Modulation of Galactic Protons in the Heliosphere During the Unusual Solar Minimum of 2006 to 2009

The last solar minimum activity period, and the consequent minimum modulation conditions for cosmic rays, was unusual. The highest levels of galactic protons were recorded at Earth in late 2009 in contrast to expectations. Proton spectra observed for 2006 to 2009 from the PAMELA cosmic ray detector on-board the Resurs-DK1 satellite are presented together with the solutions of a comprehensive numerical model for the solar modulation of cosmic rays. The model is used to determine what mechanisms were mainly responsible for the modulation of protons during this period, and why the observed spectrum for 2009 was the highest ever recorded. From mid-2006 until December 2009 we find that the spectra became significantly softer because increasingly more low energy protons had reached Earth. To simulate this effect, the rigidity dependence of the diffusion coefficients had to decrease significantly below ～?3 GeV. The modulation minimum period of 2009 can thus be described as relatively more ‘diffusion dominated’ than previous solar minima. However, we illustrate that drifts still had played a significant role but that the observable modulation effects were not as well correlated with the waviness of the heliospheric current sheet as before. Protons still experienced global gradient and curvature drifts as the heliospheric magnetic field had decreased significantly until the end of 2009, in contrast to the moderate decreases observed during previous minimum periods. We conclude that all modulation processes contributed to the observed increases in the proton spectra for this period, exhibiting an intriguing interplay of these major mechanisms.     

An investigation into the physico-chemical conditions of the coastal waters around the Gulf of Catania

The results are given of sea water sampling at 49 different stations around the Gulf of Catania. The main physico-chemical parameters are reported (temperature, pH, dissolved oxygen, salinity, BOD) as well as the concentrations of some nutritive salts (nitrite, nitrate, phosphate).     

Wavelet transform technique to study the behavior of the 10–20-day and 25–50-day modes during indian summer monsoon onset

Summary Wavelet transform (WT) has been employed to study the behavior of the 10–20-day and 25–50-day modes during Indian monsoon onset. Daily time-series of the zonal and meridional components of surface wind over off the Somali coast and onset dates over south Kerala during 23 years (1954–1976) have been used. In 63% of cases the results of this analysis indicate a link between summer monsoon onset and the 10–20-day and 25–50-day bands expressed by the simultaneously occurrence of fluctuations in these two bands. This suggests the presence of undulatory behavior within the Somali jet whose periods are situated in the 10–20-day and 25–50-day bands during summer monsoon onset.With 6 Figures     

A generalized approach for long-term modelling of extreme crest-to-trough wave heights

This paper deals with the long-term modelling of high sea waves. The solution is given for the return period of sea storms during which an arbitrary chosen number of waves, with crest-to-trough heights exceeding a fixed threshold, occur. This return period is derived starting from the Equivalent Triangular Storm (ETS) model, which associates a triangle to each actual storm and thus represents a significant wave height time series at a fixed location by means of a sequence of triangular storms. The short-term statistics is then applied to investigate the occurrence of large crest-to-trough wave heights during a given storm. Finally, by combining the statistical distribution of significant wave heights, the ETS model and the short-term wave statistics, the solution is given for the return periods R_N and R_N of a sea storm in which N or at least N waves higher than a fixed threshold occur. The values of R_N are then calculated, starting from data of two buoys moored in the Pacific Ocean and in the Mediterranean Sea.     

An analytical approach for the calculation of random wave forces on submerged tunnels

This paper deals with the random forces produced by high ocean waves on submerged horizontal circular cylinders. Arena [Arena F, Interaction between long-crested random waves and a submerged horizontal cylinder. Phys Fluids 2006;18(7):1–9 (paper 076602)] obtained the analytical solution of the random wave field for two dimensional waves by extending the classical Ogilvie solution [Ogilvie TF, First- and second-order forces on a cylinder submerged under a free surface. J Fluid Mech 1963;16:451–472; Arena F, Note on a paper by Ogilvie: The interaction between waves and a submerged horizontal cylinder. J Fluid Mech 1999;394:355–356] to the case of random waves. In this paper, the wave force acting on the cylinder is investigated and the Froude Krylov force [Sarpkaya T, Isaacson M, Mechanics of wave forces on offshore structures, Van Nostrand Reinhold Co.; 1981], on the ideal water cylinder, is calculated from the random incident wave field. Both forces represent a Gaussian random process of time. The diffraction coefficient of the wave force is obtained as quotient between the standard deviations of the force on the solid cylinder and of the Froude Krylov force. It is found that the diffraction coefficient of the horizontal force C_do is equal to the C_dv of the vertical force. Finally, it is shown that, since a very large wave force occurs on the cylinder, it may be calculated, in time domain, starting from the Froude Krylov force. It is then shown that this result is due to the fact that the frequency spectrum of the force acting on the cylinder is nearly identical to that of the Froude–Krylov force.     

The BCI criterion for the initiation of breaking process in Boussinesq-type equations wave models

The Breaking Celerity Index (BCI) is proposed as a new wave breaking criterion for Boussinesq-type equations wave propagation models (BTE).The BCI effectiveness in determining the breaking initiation location has been verified against data from different experimental investigations conducted with incident regular and irregular waves propagating along uniform slope [Utku, M. (1999). “The Relative Trough Froude Number. A New Criteria for Wave Breaking”. Ph.D. Dissertation, Dept. of Civil and Enviromental Engineering, Old Dominion University, Norfolk, VA; Gonsalves Veloso dos Reis, M.T.L. (1992). “Characteristics of waves in the surf zone”. MS Thesis, Department of Civil Engineering, University of Liverpool., Liverpool; Lara, J.L., Losada, I.J., and Liu, P.L.-F. (2006). “Breaking waves over a mild gravel slope: experimental and numerical analysis”. Journal of Geophysical Research, VOL 111, C11019] and barred beaches [Tomasicchio, G.R., and Sancho, F. (2002). “On wave induced undertow at a barred beach”. Proceedings of 28th International Conference on Coastal Engineering, ASCE, New York, 557–569]. The considered experiments were carried out in small-scale and large-scale facilities. In addition, one set of data has been obtained by the use of the COBRAS model based upon the Reynolds Averaged Navier Stokes (RANS) equations [Liu, P.L.-F., Lin, P., Hsu, T., Chang, K., Losada, I.J., Vidal, C., and Sakakiyama, T. (2000). “A Reynolds averaged Navier–Stokes equation model for nonlinear water wave and structure interactions”. Proceedings of Coastal Structures ‘99, Balkema, Rotterdam, 169–174; Losada, I.J., Lara, J.L., and Liu, P.L.-F. (2005). “Numerical simulation based on a RANS model of wave groups on an impermeable slope”. Proceedings of Fifth International Symposium WAVES 2005, Madrid].Numerical simulations have been performed with the 1D-FUNWAVE model [Kirby, J.T., Wei, G., Chen, Q., Kennedy, A.B., and Dalrymple, R.A. (1998). “FUNWAVE 1.0 Fully Nonlinear Boussinesq Wave Model Documentation and User's Manual”. Research Report No CACR-98-06, Center for Applied Coastal Research, University of Delaware, Newark]. With regard to the adopted experimental conditions, the breaking location has been calculated for different trigger mechanisms [Zelt, J.A. (1991). “The run-up of nonbreaking and breaking solitary waves”. Coastal Engineering, 15, 205–246; Kennedy, A.B., Chen, Q., Kirby, J.T., and Dalrymple, R.A. (2000). “Boussinesq modeling of wave transformation, breaking and run-up. I: 1D”. Journal of Waterway, Port, Coastal and Ocean Engineering, 126, 39–47; Utku, M., and Basco, D.R. (2002). “A new criteria for wave breaking based on the Relative Trough Froude Number”. Proceedings of 28th International Conference on Coastal Engineering, ASCE, New York, 258–268] including the proposed BCI.The calculations have shown that BCI gives a better agreement with the physical data with respect to the other trigger criteria, both for spilling and plunging breaking events, with a not negligible reduction of the calculation time.     

A spatter-forming, large-scale paroxysm at Stromboli Volcano (Aeolian Islands, Italy): insight into magma evolution and eruption dynamics

This study focuses on a pyroclastic sequence related to a large-scale paroxysm that occurred during the seventeenth century ad and which can be considered one of the most powerful and hazardous explosive events at the volcano in the past few centuries. Paroxysms are energetic, short-lived explosions which sporadically interrupt normal Strombolian activity at Stromboli and commonly erupt a deep-derived, volatile-rich crystal-poor high-potassium basalt (“low porphyricity” (LP)), together with a shallow, degassed crystal-rich high-potassium to shoshonitic basalt (“high porphyricity” (HP)), which feed normal activity at the volcano. The studied deposit, crops out along the flanks of Sciara del Fuoco and, from base to top, consists of: (1) a layer of HP and LP ash and lapilli; (2) an unwelded layer of coarse HP lapilli and flattened dark scoriae; (3) weakly welded spatter made up of dense HP pyroclasts at the base, overlain by strongly vesicular LP clasts. The textural and chemical zoning of minerals and the glass chemistry of the LP products record repeated mafic recharge events, mixing with an old mushy body and episodes of rapid crystallization due to sudden degassing. Collapse of a foam layer originated by deep degassing probably triggered this large-scale, spatter-forming paroxysm. Decompression induced rapid degassing and vesiculation of the deep volatile-rich magma. The rapid ascent of the foamy magma blob pushed the shallow HP magma out and finally produced a fire fountain that emplaced the LP portion of the spatter.     

Estimation of mean spectral directions in random seas

A method for obtaining the directional spectrum, on assuming that the frequencies of the elementary waves are all different from one another, is re-proposed in a form suitable for applications to sea states near a coast. The method is applied to an interval of 10 h during which the sea state remained basically steady state off the beach at Reggio Calabria (east coast of the Straits of Messina). It is shown that the directional spectrum converges as the length of the time series data grows. A numerical simulation of a 10 h sea state confirms that the directional spectrum converges as the length of the time series grows, and the convergence is onto the known directional spectrum used to make the numerical simulation. Through the numerical simulation, it is proved that the method, generally, is suitable for applications even with short time series of wind waves (duration of about 100T_p). Finally, it is shown that the method is not necessarily inadequate even with short records of multimodal sea states with different modal directions, modal amplitude ratios and intermodal distances.     

The imprint of accretion on the UV spectrum of young stellar objects: an X-Shooter view

The evolution of protoplanetary disks is regulated by its interaction with the central forming star. This interaction happens through accretion of matter from the disk onto the star, and its most significant signatures are the continuum excess in the UV part of the spectrum and the presence of various emission lines. With the VLT/X-Shooter spectrograph, the excess emission in the UV due to accretion can being studied simultaneously with the signatures in the visible and in the near-infrared, giving a simultaneous and complete view of this phenomenon. Here we present some results we obtained using observation and modeling of the UV-excess in young forming stars, which are: (1) the determination of stellar and accretion properties in candidate older accreting young stellar objects and (2) the study of the star-disk interaction in the early stages of planetary system evolution in transitional disk systems.