Trends in gravity changes from 2009 to 2013 derived from ground-based gravimetry and GRACE data in North China

North China is a key region for studying geophysical progress. In this study, ground-based and Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment（GRACE） gravity data from 2009 to 2013 are used to calculate the gravity change rate（GCR） using the polynomial fitting method. In general, the study area was divided into the Shanxi rift, Jing-Jin-Ji（Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei Province）, and Bohai Bay Basin（BBB） regions. Results of the distribution of the GCR determined from ground-based gravimetry show that the GCR appears to be ＂negativepositive-negative＂ from west to east, which indicates that different geophysical mechanisms are involved in the tectonic activities of these regions. However, GRACE solutions are conducted over a larger spatial scale and are able to show a difference between southern and northern areas and a mass redistribution of land water storage.

Some Problems Concerning Geologic Structure with Double Layers in Urban Underground Lifeline Engineering

Underground lifeline engineering (ULE for short) in modern city demands the appreciation of an active fault in buried bedrock . Generally speaking , a large number of urban geological textures of a basement may all be simplified into a dual geological texture model , i. e., the upper part of the basement consists of loose covering layer and the lower part consists of bedrock . The study of an active fault should include three parts of contents , i . e ., to determine the lower time limit of activity of the fault , and the time limit must be recognized by both of designing engineers and geologists ; on the basis of the studies of repetition periods of earthquake occurrence to deter mine whether the fault moves or not during the allowed time of efficacy of buildings and constructions ; for the sake of engineering practice , the active rate of the fault must be given . The fault with different active mechanism has different effects on the ULE . The authors studied the effect of lateral non-uniform overburden site on the ULE by means of the supersonic earthquake modelling . Owing to the lateral non - uniformity of the covering sediments , there occurs an obvious jump of amplitude of the seismic wave propagation near the contact surface between two different sedi ments . In addition , from the modelling experiment curves it may be seen that the different focus mechanisms and different medium characters may also exert an effect in different degrees .

Meridional movement of northern and southern equatorial ionization anomaly crests in the East-Asian sector during 2002-2003SSW

The present paper investigates the asymmetrical variability of the location of the north and the south equatorial ionization anomaly(EIA) crests in the East-Asian sector,along with their association with simultaneous observations of equatorial electrojet(EEJ) strength,geomagnetic activity index,and solar flux index during the 2002-2003 sudden stratospheric wanning(SSW) event.Analysis of these observations indicates the existence of a large-scale quasi 16-day periodic meridional movement in both EIA crests,and also reveals a strong correlation between the quasi 16-day oscillation in geomagnetic latitudes of the EIA crest and EEJ strength.The latitude of the northern/southern EIA crest and the EEJ strength indicate that obvious synchronous periodic oscillations were in-phase in the northern and southern hemisphere when the SSW occurred.In addition,it is also found that both the EIA crest location and amplitude of the periodic movement of the EIA locations exhibit hemispheric asymmetry.The amplitude of the periodic movement of the EIA location in the southern hemisphere is larger than that of the northern hemisphere,and the southern EIA crest is further off from the equator than the north one.Understanding these asymmetries requires a combination of mechanisms that involve at least trans-equator meridional winds and the position of a sub-solar point;however,potential disturbances in neutral winds associated with the SSW may additionally complicate the equatorial ionospheric dynamics.

NUMERICAL EXPERIMENT WITH PROCESSES FOR EFFECT OF AUSTRALIAN COLD AIR ACTIVITY ON EAST-ASIAN SUMMER MONSOON

Based on diagnostic results,a numerical study is made of the processes of Australian cold air activity affecting East Asian summer monsoon by using Kuo-Qian P-σ incorporated coordinate five-layer primitive equation spherical band model.Analysis is done of the response to the Southern Hemisphere circulation with and without cold air activity in Australia of the flow,rainfall and diabatic heating fields in the monsoon area of Asia,especially,East Asia,with special attention to the intensification and northward march of the monsoon due to the activity.It is found that the processes for the effect transmission are very analogous to the meridional propagation of quasi-40-day oscillation,together with the meridional wind disturbance showing south-north travel and the flow/rainfall fields exhibitirg corresponding movement in this direction,only with a 12-day lag.

Characterization of multi-scale ionospheric irregularities using ground-based and space-based GNSS observations

Ionospheric irregularities can adversely affect the performance of Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS). How-ever, this opens the possibility of using GNSS as an effective ionospheric remote sensing tool. Despite ionospheric monitoring has been undertaken for decades, these irregularities in multiple spatial and temporal scales are still not fully understood. This paper reviews Virginia Tech’s recent studies on multi-scale ionospheric irregularities using ground-based and space-based GNSS observations. First, the relevant background of ionospheric irregularities and their impact on GNSS signals is reviewed. Next, three topics of ground-based observations of ionospheric irregulari-ties for which GNSS and other ground-based techniques are used simultaneously are reviewed. Both passive and active measurements in high-latitude regions are covered. Modelling and observations in mid-latitude regions are considered as well. Emphasis is placed on the increased capability of assessing the multi-scale nature of ionospheric irregularities using other traditional techniques (e.g., radar, magnetometer, high frequency receivers) as well as GNSS observations (e.g., Total-Electron-Content or TEC, scintillation). Besides ground-based observations, recent advances in GNSS space-based ionospheric measurements are briefly reviewed. Finally, a new space-based ionospheric observa-tion technique using GNSS-based spacecraft formation flying and a differential TEC method is demonstrated using the newly developed Virginia Tech Formation Flying Testbed (VTFFTB). Based on multi-constellation multi-band GNSS, the VTFFTB has been developed into a hardware-in-the-loop simulation testbed with external high-fidelity global ionospheric model(s) for 3-satellite formation flying, which can potentially be used for new multi-scale ionospheric measurement mission design.

Determining wind field and electric field by a barium release experiment in the ionosphere

Barium release experiment is an effective way to study the near-earth environment, in which artificial plasma cloud is created via ionization of neutral gases released from a rocket or a satellite. The first barium release experiment in China was success- fully carried out by a sounding rocket at a height of about 190 km on April 5, 2013. The observed barium cloud images show that the neutral cloud follows a damping motion, whose velocity decreases exponentially and finally tends towards the wind velocity of the background. But for the ion cloud, the motion is controlled mainly by the Lorentz force and a ExB drift happens This work is devoted to calculating the wind and electric field of the background by analyzing the observed images from dif- ferent stations. It turns out that the wind has a magnitude of 51.28 m/s, which is mainly in the northeast direction but also has an appreciable vertical component; the ion cloud has a drift velocity of 71.38 m/s, with a large vertical velocity component be- sides the horizontal components, then the electric field is obtained from the drift velocity as 2.49 mV/m. It is interesting that the wind field shows a better agreement with GITM model than the other empirical or theoretical models, and the GITM model can also give a good prediction for the ion velocity observed by us, which is consistent with the ISR observation at Jicamarca as well.