A review of the trends observed in British Isles mean sea level data measured by tide gauges

This report presents an up-to-date review of the British Isles (BI) Mean Sea Level (MSL) data set obtained from tide gauges, and of the long-term secular trends in BI MSL. The data are of mixed quality, and not as copious as one would like for scientific analysis given the complexity of long-term sea and land level changes around BI coasts. Nevertheless, the small number of very long records can be studied effectively, and indicate that twentieth century secular trends in BI MSL are consistent with those obtained from NW Europe as a whole and with the bottom range of estimates for global average MSL change during the past 100 years. Century-timescale low-frequency 'accelerations' in MSL of the order of 0.4–0.8  mm  yr⁻¹  century⁻¹ are obtained from the three longest records, which are also similar to estimates from mainland Europe. 'Sea level indices' for the BI are constructed which can provide responsible agencies with a guide to the 'average state' of BI sea level. Combined ocean tide and storm surge ('tide + surge') numerical modelling is demonstrated to be a valuable tool in understanding part of the variability of MSL around the BI, although modelling of long-term changes is limited at present by the lack of adequate meteorological data sets from before 1955. Nevertheless, it is shown that, even if a complete meteorological modelling data set were available, it would not be able to account for all of the MSL variability. Finally, recommendations are made for the development of tide gauge and Global Positioning System (GPS) recording in the BI for the purpose of long-term MSL monitoring in the next century.     

Spectral analysis using orthonormal functions with a case study on the sea surface topography

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Spherical harmonics are orthonormalized using the Gram-Schmidt process in a function space. The problem of linear dependence of spherical harmonics over the oceans is studied using the Gram matrices and consequently three sets of orthonormal (ON) functions have been constructed. For the process an efficient formula for computing inner products of spherical harmonics has been developed. Important spectral properties of the ON functions are addressed. The ON functions may be used for representing the sea surface topography (SST) in the analysis of satellite altimeter data. The geoid error can be transformed to a representation by the ON functions and hence the comparison of powers of the geoid error and the SST signal only over the oceans is possible, leading to a better way of determining the cut-off frequency of the SST in the simultaneous solution using satellite altimeter data. As a case study, the modified Levitus SST is expanded into the ON functions. The results show that 99.90 per cent of that signal's energy is contained within degree 24 of the orthonormal functions. Such expansions also render better spectral behaviour of oceanic signals as compared to that from spherical harmonic expansions. The study shows that these generalized Fourier functions are suitable for spectral analyses of oceanic signals and they can be applied to future altimetric mission where the geoid and the SST are to be recovered.     

High-resolution mean sea surface computed with altimeter data of Ers-1 (geodetic mission) and topex-poseidon

The remote-sensing satellite ERS-1, launched in 1991 to study the Earth's environment, was placed on a geodetic (168-day repeat) orbit between 1994 April and 1995 March to map, through altimetric measurements, the gravity field over the whole oceanic domain with a resolution of 8 km at the equator in both along-track and cross-track directions. We have analysed the precise altimeter data of the geodetic mission, and, by also using one year of Topex-Poseidon altimeter data, we have computed a global high-resolution mean sea surface. The various steps involved in pre-processing the ERS-1 data consisted of correcting the data for environmental factors, editing, and reducing, through crossover analyses, the radial orbit error, which directly affects sea-surface height measurements. For this purpose, we adjusted sinusoids at 1 and 2 cycle rev⁻¹ along the ERS-1 profiles in order to minimize crossover differences between ERS-1 and yearly averaged Topex-Poseidon profiles. In effect, the orbit of Topex-Poseidon is very accurately determined (within 2–3 cm for the radial component), so Topex-Poseidon altimeter profiles can serve as a reference to reduce the ERS-1 radial orbit error. The ERS-1 residual orbit error was further reduced through a second crossover analysis between all ascending and descending profiles of the geodetic mission. The along-track ERS-1 and Topex-Poseidon data were then interpolated over the whole oceanic domain on a regular grid of 1/16°× 1/16° size. The mapping of the gridded sea-surface heights reveals the very fine structure of the marine geoid, up until now unknown at a global scale. This new data set will be most useful for marine geophysical and tectonic investigations.     

海冰和海温对西北地区中部6月降水异常的协同影响

利用1961年以来美国国家环境预报中心(NCEP)月平均再分析风场、高度场、NOAA重构海表温度以及西北地区中部54个气象站6月逐日降水资料、1979年以来北极10个区域的海冰面积,通过分析2019年6月西北地区中部降水异常的成因,揭示出对该区域6月降水具有显著影响的关键海区海冰面积及时段、北大西洋三极子(NAT)关键...     

地表热通量对陕南强降水的影响

通过对2002年6月8～9日陕南大暴雨天气过程中地表感热和潜热通量的数值模拟表明:地表感热、潜热通量和温度的区域性分布与高原东部特殊的地形分布有关,地表热通量和温度的等值线与地形等高线大致平行,平原低洼地区和山脉所在地特征明显,从而可以说明地形热力状况在陕西强降水中发挥重要作用;地表潜热作用大于地表感热,去掉地表潜热的作用后,模式对降水的模拟结果与实况偏差较大;地表感热使山脊降水减少,使平原、山谷降水增加,这与夜间的山谷风环流密不可分。     

Terrestrial surface-area increment: the effects of topography,DEM resolution,and algorithm

The area increment of land surface compared with its projected area is an effect of topographic relief and is also a source of environmental variations. To examine the effects of topography and data resolution on surface area calculation, we calculated incremental area coefficients (IACs), based on two different algorithms, for a DEM of China at a series of spatial resolutions. Sampling the DEM with a regional network of 50?km?×?50?km cell size, we explored the relationships among the two IACs and topographic features. Both IACs studied were exponential functions of resolution. At 30-m resolution, the IACs were 4.31 and 4.89% over China, respectively. The largest increment for a 50?km?×?50?km cell was >45%. Between the IACs there was a linear relationship that varied with DEM resolution. Hierarchical variation partitioning revealed that the factors included contributed in a very similar percentage composition to the two IACs, mean slope (37.5 or 38.7%) and standard deviation of slope (22.3 or 19.6%) at local scale dominated the area increment, followed by regional elevation range. Data resolution contributed about 10%, while the deviation of slope exposure only had minimal (1.4 or 1.7%) impact on surface-area increment. For a specific type of geomorphology, a threshold resolution of DEM can be determined, below which the surface-area increment (i.e., IAC) is negligible. Our results provided the first comprehensive estimate of the contributions of the topographic features, DEM resolution, and algorithms for the surface-area increment, and indicated the scale-related properties and potential environmental consequences of topographic heterogeneity in various estimates of natural resources and ecosystem functions when area needs to be taken into account.