A survey of volatile species in Oort cloud comets C/2001 Q4 (NEAT) and C/2002 T7 (LINEAR) at millimeter wavelengths

The line emission in the coma was measured in the comets C/2001 Q4 (NEAT) and C/2002 T7 (LINEAR), that were observed on five consecutive nights, 7-11 May 2004, at heliocentric distances of 1.0 and 0.7 AU, respectively, by means of high-resolution spectroscopy using the 10-m Submillimeter Telescope (SMT). We present a search for six parent- and product-volatile species (HCN, H2CO, CO, CS, CH3OH, and HNC) in both comets. Multiline observations of the CH3OH J = 5-4 series allow us to estimate the rotational temperature using the rotation diagram technique. We derive rotational temperatures of 54(9) K for C/2001 Q4 (NEAT) and 119(34) K for C/2002 T7 (LINEAR) that are roughly consistent with observations of other comets at similar distances from the Sun. The gas production rates of material are computed using a spherically symmetric molecular excitation code that includes collisions between neutrals and electrons. We find an HCN production rate of 2.96(5)e26 molec.s-1 for comet C/2001 Q4 (NEAT), corresponding to a mixing ratio with respect to H2O of 1.12(2)e-3. The mean HCN production rate during the observing period is 4.54(10)e26 molec.s-1 for comet C/2002 T7 (LINEAR), which gives a Q_HCN/Q_H2O mixing ratio of 1.51(3)e-3. With systematically lower mixing ratios in comet C/2001 Q4 (NEAT), production rate ratios of the observed species with respect to H2O lie within the typical ranges of dynamically new comets in both objects. We find a relative low abundance of CO in C/2001 Q4 (NEAT) compared to the observed range in other comets based on millimeter/submillimeter observations, and a significant upper limit on the CO production in C/2002 T7 (LINEAR) is derived. Depletion of CO suggests partial evaporation from the surface layers during previous visits to the outer Solar System and agrees with previous measurements of dynamically new comets.Comment: 20 pages, 18 figures. Minor changes to match the published versio

Effect of the 3D distribution on water observations made with the SWI: I. Ganymede

Context. Characterising and understanding the atmospheres of Jovian icy moons is one of the key exploration goals of the Submillimetre Wave Instrument (SWI), which is to be flown on ESA\u27s Jupiter Icy Moons Explorer (JUICE) mission.Aims. The aim of this paper is to investigate how and under which conditions a 3D asymmetric distribution of the atmosphere may affect the SWI observations. In this work we target the role of phase angle for both nadir and limb geometries for unresolved and partially resolved disc observations from large distances.Methods. We adapted the LIME software package, a 3D non-local thermodynamical equilibrium radiative transfer model, to evaluate ortho-H2O populations and synthesise the simulated SWI beam spectra for different study cases of Ganymede\u27s atmosphere. The temperature and density vertical distributions were adopted from a previous work. The study cases presented here were selected according to the distance and operational scenarios of moon monitoring anticipated for SWI during the Jupiter phase of the JUICE mission.Results. We demonstrate that nadir and limb observations at different phase angles will modify the line amplitude and width. Unresolved observations where both absorption against surface continuum and limb emission contributes within the beam will lead to characteristic line wing emission, which may also appear in pure nadir geometry for specific phase angles. We also find that for Ganymede, the 3D non-local thermodynamical equilibrium populations are more highly excited in the upper atmosphere near the sub-solar region than they are in 1D spherically symmetric models. Finally, the 3D radiative transfer is better suited to properly simulate spectral lines for cases where density or population gradients exist along the line of sight

Rediscovery of the Pallid Shiner, \u3ci\u3eHybopsis amnis\u3c/i\u3e, in the Black River System of Arkansas and Missouri Including Notes on Ecology and Life History

The Pallid Shiner, Hybopsis amnis, is a rare and understudied minnow with little information about its ecology. This species is listed as a Species of Greatest Conservation Need (SGCN) throughout much of its range and is generally considered to be declining. It had not been detected in the Black River system of Missouri and Arkansas in over 75 years, or the state of Missouri in over 60 years. We sampled over 100 sites in the Black River system between 2017 and 2020 to assess temporal trends in fish assemblage structure and to update the status of SGCN species in this drainage. We collected 226 H. amnis at seven different sites in the Black River system. We measured total lengths to estimate age classes and year of spawning. Corresponding habitat and year class data indicate this species may spawn in late winter to early spring and rely on floodplain habitat for spawning and recruitment. The apparent decline of H. amnis in other systems may be a result of reduced floodplain connectivity

Constraining spatial pattern of early activity of comet 67P/C-G with 3D modeling of the MIRO observations

Our aim is to investigate early activity (July 2014) of 67P/CG with 3D coma and radiative transfer modeling of MIRO measurements, accounting for nucleus shape, illumination, and orientation of the comet. We investigate MIRO line shape information for spatial distribution of water activity on the nucleus during the onset of activity. During this period we show that MIRO line shape have enough information to clearly isolate contribution from Hapi and Inhotep independently, and compare it to the nominal case of activity from the entire illuminated surface. We also demonstrate that spectral line shapes differ from the 1D model for different viewing geometries and coma conditions relevant to this study. Specifically, line shapes are somewhat sensitive to the location of the terminator in the coma. At last, fitting the MIRO observations we show that the Imhotep region (possible extended source of H$_{2}$O due to CO$_{2}$ activity) contributes only a small fraction of the total number of water molecules into MIRO beam in the early activity. On the other hand, a strong enhancement of water activity from the Hapi region seems required to fit the MIRO line shapes. This is consistent with earlier Rosetta results. Nevertheless, within the assumption of our coma and surface boundary conditions, we cannot get a reasonable fit to all MIRO mapping observations in July 2014, which may illustrate that a more sophisticated coma model or more accurate temperature/velocity distribution is needed.Comment: 22 pages, 15 figures, submitte

Validation of the Global Distribution of CO\u3csub\u3e2\u3c/sub\u3e Volume Mixing Ratio in the Mesosphere and Lower Thermosphere from SABER

The Sounding of the Atmosphere using Broadband Emission Radiometry (SABER) instrument on board the Thermosphere Ionosphere Mesosphere Energetics and Dynamics satellite has been measuring the limb radiance in 10 broadband infrared channels over the altitude range from ~ 400 km to the Earth\u27s surface since 2002. The kinetic temperatures and CO2 volume mixing ratios (VMRs) in the mesosphere and lower thermosphere have been simultaneously retrieved using SABER limb radiances at 15 and 4.3 μm under nonlocal thermodynamic equilibrium (non-LTE) conditions. This paper presents results of a validation study of the SABER CO2 VMRs obtained with a two-channel, self-consistent temperature/CO2 retrieval algorithm. Results are based on comparisons with coincident CO2 measurements made by the Atmospheric Chemistry Experiment Fourier transform spectrometer (ACE-FTS) and simulations using the Specified Dynamics version of the Whole Atmosphere Community Climate Model (SD-WACCM). The SABER CO2 VMRs are in agreement with ACE-FTS observations within reported systematic uncertainties from 65 to 110 km. The annual average SABER CO2 VMR falls off from a well-mixed value above ~80 km. Latitudinal and seasonal variations of CO2 VMRs are substantial. SABER observations and the SD-WACCM simulations are in overall agreement for CO2 seasonal variations, as well as global distributions in the mesosphere and lower thermosphere. Not surprisingly, the CO2 seasonal variation is shown to be driven by the general circulation, converging in the summer polar mesopause region and diverging in the winter polar mesopause region. Key Points Mean SABER CO2 distribution is validated against SD-WACCM and ACE-FTS data SABER and ACE-FTS mean CO2 VMR agree within 5% below 90 km up to 20% at 110 km SD-WACCM and SABER CO2 spatial and seasonal distribution show a good agreement. © 2015. American Geophysical Union

An upper limit for the water outgassing rate of the main-belt comet 176P/LINEAR observed with Herschel/HIFI

176P/LINEAR is a member of the new cometary class known as main-belt comets (MBCs). It displayed cometary activity shortly during its 2005 perihelion passage that may be driven by the sublimation of sub-surface ices. We have therefore searched for emission of the H2O 110-101 ground state rotational line at 557 GHz toward 176P/LINEAR with the Heterodyne Instrument for the Far Infrared (HIFI) on board the Herschel Space Observatory on UT 8.78 August 2011, about 40 days after its most recent perihelion passage, when the object was at a heliocentric distance of 2.58 AU. No H2O line emission was detected in our observations, from which we derive sensitive 3-sigma upper limits for the water production rate and column density of < 4e25 molec/s and of < 3e10 cm^{-2}, respectively. From the peak brightness measured during the object's active period in 2005, this upper limit is lower than predicted by the relation between production rates and visual magnitudes observed for a sample of comets by Jorda et al. (2008) at this heliocentric distance. Thus, 176P/LINEAR was likely less active at the time of our observation than during its previous perihelion passage. The retrieved upper limit is lower than most values derived for the H2O production rate from the spectroscopic search for CN emission in MBCs.Comment: 5 pages, 2 figures. Minor changes to match published versio

Demonstrating sub-3 ps temporal resolution in a superconducting nanowire single-photon detector

Improving the temporal resolution of single photon detectors has an impact on many applications, such as increased data rates and transmission distances for both classical and quantum optical communication systems, higher spatial resolution in laser ranging and observation of shorter-lived fluorophores in biomedical imaging. In recent years, superconducting nanowire single-photon detectors (SNSPDs) have emerged as the highest efficiency time-resolving single-photon counting detectors available in the near infrared. As the detection mechanism in SNSPDs occurs on picosecond time scales, SNSPDs have been demonstrated with exquisite temporal resolution below 15 ps. We reduce this value to 2.7$\pm$0.2 ps at 400 nm and 4.6$\pm$0.2 ps at 1550 nm, using a specialized niobium nitride (NbN) SNSPD. The observed photon-energy dependence of the temporal resolution and detection latency suggests that intrinsic effects make a significant contribution.Comment: 25 pages, 9 figure

A comparison of multiple Rosetta data sets and 3D model calculations of 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko coma around equinox (May 2015)

We have used the latest available shape model for gas and dust simulations of the inner coma of comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko for the period around May 2015 (equinox). We compare results from a purely insolation-driven model with a complementary set of observations made by ROSINA, VIRTIS, MIRO, and OSIRIS within the same period. The observations include - for the first time - inverted MIRO measurements of gas density, temperature and bulk velocity to constrain the model. The comparisons show that, as in November 2014 (Marschall et al., 2016), insolation-driven activity does not provide an adequate fit to the data. Both VIRTIS and MIRO observations indicate that emissions from the Hatmehit and Imhotep regions of the nucleus are strongly depleted in total gas, H2O, and dust emissions in this case. The MIRO inversion provides a challenging constraint to the models as a consequence of the terminator orbit and nucleus pointing of the spacecraft. Nonetheless a consistent picture with a dominance of outgassing from the Hapi region, even at equinox, is clearly evident. An inhomogeneous model consistent with models proposed for the November 2014 time-frame was constructed and provides a better fit to the data. As far as we are aware this is the first time comae data from four Rosetta instruments have been used to constrain within one self-contained model the emission distribution at the nucleus surface and study the dynamics of the gas and dust outflow