Oceanographic frontal structure and biological production at an ice edge

Marginal ice edge zones (MIZ) are unique frontal systems with air-ice-sea interfaces. Phytoplankton blooms, which occur along the edge of the melting ice pack in spring, are strongly related to the air-ice-sea interactive processes. In spring 1982, during a cruise to the Bering Sea ice pack, hydrographic sections, including standard biological oceanographic parameters, were collected across the MIZ showing such enhanced phytoplankton bloom populations in the ice edge. During this period the ice edge retreated at speeds of 6 to 38 cm s^?1. Associated with the retreating ice edge were a faster moving upper layer oceanic front that kept pace with the retreating ice edge, and a nearly stationary deeper front. In the presence of light, the phytoplankton blooms are shown to be associated with, and primarily controlled by enhanced density stratification and frontal structure due to ice melt during the spring ice retreat. The ice melt water forms stratification that helps to maintain the phytoplankton within the photic zone. The ice edge blooms can be differentiated from open water blooms by the stratification mechanism; in MIZ blooms stratification is due to low salinity melt water as opposed to temperature derived stratification in most open water blooms. In addition, in the series of cross sections collected, a unique biophysical interaction was observed when the MIZ front moving north with the spring retreat, came in contact with a fixed shelf front forming a ‘dish’ shaped hydrographic structure within which a major phytoplankton bloom was observed. We suggest that upwelling from the tidally driven shelf front supplied nutrients to the surface waters extending the life of the bloom. Wind-driven ice edge upwelling was also observed but was difficult to distinguish from the shelf front circulation.In this same set of ice edge cross sections, a cold water mass was observed at the surface in the MIZ. This water mass was subsequently overridden by warmer water forming a cold tongue structure above the pycnocline and seaward of the shelf front. We suggest that this cold tongue was transient in nature, and illustrative of one mechanism by which the T-S characteristics of high latitude shelf waters are formed and altered.     

A direct boundary element method for plane strain poroelasticity

This paper presents a direct boundary element method (BEM), formulated in the Laplace transform space, for plane strain poroelasticity. The paper expands on work by Cheng and Liggett by recasting the theoretical foundation of BEM within the framework of Rice and Cleary's formulation of the Biot theory of poroelasticity. Furthermore, the numerical algorithm is generalized to deal with both interior and exterior domain problems, and a method for indirectly calculating the Cauchy principal value of the singular integrals is presented. Formulae for the stress and flux inside the domain are also derived. Finally, the algorithm is validated by comparing the numerical results with the analytical solution of a borehole subject to a far-field deviatoric stress (exterior domain) and with the solution of Mandel's problem (interior domain). These two examples provide a critical test of the algorithm.     

The Near-Nuclear Coma of Comet Halley in March 1986

The cameras carried onboard the flyby missions to comet P/Halleyin 1986 imaged the near nuclear jet activity fromseveral spatial directions. The observed, very structured near nucleardust jets were considered at that timeas the result of dust emission from well localized active surface regions(without supporting 3-D model computations, however).Based on the first, recently developed 3-D gas dynamical model ofP/Halley's activity,we have been shown that jet features can be reproduced assuming ahomogeneous dusty icenucleus surface. The dust in the collisional near nuclear comais concentrated along the gas flow discontinuities resulting from thecomplicated surface orography, creating the visual impression ofdust jets. We present here the results of these calculations forthe near nucleus dust distributions,and we compare them with the direct observations made during thethree Halley flybys (Vega 1, Vega 2, and Giotto).     

Classes of Families of Generalized Periodic Solutions to the Beletsky Equation

For the equation describing plane oscillations and rotations of a satellite, we consider families of symmetric generalized periodic solutions with integral rotation number p. We give new confirmations of the hypothesis: there are only four classes of these families with topologically different structures, namely, the classes of families of periodic solutions with p≥ 1, p= 0, p=−1, and p≤−2. Besides, we demonstrate that the vertices of cusps of these families are placed on some analytical curves, and the same is true for the multiple intersections of these families with other families.     

From Small-Scale Dynamo to Isotropic MHD Turbulence

We consider the problem of incompressible, forced, nonhelical, homogeneous, isotropic MHD turbulence with no mean magnetic field. This problem is essentially different from the case with externally imposed uniform mean field. There is no scale-by-scale equipartition between magnetic and kinetic energies as would be the case for the Alfvén-wave turbulence. The isotropic MHD turbulence is the end state of the turbulent dynamo which generates folded fields with small-scale direction reversals. We propose that the statistics seen in numerical simulations of isotropic MHD turbulence could be explained as a superposition of these folded fields and Alfvén-like waves that propagate along the folds.     

Soft X-ray line profiles in the impulsive phase of electron-heated solar flares

We have measured the motion of facular points and granules in the same region near a decaying sunspot. It is found that both features move away across the moat surrounding the sunspot. The mean speed of facular points is larger than that of granules: 0.65 km s^–1 and 0.4 km s^–1, respectively. These results are consistent with previous measurements of the speed of bright network features and moving magnetic fields, as well as of non-magnetic photospherical material. They support models in which a decaying sunspot is at the center of a supergranule, whose horizontal motions sweep out granules and magnetic flux tubes associated to the facular points. It is also found that granules are dragged by supergranular motions away of the moat.Contributions from the Kwasan and Hida Observatories, University of Kyoto.A part of this work was done while one of the authors (R.M.) was staying at the Kwasan and Hida Observatories, University of Kyoto, Japan, as a JSPS research fellow.