Triggered-lightning properties inferred from measured currents and very close electric fields

Triggered-lightning properties, including dart-leader charge density, return-stroke propagation speed, dart-leader electric potential, dart-leader propagation speed, and dart-leader current, inferred from return-stroke current and very close electric field measurements, are presented. Although most of the estimates are based on relatively crude models, they are all generally in good agreement with independent measurements and/or theoretical considerations found in the literature. The results are likely to be applicable to subsequent strokes in natural lightning.     

宏观地震忽略吸收确定震源深度问题的通解及其精确度

分析G-R-闵公式后得出,它是从点源幅射场导出的,与地震宏观场不相应。因在近场震源不能视作点源。在分析过程中,导出相当于点源、线源或面源以及复杂源的幅射场的深度公式。对实际的地震,它的源类型一无所知,所以不预作假定,将源指标几何扩散率n作为待定参数,导出了一个物理意义明确而又普遍化的震源深度公式。此公式的诸解法中,以计算方法准确、精度高,作图法有直观的优点,但准确性差、精度低,图算法只作获取粗略值和考察数据均匀性用。计算了9个8级以上巨震、1个71/2大震,和两个M_L=3的有感地震的震源深度,经对比结果很好,利用计算得出震源类型,结合宏观场研究了这些地震的震源几何学。并且首次在国际上给出宏观地震震源深度值的标准误差。     

One more explanation of superluminal motion

The occurrence of superluminal motion in extragalactic radio sources is believed to be quite common. Among others, the geometrical scattering of radio radiation can also cause superluminal expansion and or motion and halo formation, In this paper, the effectiveness of the stimulated Raman scattering in producing these features is investigated. The scattering medium is a plasma whose position, density and temperature decide the rate and angle of scattering. When the radiation from a stationary and constant source gets scattered from a stationary plasma, a halo is formed around the source. However, the scattering of a rotating radiation beam does produce superluminal motion of the virtual source. It is found that the plasma should have the characteristics of the emission-line regions and the intercloud medium in order to Raman scatter the radiation. Since the scattering is polarization dependent, it is possible to estimate the rotation of the electric vector along the direction of the apparent motion of a radio source.     

Suspended‐sediment sources in an urban watershed,Northeast Branch Anacostia River,Maryland

Fine sediment sources were characterized by chemical composition in an urban watershed, the Northeast Branch Anacostia River, which drains to the Chesapeake Bay. Concentrations of 63 elements and two radionuclides were measured in possible land‐based sediment sources and suspended sediment collected from the water column at the watershed outlet during storm events. These tracer concentrations were used to determine the relative quantity of suspended sediment contributed by each source. Although this is an urbanized watershed, there was not a distinct urban signature that can be evaluated except for the contributions from road surfaces. We identified the sources of fine sediment by both physiographic province (Piedmont and Coastal Plain) and source locale (streambanks, upland and street residue) by using different sets of elemental tracers. The Piedmont contributed the majority of the fine sediment for seven of the eight measured storms. The streambanks contributed the greatest quantity of fine sediment when evaluated by source locale. Street residue contributed 13% of the total suspended sediment on average and was the source most concentrated in anthropogenically enriched elements. Combining results from the source locale and physiographic province analyses, most fine sediment in the Northeast Branch watershed is derived from streambanks that contain sediment eroded from the Piedmont physiographic province of the watershed. Sediment fingerprinting analyses are most useful when longer term evaluations of sediment erosion and storage are also available from streambank‐erosion measurements, sediment budget and other methods. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Assessing damaged road verges as a suspended sediment source in the Hampshire Avon catchment,southern United Kingdom

Diffuse sediment pollution impairs water quality, exerts a key control on the transfer and fate of nutrients and contaminants and causes deleterious impacts on freshwater ecology. A variety of catchment sediment sources can contribute to such problems. Sediment control strategies and effective targeting of mitigation options therefore require robust quantitative information on the key sources of the sediment problem at catchment scale. Recent observations by Catchment Sensitive Farming Officers (CSFO's) in England have highlighted road verges damaged and eroded by passing vehicles, particularly large farm machinery, and livestock herd movement as visually important potential sources of local sediment problems. A study was therefore undertaken to assess the relative importance of damaged road verges as a suspended sediment source in three sub‐catchments of the Hampshire Avon drainage basin, southern UK. Road verge sediment contributions were apportioned in conjunction with those from agricultural topsoils and channel banks/subsurface sources. Time‐integrating isokinetic samplers were deployed to sample suspended sediment fluxes at the outlets of two control sub‐catchments drained by the Rivers Chitterne and Till selected to characterize areas with a low road network density and limited visual evidence of verge damage, as well as the River Sem sub‐catchment used to represent areas where road verge damage is more prevalent. The findings of a sediment source fingerprinting investigation based on a combination of intermittent sampling campaigns spanning the period 22/5/02–27/4/08 suggested that the respective overall mean relative sediment contributions from damaged road verges were 5 ± 3%, 4 ± 2% and 20 ± 2%. Relative inputs from damaged road verges for any specific sampling period in the River Sem sub‐catchment were as high as 33 ± 2%. Reconstruction of historical sources in the same sub‐catchment, based on the geochemical record stored in a floodplain depth profile, suggested that the significance of damaged road verges as a sediment source has increased over the past 15–20 years. The findings provide important information on damaged road verges as a primary source of suspended sediment and imply that catchment sediment control strategies and mitigation plans should consider such verges in addition to those agricultural and channel sources traditionally taken into account when attempting to reduce sediment pressures on aquatic resources. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

INTEGRAL/XMM views on the MeV source GRO J1411-64

The COMPTEL unidentified source GRO J 1411-64 was observed by INTEGRAL and XMM-Newton in 2005. The Circinus Galaxy is the only source detected within the 4σ location error of GRO J1411-64, but in here excluded as the possible counterpart. At soft X-rays, 22 reliable and statistically significant sources (likelihood >10) were extracted and analyzed from XMM-Newton data. Only one of these sources, XMMU J141255.6-635932, is spectrally compatible with GRO J1411-64 although the fact the soft X-ray observations do not cover the full extent of the COMPTEL source position uncertainty make an association hard to quantify and thus risky. At the best location of the source, detections at hard X-rays show only upper limits, which, together with MeV results obtained by COMPTEL suggest the existence of a peak in power output located somewhere between 300–700 keV for the so-called low state. Such a spectrum resembles those in blazars or microquasars, and might suggest at work by the models accordingly. However, an analysis using a microquasar model consisting on a magnetized conical jet filled with relativistic electrons, shows that it is hard to comply with all observational constrains. This fact and the non-detection at hard X-rays introduce an a-posteriori question mark upon the physical reality of this source, what is discussed here.     

The Converter Mechanism of Particle Acceleration and Its Applications to the Unidentified Egret Sources

We discuss the properties of gamma-ray radiation accompanying the acceleration of cosmic rays via the converter mechanism. The mechanism exploits multiple photon-induced conversions of high-energy particles from charged into neutral state (namely, protons to neutrons and electrons to photons) and back. Because a particle in the neutral state can freely cross the magnetic field lines, this allows to avoid both particle losses downstream and reduction in the energy gain factor, which normally takes place due to highly collimated distribution of accelerated particles. The converter mechanism efficiently operates in relativistic outflows under the conditions typical for Active Galactic Nuclei, Gamma-Ray Bursts, and microquasars, where it outperforms the standard diffusive shock acceleration. The accompanying radiation has a number of distinctive features, such as an increase of the maximum energy of synchrotron photons and peculiar radiation beam-pattern, whose opening angle is much wider at larger photon energies. This provides an opportunity to observe off-axis relativistic jets in GeV–TeV energy range. One of the implications is the possibility to explain high-latitude unidentified EGRET sources as off-axis but otherwise typical relativistic-jet sources, such as blazars.     

滇西镇康放羊山Cu-Pb-Zn多金属矿床流体包裹体和C-O同位素研究

滇西镇康放羊山Cu-Pb-Zn多金属矿床是保山地块发现的首个富铜的铅锌多金属矿床。为探讨其成矿流体来源和矿床成因,对该矿床开展了流体包裹体和C-O同位素研究。结果表明,阶段Ⅱ主要发育富液相包裹体,均一温度和盐度（NaCl_eq,质量分数）集中在240～300℃和8.0%～18.0%;阶段Ⅲ以含CO₂和子矿物包裹体为特征,均一温度和盐度的两个峰值为360～400℃、16.0%～24.0%和240～320℃、4.0%～14.0%;阶段Ⅳ以富液相和纯液相包裹体为主,均一温度和盐度降低至220～340℃和8.0%～14.0%。C-O同位素分析结果（δ¹³C_V-PDB值为-5.88‰~-2.37‰,δ¹⁸O_V-SMOW值为8.18‰~12.79‰）显示成矿流体主要来源于岩浆热液,在迁移过程中受到围岩溶解作用的影响。综合研究认为,放羊山矿床阶段Ⅱ和阶段Ⅲ的成矿流体主要来源于大陆碰撞形成的中高温、中高盐度、富CO₂岩浆热液,在阶段Ⅲ晚期和阶段Ⅳ受到中低温、低盐度大气降水的影响;矿床为受构造控制明显的中高温热液矿床,预测在矿区深部有望找到矽卡岩型矿体。     

郑州北郊水源地中深层地下水均衡分析

本文在依据郑州北郊地区水文地质条件,分析了其水源地深层地下水的补给量和排泄量：中深层地下水补给量为7152m3/d,排泄量为7134m3/d,均衡差为18m3/d;开采条件下,中深层地下水的补给量为46301m3/d,排泄量为46320m3/d,均衡差为-19m3/d。