Photometric survey of binary near-Earth asteroids

Photometric data on 17 binary near-Earth asteroids (15 of them are certain detections, two are probables) were analysed and characteristic properties of the near-Earth asteroid (NEA) binary population were inferred. We have found that binary systems with a secondary-to-primary mean diameter ratio Ds/Dp?0.18 concentrate among NEAs smaller than 2 km in diameter; the abundance of such binaries decreases significantly among larger NEAs. Secondaries show an upper size limit of Ds=0.5-1 km. Systems with Ds/Dp?0.5 are abundant but larger satellites are significantly less common. Primaries have spheroidal shapes and they rotate rapidly, with periods concentrating between 2.2 to 2.8 h and with a tail of the distribution up to ∼4 h. The fast rotators are close to the critical spin for rubble piles with bulk densities about 2 g/cm³. Orbital periods show an apparent cut-off at Porb∼11 h; closer systems with shorter orbital periods have not been discovered, which is consistent with the Roche limit for strengthless bodies. Secondaries are more elongated on average than primaries. Most, but not all, of their rotations appear to be synchronized with the orbital motion; nonsynchronous secondary rotations may occur especially among wider systems with Porb>20 h. The specific total angular momentum of most of the binary systems is similar to within ±20% and close to the angular momentum of a sphere with the same total mass and density, rotating at the disruption limit; this suggests that the binaries were created by mechanism(s) related to rotation near the critical limit and that they neither gained nor lost significant amounts of angular momentum during or since formation. A comparison with six small asynchronous binaries detected in the main belt of asteroids suggests that the population extends beyond the region of terrestrial planets, but with characteristics shifted to larger sizes and longer periods. The estimated mean proportion of binaries with Ds/Dp?0.18 among NEAs larger than 0.3 km is 15±4%. Among fastest rotating NEAs larger than 0.3 km with periods between 2.2 and 2.8 h, the mean proportion of such binaries is (66⁺¹⁰₋₁₂)%.     

Factors influencing the distribution of coastal lichens Hydropunctaria maura and Wahlenbergiella mucosa

Responses to abiotic and biotic stresses that potentially drive the vertical zonation of the intertidal lichens Hydropunctaria maura, an upper littoral lichen, and Wahlenbergiella mucosa, a lower littoral lichen, were investigated in field and laboratory experiments. When transplanted, both lichens exhibited an inability to survive outside their normal vertical distribution range. W. mucosa appeared to be unable to tolerate prolonged periods of desiccation following translocation from lower to upper littoral regions, whereas H. maura was unable to survive in lower littoral zones possibly owing to increased grazing pressure. The effect of desiccation in both lichens was compared using pulse amplitude modulated chlorophyll fluorescence and infra‐red gas analysis; results indicated a more hydration‐dependent nature of W. mucosa. Photosynthetic (algal) pigments and phenolic compounds were determined in both lichen thalli, and a range of additional coastal lichens occupying a natural gradient from upper to lower shore levels. Pigment composition and concentration in both lichen thalli were similar whereas levels of phenolic compounds were up to three times higher in W. mucosa than H. maura. Pigment and phenolic concentration and composition exhibited some seasonality across 13 different lichens originating from different shore levels. Phenolic concentration increased towards the lower shore, suggesting a potential anti‐herbivory function. This marks the first study of pigments and phenolics in coastal lichen communities, and prompts further investigations on the particular physiological features of marine and maritime lichens that enable them to thrive in this extreme environment.     

Photometry of Comet 9P/Tempel 1 during the 2004/2005 approach and the Deep Impact module impact

The results of the 9P/Tempel 1 CARA (Cometary Archive for Amateur Astronomers) observing campaign is presented. The main goal was to perform an extended survey of the comet as a support to the Deep Impact (DI) Mission. CCD R, I and narrowband aperture photometries were used to monitor the Afρ quantity. The observed behavior showed a peak of 310 cm 83 days before perihelion, but we argue that it can be distorted by the phase effect, too. The phase effect is roughly estimated around 0.0275 mag/degree, but we had no chance for direct determination because of the very similar geometry of the observed apparitions. The log-slope of Afρ was around −0.5 between about 180-100 days before the impact but evolved near the steady-state like 0 value by the impact time. The DI module impact caused about a 60% increase in the value of Afρ and a cloud feature in the coma profile which was observed just after the event. The expansion of the ejecta cloud was consistent with a fountain model with initial projected velocity of 0.2 km/s and β=0.73. Referring to a 25,000 km radius area centered on the nucleus, the total cross section of the ejected dust was 0.06 days after the impact, and 1.93 days after the impact (A is the dust albedo). Five days after the event no signs of the impact were detected, nor deviations from the expected activity referring both to the average pre-impact behavior and to the previous apparitions.     

The day-to-day monitoring of the 2011 severe drought in China

Dry/wet condition has a large interannual variability. Decision-makers need to know the onset, duration, and intensity of drought, and require droughts be monitored at a daily to weekly scale. However, previous tools cannot monitor drought well at this short timescale. The Palmer Drought Severity Index has been found dissatisfactory in monitoring because of its complexity and numerous limitations. The Standardized Precipitation Index (SPI) always asks for a timescale, and precipitation is averaged over the period of the scale. Because of this, the SPI cannot be used for short scales, e.g., several days, and what it tells is the overall drought situation of the period. The weighted average of precipitation (WAP) developed by Lu (Geophys Res Lett 36:L12707, 2009) overcomes the deficiency of the SPI; it does not require a timescale, and can provide the drought (and flood) extent of each day. Therefore, the WAP can monitor drought at scales from daily to weekly, monthly, and any longer scale, and is really “flexible and versatile for all timescales”. In this study, the standardized WAP (SWAP) is used to monitor the 2011 drought over China. Drought swept the country during the year from north to south and from east to west. In spring, a once-in-a-fifty-year drought occurred over the Yangtze River basin and the southern region, causing serious shortage of drinking water for people and livestock, as well as tremendous losses in agriculture and the shipping industry. Results show that the SWAP, with its monthly mean plots, can well reproduce the seasonal shift of the 2011 drought across the country. The animation of daily plots demonstrates that the SWAP would have been able to monitor the day-to-day variation of the spring drought around the Yangtze River basin. It can provide the details of the drought, such as when the drought emerged over the region, how long it maintained there (though drought area may move back and forth with extension and contraction of the area), and when the drought relieved over the basin.     

A high strain‐rate constitutive model for sand and its application in finite‐element analysis of tunnels subjected to blast

The paper presents a constitutive model for simulating the high strain‐rate behavior of sands. Based on the concepts of critical‐state soil mechanics, the bounding surface plasticity theory and the overstress theory of viscoplasticity, the constitutive model simulates the high strain‐rate behavior of sands under uniaxial, triaxial and multi‐axial loading conditions. The model parameters are determined for Ottawa and Fontainebleau sands, and the performance of the model under extreme transient loading conditions is demonstrated through simulations of split Hopkinson pressure bar tests up to a strain rate of 2000/s. The constitutive model is implemented in a finite‐element analysis software Abaqus to analyze underground tunnels in sandy soil subjected to internal blast loads. Parametric studies are conducted to examine the effect of relative density and type of sand and of the depth of tunnel on the variation of stresses and deformations in the soil adjacent to the tunnels. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Similarity Scaling Over a Steep Alpine Slope

In this study, we investigate the validity of similarity scaling over a steep mountain slope (30–41 $^\circ $ ). The results are based on eddy-covariance data collected during the Slope Experiment near La Fouly (SELF-2010); a field campaign conducted in a narrow valley of the Swiss Alps during summer 2010. The turbulent fluxes of heat and momentum are found to vary significantly with height in the first few metres above the inclined surface. These variations exceed by an order of magnitude the well-accepted maximum 10 % required for the applicability of Monin–Obukhov similarity theory in the surface layer. This could be due to a surface layer that is too thin to be detected or to the presence of advective fluxes. It is shown that local scaling can be a useful tool in these cases when surface-layer theory breaks down. Under convective conditions and after removing the effects of self-correlation, the normalized standard deviations of slope-normal wind velocity, temperature and humidity scale relatively well with $z/\varLambda $ , where $z$ is the measurement height and $\varLambda (z)$ the local Obukhov length. However, the horizontal velocity fluctuations are not correlated with $z/\varLambda $ under all stability regimes. The non-dimensional gradients of wind velocity and temperature are also investigated. For those, the local scaling appears inappropriate, particularly at night when shallow drainage flows prevail and lead to negative wind-speed gradients close to the surface.     

The effect of sideband ratio on line intensity for Herschel/HIFI

The Heterodyne Instrument for the Far Infrared (HIFI) on board the Herschel Space Observatory is composed of a set of fourteen double sideband mixers. We discuss the general problem of the sideband ratio (SBR) determination and the impact of an imbalanced sideband ratio on the line calibration in double sideband heterodyne receivers. The HIFI SBR is determined from a combination of data taken during pre-launch gas cell tests and in-flight. The results and some of the calibration artefacts discovered in the gas cell test data are presented here along with some examples of how these effects appear in science data taken in orbit.     

Spin rate distribution of small asteroids

The spin rate distribution of main belt/Mars crossing (MB/MC) asteroids with diameters 3-15 km is uniform in the range from f=1 to 9.5 d⁻¹, and there is an excess of slow rotators with f<1 d⁻¹. The observed distribution appears to be controlled by the Yarkovsky-O'Keefe-Radzievskii-Paddack (YORP) effect. The magnitude of the excess of slow rotators is related to the residence time of slowed down asteroids in the excess and the rate of spin rate change outside the excess. We estimated a median YORP spin rate change of ≈0.022 d⁻¹/Myr for asteroids in our sample (i.e., a median time in which the spin rate changes by 1 d⁻¹ is ≈45 Myr), thus the residence time of slowed down asteroids in the excess is ≈110 Myr. The spin rate distribution of near-Earth asteroids (NEAs) with sizes in the range 0.2-3 km (∼5 times smaller in median diameter than the MB/MC asteroids sample) shows a similar excess of slow rotators, but there is also a concentration of NEAs at fast spin rates with f=9-10 d⁻¹. The concentration at fast spin rates is correlated with a narrower distribution of spin rates of primaries of binary systems among NEAs; the difference may be due to the apparently more evolved population of binaries among MB/MC asteroids.