ALBERT

Description: The marine data set archived at the National Geophysical Data Center (NGDC) consists of shipborne surveys conducted by various institutes worldwide. This data set spans four decades (1953, 1958, 1960-1987), and contains almost 13 million total intensity observations. These are often less than 1 km apart. These typically measure seafloor spreading anomalies with amplitudes of several hundred nanotesla (nT) which, since they originate in the crust, interfere with main field modeling. The source for these short wavelength features are confined within the magnetic crust (i.e., sources above the Curie isotherm). The main field, on the other hand, is of much longer wavelengths and originates within the earth's core. It is desirable to extract the long wavelength information from the marine data set for use in modeling the main field. This can be accomplished by averaging the data along the track. In addition, those data which are measured during periods of magnetic disturbance can be identified and eliminated. Thus, it should be possible to create a data set which has worldwide data distribution, spans several decades, is not contaminated with short wavelengths of the crustal field or with magnetic storm noise, and which is limited enough in size to be manageable for the main field modeling. The along track filtering described above has proved to be an effective means of condensing large numbers of shipborne magnetic data into a manageable and meaningful data set for main field modeling. Its simplicity and ability to adequately handle varying spatial and sampling constraints has outweighed consideration of more sophisticated approaches. This filtering technique also provides the benefits of smoothing out short wavelength crustal anomalies, discarding data recorded during magnetically noisy periods, and assigning reasonable error estimates to be used in the least square modeling. A useful data set now exists which spans 1953-1987.

Description: A previously undocumented effect in the laser-heated diamond anvil cell, namely, the transport of molten species through the sample chamber, over distances large compared to the laser beam diameter, is presented. This effect is exploited to determine the melting behavior of high-pressure silicate assemblages of olivine composition. At pressures where beta-spinel is the phase melted, relative strengths of partitioning can be estimated for the incompatible elements studied. Iron was found to partition into the melt from beta-spinel less strongly than calcium, and slightly more strongly than manganese. At higher pressures, where a silicate perovskite/magnesiowuestite assemblage is melted, it is determined that silicate perovskite is the liquidus phase, with iron-rich magnesiowuestite accumulating at the end of the laser-melted stripe.

Description: Work is continuing on the study of atmospheric gradients. We include a preprint entitled 'The effect of turbulence on atmospheric gradient parameters determined from ground-based radiometric and space geodetic measurements'. Work has begun on a study of solid Earth tidal deformations using the VLBI data set. We have examined deformations at the semi-diurnal tidal period using the IRIS data set.

Description: A straightforward expression for the covariance of a general vector of atmospheric parameters is employed to calculate the effects of estimates of spatial gradients for a frozen Kolmogorov turbulence field moving over a site at constant velocities. Numerical calculations are performed to investigate the implications for three techniques: ground-based microwave radiometry, geodesy with the Global Positioning System, and VLBI. It is found that a prevailing wind with no true static gradients may give rise to apparent azimuthal asymmetries when gradient parameters are estimated. The standard deviation of the estimated north gradient parameter as a function of wind direction, for various wind speeds, is illustrated.

Description: The ability of the French DORIS system operating on the SPOT-2 satellite to provide absolute site positioning at the 20-30-centimeter level using 80 d of data is demonstrated. The accuracy of the vertical component is comparable to that of the horizontal components, indicating that residual troposphere error is not a limiting factor. The translation parameters indicate that the DORIS network realizes a geocentric frame to about 50 nm in each component. The considerable amount of data provided by the nearly global, all-weather DORIS network allowed this complex parameterization required to reduce the unmodeled forces acting on the low-earth satellite. Site velocities with accuracies better than 10 mm/yr should certainly be possible using the multiyear span of the SPOT series and Topex/Poseidon missions.