Optical interferometric observations of a transient event of 1986 March 13 in the coma of Comet Halley

During the recent apparition of Comet Halley in 1985-86 a transient ionic event in the form of a blob of H₂ O⁺ emission was recorded in thecoma at ～ 0^h UT on 1986 March 13. Observations were carried out using a special IHW filter for H₂ O⁺ emission at 7000 å/175 å, a 35 cm telescope, a Fabry-Perot interferometer and an image intensifier camera from Gurushikhar, Mt Abu. (24?39’N,72? 47’E). A Fabry-Perot inter-ferogram in Ha taken a few minutes later at the same location reveals strong hydrogen emission (Hα) associated with the blob. The velocity field in the blob is structured with relative velocities upto ～ 35km s^?1. The event is interpreted as arising due to the sector boundary crossing of the interplanetary magnetic field by the comet     

Geochemical Eccentricity of Ground Water Allied to Weathering of Basalts from the Deccan Volcanic Province,India: Insinuation on CO<Subscript>2</Subscript> Consumption

Analyses of 72 samples from Upper Panjhara basin in the northern part of Deccan Plateau, India, indicate that geochemical incongruity of groundwater is largely a function of mineral composition of the basaltic lithology. Higher proportion of alkaline earth elements to total cations and HCO₃>Cl + SO₄ reflect weathering of primary silicates as chief source of ions. Inputs of Cl, SO₄, and NO₃ are related to rainfall and localized anthropogenic factors. Groundwater from recharge area representing Ca + Mg–HCO₃ type progressively evolves to Ca + Na–HCO₃ and Na–Ca–HCO₃ class along flow direction replicates the role of cation exchange and precipitation processes. While the post-monsoon chemistry is controlled by silicate mineral dissolution + cation exchange reactions, pre-monsoon variability is attributable chiefly to precipitation reactions + anthropogenic factors. Positive correlations between Mg vs HCO₃ and Ca + Mg vs HCO₃ supports selective dissolution of olivine and pyroxene as dominant process in post-monsoon followed by dissolution of plagioclase feldspar and secondary carbonates. The pre-monsoon data however, points toward the dissolution of plagioclase and precipitation of CaCO₃ supported by improved correlation coefficients between Na + Ca vs HCO₃ and negative correlation of Ca vs HCO₃, respectively. It is proposed that the eccentricity in the composition of groundwater from the Panjhara basin is a function of selective dissolution of olivine > pyroxene followed by plagioclase feldspar. The data suggest siallitization (L < R and R _k) as dominant mechanism of chemical weathering of basalts, stimulating monosiallitic (kaolinite) and bisiallitic (montmorillonite) products. The chemical denudation rates for Panjhara basin worked out separately for the ground and surface water component range from 6.98 to 36.65 tons/km²/yr, respectively. The values of the CO₂ consumption rates range between 0.18 × 10⁶ mol//km²/yr (groundwater) and 0.9 × 10⁶ mol/km²/yr (surface water), which indicates that the groundwater forms a considerable fraction of CO₂ consumption, an inference, that is, not taken into contemplation in most of the studies.     

Room temperature solid-state detectors for Gamma ray burst spectroscopy

We have evaluated several solid state detectors which offer excellent energy resolution at room temperature for soft X-rays. For soft X-rays (< 1 keV to 20 keV), silicon P-intrinsic-N (PIN) and avalanche-mode photodiodes (APD's) have been studied. Using commercially available charge sensitive pre-amplifiers, these photodiodes provide 1 keV resolution without cooling. Their detection efficiencies are limited to about 20 keV and 15 keV, respectively. To overcome this constraint, we have studied thick (1.5 mm) PIN detectors made by Micron Semiconductor Ltd., U.K., as well as compound semiconducting materials with high Z constituents such as CZT and PbI₂. PbI₂ allows high detection efficiencies of photons up to 100 keV with detectors 100–300 microns thick. These new detectors offer the capability to study the low-energy spectral evolution of Gamma ray bursts (GRBs). A matrix of these detectors could be used as an image plane detector with moderate spatial resolution for imaging.     

Near-infrared observations of the peculiar binary system epsilon Aurigae

Near-infrared photometric and low-resolution spectroscopic observations of Aurigae at two phases during the current eclipse are presented. The eclipse depths are found to be wavelength-independent in the infrared right up to 2.5 m. There is no infrared excess at wavelengths shorter than 2.5 m. The light absorbing particles in the eclipsing body must be larger than 10 m in size.     

An effective stress-based DSC model for predicting the coefficient of lateral soil pressure in unsaturated soils

Acta Geotechnica - In this study, an analytical model is developed to establish a framework for predicting the coefficient of lateral soil pressure in unsaturated soils. To this end, the disturbed...     

Preparation and charaterization of self-assembled nanoparticles based on linolenic-acid modified chitosan

1 IntroductionHydrophobically modified water-soluble polymers,also known as hydrophobized polymers, are thosemodified by hydrophobic groups such as alkyl,arolkyl, and deoxycholic acid. In water, they canself-aggregate due to their intro- and/or intermolecularhydrophobic interaction. By this process, unique hy-drogel nanoparticles with hydrophobic core and hy-drophilic shell can be prepared, which is a new ap-proach to preparing the monodispersed hydrogelnanoparticles (Whitesides et al., 1991; …     

Global spectra of energy and enstrophy and their fluxes during July 1979

Transient and stationary spectra of kinetic energy (KE), available potential energy (APE) and enstrophy (EN), and their spectral fluxes as a function of the two-dimensional wavenumbern were computed for July 1979. Triangular truncation at zonal wavenumber 42 was used for computation. The slopes of various spectra in the wavenumber range 14≤n≤25 were obtained by fitting a straight line in log-log scale by the least square method. The transientKE, APE andEN spectra in the lower (upper) troposphere had slopes −2·21 (−2·30), −2·65 (−2·64) and −0·36 (−0·46), respectively. The effect of stationary and divergent motion on the slope values was investigated. The possible correlation between the slope and percentage of transient component in the combined energy and enstrophy was examined to identify the transient motion of the atmosphere with the two-dimensional homogeneous isotropic turbulence. The vertically averaged slope of kinetic energy and enstrophy in the lower (upper) troposphere was close to the value at 700 (200) hPa level. The spectral fluxes of kinetic energy and enstrophy in the wavenumber range 14≤n≤25 satisfied, to a very rough approximation, the criteria of inertial subrange. The stationary fluxes were small. The estimated stationary-transient component of flux was larger, comparable and less than the corresponding transient flux of APE, KE and EN. Representative levels for computation of energy and enstrophy spectra and their fluxes in the lower and upper troposphere were identified.     

Fabry-Perot spectroscopy in space science

The paper describes use of Fabry-Perot (fp) systems in spectroscopic studies of astronomy and earth’s upper atmosphere. Factors influencing the resolution, luminosity and instrumental line shape offp spectrometer are discussed and the need for their optimization is emphasised, if desired luminosity gain is to be realised in practice. Use offp as imaging spectrometer, scanning spectrometer and as a narrow band filter are illustrated. Tandemfp systems are briefly dealt with.