Peculiarities of Polluted Water Spreading from a Submarine Source in Stratified Coastal Environment

We study the spreading of wastewaters from an underwater source in a stratified coastal environment using the results of satellite monitoring and mathematical modeling. The problem is considered as applied to deepwater discharge in the region of Golubaya Bay of the Black Sea near Sebastopol. The main factors preventing upwelling of pollution to the sea surface are analyzed on the basis of a numerical model. It is shown that peculiarities of wastewater spreading depend on the character of stratification and velocity of the background current. The main factor influencing the uplift of these waters to the surface is the existence of water layers with high vertical gradients of water density. We reveal the structure of the wastewater field consisting of a plume and a jet extended in the direction of the background current, which is located in the density interface. If stratification is weak, the plume may reach the sea surface and form a local region of water pollution, which is recorded in multispectral satellite images. It is found that the mass of polluted waters is characterized by negative anomalies of temperature and salinity.     

Super-Fast Line-Profile Variability in the Spectra of OBA-Stars: B1-Star <Emphasis Type="Italic">ρ</Emphasis> Leo

This study continues our investigation of the super-fast variability of line profiles in the spectra of early-type stars. We have investigated the line-profile variability in spectra of OBA-stars with the SCORPIO multi-mode focal reducer mounted at the 6-m SAO RAS telescope. Regular short-period variations of the H and He lines in the spectra of the B1I star ρ Leo were detected with periods ranging from 2 to 90 minutes, as well as irregular line-profile variations on time intervals less than 1 minute. A possible origin of rapid spectral variations is discussed.     

Estimates of abundance of the short-baseline (1-3 meters) slopes for different Venusian terrains using terrestrial analogues

The interplanetary mission, Venera-D, which is currently being planned, includes a lander. For a successful landing, it is necessary to estimate the frequency distributions of slopes of the Venusian surface at baselines that are comparable with the horizontal dimensions of lander (1–3 m). The available data on the topographic variations on Venus preclude estimates of the frequency of the short-wavelength slopes. In our study, we applied high-resolution digital terrain models (DTM) for specific areas in Iceland to estimate the slopes on Venus. The Iceland DTMs have 0.5 m spatial and 0.1 m vertical resolution. From the set of these DTMs, we have selected those that morphologically resemble typical landscapes on Venus such as tessera, shield, regional, lobate, and smooth plains. The mode of the frequency distribution of slopes on the model tessera terrain is within a 30°–40° range and a fraction of the surface has slopes <7°, which is considered as the upper safety limit. This is the primary interest. The frequency distribution of slopes on the model tessera is not changed significantly as the baseline is changed from 1 m to 3 m. The terrestrial surfaces that model shield and regional plains on Venus have a prominent slope distribution mode between 8°–20° and the fraction of the surfaces with slopes <7° is less than 30% on both 1 m and 3 m baselines. A narrow, left-shifted histogram characterizes the model smooth plains surfaces. The fraction of surfaces with slopes <7° is about 65–75% for the shorter baseline (1 m). At the longer baseline, the fraction of the shallow-sloped surfaces is increased and fraction of the steep slopes is decreased significantly. The fraction of surfaces with slopes <7° for the 3-m baseline is about 75–88% for the terrains that model both lobate and smooth plains.     

Magnetic Fields of Neutron Stars

This article briefly reviews our current understanding of the evolution of magnetic fields in neutron stars, which basically defines the evolutionary pathways between different observational classes of neutron stars. The emphasis here is on the evolution in binary systems and the newly emergent classes of millisecond pulsars.     

Numerical simulations of dissipationless disk accretion

Our goal is to study the regime of disk accretion in which almost all of the angular momentum and energy is carried away by the wind outflowing from the disk in numerical experiments. For this type of accretion the kinetic energy flux in the outflowing wind can exceed considerably the bolometric luminosity of the accretion disk, what is observed in the plasma flow from galactic nuclei in a number of cases. In this paper we consider the nonrelativistic case of an outflow from a cold Keplerian disk. All of the conclusions derived previously for such a system in the self-similar approximation are shown to be correct. The numerical results agree well with the analytical predictions. The inclination angle of the magnetic field lines in the disk is less than 60°, which ensures a free wind outflow from the disk, while the energy flux per wind particle is greater than the particle rotation energy in its Keplerian orbit by several orders of magnitude, provided that the ratio r _A/r ? 1, where r _A is the Alfvénic radius and r is the radius of the Keplerian orbit. In this case, the particle kinetic energy reaches half the maximum possible energy in the simulation region. The magnetic field collimates the outflowing wind near the rotation axis and decollimates appreciably the wind outflowing from the outer disk periphery.