A critical analysis of the concept of planetary wave breaking

The concept of planetary wave breaking (McIntyre andPalmer, 1983; 1984) is critically reviewed. It is concluded that the wave breaking signature is not unique to any particular dynamic event in the stratosphere. Therefore, the classification of stratospheric transport events, such as wave breaking, groups fundamentally different events together. Better qualification of the wave breaking signature and a more solid theoretical basis of planetary wave breaking must be presented if the concept is to be of significant utility in describing stratospheric tracer transport.     

On love wave dispersion in a homogeneous layer lying over a laterally heterogeneous half-space

A method is proposed for the determination of the dispersion equation of Love waves propagating in a homogeneous layer lying over a laterally inhomogeneous half-space. The proposed method can be made to work only when the lateral inhomogeneities in the lower half-space are finite in nature so that their Fourier transforms are available. As an illustration the dispersion equation of Love waves is obtained for one of such media in which the shear-wave velocity and the rigidity in the lower half-space either increases or decreases along the direction of propagation of waves according as the parameter of heterogeneity is positive or negative.     

海城7．3级地震前地震波动力学特征量的异常变化

本文给出对海城７．３级地震前地震波动力学特征量变化的一些最新研究结果。所研究的地震波包括体波（Ｐ，Ｓ波）、尾波和短周期地脉动三类。特征量有：体波与地脉动的波形时间线性度和空间线性度，平均半周期，频谱的峰值频率、拐角频率、相对频带宽度、相对频谱峰值、高频段的谱线斜率绝对值；尾波的时间熵、振幅比、持续时间、观测与计算持续时间差及其二阶差分、Ｑ＿ｃ值、反映介质混浊度与震源特性的系数ａ＿ｃ等。所得结果表明，三类地震波的上述动力学特征量大都在震前一至半年左右出现、有的在６－１０天乃至一天以内出现过不同形态的阶段性异常变化，因而可看作海城地震的中短期和临震的地震波前兆异常指标。     

大气重力波触发的Rayleigh－Taylor不稳定性的时空演变

对大气重力波触发的赤道电离层Ｒａｙｌｅｉｇｈ－Ｔａｙｌｏｒ不稳定性的时空演变进行了数值模拟．结果表明，重力波能在Ｆ区底部触发Ｒａｙｌｅｉｇｈ－Ｔａｙｌｏｒ不稳定性，这种等离子体不稳定扰动穿过Ｆ峰，到达Ｆ区顶部，形成等离子体泡结构．等离子体泡出现向西倾斜和分岔等特征．当夜Ｆ区较高时，产生等离子体泡的时间仅１９００ｓ．数值模拟结果证实了重力波触发．Ｒａｙｌｅｉｇｈ－Ｔａｙｌｏｒ不稳定性的理论，解释了大量电离层观测现象．     

Coda waves: A review

The analysis and interpretation of coda waves have received increasing attention since the early seventies. In the past few years interest in this subject has spread worldwide, and the study of high-frequency seismic coda waves has become a very important seismological topic. As a conclusion of the studies accomplished in this time, coda waves are considered the result of scattering processes caused by heterogeneities acting on seismic waves.P andS waves play a particularly important role in this interaction. The process introduces an attenuation which, added to the intrinsic absorption, gives the observed apparent attenuation. Therefore, coda waves constitute a thumbprint left by the heterogeneities on the seismograms. Coda waves offer decisive information about the mechanism of how scattering and attenuation take place. This review describes coda waves in detail, and summarizes the work done in this subject to 1986. The relation between coda waves and attenuation in the context of research on seismic scattering problems is stressed. Particular attention has been given to the application of coda waves to estimate source and medium parameters. The state-of-the-art of the temporal variations of coda wave shape, and the possible use of these variations as an earthquake precursor also are presented. Care has been taken to introduce the statistical models used to deal with the heterogeneities responsible for scattering.     

Type Ia supernovae: An explosion in the regime of a convergent delayed detonation wave

The model of a presupernova’s carbon-oxygen (C-O) core with an initial mass of 1.33 M _⊙, an initial carbon abundance X _C ⁽⁰⁾ =0.27, and a mean rate of increase in mass of 5 × 10^?7 M _⊙ yr^?1 through accretion in a binary system evolved from the central density and temperature ρ_c=10⁹ g cm^?3 and T _c=2.05 × 10⁸K, respectively, by forming a convective core and its subsequent expansion to an explosive fuel ignition at the center. The evolution and explosion equations included only the carbon burning reaction ¹²C+¹²C with energy release corresponding to the complete conversion of carbon and oxygen (at the same rate as that of carbon) into ⁵⁶Ni. The ratio of mixing length to convection-zone size α_c was chosen as the parameter. Although the model assumptions were crude, we obtained an acceptable (for the theory of supernovae) pattern of explosion with a strong dependence of its duration on α_c. In our calculations with sufficiently large values of this parameter, α_c=4.0 × 10^?3 and 3.0×10^?3, fuel burned in the regime of prompt detonation. In the range 2.0×10^?3≥α_c≥3.0×10^?4, there was initially a deflagration with the generation of model pulsations whose amplitude gradually increased. Eventually, the detonation regime of burning arose, which was triggered from the model surface layers (with m ? 1.33 M _⊙) and propagated deep into the model up to the deflagration front. The generation of model pulsations and the formation of a detonation front are described in detail for α_c=1.0 × 10^?3.     

Supersonic steady accretion of a rotating cold “Iron Gas” onto a neutron star after gravitational collapse

We analytically generalize the well-known solution of steady supersonic spherically symmetric gas accretion onto a star (Bondi 1952) for an iron atmosphere with completely degenerate electrons with an arbitrary degree of relativity. This solution is used for typical physical conditions in the vicinity of protoneutron stars produced by gravitational collapse with masses M ₀=(1.4?1.8)M _⊙ and over a wide range of nonzero “iron gas” densities at infinity, ρ_∞=(10⁴?5×10⁶)g cm^?3. Under these conditions, we determine all accretion parameters, including the accretion rate, whose value is ～(10?50)M _⊙s^?1 at M ₀=1.8M _⊙ (it is a factor of 1.7 lower for M ₀=1.4M _⊙, because the accretion rate is exactly ∝M ₀ ² ). We take into account the effect of accreting-gas rotation in a quasi-one-dimensional approximation, which has generally proved to be marginal with respect to the accretion rate.     

Low frequency waves in plasmas with spatially varying electron temperature

Low frequency electrostatic waves are studied in magnetized plasmas with an electron temperature which varies with position in a direction perpendicular to the magnetic field. For wave frequencies below the ion cyclotron frequency, the waves need not follow any definite dispersion relation. Instead a band of phase velocities is allowed, with a range of variation depending on the maximum and minimum values of the electron temperature. Simple model equations are obtained for the general case which can be solved to give the spatial variation of a harmonically time varying potential. A simple analytical model for the phenomenon is presented and the results are supported by numerical simulations carried out in a 2.5-dimensional particle-in-cell numerical simulation. We find that when the electron temperature is striated along B₀ and low frequency waves (_ci) are excited in this environment, then the intensity of these low frequency waves will be striated in a manner following the electron temperature striations. High frequency ion acoustic waves (_ci) will on the other hand have a spatially more uniform intensity distribution.     

Traveltime measurements from noise correlation: stability and detection of instrumental time-shifts

We test the feasibility of using Green's functions extracted from records of ambient seismic noise to monitor temporal changes in the Earth crust properties by repeated measurements at regional distances. We use about 11 yr of continuous recordings to extract surface waves between three pairs of stations in California. The correlations are computed in a moving 1-month window and we analyse the temporal evolution of measured interstation traveltimes. The comparison of the arrival times in the positive and negative correlation time of Rayleigh and Love waves allows us to separate time-shifts associated with any form of physical change in the medium, those resulting from clock drift or other instrumental errors, and those due to change in the localization of the noise sources. This separation is based on the principle of time symmetry. When possible, we perform our analysis in two different period bands: 5–10 and 10–20 s. The results indicate that significant instrumental time errors (0.5 s) are present in the data. These time-shifts can be measured and tested by closure relation and finally corrected independently of any velocity model. The traveltime series show a periodic oscillation that we interpret as the signature of the seasonal variation of the region of origin of the seismic noise. Between 1999 and 2005, the final arrival time fluctuations have a variance of the order of 0.01 s. This allows us to measure interstation traveltimes with errors smaller than 0.3 per cent of the interstation traveltime and smaller than 1 per cent of the used wave period. This level of accuracy was not sufficient to detect clear physical variation of crustal velocity during the considered 11 yr between the three stations in California. Such changes may be more easily detectable when considering pairs of stations more closely located to each other and in the vicinity of tectonically active faults or volcanoes.