Interplanetary turbulences causing unusual anisotropic wave trains in cosmic rays

The various observed harmonics of the cosmic ray variation may be understood on a unified basis if the free space cosmic ray anisotropy is non-sinusoidal in form. The major objective of this paper is to study the first three harmonics of high amplitude wave trains of cosmic ray intensity over the period 1991–1994 for Deep River Neutron Monitoring Station. The main characteristic of these events is that the high amplitude wave trains shows a maximum intensity of diurnal component in a direction earlier than 1800 Hr/co-rotational direction. It is noticed that these events are not caused either by the high-speed solar wind streams or by the sources on the Sun responsible for producing these streams such as polar coronal holes. The direction of semi-diurnal anisotropy shows negative correlation with Bz. The occurrence of high amplitude events is dominant for the positive polarity of Bz component of IMF. The diurnal amplitude of these events shows a negative and the time of maximum shows a weak correlation with disturbance storm time index Dst. The direction of tri-diurnal anisotropy of these events is found to significantly correlate with geomagnetic activity index Ap.     

Low amplitude anisotropic wave trains in cosmic rays

In the present study the occurrence of an unusual class of low amplitude anisotropic wave trains in the cosmic ray neutron intensity, which is distinctly different from the average diurnal variation as well as from other recognized types of low amplitude anisotropic wave trains are noted and the directional distribution in the interplanetary space determined. The major objective of this paper is to study the first three harmonics of low amplitude anisotropic wave trains of cosmic ray intensity over the period 1981–1994 for Deep River neutron monitoring station. The significant characteristic of these events is that the low amplitude wave trains shows a maximum intensity of diurnal component in a direction earlier than 18:00 h/co-rotational direction. It is noticed that these events are not caused either by the high-speed solar wind streams or by the sources on the Sun responsible for producing these streams such as polar coronal holes. However the possibility of occurrence of these events during high-speed solar wind streams cannot be denied. The occurrence of low amplitude events is dominant for positive polarity of B_z. The disturbance storm time index i.e. D_st, remains consistently negative only for majority of the low amplitude wave train events, which is never been reported earlier. The amplitude as well as direction of first two harmonics seems to remain unaffected with the variation in the D_st and A_p-index. However, the amplitude as well as direction of third harmonic found to deviates with the increase of D_st and A_p-index. The corotating streams produce significant deviations in cosmic ray intensity as well as in solar wind speed during low amplitude anisotropic wave train events.     

A phenomenological study of the timing of solar activity minima of the last millennium through a physical modeling of the Sun–Planets Interaction

We numerically integrate the Sun’s orbital movement around the barycenter of the solar system under the persistent perturbation of the planets from the epoch J2000.0, backward for about one millennium, and forward for another millennium to 3000 AD. Under the Sun–Planets Interaction (SPI) framework and interpretation of Wolff and Patrone (2010), we calculated the corresponding variations of the most important storage of the specific potential energy (PE) within the Sun that could be released by the exchanges between two rotating, fluid-mass elements that conserve its angular momentum. This energy comes about as a result of the roto-translational dynamics of the cell around the solar system barycenter. We find that the maximum variations of this PE storage correspond remarkably well with the occurrences of well-documented Grand Minima (GM) solar events throughout the available proxy solar magnetic activity records for the past 1000 yr. It is also clear that the maximum changes in PE precede the GM events in that we can identify precursor warnings to the imminent weakening of solar activity for an extended period. The dynamical explanation of these PE minima is connected to the minima of the Sun’s position relative to the barycenter as well as the significant amount of time the Sun’s inertial motion revolving near and close to the barycenter. We presented our calculation of PE forward by another 1000 yr until 3000 AD. If the assumption of the solar activity minima corresponding to PE minima is correct, then we can identify quite a few significant future solar activity GM events with a clustering of PE minima pulses starting at around 2150 AD, 2310 AD, 2500 AD, 2700 AD and 2850 AD.     

High resolution observations of the chromosphere at mm and cm wavelengths

High resolution observations of the Sun at 3.3 mm, 3.5 mm, 1.35 cm, and 1.95 cm which were obtained by tracking narrow beam width antennas on the lunar limb as it occulted the Sun are described. The observations indicate that: (1) the region emitting at these wavelengths is very irregular with typical length scales smaller than one half minute of arc, (2) the number of roughness elements responsible for the irregular structure is small within an area of one half minute of arc square, and (3) the roughness elements observed at wavelengths greater than 1 cm extend to 10⁹ cm beyond the optical limb.     

The 1859 Solar–Terrestrial Disturbance And the Current Limits of Extreme Space Weather Activity

It is generally appreciated that the September 1859 solar–terrestrial disturbance, the first recognized space weather event, was exceptionally large. How large and how exceptional? To answer these questions, we compiled rank order lists of the various measures of solar-induced disturbance for events from 1859 to the present. The parameters considered included: magnetic crochet amplitude, solar energetic proton fluence (McCracken et al., 2001a), Sun–Earth disturbance transit time, geomagnetic storm intensity, and low-latitude auroral extent. While the 1859 event has close rivals or superiors in each of the above categories of space weather activity, it is the only documented event of the last ～150 years that appears at or near the top of all of the lists. Taken together, the top-ranking events in each of the disturbance categories comprise a set of benchmarks for extreme space weather activity.     

Research facilities for solar astronomy at ARIES

The solar observational facilities at ARIES (erstwhile U.P. State Observatory, UPSO), Nainital, began in the sixties with the acquisition of two moderate sized (25 cm, f/66 off-axis Skew Cassegrain and 15 cm, f/15 refractor) telescopes. Both these systems receive sunlight through a 45 cm and 25 cm coelostat respectively. The backend instruments to these systems comprised of a single pass grating spectrograph for spectroscopic study of the Sun and a Bernhard-HalleHα filter, coupled with a Robot recorder camera for solar patrolling inHα respectively. With the advancement in solar observing techniques with high temporal and spatial resolution inHα and other wavelengths, it became inevitable to acquire sophisticated instrumentation for data acquisition. In view of that, the above facilities were upgraded, owing to which the conventional photographic techniques were replaced by the CCD camera systems attached with two 15 cm, f/15 Coude refractor telescopes. These CCD systems include the Peltier cooled CCD camera and photometrics PXL high speed modular CCD camera which provide high temporal and spatial resolution of ∼ 25 ms and ∼ 1.3 arcsec respectively.     

Modulation of Acoustic Waves by Solar Convection

Amplitude and phase of an acoustic oscillation in the solar convection zone vary in response to the local variation of the speed of sound and the convection velocity. Such wave modulation is considered by means of a two-dimensional periodic model, with alternating vertical channels of hot rising and cool sinking gas. According to this model, vertically propagating waves show only amplitude modulation. For low wave frequencies the amplitude is larger in the upflow channels, for high frequencies it is larger in the downflow channels. The transition occurs at a frequency for which the vertical wavelength is approximately equal to the horizontal period of the model. Waves with an inclined propagation direction show a similar amplitude modulation but, in addition, a modulation of their phase. The present results are compared with recent observational studies. There is evidence that wave modulation indeed occurs on the Sun, on the granular as well as on the mesogranular scale, in addition to the episodic amplitude enhancement that has been interpreted in terms of local acoustic events.     

Torsional oscillations of the Sun

A series of digitized synoptic observations of solar magnetic and velocity fields has been carried out at the Mount Wilson Observatory since 1967. In recent studies (Howard and LaBonte, 1980; LaBonte and Howard, 1981), the existence of slow, large-scale torsional (toroidal) oscillations of the Sun has been demonstrated. Two modes have been identified. The first is a travelling wave, symmetric about the equator, with wave number 2 per hemisphere. The pattern-alternately slower and faster than the average rotation-starts at the poles and drifts to the equator in an interval of 22 years. At any one latitude on the Sun, the period of the oscillation is 11 years, and the amplitude is 3 m s^-1. The magnetic flux emergence that is seen as the solar cycle occurs on average at the latitude of one shear zone of this oscillation. The amplitude of the shear is quite constant from the polar latitudes to the equator. The other mode of torsional oscillation, superposed on the first mode, is a wave number 1 per hemisphere pattern consisting of faster than average rotation at high latitudes around solar maximum and faster than average rotation at low latitudes near solar minimum. The amplitude of the effect is about 5 m s^-1. For the first mode, the close relationship in latitude between the activity-related magnetic flux eruption and the torsional shear zone suggests strongly that there is a close connection between these motions and the cycle mechanism. It has been suggested (Yoshimura, 1981; Schüssler, 1981) that the effect is caused by a subsurface Lorentz force wave resulting from the dynamo action of magnetic flux ropes. But, this seems unlikely because of the high latitudes at which the shear wave is seen to originate and the constancy of the magnitude of the shear throughout the life time of the wave.     

Jovian satellite-satellite eclipses and occultations

Toward the end of 1973 and in the first part of 1974, when the planes of the orbits of the four large Galilean satellites cross the Sun and the Earth, satellite-satellite eclipses and occultations will occur. Calculations indicate that during this period 350 such events will occur, most of them potentially observable. From observation of a few of these events the ephemerides of the satellites can be improved, radii and limb darkening curves determined, and crude information about the degree and extent of albedo fluctuations deduced. If a concerted effort were made and a large fraction of these events carefully observed it would be possible to invert the light curves to obtain albedo maps of most of the surface area at a typical resolution of about 100km for JI and JII and somewhat poorer for JIII and JIV. In 1979—the next opportunity—there will be considerably fewer events, and only a relative few of them will be observable at night.     

Outward transport of CAIs during FU‐Orionis events

Abstract— Evidence from meteorites shows that the first solids to form in the solar system, calcium‐aluminum‐rich inclusions (CAIs), were transported outward from the Sun by several AU in the early solar system. We introduce a new concept of levitation and outward transport of CAIs at the surface of protoplanetary disks. Thermal radiation from the disk and the Sun can cause particles to levitate above the disk and drift outward through a process known as photophoresis. During normal conditions this process only works for dust‐sized particles but during high luminosity events like FU‐Orionis outbursts, the process can provide an efficient lift and transport of CAIs from within the inner 1 AU to a distance of several AU from the Sun. This might explain why CAIs, believed to have formed close to the Sun, are common in meteorites believed to come from the outer asteroid belt but are rare or absent in samples from the inner solar system. Since the process only works during the FU‐Orionis event and only for particles up to cm‐size, it may also explain why the CAIs we find in meteorites appear to have formed within a short period of time and why they rarely exceed cm size.     

Evidence for halo-like radio sources from kilometric type III burst observations

The radio azimuths for many kilometric type III bursts that originate near or behind the limb of the Sun are observed to drift far to the east or far to the west of the spacecraft-Sun line. It is shown that the behavior of the observed burst parameters for these events corresponds to the response of a spinning dipole antenna to halo-like sources of radiation around the Sun. Our results provide evidence for a previous suggestion that behind-the-limb type III events should appear as halo-like sources of radiation to an observer on the opposite side of the Sun, due to scattering of the radiation from the primary source back around the Sun.     

Estimation of lunar and solar tides in the Earth’s thermosphere from density measurements by the CACTUS microaccelerometer

The densities measured by the CACTUS microaccelerometer at altitudes from 270 to 600 km are used to analyze the effect of tidal perturbations in the Earth’s thermosphere caused by the gravitational attraction of the Moon and the Sun. These tidal perturbations are considered a priori small and are not taken into account in modern atmospheric density models. The residuals between the densities measured by the CACTUS microaccelerometer and calculated by models are analyzed, and the density variations correlating with variations of the zenith angles from the Moon to the center of the Earth to the satellite and from the Sun to the center of the Earth to the satellite are found at altitudes from 270 to 600 km. The amplitude of the perturbations revealed in the study grows with height. The phase of the tidal perturbations also varies with height. The amplitude of the density variations is about 30% at 270–320 km and increases to 80% at 520–570 km. The results agree with a priori theoretical estimates obtained for tidal motion of gaseous matter with a variable density.     

Imaging the Sun at 21 cm: Budgetting the S-component

On fourteen days in July and August 1992 and June 1993, we used the 7-element synthesis radio telescope at the Dominion Radio Astrophysical Observatory to make full-disc, arc-min resolution images of the Sun at 21 cm, with the objective of budgetting the contributions to the slowly-varying component of solar radio emission. This instrument has the advantage that the mapping field at this wavelength is about 2.5° wide. However, it has also the severe disadvantage that with only 12 hours to record each image, the brightness distribution is severely undersampled. This difficulty, along with solar rotation and declination motion during each observation, required development of special image correction procedures.The two observing sessions spanned about 25% of the activity range over a solar cycle. Over this range, comparable contributions to the slowly-varying component came from active region sources and a weak emission, widely-distributed over the solar disk. Both these contributions are correlated with the total photospheric magnetic flux and with the 10.7 cm flux.     

Euv Blinkers: The Significance of Variations in the Extreme Ultraviolet Quiet Sun

A search for microflare activity in the extreme ultraviolet (EUV) quiet Sun using the Coronal Diagnostic Spectrometer (CDS) aboard the Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO) spacecraft has not resulted in the identification of microflare activity, but has resulted in the identification of a hitherto unknown phenomenon: enhancements of a factor of 2–3 in the flux of transition region lines at network junctions. A total of some 6 hours of observation of 5 different target areas showed this ‘blinker’ activity at each area, with durations ranging from 1 to 30 min and averaging 13 min, and thermal energy content of order 10^-6 that of a ‘standard’ flare. Assuming that the observations are of typical quiet Sun, and projecting these data to predict a distribution of these events over the entire Sun, the total thermal energy content of these ‘blinkers’ is insignificant when compared to the energy required to heat the corona. The nature of these events and their significance are discussed in this paper.     

Revisiting Solar and Heliospheric 1.3-Year Signals during 1970 – 2007

We revisit the 1.3-year (yr) signals observed on the Sun, in the interplanetary space, and in the Earth’s magnetosphere to study the coupling among signals from the three regions for about 40 years (1970?–?2007) covering the three solar cycles 21, 22, and 23. For this, we make dynamic spectra of datasets including three different regions. From this, we estimate the peak frequency around 1.3 yr for each region and the corresponding band power. We found that coherent power only appears during 1987?–?1995 and the coherent behavior is found only in the interplanetary space and Earth, not in the Sun. Although the solar surface magnetic field shows significant power around 1.3 yr, their peak frequencies are statistically different from those of the outer regions, which make us dismiss the existence of coherence among the three regions. But it is notable that the peaks in band power corresponding to the 1.3-yr period are clearly simultaneous in the interplanetary space and Earth.     

Observations of the sodium tail of Mercury

Cross-sections of the sodium emission tail of Mercury were measured at various distances down the tail when Mercury was moving away from the Sun (true anomaly angles <180°), and again when Mercury was moving towards the Sun (true anomaly angles >180°). As predicted in early modeling studies, significant differences were expected between these two cases, as the result of Doppler shifts to higher solar intensity in the former case, and to lower solar intensity for the latter case. For observations with Mercury moving away from the Sun, the sodium tail was observed out to about 40,000 kilometers (16 Mercury radii, RM) downstream, expanding, on average, at a rate of 1.9±0.3 km/s. The source rates for sodium generation from Mercury into the tail were found to be in the range 2-5×¹⁰²³ atoms/s, corresponding to between 1 and 10% of the estimated total sodium production rate on the planet. The limiting value of radiation acceleration required to produce an observable sodium tail was estimated to be 112±24 cm/s². For observations where Mercury was moving towards the Sun, the emission intensity in the sodium tail decreased very rapidly with distance downstream, disappearing entirely beyond 12,000 (6 RM) kilometers for radiation accelerations of 128.7 and 135.4 cm/s². For smaller radiation accelerations, the sodium tail was not detectable at all, yielding a limiting value for tail generation of about 122±2 cm/s². Interpretation of the limiting radiation acceleration values suggests that the process that generates the sodium tail yields atoms with energies greater than 3 eV. Particle sputtering is the most reasonable source process.     

The 3.3-mm brightness distribution of the quiet sun

Center-to-limb brightness distribution measurements of the quiet Sun at a wavelength of 3.3 mm show that there is a slight limb brightening at this wavelength. Within the measurement accuracy of the system used, the limb brightening function is only radially dependent. At 3.3 mm, the measurements are consistent with a solar brightness curve that is flat to about r = 0.8 with a rapid increase to a peak value of about 1.3 at the limb. The results show that most of the central disk 3.3-mm emission comes from a thin layer of relatively constant temperature about 1500–3500 km above the photosphere. This work was supported by the U.S. Air Force under Contract No. F04701-69-C-0066.     

A solar scenario for the associated occurrence of flares, eruptive prominences, coronal mass ejections, coronal holes, and interplanetary shocks

The observation of non-corotating shock fronts in interplanetary space is always associated with the previous occurrence of a coronal mass ejection (CME), which is frequently accompanied by a flare or a prominence eruption. When looking at the solar region of origin of these events, a coronal hole is always found. Here we propose a scenario at the Sun where all these related events can find a place.     

Topography of polygonal structures at the Phoenix landing site on mars through the relief retrieval from the HiRISE images with the improved photoclinometry method

The relief of polygonal structures at the Phoenix landing site on Mars has been determined with the improved photoclinometry method from the images acquired with the HiRISE camera on board the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter. The investigations showed that, within 1 km from the landing site, the topography amplitude of the relief on the surface scales of 5.5–65 m varies within the range of ～40 to 70 cm. The polygonal structures of 2–6 m across correspond to the small-scale relief with the topography amplitude ranging from 20 to 30 cm and the standard deviation of about 3 cm. Within 1 km from the landing site, the variations of these characteristics are small. For the small polygons that are less than 5.5 m in size, the typical height is 10–15 cm. The polygons of 18–22 m in size are up to 28 cm in height, while the polygons of 60–90 m in size reach about 44 cm in height. The error in determining the relief heights was ±5.5%. The investigations showed that the improved photoclinometry method is promising for the study of small-scale features of the Martian surface.     

Propagation of Coronal Mass Ejections Observed During the Rising Phase of Solar Cycle 24

In this study, we investigate the interplanetary consequences and travel time details of 58 coronal mass ejections (CMEs) in the Sun–Earth distance. The CMEs considered are halo and partial halo events of width \({>}\,120\)°. These CMEs occurred during 2009?–?2013, in the ascending phase of the Solar Cycle 24. Moreover, they are Earth-directed events that originated close to the centre of the solar disk (within about \(\pm30\)° from the Sun’s centre) and propagated approximately along the Sun–Earth line. For each CME, the onset time and the initial speed have been estimated from the white-light images observed by the LASCO coronagraphs onboard the SOHO space mission. These CMEs cover an initial speed range of \({\sim}\,260\,\mbox{--}\,2700~\mbox{km}\,\mbox{s}^{-1}\). For these CMEs, the associated interplanetary shocks (IP shocks) and interplanetary CMEs (ICMEs) at the near-Earth environment have been identified from in-situ solar wind measurements available at the OMNI data base. Most of these events have been associated with moderate to intense IP shocks. However, these events have caused only weak to moderate geomagnetic storms in the Earth’s magnetosphere. The relationship of the travel time with the initial speed of the CME has been compared with the observations made in the previous Cycle 23, during 1996?–?2004. In the present study, for a given initial speed of the CME, the travel time and the speed at 1 AU suggest that the CME was most likely not much affected by the drag caused by the slow-speed dominated heliosphere. Additionally, the weak geomagnetic storms and moderate IP shocks associated with the current set of Earth-directed CMEs indicate magnetically weak CME events of Cycle 24. The magnetic energy that is available to propagate CME and cause geomagnetic storm could be significantly low.