Local subgiants and time-scales of disc formation

This paper concentrates on the relationship between the rate of gas emission from the nucleus of Comet 9P/Tempel 1, the fraction f of the nucleus that is active, and the crater damage inflicted by the recent 2005 July 4 Deep Impact space mission. The cometary nucleus has a surface area of about  1.7 × 10⁸ m²  and a mean radius of about 3700 m. Before the impact it is estimated that only a fraction f = 0.0056 of the nucleus surface was actively producing gas and dust. The active area was about  9.4 × 10⁵ m²  . Absolute magnitudes obtained at recent perihelion passages of this comet indicate that variations in the 0.0074 > f > 0.0039 range can occur from apparition to apparition. Because of the low size of the original active area, the production of a new impact crater in the diameter range 40 to 300 m would lead to a long-term change in the cometary visual magnitude in the range 0.0018 to 0.098 respectively. This is below the limit of detectability. It has been suggested that the cometary dust is in the form of 'talcum powder' not 'beach sand'. We suggest that the dust ejected from the impact site has been broken up by the energetic impact process and thus has a different size distribution from dust locked in the snowy matrix of the nucleus and normally lifted off the nucleus by gentle sublimation processes.     

193nm ArF准分子激光系统对LA-ICP-MS分析中不同基体的剥蚀行为和剥蚀速率探究

探究LA-ICP-MS分析中不同基体的剥蚀行为和剥蚀速率,可为激光参数设定、基体匹配选择、数据质量保证等方面提供重要参考。本文研究了193 nm ArF准分子激光系统对人工合成/地质样品玻璃、常见矿物和粉末压片的剥蚀行为,同时探究了激光参数(束斑直径、能量密度和剥蚀频率)对剥蚀速率的影响情况。从剥蚀坑形貌可知,193nm ArF激光对玻璃和绝大多数矿物的剥蚀行为良好,但对石英相对较差,这可能与石英内含有微观包裹体,剥蚀过程中局部受热不均有关。粉末压片的剥蚀行为呈现出不可控,可通过提高粉末压片的压制压力或降低粉末颗粒的粒径来改善剥蚀行为;当剥蚀深度大于1.5倍束斑直径时,剥蚀速率随剥蚀深度的增加而逐渐减小,剥蚀深度最多可达束斑直径的两倍左右(RESOlution M-50型号激光系统,3.0 J/cm2激光能量密度);剥蚀速率随激光能量密度的增加而增大,但基本不受剥蚀频率(2~20 Hz)影响。不同基体具有特征的剥蚀速率,本文报道了43种基体的剥蚀速率参数,总体而言,NIST系列玻璃的剥蚀速率大于地质样品玻璃,碳酸盐矿物和硫化物矿物大于硅酸岩矿物,粉末压片大于玻璃和常见矿物。     

Tropical drought patterns and their linkages to large-scale climate variability over Peninsular Malaysia

Ocean–atmosphere modes of climate variability in the Pacific and Indian oceans, as well as monsoons, regulate the regional wet and dry episodes in tropical regions. However, how those modes of climate variability, and their interactions, lead to spatial differences in drought patterns over tropical Asia at seasonal to interannual time scales remains unclear. This study aims to analyse the hydroclimate processes for both short- and long-term spatial drought patterns (3-, 6, 12- and 24-months) over Peninsular Malaysia using the Standardized Precipitation Index, Standardized Precipitation Evapotranspiration Index, and Palmer Drought Severity Index. Besides that, a generalized least squares regression is used to explore underlying circulation mechanisms of these spatio-temporal drought patterns. The tested drought indices indicate a tendency towards wetter conditions over Peninsular Malaysia. Based on principal component analysis, distinct spatio-temporal drought patterns are revealed, suggesting North–South and East–West gradients in drought distribution. The Pacific El Nino Southern Oscillation (ENSO), the South Western Indian Ocean (SWIO) variability, and the quasi-biennial oscillation (QBO) are significant contributors to the observed spatio-temporal variability in drought. Both the ENSO and the SWIO modulate the North–South gradient in drought conditions over Peninsular Malaysia, while the QBO contributes more to the East–West gradient. Through modulating regional moisture fluxes, the warm phases of the ENSO and the SWIO, and the western phases of the QBO weaken the southwest and northeast monsoon, leading to precipitation deficits and droughts over Peninsular Malaysia. The East–West or North–South gradients in droughts are related to the middle mountains blocking southwest and northeast moisture fluxes towards Peninsular Malaysia. In addition, the ENSO and QBO variations are significantly leading to short-term droughts (less than a year), while the SWIO is significantly associated with longer-duration droughts (2 years or more). Overall, this work demonstrates how spatio-temporal drought patterns in tropical regions are related to monsoons and moisture transports affected by the oscillations over the Pacific and Indian oceans, which is important for national water risk management.     

Immiscible separation of metalliferous Fe/ Ti-oxide melts from fractionating alkali basalt: P-T-f O2 conditions and two-liquid elemental partitioning

Globules of iron-dominated (59–69 wt% FeO_tot) and titanium-dominated (43.5 wt% TiO₂) oxide melts have been detected in igneous xenoliths from Pliocene-to-Pleistocene alkali basalts of the Western Carpathians. Fluid inclusion and mineral composition data indicate immiscible separation of the high-iron-oxide melt (HIM) at magmatic temperatures. The HIM separation occurred during clinopyroxene (augite) accumulation in an alkali trachybasalt and continued during crystallization of amphibole (kaersutite) and K-feldspar (anorthoclase), the latter coexisting with trachyte and alkalic rhyolite residual melts. Some HIM was also expelled from sub-alkalic rhyolite (70–77% SiO₂), coexisting with An_27–45 plagioclase and quartz in granitic (tonalite-trondhjemite) xenoliths. Oxygen fugacities during HIM separation range from −1.4 to +0.6 log units around the QFM buffer. A close genetic relationship between HIM-hosted xenoliths and mantle-derived basaltic magma is documented by mineral ¹⁸O values ranging from 4.9 to 5.9‰ V-SMOW. δD values of gabbroic kaersutite between −61 and −86‰ V-SMOW are in agreement with a presumed primary magmatic water source. Most trace elements, except Li, Rb and Cs, have preferentially partitioned into the HIM. The HIM/Si-melt partition coefficients for transition elements (Sc, V, Cr, Co, Ni) and base metals (Zn, Cu, Mo) are between 2–160, resulting in extreme enrichment in the HIM. La and Ce also concentrate in the silicic melt, whereas Tb-Tm in the HIM. Hence, the immiscible separation causes REE fractionation and produces residual silicic melt enriched in LREE and depleted in HREE. The weak fractionation among Tb-Tm and Yb, Lu can be attributed to recurrent extraction of the HIM from the magmatic system, while flat HREE chondrite-normalized patterns are interpreted to indicate no or little loss of the HIM. Received: 30 September 1997 / Accepted: 23 March 1998     

‘Modelling the Arctic Boundary Layer: An Evaluation of Six Arcmip Regional-Scale Models using Data from the Sheba Project’

A primary climate change signal in the central Arctic is the melting of sea ice. This is dependent on the interplay between the atmosphere and the sea ice, which is critically dependent on the exchange of momentum, heat and moisture at the surface. In assessing the realism of climate change scenarios it is vital to know the quality by which these exchanges are modelled in climate simulations. Six state-of-the-art regional-climate models are run for one year in the western Arctic, on a common domain that encompasses the Surface Heat Budget of the Arctic Ocean (SHEBA) experiment ice-drift track. Surface variables, surface fluxes and the vertical structure of the lower troposphere are evaluated using data from the SHEBA experiment. All the models are driven by the same lateral boundary conditions, sea-ice fraction and sea and sea-ice surface temperatures. Surface pressure, near-surface air temperature, specific humidity and wind speed agree well with observations, with a falling degree of accuracy in that order. Wind speeds have systematic biases in some models, by as much as a few metres per second. The surface radiation fluxes are also surprisingly accurate, given the complexity of the problem. The turbulent momentum flux is acceptable, on average, in most models, but the turbulent heat fluxes are, however, mostly unreliable. Their correlation with observed fluxes is, in principle, insignificant, and they accumulate over a year to values an order of magnitude larger than observed. Typical instantaneous errors are easily of the same order of magnitude as the observed net atmospheric heat flux. In the light of the sensitivity of the atmosphere–ice interaction to errors in these fluxes, the ice-melt in climate change scenarios must be viewed with considerable caution.     

First Light of the Near-Infrared Narrow-Band Tunable Birefringent Filter at Big Bear Solar Observatory

We discuss a near-infrared (NIR) narrow-band tunable birefringent filter system newly developed by the Big Bear Solar Observatory (BBSO). This is one of the first narrow-bandpass NIR filter systems working at 1.56 μm which is used for the observation of the deepest solar photosphere. Four stages of calcite were used to obtain a bandpass of 2.5 Å along with a free spectral range (FSR) of 40 Å. Some unique techniques were implemented in the design, including liquid crystal variable retarders (LCVRs) to tune the bandpass in a range of ±100 Å, a wide field configuration to provide up to 2° incident angle, and oil-free structure to make it more compact and handy. After performing calibration and characteristic evaluation at the Evans Facility of the National Solar Observatory at Sacramento Peak (NSO/SP), a series of high-resolution filtergrams and imaging polarimetry observations were carried out with the Dunn Solar Telescope of NSO/SP and the 65-cm telescope of BBSO, in conjunction with the high-order adaptive optics system and the Fabry–Pérot Interferometer (FPI). In this paper, we describe the optical design and discuss the calibration method. Preliminary observations show that it is capable of serving as either a stand-alone narrow-band filter for NIR filtergram observations or an order-sorting filter of a FPI applied to NIR two-dimensional imaging spectro-polarimetry.     

UNUSUAL WEATHERING PRODUCTS OF OLDHAMITE PARENTAGE IN THE NORTON COUNTY ENSTATITE ACHONDRITE

White, pale-yellow and brown deposits occur on surfaces of fragments of the Norton County enstatite achondrite. X-ray powder analysis of these materials indicates that they consist of several calcium-bearing minerals: portlandite [Ca(OH)₂], vaterite (CaCO₃, hexagonal), calcite (CaCO₃, trigonal) and bassanite (CaSO₄-1/2 H₂O). We suggest that these minerals formed by weathering of oldhamite (CaS), which we found to occur in Norton County. The occurrence of portlandite suggests that at low temperatures and in the terrestrial environment, hydrolysis of oldhamite is the most important first step in the weathering sequence. Subsequent carbonation of portlandite is thought to produce vaterite, and vaterite in turn might transform into calcite. Thus, we suggest a weathering sequence in the terrestrial environment of oldhamite portlandite vaterite calcite. The mineral bassanite is clearly also a terrestrial weathering product but its precise mode of origïn is somewhat uncertain: in the system CaSO₄-H₂O, bassanite forms from gypsum at about 100 °C (an unlikely high T for the weathering environment of Norton County).