An optical view of BL Lacertae objects

BL Lac objects are active nuclei, hosted in massive elliptical galaxies, the emission of which is dominated by a relativistic jet closely aligned with the line of sight. This implies the existence of a parent population of sources with a misaligned jet that have been identified with low-power radiogalaxies. The spectrum of BL Lacs, dominated by non-thermal emission over the whole electromagnetic range, together with bright compact radio cores, high luminosities, rapid and large amplitude flux variability at all frequencies and strong polarization makes these sources an optimal laboratory for high energy astrophysics. A most distinctive characteristic of the class is the weakness or absence of spectral lines, that historically hindered the identification of their nature and ever thereafter proved to be a hurdle in the determination of their distance. In this paper, we review the main observational facts that contribute to the present basic interpretation of this class of active galaxies. We overview the history of the BL Lac objects research field and their population as it emerged from multi-wavelength surveys. The properties of the flux variability and polarization, compared with those at radio, X-ray and gamma-ray frequencies, are summarized together with the present knowledge of the host galaxies, their environments, and central black hole masses. We focus this review on the optical observations, which played a crucial role in the early phase of BL Lacs studies, and in spite of extensive radio, X-ray, and recently gamma-ray observations, could represent the future major contribution to the unveiling of the origin of these sources. In particular, they could provide a firm conclusion on the long debated issue of the cosmic evolution of this class of active galactic nuclei and on the connection between formation of supermassive black holes and relativistic jets.     

New results on standard solar models

We describe the current status of solar modeling and focus on the problems originating with the introduction of solar abundance determinations with low CNO abundance values. We use models computed with solar abundance compilations obtained during the last decade, including the newest published abundances by Asplund and collaborators. The results presented here focus on both helioseismic properties and models as well as neutrino flux predictions. We also discuss changes in radiative opacities to restore agreement between helioseismology, solar models, and solar abundances and show the effect of such modifications on solar neutrino fluxes.     

High frequency strong ground motion modelling in the Catania area associated with the Ibleo-Maltese fault system

A hybrid statistical-deterministic approach has been applied to estimate strong ground motion parameters (PGA, spectral ordinates) in South-Eastern Sicily for a M = 7 earthquake. A number of 100 different rupture processes have been simulated along a composite fault system representing two segments of the Ibleo-Maltese fault scarp. Map at regional scale of mean PGA in the 0.5–20 Hz frequency band shows highest values (0.4–0.5 g) nearby and North of Catania, due to a dominant directivity effect. The COV parameter, which expresses the variability of PGA values as a function of source complexity, is higher in the region nearby and South of the town of Augusta, where, depending on the rupture history, rather large PGA values can be observed (>0.4 g). PGA attenuation curves suggest that an azimuthal variation could be related to the source extent and directivity. The response and pseudo acceleration spectra are computed for different sites in the town of Catania including an approximate 1D site response. Ground motion amplification effects at high frequency (5–20 Hz) are produced by thin shallow layer of soft clay, loose pyroclastites and fill. We observe small amplification effects, in the frequency ranges 2–3 Hz and 5–10 Hz, in sites where recent alluvia reach a thickness of some tens of meters. Otherwise, sites located on outcrops of massive lavas show moderate attenuation.     

Earthquake early warning feasibility in the Campania region (southern Italy) and demonstration system for public school buildings

We present the results of a feasibility study of an earthquake early warning system (EEWS) for the Campania region (southern Italy) using schools as specific targets. The study considered the seismogenic zones as sources of potential earthquakes for the area, the Italian accelerometric network as the recording network for seismic event occurrence, and the performances of the software platform PRESTo ^Plus for data analysis and processing. We analyze the distribution of lead-times for all possible threatening seismic sources for each municipality in the region under study by extracting the lead-time value corresponding to the 5th, 10th and 25th percentiles of the distributions. We discuss the results for the 5th percentile in order to analyze the worst-case scenario: in the case of a single site, the lead-time is expected to be larger than this value in the 95 % of the cases. Since the population distribution in Campania is uneven and most of the people live nearby the coast, whilst the most destructive earthquakes occur along the Apennine chain, we can conclude that an efficient EEWS can allow most of the schools in the area to undertake some mitigating actions. The testing of the EEWS was carried out in the high school ITIS ‘E. Majorana’, located at Somma Vesuviana, about 80 km from the seismogenic Irpinia region. For this purpose, the Sentinel, an actuator made up of low-cost hardware (i.e., Arduino^®), was developed in close cooperation with students and teachers of the school to receive alert messages from the PRESTo ^Plus platform and warn the school users in case of a seismic event. The EEWS and the Sentinel were successfully tested during some blind drills performed during normal school activities.     

Statistical analysis of earthquake activity at Etna volcano (March 1981 eruption)

Seismic activity that preceded, accompanied, and followed the 17–23 March 1981 Etnean eruption has been statistically analyzed.On the grounds of both time evolution of seismicity and catalogue completeness, three time intervals have been defined (12 February–2 March, 12–17 March, 19–31 March) and for each of these periods both the b coefficient of theGutenberg-Richter's (1956) relationship and the E parameter of the cluster size (Shlien andToksoz, 1970) have been calculated.No significant variations were observed between the first and third periods, while lower values of bothb andE coefficients were found in the second one. These findings might indicate that changes in the seismicity features occur just before the eruption start.Small but fast variations in the stress field acting on the volcano might originate this type of seismic activity, while the importance of the tectonic control on volcanic phenomena seems to be confirmed.     

Integration of EO-based vulnerability estimation into EO-based seismic damage assessment: a case study on L’Aquila, Italy, 2009 earthquake

Remote sensing is proving very useful for identifying damage and planning support activities after an earthquake has stricken. Radar sensors increasingly show their value as a tool for damage detection, due to their shape-sensitiveness, their extreme versatility and operability, all weather conditions. The previous work of our research group, conducted on 1-m resolution spotlight images produced by COSMO-SkyMed, has led to the discovery of a link between some selected texture measures, computed on radar maps over single blocks of an urban area, and the damage found in these neighbourhoods. Texture-to-damage correlation was used to develop a SAR-based damage assessment method, but significant residual within-class variability makes estimations sometimes unreliable. Among the possible remedies, the injection of physical vulnerability data into the model was suggested. The idea here is to do so while keeping all the sources of data in the EO domain, by estimating physical vulnerability from the observation of high-resolution optical data on the area of interest. Although preliminary results seem to suggest that no significant improvement can be directly obtained on classification accuracy, there appears to be some link between estimated damage and estimated accuracy on which to build a more refined version of the damage estimator.     

Use of sedimentary pigments to infer past phosphorus concentration in lakes

We propose a palaeolimnological method for inferring past total phosphorus (TP) concentrations in lake water from spectrophotometrically-measured sedimentary pigments, particularly total carotenoids (TC). Our approach is based on a highly significant statistical correlation (P < 0.0001) between pigment concentrations (total carotenoids) in the surface sediment of 28 Italian lakes (subalpine, large, deep, shallow, volcanic) and TP concentrations measured in these lakes at overturn when the core was collected. A transfer function was developed from this “training” set, and used to estimate past TP concentrations from pigment concentrations in sediment cores. The results generally agreed with TP values as measured by long-term water quality monitoring programs. Contrasting results were obtained by a comparison with diatom-inferred TP. While the diatom model showed a tendency to overestimate TP values higher than 100 μg l⁻¹, the pigment model correctly estimated TP in lakes when TP was <100 μg l⁻¹, but not when lakes were rich in macrophytes. In fact, lakes with extensive populations of aquatic submersed macrophytes and epiphytes are outliers in terms of the TC versus TP relationship. The root mean square error of prediction of the pigment model is lower than those derived from certain diatom—based inference models. The predicted and residual values are not related to the estimated values and their average is not statistically different from zero. Errors were estimated via a ‘leave-one-out’ re-sampling technique. The proposed method permits rapid and relatively inexpensive determination of reference trophic conditions.     

Contributions respectives des courants et de la houle dans la mobilité sédimentaire d'une plate-forme interne estuarienne. Exemple : le seuil interinsulaire,au large du pertuis d'Antioche,France

This paper investigates the relative influence of waves, wind-induced current and tidal current on the sediment mobility of a macro-tidal environment belonging to the inner shelf seaward of the ‘pertuis Charentais’ (France). This study, mainly based on three-week hydrodynamic in-situ measurements, shows that, for a water depth of 23 m, the swell (rather than wind waves) orbital velocity is large enough to initiate the motion of medium sands that are then transported by currents. Estimations show that medium sand of 0.2 mm is transported during 92% of the measurements, whereas coarse sand and gravel move sporadically, during storm, synchronously with spring tides. Further more, bedload fluxes appear strongly larger when waves are taken into account (370 times larger for 0.2-mm sands). To cite this article: D. Idier et al., C. R. Geoscience 338 (2006).