Reconstruction of Late Pleistocene events in the periglacial area in the southern part of the East European Plain

An integrated study of the loess–soil sequence in the coastal exposure near the settlement of Beglitsa (Rostov oblast) allowed us, for the first time, to reconstruct the landscape-climatic changes that occurred in the eastern Azov region over the course of the Late Pleistocene. In the south of the periglacial zone, considerable differences between intensity of the loess accumulation in the Early and Late Valdai Cryochrons were revealed. In the Early Valdai Epoch, which corresponds roughly to the end of Marine Isotope Stage (MIS) 5 and MIS 4, loess accumulation occurred after completion of development of the Mezin pedocomplex and before the beginning of the Bryansk stage of soil development, i.e., over more than 20 000 years. In the much shorter Late Valdai Cryochron MIS 2 (10 000–12 000 years), loess accumulation reached 5 m. The data evaluation shows that the loess accumulation rates in the Early Valdai Epoch (~0.07 mm/year) and the Late Valdai Epoch (~0.5 mm/year) differ from each other by an order of magnitude.     

Condor-E Spacecraft with a Synthetic Aperture Antenna and Its Capabilities

Izvestiya, Atmospheric and Oceanic Physics - The main parameters of a small spacecraft (SSC) (Condor-E) and its onboard radar with a synthetic aperture antenna (SAR) are presented in the paper. Two...     

Norm of the Position Shift of a Celestial Body in a Dynamical Astronomy Problem

The averaging method is widely used in celestial mechanics, in which a mean orbit is introduced and slightly deviates from an osculating one, as long as disturbing forces are small. The difference $$\delta {\mathbf{r}}$$ in the celestial body positions in the mean and osculating orbits is a quasi-periodic function of time. Estimating the norm $$\left\| {\delta {\mathbf{r}}} \right\|$$ for deviation is interesting to note. Earlier, the exact expression of the mean-square norm for one problem of celestial mechanics was obtained: a zero-mass point moves under the gravitation of a central body and a small perturbing acceleration $${\mathbf{F}}$$. The vector $${\mathbf{F}}$$ is taken to be constant in a co-moving coordinate system with axes directed along the radius vector, the transversal, and the angular momentum vector. Here, we solved a similar problem, assuming the vector $${\mathbf{F}}$$ to be constant in the reference frame with axes directed along the tangent, the principal normal, and the angular momentum vector. It turned out that $${{\left\| {\delta {\mathbf{r}}} \right\|}^{2}}$$ is proportional to $${{a}^{6}}$$, where $$a$$ is the semi-major axis. The value $${{\left\| {\delta {\mathbf{r}}} \right\|}^{2}}{{a}^{{ - 6}}}$$ is the weighted sum of the component squares of $${\mathbf{F}}$$. The quadratic form coefficients depend only on the eccentricity and are represented by the Maclaurin series in even powers of $$e$$ that converge, at least for $$e < 1$$. The series coefficients are calculated up to $${{e}^{4}}$$ inclusive, so that the correction terms are of order $${{e}^{6}}$$.