Solar Microwave Bursts from Electron Populations with a 'Broken’ Energy Spectrum

Usually the gyrosynchrotron emission of microwave bursts from electron populations with a power-law (PL) energy distribution has been considered under the assumption that the spectral index of the distribution is constant over a wide range of energies. Meanwhile, there is strong evidence, in particular from hard X-ray and -ray, but also from cm/mm wavelength radio observations, that in many solar flare events the spectrum of the emitting electrons is characterized by a significant hardening at energies above 100–500 keV. We present some examples of calculated microwave burst spectra at cm/mm wavelengths taking into account the above evidence. It is shown that a break in the energy spectrum of the PL electrons can indeed result in a spectral hardening sometimes observed in microwave bursts at frequencies above 10–30 GHz.     

A comparative study of geothermal and meteorological records of climate change in Kamchatka

To reconstruct the recent climate history in Kamchatka, a series of repeated precise temperature logs were performed in a number of boreholes located in a broad east-west strip (between 52 and 54°N) in the central part of Kamchatka west of Petropavlovsk-Kamchatski. Within three years more than 30 temperature logs were performed in 10 holes (one up to six logs per hole) to the depth of up to 400 metres. Measured temperature gradients varied in a broad interval 0 to 60 mK/m and in some holes a sizeable variation in the subsurface temperatures due to advective heat transport by underground water was observed. Measured data were compared with older temperature profiles obtained in the early eighties by Sugrobov and Yanovsky (1993). Even when older data are of poorer precision (accuracy of about 0.1 K), they presented valuable information of the subsurface temperature conditions existing 20–25 years ago. Borehole observations and the inverted ground surface temperature histories (GSTHs) used for the paleoclimate reconstruction were complemented with a detailed survey of meteorological data. Namely, the long-term surface air temperature (SAT) and precipitation records from Petropavlovsk station (in operation since 1890) were used together with similar data from a number of local subsidiary meteo-stations operating in Central Kamchatka since 1950. Regardless of extreme complexity of the local meteorological/climate conditions, diversity of borehole sites and calibration of measuring devices used during the whole campaign, the results of the climate reconstruction supported a general warming of about 1 K characteristic for the 20th century, which followed an inexpressive cooler period typical for the most of the 19th century. In the last three to four decades the warming rate has been locally increasing up to 0.02 K/year. It was also shown that the snow cover played a dominant role in the penetration of the climate “signal” to depth and could considerably smooth down the subsurface response to the changes occurred on the surface.     

Gamma-Hadron Separation using Čerenkov Photon Density Fluctuations

In the atmospheric Čerenkov technique γ-rays are detected against the abundant background produced by hadronic showers. In order to improve the signal to noise ratio of theexperiment, it is necessary to reject a significant fraction of hadronic showers. Traditional background rejection methods based on image shape parameters have been extensively used for the data from imaging telescopes. However, non-imaging Čerenkov telescopes have to develop very different means of statistically identifying and removing cosmic ray events. Some of the parameters, which could be potentially important for non-imaging arrays, are the temporal and spectral differences, the lateral distributions and density fluctuations of Čerenkov photons generated by γ-ray and hadron primaries. Here we study the differences in fluctuations of Čerenkov photon density in the light pool at the observation level from showers initiated by photons and those initiated by protons or heavier nuclei. The database of simulated events for the PACT array has been used to evaluate the efficiency of the new technique. Various types of density fluctuations like the short range and medium range fluctuations as well as flatness parameter are studied. The estimated quality factors reflect the efficiencies with which the hadrons can be rejected from the data. Since some of these parameters are independent, the cuts may be applied in tandem and we demonstrate that the proton rejection efficiency of ∼90% can be achieved. Use of density fluctuations is particularly suited for wavefront sampling observations and it seems to be a good technique to improve the signal to noise ratio. This revised version was published online in July 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

Estimation of the effect of protective piers on wind wave parameters in the Sevastopol Bay

An effectiveness of the storm wave attenuation by protective piers in the Sevastopol Bay of the Black Sea is studied on the basis of numerical simulation using the SWAN spectral model. Analyzed are the parameters of waves generated by winds of four main directions as well as by the southern cyclone during the storm on November 11, 2007. It is obtained that waves from the northwest part of the Black Sea penetrate most intensively into the Sevastopol Bay in case of western wind and, to a lesser degree, in case of northern and southern winds. A protective effect of the piers is observed in the west part of the bay only and the wave attenuation near the southern coast is more significant than near the northern one. The area of the southern coast directly behind the southern pier is completely protected from the storm waves and, as moving away from the pier, the danger of intensive wave effect on the coast is kept.     

Sources of the Late Mesozoic magmatic associations in the northeastern part of the Amurian microcontinent

Based on generalization of available geochronological data, Late Mesozoic magmatic associations in the northeastern part of the Amurian microcontinent are divided into three groups: 142–125, 124–115, and <110 Ma. The age of these associations decreases with approaching the Pacific margin of Asia. In the same direction, they show a change in sources of their parental melts: continental crust (142–125 Ma) → continental crust + PREMA (DM) (124–115 Ma) → continental crust + PREMA (DM) + EMII (<110 Ma). Isotope-geochemical (Sr-Nd) study indicates that intrusive and volcanic rocks of the Late Mesozoic magmatic associations in the northeastern part of the Amurian microcontinent were originated in geodynamic settings that provided access of enriched mantle sources to magma formation. The most probable of these settings are as follows: (1) plate sliding accompanying by the formation of slab window beneath continental margin; (2) passage of the Asian margin over the East Asian mantle hot field in the Late Mesozoic; (3) asthenospheric upwelling due to delamination of the lower crust during closure of the Mongolian-Okhotsk ocean caused by collision between the Amurian microcontinent, Dzhugdzhur-Stanovoy, and Selenga-Stanovoy superterranes in the Central Asian fold belt.     

Anisotropy of small-scale inhomogeneities in the region of solar-wind acceleration

A model is proposed to explain observational data on the scattering of radio signals, which indicate that small-scale plasma-density inhomogeneities in the region of solar-wind acceleration are strongly elongated in the radial direction, with the degree of elongation sharply decreasing at heliocentric distances of about six solar radii. The evolution of the energy spectra of the fluctuations of the magnetic field and plasma density is studied assuming that the plasma-density fluctuations are generated locally by nonlinear interactions of high-frequency Alfven waves, and that the gradients of the mean plasma parameters are smooth. The growth rates of the main nonlinear processes are estimated. The strong elongation of the inhomogeneities first arises when the Alfven waves travel through the chromosphere-corona transition layer, then survives to considerable distances from the Sun because the associated nonlinear relaxation processes are fairly slow. Estimates of the degree of elongation of the inhomogeneities and the characteristic distance for changes in the angular wave spectra are in good agreement with radio propagation data.     

Quasi-stationary striations in basin-scale oceanic circulation: vorticity balance from observations and eddy-resolving model

Recently, prominent jet-like features of the ocean circulation, called striations, with a meridional scale of O(300–500 ;km) and extending for thousands of kilometers in length, have been detected in satellite and in situ observations and in high-resolution numerical models. In this paper, we study quasi-stationary striations, which are best seen in the multi-year time-averaged velocity fields. Using 1993–2002 mean dynamic ocean topography, satellite altimeter observations, and output of the Ocean General Circulation Model for the Earth Simulator, the dynamics of the quasi-stationary striations in the eastern parts of the subtropical North and South Pacific are examined by assessing individual terms in the time-averaged equations of relative and potential vorticity. While non-linear effects are found to be essential in the dynamics of the striations, rejecting some linear hypotheses forwarded in the earlier studies, the relevance of the Rhines mechanism is not confirmed. Eddy flux does not act as a relative vorticity source for the striations. Using the potential vorticity (PV) diagnostics, we show that the time-mean PV is not conserved along the time-mean streamlines, and on the scale of the striations these changes in PV are largely induced by the eddy flux of layer thickness. The fact that eddy fluxes contribute to the striations’ time-mean PV budget suggests that the striations are not a kinematical artifact of time-averaging of westward-propagating eddies.     

Regional Problems in Water Use in Siberian Industrial Agglomerations

Water Resources - The basic indicators of regional water use have been identified and assessed as a component of a single social–natural–technogenic system. These indicators have been...     

Multi-decadal synthesis of benthic–pelagic coupling in the western arctic: Role of cross-shelf advective processes

Using geographic information systems (GIS) software and geostatistical techniques, we utilized three decades of water-column chlorophyll a data to examine the relative importance of autochthonous versus allochthonous sources of reduced carbon to benthic communities that occur from the northern Bering to the eastern Beaufort Sea shelf. Spatial trend analyses revealed areas of high benthic biomass (>300 g m⁻²) and chlorophyll (>150 mg m⁻²) on both the southern and northern Chukchi shelf; both areas are known as depositional centers for reduced organic matter that originates on the Bering Sea shelf and is advected northward in Anadyr and Bering shelf water masses. We found a significant correlation between biomass and chlorophyll a in the Chukchi Sea, reflective of the strong benthic–pelagic coupling in a system that is utilized heavily by benthic-feeding marine mammals. In contrast, there was no significant correlation between biomass and chlorophyll in the Beaufort Sea, which by comparison, is considerably less productive (biomass and chlorophyll, <75 g m⁻² and <50 mg m⁻², respectively). One notable exception is an area of relatively high biomass (50–100 g m⁻²) and chlorophyll (80 mg m⁻²) near Barter Island in the eastern Beaufort Sea. Compared to other adjacent areas in the Beaufort Sea, the chlorophyll values in the vicinity of Barter Island were considerably higher and likely reflect a long-hypothesized upwelling in that area and close coupling between the benthos and autochthonous production. In the Bering Sea, a drop in benthic biomass in 1994 compared with previous measurements (1974–1993) may support earlier observations that document a decline in biomass that began between the 1980s and 1990s in the Chirikov Basin and south of St. Lawrence Island. The results of this study indicate that the benthos is an excellent long-term indicator of both local and physical advective processes. In addition, this work provides further evidence that secondary production on arctic shelves can be significantly augmented by reduced carbon advected from highly productive adjacent shelves.