Hydrogen isotope fractionation between OH-bearing minerals and water

Hydrogen isotope fractionation factors between hydroxyl-bearing minerals and water were determined at temperatures ranging between 400 and 850°C. The hydrogen isotope exchange rates for the mineral-water pairs examined were very slow. In most cases it was necessary to use an interpolation method for the determination of the hydrogen isotope equilibrium fractionation factor, α_e.For the temperature range of 450–850°C the hydrogen isotope fractionation factors for the mica-water and amphibole-water systems are simply expressed as a function of temperature and the molar fractions of the six-fold coordinated cations in the crystal, regardless of mineral species, as follows: 10³ In α_{e(mineral-water)} = ? 22.4 (10⁶T^?2) + 28.2 + (2X_Al ? 4X_Mg ? 68X_Fe), where X is the molar fraction of the cations. As the equation indicates, for any specific composition of the OH-bearing minerals, the change of α_e with temperature, over the temperature range investigated, is the same for all minerals studied. Thus for any specified values of X_Al, X_Mg, and X_Fe for these minerals, the relationship between α_e and T is 10³ In α_e = αT^?2 + k. Consequently, hydrogen isotope fractionation among coexisting minerals is temperature independent and cannot be used as a hydrogen isotope geothermometer.Some exceptions to the above general observations exist for minerals such as boehmite and kaolinite. In these minerals hydrogen bonding modifies the equilibrium hydrogen isotopic fractionation between mineral and water.     

Long-term evolution of the aerosol debris cloud produced by the 2009 impact on Jupiter

We present a study of the long-term evolution of the cloud of aerosols produced in the atmosphere of Jupiter by the impact of an object on 19 July 2009 (Sánchez-Lavega, A. et al. [2010]. Astrophys. J. 715, L155-L159). The work is based on images obtained during 5 months from the impact to 31 December 2009 taken in visible continuum wavelengths and from 20 July 2009 to 28 May 2010 taken in near-infrared deep hydrogen-methane absorption bands at 2.1-2.3 μm. The impact cloud expanded zonally from ∼5000 km (July 19) to 225,000 km (29 October, about 180° in longitude), remaining meridionally localized within a latitude band from 53.5°S to 61.5°S planetographic latitude. During the first two months after its formation the site showed heterogeneous structure with 500-1000 km sized embedded spots. Later the reflectivity of the debris field became more homogeneous due to clump mergers. The cloud was mainly dispersed in longitude by the dominant zonal winds and their meridional shear, during the initial stages, localized motions may have been induced by thermal perturbation caused by the impact’s energy deposition. The tracking of individual spots within the impact cloud shows that the westward jet at 56.5°S latitude increases its eastward velocity with altitude above the tropopause by 5-10 m s⁻¹. The corresponding vertical wind shear is low, about 1 m s⁻¹ per scale height in agreement with previous thermal wind estimations. We found evidence for discrete localized meridional motions with speeds of 1-2 m s⁻¹. Two numerical models are used to simulate the observed cloud dispersion. One is a pure advection of the aerosols by the winds and their shears. The other uses the EPIC code, a nonlinear calculation of the evolution of the potential vorticity field generated by a heat pulse that simulates the impact. Both models reproduce the observed global structure of the cloud and the dominant zonal dispersion of the aerosols, but not the details of the cloud morphology. The reflectivity of the impact cloud decreased exponentially with a characteristic timescale of 15 days; we can explain this behavior with a radiative transfer model of the cloud optical depth coupled to an advection model of the cloud dispersion by the wind shears. The expected sedimentation time in the stratosphere (altitude levels 5-100 mbar) for the small aerosol particles forming the cloud is 45-200 days, thus aerosols were removed vertically over the long term following their zonal dispersion. No evidence of the cloud was detected 10 months after the impact.     

Large-Eddy Simulation of Pollutant Removal from a Three-Dimensional Street Canyon

Large-eddy simulations were conducted to investigate the mechanism of pollutant removal from a three-dimensional street canyon. Five block configurations with aspect ratios (building height to length) of 1, 2, 4, 8 and $\infty $ were used to create an urban-like array. A pollutant was released from a ground-level line source at the centre of the target canyon floor. For smaller aspect ratios, the relative contribution of the turbulent mass flux to net mass flux at the roof level, which was spatially averaged along the roof-level ventilation area, was closer to unity, indicating that turbulent motions mainly affected pollutant removal from the top of the canyon. As aspect ratio increased, the relative contribution became smaller, owing to strong upwind motions. However, the relative contribution again reached near unity for the infinite aspect ratio (i.e. a two-dimensional street canyon) because of lowered lateral flow convergence. At least 75 % of total emissions from the three-dimensional street canyon were attributable to turbulent motions. Pollutant removal by turbulent motions was related to the coherent structures of low-momentum fluid above the canyons. Though the coherent structure size of the low-momentum fluid differed, the positions of low-momentum fluid largely corresponded to instantaneous high concentrations of pollutant above the target canyon, irrespective of canyon geometry.     

Chaotic Itinerancy and Thermalization in a One-Dimensional Self-Gravitating System

Long time behavior of one-dimensional self-gravitating system is numerically investigated. Itinerant behavior among quasiequilibria is discovered, and its origin is clarified. The macroscopic distributions of the quasiquilibria are different from the isothermal distribution, but the transient states, which appears between two successive quasiequilibria, resemble the isothermal distribution. Averaging over the is itinerancy gives approximately the thermal equilibrium. This revised version was published online in July 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

红外相机CASCAM光学设计

介绍紫金山天文台研制的光学-近红外相机CASCAM（Chinese Academy of Science，CAMera)的光学系统设计．CASCAM相机以红外列阵HAWAII-1和光学CCD为探测器，配备国家天文台兴隆观测站2．16米和1．26米望远镜进行0．4—2．5μm波长范围的成像和偏振成像观测．相机的光学系统由F／9→F／6缩焦系统和Offner反射成像系统构成．优化设计结果表明，光学设计方案已满足天文观测的要求．CASCAM相机在设计上实现了光学-近红外很宽波段的消色差变焦，并在楔形分柬片、常温滤光片轮和折射式焦面摆动技术等方面进行了新的尝试．