Ocean Colour Remote Sensing in the Laptev Sea

The Laptev and Eastern Siberian shelves are the world’s broadest shallow shelf systems. Large Siberian rivers and coastal erosion of up to meters per summer deliver large volumes of terrestrial matter into the Arctic shelf seas. In this chapter we investigate the applicability of Ocean Colour Remote Sensing during the ice-free summer season in the Siberian Laptev Sea region. We show that the early summer river peak discharge may be traced using remote sensing in years characterized by early sea-ice retreat. In the summer time after the peak discharge, the spreading of the main Lena River plume east and north-east of the Lena River Delta into the shelf system becomes hardly traceable using optical remote sensing methods. Measurements of suspended particulate matter (SPM) and coloured dissolved organic matter (cDOM) are of the same magnitude in the coastal waters of Buor Khaya Bay as in the Lena River. Match-up analyses of in situ chlorophyll-a (Chl-a) show that standard Medium Resolution Imaging Spectrometer (MERIS) and Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) satellite-derived Chl-a is not a valid remote sensing product for the coastal waters and the inner shelf region of the Laptev Sea. All MERIS and MODIS-derived Chl-a products are overestimated by at least a factor of ten, probably due to absorption by the extraordinarily high amount of non-algal particles and cDOM in these coastal and inner-shelf waters. Instead, Ocean Colour remote sensing provides information on wide-spread resuspension over shallows and lateral advection visible in satellite-derived turbidity. Satellite Sea Surface Temperature (SST) data clearly show hydrodynamics and delineate the outflow of the Lena River for hundreds of kilometres out into the shelf seas

Steps toward determination of the size and structure of the broad-line region in active galactic nuclei. XVI. A 13 year study of spectral variability in NGC 5548

We present the final installment of an intensive 13 year study of variations of the optical continuum and broad Hbeta emission line in the Seyfert 1 galaxy NGC 5548. The database consists of 1530 optical continuum measurements and 1248 Hbeta measurements. The Hbeta variations follow the continuum variations closely, with a typical time delay of about 20 days. However, a year-by-year analysis shows that the magnitude of emission-line time delay is correlated with the mean continuum flux. We argue that the data are consistent with the simple model prediction between the size of the broad-line region and the ionizing luminosity, rproportional toL(ion)(1/2). Moreover, the apparently linear nature of the correlation between the Hbeta response time and the nonstellar optical continuum F-opt arises as a consequence of the changing shape of the continuum as it varies, specifically F(opt)proportional toF(UV)(0.56).

COHERENT 2018 at the Spallation Neutron Source

The primary goal of the COHERENT collaboration is to measure and study coherent elastic neutrino-nucleus scattering (CEvNS) using the high-power, few-tens-of-MeV, pulsed source of neutrinos provided by the Spallation Neutron Source (SNS) at Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL). The COHERENT collaboration reported the first detection of CEvNS [Akimov:2017ade] using a CsI[Na] detector. At present the collaboration is deploying four detector technologies: a CsI[Na] scintillating crystal, p-type point-contact germanium detectors, single-phase liquid argon, and NaI[Tl] crystals. All detectors are located in the neutron-quiet basement of the SNS target building at distances 20-30 m from the SNS neutrino source. The simultaneous measurement in all four COHERENT detector subsystems will test the $N^2$ dependence of the cross section and search for new physics. In addition, COHERENT is measuring neutrino-induced neutrons from charged- and neutral-current neutrino interactions on nuclei in shielding materials, which represent a non-negligible background for CEvNS as well as being of intrinsic interest. The Collaboration is planning as well to look for charged-current interactions of relevance to supernova and weak-interaction physics. This document describes concisely the COHERENT physics motivations, sensitivity, and next plans for measurements at the SNS to be accomplished on a few-year timescale