Vertical Displacement Measurement in a Slow-Moving Sinkhole Using BOTDA

The effectiveness of monitoring and early-warning systems for ground deformation phenomena,such as sinkholes,depends on their ability to accurately resolve the ongoing ground displacement and detect the subtle deformation preceding catastrophic failures.Sagging sinkholes with a slow subsidence rate and diffuse edges pose a significant challenge for subsidence monitoring due to the low deformation rates and limited lateral strain gradients.In this work,we satisfactorily illustrate the practicality of the Brillouin optical time domain analysis(BOTDA)to measure the spatial-temporal patterns of the vertical displacement in such challenging slow-moving sagging sinkholes.To assess the performance of the approach,we compare the strain recorded by the distributed optical fiber sensor with the vertical displacement measured by high-precision leveling.The results show a good spatial correlation with the ability to identify the maximum subsidence point.There is also a good temporal correlation with the detection of an acceleration phase in the subsidence associated with a flood event.

Vertical distribution of aerosol optical properties based on aircraft measurements over the Loess Plateau in China

Vertical distributions of aerosol optical properties based on aircraft measurements over the Loess Plateau were measured for the first time during a summertime aircraft campaign, 2013 in Shanxi, China. Data from four flights were analyzed. The vertical distributions of aerosol optical properties including aerosol scattering coefficients（σsc）, absorption coefficients（σab）,Angstr？m exponent（α）, single scattering albedo（ω）, backscattering ratio（βsc）, aerosol mass scattering proficiency（Q sc） and aerosol surface scattering proficiency（Q sc′） were obtained. The mean statistical values of σsc were 77.45 Mm-1（at 450 nm）, 50.72 Mm-1（at 550 nm）, and32.02 Mm-1（at 700 nm）. The mean value of σab was 7.62 Mm-1（at 550 nm）. The mean values ofα, βsc and ω were 1.93, 0.15, and 0.91, respectively. Aerosol concentration decreased with altitude. Most effective diameters（ED） of aerosols were less than 0.8 μm. The vertical profiles of σsc,, α, βsc, Q sc and Q sc′ showed that the aerosol scattering properties at lower levels contributed the most to the total aerosol radiative forcing. Both α and βsc had relatively large values, suggesting that most aerosols in the observational region were small particles. The mean values of σsc, α, βsc, Q sc, Q sc′, σab and ω at different height ranges showed that most of the parameters decreased with altitude. The forty-eight hour backward trajectories of air masses during the observation days indicated that the majority of aerosols in the lower level contributed the most to the total aerosol loading, and most of these particles originated from local or regional pollution emissions.

Variations of the Earth＇s rotation rate and cyclic processes in geodynamics

The authors analyzed the relationship between variations of the Earth＇s rotation rate and the geodynamic processes within the Earth＇s body, including seismic activity, The rotation rate of a planet determines its uniaxial compression along the axis of rotation and the areas of various surface elements of the body. The Earth＇s ellipticity variations, caused naturally by the rotation rate variations, are manifested in vertical components of precise GPS measurements. Comparative analysis of these variations is considered in view of modern theoretical ideas concerning the Earth＇s figure. The results justify further research that is of interest for improvement of space svstems and technologiesi.

Rail Flatness and Verticality Measurement System Based on Ruler Model

Currently,the manual contact rail measurement that was basically adopted in China has low detection efficiency,poor accuracy and poor stability.In order to improve the function of the system,we propose a non-contact measurement method based on the flatness and verticality ruler model.The flatness measurement model was built by employing the string measurement method.In addition,the verticality measurement model was built by the dihedral method to measure the rail comprehensively.By extracting curvature information of feature points,in this system,each laser sensor is used to collect rail profile curves.A large number of three-dimensional point clouds data are generated by the unit quaternion method of coordinate transformation,and the contour curves of the characteristic points of the four laser sensors are matched with the corresponding point sets one to one,and the rail contour splicing is finally completed.The experimental results show that this method has better measurement effect compared with the traditional manual measurement method.

A new vibration mechanism of balancing machine for satellite-borne spinning rotors

The centrifugal force and overturning moment generated by satellite-borne rotating payload have a significant impact on the stability of on-orbit satellite attitude, which must be controlled to the qualified range. For the satellite-borne rotors＇ low working revs and large centroidal deviation and height, and that the horizontal vibration produced by centrifugal force is not of the same magnitude as the torsional vibration by overturning moment, the balancing machine＇s measurement accuracy is low. Analysis shows that the mixture of horizontal vibration and torsional vibration of the vibrational mechanism contribute mainly to the machine＇s performance, as well as the instability of vibration center position. A vibrational mechanism was put forward, in which the horizontal and torsional vibration get separated effectively by way of fixing the vibration center. From experimental results, the separation between the weak centrifugal force signal and the strong moment signal was realized, errors caused by unstable vibration center are avoided, and the balancing machine based on this vibration structure is able to meet the requirements of dynamic balancing for the satellite＇s rotating payloads in terms of accuracy and stability.