Improved scientific ballooning applied to the cryo-sampling experiment at Syowa Station

On January 3, 1998, a large balloon (30000 m^3) was successfully launched at Syowa Station for the cryo-sampling of the stratospheric atmosphere. The sampling system splashed down in the Liitzow-Holm Bay and recovered by icebreaker SHIRASE. The cryo-sampling at Antarctica was the first trial in the world and the recovery of a heavy payload was also the first challenge at Syowa Station. A lot of new ballooning technologies were applied to this operation, such as compact balloon launching equipments, a reliable recovery system, a handy ground radio station for the balloon tracking and data acquisition and so forth. The realtime flight data could be received at National Institute of Polar Research (NIPR) in Tokyo by using the computer network via INMARSAT. At NIPR the collaboration members could monitor the entire process of the experiment at Syowa Station in detail and send some instructions and advice. This balloon experiment showed an extended possibility of a large scale scientific ballooning at Syowa Station. This paper deals with those newly developed balloon engineering technologies

Potential endocrine effects of hypothalamic peptide "neurotensin" on pancreas in dogs

Effects of synthetic neurotensin on the endocrine pancreas were studied in nine normal and six hypophysectomized (10th to 14th day post-hypophysectomy) dogs. Synthetic neurotensin was administered into the superior pancreaticoduodenal artery, and plasma insulin and glucagon concentrations were measured radioimmunologically. In normal dogs, ten microgram/kg neurotensin administration brought about a mild hyperglycemic response and sharp and rapid increase of plasma insulin and glucagon concentrations in the superior pancreaticoduodenal vein. A biphasic insulin response was noted in the pancreatic vein. The results suggest that a large dose of neurotensin acts directly on the endocrine pancreas causing secretion of these hormones. In hypophysectomized dogs, basal levels of plasma insulin and glucagon were decreased and neurotensin had little effect on the endocrine pancreas even with the administration of a large dose.</p

Preliminary report of "Arctic Airborne Measurement Program 2002" (AAMP02)

The Arctic Airborne Measurement Program 2002(AAMP 02) campaign was carried out in March 2002 as one of the sub programs of the project Variations of atmospheric constituents and their climate impact in the Arctic". The main goal of the project was to investigate the transport, transformation and radiative effect of trace gases and aerosols, and their role in the global climate. An instrumented jet plane, Gulfstream II(G-II), was flown from Nagoya, Japan via Barrow, Alaska to Longyearbyen(78°N , 15°E ), Svalbard, crossing the Arctic Ocean in the lower stratospher. Three local flights were made over the Greenland Sea around Svalbard and two profile flights near Barrow. The plane was equipped with CO_2 and ozone analyzers, gas and aerosol sampling systems, aerosol particle counter, nephelometer, absorption photometer, PMS particle probes, sunphotometer, dew point hygrometer and dropsonde system. During the campaign, intensitive surface operations were also conducted at Ny-&Aring;lesund(79°N , 12°E ), Svalbard. Vertical profiles of several trace gases gave information about transport, a new observation by sunphotometer derived an aerosol optical depth in the stratosphere, and another new observation by dropsonde gave information on the polar vortex

Temporal Characteristics of CH4 Vertical Profiles Observed in the West Siberian Lowland Over Surgut From 1993 to 2015 and Novosibirsk From 1997 to 2015

We have carried out monthly flask sampling using aircraft, in the altitude range of 0-7 km, over the boreal wetlands in Surgut (61°N, 73°E; since 1993) and a pine forest near Novosibirsk (55°N, 83°E; since 1997), both located in the West Siberian Lowland (WSL). The temporal variation of methane (CH4) concentrations at all altitudes at both sites exhibited an increasing trend with stagnation during 2000-2006 as observed globally from ground-based networks. In addition to a winter maximum as seen at other remote sites in northern middle to high latitudes, another seasonal maximum was also observed in summer, particularly in the lower altitudes over the WSL, which could be attributed to emissions from the wetlands. Our measurements suggest that the vertical gradient at Surgut has been decreasing; the mean CH4 difference between 5.5 km and 1.0 km changed from 64 ± 5 ppb during 1995-1999 to 37 ± 3 ppb during 2009-2013 (mean ± standard error). No clear decline in the CH4 vertical gradient appeared at Novosibirsk. Simulations using an atmospheric chemistry-transport model captured the observed decrease in the vertical CH4 gradient at Surgut when CH4 emissions from Europe decreased but increased from the regions south of Siberia, for example, East and South Asia. At Novosibirsk, the influence of the European emissions was relatively small. Our results also suggest that the regional emissions around the WSL did not change significantly over the period of our observations

Bias corrections of GOSAT SWIR XCO₂ and XCH₄ with TCCON data and their evaluation using aircraft measurement data

We describe a method for removing systematic biases of column-averaged dry air mole fractions of CO2 (XCO2) and CH4 (XCH4) derived from short-wavelength infrared (SWIR) spectra of the Greenhouse gases Observing SATellite (GOSAT). We conduct correlation analyses between the GOSAT biases and simultaneously retrieved auxiliary parameters. We use these correlations to bias correct the GOSAT data, removing these spurious correlations. Data from the Total Carbon Column Observing Network (TCCON) were used as reference values for this regression analysis. To evaluate the effectiveness of this correction method, the tnzuncorrected/corrected GOSAT data were compared to independent XCO2 and XCH4 data derived from aircraft measurements taken for the Comprehensive Observation Network for TRace gases by AIrLiner (CONTRAIL) project, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), the US Department of Energy (DOE), the National Institute for Environmental Studies (NIES), the Japan Meteorological Agency (JMA), the HIAPER Pole-to-Pole observations (HIPPO) program, and the GOSAT validation aircraft observation campaign over Japan. These comparisons demonstrate that the empirically derived bias correction improves the agreement between GOSAT XCO2/XCH4 and the aircraft data. Finally, we present spatial distributions and temporal variations of the derived GOSAT biases

Effects of neuropeptides on pancreatic glucagon secretion. Part II. Changes of pancreatic glucagon concentrations in the dog pancreatic vein after administration of 2-bromo-α-ergocryptine (CB154), gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA), and gamma hydroxybutyric acid (GHB).

Immunoreactive glucagon (using 30K antibodies) and insulin concentrations in the superior pancreaticoduodenal (pancreatic) vein of anesthetized mongrel dogs were measured after administration of 2-bromo-α-ergocryptine (CB154), γ-aminobutyric acid (GABA), and γ-hydroxybutyric acid (GHB) into the superior pancreaticoduodenal artery. A bolus administration of CB154 (200 μg/kg) induced a hyperglycemic response with biphagic increases in plasma glucagon and insulin levels. Blood pressure was lowered after a transient slight elevation. Impedance in pancreatic tissue was markedly increased after an initial rapid decrease. The lowered impedance reflects increased blood flow in the tissue. CB154 (50 μg/kg) administration brought about hyperglycemia and mild hyperglucagonemia. However, the plasma insulin level did not vary. After premedication with pimozide (1 mg/kg, intramuscularly), CB154 (200 μg/kg) administration caused a mild gradual increase of blood glucose, mild increase of plasma glucagon and significant decrease of plasma insulin concentrations. The premedication had no effect on blood pressure changes. Impedance in pancreatic tissue was slightly increased after a mild transient decrease. GABA (5 mg/kg) infusion for 30 min induced mild hyperglycemia, biphasic increase of pancreatic plasma glucagon and biphasic decrease of pancreatic plasma insulin concentrations. Blood pressure rose slightly, then gradually fell after a few minutes. Impedance in pancreatic tissue increased slowly. With a GABA (1 mg/kg) infusion for 5 min, the pancreatic plasma glucagon level gradually rose, and the plasma insulin level fell. During a GABA infusion at a dose of 0.1 mg/kg for 5 min, the plasma glucagon level increased slightly, but the plasma insulin level did not vary. A GHB (500 mg/kg for 2 min) infusion brought about a mild transient hyperglycemia. Although there was an initial decrease in the glucagon concentration, the amount of secreted glucagon seemed unchanged since the volume of blood flow in pancreatic tissue increased markedly during this period. The biphasic increase in glucagon concentration followed. Plasma insulin concentrations decreased significantly. GHB administration at a dose of 100 mg/kg for 2 min had similar effects on insulin and glucagon secretion, and did not cause any change in blood glucose level. The changes in plasma glucagon and insulin levels during 5 min infusion of GHB (100 mg/kg) were tested in more detail. The level of glucagon decreased slightly followed by a gradual increase after a few minutes. The plasma insulin level decreased significantly. GHB (10 mg/kg) infusion for 5 min resulted in no change of plasma glucagon concentration and a mild decrease in plasma insulin concentration

Effects of neuropeptides on pancreatic glucagon secretion. Part I. Changes of pancreatic glucagon concentrations in the dog pancreatic vein after administration of substance P.

It has been reported that substance P influences plasma glucagon concentrations; some investigators reported elevation of glucagon but the results are conflicting. This might be due to the differences in the species of experimental animal, dose of administered substance P, study system (in vivo or in vitro), and other experimental conditions. In this study, various doses of substance P were infused into the superior pancreaticoduodenal artery of anesthetized mongrel dogs for 30 min. Plasma glucagon and insulin concentrations in the superior pancreaticoduodenal (pancreatic) vein were measured by radioimmunoassay. For measuring plasma glucagon, 30K antibodies were used. Substance P (100 ng/kg body weight/min) infusion brought about mild hypoglycemia. A rapid and significant increase of plasma glucagon level was observed shortly after sub-stance P administration, then plasma glucagon concentrations decreased transiently during the next 10 to 20 min. Gradual increase to a high plateau level followed after discontinuation of the drug. A small transient decrease of plasma insulin level was seen at the beginning of the experiment. Blood pressure decreased during substance P infusion. Impedance in pancreatic tissue was markedly lowered. The lowered impedance reflects increased blood flow in the tissue. Administration of 25 or 50 ng/kg/min of substance P induced mild lowering of blood glucose and plasma insulin, but increase of plasma glucagon. The infusion of substance P at a dose of 5 ng/kg/min for 30 min did not cause any changes in blood glucose, plasma glucagon or insulin levels. But, after discontinuation of the drug, the plasma glucagon level gradually rose to a significantly high level. Blood pressure was not affected, but impedance in pancreatic tissue showed a gradual, marked decrease. During substance P infusion at a dose of 0.5ng/kg/min, blood-parameters did not vary. After ceasing the infusion, the plasma glucagon level gradually increased. In conclusion, substance P was thought to stimulate dose-related glucagon secretion not only by a neurogenic circulatory action, but also by a direct action on pancreatic alpha cells. The increase in glucagon concentration in the later part of the experiments might be caused by vaso-circulatory changes and other hormonal pharmacological actions of substance P