Measurement of arrival time of particles in extensive air showers using TDC32

Arrival time of particles in an extensive air shower (EAS) is a key physical parameter to determine its direction. EAS direction is useful for studies of anisotropy and composition of cosmic rays, and search for multi-TeV γ-rays sources. Accurate timing may be used to search exotic phenomena such as production of new particles at extremely high energies available during early stages of development of EAS and also for detecting sub-relativistic hadrons in EAS. Time to digital converters (TDCs) are used to perform this task. Traditional TDCs operate in the START-STOP mode with limited dynamic range and single-hit capability. With the advent of high luminosity collider LHC, need for TDCs with large dynamic range, multi-hit capability and TRIGGERED mode of operation became necessary. A 32 channel TDC was designed for the GRAPES-3 experiment on a CAMAC platform around TDC32, an ASIC developed by micro-electronics group at CERN, Geneva. Four modules were operated in the GRAPES-3 experiment. Here, we present details of the circuit design and their performance over several years. The multi-hit feature of this device was used to study the time structure of particles in the EAS on time scale of ~1 μs. The distribution of time intervals in the multi-hit data shows an exponential profile with a time constant of ~370 ns. These delayed particles are likely to be neutrons produced in the EAS core that were recorded in the scintillator detectors following the relativistic EAS front.     

On the role of cloud adjustment time scale in simulating precipitation with Relaxed Arakawa–Schubert convection scheme

The precipitation by Relaxed Arakawa–Schubert cumulus parameterization in a General Circulation Model (GCM) is sensitive to the choice of relaxation parameter or specified cloud adjustment time scale. In the present study, we examine sensitivity of simulated precipitation to the choice of cloud adjustment time scale (τ_adj) over different parts of the tropics using National Center for Environmental Prediction (NCEP) Seasonal Forecast Model (SFM) during June–September. The results show that a single specified value of τ_adj performs best only over a particular region and different values are preferred over different parts of the world. To find a relation between τ_adj and cloud depth (convective activity) we choose six regions over the tropics. Based on the observed relation between outgoing long-wave radiation and τ_adj,?we propose a linear cloud-type dependent relaxation parameter to be used in the model. The simulations over most parts of the tropics show improved results due to this newly formulated cloud-type dependent relaxation parameter.     

Forest cover monitoring using remote sensing and GIS — A case study in Dhaulkhand range of Rajaji National Park,Uttar pradesh

Rajaji National Park in U.P. is a protected area where large number of nomad population live within the park area. Their dependence on the forest for cattle rearing and firewood has caused degradation of the forests. Proximity to settlements outside the park further adds to the problems. In the present study, forest cover and river, bed changes have been attempted by using temporal aerospace data of the year 1960 and 1993. Subsequently, PAMAP GIS package has been used for the change detection analysis. The study indicates that the land cover changes are mainly due to biotic factors. Some of the important changes in forest cover are: (i) transformation of mixed forest to scrub forest in 67 ha (ii) the sal mixed and mixed sal forest categories have replaced sal forest in 262 ha (iii) significant increase in forest plantation i.e. 2075 ha in the year 1960 to 3793 ha in 1993 (iv) eighteen times increase in Chirpine area, it increased from 13 ha in 1960 to 230 ha in 1993. The land cover changes in 6663 ha (45%) out of 14962 ha of the study area. The consequential changes in the river beds due to the change in the forest cover was also analyzed. During this period river beds with boulders have increased by 87 ha. These river bed changes include lengthening and broadening of river and change in river course.     

Influence of wave approach angle on TLP's response

The current study focuses on the response analysis of triangular tension leg platform (TLP) for different wave approach angles varying from 0° through 90° and its influence on the coupled dynamic response of triangular TLPs. Hydrodynamic loading is modeled using Stokes fifth-order nonlinear wave theory along with various other nonlinearities arising caused by change in tether tension and change in buoyancy caused by set down effect. Low frequency surge oscillations and high frequency tension oscillations of tethers are ignored in the analysis. Results show that wave approach angle influences the coupled dynamic response of triangular TLP in all degrees of freedom except heave. Response in roll and sway degrees of freedom are activated which otherwise are not present in TLP's response to unidirectional waves. Pitch and roll responses are highly stochastic in nature indicating high degree of randomness. Variation in surge, sway and heave responses are nonlinear and are not proportional to change in wave height for the same period.     

Prediction of the Amplitude of Sunspot Cycle 23

A few prediction methods have been developed using the precursor techniques and are found to be successful. On the basis of geomagnetic activity aa indices during the descending phase of the preceding cycle, we have established an expression which predicts the maximum annual mean sunspot number in cycle 23 to be 166.2. This indicates that cycle 23 would be a highly active and historic cycle. The average geomagnetic activity aa index during the ascending phase of cycle 23 would be about 24.9, comparable to 22.2 and 24.8 in cycles 21 and 22, respectively. This further indicates that during the ascending phase of cycle 23 energetic two-ribbon flares will be produced so as to give rise to strong proton events.     

Migration behaviour of river ganga between Allahabad and Buxar using remotely sensed data

Channel migration includes any change of river channel geometry within the context of the cross-section, pattern or network in a drainage basin. To study the dynamic behaviour of a river, measurements taken with conventional ground-based instruments are time-consuming and expensive. Remote sensing techniques are capable of providing a measure of surface variability including dynamic behaviour of channels, reasonably quickly due to availability of the repetitive remotely-sensed data. These data are well suited for the assessment and monitoring of dynamic changes on the surface of the earth. In the present study Landsat MSS and TM data of winter season in the form of false colour composites (FCC) of years 1982 and 1987 were used for the delineation of river Ganga course lying between Allahabad and Buxar. The interpretation of satellite data was carried out using visual interpretation technique for the assessment of channel migration. The shift in river banks delineated from satellite data were measured with respect to river banks identified from topographical base map. The maximum shift observed in mid channel is 4. 55 km while maximum left and right banks shifts are 4.6 and 4.8 km, respectively.     

Statistics of weak lensing at small angular scales: analytical predictions for lower order moments

Weak lensing surveys are expected to provide direct measurements of the statistics of the projected dark matter distribution. Most analytical studies of weak lensing statistics have been limited to quasi-linear scales as they relied on perturbative calculations. On the other hand, observational surveys are likely to probe angular scales less than 10 arcmin, for which the relevant physical length-scales are in the non-linear regime of gravitational clustering. We use the hierarchical ansatz to compute the multipoint statistics of the weak lensing convergence for these small smoothing angles. We predict the multipoint cumulants and cumulant correlators up to fourth order and compare our results with high-resolution ray-tracing simulations. Averaging over a large number of simulation realizations for four different cosmological models, we find close agreement with the analytical calculations. In combination with our work on the probability distribution function, these results provide accurate analytical models for the full range of weak lensing statistics. The models allow for a detailed exploration of cosmological parameter space and of the dependence on angular scale and the redshift distribution of source galaxies. We compute the dependence of the higher moments of the convergence on the parameters Ω and Λ.