On the electrical conductivity of air inside buildings

Summary Simultaneous measurements of the electrical conductivity of air inside and outside of buildings have been performed with continuously recording electronic instruments of high sensitivity and short time constant. It appears that the electrical conductivity, a measure of the natural ionization of air, is one atmospheric-electric parameter that can manifest itself inside occupied buildings without appreciable difference in physical character from outside values.The probable importance of these experimental results for the field of bioclimatology is pointed out and the possibility is discussed that the electrical conductivity of air might be one of the searched—for parameters in associating physiological phenomena with weather changes.

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Zusammenfassung Gleichzeitige Messungen der luftelektrischen Leitfähigkeit im Freien und innerhalb von Gebäuden wurden mit kontinuierlich registrierenden Röhreninstrumenten von großer Empfindlichkeit und kurzer Zeitkonstante durchgeführt. Es wurde gefunden, daß die Leitfähigkeit als Maß der natürlichen Luftionisierung eine luftelektrische Größe darstellt, die ohne wesentliche physikalische Beeinflussung in bewohnte Gebäude einzudringen vermag.Die mögliche Bedeutung dieser experimentellen Ergebnisse für das Gebiet der Bioklimatologie wird angedeutet und die Wahrscheinlichkeit diskutiert, daß die luftelektrische Leitfähigkeit einen der noch unbestimmten Faktoren des Zusammenhanges physiologischer Erscheinungen mit Wetterveränderungen darstellen könnte.

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Résumé Des instruments électroniques à enregistrement continu de haute fidelité et ayant une constante de courte durée ont permis de prendre des mesures simultanées de la conductivité électrique de l'air à l'intérieur et à l'extérieur de bâtiments. Il semble que la conductivité électrique, mesure de l'ionisation naturelle de l'air, soit un paramètre de l'électricité atmosphérique qui peut se manifester à l'intérieur de bâtiments habités sans différence appréciable de caractéristiques physiques avec celles des valeurs extérieures.L'importance probable de ces résultats expérimentaux dans le champ de la bioclimatologie est indiquée, et la possibilité que la conductivité atmosphérique puisse être un des paramètres recherchés dans l'association des phénomènes physiologiques avec des changements du temps est étudiée.

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With 1 Figure.

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Publication No. 25 of the Institute of Geophysics, University of California at Los Angeles. The research reported in this paper has been sponsored in part by the Geophysics Research Directorate of the Air Force Cambridge Research Center, Air Research and Development Command, under Contract No. AF 19(122)-254.     

Orbital evolution studies of planet-crossing asteroids

Numerical integrations of 26 orbits of planet-crossing astetoids of Apollo-Amor type have been performed, in a solar system model including the perturbations by the planets from Venus to Neptune. The 15:th order RADAU integrator (Everhart, 1985) has been used. Orbits for the asteroids 433 Eros, 887 Alinda, 1036 Ganymed, 1221 Amor, 1580 Betulia, 1627 Ivar, 1685 Toro, 1862 Apollo, 1863 Antinous, 1864 Daedalus, 1865 Cerberus, 1915 Quetzalcoatl and 1916 Boreas have been integrated over 100 000 years forward in time and for 1866 Sisyphus, 2102 Tantalus, 2201 Oljato, 2329 Orthos, 3360 1981 VA, 3552 1983 SA, 1981 EJ30, 1985 PA, 1985 WA, 1986 DA 1986 JK and 1986 RA a period of about 33 000 years has been covered. The orbital evolutions of these asteroids are discussed. This work is part of a larger study of the long-term orbital evolution of planet-crossing asteroids and will be continued within the project SPACEGUARD (Milani et al., 1987).     

Effects of lava flows on lunar crater populations

It is shown that endogenic lava flow processes can be identified by their characteristic effects on lunar crater size distributions without necessarily being able to recognise individual flows on the photographs studied. The thickness of lava flows or a series of flows can be estimated from these crater size distribution characteristics. The lava flow histories of the Apollo landing sites 11, 12 and 15 are discussed in detail. The thicknesses of the most recent (3–3.4 × 10⁹ years ago) flows there and of the youngest flows in an area in south-west Mare Imbrium (3 × 10⁹ years) are found to range between 30 and 60 m. The subsequent flow episodes at the landing sites showing up in the crater size distributions can be related to differences in the radiometric ages of the respective lunar rocks.     

Deep structure and kinematics of the Northern Calcareous Alps (TRANSALP Profile)

The Northern Calcareous Alps (NCA) of southern Bavaria and northern Tyrol constitute a carbonate-dominated polyphase fold-thrust wedge; together with its Grauwacken Zone Basement, it is the northernmost part of the far-travelled Upper Austroalpine thrust complex of the Eastern Alps. The present geometry developed in several kinematic stages. Jurassic extensional faults that affected large parts of the NCA and their basement originated when the main part of the NCA was still located southeast of the Central Alpine Ötztal-Silvretta complex. These faults and related facies transitions influenced the later style of detachment of the NCA thrust sheets. Mid to Late Cretaceous detachment, thrust-sheet stacking and motion over the Central Alpine complex are registered in clastic deposits of syntectonic basins. The latest Cretaceous to Cenozoic NNE- to N-directed motion of the NCA towards Europe in front of the Central Alpine complex created another set of significant contraction structures, which at depth overprinted all previous structures. During Cretaceous to Cenozoic deformation, the NCA experienced about 80 km of shortening, i.e., about 73% along the TRANSALP Profile. The European basement and autochthonous Mesozoic cover beneath the allochthonous NCA thrust sheets and flysch complexes seem to have remained relatively undeformed.     

Paleoenvironmental evolution of the Paratethys in the Slovenian Basin during the Late Paleogene

Several sections from the uppermost Eocene and Oligocene of northern Slovenia have been investigated with respect to sedimentary facies, foraminiferal assemblages, stable isotopes, carbonate microfacies, and palynology. The main objective was to reconstruct the paleoenvironmental history of the Paleogene Paratethys in this region of the eastern Alpine realm. The sediments exhibit a transgressive succession beginning with conglomerates, sandstones, and mudstones of fluvial and lacustrine origin followed by carbonates and muddy marls indicating marine conditions. The foraminiferal faunal changes from brackish to shallow marine to deeper marine assemblages and the distribution of the palynofloras corroborate the sedimentological results. Microfacies analysis of the limestones shows a wide variation of shallow water, generally mud-rich facies dominated by coralline algae, foraminifera, and corals. Microfaunas adapted to low-oxygen conditions indicate temporal sluggish bottom-water circulation which can be associated with high fresh-water fluxes. These results are discussed as reflecting both the global sea-level rise during the Early Oligocene and the regional tectonic and climatic evolution.     

The LMDZ4 general circulation model: climate performance and sensitivity to parametrized physics with emphasis on tropical convection

The LMDZ4 general circulation model is the atmospheric component of the IPSL–CM4 coupled model which has been used to perform climate change simulations for the 4th IPCC assessment report. The main aspects of the model climatology (forced by observed sea surface temperature) are documented here, as well as the major improvements with respect to the previous versions, which mainly come form the parametrization of tropical convection. A methodology is proposed to help analyse the sensitivity of the tropical Hadley–Walker circulation to the parametrization of cumulus convection and clouds. The tropical circulation is characterized using scalar potentials associated with the horizontal wind and horizontal transport of geopotential (the Laplacian of which is proportional to the total vertical momentum in the atmospheric column). The effect of parametrized physics is analysed in a regime sorted framework using the vertical velocity at 500 hPa as a proxy for large scale vertical motion. Compared to Tiedtke’s convection scheme, used in previous versions, the Emanuel’s scheme improves the representation of the Hadley–Walker circulation, with a relatively stronger and deeper large scale vertical ascent over tropical continents, and suppresses the marked patterns of concentrated rainfall over oceans. Thanks to the regime sorted analyses, these differences are attributed to intrinsic differences in the vertical distribution of convective heating, and to the lack of self-inhibition by precipitating downdraughts in Tiedtke’s parametrization. Both the convection and cloud schemes are shown to control the relative importance of large scale convection over land and ocean, an important point for the behaviour of the coupled model.     

Pre-Cenozoic intra-plate magmatism along the Central Andes (17–34°S): Composition of the mantle at an active margin

Sr–Nd–Pb isotope ratios of alkaline mafic intra-plate magmatism constrain the isotopic compositions of the lithospheric mantle along what is now the eastern foreland or back arc of the Cenozoic Central Andes (17–34°S). Most small-volume basanite volcanic rocks and alkaline intrusive rocks of Cretaceous (and rare Miocene) age were derived from a depleted lithospheric mantle source with rather uniform initial ¹⁴³Nd/¹⁴⁴Nd ( 0.5127–0.5128) and ⁸⁷Sr/⁸⁶Sr ( 0.7032–0.7040). The initial ²⁰⁶Pb/²⁰⁴Pb ratios are variable (18.5–19.7) at uniform ²⁰⁷Pb/²⁰⁴Pb ratios (15.60 ± 0.05). A variety of the Cretaceous depleted mantle source of the magmatic rocks shows elevated Sr isotope ratios up to 0.707 at constant high Nd isotope ratios. The variable Sr and Pb isotope ratios are probably due to radiogenic growth in a metasomatized lithospheric mantle, which represents the former sub-arc mantle beneath the early Palaeozoic active continental margin. Sr–Nd–Pb isotope signatures of a second mantle type reflected in the composition of Cretaceous (one late Palaeozoic age) intra-plate magmatic rocks (¹⁴³Nd/¹⁴⁴Nd  0.5123, ⁸⁷Sr/⁸⁶Sr  0.704, ²⁰⁶Pb/²⁰⁴Pb  17.5–18.5, and ²⁰⁷Pb/²⁰⁴Pb  15.45–15.50) are similar to the isotopic composition of old sub-continental lithospheric mantle of the Brazilian Shield.

Published Nd and Sr isotopic compositions of Mesozoic to Cenozoic arc-related magmatic rocks (18–40°S) represent the composition of the convective sub-arc mantle in the Central Andes and are similar to those of the Cretaceous (and rare Miocene) intra-plate magmatic rocks. The dominant convective and lithospheric mantle type beneath this old continental margin is depleted mantle, which is compositionally different from average MORB-type depleted mantle. The old sub-continental lithospheric mantle did not contribute to Mesozoic to Cenozoic arc magmatism.     

Development of an Absolute Accelerometer for Extra-Solar Planet Detection

The method of stellar radial velocity variations has recently shown its capability by the first discovery of several extra-solar planets. Accuracies achieved today are in the range 3-10 m/s. The AAA (absolute astronomical accelerometer) is an instrument which aims to reach the photon noise limit for the measurement of velocity changes, with systematic errors of about 1 m/s, long term. The principle is to use a servo-controlled CCD spectrograph as a null detector, and to register always the lines of the star on the same CCD pixels. Thus, systematic errors linked to the Earth-induced large variations are cancelled. A tunable Fabry-Perot channelled spectrum is also following the star spectrum, while the FP thickness is measured by heterodyne detection of the beats between a tunable laser diode and a stabilized laser diode. A complete prototype of the instrument is operating with laboratory sources and the first results are presented. It is planned to use this system with a new spectrograph, to be coupled to the 152 cm telescope at Observatoire de Haute Provence.     

A Discussion of IGS Solutions and Their Impact on Geodetic and Geophysical Applications

The International Association of Geodesy officially established the International GPS Service (IGS) on Janaury 1, 1994. Its prime objective is to provide support and a rerefence system for a wide variety of scientific and practical applications involving GPS. To fulfill its role the IGS also generates, in addition to its fundamental products (orbital/staion positions and consistent Earth orientation parameters), additional reference-system products providing the necessary infrastructure, standards, and means of calibrations for timing and various atmospheric applications of GPS. The generation and efficient application of IGS products and their impact on a number of positioning and atmospheric applications, including low earth orbit satellites, is reviewed and discussed. @ 1998 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.