Gamma-ray emissions from active galaxies

Recently, gamma rays (>100 MeV) have been detected from some active galaxies (Young and Yu, 1988). These gamma-ray data together with data in other wavebands give severe constraints to the emission mechanisms of radiations from these objects. The synchrotron self-Compton (SSC) model will be applied to these objects in the present work. It will be seen that the predictions from the SSC model agree excellently with the observations.     

Some studies on the solar microwave bursts in relation to the slowly varying component

The occurrences of 5772 microwave bursts recorded by the Sagamore Hill and Manilla Solar Radio Observatories over the period January 1968 to July 1970, covering the maximum phase of the current solar cycle at frequencies 2695, 4995 and 8800 MHz and their energy excesses have been examined in relation to the S-component of solar radio emission. The average slowly varying component has been determined by the superposed epoch method commonly known as the Chree analysis. Similar treatment of the bursts, data, mentioned above has been made to examine any probable 27-day variation and the results obtained have been compared with that of the S-component. Further, spectra of the microwave bursts under the so-called spectral type - inverted U, particularly those having a peak at 4995 MHz, have also been examined and compared with the average spectrum of the S-component. Some of the important results obtained from the present analysis are: (1) the nature of variation of both the average number of occurrences and energy excesses of the microwave bursts follow in general the average 27-day variation of the S-component, (2) the number of occurrences and energy excesses of the microwave bursts are comparatively greater in the ascending phase of the 27-day cycle than those in the descending phase, (3) bursts at progressively higher frequencies originate at lower levels in the solar atmosphere than those of the associated S-component, and (4) the average spectrum of the microwave bursts of inverted U spectral type having a peak at 4995 MHz is quite identical in nature to that of the S-component.     

Diurnal surface temperature difference index derived from ground-based meteorological measurements for assessment of moisture availability

Droughts have become widespread in the Northern Hemisphere, including in China, where they have affected farmland resources on the Loess Plateau. Given this background, we proposed a new index, the Normalized Day-Night Surface Temperature Index (NTDI), to estimate moisture availability (m_a), defined as the ratio of actual to reference evapotranspiration. The NTDI is defined as the ratio of the difference between the maximum daytime surface temperature and the minimum nighttime surface temperature, to the difference between the maximum and minimum surface temperatures estimated from meteorological data by applying energy balance equations.To calculate the index, we used data of 20 clear-sky meteorological observations made during the 2005 growing season at a natural grassland station in the Liudaogou River basin on the Loess Plateau. The NTDI showed a significant inverse exponential correlation with m_a (R² = 0.97, p < 0.001), whereas the numerator of the index (the maximum daytime surface temperature minus the minimum nighttime surface temperature) was only weakly correlated with m_a (R² = 0.24, p = 0.03). This result indicates that normalization relative to the index denominator (maximum surface temperature − minimum surface temperature) dramatically improved the accuracy of the estimate.     

1986年2月初太阳活动区的形态研究

根据Marshall空间飞行中心(MSFC)太阳天文台的矢量磁场测量和云南天文台的黑子细节照相资料,作者们详细研究了1986年2月初太阳大活动区(AR4711)的形态和演化。主要结论如下: i)几乎在活动区中每处地方,相距五小时观测到横向磁场排列方向和黑子半影纤维形态之间存在良好的相似性。 ii)利用文[4]的方法,推断了本活动区强的垂直电流源和强的水平电流渠道。 iii)与1972年8月初著名的太阳活动区(McMath 11976)相类似,沿老活动区的中性线的新浮磁通管的两足点(偶极黑子)的分离运动导致了一个密集四极磁结构的形成。 iv)新浮磁通管似乎是本活动区最强的电流系统。 上述结论将为进一步研究本区电流/磁场环系的演化及其与耀斑活动的关系提供一个基础数据。     

Correlation Between the Sunspot Number,the Total Solar Irradiance,and the Terrestrial Insolation

Our study deals with the correlations between the solar activity on the one hand and the solar irradiance above the Earth’s atmosphere and at ground level on the other. We analyzed the combined ACRIM I+II time series of the total solar irradiance (TSI), the Mauna Loa time series of terrestrial insolation data, and data of terrestrial cosmic ray fluxes. We find that the correlation between the TSI and the sunspot number is strongly non-linear. We interpret this as the net balance between brightening by faculae and darkening by sunspots where faculae dominate at low activity and sunspots dominate at high activity. Such a behavior is hitherto known from stellar analogs of the Sun in a statistical manner. We perform the same analysis for the Mauna Loa data of terrestrial insolation. Here we find that the linear relation between sunspot number and insolation shows more than 1% rise in insolation by sunspot number variations which is much stronger than for the TSI. Our conclusion is that the Earth atmosphere acts as an amplifier between space and ground, and that the amplification is probably controlled by solar activity. We suspect the cosmic rays intensity as the link between solar activity and atmospheric transparency. A Fourier analysis of the time series of insolation shows three dominant peaks: 10.5, 20.4, and 14.0 years. As a matter of fact, the cosmic rays data show the same pattern of significant peaks: 10.7, 22.4, and 14.9 years. This analogy supports our idea that the cosmic rays variation has influence on the transparency of the Earth atmosphere.     

Three-Dimensional (3-D) Reconstructions of EISCAT IPS Velocity Data in the Declining Phase of Solar Cycle 23

The European Incoherent SCATter (EISCAT) radar has been used for remote-sensing observations of interplanetary scintillation (IPS) for a quarter of a century. During the April/May 2007 observing campaign, a large number of observations of IPS using EISCAT took place to give a reasonable spatial and temporal coverage of solar wind velocity structure throughout this time during the declining phase of Solar Cycle 23. Many co-rotating and transient features were observed during this period. Using the University of California, San Diego three-dimensional (3-D) time-dependent computer assisted tomography (C.A.T.) solar-wind reconstruction analysis, we show the velocity structure of the inner heliosphere in three dimensions throughout the time interval of 20 April through 20 May 2007. We also compare to white-light remote-sensing observations of an interplanetary coronal mass ejection (ICME) seen by the STEREO Ahead spacecraft inner Heliospheric Imager on 16 May 2007, as well as to in-situ solar-wind measurements taken with near-Earth spacebourne instrumentation throughout this interval. The reconstructions show clear co-rotating regions during this period, and the time-series extraction at spacecraft locations compares well with measurements made by the STEREO, Wind, and ACE spacecraft. This is the first time such clear structures have been revealed using this 3-D technique with EISCAT IPS data as input.     

Inversion of time-dependent nuclear well-logging data using neural networks

The purpose of this work was to investigate a new and fast inversion methodology for the prediction of subsurface formation properties such as porosity, salinity and oil saturation, using time‐dependent nuclear well logging data. Although the ultimate aim is to apply the technique to real‐field data, an initial investigation as described in this paper, was first required; this has been carried out using simulation results from the time‐dependent radiation transport problem within a borehole. Simulated neutron and γ‐ray fluxes at two sodium iodide (NaI) detectors, one near and one far from a pulsed neutron source emitting at ～14 MeV, were used for the investigation. A total of 67 energy groups from the BUGLE96 cross section library together with 567 property combinations were employed for the original flux response generation, achieved by solving numerically the time‐dependent Boltzmann radiation transport equation in its even parity form. Material property combinations (scenarios) and their correspondent teaching outputs (flux response at detectors) are used to train the Artificial Neural Networks (ANNs) and test data is used to assess the accuracy of the ANNs. The trained networks are then used to produce a surrogate model of the expensive, in terms of computational time and resources, forward model with which a simple inversion method is applied to calculate material properties from the time evolution of flux responses at the two detectors. The inversion technique uses a fast surrogate model comprising 8026 artificial neural networks, which consist of an input layer with three input units (neurons) for porosity, salinity and oil saturation; and two hidden layers and one output neuron representing the scalar photon or neutron flux prediction at the detector. This is the first time this technique has been applied to invert pulsed neutron logging tool information and the results produced are very promising. The next step in the procedure is to apply the methodology to real data.     

Relationships between Holocene sea-level variations,trophic development,and climatic change in Negra Lagoon,Southern Uruguay

Paleolimnological data are presented on trophic development, climatic change and sea level variations in Negra Lagoon, a 142 km² coastal lagoon in southern Uruguay. Using a sediment core that extended to the early Holocene, analyses of organic matter, carbonate, diatoms and opal phytoliths allowed us to track changes in trophic state and paleosalinity levels, which were closely related to Holocene sea level variation, temperature and humidity. Diatom Association Zones (DAZ) corresponding to transgressive events were dominated by marine/brackish taxa and relatively low organic matter values, while those DAZ corresponding to regressive events showed increases in brackish/freshwater diatoms and organic matter. Opal Phytoliths Association Zones (OPAZ) also were identified, temperature and humidity indices were calculated, and climatic trends were inferred. During the middle Holocene (i.e., ~5000–4000 yr BP), cool–dry climatic conditions were established. After ~4000 yr BP, a transition from cool to warm–humid conditions was observed, but fully warm humid conditions established only after ~1700 yr BP. Such climatic amelioration led to increases in trophic state.     

Reconstruction of the North–South Solar Asymmetry with a Kuramoto Model

This paper applies a Kuramoto model of coupled oscillators to investigate the north–south (N–S) solar asymmetry and properties of meridional circulation. We focus our study on the asymmetry of the 11-year phase, which is slight but persistent: only two changes of sign (around 1928 and 1968) are observed in the past century. We present a model of two non-linear coupled oscillators that links the hemispheric phase asymmetry of sunspots with the asymmetry of the meridional flow. We use a Kuramoto model with evolving frequencies and constant symmetric coupling to show how asymmetry in meridional circulation could produce a persistent phase lead of one solar hemisphere over the other. We associate the natural frequencies of the two oscillators with the velocities of the meridional flow cells in the northern and southern hemispheres. We assume the respective circulations to be independent and estimate the value of the relevant cross-equatorial coupling by the coupling coefficient in the Kuramoto model. We find that a persistent N–S asymmetry of sunspots and the change of the leading hemisphere could indeed both be the result of the evolving frequencies of meridional circulation; the necessary asymmetry of the meridional flow may be small; and the cross-equatorial coupling has an intermediate range value. Possible applications of these results in solar dynamo models are discussed.