An optimization scheme of instrumental soil water storage determination

An optimization scheme is considered of the method of instrumental determination of soil moisture used within the Roshydromet system. The scheme enables to reduce the volume of instrumental operations by 2.5–3 times using the empirical statistical dependences between the water content in different layers of the soil profile. Efficiency of the filtration of outliers in the data sample is studied on the basis of the analysis of regression residuals when deriving the regression equations.     

Reflection effect in close binaries. IV. Limb darkening of the reflected radiation incident from an extended surface of the secondary

The law of limb darkening has been calculated when the atmosphere of the primary component is illuminated by the extended surface of the secondary component in a binary system. The specific intensities calculated at infinity show marked changes when the plane-parallel approximation is replaced by the assumption of spherical symmetry. The middle portions of the illuminated surface reflect maximum radiation while the innermost and outermost layers show lesser amount of reflected radiation.     

A Holocene record of climate change,fire ecology and human activity from montane Flat Top Bog,Maui

A sediment core from a high-elevation bog on Maui in the Hawaiian Islands contains evidence for drier conditions between 9.4–5.8 kyr BP, followed by a wetter interval between 5.8–2.2 kyr BP, and a variable late Holocene. These precipitation changes may be a reflection of vertical displacements of the upper boundary of the mid-Pacific Trade Wind Inversion (TWI) cloud layer. Fires, probably volcanically ignited, occurred in the forests prior to human arrival. Polynesian activity in this high-elevation, remote site was apparently limited, with no pollen, charcoal, or sedimentological evidence for local anthropogenic disturbance. After European contact, grass fires increased and introduced plant species invaded the site. Values for Cd, Cu, Pb, and Zn in sediments throughout the Holocene indicate low trace-metal deposition from atmospheric particulates at the site, even in the twentieth century.This paper is one of a series of papers guest edited by Dr. Mark Brenner on tropical paleolimnology     

A ‘mathematical’ spider living on gravel plains of the Namib Desert

In certain areas of the Namib gravel plains a new Ariadna sp. was discovered. It rims its vertical burrow with a stone circle, made on average of seven quartz stones. Some mathematical relationships between hole diameter, stone sizes and weight, and animal size were studied. A correlation was found, and stone selection by this spider postulated. Different hypotheses on the adaptive value of stone circle are suggested.     

The history and impact of air pollution at Čertovo Lake,southwestern Czech Republic

This multi-disciplinary investigation documents the longterm effects of atmospheric pollution of metals and acids on a geologically sensitive catchment in the umava Mountains, southwestern Czech Republic, a region with a long history of human disturbance. A 30 cm long sediment core (I) from ertovo Lake was analyzed for natural and artifical radionuclides, metals, diatoms, chrysophytes, and pollen in sediments accumulated during the last 200 years. A second core (II), extending to 95 cm, included sediment judged to be free of atmospheric deposition of pollutants associated with the Industrial Revolution. Chronostratigraphic markers include several changes in the pollen assemblages corresponding to well-documented changes in land-use, and distinct distributions of ¹³⁷Cs, ¹³⁴Cs and ²⁴¹Am from weapons testing and the 1986 nuclear accident at Chernobyl, Russia. These markers corroborate the ²¹⁰Pb dating and, together, produce a reliable chronology extending back nearly to 1800 A.D.Stratigraphic profiles of Cu, Pb, and Zn in Core I are unlike any previously reported in the literature. Concentrations of Cu, Pb, and Zn remain generally above 100, 400, and 200 g g^-1, respectively, for the 200 years represented by Core I. These values are unusually high for sediments from a watershed with no known heavy-metal ore bodies. Accumulation rates for Cu, Pb, and Zn, which include both atmospheric and watershed contributions, are also high (ca 1, > 1 and > 1 g cm^-2 yr^-1, respectively) for the same period, although the anthropogenic contribution of Zn rose from nearly zero at 1800 A.D. The Cu and Pb accumulation rates rose dramatically about 1640 A.D.Accumulation rates of anthropogenically-derived Be, a relatively abundant element in the soft coals of the region, are also elevated by about 0.01 g cm^-2 yr^-1 in sediments of this period. Vanadium accumulation rates increased only since 1980 A.D., presumably along with increased consumption of oil.Diatom assemblages illustrate that the lake was acidic (pH between 4.5 and 5) through at least the past 200 years. The pH declined significantly (from ca 5 to 4) between 1960 and 1985 with a slight increase to 4.5 in the last few years. Recent diatom and chrysophyte assemblages suggest high trace metal concentrations, consistent with the present lake-water chemistry.     

Chemical abundances in a UV-selected sample of galaxies

We discuss the chemical properties of a sample of UV-selected intermediate-redshift  (0≲z≲0.4)  galaxies in the context of their physical nature and star-formation history. This work represents an extension of our previous studies of the rest-frame UV-luminosity function (Treyer et al.) and the star-formation properties of the same sample (Sullivan et al.) . We revisit the optical spectra of these galaxies and perform further emission-line measurements restricting the analysis to those spectra with the full set of emission lines required to derive chemical abundances. Our final sample consists of 68 galaxies with heavy-element abundance ratios and both UV and CCD B -band photometry. Diagnostics based on emission-line ratios show that all but one of the galaxies in our sample are powered by hot, young stars rather than by an AGN. Oxygen-to-hydrogen (O/H) and nitrogen-to-oxygen (N/O) abundance ratios are compared with those of various local and intermediate-redshift samples. Our UV-selected galaxies span a wide range of oxygen abundances, from ∼0.1 to 1 Z_⊙, intermediate between low-mass H  ii galaxies and massive starburst nuclei. For a given oxygen abundance, most have strikingly low N/O values. Moreover, UV-selected and H  ii galaxies systematically deviate from the usual metallicity–luminosity relation in the sense of being more luminous by  2–3 mag  . Adopting the 'delayed-release' chemical evolution model, we propose our UV-selected sources are observed at a special stage in their evolution, following a powerful starburst that enriched their ISM in oxygen and temporarily lowered their mass-to-light ratios. We discuss briefly the implications of our conclusions on the nature of similarly selected high-redshift galaxies.     

Apparent and actual galaxy cluster temperatures

The redshift evolution of the galaxy cluster temperature function is a powerful probe of cosmology. However, its determination requires the measurement of redshifts for all clusters in a catalogue, which is likely to prove challenging for large catalogues expected from XMM-Newton , which may contain of the order of 2000 clusters with measurable temperatures, distributed around the sky. In this paper we study the apparent cluster temperature, which can be obtained without cluster redshifts. We show that the apparent temperature function itself is of limited use in constraining cosmology, and so concentrate our focus on studying how apparent temperatures can be combined with other X-ray information to constrain the cluster redshift. We also briefly study the circumstances under which the non-thermal spectral features can provide redshift information.     

Radar observations of asteroid 1998 ML14

Abstract— Goldstone and Arecibo delay‐Doppler radar imaging of asteroid 1998 ML 14 shortly after its discovery reveals a 1 km diameter spheroid with prominent topography on one side and subdued topography on the other. The object's radar and optical properties are typical for S‐class near‐Earth asteroids. The gravitational slopes of a shape model derived from the images and assumed to have a uniform density are shallow, exceeding 30° over only 4% of the surface. If 1998 ML14's density distribution is uniform, then its orbital environment is similar to a planetary body with a spheroidal gravitational field and is relatively stable. Integration of a radar‐refined orbit reveals that the 1998 apparition was the asteroid's closest approach to Earth since at least 1100 and until 2283, when it approaches to within 2.4 lunar distances. Outside of that time interval, orbit uncertainties based on the present set of observations preclude reliable prediction.