Trend in chemical composition of precipitation during 2005–2009 at a rural station of Bhubaneswar, eastern India

Precipitation samples collected during 2005–2009 from a rural forest station of Bhubaneswar were analyzed for their chemical composition. The samples were collected through a wet-only (WO) collector and two bulk (B1 and B2) collectors. The ions were evenly balanced indicating good data quality. The overall pH of rainwater was slightly acidic and ~47% of all rain events during the period were acidic (pH?<?5.6). Multilinear regression analysis showed relation between the free acidity (H⁺) and other components in rainwater. Enrichment factors (EF) of the major components with respect to their sources such as marine and crustal were calculated. Maximum EF was observed for NO ₃ ^? for both marine and crustal sources for all the three collectors. Source apportionments were also carried for the ions. Trend analysis showed continuous increase in most of the ions over years during the study period driven by anthropogenic emissions. Statistical/factorial analysis established correlation among different ions.     

Quasi-viscous accretion flow – I. Equilibrium conditions and asymptotic behaviour

In a novel approach to studying viscous accretion flows, viscosity has been introduced as a perturbative effect, involving a first-order correction in the α-viscosity parameter. This method reduces the problem of solving a second-order non-linear differential equation (Navier–Stokes equation) to that of an effective first-order equation. Viscosity breaks down the invariance of the equilibrium conditions for stationary inflow and outflow solutions, and distinguishes accretion from wind. Under a dynamical systems classification, the only feasible critical points of this 'quasi-viscous' flow are saddle points and spirals. On large spatial scales of the disc, where a linearized and radially propagating time-dependent perturbation is known to cause a secular instability, the velocity evolution equation of the quasi-viscous flow has been transformed to bear a formal closeness with Schrödinger's equation with a repulsive potential. Compatible with the transport of angular momentum to the outer regions of the disc, a viscosity-limited length-scale has been defined for the full spatial extent over which the accretion process would be viable.     

High Energy Emissions from Young Stellar Objects

X-ray emissions from Young Stellar Objects (YSO) are detected by many X-ray missions that are providing important information about their properties. However, their emission processes are not fully understood. In this research note, we propose a model for the generation of emissions from a YSO on the basis of a simple interaction between the YSO and its surrounding circumstellar accretion disc containing neutral gas and charged dust. It is assumed that the YSO has a weak dipole type magnetic field and its field lines are threaded into the circumstellar disc. Considering the motion of ions and charged dust particles in the presence of neutral gas, we show that the sheared dust-neutral gas velocities can lead to a current along the direction of ambient magnetic field. Magnitude of this current can become large and is capable of generating an electric field along the magnetic field lines. It is shown how the particles can gain energy up to MeV range and above, which can produce high-energy radiations from the YSO.     

Dust-acoustic soliton in a plasma with multi-species ions and kappa-distributed electrons

In this work, we consider the formation of electrostatic, dust-acoustic solitary structure in a unmagnetized plasma with Lorentzian electrons (kappa-distributed) and more than one species of thermal ions (Maxwellian). The work is inspired by results of different space-based observations of electrostatic solitary waves (ESW) in the near-earth and magnetospheric plasmas and recent experimental realization of existence of superthermal electron component in various space plasmas. We have, in this work, shown that existence of compressive potential structure is possible only with more than one species of thermal ions. Besides, formation of compressive double layers is also possible which depends on the amount of deviation of the electron thermal velocities from a Maxwellian distribution. We show that both dust-temperature and super-thermal electrons lead to a decrease in the soliton amplitude.     

GIS-based vulnerability mapping of the coastal stretch from Puri to Konark in Odisha using analytical hierarchy process

Natural Hazards - The 485-km-long coastline of Odisha, a state in the northeastern part of the Indian peninsula, is potentially vulnerable to several disaster events that take place frequently. In...     

Computation of mass outflow rate from relativistic quasi-spherical accretion on to black holes

We compute the mass outflow rate R _m˙ from relativistic matter that is accreting quasi-spherically on to the Schwarzschild black holes. Taking the pair-plasma pressure-mediated shock surface as the effective boundary layer (of the black hole) from where the bulk of the outflow is assumed to be generated, computation of this rate is done using combinations of exact transonic inflow and outflow solutions. We find that R _m˙ depends on the initial parameters of the flow, the polytropic index of matter, the degree of compression of matter near the shock surface and the location of the shock surface itself. We thus not only study the variation of the mass outflow rate as a function of various physical parameters governing the problem, but also provide a sufficiently plausible estimation of this rate.