1,503 research outputs found
An Annotated List of the Cerambycidae of Michigan (Coleoptera) Part II, the Subfamilies Lepturinae and Lamiinae
(excerpt)
This is a continuation of Part I of an annotated list of the Cerambycidae known from Michigan, and includes the remaining subfamilies Lepturinae and Lamiinae. The format is similar to that used in Part I. We have largely followed the systematic order of Chemsak and Linsley (1975) in this part of the list. Keys for the identification of adult Lepturinae can be found in Linsley and Chemsak (1972; in press). References to keys for adult Lamiinae are listed under that subfamily. Many larvae may be identified through the keys in Craighead (1923), but not all Michigan species are covere
Dissipation of the sectored heliospheric magnetic field near the heliopause: a mechanism for the generation of anomalous cosmic rays
The recent observations of the anomalous cosmic ray (ACR) energy spectrum as
Voyagers 1 and 2 crossed the heliospheric termination shock have called into
question the conventional shock source of these energetic particles. We suggest
that the sectored heliospheric magnetic field, which results from the flapping
of the heliospheric current sheet, piles up as it approaches the heliopause,
narrowing the current sheets that separate the sectors and triggering the onset
of collisionless magnetic reconnection. Particle-in-cell simulations reveal
that most of the magnetic energy is released and most of this energy goes into
energetic ions with significant but smaller amounts of energy going into
electrons. The energy gain of the most energetic ions results from their
reflection from the ends of contracting magnetic islands, a first order Fermi
process. The energy gain of the ions in contracting islands increases their
parallel (to the magnetic field ) pressure until the
marginal firehose condition is reached, causing magnetic reconnection and
associated particle acceleration to shut down. The model calls into question
the strong scattering assumption used to derive the Parker transport equation
and therefore the absence of first order Fermi acceleration in incompressible
flows. A simple 1-D model for particle energy gain and loss is presented in
which the feedback of the energetic particles on the reconnection drive is
included. The ACR differential energy spectrum takes the form of a power law
with a spectral index slightly above 1.5. The model has the potential to
explain several key Voyager observations, including the similarities in the
spectra of different ion species.Comment: Submitted to ApJ; shortened abstract; degraded figure qualit
Magnetic Flux Tube Reconnection: Tunneling Versus Slingshot
The discrete nature of the solar magnetic field as it emerges into the corona
through the photosphere indicates that it exists as isolated flux tubes in the
convection zone, and will remain as discrete flux tubes in the corona until it
collides and reconnects with other coronal fields. Collisions of these flux
tubes will in general be three dimensional, and will often lead to
reconnection, both rearranging the magnetic field topology in fundamental ways,
and releasing magnetic energy. With the goal of better understanding these
dynamics, we carry out a set of numerical experiments exploring fundamental
characteristics of three dimensional magnetic flux tube reconnection. We first
show that reconnecting flux tubes at opposite extremes of twist behave very
differently: in some configurations, low twist tubes slingshot while high twist
tubes tunnel. We then discuss a theory explaining these differences: by
assuming helicity conservation during the reconnection one can show that at
high twist, tunneled tubes reach a lower magnetic energy state than slingshot
tubes, whereas at low twist the opposite holds. We test three predictions made
by this theory. 1) We find that the level of twist at which the transition from
slingshot to tunnel occurs is about two to three times higher than predicted on
the basis of energetics and helicity conservation alone, probably because the
dynamics of the reconnection play a large role as well. 2) We find that the
tunnel occurs at all flux tube collision angles predicted by the theory. 3) We
find that the amount of magnetic energy a slingshot or a tunnel reconnection
releases agrees reasonably well with the theory, though at the high
resistivities we have to use for numerical stability, a significant amount of
magnetic energy is lost to diffusion, independent of reconnection.Comment: 21 pages, 15 figures, submitted to Ap
Recommended from our members
Reconciling the electron counterstreaming and dropout occurrence rates with the heliospheric flux budget
Counterstreaming electrons (CSEs) are treated as signatures of closed magnetic flux, i.e., loops connected to the Sun at both ends. However, CSEs at 1 AU likely fade as the apex of a closed loop passes beyond some distance R, owing to scattering of the sunward beam along its continually increasing path length. The remaining antisunward beam at 1 AU would then give a false signature of open flux. Subsequent opening of a loop at the Sun by interchange reconnection with an open field line would produce an electron dropout (ED) at 1 AU, as if two open field lines were reconnecting to completely disconnect from the Sun. Thus EDs can be signatures of interchange reconnection as well as the commonly attributed disconnection. We incorporate CSE fadeout into a model that matches time-varying closed flux from interplanetary coronal mass ejections (ICMEs) to the solar cycle variation in heliospheric flux. Using the observed occurrence rate of CSEs at solar maximum, the model estimates R ⌠8â10 AU. Hence we demonstrate that EDs should be much rarer than CSEs at 1 AU, as EDs can only be detected when the juncture points of reconnected field lines lie sunward of the detector, whereas CSEs continue to be detected in the legs of all loops that have expanded beyond the detector, out to R. We also demonstrate that if closed flux added to the heliosphere by ICMEs is instead balanced by disconnection elsewhere, then ED occurrence at 1 AU would still be rare, contrary to earlier expectations
An improved expected temperature formula for identifying interplanetary coronal mass ejections
Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/95056/1/jgra17698.pd
A global assessment of the impact of climate change on water scarcity
This paper presents a global scale assessment of the impact of climate change on water scarcity. Patterns of climate change from 21 Global Climate Models (GCMs) under four SRES scenarios are applied to a global hydrological model to estimate water resources across 1339 watersheds. The Water Crowding Index (WCI) and the Water Stress Index (WSI) are used to calculate exposure to increases and decreases in global water scarcity due to climate change. 1.6 (WCI) and 2.4 (WSI) billion people are estimated to be currently living within watersheds exposed to water scarcity. Using the WCI, by 2050 under the A1B scenario, 0.5 to 3.1 billion people are exposed to an increase in water scarcity due to climate change (range across 21 GCMs). This represents a higher upper-estimate than previous assessments because scenarios are constructed from a wider range of GCMs. A substantial proportion of the uncertainty in the global-scale effect of climate change on water scarcity is due to uncertainty in the estimates for South Asia and East Asia. Sensitivity to the WCI and WSI thresholds that define water scarcity can be comparable to the sensitivity to climate change pattern. More of the world will see an increase in exposure to water scarcity than a decrease due to climate change but this is not consistent across all climate change patterns. Additionally, investigation of the effects of a set of prescribed global mean temperature change scenarios show rapid increases in water scarcity due to climate change across many regions of the globe, up to 2°C, followed by stabilisation to 4°C
Recommended from our members
Intermittent release of transients in the slow solar wind: 2. In situ evidence
In paper 1, we showed that the Heliospheric Imager (HI) instruments on the pair of NASA STEREO spacecraft can be used to image the streamer belt and, in particular, the variability of the slow solar wind which originates near helmet streamers. The observation of intense intermittent transient outflow by HI implies that the corresponding in situ observations of the slow solar wind and corotating interaction regions (CIRs) should contain many signatures of transients. In the present paper, we compare the HI observations with in situ measurements from the STEREO and ACE spacecraft. Analysis of the solar wind ion, magnetic field, and suprathermal electron flux measurements from
the STEREO spacecraft reveals the presence of both closed and partially disconnected interplanetary magnetic field lines permeating the slow solar wind. We predict that one of the transients embedded within the second CIR (CIRâD in paper 1) should impact the nearâEarth ACE spacecraft. ACE measurements confirm the presence of a transient at the time of CIR passage; the transient signature includes helical magnetic fields and bidirectional suprathermal electrons. On the same day, a strahl electron dropout is observed at STEREOâB, correlated with the passage of a high plasma beta structure. Unlike ACE, STEREOâB observes the transient a few hours ahead of the CIR. STEREOâA, STEREOâB, and ACE spacecraft observe very different slow solar wind properties ahead of and during the CIR analyzed in this paper, which we associate with the intermittent release of transients
Recommended from our members
Suprathermal electron evolution in a Parker spiral magnetic field
Suprathermal electrons (>70 eV) form a small fraction of the total solar wind electron density but serve as valuable tracers of heliospheric magnetic field topology. Their usefulness as tracers of magnetic loops with both feet rooted on the Sun, however, most likely fades as the loops expand beyond some distance owing to scattering. As a first step toward quantifying that distance, we construct an observationally constrained model for the evolution of the suprathermal electron pitch-angle distributions on open field lines. We begin with a near-Sun isotropic distribution moving antisunward along a Parker spiral magnetic field while conserving magnetic moment, resulting in a field-aligned strahl within a few solar radii. Past this point, the distribution undergoes little evolution with heliocentric distance. We then add constant (with heliocentric distance, energy, and pitch angle) ad-hoc pitch-angle scattering. Close to the Sun, pitch-angle focusing still dominates, again resulting in a narrow strahl. Farther from the Sun, however, pitch-angle scattering dominates because focusing is effectively weakened by the increasing angle between the magnetic field direction and intensity gradient, a result of the spiral field. We determine the amount of scattering required to match Ulysses observations of strahl width in the fast solar wind, providing an important tool for inferring the large-scale properties and topologies of field lines in the interplanetary medium. Although the pitch-angle scattering term is independent of energy, time-of-flight effects in the spiral geometry result in an energy dependence of the strahl width that is in the observed sense although weaker in magnitude
A New 626 s Periodic X-ray Source in the Direction of the Galactic Center
Here we report the detection of a 626 s periodic modulation from the X-ray
source 2XMM J174016.0-290337 located in the direction of the Galactic center.
We present temporal and spectral analyses of archival XMM-Newton data and
photometry of archived near-infrared data in order to investigate the nature of
this source. We find that the X-ray light curve shows a strong modulation at
626 +/- 2 s with a confidence level > 99.9% and a pulsed fraction of 54%.
Spectral fitting demonstrates that the spectrum is consistent with an absorbed
power law. No significant spectral variability was observed over the 626 s
period. We have investigated the possibility that the 626 s period is orbital
in nature (either that of an ultra-compact X-ray binary or an AM CVn) or
related to the spin of a compact object (either an accretion powered pulsar or
an intermediate polar). The X-ray properties of the source and the photometry
of the candidate near-infrared counterparts are consistent with an accreting
neutron star X-ray binary on the near-side of the Galactic bulge, where the 626
s period is most likely indicative of the pulsar spin period. However, we
cannot rule out an ultra-compact X-ray binary or an intermediate polar with the
data at hand. In the former case, if the 626 s modulation is the orbital period
of an X-ray binary, it would be the shortest period system known. In the latter
case, the modulation would be the spin period of a magnetic white dwarf.
However, we find no evidence for absorption dips over the 626 s period, a low
temperature black body spectral component, or Fe Kalpha emission lines. These
features are commonly observed in intermediate polars, making 2XMM
J174016.0-290337 a rather unusual member of this class if confirmed. We instead
suggest that 2XMM J174016.0-290337 could be a new addition to the emerging
class of symbiotic X-ray binaries.Comment: 11 pages, 10 figures, submitted to A&A on 18th January 2010, accepted
for publication 20th August 201
- âŠ