Global scale patterns of continental fragmentation: Wilson's cycles as a constraint for long-term sea-level changes

We propose to characterize land–ocean distributions over Late Proterozoic to Phanerozoic times from measurement of perimeters and areas of continental fragments, based on paleomagnetic reconstructions. These measurements serve to calculate geophysically constrained breakup and scatter indexes of continental land masses from 0 to 1100 Ma. We then provide quantitative investigation and modelling of relationships between scatter of continental landmasses and mean age of the oceanic lithosphere during Mesozoic times, which appears to range from 56 to 62 Ma over the last 170 My. We then inverse the scatter of continental landmasses in terms of global oceanic crust mean age over the last 600 My, i.e. back in times where no measurement of seafloor accretion history is possible because of subduction. We finally show that the inferred evolution of oceanic lithosphere mean age over the Phanerozoic remarkably correlates in time with long-term sea-level changes since the Cambrian.     

Digital GaAs Autocorrelator Developed for Space Borne Submillimeter Astronomy

We present the development of a correlator module intended for space borne high resolution heterodyne spectroscopy. Our attention has been focused on power consumption reduction (few mW per channel needed), while looking for a high clock frequency (few hundreds of MHz) to cover wide bandwidths. The module proposed, which may be the base of an hybrid analog/digital spectrometer, is composed of two full custom Very Low Scale Integration (VLSI) circuits using two different technologies: a high speed MEtal Semiconductor Field Effect Transistor (MESFET) on Gallium Arsenide substrate (GaAs) and a low power Complementary Metal Oxide Semiconductor (CMOS) on Silicon substrate (Si). A 0.8 m GaAs prototype circuit has been built and tested. It shows a correct global operation up to 242 MHz – and for marginal functions up to 611 MHz –, and a power consumption as expected by the simulations (less than 2 W). Expected improvements of the technology, together with some modifications developed here, demonstrate that a high frequency correlator module, meeting spatial requirements (many hundreds of channels and few mW per resolution point), should be feasible.     

Fate and tidal transport of butyltin and mercury compounds in the waters of the tropical Bach Dang Estuary (Haiphong, Vietnam)

In this work, two field campaigns were performed in July 2008 (wet season) and March 2009 (dry season) to produce original data on the concentration, partition and distribution of mercury and butyltin compounds along the tropical Bach Dang Estuary located in North Vietnam (Haiphong, Red River Delta). The results demonstrate that mercury and butyltin speciation in the surface waters of this type of tropical estuary is greatly affected by the drastic changes in the seasonal conditions. During high river discharge in the wet season, there was a large estuarine input of total Hg and tributyltin, while the longer residence time of the waters during the dry season promotes increasing MMHg formation and TBT degradation. Although most of the Hg and TBT is transported into the estuary from upstream sources, tidal cycle measurements demonstrate that this estuary is a significant source of TBT and MMHg during the wet (～3kgTBT/day) and dry (～3gMMHg/day) seasons.     

Cenozoic Eurasia is not a single rigid plate: Paleomagnetic evidence

The widely distributed Cenozoic paleomagnetic inclination anomaly in Asia is usually attributed to either a widespread error of magnetic field recording due to an inclination flattening mechanism in sediments, or to the persistence of an anomalous non-dipolar component of the geomagnetic field throughout the Tertiary. Based on an analysis of the Asian paleomagnetic database for Meso-Cenozoic times, we suggest that instead this puzzling anomaly results from an overlooked global plate tectonics cause where the wide so-called Eurasian plate would have suffered from previously undetected transpressive north–south relative movements between its western and eastern ends since the Cretaceous. These relative movements are most probably accommodated by a component of right-lateral shear movement distributed in the Tornquist–Tesseyre zone, and a localized left-lateral shear movement in the Ural Mountain chain during the Tertiary. Therefore, Eurasia was not the single rigid plate that Cenozoic plate reconstructions have accepted.     

The dissociative recombination of O2+ in the ionosphere

Aeronomical determinations of the dissociative recombination reaction rate coefficient for O₂⁺, α, depend directly on a knowledge of the rate coefficient for the charge exchange of O⁺ with O₂, k. A re-evaluation of the aeronomical determination of α using Atmosphere Explorer satellite data is necessary in the light of a subsequent laboratory measurement of k. The results reported here are in reasonable agreement with laboratory determinations to within the uncertainty of the analysis for night-time conditions. However, for data obtained under sunlit conditions the aeronomical determination differs significantly from the laboratory measurements. The results imply that the state of the O₂⁺ molecule resulting from the major thermospheric processes requires further examination.     

Potential Role of Solar Variability as an Agent for Climate Change

Numerical experiments have been carried out with a two-dimensional sector averaged global climate model in order to assess the potential impact of solar variability on the Earth's surface temperature from 1700 to 1992. This was done by investigating the model response to the variations in solar radiation caused by the changes in the Earth's orbital elements, as well as by the changes intrinsic to the Sun. In the absence of a full physical theory able to explain the origin of the observed total solar irradiance variations, three different total solar irradiance reconstructions have been used. A total solar irradiance change due to the photospheric effects incorporated in the Willson and Hudson (1988) parameterization, and the newly reconstructed solar total irradiance variations from the solar models of Hoyt and Schatten (1993) and Lean et al. (1995). Our results indicate that while the influence of the orbital forcing on the annual and global mean surface temperature is negligible at the century time scale, the monthly mean response to this forcing can be quite different from one month to another. The modelled global warming due to the three investigated total solar irradiance reconstructions is insufficient to reproduce the observed 20th century warming. Nevertheless, our simulated surface temperature response to the changes in the Sun's radiant energy output suggests that the Gleissberg cycle (88 years) solar forcing should not be neglected in explaining the century-scale climate variations. Finally, spectral analysis seems to point out that the 10- to 12-year oscillations found in the recorded Northern Hemisphere temperature variations from 1700 to 1992 could be unrelated to the solar forcing. Such a result could indicate that the eleven-year period which is frequently found in climate data might be related to oscillations in the atmosphere or oceans, internal to the climate system.     

Particle precipitation in the south atlantic geomagnetic anomaly

A simple model of the motion of charged particles in the closed field line magnetic field for L ? 4·5 is used together with Injun 3 measurements of 40 keV precipitated electrons made in the northern hemisphere to estimate theoretically the extent of electron precipitation, the energy input and the 3914 Å airglow in the South Atlantic geomagnetic anomaly. Using average values of the northern hemisphere precipitated electron flux, two regions of significantly enhanced electron precipitation are found in the southern hemisphere. One occurs in the region 10–20°E and 40–50°S, with L ≈ 2, and the second near 30°E and 65°S, with L ≈ 4.5. Approximately 0.04 erg cm^?2 sec^?1 are deposited by 40 keV electrons for 50 per cent of the time in the first region and half that amount in the second. This increases to ～0·1 and 0·02 erg cm^?2 sec^?1 respectively for 15 per cent of the time for near sunspot minimum conditions. The results show a gradual increase in precipitation on the western side of the anomaly followed by a rapid increase and sudden cut-off in precipitation within a few degrees west of minimum B. The flux on L = 2 reaches a “spike” in the southern hemisphere ～f35 times greater than the average flux precipitated on L = 2 in the northern hemisphere. This increase in precipitation arises from the loss of “trapped” particles to the atmosphere where the mirror heights are lowest.