On increasing monsoon rainstorms over India

Natural Hazards - Using a high-resolution daily gridded rainfall data set for the period 1951–2015, new objective criteria were developed to determine rainstorms over the Indian region during...     

Kinematical distances to open star clusters

Kinematical distances are estimated for six open star clusters. They agree fairly well with the photometric distances. The kinematical distances cannot, at present, be estimated better than the photometric distances. When more accurate proper motion measurements become available the kinematical distances will improve considerably and may then be used to calibrate the cosmic distance scale.     

Book Review: Fractals and Chaos in Geology and Geophysics (2nd Edition) By Donald L. Turcotte Cambridge University Press,Cambridge, 1997, 398 p., $90.00/$42.95 (U.S.) ISBN 0-521-56164-7 (hardback), 0-521-56733-5 (paperback)

Mathematical Geosciences -     

Spatiotemporal variability of multifractal properties of fineresolution daily gridded rainfall fields over India

Natural Hazards - This study investigated the multifractal characteristics of fine resolution (0.25ox0.25°) daily gridded rainfall fields of India over the period 1901–2013 to examine...     

Rapid optical variability in radio-quiet QSOs

We report results of the observations at the Vainu Bappu Observatory and the Uttar Pradesh State Observatory of eight radio-quiet quasi-stellar objects (RQQSOs) during 1996–99. This is a part of our ongoing programme to search for intranight optical variability in RQQSOs. Additional evidence for very rapid variability in three of the five optically bright and very luminous RQQSOs we had observed earlier, 1049−006, 1444+408 and 1630+377, was found. Of the three newly observed RQQSOs, the data for 0043+039 are too noisy to allow conclusions about variability to be drawn, but 0748+294 and 0824+098 show strong hints of microvariability. We also present a summary of the results from our entire programme to date, which includes observations of 16 radio-quiet QSOs and one radio-weak QSO, and compare the general properties of rapid variability in radio-quiet versus radio-loud AGN as determined from our work and that of several other groups. Observations of this kind are likely to play a key role in understanding the relative contributions of accretion discs and relativistic plasma jets to rapid optical fluctuations of AGN.     

Changing water regime and adaptation strategies in Upper Mustang Valley of Upper Kaligandaki Basin in Nepal

Recent climate change has brought changes to the water regime that has affected the traditional agro-pastoral production systems and livelihoods in the Upper Kaligandaki Basin of the Nepal Himalayas. Based on fieldwork and available meteorological and hydrological data, this paper examines the changing water regime and various adaptation strategies that local farmers have adopted in this cold arid region. Increasing temperature and decreasing rainfall and snowfall have resulted in a negative water balance. In this scenario, farmers have implemented six major adaptive strategies in the trans-Himalayan Upper Mustang Valley.     

Stellar contents and star formation in the young cluster Stock 18

We have carried out deep (V ∼ 21 mag) UBVRI photometric study of the star cluster Stock 18. These along with archival Infrared data have been used to derive the basic cluster parameters and also to study the star formation processes in and around the cluster region. The distance to the cluster is derived as 2.8 ± 0.2 kpc while its age is estimated as 6.0 ± 2.0 Myr. Present study indicates that interstellar reddening is normal in the direction of the cluster. The mass function slope is found to be −1.37 ± 0.27 for the mass range 1 < M/M_⊙ < 11.9. There is no evidence found for the effect of mass segregation in main-sequence stars of the cluster. A young stellar population with age between 1-2 Myr have been found in and around the cluster region. The presence of IRAS and AKARI sources with MSX intensity map also show the youth of the Sh2-170 region.     

Introduction

Mathematical Geosciences -