Behavior of Titan's atmosphere during a total eclipse

The edge-on presentation of Saturn's rings and satellites system has provided a rare opportunity to observe total eclipses of Titan. During its emersion from the Saturnian shadow (1980, June 28), Titan has been observed simultaneously in the visible and the infrared ranges (6000–9000 Å, 11.8 μm and 20 μm). No change has been recorded in these three spectral ranges. Our observations tend to support the thick-atmosphere model, which has been shown to be valid by Voyager a few months later.     

Foraminiferal associations of the Mid-Tertiary Edegem Sands at Terhagen, Belgium

A factor-analytic approach (varimax rotated factors) was used in studying the benthonic foraminiferal associations of the Mid-Tertiary Edegem Sands at Terhagen (near Antwerpen) Belgium. The fauna can be described by two groups. The lower and upper part of the stratigraphic section are characterized by one group and the middle transitional part by a second group. The results can be correlated with the number of the planktonic forms and with the fossil richness of the sediment.     

Chains of type I stormbursts

From radio spectra between 160 and 320 MHz of chains of type I bursts it appears that their duration distributions allow an exponential fit, and that those of samples containing long and short chains respectively, taken from the same storm, have virtually the same characteristic time (logarithmic slope). On the average this figure decreases - as a function of the frequency - at about 1 s per 10 MHz. The high frequency cut-off of chain activity (noise storms) is mainly a consequence of the frequency dependence of the probability for the first burst of a chain to appear. Given the density of type I bursts in a chain, it is concluded that the probability of a type I burst to be followed by another one is at least 90% below 250 MHz and 70–80% at 300 MHz, which makes it essential for type I theories to include a mechanism to this effect. The drift rate distribution for chains is symmetrical with a peak at-10 MHz/s. The statistics is indicative of a correlation between drift rate and duration. No evidence has been found for the occurrence of chain pairs or frequency splitting in chains, nor for an association between chains and type III bursts.     

Gas-liquid phase transitions and critical point in hot white dwarf matter

We consider the gas-liquid first-order phase transitions and prove the existence of the critical point in white dwarf matter. The latent heat released in the liquefaction processes can be used in the interpretation of the spreading of the white dwarf sequence in H-R diagram. Some thermodynamic quantities, e.g., the saturation pressure, the latent heat, etc., are calculated along the gas-liquid coexistence curve, and their behaviour near critical point are studied.     

Superconducting critical field in cold magnetic white dwarfs and in neutron stars

For an evaluation of the superconducting critical fieldH _c as a function of the mass-density in the external layers of cold magnetic white dwarfs and in the superconducting proton fluid in neutron stars, we use the solution of a differential equation involvingH _c as a function of the pressure. The differential equation and its solution are obtained by pure thermodynamic way.Finally other thermodynamic quantities are calculated for the above superconducting astrophysical systems.     

The Linear Coregionalization Model and the Product–Sum Space–Time Variogram

The product covariance model, the product–sum covariance model, and the integrated product and integrated product–sum models have the advantage of being easily fitted by the use of marginal variograms. These models and the use of the marginals are described in a series of papers by De Iaco, Myers, and Posa. Such models allow not only estimating values at nondata locations but also prediction in future times, hence, they are useful for analyzing air pollution data, meteorological data, or ground water data. These three kinds of data are nearly always multivariate and because the processes determining the deposition or dynamics will affect all variates, a multivariate approach is desirable. It is shown that the use of marginal variograms for space–time modeling can be extended to the multivariate case and in particular to the use of the Linear Coregionalization Model (LCM) for cokriging in space–time. An application to an environmental data set is given.     

Biofouling confounds the uptake of trace organic contaminants by semi-permeable membrane devices (SPMDs)

The outer layers of layflat, low density polyethylene plastic tubing (the principal component of semi-permeable membrane devices, SPMDs) were biofouled at a clean site in Hong Kong coastal waters for periods of 1–4 weeks. Following pre-fouling, triolein was added to the SPMDs and, along with control (unfouled) devices, they were exposed to a range of organochlorine pesticides (-HCH, aldrin, p,p^′-DDT) and PAHs (anthracene, fluoranthene and benzo(a)pyrene) under laboratory conditions. Results showed that the uptake of contaminants by SPMDs was severely reduced by as much as 50% under fouling conditions in comparison to unfouled controls. The ultimate utility of SPMDs as passive monitors is thus reduced, although alternative measures, such as the use of permeability reference compounds may compensate, and allow for realistic evaluations of dissolved environmental concentrations in aquatic environments. However, due to the complexities involved in such procedures––especially as they need to be conducted on a case-by-case basis––the utility of SPMDs appears to be limited for estimates of bioavailability unless necessary calibrations are undertaken within each environment that the sampler is used.     

Chemical Mechanism Development: Laboratory Studies and Model Applications

Within the German Tropospheric Research Programme (TFS) numerous kinetic and mechanistic studies on the tropospheric reaction/degradation of the following reactants were carried out: oxygenated VOC, aromatic VOC, biogenic VOC, short-lived intermediates, such as alkoxy and alkylperoxy radicals.At the conception of the projects these selected groups were classes of VOC or intermediates for which the atmospheric oxidation mechanisms were either poorly characterised or totally unknown. The motivation for these studies was the attainment of significant improvements in our understanding of the atmospheric chemical oxidation processes of these compounds, particularly with respect to their involvement in photooxidant formation in the troposphere. In the present paper the types of experimental investigations performed and the results obtained within the various projects are briefly summarised. The major achievements are highlighted and discussed in terms of their contribution to improving our understanding of the chemical processes controlling photosmog formation in the troposphere.     

A Measurement of Omega from the North American Test Flight of Boomerang

We use the angular power spectrum of the cosmic microwave background, measured during the North American test flight of the Boomerang experiment, to constrain the geometry of the universe. Within the class of cold dark matter models, we find that the overall fractional energy density of the universe Omega is constrained to be 0.85相似文献   

Near-Surface Flow Fields Deduced Using Correlation Tracking and Time-Distance Analyses

Near-photospheric flow fields on the Sun are deduced using two independent methods applied to the same time series of velocity images observed by SOI-MDI on SOHO. Differences in travel times between f modes entering and leaving each pixel measured using time-distance helioseismology are used to determine sites of supergranular outflows. Alternatively, correlation tracking analysis of mesogranular scales of motion applied to the same time series is used to deduce the near-surface flow field. These two approaches provide the means to assess the patterns and evolution of horizontal flows on supergranular scales even near disk center, which is not feasible with direct line-of-sight Doppler measurements. We find that the locations of the supergranular outflows seen in flow fields generated from correlation tracking coincide well with the locations of the outflows determined from the time-distance analysis, with a mean correlation coefficient after smoothing of _s=0.890. Near-surface velocity field measurements can be used to study the evolution of the supergranular network, as merging and splitting events are observed to occur in these images. The data consist of one 2048-min time series of high-resolution (0.6 pixels) line-of-sight velocity images taken by MDI on 1997 January 16–18 at a cadence of one minute.