Thermal equilibrium and hydrostatic equilibrium for excited states in planetary atmospheres

Thermal equilibrium and hydrostatic equilibrium are mutually exclusive for any particular quantum state of an atmospheric constituent in a non-isothermal atmosphere. As a result, there is a flux of rotationally, vibrationally, and electronically excited atoms and molecules down the temperature gradient, balanced by an up-gradient transport of ground-state atoms and molecules, resulting in a net transport of excitation energy, but with no net mass transport. The energy flux is first formulated as a molecular process and applied to vibrationally excited molecular nitrogen and rotationally excited atomic oxygen in the Earth's lower thermosphere, then reformulated as a bulk process and applied to the Venusian atmosphere, where it is shown that the CO₂ vibrational flux is a significant contribution to the total eddy energy flux in the 0–60 km region.     

Modelling hydrogen atom in circumstellar slabs: Excitation,ionization, and line intensities

The statistical study of the individual light curves of magnetic close binary system AM Herculis obtained in 1978–1988 led to the following conclusions: (a) there is a dependence of the amplitude of brightness variations on the luminosity; (b) the shape of the phased light curves is statistically dependent on the luminosity; (c) the photometric period underwent cyclic changes, the phase of minimum is correlated with luminosity. These results confirm the main observational predictions of the swinging dipole model (Astrophys. Space Sci., 1987,131, 557), but the details are to be investigated during the international programme Polar of coordinated observations of AM Her (27 July–8 August, 1989).Paper presented at the 11th European Regional Astronomical Meetings of the IAU on New Windows to the Universe, held 3–8 July, 1989, Tenerife, Canary Islands, Spain.     

Dynamical passage to approximate equilibrium shapes for spinning, gravitating rubble asteroids

Many asteroids are thought to be particle aggregates held together principally by self-gravity. Here we study — for static and dynamical situations — the equilibrium shapes of spinning asteroids that are permitted for rubble piles. As in the case of spinning fluid masses, not all shapes are compatible with a granular rheology. We take the asteroid to always be an ellipsoid with an interior modeled as a rigid-plastic, cohesion-less material with a Drucker-Prager yield criterion. Using an approximate volume-averaged procedure, based on the classical method of moments, we investigate the dynamical process by which such objects may achieve equilibrium. We first collapse our dynamical approach to its statical limit to derive regions in spin-shape parameter space that allow equilibrium solutions to exist. At present, only a graphical illustration of these solutions for a prolate ellipsoid following the Drucker-Prager failure law is available [Sharma, I., Jenkins, J.T., Burns, J.A., 2005a. Bull. Am. Astron. Soc. 37, 643; Sharma, I., Jenkins, J.T., Burns, J.A., 2005b. Equilibrium shapes of ellipsoidal soil asteroids. In: García-Rojo, R., Hermann, H.J., McNamara, S. (Eds.), Proceedings of the 5th International Conference on Micromechanics of Granular Media, vol. 1. A.A. Balkema, UK; Holsapple, K.A., 2007. Icarus 187, 500-509]. Here, we obtain the equilibrium landscapes for general triaxial ellipsoids, as well as provide the requisite governing formulae. In addition, we demonstrate that it may be possible to better interpret the results of Richardson et al. [Richardson, D.C., Elankumaran, P., Sanderson, R.E., 2005. Icarus 173, 349-361] within the context of a Drucker-Prager material. The graphical result for prolate ellipsoids in the static limit is the same as those of Holsapple [Holsapple, K.A., 2007. Icarus 187, 500-509] because, when worked out, his final equations will match ours. This is because, though the formalisms to reach these expressions differ, in statics, at the lowest level of approximation, volume-averaging and the approach of Holsapple [Holsapple, K.A., 2007. Icarus 187, 500-509] coincide. We note that the approach applied here was obtained independently [Sharma, I., Jenkins, J.T., Burns, J.A., 2003. Bull. Am. Astron. Soc. 35, 1034; Sharma, I., 2004. Rotational Dynamics of Deformable Ellipsoids with Applications to Asteroids. Ph.D. thesis, Cornell University] and it provides a general, though approximate, framework that is amenable to systematic improvements and is flexible enough to incorporate the dynamical effects of a changing shape, different rheologies and complex rotational histories. To demonstrate our technique, we investigate the non-equilibrium dynamics of rigid-plastic, spinning, prolate asteroids to examine the simultaneous histories of shape and spin rate for rubble piles. We have succeeded in recovering most results of Richardson et al. [Richardson, D.C., Elankumaran, P., Sanderson, R.E., 2005. Icarus 173, 349-361], who obtained equilibrium shapes by studying numerically the passage into equilibrium of aggregates containing discrete, interacting, frictionless, spherical particles. Our mainly analytical approach aids in understanding and quantifying previous numerical simulations.     

Electron Excitation Rates in the Solar Corona for non-Maxwellian Electron Distributions

The influence of electron non-Maxwellian distributions (power and -distribution) on the electron excitation rate in the solar corona is demonstrated. It is shown that the deviations in electron excitation rate are sufficient to affect intensities of spectral lines. As an example the diagnostics of a power-law distribution are demonstrated for a simplified calculation of the resonance lines of Fexxiv, Fexxv and Fexxvi. The results can be used in diagnosing solar flare plasmas, where the deviations of the electron distribution from a Maxwellian distribution can be large.     

The Processing and Classification for the Spectra of Six Comets

In order to explore the relationship between comets and asteroids, the spectra of six comets, including 78P, C/2009 P1, 49P, C/2010 G2, C/2010 S1, and C/2011 F1, have been observed with the 2.16 m telescope at the Xinglong Observing Station of National Astronomical Observatories. At the same time, the spectra of some sun-like stars are also observed. The IRAF (Image Reduction and Analysis Facility) software is used to process the obtained spectra, and to obtain the relative re?ectance spectra of the six comets. Then, they are compared with the 24 asteroid spectral types of the Bus-DeMeo taxonomy to derive the spectral distances of these comets. According to the order of the calculated spectral distances, the details of the re?ectance spectra, as well as the results of the K-S test, the asteroid spectral types which are most close to the spectra of these comets are ?nally determined.     

Calculation of the structure and transition probabilities of low energy levels of Fe and Fe

We use analytical wave functions in intermediate coupling to make a complete relativistic calculation of the structure and transition probabilities for the n = 1, 2, 3 states of Fe⁺²⁴. Data for Fe⁺²⁵ are also given for comparison. The results have a high accuracy and those relating to the n = 3 state are given in detail for the first time here.     

Excitation of Annual Polar Motion by the Pacific, Atlantic and Indian Oceans

The global oceans play important roles in exciting the annual polar motion besides the atmosphere. However, it is still unclear about how large the regional oceans contribute to the annual polar motion. We investigate systemically the contributions of the Pacific, Atlantic and Indian Oceans to the excitation of the annual polar motion, based on the output data of ocean current velocity field and ocean bottom pressure field from ＂Estimating the Circulation and Climate of the Ocean （ECCO）＂ ocean circulation model over the period 1993-2005. The result shows that due to its particular location and shape, the Atlantic Ocean makes a less significant contribution to the x-component of the annual polar motion excitation than the Pacific and Indian Oceans, while all these three oceans contribute to the y-component of the annual polar motion excitation to some extent.     

Excitation of Radial P-Modes in the Sun and Stars

P-mode oscillations in the Sun and stars are excited stochastically by Reynolds stress and entropy fluctuations produced by convection in their outer envelopes. The excitation rate of radial oscillations of stars near the main sequence from K to F and a subgiant K IV star have been calculated from numerical simulations of their surface convection zones. P-mode excitation increases with increasing effective temperature (until envelope convection ceases in the F stars) and also increases with decreasing gravity. The frequency of the maximum excitation decreases with decreasing surface gravity.     

Two-component,concentric, and copolar homogeneous spheroids in virial equilibrium: a review with additional results,II

Some results of the theory of two-component, concentric, and copolar homogeneous spheroids in virial equilibrium, derived in a previous work (Paper I) in connection with the tidal action induced by the gravitational potential of the inner subsystem on the mass distribution of the outer subsystem, have been found to hold only in the special case of similar boundaries (Caimmi and Secco, 1992). The related expressions are re-written here in a more general form, which extends their validity to subsystems of the kind considered, with all boundaries.     

The equilibrium,stability and evolution of a rotating magnetized gaseous disk

The exact solutions for the equilibrium of rotating gaseous disk with poloidal magnetic field are obtained. The stability of the disk with respect to uniform expansion and contraction is investigated by means of the variational principle. It is shown that if the equilibrium is determined by gravitational and magnetic forces only, the disk is in neutral equilibrium with respect to perturbations of the form r=r. The instability to short-waves perturbations is studied by the quasi-classical method. The analysis shows that if the magnetic field isH>2G, where is the surface density, then these perturbations are stabilized. The configurations of the electrical field induced by the rotation of magnetized disk are found. In conclusion, the questions of the evolution of the disk are discussed in connection with the quasar model when pulsar-like radiation is taken into account.     

Excitation and visibility of slow modes in rotating B-type stars

We use the traditional approximation to describe oscillations with frequencies comparable to the angular rotation rate. Validity of this approximation in application to main-sequence B stars is discussed. Numerical results regarding mode stability and visibility are presented for a model of the Be star HD 163868. For this object, Walker et al. detected a record number of mode frequencies using data from the small space telescope MOST . Our interpretation of these data differs from that of Walker et al. In particular, we interpret peaks in the lowest frequency range as retrograde g modes. We find instability in a large number of modes that remain undetectable because of unfavourable aspect and/or effect of cancellation. There is no clear preference to excitation of prograde modes.     

A Theoretical Probe for Excitation Mechanisms of Solar-like and Mira-like Oscillations of Stars

The linear stability analysis of the radial and non-radial oscillations for the evolutionary model of a star with the mass of 0.6∼3 M8 has been per- formed by using the nonlocal and time-dependent convection theory. The results show that the unstable low-temperature stars on the right side of the instabil- ity strip in the HR diagram can be divided into two groups. One is of the stars of solar-like oscillations, composed of the main-sequence dwarfs, subgiants, and the red giants with low- and intermediate-luminosity, which are unstable in the intermediate- and high-order (nr ≥ 12) p-modes, but stable in the low- order (nr ≤ 5) p-modes. Another is of the Mira-like stars, composed of the luminous red giants and AGB stars, which are just contrary to the solar-like stars, unstable in the low-order (nr ≤ 5) p-modes, but stable in the intermediate- and high-order (nr ≥ 12) p-modes. On the red edge of Cepheid (δ Scuti) insta- bility strip, the oscillations of solar-like and Mira-like stars can be explained uniformly by the coupling between convection and oscillations (CCO). For the low-temperature stars on the right side of the instability strip, the CCO is the dominant excitation and damping mechanism for the low- and intermediate-order p-modes, and the stochastic excitation of turbulence becomes important only for the high-order p-modes of solar-like oscillations.     

恒星类太阳和类长周期变星脉动激发机制的理论探讨

利用一种非局部和非定常的恒星对流理论,计算了0.6～3.0 M☉恒星演化模型的线性非绝热脉动.结果表明,赫罗图上脉动不稳定带右方的脉动不稳定的低温恒星可以分成2大类(群).一类由主序矮星、亚巨星和中低光度红巨星组成的类太阳振荡恒星,它们的中高阶(径向阶nr≥12)p模是脉动不稳定的,而低阶(nr≤ 5)模是脉动稳定的;另一类是由亮的红巨星和渐近巨星支星(AGB)组成的类长周期变星,它们的低阶模(nr≤5)是脉动不稳定的,而高阶模(nr≥12)却是脉动稳定的.能利用对流与脉动的耦合统一解释造父变星脉动不稳定带红边界、类太阳和类长周期变星脉动.对赫罗图右方的低温恒星的中低阶p模振荡,对流与脉动的耦合是主要的脉动激发和阻尼机制,而湍流的随机激发机制仅对类太阳振荡高阶p模重要.     

The H− equilibrium using coupled rate equations for H−, H,H+, H2, and H2 +

We formulate rate equations for the reaction network coupling H, H^–, H⁺, H₂, and H₂ ⁺. We attempt to systematize the notation, and to write the equations in a form suitable for modern computational methods of handling the coupled rate equations and radiative transfer equations, for both dynamical and static atmospheres. We have accounted for more processes than are generally considered in most current work; some of these may have an impact on the equilibrium of H^– (hence its opacity) and on charge conservation (hence the proton density) in the atmospheres of solar-type stars.Operated by the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy, Inc. under Contract AST 78-17292 with the National Science Foundation.The National Center for Atmospheric Research is sponsored by the National Science Foundation.     

Excitation of Chandler Wobble by Pacific,Indian and Atlantic Oceans from 1980 to 2005

In addition to the atmosphere, the oceans play important roles in the excitation of the Chandler wobble. The contributions made by the Pacific Ocean, the Indian Ocean and the Atlantic Ocean from 1980 to 2005 to the excitation of the Chandler wobble are first and systematically researched by taking advantage of the data of the current velocity field and ocean floor pressure provided by the marine circulation model of the Estimating the Circulation and Climate of the Ocean (ECCO). Studies show that the contributions of the three oceans to the excitation of the Chandler wobble are different from one another: the excitation energy of the Pacific Ocean makes up about 22.2% of the observational excitation energy, the largest one among the three oceans, that of the Indian Ocean accounts for about 12.7% and that of the Atlantic Ocean amounts to about 7.1%, the smallest among the three great oceans. The remarkable increase in the excitation energy of the Chandler wobble by the Pacific Ocean may be possibly due to the effect of the strong ENSO event which occurred from 1982 to 1983.     

Ionization equilibrium and spectrum formation in QSOs' absorption regions

The behaviour of the primary and secondary components in a sample of double-lined Algol-type eclipsing binaries in the logg-logT _e diagram is analyzed. Our results indicate that the hotter components behave like normal Main-Sequence stars while the effect of irradiation may partly explain the overluminosity of the cool components.Paper presented at the 11th European Regional Astronomical Meetings of the IAU on New Windows to the Universe, held 3–8 July, 1989, Tenerife, Canary Islands, Spain.