Late glacial fans in the eastern Skagerrak; depositional environment interpreted from swath bathymetry and seismostratigraphy

The origin of acoustically transparent fan deposits overlying glacial till and ice-proximal sediments on the southern margin of the Norwegian Channel has been studied using high-resolution seismic-reflection profiles and multibeam bathymetry. The first deposits overlying glacigenic sediments are a series of stacked, acoustically transparent submarine fans. The lack of glaciomarine sediments below and between individual fans indicates that deposition was rapid and immediately followed the break up of the Late Weichselian ice cover. The fans are overlain by stratified glaciomarine sediments and Holocene mud. Because of the uniformity of this drape, the upper surface of the fan deposits is mimicked at the present seafloor, and the bathymetric images clearly show the spatial relationship of the fans to bedrock ridges and the presence of braided channel-levee systems on the surface of the youngest fans. The acoustically transparent character of the fan deposits indicates that they comprise silt and clay, and their lobate form and lack of internal stratification indicates that they were deposited by debris flows. The channel-levee morphology indicates deposition from more watery hyperconcentrated fluid flows. The fan sediments were either derived from 1) erosion of Mid Weichselian lake deposits in southern Skagerrak or 2) from Late glacial ice-margin lake deposits, ponded against the Norwegian Channel ice stream, which collapsed catastrophically when the lateral support was removed as the ice disintegrated. Fans composed almost exclusively of fine-grained sediment need not, therefore, rule out an origin in a deglacial setting relatively close to the former margins of glaciers and ice sheets.     

A Statistical Analysis of Trends for Warm and Cold Spells in Uppsala by Means of Counts

Statistical studies of extremes are of interest in the climatic sciences, in particular trends of periods of unusually warm or cold weather, which could be labelled warm and cold spells, respectively. We study the yearly number of spells in Uppsala, Sweden which from a data‐analytic point of view truly are counts, and employ theory and methods from the field of regression models for counts. A possible trend for the period 1840–2012 was investigated. The trend for warm spells is positive and demonstrated to be larger in magnitude compared with the one for cold spells, and is found to be statistically significant. The methodology could be extended to analyse other climate indicators.     

The Helioseismic and Magnetic Imager (HMI) Vector Magnetic Field Pipeline: Overview and Performance

The Helioseismic and Magnetic Imager (HMI) began near-continuous full-disk solar measurements on 1 May 2010 from the Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO). An automated processing pipeline keeps pace with observations to produce observable quantities, including the photospheric vector magnetic field, from sequences of filtergrams. The basic vector-field frame list cadence is 135 seconds, but to reduce noise the filtergrams are combined to derive data products every 720 seconds. The primary 720 s observables were released in mid-2010, including Stokes polarization parameters measured at six wavelengths, as well as intensity, Doppler velocity, and the line-of-sight magnetic field. More advanced products, including the full vector magnetic field, are now available. Automatically identified HMI Active Region Patches (HARPs) track the location and shape of magnetic regions throughout their lifetime. The vector field is computed using the Very Fast Inversion of the Stokes Vector (VFISV) code optimized for the HMI pipeline; the remaining 180^° azimuth ambiguity is resolved with the Minimum Energy (ME0) code. The Milne–Eddington inversion is performed on all full-disk HMI observations. The disambiguation, until recently run only on HARP regions, is now implemented for the full disk. Vector and scalar quantities in the patches are used to derive active region indices potentially useful for forecasting; the data maps and indices are collected in the SHARP data series, hmi.sharp_720s. Definitive SHARP processing is completed only after the region rotates off the visible disk; quick-look products are produced in near real time. Patches are provided in both CCD and heliographic coordinates. HMI provides continuous coverage of the vector field, but has modest spatial, spectral, and temporal resolution. Coupled with limitations of the analysis and interpretation techniques, effects of the orbital velocity, and instrument performance, the resulting measurements have a certain dynamic range and sensitivity and are subject to systematic errors and uncertainties that are characterized in this report.     

THE ELLICOTT METEORITE

Two individual specimens (total weight 15.7 kg) of a new medium octahedrite were found near Ellicott, El Paso County, Colorado. The find is only 1.2 km from the find (in 1890) of the Franceville medium octahedrite. Ellicott and Franceville are distinct meteorites, the latter exhibiting pronounced differences in shock features, kamacite band width, and Ni, Ga, Ge, and Ir contents. Ellicott is a group IA iron while Franceville is in group IIIA.     

X-ray, Lyα and Hα emission from simulated disk galaxies

The X-ray properties of the haloes of disk galaxies formed in fully cosmological, hydro/gravity simulations are discussed. The results are found to be consistent with observational X-ray detections and upper limits. Disk galaxy haloes are predicted to be about an order of magnitude brighter at z ∼ 1 than at z=0. The Lyα and Hα surface brightness of an edge-on, Milky Way like model galaxy has been determined. The emission is found to be quite extended, with a scale height of about 600 pc, neglecting dust corrections. This revised version was published online in August 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.