Geometrical considerations in imaging the solar corona

X-ray observations of the solar corona show that it is comprised of three-dimensional magnetic structures which appear to be primarily in the form of fluxtubes or loops. Imaging the X-ray corona has led to a greater understanding of the dynamical behaviour of and the energy distribution in these magnetic structures. However, imaging observations, by their very nature, integrate along the line of sight resulting in a two-dimensional representation of the actual three-dimensional distribution. The optically thin nature of the solar corona to X-ray radiation makes the integrated images particularly difficult to interpret. The analysis of the two-dimensional observations must, therefore, inlcude the effect of the orientation of the coronal structure to the line-of-sight direction; a fact which is almost always ignored. In this paper we discuss the effect of loop orientation on the two-dimensional representation and argue that these effects may lead to a misinterpretation of the physics occurring in the structures observed. In particular, we discuss observations taken by the Soft X-ray Telescope (SXT) on board the Yohkoh satellite, taking account of the instrumental thermal response, spatial resolution, and point-spread-function.We test the effect of geometry on the determination of the loop pressure by considering equatorial loops at various longitudes and discuss the implications of this for studies of coronal soft X-ray loops.     

Cretaceous radiolarian fauna from the Kiselyovsky subterrane, the youngest accretionary complex of the Russian continental far east: Paleotectonic and paleogeographic implications

Abstract The Kiselyovsky subterrane is the northeastern section of the Kiselyovsko-Manominsky terrane, a distinguishable tectonic unit in the north of the Sikhote-Alin Range. The terrane has been treated as part of the accretionary wedge belonging to the Khingan-Okhotsk active continental margin, but its structure and stratigraphy have been poorly understood. This paper presents new data on the subterrane structure, lithology and radiolarian biostratigraphy. The following lithostratigraphic units are established in the terrane: a ribbon chert unit, a siliceous mudstone unit and a elastics unit. Abundant Valanginian to late Hauterivian-early Barremian radiolarian assemblages are obtained from the upper part of the chert unit in addition to the known Jurassic radiolarians. The radiolarian age of the lower part of the siliceous mudstone unit (red siliceous mudstone) is determined as early Hauterivian-early Aptian. The unit's upper part (greenish-gray siliceous mudstone and dark-gray silicified mudstone) and the clastics unit contain Albian-Cenomanian assemblages. The arrangement of the units is treated as a chert-elastics sequence, whose vertical lithologic variations indicate environmental changes from a remote ocean to a convergent margin, reflecting an oceanic plate motion towards a subduction zone. The subterrane structure is a stack of imbricated slabs composed of various lithostratigraphic units, and is complicated by folding. The structure's origin is related to subduction-accretion, which occurred in the Albian-Cenomanian. The data presented provide a unique basis for accretionary wedge terranes correlation in the circum-Japan Sea Region, and the Kiselyovsky subterrane is correlated in this study with the synchronous parts of the East Sakhalin, Hidaka and Shimanto terranes. The Albian-Cenomanian radiolarian assemblages were deposited in the Boreal realm, while Valanginian ones are Tethyan; this indicates a long oceanic plate travelling to the north. The former assemblages contain an admixture of older species, redeposited by bottom traction currents and turbidite flows in trench environments.     

Interrelation between QBO and 11-year solar cycle effects in total column ozone over Europe

On the basis of total column ozone (TO) data obtained in the period of 1957–2007 at 10 ground-based European stations, characterized by long and highly reliable measurements, the effects of the quasi-biennial oscillation (QBO) and 11-year solar cycle (11-year SC), manifesting in TO are investigated. The results of comparative analysis of seasonal differences between different QBO/solar extremes convincingly demonstrate interrelation between the QBO and 11-year SC effects. It is shown that solar activity modulates the phase of the QBO effect so that the quasi-biennial TO signals during solar maximum and solar minimum are nearly in opposite phase. It is also demonstrated that isolated under permanent conditions of solar minimum or solar maximum the QBO effects in TO have the time scale of about 20 months. Solar modulation of the QBO effect makes the QBO a conductor of the solar cycle impact on TO over Europe. The mechanism of influence of the 11-year SC on the QBO and probably includes its impact on the QBO amplitude in the equatorial lower stratosphere, mainly through weakening of the equatorial easterlies during solar maximum.     

Geodesy and relativity

Relativity, or gravitational physics, has widely entered geodetic modelling and parameter determination. This concerns, first of all, the fundamental reference systems used. The Barycentric Celestial Reference System (BCRS) has to be distinguished carefully from the Geocentric Celestial Reference System (GCRS), which is the basic theoretical system for geodetic modelling with a direct link to the International Terrestrial Reference System (ITRS), simply given by a rotation matrix. The relation to the International Celestial Reference System (ICRS) is discussed, as well as various properties and relevance of these systems. Then the representation of the gravitational field is discussed when relativity comes into play. Presently, the so-called post-Newtonian approximation to GRT (general relativity theory) including relativistic effects to lowest order is sufficient for practically all geodetic applications. At the present level of accuracy, space-geodetic techniques like VLBI (Very Long Baseline Interferometry), GPS (Global Positioning System) and SLR/LLR (Satellite/Lunar Laser Ranging) have to be modelled and analysed in the context of a post-Newtonian formalism. In fact, all reference and time frames involved, satellite and planetary orbits, signal propagation and the various observables (frequencies, pulse travel times, phase and travel-time differences) are treated within relativity. This paper reviews to what extent the space-geodetic techniques are affected by such a relativistic treatment and where—vice versa—relativistic parameters can be determined by the analysis of geodetic measurements. At the end, we give a brief outlook on how new or improved measurement techniques (e.g., optical clocks, Galileo) may further push relativistic parameter determination and allow for refined geodetic measurements.     

A search for unique objects in nearby galaxies

A list of 171 stars in the galaxy M33 is presented. The stars could be considered as candidates for unique objects, such as SS 433, S Dor, P Cyg stars and possibly new kinds of peculiar objects. All these stars have been selected on the basis of the similarity to SS 433, free from interstellar absorption: OB star with strongH emission or with HeII 4686 and CIII, NIII 4630 - 4660 emission lines; a hot star inside a supernovae remnant or radio nebula. The variability of these stars has been used as an additional criterion of the selection. It is important to carry out spectral observations of the presented stars, which will allow us to select stars with intrinsicH emission.     

Delivery of icy planetesimals to inner planets in the Proxima Centauri planetary system

The estimates of the delivery of icy planetesimals from the feeding zone of Proxima Centauri c (with mass equal to 7m_E, m_E is the mass of the Earth) to inner planets b and d were made. They included the studies of the total mass of planetesimals in the feeding zone of planet c and the probabilities of collisions of such planetesimals with inner planets. This total mass could be about 10–15m_E. It was estimated based on studies of the ratio of the mass of planetesimals ejected into hyperbolic orbits to the mass of planetesimals collided with forming planet c. At integration of the motion of planetesimals, the gravitational influence of planets c and b and the star was taken into account. In most series of calculations, planetesimals collided with planets were excluded from integrations. Based on estimates of the mass of planetesimals ejected into hyperbolic orbits, it was concluded that during the growth of the mass of planet c the semi-major axis of its orbit could decrease by at least a factor of 1.5. Depending on possible gravitational scattering due to mutual encounters of planetesimals, the total mass of material delivered by planetesimals from the feeding zone of planet c to planet b was estimated to be between 0.002m_E and 0.015m_E. Probably, the amount of water delivered to Proxima Centauri b exceeded the mass of water in Earth's oceans. The amount of material delivered to planet d could be a little less than that delivered to planet b.     

An ERA40-based atmospheric forcing for global ocean circulation models

We develop, calibrate and test a dataset intended to drive global ocean hindcasts simulations of the last five decades. This dataset provides surface meteorological variables needed to estimate air-sea fluxes and is built from 6-hourly surface atmospheric state variables of ERA40. We first compare the raw fields of ERA40 to the CORE.v1 dataset of Large and Yeager (2004), used here as a reference, and discuss our choice to use daily radiative fluxes and monthly precipitation products extracted from satellite data rather than their ERA40 counterparts. Both datasets lead to excessively high global imbalances of heat and freshwater fluxes when tested with a prescribed climatological sea surface temperature. After identifying unrealistic time discontinuities (induced by changes in the nature of assimilated observations) and obvious global and regional biases in ERA40 fields (by comparison to high quality observations), we propose a set of corrections. Tropical surface air humidity is decreased from 1979 onward, representation of Arctic surface air temperature is improved using recent observations and the wind is globally increased. These corrections lead to a significant decrease of the excessive positive global imbalance of heat. Radiation and precipitation fields are then submitted to a small adjustment (in zonal mean) that yields a near-zero global imbalance of heat and freshwater. A set of 47-year-long simulations is carried out with the coarse-resolution (2° × 2°) version of the NEMO OGCM to assess the sensitivity of the model to the proposed corrections. Model results show that each of the proposed correction contributes to improve the representation of central features of the global ocean circulation.     

Salt tectonics driven by differential sediment loading: stability analysis and finite-element experiments

At many continental margins, differential sediment loading on an underlying salt layer drives salt deformation and has a significant impact on the structural evolution of the basin. We use 2‐D finite‐element modelling to investigate systems in which a linear viscous salt layer underlies a frictional‐plastic overburden of laterally varying thickness. In these systems, differential pressure induces the flow of viscous salt, and the overburden experiences updip deviatoric tension and downdip compression. A thin‐sheet analytical stability criterion for the system is derived and is used to predict conditions under which the sedimentary overburden will be unstable and fail, and to estimate the initial velocities of the system. The analytical predictions are in acceptable agreement with initial velocity patterns of the numerical models. In addition to initial stability analyses, the numerical model is used to investigate the subsequent finite deformation. As the systems evolve, overburden extension and salt diapirism occur in the landward section and contractional structures develop in the seaward section. The system evolution depends on the relative widths of the salt basin and the length scale of the overburden thickness variation. In narrow salt basins, overburden deformation is localised and characterised by high strain rates, which cause the system to reach a gravitational equilibrium and salt movement to cease earlier than for wide salt basins. Sedimentation enhances salt evacuation by maintaining a differential pressure in the salt. Continued sedimentary filling of landward extensional basins suppresses landward salt diapirism. Sediment progradation leads to seaward propagation of the landward extensional structures and depocentres. At slow sediment progradation rates, the viscous flow can be faster than the sediment progradation, leading to efficient salt evacuation and salt weld formation beneath the landward section. Fast sediment progradation suppresses the viscous flow, leaving salt pillows beneath the prograding wedge.     

Diagnostics of the Internal Structure of Stars using the Differential Response Technique

We address the problem of the diagnosing the deep interior structure of stars using acoustic p-modes, and investigate the diagnostic capabilities of two complementary approaches both based on the differential response technique (Vorontsov, 1998): (a) direct calibration using a grid of evolutionary stellar models, and (b) linear and non-linear (with consecutive linearisations) inversion of low-degree frequencies. We apply this analysis to the frequencies of a model of an old 0.8M star, and to the solar frequencies obtained from BiSON measurements, using a 2-D grid of reference models of different mass and age. We explore the convergence and stability of the asteroseismic inversion, performed with the adaptive regularisation technique of Strakhov and Vorontsov (2001).     

Relict back-arc basins of Eurasia and their hydrocarbon potentials

Abstract Large petroliferous basins in the continental interior are characterized by very thick sedimentary sequences. It is suggested that these are not intracratonic basins, but areas underlain by oceanic crust. These include the Western Siberian, Pre-Caspian, South Caspian, North and South Kara Basins of the Commonwealth of Independent States, and Tarim, junggar and Qaidam Basins of China. The relict ocean basins are distinguished by their basement topography, by their magnetic signatures and by their elevated Moho. Their sedimentary history is distinguished by an abrupt subsidence, followed by isostastic subsidence under sedimentary load. Two circumstances have contributed to the genesis of giant hydrocarbon deposits in these basins: (1) the geochemical environment in those basins was at one time oxygen-deficient as they evolved from the open marine, through restricted marine to become inland alluvial basins; and (2) the sedimentary in-fill provide thick reservoir beds. Oil has accumulated in older structures, folds, faults, unconformities etc. on the margin of the basins, trapping early migrated hydrocarbons.