脉冲星射电轮廓中高斯成分在主脉冲和中间脉冲的不同分布

研究了高斯辐射成分在可视点所画出轨迹上的分布,这个可视点因脉冲星的转动而作非匀速度运动.通过假设辐射区域围绕磁轴均匀分布,一个高斯辐射成分便对应于可视轨迹划过的一个辐射区域.因为演示辐射区域在可视轨迹上是不均匀的分布,因此高斯成分沿轨迹也是不均匀的,而高斯成分的密度在磁轴与视线距离最近时为最大.高斯成分的分布取决于脉冲星的两个角度:旋转轴和视线之间的夹角,以及磁轴和旋转轴之间的倾角.基于此模型,一个脉冲星平均轮廓中观察到的多个高斯成分便对应于可视轨迹在特定的转动相位范围内的辐射区域.演示了脉冲星旋转的近侧和远侧的相位,分别对应的主脉冲和中间脉冲,两者高斯成分的数量和分布是不同的.而且还发现,沿可视轨迹上的辐射区域总数与围绕磁轴的辐射区域的总数是不同,并且预测的辐射区域数目会因忽略可见点的运动而明显不同.拟合表明脉冲星轮廓的高斯成分的形状和数量可能与实际构成轮廓的成分的形状和数量不同.以PSR B0826–34的辐射为例,并假设辐射来自单一磁极.     

Mesh area vis-à-vis blast performance in a limestonequarry of the Philippines

The present research paper is a case study in a limestone quarry in the Philippines where major problems in terms of improper fragmentation (large boulder count and poor pay-loader performance), poor wall control, and poor heave characteristics of the muck pile were witnessed. The paper highlights the role of modifying the firing pattern and, also, the application of stemming plug without incorporating any change in the stemming column length due to which incremental expansion in the mesh area could be implemented to determine the optimum mesh area. The optimum mesh area, due to the said changes in the blast design, was considerably larger in comparison to the pre-existing mesh area. The study has also highlighted the importance of indirect methods for characterizing and precisely adjudging the blast performance.     

Evidence of internal gravity waves in the lower ionosphere

Temperature and wind measurements extending up to 95 km have been made with rocket-grenade experiments at Natal, Brasil. On many occasions the temperature and wind speed above 60 km show uniformly spaced maxima and minima. In one series of these experiments four rockets were launched during a period of 18 hr. A comparison of these spaced observations gives an indication of the propagating character of the maxima and minima and also suggests a downward phase propagation. The perturbations in the temperature and the wind speed are similar in form but they appear to differ in phase. The wavelike appearance of the temperature profiles is believed to be caused by the adiabatic heating and cooling associated with propagating gravity waves. The wavelength obtained from these observations is 10–12 km which coincides with the expected vertical wavelength of 12 km for the dominant gravity wave in this altitude range. The observed temperature variations are also in agreement with the computed values for the prevailing conditions.     

Seasonal inhomogeneity of soot particles over the central Indo-Gangetic Plains,India: Influence of meteorology

Black carbon (BC) particles play a unique and important role in earth’s climate system. BC was measured (in-situ) in the central part of the Indo-Gangetic Plains (IGP) at Varanasi, which is a highly populated and polluted region due to its topography and extensive emission sources. The annual mean BC mass concentration was 8.92 ± 7.0 µg m ^-3, with 34% of samples exceeding the average value. Seasonally, BC was highest during the post-monsoon and winter periods (approximately 18 µg m ^-3) and lower in the premonsoon/ monsoon seasons (approximately 6 µg m ^-3). The highest frequency (approximately 46%) observed for BC mass was in the interval from 5 to 10 µg m ^-3. However, during the post-monsoon season, the most common values (approximately 23%) were between 20 and 25 µg m ^-3. The nighttime concentrations of BC were approximately twice as much as the daytime values because of lower boundary layer heights at nighttime. The Ångström exponent was significantly positively correlated (0.55) with ground-level BC concentrations, indicating the impact of BC on the columnar aerosol properties. The estimated mean absorption Ångström exponent was 1.02 ± 0.08 µg m ^-3, indicating that the major source of BC was from fossil fuel combustion. Significant negative correlations between BC mass and meteorological parameters indicate a pronounced effect of atmospheric dynamics on the BC mass in this region. The highest mean BC mass concentration (18.1 ± 6.9 µg m ^-3) as a function of wind speed was under calm wind conditions (38% of the time).     

Land use mapping of kandi belt of jammu region

Digital image processing on IRS-1C-LISS-III data acquired on October 13, 1998 has been carried out to map the land use classes in part of the Kandi belt, the submontane tract lying in the Outer Himalaya of Jammu region of Jammu and Kashmir. Supervised classification has been combined with rule-based classification to delineate various land use classes. The various categories of land use in the area recognized are forest, agriculture, riverbed, urban, fallow, wasteland and water. Forest is dominant along the upper boundary of the Kandi belt (along Siwalik) and on ridges, whereas, agriculture land is mainly along the lower boundary (along Sirowal) of the study area.     

Traditional Ecological Knowledge and Community-based Natural Resource Management in Northeast India

Community-based natural resource management in northeast India has a long history. Indigenous knowledge and adaptation are the collective information, with improvement from generation to generation. The expectation is that under community control, local expertise on biodiversity will play a significant role in natural resource management through traditional practices. This paper discusses the characteristics and application of the traditional ecological knowledge of aboriginal peoples in northeast India and its role in natural resource management. Examples are provided in two different eco-cultural landscapes, i.e., Demazong (the Buddhist eco-cultural landscape in Sikkim Himalaya) and the Apatani eco-cultural landscape in Arunachal Pradesh, which illustrate the utility value of traditional ecological knowledge in sustainable natural resource management. Both eco-cultural landscapes are indeed very complex and highly evolved systems with high levels of economic and ecological efficiencies. The paper concludes that traditional ecological knowledge systems and institutions could serve as entry points into the sustainable utilization and management of natural resources. This could be achieved through the exploration of the cultural practices of the local people and integrating useful aspects into the modern natural resource management expertise. With rapidly depleting biodiversity in the developing tropic regions, there is a greater utilization today than ever before of the value of respecting the "Sacred" as a tool towards better conservation of natural resources.     

The evolution of loop structures in flux rings within the solar convection zone

Choudhuri and Gilman (1987) considered certain implications of the hypothesis that the magnetic flux within the Sun is generated at the bottom of the convection zone and then rises through it. Taking flux rings symmetric around the rotation axis and using reasonable values of different parameters, they found that the Coriolis force deflects these flux rings into trajectories parallel to the rotation axis so that they emerge at rather high latitudes. This paper looks into the question of whether the action of the Coriolis force is subdued when the initial configuration of the flux ring has non-axisymmetries in the form of loop structures. The results depend dramatically on whether the flux ring with the loops lies completely within the convection zone or whether the lower parts of it are embedded in the stable layers underneath the convection zone. In the first case, the Coriolis force supresses the non-axisymmetric perturbations so that the flux ring tends to remain symmetric and the trajectories are very similar to those of Choudhuri and Gilman (1987). In the second case, however, the lower parts of the flux ring may remain anchored underneath the bottom of the convection zone, but the upper parts of the loops still tend to move parallel to the rotation axis and emerge at high latitudes. Thus the problem of the magnetic flux not being able to come out at the sunspot latitudes still persists after the non-axisymmetries in the flux rings are taken into account.National Center for Atmospheric Research is sponsored by the National Science Foundation.     

Experimental and parametric investigation of effects of built-in staircases on the dynamics of RC buildings

Past earthquakes, in many instances, have demonstrated poor performance of commonly used built-in staircase configurations. Codal provisions in India pertaining to staircases present a rather simple approach wherein the effects of built-in staircases on the overall dynamic properties or on the local behavior of structures are not addressed explicitly. Studies in the past have highlighted the scale of such effects, but most of them have relied completely on analytical models of buildings. This study analyzes the adequacy of the codal provisions by investigating two finite element (FE) models calibrated using ambient and forced vibration measurements. The effects of variations in building height, layout of staircase in plan, and presence of masonry infill walls in stairwells are also examined. The codal guidelines regarding empirical estimation of period and provision of enclosure walls around built-in staircases are found to be adequate. However, for the case of built-in staircases without enclosure walls, the force and displacement demands on landing beams are found to be considerably high. Drift-based approaches to estimate these demands are proposed.     

Ocean Model Simulation of Southern Indian Ocean Surface Currents

The dynamic importance of the Southern Indian Ocean (SIO) lies in the fact that it connects the three major world oceans: the Pacific, Atlantic, and Indian Oceans. Modeling study has been used to understand the circulation pattern of this very important region. Simulation of SIO (10°N-60°S and 30°E-120°E) is performed with z-coordinate Ocean General Circulation Model (OGCM) viz; MOM3.0 and the results have been compared with observed ship drift data. It is found that except near coastal boundaries and in equatorial region, the simulated current reproduce most well known current pattern such as Antarctic Circumpolar Current (ACC), South Equatorial Current (SEC) etc. and bears a resemblance to that of the observed data; however the magnitude of the surface current is weaker in model than the observed data, which may be due to deficiency in the forcing field and boundary condition and problem with observed data. The annual mean wind stress curl computed over the oceanic domain reveals about ACC and its similar importance. The way in which the ocean responds to the windstress and vertically integrated transport using model output is fascinating and rather good.