Nanoflare Activity in the Solar Chromosphere

We use ground-based images of high spatial and temporal resolution to search for evidence of nanoflare activity in the solar chromosphere. Through close examination of more than 10^9 pixels in the immediate vicinity of an active region, we show that the distributions of observed intensity fluctuations have subtle asymmetries. A negative excess in the intensity fluctuations indicates that more pixels have fainter-than-average intensities compared with those that appear brighter than average. By employing Monte Carlo simulations, we reveal how the negative excess can be explained by a series of impulsive events, coupled with exponential decays, that are fractionally below the current resolving limits of low-noise equipment on high-resolution ground-based observatories. Importantly, our Monte Carlo simulations provide clear evidence that the intensity asymmetries cannot be explained by photon-counting statistics alone. A comparison to the coronal work of Terzo et al. (2011) suggests that nanoflare activity in the chromosphere is more readily occurring, with an impulsive event occurring every ~360s in a 10,000 km^2 area of the chromosphere, some 50 times more events than a comparably sized region of the corona. As a result, nanoflare activity in the chromosphere is likely to play an important role in providing heat energy to this layer of the solar atmosphere.Comment: 7 pages, 3 figures, accepted into Ap

California Carbon Offsets and Working Forest Conservation Easements

California’s cap-and-trade system is a vital laboratory for testing the effectiveness of this market-driven approach in meeting greenhouse gas emission reduction goals and the use of forestry-based carbon offsets within these systems generally. Based on this experience, this Article explores one of the primary challenges, layering offsets with working forest conservation easements, which currently limits opportunities to effectively use these tools in concert. Ultimately, this market may need to foster and rely on natural linkages with working forest conservation easements to develop these offsets and to better ensure that the critical societal objectives of these projects are being met

Tracking magnetic bright point motions through the solar atmosphere

High-cadence, multiwavelength observations and simulations are employed for the analysis of solar photospheric magnetic bright points (MBPs) in the quiet Sun. The observations were obtained with the Rapid Oscillations in the Solar Atmosphere (ROSA) imager and the Interferometric Bidimensional Spectrometer at the Dunn Solar Telescope. Our analysis reveals that photospheric MBPs have an average transverse velocity of approximately 1 km s−1, whereas their chromospheric counterparts have a slightly higher average velocity of 1.4 km s−1. Additionally, chromospheric MBPs were found to be around 63 per cent larger than the equivalent photospheric MBPs. These velocity values were compared with the output of numerical simulations generated using the MURAM code. The simulated results were similar, but slightly elevated, when compared to the observed data. An average velocity of 1.3 km s−1 was found in the simulated G-band images and an average of 1.8 km s−1 seen in the velocity domain at a height of 500 km above the continuum formation layer. Delays in the change of velocities were also analysed. Average delays of ∼4 s between layers of the simulated data set were established and values of ∼29 s observed between G-band and Ca II K ROSA observations. The delays in the simulations are likely to be the result of oblique granular shock waves, whereas those found in the observations are possibly the result of a semi-rigid flux tube

The Source of Three-minute Magneto-acoustic Oscillations in Coronal Fans

We use images of high spatial, spectral and temporal resolution, obtained using both ground- and space-based instrumentation, to investigate the coupling between wave phenomena observed at numerous heights in the solar atmosphere. Intensity oscillations of 3 minutes are observed to encompass photospheric umbral dot structures, with power at least three orders-of-magnitude higher than the surrounding umbra. Simultaneous chromospheric velocity and intensity time series reveal an 87 \pm 8 degree out-of-phase behavior, implying the presence of standing modes created as a result of partial wave reflection at the transition region boundary. An average blue-shifted Doppler velocity of ~1.5 km/s, in addition to a time lag between photospheric and chromospheric oscillatory phenomena, confirms the presence of upwardly-propagating slow-mode waves in the lower solar atmosphere. Propagating oscillations in EUV intensity are detected in simultaneous coronal fan structures, with a periodicity of 172 \pm 17 s and a propagation velocity of 45 \pm 7 km/s. Numerical simulations reveal that the damping of the magneto-acoustic wave trains is dominated by thermal conduction. The coronal fans are seen to anchor into the photosphere in locations where large-amplitude umbral dot oscillations manifest. Derived kinetic temperature and emission measure time-series display prominent out-of-phase characteristics, and when combined with the previously established sub-sonic wave speeds, we conclude that the observed EUV waves are the coronal counterparts of the upwardly-propagating magneto-acoustic slow-modes detected in the lower solar atmosphere. Thus, for the first time, we reveal how the propagation of 3 minute magneto-acoustic waves in solar coronal structures is a direct result of amplitude enhancements occurring in photospheric umbral dots.Comment: Accepted into ApJ (13 pages and 10 figures

Propagating Wave Phenomena Detected in Observations and Simulations of the Lower Solar Atmosphere

We present high-cadence observations and simulations of the solar photosphere, obtained using the Rapid Oscillations in the Solar Atmosphere imaging system and the MuRAM magneto-hydrodynamic code, respectively. Each dataset demonstrates a wealth of magneto-acoustic oscillatory behaviour, visible as periodic intensity fluctuations with periods in the range 110-600 s. Almost no propagating waves with periods less than 140s and 110s are detected in the observational and simulated datasets, respectively. High concentrations of power are found in highly magnetised regions, such as magnetic bright points and intergranular lanes. Radiative diagnostics of the photospheric simulations replicate our observational results, confirming that the current breed of magneto-hydrodynamic simulations are able to accurately represent the lower solar atmosphere. All observed oscillations are generated as a result of naturally occurring magnetoconvective processes, with no specific input driver present. Using contribution functions extracted from our numerical simulations, we estimate minimum G-band and 4170 Angstrom continuum formation heights of 100 km and 25 km, respectively. Detected magneto-acoustic oscillations exhibit a dominant phase delay of -8 degrees between the G-band and 4170 Angstrom continuum observations, suggesting the presence of upwardly propagating waves. More than 73% of MBPs (73% from observations, 96% from simulations) display upwardly propagating wave phenomena, suggesting the abundant nature of oscillatory behaviour detected higher in the solar atmosphere may be traced back to magnetoconvective processes occurring in the upper layers of the Sun's convection zone.Comment: 13 pages, 9 figures, accepted into Ap

The Area Distribution of Solar Magnetic Bright Points

Magnetic Bright Points (MBPs) are among the smallest observable objects on the solar photosphere. A combination of G-band observations and numerical simulations is used to determine their area distribution. An automatic detection algorithm, employing 1-dimensional intensity profiling, is utilized to identify these structures in the observed and simulated datasets. Both distributions peak at an area of $\approx$45000 km$^2$, with a sharp decrease towards smaller areas. The distributions conform with log-normal statistics, which suggests that flux fragmentation dominates over flux convergence. Radiative magneto-convection simulations indicate an independence in the MBP area distribution for differing magnetic flux densities. The most commonly occurring bright point size corresponds to the typical width of intergranular lanes.Comment: Astrophysical Journal, accepte

SPATIOTEMPORAL MODELING OF AGRICULTURAL YIELD MONITOR DATA1

This paper shows that spatial panel data models can be successfully applied to an econometric analysis of farm-scale precision agriculture data. The application focuses on the estimation of the effect of controlled drainage water management equipment on corn yields. Using field-level precision agriculture data and spatial panel techniques, the yield response equation is estimated using the spatial autoregressive error random effects model with temporal heterogeneity, incorporating spatial dependence in the error term, while controlling for the topography, weather and the controlled drainage treatment. Controlling for random effects allows for the disentanglement of the effects of spatial dependence from spatial heterogeneity and omitted variables, and thus, to properly investigate the yield response. The results show that controlled drainage has a statistically significant effect on corn yields. The effect is generally positive but varies widely from year to year and field-to-field. For the two years of data controlled drainage was linked to a 2.2% increase in field average yield, but that varied from a -2.6% to a +6.5%. Evaluated at mean elevation and slope in the east part of the field, controlled drainage is associated with 10 bu/a increase and a 0.6 bu/a decrease in yields in 2005 and 2006, respectively. In the West part of the field, controlled drainage is associated with a 11 bu/a increase in 2006 and 2.81 bu/a decrease in 2005.Manufactured Housing; corn, drainage, precision agriculture, spatial panel model

Void Nucleation, Growth, and Coalescence in Irradiated Metals

A novel computational treatment of dense, stiff, coupled reaction rate equations is introduced to study the nucleation, growth, and possible coalescence of cavities during neutron irradiation of metals. Radiation damage is modeled by the creation of Frenkel pair defects and helium impurity atoms. A multi-dimensional cluster size distribution function allows independent evolution of the vacancy and helium content of cavities, distinguishing voids and bubbles. A model with sessile cavities and no cluster-cluster coalescence can result in a bimodal final cavity size distribution with coexistence of small, high-pressure bubbles and large, low-pressure voids. A model that includes unhindered cavity diffusion and coalescence ultimately removes the small helium bubbles from the system, leaving only large voids. The terminal void density is also reduced and the incubation period and terminal swelling rate can be greatly altered by cavity coalescence. Temperature-dependent trapping of voids/bubbles by precipitates and alterations in void surface diffusion from adsorbed impurities and internal gas pressure may give rise to intermediate swelling behavior through their effects on cavity mobility and coalescence.Comment: 26 pages, 7 figure

Evaluating the applicability of multi-agent software for implementing distributed industrial data management approaches

Distributed approaches to industrial control or information management problems are often tackled using Multi-agent methods. Multi-Agent systems – solutions resulting from taking a Multi-agent based approaches - often come with a certain amount of “overhead” such as communication systems, but can provide a helpful tool with the design and implementation. In this paper, a distributed data management problem is addressed with both a bespoke approach developed specifically for this problem and a more general Multi-agent approach. The two approaches are compared using architecture and software metrics. The software metric results show similar results, although overall the bespoke approach was more appropriate for the particular application examined. The architectural analysis indicates that the main reason for this difference is the communication and computation overhead associated with the agent-based system. It was not within the scope of this study to compare the two approaches under multiple application scenarios.BoeingThis is the author accepted manuscript. The final version is available from Springer via http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-15159-5_1

Chromospheric Velocities of a C-class Flare

We use high spatial and temporal resolution observations from the Swedish Solar Telescope to study the chromospheric velocities of a C-class flare originating from active region NOAA 10969. A time-distance analysis is employed to estimate directional velocity components in H-alpha and Ca II K image sequences. Also, imaging spectroscopy has allowed us to determine flare-induced line-of-sight velocities. A wavelet analysis is used to analyse the periodic nature of associated flare bursts. Time-distance analysis reveals velocities as high as 64 km/s along the flare ribbon and 15 km/s perpendicular to it. The velocities are very similar in both the H-alpha and Ca II K time series. Line-of-sight H-alpha velocities are red-shifted with values up to 17 km/s. The high spatial and temporal resolution of the observations have allowed us to detect velocities significantly higher than those found in earlier studies. Flare bursts with a periodicity of approximately 60 s are also detected. These bursts are similar to the quasi-periodic oscillations observed at hard X-ray and radio wavelength data. Some of the highest velocities detected in the solar atmosphere are presented. Line-of-sight velocity maps show considerable mixing of both the magnitude and direction of velocities along the flare path. A change in direction of the velocities at the flare kernel has also been detected which may be a signature of chromospheric evaporation.Comment: Accepted for publication in Astronomy and Astrophysics, 5 figure