Estimates of gravity wave drag on Mars: Indication of a possible lower thermospheric wind reversal     

Alexander S. Medvedev  Erdal Yi?it 《Icarus》2011,211(1):909-912

Spectral gravity wave parameterization suitable for planetary thermospheres applied to wind and temperature from Mars Climate Database reveals enormously strong drag incompatible with the wind distribution. It points out to a possible wind reversal in the 110-140 km layer similar to the one in the Earth’s lower thermosphere.  相似文献   

Correlation between CME and Flare Parameters (with and without Type II Bursts)     

A. Shanmugaraju  Y.-J. Moon  Bojan Vr?nak 《Solar physics》2011,270(1):273-284

CMEs and flares are the two energetic phenomena on the Sun responsible for generating shocks. Our main aim is to study the relation between the physical properties of CMEs and flares associated with and without type II radio bursts. We considered a set of 290 SOHO/LASCO CMEs associated with GOES X-ray flares observed during the period from January 1997 to December 2000. The relationship between the flares and CMEs is examined for the two sets i) with metric-type IIs and ii) without metric-type IIs. Physical properties such as rise time, duration, and strength of the flares and width, speed, and acceleration of CMEs are considered. We examined the energy relationship and temporal relationship between the CMEs and flares. First, all the events in each group were considered, and then the limb events in each group were considered separately. While there is a relationship between the temporal characteristics of flares and CME properties in the case of with-type IIs, it is absent in the case of all without-type IIs. Among all the relations studied, the correlation between flare duration and CME properties is found to be highly significant compared to the other relations. Also, the relationship between flare strength and CME speed found in the with-type II events is absent in the case of all without-type II events. However, when the limb without-type II events (with reduced time window between flare and CME) are studied separately, we found the energy relationship and the temporal relationship.  相似文献   

Evolution of Solar and Geomagnetic Activity Indices, and Their Relationship: 1960?�C?2001     

G. Verbanac  M. Mandea  B. Vr?nak  S. Sentic 《Solar physics》2011,271(1-2):183-195

We employ annually averaged solar and geomagnetic activity indices for the period 1960??C?2001 to analyze the relationship between different measures of solar activity as well as the relationship between solar activity and various aspects of geomagnetic activity. In particular, to quantify the solar activity we use the sunspot number R _s, group sunspot number R _g, cumulative sunspot area Cum, solar radio flux F10.7, and interplanetary magnetic field strength IMF. For the geomagnetic activity we employ global indices Ap, Dst and Dcx, as well as the regional geomagnetic index RES, specifically estimated for the European region. In the paper we present the relative evolution of these indices and quantify the correlations between them. Variations have been found in: i) time lag between the solar and geomagnetic indices; ii) relative amplitude of the geomagnetic and solar activity peaks; iii) dual-peak distribution in some of solar and geomagnetic indices. The behavior of geomagnetic indices is correlated the best with IMF variations. Interestingly, among geomagnetic indices, RES shows the highest degree of correlation with solar indices.  相似文献   

The Wave-Front Correction System for the Sunrise Balloon-Borne Solar Observatory     

T. Berkefeld  W. Schmidt  D. Soltau  A. Bell  H. P. Doerr  B. Feger  R. Friedlein  K. Gerber  F. Heidecke  T. Kentischer  O. v.?d. L??he  M. Sigwarth  E. W?lde  P. Barthol  W. Deutsch  A. Gandorfer  D. Germerott  B. Grauf  R. Meller  A. ??lvarez-Herrero  M. Kn?lker  V. Mart??nez Pillet  S. K. Solanki  A. M. Title 《Solar physics》2011,268(1):103-123

This paper describes the wave-front correction system developed for the Sunrise balloon telescope, and it provides information about its in-flight performance. For the correction of low-order aberrations, a Correlating Wave-Front Sensor (CWS) was used. It consisted of a six-element Shack??C?Hartmann wave-front sensor (WFS), a fast tip-tilt mirror for the compensation of image motion, and an active telescope secondary mirror for focus correction. The CWS delivered a stabilized image with a precision of 0.04?arcsec (rms), whenever the coarse pointing was better than ???45?arcsec peak-to-peak. The automatic focus adjustment maintained a focus stability of 0.01?waves in the focal plane of the CWS. During the 5.5?day flight, good image quality and stability were achieved during 33?hours, containing 45?sequences, which lasted between 10 and 45?min.  相似文献   

UV transit observations of EUV-heated expanded thermospheres of Earth-like exoplanets around M-stars: testing atmosphere evolution scenarios     

H. Lammer  V. Eybl  K. G. Kislyakova  J. Weingrill  M. Holmstr?m  M. L. Khodachenko  Yu. N. Kulikov  A. Reiners  M. Leitzinger  P. Odert  M. Xiang?Gr��?  B. Dorner  M. G��del  A. Hanslmeier 《Astrophysics and Space Science》2011,335(1):39-50

The detection and investigation of EUV heated, extended and non-hydrostatic upper atmospheres around terrestrial exoplanets would provide important insights into the interaction of the host stars plasma environment as well as the evolution of Earth-type planets their atmospheres and possible magnetic environments. We discuss different scenarios where one can expect that Earth-like planets should experience non-hydrostatic upper atmosphere conditions so that dynamically outward flowing neutral atoms can interact with the stellar plasma flow so that huge hydrogen coronae and energetic neutral atoms (ENA) can be produced via charge exchange. By observing the size of the extended upper atmospheres and related ENA-clouds and by determining the velocities of the surrounding hydrogen atoms, conclusions can be drawn in respect to the origin of these features. Due to the large number of M-type stars in our neighbourhood and their long periods of strong and moderate stellar activity in comparison to G-stars, we expect that M-type stars represent the most promising candidates for the detection of hydrogen ENA-clouds and the subsequent study of the interaction between the host star and the planets?? upper atmosphere. We show that the low mass of M-type stars also makes them preferable targets to observe extended hydrogen clouds around terrestrial exoplanets with a mass as low as one Earth mass. Transit follow-up observations in the UV-range of terrestrial exoplanets around M-type stars with space observatories such as the World Space Observatory-UV (WSO-UV) would provide a unique opportunity to shed more light on the early evolution of Earth-like planets, including those of our own Solar System.  相似文献   

Viscous ΛCDM universe models     

Nouraddin Mostafapoor  ?yvind Gr?n 《Astrophysics and Space Science》2011,333(2):357-368

We explore flat ΛCDM models with bulk viscosity, and study the role of the bulk viscosity in the evolution of these universe models. The dynamical equations for these models are obtained and solved for some cases of bulk viscosity. We obtain differential equations for the Hubble parameter H and the energy density of dark matter ρ _m , for which we give analytical solutions for some cases and for the general case we give a numerical solution. Also we calculate the statefinder parameters for these models and display them in the s–r-plane.  相似文献   

Solar radiation pressure on (99942) Apophis     

J. ?i?ka  D. Vokrouhlický 《Icarus》2011,211(1):511-518

Near-Earth asteroid (99942) Apophis currently resides among the top positions on the list of objects with small, yet non-zero impact probability with the Earth. For that reason an unusual observational and theoretical effort has been dedicated to precisely characterize its future orbit. Here we discuss orbital perturbation of Apophis due to incident and reflected solar radiation pressure (SRP). We both revisit recent analytical estimate of the SRP effects for this body and also formulate a numerical approach allowing us to compute the SRP orbital perturbation under general assumptions. Contrary to some previous results, we show that SRP has a much smaller effect on the Apophis trajectory than does the thermal re-radiation force which produces the Yarkovsky effect. When the Yarkovsky effect becomes constrained enough in the future, our approach may be used to improve the orbit determination for this asteroid.  相似文献   

Formation of radical species in photolyzed CH₄:N₂ ices     

Robert Hodyss  Heather R. Howard  Jay D. Goguen 《Icarus》2011,214(2):748-753

We report photochemical studies of thin cryogenic ice films composed of N₂, CH₄ and CO in ratios analogous to those on the surfaces of Neptune’s largest satellite, Triton, and on Pluto. Experiments were performed using a hydrogen discharge lamp, which provides an intense source of ultraviolet light to simulate the sunlight-induced photochemistry on these icy bodies. Characterization via infrared spectroscopy showed that C₂H₆ and C₂H₂, and HCO are formed by the dissociation of CH₄ into H, CH₂ and CH₃ and the subsequent reaction of these radicals within the ice. Other radical species, such as C₂, , CN, and CNN, are observed in the visible and ultraviolet regions of the spectrum. These species imply a rich chemistry based on formation of radicals from methane and their subsequent reaction with the N₂ matrix. We discuss the implications of the formation of these radicals for the chemical evolution of Triton and Pluto. Ultimately, this work suggests that , CN, HCO, and CNN may be found in significant quantities on the surfaces of Triton and Pluto and that new observations of these objects in the appropriate wavelength regions are warranted.  相似文献   

Rebuttal to the comment by Malhotra and Strom on “Constraints on the source of lunar cataclysm impactors”     

Matija ?uk  Brett J. Gladman 《Icarus》2011,216(1):363-365

?uk et al. (?uk, M. Gladman, B.J., Stewart, S.T. [2010]. Icarus 207 590-594) concluded that the the lunar cataclysm (late heavy bombardment) was recorded in lunar Imbrian era craters, and that their size distribution is different from that of main belt asteroids (which may have been the dominant pre-Imbrian impactors). This result would likely preclude the asteroid belt as the direct source of lunar cataclysm impactors. Malhotra and Strom (Malhotra, R., Strom, R.G. [2011]. Icarus) maintain that the lunar impactor population in the Imbrian era was the same as in Nectarian and pre-Nectarian periods, and this population had a size distribution identical to that of main belt asteroids. In support of this claim, they present an Imbrian size distribution made from two data sets published by Wilhelms et al. (Wilhelms, D.E., Oberbeck, V.R., Aggarwal, H.R. [1978]. Proc. Lunar Sci. Conf. 9, 3735-3762). However, these two data sets cannot be simply combined as they represent areas of different ages and therefore crater densities. Malhotra and Strom (Malhotra, R., Strom, R.G. [2011]. Icarus) differ with the main conclusion of Wilhelms et al. (Wilhelms, D.E., Oberbeck, V.R., Aggarwal, H.R. [1978]. Proc. Lunar Sci. Conf. 9, 3735-3762) that the Nectarian and Imbrian crater size distributions were different. We conclude that the available data indicate that the lunar Imbrian-era impactors had a different size distribution from the older ones, with the Imbrian impactor distribution being significantly richer in small impactors than that of older lunar impactors or current main-belt asteroids.  相似文献   

Optical Photometric and Radio Monitoring of Gamma-ray Loud Blazars     

V. S. Bychkova  N. S. Kardashev  M. G. Larionov  A. E. Volvach  V. V. Vlasjuk  O. I. Spiridonova  A. L?chteenm?ki  M. Tornikoski  T. Hovatta  E. Nieppola  I. Torniainen  H. D. Aller  M. F. Aller 《Journal of Astrophysics and Astronomy》2011,32(1-2):105-108

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