Variations in <Emphasis Type="Italic">foF</Emphasis>2 at the end of the 1990s and beginning of the 2000s according to median data

Changes in the values of the critical frequency of the F2 layer from 1990 to 2005–2007, according to median data, are considered. Eleven stations, for which the necessary data are available, have been found in international databanks. The conclusion of the previous publication by Danilov (2011) that at the end of the 1990s and beginning of the 2000s a negative trend in foF2 was observed both after sunset and in the daytime is confirmed.     

On the impact of atmospheric vs oceanic resolutions on the representation of the sea surface temperature in the South Eastern Tropical Atlantic

Climate Dynamics - Despite the efforts of the modelling community to improve the representation of the sea surface temperature (SST) over the South Eastern Tropical Atlantic, warm biases still...     

Energy parameters of deep fluid systems

Doklady Earth Sciences -     

Geomagnetic activity as a reflection of processes in the magnetospheric tail: 2. Plasma convection model

A model of plasma convection in the magnetospheric tail was developed. Although highly simplified, the model adequately describes the main characteristics of the process. We have calculated the physical parameters characterizing the magnetotail, as well as described the convection of fluxtubes in it and the process of electron dropout. The model explains the semiannual variation in magnetic activity.     

Relation of the <Emphasis Type="Italic">F</Emphasis>2 region to stratospheric parameters: Dependence on magnetic activity in two solar cycles

The dependence of the correlation coefficient r(h, fo) between the stratospheric parameter h(100) and critical frequency foF2 revealed in the data of two solar cycles (1979–1989 and 1990–2000) on geomagnetic activity is analyzed. It is shown that the character of the r(h, fo) dependence on limitation on the Ap geomagnetic index is the same in both cycles but depends on the time of day and solar activity level for the given year. It is also found that there is a considerable difference in the absolute values of r(h, fo) between two cycles.     

Properties of stellar trajectories in numerical dynamical models of open star clusters

Stellar trajectories in models of open star clusters that are nonstationary in the regular field of the cluster are analyzed. The maximum characteristic Lyapunov exponents λ of the trajectories of the stellar motions in the open cluster are estimated. The mean λ in the open-cluster models considered are \(\bar \lambda \simeq ({\rm M}yr)^{ - 1} \). Cluster cores and halos are regions of highly stochastic and more ordered stellar motions, respectively. The mean Lyapunov exponent, \(\bar \lambda \), increases with the cluster density, as does the size of the highly stochastic region in the cluster core. The stellar trajectories in phase space are “glued” to a domain with a given λ. A Fourier analysis of the stellar trajectories in the open-cluster models is performed. The distributions of the periods of the stellar trajectories with the highest power-spectrum levels are constructed. The distributions of the periods corresponding to the most significant oscillations of the stellar trajectories exhibit peaks with periods commensurable with (or close to) those of the most significant oscillations of the regular field of the system. Specific features of the distributions of the periods of the most significant oscillations of the stellar trajectories and the origins of the formation of these features in the open-cluster models are discussed.     

Stellar fluxes in numerical dynamical models of open clusters

Fluxes of stars in models of open clusters that are nonstationary in the regular field of the cluster are analyzed. An equilibrium distribution function describes the state of these models from the beginning of their dynamical evolution. Violent relaxation in the open-cluster models proceeds under equilibrium conditions in phase space and does not result in virial equilibrium. The cluster relaxation times in the one-dimensional spaces of a number of stellar-motion parameters are estimated. The stellar fluxes are anisotropic in some two-dimensional parameter spaces. Such open-cluster models exhibit a number of manifestations of self-organization (an energy flux toward the center of the cluster and a transfer of energy from large-scale to small-scale motions, periodic decreases in the entropies of the cluster models with a period equal to that of oscillations of the regular field of the cluster, etc.). It is concluded that violent relaxation represents one form of self-organization in such systems.     

Environmental research and provision of hydrometeorological safety in high-latitude and polar regions

The information is presented on the activity of Roshydromet in high-latitude and polar regions for providing the hydrometeorological safety of population and economy in the Arctic and presence in Antarctica as well as on its development and modernization since the 2000s and on the contribution of Roshydromet to Russian studi es and works in the framework of the International Polar Year 2007–2008.     

Estimates of relaxation times in numerical dynamical models of open star clusters

Relaxation times in the spaces of several stellar-motion parameters are obtained for a number of open-cluster models. The differences between the relaxation times in these spaces increase with the degree of nonstationarity of the cluster models. In the course of the cluster’s evolution, the relaxation times increase in all the spaces considered. During violent relaxation, the stars occupy all domains accessible to them, first in absolute velocity and then in clustercentric distance. The dependence of the coarse-grained phase-space density of the cluster on small initial perturbations of the phase-space coordinates of its constituent stars tends to decrease at times exceeding the time scales for violent and “collisional” relaxation.     

Letter to the editor

Using a method suggested by the authors earlier, the long-term trends of the F2-layer critical frequency, foF2 are derived for a set of ionospheric stations with a wide latitudinal and longitudinal coverage. All the trends are found to be negative. A pronounced dependence on geomagnetic latitude is found, the trend magnitude increasing with the latter. No globe scale longitudinal effect in trends is detected. For the majority of the stations there is also a pronounced seasonal effect, the trend magnitude being higher in summer than in winter.