824 research outputs found
QUASAT: An orbiting very long baseline interferometer program using large space antenna systems
QUASAT, which stands for QUASAR SATELLITE, is the name given to a new mission being studied by NASA. The QUASAT mission concept involves a free flying Earth orbiting large radio telescope, which will observe astronomical radio sources simultaneously with ground radio telescopes. The primary goal of QUASAT is to provide a system capable of collecting radio frequency data which will lead to a better understanding of extremely high energy events taking place in a variety of celestial objects including quasars, galactic nuclei, interstellar masers, radio stars and pulsars. QUASAT's unique scientific contribution will be the increased resolution in the emission brightness profile maps of the celestial objects
Extreme Ultraviolet Imaging Telescope (EIT)
Efforts concentrated on development and implementation of the SolarSoft (SSW) data analysis system. From an EIT analysis perspective, this system was designed to facilitate efficient reuse and conversion of software developed for Yohkoh/SXT and to take advantage of a large existing body of software developed by the SDAC, Yohkoh, and SOHO instrument teams. Another strong motivation for this system was to provide an EIT analysis environment which permits coordinated analysis of EIT data in conjunction with data from important supporting instruments, including Yohkoh/SXT and the other SOHO coronal instruments; CDS, SUMER, and LASCO. In addition, the SSW system will support coordinated EIT/TRACE analysis (by design) when TRACE data is available; TRACE launch is currently planned for March 1998. Working with Jeff Newmark, the Chianti software package (K.P. Dere et al) and UV /EUV data base was fully integrated into the SSW system to facilitate EIT temperature and emission analysis
Ensuring Mobility-Supporting Environments for an Aging Population: Critical Actors and Collaborations
Successful aging takes on an array of attributes, including optimal health and community participation.
Research indicates that (1) persons with disabilities, including age-related disabilities, report frequent barriers to community participation,
including unsuitable building design (43%), transportation (32%), and sidewalks/curbs (31%), and (2) many seniors report an inability
to cross roads safely near their homes. This paper attempts to define mobility-related elements that contribute to optimal health and quality of life,
within the context of successful aging. It then examines the impacts of community design on individual mobility, delving into which traditional
and nontraditional actors—including architects, urban planners, transportation engineers, occupational therapists, and housing
authorities—play critical roles in ensuring that community environments serve as facilitators (rather than barriers) to mobility. As America ages,
mobility challenges for seniors will only increase unless both traditional aging specialists and many nontraditional actors make a concerted effort to
address the challenges
Probing gas and dust in the tidal tail of NGC 5221 with the type Ia supernova iPTF16abc
Context. Type Ia supernovae (SNe Ia) can be used to address numerous
questions in astrophysics and cosmology. Due to their well known spectral and
photometric properties, SNe Ia are well suited to study gas and dust along the
lines-of-sight to the explosions. For example, narrow Na I D and Ca II H&K
absorption lines can be studied easily, because of the well-defined spectral
continuum of SNe Ia around these features. Aims. We study the gas and dust
along the line-of-sight to iPTF16abc, which occurred in an unusual location, in
a tidal arm, 80 kpc from centre of the galaxy NGC 5221. Methods. Using a
time-series of high-resolution spectra, we examine narrow Na I D and Ca II H&K
absorption features for variations in time, which would be indicative for
circumstellar (CS) matter. Furthermore, we take advantage of the well known
photometric properties of SNe Ia to determine reddening due to dust along the
line-of-sight. Results. From the lack of variations in Na I D and Ca II H&K, we
determine that none of the detected absorption features originate from the CS
medium of iPTF16abc. While the Na I D and Ca II H&K absorption is found to be
optically thick, a negligible amount of reddening points to a small column of
interstellar dust. Conclusions. We find that the gas along the line-of-sight to
iPTF16abc is typical of what might be found in the interstellar medium (ISM)
within a galaxy. It suggests that we are observing gas that has been tidally
stripped during an interaction of NGC 5221 with one of its neighbouring
galaxies in the past years. In the future, the gas clouds could
become the locations of star formation. On a longer time scale, the clouds
might diffuse, enriching the circum-galactic medium (CGM) with metals. The gas
profile along the line-of-sight should be useful for future studies of the
dynamics of the galaxy group containing NGC 5221.Comment: 8 pages, 6 figure
Comparison of 30 THz impulsive burst time development to microwaves, H-alpha, EUV, and GOES soft X-rays
The recent discovery of impulsive solar burst emission in the 30 THz band is
raising new interpretation challenges. One event associated with a GOES M2
class flare has been observed simultaneously in microwaves, H-alpha, EUV, and
soft X-ray bands. Although these new observations confirm some features found
in the two prior known events, they exhibit time profile structure
discrepancies between 30 THz, microwaves, and hard X-rays (as inferred from the
Neupert effect). These results suggest a more complex relationship between 30
THz emission and radiation produced at other wavelength ranges. The multiple
frequency emissions in the impulsive phase are likely to be produced at a
common flaring site lower in the chromosphere. The 30 THz burst emission may be
either part of a nonthermal radiation mechanism or due to the rapid thermal
response to a beam of high-energy particles bombarding the dense solar
atmosphere.Comment: accepted to Astronomy and Astrophysic
A bright impulsive solar burst detected at 30 THz
Ground- and space-based observations of solar flares from radio wavelengths
to gamma-rays have produced considerable insights but raised several unsolved
controversies. The last unexplored wavelength frontier for solar flares is in
the range of submillimeter and infrared wavelengths. Here we report the
detection of an intense impulsive burst at 30 THz using a new imaging system.
The 30 THz emission exhibited remarkable time coincidence with peaks observed
at microwave, mm/submm, visible, EUV and hard X-ray wavelengths. The emission
location coincides with a very weak white-light feature, and is consistent with
heating below the temperature minimum in the atmosphere. However, there are
problems in attributing the heating to accelerated electrons. The peak 30 THz
flux is several times larger than the usual microwave peak near 9 GHz,
attributed to non-thermal electrons in the corona. The 30 THz emission could be
consistent with an optically thick spectrum increasing from low to high
frequencies. It might be part of the same spectral component found at sub-THz
frequencies whose nature remains mysterious. Further observations at these
wavelengths will provide a new window for flare studies.Comment: 9 pages, 11 figures, accepted by Astrophysical Journal, March 23,
201
Heliophysics Event Knowledgebase for the Solar Dynamics Observatory and Beyond
The immense volume of data generated by the suite of instruments on SDO
requires new tools for efficient identifying and accessing data that is most
relevant to research investigations. We have developed the Heliophysics Events
Knowledgebase (HEK) to fill this need. The HEK system combines automated data
mining using feature-detection methods and high-performance visualization
systems for data markup. In addition, web services and clients are provided for
searching the resulting metadata, reviewing results, and efficiently accessing
the data. We review these components and present examples of their use with SDO
data.Comment: 17 pages, 4 figure
Tuning Fermilab Heavy Quarks in 2+1 Flavor Lattice QCD with Application to Hyperfine Splittings
We report the non-perturbative tuning of parameters--- kappa_c, kappa_b, and
kappa_crit ---that determine the heavy-quark mass in the Fermilab action. This
requires the computation of the masses of Ds^(*) and Bs^(*) mesons comprised of
a Fermilab heavy quark and a staggered light quark. Additionally, we report the
hyperfine splittings for Ds and Bs mesons as a cross-check of our simulation
and analysis methods. We find a splitting of 145 +/- 15 MeV for the Ds system
and 40 +/- 9 MeV for the Bs system. These are in good agreement with the
Particle Data Group average values of 143.9 +/- 0.4 MeV and 46.1 +/- 1.5 MeV,
respectively. The calculations are carried out with the MILC 2+1 flavor gauge
configurations at three lattice spacings approximately 0.15, 0.12, and 0.09
fm.Comment: 34 pages, 8 figures, 26 tables; some sections rearranged for clarity;
conclusions unchanged; version accepted by Phys. Rev.
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