2,786 research outputs found
Subsurface Application of Herbicides
Traditional methods of preplant herbicide application often involve a broadcast spray followed by one or more incorporation passes. Incorporation reduces the amount of crop residue on the soil surface, which can lead to increased soil loss through wind and water erosion. Incorporation also distributes the herbicide more evenly throughout the soil profile, reducing chemical concentrations in the surface mixing zone. Chemicals located within the 1-2 em mixing zone contribute to herbicide losses with surface runoff (Mickelson et al., 1983; Baker et al., 1979). Conservation tillage, as defined by leaving a minimum of 30% of the soil surface covered by crop residue after planting, allows for incorporation of herbicides while still leaving adequate residue on the surface to reduce erosion losses. Although incorporation has been shown to be extremely effective in reducing surface runoff losses of herbicides, it also is the major contributor to reduced residue cover. No-till, the extreme end of conservation tillage, uses no tillage and maximized residue cover for maximum erosion control. Unfortunately, due to surface application of herbicides, no-till often prevents the use of the more volatile and moderately adsorbed herbicides. In some cases, no-till can increase herbicide concentration and losses with runoff water when compared to conventional tillage (Mickelson et al., 1995)
Continuous transport of Pacific-derived anthropogenic radionuclides towards the Indian Ocean
Unusually high concentrations of americium and plutonium have been observed in a sediment core collected from the eastern Lombok Basin between Sumba and Sumbawa Islands in the Indonesian Archipelago. Gamma spectrometry and accelerator mass spectrometry data together with radiometric dating of the core provide a high-resolution record of ongoing deposition of anthropogenic radionuclides. A plutonium signature characteristic of the Pacific Proving Grounds (PPG) dominates in the first two decades after the start of the high yield atmospheric tests in 1950’s. Approximately 40–70% of plutonium at this site in the post 1970 period originates from the PPG. This sediment record of transuranic isotopes deposition over the last 55 years provides evidence for the continuous long-distance transport of particle-reactive radionuclides from the Pacific Ocean towards the Indian Ocean
CANDELS: The Contribution of the Observed Galaxy Population to Cosmic Reionization
We present measurements of the specific ultraviolet luminosity density from a
sample of 483 galaxies at 6<z<8. These galaxies were selected from new deep
near-infrared HST imaging from the CANDELS, HUDF09 and ERS programs. In
contrast to the majority of previous analyses, which assume that the
distribution of galaxy ultraviolet (UV) luminosities follows a Schechter
distribution, and that the distribution continues to luminosities far below our
observable limit, we investigate the contribution to reionization from galaxies
which we can observe, free from these assumptions. We find that the observable
population of galaxies can sustain a fully reionized IGM at z=6, if the average
ionizing photon escape fraction (f_esc) is ~30%. A number of previous studies
have measured UV luminosity densities at these redshifts that vary by 5X, with
many concluding that galaxies could not complete reionization by z=6 unless a
large population of galaxies fainter than the detection limit were invoked, or
extremely high values of f_esc were present. The observed UV luminosity density
from our observed galaxy samples at z=7-8 is not sufficient to maintain a fully
reionized IGM unless f_esc>50%. Combining our observations with constraints on
the emission rate of ionizing photons from Ly-alpha forest observations at z=6,
we can constrain f_esc<34% (2-sigma) if the observed galaxies are the only
contributors to reionization, or <13% (2-sigma) if the luminosity function
extends to M_UV = -13. These escape fractions are sufficient to complete
reionization by z=6. These constraints imply that the volume ionized fraction
of the IGM becomes less than unity at z>7, consistent with a number of
complementary reionization probes. If faint galaxies dominate reionization,
future JWST observations will probe deep enough to see them, providing an
indirect constraint on the ionizing photon escape fraction [abridged].Comment: 16 pages, 7 figures, Submitted to the Astrophysical Journa
A WFC3 Grism Emission Line Redshift Catalog in the GOODS-South Field
We combine HST/WFC3 imaging and G141 grism observations from the CANDELS and
3D-HST surveys to produce a catalog of grism spectroscopic redshifts for
galaxies in the CANDELS/GOODS-South field. The WFC3/G141 grism spectra cover a
wavelength range of 1.1<lambda<1.7 microns with a resolving power of R~130 for
point sources, thus providing rest-frame optical spectra for galaxies out to
z~3.5. The catalog is selected in the H-band (F160W) and includes both galaxies
with and without previously published spectroscopic redshifts. Grism spectra
are extracted for all H-band detected galaxies with H<24 and a CANDELS
photometric redshift z_phot > 0.6. The resulting spectra are visually inspected
to identify emission lines and redshifts are determined using cross-correlation
with empirical spectral templates. To establish the accuracy of our redshifts,
we compare our results against high-quality spectroscopic redshifts from the
literature. Using a sample of 411 control galaxies, this analysis yields a
precision of sigma_NMAD=0.0028 for the grism-derived redshifts, which is
consistent with the accuracy reported by the 3D-HST team. Our final catalog
covers an area of 153 square arcmin and contains 1019 redshifts for galaxies in
GOODS-S. Roughly 60% (608/1019) of these redshifts are for galaxies with no
previously published spectroscopic redshift. These new redshifts span a range
of 0.677 < z < 3.456 and have a median redshift of z=1.282. The catalog
contains a total of 234 new redshifts for galaxies at z>1.5. In addition, we
present 20 galaxy pair candidates identified for the first time using the grism
redshifts in our catalog, including four new galaxy pairs at z~2, nearly
doubling the number of such pairs previously identified.Comment: 25 Pages, 9 Figures, submitted to A
UVUDF: Ultraviolet Imaging of the Hubble Ultradeep Field with Wide-field Camera 3
We present an overview of a 90-orbit Hubble Space Telescope treasury program
to obtain near ultraviolet imaging of the Hubble Ultra Deep Field using the
Wide Field Camera 3 UVIS detector with the F225W, F275W, and F336W filters.
This survey is designed to: (i) Investigate the episode of peak star formation
activity in galaxies at 1<z<2.5; (ii) Probe the evolution of massive galaxies
by resolving sub-galactic units (clumps); (iii) Examine the escape fraction of
ionizing radiation from galaxies at z~2-3; (iv) Greatly improve the reliability
of photometric redshift estimates; and (v) Measure the star formation rate
efficiency of neutral atomic-dominated hydrogen gas at z~1-3. In this overview
paper, we describe the survey details and data reduction challenges, including
both the necessity of specialized calibrations and the effects of charge
transfer inefficiency. We provide a stark demonstration of the effects of
charge transfer inefficiency on resultant data products, which when
uncorrected, result in uncertain photometry, elongation of morphology in the
readout direction, and loss of faint sources far from the readout. We agree
with the STScI recommendation that future UVIS observations that require very
sensitive measurements use the instrument's capability to add background light
through a "post-flash". Preliminary results on number counts of UV-selected
galaxies and morphology of galaxies at z~1 are presented. We find that the
number density of UV dropouts at redshifts 1.7, 2.1, and 2.7 is largely
consistent with the number predicted by published luminosity functions. We also
confirm that the image mosaics have sufficient sensitivity and resolution to
support the analysis of the evolution of star-forming clumps, reaching 28-29th
magnitude depth at 5 sigma in a 0.2 arcsecond radius aperture depending on
filter and observing epoch.Comment: Accepted A
The UV Continuum of z > 1 Star-forming Galaxies in the Hubble Ultraviolet Ultradeep Field
We estimate the UV continuum slope, β, for 923 galaxies in the range 1 = – 1.382(– 1.830) ± 0.002 (random) ± 0.1 (systematic). We find comparable scatter in β (standard deviation = 0.43) to local dwarf galaxies and 30% larger scatter than z > 2 galaxies. We study the trends of β with redshift and absolute magnitude for binned sub-samples and find a modest color-magnitude relation, dβ/dM = –0.11 ± 0.01, and no evolution in dβ/dM with redshift. A modest increase in dust reddening with redshift and luminosity, ΔE(B – V) ~ 0.1, and a comparable increase in the dispersion of dust reddening at z 2, we find trends that are consistent with previous works; combining our data with the literature in the range 1 < z < 8, we find a color evolution with redshift, dβ/dz = –0.09 ± 0.01 for low luminosity (0.05 L^(*)_(z=3), and dβ/dz = –0.06 ± 0.01 for medium luminosity (0.25 $L^(*)_(z=3) galaxies
Relativistic MHD and black hole excision: Formulation and initial tests
A new algorithm for solving the general relativistic MHD equations is
described in this paper. We design our scheme to incorporate black hole
excision with smooth boundaries, and to simplify solving the combined Einstein
and MHD equations with AMR. The fluid equations are solved using a finite
difference Convex ENO method. Excision is implemented using overlapping grids.
Elliptic and hyperbolic divergence cleaning techniques allow for maximum
flexibility in choosing coordinate systems, and we compare both methods for a
standard problem. Numerical results of standard test problems are presented in
two-dimensional flat space using excision, overlapping grids, and elliptic and
hyperbolic divergence cleaning.Comment: 22 pages, 8 figure
A CANDELS WFC3 Grism Study of Emission-Line Galaxies at z~2: A Mix of Nuclear Activity and Low-Metallicity Star Formation
We present Hubble Space Telescope Wide Field Camera 3 slitless grism
spectroscopy of 28 emission-line galaxies at z~2, in the GOODS-S region of the
Cosmic Assembly Near-infrared Deep Extragalactic Legacy Survey (CANDELS). The
high sensitivity of these grism observations, with 1-sigma detections of
emission lines to f > 2.5x10^{-18} erg/s/cm^2, means that the galaxies in the
sample are typically ~7 times less massive (median M_* = 10^{9.5} M_sun) than
previously studied z~2 emission-line galaxies. Despite their lower mass, the
galaxies have OIII/Hb ratios which are very similar to previously studied z~2
galaxies and much higher than the typical emission-line ratios of local
galaxies. The WFC3 grism allows for unique studies of spatial gradients in
emission lines, and we stack the two-dimensional spectra of the galaxies for
this purpose. In the stacked data the OIII emission line is more spatially
concentrated than the Hb emission line with 98.1 confidence. We additionally
stack the X-ray data (all sources are individually undetected), and find that
the average L(OIII)/L(0.5-10 keV) ratio is intermediate between typical z~0
obscured active galaxies and star-forming galaxies. Together the compactness of
the stacked OIII spatial profile and the stacked X-ray data suggest that at
least some of these low-mass, low-metallicity galaxies harbor weak active
galactic nuclei.Comment: ApJ accepted. 8 pages, 6 figure
Hubble Space Telescope Imaging of Lyman Alpha Emission at z=4.4
We present the highest redshift detections of resolved Lyman alpha emission,
using Hubble Space Telescope/ACS F658N narrowband-imaging data taken in
parallel with the Wide Field Camera 3 Early Release Science program in the
GOODS CDF-S. We detect Lyman alpha emission from three spectroscopically
confirmed z = 4.4 Lyman alpha emitting galaxies (LAEs), more than doubling the
sample of LAEs with resolved Lyman alpha emission. Comparing the light
distribution between the rest-frame ultraviolet continuum and narrowband
images, we investigate the escape of Lyman alpha photons at high redshift.
While our data do not support a positional offset between the Lyman alpha and
rest-frame ultraviolet (UV) continuum emission, the half-light radii in two out
of the three galaxies are significantly larger in Lyman alpha than in the
rest-frame UV continuum. This result is confirmed when comparing object sizes
in a stack of all objects in both bands. Additionally, the narrowband flux
detected with HST is significantly less than observed in similar filters from
the ground. These results together imply that the Lyman alpha emission is not
strictly confined to its indigenous star-forming regions. Rather, the Lyman
alpha emission is more extended, with the missing HST flux likely existing in a
diffuse outer halo. This suggests that the radiative transfer of Lyman alpha
photons in high-redshift LAEs is complicated, with the interstellar-medium
geometry and/or outflows playing a significant role in galaxies at these
redshifts.Comment: Submitted to the Astrophysical Journal. 11 pages, 10 figure
- …