TEC variation over an equatorial and anomaly crest region in India during 2012 and 2013

Using the global positioning system (GPS) measurements, the total electron content (TEC) at station Bangalore (13.02°N, 77.57°E geographic; 04.44°N, 150.84°E geomagnetic), lying at the equatorial region, and station Lucknow (26.91°N, 80.95°E geographic; 17.96°N, 155.24°E geomagnetic), lying at equatorial ionospheric anomaly (EIA) crest region, have been estimated for the year 2012–2013. In order to evaluate the International Reference Ionosphere (IRI) model regarding simulation/modeling of ionospheric studies specially at equatorial and EIA crest regions, we have compared the TEC derived from the recent version of the IRI-2012 model and the older IRI-2007 with its three topside options, namely IRI-NeQuick (IRI-NeQ), IRI-2001, and IRI01-corr, with that of GPS-TEC over Bangalore and Lucknow. For the EIA station Lucknow, the IRI-2012 model with IRI-NeQ and IRI01-corr topside is found in good agreement with GPS-TEC during summer and equinox season, while the IRI-2012 model for all three topside options significantly overestimates the GPS-TEC during winter season. The IRI-2001 topside overestimates the GPS-TEC over both the stations during all seasons. The anomalous difference between the IRI-2012 model prediction and ground-based GPS-TEC in daytime hours during the winter season observed at Lucknow could be attributed to discrepancies in the slab thickness predicted by the model, which is more during the winter season as compared to summer and equinox. These large discrepancies in the slab thickness predicted by the IRI-2012 as well as the IRI-2007 model during the winter season have been supported by using the foF2 data from Constellation Observing System for Meteorology, Ionosphere, and Climate radio occultation-based measurements. We also observed that the discrepancies in the recent IRI-2012 model with respect to GPS-TEC are found to be slightly larger than those with the older IRI-2007 model over the EIA region Lucknow. However, over the equatorial region Bangalore, the discrepancy with the older model IRI-2007 was found to be larger than with the recent IRI-2012 model. This suggests that the performance of the IRI-2012 model is poorer than the IRI-2007 model at the EIA region while better at equatorial region, and that further improvements in the IRI-2012 models are required particularly in the low-latitude and EIA regions. The GPS-TEC showed disappearance of the winter anomaly during 2012–2013, while the IRI model failed to predict the disappearance of winter anomaly.     

Spectral signatures of moisture-stressed wheat

One of the important parameters affecting crop yield is the availability of soil moisture to the crop. Lack of it may bring about moisture stress in plants which manifests itself in terms of changes in the spectral reflectance and emittance properties of plants. An experiment involving radiometric measurements over six wheat plots subjected to different irrigation schedules was conducted to test this hypothesis. Vegetation index defined in terms of crop reflectances in 0.6 to 0.7 and 0.8 to 1,1 micrometer bands was found to be a sensitive parameter to distinguish normal plants from moisture-stressed plants. The optimum period for the discrimination of such plants through remote sensing techniques has been indicated to be 45–80 days after sowing. The experiment also demonstrates that yield per unit area is linearly related to the maximum leaf-area index of the crop thus providing a possible method of crop yield prediction.     

Quasi-periodic VLF emissions observed during daytime at a low latitude Indian ground station Jammu

This paper reports quasi-periodic pulsing hiss emissions recorded during daytime in the frequency range of 50 Hz-15 kHz at low latitude station Jammu (geomag. lat. = 22°26′N; L = 1.17). It is noted that pulsing VLF emissions are a rare phenomena at low latitudes. The various spectrograms of pulsing VLF hiss emissions presented in this paper clearly show band limited spectrums regularly pulsing with almost equal period of the order of few seconds in the frequency range of ∼3–8 kHz. Generation and propagation mechanism of these emissions are briefly discussed.     

Predicting agricultural drought in eastern Rajasthan of India using NDVI and standardized precipitation index

In the present study, prediction of agricultural drought has been addressed through prediction of agricultural yield using a model based on NDVI-SPI. It has been observed that the meteorological drought index SPI with different timescale is correlated with NDVI at different lag. Also NDVI of current fortnight is correlated with NDVI of previous lags. Based on the correlation coefficients, the Multiple Regression Model was developed to predict NDVI. The NDVI of current fortnight was found highly correlated with SPI of previous fortnight in semi-arid and transitional zones. The correlation between NDVI and crop yield was observed highest in first fortnight of August. The RMSE of predicted yield in drought year was found to be about 17.07 kg/ha which was about 6.02 per cent of average yield. In normal year, it was 24 kg/Ha denoting about 2.1 per cent of average yield.     

SOHO/SWAN observations of comets with small perihelia: C/2002 V1 (NEAT), C/2002 X5 (Kudo–Fujikawa), 2006 P1 (McNaught) and 96P/Machholz 1

SWAN, the all-sky hydrogen Lyman-alpha camera on the SOHO spacecraft, designed primarily to image the interplanetary neutral hydrogen around the Sun, also observes comets continuously over large portions of their apparitions to the north and south of the ecliptic and at small solar elongation angles. Because of SOHO’s location at the L1 Lagrange point, analysis of SWAN images provides excellent temporal coverage of water production. We report here our results of observations of some interesting target comets selected from the extensive SWAN archive. These include three Oort Cloud Comets C/2002 V1 (NEAT), C/2002 X5 (Kudo–Fujikawa), C/2006 P1 (McNaught) and three apparitions of atypical short-period Comet 96P/Machholz 1. The common aspect of these four comets is their small perihelion distances, which are 0.19, 0.09, 0.17, and 0.12 AU, respectively. Their water production rates over their whole apparitions can be approximated by power laws in heliocentric distance (r in AU) as follows: 1.3 × 10²⁹ r^−2.1 s⁻¹ for C/2002 V1 (NEAT), 7.5 × 10²⁸ r^−2.0 s⁻¹ for C/2002 X5 (Kudo–Fujikawa), 5.4 × 10²⁹ r^−2.4 s⁻¹ for C/2006 (P1 McNaught) and 4.6 × 10²⁷ r^−2.1 s⁻¹ for 96P/Machholz 1. We also present daily-average water production rates for the long-period comets over long continuous time periods. We examine these results in light of our growing survey of comets that is yielding some interesting comparisons of water production rate variations with heliocentric distance and taxonomic classes.     

X-Ray Line Transfer in Plasmas with Large Velocity Gradients

An astrophysically relevant experiment is compared to the output of a multidimensional radiation transfer code in which populations and radiation are self-consistently treated. Experimental Al Ly α spectra obtained with a very high-resolution spectrometer are presented as quantitative evidence of dot plasma non-planar expansion. Analysis of these spectra using the code is performed, in particular examining the effects of velocity gradients in directions other than that of the primary expansion. These calculations are found to be in good agreement with the experimental results. Usage of the Ly α doublet as a planarity diagnostic is discussed.     

Baily’s Beads Atlas in 2005 – 2008 Eclipses

In the annular or total eclipses of 3 October 2005, 29 March 2006, 22 September 2006, and 1 August 2008, observational campaigns were organized to record the phenomenon of Baily’s beads. These campaigns were internationally coordinated through the International Occultation Timing Association (IOTA) at both its American and European sections. From the stations in the northern and southern zones of grazing eclipse, the eclipses have been recorded on video. Afterward, as many beads as possible have been identified by analyzing the video data of each observing station. The atlas presented in this paper includes 598 data points, obtained by 23 observers operating at 28 different observing stations. The atlas lists the geographic positions of the observing stations and the observed time instants of disappearance or reappearance of beads, identified by an angle measured relative to the Moon’s axis of rotation. The atlas will serve as a basis for determining the solar diameter. Electronic Supplementary Material  The online version of this article () contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.     

Temporal Pointing Variations of the Solar Dynamics Observatory’s HMI and AIA Instruments on Subweekly Time Scales

Achieving subarcsecond co-registration across varying time-lines of multi-wavelength and instrument images is difficult and requires an accurate characterization of the instrument pointing jitter. We investigated the internal pointing errors on daily and yearly time-scales that occur across the Solar Dynamics Observatory’s (SDO) Atmospheric Imaging Assembly (AIA) and Helioseismic Magnetic Imager (HMI). Using cross-correlation techniques on the AIA 1700 Å passband and the HMI line-of-sight magnetograms from three years of observational image pairs at approximately three-day intervals, internal pointing errors were quantified. Pointing variations of ±?0.26″ (jitter-limited) and ±?0.50″ in the solar East–West (x) and North–South (y) directions, respectively, were measured. AIA observations of the Venus transit in June 2012 were used to measure existing coalignment offsets in all passbands. We found that the AIA passband pointing variations are 〈ΔX _CO〉=1.10″±1.41″ and 〈ΔY _CO〉=1.25″±1.24″ when aligned to the HMI nominal image center, referred to here as the CutOut technique. Minimal long-term pointing variations found between limb and correlation derived pointings provide evidence that the image-center positions provided by the instrument teams achieve single-pixel accuracy on time scales shorter than their characterization. However, daily AIA passband pointing variations of ??1.18″ indicate that autonomous subarcsecond co-registration is not fully achieved yet.     

Photometric and polarimetric studies of three W UMa-type binaries: FZ Ori,V407 Peg and LP UMa

We present analyses of new optical photometric observations of three W UMa-type contact binaries FZ Ori, V407 Peg and LP UMa. Results from the first polarimetric observations of the FZ Ori and V407 Peg are also presented. The periods of FZ Ori, V407 Peg and LP UMa are derived to be 0.399986, 0.636884 and 0.309898 d, respectively. The O?C analyses indicate that the orbital periods of FZ Ori and LP UMa have increased with the rate of 2.28×10^?8 and 1.25×10^?6 d?yr^?1, respectively and which is explained by transfer of mass between the components. In addition to the secularly increasing rate of orbital period, it was found that the period of FZ Ori has varied in sinusoidal way with oscillation period of ～30.1 yr. The period of oscillations are most likely to be explained by the light-time effect due to the presence of a tertiary companion. Small asymmetries have been seen around the primary and secondary maxima of light curves of all three systems, which is probably due to the presence of cool/hot spots on the components. The light curves of all three systems are analysed by using Wilson-Devinney code (WD) and the fundamental parameters of these systems have been derived. The present analyses show that FZ Ori is a W-subtype, and V407 Peg and LP UMa are A-subtype of the W UMa-type contact binary systems. The polarimetric observations in B, V, R and I bands, yield average values of polarization to be 0.26±0.03, 0.22±0.02, 0.22±0.03 and 0.22±0.05 per cent for FZ Ori and 0.21±0.02, 0.29±0.03, 0.31±0.01 and 0.31±0.04 per cent for V407 Peg, respectively.     

Estimation of proportions of lithotypes using auxiliary information

The problem of estimating the proportion of lithological (ore) types in volumes of mineral deposits is considered when an auxiliary variable Z(z) is observed along with the lithology L(x) at x. The process {Z(x)} is assumed to be stationary and an assumption on the statistical relationship between {Z(x)} and {L(x)} processes is made. Consequently, the second-order stationarity of {L(x)} is not required. A method using the kriged distribution of the auxiliary variable is proposed. A case study illustrating the procedure is given.