588 research outputs found
Biomass production and relative palatability of possible supplementary forage plants of the Northeastern Amazon.
Volatile organic compounds composition of merged and aged forest fire plumes from Alaska and western Canada
The NOAA WP-3 aircraft intercepted aged forest fire plumes from Alaska and western Canada during several flights of the NEAQS-ITCT 2k4 mission in 2004. Measurements of acetonitrile (CH3CN) indicated that the air masses had been influenced by biomass burning. The locations of the plume intercepts were well described using emissions estimates and calculations with the transport model FLEXPART. The best description of the data was generally obtained when FLEXPART injected the forest fire emissions to high altitudes in the model. The observed plumes were generally drier than the surrounding air masses at the same altitude, suggesting that the fire plumes had been processed by clouds and that moisture had been removed by precipitation. Different degrees of photochemical processing of the plumes were determined from the measurements of aromatic VOCs. The removal of aromatic VOCs was slow considering the transport times estimated from the FLEXPART model. This suggests that the average OH levels were low during the transport, which may be explained by the low humidity and high concentrations of carbon monoxide and other pollutants. In contrast with previous work, no strong secondary production of acetone, methanol and acetic acid is inferred from the measurements. A clear case of removal of submicron particle volume and acetic acid due to precipitation scavenging was observed. Copyright 2006 by the American Geophysical Union
Airborne measurements of carbonaceous aerosol soluble in water over northeastern United States: Method development and an investigation into water-soluble organic carbon sources
[1] A particle-into-liquid sampler (PILS) was coupled to a total organic carbon (TOC) analyzer for 3 s integrated measurements of water-soluble organic carbon (WSOC) in PM 1 ambient particles. The components of the instrument are described in detail. The PILS-TOC was deployed on the NOAA WP-3D aircraft during the NEAQS/ITCT 2004 program to investigate WSOC sources over the northeastern United States and Canada. Two main sources were identified: biomass burning emissions from fires in Alaska and northwestern Canada and emissions emanating from urban centers. Biomass burning WSOC was correlated with carbon monoxide (CO) and acetonitrile (r 2 > 0.88). These plumes were intercepted in layers at altitudes between 3 and 4 km and contained the highest fine particle volume and WSOC concentrations of the mission. Apart from the biomass burning influence, the lowest WSOC concentrations were recorded in rural air masses that included regions of significant biogenic emissions. Highest concentrations were at low altitudes in distinct plumes from urban centers. WSOC and CO were highly correlated (r 2 > 0.78) in these urban plumes. The ratio of the enhancement in WSOC relative to CO enhancement was found to be low (32 ± 4 mg C/m 3 /ppmv after 1 day. Citation: Sullivan, A. P., R. E. Peltier, C. A. Brock, J. A. de Gouw, J. S. Holloway, C. Warneke, A. G. Wollny, and R. J. Weber (2006), Airborne measurements of carbonaceous aerosol soluble in water over northeastern United States: Method development and an investigation into water-soluble organic carbon sources
Fast Photon Detection for Particle Identification with COMPASS RICH-1
Particle identification at high rates is an important challenge for many
current and future high-energy physics experiments. The upgrade of the COMPASS
RICH-1 detector requires a new technique for Cherenkov photon detection at
count rates of several per channel in the central detector region, and a
read-out system allowing for trigger rates of up to 100 kHz. To cope with these
requirements, the photon detectors in the central region have been replaced
with the detection system described in this paper. In the peripheral regions,
the existing multi-wire proportional chambers with CsI photocathode are now
read out via a new system employing APV pre-amplifiers and flash ADC chips. The
new detection system consists of multi-anode photomultiplier tubes (MAPMT) and
fast read-out electronics based on the MAD4 discriminator and the F1-TDC chip.
The RICH-1 is in operation in its upgraded version for the 2006 CERN SPS run.
We present the photon detection design, constructive aspects and the first
Cherenkov light in the detector.Comment: Proceedings of the Imaging 2006 conference, Stockholm, Sweden, 27-30
June 2006, 5 pages, 6 figures, to appear in NIM A; corrected typo in caption
of Fig.
Fast photon detection for the COMPASS RICH detector
The COMPASS experiment at the SPS accelerator at CERN uses a large scale Ring
Imaging CHerenkov detector (RICH) to identify pions, kaons and protons in a
wide momentum range. For the data taking in 2006, the COMPASS RICH has been
upgraded in the central photon detection area (25% of the surface) with a new
technology to detect Cherenkov photons at very high count rates of several 10^6
per second and channel and a new dead-time free read-out system, which allows
trigger rates up to 100 kHz. The Cherenkov photons are detected by an array of
576 visible and ultra-violet sensitive multi-anode photomultipliers with 16
channels each. The upgraded detector showed an excellent performance during the
2006 data taking.Comment: Proceeding of the IPRD06 conference (Siena, Okt. 06
First Measurement of Chiral Dynamics in \pi^- \gamma -> \pi^- \pi^- \pi^+
The COMPASS collaboration at CERN has investigated the \pi^- \gamma -> \pi^-
\pi^- \pi^+ reaction at center-of-momentum energy below five pion masses,
sqrt(s) < 5 m(\pi), embedded in the Primakoff reaction of 190 GeV pions
impinging on a lead target. Exchange of quasi-real photons is selected by
isolating the sharp Coulomb peak observed at smallest momentum transfers, t' <
0.001 (GeV/c)^2. Using partial-wave analysis techniques, the scattering
intensity of Coulomb production described in terms of chiral dynamics and its
dependence on the 3\pi-invariant mass m(3\pi) = sqrt(s) were extracted. The
absolute cross section was determined in seven bins of with an
overall precision of 20%. At leading order, the result is found to be in good
agreement with the prediction of chiral perturbation theory over the whole
energy range investigated.Comment: 10 pages, 5 figure
The Fast Read-out System for the MAPMTs of COMPASS RICH-1
A fast readout system for the upgrade of the COMPASS RICH detector has been
developed and successfully used for data taking in 2006 and 2007. The new
readout system for the multi-anode PMTs in the central part of the photon
detector of the RICH is based on the high-sensitivity MAD4
preamplifier-discriminator and the dead-time free F1-TDC chip characterized by
high-resolution. The readout electronics has been designed taking into account
the high photon flux in the central part of the detector and the requirement to
run at high trigger rates of up to 100 kHz with negligible dead-time. The
system is designed as a very compact setup and is mounted directly behind the
multi-anode photomultipliers. The data are digitized on the frontend boards and
transferred via optical links to the readout system. The read-out electronics
system is described in detail together with its measured performances.Comment: Proceeding of RICH2007 Conference, Trieste, Oct. 2007. v2: minor
change
Measurement of the Longitudinal Spin Transfer to Lambda and Anti-Lambda Hyperons in Polarised Muon DIS
The longitudinal polarisation transfer from muons to lambda and anti-lambda
hyperons, D_LL, has been studied in deep inelastic scattering off an
unpolarised isoscalar target at the COMPASS experiment at CERN. The spin
transfers to lambda and anti-lambda produced in the current fragmentation
region exhibit different behaviours as a function of x and xF . The measured x
and xF dependences of D^lambda_LL are compatible with zero, while
D^anti-lambda_LL tends to increase with xF, reaching values of 0.4 - 0.5. The
resulting average values are D^lambda_LL = -0.012 +- 0.047 +- 0.024 and
D^anti-lambda_LL = 0.249 +- 0.056 +- 0.049. These results are discussed in the
frame of recent model calculations.Comment: 13 pages, 7 figure
Azimuthal asymmetries of charged hadrons produced by high-energy muons scattered off longitudinally polarised deuterons
Azimuthal asymmetries in semi-inclusive production of positive (h^+) and
negative hadrons (h^-) have been measured by scattering 160 GeV muons off
longitudinally polarised deuterons at CERN. The asymmetries were decomposed in
several terms according to their expected modulation in the azimuthal angle phi
of the outgoing hadron. Each term receives contributions from one or several
spin and transverse-momentum-dependent parton distribution and fragmentation
functions. The amplitudes of all phi-modulation terms of the hadron asymmetries
integrated over the kinematic variables are found to be consistent with zero
within statistical errors, while the constant terms are nonzero and equal for
h^+ and h^- within the statistical errors. The dependencies of the
phi-modulated terms versus the Bjorken momentum fraction x, the hadron
fractional momentum z, and the hadron transverse momentum p_h^T were studied.
The x dependence of the constant terms for both positive and negative hadrons
is in agreement with the longitudinal double-spin hadron asymmetries, measured
in semi-inclusive deep-inelastic scattering. The x dependence of the sin
phi-modulation term is less pronounced than that in the corresponding HERMES
data. All other dependencies of the phi-modulation amplitudes are consistent
with zero within the statistical errors.Comment: 12 pages, 11 Figures; revision 1 signs in Eq 5 corrected, polishe
Förster Resonance Energy Transfer Sensitized Singlet Fission in BODIPY-Pentacene Dimer Conjugates
- …