92,466 research outputs found
Planetary radar
The radar astronomy activities supported by the Deep Space Network are reported. The high power S- and X-band radar transmitters at the Goldstone 64 meter station were used for a radar probe of Mars during January, February, and March 1980, which was designed to provide range and Doppler data derived from signals reflected from the Martian surface, taking advantage of the planet's nearness during opposition
Analysis of heat transfer and fluid friction for fully developed turbulent flow of supercritical water with variable fluid properties in a smooth tube
Dispersion of biased swimming microorganisms in a fluid flowing through a tube
Classical Taylor-Aris dispersion theory is extended to describe the transport
of suspensions of self-propelled dipolar cells in a tubular flow. General
expressions for the mean drift and effective diffusivity are determined exactly
in terms of axial moments, and compared with an approximation a la Taylor. As
in the Taylor-Aris case, the skewness of a finite distribution of biased
swimming cells vanishes at long times. The general expressions can be applied
to particular models of swimming microorganisms, and thus be used to predict
swimming drift and diffusion in tubular bioreactors, and to elucidate competing
unbounded swimming drift and diffusion descriptions. Here, specific examples
are presented for gyrotactic swimming algae.Comment: 20 pages, 4 figures. Published version available at
http://rspa.royalsocietypublishing.org/content/early/2010/02/09/rspa.2009.0606.short?rss=
A sample of low-redshift BL Lacertae objects. II. EVN and MERLIN data and multi-wavelength analysis
We present new radio observations of 9 members of a sample of 29 nearby (z <
0.2) BL Lac objects. The new data have been obtained with the European VLBI
Network and/or the MERLIN at 1.6 and 5 GHz and complement previous
observations. For one object, the TeV source Mrk 421, we also present deep
multi-epoch VLBA and Global VLBI data, which reveal a resolved diffuse jet,
with clear signatures of limb brightening. We use the new and old data to
estimate physical parameters of the jets of the sample from which the subset
with new radio data is drawn. We derive Doppler factors in the parsec scale
radio jet in the range ~2 < delta < ~9. Using HST data, we separate the
contribution of the host galaxy from that of the active core. From the measured
and de-beamed observables, we find a weak correlation between radio power and
black hole mass, and a tight correlation between radio and optical core
luminosities. We interpret this result in terms of a common synchrotron origin,
with little contribution from a radiatively efficient accretion disk. The BL
Lacs in our sample have de-beamed properties similar to low power radio
galaxies, including the fundamental plane of black hole activity.Comment: Accepted by ApJ. 17 page
Analysis of enhanced diffusion in Taylor dispersion via a model problem
We consider a simple model of the evolution of the concentration of a tracer,
subject to a background shear flow by a fluid with viscosity in an
infinite channel. Taylor observed in the 1950's that, in such a setting, the
tracer diffuses at a rate proportional to , rather than the expected
rate proportional to . We provide a mathematical explanation for this
enhanced diffusion using a combination of Fourier analysis and center manifold
theory. More precisely, we show that, while the high modes of the concentration
decay exponentially, the low modes decay algebraically, but at an enhanced
rate. Moreover, the behavior of the low modes is governed by finite-dimensional
dynamics on an appropriate center manifold, which corresponds exactly to
diffusion by a fluid with viscosity proportional to
A comparative analysis of projected impacts of climate change on river runoff from global and catchment-scale hydrological models
We present a comparative analysis of projected impacts of climate change on river runoff from two types of distributed hydrological model, a global hydrological model (GHM) and catchment-scale hydrological models (CHM). Analyses are conducted for six catchments that are global in coverage and feature strong contrasts in spatial scale as well as climatic and development conditions. These include the Liard (Canada), Mekong (SE Asia), Okavango (SW Africa), Rio Grande (Brazil), Xiangu (China) and Harper's Brook (UK). A single GHM (Mac-PDM.09) is applied to all catchments whilst different CHMs are applied for each catchment. The CHMs typically simulate water resources impacts based on a more explicit representation of catchment water resources than that available from the GHM, and the CHMs include river routing. Simulations of average annual runoff, mean monthly runoff and high (Q5) and low (Q95) monthly runoff under baseline (1961-1990) and climate change scenarios are presented. We compare the simulated runoff response of each hydrological model to (1) prescribed increases in global mean temperature from the HadCM3 climate model and (2)a prescribed increase in global-mean temperature of 2oC for seven GCMs to explore response to climate model and structural uncertainty.
We find that differences in projected changes of mean annual runoff between the two types of hydrological model can be substantial for a given GCM, and they are generally larger for indicators of high and low flow. However, they are relatively small in comparison to the range of projections across the seven GCMs. Hence, for the six catchments and seven GCMs we considered, climate model structural uncertainty is greater than the uncertainty associated with the type of hydrological model applied. Moreover, shifts in the seasonal cycle of runoff with climate change are presented similarly by both hydrological models, although for some catchments the monthly timing of high and low flows differs.This implies that for studies that seek to quantify and assess the role of climate model uncertainty on catchment-scale runoff, it may be equally as feasible to apply a GHM as it is to apply a CHM, especially when climate modelling uncertainty across the range of available GCMs is as large as it currently is. Whilst the GHM is able to represent the broad climate change signal that is represented by the CHMs, we find, however, that for some catchments there are differences between GHMs and CHMs in mean annual runoff due to differences in potential evaporation estimation methods, in the representation of the seasonality of runoff, and in the magnitude of changes in extreme monthly runoff, all of which have implications for future water management issues
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