A study of apparently nearby stars with coinciding spectral type and apparent magnitude

At visual inspection of objective-prism plates one frequently detects a pair or higher multiple of apparently identical stellar spectra so close together that they form a conspicuous configuration for the eye. An attempt to analyse this type of objects has given no positive indication that it should be identified with any unique physical phenomenon. A series of explanations is presented. A minor fraction of the objects may constitute widely separated binary components, the identity of which is physically conditioned by the process of formation. For the majority, however, it seems more probable that they form parts of cluster remnants or very small clusters, and that the coincidence of the spectral types is in the first instance to consider as a fortunate random effect that facilitates the detection of the hidden cluster. Although there are several interpretations of the appearance of such ‘miniclusters’, I find it particularly important to take the possibility into consideration that the number of open clusters (and associations) may be considerably greater than one has hitherto assumed—from observational as well as from theoretical point of view.     

North-south asymmetries in the green corona brightness between 1947 and 1976

The north-south asymmetry has been studied using the green emission corona brightness in the period of 1947–1976. (N - S)/(N + S) values are constructed with the 5-deg opposite coronal belts brightnesses between ± 5 and ± 60 deg. Power spectra analyses were performed to study periodicities of these (N - S)/(N + S) values. Two noticeable periodicities (14.5 and 5 yr) have been found.     

Intercomparisons of earth gravity models by means of lumped coefficients: Terms for eccentricity and longitude

The comparisons of the Earth gravity field models by the order of their harmonic coefficients, performed with the basic lumped coefficients (Planet. Space Sci.29, 653, 1981, Paper I) are here extended to cover all harmonic coefficients (both odd and even degree). The lumped coefficients (the “e-terms” and “longitudinal” terms), corresponding to 18 Earth models, are compared mutually (Figs. 2–15). The large differences, observed for various models and orders, are of particular interest: they are gathered into Table 1. The result of Paper I was a little pessimistic. The same is true here: various inhomogeneities, sometimes very large, in the accuracy of the harmonic coefficients must exist—even for low orders. Most of our comments and objections, however, relate to the older Earth models, which have only a historical value now. Our comparisons are only relative ones; an actual test of the accuracy of the models (their calibration) is possible via data with independent status (Kloko?ník, 1982, 1983).     

Separation of deterministic signals using independent component analysis (ICA)

Independent Component Analysis (ICA) represents a higher-order statistical technique that is often used to separate mixtures of stochastic random signals into statistically independent sources. Its benefit is that it only relies on the information contained in the observations, i.e. no parametric a-priori models are prescribed to extract the source signals. The mathematical foundation of ICA, however, is rooted in the theory of random signals. This has led to questions whether the application of ICA to deterministic signals can be justified at all? In this context, the possibility of using ICA to separate deterministic signals such as complex sinusoidal cycles has been subjected to previous studies. In many geophysical and geodetic applications, however, understanding long-term trend in the presence of periodical components of an observed phenomenon is desirable. In this study, therefore, we extend the previous studies with mathematically proving that the ICA algorithm with diagonalizing the 4th order cumulant tensor, through the rotation of experimental orthogonal functions, will indeed perfectly separate an unknown mixture of trend and sinusoidal signals in the data, provided that the length of the data set is infinite. In other words, we justify the application of ICA to those deterministic signals that are most relevant in geodetic and geophysical applications.     

Repeat Ground Track Orbits of the Earth Tesseral Problem as Bifurcations of the Equatorial Family of Periodic Orbits

Orbits repeating their ground track on the surface of the earth are found to be members of periodic-orbit families (in a synodic frame) of the tesseral problem of the Earth artificial satellite. Families of repeat ground track orbits appear as vertical bifurcations of the equatorial family of periodic orbits, and they evolve from retrograde to direct motion throughout the 180 degrees of inclination. These bifurcations are always close to the resonances of the Earth's rotation rate and the mean motion of the orbiter.