Observation on Height Changes of Chinese Tide Gauges by GPS

The height changes of tide gauges directly influence sea level observation. For research of sea level variation in large region or globe, the land vertical displacement must be considered. Two sessions of GPS and absolute gravity observations in 2001 and 2003 are used to determine the horizontal and vertical motion of China coast in ITRF2000 and Eurasia frame. The difference between results of continuous observation and periodic observation is discussed.

Habitat suitability response to sea-level height changes: Implications for Ommastrephid squid conservation and management

Sea level rise,amplified by anthropogenic climate change,causes visible impacts on wildlife habitats in low-lying coastal areas.However,the potential consequences of sea level height(SLH)changes for pelagic fish habitats in the open oceans are poorly understood,especially for climate-sensitive Ommastrephid squid.In this study,the impacts of SLH changes were estimated under three different SLH change scenarios(5 cm,20 cm,and 35 cm)for the western stock of winter-spring neon flying squid Ommastrephes bartramii,an ecologically-and commercially-important species in the northwest Pacific Ocean(NWPO).A habitat suitability index(HSI)modeling approach was applied to predict the habitat suitability of O.bartramii,using data from 2006 to 2014 for model construction and data from 2015 for model validation.Results showed that the decreasing catch-per-unit-effort(CPUE)of O.bartramii from 2006 to 2015 was highly correlated with the increases in sea level height(SLH).Significant positive relationships were found between the HSI values for latitudinal centers of gravity(LATGHSI)and SLH.The monthly-averaged HSI of O.bartramii was negatively correlated with the SLH,except in July and November.SLH scenarios revealed that the predicted suitable habitat(areas with HSI≥0.6)exhibited a decreasing trend with increasing SLH from August to October.In July and November,the suitable habitat initially increased in the+5 cm and+20 cm scenarios,but largely declined under the+35 cm scenario.The poor habitat(areas with HSI≤0.2)significantly increased under all SLH scenarios.A poleward shift of LATGHSI was observed under all scenarios.These findings suggest that the O.bartramii habitats in the NWPO are at risk to SLH changes and have important implications for better conservation and fishery management regarding pelagic short-lived Ommastrephid squid in global oceans.

Dynamics and Wheel's Slip Ratio of a Wheel-legged Robot in Wheeled Motion Considering the Change of Height

The existing research on dynamics and slip ratio of wheeled mobile robot （WMR） are derived without considering the effect of height, and the existing models can not be used to analyze the dynamics performance of the robot with variable height while moving such as NOROS- Ⅱ. The existing method of dynamics modeling is improved by adding the constraint equation between perpendicular displacement of body and horizontal displacement of wheel into the constraint conditions. The dynamic model of NOROS- Ⅱ in wheel motion is built by the Lagrange method under nonholonomic constraints. The inverse dynamics is calculated in three different paths based on this model, and the results demonstrate that torques of hip pitching joints are inversely proportional to the height of robot. The relative error of calculated torques is less than 2% compared with that of ADAMS simulation, by which the validity of dynamic model is verified, Moreover, the relative horizontal motion between fore/hind wheels and body is produced when the height is changed, and thus the accurate slip ratio can not be obtained by the traditional equation. The improved slip ratio equations with the parameter of the vertical velocity of body are introduced for fore wheels and hind wheels respectively. Numerical simulations of slip ratios are conducted to reveal the effect of varied height on slip ratios of different wheels. The result shows that the slip ratios of fore/hind wheels become larger/smaller respectively as the height increases, and as the height is reduced, the reverse applies. The proposed research of dynamic model and slip ratio based on the robot height provides the effective method to analyze the dynamics of WMRs with varying height.

On the application of DInSAR to deformation monitoring in desert areas

The DInSAR technique is used for monitoring the desert height changes to study sandstorms. Hunshandake Sandy Land, as the test area, is one of the main sources of sandstorms in Beijing. In order to study the sandstorm source and its impact, a pair of EnviSat ASAR images of Oct. 11, 2005, and Oct. 26, 2004, is processed on the basis of analysis of six ERS-2 and EnviSat radar images. After the image configuration, flat earth effect correction, data filtering, phase unwrapping, and geo-coding, a deformation model over Hunshandake desert is built. According to the results, the height decreased in most areas and increased in a few areas, which basically coincides with the strong sandstorm appearing in Beijing in the Spring of 2005. The results show DInSAR has an important role in monitoring of desert surface deformation.

Monthly gravity field recovery from GRACE orbits and K-band measurements using variational equations approach

The Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment（GRACE） mission can significantly improve our knowledge of the temporal variability of the Earth＇s gravity field.We obtained monthly gravity field solutions based on variational equations approach from GPS-derived positions of GRACE satellites and K-band range-rate measurements.The impact of different fixed data weighting ratios in temporal gravity field recovery while combining the two types of data was investigated for the purpose of deriving the best combined solution.The monthly gravity field solution obtained through above procedures was named as the Institute of Geodesy and Geophysics（IGG） temporal gravity field models.IGG temporal gravity field models were compared with GRACE Release05（RL05） products in following aspects：（i） the trend of the mass anomaly in China and its nearby regions within 2005-2010; （ii） the root mean squares of the global mass anomaly during 2005-2010; （iii） time-series changes in the mean water storage in the region of the Amazon Basin and the Sahara Desert between 2005 and 2010.The results showed that IGG solutions were almost consistent with GRACE RL05 products in above aspects（i）-（iii）.Changes in the annual amplitude of mean water storage in the Amazon Basin were 14.7 ± 1.2 cm for IGG,17.1 ± 1.3 cm for the Centre for Space Research（CSR）,16.4 ± 0.9 cm for the GeoForschungsZentrum（GFZ） and 16.9 ± 1.2 cm for the Jet Propulsion Laboratory（JPL） in terms of equivalent water height（EWH）,respectively.The root mean squares of the mean mass anomaly in Sahara were 1.2 cm,0.9 cm,0.9 cm and 1.2 cm for temporal gravity field models of IGG,CSR,GFZ and JPL,respectively.Comparison suggested that IGG temporal gravity field solutions were at the same accuracy level with the latest temporal gravity field solutions published by CSR,GFZ and JPL.