The evolution of massive close binaries

The influence of tidal, interaction on the periods of massive X-ray binaries during the postsupernova evolution is investigated. It is assumed that after a certain time the orbit has become circular and synchronous. The tidal effects of subsequent evolutionary changes in the moment of inertia of the massive component are calculated. It is shown that, as is already suggested by Sparks and Stecher (1974), for small mass ratios and short binary periods a tidal instability may occur resulting in an accelerating inward spiral motion. Before the onset of the instability the tidal forces maintain a nearly synchronous orbit. Possibly the orbits of Cen X-3 and 3 U 1700-37 are already unstable at present.     

A Global Inventory of Burned Areas at 1 Km Resolution for the Year 2000 Derived from Spot Vegetation Data

Biomass burning constitutes a major contribution to global emissions of carbon dioxide, carbon monoxide, methane, greenhouse gases and aerosols. Furthermore, biomass burning has an impact on health, transport, the environment and land use. Vegetation fires are certainly not recent phenomena and the impacts are not always negative. However, evidence suggests that fires are becoming more frequent and there is a large increase in the number of fires being set by humans for a variety of reasons. Knowledge of the interactions and feedbacks between biomass burning, climate and carbon cycling is needed to help the prediction of climate change scenarios. To obtain this knowledge, the scientific community requires, in the first instance, information on the spatial and temporal distribution of biomass burning at the global scale. This paper presents an inventory of burned areas at monthly time periods for the year 2000 at a resolution of 1 kilometer (km) and is available to the scientific community at no cost. The burned area products have been derived from a single source of satellite-derived images, the SPOT VEGETATION S1 1 km product, using algorithms developed and calibrated at regional scales by a network of partners. In this paper, estimates of burned area, number of burn scars and average size of the burn scar are described for each month of the year 2000. The information is reported at the country level. This paper makes a significant contribution to understanding the effect of biomass burning on atmospheric chemistry and the storage and cycling of carbon by constraining one of the main parameters used in the calculation of gas emissions.     

Comparing CO2 Storage and Advection Conditions at Night at Different Carboeuroflux Sites

Anemometer and CO₂ concentration data from temporary campaigns performed at six CARBOEUROFLUX forest sites were used to estimate the importance of non-turbulent fluxes in nighttime conditions. While storage was observed to be significant only during periods of both low turbulence and low advection, the advective fluxes strongly influence the nocturnal CO₂ balance, with the exception of almost flat and highly homogeneous sites. On the basis of the main factors determining the onset of advective fluxes, the ‘advection velocity’, which takes net radiation and local topography into account, was introduced as a criterion to characterise the conditions of storage enrichment/depletion. Comparative analyses of the six sites showed several common features of the advective fluxes but also some substantial differences. In particular, all sites where advection occurs show the onset of a boundary layer characterised by a downslope flow, negative vertical velocities and negative vertical CO₂ concentration gradients during nighttime. As a consequence, vertical advection was observed to be positive at all sites, which corresponds to a removal of CO₂ from the ecosystem. The main differences between sites are the distance from the ridge, which influences the boundary-layer depth, and the sign of the mean horizontal CO₂ concentration gradients, which is probably determined by the source/sink distribution. As a consequence, both positive and negative horizontal advective fluxes (corresponding respectively to CO₂ removal from the ecosystem and to CO₂ supply to the ecosystem) were observed. Conclusive results on the importance of non-turbulent components in the mass balance require, however, further experimental investigations at sites with different topographies, slopes, different land covers, which would allow a more comprehensive analysis of the processes underlying the occurrence of advective fluxes. The quantification of these processes would help to better quantify nocturnal CO₂ exchange rates.     

A regional Bayesian POT model for flood frequency analysis

Flood frequency analysis is usually based on the fitting of an extreme value distribution to the local streamflow series. However, when the local data series is short, frequency analysis results become unreliable. Regional frequency analysis is a convenient way to reduce the estimation uncertainty. In this work, we propose a regional Bayesian model for short record length sites. This model is less restrictive than the index flood model while preserving the formalism of “homogeneous regions”. The performance of the proposed model is assessed on a set of gauging stations in France. The accuracy of quantile estimates as a function of the degree of homogeneity of the pooling group is also analysed. The results indicate that the regional Bayesian model outperforms the index flood model and local estimators. Furthermore, it seems that working with relatively large and homogeneous regions may lead to more accurate results than working with smaller and highly homogeneous regions.     

Table Of Contents Volume 101

Volume Contents

Table Of Contents Volume 101     

Gravitational energy of spherically-symmetric static systems

Two definitions of gravitational energy, Einstein's pseudo-tensor expression of energy in curved space-time and Lynden-Bell and Katz's (LBK) definition, are shown to give equivalent results, as applied to spherically-symetric static systems in the presence of arbitary sources. The conjectured expression for energy density of field plus matter for general static space times, given by Katz, Lynden-Bell, and Israel (KLBI), is applied to a system with internal and external Schwarzschild metric, and also to a vacuum dominated space-time with the De Sitter metric. The physical contents of the KLBI-expression is discussed by analyzing the Newtonian limit in a space filled with matter.     

Mesoscale variability in the Bransfield Strait region (Antarctica) during Austral summer

The Bransfield Strait is one the best-known areas of Antarctica’s oceanic surroundings. In spite of this, the study of the mesoscale variability of its local circulation has been addressed only recently.This paper focuses on the mesoscale structure of local physical oceanographic conditions in the Bransfield Strait during the Austral summer as derived from the BIOANTAR 93 cruise and auxiliary remote sensing data. Moreover, data recovered from moored current meters allow identification of transient mesoscale phenomena.     

Hydrochemical status of pond Enkheimer Ried,Rhine-Main-Area,FR Germany

The Pond Enkheimer Ried (PER) is a shallow, wind-exposed, highly eutrophic lake E of Frankfurt city, Rhine-Main area.The chemistry of PER-water is dominated by bicarbonate, calcium and sulphate which are supplied by a surface inflow, the Ried Graben (RG), some interflow and groundwater. An excessive phosphorus pool in the lake water and sediments exhibits no response to pulses of primary production but the contrary is evident for nitrate and dissolved silica.Bottom sediments of PER are dominated by carbonates, which are derived from biochemical processes in the lake water related to primary production. Large amounts of these precipitates are produced when water temperature and light conditions are favourable (spring to autumn).At frequent overturn conditions, highly hydrated unconsolidated bottom sediment (Treibmudde) is resuspended into the water and propells a permanent returnflow of nutrients, produced or dissolved in the water-sediment boundary layer.