由南北朝以前171个月掩星记录所得到的地球自转长期变化

应用“实际可见时间段”方法研究中国古代只有日期而无观测时刻的月掩星记录,文中讨论了这些记录的真实性及其含义,由南北朝以前的58个月掩行星和113个月掩恒星记录分别得到公元1,4,5,6世纪的地球自转参数△t和ω平均值为ω=-66.8秒/世纪~2。     

利用中国古代月掩星资料研究地球自转速率长期变化的方法探索

我国古代有相当丰富的月掩星观测记录。因其未记录观测时刻，用它们来研究地球自转速率的长期变化是相当困难的。刘次沅率先引入“可见时间段”的概念，使这一问题的解决成为可能。本文对刘次沅所采用的进行了分析和评述，并在此基础上提出了“最或然二次曲线拟合法”以综合处理中国古代的月掩星资料，期望能得到较为客观、合理、精确的地球自转速率的长期变化值。     

利用中国古代中心食记录得到的地球自转速率变化参数

本文简要叙述了一种利用古代中心日食记录研究古代地球自转速率变化的基本原理和方法(简称为“中心食法”),并对中国古代部分中心食记录进行了分析计算,得到初步结果。所用资料为中国史书中春秋至唐代初年一千四百余年间的中心食记录,选用了其中的88例用于计算地球自转速率变化的参数ΔT,其结果表明了地球自转的长期减慢,求得相对加速度的均值为-(1.88±0.10)×10~(-10)/年.     

中国古代月与行星掩犯恒星记录及其用于传统星名考证

月与行星掩犯恒星的记录是中国古代天象记录中数量最多的门类,此类记录的可靠性比较高,自北宋开始,月与五星掩犯恒星的错误率平均为10%,而之前的平均错误率也仅有20%。统计分析了这些记录在历代正史中的分布。在用现代天文学计算方法检验的基础上,考证了中西黄道区星名的对应关系。     

古代交食观测记录对地球自转速率长期变化的研究进展

本文对利用古代交食记录研究地球自转长期变化这一课题的原理、历史、结果和存在的问题作简单的介绍。对不同作者得到的不同形式的结果作了统一处理,得到三千年来地球自转长期加速度平均值为 =-64.9秒/世纪~2.     

中国古日食记录和地球自转长期变化

古代日月食观测记录是研究过去几千年地球自转长期变化的最有用的材料, 本文对文献记载的中国古代(明末以前)的日食观测作了分析讨论。指出,西汉以后资料是系统完整的。多为当时首都的观测记录。可惜的是,古人不重视记录天象发生的准确时刻。 作者从这些材料中筛选出13次观测地点明确的日全食观测,探讨分析了地球自转长期变化的趋势。     

中国古代日月交食时刻记录与地球自转的长期不规则性

中国自商周起就建立了先进的时法(其实就是历法的组成部分),并很早就开展了日月交食的科学预报和观测,可惜记录资料散失严重。本文认为。残存的中国古代交食时刻记录数量丰富源远流长,绵延数千年之久,对解决地球自转长期不规则性的问题同样能做出重大贡献。为此目的,我们一共收集,考证与归算了八十五例日食记录(自公元前134年至公元后1629年)与七十二例月食记录(自公元221年至1606年)。根据某食相的记录时刻(真太阳时)与计算的理论时刻(历书时),得到了它们的历书吋改正值ΔT。结果表明,ΔT值的弥散不大,它们符合现代天文年历中所用的ΔT经验公式的趋势,其偏差显著优于中心食方法的结果。综合各种有关天象记录得到的ΔT值,便能拟合一条反映地球自转长期(十年或百年尺度)不规则性的ΔT曲线。本文最后综合了由中国古代交食时刻记录,中国中心食记录以及日本古代交食时刻记录等资料得到的结果,给出了一个ΔT与Δω/ω的序列(以二十年为间隔),并做了相应的讨论     

《明实录》天象记录的统计分析

《明实录》是明朝历代官修的编年体史书,篇幅巨大,其中包含天象记录达6000余条,是二十四史以外中国古代天象记录的最大来源,其中包括日月食336条、月行星掩犯2622条、流陨2248条.明后期除日月食和彗星记录外,其他类型天象记录大幅减少.天象记录的密度,正德以前平均每年38条,嘉靖以后则只有每年7条.由可以回算验证的月行星掩犯记录得到错误率4.1%,属历代最佳.错误主要是资料编纂整理过程和书籍传抄过程造成的.月亮记录显示,凌晨的观测,通常记前一日日期;掩犯恒星记录显示,官内星名与传统略有差异.若干例证说明,原始记录采用日序式纪日.只是在编纂史书时,才改用干支纪日.     

国内天文地球动力学中的潮汐研究

简要说明了天文地球动力学范畴内所研究的潮汐现象，包括由日月引潮力引起的固体潮、海洋潮、大气潮和由于地球自转轴的极移引起的极潮，以及这些潮汐对地球自转和地球自转的测量产生的效应。重点阐述中国天文学界在这一领域里的研究成果。这些研究涉及潮汐影响地球自转的机制，也就是各种潮汐效应与极移、自转速率变化和章动的关系，包括构建这类关系的理论模型，分析潮汐对它们的影响，利用中国古代丰富的天象记录计算地球自转的长期减慢，计算弹性或滞弹地球的洛夫数，依据某一地球模型计算潮汐效应或章动序列等等。研究也涉及在测量地球自转参数的不同技术中各种潮汐效应对测量结果产生的影响及其改正，并涉及与潮汐有关的观测方法的优化和数据处理过程的改进。最后介绍了中国学者所发现的脉冲星的周期和周期变率测量中的潮汐效应，尽管它们的量级甚微，但不容忽视。     

地球自转速率在千年尺度下长期变化的研究

本文对怎样根据古代天象记录来研究地球自转速率长期变化(千年尺度下)以及对讨论长期变化的物理机制所涉及的基本概念和基本理论作了较系统的阐述,并对国内外有关的最新成果作一介绍。     

Study of Multiple Coronal Mass Ejections at Solar Minimum Conditions

Solar activity alternates between active and quiet phases with an average period of 11?years, and this is known as the Schwabe cycle. Additionally, solar activity occasionally falls into a prolonged quiet phase (grand solar minimum), as represented by the Maunder Minimum in the 17th century, when sunspots were almost absent for 70?years and the length of the Schwabe cycle increased to 14?years. To examine the consistency of the cycle length characteristics during the grand solar minima, the carbon-14 contents in single-year tree rings were measured using an accelerator mass spectrometer as an index of the solar variability during the grand solar minimum of the 4th century BC. The signal of the Schwabe cycle was detected with a statistical confidence level of higher than 95?% by wavelet analysis. This is the oldest evidence for the Schwabe cycle at the present time, and the cycle length is considered to have increased to approximately 16?years during the grand solar minimum of the 4th century BC. This result confirms the association between the increase of the Schwabe cycle length and the weakening of solar activity, and indicates the possible prolonged absence of sunspots in the 4th century BC as during the Maunder Minimum. Theoretical implications from solar dynamo theory are discussed in order to identify the trigger of prolonged sunspot absence. A possible association between the long-term solar variation around the 4th century BC and terrestrial cooling in this period is also discussed.     

The frequency of appearance of bright naked eye comets since 1750

It is a typical lament of the astronomers of today that there has been a dearth of bright comets in the 20th century and, particularly in its latter half. Many go on to point out the large number of very bright comets that were observed in the 18th and 19th century to reinforce the unfavourable comparison with modern times. Analysis of bright naked eye comet apparitions since 1750 demonstrates that there was a superavit of very bright comets in the second half of the last century. The second half of the twentieth century has shown exactly the average of one bright naked eye comet per 2.5 years that has been seen over two and a half centuries. The probable cause of theapparent lack of bright comets is the great increase in light pollution and the shift of population to the big cities. The observed statistics for the appearance of bright comets show no obvious evidence of perturbations of the Kuiper Belt by Planet X.     

On the Spörer Minimum

In this paper we have examined the real behaviour of solar activity during the period AD 1400–1600. The results are as follows: (1) the distributions of the 20 naked-eye sunspot records are inhomogeneous. There are 2 sightings in the 15th century and 18 sightings in the 16th century; (2) the distributions of auroral records are similar to sunspot. There are 33 records in the 15th century and 315 records in the 16th century; (3) the climatic fluctuations in China shows that the period AD 1430–1520 was cold while the period AD 1520–1620 was warm. These facts clearly demonstrate that the Spörer Minimum, if it extended from AD 1460 to 1550, could be a specious results and it, if its extent was AD 1400–1510, is a real feature of solar variability in that time.Paper presented at the IAU Third Asian-Pacific Regional Meeting, held in Kyoto, Japan, between 30 September–6 October, 1984.     

Glacier change in Garibaldi Provincial Park, southern Coast Mountains, British Columbia, since the Little Ice Age

Fluctuations of glaciers during the 20th century in Garibaldi Provincial Park, in the southern Coast Mountains of British Columbia, were reconstructed from historical documents, aerial photographs, and fieldwork. Over 505 km², or 26%, of the park, was covered by glacier ice at the beginning of the 18th century. Ice cover decreased to 297 km² by 1987–1988 and to 245 km² (49% of the early 18th century value) by 2005. Glacier recession was greatest between the 1920s and 1950s, with typical frontal retreat rates of 30 m/a. Many glaciers advanced between the 1960s and 1970s, but all glaciers retreated over the last 20 years. Times of glacier recession coincide with warm and relatively dry periods, whereas advances occurred during relatively cold periods. Rapid recession between 1925 and 1946, and since 1977, coincided with the positive phase of the Pacific Decadal Oscillation (PDO), whereas glaciers advanced during its negative phase (1890–1924 and 1947–1976). The record of 20th century glacier fluctuations in Garibaldi Park is similar to that in southern Europe, South America, and New Zealand, suggesting a common, global climatic cause. We conclude that global temperature change in the 20th century explains much of the behaviour of glaciers in Garibaldi Park and elsewhere.     

Auroral Evidence for Early High Solar Activities

This paper describes four aurora displays in south Arabia (Yemen), around latitude 16N, during the 9th, 13th, 14th, and 15th centuries. The first event is considered to be the earliest Arabian recorded event of aurora. The second and third events confirmed the case of strong solar activity during the end of the 12th century and mid 15th century, respectively. The fourth event was around solar maximum activity in 1449 ad. So, these records could be considered as proxies for intense geomagnetic solar storms, during early solar activities.     

The solar activity in the seventeenth century re-assessed in the light of sunspot records in the local gazettes of China

21 naked-eye sunspot records in the 17th century, hitherto unknown, have been gleaned from a large collection of local gazettes of China. Based on these data, together with the telescopic records of contemporary Europe, we discuss in detail the solar activity during the 17th century. We have re-examined Wolf's years of maxima and minima and given improved values. We re-evaluate the question of the “Maunder Minimum” and conclude that it is an incorrect inference due to insufficient data.     

Astrometry of the 1572 supernova (B Cassiopeiae)

Contemporary European measurements of the Milky Way supernova of 1572 (B Cas) have been analyzed to compute a modern position for the star in 1572. This work adds to that done by previous 20th‐century authors by using a new procedure and previously unused astrometry by 16th‐century European observers. Comparison is made with earlier analyses and to modern positional data on the supernova remnant (3C 10). (© 2004 WILEY‐VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)     

Cluster analysis for pattern recognition in solar butterfly diagrams

We investigate to what extent the wings of solar butterfly diagrams can be separated without an explicit usage of Hale's polarity law as well as the location of the solar equator. We apply two algorithms of cluster analysis for this purpose, namely DBSCAN and C‐means, and demonstrate their ability to separate the wings of contemporary butterfly diagrams based on the sunspot group density in the diagram only. Then we apply the method to historical data concerning the solar activity in the 18th century (Staudacher data). The method separates the two wings for Cycle 2, but fails to separate them for Cycle 1. In our opinion, this finding supports the interpretation of the Staudacher data as an indication of the unusual nature of the solar cycle in the 18th century (© 2011 WILEY‐VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)     

A derivation of the rate of spin-down of the Earth using ancient Chinese records of central eclipses

We describe a method of studying the variation in the rotation of the Earth in historical times using ancient records of central solar eclipses. From the records of central eclipses covering a period of some one thousand four hundred years (7th century B.C. to 7th century A.D.), given in the Chinese annals, we selected 88 entries and calculated the rotation variation parameter ΔT. Our result shows that the Earth is spinning down at a relative rate of − (1.88 ± 0.10) × 10^−10/yr.