Self-gravity wake parameters in Saturn’s A and B rings     

P.D. Nicholson  M.M. Hedman 《Icarus》2010,206(2):410-423

An increasing body of evidence shows that, at the sub-km level, Saturn’s main A and B rings are dominated by an ever-changing pattern of elongated, canted structures known as self-gravity wakes. Best known for causing azimuthal variations in the rings’ reflectivity, these structures also have a profound influence on how the transmission of the rings varies with both longitude and opening angle, B (Colwell et al. [2006] Geophys. Res. Lett. 33, 7201; Colwell et al. [2007] Icarus 190, 127-144; Hedman et al. [2007] Astron. J. 133, 2624-2629). We use data from three stellar occultations observed by Cassini’s Visual and Infrared Mapping Spectrometer (VIMS) to measure the transmission of the rings as a function of B, when viewed parallel to the wakes. These data are used to constrain properties of the self-gravity wakes as a function of radius across the A and B rings: specifically the fractional width of the gaps between the wakes, G/λ, and the average normal optical depth in the gaps, τ_G. We find that the overall normal optical depth of the rings, τ_n is primarily controlled by G/λ, which varies between <0.05 and ∼0.70 in the A and B rings. The gaps, however, are not completely empty, being filled by material — possibly cm-sized ring particles — with an average normal optical depth which varies from 0.12 to ∼0.4. In addition to regional variations, local variations in τ_G are seen in the regular structure which dominates the inner B ring, and in the environs of strong density waves in the A ring. The same model applied to the lower optical depth Cassini Division reveals very little evidence of self-gravity wakes, except where τ_n exceeds ∼0.25.  相似文献   

Square Kilometre Array: The radio telescope of the XXI century     

K. Grainge  B. Alachkar  Shaun Amy  D. Barbosa  M. Bommineni  P. Boven  R. Braddock  J. Davis  P. Diwakar  V. Francis  R. Gabrielczyk  R. Gamatham  S. Garrington  T. Gibbon  D. Gozzard  S. Gregory  Y. Guo  Y. Gupta  J. Hammond  D. Hindley  U. Horn  R. Hughes-Jones  M. Hussey  S. Lloyd  S. Mammen  S. Miteff  V. Mohile  J. Muller  S. Natarajan  J. Nicholls  R. Oberland  M. Pearson  T. Rayner  S. Schediwy  R. Schilizzi  S. Sharma  S. Stobie  M. Tearle  B. Wang  B. Wallace  L. Wang  R. Warange  R. Whitaker  A. Wilkinson  N. Wingfield 《Astronomy Reports》2017,61(4):288-296

The Square Kilometre Array (SKA) will be the world’s largest and most sensitive radio telescope. It will address fundamental unanswered questions about our Universe including how the first stars and galaxies formed after the Big Bang, how dark energy is accelerating the expansion of theUniverse, the role of magnetism in the cosmos, the nature of gravity, and the search for life beyond Earth. This project envisages the construction of 133 15-m antennas in South Africa and 131072 log-periodic antennas in Australia, together with the associated infrastructure in the two desert sites. In addition, the SKA is an exemplar Big Data project, with data rates of over 10 Tbps being transported from the telescope to HPC/HTC facilities.  相似文献   

Slow degradation of ATP in simulated martian environments suggests long residence times for the biosignature molecule on spacecraft surfaces on Mars     

Andrew C. Schuerger  Patricia Fajardo-Cavazos  John E. Moores  Wayne L. Nicholson 《Icarus》2008,194(1):86-100

Prelaunch planetary protection protocols on spacecraft are designed to reduce the numbers and diversity of viable bioloads on surfaces in order to mitigate the forward contamination of planetary surfaces. In addition, there is a growing appreciation that prelaunch spacecraft cleaning protocols will be required to reduce the levels of biogenic signature molecules on spacecraft to levels that will not compromise life-detection experiments on landers. The biogenic molecule, adenosine triphosphate (ATP) was tested for long-term stability under simulated Mars surface conditions of high UV flux, low temperature, low pressure, Mars atmosphere, and clear-sky dust loading conditions. Data on UV-induced ATP degradation rates were then extrapolated to a diversity of global conditions using a radiative transfer model for UV on Mars. The UV-induced degradation of ATP tested at 4.1 W m⁻² UVC (200-280 nm), −10 °C, 7.1 mb, 95% CO₂ gas composition, and an atmospheric opacity of τ=0.1 yielded a half-life for ATP of 1342 kJ m⁻²; or extrapolated to approximately 22 sols on equatorial Mars with an atmospheric opacity of τ=0.5. Temperature was found to moderately affect ATP degradation rates under martian conditions; tests at −80 or 20 °C yielded ATP half-lives of 2594 or 1183 kJ m⁻², respectively. The ATP degradation rates reported here are over 10 orders of magnitude slower than the UV-induced biocidal rates reported in the literature on the inactivation of strongly UV-resistant bacterial spores from Bacillus pumilus SAFR-032 [Schuerger, A.C., Richards, J.T., Newcombe, D.A., Venkateswaran, K.J., 2006. Icarus 181, 52-62]. Extrapolating results to global Mars conditions, residence times for a 99% reduction of ATP on spacecraft surfaces ranged from 158 sols on Sun-exposed surfaces to approximately 32,000 sols for the undersides of landers similar to Viking. However, spacecraft materials greatly affected the survival times of ATP under martian conditions. Stainless steel was found to enhance the UV degradation of ATP by over 2 orders of magnitude compared to ATP-doped iridited aluminum, graphite, and astroquartz coupons. Extrapolating these results to global conditions, ATP on stainless steel might be expected to persist between 2 and 320 sols for upper and lower surfaces of landers. Liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry data supported the conclusion that UV irradiation acted to remove the γ-phosphate group from ATP, and no evidence was observed for the UV-degradation of d-ribose or adenine moieties. Long residence times for ATP on spacecraft materials under martian conditions suggest that prelaunch cleaning protocols may need to be strengthened to mitigate against possible ATP contamination of life-detection experiments on Mars landers.  相似文献   

Interpretation of groundwater flow patterns through a reconstruction of the tritium precipitation record in the Cochabamba Valley, Bolivia     

Jesse Stimson  David Rudolph  Shaun Frape  Robert Drimmie 《Journal of Hydrology》1996,180(1-4):155-172

Regional behaviour of the groundwater flow system in the Cochabamba Valley, Bolivia, is evaluated through the interpretation of tritium (³H) distributions in groundwater samples from wells and springs. In order to interpret groundwater ³H concentrations in Cochabamba Valley, where no historical record of ³H concentrations in rainfall exists, a reconstructed ³H precipitation record is developed. The record of ³H concentrations in precipitation is fairly extensive in the Amazon Basin and this record was extrapolated to the neighbouring Cochabamba Valley. Tritium concentrations in rainfall have been observed to increase under natural conditions with increasing latitude and with increasing distance from the ocean. By considering these trends, a linear relationship for increasing ³H concentration in precipitation is developed, based on data from the Amazon Basin, that realistically predicts regional ³H distributions from the northeast Brazilian coast to Cuzco, Peru. This ³H precipitation record is then extrapolated to the Cochabamba Valley and, after correction for radiogenic decay, is used to interpret trends in groundwater ³H concentrations within the valley.

The groundwater flow system in one of the principal alluvial fans, which serves as an important groundwater resource for the city, is studied in detail. Tritium concentrations drop from approximately 8–10 tritium units (TU) in the recharge area to concentrations below the detection limit of 0.8 TU further out in the valley. Groundwater velocities of approximately 0.3 to 0.9 m d⁻¹ are estimated from distributions of groundwater ³H concentrations along the alluvial fan with the use of the reconstructed precipitation ³H record. Regional characteristics of the groundwater flow system are discussed with respect to future development and protection of the groundwater resources.  相似文献   

A Semi-Quantitative, Regional Precipitation Data Set for Studying African Climates of the Nineteenth Century, Part I. Overview of the Data Set     

Sharon E. Nicholson 《Climatic change》2001,50(3):317-353

This article describes a historical archive of proxy and actual precipitation data that extends the African climate record back to the early nineteenth century. The `proxy' archive includes verbal, documentary references which contain information related to rainfall conditions, such as references to famine, drought, agriculture or the nature of the rainy season. The precipitation archive includes all observations made in Africa during the nineteenth century. It consists of records for 60 stations in Algeria, 87 stations in South Africa and 304 stations scattered over the rest of Africa. Information is particularly plentiful for the 1880s and 1890s. The two parts have been be combined into a semi-quantitative regional data set indicating annual rainfall conditions in terms of anomaly classes (e.g., normal, dry, wet). This data set extends from the early nineteenth century to 1900 and distinguishes seven anomaly classes, using numbers ranging from –3 to +3 to represent very wet, wet, good rains, normal, dry, drought, and severe drought. The regionalization is based on 90 geographical regions shown via studies of the modern precipitation record to be climatically homogeneous with respect to the interannual variability of rainfall. The regional aggregation allows the voluminous fragmentary information available in historical sources to be used systematically to produce multi-year time series that can be directly integrated into the modern record for each region. The resultant time series can also be subjected to statistical analysis, in order to investigate nineteenth century climate over Africa. Spatial detail is added to the data set by utilizing a unique methodology based on climatic teleconnections established from studies of rainfall variability over Africa. The historical information and station records have been combined into a file containing a regional anomaly value for up to 90 geographic regions and the years 1801–1900. Gaps necessarily remain in the matrix, but as early as the 1820s over 40 regions are represented. By the 1880s generally around 70 regions or more are represented.  相似文献   

Petrogenesis of the Merensky Reef in the Rustenburg section of the Bushveld Complex     

D. M. Nicholson  E. A. Mathez 《Contributions to Mineralogy and Petrology》1991,107(3):293-309

A petrogenetic model for the Merensky Reef in the Rustenburg section of the Bushveld Complex has been developed based on detailed field and petrographic observations and electron microprobe data. The model maintains that the reef formed by reaction of hydrous melt and a partially molten cumulate assemblage. The model is devised to account for several key observations: (1) Although the dominant rock type in the Rusterburg sections is pegmatoidal feldspathic pyroxenite, there is a continous range of reef lithology from pyroxenite to pegmatoidal harzburgite and dunite, and small amounts of olivine are present in nearly all pegmatoids. (2) The pegmatoid is usually bounded above and below by chromitite seams and the basal chromitite separated from underlying norite by a centimeter-thick layer of anorthosite. The thicknesses of the two layers exhibit a well-defined, positive correlation. (3) Inclusion of pyroxenite identical to the hanging wall and of leuconorite identical to the footwall are present in the pegmatoid. The leuconorite inclusions are surrounded by thin anorthosite and chromitite layers in the same sequence as that at the base of the reef. (4) Chromite in seams adjacent to plagioclase-rich rocks is characterized by higher Mg/Mg+Fe and Al/R3 and lower Cr/R3 than that in seams adjacent to pyroxene-rich rocks. Similar variations in mineral compositions are observed across individual chromitite seams where the underlying and overlying rock types differ. The chromite compositional variations cannot be rationalized in terms of either fractional crystallization or reequilibration with surrounding silicates. It is proposed that the present reef was originally a melt-rich horizon in norite immediately overlain by relatively crystallized pyroxenite. Magmatic vapor generated by crystallization of intercumulus melt migrated upward through fractures in the cumulate pile below the protoreef. The melt-rich protoreef became hydrated because fractures were unable to propagate through it and because the melt itself was water-undersaturated. Hydration of the intercumulus melt was accompanied by melting, and the hydration/melting front migrated downward into the footwall and upward into the hanging wall. In the footwall melting resulted first in the dissolution of orthopyroxene and then of plagioclase. With continued hydration chromite was stabilized as melt alumina content increased. The regular variations in chromite compositions reflect the original gradients in melt composition at the hydration front. The stratigraphic sequence downward through the base of the reef or pegmatoid (melt)-chromitite-anorthosite-norite represents the sequence of stable mineral assemblages across the hydration/melting front. The sequence is shown to be consistent with knowledge gained from experiments on melting of hydrous mafic systems at crustal pressures. With cooling the hydrated mixture from partial melting of norite footwall and more mafic hanging wall crystallized in the sequence chromite-olivine-pyroxene-plagioclase, with peritectic loss of some olivine. Calculations of mass balance indicate that a significant proportion of the melt was lost from the melt-rich horizon. Variations in the development of the pegmatoid and associated lithologies and amount of modal olivine in the pegmatoids along the strike of the Merensky Reef resulted because the processes of hydration, melting and melt loss operated to varying extents.  相似文献   

1980 volcanic eruption reported on Marion Island     

Wilhelm J. Verwoerd  Shaun Russell  Aldo Berruti 《Earth and Planetary Science Letters》1981,54(1):153-156

The first volcanic eruption in the recorded history of Marion Island (46°54′S, 37°45′E) occurred between February and October 1980 at a locality on the west coast. It was a minor event that passed unnoticed at the meteorological station 20 km distant. The discovery was made on November 4, by five expedition members who walked around the island. When examined in more detail on November 25, the lava was still warm in places and numerous fumaroles existed. Three blocky flows emanated from two adjacent cinder cones built-up on a pre-existing phreatomagmatic tuff cone known as Kaalkoppie. The largest flow covers an area of about seven hectares and a further two hectares have been inundated by ash. Another flow poured seawards to form a new beach front, blocking access to what was previously the largest elephant seal wallowing ground on the island. No earth tremors were felt and the activity seems to have ended for the time being.  相似文献   

Saturn's F Ring: Kinematics and Particle Sizes from Stellar Occultation Studies     

A.S. Bosh  C.B. OlkinR.G. French  P.D. Nicholson 《Icarus》2002,157(1):57-75

The occultation of GSC5249-01240 by Saturn's rings was observed in a spectrally resolved mode using the Faint Object Spectrograph on the Hubble Space Telescope. By combining these data with other occultation data, we have determined the inclination of the F ring to be 0.0065±0.0014 deg. Our inclined F ring orbit model explains an abrupt decrease in flux at the west ansa of the ring that was observed during the November 1995 ring-plane crossing as well as the nondetection of 1995 S5 during one set of observations in November 1995. The F ring's equivalent depth is found to have no significant dependence on wavelength between 0.27 and 0.74 μm, indicating the presence of a population of ring particles larger in size than ∼10 μm. This contrasts with the results from a previous analysis of Voyager images at various phase angles, in which the particles were determined to be predominantly submicron in size. The difference may be due to temporal or longitudinal variability within the ring.  相似文献   

Relating Radar Remote Sensing of Biomass to Modelling of Forest Carbon Budgets   总被引：1，自引：0，他引：1  

Thuy Le Toan  Shaun Quegan  Ian Woodward  Mark Lomas  Nicolas Delbart  Ghislain Picard 《Climatic change》2004,67(2):379-402

This paper addresses the use of radar remote sensing to map forest above-ground biomass, and discusses the use of biomass maps to test a dynamic vegetation model that identifies carbon sources and sinks and predicts their variation over time. For current radar satellite data, only the biomass of young/sparse forests or regrowth after disturbances can be recovered. An example from central Siberia illustrates that biomass can be measured by radar at a continental scale, and that a significant proportion of the Siberian forests have biomass values less than 50 tonnes/ha. Comparison between the radar map and calculations by the Sheffield Dynamic Global Vegetation Model (SDGVM) indicates that the model considerably overestimates biomass; under-representation of managed areas, disturbed areas and areas of low site quality in the model are suggested reasons for this effect. A case study carried out at the Büdingen plantation forest in Germany supports the argument that inadequate representations of site quality and forest management may cause model overestimates of biomass. Comparison of the calculated biomass of stands planted after 1990 with biomass estimates by radar allows identification of forest stands where the growth conditions assumed by the model are not valid. This allows a quality check on model calculations of carbon fluxes: only calculations for stands where there is good agreement between the data and the model predictions should be accepted. Although the paper only uses the SDGVM model, similar effects are likely in other dynamic vegetation models, and the results show that model calculations attempting to quantify the role of forests as carbon sources or sinks could be qualified and potentially improved by exploiting remotely sensed measurements of biomass.  相似文献   

Impact of a rock avalanche on a moraine‐dammed proglacial lake: Laguna Safuna Alta,Cordillera Blanca,Peru     

Bryn Hubbard  Andrew Heald  John M. Reynolds  Duncan Quincey  Shaun D. Richardson  Marco Zapata Luyo  Nelson Santillan Portilla  Michael J. Hambrey 《地球表面变化过程与地形》2005,30(10):1251-1264

Moraines that dam proglacial lakes pose an increasing hazard to communities in the Andes and other mountain ranges. The moraines are prone to failure through collapse, overtopping by lake waters or the effect of displacement waves resulting from ice and rock avalanches. Resulting floods have led to the loss of thousands of lives in the Cordillera Blanca mountains of Peru alone in the last 100 years. On 22 April 2002 a rock avalanche occurred immediately to the south‐west of Laguna Safuna Alta, in the Cordillera Blanca. The geomorphic evidence for the nature, magnitude and consequences of this event was investigated in August 2002. Field mapping indicated that the avalanche deposited 8–20 × 10⁶ m³ of rock into the lake and onto the surface of the frontal region of Glaciar Pucajirca, which flows into the lake. Repeated bathymetric surveying indicated that ～5 × 10⁶ m³ of this material was deposited directly into the lake. The immediate effect of this event was to create a displacement wave that gained in height as it travelled along the lake basin, overtopping the impounding moraine at the lake's northern end. To achieve overtopping, the maximum wave height must have been greater than 100 m. This, and subsequent seiche waves, caused extensive erosion of both the proximal and distal faces of the impounding terminal moraine. Further deep gullying of the distal face of this moraine resulted from the supply of pressurized water to the face via a relief overflow tunnel constructed in 1978. Two‐dimensional, steady‐state analysis of the stability of the post‐avalanche moraine rampart indicates that its proximal face remains susceptible to major large‐scale rotational failure. Copyright © 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.  相似文献