Trace constituents of Europa's atmosphere

Europa is bombarded by intense radiation that erodes the surface, launching molecules into a thin “atmosphere” representative of surface composition. In addition to atoms and molecules created in the mostly water ice surface such as H₂O, O₂, H₂, the atmosphere is known to have species representative of trace surface materials. These trace species are carried off with the 10-10⁴ H₂O molecules ejected by each energetic heavy ion, a process we have simulated using molecular dynamics. Using the results of those simulations, we found that a neutral mass spectrometer orbiting ∼100 km above the surface could detect species with surface concentrations above ∼0.03%. We have also modeled the atmospheric spatial structure of the volatile species CO₂ and SO₂ under a variety of assumptions. Detections of these species with moderate time and space resolution would allow us to constrain surface composition, chemistry and to study space weathering processes.     

Interstellar grain size spectrum and circumstellar grain-grain collisions

In this paper, grain-grain collisions, which were recently suggested by Biermann and Harwit (1980) to occur in cool circumstellar envelopes and to be responsible for the interstellar grain size spectrum, are investigated. On the basis of the author's fragmentation theory, it is shown that in the result of such collisions size distributions of the typen(a) a ^–p arise. In the steady-state case the exponentp ranges from 3.4 to 3.7. This result matches well with grain size spectra derived from the interstellar extinction curve.     

On the width distribution of penumbral filaments in sunspots

The mean width and distribution of penumbral filaments of a sunspot have been estimated, using white light photographs obtained with a vacuum, Newtonian type, telescope. Three areas corresponding to the penumbra of a sunspot have been analysed. Data were collected during the solar eclipse of June 1973. The photometric profiles of the Moon limb over the photosphere have been analysed to obtain useful information on both, atmospheric and instrumental perturbation on each exposure. The mean value of the width of penumbral filaments is 0.37 arc sec.Now at INTA-Villafranca, S.T.S., P.O. Box 54065, Madrid, Spain.     

Modulation of galactic cosmic ray anisotropy in heliomagnetosphere: Average sidereal daily variation

We formulate the modulation of galactic anisotropy of cosmic rays caused by their orbital deflection in the heliomagnetosphere. According to the formulation, the average sidereal i-th harmonic daily variation (i = 1,2,…) produced from the anisotropy from an arbitrary direction can be expressed by a linear combination of three basic vectors for uni-directional anisotropy and five basic vectors for bi-directional anisotropy. These vectors are obtained by calculating trajectories of cosmic rays (20?10⁴GV) in a model magnetosphere having Parker's Archimedian spiral structure with a flat or a wavy neutral sheet in either of two polarity states, one is called “Positive” state (away field in the northern space of the neutral sheet and toward field in the southern space) and the other is called “Negative” state (reversed state of the above). Among general characteristics of the sidereal daily variations, the most remarkable features are: (1) The observable variations in low rigidity (? 2000 GV) can be produced even from an uni-directional anisotropy in the direction of the Earth's rotation axis. These variations are strongly dependent on the polarity state, i.e., they are greater in the Positive state than in the Negative. (2) Those produced from the anisotropy in the Equatorial plane also show the polarity dependence but contrary to the previous case they are greater in the Negative state than in the Positive. Their magnitude in the former state is not so small even in the extremely low rigidity (～ 100 GV) as compared with that in high rigidity region. (3) These general characteristics are not altered by the introduction of the wavy neutral sheet or the magnetic irregularities, but the variations are affected more or less, depending on the heliolatitudinal extent of the wavy sheet or the degree of cosmic ray scattering with the irregularities, (4) Sidereal daily variation for the wavy sheet shows a toward-away field dependence similar to that of Swinson-type of solar origin, but the dependence is predominant in intermediate rigidity region (～ 500 GV), in marked contrast to that of solar origin. (5) Finally, whichever its direction may be, the uni-directional anisotropy produces the sidereal diurnal variation common to two conjugate stations in the Northern and Southern hemisphere. If there is any difference between the observed variations at the stations, it should be interpreted as being due to higher order anisotropy such as the bi-directional anisotropy.