Hydrographic structure of the Kuroshio large meander-cold water mass region down to the deeper layers of the ocean

The hydrographic structure of the region of large meander of the Kuroshio and the large cold water mass, which were formed in 1975, was observed down to the ocean bottom, during three cruises of the R/VHakuho Maru in September 1975, September 1976, and December 1977. The analysis of observed data indicates the following common features: the horizontal gradient of the specific volume anomaly exists down to a 3,500 db surface, corresponding to the existence of baroclinic geostrophic current down to this depth. These facts demonstrate that the current of the Kuroshio is not confined to the upper layer during periods of existence of the large meander. On a T-S diagram, the Kuroshio water and the water in the large cold water mass can be discriminated down to a 5°C surface, but there is evidence of mixing due to conspicuous interleaving between the two water masses, near the thermocline. Below the thermocline, water types defined by points on the T-S diagram can be traced from a deeper level in the Kuroshio water to a shallower level in the cold water mass, indicating that in the deeper layers the Kuroshio water continues to be uplifted toward the center of the cold water mass. The same inference is also obtained from the distribution of dissolved oxygen.     

The X-Ray Telescope (XRT) for the Hinode Mission

The X-ray Telescope (XRT) of the Hinode mission provides an unprecedented combination of spatial and temporal resolution in solar coronal studies. The high sensitivity and broad dynamic range of XRT, coupled with the spacecraft’s onboard memory capacity and the planned downlink capability will permit a broad range of coronal studies over an extended period of time, for targets ranging from quiet Sun to X-flares. This paper discusses in detail the design, calibration, and measured performance of the XRT instrument up to the focal plane. The CCD camera and data handling are discussed separately in a companion paper.     

The Solar Optical Telescope of Solar-B (Hinode): The Optical Telescope Assembly

The Solar Optical Telescope (SOT) aboard the Solar-B satellite (Hinode) is designed to perform high-precision photometric and polarimetric observations of the Sun in visible light spectra (388 – 668 nm) with a spatial resolution of 0.2 – 0.3 arcsec. The SOT consists of two optically separable components: the Optical Telescope Assembly (OTA), consisting of a 50-cm aperture Gregorian with a collimating lens unit and an active tip-tilt mirror, and an accompanying Focal Plane Package (FPP), housing two filtergraphs and a spectro-polarimeter. The optomechanical and optothermal performance of the OTA is crucial to attain unprecedented high-quality solar observations. We describe in detail the instrument design and expected stable diffraction-limited on-orbit performance of the OTA, the largest state-of-the-art solar telescope yet flown in space.     

Balloon-Borne Hard X-Ray Spectrometer Using CdTe Detectors

Spectroscopic observation of solar flares in the hard X-ray energy range, particularly the 20 ∼ 100 keV region, is an invaluable tool for investigating the flare mechanism. This paper describes the design and performance of a balloon-borne hard X-ray spectrometer using CdTe detectors developed for solar flare observation. The instrument is a small balloon payload (gondola weight 70 kg) with sixteen 10×10×0.5 mm CdTe detectors, designed for a 1-day flight at 41 km altitude. It observes in an energy range of 20−120 keV and has an energy resolution of 3 keV at 60 keV. The second flight on 24 May 2002 succeeded in observing a class M1.1 flare.     

Physical properties of the outflow sources in taurus

We have searched for CO outflows in eight embedded IRAS sources located in the Taurus molecular cloud using the 45m telescope of Nobeyama Radio Observatory. We have detected CO wing emission in four of these sources. CO outflow associated with TMC1A (04365+2535) is strong and spatially compact (radius 0.04 pc). The dynamical timescale of 2.5 × 10³ yr suggests this outflow is the youngest one in Taurus.We have combined our data with previously published survey data and have analyzed the physical properties of the outflow sources. We found that 12 out of 16 embedded sources ( 75 %) have CO outflows associated with them; this indicates that almost all stars experience a phase of molecular outflow in their embedded stage. The IRAS color of the outflow sources suggests that the outflows appear in considerably early phase of the evolution of YSOs, that is, as early as YSOs became observable with IRAS and that visible outflow sources are in a transient phase of evolution between embedded sources and visible T Tauri stars without outflow. Visible outflow sources are systematically more luminous than visible no-outflow sources, while embedded outflow sources have comparable luminosities with visible no-outflow sources. Such luminosity function suggests that the YSOs with outflow undergo mass accretion and increase their stellar mass as they progress from embedded sources to visible outflow sources. Typical mass accretion rate derived from the bolometric luminosity is 2 ×10^–6 M _yr ^–1. The timescale for mass accretion to acquire typical stellar mass, 0.5 – 0.8M , is 2.5 – 4 × 10⁵ yr.