Infrared emission from X-ray sources

The infrared emission from some X-ray sources is attributed to proton—cyclotron masering process operating near the polar regions of an accreting neutron star in a binary system.     

The problem of transfer of radionuclide pollution by sea ice

The problem of the radioactive pollution of the ice cover is discussed in this paper. An estimation of the possible transport of the radionuclides by drifting ice from the Kara Sea into the Arctic Ocean is presented. The conclusion about the importance of the contribution of drifting ice to the contamination of the Greenland coastal water is based on the comparison of estimates of the multiyear export of radioactive drifting ice from the Kara Sea with the observed concentrations of the radionuclides in the Greenland coastal water.     

Dependence of cerebral-cortex activation in women on environmental factors

The investigation of female physiological reactions to different meteorological conditions and space weather is relevant, since there are little experimental findings in this field. The purpose of this work is to determine how the level of cerebral-cortex activity in women depends on the meteorological and cosmophysical parameters of weather and space processes. We studied electroencephalograms (EEGs) recorded at rest in the sitting position and with eyes closed. We performed four series of measurements of brain bioelectrical activity from February to June 2013. We found that the level of cortical activity recorded by EEG changed significantly during these 6 months. Significant differences were detected between the cortical activity and the parameters of weather and space processes; namely, an increase in the air temperature and a decrease in the wind speed and cosmic-ray energy result in a decrease in the activity rate of the right occipital lobe.     

Magnetic stratigraphy of the Permian-Triassic traps in the Kotui River valley (Siberian Platform): New paleomagnetic data

The Permian-Triassic effusive traps in the Kotui River valley (Siberian Platform) were studied in detail by a paleomagnetic method, resulting in a summarized magnetic stratigraphic section of the studied sequence. The presence of the reversed polarity zone corresponding to the Khardakh Formation was argued for the section basement. Inside the Kogotok Group, the boundary between the direct and reversed polarity zones occurs in the lower part of the Onkuchak Formation and mismatches the boundary between the formations of the Kogotok Group, as was accepted before. These results contradict the presence of the transition record between the direct and reversed polarity zones in basalts of the lower part of the Onkuhcak Formation. The strong transitional interval between the Ivakinsk Formation and the upper parts of the Nadezhda Formation of the Norilsk section has no analogs in the Kotui section. This means the absence of any significant volcanic activity in the Maimecha-Kotui province during the intense eruptions in the Norilsk region resulting in origination of the greater part of the lower formations of the trap sequence. These data and possible correlations of the traps of the Kotui River valley and Norilsk region indicate that the Norilsk and Maimecha-Kotui sections were temporally overlapped.     

Influence of carbon dioxide clouds on early martian climate.

Recent studies have shown that clouds made of carbon dioxide ice may have warmed the surface of early Mars by reflecting not only incoming solar radiation but upwelling IR radiation as well. However, these studies have not treated scattering self-consistently in the thermal IR. Our own calculations, which treat IR scattering properly, confirm these earlier calculations but show that CO2 clouds can also cool the surface, especially if they are low and optically thick. Estimating the actual effect of CO2 clouds on early martian climate will require three-dimensional models in which cloud location, height, and optical depth, as well as surface temperature and pressure, are determined self-consistently. Our calculations further confirm that CO2 clouds should extend the outer boundary of the habitable zone around a star but that there is still a finite limit beyond which above-freezing surface temperatures cannot be maintained by a CO2-H2O atmosphere. For our own Solar System, the absolute outer edge of the habitable zone is at approximately 2.4 AU.     

Nonlinear evolution of the atmosphere and ionosphere above a seismic epicenter. II. Numerical simulation

The results of numerical simulation of the nonlinear evolution of an acoustic pulse propagating above an earthquake epicenter with preset energy parameters are presented. The interaction with charged plasma particles in the lower ionosphere is taken into account. The interaction between neutral and charged components is described by the diffusion mechanism of the disturbance of the density of charged ionospheric plasma components. The simulation was carried out for three values of earthquake magnitude M = 5; 6; and 7. It is ascertained that the numerical simulation results agree with analytical estimates made during the study of main regularities of seismic events that induce weak nonlinear effects in the atmosphere.     

Magnetic stratigraphy of the Ordovician in the lower reach of the Kotuy River: the age of the Bysy-Yuryakh stratum and the rate of geomagnetic reversals on the eve of the superchron

Until recently, the existing data prevented the geophysicists from accurately dating the Bysy-Yuryakh stratum, which outcrops in the middle reach of the Kotuy River, constraining the time of its formation to a wide interval from the end of the Late Cambrian to the beginning of the Silurian. The obtained paleomagnetic data unambiguously correlate the Bysy-Yuryakh stratum to the Nyaian regional stage and constrain its formation, at least a considerable part of it, by the Tremadocian. This result perfectly agrees with the data on the Bysy-Yuryakh conodonts studied in this work and yields a spectacular example of the successful application of paleomagnetic studies in solving important tasks of stratigraphy and, correspondingly, petroleum geology. Within the Bysy-Yuryakh stratum, we revealed a large normal-polarity interval corresponding to the long (>1 Ma) period when the geomagnetic reversals were absent. This result, in combination with the data for the Tremadocian and Middle–Upper Cambrian sequences of the other regions, indicates that (1) the rate of occurrence of the geomagnetic reversals on the eve of the Ordovician Moyero superchron of reversed polarity was at most one reversal per Ma; (2) the superchron does not switch on instantaneously but is preceded by a certain gradual change in the operation conditions of the dynamo mechanism which, inter alia, manifests itself by the reduction of the frequency of geomagnetic reversals with the approach of the superchron. This finding supports the views according to which a process preparing the establishment of the superchrons takes place at the core–mantle boundary.