Effect of meridional wind on gap-leaping western boundary current

Using a 1.5-layer reduced-gravity nonlinear shallow-water equation model, we studied the effect of the meridional wind on the western boundary currents (WBC) at critical states with hysteresis courses. The results of the simulation indicate that the WBC is prone to penetrating into the gap under northerly winds, and its path is more difficult to alter due to the larger interval between the two critical transition curves (C1P and C1L). For southerly winds, the WBC is prone to leaping across the gap, and its path is easier to alter due to the smaller interval between the two critical transition curves. The simulation results also indicate that the meridional winds over the southern region of the gap are the dominant factor determining the formation of the WBC. The dynamic mechanism influencing the transport of WBC near the gap is both Ekman transport and the blocking of Ekman transport. Ekman transport induced by northerly winds may reduce the transport of the WBC, causing the β-effect to dominate the meridional advection (promoting the penetration). Southerly winds, however, may enhance the transport of the WBC, causing the meridional advection to dominate the β-effect (promoting the leaping state). These results explain some structural features of the Kuroshio at the Luzon Strait.

The western South China Sea currents from measurements by Argo profiling floats during October to December 2007

The three dimensional structure of the western boundary current east of the Vietnam coast was determined from measurements by Argo profiling floats which deployed near the east of the Vietnam Coast in October 2007. The trajectories of the Argo floats provided robust evidence that there does exist southward flowing current along the Vietnam coast. The southward current begins at about 15°N, 111°E, flowing along the 1 000 m isobath and extending to 5°N south. The estimated surface and parking depth velocities obtained from the floats suggest that this southward current can extend to 1 000 m depth. The mean surface velocity of the western boundary current is about 49 cm/s, with the maximum speed exceeding 100 cm/s occurring at 11.6°N, 109.5°E in the direction of 245°. The mean parking depth （1 000 m） velocity is 12-16 cm/s with the maximum speed of 36 cm/s occurring at 12.1°N, 109.7°E in the direction of 239°. The water mass analysis suggests that the Kuroshio surface water and NPIW are not apparent in the western boundary current although this time was the favored season for the Kuroshio intrusion into Luzon Strait. The mean geostrophic currents suggest that the Kuroshio intrusion into Luzon Strait during October to December 2007 is very weak, as most of the intruding water was carried eastward at 14°N near the western boundary and little flowed southward along the western boundary, providing an explanation for the absence of Kuroshio surface water and NPIW in the water mass analysis. There is a strong cyclonic circulation in the SSCS during this time, which induces a strong mixing in the western boundary companied by a homogeneous salinity layer between 300 600 m in the salinity vertical distribution. No reversal undercurrent occurred at the intermediate depth along the western boundary east of the Vietnam coast during October to December 200%

Observation of the abyssal western boundary current in the Philippine Sea

Mooring observations were conducted from July 16, 2011 to March 30, 2012 east of Mindanao, Philippines （127°2.8＇E, 8°0.3＇N） to observe the abyssal current at about 5 600 m deep and 500 m above the ocean bottom. Several features were revealed： 1） the observed abyssal current was highly variable with standard deviations of 57.3 mrn/s and 34.0 ram/s, larger than the mean values of-31.9 and 16.6 mm/s for the zonal and meridional components, respectively; 2） low-frequency current longer than 6 days exhibited strong seasonal variation, flowing southeastward （mean flow direction of 119.0° clockwise from north） before about October 1, 2011 and northwestward （mean flow direction of 60.5° counter-clockwise from north） thereafter; 3） the high-frequency flow bands were dominated by tidal currents O1, K1, M2, and S2, and near-inertial currents, whose frequencies were higher than the local inertial frequency. The two diurnal tidal constituents were much stronger than the two semidiumal ones. This study provides for the first time an observational insight into the abyssal western boundary current east of Mindanao based on long-term observations at one site. It is meaningful for further research into the deep and abyssal circulation over the whole Philippine Sea and the 3D structure of the westem boundary current system in this region. More observational and high-resolution model studies are needed to examine the spatial structure and temporal variation of the abyssal current over a much larger space and longer period, their relation to the upper-layer circulation, and the underlying dynamics.

Homotopic Mapping Solving Method for Perturbed Mechanism of Western Boundary Undercurrents in Equator Pacific

The perturbed boundary undercurrent is an exceptional event in the tropical atmosphere and ocean. It is a complicated nonlinear system. Its appearance badly affects not only natural conditions such as climate and environment, but also global economic development and human living, and brings about many calamities. Thus there is very attractive study on its rules in the international academic circles. Many scholars made more studies on its local and whole behaviors using different methods, such as self-anamnestic principle, Fokker-Plank Equation method, higher order singular pedigree and predictable study, rapid change on boundary, indeterminate adaptive control, multi-eogradient method and so on. Nonlinear perturbed theory and approximate method are very attractive studies in the international academic circles. Many scholars considered a class of nonlinear problems for the ordinary differential equation, the reaction diffusion equations, the boundary value of elliptic equation, the initial boundary value of hyperbolic equation, the shock layer solution of nonlinear equation and so on. In this paper, a class of perturbed mechanism for the western boundary undercurrents in the equator Pacific is considered. Under suitable conditions, using a homotopic mapping theory and method, we obtain a simple and rapid arbitrary order approximate solution for the corresponding nonlinear system. For example, a special case shows that using the homotopic mapping method, there is a high accuracy for the computed value. It is also provided from the results that the solution for homotopic mapping solving method can be used for analyzing operator for perturbed mechanism of western boundary undercurrents in the equator Pacific.

A Landscape Pattern Analysis Method Based on Boundaries and Nodes:A Case Study in Upper Minjiang River,China

Traditionally,patch-based analysis at the landscape scale fragmentation has been used in the study of landscape ecology while the study of boundary and node has not been considered as much detail until recently.This study investigated the possibility of applying boundary-and node-based methods in landscape pattern analysis to the upper reaches of the Minjiang River in the southwestern China.Boundary-based and node-based landscape indices were selected to be used in analyzing changes in landscape patterns,and the results were compared with analysis using traditional pattern indices.We compared the responses of patch-area-based,boundary-length-based and node-number-based indices,and concluded that boundary-based and node-based indices are more sensitive to disturbance than patch-based indices with various patterns,and node-based indices are even more sensitive than boundary-based ones.Thus,the results suggest that boundary-based and node-based pattern analysis methods provide helpful supplementary information to traditional patch-based pattern analysis methods.The results about pattern dynamics of landscapes in the upper reaches of the Minjiang River based on boundaries and nodes showed that with human disturbance,the dominance of forest landscape was weakened by other landscape types;thus the landscape pattern of the study area became more homogeneous and the boundary network became more complex.These changes further augmented disturbance interfaces in the landscape and increased the possibilities of further landscape fragmentation.

Variations in the northern permafrost boundary over the last four decades in the Xidatan region, Qinghai–Tibet Plateau

The distribution and variations of permafrost in the Xidatan region, the northern permafrost boundary of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, were examined and analyzed using ground penetrating radar(GPR), borehole drilling, and thermal monitoring data. Results from GPR profiles together with borehole verification indicate that the lowest elevation limit of permafrost occurrence is 4369 m above sea level in 2012. Compared to previous studies, the maximal rise of permafrost limit is 28 m from 1975 to 2012. The total area of permafrost in the study region has been decreased by 13.8%. One of the two previously existed permafrost islands has disappeared and second one has reduced by 76% in area during the past ~40 years. In addition, the ground temperature in the Xidatan region has increased from 2012 to 2016, with a mean warming rate of ~0.004℃ a^(-1) and ~0.003℃ a^(-1) at the depths of 6 and 15 m, respectively. The rising of permafrost limit in the Xidatan region is mainly due to globalwarming. However, some non-climatic factors such as hydrologic processes and anthropic disturbances have also induced permafrost degradation. If the air temperature continues to increase, the northern permafrost boundary in the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau may continue rising in the future.

Topographic Characteristics for the Geomorphologic Zones in the Northwestern Edge of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau

Based on geomorphologic and digital elevation model(DEM) data, the topographic characteristics of the northwestern edge of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau are analyzed. Five representative peaks are first determined according to the topographic profile maps for the ridge and piedmont lines, and then the topographic gradient characteristics are analyzed according to the representative topographic profile acquisition method.Based on the geomorphologic database data, the regions between the ridge and the piedmont lines are divided into four geomorphologic zones; and the topographic characteristics are finally analyzed for the different geomorphologic zones regions using the DEM data. The research results show that from the piedmont to the ridge, there exist four geomorphologic zones: arid, fluvial, periglacial and glacial. The arid has the lowest elevation, topographic gradient, relief and slope characteristics. The fluvial has lower elevation and the highest topographic gradient, but with lower relief and slope characteristics. With higher elevation, the periglcial has lower topographic gradient, but the highest relief and slope characteristics. The glacial has the highest elevation with higher topographic gradient, relief and slope characteristics.

Application of highwall mining system in weak geological condition

Almost all the coal is produced from open cut mines in Indonesia. As a consequence of open cut mine application, a great deal of coal is left out in the highwalls of the mined-out pits. Highwall mining systems can be used to recover this coal. The use of highwall mining systems has increasingly come into play in the US and Australia. However, it is not common in Indonesia. Moreover, Indonesia coal measure is categorized as weak geological condition. Some problems are likely to arise during the application of the highwall mining system for example instability of openings and highwalls due to the roof and pillar failures. Therefore, study of highwall mining system application in Indonesia is needed in order to increase the recovery rate of coal mining in Indonesia. This paper described the characteristics of the highwa!l mining system and discussed the appropriate highwall mining system application in weak geological condition, Indonesia. From the results of a series of laboratory tests and numerical analyses, it can be concluded that the stability of pillars and mine openings in auger mining systems is much higher than that in CHM and an auger mining system is suitable for such as very weak/poor strata conditions. Moreover, the application of backfilling system is very effective for improvement of the stability of pillar and openings.

Heavy Metals in Water and Bottom Sediments of Odessa Region of the Black Sea

The paper presents the results of a comprehensive monitoring of the polygon： ＂Odessa Region, north-western part of the Black Sea＂ for the period 2009-2011. It is shown that most of the copper and nickel is brought into the sea from the catchment area, and zinc and cadmium are mainly of the autochthonous origin. It is found that in 2010, after heavy rains, the area of bottom sediments contaminated by copper and nickel was increased. The main source of copper in the sea is vast vineyards.

Surface sediment diatoms from the western Pacific marginal seas and their correlation to environmental variables

Diatom data of 192 surface sediment samples from the marginal seas in the western Pacific together with modern summer and winter sea surface temperature and salinity data were analyzed.The results of canonical correspondence analysis show that summer sea-surface salinity(SSS) is highly positively correlated with winter SSS and so is summer sea-surface temperature(SST) with winter SST.The correlations between SSSs and SSTs are less positively correlated,which may be due to interactions of regional current pattern and monsoon climate.The correlations between diatom species,sample sites and environmental variables concur with known diatom ecology and regional oceanographic characters.The results of forward selection of the environmental variables and associated Monte Carlo permutation tests of the statistical significance of each variable suggest that summer SSS and winter SST are the main environmental factors affecting the diatom distribution in the area and therefore preserved diatom data from down core could be used for reconstructions of summer SSS and winter SST in the region.

How Waterways, Glacial Melt Waters, and Earthquakes Re-aligned Ancient Rivers and Changed Illinois Borders

The borders of Illinois were established when Illinois became a state in 1818. The western border was delineated using the Mississippi River, and the Ohio River was used as the southern border. The eastern border was formed by the Ohio and Wabash Rivers plus the line along latitude 42030＇30＇＇ connecting the Wabash River to Lake Michigan. As initially proposed, the northern border of Illinois would have been 82 km （51 mi） to the south of the current longitude line of 87~31 ＇. This 2,160,000 ha （5,440,000 ac） addition to Illinois resulted in the territory having the required minimum of 40,000 people to qualify as a state. The northern border was moved to allow the linkage of the Great Lakes shipping route to the Illinois and Mississippi River navigation channels. Illinois thus gained a valuable shoreline on Lake Michigan and a location for a shipping port hub which became Chicago. Initially the transfer of goods between these waterways required a portage, but later a shipping canal was created to link the waterways. During the Civil War, Union forces used the connected waterway systems as a northern supply route to avoid the contested Ohio River.

Interannual variations of surface winds over China marginal seas

In a study of surface monsoon winds over the China marginal seas, Sun et al. （2012） use singular value decomposition method to identify regional dominant modes and analyze their interdecadal variability. This paper continues to evaluate the interannual variability of each dominant mode and its relation to various atmospheric, oceanic and land factors. The findings include： 1） The intensity of the winter monsoon over the East China Sea is highly correlated with the Siberian High intensity and anti-correlated with the latitudinal position of the Aleutian Low as well as the rainfall in eastern China, Korean Peninsula and Japan; 2） The western Pacific subtropical high is significantly correlated with the summer monsoon intensity over the East China Sea and anti-correlated with the summer monsoon over the South China Sea; 3） The winter monsoon in a broad zonal belt through the Luzon Strait is dominated by the ENSO signal, strengthening in the La Nifia phase and weakening in the E1 Nifio phase. This inverse relation exhibits interdecadal shift with a period of weak correlation in the 1980s; 4） Analysis of tidal records validates the interdecadal weakening of the East Asian summer monsoon and reveals an atmospheric bridge that conveys the ENSO signal into the South China Sea via the winter monsoon.

Study on the Development and Protection of the Historical Figures Resources in China＇s Guangxi Border Areas -- Mrs. WA Cultural Resource Is Taken for Example

Guangxi is in the southwest border of China, and Guilin landscape and ethnic customs as the two ＂trump cards＂ have been widely utilized in the communication between Guaaagxi and the outside world. In fact, Guangxi owns many cultural resources such as humanity history, characteristic diet, and local operas to be further promoted, among which historical figures resources are especially abundant. However, the development and protection of the historical figures resources are inconsistent with the current economic and social development, and feature obviously certain hysteresis. In this paper, by taking Mrs. WA who was a heroine of the Zhuang nationality to resist foreign invasions in the Ming Dynasty, the necessary development road of the historical figures resources is explored based on analyzing the current development and protection of the historical figures resources in China＇ s Guangxi border areas, and then innovative concepts and new ideas are proposed with great efforts.

Deep-seated large-scale toppling failure in metamorphic rocks：a case study of the Erguxi slope in southwest China

Deep-seated large-scale toppling failure presents unique challenges in the study of natural slope deformation process in mountainous regions.An active deep-seated toppling process was identified in the Erguxi slope located in southwest China,which affected a large area and damaged critical transportation infrastructure with the volume of the deforming rock mass exceeding 24×10~6 m^3.It poses significant risks to the downstream Shiziping Hydropower Station by damming the Zagunao River.Field investigation and monitoring results indicate that the deformation of the Erguxi slope is in the advanced stage of deep-seated toppling process,with the formation of a disturbed belt but no identifiable master failure surface.It was postulated that the alternating tensile and shear strength associated with the hard/soft laminated rock strata of metasandstone and phyllite layers preclude the development of either a tensile or shear failure surface,which resulted in the continuous deformation and displacement without a catastrophic mass movement.The slope movement is in close association with the unfavorable geological conditions of the study area in addition to the construction of transportation infrastructure and the increase of the reservoir level.On the basis of the mechanism and intensity of the ongoing toppling deformation,a qualitative grading system was proposed to describe the toppling process and toevaluate the slope stability.This paper summarized the field observation and monitoring data on the toppling deformation for better characterizing its effect on the stability of the Erguxi slope.The qualitative grading system intends to provide a basis for quantitative study of large-scale deep-seated toppling process in metamorphic rocks.

Reversal process of the South China Sea western boundary current in autumn 2011

Using merged sea level anomaly and absolute geostrophic velocity products from satellite altimetry and Argos drifter data, we analyzed the reversal process of the South China Sea （SCS） westem boundary current （SCSwbc） from a summer to winter pattern in 2011 and important oceanic phenomena during this process. Results show that the outbreak time of the northeast monsoon over the southern SCS lagged that over the northern SCS by about 1 month. During the SCS monsoon reversal period, the SCSwbc reversed rapidly into the winter pattern at the Guangdong continental slope in late September. Subsequently, the southward Vietnam coastal boundary current strengthened. However, the northward Natuna Current maintained a summer state until mid-October. Thus, the balance between the southward and northward currents was lost when they met, their junction moved gradually southward. However, a loop current formed southeast of Vietnam because the main stream of the Vietnam Offshore Current （VOC） remained near its original latitude, Meanwhile, the VOC and associated dipole circulation system strengthened. After mid- October, the northward Natuna Current began to weaken, the loop current finally shed, becoming a cool ring. The VOC and its associated dipole sub-basin circulation system also weakened gradually until it disappeared.

Conflict Within the Boundary of Nature Reserve： The Case of Crocker Range Park in Sabah, Malaysia

For the formation of nature reserves can directly affect the livelihood of indigenous people living in the area, negotiation between the authority and the community is crucial to the management of the natural resources. Crocker Range Park is the largest state park in Sabah state, Malaysia. Since there is a village community living within the boundary of the nature reserve, the state government and the villagers have had a conflict over the land rights. Until the government and the village delegation reached an agreement on the park＇s management plan in 2015, three actors intervened in the conflict： PACOS Trust, Japan International Cooperation Agency （JICA）, and Japan Overseas Cooperation Volunteers （JOCV）. In this study, these interventions by different actors were analyzed with the Tripartite Conflict Management （TCM} model. The results indicate that JOCV was the sole actor that was able to communicate with both the state government and the villagers. To support the result, a preliminary research was conducted, and the villagers＇ perception was investigated through a questionnaire survey. This paper concludes that JOCV was perceived as an actor that can be trusted more than JICA and the state government. This conclusion supports the result of the analysis of TCM model.

Failure precursor of surrounding rock mass around cross tunnel in high-steep rock slope

The stability of the surrounding rock mass around cross tunnel in the right bank slope of Dagangshan hydropower station, in the southwestern China, was analyzed by microseismic monitoring as well as numerical simulations. The realistic failure process analysis code （abbreviated as RFPA3D） was employed to reproduce the initiation, propagation, coalescence and interactions of micro-fractures, the evolution of associated stress fields and acoustic emission （AE） activities during the whole failure processes of the surrounding rock mass around cross tunnel. Combined with microseismic activities by microseismic monitoring on the fight bank slope, the spatial-temporal evolution and the micro-fracture precursor characteristics during the complete process of progressive failure of the surrounding rock mass around cross tunnel were discussed and the energy release law of the surrounding rock mass around the cross tunnel was obtained. The result shows that the precursor characteristic of microfractures occurring in rock mass is an effective approach to early warn catastrophic damage of rock mass around cross tunnel. Moreover, the heterogeneity of rock mass is the source and internal cause of the failure precursor of rock mass.

Mechanism of formation of sliding ground fissure in loess hilly areas caused by underground mining

Based on a shallow-buried coal seam covered with thick loose layers in hilly loess areas of western China,we developed a mechanical model for a mining slope with slope stability analysis, and studied the mechanism of formation and development of a sliding ground fissure by the circular sliding slice method.Moreover, we established a prediction model of a sliding fissure based on a mechanical mechanism,and verified its reliability on face 52,304, an engineering example, situated at Daliuta coal mine of Shendong mining area in western China. The results show that the stress state of a mining slope is changed by its gravity and additional stress from the shallow-buried coal seam and gully terrain. The mining slope is found to be most unstable when the ratio of the down-sliding to anti-sliding force is the maximum, causing local fractures and sliding fissures. The predicted angles for the sliding fissure of face 52,304 on both sides of the slope are found to be 64.2° and 82.4°, which are in agreement with the experimental data.

The impacts of different surface boundary conditions for sea surface salinity on simulation in an OGCM

An OGCM, LICOM2.0, was used to investigate the effects of different surface boundary conditions for sea surface salinity （SSS） on simulations of global mean salinity, SSS, and the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation （AMOC）. Four numerical experiments （CTRL, Expl, Exp2 and Exp3） were designed with the same forcing data-set, CORE.v2, and different surface boundary conditions for SSS~ A new surface salinity boundary condition that consists of both virtual and real salt fluxes was adopted in the fourth experiment （Exp3）. Compared with the other experiments, the new salinity boundary condition prohibited a monotonous increasing or decreasing global mean salinity trend. As a result, global salinity was approximately conserved in EXP3. In the default salinity boundary condition setting in LICOM2.0, a weak restoring salinity term plays an essential role in reducing the simulated SSS bias, tending to increase the global mean salinity. However, a strong restoring salinity term under the sea ice can reduce the global mean salinity. The authors also found that adopting simulated SSS in the virtual salt flux instead of constant reference salinity improved the simulation of AMOC, whose strength became closer to that observed.

Crustal Deformation Background Simulation of the Kekexili M_S8.1 Earthquake Happening in 2001

Using the GPS velocity data from 27 stations around the Eastern Kunlun fault as constraints, we first invert the slip velocities of the Eastern Kuniun fault, the north boundary fault of the Qaidam basin, the Mani-Yushu fault and the Margai Caka fault before the Kekexili Ms 8.1 earthquake with a 3-D elastic half-space dislocation model. The deformation field calculated from the slip movement of these faults can be considered the deformation background field of the earthquake. Based on the deformation background field with tectonic implications, we have obtained the strain field and earthquake moment accumulation field. The results show that there are two obvious high moment accumulation rate regions, one of which is the Dongdatan- Xidatan segment of the Eastern Kuniun fault where the Ms8.1 earthquake occurred in 2001.