Ice Permafrost ‘‘Oases’’ Close to Martian Equator: Planet Neutron Mapping Based on Data of FREND Instrument Onboard TGO Orbiter of Russian-European ExoMars Mission

Astronomy Letters - We present the first results of Mars neutron sounding by FREND instrument onboard ESA’s Trace Gas Orbiter data analysis. Neutron flux mapping is performed with high...     

Modeling radiative forcing by background aerosol on the basis of measurement data

The solar radiation flux incident on the land surface and aerosol radiative forcing are calculated from measurements carried out under clear skies during the summers of 2004 and 2005 at the Zvenigorod Scientific Station (ZSS) of the A.M. Obukhov Institute of Atmospheric Physics, Russian Academy of Sciences. In these calculations, the following five models of aerosol optical parameters are used: a standard model of continental aerosol, a semiempirical model based on measurement data, and three models obtained from calculations on the basis of the Mie scattering theory for the mean size distribution of aerosol particles (which is retrieved from aureole measurements). A study of the sensitivity of the flux and forcing to the choice of aerosol model has shown that the relative error related to the model choice is not large (<5%) for the incident radiation flux and reaches 120% for aerosol forcing at the atmospheric upper boundary. The aerosol radiative forcing at the atmospheric upper boundary is also estimated and, according to our calculations, varies from −15 to −2 W/m². The use (in calculations) of the values of the albedo of single-scattering and the factor of scattering-indicatrix asymmetry at a wavelength of 550 nm, which were obtained for each of the observation periods, has made it possible to significantly refine the value of aerosol radiative forcing (compared to that calculated for the means of these parameters over all the periods). An even more accurate determination of aerosol radiative forcing is possible only when data on the size-distribution of aerosol particles and their chemical composition for a certain situation under analysis are available. As a result of this study, two models of the optical parameters of background aerosol have been proposed for use in radiation calculations: a semiempirical model and a mean model obtained from the calculations based on the theory of scattering. Both models use the values of the albedo of single scattering and the factor of asymmetry (at a wavelength of 550 nm) retrieved from the measurements for each of the observation periods.     

Dirac neutrino magnetic moment and possible time evolution of the neutrino signal from a supernova

We analyze the influence of neutrino helicity conversion, ν _L → ν _R, on the neutrino flux from a supernova attributable to the interaction of the Dirac neutrino magnetic moment with a magnetic field.We show that if the neutrino has a magnetic moment in the interval 10⁻¹³μ_B < μ_ν < 10⁻¹²μ_B and provided that a magnetic field of ∼10¹³–10¹⁴ G exists in the supernova envelope, a peculiar kind of time evolution of the neutrino signal from the supernova attributable to the resonance transition ν _L → ν _R in the magnetic field of the envelope can appear.