Progress in coronal physics

This paper reviews research highlights of the past five years. Considerable progress has been made in observing and interpreting coronal mass ejections. The stability of coronal loops is much better understood and new observations of the onset of wind streams in coronal holes have been made. Observations from the Solar Maximum Mission should helpt to clarify the physics of the active corona.The mechanisms that heat the corona and accelerate the high-speed wind streams remain to be identified, however.Operated by the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy, Inc., under contract with the National Science Foundation.     

Infrared spectrophotometry of Comet IRAS-Araki-Alcock (1983d): a bare nucleus revealed?

Spectra of the central core and surrounding coma of Comet IRAS-Araki-Alcock (1983d) were obtained at 8–13 μm on 11 May and 2–4 μm on 12 May 1983. Spatially resolved measurements at 10 μm with a 4-arcsec beam showed that the central core was more than 100 times brighter than the inner coma only 8 arcsec away; for radially outflowing dust, the brightness ratio would be a factor of 8. The observations of the central core are consistent with direct detection of a nucleus having a radius of approximately 5 km. The temperature of the sunlit hemisphere was > 300 K. Spectra of the core are featureless, while spectra of the coma suggest weak silicate emission. The spectra show no evidence for icy grains. The dust producton rate on 11.4 May was ～ 10⁵ g/sec, assuming that the gas flux from the dust-producing areas on the nucleus was ～ 10^?5 g/cm²/sec.     

Relative and absolute ages of individual craters and the rate of infalls on the moon in the post-imbrium period

This paper contains a reasonably successful attempt to determine relative ages and then absolute ages of individual craters younger than Imbrium, and the rate of infalls onto the Moon as a function of time. After the tail of the massive premare bombardment became depleted before 3 aeons (1 aeon = 10⁹ years) ago, there was a period of minimal numbers of infalls. The rate of infalls increased rather steadily from this minimum to the present. The rate in the geologically recent past (0.3 aeon) was about two times that found for the period immediately after the last of the major lave outpourings (3.2 aeons). Absolute ages were determined for large craters (?8 km) from crater counts on the surfaces within and on the rims of the large craters. Key dates were 0 and 0.3 aeon for terrestrial meteoritic craters, 3.2, 3.5, 3.8, and 3.82 aeons for the various mare surfaces according to the determinations of D.E. Wilhelms (1980, Geologic history of the Moon, U.S. Geol. Surv. Prof. Pap.) and 3.85 aeons from the formation of Imbrium.     

The Martian hydrologic cycle: Effects of CO2 mass flux on global water distribution

The Martian CO₂ cycle, which includes the seasonal condensation and subsequent sublimation of up to 30% of the planet's atmosphere, produces meridional winds due to the consequent mass flux of CO₂. These winds currently display strong seasonal and hemispheric asymmetries due to the large asymmetries in the distribution of insolation on Mars. It is proposed that asymmetric meridional advection of water vapor on the planet due to these CO₂ condensation winds is capable of explaining the observed dessication of Mars' south polar region at the current time. A simple model for water vapor transport is used to verify this hypothesis and to speculate on the effects of changes in orbital parameters on the seasonal water cycle.     

Deep-ocean piezometer probe technology for geotechnical investigations

Two single-sensor piezometer probes, 8 mm in diameter, were developed for deep-ocean geotechnical investigations. These probes were tested in a hyperbaric chamber pressurized to 55 MPa (8000 psi). Testing was performed for a period of five weeks under high hydrostatic pressure with the probes inserted in reconstituted illitic marine sediment. Small differential pore-water pressures were generated in response to both mechanically and thermally generated forcing functions. During deep-ocean simulated pressure tests, the sensors exhibited excellent sensitivity and stability. These developments in piezometer-probe technology provide a quantitative means of assessing important geotechnical parameters of fine-grained seabed deposits.     

The FAST/SKA site selection in Guizhou province

Many karst depressions with diameters of 300 m to 500 m, suitable for constructing Arecibo-style radio telescopes, were identified in the south of Guizhou Province by Remote Sensing (RS) and Geographic Information System (GIS) technologies together with field investigations. Fundamental topography and landform databases were established for 391candidate depressions, and using GIS the3-dimensional images of depressions, at a scale of 1:10000, were then simulated to fit a spherical antenna. This revised version was published online in July 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.