Estimating Black Hole Masses of AGNs using Ultraviolet Emission Line Properties

Based on measured broad line region sizes in the reverberation-mapping AGN sample, two new empirical relations are introduced to estimate the central black hole masses of radio-loud high-redshift (z > 0.5) AGNs. First, using the archival IUE/HST spectroscopy data at UV band for the reverberation-mapping objects, we obtained two new empirical relations between the BLR size and Mg II/C IV emission line luminosity. Secondly, using the newly determined black hole masses of the reverberation-mapping sample as calibration, we found two new relationships for determining the black hole mass with the full width at half maximum and the luminosity of Mg II/C IV line. We then apply the relations to estimate the black hole masses of the AGNs in the Large Bright Quasar Survey and a sample of radio-loud quasars. For the objects with small radio-loudness, the black hole mass estimated using the RBLR-LMgII/C IV relation is consistent with that from the RBLR-L3000 (?)/1350(?) relation. For radio-loud AGNs, however, the mass estimated from the RBLR-LMgII/CIV relation is sys- tematically lower than that from the continuum luminosity L3000(?)/1350(?). Because jets could have significant contributions to the UV/optical continuum luminosity of radio-loud AGNs, we emphasize once again that for radio-loud AGNs, the emission line luminosity may be a better tracer of the ionizing luminosity than the continuum luminosity, so that the relations between the BLR size and UV emission line luminosities should be used to estimate the black hole masses of high redshift radio-loud AGNs.     

Ultraviolet observations in Puppis with the space telescope ‘Glazar’

The results of observations of 159 stars at 1640 Å in Puppis made with the space telescope Glazar are presented. It is shown that the observed stars are members of different groups of stars situated at distances of about 120, 370, 700, 1250, 2400, and 4000 pc. The last two groups belong to the Pup OB1 and the Pup OB2 stellar associations.There is relatively little absorption in the observed region. The absorbing matter is mainly concentrated in small clouds.It is suggested that three stars — CP –27°4197, HD 60479, and HD 61672-are embedded in a dust envelope and that the star HD 60057 has a hot subdwarf companion.Forty-four of the observed stars are new OB or early A-type stars, spectral types of which were not known.     

On the Station-Keeping and Control of the World Space Observatory/Ultraviolet

Collinear libration points play an important role in deep space exploration because of their special positions and dynamical characteristics. Since motion around them is unstable, we need to control the spacecraft if we wish to keep them around such a libration point for a long time. Here we propose a continuous low-thrust control strategy, illustrated with numerical simulations combined with the orbit design and control of the World Space Observatory/UltraViolet (WSO/UV).     

STEREO/Extreme Ultraviolet Imager (EUVI) Event Catalog 2006 – 2012

We generated an event catalog with an automated detection algorithm based on the entire EUVI image database observed with the two Solar Terrestrial Relations Observatory (STEREO)-A and -B spacecraft over the first six years of the mission (2006?–?2012). The event catalog includes the heliographic positions of some 20?000 EUV events, transformed from spacecraft coordinates to Earth-based coordinates, and information on associated GOES flare events (down to the level of GOES A5-class flares). The 304 Å wavelength turns out to be the most efficient channel for flare detection (79?% of all EUVI event detections), while the 171 Å (4?%), 195 Å (10?%), and the 284 Å channel (7?%) retrieve substantially fewer flare events, partially due to the suppressing effect of EUV dimming, and partially due to the lower cadence in the later years of the mission. Due to the Sun-circling orbits of STEREO-A and -B, a large number of flares have been detected on the farside of the Sun, invisible from Earth, or seen as partially occulted events. The statistical size distributions of EUV peak fluxes (with a power-law slope of α _P =2.5±0.2) and event durations (with a power-law slope of α _T =2.4±0.3) are found to be consistent with the fractal-diffusive self-organized criticality model. The EUVI event catalog is available on-line at secchi.lmsal.com/EUVI/euvi_autodetection/euvi_events.txt and may serve as a comprehensive tool to identify stereoscopically observed flare events for 3D reconstruction and to study occulted flare events.     

Ultraviolet spectrum of FU Ori and a “Compromise” model of the FUor

We have analyzed the Hubble Space Telescope spectrum of the young star FU Ori in the range 2300–3100 Å. The long-wavelength part of the spectrum is similar to the spectrum of a supergiant with T _eff ? 5000–6000 K, but the range of wavelengths shorter than ?2600 Å is dominated by radiation from a region with T _eff ? 9000 K. We discuss the possibility of explaining these peculiarities of the spectrum, the Al II] 2669.2 emission line profile, and the results of X-ray observations for FU Ori in terms of an accretion disk model whose thickness increases as the star is approached starting from distances ?10¹² cm. Near the star, the disk has the shape of a cone in which only the part of its surface on the far (from the observer) side is visible. The suggested model is a kind of a compromise between the models of a thin α-disk and a supergiant: basically, this is an accretion model, but it resembles a supergiant in observational manifestations. Numerous absorption lines originating in the disk wind are superimposed on the disk spectrum. The wind is a cold (T ? 5000 K), dense (N _e ? 10¹¹ cm^?3) gas. The number of wind absorption lines in the ultraviolet spectrum of FU Ori increases with decreasing wavelength. This causes a rapid decline in intensity in the short-wavelength part of the spectrum. As a result, the maximum temperature in the disk estimated from low-resolution IUE spectra has been underestimated.     

Scientific program construction principles and time allocation scheme for the World Space Observatory—Ultraviolet mission

We present scientific program construction principles and a time allocation scheme developed for the World Space Observatory—Ultraviolet (WSO-UV) mission, which is an international space observatory for observation in UV spectral range 100–300 nm. The WSO-UV consists of a 1.7 m aperture telescope with instrumentation designed to carry out high resolution spectroscopy, long-slit low resolution spectroscopy and direct sky imaging. The WSO-UV Ground Segment is under development by Spain and Russia. They will coordinate the Mission and Science Operations and provide the satellite tracking stations for the project.     

The Ultraviolet sky surveys: filling the gap in our view of the Universe

The GALEX mission is performing imaging and spectroscopic surveys of the sky at Ultraviolet wavelengths, and providing unprecedented sky maps in two UV bands, far-UV and near-UV, and catalogs of UV sources. I will describe the major surveys accomplished so far, and results in investigating the nature of the UV sources. The UV surveys, linked to a multi-wavelength archive, offer great sensitivity to detect and characterize several classes of astrophysical objects, such as low-redshift QSOs, star-forming galaxies, and white dwarfs (WD) in the Milky Way. Efforts towards obtaining a significant census of WDs from GALEX imaging data are described in particular. A dedicated, deep survey of nearby galaxies provides a snapshot of their recent star formation, shedding new light on the process of star formation and its modalities in different environments and conditions. Deep GALEX data revealed young stellar populations in extreme outskirts of spiral galaxies, previously thought to be stable against star formation given their low density. UV measurements for millions of nearby and distant galaxies map the history and probe the causes of star formation in the Universe over the redshift range z=0–2.     

EUV SpectroPhotometer (ESP) in Extreme Ultraviolet Variability Experiment (EVE): Algorithms and?Calibrations

The Extreme ultraviolet SpectroPhotometer (ESP) is one of five channels of the Extreme ultraviolet Variability Experiment (EVE) onboard the NASA Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO). The ESP channel design is based on a highly stable diffraction transmission grating and is an advanced version of the Solar Extreme ultraviolet Monitor (SEM), which has been successfully observing solar irradiance onboard the Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO) since December 1995. ESP is designed to measure solar Extreme UltraViolet (EUV) irradiance in four first-order bands of the diffraction grating centered around 19 nm, 25 nm, 30 nm, and 36 nm, and in a soft X-ray band from 0.1 to 7.0?nm in?the?zeroth-order of the grating. Each band’s detector system converts the photo-current into a count rate (frequency). The count rates are integrated over 0.25-second increments and transmitted to the EVE Science and Operations Center for data processing. An algorithm for converting the measured count rates into solar irradiance and the ESP calibration parameters are described. The ESP pre-flight calibration was performed at the Synchrotron Ultraviolet Radiation Facility of the National Institute of Standards and Technology. Calibration parameters were used to calculate absolute solar irradiance from the sounding-rocket flight measurements on 14 April 2008. These irradiances for the ESP bands closely match the irradiance determined for two other EUV channels flown simultaneously: EVE’s Multiple EUV Grating Spectrograph (MEGS) and SOHO’s Charge, Element and Isotope Analysis System/Solar EUV Monitor (CELIAS/SEM).     

A Time-Evolving 3D Method Dedicated to the Reconstruction of Solar Plumes and Results Using Extreme Ultraviolet Data

An important issue in the tomographic reconstruction of the solar poles is the relatively rapid evolution of the polar plumes. We demonstrate that it is possible to take into account this temporal evolution in the reconstruction. The difficulty of this problem comes from the fact that we want a four-dimensional reconstruction (three spatial dimensions plus time) whereas we only have three-dimensional data (two-dimensional images plus time). To overcome this difficulty, we introduce a model that describes polar plumes as stationary objects whose intensity varies homogeneously with time. This assumption can be physically justified if one accepts the stability of the magnetic structure. This model leads to a bilinear inverse problem. We describe how to extend linear inversion methods to these kinds of problems. Studies of simulations show the reliability of our method. Results for SOHO/EIT data show that we can estimate the temporal evolution of polar plumes to improve the reconstruction of the solar poles from only one point of view. We expect further improvements from STEREO/EUVI data when the two probes will be separated by about 60°.     

Ultraviolet observations of β Persei, μ1 Scorpii and γ2 Velorum with the TD-1A satellite

This paper reports on the results of a study of S59 ultraviolet spectral scans of the spectroscopic binaries Persei, ¹ Scorpii and ₂ Velorum. In the case of ¹ Sco it was found that the Mgii doublet at 2800 Å undergoes intensity variations that may be indicative of variable emission in the photographic spectrum. The continuum in the 2490–2590 Å range deviates from the continuum of the comparison stars. In ₂ Vel, flux variations in the 2770–2870 Å region have been detected.Member of the Carrera del Investigador Cientifico, CONICET, Argentina. Guest Investigator of the S59 experiment on board the TD-1A satellite.     

Extreme Ultraviolet Variability Experiment (EVE) Multiple?EUV Grating Spectrographs (MEGS): Radiometric Calibrations and Results

The NASA Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO), scheduled for launch in early 2010, incorporates a suite of instruments including the Extreme Ultraviolet Variability Experiment (EVE). EVE has multiple instruments including the Multiple Extreme ultraviolet Grating Spectrographs (MEGS) A, B, and P instruments, the Solar Aspect Monitor (SAM), and the Extreme ultraviolet SpectroPhotometer (ESP). The radiometric calibration of EVE, necessary to convert the instrument counts to physical units, was performed at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) Synchrotron Ultraviolet Radiation Facility (SURF III) located in Gaithersburg, Maryland. This paper presents the results and derived accuracy of this radiometric calibration for the MEGS A, B, P, and SAM instruments, while the calibration of the ESP instrument is addressed by Didkovsky et?al. (Solar Phys., 2010, doi: 10.1007/s11207-009-9485-8 ). In addition, solar measurements that were taken on 14 April 2008, during the NASA 36.240 sounding-rocket flight, are shown for the prototype EVE instruments.     

Ultraviolet studies of the interstellar gas in the direction of the stars AE Aur (09.5V) andθ 2 Ori A (09.0V)

We have studied high-resolution SWP spectra of AE Aur and ² Ori A, obtained from the International Ultraviolet Explorer Satellite; and derived curve of growth and column densities ofCii,Cii ^*, Alii, Siii, Siii ^*,Sii, Crii, Feii, Niii, and Znii. It has been possible to fit these ions on one empirical curve of growth with a velocity parameterb=13 km s^–1 for both stars.Based on the observations made by the International Ultraviolet Explorer (IUE), and collected at the Villafranca Satellite Tracking Station of the European Space Agency.     

Extreme Ultraviolet Variability Experiment (EVE) on?the?Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO): Overview?of?Science Objectives, Instrument Design, Data?Products, and Model Developments

The highly variable solar extreme ultraviolet (EUV) radiation is the major energy input to the Earth’s upper atmosphere, strongly impacting the geospace environment, affecting satellite operations, communications, and navigation. The Extreme ultraviolet Variability Experiment (EVE) onboard the NASA Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO) will measure the solar EUV irradiance from 0.1 to 105?nm with unprecedented spectral resolution (0.1?nm), temporal cadence (ten seconds), and accuracy (20%). EVE includes several irradiance instruments: The Multiple EUV Grating Spectrographs (MEGS)-A is a grazing-incidence spectrograph that measures the solar EUV irradiance in the 5 to 37?nm range with 0.1-nm resolution, and the MEGS-B is a normal-incidence, dual-pass spectrograph that measures the solar EUV irradiance in the 35 to 105?nm range with 0.1-nm resolution. To provide MEGS in-flight calibration, the EUV SpectroPhotometer (ESP) measures the solar EUV irradiance in broadbands between 0.1 and 39?nm, and a MEGS-Photometer measures the Sun’s bright hydrogen emission at 121.6?nm. The EVE data products include a near real-time space-weather product (Level?0C), which provides the solar EUV irradiance in specific bands and also spectra in 0.1-nm intervals with a cadence of one minute and with a time delay of less than 15?minutes. The EVE higher-level products are Level?2 with the solar EUV irradiance at higher time cadence (0.25?seconds for photometers and ten seconds for spectrographs) and Level?3 with averages of the solar irradiance over a day and over each one-hour period. The EVE team also plans to advance existing models of solar EUV irradiance and to operationally use the EVE measurements in models of Earth’s ionosphere and thermosphere. Improved understanding of the evolution of solar flares and extending the various models to incorporate solar flare events are high priorities for the EVE team.     

The Solar Ultraviolet Spectrum Estimated Using the Mg <Emphasis Type="SmallCaps">ii</Emphasis> Index and Ca <Emphasis Type="SmallCaps">ii</Emphasis> K Disk Activity

As part of a program to estimate the solar spectrum back to the early twentieth century, we have generated fits to UV spectral irradiance measurements from 1 – 410 nm. The longer wavelength spectra (150 – 410 nm) were fit as a function of two solar activity proxies, the Mg ii core-to-wing ratio, or Mg ii index, and the total Ca ii K disk activity derived from ground based observations. Irradiance spectra at shorter wavelengths (1 – 150 nm) where used to generate fits to the Mg ii core-to-wing ratio alone. Two sets of spectra were used in these fitting procedures. The fits at longer wavelengths (150 to 410 nm) were derived from the high-resolution spectra taken by the Solar Ultraviolet Spectral Irradiance Monitor (SUSIM) on the Upper Atmospheric Research Satellite (UARS). Spectra measured by the Solar EUV Experiment (SEE) instrument on the Thermosphere Ionosphere Mesosphere Energetics and Dynamics (TIMED) satellite were used for the fits at wavelengths from 1 to 150 nm. To generate fits between solar irradiance and solar proxies, this study uses the above irradiance data, the NOAA composite Mg ii index, and daily Ca ii K disk activity determined from images measured by Big Bear Solar Observatory (BBSO). In addition to the fitting coefficients between irradiance and solar proxies, other results from this study include an estimated relationship between the fraction of the disk with enhanced Ca ii K activity and the Mg ii index, an upper bound of the average solar UV spectral irradiance during periods where the solar disk contains only regions of the quiet Sun, as was believed to be present during the Maunder Minimum, as well as results indicating that slightly more than 60% of the total solar irradiance (TSI) variability occurs between 150 and 400 nm.