In situ mineralogical-chemical analysis of Martian materials at landing/roving sites by active and passive remote sensing methods

Remote sensing of the Martian surface from the ground and from orbiting spacecraft has provided some first-order insight into the mineralogical-chemical composition and the weathering state of Martian surface materials. Much more detailed information can be gathered from performing such measurements in situ at the landing sites or from a rover in combination with analogous measurements from orbit. Measurements in the wavelength range of approximately 0.3 to 12.0 micrometers appear to be suitable to characterize much of the physical, mineralogical, petrological, and chemical properties of Martian surface materials and the weathering and other alteration processes that have acted on them. It is of particular importance to carry out measurements at the same time over a broad wavelength range since the reflectance signatures are caused by different effects and hence give different and complementing information. It appears particularly useful to employ a combination of active and passive methods because the use of active laser spectroscopy allows the obtaining of specific information on thermal infrared reflectance of surface materials. It seems to be evident that a spectrometric survey of Martian materials has to be focused on the analysis of altered and fresh mafic materials and rocks, water-bearing silicates, and possibly carbonates

Improvements to Stellar Structure Models, Based on a Grid of 3D Convection Simulations. I. T(τ)T(\tau)-Relations

Relations between temperature, T, and optical depth, tau, are often used for describing the photospheric transition from optically thick to optically thin in stellar structure models. We show that this is well justified, but also that currently used T(tau) relations are often inconsistent with their implementation. As an outer boundary condition on the system of stellar structure equations, T(tau) relations have an undue effect on the overall structure of stars. In this age of precision asteroseismology, we need to re-assess both the method for computing and for implementing T(tau) relations, and the assumptions they rest on. We develop a formulation for proper and consistent evaluation of T(tau) relations from arbitrary 1D or 3D stellar atmospheres, and for their implementation in stellar structure and evolution models. We extract radiative T(tau) relations, as described by our new formulation, from 3D simulations of convection in deep stellar atmospheres of late-type stars from dwarfs to giants. These simulations employ realistic opacities and equation of state, and account for line-blanketing. For comparison, we also extract T(tau) relations from 1D MARCS model atmospheres using the same formulation. T(tau)-relations from our grid of 3D convection simulations display a larger range of behaviours with surface gravity, compared with those of conventional theoretical 1D hydrostatic atmosphere models. Based on this, we recommend no longer to use scaled solar T(tau) relations. Files with T(tau) relations for our grid of simulations are made available to the community, together with routines for interpolating in this irregular grid. We also provide matching tables of atmospheric opacity, for consistent implementation in stellar structure models.Comment: 18 pages, 7 figures, 2 tables. Accepted for publication in MNRAS, 201

A Grid of 3D Stellar Atmosphere Models of Solar Metallicity: I. General Properties, Granulation and Atmospheric Expansion

Present grids of stellar atmosphere models are the workhorses in interpreting stellar observations, and determining their fundamental parameters. These models rely on greatly simplified models of convection, however, lending less predictive power to such models of late type stars. We present a grid of improved and more reliable stellar atmosphere models of late type stars, based on deep, 3D, convective, stellar atmosphere simulations. This grid is to be used in general for interpreting observations, and improve stellar and asteroseismic modeling. We solve the Navier Stokes equations in 3D and concurrent with the radiative transfer equation, for a range of atmospheric parameters, covering most of stellar evolution with convection at the surface. We emphasize use of the best available atomic physics for quantitative predictions and comparisons with observations. We present granulation size, convective expansion of the acoustic cavity, asymptotic adiabat, as function of atmospheric parameters. These and other results are also available in electronic form.Comment: 16 pages, 12 figures. Accepted for publication in ApJ, 201

Improvements to stellar structure models, based on a grid of 3D convection simulations. II. Calibrating the mixing-length formulation

We perform a calibration of the mixing length of convection in stellar structure models against realistic 3D radiation-coupled hydrodynamics (RHD) simulations of convection in stellar surface layers, determining the adiabat deep in convective stellar envelopes. The mixing-length parameter $\alpha$ is calibrated by matching averages of the 3D simulations to 1D stellar envelope models, ensuring identical atomic physics in the two cases. This is done for a previously published grid of solar-metallicity convection simulations, covering from 4200 K to 6900 K on the main sequence, and 4300-5000 K for giants with logg=2.2. Our calibration results in an $\alpha$ varying from 1.6 for the warmest dwarf, which is just cool enough to admit a convective envelope, and up to 2.05 for the coolest dwarfs in our grid. In between these is a triangular plateau of $\alpha$ ~ 1.76. The Sun is located on this plateau and has seen little change during its evolution so far. When stars ascend the giant branch, they largely do so along tracks of constant $\alpha$, with $\alpha$ decreasing with increasing mass.Comment: 22 pages, 15 figures, accepted for publication in MNRA

Differentiation and identification of White Riesling clones by genetic markers

Three different marker systems were used to genotype 10 clones of the grapevine cultivar White Riesling. All clones could be differentiated by means of genetic polymorphism gained by RAPD, SSR or Inter-SSR markers. While RAPD profile lacks stability for an identificational approach, individual SSR and Inter-SSR alleles could be retrieved within samples of the same clone. The polymorphic DNA fragments confirm the genetic variability within a traditional grapevine cultivar and the reproducibility of some of these markers allows the identification of clones. Since SSR and Inter-SSR markers show high stability when comparing data from different laboratories these methods are appropriate to establish data bases for the characterization of clonal grapevine material

Highly variable Vitis microsatellite loci for the identification of Pinot Noir clones

Nineteen new microsatellite loci of Vitis were elaborated by following the procedure of tagging an SSRenriched library. Primers for these VRG markers were used for genotyping grapevines. Only the markers VRG 1, VRG 2, VRG 4, VRG 7, VRG 9, VRG 10, VRG 15 and VRG 16 show heterozygous alleles and Mendelian segregation. Other VRG loci such as VRG 5, VRG 6, VRG 11, VRG 12 VRG 13 and VRG 17 produce a multiallelic profile and some of them show distorted segregation. Variability of the VRG loci is rather high as compared to other grapevine SSR markers. Stable VRG markers such as VRG 16 can be useful for the identification of cultivars. Highly variable VRG microsatellites could be successfully applied to trace polymorphism within the variety Pinot Noir. Clones of Pinot Noir could be differentiated using these markers. By applying the PhyQuest program, a dendrogramm showing the genetic divergence within Pinot Noir clones was constructed.

Embryogenesis in microspore culture of Vitis subspecies

Embryoid structures showing epidermal layers have been regenerated from isolated Vitis microspores. Experiments were carried out on 8 genotypes of Vitis including different donor plant growth conditions, chilling of microspores (4 °C), heat shock (35 °C) and colchicine exposure (10, 25 and 50 mg/l) as induction treatments and incubation of the cultures on 87 different solid and liquid NN and LS media. The reactions of the cultured microspores included enlargement and thickening of the exine, formation of microcalli, calli, globular proembryos and embryoid structures displaying cell differentiation. Callus formation took place mainly on solid LS media with 3 % or 12 % sucrose, whereas most of the embryoids developed on NN media with 3 % sucrose. Both, callus and embryoid formation, were promoted by colchicine treatment. 8 months after transfer of calli and embryoids to subculture media, 4 embryoids still showed cell proliferation

Genotyping of grapevine and rootstock cultivars using microsatellite markers

Sixty-six grapevine and rootstock cultivars from an Austrian germplasm collection were genotyped using the following 10 microsatellite loci: VVS1, VVS2, VVS3, VVS4 (THOMAS and SCOTT 1993), VVS29 (THOMAS, pers. comm.), VVMD5, VVMD7 (BOWERS et al. 1996), VVMD28, VVMD32 and VVMD36 (BOWERS and MEREDITH, pers, comm.). All cultivars except those which are thought to be closely related (e.g. Portugieser blau and Portugieser grun) provided unique allelic profiles. A phenogram based on pairwise similarity values revealed the separation of rootstock cultivars from the Vitis vinifera varieties. The probability for the presence of null alleles was estimated from heterozygote deficiencies and null alleles were statistically excluded at 9 of the 10 loci. In order to demonstrate the distinctive power of the microsatellite markers investigated, gene diversity (GD) values were calculated. For both grapevine and rootstock cultivars we estimated a GD range from 0.70 to 0.91, while GD values for grapevines only range from 0.52 to 0.87 and values for rootstocks from 0.29 to 0.86