The controls on boreal peatland surface water chemistry in Northern Alberta,Canada

Spatial and temporal variability in surface water chemistry, organic soil chemistry and hydrologic indicators were investigated at three poor‐fen complexes in two boreal catchments in Northern Alberta to provide insight into the dominant controls on surface water chemistry. Improved understanding of these controls is required to enable prediction of runoff chemistry in the region under changing atmospheric deposition conditions. Surface water chemistry exhibited considerable variability; within each fen conductivity, dissolved organic carbon (DOC), and Cl⁻ tended to decrease and pH tended to increase with increasing distance from the lake edge. Variations in evaporative isotopic enrichment in ²H and ¹⁸O, expressed as deuterium excess, were used to distinguish between throughflow waters and those that were more evaporatively enriched. Throughflow surface waters were more acidic primarily due to higher concentrations of DOC and NO₃⁻. Exchangeable base saturation and pH of organic soils were strongly related to surface water chemistry at two of the fen complexes, demonstrating the capacity for cation exchange to influence surface water chemistry. Fen surface water concentrations of most elements and DOC increased during the summer period (between June and August), while pH of water decreased. Evaporative concentration of the surface waters was a dominant driver, with surface water temperature increasing at both catchments. Localized groundwater discharge was an important contributor of base cations to the fens, while the organic soils are sinks for atmospherically deposited SO₄²⁻, N and Cl⁻. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Lunar Beagle and Lunar Astrobiology

The study of the elements and molecules of astrobiological interest on the Moon can be made with the Gas Analysis Package (GAP) and associated instruments developed for the Beagle 2 Mars Express Payload. The permanently shadowed polar regions of the Moon may offer a unique location for the “cold-trapping” of the light elements (i.e. H, C, N, O, etc.) and their simple compounds. Studies of the returned lunar samples have shown that lunar materials have undergone irradiation with the solar wind and adsorb volatiles from possible cometary and micrometeoroid impacts. The Beagle 2’s analytical instrument package including the sample processing facility and the GAP mass spectrometer can provide vital isotopic information that can distinguish whether the lunar volatiles are indigenous to the moon, solar wind derived, cometary in origin or from meteoroids impacting on the Moon. As future Lunar Landers are being considered, the suite of instruments developed for the Mars Beagle 2 lander can be consider as the baseline for any lunar volatile or resource instrument package.     

Spatial variations in broadband and air passenger service provision in the United States

With the resurgence of regions as key nodes in the global economy, there is a growing interest in better defining their competitive advantages, particularly those accrued through infrastructure provision. Two important components of this competitive landscape are information and communication technologies (ICTs) and commercial air passenger service. While the development of these two networks is frequently cited as being a critical factor in regional economic competitiveness, few empirical studies address the statistical relationship(s) between these infrastructures or the complexities associated with their spatial distribution. The purpose of this paper is to determine if an association exists between the provision of broadband telecommunication service and air passenger service in the United States. In addition, basic spatial statistical approaches are utilized to identify a suite of important social and economic determinants that play a central role in spurring infrastructure provision.     

Coronal Cavity Survey: Morphological Clues to Eruptive Magnetic Topologies

We present a survey on coronal prominence cavities conducted using 19 months of data from the Atmospheric Imaging Assembly (AIA) instrument aboard the Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO) satellite. Coronal cavities are elliptical regions of rarefied density lying above and around prominences. They can be long-lived (weeks to months) but are often observed to eventually erupt as part of a coronal mass ejection (CME). We determine morphological properties of the cavities both by qualitatively assessing their shape, and quantitatively fitting them with ellipses. We demonstrate consistency between these two approaches, and find that fitted ellipses are taller than they are wide for almost all cavities studied, in agreement with an earlier analysis of white-light cavities. We examine correlations between cavity shape, aspect ratio, and propensity for eruption. We find that cavities with a teardrop-shaped morphology are more likely to erupt, and we discuss the implications of this morphology for magnetic topologies associated with CME models. We provide the full details of the survey for broad scientific use as supplemental material.     

All jobs are not created equal: Divergent indicators in the knowledge economy

Univariate indicators such as employment are often used to benchmark economic growth at the local and regional levels. However, the tremendous technological and industrial changes in the U.S. economy in the second half of the twentieth century suggest this practice may be outdated. In fact, the singular use of univariate indicators to benchmark regional development may obscure a much richer and more complex web of economic processes. Given the potential complexities associated with regional benchmarking in the current global economy, this paper will explore the numerical differences in economic performance presented by popular univariate indicators of regional growth. Results demonstrate a univariate approach to benchmarking presents an incomplete snapshot of regional performance that is incapable of capturing the multifaceted nature of economic growth in today’s global knowledge economy. Although job creation remains an important component to development efforts, many other factors should be considered in evaluations of regional performance, including the industries in which jobs are created and their associated wages.     

Stellar And Galactic Environment survey (SAGE)

This paper describes a proposed high resolution soft X-ray and Extreme Ultraviolet spectroscopy mission to carry out a survey of Stellar and Galactic Environments (SAGE). The payload is based on novel diffraction grating technology which has already been proven in a sub-orbital space mission and which is ready to fly on a satellite platform with minimal development. We discuss the goals of a SAGE base-line mission and demonstrate the scientific importance of high resolution spectroscopy in the Extreme Ultraviolet for the study of stars and the local interstellar medium.     

Stellar and galactic environment survey (SAGE)

This paper describes a proposed high resolution soft X-ray and Extreme Ultraviolet (EUV) spectroscopy mission to carry out a survey of Stellar and Galactic Environments (SAGE). The payload is based on novel diffraction grating technology which has already been proven in a sub-orbital space mission and which is ready to fly on a satellite platform with minimal development. Much of the technical detail of the instrumentation has been reported elsewhere and we concentrate our discussion here on the scientific goals of a SAGE base-line mission, demonstrating the scientific importance of high resolution spectroscopy in the Extreme Ultraviolet for the study of stars and the local interstellar medium.     

The chemical evolution of globular clusters – I. Reactive elements and non-metals

We propose a new chemical evolution model aimed at explaining the chemical properties of globular clusters (GCs) stars. Our model depends upon the existence of (i) a peculiar pre-enrichment phase in the GC's parent galaxy associated with very low-metallicity Type II supernovae (SNe II) and (ii) localized inhomogeneous enrichment from a single Type Ia supernova (SN Ia) and intermediate-mass  (4–7 M_⊙)  asymptotic giant branch field stars. GC formation is then assumed to take place within this chemically peculiar region. Thus, in our model the first low-mass GC stars to form are those with peculiar abundances (i.e. O-depleted and Na-enhanced), while 'normal' stars (i.e. O-rich and Na-depleted) are formed in a second stage when self-pollution from SNe II occurs and the peculiar pollution from the previous phase is dispersed. In this study, we focus on three different GCs: NGC 6752, 6205 (M 13) and 2808. We demonstrate that, within this framework, a model can be constructed which is consistent with (i) the elemental abundance anticorrelations, (ii) isotopic abundance patterns and (iii) the extreme [O/Fe] values observed in NGC 2808 and M 13, without violating the global constraints of approximately unimodal [Fe/H] and C+N+O.     

The distance to Supernova 1998aq in NGC 3982

We use the preliminary results of a new survey of radio sources made using the Ryle Telescope at 15.2 GHz, to estimate the impact of foreground sources on cm-wave cosmic microwave background (CMB) images. This is the highest frequency survey that is relevant to the issue of radio source contamination in CMB experiments. The differential source count of the 66 sources found in 63 deg² is     , from ≈20 to ≈500 mJy. Extrapolating this to 34 GHz (where many cm-wave CMB experiments operate) gives an estimated temperature contribution of sources     in a CMB image, with a beam corresponding to multipole     . A means of source subtraction is evidently necessary, otherwise the signal-to-noise ratio in CMB images will be limited to 4 or 5, becoming worse at higher resolution. We compare the population of sources observed in this new survey to that predicted by extrapolation from lower frequency surveys, finding that source flux densities, and indeed the existence of many sources, cannot be determined by extrapolation.