Risk evaluation of dam-break environmental impacts based on the set pair analysis and cloud model

Natural Hazards - Many dams have been constructed around the world. Compared with the potential losses of life and economy, the environmental impacts caused by dam breach were less analyzed. As a...     

Low-mass and high-mass supermassive black holes in radio-loud AGNs are spun-up in different evolution paths

How supermassive black holes(SMBHs) are spun-up is a key issue in modern astrophysics. As an extension to the study in Wang et al., here we address the issue by comparing the host galaxy properties of nearby(z 0.05) radio-selected Seyfert 2 galaxies. With the two-dimensional bulge+disk decompositions for the SDSS r-band images, we identify a dichotomy in various host galaxy properties for radio-loud SMBHs. By assuming that radio emission from the jet reflects a high SMBH spin, which stems from the well-known Blandford-Znajek mechanism of jet production, high-mass SMBHs(i.e., MBH 107.9 M⊙)have a preference for being spun-up in classical bulges, and low-mass SMBHs(i.e., MBH = 106-107 M⊙)in pseudo-bulges. This dichotomy suggests and confirms that high-mass and low-mass SMBHs are spun-up in different ways, i.e., a major "dry" merger and a secular evolution respectively.     

Modification and discussion of the Green-Ampt model for an evolving wetting profile

ABSTRACT

The Green-Ampt (GA) model has been widely used to evaluate soil water infiltration. While a simple piston profile is commonly used, the wetting profile of a soil changes during infiltration and a quarter-ellipse has been found to better describe its evolution. This study aims to improve the GA model and discuss the model parameters when the quarter-ellipse profile is utilized. The soil column is divided into three zones: saturated, transient and dry. The variable γ is introduced to express the ratio of the saturated zone depth to the wetting front depth. A modified GA model is derived via mathematical methods, but an exact solution is difficult to obtain. Therefore, a simplified (SGA) model is developed via a segmented method. Compared with the measured results, the SGA model is more accurate than the traditional model. Finally, the model parameters are discussed and a value of γ = 0.5 is recommended.     

Local Oceanic Vertical Deflection Determination with Gravity Data Along a Profile

Deflections of the vertical (DOVs) over oceans cannot be directly measured, which restricts their applications. A local covariance function of anomalous potential is put forward in this paper in conjunction with the least-squares collocation (LSC) method to compute the oceanic DOVs utilization of oceanic gravity data along a profile. The covariance functions of gravity field quantities have been derived directly as functions of x, y and z without the need to introduce coordinate transformations corresponding to along- or cross-profile components. In the proposed methodology, gravity data along a profile were used to calculate the residual gravity anomaly using the remove-compute-restore technique. The residual gravity anomaly was used to calculate the parameters of the proposed covariance function of the local anomalous gravity field, which was used in the LSC to compute the residual DOVs along the profile. The residual DOVs added model DOVs to recover the DOVs along the profile. The results of a simulation experiment prove that the proposed methodology is feasible and effective.     

A new standardized Palmer drought index for hydro‐meteorological use

Accepting the concept of standardization introduced by the standardized precipitation index, similar methodologies have been developed to construct some other standardized drought indices such as the standardized precipitation evapotranspiration index (SPEI). In this study, the authors provided deep insight into the SPEI and recognized potential deficiencies/limitations in relating to the climatic water balance it used. By coupling another well‐known Palmer drought severity index (PDSI), we proposed a new standardized Palmer drought index (SPDI) through a moisture departure probabilistic approach, which allows multi‐scalar calculation for accurate temporal and spatial comparison of the hydro‐meteorological conditions of different locations. Using datasets of monthly precipitation, temperature and soil available water capacity, the moisture deficit/surplus was calculated at multiple temporal scales, and a couple of techniques were adopted to adjust corresponding time series to a generalized extreme value distribution out of several candidates. Results of the historical records (1900–2012) for diverse climates by multiple indices showed that the SPDI was highly consistent and correlated with the SPEI and self‐calibrated PDSI at most analysed time scales. Furthermore, a simple experiment of hypothetical temperature and/or precipitation change scenarios also verified the effectiveness of this newly derived SPDI in response to climate change impacts. Being more robust and preferable in spatial consistency and comparability as well as combining the simplicity of calculation with sufficient accounting of the physical nature of water supply and demand relating to droughts, the SPDI is promising to serve as a competent reference and an alternative for drought assessment and monitoring. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

基于时间序列遥感数据的嵯岗国家沙化土地封禁保护成效评估

2013年中国启动实施了内蒙古自治区新巴尔虎左旗嵯岗国家沙化土地封禁保护区试点。本研究利用2001—2017年生长季NDVI数据分析了嵯岗封禁保护区及周边区域植被长势时空演变特征，分析了多年的生长季降水量和历年旱情，之后利用植被降水利用效率和NDVI残差趋势分析对保护成效进行了评估。结果表明：（1）封禁项目实施之前，封禁区内外植被长势变化趋势基本一致，而在项目实施后的2016、2017年，封禁区内NDVI距平明显高于封禁区外；（2）降水为影响该区域植被长势的主导气候因素，在封禁实施后的2015—2017年该区域连续3 a干旱，极大地限制了区域植被生长；（3）封禁区内植被降水利用效率和NDVI残差均呈现明显的增加趋势，而封禁区外变化不明显，说明封禁提升了植被的自我修复能力；（4）嵯岗封禁保护区由3个地块组成，其中嵯岗林场封禁效果比牧场八队和牧场十一队明显。国家沙化土地封禁保护措施有效促进了植被自我修复，提高了沙漠生态系统应对气候变化的能力。     

日照市土壤地球化学元素分布规律及成因探讨

在日照市开展多目标区域地球化学调查，获取了表层土壤和深层土壤地球化学数据，通过对获得的地球化学参数进行统计分析，确定了日照市土壤地球化学基准值和背景值，认为日照市除部分元素或指标外，大部分元素或指标土壤地球化学基准值和背景值与全省土壤地球化学基准值和背景值接近。研究发现，日照市As，Cd，Cr，Cu，Hg，Ni，Pb，Zn等8种重金属元素背景值含量低于国家土壤环境质量标准的土壤一级标准限值，日照市土壤质量基本保持自然背景水平；而受工业化生产和城市化建设等后期人为活动影响，日照市表层土壤中Cd，C，Hg，N，P，S，Se，Corg等元素或指标出现明显富集，应引起重视。     

青藏铁路沿线不同类型挡沙墙阻沙率

基于风洞试验对青藏铁路沿线不同类型防沙措施防沙效果进行模拟研究，探讨了不同类型挡沙墙的防沙效果。结果表明：挂板式、轨枕式和箱式挡沙墙输沙率随高度基本呈递增缓变型趋势，最大输沙率低于20%；铃铛式和高立式聚乙烯（PE）网挡沙墙随高度呈递减陡降型趋势，距地表6~8 cm处为转折点，转折点以上输沙率随高度增大急剧减小，转折点以下输沙率随高度变化较为平缓，最大输沙率低于50%。随着风速的增大，各挡沙墙的阻沙率呈递减趋势：挂板式和轨枕式挡沙墙对风速的敏感性最弱，整体阻沙效果较优，可大范围推广；箱式挡沙墙对风速的敏感性较弱，建议在风速18 m·s^-1以下的地区使用；PE网挡沙墙防沙效果对风速的敏感性最强，建议在风速10 m·s^-1以下的地区使用。     

A modified three-dimensional ionospheric tomography algorithm with side rays

The three-dimensional ionospheric tomography (3DCIT) algorithm based on Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) observations have been developed into an effective tool for ionospheric monitoring in recent years. However, because the rays that come into or come out from the side of the inversion region cannot be used, the distribution of the rays in the edge and bottom part of the inversion region is scarce and the electron density cannot be effectively improved in the inversion process. We present a three-dimensional tomography algorithm with side rays (3DCIT-SR) applying the side rays to the inversion. The partial slant total electron content (STEC) of side rays in the inversion region is obtained based on the NeQuick2 model and GNSS-STEC. The simulation experiment results show that the algorithm can effectively improve the distribution of GNSS rays in the inversion region. Meanwhile, the iteration accuracy has also been significantly improved. After the same number of iterations, the iterative results of 3DCIT-SR are closer to the truth than 3DCIT, in particular, the inversion of the edge regions is improved noticeably. The GNSS data of the International GNSS Service (IGS) stations in Europe are used to perform real data experiments, and the inversion results show that the electron density profiles of 3DCIT-SR are closer to the ionosonde measurements. The accuracy improvement of 3DCIT-SR is up to 56.3% while the improvement is more obvious during the magnetic storm compared to the case of a calm ionospheric state .