Getting SMARTS on Novae: Highlights of the Early Evolution of Nova V475 Sct

There is a disconcerting global trend of retiring telescopes of modest aperture, supplanting them instead with fewer expensive telescopes of quite large aperture. As a consequence, the available time and feasibility of following transient objects in astrophysics is diminishing. We show the utility of having a suite of small to moderate aperture telescopes capable of conducting imaging and spectroscopic observations in a service queue mode. The example we provide is the high-cadence early observations of the classical nova V475 Scuti (2003) carried out with the SMARTS suite of telescopes located at CTIO.     

The Oxaya anticline (northern Chile): a buckle enhanced by river incision?

A prominent structure in the Western Escarpment of the Andes of northern Chile is the Oxaya anticline, dissected at the culmination by >1500 m deep valleys. The distribution of fault and fold structures indicates that the anticline could represent a simple buckle. Buckling thus appears to have accommodated crustal shortening in the plate overriding the subducting plate, between the trench and the Western Cordillera. Cross-cutting relationships between structures and dated strata indicated that the time interval of enhanced buckling coincides with the period when rates of valley formation were enhanced. We thus propose that the formation of this anticline was enhanced by fluvial incision, which is consistent with the results of published theoretical models.     

Corrigendum

Corrigendum

Corrigendum     

Evolution of anthropogenic and biomass burning emissions of air pollutants at global and regional scales during the 1980�C2010 period

Several different inventories of global and regional anthropogenic and biomass burning emissions are assessed for the 1980?C2010 period. The species considered in this study are carbon monoxide, nitrogen oxides, sulfur dioxide and black carbon. The inventories considered include the ACCMIP historical emissions developed in support of the simulations for the IPCC AR5 assessment. Emissions for 2005 and 2010 from the Representative Concentration Pathways (RCPs) are also included. Large discrepancies between the global and regional emissions are identified, which shows that there is still no consensus on the best estimates for surface emissions of atmospheric compounds. At the global scale, anthropogenic emissions of CO, NO_x and SO₂ show the best agreement for most years, although agreement does not necessarily mean that uncertainty is low. The agreement is low for BC emissions, particularly in the period prior to 2000. The best consensus is for NO_x emissions for all periods and all regions, except for China, where emissions in 1980 and 1990 need to be better defined. Emissions of CO need better quantification in the USA and India for all periods; in Central Europe, the evolution of emissions during the past two decades needs to be better determined. The agreement between the different SO₂ emissions datasets is rather good for the USA, but better quantification is needed elsewhere, particularly for Central Europe, India and China. The comparisons performed in this study show that the use of RCP8.5 for the extension of the ACCMIP inventory beyond 2000 is reasonable, until more global or regional estimates become available. Concerning biomass burning emissions, most inventories agree within 50?C80%, depending on the year and season. The large differences between biomass burning inventories are due to differences in the estimates of burned areas from the different available products, as well as in the amount of biomass burned.     

Multisite surface reaction versus transport control during the hydrolysis of a complex oxide

Dissolution experiments of a tholeiite basalt glass carried out at different pH and T (up to 300°C) using a rotatingdisc apparatus show that, depending on pH and T, dissolution can be controlled by one of the following steps: (1) surface reaction; (2) transport of reactants in solution; and (3) mixed reaction. The activation energies of these different processes were found to be 60, 9 and 15–50 kJ mol⁻¹, respectively. Taking account of these results, it appears likely that surface reactions are not rate limiting for the hydrolysis of most crystalline silicate minerals in hydrothermal and metamorphic processes, and that caution should be exercised when predicting rate of reactions at high temperatures solely on the basis of activation energies measured at low temperatures.

Comparison of experimental and theoretical potentiometric titrations of the basalt glass and its constituent oxides indicates that the adsorption of H⁺ and OH⁻ ions at the basalt surface is metal cation specific and that the net adsorption can be predicted from the sole knowledge of the acidity constants of the network-forming constituent oxides. We found that in the acidic pH region dissolution is promoted by the adsorption of H⁺ on al and Fe surface sites while in the basic region, dissolution is promoted by the adsorption of OH⁻ on Si sites. The combination of the two distinct types of surface sites, Al and Fe on the one hand, and Si on the other hand, results in a dissolution rate minimum at a pH-value between the pH_zpc of the two groups of oxide components. Linear regressions with a slope n=3.8 are observed both in acid and alkaline solutions in logarithmic plots of the rate of dissolution vs. the surface charge. The value of n, which represents the number of protonation or hydroxylation steps prior to metal detachment, has been found equal to the mean valence of the network-forming metals.

Combining concepts of surface coordination chemistry with transition state theory afforded characterisation of the activated complexes involved in basalt dissolution processes. From the values obtained for the thermodynamic properties of activation for basalt dissolution it is assumed that the activated complexes formed during the H₂O-promoted dissolution of the basalt glass are more tightly bonded than those formed during H⁺- or OH⁻-promoted dissolution.