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Modeling of the general circulation with the LMD-AOPP-IAA GCM: Update on model design and comparison with observations
The LMD-AOPP GCM is developed conjointly by LMD in Paris and AOPP in Oxford, with the collaboration of
IAA in Granada for the physical processes specific to the upper atmosphere. The collaboration between the
two teams is based on the use of two different dynamical core (gridpoint at LMD, spectral at AOPP), which
allow us to estimate the likely uncertainty arising from certain types of modeling errors. Similarly, we use
different schemes to compute tracer transport, etc. The work has benefited from support from ESA (since 1995)
and CNES (since 2000). Within that context, the GCMs are used to produce a Martian climate 'database' which
is used by more than 30 teams around the world for mission design and scientific studies (see Bingham et al.,
this issue and Lewis et al., 1999). The baseline version of the GCM is described in detail in Forget et al. (1999). Here we describe the recent improvement and design changes since this publication. Compared to this previous version, the new GCM covers a wider range of altitude, from 0 to 120km in the vertical, it uses improved topography and thermal inertia surface
maps from Mars Global Surveyor (MGS), and includes a new 'dust scenario' to describe the distribution of airborne dust in the atmosphere
Vertical velocities from proper motions of red clump giants
We derive the vertical velocities of disk stars in the range of
Galactocentric radii of R=5-16 kpc within 2 kpc in height from the Galactic
plane. This kinematic information is connected to dynamical aspects in the
formation and evolution of the Milky Way, such as the passage of satellites and
vertical resonance and determines whether the warp is a long-lived or a
transient feature.
We used the proper motions of the PPMXL survey, correcting of systematic
errors with the reference of quasars. From the color-magnitude diagram K versus
(J-K) we selected the standard candles corresponding to red clump giants and
used the information of their proper motions to build a map of the vertical
motions of our Galaxy. We derived the kinematics of the warp both analytically
and through a particle simulation to fit these data. Complementarily, we also
carried out the same analysis with red clump giants spectroscopically selected
with APOGEE data, and we predict the improvements in accuracy that will be
reached with future Gaia data.
A simple model of warp with the height of the disk z_w(R,phi)=gamma (R-R_sun)
sin(phi-phi_w) fits the vertical motions if d(gamma)/dt/gamma=-34+/-17
Gyr^{-1}; the contribution to d(gamma)/dt comes from the southern warp and is
negligible in the north. The vertical motion in the warp apparently indicates
that the main S-shaped structure of the warp is a long-lived feature, whereas
the perturbation that produces an irregularity in the southern part is most
likely a transient phenomenon. With the use of the Gaia end-of-mission products
together with spectroscopically classified red clump giants, the precision in
vertical motions can be increased by an order of magnitude at least.Comment: Accepted for publication in A&A. arXiv admin note: text overlap with
arXiv:1402.355
Rescaled density expansions and demixing in hard-sphere binary mixtures
The demixing transition of a binary fluid mixture of additive hard spheres is
analyzed for different size asymmetries by starting from the exact low-density
expansion of the pressure. Already within the second virial approximation the
fluid separates into two phases of different composition with a lower consolute
critical point. By successively incorporating the third, fourth, and fifth
virial coefficients, the critical consolute point moves to higher values of the
pressure and to lower values of the partial number fraction of the large
spheres. When the exact low-density expansion of the pressure is rescaled to
higher densities as in the Percus-Yevick theory, by adding more exact virial
coefficients a different qualitative movement of the critical consolute point
in the phase diagram is found. It is argued that the Percus-Yevick factor
appearing in many empirical equations of state for the mixture has a deep
influence on the location of the critical consolute point, so that the
resulting phase diagram for a prescribed equation has to be taken with caution.Comment: 5 pages, 1 figure; to be published in The Journal of Chemical Physic
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