Statistical considerations in the analysis of solar oscillation data by the superposed epoch method

Solar Physics - Although the method of superposed epochs (Chree analysis) has been utilized for seven decades, a procedure to determine the statistical significance of the results has not been...     

Apollo 12 ropy glasses revisited

Abstract— We analyzed ropy glasses from Apollo 12 soils 12032 and 12033 by a variety of techniques including SEM/EDX, electron microprobe analysis, INAA, and ³⁹Ar-⁴⁰Ar age dating. The ropy glasses have KREEP-like compositions different from those of local Apollo 12 mare soils; it is likely that the ropy glasses are of exotic origin. Mixing calculations indicate that the ropy glasses formed from a liquid enriched in KREEP and that the ropy glass liquid also contained a significant amount of mare material. The presence of solar Ar and a trace of regolith-derived glass within the ropy glasses are evidence that the ropy glasses contain a small regolith component Anorthosite and crystalline breccia (KREEP) clasts occur in some ropy glasses. We also found within these glasses clasts of felsite (fine-grained granitic fragments) very similar in texture and composition to the larger Apollo 12 felsites, which have a ³⁹Ar-⁴⁰Ar degassing age of 800 ± 15 Ma (Bogard et al, 1992). Measurements of ³⁹Ar-⁴⁰Ar in 12032 ropy glass indicate that it was degassed at the same time as the large felsite although the ropy glass was not completely degassed. The ropy glasses and felsites, therefore, probably came from the same source. Most early investigators suggested that the Apollo 12 ropy glasses were part of the ejecta deposited at the Apollo 12 site from the Copernicus impact Our new data reinforce this model. If these ropy glasses are from Copernicus, they provide new clues to the nature of the target material at the Copernicus she, a part of the Moon that has not been sampled directly.     

Evolution of electron and proton temperatures in a flaring loop

We have investigated numerically how a temperature difference between electrons and protons is produced in a flaring loop by adopting a one-fluid, two-temperature model instead of a single-temperature model. We have treated a case in which flare energy is released in the form of heating of electrons located in the top part of the loop.In this case, a large temperature difference (T _e/T _p 10) appears in the corona in the energy-input phase of the flare. When the material evaporated from the chromosphere fills the corona, the temperature difference in the loop begins to shrink rapidly from below. Eventually, in the loop apex, the proton temperature exceeds the electron temperature mainly due to cooling of the electrons by conduction down the loop and heating of the protons by compression of the ascending material. In the late phase of the flare (t 15 min from the flare onset), the temperature difference becomes less than 2% of the mean temperature of electrons and protons at every point in the loop.     

Some further measurements of Uranian ring condensations

The results of photometric observations of the occultation of BD-19° 4222 by Uranus on April 26, 1981 from two stations in India conform with the model proposed by Elliotet al. (1981).     

Particle transfer in multiregions

Asymptotic calculations for reflection and transmission coefficients for particles incident on an inhomogeneous plane parallel medium are performed. The medium is assumed to consist of several different optically thick homogeneous layers. Functional relations between the reflection and transmission coefficients for the sublayers are obtained. The invariant embedding concepts are used to calculate the albedo for sublayers. Numerical calculations and comparisons are performed.     

General aspects of hard X-ray flares observed by Hinotori: Gradual burst and impulsive burst

We survey here the observational results on five gradual and four impulsive type events from the hard X-ray imaging (SXT) and spectrometer (HXM) instruments on the Hinotori satellite. A set of differences are clearly recognized between the gradual and impulsive type bursts. These are: (1) Hard X-ray images show the existence of a large coronal source for each gradual burst and a wide variety of source structures for impulsive bursts. (2) The source heights of the impulsive bursts appear to be low. (3) All gradual bursts show power-law spectra while impulsive bursts show exponential thermal spectra at least before the maximum phase. (4) Energy-dependent peak delays are observed only in gradual bursts. From these differences we suggest that two different acceleration and emission mechanisms are involved with these two kinds of hard X-ray bursts.     

A dynamo theory of solar flares

It is proposed that the solar flare phenomenon can be understood as a manifestation of the electrodynamic coupling process of the photosphere-chromosphere-corona system as a whole. The system is coupled by electric currents, flowing along (both upward and downward) and across the magnetic field lines, powered by the dynamo process driven by the neutral wind in the photosphere and the lower chromosphere. A self-consistent formulation of the proposed coupling system is given. It is shown in particular that the coupling system can generate and dissipate the power of 10²⁹ erg s^#X2212;1 and the total energy of 10³² erg during a typical life time (10³ s) of solar flares. The energy consumptions include Joule heat production, acceleration of current-carrying particles along field lines, magnetic energy storage and kinetic energy of plasma convection. The particle acceleration arises from the development of field-aligned potential drops of 10–150 kV due to the loss-cone constriction effect along the upward field-aligned currents, causing optical, X-ray and radio emissions. The total number of precipitating electrons during a flare is shown to be of order 10³⁷–10³⁸.     

The GLE-associated flare of 21 August, 1979

We use a variety of ground-based and satellite measurements to identify the source of the ground level event (GLE) beginning near 06∶30 UT on 21 August, 1979 as the 2B flare with maximum at ～06∶15 UT in McMath region 16218. This flare differed from previous GLE-associated flares in that it lacked a prominent impulsive phase, having a peak ～9 GHz burst flux density of only 27 sfu and a ?20 keV peak hard X-ray flux of ?3 × 10^-6 ergs cm^-2s^-1. Also, McMath 16218 was magnetically less complex than the active regions in which previous cosmic-ray flares have occurred, containing essentially only a single sunspot with a rudimentary penumbra. The flare was associated with a high speed (?700 km s^-1) mass ejection observed by the NRL white light coronagraph aboard P78-1 and a shock accelerated (SA) event observed by the low frequency radio astronomy experiment on ISEE-3.     

Extreme relativistic model for neutron stars and pulsars

Exact solutions have been obtained for a massive fluid sphere under the extreme causality condition (dP/dρ)=1. Radial pulsational stability of these structures has been discussed. It is found that for pulsationally stable configurations the surface to central density ratio is greater than 0.30, the maximum values for surface and central redshifts are 0.85 and 3.40 respectively in the extreme case, and the maximum mass and size are respectively 4.8M _⊙ and 20.1 km. It has also been shown that these structures are gravitationally bound, with a maximum binding energy per unit rest mass equal to 0.25 for a surface to central density ratio ?0.40. Slow rotation of these configurations has also been considered, and the relative drag and moment of inertia have been calculated. These results have been applied to the Crab pulsar and the mass of the pulsar has also been calculated based upon this model.     

Period-luminosities relation of classical Cepheids

A new PL-relation (10) — Figure 2 for the Cepheids in the Galaxy, the Magellanic Clouds and M31 has been constructed. On deriving this relation both the period-radius (3) and period-colour relations (7), (8) and (9) are essentially used. The PC-relation (7) determined after the colours of 88 galactic cepheids (Table I), which are obtained from the colour-spectrum relation (6) — Figure 1, common for Cepheids and non-variable supergiants, are used also for the M31 Cepheids, whereas (8) and (9) are for the Large and Small MC Cepheids, respectively, all three PC-relations having a common slope. The comparison of the relations (8) and (9) with (7) shows that the LMC and SMC Cepheids are bluer than the galactic ones with 0^m.04 and 0^m.19, respectively, probably because of their metal-poor abundance. The places of thes-Cepheids in Figure 2 show that these Cepheids possess a dissimilar PL-relation with a different slope. The reason for such a difference is that thes-Cepheids are first harmonic pulsators. The distance moduli of the three galaxies under discussion are obtained from the PL-relation (10). The colour-coefficient of period-colour-luminosity-relation is briefly discussed. The general conclusion based on a comparison of the PL-relation in the present paper with those by other authors (Table V) is that our PL-relation differs in the zero-point by less than 0^m.2; therefore, the manner of constructing the PL-relation by means of PR and PC-relations is reasonable and useful.