Comparison of true-height electron density profiles derived by POLAN and NHPC methods

The changing state of the ionosphere is generally monitored by networks of vertical ionosondes that provide us with regular ionospheric sounding. Many ionospheric applications require determination of the true-height electron density profiles. Therefore, ionograms must be further inverted into real-height electron density profiles. The paper presents the comparison study of the true-height electron density profiles inverted from ionograms using two different methods POLAN (Titheridge, 1985) and NHPC (Huang and Reinish, 1996; Reinish et al., 2005), widely used by the ionospheric research community. Our results show significant systematic differences between electron density profiles calculated by these two inversion methods. pkn@ufa.cas.cz     

Lower hybrid resonance spherics

Summary After a fractional-hop whistler, a trace of limited frequency range with somewhat higher dispersion, markedly growing when approaching the lower cutoff frequency, is frequently observed on spectrograms of broadband VLF measurements made by satellites moving in the outer ionosphere. This phenomenon, which we have called LHR spheric, has been studied on VLF measurements made by the Interkosmos-14 satellite in the height range of 500–1700 km. The results show that LHR spherics are created by the same mechanism as LHR whistlers that sometimes appear after ducted whistlers. In this event, it is a part of the electromagnetic energy radiated by a lightning flash which, on passing trough the ionosphere, has been transformed to quasi-electrostatic resonance waves. They reach the satellite in the same way as whistler-mode waves. Transformation of a part of the energy radiated by a lightning flash to electrostatic quasi-resonance waves is possible in the ionosphere due to the scattering of the original whistler wave on small-scale turbulence.     

Hysteresis effects of varying concentrations of magnetite,hematite, pyrrhotite,and greigite grains in a diamagnetic matrix

Summary The hysteresis properties of synthetic samples with very low contents of hematite, pyrrhotite, greigite and admixtures of magnetite and hematite in a diamagnetic matrix have been studied. The diamagnetic matrix used was sodium chloride (NaCl). The contents of the magnetic minerals varied for hematite from 0.5 to 6 wt%, for pyrrhotite from 0.02 to 0.2 wt% and for greigite from 0.02 to 0.6 wt%. Diamagnetic contributions to the magnetization curves can be distinguished in the measured samples. We observed a non-linear dependence of coercivity and saturation magnetization upon increasing contents of hematite as a result of effects of both the diamagnetic matrix and the hematite content. Only the saturation remanence which is measured in a zero magnetic field has a linear dependence on the hematite concentration. The shape of the hysteresis curves of admixtures of magnetite and hematite are probably caused by magnetostatic interactions.     

Binary Star Detection with the GAIA Radial Velocity Spectrometer

Accuracy of the radial velocities and efficiency of the spectroscopic binary detection with the GAIA radial velocity spectrometer (RVS) is evaluated by employing the observed spectra (Cenarro et al., 2001) and simulated GAIA observations. Evaluation is performed in the magnitude range V =10-17 by applying the cross-correlation method. This revised version was published online in July 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

Mass distribution in the asteroid belt

The dependence of the cumulative number of numbered asteroids (up to 3720) on their absolute magnitude is investigated. The differential mass index k is derived from these relations for fainter asteroids. A steeper slope (2.2 < k < 2.4) is found in the four most populous asteroid familes (Flora, Koronis, Eos and Themis) and a flatter slope (1.3 < k < 1.6) for non-family asteroids. This indicates that there are two different asteroid populations in the asteorid belt. Total masses of the asteroid families may be greater than it is commonly accepted.     

Computation of Non-Maxwellian Electron Excitation Rates for Ions of Astrophysical Interest: Fe <Emphasis Type="SmallCaps">xv</Emphasis> – A Test Case

Dzif?áková previously developed a method for calculating the influence of nonthermal electron-velocity distributions on the intensities of spectral lines (Solar Phys. 234, 243, 2006; In: Lacoste, H., Ouwehand, L. (eds.) SOHO-17. 10 Years of SOHO and Beyond, SP-617, ESA, Noordwijk, 89, 2006). Here, we study this method in detail for the test case: Fe?xv. It involves fitting a parametric form to the electron-excitation data in the CHIANTI atomic database. We assess the reliability of these fits by comparing them with the source atomic data, both Upsilons (Maxwellian-averaged collision strengths) and the original collision strengths. An accuracy for the method of better than 15% is deduced for all transitions, with a much higher accuracy than this for the strong electric-dipole transitions. A κ-distribution, which has an increased number of electrons in the high-energy tail of the distribution, is considered as an example. The shape of the κ-distribution affects the electron-excitation rate and thus the relative intensities of the spectral lines. Since the shape of the electron distribution function also influences the ionization balance of Fe, both effects change the final intensities of the lines. Synthetic spectra for Fe?xv and Fe?xvi in the wavelength range 50?–?80 Å are presented for a κ-distribution and compared with solar observations.     

Puerto Lápice eucrite fall: Strewn field,physical description,probable fireball trajectory,and orbit

Abstract— The fall of the Puerto Lápice eucrite occurred on May 10, 2007, at 17 h 57 m 30 ± 30 s UTC. Its daylight fireball was witnessed by hundreds of people from Spain, and produced a meteorite fall associated with a large strewn field of fragments. There were no direct pictures of the fireball, but several pictures of the fireball's train were taken from different locations in Spain. Additional theodolite calibrations of visual records were made in order to find the most probable fireball trajectory based on the available data. The shape of the meteorite strewn field was considered as well. Although the orbit of the Puerto Lápice meteoroid could not be computed due to the absence of velocity data, we assumed a likely range of geocentric velocities and computed a range of possible orbits. All solutions show that the body was in an Apollo‐type orbit, with low inclination and perihelion distance just below 1 astronomical unit (AU). This is the first case that an orbit can be discussed for an HED meteorite fall.     

Relativistic gravitational potential and its relation to mass-energy

From the general theory of relativity a relation is deduced between the mass of a particle and the gravitational field at the position of the particle. For this purpose the fall of a particle of negligible mass in the gravitational field of a massive body is used. After establishing the relativistic potential and its relationship to the rest mass of the particle, we show, assuming conservation of mass-energy, that the difference between two potential-levels depends upon the value of the radial metric coefficient at the position of an observer. Further, it is proved that the relativistic potential is compatible with the general concept of the potential also from the standpoint of kinematics. In the third section it is shown that, although the mass-energy of a body is a function of the distance from it, this does not influence the relativistic potential of the body itself. From this conclusion it follows that the mass-energy of a particle in a gravitational field is anisotropic; isotropic is the mass only. Further, the possibility of an incidental feed-back between two masses is ruled out, and the law of the composition of the relativistic gravitational potentials is deduced. Finally, it is shown, by means of a simple model, that local inhomogeneities in the ideal fluid filling the Universe have negligible influence on the total potential in large regions.