Alps and to the Apennines. During the late Holocene, a prevalent westerly atmospheric circulation became established in the northern Mediterranean. Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

全球海洋与大气界面的熵通量估算

给出并讨论了海洋系统中由于热量交换、物质交换以及外力做功引起的熵通量的表达式;同时,根据新近调整的全球海 气界面的气候平均资料,估计了全球海洋与大气界面气候年平均的熵通量(熵流),这一熵通量主要取决于海 气界面的热量和物质交换的空间不均匀性。计算结果显示,由热量交换分量引起的熵通量对海洋系统的总熵通量起到主要的贡献作用,其值约为-555.6mW·(m2·K)-1;由海表风应力做功引起的熵通量相对较小,约为-0.09mW·(m2·K)-1;由物质交换引起的熵通量最小,仅为-0.02mW·(m2·K)-1。总的来说,海洋系统从外界获得的总熵通量为-555.7mW·(m2·K)-1,这也就意味着在气候平均定态下,海洋系统内部的熵产生在量值上等于系统的熵交换,即为555.7mW·(m2·K)-1。海洋系统的负熵流与其内部的各种不可逆过程引起的熵产生取得平衡,确保了全球海洋系统处于非平衡热力学定态,并维持着海洋系统中各种尺度的时 空有序现象的消长过程。     

The impact of the M2 internal tide on data-assimilative model estimates of the surface tide

We use a synthetic data experiment to assess the accuracy of ocean tides estimated from satellite altimetry data, with emphasis on the impact of the phase-locked internal tide, which has a surface expression of several centimeters near its sites of genesis. Previous tidal estimates have regarded this signal as a random measurement error; however, it is deterministic and not scale-separated from the barotropic (surface) tide around complex bathymetric features. The synthetic data experiments show that the internal tide has a negligible impact on the barotropic tidal fields inferred under these circumstances, and the barotropic dissipation (a quadratic functional of the tidal fields) is in good agreement with the energetics of the three-dimensional regional primitive equations model which is the source of the synthetic data.     

海上矿石运输最优船队的组建

针对海上矿石运输，介绍了一种完成定量任务并能使投资费用最少为目标的最优船队组建方法，同时对易变参数进行了灵敏度分析，使决策更加科学化     

三次样条函数在海洋水文资料整理中的应用

本文引入三次样条函数插值法,并尝试用于海洋资料处理。根据渤海及北黄海部分海洋站的历史资料进行了试验。用SHARP—PC—1211袖珍计算机进行计算,并将资料处理的结果与传统的过程曲线法订正值作了比较。结果表明,二者之间的误差不大,而样条函数拟合更好。作者认为三次样条函数插值法是可行的,在处理海洋资料时间序列中是有效的。在有温跃层的地方,如何应用,本文也给出了必要的说明。     

A note on the seafloor coupling characteristics of the new ONR ocean-bottom seismometer

A series of transient tests were conducted to determine the seafloor coupling characteristics of a new ocean-bottom seismometer (OBS) developed for the United States Office of Naval Research (ONR). The OBS comprises a large recording package and a separate sensor package that is deployed from the recording package. In addition to the coupling characteristics of both the sensor and the recording packages, the seismic energy radiated from the main recording package as a result of motion of the recording package was measured. The observed vertical coupling resonances of both the recording package and the sensor package are in good agreement with those predicted by a simple model of soil-structure interaction. The most important result of this study is that significant energy is radiated from the recording package in response to horizontal motions of the recording package. When the sensor package is 1 m from the recording package, the amplitude of the recorded signal is similar to that recorded in the recording package. In the field, this effect will result in distortion of seismic signals and increased background noise recorded by the sensor package if the recording package is disturbed by seafloor currents or biological activity. The amplitude of this signal attenuates by approximately a factor of two as sensor/recorder separation is increased from 1 to 6 m, suggesting that an improved response can be achieved by increasing the separation between the recording package and the sensors. This effect is much less severe for vertical disturbances of the recording package.