Polar orbits around binary stars

Oks proposes the existence of a new class of stable planetary orbits around binary stars, in the shape of a helix on a conical surface whose axis of symmetry coincides with the interstellar axis, and rotates with the same orbital frequency as the binary pair. We show that this claim relies on the inappropriate use of an effective potential that is only applicable when the stars are held motionless. We also present numerical evidence that the only planetary orbits whose planes are initially orthogonal to the interstellar axis that remain stable on the time scale of the stellar orbit are ordinary polar orbits around one of the stars, and that the perturbations due to the binary companion do not rotate the plane of the orbit to maintain a fixed relationship with the axis.     

Outflow of Pacific water from the Chukchi Sea to the Arctic Ocean

Pacific water exits the Chukchi Sea shelf through Barrow Canyon in the east and Herald Canyon in the west, forming an eastward-directed shelfbreak boundary current that flows into the Beaufort Sea. Here we summarize the transformation that the Pacific water undergoes in the two canyons, and describe the characteristics and variability of the resulting shelfbreak jet, using recently collected summertime hydrographic data and a year-long mooting data set. In both canyons the northward-flowing Pacific winter water switches from the western to the eastern flank of the canyon, interacting with the northward-flowing summer water. In Barrow canyon the vorticity structure of the current is altered, while in Herald canyon a new water mass mode is created. In both instances hydraulic effects are believed to be partly responsible for the observed changes. The shelfl）reak jet that forms from the canyon outflows has distinct seasonal configurations, from a bottom-intensified flow carrying cold, dense Pacific water in spring, to a surface-intensified current advecting warm, buoyant water in summer. The current also varies significantly on short timescales, from less than a day to a week. In fall and winter much of this mesoscale variability is driven by storm events, whose easterly winds reverse the current and cause upwelling. Different types of eddies are spawned from the current, which are characterized here using hydrographic and satellite data.     

Time-variable emission from transiently accreting neutron stars in quiescence due to deep crustal heating

Transiently accreting neutron stars in quiescence ( L _X ≲10³⁴ erg s⁻¹) have been observed to vary in intensity by factors of few, over time-scales of days to years. If the quiescent luminosity is powered by a hot neutron star core, the core cooling time-scale is much longer than the recurrence time, and cannot explain the observed, more rapid variability. However, the non-equilibrium reactions which occur in the crust during outbursts deposit energy in isodensity shells, from which the thermal diffusion time-scale to the photosphere is days to years. The predicted magnitude of variability is too low to explain the observed variability unless – as is widely believed – the neutrons beyond the neutron-drip density are superfluid. Even then, the variability due to this mechanism in models with standard core neutrino cooling processes is less than 50 per cent – still too low to explain the reported variability. However, models with rapid core neutrino cooling can produce a variability by a factor as great as 20, on time-scales of days to years following an outburst. Thus, the factors of ∼ few intensity variability observed from transiently accreting neutron stars can be accounted for by this mechanism only if rapid core cooling processes are active.     

Potential impact of albedo incorporation in boreal forest sector climate change policy effectiveness

Forests have an important role to play in climate change mitigation through carbon sequestration and wood supply. However, the lower albedo of mature forests compared to bare land implies that focusing only on GHG accounting may lead to biased estimates of forestry's total climatic impacts. An economic model with a high degree of detail of the Norwegian forestry and forest industries is used to simulate GHG fluxes and albedo impacts for the next decades. Albedo is incorporated in a carbon tax/subsidy scheme in the Norwegian forest sector using a partial, spatial equilibrium model. While a price of EU€100/tCO₂e that targets GHG fluxes only results in reduced harvests, the same price including albedo leads to harvest levels that are five times higher in the first five years, with 39% of the national productive forest land base being cleared. The results suggest that policies that only consider GHG fluxes and ignore changes in albedo will not lead to an optimal use of the forest sector for climate change mitigation.

Policy relevance

Bare land reflects a larger share of incoming solar energy than dense forest and thus has higher albedo. Earlier research has suggested that changes in albedo caused by management of boreal forest may be as important as carbon fluxes for the forest's overall global warming impacts. The presented analysis is the first attempt to link albedo to national-scale forest climate policies. A policy with subsidies to forest owners that generate carbon sequestration and taxes levied on carbon emissions leads to a reduced forest harvest. However, including albedo in the policy alongside carbon fluxes yields very different results, causing initial harvest levels to increase substantially. The inclusion of albedo impacts will make harvests more beneficial for climate change mitigation as compared to a carbon-only policy. Hence, it is likely that carbon policies that ignore albedo will not lead to optimal forest management for climate change mitigation.     

A Review of “Hot,Flat and Crowded: Why We Need a Green Revolution—And How It Can Renew America”

Based on a county-level Chinese industry survey data set, this article aims to extend the agglomeration literature by applying and comparing selected combination indexes of geographical concentration that incorporate both traditional indexes of inequality and measures of spatial autocorrelation at the global level and by applying and comparing a new measure, the focal location quotient (FLQ), to the local Moran's I, a commonly used local indicator of spatial association, at the county level. At the global level, the results show that the combination indexes used are generally effective for comparing the extent of geographical concentration across industries, and they could serve as useful dependent variables in modeling agglomeration effects across industries. At the local level, specific spatial patterns of production concentrations are identified for textiles, machinery, food manufacturing, and the electronics and telecommunication industries. FLQ tends to generate more generalized patterns than does the local Moran statistic. Mapping the local statistics is useful in supplementing the global measures, and those maps tend to support the results of the global combination indexes.