太阳射电快速事件的初析

本文着重介绍了紫金山天文台在１０cm波段上观测到的太阳射电快速结构事件资料，并对其进行了初步的分析.得到的一些结果如下:１．快速事件的宽度介于几十毫秒一几百毫秒的变化范围内；每秒出现的频数介于２１－１之间；２．从ｓｐｉｋｅｓ事件的形态上，也有着不同的结构特征；有的ｓｐｉｋｅ结构比较简单，基本上是一个个的单脉冲，而有的则比较复杂，即在每个ｓｐｉｋｅ尖峰上，还叠加有亚－精细结构。     

A Clarification on the invariable point in the power-law energy spectra of non-thermal electrons of solar flares

The invariable point of non-thermal electrons was proposed two years ago, based on analyzing the two intense gamma-ray line flares observed with the X2 detector on GRS/SMM. Due to too strong hard X-ray flux in those two flares, the influence of pile-up effect might not be fully excluded. In this paper, we check the invariable point by using some medium hard X-ray events observed with HXRBS/SMM and BATSE/CGRO. It is found that the invariable point could indeed appear in some weaker hard X-ray events, in which the pile-up effect cannot play a role. Further refinement should be based on the observations with a high energy resolution. This revised version was published online in July 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

Strong interplanetary field enhancements at Ulysses—evidence of dust trails' interaction with the solar wind?

Interplanetary field enhancements were first discovered in the vicinity of Venus. These events are characterised by an increase in the magnitude of the heliospheric magnetic field with a near-symmetrical, sometimes thorn-shaped profile, and last from minutes to hours. Surveys of the events near Venus and Earth indicated clustering of the events in inertial space, which suggested that their sources were Solar System objects other than the Sun. A survey is presented of strong events of this type detected by the Ulysses spacecraft from 1990 to late 2001. Most of the events are accompanied by a discontinuity in the field direction near the events' centres. Other discontinuities are often symmetrical about the enhancement. The majority of events last less than two hours. When examined as a whole, the events tend to be accompanied by subtle changes in some plasma parameters. The majority of the enhancements are accompanied by magnetic holes on their fringes. The enhancements' occurrence rate increases with decreasing heliocentric distance. Possible formation mechanisms are discussed. No link was found with solar, or solar wind sources. Several aspects of the survey results are consistent with an origin related to cometary dust trails. Possible processes associated with a dust-solar wind interaction are discussed.     

Low-energy particle events associated with sector boundaries

Onsets of some 40 to 45 low-energy proton events during the years 1957–1969 coincided in time with transits of well-defined sector boundaries across the Earth. These events can be interpreted as long-lived proton streams filling up some of the magnetic sectors, indicating an acceleration of protons which is not associated with typical proton-producing flares. The sharp onsets of these particle streams, as well as a deficiency of flare-associated particle events shortly before the boundary transit, indicate that in some cases magnetic sector boundaries can inhibit transverse propagation of low-energy particles in the solar corona or in interplanetary space.     

On the origin of highest energy cosmic rays

In this paper we show that the conventional diffusive shock acceleration mechanism for cosmic rays associated with relativistic astrophysical shocks in active galactic nuclei (AGNs) has severe difficulties to explain the highest energy cosmic ray events. We show that protons above around 2 x 10²⁰ eV could have marginally been produced by this mechanism in an AGN or a rich galaxy cluster not further away than around 100 Mpc. However, for the highest energy Fly's Eye and Yakutsk events this is inconsistent with the observed arrival directions. Galactic and intergalactic magnetic fields appear unable to alter the direction of such energetic particles by more than a few degrees. We also discuss some other options for these events associated with relativistic particles including pulsar acceleration of high Z nuclei. At the present stage of knowledge the concept of topological defects left over from the early universe as the source for such events appears to be a promising option. Such sources are discussed and possible tests of this hypothesis are proposed.     

太阳射电米波毫秒快速尖峰辐射事件的统计分析

统计分析了云南天文台声光频谱仪在２２周峰年期间记录到的米波尖锋事件与光学活动及相关事件的关系。从它们的观测特征：短寿命,窄频带,频率快速漂移,及尖峰事件与磁结构复杂的大黑子活动区密切相关等,认为这些事件的辐射机制可能是电子回旋脉泽不稳定直接放大电磁波所致。     

Hard X-ray bursts from flares behind the solar limb

The determination of the location of the region of origin of hard X-rays is important in evaluating the importance of 10–100 keV electrons in solar flares and in understanding flare particle acceleration. At present only limb-occulted events are available to give some information on the height of X-ray emission. In fifteen months of OSO-7 operation, nine major soft X-ray events had no reported correlated Hα flare. We examine the hard X-ray spectra of eight of these events with good candidate X-ray flare producing active regions making limb transit at the time of the soft X-ray bursts. All eight bursts had significant X-ray emission in the 30–44 keV range, but only one had flux at the 3σ level above 44 keV. The data are consistent with most X-ray emission occurring in the lower chromosphere, but some electron trapping at high altitudes is necessary to explain the small nonthermal fluxes observed.     

Features of quasi-stationary precipitations according to the data obtained with the AVS-F instrument onboard the CORONAS-F satellite

In the absence of burst events, the typical count-rate temporal profile of the AVS-F instrument in the low-energy gamma-ray band has a single broad maximum in the geomagnetic-equator region at latitudes from ?30° to +40°). However, the so-called quasi-stationary precipitations, i.e., increases in the count rate by up to 15–30% with respect to the average level determined using polynomial fits, were observed in some equatorial regions at latitudes from ?25° to +30°. At least four (type I, II, III, and IV) groups of such events can be distinguished according to their temporal profiles. The temporal profiles of about 44% events show a rapid increase to the south from the geomagnetic equator and a gradual decrease in the northern direction. For about 21% of analyzed events, on the contrary, the count rate increases sharply to the north of the geomagnetic equator and decreases gradually to the south. About 4% of events have symmetric temporal profiles. Finally, another 4% of the detected events have the form of a significant (a factor of 1.3–1.8) increase in the count rate with a central maximum. Typical durations of precipitations are 7–10 min (the size of the precipitation region is 20°–35°). However, short events lasting for ～3 min (the size of the precipitation region is ～10°) were observed. The mean time interval in which the precipitations were observed in regions with dimensions of 10° in geographic latitude by 30° in geographic longitude was about 24 h (the maximum interval exceeded 8 days). The majority of precipitations were observed in a zone of width 40° centered at the geomagnetic equator. Quasi-stationary precipitations can be related to the precipitations of charged particles in certain regions of the Earth’s magnetosphere periodically crossed by the satellite.     

On the 11-years cycle of solar activity

Each 11-years cycle of solar activity consists of two processes with different physical properties. The variety of shapes of the 11-years curves depends on the way these processes overlap.All events in the photosphere, chromosphere and corona, and all kinds of emissions like the radio- and corpuscular emissions take part in these two processes.Events taking place in the magnetosphere, ionosphere, troposphere and perhaps some chemical and biological events reflect the essential properties of the 11-years cycle.     

Chromatic and spectroscopic signatures of microlensing events as a tool for the gravitational imaging of stars

The detection of microlensing events from stars in the Large Magellanic Cloud and in the Galactic bulge raises important constraints on the distribution of dark matter and on galactic structure, although some events may be the result of a new type of intrinsic variability. When lenses are relatively close to the sources, we predict that chromatic and spectroscopic effects are likely to appear for a significant fraction of the microlensing events. These effects are due to the differential amplification of the limb and the centre of the stellar disc, and present a systematic dependence with wavelength and time that provides an unambiguous signature of a microlensing event (as opposed to a new type of intrinsic stellar variability). We present detailed predictions of the effects, using realistic model atmospheres. The observations of these effects provide a direct constraint on stellar atmospheres, allowing a three-dimensional reconstruction or imaging of its structure, a unique tool with which to test the current models of stellar atmospheres.     

Monte Carlo Simulations of Comet Capture from the Oort Cloud

There is a very large number of small bodies in the Solar System and their orbits are varied and complicated. Some types of orbits and events are so rare that they occur in numerical simulations only when millions or billions of orbits have been calculated. In order to study these orbits or events an efficient Monte Carlo simulation is useful. Here we describe a new Monte Carlo simulation method and test it against some existing simulations of orbits of small bodies which have been obtained by different methods. We find good agreement with many earlier calculations, and study briefly the possibility of the Oort Cloud capture origin of short period comets. This revised version was published online in July 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

Kilometric shock-associated events and microwave bursts

The peak times of impulsive microwave bursts are compared with those of shock-associated (SA) kilometric radio events. The first peaks in these two frequency regimes are usually well-correlated in time, but the last peaks of the SA events observed at 1 MHz occur an average of 20 min after the last impulsive microwave peaks. In some cases, the SA events overlap in time with the post-burst increases of microwave bursts; sometimes there is general correspondence in their intensity time profiles. These observations suggest that the earlier components of the SA events are usually caused by electrons accelerated in or near the microwave source region. We discuss the possibility that the later components of some SA events could be associated with nonthermal electrons responsible for microwave post-burst increases, although they have traditionally been attributed to electrons accelerated at type II burst producing shocks in the upper corona.     

Contribution to the ground-based follow-up of the Gaia space mission

The Gaia Space Mission [Mignard, F., 2005. The three-dimensional universe with Gaia. ESA/SP-576; Perryman, M., 2005. The three-dimensional universe with Gaia. ESA/SP-576] will observe several transient events as supernovae, microlensing, gamma ray bursts and new Solar System objects. The satellite, due to its scanning law, will detect these events but will not be able to monitor them. So, to take these events into consideration and to perform further studies it is necessary to follow them with Earth-based observations. These observations could be efficiently done by a ground-based network of well-equipped telescopes scattered in both hemispheres.Here we focus our attention at the new Solar System objects to be discovered and observed by the Gaia satellite [Mignard, F., 2002. Observations of Solar System objects by Gaia I. Detection of NEOS. Astron. Astrophys. 393, 727] mainly asteroids, NEOs and comets. A dedicated ground-based network of telescopes as proposed by Thuillot [2005. The three-dimensional universe with Gaia. ESA/SP-576] will allow to monitor those events, to avoid losing them and to perform a quick characterization of some physical properties which will be important for the identification of these objects in further measurements by Gaia.We present in this paper, the beginning of the organization of a Latin-American ground-based network of telescopes and observers joining several institutions in Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil and other Latin-American countries aiming to contribute to the follow-up of Gaia science alerts for Solar System objects.     

Rates, progenitors and cosmic mix of Type Ia supernovae

Following an episode of star formation, Type Ia supernova events occur over an extended period of time, following a distribution of delay times (DDT). We critically discuss some empirically based DDT functions that have been proposed in recent years, some favouring very early (prompt) events, other very late (tardy) ones, and therefore being mutually exclusive. We point out that in both the cases the derived DDT functions are affected by dubious assumptions, and therefore there is currently no ground for claiming either a DDT strongly peaked at early times, or at late ones. Theoretical DDT functions are known to accommodate both prompt as well as late SN Ia events, and can account for all available observational constraints. Recent observational evidence exist that both single and double degenerate precursors may be able of producing SN Ia events. We then explore on the basis of plausible theoretical models the possible variation with cosmic time of the mix between the events produced by the two different channels, which, in principle, could lead to systematic effects on the SN Ia properties with redshift.     

Searching for exosolar planets with the COROT space mission

The space mission COROT (to be launched in 2002) will continuously monitor the flux of a number of stars during 150 days periods with a very high photometric accuracy. One of its objectives is the detection of extra-solar planets by looking for their transits in front of the disk of several tens thousand stars. COROT accommodates a 25 cm telescope with low straylight, and 4 2048×2048 CCDs, 2 of which monitoring 5000 to 12000 stars simultaneously up to m_v= 16.5. The stability and noise performances should make easy the detection of Jupiter-like planets and possible the detection of Earth-like planets with radius 1.5R_⊕. Under study is a dispersive system that will allow to retrieve some chromatic information : this could be essential to discriminate actual transit events against stellar fluctuations that would mimic a transit and to identify properly the events occurring in binary stars. The mission, the instrument and the results of simulations are presented, together with a discussion on the number of expected events : the multiple ones with a short orbital period signature, or the single or double events identified by their (a)chromatic signature. The later ones may lead to the discovery of planets in the habitable zone.     

Substorm related electron and proton bursts over the polar caps

We examined the energetic electron and proton data from different instruments on the dawn-dusk polar orbiting satellite AZUR during periods of high electrojet activity (AE > 500 γ) and find that there is a high probability of seeing during these periods relativistic electron bursts (?0.7 MeV) and in some cases also high-energy proton bursts (?250??500 keV). Fluxes, composition, energy spectra and spike forms are shown and are compared with similar burst events in the geomagnetic tail observed by other authors. It is suggested that the burst events discussed in this paper are the low-altitude signature of electron and proton bursts generated in the geomagnetic tail.     

A Broadband Solar Radio Spectrometer and Some New Observational Results

A broadband solar radio spectrometer with a bandwidth of about 7 GHz has been developed in China for solar maximum 23. This work is a cooperative project of Beijing Astronomical Observatory (BAO), Purple Mountain Observatory (PMO), Yunnan Observatory (YNO), and Nanjing University. The spectrometer of PMO worked in the waveband of 4.5–7.5 GHz, that of BAO in 1–2 GHz, 2.6–3.8 GHz, and 5.2–7.6 GHz, and that of YNO in 0.7–1.5 GHz. The spectrometer of PMO is a multichannel and frequency-agile one with a time resolution of 1–5 ms and a frequency resolution of 10 MHz. It started to operate in August 1999 and since then more than 300 spectral events have been observed, and some type III or type III-like structures have also been found. In this paper, some selected typical events, for example, the events on 25 August 1999 and 27 October 1999, are presented, and some new observed features are also described and discussed.     

Distinction in the Interplanetary Characteristics of Accelerated and Decelerated CMEs/Shocks

A set of 58 Coronal Mass Ejections (CMEs) with different kinematics near the sun in LASCO Field of view (FOV) is classified into two groups (i) CMEs which are accelerating (group-I) and (ii) CMEs which are decelerating (group-II). We analyze their interplanetary propagation characteristics to study the distinction between these two groups of events. Some of the following deviations are noted between the two groups as: (i) While group-II events have greater mean values of Standoff distance, Standoff time than the group-I events, the mean transit times of ICMEs and IP shocks are relatively lower for them. (ii) Group-II events are more (30%) radio-rich than the group-I (10%) and they are associated with type II solar radio burst in lower corona, (iii) The possibility of having excess magnetic energy that supports the propagation of CMEs to some extent is studied using estimated speed (V_EST) and it is found that a slightly more number of events in group-I (48%) has V_EST?>?V_LASCO than group-II (33%). (iv) Net interplanetary acceleration is positive for 35% and 19% in group-I and group-II events respectively. (v) It is also found that ICME/IP shock characteristics of the two groups depend strongly on the CME acceleration.

     

Where are the binary source gravitational microlensing events? II

Despite the same multiplicity of lenses and sources, the frequency of detection of binary source events is relatively very low compared with that of binary lens events. Dominik pointed out that the rarity of binary source events is caused mainly by the large difference in amplification between the component stars. In this paper, we determine that the fraction of events with similar source star amplifications is as large as ∼8 per cent, and thus show that the very low detection rate for binary source events cannot be explained by this effect alone. By carrying out realistic simulations of binary source events, we find that a significant number of binary source events are additionally missed from detection for various other reasons. First, if the flux ratio between the component stars is very large, the light curve of the bright star is hardly affected by the light from the faint star. Secondly, if the separation is too small, the binary source stars behave like a single star, making it difficult to separate the binary source event from a single source event. Finally, although the probability of detecting binary source events increases as the source separation increases, some fraction of binary source events will still be missed because the light curves of these events will mimic those of single source events with longer time-scales and larger values of the impact parameter.     

Crosscutting relations and relative ages of ridges and faults in the Tharsis region of Mars

Observations of ridge-fault crosscutting relationships on the ridged plains units surrounding the Tharsis region of Mars have led to the development of a classification scheme involving three distinct types of intersections. Ridges crosscut by faults are designated Type C and account for 81% of the observed intersections. Ridges terminated at one end by a fault (Type T), as well as those superposed on grabens (Type S), are less numerous. Interpretation of the morphology of these intersections and the angles of intersection between ridges and faults with radial trends to major topographic features in the Tharsis region have led to the following conclusions: (1) the major ridge forming events in the Tharsis region were roughly coincident with, and in some cases possibly prior to, the extensional events that produced the faulting of the Tempe and Mareotis regions, the Coprates and Memnonia regions, and the rifting of Valles Marinrris; (2) the compressional events that formed most of the ridges are restricted in time both by the irrelationship to regional extensional events and by the age of the units on which they formed. The suggestion that compressional ridges are a result of a single long term viscoelastic response of the lithosphere to loading of the crust is not supported by this study. A model involving one or more isostatically compensated uplifts and subsequent relaxation of the crust after the emplacement of the ridged plains volcanic units is favored.