Nature and significance of the Neoproterozoic Sturtian–Marinoan Boundary,Northern Adelaide Geosyncline,South Australia

The Cryogenian succession of the Northern Flinders Ranges reveals a complex sedimentary record between the Sturtian and Marinoan glacial deposits. A major unconformity separates the Sturtian and Marinoan-aged sedimentary successions in the area. This forms a subaerial erosion surface with terrestrial and marginal marine infill directly above the Angepena and Balcanoona Formations in their respective localities. This exposure surface is here correlated with the previously documented submarine unconformity between the Yankaninna Formation and the underlying deep marine Tapley Hill Formation. This erosional event provides a chronostratigraphic marker horizon that coincides approximately with thepreviously defined Sturtian–Marinoan Time Series boundary in the Northern Flinders Ranges. These stratigraphic relationships also constrain lateral facies relationships between the Oodnaminta ReefComplex (Balcanoona Formation) and the Angepena Formation. Similarly, the shallow-water Weetootla Dolomite is correlated with the deeper water carbonates of the Yankaninna Formation.     

Annual and sub-annual effects of euv heating—I. Harmonic analysis

In this paper we compute the rate of solar EUV heating in the upper atmosphere by photo-dissociation and photo-ionization, taking care to include properly the effects of oblique incidence of solar flux, sphericity of the atmosphere and ellipticity of the Earth's orbit. The time and latitudinal variations of the computed heat function are revealed by numerical Fourier analysis of the heat function into harmonics of the yearly cycle. It is shown that EUV absorption contains a ‘latitude independent’ semi-annual component of heating with the ‘proper phase’ to account for the semi-annual density variations. Further, the annual component of the heat function predicts the existence of ‘summer polar’ density increases in the northern and southern hemispheres.     

Effects of compressibility on driving zonal flow in gas giants

The banded structures observed on the surfaces of the gas giants are associated with strong zonal winds alternating in direction with latitude. We use three-dimensional numerical simulations of compressible convection in the anelastic approximation to explore the properties of zonal winds in rapidly rotating spherical shells. Since the model is restricted to the electrically insulating outer envelope, we therefore neglect magnetic effects.A systematic parametric study for various density scaleheights and Rayleigh numbers allows to explore the dependence of convection and zonal jets on these parameters and to derive scaling laws.While the density stratification affects the local flow amplitude and the convective scales, global quantities and zonal jets properties remain fairly independent of the density stratification. The zonal jets are maintained by Reynolds stresses, which rely on the correlation between zonal and cylindrically radial flow components. The gradual loss of this correlation with increasing supercriticality hampers all our simulations and explains why the additional compressional source of vorticity hardly affects zonal flows.All these common features may explain why previous Boussinesq models were already successful in reproducing the morphology of zonal jets in gas giants.     

Versuch der Geschlechtsbestimmung beim Wels,Silurus glanis L., mit Hilfe der Diskriminanzanalyse von Brustflossendaten

Width of the first ray of the pectoral fin has been measured in two places for 154 young and 89 adult wels. Statistical relationships between the above characters and fish length as well as its maturity and sex have been proved. Three models of discriminant function for identification of adult fish sex have been derived and verified. The accuracy of sex separation has been 89,5% in a standard sample of wels, and 90,6% in a routine sample, after an adjustment in the procedure.     

Geoeffective Disturbances in the Solar Wind near the Solar Activity Minimum according to the Data of a Two-year Series of Observations of Interplanetary Scintillations with the BSA LPI Radio Telescope

Astronomy Reports - A joint analysis of the monitoring data of interplanetary scintillations with solar and geophysical data showed that at the descending phase of the 24 solar activity cycle, the...     

Peculiarities of surface air temperature variations over the Far East regions in 1976–2005

Peculiarities are investigated of the air temperature variation tendencies at some stations of the Far East in 1976–2005. The estimate of linear trend equation coefficients is computed according to the air temperature observation data using the least squares method. It is demonstrated that the air temperature trend in northern regions possesses a small probability at small values of residual variability. In the southern regions, the trend significance increases for almost all seasons at small values of residual variability. At midlatitude stations, the trend significance in January and February decreases considerably due to the large values of residual variability.     

A Long-Term Forecast Model of Spring Runoff: The Case of the Belaya River

Doklady Earth Sciences - The results of long-term forecasting of the spring runoff in the Belaya River basin based on the water-balance model are presented. The structure and parameters of the...