The significance of Messinian occurrences of Globorotalia margaritae and Globorotalia puncticulata in Sicily

Globorotalia puncticulata and Globorotalia margaritae are critical species that define internationally recognized planktonic foraminiferal biozones in the Pliocene. These biozones are defined from stratotype sections on Sicily and their fauna are commonly considered to have been introduced to the Mediterranean after an influx of Atlantic water that terminated the late Miocene desiccation of the basin. Herein new discoveries of these species in rocks that predate the late Miocene desiccation are described. These data are supported by magneto- and lithostratigraphy that have been integrated at a single continuous section. Not only do these discoveries question the existing foraminiferal biozone stratigraphy, they also suggest new models for the dispersal of planktonic species. It is proposed that Globorotalia puncticulata and perhaps even Globorotalia margaritae evolved in the Mediterranean during earliest Messinian times (during or before chron C3Bn1n) and dispersed into the Atlantic. This suggests that a marine connection remained between the two sea areas until at least chron C3An.1n. Using the existing geomagnetic polarity time scale, these occurrences are some 2 Myr earlier than previously recorded in the Mediterranean. The distribution of G. margaritae and G. puncticulata in Mediterranean sections is likely to reflect palaeoenvironment or the preservation of deposits rather than the absolute age of the sediments.     

A new method of initial orbit determination

Up to now we have been dealing with the construction of entirely analytical planetary theories such as VSOP82 (Bretagnon, 1982) and TOP82 (Simon, 1983). These theories take into account the whole of the Newtonian perturbations of nine point masses: the Sun, the Earth-Moon barycentre, the planets Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune. They also take into account perturbations due to some minor planets, to the action of the Moon and the relativistic effects. The perturbations of these last three types are in a very simple way under analytical form but they considerably increase the computations when introduced in the numerical integration programs.In the present paper we thus study a solution in which the Newtonian perturbations for the ten point masses are treated through numerical integration, the other perturbations being analytically added.     

A simulation tool for high data-rate acoustic communication in ashallow-water, time-varying channel

The paper discusses the development of a simulation tool to model high data-rate acoustic communication in shallow water. The simulation tool is able to generate synthetic time series of signals received at a transducer array after transmission across a shallow-water communication channel. The simulation tool is suitable for testing advanced signal processing techniques for message recovery. A channel model has been developed based on the physical aspects of the acoustic channel. Special emphasis has been given to fluctuations of the signal transmission caused by time-varying multipath effects. At shorter ranges, the temporal variations are dominated by acoustic scattering from the moving sea surface. Therefore, the channel model produces a coherence function which may be interpreted as a time-varying reflection coefficient for the surface scattered acoustical path. A static, range-independent ray model identifies the significant multipaths, and the surface path is modulated with the time-varying reflection coefficient. The advantages and limitations of the channel model are discussed and assumptions necessary to overcome the limitations are emphasised. Based on the assumptions, an algorithm has been developed and implemented to model how a binary message will be modulated when transmitted by a transducer, is distorted in the channel and finally is received by a transducer array     

Evolution of short period meteoroid streams

The dynamical evolution of meteoroid streams associated with cornets Encke, Halley, Machholz 1986 VIII and asteroid Phaethon is discussed. It is shown that the planetary perturbations can greatly increase the streams thickness and each stream may produce several couples of meteor showers active in different seasons of the year. The theoretical and observed data are in a satisfactory accordance.     

MAXIPOL: a balloon-borne experiment for measuring the polarization anisotropy of the cosmic microwave background radiation

We discuss MAXIPOL, a bolometric balloon-borne experiment designed to measure the E-mode polarization anisotropy of the cosmic microwave background radiation (CMB) on angular scales of 10^′ to 2°. MAXIPOL is the first CMB experiment to collect data with a polarimeter that utilizes a rotating half-wave plate and fixed wire-grid polarizer. We present the instrument design, elaborate on the polarimeter strategy and show the instrument performance during flight with some time domain data. Our primary dataset was collected during a 26 h turnaround flight that was launched from the National Scientific Ballooning Facility in Ft. Sumner, New Mexico in May 2003. During this flight five regions of the sky were mapped. Data analysis is in progress.     

Swimming with…Devonian fish

Armoured jawless fish, or 'ostracoderms', lived 450–360 million years ago, and display unusual morphologies, unlike any modern fish group. Since they left no living descendants, their mode of swimming has, until recently, remained speculative, although this is a crucial question as the first true pectoral fins evolved within the 'ostracoderms'. The discovery of the oldest-known fish trails, from the Early Devonian (400 million year old) 'Lower Old Red Sandstone' of south-east Wales offers new insights into the swimming behaviour of these early fish, notably the osteostracan 'ostracoderms' (or cephalaspids), whose horseshoe-shaped head and paddle-shaped pectoral fins have remained a functional riddle.     

Intercomparison of the seasonal cycle of tropical surface stress in 17 AMIP atmospheric general circulation models

 The mean state of the tropical atmosphere is important as the nature of the coupling between the ocean and the atmosphere depends nonlinearly on the basic state of the coupled system. The simulation of the annual cycle of the tropical surface wind stress by 17 atmospheric general circulation models (AGCMs) is examined and intercompared. The models considered were part of the Atmospheric Model Intercomparison Project (AMIP) and were integrated with observed sea surface temperature (SST) for the decade 1979–1988. Several measures have been devised to intercompare the performance of the 17 models on global tropical as well as regional scales. Within the limits of observational uncertainties, the models under examination simulate realistic tropical area-averaged zonal and meridional annual mean stresses. This is a noteworthy improvement over older generation low resolution models which were noted for their simulation of surface stresses considerably weaker than the observations. The models also simulate realistic magnitudes of the spatial distribution of the annual mean surface stress field and are seen to reproduce realistically its observed spatial pattern. Similar features are observed in the simulations of the annual variance field. The models perform well over almost all the tropical regions apart from a few. Of these, the simulations over Somali are interesting. Over this region, the models are seen to underestimate the annual mean zonal and meridional stresses. There is also wide variance between the different models in simulating these quantities. Large model-to-model variations were also seen in the simulations of the annual mean meridional stress field over equatorial Indian Ocean, south central Pacific, north east Pacific and equatorial eastern Pacific oceans. It is shown that the systematic errors in simulating the surface winds are related to the systematic errors in simulating the Inter-Tropical Convergence Zone (ITCZ) in its location and intensity. Weaker than observed annual mean southwesterlies simulated by most models over Somali is due to weaker than observed southwesterlies during the Northern Hemisphere summer. This is related to the weaker than observed land precipitation simulated by most models during the Northern Hemisphere summer. The diversity in simulation of the surface wind over Somali and equatorial Indian ocean is related to the diversity of AGCMs in simulating the precipitation zones in these regions. Received: 2 August 1996 / Accepted: 7 February 1997