The 22 GHz radio-aeronomy receiver at Onsala Space Observatory

We present a radiometer system for regular long-term measurements of water vapour in the middle atmosphere. To be able to do continuous and long-term measurements a simple, robust, reliable and automatic system is needed. Our system therefore is based on a stable, uncooled, HEMT amplifier frontend and on a digital spectrometer backend. In order to minimise reflections in the frontend transmission line, which distort the signal due to standing waves, we have designed a corrugated receiver horn, which combines good characteristics (low return loss and sidelobes) and narrow beamwidth to simplify the receiver optics. In order to make the radiometer system as simple as possible, we use the sky as the calibration cold load. This is possible since we use the observed brightness temperatures of an already existing broadband dual-channel 21.0/31.4-GHz radiometer, at the observation site, to estimate the brightness temperature of the sky at . However, we have developed a calibration method, which makes it possible to estimate the sky brightness temperature even if we cannot use the dual-channel radiometer. Despite new measurements, which became available in recent years, the determination of middle atmospheric water vapour distribution still remains a challenge due to the fact that there is a large dispersion among the different measurement methods and data sets, which are obtained on a sparse and sporadic basis. This is the reason why several instruments similar to ours currently are developed in Europe

Hydroxyl, water, ammonia, carbon monoxide and neutral carbon towards the Sgr A complex

We observed OH, H$_2$O, HN$_3$, C$^{18}$O, and C$_I$ towards the +50 km/s cloud (M-0.02-0.07), the CND and the +20 km/s (M-0.13-0.08) cloud in the Sgr A complex with the VLA, Odin and SEST. Strong OH absorption, H$_2$O emission and absorption lines were seen at all three positions. Strong C$^{18}$O emissions were seen towards the +50 and +20 km/s clouds. The CND is rich in H$_2$O and OH, and these abundances are considerably higher than in the surrounding clouds, indicating that shocks, star formation and clump collisions prevail in those objects. A comparison with the literature reveals that it is likely that PDR chemistry including grain surface reactions, and perhaps also the influences of shocks has led to the observed abundances of the observed molecular species studied here. In the redward high-velocity line wings of both the +50 and +20 km/s clouds and the CND, the very high H$_2$O abundances are suggested to be caused by the combined action of shock desorption from icy grain mantles and high-temperature, gas-phase shock chemistry. Only three of the molecules are briefly discussed here. For OH and H$_2$O three of the nine observed positions are shown, while a map of the C$^{18}$O emission is provided. An extensive paper was recently published with Open Access (Karlsson et al. 2013; http://www.aanda.org/articles/aa/pdf/2013/06/aa20471-12.pdf ).Comment: Proc. of a Conf. on IAU Symposium No.303: The Galactic Center: Feeding and Feedback in a Normal Galactic Nucleus 2013, Santa Fe, NM (USA

Longest continous ground-based measurements of mesospheric CO

The longest continuous series of ground-based measurements of mesospheric CO is presented. The continuous data cover the period September 2000 to September 2002. Sporadic measurements from 1988 and 1989 are also reported. The results show a large CO accumulation in the winter mesosphere, which is consistent with generally accepted ideas about the seasonally-varying mean meridional circulation. Comparison of the observations with simulations by the Whole Atmosphere Community Climate Model (WACCM) indicate that the model can reproduce the observed seasonal cycle as well as much of its variability, although calculated columns amounts are smaller than the largest values seen in the data

Variability of water masers in evolved stars on timescales of decades

For several decades (1987-2015) we have been carrying out observations of water masers in the circumstellar envelopes (CSE's) of Mira variables, Red Supergiants (RSG's) and Semi-Regular Variables (SRV's) with the Medicina 32-m and Effelsberg 100-m antennas. The single-dish monitoring observations provide evidence for strong H2O maser profile variations, which likely are connected to structural changes in the maser shells. Such variations include strong flares in intensity lasting several (tens of) months and systemic velocity gradients of maser components developing over years, as well as other secular variations which are superimposed on periodic variations following the stellar light variations. When complemented with interferometric observations, it is possible to derive the 3-D distribution of the maser spots, and their lifetime, as we have done for RX Boo (Winnberg et al. 2008) and U Her (Winnberg et al. 2011; Brand et al. in prep.)

Educação integral, institucionalização do tempo livre: outras lógicas educacionais no contexto Luso-Brasileiro

A finalidade principal do presente artigo é refletir sobre os debates que circundam a educação integral. Baseado em revisão bibliográfica de estudos específicos sobre essa temática, propõe um breve diálogo entre concepções de educação integral no Brasil e em Portugal, articulando-as com propostas no campo da educação não formal. São apresentadas observações sobre as peculiaridades da educação integral em ambos os países, atentos para outros jeitos de organizar o processo educacional, escapando de uma única lógica e do risco de institucionalização cada vez maior do tempo livre.The main purpose of the article is to reflect on the debates surrounding full-time education, and based on a bibliographical review of specific studies on the subject, to propose a brief dialogue between the conceptions of full-time education in Brazil and Portugal, articulating them with proposals in the field of non-formal education. Observations on the peculiarities of full-time education in both countries are presented here, attentive to other ways of organizing the educational process, escaping from a single logic and the risk of institutionalization of free time. Keywords: Full-time education; Non-formal and informal education; Community interventio