Implications of climate change on streamflow of a snow-fed river system of the Northwest Himalaya

Air temperature and snow cover variability are sensitive indicators of climate change. This study was undertaken to forecast and quantify the potential streamflow response to climate change in the Jhelum River basin. The implications of air temperature trends (+0.11°C/decade) reported for the entire north-west Himalaya for past century and the regional warming (+0.7°C/decade) trends of three observatories analyzed between last two decades were used for future projection of snow cover depletion and stream flow. The streamflow was simulated and validated for the year 2007-2008 using snowmelt runoff model (SRM) based on in-situ temperature and precipitation with remotely sensed snow cover area. The simulation was repeated using higher values of temperature and modified snow cover depletion curves according to the assumed future climate. Early snow cover depletion was observed in the basin in response to warmer climate. The results show that with the increase in air temperature, streamflow pattern of Jhelum will be severely affected. Significant redistribution of streamflow was observed in both the scenarios. Higher discharge was observed during spring-summer months due to early snowmelt contribution with water deficit during monsoon months. Discharge increased by 5% 40% during the months of March to May in 2030 and 2050. The magnitude of impact of air temperature is higher in the scenario-2 based on regional warming. The inferences pertaining to change in future streamflow pattern can facilitate long term decisions and planning concerning hydro-power potential, waterresource management and flood hazard mapping in the region.     

Development of a three channel photometer for UPSO, Naini Tal

The design and performance of a portable three channel photometer installed at the Uttar Pradesh State Observatory (UPSO), Naini Tal is described. The photometer is modular and the whole unit can be disassembled as individual channels such that the system can also be used as a single channel or two channel photometer. The system also has provision to monitor a guide star. The instrument was put into operation since November 1999 on the 1m Sampurnanand telescope at UPSO, Naini Tal. Since then, it is used extensively for the ‘Survey of rapidly oscillating Ap (roAp) stars in the northern sky’ from UPSO. Observational results using this new photometer in its initial phase of operation are discussed. The advantage of having continuous sky measurement is demonstrated.     

The structure of black hole magnetospheres I. Schwarzschild black holes

We introduce a multipolar scheme for describing the structure of stationary, axisymmetric, force-free black hole magnetospheres in the '3+1' formalism. We focus here on Schwarzschild spacetime, giving a complete classification of the separable solutions of the stream equation. We show a transparent term-by-term analogy of our solutions with the familiar multipoles of flat-space electrodynamics. We discuss electrodynamic processes around disc-fed black holes in which our solutions find natural applications: (i) 'interior' solutions in studies of the BlandfordZnajek process of extracting the rotational energy of holes, and of the formation of relativistic jets in active galactic nuclei and 'microquasars'; (ii) 'exterior' solutions in studies of accretion disc dynamos, disc-driven winds and jets. On the strength of existing numerical studies, we argue that the poloidal field structures found here are also expected to hold with good accuracy for rotating black holes, except for the cases of the maximum possible rotation rates. We show that the closed-loop exterior solutions found here are not in contradiction with the MacdonaldThorne theorem, as these solutions, which diverge logarithmically on the horizon of the hole , only apply to those regions that exclude .     

A class of well behaved charged analogues of Vaidya–Tikekar type super-dense star

In the present article a model of well behaved charged superdense star with surface density 2×10¹⁴ gm/cm³ is constructed by considering a static spherically symmetric metric with t=const hypersurfaces as hyperboloid. So far well behaved model described by such metric could not be obtained. Maximum mass of the star is found to be 0.343457M _⊙ and the corresponding radius is 9.57459 km. The red shift at the centre and on the surface are given as 0.068887 and 0.031726 respectively.     

Multiwavelength Observations of an Eruptive Flare: Evidence for Blast Waves and Break-Out

Images of an east-limb flare on 3 November 2010 taken in the 131 Å channel of the Atmospheric Imaging Assembly onboard the Solar Dynamics Observatory provide a convincing example of a long current sheet below an erupting plasmoid, as predicted by the standard magnetic reconnection model of eruptive flares. However, the 171 Å and 193 Å channel images hint at an alternative scenario. These images reveal that large-scale waves with velocity greater than 1000 km?s^?1 propagated alongside and ahead of the erupting plasmoid. Just south of the plasmoid, the waves coincided with type-II radio emission, and to the north, where the waves propagated along plume-like structures, there was increased decimetric emission. Initially, the cavity around the hot plasmoid expanded. Later, when the erupting plasmoid reached the height of an overlying arcade system, the plasmoid structure changed, and the lower parts of the cavity collapsed inwards. Hot loops appeared alongside and below the erupting plasmoid. We consider a scenario in which the fast waves and the type-II emission were a consequence of a flare blast wave, and the cavity collapse and the hot loops resulted from the break-out of the flux rope through an overlying coronal arcade.     

Some Homogeneous Bianchi type IX Viscous Fluid Cosmological Models with a Varying Λ

Some Bianchi type IX viscous fluid cosmological models are investigated. To get a solution, a supplementary condition between metric potentials is used. The viscosity coefficient of bulk viscous fluid is assumed to be a power function of mass density, whereas the coefficient of shear viscosity is considered as proportional to scale of expansion in the model. The cosmological constant Λ is found to be positive and is a decreasing function of time, which is supported by results from recent supernovae observations. Some physical and geometric properties of the models are also discussed.     

Higher Dimensional FRW Cosmological Models in Self-Creation Theory

The field equations of Barber's (1982) second self-creation theory of gravitation are solved for 5D Friedmann-Robertson-Walker space time using perfect fluid energy momentum tensor. By assuming an equation of state p= ε ρ, (0 ≤ ε ≤ 1), the solutions of the field equations, in different scenarios, in Barber's second self-creation theory are presented and discussed. Some properties of these models are also discussed.     

Equilibrium Structures of Differentially Rotating and Tidally Distorted White Dwarf Models of Stars

In this paper we present a method for computing the equilibrium structures and various physical parameters of a primary component of the binary system assuming that the primary is more massive than the secondary and is rotating differentially according to the law of the w² = b₀ + b₁ × s² + b₂ × s⁴, w being the angular velocity of rotation of a fluid element distant s from the axis of rotation and b₀, b₁, b₂ suitably chosen numerical constants. This method utilizes the averaging approach of Kippenhahn and Thomas (1997) and the concept of Roche equipotentials in a manner earlier used by Mohan et al. (1997) to incorporate the effects of rotation and tidal distortions on the equilibrium structures of certain rotationally and tidally distorted stellar models. The use of the method has been illustrated by applying it to obtain the structures and some observable parameters of certain differentially rotating and tidally distorted binary systems whose primary component is assumed to be a white dwarf star.