Observation of the solar eclipse 1966 May 20 in the region between 3.2 cm to 2.7 m wavelength

The solar eclipse 1966 May 20 was observed at 3.2, 10, 15, 20, 54, 59 cm, 1.05, 1.34 and 2.7 m wavelength by the observatories of the Heinrich-Hertz-Institut. The meter-wavelength observations were superposed by a noise storm. The result shows a region of enhanced radiation from the plages near the central meridian at the short wavelengths. Consulting additionally the observations made at Kiel, NERA, and Ondejov in the region of about 1.2 m wavelength it is possible to localize the source of the noise storm.     

Observations of the structure and evolution of solar flares with a soft X-ray telescope

132 soft X-ray flare events have been observed with The Aerospace Corporation/Marshall Space Flight Center S-056 X-ray telescope that was part of the ATM complement of instruments aboard Skylab. Analyses of these data are reported in this paper. The observations are summarized and a detailed discussion of the X-ray flare structures is presented. The data indicated that soft X-rays emitted by a flare come primarily from an intense well-defined core surrounded by a region of fainter, more diffuse emission. Loop structures are found to constitute a fundamental characteristic of flare cores and arcades of loops are found to play a more important role in the flare phenomena than previously thought. Size distributions of these core features are presented and a classification scheme describing the brightest flare X-ray features is proposed. The data show no correlations between the size of core features and: (1) the peak X-ray intensity, as indicated by detectors on the SOLRAD satellite; (2) the rise time of the X-ray flare event, or (3) the presence of a nonthermal X-ray component. An analysis of flare evolution indicates evidence for preliminary heating and energy release prior to the main phase of the flare. Core features are found to be remarkably stable and retain their shape throughout a flare. Most changes in the overall configuration seem to be the result of the appearance, disappearance or change in brightness of individual features, rather than the restructuring or re-orientation of these features. Brief comparisons with several theories are presented.     

Understanding the implications of the EU-LULUCF regulation for the wood supply from EU forests to the EU

Background

In June 2018, the European Parliament and Council of the European Union adopted a legislative regulation for incorporating greenhouse gas emissions and removals from Land Use, Land Use Change and Forestry (EU-LULUCF) under its 2030 Climate and Energy Framework. The LULUCF regulation aim to incentivise EU Member States to decrease greenhouse gas emissions and increase removals in the LULUCF sector. The regulation, however, does not set a target for increasing the LULUCF carbon sink, but rather includes a ‘no net debit’ target for LULUCF (Forests and Agricultural soils). For Managed Forest Land (MFL) an accounting framework with capped credits for additional mitigation against a set forest reference level (FRL) was agreed for 2021–2030. The FRL gives the projected future carbon sink in the two compliance periods 2021–2025 and 2026–2030 under “continuation of forest management practices as they were in the reference period 2000–2009”. This FRL was disputed by some Member States as it was perceived to put a limit on their future wood harvesting from MFL. Here we simulated with the EFISCEN European forest model the “continuation of forest management practices” and determined the corresponding wood harvest for 26 EU countries under progressing age classes.

Results

The simulations showed that under “continuation of forest management practices” the harvest (wood removals) in the 26 EU countries as a whole can increase from 420 million m³/year in 2000–2009 to 560 million m³/year in 2050 due to progressing age classes. This implies there is a possibility to increase absolute wood harvests without creating debits compared to the forest reference level. However, the manner in which ‘continuation of forest management’ developed with a progressing age class development over time, meant that in some countries the future harvesting exceeded 90% of the increment. Since this generally is considered to be unsustainable we additionally set a harvesting cut-off as max 90% of increment to be harvested for each individual country as a possible interpretation of sustainability criteria that are included in the regulation. Using this additional limit the projected harvest will only increase to 493 million m³/year.

Conclusions

The worry from Member States (MS) that the FRL will prevent any additional harvesting seems unwarranted. Due to differences between Member States concerning the state of their forest resources, the FRL as a baseline for harvesting works out very differently for the different Member States. The FRL may have other unforeseen consequences which we discuss. Under all scenarios the living forest biomass sink shows a decline. This can be counteracted through incentivising measures under Climate Smart Forestry.

     

The cooling of flare produced plasmas in the solar corona

Solar flare X-rays, at energies less than 10 keV, are emitted by hot plasmas located in the corona. Three plasma cooling models are examined in detail. The cooling of the electrons by Coulomb collisions with ions at a lower temperature would require the observed material to occupy very large volumes. Cooling could take place by conduction or by radiation and observations are proposed which would allow the dominant cooling mechanism to be established.On leave during a portion of this work as University Research Fellow in Astronomy, University of Leicester, England.     

Dunes on Titan observed by Cassini Radar

Thousands of longitudinal dunes have recently been discovered by the Titan Radar Mapper on the surface of Titan. These are found mainly within ±30° of the equator in optically-, near-infrared-, and radar-dark regions, indicating a strong proportion of organics, and cover well over 5% of Titan's surface. Their longitudinal duneform, interactions with topography, and correlation with other aeolian forms indicate a single, dominant wind direction aligned with the dune axis plus lesser, off-axis or seasonally alternating winds. Global compilations of dune orientations reveal the mean wind direction is dominantly eastwards, with regional and local variations where winds are diverted around topographically high features, such as mountain blocks or broad landforms. Global winds may carry sediments from high latitude regions to equatorial regions, where relatively drier conditions prevail, and the particles are reworked into dunes, perhaps on timescales of thousands to tens of thousands of years. On Titan, adequate sediment supply, sufficient wind, and the absence of sediment carriage and trapping by fluids are the dominant factors in the presence of dunes.     

Heavy rare gases from Rabbit Lake (Canada) and the Oklo mine (Gabon): natural spontaneous chain reactions in old uranium deposits

Xenon isotopic studies confirm natural spontaneous chain reactions at the Oklo mine site (Republic of Gabon) with an integrated neutron flux of approximately 4 × 10²⁰n/cm² and a duration between 14,000 and 70,000 years. Similar studies for the Rabbit Lake deposit (Saskatchewan), a slightly younger site with some evidence of continued geologic activity, shows no evidence of self-supporting reactions.     

Assessment of atmosphere-ocean general circulation model simulations of winter northern hemisphere atmospheric blocking

An assessment of six coupled Atmosphere-Ocean General Circulation Models (AOGCMs) is undertaken in order to evaluate their ability in simulating winter atmospheric blocking highs in the northern hemisphere. The poor representation of atmospheric blocking in climate models is a long-standing problem (e.g. D’Andrea et?al. in Clim Dyn 4:385–407, 1998), and despite considerable effort in model development, there is only a moderate improvement in blocking simulation. A modified version of the Tibaldi and Molteni (in Tellus A 42:343–365, 1990) blocking index is applied to daily averaged 500?hPa geopotential fields, from the ERA-40 reanalysis and as simulated by the climate models, during the winter periods from 1957 to 1999. The two preferred regions of blocking development, in the Euro-Atlantic and North Pacific, are relatively well captured by most of the models. However, the prominent error in blocking simulations consists of an underestimation of the total frequency of blocking episodes over both regions. A more detailed analysis revealed that this error was due to an insufficient number of medium spells and long-lasting episodes, and a shift in blocking lifetime distributions towards shorter blocks in the Euro-Atlantic sector. In the Pacific, results are more diverse; the models are equally likely to overestimate or underestimate the frequency at different spell lengths. Blocking spatial signatures are relatively well simulated in the Euro-Atlantic sector, while errors in the intensity and geographical location of the blocks emerge in the Pacific. The impact of models’ systematic errors on blocking simulation has also been analysed. The time-mean atmospheric circulation biases affect the frequency of blocking episodes, and the maximum event duration in the Euro-Atlantic region, while they sometimes cause geographical mislocations in the Pacific sector. The analysis of the systematic error in time-variability has revealed a negative relationship between the high-frequency variability of the transient eddies in the areas affected by blocking and blocking frequency. The blocking responses to errors in the low-frequency variability are different according to the region considered; the amplitude of the low-frequency variability is positively related to the blocking frequency and persistence in the Euro-Atlantic sector, while no such consistency is observed in the Pacific.     

An assessment of geologic sequestration potential in the panhandle of Florida USA

One alternative to reduce global greenhouse gas emissions is to store the emissions in underground geologic sequestration repositories. The efficacy of this approach has been favorably evaluated by numerous authors over the last 15 years. This paper discusses an assessment of the overall feasibility of storing emissions in three different repositories in the Florida panhandle located in the Southeastern United States. The feasibility assessment evaluates both saline aquifers and oil reservoirs located in the panhandle region. The overall feasibility is driven by the available geologic sequestration capacity, the transportation cost to deliver emissions to a respective repository, and other engineering and regulatory issues. The geologic sequestration capacity is generally controlled by the so-called storage efficiency, a variable dependent on the site-specific geology, reservoir conditions, and the injected fluid characteristics. For this paper, storage efficiency for saline repositories was assessed in more detail using numerical modeling. Based on the work completed, the 3 repositories studied have at least 4.55 gigatonnes of capacity to sequester CO₂.     

Lymanα forests and the evolution of the universe

The Lyα forest absorption lines in the spectra of quasars are interpreted as caused by the crossings of the light beam with the walls of a bubble structure (expanding with the Hubble flow only). Then, the typical separation between the absorption lines is proportional to the mean size of the bubbles. The variable factor is the expansion rate H[z]. The Friedmann regression analysis of the observed line separations determines the density parameter ω₀ and the normalized cosmological term λ₀ = λc²/3H²₀ of the appropriate cosmological model: ω₀ = 0.014 ± 0.002, λ₀ = 1.080 ± 0.006. Depending on the Hubble parameter this method reveals the values of the present mean matter density pm,0 = 2.6 h² · 10⁻²⁸ kg m⁻³ and of the cosmological constant Λ = 3.77 h² · 10⁻⁵² m⁻² (with h = H₀/(100 km/s·Mpc)). According to our analysis all models with Λ = 0 must be excluded. The curvature of space is positive. The curvature radius R₀ is 3.3 times the Hubble radius (c/H₀). The age t₀ is 2.8 times the Hubble age (H₀⁻¹).     

High-resolution ion-microprobe measurement of lead isotopes: Variations within single zircons from Lac Seul,northwestern Ontario

Selected-area measurements of lead-isotope ratios in zircons have been made at high mass resolution using a modified A.E.I. IM20 ion-microprobe. At a working resolution of 3200 it is shown that the important interfering molecular peaks generated from the zircon matrix may be separated from atomic lead peaks. Corrections for overlapping peaks, which are necessary in measurements of lead isotopes at low mass resolution, are then only required for ²⁰⁸Pb.Measurements on N.B.S. standards show no isotope discrimination within counting statistics. Determination of ²⁰⁷Pb/²⁰⁶Pb on 29 single zircon grains from a tonalite gneiss and a granite from Lac Seul, northwestern Ontario, give very variable ratios with mean values close to those of bulk separates. Peaks in the distribution of 207/206 ratios obtained from the tonalite gneiss may be interpreted as evidence for two stages of lead loss. High 207/206 ratios are shown to be significant for at least two zircons and probably record a minimum age of formation of 3.3 ± 0.1 b.y. for the gneiss.