Remote sensing ionospheric variations due to total solar eclipse, using GNSS observations

For years great interest has been taken in the effects of physical phenomena on ionosphere structure. A total solar eclipse was visible in North America on August 21 st, 2017. This event offered a great opportunity for remote sensing the ionospheric behavior under the eclipse condition. In this study we investigated the effects of total solar eclipse on variations of Total Electron Content(TEC), and consequently deviations on regional models of Vertical TEC(VTEC), as well as variations in ionospheric scintillation occurrence. Although variations of TEC due to total solar eclipse are studied thoroughly by many authors, but the effect of solar eclipse on ionospheric scintillation has never been considered before. Our study is based on measurements from a high-rate GPS network over North America on the day of eclipse, a day before and after its occurrence, on the other hand, GPS measurements from groundbased stations on similar days were used to model TEC on the day of event, and also one day before and after it. The results of this study demonstrate that solar eclipse reduced scintillation occurrence at the totality region up to 28 percent and TEC values showed a decrease of maximum 7 TECU. Considering TEC models, our study showed apparent variations in the regional models, which confirms previous studies on ionospheric responses to eclipse as well as theoretical assumptions.

Parameters of Coseismic Reverse- and Oblique-Slip Surface Ruptures of the 2008 Wenchuan Earthquake,Eastern Tibetan Plateau

On May 12th, 2008, the Mw7.9 Wenchuan earthquake ruptured the Beichuan, Pengguan and Xiaoyudong faults simultaneously along the middle segment of the Longmenshan thrust belt at the eastern margin of the Tibetan plateau. Field investigations constrain the surface rupture pattern, length and offsets related to the Wenchuan earthquake. The Beichuan fault has a NE-trending rightlateral reverse rupture with a total length of 240 km. Reassessment yields a maximum vertical offset of 6.5±0.5 m and a maximum right-lateral offset of 4.9±0.5 m for its northern segment, which are the largest offsets found; the maximum vertical offset is 6.2±0.5 m for its southern segment. The Pengguan fault has a NE-trending pure reverse rupture about 72 km long with a maximum vertical offset of about 3.5 m. The Xiaoyudong fault has a NW-striking left-lateral reverse rupture about 7 km long between the Beichuan and Pengguan faults, with a maximum vertical offset of 3.4 m and left-lateral offset of 3.5 m. This pattern of multiple co-seismic surface ruptures is among the most complicated of recent great earthquakes and presents a much larger danger than if they ruptured individually. The rupture length is the longest for reverse faulting events ever reported.

A Statistical Study on Seismo-Ionospheric Anomalies of the Total Electron Content for the Period of 56 M≥6.0 Earthquakes Occurring in China During 1998—2012

This paper reports statistical results of Seismo-Ionospheric Anomalies(SIAs) of the Total Electron Content(TEC) in the Global Ionosphere Map(GIM) associated with 56 M≥6.0 earthquakes in China during 1998—2012.To detect SIA,a quartile-based(i.e.median-based) process is performed.TEC anomalies for the period of earthquakes without being led by magnetic storms about 10 days are further isolated and examined to confirm the SIP existence.Results show that SIA is the TEC significantly decrease in the afternoon period 2—9 days before the earthquakes in China,which is in a good agreement with the SIA appearing before the 12 May 2008 M 8.0 Wenchuan earthquake.

Geoinformatics education and outreach:looking forward

Geoinformatics education is a key factor for sustainable development of geo-spatial sciences and industries.There have been a variety of educational activities focusing on education and training,technology transfer,and capability building in photogrammetry,remote sensing,and spatial information science,together known as Geoinformatics.Geoinformatics education is an essential mission and even determinant in the ISPRS society.The paper discusses key issues in Geoinformatics education.It reviews educational activities from the ISPRS perspective and summarizes lessons learned from these actions.A vision towards future trends of Geoinformatics education in the ISPRS is provided.

藉由InSAR资料分析汶川地震:震前及震后地表变形(英文)

Capability of mapping surface deformation offered by satellite radar interferometry has been successfully demonstrated and applied since early 90s, from short to long terms measuring and tracing of deformation patterns up to centimeter scale, both qualitatively and quantitatively. There remain limits in mapping earthquake triggered deformations in temporal and spatial scales, however, as already indicated in case of Chi-Chi Earthquake. This report focuses on the analysis of pre-and post-seismic deformation patterns derived from series of ALOS-PALSAR data. A novel InSAR processing flow was applied. First, an automatic registration method starts with the estimation of initial offset between slave and master images, selection of tie points, and followed by a refined matching by means of spatial feature analysis and pyramidal matching. A newly developed noise filter was then applied to the interferograms before phase unwrapping. To ensure the accuracy and robustness of the processing chain, results between InSAR derived and those from leveling measurements over a test site in Taiwan was compared and found to be very satisfactory. Deformation pattern mapped by ALOS/PALSAR differential interferometry with Fine Beam Single(FBS) and Fine Beam Daul(FBD) data pairs along the Longmenshan fault zone(LMSFZ) about 400 km from Wenchuan to Beichuan, Sichuan. The co-seismic interferogram was generated with 42 scenes(FBS, 3frames/track, total 7 tracks from Pass 470 to Pass 476, since 20 Jul., 2007 to 7 Feb., 2009), while the pre-seismic and post-seismic PALSAR interferogram with 21 scenes(Pass 475, both FBS and FBD, since 20 Jul., 2007 to 7 Feb., 2009) on the Wenchuan epicenter area were produced. It is suggested from the preliminary analysis that the deformation did occur before earthquake and recovered elastically after the earthquake. In the future, these results should be confirmed by comparing with the ground survey and GPS observation data.

Establishment of a new tropospheric delay correction model over China area

The tropospheric delay is one of the main error sources for radio navigation technologies and other ground-or space-based earth observation systems. In this paper, the spatial and temporal variations of the zenith tropospheric delay (ZTD), especially their dependence on altitude over China region, are analyzed using ECMWF (European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecast) pressure-level atmospheric data in 2004 and the ZTD series in 1999-2007 measured at 28 GPS stations from the Crustal Movement Observation Network of China (CMONC). A new tropospheric delay correction model (SHAO) is derived and a regional realization of this model for China region named SHAO-C is established. In SHAO-C model, ZTD is modeled directly by a cosine function together with an initial value and an amplitude at a reference height in each grid, and the variation of ZTD along altitude is fitted with a second-order polynomial. The coefficients of SHAO-C are generated using the meteorology data in China area and given at two degree latitude and longitude interval, featuring regional characteristics in order to facilitate a wide range of navigation and other surveying applications in and around China. Compared with the EGNOS (European Geostationary Navigation Overlay Service) model, which has been used globally and recommended by the European Union Wide Area Augmentation System, the ZTD prediction (in form of spatial and temporal projection) accuracy of the SHAO-C model is significantly improved over China region, especially at stations of higher altitudes. The reasons for the improvement are: (1) the reference altitude of SHAO-C parameters are given at the average height of each grid, and (2) more detailed description of complicated terrain variations in China is incorporated in the model. Therefore, the accumulated error at higher altitude can be reduced considerably. In contrast, the ZTD has to be calculated from the mean sea level with EGNOS and other models. Compared with the direct estimation of ZTD from the 28 GPS stations, the accuracy of the derived ZTD using the SHAO-C model can be improved by 60.5% averagely compared with the EGNOS model. The overall bias and rms are 2.0 and 4.5 cm, respectively, which should be sufficient to satisfy the requirements of most GNSS navigation or positioning applications in terms of the tropospheric delay correction.