Noble gases in six ordinary chondrites: comparison of exposure ages from noble gases with 26Al ages

Noble gases were redetermined in six ordinary chondrites in order to clarify some discrepancies between cosmic-ray exposure ages from noble gas isotopes and ²⁶Al activity. Generally, samples used for noble-gas analyses were from the same specimen which earlier had been used for ²⁶Al determinations in this laboratory. The high ²¹Ne ages (> 3 × 10⁶ y) for Dimmitt, Menow and Pierceville are consistent with ²⁶A1 activity at saturation level. Variations in both ²¹Ne_c age and ²⁶Al activity, in earlier measurements on Dimmitt, were due to “shielding”; very low noble-gas ages in earlier analyses on Menow and Pierceville were due to mis-labelling of samples. Earlier observation of very low noble-gas ages for Seres, which is inconsistent with its saturation activity of ²⁶Al, is confirmed. Ladder Creek yields consistent ages both from noble gases and ²⁶Al. Malotas contains a substantial excess of ²¹Ne, as revealed by a higher ²¹Ne age, compared to its ²⁶Al age; the excess ²¹Ne is probably due to “pre-irradiation”. Isotopic compositions for trapped Kr and Xe in these chondrites, excepting Seres, are very similar to compositions determined earlier for ordinary chondrites. The Xe in Seres is enriched in light isotopes and is similar to solar Xe.     

A priori testing of sparse adaptive polynomial chaos expansions using an ocean general circulation model database

This work explores the implementation of an adaptive strategy to design sparse ensembles of oceanic simulations suitable for constructing polynomial chaos surrogates. We use a recently developed pseudo-spectral algorithm that is based on a direct application of the Smolyak sparse grid formula and that allows the use of arbitrary admissible sparse grids. The adaptive algorithm is tested using an existing simulation database of the oceanic response to Hurricane Ivan in the Gulf of Mexico. The a priori tests demonstrate that sparse and adaptive pseudo-spectral constructions lead to substantial savings over isotropic sparse sampling in the present setting.     

A nonlinear data‐driven model for synthetic generation of annual streamflows

A hybrid model that blends two non‐linear data‐driven models, i.e. an artificial neural network (ANN) and a moving block bootstrap (MBB), is proposed for modelling annual streamflows of rivers that exhibit complex dependence. In the proposed model, the annual streamflows are modelled initially using a radial basis function ANN model. The residuals extracted from the neural network model are resampled using the non‐parametric resampling technique MBB to obtain innovations, which are then added back to the ANN‐modelled flows to generate synthetic replicates. The model has been applied to three annual streamflow records with variable record length, selected from different geographic regions, namely Africa, USA and former USSR. The performance of the proposed ANN‐based non‐linear hybrid model has been compared with that of the linear parametric hybrid model. The results from the case studies indicate that the proposed ANN‐based hybrid model (ANNHM) is able to reproduce the skewness present in the streamflows better compared to the linear parametric‐based hybrid model (LPHM), owing to the effective capturing of the non‐linearities. Moreover, the ANNHM, being a completely data‐driven model, reproduces the features of the marginal distribution more closely than the LPHM, but offers less smoothing and no extrapolation value. It is observed that even though the preservation of the linear dependence structure by the ANNHM is inferior to the LPHM, the effective blending of the two non‐linear models helps the ANNHM to predict the drought and the storage characteristics efficiently. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Global fisheries losses at the exclusive economic zone level, 1950 to present

Up to one-third of commercial fishery stocks may be overfished at present. By analyzing catch trends and applying an empirical relationship derived from stock assessments, this article tracks the geographic spread of overfishing at the country level in terms of lost catch and lost revenue, from the start of industrialized fishing in 1950-2004. The results tell a cautionary tale of serial depletion to meet the ever-rising demand for fish. Examining country losses with respect to fishery management reveals that overcapacity and excess fishing effort are widespread, but also that recent trends towards sustainability can stabilize or reverse losses (e.g. for Norway, Iceland, the US, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand). Global trade effectively masks the successive depletion of stocks, so that without decisive action to reduce fishing effort, many more stocks will suffer and undernourishment impacts for the major exporting, food-deficit nations will only magnify.     

A new look at the birthrate of supernova remnan

We have reanalysed a homogeneous catalogue of shell-type supernova remnants and we find that the radio data are consistent with a birthrate of one in 22±3 yr. Our approach is based on the secular decrease of surface brightness of the historical remnants whose ages are precisely known. The abovementioned birthrate is significantly higher than most previous estimates which range from one in 50–150 yr, and is consistent with the supernova rate in our galaxy derived from historical observations, as well as with recent estimates of the pulsar birthrate.     

Intensity Oscillation in the Corona as Observed during the Total Solar Eclipse of 29 March 2006

We obtained the images of the eastern part of the solar corona in the Fe xiv 530.3 nm (green) and Fe x 637.4 nm (red) coronal emission lines during the total solar eclipse of 29 March 2006 at Manavgat, Antalya, Turkey. The images were obtained using a 35 cm Meade telescope equipped with a Peltier-cooled 2k × 2k CCD and 0.3 nm pass-band interference filters at the rates of 2.95 s (exposure times of 100 ms) and 2.0 s (exposure times of 300 ms) in the Fe xiv and Fe x emission lines, respectively. The analysis of the data indicates intensity variations at some locations with period of strongest power around 27 s for the green line and 20 s for the red line. These results confirm earlier findings of variations in the continuum intensity with periods in the range of 5 to 56 s by Singh et al. (Solar Phys. 170, 235, 1997). The wavelet analysis has been used to identify significant intensity oscillations at all pixels within our field of view. Significant oscillations with high probability estimates were detected for some locations only. These locations seem to follow the boundary of an active region and in the neighborhood, rather than within the loops themselves. These intensity oscillations may be caused by fast magneto-sonic waves in the solar corona and partly account for heating of the plasma in the corona.     

Class Separability Analysis and Classifier Comparison using Quad-polarization Radar Imagery

The potential of quad polarization radar data for the target discrimination has been analyzed. Quad polarization data of the RADARSAT-2 fine resolution mode has been utilized. Class separability analysis has been carried out on different polarization combinations using Transformed Divergence (TD) method and it is observed that HH-HV/VH-VV polarization combination gives better class separability when compared to other polarization combinations. Classification has been carried out on the optimized polarization combination using Maximum likelihood (MLC) and Support Vector Machine (SVM) classifiers. It is observed that SVM classification gives better classification accuracy compared to MLC. Overall classification accuracy is 93.03% for SVM and 88.78% for MLC. Class separability and classification accuracy comparison results are presented.     

Are many pulsars processed in binary systems?

A detailed statistical analysis of pulsarcurrent is presented. The conclusions reached are the following: (1) The birthrate of pulsars is about one in 75 ± 15 years. (2) There is evidence forinjection of pulsars into the population of solitary pulsars. Such an injection is particularly pronounced in the magnetic field range 12 < logB < 12.6. (3) This is interpreted as due torecycled pulsars being released into the population. (4) We tentatively conclude that as much as 10 – 15% of all pulsars may have been born and processed in binary systems.     

Short-period intensity oscillations in the solar corona observed during the total solar eclipse of 26 February 1998

Encouraged by the detection of high-frequency, low-amplitude continuum intensity oscillations in the solar corona during the total solar eclipse of 1995, we designed and fabricated a six-channel photometer incorporating low-noise Hamamatsu R647 photomultipliers. Fast photometry at five different locations in the solar corona was performed at Don Bosco Mission, Venezuela during the total solar eclipse of 26 February 1998. Three interference filters with passbands of about 150 Å and centered around 4700, 4900, and 5000 Å were used. The photometric data were recorded at a rate of 20 Hz in three channels and 50 Hz in the remaining three channels. The power spectrum analysis of one of the channels that recorded appreciable counts indicates the existence of intensity oscillations in the frequency range 0.01–0.2 Hz. A least-squares analysis yields 90.1, 25.2, and 6.9 s periods for the three prominent components which have amplitudes in the range 0.5–3.5% of the coronal brightness. These periods and their amplitudes are similar to those detected in the coronal intensity oscillations during the 1995 eclipse.