On ‘the Solar Flare Myth’ postulated by Gosling

The Solar Flare Myth postulated by Gosling (1993) is a misunderstanding. It is true that most sources of coronal mass ejections (CMEs) cannot be classified as flares in the common old sense of that word. However, just for this reason the term eruptive flare has been introduced for all solar active phenomena in which an opening of field lines is involved and which lead to magnetic-field and mass ejections resulting in a CME. The process is essentially the same in all events, irrespective of' whether only adisparition brusque without any chromospheric brightening or a major two-ribbon flare is involved in it; the only difference is the different strength of the magnetic field in which the process was accomplished. The major two-ribbon (cosmic-ray) flares clearly represent the most energetic events of this kind, and, therefore, it is very misleading to claim that solar flares in general are phenomena with very little importance for solar-terrestrial physics.     

Kleť minor planet discovery frequency by months (comparison)

Abstrakt The Kle search programme for minor planets using 0,63m Maksutov camera of Kle Observatory was begun in 1977 as a long-term project continuing up to the present day. The discovery frequency according to seasons in the year shows multiple differences between particular months.The comparison with the number of observing nights and obtained search plates; weather conditions and other influences will be discussed. The Kle minor planet discovery frequency also will be compared with the data base of all numbered minor planets.     

A multivariate statistical and geostatistical study on the geochemistry of allochtonous karst bauxite deposits in Hungary

A geochemical evaluation of the Szc-Halimba-Kisld area, Hungary, covering an area of more than 200 km² is presented using different statistical and geostatistical methods. The study area is a representative example of allochtonous karst bauxite accumulation. The three groups of deposits studied here have been explored and mined since 1950. Several thousand boreholes have been drilled, and bauxite cores were analyzed for the five main chemical components. A total of 80,000 pleces of analytical data were processed, followed by a geological examination of borehole logs and of mining excavations.The quantitative geochemical evaluation of the data set led to both geochemical and practical results: The geochemical behavior of the allochtonous, clastic karst bauxite deposits differs essentially from that of the autochtonous and parautochtonous ones, as well as that of the lateritic bauxite deposits. The deposits of the study area can be split into several subsequent geochemical-sedimentological units, each representing an event of bauxite transport and accumulation. Clear regional patterns can be revealed in the composition of these units. The geostatistically measured chemical variability of the geochemical units is rather different, the lowest units showing the smallest variability. The interrelations of the main chemical components are weaker and more irregular in the studied deposits than in the autochtonous lateritic bauxite deposits. Additional local genetic features, such as transport routes, can be delineated by the methods applied. Within each deposit, local changes of chemical composition and of its variability can be determined more precisely. These results can be used in bauxite prospecting and exploration, because areas of high or low bauxite quality can be predicted.     

Motions in the solar atmosphere associated with the white light flare of 11 July 1978

Series of white light heliograms and oft- and on-band H filtergrams have been obtained, with an average spatial resolution of 1, to study the flare active McMath region 15403 on 11 July, 1978. A great number of accurate heliographic positions were determined for the umbrae, the white light flare patches and several bright H flare knots, as well as along the principal zero filament and an arch prominence. Using the measured heliographic coordinates of these objects their motions could be analyzed in some detail. The velocities of several different objects could be deduced from the coordinates. Since the heliocentric angle of the region was about 45°, the variation in apparent heliographic coordinates also enabled some variations in heights to be determined.It is pointed out that the flare when fully developed, consisted almost entirely of loops. The zero filament which was activated prior to the flare ran between two umbrae of common penumbra and opposite polarity, one belonging to an old, the other to a new spot group. The white light flare developed on both sides of the filament where it passed between these two umbrae; it was also the place where the flare started. Observational evidence appears to indicate that the erupted filament re-formed from below.An indication has been found that there was a link between the motion of some umbrae and the major flare occurrence.     

Stability of the solar system

If the solar system is considered as a mechanical clockwork consisting of its present members which attract each other as mass-points, the extent of its present approach to secular stability (i.e., the state of minimum potential energy) — manifested by the existence of a number of nearcommensurabilities of the present orbital periods, not only of the planets, but also of their satellites —could not have been attained in a time-span of 4.6×10⁹ yr of its age by gravitational perturbations alone.The existence of such commensurabilities — striking in many instances— could then be understood only on the assumption that either (a) the solar system was actually born with the present 2-, 3- and 4-term couplings between the orbital period of the planets already built-in from the outset (which is improbable on any known grounds); or (b) that these couplings — in particular, the 25 Jupiter-Saturn commensurability — have arisen as a result of tidal interaction between proto-planetary globes of much larger dimensions than these planets possess today. For the present dimensions and mutual distances of these planets, their tidal interaction in 10⁹ yr would exert but negligible effects; and during that time neither their masses, nor the scale of the solar system underwent any essential change.Therefore, a hypothesis is proposed that the situation now obtaining had its origin in the early days of the formation of the solar system, when the planetary globes — in particular, those of Jupiter and Saturn (now in the terminal stage of Kelvin contraction) — were very much larger than they are today; and when, as a result, the tidal coupling between them operated at a much higher rate than at the present time.Paper presented at the European Workshop on Planetary Sciences, organised by the Laboratorio di Astrofisica Spaziale di Frascati, and held between April 23–27, 1979, at the Accademia Nazionale del Lincei in Rome, Italy.     

Problems connected with the tangential metric coefficient in the Schwarzschild metric: A possible solution

Four situations are shown where the Schwarzschild metric cannot be used or is subject to unsurmountable problems. The first is the question of a metric useful for PPN-formalism checking different gravitational theories. The second problem occurs in connection with Mach's principle, when the flatness of the spacetime inside a massive hollow sphere is a generally accepted solution. The metrical discontinuity on the same spherical shell is a third problem. The fourth one is the anisotropy of the mass-energy of a test particle in the gravitational field. Three principles for solution are proposed:

1. The space is not dilated, but rather contracted, in the gravitational field; then the measurement-rods are shorter and measured distances have greater magnitudes.
2. The potential energy is to be related to a potential level where a stationary observer is placed and the general relativistic potential must be used.
3. A new metric must be introduced which is distinct from the Schwarzschild metric, so that the space in the gravitational field is warped isotropically.

Then the problems stated are shown to be easily solvable.     

Tunneling and interference of Alfvén waves

The propagation and interference of Alfvén waves in magnetic regions is studied. A multilayer approximation of the standard models of the solar atmosphere is used. In each layer, there is a linear law of temperature variation and a power law of Alfvén velocity variation. The analytical solutions of a wave equation are stitched at the layer boundaries. The low-frequency Alfvén waves (P > 1 s) are able to transfer the energy from sunspots into the corona by tunneling only. The chromosphere is not a resonance filter for the Alfvén waves. The interference and resonance of Alfvén waves are found to be important to wave propagation through the magnetic coronal arches. The transmission coefficient of Alfvén waves into the corona increases sharply on the resonance frequences. To take into account the wave absorption in the corona, a method of equivalent schemes is developed. The heating of a coronal arch by Alfvén waves is discussed.     

Linear hydromagnetic stability of a differentially rotating non-uniformly stratified fluid layer

Summary Our discussion is concerned with the common effect of the non-uniformity of layer rotation and stratification. We have assumed a model of differential rotation with the upper part of the layer rotating more slowly, the bottom part more quickly. The upper part of the layer is stratified stably, the bottom part unstably.The thermal instabilities are preferred in the strong differential rotation case and they are the most easily excited by a strong magnetic field (10²–10³). The direction of its propagation is westward in the uniformly stratified layer and eastward in the non-uniformly stratified layer.     

Window technique for climate trend analysis

Climatic characteristics are affected by various systematic and occasional impacts: besides the changes in the observing system (locations of the stations of the meteorological network, instruments, observing procedures), the possible local-scale and global natural and antropogenic impacts on climatic conditions should be taken into account. Apart from the predictability problems, the phenomenological analysis of the climatic variability and the determination of past persistent climatic anomalies are significant problems, among other aspects, as evidence of the possible anomalous behavior of climate or for climate impact studies. In this paper, a special technique for the identification of such shifts in the observational series is presented. The existence of these significant shorter or longer term changes in the mean characteristics for the properly selected adjoining periods of time is the necessary condition for the formation of any more or less unidirectional climatic trends. Actually, the window technique is based on a complete set of orthogonal functions. The sensitivity of the proposed model on its main parameters is also investigated. This method is applied for hemispheric and Hungarian data series of the mean annual surface temperature.Contribution to Clima Locarno — Past and Present Climate Dynamics; Conference September 1990, Swiss Academy of Sciences — National Climate Program