13,722 research outputs found
SOUTHERNMOST OCCURRENCE OF THE SUWANNEE COOTER, PSEUDEMYS CONCINNA SUWANNIENSIS (TESTUDINES: EMYDIDAE)
The Suwannee Cooter, Pseudemys concinna suwanniensis, the largest member of the speciose turtle family Emydidae, inhabits a small number of rivers that drain into the northeastern Gulf of Mexico along the northwest coast of Florida from just west of Tallahassee to just south of Tampa. The status of this state-protected subspecies in the southernmost of these rivers, the Alafia, is unknown and hence of conservation concern. We provide recent evidence confirming that a reproducing population still exists in this river, and review available specimens and both published and unpublished records documenting the southern limit of distribution. At least within the eastern United States, our observations also extend confirmed knowledge of the geographic occurrence of hatchling turtles overwintering in the nest southward by 285 km
Signatures of Interstellar-Intracluster Medium Interactions: Spiral Galaxy Rotation Curves in Abell 2029
We investigate the rich cluster Abell 2029 (z~0.08) using optical imaging and
long-slit spectral observations of 52 disk galaxies distributed throughout the
cluster field. No strong emission-line galaxies are present within ~400 kpc of
the cluster center, a region largely dominated by the similarly-shaped X-ray
and low surface brightness optical envelopes centered on the giant cD galaxy.
However, two-thirds of the galaxies observed outside the cluster core exhibit
line emission. H-alpha rotation curves of 14 cluster members are used in
conjunction with a deep I band image to study the environmental dependence of
the Tully-Fisher relation. The Tully-Fisher zero-point of Abell 2029 matches
that of clusters at lower redshifts, although we do observe a relatively larger
scatter about the Tully-Fisher relation. We do not observe any systematic
variation in the data with projected distance to the cluster center: we see no
environmental dependence of Tully-Fisher residuals, R-I color, H-alpha
equivalent width, and the shape and extent of the rotation curves.Comment: 22 pages, 6 figures, 3 tables; to appear in the August 2000
Astronomical Journa
Measurements of Surface Diffusivity and Coarsening During Pulsed Laser Deposition
Pulsed Laser Deposition (PLD) of homoepitaxial SrTiO3 was studied with
in-situ x-ray specular reflectivity and surface diffuse x-ray scattering.
Unlike prior reflectivity-based studies, these measurements access both the
time- and the length-scales of the evolution of the surface morphology during
growth. In particular, we show that this technique allows direct measurements
of the diffusivity for both inter- and intra-layer transport. Our results
explicitly limit the possible role of island break-up, demonstrate the key
roles played by nucleation and coarsening in PLD, and place an upper bound on
the Ehrlich-Schwoebel (ES) barrier for downhill diffusion
Bowen ratio estimates of evapotranspiration for stands on the Virgin River in Southern Nevada
A Bowen ratio energy balance was conducted over a Tamarix ramosissima (saltcedar) stand growing in a riparian corridor along the Virgin River in southern Nevada. Measurements in two separate years were compared and contrasted on the basis of changes in growing conditions. In 1994, a drought year, record high temperatures, dry winds, and a falling water table caused partial wilt of outer smaller twigs in the canopy of many trees in the stand around the Bowen tower. Subsequently, evapotranspiration (ET) estimates declined dramatically over a 60âday period (11 mm dâ1 todâ1). In 1995, the Virgin River at the Bowen tower area changed its course, hydrologically isolating the Tamarix stand in the vicinity of the tower. In 1996, a 25% canopy loss was visually estimated for the Tamarix growing in the area of the tower. Higher soil temperatures relative to air temperatures were recorded in 1996 in response to this loss in canopy. With a more open canopy, thermally induced turbulence was observed in 1996. On day 160 of 1996, a 28°C rise over a 9âhour period was correlated with increased wind speeds of greater than 4 m sâ1. Subsequently, higher ET estimates were made in 1996 compared to 1994 (145 cm versus 75 cm). However, the energy balance was dominated by advection in 1996, with latent energy flux exceeding net radiation 65% of the measurement days compared to only 11% in 1994. We believe this advection was on a scale of the floodplain (hundreds of meters) as opposed to regional advection, since the majority of wind (90%) was in a NâS direction along the course of the river, and that a more open canopy allowed the horizontal transfer of energy into the Tamarix stand at the Bowen tower. Our results suggest that Tamarix has the potential to be both a low water user and a high water user, depending on moisture availability, canopy development, and atmospheric demand, and that advection can dominate energy balances and ET in aridland riparian zones such as the Virgin River
Discovery of Highly Obscured Galaxies in the Zone of Avoidance
We report the discovery of twenty-five previously unknown galaxies in the
Zone of Avoidance. Our systematic search for extended extra-galactic sources in
the GLIMPSE and MIPSGAL mid-infrared surveys of the Galactic plane has revealed
two overdensities of these sources, located around l ~ 47 and 55 degrees and
|b| less than 1 degree in the Sagitta-Aquila region. These overdensities are
consistent with the local large-scale structure found at similar Galactic
longitude and extending from |b| ~ 4 to 40 degrees. We show that the infrared
spectral energy distribution of these sources is indeed consistent with those
of normal galaxies. Photometric estimates of their redshift indicate that the
majority of these galaxies are found in the redshift range z = 0.01 - 0.05,
with one source located at z = 0.07. Comparison with known sources in the local
Universe reveals that these galaxies are located at similar overdensities in
redshift space. These new galaxies are the first evidence of a bridge linking
the large-scale structure between both sides of the Galactic plane at very low
Galactic latitude and clearly demonstrate the feasibility of detecting galaxies
in the Zone of Avoidance using mid-to-far infrared surveys.Comment: Accepted for publication in the Astronomical Journal, 28 pages, 5
tables, 11 figure
MOSAIC: A Scalable reconfigurable 2D array system for NDT
This paper documents the development of a scalable 2D array system, or Mosaic that can be targeted at a wide range of NDT applications by way of a reconfigurable tile that can be tessellated to form arrays of any size and shape. Close coupling permits utilization of excitation voltages as low as +/-3.3V with insertion loss of 48dB on reflection from an aluminum back wall at 73mm achieved using 2D arrays without decoding
- âŠ