Observed nonpotential magnetic fields and the inferred flow of electric currents at a location of repeated flaring

We have analyzed the vector magnetic field of an active region at a location of repeated flaring to determine the nature of the currents flowing in the areas where the flares initiated. The component of electric current density crossing the photosphere along the line-of-sight was derived from the observed transverse component of the magnetic field. The maximum concentrations of these currents occurred exactly at the sites of flare initiation and where the photospheric field was sheared the most. The calculated distribution of current density at the flare sites suggested that currents were flowing out of an area of positive magnetic polarity and across the magnetic inversion line into two areas of negative polarity. This interpretation was reinforced by a calculation of the source field, the magnetic field produced in the photosphere by the electric currents above the photosphere. In the vicinity of the flare sites, the calculated source field exhibited three particular characteristics: (1) maximum magnitudes at the sites of flare initiation, (2) a rotational direction where the vertical current density was concentrated, and (3) a fairly constant angular orientation with the magnetic inversion line. The source field was thus very similar to the field produced by two arcades of currents crossing the inversion line at the locations of greatest magnetic shear with orientations of about 60° to the inversion line. With this orientation, the inferred arcades would be aligned with the observed chromospheric fibrils seen in the H data so that the currents were field-aligned above the photosphere. The field thus exhibited a vertical gradient of magnetic shear with the shear decreasing upward from the photosphere. We estimated the currents in the two arcades by matching the source field derived from observations with that produced by a model of parallel loops of currents. We found that the loops of the model would each have a radius of 4500 km, a separation of 1830 km, and carry a current of 0.15 × 10¹² A. Values of vertical current densities and source fields appearing in the umbrae of the two large sunspots away from the flare sites were shown to lie at or below the level of uncertainty in the data. The main source of this uncertainty lay in the method by which the 180° ambiguity in the azimuth of the transverse field is resolved in umbral areas. We thus concluded that these quantities in large umbrae should be treated with a healthy skepticism. Finally, we found that the source field at the flare sites was produced almost entirely by the angular difference between the observed and potential field and not by the difference in field intensity.     

Anthropomorphism and cosmographic principle in the Mandelbrot appraoch

The property of anthropomorphism as it is held in fractal cosmography is reconstructed.Man is only interested in the probability distribution of mass in cases where mass does not vanish, and he finds no help at all to be told that such cases almost never occur.     

Combustion as the cause of comet P/Halley's activity

The totality of the results obtained in the VEGA, GIOTTO and SUISEI projects does not lend itself to interpretation within the old sublimation models of comet activity considering solar radiation as the sole source of energy. Among them are the systematic excess of the velocity and temperature of the gas escaping from the nucleus over the theoretical values, the outflow being concentrated in several ( ~ 12–15) narrow ( ~ 300 m in size at the nucleus) hypersonic jets carrying very large amounts of remarkably fine CHON dust and located along continuous lines on the nuclear surface, intense release from the nucleus or very close to it (2 × 10³km) of CO (Q _Co/Q _{H2 O} = 0.05–0.2) with a smaller amount of CO₂ (Q _{CO 2}/ Q _{H2 O} 0.015), large near-nucleus abundances of C, C⁺ (Q _C/Q _CO 0.29), etc.The new observations, together with some earlier data still poorly understood (e.g. the appearance in the coma of large amounts of C₃) can be accounted for by assuming the cometary ices to contain, apart from hydrocarbons, nitrogen-containing compounds, etc. also of free oxygen ( ~ 15 wt.%). Under these conditions, burning should occur in the products of sublimation under deficiency of oxidizer accompanied by the production of soot, smoke, etc. The burning should propagate under the surface crust and localize primarily at a few sites.The presence of oxygen in cometary ices follows from a new eruption theory assuming the minor bodies of the Solar System to have formed in explosions of the massive ice envelopes saturated by electrolysis products on distant moonlike bodies of the type of Ganymede and Callisto.     

A note on the total mass of comets in the solar system

The assumption that the very low albedo determined for Halley's comet is typical of all short period comets, taken together with the assumption that the average sizes of long and short period comets are approximately equal, leads to an increase in the total mass of comets in the solar system by almost two orders of magnitude. If gravitational ejection from the Uranus - Neptune zone during the later phases of planet formation is indeed responsible for the classical Oort cloud between 10⁴–10¹⁵ AU, then the mass of comets in this transplanetary region during cosmogonie times has to exceed the combined masses of Uranus and Neptune by over an order of magnitude. Furthermore, if the recent arguments for as many as 10¹⁴ comets in an inner Oort cloud between ~40– 10⁴AU are valid, then the total mass of comets in the solar system approaches 2% of a solar mass.     

Unstable chromospheric dark features and type-III bursts association

The temporal association between the kinematic parameters of chromospheric dark features (DF) and the production of radio type-III bursts is investigated during a period of five months. The Doppler shifts inside six different DF are measured by means of the Meudon Multichannel Subtracting Double Pass Spectrograph (MSDP) during periods of some minutes around 24 type-III bursts. The position of the radio bursts has been checked to be associated with the same active region observed by MSDP, by using the Nançay Radioheliograph. It appears that 23 out of 24 bursts take place when the DF is totally or predominantly blue-shifted. In 18 out of 21 cases, a maximum of the outward velocity is observed in the optical image closest in time to the radio burst. The following peculiarities are also shown by the analyzed DF:

1. All of them present a lengthened shape, in most cases pointing toward a sunspot: a bright region coinciding with a parasitic polarity is observed in between.
2. Horizontal velocities along the DF major axis are often observed, always in a direction opposite to the sunspots.

This association is interpreted by assuming that a shock wave, generated by the moving chromospheric material, is able to accelerate coronal electrons (according to a mechanism proposed by Leroy and Mangeney, 1984) thus producing type-III bursts.     

The skin friction in the unsteady free-convection flow past an accelerated plate

In this paper the unsteady laminar free-convection flow of a viscous incompressible fluid, past an accelerated infinite vertical porous plate subjected to a constant suction (or injection) in considered. Numerical results for the skin-friction on the plate are obtained for the class of accelerated motions whose velocity is of the formU ₀ t ⁿ wheret is time,U ₀ a constant, andn is a positive integer. The skin friction tends to zero with increasingt when the Grashof number Gr=², the Prandtl number =1,n=0, and >0 which corresponds to suction.On leave of absence from the Department of Mathematics, University of Dhaka, Bangladesh.On leave from absence from the Department of Mathematics, University of Dar-es-Salaam, Tanzania.     

An UV survey of the galactic plane

The present paper is the introduction to a systematic analysis of 123 6-degree fields near the galactic plane, recorded in the medium ultraviolet (2000 Å) by the ballon-borne experiment SCAP 2000 of the Laboratoire d'Astronomie Spatiale, Marseille, and Geneva Observatory. The available data are presented and the general properties of the images are briefly discussed.It is shown that the high selectivity of the UV passband regarding spectral type, together with the strong interstellar extinction at that wavelength, provide the necessary conditions for an efficient application of Wolf's method to study the distribution of interstellar matter in the solar neighbourhood. The results of a fast analysis of the available data are presented here.     

Response of earth and venus ionospheres to corotating solar wind stream of 3 July 1979

Corotating solar wind streams emanating from stable coronal structures provide an unique opportunity to compare the response of planetary ionospheres to the energy conveyed in the streams. For recurrent solar conditions the signal propagating outward along spiral paths in interplanetary space can at times exhibit rather similar content at quite different downstream locations in the ecliptic plane. Using solar wind measurements from plasma detectors on ISEE-3, Pioneer Venus Orbiter (PVO) and Helios-A, as well as in-situ ion composition measurements from Bennett Ion Mass Spectrometers on the Atmosphere Explorer-E and PVO spacecraft, corotating stream interactions are examined at Earth and Venus. During May–July 1979 a sequence of distinct, recurrent coronal regions developed at the Sun. Analysis of these regions and the associated solar wind characteristics indicates a corrresponding sequence of corotating streams, identifiable over wide distances. The time series of solar wind velocity variations observed at Earth, Venus, and the Helios-A positions during June–July attests to intervals of corotating stream propagation. The characteristics of the stream which passed Earth on July 3, are observed at Helios-A and at Venus (PVO) about 8 days later, consistent with the spiral path propagation delay times between the locations in the ecliptic plane. On July 3, Earth and Venus have a wide azimuthal separation of about 142 . Although the planetary environments are distinctly different, pronounced and somewhat analagous ionospheric responses to the stream passage are observed at both Earth and Venus. The response to the intercepted stream is consistent with independent investigations which have shown that the variability of the solar wind momentum flux is an important factor in the solar wind-ionosphere interaction at both planets.     

X-Ray and microwave observations of active regions

Radio and X-ray observations are presented for three flares which show significant activity for several minutes prior to the main impulsive increase in the hard X-ray flux. The activity in this ‘pre-flash’ phase is investigated using 3.5 to 461 keV X-ray data from the Solar Maximum Mission, 100 to 1000 MHz radio data from Zürich, and 169 MHz radio-heliograph data from Nançay. The major results of this study are as follows:

1. Decimetric pulsations, interpreted as plasma emission at densities of 10⁹–10¹⁰ cm^?3, and soft X-rays are observed before any Hα or hard X-ray increase.
2. Some of the metric type III radio bursts appear close in time to hard X-ray peaks but delayed between 0.5 and 1.5 s, with the shorter delays for the bursts with the higher starting frequencies.
3. The starting frequencies of these type III bursts appear to correlate with the electron temperatures derived from isothermal fits to the hard X-ray spectra. Such a correlation is expected if the particles are released at a constant altitude with an evolving electron distribution. In addition to this effect we find evidence for a downward motion of the acceleration site at the onset of the flash phase.
4. In some cases the earlier type III bursts occurred at a different location, far from the main position during the flash phase.
5. The flash phase is characterized by higher hard X-ray temperatures, more rapid increase in X-ray flux, and higher starting frequency of the coincident type III bursts.

     

The solution of Kepler's equation,I

Methods of iteration are discussed in relation to Kepler's equation, and various initial guesses are considered, with possible strategies for choosing them. Several of these are compared; the method of iteration used in the comparisons has local convergence of the fourth order.WANG Laboratories, Inc.