In a PICL: The sedimentary deposits and facies of perennially ice‐covered lakes

Perennially ice‐covered lakes can have significantly different facies than open‐water lakes because sediment is transported onto the ice, where it accumulates, and sand grains preferentially melt through to be deposited on the lake floor. To characterize the facies in these lakes, sedimentary deposits from five Antarctic perennially ice‐covered lakes were described using lake‐bottom observations, underwater video and images, and sediment cores. One lake was dominated by laminated microbial mats and mud (derived from an abutting glacier), with disseminated sand and rare gravel. The other four lakes were dominated by laminated microbial mats and moderately well to moderately sorted medium to very coarse sand with sparse granules and pebbles; they contained minor interstitial or laminated mud (derived from streams and abutting glaciers). The sand was disseminated or localized in mounds and 1 m to more than 10 m long elongate ridges. Mounds were centimetres to metres in diameter; conical, elongate or round in shape; and isolated or deposited near or on top of one another. Sand layers in the mounds had normal, inverse, or no grading. Nine mixed mud and sand facies were defined for perennially ice‐covered lakes based on the relative proportion of mud to sand and the style of sand deposition. While perennially ice‐covered lake facies overlap with other ice‐influenced lakes and glaciomarine facies, they are characterized by a paucity of grains coarser than granules, a narrow range in sand grain sizes, and inverse grading in the sand mounds. These facies can be used to infer changes in ice cover through time and to identify perennially ice‐covered lakes in the rock record. Ancient perennially ice‐covered lakes are expected on Earth and Mars, and their characterization will provide new insights into past climatic conditions and habitability.     

The role of culture and traditional knowledge in climate change adaptation: Insights from East Kimberley,Australia

Indigenous peoples offer alternative knowledge about climate variability and change based on their own locally developed knowledges and practices of resource use. In this article we discuss the role of traditional ecological knowledge in monitoring and adapting to changing environmental conditions. Our case study documents a project to record the seasonal knowledge of the Miriwoong people in northern Australia. The study demonstrates how indigenous groups’ accumulate detailed baseline information about their environment to guide their resource use and management, and develop worldviews and cultural values associated with this knowledge. We highlight how traditional ecological knowledge plays a critical role in mediating indigenous individuals and communities’ understandings of environmental changes in the East Kimberley region of north-west Australia, and how these beliefs may influence future decision-making about how to go about adapting to climate change at a local level.     

Reversed-polarity regions

We present results of a statistical study of reversed-polarity regions, RPRs, collected over the past 11 years, 1969–1979.The 58 RPRs we studied have a lifespan comparable to normal active regions and have no tendency to rotate toward a more normal alignment. They seem to have stable configurations with no apparent evidence suggesting stress due to their anomalous magnetic alignment. Magnetic complexity in RPRs is the key to flare productivity just as it is in normal regions: Our weak field RPRs produce no flares and regions with complex spots produce more flares than regions with non-complex spots by a factor of 5.The RPRs however, differ from normal regions in the frequency of having complex spots, particularly the long-lived complex spots, in them. Less than 17% of normal ARs have complex spots; less than 1.8% have long-lived complex spots. In contrast, 41% of RPRs have complex spots and 24% have long-lived complex spots.     

Rotation rate of high-latitude sunspots

Rotation rate of 19 high latitude (28–44°) short-lived sunspots collected in 1978–1979 are compared with Newton and Nunn's (1951) recurrent spots rate. To reduce the effect of proper motion in spots of new regions, our measurements start only when the spots have matured or very nearly so. Compared with the expression = 14.38–2.96 sin² derived from 1934–44 data by Newton and Nunn, our results show a slightly lower differential rotation in the 28–40° zone. They are in better agreement with the Greenwich average results of the five solar cycles beginning 1878: = 14.37–2.60 sin² .Hale Observatories are operated jointly by the Carnegie Institution of Washington and the California Institute of Technology.     

Quiescent prominences - where are they formed?

A survey of two years (1973 and 1979) of quiescent prominences reveals that substantially more (20 and 96% more, respectively, in the two years surveyed) quiescent prominences were formed on neutral lines between bipolar regions than on neutral lines inside bipolar regions.Present prominence models are based on the magnetic field configuration of the neutral lines of single bipolar regions, possibly because it is assumed that most prominences evolved from there. In view our new finding, a new model is needed in which the evolution begins at the boundary of two adjacent bipolar regions.     

Filament Disappearances During the Period of September 1991 through September 1994

Continuous full-disk H images recorded by the Big Bear Solar Observatory (BBSO) from 1 September 1991 to 19 September 1994 (the first three years of Yohkoh mission) were digitized and analyzed. The data set consists of nearly 10000 H images, one every half hour for the period when the BBSO was observing. Two statistical studies of the disappearing solar filaments based on this set of data are made: (1) The disk latitude distribution of all larger disappearing filaments with a minimum length of 70 arc sec, including the time of their disappearance. Of the 1095 such filaments, 439 disappeared during our continuous observations, 314 disappeared during the BBSO night gap, 162 disappeared during data gap (more than 94 hours) and 180 rotated beyond the west limb. If we plot latitudes as a function of time for all these disappeared filaments, it shows a uniform distribution in latitude. However, if we plot the distribution of larger disappeared filaments (200 arc sec or above), then the butterfly trend appears – position of filaments tends to drift to lower latitude as solar activity decreases. (2) The disk distribution of all detectable disappearing filaments, large and small, for the 9-months period, January 1994 to September 1994. We find that the size distribution of 351 collected disappeared filaments follows a power law with a power index of –1.40.     

Determination of Selenium Concentrations in NIST SRM 610, 612, 614 and Geological Glass Reference Materials Using the Electron Probe, LA-ICP-MS and SHRIMP II

A combination of EMPA, sensitive high resolution ion microprobe (SHRIMP II) and/or LA-ICP-MS techniques was used to measure the concentration of selenium (Se) in NIST SRM 610, 612, 614 and a range of reference materials. Our new compiled value for the concentration of Se in NIST SRM 610 is 112 ± 2 μg g⁻¹. The concentration of Se in NIST SRM 612, using NIST SRM 610 for calibration, determined using LA-ICP-MS (confirmed using SHRIMP II) was 15.2 ± 0.2 μg g⁻¹. The concentration of Se in NIST SRM 614, using LA-ICP-MS was 0.394 ± 0.012 μg g⁻¹. LA-ICP-MS determination of Se in synthetic geological glasses BCR-2G, BIR-1G, TB-1G and the MPI-DING glasses showed a range in concentrations from 0.062 to 0.168 μg g⁻¹. Selenium in the natural glass, VG2, was 0.204 ± 0.028 μg g⁻¹.