Eight-color photometry of Hyperion,Iapetus, and Phoebe

Eight-color spectrophotometry was obtained of Phoebe, Hyperion, and the dark side of Iapetus. Our observed V magnitudes and Voyager-derived diameters yield geometric albedos of 0.07 for Iapetus (with some bright-side contamination), 0.06 for Phoebe, and limits of 0.19 to 0.25 for Hyperion (using the satellite's maximum and minimum dimensions, respectively). Hyperion and Iapetus have quite reddish spectra similar to each other and the spectra of D-type asteroids. Hyperion, however, has a much higher albedo than the dark side of Iapetus or any D-type asteroid measured to date. The mean spectrum of Phoebe is much flatter, with a broad absorption feature near 1 μm. Therefore the surface materials of Phoebe and the dark side of Iapetus are optically quite different, a result that constraints the possible modes of interaction between Phoebe and the other two satellites.     

Evidence from Ar/Ar ages of lunar impact glasses for an increase in the impact rate ∼800 Ma ago

Geochemical and ⁴⁰Ar/³⁹Ar data on nine impact glasses from the Apollo 14, 16, and 17 landing sites indicate at least seven distinct impact events with ages ∼800 Ma. Rock fragments analyzed by Barra et al. [Barra F., Swindle T. D., Korotev R. L., Jolliff B. L., Zeigler R. A., and Olsen E. (2006) ⁴⁰Ar-³⁹Ar dating of Apollo 12 regolith: implications for the age of Copernicus and the source of nonmare materials, Geochim. Cosmochim. Acta,70, 6016-6031] from the Apollo 12 landing site and some Apollo 12 spherules reported by Levine et al. [Levine J., Becker T. A., Muller R. A., Renne P. R. (2005) ⁴⁰Ar/³⁹Ar dating of Apollo 12 impact spherules, Geophys. Res. Let., 32, L15201, doi: 10.1029/2005GL022874.] show ∼800 Ma ages, close to the accepted age of the Copernicus event, 800 ± 15 Ma [Bogard D. D., Garrison D. H., Shih C. Y., and Nyquist L. E. (1994) ³⁹Ar-⁴⁰Ar dating of two lunar granites: The age of Copernicus, Geochim. Cosmochim. Acta, 58, 3093-3100]. These Apollo 12 samples are thought to have been affected by material from the Copernicus event since there is a Copernicus ray going through the Apollo 12 landing site. When all of these data are viewed collectively, including an Apollo 16 glass bomb [Borchardt R., Stöffler D., Spettel B., Palme H. and Wänke H. (1986) Composition, structure, and age of the Apollo 16 subregolith basement as deduced from the chemistry of post-Imbrium melt bombs. In Proceedings, 17th Lunar and Planetary Science Conference, pp. E43-E54], and in the context of diverse compositional range and sample location, there is a suggestion that there may have been a transient increase in the global lunar impact flux at ∼800 Ma. Therefore, the Copernicus impact event could have been one of many. If correct, there should be evidence for this increased impact flux around 800 Ma ago in the age statistics of terrestrial impact samples.     

Identification of the principal patterns of summer moisture transport in South America and their representation by WCRP/CMIP3 global climate models

The goal of this study is to assess the ability of a set of global climate models (GCMs) to represent the main regional spatial patterns of austral summer moisture transport in South America in order to evaluate if one of the possible causes of GCMs misestimating summer precipitation in this region could be associated with an erroneous representation of these patterns. For this purpose, NCEP/NCAR reanalysis and 20 GCMs from the WCRP/CMIP3 multi-model dataset for the period 1960–1999 were considered. Extreme cases of moisture transport patterns were selected to assess their association with rainfall anomalies. Results obtained indicate that only some aspects of water vapor transport and convergence in South America as well as the associated precipitation anomalies can be reproduced adequately by GCMs. Finally, a case study is presented showing that one of the moisture transport patterns identified was observed during December 2008–February 2009.     

Linking MODFLOW with an Agent-Based Land-Use Model to Support Decision Making

The U.S. Geological Survey numerical groundwater flow model, MODFLOW, was integrated with an agent-based land-use model to yield a simulator for environmental planning studies. Ultimately, this integrated simulator will be used as a means to organize information, illustrate potential system responses, and facilitate communication within a participatory modeling framework. Initial results show the potential system response to different zoning policy scenarios in terms of the spatial patterns of development, which is referred to as urban form, and consequent impacts on groundwater levels. These results illustrate how the integrated simulator is capable of representing the complexity of the system. From a groundwater modeling perspective, the most important aspect of the integration is that the simulator generates stresses on the groundwater system within the simulation in contrast to the traditional approach that requires the user to specify the stresses through time.     

The polarization of Titan

New polarization observations of Titan in three spectral regions are presented. The results are not consistent with scattering from either an ordinary planetary surface or a pure molecular atmosphere. Apparently an opaque cloud layer with a strongly uv-absorbing constituent is needed.     

Chemistry in plumes of high-flying aircraft with H2 combustion engines: a modelling study

Recent discussions on high-speed civil transport (HSCT) systems have renewed the interest in the chemistry of supersonic-aircraft plumes. The engines of these aircraft emit large concentrations of radicals like O, H, OH, and NO. In order to study the effect of these species on the composition of the atmosphere, the detailed chemistry of an expanding and cooling plume is examined for different expansion models.For a representative flight at 26 km the computed trace gas concentrations do not differ significantly for different models of the expansion behaviour. However, it is shown that the distributions predicted by all these models differ significantly from those adopted in conventional meso-scale and global models in which the plume chemistry is not treated in detail. This applies in particular to the reservoir species HONO and H₂O₂.