The First Results of U–Pb Isotope Dating of Detrital Zircons from the Upper Mesoproterozoic Gulliksenfellet Quartzite (Southern Part of Wedel Jarlsberg Land,Southwest Spitsbergen)

The first results of U–Pb isotopic dating (LA–ICP–MS) of detrital zircons from metasedimentary rocks of the pre-Devonian basement of the SW part of western Spitsbergen (from Upper Mezoproterozoic Gulliksenfellet quartzite) showed ages ranging from 1700 ± 25 to 2948 ± 27 Ma.     

The marine Lockne impact structure, Jämtland, Sweden: a review

The Lockne impact structure in Jämtland (63°00'20"N, 14°49'30"E) formed in the Middle Ordovician at approximately 455 Ma. The structure is a concentric crater with a total diameter of 13.5 km. The impact took place in a marine environment. Seawater played an important role in the cratering process and in crater morphology and the amount of melt remaining in the structure. Seawater rushed back into the crater in a resurge, eroding and redepositing the ejecta among the resurge deposit. Seawater furthermore facilitated the hydrothermal system, which was driven by the residual heat in the structure. The Lockne structure hosts shocked quartz and an iridium anomaly. The rim wall round the crater collapsed in the modification stage of the crater and was annihilated by the resurge. The fractured basement and the impact breccia were initially rich in open cavities. These became partly filled with dominantly calcite. The filling contributed to a low-density contrast, generating a negative gravity anomaly of 22 gu. The gravity model indicates a central uplift and a NW-directed tilt of the structure. This tilt is also seen in the magnetic models. The apparent absence of any impact melt is probably real and related to the environment of impact.     

Search for variable sources using data of “Cold” surveys

We search for variable sources, using the data of the surveys conducted on the RATAN-600 radio telescope in 1980–1994 at 3.94 GHz. To test the radio sources of the RCR (RATAN Cold Refined) catalog for variability, we estimated the long-term variability indices V of the studied objects, their relative variability amplitudes V _χ , and the χ ² probabilities p. Out of about two hundred considered sources, 41 proved to have positive long-term variability indices, suggesting that these sources may be variable. Fifteen objects can be considered to be reliably variable according to the χ ² criterion p > 0.98, three of these sources have χ ² probabilities p ≥ 0.999. The corresponding probabilities for six sources lie in the 0.95 < p < 0.98 interval, and those of the remaining 20 objects in the 0.73 ≤ p < 0.95 interval. Twenty four of 41 objects are variable or possibly variable in the optical range, and five objects are known variable radio sources. We construct the light curves and spectra for the sources with positive long-term variability indices.     

Phase transformations of enstatite in spherical shock waves

The analysis of available theoretical evaluations and experimental data reveals discrepancies and makes it possible to formulate the goals for the comprehensive study of the behavior of enstatite MgSiO₃ in shock isentropic waves of various scale and intensity. The paper presents the layout and results of an explosion experiment on the compression of an enstatite sphere with spherical shock waves and the subsequent recovery of the experimental material and its examination in discrete zones (along the sphere radius) that were produced by shock waves in the material. The latter were examined with the application of scanning electron microscopy, Raman spectroscopy, and X-ray diffraction analysis. The comparison of the systematic variations in the texture, chemistry, and phase composition of enstatite along the sphere radius with calculated pressure P(R, t) and temperature T(R, t) values led us to the following conclusions: enstatite starts melting on an isentrope upon pressure relief after shock wave compression at ?? _xx ?? 80 GPa and melts on the front of the spherically converging shock wave at ?? _xx ?? 160 GPa and T ?? 6300 K. Our laboratory experiments with shock waves were the world??s first in which enstatite was loaded with spherical converging shock isentropic waves and which provided evidence that shock wave-loaded MgSiO₃ shows certain morphological and mineralogical features never before detected in this mineral loaded with plane shock wave of smaller amplitude and duration. Goals are formulated for the further studying of shock wave-loaded materials, and the necessity is discussed for conducting an explosion experiment with a five to seven times greater spherical system in order to increase the duration of the shock wave loading impulse.     

Hydrodynamical simulations of Galactic fountains – I. Evolution of single fountains

The ejection of the gas out of the disc in late-type galaxies is related to star formation and is due mainly to Type II supernovae. In this paper, we studied in detail the development of the Galactic fountains in order to understand their dynamical evolution and their influence on the redistribution of the freshly delivered metals over the disc. To this aim, we performed a number of 3D hydrodynamical radiative cooling simulations of the gas in the Milky Way where the whole Galaxy structure, the Galactic differential rotation and the supernova explosions generated by a single OB association are considered. A typical fountain powered by 100 Type II supernovae may eject material up to ∼2 kpc which than collapses back mostly in the form of dense, cold clouds and filaments. The majority of the gas lifted up by the fountains falls back on the disc remaining within a radial distance  Δ R = 0.5 kpc  from the place where the fountain originated. This localized circulation of disc gas does not influence the radial chemical gradients on large scale, as required by the chemical models of the Milky Way which reproduce the metallicity distribution without invoking large fluxes of metals. Simulations of multiple fountains fuelled by Type II supernovae of different OB associations will be presented in a companion paper.     

Measuring proton energies and fluxes using EIT (SOHO) CCD areas outside the solar disk images

An indirect proton flux measuring tool based on discrimination of the energy deposited by protons in 128 × 128 pixel EIT CCD areas outside the solar disk images is presented. Single pixel intensity events are converted into proton incident energy flux using modeled energy deposition curves for angles of incidence ±60° in four EIT spatial areas with different proton stopping power. The extracted proton flux is corrected for both the loss of one‐pixel events in the range of angles of incidence as well as for the contribution to the single pixel events resulting from scattered middle‐energy protons (low‐energy or high‐energy particles are stopped by the EIT components or pass through them, accordingly). A simple geometrical approach was found and applied to correct for a non‐unique relation between the proton‐associated CCD output signal and the incident proton energy. With this geometrical approximation four unique proton incident energy ranges were determined as 45–49, 145–154, 297–335, and 390–440 MeV. The indirect proton flux measuring tool has been tested by comparing Solar Energetic Particles (SEP) flux temporal profiles extracted from the EIT CCD frames and downloaded from the GOES database for the Bastille Day (BD) of 2000 July 14 and the more recent 2005 January 20 events. The SEP flux temporal profiles and proton spectra extracted from the EIT in the relatively narrow energy ranges between 45 and 440 MeV reported here are consistent with the related GOES profiles. The four additional EIT extracted ranges provide higher energy resolution of the SEP data. (© 2006 WILEY‐VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)     

Planetary elements for 10 000 000 years

In 1950 Brouwer and van Woerkom published a secular theory of the variations of the planetary elements in analytical form. In the present paper we provide a graphical representation of this theory in the form of element plots for a time span of ten million years.     

Coherent integration time limit of a mobile receiver for indoor GNSS applications

There is an emerging requirement for processing global navigation satellite system (GNSS) signals indoor where the signal is very weak and subjected to spatial fading. Typically, longer coherent integration intervals provide the additional processing gain required for the detection and processing of such weak signals. However, the arbitrary physical motion of the handset imputed by the user limits the effectiveness of longer coherent integration intervals due to the spatial decorrelation of the multipath-faded GNSS signal. In this paper, limits of coherent integration due to spatial decorrelation are derived and corroborated with experimental verification. A general result is that the processing gain resulting from direct coherent integration saturates after the antenna has moved through a certain distance, which for typical indoor propagation, is about half a carrier wavelength. However, a refined Doppler search coupled with a prolonged coherent integration interval extends this limit, which is effectively a manifestation of selective diversity.