Coseismic gravity and displacement changes of Japan Tohoku earthquake(Mw 9.0)

The greatest earthquake in the modern history of Japan and probably the fourth greatest in the last 100 years in the world occurred on March 11, 2011 off the Pacific coast of Tohoku.Large tsunami and ground motions caused severe damage in wide areas, particularly many towns along the Pacific coast. So far, gravity change caused by such a great earthquake has been reported for the 1964 Alaska and the 2010 Maule events. However, the spatial-temporal resolution of the gravity data for these cases is insufficient to depict a co-seismic gravity field variation in a spatial scale of a plate subduction zone. Here, we report an unequivocal co-seismic gravity change over the Japanese Island, obtained from a hybrid gravity observation（combined absolute and relative gravity measurements）. The time interval of the observation before and after the earthquake is within 1 year at almost all the observed sites, including 13 absolute and 16 relative measurement sites, which deduced tectonic and environmental contributions to the gravity change. The observed gravity agrees well with the result calculated by a dislocation theory based on a self-gravitating and layered spherical earth model. In this computation, a co-seismic slip distribution is determined by an inversion of Global Positioning System（GPS） data. Of particular interest is that the observed gravity change in some area is negative where a remarkable subsidence is observed by GPS, which can not be explained by simple vertical movement of the crust. This indicated that the mass redistribution in the underground affects the gravity change. This result supports the result that Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment（GRACE） satellites detected a crustal dilatation due to the 2004 Sumatra earthquake by the terrestrial observation with a higher spatial and temporal resolution.

Water storage changes in North America retrieved from GRACE gravity and GPS data

As global warming continues,the monitoring of changes in terrestrial water storage becomes increasingly important since it plays a critical role in understanding global change and water resource management.In North America as elsewhere in the world,changes in water resources strongly impact agriculture and animal husbandry.From a combination of Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment（GRACE） gravity and Global Positioning System（GPS） data,it is recently found that water storage from August,2002 to March,2011 recovered after the extreme Canadian Prairies drought between 1999 and 2005.In this paper,we use GRACE monthly gravity data of Release 5 to track the water storage change from August,2002 to June,2014.In Canadian Prairies and the Great Lakes areas,the total water storage is found to have increased during the last decade by a rate of 73.8 ± 14.5 Gt/a,which is larger than that found in the previous study due to the longer time span of GRACE observations used and the reduction of the leakage error.We also find a long term decrease of water storage at a rate of-12.0 ± 4.2 Gt/a in Ungava Peninsula,possibly due to permafrost degradation and less snow accumulation during the winter in the region.In addition,the effect of total mass gain in the surveyed area,on present-day sea level,amounts to-0.18 mm/a,and thus should be taken into account in studies of global sea level change.

Characteristics of gravity signal and loading effect in China

The complex geographical environment in China makes its gravity signals miscellaneous.This work gives a comprehensive representation and explanation in secular trend of gravity change in different regions,the key features of which include positive trend in inner Tibet Plateau and South China and negative trend in North China plain and high mountain Asia（HMA）.We also present the patterns of amplitudes and phases of annual and semiannual change.The mechanism underlying the semiannual period is explicitly discussed.The displacement in three directions expressed in terms of geo-potential spherical coefficients and load Love numbers are given.A case study applied with these equations is presented.The results show that Global Positioning System（GPS） observations can be used to compare with Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment（GRACE） derived displacement and the vertical direction has a signal-noise-ratio of about one order of magnitude larger than the horizontal directions.

Slip-draft embedded control system by adaptively adjusting the battery position for electric tractor

A slip-draft embedded control system was designed and developed for an independent developed 2WD(two-wheel drive)electric tractor,to improve the traction efficiency,operation performance and ploughing depth stability of the electric tractor.In this system,the battery of electric tractor was innovatively equivalent to the original counterweight of the fuel tractor.And through dynamic analysis of electric tractor during ploughing,the mathematical model of adjusting the center of gravity about draft force and slip rate was established.Then the automatic adjustment of the center of gravity for electric tractor was realized through the adaptive adjustment of battery position.Finally,the system was carried on electric tractor for performance evaluation under different ploughing conditions,the traction efficiency,slip rate and front wheel load of electric tractor were measured and controlled synchronously to make it close to the set range.And the comparative experiments of ploughing operation were carried out under the two modes of adaptive adjustment of center of gravity and fixed center of gravity.The test results showed that,based on the developed control system,the center of gravity of electric tractor can be adjusted in real time according to the complex changes of working conditions.During ploughing operation with adjusting adaptively battery position,the average values of traction efficiency,slip rate,front wheel load and relative error of tillage depth of electric tractor were 64.5%,22.2%,2045.0 N and 2.0%respectively.Which were optimized by 15.0%,29.5%,19.6%and 80.0%respectively,compared with electric tractor with fixed battery position.The slip-draft embedded control system can not only realize the adaptive adjustment of the center of gravity position in the ploughing process of electric tractor,but also improve the traction efficiency and the stability of ploughing depth,which can provide reference for the actual production operation of electric tractor.