the shape and internal structure of the moon from the clementine mission global topographic and gravitational field models derived from data collected by the clementine spacecraft reveal a new picture of the shape and internal structure of the moon the moon exhibits a 16 kilometer range of elevation with the greatest topographic excursions occurring on the far side lunar highlands are in a state of near isostatic compensation whereas impact basins display a wide range of compensation states that do not correlate simply with basin size or age a global crustal thickness map reveals crustal thinning under all resolvable lunar basins the results indicate that the structure and thermal history of the moon are more complex than was previously believed

magnetic susceptibility anomalies of lithosphere beneath eastern europe and the middle east standard inversion methods for inverting aeromagnetic anomalies into magnetic susceptibility contrast in the crust are based on the assumption that the core field is constant over the region considered this assumption however does not hold over regions of a few thousand kilometer extent an inversion technique is developed which takes into account the variations in the core field both in direction and in intensity it can also take into account the surface topography of a magnetic layer within the lithosphere the technique is applied to a scalar magnetic anomaly map of eastern europe and the middle east derived from the magnetometer satellite magsat data the magnetic susceptibility contrast map thus obtained delineates the major tectonic features of the region small scale precambrian shields are characterized by high magnetic susceptibility the alpine himalayan belt has a distinct magnetic signature the collision zones are low susceptibility regions whereas the continental plates within the b

oceanic influence on the baiu frontal zone in the east china sea a high resolution transect of atmospheric soundings across the kuroshio current in the east china sea was conducted onboard a ship in june 2012 with the objective of analyzing the influence of the complex sea surface temperature sst distribution on the baiu frontal zone bfz expendable bathythermograph castings and continuous surface meteorological observations were also examined two distinct mesoscale atmospheric fronts characterized by changes of wind direction in the lower troposphere and surface air temperature were found in the bfz one northern atmospheric front was observed around the sst front in relation to a warm water tongue extending from the kuroshio a high sst region around the northern atmospheric front enhances unstable near surface stratification and intensifies turbulent heat flux they help modify the marine atmospheric boundary layer in the bfz the other southern atmospheric front was at the southern end of the bfz intense evaporation over the kuroshio and moisture transport by southerly winds were important in forming the conditionally unstable air masses in the lower troposphere of the bfz

toward mapping the effective elastic thickness of planetary lithospheres from a spherical wavelet analysis of gravity and topography abstract the effective elastic thickness t e of the lithosphere controls the flexural response to transverse loading and can be used in conjunction with rheological models to remotely estimate surface heat flux of terrestrial planets in the vast majority of studies t e estimation is carried out in a two step process 1 the joint spectra admittance and or coherency of gravity anomalies free air and or bouguer and topography are calculated within finite size windows and 2 the spectra are inverted using a model for the loading of an infinite elastic plate or shell in recent years research in the spatio spectral analysis of cartesian grids and improvements in lithospheric loading models have allowed the mapping of t e on the earth at unprecedented resolution nevertheless the limitations imposed by working with cartesian data and models are hampering further advances in terrestrial t e studies the planetary community on the other hand has traditionally used spatio spectral methods that work directly on the sphere thereby avoiding the undesirable distortions and biases inherent in cartesian studies however the models and methods developed for the earth have never been applied to planetary data therefore also limiting further advances in the mapping of planetary t e this paper reviews the latest developments in t e studies and proposes to combine advances in both terrestrial and planetary studies to allow the mapping of t e of terrestrial planets using a spherical wavelet analysis of gravity and topography data we begin with a review of the recent literature on the challenges and debates concerning t e estimation from joint gravity and topography spectra we then briefly review the implementation of the continuous planar and spherical wavelet transforms cpwt and cswt and demonstrate that both transforms possess exactly the same resolving power however the cswt does not suffer from effects associated with non periodic boundaries we further re derive in a consistent manner the expressions for the admittance and coherency from flexural equations for the loading of thin elastic plates and shells and show that they result in similar spectra except at the longest wavelengths where the shell membrane stresses dominate we then estimate global grids of earth s continental t e by inverting the planar and spherical admittance and coherency functions both separately and jointly using either free air or bouguer gravity anomalies the correspondence between the cartesian and spherical approaches and the similarity of t e results for the earth s continents indicate that the spherical methods are robust results obtained from the joint inversion of admittance and coherency show that simple lithospheric loading models fail to capture the complexity of the data with adverse effects on the estimated parameters finally we extend the analysis to the moon and other terrestrial planets and discuss limitations and future applications of the fully spherical techniques

large scale characteristics of the atmospheric boundary layer in the eastern pacific cold tongue itcz region abstract observations from the eastern pacific investigation of climate 2001 epic2001 field campaign and a simple mixed layer model are used to study the large scale structure and dynamics of the atmospheric boundary layer abl in the eastern pacific vertical and latitudinal distributions of the meridional pressure gradient winds and other variables are examined and the momentum balance of the mixed layer is explored for a latitudinal range from 0 to 10 n along 95 w including the equatorial cold tongue sea surface temperature sst front and convective region at the latitude of the intertropical convergence zone itcz the surface meridional pressure gradient is partitioned into contributions from the abl largely controlled by the gradient in sst and from the troposphere above the boundary layer mainly controlled by elevated heating and atmospheric wave activity the mean meridional gradient in surface pressure is dominated 90 by the abl contribution however its temporal variability prim

composition of orientale basin deposits and implications for the lunar basin forming process the orientale basin on the lunar western limb has served as the prototype lunar multiring basin for many years in order to constrain possible models of the formation and excavation of basin ejecta we have studied the composition of orientale basin deposits using both earth based spectral reflectance and apollo orbital geochemical data results indicate that orientale basin ejecta are dominantly anorthositic with compositions ranging from pure anorthosite to noritic anorthosite although minor quantities of mare basalt and low k fra mauro basalt are present ultramafic and kreep components appear to be absent portions of the inner rings of the basin may be composed of anorthosite whose shock levels exceed 20 gpa 200 kbar in conjunction with photogeologic evidence for the preservation of prebasin topography and structure within the cordillera basin ring we suggest that the diameter of the excavation crater of the orientale basin is on the order of 500 to 600 km effective depths of excavation are probably less than about half the local crustal thickness which in this region is on the order of 100 km we find that the orientale impact excavated dominantly upper crustal rocks with a depth of excavation consistent with a proportional growth basin forming model

air sea interaction at an oceanic front implications for frontogenesis and primary production received 15 april 2003 accepted 17 june 2003 published 23 july 2003 1 based on recent satellite observations we hypothesize that there exists a significant air sea interaction at the shelfbreak front in the east china sea an idealized oceanatmosphere coupled model was designed to test this hypothesis and to study the physical processes involved in such an interaction with emphasis on the oceanic part a positive feedback between ocean and atmosphere was identified in the model and its consequences were evaluated we found that air sea interaction when combined with sloping topography could provide a mechanism for the genesis of the shelf break front the resulting frontal circulation and vertical mixing could bring nutrient rich subsurface water into the surface euphotic zone thus making the frontal region a conspicuous place for primary production index terms 4504 oceanography physical air sea interactions 0312 4528 oceanography physical fronts and jets 4815 oceanography biological and chemical ecosystems structure and dynamics 4219 oceanography general continental shelf processes 4255 oceanography general numerical modeling citation chen d w t liu w tang and z wang air sea interaction at an oceanic front implications for frontogenesis and primary production geophys res lett 30 14 1745 doi 10 1029 2003gl017536 2003

sea level pressure minimum along the kuroshio and its extension abstractatmospheric effects of sea surface temperature sst fronts along the kuroshio and kuroshio extension k ke are investigated by examining spatial characteristics of the climatological sea level pressure slp surface winds and surface heat flux q fields based on an in situ observation dataset a hydrostatic effect of the sst front is observed during the northwesterly monsoon characterized by a westward extending low slp wedge trough slightly south of the peak in q along the k ke ageostrophic surface westerlies crossing slp isobars toward a trough center are found north of the low slp wedge apparently because of the eastward acceleration by the vertical mixing effect this feature of the ageostrophic winds is less pronounced south of it a north south asymmetry arising as vertical mixing accelerates decelerates eastward ageostrophic winds north south of it while the slp trough near the sst front is found nearly year round except for summer its meridional location seasonally migrates pr

spatiospectral localization of global geopotential fields from the gravity recovery and climate experiment grace reveals the coseismic gravity change owing to the 2004 sumatra andaman earthquake 1 regional mass fluxes owing to transport and adjustment within the earth system that are implicitly contained in the monthly gravity recovery and climate experiment grace global geopotential coefficients are revealed by localizing global spectra using spatiospectrally concentrated window functions we have analyzed 45 monthly global grace harmonic coefficient series in order to find the coseismic signature associated with the 2004 great sumatra andaman earthquake a significant gravity change after the earthquake is found in the time series of the grace coefficients after localization with a single band limited window centered near the north of the island of sumatra this change is undetectable from the original global coefficients or from coefficients localized elsewhere on the globe a step function with its discontinuity at 26 december 2004 usefully models the coseismic gravity change the localized grace coefficients contain the jumps associated with the earthquake up to degree and order 55 although not all of them within this band produce changes that are statistically significant the gravity change calculated from the localized grace coefficients displays 30 gal peak to peak variations that are very well correlated with an independently derived seismic model based on elastic dislocation theory

the influence of sea surface temperature on surface wind in the eastern equatorial pacific weekly to monthly variability abstract temporal correlations between near equatorial surface wind and sea surface temperatures sst at 11 w in the eastern pacific ocean are investigated using data from an array of moored sensors between 5 n and 5 s the signature of tropical instability waves with periods of 20 30 days is apparent in time series of sst and both the meridional and zonal wind components results indicate the existence of a band of pronounced horizontal divergence in the surface wind field associated with the large meridional sst gradient equatorial front normally located just north of the equator perturbations of the equatorial front by the instability waves induce fluctuations in the overlying winds evidence of the air sea coupling is stronger in time series of the meridional gradients of wind and sst than between time series of the variables themselves the meridional differencing serves as a high pass filter in the space domain which removes planetary scale wind fluctuations that are unrelated to the local sst

the evolution of impact basins cooling subsidence and thermal stress potentially important contributors to the topography and tectonics of multi ring impact basins are the thermal contraction and thermal stress that accompany the loss of heat emplaced during basin formation heat converted from impact kinetic energy and contributed from the uplift of isotherms during cavity collapse are important components in the energy budget of a newly formed basin that the subsequent cooling may have been an important factor in the tectonic evolution of the orientale basin is suggested by the deep central depression and by a surrounding region of extensive fissuring to test these concepts we develop models for the anomalous temperature distribution immediately following basin formation and we calculate the resulting elastic displacement and stress fields that then would accompany cooling of the basin region all models predict subsidence of the basin floor and a near surface stress field consistent with fissuring in addition the rates of cooling and of accumulation of thermal stress are in agreement with the inferred timing of fissure formation in orientale the sensitivity of the predicted displacements and stresses to the initial temperature field allows us to place bounds on the quantity and distribution of impact heat emplaced during basin formation in order to be consistent with the observed topography and the distribution of fissures in the orientale basin the buried heat deposited during the basin forming event was between 1032 and 1033 erg it is likely that most of this heat was concentrated within a distance of 100 200 km from the point of impact

atmospheric responses to kuroshio sst front in the east china sea under different prevailing winds in winter and spring abstractatmospheric responses to the kuroshio sst front in the east china sea under different prevailing winds are examined using high resolution observations and numerical modeling satellite data reveal a significant in phase relationship between sst and surface wind speed indicative of ocean to atmosphere influence the atmospheric response varies according to the relative surface wind direction with respect to the sst front orientation under the alongfront condition low high slp anomalies are found on the warmer colder flank of the front accompanied by surface wind convergence divergence enhanced precipitation and frequent cumulus convection appear over the warm kuroshio suggesting an atmospheric response extending into the free troposphere under the cross front condition when the air blows from cold to warm warm to cold sst divergence convergence is located directly over the sst front and its magnitude is proportional to the downwind sst gradient under such prevailing winds the

the clementine mission to the moon scientific overview in the course of 71 days in lunar orbit from 19 february to 3 may 1994 the clementine spacecraft acquired just under two million digital images of the moon at visible and infrared wavelengths these data are enabling the global mapping of the rock types of the lunar crust and the first detailed investigation of the geology of the lunar polar regions and the lunar far side in addition laser ranging measurements provided the first view of the global topographic figure of the moon the topography of many ancient impact basins has been measured and a global map of the thickness of the lunar crust has been derived from the topography and gravity

analysis and interpretation of the surface topography and gravitational potential of venus the relationship between the surface topography and gravitational potential of venus and the earth is investigated over the spherical harmonics of degree and order up to 75 the covarying harmonics of the topography and the potential i e the harmonics having nonnegative degree order correlation coefficients are treated separately from the antivarying harmonics those with negative degree order correlation coefficients the covarying harmonics provide reliable estimates of the compensation depth of the surface topography the surface topography of the earth specified by spherical harmonics of degree higher than 11 is essentially compensated isostatically at the moho discontinuity whereas the lower degree harmonics are largely supported by mantle dynamics for venus the harmonics of degree lower than 9 are probably supported by mantle dynamics while those of degree higher than 35 are most likely supported isostatically at a depth of about 45 km there is a gradual increase in the compensation depth of the surface topography as the degree of harmonics decreases from 35 to 9 implying a combination of isostatic and dynamic support of these harmonics part of the topography specified by antivarying harmonics of degree greater than about 20 cannot be maintained by an isostatic compensation or a steady state dynamic support it is more likely time dependent assuming that this part of the topography arises from viscous deformation of mantle under surface loading the gravity and topography relationship provides a first order estimate of 5x10 24 pa s for the viscosity of the venusian mantle this high viscosity results in a rayleigh number of about 12000 for the mantle which is only about 17 times greater than the critical rayleigh number for convection implying a very slow quasi steady convection in the mantle

direct observations of atmospheric boundary layer response to sst variations associated with tropical instability waves over the eastern equatorial pacific tropical instability waves tiws with a typical wavelength of 1000 km and period of 30 days cause the equatorial front to meander and result in sst variations on the order of 18 28c vertical soundings of temperature humidity and wind velocity were obtained on board a japanese research vessel which sailed through three fully developed sst waves from 1408 to 1108w along 28n during 21 28 september 1999 a strong temperature inversion is observed throughout the cruise along 28n capping the planetary boundary layer pbl that is 1 1 5 km deep temperature response to tiw induced sst changes penetrates the whole depth of the pbl in response to an sst increase air temperature rises in the lowest kilometer and shows a strong cooling at the mean inversion height as a result this temperature dipole is associated with little tiw signal in the observed sea level pressure slp the cruise mean vertical profiles show a speed maximum at 400 500 m for both zonal and meridional velocities sst based composite profiles of zonal wind velocity show weakened intensified vertical shear within the pbl that is consistent with enhanced reduced vertical mixing causing surface wind to accelerate decelerate over warm cold ssts taken together the temperature and wind soundings indicate the dominance of the vertical mixing over the slp driving mechanism based on the authors measurements a physical interpretation of the widely used pbl model proposed by lindzen and nigam is presented

satellite measurements reveal persistent small scale features in ocean winds four year averages of 25 kilometer resolution measurements of near surface wind speed and direction over the global ocean from the quikscat satellite radar scatterometer reveal the existence of surprisingly persistent small scale features in the dynamically and thermodynamically important curl and divergence of the wind stress air sea interaction over sea surface temperature fronts throughout the world ocean is evident in both the curl and divergence fields as are the influences of islands and coastal mountains ocean currents such as the gulf stream generate distinctive patterns in the curl field these previously unresolved features have important implications for oceanographic and air sea interaction research

ancient multiring basins on the moon revealed by clementine laser altimetry analysis of laser altimetry data from clementine has confirmed and extended our knowledge of nearly obliterated multiring basins on the moon these basins were formed during the early bombardment phase of lunar history have been filled to varying degrees by mare lavas and regional ejecta blankets and have been degraded by the superposition of large impact craters the mendel rydberg basin a degraded three ring feature over 600 kilometers in diameter on the lunar western limb is about 6 kilometers deep from rim to floor only slightly less deep than the nearby younger and much better preserved orientale basin 8 kilometers deep the south pole aitken basin the oldest discernible impact feature on the moon is revealed as a basin 2500 kilometers in diameter with an average depth of more than 13 kilometers rim crest to floor this feature is the largest deepest impact crater yet discovered in the solar system several additional depressions seen in the data may represent previously unmapped ancient impact basins

multiple parent bodies of ordinary chondrites abstract thermal histories of chondrite parent bodies are calculated from an initial state with material in a powder like form taking into account the effect of consolidation state on thermal conductivity the very low thermal conductivity of the starting materials makes it possible for a small body with a radius of less than 100 km to be heated by several hundred degrees even if long lived radioactive elements in chondritic abundances are the only source of heat the maximum temperature is determined primarily by the temperature at which sintering of the constituent materials occurs the thermal state of the interior of a chondrite parent body after sintering has begun is nearly isothermal near the surface however where the material is unconsolidated and the thermal conductivity is much lower the thermal gradient is quite large this result contradicts the conventional onion shell model of chondrite parent bodies but because the internal temperature is almost constant through the whole body it supports a multiple parent bodies model according to which each petrologic type of chondrite comes from a different parent body

far reaching effects of the hawaiian islands on the pacific ocean atmosphere system using satellite data we detected a wind wake trailing westward behind the hawaiian islands for 3000 kilometers a length many times greater than observed anywhere else on earth this wind wake drives an eastward ocean current that draws warm water from the asian coast 8000 kilometers away leaving marked changes in surface and subsurface ocean temperature standing in the path of the steady trade winds hawaii triggers an air sea interaction that provides the feedback to sustain the influence of these small islands over a long stretch of the pacific ocean

deep atmospheric response to the spring kuroshio over the east china sea abstractthe atmospheric response to the spring kuroshio front over the east china sea is investigated using a suite of high resolution satellite data and a regional atmospheric model the atmospheric response appears to extend beyond the marine atmospheric boundary layer with frequent occurrence of cumulus convection in spring quick scatterometer quikscat wind speed shows a clear effect of sea surface temperature sst with high low wind speed observed over the warm cold tongue this in phase relationship between sst and surface wind speed is indicative of sst influence on the atmosphere wind convergence is found on the warmer flank of the kuroshio front accompanied by a narrow rainband the analysis of satellite borne radar measurements indicates that deep convection appears over the kuroshio warm tongue in the spring season with enhanced convective precipitation frequent occurrence of cumulus convection and increased precipitation cloud tops in altitude these deep convective activities

the deep structure of lunar basins implications for basin formation and modification we present models for the structure of the crust and upper mantle beneath lunar impact basins from an inversion of gravity and topographic data from the nearside of the moon all basin models display a thinner crust and an elevated moho beneath the central basin region compared to surrounding areas a signature of the processes of basin excavation and mantle uplift during collapse of the transient cavity there is a general decrease in the magnitude of apparent uplift of mantle material with increasing basin age we attribute this relation primarily to enhanced rates of ductile flow of crustal material early in lunar history when crustal temperatures were relatively high and the effective elastic lithosphere was thin the more relaxed topographic and moho relief associated with older basins on the central nearside may in particular be at least partly a consequence of the extensive subsurface heating associated with the formation of the large procellarum basin the deep structure of the youngest basins constrains the geometry of the cavity of excavation and the amount of crustal material ejected beyond the basin rim from the volumes of the topographic basin of mare basalt fill and of uplifted mantle material the volume of crustal material ejected beyond the basin rim for an orientale sized event was of the order of 107 km 3 a near constant thickness of nonmare crustal material beneath the central regions of young basins of various diameters and preimpact crustal thicknesses suggests that the transient cavity excavated to at least the base of the crust for the largest basins significant excavation into the mantle may have been impeded by an abrupt increase in strength at the lunar moho

the lunar mascons revisited the entire spectra of the surface topography and gravity field of lunar mascons are well presented by the high resolution clementine data the negative correlation between the topography and gravitational potential of the mascons suggests that they are dynamically supported both elastic support and viscous decay models are examined for the elastic support models the spectral characteristics and the lateral variations of the thickness of the elastic layer are determined on the basis of the thin spherical shell flexure formulation and using only the antivarying harmonics of the topography and potential an elastic layer thickness of about 50 km is required to support imbrium serenitatis and nectaris mascons about 35 km for crisium mascon and about 30 km for smythii and humorum mascons a layer of about 20 km thickness can support orientale mascon the strength envelopes of the upper 100 km of the moon within 4 3 gyr ago show that the elastic layer was not thick enough to support the mascons in the early history they decayed through viscous deformation of the lunar interior a lower limit of 6 1024 pa s is estimated for the lunar viscosity within 3 6 3 gyr ago we also determine the thicknesses of the crust and mare flows of the mascon basins on the basis of the assumption that the basins were isostatically compensated prior to the mascon formation the crust beneath the mascon basins is about 30 40 km except for crisium and orientale where the crust is about 20 km the mare flows of about 3 6 km are obtained for almost all of the mascon basins the topography and gravitational potential of aitken basin shows that the basin is compensated at 52 54 km depth the mantle beneath the basin has rebounded upward by about 20 30 km and is overlain by about 20 25 km of a mixture of the excavated crustal and mantle material the lack of a mascon and pervasive mare flows in the basin brings into question the current models of the mascon formation

bathymetric effect on the winter sea surface temperature and climate of the yellow and east china seas 1 whether and how the atmosphere reacts to changes in extratropical sea surface temperature sst is under intense debate and this lack of understanding has been a major obstacle in the study of non el nino climate variability using new satellite measurements we detect clear ocean to atmospheric feedback in the yellow and east china yec seas that is triggered by the submerged ocean bottom topography under intense surface cooling in winter water properties are well mixed up to 100 m deep ocean depth thus has a strong influence on sst of the continental shelf leading to a remarkable collocation of warm tongues and deep channels high winds and increased cloudiness are found over these warm tongues one such band of ocean atmospheric co variation meanders through the basin following a deep channel for an amazing distance of 1000 km in addition to these climatic effects the kuroshio front where the warm current meets the much colder shelf water strengthens the growth of storms

interannual modulations of oceanic imprints on the wintertime atmospheric boundary layer under the changing dynamical regimes of the kuroshio extension abstractthe kuroshio extension ke fluctuates between its different dynamic regimes on quasi decadal time scales in its stable unstable regime the ke jet is strengthened weakened and less more meandering the present study investigates wintertime mesoscale atmospheric structures modulated under the changing ke regimes as revealed in high resolution satellite data and data from a particular atmospheric reanalysis era interim in the unstable ke regime a positive anomaly in sea surface temperature sst to the north of the climatological ke jet accompanies positive anomalies in upward heat fluxes from the ocean surface wind convergence and cloudiness as revealed in the atmospheric reanalysis these positive anomalies coincide with local lowering of sea level pressure weaker vertical wind shear warming and thickening of the marine atmospheric boundary layer mabl anomalous ascent and convective precipitation in the stable ke regime by contrast the corresponding imprints of sharp sst

ocean frontal effects on the vertical development of clouds over the western north pacific in situ and satellite observations abstract a suite of shipboard and satellite observations are analyzed and synthesized to investigate the three dimensional structure of clouds and influences from sea surface temperature fronts over the western north pacific sharp transitions are observed across the kuroshio extension ke front in the marine atmospheric boundary layer mabl and its clouds the ocean s influence appears to extend beyond the mabl with higher cloud tops in altitude along the ke front than the surroundings in winter intense turbulent heat release from the ocean takes place on the southern flank of the ke front where the cloud top penetrates above the mabl and reaches the midtroposphere in this band of high cloud tops frequent lightning activity is observed the results of this study suggest a sea level pressure mechanism for which the temperature gradient in the mabl induces strong surface wind convergence on the southern flank of the ke front deepening the clouds there in early summer sea fog frequently occurs on

ocean tidal cooling effect on summer sea fog over the okhotsk sea 1 ocean tide is a periodic phenomenon of the rise and fall of the sea level that depends on the bathymetry and positions of the moon and sun relative to the earth in the okhotsk sea the ocean tide causes strong vertical mixing in the upper ocean generating rich structures in summer sst with extraordinarily cold patches on kashevarov bank along the kuril islands northeast of the terpeniya peninsula and inside shelikhov bay the present study analyzes and synthesizes a suite of ship board and satellite observations and numerical simulations to investigate the ocean tidal cooling effect on summer sea fog over the okhotsk sea over the tide induced cold patches atmospheric stability increases and surface wind weakens markedly possibly through suppressed atmospheric vertical mixing our analysis of ship board observations reveals frequent sea fog occurrence over the cold patches with a maximum exceeding 70 along the kuril islands in july august numerical simulations with the weather research and forecasting wrf model support that the cold patches cool air temperature decelerate surface wind and form a strong surface inversion layer up to 0 5 km high creating favorable conditions for sea fog occurrence the wrf simulation without the tidal cooling effect reduces sea fog occurrence by more than 20 over cold patches illustrating the importance of sst products for climate models

topography of the moon from the clementine lidar range measurements from the lidar instrument carried aboard the clementine spacecraft have been used to produce an accurate global topographic model of the moon this paper discusses the function of the lidar the acquisition processing and filtering of observations to produce a global topographic model and the determination of parameters that define the fundamental shape of the moon our topographic model a 72nd degree and order spherical harmonic expansion of lunar radii is designated goddard lunar topography model 2 gltm 2 this topographic field has an absolute vertical accuracy of approximately 100 m and a spatial resolution of 2 5 the field shows that the moon can be described as a sphere with maximum positive and negative deviations of 8 km both occurring on the farside in the areas of the korolev and south pole aitken s p aitken basins the amplitude spectrum of the topography shows more power at longer wavelengths as compared to previous models owing to more complete sampling of the surface particularly the farside a comparison of elevations derived from the clementine lidar to control point elevations from the apollo laser altimeters indicates that measured relative topographic heights generally agree to within 200 m over the maria while the major axis of the lunar gravity field is aligned in the earth moon direction the major axis of topography is displaced from this line by approximately 10 to the east and intersects the farside 24 north of the equator the magnitude of impact basin topography is greater than the lunar flattening 2 km and equatorial ellipticity 800 m which imposes a significant challenge to interpreting the lunar figure the floors of mare basins are shown to lie close to an equipotential surface while the floors of unflooded large basins except for s p aitken lie above this equipotential the radii of basin floors are thus consistent with a hydrostatic mechanism for the absence of significant farside maria except for s p aitken whose depth and lack of mare require significant internal compositional and or thermal heterogeneity a macroscale surface roughness map shows that roughness at length scales of 10 1 10 2 km correlates with elevation and surface age

sst induced surface wind variations over the brazil malvinas confluence satellite and in situ observations abstract the confluence of the brazil malvinas currents maintains strong sea surface temperature sst fronts in the midlatitude southwestern atlantic year round sst effects on near surface stability and surface wind variations are examined in this region using satellite and in situ datasets satellite observations show strong weak surface wind speeds over the warm brazil cold malvinas current a novel feature of this study is the construction of a high resolution surface meteorological dataset that is based on historical ship observations analysis of this new in situ dataset reveals an increased reduced sea air temperature difference over the brazil malvinas current indicating destabilization stabilization in the atmospheric boundary layer these results are consistent with the sst induced vertical mixing mechanism for wind adjustment the sst effect on the near surface atmosphere is observed both in the climatology and on interannual time scales in the brazil malvinas confluence along a zo

response of surface wind divergence to mesoscale sst anomalies under different wind conditions abstractthe response of the atmospheric boundary layer to mesoscale sea surface temperature sst is often characterized by a link between wind stress divergence and downwind sst gradients in this

measurements of the elastic thickness under ancient lunar terrain abstract the part of a planet s gravity that is coherent with its topography provides information about the deflection of its crust after loading and hence the resistance of its lithosphere to bending at the time the load was emplaced we used observed line of sight accelerations from lunar prospector together with the accelerations we would have expected if anomalies in the gravity field were only caused by topography to estimate the admittance and coherence between topography and gravity over several regions of the lunar nearside we then compared our estimates to what we would expect if the lithosphere behaved as a floating elastic plate or shell assuming a linear relationship between topography and gravity we found in the region surrounding the southern highland crater clavius that the data can be modeled using a thin plate with t e 12 5 km and uncorrelated loads at the surface and base of the upper crust a spherical shell model with surface loading is less satisfactory to fit the admittance adequately requires topography with wavelengths over 400 km to be formed when t e 1 km and the remainder when t e 7 5 km by contrast the apparent lack of compensation around the youngest giant impact basins requires a plate with t e 80 km or a shell with t e 25 km our results indicate the thickness of the lunar lithosphere increased from 12 km in the pre nectarian to 25 km in the nectarian

on the role of sea surface temperature gradients in forcing low level winds and convergence in the tropics abstract we examine the importance of pressure gradients due to surface temperature gradients to low level p 700 mb flow and convergence in the tropics over time scales 1 month the latter plays a crucial role in determining the distribution of cumulonimbus convection and rainfall our approach is to consider a simple one layer model of the trade cumulus boundary layer wherein surface temperature gradients are mixed vertically consistent with ecmwf analyzed data the top of the layer is taken at 700 mb the influence from higher levels is intentionally suppressed by setting horizontal pressure gradients and frictional stresses to zero at the top of the layer horizontal convergence within the layer is taken up by cumulonimbus mass flux however the development of the cumulonimbus mass flux is associated with a short relaxation time o hr roughly the development time for such convection during this short time horizontal convergence acts to redistribute mass so as to reduce horizontal pressur

a harmonic analysis of martian topography the topography of mars is represented by a spherical harmonic model complete to degree and order 50 the data source is a recently revised u s geological survey compilation which encompasses a diverse array of spacecraft measurements and earth based radar ranges because of the disparate nature of the original data sources it is difficult to obtain reliable estimates of the likely errors in martian topography however the variance spectrum has a shape similar to that found for other terrestrial planets and the topography correlates well with recent estimates of the gravitational field of mars both of these considerations suggest that the existing data provide a reasonable approximation to the true topography of mars nevertheless a detailed topographic mapping of the planet such as will be provided by the mars global surveyor will be required before significant advances are made in understanding the relationship between topography and gravity on mars

the evolution of impact basins viscous relaxation of topographic relief we evaluate the hypothesis that viscous relaxation has been an important process for modifying the topographic profiles of ancient large impact basins on the moon we adopt a representative topographic profile of the orientale basin the youngest large impact basin on the moon as an estimate of the initial topography of older basins of similar horizontal dimensions and we predict the topographic profiles that would result from viscous relaxation according to a number of simple analytical representations of the rheological response of the moon to surface topography at wavelengths greater than the thickness of a high viscosity lithosphere both a decrease in viscosity with depth and the partial to complete isostatic compensation of topographic relief have pronounced effects on the wavelength dependent relaxation times and must be considered in modeling viscous relaxation for features as large as impact basins the effect of a decrease in viscosity with depth is to enhance the rate of viscous relaxation at long wavelengths while the rate of relaxation decreases substantially for the fraction of long wavelength topography which is isostatically compensated as an initial condition these models are applied to two pre nectarian basins on the moon the tranquillitatis basin on the lunar nearside and the much larger and older south pole aitken basin on the farside the topographic profile of tranquillitatis after correcting for the effect of mare basalt fill is consistent with significant viscous relaxation of relief prior to the oldest episode of mare volcanism preserved as a surface unit the large topographic relief of the larger farside basin on the contrary is not consistent with significant viscous relaxation and implies a mean crustal viscosity at least a factor of 10 higher than for the central nearside over the time interval during which substantial viscous relaxation of older nearside basins such as tranquillitatis probably occurred a difference in typical crustal temperature profiles between the farside and nearside is the most likely explanation of such a viscosity difference such a nearside farside asymmetry in near surface temperature may date from the time of crust mantle differentiation and may have persisted because of the different histories of late stage impact basin formation and mare volcanism on the two hemispheres

interannual variability in north atlantic weather data analysis and a quasigeostrophic model abstractthis paper addresses the effect of interannual variability in jet stream orientation on weather systems over the north atlantic basin nab the observational analysis relies on 65 yr of ncep ncar reanalysis 1948 2012 the total daily kinetic energy of the geostrophic wind gtke is taken as a measure of storm activity over the north atlantic the nab is partitioned into four rectangular regions and the winter average of gtke is calculated for each quadrant the spatial gtke average over all four quadrants shows striking year to year variability and is strongly correlated with the north atlantic oscillation nao the gtke strength in the northeast quadrant is closely related to the diffluence angle of the jet stream in the northwest quadrant to gain insight into the relationship between the diffluence angle and its downstream impact a quasigeostrophic baroclinic model is used the results show that an initially zonal jet persists at its initial latitude over 30 days or longer while a tilted

directional wavelet analysis on the sphere application to gravity and topography of the terrestrial planets 1 the spectral relations admittance and correlation between gravity and topography are often used to obtain information on the density structure flexural support and heat flow of planetary lithospheres mapping spatial variations in these quantities requires spatiospectral analysis techniques here we describe the application of a directional continuous spherical wavelet transform using a wavelet basis constructed from the superposition of azimuthally adjacent complex morlet wavelets in a manner similar to the fan wavelet developed in the plane the method is applied to gravity and topography of the earth venus mars and the moon the wavelet coefficients are used to compute isotropic and directional wavelet autospectra and cross spectra which are then combined to form the admittance and correlation functions the resulting maps offer insights into lithospheric structure of the terrestrial planets in particular we show that the earth and venus have uniformly low positive admittance and high correlation whereas mars and the moon display hemispherical contrasts with large negative and anisotropic coefficients coinciding with lowlands as has long been known the two largest impact basins in the inner solar system the south pole aitken basin on the moon and the hellas basin on mars display low positive admittance and high correlation indicating isostatic compensation in contrast most other impact basins particularly the martian and lunar mascons show negative coefficients at low wavelet degrees suggesting flexural support by a strong lithosphere these results imply that although simple isotropic flexural models can account for most observations future models may need to incorporate anisotropy as an additional parameter

the influence of sea surface temperature on surface wind in the eastern equatorial pacific seasonal and interannual variability abstract the climate of the eastern pacific exhibits a pronounced equatorial asymmetry boundary layer air originating in the southern hemisphere trades crosses the equator and flows into the intertropical convergence zone itcz whose southern limit is nearly always located at least 4 to the north of the equator the sea surface temperature sst distribution is characterized by a prominent cold tongue centered 1 s a strong frontal zone centered 2 n and a warm eastward current centered near 5 n the surface wind field exhibits a pronounced horizontal divergence as the air flows northward across the oceanic frontal zone these features vary in strength in response to the annual cycle and the el nino southern oscillation phenomenon the northward cross equatorial surface winds the cold tongue and the frontal zone all tend to be strongest during the cold season july through november during the cold season of the coldest years when the cold tongue is most prominent the cross equatorial flow t

the effects of sst induced surface wind speed and direction gradients on midlatitude surface vorticity and divergence abstract the effects of surface wind speed and direction gradients on midlatitude surface vorticity and divergence fields associated with mesoscale sea surface temperature sst variability having spatial scales of 100 1000 km are investigated using vector wind observations from the seawinds scatterometer on the quick scatterometer quikscat satellite and sst from the advanced microwave scanning radiometer for earth observing system amsr e aqua satellite the wind sst coupling is analyzed over the period june 2002 august 2008 corresponding to the first 6 years of the amsr e mission previous studies have shown that strong wind speed gradients develop in response to persistent mesoscale sst features associated with the kuroshio extension gulf stream south atlantic and agulhas return current regions midlatitude sst fronts also significantly modify surface wind direction the surface wind speed and direction responses to typical sst differences of about 2 4 c are on average about 1 2 m s 1 and 4

farside gravity field of the moon from four way doppler measurements of selene kaguya the farside gravity field of the moon is improved from the tracking data of the selenological and engineering explorer selene via a relay subsatellite the new gravity field model reveals that the farside has negative anomaly rings unlike positive anomalies on the nearside several basins have large central gravity highs likely due to super isostatic dynamic uplift of the mantle other basins with highs are associated with mare fill implying basalt eruption facilitated by developed faults basin topography and mantle uplift on the farside are supported by a rigid lithosphere whereas basins on the nearside deformed substantially with eruption variable styles of compensation on the near and farsides suggest that reheating and weakening of the lithosphere on the nearside was more extensive than previously considered

storm track response to ocean fronts in a global high resolution climate model synoptic atmospheric eddies are affected by lower tropospheric air temperature gradients and by turbulent heat fluxes from the surface in this study we examine how ocean fronts affect these quantities and hence the storm tracks we focus on two midlatitude regions where ocean fronts lie close to the storm tracks the north west atlantic and the southern ocean an atmospheric climate model of reasonably high resolution 50 km is applied in a climate length 60 year simulation in order to obtain stable statistics simulations with frontal structure in the sea surface temperature sst in one of the regions are compared against simulations with globally smoothed sst we show that in both regions the ocean fronts have a strong influence on the transient eddy heat and moisture fluxes not just in the boundary layer but also in the free troposphere local differences in these quantities between the simulations reach 20 40 of the maximum values in the simulation with smoothed sst averaged over the entire region of the storm track over the ocean the corresponding differences are 10 20 the effect on the transient eddy meridional wind variance is strong in the boundary layer but relatively weak above that the potential mechanisms by which the ocean fronts influence the storm tracks are discussed and our results are compared against previous studies with regional models aquaplanet models and coarse resolution coupled models

the lunar crust global structure and signature of major basins new lunar gravity and topography data from the clementine mission provide a global bouguer anomaly map corrected for the gravitational attraction of mare fill in mascon basins most of the gravity signal remaining after corrections for the attraction of topography and mare fill can be attributed to variations in depth to the lunar moho and therefore crustal thickness the large range of global crustal thickness 20 120 km is indicative of major spatial variations in melting of the lunar exterior and or significant impact related redistribution the 61 km average crustal thickness constrained by a depth to moho measured during the apollo 12 and 14 missions is preferentially distributed toward the farside accounting for much of the offset in center of figure from the center of mass while the average farside thickness is 12 km greater than the nearside the distribution is nonuniform with dramatic thinning beneath the farside south pole aitken basin with the global crustal thickness map as a constraint regional inversions of gravity and topography resolve the crustal structure of major mascon basins to half wavelengths of 150 km in order to yield crustal thickness maps with the maximum horizontal resolution permitted by the data the downward continuation of the bouguer gravity is stabilized by a three dimensional minimum slope and curvature algorithm both mare and non mare basins are characterized by a central upwarped moho that is surrounded by rings of thickened crust lying mainly within the basin rims the inferred relief at this density interface suggests a deep structural component to the surficial features of multiring lunar impact basins for large 300 km diameter basins moho relief appears uncorrelated with diameter but is negatively correlated with basin age in several cases it appears that the multiring structures were out of isostatic equilibrium prior to mare emplacement suggesting that the lithosphere was strong enough to maintain their state of stress to the present

spatial patterns and intensity of the surface storm tracks in cmip5 models abstractto improve the understanding of storm tracks and western boundary current wbc interactions surface storm tracks in 12 cmip5 models are examined against era interim all models capture an equatorward displacement toward the wbcs in the locations of the surface storm tracks maxima relative to those at 850 hpa an estimated storm track metric is developed to analyze the location of the surface storm track it shows that the equatorward shift is influenced by both the lower tropospheric instability and the baroclinicity basin scale spatial correlations between models and era interim for the storm tracks near surface stability sst gradient and baroclinicity are calculated to test the ability of the gcms match reanalysis an intermodel comparison of the spatial correlations suggests that differences relative to era interim in the position of the storm track aloft have the strongest influence on differences in the surface storm track position however in the north atlantic biases in the surf

remelting mechanisms for shallow source regions of mare basalts abstract two mechanisms are studied which could induce remelting at shallow depths within the moon a radioactive heating model in which remelting is the result of lateral variations of the heat source concentration emplaced by the end of the initial differentiation event and a thermal insulation model in which remelting is induced by lateral variations of near surface conductivity as a result of a high porosity ejecta blanket created by basin forming impacts the effects of these perturbations are studied by evaluating the thermal evolution of an otherwise radially symmetric lunar model the radioactive heating models predict extensive pre basin volcanism which would probably remove from the source region many of the heat producing elements potentially responsible for melting therefore localized high concentrations of heat producing elements emplaced early would most probably not be heat sources for the basin filling mare basalts however they are plausible heat sources for pre basin mare basalts the thermal insulation model predicts a delay of about 200 m y between impact and volcanism thermal insulation may also allow for the persistence of source regions for young basalts at shallow depths if greater basin ages are correct from 4 2 to 3 9 ga and most volcanism occurred between 3 8 and 3 6 ga then the thermal insulation model may explain the delay between impact and basin filling if the basins formed during a terminal cataclysmic event at about 3 9 ga then the earliest stages of basin filling at about 3 8 ga may have been a result of melting beneath the basin as a result of mantle uplift basin filling may have been characterized by a migration of the source region from beneath the basin to beneath the adjacent highlands cooling of the top 200 km beneath the basin after 200 m y because of its high surface conductivity is consistent with the mascon support requirement

numerical simulation of boundary layer structure and cross equatorial flow in the eastern pacific abstract recent observations from spaceborne microwave sensors have revealed detailed structure of the surface flow over the equatorial eastern pacific in the boreal fall season a marked acceleration of surface wind across the northern sea surface temperature sst front of the cold tongue is a prominent feature of the regional climate previous studies have attributed the acceleration to the effect of enhanced momentum mixing over the warmer waters a high resolution numerical model is used to examine the cross frontal flow adjustment in a comprehensive comparison the model agrees well with many observed features of cross equatorial flow and boundary layer structure from satellite tropical atmosphere ocean tao moorings and the recent eastern pacific investigation of climate processes epic campaign in particular the model simulates the acceleration across the sst front and the change from a stable to unstable boundary layer analysis of the model momentum budget indicates that the hydrostatic

atmospheric response to a midlatitude sst front alongfront winds abstractsatellite observations and modeling studies show that midlatitude sst fronts influence the marine atmospheric boundary layer mabl and atmospheric circulation here the weather research and forecasting wrf mesoscale model is used to explore the atmospheric response to a midlatitude sst front in an idealized dry two dimensional configuration with a background wind oriented in the alongfront direction the sst front excites an alongfront wind anomaly in the free atmosphere with peak intensity just above the mabl this response is nearly quasigeostrophic in contrast to the inertia gravity wave response seen for cross front background winds the free atmosphere response increases with the background wind in contrast to previously proposed sst frontal mabl models the mabl winds are nearly in ekman balance however a cross front wind develops in the mabl as a result of friction and rotation such that the mabl cross front rossby number e 0 2 the mabl vorticity balance and scaling arguments

a 70th degree lunar gravity model glgm 2 from clementine and other tracking data a spherical harmonic model of the lunar gravity field complete to degree and order 70 has been developed from s band doppler tracking data from the clementine mission as well as historical tracking data from lunar orbiters 1 5 and the apollo 15 and 16 subsatellites the model combines 361 000 doppler observations from clementine with 347 000 historical observations the historical data consist of mostly 60 s doppler with a noise of 0 25 to several mm s the clementine data consist of mostly 10 s doppler data with a data noise of 0 25 mm s for the observations from the deep space network and 2 5 mm s for the data from a naval tracking station at pomonkey maryland observations provided clementine provide the strongest satellite constraint on the moon s low degree field in contrast the historical data collected by spacecraft that had lower periapsis altitudes provide distributed regions of high resolution coverage within 29 of the nearside lunar equator to obtain the solution for a high degree field in the absence of a uniform distribution of observations we applied an a priori power law constraint of the form 15 10 5 l2 which had the effect of limiting the gravitational power and noise at short wavelengths coefficients through degree and order 18 are not significantly affected by the constraint and so the model permits geophysical analysis of effects of the major basins at degrees 10 12 the glgm 2 model confirms major features of the lunar gravity field shown in previous gravitational field models but also reveals significantly more detail particularly at intermediate wavelengths 103 km free air gravity anomaly maps derived from the new model show the nearside and farside highlands to be gravitationally smooth reflecting a state of isostatic compensation mascon basins including imbrium serenitatis crisium smythii and humorum are denoted by gravity highs first recognized from lunar orbiter tracking all of the major mascons are bounded by annuli of negative anomalies representing significant subsurface mass deficiencies mare orientale appears as a minor mascon surrounded by a horseshoe shaped gravity low centered on the inner and outer rook rings that is evidence of significant subsurface structural heterogeneity although direct tracking is not available over a significant part of the lunar farside glgm 2 resolves negative anomalies that correlate with many farside basins including south pole aitken hertzsprung korolev moscoviense tsiolkovsky and freundlich sharonov

high resolution satellite measurements of the atmospheric boundary layer response to sst variations along the agulhas return current abstract the marine atmospheric boundary layer mabl response to sea surface temperature sst perturbations with wavelengths shorter than 30 longitude by 10 latitude along the agulhas return current arc is described from the first year of sst and cloud liquid water clw measurements from the advanced microwave scanning radiometer amsr on the earth observing system eos aqua satellite and surface wind stress measurements from the quikscat scatterometer amsr measurements of sst at a resolution of 58 km considerably improves upon a previous analysis that used the reynolds sst analyses which underestimate the short scale sst gradient magnitude over the arc region by more than a factor of 5 the amsr sst data thus provide the first quantitatively accurate depiction of the sst induced mabl response along the arc warm cold sst perturbations produce positive negative wind stress magnitude perturbations leading to short scale perturbations in the wind stress curl and divergence fields that are li

covariations of sea surface temperature and wind over the kuroshio and its extension evidence for ocean to atmosphere feedback abstract satellite microwave measurements are analyzed revealing robust covariability in sea surface temperature sst and wind speed over the kuroshio extension ke east of japan ocean hydrodynamic instabilities cause the ke to meander and result in large sst variations increased reduced wind speeds are found to be associated with warm cold sst anomalies this positive sst wind correlation in ke is confirmed by in situ buoy measurements and is consistent with a vertical shear adjustment mechanism namely an increase in sst reduces the static stability of the near surface atmosphere intensifying the vertical turbulence mixing and bringing fast moving air from aloft to the sea surface south of japan the kuroshio is known to vary between nearshore and offshore paths these paths are very persistent and can last for months to years as the kuroshio shifts its path coherent wind changes are detected from satellite data in particular winds are high south of tokyo when the kuroshio takes the near

low cloud transitions across the kuroshio front in the east china sea abstractthe east china sea kuroshio ecsk flows in the east asian monsoon region where the background atmospheric circulation varies significantly with season a sea surface temperature sst front associated with the ecsk becomes narrower and sharper from winter to spring the present study investigates how low clouds respond to the ecsk front in different seasons by synthesizing spaceborne lidar and surface visual observations the results reveal prominent cross frontal transitions in low clouds which exhibit distinct behavior between winter and spring in winter cloud responses are generally confined below 4 km by the strong background descending motion and feature a gradual cloud top elevation from the cold to the warm flank of the front the ice clouds on the cold flank of the ecsk front transform into liquid water clouds and rain on the warm flank the springtime clouds by contrast are characterized by a sharp cross frontal transition with deep clouds reaching up to 7 km over the ecsk in both

lunar impact basins new data for the western limb and far side orientale and south pole aitken basins from the first galileo flyby compositional aspects of impact basin materials can be analyzed using multispectral image data acquired by the galileo solid state imaging ssi experiment during the december 1990 lunar encounter these data provide important information on the spectral properties of the western lunar limb and parts of the far side the ssi images cover the wavelength range 0 4 1 0 m allowing measurement of spectral slope and estimation of the strength of the 1 m absorption due to iron in the mafic minerals olivine and pyroxene among deposits of the 930 km diameter orientale basin exterior ejecta comprising the hevelius formation is relatively homogeneous and spectrally similar to mature apollo 16 soils suggesting an upper crustal source the centrally located maunder formation is distinct from the younger mare basalts but comparable to the hevelius formation in its spectral reflectance properties supporting an interpretation as basin impact melt the montes rook formation located in an annulus between the maunder and the hevelius shows a slightly stronger mafic absorption and may be the deepest crustal material excavated the distal orientale deposits show local mafic enhancements in the schiller schickard and mendel rydberg regions interpreted to represent pre orientale mare deposits or cryptomaria intermixed with overlying basin ejecta in this case maria of sizes comparable to those presently observed were widespread in this region before the orientale impact mixing model analyses are consistent with the ballistic erosion and sedimentation model for ejecta emplacement in the distal regions beyond the continuous ejecta deposit on the southern lunar farside a huge area with an enhanced mafic absorption corresponds to the interior and rim of the pre nectarian south pole aitken impact basin 2000 2500 km in diameter the anomaly is interpreted to be due to several factors including excavation into the more mafic lower crust and the presence of extensive early volcanic fill cryptomare similar to that seen in ancient basins such as smythii and australe these results show that although basin forming events are an important factor in producing lateral heterogeneities in crustal composition and in modifying preexisting deposits such as cryptomaria the majority of material in even the largest basins was excavated from crustal levels our results suggest a gradational vertical crustal stratigraphy consisting of an uppermost mixed crustal layer of anorthosite basin ejecta and cryptomaria deposits generally corresponding to the megaregolith an upper crustal layer of anorthosite and a lower more noritic layer many of the basic questions remaining from this study could be addressed by global high resolution geochemical and mineralogical data obtained by polar orbiting spacecraft

atmospheric boundary layer response to mesoscale sst anomalies in the kuroshio extension abstract the atmospheric boundary layer abl response to mesoscale eddies in sea surface temperature sst in the kuroshio extension was investigated using a high resolution t213l30 atmospheric general circulation model a control run was performed first by integrating the model for 40 days driven by the satellite derived eddy resolving sst during january 2006 the spatial pattern of surface wind anomalies that is a deviation from large scale winds reveals a positive correlation with the spatial pattern of mesoscale sst anomalies the momentum budget analysis of the anomalous zonal wind was performed to investigate the formation of the abl response the most dominant term was the pressure gradient force the advection term was comparable but in the opposite sense vertical mixing acts to weaken the anomalous zonal wind near the surface however the downward upward vertical turbulent flux anomalies were dominant near the abl top over the warm cold sst anomalies suggesting that the vertical mixi

two types of surface wind response to the east china sea kuroshio front abstracteffects of the sea surface temperature sst front along the east china sea kuroshio on sea surface winds at different time scales are investigated in winter and spring the climatological vector wind is strongest on the sst front while the scalar wind speed reaches a maximum on the warm flank of the front and is collocated with the maximum difference between sea surface temperature and surface air temperature sst sat the distinction is due to the change in relative importance of two physical processes of sst wind interaction at different time scales the sst front induced sea surface level pressure slp adjustment sf slp contributes to a strong vector wind above the front on long time scales consistent with the collocation of baroclinicity in the marine boundary layer and corroborated by the similarity between the thermal wind and observed wind shear between 1000 and 850 hpa in contrast the sst modulation of synoptic winds is more evident on the warm flank of the sst front large ther

seismic velocity structure of the lunar mantle i have inverted the recently completed set of seismic arrival times from the apollo lunar seismic network to estimate the average seismic velocities in three sections of the lunar mantle two for the upper mantle and one for the middle mantle the method used is a variation of the linearized least squares inversion where the inversion is accomplished in steps the estimated average velocities in the upper mantle decrease from vp 7 74 km s and vs 4 49 km s in the section above 270 km depth to vp 7 46 km s and vs 4 25 km s in the section between 270 and 500 km depth confirming the earlier finding of negative gradients based on seismic amplitude variations the average velocities in the middle mantle between the depths of 500 km and 1000 km of vp 8 26 km s and vs 4 65 km s are significantly higher than those in the upper mantle contradicting earlier estimates based on more limited data the higher velocities may suggest initial melting of the moon down to at least 1000 km depth