Thermal history of the Hodgkinson Province and Laura Basin,Queensland: Multiple cooling episodes identified from apatite fission track analysis and vitrinite reflectance data

Apatite fission track analysis and vitrinite reflectance data from outcrop and well samples in the Hodgkinson Province and Laura Basin reveal regional Cretaceous cooling. Apatite fission track analysis appears to define two discrete cooling episodes, in the mid‐Cretaceous (110–100 Ma) and Late Cretaceous (80–70 Ma), although in most samples data allow only definition of a single episode. Rocks now at outcrop cooled from Cretaceous palaeotemperatures generally between 50 and 130°C in the south of the region, and from >100°C in the north. Some samples from the Hodgkinson Province also show evidence for an Early Jurassic cooling episode, characterised by maximum palaeotemperatures varying from at least 95°C (from apatite fission track analysis) to ～200–220°C (from vitrinite reflectance), with cooling beginning at around 200 Ma. Apatite fission track analysis data do not reveal the earlier event in the Laura Basin, but on the basis of vitrinite reflectance data from Permian? units this event is also inferred to have affected the pre‐Jurassic basin units in this region. The regional extent of the Cretaceous cooling episode in the Hodgkinson Province suggests that the elevated palaeotemperatures in this region were most likely due to greater depth of burial, with subsequent cooling due to kilometre‐scale denudation. For a palaeogeothermal gradient of 30°C/km and a palaeosurface temperature of 25°C the total degree of Cretaceous cooling experienced by the samples corresponds to removal of between ～0.8 and >3.0 km of Triassic and younger section removed by denudation, beginning some time between ca 110 and 80 Ma. Higher palaeogradients would require correspondingly lower amounts of removed section. The geology of the Laura Basin suggests that an explanation of the observed Cretaceous palaeotemperatures in this region in terms of deeper burial may be untenable. Heating due to hot fluid flow may be a more realistic mechanism for producing the observed Cretaceous palaeothermal effects in the Laura Basin.     

Further constraints on variation of the fine-structure constant from alkali-doublet QSO absorption lines

Comparison of quasar (QSO) absorption-line spectra with laboratory spectra provides a precise probe for variability of the fine-structure constant, α , over cosmological time-scales. We constrain variation in α in 21 Keck/HIRES Si  iv absorption systems using the alkali-doublet (AD) method in which changes in α are related to changes in the doublet spacing. The precision obtained with the AD method has been increased by a factor of 3:     . We also analyse potential systematic errors in this result. Finally, we compare the AD method with the many-multiplet method, which has achieved an order of magnitude greater precision, and we discuss the future of the AD method.     

The Reliability of Assigned Values from the GeoPT Proficiency Testing Programme from an Evaluation of Data for Six Test Materials that have been Characterised as Certified Reference Materials

Assigned values derived from the GeoPT proficiency testing programme were compared with certified values for six certified reference materials that have been used as test materials in the GeoPT programme. Statistical analysis showed that there were few significant differences between these sets of data and that these differences had no significant impact on the GeoPT assessment when fitness‐for‐purpose criteria were taken into account.     

Quantitative evaluation of the seasonal variations in climate model cloud regimes

An extended cloud-clustering method to assess the seasonal variation of clouds is applied to five CMIP5 models. The seasonal variation of the total cloud radiative effect (CRE) is dominated by variations in the relative frequency of occurrence of the different cloud regimes. Seasonal variations of the CRE within the individual regimes contribute much less. This is the case for both observations, models and model errors. The error in the seasonal variation of cloud regimes, and its breakdown into mean amplitude and time varying components, are quantified with a new metric. The seasonal variation of the CRE of the cloud regimes is relatively well simulated by the models in the tropics, but less well in the extra-tropics. The stratocumulus regime has the largest seasonal variation of shortwave CRE in the tropics, despite having a small magnitude in the climatological mean. Most of the models capture the temporal variation of the CRE reasonably well, with the main differences between models coming from the variation in amplitude. In the extra-tropics, most models fail to correctly represent both the amplitude and time variation of the CRE of congestus, frontal and stratocumulus regimes. The annual mean climatology of the CRE and its amplitude in the seasonal variation are both underestimated for the anvil regime in the tropics, the cirrus regime and the congestus regime in the extra-tropics. The models in this study that best capture the seasonal variation of the cloud regimes tend to have higher climate sensitivities.     

An explanation for the difference between twentieth and twenty-first century land–sea warming ratio in climate models

A land–sea surface warming ratio (or φ) that exceeds unity is a robust feature of both observed and modelled climate change. Interestingly, though climate models have differing values for φ, it remains almost time-invariant for a wide range of twenty-first century climate transient warming scenarios, while varying in simulations of the twentieth century. Here, we present an explanation for time-invariant land–sea warming ratio that applies if three conditions on radiative forcing are met: first, spatial variations in the climate forcing must be sufficiently small that the lower free troposphere warms evenly over land and ocean; second, the temperature response must not be large enough to change the global circulation to zeroth order; third, the temperature response must not be large enough to modify the boundary layer amplification mechanisms that contribute to making φ exceed unity. Projected temperature changes over this century are too small to breach the latter two conditions. Hence, the mechanism appears to show why both twenty-first century and time-invariant CO₂ forcing lead to similar values of φ in climate models despite the presence of transient ocean heat uptake, whereas twentieth century forcing—which has a significant spatially confined anthropogenic tropospheric aerosol component that breaches the first condition—leads to modelled values of φ that vary widely amongst models and in time. Our results suggest an explanation for the behaviour of φ when climate is forced by other regionally confined forcing scenarios such as geo-engineered changes to oceanic clouds. Our results show how land–sea contrasts in surface and boundary layer characteristics act in tandem to produce the land–sea surface warming contrast.     

An Ensemble Study of a January 2010 Coronal Mass Ejection (CME): Connecting a Non-obvious Solar Source with Its ICME/Magnetic Cloud

A distinct magnetic cloud (MC) was observed in-situ at the Solar TErrestrial RElations Observatory (STEREO)-B on 20?–?21 January 2010. About three days earlier, on 17 January, a bright flare and coronal mass ejection (CME) were clearly observed by STEREO-B, which suggests that this was the progenitor of the MC. However, the in-situ speed of the event, several earlier weaker events, heliospheric imaging, and a longitude mismatch with the STEREO-B spacecraft made this interpretation unlikely. We searched for other possible solar eruptions that could have caused the MC and found a faint filament eruption and the associated CME on 14?–?15 January as the likely solar source event. We were able to confirm this source by using coronal imaging from the Sun Earth Connection Coronal and Heliospheric Investigation (SECCHI)/EUVI and COR and Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO)/Large Angle and Spectrometric Coronograph (LASCO) telescopes and heliospheric imaging from the Solar Mass Ejection Imager (SMEI) and the STEREO/Heliospheric Imager instruments. We use several empirical models to understand the three-dimensional geometry and propagation of the CME, analyze the in-situ characteristics of the associated ICME, and investigate the characteristics of the MC by comparing four independent flux-rope model fits with the launch observations and magnetic-field orientations. The geometry and orientations of the CME from the heliospheric-density reconstructions and the in-situ modeling are remarkably consistent. Lastly, this event demonstrates that a careful analysis of all aspects of the development and evolution of a CME is necessary to correctly identify the solar counterpart of an ICME/MC.     

Instruments, Detectors and the Future of Astronomy with Large Ground Based Telescopes

Results of a survey of instrumentation and detector systems, either currently deployed or planned for use at telescopes larger than 3.5 m, in ground based observatories world-wide, are presented. This survey revealed a number of instrumentation design trends at optical, near, and mid-infrared wavelengths. Some of the most prominent trends include the development of vastly larger optical detector systems (> 10⁹ pixels) than anything built to date, and the frequent use of mosaics of near-infrared detectors – something that was quite rare only a decade ago in astronomy. Some future science applications for detectors are then explored, in an attempt to build a bridge between current detectors and what will be needed to support the research ambitions of astronomers in the future.     

An investigation of some large directional discontinuities in the solar wind plasma using multisatellite observations

Eleven large directional discontinuities in the solar wind, simultaneously observed by Explorers 33, 35 and Heos 1 in the period Dec. 1968 to Jan. 1969, have been studied by the triangulation method. Testing the discontinuity normals deduced from the wind speed and timing parameters against those given by the magnetometer observations on different models suggests that 8 were tangential, 2 were rotational while 1 could not be identified. 3 small tangential discontinuities arriving within a period 35 min were also studied and as a result it is suggested that the solar wind remained stratified in separation planes over a distance 0.01 AU during that time. The implication of these results is briefly discussed.