Investigation of carbon monoxide in heavy traffic intersections of municipal districts

In this research, an investigation of carbon monoxide in heavy traffic intersections of Kerman municipal districts in 2003–2004 has been performed. Kerman City is located at the south-eastern part of Iran. Carbon monoxide in highly toxic for human health and natural ecosystems in metropolition districts especially due to high traffic and industrial activities. For this reason, it was decided to investigate and find out the high concentration of CO pollutants in heavy traffic intersections of Kerman City. In this regards 21 heavy traffic squares and intersections were selected and the concentration of CO were measured. In the middle of each month during the year, sampling and measurement were scheduled three times at daily times according 7–12 a.m.; 12–16 and 16–20 p.m. In each period, 12 samples of 5 minutes were collected and CO concentration for 1-hr was calculated. The results obtained indicate that the hourly mean concentrations were lower than WHO guidelines and also lower than measurements of 1989, which has already done. In spite of more cases and higher populations, natural gas distribution was the cause of decline in CO concentrations.     

Impact of quarrying gypsum in a semidesert karstic area (Sorbas,SE Spain)

The Messinian gypsum of Sorbas is intensively karstified, with hundreds of dolines and numerous, highly unusual exo- and endokarstic forms. Amongst these the tumuli are especially spectacular, as are the large caverns, adorned with numerous speleothems, some of which have not been described anywhere else in the World. The extraction of the gypsum has impacted practically all the elements of the environment (landscape, water, soil, subsoil, flora, fauna, etc.) and, in particular, all of the karstic forms. In addition to endangering the caves and the natural treasures that they contain, it affects the surface waters, markedly modifying the hydrographic network. Groundwaters, which now occur in the bottom of a quarry, are also affected.     

Rate of growth of the preserved North American continental crust: Evidence from Hf and O isotopes in Mississippi detrital zircons

Detrital zircons from the Mississippi River have been analyzed for U-Th-Pb, Lu-Hf and O isotopes to constrain the rate of growth of the preserved North American continental crust. One hundred and forty two concordant zircon U/Pb dates on grains mounted in epoxy, obtained by Excimer laser ablation ICP-MS method, resolved six major periods of zircon crystallization: 0-0.25, 0.3-0.6, 0.95-1.25, 1.3-1.5, 1.65-1.95 and 2.5-3.0 Ga. These age ranges match the ages of the recognized lithotectonic units of the North American continent in the hinterland of the Mississippi River. Ninety-six zircons mounted on tape, which show no age zonation and were within 7.5% of concordance, were selected to represent the six U/Pb age time intervals and analyzed for Lu-Hf and O isotope by laser ablation MC-ICP-MS and SHRIMP II, respectively. The δ¹⁸O values of the zircons show a small step increase in the maximum δ¹⁸O values at the Archean-Proterozoic boundary from 7.5‰ in the Archean to 9.5‰, and rarely 13‰, in the Proterozoic and Phanerozoic. However, the average value of δ¹⁸O in zircons changes little with time, showing that the increase in the maximum δ¹⁸O values between 2.5 and 2.0 Ga, which can be attributed to an increase in the sediment content of the source regions of younger granitoids, is largely balanced by an increase in zircons with anomalously low δ¹⁸O, which can be attributed to hydrothermally altered crust in the granitoid source region.εHf_i values for the zircons range from 13.1 to −26.9. Zircons derived from juvenile crust, which we define as having mantle δ¹⁸O (4.5-6.5‰) and lying within error of the Hf depleted mantle growth curve, are rare or absent in the Mississippi basin. The overwhelming majority of zircons crystallized from melted pre-existing continental crust, or mantle-derived magmas that were contaminated by continental crust. The average time difference between primitive crust formation and remelting for each of the recognized lithotectonic time intervals, which is defined as crustal incubation time in this study, is 890 ± 460 Myr. There is also a suggestion that the crustal incubation time increases with decreasing age in the Mississippi basin, which is consistent with the declining role of radioactive heat production in the lower crust with time.The average Hf model age (1.94 Ga), weighted by fraction of zircons in the river load is in reasonable agreement with the Nd model age (1.7 Ga) for the Mississippi River. However, if the zircons are weighted by the area of North America covered by the six recognized periods of zircon crystallization the average model age is 2.35 Ga, which compares favorably with an area weighted Nd model age of 2.36 Ga. Our preferred approach is to use the measured O isotope values to constrain variations in the ¹⁷⁶Lu/¹⁷⁷Hf ratio of the granitic source region from which the zircons crystallized, making the assumption that zircons with mantle-like O isotopic ratios have higher ¹⁷⁶Lu/¹⁷⁷Hf than zircons with higher O isotope values. This method gives an average Hf model age of 2.53 Ga, which is 180 Myr older than the constant ¹⁷⁶Lu/¹⁷⁷Hf calculation.The area weighted zircon Hf model ages show two distinct periods of crust formation for the North American continent, 1.6-2.2 and 2.9-3.4 Ga. At least 50% of the preserved North American continental crust was extracted from the mantle by 2.9 Ga and 90% by 1.6 Ga. Two similar periods of crustal growth are also recognized in Gondwana (Hawkesworth C. J. and Kemp A. I. S. (2006) Using hafnium and oxygen isotopes in zircons to unravel the record of crustal evolution. Chem. Geol.226, 144-162.), suggesting that these may be periods of global continental crustal growth. However, we stress that more data from other continents are required before the hypothesis of episodic global continental growth can be accepted with confidence.     

Late Ordovician stratigraphy northwest of the Sugarloaf,mid-Wales — a discussion

Several modifications are proposed to the Ordovician stratigraphy recently proposed by Mackie and Smallwood (1987), based in particular on the recognition of a major Mynydd Trawsnant anticline on the northwest flank of the Tywi structure and on field relationships indicating the Foel Formation directly to overlay the Caradoc black shale succession and directly to underlay the Craig Las Formation. The Clyn Glas Formation is suggested to have accumulated at a slope base rather than a shelf–slope break.     

Solar transients disturbing the terrestrial magnetic environment at higher latitudes

Geomagnetic field variations during five major Solar Energetic Particle (SEP) events of solar cycle 23 have been investigated in the present study. The SEP events of 1 October 2001, 4 November 2001, 22 November 2001, 21 April 2002 and 14 May 2005 have been selected to study the geomagnetic field variations at two high-latitude stations, Thule (77.5^° N, 69.2^° W) and Resolute Bay (74.4^° E, 94.5^° W) of the northern polar cap. We have used the GOES proton flux in seven different energy channels (0.8–4 MeV, 4–9 MeV, 9–15 MeV, 15–40 MeV, 40–80 MeV, 80–165 MeV, 165–500 MeV). All the proton events were associated with geoeffective or Earth directed CMEs that caused intense geomagnetic storms in response to geospace. We have taken high-latitude indices, AE and PC, under consideration and found fairly good correlation of these with the ground magnetic field records during the five proton events. The departures of the H component during the events were calculated from the quietest day of the month for each event and have been represented as ΔH _THL and ΔH _RES for Thule and Resolute Bay, respectively. The correspondence of spectral index, inferred from event integrated spectra, with ground magnetic signatures ΔH _THL and ΔH _RES along with Dst and PC indices have been brought out. From the correlation analysis we found a very strong correlation to exist between the geomagnetic field variation (ΔHs) and high-latitude indices AE and PC. To find the association of geomagnetic storm intensity with proton flux characteristics we derived the correspondence between the spectral indices and geomagnetic field variations (ΔHs) along with the Dst and AE index. We found a strong correlation (0.88) to exist between the spectral indices and ΔHs and also between spectral indices and AE and PC.     

Comparative Analysis of a Transition Region Bright Point with a Blinker and Coronal Bright Point Using Multiple EIS Emission Lines

Since their discovery 20 year ago, transition region bright points have never been observed spectroscopically. Bright point properties have not been compared with similar transition region and coronal structures. In this work we have investigated three transient quiet Sun brightenings including a transition region bright point (TR BP), a coronal bright point (CBP) and a blinker. We use time-series observations of the extreme-ultraviolet emission lines of a wide range of temperature T (logT=5.3?–?6.4) from the EUV Imaging Spectrometer (EIS) onboard the Hinode satellite. We present the EIS temperature maps and Doppler maps, which are compared with magnetograms from the Michelson Doppler Imager (MDI) onboard the SOHO satellite. Doppler velocities of the TR BP and blinker are ≤?25 km?s^?1, which is typical of transient TR phenomena. The Doppler velocities of the CBP were found to be ≤?20 km?s^?1 with exception of those measured at logT=6.2 where a distinct bi-directional jet is observed. From an EM loci analysis we find evidence of single and double isothermal components in the TR BP and CBP, respectively. TR BP and CBP loci curves are characterized by broad distributions suggesting the existence of unresolved structure. By comparing and contrasting the physical characteristics of the events we find that the BP phenomena are an indication of multi-scaled self-similarity, given the similarities in both their underlying magnetic field configuration and evolution in relation to EUV flux changes. In contrast, the blinker phenomena and the TR BP are sufficiently dissimilar in their observed properties as to constitute different event classes. Our work is an indication that the measurement of similar characteristics across multiple event types holds class-predictive power, and is a significant step towards automated solar atmospheric multi-class classification of unresolved transient EUV sources. Finally, the analysis performed here establishes a connection between solar quiet region CBPs and jets.     

Temporal Pointing Variations of the Solar Dynamics Observatory’s HMI and AIA Instruments on Subweekly Time Scales

Achieving subarcsecond co-registration across varying time-lines of multi-wavelength and instrument images is difficult and requires an accurate characterization of the instrument pointing jitter. We investigated the internal pointing errors on daily and yearly time-scales that occur across the Solar Dynamics Observatory’s (SDO) Atmospheric Imaging Assembly (AIA) and Helioseismic Magnetic Imager (HMI). Using cross-correlation techniques on the AIA 1700 Å passband and the HMI line-of-sight magnetograms from three years of observational image pairs at approximately three-day intervals, internal pointing errors were quantified. Pointing variations of ±?0.26″ (jitter-limited) and ±?0.50″ in the solar East–West (x) and North–South (y) directions, respectively, were measured. AIA observations of the Venus transit in June 2012 were used to measure existing coalignment offsets in all passbands. We found that the AIA passband pointing variations are 〈ΔX _CO〉=1.10″±1.41″ and 〈ΔY _CO〉=1.25″±1.24″ when aligned to the HMI nominal image center, referred to here as the CutOut technique. Minimal long-term pointing variations found between limb and correlation derived pointings provide evidence that the image-center positions provided by the instrument teams achieve single-pixel accuracy on time scales shorter than their characterization. However, daily AIA passband pointing variations of ??1.18″ indicate that autonomous subarcsecond co-registration is not fully achieved yet.     

K-dV solitons in a magnetized dusty plasma with two distinct temperature nonextensive electrons and Maxwellian ions

Nonlinear propagation of dust-acoustic (DA) waves in a magnetized dusty plasma, consisting of negatively charged mobile dust, Maxwellian ions and two distinct temperature nonextensive electrons (following nonextensive q-distribution each), has been studied and analyzed by deriving and solving the Korteweg-de-Vries (K-dV) equation. According to the outcomes of the investigation, the basic characteristics of the DA solitary profiles are found to be strongly modified by the external magnetic field, nonextensivity of the electrons and the respective number densities of the two species of electrons. The results of this investigation can be applied in both laboratory and astrophysical plasma scenarios for understanding the basic features of the localized electrostatic dust-acoustic solitary waves (DASWs).