Aeronomy of extra-solar giant planets at small orbital distances

One-dimensional aeronomical calculations of the atmospheric structure of extra-solar giant planets in orbits with semi-major axes from 0.01 to 0.1 AU show that the thermospheres are heated to over 10,000 K by the EUV flux from the central star. The high temperatures cause the atmosphere to escape rapidly, implying that the upper thermosphere is cooled primarily by adiabatic expansion. The lower thermosphere is cooled primarily by radiative emissions from H⁺₃, created by photoionization of H₂ and subsequent ion chemistry. Thermal decomposition of H₂ causes an abrupt change in the composition, from molecular to atomic, near the base of the thermosphere. The composition of the upper thermosphere is determined by the balance between photoionization, advection, and H⁺ recombination. Molecular diffusion and thermal conduction are of minor importance, in part because of large atmospheric scale heights. The energy-limited atmospheric escape rate is approximately proportional to the stellar EUV flux. Although escape rates are large, the atmospheres are stable over time scales of billions of years.     

Atmospheric densities derived from CHAMP/STAR accelerometer observations

The satellite CHAMP carries the accelerometer STAR in its payload and thanks to the GPS and SLR tracking systems accurate orbit positions can be computed. Total atmospheric density values can be retrieved from the STAR measurements, with an absolute uncertainty of 10-15%, under the condition that an accurate radiative force model, satellite macro-model, and STAR instrumental calibration parameters are applied, and that the upper-atmosphere winds are less than . The STAR calibration parameters (i.e. a bias and a scale factor) of the tangential acceleration were accurately determined using an iterative method, which required the estimation of the gravity field coefficients in several iterations, the first result of which was the EIGEN-1S (Geophys. Res. Lett. 29 (14) (2002) 10.1029) gravity field solution. The procedure to derive atmospheric density values is as follows: (1) a reduced-dynamic CHAMP orbit is computed, the positions of which are used as pseudo-observations, for reference purposes; (2) a dynamic CHAMP orbit is fitted to the pseudo-observations using calibrated STAR measurements, which are saved in a data file containing all necessary information to derive density values; (3) the data file is used to compute density values at each orbit integration step, for which accurate terrestrial coordinates are available. This procedure was applied to 415 days of data over a total period of 21 months, yielding 1.2 million useful observations. The model predictions of DTM-2000 (EGS XXV General Assembly, Nice, France), DTM-94 (J. Geod. 72 (1998) 161) and MSIS-86 (J. Geophys. Res. 92 (1987) 4649) were evaluated by analysing the density ratios (i.e. “observed” to “computed” ratio) globally, and as functions of solar activity, geographical position and season. The global mean of the density ratios showed that the models underestimate density by 10-20%, with an rms of 16-20%. The binning as a function of local time revealed that the diurnal and semi-diurnal components are too strong in the DTM models, while all three models model the latitudinal gradient inaccurately. Using DTM-2000 as a priori, certain model coefficients were re-estimated using the STAR-derived densities, yielding the DTM-STAR test model. The mean and rms of the global density ratios of this preliminary model are 1.00 and 15%, respectively, while the tidal and latitudinal modelling errors become small. This test model is only representative of high solar activity conditions, while the seasonal effect is probably not estimated accurately due to correlation with the solar activity effect. At least one more year of data is required to separate the seasonal effect from the solar activity effect, and data taken under low solar activity conditions must also be assimilated to construct a model representative under all circumstances.     

攀枝花市大气污染物降水清除机制的研究

本文采用了主成份分析及因子分析的方法,研究了影响降水pH值的主要源及其贡献和这些源被降水清除的机制。分析结果表明:大气中一次污染物是影响降水pH及各种成分浓度的主要因素。人为污染源包括高排放源、低排放源和汽车源,它们的排放物以碱性物质为主;自然污染源包括输送物、腐烂物、自然NOx等,它们的排放物主要是酸性物质;在一般情况下,降水的pH值取决于高、低排放源排放的碱性物质的多寡;降水量越大,清除的污染物越多,在雨季各测点降水平均pH值为6.31～7.10。在高排放源影响小的地方,对持续时间长的大雨,降水后期的pH能反映自然源的影响,其值小于5.60。可见,攀枝花市酸雨几率极低甚至降水呈碱性,     

色球耀斑Hα谱线轮廓不对称性研究

Hα谱线轮廓的不对称性是色球耀斑光谱观测中的重要特征,也是耀斑动力学过程的重要观测事实之一．以紫金山天文台太阳光谱仪的观测资料为依据,给出Hα谱线不对称性的典型轮廓．在考虑氢原子非热激发、电离的作用下,经验性地计算了不同大气模型下谱线的不对称性特征,并在此基础上,对观测谱线进行半经验的研究．结果表明, 色球区的向下运动能够产生Hα谱线的红、蓝不对称性,并可以再生具体耀斑的谱线不对称性特征．此外,不仅非热粒子的能流、谱指数大小以及速度场所处的高度对谱线轮廓有影响,耀斑大气的背景模型对谱线的轮廓也有一定的影响．     

Stochastic data in astronomy: Fourier analysis of highly nonuniform time series

The features of the CLEAN algorithm for Fourier analysis of time series with data separated by long pauses are analyzed in detail. Estimates are obtained for the limits of variability of the parameters of harmonic components that can be determined on a specified time grid. This analysis are used to search for harmonic components in the spectral line profile variations of the star Ori A (O8III) obtained in 2001 with the 1 m telescope at the Special Astrophysical Observatory of the Russian Academy of Sciences.Translated from Astrofizika, Vol. 48, No. 1, pp. 87–100 (February 2005).