Performance of a lithium fluoride bolometer for Tokyo dark matter search experiment

The performance of a 21-g lithium fluoride bolometer is presented. The background spectrum was measured in the surface laboratory. We derive an exclusion plot for the spin-dependent coupled Weakly Interacting Massive Particles (WIMPs) cross section.     

Development of a Ground-Based LIF Instrument for Measuring HOx Radicals: Instrumentation and Calibrations

An instrument for measuringtropospheric OH/HO₂ radicals by laser-inducedfluorescence developed in our laboratory is presentedin detail. It is based on FAGE (fluorescence assay bygas expansion) technique and OH is both excited anddetected at 308 nm corresponding to its A-X(0,0) band.The alignment of the laser beam, the design of thesample gas inlet, and the devices for the fluorescencedetection are optimized so as to reduce the backgroundsignal while keeping the OH sensitivity as high aspossible. A thermalized position of the expanding gasbeam is probed in our system and we did not observe asevere decrease of the HO_x sensitivities under humidconditions. An optical fiber is used for deliveringthe laser light to the fluorescence detection cellmounted outside at a high position. Thus the laserbeam alignment is by far simplified and is made highlyreproducible, once settled properly. For thecalibration, two methods are employed: a system withlaser absorption measurements of OH and a system ofsimultaneous photolysis of H₂O and O₂. Thecalibration factors are compared well within thecombined uncertainty. Using the latter system, theconversion efficiency of HO₂ to OH by NO additionis measured to be around 90%. The detection limitsfor OH and HO₂ (S/N = 2) are estimated to be3.3 × 10⁶ and 3.6 × 10⁶cm^–3 at noon,respectively, with an integration time of 1 min. Theresults of test observations at our institute are alsopresented.     

Influence of the greenhouse effect on yields of wheat,soybean and corn in the United States for different energy scenarios

The increase of atmospheric carbon dioxide has positive effects on agricultural productivity (photosynthesis stimulation), but in some regions it has negative effects (drought due to the temperature rise) as well. The central part of the United States in summer is predicted to be one of such regions, where the influence of the CO₂ increase should be assessed considering both the effects. Such calculations have been made for spring wheat, soybean and corn in a series of papers, a summary of which is presented here. Since the CO₂ emission rate depends on fossil fuel consumption, energy scenarios with different fossil fuel consumption are assumed. Positive effects of CO₂ are expressed by a model which simulates actual data. In the absence of an appropriate model negative effects are assumed to be proportional to the temperature rise, which is shown to be unexpectedly good. The difference between C3 (soybean and wheat) and C4 (corn) plants is also considered. Changes of their yields in the next century are calculated. Results show that in this region (probably up to 42–45° N) in summer an unlimited increase of atmospheric CO₂ is not desirable for the above three crops even if positive effects of CO₂ are taken into account. This work is not intended to give prediction of future crop production, but to show illustrative examples for the above argument. Thus assumptions are made so as to overestimate positive effects and underestimate negative effects, but results show that even in such cases an unlimited increase of CO₂ is not necessarily desirable for the specified regions.All inquiries about this paper should be made to K. Okamoto.     

Analysis software for upper atmospheric data developed by the IUGONET project and its application to polar science

To comprehensively understand the Arctic and Antarctic upper atmosphere, it is often crucial to analyze various data that are obtained from many regions. Infrastructure that promotes such interdisciplinary studies on the upper atmosphere has been developed by a Japanese inter-university project called the Inter-university Upper atmosphere Global Observation Network （1UGONET）. The objective of this paper is to describe the infrastructure and tools developed by IUGONET. We focus on the data analysis software. It is written in Interactive Data Language （IDL） and is a plug-in for the THEMIS Data Analysis Software suite （TDAS）, which is a set of IDL libraries used to visualize and analyze satellite- and ground-based data. We present plots of upper atmospheric data provided by IUGONET as examples of applications, and verify the usefulness of the software in the study of polar science. We discuss IUGONET＇s new and unique developments, i.e., an executable file of TDAS that can run on the IDL Virtual Machine, IDL routines to retrieve metadata from the IUGONET database, and an archive of 3-D simulation data that uses the Common Data Format so that it can easily be used with TDAS.