Response of photosynthetic systems to salinity stress in the desert cyanobacterium Scytonema javanicum

The present study investigated the physiological and biochemical characteristics of Scytonema javanicum, a pioneer species isolated from desert biological crusts, under salinity stress. Pigment analysis showed that salinity decreased chlorophyll a and phycocyanin content, while low salinity increased carotenoid concentration and high salinity decreased carotenoid concentration. Salinity also inhibited CO₂ assimilation rate and photosynthetic oxygen evolution in this cyanobacterium. Chlorophyll a fluorescence transient parameters (φPo, φEo, ψO, RC/ABS, RC/CS, PI_ABS, and PI_CS) were decreased under salt stress, while dVo/dto(Mo), Vj and φDo were increased. The decrease of ETRmax and Yield and the change of chlorophyll a fluorescence transients showed that salt stress had an important influence on photosynthesis. These results indicated that the effects of salinity stress on photosynthesis in S. javanicum may depend on the inhibition of electron transport and the inactivation of the reaction centers, but this inhibition may occur in the electron transport pathway at the PSII donor and acceptor sites.     

Study of the 2013 Lushan M7.0 earthquake coseismic ionospheric disturbances

On April 20, 2013, an earthquake of M7.0 occurred in Lushan, Sichuan province, China. This paper investigates the coseismic ionospheric anomalies using GPS (Global Positioning System) data from 23 reference stations in Sichuan province that are a part of the Crustal Movement Observation Network of China (CMONOC). The recorded results show that a clear ionospheric anomaly occurred within 15 min after the earthquake near the epicenter, and the occurrence time of the anomalies recorded by various stations is related to the distance from the epicenter. The maximum anomaly is 0.25 TECu, with a 2 min duration and the distance of the recording station to the epicenter is 83 km. Acoustic waves generated by the crustal vertical movement during the earthquake propagate up to the height of the ionosphere lead to the ionospheric anomaly, and the propagation speed of the acoustic wave is calculated as 0.72 ± 0.04 km/s based on the propagation time and propagation distance, consistent with the average speed of sound waves within a 0–450 km atmospheric height.     

三层月壤模型的多通道微波辐射模拟与月壤厚度的反演

由月球表面数字高程试验性地构造了整个月球表面月壤厚度的分布.根据Clementine探月卫星的紫外-可见光光学数据,计算了整个月球表面月壤中FeO+TiO2含量分布,给出了整个月球表面月壤介电常数分布.由月球表层温度的观测结果以及月壤的导热特性,给出了月尘层与月壤层温度随纬度分布的经验公式.在这些条件的基础上,建立了月尘、月壤、月岩三层微波热辐射模型.由起伏逸散定理,模拟计算了该月球模型多通道辐射亮度温度.然后,以此辐射亮度温度模拟加随机噪声为理论观测值,按三层模型提出了月壤层厚度反演方法.由于高频通道穿透深度小,由高频通道的辐射亮度温度按照两层月尘-月壤微波热辐射模型反演月尘层与月壤层的物理温度,再由穿透深度较大的低频通道辐射亮度温度反演月壤层厚度.对于反演的相对误差也进行了讨论.      

Negative VTEC with spherical harmonic expansion model under different solar activity conditions

The Earth’s ionosphere can be described by a spherical harmonic (SH) expansion up to a specific degree. However, there exist negative vertical total electron content (VTEC) values in the global ionosphere map (GIM) with the SH expansion model. In this contribution, we specifically investigated the negative VTEC values that are induced by the SH expansion model and validated the performance of the inequality-constrained least squares (ICLS) method in eliminating the negative VTEC values. The GPS data from 2004 to 2017 was selected to cover one solar cycle and the experiments under different solar activity conditions were analyzed. The results in our work show that the occurrence of the negative VTEC values is attributed to the deficiency of the SH expansion model when the VTEC itself is small instead of the unevenly distribution of the GNSS stations. The negative VTEC values appear periodically in the temporal domain, showing apparently one year and half year periods. During one year, two peaks in June and December can be observed in the time series of the negative VTEC values. The number of negative VTEC values in June is obvious larger than that in December. During one solar cycle, the number of negative VTEC values under quiet solar activity condition is obvious larger than that under strong solar activity condition. In the spatial domain, the appearance of the negative VTEC values is strongly related with the movement of the subsolar point. In the latitude of the subsolar point has the largest magnitude, the negative values will appear on the opposite hemisphere and the further from the subsolar point the more negative values. The maximum number of the negative VTEC values in the southern hemisphere appears in June, while the peak value in the northern hemisphere appears in December. The maximum number of negative VTEC values in the southern hemisphere is generally larger than that in the northern hemisphere. In addition, the negative VTEC values are distributed both at middle latitude and high latitude in the southern hemisphere, while they are mainly distributed at high latitude in the northern hemisphere. When the ICLS method is used, the negative VTEC values can be eliminated efficiently and it has nearly no influence on the positive VTEC values. The ICLS method can also improve the receiver’s differential code bias (DCB) and significantly decrease the unreasonable negative slant TEC (STEC) values along the lines of sight. Using the final GIM product of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPLG) as a reference, the root mean square (RMS) of the ICLS solution shows maximum 25%, 20% and 45% improvement relative to the least squares (LS) solution at northern high latitude, southern middle latitude and southern high latitude, respectively.