Photoelectron-induced waves: A likely source of 150 km radar echoes and enhanced electron modes

VHF radars near the geomagnetic equator receive coherent reflections from plasma density irregularities between 130 and 160 km in altitude during the daytime. Though researchers first discovered these 150 km echoes over 50 years ago and use them to monitor vertical plasma drifts, the underlying mechanism that creates them remains a mystery. This paper uses large‐scale kinetic simulations to show that photoelectrons can drive electron waves, which then enhance ion density irregularities that radars could observe as 150 km echoes. This model explains why 150 km echoes exist only during the day and why they appear at their lowest altitudes near noon. It predicts the spectral structure observed by Chau (2004) and suggests observations that can further evaluate this mechanism. It also shows the types and strength of electron modes that photoelectron‐wave interactions generate in a magnetized plasma.The authors would like to thank Juha Vierinen, David Hysell, Jorge Chau, and Roger Varney for their helpful discussions and suggestions. This material is based upon work supported by NASA under grant NNX14AI13G. This work used the XSEDE and TACC computational facilities, supported by National Science Foundation grant ACI-1053575. Simulation-produced data are archived at TACC and available upon request. (NNX14AI13G - NASA; ACI-1053575 - National Science Foundation

Role of plant functional traits in determining vegetation composition of abandoned grazing land in north-eastern Victoria, Australia

Question: In the Northern Hemisphere, species with dispersal limitations are typically absent from secondary forests. In Australia, little is known about dispersal mechanisms and other traits that drive species composition within post-agricultural, secondary forest. We asked whether mode of seed dispersal, nutrient uptake strategy, fire response, and life form in extant vegetation differ according to land-use history. We also asked whether functional traits of Australian species that confer tolerance to grazing and re-colonisation potential differ from those in the Northern Hemisphere. Location: Delatite Peninsula, NE Victoria, Australia. Methods: The vegetation of primary and secondary forests was surveyed using a paired-plot design. Eight traits were measured for all species recorded. ANOSIM tests and Non-metric Multi-dimensional Scaling were used to test differences in the abundance of plant attributes between land-use types. Results: Land-use history had a significant effect on vegetation composition. Specific leaf area (SLA) proved to be the best predictor of response to land-use change. Primary forest species were typically myrmecochorous phanerophytes with low SLA. In the secondary forest, species were typically therophytes with epizoochorous dispersal and high SLA. Conclusions: The attributes of species in secondary forests provide tolerance to grazing suggesting that disturbance caused by past grazing activity determined the composition of these forests. Myrmecochores were rare in secondary forests, suggesting that species had failed to re-colonise due to dispersal limitations. Functional traits that resulted in species loss through disturbance and prevented re-colonisation were different to those in the Northern Hemisphere and were attributable to the sclerophyllous nature of the primary forest

Effects of ion magnetization on the Farley-Buneman instability in the solar chromosphere

Intense heating in the quiet-Sun chromosphere raises the temperature from 4000 to 6500 K but, despite decades of study, the underlying mechanism remains a mystery. This study continues to explore the possibility that the Farley–Buneman instability contributes to chromospheric heating. This instability occurs in weakly ionized collisional plasmas in which electrons are magnetized, but ions are not. A mixture of metal ions generate the plasma density in the coolest parts of the chromosphere; while some ions are weakly magnetized, others are demagnetized by neutral collisions. This paper incorporates the effects of multiple, arbitrarily magnetized species of ions to the theory of the Farley–Buneman instability and examines the ramifications on instability in the chromosphere. The inclusion of magnetized ions introduces new restrictions on the regions in which the instability can occur in the chromosphere—in fact, it confines the instability to the regions in which heating is observed. For a magnetic field of 30 G, the minimum ambient electric field capable of driving the instability is 13.5 V/m at the temperature minimum.This work was supported by NSF-AGS Postdoctoral Research Fellowship Award No. 1433536 and NSF/DOE grant No. PHY-1500439. The authors also acknowledge a recent contribution from William Longley. (1433536 - NSF-AGS Postdoctoral Research Fellowship Award; PHY-1500439 - NSF/DOE grant)First author draftPublished versio

Novel inner monolayer fusion assays reveal differential monolayer mixing associated with cation-dependent membrane fusion

AbstractThe ability to specifically monitor the behavior of the inner monolayer lipids of membranous vesicles during the membrane fusion process is useful technically and experimentally. In this study, we have identified N-NBD-phosphatidylserine as a reducible probe particularly suitable for inner monolayer fusion assays because of its low rate of membrane translocation after reduction of the outer monolayer probes by dithionite. Data are presented on translocation as a function of temperature, vesicle size, membrane composition, and serum protein concentration. Translocation as a result of the fusion event itself was also characterized. We further show here that a second membrane-localized probe, a long wavelength carbocyanine dye referred to a diI(5)C18ds, appears to form a membrane-bound resonance energy transfer pair with N-NBD-PS, and its outer monolayer fluorescence can also be eliminated by dithionite treatment. Lipid dilution of these probes upon fusion with unlabeled membranes leads to an increase in NBD donor fluorescence, and hence is a new type of inner monolayer fusion assay.These inner monolayer probe mixing assays were compared to random lipid labeling and aqueous contents mixing assays for cation-dependent fusion of liposomes composed of phosphatidylserine and phosphatidylethanolamine. The results showed that the inner monolayer fusion assay eliminates certain artifacts and reflects fairly closely the rate of non-leaky mixing of aqueous contents due to fusion, while outer monolayer mixing always precedes mixing of aqueous contents. In fact, vesicle aggregation and outer monolayer lipid mixing were found to occur over very long periods of time without inner monolayer mixing at low cation concentrations. Externally added lysophosphatidylcholine inhibited vesicle aggregation, outer monolayer mixing and any subsequent fusion. The state of vesicle aggregation and outer monolayer exchange that occurs below the fusion threshold may represent a metastable intermediate state that may be useful for further studies of the mechanism of membrane fusion

Hybrid simulations of coupled Farley-Buneman/gradient drift instabilities in the equatorial E region ionosphere

Plasma irregularities in the equatorial E region ionosphere are classified as Type I or Type II, based on coherent radar spectra. Type I irregularities are attributed to the Farley‐Buneman instability and Type II to the gradient drift instability that cascades to meter‐scale irregularities detected by radars. This work presents the first kinetic simulations of coupled Farley‐Buneman and gradient drift turbulence in the equatorial E region ionosphere for a range of zeroth‐order vertical electric fields, using a new approach to solving the electrostatic potential equation. The simulation models a collisional quasi‐neutral plasma with a warm, inertialess electron fluid and a distribution of NO+ ions. A 512 m wave with a maximum/minimum of ±0.25 of the background density perturbs the plasma. The density wave creates an electrostatic field that adds to the zeroth‐order vertical and ambipolar fields, and drives Farley‐Buneman turbulence even when these fields are below the instability threshold. Wave power spectra show that Type II irregularities develop in all simulation runs and that Type I irregularities with wavelengths of a few meters develop in the trough of the background wave in addition to Type II irregularities as the zeroth‐order electric field magnitude increases. Linear fluid theory predicts the growth of Type II irregularities reasonably well, but it does not fully capture the simultaneous growth of Type I irregularities in the region of peak total electric field. The growth of localized Type I irregularities represents a parametric instability in which the electric field of the large‐scale background wave drives pure Farley‐Buneman turbulence. These results help explain observations of meter‐scale irregularities advected by kilometer‐scale waves.This work was supported by NSF grants AGS-1007789 and PHY-1500439, and NASA grants NNX11A096G and NNX14AI13G. This work used the XSEDE and TACC computational facilities, supported by NSF grant ACI-1053575, for simulation runs. Simulation-produced data are archived at TACC and are available upon request. This work also used the Massachusetts Green High Performance Computing Center for simulation data analysis. The authors thank one reviewer for insightful comments and critiques. (AGS-1007789 - NSF; PHY-1500439 - NSF; ACI-1053575 - NSF; NNX11A096G - NASA; NNX14AI13G - NASA

Management practices influencing herbicide resistance in wild oat (Avena fatua)

Non-Peer ReviewedA 3-year study was conducted in Wheatland County, Alberta to determine if agronomic practices of growers influenced the occurrence of herbicide resistance in wild oat. Wild oat seeds were collected in 33 fields in 1997, and in 31 fields in each of 1998 and 1999 (one field per grower). Seedlings were screened for resistance to two acetyl-CoA carboxylase (ACCase) inhibitors (Group 1), imazamethabenz, an acetolactate synthase (ALS) inhibitor (Group 2), and triallate, a thiocarbamate herbicide (Group 8). A questionnaire on herbicide resistance awareness and management practices was completed by each grower. Both ACCase and ALS inhibitor resistance in wild oat were linked to a lack of crop rotation diversity. In addition, ALS inhibitorresistant wild oat was associated with conservation-tillage systems and recent use of herbicides with that mode of action. Results of this study suggest that timely tillage and inclusion of fall-seeded and perennial forage crops in rotations will effectively slow the selection of resistance in this grass species

The Influence of Abiotic Factors on an Invasive Pest of Pulse Crops, Sitona lineatus

Pea leaf weevil, Sitona lineatus (L.), native to Europe and North Africa, has been introduced into many other countries around the world, including the USA and Canada. Adults are oligophagous pests on leguminaceous plants. Sitona lineatus was first recorded in Canada in 1997, near Lethbridge, Alberta. Since then, it has spread north in Alberta and west into Saskatchewan in 2007. Bioclimatic simulation models were used to predict the distribution and extent of establishment of S. lineatus in Canada based on its current geographic range, phenology, relative abundance, and empirical data. The study identified areas in Canada that are at risk for future establishment of S. lineatus and developed a better understanding of climate effects. Climate change projections (General Circulation Models) were then imposed on the bioclimatic model of S. lineatus. Bioclimatic model output varied for each of the three General Circulation Models. In terms of suitability for pest establishment (Ecoclimatic Index), the NCAR273 CCSM climate data resulted in the most significant shift northward

Observing binary inspiral in gravitational radiation: One interferometer

We investigate the sensitivity of individual LIGO/VIRGO-like interferometers and the precision with which they can determine the characteristics of an inspiralling binary system. Since the two interferometers of the LIGO detector share nearly the same orientation, their joint sensitivity is similar to that of a single, more sensitive interferometer. We express our results for a single interferometer of both initial and advanced LIGO design, and also for the LIGO detector in the limit that its two interferometers share exactly the same orientation. We approximate the evolution of a binary system as driven exclusively by leading order quadrupole gravitational radiation. To assess the sensitivity, we calculate the rate at which sources are expected to be observed, the range to which they are observable, and the precision with which characteristic quantities describing the observed binary system can be determined. Assuming a conservative rate density for coalescing neutron star binary systems we expect that the advanced LIGO detector will observe approximately 69~yr${}^{-1}$ with an amplitude SNR greater than 8. Of these, approximately 7~yr${}^{-1}$ will be from binaries at distances greater than 950~Mpc. We explore the sensitivity of these results to a tunable parameter in the interferometer design (the recycling frequency). The optimum choice of the parameter is dependent on the goal of the observations, e.g., maximizing the rate of detections or maximizing the precision of measurement. We determine the optimum parameter values for these two cases.Comment: 40 pages (plus 7 figures), LaTeX/REVTEX3.0, NU-GR-