Non-linear motions of Australian geodetic stations induced by non-tidal ocean loading and the passage of tropical cyclones     

A. Mémin  C. Watson  I. D. Haigh  L. MacPherson  P. Tregoning 《Journal of Geodesy》2014,88(10):927-940

We investigate daily and sub-daily non-tidal oceanic and atmospheric loading (NTOAL) in the Australian region and put an upper bound on potential site motion examining the effects of tropical cyclone Yasi that crossed the Australian coast in January/February 2011. The dynamic nature of the ocean is important, particularly for northern Australia where the long-term scatter due to daily and sub-daily oceanic changes increases by 20–55 % compared to that estimated using the inverted barometer (IB) assumption. Correcting the daily Global Positioning System (GPS) time series for NTOAL employing either a dynamic ocean model or the IB assumption leads to a reduction of up to 52 % in the weighted scatter of daily coordinate estimates. Differences between the approaches are obscured by seasonal variations in the GPS precision along the northern coast. Two compensating signals during the cyclone require modelling at high spatial and temporal resolution: uplift induced by the atmospheric depression, and subsidence induced by storm surge. The latter dominates ( \(>\) 135 %) the combined net effect that reaches a maximum of 14 mm, and 10 mm near the closest GPS site TOW2. Here, 96 % of the displacement is reached within 15 h due to the rapid transit of cyclones and the quasi-linear nature of the coastline. Consequently, estimating sub-daily NTOAL is necessary to properly account for such a signal that can be 3.5 times larger than its daily-averaged value. We were unable to detect the deformation signal in 2-hourly GPS processing and show that seasonal noise in the Austral summer dominates and precludes GPS detection of the cyclone-related subsidence.  相似文献   

The effects of frequency-dependent quasar variability on the celestial reference frame     

Stanislav S. Shabala  Jonathan G. Rogers  Jamie N. McCallum  Oleg A. Titov  Jay Blanchard  James E. J. Lovell  Christopher S. Watson 《Journal of Geodesy》2014,88(6):575-586

We examine the relationship between source position stability and astrophysical properties of radio-loud quasars making up the International Celestial Reference Frame (ICRF2). Understanding this relationship is important for improving quasar selection and analysis strategies, and therefore reference frame stability. We construct flux density time series, known as light curves, for 95 of the most frequently observed ICRF2 quasars at both the 2.3 and 8.4 GHz geodetic very long baseline interferometry (VLBI) observing bands. Because the appearance of new quasar components corresponds to an increase in quasar flux density, these light curves alert us about potential changes in source structure before they appear in VLBI images. We test how source position stability depends on three astrophysical parameters: (1) flux density variability at X band; (2) time lag between flares in S and X bands; (3) spectral index root-mean-square (rms), defined as the variability in the ratio between S and X band flux densities. We find that the time lag between S and X band light curves provides a good indicator of position stability: sources with time lags $<$ 0.06 years are significantly more stable ( $>$ 20 % improvement in weighted rms) than sources with larger time lags. A similar improvement is obtained by observing sources with low $(<$ 0.12) spectral index variability. On the other hand, there is no strong dependence of source position stability on flux density variability in a single frequency band. These findings can be understood by interpreting the time lag between S and X band light curves as a measure of the size of the source structure. Monitoring of source flux density at multiple frequencies therefore appears to provide a useful probe of quasar structure on scales important to geodesy. The observed astrometric position of the brightest quasar component (the core) is known to depend on observing frequency. We show how multi-frequency flux density monitoring may allow the dependence on frequency of the relative core positions along the jet to be elucidated. Knowledge of the position–frequency relation has important implications for current and future geodetic VLBI programs, as well as the alignment between the radio and optical celestial reference frames.  相似文献   

HD 9770, a southern active-chromosphere system     

L.C. Watson  J.D. Pritchard  J.B. Hearnshaw  P.M. Kilmartin  A.C. Gilmore 《Monthly notices of the Royal Astronomical Society》2001,325(1):143-150

The visual triple system HD 9770 (BB Scl) has been the subject of a four-year programme of UVB ( RI )_C photometry and H α échelle spectroscopy. Analysis of the data obtained over that period shows that star B, and probably also star A, of HD 9770 is a binary. The A system comprises a K1V star, which may be in a binary system with another K dwarf. The B system is an eclipsing binary of the BY Dra type in which both stars are chromospherically active. An orbital period of 0.476 525±0.000 013 d has been derived from the light curve in V . Physical parameters derived from analysis of the light curves in UBV ( RI )_C are presented.  相似文献   

Observations of the cosmic microwave background and galactic foregrounds at 12–17 GHz with the COSMOSOMAS experiment     

S. Fernández-Cerezo  C. M. Gutiérrez  R. Rebolo  R. A. Watson  R. J. Hoyland  S. R. Hildebrandt  J. A. Rubiño-Martín  J. F. Macías-Pérez  P. Sosa Molina 《Monthly notices of the Royal Astronomical Society》2006,370(1):15-24

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The 6dF Galaxy Survey: samples, observational techniques and the first data release     

D. Heath Jones  Will Saunders  Matthew Colless  Mike A. Read  Quentin A. Parker  Fred G. Watson  Lachlan A. Campbell  Daniel Burkey  Thomas Mauch  Lesa Moore  Malcolm Hartley  Paul Cass  Dionne James  Ken Russell  Kristin Fiegert  John Dawe  John Huchra  Tom Jarrett  Ofer Lahav  John Lucey  Gary A. Mamon  Dominique Proust  Elaine M. Sadler  Ken-ichi Wakamatsu 《Monthly notices of the Royal Astronomical Society》2004,355(3):747-763

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Analytic Magnetic Reconnection Solutions in Cylindrical Geometry     

Watson  P.G.  Craig  I.J.D. 《Solar physics》2002,207(2):337-354

In this paper we present a new class of exact reconnection solutions in cylindrical geometry. We point out that in the case of planar reconnection there is a natural cylindrical analog to the Cartesian Dawson function model for the magnetic field. Although the resistive energy release scalings of these solutions mimic the Cartesian models an important new feature is the presence of curvature in the current sheet. We go on to show that these solutions can be generalized to three dimensions.  相似文献