Observations of rapid mean flow produced in mercury by a moving heater

Abstract

Experimental and theoretical results are described for the moving flame experiment, where a heat source moves under a horizontal, annular channel filled with liquid mercury. The physical range under discussion consists of the creep flow limit, in which inertial forces are less than viscous forces. A mean surface flow was observed on the mercury. This flow was up to four times greater than the heater speed, and in an opposite direction. The ratio of mean flow to heater speed was theoretically and experimentally found to be proportional to the square of the thermal amplitude, in agreement with a special limit of Davey's earlier results. The basic flow here, as contrasted to those flows analyzed by earlier theories, appears to be generated by surface tension. However, the Reynolds stress mechanism which generates the mean flow is the same. Some experimental flows were so rapid that the range of validity of the present, as well as some earlier theories, was exceeded. The present theory suggests that the higher order nonlinearities may have cancellative effects, which implies that the present and some earlier theories are valid beyond their normal range of validity.     

Meteor44 Video Meteor Photometry

Meteor44 is a software system developed at MSFC for the calibration and analysis of video meteor data. The photometric range of the (8 bit) video data is extended from a visual magnitude range of from 8 to 3 to from 8 to −8 for both meteors and stellar images using saturation compensation. Camera and lens specific saturation compensation coefficients are derived from artificial variable star laboratory measurements. Saturation compensation significantly increases the number of meteors with measured intensity and improves the estimation of meteoroid mass distribution. Astrometry is automated to determine each image's plate coefficient using appropriate star catalogs. The images are simultaneously intensity calibrated from the contained stars to determine the photon sensitivity and the saturation level referenced above the atmosphere. The camera's spectral response is used to compensate for stellar color index and typical meteor spectra in order to report meteor light curves in traditional visual magnitude units. Recent efforts include improved camera calibration procedures and long focal length "streak" meteor photometry. Meteor44 has been used to analyze data from the 2001, 2002 and 2003 MSFC Leonid observational campaigns as well as several lesser showers.     

Tropospheric Ozone in a Global-Scale Three-Dimensional Lagrangian Model and Its Response to NOX Emission Controls

A three-dimensional Lagrangian tropospheric chemistry modelis used toinvestigate the impact of human activities on the tropospheric distributionofozone and hydroxyl radicals. The model describes the behaviour of 50 speciesincluding methane, carbon monoxide, oxides of nitrogen, sulphur dioxide andnineorganic compounds emitted from human activities and a range of other sources.Thechemical mechanism involves about 100 chemical reactions of which 16 arephotochemical reactions whose diurnal dependence is treated in full. The modelutilises a five minute chemistry time step and a three hour advection timestepfor the 50,000 air parcels. Meteorological data for the winds, temperatures,clouds and so on are taken from the UK Meteorological Office global model for1994 onwards. The impacts of a 50% reduction in European NO_Xemissions onglobal ozone concentrations are assessed. Surface ozoneconcentrations decrease in summertime and rise in wintertime, but to differentextents.     

Closed-form solution of P4P or the three-dimensional resection problem in terms of Möbius barycentric coordinates

 The perspective 4 point (P4P) problem - also called the three-dimensional resection problem - is solved by means of a new algorithm: At first the unknown Cartesian coordinates of the perspective center are computed by means of M?bius barycentric coordinates. Secondly these coordinates are represented in terms of observables, namely space angles in the five-dimensional simplex generated by the unknown point and the four known points. Substitution of M?bius barycentric coordinates leads to the unknown Cartesian coordinates (2.8)–(2.10) of Box 2.2. The unknown distances within the five-dimensional simplex are determined by solving the Grunert equations, namely by forward reduction to one algebraic equation (3.8) of order four and backward linear substitution. Tables 1.–4. contain a numerical example. Finally we give a reference to the solution of the 3 point (P3P) problem, the two-dimensional resection problem, namely to the Ansermet barycentric coordinates initiated by C.F. Gau? (1842), A. Schreiber (1908) and A.␣Ansermet (1910). Received: 05 March 1996; Accepted: 15 October 1996     

Stable carbon isotope variations in northwest Europe during the last glacial–interglacial transition

Stable carbon isotope data that span part of the last glacial–interglacial transition (ca. 14-9 ka ¹⁴C BP; ca. 15–11 ka cal. BP), and which derive from organ-specific plant macrofossils recovered from two lake sediment profiles in the UK and one in Norway, are compared. The recorded temporal variations show similar trends, which, over a millennial time-scale appear to parallel the main drift in δ¹⁸O as determined for the GRIP ice-core. It is postulated that some smaller scale variations in the δ¹³C profiles may reflect the shorter term oscillations in δ¹⁸O values evident in the GRIP record, although this is less certain. Overall, however, the results suggest that stable carbon isotope measurements based on organ-specific terrestrial plant macrofossils may provide (i) a means for establishing correlations between terrestrial successions and (ii) additional paleoenvironmental information, as the apparent ‘shadowing’ of the GRIP record indicates a common forcing mechanism for both Greenland δ¹⁸O and northwest European δ¹³C variations. From the evidence available we suggest that the recorded δ¹³C variations reflect fluctuations in air temperature and/or changes in water vapour pressure in the atmosphere. © 1997 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Experiments on steady buoyancy transfer through turbulent fluid layers separated by density interfaces

A laboratory experiment was performed to investigate mixing across a density interface which separates two turbulent fluid layers and coexists with a stabilizing buoyancy flux. It was found that the buoyancy flux (q₀) across the interface and through the turbulent layers (of depth D) becomes steady and constant in magnitude in the vertical direction, only when , where u is the horizontal r.m.s. velocity at the base of the mixed layers. The results suggest that mixing across the density interface is controlled by a dynamically important buoyancy gradient induced in the turbulent layers and that parameters such as the bulk Richardson number, , where Δb is the interfacial buoyancy jump, are of secondary importance. Measurements are used to infer the mixing mechanism at the interface, the mixing efficiency of stratified fluids and the entrainment law. Some geophysical applications of the results are also discussed.     

Silica depleted melting of pelites. Petrogenetic grid and application to the Susqueda Aureole, Spain

Metapelitic rocks in the low pressure contact metamorphic aureole around the Susqueda igneous complex, Spain show a number of features that make them an ideal testing ground for the modelling of silica‐undersaturated melting. Rocks in the aureole experienced localized depletion in silica by the segregation of quartz veins during a pre‐anatectic, regional cordierite‐andalusite grade metamorphic event. These rocks were then intruded by gabbroic to dioritic rocks of the Susqueda igneous complex that formed a migmatitic contact metamorphic aureole in the country rocks. This migmatisation event caused quartz‐saturated hornfels and restite formation in rocks that had experienced no quartz vein segregation in the previous regional metamorphic event, but silica‐undersaturated melting in those rocks that were previously depleted in silica. Silica‐undersaturated melting is investigated using a new petrogenetic P–T projection and equilibrium pseudosections calculated in the KFMASH and NCKFMASH systems, respectively. The grid considers quartz absent equilibria and a range of phases that form typically in silica‐undersaturated bulk compositions, for example corundum. It is shown that the quartz‐rich precursors in the Susqueda contact aureole produced about 10% melt during contact metamorphism. However, most of this melt was extracted leaving behind rocks with restitic bulk compositions and minor leucosome segregation. It is suggested that the melt mixed with the host igneous rocks causing an apparent magmatic zoning from diorite in the centre of the complex to tonalite at the margins. In contrast, the quartz‐poor precursors (from which the quartz veins segregated) melted in the silica‐undersaturated field producing a range of assemblages including peritectic corundum and spinel. Melting of the silica‐undersaturated rocks produced only negligible melt and no subsequent melt loss.     

Pillow talk

Three distinct types of pillows and pillow lava sequences with different modes of origin have been recognized in the extrusive sequences comprising the upper parts of ophiolite complexes that represent the mafic portion of the floor of an Early Cretaceous back-arc basin in southern Chile. One type of pillow formed by non-explosive submarine effusion. A second type formed by magmatic intrusion into pre-existing aquagene tuff formed by explosive eruption. The third type of pillow occurs within dikes, forming pillowed dikes, possibly as a result of vapor streaming within a cooling dike. Where studied in southern Chile, aquagene tuffs and intrusive pillows decrease and water-lain pillows increase in relative abundance from north to south. This variation corresponds with a north-to-south decrease in both the relative volume of extrusives to extensional dikes and the range and volume of differentiated rocks, suggesting a southward increase in rate of extension relative to rate of magma supply within the spreading ridges at which the ophiolites formed. In the northern part of the original basin where the rate of extension was small relative to the rate of magma supply, magma remained in magma chambers longer, resulting in a greater range and volume of differentiated rocks. The larger volume of more differentiated, cooler and more viscous magmas, in conjunction with the likelihood of more violent eruption of volatile-rich differentiates, may have been responsible for the large volume of aquagene tuff in the northern part of the original basin. These observations in southern Chile suggest that ophiolites which contain a great abundance of aquagene tuffs and intrusive pillow lavas formed in tectonic environments in which the rate of extension was small relative to the rate of magma supply (island arcs, embryonic marginal basins). Ophiolites with predominantly water-lain pillowed and massive lavas formed in tectonic environments in which the rate of extension was large relative to the rate of magma supply (mid-ocean ridges, mature back-arc basins). Thus geologic field data may supplement geochemical data as a tool in distinguishing the original igneous-tectonic environments in which ophiolites originate.