A 2000-YEAR CONTEXT FOR MODERN CLIMATE CHANGE

ABSTRACT. Although considerable attention has been paid to the record of temperature change over the last few centuries, the range and rate of change of atmospheric circulation and hydrology remain elusive. Here, eight latitudinally well-distributed (pole-equator-pole), highly resolved (annual to decadal) climate proxy records are presented that demonstrate major changes in these variables over the last 2000 years. A comparison between atmospheric ¹⁴C and these changes in climate demonstrates a first-order relationship between a variable Sun and climate. The relationship is seen on a global scale.     

Spectrophotometric Variability of Mira

Data from the Pulkovo spectrophotometric data base on the absolute quasimonochromatic fluxes from oCet in the 320–1080 nm range are used to determine the physical parameters of this star in different phases of its light curve. The continuum emission layer is found to expand between the phases of the cycle corresponding to the rising and falling branches of the light curve. The average expansion velocity is 32 km/s. By the time the star’s brightness has fallen by roughly three magnitudes, its radius has increased by almost a factor of three. Over this same time the temperature of the layer has fallen from 3000 K to 2200 K. For this expansion velocity, the calculated mass rate loss is ⊙ M /year.__________Translated from Astrofizika, Vol. 48, No. 2, pp. 175–189 (May 2005).     

Characterization of zonal winds in the stratosphere of Titan with UVES

Titan has been observed with UVES, the UV-Visual Echelle Spectrograph at the Very Large Telescope, with the aim of characterizing the zonal wind flow. We use a retrieval scheme originally developed for absolute stellar accelerometry [Connes, P., 1985. Astrophys. Space Sci., 110, 211-255] to extract the velocity signal by simultaneously taking into account all the lines present in the spectrum. The method allows to measure the Doppler shift induced at a given point by the zonal wind flow, with high precision. The short-wavelength channel (4200-5200 Å) probes one scale height higher than the long-wavelength one (5200-6200 Å), and we observe statistically significant evidence for stronger winds at higher altitudes. The results show a high dispersion. Globally, we detect prograde zonal winds, with lower limits of 62 and 50 m s⁻¹ at the regions centered at 200 and 170 km altitude, but approximately a quarter of the measurements indicates null or retrograde winds.     

Common Proper Motion Search for Faint Companions Around Early-Type Field Stars – Progress Report

The multiplicity of early-type stars is still not well established. The derived binary fraction is different for individual star forming regions, suggesting a connection with the age and the environment conditions. The few studies that have investigated this connection do not provide conclusive results. To fill in this gap, we started the first detailed adaptive-optic-assisted imaging survey of early-type field stars to derive their multiplicity in a homogeneous way. The sample has been extracted from the Hipparcos Catalog and consists of 341 BA-type stars within ∼300 pc from the Sun. We report the current status of the survey and describe a Monte-Carlo simulation that estimates the completeness of our companion detection.     

Umbral Three-Minute Oscillations and Running Penumbral Waves

We present results of investigations into chromospheric velocity oscillations in sunspots, carried out at the Sayan Solar Observatory. It is shown that the “chevron” structures in the space-time diagrams demonstrate wavetrain properties. Such structures are indicators of a propagating wave process and they are typical of many sunspots. In the authors’ opinion, three-minute umbral oscillations are not the source of running penumbral waves (RPW). It is very likely that umbral oscillations and RPW initially propagate along different magnetic field lines. We explain the decrease in RPW propagation velocity and frequency in the outer penumbra, as compared with the inner, by the combined action of different frequency modes. To better reveal the properties of these modes, frequency filtering was used. Our measurements of the RPW (five-minute mode) wavelength and RPW propagation velocity in different sunspots vary from 12^″ to 30^″ and from 28 to 60 – 70 km s⁻¹ correspondingly.     

Noctilucent cloud formation and the effects of water vapor variability on temperatures in the middle atmosphere

To investigate the occurrence of low temperatures and the formation of noctilucent clouds in the summer mésosphere a one-dimensional time-dependent photochemical-thermal numerical model of the atmosphere between 50 and 120 km has been constructed. The model includes the important chemistry of the hydrogen and oxygen species and transport by eddy and molecular processes. The thermal balance incorporates: heating by solar ultraviolet radiation; transport of chemical potential energy; eddy diffusion and dissipation; molecular conduction; airglow emissions; and infrared cooling by carbon dioxide. A non- LTE parameterization is used to calculate 15 μm band cooling by carbon dioxide. The model self-consistently solves the coupled photochemical and thermal equations as perturbation equations from a reference state assumed to be in equilibrium and is used to consider the effect of variability in water vapor in the lower mesosphere on the temperature in the region of noctilucent cloud formation. It is found that change in water vapor from an equilibrium value of 5 ppm at 50 km to a value of 10 ppm, a variation consistent with observations, can produce a ~ 15 K drop in temperature at 82 km. It is suggested that this process may produce long periods (weeks) of cold temperatures and influence noctilucent cloud formation.     

Alkali elemental and potassium isotopic compositions of Semarkona chondrules

Abstract— We report measurements of K isotope ratios in 28 Semarkona chondrules with a wide range of petrologic types and bulk compositions as well as the compositions of CPX‐mesostasis pairs in 17 type I Semarkona chondrules, including two chondrules with radial alkali zonation and 19 type II chondrules. Despite the wide range in K/Al ratios, no systematic variations in K isotopic compositions were found. Semarkona chondrules do not record a simple history of Rayleigh‐type loss of K. Experimentally determined evaporation rates suggest that considerable alkali evaporation would have occurred during chondrule formation. Nevertheless, based on Na CPX‐mesostasis distribution coefficients, the alkali contents of the cores of most chondrules in Semarkona were probably established at the time of final crystallization. However, Na CPX‐mesostasis distribution coefficients also show that alkali zonation in type I Semarkona chondrules was produced by entry of alkalis after solidification, probably during parent body alteration. This alkali metasomatism may have gone to completion in some chondrules. Our preferred explanation for the lack of systematic isotopic enrichments, even in alkali depleted type I chondrule cores, is that they exchanged with the ambient gas as they cooled.