Imaging the surface of Mercury using ground-based telescopes

We describe and compare two methods of short-exposure, high-definition ground-based imaging of the planet Mercury. Two teams have recorded images of Mercury on different dates, from different locations, and with different observational and data reduction techniques. Both groups have achieved spatial resolutions of <250 km, and the same albedo features and contrast levels appear where the two datasets overlap (longitudes 270–360°). Dark albedo regions appear as mare and correlate well with smooth terrain radar signatures. Bright albedo features agree optically, but less well with radar data. Such confirmations of state-of-the-art optical techniques introduce a new era of ground-based exploration of Mercury's surface and its atmosphere. They offer opportunities for synergistic, cooperative observations before and during the upcoming Messenger and BepiColombo missions to Mercury.     

Treatment of Hydrodynamic Loading for Random Sea State

- In order to employ cost effective frequency domain analysis for off-shore structures treatment of hydrodynamic loading is essential. Drag and inertia dominated, resonating and antiresonating cases under random sea states are analyzed to highlight the implications and relative merits of four salient linearization techniques.     

Comparison of TOPEX/POSEIDON Altimeter Derived Wind Speed and Wave Parameters with Ocean Buoy Data in the North Indian Ocean

Results of comparison exercises carried out between the state-of-the-art TOPEX/POSEIDON altimeter-derived ocean surface wind speed and ocean wave parameters (significant wave height and wave period) and those measured by a set of ocean data buoys in the North Indian Ocean are presented in this article. Altimeter-derived significant wave height values exhibited rms deviation as small as ±0.3 m, and surface wind speed of ±1.6 m/s. These results are found consistent with those found for the Pacific Ocean. For estimation of ocean wave period, the spectral moments-based semiempirical approach, earlier applied on GEOSAT data, was extended to TOPEX/POSEIDON. For this purpose, distributions of first four years of TOPEX/POSEIDON altimeter data and climatology over the North Indian Ocean were analyzed and a new set of coefficients generated for estimation of wave period. It is shown that wave periods thus estimated from TOPEX/POSEIDON data (for the subsequent two years), when compared with independent data set of ocean data buoys deployed in the North Indian Ocean, exhibit improved accuracy (rms ~ ±1.4 nos) over those determined earlier with GEOSAT data.     

Approaches for comparative evaluation of raster GIS-based landslide susceptibility zonation maps

Evaluation of maps generated from different conceptual models or data processing approaches at spatial level has importance in many geoenvironmental applications. This paper addresses the spatial comparison of different landslide susceptibility zonation (LSZ) raster maps of the same area derived from various procedures.     

A New Algorithm for Wind-Vector Retrieval From Scatterometers

A new efficient algorithm for retrieving wind-vector solutions from scatterometers is developed based on a criterion of minimum normalized standard deviation (NSD) of wind speed derived from backscatter measurements using a geophysical model function (GMF). Its performance has been evaluated through simulations using QSCAT-1 GMF and the QuikSCAT observational geometry. The present algorithm, named the NSD algorithm, is found to be computationally more efficient (two to three times) besides being at par with the maximum-likelihood estimator (MLE) algorithm in terms of retrieval skill, retrieval errors, and distribution of solutions, on the basis of simulations as well as comparison of limited QuikSCAT-data-derived winds with National Centers for Environmental Prediction and European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts model winds. Simulation results and analysis of sample QuikSCAT data are presented.      

Čerenkov radiation within the Earth's upper atmosphere

A brief review of erenkov radiation within the upper atmospheric plasma has been presented. Different attempts in this context are systematically discussed. The results of analysis about the nature and characteristics of VLF hisses in terms of incoherent erenkov radiation are given in a concise manner. The occurrence of resonance cone has also been reported.     

Morphology and movements of polarizations features on Venus as seen in the pioneer Orbiter Cloud Photopolarimeter data

Polarization observations obtained from the Orbiter Cloud Photopolarimeter (OCPP) show local, organized features whose morphology is similar to that of the ultraviolet clouds. No obvious correlation between the observed amount of polarization and relative brightness was found, suggesting that the polarization features are not due to variations in the unpolarized intensity alone, but rather to other causes such are the existence of a haze. Many of the features that can be seen even at 935 nm wavelength are believed to be signatures of local variations in the haze of submicron-size particles that have been detected from the OCCP data (K. Kawabata, D. L/ Cooffeen, J. E. Hansen, W. A. Lane, M. Sato, and L. D. Travis (1980). J. Geophys. Res.85, 8129–8140). Substantial variations in the structure and visibility of the polarization features that are observed suggest that the haze amount mixed with and above the main cloud layer may not be constant by varies with time. Some of these features last for least a few days thus allowing measurements of their apparent motions. The small number of measurements possible from the available data shows movements similar to those of the ultraviolet clouds in both direction and speed. According to Kawabata et al. the haze extends well above the main cloud layer to about 5 mb pressure level while the optical depth unity at 365 nm (corresponding to the level of the ultraviolet clouds tracked to infer the cloud-top level circulation) occurs at about 30 mb pressure level. Thus, the rapid retrograde circulation suggested by the movements of haze features in the polarimetry data would indicate that the layer in which such rapid circulation exists is fairly deep.     

Thermal effect on the pulses of the rotating Sun

In this paper, a theoretical investigation is undertaken of the group travel-time for the Sun's pulses to travel from the source of the pulse to the solar surface. For mathematical simplicity, we consider a simple ionized model of the Sun that includes the thermal effect and rotation with uniform angular velocity. The expression for the group travel time gives two terms: the term arising from the linear theory which varies inversely to (2-)^1/2 and the term introduced by the thermal effect which is inversely proportional to (2-)^7/2. The thermal effect variation has been shown and an estimation of the temperature of the medium has been made. Furthermore, the velocity distribution and the amplitude of the magnetic field of the wave, arising from the damping of ionized particles, have been calculated.     

Aftershock activity of Bhuj earthquake of january 26th, 2001

Following a large-sized Bhuj earthquake (M _s = 7.6) of January 26th, 2001, a small aperture 4-station temporary local network was deployed, in the epicentral area, for a period of about three weeks and resulted in the recording of more than 1800 aftershocks (-0.07 ≤M _L <5.0). Preliminary locations of epicenters of 297 aftershocks (2.0 ≤M _L <5.0) have brought out a dense cluster of aftershock activity, the center of which falls 20 km NW of Bhachau. Epicentral locations of after-shocks encompass a surface area of about 50 × 40 km² that seems to indicate the surface projection of the rupture area associated with the earthquake. The distribution of aftershock activity above magnitude 3, shows that aftershocks are nonuniformly distributed and are aligned in the north, northwest and northeast directions. The epicenter of the mainshock falls on the southern edge of the delineated zone of aftershock activity and the maximum clustering of activity occurs in close proximity of the mainshock. Well-constrained focal depths of 122 aftershocks show that 89% of the aftershocks occurred at depths ranging between 6 and 25 km and only 7% and 4% aftershocks occur at depths less than 5 and more than 25 km respectively. The Gutenberg-Richter (GR) relationship, logN = 4.52 - 0.89M_L, is fitted to the aftershock data (1.0<-M _L<5.0) and theb-value of 0.89 has been estimated for the aftershock activity.