羊八井460GHz大气不透明度的测量

为了解羊八井观测站的亚毫米波观测条件,使用移动式亚毫米波望远镜(Portable Submillimeter Telescope,POST)测量了羊八井观测站460 GHz波段天顶方向大气不透明度.观测结果表明,羊八井观测站的460 GHz波段天顶方向大气不透明度的四分位数为1.25、1.42、1.63,观测时间段内大气不透明度τ_0≤1.0的时间比例约占3.4%.将此次观测结果与国际现有优秀亚毫米波台址比较,分析了影响亚毫米波不透明度的可能原因.     

大气492 GHz亚毫米波不透明度的测量

使用移动式亚毫米波望远镜(POST)在位于青藏高原海拔3200米的紫金山天文台德令哈射电天文观测站址测量地球大气492GHz频率处天顶方向的不透明度(τ0)的结果．在1999—2000年冬季和2000—2001年冬季的两个观测季节内累计共进行了约870个小时的测量，取得了25842组τ0的有效数据．对数据的统计表明，观测季节内τ0值主要分布在1．5—3．0之间．观测时段内大气不透明度τ0≤1．0的时间比例约占3％．在给出实测资料的基础上，将所测量的亚毫米波不透明度与国际现有亚毫米波台址的不透明度进行了初步比较．     

Preliminary Results of Atmospheric Extinction Coefficient Measurements at Gaomeigu Observational Station

The measurement of the atmospheric extinction coefficients is one of the important and fundamental works for astronomical observatories. By using the newly-built 2.4 m telescope at Gaomeigu Observational Station of Yunnan Observatory, the calibration works, such as the measurement of the atmospheric extinction coefficient, are carried out and their preliminary results are presented. By observing the Landolt standard stellar fields during April and May 2009, the atmospheric extinction coefficients of five bands UBVRI at two nights are given. In addition, the components which contribute to the atmospheric extinction coefficients of this site are discussed. The measured extinction coefficients are found to be basically consistent with the previous results obtained in the site selection some years ago. And they are also compared with the values of some other well-known observational stations worldwide.     

Model of optical turbulence profile at Cerro Pachón

New measurements of optical turbulence profile at the Cerro Pachón observatory in Chile are analysed jointly with previously published data to model the variations of the intensity and thickness of the ground layer and free atmosphere under a variety of observing conditions. This work is motivated by the need to predict statistically the performance of ground-layer adaptice optics. We find that the ground-layer profile can be represented by a decaying exponent with a scale height of 20–40 m, increasing to 100 m under bad conditions. The zone from 6 to 500 m contributes typically about 61 per cent to the total integral, the latter causing a median seeing of 0.77 arcsec. Turbulence integrals in the ground layer and in free atmosphere vary independently of each other, in 50 per cent of cases they deviate by less than 1.8 times from their respective median values. The existence of periods with low turbulence in the free atmosphere and their importance for adaptive optics is stressed.     

A New Solar Radio Spectrometer at 1.10-2.06 GHz and First Observational Results

An improved Solar Radio Spectrometer working at 1.10-2.06 GHz with much improved spectral and temporal resolution, has been accomplished by the National Astronomical Observatories and Hebei Semiconductor Research Institute, based on an old spectrometer at 1-2 GHz. The new spectrometer has a spectral resolution of 4 MHz and a temporal resolution of 5ms, with an instantaneous detectable range from 0.02 to 10 times of the quiet Sun flux. It can measure both left and right circular polarization with an accuracy of 10% in degree of polarization. Some results of preliminary observations that could not be recorded by the old spectrometer at 1-2 GHz are presented.     

甘肃金塔地区大气对太阳射电辐射吸收的测量研究

2008年8月1日,在我国西北的新疆、内蒙、甘肃等地区可以观测到一次日全食的天象,紫金山天文台太阳射电团组在甘肃省金塔用两架太阳射电望远镜对这次日全食进行了观测,并成功地取得了观测资料.为了科学分析观测资料,在日全食的前两天,实测了当地的大气吸收.着重分析这些观测数据,结合太阳射电方法,测得在λ=2.4 cm和λ=8....     

High-altitude wind velocity at Oukaimeden observatory

This paper aims at studying the wind at 200 mbar over the Moroccan observatory Oukaimeden, as high-altitude winds have been adopted as a useful parameter for site characterization in terms of the suitability of a site for the development of some adaptive optics techniques. The data used come from the National Center for Environmental Prediction/National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCEP/NCAR) reanalysis data base, which is widely acknowledged as being reliable. Statistical analyses of 200-mbar wind speed since 1983 are performed. Comparison with some of the main observatory sites worldwide qualifies Oukaimeden as one of the best observatory sites in terms of 200-mbar wind statistics. Our analysis of a record of seeing measurements during the years 2003 and 2004 concludes that while 200-mbar wind speed can be used as a parameter for ranking astronomical sites in term of their suitability for adaptive optics, it cannot be used for the whole atmospheric seeing prediction. A comparison of monthly values of the seeing parameter at Oukaimeden, La Silla and Paranal demonstrates the high seeing quality of Oukaimeden, as the seeing values measured were lower than those of La Silla and Paranal for most of the time during the comparison period. Furthermore, a statistical analysis of atmospheric stratified seeing, wavefront coherence time and isoplanatic angle measured with a Multi-Aperture Scintillation Sensor instrument over Paranal from 2004 to 2007 have been performed. We found good correlations between 200-mbar wind velocity and levels 4, 5 and 6 seeing, wavefront coherence time and isoplanatic angle, with corresponding correlation coefficients of 0.74, 0.79, 0.70, 0.97 and 0.78.     

Methanol masers at 107.0 and 156.6 GHz

From a search of more than 80 southern class II methanol maser sites, we report measurements of 22 masers at 107.0 GHz and four at 156.6 GHz, mostly new discoveries. Class II sites, recognized by their strong emission at the 6.6-GHz methanol transition, are indirect indicators of new-born massive stars, and several hundred have been documented; only a handful of these had previously been found to exhibit maser emission at the 107.0- or 156.6-GHz transition. The present survey increases the number of known 107.0-GHz masers to 25, providing a sufficiently large sample to assess their general properties. For the stronger ones, our position measurements confirm that, to an accuracy of 5 arcsec, they coincide with the dominant maser emission at 6.6 GHz. Intensity variations exceeding 50 per cent have occurred in some 107.0-GHz maser features that we observed in both 1996 October and 1998 June.
We find that masers are rare at the 156.6-GHz transition. Two new detections increase the total now known to four. Each 156.6-GHz maser is substantially weaker than its corresponding 107.0-GHz maser. Despite the scarcity of masers, our 156.6-GHz spectra at most observed sites show emission, but apparently of a quasi-thermal variety; it is usually accompanied by somewhat weaker thermal emission at 107.0 GHz, and the intensity ratio of the transitions allows us to begin exploration of the physical characteristics of the small molecular clouds (diameter less than 60 mpc) at these sites. The thermal emission thus provides estimates of the environmental conditions that are needed to support strong masing from spots that are apparently embedded within these clouds.     

Measurements of atmospheric turbulence parameters at Vainu Bappu Observatory using short-exposure CCD images

We report atmospheric turbulence parameters, namely atmospheric seeing, tilt-anisoplanatic angle(θ_0) and coherence time(Τ_0), measured under various sky conditions, at Vainu Bappu Observatory in Kavalur. Bursts of short exposure images of selected stars were recorded with a high-speed, frame-transfer CCD mounted on the Cassegrain focus of a newly commissioned 1.3 m telescope. The estimated median seeing is ≈ 1.85 " at wavelength of ～ 600 nm, the image motion correlation between different pairs of stars is ～44% for θ0≈ 36" and mean Τ_0 is ≈ 2.4 ms. This work was motivated by the design considerations and expected performance of an adaptive optics system that is currently being planned for the telescope.     

Telescope and instrument robotization at Dome C

This article reviews the situation for robotization of telescopes and instruments at the Antarctic station Concordia on Dome C. A brain‐storming meeting was held in Tenerife in March 2007 from which this review emerged.We describe and summarize the challenges for night‐time operations of various astronomical experiments at conditions “between Earth and Space” and conclude that robotization is likely a prerequisite for continuous astronomical data taking during the 2000‐hour night at Dome C. (© 2007 WILEY‐VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)     

Adaptive optics parameters connection to wind speed at the Teide Observatory

Current projects for large telescopes demand a proper knowledge of atmospheric turbulence to design efficient adaptive optics systems in order to reach large Strehl ratios. However, the proper characterization of the turbulence above a particular site requires long-term monitoring. Because of the lack of long-term information on turbulence, high-altitude winds (in particular winds at the 200 mbar pressure level) were proposed as a parameter for estimating the total turbulence at a particular site, with the advantage of records of winds going back several decades. We present the first complete study of atmospheric adaptive optics parameters above the Teide Observatory (Canary Islands, Spain) in relation to wind speed. On-site measurements of   C ² _N ( h )  profiles (more than 20 200 turbulence profiles) from G-SCIDAR (Generalized Scintillation Detection and Ranging) observations and wind vertical profiles from balloons have been used to calculate the seeing, the isoplanatic angle and the coherence time. The connection of these parameters to wind speeds at ground and at 200 mbar pressure level are shown and discussed. Our results confirm the well-known high quality of the Canary Islands astronomical observatories.     

N-Body simulations of growth from 1 km planetesimals at 0.4 AU

We present N-body simulations of planetary accretion beginning with 1 km radius planetesimals in orbit about a 1 M_⊙ star at 0.4 AU. The initial disk of planetesimals contains too many bodies for any current N-body code to integrate; therefore, we model a sample patch of the disk. Although this greatly reduces the number of bodies, we still track in excess of 10⁵ particles. We consider three initial velocity distributions and monitor the growth of the planetesimals. The masses of some particles increase by more than a factor of 100. Additionally, the escape speed of the largest particle grows considerably faster than the velocity dispersion of the particles, suggesting impending runaway growth, although no particle grows large enough to detach itself from the power law size-frequency distribution. These results are in general agreement with previous statistical and analytical results. We compute rotation rates by assuming conservation of angular momentum around the center of mass at impact and that merged planetesimals relax to spherical shapes. At the end of our simulations, the majority of bodies that have undergone at least one merger are rotating faster than the breakup frequency. This implies that the assumption of completely inelastic collisions (perfect accretion), which is made in most simulations of planetary growth at sizes 1 km and above, is inappropriate. Our simulations reveal that, subsequent to the number of particles in the patch having been decreased by mergers to half its initial value, the presence of larger bodies in neighboring regions of the disk may limit the validity of simulations employing the patch approximation.     

我国天文视宁度Fried参数r0的计算与统计分析

在塔塔尔斯基理论模式下，使用全国81个探空气象站1986—1995年10年探空资料计算了各测站不同高度上的Pried参数r0，统计结果表明，r0年平均值存在明显的地理分布，高值中心在3000m高度上是夏河合作、丽江和上海；在1500m高度上为民勤和贵阳，在900m高度上为汉中；在测站海拔高度上为定日，r0的月平均值的地理分布存在显著的季节变化，这种变化与东亚副热带急流季节性变化相吻合．     

Measurements of Atmospheric Extinction at a Ground Level Observatory

In order to determine the atmospheric extinction at Physics Department Astronomical Observatory of the University of Extremadura, located at Badajoz (Spain), several stars were observed during some clear nights of atmospheric stability in the period 1998–2000, at optical wavelengths corresponding to the filters of the Kron-Cousins and Strömgren photometric systems. The determination of the extinction coefficients was made by assuming the Bouguer's law, which was shown to be a good approximation for this study. The results exhibited temporal variations and can be considered to be associated with clean atmospheres at locations of low altitude.     

An RFI investigation for setting up a VLBI station below 2.8 GHz in Malaysia

In this paper, we investigated the radio frequency interference (RFI) that future Very Long Baseline Interferometer (VLBI) observations in Malaysia may encounter. Four frequency windows below 2.8 GHz were chosen for this study and their spectra were measured at four sites. The frequency windows are 322-328 MHz, 608-614 MHz, 1660-1660.5 MHz and 1660.5-1668.4 MHz. The measured averaged RFI floor noise levels in these windows are −99.992 (±0.570) dBm, −99.907 (±0.639) dBm, −100.220 (±0.4941) dBm and −100.359 (±0.110) dBm, respectively. We found that only two bands below 2.8 GHz are permitted for the purpose of radio astronomy in Malaysia. They are 608-614 MHz and 1660-1660.5 MHz. The RFI levels in these permissible bands at the best site (Langkawi) were also measured and concluded to be relatively low. Main sources of RFI in these bands in Malaysia were identified. We also reviewed several current VLBI observations in these two bands.     

高层大气密度的午夜极大值特征分析与建模

利用CHAMP (CHAllenging Minisatellite Payload)、GRACE-A (Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment-A)、SWARM-C (The Earth''s Magnetic Field and Environment Explorers-C)等3颗极轨卫星的资料, 研究360—480km高层大气密度在低纬度区域的午夜极大值(Midnight Density Maximum, MDM)现象. MDM一般出现在23:00- 02:00 LT (Local Time)之间,峰值位置在低纬度15°以内,谷值位置在中纬度35°-45°附近,整体略偏向南半球,振幅约为平均密度的26%.随着高度增大以及太阳辐射水平的增强,MDM振幅呈减小趋势;冬至和夏至日附近的季节效应会减弱MDM振幅,在春秋分日的振幅最大.用3个主流大气模型DTM2000 (Drag Temperature Model 2000), NRLMSISE00 (US Naval Research Laboratory, Mass Spectrom-eter and Incoherent Scatter radar)和JB2008 (Jacchia- Bowman 2008 model)对MDM进行模拟,JB2008没有刻画出MDM现象;另两个模型低估了MDM效应,在360km和480km两个高度DTM2000模型的振幅仅为观测的46%和53%, NRLMSISE00模型仅为观测的33%和26%;模型没有准确刻画出MDM与高度、辐射水平和季节的关系.联合3颗卫星的资料,研究了-种基于地理纬度的6阶勒让德多项式,同时融合地方时和高度因素的经验函数,在振幅和相位上可以较好地刻画MDM特征,相关系数达到0.923,可为大气密度模型的修正提供借鉴,服务于低轨道航天器高精度轨道预报.     

First observation of CO at 345 GHz in the atmosphere of Saturn with the JCMT: New constraints on its origin

We have performed the first observation of the CO(3-2) spectral line in the atmosphere of Saturn with the James Clerk Maxwell Telescope. We have used a transport model of the atmosphere of Saturn to constrain the origin of the observed CO. The CO line is best-fit when the CO is located at pressures less than (15±2) mbar with a mixing ratio of (2.5±0.6)×10^-8 implying an external origin. By modeling the transport in Saturn’s atmosphere, we find that a cometary impact origin with an impact 200-350 years ago is more likely than continuous deposition by interplanetary dust particles (IDP) or local sources (rings/satellites). This result would confirm that comet impacts are relatively frequent and efficient providers of CO to the atmospheres of the outer planets. However, a diffuse and/or local source cannot be rejected, because we did not account for photochemistry of oxygen compounds. Finally, we have derived an upper limit of ∼1×10^-9 on the tropospheric CO mixing ratio.