Analysis and results of cooperative magnetographic measurements III. Vertical gradients of the magnetic field in the sunspot photosphere

We compare vertical gradients of sunspot magnetic fields which were derived for the first time from nearly simultaneous vector magnetograms. The measurements were obtained in the photospheric lines Fe I 5250 and Fe I 5253 by the vector magnetographs of the Sayan-Observatory (Irkutsk) and the Solar Observatory “Einsteinturm”. The gradients derived from the different measurements show a good correspondence with respect to the numerical values as well as to the morphological structure of the distributions in the magnetograph's field of view. In the umbral region of the spot the vertical gradients amount to about 0.32 Gkm^-1 indicating that the umbral field can extend with strong field strengths into chromosphere and corona. A circle-like area with opposite sign to the umbral gradient was found on the boundary between penumbra and surrounding photosphere. The physical significance of this area should be the goal of further observations and interpretations. Wir vergleichen Vertikalgradienten des Magnetfeldes von Sonnenflecken, die erstmals aus fast simultan aufgenommenen Vektormagnetogrammen abgeleitet wurden. Die Messungen erfolgten unter Verwendung der photosphärischen Linien Fe I 5250 Å und Fe I 5253 Å mit den Vektormagnetografen des Sayan-Observatoriums (Irkutsk) und des Sonnenobservatoriums “Einsteinturm”. Die aus den verschiedenen Messungen ermittelten Gradienten zeigen sowohl hinsichtlich der numerischen Werte als auch bezüglich der morphologischen Struktur ihrer Verteilung im Bildfeld der Magnetografen eine gute Übereinstimmung. Im Kern des Flecks erreicht der Vertikalgradient 0,32 g kin^-1. Das weist darauf hin, daß sich das umbrale Feld mit hoher Feldstärke bis in die Chromosphäre und Korona erstrecken kann. Ein kreisförmiges Gebiet mit entgegengesetztem Vorzeichen zum umbralen Gradienten ist an der Grenze zwischen Penumbra und umgebender Photosphäre zu finden. Die physikalische Bedeutung dieses Gebietes soll durch weitere Beobachtungen und Auswertungen geklärt werden.     

星系团内物理过程对宇宙微波背景辐射的影响

观测表明,富星系团内存在着大量的高温热电子.它们将与微波背景光子相互作用.本文考虑了星系团集合使微波背景辐射产生的畸变.我们的理论估计表明,富星系团集合的高温热电子散射背景光子,使背景辐射谱偏离黑体辐射谱.在背景谱的维恩区,畸变小于2.74K黑体峰值强度的1％,这个结果与最近COBE卫星的探测结果是一致的.没有得到Matsumoto所探测到的在700μm附近有相当于黑体谱峰值强度10％的重大畸变.星系作为微引力透镜,对背景辐射的影响不可能探测得到.星系团内热电子的轫致辐射在微波波段更弱.     

Low-cost high performance distributed data storage for multi-channel observations

The New Vacuum Solar Telescope (NVST) is a 1-m solar telescope that aims to observe the fine structures in both the photosphere and the chromosphere of the Sun. The observational data acquired simultaneously from one channel for the chromosphere and two channels for the photosphere bring great challenges to the data storage of NVST. The multi-channel instruments of NVST, including scientific cameras and multi-band spectrometers, generate at least 3 terabytes data per day and require high access performance while storing massive short-exposure images. It is worth studying and implementing a storage system for NVST which would balance the data availability, access performance and the cost of development. In this paper, we build a distributed data storage system (DDSS) for NVST and then deeply evaluate the availability of real-time data storage on a distributed computing environment. The experimental results show that two factors, i.e., the number of concurrent read/write and the file size, are critically important for improving the performance of data access on a distributed environment. Referring to these two factors, three strategies for storing FITS files are presented and implemented to ensure the access performance of the DDSS under conditions of multi-host write and read simultaneously. The real applications of the DDSS proves that the system is capable of meeting the requirements of NVST real-time high performance observational data storage. Our study on the DDSS is the first attempt for modern astronomical telescope systems to store real-time observational data on a low-cost distributed system. The research results and corresponding techniques of the DDSS provide a new option for designing real-time massive astronomical data storage system and will be a reference for future astronomical data storage.     

21cm波段太阳爆发中的精细结构

本文简要介绍了云南天文台新建立的21cm波段快速(不中断采样)记录系统,及使用该系统观测到的快速尖峰事件。系统得到的太阳分米波段爆发中不同时间尺度的精细结构与Stu-rroch等提出的太阳耀斑中能量释放的模式相一致。     

行星际磁通量绳尺度及能量研究

行星际磁通量绳是太阳风中一种重要的磁结构.从1995-2001年的Wind卫星的观测资料中认证了144个行星际磁通量绳.其时间尺度介于几十分钟到几十小时之间,其空间尺度呈现连续分布.通过估算磁通量绳单位长度的能量和总能量发现:磁通量绳的能量分布和耀斑的类似都呈现很好的幂率谱.通过讨论行星际磁通量绳和太阳活动爆发的关系,建议所有的小、中、大尺度通量绳都直接起源于太阳上的爆发,和磁云对应于通常的日冕物质抛射一样,中、小尺度的通量绳对应相对较小的日冕物质抛射.     

High-energy afterglow emission from gamma-ray bursts

We calculate the very high-energy (sub-GeV to TeV) inverse Compton emission of GRB afterglows. We argue that this emission provides a powerful test of the currently accepted afterglow model. We focus on two processes: synchrotron self-Compton emission within the afterglow blast wave, and external inverse Compton emission which occurs when flare photons (produced by an internal process) pass through the blast wave. We show that if our current interpretations of the Swift X-ray telescope (XRT) data are correct, there should be a canonical high-energy afterglow emission light curve. Our predictions can be tested with high-energy observatories such as GLAST , Whipple, HESS and MAGIC. Under favourable conditions we expect afterglow detections in all these detectors.     

Gamma-ray probe of cosmic ray pressure in galaxy clusters and cosmological implications

Cosmic rays produced in cluster accretion and merger shocks provide pressure to the intracluster medium (ICM) and affect the mass estimates of galaxy clusters. Although direct evidence for cosmic ray ions in the ICM is still lacking, they produce γ-ray emission through the decay of neutral pions produced in their collisions with ICM nucleons. We investigate the capability of the Gamma-ray Large Area Space Telescope ( GLAST ) and imaging atmospheric Čerenkov telescopes (IACTs) for constraining the cosmic ray pressure contribution to the ICM. We show that GLAST can be used to place stringent upper limits, a few per cent for individual nearby rich clusters, on the ratio of pressures of the cosmic rays and thermal gas. We further show that it is possible to place tight (≲10 per cent) constraints for distant  ( z ≲ 0.25)  clusters in the case of hard spectrum, by stacking signals from samples of known clusters. The GLAST limits could be made more precise with the constraint on the cosmic ray spectrum potentially provided by IACTs. Future γ-ray observations of clusters can constrain the evolution of cosmic ray energy density, which would have important implications for cosmological tests with upcoming X-ray and Sunyaev–Zel'dovich effect cluster surveys.