An automated atmospheric sampling system operating on 747 airliners

An air sampling system that automatically measures the temporal and spatial distribution of selected particulate and gaseous constituents of the atmosphere has been installed on a number of commercial airliners and is collecting data on commercial air routes covering the world. Measurements of constituents related to aircraft engine emissions and other pollutants are made in the upper troposphere and lower stratosphere (6 to 12 km) in support of the Global Air Sampling Program (GASP). Aircraft operated by different airlines sample air at latitudes from the Arctic to Australia. This system includes specialized instrumentation for measuring carbon monoxide, ozone, water vapor, and particulates, a special air inlet probe for sampling outside air, a computerized automatic control, and a data acquisition system. Air constituents and related flight data are tape recorded in flight for later computer processing on the ground

Gaia FGK Benchmark Stars: Effective temperatures and surface gravities

Large Galactic stellar surveys and new generations of stellar atmosphere models and spectral line formation computations need to be subjected to careful calibration and validation and to benchmark tests. We focus on cool stars and aim at establishing a sample of 34 Gaia FGK Benchmark Stars with a range of different metallicities. The goal was to determine the effective temperature and the surface gravity independently from spectroscopy and atmospheric models as far as possible. Fundamental determinations of Teff and logg were obtained in a systematic way from a compilation of angular diameter measurements and bolometric fluxes, and from a homogeneous mass determination based on stellar evolution models. The derived parameters were compared to recent spectroscopic and photometric determinations and to gravity estimates based on seismic data. Most of the adopted diameter measurements have formal uncertainties around 1%, which translate into uncertainties in effective temperature of 0.5%. The measurements of bolometric flux seem to be accurate to 5% or better, which contributes about 1% or less to the uncertainties in effective temperature. The comparisons of parameter determinations with the literature show in general good agreements with a few exceptions, most notably for the coolest stars and for metal-poor stars. The sample consists of 29 FGK-type stars and 5 M giants. Among the FGK stars, 21 have reliable parameters suitable for testing, validation, or calibration purposes. For four stars, future adjustments of the fundamental Teff are required, and for five stars the logg determination needs to be improved. Future extensions of the sample of Gaia FGK Benchmark Stars are required to fill gaps in parameter space, and we include a list of suggested candidates.Comment: Accepted by A&A; 34 pages (printer format), 14 tables, 13 figures; language correcte

An automated system for global atmospheric sampling using B-747 airliners

The global air sampling program utilizes commercial aircrafts in scheduled service to measure atmospheric constituents. A fully automated system designed for the 747 aircraft is described. Airline operational constraints and data and control subsystems are treated. The overall program management, system monitoring, and data retrieval from four aircraft in global service is described

The Swedish Housing Market: Structure, Policy Issues and Modeling

Contribution to the Metropolitan Study: 20 -- The project "Nested Dynamics of Metropolitan Processes and Policies" is a collaborative study within the project area Regional Issues at IIASA. The series of contributions is a means of conveying information between the collaborators in the network of the project. This paper reports on a penetrating investigation of the housing market in the Stockholm region. It is based on a sequence of interviews and discussions with various decision makers and managers whose actions form an important market system. The paper examines the details of the system structure with the objective of formulating a reliable model of transactions, regulations, investments, etc. The work on the model itself is currently underway and will also be presented in the near future. The approach undertaken by the authors is original in its careful treatment of such system properties which constitute deviations from a free market. Consequently, the paper provides an already tested guideline for the work on the housing sector in other metropolitan regions in the study. Recently, this type of work has been initiated in several of those regions. It is believed that this work may bring about a new generation of housing sector modeling and a renewal of the pertinent analyses

The detailed chemical composition of the terrestrial planet host Kepler-10

Chemical abundance studies of the Sun and solar twins have demonstrated that the solar composition of refractory elements is depleted when compared to volatile elements, which could be due to the formation of terrestrial planets. In order to further examine this scenario, we conducted a line-by-line differential chemical abundance analysis of the terrestrial planet host Kepler-10 and fourteen of its stellar twins. Stellar parameters and elemental abundances of Kepler-10 and its stellar twins were obtained with very high precision using a strictly differential analysis of high quality CFHT, HET and Magellan spectra. When compared to the majority of thick disc twins, Kepler-10 shows a depletion in the refractory elements relative to the volatile elements, which could be due to the formation of terrestrial planets in the Kepler-10 system. The average abundance pattern corresponds to ~ 13 Earth masses, while the two known planets in Kepler-10 system have a combined ~ 20 Earth masses. For two of the eight thick disc twins, however, no depletion patterns are found. Although our results demonstrate that several factors (e.g., planet signature, stellar age, stellar birth location and Galactic chemical evolution) could lead to or affect abundance trends with condensation temperature, we find that the trends give further support for the planetary signature hypothesis.Comment: 12 pages, 11 figures, accepted for publication in MNRA

The Marginal Enumeration Bayesian Cramer-Rao Bound for Jump Markov Systems

A marginal version of the enumeration Bayesian Cramer-Rao Bound (EBCRB) for jump Markov systems is proposed. It is shown that the proposed bound is at least as tight as EBCRB and the improvement stems from better handling of the nonlinearities. The new bound is illustrated to yield tighter results than BCRB and EBCRB on a benchmark example

Bremsstrahlung photon polarization for ee±→(eγ)e±ee^\pm\to (e\gamma)e^\pm, and ep→(eγ)pep\to (e\gamma)p high energy collisions

The polarization of bremsstrahlung photon in the processes $ee^\pm\to (e\gamma)e^\pm$, and $ep\to (e\gamma)p$ is calculated for peripheral kinematics, in the high energy limit where the cross section does not decrease with the incident energy. When the initial electron is unpolarized(longitudinally polarized) the final photon can be linearly (circularly) polarized. The Stokes parameters of the photon polarization are calculated as a function of the kinematical variables of process: the energy of recoil particle, the energy fraction of scattered electron, and the polar and azimuthal angles of photon. Numerical results are given in form of tables, for typical values of the relevant kinematic variables.Comment: 9 pages, 3 figure

Chemical abundances for 11 bulge stars from high-resolution, near-IR spectra

It is debated whether the Milky Way bulge has the characteristics of a classical bulge sooner than those of a pseudobulge. Detailed abundance studies of bulge stars is a key to investigate the origin, history, and classification of the bulge. The aim is to add to the discussion on the origin of the bulge and to study detailed abundances determined from near-IR spectra for bulge giants already investigated with optical spectra, the latter also providing the stellar parameters which are very significant for the results of the present study. Especially, the important CNO elements are better determined in the near-IR. High-resolution, near-infrared spectra in the H band are recorded using the CRIRES spectrometer on the Very Large Telescope. The CNO abundances can all be determined from the numerous molecular lines in the wavelength range observed. Abundances of the alpha elements are also determined from the near-IR spectra. [O/Fe], [Si/Fe] and [S/Fe] are enhanced up to metallicities of at least [Fe/H]=-0.3, after which they decline. This suggests that the Milky Way bulge experienced a rapid and early star-formation history like that of a classical bulge. However, a similarity between the bulge trend and the trend of the local thick disk seems present. Such a similarity could suggest that the bulge has a pseudobulge origin. Our [C/Fe] trend does not show any increase with [Fe/H] which could have been expected if W-R stars have contributed substantially to the C abundances. No "cosmic scatter" can be traced around our observed abundance trends; the scatter found is expected, given the observational uncertainties.Comment: Accepted for publication in A&