Stratospheric Variability and Trends in Models Used for the IPCC AR4

Atmosphere and ocean general circulation model (AOGCM) experiments for the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change Fourth Assessment Report (AR4) are analyzed to better understand model variability and assess the importance of various forcing mechanisms on stratospheric trends during the 20th century. While models represent the climatology of the stratosphere reasonably well in comparison with NCEP reanalysis, there are biases and large variability among models. In general, AOGCMs are cooler than NCEP throughout the stratosphere, with the largest differences in the tropics. Around half the AOGCMs have a top level beneath ~2 hPa and show a significant cold bias in their upper levels (~10 hPa) compared to NCEP, suggesting that these models may have compromised simulations near 10 hPa due to a low model top or insufficient stratospheric levels. In the lower stratosphere (50 hPa), the temperature variability associated with large volcanic eruptions is absent in about half of the models, and in the models that do include volcanic aerosols, half of those significantly overestimate the observed warming. There is general agreement on the vertical structure of temperature trends over the last few decades, differences between models are explained by the inclusion of different forcing mechanisms, such as stratospheric ozone depletion and volcanic aerosols. However, even when human and natural forcing agents are included in the simulations, significant differences remain between observations and model trends, particularly in the upper tropical troposphere (200 hPa–100 hPa), where, since 1979, models show a warming trend and the observations a cooling trend

Impact of incomplete ionization of dopants on the electrical properties of compensated p-type silicon

This paper investigates the importance of incomplete ionization of dopants in compensated p-type Si and its impact on the majority-carrier density and mobility and thus on the resistivity. Both theoretical calculations and temperature-dependent Hall-effect measurements demonstrate that the carrier density is more strongly affected by incomplete ionization in compensated Si than in uncompensated Si with the same net doping. The previously suggested existence of a compensation-specific scattering mechanism to explain the reduction of mobility in compensated Si is shown not to be consistent with the T-dependence of the measuredcarrier mobility. The experiment also shows that, in the vicinity of 300 K, the resistivity of compensated Si has a much weaker dependence on temperature than that of uncompensated silicon

The Formaldehyde Masers in Sgr B2: Very Long Baseline Array and Very Large Array Observations

Observations of two of the formaldehyde (H2CO) masers (A and D) in Sgr B2 using the VLBA+Y27 (resolution ~0.01") and the VLA (resolution ~9") are presented. The VLBA observations show compact sources (<10 milliarcseconds, <80 AU) with brightness temperatures >10^8 K. The maser sources are partially resolved in the VLBA observations. The flux densities in the VLBA observations are about 1/2 those of the VLA; and, the linewidths are about 2/3 of the VLA values. The applicability of a core-halo model for the emission distribution is demonstrated. Comparison with earlier H2CO absorption observations and with ammonia (NH3) observations suggests that H2CO masers form in shocked gas. Comparison of the integrated flux densities in current VLA observations with those in previous observations indicates that (1) most of the masers have varied in the past 20 years, and (2) intensity variations are typically less than a factor of two compared to the 20-year mean. No significant linear or circular polarization is detected with either instrument.Comment: 20 pages, 3 figures, 5 tables, accepted to Ap

The transient response of global-mean precipitation to increasing carbon dioxide levels

The transient response of global-mean precipitation to an increase in atmospheric carbon dioxide levels of 1% yr(-1) is investigated in 13 fully coupled atmosphere-ocean general circulation models (AOGCMs) and compared to a period of stabilization. During the period of stabilization, when carbon dioxide levels are held constant at twice their unperturbed level and the climate left to warm, precipitation increases at a rate of similar to 2.4% per unit of global-mean surface-air-temperature change in the AOGCMs. However, when carbon dioxide levels are increasing, precipitation increases at a smaller rate of similar to 1.5% per unit of global-mean surface-air-temperature change. This difference can be understood by decomposing the precipitation response into an increase from the response to the global surface-temperature increase (and the climate feedbacks it induces), and a fast atmospheric response to the carbon dioxide radiative forcing that acts to decrease precipitation. According to the multi-model mean, stabilizing atmospheric levels of carbon dioxide would lead to a greater rate of precipitation change per unit of global surface-temperature change

Universality of One-Dimensional Heat Conductivity

We show analytically that the heat conductivity of oscillator chains diverges with system size N as N^{1/3}, which is the same as for one-dimensional fluids. For long cylinders, we use the hydrodynamic equations for a crystal in one dimension. This is appropriate for stiff systems such as nanotubes, where the eventual crossover to a fluid only sets in at unrealistically large N. Despite the extra equation compared to a fluid, the scaling of the heat conductivity is unchanged. For strictly one-dimensional chains, we show that the dynamic equations are those of a fluid at all length scales even if the static order extends to very large N. The discrepancy between our results and numerical simulations on Fermi-Pasta-Ulam chains is discussed.Comment: 7 pages, 2 figure

Evidence of momentum dependent hybridization in Ce2Co0.8Si3.2

We studied the electronic structure of the Kondo lattice system Ce2Co0.8Si3.2 by angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy (ARPES). The spectra obtained below the coherence temperature consist of a Kondo resonance, its spin-orbit partner and a number of dispersing bands. The quasiparticle weight related to the Kondo peak depends strongly on Fermi vectors associated with bulk bands. This indicates a highly anisotropic hybridization between conduction band and 4f electrons - V_{cf} in Ce2Co0.8Si3.2.Comment: 6 page

Renewed methane increase for five years (2007–2011) observed by solar FTIR spectrometry

Trends of column-averaged methane for the time period (1996, Sep 2011) are derived from the mid-infrared (mid-IR) solar FTIR time series at the Zugspitze (47.42° N, 10.98° E, 2964 m a.s.l.) and Garmisch (47.48° N, 11.06° E, 743 m a.s.l.). Trend analysis comprises a fit to the de-seasonalized time series along with bootstrap resampling for quantifying trend uncertainties. We find a positive trend during [1996, 1998] of 9.0 [3.2, 14.7] ppb yr&lt;sup&gt;−1&lt;/sup&gt; for Zugspitze (95% confidence interval), an insignificant growth during [1999, mid 2006] of 0.8 [−0.1, 1.7] ppb yr&lt;sup&gt;−1&lt;/sup&gt; (Zugspitze), and a significant renewed increase during [mid 2006, Sep 2011] of 5.1 [4.2, 6.0] ppb yr&lt;sup&gt;−1&lt;/sup&gt; for Garmisch, which is in agreement with 4.8 [3.8, 5.9] ppb yr&lt;sup&gt;−1&lt;/sup&gt; for Zugspitze. &lt;br&gt;&lt;/br&gt; The agreement of methane trends at the two closely neighboring FTIR sites Zugspitze and Garmisch within the uncertainties indicates a good station-to-station consistency as a basis for future trend analyses by the ground-based mid-IR FTIR network on the global scale. Furthermore, the Zugspitze FTIR trend for the time interval [Jul 2006, Jun 2009] is found to agree with the trend derived from SCIAMACHY (WFM-DOAS v2.0.2) data within the 95% confidence intervals. In case a 1000-km pixel selection radius around the Zugspitze is used, the confidence interval is narrower for the FTIR trend (6.9 [4.2, 9.5] ppb yr&lt;sup&gt;−1&lt;/sup&gt;) compared to SCIAMACHY (7.1 [5.1, 8.6] ppb yr&lt;sup&gt;−1&lt;/sup&gt;). If, however, a loosened pixel selection is used (&amp;approx;1000-km half-width latitudinal band), the SCIAMACHY trend significance interval is narrower (6.8 [5.1, 8.6] ppb yr&lt;sup&gt;−1&lt;/sup&gt;) compared to Zugspitze FTIR (5.7 [3.0, 8.3] ppb yr&lt;sup&gt;−1&lt;/sup&gt;). &lt;br&gt;&lt;/br&gt; While earlier studies using surface network data revealed changes of 8.0 ± 0.6 ppb in 2007, 6.4 ± 0.6 ppb in 2008, and 4.7 ± 0.6 ppb in 2009 (Dlugokencky et al., 2011), our updated result proves that the renewed methane increase meanwhile has been persisting for &gt;5 years [mid 2006, Sep 2011]. This is either the longest and largest positive trend anomaly since the beginning of systematic observations more than 25 years ago or the onset of a new period of strongly increasing CH&lt;sub&gt;4&lt;/sub&gt; levels in the atmosphere. Several scenarios have been developed to explain the persistent increase observed, mainly invoking an increase in emissions from natural wetlands, an increase in fossil fuel-related emissions or a decrease in OH concentrations. However, more work is needed to fully attribute this increase to a particular source or sink

Vector meson spectral function and dilepton rate in an effective mean field model

We have studied the vector meson spectral function (VMSF) in a hot and dense medium within an effective QCD model namely the Nambu-Jona-Lasinio (NJL) and its Polyakov Loop extended version (PNJL) with and without the effect of isoscalar vector interaction (IVI). The effect of the IVI has been taken into account using the ring approximation. We obtained the dilepton production rate (DPR) using the VMSF and observed that at moderate temperature it is enhanced in the PNJL model as compared to the NJL and Born rate due to the suppression of color degrees of freedom.Comment: 5 pages, 7 figures, conference proceedings of the XXI DAE-BRNS HEP Symposium, IIT Guwahati, December 2014; to appear in 'Springer Proceedings in Physics Series