Gravity Anomaly Correction(GAC)is a very important term in leveling data processing.In most cases,it is troublesome for field surveyors to measure gravity when leveling.In this paper,based on the complete Bouguer Grav...Gravity Anomaly Correction(GAC)is a very important term in leveling data processing.In most cases,it is troublesome for field surveyors to measure gravity when leveling.In this paper,based on the complete Bouguer Gravity Anomaly(BGA)map of WGM2012,the feasibility of replacing in-situ gravity surveying in China is investigated.For leveling application,that is to evaluate the accuracy of WGM2012 in China.Because WGM2012 is organized with a standard rectangle grid,two interpolation methods,bilinear interpolating and Inverse Distance Weighted(IDW)interpolating,are proposed.Four sample areas in China,i.e.,Hanzhong,Chengdu,Linzhi and Shantou,are selected to evaluate the systems bias and precision of WGM2012.Numerical results show the average system bias of WGM2012 BGA in west China is about-100.1 mGal(1 mGal=10^(-5) m/s^(2))and the standard deviation is about 30.7 mGal.Tests in Shantou indicate the system bias in plain areas is about-130.4 mGal and standard deviation is about 6.8 mGal.All these experiments means the accuracy of WGM2012 is limited in high mountain areas of western China,but in plain areas,such as Shantou,WGM2012 BGA map is quite good for most leveling applications after calibrating the system bias.展开更多
At present,one of the methods used to determine the height of points on the Earth’s surface is Global Navigation Satellite System(GNSS)leveling.It is possible to determine the orthometric or normal height by this met...At present,one of the methods used to determine the height of points on the Earth’s surface is Global Navigation Satellite System(GNSS)leveling.It is possible to determine the orthometric or normal height by this method only if there is a geoid or quasi-geoid height model available.This paper proposes the methodology for local correction of the heights of high-order global geoid models such as EGM08,EIGEN-6C4,GECO,and XGM2019e_2159.This methodology was tested in different areas of the research field,covering various relief forms.The dependence of the change in corrected height accuracy on the input data was analyzed,and the correction was also conducted for model heights in three tidal systems:"tide free","mean tide",and"zero tide".The results show that the heights of EIGEN-6C4 model can be corrected with an accuracy of up to 1 cm for flat and foothill terrains with the dimensionality of 1°×1°,2°×2°,and 3°×3°.The EGM08 model presents an almost identical result.The EIGEN-6C4 model is best suited for mountainous relief and provides an accuracy of 1.5 cm on the 1°×1°area.The height correction accuracy of GECO and XGM2019e_2159 models is slightly poor,which has fuzziness in terms of numerical fluctuation.展开更多
The Global Geopotential Models (GGMs) of GOCE (Gravity Recovery and steady- state Ocean Circulation Explorer) differ globally as well as regionally in their accuracy and resolution based on the maximum degree and orde...The Global Geopotential Models (GGMs) of GOCE (Gravity Recovery and steady- state Ocean Circulation Explorer) differ globally as well as regionally in their accuracy and resolution based on the maximum degree and order (d/o) of the fully normalized spherical harmonic (SH) coefficients, which express each GGM. The main idea of this study is to compare the free-air gravity anomalies and quasi geoid heights determined from several recent GOCE-based GGMs with the corresponding ones from the Earth Gravitational Model 2008 (EGM2008) over Egypt on the one hand and with ground-based measurements on the other hand. The results regarding to the comparison of GOCE-based GGMs with terrestrial gravity and GPS/levelling data provide better improvement with respect to EGM2008. The 4th release GOCE-based GGM developed with the use of space-wise solution strategy (SPW_R4) approximates the gravity field well over the Egyptian region. The SPW_R4 model is accordingly suggested as a reference model for recovering the long wavelength (up to SH d/o 200) components of quasi geoid heights when modelling the gravimetric quasi-geoid over the Egypt. Finally, three types of transformation models: Four-, Five- and Seven-parameter transformations have been applied to reduce the data biases and to provide a better fitting of quasi geoid heights obtained from the studied GOCE-based GGMs to those from GPS/levelling data. These models reveal that the standard deviation of vertical datum over Egypt is at the level of about 32 cm.展开更多
Repeated leveling surveys can provide important geometric information of elevation change of points, due to the effect of the earth gravity field, the observed data of leveling also contains the information of gravity...Repeated leveling surveys can provide important geometric information of elevation change of points, due to the effect of the earth gravity field, the observed data of leveling also contains the information of gravity field. Repeated absolute gravity surveys or relative gravity surveys can provide rich information of gravity field, but since the gravity values at the points will change along with the variation of elevation, it also contains the information of elevation variation of points. In the classical adjustment method, the two kinds of observations will be solved respectively and the complementary information will be corrected as interference or processed as noises, as a result, not only the useful information will be lost, but also the accuracy of results will be effected. In the paper, the joint solution model for both observed data has been established in an integral geodetic frame, the calculation methods have been given, the fitting and forecasting of deformation field have been studied, the verification has been made by examples and certain of useful results have been obtained. The research indicates that the joint solution can give simultaneously the elevation of surface points and its rate of change, the parameters of local gravity field and its rate of change, which is advantageous to information extraction; The accuracy of joint solution is better than that of individual solution; The rank deficient robust solution and quasi stable robust solution are better than the corresponding non robust solution; The automatic selection of quasi stable points by using the method of quasi stable robust solution can effectively resist the interference of outliers and deformation anomaly to the initial datum; for the data with many resurveys, if the dynamic quasi stable robust estimation is made, not only the reliable quasi stable points can be found dynamically, but also the dynamic variation parameters will not or be less affected by the interference of observational outliers of each period, so the posterior accuracy of dynamic parameters can be improved obviously; when the points are abundant, establishing a deformation model to interpolate the deformation at the non surveyed points and estimating the crustal deformation of a certain time are also feasible.展开更多
In this paper,we consider solving the topology optimization for steady-state incompressibleNavier-Stokes problems via a new topology optimization method called parameterized level set method,which can maintain a relat...In this paper,we consider solving the topology optimization for steady-state incompressibleNavier-Stokes problems via a new topology optimization method called parameterized level set method,which can maintain a relatively smooth level set function with a local optimality condition.The objective of topology optimization is tond an optimal conguration of theuid and solid materials that minimizes power dissipation under a prescribeduid volume fraction constraint.An articial friction force is added to the Navier-Stokes equations to apply the no-slip boundary condition.Although a great deal of work has been carried out for topology optimization ofuidow in recent years,there are few researches on the topology optimization ofuidow with physical body forces.To simulate theuidow in reality,the constant body force(e.g.,gravity)is considered in this paper.Several 2D numerical examples are presented to discuss the relationships between the proposed method with Reynolds number and initial design,and demonstrate the feasibility and superiority of the proposed method in dealing with unstructuredmesh problems.Three 3D numerical examples demonstrate the proposedmethod is feasible in three-dimensional.展开更多
The gravity field and steady-state ocean circulation explorer (GOCE) satellite mission has provided numerous Global Geopotential Models (GGMs) with different processing methodologies and model accuracies. In the curre...The gravity field and steady-state ocean circulation explorer (GOCE) satellite mission has provided numerous Global Geopotential Models (GGMs) with different processing methodologies and model accuracies. In the current contribution, the latest releases of GOCE-based GGMs are evaluated on the regional scale using the available terrestrial GPS/Levelling and gravity data collected over Egypt. To overcome the spectral inconsistency between the GOCE-based GGMs and the ground-based data, the spectral enhancement method (SEM) is applied. Five of GOCE-based GGMs have been used, namely GOSG01S, IGGT_R1, IfE_GOCE05s_ GO_CONS_GCF_2_SPW_R5 (SPW_R5 in the following) and NULP-02. The evaluation process of GOCE-based GGMs with the available ground data over Egypt considering the SEM method shows remarkable improvements obtained from the SPW_R5 model. The model provides lower differences of the standard deviations with respect to the EGM2008 and the other applied geopotential gravity models as well as the applied ground-based gravity and GPS/Levelling data. The findings regarding the ground-based data show obvious reductions of about 15.16% and 32.22% achieved by the GOCE-based model in term of standard deviations differences of gravity anomalies and geoid heights, respectively. Therefore, the SPW_R5 model is recommended to be applied as a reference model for compensating the long-to-short wavelength (up to spherical harmonics degree/order 280) components when modelling the gravimetric geoid over Egypt.展开更多
格陵兰冰盖全部融化将导致全球海平面上升7m,因此准确估计格陵兰冰盖质量变化过程对理解其对全球气候变化响应和反馈作用具有重要意义。基于Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment(GRACE)卫星及后继卫星GRACE-FollowOn(GRACE-FO)提...格陵兰冰盖全部融化将导致全球海平面上升7m,因此准确估计格陵兰冰盖质量变化过程对理解其对全球气候变化响应和反馈作用具有重要意义。基于Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment(GRACE)卫星及后继卫星GRACE-FollowOn(GRACE-FO)提供的近20年的月时变重力场数据,以及EuropeanRemote Sensing(ERS-2)、Envisat和CryoSat-2等卫星测高数据,本文对比分析了2002年4月-2020年12月格陵兰冰盖质量变化特征。研究结果表明:(1)卫星重力点质量模型与卫星测高产品估计的质量变化趋势空间分布较为一致,均表明格陵兰冰盖边缘低海拔区域质量亏损严重而内部高原存在质量累积。(2) 2002-2020年格陵兰质量损失对全球平均海平面变化贡献为0.73±0.01mm·a^(-1)。(3)格陵兰冰盖西南部和西北部对海平面变化的贡献占格陵兰总贡献量的43.69%,为主要的海平面上升贡献区。(4)格陵兰冰盖流域尺度的分析表明,Goddard Space Flight Center(GSFC)点质量模型与卫星测高估计的结果更为一致。展开更多
Total sea level variations(SLVs) are caused by two major components:steric variations due to thermal expansion of seawater,and mass-induced variations due to mass exchange between ocean and land.In this study,the g...Total sea level variations(SLVs) are caused by two major components:steric variations due to thermal expansion of seawater,and mass-induced variations due to mass exchange between ocean and land.In this study,the global SLV and its steric and mass components were estimated by satellite altimetry,Argo float data and the Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment(GRACE) data over 2005-2014.Space gravimetry observations from GRACE suggested that two-thirds of the global mean sea level rise rate observed by altimetry(i.e.,3.1 ± 0.3 mm/a from 2005 to 2014) could be explained by an increase in ocean mass.Furthermore,the global mean sea level was observed to drop significantly during the2010/2011 La Nina event,which may be attributed to the decline of ocean mass and steric SLV.Since early 2011,the global mean sea level began to rise rapidly,which was attributed to an increase in ocean mass.The findings in this study suggested that the global mean sea-level budget was closed from 2005 to 2014 based on altimetry,GRACE,and Argo data.展开更多
Based on the concept of Global Position System(GPS)/leveling,the satellite altimetry leveling(SAL) is first proposed to evaluate the marine geoid.SAL is derived by the difference among the mean sea surface(MSS),mean d...Based on the concept of Global Position System(GPS)/leveling,the satellite altimetry leveling(SAL) is first proposed to evaluate the marine geoid.SAL is derived by the difference among the mean sea surface(MSS),mean dynamic ocean topography(MDT),and leveling origin.In this study,(1) the original satellite altimetry data are processed to infer the vertical deflection and gravity anomaly,(2) the Chinese coastal marine geoids(CMG) are determined by using the differe nt methods(including Molodensky,least square collocation,Stokes formula,and two-dimensional fast Fourier transformation(FFT) with the vertical deflection and gravity anomaly data),(3) CMG are evaluated by using the results from above different methods,the Gravity field and steady-state Ocean Circulation Explorer(GOCE) gravity potential model(GGPM),and SAL.The results show that(1) CMG from the Molodensky method has the highest precision by using vertical de flection data,(2) the accuracy of CMG indicate good consistency between the SAL and GGPM,(3) SAL can be used as a new method for assessing marine geoid.展开更多
This article is an addendum to the 2001 paper [1] which investigated an approach to hierarchical clustering based on the level sets of a density function induced on data points in a d-dimensional feature space. We ref...This article is an addendum to the 2001 paper [1] which investigated an approach to hierarchical clustering based on the level sets of a density function induced on data points in a d-dimensional feature space. We refer to this as the “level-sets approach” to hierarchical clustering. The density functions considered in [1] were those formed as the sum of identical radial basis functions centered at the data points, each radial basis function assumed to be continuous, monotone decreasing, convex on every ray, and rising to positive infinity at its center point. Such a framework can be investigated with respect to both the Euclidean (L2) and Manhattan (L1) metrics. The addendum here puts forth some observations and questions about the level-sets approach that go beyond those in [1]. In particular, we detail and ask the following questions. How does the level-sets approach compare with other related approaches? How is the resulting hierarchical clustering affected by the choice of radial basis function? What are the structural properties of a function formed as the sum of radial basis functions? Can the levels-sets approach be theoretically validated? Is there an efficient algorithm to implement the level-sets approach?展开更多
基金“Wings of Quality”Program of QICS(No.2020-zlzy-015)。
文摘Gravity Anomaly Correction(GAC)is a very important term in leveling data processing.In most cases,it is troublesome for field surveyors to measure gravity when leveling.In this paper,based on the complete Bouguer Gravity Anomaly(BGA)map of WGM2012,the feasibility of replacing in-situ gravity surveying in China is investigated.For leveling application,that is to evaluate the accuracy of WGM2012 in China.Because WGM2012 is organized with a standard rectangle grid,two interpolation methods,bilinear interpolating and Inverse Distance Weighted(IDW)interpolating,are proposed.Four sample areas in China,i.e.,Hanzhong,Chengdu,Linzhi and Shantou,are selected to evaluate the systems bias and precision of WGM2012.Numerical results show the average system bias of WGM2012 BGA in west China is about-100.1 mGal(1 mGal=10^(-5) m/s^(2))and the standard deviation is about 30.7 mGal.Tests in Shantou indicate the system bias in plain areas is about-130.4 mGal and standard deviation is about 6.8 mGal.All these experiments means the accuracy of WGM2012 is limited in high mountain areas of western China,but in plain areas,such as Shantou,WGM2012 BGA map is quite good for most leveling applications after calibrating the system bias.
基金the International Center for Global Earth Models(ICGEM)for the height anomaly and gravity anomaly data and Bureau Gravimetrique International(BGI)for free-air gravity anomaly data from the World Gravity Map project(WGM2012)The authors are grateful to Głowny Urza˛d Geodezji i Kartografii of Poland for the height anomaly data of the quasi-geoid PL-geoid2021.
文摘At present,one of the methods used to determine the height of points on the Earth’s surface is Global Navigation Satellite System(GNSS)leveling.It is possible to determine the orthometric or normal height by this method only if there is a geoid or quasi-geoid height model available.This paper proposes the methodology for local correction of the heights of high-order global geoid models such as EGM08,EIGEN-6C4,GECO,and XGM2019e_2159.This methodology was tested in different areas of the research field,covering various relief forms.The dependence of the change in corrected height accuracy on the input data was analyzed,and the correction was also conducted for model heights in three tidal systems:"tide free","mean tide",and"zero tide".The results show that the heights of EIGEN-6C4 model can be corrected with an accuracy of up to 1 cm for flat and foothill terrains with the dimensionality of 1°×1°,2°×2°,and 3°×3°.The EGM08 model presents an almost identical result.The EIGEN-6C4 model is best suited for mountainous relief and provides an accuracy of 1.5 cm on the 1°×1°area.The height correction accuracy of GECO and XGM2019e_2159 models is slightly poor,which has fuzziness in terms of numerical fluctuation.
文摘The Global Geopotential Models (GGMs) of GOCE (Gravity Recovery and steady- state Ocean Circulation Explorer) differ globally as well as regionally in their accuracy and resolution based on the maximum degree and order (d/o) of the fully normalized spherical harmonic (SH) coefficients, which express each GGM. The main idea of this study is to compare the free-air gravity anomalies and quasi geoid heights determined from several recent GOCE-based GGMs with the corresponding ones from the Earth Gravitational Model 2008 (EGM2008) over Egypt on the one hand and with ground-based measurements on the other hand. The results regarding to the comparison of GOCE-based GGMs with terrestrial gravity and GPS/levelling data provide better improvement with respect to EGM2008. The 4th release GOCE-based GGM developed with the use of space-wise solution strategy (SPW_R4) approximates the gravity field well over the Egyptian region. The SPW_R4 model is accordingly suggested as a reference model for recovering the long wavelength (up to SH d/o 200) components of quasi geoid heights when modelling the gravimetric quasi-geoid over the Egypt. Finally, three types of transformation models: Four-, Five- and Seven-parameter transformations have been applied to reduce the data biases and to provide a better fitting of quasi geoid heights obtained from the studied GOCE-based GGMs to those from GPS/levelling data. These models reveal that the standard deviation of vertical datum over Egypt is at the level of about 32 cm.
文摘Repeated leveling surveys can provide important geometric information of elevation change of points, due to the effect of the earth gravity field, the observed data of leveling also contains the information of gravity field. Repeated absolute gravity surveys or relative gravity surveys can provide rich information of gravity field, but since the gravity values at the points will change along with the variation of elevation, it also contains the information of elevation variation of points. In the classical adjustment method, the two kinds of observations will be solved respectively and the complementary information will be corrected as interference or processed as noises, as a result, not only the useful information will be lost, but also the accuracy of results will be effected. In the paper, the joint solution model for both observed data has been established in an integral geodetic frame, the calculation methods have been given, the fitting and forecasting of deformation field have been studied, the verification has been made by examples and certain of useful results have been obtained. The research indicates that the joint solution can give simultaneously the elevation of surface points and its rate of change, the parameters of local gravity field and its rate of change, which is advantageous to information extraction; The accuracy of joint solution is better than that of individual solution; The rank deficient robust solution and quasi stable robust solution are better than the corresponding non robust solution; The automatic selection of quasi stable points by using the method of quasi stable robust solution can effectively resist the interference of outliers and deformation anomaly to the initial datum; for the data with many resurveys, if the dynamic quasi stable robust estimation is made, not only the reliable quasi stable points can be found dynamically, but also the dynamic variation parameters will not or be less affected by the interference of observational outliers of each period, so the posterior accuracy of dynamic parameters can be improved obviously; when the points are abundant, establishing a deformation model to interpolate the deformation at the non surveyed points and estimating the crustal deformation of a certain time are also feasible.
基金supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No.12072114)the National Key Research and Development Plan (Grant No.2020YFB1709401)the Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Modern Civil Engineering Technology (2021B1212040003).
文摘In this paper,we consider solving the topology optimization for steady-state incompressibleNavier-Stokes problems via a new topology optimization method called parameterized level set method,which can maintain a relatively smooth level set function with a local optimality condition.The objective of topology optimization is tond an optimal conguration of theuid and solid materials that minimizes power dissipation under a prescribeduid volume fraction constraint.An articial friction force is added to the Navier-Stokes equations to apply the no-slip boundary condition.Although a great deal of work has been carried out for topology optimization ofuidow in recent years,there are few researches on the topology optimization ofuidow with physical body forces.To simulate theuidow in reality,the constant body force(e.g.,gravity)is considered in this paper.Several 2D numerical examples are presented to discuss the relationships between the proposed method with Reynolds number and initial design,and demonstrate the feasibility and superiority of the proposed method in dealing with unstructuredmesh problems.Three 3D numerical examples demonstrate the proposedmethod is feasible in three-dimensional.
文摘The gravity field and steady-state ocean circulation explorer (GOCE) satellite mission has provided numerous Global Geopotential Models (GGMs) with different processing methodologies and model accuracies. In the current contribution, the latest releases of GOCE-based GGMs are evaluated on the regional scale using the available terrestrial GPS/Levelling and gravity data collected over Egypt. To overcome the spectral inconsistency between the GOCE-based GGMs and the ground-based data, the spectral enhancement method (SEM) is applied. Five of GOCE-based GGMs have been used, namely GOSG01S, IGGT_R1, IfE_GOCE05s_ GO_CONS_GCF_2_SPW_R5 (SPW_R5 in the following) and NULP-02. The evaluation process of GOCE-based GGMs with the available ground data over Egypt considering the SEM method shows remarkable improvements obtained from the SPW_R5 model. The model provides lower differences of the standard deviations with respect to the EGM2008 and the other applied geopotential gravity models as well as the applied ground-based gravity and GPS/Levelling data. The findings regarding the ground-based data show obvious reductions of about 15.16% and 32.22% achieved by the GOCE-based model in term of standard deviations differences of gravity anomalies and geoid heights, respectively. Therefore, the SPW_R5 model is recommended to be applied as a reference model for compensating the long-to-short wavelength (up to spherical harmonics degree/order 280) components when modelling the gravimetric geoid over Egypt.
文摘格陵兰冰盖全部融化将导致全球海平面上升7m,因此准确估计格陵兰冰盖质量变化过程对理解其对全球气候变化响应和反馈作用具有重要意义。基于Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment(GRACE)卫星及后继卫星GRACE-FollowOn(GRACE-FO)提供的近20年的月时变重力场数据,以及EuropeanRemote Sensing(ERS-2)、Envisat和CryoSat-2等卫星测高数据,本文对比分析了2002年4月-2020年12月格陵兰冰盖质量变化特征。研究结果表明:(1)卫星重力点质量模型与卫星测高产品估计的质量变化趋势空间分布较为一致,均表明格陵兰冰盖边缘低海拔区域质量亏损严重而内部高原存在质量累积。(2) 2002-2020年格陵兰质量损失对全球平均海平面变化贡献为0.73±0.01mm·a^(-1)。(3)格陵兰冰盖西南部和西北部对海平面变化的贡献占格陵兰总贡献量的43.69%,为主要的海平面上升贡献区。(4)格陵兰冰盖流域尺度的分析表明,Goddard Space Flight Center(GSFC)点质量模型与卫星测高估计的结果更为一致。
基金supported by the National Key Basic Research Program of China(973 program,2012CB957703 and2013CB733305)the National Natural Science Foundation of China(41431070,41174066 and 41321063)
文摘Total sea level variations(SLVs) are caused by two major components:steric variations due to thermal expansion of seawater,and mass-induced variations due to mass exchange between ocean and land.In this study,the global SLV and its steric and mass components were estimated by satellite altimetry,Argo float data and the Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment(GRACE) data over 2005-2014.Space gravimetry observations from GRACE suggested that two-thirds of the global mean sea level rise rate observed by altimetry(i.e.,3.1 ± 0.3 mm/a from 2005 to 2014) could be explained by an increase in ocean mass.Furthermore,the global mean sea level was observed to drop significantly during the2010/2011 La Nina event,which may be attributed to the decline of ocean mass and steric SLV.Since early 2011,the global mean sea level began to rise rapidly,which was attributed to an increase in ocean mass.The findings in this study suggested that the global mean sea-level budget was closed from 2005 to 2014 based on altimetry,GRACE,and Argo data.
基金supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant Nos.41704011,41274032,41474018, and 41429401)the National 973 Project of China (Grant Nos. 2013CB733301 and 2013CB733302).
文摘Based on the concept of Global Position System(GPS)/leveling,the satellite altimetry leveling(SAL) is first proposed to evaluate the marine geoid.SAL is derived by the difference among the mean sea surface(MSS),mean dynamic ocean topography(MDT),and leveling origin.In this study,(1) the original satellite altimetry data are processed to infer the vertical deflection and gravity anomaly,(2) the Chinese coastal marine geoids(CMG) are determined by using the differe nt methods(including Molodensky,least square collocation,Stokes formula,and two-dimensional fast Fourier transformation(FFT) with the vertical deflection and gravity anomaly data),(3) CMG are evaluated by using the results from above different methods,the Gravity field and steady-state Ocean Circulation Explorer(GOCE) gravity potential model(GGPM),and SAL.The results show that(1) CMG from the Molodensky method has the highest precision by using vertical de flection data,(2) the accuracy of CMG indicate good consistency between the SAL and GGPM,(3) SAL can be used as a new method for assessing marine geoid.
文摘This article is an addendum to the 2001 paper [1] which investigated an approach to hierarchical clustering based on the level sets of a density function induced on data points in a d-dimensional feature space. We refer to this as the “level-sets approach” to hierarchical clustering. The density functions considered in [1] were those formed as the sum of identical radial basis functions centered at the data points, each radial basis function assumed to be continuous, monotone decreasing, convex on every ray, and rising to positive infinity at its center point. Such a framework can be investigated with respect to both the Euclidean (L2) and Manhattan (L1) metrics. The addendum here puts forth some observations and questions about the level-sets approach that go beyond those in [1]. In particular, we detail and ask the following questions. How does the level-sets approach compare with other related approaches? How is the resulting hierarchical clustering affected by the choice of radial basis function? What are the structural properties of a function formed as the sum of radial basis functions? Can the levels-sets approach be theoretically validated? Is there an efficient algorithm to implement the level-sets approach?