88 research outputs found
Source apportionment of aerosol measured in the northern South China Sea during springtime
2012 Fall.Includes bibliographical references.Large sources of aerosol are known to exist in Asia, but the nature of these sources and their impacts on surface particulate matter concentrations are presently not well understood, due in part to the complex meteorology in the region and the lack of speciated aerosol observations. This work presents findings from a pilot study that was aimed at improving knowledge in these areas. Aerosol was collected at a sea-level surface site using an 8-stage DRUM cascade impactor during an approximately six week study at Dongsha Island in the northern South China Sea in the Spring of 2010. The samples were analyzed by X-ray fluorescence (XRF) for selected elemental concentrations, and factor analysis was performed on the results using principal component analysis (PCA). The six factors extracted by PCA were identified as various dust, pollution, and sea salt aerosol types. A refined coarse mode only factor analysis yielded three coarse factors identified as dust, pollution laden dust, and sea salt. Backtrajectory analysis with the HYSPLIT trajectory model indicated likely source regions for dust factors to be in western and northern China and Mongolia, consistent with the known dust sources in the Gobi and Taklimakan Deserts. Pollution factors tended to be associated with transport from coastal China where large population and industrial centers exist, while sea salt sources indicated more diffuse marine regions. The results were generally consistent with observations from a co-located three-wavelength nephelometer and AERONET radiometer, along with model predictions from the Navy Aerosol Analysis and Prediction System (NAAPS). Backtrajectories indicated that transport of aerosol to the surface at Dongsha was occurring primarily within the boundary layer from regions generally to the north; an observation consistent with the dominance of pollution and dust aerosol in the ground-based data set. In contrast, more westerly flow aloft transported air from regions to the south and west, where biomass burning was a more significant aerosol source; however, this particle type was not clearly identified in the surface aerosol composition, consistent with it remaining primarily aloft and not mixing strongly to the surface during the study. Significant vertical wind shear and temperature inversions in the region support this conceptual understanding and suggest the potential for considerable vertical inhomogeneity in the SCS aerosol environment
Size-resolved aerosol and cloud condensation nuclei (CCN) properties in the remote marine South China Sea - Part 1: Observations and source classification
Abstract. Ship-based measurements of aerosol and cloud condensation nuclei (CCN) properties are presented for 2 weeks of observations in remote marine regions of the South China Sea/East Sea during the southwestern monsoon (SWM) season. Smoke from extensive biomass burning throughout the Maritime Continent advected into this region during the SWM, where it was mixed with anthropogenic continental pollution and emissions from heavy shipping activities. Eight aerosol types were identified using a k-means cluster analysis with data from a size-resolved CCN characterization system. Interpretation of the clusters was supplemented by additional onboard aerosol and meteorological measurements, satellite, and model products for the region. A typical bimodal marine boundary layer background aerosol population was identified and observed mixing with accumulation mode aerosol from other sources, primarily smoke from fires in Borneo and Sumatra. Hygroscopicity was assessed using the κ parameter and was found to average 0.40 for samples dominated by aged accumulation mode smoke; 0.65 for accumulation mode marine aerosol; 0.60 in an anthropogenic aerosol plume; and 0.22 during a short period that was characterized by elevated levels of volatile organic compounds not associated with biomass burning impacts. As a special subset of the background marine aerosol, clean air masses substantially scrubbed of particles were observed following heavy precipitation or the passage of squall lines, with changes in observed aerosol properties occurring on the order of minutes. Average CN number concentrations, size distributions, and κ values are reported for each population type, along with CCN number concentrations for particles that activated at supersaturations between 0.14 and 0.85 %
Size Resolved Measurements of Springtime Aerosol Particles over the Northern South China Sea
Large sources of aerosol particles and their precursors are ubiquitous in East Asia. Such sources are known to impact the South China Sea (henceforth SCS), a sometimes heavily polluted region that has been suggested as particularly vulnerable to climate change. To help elucidate springtime aerosol transport into the SCS, an intensive study was performed on the remote Dongsha (aka Pratas) Islands Atoll in spring 2010. As part of this deployment, a Davis Rotating-drum Uniform size-cut Monitor (DRUM) cascade impactor was deployed to collect size-resolved aerosol samples at the surface that were analyzed by X-ray fluorescence for concentrations of selected elements. HYSPLIT backtrajectories indicated that the transport of aerosol observed at the surface at Dongsha was occurring primarily from regions generally to the north and east. This observation was consistent with the apparent persistence of pollution and dust aerosol, along with sea salt, in the ground-based dataset. In contrast to the sea-level observations, modeled aerosol transport suggested that the westerly flow aloft (w700 hPa) transported smoke-laden air toward the site from regions from the south and west. Measured aerosol optical depth at the site was highest during time periods of modeled heavy smoke loadings aloft. These periods did not coincide with elevated aerosol concentrations at the surface, although the model suggested sporadic mixing of this free-tropospheric aerosol to the surface over the SCS. A biomass burning signature was not clearly identified in the surface aerosol composition data, consistent with this aerosol type remaining primarily aloft and not mixing strongly to the surface during the study. Significant vertical wind shear in the region also supports the idea that different source regions lead to varying aerosol impacts in different vertical layers, and suggests the potential for considerable vertical inhomogeneity in the SCS aerosol environment
Aerosol meteorology of Maritime Continent for the 2012 7SEAS southwest monsoon intensive study - Part 2: Philippine receptor observations of fine-scale aerosol behavior
Abstract. The largest 7 Southeast Asian Studies (7SEAS) operations period within the Maritime Continent (MC) occurred in the August–September 2012 biomass burning season. Data included were observations aboard the M/Y Vasco, dispatched to the Palawan Archipelago and Sulu Sea of the Philippines for September 2012. At these locations, the Vasco observed MC smoke and pollution entering the southwest monsoon (SWM) monsoonal trough. Here we describe the research cruise findings and the finer-scale aerosol meteorology of this convectively active region. This 2012 cruise complemented a 2-week cruise in 2011 and was generally consistent with previous findings in terms of how smoke emission and transport related to monsoonal flows, tropical cyclones (TC), and the covariance between smoke transport events and the atmosphere's thermodynamic structure. Biomass burning plumes were usually mixed with significant amounts of anthropogenic pollution. Also key to aerosol behavior were squall lines and cold pools propagating across the South China Sea (SCS) and scavenging aerosol particles in their path. However, the 2012 cruise showed much higher modulation in aerosol frequency than its 2011 counterpart. Whereas in 2011 large synoptic-scale aerosol events transported high concentrations of smoke into the Philippines over days, in 2012 measured aerosol events exhibited a much shorter-term variation, sometimes only 3–12 h. Strong monsoonal flow reversals were also experienced in 2012. Nucleation events in cleaner and polluted conditions, as well as in urban plumes, were observed. Perhaps most interestingly, several cases of squall lines preceding major aerosol events were observed, as opposed to 2011 observations where these lines largely scavenged aerosol particles from the marine boundary layer. Combined, these observations indicate pockets of high and low particle counts that are not uncommon in the region. These perturbations are difficult to observe by satellite and very difficult to model. Indeed, the Navy Aerosol Analysis and Prediction System (NAAPS) simulations captured longer period aerosol events quite well but largely failed to capture the timing of high-frequency phenomena. Ultimately, the research findings of these cruises demonstrate the real world challenges of satellite-based missions, significant aerosol life cycle questions such as those the future Aerosol/Clouds/Ecosystems (ACE) will investigate, and the importance of small-scale phenomena such as sea breezes, squall lines, and nucleation events embedded within SWM patterns in dominating aerosol life cycle and potential relationships to clouds
Measurement of the Branching Fraction for B- --> D0 K*-
We present a measurement of the branching fraction for the decay B- --> D0
K*- using a sample of approximately 86 million BBbar pairs collected by the
BaBar detector from e+e- collisions near the Y(4S) resonance. The D0 is
detected through its decays to K- pi+, K- pi+ pi0 and K- pi+ pi- pi+, and the
K*- through its decay to K0S pi-. We measure the branching fraction to be
B.F.(B- --> D0 K*-)= (6.3 +/- 0.7(stat.) +/- 0.5(syst.)) x 10^{-4}.Comment: 7 pages, 1 postscript figure, submitted to Phys. Rev. D (Rapid
Communications
Search for Single Top Production at LEP
Single top production in e+e- annihilations is searched for in data collected
by the L3 detector at centre-of-mass energies from 189 to 209 GeV,
corresponding to a total integrated luminosity of 634 pb-1. Investigating
hadronic and semileptonic top decays, no evidence of single top production at
LEP is obtained and upper limits on the single top cross section as a function
of the centre-of-mass energy are derived. Limits on possible anomalous
couplings, as well as on the scale of contact interactions responsible for
single top production are determined
A Study of Time-Dependent CP-Violating Asymmetries and Flavor Oscillations in Neutral B Decays at the Upsilon(4S)
We present a measurement of time-dependent CP-violating asymmetries in
neutral B meson decays collected with the BABAR detector at the PEP-II
asymmetric-energy B Factory at the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center. The data
sample consists of 29.7 recorded at the
resonance and 3.9 off-resonance. One of the neutral B mesons,
which are produced in pairs at the , is fully reconstructed in
the CP decay modes , , , () and , or in flavor-eigenstate
modes involving and (). The flavor of the other neutral B meson is tagged at the time of
its decay, mainly with the charge of identified leptons and kaons. The proper
time elapsed between the decays is determined by measuring the distance between
the decay vertices. A maximum-likelihood fit to this flavor eigenstate sample
finds . The value of the asymmetry amplitude is determined from
a simultaneous maximum-likelihood fit to the time-difference distribution of
the flavor-eigenstate sample and about 642 tagged decays in the
CP-eigenstate modes. We find , demonstrating that CP violation exists in the neutral B meson
system. (abridged)Comment: 58 pages, 35 figures, submitted to Physical Review
A Phenomenological Study of the Process at High Energy Colliders and Measurement of the and Couplings
We perform a detailed study of the process including all contributions. The contributions other
than from real gauge boson production leads to a rich phenomenology. We explore
the use of the process as a means of precision measurement of the and
vertices. We concentrate on LEP II energies, GeV,
and energies appropriate to the proposed Next Linear Collider (NLC) high energy
collider with center of mass energies and 1~TeV. At 200
GeV, the process offers, at best, a consistency check of other processes being
considered at LEP200. At 500~GeV, the parameters ,
, , and can be measured to about or better at 95\% C.L. while at 1 TeV, they can be measured to about . At the high luminosities anticipated at high energy linear colliders
precision measurements are likely to be limited by systematic rather than
statistical errors.Comment: 33 pages, OCIP/C 93-18, UQAM-PHE-930
Fermi Large Area Telescope Constraints on the Gamma-ray Opacity of the Universe
The Extragalactic Background Light (EBL) includes photons with wavelengths
from ultraviolet to infrared, which are effective at attenuating gamma rays
with energy above ~10 GeV during propagation from sources at cosmological
distances. This results in a redshift- and energy-dependent attenuation of the
gamma-ray flux of extragalactic sources such as blazars and Gamma-Ray Bursts
(GRBs). The Large Area Telescope onboard Fermi detects a sample of gamma-ray
blazars with redshift up to z~3, and GRBs with redshift up to z~4.3. Using
photons above 10 GeV collected by Fermi over more than one year of observations
for these sources, we investigate the effect of gamma-ray flux attenuation by
the EBL. We place upper limits on the gamma-ray opacity of the Universe at
various energies and redshifts, and compare this with predictions from
well-known EBL models. We find that an EBL intensity in the optical-ultraviolet
wavelengths as great as predicted by the "baseline" model of Stecker et al.
(2006) can be ruled out with high confidence.Comment: 42 pages, 12 figures, accepted version (24 Aug.2010) for publication
in ApJ; Contact authors: A. Bouvier, A. Chen, S. Raino, S. Razzaque, A.
Reimer, L.C. Reye
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