One-dimensional dispersion in unsteady flow in an adsorbing porous medium: An analytical solution

Analytical solutions describing the concentration distribution along one-dimensional unsteady seepage flow through adsorbing saturated finite porous medium have been obtained. An exponential function concentration is enforced at the source of the dispersion, while the change in the concentration is zero at the other boundary. A new time variable has been introduced to solve the unsteady flow problem and the solution is illustrated.     

Numerical Studies of Fluid Flow in Microgravity Conditions for Confined Crystal Growth

We study the convective flow induced by residual accelerations in microgravity conditions for different geometric arrangements which are relevant to crystal growth experiments. We consider both constantand oscillating acceleration and focus mostly on the transient relaxation dynamics. Results are relevant to estimate impact of more realistic residual accelerations in crystal growth experiments.     

Development of a three channel photometer for UPSO, Naini Tal

The design and performance of a portable three channel photometer installed at the Uttar Pradesh State Observatory (UPSO), Naini Tal is described. The photometer is modular and the whole unit can be disassembled as individual channels such that the system can also be used as a single channel or two channel photometer. The system also has provision to monitor a guide star. The instrument was put into operation since November 1999 on the 1m Sampurnanand telescope at UPSO, Naini Tal. Since then, it is used extensively for the ‘Survey of rapidly oscillating Ap (roAp) stars in the northern sky’ from UPSO. Observational results using this new photometer in its initial phase of operation are discussed. The advantage of having continuous sky measurement is demonstrated.     

Stellar contents of two young open clusters: NGC 663 and 654

UBVRI CCD photometry in a wide field around two young open clusters, NGC 663 and 654, has been carried out. Hα and polarimetric observations for the cluster NGC 654 have also been obtained. We use the photometric data to construct colour–colour and colour–magnitude diagrams, from which we can investigate the reddening, age, mass and evolutionary states of the stellar contents of the these clusters. The reddening across the cluster regions is found to be variable. There is evidence for anomalous reddening law in both clusters; however, more infrared and polarimetric data are needed to conclude about the reddening law. Both clusters are situated at about a distance of 2.4 kpc. Star formation in both clusters is found to be a continuous process. In the case of NGC 663, star formation seems to have taken place sequentially, in the sense that formation of low-mass stars precedes the formation of most massive stars. Whereas, in the case of NGC 654, formation of low-mass stars did not cease after the formation of most massive stars in the cluster.     

Potential for small scale added value of RCM’s downscaled climate change signal

In recent decades, the need of future climate information at local scales have pushed the climate modelling community to perform increasingly higher resolution simulations and to develop alternative approaches to obtain fine-scale climatic information. In this article, various nested regional climate model (RCM) simulations have been used to try to identify regions across North America where high-resolution downscaling generates fine-scale details in the climate projection derived using the “delta method”. Two necessary conditions were identified for an RCM to produce added value (AV) over lower resolution atmosphere-ocean general circulation models in the fine-scale component of the climate change (CC) signal. First, the RCM-derived CC signal must contain some non-negligible fine-scale information—independently of the RCM ability to produce AV in the present climate. Second, the uncertainty related with the estimation of this fine-scale information should be relatively small compared with the information itself in order to suggest that RCMs are able to simulate robust fine-scale features in the CC signal. Clearly, considering necessary (but not sufficient) conditions means that we are studying the “potential” of RCMs to add value instead of the AV, which preempts and avoids any discussion of the actual skill and hence the need for hindcast comparisons. The analysis concentrates on the CC signal obtained from the seasonal-averaged temperature and precipitation fields and shows that the fine-scale variability of the CC signal is generally small compared to its large-scale component, suggesting that little AV can be expected for the time-averaged fields. For the temperature variable, the largest potential for fine-scale added value appears in coastal regions mainly related with differential warming in land and oceanic surfaces. Fine-scale features can account for nearly 60 % of the total CC signal in some coastal regions although for most regions the fine scale contributions to the total CC signal are of around ～5 %. For the precipitation variable, fine scales contribute to a change of generally less than 15 % of the seasonal-averaged precipitation in present climate with a continental North American average of ～5 % in both summer and winter seasons. In the case of precipitation, uncertainty due to sampling issues may further dilute the information present in the downscaled fine scales. These results suggest that users of RCM simulations for climate change studies in a delta method framework have little high-resolution information to gain from RCMs at least if they limit themselves to the study of first-order statistical moments. Other possible benefits arising from the use of RCMs—such as in the large scale of the downscaled fields– were not explored in this research.     

Mars interplanetary trajectory design via Lagrangian points

With the increase in complexities of interplanetary missions, the main focus has shifted to reducing the total delta-V for the entire mission and hence increasing the payload capacity of the spacecraft. This paper develops a trajectory to Mars using the Lagrangian points of the Sun-Earth system and the Sun-Mars system. The whole trajectory can be broadly divided into three stages: (1) Trajectory from a near-Earth circular parking orbit to a halo orbit around Sun-Earth Lagrangian point L₂. (2) Trajectory from Sun-Earth L₂ halo orbit to Sun-Mars L₁ halo orbit. (3) Sun-Mars L₁ halo orbit to a circular orbit around Mars. The stable and unstable manifolds of the halo orbits are used for halo orbit insertion. The intermediate transfer arcs are designed using two-body Lambert’s problem. The total delta-V for the whole trajectory is computed and found to be lesser than that for the conventional trajectories. For a 480 km Earth parking orbit, the total delta-V is found to be 4.6203 km/s. Another advantage in the present approach is that delta-V does not depend upon the synodic period of Earth with respect to Mars.