Observations of the structure and evolution of solar flares with a soft X-ray telescope

132 soft X-ray flare events have been observed with The Aerospace Corporation/Marshall Space Flight Center S-056 X-ray telescope that was part of the ATM complement of instruments aboard Skylab. Analyses of these data are reported in this paper. The observations are summarized and a detailed discussion of the X-ray flare structures is presented. The data indicated that soft X-rays emitted by a flare come primarily from an intense well-defined core surrounded by a region of fainter, more diffuse emission. Loop structures are found to constitute a fundamental characteristic of flare cores and arcades of loops are found to play a more important role in the flare phenomena than previously thought. Size distributions of these core features are presented and a classification scheme describing the brightest flare X-ray features is proposed. The data show no correlations between the size of core features and: (1) the peak X-ray intensity, as indicated by detectors on the SOLRAD satellite; (2) the rise time of the X-ray flare event, or (3) the presence of a nonthermal X-ray component. An analysis of flare evolution indicates evidence for preliminary heating and energy release prior to the main phase of the flare. Core features are found to be remarkably stable and retain their shape throughout a flare. Most changes in the overall configuration seem to be the result of the appearance, disappearance or change in brightness of individual features, rather than the restructuring or re-orientation of these features. Brief comparisons with several theories are presented.     

Hydro-hypsometric analysis of tropical river basins,Southwest Coast of India using geospatial technology

The key aspect in planning and management of water resources is to analyze the runoff potential and erosion status of the river basin. For the detailed investigation of hydrological response, freely available Cartosat-1 (IRS-P5) data was used for the preparation of digital elevation model (DEM). The runoff potential and type of erosive process of 22 river basins originating in the global biodiversity hotspot of Western Ghats, was inferred through hypsometric analysis. Several parameters like Hypsometric integral (HI), maximum concavity (Eh), coordinates of slope inflection point (I) given by a* and h* and normalized height of hypsometric curve (h) were extracted from the hypsometric curves and used for understanding the hydrological responses. From the hypsometric curves, the landform evolution processes were inferred. Contribution of diffusive and fluvial processes in slope degradation of the river basins was understood. Basins with lesser area (<100 km²) were found to have a positive correlation between hypsometric integral and basin area, whereas for large basins no such correlation exists. Based on the study, river basins can be prioritized for the appropriate conservation measures.     

Interplanetary Nanodust Detection by the Solar Terrestrial Relations Observatory/WAVES Low Frequency Receiver

New measurements using radio and plasma-wave instruments in interplanetary space have shown that nanometer-scale dust, or nanodust, is a significant contributor to the total mass in interplanetary space. Better measurements of nanodust will allow us to determine where it comes from and the extent to which it interacts with the solar wind. When one of these nanodust grains impacts a spacecraft, it creates an expanding plasma cloud, which perturbs the photoelectron currents. This leads to a voltage pulse between the spacecraft body and the antenna. Nanodust has a high charge/mass ratio, and therefore can be accelerated by the interplanetary magnetic field to the speed of the solar wind: significantly faster than the Keplerian orbital speeds of heavier dust. The amplitude of the signal induced by a dust grain grows much more strongly with speed than with mass of the dust particle. As a result, nanodust can produce a strong signal despite its low mass. The WAVES instruments on the twin Solar TErrestrial RElations Observatory spacecraft have observed interplanetary nanodust particles since shortly after their launch in 2006. After describing a new and improved analysis of the last five years of STEREO/WAVES Low Frequency Receiver data, we present a statistical survey of the nanodust characteristics, namely the rise time of the pulse voltage and the flux of nanodust. We show that previous measurements and interplanetary dust models agree with this survey. The temporal variations of the nanodust flux are also discussed.     

The GLE-associated flare of 21 August, 1979

We use a variety of ground-based and satellite measurements to identify the source of the ground level event (GLE) beginning near 06∶30 UT on 21 August, 1979 as the 2B flare with maximum at ～06∶15 UT in McMath region 16218. This flare differed from previous GLE-associated flares in that it lacked a prominent impulsive phase, having a peak ～9 GHz burst flux density of only 27 sfu and a ?20 keV peak hard X-ray flux of ?3 × 10^-6 ergs cm^-2s^-1. Also, McMath 16218 was magnetically less complex than the active regions in which previous cosmic-ray flares have occurred, containing essentially only a single sunspot with a rudimentary penumbra. The flare was associated with a high speed (?700 km s^-1) mass ejection observed by the NRL white light coronagraph aboard P78-1 and a shock accelerated (SA) event observed by the low frequency radio astronomy experiment on ISEE-3.     

Infrared observations of eight X-ray sources from Galactic plane surveys

Increasing the identification completeness of sources from new X-ray sky surveys is a necessary condition for further works on analyzing the formation and long-term evolution of star systems in our Galaxy. Infrared observations of several sources selected from Galactic plane surveys as candidates for low-mass X-ray binaries with the IRSF telescope at the South African Astronomical Observatory are presented. The infrared fluxes have been reliably measured from five of the eight sources (4U 1556-60, 4U 1708-40, AX J165901-4208, IGR J16287-5021, IGR J17350-2045, AX J171922-3703, SAX J1712.6-3739, 4U 1705-32). One of the objects (AX J165901-4208) may be a candidate for symbiotic X-ray binaries, i.e., binaries in which the companion of a relativistic object is a giant star. The distances have been estimated for three sources and the orbital periods have been estimated for two.     

Kinematics of B-F Stars as a Function of Their Dereddened Color from Gaia and PCRV Data

Parallaxes with an accuracy better than 10% and proper motions from the Gaia DR1 TGAS catalogue, radial velocities from the Pulkovo Compilation of Radial Velocities (PCRV), accurate Tycho-2 photometry, theoretical PARSEC, MIST, YaPSI, BaSTI isochrones, and the most accurate reddening and interstellar extinction estimates have been used to analyze the kinematics of 9543 thin-disk B-F stars as a function of their dereddened color. The stars under consideration are located on the Hertzsprung–Russell diagram relative to the isochrones with an accuracy of a few hundredths of a magnitude, i.e., at the level of uncertainty in the parallax, photometry, reddening, extinction, and the isochrones themselves. This has allowed us to choose the most plausible reddening and extinction estimates and to conclude that the reddening and extinction were significantly underestimated in some kinematic studies of other authors. Owing to the higher accuracy of TGAS parallaxes than that of Hipparcos ones, the median accuracy of the velocity components U, V, W in this study has improved to 1.7 km s^?1, although outside the range ?0.1 ^m < (B _T ? V _T )₀ < 0.5 ^m the kinematic characteristics are noticeably biased due to the incompleteness of the sample. We have confirmed the variations in the mean velocity of stars relative to the Sun and the stellar velocity dispersion as a function of their dereddened color known from the Hipparcos data. Given the age estimates for the stars under consideration from the TRILEGAL model and the Geneva–Copenhagen survey, these variations may be considered as variations as a function of the stellar age. A comparison of our results with the results of other studies of the stellar kinematics near the Sun has shown that selection and reddening underestimation explain almost completely the discrepancies between the results. The dispersions and mean velocities from the results of reliable studies fit into a ±2 km s^?1 corridor, while the ratios σ _V /σ _U and σ _W /σ _U fit into ±0.05. Based on all reliable studies in the range ?0.1 ^m < (B _T ? V _T )₀ < 0.5^m, i.e., for an age from 0.23 to 2.4 Gyr, we have found: W_⊙ = 7.15 km s^?1, \({\sigma _U} = 16.0{e^{1.29({B_T} - {V_T})o}}\), \({\sigma _V} = 10.9{e^{1.11({B_T} - {V_T})o}}\), \({\sigma _W} = 6.8{e^{1.46({B_T} - {V_T})o}}\), the stellar velocity dispersions in km s^?1 are proportional to the age in Gyr raised to the power β _U = 0.33, β _V = 0.285, and β _W = 0.37.     

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.     

Understanding the implications of the EU-LULUCF regulation for the wood supply from EU forests to the EU

Background

In June 2018, the European Parliament and Council of the European Union adopted a legislative regulation for incorporating greenhouse gas emissions and removals from Land Use, Land Use Change and Forestry (EU-LULUCF) under its 2030 Climate and Energy Framework. The LULUCF regulation aim to incentivise EU Member States to decrease greenhouse gas emissions and increase removals in the LULUCF sector. The regulation, however, does not set a target for increasing the LULUCF carbon sink, but rather includes a ‘no net debit’ target for LULUCF (Forests and Agricultural soils). For Managed Forest Land (MFL) an accounting framework with capped credits for additional mitigation against a set forest reference level (FRL) was agreed for 2021–2030. The FRL gives the projected future carbon sink in the two compliance periods 2021–2025 and 2026–2030 under “continuation of forest management practices as they were in the reference period 2000–2009”. This FRL was disputed by some Member States as it was perceived to put a limit on their future wood harvesting from MFL. Here we simulated with the EFISCEN European forest model the “continuation of forest management practices” and determined the corresponding wood harvest for 26 EU countries under progressing age classes.

Results

The simulations showed that under “continuation of forest management practices” the harvest (wood removals) in the 26 EU countries as a whole can increase from 420 million m³/year in 2000–2009 to 560 million m³/year in 2050 due to progressing age classes. This implies there is a possibility to increase absolute wood harvests without creating debits compared to the forest reference level. However, the manner in which ‘continuation of forest management’ developed with a progressing age class development over time, meant that in some countries the future harvesting exceeded 90% of the increment. Since this generally is considered to be unsustainable we additionally set a harvesting cut-off as max 90% of increment to be harvested for each individual country as a possible interpretation of sustainability criteria that are included in the regulation. Using this additional limit the projected harvest will only increase to 493 million m³/year.

Conclusions

The worry from Member States (MS) that the FRL will prevent any additional harvesting seems unwarranted. Due to differences between Member States concerning the state of their forest resources, the FRL as a baseline for harvesting works out very differently for the different Member States. The FRL may have other unforeseen consequences which we discuss. Under all scenarios the living forest biomass sink shows a decline. This can be counteracted through incentivising measures under Climate Smart Forestry.