The intensity variations of solar and galactic cosmic rays with azimuthal angle in the polar region

A balloon-born multidirectional detector is used to measure the intensity variation of galactic and solar cosmic rays with the azimuthal angle, the zenith angle being maintained at 60°. In polar regions, the intensity towards the north is found to be 20% larger than that towards the south. It is shown that this anisotropy does not originate in interplanetary space and is not produced by a magnetospheric source. It is suggested that the effect is due to propagation effects within the magnetosphere.     

On the nature of the anti-tail of Comet Kohoutek (1973f). II. Comparison of the working model with ground-based photographic observations

Photographic observations of the anti-tail of Comet Kohoutek (1973f), obtained at the Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory, are photometrically reduced and the results compared with a recently formulated working model of the anti-tail. The applied technique of photometric reduction is described, and the radial and transverse profiles of the anti-tail, corrected for the effects of atmospheric extinction and the variable intensity of the ambient sky, are derived. Brightness variations in time are also studied. The most important result reached so far is a quantitative confirmation of the previously suggested hypothesis, arguing that dust particles in the anti-tail suffered a significant loss in radius due to evaporation near the perihelion passage. We find that only particles initially larger than 100–150 μm in diameter (at an assumed density of 1 gcm^?3) survived. Numerically, however, this result is still preliminary, because the dynamical effect associated with particle evaporation remains to be explained. It is also tentatively suggested that the emission rate of the dust from the comet was probably comparable with the rates derived earlier for Comets Arend-Roland (1957 III) and Bennett (1970 II).     

High resolution absorption cross section measurements and band oscillator strengths of the (1, 0)−(12, 0) Schumann-Runge bands of O2

Cross sections of O₂ at 300 K have been obtained from photoabsorption measurements at various pressures throughout the wavelength region 179.3–201.5 nm with a 6.65 m photoelectric scanning spectrometer equipped with a 2400 lines mm^?1 grating and having an instrumental width (FWHM) of 0.0013 nm. The measured absorption cross sections of the Schumann-Runge bands (12, 0) through (1, 0) in this wavelength region are absolute, i.e., independent of the instrumental width, a result not achieved previously. The measured cross sections are presented graphically and are available at wavenumber intervals of > sim; 0.1 cm^?1 as numerical complications stored on magnetic tape from the National Space Science Data Center, NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD 20771, U.S.A. Band oscillator strengths of the (12, 0) through (1, 0) bands have been determined by direct numerical integration of the measured cross sections.     

Magnetic mineralogy of pelagic limestones

Summary. Due to their extremely small size and low concentration, the carriers of magnetization in limestones are usually identified through indirect rock magnetic methods. This paper describes a method for extracting tiny ferromagnetic grains from consolidated calcareous rocks and summarizes a scanning electron microscope (SEM) investigation of magnetic phases from several palaeomagnetically important pelagic limestones. Details of surface characteristics and elemental composition are readily accessible with the SEM and complement normal rock magnetic experiments in giving a more complete assessment of the major ferromagnetic phases, their origin, and the timing and acquisition of magnetization. The results confirm many indications of the indirect methods and introduce several important new features. In addition to detrital titanomagnetite, diagenetic titanohaematite and iron sulphides, there is a significant contribution by authigenic microcrystalline haematite, detrital cosmic spherules, chromian spinels, and skeletal titanomaghaemite.     

Measuring the impact of water conservation campaigns in California

The reductions in water use achieved by urban households in California during the recent drought are well documented. What is not documented is how those reductions were achieved. In this paper, we report on survey data from the Los Angeles and San Francisco Bay Areas describing the water conservation activities undertaken. We also examine variation in water conservation activities across households and adjust statistically for social desirability biases in the self-reports.Thanks go to UCLA's Survey Research Center for the data collection and especially to Eve Fielder, the Director, who took a particular interest in the study. We are also indebted to the Save the Earth Foundation for funding the earlier research projects that made the data collection for this paper possible. Finally, we wish to express our appreciation to three reviewers who helped us clarify a number of arguments in the paper.     

EISCAT observations of unusual flows in the morning sector associated with weak substorm activity

A discussion is given of plasma flows in the dawn and nightside high-latitude ionospheric regions during substorms occurring on a contracted auroral oval, as observed using the EISCAT CP-4-A experiment. Supporting data from the PACE radar, Greenland magnetometer chain, SAMNET magnetometers and geostationary satellites are compared to the EISCAT observations. On 4 October 1989 a weak substorm with initial expansion phase onset signatures at 0030 UT, resulted in the convection reversal boundary observed by EISCAT (at \sim0415 MLT) contracting rapidly poleward, causing a band of elevated ionospheric ion temperatures and a localised plasma density depletion. This polar cap contraction event is shown to be associated with various substorm signatures; Pi2 pulsations at mid-latitudes, magnetic bays in the midnight sector and particle injections at geosynchronous orbit. A similar event was observed on the following day around 0230 UT (\sim0515 MLT) with the unusual and significant difference that two convection reversals were observed, both contracting poleward. We show that this feature is not an ionospheric signature of two active reconnection neutral lines as predicted by the near-Earth neutral model before the plasmoid is “pinched off”, and present two alternative explanations in terms of (1) viscous and lobe circulation cells and (2) polar cap contraction during northward IMF. The voltage associated with the anti-sunward flow between the reversals reaches a maximum of 13 kV during the substorm expansion phase. This suggests it to be associated with the polar cap contraction and caused by the reconnection of open flux in the geomagnetic tail which has mimicked “viscous-like” momentum transfer across the magnetopause.     

The role of upstream ULF waves in the generation of quasi-periodic ELF-VLF emissions

Recent work suggests that the quasi-periodic (QP) modulation \sim10-50 s of naturally occurring ELF-VLF radio emissions (\sim0.5-5 kHz) is produced by the compressional action of Pc3 magnetic pulsations on the source of the emissions. Whilst it is generally accepted that these magnetic pulsations have an exogenic source, it is not clear what the mechanism of their generation is. A study of QP emissions observed during 1988 at Halley, Antarctica, in conjunction with IMP-8 satellite solar wind data, shows that the occurrence and modulation frequency of the emissions are strongly dependent upon the direction and strength of the IMF, respectively. The observed relationships are very similar to those previously reported for Pc3 pulsations associated with upstream ion-cyclotron resonance, involving proton beams reflected at the bowshock. In comparing the observed QP modulation frequencies with upstream wave theory, agreement was found by considering wave excitation exclusively associated with a proton beam reflected from a position on the bowshock at which the shock normal is parallel to the ambient IMF direction. Other geometries were found to be either impropitious or uncertain. The work indicates the useful diagnostic role QP emissions could play in the study of compressional ULF waves in the upstream solar wind and in monitoring the IMF conditions responsible for their generation.     

Energetic lunar nighttime ion events

The Rice University Suprathermal Ion Detector Experiment regularly observes ion events normally ranging from 250 eV q^?1 to 1000 eV q^?1 all through the lunar night. These ion events occur most often 2 to 3 days prior to the sunrise terminator. There is also a secondary activity peak 3 to 4 days after local sunset on the Moon. The events are normally of 4 hr or less in duration and the integral flux is 10⁶ ions cm^?2 s^?1 ster^?1. This article discusses the character of these events and presents the preliminary findings of a detailed study begun on this subject.