The eruption of a quiescent prominence as observed in UV lines

We compare observations of an eruptive and a quiescent prominence in order to better understand the energetic processes in an eruptive prominence. Observations of an eruptive prominence were obtained in H, several UV emission lines (1215–1640 Å), and coronal white light at approximately 19:00 UT on September 20, 1980. The data we present shows the development of the eruption in the H and UV emission lines and is compared with the intensities from similar observations of a quiescent prominence. While the event is coincident with some coronal changes, above 1.2 and up to 1.5 solar radii, it does not result in a true coronal mass ejection event.The comparison between the eruptive and quiescent prominences reveals several differences which suggest that the activation consists not only of a mechanical movement of material, but also changes in the temperature of the prominence plasma. Some prominence material that does not seem to participate in the large scale prominence motion is heated during the eruptive event. Most of this material is heated to transition zone temperatures with almost no cool core (i.e., no or very little H emission). The behavior indicates that there are structures that are first cool and then heat up to transition zone temperatures (apparently remaining stable for some time at these temperatures). Since this is an unstable temperature region for prominence type structures the energy transport that allows this is not understood and presents an interesting theoretical problem.Member of the Carrera del Investigador, CONICET, Argentina, presently at The University of Alabama in Huntsville.     

Irish on the move

Trends in emigration from Ireland over time are reviewed. "During the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries overseas migration to the United States and seasonal harvest migration to Britain were the main types of movement, but over the past 100 years the Irish have developed a special affinity for settling in British towns. Although the outflow was halted for a time during the 1970s, when return migration took over, the 1980s have seen a renewal of the exodus. This time, however, the character of the flow has changed from predominantly low-skill construction and factory workers to embrace better-educated emigrants, including many graduates. This shift reflects Ireland's changing position in the international market for labour."     

The latitude of filament bands at the sunspot minimum and the activity level in the two following 11-year solar cycles

The zonal structure of the distribution of filaments is considered. The mean latitudes of two filament bands are calculated in each solar hemisphere at the minima of the sunspot cycle in the period 1924–1986: middle latitude _{2, m} and low latitude _{1, m} . It is shown that the mean latitude of the filament band _{2, m} at the minimum -m of the cycle correlates, with = 0.94, with the maximum - M sunspot area S(M) and maximum Wolf number W(M) in the succeeding solar cycle M. It is shown that the mean latitude of the low-latitude filament band _{1, m} is linearly dependent on the mean latitude filament band _{2, m + 1} at the succeeding minimum. We found a correlation of the latitude of the low-latitude filament band _{1, m} with the maximum sunspot area in the M + 1 cycle. This enables us to predict the power of two succeeding 11-year solar cycles on the basis of the latitude of filament bands at the minimum of activity, 1985–1986: W(22) - 205 ± 10, W(23) - 210 ± 10. The importance of the relationships found for theory and applied aspects is emphasized. An attempt is made to interpret the relationships physically.     

Singular points of the polarization tensor

The problem to compute the magnetic field above the chromosphere using data of the vector = B _t/Bt that gives the projected field direction can be solved with different approximations. The field of direction vectors is, however, not the only field accessible to observations. The Stokes parameters, which are components of the radiation tensor, can be measured at each point of the image plane. The directions of the eigenvectors of the radiation tensor define two mutually orthogonal systems of integral curves in the image plane. These families of curves have singular points, which are generally of different type than those of the vector field. When the morphology of H chromospheric fibrils are used to infer the topology of the magnetic field, a similar problem is met, suggesting that singular points should also be present there.     

Once more on quasar periodicities

In an earlier paper Arp, Bi, Chu and Zhu investigated various quasar samples and recognized a periodicity of remarkable degree in them. Their conclusion was that the existence of such a periodicity is a counterevidence against the cosmological origin of quasar redshifts. Since this question is of great importance in a cosmological context, here we reanalyze some of the samples together with a galaxy sample of the pencil-beam survey of Broadhurstet al. Our result is that on the plane of cosmological parameters (₀, ₀) there is a non-negligible region where two quasar samples and the galaxy sample are simultaneously fairly periodic. Pure periodicity is still compatible with cosmological principles, at least on length scales much longer than the period length. So the regularities can fit into a cosmological context.     

Lifetime migration in Indonesia based on 1971 and 1980 census data

Internal migration trends in Indonesia are reviewed using 1971 and 1980 census data. The author notes that although migration in 1971 was primarily to Jakarta and Lampung, by 1980 it was more diversified, with significant migration to some of the outer islands. The importance of the national transmigration program is noted.     

Radar observations of asteroid 1580 Betulia

Radar observations of the asteroid 1580 Betulia, made at a wavelength of 12.6 cm, show a mean radar cross section of 2.2 ± 0.8 km² and a total spectral bandwidth of 26.5 ± 1.5 Hz. Combining our bandwidth measurements with the optically determined rotation period sets a lower limit to the asteroid's radius of 2.9 ± 0.2 km.