Occultation of ε Geminorum by Mars: IV. Oblateness of the martian upper atmosphere

The oblateness of the Martian upper atmosphere was determined from analysis of photoelectric observations of the 8 April 1976 occultation of ε Geminorum by Mars at seven stations. The oblatness is 0.0096 ± 0.0023, consistent with a mean equator-to-pole temperature difference in excess of ～ 50°K, vertically averaged from the surface to the occulation altitude of ～70 km. The astrometric solution provides precise determination of the occultation path relative to the Martian shadow, and absolute vertical alignment of upper atmospheric temperature profiles obtained by inversion of occultation light curves. The observations can be compared directly with models of atmospheric tides computed for the conditions at the suboccultation regions on Mars.     

A paleomagnetic study of the Mull lava succession

Summary. A paleomagnetic study has been made of a succession of 139 non-overlapping basaltic lavas, representing 91 per cent of the longest remaining succession of flows associated with the Paleogene Mull volcano. All the lavas have experienced considerable hydrothermal alteration, probably at up to several million years after initial magnetization and frequently with alteration to the opaque minerals and the production of new potentially magnetic phases. The question of whether directional remagnetization has taken place while preserving within-unit directional consistency and discreteness of unit mean direction is discussed. Extensive directional remagnetization is excluded as an explanation for the data. If stable directions obtained by alternating field remanence cleaning coincide with original TRM directions then a mean pole position for all temporally independent lava directions from the British Tertiary igneous province is at 71.9° N, 167.2° E, with k:22 and α₉₅:3.0°. This pole is significantly different from the geographic pole. If the difference in palaeomagnetic and geographic poles is interpreted in terms of absolute plate motion, then 2010 km of northwards motion of the western part of the Eurasian Plate, at 3.7 cm/yr, has taken place over the last 55 Myr. This motion has implications for the geological history of the Arctic and for the complexity of mantle motions.     

Acceleration of isolated atoms by radiation pressure

If isolated atoms are accelerated by a point source of radiation with a power law spectrum and an intensity sufficiently large that radiation pressure dominates other forces, and if both acceleration and photoionization of the ions are considered, the resulting spectrum of escape velocities is independent of the intensity of the radiation, depending only on the power law index. For power-law indices typical of astrophysical objects, relativistic velocities are not possible.     

Recession of Martian north polar cap: 1979–1980 Viking observations

The 1979–1980 regression curve for the north polar cap of Mars, determined from Viking orbiter images, is compared to Viking observations of the same season 1 (Martin) year earlier and to telescopic observations. Differences between the two years cannot unambigously be attributed to dynamical effects because of uncertainties introduced by limited longitudinal coverage.     

On the evolution of interacting,magnetized, galactic plasmas

The advent of three-dimensional, electromagnetic, and fully relativistic particle simulations allows a detailed study of a magnetized, rotating plasma, galaxy model. When two such models are simulated, an interaction yielding results resembling observational data from double radio sources, including the emission of synchrotron radiation, are obtained. Simulation derived morphologies, radiation intensities, frequency spectra, and isophote patterns are directly compared to observations. The constituent plasma parameters associated with the source Cygnus A are found to ben _e =1.8×10^?3 cm^?3,T=2.8 keV,B=20–30 gamma, with a small population of electrons accelerated to GeV energies by a rotation induced electric field. The results of these simulations, involving a computational resource of five CDC 7600 and five Cray-1 computers, strongly supports an inhomogeneous version of the Klein world model.