INTEGRAL/XMM views on the MeV source GRO J1411-64

The COMPTEL unidentified source GRO J 1411-64 was observed by INTEGRAL and XMM-Newton in 2005. The Circinus Galaxy is the only source detected within the 4σ location error of GRO J1411-64, but in here excluded as the possible counterpart. At soft X-rays, 22 reliable and statistically significant sources (likelihood >10) were extracted and analyzed from XMM-Newton data. Only one of these sources, XMMU J141255.6-635932, is spectrally compatible with GRO J1411-64 although the fact the soft X-ray observations do not cover the full extent of the COMPTEL source position uncertainty make an association hard to quantify and thus risky. At the best location of the source, detections at hard X-rays show only upper limits, which, together with MeV results obtained by COMPTEL suggest the existence of a peak in power output located somewhere between 300–700 keV for the so-called low state. Such a spectrum resembles those in blazars or microquasars, and might suggest at work by the models accordingly. However, an analysis using a microquasar model consisting on a magnetized conical jet filled with relativistic electrons, shows that it is hard to comply with all observational constrains. This fact and the non-detection at hard X-rays introduce an a-posteriori question mark upon the physical reality of this source, what is discussed here.     

Impact of sea spray on upper ocean temperature during typhoon passage: simulation with a 1-D turbulent model

At the interface between the lower atmosphere and sea surface, sea spray might significantly influence air-sea heat fluxes and subsequently, modulate upper ocean temperature during a typhoon passage. The effects of sea spray were introduced into the parameterization of sea surface roughness in a 1-D turbulent model, to investigate the effects of sea spray on upper ocean temperature in the Kuroshio Extension area, for the cases of two real typhoons from 2006, Yagi and Soulik. Model output was compared with data from the Kuroshio Extension Observatory (KEO), and Reynolds and AMSRE satellite remote sensing sea surface temperatures. The results indicate drag coefficients that include the spray effect are closer to observations than those without, and that sea spray can enhance the heat fluxes (especially latent heat flux) considerably during a typhoon passage. Consequently, the model results with heat fluxes enhanced by sea spray simulate better the cooling process of the SST and upper-layer temperature profiles. Additionally, results from the simulation of the passage of typhoon Soulik (that passed KEO quickly), which included the sea spray effect, were better than for the simulated passage of typhoon Yagi (that crossed KEO slowly). These promising 1-D results could provide insight into the application of sea spray in general circulation models for typhoon studies.     

Distribution of <Emphasis Type="Italic">Nemopilema nomurai</Emphasis> in the southwestern Sea of Japan related to meandering of the Tsushima Warm Current

We investigated the horizontal distribution of Nemopilema nomurai medusae using a midwater trawl in the southwestern Sea of Japan from September to October of each year from 2006 to 2012. Numerous medusae of this species found in 2006, 2007, and 2009 were mainly distributed far (>40 km) from the mainland of Japan in the western part of the survey area, but were distributed in the stations closest (<25 km) to the mainland in the eastern part, particularly in 2006 and 2009. These distribution patterns were associated with the path of the second branch of the Tsushima Warm Current (TWC) that flows offshore to the west of Oki Islands and usually approaches the mainland of Japan to the east of Oki Islands. Differences in jellyfish distribution across the survey periods were related to the distribution of the second branch being associated with types, position and intensity of eddies in the eastern part of the survey area. Hence, the formations of eddies and consequent variation in the path of the TWC would be responsible for transporting medusae from offshore to near the mainland to the east of Oki Islands. Individuals with large bells accumulated in the northwestern part of the survey area, where a cyclonic eddy was present downstream of the third branch of the TWC. This variation in bell size distribution may be ascribed to differences in the physical and/or biological factors among the three branches of the TWC.     

Impacts of the two types of El Niño on Pacific tropical cyclone activity

It is well known that Tropical cyclone(TC) activities over the Pacific are affected by El Nino events. In most studies El Nino phenomena have been separated into east Pacific warming(EPW) and central Pacific warming(CPW) based on the location of maximum SST anomaly. Since these two kinds of El Nino have different impacts on Pacific tropical cyclone activities, this study investigates different features of TC activities and the genesis potential index(GPI) during EPW years and CPW years. Four contrib- uting factors, i.e., the low-level absolute vorticity, the relative humidity, the potential intensity and the vertical wind shear, are exam- ined to determine which factors are most important in causing the anomalous TC activities. Our results show that during EPW years in July–August(JA0), TC activities are more frequent with stronger intensity over the Western North Pacific(WNP) and Eastern North Pacific(ENP). The maximum anomaly center of TC activities then drifts eastward significantly in September–October(SO0). However, centers of anomalous TC activity barely change from JA0 to SO0 during CPW years. In January–February–March(JFM1) of the decaying years of warming events, TC frequency and intensity both have positive anomaly over the South Pacific. The anoma- lies in EPW years have larger amplitude and wider spatial distribution than those in CPW years. These anomalous activities of TC are associated with GPI anomaly and the key factors affecting GPI anomaly for each ocean basin are quite different.     

Complex organics in space from Solar System to distant galaxies

Recent observational and experimental evidence for the presence of complex organics in space is reviewed. Remote astronomical observations have detected \(\sim \)200 gas-phased molecules through their rotational and vibrational transitions. Many classes of organic molecules are represented in this list, including some precursors to biological molecules. A number of unidentified spectral phenomena observed in the interstellar medium are likely to have originated from complex organics. The observations of these features in distant galaxies suggests that organic synthesis had already taken place during the early epochs of the Universe. In the Solar System, almost all biologically relevant molecules can be found in the soluble component of carbonaceous meteorites. Complex organics of mixed aromatic and aliphatic structures are present in the insoluble component of meteorites. Hydrocarbons cover much of the surface of the planetary satellite Titan and complex organics are found in comets and interplanetary dust particles. The possibility that the early Solar System, or even the early Earth, have been enriched by interstellar organics is discussed.     

The realm of the galaxy protoclusters

The study of galaxy protoclusters is beginning to fill in unknown details of the important phase of the assembly of clusters and cluster galaxies. This review describes the current status of this field and highlights promising recent findings related to galaxy formation in the densest regions of the early universe. We discuss the main search techniques and the characteristic properties of protoclusters in observations and simulations, and show that protoclusters will have present-day masses similar to galaxy clusters when fully collapsed. We discuss the physical properties of galaxies in protoclusters, including (proto-)brightest cluster galaxies, and the forming red sequence. We highlight the fact that the most massive halos at high redshift are found in protoclusters, making these objects uniquely suited for testing important recent models of galaxy formation. We show that galaxies in protoclusters should be among the first galaxies at high redshift making the transition from a gas cooling regime dominated by cold streams to a regime dominated by hot intracluster gas, which could be tested observationally. We also discuss the possible connections between protoclusters and radio galaxies, quasars, and \(\hbox {Ly}\alpha \) blobs. Because of their early formation, large spatial sizes and high total star-formation rates, protoclusters have also likely played a crucial role during the epoch of reionization, which can be tested with future experiments that will map the neutral and ionized cosmic web. Lastly, we review a number of promising observational projects that are expected to make significant impact in this growing, exciting field.     

Dynamics of the Jupiter Trojans with Saturn’s perturbation when the two planets are in migration

In a previous paper (Hou et al. in Celest Mech Dyn Astron 119:119–142, 2014a), the problem of dynamical symmetry between two Jupiter triangular libration points (TLPs) with Saturn’s perturbation in the present configuration of the two planets was studied. A small short-time scale spatial asymmetry exists but gradually disappears with the time going, so the planar stable regions around the two Jupiter TLPs should be dynamically symmetric from a longtime perspective. In this paper, the symmetry problem is studied when the two planets are in migration. Several mechanisms that can cause asymmetries are discussed. Studies show that three important ones are the large short-time scale spatial asymmetry when Jupiter and Saturn are in resonance, the changing orbits of Jupiter and Saturn in the planet migration process, and the chaotic nature of Trojan orbits during the planet migration process. Their joint effects can cause an observable difference to the two Jupiter Trojan swarms. The thermal Yarkovsky effect is also found to be able to cause dynamical differences to the two TLPs, but generally they are too small to be practically observed.     

Integrability of motion around galactic razor-thin disks

We consider the three-dimensional bounded motion of a test particle around razor-thin disk configurations, by focusing on the adiabatic invariance of the vertical action associated with disk-crossing orbits. We find that it leads to an approximate third integral of motion predicting envelopes of the form \(Z(R)\propto [\varSigma (R)]^{-1/3}\), where R is the radial galactocentric coordinate, Z is the z-amplitude (vertical amplitude) of the orbit and \(\varSigma \) represents the surface mass density of the thin disk. This third integral, which was previously formulated for the case of flattened 3D configurations, is tested for a variety of trajectories in different thin-disk models.     

Secular tidal changes in lunar orbit and Earth rotation

Small tidal forces in the Earth–Moon system cause detectable changes in the orbit. Tidal energy dissipation causes secular rates in the lunar mean motion n, semimajor axis a, and eccentricity e. Terrestrial dissipation causes most of the tidal change in n and a, but lunar dissipation decreases eccentricity rate. Terrestrial tidal dissipation also slows the rotation of the Earth and increases obliquity. A tidal acceleration model is used for integration of the lunar orbit. Analysis of lunar laser ranging (LLR) data provides two or three terrestrial and two lunar dissipation parameters. Additional parameters come from geophysical knowledge of terrestrial tides. When those parameters are converted to secular rates for orbit elements, one obtains dn/dt = \(-25.97\pm 0.05 ''/\)cent\(^{2}\), da/dt = 38.30 ± 0.08 mm/year, and di/dt = ?0.5 ± 0.1 \(\upmu \)as/year. Solving for two terrestrial time delays and an extra de/dt from unspecified causes gives \(\sim \) \(3\times 10^{-12}\)/year for the latter; solving for three LLR tidal time delays without the extra de/dt gives a larger phase lag of the N2 tide so that total de/dt = \((1.50 \pm 0.10)\times 10^{-11}\)/year. For total dn/dt, there is \(\le \)1 % difference between geophysical models of average tidal dissipation in oceans and solid Earth and LLR results, and most of that difference comes from diurnal tides. The geophysical model predicts that tidal deceleration of Earth rotation is \(-1316 ''\)/cent\(^{2}\) or 87.5 s/cent\(^{2}\) for UT1-AT, a 2.395 ms/cent increase in the length of day, and an obliquity rate of 9 \(\upmu \)as/year. For evolution during past times of slow recession, the eccentricity rate can be negative.