Hydrodynamic control of phytoplankton in low salinity waters of the James River estuary,Virginia, U.S.A.

Autotrophic biomass and productivity as well as nutrient distributions and phytoplankton cell populations in the James River estuary, Virginia, were quantified both spatially and temporally over a 17-month period. Emphasis was placed on the very low salinity region of the estuary in order to gain information on the fate of freshwater phytoplankters. Differing amounts of freshwater plant biomass are advected into the estuary as living material, DOC or POC and the demonstrated variability of this input must play an important role in marine biogeochemical cycling.Late summer and fall maxima in both chlorophyll a and the photosynthetic production of particulate organic carbon in very low salinity regions were inversely correlated with river discharge.During periods of low river discharge greater than 50% of the chlorophyll a biomass measured at 0‰ disappeared within a narrow range of salinity (0–2‰). Cell enumeration data suggest that species introduced from the freshwater end-member tend to comprise the bulk of the biomass removed. Confounding factors, which may contribute to the regulation of both the abundance and species of phytoplankters mid-river, include the flocculation of colloidal material with phytoplankton cells, the presence of the turbidity maximum and the growth of endemic phytoplankton populations.An inverse relationship exists between the phytoplankton abundance in very low salinity waters and the abundance of biomass measured in the lower portion of the river (estuary). Thus, autotrophic production in the fresh and very low salinity areas may indirectly regulate the onset on the spring bloom in the estuary by controlling the amount of nutrients available.     

Pulsar reflections within the Crab Nebula

Between 1997 August and October, the radio pulses from the Crab pulsar were followed by discrete moving echoes, which appear to be reflections from part of an ionized shell in the outer part of the Crab Nebula, crossing the line of sight to pulsar. Similar events have now been recognized in recordings from the past 30 yr, and it seems that the Nebula must contain a large number of ionized shell-like surfaces on a much finer scale than recognized hitherto.     

A unified model of dwarf nova outbursts based on the disk instability

A unified model for outbursts of dwarf novae is proposed based on the disk instability model in cataclysmic variable stars. In this model, two different intrinsic instabilities (i.e., the thermal instability and the tidal instability) within accretion disks are considered in non-magnetic cataclysmic variable stars. It is suggested that all of three sub-classes of dwarf novae (i.e., U Gem-type, Z Cam-type and SU UMa-type dwarf novae) may be explained in terms of two model parameters of the orbital period of the binary and of the mass transfer rate within the framework of the disk instability model.     

The Effect of Atmospheric Drag on Satellite Orbits During the Bastille Day Event

Geomagnetic storms driven by solar eruptions are known to have significant effects on the total density of the upper atmosphere in the altitude range 250–1000 km. This in turn causes a measurable effect on the orbits of resident space objects in this altitude range. We analyzed a sample of these orbits, both from sensor data and from orbital element sets, during the period surrounding the 14 July 2000 solar activity. We present information concerning the effects of this event on the orbits of resident space objects and how well accepted atmospheric models were able to represent it. As part of this analysis, we describe a technique for extracting atmospheric density information from orbital element sets. On daily time scales, the effect of geomagnetic activity appears to be more important than that of prompt radiation. However, the limitations in time and amplitude quantization of the accepted solar indices are evident. A limited comparison is also made with previous solar storm events.     

Introduction

A historical sketch of the nonlinear theory of variable stars is outlined briefly. The main break-through came from the hydrodynamic study of stellar pulsation. From a theoretical point of view, coupling needs to be discussed more carefully. The impact of new opacities on the astrophysical problems is also discussed.     

Polarimetric observations of pulsating variable stars

Results are presented for polarimetric observations of 17 red giants and supergiants, of which nine are long-period Mira variables, five are semiregular variables (SR), and three are slowly fluctuating variables (Lb). Light polarization is detected for eight stars, seven of them for the first time.Translated fromAstrofizika, Vol. 39, No. 3, pp. 385–391, July–September, 1996.     

Contribution of chromospheric features to UV irradiance variability from spatially-resolved Ca II K spectroheliograms

We have digitized the Ca ii K spectroheliograms, observed at the National Solar Observatory at Sacramento Peak, for the period 1980 (maximum of solar cycle 21), 1985 (minimum of solar cycle 21), 1987 (beginning of the ascending phase of solar cycle 22), 1988 and 1989 (ascending phase and maximum of solar cycle 22), and 1992 (declining phase of solar cycle 22). A new method for analyzing the K spectroheliograms has been developed and applied to the K images for the time interval of 1992. Using histograms of intensity, we have segregated and measured the cumulative intensity and area of various chromospheric features like the plages, magnetic network and intranetwork elements. Also, the full width at half maximum (FWHM) derived from the histograms has been introduced as a new index for describing the chromospheric activity in the K-line. The full-disk intensity (spatial K index) has been derived from spatially-resolved K images and compared to the spectral K index derived from the line profiles for the full disk. Both the spatial K index and FWHM have been compared to the UV irradiance measured in the Mg ii h and k lines by the NOAA9 satellite and found that they are highly correlated with the Mg ii h and k c/w ratio.NRC Resident Research Associate, on leave from Indian Institute of Astrophysics, Bangalore 560034, India.     

A viable mechanism for the production of energy in active galactic nuclei

It is suggested that a collapsing supermassive object, which acts as an ultra-high energy particle accelerator, is the precursor of an active galactic nucleus and that the gravitational energy released during the collapse of the object is locked in the quark-gluon plasma permeated by leptons into which the entire matter in the core of the object is converted as a result of the collapse. It is also pointed out that the collapse of the object to a space-time singularity is inhibited by Pauli's exclusion principle as well as by Heisenberg's uncertainty principle and that the object explodes, before it could collapse to a singularity, thereby releasing the enormous amount of energy locked in the quark-gluon plasma.     

Structure of Early-Type Galaxies

We outline the results of a two-dimensional (2D) fit to the light distribution of early-type galaxies belonging to a complete volume-limited sample and discuss briefly the significant correlations among the structural parameters. In particular we reconfirm that the lack of structural homology is probably a characteristic of hot stellar systems. This revised version was published online in July 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.