Significant variations of trace gas composition and aerosol properties at Mt. Cimone during air mass transport from North Africa – contributions from wildfire emissions and mineral dust

Abstract. High levels of trace gas (O3 and CO) and aerosol (BC, fine and coarse particle volumes), as well as high scattering coefficient (σp) values, were recorded at the regional GAW-WMO station of Mt. Cimone (CMN, 2165 m a.s.l., Italy) during the period 26–30 August 2007. Analysis of air-mass circulation, aerosol chemical characterization and trace gas and aerosol enhancement ratios (ERs), showed that high O3 and aerosol levels were likely linked to (i) the transport of anthropogenic pollution from northern Italy, and (ii) the advection of air masses rich in mineral dust and biomass burning (BB) products from North Africa. In particular, during the advection of air masses from North Africa, the CO and aerosol levels (CO: 175 ppbv, BC: 1015 ng/m3, fine particle volume: 3.00 μm3 cm−3, σp: 84.5 Mm−1) were even higher than during the pollution event (CO: 138 ppbv, BC: 733 ng/m3, fine particles volume: 1.58 μm3 cm−3, σp: 44.9 M

Plasma Turbulence studied by means of Correlation-ECE in the TEM domain in TCV

Plasma Turbulence studied by means of Correlation-ECE in the TEM domain in TCV Electron temperature fluctuations in the TEM domain have been measured in TCV using the correlation-ECE diagnostics [1]. Significant broadband electron temperature fluctuations are found radially extending between 0.3<ρ<0.7 on the equatorial LFS. Their amplitude decreases with collisionality (with increasing density in OH discharges), in qualitative agreement with predictions from local, linear gyrokinetic GS2 calculations. Thus the mixing length heat diffusivity calculated from GS2 decreases with collisionality, as does the measured heat diffusivity from power balance [2]. This diagnostics allows now the study at the microscopic, turbulence level, of the previously found heat transport triangularity scaling [3], linked to changes of the resonance of TE with the TEM [4]. The decrease of transport when going from positive to negative triangularity found in TCV L-mode can now be investigated and compared to gyrokinetic predictions of instabilities or turbulence (linear/non-linear, local/global). TEM features, like the orientation of the potential cells, predicted to change with plasma shape, up/down-asymmetries, can now be measured through the correlation lengths along a horizontal line of sight, or obliquely, using a mobile mirror arrangement (ECRH launcher in reception mode). [1] V.S. Udintsev et al., Fusion Science and Technology 52 (2007) 161. [2] V.S. Udintsev, E. Fable et al., in preparation. [3] Y. Camenen et al. Nucl., Fusion 47 (2007) 510. [4] A. Marinoni et al., Plasma Phys. Control. Fusion 51 (2009) 055016. 1 present address ITER-IO, Cadarache, St Paul-lez-Durance, F 2 present address CFSA, Dept of Physics, University of Warwick, UK This work was supported in part by the Swiss National Science Foundation

Dynamical signatures of a \u39bCDM-halo and the distribution of the baryons in M\u200933

Aims: We determine the mass distribution of stars, gas, and dark matter in M 33 to test cosmological models of galaxy formation and evolution. Methods: We map the neutral atomic gas content of M 33 using high resolution Very Large Array and Green Bank Telescope observations of the 21 cm HI line emission. A tilted ring model is fitted to the HI datacube to determine the varying spatial orientation of the extended gaseous disk and the rotation curve. We derive the stellar mass surface density map of M 33's optical disk via pixel-SED fitting methods based on population synthesis models that allow for positional changes in star formation history. Stellar and gas maps are used in the dynamical analysis of the rotation curve to constrain the dark halo properties. Results: The disk of M 33 warps from 8 kpc outward without substantial change of its inclination with respect to the line of sight; the line of nodes rotates clockwise toward the direction of M 31. Rotational velocities rise steeply with radius in the inner disk, reaching 100 km s-1 in 4 kpc, then the rotation curve becomes more perturbed and flatter with velocities as high as 120-130 km s-1 out to 2.7 R25. The stellar surface density map highlights a star-forming disk with a varying mass-to-light ratio. At larger radii, a dynamically relevant fraction of the baryons are in gaseous form. A dark matter halo with a Navarro-Frenk-White density profile, as predicted by hierarchical clustering and structure formation in a \u39bCDM cosmology, provides the best fits to the rotation curve. Dark matter is relevant at all radii in shaping the rotation curve and the most likely dark halo has a concentration C 43 9.5 and a total mass of 4.3(\ub11.0) 7 1011 M 99. This imples a baryonic fraction of order 0.02 and the evolutionary history of this galaxy should therefore account for loss of a large fraction of its original baryonic content

Measures of Galaxy Environment - I. What is "Environment"?

The influence of a galaxy's environment on its evolution has been studied and compared extensively in the literature, although differing techniques are often used to define environment. Most methods fall into two broad groups: those that use nearest neighbours to probe the underlying density field and those that use fixed apertures. The differences between the two inhibit a clean comparison between analyses and leave open the possibility that, even with the same data, different properties are actually being measured. In this work we apply twenty published environment definitions to a common mock galaxy catalogue constrained to look like the local Universe. We find that nearest neighbour-based measures best probe the internal densities of high-mass haloes, while at low masses the inter-halo separation dominates and acts to smooth out local density variations. The resulting correlation also shows that nearest neighbour galaxy environment is largely independent of dark matter halo mass. Conversely, aperture-based methods that probe super-halo scales accurately identify high-density regions corresponding to high mass haloes. Both methods show how galaxies in dense environments tend to be redder, with the exception of the largest apertures, but these are the strongest at recovering the background dark matter environment. We also warn against using photometric redshifts to define environment in all but the densest regions. When considering environment there are two regimes: the 'local environment' internal to a halo best measured with nearest neighbour and 'large-scale environment' external to a halo best measured with apertures. This leads to the conclusion that there is no universal environment measure and the most suitable method depends on the scale being probed.Comment: 14 pages, 9 figures, 1 table, published in MNRA

Transport and turbulence reduction with negative triangularity : Correlation ECE measurements in TCV

Turbulence and Transport Reduction with Negative Triangularity : Correlation ECE Measurements in TCV Due to turbulence, core energy transport in fusion devices such as tokamaks generally exceeds collisional transport by at least an order of magnitude. It is therefore crucial to understand the instabilities driving the turbulent state and to find ways to control them. Plasma shape is one of these fundamental tools. In low collisionality plasmas, such as in a reactor, changing the plasma shape from Dee-shape to inverse Dee-shape (from positive to negative triangularity δ) reduces the energy transport by a factor two: the heat flux necessary to sustain the same profiles and stored energy in a discharge with δ=-0.4 is only half of that at δ=+0.4. This is significant, since it opens the possibility of having Hmode-like confinement time within an L-mode edge; or at least with smaller ELMs. Recent correlation ECE measurements show that this reduction of transport at negative δ is reflected in a reduction by a factor of two of both 1) the amplitude of temperature fluctuations in the broadband frequency range 30-150 kHz, and 2) the fluctuation correlation length, measured at mid-radius (ρv~0.6). In addition, the fluctuations amplitude is reduced with increasing collisionality, consistent with theoretical estimates of the collisionality effect on Trapped Electron Modes (TEM). The correlation ECE results are compared to gyrokinetic code results: 1) global linear gyrokinetic simulations (LORB) have predicted shorter radial TEM wavelength λ⊥ for negative triangularity plasmas, consistent with the shorter radial turbulence correlation length λc observed. 2) At least close to the strongly shaped plasma boundary, local nonlinear gyrokinetic simulations with the GS2 code predict that the TEM induced transport decreases with decreasing triangularity and increasing collisionality, in fair agreement with the experimental observations. 3) Calculations are now extended to global nonlinear simulations (ORB5). This work was supported in part by the Swiss National Science Foundatio

GRAWITA: VLT Survey Telescope observations of the gravitational wave sources GW150914 and GW151226

We report the results of deep optical follow-up surveys of the first two gravitational-wave sources, GW150914 and GW151226, done by the GRAvitational Wave Inaf TeAm Collaboration (GRAWITA). The VLT Survey Telescope (VST) responded promptly to the gravitational wave alerts sent by the LIGO and Virgo Collaborations, monitoring a region of 90 and 72 deg2 for GW150914 and GW151226, respectively, and repeated the observations over nearly two months. Both surveys reached an average limiting magnitude of about 21 in the r band. The paper describes the VST observational strategy and two independent procedures developed to search for transient counterpart candidates in multi-epoch VST images. Several transients have been discovered but no candidates are recognized to be related to the gravitational wave events. Interestingly, among many contaminant supernovae, we find a possible correlation between the supernova VSTJ57.77559-59.13990 and GRB 150827A detected by Fermi-GBM. The detection efficiency of VST observations for different types of electromagnetic counterparts of gravitational wave events is evaluated for the present and future follow-up surveys

Supplement: "Localization and broadband follow-up of the gravitational-wave transient GW150914" (2016, ApJL, 826, L13)

This Supplement provides supporting material for Abbott et al. (2016a). We briefly summarize past electromagnetic (EM) follow-up efforts as well as the organization and policy of the current EM follow-up program. We compare the four probability sky maps produced for the gravitational-wave transient GW150914, and provide additional details of the EM follow-up observations that were performed in the different bands