1,078 research outputs found
Formation Process of a Light Bridge Revealed with the Hinode Solar Optical Telescope
The Solar Optical Telescope (SOT) aboard HINODE successfully and continuously
observed a formation process of a light bridge in a matured sunspot of the NOAA
active region 10923 for several days with high spatial resolution. During its
formation, many umbral dots were observed emerging from the leading edges of
penumbral filaments, and intruding into the umbra rapidly. The precursor of the
light bridge formation was also identified as the relatively slow inward motion
of the umbral dots which emerged not near the penumbra, but inside the umbra.
The spectro-polarimeter on SOT provided physical conditions in the photosphere
around the umbral dots and the light bridges. We found the light bridges and
the umbral dots had significantly weaker magnetic fields associated with
upflows relative to the core of the umbra, which implies that there was hot gas
with weak field strength penetrating from subphotosphere to near the visible
surface inside those structures. There needs to be a mechanism to drive the
inward motion of the hot gas along the light bridges. We suggest that the
emergence and the inward motion are triggered by a buoyant penumbral flux tube
as well as the subphotospheric flow crossing the sunspot.Comment: 8 pages, 6 figures, accepted in the PASJ Hinode special issu
Flare Ribbons Observed with G-band and FeI 6302A Filters of the Solar Optical Telescope on Board Hinode
The Solar Optical Telescope (SOT) on board Hinode satellite observed an X3.4
class flare on 2006 December 13. Typical two-ribbon structure was observed, not
only in the chromospheric CaII H line but also in G-band and FeI 6302A line.
The high-resolution, seeing-free images achieved by SOT revealed, for the first
time, the sub-arcsec fine structures of the "white light" flare. The G-band
flare ribbons on sunspot umbrae showed a sharp leading edge followed by a
diffuse inside, as well as previously known core-halo structure. The underlying
structures such as umbral dots, penumbral filaments and granules were visible
in the flare ribbons. Assuming that the sharp leading edge was directly heated
by particle beam and the diffuse parts were heated by radiative back-warming,
we estimate the depth of the diffuse flare emission using the intensity profile
of the flare ribbon. We found that the depth of the diffuse emission is about
100 km or less from the height of the source of radiative back-warming. The
flare ribbons were also visible in the Stokes-V images of FeI 6302A, as a
transient polarity reversal. This is probably related to "magnetic transient"
reported in the literature. The intensity increase in Stokes-I images indicates
that the FeI 6302A line was significantly deformed by the flare, which may
cause such a magnetic transient.Comment: 14 pages, 7 figures, PASJ in pres
Initial Helioseismic Observations by Hinode/SOT
Results from initial helioseismic observations by Solar Optical Telescope
onboard Hinode are reported. It has been demonstrated that intensity
oscillation data from Broadband Filter Imager can be used for various
helioseismic analyses. The k-omega power spectra, as well as corresponding
time-distance cross-correlation function that promises high-resolution
time-distance analysis below 6-Mm travelling distance, were obtained for G-band
and CaII-H data. Subsurface supergranular patterns have been observed from our
first time-distance analysis. The results show that the solar oscillation
spectrum is extended to much higher frequencies and wavenumbers, and the
time-distance diagram is extended to much shorter travel distances and times
than they were observed before, thus revealing great potential for
high-resolution helioseismic observations from Hinode.Comment: 6 pages, accepted for publication in PAS
Chromospheric Anemone Jets as Evidence of Ubiquitous Reconnection
The heating of the solar chromosphere and corona is a long-standing puzzle in
solar physics. Hinode observations show the ubiquitous presence of
chromospheric anemone jets outside sunspots in active regions. They are
typically 3 to 7 arc seconds = 2000 to 5000 kilometers long and 0.2 to 0.4 arc
second = 150 to 300 kilometers wide, and their velocity is 10 to 20 kilometers
per second. These small jets have an inverted Y-shape, similar to the shape of
x-ray anemone jets in the corona. These features imply that magnetic
reconnection similar to that in the corona is occurring at a much smaller
spatial scale throughout the chromosphere and suggest that the heating of the
solar chromosphere and corona may be related to small-scale ubiquitous
reconnection.Comment: 10 pages, 5 figure
The impact of the mixing properties within the Antarctic stratospheric vortex on ozone loss in spring
Calculations of equivalent length from an artificial advected tracer provide new insight into the isentropic transport processes occurring within the Antarctic stratospheric vortex. These calculations show two distinct regions of approximately equal area: a strongly mixed vortex core and a broad ring of weakly mixed air extending out to the vortex boundary. This broad ring of vortex air remains isolated from the core between late winter and midspring. Satellite measurements of stratospheric H2O confirm that the isolation lasts until at least mid-October. A three-dimensional chemical transport model simulation of the Antarctic ozone hole quantifies the ozone loss within this ring and demonstrates its isolation. In contrast to the vortex core, ozone loss in the weakly mixed broad ring is not complete. The reasons are twofold. First, warmer temperatures in the broad ring prevent continuous polar stratospheric cloud (PSC) formation and the associated chemical processing (i.e., the conversion of unreactive chlorine into reactive forms). Second, the isolation prevents ozone-rich air from the broad ring mixing with chemically processed air from the vortex core. If the stratosphere continues to cool, this will lead to increased PSC formation and more complete chemical processing in the broad ring. Despite the expected decline in halocarbons, sensitivity studies suggest that this mechanism will lead to enhanced ozone loss in the weakly mixed region, delaying the future recovery of the ozone hole
Emergent global patterns of ecosystem structure and function from a mechanistic general ecosystem model
Anthropogenic activities are causing widespread degradation of ecosystems worldwide, threatening the ecosystem services upon which all human life depends. Improved understanding of this degradation is urgently needed to improve avoidance and mitigation measures. One tool to assist these efforts is predictive models of ecosystem structure and function that are mechanistic: based on fundamental ecological principles. Here we present the first mechanistic General Ecosystem Model (GEM) of ecosystem structure and function that is both global and applies in all terrestrial and marine environments. Functional forms and parameter values were derived from the theoretical and empirical literature where possible. Simulations of the fate of all organisms with body masses between 10 µg and 150,000 kg (a range of 14 orders of magnitude) across the globe led to emergent properties at individual (e.g., growth rate), community (e.g., biomass turnover rates), ecosystem (e.g., trophic pyramids), and macroecological scales (e.g., global patterns of trophic structure) that are in general agreement with current data and theory. These properties emerged from our encoding of the biology of, and interactions among, individual organisms without any direct constraints on the properties themselves. Our results indicate that ecologists have gathered sufficient information to begin to build realistic, global, and mechanistic models of ecosystems, capable of predicting a diverse range of ecosystem properties and their response to human pressures
Infrared absorption cross-sections in HITRAN2016 and beyond: expansion for climate, environment, and atmospheric applications
Spectroscopic analysis of hydrocarbons, halocarbons and related species is required in atmospheric applications such as climate-change research, tracking of pollution and biomass burning, and remote sensing. Critically evaluated line-by-line spectroscopic data are needed for such analyses. To address this need we report the large addition of spectra to the HITRAN2016 database. This extension increases the number of molecules in the database by almost a factor of 6 from that in HITRAN2012. Spectra from the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory database (Appl. Spectrosc. 2004;58:1452–61) and the Hodnebrog et al. compilation (Rev Geophys 2013;51:300–78) have been integrated into HITRAN2016. Spectra from high-resolution laboratory observations, predominantly from Fourier transform spectrometers, are now provided for 328 compounds in the IR spectral range. Spectra for atmospherically-important compounds organized by chemical category are presented. The HITRAN infrastructure (www.hitran.org), HITRAN Application Programming Interface (HAPI), and best practices for searching and downloading data are discussed
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