Possible Thermal Brightness Temperature Anomalies Associated with the Yutian (China) M_S7.3 Earthquake on February 12,2014

In order to analyze the seismic brightness temperature anomalies associated with the Yutian earthquake which occurred at Yutian County, Xinjiang on February 12,2014, daily brightness temperature data was collected from the China Geostationary Meteorological Satellite FY-2E,for the period from May 1,2012 to April 30,2014 and the geographical extent of 30°- 45°N latitude and 70°- 95°E longitude. The continuous wavelet transform method was used to analyze the relative wavelet power spectrum( RWPS) of brightness temperature data for each pixel. And the RWPS time-spatial evolution within the analysis area was obtained. The results showed that the anomaly started to appear at the vicinity of epicentre since October 2013, and anomalous areas gradually enlarged and stretched towards to Altun fault zone and the eastern part of West Kunlun fault zone. Anomalies began to appear at fault zones at Middle Tianshan Mountains, Southern Tianshan Mountains and the western part of the West Kunlun Mountains area which is located at the western margin of Tarim basin,since November 2013. Then anomalous area further enlarged and gathered along fault zones,and eventually,anomalous belts were developed along fault zones around the Tarim basin. The anomaly area and amplitude reached their maximum in late December 2013 and early January 2014. With the impending earthquake,the anomaly area and amplitude dwindled. Anomalies at the vicinity of epicentre disappeared days before the occurrence of the main shock. However, the anomaly at Altun and Middle Tianshan areas still remained. After the main shock,the anomaly attenuated quickly and the whole anomaly disappeared in late February 2014.

Geochemical Indications of Possible Gas Hydrates in the Northeastern South China Sea

Gas hydrate, mainly composed of hydrocarbon gas and water, is considered to be a clean energy in the 21st century. Many indicators such as BSRs （Bottom-Simulating Reflections）, which are thought to be related to gas hydrate, are found in the South China Sea （SCS） in recent years. The northeastern part of the SCS is taken as one of the most potentials in the area by many scientists. It is situated in the conjunction of the northern divergent continental margin and the eastern convergent island margin, whose geological settings are much preferable for gas hydrate to occur. Through this study, brightness temperature anomalies recorded by satellite-based thermal infrared remotely sensed images before or within the imminent earthquake, the high content of hydrocarbon gas acid-degassed from subsurface sediment and the high radioactive thermoluminescence value of subsurface sediment were found in the region. Sometimes brightness temperature anomalies alone exist in the surrounding of the Dongsha Islands. The highest content of hydrocarbon gas amounts to 393 μL methane per kilogram sediment and the highest radioactive thermoluminescence value is 31752 unit; their geometric averages are 60.5 μL/kg and 2688.9 unit respectively. What is more inspiring is that there are three sites where the methane contents are up to 243, 268 and 359μL/kg and their radioactive thermoluminescence values are 8430, 9537 and 20826 unit respectively. These three locations are just in the vicinity of one of the highest confident BSRs identified by predecessors. Meanwhile, the anomalies are generally coincident with other results such as headspace gas anomaly in the sediment and chloride anomaly in the interstitial water in the site 1146 of Leg 184. The above-mentioned anomalies are most possibly to indicate the occurrence of gas hydrate in the northeastern SCS.

A Scheme for Estimating Tropical Cyclone Intensity Using AMSU-A Data

Brightness temperature anomalies measured by the Advanced Microwave Sounding Unit （AMSU） on the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration （NOAA） polar-orbiting series are suited to estimate tropical cyclone （TC） intensity by virtue of their ability to assess changes in tropospheric warm core struc-ture in the presence of clouds. Analysis of the measurements from different satellites shows that the variable horizontal resolution of the instrument has significant effects on the observed brightness temperature anoma-lies. With the aim to decrease these effects on TC intensity estimation more easily and effectively, a new simple correction algorithm, which is related to the product of the brightness temperature gradient near the TC center and the size of the field-of-view （FOV） observing the TC center, is proposed to modify the observed anomalies. Without other measurements, the comparison shows that the performance of the new algorithm is better than that of the traditional, physically-based algorithm. Furthermore, based on the correction algorithm, a new scheme, in which the brightness temperature anomalies at 31.4 GHz and 89 GHz accounting for precipitation effects are directly used as the predictors with those at 54.94 GHz and 55.5 GHz, is developed to estimate TC intensity in the western North Pacific basin. The collocated AMSU-A observations from NOAA-16 with the best track （BT） intensity data from the Japan Meteorological Agency （JMA） in 2002-2003 and in 2004 are used respectively to develop and validate regression coefficients. For the independent validation dataset, the scheme yields 8.4 hPa of the root mean square error and 6.6 hPa of the mean absolute error. For the 81 collocated cases in the western North Pacific basin and for the 24 collocated cases in the Atlantic basin, compared to the BT data, the standard deviations of the estimation differences of the results are 15% and 11% less than those of the CIMSS （Cooperative Institute for Meteorological Satellite Studies, University of Wisconsin-Madison） TC intensity AMSU estimation products.