A comparative study of Hα-flares of different visual features in relation to radio bursts and sunspots

Solar H-flares now reported with their distinctive visual features have been statistically examined for a period of about eight years in relation to their different characteristics, flare-burst and flare-sunspot association. Important results obtained are: (i) Integrated intensity changes from the highest to the lowest values in the order F, H, E, and D flare type, whereas, impulsiveness in the order H, F, E, and D type, (ii) Flare-burst association is frequency dependent and is highest and lowest for H and D types respectively in almost all the frequencies, (iii) Most of the flares of D, E, and F types are associated with sunspots of _p , _p , and configurations having field strength 1500–2500 G, while that of H type with _p and configurations having field strength 1000–2000 G.     

Anisotropic migration velocity analysis: Application to a data set from West Africa

Although it is widely recognized that anisotropy can have a significant influence on the focusing and positioning of migrated reflection events, conventional depth imaging methods still operate with isotropic velocity fields. Here, we present an application of a 2D migration velocity analysis (MVA) algorithm, designed for factorized v(x, z) VTI (transversely isotropic with a vertical symmetry axis) media, to an offshore data set from West Africa. By approximating the subsurface with factorized VTI blocks, it is possible to decouple the spatial variations in the vertical velocity from the anisotropic parameters with minimal a priori information. Since our method accounts for lateral velocity variation, it produces more accurate estimates of the anisotropic parameters than those previously obtained with time‐domain techniques. The values of the anellipticity parameter η found for the massive shales exceed 0.2, which confirms that ignoring anisotropy in the study area can lead to substantial imaging distortions, such as mis‐stacking and mispositioning of dipping events. While some of these distortions can be removed by using anisotropic time processing, further marked improvement in image quality is achieved by prestack depth migration with the estimated factorized VTI model. In particular, many fault planes, including antithetic faults in the shallow part of the section, are better focused by the anisotropic depth‐migration algorithm and appear more continuous. Anisotropic depth migration facilitates structural interpretation by eliminating false dips at the bottom of the section and improving the images of a number of gently dipping features. One of the main difficulties in anisotropic MVA is the need to use a priori information for constraining the vertical velocity. In this case study, we successfully reconstructed the time–depth curve from reflection data by assuming that the vertical velocity is a continuous function of depth and estimating the vertical and lateral velocity gradients in each factorized block. If the subsurface contains strong boundaries with jumps in velocity, knowledge of the vertical velocity at a single point in a layer is sufficient for our algorithm to determine all relevant layer parameters.     

Epeiric Sea Formation on Neoproterozoic Supercontinent Break-up: A Distinctive Signature in Coastal Storm Bed Amalgamation

Literature review underlines uncertainty in the configuration of the Neoproterozoic supercontinent, (with Rodinia and Palaeopangaea reconstructions enjoying wide support), that stems primarily from inadequate palaeomagnetic data. Nonetheless, breakup of this supercontinent at ca. 0.65 Ga was conducive for epeiric sea formation globally. In the Vindhyan basin, India, a carbonate depositing sea developed over a fluvial-aeolian plain, at approximately 0.6 Ga. The top part of the Vindhyan Supergroup, the Upper Bhander Sandstone, was, however, able to prograde because of a decline in the rate of relative sea level rise. Within this general setting, temporal increases in this rate caused storm deposition at the coastline, largely in a supralittoral setting. Bizarre amalgamation of these storm beds without erosion likely owes its origin to severe curtailment of the velocity of the downwelling flow on the very gentle, muddy coastal slopes, and is thought to be a hallmark of deposition in an open epeiric setting. The storm domination in the Bhander embayment shelf is compatible with the Palaeopangaea supercontinental configuration.     

Petrological evolution of a suite of spinel granulites from Vizianagram, Eastern Ghats Belt, India, and genesis of sapphirine-bearing assemblages

A suite of spinel–cordierite granulites from Viziangram, Eastern Ghats Belt, India preserve mineral assemblages and reaction textures indicative of peak metamorphic conditions of >1000 °C, >8<10 kbar, followed successively by near isobaric cooling (down to 750–800 °C), near isothermal decompression (to 4–5 kbar), and late hydration. P–T conditions of each stage are evaluated through a combination of petrogenetic grid approach and thermobarometry. Sapphirine is developed in sillimanite‐bearing acid pegmatite veins that intruded the spinel–cordierite granulite close to peak metamorphic conditions, and also in the host rock in immediate contact with the pegmatite. Both sillimanite and sapphirine in the pegmatite are considered to be magmatic phases. Field observations and textural characteristics suggest that Al‐metasomatism of the spinel–cordierite granulite due to the intrusion of pegmatite was responsible for sapphirine formation in the spinel granulite.     

Cosmic microwave background anisotropy in the decaying neutrino cosmology

It is attractive to suppose for several astrophysical reasons that the Universe has close to the critical density in light (∼30 eV) neutrinos which decay radiatively with a lifetime of ∼10²³ s. In such a cosmology the Universe is re-ionized early and the last scattering surface of the cosmic microwave background significantly broadened. We calculate the resulting angular power spectrum of temperature fluctuations in the cosmic microwave background. As expected, the acoustic peaks are significantly damped relative to the standard case. This would allow a definitive test of the decaying neutrino cosmology with the forthcoming MAP Planck surveyor missions.     

Meteorological fields variability over the Indian seas in pre and summer monsoon months during extreme monsoon seasons

In this study, the possible linkage between summer monsoon rainfall over India and surface meteorological fields (basic fields and heat budget components) over monsoon region (30‡E-120‡E, 30‡S30‡N) during the pre-monsoon month of May and summer monsoon season (June to September) are examined. For this purpose, monthly surface meteorological fields anomaly are analyzed for 42 years (1958-1999) using reanalysis data of NCEP/NCAR (National Center for Environmental Prediction/National Center for Atmospheric Research). The statistical significance of the anomaly (difference) between the surplus and deficient monsoon years in the surface meteorological fields are also examined by Student’s t-test at 95% confidence level. Significant negative anomalies of mean sea level pressure are observed over India, Arabian Sea and Arabian Peninsular in the pre-monsoon month of May and monsoon season. Significant positive anomalies in the zonal and meridional wind (at 2 m) in the month of May are observed in the west Arabian Sea off Somali coast and for monsoon season it is in the central Arabian Sea that extends up to Somalia. Significant positive anomalies of the surface temperature and air temperature (at 2 m) in the month of May are observed over north India and adjoining Pakistan and Afghanistan region. During monsoon season this region is replaced by significant negative anomalies. In the month of May, significant positive anomalies of cloud amount are observed over Somali coast, north Bay of Bengal and adjoining West Bengal and Bangladesh. During monsoon season, cloud amount shows positive anomalies over NW India and north Arabian Sea. There is overall reduction in the incoming shortwave radiation flux during surplus monsoon years. A higher magnitude of latent heat flux is also found in surplus monsoon years for the month of May as well as the monsoon season. The significant positive anomaly of latent heat flux in May, observed over southwest Arabian Sea, may be considered as an advance indicator of the possible behavior of the subsequent monsoon season. The distribution of net heat flux is predominantly negative over eastern Arabian Sea, Bay of Bengal and Indian Ocean. Anomaly between the two extreme monsoon years in post 1980 (i.e., 1988 and 1987) shows that shortwave flux, latent heat flux and net heat flux indicate reversal in sign, particularly in south Indian Ocean. Variations of the heat budget components over four smaller sectors of Indian seas, namely Arabian Sea, Bay of Bengal and west Indian Ocean and east Indian Ocean show that a small sector of Arabian Sea is most dominant during May and other sectors showing reversal in sign of latent heat flux during monsoon season.     

Morphology and hydrodynamics of few fluvial forms in the sand bar of Yamuna at Wazirabad,Delhi

Delineation and mapping of several fluvial forms in the Wazirabad Sand bar have been made in the field after a base map of Delhi area has been prepared on 1:30,000 scale from air photos. On the basis of the morphology, internal structures and lithology it has been possible to interpret the genesis and history of these fluvial forms. Current vector analysis of both the sand body strucutres and channel has been carried out to show an interrelationship.     

Nighttime fading ofVLF andLF atmospherics in relation to geomagnetic activity

Summary Long-period fading observed in recordings ofVLF andLF atmospherics in meteorologically clear nights exhibits a good correlation with the geomagnetic activity indexA _p . The fading phenomenon occurs more frequently in the case of integrated field intensity of atmospherics than in the case of andLF radio signal transmitted from a certain station. The phenomenon has been analyzed for the monsoon and postmonsoon periods separately, and the results have been discussed in relation to the large-scale travelling ionospheric distubances (LS TID). The modal value of fade periods forVLF andLF atmospherics has been found to be about one hour. It is noted that the correlation of the fade amplitude of highttimeVLF andLF atmospherics versus the geomagnetic activity is frequency dependent and increases fromVLF toLF.     

Characteristics of atmospheric turbulence in the surface layer over Antarctica

This paper presents meteorological measurements made during the antarctic summer period, on two 9 m and 3 m towers, on the rocky and ice shelf terrains of the Indian antarctic stations Maitri and Dakshin Gangotri, respectively. The measurements of fluctuations in temperature and wind speed made with relatively lesser precision instrumentation pertain to smaller wave numbers ~10^-2 m^-1 appropriate to outer scale L ₀ of the atmospheric turbulence spectrum. Autocorrelation analysis of the fluctuations in temperature and wind speed has been performed. A new autoregressive scheme has been developed to represent the computed autocorrelation functions by a Yule statistical model, and to estimate the correlation period T ₀ of the turbulent medium. Height profiles of outer scale L ₀ of turbulence may be given in terms of T ₀ and mean wind speed u. Further, the similarity theory of Monin-Obukhov has been used to compute height profiles of temperature structure parameter C _T ². At Maitri, values of L ₀ and C _T ² are higher between 03–22 h local time than between 22–03 h. Values of L ₀ and C _T ² are smaller over the ice shelf terrain of the Dakshin Gangotri station, compared to those over the rocky terrain of the Maitri station.