Assessment of future climate variability and potential adaptation strategies on yield of peanut and Kharif rice in eastern India

Theoretical and Applied Climatology - Temperature and CO2 are the two most important climate parameters that affect crop yield directly. In this study, the impact of these two parameters on the...     

Theoretical studies on OH and Cl initiated hydrogen atom abstraction of HFE-227pc (CF3OCF2CHF2)

The kinetics of hydrogen atom abstraction reactions of HFE-227pc by OH and Cl was studied by ab initio method. The structural optimization and frequency calculation of the titled compound and the species formed during the abstraction reactions were performed with density functional theory using hybrid meta density functional MPWB1K with 6–31?+?G(d,p) basis set. The energy of the species was further refined by making a single point energy calculation at G3B3 level of theory. The standard enthalpies of formation of reactant and the radical formed after H-atom abstraction was calculated using isodesmic method. The rate constants of abstraction reactions were calculated using Conventional Transition State Theory (CTST) and were found to be 1.5?×?10^?15 and 0.53?×?10^?16 cm³molecule^?1 s^?1 for OH and Cl respectively. The calculated value for the abstraction by OH is close to the experimental value of 2.26?×?10^?15 cm³molecule^?1 s^?1 whereas the same for Cl is found to be about five times lower than that of 2.70?×?10^?16 cm³molecule^?1 s^?1. The theoretical studies yielded the enthalpies of formation and the rate constants that are vital in determining the lifetime of HFE-227pc.     

Comparison between urban aerosol products retrieved from collocated Cimel and Prede Sun/sky radiometers at Pune, India

To comprehend the characteristics of heterogeneous aerosols, apart from some thematic multi-institutional, multi-platform and multi-parameter campaigns conducted at several places over the globe, presently two major ground-based networks, involving Cimel (AERONET) and Prede (SKYNET) Sun/sky photometers/radiometers have been in progress. In this paper, we report the results of a study that has been undertaken to compare the performance and data products of Cimel and Prede instruments, which were operated concurrently for a period of about 2 years, at the Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology, Pune, India. The results show a good agreement in the direct Sun observations (aerosol optical depth). The results are also substantiated by making comparison with surface-level black carbon aerosol mass concentration, apart from comparison of other parameters. With regard to the retrieved products such as aerosol size distribution, Prede shows more or less equal concentration of fine mode and relatively more concentration of coarse mode aerosol as compared to those measured by the Cimel. Moreover, the single scattering albedo values measured by the Prede overestimate those observed by the Cimel. These deviations are found to be primarily due to the nature of aerosol loading (turbidity) in the sensing region which is sensitive to the data retrieval techniques including model assumptions employed in both networks. The results of the present study are found useful for multidimensional mapping of aerosol characteristics by integrating the products from both AERONET and SKYNET monitoring stations and thereby help understanding better the impact of aerosols on climate.     

CFSv2 ensemble prediction of the wintertime Arctic Oscillation

Lagged ensembles from the operational Climate Forecast System version 2 (CFSv2) seasonal hindcast dataset are used to assess skill in forecasting interannual variability of the December–February Arctic Oscillation (AO). We find that a small but statistically significant portion of the interannual variance (>20 %) of the wintertime AO can be predicted at leads up to 2 months using lagged ensemble averages. As far as we are aware, this is the first study to demonstrate that an operational model has discernible skill in predicting AO variability on seasonal timescales. We find that the CFS forecast skill is slightly higher when a weighted ensemble is used that rewards forecast runs with the most accurate representations of October Eurasian snow cover extent (SCE), hinting that a stratospheric pathway linking October Eurasian SCE with the AO may be responsible for the model skill. However, further analysis reveals that the CFS is unable to capture many important aspects of this stratospheric mechanism. Model deficiencies identified include: (1) the CFS significantly underestimates the observed variance in October Eurasian SCE, (2) the CFS fails to translate surface pressure anomalies associated with SCE anomalies into vertically propagating waves, and (3) stratospheric AO patterns in the CFS fail to propagate downward through the tropopause to the surface. Thus, alternate boundary forcings are likely contributing to model skill. Improving model deficiencies identified in this study may lead to even more skillful predictions of wintertime AO variability in future versions of the CFS.     

A class of well-behaved generalized charged analogues of Vaidya-Tikekar type fluid sphere in general relativity

In this paper first ever we have developed a class of well behaved charged fluid spheres expressed by a space time with its hypersurfaces $t = \operatorname {const}$ . as spheroid for the case 0<K<1 with surface density 2×10¹⁴ gm/cm³. The same utilized to construct a superdense star and seen that star satisfies all well behaved condition for 0<K≤0.038. The maximum mass occupied and the corresponding radius are found to be 4.830982M _Θ and 20.7612 km respectively. The redshift at the center and on the surface is given z ₀=0.425367 and z _a =0.240901.     

Changes in Quasi-periodic Variations of Solar Photospheric Fields: Precursor to the Deep Solar Minimum in Cycle 23?

Possible precursor signatures in the quasi-periodic variations of solar photospheric fields were investigated in the build-up to one of the deepest solar minima experienced in the past 100 years. This unusual and deep solar minimum occurred between Solar Cycles 23 and 24. We used both wavelet and Fourier analysis to study the changes in the quasi-periodic variations of solar photospheric fields. Photospheric fields were derived using ground-based synoptic magnetograms spanning the period 1975.14 to 2009.86 and covering Solar Cycles 21, 22, and 23. A hemispheric asymmetry in the periodicities of the photospheric fields was seen only at latitudes above ±?45^° when the data were divided into two parts based on a wavelet analysis: one prior to 1996 and the other after 1996. Furthermore, the hemispheric asymmetry was observed to be confined to the latitude range of 45^° to 60^°. This can be attributed to the variations in polar surges that primarily depend on both the emergence of surface magnetic flux and varying solar-surface flows. The observed asymmetry along with the fact that both solar fields above ±?45^° and micro-turbulence levels in the inner-heliosphere have been decreasing since the early- to mid-nineties (Janardhan et al. in Geophys. Res. Lett. 382, 20108, 2011) suggest that around this time active changes occurred in the solar dynamo that governs the underlying basic processes in the Sun. These changes in turn probably initiated the build-up to the very deep solar minimum at the end of Cycle 23. The decline in fields above ±?45^°, for well over a solar cycle, would imply that weak polar fields have been generated in the past two successive solar cycles, viz. Cycles 22 and 23. A continuation of this declining trend beyond 22 years, if it occurs, will have serious implications for our current understanding of the solar dynamo.     

Interplanetary Coronal Mass Ejections,Associated Features,and Transient Modulation of Galactic Cosmic Rays

Interplanetary structures such as shocks, sheaths, interplanetary counterparts of coronal mass ejections (ICMEs), magnetic clouds, and corotating interaction regions (CIRs) are of special interest for the study of the transient modulation of galactic cosmic rays (GCRs). These structures modulate the GCR intensity with varying amplitudes and recovery-time profiles. It is known that ICMEs are mainly responsible for Forbush decreases in the GCR intensity. However, not all of the ICMEs produce such decreases in GCR intensity. We utilize GCR intensity data recorded by neutron monitors and solar-wind plasma/field data during the passage of ICMEs with different features and structures, and we perform a superposed-epoch analysis of the data. We also adopt the best-fit approach with suitable functions to interpret the observed similarities and differences in various parameters. Using the GCR-effectiveness as a measure of the cosmic-ray response to the passage of ICMEs, about half of the ICMEs identified during 1996?–?2009 are found to produce moderate to very large intensity depressions in GCR intensity. The ICMEs associated with halo CMEs, magnetic-cloud (MC) structures, bidirectional superthermal electron (BDE) signatures, and those driving shocks are 1.5 to 4 times more GCR effective than the ICMEs not associated with these structures/features. Further, the characteristic recovery time of GCR intensity due to shock/BDE/MC/halo-CME-associated ICMEs is larger than those due to ICMEs not associated with these structures/features.     

Cosmic-Ray Modulation due to High-Speed Solar-Wind Streams of Different Sources,Speed, and Duration

We study the modulation of galactic cosmic rays (GCR) due to high-speed streams (HSS) identified in the solar wind. We compare the GCR modulation due to i) streams with different speed, ii) streams of different duration, and iii) streams from different solar sources. We apply the method of superposed-epoch analysis to analyze the interplanetary plasma and field parameters during the passage of streams with distinct plasma and field characteristics. We use the plasma/field characteristics to distinguish various features of solar sources and interplanetary structures, and discuss the observed differences in the cosmic-ray response. We study the influence of speed, duration, and solar sources of the streams on the GCR modulation. We discuss the relative importance of different solar-wind parameters in the modulation process.     

A study of the relation between intensity oscillations and magnetic field parameters in a sunspot: Hinode observations

We present properties of intensity oscillations of a sunspot in the photosphere and chromosphere using G band and Ca II H filtergrams from Hinode. Intensity power maps as function of magnetic field strength and frequency reveal reduction of power in the G band with an increase in photospheric magnetic field strength at all frequencies. In Ca II H, however, stronger fields exhibit more power at high frequencies, particularly in the 4.5–8.0 mHz band. Power distributions in different locations of the active region show that the oscillations in Ca II H exhibit more power compared to that of the G band. We also relate the power in intensity oscillations with different components of the photospheric vector magnetic field using near simultaneous spectro-polarimetric observations of the sunspot from the Hinode spectropolarimeter. The photospheric umbral power is strongly anti-correlated with the magnetic field strength and its line-of-sight component but there is a good correlation with the transverse component. A reversal of this trend is observed in the chromosphere except at low frequencies(ν≤ 1.5 mHz). The power in sunspot penumbrae is anti-correlated with the magnetic field parameters at all frequencies(1.0 ≤ν≤ 8.0 mHz) in both the photosphere and chromosphere, except that the chromospheric power shows a strong correlation in the frequency range 3–3.5 mHz.     

Fast transition between high-soft and low-soft states in GRS 1915 + 105: Evidence for a critically viscous accretion flow

We present the results of a detailed analysis of RXTE observations of classω (Klein-Woltet al. 2002) which show an unusual state transition between high-soft and low-soft states in the Galactic microquasar GRS 1915 + 105. Out of about 600 pointed RXTE observations, the source was found to exhibit such state transition only on 16 occasions. An examination of the RXTE/ASM data in conjunction with the pointed observations reveals that these events appeared as a series of quasi-regular dips in two stretches of long duration (about 20 days during each occasion) when hard X-ray and radio flux were very low. The X-ray light curve and colour-colour diagram of the source during these observations are found to be different from any reported so far. The duration of these dips is found to be of the order of a few tens of seconds with a repetition time of a few hundred seconds. The transition between these dips and non-dips which differ in intensity by a factor of ∼ 3.5, is observed to be very fast (∼ a few seconds). It is observed that the low-frequency narrow QPOs are absent in the power density spectrum (PDS) of the dip and non-dip regions of classω and the PDS is a power law in the 0.1–10 Hz frequency range. There is a remarkable similarity in the spectral and timing properties of the source during the dip and non-dip regions in this set of observations. These properties of the source are distinctly different from those seen in the observations of other classes. This indicates that the basic accretion disk structure during both dip and non-dip regions of classω is similar, but differ only in intensity. To explain these observations, we invoke a model in which the viscosity is very close to critical viscosity and the shock wave is weak or absent.