Network Representations of Critical Elements of Pressure Surfaces
Network Representations of Critical Elements of Pressure Surfaces
复制标题
压力面关键元素的网络表示
DOI：
10.2307/213746
复制
发表时间：
1975
影响因子：
2
通讯作者：
N. Waters
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
William Warntz;N. Waters
TJ HE 与陆地尺度空间结构和空间过程原理相关的地理学通用空间系统理论的可能性和可取性是当前关注的问题。我们发现，连续且处处可微的表面的某些一般抽象几何和拓扑特性是相关的、信息丰富的，能够产生额外的理解，并且是在看似不同的背景下进行深入研究的跳板，例如金钱、思想、信息、商品和人口流动，以及河流系统的河流顺序、层次结构和盆地嵌套。2我们在本文中提供的是对大气压力系统方面的简单扩展。我们从我们抱有相当坚定信念的事情开始。接下来的一系列内容越来越具有推测性，但我们希望，也越来越具有挑衅性，至少在这个词的贬义意义上。我们识别大气压力表面的关键要素（点、路径和区域），考虑这些要素在大气流动中的作用，将表面简化为网络，将网络编码为矩阵，并建议对这些矩阵进行计算机辅助操作，不仅产生类似于气象学中常规测量的系统中连通性的描述性指数，而且还产生诸如社会科学中流行的流动问题的“解决方案”。构造的最终测试将需要气象学家输入有关系统中的物理关系的信息。研究目标可能是测试将物理量从系统集中和引导到大大简化的网络配置中是否只涉及可忽略的信息损失，以便系统非线性偏微分方程简化形式的相关数值解（使用对初始条件和边界值的合理近似）可以用于预测的编程解决方案。更现实的中间目标是获得严格的审查以及大气动力学方面所需的输入。考虑给定时刻北半球的海平面压力分布，如图一所示，其中空间变化由众所周知的等压线表示。每个这样的等压线代表起伏的恒定值大气压表面与海平面的交点。曲面沿线相交。这条线在要显示变化的表面上描绘出具有相等压力值的点。每一个这样的海平面
TJ HE possibility and the desirability of a general spatial systems theory for geography that relates to principles of spatial structure and spatial process at terrestrial scales is a current concern. We have found certain general abstract geometric and topological properties of continuous and everywhere differentiable surfaces to be relevant, informative, productive of additional understandings, and springboards for incisive research in contexts as seemingly different as money, ideas, information, commodity, and population flows,' and the stream orders, hierarchies, and basin nestings of river systems.2 What we offer in this paper are simple extensions to aspects of atmospheric pressure systems. We begin with things about which we entertain fairly firm convictions. A sequence follows which is increasingly speculative but, we hope, also increasingly provocative, in the least pejorative sense of that word. We identify critical elements (points, paths, and areas) of atmospheric pressure surfaces, consider the roles of these elements in the context of flows in the atmosphere, reduce the surface to networks, codify the networks as matrices, and suggest computer-assisted operations on these matrices to produce not only descriptive indices of the connectivities in the system akin to conventional measures in meteorology but also "solutions" to flow problems like those having currency in social science. Final tests of the constructs will require the input of meteorologists concerning physical relationships in the system. A research objective might be to test whether the focusing and channeling of physical quantities from the system into greatly simplified network configurations involve only negligible losses of information so that relevant numerical solutions to simplified forms of the nonlinear partial differential equations of the system (using plausible approximations to initial conditions and boundary values) might be used in programming solutions for forecasting. A more realistic intermediate objective is to obtain critical review and also needed input with respect to atmospheric dynamics. Consider sea-level distribution of pressure for the Northern Hemisphere at a given moment, as illustrated in Figure I, with spatial variations shown by the very well known means of isobars. Each such isobar represents the intersection of an undulating constant-valued atmospheric pressure surface with the sea-level surface. Surfaces intersect along a line. Such a line traces out points of equal value of pressure on the surface on which the variation is to be displayed. Each such sea-level