Antarctic polar stratospheric aerosols: The roles of nitrates, chlorides and sulfates

Nitric and hydrochloric acids have been postulated to condense in the winter polar stratosphere to become an important component of polar stratospheric clouds. One implication is that the removal of NO(y) from the gas phase by this mechanism allows high Cl(x) concentrations to react with O3, because the formation of ClNO3 is inhibited. Contributions of NO3 and Cl to the stratospheric aerosol were determined during the 1987 Airborne Antarctic Ozone Experiment by testing for the presence of nitrates and chlorides in the condensed phase. Aerosol particles were collected on four 500 micron diameter gold wires, each pretreated differently to give results that were specific to certain physical and chemical aerosol properties. One wire was carbon-coated for concentration and size analyses by scanning electron microscopy; X-ray energy dispersive analyses permitted the detection of S and Cl in individual particles. Three more wires were coated with Nitron, barium chloride and silver nitrate, respectively, to detect nitrate, sulfate and chloride in aerosol particles. All three ions, viz., sulfates, nitrates and chlorides were detected in the Antarctic stratospheric aerosol. In terms of number concentrations, the aerosol was dominated by sulfates, followed by chlorides and nitrates. An inverse linear regression can be established between nitrate concentrations and ozone mixing ratio, and between temperature and nitrates

Implications of large scale shifts in tropospheric NOx levels in the remote tropical Pacific

A major observation recorded during NASA's western Pacific Exploratory Mission (PEM-West B) was the large shift in tropical NO levels as a function of geographical location. High-altitude NO levels exceeding 100 pptv were observed during portions of tropical flights 5-8, while values almost never exceeded 20 pptv during tropical flights 9 and 10. The geographical regions encompassing these two flight groupings are here labeled "high" and "low" NOx regimes. A comparison of these two regimes, based on back trajectories and chemical tracers, suggests that air parcels in both were strongly influenced by deep convection. The low NOx regime appears to have been predominantly impacted by marine convection, whereas the high NOx regime shows evidence of having been more influenced by deep convection over a continental land mass. DMSP satellite observations point strongly toward lightning as the major source of NOx in the latter regime. Photochemical ozone formation in the high NOx regime exceeded that for low NOx by factors of 2 to 6, whereas O3 destruction in the low NOx regime exceeded that for high NOx by factors of up to 3. Taking the tropopause height to be 17 km, estimates of the net photochemical effect on the O3 column revealed that the high NOx regime led to a small net production. By contrast, the low NOx regime was shown to destroy O3 at the rate of 3.4% per day. One proposed mechanism for off-setting this projected large deficit would involve the transport of O3 rich midlatitude air into the tropics. Alternatively, it is suggested that O3 within the tropics may be overall near self-sustaining with respect to photochemical activity. This scenario would require that some tropical regions, unsampled at the time of PEM-B, display significant net column O3 production, leading to an overall balanced budget for the "greater" tropical Pacific basin. Details concerning the chemical nature of such regimes are discussed

Core micro-instability analysis of JET hybrid and baseline discharges with carbon wall

The core micro-instability characteristics of hybrid and baseline plasmas in a selected set of JET plasmas with carbon wall are investigated through local linear and non-linear and global linear gyro-kinetic simulations with the GYRO code [J. Candy and E. Belli, General Atomics Report GA-A26818 (2011)]. In particular, we study the role of plasma pressure on the micro-instabilities, and scan the parameter space for the important plasma parameters responsible for the onset and stabilization of the modes under experimental conditions. We find that a good core confinement due to strong stabilization of the micro-turbulence driven transport can be expected in the hybrid plasmas due to the stabilizing effect of the fast ion pressure that is more effective at the low magnetic shear of the hybrid discharges. While parallel velocity gradient destabilization is important for the inner core, at outer radii the hybrid plasmas may benefit from a strong quench of the turbulence transport by $\mathbf{E}\times\mathbf{B}$ rotation shear.Comment: accepted for publication in Nuclear Fusio

Quantum algorithm and circuit design solving the Poisson equation

The Poisson equation occurs in many areas of science and engineering. Here we focus on its numerical solution for an equation in d dimensions. In particular we present a quantum algorithm and a scalable quantum circuit design which approximates the solution of the Poisson equation on a grid with error \varepsilon. We assume we are given a supersposition of function evaluations of the right hand side of the Poisson equation. The algorithm produces a quantum state encoding the solution. The number of quantum operations and the number of qubits used by the circuit is almost linear in d and polylog in \varepsilon^{-1}. We present quantum circuit modules together with performance guarantees which can be also used for other problems.Comment: 30 pages, 9 figures. This is the revised version for publication in New Journal of Physic

Reduced models for ETG transport in the pedestal

This paper reports on the development of reduced models for electron temperature gradient (ETG) driven transport in the pedestal. Model development is enabled by a set of 61 nonlinear gyrokinetic simulations with input parameters taken from the pedestals in a broad range of experimental scenarios. The simulation data has been consolidated in a new database for gyrokinetic simulation data, the Multiscale Gyrokinetic Database (MGKDB), facilitating the analysis. The modeling approach may be considered a generalization of the standard quasilinear mixing length procedure. The parameter η, the ratio of the density to temperature gradient scale length, emerges as the key parameter for formulating an effective saturation rule. With a single order-unity fitting coefficient, the model achieves an RMS error of 15%. A similar model for ETG particle flux is also described. We also present simple algebraic expressions for the transport informed by an algorithm for symbolic regression.</p

Gamma-ray observations of Tycho's SNR with VERITAS and Fermi

High-energy gamma-ray emission from supernova remnants (SNRs) has provided a unique perspective for studies of Galactic cosmic-ray acceleration. Tycho's SNR is a particularly good target because it is a young, type Ia SNR that is well-studied over a wide range of energies and located in a relatively clean environment. Since the detection of gamma-ray emission from Tycho's SNR by VERITAS and Fermi-LAT, there have been several theoretical models proposed to explain its broadband emission and high-energy morphology. We report on an update to the gamma-ray measurements of Tycho's SNR with 147 hours of VERITAS and 84 months of Fermi-LAT observations, which represents about a factor of two increase in exposure over previously published data. About half of the VERITAS data benefited from a camera upgrade, which has made it possible to extend the TeV measurements toward lower energies. The TeV spectral index measured by VERITAS is consistent with previous results, but the expanded energy range softens a straight power-law fit. At energies higher than 400 GeV, the power-law index is $2.92 \pm 0.42_{\mathrm{stat}} \pm 0.20_{\mathrm{sys}}$. It is also softer than the spectral index in the GeV energy range, $2.14 \pm 0.09_{\mathrm{stat}} \pm 0.02_{\mathrm{sys}}$, measured by this study using Fermi--LAT data. The centroid position of the gamma-ray emission is coincident with the center of the remnant, as well as with the centroid measurement of Fermi--LAT above 1 GeV. The results are consistent with an SNR shell origin of the emission, as many models assume. The updated spectrum points to a lower maximum particle energy than has been suggested previously.Comment: Accepted for publication in The Astrophysical Journa

Gamma-ray Observations Under Bright Moonlight with VERITAS

Imaging atmospheric Cherenkov telescopes (IACTs) are equipped with sensitive photomultiplier tube (PMT) cameras. Exposure to high levels of background illumination degrades the efficiency of and potentially destroys these photo-detectors over time, so IACTs cannot be operated in the same configuration in the presence of bright moonlight as under dark skies. Since September 2012, observations have been carried out with the VERITAS IACTs under bright moonlight (defined as about three times the night-sky-background (NSB) of a dark extragalactic field, typically occurring when Moon illumination > 35%) in two observing modes, firstly by reducing the voltage applied to the PMTs and, secondly, with the addition of ultra-violet (UV) bandpass filters to the cameras. This has allowed observations at up to about 30 times previous NSB levels (around 80% Moon illumination), resulting in 30% more observing time between the two modes over the course of a year. These additional observations have already allowed for the detection of a flare from the 1ES 1727+502 and for an observing program targeting a measurement of the cosmic-ray positron fraction. We provide details of these new observing modes and their performance relative to the standard VERITAS observations