Cold, clumpy accretion onto an active supermassive black hole.

PubMed

Tremblay, Grant R; Oonk, J B Raymond; Combes, Françoise; Salomé, Philippe; O'Dea, Christopher P; Baum, Stefi A; Voit, G Mark; Donahue, Megan; McNamara, Brian R; Davis, Timothy A; McDonald, Michael A; Edge, Alastair C; Clarke, Tracy E; Galván-Madrid, Roberto; Bremer, Malcolm N; Edwards, Louise O V; Fabian, Andrew C; Hamer, Stephen; Li, Yuan; Maury, Anaëlle; Russell, Helen R; Quillen, Alice C; Urry, C Megan; Sanders, Jeremy S; Wise, Michael W

2016-06-09

Supermassive black holes in galaxy centres can grow by the accretion of gas, liberating energy that might regulate star formation on galaxy-wide scales. The nature of the gaseous fuel reservoirs that power black hole growth is nevertheless largely unconstrained by observations, and is instead routinely simplified as a smooth, spherical inflow of very hot gas. Recent theory and simulations instead predict that accretion can be dominated by a stochastic, clumpy distribution of very cold molecular clouds--a departure from the 'hot mode' accretion model--although unambiguous observational support for this prediction remains elusive. Here we report observations that reveal a cold, clumpy accretion flow towards a supermassive black hole fuel reservoir in the nucleus of the Abell 2597 Brightest Cluster Galaxy (BCG), a nearby (redshift z = 0.0821) giant elliptical galaxy surrounded by a dense halo of hot plasma. Under the right conditions, thermal instabilities produce a rain of cold clouds that fall towards the galaxy's centre, sustaining star formation amid a kiloparsec-scale molecular nebula that is found at its core. The observations show that these cold clouds also fuel black hole accretion, revealing 'shadows' cast by the molecular clouds as they move inward at about 300 kilometres per second towards the active supermassive black hole, which serves as a bright backlight. Corroborating evidence from prior observations of warmer atomic gas at extremely high spatial resolution, along with simple arguments based on geometry and probability, indicate that these clouds are within the innermost hundred parsecs of the black hole, and falling closer towards it.

The chemistry of dense interstellar clouds

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Irvine, W. M.

1991-01-01

The basic theme of this program is the study of molecular complexity and evolution in interstellar and circumstellar clouds incorporating the biogenic elements. Recent results include the identification of a new astronomical carbon-chain molecule, C4Si. This species was detected in the envelope expelled from the evolved star IRC+10216 in observations at the Nobeyama Radio Observatory in Japan. C4Si is the carrier of six unidentified lines which had previously been observed. This detection reveals the existence of a new series of carbon-chain molecules, C sub n Si (n equals 1, 2, 4). Such molecules may well be formed from the reaction of Si(+) with acetylene and acetylene derivatives. Other recent research has concentrated on the chemical composition of the cold, dark interstellar clouds, the nearest dense molecular clouds to the solar system. Such regions have very low kinetic temperatures, on the order of 10 K, and are known to be formation sites for solar-type stars. We have recently identified for the first time in such regions the species of H2S, NO, HCOOH (formic acid). The H2S abundance appears to exceed that predicted by gas-phase models of ion-molecule chemistry, perhaps suggesting the importance of synthesis on grain surfaces. Additional observations in dark clouds have studied the ratio of ortho- to para-thioformaldehyde. Since this ratio is expected to be unaffected by both radiative and ordinary collisional processes in the cloud, it may well reflect the formation conditions for this molecule. The ratio is observed to depart from that expected under conditions of chemical equilibrium at formation, perhaps reflecting efficient interchange between cold dust grains in the gas phase.

The Transition from Diffuse to Dense Gas in Herschel Dust Emission Maps

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Goldsmith, Paul

Dense cores in dark clouds are the sites where young stars form. These regions manifest as relatively small (<0.1pc) pockets of cold and dense gas. If we wish to understand the star formation process, we have to understand the physical conditions in dense cores. This has been a main aim of star formation research in the past decade. Today, we do indeed possess a good knowledge of the density and velocity structure of cores, as well as their chemical evolution and physical lifetime. However, we do not understand well how dense cores form out of the diffuse gas clouds surrounding them. It is crucial that we constrain the relationship between dense cores and their environment: if we only understand dense cores, we may be able to understand how individual stars form --- but we would not know how the star forming dense cores themselves come into existence. We therefore propose to obtain data sets that reveal both dense cores and the clouds containing them in the same map. Based on these maps, we will study how dense cores form out of their natal clouds. Since cores form stars, this knowledge is crucial for the development of a complete theoretical and observational understanding of the formation of stars and their planets, as envisioned in NASA's Strategic Science Plan. Fortunately, existing archival data allow to derive exactly the sort of maps we need for our analysis. Here, we describe a program that exclusively builds on PACS and SPIRE dust emission imaging data from the NASA-supported Herschel mission. The degree-sized wide-field Herschel maps of the nearby (<260pc) Polaris Flare and Aquila Rift clouds are ideal for our work. They permit to resolve dense cores (<0.1pc), while the maps also reveal large-scale cloud structure (5pc and larger). We will generate column density maps from these dust emission maps and then run a tree-based hierarchical multi-scale structure analysis on them. Only this procedure permits to exploit the full potential of the maps: we will characterize cloud structure over a vast range of spatial scales. This work has many advantages over previous studies, where information about dense cores and their environment was pieced together using a variety of methods an instruments. Now, the Herschel maps permit for the first time to characterize both molecular clouds and their cores in one shot in a single data set. We use these data to answer a variety of simple yet very important questions. First, we study whether dense cores have sharp boundaries. If such boundaries exist, they would indicate that dense cores have an individual identity well-separate from the near-fractal cloud structure on larger spatial scales. Second, we will --- in very approximate sense --- derive global density gradients for molecular clouds from radii <0.1pc to 5pc and larger. These "synoptic" density gradients provide a useful quantitative description of the relation between cloud material at very different spatial scales. Also, these measurements can be compared to synoptic density gradients derived in the same fashion for theoretical cloud models. Third, we study how dense cores are nested into the "clumps" forming molecular clouds, i.e., we study whether the most massive dense cores in a cloud (<0.1pc) reside in the most massive regions identified on lager spatial scale (1pc and larger). This will show how the properties of dense cores are influenced by their environment. Our study will derive unique constraints to cloud structure. But our small sample forbids to make strong statements. This pilot study does thus prepare future larger efforts. Our entire project builds on data reduction and analysis methods which our team has used in the past. This guarantees a swift completion of the project with predictable efficiency. We present pilot studies that demonstrate that the data and analysis methods are suited to tackle the science goals. This project is thus guaranteed to return significant results.

Statistical properties of the polarized emission of Planck Galactic cold clumps

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ristorcelli, Isabelle; Planck Collaboration

2015-08-01

The Galactic magnetic fields are considered as one of the key components regulating star formation, but their actual role on the dense cores formation and evolution remains today an open question.Dust polarized continuum emission is particularly well suited to probe the dense and cold medium and study the magnetic field structure. Such observations also provide tight constraints to better understand the efficiency of the dust alignment along the magnetic field lines, which in turn relate on our grasp to properly interpret the B-field properties.With the Planck all-sky survey of dust submillimeter emission in intensity and polarization, we can investigate the intermediate scales, between that of molecular cloud and of prestellar cores, and perform a statistical analysis on the polarization properties of cold clumps.Combined with the IRAS map at 100microns, the Planck survey has allowed to build the first all-sky catalogue of Galactic Cold Clumps (PGCC, Planck 2015 results XXVIII 2015). The corresponding 13188 sources cover a broad range in physical properties, and correspond to different evolutionary stages, from cold and starless clumps, nearby cores, to young protostellar objects still embedded in their cold surrounding cloud.I will present the main results of our polarization analysis obtained on different samples of sources from the PGCC catalogue, based on the 353GHz polarized emission measured with Planck. The statistical properties are derived from a stacking method, using optimized estimators for the polarization fraction and angle parameters. These properties are determined and compared according to the nature of the sources (starless or YSOs), their size or density range. Finally, I will present a comparison of our results with predictions from MHD simulations of clumps including radiative transfer and the dust radiative torque alignment mechanism.

OT1_dlis_2: Ammonia as a Tracer of the Earliest Stages of Star Formation

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Lis, D.

2010-07-01

Stars form in molecular cloud cores, cold and dense regions enshrouded by dust. The initiation of this process is among the least understood steps of star formation. Highresolution heterodyne spectroscopy provides invaluable information about the physical conditions (density, temperature), kinematics (infall, outflows), and chemistry of these regions. Classical molecular tracers, such CO, CS, and many other abundant gasphase species, have been shown to freeze out onto dust grain mantles in prestellar cores. However, Nbearing species, in particular ammonia, are much less affected by depletion and are observed to stay in the gas phase at densities in excess of 1e6 cm3. The molecular freezeout has important consequences for the chemistry of dense gas. In particular, the depletion of abundant gasphase species with heavy atoms drives up abundances of deuterated H3+ isotopologues, which in turn results in spectacular deuteration levels of molecules that do remain in the gas phase. Consequently, lines of deuterated Nbearing species, in particular the fundamental lines of ammonia isotopologues, having very high critical densities, are optimum tracers of innermost regions of dense cores. We propose to study the morphology, density structure and kinematics of cold and dense cloud cores, by mapping the spatial distribution of ammonia isotopologues in isolated dense prestellar cores using Herschel/HIFI. These observations provide optimum probes of the onset of star formation, as well as the physical processes that control gasgrain interaction, freezeout, mantle ejection and deuteration. The sensitive, highresolution spectra acquired within this program will be analyzed using sophisticated radiative transfer models and compared with outputs of stateoftheart 3D MHD simulations and chemical models developed by the members of our team.

OT2_dlis_3: Ammonia as a Tracer of the Earliest Stages of Star Formation

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Lis, D.

2011-09-01

Stars form in molecular cloud cores, cold and dense regions enshrouded by dust. The initiation of this process is among the least understood steps of star formation. High!resolution heterodyne spectroscopy provides invaluable information about the physical conditions (density, temperature), kinematics (infall, outflows), and chemistry of these regions. Classical molecular tracers, such CO, CS, and many other abundant gas!phase species, have been shown to freeze out onto dust grain mantles in pre!stellar cores. However, N!bearing species, in particular ammonia, are much less affected by depletion and are observed to stay in the gas phase at densities in excess of 1e6 cm!3. The molecular freeze!out has important consequences for the chemistry of dense gas. In particular, the depletion of abundant gas!phase species with heavy atoms drives up abundances of deuterated H3+ isotopologues, which in turn results in spectacular deuteration levels of molecules that do remain in the gas phase. Consequently, lines of deuterated N!bearing species, in particular the fundamental lines of ammonia isotopologues, having very high critical densities, are optimum tracers of innermost regions of dense cores. We propose to study the morphology, density structure and kinematics of cold and dense cloud cores, by mapping the spatial distribution of ammonia isotopologues in isolated dense pre!stellar cores using Herschel/HIFI. These observations provide optimum probes of the onset of star formation, as well as the physical processes that control gas!grain interaction, freeze!out, mantle ejection and deuteration. The sensitive, high!resolution spectra acquired within this program will be analyzed using sophisticated radiative transfer models and compared with outputs of state!of!the!art 3D MHD simulations and chemical models developed by the members of our team.

Cold, clumpy accretion onto an active supermassive black hole

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Tremblay, Grant R.; Oonk, J. B. Raymond; Combes, Françoise; Salomé, Philippe; O'Dea, Christopher P.; Baum, Stefi A.; Voit, G. Mark; Donahue, Megan; McNamara, Brian R.; Davis, Timothy A.; McDonald, Michael A.; Edge, Alastair C.; Clarke, Tracy E.; Galván-Madrid, Roberto; Bremer, Malcolm N.; Edwards, Louise O. V.; Fabian, Andrew C.; Hamer, Stephen; Li, Yuan; Maury, Anaëlle; Russell, Helen R.; Quillen, Alice C.; Urry, C. Megan; Sanders, Jeremy S.; Wise, Michael W.

2016-06-01

Supermassive black holes in galaxy centres can grow by the accretion of gas, liberating energy that might regulate star formation on galaxy-wide scales. The nature of the gaseous fuel reservoirs that power black hole growth is nevertheless largely unconstrained by observations, and is instead routinely simplified as a smooth, spherical inflow of very hot gas. Recent theory and simulations instead predict that accretion can be dominated by a stochastic, clumpy distribution of very cold molecular clouds—a departure from the ‘hot mode’ accretion model—although unambiguous observational support for this prediction remains elusive. Here we report observations that reveal a cold, clumpy accretion flow towards a supermassive black hole fuel reservoir in the nucleus of the Abell 2597 Brightest Cluster Galaxy (BCG), a nearby (redshift z = 0.0821) giant elliptical galaxy surrounded by a dense halo of hot plasma. Under the right conditions, thermal instabilities produce a rain of cold clouds that fall towards the galaxy’s centre, sustaining star formation amid a kiloparsec-scale molecular nebula that is found at its core. The observations show that these cold clouds also fuel black hole accretion, revealing ‘shadows’ cast by the molecular clouds as they move inward at about 300 kilometres per second towards the active supermassive black hole, which serves as a bright backlight. Corroborating evidence from prior observations of warmer atomic gas at extremely high spatial resolution, along with simple arguments based on geometry and probability, indicate that these clouds are within the innermost hundred parsecs of the black hole, and falling closer towards it.

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Asahina, Yuta; Kawashima, Tomohisa; Furukawa, Naoko

The formation mechanism of CO clouds observed with the NANTEN2 and Mopra telescopes toward the stellar cluster Westerlund 2 is studied by 3D magnetohydrodynamic simulations, taking into account the interstellar cooling. These molecular clouds show a peculiar shape composed of an arc-shaped cloud on one side of the TeV γ -ray source HESS J1023-575 and a linear distribution of clouds (jet clouds) on the other side. We propose that these clouds are formed by the interaction of a jet with clumps of interstellar neutral hydrogen (H i). By studying the dependence of the shape of dense cold clouds formed bymore » shock compression and cooling on the filling factor of H i clumps, we found that the density distribution of H i clumps determines the shape of molecular clouds formed by the jet–cloud interaction: arc clouds are formed when the filling factor is large. On the other hand, when the filling factor is small, molecular clouds align with the jet. The jet propagates faster in models with small filling factors.« less

Dusty Cloud Acceleration by Radiation Pressure in Rapidly Star-forming Galaxies

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Zhang, Dong; Davis, Shane W.; Jiang, Yan-Fei; Stone, James M.

2018-02-01

We perform two-dimensional and three-dimensional radiation hydrodynamic simulations to study cold clouds accelerated by radiation pressure on dust in the environment of rapidly star-forming galaxies dominated by infrared flux. We utilize the reduced speed of light approximation to solve the frequency-averaged, time-dependent radiative transfer equation. We find that radiation pressure is capable of accelerating the clouds to hundreds of kilometers per second while remaining dense and cold, consistent with observations. We compare these results to simulations where acceleration is provided by entrainment in a hot wind, where the momentum injection of the hot flow is comparable to the momentum in the radiation field. We find that the survival time of the cloud accelerated by the radiation field is significantly longer than that of a cloud entrained in a hot outflow. We show that the dynamics of the irradiated cloud depends on the initial optical depth, temperature of the cloud, and intensity of the flux. Additionally, gas pressure from the background may limit cloud acceleration if the density ratio between the cloud and background is ≲ {10}2. In general, a 10 pc-scale optically thin cloud forms a pancake structure elongated perpendicular to the direction of motion, while optically thick clouds form a filamentary structure elongated parallel to the direction of motion. The details of accelerated cloud morphology and geometry can also be affected by other factors, such as the cloud lengthscale, reduced speed of light approximation, spatial resolution, initial cloud structure, and dimensionality of the run, but these have relatively little affect on the cloud velocity or survival time.

SH Observations In and Toward Sgr B2(N): Linking the Missing Sulfur

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

McCarthy, Michael

Where is the missing sulfur in the molecular reservoir of the interstellar medium (ISM)? In the warm gas phase ISM, the abundance of sulfur is nearly equivalent to its solar value, but in the cold, diffuse clouds which span the space between stars, sulfur is depleted by several orders of magnitude. Our inability to account for this depletion represents a significant gap in our understanding of the fundamental chemical and physical processes occurring in the primordial reservoirs of gas and dust in the ISM. Central to this chemistry is SH, a radical for which few observations presently exist, and for which SOFIA is uniquely capable of accessing in its ground rotational state. We propose observations of SH in the cold, shocked molecular shell surrounding Sgr B2(N), and, simultaneously, in diffuse and translucent clouds along the line of sight to Sgr B2(N). We will constrain the abundance of SH, and compare it to previous measurements of SO, CS, C_2S, HCS(+) , H_2CS, and H_2S in these sources which span the evolutionary timescale from diffuse clouds to dense, cold shocked regions.

A Herschel [C ii] Galactic plane survey. I. The global distribution of ISM gas components

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Pineda, J. L.; Langer, W. D.; Velusamy, T.; Goldsmith, P. F.

2013-06-01

Context. The [C ii] 158 μm line is an important tool for understanding the life cycle of interstellar matter. Ionized carbon is present in a variety of phases of the interstellar medium (ISM), including the diffuse ionized medium, warm and cold atomic clouds, clouds in transition from atomic to molecular, and dense and warm photon dominated regions. Aims: Velocity-resolved observations of [C ii] are the most powerful technique available to disentangle the emission produced by these components. These observations can also be used to trace CO-dark H2 gas and determine the total mass of the ISM. Methods: The Galactic Observations of Terahertz C+ (GOT C+) project surveys the [C ii] 158 μm line over the entire Galactic disk with velocity-resolved observations using the Herschel/HIFI instrument. We present the first longitude-velocity maps of the [C ii] emission for Galactic latitudes b = 0°, ±0.5°, and ±1.0°. We combine these maps with those of H i, 12CO, and 13CO to separate the different phases of the ISM and study their properties and distribution in the Galactic plane. Results: [C ii] emission is mostly associated with spiral arms, mainly emerging from Galactocentric distances between 4 and 10 kpc. It traces the envelopes of evolved clouds as well as clouds that are in the transition between atomic and molecular. We estimate that most of the observed [C ii] emission is produced by dense photon dominated regions (~47%), with smaller contributions from CO-dark H2 gas (~28%), cold atomic gas (~21%), and ionized gas (~4%). Atomic gas inside the Solar radius is mostly in the form of cold neutral medium (CNM), while the warm neutral medium gas dominates the outer galaxy. The average fraction of CNM relative to total atomic gas is ~43%. We find that the warm and diffuse CO-dark H2 is distributed over a larger range of Galactocentric distances (4-11 kpc) than the cold and dense H2 gas traced by 12CO and 13CO (4-8 kpc). The fraction of CO-dark H2 to total H2 increases with Galactocentric distance, ranging from ~20% at 4 kpc to ~80% at 10 kpc. On average, CO-dark H2 accounts for ~30% of the molecular mass of the Milky Way. When the CO-dark H2 component is included, the radial distribution of the CO-to-H2 conversion factor is steeper than that when only molecular gas traced by CO is considered. Most of the observed [C ii] emission emerging from dense photon dominated regions is associated with modest far-ultraviolet fields in the range χ0 ≃ 1 - 30. Herschel is an ESA space observatory with science instruments provided by European-led Principal Investigator consortia and with important participation from NASA.Appendices are available in electronic form at http://www.aanda.org

CO abundance variations in the Orion Molecular Cloud

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ripple, F.; Heyer, M. H.; Gutermuth, R.; Snell, R. L.; Brunt, C. M.

2013-05-01

Infrared stellar photometry from the Two Micron All-Sky Survey (2MASS) and spectral line imaging observations of 12CO and 13CO J = 1-0 line emission from the Five College Radio Astronomy Observatory (FCRAO) 14-m telescope are analysed to assess the variation of the CO abundance with physical conditions throughout the Orion A and Orion B molecular clouds. Three distinct Av regimes are identified in which the ratio between the 13CO column density and visual extinction changes corresponding to the photon-dominated envelope, the strongly self-shielded interior, and the cold, dense volumes of the clouds. Within the strongly self-shielded interior of the Orion A cloud, the 13CO abundance varies by 100 per cent with a peak value located near regions of enhanced star formation activity. The effect of CO depletion on to the ice mantles of dust grains is limited to regions with Av > 10 mag and gas temperatures less than ˜20 K as predicted by chemical models that consider thermal evaporation to desorb molecules from grain surfaces. Values of the molecular mass of each cloud are independently derived from the distributions of Av and 13CO column densities with a constant 13CO-to-H2 abundance over various extinction ranges. Within the strongly self-shielded interior of the cloud (Av> 3 mag), 13CO provides a reliable tracer of H2 mass with the exception of the cold, dense volumes where depletion is important. However, owing to its reduced abundance, 13CO does not trace the H2 mass that resides in the extended cloud envelope, which comprises 40-50 per cent of the molecular mass of each cloud. The implied CO luminosity to mass ratios, M/LCO, are 3.2 and 2.9 for Orion A and Orion B, respectively, which are comparable to the value (2.9), derived from γ-ray observations of the Orion region. Our results emphasize the need to consider local conditions when applying CO observations to derive H2 column densities.

Boundary Conditions for the Paleoenvironment: Chemical and Physical Processes in Dense Interstellar Clouds: Summary of Research

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Irvine, William M.

1999-01-01

The basic theme of this program was the study of molecular complexity and evolution for the biogenic elements and compounds in interstellar clouds and in primitive solar system objects. Research included the detection and study of new interstellar and cometary molecules and investigation of reaction pathways for astrochemistry from a comparison of theory and observed molecular abundances. The latter includes studies of cold, dark clouds in which ion-molecule chemistry should predominate, searches for the effects of interchange of material between the gas and solid phases in interstellar clouds, unbiased spectral surveys of particular sources, and systematic investigation of the interlinked chemistry and physics of dense interstellar clouds. In addition, the study of comets has allowed a comparison between the chemistry of such minimally thermally processed objects and that of interstellar clouds, shedding light on the evolution of the biogenic elements during the process of solar system formation. One PhD dissertation on this research was completed by a graduate student at the University of Massachusetts. An additional 4 graduate students at the University of Massachusetts and 5 graduate students from other institutions participated in research supported by this grant, with 6 of these thus far receiving PhD degrees from the University of Massachusetts or their home institutions. Four postdoctoral research associates at the University of Massachusetts also participated in research supported by this grant, receiving valuable training.

Boundary conditions for the paleoenvironment: Chemical and Physical Processes in dense interstellar clouds

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Irvine, W. M.; Schloerb, F. P.; Ziurys, L. M.

1986-01-01

The present research includes searches for important new interstellar constituents; observations relevant to differentiating between different models for the chemical processes that are important in the interstellar environment; and coordinated studies of the chemistry, physics, and dynamics of molecular clouds which are the sites or possible future sites of star formation. Recent research has included the detection and study of four new interstellar molecules; searches which have placed upper limits on the abundance of several other potential constituents of interstellar clouds; quantitative studies of comparative molecular abundances in different types of interstellar clouds; investigation of reaction pathways for astrochemistry from a comparison of theory and the observed abundance of related species such as isomers and isotopic variants; studies of possible tracers of energenic events related to star formation, including silicon and sulfur containing molecules; and mapping of physical, chemical, and dynamical properties over extended regions of nearby cold molecular clouds.

Boundary Conditions for the Paleoenvironment: Chemical and Physical Processes in the Pre-Solar Nebula

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Irvine, William M.; Schloerb, F. Peter

1997-01-01

The basic theme of this program is the study of molecular complexity and evolution in interstellar clouds and in primitive solar system objects. Research has included the detection and study of a number of new interstellar molecules and investigation of reaction pathways for astrochemistry from a comparison of theory and observed molecular abundances. The latter includes studies of cold, dark clouds in which ion-molecule chemistry should predominate, searches for the effects of interchange of material between the gas and solid phases in interstellar clouds, unbiased spectral surveys of particular sources, and systematic investigation of the interlinked chemistry and physics of dense interstellar clouds. In addition, the study of comets has allowed a comparison between the chemistry of such minimally thermally processed objects and that of interstellar clouds, shedding light on the evolution of the biogenic elements during the process of solar system formation.

Recent observations of interstellar molecules - Detection of CCO and a limit on H2C3O

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Brown, R. D.; Cragg, D. M.; Godfrey, P. D.; Irvine, W. M.; Mcgonagle, D.; Ohishi, M.

1992-01-01

In order to test gas-phase reaction schemes for the production of small oxides of carbon in cold, dense interstellar clouds, we have searched for the radical CCO and for propadienone (H2C3O) in Taurus Molecular Cloud 1, a nearby cloud which exhibits a rich organic chemistry. The radical CCO has been detected with a fractional abundance some two orders of magnitude less than that of CCS, about one order of magnitude less than that of H2CCO, and slightly less than that of C3O. An upper limit has been obtained on the abundance of propadienone which is slightly less than that of its isomer propynal (HC2CHO).

Ramsey scheme for coherent population resonance detection in the optically dense medium

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Barantsev, Konstantin; Litvinov, Andrey; Popov, Evgeniy

2018-04-01

This work is devoted to a theoretical investigation of the Ramsey method of detection of the coherent population trapping resonance in cold atomic clouds taking into account collective effects caused by finite optical depth of the considered clouds. The interaction of atoms with pulsed laser radiation is described in the formalism of density matrix by means of Maxwell-Bloch set of equations. The Ramsey signal of coherent population trapping resonance was calculated for the radiation passed through the medium and analyzed for different length of the atomic cloud. Also the population of excited level was calculated in dependence on the two-photon detuning and coordinate along the main optical axis. The light shift of sidebands and appearance of additional harmonics were discovered.

Structure formation in a colliding flow: The Herschel view of the Draco nebula

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Miville-Deschênes, M.-A.; Salomé, Q.; Martin, P. G.; Joncas, G.; Blagrave, K.; Dassas, K.; Abergel, A.; Beelen, A.; Boulanger, F.; Lagache, G.; Lockman, F. J.; Marshall, D. J.

2017-03-01

Context. The Draco nebula is a high Galactic latitude interstellar cloud observed at velocities corresponding to the intermediate velocity cloud regime. This nebula shows unusually strong CO emission and remarkably high-contrast small-scale structures for such a diffuse high Galactic latitude cloud. The 21 cm emission of the Draco nebula reveals that it is likely to have been formed by the collision of a cloud entering the disk of the Milky Way. Such physical conditions are ideal to study the formation of cold and dense gas in colliding flows of diffuse and warm gas. Aims: The objective of this study is to better understand the process of structure formation in a colliding flow and to describe the effects of matter entering the disk on the interstellar medium. Methods: We conducted Herschel-SPIRE observations of the Draco nebula. The clumpfind algorithm was used to identify and characterize the small-scale structures of the cloud. Results: The high-resolution SPIRE map reveals the fragmented structure of the interface between the infalling cloud and the Galactic layer. This front is characterized by a Rayleigh-Taylor (RT) instability structure. From the determination of the typical length of the periodic structure (2.2 pc) we estimated the gas kinematic viscosity. This allowed us to estimate the dissipation scale of the warm neutral medium (0.1 pc), which was found to be compatible with that expected if ambipolar diffusion were the main mechanism of turbulent energy dissipation. The statistical properties of the small-scale structures identified with clumpfind are found to be typical of that seen in molecular clouds and hydrodynamical turbulence in general. The density of the gas has a log-normal distribution with an average value of 103 cm-3. The typical size of the structures is 0.1-0.2 pc, but this estimate is limited by the resolution of the observations. The mass of these structures ranges from 0.2 to 20 M⊙ and the distribution of the more massive structures follows a power-law dN/ dlog (M) M-1.4. We identify a mass-size relation with the same exponent as that found in molecular clouds (M L2.3). On the other hand, we found that only 15% of the mass of the cloud is in gravitationally bound structures. Conclusions: We conclude that the collision of diffuse gas from the Galactic halo with the diffuse interstellar medium of the outer layer of the disk is an efficient mechanism for producing dense structures. The increase of pressure induced by the collision is strong enough to trigger the formation of cold neutral medium out of the warm gas. It is likely that ambipolar diffusion is the mechanism dominating the turbulent energy dissipation. In that case the cold structures are a few times larger than the energy dissipation scale. The dense structures of Draco are the result of the interplay between magnetohydrodynamical turbulence and thermal instability as self-gravity is not dominating the dynamics. Interestingly they have properties typical of those found in more classical molecular clouds. Herschel is an ESA space observatory with science instruments provided by European-led Principal Investigator consortia and with important participation from NASA.The reduced Herschel data (FITS files) are only available at the CDS via anonymous ftp to http://cdsarc.u-strasbg.fr (http://130.79.128.5) or via http://cdsarc.u-strasbg.fr/viz-bin/qcat?J/A+A/599/A109

Chaotic Star Birth

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

2005-01-01

[figure removed for brevity, see original site] [figure removed for brevity, see original site] Click on the image for Poster VersionClick on the image for IRAS 4B Inset

Located 1,000 light years from Earth in the constellation Perseus, a reflection nebula called NGC 1333 epitomizes the beautiful chaos of a dense group of stars being born. Most of the visible light from the young stars in this region is obscured by the dense, dusty cloud in which they formed. With NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope, scientists can detect the infrared light from these objects. This allows a look through the dust to gain a more detailed understanding of how stars like our sun begin their lives.

The young stars in NGC 1333 do not form a single cluster, but are split between two sub-groups. One group is to the north near the nebula shown as red in the image. The other group is south, where the features shown in yellow and green abound in the densest part of the natal gas cloud. With the sharp infrared eyes of Spitzer, scientists can detect and characterize the warm and dusty disks of material that surround forming stars. By looking for differences in the disk properties between the two subgroups, they hope to find hints of the star and planet formation history of this region.

The knotty yellow-green features located in the lower portion of the image are glowing shock fronts where jets of material, spewed from extremely young embryonic stars, are plowing into the cold, dense gas nearby. The sheer number of separate jets that appear in this region is unprecedented. This leads scientists to believe that by stirring up the cold gas, the jets may contribute to the eventual dispersal of the gas cloud, preventing more stars from forming in NGC 1333.

In contrast, the upper portion of the image is dominated by the infrared light from warm dust, shown as red.

From Interstellar PAHs and Ices to the Origin of Life

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Allamandola, Louis J.; DeVincenzi, Donald L. (Technical Monitor)

2000-01-01

Tremendous strides have been made in our understanding of interstellar material over the past twenty years thanks to significant, parallel developments in observational astronomy and laboratory astrophysics. Twenty years ago the composition of interstellar dust was largely guessed at, the concept of ices in dense molecular clouds ignored, and the notion of large, abundant, gas phase, carbon rich molecules widespread throughout the interstellar medium (ISM) considered impossible. Today the composition of dust in the diffuse ISM is reasonably well constrained to micron-sized cold refractory materials comprised of amorphous and crystalline silicates mixed with an amorphous carbonaceous material containing aromatic structural units and short, branched aliphatic chains. In dense molecular clouds, the birthplace of stars and planets, these cold dust particles are coated with mixed molecular ices whose composition is very well constrained. Lastly, the signature of carbon-rich polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), shockingly large molecules by earlier interstellar chemistry standards, is widespread throughout the Universe. The first part of this lecture will describe how infrared studies of interstellar space, combined with laboratory simulations, have revealed the composition of interstellar ices (the building blocks of comets) and the high abundance and nature of interstellar PAHs. The laboratory database has now enabled us to gain insight into the identities, concentrations, and physical state of many interstellar materials. Within a dense molecular cloud, and especially in the solar nebula during the star and planet formation stage, the materials frozen into interstellar/precometary ices are photoprocessed by ultraviolet light, producing more complex molecules. The remainder of the presentation will focus on the photochemical evolution of these materials and the possible role of these compounds on the early Earth. As these materials are thought to be the building blocks of comets and related to the carbonaceous components of micrometeorites, they are likely to have been important sources of complex organic materials on the early Earth and their composition may be related to the origin of life.

Reduction of unsaturated compounds under interstellar conditions: chemoselective reduction of C≡C and C=C bonds over C=O functional group

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Jonusas, Mindaugas; Guillemin, Jean-Claude; Krim, Lahouari

2017-07-01

The knowledge of the H-addition reactions on unsaturated organic molecules bearing a triple or a double carbon-carbon bond such as propargyl or allyl alcohols and a CO functional group such as propynal, propenal or propanal may play an important role in the understanding of the chemical complexity of the interstellar medium. Why different aldehydes like methanal, ethanal, propynal and propanal are present in dense molecular clouds while the only alcohol detected in those cold regions is methanol? In addition, ethanol has only been detected in hot molecular cores. Are those saturated and unsaturated aldehyde and alcohol species chemically linked in molecular clouds through solid phase H-addition surface reactions or are they formed through different chemical routes? To answer such questions, we have investigated a hydrogenation study of saturated and unsaturated aldehydes and alcohols at 10 K. We prove through this experimental study that while pure unsaturated alcohol ices bombarded by H atoms lead to the formation of the corresponding fully or partially saturated alcohols, surface H-addition reactions on unsaturated aldehyde ices exclusively lead to the formation of fully saturated aldehyde. Such results show that in addition to a chemoselective reduction of C≡C and C=C bonds over the C=O group, there is no link between aldehydes and their corresponding alcohols in reactions involving H atoms in dense molecular clouds. Consequently, this could be one of the reasons why some aldehydes such as propanal are abundant in dense molecular clouds in contrast to the non-detection of alcohol species larger than methanol.

Molecules in interstellar clouds. [physical and chemical conditions of star formation and biological evolution

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Irvine, W. M.; Hjalmarson, A.; Rydbeck, O. E. H.

1981-01-01

The physical conditions and chemical compositions of the gas in interstellar clouds are reviewed in light of the importance of interstellar clouds for star formation and the origin of life. The Orion A region is discussed as an example of a giant molecular cloud where massive stars are being formed, and it is pointed out that conditions in the core of the cloud, with a kinetic temperature of about 75 K and a density of 100,000-1,000,000 molecules/cu cm, may support gas phase ion-molecule chemistry. The Taurus Molecular Clouds are then considered as examples of cold, dark, relatively dense interstellar clouds which may be the birthplaces of solar-type stars and which have been found to contain the heaviest interstellar molecules yet discovered. The molecular species identified in each of these regions are tabulated, including such building blocks of biological monomers as H2O, NH3, H2CO, CO, H2S, CH3CN and H2, and more complex species such as HCOOCH3 and CH3CH2CN.

Herschel HIFI GOT C+ Survey: CII, HI, and CO Emissions in a Sample of Transition Clouds and Star-Forming regions in the Inner Galaxy

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Pineda, Jorge; Velusamy, Thangasamy; Langer, William D.; Goldsmith, Paul; Li, Di; Yorke, Harold

The GOT C+ a HIFI Herschel Key Project, studies the diffuse ISM throughout the Galactic Plane, using C+ as cloud tracer. The C+ line at 1.9 THz traces a so-far poorly studied stage in ISM cloud evolution -the transitional clouds going from atomic HI to molecular H2. This transition cloud phase, which is difficult to observe in HI and CO alone, may be best characterized via CII emission or absorption. The C+ line is also an excellent tracer of the warm diffuse gas and the warm, dense gas in the Photon Dominated Regions (PDRs). We can, therefore, use the CII emission as a probe to understand the effects of star formation on their interstellar environment. We present our first results on the transition between dense and hot gas (traced by CII) and dense and cold gas (traced by 12CO and 13CO) along a few representative lines of sight in the inner Galaxy from longitude 325 degrees to 25 degrees, taken during the HIFI Priority Science Phase. Comparisons of the high spectral resolution ( 1 km/s) HIFI data on C+ with HI, 12CO, and 13CO spectra allow us to separate out the different ISM components along each line of sight. Our results provide detailed information about the transition of diffuse atomic to molecular gas clouds needed to understand star formation and the lifecycle of the interstellar gas. These observations are being carried out with the Herschel Space Observatory, which is an ESA cornerstone mission, with contributions from NASA. This research was conducted at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology under contract with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration. JLP was supported under the NASA Postdoctoral Program at JPL, Caltech, administered by Oak Ridge Associated Universities through a contract with NASA, and is currently supported as a Caltech-JPL Postdoctoral associate.

Widespread SiO and CH3OH emission in filamentary infrared dark clouds

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Cosentino, G.; Jiménez-Serra, I.; Henshaw, J. D.; Caselli, P.; Viti, S.; Barnes, A. T.; Fontani, F.; Tan, J. C.; Pon, A.

2018-03-01

Infrared dark clouds (IRDCs) are cold, dense regions of high (optical and infrared) extinction, believed to be the birthplace of high-mass stars and stellar clusters. The physical mechanisms leading to the formation of these IRDCs are not completely understood and it is thus important to study their molecular gas kinematics and chemical content to search for any signature of the IRDCs formation process. Using the 30-m-diameter antenna at the Instituto de Radioastronomía Milimétrica (IRAM), we have obtained emission maps of dense gas tracers (H13CO+ and HN13C) and typical shock tracers (SiO and CH3OH) towards three IRDCs, G028.37+00.07, G034.43+00.24, and G034.77-00.55 (clouds C, F, and G, respectively). We have studied the molecular gas kinematics in these clouds and, consistent with previous works towards other IRDCs, the clouds show complex gas kinematics with several velocity-coherent substructures separated in velocity space by a few km s-1. Correlated with these complex kinematic structures, widespread (parsec-scale) emission of SiO and CH3OH is present in all the three clouds. For clouds C and F, known to be actively forming stars, widespread SiO and CH3OH is likely associated with on-going star formation activity. However, for cloud G, which lacks either 8 or 24 μm sources and 4.5 μm H2 shock-excited emission, the detected widespread SiO and CH3OH emission may have originated in a large-scale shock interaction, although a scenario involving a population of low-mass stars driving molecular outflows cannot be fully ruled out.

Optically thin cirrus clouds over oceans and possible impact on sea surface temperature of warm pool in western Pacific

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Prabhakara, C.; Yoo, J.-M.; Dalu, G.; Kratz, P.

1991-01-01

Over the convectively active tropical ocean regions, the measurement made from space in the IR and visible spectrum have revealed the presence of optically thin cirrus clouds, which are quite transparent in the visible and nearly opaque in the IR. The Nimbus-4 IR Interferometer Spectrometer (IRIS), which has a field of view (FOV) of approximately 100 km, was utilized to examine the IR optical characteristics of these cirrus clouds. From the IRIS data, it was observed that these optically thin cirrus clouds prevail extensively over the warm pool region of the equatorial western Pacific, surrounding Indonesia. It is found that the seasonal cloud cover caused by these thin cirrus clouds exceeds 50 percent near the central regions of the warm pool. For most of these clouds, the optical thickness in the IR is less than or = 2. It is deduced that the dense cold anvil clouds associated with deep convection spread extensively and are responsible for the formation of the thin cirrus clouds. This is supported by the observation that the coverage of the dense anvil clouds is an order of magnitude less than that of the thin cirrus clouds. From these observations, together with a simple radiative-convective model, it is inferred that the optically thin cirrus can provide a greenhouse effect, which can be a significant factor in maintaining the warm pool. In the absence of fluid transports, it is found that these cirrus clouds could lead to a runaway greenhouse effect. The presence of fluid transport processes, however, act to moderate this effect. Thus, if a modest 20 W/sq m energy input is considered to be available to warm the ocean, then it is found that the ocean mixed-layer of a 50-m depth will be heated by approximately 1 C in 100 days.

Simulations of Neon Pellets for Plasma Disruption Mitigation in Tokamaks

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Bosviel, Nicolas; Samulyak, Roman; Parks, Paul

2017-10-01

Numerical studies of the ablation of neon pellets in tokamaks in the plasma disruption mitigation parameter space have been performed using a time-dependent pellet ablation model based on the front tracking code FronTier-MHD. The main features of the model include the explicit tracking of the solid pellet/ablated gas interface, a self-consistent evolving potential distribution in the ablation cloud, JxB forces, atomic processes, and an improved electrical conductivity model. The equation of state model accounts for atomic processes in the ablation cloud as well as deviations from the ideal gas law in the dense, cold layers of neon gas near the pellet surface. Simulations predict processes in the ablation cloud and pellet ablation rates and address the sensitivity of pellet ablation processes to details of physics models, in particular the equation of state.

From Interstellar Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons and Ice to the Origin of Life

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Allamandola, Louis

2004-01-01

Tremendous strides have been made in our understanding of interstellar material over the past twenty years thanks to significant, parallel developments in observational astronomy and laboratory astrophysics. Twenty years ago the composition of interstellar dust was largely guessed at, the concept of ices in dense molecular clouds ignored, and the notion of large, abundant, gas phase, carbon rich molecules widespread throughout the interstellar medium (ISM) considered impossible. Today the composition of dust in the diffuse ISM is reasonably well constrained to cold refractory materials comprised of amorphous and crystalline silicates mixed with an amorphous carbonaceous material containing aromatic structural units and short, branched aliphatic chains. In the dense ISM, the birthplace of stars and planets, these cold dust particles are coated with mixed molecular ices whose composition is very well constrained. Lastly, the signature of carbon-rich polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), shockingly large molecules by early interstellar chemistry standards, is widespread throughout the Universe. The first part of this talk will describe how infrared studies of interstellar space, combined with laboratory simulations, have revealed the composition of interstellar ices (the building blocks of comets) and the high abundance and nature of interstellar PAHs. The laboratory database has now enabled us to gain insight into the identities, abundances, and physical state of many interstellar materials. Within a dense molecular cloud, and especially in the presolar nebula, the materials frozen into the interstellar/precometary ices are photoprocessed by ultraviolet light and produce more complex molecules. The remainder of the presentation will focus on the photochemical evolution of these materials and the possible role of these compounds on the to the carbonaceous components of micrometeorites, they are likely to have been important sources of complex materials on the early Earth and their composition may be related to the origin of life.

Isomerization and fragmentation of acetonitrile upon interaction with N(4S) atoms: the chemistry of nitrogen in dense molecular clouds

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Mencos, Alejandro; Krim, Lahouari

2016-08-01

We experimentally show that the reaction between ground state nitrogen atoms N(4S) and acetonitrile CH3CN can lead to two distinct chemical pathways that are both thermally activated at very low temperatures. First is CH3CN isomerization which produces CH3NC and H2CCNH. Second is CH3CN decomposition which produces HNC and CH3CNH+CN- fragments, with the possible release of H2. Our results reveal that the mobility of N(4S)-atoms is stimulated in the 3-11 K temperature range, and that its subsequent encounter with one acetonitrile molecule is sufficient for the aforementioned reactions to occur without the need for additional energy to be supplied to the CH3CN + N(4S) system. These findings shed more light on the nitrogen chemistry that can possibly take place in dense molecular clouds, which until now was thought to only involve high-energy processes and therefore be unlikely to occur in such cold and dark interstellar regions. The reaction pathways we propose in this study have very important astrochemical implications, as it was shown recently that the atomic nitrogen might be more abundant, in many interstellar icy grain mantles, than previously thought. Also, these reaction pathways can now be considered within dense molecular clouds, and possibly affect the branching ratios for N-bearing molecules computed in astrochemical modelling.

Ionization impact on molecular clouds and star formation. Numerical simulations and observations

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Tremblin, P.

2012-11-01

At all the scales of Astrophysics, the impact of the ionization from massive stars is a crucial issue. At the galactic scale, the ionization can regulate star formation by supporting molecular clouds against gravitational collapse and at the stellar scale, indications point toward a possible birth place of the Solar System close to massive stars. At the molecular cloud scale, it is clear that the hot ionized gas compresses the surrounding cold gas, leading to the formation of pillars, globules, and shells of dense gas in which some young stellar objects are observed. What are the formation mechanisms of these structures? Are the formation of these young stellar objects triggered or would have they formed anyway? Do massive stars have an impact on the distribution of the surrounding gas? Do they have an impact on the mass distribution of stars (the initial mass function, IMF)? This thesis aims at shedding some light on these questions, by focusing especially on the formation of the structures between the cold and the ionized gas. We present the state of the art of the theoretical and observational works on ionized regions (H ii regions) and we introduce the numerical tools that have been developed to model the ionization in the hydrodynamic simulations with turbulence performed with the HERACLES code. Thanks to the simulations, we present a new model for the formation of pillars based on the curvature and collapse of the dense shell on itself and a new model for the formations of cometary globules based on the turbulence of the cold gas. Several diagnostics have been developed to test these new models in the observations. If pillars are formed by the collapse of the dense shell on itself, the velocity spectrum of a nascent pillar presents a large spectra with a red-shifted and a blue-shifted components that are caused by the foreground and background parts of the shell that collapse along the line of sight. If cometary globules emerge because of the turbulence of the molecular cloud, the velocity spectrum of these globules is shifted at different velocities than the velocity of the shell, pillars and clumps that follow the global expansion of the H ii region. An other diagnostic is the impact of the compression on the probability density function (PDF) of the cold gas. The distribution is double peaked when the turbulent ram pressure is low compared to the ionized-gas pressure. This is the signature of the compression caused by the expansion of the ionized bubble. When the turbulence is high, the two peaks merge and the compression can still be identified although the signature is less clear. We have used Herschel column density maps and molecular-line data to characterize the density and velocity structures of the interface between the ionized and the cold gas in several regions: RCW 120, RCW 36, Cygnus X, the Rosette and Eagle Nebulae. In addition to the diagnostics derived from the simulations, analytical predictions of the shell and pillar parameters was tested and confronted to the observations. In all the regions, we have seen that there is a good agreement with the analytical models and with the simulation diagnostics. The velocity structure of a nascent pillar in the Rosette Nebula suggests that it has been formed by the collapse of the shell on itself and the bulk velocity of cometary globules in Cygnus X and in the Rosette Nebula tends to confirm their turbulent origin. The compression caused by the ionized gas can be seen on the PDF of the cold gas in most of the regions studied. This result is important for the link between the IMF and the global prop! erties of the cloud. If the IMF can be derived from the PDF of a cloud, the impact of the massive stars on the PDF has to be taken in account. Furthermore, we present dedicated simulations of RCW 36 that suggest that the dense clumps at the edge of the ionized gas are not pre-existing, it is likely that their formation was triggered by the compression caused by the ionization. Therefore the ionization from the massive stars is a key process that has to be taken into account for the understanding of the IMF. We also present in appendix other works that have been done in parallel of this thesis: the charge exchange in colliding planetary and stellar winds in collaboration with Prof. E. Chiang during the ISIMA summer school 2011 in Beijing; and the sub-millimeter site testing at the Concordia station in Antarctica with the CAMISTIC team.

Million-degree plasma pervading the extended Orion Nebula.

PubMed

Güdel, Manuel; Briggs, Kevin R; Montmerle, Thierry; Audard, Marc; Rebull, Luisa; Skinner, Stephen L

2008-01-18

Most stars form as members of large associations within dense, very cold (10 to 100 kelvin) molecular clouds. The nearby giant molecular cloud in Orion hosts several thousand stars of ages less than a few million years, many of which are located in or around the famous Orion Nebula, a prominent gas structure illuminated and ionized by a small group of massive stars (the Trapezium). We present x-ray observations obtained with the X-ray Multi-Mirror satellite XMM-Newton, revealing that a hot plasma with a temperature of 1.7 to 2.1 million kelvin pervades the southwest extension of the nebula. The plasma flows into the adjacent interstellar medium. This x-ray outflow phenomenon must be widespread throughout our Galaxy.

IRAS Colors of the Pleiades

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Carey, Sean J.; Shipman, R. F.; Clark, F. O.

1996-01-01

We present large scale images of the infrared emission of the region around the Pleiades using the ISSA data product from the IRAS mission. Residual Zodiacal background and a discontinuity in the image due to the scanning strategy of the satellite necessitated special background subtraction methods. The 60/100 color image clearly shows the heating of the ambient interstellar medium by the cluster. The 12/100 and 25/100 images peak on the cluster as expected for exposure of small dust grains to an enhanced UV radiation field; however, the 25/100 color declines to below the average interstellar value at the periphery of the cluster. Potential causes of the color deficit are discussed. A new method of identifying dense molecular material through infrared emission properties is presented. The difference between the 100 micron flux density and the 60 micron flux density scaled by the average interstellar 60/100 color ratio (Delta I(sub 100) is a sensitive diagnostic of material with embedded heating sources (Delta I(sub 100) less than 0) and cold, dense cores (Delta I(sub 100) greater than 0). The dense cores of the Taurus cloud complex as well as Lynds 1457 are clearly identified by this method, while the IR bright but diffuse Pleiades molecular cloud is virtually indistinguishable from the nearby infrared cirrus.

A Deuteration Survey of Starless Clumps in GemOB1 and the First Quadrant

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Henrici, Andrew; Shirley, Yancy L.; Svoboda, Brian

2018-01-01

One very strong chemical process in star-forming regions is the fractionation of deuterium in molecules, which results in an increase in the deuterium ratio many orders of magnitude over the ISM [D]/[H] ratio and provides a chemical probe of cold, dense regions. Recent maps of dust continuum emission at (sub)millimeter wavelengths have identified tens of thousands of dense clumps of gas and dust. By comparing these regions to infrared and radio surveys, we have identified starless clump candidates which have no evidence for embedded star formation. These objects represent the earliest phase of star formation throughout the Milky Way. One benefit of the Milky Way surveys is that it is also possible to study the chemistry of entire core and clump populations within a single cloud. We used the 10m Heinrich Hertz Submillimeter Telescope to survey starless clump candidates in the First Quadrant identified from the Bolocam Galactic Plane Survey 1.1 mm continuum in the deuterated molecular transitions of DCO+ 3-2 and N2D+ 3-2. We also survey the entire clump population of the Gemini OB1 molecular cloud. In both surveys, we compared detection statistics and compare deuteration fraction to physical properties of the clumps and their evolutionary stage. High resolution ALMA observations of 9 starless clump candidates of the same lines are used to analyze how the cold deuterated gas is spatially distributed in these clumps.

A CloudSat-CALIPSO View of Cloud and Precipitation Properties Across Cold Fronts over the Global Oceans

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Naud, Catherine M.; Posselt, Derek J.; van den Heever, Susan C.

2015-01-01

The distribution of cloud and precipitation properties across oceanic extratropical cyclone cold fronts is examined using four years of combined CloudSat radar and CALIPSO lidar retrievals. The global annual mean cloud and precipitation distributions show that low-level clouds are ubiquitous in the post frontal zone while higher-level cloud frequency and precipitation peak in the warm sector along the surface front. Increases in temperature and moisture within the cold front region are associated with larger high-level but lower mid-/low level cloud frequencies and precipitation decreases in the cold sector. This behavior seems to be related to a shift from stratiform to convective clouds and precipitation. Stronger ascent in the warm conveyor belt tends to enhance cloudiness and precipitation across the cold front. A strong temperature contrast between the warm and cold sectors also encourages greater post-cold-frontal cloud occurrence. While the seasonal contrasts in environmental temperature, moisture, and ascent strength are enough to explain most of the variations in cloud and precipitation across cold fronts in both hemispheres, they do not fully explain the differences between Northern and Southern Hemisphere cold fronts. These differences are better explained when the impact of the contrast in temperature across the cold front is also considered. In addition, these large-scale parameters do not explain the relatively large frequency in springtime post frontal precipitation.

Formaldehyde in Absorption: Tracing Molecular Gas in Early-Type Galaxies

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Dollhopf, Niklaus M.; Donovan Meyer, Jennifer

2016-01-01

Early-Type Galaxies (ETGs) have been long-classified as the red, ellipsoidal branch of the classic Hubble tuning fork diagram of galactic structure. In part with this classification, ETGs are thought to be molecular and atomic gas-poor with little to no recent star formation. However, recent efforts have questioned this ingrained classification. Most notably, the ATLAS3D survey of 260 ETGs within ~40 Mpc found 22% contain CO, a common tracer for molecular gas. The presence of cold molecular gas also implies the possibility for current star formation within these galaxies. Simulations do not accurately predict the recent observations and further studies are necessary to understand the mechanisms of ETGs.CO traces molecular gas starting at densities of ~102 cm-3, which makes it a good tracer of bulk molecular gas, but does little to constrain the possible locations of star formation within the cores of dense molecular gas clouds. Formaldehyde (H2CO) traces molecular gas on the order of ~104 cm-3, providing a further constraint on the location of star-forming gas, while being simple enough to possibly be abundant in gas-poor ETGs. In cold molecular clouds at or above ~104 cm-3 densities, the structure of formaldehyde enables a phenomenon in which rotational transitions have excitation temperatures driven below the temperature of the cosmic microwave background (CMB), ~2.7 K. Because the CMB radiates isotropically, formaldehyde can be observed in absorption, independent of distance, as a tracer of moderately-dense molecular clouds and star formation.This novel observation technique of formaldehyde was incorporated for observations of twelve CO-detected ETGs from the ATLAS3D sample, including NGC 4710 and PGC 8815, to investigate the presence of cold molecular gas, and possible star formation, in ETGs. We present images from the Very Large Array, used in its C-array configuration, of the J = 11,0 - 11,1 transition of formaldehyde towards these sources. We report our preliminary results here.Niklaus M. Dollhopf gratefully acknowledges the support of the National Radio Astronomy Observatory Summer Student REU Program sponsored by the National Science Foundation.

Prospects for Studying Interstellar Magnetic Fields with a Far-Infrared Polarimeter for SAFIR

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Dowell, C. Darren; Chuss, D. T.; Dotson, J. L.

2008-01-01

Polarimetry at mid-infrared through millimeter wavelengths using airborne and ground-based telescopes has revealed magnetic structures in dense molecular clouds in the interstellar medium, primarily in regions of star formation. Furthermore, spectropolarimetry has offered clues about the composition of the dust grains and the mechanism by which they are aligned with respect to the local magnetic field. The sensitivity of the observations to date has been limited by the emission from the atmosphere and warm telescopes. A factor of 1000 in sensitivity can be gained by using instead a cold space telescope. With 5 arcminute resolution, Planck will make the first submillimeter polarization survey of the full Galaxy early in the next decade. We discuss the science case for and basic design of a far-infrared polarimeter on the SAFIR space telescope, which offers resolution in the few arcsecond range and wavelength selection of cold and warm dust components. Key science themes include the formation and evolution of molecular clouds in nearby spiral galaxies, the magnetic structure of the Galactic center, and interstellar turbulence.

THE 1.1 mm CONTINUUM SURVEY OF THE SMALL MAGELLANIC CLOUD: PHYSICAL PROPERTIES AND EVOLUTION OF THE DUST-SELECTED CLOUDS

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Takekoshi, Tatsuya; Minamidani, Tetsuhiro; Sorai, Kazuo

The first 1.1 mm continuum survey toward the Small Magellanic Cloud (SMC) was performed using the AzTEC instrument installed on the ASTE 10 m telescope. This survey covered 4.5 deg{sup 2} of the SMC with 1 σ noise levels of 5–12 mJy beam{sup −1}, and 44 extended objects were identified. The 1.1 mm extended emission has good spatial correlation with Herschel 160 μ m, indicating that the origin of the 1.1 mm extended emission is thermal emission from a cold dust component. We estimated physical properties using the 1.1 mm and filtered Herschel data (100, 160, 250, 350, and 500more » μ m). The 1.1 mm objects show dust temperatures of 17–45 K and gas masses of 4 × 10{sup 3}–3 × 10{sup 5} M {sub ⊙}, assuming single-temperature thermal emission from the cold dust with an emissivity index, β , of 1.2 and a gas-to-dust ratio of 1000. These physical properties are very similar to those of giant molecular clouds (GMCs) in our galaxy and the Large Magellanic Cloud. The 1.1 mm objects also displayed good spatial correlation with the Spitzer 24 μ m and CO emission, suggesting that the 1.1 mm objects trace the dense gas regions as sites of massive star formation. The dust temperature of the 1.1 mm objects also demonstrated good correlation with the 24 μ m flux connected to massive star formation. This supports the hypothesis that the heating source of the cold dust is mainly local star-formation activity in the 1.1 mm objects. The classification of the 1.1 mm objects based on the existence of star-formation activity reveals the differences in the dust temperature, gas mass, and radius, which reflects the evolution sequence of GMCs.« less

The 1.1 mm Continuum Survey of the Small Magellanic Cloud: Physical Properties and Evolution of the Dust-selected Clouds

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Takekoshi, Tatsuya; Minamidani, Tetsuhiro; Komugi, Shinya; Kohno, Kotaro; Tosaki, Tomoka; Sorai, Kazuo; Muller, Erik; Mizuno, Norikazu; Kawamura, Akiko; Onishi, Toshikazu; Fukui, Yasuo; Ezawa, Hajime; Oshima, Tai; Scott, Kimberly S.; Austermann, Jason E.; Matsuo, Hiroshi; Aretxaga, Itziar; Hughes, David H.; Kawabe, Ryohei; Wilson, Grant W.; Yun, Min S.

2017-01-01

The first 1.1 mm continuum survey toward the Small Magellanic Cloud (SMC) was performed using the AzTEC instrument installed on the ASTE 10 m telescope. This survey covered 4.5 deg2 of the SMC with 1σ noise levels of 5-12 mJy beam-1, and 44 extended objects were identified. The 1.1 mm extended emission has good spatial correlation with Herschel 160 μm, indicating that the origin of the 1.1 mm extended emission is thermal emission from a cold dust component. We estimated physical properties using the 1.1 mm and filtered Herschel data (100, 160, 250, 350, and 500 μm). The 1.1 mm objects show dust temperatures of 17-45 K and gas masses of 4 × 103-3 × 105 M⊙, assuming single-temperature thermal emission from the cold dust with an emissivity index, β, of 1.2 and a gas-to-dust ratio of 1000. These physical properties are very similar to those of giant molecular clouds (GMCs) in our galaxy and the Large Magellanic Cloud. The 1.1 mm objects also displayed good spatial correlation with the Spitzer 24 μm and CO emission, suggesting that the 1.1 mm objects trace the dense gas regions as sites of massive star formation. The dust temperature of the 1.1 mm objects also demonstrated good correlation with the 24 μm flux connected to massive star formation. This supports the hypothesis that the heating source of the cold dust is mainly local star-formation activity in the 1.1 mm objects. The classification of the 1.1 mm objects based on the existence of star-formation activity reveals the differences in the dust temperature, gas mass, and radius, which reflects the evolution sequence of GMCs. Herschel is an ESA space observatory with science instruments provided by European-led Principal Investigator consortia and with important participation from NASA.

Interstellar Isotopes: Prospects with ALMA

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Charnley Steven B.

2010-01-01

Cold molecular clouds are natural environments for the enrichment of interstellar molecules in the heavy isotopes of H, C, N and O. Anomalously fractionated isotopic material is found in many primitive Solar System objects, such as meteorites and comets, that may trace interstellar matter that was incorporated into the Solar Nebula without undergoing significant processing. Models of the fractionation chemistry of H, C, N and O in dense molecular clouds, particularly in cores where substantial freeze-out of molecules on to dust has occurred, make several predictions that can be tested in the near future by molecular line observations. The range of fractionation ratios expected in different interstellar molecules will be discussed and the capabilities of ALMA for testing these models (e.g. in observing doubly-substituted isotopologues) will be outlined.

Mechanisms of convective cloud organization by cold pools over tropical warm ocean during the AMIE/DYNAMO field campaign

DOE PAGES

Feng, Zhe; Hagos, Samson; Rowe, Angela K.; ...

2015-04-03

This paper investigates the mechanisms of convective cloud organization by precipitation-driven cold pools over the warm tropical Indian Ocean during the 2011 Atmospheric Radiation Measurement (ARM) Madden-Julian Oscillation (MJO) Investigation Experiment / Dynamics of the MJO (AMIE/DYNAMO) field campaign. A high-resolution regional model simulation is performed using the Weather Research and Forecasting model during the transition from suppressed to active phases of the November 2011 MJO. The simulated cold pool lifetimes, spatial extent and thermodynamic properties agree well with the radar and ship-borne observations from the field campaign. The thermodynamic and dynamic structures of the outflow boundaries of isolated andmore » intersecting cold pools in the simulation and the associated secondary cloud populations are examined. Intersecting cold pools last more than twice as long, are twice as large, 41% more intense (measured by buoyancy), and 62% deeper than isolated cold pools. Consequently, intersecting cold pools trigger 73% more convective clouds than isolated ones. This is possibly due to stronger outflows that enhance secondary updraft velocities by up to 45%. However, cold pool-triggered convective clouds grow into deep convection not because of the stronger secondary updrafts at cloud base, but rather due to closer spacing (aggregation) between clouds and larger cloud clusters that formed along the cold pool boundaries when they intersect. The close spacing of large clouds moistens the local environment and reduces entrainment drying, allowing the clouds to further develop into deep convection. Implications to the design of future convective parameterization with cold pool-modulated entrainment rates are discussed.« less

Astrochemistry

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Millar, T. J.

2015-08-01

In the last 40 years a wide range of molecules, including neutrals, cations and anions, containing up to 13 atoms—in addition to detections of {{\\text{C}}60} and {{\\text{C}}70} —have been found in the harsh environment of the interstellar medium. The exquisite sensitivity and very high spectral and, more recently, spatial resolution, of modern telescopes has enabled the physics of star formation to be probed through rotational line emission. In this article, I review the basic properties of interstellar clouds and the processes that initiate the chemistry and generate chemical complexity, particularly in regions of star and planet formation. Our understanding of astrochemistry has evolved over the years. Before 1990, the general consensus was that molecules were formed in binary, gas-phase, or volume, reactions, most importantly ion-neutral reactions despite the very low ionization in clouds. Since then, observations have indicated unambiguously that there is also a contribution from surface processes, particularly on the icy mantles that form around refractory grain cores in cold, dense gas. The balance between these two processes depends on particular physical conditions and can vary during the life cycle of a particular volume of interstellar cloud. The complex chemistry that occurs in space is driven mostly through interaction of the gas with cosmic ray protons, a source of ionization that enables a rich ion-neutral chemistry. In addition, I show that the interaction between the gas and the dust in cold, dense regions also leads to additional chemical complexity through reactions that take place in ices at only a few tens of degrees above absolute zero. Although densities are low compared to those in terrestrial environments, the extremely long life times of interstellar clouds and their enormous sizes, enable complex molecules to be synthesised and detected. I show that in some instances, particularly in reactions involving deuterium, the rotational populations of reactants, together with spin-selection rules, can determine the detailed abundances. Although the review is mainly focused on regions associated with star formation, I also consider chemistry in other interesting astronomical regions—in the early Universe and in the envelopes formed by mass loss during the final stages of stellar evolution.

Formation of structures around HII regions: ionization feedback from massive stars

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Tremblin, P.; Audit, E.; Minier, V.; Schmidt, W.; Schneider, N.

2015-03-01

We present a new model for the formation of dense clumps and pillars around HII regions based on shocks curvature at the interface between a HII region and a molecular cloud. UV radiation leads to the formation of an ionization front and of a shock ahead. The gas is compressed between them forming a dense shell at the interface. This shell may be curved due to initial interface or density modulation caused by the turbulence of the molecular cloud. Low curvature leads to instabilities in the shell that form dense clumps while sufficiently curved shells collapse on itself to form pillars. When turbulence is high compared to the ionized-gas pressure, bubbles of cold gas have sufficient kinetic energy to penetrate into the HII region and detach themselves from the parent cloud, forming cometary globules. Using computational simulations, we show that these new models are extremely efficient to form dense clumps and stable and growing elongated structures, pillars, in which star formation might occur (see Tremblin et al. 2012a). The inclusion of turbulence in the model shows its importance in the formation of cometary globules (see Tremblin et al. 2012b). Globally, the density enhancement in the simulations is of one or two orders of magnitude higher than the density enhancement of the classical ``collect and collapse`` scenario. The code used for the simulation is the HERACLES code, that comprises hydrodynamics with various equation of state, radiative transfer, gravity, cooling and heating. Our recent observations with Herschel (see Schneider et al. 2012a) and SOFIA (see Schneider et al. 2012b) and additional Spitzer data archives revealed many more of these structures in regions where OB stars have already formed such as the Rosette Nebula, Cygnus X, M16 and Vela, suggesting that the UV radiation from massive stars plays an important role in their formation. We present a first comparison between the simulations described above and recent observations of these regions.

Revised models of interstellar nitrogen isotopic fractionation

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Wirström, E. S.; Charnley, S. B.

2018-03-01

Nitrogen-bearing molecules in cold molecular clouds exhibit a range of isotopic fractionation ratios and these molecules may be the precursors of 15N enrichments found in comets and meteorites. Chemical model calculations indicate that atom-molecular ion and ion-molecule reactions could account for most of the fractionation patterns observed. However, recent quantum-chemical computations demonstrate that several of the key processes are unlikely to occur in dense clouds. Related model calculations of dense cloud chemistry show that the revised 15N enrichments fail to match observed values. We have investigated the effects of these reaction rate modifications on the chemical model of Wirström et al. (2012) for which there are significant physical and chemical differences with respect to other models. We have included 15N fractionation of CN in neutral-neutral reactions and also updated rate coefficients for key reactions in the nitrogen chemistry. We find that the revised fractionation rates have the effect of suppressing 15N enrichment in ammonia at all times, while the depletion is even more pronounced, reaching 14N/15N ratios of >2000. Taking the updated nitrogen chemistry into account, no significant enrichment occurs in HCN or HNC, contrary to observational evidence in dark clouds and comets, although the 14N/15N ratio can still be below 100 in CN itself. However, such low CN abundances are predicted that the updated model falls short of explaining the bulk 15N enhancements observed in primitive materials. It is clear that alternative fractionating reactions are necessary to reproduce observations, so further laboratory and theoretical studies are urgently needed.

Cloud photogrammetry with dense stereo for fisheye cameras

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Beekmans, Christoph; Schneider, Johannes; Läbe, Thomas; Lennefer, Martin; Stachniss, Cyrill; Simmer, Clemens

2016-11-01

We present a novel approach for dense 3-D cloud reconstruction above an area of 10 × 10 km2 using two hemispheric sky imagers with fisheye lenses in a stereo setup. We examine an epipolar rectification model designed for fisheye cameras, which allows the use of efficient out-of-the-box dense matching algorithms designed for classical pinhole-type cameras to search for correspondence information at every pixel. The resulting dense point cloud allows to recover a detailed and more complete cloud morphology compared to previous approaches that employed sparse feature-based stereo or assumed geometric constraints on the cloud field. Our approach is very efficient and can be fully automated. From the obtained 3-D shapes, cloud dynamics, size, motion, type and spacing can be derived, and used for radiation closure under cloudy conditions, for example. Fisheye lenses follow a different projection function than classical pinhole-type cameras and provide a large field of view with a single image. However, the computation of dense 3-D information is more complicated and standard implementations for dense 3-D stereo reconstruction cannot be easily applied. Together with an appropriate camera calibration, which includes internal camera geometry, global position and orientation of the stereo camera pair, we use the correspondence information from the stereo matching for dense 3-D stereo reconstruction of clouds located around the cameras. We implement and evaluate the proposed approach using real world data and present two case studies. In the first case, we validate the quality and accuracy of the method by comparing the stereo reconstruction of a stratocumulus layer with reflectivity observations measured by a cloud radar and the cloud-base height estimated from a Lidar-ceilometer. The second case analyzes a rapid cumulus evolution in the presence of strong wind shear.

HD 62542: Probing the Bare, Dense Core of an Interstellar Cloud

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Welty, Daniel; Sonnentrucker, Paule G.; Rachford, Brian; Snow, Theodore; York, Donald G.

2018-01-01

We discuss the interstellar absorption from many atomic and molecular species seen in high-resolution HST/STIS UV spectra of the moderately reddened B3-5 V star HD 62542 [E(B-V) ~ 0.35; AV ~ 1.2]. This remarkable sight line exhibits both very steep far-UV extinction and a high fraction of hydrogen in molecular form -- with strong absorption from CH, C2, CN, and CO but weak absorption from CH+ and most of the commonly observed diffuse interstellar bands. Most of the material appears to reside in a single narrow velocity component -- thus offering a rare opportunity to probe the relatively dense, primarily molecular core of a single interstellar cloud, with little associated diffuse atomic gas.Detailed analyses of the absorption-line profiles seen in the UV spectra reveal a number of properties of the main diffuse molecular cloud toward HD 62542:1) The depletions of Mg, Si, and Fe are more severe than those seen in any other sight line, but the depletions of Cl and Kr are very mild; the overall pattern of depletions differs somewhat from those derived from larger samples of Galactic sight lines.2) The rotational excitation of H2 and C2 indicates that the gas is fairly cold (Tk = 40-45 K) and moderately dense (nH > 420 cm-3) somewhat higher densities are suggested by the fine-structure excitation of neutral carbon.3) The excitation temperatures characterizing the rotational populations of both 12CO (11.7 K) and 13CO (7.7 K) are higher than those typically found for Galactic diffuse molecular clouds.4) Carbon is primarily singly ionized -- N(C+) > N(CO) > N(C).5) The relative abundances of various trace neutral atomic species reflect the effects of both the steep far-UV extinction and the severe depletions of some elements.6) Differences in line widths for the various atomic and molecular species are suggestive of differences in spatial distribution within the main cloud.Support for this study was provided by NASA, via STScI grant GO-12277.008-A.

Identification of prominence ejecta by the proton distribution function and magnetic fine structure in interplanetary coronal mass ejections in the inner heliosphere

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Yao, Shuo; Marsch, Eckart; Tu, Chuan-Yi; Schwenn, Rainer

2010-05-01

This work presents in situ solar wind observations of three magnetic clouds (MCs) that contain cold high-density material when Helios 2 was located at 0.3 AU on 9 May 1979, 0.5 AU on 30 March 1976, and 0.7 AU on 24 December 1978. In the cold high-density regions embedded in the interplanetary coronal mass ejections we find (1) that the number density of protons is higher than in other regions inside the magnetic cloud, (2) the possible existence of He+, (3) that the thermal velocity distribution functions are more isotropic and appear to be colder than in the other regions of the MC, and the proton temperature is lower than that of the ambient plasma, and (4) that the associated magnetic field configuration can for all three MC events be identified as a flux rope. This cold high-density region is located at the polarity inversion line in the center of the bipolar structure of the MC magnetic field (consistent with previous solar observation work that found that a prominence lies over the neutral line of the related bipolar solar magnetic field). Specifically, for the first magnetic cloud event on 8 May 1979, a coronal mass ejection (CME) was related to an eruptive prominence previously reported as a result of the observation of Solwind (P78-1). Therefore, we identify the cold and dense region in the MC as the prominence material. It is the first time that prominence ejecta were identified by both the plasma and magnetic field features inside 1 AU, and it is also the first time that the thermal ion velocity distribution functions were used to investigate the microstate of the prominence material. Moreover, from our three cases, we also found that this material tended to fall behind the magnetic cloud and become smaller as it propagated farther away from the Sun, which confirms speculations in previous work. Overall, our in situ observations are consistent with three-part CME models.

Searching for Bio-Precursors and Complex Organic Molecules in Space using the GBT

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Cordiner, M.; Charnley, S.; Kisiel, Z.

2012-01-01

Using the latest microwave receiver technology, large organic molecules with abundances as low as approx. 10(exp -11) times that of molecular hydrogen are detectable in cold interstellar clouds via their rotational emission line spectra. We report new observations to search for complex molecules, including molecules of possible pre-biotic importance, using the newly-commissioned Kband focal plane array (KFPA) of the NRAO Robert C. Byrd Green Bank Telescope. Spectra are presented of the dense molecular cloud TMC-1, showing strict upper limits on the level of emission from nitrogen-bearing rings pyrimidine, quinoline and iso-quinoline, carbon-chain oxides C60, C70, HC60 and HC70, and the carbon-chain anion C4H-. The typical RMS brightness temperature noise levels we achieved are approx. 1 mK at around 20 GHz.

Explosive desorption of icy grain mantles in dense clouds

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Schutte, W. A.; Greenberg, J. M.

1991-01-01

The cycling of the condensible material in dense clouds between the gas phase and the icy grain mantles is investigated. In the model studied, desorption of the ice occurs due to grain mantle explosions when photochemically stored energy is released after transient heating by a cosmic ray particle. It is shown that, depending on the grain size distribution in dense clouds, explosive desorption can maintain up to about eight percent of the carbon in the form of CO in the gas phase at typical cloud densities.

Overview of major hazards. Part 2: Source term; dispersion; combustion; blast, missiles, venting; fire; radiation; runaway reactions; toxic substances; dust explosions

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Vilain, J.

Approaches to major hazard assessment and prediction are reviewed. Source term: (phenomenology/modeling of release, influence on early stages of dispersion); dispersion (atmospheric advection, diffusion and deposition, emphasis on dense/cold gases); combustion (flammable clouds and mists covering flash fires, deflagration, transition to detonation; mostly unconfined/partly confined situations); blast formation, propagation, interaction with structures; catastrophic fires (pool fires, torches and fireballs; highly reactive substances) runaway reactions; features of more general interest; toxic substances, excluding toxicology; and dust explosions (phenomenology and protective measures) are discussed.

Is the gas-phase OH+H2CO reaction a source of HCO in interstellar cold dark clouds? A kinetic, dynamic and modelling study

PubMed Central

Ocaña, A. J.; Jiménez, E.; Ballesteros, B.; Canosa, A.; Antiñolo, M.; Albaladejo, J.; Agúndez, M.; Cernicharo, J.; Zanchet, A.; del Mazo, P.; Roncero, O.; Aguado, A.

2018-01-01

Chemical kinetics of neutral-neutral gas-phase reactions at ultralow temperatures is a fascinating research subject with important implications on the chemistry of complex organic molecules in the interstellar medium (T∼10-100K). Scarce kinetic information is currently available for this kind of reactions at T<200 K. In this work we use the CRESU (Cinétique de Réaction en Ecoulement Supersonique Uniforme, which means Reaction Kinetics in a Uniform Supersonic Flow) technique to measure for the first time the rate coefficients (k) of the gas-phase OH+H2CO reaction between 22 and 107 K. k values greatly increase from 2.1×10-11 cm3 s-1 at 107 K to 1.2×10-10 cm3 s-1 at 22 K. This is also confirmed by quasi-classical trajectories (QCT) at collision energies down to 0.1 meV performed using a new full dimension and ab initio potential energy surface, recently developed which generates highly accurate potential and includes long range dipole-dipole interactions. QCT calculations indicate that at low temperatures HCO is the exclusive product for the OH+H2CO reaction. In order to revisit the chemistry of HCO in cold dense clouds, k is reasonably extrapolated from the experimental results at 10K (2.6×10-10 cm3 s-1). The modeled abundances of HCO are in agreement with the observations in cold dark clouds for an evolving time of 105-106 yrs. The different sources of production of HCO are presented and the uncertainties in the chemical networks discussed. This reaction can be expected to be a competitive process in the chemistry of prestellar cores. The present reaction is shown to account for a few percent of the total HCO production rate. Extensions to photodissociation regions and diffuse clouds environments are also commented. PMID:29880977

Is the Gas-phase OH+H2CO Reaction a Source of HCO in Interstellar Cold Dark Clouds? A Kinetic, Dynamic, and Modeling Study

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ocaña, A. J.; Jiménez, E.; Ballesteros, B.; Canosa, A.; Antiñolo, M.; Albaladejo, J.; Agúndez, M.; Cernicharo, J.; Zanchet, A.; del Mazo, P.; Roncero, O.; Aguado, A.

2017-11-01

The chemical kinetics of neutral-neutral gas-phase reactions at ultralow temperatures is a fascinating research subject with important implications on the chemistry of complex organic molecules in the interstellar medium (T ˜ 10-100 K). Scarce kinetic information is currently available for these kinds of reactions at T < 200 K. In this work, we use the Cinétique de Réaction en Ecoulement Supersonique Uniforme (CRESU; Reaction Kinetics in a Uniform Supersonic Flow) technique to measure for the first time the rate coefficients (k) of the gas-phase OH+H2CO reaction between 22 and 107 K. The k values greatly increase from 2.1 × 10-11 cm3 s-1 at 107 K to 1.2 × 10-10 cm3 s-1 at 22 K. This is also confirmed by quasi-classical trajectories (QCT) at collision energies down to 0.1 meV performed using a new full dimension and ab initio potential energy surface that generates highly accurate potential and includes long-range dipole-dipole interactions. QCT calculations indicate that at low temperatures HCO is the exclusive product for the OH+H2CO reaction. In order to revisit the chemistry of HCO in cold dense clouds, k is reasonably extrapolated from the experimental results at 10 K (2.6 × 10-10 cm3 s-1). The modeled abundances of HCO are in agreement with the observations in cold dark clouds for an evolving time of 105-106 yr. The different sources of production of HCO are presented and the uncertainties in the chemical networks are discussed. The present reaction is shown to account for a few percent of the total HCO production rate. This reaction can be expected to be a competitive process in the chemistry of prestellar cores. Extensions to photodissociation regions and diffuse cloud environments are also addressed.

Is the gas-phase OH+H2CO reaction a source of HCO in interstellar cold dark clouds? A kinetic, dynamic and modelling study.

PubMed

Ocaña, A J; Jiménez, E; Ballesteros, B; Canosa, A; Antiñolo, M; Albaladejo, J; Agúndez, M; Cernicharo, J; Zanchet, A; Del Mazo, P; Roncero, O; Aguado, A

2017-11-20

Chemical kinetics of neutral-neutral gas-phase reactions at ultralow temperatures is a fascinating research subject with important implications on the chemistry of complex organic molecules in the interstellar medium (T∼10-100K). Scarce kinetic information is currently available for this kind of reactions at T<200 K. In this work we use the CRESU ( Cinétique de Réaction en Ecoulement Supersonique Uniforme , which means Reaction Kinetics in a Uniform Supersonic Flow) technique to measure for the first time the rate coefficients ( k ) of the gas-phase OH+H 2 CO reaction between 22 and 107 K. k values greatly increase from 2.1×10 -11 cm 3 s -1 at 107 K to 1.2×10 -10 cm 3 s -1 at 22 K. This is also confirmed by quasi-classical trajectories (QCT) at collision energies down to 0.1 meV performed using a new full dimension and ab initio potential energy surface, recently developed which generates highly accurate potential and includes long range dipole-dipole interactions. QCT calculations indicate that at low temperatures HCO is the exclusive product for the OH+H 2 CO reaction. In order to revisit the chemistry of HCO in cold dense clouds, k is reasonably extrapolated from the experimental results at 10K (2.6×10 -10 cm 3 s -1 ). The modeled abundances of HCO are in agreement with the observations in cold dark clouds for an evolving time of 10 5 -10 6 yrs. The different sources of production of HCO are presented and the uncertainties in the chemical networks discussed. This reaction can be expected to be a competitive process in the chemistry of prestellar cores. The present reaction is shown to account for a few percent of the total HCO production rate. Extensions to photodissociation regions and diffuse clouds environments are also commented.

Galactic cold cores. IX. Column density structures and radiative-transfer modelling

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Juvela, M.; Malinen, J.; Montillaud, J.; Pelkonen, V.-M.; Ristorcelli, I.; Tóth, L. V.

2018-06-01

Context. The Galactic Cold Cores (GCC) project has made Herschel photometric observations of interstellar clouds where Planck detected compact sources of cold dust emission. The fields are in different environments and stages of star formation. Aims: Our aim is to characterise the structure of the clumps and their parent clouds, and to study the connections between the environment and the formation of gravitationally bound objects. We also examine the accuracy to which the structure of dense clumps can be determined from sub-millimetre data. Methods: We use standard statistical methods to characterise the GCC fields. Individual clumps are extracted using column density thresholding. Based on sub-millimetre measurements, we construct a three-dimensional radiative transfer (RT) model for each field. These are used to estimate the relative radiation field intensities, to probe the clump stability, and to examine the uncertainty of column density estimates. We examine the structural parameters of the clumps, including their radial column density profiles. Results: In the GCC fields, the structure noise follows the relations previously established at larger scales and in lower-density clouds. The fractal dimension has no significant dependence on column density and the values DP = 1.25 ± 0.07 are only slightly lower than in typical molecular clouds. The column density probability density functions (PDFs) exhibit large variations, for example, in the case of externally compressed clouds. At scales r > 0.1 pc, the radial column density distributions of the clouds follow an average relation of N r-1. In spite of a great variety of clump morphologies (and a typical aspect ratio of 1.5), clumps tend to follow a similar N r-1 relation below r 0.1 pc. RT calculations indicate only factor 2.5 variation in the local radiation field intensity. The fraction of gravitationally bound clumps increases significantly in regions with AV > 5 mag but most bound objects appear to be pressure-confined. Conclusions: The host clouds of the cold clumps in the GCC sample have statistical properties similar to general molecular clouds. The gravitational stability, peak column density, and clump orientation are connected to the cloud background while most other statistical clump properties (e.g. DP and radial profiles) are insensitive to the environment. The study of clump morphology should be continued with a comparison with numerical simulations. Planck (http://www.esa.int/Planck) is a project of the European Space Agency (ESA) with instruments provided by two scientific consortia funded by ESA member states (in particular the lead countries: France and Italy) with contributions from NASA (USA), and telescope reflectors provided in a collaboration between ESA and a scientific consortium led and funded by Denmark.Herschel is an ESA space observatory with science instruments provided by European-led Principal Investigator consortia and with important participation from NASA.

Multiple Satellite Observations of Cloud Cover in Extratropical Cyclones

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Naud, Catherine M.; Booth, James F.; Posselt, Derek J.; van den Heever, Susan C.

2013-01-01

Using cloud observations from NASA Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer, Multiangle Imaging Spectroradiometer, and CloudSat-CALIPSO, composites of cloud fraction in southern and northern hemisphere extratropical cyclones are obtained for cold and warm seasons between 2006 and 2010, to assess differences between these three data sets, and between summer and winter cyclones. In both hemispheres and seasons, over the open ocean, the cyclone-centered cloud fraction composites agree within 5% across the three data sets, but behind the cold fronts, or over sea ice and land, the differences are much larger. To supplement the data set comparison and learn more about the cyclones, we also examine the differences in cloud fraction between cold and warm season for each data set. The difference in cloud fraction between cold and warm season southern hemisphere cyclones is small for all three data sets, but of the same order of magnitude as the differences between the data sets. The cold-warm season contrast in northern hemisphere cyclone cloud fractions is similar for all three data sets: in the warm sector, the cold season cloud fractions are lower close to the low, but larger on the equator edge than their warm season counterparts. This seasonal contrast in cloud fraction within the cyclones warm sector seems to be related to the seasonal differences in moisture flux within the cyclones. Our analysis suggests that the three different data sets can all be used confidently when studying the warm sector and warm frontal zone of extratropical cyclones but caution should be exerted when studying clouds in the cold sector.

Nitric Acid Particles in Cold Thick Ice Clouds Observed at Global Scale: Link with Lightning, Temperature, and Upper Tropospheric Water Vapor

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Chepfer, H.; Minnis, P.; Dubuisson, P.; Chiriaco, M.; Sun-Mack, S.; Riviere, E. D.

2007-01-01

Signatures of nitric acid particles (NAP) in cold thick ice clouds have been derived from satellite observations. Most NAP are detected in the Tropics (9 to 20% of clouds with T less than 202.5 K). Higher occurrences were found in the rare mid-latitudes very cold clouds. NAP occurrence increases as cloud temperature decreases and NAP are more numerous in January than July. Comparisons of NAP and lightning distributions show that lightning is the main source of the NOx, which forms NAP in cold clouds. Qualitative comparisons of NAP with upper tropospheric humidity distributions suggest that NAP play a role in the dehydration of the upper troposphere when the tropopause is colder than 195K.

Nitric acid particles in cold thick ice clouds observed at global scale: Link with lightning, temperature, and upper tropospheric water vapor

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Chepfer, H.; Minnis, P.; Dubuisson, P.; Chiriaco, M.; Sun-Mack, S.; RivièRe, E. D.

2007-03-01

Signatures of nitric acid particles (NAP) in cold thick ice clouds have been derived from satellite observations. Most NAP are detected in the tropics (9 to 20% of clouds with T < 202.5 K). Higher occurrences were found in the rare midlatitudes very cold clouds. NAP occurrence increases as cloud temperature decreases, and NAP are more numerous in January than July. Comparisons of NAP and lightning distributions show that lightning seems to be the main source of the NOx, which forms NAP in cold clouds over continents. Qualitative comparisons of NAP with upper tropospheric humidity distributions suggest that NAP may play a role in the dehydration of the upper troposphere when the tropopause is colder than 195 K.

Cold Water Vapor in the Barnard 5 Molecular Cloud

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Wirstrom, E. S.; Charnley, S. B.; Persson, C. M.; Buckle, J. V.; Cordiner, M. A.; Takakuwa, S.

2014-01-01

After more than 30 yr of investigations, the nature of gas-grain interactions at low temperatures remains an unresolved issue in astrochemistry. Water ice is the dominant ice found in cold molecular clouds; however, there is only one region where cold ((is) approximately 10 K) water vapor has been detected-L1544. This study aims to shed light on ice desorption mechanisms under cold cloud conditions by expanding the sample. The clumpy distribution of methanol in dark clouds testifies to transient desorption processes at work-likely to also disrupt water ice mantles. Therefore, the Herschel HIFI instrument was used to search for cold water in a small sample of prominent methanol emission peaks. We report detections of the ground-state transition of o-H2O (J = 110-101) at 556.9360 GHz toward two positions in the cold molecular cloud, Barnard 5. The relative abundances of methanol and water gas support a desorption mechanism which disrupts the outer ice mantle layers, rather than causing complete mantle removal.

The relationships among cloud microphysics, chemistry, and precipitation rate in cold mountain clouds

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Borys, Randolph D.; Lowenthal, Douglas H.; Mitchell, David L.

A study was conducted to examine the relationships among air pollutant loadings, cloud microphysics, and snowfall rates in cold mountain clouds. It was hypothesized that variations in pollutant loadings would be reflected in shifts in the cloud droplet size distribution. A field program was conducted at Storm Peak Laboratory (SPL) at an elevation of 3210 m MSL in northwestern Colorado. Cold precipitating clouds were sampled during January, 1995. Cloud water was collected and analyzed for major ion and trace element chemistry. Cloud droplet concentrations and size were measured continuously using a PMS FSSP-100. The results indicate a direct relationship between clear-air equivalent (CAE) sulfate concentrations in cloud water and cloud droplet concentrations, an indirect relationship between droplet number and droplet size, a direct relationship between droplet size and snowfall rate, and an indirect relationship between CAE sulfate concentration and snowfall rate.

Estimating optically-thin cirrus cloud induced cold bias on infrared radiometric satellite sea surface temperature retrieval in the tropics

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Marquis, Jared Wayne

Passive longwave infrared radiometric satellite-based retrievals of sea surface temperature (SST) at instrument nadir are investigated for cold bias caused by unscreened optically-thin cirrus (OTC) clouds (cloud optical depth ≤ 0.3; COD). Level 2 split-window SST retrievals over tropical oceans (30° S - 30° N) from Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) radiances collected aboard the NASA Aqua satellite (Aqua-MODIS) are collocated with cloud profiles from the Cloud-Aerosol Lidar with Orthogonal Polarization (CALIOP) instrument, mounted on the independent NASA CALIPSO satellite. OTC are present in approximately 25% of tropical quality-assured (QA) Aqua-MODIS Level-2 data, representing over 99% of all contaminating cirrus found. This results in cold-biased SST retrievals using either split- (MODIS, AVHRR and VIIRS) or triple-window (AVHRR and VIIRS only) retrieval methods. SST retrievals are modeled based on operational algorithms using radiative transfer model simulations conducted with a hypothetical 1.5 km thick OTC cloud placed incrementally from 10.0 - 18.0 km above mean sea level for cloud optical depths (COD) between 0.0 - 0.3. Corresponding cold bias estimates for each sensor are estimated using relative Aqua-MODIS cloud contamination frequencies as a function of cloud top height and COD (assuming them consistent across each platform) integrated within each corresponding modeled cold bias matrix. Split-window relative OTC cold biases, for any single observation, range from 0.40° - 0.49° C for the three sensors, with an absolute (bulk mean) bias between 0.10° - 0.13° C. Triple-window retrievals are more resilient, ranging from 0.03° - 0.04° C relative and 0.11° - 0.16° C absolute. Cold biases are constant across the Pacific and Indian Ocean domains. Absolute bias is smaller over the Atlantic, but relative bias is larger due to different cloud properties indicating that this issue persists globally.

Evaluation of WRF physical parameterizations against ARM/ASR Observations in the post-cold-frontal region to improve low-level clouds representation in CAM5

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Lamraoui, F.; Booth, J. F.; Naud, C. M.

2017-12-01

The representation of subgrid-scale processes of low-level marine clouds located in the post-cold-frontal region poses a serious challenge for climate models. More precisely, the boundary layer parameterizations are predominantly designed for individual regimes that can evolve gradually over time and does not accommodate the cold front passage that can overly modify the boundary layer rapidly. Also, the microphysics schemes respond differently to the quick development of the boundary layer schemes, especially under unstable conditions. To improve the understanding of cloud physics in the post-cold frontal region, the present study focuses on exploring the relationship between cloud properties, the local processes and large-scale conditions. In order to address these questions, we explore the WRF sensitivity to the interaction between various combinations of the boundary layer and microphysics parameterizations, including the Community Atmospheric Model version 5 (CAM5) physical package in a perturbed physics ensemble. Then, we evaluate these simulations against ground-based ARM observations over the Azores. The WRF-based simulations demonstrate particular sensitivities of the marine cold front passage and the associated post-cold frontal clouds to the domain size, the resolution and the physical parameterizations. First, it is found that in multiple different case studies the model cannot generate the cold front passage when the domain size is larger than 3000 km2. Instead, the modeled cold front stalls, which shows the importance of properly capturing the synoptic scale conditions. The simulation reveals persistent delay in capturing the cold front passage and also an underestimated duration of the post-cold-frontal conditions. Analysis of the perturbed physics ensemble shows that changing the microphysics scheme leads to larger differences in the modeled clouds than changing the boundary layer scheme. The in-cloud heating tendencies are analyzed to explain this sensitivity.

Interstellar gas and X-rays toward the Young supernova remnant RCW 86; pursuit of the origin of the thermal and non-thermal X-ray

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Sano, H.; Reynoso, E. M.; Mitsuishi, I.; Nakamura, K.; Furukawa, N.; Mruganka, K.; Fukuda, T.; Yoshiike, S.; Nishimura, A.; Ohama, A.; Torii, K.; Kuwahara, T.; Okuda, T.; Yamamoto, H.; Tachihara, K.; Fukui, Y.

2017-09-01

We have analyzed the atomic and molecular gas using the 21 cm HI and 2.6/1.3 mm CO emissions toward the young supernova remnant (SNR) RCW 86 in order to identify the interstellar medium with which the shock waves of the SNR interact. We have found an HI intensity depression in the velocity range between -46 and - 28 kms-1 toward the SNR, suggesting a cavity in the interstellar medium. The HI cavity coincides with the thermal and non-thermal emitting X-ray shell. The thermal X-rays are coincident with the edge of the HI distribution, which indicates a strong density gradient, while the non-thermal X-rays are found toward the less dense, inner part of the HI cavity. The most significant non-thermal X-rays are seen toward the southwestern part of the shell where the HI gas traces the dense and cold component. We also identified CO clouds which are likely interacting with the SNR shock waves in the same velocity range as the HI, although the CO clouds are distributed only in a limited part of the SNR shell. The most massive cloud is located in the southeastern part of the shell, showing detailed correspondence with the thermal X-rays. These CO clouds show an enhanced CO J = 2- 1 / 1- 0 intensity ratio, suggesting heating/compression by the shock front. We interpret that the shock-cloud interaction enhances non-thermal X-rays in the southwest and the thermal X-rays are emitted by the shock-heated gas of density 10-100 cm-3. Moreover, we can clearly see an HI envelope around the CO cloud, suggesting that the progenitor had a weaker wind than the massive progenitor of the core-collapse SNR RX J1713.7-3949. It seems likely that the progenitor of RCW 86 was a system consisting of a white dwarf and a low-mass star with low-velocity accretion winds.

The violent interstellar medium in Milky-Way like disk galaxies

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Karoline Walch, Stefanie

2015-08-01

Molecular clouds are cold, dense, and turbulent filamentary structures that condense out of the multi-phase interstellar medium. They are also the sites of star formation. The minority of new-born stars is massive, but these stars are particularly important for the fate of their parental molecular clouds as their feedback drives turbulence and regulates star formation.I will present results from the SILCC project (SImulating the Life Cycle of molecular Clouds), in which we study the formation and dispersal of molecular clouds within the multi-phase ISM using high-performance, three-dimensional simulations of representative pieces of disk galaxies. Apart from stellar feedback, self-gravity, an external stellar potential, and magnetic fields, we employ an accurate description of gas heating and cooling as well as a small chemical network including molecule formation and (self-)shielding from the interstellar radiation field. We study the impact of the supernova rate and the positioning of the supernova explosions with respect to the molecular gas in a well defined set of simulations. This allows us to draw conclusions on structure of the multi-phase ISM, the amount of molecular gas formed, and the onset of galactic outflows. Furthermore, we show how important stellar wind feedback is for regulating star formation in these disks.

A Search for O2 in CO-Depleted Molecular Cloud Cores With Herschel

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Wirstroem, Eva S.; Charnley, Steven B.; Cordiner, Martin; Ceccarelli, Cecilia

2016-01-01

The general lack of molecular oxygen in molecular clouds is an outstanding problem in astrochemistry. Extensive searches with the Submillimeter Astronomical Satellite, Odin, and Herschel have only produced two detections; upper limits to the O2 abundance in the remaining sources observed are about 1000 times lower than predicted by chemical models. Previous atomic oxygen observations and inferences from observations of other molecules indicated that high abundances of O atoms might be present in dense cores exhibiting large amounts of CO depletion. Theoretical arguments concerning the oxygen gas-grain interaction in cold dense cores suggested that, if O atoms could survive in the gas after most of the rest of the heavy molecular material has frozen out onto dust, then O2 could be formed efficiently in the gas. Using Herschel HIFI, we searched a small sample of four depletion cores-L1544, L694-2, L429, and Oph D-for emission in the low excitation O2 N(sub J)?=?3(sub 3)-1(sub 2) line at 487.249 GHz. Molecular oxygen was not detected and we derive upper limits to its abundance in the range of N(O2)/N (H2) approx. = (0.6-1.6) x10(exp -7). We discuss the absence of O2 in the light of recent laboratory and observational studies.

Champagne flutes and brandy snifters: modelling protostellar outflow-cloud chemical interfaces

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Rollins, R. P.; Rawlings, J. M. C.; Williams, D. A.; Redman, M. P.

2014-10-01

A rich variety of molecular species has now been observed towards hot cores in star-forming regions and in the interstellar medium. An increasing body of evidence from millimetre interferometers suggests that many of these form at the interfaces between protostellar outflows and their natal molecular clouds. However, current models have remained unable to explain the origin of the observational bias towards wide-angled `brandy snifter' shaped outflows over narrower `champagne flute' shapes in carbon monoxide imaging. Furthermore, these wide-angled systems exhibit unusually high abundances of the molecular ion HCO+. We present results from a chemodynamic model of such regions where a rich chemistry arises naturally as a result of turbulent mixing between cold, dense molecular gas and the hot, ionized outflow material. The injecta drives a rich and rapid ion-neutral chemistry in qualitative and quantitative agreement with the observations. The observational bias towards wide-angled outflows is explained naturally by the geometry-dependent ion injection rate causing rapid dissociation of CO in the younger systems.

THE JCMT GOULD BELT SURVEY: DENSE CORE CLUSTERS IN ORION A

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Lane, J.; Kirk, H.; Johnstone, D.

The Orion A molecular cloud is one of the most well-studied nearby star-forming regions, and includes regions of both highly clustered and more dispersed star formation across its full extent. Here, we analyze dense, star-forming cores identified in the 850 and 450 μ m SCUBA-2 maps from the JCMT Gould Belt Legacy Survey. We identify dense cores in a uniform manner across the Orion A cloud and analyze their clustering properties. Using two independent lines of analysis, we find evidence that clusters of dense cores tend to be mass segregated, suggesting that stellar clusters may have some amount of primordial mass segregationmore » already imprinted in them at an early stage. We also demonstrate that the dense core clusters have a tendency to be elongated, perhaps indicating a formation mechanism linked to the filamentary structure within molecular clouds.« less

Supernovae-generated high-velocity compact clouds

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Yalinewich, A.; Beniamini, P.

2018-05-01

Context. A previous study claimed the discovery of an intermediate-mass black hole (IMBH). This hypothetical black hole was invoked in order to explain the high-velocity dispersion in one of several dense molecular clouds near the Galactic center. The same study considered the possibility that this cloud was due to a supernova explosion, but disqualified this scenario because no X-rays were detected. Aims: We here check whether a supernova explosion could have produced that cloud, and whether this explanation is more likely than an IMBH. More specifically, we wish to determine whether a supernova inside a dense molecular cloud would emit in the X-rays. Methods: We have approached this problem from two different directions. First, we performed an analytic calculation to determine the cooling rate by thermal bremsstrahlung and compared this time to the lifetime of the cloud. Second, we estimated the creation rate of these dense clouds in the central molecular zone (CMZ) region near the Galactic center, where they were observed. Based on this rate, we can place lower bounds on the total mass of IMBHs and clouds and compare this to the masses of the components of the CMZ. Results: We find that the cooling time of the supernova remnant inside a molecular cloud is shorter than its dynamical time. This means that the temperature in such a remnant would be much lower than that of a typical supernova remnant. At such a low temperature, the remnant is not expected to emit in the X-rays. We also find that to explain the rate at which such dense clouds are created requires fine-tuning the number of IMBHs. Conclusions: We find the supernova model to be a more likely explanation for the formation of high-velocity compact clouds than an IMBH.

Making and Breaking Clouds

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kohler, Susanna

2017-10-01

Molecular clouds which youre likely familiar with from stunning popular astronomy imagery lead complicated, tumultuous lives. A recent study has now found that these features must be rapidly built and destroyed.Star-Forming CollapseA Hubble view of a molecular cloud, roughly two light-years long, that has broken off of the Carina Nebula. [NASA/ESA, N. Smith (University of California, Berkeley)/The Hubble Heritage Team (STScI/AURA)]Molecular gas can be found throughout our galaxy in the form of eminently photogenic clouds (as featured throughout this post). Dense, cold molecular gas makes up more than 20% of the Milky Ways total gas mass, and gravitational instabilities within these clouds lead them to collapse under their own weight, resulting in the formation of our galaxys stars.How does this collapse occur? The simplest explanation is that the clouds simply collapse in free fall, with no source of support to counter their contraction. But if all the molecular gas we observe collapsed on free-fall timescales, star formation in our galaxy would churn a rate thats at least an order of magnitude higher than the observed 12 solar masses per year in the Milky Way.Destruction by FeedbackAstronomers have theorized that there may be some mechanism that supports these clouds against gravity, slowing their collapse. But both theoretical studies and observations of the clouds have ruled out most of these potential mechanisms, and mounting evidence supports the original interpretation that molecular clouds are simply gravitationally collapsing.A sub-mm image from ESOs APEX telescope of part of the Taurus molecular cloud, roughly ten light-years long, superimposed on a visible-light image of the region. [ESO/APEX (MPIfR/ESO/OSO)/A. Hacar et al./Digitized Sky Survey 2. Acknowledgment: Davide De Martin]If this is indeed the case, then one explanation for our low observed star formation rate could be that molecular clouds are rapidly destroyed by feedback from the very stars they create. But to match with observations, this wouldsuggest that molecular clouds are short-lived objects that are built (and therefore replenished) just as quickly as they are destroyed. Is this possible?Speedy Building?In a recent study, a team of scientists led by Mordecai-Mark Mac Low (American Museum of Natural History and Heidelberg University, Germany) explore whether there is a way to create molecular clouds rapidly enough to match the necessary rate of destruction.Mac Low and collaborators find that some common mechanisms used to explain the formation of molecular clouds like gas being swept up by supernovae cant quite operate quickly enough to combat the rate of cloud destruction. On the other hand, the Toomre gravitational instability,which is a large-scale gravitational instability that occurs in gas disks,can very rapidly assemble gas into clumps dense enough to form molecules.A composite of visible and near-infrared images from the VLT ANTU telescope of the Barnard 68 molecular cloud, roughly half a light-year in diameter. [ESO]A Rapid CycleBased on their findings, the authors argue that dense, star-forming molecular clouds persist only for a short time before collapsing into stars and then being blown apart by stellar feedback but these very clouds are built equally quickly via gravitational instabilities.Conveniently, this model has a very testable prediction: the Toomre instability is expected to become even stronger at higher redshift, which suggests that the fraction of gas in the form of molecules should increase at high redshifts. This appears to agree with observations, supporting the authors picture of a rapid cycle of cloud assembly and destruction.CitationMordecai-Mark Mac Low et al 2017 ApJL 847 L10. doi:10.3847/2041-8213/aa8a61

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Finn, Susanna C.; Jackson, James M.; Rathborne, Jill M.

Infrared dark clouds (IRDCs) are believed to host the earliest stages of high-mass star and cluster formation. Because O stars typically travel short distances over their lifetimes, if IRDCs host the earliest stages of high-mass star formation then these cold, dense molecular clouds should be located in or near the spiral arms in the Galaxy. The Galactic distribution of a large sample of IRDCs should therefore provide information on Galactic structure. Moreover, determination of distances enables mass and luminosity calculations. We have observed a large sample of IRDC candidates in the first Galactic quadrant in the dense gas tracer CSmore » (2-1) using the Mopra telescope in order to determine kinematic distances from the molecular line velocities. We find that the IRDCs are concentrated around a Galactocentric distance of {approx}4.5 kpc, agreeing with the results of Simon et al. This distribution is consistent with the location of the Scutum-Centaurus spiral arm. The group of IRDCs near the Sun in the first quadrant detected in {sup 13}CO (1-0) in Simon et al. is not detected in the CS data. This discrepancy arises from the differences in the critical densities between the {sup 13}CO (1-0) and CS (2-1) lines. We determine that the Midcourse Space Experiment selected IRDCs are not a homogeneous population, and {sup 13}CO (1-0) traces a population of IRDCs with lower column densities and lower 1.1 mm flux densities in addition to more dense IRDCs detected in CS. Masses of the first quadrant IRDCs are calculated from {sup 13}CO (1-0) maps. We find a strong peak in the Galactocentric IRDC mass surface density distribution at R {sub Gal} {approx} 4.5 kpc.« less

Reactivity of OH and CH3OH Between 22 and 64 K: Modelling the Gas Phase Production of CH3O in Barnard 1B

PubMed Central

Antiñolo, M.; Agúndez, M.; Jiménez, E.; Ballesteros, B.; Canosa, A.; Dib, G. El; Albaladejo, J.; Cernicharo, J.

2016-01-01

In the last years, ultra-low temperature chemical kinetic experiments have demonstrated that some gas-phase reactions are much faster than previously thought. One example is the reaction between OH and CH3OH, which has been recently found to be accelerated at low temperatures yielding CH3O as main product. This finding opened the question of whether the CH3O observed in the dense core Barnard 1b could be formed by the gas-phase reaction of CH3OH and OH. Several chemical models including this reaction and grain-surface processes have been developed to explain the observed abundance of CH3O with little success. Here we report for the first time rate coefficients for the gas-phase reaction of OH and CH3OH down to a temperature of 22 K, very close to those in cold interstellar clouds. Two independent experimental set-ups based on the supersonic gas expansion technique coupled to the pulsed laser photolysis-laser induced fluorescence technique were used to determine rate coefficients in the temperature range 22-64 K. The temperature dependence obtained in this work can be expressed as k(22-64 K) = (3.6 ± 0.1) × 10−12(T/300 K)−(1.0±0.2) cm3 molecule−1 s−1. Implementing this expression in a chemical model of a cold dense cloud results in CH3O/CH3OH abundance ratios similar or slightly lower than the value of ∼ 3 × 10−3 observed in Barnard 1b. This finding confirms that the gas-phase reaction between OH and CH3OH is an important contributor to the formation of interstellar CH3O. The role of grain-surface processes in the formation of CH3O, although it cannot be fully neglected, remains controversial. PMID:27279655

The ratio of N(C18O) and AV in Chamaeleon I and III-B. Using 2MASS and SEST

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kainulainen, J.; Lehtinen, K.; Harju, J.

2006-02-01

We investigate the relationship between the C18O column density and the visual extinction in Chamaeleon I and in a part of the Chamaeleon III molecular cloud. The C18O column densities, N(C18O), are calculated from J=1{-}0 rotational line data observed with the SEST telescope. The visual extinctions, A_V, are derived using {JHK} photometry from the 2MASS survey and the NICER color excess technique. In contrast with the previous results of Hayakawa et al. (2001, PASJ, 53, 1109), we find that the average N(C18O)/AV ratios are similar in Cha I and Cha III, and lie close to values derived for other clouds, i.e. N(C18O) ≈ 2 × 1014 cm-2 ( AV - 2 ). We find, however, clear deviations from this average relationship towards individual clumps. Larger than average N(C18O)/AV ratios can be found in clumps associated with the active star forming region in the northern part of Cha I. On the other hand, some regions in the relatively quiescent southern part of Cha I show smaller than average N(C18O)/AV ratios and also very shallow proportionality between N(C18O) and A_V. The shallow proportionality suggests that C18O is heavily depleted in these regions. As the degree of depletion is proportional to the gas density, these regions probably contain very dense, cold cores, which do not stand out in CO mappings. A comparison with the dust temperature map derived from the ISO data shows that the most prominent of the potentially depleted cores indeed coincides with a dust temperature minimum. It seems therefore feasible to use N(C18O) and AV data together for identifying cold, dense cores in large scale mappings.

Reactivity of OH and CH3OH Between 22 and 64 K: Modelling the Gas Phase Production of CH3O in Barnard 1B.

PubMed

Antiñolo, M; Agúndez, M; Jiménez, E; Ballesteros, B; Canosa, A; Dib, G El; Albaladejo, J; Cernicharo, J

2016-05-20

In the last years, ultra-low temperature chemical kinetic experiments have demonstrated that some gas-phase reactions are much faster than previously thought. One example is the reaction between OH and CH 3 OH, which has been recently found to be accelerated at low temperatures yielding CH 3 O as main product. This finding opened the question of whether the CH 3 O observed in the dense core Barnard 1b could be formed by the gas-phase reaction of CH 3 OH and OH. Several chemical models including this reaction and grain-surface processes have been developed to explain the observed abundance of CH 3 O with little success. Here we report for the first time rate coefficients for the gas-phase reaction of OH and CH 3 OH down to a temperature of 22 K, very close to those in cold interstellar clouds. Two independent experimental set-ups based on the supersonic gas expansion technique coupled to the pulsed laser photolysis-laser induced fluorescence technique were used to determine rate coefficients in the temperature range 22-64 K. The temperature dependence obtained in this work can be expressed as k (22-64 K) = (3.6 ± 0.1) × 10 -12 ( T/ 300 K) -(1.0±0.2) cm 3 molecule -1 s -1 . Implementing this expression in a chemical model of a cold dense cloud results in CH 3 O/CH 3 OH abundance ratios similar or slightly lower than the value of ∼ 3 × 10 -3 observed in Barnard 1b. This finding confirms that the gas-phase reaction between OH and CH 3 OH is an important contributor to the formation of interstellar CH 3 O. The role of grain-surface processes in the formation of CH 3 O, although it cannot be fully neglected, remains controversial.

A reanalysis of the HCO(+)/HOC(+) abundance ratio in dense interstellar clouds

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Jarrold, M. F.; Bowers, M. T.; Defrees, D. J.; Mclean, A. D.; Herbst, E.

1986-01-01

New theoretical and experimental results have prompted a reinvestigation of the HCO(+)/HOC(+) abundance ratio in dense interstellar clouds. These results pertain principally but not exclusively to the reaction between HOC(+) and H2, which was previously calculated by DeFrees et al. (1984) to possess a large activation energy barrier. New calculations, reported here, indicate that this activation energy barrier is quite small and may well be zero. In addition, experimental results at higher energy and temperature indicate strongly that the reaction proceeds efficiently at interstellar temperatures. If HOC(+) does indeed react efficiently with H2 in interstellar clouds, the calculated HCO(+)/HOC(+) abundance ratio rises to a substantially greater value under standard dense cloud conditions than is deduced via the tentative observation of HOC(+) in Sgr B2.

View of cold water eddies in Falkland Current off southern Argentina

NASA Image and Video Library

1973-12-14

SL4-137-3608 (14 Dec. 1973) --- A view of cold water eddies in the Falkland Current off the South Atlantic coast of southern Argentina as seen from the Skylab space station in Earth orbit. This picture was taken by one of the Skylab 4 crewmen using a hand-held 70mm Hasselblad camera. This land area (left corner) extends south along the coast from Puerto Deseado (center left border) for about 50 miles. Within the ocean, several light blue areas are visible and represent the occurrence of plankton with the Falkland Current. Over the ocean, the cold water eddies are identified by the circular cloud-free areas within the cloud street pattern and bordered by cumulus cloud buildup (white). The cloud streets indicate the wind is from the southwest and do not form over eddies because energy form the atmosphere is absorbed by the cold ocean water. On the downwind side of the eddies, cumulus clouds tend to form as the cold moist air flows over the warmer water. Similar cloud and eddy features have been observed by the Skylab 4 crewmen in the Yucatan Current off Yucatan Peninsula and in some parts of the South Pacific. Studies are underway by Dr. George Maul, NOAA, and Dr. Robert Stevenson, ONR, to determine the significance of the cold water eddies to ocean dynamics. Photo credit: NASA

The Launching of Cold Clouds by Galaxy Outflows. I. Hydrodynamic Interactions with Radiative Cooling

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Scannapieco, Evan; Brüggen, Marcus

2015-06-01

To better understand the nature of the multiphase material found in outflowing galaxies, we study the evolution of cold clouds embedded in flows of hot and fast material. Using a suite of adaptive mesh refinement simulations that include radiative cooling, we investigate both cloud mass loss and cloud acceleration under the full range of conditions observed in galaxy outflows. The simulations are designed to track the cloud center of mass, enabling us to study the cloud evolution at long disruption times. For supersonic flows, a Mach cone forms around the cloud, which damps the Kelvin-Helmholtz instability but also establishes a streamwise pressure gradient that stretches the cloud apart. If time is expressed in units of the cloud crushing time, both the cloud lifetime and the cloud acceleration rate are independent of cloud radius, and we find simple scalings for these quantities as a function of the Mach number of the external medium. A resolution study suggests that our simulations accurately describe the evolution of cold clouds in the absence of thermal conduction and magnetic fields, physical processes whose roles will be studied in forthcoming papers.

Collisional excitation of molecules in dense interstellar clouds

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Green, S.

1985-01-01

State transitions which permit the identification of the molecular species in dense interstellar clouds are reviewed, along with the techniques used to calculate the transition energies, the database on known molecular transitions and the accuracy of the values. The transition energies cannot be measured directly and therefore must be modeled analytically. Scattering theory is used to determine the intermolecular forces on the basis of quantum mechanics. The nuclear motions can also be modeled with classical mechanics. Sample rate constants are provided for molecular systems known to inhabit dense interstellar clouds. The values serve as a database for interpreting microwave and RF astrophysical data on the transitions undergone by interstellar molecules.

Arctic PBL Cloud Height and Motion Retrievals from MISR and MINX

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Wu, Dong L.

2012-01-01

How Arctic clouds respond and feedback to sea ice loss is key to understanding of the rapid climate change seen in the polar region. As more open water becomes available in the Arctic Ocean, cold air outbreaks (aka. off-ice flow from polar lows) produce a vast sheet of roll clouds in the planetary boundary layer (PBl). The cold air temperature and wind velocity are the critical parameters to determine and understand the PBl structure formed under these roll clouds. It has been challenging for nadir visible/IR sensors to detect Arctic clouds due to lack of contrast between clouds and snowy/icy surfaces. In addition) PBl temperature inversion creates a further problem for IR sensors to relate cloud top temperature to cloud top height. Here we explore a new method with the Multiangle Imaging Spectro-Radiometer (MISR) instrument to measure cloud height and motion over the Arctic Ocean. Employing a stereoscopic-technique, MISR is able to measure cloud top height accurately and distinguish between clouds and snowy/icy surfaces with the measured height. We will use the MISR INteractive eXplorer (MINX) to quantify roll cloud dynamics during cold-air outbreak events and characterize PBl structures over water and over sea ice.

The relationships between precipitation, convective cloud and tropical cyclone intensity change

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ruan, Z.; Wu, Q.

2017-12-01

Using 16 years precipitation, brightness temperature (IR BT) data and tropical cyclone (TC) information, this study explores the relationship between precipitation, convective cloud and tropical cyclone (TC) intensity change in the Western North Pacific Ocean. It is found that TC intensity has positive relation with TC precipitation. TC precipitation increases with increased TC intensity. Based on the different phase of diurnal cycle, convective TC clouds were divided into very cold deep convective clouds (IR BTs<208K) and cold high clouds (208K

The Central Molecular Zone of the Milky Way: Lessons about Star Formation from an extreme Environment

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kauffmann, Jens; Thushara Pillai, G. S.; Zhang, Qizhou; Lu, Xing; Immer, Katharina

2015-08-01

The Central Molecular Zone of the Milky Way (CMZ; innermost ~100pc) hosts a number of remarkably dense and massive clouds. These are subject to extreme environmental conditions, including very high cosmic ray fluxes and strong magnetic fields. Exploring star formation under such exceptional circumstances is essential for several of reasons. First, the CMZ permits to probe an extreme point in the star formation parameter space, which helps to test theoretical models. Second, CMZ clouds might help to understand the star formation under extreme conditions in more distant environments, such as in starbursts and the early universe.One particularly striking aspect is that — compared to the solar neighborhood — CMZ star formation in dense gas is suppressed by more than an order of magnitude (Longmore et al. 2012, Kauffmann et al. 2013). This questions current explanations for relations between the dense gas and the star formation rate (e.g., Gao & Solomon 2004, Lada et al. 2012). In other words, the unusually dense and massive CMZ molecular clouds form only very few stars, if any at all. Why is this so?Based on data from ALMA, CARMA, and SMA interferometers, we present results from the Galactic Center Molecular Cloud Survey (GCMS), the first study of a comprehensive sample of molecular clouds in the CMZ. This research yields a curious result: most of the major CMZ clouds are essentially devoid of significant substructure of the sort usually found in regions of high-mass star formation (Kauffmann et al. 2013). Preliminary analysis indicates that some clouds rather resemble homogeneous balls of gas. This suggests a highly dynamic picture of cloud evolution in the CMZ where clouds form, disperse, and re-assemble constantly. This concept is benchmarked against a new ALMA survey and first results from a legacy survey on the SMA.It is plausible that dense clouds in other galaxies have a similar internal structure. Instruments like ALMA and the JWST will soon permit to resolve such regions in nearby galaxies.

Cold Spray for Repair of Magnesium Components

DTIC Science & Technology

2011-11-01

powder material. Other advantages of the Cold Spray process include:  It provides extremely dense coatings with virtually no inclusions or cracks ... crack on insertion of Rosan fitting and does not reclaim the mechanical properties of the Mg alloy. It is expected that the use of Cold Spray coating...Spray process include:  Extremely dense coatings with virtually no inclusions or cracks .  Retains properties and microstructure of initial powder

Collapse of primordial gas clouds and the formation of quasar black holes

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Loeb, Abraham; Rasio, Frederic A.

1994-01-01

The formation of quasar black holes during the hydrodynamic collapse of protogalactic gas clouds is discussed. The dissipational collapse and long-term dynamical evolution of these systems is analyzed using three-dimensional numerical simulations. The calculations focus on the final collapse stages of the inner baryonic component and therefore ignore the presence of dark matter. Two types of initial conditions are considered: uniformly rotating spherical clouds, and iirotational ellipsoidal clouds. In both cases the clouds are initially cold, homogeneous, and not far from rotational support (T/(absolute value of W) approximately equals 0.1). Although the details of the dynamical evolution depend sensitively on the initial conditions, the qualitative features of the final configurations do not. Most of the gas is found to fragment into small dense clumps, that eventually make up a spheroidal component resembling a galactic bulge. About 5% of the initial mass remains in the form of a smooth disk of gas supported by rotation in the gravitational potential potential well of the outer spheroid. If a central seed black hole of mass approximately greater than 10(exp 6) solar mass forms, it can grow by steady accretion from the disk and reach a typical quasar black hole mass approximately 10(exp 8) solar mass in less than 5 x 10(exp 8) yr. In the absence of a sufficiently massive seed, dynamical instabilities in a strongly self-gravitating inner region of the disk will inhibit steady accretion of gas and may prevent the immediate formation of quasar.

Deep convective clouds at the tropopause

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Aumann, H. H.; Desouza-Machado, S. G.

2010-07-01

Data from the Advanced Infrared Sounder (AIRS) on the EOS Aqua spacecraft identify thousands of cloud tops colder than 225 K, loosely referred to as Deep Convective Clouds (DCC). Many of these cloud tops have "inverted" spectra, i.e. areas of strong water vapor, CO2 and ozone opacity, normally seen in absorption, are now seen in emission. We refer to these inverted spectra as DCCi. They are found in about 0.4% of all spectra from the tropical oceans excluding the Western Tropical Pacific (WTP), 1.1% in the WTP. The cold clouds are the anvils capping thunderstorms and consist of optically thick cirrus ice clouds. The precipitation rate associated with DCCi suggests that imbedded in these clouds, protruding above them, and not spatially resolved by the AIRS 15 km FOV, are even colder bubbles, where strong convection pushes clouds to within 5 hPa of the pressure level of the tropopause cold point. Associated with DCCi is a local upward displacement of the tropopause, a cold "bulge", which can be seen directly in the brightness temperatures of AIRS and AMSU channels with weighting function peaking between 40 and 2 hPa, without the need for a formal temperature retrieval. The bulge is not resolved by the analysis in numerical weather prediction models. The locally cold cloud tops relative to the analysis give the appearance (in the sense of an "illusion") of clouds overshooting the tropopause and penetrating into the stratosphere. Based on a simple model of optically thick cirrus clouds, the spectral inversions seen in the AIRS data do not require these clouds to penetrate into the stratosphere. However, the contents of the cold bulge may be left in the lower stratosphere as soon as the strong convection subsides. The heavy precipitation and the distortion of the temperature structure near the tropopause indicate that DCCi are associated with intense storms. Significant long-term trends in the statistical properties of DCCi could be interesting indicators of climate change.

Vertical Optical Scanning with Panoramic Vision for Tree Trunk Reconstruction

PubMed Central

Berveglieri, Adilson; Liang, Xinlian; Honkavaara, Eija

2017-01-01

This paper presents a practical application of a technique that uses a vertical optical flow with a fisheye camera to generate dense point clouds from a single planimetric station. Accurate data can be extracted to enable the measurement of tree trunks or branches. The images that are collected with this technique can be oriented in photogrammetric software (using fisheye models) and used to generate dense point clouds, provided that some constraints on the camera positions are adopted. A set of images was captured in a forest plot in the experiments. Weighted geometric constraints were imposed in the photogrammetric software to calculate the image orientation, perform dense image matching, and accurately generate a 3D point cloud. The tree trunks in the scenes were reconstructed and mapped in a local reference system. The accuracy assessment was based on differences between measured and estimated trunk diameters at different heights. Trunk sections from an image-based point cloud were also compared to the corresponding sections that were extracted from a dense terrestrial laser scanning (TLS) point cloud. Cylindrical fitting of the trunk sections allowed the assessment of the accuracies of the trunk geometric shapes in both clouds. The average difference between the cylinders that were fitted to the photogrammetric cloud and those to the TLS cloud was less than 1 cm, which indicates the potential of the proposed technique. The point densities that were obtained with vertical optical scanning were 1/3 less than those that were obtained with TLS. However, the point density can be improved by using higher resolution cameras. PMID:29207468

Vertical Optical Scanning with Panoramic Vision for Tree Trunk Reconstruction.

PubMed

Berveglieri, Adilson; Tommaselli, Antonio M G; Liang, Xinlian; Honkavaara, Eija

2017-12-02

This paper presents a practical application of a technique that uses a vertical optical flow with a fisheye camera to generate dense point clouds from a single planimetric station. Accurate data can be extracted to enable the measurement of tree trunks or branches. The images that are collected with this technique can be oriented in photogrammetric software (using fisheye models) and used to generate dense point clouds, provided that some constraints on the camera positions are adopted. A set of images was captured in a forest plot in the experiments. Weighted geometric constraints were imposed in the photogrammetric software to calculate the image orientation, perform dense image matching, and accurately generate a 3D point cloud. The tree trunks in the scenes were reconstructed and mapped in a local reference system. The accuracy assessment was based on differences between measured and estimated trunk diameters at different heights. Trunk sections from an image-based point cloud were also compared to the corresponding sections that were extracted from a dense terrestrial laser scanning (TLS) point cloud. Cylindrical fitting of the trunk sections allowed the assessment of the accuracies of the trunk geometric shapes in both clouds. The average difference between the cylinders that were fitted to the photogrammetric cloud and those to the TLS cloud was less than 1 cm, which indicates the potential of the proposed technique. The point densities that were obtained with vertical optical scanning were 1/3 less than those that were obtained with TLS. However, the point density can be improved by using higher resolution cameras.

Volcanic explosion clouds - Density, temperature, and particle content estimates from cloud motion

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Wilson, L.; Self, S.

1980-01-01

Photographic records of 10 vulcanian eruption clouds produced during the 1978 eruption of Fuego Volcano in Guatemala have been analyzed to determine cloud velocity and acceleration at successive stages of expansion. Cloud motion is controlled by air drag (dominant during early, high-speed motion) and buoyancy (dominant during late motion when the cloud is convecting slowly). Cloud densities in the range 0.6 to 1.2 times that of the surrounding atmosphere were obtained by fitting equations of motion for two common cloud shapes (spheres and vertical cylinders) to the observed motions. Analysis of the heat budget of a cloud permits an estimate of cloud temperature and particle weight fraction to be made from the density. Model results suggest that clouds generally reached temperatures within 10 K of that of the surrounding air within 10 seconds of formation and that dense particle weight fractions were less than 2% by this time. The maximum sizes of dense particles supported by motion in the convecting clouds range from 140 to 1700 microns.

STABILITY OF GAS CLOUDS IN GALACTIC NUCLEI: AN EXTENDED VIRIAL THEOREM

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Chen, Xian; Cuadra, Jorge; Amaro-Seoane, Pau, E-mail: xchen@astro.puc.cl, E-mail: jcuadra@astro.puc.cl, E-mail: Pau.Amaro-Seoane@aei.mpg.de

2016-03-10

Cold gas entering the central 1–10{sup 2} pc of a galaxy fragments and condenses into clouds. The stability of the clouds determines whether they will be turned into stars or can be delivered to the central supermassive black hole (SMBH) to turn on an active galactic nucleus (AGN). The conventional criteria to assess the stability of these clouds, such as the Jeans criterion and Roche (or tidal) limit, are insufficient here, because they assume the dominance of self-gravity in binding a cloud, and neglect external agents, such as pressure and tidal forces, which are common in galactic nuclei. We formulatemore » a new scheme for judging this stability. We first revisit the conventional Virial theorem, taking into account an external pressure, to identify the correct range of masses that lead to stable clouds. We then extend the theorem to further include an external tidal field, which is equally crucial for the stability in the region of our interest—in dense star clusters, around SMBHs. We apply our extended Virial theorem to find new solutions to controversial problems, namely, the stability of the gas clumps in AGN tori, the circum-nuclear disk in the Galactic Center, and the central molecular zone of the Milky Way. The masses we derive for these structures are orders of magnitude smaller than the commonly used Virial masses (equivalent to the Jeans mass). Moreover, we prove that these clumps are stable, contrary to what one would naively deduce from the Roche (tidal) limit.« less

Theory of droplet. Part 1: Renormalized laws of droplet vaporization in non-dilute sprays

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Chiu, H. H.

1989-01-01

The vaporization of a droplet, interacting with its neighbors in a non-dilute spray environment is examined as well as a vaporization scaling law established on the basis of a recently developed theory of renormalized droplet. The interacting droplet consists of a centrally located droplet and its vapor bubble which is surrounded by a cloud of droplets. The distribution of the droplets and the size of the cloud are characterized by a pair-distribution function. The vaporization of a droplet is retarded by the collective thermal quenching, the vapor concentration accumulated in the outer sphere, and by the limited percolative passages for mass, momentum and energy fluxes. The retardation is scaled by the local collective interaction parameters (group combustion number of renormalized droplet, droplet spacing, renormalization number and local ambient conditions). The numerical results of a selected case study reveal that the vaporization correction factor falls from unity monotonically as the group combustion number increases, and saturation is likely to occur when the group combustion number reaches 35 to 40 with interdroplet spacing of 7.5 diameters and an environment temperature of 500 K. The scaling law suggests that dense sprays can be classified into: (1) a diffusively dense cloud characterized by uniform thermal quenching in the cloud; (2) a stratified dense cloud characterized by a radial stratification in temperature by the differential thermal quenching of the cloud; or (3) a sharply dense cloud marked by fine structure in the quasi-droplet cloud and the corresponding variation in the correction factor due to the variation in the topological structure of the cloud characterized by a pair-distribution function of quasi-droplets.

Quantifying the Amount of Ice in Cold Tropical Cirrus Clouds

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Avery, Melody A.; Winker, David M.; Garnier, Anne; Lawson, R. Paul; Heymsfield, Andrew J.; Mo, Qixu; Schoeberl, Mark R.; Woods, Sarah; Lance, Sara; Young, Stuart A.;

The Green Bank Ammonia Survey: Dense Cores under Pressure in Orion A

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Kirk, Helen; Di Francesco, James; Friesen, Rachel K.

We use data on gas temperature and velocity dispersion from the Green Bank Ammonia Survey and core masses and sizes from the James Clerk Maxwell Telescope Gould Belt Survey to estimate the virial states of dense cores within the Orion A molecular cloud. Surprisingly, we find that almost none of the dense cores are sufficiently massive to be bound when considering only the balance between self-gravity and the thermal and non-thermal motions present in the dense gas. Including the additional pressure binding imposed by the weight of the ambient molecular cloud material and additional smaller pressure terms, however, suggests thatmore » most of the dense cores are pressure-confined.« less

The Green Bank Ammonia Survey: Dense Cores under Pressure in Orion A

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kirk, Helen; Friesen, Rachel K.; Pineda, Jaime E.; Rosolowsky, Erik; Offner, Stella S. R.; Matzner, Christopher D.; Myers, Philip C.; Di Francesco, James; Caselli, Paola; Alves, Felipe O.; Chacón-Tanarro, Ana; Chen, How-Huan; Chun-Yuan Chen, Michael; Keown, Jared; Punanova, Anna; Seo, Young Min; Shirley, Yancy; Ginsburg, Adam; Hall, Christine; Singh, Ayushi; Arce, Héctor G.; Goodman, Alyssa A.; Martin, Peter; Redaelli, Elena

2017-09-01

We use data on gas temperature and velocity dispersion from the Green Bank Ammonia Survey and core masses and sizes from the James Clerk Maxwell Telescope Gould Belt Survey to estimate the virial states of dense cores within the Orion A molecular cloud. Surprisingly, we find that almost none of the dense cores are sufficiently massive to be bound when considering only the balance between self-gravity and the thermal and non-thermal motions present in the dense gas. Including the additional pressure binding imposed by the weight of the ambient molecular cloud material and additional smaller pressure terms, however, suggests that most of the dense cores are pressure-confined.

A New Unsteady Model for Dense Cloud Cavitation in Cryogenic Fluids

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Hosangadi, A.; Ahuja, V.

2005-01-01

A new unsteady, cavitation model is presented wherein the phase change process (bubble growth/collapse) is coupled to the acoustic field in a cryogenic fluid. It predicts the number density and radius of bubbles in vapor clouds by tracking both the aggregate surface area and volume fraction of the cloud. Hence, formulations for the dynamics of individual bubbles (e.g. Rayleigh-Plesset equation) may be integrated within the macroscopic context of a dense vapor cloud i.e. a cloud that occupies a significant fraction of available volume and contains numerous bubbles. This formulation has been implemented within the CRUNCH CFD, which has a compressible real fluid formulation, a multi-element, unstructured grid framework, and has been validated extensively for liquid rocket turbopump inducers. Detailed unsteady simulations of a cavitating ogive in liquid nitrogen are presented where time-averaged mean cavity pressure and temperature depressions due to cavitation are compared with experimental data. The model also provides the spatial and temporal history of the bubble size distribution in the vapor clouds that are shed, an important physical parameter that is difficult to measure experimentally and is a significant advancement in the modeling of dense cloud cavitation.

Dense solar wind cloud geometries deduced from comparisons of radio signal delay and in situ plasma measurements

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Landt, J. A.

1974-01-01

The geometries of dense solar wind clouds are estimated by comparing single-location measurements of the solar wind plasma with the average of the electron density obtained by radio signal delay measurements along a radio path between earth and interplanetary spacecraft. Several of these geometries agree with the current theoretical spatial models of flare-induced shock waves. A new class of spatially limited structures that contain regions with densities greater than any observed in the broad clouds is identified. The extent of a cloud was found to be approximately inversely proportional to its density.

On the star-forming ability of Molecular Clouds

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Anathpindika, S.; Burkert, A.; Kuiper, R.

2018-02-01

The star-forming ability of a molecular cloud depends on the fraction of gas it can cycle into the dense-phase. Consequently, one of the crucial questions in reconciling star formation in clouds is to understand the factors that control this process. While it is widely accepted that the variation in ambient conditions can alter significantly the ability of a cloud to spawn stars, the observed variation in the star-formation rate in nearby clouds that experience similar ambient conditions, presents an interesting question. In this work, we attempted to reconcile this variation within the paradigm of colliding flows. To this end we develop self-gravitating, hydrodynamic realizations of identical flows, but allowed to collide off-centre. Typical observational diagnostics such as the gas-velocity dispersion, the fraction of dense-gas, the column density distribution (N-PDF), the distribution of gas mass as a function of K-band extinction and the strength of compressional/solenoidal modes in the post-collision cloud were deduced for different choices of the impact parameter of collision. We find that a strongly sheared cloud is terribly inefficient in cycling gas into the dense phase and that such a cloud can possibly reconcile the sluggish nature of star formation reported for some clouds. Within the paradigm of cloud formation via colliding flows this is possible in case of flows colliding with a relatively large impact parameter. We conclude that compressional modes - though probably essential - are insufficient to ensure a relatively higher star-formation efficiency in a cloud.

Ionisation and discharge in cloud-forming atmospheres of brown dwarfs and extrasolar planets

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Helling, Ch; Rimmer, P. B.; Rodriguez-Barrera, I. M.; Wood, Kenneth; Robertson, G. B.; Stark, C. R.

2016-07-01

Brown dwarfs and giant gas extrasolar planets have cold atmospheres with rich chemical compositions from which mineral cloud particles form. Their properties, like particle sizes and material composition, vary with height, and the mineral cloud particles are charged due to triboelectric processes in such dynamic atmospheres. The dynamics of the atmospheric gas is driven by the irradiating host star and/or by the rotation of the objects that changes during its lifetime. Thermal gas ionisation in these ultra-cool but dense atmospheres allows electrostatic interactions and magnetic coupling of a substantial atmosphere volume. Combined with a strong magnetic field \\gg {{B}\\text{Earth}} , a chromosphere and aurorae might form as suggested by radio and x-ray observations of brown dwarfs. Non-equilibrium processes like cosmic ray ionisation and discharge processes in clouds will increase the local pool of free electrons in the gas. Cosmic rays and lighting discharges also alter the composition of the local atmospheric gas such that tracer molecules might be identified. Cosmic rays affect the atmosphere through air showers in a certain volume which was modelled with a 3D Monte Carlo radiative transfer code to be able to visualise their spacial extent. Given a certain degree of thermal ionisation of the atmospheric gas, we suggest that electron attachment to charge mineral cloud particles is too inefficient to cause an electrostatic disruption of the cloud particles. Cloud particles will therefore not be destroyed by Coulomb explosion for the local temperature in the collisional dominated brown dwarf and giant gas planet atmospheres. However, the cloud particles are destroyed electrostatically in regions with strong gas ionisation. The potential size of such cloud holes would, however, be too small and might occur too far inside the cloud to mimic the effect of, e.g. magnetic field induced star spots.

Chemical abundances in cold, dark interstellar clouds

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Irvine, William M.; Kaifu, Norio; Ohishi, Masatoshi

1991-01-01

Current tabulations are presented of the entire range of known interstellar molecules, giving attention to that subset which has been identified in the cold, dark interstellar clouds out of which the sun has been suggested to have formed. The molecular abundances of two such clouds, Taurus Molecular Cloud 1 and Lynd's 134N, exhibit prepossessing chemical differences despite considerable physical similarities. This discrepancy may be accounted for by the two clouds' differing evolutionary stages. Two novel classes of interstellar molecules are noted: sulfur-terminated carbon chains and silicon-terminated ones.

Dense gas and star formation in individual Giant Molecular Clouds in M31

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Viaene, S.; Forbrich, J.; Fritz, J.

2018-04-01

Studies both of entire galaxies and of local Galactic star formation indicate a dependency of a molecular cloud's star formation rate (SFR) on its dense gas mass. In external galaxies, such measurements are derived from HCN(1-0) observations, usually encompassing many Giant Molecular Clouds (GMCs) at once. The Andromeda galaxy (M31) is a unique laboratory to study the relation of the SFR and HCN emission down to GMC scales at solar-like metallicities. In this work, we correlate our composite SFR determinations with archival HCN, HCO+, and CO observations, resulting in a sample of nine reasonably representative GMCs. We find that, at the scale of individual clouds, it is important to take into account both obscured and unobscured star formation to determine the SFR. When correlated against the dense-gas mass from HCN, we find that the SFR is low, in spite of these refinements. We nevertheless retrieve an SFR-dense-gas mass correlation, confirming that these SFR tracers are still meaningful on GMC scales. The correlation improves markedly when we consider the HCN/CO ratio instead of HCN by itself. This nominally indicates a dependency of the SFR on the dense-gas fraction, in contradiction to local studies. However, we hypothesize that this partly reflects the limited dynamic range in dense-gas mass, and partly that the ratio of single-pointing HCN and CO measurements may be less prone to systematics like sidelobes. In this case, the HCN/CO ratio would importantly be a better empirical measure of the dense-gas content itself.

Aerosol Indirect Effect on Warm Clouds over Eastern China Using Combined CALIOP and MODIS Observations

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Guo, Jianping; Wang, Fu; Huang, Jingfeng; Li, Xiaowen

2015-04-01

Aerosol, one of key components of the climate system, is highly variable, both temporally and spatially. It often exerts great influences on the cloud-precipitation chain processes by serving as CCN/IN, altering cloud microphysics and its life cycle. Yet, the aerosol indirect effect on clouds remains largely unknown, because the initial changes in clouds due to aerosols may be enhanced or dampened by such feedback processes as modified cloud dynamics, or evaporation of the smaller droplets due to the competition for water vapor. In this study, we attempted to quantify the aerosol effects on warm cloud over eastern China, based on near-simultaneous retrievals from MODIS/AQUA, CALIOP/CALIPSO and CPR/CLOUDSAT during the period 2006 to 2010. The seasonality of aerosol from ground-based PM10 is quite different from that estimated from MODIS AOD. This result is corroborated by lower level profile of aerosol occurrence frequency from CALIOP, indicating the significant role CALIOP could play in aerosol-cloud interaction. The combined use of CALIOP and CPR facilitate the process to exactly determine the (vertical) position of warm cloud relative to aerosol, out of six scenarios in terms of aerosol-cloud mixing status in terms of aerosol-cloud mixing status, which shows as follows: AO (Aerosol only), CO (Cloud only), SASC (Single aerosol-single cloud), SADC (single aerosol-double cloud), DASC (double aerosol-single cloud), and others. Results shows that about 54% of all the cases belong to mixed status, among all the collocated aerosol-cloud cases. Under mixed condition, a boomerang shape is observed, i.e., reduced cloud droplet radius (CDR) is associated with increasing aerosol at moderate aerosol pollution (AOD<0.4), becoming saturated at AOD of 0.5, followed by an increase in CDR with aerosol. In contrast, there is no such boomerang shape found for (aerosol-cloud) separated cases. We categorize dataset into warm-season and cold-season subsets to figure out how the boomerang shape varies with season. For moderate aerosol loading (AOD<0.4), the effect on the droplet size for the "Mixed" cases is greater during cold season (denoted by a large slope), as compared with that during warm season. It is likely associated with an increase in the emission of light absorbing aerosol like smoke (black carbon), mainly caused by coal-fired heating during the cold season in China. As expected, the sensitivity of CDR to AOD is much weaker for "Separated" cases, irrespective of warm or cold seasons, indicating no real aerosol indirect effect occurring in this case. In contrast, for heavy aerosol loading (AOD>0.4), an increasing CDR with AOD can be seen in "Mixed" scenario during the warm season. Conversely, a closer look at the responses of CDR during the cold season shows that CDR decreases with AOD, although the strength is not much large. Therefore, we argue that cloud droplet size decreases with aerosol loading during cold season, irrespective of moderate or heavy atmospheric pollution. Finally, we discuss the possible factors that may influence the aerosol indirect effects on warm clouds investigated here. For instance, aerosol-cloud interaction conundrum might be affected by aerosol humidification, which is the case for MODIS AOD during warm seasons. But this issue can be partly overcome by categorizing dataset into warm-season and cold-season subsets, representing different ambient humidity condition in the atmosphere. The different boomerang shapes observed during various seasons, particularly after transition zone due to droplet saturation effect, have great implications for climate forcing by aerosol in eastern China.

Filtering Photogrammetric Point Clouds Using Standard LIDAR Filters Towards DTM Generation

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Zhang, Z.; Gerke, M.; Vosselman, G.; Yang, M. Y.

2018-05-01

Digital Terrain Models (DTMs) can be generated from point clouds acquired by laser scanning or photogrammetric dense matching. During the last two decades, much effort has been paid to developing robust filtering algorithms for the airborne laser scanning (ALS) data. With the point cloud quality from dense image matching (DIM) getting better and better, the research question that arises is whether those standard Lidar filters can be used to filter photogrammetric point clouds as well. Experiments are implemented to filter two dense matching point clouds with different noise levels. Results show that the standard Lidar filter is robust to random noise. However, artefacts and blunders in the DIM points often appear due to low contrast or poor texture in the images. Filtering will be erroneous in these locations. Filtering the DIM points pre-processed by a ranking filter will bring higher Type II error (i.e. non-ground points actually labelled as ground points) but much lower Type I error (i.e. bare ground points labelled as non-ground points). Finally, the potential DTM accuracy that can be achieved by DIM points is evaluated. Two DIM point clouds derived by Pix4Dmapper and SURE are compared. On grassland dense matching generates points higher than the true terrain surface, which will result in incorrectly elevated DTMs. The application of the ranking filter leads to a reduced bias in the DTM height, but a slightly increased noise level.

Vertical variation of ice particle size in convective cloud tops.

PubMed

van Diedenhoven, Bastiaan; Fridlind, Ann M; Cairns, Brian; Ackerman, Andrew S; Yorks, John E

2016-05-16

A novel technique is used to estimate derivatives of ice effective radius with respect to height near convective cloud tops ( dr e / dz ) from airborne shortwave reflectance measurements and lidar. Values of dr e / dz are about -6 μ m/km for cloud tops below the homogeneous freezing level, increasing to near 0 μ m/km above the estimated level of neutral buoyancy. Retrieved dr e / dz compares well with previously documented remote sensing and in situ estimates. Effective radii decrease with increasing cloud top height, while cloud top extinction increases. This is consistent with weaker size sorting in high, dense cloud tops above the level of neutral buoyancy where fewer large particles are present, and with stronger size sorting in lower cloud tops that are less dense. The results also confirm that cloud-top trends of effective radius can generally be used as surrogates for trends with height within convective cloud tops. These results provide valuable observational targets for model evaluation.

Vertical Variation of Ice Particle Size in Convective Cloud Tops

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Van Diedenhoven, Bastiaan; Fridlind, Ann M.; Cairns, Brian; Ackerman, Andrew S.; Yorks, John E.

2016-01-01

A novel technique is used to estimate derivatives of ice effective radius with respect to height near convective cloud tops (dr(sub e)/dz) from airborne shortwave reflectance measurements and lidar. Values of dr(sub e)/dz are about -6 micrometer/km for cloud tops below the homogeneous freezing level, increasing to near 0 micrometer/km above the estimated level of neutral buoyancy. Retrieved dr(sub e)/dz compares well with previously documented remote sensing and in situ estimates. Effective radii decrease with increasing cloud top height, while cloud top extinction increases. This is consistent with weaker size sorting in high, dense cloud tops above the level of neutral buoyancy where fewer large particles are present and with stronger size sorting in lower cloud tops that are less dense. The results also confirm that cloud top trends of effective radius can generally be used as surrogates for trends with height within convective cloud tops. These results provide valuable observational targets for model evaluation.

Gas clump formation via thermal instability in high-redshift dwarf galaxy mergers

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Arata, Shohei; Yajima, Hidenobu; Nagamine, Kentaro

2018-04-01

Star formation in high-redshift dwarf galaxies is a key to understand early galaxy evolution in the early Universe. Using the three-dimensional hydrodynamics code GIZMO, we study the formation mechanism of cold, high-density gas clouds in interacting dwarf galaxies with halo masses of ˜3 × 107 M⊙, which are likely to be the formation sites of early star clusters. Our simulations can resolve both the structure of interstellar medium on small scales of ≲ 0.1 pc and the galactic disc simultaneously. We find that the cold gas clouds form in the post-shock region via thermal instability due to metal-line cooling, when the cooling time is shorter than the galactic dynamical time. The mass function of cold clouds shows almost a power-law initially with an upper limit of thermally unstable scale. We find that some clouds merge into more massive ones with ≳104 M⊙ within ˜ 2 Myr. Only the massive cold clouds with ≳ 103 M⊙ can keep collapsing due to gravitational instability, resulting in the formation of star clusters. We find that the clump formation is more efficient in the prograde-prograde merger than the prograde-retrograde case due to the difference in the degree of shear flow. In addition, we investigate the dependence of cloud mass function on metallicity and H2 abundance, and show that the cases with low metallicities (≲10-2 Z⊙) or high H2 abundance (≳10-3) cannot form massive cold clouds with ≳103 M⊙.

Lightning data study in conjunction with geostationary satellite data

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Auvine, Brian; Martin, David W.

1987-01-01

During the summer of 1985, cloud-to-ground stroke lightning were collected. Thirty minute samples of lightning were compared with GOES IR fractional cold cloud coverage computed for three temperature thresholds (213, 243, and 273 K) twice daily (morning and evening). It was found that satellite measurements of cold cloud have a relationship to the flashrate and, in a more limited way, to the polarity and numbers of return strokes. Results varied little by location. Lightning, especially positive strokes, was found to be correlated with fractional cloud coverage, especially for clouds at or below 213 K. Other data and correlations are discussed.

Photons in dense nuclear matter: Random-phase approximation

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Stetina, Stephan; Rrapaj, Ermal; Reddy, Sanjay

2018-04-01

We present a comprehensive and pedagogic discussion of the properties of photons in cold and dense nuclear matter based on the resummed one-loop photon self-energy. Correlations among electrons, muons, protons, and neutrons in β equilibrium that arise as a result of electromagnetic and strong interactions are consistently taken into account within the random phase approximation. Screening effects, damping, and collective excitations are systematically studied in a fully relativistic setup. Our study is relevant to the linear response theory of dense nuclear matter, calculations of transport properties of cold dense matter, and investigations of the production and propagation of hypothetical vector bosons such as the dark photons.

Dense cloud cores revealed by CO in the low metallicity dwarf galaxy WLM.

PubMed

Rubio, Monica; Elmegreen, Bruce G; Hunter, Deidre A; Brinks, Elias; Cortés, Juan R; Cigan, Phil

2015-09-10

Understanding stellar birth requires observations of the clouds in which they form. These clouds are dense and self-gravitating, and in all existing observations they are molecular, with H2 the dominant species and carbon monoxide (CO) the best available tracer. When the abundances of carbon and oxygen are low compared with that of hydrogen, and the opacity from dust is also low, as in primeval galaxies and local dwarf irregular galaxies, CO forms slowly and is easily destroyed, so it is difficult for it to accumulate inside dense clouds. Here we report interferometric observations of CO clouds in the local group dwarf irregular galaxy Wolf-Lundmark-Melotte (WLM), which has a metallicity that is 13 per cent of the solar value and 50 per cent lower than the previous CO detection threshold. The clouds are tiny compared to the surrounding atomic and H2 envelopes, but they have typical densities and column densities for CO clouds in the Milky Way. The normal CO density explains why star clusters forming in dwarf irregulars have similar densities to star clusters in giant spiral galaxies. The low cloud masses suggest that these clusters will also be low mass, unless some galaxy-scale compression occurs, such as an impact from a cosmic cloud or other galaxy. If the massive metal-poor globular clusters in the halo of the Milky Way formed in dwarf galaxies, as is commonly believed, then they were probably triggered by such an impact.

Extinction and Star Formation Study in Molecular Clouds with DENIS infrared data and USNO optical data

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Cambrésy, Laurent

1999-11-01

This thesis consists in a study of molecular clouds, essentially of the point of view of the interstellar environment, but also of the one of the star formation. The original method to estimate extinction presented here is based on adaptive star counts as well as on a wavelet decomposition. For the first time, an extinction map of the whole sky is proposed (USNO-PMM optical data). Access to very large field maps offers the opportunity to analyze the interstellar matter distribution in various environments. A first result is that the contained mass in regions for which AV > 1 would not exceed half of the total cloud mass. Using DENIS data, it becomes possible to probe dense regions of clouds. For instance, star counts in the Chamaeleon complex show cores which were not resolved before. Moreover, the selection of stars with a strong infrared excess yields about fifty T Tauri candidates. From their luminosity function, I derived the average lifetime of circumstellar disc of low--mass stars: ~4cdot 106 years. It is difficult to understand the relation between extinction and molecular emission, but it appears clearly that molecular emission is a bad estimator of the column density for low extinction area. Actually, thresholds exist in the CO detection and I conclude that photodissociation, density and cloud geometry have important consequences on the CO emission when AV < 2. Investigation of the relation between extinction and far--infrared emission in Polaris leads to a four times larger emissivity in cold areas than in hot areas. This result explains the low temperatures in this cloud and implies severe restrictions concerning the use of far--infrared fluxes as an extinction estimator.

Hurricane Irma's Cloud Structure as Seen by NASA's AIRS

NASA Image and Video Library

2017-09-08

The large-scale structure of clouds in and around Hurricane Irma is seen in this animation and still image created with data from the Atmospheric Infrared Sounder (AIRS) instrument on NASA's Aqua satellite. The clouds are typical of tropical areas both nearby and away from tropical cyclones. Observations were taken at 1 p.m. EDT (5 p.m. UTC) on Tuesday, Sept. 5, 2017, as Irma approached the Caribbean islands and was just becoming a powerful Category 5 storm. Each cylinder represents a volume of cloud detected by AIRS. The oval cylinder ends represent a region viewed by AIRS, with the oval sizes adjusted to reflect the proportion of clouds filling the area viewed. The largest ovals are about 30 miles (45 kilometers) across. The height of the cylinders indicates the cloud thickness, with thickest clouds reaching down to the surface. The vertical scale is exaggerated 15 times. Colors represent temperatures at the tops of the clouds. The perspective views the storm diagonally from above with an initial view toward the north-northwest, with the perspective rotating clockwise for a full circle. The area depicted is about 1,000 miles by 800 miles across (1,600 by 1,300 kilometers). At the start of the loop, North America is seen at the top of the image, and coastal Venezuela at the lower right. In the initial perspective, cirrus clouds (thin and blue), associated with flow outward from the top of the hurricane, overlie warmer (pink and red) shallow clouds. About five seconds into the loop, the deep clouds in the middle of Irma are easily seen. The most dangerous parts of Irma are within the region of high and cold (blue), thick clouds surrounding the central eye. The clouds are cold because they are carried to high, cold altitudes by vigorous thunderstorms within the hurricane. The eye itself is nearly cloud free, but the few clouds within it are low and warm. As the perspective shift toward the south-southeast around seven seconds into the loop, another storm system well north of Irma can be seen. It contains high, thick clouds, with more cirrus carried outward over shallow clouds. At about nine seconds, more outflow from Irma is seen, with high, thin clouds over shallow clouds once again apparent. Shortly afterward when the view is toward the southwest, yet more deep clouds and their outflowing cirrus clouds are apparent. This image depicts many of the clouds typical of the tropics even when cyclones are not present: high, cold thunderstorms pushing cirrus clouds over nearby regions containing many warm, shallow clouds. The animation also shows the structure typical of tropical cyclones around the world: very strong thunderstorms lifting clouds into cold parts of the atmosphere, with strong outflow at upper levels carrying cirrus clouds away from the storm center, and the storm organized symmetrically around a central eye. https://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA21950

Experimental interstellar organic chemistry: Preliminary findings

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Khare, B. N.; Sagan, C.

1971-01-01

In a simulation of interstellar organic chemistry in dense interstellar clouds or on grain surfaces, formaldehyde, water vapor, ammonia and ethane are deposited on a quartz cold finger and ultraviolet-irradiated in high vacuum at 77K. The HCHO photolytic pathway which produces an aldehyde radical and a superthermal hydrogen atom initiates solid phase chain reactions leading to a range of new compounds, including methanol, ethanol, acetaldehyde, acetonitrile, acetone, methyl formate, and possibly formic acid. Higher nitriles are anticipated. Genetic relations among these interstellar organic molecules (e.g., the Cannizzaro and Tischenko reactions) must exist. Some of them, rather than being synthesized from smaller molecules, may be degradation products of larger organic molecules, such as hexamethylene tetramine, which are candidate consitituents of the interstellar grains. The experiments reported here may also be relevant to cometary chemistry.

A physics-based model for the ionization of samarium by the MOSC chemical releases in the upper atmosphere

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Bernhardt, Paul A.; Siefring, Carl L.; Briczinski, Stanley J.; Viggiano, Albert; Caton, Ronald G.; Pedersen, Todd R.; Holmes, Jeffrey M.; Ard, Shaun; Shuman, Nicholas; Groves, Keith M.

2017-05-01

Atomic samarium has been injected into the neutral atmosphere for production of electron clouds that modify the ionosphere. These electron clouds may be used as high-frequency radio wave reflectors or for control of the electrodynamics of the F region. A self-consistent model for the photochemical reactions of Samarium vapor cloud released into the upper atmosphere has been developed and compared with the Metal Oxide Space Cloud (MOSC) experimental observations. The release initially produces a dense plasma cloud that that is rapidly reduced by dissociative recombination and diffusive expansion. The spectral emissions from the release cover the ultraviolet to the near infrared band with contributions from solar fluorescence of the atomic, molecular, and ionized components of the artificial density cloud. Barium releases in sunlight are more efficient than Samarium releases in sunlight for production of dense ionization clouds. Samarium may be of interest for nighttime releases but the artificial electron cloud is limited by recombination with the samarium oxide ion.

Neutral hydrogen self-absorption in the Milky Way Galaxy

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kavars, Dain William

2006-06-01

To develop a better understanding of the cold neutral medium phase of the interstellar medium, we present a detailed analysis of neutral hydrogen self- absorption (HISA) clouds in the Milky Way Galaxy. These HISA clouds are in the Southern Galactic Plane Survey (SGPS), spanning the region l = 253°--358° and | b | <= 1.3°, and in the VLA Galactic Plane Survey (VGPS), spanning the region l = 18°--67° and | b | <= 1.3°--2.3°. The SGPS and VGPS have an angular resolution of ~1 arcminute and a velocity channel spacing of 0.82 km s -1 . With the recent completion of these surveys, we can study HISA features across the Galaxy at a much better resolution and sensitivity than any previous work. To analyze HISA in detail, catalogs of clouds of all sizes, including those undetectable by eye alone, are required. We present an automated search routine to detect all HISA clouds in the SGPS. We compare HISA to CO data and find some HISA clouds associated with CO, but others have no associated CO. This suggests that HISA clouds are in a transition between molecular and atomic gas, bridging the gap between dense molecular clouds and warmer, diffuse atomic clouds. HISA thus plays an important role in the overall evolution of the Galaxy. To study this transition further, we present observations of the OH molecule toward a select sample of HISA clouds in the VGPS, using the Green Bank Telescope (GBT). We present an analysis of the molecular properties of this sample, including a derivation of an OH to H 2 conversion factor and H 2 to H I abundance ratios. We discuss the complex relationship between H I, OH, 12 CO, and 13 CO emission. Finally we present a statistical analysis comparing HISA with infrared data from the Galactic Legacy Infrared Mid-Plane Survey Extraordinaire (GLIMPSE) project. The GLIMPSE data reveal a large number of compact, dark infrared clouds believed to be in the early stages of star formation. If GLIMPSE clouds are associated with HISA, they provide valuable information on the evolution of HISA clouds.

CO excitation in four IR luminous galaxies

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Radford, Simon J. E.; Solomon, P. M.; Downes, Dennis

1990-01-01

The correlation between the CO and far infrared luminosities of spiral galaxies is well established. The luminosity ration, L sub FIR/L sub CO in IR luminous active galaxies is, however, systematically five to ten times higher than in ordinary spirals and molecular clouds in our Galaxy. Furthermore, the masses of molecular hydrogen in luminous galaxies are large, M (H2) approx. equals 10(exp 10) solar magnitude, which indicates the observed luminosity ratios are due to an excess of infrared output, rather than a deficiency of molecular gas. These large amounts of molecular gas may fuel luminous galaxies through either star formation or nuclear activity. This interpretation rests on applying the M (H2)/L sub CO ratio calibrated in our Galaxy to galaxies with strikingly different luminosity ratios. But are the physical conditions of the molecular gas different in galaxies with different luminosity ratios. And, if so, does the proportionality between CO and H2 also vary among galaxies. To investigate these questions researchers observed CO (2 to 1) and (1 to 0) emission from four luminous galaxies with the Institute for Radio Astronomy in the Millimeter range (IRAM) 30 m telescope. Researchers conclude that most of the CO emission from these Arp 193, Arp 220, and Mrk 231 arises in regions with moderate ambient densities similar to the clouds in the Milky Way molecular ring. The emission is neither from dense hot cloud cores nor from the cold low density gas characteristic of the envelopes of dark clouds.

Empirical relationships between gas abundances and UV selective extinction

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Joseph, Charles L.

1990-01-01

Several studies of gas-phase abundances in lines of sight through the outer edges of dense clouds are summarized. These lines of sight have 0.4 less than E(B-V) less than 1.1 and have inferred spatial densities of a few hundred cm(-3). The primary thrust of these studies has been to compare gaseous abundances in interstellar clouds that have various types of peculiar selective extinction. To date, the most notable result has been an empirical relationship between the CN/Fe I abundance ratio and the depth of the 2200 A extinction bump. It is not clear at the present time, however, whether these two parameters are linearly correlated or the data are organized into two discrete ensembles. Based on 19 samples and assuming the clouds form discrete ensembles, lines of sight that have a CN/Fe I abundance ratio greater than 0.3 (dex) appear to have a shallow 2.57 plus or minus 0.55 bump compared to 3.60 plus or minus 0.36 for other dense clouds and compared to the 3.6 Seaton (1979) average. The difference in the strength of the extinction bump between these two ensembles is 1.03 plus or minus 0.23. Although a high-resolution IUE survey of dense clouds is far from complete, the few lines of sight with shallow extinction bumps all show preferential depletion of certain elements, while those lines of sight with normal 2200 A bumps do not. Ca II, Cr II, and Mn II appear to exhibit the strongest preferential depletion compared to S II, P II, and Mg II. Fe II and Si II depletions also appear to be enhanced somewhat in the shallow-bump lines of sight. It should be noted that Copernicus data suggest all elements, including the so-called nondepletors, deplete in diffuse clouds (Snow and Jenkins 1980, Joseph 1988). Those lines of sight through dense clouds that have normal 2200 A extinction bumps appear to be extensions of the depletions found in the diffuse interstellar medium. That is, the overall level of depletion is enhanced, but the element-to-element abundances are similar to those in diffuse clouds. In a separate study, the abundances of neutral atoms were studied in a dense cloud having a shallow 2200 A bump and in one with a normal strength bump.

Grain Growth and Silicates in Dense Clouds

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Pendeleton, Yvonne J.; Chiar, J. E.; Ennico, K.; Boogert, A.; Greene, T.; Knez, C.; Lada, C.; Roellig, T.; Tielens, A.; Werner, M.;

Coherent forward broadening in cold atom clouds

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Sutherland, R. T.; Robicheaux, F.

2016-02-01

It is shown that homogeneous line-broadening in a diffuse cold atom cloud is proportional to the resonant optical depth of the cloud. Furthermore, it is demonstrated how the strong directionality of the coherent interactions causes the cloud's spectra to depend strongly on its shape, even when the cloud is held at constant densities. These two numerical observations can be predicted analytically by extending the single-photon wave-function model. Lastly, elongating a cloud along the line of laser propagation causes the excitation probability distribution to deviate from the exponential decay predicted by the Beer-Lambert law to the extent where the atoms at the back of the cloud are more excited than the atoms at the front. These calculations are conducted at the low densities relevant to recent experiments.

Cosmic-ray ionisation of dense molecular clouds

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Vaupre, Solenn

2015-07-01

Cosmic rays (CR) are of tremendous importance in the dynamical and chemical evolution of interstellar molecular clouds, where stars and planets form. CRs are likely accelerated in the shells of supernova remnants (SNR), thus molecular clouds nearby can be irradiated by intense fluxes of CRs. CR protons have two major effects on dense molecular clouds: 1) when they encounter the dense medium, high-energy protons (>280 MeV) create pions that decay into gamma-rays. This process makes SNR-molecular cloud associations intense GeV and/or TeV sources whose spectra mimic the CR spectrum. 2) at lower energies, CRs penetrate the cloud and ionise the gas, leading to the formation of molecular species characteristic of the presence of CRs, called tracers of the ionisation. Studying these tracers gives information on low-energy CRs that are unaccessible to any other observations. I studied the CR ionisation of molecular clouds next to three SNRs: W28, W51C and W44. These SNRs are known to be interacting with the nearby clouds, from the presence of shocked gas, OH masers and pion-decay induced gamma-ray emission. My work includes millimeter observations and chemical modeling of tracers of the ionisation in these dense molecular clouds. In these three regions, we determined an enhanced CR ionisation rate, supporting the hypothesis of an origin of the CRs in the SNR nearby. The evolution of the CR ionisation rate with the distance to the SNR brings valuable constraints on the propagation properties of low-energy CRs. The method used relies on observations of the molecular ions HCO+ and DCO+, which shows crucial limitations at high ionisation. Therefore, I investigated, both through modeling and observations, the chemical abundances of several other species to try and identity alternative tracers of the ionisation. In particular, in the W44 region, observations of N2H+ bring additional constraints on the physical conditions, volatile abundances in the cloud, and the ionisation state. This research brought valuable insight in to the CR induced chemistry in the interstellar medium. It also brought new perspectives of interdisciplinary research towards the understanding of CRs, from millimeter to gamma-ray observations.

Radio Interferometry with the SMA: Uncovering Hidden Star Formation in Our Extreme Galactic Center

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Gutierrez, Elizabeth; Battersby, Cara; MacGregor, Meredith Ann

2018-01-01

Radio interferometry provides the best tool to identify embedded star-forming cores in cold, dense, molecular clouds of gas and dust. Observations at long, submillimeter wavelengths can be used to investigate the physical properties in the youngest stages of star formation. Interferometers provide the resolution necessary to resolve small scale structures like dense cores where star formation is expected to occur. CMZoom is the first large area survey of the Central Molecular Zone (CMZ) at high resolution in the submillimeter, allowing us to identify early sites of star formation. The survey uses both the subcompact and compact configurations of the Submillimeter Array (SMA) interferometric radio telescope. The CMZ, or the inner 500 pc of the Milky Way Galaxy, is a high extinction region comprised of hot, dense, and turbulent molecular gas. This region is forming about an order of magnitude fewer stars than predicted based on simple star formation prescriptions. Here, we present new high resolution images of G0.068-0.075, a region from the CMZoom survey, obtained using CASA. We highlight the importance of interferometric observations of different baseline lengths by comparing the spatial information obtained through different configurations. We will use these new images, in conjunction with the rest of the CMZoom survey, to reveal the mechanisms driving star formation at the center of the galaxy.

Ultrafast Outflows: Galaxy-scale Active Galactic Nucleus Feedback

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Wagner, A. Y.; Umemura, M.; Bicknell, G. V.

2013-01-01

We show, using global three-dimensional grid-based hydrodynamical simulations, that ultrafast outflows (UFOs) from active galactic nuclei (AGNs) result in considerable feedback of energy and momentum into the interstellar medium (ISM) of the host galaxy. The AGN wind interacts strongly with the inhomogeneous, two-phase ISM consisting of dense clouds embedded in a tenuous, hot, hydrostatic medium. The outflow floods through the intercloud channels, sweeps up the hot ISM, and ablates and disperses the dense clouds. The momentum of the UFO is primarily transferred to the dense clouds via the ram pressure in the channel flow, and the wind-blown bubble evolves in the energy-driven regime. Any dependence on UFO opening angle disappears after the first interaction with obstructing clouds. On kpc scales, therefore, feedback by UFOs operates similarly to feedback by relativistic AGN jets. Negative feedback is significantly stronger if clouds are distributed spherically rather than in a disk. In the latter case, the turbulent backflow of the wind drives mass inflow toward the central black hole. Considering the common occurrence of UFOs in AGNs, they are likely to be important in the cosmological feedback cycles of galaxy formation.

ULTRAFAST OUTFLOWS: GALAXY-SCALE ACTIVE GALACTIC NUCLEUS FEEDBACK

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Wagner, A. Y.; Umemura, M.; Bicknell, G. V., E-mail: ayw@ccs.tsukuba.ac.jp

We show, using global three-dimensional grid-based hydrodynamical simulations, that ultrafast outflows (UFOs) from active galactic nuclei (AGNs) result in considerable feedback of energy and momentum into the interstellar medium (ISM) of the host galaxy. The AGN wind interacts strongly with the inhomogeneous, two-phase ISM consisting of dense clouds embedded in a tenuous, hot, hydrostatic medium. The outflow floods through the intercloud channels, sweeps up the hot ISM, and ablates and disperses the dense clouds. The momentum of the UFO is primarily transferred to the dense clouds via the ram pressure in the channel flow, and the wind-blown bubble evolves inmore » the energy-driven regime. Any dependence on UFO opening angle disappears after the first interaction with obstructing clouds. On kpc scales, therefore, feedback by UFOs operates similarly to feedback by relativistic AGN jets. Negative feedback is significantly stronger if clouds are distributed spherically rather than in a disk. In the latter case, the turbulent backflow of the wind drives mass inflow toward the central black hole. Considering the common occurrence of UFOs in AGNs, they are likely to be important in the cosmological feedback cycles of galaxy formation.« less

Structures of GMC W 37

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Zhan, Xiao-Liang; Jiang, Zhi-Bo; Chen, Zhi-Wei; Zhang, Miao-Miao; Song, Chao

2016-04-01

We carried out observations toward the giant molecular cloud W 37 with the J = 1 - 0 transitions of 12CO, 13CO and C18O using the 13.7m single-dish telescope at the Delingha station of Purple Mountain Observatory. Based on these CO lines, we calculated the column densities and cloud masses for molecular clouds with radial velocities around +20 km s-1. The gas mass of W 37, calculated from 13 CO emission, is 1.7 × 105 M⊙, above the criterion to be considered a giant molecular cloud. The dense ridge of W 37 is a dense filament, which is supercritical in terms of linear mass ratio. Dense clumps found by C18O emission are aligned along the dense ridge at regular intervals of about 2.8 pc, similar to the clump separation caused by large-scale ‘sausage instability’. We confirm the identification of the giant molecular filament (GMF) G 18.0-16.8 and find a new giant filament, G 16.5-15.8, located ˜ 0.7° to the west of G 18.0-16.8. Both GMFs are not gravitationally bound, as indicated by their low linear mass ratio (˜ 80 M⊙ pc-1). We compared the gas temperature map with the dust temperature map from Herschel images, and found similar structures. The spatial distributions of class I objects and the dense clumps are reminiscent of triggered star formation occurring in the northwestern part of W 37, which is close to NGC 6611.

Cold Episodes, Their Precursors and Teleconnections in the Central Peruvian Andes (1958-2009)

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Sulca, J. C.; Vuille, M. F.; Trasmonte, G.; Silva, Y.; Takahashi, K.

2014-12-01

The Mantaro valley (MV) is located in the central Peruvian Andes. Occasionally, cold episodes are observed during the austral summer (January-March), which strongly damage crops. However, little is known about the causes and impacts of such cold episodes in the MV. The main goal of this study is thus to characterize cold episodes in the MV and assess their large-scale circulation and teleconnections over South America (SA) during austral summer. To identify cold events in the MV daily minimum temperature for the period 1958-2009 from Huayao station, located within the MV was used. We defined a cold episode as the period when daily minimum temperature drops below the 10-percentile for at least one day. Several gridded reanalysis and satellite products were used to characterize the large-scale circulation, cloud cover and rainfall over SA associated with these events for same period. Cold episodes in the MV are associated with positive OLR anomalies, which extend over much of the central Andes, indicating reduced convective cloud cover during these extremes, but also affirm the large-scale nature of these events. At the same time, northeastern Brazil (NEB) registers negative OLR anomalies, strong convective activity and enhanced cloud cover because displacement of the South Atlantic Convergence Zone (SACZ) toward the northeast of its climatologic position. Further, it is associated with a weakening of the Bolivian High - Nordeste Low (BH-NL) system at upper levels, but also influenced by a low-level migratory high-pressure center develops at 30°S, 50°W; propagating from mid- to low latitudes as part of an extratropical Rossby wave train. In conclusion, cold episodes in the MV appear to be caused by radiative cooling associated with reduced cloudiness, rather than cold air advection. The reduced cloud cover in turn results from a robust large-scale pattern of westerly wind anomalies over central Peruvian Andes, inhibiting moisture influx, convective activity and hence cloud formation. At the same time NEB registers strong convective activity and enhanced cloud cover. This dipole is caused by a weakening of BH-NL system at upper levels, which is associated with a low-level migratory high-pressure center, propagating from mid- to low latitudes as part of an extratropical Rossby wave train.

Characterizing the structure of an unusually cold high latitude cloud

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Veneziani, Marcella; Paladini, Roberta; Noriega-Crespo, Alberto; Carey, Sean; Tibbs, Christopher; Flagey, Nicolas; Piacentini, Francesco

2012-10-01

Recently the BOOMERanG 2003 experiment, with an angular resolution of 10', has detected an unusually cold cloud (T = 9 K) located at high Galactic latitudes and with an area of 0.25 deg^2. The low temperature of this object has been confirmed by a follow-up in the with Herschel which measured T = 15.3 in the range 100-500micron and with a resolution 20 times higher than BOOMERanG. Despite the cold temperature of the cloud, the measured extinction (Av=0.15 mag) seems to indicate a fairly low amount of shielding material which could justify the dust cooling. Surprisingly, while the dust content in the cloud is well constrained by a substantial amount of data, no - or very little information - is available for its gas counterpart. Therefore, we request 5hrs of 21-cm spectral line observations with the Parkes telescopes. The observations will allow us to accurately estimate the cloud HI column density, as well as to derive information about its kinematics.

Giant molecular cloud collisions as triggers of star formation. VI. Collision-induced turbulence

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Wu, Benjamin; Tan, Jonathan C.; Nakamura, Fumitaka; Christie, Duncan; Li, Qi

2018-05-01

We investigate collisions between giant molecular clouds (GMCs) as potential generators of their internal turbulence. Using magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) simulations of self-gravitating, magnetized, turbulent GMCs, we compare kinematic and dynamic properties of dense gas structures formed when such clouds collide compared to those that form in non-colliding clouds as self-gravity overwhelms decaying turbulence. We explore the nature of turbulence in these structures via distribution functions of density, velocity dispersions, virial parameters, and momentum injection. We find that the dense clumps formed from GMC collisions have higher effective Mach number, greater overall velocity dispersions, sustain near-virial equilibrium states for longer times, and are the conduit for the injection of turbulent momentum into high density gas at high rates.

Giant molecular cloud collisions as triggers of star formation. VI. Collision-induced turbulence

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Wu, Benjamin; Tan, Jonathan C.; Nakamura, Fumitaka; Christie, Duncan; Li, Qi

2018-01-01

We investigate collisions between giant molecular clouds (GMCs) as potential generators of their internal turbulence. Using magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) simulations of self-gravitating, magnetized, turbulent GMCs, we compare kinematic and dynamic properties of dense gas structures formed when such clouds collide compared to those that form in non-colliding clouds as self-gravity overwhelms decaying turbulence. We explore the nature of turbulence in these structures via distribution functions of density, velocity dispersions, virial parameters, and momentum injection. We find that the dense clumps formed from GMC collisions have higher effective Mach number, greater overall velocity dispersions, sustain near-virial equilibrium states for longer times, and are the conduit for the injection of turbulent momentum into high density gas at high rates.

The response of the Seasat and Magsat infrared horizon scanners to cold clouds

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Bilanow, S.; Phenneger, M.

1980-01-01

Cold clouds over the Earth are shown to be the principal cause of pitch and roll measurement noise in flight data from the infrared horizon scanners onboard Seasat and Magsat. The observed effects of clouds on the fixed threshold horizon detection logic of the Magsat scanner and on the variable threshold detection logic of the Seasat scanner are discussed. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Earth photographs marked with the scanner ground trace clearly confirm the relationship between measurement errors and Earth clouds. A one to one correspondence can be seen between excursion in the pitch and roll data and cloud crossings. The characteristics of the cloud-induced noise are discussed, and the response of the satellite control systems to the cloud errors is described. Changes to the horizon scanner designs that would reduce the effects of clouds are noted.

Supermassive black hole formation by cold accretion shocks in the first galaxies

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Inayoshi, Kohei; Omukai, Kazuyuki

2012-05-01

We propose a new scenario for supermassive star (SMS: >rsim 105 M⊙) formation in shocked regions of colliding cold accretion flows near the centres of the first galaxies. Recent numerical simulations indicate that assembly of a typical first galaxy with virial temperature Tvir≳104 K proceeds via cold and dense flows penetrating deep to the centre, where supersonic streams collide with each other to develop a hot (˜104 K) and dense (˜103 cm-3) shocked gas. The post-shock layer first cools by efficient Lyα emission and contracts isobarically until ≃8000 K. Whether the layer continues its isobaric contraction depends on the density at this moment: if the density is high enough to excite H2 rovibrational levels collisionally (>rsim 104 cm-3), enhanced H2 collisional dissociation suppresses the gas from cooling further. In this case, the layer fragments into massive (>rsim 105 M⊙) clouds, which collapse isothermally (˜8000 K) by Lyα cooling without subsequent fragmentation. As an outcome, SMSs are expected to form and eventually evolve into the seeds of supermassive black holes (SMBHs). By calculating the thermal evolution of the post-shock gas, we delimit the range of post-shock conditions for SMS formation, which can be expressed as T≳6000 K (nH/104 cm-3)-1 for ? and T>rsim 5000 -6000 K for nH≳104 cm-3, depending somewhat on the initial ionization degree. We found that metal enrichment does not affect the above condition for metallicity below ≃10-3 Z⊙ if metals are in the gas phase, while condensation of several per cent of metals into dust decreases this critical value of metallicity by an order of magnitude. Unlike the previously proposed scenario for SMS formation, which postulates extremely strong ultraviolet radiation to quench H2 cooling, our scenario here naturally explains SMBH seed formation in the assembly process of the first galaxies, even without such strong radiation.

Coherent Forward Broadening in Cold Atom Clouds

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Sutherland, R. T.; Robicheaux, Francis

2016-05-01

It is shown that homogeneous line-broadening in a diffuse cold atom cloud is proportional to the resonant optical depth of the cloud. Further, it is demonstrated how the strong directionality of the coherent interactions causes the cloud's spectra to depend strongly on its shape, even when the cloud is held at constant densities. These two numerical observations can be predicted analytically by extending the single photon wavefunction model. Lastly, elongating a cloud along the line of laser propagation causes the excitation probability distribution to deviate from the exponential decay predicted by the Beer-Lambert law to the extent where the atoms in the back of the cloud are more excited than the atoms in the front. These calculations are conducted at low densities relevant to recent experiments. This work was supported by the National Science Foundation under Grant No. 1404419-PHY.

ORIGINS OF SCATTER IN THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN HCN 1-0 AND DENSE GAS MASS IN THE GALACTIC CENTER

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Mills, Elisabeth A. C.; Battersby, Cara, E-mail: elisabeth.mills@sjsu.edu

We investigate the correlation of HCN 1-0 with gas mass in the central 300 pc of the Galaxy. We find that on the ∼10 pc size scale of individual cloud cores, HCN 1-0 is well correlated with dense gas mass when plotted as a log–log relationship. There is ∼0.75 dex of scatter in this relationship from clouds like Sgr B2, which has an integrated HCN 1-0 intensity of a cloud less than half its mass, and others that have HCN 1-0 enhanced by a factor of 2–3 relative to clouds of comparable mass. We identify the two primary sources ofmore » scatter to be self-absorption and variations in HCN abundance. We also find that the extended HCN 1-0 emission is more intense per unit mass than in individual cloud cores. In fact the majority (80%) of HCN 1-0 emission comes from extended gas with column densities below 7 × 10{sup 22} cm{sup −2}, accounting for 68% of the total mass. We find variations in the brightness of HCN 1-0 would only yield a ∼10% error in the dense gas mass inferred from this line in the Galactic center. However, the observed order of magnitude HCN abundance variations, and the systematic nature of these variations, warn of potential biases in the use of HCN as dense gas mass tracer in more extreme environments such as an active galactic nucleus and shock-dominated regions. We also investigate other 3 mm tracers, finding that HNCO is better correlated with mass than HCN, and might be a better tracer of cloud mass in this environment.« less

Cosmic rays, gas and dust in nearby anticentre clouds. I. CO-to-H2 conversion factors and dust opacities

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Remy, Q.; Grenier, I. A.; Marshall, D. J.; Casandjian, J. M.

2017-05-01

Aims: We aim to explore the capabilities of dust emission and γ rays for probing the properties of the interstellar medium in the nearby anti-centre region, using γ-ray observations with the Fermi Large Area Telescope (LAT), and the thermal dust optical depth inferred from Planck and IRAS observations. We also aim to study massive star-forming clouds including the well known Taurus, Auriga, Perseus, and California molecular clouds, as well as a more diffuse structure which we refer to as Cetus. In particular, we aim at quantifying potential variations in cosmic-ray density and dust properties per gas nucleon across the different gas phases and different clouds, and at measuring the CO-to-H2 conversion factor, XCO, in different environments. Methods: We have separated six nearby anti-centre clouds that are coherent in velocities and distances, from the Galactic-disc background in H I 21-cm and 12CO 2.6-mm line emission. We have jointly modelled the γ-ray intensity recorded between 0.4 and 100 GeV, and the dust optical depth τ353 at 353 GHz as a combination of H I-bright, CO-bright, and ionised gas components. The complementary information from dust emission and γ rays was used to reveal the gas not seen, or poorly traced, by H I, free-free, and 12CO emissions, namely (I) the opaque H iand diffuse H2 present in the Dark Neutral Medium at the atomic-molecular transition, and (II) the dense H2 to be added where 12CO lines saturate. Results: The measured interstellar γ-ray spectra support a uniform penetration of the cosmic rays with energies above a few GeV through the clouds, from the atomic envelopes to the 12CO-bright cores, and with a small ± 9% cloud-to-cloud dispersion in particle flux. We detect the ionised gas from the H iiregion NGC 1499 in the dust and γ-ray emissions and measure its mean electron density and temperature. We find a gradual increase in grain opacity as the gas (atomic or molecular) becomes more dense. The increase reaches a factor of four to six in the cold molecular regions that are well shielded from stellar radiation. Consequently, the XCO factor derived from dust is systematically larger by 30% to 130% than the γ-ray estimate. We also evaluate the average γ-ray XCO factor for each cloud, and find that XCO tends to decrease from diffuse to more compact molecular clouds, as expected from theory. We find XCO factors in the anti-centre clouds close to or below 1020 cm-2 K-1 km-1 s, in agreement with other estimates in the solar neighbourhood. Together, they confirm the long-standing unexplained discrepancy, by a factor of two, between the mean XCO values measured at parsec scales in nearby clouds and those obtained at kiloparsec scale in the Galaxy. Our results also highlight large quantitative discrepancies in 12CO intensities between simulations and observations at low molecular gas densities.

Formation of buckminsterfullerene (C60) in interstellar space

PubMed Central

Berné, Olivier; Tielens, A. G. G. M.

2012-01-01

Buckminsterfullerene (C60) was recently confirmed as the largest molecule identified in space. However, it remains unclear how and where this molecule is formed. It is generally believed that C60 is formed from the buildup of small carbonaceous compounds in the hot and dense envelopes of evolved stars. Analyzing infrared observations, obtained by Spitzer and Herschel, we found that C60 is efficiently formed in the tenuous and cold environment of an interstellar cloud illuminated by strong ultraviolet (UV) radiation fields. This implies that another formation pathway, efficient at low densities, must exist. Based on recent laboratory and theoretical studies, we argue that polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons are converted into graphene, and subsequently C60, under UV irradiation from massive stars. This shows that alternative—top-down—routes are key to understanding the organic inventory in space. PMID:22198841

Formation of buckminsterfullerene (C60) in interstellar space.

PubMed

Berné, Olivier; Tielens, A G G M

2012-01-10

Buckminsterfullerene (C(60)) was recently confirmed as the largest molecule identified in space. However, it remains unclear how and where this molecule is formed. It is generally believed that C(60) is formed from the buildup of small carbonaceous compounds in the hot and dense envelopes of evolved stars. Analyzing infrared observations, obtained by Spitzer and Herschel, we found that C(60) is efficiently formed in the tenuous and cold environment of an interstellar cloud illuminated by strong ultraviolet (UV) radiation fields. This implies that another formation pathway, efficient at low densities, must exist. Based on recent laboratory and theoretical studies, we argue that polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons are converted into graphene, and subsequently C(60), under UV irradiation from massive stars. This shows that alternative--top-down--routes are key to understanding the organic inventory in space.

Formation of buckminsterfullerene (C60) in interstellar space

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Berné, Olivier; Tielens, Alexander G. G. M.

2012-01-01

Buckminsterfullerene (C60) was recently confirmed to be the largest molecule identified in space. However, it remains unclear how, and where this molecule is formed. It is generally believed that C60 is formed from the build up of small carbonaceous compounds, in the hot and dense envelopes of evolved stars. Analyzing infrared observations, obtained by Spitzer and Herschel, we found that C60 is efficiently formed in the tenuous and cold environment of an interstellar cloud illuminated by strong ultraviolet (UV) radiation fields. This implies that another formation pathway, efficient at low densities, must exist. Based on recent laboratory and theoretical studies, we argue that Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons are converted into graphene, and subsequently C60, under UV irradiation from massive stars. This shows that alternative - top-down - routes are key to understanding the organic inventory in space.

The dense gas mass fraction of molecular clouds in the Milky Way

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Battisti, Andrew J.; Heyer, Mark H., E-mail: abattist@astro.umass.edu, E-mail: heyer@astro.umass.edu

2014-01-10

The mass fraction of dense gas within giant molecular clouds (GMCs) of the Milky Way is investigated using {sup 13}CO data from the Five College Radio Astronomy Observatory Galactic Plane Surveys and the Bolocam Galactic Plane Survey (BGPS) of 1.1 mm dust continuum emission. A sample of 860 compact dust sources are selected from the BGPS catalog and kinematically linked to 344 clouds of extended (>3') {sup 13}CO J = 1-0 emission. Gas masses are tabulated for the full dust source and subregions within the dust sources with mass surface densities greater than 200 M {sub ☉} pc{sup –2}, whichmore » are assumed to be regions of enhanced volume density. Masses of the parent GMCs are calculated assuming optically thin {sup 13}CO J = 1-0 emission and local thermodynamic equilibrium conditions. The mean fractional mass of dust sources to host GMC mass is 0.11{sub −0.06}{sup +0.12}. The high column density subregions comprise 0.07{sub −0.05}{sup +0.13} of the mass of the cloud. Owing to our assumptions, these values are upper limits to the true mass fractions. The fractional mass of dense gas is independent of GMC mass and gas surface density. The low dense gas mass fraction suggests that the formation of dense structures within GMCs is the primary bottleneck for star formation. The distribution of velocity differences between the dense gas and the low density material along the line of sight is also examined. We find a strong, centrally peaked distribution centered on zero velocity displacement. This distribution of velocity differences is modeled with radially converging flows toward the dense gas position that are randomly oriented with respect to the observed line of sight. These models constrain the infall velocities to be 2-4 km s{sup –1} for various flow configurations.« less

APEX/SABOCA observations of small-scale structure of infrared-dark clouds . I. Early evolutionary stages of star-forming cores

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ragan, Sarah E.; Henning, Thomas; Beuther, Henrik

2013-11-01

Infrared-dark clouds (IRDCs) harbor the early phases of cluster and high-mass star formation and are comprised of cold (~20 K), dense (n > 104 cm-3) gas. The spectral energy distribution (SED) of IRDCs is dominated by the far-infrared and millimeter wavelength regime, and our initial Herschel study examined IRDCs at the peak of the SED with high angular resolution. Here we present a follow-up study using the SABOCA instrument on APEX which delivers 7.8″ angular resolution at 350 μm, matching the resolution we achieved with Herschel/PACS, and allowing us to characterize substructure on ~0.1 pc scales. Our sample of 11 nearby IRDCs are a mix of filamentary and clumpy morphologies, and the filamentary clouds show significant hierarchical structure, while the clumpy IRDCs exhibit little hierarchical structure. All IRDCs, regardless of morphology, have about 14% of their total mass in small scale core-like structures which roughly follow a trend of constant volume density over all size scales. Out of the 89 protostellar cores we identified in this sample with Herschel, we recover 40 of the brightest and re-fit their SEDs and find their properties agree fairly well with our previous estimates (⟨ T ⟩ ~ 19 K). We detect a new population of "cold cores" which have no 70 μm counterpart, but are 100 and 160 μm-bright, with colder temperatures (⟨ T ⟩ ~ 16 K). This latter population, along with SABOCA-only detections, are predominantly low-mass objects, but their evolutionary diagnostics are consistent with the earliest starless or prestellar phase of cores in IRDCs. Based on observations carried out with the Atacama Pathfinder Experiment (APEX). APEX is a collaboration between Max Planck Institut für Radioastronomie (MPIfR), Onsala Space Observatory (OSO), and the European Southern Observatory (ESO).Appendices are available in electronic form at http://www.aanda.org

The role of magnetic fields in the structure and interaction of supershells

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ntormousi, Evangelia; Dawson, Joanne R.; Hennebelle, Patrick; Fierlinger, Katharina

2017-03-01

Context. Large-scale shocks formed by clustered feedback of young OB stars are considered an important source of mechanical energy for the interstellar medium (ISM) and a trigger of molecular cloud formation. Their interaction sites are locations where kinetic energy and magnetic fields are redistributed between ISM phases. Aims: In this work we address two questions, both involving the role of galactic magnetic fields in the dynamics of supershells and their interactions. On the one hand, we study the effect of the magnetic field on the expansion and fragmentation of supershells and, on the other hand, we look for the signatures of supershell collisions on dense structures and on the kinetic and magnetic energy distribution of the ISM. Methods: We performed a series of high-resolution, three-dimensional simulations of colliding supershells. The shocks are created by time-dependent feedback and evolve in a diffuse turbulent environment that is either unmagnetized or has different initial magnetic field configurations. Results: In the hydrodynamical situation, the expansion law of the superbubbles is consistent with the radius-time relation R ∝ t3/5 that is theoretically predicted for wind-blown bubbles. The supershells fragment over their entire surface into small dense clumps that carry more than half of the total kinetic energy in the volume. However, this is not the case when a magnetic field is introduced, either in the direction of the collision or perpendicular to the collision. In both situations, the shell surfaces are more stable to dynamical instabilities. When the magnetic field opposes the collision, the expansion law of the supershells also becomes significantly flatter than in the hydrodynamical case. Although a two-phase medium arises in all cases, in the magnetohydrodynamical (MHD) simulations the cold phase is limited to lower densities and the cold clumps are located further away from the shocks with respect to the hydrodynamical simulations. Conclusions: For the parameters we explored, self-gravity has no effect on either the superbubble expansion or the shock fragmentation. In contrast, a magnetic field, whether mostly parallel or mostly perpendicular to the collision axis, causes a deceleration of the shocks, deforms them significantly, and largely suppresses the formation of the dense gas on their surface. The result is a multi-phase medium in which the cold clumps are not spatially correlated with the supershells.

Chemical complexity induced by efficient ice evaporation in the Barnard 5 molecular cloud

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Taquet, V.; Wirström, E. S.; Charnley, S. B.; Faure, A.; López-Sepulcre, A.; Persson, C. M.

2017-10-01

Cold gas-phase water has recently been detected in a cold dark cloud, Barnard 5 located in the Perseus complex, by targeting methanol peaks as signposts for ice mantle evaporation. Observed morphology and abundances of methanol and water are consistent with a transient non-thermal evaporation process only affecting the outermost ice mantle layers, possibly triggering a more complex chemistry. Here we present the detection of the complex organic molecules (COMs) acetaldehyde (CH3CHO) and methyl formate (CH3OCHO), as well as formic acid (HCOOH) and ketene (CH2CO), and the tentative detection of di-methyl ether (CH3OCH3) towards the "methanol hotspot" of Barnard 5 located between two dense cores using the single dish OSO 20 m, IRAM 30 m, and NRO 45 m telescopes. The high energy cis-conformer of formic acid is detected, suggesting that formic acid is mostly formed at the surface of interstellar grains and then evaporated. The detection of multiple transitions for each species allows us to constrain their abundances through LTE and non-LTE methods. All the considered COMs show similar abundances between 1 and 10% relative to methanol depending on the assumed excitation temperature. The non-detection of glycolaldehyde, an isomer of methyl formate, with a [glycolaldehyde]/[methyl formate] abundance ratio lower than 6%, favours gas phase formation pathways triggered by methanol evaporation. According to their excitation temperatures derived in massive hot cores, formic acid, ketene, and acetaldehyde have been designated as "lukewarm" COMs whereas methyl formate and di-methyl ether were defined as "warm" species. Comparison with previous observations of other types of sources confirms that lukewarm and warm COMs show similar abundances in low-density cold gas whereas the warm COMs tend to be more abundant than the lukewarm species in warm protostellar cores. This abundance evolution suggests either that warm COMs are indeed mostly formed in protostellar environments and/or that lukewarm COMs are efficiently depleted by increased hydrogenation efficiency around protostars.

The Effects of Ram Pressure on the Cold Clouds in the Centers of Galaxy Clusters

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Li, Yuan; Ruszkowski, Mateusz; Tremblay, Grant

2018-02-01

We discuss the effect of ram pressure on the cold clouds in the centers of cool-core galaxy clusters, and in particular, how it reduces cloud velocity and sometimes causes an offset between the cold gas and young stars. The velocities of the molecular gas in both observations and our simulations fall in the range of 100–400 km s‑1, which is much lower than expected if they fall from a few tens of kiloparsecs ballistically. If the intracluster medium (ICM) is at rest, the ram pressure of the ICM only slightly reduces the velocity of the clouds. When we assume that the clouds are actually “fluffier” because they are co-moving with a warm-hot layer, the velocity becomes smaller. If we also consider the active galactic nucleus wind in the cluster center by adding a wind profile measured from the simulation, the clouds are further slowed down at small radii, and the resulting velocities are in general agreement with the observations and simulations. Because ram pressure only affects gas but not stars, it can cause a separation between a filament and young stars that formed in the filament as they move through the ICM together. This separation has been observed in Perseus and also exists in our simulations. We show that the star-filament offset, combined with line-of-sight velocity measurements, can help determine the true motion of the cold gas, and thus distinguish between inflows and outflows.

Optical and microphysical parameters of dense stratocumulus clouds during mission 206 of EUCREX '94 as retrieved from measurements made with the airborne lidar LEANDRE 1

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Pelon, J.; Flamant, C.; Trouillet, V.; Flamant, P. H.

Cloud parameters derived from measurements performed with the airborne backscatter lidar LEANDRE 1 during mission 206 of the EUCREX '94 campaign are reported. A new method has been developed to retrieve the extinction coefficient at the top of the dense stratocumulus deck under scrutiny during this mission. The largest extinction values are found to be related to the highest cloud top altitude revealing the small-scale structure of vertical motions within the stratocumulus field. Cloud optical depth (COD) is estimated from extinction retrievals, as well as cloud top and cloud base altitude using nadir and zenith lidar observations, respectively. Lidar-derived CODs are compared with CODs deduced from radiometric measurements made onboard the French research aircraft Avion de Recherche Atmosphérique et de Télédétection (ARAT/F27). A fair agreement is obtained (within 20%) for COD's larger than 10. Our results show the potential of lidar measurements to analyze cloud properties at optical depths larger than 5.

Plasma sheet density dependence on Interplanetary Magnetic Field and Solar Wind properties: statistical study using 9+ year of THEMIS data

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Nykyri, K.; Chu, C.; Dimmock, A. P.

2017-12-01

Previous studies have shown that plasma sheet in tenuous and hot during southward IMF, whereas northward IMF conditions are associated with cold, dense plasma. The cold, dense plasma sheet (CDPS) has strong influence on magnetospheric dynamics. Closer to Earth, the CDPS could be formed via double high-latitude reconnection, while at increasing tailward distance reconnection, diffusion and kinetic Alfven waves in association with Kelvin-Helmholtz Instability are suggested as dominant source for cold-dense plasma sheet formation. In this paper we present statistical correlation study between Solar Wind, Magnetosheath and Plasma sheet properties using 9+ years of THEMIS data in aberrated GSM frame, and in a normalized coordinate system that takes into account the changes of the magnetopause and bow shock location with respect to changing solar wind conditions. We present statistical results of the plasma sheet density dependence on IMF orientation and other solar wind properties.

Effects of Stratospheric Lapse Rate on Thunderstorm Cloud-Top Structure in a Three-Dimensional Numerical Simulation. Part I: Some Basic Results of Comparative Experiments.

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Schlesinger, Robert E.

1988-05-01

An anelastic three-dimensional model is used to investigate the effects of stratospheric temperature lapse rate on cloud top height/temperature structure for strongly sheared mature isolated midlatitude thunderstorms. Three comparative experiments are performed, differing only with respect to the stratospheric stability. The assumed stratospheric lapse rate is 0 K km1 (isothermal) in the first experiment, 3 K km1 in the second, and 3 K km1 (inversion) in the third.Kinematic storm structure is very similar in all three cases, especially in the troposphere. A strong quasi-steady updraft evolves splitting into a dominant cyclonic overshooting right-mover and a weaker anticyclonic left-mover that does not reach the tropopause. Strongest downdrafts occur at low to middle levels between the updrafts, and in the lower stratosphere a few kilometers upshear and downshear of the tapering updraft summit.Each storm shows a cloud-top thermal couplet, relatively cold near and upshear of the summit, and with a `close-in' warm region downshear. Both cold and warm regions become warmer, with significant morphological changes and a lowering of the cloud summit, as stratospheric stability is increased, though the temperature spread is not greatly affected.The coldest and highest cloud-top points are nearly colocated in the absence of a stratospheric inversion, but the coldest point is offset well upshear of the summit when an inversion is present. The cold region as a whole in each case shows at least a transient `V' shape, with the arms pointing downshear, although this shape is persistent only with the inversion.In the experiment with a 3 K km1 stratospheric lapse rate (weakest stability), the warm region is small and separates into two spots with secondary cold spots downshear of them. The warm region becomes larger, and remains single, as stratospheric stability increase. In each run, the warm regions are not accompanied by corresponding cloud-top height minima except very briefly.The cold cloud-top points are near or slightly downwind of relative vertical velocity maxima, usually positive, while the warm points are imbedded in subsidence downwind of the principal cloud-top downdraft core. The storm-relative cloud-top horizontal wind fields are consistent with the `V' shape of the cold region, showing strong diffluent flow directed downshear along the flanks from an upshear stagnation zone.

Global Average Brightness Temperature for April 2003

NASA Image and Video Library

2003-06-02

This image shows average temperatures in April, 2003, observed by AIRS at an infrared wavelength that senses either the Earth's surface or any intervening cloud. Similar to a photograph of the planet taken with the camera shutter held open for a month, stationary features are captured while those obscured by moving clouds are blurred. Many continental features stand out boldly, such as our planet's vast deserts, and India, now at the end of its long, clear dry season. Also obvious are the high, cold Tibetan plateau to the north of India, and the mountains of North America. The band of yellow encircling the planet's equator is the Intertropical Convergence Zone (ITCZ), a region of persistent thunderstorms and associated high, cold clouds. The ITCZ merges with the monsoon systems of Africa and South America. Higher latitudes are increasingly obscured by clouds, though some features like the Great Lakes, the British Isles and Korea are apparent. The highest latitudes of Europe and Eurasia are completely obscured by clouds, while Antarctica stands out cold and clear at the bottom of the image. http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA00427

H2D(+) observations give an age of at least one million years for a cloud core forming Sun-like stars.

PubMed

Brünken, Sandra; Sipilä, Olli; Chambers, Edward T; Harju, Jorma; Caselli, Paola; Asvany, Oskar; Honingh, Cornelia E; Kamiński, Tomasz; Menten, Karl M; Stutzki, Jürgen; Schlemmer, Stephan

2014-12-11

The age of dense interstellar cloud cores, where stars and planets form, is a crucial parameter in star formation and difficult to measure. Some models predict rapid collapse, whereas others predict timescales of more than one million years (ref. 3). One possible approach to determining the age is through chemical changes as cloud contraction occurs, in particular through indirect measurements of the ratio of the two spin isomers (ortho/para) of molecular hydrogen, H2, which decreases monotonically with age. This has been done for the dense cloud core L183, for which the deuterium fractionation of diazenylium (N2H(+)) was used as a chemical clock to infer that the core has contracted rapidly (on a timescale of less than 700,000 years). Among astronomically observable molecules, the spin isomers of the deuterated trihydrogen cation, ortho-H2D(+) and para-H2D(+), have the most direct chemical connections to H2 (refs 8, 9, 10, 11, 12) and their abundance ratio provides a chemical clock that is sensitive to greater cloud core ages. So far this ratio has not been determined because para-H2D(+) is very difficult to observe. The detection of its rotational ground-state line has only now become possible thanks to accurate measurements of its transition frequency in the laboratory, and recent progress in instrumentation technology. Here we report observations of ortho- and para-H2D(+) emission and absorption, respectively, from the dense cloud core hosting IRAS 16293-2422 A/B, a group of nascent solar-type stars (with ages of less than 100,000 years). Using the ortho/para ratio in conjunction with chemical models, we find that the dense core has been chemically processed for at least one million years. The apparent discrepancy with the earlier N2H(+) work arises because that chemical clock turns off sooner than the H2D(+) clock, but both results imply that star-forming dense cores have ages of about one million years, rather than 100,000 years.

Toward Measuring Galactic Dense Molecular Gas Properties and 3D Distribution with Hi-GAL

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Zetterlund, Erika; Glenn, Jason; Maloney, Phil

2016-01-01

The Herschel Space Observatory's submillimeter dust continuum survey Hi-GAL provides a powerful new dataset for characterizing the structure of the dense interstellar medium of the Milky Way. Hi-GAL observed a 2° wide strip covering the entire 360° of the Galactic plane in broad bands centered at 70, 160, 250, 350, and 500 μm, with angular resolution ranging from 10 to 40 arcseconds. We are adapting a molecular cloud clump-finding algorithm and a distance probability density function distance-determination method developed for the Bolocam Galactic Plane Survey (BGPS) to the Hi-GAL data. Using these methods we expect to generate a database of 105 cloud clumps, derive distance information for roughly half the clumps, and derive precise distances for approximately 20% of them. With five-color photometry and distances, we will measure the cloud clump properties, such as luminosities, physical sizes, and masses, and construct a three-dimensional map of the Milky Way's dense molecular gas distribution.The cloud clump properties and the dense gas distribution will provide critical ground truths for comparison to theoretical models of molecular cloud structure formation and galaxy evolution models that seek to emulate spiral galaxies. For example, such models cannot resolve star formation and use prescriptive recipes, such as converting a fixed fraction of interstellar gas to stars at a specified interstellar medium density threshold. The models should be compared to observed dense molecular gas properties and galactic distributions.As a pilot survey to refine the clump-finding and distance measurement algorithms developed for BGPS, we have identified molecular cloud clumps in six 2° × 2° patches of the Galactic plane, including one in the inner Galaxy along the line of sight through the Molecular Ring and the termination of the Galactic bar and one toward the outer Galaxy. Distances have been derived for the inner Galaxy clumps and compared to Bolocam Galactic Plane Survey results. We present the pilot survey clump catalog, distances, clump properties, and a comparison to BGPS.

Dense Regions in Supersonic Isothermal Turbulence

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Robertson, Brant; Goldreich, Peter

2018-02-01

The properties of supersonic isothermal turbulence influence a variety of astrophysical phenomena, including the structure and evolution of star-forming clouds. This work presents a simple model for the structure of dense regions in turbulence in which the density distribution behind isothermal shocks originates from rough hydrostatic balance between the pressure gradient behind the shock and its deceleration from ram pressure applied by the background fluid. Using simulations of supersonic isothermal turbulence and idealized waves moving through a background medium, we show that the structural properties of dense, shocked regions broadly agree with our analytical model. Our work provides a new conceptual picture for describing the dense regions, which complements theoretical efforts to understand the bulk statistical properties of turbulence and attempts to model the more complex features of star-forming clouds like magnetic fields, self-gravity, or radiative properties.

Diamonds in dense molecular clouds - A challenge to the standard interstellar medium paradigm

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Allamandola, L. J.; Sandford, S. A.; Tielens, A. G. G. M.; Herbst, T. M.

1993-01-01

Observations of a newly discovered infrared C-H stretching band indicate that interstellar diamond-like material appears to be characteristic of dense clouds. In sharp contrast, the spectral signature of dust in the diffuse interstellar medium is dominated by -CH2- and -CH3 groups. This dichotomy in the aliphatic organic component between the dense and diffuse media challenges standard assumptions about the processes occurring in, and interactions between, these two media. The ubiquity of this interstellar diamond-like material rules out models for meteoritic diamond formation in unusual circumstellar environments and implies that the formation of the diamond-like material is associated with common interstellar processes or stellar types.

Point Cloud Generation from Aerial Image Data Acquired by a Quadrocopter Type Micro Unmanned Aerial Vehicle and a Digital Still Camera

PubMed Central

Rosnell, Tomi; Honkavaara, Eija

2012-01-01

The objective of this investigation was to develop and investigate methods for point cloud generation by image matching using aerial image data collected by quadrocopter type micro unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) imaging systems. Automatic generation of high-quality, dense point clouds from digital images by image matching is a recent, cutting-edge step forward in digital photogrammetric technology. The major components of the system for point cloud generation are a UAV imaging system, an image data collection process using high image overlaps, and post-processing with image orientation and point cloud generation. Two post-processing approaches were developed: one of the methods is based on Bae Systems’ SOCET SET classical commercial photogrammetric software and another is built using Microsoft®’s Photosynth™ service available in the Internet. Empirical testing was carried out in two test areas. Photosynth processing showed that it is possible to orient the images and generate point clouds fully automatically without any a priori orientation information or interactive work. The photogrammetric processing line provided dense and accurate point clouds that followed the theoretical principles of photogrammetry, but also some artifacts were detected. The point clouds from the Photosynth processing were sparser and noisier, which is to a large extent due to the fact that the method is not optimized for dense point cloud generation. Careful photogrammetric processing with self-calibration is required to achieve the highest accuracy. Our results demonstrate the high performance potential of the approach and that with rigorous processing it is possible to reach results that are consistent with theory. We also point out several further research topics. Based on theoretical and empirical results, we give recommendations for properties of imaging sensor, data collection and processing of UAV image data to ensure accurate point cloud generation. PMID:22368479

Point cloud generation from aerial image data acquired by a quadrocopter type micro unmanned aerial vehicle and a digital still camera.

PubMed

Rosnell, Tomi; Honkavaara, Eija

2012-01-01

The objective of this investigation was to develop and investigate methods for point cloud generation by image matching using aerial image data collected by quadrocopter type micro unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) imaging systems. Automatic generation of high-quality, dense point clouds from digital images by image matching is a recent, cutting-edge step forward in digital photogrammetric technology. The major components of the system for point cloud generation are a UAV imaging system, an image data collection process using high image overlaps, and post-processing with image orientation and point cloud generation. Two post-processing approaches were developed: one of the methods is based on Bae Systems' SOCET SET classical commercial photogrammetric software and another is built using Microsoft(®)'s Photosynth™ service available in the Internet. Empirical testing was carried out in two test areas. Photosynth processing showed that it is possible to orient the images and generate point clouds fully automatically without any a priori orientation information or interactive work. The photogrammetric processing line provided dense and accurate point clouds that followed the theoretical principles of photogrammetry, but also some artifacts were detected. The point clouds from the Photosynth processing were sparser and noisier, which is to a large extent due to the fact that the method is not optimized for dense point cloud generation. Careful photogrammetric processing with self-calibration is required to achieve the highest accuracy. Our results demonstrate the high performance potential of the approach and that with rigorous processing it is possible to reach results that are consistent with theory. We also point out several further research topics. Based on theoretical and empirical results, we give recommendations for properties of imaging sensor, data collection and processing of UAV image data to ensure accurate point cloud generation.

On the Inference of the Cosmic-ray Ionization Rate ζ from the HCO+-to-DCO+ Abundance Ratio: The Effect of Nuclear Spin

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Shingledecker, Christopher N.; Bergner, Jennifer B.; Le Gal, Romane; Öberg, Karin I.; Hincelin, Ugo; Herbst, Eric

2016-10-01

The chemistry of dense interstellar regions was analyzed using a time-dependent gas-grain astrochemical simulation and a new chemical network that incorporates deuterated chemistry, taking into account nuclear spin states for the hydrogen chemistry and its deuterated isotopologues. With this new network, the utility of the [HCO+]/[DCO+] abundance ratio as a probe of the cosmic-ray ionization rate has been re-examined, with special attention paid to the effect of the initial value of the ortho-to-para ratio (OPR) of molecular hydrogen. After discussing the use of the probe for cold cores, we compare our results with previous theoretical and observational results for a molecular cloud close to the supernova remnant W51C, which is thought to have an enhanced cosmic-ray ionization rate ζ caused by the nearby γ-ray source. In addition, we attempt to use our approach to estimate the cosmic-ray ionization rate for L1174, a dense core with an embedded star. Beyond the previously known sensitivity of [HCO+]/[DCO+] to ζ, we demonstrate its additional dependence on the initial OPR and, secondarily, on the age of the source, its temperature, and its density. We conclude that the usefulness of the [HCO+]/[DCO+] abundance ratio in constraining the cosmic-ray ionization rate in dense regions increases with the age of the source and the ionization rate as the ratio becomes far less sensitive to the initial value of the OPR.

Unveiling the spatial structure of the overionized plasma in the supernova remnant W49B

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Zhou, Xin; Miceli, Marco; Bocchino, Fabrizio; Orlando, Salvatore; Chen, Yang

2011-07-01

W49B is a mixed-morphology supernova remnant with thermal X-ray emission dominated by the ejecta. In this remnant, the presence of overionized plasma has been directly established, with information about its spatial structure. However, the physical origin of the overionized plasma in W49B has not yet been understood. We investigate this intriguing issue through a 2D hydrodynamic model that takes into account, for the first time, the mixing of ejecta with the inhomogeneous circumstellar and interstellar medium, the thermal conduction, the radiative losses from optically thin plasma and the deviations from equilibrium of ionization induced by plasma dynamics. The model was set up on the basis of the observational results. We found that the thermal conduction plays an important role in the evolution of W49B, inducing the evaporation of the circumstellar ring-like cloud (whose presence has been deduced from previous observations) that mingles with the surrounding hot medium, cooling down the shocked plasma, and pushes the ejecta backwards to the centre of the remnant, forming there a jet-like structure. During the evolution, a large region of overionized plasma forms within the remnant. The overionized plasma originates from the rapid cooling of the hot plasma originally heated by the shock reflected from the dense ring-like cloud. In particular, we found two different ways for the rapid cooling of plasma to appear: (i) the mixing of relatively cold and dense material evaporated from the ring with the hot shocked plasma and (ii) the rapid adiabatic expansion of the ejecta. The spatial distribution of the radiative recombination continuum predicted by the numerical model is in good agreement with that observed.

Interchange Reconnection Associated with a Confined Filament Eruption: Implications for the Source of Transient Cold-dense Plasma in Solar Winds

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Zheng, Ruisheng; Chen, Yao; Wang, Bing

The cold-dense plasma is occasionally detected in the solar wind with in situ data, but the source of the cold-dense plasma remains illusive. Interchange reconnections (IRs) between closed fields and nearby open fields are known to contribute to the formation of solar winds. We present a confined filament eruption associated with a puff-like coronal mass ejection (CME) on 2014 December 24. The filament underwent successive activations and finally erupted, due to continuous magnetic flux cancelations and emergences. The confined erupting filament showed a clear untwist motion, and most of the filament material fell back. During the eruption, some tiny blobsmore » escaped from the confined filament body, along newly formed open field lines rooted around the south end of the filament, and some bright plasma flowed from the north end of the filament to remote sites at nearby open fields. The newly formed open field lines shifted southward with multiple branches. The puff-like CME also showed multiple bright fronts and a clear southward shift. All the results indicate an intermittent IR existed between closed fields of the confined erupting filament and nearby open fields, which released a portion of filament material (blobs) to form the puff-like CME. We suggest that the IR provides a possible source of cold-dense plasma in the solar wind.« less

Cyanide and isocyanide abundances in the cold, dark cloud TMC-1

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Irvine, W. M.; Schloerb, F. P.

1984-01-01

Cold, dark molecular clouds are particularly useful for the study of interstellar chemistry because their physical parameters are better understood than those of heterogeneous, complex giant molecular clouds. Another advantage is their relatively small distance from the solar system. The present investigaation has the objective to provide accurate abundance ratios for several cyanides and isocyanides in order to constrain models of dark cloud chemistry. The relative abundances of such related species can be particularly useful for the study of chemical processes. The cloud TMC-1 considered in the current study has a remarkably high abundance of acetylene and polyacetylene derivatives. Data at 3 mm, corresponding to the J = 1 to 0 transitions of HCN, H(C-13)N, HN(C-13), HC(N-15), and H(N-15)C were obtained.

Automatic Building Abstraction from Aerial Photogrammetry

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ley, A.; Hänsch, R.; Hellwich, O.

2017-09-01

Multi-view stereo has been shown to be a viable tool for the creation of realistic 3D city models. Nevertheless, it still states significant challenges since it results in dense, but noisy and incomplete point clouds when applied to aerial images. 3D city modelling usually requires a different representation of the 3D scene than these point clouds. This paper applies a fully-automatic pipeline to generate a simplified mesh from a given dense point cloud. The mesh provides a certain level of abstraction as it only consists of relatively large planar and textured surfaces. Thus, it is possible to remove noise, outlier, as well as clutter, while maintaining a high level of accuracy.

Evaluation of Methods for Coregistration and Fusion of Rpas-Based 3d Point Clouds and Thermal Infrared Images

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Hoegner, L.; Tuttas, S.; Xu, Y.; Eder, K.; Stilla, U.

2016-06-01

This paper discusses the automatic coregistration and fusion of 3d point clouds generated from aerial image sequences and corresponding thermal infrared (TIR) images. Both RGB and TIR images have been taken from a RPAS platform with a predefined flight path where every RGB image has a corresponding TIR image taken from the same position and with the same orientation with respect to the accuracy of the RPAS system and the inertial measurement unit. To remove remaining differences in the exterior orientation, different strategies for coregistering RGB and TIR images are discussed: (i) coregistration based on 2D line segments for every single TIR image and the corresponding RGB image. This method implies a mainly planar scene to avoid mismatches; (ii) coregistration of both the dense 3D point clouds from RGB images and from TIR images by coregistering 2D image projections of both point clouds; (iii) coregistration based on 2D line segments in every single TIR image and 3D line segments extracted from intersections of planes fitted in the segmented dense 3D point cloud; (iv) coregistration of both the dense 3D point clouds from RGB images and from TIR images using both ICP and an adapted version based on corresponding segmented planes; (v) coregistration of both image sets based on point features. The quality is measured by comparing the differences of the back projection of homologous points in both corrected RGB and TIR images.

Penetration of Cosmic Rays into Dense Molecular Clouds: Role of Diffuse Envelopes

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ivlev, A. V.; Dogiel, V. A.; Chernyshov, D. O.; Caselli, P.; Ko, C.-M.; Cheng, K. S.

2018-03-01

A flux of cosmic rays (CRs) propagating through a diffuse ionized gas can excite MHD waves, thus generating magnetic disturbances. We propose a generic model of CR penetration into molecular clouds through their diffuse envelopes, and identify the leading physical processes controlling their transport on the way from a highly ionized interstellar medium to the dense interior of the cloud. The model allows us to describe a transition between a free streaming of CRs and their diffusive propagation, determined by the scattering on the self-generated disturbances. A self-consistent set of equations, governing the diffusive transport regime in an envelope and the MHD turbulence generated by the modulated CR flux, is characterized by two dimensionless numbers. We demonstrate a remarkable mutual complementarity of different mechanisms leading to the onset of the diffusive regime, which results in a universal energy spectrum of the modulated CRs. In conclusion, we briefly discuss implications of our results for several fundamental astrophysical problems, such as the spatial distribution of CRs in the Galaxy as well as the ionization, heating, and chemistry in dense molecular clouds. This paper is dedicated to the memory of Prof. Vadim Tsytovich.

VizieR Online Data Catalog: MYStIX candidate protostars (Romine+, 2016)

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Romine, G.; Feigelson, E. D.; Getman, K. V.; Kuhn, M. A.; Povich, M. S.

2017-04-01

The present study seeks protostars from the Massive Young Star-forming complex in Infrared and X-ray (MYStIX) survey catalogs. We combine objects with protostellar infrared SEDs and 4.5um excesses with X-ray sources exhibiting ultrahard spectra denoting very heavy obscuration. These criteria filter away nearly all of the older Class II-III stars and contaminant populations, but give very incomplete samples. The result is a list of 1109 protostellar candidates in 14 star-forming regions. See sections 1 and 2 for further explanations. The reliability of the catalog is strengthened because a large majority (86%) are found to be associated with dense cores seen in Herschel 500um maps that trace cold dust emission. However, the candidate list requires more detailed study for confirmation and cannot be viewed as an unbiased view of star formation in the clouds. (3 data files).

IR Spectroscopy and Photo-Chemistry of Extraterrestrial Ices

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Bernstein, Max P.; Mastrapa, Rachel; Elsila, Jamie; Sandford, Scott

2005-01-01

Dense molecular clouds from which planetary systems form and the outer Solar System are both cold environments dominated by ices. Infrared (IR) spectroscopy is used to probe these ices, but the IR absorptions of molecules depend on the conditions. As a result appropriate lab data is needed to correctly fit spectra of extraterrestrial ices. Such fits have shown that most of these ices are composed primarily of H2O, but also contain 1-10 percent of other simple molecules such as CO2, CO, CH4, & NH3;. We shall present near IR spectra of ice mixtures of relevance to icy outer Solar System bodies and show that they still hold surprises, such as the Cheshire cat-like CO2 (2v3) overtone near 2.134 micrometers (4685 cm-1) that is absent from spectra of pure CO2 but present in H2O-CO2 mixtures.

Sulfur chemistry in dense interstellar clouds

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Prasad, S. S.; Huntress, W. T., Jr.

1982-01-01

A model is presented for the gas phase chemistry of molecules containing sulfur in dense interstellar clouds. The sulfur chemistry is different from that used in previous models as a result of an extensive search of the recent literature and the availability of new laboratory data. The changes have a significant effect on the calculated abundance of sulfur compounds. The linked chemistry of sulfur and oxygen in the present model requires a severe depletion of sulfur and low fractional abundances of both O and O2 in the dense clouds. In contrast, the high abundance of SO and the low abundance of CS relative to SO in the HVS in the KL may indicate an oxygen-rich, high temperature environment compared to OMC-1. The formation of S-H bonds is slow because of the absence of radiative association between S(+) and H2. The present model underestimates the abundance of H2S unless a radiative association reaction between HS(+) and H2 is postulated.

THE JCMT GOULD BELT SURVEY: A FIRST LOOK AT DENSE CORES IN ORION B

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Kirk, H.; Francesco, J. Di; Johnstone, D.

2016-02-01

We present a first look at the SCUBA-2 observations of three sub-regions of the Orion B molecular cloud: LDN 1622, NGC 2023/2024, and NGC 2068/2071, from the JCMT Gould Belt Legacy Survey. We identify 29, 564, and 322 dense cores in L1622, NGC 2023/2024, and NGC 2068/2071 respectively, using the SCUBA-2 850 μm map, and present their basic properties, including their peak fluxes, total fluxes, and sizes, and an estimate of the corresponding 450 μm peak fluxes and total fluxes, using the FellWalker source extraction algorithm. Assuming a constant temperature of 20 K, the starless dense cores have a mass function similar to that found inmore » previous dense core analyses, with a Salpeter-like slope at the high-mass end. The majority of cores appear stable to gravitational collapse when considering only thermal pressure; indeed, most of the cores which have masses above the thermal Jeans mass are already associated with at least one protostar. At higher cloud column densities, above 1–2 × 10{sup 23} cm{sup −2}, most of the mass is found within dense cores, while at lower cloud column densities, below 1 × 10{sup 23} cm{sup −2}, this fraction drops to 10% or lower. Overall, the fraction of dense cores associated with a protostar is quite small (<8%), but becomes larger for the densest and most centrally concentrated cores. NGC 2023/2024 and NGC 2068/2071 appear to be on the path to forming a significant number of stars in the future, while L1622 has little additional mass in dense cores to form many new stars.« less

The JCMT Gould Belt Survey: A First Look at Dense Cores in Orion B

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kirk, H.; Di Francesco, J.; Johnstone, D.; Duarte-Cabral, A.; Sadavoy, S.; Hatchell, J.; Mottram, J. C.; Buckle, J.; Berry, D. S.; Broekhoven-Fiene, H.; Currie, M. J.; Fich, M.; Jenness, T.; Nutter, D.; Pattle, K.; Pineda, J. E.; Quinn, C.; Salji, C.; Tisi, S.; Hogerheijde, M. R.; Ward-Thompson, D.; Bastien, P.; Bresnahan, D.; Butner, H.; Chen, M.; Chrysostomou, A.; Coude, S.; Davis, C. J.; Drabek-Maunder, E.; Fiege, J.; Friberg, P.; Friesen, R.; Fuller, G. A.; Graves, S.; Greaves, J.; Gregson, J.; Holland, W.; Joncas, G.; Kirk, J. M.; Knee, L. B. G.; Mairs, S.; Marsh, K.; Matthews, B. C.; Moriarty-Schieven, G.; Mowat, C.; Rawlings, J.; Richer, J.; Robertson, D.; Rosolowsky, E.; Rumble, D.; Thomas, H.; Tothill, N.; Viti, S.; White, G. J.; Wouterloot, J.; Yates, J.; Zhu, M.

2016-02-01

We present a first look at the SCUBA-2 observations of three sub-regions of the Orion B molecular cloud: LDN 1622, NGC 2023/2024, and NGC 2068/2071, from the JCMT Gould Belt Legacy Survey. We identify 29, 564, and 322 dense cores in L1622, NGC 2023/2024, and NGC 2068/2071 respectively, using the SCUBA-2 850 μm map, and present their basic properties, including their peak fluxes, total fluxes, and sizes, and an estimate of the corresponding 450 μm peak fluxes and total fluxes, using the FellWalker source extraction algorithm. Assuming a constant temperature of 20 K, the starless dense cores have a mass function similar to that found in previous dense core analyses, with a Salpeter-like slope at the high-mass end. The majority of cores appear stable to gravitational collapse when considering only thermal pressure; indeed, most of the cores which have masses above the thermal Jeans mass are already associated with at least one protostar. At higher cloud column densities, above 1-2 × 1023 cm-2, most of the mass is found within dense cores, while at lower cloud column densities, below 1 × 1023 cm-2, this fraction drops to 10% or lower. Overall, the fraction of dense cores associated with a protostar is quite small (<8%), but becomes larger for the densest and most centrally concentrated cores. NGC 2023/2024 and NGC 2068/2071 appear to be on the path to forming a significant number of stars in the future, while L1622 has little additional mass in dense cores to form many new stars.

Core Emergence in a Massive Infrared Dark Cloud: A Comparison between Mid-IR Extinction and 1.3 mm Emission

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kong, Shuo; Tan, Jonathan C.; Arce, Héctor G.; Caselli, Paola; Fontani, Francesco; Butler, Michael J.

2018-03-01

Stars are born from dense cores in molecular clouds. Observationally, it is crucial to capture the formation of cores in order to understand the necessary conditions and rate of the star formation process. The Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) is extremely powerful for identifying dense gas structures, including cores, at millimeter wavelengths via their dust continuum emission. Here, we use ALMA to carry out a survey of dense gas and cores in the central region of the massive (∼105 M ⊙) infrared dark cloud (IRDC) G28.37+0.07. The observation consists of a mosaic of 86 pointings of the 12 m array and produces an unprecedented view of the densest structures of this IRDC. In this first Letter about this data set, we focus on a comparison between the 1.3 mm continuum emission and a mid-infrared (MIR) extinction map of the IRDC. This allows estimation of the “dense gas” detection probability function (DPF), i.e., as a function of the local mass surface density, Σ, for various choices of thresholds of millimeter continuum emission to define “dense gas.” We then estimate the dense gas mass fraction, f dg, in the central region of the IRDC and, via extrapolation with the DPF and the known Σ probability distribution function, to the larger-scale surrounding regions, finding values of about 5% to 15% for the fiducial choice of threshold. We argue that this observed dense gas is a good tracer of the protostellar core population and, in this context, estimate a star formation efficiency per free-fall time in the central IRDC region of ɛ ff ∼ 10%, with approximately a factor of two systematic uncertainties.

CO2 Condensation Models for Mars

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Colaprete, A.; Haberle, R.

2004-01-01

During the polar night in both hemispheres of Mars, regions of low thermal emission, frequently referred to as "cold spots", have been observed by Mariner 9, Viking and Mars Global Surveyor (MGS) spacecraft. These cold spots vary in time and appear to be associated with topographic features suggesting that they are the result of a spectral-emission effect due to surface accumulation of fine-grained frost or snow. Presented here are simulations of the Martian polar night using the NASA Ames General Circulation Cloud Model. This cloud model incorporates all the microphysical processes of carbon dioxide cloud formation, including nucleation, condensation and sedimentation and is coupled to a surface frost scheme that includes both direct surface condensation and precipitation. Using this cloud model we simulate the Mars polar nights and compare model results to observations from the Thermal Emission Spectrometer (TES) and the Mars Orbiter Laser Altimeter (MOLA). Model predictions of "cold spots" compare well with TES observations of low emissivity regions, both spatially and as a function of season. The model predicted frequency of CO2 cloud formation also agrees well with MOLA observations of polar night cloud echoes. Together the simulations and observations in the North indicate a distinct shift in atmospheric state centered about Ls 270 which we believe may be associated with the strength of the polar vortex.

Coupling of Clouds and Moisture Transport in Extratropical Cyclonic Systems and the Associated Atmospheric Heating (Q1) and Moisture Sink (Q2)

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Wong, S.; Naud, C. M.; Kahn, B. H.; Wu, L.; Fetzer, E. J.

2017-12-01

Different sectors in extratropical cyclonic systems (ETCs) exhibit various patterns in atmospheric moisture transport and provide an excellent test bed for studying coupling between cloud processes and large-scale circulation. Large-scale atmospheric moisture transport diagnosed from the Modern-Era Retrospective analysis for Research and Applications Version 2 and cloud properties (cloud top pressure and optical depth, cloud effective radii and thermodynamic phase) from both the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) and Atmospheric Infrared Sounder (AIRS) will be composited around Northern Hemispheric ETCs over ocean according to their stages of development. Atmospheric diabatic heating rates (Q1) and moisture sinks (Q2) are also inferred from the reanalysis winds, temperature, and specific humidity. Across the warm fronts, elevated convection in the pre-warm front regime is associated with frequent stratiform clouds with middle-to-upper tropospheric heating and lower tropospheric cooling, while upright convection in the warm front regime has frequent deep convective clouds with free-tropospheric heating and strong boundary layer cooling. Thinner stratiform and cirrus clouds are evident in the warm sector with top-heavy profiles of rising motion and diabatic heating. Moisture advection exhibits a sharp gradient across the cold fronts, with convection in the pre-cold front regime highly dependent on the stage of the ETC development. Heating in the boundary layers of the cold sector, polar-air intrusion, and pre-warm sector regimes depends on the amount of low-level clouds, which is again modulated by the stage of the ETC development.

Point Cloud Classification of Tesserae from Terrestrial Laser Data Combined with Dense Image Matching for Archaeological Information Extraction

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Poux, F.; Neuville, R.; Billen, R.

2017-08-01

Reasoning from information extraction given by point cloud data mining allows contextual adaptation and fast decision making. However, to achieve this perceptive level, a point cloud must be semantically rich, retaining relevant information for the end user. This paper presents an automatic knowledge-based method for pre-processing multi-sensory data and classifying a hybrid point cloud from both terrestrial laser scanning and dense image matching. Using 18 features including sensor's biased data, each tessera in the high-density point cloud from the 3D captured complex mosaics of Germigny-des-prés (France) is segmented via a colour multi-scale abstraction-based featuring extracting connectivity. A 2D surface and outline polygon of each tessera is generated by a RANSAC plane extraction and convex hull fitting. Knowledge is then used to classify every tesserae based on their size, surface, shape, material properties and their neighbour's class. The detection and semantic enrichment method shows promising results of 94% correct semantization, a first step toward the creation of an archaeological smart point cloud.

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Khajenabi, Fazeleh, E-mail: f.khajenabi@gu.ac.ir

We investigate the orbital motion of cold clouds in the broad-line region of active galactic nuclei subject to the gravity of a black hole, a force due to a non-isotropic central source, and a drag force proportional to the velocity square. The intercloud is described using the standard solutions for the advection-dominated accretion flows. The orbit of a cloud decays because of the drag force, but the typical timescale of clouds falling onto the central black hole is shorter compared to the linear drag case. This timescale is calculated when a cloud moves through a static or rotating intercloud. Wemore » show that when the drag force is a quadratic function of the velocity, irrespective of the initial conditions and other input parameters, clouds will generally fall onto the central region much faster than the age of whole system, and since cold clouds present in most of the broad-line regions, we suggest that mechanisms for the continuous creation of the clouds must operate in these systems.« less

Mature Thunderstorm Cloud-Top Structure and Dynamics: A Three-Dimensional Numerical Simulation Study.

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Schlesinger, Robert E.

1984-05-01

An anelastic three-dimensional model is used to investigate the effects of vertical wind shear regime on cloud-top structure and internal properties of mature isolated midlatitude thunderstorms. Four comparative experiments, designated A through D, are performed with varying shear profiles in otherwise identical initializations. Cases A-C assume strong shear, differing only in the veering of the low-level hodograph: moderate in A, strong in B and none in C. Weak shear, everywhere 40% as great as in C, is assumed in case D.The strong-shear cases A-C show moderately vigorous quasi-steady mature updrafts with strong midlevel mesovortex couplets, and marked anvil elongation along the net vertical shear vector. Differences are modest, especially at cloud top, though with low-level hodograph curvature the updraft is enhanced and skewed toward the cyclonic right flank. The weak-shear case D shows a weaker and less persistent mature updraft than A-C, along with weaker midlevel rotation and a much more newly circular anvil.In the strong-shear experiments, the cloud top considerably resembles geostationary satellite observations of tornadic storms (Negri, 1982), even though the model storm interiors lack the significant low-level mesocyclone and very strong concentrated updraft typical of observed tornadic storms. Both model and observations show a persistent cloud-top temperature pattern featuring a cold area slightly upshear of the cloud summit, with a warm area downshear in the absence of a local height minimum, though in the model the thermal couplet is smaller-scale with lower amplitude and lacks the well-developed `V' shape seen in the observations. The thermal couplet is also present with weak shear, but is only about half as strong, largely due to a much weaker cold area.Several dynamic features of the cloud-top thermal couplet are revealed by backward and forward parcel trajectory analyses for Case B: 1) The cold and warm areas at cloud top result from ascent and descent, respectively, of stratospheric air from upshear. 2) Only slightly below cloud top, shallow downward extensions of the warm and cold areas consist of air that originates from downshear in the lower troposphere, traverses' the updraft core and overshoots the tropopause. 3) Strong turbulent mixing between these contrasting airflow branches takes place astride the cloud top. 4) Parcels intercepting the cold region subside subsequently into the warm region. 5) The perturbation vertical pressure gradient force is an important factor in the trajectories.

Identifying Meteorological Controls on Open and Closed Mesoscale Cellular Convection as Associated with Marine Cold Air Outbreaks

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

McCoy, Isabel; Wood, Robert; Fletcher, Jennifer

Marine low clouds are key influencers of the climate and contribute significantly to uncertainty in model climate sensitivity due to their small scale and complex processes. Many low clouds occur in large-scale cellular patterns, known as open and closed mesoscale cellular convection (MCC), which have significantly different radiative and microphysical properties. Investigating MCC development and meteorological controls will improve our understanding of their impacts on the climate. We conducted an examination of time-varying meteorological conditions associated with satellite-determined open and closed MCC. The spatial and temporal patterns of MCC clouds were compared with key meteorological control variables calculated from ERA-Interim Reanalysis to highlight dependencies and major differences. This illustrated the influence of environmental stability and surface forcing as well as the role of marine cold air outbreaks (MCAO, the movement of cold air from polar-regions across warmer waters) in MCC cloud formation. Such outbreaks are important to open MCC development and may also influence the transition from open to closed MCC. Our results may lead to improvements in the parameterization of cloudiness and advance the simulation of marine low clouds. National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship Grant (DGE-1256082).

Global Measurements of Optically Thin Cirrus Clouds Using CALIOP

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ryan, R. A.; Avery, M. A.; Vaughan, M.

2017-12-01

Optically thin cirrus clouds, defined here as cold clouds consisting of randomly oriented ice crystals and having optical depths (τ) less than 0.3, are difficult to measure accurately. Thin cirrus clouds have been shown to have a net warming effect on the globe but, because passive instruments are not sensitive to optically thin clouds, the occurrence frequency of thin cirrus is greatly underestimated in historical passive sensor cloud climatology. One major strength of Cloud-Aerosol Lidar with Orthogonal Polarization (CALIOP) is its ability to detect these thin cirrus clouds, thus filling an important missing piece in the historical data record. This poster examines multiple years of CALIOP Level 2 data, focusing on those CALIOP retrievals identified as being optically thin (τ < 0.3), having a cold centroid temperature (TC < -40°C), and consisting solely of randomly oriented ice crystals. Using this definition, thin cirrus are identified and counted globally within each season. By examining the spatial, and seasonal distributions of these thin clouds we hope to gain a better understanding of how thin cirrus affect the atmosphere. Understanding when and where these clouds form and persist in the global atmosphere is the topic and focus of the presented poster.

Experimental Investigation of the Influence of the Laser Beam Waist on Cold Atom Guiding Efficiency.

PubMed

Song, Ningfang; Hu, Di; Xu, Xiaobin; Li, Wei; Lu, Xiangxiang; Song, Yitong

2018-02-28

The primary purpose of this study is to investigate the influence of the vertical guiding laser beam waist on cold atom guiding efficiency. In this study, a double magneto-optical trap (MOT) apparatus is used. With an unbalanced force in the horizontal direction, a cold atomic beam is generated by the first MOT. The cold atoms enter the second chamber and are then re-trapped and cooled by the second MOT. By releasing a second atom cloud, the process of transferring the cold atoms from MOT to the dipole trap, which is formed by a red-detuned converged 1064-nm laser, is experimentally demonstrated. And after releasing for 20 ms, the atom cloud is guided to a distance of approximately 3 mm. As indicated by the results, the guiding efficiency depends strongly on the laser beam waist; the efficiency reaches a maximum when the waist radius ( w ₀) of the laser is in the range of 15 to 25 μm, while the initial atom cloud has a radius of 133 μm. Additionally, the properties of the atoms inside the dipole potential trap, such as the distribution profile and lifetime, are deduced from the fluorescence images.

Life and Death in a Star-Forming Cloud

NASA Image and Video Library

2012-11-14

W44 is located around 10,000 light-years away, within a forest of dense star-forming clouds in the constellation of Aquila, the Eagle. This image combines data from ESA Herschel and XXM-Newton space observatories.

Open-cell cloud formation over the Bahamas

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

2002-01-01

What atmospheric scientists refer to as open cell cloud formation is a regular occurrence on the back side of a low-pressure system or cyclone in the mid-latitudes. In the Northern Hemisphere, a low-pressure system will draw in surrounding air and spin it counterclockwise. That means that on the back side of the low-pressure center, cold air will be drawn in from the north, and on the front side, warm air will be drawn up from latitudes closer to the equator. This movement of an air mass is called advection, and when cold air advection occurs over warmer waters, open cell cloud formations often result. This MODIS image shows open cell cloud formation over the Atlantic Ocean off the southeast coast of the United States on February 19, 2002. This particular formation is the result of a low-pressure system sitting out in the North Atlantic Ocean a few hundred miles east of Massachusetts. (The low can be seen as the comma-shaped figure in the GOES-8 Infrared image from February 19, 2002.) Cold air is being drawn down from the north on the western side of the low and the open cell cumulus clouds begin to form as the cold air passes over the warmer Caribbean waters. For another look at the scene, check out the MODIS Direct Broadcast Image from the University of Wisconsin. Image courtesy Jacques Descloitres, MODIS Land Rapid Response Team at NASA GSFC

Hurricane Karl's Structure and Some Thoughts for 2014 Strategy

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Cecil, Dan; Leppert, Ken, II

2014-01-01

Karl has interesting data, but far below the standards we should be able to achieve in HS3. We need to fly AV-1 over hurricanes in 2014. Most of the cold cloud shield in the inner core of hurricanes should be safe for AV-1 to fly. Significant convection occupies a small region, but we sometimes unnecessarily apply the 5000-ft separation rule to the entire cold cloud shield.

IONIZED GAS KINEMATICS AT HIGH RESOLUTION. V. [Ne ii], MULTIPLE CLUSTERS, HIGH EFFICIENCY STAR FORMATION, AND BLUE FLOWS IN HE 2–10

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Beck, Sara; Turner, Jean; Lacy, John

2015-11-20

We measured the 12.8 μm [Ne ii] line in the dwarf starburst galaxy He 2–10 with the high-resolution spectrometer TEXES on the NASA IRTF. The data cube has a diffraction-limited spatial resolution of ∼1″ and a total velocity resolution, including thermal broadening, of ∼5 km s{sup −1}. This makes it possible to compare the kinematics of individual star-forming clumps and molecular clouds in the three dimensions of space and velocity, and allows us to determine star formation efficiencies. The kinematics of the ionized gas confirm that the starburst contains multiple dense clusters. From the M/R of the clusters and themore » ≃30%–40% star formation efficiencies, the clusters are likely to be bound and long lived, like globulars. Non-gravitational features in the line profiles show how the ionized gas flows through the ambient molecular material, as well as a narrow velocity feature, which we identify with the interface of the H ii region and a cold dense clump. These data offer an unprecedented view of the interaction of embedded H ii regions with their environment.« less

The dense gas mass fraction in the W51 cloud and its protoclusters

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ginsburg, Adam; Bally, John; Battersby, Cara; Youngblood, Allison; Darling, Jeremy; Rosolowsky, Erik; Arce, Héctor; Lebrón Santos, Mayra E.

2015-01-01

Context. The density structure of molecular clouds determines how they will evolve. Aims: We map the velocity-resolved density structure of the most vigorously star-forming molecular cloud in the Galactic disk, the W51 giant molecular cloud. Methods: We present new 2 cm and 6 cm maps of H2CO, radio recombination lines, and the radio continuum in the W51 star forming complex acquired with Arecibo and the Green Bank Telescope at ~ 50″ resolution. We use H2CO absorption to determine the relative line-of-sight positions of molecular and ionized gas. We measure gas densities using the H2CO densitometer, including continuous measurements of the dense gas mass fraction (DGMF) over the range 104cm-3 104cm-3, while it is low, f< 20%, in W51 B. We did not detect any H2CO emission throughout the W51 GMC; all gas dense enough to emit under normal conditions is in front of bright continuum sources and therefore is seen in absorption instead. Conclusions: (1) The dense gas fraction in the W51 A and B clouds shows that W51 A will continue to form stars vigorously, while star formation has mostly ended in W51 B. The lack of dense, star-forming gas around W51 C indicates that collect-and-collapse is not acting or is inefficient in W51. (2) Ongoing high-mass star formation is correlated with n ≳ 1 × 105cm-3 gas. Gas with n> 104cm-3 is weakly correlated with low and moderate mass star formation, but does not strongly correlate with high-mass star formation. (3) The nondetection of H2CO emission implies that the emission detected in other galaxies, e.g. Arp 220, comes from high-density gas that is not directly affiliated with already-formed massive stars. Either the non-star-forming ISM of these galaxies is very dense, implying the star formation density threshold is higher, or H ii regions have their emission suppressed. The data set has been made public at http://dx.doi.org/10.7910/DVN/26818Appendices are available in electronic form at http://www.aanda.org

Widespread deuteration across the IRDC G035.39-00.33

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Barnes, A. T.; Kong, S.; Tan, J. C.; Henshaw, J. D.; Caselli, P.; Jiménez-Serra, I.; Fontani, F.

2016-05-01

Infrared Dark Clouds (IRDCs) are cold, dense regions that are usually found within Giant Molecular Clouds. Ongoing star formation within IRDCs is typically still deeply embedded within the surrounding molecular gas. Characterizing the properties of relatively quiescent IRDCs may therefore help us to understand the earliest phases of the star formation process. Studies of local molecular clouds have revealed that deuterated species are enhanced in the earliest phases of star formation. In this paper, we test this towards IRDC G035.39-00.33. We present an 80 arcsec by 140 arcsec map of the J = 2 → 1 transition of N2D+, obtained with the Institut de Radioastronomie Millimétrique 30 m telescope telescope. We find that N2D+ is widespread throughout G035.39-00.33. Complementary observations of N2H+ (1 - 0) are used to estimate the deuterium fraction, D_frac^N_2H^+ ≡ N(N2D+)/N(N2H+). We report a mean D_frac^N_2H^+ = 0.04 ± 0.01, with a maximum of D_frac^N_2H^+ = 0.09 ± 0.02. The mean deuterium fraction is ˜3 orders of magnitude greater than the interstellar [D]/[H] ratio. High angular resolution observations are required to exclude beam dilution effects of compact deuterated cores. Using chemical modelling, we find that the average observed values of D_frac^N_2H^+are in agreement with an equilibrium deuterium fraction, given the general properties of the cloud. This implies that the IRDC is at least ˜3 Myr old, which is ˜8 times longer than the mean free-fall time of the observed deuterated region.

A Herschel [C ii] Galactic plane survey. II. CO-dark H2 in clouds

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Langer, W. D.; Velusamy, T.; Pineda, J. L.; Willacy, K.; Goldsmith, P. F.

2014-01-01

Context. H i and CO large scale surveys of the Milky Way trace the diffuse atomic clouds and the dense shielded regions of molecular hydrogen clouds, respectively. However, until recently, we have not had spectrally resolved C+ surveys in sufficient lines of sight to characterize the ionized and photon dominated components of the interstellar medium, in particular, the H2 gas without CO, referred to as CO-dark H2, in a large sample of interstellar clouds. Aims: We use a sparse Galactic plane survey of the 1.9 THz (158 μm) [C ii] spectral line from the Herschel open time key programme, Galactic Observations of Terahertz C+ (GOT C+), to characterize the H2 gas without CO in a statistically significant sample of interstellar clouds. Methods: We identify individual clouds in the inner Galaxy by fitting the [C ii] and CO isotopologue spectra along each line of sight. We then combine these spectra with those of H i and use them along with excitation models and cloud models of C+ to determine the column densities and fractional mass of CO-dark H2 clouds. Results: We identify1804 narrow velocity [C ii] components corresponding to interstellar clouds in different categories and evolutionary states. About 840 are diffuse molecular clouds with no CO, ~510 are transition clouds containing [C ii] and 12CO, but no 13CO, and the remainder are dense molecular clouds containing 13CO emission. The CO-dark H2 clouds are concentrated between Galactic radii of ~3.5 to 7.5 kpc and the column density of the CO-dark H2 layer varies significantly from cloud to cloud with a global average of 9 × 1020 cm-2. These clouds contain a significant fraction by mass of CO-dark H2, that varies from ~75% for diffuse molecular clouds to ~20% for dense molecular clouds. Conclusions: We find a significant fraction of the warm molecular ISM gas is invisible in H i and CO, but is detected in [C ii]. The fraction of CO-dark H2 is greatest in the diffuse clouds and decreases with increasing total column density, and is lowest in the massive clouds. The column densities and mass fraction of CO-dark H2 are less than predicted by models of diffuse molecular clouds using solar metallicity, which is not surprising as most of our detections are in Galactic regions where the metallicity is larger and shielding more effective. There is an overall trend towards a higher fraction of CO-dark H2 in clouds with increasing Galactic radius, consistent with lower metallicity there. Herschel is an ESA space observatory with science instruments provided by European-led Principal Investigator consortia and with important participation from NASA.

Seeing the Forest Through the Trees: The Distribution and Properties of Dense Molecular Gas in the Milky Way Galaxy

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ellsworth-Bowers, Timothy P.

The Milky Way Galaxy serves as a vast laboratory for studying the dynamics and evolution of the dense interstellar medium and the processes of and surrounding massive star formation. From our vantage point within the Galactic plane, however, it has been extremely difficult to construct a coherent picture of Galactic structure; we cannot see the forest for the trees. The principal difficulties in studying the structure of the Galactic disk have been obscuration by the ubiquitous dust and molecular gas and confusion between objects along a line of sight. Recent technological advances have led to large-scale blind surveys of the Galactic plane at (sub-)millimeter wavelengths, where Galactic dust is generally optically thin, and have opened a new avenue for studying the forest. The Bolocam Galactic Plane Survey (BGPS) observed over 190 deg 2 of the Galactic plane in dust continuum emission near lambda = 1.1 mm, producing a catalog of over 8,000 dense molecular cloud structures across a wide swath of the Galactic disk. Deriving the spatial distribution and physical properties of these objects requires knowledge of distance, a component lacking in the data themselves. This thesis presents a generalized Bayesian probabilistic distance estimation method for dense molecular cloud structures, and demonstrates it with the BGPS data set. Distance probability density functions (DPDFs) are computed from kinematic distance likelihoods (which may be double- peaked for objects in the inner Galaxy) and an expandable suite of prior information to produce a comprehensive tally of our knowledge (and ignorance) of the distances to dense molecular cloud structures. As part of the DPDF formalism, this thesis derives several prior DPDFs for resolving the kinematic distance ambiguity in the inner Galaxy. From the collection of posterior DPDFs, a set of objects with well-constrained distance estimates is produced for deriving Galactic structure and the physical properties of dense molecular cloud structures. This distance catalog of 1,802 objects across the Galactic plane represents the first large-scale analysis of clump-scale objects in a variety of Galactic environments. The Galactocentric positions of these objects begin to trace out the spiral structure of the Milky Way, and suggest that dense molecular gas settles nearer the Galactic midplane than tracers of less-dense gas such as CO. Physical properties computed from the DPDFs reveal that BGPS objects trace a continuum of scales within giant molecular clouds, and extend the scaling relationships known as Larson's Laws to lower-mass substructures. The results presented here represent the first step on the road to seeing the molecular content of the Milky Way as a forest rather than individual nearby trees.

GIANT MOLECULAR CLOUD FORMATION IN DISK GALAXIES: CHARACTERIZING SIMULATED VERSUS OBSERVED CLOUD CATALOGS

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Benincasa, Samantha M.; Pudritz, Ralph E.; Wadsley, James

We present the results of a study of simulated giant molecular clouds (GMCs) formed in a Milky Way-type galactic disk with a flat rotation curve. This simulation, which does not include star formation or feedback, produces clouds with masses ranging between 10{sup 4} M{sub ☉} and 10{sup 7} M{sub ☉}. We compare our simulated cloud population to two observational surveys: the Boston University-Five College Radio Astronomy Observatory Galactic Ring Survey and the BIMA All-Disk Survey of M33. An analysis of the global cloud properties as well as a comparison of Larson's scaling relations is carried out. We find that simulatedmore » cloud properties agree well with the observed cloud properties, with the closest agreement occurring between the clouds at comparable resolution in M33. Our clouds are highly filamentary—a property that derives both from their formation due to gravitational instability in the sheared galactic environment, as well as to cloud-cloud gravitational encounters. We also find that the rate at which potentially star-forming gas accumulates within dense regions—wherein n{sub thresh} ≥ 10{sup 4} cm{sup –3}—is 3% per 10 Myr, in clouds of roughly 10{sup 6} M{sub ☉}. This suggests that star formation rates in observed clouds are related to the rates at which gas can be accumulated into dense subregions within GMCs via filamentary flows. The most internally well-resolved clouds are chosen for listing in a catalog of simulated GMCs—the first of its kind. The cataloged clouds are available as an extracted data set from the global simulation.« less

Galactic cold cores. IV. Cold submillimetre sources: catalogue and statistical analysis

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Montillaud, J.; Juvela, M.; Rivera-Ingraham, A.; Malinen, J.; Pelkonen, V.-M.; Ristorcelli, I.; Montier, L.; Marshall, D. J.; Marton, G.; Pagani, L.; Toth, L. V.; Zahorecz, S.; Ysard, N.; McGehee, P.; Paladini, R.; Falgarone, E.; Bernard, J.-P.; Motte, F.; Zavagno, A.; Doi, Y.

2015-12-01

Context. For the project Galactic cold cores, Herschel photometric observations were carried out as a follow-up of cold regions of interstellar clouds previously identified with the Planck satellite. The aim of the project is to derive the physical properties of the population of cold sources and to study its connection to ongoing and future star formation. Aims: We build a catalogue of cold sources within the clouds in 116 fields observed with the Herschel PACS and SPIRE instruments. We wish to determine the general physical characteristics of the cold sources and to examine the correlations with their host cloud properties. Methods: From Herschel data, we computed colour temperature and column density maps of the fields. We estimated the distance to the target clouds and provide both uncertainties and reliability flags for the distances. The getsources multiwavelength source extraction algorithm was employed to build a catalogue of several thousand cold sources. Mid-infrared data were used, along with colour and position criteria, to separate starless and protostellar sources. We also propose another classification method based on submillimetre temperature profiles. We analysed the statistical distributions of the physical properties of the source samples. Results: We provide a catalogue of ~4000 cold sources within or near star forming clouds, most of which are located either in nearby molecular complexes (≲1 kpc) or in star forming regions of the nearby galactic arms (~2 kpc). About 70% of the sources have a size compatible with an individual core, and 35% of those sources are likely to be gravitationally bound. Significant statistical differences in physical properties are found between starless and protostellar sources, in column density versus dust temperature, mass versus size, and mass versus dust temperature diagrams. The core mass functions are very similar to those previously reported for other regions. On statistical grounds we find that gravitationally bound sources have higher background column densities (median Nbg(H2) ~ 5 × 1021 cm-2) than unbound sources (median Nbg(H2) ~ 3 × 1021 cm-2). These values of Nbg(H2) are higher for higher dust temperatures of the external layers of the parent cloud. However, only in a few cases do we find clear Nbg(H2) thresholds for the presence of cores. The dust temperatures of cloud external layers show clear variations with galactic location, as may the source temperatures. Conclusions: Our data support a more complex view of star formation than in the simple idea of a column density threshold. They show a clear influence of the surrounding UV-visible radiation on how cores distribute in their host clouds with possible variations on the Galactic scale. Planck (http://www.esa.int/Planck) is a project of the European Space Agency - ESA - with instruments provided by two scientific consortia funded by ESA member states (in particular the lead countries: France and Italy) with contributions from NASA (USA), and telescope reflectors provided in a collaboration between ESA and a scientific consortium led and funded by Denmark.Herschel is an ESA space observatory with science instruments provided by European-led Principal Investigator consortia and with important participation from NASA.Full Table B.1 is only available at the CDS via anonymous ftp to http://cdsarc.u-strasbg.fr (ftp://130.79.128.5) or via http://cdsarc.u-strasbg.fr/viz-bin/qcat?J/A+A/584/A92

The Dominant Snow-forming Process in Warm and Cold Mixed-phase Orographic Clouds: Effects of Cloud Condensation Nuclei and Ice Nuclei

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Fan, J.; Rosenfeld, D.; Leung, L. R.; DeMott, P. J.

2014-12-01

Mineral dust aerosols often observed over California in winter and spring from long-range transport can be efficient ice nuclei (IN) and enhance snow precipitation in mixed-phase orographic clouds. On the other hand, local pollution particles can serve as good CCN and suppress warm rain, but their impacts on cold rain processes are uncertain. The main snow-forming mechanism in warm and cold mixed-phase orographic clouds (refer to as WMOC and CMOC, respectively) could be very different, leading to different precipitation response to CCN and IN. We have conducted 1-km resolution model simulations using the Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) model coupled with a spectral-bin cloud microphysical model for WMOC and CMOC cases from CalWater2011. We investigated the response of cloud microphysical processes and precipitation to CCN and IN with extremely low to extremely high concentrations using ice nucleation parameterizations that connect with dust and implemented based on observational evidences. We find that riming is the dominant process for producing snow in WMOC while deposition plays a more important role than riming in CMOC. Increasing IN leads to much more snow precipitation mainly due to an increase of deposition in CMOC and increased rimming in WMOC. Increasing CCN decreases precipitation in WMOC by efficiently suppressing warm rain, although snow is increased. In CMOC where cold rain dominates, increasing CCN significantly increases snow, leading to a net increase in precipitation. The sensitivity of supercooled liquid to CCN and IN has also been analyzed. The mechanism for the increased snow by CCN and caveats due to uncertainties in ice nucleation parameterizations will be discussed.

Blowin in the Stellar Wind

NASA Image and Video Library

2011-06-13

This image of the Elephant Trunk nebula from NASA Wide-field Survey Explorer shows clouds of dust and gas being pushed and eroded by a massive star. The bright trunk of the nebula near the center is an especially dense cloud.

Parameterization of cloud glaciation by atmospheric dust

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Nickovic, Slobodan; Cvetkovic, Bojan; Madonna, Fabio; Pejanovic, Goran; Petkovic, Slavko

2016-04-01

The exponential growth of research interest on ice nucleation (IN) is motivated, inter alias, by needs to improve generally unsatisfactory representation of cold cloud formation in atmospheric models, and therefore to increase the accuracy of weather and climate predictions, including better forecasting of precipitation. Research shows that mineral dust significantly contributes to cloud ice nucleation. Samples of residual particles in cloud ice crystals collected by aircraft measurements performed in the upper tropopause of regions distant from desert sources indicate that dust particles dominate over other known ice nuclei such as soot and biological particles. In the nucleation process, dust chemical aging had minor effects. The observational evidence on IN processes has substantially improved over the last decade and clearly shows that there is a significant correlation between IN concentrations and the concentrations of coarser aerosol at a given temperature and moisture. Most recently, due to recognition of the dominant role of dust as ice nuclei, parameterizations for immersion and deposition icing specifically due to dust have been developed. Based on these achievements, we have developed a real-time forecasting coupled atmosphere-dust modelling system capable to operationally predict occurrence of cold clouds generated by dust. We have been thoroughly validated model simulations against available remote sensing observations. We have used the CNR-IMAA Potenza lidar and cloud radar observations to explore the model capability to represent vertical features of the cloud and aerosol vertical profiles. We also utilized the MSG-SEVIRI and MODIS satellite data to examine the accuracy of the simulated horizontal distribution of cold clouds. Based on the obtained encouraging verification scores, operational experimental prediction of ice clouds nucleated by dust has been introduced in the Serbian Hydrometeorological Service as a public available product.

Interstellar clouds - From a dynamical perspective on their chemistry

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Prasad, S. S.

1985-01-01

The possibility is examined that in the course of its dynamical evolution, a single mass of interstellar gas would exhibit properties of diffuse clouds, dense clouds and finally also of clouds perturbed by shocks or intense UV or X-ray radiation generated by a star of its own creation. This concept provides a common thread through the bewildering diversity of physical and chemical compositional properties shown by interstellar clouds. From this perspective, instead of being static objects, interstellar clouds are possibly incessantly evolving from initially diffuse to later dense state and then to star formation which ultimately restructures or disperses the remaining cloud material to begin the whole evolutionary process once again. Based on a simplified study of interstellar chemistry from a dynamical perspective, the ideas are presented as an heuristic: to encourage thought on the future direction of molecular astrophysics and the need to consider the chemical behavior of interstellar clouds in conjunction with, rather than in isolation from, their dynamical behavior. A physical basis must be sought for the semiempirical temperature formula which has been given a critical role in the collapse of diffuse clouds. Self-shielding effects in the chemistry of CO were neglected and this drawback should be removed; the ability of the model to explain the fractional abundances of more complex molecules, such as cyanopolyynes, should be examined.

Convectively-driven cold layer and its influences on moisture in the UTLS

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kim, J.; Randel, W. J.; Birner, T.

2016-12-01

Characteristics of the cold anomaly in the tropical tropopause layer (TTL) that is commonly observed with deep convection are examined using CloudSat and Constellation Observing System for Meteorology, Ionosphere and Climate (COSMIC) GPS radio occultation measurements. Deep convection is sampled based on the cloud top height (>17 km) from CloudSat 2B-CLDCLASS, and then temperature profiles from COSMIC are composited around the deep convection. The composite temperature shows anomalously warm troposphere (up to 14 km) and a significantly cold layer near the tropopause (at 16-18 km) in the regions of deep convection. Generally in the tropics, the cold layer has very large horizontal scale (2,000 - 6,000 km) compared to that of mesoscale convective cluster, and it lasts one or two weeks with minimum temperature anomaly of - 2K. The cold layer shows slight but clear eastward-tilted vertical structure in the deep tropics indicating a large-scale Kelvin wave response. Further analyses on circulation patterns suggest that the anomaly can be explained as a part of Gill-type response in the TTL to deep convective heating in the troposphere. Response of moisture to the cold layer is also examined in the upper troposphere and lower stratosphere using microwave limb sounder (MLS) measurements. The water vapor anomalies show coherent structures with the temperature and circulation anomalies. A clear dry anomaly is found in the cold layer and its outflow region, implying a large-scale dehydration process due to the convectively driven cold layer in the upper TTL.

Interstellar Ice and Dust: The Feedstock of the Solar System

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Allamandola, L. J.; Morrison, David (Technical Monitor)

1994-01-01

Studying the chemical and isotopic composition of interstellar ice and dust provides insight into the composition and chemical history of the solid bodies in the solar nebula and the nature of the material subsequently brought into the inner part of the solar system by comets and meteorites. It is now possible to probe the composition of these microscopic interstellar particles (some hundreds of light years away), thanks to substantial progress in two areas: astronomical spectroscopic techniques in the middle-infrared, the spectral region most diagnostic of composition; and laboratory simulations which realistically reproduce the critical conditions in various interstellar environments. High quality infrared spectra of many different astronomical sources, some associated with dark molecular clouds, and others in the diffuse interstellar medium (DISM) are now available. What comparisons of these spectra with laboratory spectra tell us about the complex organic components of these materials is the subject of this talk. Most interstellar material is concentrated in large molecular clouds where simple molecules are formed by gas phase and dust grain surface reactions. Gaseous species (except H2) striking the cold (10K) dust will stick, forming an icy grain mantle. This accretion, coupled with energetic particle bombardment and UV photolysis, will produce a complex chemical mixture containing volatile, non-volatile, and isotopically fractionated species. One can compare spectra of the diffuse and dense interstellar medium with the spectra of analogs produced in the laboratory under conditions which mimic those in these different environments. In this way one can determine the composition and abundances of the major constituents present and place general constraints on the types and relative abundances of organics coating the grains. Ices in dense clouds contain H2O, CH3OH, CO, perhaps some NH3 and H2CO, as well as nitriles and ketones or esters. There is some evidence that the later, more complex species, are also present on the grains in the DISM. The evidence for these materials, in addition to carbon rich materials such as amorphous carbon, microdiamonds, and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons will be reviewed and the possible connection with meteoritic organics will be discussed.

Formation of the southern Bay of Bengal cold pool

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Das, Umasankar; Vinayachandran, P. N.; Behara, Ambica

2016-09-01

A pool of relatively cooler water, called here as the southern Bay of Bengal cold pool, exists around Sri Lanka and southern tip of India during the summer monsoon. This cold pool is enveloped by the larger Indian Ocean warm pool and is believed to affect the intraseasonal variations of summer monsoon rainfall. In this study, we have investigated the mechanisms responsible for the formation of the cold pool using a combination of both satellite data sets and a general circulation model of the Indian Ocean. Sea surface temperature (SST) within the cold pool, after the steady increase during the February-April period, decreases first during a pre-monsoon spell in April and then with the monsoon onset during May. The onset cooling is stronger (~1.8°C) than the pre-monsoon cooling (~0.8°C) and culminates in the formation of the cold pool. Analysis of the model temperature equation shows that SST decrease during both events is primarily due to a decrease in incoming solar radiation and an increase in latent heat loss. These changes in the net heat flux are brought about by the arrival of cloud bands above the cold pool during both periods. During the pre-monsoon period, a cloud band originates in the western equatorial Indian Ocean and subsequently arrives above the cold pool. Similarly, during the monsoon onset, a band of clouds originating in the eastern equatorial Indian Ocean comes over the cold pool region. A lead-lag correlation calculation between daily SST and rainfall anomalies suggest that cooling in SST occurs in response to rainfall events with a lag of 5 days. These sequence of events occur every year with certain amount of interannual variability.

Effect of Radiative Cooling on Cloud-SST Relationship within the Tropical Pacific Region

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Sui, Chung-Hsiung; Ho, Chang-Hoi; Chou, Ming-Dah; Lau, Ka-Ming; Li, Xiao-Fan; Einaudi, Franco (Technical Monitor)

2000-01-01

A recent analysis found a negative correlation between the area-mean cloud amount and the corresponding mean Sea Surface Temperature (SST) within the cloudy areas. The SST-cloud relation becomes more evident when the SST contrast between warm pool and surrounding cold pool (DSST) in the tropical Pacific is stronger than normal. The above feature is related to the finding that the strength of subsidence over the cold pool is limited by radiative cooling because of its small variability. As a result, the area of radiatively-driven subsidence must expand in response to enhanced low-boundary forcing due to SST warming or enhanced basin-scale DSST. This leads to more cloud free regions and less cloudy regions. The increased ratio of cloud-free areas to cloudy areas leads to more high SST areas (>29.50C) due to enhanced solar radiation.

Molecular Composition and Chemistry of Isolated Dense Cores

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Cook, Amanda; Boogert, A.

2009-01-01

The composition of molecular clouds and the envelopes and disks surrounding low mass protostars within them is still poorly known. There is little doubt that a large fraction of the molecules is frozen on grains, but the abundance of several crucial species (e.g. ammonia, methanol, ions) in the ices is still uncertain. In addition, prominent spectral features discovered decades ago are still not securely identified (e.g. the 6.85-micron absorption band). Gas phase and grain surface chemistry play pivotal roles in molecule formation, but numerous other processes could have significant impacts as well: shocks, thermal heating, irradiation of ices by ultraviolet photons and cosmic rays. Complex species could be formed this way, profoundly influencing cloud, disk and planetary/cometary chemistry. We have obtained Spitzer/IRS spectra of an unprecedented sample of sight-lines tracing 25 dense isolated cores. These cores physically differ from the large, cluster-forming molecular clouds (e.g. Ophiuchus, Perseus) that are commonly studied: they are less turbulent, colder, less dense, and likely longer lived. These IRS spectra of isolated cores thus provide unique information on ice formation and destruction mechanisms. Toward the same cores, we observed 33 highly extincted background stars as well, tracing the quiescent cloud medium against which the ices around protostars can be contrasted.

Massive star-forming regions across the galaxy

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Rygl, Kazi Lucie Jessica

2010-04-01

Star-forming regions trace the spiral structure of the Galaxy. They are regions of increased column density and therefore traced well by the extinction in the mid-infrared based on the Spitzer/GLIMPSE 3.6-4.5 micron color excess maps. A sample of 25 high extinction clouds (HECs) was studied in the 1.2 mm dust continuum emission, and followed up by observations of ammonia plus several other molecules using the Effelsberg 100m, IRAM 30m and APEX telescopes. With these data we want to investigate the most early stages of massive star formation, which are currently still largely unknown. Three cloud classes were defined from their morphology in the 1.2 mm continuum maps: the early diffuse HECs, with a low contrast between the clump and cloud emission; the peaked HECs, with an increased contrast; the late multiply peaked HECs, with more than one clump and a high contrast between the clump and the cloud emission. The clouds are cold (T 16 K) and massive (M 800 M_sun) and contain dense clumps (n 10^5 cm^{-3}) of 0.3 pc in size. These clumps were investigated for evidence of gravitational collapse or expansion, for high velocity outflows, and for the presence of young stellar objects. Based on these results we interpret the three cloud classes as an evolutionary sequence of star-forming clouds. Accurate distances are a crucial parameter for establishing the mass, size, and luminosity of an object. Also, for understanding the spiral structure of the Galaxy trustworthy distances are necessary. The most accurate method to measure these is the trigonometric parallax. Using the European Very Large Baseline Interferometry Network of radio antennas we measured, for the first time, parallaxes of 6.7 GHz methanol masers. This transition belongs to the strongest maser species in the Galaxy, it is stable and observed toward numerous massive star-forming regions. We measured distances and proper motions toward L 1287, L 1206, NGC 281-W, ON 1 and S 255, and obtained their 3-dimensional space velocities. Similar to previous studies, these star-forming regions rotate slower than Galactic rotation.

A new interstellar molecule - Tricarbon monoxide

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Matthews, H. E.; Irvine, W. M.; Friberg, P.; Brown, R. D.; Godfrey, P. D.

1984-01-01

The C3O molecule, whose pure rotational spectrum has only recently been studied in the laboratory, has been detected in the cold, dark interstellar Taurus Molecular Cloud 1. Since C3O is the first interstelar carbon chain molecule to contain oxygen, its existence places an important new constraint on chemical schemes for cold interstellar clouds. The abundance of C3O can be understood in terms of purely gas-phase ion-molecule chemistry.

Experimental Demonstration of a Synthetic Lorentz Force by Using Radiation Pressure.

PubMed

Šantić, N; Dubček, T; Aumiler, D; Buljan, H; Ban, T

2015-09-02

Synthetic magnetism in cold atomic gases opened the doors to many exciting novel physical systems and phenomena. Ubiquitous are the methods used for the creation of synthetic magnetic fields. They include rapidly rotating Bose-Einstein condensates employing the analogy between the Coriolis and the Lorentz force, and laser-atom interactions employing the analogy between the Berry phase and the Aharonov-Bohm phase. Interestingly, radiation pressure - being one of the most common forces induced by light - has not yet been used for synthetic magnetism. We experimentally demonstrate a synthetic Lorentz force, based on the radiation pressure and the Doppler effect, by observing the centre-of-mass motion of a cold atomic cloud. The force is perpendicular to the velocity of the cold atomic cloud, and zero for the cloud at rest. Our novel concept is straightforward to implement in a large volume, for a broad range of velocities, and can be extended to different geometries.

Comparison of roadway roughness derived from LIDAR and SFM 3D point clouds.

DOT National Transportation Integrated Search

2015-10-01

This report describes a short-term study undertaken to investigate the potential for using dense three-dimensional (3D) point : clouds generated from light detection and ranging (LIDAR) and photogrammetry to assess roadway roughness. Spatially : cont...

Molecular Line Studies of Ballistic Stellar Interlopers Burrowing through Dense Interstellar Clouds

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Rosen, Anna; Sahai, R.; Claussen, M.; Morris, M.

2010-01-01

When an intermediate-mass star speeds through a dense interstellar cloud at a high velocity, it can produce a cometary or bow shock structure due to the cloud being impacted by the intense stellar wind. This class of objects, recently discovered in an HST imaging survey, has been dubbed "ballistic stellar interlopers" (Sahai et al. 2009). Using the ARO's 12m and SMT 10m millimeter-wave dishes, we have obtained molecular line emission data towards 10 stellar interloper sources, in order to identify and characterize the dense clouds with which the interlopers are interacting. We have made small "on-the-fly" maps in the 12CO (J=2-1) and 13CO (J=2-1) lines for each cloud, and obtained spectra of high-density tracers such as N2H+ (J=3-2), HCO+ (J=3-2), CN(N=2-1), and SO(J=5-4), which probe a range of physical conditions in the interstellar clouds being impacted by the interlopers. The data have been reduced and analyzed, and preliminary estimates of the cloud temperatures (9-22 K) and 13CO optical depths (0.18-0.37) have been made. The maps, which show the emission as a function of radial velocity and spatial offset from the location of the interlopers, have helped us distinguish between the clouds interacting with the interlopers, and those which are unrelated but happen to lie along the line of sight. These data will now enable us to carry out high-resolution mm-wave interferometric observations of the interlopers in the future. This research was performed at JPL under the Minority Education Initiatives program. RS and MM were funded by a Long Term Space Astrophysics award from NASA for this work. The National Radio Astronomy Observatory is a facility of the National Science Foundation operated under cooperative agreement by Associated Universities, Inc. Special thanks goes to John Bieging and Bill Peters of the Arizona Radio Observatory.

Magnetic Fields and Multiple Protostar Formation

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Boss, A. P.

2001-12-01

Recent observations of star-forming regions suggest that binary and multiple young stars are the rule rather than the exception, and implicate fragmentation as the likely mechanism for their formation. Most numerical hydrodynamical calculations of fragmentation have neglected the possibly deleterious effects of magnetic fields, in spite of ample evidence for the importance of magnetic support of pre-collapse clouds. We present here the first numerical hydrodynamical survey of the full effects of magnetic fields on the collapse and fragmentation of dense cloud cores. The models are calculated with a three dimensional, finite differences code which solves the equations of hydrodynamics, gravitation, and radiative transfer in the Eddington and diffusion approximations. Magnetic field effects are included through two simple approximations: magnetic pressure is added to the gas pressure, and magnetic tension is approximated by gravity dilution once collapse is well underway. Ambipolar diffusion of the magnetic field leading to cloud collapse is treated approximately as well. Models are calculated for a variety of initial cloud density profiles, shapes, and rotation rates. We find that in spite of the inclusion of magnetic field effects, dense cloud cores are capable of fragmenting into binary and multiple protostar systems. Initially prolate clouds tend to fragment into binary protostars, while initially oblate clouds tend to fragment into multiple protostar systems containing a small number (of order four) of fragments. The latter are likely to be subject to rapid orbital evolution, with close encounters possibly leading to the ejection of fragments. Contrary to expectation, magnetic tension effects appear to enhance fragmentation, allowing lower mass fragments to form than would otherwise be possible, because magnetic tension helps to prevent a central density singularity from forming and producing a dominant single object. Magnetically-supported dense cloud cores thus seem to be capable of collapsing and fragmenting into sufficient numbers of binary and multiple protostar systems to be compatible with observations of the relative rarity of single protostars. This work was partially supported by NSF grants AST-9983530 and MRI-9976645.

Meteorological Drivers of Cold Temperatures in the Western Pacific TTL

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Pfister, Leonhard; Ueyama, Rei; Jensen, Eric J.

2017-01-01

During the recent October 2016 aircraft sampling mission of the Tropical Tropopause Layer (POSIDON -- Pacific Oxidants, Sulfur, Ice, Dehydration, and cONvection), Western Pacific October TTL temperatures were anomalously cold due to a combination of La Nina conditions and a very stationary convective pattern. POSIDON also had more October Tropical Cyclones than typical, and tropical cyclones have substantial negative TTL temperatures associated with them. This paper investigates how meteorology in the troposphere drives TTL temperatures, and how these temperatures, coupled with the circulation, produce TTL clouds. We will also compare October TTL cloud distributions in different years, examining the relationship of clouds to October temperature anomalies.

Spitzer Telescope Sends Rose for Valentine Day

NASA Image and Video Library

2004-02-12

A cluster of newborn stars herald their birth in this interstellar Valentine Day commemorative picture obtained with NASA Spitzer Space Telescope. These bright young stars are found in a rosebud-shaped and rose-colored nebulosity known as NGC 7129. The star cluster and its associated nebula are located at a distance of 3300 light-years in the constellation Cepheus. A recent census of the cluster reveals the presence of 130 young stars. The stars formed from a massive cloud of gas and dust that contains enough raw materials to create a thousand Sun-like stars. In a process that astronomers still poorly understand, fragments of this molecular cloud became so cold and dense that they collapsed into stars. Most stars in our Milky Way galaxy are thought to form in such clusters. The Spitzer Space Telescope image was obtained with an infrared array camera that is sensitive to invisible infrared light at wavelengths that are about ten times longer than visible light. In this four-color composite, emission at 3.6 microns is depicted in blue, 4.5 microns in green, 5.8 microns in orange, and 8.0 microns in red. The image covers a region that is about one quarter the size of the full moon. As in any nursery, mayhem reigns. Within the astronomically brief period of a million years, the stars have managed to blow a large, irregular bubble in the molecular cloud that once enveloped them like a cocoon. The rosy pink hue is produced by glowing dust grains on the surface of the bubble being heated by the intense light from the embedded young stars. Upon absorbing ultraviolet and visible-light photons produced by the stars, the surrounding dust grains are heated and re-emit the energy at the longer infrared wavelengths observed by Spitzer. The reddish colors trace the distribution of molecular material thought to be rich in hydrocarbons. The cold molecular cloud outside the bubble is mostly invisible in these images. However, three very young stars near the center of the image are sending jets of supersonic gas into the cloud. The impact of these jets heats molecules of carbon monoxide in the cloud, producing the intricate green nebulosity that forms the stem of the rosebud. Not all stars are formed in clusters. Away from the main nebula and its young cluster are two smaller nebulae, to the left and bottom of the central 'rosebud,'each containing a stellar nursery with only a few young stars. Astronomers believe that our own Sun may have formed billions of years ago in a cluster similar to NGC 7129. Once the radiation from new cluster stars destroys the surrounding placental material, the stars begin to slowly drift apart. http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA05266

Simulation of whistler waves excited in the presence of a cold plasma cloud - Implications for the CRRES mission. [Combined Release and Radiation Effects Satellite

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Pritchett, P. L.; Schriver, D.; Ashour-Abdalla, M.

1991-01-01

A one-dimensional electromagnetic particle simulation model is constructed to study the excitation of whistler waves in the presence of a cold plasma cloud for conditions representative of those after the release of lithium in the inner plasma sheet during the Combined Release and Radiation Effect Satellite mission. The results indicate that a standing-wave pattern with discrete wave frequencies is formed within the cloud. The magnetic wave amplitude inside the cloud, which is limited by quasi-linear diffusion, is of the order of several nanoteslas. Assuming a magnetospheric loss cone of 5 deg, the observed pitch angle diffusion produced by the whistler waves is sufficient to put the electrons on strong diffusion.

Recent observations of organic molecules in nearby cold, dark interstellar clouds

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Suzuki, H.; Ohishi, M.; Morimoto, M.; Kaifu, N.; Friberg, P.

1985-01-01

Recent investigations of the organic chemistry of relatively nearby cold, dark interstellar clouds are reported. Specifically, the presence of interstellar tricarbon monoxide (C3O) in Taurus Molecular Cloud 1 (TMC-1) is confirmed. The first detection in such regions of acetaldehyde (CH3CHO), the most complex oxygen-containing organic molecule yet found in dark clouds is reported, as well as the first astronomical detection of several molecular rotational transitions, including the J = 18-17 and 14-13 transitions of cyanodiacetylene (HC5N), the 1(01)-0(00) transition of acetaldehyde, and the J = 5-4 transition of C3O. A significant upper limit is set on the abundance of cyanocarbene (HCCN) as a result of the first reported interstellar search for this molecule.

Characteristics of fog and fogwater fluxes in a Puerto Rican elfin cloud forest.

Treesearch

Werner Eugster; Reto Burkard; Friso Holwerda; Frederick N. Scatena; L.A.(Sampurno) Bruijnzeel

2006-01-01

The Luquillo Mountains of northeastern Puerto Rico harbours important fractions of tropical montane cloud forests. Although it is well known that the frequent occurrence of dense fog is a common climatic characteristic of cloud forests around the world, it is poorly understood how fog processes shape and influence these ecosystems. Our study focuses on the physical...

Infrared spectroscopy of dense clouds in the C-H stretch region - Methanol and 'diamonds'

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Allamandola, L. J.; Sandford, S. A.; Tielens, A. G. G. M.; Herbst, T. M.

1992-01-01

The paper presents high spectral resolution studies in the 3100-2600/cm range of the protostars NGC 7538 IRS9, W33A, W3 IRS 5, and S140 IRS 1. Well-resolved absorption bands at about 2825/cm and 2880/cm were found superposed on the LF wing of the strong O-H stretch feature. The 2880/cm band, previously detected toward W33A, is also in the spectrum of NGC 7538 IRS 9. The relative strength of these two bands varies, showing that they are associated with two different carriers. The new band at about 2880/cm falls near the position of C-H stretching vibrations in tertiary carbon atoms. The strength of this feature, in combination with the lack of strong features associated with primary and secondary carbon atoms, suggests that the carrier of the new feature has a diamondlike structure. This new feature is tentatively attributed to interstellar 'diamonds'. The detection of this band in the spectra of all four dense molecular clouds suggests that the carrier is ubiquitous in dense clouds.

Ion-molecule calculation of the abundance ratio of CCD to CCH in dense interstellar clouds

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Herbst, Eric; Adams, Nigel G.; Smith, David; Defrees, D. J.

1987-01-01

Laboratory measurements and calculations have been performed to determine the abundance ratio of the deuterated ethynyl radical (CCD) to the normal radical (CCH) which can be achieved in dense interstellar clouds via isotopic fractionation in the C2H2(+) (HD)=C2HD(+)(H2) system of reactions. According to this limited treatment, the CCD/CCH abundance ratio which can be attained is in the range 0.02-0.03 for the Orion molecular cloud and 0.0l-0.02 for TMC-1. These ranges of numbers are in reasonable agreement with the observed values in Orion and TMC-1. However, the analysis of the CCD/CCH abundance ratio is complicated via the presence of competing fractionation mechanisms, especially in the low-temperature source TMC-1.

Spectral Cloud-Filtering of AIRS Data: Non-Polar Ocean

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Aumann, Hartmut H.; Gregorich, David; Barron, Diana

2004-01-01

The Atmospheric Infrared Sounder (AIRS) is a grating array spectrometer which covers the thermal infrared spectral range between 640 and 1700/cm. In order to retain the maximum radiometric accuracy of the AIRS data, the effects of cloud contamination have to be minimized. We discuss cloud filtering which uses the high spectral resolution of AIRS to identify about 100,000 of 500,000 non-polar ocean spectra per day as relatively "cloud-free". Based on the comparison of surface channels with the NCEP provided global real time sst (rtg.sst), AIRS surface sensitive channels have a cold bias ranging from O.5K during the day to 0.8K during the night. Day and night spatial coherence tests show that the cold bias is due to cloud contamination. During the day the cloud contamination is due to a 2-3% broken cloud cover at the 1-2 km altitude, characteristic of low stratus clouds. The cloud-contamination effects surface sensitive channels only. Cloud contamination can be reduced to 0.2K by combining the spectral filter with a spatial coherence threshold, but the yield drops to 16,000 spectra per day. AIRS was launched in May 2002 on the Earth Observing System (EOS) Aqua satellite. Since September 2002 it has returned 4 million spectra of the globe each day.

Simulation of Magnetic Cloud Erosion and Deformation During Propagation

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Manchester, W.; Kozyra, J. U.; Lepri, S. T.; Lavraud, B.; Jackson, B. V.

2013-12-01

We examine a three-dimensional (3-D) numerical magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) simulation describing a very fast interplanetary coronal mass ejection (ICME) propagating from the solar corona to 1 AU. In conjunction with it's high speed, the ICME evolves in ways that give it a unique appearance at 1AU that does not resemble a typical ICME. First, as the ICME decelerates in the solar wind, filament material at the back of the flux rope pushes its way forward through the flux rope. Second, diverging nonradial flows in front of the filament transport azimuthal flux of the rope to the sides of the ICME. Third, the magnetic flux rope reconnects with the interplanetary magnetic field (IMF). As a consequence of these processes, the flux rope partially unravels and appears to evolve to an entirely open configuration near its nose. At the same time, filament material at the base of the flux rope moves forward and comes in direct contact with the shocked plasma in the CME sheath. We find evidence such remarkable behavior has occurred when we examine a very fast CME that erupted from the Sun on 2005 January 20. In situ observations of this event near 1 AU show very dense cold material impacting the Earth following immediately behind the CME sheath. Charge state analysis shows this dense plasma is filament material, and the analysis of SMEI data provides the trajectory of this dense plasma from the Sun. Consistent with the simulation, we find the azimuthal flux (Bz) to be entirely unbalanced giving the appearance that the flux rope has completely eroded on the anti-sunward side.

ON THE INFERENCE OF THE COSMIC-RAY IONIZATION RATE ζ FROM THE HCO{sup +}-to-DCO{sup +} ABUNDANCE RATIO: THE EFFECT OF NUCLEAR SPIN

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Shingledecker, Christopher N.; Le Gal, Romane; Hincelin, Ugo

2016-10-20

The chemistry of dense interstellar regions was analyzed using a time-dependent gas–grain astrochemical simulation and a new chemical network that incorporates deuterated chemistry, taking into account nuclear spin states for the hydrogen chemistry and its deuterated isotopologues. With this new network, the utility of the [HCO{sup +}]/[DCO{sup +}] abundance ratio as a probe of the cosmic-ray ionization rate has been re-examined, with special attention paid to the effect of the initial value of the ortho-to-para ratio (OPR) of molecular hydrogen. After discussing the use of the probe for cold cores, we compare our results with previous theoretical and observational resultsmore » for a molecular cloud close to the supernova remnant W51C, which is thought to have an enhanced cosmic-ray ionization rate ζ caused by the nearby γ -ray source. In addition, we attempt to use our approach to estimate the cosmic-ray ionization rate for L1174, a dense core with an embedded star. Beyond the previously known sensitivity of [HCO{sup +}]/[DCO{sup +}] to ζ , we demonstrate its additional dependence on the initial OPR and, secondarily, on the age of the source, its temperature, and its density. We conclude that the usefulness of the [HCO{sup +}]/[DCO{sup +}] abundance ratio in constraining the cosmic-ray ionization rate in dense regions increases with the age of the source and the ionization rate as the ratio becomes far less sensitive to the initial value of the OPR.« less

Clumpy filaments of the Chamaeleon I cloud: C18O mapping with the SEST

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Haikala, L. K.; Harju, J.; Mattila, K.; Toriseva, M.

2005-02-01

The Chamaeleon I dark cloud (Cha I) has been mapped in C18O with an angular resolution of 1 arcmin using the SEST telescope. The large scale structures previously observed with lower spatial resolution in the cloud turn into a network of clumpy filaments. The automatic Clumpfind routine developed by \\cite{williams1994} is used to identify individual clumps in a consistent way. Altogether 71 clumps were found and the total mass of these clumps is 230 M⊙. The dense ``cores'' detected with the NANTEN telescope (\\cite{mizuno1999}) and the very cold cores detected in the ISOPHOT serendipity survey (\\cite{toth2000}) form parts of these filaments but decompose into numerous ``clumps''. The filaments are preferentially oriented at right angles to the large-scale magnetic field in the region. We discuss the cloud structure, the physical characteristics of the clumps and the distribution of young stars. The observed clump mass spectrum is compared with the predictions of the turbulent fragmentation model of \\cite{padoan2002}. Agreement is found if fragmentation has been driven by very large-scale hypersonic turbulence, and if by now it has had time to dissipate into modestly supersonic turbulence in the interclump gas. According to numerical simulations, large-scale turbulence should have resulted in filamentary structures as seen in Cha I. The well-oriented magnetic field does not, however, support this picture, but suggests magnetically steered large-scale collapse. The origin of filaments and clumps in Cha I is thus controversial. A possible solution is that the characterization of the driving turbulence fails and that in fact different processes have been effective on small and large scales in this cloud. Based on observations collected at the European Southern Observatory, La Silla, Chile. FITS files are only available in electronic form at http://www.edpsciences.org

Identifying Meteorological Controls on Open and Closed Mesoscale Cellular Convection Associated with Marine Cold Air Outbreaks

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

McCoy, Isabel L.; Wood, Robert; Fletcher, Jennifer K.

2017-11-01

Mesoscale cellular convective (MCC) clouds occur in large-scale patterns over the ocean and have important radiative effects on the climate system. An examination of time-varying meteorological conditions associated with satellite-observed open and closed MCC clouds is conducted to illustrate the influence of large-scale meteorological conditions. Marine cold air outbreaks (MCAO) influence the development of open MCC clouds and the transition from closed to open MCC clouds. MCC neural network classifications on Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) data for 2008 are collocated with Clouds and the Earth's Radiant Energy System (CERES) data and ERA-Interim reanalysis to determine the radiative effects of MCC clouds and their thermodynamic environments. Closed MCC clouds are found to have much higher albedo on average than open MCC clouds for the same cloud fraction. Three meteorological control metrics are tested: sea-air temperature difference (ΔT), estimated inversion strength (EIS), and a MCAO index (M). These predictive metrics illustrate the importance of atmospheric surface forcing and static stability for open and closed MCC cloud formation. Predictive sigmoidal relations are found between M and MCC cloud frequency globally and regionally: negative for closed MCC cloud and positive for open MCC cloud. The open MCC cloud seasonal cycle is well correlated with M, while the seasonality of closed MCC clouds is well correlated with M in the midlatitudes and EIS in the tropics and subtropics. M is found to best distinguish open and closed MCC clouds on average over shorter time scales. The possibility of a MCC cloud feedback is discussed.

Cold episodes in the Peruvian Central Andes: Composites, Types, and their Impacts over South America (1958-2014)

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Sulca, J. C.; Vuille, M. F.; Roundy, P. E.; Trasmonte, G.; Silva, Y.; Takahashi, K.

2015-12-01

The Mantaro basin (MB) is located in the central Peruvian Andes. Occasionally, cold episodes are observed during austral summer (January-March), that strongly damage crops. However, little is known about the causes and impacts of such cold episodes. The main goal of this study is thus to characterize cold episodes in the MB and assess their large-scale circulation and teleconnections over South America (SA) during austral summer. To identify cold events in the MB daily minimum temperature (Tmin) for the period 1958-2014 from Huayao station, located within the MB was used. A cold episode is defined when daily minimum temperature drops below its 10-percentile for at least one day. Additionally, to study the sensitivity between physical mechanisms associated with cold episodes and temperature, cold episodes are classified in three groups: Weak cold episodes (7.5 ≤ Tmin ≤ 10 percentile), strong cold episodes (Tmin ≤ 2.5 percentile), but excluding the 9 coldest events (Tmin ≤ 0 ͦ C), henceforth referred to as extraordinary cold episodes. Several gridded reanalysis were used to characterize the large-scale circulation, cloud cover and rainfall over SA associated with these events. Weak and strong cold episodes in the MB are mainly associated with a weakening of the Bolivian High-Nordeste Low system by tropical-extratropical interactions. Both types of cold episodes are associated with westerly wind anomalies at mid- and upper-tropospheric levels aloft the Peruvian Central Andes, which inhibit the influx of humid air masses from the lowlands to the east and hence limit the development of cloud cover (e.g., positive OLR anomalies over MB). The resulting clear sky conditions cause nighttime temperatures to drop, leading to cold extremes below 10-percentile. Simultaneously, northeastern Brazil (NEB) registers negative OLR anomalies, strong convection and enhanced cloud cover because displacement of the South Atlantic Convergence Zone (SACZ) toward the northeast of its climatologic position. By contrast, extraordinary cold episodes in the MB are associated with cold and dry polar air advection at all tropospheric levels toward the central Peruvian Andes. On interannual timescales, El Niño may limit the occurrence of all types of cold episodes in the MB through enhanced tropical tropospheric background warming.

Shocked Clouds in the Vela Supernova Remnant

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Nichols, Joy S.; Slavin, Jonathan D.

2004-01-01

Unusually strong high-excitation C I has been detected in eleven lines of sight through the Vela supernova remnant by means of UV absorption-line studies of IUE data. Most of these lines of sight lie near the western edge of the X-ray bright region of the supernova remnant in a spatially distinct band approximately 1deg by 4deg oriented approximately north/south. The high-excitation C I (denoted C I*) is interpreted as evidence of a complex of shocked dense clouds inside the supernova remnant, due to the high pressures indicated in this region. To further analyze the properties of this region of C I*, we present new HIRES-processed IRAS data of the entire Vela SNR. A temperature map calculated from the HIRES IRAS data, based on a two-component dust model, reveals the signature of hot dust at several locations in the SNR. The hot dust is anti-correlated spatially with X-ray emission as revealed by ROSAT, as would be expected for a dusty medium interacting with a shock wave. The regions of hot dust are strongly correlated with optical filaments, supporting a scenario of dense clouds interior to the SNR that have been shocked and are now cooling behind the supernova blast wave. With few exceptions, the lines of sight to the strong C I* pass through regions of hot dust and optical filaments. Possible mechanisms for the production of the anomalously large columns of C I and C I* are discussed. Dense clouds on the back western hemisphere of the remnant may explain the relatively low X-ray emission in the western portion of the Vela supernova remnant due to the slower forward shock velocity in regions where the shock has encountered the dense clouds. An alternate explanation for the presence of neutral, excited state, and ionized species along the same line of sight may be a magnetic precusor that heats and compresses the gas ahead of the shock.

A Satellite View of a Back-door Cold Front

NASA Image and Video Library

2014-05-29

A "backdoor cold front" is bringing April temperatures to the U.S. northeast and Mid-Atlantic today, May 29. The backdoor cold front brings relief to the Mid-Atlantic after temperatures in Washington, D.C. hit 92F on Tuesday, May 27 and 88F on Wednesday, May 28 at Reagan National Airport, according to the National Weather Service (NWS). NWS forecasters expect the high temperature for May 29 to only reach 60F in the District of Columbia. NOAA's GOES-East satellite captured a view of the clouds associated with the backdoor cold front that stretch from southern Illinois to North Carolina. The National Weather Service forecast expects the backdoor cold front to bring showers to the Midwest, Northeast, and Mid-Atlantic today, May 29. According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, a backdoor cold front is a cold front moving south or southwest along the Atlantic seaboard and Great Lakes; these are especially common during the spring months. This visible image was taken by NOAA's GOES-East satellite on May 29 at 12:30 UTC (8:30 a.m. EDT). The image was created at NASA/NOAA's GOES Project at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland. In addition to the backdoor cold front clouds, the GOES-East image shows clouds circling around a low pressure area located in eastern Texas. That low pressure area is expected to bring rain from Texas eastward over the southeastern U.S. According to NOAA's National Weather Service, the slow-moving low pressure area in the Deep South "will bring heavy showers and thunderstorms from Louisiana to Alabama through Thursday. This area is already saturated from previous rainfall, so flash flooding will be possible." Image: NASA/NOAA GOES Project Caption: NASA Goddard/Rob Gutro

The Origin and Survival of Cold Gas in Hot Halos

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Oh, Siang Peng

Modern theories of structure formation unequivocally predict that density perturbations seeded in the big bang collapse to produce``halos'' of dark matter filled with hot, virialized gas. The physics of this hot halo gas fundamentally determines the mass-scale of galaxies, and likely plays a critical role in their subsequent evolution. Since this virialized halo gas is typically invisible, however, cosmological simulations have largely overlooked it, understandably focusing on more observable properties of galaxies such as their ISM content and star formation histories. However, as new observational techniques begin to probe the diffuse gas in galaxy halos, they are finding results inconsistent with predictions from cosmological simulations. Though halo gas is fundamental to galaxy formation, it cannot be explained with current models; halo gas thus represents the new frontier in testing and advancing our models of galaxy formation. One particularly surprising development has been the near-ubiquitous finding that galaxy halos are full of tiny, dense clouds of neutral gas. In a recent paper (McCourt et al 2016), we show that these unexpected observations imply that galaxies contain an enormous number of tiny cloudlets, dispersed throughout the halo like the water droplets in a fog. We detail a new hydrodynamical process, which we call ``shattering,'' that explains the tiny characteristic size for these cloudlets. While we can explain many observable properties of this cold gas (such as its broad line-width and tiny volume-filling fraction), we treated the amount of cold gas as a free parameter; this is fundamentally determined by galaxy formation rather than gas dynamics. This proposal extends the work of McCourt et al (2016) by focusing on the origin of the cold gas in galaxy halos. Since cold gas represents the fuel for star formation and feedback in galaxies, this question is crucial for studies of galaxy evolution. We consider two possibilities: 1) that cool CGM gas is expelled from the galaxy disk in large-scale outflows, or 2) that it is produced in-situ by thermal instability. In both cases, we focus on observational tests of our model, and on methods to incorporate our results into future cosmological simulations via a sub-grid model. Additional science results will include understanding the unexplained entrainment of cold gas in galactic winds, as well as understanding the surprisingly strong magnetic fields seen in galaxy halos at low redshift, which likely dominate over thermal pressure in halo gas. To our knowledge, no models currently exist for either of these results. The work outlined in this proposal focuses on recent observations which cannot yet be reproduced in cosmological simulations. As part of our proposed work, we will produce a sub-grid model for unresolved cold clouds in hydrodynamics, and will determine the resolution needed to reproduce these effects in future cosmological simulations. Our work is timely and represents the necessary next step in advancing our theories of the CGM.

Testing the universality of the star-formation efficiency in dense molecular gas

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Shimajiri, Y.; André, Ph.; Braine, J.; Könyves, V.; Schneider, N.; Bontemps, S.; Ladjelate, B.; Roy, A.; Gao, Y.; Chen, H.

2017-08-01

Context. Recent studies with, for example, Spitzer and Herschel have suggested that star formation in dense molecular gas may be governed by essentially the same "law" in Galactic clouds and external galaxies. This conclusion remains controversial, however, in large part because different tracers have been used to probe the mass of dense molecular gas in Galactic and extragalactic studies. Aims: We aimed to calibrate the HCN and HCO+ lines commonly used as dense gas tracers in extragalactic studies and to test the possible universality of the star-formation efficiency in dense gas (≳104 cm-3), SFEdense. Methods: We conducted wide-field mapping of the Aquila, Ophiuchus, and Orion B clouds at 0.04 pc resolution in the J = 1 - 0 transition of HCN, HCO+, and their isotopomers. For each cloud, we derived a reference estimate of the dense gas mass MHerschelAV > 8, as well as the strength of the local far-ultraviolet (FUV) radiation field, using Herschel Gould Belt survey data products, and estimated the star-formation rate from direct counting of the number of Spitzer young stellar objects. Results: The H13CO+(1-0) and H13CN(1-0) lines were observed to be good tracers of the dense star-forming filaments detected with Herschel. Comparing the luminosities LHCN and LHCO+ measured in the HCN and HCO+ lines with the reference masses MHerschelAV > 8, the empirical conversion factors αHerschel - HCN (=MHerschelAV > 8/LHCN) and αHerschel - HCO+ (=MHerschelAV > 8/LHCO+) were found to be significantly anti-correlated with the local FUV strength. In agreement with a recent independent study of Orion B by Pety et al., the HCN and HCO+ lines were found to trace gas down to AV ≳ 2. As a result, published extragalactic HCN studies must be tracing all of the moderate density gas down to nH2 ≲ 103 cm-3. Estimating the contribution of this moderate density gas from the typical column density probability distribution functions in nearby clouds, we obtained the following G0-dependent HCN conversion factor for external galaxies: αHerschel - HCNfit' = 64 × G0-0.34. Re-estimating the dense gas masses in external galaxies with αHerschel - HCNfit'(G0), we found that SFEdense is remarkably constant, with a scatter of less than 1.5 orders of magnitude around 4.5 × 10-8 yr-1, over eight orders of magnitude in dense gas mass. Conclusions: Our results confirm that SFEdense of galaxies is quasi-universal on a wide range of scales from 1-10 pc to > 10 kpc. Based on the tight link between star formation and filamentary structure found in Herschel studies of nearby clouds, we argue that SFEdense is primarily set by the "microphysics" of core and star formation along filaments. Partly based on observations carried out with the IRAM 30 m Telescope under project numbers 150-14 and 032-15. IRAM is supported by INSU/CNRS (France), MPG (Germany) and IGN (Spain).

The impact of low-level cloud over the eastern subtropical Pacific on the ``Double ITCZ'' in LASG FGCM-0

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Dai, Fushan; Yu, Rucong; Zhang, Xuehong; Yu, Yongqiang; Li, Jianglong

2003-05-01

Like many other coupled models, the Flexible coupled General Circulation Model (FGCM-0) suffers from the spurious “Double ITCZ”. In order to understand the “Double ITCZ” in FGCM-0, this study first examines the low-level cloud cover and the bulk stability of the low troposphere over the eastern subtropical Pacific simulated by the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) Community Climate Model version 3 (CCM3), which is the atmosphere component model of FGCM-0. It is found that the bulk stability of the low troposphere simulated by CCM3 is very consistent with the one derived from the National Center for Environmental Prediction (NCEP) reanalysis, but the simulated low-level cloud cover is much less than that derived from the International Satellite Cloud Climatology Project (ISCCP) D2 data. Based on the regression equations between the low-level cloud cover from the ISCCP data and the bulk stability of the low troposphere derived from the NCEP reanalysis, the parameterization scheme of low-level cloud in CCM3 is modified and used in sensitivity experiments to examine the impact of low-level cloud over the eastern subtropical Pacific on the spurious “Double ITCZ” in FGCM-0. Results show that the modified scheme causes the simulated low-level cloud cover to be improved locally over the cold oceans. Increasing the low-level cloud cover off Peru not only significantly alleviates the SST warm biases in the southeastern tropical Pacific, but also causes the equatorial cold tongue to be strengthened and to extend further west. Increasing the low-level cloud fraction off California effectively reduces the SST warm biases in ITCZ north of the equator. In order to examine the feedback between the SST and low-level cloud cover off Peru, one additional sensitivity experiment is performed in which the SST over the cold ocean off Peru is restored. It shows that decreasing the SST results in similar impacts over the wide regions from the southeastern tropical Pacific northwestwards to the western/central equatorial Pacific as increasing the low-level cloud cover does.

Impacts of Large-Scale Circulation on Convection: A 2-D Cloud Resolving Model Study

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Li, X; Sui, C.-H.; Lau, K.-M.

1999-01-01

Studies of impacts of large-scale circulation on convection, and the roles of convection in heat and water balances over tropical region are fundamentally important for understanding global climate changes. Heat and water budgets over warm pool (SST=29.5 C) and cold pool (SST=26 C) were analyzed based on simulations of the two-dimensional cloud resolving model. Here the sensitivity of heat and water budgets to different sizes of warm and cold pools is examined.

From gas to stars in energetic environments: dense gas clumps in the 30 Doradus region within the Large Magellanic Cloud

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Anderson, Crystal N.; Meier, David S.; Ott, Jürgen

2014-09-20

We present parsec-scale interferometric maps of HCN(1-0) and HCO{sup +}(1-0) emission from dense gas in the star-forming region 30 Doradus, obtained using the Australia Telescope Compact Array. This extreme star-forming region, located in the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC), is characterized by a very intense ultraviolet ionizing radiation field and sub-solar metallicity, both of which are expected to impact molecular cloud structure. We detect 13 bright, dense clumps within the 30 Doradus-10 giant molecular cloud. Some of the clumps are aligned along a filamentary structure with a characteristic spacing that is consistent with formation via varicose fluid instability. Our analysis showsmore » that the filament is gravitationally unstable and collapsing to form stars. There is a good correlation between HCO{sup +} emission in the filament and signatures of recent star formation activity including H{sub 2}O masers and young stellar objects (YSOs). YSOs seem to continue along the same direction of the filament toward the massive compact star cluster R136 in the southwest. We present detailed comparisons of clump properties (masses, linewidths, and sizes) in 30Dor-10 to those in other star forming regions of the LMC (N159, N113, N105, and N44). Our analysis shows that the 30Dor-10 clumps have similar masses but wider linewidths and similar HCN/HCO{sup +} (1-0) line ratios as clumps detected in other LMC star-forming regions. Our results suggest that the dense molecular gas clumps in the interior of 30Dor-10 are well shielded against the intense ionizing field that is present in the 30 Doradus region.« less

HIGH-ENERGY ELECTRON IRRADIATION OF INTERSTELLAR CARBONACEOUS DUST ANALOGS: COSMIC-RAY EFFECTS ON THE CARRIERS OF THE 3.4 μ m ABSORPTION BAND

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Maté, Belén; Molpeceres, Germán; Jiménez-Redondo, Miguel

2016-11-01

The effects of cosmic rays on the carriers of the interstellar 3.4 μ m absorption band have been investigated in the laboratory. This band is attributed to stretching vibrations of CH{sub 3} and CH{sub 2} in carbonaceous dust. It is widely observed in the diffuse interstellar medium, but disappears in dense clouds. Destruction of CH{sub 3} and CH{sub 2} by cosmic rays could become relevant in dense clouds, shielded from the external ultraviolet field. For the simulations, samples of hydrogenated amorphous carbon (a-C:H) have been irradiated with 5 keV electrons. The decay of the band intensity versus electron fluence reflectsmore » a-C:H dehydrogenation, which is well described by a model assuming that H{sub 2} molecules, formed by the recombination of H atoms liberated through CH bond breaking, diffuse out of the sample. The CH bond destruction rates derived from the present experiments are in good accordance with those from previous ion irradiation experiments of HAC. The experimental simplicity of electron bombardment has allowed the use of higher-energy doses than in the ion experiments. The effects of cosmic rays on the aliphatic components of cosmic dust are found to be small. The estimated cosmic-ray destruction times for the 3.4 μ m band carriers lie in the 10{sup 8} yr range and cannot account for the disappearance of this band in dense clouds, which have characteristic lifetimes of 3 × 10{sup 7} yr. The results invite a more detailed investigation of the mechanisms of CH bond formation and breaking in the intermediate region between diffuse and dense clouds.« less

The Molecular Gas Environment in the 20 km s{sup −1} Cloud in the Central Molecular Zone

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Lu, Xing; Gu, Qiusheng; Zhang, Qizhou

We recently reported a population of protostellar candidates in the 20 km s{sup −1} cloud in the Central Molecular Zone of the Milky Way, traced by H{sub 2}O masers in gravitationally bound dense cores. In this paper, we report molecular line studies with high angular resolution (∼3″) of the environment of star formation in this cloud. Maps of various molecular line transitions as well as the continuum at 1.3 mm are obtained using the Submillimeter Array. Five NH{sub 3} inversion lines and the 1.3 cm continuum are observed with the Karl G. Jansky Very Large Array. The interferometric observations aremore » complemented with single-dish data. We find that the CH{sub 3}OH, SO, and HNCO lines, which are usually shock tracers, are better correlated spatially with the compact dust emission from dense cores among the detected lines. These lines also show enhancement in intensities with respect to SiO intensities toward the compact dust emission, suggesting the presence of slow shocks or hot cores in these regions. We find gas temperatures of ≳100 K at 0.1 pc scales based on RADEX modeling of the H{sub 2}CO and NH{sub 3} lines. Although no strong correlations between temperatures and linewidths/H{sub 2}O maser luminosities are found, in high-angular-resolution maps we note several candidate shock-heated regions offset from any dense cores, as well as signatures of localized heating by protostars in several dense cores. Our findings suggest that at 0.1 pc scales in this cloud star formation and strong turbulence may together affect the chemistry and temperature of the molecular gas.« less

A detailed investigation of proposed gas-phase syntheses of ammonia in dense interstellar clouds

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Herbst, Eric; Defrees, D. J.; Mclean, A. D.

1987-01-01

The initial reactions of the Herbst and Klemperer (1973) and the Dalgarno (1974) schemes (I and II, respectively) for the gas-phase synthesis of ammonia in dense interstellar clouds were investigated. The rate of the slightly endothermic reaction between N(+) and H2 to yield NH(+) and H (scheme I) under interstellar conditions was reinvestigated under thermal and nonthermal conditions based on laboratory data. It was found that the relative importance of this reaction in synthesizing ammonia is determined by how the laboratory data at low temperature are interpreted. On the other hand, the exothermic reaction between N and H3(+) to form NH2(+) + H (scheme II) was calculated to possess significant activation energy and, therefore, to have a negligible rate coefficient under interstellar conditions. Consequently, this reaction cannot take place appreciably in interstellar clouds.

Dense cold baryonic matter

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Stavinskiy, A. V.

2017-09-01

A possibility of studying cold nuclear matter on the Nuclotron-NICA facility at baryonic densities characteristic of and higher than at the center of a neutron star is considered based on the data from cumulative processes. A special rare-event kinematic trigger for collisions of relativistic ions is proposed for effective selection of events accompanied by production of dense baryonic systems. Possible manifestations of new matter states under these unusual conditions and an experimental program for their study are discussed. Various experimental setups are proposed for these studies, and a possibility of using experimental setups at the Nuclotron-NICA facility for this purpose is considered.

Mesoscopic coherence in light scattering from cold, optically dense and disordered atomic systems

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kupriyanov, D. V.; Sokolov, I. M.; Havey, M. D.

2017-02-01

Coherent effects manifested in light scattering from cold, optically dense and disordered atomic systems are reviewed from a primarily theoretical point of view. Development of the basic theoretical tools is then elaborated through several physical atomic physics based processes which have been at least partly explored experimentally. These include illustrations drawn from the coherent backscattering effect, random lasing in atomic gases, quantum memories and light-atoms interface assisted by the light trapping mechanism. Current understanding and challenges associated with the transition to high atomic densities and cooperativity in the scattering process are also discussed in some detail.

Carbon Dioxide Clouds at High Altitude in the Tropics and in an Early Dense Martian Atmosphere

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Colaprete, Anthony; Toon, Owen B.

2001-01-01

We use a time dependent, microphysical cloud model to study the formation of carbon dioxide clouds in the Martian atmosphere. Laboratory studies by Glandor et al. show that high critical supersaturations are required for cloud particle nucleation and that surface kinetic growth is not limited. These conditions, which are similar to those for cirrus clouds on Earth, lead to the formation of carbon dioxide ice particles with radii greater than 500 micrometers and concentrations of less than 0.1 cm(exp -3) for typical atmospheric conditions. Within the current Martian atmosphere, CO2 cloud formation is possible at the poles during winter and at high altitudes in the tropics during periods of increased atmospheric dust loading. In both cases, temperature perturbations of several degrees below the CO2 saturation temperature are required to nucleate new cloud particles suggesting that dynamical processes are the most common initiators of carbon dioxide clouds rather than diabatic cooling. The microphysical cloud model, coupled to a two-stream radiative transfer model, is used to reexamine the impact of CO2 clouds on the surface temperature within a dense CO2 atmosphere. The formation of carbon dioxide clouds leads to a warmer surface than what would be expected for clear sky conditions. The amount of warming is sensitive to the presence of dust and water vapor in the atmosphere, both of which act to dampen cloud effects. The radiative warming associated with cloud formation, as well as latent heating, work to dissipate the clouds when present. Thus, clouds never last for periods much longer than several days, limiting their overall effectiveness for warming the surface. The time average cloud optical depth is approximately unity leading to a 5-10 K warming, depending on the surface pressure. However, the surface temperature does not rise about the freezing point of liquid water even for pressures as high as 5 bars, at a solar luminosity of 75% the current value.

Instantaneous Linkages between Clouds and Large-Scale Meteorology over the Southern Ocean in Observations and a Climate Model

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Wall, Casey J.; Hartmann, Dennis L.; Ma, Po-Lun

Instantaneous, coincident, footprint-level satellite observations of cloud properties and radiation taken during austral summer over the Southern Ocean are used to study relationships between clouds and large-scale meteorology. Cloud properties are very sensitive to the strength of vertical motion in the middle-troposphere, and low-cloud properties are sensitive to estimated inversion strength, low-level temperature advection, and sea surface temperature. These relationships are quantified. An index for the meteorological anomalies associated with midlatitude cyclones is presented, and it is used to reveal the sensitivity of clouds to the meteorology within the warm- and cold-sector of cyclones. The observed relationships between clouds andmore » meteorology are compared to those in the Community Atmosphere Model version 5 (CAM5) using satellite simulators. Low-clouds simulated by CAM5 are too few, too bright, and contain too much ice, and low-clouds located in the cold-sector of cyclones are too sensitive to variations in the meteorology. The latter two biases are dramatically reduced when CAM5 is coupled with an updated boundary layer parameterization know as Cloud Layers Unified by Binormals (CLUBB). More generally, this study demonstrates that examining the instantaneous timescale is a powerful approach to understanding the physical processes that control clouds and how they are represented in climate models. Such an evaluation goes beyond the cloud climatology and exposes model bias under various meteorological conditions.« less

Hubble Captures Cosmic Ice Sculptures

NASA Image and Video Library

2017-12-08

NASA image release September 16, 2010 Enjoying a frozen treat on a hot summer day can leave a sticky mess as it melts in the Sun and deforms. In the cold vacuum of space, there is no edible ice cream, but there is radiation from massive stars that is carving away at cold molecular clouds, creating bizarre, fantasy-like structures. These one-light-year-tall pillars of cold hydrogen and dust, imaged by the Hubble Space Telescope, are located in the Carina Nebula. Violent stellar winds and powerful radiation from massive stars are sculpting the surrounding nebula. Inside the dense structures, new stars may be born. This image of dust pillars in the Carina Nebula is a composite of 2005 observations taken of the region in hydrogen light (light emitted by hydrogen atoms) along with 2010 observations taken in oxygen light (light emitted by oxygen atoms), both times with Hubble's Advanced Camera for Surveys. The immense Carina Nebula is an estimated 7,500 light-years away in the southern constellation Carina. The Hubble Space Telescope is a project of international cooperation between NASA and the European Space Agency. NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center manages the telescope. The Space Telescope Science Institute (STScI) conducts Hubble science operations. STScI is operated for NASA by the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy, Inc. in Washington, D.C. NASA Goddard Space Flight Center is home to the nation's largest organization of combined scientists, engineers and technologists that build spacecraft, instruments and new technology to study the Earth, the sun, our solar system, and the universe. Follow us on Twitter Join us on Facebook

Implications of Observed High Supersaturation for TTL Cloud Formation and Dehydration

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Jensen, Eric

2004-01-01

In situ measurements of water vapor concentration made during the CRYSTAL-FACE and Pre-AVE missions indicate higher than expected supersaturations in both clear and cloudy air near the cold tropical tropopause: (1) steady-state ice supersaturations of 20-30% were measured within cirrus at T < 200 K; (2) supersaturations exceeding 100% (near water saturation) were observed under cloud-free conditions near 187 K. The in-cloud measurements challenge the conventional belief that any water vapor in excess of ice saturation should be depleted by crystal growth given sufficient time. The high clear-sky supersaturations imply that thresholds for ice nucleation due to homogeneous freezing of aerosols (or any other mechanism) are much higher than those inferred from laboratory measurements. We will use simulations of Tropical Tropopause Layer (TTL) transport and cloud formation throughout the tropics to show that these effects have important implications for TTL cloud frequency and freeze-drying of air crossing the tropical tropopause cold trap.

Observed microphysical structure of nimbostratus in northeast cold vortex over China

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Zhao, Zhen; Lei, Hengchi

2014-06-01

Airborne measurements were collected during a stepwise ascent within a nimbostratus cloud associated with a northeast cold vortex in Jilin Province over China on 20 June 2005 to study cloud structure and ice particle spectra. The microphysical structure of the nimbostratus was elucidated by King liquid water probe and Particle Measuring Systems (PMS) probes aboard the research aircraft. The PMS 2D images provide detailed information on crystal habits. A thick layer of supercooled cloud is observed and Hallett-Mossop ice multiplication process is used to explain very high ice particle concentrations in the temperature region between - 3 °C and - 6 °C. From near cloud top to melting layer, ice crystals shape in the form of columns, needles, aggregations and plates. In addition, significant horizontal variability was evident on the scale of few hundred meters. Ice particle spectra in this cloud were adequately described by exponential relationships. Relationship between the intercept (N0) and slope (λ) parameters of an exponential size distribution was well characterized by a power law.

Angular momentum of the N2H+ cores in the Orion A cloud

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Tatematsu, Ken'ichi; Ohashi, Satoshi; Sanhueza, Patricio; Nguyen Luong, Quang; Umemoto, Tomofumi; Mizuno, Norikazu

2016-04-01

We have analyzed the angular momentum of the molecular cloud cores in the Orion A giant molecular cloud observed in the N2H+ J = 1-0 line with the Nobeyama 45 m radio telescope. We have measured the velocity gradient using position-velocity diagrams passing through core centers, and made sinusoidal fits against the position angle. Twenty-seven out of 34 N2H+ cores allowed us to measure the velocity gradient without serious confusion. The derived velocity gradient ranges from 0.5 to 7.8 km s-1 pc-1. We marginally found that the specific angular momentum J/M (against the core radius R) of the Orion N2H+ cores tends to be systematically larger than that of molecular cloud cores in cold dark clouds obtained by Goodman et al., in the J/M-R relation. The ratio β of rotational to gravitational energy is derived to be β = 10-2.3±0.7, and is similar to that obtained for cold dark cloud cores in a consistent definition. The large-scale rotation of the ∫-shaped filament of the Orion A giant molecular cloud does not likely govern the core rotation at smaller scales.

Near-Resonant Imaging of Trapped Cold Atomic Samples

PubMed Central

You, L.; Lewenstein, Maciej

1996-01-01

We study the formation of diffraction patterns in the near-resonant imaging of trapped cold atomic samples. We show that the spatial imaging can provide detailed information on the trapped atomic clouds. PMID:27805110

Object Detection using the Kinect

DTIC Science & Technology

2012-03-01

Kinect camera and point cloud data from the Kinect’s structured light stereo system (figure 1). We obtain reasonable results using a single prototype...same manner we present in this report. For example, at Willow Garage , Steder uses a 3-D feature he developed to classify objects directly from point...detecting backpacks using the data available from the Kinect sensor. 4 3.1 Point Cloud Filtering Dense point clouds derived from stereo are notoriously

Discovery of Molecular and Atomic Clouds Associated with the Magellanic Superbubble 30 Doradus C

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Sano, H.; Yamane, Y.; Voisin, F.; Fujii, K.; Yoshiike, S.; Inaba, T.; Tsuge, K.; Babazaki, Y.; Mitsuishi, I.; Yang, R.; Aharonian, F.; Rowell, G.; Filipović, M. D.; Mizuno, N.; Tachihara, K.; Kawamura, A.; Onishi, T.; Fukui, Y.

2017-07-01

We analyzed the 2.6 mm CO and 21 cm H I lines toward the Magellanic superbubble 30 Doradus C, in order to reveal the associated molecular and atomic gas. We uncovered five molecular clouds in a velocity range from 251 to 276 km s-1 toward the western shell. The non-thermal X-rays are clearly enhanced around the molecular clouds on a parsec scale, suggesting possible evidence for magnetic field amplification via shock-cloud interaction. The thermal X-rays are brighter in the eastern shell, where there are no dense molecular or atomic clouds, opposite to the western shell. The TeV γ-ray distribution may spatially match the total interstellar proton column density as well as the non-thermal X-rays. If the hadronic γ-ray is dominant, the total energy of the cosmic-ray protons is at least ˜ 1.2× {10}50 erg with the estimated mean interstellar proton density ˜60 cm-3. In addition, the γ-ray flux associated with the molecular cloud (e.g., MC3) could be detected and resolved by the Cherenkov Telescope Array (CTA). This should permit CTA to probe the diffusion of cosmic-rays into the associated dense ISM.

Relationship between the column density distribution and evolutionary class of molecular clouds as viewed by ATLASGAL

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Abreu-Vicente, J.; Kainulainen, J.; Stutz, A.; Henning, Th.; Beuther, H.

2015-09-01

We present the first study of the relationship between the column density distribution of molecular clouds within nearby Galactic spiral arms and their evolutionary status as measured from their stellar content. We analyze a sample of 195 molecular clouds located at distances below 5.5 kpc, identified from the ATLASGAL 870 μm data. We define three evolutionary classes within this sample: starless clumps, star-forming clouds with associated young stellar objects, and clouds associated with H ii regions. We find that the N(H2) probability density functions (N-PDFs) of these three classes of objects are clearly different: the N-PDFs of starless clumps are narrowest and close to log-normal in shape, while star-forming clouds and H ii regions exhibit a power-law shape over a wide range of column densities and log-normal-like components only at low column densities. We use the N-PDFs to estimate the evolutionary time-scales of the three classes of objects based on a simple analytic model from literature. Finally, we show that the integral of the N-PDFs, the dense gas mass fraction, depends on the total mass of the regions as measured by ATLASGAL: more massive clouds contain greater relative amounts of dense gas across all evolutionary classes. Appendices are available in electronic form at http://www.aanda.org

Ultra-High Spectral Resolution Observations of Fragmentation in Dark Cloud Cores

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Velusamy, T.; Langer, W.; Kuiper, T; Levin, S.; Olsen, E.

1993-01-01

This paper presents new evidence of the fragmentary structure of dense cores in dark clouds using the high resolution spectra of the carbon chain molecule CCS transition (J subscript N = 2 subscript 1 - 1 subscript o) at 22.344033 GHz with 0.008 km s superscript -1 resolution.

Laboratory and modeling studies of chemistry in dense molecular clouds

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Huntress, W. T., Jr.; Prasad, S. S.; Mitchell, G. F.

1980-01-01

A chemical evolutionary model with a large number of species and a large chemical library is used to examine the principal chemical processes in interstellar clouds. Simple chemical equilibrium arguments show the potential for synthesis of very complex organic species by ion-molecule radiative association reactions.

Skylab near-infrared observations of clouds indicating supercooled liquid water droplets

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Curran, R. J.; Wu, M.-L. C.

1982-01-01

Orographically-induced lee-wave clouds were observed over New Mexico by a multichannel scanning radiometer on Skylab during December 1973. Channels centered at 0.83, 1.61 and 2.125 microns were used to determine the cloud optical thickness, thermodynamic phase and effective particle size. An additional channel centered at 11.4 microns was used to determine cloud-top temperature, which was corroborated through comparison with the stereographically determined cloud top altitudes and conventional temperature soundings. Analysis of the measured near-infrared reflection functions at 1.61 and 2.125 microns are most easily interpreted as indicating the presence of liquid-phase water droplets. This interpretation is not conclusive even after considerable effort to understand possible sources for misinterpretation. However, if accepted the resulting phase determination is considered anomalous due to the inferred cloud-top temperatures being in the -32 to -47 C range. Theory for the homogeneous nucleation of pure supercooled liquid water droplets predicts very short lifetimes for the liquid phase at these cold temperatures. A possible explanation for the observations is that the wave-clouds are composed of solution droplets. Impurities in the cloud droplets could decrease the homogeneous freezing rate for these droplets, permitting them to exist for a longer time in the liquid phase, at the cold temperatures found.

Single-photon nonlinearities in the propagation of focused beams through dense atomic clouds

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Wang, Yidan; Gorshkov, Alexey; Gullans, Michael

2017-04-01

We theoretically study single-photon nonlinearities realized when a highly focused Gaussian beam passes through a dense atomic cloud. In this system, strong dipole-dipole interactions arise between closely spaced atoms and significantly affect light propagation. We find that the highly focused Gaussian beam can be treated as an effective one-dimensional waveguide, which simplifies the calculation of photon transmission and correlation functions. The formalism we develop is also applicable to the case where additional atom-atom interactions, such as interactions between Rydberg atoms, are involved. This work was supported by the ARL, NSF PFC at the JQI, AFOSR, NSF PIF, ARO, and AFOSR MURI.

The astrochemistry of H+3

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Herbst, E.

2000-09-01

The reactions of the molecular ion H3+ are pivotal to the chemistry of dense interstellar clouds. Produced by the cosmic-ray ionizati on of molecular hydrogen, H3+ reacts with a variety of a toms and molecules to produce species that are precursors to many of the detect ed molecules in dense clouds. For example, the reaction of H3+ with atomic O leads, eventually, to the production of water, while the re action with HD leads to the production of a wide variety of deuterated isotopom ers. In this article, the chemistry of H3+ and the produc ts derived from it are discussed in the larger context of interstellar chemistr y.

Accuracy Analysis of a Dam Model from Drone Surveys

PubMed Central

Buffi, Giulia; Venturi, Sara

2017-01-01

This paper investigates the accuracy of models obtained by drone surveys. To this end, this work analyzes how the placement of ground control points (GCPs) used to georeference the dense point cloud of a dam affects the resulting three-dimensional (3D) model. Images of a double arch masonry dam upstream face are acquired from drone survey and used to build the 3D model of the dam for vulnerability analysis purposes. However, there still remained the issue of understanding the real impact of a correct GCPs location choice to properly georeference the images and thus, the model. To this end, a high number of GCPs configurations were investigated, building a series of dense point clouds. The accuracy of these resulting dense clouds was estimated comparing the coordinates of check points extracted from the model and their true coordinates measured via traditional topography. The paper aims at providing information about the optimal choice of GCPs placement not only for dams but also for all surveys of high-rise structures. The knowledge a priori of the effect of the GCPs number and location on the model accuracy can increase survey reliability and accuracy and speed up the survey set-up operations. PMID:28771185

Accuracy Analysis of a Dam Model from Drone Surveys.

PubMed

Ridolfi, Elena; Buffi, Giulia; Venturi, Sara; Manciola, Piergiorgio

2017-08-03

This paper investigates the accuracy of models obtained by drone surveys. To this end, this work analyzes how the placement of ground control points (GCPs) used to georeference the dense point cloud of a dam affects the resulting three-dimensional (3D) model. Images of a double arch masonry dam upstream face are acquired from drone survey and used to build the 3D model of the dam for vulnerability analysis purposes. However, there still remained the issue of understanding the real impact of a correct GCPs location choice to properly georeference the images and thus, the model. To this end, a high number of GCPs configurations were investigated, building a series of dense point clouds. The accuracy of these resulting dense clouds was estimated comparing the coordinates of check points extracted from the model and their true coordinates measured via traditional topography. The paper aims at providing information about the optimal choice of GCPs placement not only for dams but also for all surveys of high-rise structures. The knowledge a priori of the effect of the GCPs number and location on the model accuracy can increase survey reliability and accuracy and speed up the survey set-up operations.

A-Train Based Observational Metrics for Model Evaluation in Extratropical Cyclones

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Naud, Catherine M.; Booth, James F.; Del Genio, Anthony D.; van den Heever, Susan C.; Posselt, Derek J.

2015-01-01

Extratropical cyclones contribute most of the precipitation in the midlatitudes, i.e. up to 70 during winter in the northern hemisphere, and can generate flooding, extreme winds, blizzards and have large socio-economic impacts. As such, it is important that general circulation models (GCMs) accurately represent these systems so their evolution in a warming climate can be understood. However, there are still uncertainties on whether warming will increase their frequency of occurrence, their intensity and how much rain or snow they bring. Part of the issue is that models have trouble representing their strength, but models also have biases in the amount of clouds and precipitation they produce. This is caused by potential issues in various aspects of the models: convection, boundary layer, and cloud scheme to only mention a few. In order to pinpoint which aspects of the models need improvement for a better representation of extratropical cyclone precipitation and cloudiness, we will present A-train based observational metrics: cyclone-centered, warm and cold frontal composites of cloud amount and type, precipitation rate and frequency of occurrence. Using the same method to extract similar fields from the model, we will present an evaluation of the GISS-ModelE2 and the IPSL-LMDZ-5B models, based on their AR5 and more recent versions. The AR5 version of the GISS model underestimates cloud cover in extratropical cyclones while the IPSL AR5 version overestimates it. In addition, we will show how the observed CloudSat-CALIPSO cloud vertical distribution across cold fronts changes with moisture amount and cyclone strength, and test if the two models successfully represent these changes. We will also show how CloudSat-CALIPSO derived cloud type (i.e. convective vs. stratiform) evolves across warm fronts as cyclones age, and again how this is represented in the models. Our third process-based analysis concerns cumulus clouds in the post-cold frontal region and how their amount relates to the stability of the boundary layer. This test uses Aqua cloud and vertical atmospheric profiles and when applied to the model output can help assess the accuracy of the convection, boundary layer and cloud scheme.

Shocks in Dense Clouds in the Vela Supernova Remnant: FUSE

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Nichols, Joy; Sonneborn, George (Technical Monitor)

2002-01-01

We have obtained 8 LWRS FUSE spectra to study a recently identified interaction of the Vela supernova remnant with a dense cloud region along its western edge. The goal is to quantify the temperature, ionization, density, and abundance characteristics associated with this shock/dense cloud interface by means of UV absorption line studies. Our detection of high-velocity absorption line C I at +90 to +130 km/s with IUE toward a narrow region interior to the Vela SNR strongly suggests the Vela supernova remnant is interacting with a dense ISM or molecular cloud. The shock/dense cloud interface is suggested by (1) the rarity of detection of high-velocity C I seen in IUE spectra, (2) its very limited spatial distribution in the remnant, and (3) a marked decrease in X-ray emission in the region immediately west of the position of these stars where one also finds a 100 micron emission ridge in IRAS images. We have investigated the shock physics and general properties of this interaction region through a focussed UV absorption line study using FUSE spectra. We have FUSE data on OVI absorption lines observed toward 8 stars behind the Vela supernova remnant (SNR). We compare the OVI observations with IUE observations of CIV absorption toward the same stars. Most of the stars, which are all B stars, have complex continua making the extraction of absorption lines difficult. Three of the stars, HD 72088, HD 72089 and HD 72350, however, are rapid rotators (v sin i less than 100 km/s) making the derivation of absorption column densities much easier. We have measured OVI and CIV column densities for the "main component" (i.e. the low velocity component) for these stars. In addition, by removing the H2 line at 1032.35A (121.6 km/s relative to OVI), we find high velocity components of OVI at approximately 150 km/s that we attribute to the shock in the Vela SNR. The column density ratios and magnitudes are compared to both steady shock models and results of hydrodynamical SNR modeling. We find that the models require the shock to be relatively slow (approximately 100 - 170 km/s) to match the FUSE data. We discuss the implications of our results for models of the evolution of the Vela SNR.

Enhancement of Feedback Efficiency by Active Galactic Nucleus Outflows via the Magnetic Tension Force in the Inhomogeneous Interstellar Medium

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Asahina, Yuta; Ohsuga, Ken; Nomura, Mariko, E-mail: asahina@cfca.jp

By performing three-dimensional magnetohydrodynamics simulations of subrelativistic jets and disk winds propagating into the magnetized inhomogeneous interstellar medium (ISM), we investigate the magnetic effects on the active galactic nucleus feedback. Our simulations reveal that the magnetic tension force promotes the acceleration of the dense gas clouds, since the magnetic field lines, which are initially straight, bend around the gas clouds. In the jet models, the velocity dispersion of the clouds increases with an increase in the initial magnetic fields. The increment of the kinetic energy of the clouds is proportional to the initial magnetic fields, implying that the magnetic tensionmore » force increases the energy conversion efficiency from the jet to the gas clouds. Through simulations of the mildly collimated disk wind and the funnel-shaped disk wind, we confirm that such an enhancement of the energy conversion efficiency via the magnetic fields appears even if the energy is injected via the disk winds. The enhancement of the acceleration of the dense part of the magnetized ISM via the magnetic tension force will occur wherever the magnetized inhomogeneous matter is blown away.« less

H2, CO, and dust absorption through cold molecular clouds

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Lacy, John H.; Sneden, Chris; Kim, Hwihyun; Jaffe, Daniel Thomas

2017-06-01

We have made observations with IGRINS on the Harlan J. Smith telescope at McDonald Observatory of near-infrared absorption by H2, CO, and dust toward stars behind molecular clouds, primarily the TMC. Prior to these observations, the abundance of H2 in molecular clouds, relative to the commonly used tracer CO, had only been measured toward a few embedded stars, which may be surrounded by atypical gas. The new observations provide a representative sample of these molecules in cold molecular gas. We find N(H2)/Av ~ 0.9e+21, N(CO)/Av ~ 1.6e+17, and H2/CO ~ 6000. The measured H2/CO ratio is consistent with that measured toward embedded stars in various molecular clouds, but half that derived from mm-wave observations of CO emission and star counts or other determinations of Av.

Flash photoionization of gamma-ray burst environments

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Band, David L.; Hartmann, Dieter H.

1992-01-01

The H-alpha line emission that a flash-photoionized region emits is calculated. Archival transients, as well as various theoretical predictions, suggest that there may be significant ionizing flux. The limits on the line flux which might be observable indicate that the density must be fairly high for the recombination radiation to be observable. The intense burst radiation is insufficient to melt the dust which will be present in such a dense medium. This dust may attenuate the observable line emission, but does not attenuate the ionizing radiation before it ionizes the neutral medium surrounding the burst source. The dust can also produce a light echo. If there are indeed gamma-ray bursts in dense clouds, then it is possible that the burst was triggered by Bondi-Hoyle accretion from the dense medium, although it is unlikely on statistical grounds that all bursts occur in clouds.

Cosmic Star–Forming Gas as seen from the Milky Way

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kauffmann, Jens

2018-01-01

We still struggle to understand the star formation properties of galaxies throughout the cosmos. Is star formation driven by the structure of galaxies? Or is it plainly controlled by the mass of dense gas that can be found in a galaxy?This poster presents results from several recent projects that deliver important insights on the global star formation activity of galaxies, based on detailed studies of star-forming regions in the Milky Way. First, the proberties of dense clouds in the Galactic Center are discussed, using data from interferometers likw ALMA. Second, the kinematics of Milky Way molecular clouds are discussed based on a variety of data sets. Third, the LEGO survey (Line Emission in Galaxy Observations) is discussed. This latter study challenges concepts of how dense gas in galaxies can be traced. In combination these studies deliver a fresh look at the various factors controlling how galaxies form stars.

The Green Bank Ammonia Survey of the Gould Belt

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Friesen, Rachel; Pineda, Jaime; GAS Team

2018-01-01

The past several years have seen a tremendous advancement in our ability to characterize the structure of nearby molecular clouds traced by large-scale continuum surveys. Critical, comparable data on the dense gas kinematics and temperatures are needed to understand the history and future fate of star-forming material. Filling this gap is the Green Bank Ammonia Survey (GAS), an ambitious legacy survey for the Green Bank Telescope to observe key molecular tracers of dense gas within all Gould Belt clouds visible from the northern hemisphere. I will present the latest science from GAS, whose goals are to 1) evaluate the stability of dense gas structures as a function of scale, 2) track the dissipation of turbulence and evolution of angular momentum in filaments and cores, and 3) quantitatively test predictions of models of core and filament formation via mass flows and accretion.

Environmental Catastrophes in the Earth's History Due to Solar Systems Encounters with Giant Molecular Clouds

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Pavlov, Alexander A.

2011-01-01

In its motion through the Milky Way galaxy, the solar system encounters an average density (>=330 H atoms/cubic cm) giant molecular cloud (GMC) approximately every 108 years, a dense (approx 2 x 103 H atoms/cubic cm) GMC every approx 109 years and will inevitably encounter them in the future. However, there have been no studies linking such events with severe (snowball) glaciations in Earth history. Here we show that dramatic climate change can be caused by interstellar dust accumulating in Earth's atmosphere during the solar system's immersion into a dense (approx ,2 x 103 H atoms/cubic cm) GMC. The stratospheric dust layer from such interstellar particles could provide enough radiative forcing to trigger the runaway ice-albedo feedback that results in global snowball glaciations. We also demonstrate that more frequent collisions with less dense GMCs could cause moderate ice ages.

Clumps of Cold Stuff Across the Sky

NASA Image and Video Library

2011-01-11

This map illustrates the numerous star-forming clouds, called cold cores, that European Space Agency Planck observed throughout our Milky Way galaxy. Planck detected around 10,000 of these cores, thousands of which had never been seen before.

Terrestrial laser scanning point clouds time series for the monitoring of slope movements: displacement measurement using image correlation and 3D feature tracking

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Bornemann, Pierrick; Jean-Philippe, Malet; André, Stumpf; Anne, Puissant; Julien, Travelletti

2016-04-01

Dense multi-temporal point clouds acquired with terrestrial laser scanning (TLS) have proved useful for the study of structure and kinematics of slope movements. Most of the existing deformation analysis methods rely on the use of interpolated data. Approaches that use multiscale image correlation provide a precise and robust estimation of the observed movements; however, for non-rigid motion patterns, these methods tend to underestimate all the components of the movement. Further, for rugged surface topography, interpolated data introduce a bias and a loss of information in some local places where the point cloud information is not sufficiently dense. Those limits can be overcome by using deformation analysis exploiting directly the original 3D point clouds assuming some hypotheses on the deformation (e.g. the classic ICP algorithm requires an initial guess by the user of the expected displacement patterns). The objective of this work is therefore to propose a deformation analysis method applied to a series of 20 3D point clouds covering the period October 2007 - October 2015 at the Super-Sauze landslide (South East French Alps). The dense point clouds have been acquired with a terrestrial long-range Optech ILRIS-3D laser scanning device from the same base station. The time series are analyzed using two approaches: 1) a method of correlation of gradient images, and 2) a method of feature tracking in the raw 3D point clouds. The estimated surface displacements are then compared with GNSS surveys on reference targets. Preliminary results tend to show that the image correlation method provides a good estimation of the displacement fields at first order, but shows limitations such as the inability to track some deformation patterns, and the use of a perspective projection that does not maintain original angles and distances in the correlated images. Results obtained with 3D point clouds comparison algorithms (C2C, ICP, M3C2) bring additional information on the displacement fields. Displacement fields derived from both approaches are then combined and provide a better understanding of the landslide kinematics.

Chamaeleon's Cold Cloud Cores

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Hotzel, Stephan; Lemke, Dietrich; Krause, Oliver; Stickel, Manfred; Toth, L. Viktor

ISOPHOT Serendipity Survey (ISOSS) observations of the nearby interstellar medium towards Chamaeleon have revealed a number of cold cloud cores. Far-infrared colours have been studied using ISOSS and IRAS data. 10 very cold cores with colour temperatures Tdust 13 K have been found in an 11° × 8° sized region. Comparing the FIR data with radio measurements, all of the very cold cores have high gas column densities, N(H2) > 1021 cm-2, and 7 out of 10 have low gas temperatures as indicated by Tex(C18O) ~~ 8 K.Based on observations with ISO, an ESA project with instruments funded by ESA Member States (especially the PI countries: France, Germany, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom) and with the participation of ISAS and NASA. Members of the Consortium on the ISOPHOT Serendipity Survey (CISS) are MPIA Heidelberg, ESA ISO SOC Villafranca, AIP Potsdam, IPAC Pasadena, Imperial College London.

Cosmic ray processing of N2-containing interstellar ice analogues at dark cloud conditions

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Fedoseev, G.; Scirè, C.; Baratta, G. A.; Palumbo, M. E.

2018-04-01

N2 is believed to lock considerable part of nitrogen elemental budget and, therefore, to be one of the most abundant ice constituent in cold dark clouds. This laboratory-based research utilizes high energetic processing of N2 containing interstellar ice analogues using 200 keV H+ and He+ ions that mimics cosmic ray processing of the interstellar icy grains. It aims to investigate the formation of (iso)cyanates and cyanides in the ice mantles at the conditions typical for cold dark clouds and prestellar cores. Investigation of cosmic ray processing as a chemical trigger mechanism is explained by the high stability of N2 molecules that are chemically inert in most of the atom- and radical-addition reactions and cannot be efficiently dissociated by cosmic ray induced UV-field. Two sets of experiments are performed to closer address solid-state chemistry occurring in two distinct layers of the ice formed at different stages of dark cloud evolution, i.e. `H2O-rich' and `CO-rich' ice layers. Formation of HNCO and OCN- is discussed in all of the performed experiments. Corresponding kinetic curves for HNCO and OCN- are obtained. Furthermore, a feature around 2092 cm-1 assigned to the contributions of 13CO, CN-, and HCN is analysed. The kinetic curves for the combined HCN/CN- abundance are derived. In turn, normalized formation yields are evaluated by interpolation of the obtained results to the low irradiation doses relevant to dark cloud stage. The obtained values can be used to interpret future observations towards cold dark clouds using James Webb Space Telescope.

The interstellar N2 abundance towards HD 124314 from far-ultraviolet observations.

PubMed

Knauth, David C; Andersson, B-G; McCandliss, Stephan R; Moos, H Warren

2004-06-10

The abundance of interstellar molecular nitrogen (N2) is of considerable importance: models of steady-state gas-phase interstellar chemistry, together with millimetre-wavelength observations of interstellar N2H+ in dense molecular clouds predict that N2 should be the most abundant nitrogen-bearing molecule in the interstellar medium. Previous attempts to detect N2 absorption in the far-ultraviolet or infrared (ice features) have hitherto been unsuccessful. Here we report the detection of interstellar N2 at far-ultraviolet wavelengths towards the moderately reddened star HD 124314 in the constellation of Centaurus. The N2 column density is larger than expected from models of diffuse clouds and significantly smaller than expected for dense molecular clouds. Moreover, the N2 abundance does not explain the observed variations in the abundance of atomic nitrogen (N I) towards high-column-density sightlines, implying that the models of nitrogen chemistry in the interstellar medium are incomplete.

The sensitivity of gas-phase models of dense interstellar clouds to changes in dissociative recombination branching ratios

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Millar, T. J.; Defrees, D. J.; Mclean, A. D.; Herbst, E.

1988-01-01

The approach of Bates to the determination of neutral product branching ratios in ion-electron dissociative recombination reactions has been utilized in conjunction with quantum chemical techniques to redetermine branching ratios for a wide variety of important reactions of this class in dense interstellar clouds. The branching ratios have then been used in a pseudo time-dependent model calculation of the gas phase chemistry of a dark cloud resembling TMC-1 and the results compared with an analogous model containing previously used branching ratios. In general, the changes in branching ratios lead to stronger effects on calculated molecular abundances at steady state than at earlier times and often lead to reductions in the calculated abundances of complex molecules. However, at the so-called 'early time' when complex molecule synthesis is most efficient, the abundances of complex molecules are hardly affected by the newly used branching ratios.

Dynamics of charge clouds ejected from laser-induced warm dense gold nanofilms

DOE PAGES

Zhou, Jun; Li, Junjie; Correa, Alfredo A.; ...

2014-10-24

We report the first systematic study of the ejected charge dynamics surrounding laser-produced 30-nm warm dense gold films using single-shot femtosecond electron shadow imaging and deflectometry. The results reveal a two-step dynamical process of the ejected electrons under the high pump fluence conditions: an initial emission and accumulation of a large amount of electrons near the pumped surface region followed by the formation of hemispherical clouds of electrons on both sides of the film, which are escaping into the vacuum at a nearly isotropic and constant velocity with an unusually high kinetic energy of more than 300 eV. We alsomore » developed a model of the escaping charge distribution that not only reproduces the main features of the observed charge expansion dynamics but also allows us to extract the number of ejected electrons remaining in the cloud.« less

Dynamics of charge clouds ejected from laser-induced warm dense gold nanofilms

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Zhou, Jun; Li, Junjie; Correa, Alfredo A.

We report the first systematic study of the ejected charge dynamics surrounding laser-produced 30-nm warm dense gold films using single-shot femtosecond electron shadow imaging and deflectometry. The results reveal a two-step dynamical process of the ejected electrons under the high pump fluence conditions: an initial emission and accumulation of a large amount of electrons near the pumped surface region followed by the formation of hemispherical clouds of electrons on both sides of the film, which are escaping into the vacuum at a nearly isotropic and constant velocity with an unusually high kinetic energy of more than 300 eV. We alsomore » developed a model of the escaping charge distribution that not only reproduces the main features of the observed charge expansion dynamics but also allows us to extract the number of ejected electrons remaining in the cloud.« less

Gravity, turbulence and the scaling ``laws'' in molecular clouds

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ballesteros-Paredes, Javier

The so-called Larson (1981) scaling laws found empirically in molecular clouds have been generally interpreted as evidence that the clouds are turbulent and fractal. In the present contribution we discussed how recent observations and models of cloud formation suggest that: (a) these relations are the result of strong observational biases due to the cloud definition itself: since the filling factor of the dense structures is small, by thresholding the column density the computed mean density between clouds is nearly constant, and nearly the same as the threshold (Ballesteros-Paredes et al. 2012). (b) When accounting for column density variations, the velocity dispersion-size relation does not appears anymore. Instead, dense cores populate the upper-left corner of the δ v-R diagram (Ballesteros-Paredes et al. 2011a). (c) Instead of a δ v-R relation, a more appropriate relation seems to be δ v 2 / R = 2 GMΣ, which suggest that clouds are in collapse, rather than supported by turbulence (Ballesteros-Paredes et al. 2011a). (d) These results, along with the shapes of the star formation histories (Hartmann, Ballesteros-Paredes & Heitsch 2012), line profiles of collapsing clouds in numerical simulations (Heitsch, Ballesteros-Paredes & Hartmann 2009), core-to-core velocity dispersions (Heitsch, Ballesteros-Paredes & Hartmann 2009), time-evolution of the column density PDFs (Ballesteros-Paredes et al. 2011b), etc., strongly suggest that the actual source of the non-thermal motions is gravitational collapse of the clouds, so that the turbulent, chaotic component of the motions is only a by-product of the collapse, with no significant ``support" role for the clouds. This result calls into question if the scale-free nature of the motions has a turbulent, origin (Ballesteros-Paredes et al. 2011a; Ballesteros-Paredes et al. 2011b, Ballesteros-Paredes et al. 2012).

Imaging Spatial Correlations of Rydberg Excitations in Cold Atom Clouds

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Schwarzkopf, A.; Sapiro, R. E.; Raithel, G.

2011-09-02

We use direct spatial imaging of cold {sup 85}Rb Rydberg atom clouds to measure the Rydberg-Rydberg correlation function. The results are in qualitative agreement with theoretical predictions [F. Robicheaux and J. V. Hernandez, Phys. Rev. A 72, 063403 (2005)]. We determine the blockade radius for states 44D{sub 5/2}, 60D{sub 5/2}, and 70D{sub 5/2} and investigate the dependence of the correlation behavior on excitation conditions and detection delay. Experimental data hint at the existence of long-range order.

MODIS Views Variations in Cloud Types

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

2002-01-01

This MODIS image, centered over the Great Lakes region in North America, shows a variety of cloud types. The clouds at the top of the image, colored pink, are cold, high-level snow and ice clouds, while the neon green clouds are lower-level water clouds. Because different cloud types reflect and emit radiant energy differently, scientists can use MODIS' unique data set to measure the sizes of cloud particles and distinguish between water, snow, and ice clouds. This scene was acquired on Feb. 24, 2000, and is a red, green, blue composite of bands 1, 6, and 31 (0.66, 1.6, and 11.0 microns, respectively). Image by Liam Gumley, Space Science and Engineering Center, University of Wisconsin-Madison

49 CFR 193.2059 - Flammable vapor-gas dispersion protection.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2012 CFR

2012-10-01

... Dispersion Model.” Alternatively, in order to account for additional cloud dilution which may be caused by..., subject to the Administrator's approval. (b) The following dispersion parameters must be used in computing... if it can be shown that the terrain both upwind and downwind of the vapor cloud has dense vegetation...

49 CFR 193.2059 - Flammable vapor-gas dispersion protection.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

2011-10-01

... Dispersion Model.” Alternatively, in order to account for additional cloud dilution which may be caused by..., subject to the Administrator's approval. (b) The following dispersion parameters must be used in computing... if it can be shown that the terrain both upwind and downwind of the vapor cloud has dense vegetation...

49 CFR 193.2059 - Flammable vapor-gas dispersion protection.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2014 CFR

2014-10-01

... Dispersion Model.” Alternatively, in order to account for additional cloud dilution which may be caused by..., subject to the Administrator's approval. (b) The following dispersion parameters must be used in computing... if it can be shown that the terrain both upwind and downwind of the vapor cloud has dense vegetation...

A novel approach for automatic snow depth estimation using UAV-taken images without ground control points

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Mizinski, Bartlomiej; Niedzielski, Tomasz

2017-04-01

Recent developments in snow depth reconstruction based on remote sensing techniques include the use of photographs of snow-covered terrain taken by unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs). There are several approaches that utilize visible-light photos (RGB) or near infrared images (NIR). The majority of the methods in question are based on reconstructing the digital surface model (DSM) of the snow-covered area with the use of the Structure-from-Motion (SfM) algorithm and the stereo-vision software. Having reconstructed the above-mentioned DSM it is straightforward to calculate the snow depth map which may be produced as a difference between the DSM of snow-covered terrain and the snow-free DSM, known as the reference surface. In order to use the aforementioned procedure, the high spatial accuracy of the two DSMs must be ensured. Traditionally, this is done using the ground control points (GCPs), either artificial or natural terrain features that are visible on aerial images, the coordinates of which are measured in the field using the Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) receiver by qualified personnel. The field measurements may be time-taking (GCPs must be well distributed in the study area, therefore the field experts should travel over long distances) and dangerous (the field experts may be exposed to avalanche risk or cold). Thus, there is a need to elaborate methods that enable the above-mentioned automatic snow depth map production without the use of GCPs. One of such attempts is shown in this paper which aims to present the novel method which is based on real-time processing of snow-covered and snow-free dense point clouds produced by SfM. The two stage georeferencing is proposed. The initial (low accuracy) one assigns true geographic, and subsequently projected, coordinates to the two dense point clouds, while the said initially-registered dense point clouds are matched using the iterative closest point (ICP) algorithm in the final (high accuracy) stage. The stable reference is offered by specially-selected trees which are located in the vicinity of the terrain of interest. The method has already been implemented and along with the presentation of its concept, a few case studies from the Izerskie Mountains (southwestern Poland) are discussed. Although the method reveals several constraints, it may serve the purpose of generating the snow depth maps with reasonable accuracy, in particular in the absence of GCPs. The snow depth estimation algorithm has been elaborated in frame of the research grant no. LIDER/012/223/L-5/13/NCBR/2014 financed by the National Centre for Research and Development of Poland.

On the formation and confinement of dense clouds in QSOs and active galactic nuclei

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Marscher, A. P.; Weaver, R. P.

1979-01-01

A model for the formation and confinement of dense (at least about 1 billion per cu cm) clouds in QSOs and active galactic nuclei is presented wherein thermal instabilities behind radiative shocks cause the collapse of regions where the preshock density is enhanced over that of the surrounding medium. Such shocks (of total energy around 10 to the 51st ergs) are likely to occur if the frequent optical outbursts observed in many of these objects are accompanied by mass ejections of comparable energy. It is found that clouds quite similar to those thought to exist in QSOs etc. can be created in this manner at radii of the order of 10 to the 17th cm. The clouds can be subsequently accelerated to observed bulk velocities by either radiation pressure or a collision with a much stronger (total energy around 10 to the 53 ergs) shock. Alternatively, their high observed velocities could be caused by gravitational infall or rotation. The mass production required at inner radii by the outflow models can be supplied through a mechanism previously discussed by Shields (1977).

Analysis of interstellar cloud structure based on IRAS images

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Scalo, John M.

1992-01-01

The goal of this project was to develop new tools for the analysis of the structure of densely sampled maps of interstellar star-forming regions. A particular emphasis was on the recognition and characterization of nested hierarchical structure and fractal irregularity, and their relation to the level of star formation activity. The panoramic IRAS images provided data with the required range in spatial scale, greater than a factor of 100, and in column density, greater than a factor of 50. In order to construct densely sampled column density maps of star-forming clouds, column density images of four nearby cloud complexes were constructed from IRAS data. The regions have various degrees of star formation activity, and most of them have probably not been affected much by the disruptive effects of young massive stars. The largest region, the Scorpius-Ophiuchus cloud complex, covers about 1000 square degrees (it was subdivided into a few smaller regions for analysis). Much of the work during the early part of the project focused on an 80 square degree region in the core of the Taurus complex, a well-studied region of low-mass star formation.

Magnetic seismology of interstellar gas clouds: Unveiling a hidden dimension

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Tritsis, Aris; Tassis, Konstantinos

2018-05-01

Stars and planets are formed inside dense interstellar molecular clouds by processes imprinted on the three-dimensional (3D) morphology of the clouds. Determining the 3D structure of interstellar clouds remains challenging because of projection effects and difficulties measuring the extent of the clouds along the line of sight. We report the detection of normal vibrational modes in the isolated interstellar cloud Musca, allowing determination of the 3D physical dimensions of the cloud. We found that Musca is vibrating globally, with the characteristic modes of a sheet viewed edge on, not the characteristics of a filament as previously supposed. We reconstructed the physical properties of Musca through 3D magnetohydrodynamic simulations, reproducing the observed normal modes and confirming a sheetlike morphology.

STIR-Physics: Cold Atoms and Nanocrystals in Tapered Nanofiber and High-Q Resonator Potentials

DTIC Science & Technology

2016-11-02

STIR- Physics : Cold Atoms and Nanocrystals in Tapered Nanofiber and High-Q Resonator Potentials We worked on a tapered fiber in cold atomic cloud...reviewed journals: Number of Papers published in non peer-reviewed journals: Final Report: STIR- Physics : Cold Atoms and Nanocrystals in Tapered Nanofiber...other than abstracts): Number of Peer-Reviewed Conference Proceeding publications (other than abstracts): Books Number of Manuscripts: 0.00Number of

PAHs molecules and heating of the interstellar gas

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Verstraete, Laurent; Leger, Alain; Dhendecourt, Louis B.; Dutuit, O.; Defourneau, D.

1989-01-01

Until now it has remained difficult to account for the rather high temperatures seen in many diffuse interstellar clouds. Various heating mechanisms have been considered: photoionization of minor species, ionization of H by cosmic rays, and photoelectric effect on small grains. Yet all these processes are either too weak or efficient under too restricting conditions to balance the observed cooling rates. A major heat source is thus still missing in the thermal balance of the diffuse gas. Using photoionization cross sections measured in the lab, it was shown that in order to balance the observed cooling rates in cold diffuse clouds (T approx. 80 K) the PAHs would have to contain 15 percent of the cosmic abundance of carbon. This value does not contradict the former estimation of 6 percent deduced from the IR emission bands since this latter is to be taken as a lower limit. Further, it was estimated that the contribution to the heating rate due to PAH's in a warm HI cloud, assuming the same PAH abundance as for a cold HI cloud, would represent a significant fraction of the value required to keep the medium in thermal balance. Thus, photoionization of PAHs might well be a major heat source for the cold and warm HI media.

Boundary conditions for the paleoenvironment: Chemical and physical processes in the pre-solar nebula

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Irvine, William M.; Schloerb, F. Peter

1987-01-01

Detailed study of the first interstellar hydrocarbon ring, cyclopropenylidene (C3H2), is continuing. The singly deuterated isotope of this molecule, C3HD, was observed in several cold interstellar clouds. The results of a large survey for C3H2 in galactic sources of various types will soon be completed. It appears that cyclopropenylidene is present in virtually all interstellar clouds of at least moderate density. In order to make the first determinations of the CO2/CO abundance ratio in interstellar sources, observations of protonated CO2 were pursued. The spectrum from 18.5 to 22 GHz for several interstellar clouds is being systematically measured. Particular attention is being given to the cold, dark clouds TMC-1 and L124N, which may be formation sites for solar mass stars. The phenomena of maser emission from molecules of methanol is being studied in certain interstellar clouds. A comparison of 1 millimeter continuum emission from dust with the column density of carbon monoxide as determined from the rare C(18)O isotope for 4 molecular clouds in the Galaxy is nearing completion. Papers published during the period of this report are listed.

Fundamental Physics

NASA Image and Video Library

2003-02-09

This image depicts the formation of multiple whirlpools in a sodium gas cloud. Scientists who cooled the cloud and made it spin created the whirlpools in a Massachusetts Institute of Technology laboratory, as part of NASA-funded research. This process is similar to a phenomenon called starquakes that appear as glitches in the rotation of pulsars in space. MIT's Wolgang Ketterle and his colleagues, who conducted the research under a grant from the Biological and Physical Research Program through NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif., cooled the sodium gas to less than one millionth of a degree above absolute zero (-273 Celsius or -460 Fahrenheit). At such extreme cold, the gas cloud converts to a peculiar form of matter called Bose-Einstein condensate, as predicted by Albert Einstein and Satyendra Bose of India in 1927. No physical container can hold such ultra-cold matter, so Ketterle's team used magnets to keep the cloud in place. They then used a laser beam to make the gas cloud spin, a process Ketterle compares to stroking a ping-pong ball with a feather until it starts spirning. The spinning sodium gas cloud, whose volume was one- millionth of a cubic centimeter, much smaller than a raindrop, developed a regular pattern of more than 100 whirlpools.

A Survey of Precipitation-Induced Atmospheric Cold Pools over Oceans and Their Interactions with the Larger-Scale Environment

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Zuidema, Paquita; Torri, Giuseppe; Muller, Caroline; Chandra, Arunchandra

2017-11-01

Pools of air cooled by partial rain evaporation span up to several hundreds of kilometers in nature and typically last less than 1 day, ultimately losing their identity to the large-scale flow. These fundamentally differ in character from the radiatively-driven dry pools defining convective aggregation. Advancement in remote sensing and in computer capabilities has promoted exploration of how precipitation-induced cold pool processes modify the convective spectrum and life cycle. This contribution surveys current understanding of such cold pools over the tropical and subtropical oceans. In shallow convection with low rain rates, the cold pools moisten, preserving the near-surface equivalent potential temperature or increasing it if the surface moisture fluxes cannot ventilate beyond the new surface layer; both conditions indicate downdraft origin air from within the boundary layer. When rain rates exceed ˜ 2 mm h^{-1}, convective-scale downdrafts can bring down drier air of lower equivalent potential temperature from above the boundary layer. The resulting density currents facilitate the lifting of locally thermodynamically favorable air and can impose an arc-shaped mesoscale cloud organization. This organization allows clouds capable of reaching 4-5 km within otherwise dry environments. These are more commonly observed in the northern hemisphere trade wind regime, where the flow to the intertropical convergence zone is unimpeded by the equator. Their near-surface air properties share much with those shown from cold pools sampled in the equatorial Indian Ocean. Cold pools are most effective at influencing the mesoscale organization when the atmosphere is moist in the lower free troposphere and dry above, suggesting an optimal range of water vapor paths. Outstanding questions on the relationship between cold pools, their accompanying moisture distribution and cloud cover are detailed further. Near-surface water vapor rings are documented in one model inside but near the cold pool edge; these are not consistent with observations, but do improve with smaller horizontal grid spacings.

A Survey of Precipitation-Induced Atmospheric Cold Pools over Oceans and Their Interactions with the Larger-Scale Environment

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Zuidema, Paquita; Torri, Giuseppe; Muller, Caroline; Chandra, Arunchandra

Pools of air cooled by partial rain evaporation span up to several hundreds of kilometers in nature and typically last less than 1 day, ultimately losing their identity to the large-scale flow. These fundamentally differ in character from the radiatively-driven dry pools defining convective aggregation. Advancement in remote sensing and in computer capabilities has promoted exploration of how precipitation-induced cold pool processes modify the convective spectrum and life cycle. This contribution surveys current understanding of such cold pools over the tropical and subtropical oceans. In shallow convection with low rain rates, the cold pools moisten, preserving the near-surface equivalent potential temperature or increasing it if the surface moisture fluxes cannot ventilate beyond the new surface layer; both conditions indicate downdraft origin air from within the boundary layer. When rain rates exceed 2 mm h-1, convective-scale downdrafts can bring down drier air of lower equivalent potential temperature from above the boundary layer. The resulting density currents facilitate the lifting of locally thermodynamically favorable air and can impose an arc-shaped mesoscale cloud organization. This organization allows clouds capable of reaching 4-5 km within otherwise dry environments. These are more commonly observed in the northern hemisphere trade wind regime, where the flow to the intertropical convergence zone is unimpeded by the equator. Their near-surface air properties share much with those shown from cold pools sampled in the equatorial Indian Ocean. Cold pools are most effective at influencing the mesoscale organization when the atmosphere is moist in the lower free troposphere and dry above, suggesting an optimal range of water vapor paths. Outstanding questions on the relationship between cold pools, their accompanying moisture distribution and cloud cover are detailed further. Near-surface water vapor rings are documented in one model inside but near the cold pool edge; these are not consistent with observations, but do improve with smaller horizontal grid spacings.

Artist's Rendering of Multiple Whirlpools in a Sodium Gas Cloud

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

2003-01-01

This image depicts the formation of multiple whirlpools in a sodium gas cloud. Scientists who cooled the cloud and made it spin created the whirlpools in a Massachusetts Institute of Technology laboratory, as part of NASA-funded research. This process is similar to a phenomenon called starquakes that appear as glitches in the rotation of pulsars in space. MIT's Wolgang Ketterle and his colleagues, who conducted the research under a grant from the Biological and Physical Research Program through NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif., cooled the sodium gas to less than one millionth of a degree above absolute zero (-273 Celsius or -460 Fahrenheit). At such extreme cold, the gas cloud converts to a peculiar form of matter called Bose-Einstein condensate, as predicted by Albert Einstein and Satyendra Bose of India in 1927. No physical container can hold such ultra-cold matter, so Ketterle's team used magnets to keep the cloud in place. They then used a laser beam to make the gas cloud spin, a process Ketterle compares to stroking a ping-pong ball with a feather until it starts spirning. The spinning sodium gas cloud, whose volume was one- millionth of a cubic centimeter, much smaller than a raindrop, developed a regular pattern of more than 100 whirlpools.

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Zardecki, A.

The effect of multiple scattering on the validity of the Beer-Lambert law is discussed for a wide range of particle-size parameters and optical depths. To predict the amount of received radiant power, appropriate correction terms are introduced. For particles larger than or comparable to the wavelength of radiation, the small-angle approximation is adequate; whereas for small densely packed particles, the diffusion theory is advantageously employed. These two approaches are used in the context of the problem of laser-beam propagation in a dense aerosol medium. In addition, preliminary results obtained by using a two-dimensional finite-element discrete-ordinates transport code are described. Multiple-scatteringmore » effects for laser propagation in fog, cloud, rain, and aerosol cloud are modeled.« less

A-Train Observations of Deep Convective Storm Tops

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Setvak, Martin; Bedka, Kristopher; Lindsey, Daniel T.; Sokol, Alois; Charvat, Zdenek; Stastka, Jindrich; Wang, Pao K.

2013-01-01

The paper highlights simultaneous observations of tops of deep convective clouds from several space-borne instruments including the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) of the Aqua satellite, Cloud Profiling Radar (CPR) of the CloudSat satellite, and Cloud-Aerosol Lidar with Orthogonal Polarization (CALIOP) flown on the CALIPSO satellite. These satellites share very close orbits, thus together with several other satellites they are referred to as the "A-Train" constellation. Though the primary responsibility of these satellites and their instrumentation is much broader than observations of fine-scale processes atop convective storms, in this study we document how data from the A-Train can contribute to a better understanding and interpretation of various storm-top features, such as overshooting tops, cold-U/V and cold ring features with their coupled embedded warm areas, above anvil ice plumes and jumping cirrus. The relationships between MODIS multi-spectral brightness temperature difference (BTD) fields and cloud top signatures observed by the CPR and CALIOP are also examined in detail to highlight the variability in BTD signals across convective storm events.

VARIATIONS BETWEEN DUST AND GAS IN THE DIFFUSE INTERSTELLAR MEDIUM. II. SEARCH FOR COLD GAS

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Reach, William T.; Heiles, Carl; Bernard, Jean-Philippe, E-mail: wreach@sofia.usra.edu

2017-01-01

The content of interstellar clouds, in particular the inventory of diffuse molecular gas, remains uncertain. We identified a sample of isolated clouds, approximately 100 M {sub ⊙} in size, and used the dust content to estimate the total amount of gas. In Paper I, the total inferred gas content was found significantly larger than that seen in 21 cm emission measurements of H i. In this paper we test the hypothesis that the apparent excess “dark” gas is cold H i, which would be evident in absorption but not in emission due to line saturation. The results show that theremore » is not enough 21 cm absorption toward the clouds to explain the total amount of “dark” gas.« less

Gas-phase chemistry in dense interstellar clouds including grain surface molecular depletion and desorption

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Bergin, E. A.; Langer, W. D.; Goldsmith, P. F.

1995-01-01

We present time-dependent models of the chemical evolution of molecular clouds which include depletion of atoms and molecules onto grain surfaces and desorption, as well as gas-phase interactions. We have included three mechanisms to remove species from the grain mantles: thermal evaporation, cosmic-ray-induced heating, and photodesorption. A wide range of parameter space has been explored to examine the abundance of species present both on the grain mantles and in the gas phase as a function of both position in the cloud (visual extinction) and of evolutionary state (time). The dominant mechanism that removes molecules from the grain mantles is cosmic-ray desorption. At times greater than the depletion timescale, the abundances of some simple species agree with abundances observed in the cold dark cloud TMC-1. Even though cosmic-ray desorption preserves the gas-phase chemistry at late times, molecules do show significant depletions from the gas phase. Examination of the dependence of depletion as a function of density shows that when the density increases from 10(exp 3)/cc to 10(exp 5)/cc several species including HCO(+), HCN, and CN show gas-phase abundance reductions of over an order of magnitude. The CO: H2O ratio in the grain mantles for our standard model is on the order of 10:1, in reasonable agreement with observations of nonpolar CO ice features in rho Ophiuchus and Serpens. We have also examined the interdependence of CO depletion with the space density of molecular hydrogen and binding energy to the grain surface. We find that the observed depletion of CO in Taurus in inconsistent with CO bonding in an H2O rich mantle, in agreement with observations. We suggest that if interstellar grains consist of an outer layer of CO ice, then the binding energies for many species to the grain mantle may be lower than commonly used, and a significant portion of molecular material may be maintained in the gas phase.

Stormy Clouds of Star Birth

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

2004-01-01

Hidden behind a shroud of dust in the constellation Cygnus is an exceptionally bright source of radio emission called DR21. Visible light images reveal no trace of what is happening in this region because of heavy dust obscuration. In fact, visible light is attenuated in DR21 by a factor of more than 10,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000, 000,000,000,000 (ten thousand trillion heptillion).

New images from NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope allow us to peek behind the cosmic veil and pinpoint one of the most massive natal stars yet seen in our Milky Way galaxy. The never-before-seen star is 100,000 times as bright as the Sun. Also revealed for the first time is a powerful outflow of hot gas emanating from this star and bursting through a giant molecular cloud.

This image shows a 24-micron image mosaic, obtained with the Multiband Imaging Photometer aboard Spitzer (MIPS). This image maps the cooler infrared emission from interstellar dust found throughout the interstellar medium. The DR21 complex is clearly seen near the center of the strip, which covers about twice the area of the IRAC image.

Perhaps the most fascinating feature in this image is a long and shadowy linear filament extending towards the 10 o'clock position of DR21. This jet of cold and dense gas, nearly 50 light-years in extent, appears in silhouette against a warmer background. This filament is too long and massive to be a stellar jet and may have formed from a pre-existing molecular cloud core sculpted by DR21's strong winds. Regardless of its true nature, this jet and the numerous other arcs and wisps of cool dust signify the interstellar turbulence normally unseen by the human eye.

CO2 lidar observations of Mount Pinatubo debris: FIRE 2 and longer-term measurements

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Levinson, David H.; Post, Madison J.; Grund, Christian J.

1993-01-01

The volcanic debris in the stratosphere from the June 1991 eruption of Mt. Pinatubo first appeared over the NOAA Wave Propagation Laboratory (WPL) field site near Boulder, Colorado (40.15 N, 105.23 W), in July of 1991. The presence of the Pinatubo cloud has allowed us to characterize both the tropospheric and stratospheric aerosol backscatter using the NOAA/WPL CO2 Doppler lidar. The lidar has measured vertical backscatter profiles at lambda = 10.59 mu m for over a decade. Analysis of this dense set of profiles reveals the effects of atmospheric and microphysical processes during the buildup and decay of Mt. Pinatubo's clouds. Further information on the NOAA lidar, specifically calibrations using a hard target, can be found in Post and Cupp (1990). We present results of those measurements for June 15, 1991, through December 31, 1992. During that period of longer-term measurements, WPL took part in FIRE II (First ISCCP (International Satellite Cloud Climatology Project) Regional Experiment II), from November 12 through December 8, 1991, measuring vertical backscatter profiles almost daily. One of the mechanisms for purging stratospheric aerosols is tropopause folding, which occurs in cold-core extratropical cyclones. Tropospheric mass loading occurs during folding events which can substantially increase the amount of ice nuclei in the upper troposphere, and may affect the formation of cirrus in that region. Spring and fall are prominent times for tropopause folding events because of the migration of the subtropical and polar jet streams during the transition seasons. Sassen has suggested that the volcanic aerosols from Pinatubo played a role in the formation of cirrus during FIRE II, particularly during a period of moist subtropical flow on December 5-6, 1991.

Electron-acoustic solitary waves in dense quantum electron-ion plasmas

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Misra, A. P.; Shukla, P. K.; Bhowmik, C.

2007-08-15

A quantum hydrodynamic (QHD) model is used to investigate the propagation characteristics of nonlinear electron-acoustic solitary waves (EASWs) in a dense quantum plasma whose constituents are two groups of electrons: one inertial cold electrons and other inertialess hot electrons, and the stationary ions which form the neutralizing background. By using the standard reductive perturbation technique, a Kadomtsev-Petviashvili (KP) equation, which governs the dynamics of EASWs, is derived in both spherical and cylindrical geometry. The effects of cold electrons and the density correlations due to quantum fluctuations on the profiles of the amplitudes and widths of the solitary structures are examinedmore » numerically. The nondimensional parameter {delta}=n{sub c0}/n{sub h0}, which is the equilibrium density ratio of the cold to hot electron component, is shown to play a vital role in the formation of both bright and dark solitons. It is also found that the angular dependence of the physical quantities and the presence of cold electrons in a quantum plasma lead to the coexistence of some new interesting novel solitary structures quite distinctive from the classical ones.« less

Conceptualizing the self organization of cloud cells, cold pools and soil moisture

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Henneberg, O.; Härter, J. O. M.

2017-12-01

Convective-type cloud is the cause of extreme, short-duration precipitation, challenging weather forecasting and climate modeling. Such extremes are ultimately tied to the uneven redistribution of water in the course of convective self organization and possibly the interaction between clouds [1]. Over land, moisture is organized through: cloud cells, cold pools, and the land surface. Each of these generally capture and release moisture at different rates, e.g. cold pools form quickly but dissipate slowly. Such distinct timescales have implications for the emergent dynamics.Incorporating such distinct time scales, we here present a conceptual model for the spatio-temporal self organization within the diurnal cycle of convection and describe the possible role of soil moisture memory in serving as a predisposition for extremes.We bolster our findings by high resolution, large eddy simulations: Sensible and latent heat fluxes, which are determined by the soil moisture content, can influence the stability of the atmosphere. The onset of initial precipitation is affected by such heat release, which in turn is modified by previous precipitation. Starting from static heat sources, we quantify how their spatial distribution affects the self organization and thus onset, duration and strength of precipitation events in an idealized model setup. Furthermore, an extended model setup with inhomogeneous, self organized distributions of latent and sensible heat fluxes is used to contrast how emergent soil moisture patterns impact on the selforganization structure of convection. Our findings may have implications for the role of land use changes regarding the development of extreme convective precipitation.Reference[1] Moseley et al. (2016) "Intensification of convective extremes driven by cloud-cloud interaction", Nature Geosc. , 9, 748-752

The chemistry of planet-forming regions is not interstellar.

PubMed

Pontoppidan, Klaus M; Blevins, Sandra M

2014-01-01

Advances in infrared and submillimeter technology have allowed for detailed observations of the molecular content of the planet-forming regions of protoplanetary disks. In particular, disks around solar-type stars now have growing molecular inventories that can be directly compared with both prestellar chemistry and that inferred for the early solar nebula. The data directly address the old question of whether the chemistry of planet-forming matter is similar or different and unique relative to the chemistry of dense clouds and protostellar envelopes. The answer to this question may have profound consequences for the structure and composition of planetary systems. The practical challenge is that observations of emission lines from disks do not easily translate into chemical concentrations. Here, we present a two-dimensional radiative transfer model of RNO 90, a classical protoplanetary disk around a solar-mass star, and retrieve the concentrations of dominant molecular carriers of carbon, oxygen and nitrogen in the terrestrial region around 1 AU. We compare our results to the chemical inventory of dense clouds and protostellar envelopes, and argue that inner disk chemistry is, as expected, fundamentally different from prestellar chemistry. We find that the clearest discriminant may be the concentration of CO2, which is extremely low in disks, but one of the most abundant constituents of dense clouds and protostellar envelopes.

Design of laboratory experiments to study radiation-driven implosions

DOE PAGES

Keiter, P. A.; Trantham, M.; Malamud, G.; ...

2017-02-03

The interstellar medium is heterogeneous with dense clouds amid an ambient medium. Radiation from young OB stars asymmetrically irradiate the dense clouds. Bertoldi (1989) developed analytic formulae to describe possible outcomes of these clouds when irradiated by hot, young stars. One of the critical parameters that determines the cloud’s fate is the number of photon mean free paths in the cloud. For the extreme cases where the cloud size is either much greater than or much less than one mean free path, the radiation transport should be well understood. However, as one transitions between these limits, the radiation transport ismore » much more complex and is a challenge to solve with many of the current radiation transport models implemented in codes. In this paper, we present the design of laboratory experiments that use a thermal source of x-rays to asymmetrically irradiate a low-density plastic foam sphere. The experiment will vary the density and hence the number of mean free paths of the sphere to study the radiation transport in different regimes. Finally, we have developed dimensionless parameters to relate the laboratory experiment to the astrophysical system and we show that we can perform the experiment in the same transport regime.« less

Externally fed star formation: a numerical study

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Mohammadpour, Motahareh; Stahler, Steven W.

2013-08-01

We investigate, through a series of numerical calculations, the evolution of dense cores that are accreting external gas up to and beyond the point of star formation. Our model clouds are spherical, unmagnetized configurations with fixed outer boundaries, across which gas enters subsonically. When we start with any near-equilibrium state, we find that the cloud's internal velocity also remains subsonic for an extended period, in agreement with observations. However, the velocity becomes supersonic shortly before the star forms. Consequently, the accretion rate building up the protostar is much greater than the benchmark value c_s^3/G, where cs is the sound speed in the dense core. This accretion spike would generate a higher luminosity than those seen in even the most embedded young stars. Moreover, we find that the region of supersonic infall surrounding the protostar races out to engulf much of the cloud, again in violation of the observations, which show infall to be spatially confined. Similar problematic results have been obtained by all other hydrodynamic simulations to date, regardless of the specific infall geometry or boundary conditions adopted. Low-mass star formation is evidently a quasi-static process, in which cloud gas moves inward subsonically until the birth of the star itself. We speculate that magnetic tension in the cloud's deep interior helps restrain the infall prior to this event.

Diagnosing Cloud Biases in the GFDL AM3 Model With Atmospheric Classification

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Evans, Stuart; Marchand, Roger; Ackerman, Thomas

In this paper, we define a set of 21 atmospheric states, or recurring weather patterns, for a region surrounding the Atmospheric Radiation Measurement Program's Southern Great Plains site using an iterative clustering technique. The states are defined using dynamic and thermodynamic variables from reanalysis, tested for statistical significance with cloud radar data from the Southern Great Plains site, and are determined every 6 h for 14 years, creating a time series of atmospheric state. The states represent the various stages of the progression of synoptic systems through the region (e.g., warm fronts, warm sectors, cold fronts, cold northerly advection, andmore » high-pressure anticyclones) with a subset of states representing summertime conditions with varying degrees of convective activity. We use the states to classify output from the NOAA/Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Laboratory AM3 model to test the model's simulation of the frequency of occurrence of the states and of the cloud occurrence during each state. The model roughly simulates the frequency of occurrence of the states but exhibits systematic cloud occurrence biases. Comparison of observed and model-simulated International Satellite Cloud Climatology Project histograms of cloud top pressure and optical thickness shows that the model lacks high thin cloud under all conditions, but biases in thick cloud are state-dependent. Frontal conditions in the model do not produce enough thick cloud, while fair-weather conditions produce too much. Finally, we find that increasing the horizontal resolution of the model improves the representation of thick clouds under all conditions but has little effect on high thin clouds. However, increasing resolution also changes the distribution of states, causing an increase in total cloud occurrence bias.« less

Using In Situ Observations and Satellite Retrievals to Constrain Large-Eddy Simulations and Single-Column Simulations: Implications for Boundary-Layer Cloud Parameterization in the NASA GISS GCM

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Remillard, J.

2015-12-01

Two low-cloud periods from the CAP-MBL deployment of the ARM Mobile Facility at the Azores are selected through a cluster analysis of ISCCP cloud property matrices, so as to represent two low-cloud weather states that the GISS GCM severely underpredicts not only in that region but also globally. The two cases represent (1) shallow cumulus clouds occurring in a cold-air outbreak behind a cold front, and (2) stratocumulus clouds occurring when the region was dominated by a high-pressure system. Observations and MERRA reanalysis are used to derive specifications used for large-eddy simulations (LES) and single-column model (SCM) simulations. The LES captures the major differences in horizontal structure between the two low-cloud fields, but there are unconstrained uncertainties in cloud microphysics and challenges in reproducing W-band Doppler radar moments. The SCM run on the vertical grid used for CMIP-5 runs of the GCM does a poor job of representing the shallow cumulus case and is unable to maintain an overcast deck in the stratocumulus case, providing some clues regarding problems with low-cloud representation in the GCM. SCM sensitivity tests with a finer vertical grid in the boundary layer show substantial improvement in the representation of cloud amount for both cases. GCM simulations with CMIP-5 versus finer vertical gridding in the boundary layer are compared with observations. The adoption of a two-moment cloud microphysics scheme in the GCM is also tested in this framework. The methodology followed in this study, with the process-based examination of different time and space scales in both models and observations, represents a prototype for GCM cloud parameterization improvements.

Diagnosing Cloud Biases in the GFDL AM3 Model With Atmospheric Classification

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Evans, Stuart; Marchand, Roger; Ackerman, Thomas; Donner, Leo; Golaz, Jean-Christophe; Seman, Charles

2017-12-01

We define a set of 21 atmospheric states, or recurring weather patterns, for a region surrounding the Atmospheric Radiation Measurement Program's Southern Great Plains site using an iterative clustering technique. The states are defined using dynamic and thermodynamic variables from reanalysis, tested for statistical significance with cloud radar data from the Southern Great Plains site, and are determined every 6 h for 14 years, creating a time series of atmospheric state. The states represent the various stages of the progression of synoptic systems through the region (e.g., warm fronts, warm sectors, cold fronts, cold northerly advection, and high-pressure anticyclones) with a subset of states representing summertime conditions with varying degrees of convective activity. We use the states to classify output from the NOAA/Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Laboratory AM3 model to test the model's simulation of the frequency of occurrence of the states and of the cloud occurrence during each state. The model roughly simulates the frequency of occurrence of the states but exhibits systematic cloud occurrence biases. Comparison of observed and model-simulated International Satellite Cloud Climatology Project histograms of cloud top pressure and optical thickness shows that the model lacks high thin cloud under all conditions, but biases in thick cloud are state-dependent. Frontal conditions in the model do not produce enough thick cloud, while fair-weather conditions produce too much. We find that increasing the horizontal resolution of the model improves the representation of thick clouds under all conditions but has little effect on high thin clouds. However, increasing resolution also changes the distribution of states, causing an increase in total cloud occurrence bias.

Diagnosing Cloud Biases in the GFDL AM3 Model With Atmospheric Classification

DOE PAGES

Evans, Stuart; Marchand, Roger; Ackerman, Thomas; ...

2017-11-16

In this paper, we define a set of 21 atmospheric states, or recurring weather patterns, for a region surrounding the Atmospheric Radiation Measurement Program's Southern Great Plains site using an iterative clustering technique. The states are defined using dynamic and thermodynamic variables from reanalysis, tested for statistical significance with cloud radar data from the Southern Great Plains site, and are determined every 6 h for 14 years, creating a time series of atmospheric state. The states represent the various stages of the progression of synoptic systems through the region (e.g., warm fronts, warm sectors, cold fronts, cold northerly advection, andmore » high-pressure anticyclones) with a subset of states representing summertime conditions with varying degrees of convective activity. We use the states to classify output from the NOAA/Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Laboratory AM3 model to test the model's simulation of the frequency of occurrence of the states and of the cloud occurrence during each state. The model roughly simulates the frequency of occurrence of the states but exhibits systematic cloud occurrence biases. Comparison of observed and model-simulated International Satellite Cloud Climatology Project histograms of cloud top pressure and optical thickness shows that the model lacks high thin cloud under all conditions, but biases in thick cloud are state-dependent. Frontal conditions in the model do not produce enough thick cloud, while fair-weather conditions produce too much. Finally, we find that increasing the horizontal resolution of the model improves the representation of thick clouds under all conditions but has little effect on high thin clouds. However, increasing resolution also changes the distribution of states, causing an increase in total cloud occurrence bias.« less

Formation of a katabatic induced cold front at the east Andean slopes

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Trachte, K.; Nauss, T.,; Rollenbeck, R.; Bendix, J.

2009-04-01

Within the DFG research unit 816, climate dynamics in a tropical mountain rain forest in the national reserve of the Reserva Biósfera de San Francisco in South Ecuador are investigated. Precipitation measurements in the mountain environment of the Estación Científica de San Francisco (ECSF) with a vertical rain radar profiler have been made over the last seven years. They reveal unexpected constant early morning rainfall events. On the basis of cloud top temperatures from corresponding GOES satellite imageries, a Mesoscale Convective System could be derived. Its formation region is located south-east of the ECSF in the Peruvian Amazon basin. The generation of the MCS is assumed to results from an interaction of both local and mesoscale conditions. Nocturnal drainage air from the Andean slopes and valleys confluences in the Amazon basin due to the concave lined terrain. This cold air converges with the warm-moist air of the Amazon inducing a local cold front. This process yields to deep convection resulting in a MCS. With the numerical model ARPS the hypothesized formation of a cloud cluster due to a katabatic induced cold front is shown in an ideal case study. Therefor an ideal terrain model representing the features of the Andes in the target area has been used. The simplification of the oprography concerns a concave lined slope and a valley draining into the basin. It describes the confluence of the cold drainage air due to the shape of the terrain. Inside the basin the generation of a local cold front is shown, which triggers the formation of a cloud cluster.

Spectroscopy and Chemistry of Cold Molecules

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Momose, Takamasa

2012-06-01

Molecules at low temperatures are expected to behave quite differently from those at high temperatures because pronounced quantum effects emerge from thermal averages. Even at 10 K, a significant enhancement of reaction cross section is expected due to tunneling and resonance effects. Chemistry at this temperature is very important in order to understand chemical reactions in interstellar molecular clouds. At temperatures lower than 1 K, collisions and intermolecular interactions become qualitatively different from those at high temperatures because of the large thermal de Broglie wavelength of molecules. Collisions at these temperatures must be treated as the interference of molecular matter waves, but not as hard sphere collisions. A Bose-Einstein condensate is a significant state of matter as a result of coherent matter wave interaction. Especially, dense para-H_2 molecules are predicted to become a condensate even around 1 K. A convenient method to investigate molecules around 1 K is to dope molecules in cold matrices. Among various matrices, quantum hosts such as solid para-H_2 and superfluid He nano-droplets have been proven to be an excellent host for high-resolution spectroscopy. Rovibrational motion of molecules in these quantum hosts is well quantized on account of the weak interactions and the softness of quantum environment. The linewidths of infrared spectra of molecules in the quantum hosts are extremely narrow compared with those in other matrices. The sharp linewidths allow us to resolve fine spectral structures originated in subtle interactions between guest and host molecules. In this talk, I will describe how the splitting and lineshape of high-resolution spectra of molecules in quantum hosts give us new information on the static and dynamical interactions of molecules in quantum medium. The topics include dynamical response of superfluid environment upon rotational excitation, and possible superfluid phase of para-H_2 clusters. I will also describe our current efforts to make free cold molecules for the study of cold chemistry.

Influence of snow temperature on avalanche impact pressure

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Sovilla, Betty; Koehler, Anselm; Steinkogler, Walter; Fischer, Jan-Thomas

2015-04-01

The properties of the snow entrained by an avalanche during its motion (density, temperature) significantly affect flow dynamics and can determine whether the flowing material forms granules or maintains its original fine-grained structure. In general, a cold and light snow cover typically fluidizes, while warmer and more cohesive snow may form a granular denser layer in a flowing avalanche. This structural difference has a fundamental influence not only in the mobility of the flow but also on the impact pressure of avalanches. Using measurements of impact pressure, velocity, density and snow temperature performed at the Swiss Vallée de la Sionne full-scale test site, we show that, impact pressure fundamentally changes with snow temperature. A transition threshold of about -2°C is determined, the same temperature at which snow granulation starts. On the one hand warm avalanches, characterized by temperatures larger than -2°C, move as a plug and exert impact pressures linearly proportional to the avalanche depth. For Froude numbers larger than 1, an additional square-velocity dependent contribution cannot be neglected. On the other hand cold avalanches, characterized by a temperature smaller than -2°C, move as dense sheared flows, or completely dilute powder clouds and exert impact pressures, which are mainly proportional to the square of the flow velocity. For these avalanches the impact pressures strongly depend on density variations within the flow. We suggest that the proposed temperature threshold can be used as a criterion to define the transition between the impact pressures exerted by warm and cold avalanches, thus offering a new way to elude the notorious difficulties in defining the differences between wet and dry flow, respectively.

Water in dense molecular clouds

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Wannier, P.G.; Kuiper, T.B.H.; Frerking, M.A.

1991-08-01

The G.P. Kuiper Airborne Observatory (KAO) was used to make initial observations of the half-millimeter ground-state transition of water in seven giant molecular clouds and in two late-type stars. No significant detections were made, and the resulting upper limits are significantly below those expected from other, indirect observations and from several theoretical models. The implied interstellar H2O/CO abundance is less than 0.003 in the cores of three giant molecular clouds. This value is less than expected from cloud chemistry models and also than estimates based on HDO and H3O(+) observations. 78 refs.

Calibrating the HISA temperature: Measuring the temperature of the Riegel-Crutcher cloud

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Dénes, H.; McClure-Griffiths, N. M.; Dickey, J. M.; Dawson, J. R.; Murray, C. E.

2018-06-01

H I self absorption (HISA) clouds are clumps of cold neutral hydrogen (H I) visible in front of warm background gas, which makes them ideal places to study the properties of the cold atomic component of the interstellar medium (ISM). The Riegel-Crutcher (R-C) cloud is the most striking HISA feature in the Galaxy. It is one of the closest HISA clouds to us and is located in the direction of the Galactic Centre, which provides a bright background. High-resolution interferometric measurements have revealed the filamentary structure of this cloud, however it is difficult to accurately determine the temperature and the density of the gas without optical depth measurements. In this paper we present new H I absorption observations with the Australia Telescope Compact Array (ATCA) against 46 continuum sources behind the Riegel-Crutcher cloud to directly measure the optical depth of the cloud. We decompose the complex H I absorption spectra into Gaussian components using an automated machine learning algorithm. We find 300 Gaussian components, from which 67 are associated with the R-C cloud (0 < vLSR < 10 km s-1, FWHM <10 km s-1). Combining the new H I absorption data with H I emission data from previous surveys we calculate the spin temperature and find it to be between 20 and 80 K. Our measurements uncover a temperature gradient across the cloud with spin temperatures decreasing towards positive Galactic latitudes. We also find three new OH absorption lines associated with the cloud, which support the presence of molecular gas.

Hydrodynamic simulations of mechanical stellar feedback in a molecular cloud formed by thermal instability

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Wareing, C. J.; Pittard, J. M.; Falle, S. A. E. G.

2017-09-01

We have used the AMR hydrodynamic code, mg, to perform 3D hydrodynamic simulations with self-gravity of stellar feedback in a spherical clumpy molecular cloud formed through the action of thermal instability. We simulate the interaction of the mechanical energy input from 15, 40, 60 and 120 M⊙ stars into a 100 pc diameter 16 500 M⊙ cloud with a roughly spherical morphology with randomly distributed high-density condensations. The stellar winds are introduced using appropriate non-rotating Geneva stellar evolution models. In the 15 M⊙ star case, the wind has very little effect, spreading around a few neighbouring clumps before becoming overwhelmed by the cloud collapse. In contrast, in the 40, 60 and 120 M⊙ star cases, the more powerful stellar winds create large cavities and carve channels through the cloud, breaking out into the surrounding tenuous medium during the wind phase and considerably altering the cloud structure. After 4.97, 3.97 and 3.01 Myr, respectively, the massive stars explode as supernovae (SNe). The wind-sculpted surroundings considerably affect the evolution of these SN events as they both escape the cloud along wind-carved channels and sweep up remaining clumps of cloud/wind material. The 'cloud' as a coherent structure does not survive the SN from any of these stars, but only in the 120 M⊙ case is the cold molecular material completely destabilized and returned to the unstable thermal phase. In the 40 and 60 M⊙ cases, coherent clumps of cold material are ejected from the cloud by the SN, potentially capable of further star formation.

The Photoevaporation of a Neutral Structure by an EUV+FUV Radiation Field

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Lora, Veronica; Vasconcelos, M. J.; Raga, A. C.; Cerqueira, A. H.; Esquivel, A.

The expansion of an HII region into a surrounding inhomogeneous molecular cloud, leads to the formation of elongated "elephant trunk" structures. The EUV photo-ionising radiation and FUV dissociating radiation from newly born stars photo-evaporate their parental neutral cloud, leading to the formation of dense clumps in the tips of elephant trunks, that could in principle eventually form stars. We study th effects of including a photo-dissociating FUV flux in models of fragmentation of a photo-evaporating, self-gravitating molecular cloud.

Lessons learned from LNG safety research.

PubMed

Koopman, Ronald P; Ermak, Donald L

2007-02-20

During the period from 1977 to 1989, the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) conducted a liquefied gaseous fuels spill effects program under the sponsorship of the US Department of Energy, Department of Transportation, Gas Research Institute and others. The goal of this program was to develop and validate tools that could be used to predict the effects of a large liquefied gas spill through the execution of large scale field experiments and the development of computer models to make predictions for conditions under which tests could not be performed. Over the course of the program, three series of LNG spill experiments were performed to study cloud formation, dispersion, combustion and rapid phase transition (RPT) explosions. The purpose of this paper is to provide an overview of this program, the lessons learned from 12 years of research as well as some recommendations for the future. The general conclusion from this program is that cold, dense gas related phenomena can dominate the dispersion of a large volume, high release rate spill of LNG especially under low ambient wind speed and stable atmospheric conditions, and therefore, it is necessary to include a detailed and validated description of these phenomena in computer models to adequately predict the consequences of a release. Specific conclusions include: * LNG vapor clouds are lower and wider than trace gas clouds and tend to follow the downhill slope of terrain due to dampened vertical turbulence and gravity flow within the cloud. Under low wind speed, stable atmospheric conditions, a bifurcated, two lobed structure develops. * Navier-Stokes models provide the most complete description of LNG dispersion, while more highly parameterized Lagrangian models were found to be well suited to emergency response applications. * The measured heat flux from LNG vapor cloud burns exceeded levels necessary for third degree burns and were large enough to ignite most flammable materials. * RPTs are of two types, source generated and enrichment generated, and were observed to increase the burn area by a factor of two and to extend the downwind burn distance by 65%. Additional large scale experiments and model development are recommended.

Planck 2015 results. XXVIII. The Planck Catalogue of Galactic cold clumps

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Planck Collaboration; Ade, P. A. R.; Aghanim, N.; Arnaud, M.; Ashdown, M.; Aumont, J.; Baccigalupi, C.; Banday, A. J.; Barreiro, R. B.; Bartolo, N.; Battaner, E.; Benabed, K.; Benoît, A.; Benoit-Lévy, A.; Bernard, J.-P.; Bersanelli, M.; Bielewicz, P.; Bonaldi, A.; Bonavera, L.; Bond, J. R.; Borrill, J.; Bouchet, F. R.; Boulanger, F.; Bucher, M.; Burigana, C.; Butler, R. C.; Calabrese, E.; Catalano, A.; Chamballu, A.; Chiang, H. C.; Christensen, P. R.; Clements, D. L.; Colombi, S.; Colombo, L. P. L.; Combet, C.; Couchot, F.; Coulais, A.; Crill, B. P.; Curto, A.; Cuttaia, F.; Danese, L.; Davies, R. D.; Davis, R. J.; de Bernardis, P.; de Rosa, A.; de Zotti, G.; Delabrouille, J.; Désert, F.-X.; Dickinson, C.; Diego, J. M.; Dole, H.; Donzelli, S.; Doré, O.; Douspis, M.; Ducout, A.; Dupac, X.; Efstathiou, G.; Elsner, F.; Enßlin, T. A.; Eriksen, H. K.; Falgarone, E.; Fergusson, J.; Finelli, F.; Forni, O.; Frailis, M.; Fraisse, A. A.; Franceschi, E.; Frejsel, A.; Galeotta, S.; Galli, S.; Ganga, K.; Giard, M.; Giraud-Héraud, Y.; Gjerløw, E.; González-Nuevo, J.; Górski, K. M.; Gratton, S.; Gregorio, A.; Gruppuso, A.; Gudmundsson, J. E.; Hansen, F. K.; Hanson, D.; Harrison, D. L.; Helou, G.; Henrot-Versillé, S.; Hernández-Monteagudo, C.; Herranz, D.; Hildebrandt, S. R.; Hivon, E.; Hobson, M.; Holmes, W. A.; Hornstrup, A.; Hovest, W.; Huffenberger, K. M.; Hurier, G.; Jaffe, A. H.; Jaffe, T. R.; Jones, W. C.; Juvela, M.; Keihänen, E.; Keskitalo, R.; Kisner, T. S.; Knoche, J.; Kunz, M.; Kurki-Suonio, H.; Lagache, G.; Lamarre, J.-M.; Lasenby, A.; Lattanzi, M.; Lawrence, C. R.; Leonardi, R.; Lesgourgues, J.; Levrier, F.; Liguori, M.; Lilje, P. B.; Linden-Vørnle, M.; López-Caniego, M.; Lubin, P. M.; Macías-Pérez, J. F.; Maggio, G.; Maino, D.; Mandolesi, N.; Mangilli, A.; Marshall, D. J.; Martin, P. G.; Martínez-González, E.; Masi, S.; Matarrese, S.; Mazzotta, P.; McGehee, P.; Melchiorri, A.; Mendes, L.; Mennella, A.; Migliaccio, M.; Mitra, S.; Miville-Deschênes, M.-A.; Moneti, A.; Montier, L.; Morgante, G.; Mortlock, D.; Moss, A.; Munshi, D.; Murphy, J. A.; Naselsky, P.; Nati, F.; Natoli, P.; Netterfield, C. B.; Nørgaard-Nielsen, H. U.; Noviello, F.; Novikov, D.; Novikov, I.; Oxborrow, C. A.; Paci, F.; Pagano, L.; Pajot, F.; Paladini, R.; Paoletti, D.; Pasian, F.; Patanchon, G.; Pearson, T. J.; Pelkonen, V.-M.; Perdereau, O.; Perotto, L.; Perrotta, F.; Pettorino, V.; Piacentini, F.; Piat, M.; Pierpaoli, E.; Pietrobon, D.; Plaszczynski, S.; Pointecouteau, E.; Polenta, G.; Pratt, G. W.; Prézeau, G.; Prunet, S.; Puget, J.-L.; Rachen, J. P.; Reach, W. T.; Rebolo, R.; Reinecke, M.; Remazeilles, M.; Renault, C.; Renzi, A.; Ristorcelli, I.; Rocha, G.; Rosset, C.; Rossetti, M.; Roudier, G.; Rubiño-Martín, J. A.; Rusholme, B.; Sandri, M.; Santos, D.; Savelainen, M.; Savini, G.; Scott, D.; Seiffert, M. D.; Shellard, E. P. S.; Spencer, L. D.; Stolyarov, V.; Sudiwala, R.; Sunyaev, R.; Sutton, D.; Suur-Uski, A.-S.; Sygnet, J.-F.; Tauber, J. A.; Terenzi, L.; Toffolatti, L.; Tomasi, M.; Tristram, M.; Tucci, M.; Tuovinen, J.; Umana, G.; Valenziano, L.; Valiviita, J.; Van Tent, B.; Vielva, P.; Villa, F.; Wade, L. A.; Wandelt, B. D.; Wehus, I. K.; Yvon, D.; Zacchei, A.; Zonca, A.

2016-09-01

We present the Planck Catalogue of Galactic Cold Clumps (PGCC), an all-sky catalogue of Galactic cold clump candidates detected by Planck. This catalogue is the full version of the Early Cold Core (ECC) catalogue, which was made available in 2011 with the Early Release Compact Source Catalogue (ERCSC) and which contained 915 high signal-to-noise sources. It is based on the Planck 48-month mission data that are currently being released to the astronomical community. The PGCC catalogue is an observational catalogue consisting exclusively of Galactic cold sources. The three highest Planck bands (857, 454, and 353 GHz) have been combined with IRAS data at 3 THz to perform a multi-frequency detection of sources colder than their local environment. After rejection of possible extragalactic contaminants, the PGCC catalogue contains 13188 Galactic sources spread across the whole sky, I.e., from the Galactic plane to high latitudes, following the spatial distribution of the main molecular cloud complexes. The median temperature of PGCC sources lies between 13 and 14.5 K, depending on the quality of the flux density measurements, with a temperature ranging from 5.8 to 20 K after removing the sources with the top 1% highest temperature estimates. Using seven independent methods, reliable distance estimates have been obtained for 5574 sources, which allows us to derive their physical properties such as their mass, physical size, mean density, and luminosity.The PGCC sources are located mainly in the solar neighbourhood, but also up to a distance of 10.5 kpc in the direction of the Galactic centre, and range from low-mass cores to large molecular clouds. Because of this diversity and because the PGCC catalogue contains sources in very different environments, the catalogue is useful for investigating the evolution from molecular clouds to cores. Finally, it also includes 54 additional sources located in the Small and Large Magellanic Clouds.

Planck 2015 results: XXVIII. The Planck Catalogue of Galactic cold clumps

DOE PAGES

Ade, P. A. R.; Aghanim, N.; Arnaud, M.; ...

2016-09-20

Here, we present the Planck Catalogue of Galactic Cold Clumps (PGCC), an all-sky catalogue of Galactic cold clump candidates detected by Planck. This catalogue is the full version of the Early Cold Core (ECC) catalogue, which was made available in 2011 with the Early Release Compact Source Catalogue (ERCSC) and which contained 915 high signal-to-noise sources. It is based on the Planck 48-month mission data that are currently being released to the astronomical community. The PGCC catalogue is an observational catalogue consisting exclusively of Galactic cold sources. The three highest Planck bands (857, 454, and 353 GHz) have been combinedmore » with IRAS data at 3 THz to perform a multi-frequency detection of sources colder than their local environment. After rejection of possible extragalactic contaminants, the PGCC catalogue contains 13188 Galactic sources spread across the whole sky, i.e., from the Galactic plane to high latitudes, following the spatial distribution of the main molecular cloud complexes. The median temperature of PGCC sources lies between 13 and 14.5 K, depending on the quality of the flux density measurements, with a temperature ranging from 5.8 to 20 K after removing the sources with the top 1% highest temperature estimates. Using seven independent methods, reliable distance estimates have been obtained for 5574 sources, which allows us to derive their physical properties such as their mass, physical size, mean density, and luminosity.The PGCC sources are located mainly in the solar neighbourhood, but also up to a distance of 10.5 kpc in the direction of the Galactic centre, and range from low-mass cores to large molecular clouds. Because of this diversity and because the PGCC catalogue contains sources in very different environments, the catalogue is useful for investigating the evolution from molecular clouds to cores. Finally, it also includes 54 additional sources located in the Small and Large Magellanic Clouds.« less

Molecular gas in high-mass filament WB673

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kirsanova, Maria S.; Salii, Svetlana V.; Sobolev, Andrej M.; Olofsson, Anders Olof Henrik; Ladeyschikov, Dmitry A.; Thomasson, Magnus

2017-12-01

We studied the distribution of dense gas in a filamentary molecular cloud containing several dense clumps. The center of the filament is given by the dense clump WB673. The clumps are high-mass and intermediate-mass starforming regions. We observed CS (2-1), 13CO (1-0), C18O(1-0), and methanol lines at 96 GHz toward WB673 with the Onsala Space Observatory 20-m telescope. We found CS (2-1) emission in the inter-clump medium so the clumps are physically connected and the whole cloud is indeed a filament. Its total mass is 104 M⊙ and mass-to-length ratio is 360M⊙ pc-1 from 13CO (1-0) data. Mass-to-length ratio for the dense gas is 3.4 - 34M⊙ pc-1 from CS (2-1) data. The PV-diagram of the filament is V-shaped. We estimated physical conditions in the molecular gas using methanol lines. Location of the filament on the sky between extended shells suggests that it could be a good example to test theoretical models of formation of the filaments via multiple compression of interstellar gas by supersonic waves.

Global Average Brightness Temperature for April 2003

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

2003-01-01

[figure removed for brevity, see original site] Figure 1

This image shows average temperatures in April, 2003, observed by AIRS at an infrared wavelength that senses either the Earth's surface or any intervening cloud. Similar to a photograph of the planet taken with the camera shutter held open for a month, stationary features are captured while those obscured by moving clouds are blurred. Many continental features stand out boldly, such as our planet's vast deserts, and India, now at the end of its long, clear dry season. Also obvious are the high, cold Tibetan plateau to the north of India, and the mountains of North America. The band of yellow encircling the planet's equator is the Intertropical Convergence Zone (ITCZ), a region of persistent thunderstorms and associated high, cold clouds. The ITCZ merges with the monsoon systems of Africa and South America. Higher latitudes are increasingly obscured by clouds, though some features like the Great Lakes, the British Isles and Korea are apparent. The highest latitudes of Europe and Eurasia are completely obscured by clouds, while Antarctica stands out cold and clear at the bottom of the image.

The Atmospheric Infrared Sounder Experiment, with its visible, infrared, and microwave detectors, provides a three-dimensional look at Earth's weather. Working in tandem, the three instruments can make simultaneous observations all the way down to the Earth's surface, even in the presence of heavy clouds. With more than 2,000 channels sensing different regions of the atmosphere, the system creates a global, 3-D map of atmospheric temperature and humidity and provides information on clouds, greenhouse gases, and many other atmospheric phenomena. The AIRS Infrared Sounder Experiment flies onboard NASA's Aqua spacecraft and is managed by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif., under contract to NASA. JPL is a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena.

Optimization of In-Situ Shot-Peening-Assisted Cold Spraying Parameters for Full Corrosion Protection of Mg Alloy by Fully Dense Al-Based Alloy Coating

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Wei, Ying-Kang; Luo, Xiao-Tao; Li, Cheng-Xin; Li, Chang-Jiu

2017-01-01

Magnesium-based alloys have excellent physical and mechanical properties for a lot of applications. However, due to high chemical reactivity, magnesium and its alloys are highly susceptible to corrosion. In this study, Al6061 coating was deposited on AZ31B magnesium by cold spray with a commercial Al6061 powder blended with large-sized stainless steel particles (in-situ shot-peening particles) using nitrogen gas. Microstructure and corrosion behavior of the sprayed coating was investigated as a function of shot-peening particle content in the feedstock. It is found that by introducing the in-situ tamping effect using shot-peening (SP) particles, the plastic deformation of deposited particles is significantly enhanced, thereby resulting in a fully dense Al6061 coating. SEM observations reveal that no SP particle is deposited into Al6061 coating at the optimization spraying parameters. Porosity of the coating significantly decreases from 10.7 to 0.4% as the SP particle content increases from 20 to 60 vol.%. The electrochemical corrosion experiments reveal that this novel in-situ SP-assisted cold spraying is effective to deposit fully dense Al6061 coating through which aqueous solution is not permeable and thus can provide exceptional protection of the magnesium-based materials from corrosion.

LNG vapor barrier and obstacle evaluation: Wind-tunnel simulation of 1987 Falcon Spill Series. Final report, July 1987-February 1991

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Shin, S.H.; Meroney, R.N.; Neff, D.E.

1991-03-01

Measurements of the behavior of simulated liquefied natural gas clouds dispersing over small-scale model placed in environmental wind tunnels permits evaluations of the fluid physics of dense cloud movement and dispersion in a controlled environment. A large data base on the interaction of simulated LNG plumes with the Falcon test configuration of vapor barrier fences and vortex generators was obtained. The purpose of the reported test program is to provide post-field-spill wind tunnel experiments to augment the LNG Vapor Fence Field Program data obtained during the Falcon Test Series in 1987. The goal of the program is to determine themore » probable response of a dense LNG Vapor cloud to vortex inducer obstacles and fences, examine the sensitivity of results to various scaling arguments which might augment limit, or extend the value of the field and wind-tunnel tests, and identify important details of the spill behavior which were not predicted during the pretest planning phase.« less

The molecular composition of dense interstellar clouds

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Allen, M.; Robinson, G. W.

1977-01-01

Presented in this paper is an ab initio chemical model for dense interstellar clouds that incorporates 598 grain surface reactions, with small grains providing the reaction area. Gas-phase molecules are depleted through collisions with grains. The abundances of 372 chemical species are calculated as a function of time and are found to be of sufficient magnitude to explain most observations. Peak abundances are achieved on time scales of the order of 100,000 to 1 million years, depending on cloud density and kinetic temperature. The reaction rates for ion-molecule chemistry are approximately the same, indicating that surface and gas-phase chemistry may be coupled in certain regions. The composition of grain mantles is shown to be a function of grain radius. In certain grain-size ranges, large molecules containing two or more heavy atoms are more predominant than lighter 'ices' - H2O, NH3, and CH4. It is possible that absorption due to these large molecules in the mantle may contribute to the observed 3-micron band in astronomical spectra.

Experimental evidence for glycolaldehyde and ethylene glycol formation by surface hydrogenation of CO molecules under dense molecular cloud conditions

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Fedoseev, G.; Cuppen, H. M.; Ioppolo, S.; Lamberts, T.; Linnartz, H.

2015-04-01

This study focuses on the formation of two molecules of astrobiological importance - glycolaldehyde (HC(O)CH2OH) and ethylene glycol (H2C(OH)CH2OH) - by surface hydrogenation of CO molecules. Our experiments aim at simulating the CO freeze-out stage in interstellar dark cloud regions, well before thermal and energetic processing become dominant. It is shown that along with the formation of H2CO and CH3OH - two well-established products of CO hydrogenation - also molecules with more than one carbon atom form. The key step in this process is believed to be the recombination of two HCO radicals followed by the formation of a C-C bond. The experimentally established reaction pathways are implemented into a continuous-time random-walk Monte Carlo model, previously used to model the formation of CH3OH on astrochemical time-scales, to study their impact on the solid-state abundances in dense interstellar clouds of glycolaldehyde and ethylene glycol.

Time dependent chemistry in dense molecular clouds. I - Grain surface reactions, gas/grain interactions and infrared spectroscopy

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Dhendecourt, L. B.; Allamandola, L. J.; Greenberg, J. M.

1985-01-01

For the fist time, a time-dependent model is described which includes the role of grains in the production of molecules in dense clouds including ion-molecule gas phase chemistry. The approach provides information regarding the coupling between the two phases. Although the coupling between the two chemistries is extremely strong, the two domains maintain their own identities. While H2O, CH4, and NH3 are made efficiently, with a high production rate on grains and released back to the gas phase, the gas phase is essentially responsible for the formation of CO, a very stable molecule which may or may not react on grains with atomic oxygen and may or may not form CO2.

Organic Chemistry in Interstellar Ices: Connection to the Comet Halley Results

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Schutte, W. A.; Agarwal, V. K.; deGroot, M. S.; Greenberg, J. M.; McCain, P.; Ferris, J. P.; Briggs, R.

1997-01-01

Mass spectroscopic measurements on the gas and dust in the coma of Comet Halley revealed the presence of considerable amounts of organic species. Greenberg (1973) proposed that prior to the formation of the comet UV processing of the ice mantles on grains in dense clouds could lead to the formation of complex organic molecules. Theoretical predictions of the internal UV field in dense clouds as well as the discovery in interstellar ices of species like OCS and OCN- which have been formed in simulation experiments by photoprocessing of interstellar ice analogues point to the importance of such processing. We undertook a laboratory simulation study of the formation of organic molecules in interstellar ices and their possible relevance to the Comet Halley results.

Tropical Storm Ernesto over Cuba

NASA Image and Video Library

2006-08-28

This infrared image shows Tropical Storm Ernesto over Cuba, from the Atmospheric Infrared Sounder AIRS on NASA Aqua satellite in August, 2006. Because infrared radiation does not penetrate through clouds, AIRS infrared images show either the temperature of the cloud tops or the surface of the Earth in cloud-free regions. The lowest temperatures (in purple) are associated with high, cold cloud tops that make up the top of the storm. In cloud-free areas the AIRS instrument will receive the infrared radiation from the surface of the Earth, resulting in the warmest temperatures (orange/red). http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA00510

Typhoon Ioke in the Western Pacific

NASA Image and Video Library

2006-08-29

This infrared image shows Typhoon Ioke in the Western Pacific, from the Atmospheric Infrared Sounder AIRS on NASA Aqua satellite in August, 2006. Because infrared radiation does not penetrate through clouds, AIRS infrared images show either the temperature of the cloud tops or the surface of the Earth in cloud-free regions. The lowest temperatures (in purple) are associated with high, cold cloud tops that make up the top of the storm. In cloud-free areas the AIRS instrument will receive the infrared radiation from the surface of the Earth, resulting in the warmest temperatures (orange/red). http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA00511

Hurricane Ileana in the Eastern Pacific

NASA Image and Video Library

2006-08-22

This is an infrared image of Hurricane Ileana in the Eastern Pacific, from the Atmospheric Infrared Sounder (AIRS) on NASA's Aqua satellite on August 22, 2006. This AIRS image shows the temperature of the cloud tops or the surface of the Earth in cloud-free regions. The lowest temperatures (in purple) are associated with high, cold cloud tops that make up the top of the storm. The infrared signal does not penetrate through clouds. Where there are no clouds the AIRS instrument reads the infrared signal from the surface of the Earth, revealing warmer temperatures (red). http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA00509

A characteristic scale for cold gas

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

McCourt, Michael; Oh, S. Peng; O'Leary, Ryan; Madigan, Ann-Marie

2018-02-01

We find that clouds of optically thin, pressure-confined gas are prone to fragmentation as they cool below ∼106 K. This fragmentation follows the lengthscale ∼cstcool, ultimately reaching very small scales (∼0.1 pc/n), as they reach the temperature ∼104 K at which hydrogen recombines. While this lengthscale depends on the ambient pressure confining the clouds, we find that the column density through an individual fragment Ncloudlet ∼ 1017 cm-2 is essentially independent of environment; this column density represents a characteristic scale for atomic gas at 104 K. We therefore suggest that 'clouds' of cold, atomic gas may, in fact, have the structure of a mist or a fog, composed of tiny fragments dispersed throughout the ambient medium. We show that this scale emerges in hydrodynamic simulations, and that the corresponding increase in the surface area may imply rapid entrainment of cold gas. We also apply it to a number of observational puzzles, including the large covering fraction of diffuse gas in galaxy haloes, the broad-line widths seen in quasar and AGN spectra and the entrainment of cold gas in galactic winds. While our simulations make a number of assumptions and thus have associated uncertainties, we show that this characteristic scale is consistent with a number of observations, across a wide range of astrophysical environments. We discuss future steps for testing, improving and extending our model.

Refrigeration of the 18.3 GHz C_3H_2 Transition in Dark Clouds G1.6-0.25

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Kuiper, T. B. H.; Whiteoak, J. B.; Peng, R. -S.; Peters, W. L., III; Reynolds, J. E.

1993-01-01

We have observed the 1_(10)-1_(01) (18.3 GHz) transition of orthocyclopropenylidene, C_(-3)H_(-2), at 24 positions in the unusual dense cloud G1.6- 0.025. Except for one position, the transition is refrigerated, a phenomenon which has not been seen in this transition before.

Odd cloud in the Ross Sea, Antarctica

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

2002-01-01

On January 28, 2002, MODIS captured this image of an interesting cloud formation in the boundary waters between Antarctica's Ross Sea and the Southern Ocean. A dragon? A snake? A fish? No, but it is an interesting example of the atmospheric physics of convection. The 'eye' of this dragon-looking cloud is likely a small spot of convection, the process by which hot moist air rises up into the atmosphere, often producing big, fluffy clouds as moisture in the air condenses as rises into the colder parts of the atmosphere. A false color analysis that shows different kinds of clouds in different colors reveals that the eye is composed of ice crystals while the 'body' is a liquid water cloud. This suggests that the eye is higher up in the atmosphere than the body. The most likely explanation for the eye feature is that the warm, rising air mass had enough buoyancy to punch through the liquid water cloud. As a convective parcel of air rises into the atmosphere, it pushes the colder air that is higher up out of its way. That cold air spills down over the sides of the convective air mass, and in this case has cleared away part of the liquid cloud layer below in the process. This spilling over of cold air from higher up in the atmosphere is the reason why thunderstorms are often accompanied by a cool breeze. Credit: Jacques Descloitres, MODIS Land Rapid Response Team, NASA/GSFC

Using Satellite Observations to Infer the Relationship Between Cold Pools and Subsequent Convection Development

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Elsaesser, Gregory

2015-01-01

Cold pools are increasingly being recognized as important players in the evolution of both shallow and deep convection; hence, the incorporation of cold pool processes into a number of recently developed convective parameterizations. Unfortunately, observations serving to inform cold pool parameterization development are limited to select field programs and limited radar domains. However, a number of recent studies have noted that cold pools are often associated with arcs-lines of shallow clouds traversing 10 100 km in visible satellite imagery. Boundary layer thermodynamic perturbations are plausible at such scales, coincident with such mesoscale features. Atmospheric signatures of features at these spatial scales are potentially observable from satellites. In this presentation, we discuss recent work that uses multi-sensor, high-resolution satellite products for observing mesoscale wind vector fluctuations and boundary layer temperature depressions attributed to cold pools produced by antecedent convection. The relationship to subsequent convection as well as convective system longevity is discussed. As improvements in satellite technology occur and efforts to reduce noise in high-resolution orbital products progress, satellite pixel level (10 km) thermodynamic and dynamic (e.g. mesoscale convergence) parameters can increasingly serve as useful benchmarks for constraining convective parameterization development, including for regimes where organized convection contributes substantially to the cloud and rainfall climatology.

Analysis of Meteorological Data Obtained During Flight in a Supercooled Stratiform Cloud of High Liquid-Water Content

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Perkins, Porter J.; Kline, Dwight B.

1951-01-01

Flight icing-rate data obtained in a dense and. abnormally deep supercooled stratiform cloud system indicated the existence of liquid-water contents generally exceeding values in amount and extent previously reported over the midwestern sections of the United States. Additional information obtained during descent through a part of the cloud system indicated liquid-water contents that significantly exceeded theoretical values, especially near the middle of the cloud layer.. The growth of cloud droplets to sizes that resulted in sedimentation from the upper portions of the cloud is considered to be a possible cause of the high water contents near the center of the cloud layer. Flight measurements of the vertical temperature distribution in the cloud layer indicated a rate of change of temperature with altitude exceeding that of the moist adiabatic lapse rate. This excessive rate of change is considered to have contributed to the severity of the condition.

Local time variations of the middle atmosphere of Venus: Solar-related structures

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Zasova, L.; Khatountsev, I. V.; Ignatiev, N. I.; Moroz, V. I.

Three-dimensional fields (latitude — altitude — local time) of temperature and aerosol in the upper clouds, obtained from the Venera-15 IR spectrometry data, were studied to search for the solar-related structures. The temperature variation at the isobaric levels vs. solar longitude was presented as a superposition of the cosines with periods of 1, 1/2, 1/3 and 1/4 Venusian days. At low latitudes the diurnal tidal component reaches a maximum above 0.2 mb (92km) level. At high latitudes it dominates at P> 50 mb (68 km) in the cold collar, being roughly twice as much as the semidiurnal one and passing through the maximum of 13 K at 400 mb (57 km). The semidiurnal tidal amplitude exceeds the diurnal one below 90 km (where its maximum locates near 83 km), and also in the upper clouds, above 58 km. At low latitudes the 1/3 days component predominates at 10 - 50 mb (68-76 km). In the upper clouds, where most of the solar energy, absorbed in the middle atmosphere, deposits, all four tidal components, including wavenumbers 3 and 4, have significant amplitudes. A position of the upper boundary of the clouds depends on local time in such a way that the lowest height of the clouds is observed in the morning at all selected latitude ranges. At low latitudes the highest position of the upper boundary of the clouds (at 1218 cm -1) is found at 8 - 9 PM, whereas the lowest one is near the morning terminator. At high latitudes the lowest position of the upper boundary of the clouds shifts towards the dayside being at 10:30 AM at 75° in the cold collar and the highest one shifts to 4 PM. The zonal mean altitude of the upper boundary of the clouds decreases from 69 km at 15° to 59 km at 75°. The diurnal tidal component has the highest amplitude in the cold collar (1.5 km). At low latitudes both amplitudes, diurnal and semidiurnal, reach the values 0.8 - 1 km.

Point-Cloud Compression for Vehicle-Based Mobile Mapping Systems Using Portable Network Graphics

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kohira, K.; Masuda, H.

2017-09-01

A mobile mapping system is effective for capturing dense point-clouds of roads and roadside objects Point-clouds of urban areas, residential areas, and arterial roads are useful for maintenance of infrastructure, map creation, and automatic driving. However, the data size of point-clouds measured in large areas is enormously large. A large storage capacity is required to store such point-clouds, and heavy loads will be taken on network if point-clouds are transferred through the network. Therefore, it is desirable to reduce data sizes of point-clouds without deterioration of quality. In this research, we propose a novel point-cloud compression method for vehicle-based mobile mapping systems. In our compression method, point-clouds are mapped onto 2D pixels using GPS time and the parameters of the laser scanner. Then, the images are encoded in the Portable Networking Graphics (PNG) format and compressed using the PNG algorithm. In our experiments, our method could efficiently compress point-clouds without deteriorating the quality.

Method for cold stable biojet fuel

DOEpatents

Seames, Wayne S.; Aulich, Ted

2015-12-08

Plant or animal oils are processed to produce a fuel that operates at very cold temperatures and is suitable as an aviation turbine fuel, a diesel fuel, a fuel blendstock, or any fuel having a low cloud point, pour point or freeze point. The process is based on the cracking of plant or animal oils or their associated esters, known as biodiesel, to generate lighter chemical compounds that have substantially lower cloud, pour, and/or freeze points than the original oil or biodiesel. Cracked oil is processed using separation steps together with analysis to collect fractions with desired low temperature properties by removing undesirable compounds that do not possess the desired temperature properties.

Thin Ice Clouds in Far IR Experiment: TICFIRE

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Blanchet, Jean-Pierre

The TICFIRE mission concept developed with the support of the Canadian Space Agency aims: 1) to improve measurements of water-vapor concentration in the low limit, where cold regions are most sensitive and 2) to determine the contribution of Thin Ice Clouds (TIC) to the energy balance and the role of their microphysical properties on atmospheric cooling. TICFIRE is a process-oriented mission on a micro-satellite platform dedicated to observe key parameters of TIC forming in the cold regions of the Poles and globally, in the upper troposphere. It locates cloud top profiles at the limb and measures at nadir the corresponding upwelling radiance of the atmosphere directly in the thermal window and in the Far Infrared (FIR) spectrum over cold geographical regions, precisely where most of the atmospheric thermal cooling takes place. Due to technological limitations, the FIR spectrum (17 to 50 m) is not regularly monitored by conventional sensors despite its major importance. This deficiency in key data also impacts operational weather forecasting. TICFIRE will provide on a global scale a needed contribution in calibrated radiance assimilation near the IR maximum emission to improve weather forecast. Therefore, TICFIRE is a science-driven mission with a strong operational component.

Morphology of diesel soot residuals from supercooled water droplets and ice crystals: Implications for optical properties

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

China, Swarup; Kulkarni, Gourihar; Scarnato, Barbara V.

Freshly emitted soot particles are fractal-like aggregates, but atmospheric processing often transforms their morphology. Morphology of soot particles plays an important role in determining their optical properties, life cycle and hence their effect on Earth’s radiative balance. However, little is known about the morphology of soot particles that participated in cold cloud processes. Here we report results from laboratory experiments that simulate cold cloud processing of diesel soot particles by allowing them to form supercooled droplets and ice crystals at -20 and -40°C, respectively. Electron microscopy revealed that soot residuals from ice crystals were more compact (roundness~0.55) than those frommore » supercooled droplets (roundness ~0.45), while nascent soot particles were the least compact (roundness~0.41). Optical simulations using the discrete dipole approximation showed that the more compact structure enhances soot single scattering albedo by a factor up to 1.4, thereby reducing the top-of-the-atmosphere direct radiative forcing by ~63%. Lastly, these results underscore that climate models should consider the morphological evolution of soot particles due to cold cloud processing to improve the estimate of direct radiative forcing of soot.« less

Morphology of diesel soot residuals from supercooled water droplets and ice crystals: Implications for optical properties

DOE PAGES

China, Swarup; Kulkarni, Gourihar; Scarnato, Barbara V.; ...

2015-11-01

Freshly emitted soot particles are fractal-like aggregates, but atmospheric processing often transforms their morphology. Morphology of soot particles plays an important role in determining their optical properties, life cycle and hence their effect on Earth’s radiative balance. However, little is known about the morphology of soot particles that participated in cold cloud processes. Here we report results from laboratory experiments that simulate cold cloud processing of diesel soot particles by allowing them to form supercooled droplets and ice crystals at -20 and -40°C, respectively. Electron microscopy revealed that soot residuals from ice crystals were more compact (roundness~0.55) than those frommore » supercooled droplets (roundness ~0.45), while nascent soot particles were the least compact (roundness~0.41). Optical simulations using the discrete dipole approximation showed that the more compact structure enhances soot single scattering albedo by a factor up to 1.4, thereby reducing the top-of-the-atmosphere direct radiative forcing by ~63%. Lastly, these results underscore that climate models should consider the morphological evolution of soot particles due to cold cloud processing to improve the estimate of direct radiative forcing of soot.« less

Observations of SO in dark and molecular clouds

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Rydbeck, O. E. H.; Hjalmarson, A.; Rydbeck, G.; Ellder, J.; Kollberg, E.; Irvine, W. M.

1980-01-01

The 1(0)-0(1) transition of SO at 30 GHz has been observed in several sources, including the first detection of sulfur monoxide in cold dark clouds without apparent internal energy sources. The SO transition appears to be an excellent tracer of structure in dark clouds, and the data support suggestions that self-absorption is important in determining emission profiles in such regions for large line-strength transitions. Column densities estimated from a comparison of the results for the two isotopic species indicate a high fractional abundance of SO in dark clouds.

Effect of stochastic grain heating on cold dense clouds chemistry

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Chen, Long-Fei; Chang, Qiang; Xi, Hong-Wei

2018-06-01

The temperatures of dust grains play important roles in the chemical evolution of molecular clouds. Unlike large grains, the temperature fluctuations of small grains induced by photons may be significant. Therefore, if the grain size distribution is included in astrochemical models, the temperatures of small dust grains may not be assumed to be constant. We simulate a full gas-grain reaction network with a set of dust grain radii using the classical MRN grain size distribution and include the temperature fluctuations of small dust grains. Monte Carlo method is used to simulate the real-time dust grain's temperature fluctuations which is caused by the external low energy photons and the internal cosmic ray induced secondary photons. The increase of dust grains radii as ice mantles accumulate on grain surfaces is also included in our models. We found that surface CO2 abundances in models with grain size distribution and temperature fluctuations are more than one order of magnitude larger than those with single grain size. Small amounts of terrestrial complex organic molecules (COMs) can also be formed on small grains due to the temperature spikes induced by external low energy photons. However, cosmic ray induced secondary photons overheat small grains so that surface CO sublime and less radicals are formed on grains surfaces, thus the production of surface CO2 and COMs decreases by about one order of magnitude. The overheating of small grains can be offset by grain growth so that the formation of surface CO2 and COMs becomes more efficient.

A Southern California Perspective of the April, 1998 Trans-Pacific Asian Dust Event

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Tratt, David M.; Frouin, Robert J.; Westphal, Douglas L.

1999-01-01

The Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) coherent CO2 backscatter lidar has been in almost continuous operation since 1984 and has now accumulated a significant time-series database tracking the long-term and seasonal variability of backscatter from the atmospheric column above the Pasadena, Calif. locale. A particularly noteworthy episode observed by the lidar in 1998 was a particularly extreme instance of incursion by Asian-sourced dust during the closing days of April. Such events are not uncommon during the northern spring, when strong cold fronts and convection over the Asian interior deserts loft crustal material into the mid-troposphere whence it can be transported across the Pacific Ocean, occasionally reaching the continental US. However, the abnormal strength of the initiating storm in this case generated an atypically dense cloud of material which resulted in dramatically reduced visibility along the length of the Western Seaboard. These dust events are now recognized as a potentially significant, non-negligible radiative forcing influence. The progress of the April 1998 dust cloud eastward across the Pacific Ocean was initially observed in satellite imagery and transmitted to the broader atmospheric research community via electronic communications. The use of Internet technology in this way was effective in facilitating a rapid response correlative measurement exercise by numerous atmospheric observation stations throughout the western US and its success has resulted in the subsequent establishment of an ad hoc communications environment, data exchange medium, and mechanism for providing early-warning alert of other significant atmospheric phenomena in the future.

Subsonic islands within a high-mass star-forming infrared dark cloud

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Sokolov, Vlas; Wang, Ke; Pineda, Jaime E.; Caselli, Paola; Henshaw, Jonathan D.; Barnes, Ashley T.; Tan, Jonathan C.; Fontani, Francesco; Jiménez-Serra, Izaskun; Zhang, Qizhou

2018-03-01

High-mass star forming regions are typically thought to be dominated by supersonic motions. We present combined Very Large Array and Green Bank Telescope (VLA+GBT) observations of NH3 (1,1) and (2,2) in the infrared dark cloud (IRDC) G035.39-00.33, tracing cold and dense gas down to scales of 0.07 pc. We find that, in contrast to previous, similar studies of IRDCs, more than a third of the fitted ammonia spectra show subsonic non-thermal motions (mean line width of 0.71 km s-1), and sonic Mach number distribution peaks around ℳ = 1. As possible observational and instrumental biases would only broaden the line profiles, our results provide strong upper limits to the actual value of ℳ, further strengthening our findings of narrow line widths. This finding calls for a re-evaluation of the role of turbulent dissipation and subsonic regions in massive-star and cluster formation. Based on our findings in G035.39, we further speculate that the coarser spectral resolution used in the previous VLA NH3 studies may have inhibited the detection of subsonic turbulence in IRDCs. The reduced turbulent support suggests that dynamically important magnetic fields of the 1 mG order would be required to support against possible gravitational collapse. Our results offer valuable input into the theories and simulations that aim to recreate the initial conditions of high-mass star and cluster formation.

Pattern of downstream eddies in stratocumulus clouds over Pacific Ocean

NASA Image and Video Library

1973-08-01

SL3-121-2371 (July-September 1973) --- A pattern of downstream eddies in the stratocumulus clouds over the Pacific Ocean west of Baja California, as photographed by the crewmen of the second Skylab manned mission (Skylab 3) from the space station cluster in Earth orbit. The clouds, produced by the cold California current running to the south and southwest, are prevented from rising by warm air above them. Photo credit: NASA

A New Approach for Inspection of Selected Geometric Parameters of a Railway Track Using Image-Based Point Clouds

PubMed Central

Sawicki, Piotr

2018-01-01

The paper presents the results of testing a proposed image-based point clouds measuring method for geometric parameters determination of a railway track. The study was performed based on a configuration of digital images and reference control network. A DSLR (digital Single-Lens-Reflex) Nikon D5100 camera was used to acquire six digital images of the tested section of railway tracks. The dense point clouds and the 3D mesh model were generated with the use of two software systems, RealityCapture and PhotoScan, which have implemented different matching and 3D object reconstruction techniques: Multi-View Stereo and Semi-Global Matching, respectively. The study found that both applications could generate appropriate 3D models. Final meshes of 3D models were filtered with the MeshLab software. The CloudCompare application was used to determine the track gauge and cant for defined cross-sections, and the results obtained from point clouds by dense image matching techniques were compared with results of direct geodetic measurements. The obtained RMS difference in the horizontal (gauge) and vertical (cant) plane was RMS∆ < 0.45 mm. The achieved accuracy meets the accuracy condition of measurements and inspection of the rail tracks (error m < 1 mm), specified in the Polish branch railway instruction Id-14 (D-75) and the European technical norm EN 13848-4:2011. PMID:29509679

A New Approach for Inspection of Selected Geometric Parameters of a Railway Track Using Image-Based Point Clouds.

PubMed

Gabara, Grzegorz; Sawicki, Piotr

2018-03-06

The paper presents the results of testing a proposed image-based point clouds measuring method for geometric parameters determination of a railway track. The study was performed based on a configuration of digital images and reference control network. A DSLR (digital Single-Lens-Reflex) Nikon D5100 camera was used to acquire six digital images of the tested section of railway tracks. The dense point clouds and the 3D mesh model were generated with the use of two software systems, RealityCapture and PhotoScan, which have implemented different matching and 3D object reconstruction techniques: Multi-View Stereo and Semi-Global Matching, respectively. The study found that both applications could generate appropriate 3D models. Final meshes of 3D models were filtered with the MeshLab software. The CloudCompare application was used to determine the track gauge and cant for defined cross-sections, and the results obtained from point clouds by dense image matching techniques were compared with results of direct geodetic measurements. The obtained RMS difference in the horizontal (gauge) and vertical (cant) plane was RMS∆ < 0.45 mm. The achieved accuracy meets the accuracy condition of measurements and inspection of the rail tracks (error m < 1 mm), specified in the Polish branch railway instruction Id-14 (D-75) and the European technical norm EN 13848-4:2011.

Physics and chemistry of the solar nebula.

PubMed

Lunine, J I

1997-06-01

The solar system is thought to have begun in a flattened disk of gas and dust referred to traditionally as the solar nebula. Such a construct seems to be a natural product of the collapse of dense parts of giant molecular clouds, the vast star-forming regions that pepper the Milky Way and other galaxies. Gravitational, magnetic and thermal forces within the solar nebula forced a gradual evolution of mass toward the center (where the sun formed) and angular momentum (borne by a small fraction of the mass) toward the outer more distant regions of the disk. This evolution was accompanied by heating and a strong temperature contrast from the hot, inner regions to the cold, more remote parts of the disk. The resulting chemistry in the disk determined the initial distribution of organic matter in the planets; most of the reduced carbon species, in condensed form, were located beyond the asteroid belt (the 'outer' solar system). The Earth could have received much of its inventory of pre-biological material from comets and other icy fragments of the process of planetary formation in the outer solar system.

The Teton-Yellowstone Tornado of 21 July 1987

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Fujita, T. Theodore

1989-01-01

The Teton-Yellowstone Tornado, rated F4, crossed the Continental Divide at 3070 m, leaving behind a damage swath 39.2-km long and 2.5-km wide. A detailed damage analysis by using stereo-pair and color photos revealed the existence of four spinup swirl marks and 72 microburst outflows inside the damage area. The tornado was spawned by a mesocyclone that formed at the intersection of a mesohigh boundary and a warm front. The parent cloud of the tornado, tracked on eight infrared-temperature maps from GOES East and West, moved at 25 m s-1 and the number of cold temperature pixels below -60 C reached a distinct peak during the tornado time. Identified and tracked also are two warm spots enclosed inside the cold anvil cloud. On the basis of their identity and movement, an attempt was made to explain the cause of these spots as being the stratospheric cirrus clouds.

VizieR Online Data Catalog: Dense cores in Taurus L1495 cloud (Marsh+, 2016)

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Marsh, K. A.; Kirk, J. M.; Andre, P.; Griffin, M. J.; Konyves, V.; Palmeirim, P.; Men'shchikov, A.; Ward-Thompson, D.; Benedettini, M.; Bresnahan, D. W.; di, Francesco J.; Elia, D.; Motte, F.; Peretto, N.; Pezzuto, S.; Roy, A.; Sadavoy, S.; Schneider, N.; Spinoglio, L.; White, G. J.

2017-04-01

The observational data on which the present catalogue is based consists of a set of images of the L1495 cloud in the Taurus star-forming region, made as part of the HGBS (Andre et al. 2010). The data were taken using PACS at 70, 160, 250, 350 and 500 microns in fast-scanning (60"/s) parallel mode. (2 data files).

The puzzling Venusian polar atmospheric structure reproduced by a general circulation model

PubMed Central

Ando, Hiroki; Sugimoto, Norihiko; Takagi, Masahiro; Kashimura, Hiroki; Imamura, Takeshi; Matsuda, Yoshihisa

2016-01-01

Unlike the polar vortices observed in the Earth, Mars and Titan atmospheres, the observed Venus polar vortex is warmer than the midlatitudes at cloud-top levels (∼65 km). This warm polar vortex is zonally surrounded by a cold latitude band located at ∼60° latitude, which is a unique feature called ‘cold collar' in the Venus atmosphere. Although these structures have been observed in numerous previous observations, the formation mechanism is still unknown. Here we perform numerical simulations of the Venus atmospheric circulation using a general circulation model, and succeed in reproducing these puzzling features in close agreement with the observations. The cold collar and warm polar region are attributed to the residual mean meridional circulation enhanced by the thermal tide. The present results strongly suggest that the thermal tide is crucial for the structure of the Venus upper polar atmosphere at and above cloud levels. PMID:26832195

Tropical Depression 6 Florence in the Atlantic

NASA Image and Video Library

2006-09-03

This infrared image shows Tropical Depression 6 Florence in the Atlantic, from the Atmospheric Infrared Sounder AIRS on NASA Aqua satellite in September, 2006. Because infrared radiation does not penetrate through clouds, AIRS infrared images show either the temperature of the cloud tops or the surface of the Earth in cloud-free regions. The lowest temperatures (in purple) are associated with high, cold cloud tops that make up the top of the storm. In cloud-free areas the AIRS instrument will receive the infrared radiation from the surface of the Earth, resulting in the warmest temperatures (orange/red). http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA00512

On the Global Character of Overlap Between Low and High Clouds

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Yuan, Tianle; Oreopoulos, Lazaros

2013-01-01

The global character of overlap between low and high clouds is examined using active satellite sensors. Low-cloud fraction has a strong land-ocean contrast with oceanic values double those over land. Major low-cloud regimes include not only the eastern ocean boundary stratocumulus and shallow cumulus but also those associated with cold air outbreaks downwind of wintertime continents and land stratus over particular geographic areas. Globally, about 30% of low clouds are overlapped by high clouds. The overlap rate exhibits strong spatial variability ranging from higher than 90% in the tropics to less than 5% in subsidence areas and is anticorrelated with subsidence rate and low-cloud fraction. The zonal mean of vertical separation between cloud layers is never smaller than 5 km and its zonal variation closely follows that of tropopause height, implying a tight connection with tropopause dynamics. Possible impacts of cloud overlap on low clouds are discussed.

Lidar observations of high altitude cirrus near the tropical tropopause

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Parameswaran, K.; Kumar, S. Sunil; Krishna Murthy, B.

High altitude cirrus plays a significant role in atmospheric chemistry, radiation and troposphere-stratosphere exchanges. Studies on their global morphology using satellite data (SAGE) suggests that over the tropics these clouds occur quite frequently in the altitude region around 14 to 16 km with favoured locations centred over Southern Asia, India and Mexico. A monostatic Nd:YAG lidar (operating at 532 nm wavelength) located at National MST Radar Facility (NMRF), Gadanki (13.5°N, 79.2°E) provides an excellent opportunity to study the properties of these clouds. Lidar observations for ~120 nights during the period January 1999 to March 2000 are used to investigate the physical and optical properties of these clouds aswell as their spatial (altitude) and temporal variability. Based on optical depth ( c ) cirrus clouds are classified as Sub-visual Cirrus (SVC) with c 0.03, Thin Cirrus (TC) with 0.030.3. While SVCs are observed anywhere in the altitude region 12 to 18 km, with favoured altitude above 15 km, TCs and DCs usually occur around 14.5+/-1km. The altitude region 14 to 16km appears to be more conducive for cirrus formation. Even though the geometrical thickness (vertical extent) of these clouds varies from 0.3 to 3 km, they are mostly confined to altitudes below the level of tropopause temperature inversion. The cloud optical depth maximises around the post-mid-night period. These clouds also introduce significant depolarisation for the backscattered radiation indicating presence of abundant non-spherical particles presumably ice-crystals. Under favourable conditions these ice-crystals get aligned horizontally to enhance the co - polarized component of lidar backscatter signal through specular reflection, leading to a decrease in cloud depolarisation () below the ambient molecular depolarisation (m ). Such conditions are usually encountered in the case of optically dense clouds. Altitude profile of backscatter ratio within the cloud shows that the cloud is not optically symmetric with respect to the geometric centre. This asymmetry parameter () of the cloud shows significant temporal variability. For clouds with> m , as c increases, the optical centre descends in altitude and for clouds with< m the optical centre ascends as c increases. Occurrence of cirrus clouds and their optical properties are found to be closely associated with the characteristics of atmospheric turbulence in the upper troposphere.

Unusual July 10, 1996, rock fall at Happy Isles, Yosemite National Park, California

USGS Publications Warehouse

Wieczorek, G.F.; Snyder, J.B.; Waitt, R.B.; Morrissey, M.M.; Uhrhammer, R.A.; Harp, E.L.; Norris, R.D.; Bursik, M.I.; Finewood, L.G.

2000-01-01

Effects of the July 10, 1996, rock fall at Happy Isles in Yosemite National Park, California, were unusual compared to most rock falls. Two main rock masses fell about 14 s apart from a 665-m-high cliff southeast of Glacier Point onto a talus slope above Happy Isles in the eastern part of Yosemite Valley. The two impacts were recorded by seismographs as much as 200 km away. Although the impact area of the rock falls was not particularly large, the falls generated an airblast and an abrasive dense sandy cloud that devastated a larger area downslope of the impact sites toward the Happy Isles Nature Center. Immediately downslope of the impacts, the airblast had velocities exceeding 110 m/s and toppled or snapped about 1000 trees. Even at distances of 0.5 km from impact, wind velocities snapped or toppled large trees, causing one fatality and several serious injuries beyond the Happy Isles Nature Center. A dense sandy cloud trailed the airblast and abraded fallen trunks and trees left standing. The Happy Isles rock fall is one of the few known worldwide to have generated an airblast and abrasive dense sandy cloud. The relatively high velocity of the rock fall at impact, estimated to be 110-120 m/s, influenced the severity and areal extent of the airblast at Happy Isles. Specific geologic and topographic conditions, typical of steep glaciated valleys and mountainous terrain, contributed to the rock-fall release and determined its travel path, resulting in a high velocity at impact that generated the devastating airblast and sandy cloud. The unusual effects of this rock fall emphasize the importance of considering collateral geologic hazards, such as airblasts from rock falls, in hazard assessment and planning development of mountainous areas.

Observational evidence for cloud cover enhancement over western European forests.

PubMed

Teuling, Adriaan J; Taylor, Christopher M; Meirink, Jan Fokke; Melsen, Lieke A; Miralles, Diego G; van Heerwaarden, Chiel C; Vautard, Robert; Stegehuis, Annemiek I; Nabuurs, Gert-Jan; de Arellano, Jordi Vilà-Guerau

2017-01-11

Forests impact regional hydrology and climate directly by regulating water and heat fluxes. Indirect effects through cloud formation and precipitation can be important in facilitating continental-scale moisture recycling but are poorly understood at regional scales. In particular, the impact of temperate forest on clouds is largely unknown. Here we provide observational evidence for a strong increase in cloud cover over large forest regions in western Europe based on analysis of 10 years of 15 min resolution data from geostationary satellites. In addition, we show that widespread windthrow by cyclone Klaus in the Landes forest led to a significant decrease in local cloud cover in subsequent years. Strong cloud development along the downwind edges of larger forest areas are consistent with a forest-breeze mesoscale circulation. Our results highlight the need to include impacts on cloud formation when evaluating the water and climate services of temperate forests, in particular around densely populated areas.

Magnetic seismology of interstellar gas clouds: Unveiling a hidden dimension.

PubMed

Tritsis, Aris; Tassis, Konstantinos

2018-05-11

Stars and planets are formed inside dense interstellar molecular clouds by processes imprinted on the three-dimensional (3D) morphology of the clouds. Determining the 3D structure of interstellar clouds remains challenging because of projection effects and difficulties measuring the extent of the clouds along the line of sight. We report the detection of normal vibrational modes in the isolated interstellar cloud Musca, allowing determination of the 3D physical dimensions of the cloud. We found that Musca is vibrating globally, with the characteristic modes of a sheet viewed edge on, not the characteristics of a filament as previously supposed. We reconstructed the physical properties of Musca through 3D magnetohydrodynamic simulations, reproducing the observed normal modes and confirming a sheetlike morphology. Copyright © 2018 The Authors, some rights reserved; exclusive licensee American Association for the Advancement of Science. No claim to original U.S. Government Works.

Observational evidence for cloud cover enhancement over western European forests

PubMed Central

Teuling, Adriaan J.; Taylor, Christopher M.; Meirink, Jan Fokke; Melsen, Lieke A.; Miralles, Diego G.; van Heerwaarden, Chiel C.; Vautard, Robert; Stegehuis, Annemiek I.; Nabuurs, Gert-Jan; de Arellano, Jordi Vilà-Guerau

2017-01-01

Forests impact regional hydrology and climate directly by regulating water and heat fluxes. Indirect effects through cloud formation and precipitation can be important in facilitating continental-scale moisture recycling but are poorly understood at regional scales. In particular, the impact of temperate forest on clouds is largely unknown. Here we provide observational evidence for a strong increase in cloud cover over large forest regions in western Europe based on analysis of 10 years of 15 min resolution data from geostationary satellites. In addition, we show that widespread windthrow by cyclone Klaus in the Landes forest led to a significant decrease in local cloud cover in subsequent years. Strong cloud development along the downwind edges of larger forest areas are consistent with a forest-breeze mesoscale circulation. Our results highlight the need to include impacts on cloud formation when evaluating the water and climate services of temperate forests, in particular around densely populated areas. PMID:28074840

16-year Climatology of Cirrus cloud properties using ground-based Lidar over Gadanki (13.45˚N, 79.18˚E)

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Pandit, Amit Kumar; Raghunath, Karnam; Jayaraman, Achuthan; Venkat Ratnam, Madineni; Gadhavi, Harish

Cirrus clouds are ubiquitous high level cold clouds predominantly consisting of ice-crystals. With their highest coverage over the tropics, these are one of the most vital and complex components of Tropical Tropopause Layer (TTL) due to their strong radiative feedback and dehydration in upper troposphere and lower stratosphere (UTLS) regions. The continuous changes in their coverage, position, thickness, and ice-crystal size and shape distributions bring uncertainties in the estimates of cirrus cloud radiative forcing. Long-term changes in the distribution of aerosols and water vapour in the TTL can influence cirrus properties. This necessitates long-term studies of tropical cirrus clouds, which are only few. The present study provides 16-year climatology of physical and optical properties of cirrus clouds observed using a ground-based Lidar located at Gadanki (13.45(°) N, 79.18(°) ˚E and 375 m amsl) in south-India. In general, cirrus clouds occurred for about 44% of the total Lidar observation time. Owing to the increased convective activities, the occurrence of cirrus clouds during the southwest-monsoon season is highest while it is lowest during the winter. Altitude distribution of cirrus clouds reveals that the peak occurrence was about 25% at 14.5 km. The most probable base and top height of cirrus clouds are 14 and 15.5 km, respectively. This is also reflected in the bulk extinction coefficient profile (at 532 nm) of cirrus clouds. These results are compared with the CALIPSO observations. Most of the time cirrus clouds are located within the TTL bounded by convective outflow level and cold-point tropopause. Cirrus clouds are thick during the monsoon season as compared to that during winter. An inverse relation between the thickness of cirrus clouds and TTL thickness is found. The occurrence of cirrus clouds at an altitude close to the tropopause (16 km) showed an increase of 8.4% in the last 16 years. Base and top heights of cirrus clouds also showed increase of 0.41 km and 0.56 km, respectively. These results are discussed in relation with the recent increase in the tropical tropopause altitude.

An L Band Spectrum of the Coldest Brown Dwarf

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Morley, Caroline V.; Skemer, Andrew J.; Allers, Katelyn N.; Marley, Mark. S.; Faherty, Jacqueline K.; Visscher, Channon; Beiler, Samuel A.; Miles, Brittany E.; Lupu, Roxana; Freedman, Richard S.; Fortney, Jonathan J.; Geballe, Thomas R.; Bjoraker, Gordon L.

2018-05-01

The coldest brown dwarf, WISE 0855, is the closest known planetary-mass, free-floating object and has a temperature nearly as cold as the solar system gas giants. Like Jupiter, it is predicted to have an atmosphere rich in methane, water, and ammonia, with clouds of volatile ices. WISE 0855 is faint at near-infrared wavelengths and emits almost all its energy in the mid-infrared. Skemer et al. presented a spectrum of WISE 0855 from 4.5–5.1 μm (M band), revealing water vapor features. Here, we present a spectrum of WISE 0855 in the L band, from 3.4–4.14 μm. We present a set of atmosphere models that include a range of compositions (metallicities and C/O ratios) and water ice clouds. Methane absorption is clearly present in the spectrum. The mid-infrared color can be better matched with a methane abundance that is depleted relative to solar abundance. We find that there is evidence for water ice clouds in the M band spectrum, and we find a lack of phosphine spectral features in both the L and M band spectra. We suggest that a deep continuum opacity source may be obscuring the near-infrared flux, possibly a deep phosphorous-bearing cloud, ammonium dihyrogen phosphate. Observations of WISE 0855 provide critical constraints for cold planetary atmospheres, bridging the temperature range between the long-studied solar system planets and accessible exoplanets. The James Webb Space Telescope will soon revolutionize our understanding of cold brown dwarfs with high-precision spectroscopy across the infrared, allowing us to study their compositions and cloud properties, and to infer their atmospheric dynamics and formation processes.

THERMAL PRESSURES IN THE INTERSTELLAR MEDIUM OF THE MAGELLANIC CLOUDS

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Welty, Daniel E.; York, Donald G.; Lauroesch, James T.

2016-04-20

We discuss the thermal pressures ( n {sub H} T ) in predominantly cold, neutral interstellar gas in the Magellanic Clouds, derived from analyses of the fine-structure excitation of neutral carbon, as seen in high-resolution Hubble Space Telescope /Space Telescope Imaging Spectrograph spectra of seven diverse sight lines in the LMC and SMC. Detailed fits to the line profiles of the absorption from C i, C i*, and C i** yield consistent column densities for the three to six C i multiplets detected in each sight line. In the LMC and SMC, N (C i{sub tot}) is consistent with Galacticmore » trends versus N (Na i) and N (CH), but is slightly lower versus N (K i) and N (H{sub 2}). As for N (Na i) and N (K i), N (C i{sub tot}) is generally significantly lower, for a given N (H{sub tot}), in the LMC and (especially) in the SMC, compared to the local Galactic relationship. For the LMC and SMC components with well-determined column densities for C i, C i*, and C i**, the derived thermal pressures are typically factors of a few higher than the values found for most cold, neutral clouds in the Galactic ISM. Such differences are consistent with the predictions of models for clouds in systems (like the LMC and SMC) that are characterized by lower metallicities, lower dust-to-gas ratios, and enhanced radiation fields—where higher pressures are required for stable cold, neutral clouds. The pressures may be further enhanced by energetic activity (e.g., due to stellar winds, star formation, and/or supernova remnants) in several of the regions probed by these sight lines. Comparisons are made with the C i observed in some quasar absorption-line systems.« less

Anomalous 13C isotope abundances in C3S and C4H observed toward the cold interstellar cloud, Taurus Molecular Cloud-1.

PubMed

Sakai, Nami; Takano, Shuro; Sakai, Takeshi; Shiba, Shoichi; Sumiyoshi, Yoshihiro; Endo, Yasuki; Yamamoto, Satoshi

2013-10-03

We have studied the abundances of the (13)C isotopic species of C3S and C4H in the cold molecular cloud, Taurus Molecular Cloud-1 (Cyanopolyyne Peak), by radioastronomical observations of their rotational emission lines. The CCCS/(13)CCCS and CCCS/C(13)CCS ratios are determined to be >206 and 48 ± 15, respectively. The CC(13)CS line is identified with the aid of laboratory microwave spectroscopy, and the range of the CCCS/CC(13)CS ratio is found to be from 30 to 206. The abundances of at least two (13)C isotopic species of C3S are thus found to be different. Similarly, it is found that the abundances of the four (13)C isotopic species of C4H are not equivalent. The CCCCH/(13)CCCCH, CCCCH/C(13)CCCH, CCCCH/CC(13)CCH, and CCCCH/CCC(13)CH ratios are evaluated to be 141 ± 44, 97 ± 27, 82 ± 15, and 118 ± 23, respectively. Here the errors denote 3 times the standard deviation. These results will constrain the formation pathways of C3S and C4H, if the nonequivalence is caused during the formation processes of these molecules. The exchange reactions after the formation of these two molecules may also contribute to the nonequivalence. In addition, we have confirmed that the (12)C/(13)C ratio of some species are significantly higher than the interstellar elemental (12)C/(13)C ratio of 60-70. The observations of the (13)C isotopic species provide us with rich information on chemical processes in cold interstellar clouds.

Large scale IRAM 30 m CO-observations in the giant molecular cloud complex W43

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Carlhoff, P.; Nguyen Luong, Q.; Schilke, P.; Motte, F.; Schneider, N.; Beuther, H.; Bontemps, S.; Heitsch, F.; Hill, T.; Kramer, C.; Ossenkopf, V.; Schuller, F.; Simon, R.; Wyrowski, F.

2013-12-01

We aim to fully describe the distribution and location of dense molecular clouds in the giant molecular cloud complex W43. It was previously identified as one of the most massive star-forming regions in our Galaxy. To trace the moderately dense molecular clouds in the W43 region, we initiated W43-HERO, a large program using the IRAM 30 m telescope, which covers a wide dynamic range of scales from 0.3 to 140 pc. We obtained on-the-fly-maps in 13CO (2-1) and C18O (2-1) with a high spectral resolution of 0.1 km s-1 and a spatial resolution of 12''. These maps cover an area of ~1.5 square degrees and include the two main clouds of W43 and the lower density gas surrounding them. A comparison to Galactic models and previous distance calculations confirms the location of W43 near the tangential point of the Scutum arm at approximately 6 kpc from the Sun. The resulting intensity cubes of the observed region are separated into subcubes, which are centered on single clouds and then analyzed in detail. The optical depth, excitation temperature, and H2 column density maps are derived out of the 13CO and C18O data. These results are then compared to those derived from Herschel dust maps. The mass of a typical cloud is several 104 M⊙ while the total mass in the dense molecular gas (>102 cm-3) in W43 is found to be ~1.9 × 106 M⊙. Probability distribution functions obtained from column density maps derived from molecular line data and Herschel imaging show a log-normal distribution for low column densities and a power-law tail for high densities. A flatter slope for the molecular line data probability distribution function may imply that those selectively show the gravitationally collapsing gas. Appendices are available in electronic form at http://www.aanda.orgThe final datacubes (13CO and C18O) for the entire survey are only available at the CDS via anonymous ftp to http://cdsarc.u-strasbg.fr (ftp://130.79.128.5) or via http://cdsarc.u-strasbg.fr/viz-bin/qcat?J/A+A/560/A24

Collapse and Fragmentation of Molecular Cloud Cores. VII. Magnetic Fields and Multiple Protostar Formation

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Boss, Alan P.

2002-04-01

Recent observations of star-forming regions suggest that binary and multiple young stars are the rule rather than the exception and implicate fragmentation as the likely mechanism for their formation. Most numerical hydrodynamic calculations of fragmentation have neglected the possibly deleterious effects of magnetic fields, despite ample evidence for the importance of magnetic support of precollapse clouds. We present here the first numerical hydrodynamic survey of the collapse and fragmentation of initially magnetically supported clouds that takes into account several magnetic field effects in an approximate manner. The models are calculated with a three-dimensional, finite differences code that solves the equations of hydrodynamics, gravitation, and radiative transfer in the Eddington and diffusion approximations. Magnetic field effects are included through two simple approximations: magnetic pressure is added to the gas pressure, and magnetic tension is approximated by gravity dilution once collapse is well underway. Ambipolar diffusion of the magnetic field leading to cloud collapse is treated approximately as well. Models are calculated for a variety of initial cloud density profiles, shapes, and rotation rates. We find that in spite of the inclusion of magnetic field effects, dense cloud cores are capable of fragmenting into binary and multiple protostar systems. Initially prolate clouds tend to fragment into binary protostars, while initially oblate clouds tend to fragment into multiple protostar systems containing a small number (of the order of 4) of fragments. The latter are likely to be subject to rapid orbital evolution, with close encounters possibly leading to the ejection of fragments. Contrary to expectation, magnetic tension effects appear to enhance fragmentation, allowing lower mass fragments to form than would otherwise be possible, because magnetic tension helps to prevent a central density singularity from forming and producing a dominant single object. Magnetically supported dense cloud cores thus seem to be capable of collapsing and fragmenting into sufficient numbers of binary and multiple protostar systems to be compatible with observations of the relative rarity of single protostars.

TRIGGERING COLLAPSE OF THE PRESOLAR DENSE CLOUD CORE AND INJECTING SHORT-LIVED RADIOISOTOPES WITH A SHOCK WAVE. II. VARIED SHOCK WAVE AND CLOUD CORE PARAMETERS

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Boss, Alan P.; Keiser, Sandra A., E-mail: boss@dtm.ciw.edu, E-mail: keiser@dtm.ciw.edu

2013-06-10

A variety of stellar sources have been proposed for the origin of the short-lived radioisotopes that existed at the time of the formation of the earliest solar system solids, including Type II supernovae (SNe), asymptotic giant branch (AGB) and super-AGB stars, and Wolf-Rayet star winds. Our previous adaptive mesh hydrodynamics models with the FLASH2.5 code have shown which combinations of shock wave parameters are able to simultaneously trigger the gravitational collapse of a target dense cloud core and inject significant amounts of shock wave gas and dust, showing that thin SN shocks may be uniquely suited for the task. However,more » recent meteoritical studies have weakened the case for a direct SN injection to the presolar cloud, motivating us to re-examine a wider range of shock wave and cloud core parameters, including rotation, in order to better estimate the injection efficiencies for a variety of stellar sources. We find that SN shocks remain as the most promising stellar source, though planetary nebulae resulting from AGB star evolution cannot be conclusively ruled out. Wolf-Rayet (WR) star winds, however, are likely to lead to cloud core shredding, rather than to collapse. Injection efficiencies can be increased when the cloud is rotating about an axis aligned with the direction of the shock wave, by as much as a factor of {approx}10. The amount of gas and dust accreted from the post-shock wind can exceed that injected from the shock wave, with implications for the isotopic abundances expected for a SN source.« less

Bipolar H II regions produced by cloud-cloud collisions

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Whitworth, Anthony; Lomax, Oliver; Balfour, Scott; Mège, Pierre; Zavagno, Annie; Deharveng, Lise

2018-05-01

We suggest that bipolar H II regions may be the aftermath of collisions between clouds. Such a collision will produce a shock-compressed layer, and a star cluster can then condense out of the dense gas near the center of the layer. If the clouds are sufficiently massive, the star cluster is likely to contain at least one massive star, which emits ionizing radiation, and excites an H II region, which then expands, sweeping up the surrounding neutral gas. Once most of the matter in the clouds has accreted onto the layer, expansion of the H II region meets little resistance in directions perpendicular to the midplane of the layer, and so it expands rapidly to produce two lobes of ionized gas, one on each side of the layer. Conversely, in directions parallel to the midplane of the layer, expansion of the H II region stalls due to the ram pressure of the gas that continues to fall towards the star cluster from the outer parts of the layer; a ring of dense neutral gas builds up around the waist of the bipolar H II region, and may spawn a second generation of star formation. We present a dimensionless model for the flow of ionized gas in a bipolar H II region created according to the above scenario, and predict the characteristics of the resulting free-free continuum and recombination-line emission. This dimensionless model can be scaled to the physical parameters of any particular system. Our intention is that these predictions will be useful in testing the scenario outlined above, and thereby providing indirect support for the role of cloud-cloud collisions in triggering star formation.

New Insights on Hydro-Climate Feedback Processes over the Tropical Ocean from TRMM

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Lau, William K. M.; Wu, H. T.; Li, Xiaofan; Sui, C. H.

2002-01-01

In this paper, we study hydro-climate feedback processes over the tropical oceans, by examining the relationships among large scale circulation and Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission Microwave Imager-Sea Surface Temperature (TMI-SST), and a range of TRMM rain products including rain rate, cloud liquid water, precipitable water, cloud types and areal coverage, and precipitation efficiency. Results show that for a warm event (1998), the 28C threshold of convective precipitation is quite well defined over the tropical oceans. However, for a cold event (1999), the SST threshold is less well defined, especially over the central and eastern Pacific cold tongue, where stratiform rain occurs at much lower than 28 C. Precipitation rates and cloud liquid water are found to be more closely related to the large scale vertical motion than to the underlying SST. While total columnar water vapor is more strongly dependent on SST. For a large domain, over the eastern Pacific, we find that the areal extent of the cloudy region tends to shrink as the SST increases. Examination of the relationship between cloud liquid water and rain rate suggests that the residence time of cloud liquid water tends to be shorter, associated with higher precipitation efficiency in a warmer climate. It is hypothesized that the reduction in cloudy area may be influenced both by the shift in large scale cloud patterns in response to changes in large scale forcings, and possible increase in the cloud liquid water conversion to rain water in a warmer environment. Results of numerical experiments with the Goddard cloud resolving model to test the hypothesis will be discussed.

Can Hail and Rain Nucleate Cloud Droplets?

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Weiss, S.; Prabhakaran, P.; Krekhov, A.; Pumir, A.; Bodenschatz, E.

2017-12-01

We present results from a laboratory scale moist convection experiment composed of a mixture of pressurized sulphur hexafluoride (SF6 - liquid and vapor phase) and helium (He - gas phase) to mimic the wet (saturated water vapor) and dry components (nitrogen, oxygen etc.) of the earth's atmosphere. We operate the experiments close to critical conditions to allow for homogeneous nucleation of sulphur hexafluoride droplets. The liquid SF6 pool is heated from below and the warm SF6 vapor from the liquid-vapor interface rise and condense underneath the cold top plate. We observe the nucleation of microdroplets in the wake of cold drops falling through the SF6-He atmosphere. Using classical nucleation theory, we show that the nucleation is caused by isobaric cooling of SF6 vapor in the wake of the cold drop. Furthermore, we argue that in an atmospheric cloud, falling hail and large cold raindrops may induce heterogeneous nucleation of microdroplets in their wake. We also observe that under appropriate conditions these microdroplets form a stable horizontal layer, thus separating regions of super and sub-critical saturation.

Can hail and rain nucleate cloud droplets?

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Prabhakaran, Prasanth; Weiss, Stephan; Krekhov, Alexei; Pumir, Alain; Bodenschatz, Eberhard

2017-11-01

We present results from a laboratory scale moist convection experiment composed of a mixture of pressurized sulphur hexafluoride (SF6 - liquid and vapor phase) and helium (He - gas phase) to mimic the wet (saturated water vapor) and dry components (nitrogen, oxygen etc.) of the earth's atmosphere. We operate the experiments close to critical conditions to allow for homogeneous nucleation of sulphur hexafluoride droplets. The liquid SF6 pool is heated from below and the warm SF6 vapor from the liquid-vapor interface rise and condense underneath the cold top plate. We observe the nucleation of microdroplets in the wake of cold drops falling through the SF6-He atmosphere. Using classical nucleation theory, we show that the nucleation is caused by isobaric cooling of SF6 vapor in the wake of the cold drop. Furthermore, we argue that in an atmospheric cloud, falling hail and large cold raindrops may induce heterogeneous nucleation of microdroplets in their wake. We also observe that under appropriate conditions these microdroplets form a stable horizontal layer, thus separating regions of super and sub-critical saturation.

Arbitrary electron acoustic waves in degenerate dense plasmas

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Rahman, Ata-ur; Mushtaq, A.; Qamar, A.; Neelam, S.

2017-05-01

A theoretical investigation is carried out of the nonlinear dynamics of electron-acoustic waves in a collisionless and unmagnetized plasma whose constituents are non-degenerate cold electrons, ultra-relativistic degenerate electrons, and stationary ions. A dispersion relation is derived for linear EAWs. An energy integral equation involving the Sagdeev potential is derived, and basic properties of the large amplitude solitary structures are investigated in such a degenerate dense plasma. It is shown that only negative large amplitude EA solitary waves can exist in such a plasma system. The present analysis may be important to understand the collective interactions in degenerate dense plasmas, occurring in dense astrophysical environments as well as in laser-solid density plasma interaction experiments.

Water and complex organic chemistry in the cold dark cloud Barnard 5: Observations and Models

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Wirström, Eva; Charnley, Steven B.; Taquet, Vianney; Persson, Carina M.

2015-08-01

Studies of complex organic molecule (COM) formation have traditionally been focused on hot cores in regions of massive star formation, where chemistry is driven by the elevated temperatures - evaporating ices and allowing for endothermic reactions in the gas-phase. As more sensitive instruments have become available, the types of objects known to harbour COMs like acetaldehyde (CH3CHO), dimethyl ether (CH3OCH3), methyl formate (CH3OCHO), and ketene (CH2CO) have expanded to include low mass protostars and, recently, even pre-stellar cores. We here report on the first in a new category of objects harbouring COMs: the cold dark cloud Barnard 5 where non-thermal ice desorption induce complex organic chemistry entirely unrelated to local star-formation.Methanol, which only forms efficiently on the surfaces of dust grains, provide evidence of efficient non-thermal desorption of ices in the form of prominent emission peaks offset from protostellar activity and high density tracers in cold molecular clouds. A study with Herschel targeting such methanol emission peaks resulted in the first ever detection of gas-phase water offset from protostellar activity in a dark cloud, at the so called methanol hotspot in Barnard 5.To model the effect a transient injection of ices into the gas-phase has on the chemistry of a cold, dark cloud we have included gas-grain interactions in an existing gas-phase chemical model and connected it to a chemical reaction network updated and expanded to include the formation and destruction paths of the most common COMs. Results from this model will be presented.Ground-based follow-up studies toward the methanol hotspot in B5 have resulted in the detection of a number of COMs, including CH2CO, CH3CHO, CH3OCH3, and CH3OCHO, as well as deuterated methanol (CH2DOH). Observations have also confirmed that COM emission is extended and not localised to a core structure. The implications of these observational and theoretical studies of B5 will be discussed in the context of the gas-grain interaction in dark clouds and its relation to the chemistry of the earliest phases of low-mass star formation.

Simulations of Early Structure Formation: Primordial Gas Clouds

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Yoshida, Naoki; Abel, Tom; Hernquist, Lars; Sugiyama, Naoshi

2003-08-01

We use cosmological simulations to study the origin of primordial star-forming clouds in a ΛCDM universe, by following the formation of dark matter halos and the cooling of gas within them. To model the physics of chemically pristine gas, we employ a nonequilibrium treatment of the chemistry of nine species (e-, H, H+, He, He+, He++, H2, H+2, H-) and include cooling by molecular hydrogen. By considering cosmological volumes, we are able to study the statistical properties of primordial halos, and the high resolution of our simulations enables us to examine these objects in detail. In particular, we explore the hierarchical growth of bound structures forming at redshifts z~25-30 with total masses in the range ~105-106Msolar. We find that when the amount of molecular hydrogen in these objects reaches a critical level, cooling by rotational line emission is efficient, and dense clumps of cold gas form. We identify these ``gas clouds'' as sites for primordial star formation. In our simulations, the threshold for gas cloud formation by molecular cooling corresponds to a critical halo mass of ~5×105h-1Msolar, in agreement with earlier estimates, but with a weak dependence on redshift in the range z>16. The complex interplay between the gravitational formation of dark halos and the thermodynamic and chemical evolution of the gas clouds compromises analytic estimates of the critical H2 fraction. Dynamical heating from mass accretion and mergers opposes relatively inefficient cooling by molecular hydrogen, delaying the production of star-forming clouds in rapidly growing halos. We also investigate the effect of photodissociating ultraviolet radiation on the formation of primordial gas clouds. We consider two extreme cases, first by including a uniform radiation field in the optically thin limit and second by accounting for the maximum effect of gas self-shielding in virialized regions. For radiation with Lyman-Werner band flux J>10-23 ergs s-1 cm-2 Hz-1 sr-1, hydrogen molecules are rapidly dissociated, rendering gas cooling inefficient. In both the cases we consider, the overall effect can be described by computing an equilibrium H2 abundance for the radiation flux and defining an effective shielding factor. Based on our numerical results, we develop a semianalytic model of the formation of the first stars and demonstrate how it can be coupled with large N-body simulations to predict the star formation rate in the early universe.

Deep Convective Cloud Top Heights and Their Thermodynamic Control During CRYSTAL-FACE

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Sherwood, Steven C.; Minnis, Patrick; McGill, Matthew

2004-01-01

Infrared (11 micron) radiances from GOES-8 and local radiosonde profiles, collected during the Cirrus Regional Study of Tropical Anvils and Cirrus Layers-Florida Area Cirrus Experiment (CRYSTAL-FACE) in July 2002, are used to assess the vertical distribution of Florida-area deep convective cloud top height and test predictions as to its variation based on parcel theory. The highest infrared tops (Z(sub 11)) reached approximately to the cold point, though there is at least a 1-km uncertainty due to unknown cloud-environment temperature differences. Since lidar shows that visible 'tops' are 1 km or more above Z(sub 11), visible cloud tops frequently penetrated the lapse-rate tropopause (approx. 15 km). Further, since lofted ice content may be present up to approx. 1 km above the visible tops, lofting of moisture through the mean cold point (15.4 km) was probably common. Morning clouds, and those near Key West, rarely penetrated the tropopause. Non-entraining parcel theory (i.e., CAPE) does not successfully explain either of these results, but can explain some of the day-to-day variations in cloud top height over the peninsula. Further, moisture variations above the boundary layer account for most of the day-today variability not explained by CAPE, especially over the oceans. In all locations, a 20% increase in mean mixing ratio between 750 and 500 hPa was associated with about 1 km deeper maximum cloud penetration relative to the neutral level. These results suggest that parcel theory may be useful for predicting changes in cumulus cloud height over time, but that parcel entrainment must be taken into account even for the tallest clouds. Accordingly, relative humidity above the boundary layer may exert some control on the height of the tropical troposphere.

Cloud Streets over the Atlantic Ocean

NASA Image and Video Library

2017-12-08

In the midst of a cold snap that sent temperatures 20–40°F (11–22°C) below normal across much of the United States, the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on the Terra satellite captured this image of cloud streets over the Atlantic Ocean on January 7, 2014. Cloud streets—long parallel bands of cumulus clouds—form when cold air blows over warmer waters and a warmer air layer (or temperature inversion) rests over the top of both. The comparatively warm water gives up heat and moisture to the cold air above, and columns of heated air called thermals naturally rise through the atmosphere. The temperature inversion acts like a lid, so when the rising thermals hit it, they roll over and loop back on themselves, creating parallel cylinders of rotating air. As this happens, the moisture cools and condenses into flat-bottomed, fluffy-topped cumulus clouds that line up parallel to the direction of the prevailing wind. On January 7, the winds were predominantly out of the northwest. Cloud streets can stretch for hundreds of kilometers if the land or water surface underneath is uniform. Sea surface temperature need to be at least 40°F (22°C) warmer than the air for cloud streets to form. More info: earthobservatory.nasa.gov/NaturalHazards/view.php?id=82800 NASA Earth Observatory image courtesy Jeff Schmaltz LANCE/EOSDIS MODIS Rapid Response Team, GSFC. Caption by Adam Voiland. Instrument: Terra - MODIS Credit: NASA Earth Observatory NASA image use policy. NASA Goddard Space Flight Center enables NASA’s mission through four scientific endeavors: Earth Science, Heliophysics, Solar System Exploration, and Astrophysics. Goddard plays a leading role in NASA’s accomplishments by contributing compelling scientific knowledge to advance the Agency’s mission. Follow us on Twitter Like us on Facebook Find us on Instagram

Meteorological Modeling of Wintertime Cold Air Pool Stagnation Episodes in the Uintah and Salt Lake Basins

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Crosman, E.; Horel, J.; Blaylock, B. K.; Foster, C.

2014-12-01

High wintertime ozone concentrations in rural areas associated with oil and gas development and high particulate concentrations in urban areas have become topics of increasing concern in the Western United States, as both primary and secondary pollutants become trapped within stable wintertime boundary layers. While persistent cold air pools that enable such poor wintertime air quality are typically associated with high pressure aloft and light winds, the complex physical processes that contribute to the formation, maintenance, and decay of persistent wintertime temperature inversions are only partially understood. In addition, obtaining sufficiently accurate numerical weather forecasts and meteorological simulations of cold air pools for input into chemical models remains a challenge. This study examines the meteorological processes associated with several wintertime pollution episodes in Utah's Uintah and Salt Lake Basins using numerical Weather Research and Forecasting model simulations and observations collected from the Persistent Cold Air Pool and Uintah Basin Ozone Studies. The temperature, vertical structure, and winds within these cold air pools was found to vary as a function of snow cover, snow albedo, land use, cloud cover, large-scale synoptic flow, and episode duration. We evaluate the sensitivity of key atmospheric features such as stability, planetary boundary layer depth, local wind flow patterns and transport mechanisms to variations in surface forcing, clouds, and synoptic flow. Finally, noted deficiencies in the meteorological models of cold air pools and modifications to the model snow and microphysics treatment that have resulted in improved cold pool simulations will be presented.

Photogrammetric DSM denoising

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Nex, F.; Gerke, M.

2014-08-01

Image matching techniques can nowadays provide very dense point clouds and they are often considered a valid alternative to LiDAR point cloud. However, photogrammetric point clouds are often characterized by a higher level of random noise compared to LiDAR data and by the presence of large outliers. These problems constitute a limitation in the practical use of photogrammetric data for many applications but an effective way to enhance the generated point cloud has still to be found. In this paper we concentrate on the restoration of Digital Surface Models (DSM), computed from dense image matching point clouds. A photogrammetric DSM, i.e. a 2.5D representation of the surface is still one of the major products derived from point clouds. Four different algorithms devoted to DSM denoising are presented: a standard median filter approach, a bilateral filter, a variational approach (TGV: Total Generalized Variation), as well as a newly developed algorithm, which is embedded into a Markov Random Field (MRF) framework and optimized through graph-cuts. The ability of each algorithm to recover the original DSM has been quantitatively evaluated. To do that, a synthetic DSM has been generated and different typologies of noise have been added to mimic the typical errors of photogrammetric DSMs. The evaluation reveals that standard filters like median and edge preserving smoothing through a bilateral filter approach cannot sufficiently remove typical errors occurring in a photogrammetric DSM. The TGV-based approach much better removes random noise, but large areas with outliers still remain. Our own method which explicitly models the degradation properties of those DSM outperforms the others in all aspects.

Snow Clouds and the Carbon Dioxide Cycle on Mars

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Hayne, P. O.; Paige, D. A.

2009-12-01

The present climate of Mars is strongly influenced by the energy balance at the planet’s poles, with ~30% of the atmospheric mass exchanged seasonally with the polar ice caps. While the spring and summer sublimation process is observable in sunlight, the deposition process occurs in the darkness of polar night. We present direct radiometric observations of carbon dioxide snow clouds from the Mars Climate Sounder (MCS) and estimate the rate of deposition due to snowfall. We also present radiative transfer models capable of reproducing the observations and providing constraints on the radiative and thermal properties of the cap-atmosphere system. Snow clouds display a multi-layered structure with greatest opacity near the surface and extending to typical altitudes of about 20 km, with equivalent normal visible optical depths of ~0.1. Our modeling suggests the observed carbon dioxide snow grains are ~10 μm in radius, implying modest deposition rates, and suggesting the majority of the seasonal cap is deposited in a vertical region within one MCS field of view (or ~1 km) of the surface. Models reproducing the MCS limb observations only reproduce the nadir observations if the surface (or near-surface) is an optically thick layer of small (< 100 μm radius) carbon dioxide grains, which are therefore the primary cause of radiometrically cold areas (“cold spots”) observed since the Viking era. For the extreme polar regions, a persistent, ~500 km diameter snow cloud is strongly coupled to the most active cold spots, and smaller clouds (< 50 km diameter) in the latitude range 60-80°, though unobserved, cannot be ruled out by the MCS data. Based on this correlation, and observations of cold spots recurring near topographic slopes, we conclude that deposition is indeed linked to cloud formation, with the majority of material condensing below ~1 km altitude. Optically thin water ice layers are necessary to accurately model the MCS spectrum, particularly at altitudes above 20 km. This suggests water ice functions as the required condensation nucleus, consistent with earlier laboratory and theoretical studies. Important hemispherical differences are observed in the deposition process: 1) northern clouds are optically thicker at middle altitudes, ~5-15 km; 2) southern clouds are more often “detached”, showing a local maximum opacity near 20-25 km altitude; 3) mode particle radii are larger (~100 μm versus ~10 μm) in the north. Total normal optical depths are typically higher by a factor of ~2 in the north, and water ice content is relatively higher. Energy balance constraints can be placed on the system by MCS observations of outgoing infrared flux, which we map through time as an effective emissivity by taking account of the topography from MOLA and the expected frost point temperature.

Discovery of lake-effect clouds on Titan

USGS Publications Warehouse

Brown, M.E.; Schaller, E.L.; Roe, H.G.; Chen, C.; Roberts, J.; Brown, R.H.; Baines, K.H.; Clark, R.N.

2009-01-01

Images from instruments on Cassini as well as from telescopes on the ground reveal the presence of sporadic small-scale cloud activity in the cold late-winter north polar region of Saturn's large moon Titan. These clouds lie underneath the previously discovered uniform polar cloud attributed to a quiescent ethane cloud at ???40 km and appear confined to the same latitudes as those of the largest known hydrocarbon lakes at the north pole of Titan. The physical properties of these clouds suggest that they are due to methane convection and condensation. Such convection could be caused by a process in some ways analogous to terrestrial lake-effect clouds. The lakes on Titan could be a key connection between the surface and the meteorological cycle. ?? 2009 by the American Geophysical Union.

From aerosol-limited to invigoration of warm convective clouds.

PubMed

Koren, Ilan; Dagan, Guy; Altaratz, Orit

2014-06-06

Among all cloud-aerosol interactions, the invigoration effect is the most elusive. Most of the studies that do suggest this effect link it to deep convective clouds with a warm base and cold top. Here, we provide evidence from observations and numerical modeling of a dramatic aerosol effect on warm clouds. We propose that convective-cloud invigoration by aerosols can be viewed as an extension of the concept of aerosol-limited clouds, where cloud development is limited by the availability of cloud-condensation nuclei. A transition from pristine to slightly polluted atmosphere yields estimated negative forcing of ~15 watts per square meter (cooling), suggesting that a substantial part of this anthropogenic forcing over the oceans occurred at the beginning of the industrial era, when the marine atmosphere experienced such transformation. Copyright © 2014, American Association for the Advancement of Science.

United States Air Force Summer Faculty Research Program. Management Report. Volume 1

DTIC Science & Technology

1988-12-01

sensors , measure reaction characteristics of fuel and oxidizer at various inlet velocities and initial conditions. Application of spectroscopy, high... applications in armament systems. False signals caused by cloud, fog, and snow interfere with proper response of the sensors , and efforts to... sensor for this application have not been fully successful (1-18). Presence of dense clouds, fog, or snow will create false signals and will obscure

Nanosatellite Maneuver Planning for Point Cloud Generation With a Rangefinder

DTIC Science & Technology

2015-06-05

aided active vision systems [11], dense stereo [12], and TriDAR [13]. However, these systems are unsuitable for a nanosatellite system from power, size...command profiles as well as improving the fidelity of gap detection with better filtering methods for background objects . For example, attitude...application of a single beam laser rangefinder (LRF) to point cloud generation, shape detection , and shape reconstruction for a space-based space

Modeling and simulation of dense cloud dispersion in urban areas by means of computational fluid dynamics.

PubMed

Scargiali, F; Grisafi, F; Busciglio, A; Brucato, A

2011-12-15

The formation of toxic heavy clouds as a result of sudden accidental releases from mobile containers, such as road tankers or railway tank cars, may occur inside urban areas so the problem arises of their consequences evaluation. Due to the semi-confined nature of the dispersion site simplified models may often be inappropriate. As an alternative, computational fluid dynamics (CFD) has the potential to provide realistic simulations even for geometrically complex scenarios since the heavy gas dispersion process is described by basic conservation equations with a reduced number of approximations. In the present work a commercial general purpose CFD code (CFX 4.4 by Ansys(®)) is employed for the simulation of dense cloud dispersion in urban areas. The simulation strategy proposed involves a stationary pre-release flow field simulation followed by a dynamic after-release flow and concentration field simulations. In order to try a generalization of results, the computational domain is modeled as a simple network of straight roads with regularly distributed blocks mimicking the buildings. Results show that the presence of buildings lower concentration maxima and enlarge the side spread of the cloud. Dispersion dynamics is also found to be strongly affected by the quantity of heavy-gas released. Copyright © 2011 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

The chemical evolution of molecular clouds

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Iglesias, E.

1977-01-01

The nonequilibrium chemistry of dense molecular clouds (10,000 to 1 million hydrogen molecules per cu cm) is studied in the framework of a model that includes the latest published chemical data and most of the recent theoretical advances. In this model the only important external source of ionization is assumed to be high-energy cosmic-ray bombardment; standard charge-transfer reactions are taken into account as well as reactions that transfer charge from molecular ions to trace-metal atoms. Schemes are proposed for the synthesis of such species as NCO, HNCO, and CN. The role played by adsorption and condensation of molecules on the surface of dust grains is investigated, and effects on the chemical evolution of a dense molecular cloud are considered which result from varying the total density or the elemental abundances and from assuming negligible or severe condensation of gaseous species on dust grains. It is shown that the chemical-equilibrium time scale is given approximately by the depletion times of oxygen and nitrogen when the condensation efficiency is negligible; that this time scale is probably in the range from 1 to 4 million years, depending on the elemental composition and initial conditions in the cloud; and that this time scale is insensitive to variations in the total density.

CHEMICAL PROCESSING OF PURE AMMONIA AND AMMONIA-WATER ICES INDUCED BY HEAVY IONS

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Bordalo, V.; Da Silveira, E. F.; Lv, X. Y.

Cosmic rays are possibly the main agents to prevent the freeze-out of molecules onto grain surfaces in cold dense clouds. Ammonia (NH{sub 3}) is one of the most abundant molecules present in dust ice mantles, with a concentration of up to 15% relative to water (H{sub 2}O). FTIR spectroscopy is used to monitor pure NH{sub 3} and NH{sub 3}-H{sub 2}O ice samples as they are irradiated with Ni and Zn ion beams (500-600 MeV) at GANIL/France. New species, such as hydrazine (N{sub 2}H{sub 4}), diazene (N{sub 2}H{sub 2} isomers), molecular hydrogen (H{sub 2}), and nitrogen (N{sub 2}) were identified aftermore » irradiation of pure NH{sub 3} ices. Nitrous oxide (N{sub 2}O), nitrogen oxide (NO), nitrogen dioxide (NO{sub 2}), and hydroxylamine (NH{sub 2}OH) are some of the products of the NH{sub 3}-H{sub 2}O ice radiolysis. The spectral band at 6.85 {mu}m was observed after irradiation of both types of ice. Besides the likely contribution of ammonium (NH{sub 4}{sup +}) and amino (NH{sub 2}) radicals, data suggest a small contribution of NH{sub 2}OH to this band profile after high fluences of irradiation of NH{sub 3}-H{sub 2}O ices. The spectral shift of the NH{sub 3} ''umbrella'' mode (9.3 {mu}m) band is parameterized as a function of NH{sub 3}/H{sub 2}O ratio in amorphous ices. Ammonia and water destruction cross-sections are obtained, as well as the rate of NH{sub 3}-H{sub 2}O (1:10) ice compaction, measured by the OH dangling bond destruction cross-section. Ammonia destruction is enhanced in the presence of H{sub 2}O in the ice and a power law relationship between stopping power and NH{sub 3} destruction cross-section is verified. Such results may provide relevant information for the evolution of molecular species in dense molecular clouds.« less

A multiwavelength observation and investigation of six infrared dark clouds

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Zhang, Chuan-Peng; Yuan, Jing-Hua; Li, Guang-Xing; Zhou, Jian-Jun; Wang, Jun-Jie

2017-02-01

Context. Infrared dark clouds (IRDCs) are ubiquitous in the Milky Way, yet they play a crucial role in breeding newly-formed stars. Aims: With the aim of further understanding the dynamics, chemistry, and evolution of IRDCs, we carried out multiwavelength observations on a small sample. Methods: We performed new observations with the IRAM 30 m and CSO 10.4 m telescopes, with tracers HCO+, HCN, N2H+, C18O, DCO+, SiO, and DCN toward six IRDCs G031.97+00.07, G033.69-00.01, G034.43+00.24, G035.39-00.33, G038.95-00.47, and G053.11+00.05. Results: We investigated 44 cores including 37 cores reported in previous work and seven newly-identified cores. Toward the dense cores, we detected 6 DCO+, and 5 DCN lines. Using pixel-by-pixel spectral energy distribution (SED) fits of the Herschel 70 to 500 μm, we obtained dust temperature and column density distributions of the IRDCs. We found that N2H+ emission has a strong correlation with the dust temperature and column density distributions, while C18O showed the weakest correlation. It is suggested that N2H+ is indeed a good tracer in very dense conditions, but C18O is an unreliable one, as it has a relatively low critical density and is vulnerable to freezing-out onto the surface of cold dust grains. The dynamics within IRDCs are active, with infall, outflow, and collapse; the spectra are abundant especially in deuterium species. Conclusions: We observe many blueshifted and redshifted profiles, respectively, with HCO+ and C18O toward the same core. This case can be well explained by model "envelope expansion with core collapse (EECC)". The final datacubes (HCO+, HCN, N2H+, C18O) are only available at the CDS via anonymous ftp to http://cdsarc.u-strasbg.fr (http://130.79.128.5) or via http://cdsarc.u-strasbg.fr/viz-bin/qcat?J/A+A/598/A76

Plenoptic Imaging of a Three Dimensional Cold Atom Cloud

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Lott, Gordon

2017-04-01

A plenoptic imaging system is capable of sampling the rays of light in a volume, both spatially and angularly, providing information about the three dimensional (3D) volume being imaged. The extraction of the 3D structure of a cold atom cloud is demonstrated, using a single plenoptic camera and a single image. The reconstruction is tested against a reference image and the results discussed along with the capabilities and limitations of the imaging system. This capability is useful when the 3D distribution of the atoms is desired, such as determining the shape of an atom trap, particularly when there is limited optical access. Gratefully acknowledge support from AFRL.

Single-shot imaging of trapped Fermi gas

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Gajda, Mariusz; Mostowski, Jan; Sowiński, Tomasz; Załuska-Kotur, Magdalena

2016-07-01

Recently developed techniques allow for simultaneous measurements of the positions of all ultra-cold atoms in a trap with high resolution. Each such single-shot experiment detects one element of the quantum ensemble formed by the cloud of atoms. Repeated single-shot measurements can be used to determine all correlations between particle positions as opposed to standard measurements that determine particle density or two-particle correlations only. In this paper we discuss the possible outcomes of such single-shot measurements in the case of cloud of ultra-cold noninteracting Fermi atoms. We show that the Pauli exclusion principle alone leads to correlations between particle positions that originate from unexpected spatial structures formed by the atoms.

Earth Observations taken by Expedition 34 crewmember

NASA Image and Video Library

2013-01-04

ISS034-E-016601 (4 Jan. 2013) --- On Jan. 4 a large presence of stratocumulus clouds was the central focus of camera lenses which remained aimed at the clouds as the Expedition 34 crew members aboard the International Space Station flew above the northwestern Pacific Ocean about 460 miles east of northern Honshu, Japan. This is a descending pass with a panoramic view looking southeast in late afternoon light with the terminator (upper left). The cloud pattern is typical for this part of the world. The low clouds carry cold air over a warmer sea with no discernable storm pattern.

Dense flow around a sphere moving into a cloud of grains

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Gondret, Philippe; Faure, Sylvain; Lefebvre-Lepot, Aline; Seguin, Antoine

2017-06-01

A bidimensional simulation of a sphere moving at constant velocity into a cloud of smaller spherical grains without gravity is presented with a non-smooth contact dynamics method. A dense granular "cluster" zone of about constant solid fraction builds progressively around the moving sphere until a stationary regime appears with a constant upstream cluster size that increases with the initial solid fraction ϕ0 of the cloud. A detailed analysis of the local strain rate and local stress fields inside the cluster reveals that, despite different spatial variations of strain and stresses, the local friction coeffcient μ appears to depend only on the local inertial number I as well as the local solid fraction ϕ, which means that a local rheology does exist in the present non parallel flow. The key point is that the spatial variations of I inside the cluster does not depend on the sphere velocity and explore only a small range between about 10-2 and 10-1. The influence of sidewalls is then investigated on the flow and the forces.

Shallow convection on day 261 of GATE - Mesoscale arcs

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Warner, C.; Simpson, J.; Martin, D. W.; Suchman, D.; Mosher, F. R.; Reinking, R. F.

1979-01-01

Cloudy convection in the moist layer of a cloud cluster growing in the GATE ship array is examined. Analyses suggest that the moist layer was dominated by features of horizontal dimension roughly 40 km and lifetime roughly 2 h, with arc patterns triggered by dense downdraft air accompanying rainfall, and composed of many small cumulus clouds. Aircraft recorded data on thermodynamic quantities and winds, indicating that the arcs persisted as mesoscale circulations driven by the release of latent heat in the clouds, rather than being driven by the original density current at the surface. It is also suggested that the mesoscale cloud patterns of the moist layer play a primary role in heat transfer upward within this layer, and contribute to the forcing of showering midtropospheric clouds.

Insulator-to-conducting transition in dense fluid helium.

PubMed

Celliers, P M; Loubeyre, P; Eggert, J H; Brygoo, S; McWilliams, R S; Hicks, D G; Boehly, T R; Jeanloz, R; Collins, G W

2010-05-07

By combining diamond-anvil-cell and laser-driven shock wave techniques, we produced dense He samples up to 1.5 g/cm(3) at temperatures reaching 60 kK. Optical measurements of reflectivity and temperature show that electronic conduction in He at these conditions is temperature-activated (semiconducting). A fit to the data suggests that the mobility gap closes with increasing density, and that hot dense He becomes metallic above approximately 1.9 g/cm(3). These data provide a benchmark to test models that describe He ionization at conditions found in astrophysical objects, such as cold white dwarf atmospheres.

Bibliography on Cold Regions Science and Technology. Volume 52. Part 2,

DTIC Science & Technology

1998-12-01

eng] 52-5087 spheric gases from antarctic ice cores. Gillaik, T., et al, in sediments and biota from four US arctic lakes. Allen-Gil, Study of the...1996,eng] 52-2678 52-690 Solomon , S., et at, [1997,eng] 52-879 Studies of cloud ice water path and optical thickness during Homogeneous ice...of clouds: a wave ota, D., et al, [1995,eng] 52-5364 flash rate. Solomon , R.C., [1997,eng] 52-1070 cloud case study . Ackerman, S.A., et al, [1998,eng

Numerical simulation of cloud and precipitation structure during GALE IOP-2

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Robertson, F. R.; Perkey, D. J.; Seablom, M. S.

1988-01-01

A regional scale model, LAMPS (Limited Area Mesoscale Prediction System), is used to investigate cloud and precipitation structure that accompanied a short wave system during a portion of GALE IOP-2. A comparison of satellite imagery and model fields indicates that much of the large mesoscale organization of condensation has been captured by the simulation. In addition to reproducing a realistic phasing of two baroclinic zones associated with a split cold front, a reasonable simulation of the gross mesoscale cloud distribution has been achieved.

Simulation of Shallow Cumuli and Their Transition to Deep Convective Clouds by Cloud-resolving Models with Different Third-order Turbulence Closures

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Cheng, Anning; Xu, Kuan-Man

2006-01-01

The abilities of cloud-resolving models (CRMs) with the double-Gaussian based and the single-Gaussian based third-order closures (TOCs) to simulate the shallow cumuli and their transition to deep convective clouds are compared in this study. The single-Gaussian based TOC is fully prognostic (FP), while the double-Gaussian based TOC is partially prognostic (PP). The latter only predicts three important third-order moments while the former predicts all the thirdorder moments. A shallow cumulus case is simulated by single-column versions of the FP and PP TOC models. The PP TOC improves the simulation of shallow cumulus greatly over the FP TOC by producing more realistic cloud structures. Large differences between the FP and PP TOC simulations appear in the cloud layer of the second- and third-order moments, which are related mainly to the underestimate of the cloud height in the FP TOC simulation. Sensitivity experiments and analysis of probability density functions (PDFs) used in the TOCs show that both the turbulence-scale condensation and higher-order moments are important to realistic simulations of the boundary-layer shallow cumuli. A shallow to deep convective cloud transition case is also simulated by the 2-D versions of the FP and PP TOC models. Both CRMs can capture the transition from the shallow cumuli to deep convective clouds. The PP simulations produce more and deeper shallow cumuli than the FP simulations, but the FP simulations produce larger and wider convective clouds than the PP simulations. The temporal evolutions of cloud and precipitation are closely related to the turbulent transport, the cold pool and the cloud-scale circulation. The large amount of turbulent mixing associated with the shallow cumuli slows down the increase of the convective available potential energy and inhibits the early transition to deep convective clouds in the PP simulation. When the deep convective clouds fully develop and the precipitation is produced, the cold pools produced by the evaporation of the precipitation are not favorable to the formation of shallow cumuli.

Impact of fatty ester composition on low temperature properties of biodiesel-petroleum diesel blends

USDA-ARS?s Scientific Manuscript database

Several biodiesel fuels along with neat fatty acid methyl esters (FAMEs) commonly encountered in biodiesel were blended with ultra-low sulfur diesel (ULSD) fuel at low blend levels permitted by ASTM D975 (B1-B5) and cold flow properties such as cloud point (CP), cold filter plugging point (CFPP), an...

Modeling marine boundary-layer clouds with a two-layer model: A one-dimensional simulation

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Wang, Shouping

1993-01-01

A two-layer model of the marine boundary layer is described. The model is used to simulate both stratocumulus and shallow cumulus clouds in downstream simulations. Over cold sea surfaces, the model predicts a relatively uniform structure in the boundary layer with 90%-100% cloud fraction. Over warm sea surfaces, the model predicts a relatively strong decoupled and conditionally unstable structure with a cloud fraction between 30% and 60%. A strong large-scale divergence considerably limits the height of the boundary layer and decreases relative humidity in the upper part of the cloud layer; thus, a low cloud fraction results. The efffects of drizzle on the boundary-layer structure and cloud fraction are also studied with downstream simulations. It is found that drizzle dries and stabilizes the cloud layer and tends to decouple the cloud from the subcloud layer. Consequently, solid stratocumulus clouds may break up and the cloud fraction may decrease because of drizzle.

On the dominant impact of vertical moisture gradient on mesoscale cloud cellular organization of stratocumulus

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Zhou, X.; Ackerman, A. S.; Fridlind, A. M.; Kollias, P.

2016-12-01

Large-eddy simulations are performed to study the mechanisms of stratocumulus organization. Precipitation tends to increase horizontal cloud scales, but is not required for cloud mesoscale organization. A study of the terms in the prognostic equation for total water mixing ratio variance shows the critical impact of vertical moisture gradient on cloud scale. For precipitating clouds, the organization originates from the negative moisture gradient in the boundary layer resulting from evaporation of precipitation. This hypothesis is supported by simulations in which thermodynamics profiles are nudged to their initial well-mixed state, which reduces cloud scales. Cold pools effect are surprisingly found to respond to rather than determine the cloud mesoscale variability. For non-precipitating clouds, organization results from turbulent transport of moisture variance originating primarily from cloud top, where dry air is entrained into the boundary layer through convection driven by cloud top longwave (LW) cooling. Both LW cooling and a moisture gradient above cloud top are essential for the growth of mesoscale fluctuations.

International Conference on Aerosols, Clouds and the Indian Monsoon

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Singh, Ramesh P.; Tare, Vinod; Tripathi, S. N.

2005-06-01

In recent years, dense haze and fog problems in the northern parts of India have affected the 460 million people living in the Indo-Gangetic basin. Substantial Indian research activities related to aerosols, clouds, and monsoon are taking place in the central and southern parts of India. To attract attention to the problems, a three-day International Conference on Aerosols, Clouds and Indian Monsoon was recently held at the Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur, in the central part of the Indo-Gangetic basin. About 120 delegates from India, Germany, Greece, Japan, Taiwan, and the United States attended the conference.

Condensation and Vaporization Studies of CH3OH and NH3 Ices: Major Implications for Astrochemistry

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Sandford, Scott A.; Allamandola, Louis J.

1993-01-01

In an extension of previously reported work on ices containing H20, CO, CO2, SO2, H2S, and H2, We present measurements of the physical and infrared spectral properties of ices containing CH30H and NH3.The condensation and sublimation behavior of these ice systems is discussed and surface binding energies are presented for all of these molecules. The surface binding energies can be used to calculate the residence times of the molecules on grain surfaces as a function of temperature. It is demonstrated that many of the molecules used to generate radio maps of and probe conditions in dense clouds, for example CO and NH3, will be significantly depleted from the gas phase by condensation onto dust grains. Attempts to derive total column densities solely from radio maps that do not take condensation effects into account may vastly underestimate the true column densities of any given species. Simple CO condensation onto and vaporization off of grains appears to be capable of explaining the observed 87 of gas phase CO in cold, dense molecular cores. This is not the case for NH3, however, where thermal considerations alone predict that all of the NH3 should be condensed onto grains. The fact that some gas phase NH3 is observed indicates that additional desorption processes must be involved. The surface binding energies of CH3OH, in conjunction with this molecule's observed behavior during warm up in H2O-rich ices, is shown to provide an explanation of the large excess of CH3OH seen in many warm, dense molecular cores. The near-infrared spectrum and associated integrated band strengths of CH3OH-containing ice are given, as are middle infrared absorption band strengths for both CH3OH and NH3.

Condensation and vaporization studies of CH3OH and NH3 ices: Major implications for astrochemistry

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Sandford, Scott A.; Allamandola, Louis J.

1993-01-01

In an extension of previously reported work on ices containing H2O, CO, CO2, SO2, H2S, and H2, we present measurements of the physical and infrared spectral properties of ices containing CH3OH and NH3. The condensation and sublimation behavior of these ice systems is discussed and surface binding energies are presented for all of these molecules. The surface binding energies can be used to calculate the residence times of the molecules on grain surfaces as a function of temperature. It is demonstrated that many of the molecules used to generate radio maps of and probe conditions in dense clouds, for example CO and NH3, will be significantly depleted from the gas phase by condensation onto dust grains. Attempts to derive total column densities solely from radio maps that do not take condensation effects into account may vastly underestimate the true column densities of any given species. Simple CO condensation onto and vaporization off of grains appears to be capable of explaining the observed depletion of gas phase CO in cold, dense molecular cores. This is not the case for NH3, however, where thermal considerations alone predict that all of the NH3 should be condensed onto grains. The fact that some gas phase NH3 is observed indicates that additional desorption processes must be involved. The surface binding energies of CH3OH, in conjunction with this molecule's observed behavior during warm up in H2O-rich ices, is shown to provide an explanation of the large excess of CH3OH seen in many warm, dense molecular cores. The near-infrared spectrum and associated integrated band strengths of CH3OH-containing ice are given, as are middle infrared absorption band strengths for both CH3OH and NH3.

Handle-shaped Prominence

NASA Image and Video Library

2001-02-17

NASA Extreme Ultraviolet Imaging Telescope aboard ESA’s SOHO spacecraft took this image of a huge, handle-shaped prominence in 1999. Prominences are huge clouds of relatively cool dense plasma suspended in the Sun hot, thin corona.

Automatic Method for Building Indoor Boundary Models from Dense Point Clouds Collected by Laser Scanners

PubMed Central

Valero, Enrique; Adán, Antonio; Cerrada, Carlos

2012-01-01

In this paper we present a method that automatically yields Boundary Representation Models (B-rep) for indoors after processing dense point clouds collected by laser scanners from key locations through an existing facility. Our objective is particularly focused on providing single models which contain the shape, location and relationship of primitive structural elements of inhabited scenarios such as walls, ceilings and floors. We propose a discretization of the space in order to accurately segment the 3D data and generate complete B-rep models of indoors in which faces, edges and vertices are coherently connected. The approach has been tested in real scenarios with data coming from laser scanners yielding promising results. We have deeply evaluated the results by analyzing how reliably these elements can be detected and how accurately they are modeled. PMID:23443369

Seasonal Changes in Titan's Meteorology

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Turtle, E. P.; DelGenio, A. D.; Barbara, J. M.; Perry, J. E.; Schaller, E. L.; McEwen, A. S.; West, R. A.; Ray, T. L.

2011-01-01

The Cassini Imaging Science Subsystem has observed Titan for 1/4 Titan year, and we report here the first evidence of seasonal shifts in preferred locations of tropospheric methane clouds. South \\polar convective cloud activity, common in late southern summer, has become rare. North \\polar and northern mid \\latitude clouds appeared during the approach to the northern spring equinox in August 2009. Recent observations have shown extensive cloud systems at low latitudes. In contrast, southern mid \\latitude and subtropical clouds have appeared sporadically throughout the mission, exhibiting little seasonality to date. These differences in behavior suggest that Titan s clouds, and thus its general circulation, are influenced by both the rapid temperature response of a low \\thermal \\inertia surface and the much longer radiative timescale of Titan s cold thick troposphere. North \\polar clouds are often seen near lakes and seas, suggesting that local increases in methane concentration and/or lifting generated by surface roughness gradients may promote cloud formation. Citation

Determine precipitation rates from visible and infrared satellite images of clouds by pattern recognition technique. Progress Report, 1 Jul. 1985 - 31 Mar. 1987 Ph.D. Thesis

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Weinman, James A.; Garan, Louis

1987-01-01

A more advanced cloud pattern analysis algorithm was subsequently developed to take the shape and brightness of the various clouds into account in a manner that is more consistent with the human analyst's perception of GOES cloud imagery. The results of that classification scheme were compared with precipitation probabilities observed from ships of opportunity off the U.S. east coast to derive empirical regressions between cloud types and precipitation probability. The cloud morphology was then quantitatively and objectively used to map precipitation probabilities during two winter months during which severe cold air outbreaks were observed over the northwest Atlantic. Precipitation probabilities associated with various cloud types are summarized. Maps of precipitation probability derived from the cloud morphology analysis program for two months and the precipitation probability derived from thirty years of ship observation were observed.

Distortion of Magnetic Fields in a Starless Core: Near-infrared Polarimetry of FeSt 1–457

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Kandori, Ryo; Tamura, Motohide; Kusakabe, Nobuhiko

Magnetic fields are believed to play an important role in controlling the stability and contraction of the dense condensations of gas and dust that lead to the formation of stars and planetary systems. In the present study, the magnetic field of FeSt 1–457, a cold starless molecular cloud core, was mapped on the basis of the polarized near-infrared light from 185 background stars after being dichroically absorbed by dust aligned with the magnetic field in the core. A distinct “hourglass-shaped” magnetic field was identified in the region of the core, and was interpreted as the first evidence of a magneticmore » field structure distorted by mass condensation in a starless core. The steep curvature of the magnetic field lines obtained in the present study indicates that the distortion was mainly created during the formation phase of the dense core. The derived mass-to-magnetic flux ratio indicates that the core is in a magnetically supercritical state. However, the stability of the core can be considered to be in a nearly critical state if the additional contributions from the thermal and turbulent support are included. Further diffusion of the magnetic field and/or turbulent dissipation would cause the onset of the dynamical collapse of the core. The geometrical relationship between the direction of the magnetic field lines and the elongation of the core was found to be in good agreement with theoretical predictions for the formation of Sun-like stars under the influence of a magnetic field.« less

Irradiation of FeS: Implications for the Lifecycle of Sulfur in the Interstellar Medium and Presolar FeS Grains

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Keller, Lindsay P.; Loeffler, M. J.; Christoffersen, R.; Dukes, C.; Rahman, Z.; Baragiola, R.

2010-01-01

Fe(Ni) sulfides are ubiquitous in chondritic meteorites and cometary samples where they are the dominant host of sulfur. Despite their abundance in these early solar system materials, their presence in interstellar and circumstellar environments is poorly understood. Fe-sulfides have been reported from astronomical observations of pre- and post-main sequence stars [1, 2] and occur as inclusions in bonafide circumstellar silicate grains [3, 4]. In cold, dense molecular cloud (MC) environments, sulfur is highly depleted from the gas phase [e.g. 5], yet observations of sulfur-bearing molecules in dense cores find a total abundance that is only a small fraction of the sulfur seen in diffuse regions [6], therefore the bulk of the depletion must reside in an abundant unobserved phase. In stark contrast, sulfur is essentially undepleted from the gas phase in the diffuse interstellar medium (ISM) [7-9], indicating that little sulfur is incorporated into solid grains in this environment. This is a rather puzzling observation unless Fe-sulfides are not produced in significant quantities in stellar outflows, or their lifetime in the ISM is very short due to rapid destruction. The main destruction mechanism is sputtering due to supernova shocks in the warm, diffuse ISM [10]. This process involves the reduction of Fe-sulfide with the production of Fe metal as a by-product and returning S to the gas phase. In order to test this hypothesis, we irradiated FeS and analyzed the resulting material using X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) and transmission electron microscopy (TEM).

Convective Formation of Pileus Cloud Near the Tropopause

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Garrett, Timothy J.; Dean-Day, Jonathan; Liu, Chuntao; Barnett, Brian K.; Mace, Gerald G.; Baumgardner, Darrel G.; Webster, Christopher R.; Bui, T. Paul; Read, William G.; Minnis, Patrick

2005-01-01

Pileus clouds form where humid, stably stratified air is mechanically displaced vertically ahead of rising convection. This paper describes convective formation of pileus cloud in the tropopause transition layer (TTL), and explores a possible link to the formation of long-lasting cirrus at cold temperatures. In-situ measurements from off the coast of Honduras during the July 2002 CRYSTALFACE experiment show an example of TTL cirrus associated with, and penetrated by, deep convection. The cirrus was enriched with total water compared to its surroundings, but composed of extremely small ice crystals with effective radii between 2 and 4 m. Through gravity wave analysis, and intercomparison of measured and simulated cloud microphysics, it is argued that the TTL cirrus in this case originated neither from convectively-forced gravity wave motions nor environmental mixing alone. Rather, it is hypothesized that some combination was involved in which, first, convection forced pileus cloud to form from TTL air; second, it punctured the pileus layer, contributing larger ice crystals through interfacial mixing; third, the addition of condensate inhibited evaporation of the original pileus ice crystals in the warm phase of the ensuing gravity wave; fourth, through successive pulses, deep convection formed the observed layer of TTL cirrus. While the general incidence and longevity of pileus cloud remains unknown, in-situ measurements, and satellite-based Microwave Limb Sounder retrievals, suggest that much of the tropical TTL is sufficiently humid to be susceptible to its formation. Where these clouds form and persist, there is potential for an irreversible repartition from water vapor to ice at cold temperatures.

Chaotic cold accretion on to black holes

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Gaspari, M.; Ruszkowski, M.; Oh, S. Peng

2013-07-01

Bondi theory is often assumed to adequately describe the mode of accretion in astrophysical environments. However, the Bondi flow must be adiabatic, spherically symmetric, steady, unperturbed, with constant boundary conditions. Using 3D adaptive mesh refinement simulations, linking the 50 kpc to the sub-parsec (sub-pc) scales over the course of 40 Myr, we systematically relax the classic assumptions in a typical galaxy hosting a supermassive black hole. In the more realistic scenario, where the hot gas is cooling, while heated and stirred on large scales, the accretion rate is boosted up to two orders of magnitude compared with the Bondi prediction. The cause is the non-linear growth of thermal instabilities, leading to the condensation of cold clouds and filaments when tcool/tff ≲ 10. The clouds decouple from the hot gas, `raining' on to the centre. Subsonic turbulence of just over 100 km s-1 (M > 0.2) induces the formation of thermal instabilities, even in the absence of heating, while in the transonic regime turbulent dissipation inhibits their growth (tturb/tcool ≲ 1). When heating restores global thermodynamic balance, the formation of the multiphase medium is violent, and the mode of accretion is fully cold and chaotic. The recurrent collisions and tidal forces between clouds, filaments and the central clumpy torus promote angular momentum cancellation, hence boosting accretion. On sub-pc scales the clouds are channelled to the very centre via a funnel. In this study, we do not inject a fixed initial angular momentum, though vorticity is later seeded by turbulence. A good approximation to the accretion rate is the cooling rate, which can be used as subgrid model, physically reproducing the boost factor of 100 required by cosmological simulations, while accounting for the frequent fluctuations. Since our modelling is fairly general (turbulence/heating due to AGN feedback, galaxy motions, mergers, stellar evolution), chaotic cold accretion may be common in many systems, such as hot galactic haloes, groups and clusters. In this mode, the black hole can quickly react to the state of the entire host galaxy, leading to efficient self-regulated AGN feedback and the symbiotic Magorrian relation. Chaotic accretion can generate high-velocity clouds, likely leading to strong variations in the AGN luminosity, and the deflection or mass-loading of jets. During phases of overheating, the hot mode becomes the single channel of accretion, though strongly suppressed by turbulence. High-resolution data could determine the current mode of accretion: assuming quiescent feedback, the cold mode results in a quasi-flat-temperature core as opposed to the cuspy profile of the hot mode.

Observations of Carbon Isotopic Fractionation in Interstellar Formaldehyde

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Wirstrom, E. S.; Charnley, S. B.; Geppert, W. D.; Persson, C. M.

2012-01-01

Primitive Solar System materials (e.g. chondrites. IDPs, the Stardust sample) show large variations in isotopic composition of the major volatiles (H, C, N, and O ) even within samples, witnessing to various degrees of processing in the protosolar nebula. For ex ample. the very pronounced D enhancements observed in IDPs [I] . are only generated in the cold. dense component of the interstellar medium (ISM), or protoplanetary disks, through ion-molecule reactions in the presence of interstellar dust. If this isotopic anomaly has an interstellar origin, this leaves open the possibility for preservation of other isotopic signatures throughout the form ation of the Solar System. The most common form of carbon in the ISM is CO molecules, and there are two potential sources of C-13 fractionation in this reservoir: low temperature chemistry and selective photodissociation. While gas-phase chemistry in cold interstellar clouds preferentially incorporates C-13 into CO [2], the effect of self-shielding in the presence of UV radiation instead leads to a relative enhancement of the more abundant isotopologue, 12CO. Solar System organic material exhibit rather small fluctuations in delta C-13 as compared to delta N-15 and delta D [3][1], the reason for which is still unclear. However, the fact that both C-13 depleted and enhanced material exists could indicate an interstellar origin where the two fractionation processes have both played a part. Formaldehyde (H2CO) is observed in the gas-phase in a wide range of interstellar environments, as well as in cometary comae. It is proposed as an important reactant in the formation of more complex organic molecules in the heated environments around young stars, and formaldehyde polymers have been suggested as the common origin of chondritic insoluable organic matter (IOM) and cometary refractory organic solids [4]. The relatively high gas-phase abundance of H2CO observed in molecular clouds (10(exp- 9) - 10(exp- 8) relative to H2) makes it feasible to observe its less common isotopologues. As a step in our investigation of C-13 fractionation patterns in the ISM, we here present comparisons between observations of the C-13 fraction in formaldehyde, and chemical fractionation models.

Energy Flow in Dense Off-Equilibrium Plasma

DTIC Science & Technology

2016-07-15

akT e in our system100 i e T T Teller 1966 Smoking Gun Experiment: Laser Breakdown in COLD gas In going from room to liquid Nitrogen temperature...oflaser breakdown have revealed a new phase of off-equilibrium plasma that has a tensile strength similar to a liquid , and reduced ion-electron...approved for public release. Part 1: Energy Balance in Sonoluminescing Dense Plasma Sonoluminescence occurs from rapid implosion of gas bubbles caused to

Understanding the effect of an excessive cold tongue bias on projecting the tropical Pacific SST warming pattern in CMIP5 models

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ying, Jun; Huang, Ping; Lian, Tao; Tan, Hongjian

2018-05-01

An excessive cold tongue is a common bias among current climate models, and considered an important source of bias in projections of tropical Pacific climate change under global warming. Specifically, the excessive cold tongue bias is closely related to the tropical Pacific SST warming (TPSW) pattern. In this study, we reveal that two processes are the critical mechanisms by which the excessive cold tongue bias influences the projection of the TPSW pattern, based on 32 models from phase 5 of Coupled Model Intercomparison Projection (CMIP5). On the one hand, by assuming that the shortwave (SW) radiation to SST feedback is linearly correlated to the cold tongue SST, the excessive cold tongue bias can induce an overly weak negative SW-SST feedback in the central Pacific, which can lead to a positive SST warming bias in the central to western Pacific (around 150°E-140°W). Moreover, the overly weak local atmospheric dynamics response to SST is a key process of the overly weak SW-SST feedback, compared with the cloud response to atmospheric dynamics and the SW radiation response to cloud. On the other hand, the overly strong ocean zonal overturning circulation associated with the excessive cold tongue bias results in an overestimation of the ocean dynamical thermostat effect, with enhanced ocean stratification under global warming, leading to a negative SST warming bias in the central and eastern Pacific (around 170°W-120°W). These two processes jointly form a positive SST warming bias in the western Pacific, contributing to a La Niña-like warming bias. Therefore, we suggest a more realistic climatological cold tongue SST is needed for a more reliable projection of the TPSW pattern.

Triggering collapse of the presolar dense cloud core and injecting short-lived radioisotopes with a shock wave. III. Rotating three-dimensional cloud cores

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Boss, Alan P.; Keiser, Sandra A., E-mail: boss@dtm.ciw.edu

2014-06-10

A key test of the supernova triggering and injection hypothesis for the origin of the solar system's short-lived radioisotopes is to reproduce the inferred initial abundances of these isotopes. We present here the most detailed models to date of the shock wave triggering and injection process, where shock waves with varied properties strike fully three-dimensional, rotating, dense cloud cores. The models are calculated with the FLASH adaptive mesh hydrodynamics code. Three different outcomes can result: triggered collapse leading to fragmentation into a multiple protostar system; triggered collapse leading to a single protostar embedded in a protostellar disk; or failure tomore » undergo dynamic collapse. Shock wave material is injected into the collapsing clouds through Rayleigh-Taylor fingers, resulting in initially inhomogeneous distributions in the protostars and protostellar disks. Cloud rotation about an axis aligned with the shock propagation direction does not increase the injection efficiency appreciably, as the shock parameters were chosen to be optimal for injection even in the absence of rotation. For a shock wave from a core-collapse supernova, the dilution factors for supernova material are in the range of ∼10{sup –4} to ∼3 × 10{sup –4}, in agreement with recent laboratory estimates of the required amount of dilution for {sup 60}Fe and {sup 26}Al. We conclude that a type II supernova remains as a promising candidate for synthesizing the solar system's short-lived radioisotopes shortly before their injection into the presolar cloud core by the supernova's remnant shock wave.« less

SEMANTIC3D.NET: a New Large-Scale Point Cloud Classification Benchmark

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Hackel, T.; Savinov, N.; Ladicky, L.; Wegner, J. D.; Schindler, K.; Pollefeys, M.

2017-05-01

This paper presents a new 3D point cloud classification benchmark data set with over four billion manually labelled points, meant as input for data-hungry (deep) learning methods. We also discuss first submissions to the benchmark that use deep convolutional neural networks (CNNs) as a work horse, which already show remarkable performance improvements over state-of-the-art. CNNs have become the de-facto standard for many tasks in computer vision and machine learning like semantic segmentation or object detection in images, but have no yet led to a true breakthrough for 3D point cloud labelling tasks due to lack of training data. With the massive data set presented in this paper, we aim at closing this data gap to help unleash the full potential of deep learning methods for 3D labelling tasks. Our semantic3D.net data set consists of dense point clouds acquired with static terrestrial laser scanners. It contains 8 semantic classes and covers a wide range of urban outdoor scenes: churches, streets, railroad tracks, squares, villages, soccer fields and castles. We describe our labelling interface and show that our data set provides more dense and complete point clouds with much higher overall number of labelled points compared to those already available to the research community. We further provide baseline method descriptions and comparison between methods submitted to our online system. We hope semantic3D.net will pave the way for deep learning methods in 3D point cloud labelling to learn richer, more general 3D representations, and first submissions after only a few months indicate that this might indeed be the case.

Photogrammetric Point Clouds Generation in Urban Areas from Integrated Image Matching and Segmentation

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ye, L.; Wu, B.

2017-09-01

High-resolution imagery is an attractive option for surveying and mapping applications due to the advantages of high quality imaging, short revisit time, and lower cost. Automated reliable and dense image matching is essential for photogrammetric 3D data derivation. Such matching, in urban areas, however, is extremely difficult, owing to the complexity of urban textures and severe occlusion problems on the images caused by tall buildings. Aimed at exploiting high-resolution imagery for 3D urban modelling applications, this paper presents an integrated image matching and segmentation approach for reliable dense matching of high-resolution imagery in urban areas. The approach is based on the framework of our existing self-adaptive triangulation constrained image matching (SATM), but incorporates three novel aspects to tackle the image matching difficulties in urban areas: 1) occlusion filtering based on image segmentation, 2) segment-adaptive similarity correlation to reduce the similarity ambiguity, 3) improved dense matching propagation to provide more reliable matches in urban areas. Experimental analyses were conducted using aerial images of Vaihingen, Germany and high-resolution satellite images in Hong Kong. The photogrammetric point clouds were generated, from which digital surface models (DSMs) were derived. They were compared with the corresponding airborne laser scanning data and the DSMs generated from the Semi-Global matching (SGM) method. The experimental results show that the proposed approach is able to produce dense and reliable matches comparable to SGM in flat areas, while for densely built-up areas, the proposed method performs better than SGM. The proposed method offers an alternative solution for 3D surface reconstruction in urban areas.

Slow Cooling in Low Metallicity Clouds: An Origin of Globular Cluster Bimodality?

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Fernandez, Ricardo; Bryan, Greg L.

2018-05-01

We explore the relative role of small-scale fragmentation and global collapse in low-metallicity clouds, pointing out that in such clouds the cooling time may be longer than the dynamical time, allowing the cloud to collapse globally before it can fragment. This, we suggest, may help to explain the formation of the low-metallicity globular cluster population, since such dense stellar systems need a large amount of gas to be collected in a small region (without significant feedback during the collapse). To explore this further, we carry out numerical simulations of low-metallicity Bonner-Ebert stable gas clouds, demonstrating that there exists a critical metallicity (between 0.001 and 0.01 Z⊙) below which the cloud collapses globally without fragmentation. We also run simulations including a background radiative heating source, showing that this can also produce clouds that do not fragment, and that the critical metallicity - which can exceed the no-radiation case - increases with the heating rate.

Height Distribution Between Cloud and Aerosol Layers from the GLAS Spaceborne Lidar in the Indian Ocean Region

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Hart, William D.; Spinhirne, James D.; Palm, Steven P.; Hlavka, Dennis L.

2005-01-01

The Geoscience Laser Altimeter System (GLAS), a nadir pointing lidar on the Ice Cloud and land Elevation Satellite (ICESat) launched in 2003, now provides important new global measurements of the relationship between the height distribution of cloud and aerosol layers. GLAS data have the capability to detect, locate, and distinguish between cloud and aerosol layers in the atmosphere up to 40 km altitude. The data product algorithm tests the product of the maximum attenuated backscatter coefficient b'(r) and the vertical gradient of b'(r) within a layer against a predetermined threshold. An initial case result for the critical Indian Ocean region is presented. From the results the relative height distribution between collocated aerosol and cloud shows extensive regions where cloud formation is well within dense aerosol scattering layers at the surface. Citation: Hart, W. D., J. D. Spinhime, S. P. Palm, and D. L. Hlavka (2005), Height distribution between cloud and aerosol layers from the GLAS spaceborne lidar in the Indian Ocean region,

OT2_jhewitt_2: Understanding Shock Oxygen Chemistry in Interacting Supernova Remnants

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Hewitt, J.

2011-09-01

Supernova remnants interacting with dense moelcular clouds provide astrochemical laboratories to study heating and cooling of the dense ISM, shock chemistry, destruction and sputtering of dust, and the reformation of molecules. Water is expected to be a major coolant for shocks into dense gas, yet the number of remnants in which IR lines of hydroxyl and water are detected is very limited. We propose Herschel PACS, SPIRE and HIFI observations of three remnants with particularly high shocked gas densities, high dust and IR line luinosities, and extreme ionization environments. The scientific objectives of this proposal are: (1) to determine the abundance and excitation of oxygen-bearing molecules, and (2) to study the effects of variable ionization sources on oxygen chemistry in dense molecular gas shocked by powerful supernova remnant blast waves.

Size dependence of single-photon superradiance of cold and dilute atomic ensembles

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kuraptsev, A. S.; Sokolov, I. M.

2017-11-01

We report a theoretical investigation of angular distribution of a single-photon superradiance from cold and dilute atomic clouds. In the present work we focus our attention on the dependence of superradiance on the size and shape of the cloud. We analyze the dynamics of the afterglow of atomic ensemble excited by pulse radiation. Two theoretical approaches are used. The first is the quantum microscopic approach based on a coupled-dipole model. The second approach is random walk approximation. We show that the results obtained in both approaches coincide with a good accuracy for incoherent fluorescence excited by short resonant pulses. We also show that the superradiance decay rate changes with size differently for radiation emitted into different directions.

Measurements of the H2(13)CO ortho/para ratio in cold dark molecular clouds

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Minh, Y. C.; Dickens, J. E.; Irvine, W. M.; McGonagle, D.

1995-01-01

H2(13)CO has been detected for the first time toward cold dark molecular clouds using the NRAO 12 m telescope. The H2(13)CO ortho/para abundance ratio R for B335, which we report as R approximately 1.7, suggests equilibrium at the local kinetic temperature and appears to be distinctly different from that for both TMC-1 and L134N, where R is close to or higher than the statistical value 3. Since only B335 among the observed positions includes an imbedded IR source, this difference may result from heating of the grain surfaces, providing the energy necessary for desorption of formaldehyde formed on the grains.

Upper limits for the ethyl-cyanide abundances in TMC-1 and L134N - Chemical implications

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Minh, Y. C.; Irvine, W. M.

1991-01-01

Interstellar ethyl-cyanide has been sought via its 2(02)-1(01) transition towards two cold, dark clouds, and upper limits of the total column densities of 3 x 10 to the 12th/sq cm and 2 x 10 to the 12th/sq cm for TMC-1 and L134N, respectively. The 2(02)-1(01) transition of vynil cyanide, previously identified in TMC-1 by Matthews and Sears (1983b), was also observed. The detection of vinyl cyanide and the nondetection of ethyl cyanide in TMC-1 are consistent with gas phase ion-molecule chemical models, and there is thus no necessity of invoking grain surface synthesis for vinyl cyanide in cold clouds.

A Herschel-SPIRE Survey of the MonR2 Giant Molecular Cloud

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Pokhrel, Riwaj; Gutermuth, Robert A.; Ali, Babar; Megeath, S. Thomas; Pipher, Judith; Myers, Philip C.; Fischer, William J.; Henning, Thomas; Wolk, Scott J.; Allen, Lori; Tobin, John J.

2014-06-01

We present a new survey of the MonR2 giant molecular cloud with SPIRE on the Herschel Space Observatory. We cross-calibrated SPIRE data with Planck-HFI and accounted for its absolute offset and zero point correction. We fixed emissivity with the help of flux-error and flux ratio plots. As the best representation of cold dusty molecular clouds, we did greybody fits of the SEDs. We studied the nature of distribution of column densities above and below certain critical limit, followed by the mass and temperature distributions for different regions. We isolated the filaments and studied radial column density profile in this cloud.

The rotational excitation of the HCN and HNC molecules by H2 revisited

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Hernández Vera, M.; Lique, F.; Dumouchel, F.; Hily-Blant, P.; Faure, A.

2017-06-01

HCN and HNC are two fundamental molecules in the dense interstellar medium. The HNC/HCN abundance ratio depends on the kinetic temperature and can be used to explore the physical and chemical conditions of star-forming regions. Modelling of HCN and HNC emissions from interstellar clouds requires to model their collisional and radiative excitations. We report the calculation of the HCN and HNC excitation rate coefficients among the first 26 rotational levels due to H2 collisions, for temperatures ranging from 5 to 500 K, using the exact close coupling and the approximate coupled states methods. We found a propensity for even Δj transitions in the case of HCN-para-H2 collisions, whereas a propensity for odd Δj transitions is observed in the case of HNC-para-H2 collisions. For collisions with ortho-H2, both molecules show a propensity rule favouring transitions with odd Δj. The rate coefficients for HCN and HNC differ significantly, showing clearly that the collisional excitation of the two isomers is different, especially for para-H2. We also evaluate the impact of these new data on the astrophysical modelling through radiative transfer calculations. It is shown that specific calculations have to be performed for the two isomers and that the HNC/HCN abundance ratio in cold molecular clouds cannot be estimated from line intensity ratio. Finally, observations of the two isotopologues H13CN and HN13C towards a sample of prestellar cores are presented, and the larger excitation temperature of HN13C is well reproduced by our excitation model.

Three milieux for interstellar chemistry: gas, dust, and ice

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Herbst, Eric

The interdisciplinary science of astrochemistry is 45 years of age, if we pinpoint its origin to have occurred when the first polyatomic molecules were detected in the interstellar gas. Since that time, the field has grown remarkably from an esoteric area of research to one that unites scientists around the globe. Almost 200 different molecules have been detected in the gas-phase of interstellar clouds, mainly by rotational spectroscopy, while dust particles and their icy mantles in colder regions can be probed by vibrational spectroscopy. Astrochemistry is exciting to scientists in a number of different fields. Astronomers are interested in molecular spectra from the heavens because such spectra are excellent probes of the physical conditions where molecules exist, while chemists are interested in the exotic molecules, their spectra, and the unusual chemical processes that produce and destroy them under conditions often very different from those on our home planet. Chemical simulations involving thousands of reactions are now used to calculate concentrations and spectra of interstellar molecules as functions of time. Even biologists share an interest in the subject, because the interstellar clouds of gas and dust, portions of which collapse to form stars and planetary systems, contain organic molecules that may become part of the initial inventory of new planets and may indeed be the precursors of life. An irresistible subject to its practitioners, astrochemistry is proving to be exciting to a much wider audience. In this perspective article, the field is first introduced, and the emphasis is then placed on the three environments in which chemistry occurs in the interstellar medium: the gas phase, the surfaces of bare dust particles, and the ice mantles that cover bare grains in cold dense interstellar clouds. What we do know and what we do not know is distinguished. The status of chemical simulations for a variety of interstellar sources having to do with stellar and planetary evolution is surveyed. An optimistic view of the future of astrochemistry ends the article.

Predicted reentrant melting of dense hydrogen at ultra-high pressures

PubMed Central

Geng, Hua Y.; Wu, Q.

2016-01-01

The phase diagram of hydrogen is one of the most important challenges in high-pressure physics and astrophysics. Especially, the melting of dense hydrogen is complicated by dimer dissociation, metallization and nuclear quantum effect of protons, which together lead to a cold melting of dense hydrogen when above 500 GPa. Nonetheless, the variation of the melting curve at higher pressures is virtually uncharted. Here we report that using ab initio molecular dynamics and path integral simulations based on density functional theory, a new atomic phase is discovered, which gives an uplifting melting curve of dense hydrogen when beyond 2 TPa, and results in a reentrant solid-liquid transition before entering the Wigner crystalline phase of protons. The findings greatly extend the phase diagram of dense hydrogen, and put metallic hydrogen into the group of alkali metals, with its melting curve closely resembling those of lithium and sodium. PMID:27834405

The inception of star cluster formation revealed by [C II] emission around an Infrared Dark Cloud

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Bisbas, Thomas G.; Tan, Jonathan C.; Csengeri, Timea; Wu, Benjamin; Lim, Wanggi; Caselli, Paola; Güsten, Rolf; Ricken, Oliver; Riquelme, Denise

2018-07-01

We present SOFIA-upGREAT observations of [C II] emission of Infrared Dark Cloud (IRDC) G035.39-00.33, designed to trace its atomic gas envelope and thus test models of the origins of such clouds. Several velocity components of [C II] emission are detected, tracing structures that are at a wide range of distances in the Galactic plane. We find a main component that is likely associated with the IRDC and its immediate surroundings. This strongest emission component has a velocity similar to that of the 13CO(2-1) emission of the IRDC, but offset by ˜3 km s-1 and with a larger velocity width of ˜9 km s-1. The spatial distribution of the [C II] emission of this component is also offset predominantly to one side of the dense filamentary structure of the IRDC. The C II column density is estimated to be of the order of ˜1017-1018 cm-2. We compare these results to the [C II] emission from numerical simulations of magnetized, dense gas filaments formed from giant molecular cloud (GMC) collisions, finding similar spatial and kinematic offsets. These observations and modellingof [C II] add further to the evidence that IRDC G035.39-00.33 has been formed by a process of GMC-GMC collision, which may thus be an important mechanism for initiating star cluster formation.

The star-forming content of the W3 giant molecular cloud

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Moore, T. J. T.; Bretherton, D. E.; Fujiyoshi, T.; Ridge, N. A.; Allsopp, J.; Hoare, M. G.; Lumsden, S. L.; Richer, J. S.

2007-08-01

We have surveyed a ˜0.9 square degree area of the W3 giant molecular cloud (GMC) and star-forming region in the 850-μm continuum, using the Submillimetre Common-User Bolometer Array on the James Clerk Maxwell Telescope. A complete sample of 316 dense clumps were detected with a mass range from around 13 to 2500 M⊙. Part of the W3 GMC is subject to an interaction with the H ii region and fast stellar winds generated by the nearby W4 OB association. We find that the fraction of total gas mass in dense, 850-μm traced structures is significantly altered by this interaction, being around 5-13 per cent in the undisturbed cloud but ˜25-37 per cent in the feedback-affected region. The mass distribution in the detected clump sample depends somewhat on assumptions of dust temperature and is not a simple, single power law but contains significant structure at intermediate masses. This structure is likely to be due to crowding of sources near or below the spatial resolution of the observations. There is little evidence of any difference between the index of the high-mass end of the clump mass function in the compressed region and in the unaffected cloud. The consequences of these results are discussed in terms of current models of triggered star formation.

Massive Infrared-Quiet Dense Cores: Unveiling the Initial Conditions of High-Mass Star Formation

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Motte, F.; Bontemps, S.; Schneider, N.; Schilke, P.; Menten, K. M.

2008-05-01

As Th. Henning said at the conference, cold precursors of high-mass stars are now ``hot topics''. We here propose some observational criteria to identify massive infrared-quiet dense cores which can host the high-mass analogs of Class~0 protostars and pre-stellar condensations. We also show how far-infrared to millimeter imaging surveys of entire complexes forming OB stars are starting to unveil the initial conditions of high-mass star formation.

Rendering of dense, point cloud data in a high fidelity driving simulator.

DOT National Transportation Integrated Search

2014-09-01

Driving Simulators are advanced tools that can address many research questions in transportation. Recently they have been used to advance the practice of transportation engineering, specifically signs, signals, pavement markings, and most powerfully ...

Star-Studded Strings around Cocoon Nebula

NASA Image and Video Library

2011-04-13

Dense filaments of gas in the IC5146 interstellar cloud can be seen clearly in this image taken in infrared light by the Herschel space observatory. The blue region is a stellar nursery known as the Cocoon nebula.

Comparison of Cell Regeneration Mechanisms Between Isolated Cb Clouds Moving Along A Valley and Over Flat Terrain

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Curic, M.; Janc, D.; Vuckovic, V.; Vujovic, D.

Cell regeneration mechanism within air-mass Cb cloud moving along the river valley is investigated by three-dimensional mesoscale ARPS model with improved micro- physics. Simulated cloud characteristics are then compared with those performed for the flat terrain conditions. The Western Morava valley area (Serbia) has selected as an important place for formation of such clouds in agreement with observations. Ana- lyzed results suggest that the river valley plays an important role for the cell regenera- tion mechanism in front of the mother cloud. Futher, it contributes to the fast Cb cloud propagation along the valley. In contrast, the front-side cell regeneration mechanism is absent for the flat terrain conditions since the cold air below cloud base deverges in all directions without any restrictions. This investigation gives us more complete insight in cell regeneration mechanisms than classic approach.

On parametrized cold dense matter equation-of-state inference

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Riley, Thomas E.; Raaijmakers, Geert; Watts, Anna L.

2018-07-01

Constraining the equation of state of cold dense matter in compact stars is a major science goal for observing programmes being conducted using X-ray, radio, and gravitational wave telescopes. We discuss Bayesian hierarchical inference of parametrized dense matter equations of state. In particular, we generalize and examine two inference paradigms from the literature: (i) direct posterior equation-of-state parameter estimation, conditioned on observations of a set of rotating compact stars; and (ii) indirect parameter estimation, via transformation of an intermediary joint posterior distribution of exterior spacetime parameters (such as gravitational masses and coordinate equatorial radii). We conclude that the former paradigm is not only tractable for large-scale analyses, but is principled and flexible from a Bayesian perspective while the latter paradigm is not. The thematic problem of Bayesian prior definition emerges as the crux of the difference between these paradigms. The second paradigm should in general only be considered as an ill-defined approach to the problem of utilizing archival posterior constraints on exterior spacetime parameters; we advocate for an alternative approach whereby such information is repurposed as an approximative likelihood function. We also discuss why conditioning on a piecewise-polytropic equation-of-state model - currently standard in the field of dense matter study - can easily violate conditions required for transformation of a probability density distribution between spaces of exterior (spacetime) and interior (source matter) parameters.

On parametrised cold dense matter equation of state inference

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Riley, Thomas E.; Raaijmakers, Geert; Watts, Anna L.

2018-04-01

Constraining the equation of state of cold dense matter in compact stars is a major science goal for observing programmes being conducted using X-ray, radio, and gravitational wave telescopes. We discuss Bayesian hierarchical inference of parametrised dense matter equations of state. In particular we generalise and examine two inference paradigms from the literature: (i) direct posterior equation of state parameter estimation, conditioned on observations of a set of rotating compact stars; and (ii) indirect parameter estimation, via transformation of an intermediary joint posterior distribution of exterior spacetime parameters (such as gravitational masses and coordinate equatorial radii). We conclude that the former paradigm is not only tractable for large-scale analyses, but is principled and flexible from a Bayesian perspective whilst the latter paradigm is not. The thematic problem of Bayesian prior definition emerges as the crux of the difference between these paradigms. The second paradigm should in general only be considered as an ill-defined approach to the problem of utilising archival posterior constraints on exterior spacetime parameters; we advocate for an alternative approach whereby such information is repurposed as an approximative likelihood function. We also discuss why conditioning on a piecewise-polytropic equation of state model - currently standard in the field of dense matter study - can easily violate conditions required for transformation of a probability density distribution between spaces of exterior (spacetime) and interior (source matter) parameters.

Laser-filamentation-induced condensation and snow formation in a cloud chamber.

PubMed

Ju, Jingjing; Liu, Jiansheng; Wang, Cheng; Sun, Haiyi; Wang, Wentao; Ge, Xiaochun; Li, Chuang; Chin, See Leang; Li, Ruxin; Xu, Zhizhan

2012-04-01

Using 1 kHz, 9 mJ femtosecond laser pulses, we demonstrate laser-filamentation-induced spectacular snow formation in a cloud chamber. An intense updraft of warm moist air is generated owing to the continuous heating by the high-repetition filamentation. As it encounters the cold air above, water condensation and large-sized particles spread unevenly across the whole cloud chamber via convection and cyclone like action on a macroscopic scale. This indicates that high-repetition filamentation plays a significant role in macroscopic laser-induced water condensation and snow formation.

Generating Accurate 3d Models of Architectural Heritage Structures Using Low-Cost Camera and Open Source Algorithms

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Zacharek, M.; Delis, P.; Kedzierski, M.; Fryskowska, A.

2017-05-01

These studies have been conductedusing non-metric digital camera and dense image matching algorithms, as non-contact methods of creating monuments documentation.In order toprocess the imagery, few open-source software and algorithms of generating adense point cloud from images have been executed. In the research, the OSM Bundler, VisualSFM software, and web application ARC3D were used. Images obtained for each of the investigated objects were processed using those applications, and then dense point clouds and textured 3D models were created. As a result of post-processing, obtained models were filtered and scaled.The research showedthat even using the open-source software it is possible toobtain accurate 3D models of structures (with an accuracy of a few centimeters), but for the purpose of documentation and conservation of cultural and historical heritage, such accuracy can be insufficient.

Volcanism-Climate Interactions

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Walter, Louis S. (Editor); Desilva, Shanaka (Editor)

1991-01-01

The range of disciplines in the study of volcanism-climate interactions includes paleoclimate, volcanology, petrology, tectonics, cloud physics and chemistry, and climate and radiation modeling. Questions encountered in understanding the interactions include: the source and evolution of sulfur and sulfur-gaseous species in magmas; their entrainment in volcanic plumes and injection into the stratosphere; their dissipation rates; and their radiative effects. Other issues include modeling and measuring regional and global effects of such large, dense clouds. A broad-range plan of research designed to answer these questions was defined. The plan includes observations of volcanoes, rocks, trees, and ice cores, as well as satellite and aircraft observations of erupting volcanoes and resulting lumes and clouds.

Ortho- and para-hydrogen in dense clouds, protoplanets, and planetary atmospheres

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Decampli, W. M.; Cameron, A. G. W.; Bodenheimer, P.; Black, D. C.

1978-01-01

If ortho- and para-hydrogen achieve a thermal ratio on dynamical time scales in a molecular hydrogen cloud, then the specific heat is high enough in the temperature range 35-70 K to possibly induce hydrodynamic collapse. The ortho-para ratio in many interstellar cloud fragments is expected to meet this condition. The same may have been true for the primitive solar nebula. Detailed hydrodynamic and hydrostatic calculations are presented that show the effects of the assumed ortho-para ratio on the evolution of Jupiter during its protoplanetary phase. Some possible consequences of a thermalized ortho-para ratio in the atmospheres of the giant planets are also discussed.

THE BOLOCAM GALACTIC PLANE SURVEY. XII. DISTANCE CATALOG EXPANSION USING KINEMATIC ISOLATION OF DENSE MOLECULAR CLOUD STRUCTURES WITH {sup 13}CO(1-0)

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Ellsworth-Bowers, Timothy P.; Glenn, Jason; Rosolowsky, Erik

2015-01-20

We present an expanded distance catalog for 1710 molecular cloud structures identified in the Bolocam Galactic Plane Survey (BGPS) version 2, representing a nearly threefold increase over the previous BGPS distance catalog. We additionally present a new method for incorporating extant data sets into our Bayesian distance probability density function (DPDF) methodology. To augment the dense-gas tracers (e.g., HCO{sup +}(3-2), NH{sub 3}(1,1)) used to derive line-of-sight velocities for kinematic distances, we utilize the Galactic Ring Survey (GRS) {sup 13}CO(1-0) data to morphologically extract velocities for BGPS sources. The outline of a BGPS source is used to select a region ofmore » the GRS {sup 13}CO data, along with a reference region to subtract enveloping diffuse emission, to produce a line profile of {sup 13}CO matched to the BGPS source. For objects with a HCO{sup +}(3-2) velocity, ≈95% of the new {sup 13}CO(1-0) velocities agree with that of the dense gas. A new prior DPDF for kinematic distance ambiguity (KDA) resolution, based on a validated formalism for associating molecular cloud structures with known objects from the literature, is presented. We demonstrate this prior using catalogs of masers with trigonometric parallaxes and H II regions with robust KDA resolutions. The distance catalog presented here contains well-constrained distance estimates for 20% of BGPS V2 sources, with typical distance uncertainties ≲ 0.5 kpc. Approximately 75% of the well-constrained sources lie within 6 kpc of the Sun, concentrated in the Scutum-Centaurus arm. Galactocentric positions of objects additionally trace out portions of the Sagittarius, Perseus, and Outer arms in the first and second Galactic quadrants, and we also find evidence for significant regions of interarm dense gas.« less

DEEPLY EMBEDDED PROTOSTELLAR POPULATION IN THE 20 km s{sup −1} CLOUD OF THE CENTRAL MOLECULAR ZONE

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Lu, Xing; Gu, Qiusheng; Zhang, Qizhou

2015-12-01

We report the discovery of a population of deeply embedded protostellar candidates in the 20 km s{sup −1} cloud, one of the massive molecular clouds in the Central Molecular Zone (CMZ) of the Milky Way, using interferometric submillimeter continuum and H{sub 2}O maser observations. The submillimeter continuum emission shows five 1 pc scale clumps, each of which further fragments into several 0.1 pc scale cores. We identify 17 dense cores, among which 12 are gravitationally bound. Among the 18 H{sub 2}O masers detected, 13 coincide with the cores and probably trace outflows emanating from the protostars. There are also 5more » gravitationally bound dense cores without H{sub 2}O maser detection. In total, the 13 masers and 5 cores may represent 18 protostars with spectral types later than B1 or potentially growing more massive stars at earlier evolutionary stages, given the non-detection in the centimeter radio continuum. In combination with previous studies of CH{sub 3}OH masers, we conclude that the star formation in this cloud is at an early evolutionary phase, before the presence of any significant ionizing or heating sources. Our findings indicate that star formation in this cloud may be triggered by a tidal compression as it approaches pericenter, similar to the case of G0.253+0.016 but with a higher star formation rate, and demonstrate that high angular resolution, high-sensitivity maser, and submillimeter observations are promising techniques to unveil deeply embedded star formation in the CMZ.« less

A single field of view method for retrieving tropospheric temperature profiles from cloud-contaminated radiance data

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Hodges, D. B.

1976-01-01

An iterative method is presented to retrieve single field of view (FOV) tropospheric temperature profiles directly from cloud-contaminated radiance data. A well-defined temperature profile may be calculated from the radiative transfer equation (RTE) for a partly cloudy atmosphere when the average fractional cloud amount and cloud-top height for the FOV are known. A cloud model is formulated to calculate the fractional cloud amount from an estimated cloud-top height. The method is then examined through use of simulated radiance data calculated through vertical integration of the RTE for a partly cloudy atmosphere using known values of cloud-top height(s) and fractional cloud amount(s). Temperature profiles are retrieved from the simulated data assuming various errors in the cloud parameters. Temperature profiles are retrieved from NOAA-4 satellite-measured radiance data obtained over an area dominated by an active cold front and with considerable cloud cover and compared with radiosonde data. The effects of using various guessed profiles and the number of iterations are considered.

Eastern U.S. Infrared, Enhancement 4 - NOAA GOES Geostationary Satellite

Science.gov Websites

Enhancement 4 Eastern U.S. Infrared Enhancements IR Enhancement 1 Eastern U.S. Infrared Enhancement 1 IR Enhancement 2 Eastern U.S. Infrared Enhancement 2 IR Enhancement 3 Eastern U.S. Infrared Enhancement 3 IR large amount of water vapor. » Enhancement types In an infrared (IR) image cold clouds are high clouds

Towards a new parameterization of ice particles growth

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Krakovska, Svitlana; Khotyayintsev, Volodymyr; Bardakov, Roman; Shpyg, Vitaliy

2017-04-01

Ice particles are the main component of polar clouds, unlike in warmer regions. That is why correct representation of ice particle formation and growth in NWP and other numerical atmospheric models is crucial for understanding of the whole chain of water transformation, including precipitation formation and its further deposition as snow in polar glaciers. Currently, parameterization of ice in atmospheric models is among the most difficult challenges. In the presented research, we present a renewed theoretical analysis of the evolution of mixed cloud or cold fog from the moment of ice nuclei activation until complete crystallization. The simplified model is proposed that includes both supercooled cloud droplets and initially uniform particles of ice, as well as water vapor. We obtain independent dimensionless input parameters of a cloud, and find main scenarios and stages of evolution of the microphysical state of the cloud. The characteristic times and particle sizes have been found, as well as the peculiarities of microphysical processes at each stage of evolution. In the future, the proposed original and physically grounded approximations may serve as a basis for a new scientifically substantiated and numerically efficient parameterizations of microphysical processes in mixed clouds for modern atmospheric models. The relevance of theoretical analysis is confirmed by numerical modeling for a wide range of combinations of possible conditions in the atmosphere, including cold polar regions. The main conclusion of the research is that until complete disappearance of cloud droplets, the growth of ice particles occurs at a practically constant humidity corresponding to the saturated humidity over water, regardless to all other parameters of a cloud. This process can be described by the one differential equation of the first order. Moreover, a dimensionless parameter has been proposed as a quantitative criterion of a transition from dominant depositional to intense collectional growth of ice particles; it could be used in models with bulk parameterization of cloud and precipitation formation processes.

Cold and warm atomic gas around the Perseus molecular cloud. I. Basic properties

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Stanimirović, Snežana; Murray, Claire E.; Miller, Jesse

2014-10-01

Using the Arecibo Observatory, we have obtained neutral hydrogen (HI) absorption and emission spectral pairs in the direction of 26 background radio continuum sources in the vicinity of the Perseus molecular cloud. Strong absorption lines were detected in all cases, allowing us to estimate spin temperature (T{sub s} ) and optical depth for 107 individual Gaussian components along these lines of sight. Basic properties of individual H I clouds (spin temperature, optical depth, and the column density of the cold and warm neutral medium (CNM and WNM), respectively) in and around Perseus are very similar to those found for randommore » interstellar lines of sight sampled by the Millennium H I survey. This suggests that the neutral gas found in and around molecular clouds is not atypical. However, lines of sight in the vicinity of Perseus have, on average, a higher total H I column density and the CNM fraction, suggesting an enhanced amount of cold H I relative to an average interstellar field. Our estimated optical depth and spin temperature are in stark contrast with the recent attempt at using Planck data to estimate properties of the optically thick H I. Only ∼15% of lines of sight in our study have a column density weighted average spin temperature lower than 50 K, in comparison with ≳ 85% of Planck's sky coverage. The observed CNM fraction is inversely proportional to the optical depth weighted average spin temperature, in excellent agreement with the recent numerical simulations by Kim et al. While the CNM fraction is, on average, higher around Perseus relative to a random interstellar field, it is generally low, between 10%-50%. This suggests that extended WNM envelopes around molecular clouds and/or significant mixing of CNM and WNM throughout molecular clouds are present and should be considered in the models of molecule and star formation. Our detailed comparison of H I absorption with CO emission spectra shows that only 3 of the 26 directions are clear candidates for probing the CO-dark gas as they have N(H I)>10{sup 21} cm{sup –2} yet no detectable CO emission.« less

The Arctic clouds from model simulations and long-term observations at Barrow, Alaska

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Zhao, Ming

The Arctic is a region that is very sensitive to global climate change while also experiencing significant changes in its surface air temperature, sea-ice cover, atmospheric circulation, precipitation, snowfall, biogeochemical cycling, and land surface. Although previous studies have shown that the arctic clouds play an important role in the arctic climate changes, the arctic clouds are poorly understood and simulated in climate model due to limited observations. Furthermore, most of the studies were based on short-term experiments and typically only cover the warm seasons, which do not provide a full understanding of the seasonal cycle of arctic clouds. To address the above concerns and to improve our understanding of arctic clouds, six years of observational and retrieval data from 1999 to 2004 at the Atmospheric Radiation Management (ARM) Climate Research Facility (ACRF) North Slope of Alaska (NSA) Barrow site are used to understand the arctic clouds and related radiative processes. In particular, we focus on the liquid-ice mass partition in the mixed-phase cloud layer. Statistical results show that aerosol type and concentration are important factors that impact the mixed-phase stratus (MPS) cloud microphysical properties: liquid water path (LWP) and liquid water fraction (LWF) decrease with the increase of cloud condensation nuclei (CCN) number concentration; the high dust loading and dust occurrence in the spring are possible reasons for the much lower LWF than the other seasons. The importance of liquid-ice mass partition on surface radiation budgets was analyzed by comparing cloud longwave radiative forcings under the same LWP but different ice water path (IWP) ranges. Results show the ice phase enhance the surface cloud longwave (LW) forcing by 8˜9 W m-2 in the moderately thin MPS. This result provides an observational evidence on the aerosol glaciation effect in the moderately thin MPS, which is largely unknown so far. The above new insights are important to guide the model parameterizations of liquid-ice mass partition in arctic mixed-phase clouds, and are served as a test bed to cloud models and cloud microphysical schemes. The observational data between 1999 and 2007 are used to assess the performance of the European Center for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF) model in the Arctic region. The ECMWF model-simulated near-surface humidity had seasonal dependent biases as large as 20%, while also experiencing difficulty representing boundary layer (BL) temperature inversion height and strength during the transition seasons. Although the ECMWF model captured the seasonal variation of surface heat fluxes, it had sensible heat flux biases over 20 W m-2 in most of the cold months. Furthermore, even though the model captured the general seasonal variations of low-level cloud fraction (LCF) and LWP, it still overestimated the LCF by 20% or more and underestimated the LWP over 50% in the cold season. On average, the ECMWF model underestimated LWP by ˜30 g m-2 but more accurately predicted ice water path for BL clouds. For BL mixed-phase clouds, the model predicted water-ice mass partition was significantly lower than the observations, largely due to the temperature dependence of water-ice mass partition used in the model. The new cloud and BL schemes of the ECMWF model that were implemented after 2003 only resulted in minor improvements in BL cloud simulations in summer. These results indicate that significant improvements in cold season BL and mixed-phase cloud processes in the model are needed. In this study, single-layer MPS clouds were simulated by the Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) model under different microphysical schemes and different ice nuclei (IN) number concentrations. Results show that by using proper IN concentration, the WRF model incorporated with Morrison microphysical scheme can reasonably capture the observed seasonal differences in temperature dependent liquid-ice mass partition. However, WRF simulations underestimate both LWP and IWP indicating its deficiency in capturing the radiative impacts of arctic MPS clouds.

ALMA RESOLVES 30 DORADUS: SUB-PARSEC MOLECULAR CLOUD STRUCTURE NEAR THE CLOSEST SUPER STAR CLUSTER

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Indebetouw, Remy; Brogan, Crystal; Leroy, Adam

2013-09-01

We present Atacama Large (sub)Millimeter Array observations of 30 Doradus-the highest resolution view of molecular gas in an extragalactic star formation region to date ({approx}0.4 pc Multiplication-Sign 0.6 pc). The 30Dor-10 cloud north of R136 was mapped in {sup 12}CO 2-1, {sup 13}CO 2-1, C{sup 18}O 2-1, 1.3 mm continuum, the H30{alpha} recombination line, and two H{sub 2}CO 3-2 transitions. Most {sup 12}CO emission is associated with small filaments and clumps ({approx}<1 pc, {approx}10{sup 3} M{sub Sun} at the current resolution). Some clumps are associated with protostars, including ''pillars of creation'' photoablated by intense radiation from R136. Emission from molecularmore » clouds is often analyzed by decomposition into approximately beam-sized clumps. Such clumps in 30 Doradus follow similar trends in size, linewidth, and surface density to Milky Way clumps. The 30 Doradus clumps have somewhat larger linewidths for a given size than predicted by Larson's scaling relation, consistent with pressure confinement. They extend to a higher surface density at a given size and linewidth compared to clouds studied at 10 pc resolution. These trends are also true of clumps in Galactic infrared-dark clouds; higher resolution observations of both environments are required. Consistency of clump masses calculated from dust continuum, CO, and the virial theorem reveals that the CO abundance in 30 Doradus clumps is not significantly different from the Large Magellanic Cloud mean, but the dust abundance may be reduced by {approx}2. There are no strong trends in clump properties with distance from R136; dense clumps are not strongly affected by the external radiation field, but there is a modest trend toward lower dense clump filling fraction deeper in the cloud.« less

A Lagrangian analysis of cold cloud clusters and their life cycles with satellite observations

PubMed Central

Esmaili, Rebekah Bradley; Tian, Yudong; Vila, Daniel Alejandro; Kim, Kyu-Myong

2018-01-01

Cloud movement and evolution signify the complex water and energy transport in the atmosphere-ocean-land system. Detecting, clustering, and tracking clouds as semi-coherent cluster objects enables study of their evolution which can complement climate model simulations and enhance satellite retrieval algorithms, where there are large gaps between overpasses. Using an area-overlap cluster tracking algorithm, in this study we examine the trajectories, horizontal extent, and brightness temperature variations of millions of individual cloud clusters over their lifespan, from infrared satellite observations at 30-minute, 4-km resolution, for a period of 11 years. We found that the majority of cold clouds were both small and short-lived and that their frequency and location are influenced by El Niño. More importantly, this large sample of individually tracked clouds shows their horizontal size and temperature evolution. Longer lived clusters tended to achieve their temperature and size maturity milestones at different times, while these stages often occurred simultaneously in shorter lived clusters. On average, clusters with this lag also exhibited a greater rainfall contribution than those where minimum temperature and maximum size stages occurred simultaneously. Furthermore, by examining the diurnal cycle of cluster development over Africa and the Indian subcontinent, we observed differences in the local timing of the maximum occurrence at different life cycle stages. Over land there was a strong diurnal peak in the afternoon while over the ocean there was a semi-diurnal peak composed of longer-lived clusters in the early morning hours and shorter-lived clusters in the afternoon. Building on regional specific work, this study provides a long-term, high-resolution, and global survey of object-based cloud characteristics. PMID:29744257

A Lagrangian analysis of cold cloud clusters and their life cycles with satellite observations.

PubMed

Esmaili, Rebekah Bradley; Tian, Yudong; Vila, Daniel Alejandro; Kim, Kyu-Myong

2016-10-16

Cloud movement and evolution signify the complex water and energy transport in the atmosphere-ocean-land system. Detecting, clustering, and tracking clouds as semi-coherent cluster objects enables study of their evolution which can complement climate model simulations and enhance satellite retrieval algorithms, where there are large gaps between overpasses. Using an area-overlap cluster tracking algorithm, in this study we examine the trajectories, horizontal extent, and brightness temperature variations of millions of individual cloud clusters over their lifespan, from infrared satellite observations at 30-minute, 4-km resolution, for a period of 11 years. We found that the majority of cold clouds were both small and short-lived and that their frequency and location are influenced by El Niño. More importantly, this large sample of individually tracked clouds shows their horizontal size and temperature evolution. Longer lived clusters tended to achieve their temperature and size maturity milestones at different times, while these stages often occurred simultaneously in shorter lived clusters. On average, clusters with this lag also exhibited a greater rainfall contribution than those where minimum temperature and maximum size stages occurred simultaneously. Furthermore, by examining the diurnal cycle of cluster development over Africa and the Indian subcontinent, we observed differences in the local timing of the maximum occurrence at different life cycle stages. Over land there was a strong diurnal peak in the afternoon while over the ocean there was a semi-diurnal peak composed of longer-lived clusters in the early morning hours and shorter-lived clusters in the afternoon. Building on regional specific work, this study provides a long-term, high-resolution, and global survey of object-based cloud characteristics.

A Lagrangian Analysis of Cold Cloud Clusters and Their Life Cycles With Satellite Observations

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Esmaili, Rebekah Bradley; Tian, Yudong; Vila, Daniel Alejandro; Kim, Kyu-Myong

2016-01-01

Cloud movement and evolution signify the complex water and energy transport in the atmosphere-ocean-land system. Detecting, clustering, and tracking clouds as semi coherent cluster objects enables study of their evolution which can complement climate model simulations and enhance satellite retrieval algorithms, where there are large gaps between overpasses. Using an area-overlap cluster tracking algorithm, in this study we examine the trajectories, horizontal extent, and brightness temperature variations of millions of individual cloud clusters over their lifespan, from infrared satellite observations at 30-minute, 4-km resolution, for a period of 11 years. We found that the majority of cold clouds were both small and short-lived and that their frequency and location are influenced by El Nino. More importantly, this large sample of individually tracked clouds shows their horizontal size and temperature evolution. Longer lived clusters tended to achieve their temperature and size maturity milestones at different times, while these stages often occurred simultaneously in shorter lived clusters. On average, clusters with this lag also exhibited a greater rainfall contribution than those where minimum temperature and maximum size stages occurred simultaneously. Furthermore, by examining the diurnal cycle of cluster development over Africa and the Indian subcontinent, we observed differences in the local timing of the maximum occurrence at different life cycle stages. Over land there was a strong diurnal peak in the afternoon while over the ocean there was a semi-diurnal peak composed of longer-lived clusters in the early morning hours and shorter-lived clusters in the afternoon. Building on regional specific work, this study provides a long-term, high-resolution, and global survey of object-based cloud characteristics.

The formation of high-mass stars and stellar clusters in the extreme environment of the Central Molecular Zone

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Walker, Daniel Lewis

2017-08-01

The process of converting gas into stars underpins much of astrophysics, yet many fundamental questions surrounding this process remain unanswered. For example - how sensitive is star formation to the local environmental conditions? How do massive and dense stellar clusters form, and how does this crowded environment influence the stars that form within it? How do the most massive stars form and is there an upper limit to the stellar initial mass function (IMF)? Answering questions such as these is crucial if we are to construct an end-to-end model of how stars form across the full range of conditions found throughout the Universe. The research described in this thesis presents a study that utilises a multi-scale approach to identifying and characterising the early precursors to young massive clusters and high-mass proto-stars, with a specific focus on the extreme environment in the inner few hundred parsecs of the Milky Way - the Central Molecular Zone (CMZ). The primary sources of interest that are studied in detail belong to the Galactic centre dust ridge - a group of six high-mass (M 10^(4-5) Msun), dense (R 1-3 pc, n > 10^(4) cm^(-3)), and quiescent molecular clouds. These properties make these clouds ideal candidates for representing the earliest stages of high-mass star and cluster formation. The research presented makes use of single-dish and interferometric far-infrared and (sub-)millimetre observations to study their global and small-scale properties. A comparison of the known young massive clusters (YMCs) and their likely progenitors (the dust ridge clouds) in the CMZ shows that the stellar content of YMCs is much more dense and centrally concentrated than the gas in the clouds. If these clouds are truly precursors to massive clusters, the resultant stellar population would have to undergo significant dynamical evolution to reach central densities that are typical of YMCs. This suggests that YMCs in the CMZ are unlikely to form monolithically. Extending this study to include YMCs in the Galactic disc again shows that the known population of YMC precursor clouds throughout the Galaxy are not sufficiently dense or central concentrated that they could form a cluster that then expands due to gas expulsion. The data also reveal an evolutionary trend, in which clouds contract and accrete gas towards their central regions along with concurrent star formation. This is argued to favour a conveyor-belt mode of YMC formation and is again not consistent with a monolithic formation event. High angular resolution observations of the dust ridge clouds with the Submillimeter Array are presented. They reveal an embedded population of compact and massive cores, ranging from 50 - 2150 Msun within radii of 0.1 - 0.25 pc. These are likely formation sites of high-mass stars and clusters, and are strong candidates for representing the initial conditions of extremely massive stars. Two of these cores are found to be young, high-mass proto-stars, while the remaining 13 are quiescent. Comparing these cores with high-mass proto-stars in the Galactic disc, along with models in which star formation is regulated by turbulence, shows that these cores are consistent with the idea that the critical density threshold for star formation is greater in the turbulent environment at the Galactic centre.

A Regulation of Tropical Climate by Radiative Cooling as Simulated in a Cumulus Ensemble Model

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Sui, Chung-Hsiung; Lau, K.-M.; Li, X.; Chou, M.-D.; Einaudi, Franco (Technical Monitor)

2000-01-01

Responses of tropical atmosphere to low-boundary forcing are investigated in a 2-D cumulus ensemble model (CEM) with an imposed warm-pool and cold-pool SST contrast (deltaSST). The domain-mean vertical motion is constrained to produce heat sink and moisture source as in the observed tropical climate. In a series of experiments, the warm pool SST is specified at different values while the cold pool SST is specified at 26 C. The strength of the circulation increases with increasing deltaSST until deltaSST reaches 3.5 C, and remains unchanged as deltaSST exceeds 3.5 C. The regulation of tropical convection by zonal SST gradient is constrained by the radiative cooling over the cold pool. For deltaSST less than 3.5 C, an enhanced subsidence warming is balanced by a reduced condensation heating over the cold pool. For deltaSST greater than 3.5 C, the subsidence regime expands over the entire cold pool where no condensation heating exist so that a further enhanced subsidence warming can no longer be sustained. The above regulation mechanism is also evident in the change of energy at the top of the atmosphere (TOA) that is dominated by cloud and water vapor greenhouse effect (c (sub LW)) and G (sub clear). The change in shortwave radiation at TOA is largely cancelled between the warm pool and cold pool, likely due to the same imposed vertical motion in our experiments. For deltaSST less than 3.5 C, an increase of deltaSST is associated with a large increase in c (sub Lw) due to increased total clouds in response to enhanced SST-induced circulation. For deltaSST greater than 3.5 C, clouds over the warm pool decrease with increasing SST, and the change in c (sub LW) is much smaller. In both dSST regimes, the change in CLW is larger than the change in G(sub clear) which is slightly negative. However, in the case of uniform warming (deltaSST=0), DeltaG(sub clear), is positive, approximately 5 W per square meters per degree change of SST.

Improving rainfall estimation from commercial microwave links using METEOSAT SEVIRI cloud cover information

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Boose, Yvonne; Doumounia, Ali; Chwala, Christian; Moumouni, Sawadogo; Zougmoré, François; Kunstmann, Harald

2017-04-01

The number of rain gauges is declining worldwide. A recent promising method for alternative precipitation measurements is to derive rain rates from the attenuation of the microwave signal between remote antennas of mobile phone base stations, so called commercial microwave links (CMLs). In European countries, such as Germany, the CML technique can be used as a complementary method to the existing gauge and radar networks improving their products, for example, in mountainous terrain and urban areas. In West African countries, where a dense gauge or radar network is absent, the number of mobile phone users is rapidly increasing and so are the CML networks. Hence, the CML-derived precipitation measurements have high potential for applications such as flood warning and support of agricultural planning in this region. For typical CML bandwidths (10-40 GHz), the relationship of attenuation to rain rate is quasi-linear. However, also humidity, wet antennas or electronic noise can lead to signal interference. To distinguish these fluctuations from actual attenuation due to rain, a temporal wet (rain event occurred)/ dry (no rain event) classification is usually necessary. In dense CML networks this is possible by correlating neighboring CML time series. Another option is to use the correlation between signal time series of different frequencies or bidirectional signals. The CML network in rural areas is typically not dense enough for correlation analysis and often only one polarization and one frequency are available along a CML. In this work we therefore use cloud cover information derived from the Spinning Enhanced Visible and Infrared Imager (SEVIRI) radiometer onboard the geostationary satellite METEOSAT for a wet (pixels along link are cloud covered)/ dry (no cloud along link) classification. We compare results for CMLs in Burkina Faso and Germany, which differ meteorologically (rain rate and duration, droplet size distributions) and technically (CML frequencies, lengths, signal level) and use rain gauge data as ground truth for validation.

Histotripsy beyond the “Intrinsic” Cavitation Threshold using Very Short Ultrasound Pulses: “Microtripsy”

PubMed Central

Lin, Kuang-Wei; Kim, Yohan; Maxwell, Adam D.; Wang, Tzu-Yin; Hall, Timothy L.; Xu, Zhen; Fowlkes, J. Brian; Cain, Charles A.

2014-01-01

Histotripsy produces tissue fractionation through dense energetic bubble clouds generated by short, high-pressure, ultrasound pulses. Conventional histotripsy treatments have used longer pulses from 3 to 10 cycles wherein the lesion-producing bubble cloud generation depends on the pressure-release scattering of very high peak positive shock fronts from previously initiated, sparsely distributed bubbles (the “shock-scattering” mechanism). In our recent work, the peak negative pressure (P−) for generation of dense bubble clouds directly by a single negative half cycle, the “intrinsic threshold,” was measured. In this paper, the dense bubble clouds and resulting lesions (in RBC phantoms and canine tissues) generated by these supra-intrinsic threshold pulses were studied. A 32-element, PZT-8, 500 kHz therapy transducer was used to generate very short (< 2 cycles) histotripsy pulses at a pulse repetition frequency (PRF) of 1 Hz and P− from 24.5 to 80.7 MPa. The results showed that the spatial extent of the histotripsy-induced lesions increased as the applied P− increased, and the sizes of these lesions corresponded well to the estimates of the focal regions above the intrinsic cavitation threshold, at least in the lower pressure regime (P− = 26–35 MPa). The average sizes for the smallest reproducible lesions were approximately 0.9 × 1.7 mm (lateral × axial), significantly smaller than the −6dB beamwidth of the transducer (1.8 × 4.0 mm). These results suggest that, using the intrinsic threshold mechanism, well-confined and microscopic lesions can be precisely generated and their spatial extent can be estimated based on the fraction of the focal region exceeding the intrinsic cavitation threshold. Since the supra-threshold portion of the negative half cycle can be precisely controlled, lesions considerably less than a wavelength are easily produced, hence the term “microtripsy.” PMID:24474132

Prebiotic chemical evolution in the astrophysical context.

PubMed

Ziurys, L M; Adande, G R; Edwards, J L; Schmidt, D R; Halfen, D T; Woolf, N J

2015-06-01

An ever increasing amount of molecular material is being discovered in the interstellar medium, associated with the birth and death of stars and planetary systems. Radio and millimeter-wave astronomical observations, made possible by high-resolution laboratory spectroscopy, uniquely trace the history of gas-phase molecules with biogenic elements. Using a combination of both disciplines, the full extent of the cycling of molecular matter, from circumstellar ejecta of dying stars - objects which expel large amounts of carbon - to nascent solar systems, has been investigated. Such stellar ejecta have been found to exhibit a rich and varied chemical content. Observations demonstrate that this molecular material is passed onto planetary nebulae, the final phase of stellar evolution. Here the star sheds almost its entire original mass, becoming an ultraviolet-emitting white dwarf. Molecules such as H2CO, HCN, HCO(+), and CCH are present in significant concentrations across the entire age span of such nebulae. These data suggest that gas-phase polyatomic, carbon-containing molecules survive the planetary nebula phase and subsequently are transported into the interstellar medium, seeding the chemistry of diffuse and then dense clouds. The extent of the chemical complexity in dense clouds is unknown, hindered by the high spectral line density. Organic species such as acetamide and methyl amine are present in such objects, and NH2CHO has a wide Galactic distribution. However, organophosphorus compounds have not yet been detected in dense clouds. Based on carbon and nitrogen isotope ratios, molecular material from the ISM appears to become incorporated into solar system planetesimals. It is therefore likely that interstellar synthesis influences prebiotic chemistry on planet surfaces.

Aerial Images and Convolutional Neural Network for Cotton Bloom Detection.

PubMed

Xu, Rui; Li, Changying; Paterson, Andrew H; Jiang, Yu; Sun, Shangpeng; Robertson, Jon S

2017-01-01

Monitoring flower development can provide useful information for production management, estimating yield and selecting specific genotypes of crops. The main goal of this study was to develop a methodology to detect and count cotton flowers, or blooms, using color images acquired by an unmanned aerial system. The aerial images were collected from two test fields in 4 days. A convolutional neural network (CNN) was designed and trained to detect cotton blooms in raw images, and their 3D locations were calculated using the dense point cloud constructed from the aerial images with the structure from motion method. The quality of the dense point cloud was analyzed and plots with poor quality were excluded from data analysis. A constrained clustering algorithm was developed to register the same bloom detected from different images based on the 3D location of the bloom. The accuracy and incompleteness of the dense point cloud were analyzed because they affected the accuracy of the 3D location of the blooms and thus the accuracy of the bloom registration result. The constrained clustering algorithm was validated using simulated data, showing good efficiency and accuracy. The bloom count from the proposed method was comparable with the number counted manually with an error of -4 to 3 blooms for the field with a single plant per plot. However, more plots were underestimated in the field with multiple plants per plot due to hidden blooms that were not captured by the aerial images. The proposed methodology provides a high-throughput method to continuously monitor the flowering progress of cotton.

Fantastic Striations and Where to Find Them: The Origin of Magnetically Aligned Striations in Interstellar Clouds

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Chen, Che-Yu; Li, Zhi-Yun; King, Patrick K.; Fissel, Laura M.

2017-10-01

Thin, magnetically aligned striations of relatively moderate contrast with the background are commonly observed in both atomic and molecular clouds. They are also prominent in MHD simulations with turbulent converging shocks. The simulated striations develop within a dense, stagnated sheet in the midplane of the post-shock region where magnetically induced converging flows collide. We show analytically that the secondary flows are an inevitable consequence of the jump conditions of oblique MHD shocks. They produce the stagnated, sheet-like sub-layer through a secondary shock when, roughly speaking, the Alfvénic speed in the primary converging flows is supersonic, a condition that is relatively easy to satisfy in interstellar clouds. The dense sub-layer is naturally threaded by a strong magnetic field that lies close to the plane of the sub-layer. The substantial magnetic field makes the sheet highly anisotropic, which is the key to the striation formation. Specifically, perturbations of the primary inflow that vary spatially perpendicular to the magnetic field can easily roll up the sheet around the field lines without bending them, creating corrugations that appear as magnetically aligned striations in column density maps. On the other hand, perturbations that vary spatially along the field lines curve the sub-layer and alter its orientation relative to the magnetic field locally, seeding special locations that become slanted overdense filaments and prestellar cores through enhanced mass accumulation along field lines. In our scenario, the dense sub-layer, which is unique to magnetized oblique shocks, is the birthplace for both magnetically aligned diffuse striations and massive star-forming structures.

Detection of mesoscale convective complexes using multispectral RGB technique of Himawari-8 (Case Study: Jakarta, 20 February 2017)

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Fatkhuroyan; Wati, T.

2018-05-01

Mesoscale Convective Complexes (MCC) is a well-organized convective cloud that has big size and long lifetime. The aim of the study is to detect and to monitor the development of MCC around Jakarta on 20th February 2017 using satellite Himawari-8. This study uses the analyzing method of the infrared channel and multispectral imagery RGB Technique to monitor the development of radiative, morphology and cloud position which describe the cloud top microphysics, structure and movement of the MCC. On 20th February 2017, the result from Himawari-8 shows that there are many dense-clouds with small ice particle and cloud top temperature could be < -50°C which can be seen as red and yellow dot colour by RGB Technique. The MCC caused a severe storm at Jakarta and its surrounding area.

Evaluation of terrestrial photogrammetric point clouds derived from thermal imagery

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Metcalf, Jeremy P.; Olsen, Richard C.

2016-05-01

Computer vision and photogrammetric techniques have been widely applied to digital imagery producing high density 3D point clouds. Using thermal imagery as input, the same techniques can be applied to infrared data to produce point clouds in 3D space, providing surface temperature information. The work presented here is an evaluation of the accuracy of 3D reconstruction of point clouds produced using thermal imagery. An urban scene was imaged over an area at the Naval Postgraduate School, Monterey, CA, viewing from above as with an airborne system. Terrestrial thermal and RGB imagery were collected from a rooftop overlooking the site using a FLIR SC8200 MWIR camera and a Canon T1i DSLR. In order to spatially align each dataset, ground control points were placed throughout the study area using Trimble R10 GNSS receivers operating in RTK mode. Each image dataset is processed to produce a dense point cloud for 3D evaluation.

Effect of Particle Morphology on Cold Spray Deposition of Chromium Carbide-Nickel Chromium Cermet Powders

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Fernandez, Ruben; Jodoin, Bertrand

2017-08-01

Nickel chromium-chromium carbide coatings provide good corrosion and wear resistance at high temperatures, making them ideal for applications where a harsh environment and high temperatures are expected. Thermal spray processes are preferred as deposition technique of cermets, but the high process temperatures can lead to decarburization and reduction of the coatings properties. Cold spray uses lower temperatures preventing decarburization. Since the metallic phase remains solid, the feedstock powder morphology becomes crucial on the deposition behavior. Six commercially available powders were studied, varying in morphology and metal/ceramic ratios. The powders were categorized into 4 groups depending on their morphology. Spherical powders lead to substrate erosion due to their limited overall ductility. Porous agglomerated and sintered powders lead to severely cracked coatings. For dense agglomerated and sintered powders, the outcome depended on the initial metal/ceramic ratio: powders with 25 wt.% NiCr led to substrate erosion while 35 wt.% NiCr powders led to dense coatings. Finally, blended ceramic-metal mixtures also lead to dense coatings. All coatings obtained had lower ceramic content than the initial feedstock powders. Interrupted spray tests, combined with FEA, helped drawing conclusions on the deposition behavior to explain the obtained results.

Kelvin-Helmholtz evolution in subsonic cold streams feeding galaxies

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Angulo, Adrianna; Coffing, S.; Kuranz, C.; Drake, R. P.; Klein, S.; Trantham, M.; Malamud, G.

2017-10-01

The most prolific star formers in cosmological history lie in a regime where dense filament structures carried substantial mass into the galaxy to sustain star formation without producing a shock. However, hydrodynamic instabilities present on the filament surface limit the ability of such structures to deliver dense matter deeply enough to sustain star formation. Simulations lack the finite resolution necessary to allow fair treatment of the instabilities present at the stream boundary. Using the Omega EP laser, we simulate this mode of galaxy formation with a cold, dense, filament structure within a hotter, subsonic flow and observe the interface evolution. Machined surface perturbations stimulate the development of the Kelvin-Helmholtz (KH) instability due to the resultant shear between the two media. A spherical crystal imaging system produces high-resolution radiographs of the KH structures along the filament surface. The results from the first experiments of this kind, using a rod with single-mode, long-wavelength modulations, will be discussed. This work is funded by the U.S. Department of Energy, through the NNSA-DS and SC-OFES Joint Program in High-Energy-Density Laboratory Plasmas, Grant Number DE-NA0002956, and the National Laser User Facility Program, Grant Number DE-NA0002719, and through.

The molecular gas content of the Pipe Nebula. I. Direct evidence of outflow-generated turbulence in B59?

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Duarte-Cabral, A.; Chrysostomou, A.; Peretto, N.; Fuller, G. A.; Matthews, B.; Schieven, G.; Davis, G. R.

2012-07-01

Context. Star forming regions may share many characteristics, but the specific interplay between gravity, magnetic fields, large-scale dynamics, and protostellar feedback will have an impact on the star formation history of each region. The importance of feedback from outflows is a particular subject to debate, as we are yet to understand the details of their impact on clouds and star formation. Aims: The Pipe Nebula is a nearby molecular cloud hosting the B59 region as its only active star-forming clump. This paper focuses on the global dynamics of B59, its temperature structure, and its outflowing gas, with the goal of revealing the local and global impact of the protostellar outflows. Methods: Using HARP at the James Clerk Maxwell Telescope, we have mapped the B59 region in the J = 3 → 2 transition of 12CO to study the kinematics and energetics of the outflows, and the same transitions of 13CO and C18O to study the overall dynamics of the ambient cloud, the physical properties of the gas, and the hierarchical structure of the region. Results: The B59 region has a total of ~30 M⊙ of cold and quiescent material, mostly gravitationally bound, with narrow line widths throughout. Such low levels of turbulence in the non-star-forming regions within B59 are indicative of the intrinsic initial conditions of the cloud. On the other hand, close to the protostars the impact of the outflows is observed as a localised increase of both C18O line widths from ~0.3 km s-1 to ~1 km s-1, and 13CO excitation temperatures by ~2-3 K. The impact of the outflows is also evident in the low column density material which shows signs of being shaped by the outflow bow shocks as they pierce their way out of the cloud. Much of this structure is readily apparent in a dendrogram analysis of the cloud and demonstrates that when decomposing clouds using such techniques a careful interpretation of the results is needed. Conclusions: The low mass of B59 together with its intrinsically quiescent gas and small number of protostars, allows the identification of specific regions where the outflows from the embedded sources interact the dense gas. Our study suggests that outflows are an important mechanism for injecting and sustaining supersonic turbulence at sub-parsec size scales. We find that less than half of the outflow energy is deposited as turbulent energy of the gas, however this turbulent energy is sufficient to slow down the collapse of the region.

Observational Analysis of Cloud and Precipitation in Midlatitude Cyclones: Northern Versus Southern Hemisphere Warm Fronts

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Naud, Catherine M.; Posselt, Derek J.; van den Heever, Susan C.

2012-01-01

Extratropical cyclones are responsible for most of the precipitation and wind damage in the midlatitudes during the cold season, but there are still uncertainties on how they will change in a warming climate. An ubiquitous problem amongst General Circulation Models (GCMs) is a lack of cloudiness over the southern oceans that may be in part caused by a lack of clouds in cyclones. We analyze CloudSat, CALIPSO and AMSR-E observations for 3 austral and boreal cold seasons and composite cloud frequency of occurrence and precipitation at the warm fronts for northern and southern hemisphere oceanic cyclones. We find that cloud frequency of occurrence and precipitation rate are similar in the early stage of the cyclone life cycle in both northern and southern hemispheres. As cyclones evolve and reach their mature stage, cloudiness and precipitation at the warm front increase in the northern hemisphere but decrease in the southern hemisphere. This is partly caused by lower amounts of precipitable water being available to southern hemisphere cyclones, and smaller increases in wind speed as the cyclones evolve. Southern hemisphere cloud occurrence at the warm front is found to be more sensitive to the amount of moisture in the warm sector than to wind speeds. This suggests that cloudiness in southern hemisphere storms may be more susceptible to changes in atmospheric water vapor content, and thus to changes in surface temperature than their northern hemisphere counterparts. These differences between northern and southern hemisphere cyclones are statistically robust, indicating A-Train-based analyses as useful tools for evaluation of GCMs in the next IPCC report.

Ion distribution in the hot spot of an inertial confinement fusion plasma

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Tang, Xianzhu; Guo, Zehua; Berk, Herb

2012-10-01

Maximizing the fusion gain of inertial confinement fusion (ICF) for inertial fusion energy (IFE) applications leads to the standard scenario of central hot spot ignition followed by propagating burn wave through the cold/dense assembled fuel. The fact that the hot spot is surrounded by cold but dense fuel layer introduces subtle plasma physics which requires a kinetic description. Here we perform Fokker-Planck calculations and kinetic PIC simulations for an ICF plasma initially in pressure balance but having large temperature gradient over a narrow transition layer. The loss of the fast ion tail from the hot spot, which is important for fusion reactivity, is quantified by Fokker-Planck models. The role of electron energy transport and the ambipolar electric field is investigated via kinetic simulations and the fluid moment models. The net effect on both hot spot ion temperature and the ion tail distribution, and hence the fusion reactivity, is elucidated.

A Model for Atomic and Molecular Interstellar Gas: The Meudon PDR Code

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Le Petit, Franck; Nehmé, Cyrine; Le Bourlot, Jacques; Roueff, Evelyne

2006-06-01

We present the revised ``Meudon'' model of photon-dominated region (PDR) code, available on the Web under the GNU Public License. General organization of the code is described down to a level that should allow most observers to use it as an interpretation tool with minimal help from our part. Two grids of models, one for low-excitation diffuse clouds and one for dense highly illuminated clouds, are discussed, and some new results on PDR modelization highlighted.

Nonequilibrium chemistry in shocked molecular clouds. [interstellar gases

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Iglesias, E. R.; Silk, J.

1978-01-01

The gas-phase chemistry is studied behind a 10-km/s shock propagating into a dense molecular cloud. The principal conclusions are that: the concentrations of certain molecules (CO, NH3, HCN, N2) are unperturbed by the shock; other molecules (H2CO, CN, HCO(+)) are greatly decreased in abundance; and substantial amounts of H2O, HCO, and CH4 are produced. Approximately 1 million yr (independent of the density) must elapse after shock passage before chemical equilibrium is attained.

High-resolution imaging and target designation through clouds or smoke

DOEpatents

Perry, Michael D.

2003-01-01

A method and system of combining gated intensifiers and advances in solid-state, short-pulse laser technology, compact systems capable of producing high resolution (i.e., approximately less than 20 centimeters) optical images through a scattering medium such as dense clouds, fog, smoke, etc. may be achieved from air or ground based platforms. Laser target designation through a scattering medium is also enabled by utilizing a short pulse illumination laser and a relatively minor change to the detectors on laser guided munitions.

Condensed-Phase Nitric Acid in a Tropical Subvisible Cirrus Cloud

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Popp, P. J.; Marcy, T. P.; Watts, O. A.; Gao, R. S.; Fahey, D. W.; Weinstock, E. M.; Smith, J. B.; Herman, R. L.; Tropy, R. F.; Webster, C. r.;

Relating Line Width and Optical Depth for CO Emission in the Large Mgellanic Cloud

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Wojciechowski, Evan; Wong, Tony; Bandurski, Jeffrey; MC3 (Mapping CO in Molecular Clouds in the Magellanic Clouds) Team

2018-01-01

We investigate data produced from ALMA observations of giant molecular clouds (GMCs) located in the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC), using 12CO(2–1) and 13CO(2–1) emission. The spectral line width is generally interpreted as tracing turbulent rather than thermal motions in the cloud, but could also be affected by optical depth, especially for the 12CO line (Hacar et al. 2016). We compare the spectral line widths of both lines with their optical depths, estimated from an LTE analysis, to evaluate the importance of optical depth effects. Our cloud sample includes two regions recently published by Wong et al. (2017, submitted): the Tarantula Nebula or 30 Dor, an HII region rife with turbulence, and the Planck cold cloud (PCC), located in a much calmer environment near the fringes of the LMC. We also include four additional LMC clouds, which span intermediate levels of star formation relative to these two clouds, and for which we have recently obtained ALMA data in Cycle 4.

Characterizing convective cold pools: Characterizing Convective Cold Pools

DOE PAGES

Drager, Aryeh J.; van den Heever, Susan C.

2017-05-09

Cold pools produced by convective storms play an important role in Earth's climate system. However, a common framework does not exist for objectively identifying convective cold pools in observations and models. The present study investigates convective cold pools within a simulation of tropical continental convection that uses a cloud-resolving model with a coupled land-surface model. Multiple variables are assessed for their potential in identifying convective cold pool boundaries, and a novel technique is developed and tested for identifying and tracking cold pools in numerical model simulations. This algorithm is based on surface rainfall rates and radial gradients in the densitymore » potential temperature field. The algorithm successfully identifies near-surface cold pool boundaries and is able to distinguish between connected cold pools. Once cold pools have been identified and tracked, composites of cold pool evolution are then constructed, and average cold pool properties are investigated. Wet patches are found to develop within the centers of cold pools where the ground has been soaked with rainwater. These wet patches help to maintain cool surface temperatures and reduce cold pool dissipation, which has implications for the development of subsequent convection.« less

Characterizing convective cold pools: Characterizing Convective Cold Pools

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Drager, Aryeh J.; van den Heever, Susan C.

Cold pools produced by convective storms play an important role in Earth's climate system. However, a common framework does not exist for objectively identifying convective cold pools in observations and models. The present study investigates convective cold pools within a simulation of tropical continental convection that uses a cloud-resolving model with a coupled land-surface model. Multiple variables are assessed for their potential in identifying convective cold pool boundaries, and a novel technique is developed and tested for identifying and tracking cold pools in numerical model simulations. This algorithm is based on surface rainfall rates and radial gradients in the densitymore » potential temperature field. The algorithm successfully identifies near-surface cold pool boundaries and is able to distinguish between connected cold pools. Once cold pools have been identified and tracked, composites of cold pool evolution are then constructed, and average cold pool properties are investigated. Wet patches are found to develop within the centers of cold pools where the ground has been soaked with rainwater. These wet patches help to maintain cool surface temperatures and reduce cold pool dissipation, which has implications for the development of subsequent convection.« less

A portable low-cost 3D point cloud acquiring method based on structure light

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Gui, Li; Zheng, Shunyi; Huang, Xia; Zhao, Like; Ma, Hao; Ge, Chao; Tang, Qiuxia

2018-03-01

A fast and low-cost method of acquiring 3D point cloud data is proposed in this paper, which can solve the problems of lack of texture information and low efficiency of acquiring point cloud data with only one pair of cheap cameras and projector. Firstly, we put forward a scene adaptive design method of random encoding pattern, that is, a coding pattern is projected onto the target surface in order to form texture information, which is favorable for image matching. Subsequently, we design an efficient dense matching algorithm that fits the projected texture. After the optimization of global algorithm and multi-kernel parallel development with the fusion of hardware and software, a fast acquisition system of point-cloud data is accomplished. Through the evaluation of point cloud accuracy, the results show that point cloud acquired by the method proposed in this paper has higher precision. What`s more, the scanning speed meets the demand of dynamic occasion and has better practical application value.

Study of mesoscale phenomena, winter monsoon clouds and snow area based on LANDSAT data

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Tsuchiya, K. (Principal Investigator)

1976-01-01

The author has identified the following significant results. Most longitudinal clouds which appear as continuous linear clouds are composed of small transversal clouds. There are mountain waves of different wavelength in a comparatively narrow area indicating complicated orographical effects on wind and temperature distribution or on both dynamical and static stability condition. There is a particular shape of cirrus cloud suggestive of turbulence in the vicinity of CAT in the upper troposphere near jet stream level and its cold air side. Thin cirrus of overcast condition can be distinguished by MSS; however, extremely thin cirrus of partly cloudy condition cannot be detected even in LANDSAT data. This presents a serious problem in the interpretation of satellite thermal infrared radiation data since they affect the value.

Simulation and Preliminary Design of a Cold Stream Experiment on Omega EP

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Coffing, Shane; Angulo, Adrianna; Trantham, Matt; Malamud, Guy; Kuranz, Carolyn; Drake, R. P.

2017-10-01

Galaxies form within dark matter halos, accreting gas that may clump and eventually form stars. Infalling matter gradually increases the density of the halo, and, if cooling is insufficient, rising pressure forms a shock that slows the infalling gas, reducing star formation. However, galaxies with sufficient cooling become prolific star formers. A recent theory suggests that so called ``stream fed galaxies'' are able to acquire steady streams of cold gas via galactic ``filaments'' that penetrate the halo. The cold, dense filament flowing into a hot, less dense environment is potentially Kelvin-Helmholtz unstable. This instability may hinder the ability of the stream to deliver gas deeply enough into the halo. To study this process, we have begun preliminary design of a well-scaled laser experiment on Omega EP. We present here early simulation results and the physics involved. This work is funded by the U.S. Department of Energy, through the NNSA-DS and SC-OFES Joint Program in High-Energy-Density Laboratory Plasmas, Grant Number DE-NA0002956, and the National Laser User Facility Program, Grant Number DE-NA0002719, and through the Laboratory for Laser Energetics, University of Rochester by the NNSA/OICF under Cooperative Agreement No. DE-NA0001944.

The Green Bank Ammonia Survey: Observations of Hierarchical Dense Gas Structures in Cepheus-L1251

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Keown, Jared; Di Francesco, James; Kirk, Helen; Friesen, Rachel K.; Pineda, Jaime E.; Rosolowsky, Erik; Ginsburg, Adam; Offner, Stella S. R.; Caselli, Paola; Alves, Felipe; Chacón-Tanarro, Ana; Punanova, Anna; Redaelli, Elena; Seo, Young Min; Matzner, Christopher D.; Chun-Yuan Chen, Michael; Goodman, Alyssa A.; Chen, How-Huan; Shirley, Yancy; Singh, Ayushi; Arce, Hector G.; Martin, Peter; Myers, Philip C.

2017-11-01

We use Green Bank Ammonia Survey observations of NH3 (1, 1) and (2, 2) emission with 32″ FWHM resolution from a ˜10 pc2 portion of the Cepheus-L1251 molecular cloud to identify hierarchical dense gas structures. Our dendrogram analysis of the NH3 data results in 22 top-level structures, which reside within 13 lower-level parent structures. The structures are compact (0.01 {pc}≲ {R}{eff}≲ 0.1 {pc}) and are spatially correlated with the highest H2 column density portions of the cloud. We also compare the ammonia data to a catalog of dense cores identified by higher-resolution (18.″2 FWHM) Herschel Space Observatory observations of dust continuum emission from Cepheus-L1251. Maps of kinetic gas temperature, velocity dispersion, and NH3 column density, derived from detailed modeling of the NH3 data, are used to investigate the stability and chemistry of the ammonia-identified and Herschel-identified structures. We show that the dust and dense gas in the structures have similar temperatures, with median T dust and T K measurements of 11.7 ± 1.1 K and 10.3 ± 2.0 K, respectively. Based on a virial analysis, we find that the ammonia-identified structures are gravitationally dominated, yet may be in or near a state of virial equilibrium. Meanwhile, the majority of the Herschel-identified dense cores appear to be not bound by their own gravity and instead confined by external pressure. CCS (20 - 10) and HC5N (9-8) emission from the region reveal broader line widths and centroid velocity offsets when compared to the NH3 (1, 1) emission in some cases, likely due to these carbon-based molecules tracing the turbulent outer layers of the dense cores.

An evaluation of dense graded asphalt-rubber concrete in Minnesota. Final report

DOT National Transportation Integrated Search

1991-11-01

The Minnesota Department of Transportation is continually investigating ways to improve the cold temperature performance of its asphalt concrete pavements. One reported method is to modify the asphalt binder with ground reclaimed automobile and truck...

Dispersal of Giant Molecular Clouds by Photoionization and Radiation Pressure

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kim, Jeong-Gyu; Kim, Woong-Tae; Ostriker, Eve C.

2018-01-01

UV radiation feedback from young massive stars plays a key role in the evolution of giant molecular clouds (GMCs) by forming HII regions and driving their expansion. We present the results of radiation hydrodynamic simulations of star cluster formation in turbulent GMCs, focusing on the effects of photoionization and radiation pressure on regulating the net star formation efficiency (SFE) and lifetime of clouds. We find that the net SFE depends primarily on the initial gas surface density, $\\Sigma_0$, such that the net SFE increases from 4% to 50% as $\\Sigma_0$ increases from $20\\,M_{\\odot}\\,{\\rm pc}^{-2}$ to $1300\\,M_{\\odot}\\,{\\rm pc}^{-2}$. Cloud dispersal occurs within $10\\,{\\rm Myr}$ after the onset of radiation feedback, or within 0.7--4.0 free-fall times that increases with $\\Sigma_0$. Photoionization plays a dominant role in destroying molecular clouds typical of the Milky Way, while radiation pressure takes over in massive, dense clouds. Based on the analysis of mass loss processes by photoevaporation or momentum injection, we develop a semi-analytic model for cloud dispersal and compare it with the numerical results.

Cool Star Beginnings: YSOs in the Perseus Molecular Cloud

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Young, Kaisa E.; Young, Chadwick H.

2015-01-01

Nearby molecular clouds, where there is considerable evidence of ongoing star formation, provide the best opportunity to observe stars in the earliest stages of their formation. The Perseus molecular cloud contains two young clusters, IC 348 and NGC 1333 and several small dense cores of the type that produce only a few stars. Perseus is often cited as an intermediate case between quiescent low-mass and turbulent high-mass clouds, making it perhaps an ideal environment for studying ``typical low-mass star formation. We present an infrared study of the Perseus molecular cloud with data from the Spitzer Space Telescope as part of the ``From Molecular Cores to Planet Forming Disks (c2d) Legacy project tep{eva03}. By comparing Spitzer's near- and mid-infrared maps, we identify and classify the young stellar objects (YSOs) in the cloud using updated extinction corrected photometry. Virtually all of the YSOs in Perseus are forming in the clusters and other smaller associations at the east and west ends of the cloud with very little evidence of star formation in the midsection even in areas of high extinction.

Satellite remote sensing of aerosol and cloud properties over Eurasia

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Sogacheva, Larisa; Kolmonen, Pekka; Saponaro, Giulia; Virtanen, Timo; Rodriguez, Edith; Sundström, Anu-Maija; Atlaskina, Ksenia; de Leeuw, Gerrit

2015-04-01

Satellite remote sensing provides the spatial distribution of aerosol and cloud properties over a wide area. In our studies large data sets are used for statistical studies on aerosol and cloud interaction in an area over Fennoscandia, the Baltic Sea and adjacent regions over the European mainland. This area spans several regimes with different influences on aerosol cloud interaction such as a the transition from relative clean air over Fennoscandia to more anthropogenically polluted air further south, and the influence maritime air over the Baltic and oceanic air advected from the North Atlantic. Anthropogenic pollution occurs in several parts of the study area, and in particular near densely populated areas and megacities, but also in industrialized areas and areas with dense traffic. The aerosol in such areas is quite different from that produced over the boreal forest and has different effects on air quality and climate. Studies have been made on the effects of aerosols on air quality and on the radiation balance in China. The aim of the study is to study the effect of these different regimes on aerosol-cloud interaction using a large aerosol and cloud data set retrieved with the (Advanced) Along Track Scanning Radiometer (A)ATSR Dual View algorithm (ADV) further developed at Finnish Meteorological Institute and aerosol and cloud data provided by MODIS. Retrieval algorithms for aerosol and clouds have been developed for the (A)ATSR, consisting of a series of instruments of which we use the second and third one: ATSR-2 which flew on the ERS-2 satellite (1995-2003) and AATSR which flew on the ENVISAT satellite (2002-2012) (both from the European Space Agency, ESA). The ADV algorithm provides aerosol data on a global scale with a default resolution of 10x10km2 (L2) and an aggregate product on 1x1 degree (L3). Optional, a 1x1 km2 retrieval products is available over smaller areas for specific studies. Since for the retrieval of AOD no prior knowledge is needed on surface properties, the surface reflectance can be independently retrieved using the AOD for atmospheric correction. For the retrieval of cloud properties, the SACURA algorithm has been implemented in the ADV/ASV aerosol retrieval suite. Cloud properties retrieved from AATSR data are cloud fraction, cloud optical thickness, cloud top height, cloud droplet effective radius, liquid water path. Aerosol and cloud properties are applied for different studies over the Eurasia area. Using the simultaneous retrieval of aerosol and cloud properties allows for study of the transition from the aerosol regime to the cloud regime, such as changes in effective radius or AOD (aerosol optical depth) to COT (cloud optical thickness). The column- integrated aerosol extinction, aerosol optical depth or AOD, which is primarily reported from satellite observations, can be used as a proxy for cloud condensation nuclei (CCN) and hence contains information on the ability of aerosol particles to form clouds. Hence, connecting this information with direct observations of cloud properties provides information on aerosol-cloud interactions.

Laboratory simulation of photoionized plasma among astronomical compact objects

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Fujioka, Shinsuke; Yamamoto, Norimasa; Wang, Feilu; Salzmann, David; Li, Yutong; Rhee, Yong-Joo; Nishimura, Hiroaki; Takabe, Hideaki; Mima, Kunioki

2008-11-01

X-ray line emission with several-keV of photon energy was observed from photoionized accreting clouds, for example CYGNUS X-3 and VELA X-1, those are exposed by hard x-ray continuum from the compact objects, such as neutron stars, black holes, or white dwarfs, although accreting clouds are thermally cold. The x-ray continuum-induced line emission gives a good insight to the accreting clouds. We will present a novel laboratory simulation of the photoionized plasma under well-characterized conditions by using high-power laser facility. Blackbody radiator with 500-eV of temperature, as a miniature of a hot compact object, was created.Silicon (Si) plasma with 30-eV of electron temperature was produced in the vicinity of the 0.5-keV blackbody radiator. Line emissions of lithium- and helium-like Si ions was clearly observed around 2-keV of photon-energy from the thermally cold Si plasma, this result is hardly interpreted without consideration of the photoionization. Atomic kinetics code reveals importance of inner-shell ionization directly caused by incoming hard x-rays.

Topoclimatological and snowhydrological survey of Switzerland

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Winiger, M. (Principal Investigator)

1979-01-01

The author has identified the following significant results. The chosen time of overflight of HCMM seems to be ideal for the study of basic climatological events. Nocturnal temperature inversion zones are easily detectable and their dependency on the relief is clearly seen. Especially the alpine valleys show a very differentiated pattern of cold lakes, separated by warmer zones as a consequence of rock and forrest barriers or changes in the valley profile. Wet areas are usually colder than dry parts under comparable topographic conditions. Even very small topographic obstacles are able to block up the flow of cold air masses (or ground water flow). Urban areas are clearly detectable. Differences to the surface temperatures of surrounding rural land are much more significant during day-time (mainly during the summer months). Fog layers are clearly defined in the visible channel (day-time), but much more difficult to identify in the IR (mainly during the night). There is not a fundamental difference to NOAA-analysis of cloud systems. The most important advantage is the better detectability of convective cloud systems (small cumulus clouds).

Modulations of aerosol impacts on cloud microphysics induced by the warm Kuroshio Current under the East Asian winter monsoon

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Koike, M.; Asano, N.; Nakamura, H.; Sakai, S.; Nagao, T. M.; Nakajima, T. Y.

2016-10-01

In our previous aircraft observations, the possible influence of high sea surface temperature (SST) along the Kuroshio Current on aerosol-cloud interactions over the western North Pacific was revealed. The cloud droplet number concentration (Nc) was found to increase with decreasing near-surface static stability (NSS), which was evaluated locally as the difference between the SST and surface air temperature (SAT). To explore the spatial and temporal extent to which this warm SST influence can be operative, the present study analyzed Nc values estimated from Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) satellite measurements. The comparison of the local Nc values between the high and low SST - SAT days revealed a marked increase in Nc (up to a factor of 1.8) along the Kuroshio Current in the southern East China Sea, where particularly high SST - SAT values (up to 8 K) were observed in winter under monsoonal cold air outflows from the Asian Continent. This cold airflow destabilizes the atmospheric boundary layer, which leads to enhanced updraft velocities within the well-developed mixed layer and thus greater Nc. The monsoonal northwesterlies also bring a large amount of anthropogenic aerosols from the Asian continent that increase Nc in the first place. These results suggest that the same modulations of cloud microphysics can occur over other warm western boundary currents, including the Gulf Stream, under polluted cool continental airflows. Possibilities of influencing the cloud liquid water path are also discussed.

Applying the WRF Double-Moment Six-Class Microphysics Scheme in the GRAPES_Meso Model: A Case Study

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Zhang, Meng; Wang, Hong; Zhang, Xiaoye; Peng, Yue; Che, Huizheng

2018-04-01

This study incorporated the Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) model double-moment 6-class (WDM6) microphysics scheme into the mesoscale version of the Global/Regional Assimilation and PrEdiction System (GRAPES_Meso). A rainfall event that occurred during 3-5 June 2015 around Beijing was simulated by using the WDM6, the WRF single-moment 6-class scheme (WSM6), and the NCEP 5-class scheme, respectively. The results show that both the distribution and magnitude of the rainfall simulated with WDM6 were more consistent with the observation. Compared with WDM6, WSM6 simulated larger cloud liquid water content, which provided more water vapor for graupel growth, leading to increased precipitation in the cold-rain processes. For areas with the warmrain processes, the sensitivity experiments using WDM6 showed that an increase in cloud condensation nuclei (CCN) number concentration led to enhanced CCN activation ratio and larger cloud droplet number concentration ( N c) but decreased cloud droplet effective diameter. The formation of more small-size cloud droplets resulted in a decrease in raindrop number concentration ( N r), inhibiting the warm-rain processes, thus gradually decreasing the amount of precipitation. For areas mainly with the cold-rain processes, the overall amount of precipitation increased; however, it gradually decreased when the CCN number concentration reached a certain magnitude. Hence, the effect of CCN number concentration on precipitation exhibits significant differences in different rainfall areas of the same precipitation event.

The Relationship between the Dense Neutral and Diffuse Ionized Gas in the Thick Disks of Two Edge-on Spiral Galaxies

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Rueff, Katherine M.; Howk, J. Christopher; Pitterle, Marissa; Hirschauer, Alec S.; Fox, Andrew J.; Savage, Blair D.

2013-03-01

We present high-resolution, optical images (BVI + Hα) of the multiphase interstellar medium (ISM) in the thick disks of the edge-on spiral galaxies NGC 4013 and NGC 4302. Our images from the Hubble Space Telescope (HST), Large Binocular Telescope, and WIYN 3.5 m telescope reveal an extensive population of filamentary dust absorption seen to z ~2-2.5 kpc. Many of these dusty thick disk structures have characteristics reminiscent of molecular clouds found in the Milky Way disk. Our Hα images show that the extraplanar diffuse ionized gas (DIG) in these galaxies is dominated by a smooth, diffuse component. The strongly filamentary morphologies of the dust absorption have no counterpart in the smoothly distributed Hα emission. We argue that the thick disk DIG and dust-bearing filaments trace physically distinct phases of the thick disk ISM, the latter tracing a dense, warm or cold neutral medium. The dense, dusty matter in the thick disks of spiral galaxies is largely tracing matter ejected from the thin disk via energetic feedback from massive stars. The high densities of the gas may be a result of converging gas flows. This dense material fuels some thick disk star formation, as evidenced by the presence of thick disk H II regions. Based on observations obtained with the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope operated at the Space Telescope Science Institute, which is operated by the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy, Inc., under NASA contract NAS5-26555. Also, based on data acquired using the Large Binocular Telescope (LBT). The LBT is an international collaboration among institutions in the US, Italy, and Germany. LBT Corporation partners are the University of Arizona, on behalf of the Arizona University System; Instituto Nazionale do Astrofisica, Italy; LBT Beteiligungsgesellschaft, Germany, representing the Max Planck Society, the Astrophysical Institute of Potsdam, and Heidelberg University; Ohio State University, and the Research Corporation, on behalf of the University of Notre Dame, the University of Minnesota, and the University of Virginia. Also, based on observations obtained by the WIYN Observatory which is a joint facility of the University of Wisconsin-Madison, Yale University, Indiana University, and the National Optical Astronomy Observatories.

Interstellar molecules and dense clouds.

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Rank, D. M.; Townes, C. H.; Welch, W. J.

1971-01-01

Current knowledge of the interstellar medium is discussed on the basis of recent published studies. The subjects considered include optical identification of interstellar molecules, radio molecular lines, interstellar clouds, isotopic abundances, formation and disappearance of interstellar molecules, and interstellar probing techniques. Diagrams are plotted for the distribution of galactic sources exhibiting molecular lines, for hydrogen molecule, hydrogen atom and electron abundances due to ionization, for the densities, velocities and temperature of NH3 in the direction of Sagitarius B2, for the lower rotational energy levels of H2CO, and for temporal spectral variations in masing H2O clouds of the radio source W49. Future applications of the maser and of molecular microscopy in this field are visualized.

Model of the vertical structure of the optical parameters of the Neptune atmosphere.

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Morozhenko, A. V.

Analyzes the wavelength dependence of the geometric albedo of Neptune's disk and estimates some parameters of the planet's atmosphere by the method based on the determination of deviations of the vertical structure of the cloud layer from the homogeneity condition. The ratio between the methane and gas scale heights is found to be about 0.4. For the upper atmosphere, components of methane, aerosol, the mean geometric radius of particles, the turbulent mixing coefficient are determined. Two solutions were found for deeper atmospheric layers. The first one suggests a rather dense cloud; in the second solution the lower cloud layer is an extension of the upper aerosol layer.

Red and nebulous objects in dark clouds - A survey

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Cohen, M.

1980-01-01

A search on the NGS-PO Sky Survey photographs has revealed 150 interesting nebulous and/or red objects, mostly lying in dark clouds and not previously catalogued. Spectral classifications are presented for 55 objects. These indicate a small number of new members of the class of Herbig-Haro objects, a significant number of new T Tauri stars, and a few emission-line hot stars. It is argued that hot, high-mass stars form preferentially in the dense cores of dark clouds. The possible symbiosis of high and low mass stars is considered. A new morphology class is defined for cometary nebulae, in which a star lies on the periphery of a nebulous ring.

Evolutionary Models of Cold, Magnetized, Interstellar Clouds

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Gammie, Charles F.; Ostriker, Eve; Stone, James M.

2004-01-01

We modeled the long-term and small-scale evolution of molecular clouds using direct 2D and 3D magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) simulations. This work followed up on previous research by our group under auspices of the ATP in which we studied the energetics of turbulent, magnetized clouds and their internal structure on intermediate scales. Our new work focused on both global and smallscale aspects of the evolution of turbulent, magnetized clouds, and in particular studied the response of turbulent proto-cloud material to passage through the Galactic spiral potential, and the dynamical collapse of turbulent, magnetized (supercritical) clouds into fragments to initiate the formation of a stellar cluster. Technical advances under this program include developing an adaptive-mesh MHD code as a successor to ZEUS (ATHENA) in order to follow cloud fragmentation, developing a shearing-sheet MHD code which includes self-gravity and externally-imposed gravity to follow the evolution of clouds in the Galactic potential, and developing radiative transfer models to evaluate the internal ionization of clumpy clouds exposed to external photoionizing UV and CR radiation. Gammie's work at UIUC focused on the radiative transfer aspects of this program.

Cloud cover analysis associated to cut-off low-pressure systems over Europe using Meteosat Imagery

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Delgado, G.; Redaño, A.; Lorente, J.; Nieto, R.; Gimeno, L.; Ribera, P.; Barriopedro, D.; García-Herrera, R.; Serrano, A.

2007-04-01

This paper reports a cloud cover analysis of cut-off low pressure systems (COL) using a pattern recognition method applied to IR and VIS bispectral histograms. 35 COL occurrences were studied over five years (1994-1998). Five cloud types were identified in COLs, of which high clouds (HCC) and deep convective clouds (DCC) were found to be the most relevant to characterize COL systems, though not the most numerous. Cloud cover in a COL is highly dependent on its stage of development, but a higher percentage of cloud cover is always present in the frontal zone, attributable due to higher amounts of high and deep convective clouds. These general characteristics are most marked during the first stage (when the amplitude of the geopotencial wave increases) and second stage (characterized by the development of a cold upper level low), closed cyclonic circulation minimizing differences between rearward and frontal zones during the third stage. The probability of heavy rains during this stage decreases considerably. The centres of mass of high and deep convective clouds move towards the COL-axis centre during COL evolution.

OT1_mputman_1: ASCII: All Sky observations of Galactic CII

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Putman, M.

2010-07-01

The Milky Way and other galaxies require a significant source of ongoing star formation fuel to explain their star formation histories. A new ubiquitous population of discrete, cold clouds have recently been discovered at the disk-halo interface of our Galaxy that could potentially provide this source of fuel. We propose to observe a small sample of these disk-halo clouds with HIFI to determine if the level of [CII] emission detected suggests they represent the cooling of warm clouds at the interface between the star forming disk and halo. These cooling clouds are predicted by simulations of warm clouds moving into the disk-halo interface region. We target 5 clouds in this proposal for which we have high resolution HI maps and can observe the densest core of the cloud. The results of our observations will also be used to interpret the surprisingly high detections of [CII] for low HI column density clouds in the Galactic Plane by the GOT C+ Key Program by extending the clouds probed to high latitude environments.

Development of Oxidation Resistant Coatings on GRCop-84 Substrates by Cold Spray Process

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Karthikeyan, J.

2007-01-01

GRCop-84, a Cu-CR-Nb alloy, has been developed for rocket engine liner applications. For maximum life additional oxidation protection is required to prevent blanching. NiCrAlY was identified as a suitable coating, and efforts were initiated to develop suitable coating techniques. Cold spray is one technique under consideration. Efforts at ASB Industries to produce dense, adherent coatings are detailed. The work culminated in the production of samples for testing at NASA Glenn Research Center.

Shocked molecular gas and the origin of cosmic rays

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Reach, William; Gusdorf, Antoine; Richter, Matthew

2018-06-01

When massive stars reach the end of their ability to remain stable with core nuclear fusion, they explode in supernovae that drive powerful shocks into their surroundings. Because massive stars form in and remain close to molecular clouds they often drive shocks into dense gas, which is now believed to be the origin of a significant fraction of galactic cosmic rays. The nature of the supernova-molecular cloud interaction is not well understood, though observations are gradually elucidating their nature. The range of interstellar densities, and the inclusion of circumstellar matter from the late-phase mass-loss of the stars before their explosions, leads to a wide range of possible appearances and outcomes. In particular, it is not even clear what speed or physical type of shocks are present: are they dense, magnetically-mediated shocks where H2 is not dissociated, or are they faster shocks that dissociate molecules and destroy some of the grains? SOFIA is observing some of the most significant (in terms of cosmic ray production potential and infrared energy output) supernova-molecular cloud interactions for measurement of the line widths of key molecular shocks tracers: H2, [OI], and CO. The presence of gas at speeds 100 km/s or greater would indicate dissociative shocks, while speeds 30 km/s and slower retain most molecules. The shock velocity is a key ingredient in modeling the interaction between supernovae and molecular clouds including the potential for formation of cosmic rays.

Spatial Distribution of Io's Neutral Oxygen Cloud Observed by Hisaki

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Koga, Ryoichi; Tsuchiya, Fuminori; Kagitani, Masato; Sakanoi, Takeshi; Yoneda, Mizuki; Yoshioka, Kazuo; Yoshikawa, Ichiro; Kimura, Tomoki; Murakami, Go; Yamazaki, Atsushi; Smith, H. Todd; Bagenal, Fran

2018-05-01

We report on the spatial distribution of a neutral oxygen cloud surrounding Jupiter's moon Io and along Io's orbit observed by the Hisaki satellite. Atomic oxygen and sulfur in Io's atmosphere escape from the exosphere mainly through atmospheric sputtering. Some of the neutral atoms escape from Io's gravitational sphere and form neutral clouds around Jupiter. The extreme ultraviolet spectrograph called EXCEED (Extreme Ultraviolet Spectroscope for Exospheric Dynamics) installed on the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency's Hisaki satellite observed the Io plasma torus continuously in 2014-2015, and we derived the spatial distribution of atomic oxygen emissions at 130.4 nm. The results show that Io's oxygen cloud is composed of two regions, namely, a dense region near Io and a diffuse region with a longitudinally homogeneous distribution along Io's orbit. The dense region mainly extends on the leading side of Io and inside of Io's orbit. The emissions spread out to 7.6 Jupiter radii (RJ). Based on Hisaki observations, we estimated the radial distribution of the atomic oxygen number density and oxygen ion source rate. The peak atomic oxygen number density is 80 cm-3, which is spread 1.2 RJ in the north-south direction. We found more oxygen atoms inside Io's orbit than a previous study. We estimated the total oxygen ion source rate to be 410 kg/s, which is consistent with the value derived from a previous study that used a physical chemistry model based on Hisaki observations of ultraviolet emission ions in the Io plasma torus.

Kinetic temperature of massive star-forming molecular clumps measured with formaldehyde. III. The Orion molecular cloud 1

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Tang, X. D.; Henkel, C.; Menten, K. M.; Wyrowski, F.; Brinkmann, N.; Zheng, X. W.; Gong, Y.; Lin, Y. X.; Esimbek, J.; Zhou, J. J.; Yuan, Y.; Li, D. L.; He, Y. X.

2018-01-01

We mapped the kinetic temperature structure of the Orion molecular cloud 1 (OMC-1) with para-H2CO (JKaKc = 303-202, 322-221, and 321-220) using the APEX 12 m telescope. This is compared with the temperatures derived from the ratio of the NH3 (2, 2)/(1, 1) inversion lines and the dust emission. Using the RADEX non-LTE model, we derive the gas kinetic temperature modeling the measured averaged line ratios of para-H2CO 322-221/303-202 and 321-220/303-202. The gas kinetic temperatures derived from the para-H2CO line ratios are warm, ranging from 30 to >200 K with an average of 62 ± 2 K at a spatial density of 105 cm-3. These temperatures are higher than those obtained from NH3 (2, 2)/(1, 1) and CH3CCH (6-5) in the OMC-1 region. The gas kinetic temperatures derived from para-H2CO agree with those obtained from warm dust components measured in the mid infrared (MIR), which indicates that the para-H2CO (3-2) ratios trace dense and warm gas. The cold dust components measured in the far infrared (FIR) are consistent with those measured with NH3 (2, 2)/(1, 1) and the CH3CCH (6-5) line series. With dust at MIR wavelengths and para-H2CO (3-2) on one side, and dust at FIR wavelengths, NH3 (2, 2)/(1, 1), and CH3CCH (6-5) on the other, dust and gas temperatures appear to be equivalent in the dense gas (n(H2) ≳ 104 cm-3) of the OMC-1 region, but provide a bimodal distribution, one more directly related to star formation than the other. The non-thermal velocity dispersions of para-H2CO are positively correlated with the gas kinetic temperatures in regions of strong non-thermal motion (Mach number ≳ 2.5) of the OMC-1, implying that the higher temperature traced by para-H2CO is related to turbulence on a 0.06 pc scale. Combining the temperature measurements with para-H2CO and NH3 (2, 2)/(1, 1) line ratios, we find direct evidence for the dense gas along the northern part of the OMC-1 10 km s-1 filament heated by radiation from the central Orion nebula. The reduced datacubes are only available at the CDS via anonymous ftp to http://cdsarc.u-strasbg.fr (http://130.79.128.5) or via http://cdsarc.u-strasbg.fr/viz-bin/qcat?J/A+A/609/A16

XMM-Newton observation of the supernova remnant Kes 78 (G32.8-0.1): Evidence of shock-cloud interaction

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Miceli, M.; Bamba, A.; Orlando, S.; Zhou, P.; Safi-Harb, S.; Chen, Y.; Bocchino, F.

2017-03-01

Context. The Galactic supernova remnant Kes 78 is surrounded by dense molecular clouds, whose projected position overlaps with the extended HESS γ-ray source HESS J1852-000. The X-ray emission from the remnant has recently been revealed by Suzaku observations, which have shown indications for a hard X-ray component in the spectra that might be associated with synchrotron radiation. Aims: We describe the spatial distribution of the physical properties of the X-ray emitting plasma and reveal the effects of the interaction of the remnant with the inhomogeneous ambient medium. We also investigate the origin of the γ-ray emission, which may be inverse-Compton radiation associated with X-ray synchrotron-emitting electrons or hadronic emission originating from the impact of high-energy protons on the nearby clouds. Methods: We analyzed an XMM-Newton EPIC observation of Kes 78 by performing image analysis and spatially resolved spectral analysis on a set of three regions. We tested our findings against the observations of the 12CO and 13CO emission in the environment of the remnant. Results: We reveal the complex X-ray morphology of Kes 78 and find variations in the spectral properties of the plasma, with significantly denser and cooler material at the eastern edge of the remnant, which we interpret as a signature of interaction with a molecular cloud. We also exclude that narrow filaments emit the X-ray synchrotron radiation. Conclusions: Assuming that the very high energy γ-ray emission is associated with Kes 78, the lack of synchrotron emission rules out a leptonic origin. A hadronic origin is further supported by evidence of interaction of the remnant with a dense molecular cloud in its eastern limb.

Convective Cold Pool Structure and Boundary Layer Recovery in DYNAMO

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Savarin, A.; Chen, S. S.; Kerns, B. W.; Lee, C.; Jorgensen, D. P.

2012-12-01

One of the key factors controlling convective cloud systems in the Madden-Julian Oscillation (MJO) over the tropical Indian Ocean is the property of the atmospheric boundary layer. Convective downdrafts and precipitation from the cloud systems produce cold pools in the boundary layer, which can inhibit subsequent development of convection. The recovery time is the time it takes for the boundary layer to return to pre convective conditions. It may affect the variability of the convection on various time scales during the initiation of MJO. This study examines the convective cold pool structure and boundary layer recovery using the NOAA WP-3D aircraft observations, include the flight-level, Doppler radar, and GPS dropsonde data, collected during the Dynamics of MJO (DYNAMO) field campaign from November-December 2011. The depth and strength of convective cold pools are defined by the negative buoyancy, which can be computed from the dropsonde data. Convective downdraft can be affected by environmental water vapor due to entrainment. Mid-level dry air observed during the convectively suppressed phase of MJO seems to enhance convective downdraft, making the cold pools stronger and deeper. Recovery of the cold pools in the boundary layer is determined by the strength and depth of the cold pools and also the air-sea heat and moisture fluxes. Given that the water vapor and surface winds are distinct for the convectively active and suppressed phases of MJO over the Indian Ocean, the aircraft data are stratified by the two different large-scale regimes of MJO. Preliminary results show that the strength and depth of the cold pools are inversely correlated with the surrounding mid-level moisture. During the convectively suppressed phase, the recovery time is ~5-20 hours in relative weak wind condition with small air-sea fluxes. The recovery time is generally less than 6 hours during the active phase of MJO with moist mid-levels and stronger surface wind and air-sea fluxes.

Cold Season Ground Validation Activities in support of GPM

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Hudak, D. R.; Petersen, W. A.

2012-12-01

A fundamental component of the next-generation global precipitation data products that will be addressed by the GPM mission is the hydrologic cycle at higher latitudes. In this respect, falling snow represents a primary contribution to regional atmospheric and terrestrial water budgets. The current study provides provide information on the precipitation microphysics and processes associated with cold season precipitation and precipitating cloud systems across multiple scales. It also addresses the ability of in-situ ground-based sensors as well as multi-frequency active and passive microwave sensors to detect and estimate falling snow, and more generally to contribute to our knowledge and understanding of the complete global water cycle. The work supports the incorporation of appropriate physics into GPM snowfall retrieval algorithms and the development of improved ground validation techniques for GPM product evaluation. Important information for developing GPM falling snow retrieval algorithms will be provided by a field campaign that took place in the winter of 2011/12 in the Great Lakes area of North America, termed the GPM Cold Season Precipitation Experiment (GCPEx). GCPEx represented a collaboration among the NASA, Environment Canada (EC), the Canadian Space Agency and several US, Canadian and European universities. The data collection strategy for GCPEx was coordinated, stacked high-altitude and in-situ cloud aircraft missions sampling within a broader network of ground-based volumetric observations and measurements. The NASA DSC-8 research aircraft provided a platform for the downward-viewing dual-frequency radar and multi-frequency radiometer observations. The University of North Dakota Citation and the Canadian NRC Convair-580 aircraft provided in-situ profiles of cloud and precipitation microphysics using a suite of optical array probes and bulk measurement instrumentation. Ground sampling was focused about a densely-instrumented central location that is well situated within both mid-latitude synoptic and lake-effect snowfall regimes. The instrumentation suite at CARE included active remote sensing observations as follows: W, Ku, and X-band vertically pointing radars, a Ku and Ka-band dual polarization full scanning radar, and nearby C-band dual polarization, scanning radar. The passive remote sensing suite includes a triple channel profiling microwave radiometer (10, 21, 36 GHz), and a dual channel polarization radiometer (89 and 150 GHz). In-situ measurements at CARE include a 2D video disdrometer, the Precipitation Video Imager, digital photography and a number of other technologies that estimate instantaneous precipitation rate. GCPEX collected ground-based data on 22 distinct precipitation events, 2 rain, 3 mixed and 17 snow. For 16 of these events, there were also aircraft observations. In addition, there were two clear air flights. The presentation will provide an overview of the data collection. It will also summarize the ground-based event precipitation estimates from various sensors as compared to a manual double fence reference to assess measurement uncertainties. Examples will be presented from radar and aircraft in-situ data highlighting the variability of snowfall characteristics relative to the synoptic context. Plans for ongoing validation studies with the WMO Solid Precipitation Intercomparison Experiment beginning in 2013 will be described.

How do changes in warm-phase microphysics affect deep convective clouds?

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Chen, Qian; Koren, Ilan; Altaratz, Orit; Heiblum, Reuven H.; Dagan, Guy; Pinto, Lital

2017-08-01

Understanding aerosol effects on deep convective clouds and the derived effects on the radiation budget and rain patterns can largely contribute to estimations of climate uncertainties. The challenge is difficult in part because key microphysical processes in the mixed and cold phases are still not well understood. For deep convective clouds with a warm base, understanding aerosol effects on the warm processes is extremely important as they set the initial and boundary conditions for the cold processes. Therefore, the focus of this study is the warm phase, which can be better resolved. The main question is: How do aerosol-derived changes in the warm phase affect the properties of deep convective cloud systems? To explore this question, we used a weather research and forecasting (WRF) model with spectral bin microphysics to simulate a deep convective cloud system over the Marshall Islands during the Kwajalein Experiment (KWAJEX). The model results were validated against observations, showing similarities in the vertical profile of radar reflectivity and the surface rain rate. Simulations with larger aerosol loading resulted in a larger total cloud mass, a larger cloud fraction in the upper levels, and a larger frequency of strong updrafts and rain rates. Enlarged mass both below and above the zero temperature level (ZTL) contributed to the increase in cloud total mass (water and ice) in the polluted runs. Increased condensation efficiency of cloud droplets governed the gain in mass below the ZTL, while both enhanced condensational and depositional growth led to increased mass above it. The enhanced mass loading above the ZTL acted to reduce the cloud buoyancy, while the thermal buoyancy (driven by the enhanced latent heat release) increased in the polluted runs. The overall effect showed an increased upward transport (across the ZTL) of liquid water driven by both larger updrafts and larger droplet mobility. These aerosol effects were reflected in the larger ratio between the masses located above and below the ZTL in the polluted runs. When comparing the net mass flux crossing the ZTL in the clean and polluted runs, the difference was small. However, when comparing the upward and downward fluxes separately, the increase in aerosol concentration was seen to dramatically increase the fluxes in both directions, indicating the aerosol amplification effect of the convection and the affected cloud system properties, such as cloud fraction and rain rate.

SIZE DISTRIBUTIONS OF ELEMENTAL CARBON IN ATMOSPHERIC AEROSOLS

EPA Science Inventory

Environmental problems caused by atmospheric aerosols are well documented in the specialized literature. Studies reporting on the role of dense clouds of soil particles in past mass extinctions of life on Earth and, more recently (Turco et al., 1983), on calculations of potential...

The Study of Spherical Cores with a Toroidal Magnetic Field Configuration

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Gholipour, Mahmoud

Observational studies of the magnetic fields in molecular clouds have significantly improved the theoretical models developed for the structure and evolution of dense clouds and for the star formation process as well. The recent observational analyses on some cores indicate that there is a power-law relationship between magnetic field and density in the molecular clouds. In this study, we consider the stability of spherical cores with a toroidal magnetic field configuration in the molecular clouds. For this purpose, we model a spherical core that is in magnetostatic equilibrium. Herein, we propose an equation of density structure, which is a modifiedmore » form of the isothermal Lane–Emden equation in the presence of the toroidal magnetic field. The proposed equation describes the effect of the toroidal magnetic field on the cloud structure and the mass cloud. Furthermore, we found an upper limit for this configuration of magnetic field in the molecular clouds. Then, the virial theorem is used to consider the cloud evolution leading to an equation in order to obtain the lower limit of the field strength in the molecular cloud. However, the results show that the field strength of the toroidal configuration has an important effect on the cloud structure, whose upper limit is related to the central density and field gradient. The obtained results address some regions of clouds where the cloud decomposition or star formation can be seen.« less

The occurrence of ice production in slightly supercooled Arctic stratiform clouds as observed by ground-based remote sensors at the ARM NSA site

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Zhang, Damao; Wang, Zhien; Luo, Tao; Yin, Yan; Flynn, Connor

2017-03-01

Ice particle formation in slightly supercooled stratiform clouds is not well documented or understood. In this study, 4 years of combined lidar depolarization and radar reflectivity (Ze) measurements are analyzed to distinguish between cold drizzle and ice crystal formations in slightly supercooled Arctic stratiform clouds over the Atmospheric Radiation Measurement Program Climate Research Facility North Slope of Alaska Utqiaġvik ("Barrow") site. Ice particles are detected and statistically shown to be responsible for the strong precipitation in slightly supercooled Arctic stratiform clouds at cloud top temperatures as high as -4°C. For ice precipitating Arctic stratiform clouds, the lidar particulate linear depolarization ratio (δpar_lin) correlates well with radar Ze at each temperature range, but the δpar_lin-Ze relationship varies with temperature ranges. In addition, lidar depolarization and radar Ze observations of ice generation characteristics in Arctic stratiform clouds are consistent with laboratory-measured temperature-dependent ice growth habits.

Thin cirrus clouds - Seasonal distribution over oceans deduced from Nimbus-4 IRIS

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Prabhakara, C.; Fraser, R. S.; Dalu, G.; Wu, Man-Li C.; Curran, R. J.

1988-01-01

Spectral differences in the extinction of the 10.8- and 12.6-micron bands of the IR window region, due to optically thin clouds, were found in the measurements made by both an airborne broadband IR radiometer and the IR interferometer spectrometer (IRIS) aboard the Nimbus-4 satellite; the extinction at 12.6 microns was significantly larger than that at 10.8 microns; both water and ice particles in the clouds can account for such spectral difference in extinction. Multiple scattering radiative transfer calculations of IRIS data revealed this spectral feature about 100 to 20 km away from the high-altitude cold clouds; it is assumed that this feature is related to the spreading of cirrus clouds. Based on this assumption, mean seasonal maps of the distribution of thin cirrus clouds over the oceans were deduced from the IRIS data. The maps show that such clouds are often present over the convectively active areas, such as ITCZ, SPCZ, and the Bay of Bengal during the summer monsoon.

Integration of prior knowledge into dense image matching for video surveillance

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Menze, M.; Heipke, C.

2014-08-01

Three-dimensional information from dense image matching is a valuable input for a broad range of vision applications. While reliable approaches exist for dedicated stereo setups they do not easily generalize to more challenging camera configurations. In the context of video surveillance the typically large spatial extent of the region of interest and repetitive structures in the scene render the application of dense image matching a challenging task. In this paper we present an approach that derives strong prior knowledge from a planar approximation of the scene. This information is integrated into a graph-cut based image matching framework that treats the assignment of optimal disparity values as a labelling task. Introducing the planar prior heavily reduces ambiguities together with the search space and increases computational efficiency. The results provide a proof of concept of the proposed approach. It allows the reconstruction of dense point clouds in more general surveillance camera setups with wider stereo baselines.

Enhanced Mobility in Concentrated Pyroclastic Density Currents: An Examination of a Self-Fluidization Mechanism

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Breard, Eric C. P.; Dufek, Josef; Lube, Gert

2018-01-01

Pyroclastic density currents (PDCs) are a significant volcanic hazard. However, their dominant transport mechanisms remain poorly understood, in part because of the large variability of PDC types and deposits. Here we combine field data with experimental and numerical simulations to illuminate the twofold fate of particles settling from an ash cloud to form the dense PDC basal flow. At solid fractions >1 vol %, heterogeneous drag leads to formation of mesoscale particle clusters that favor rapid particle settling and result in a mobile dense layer with significant bed weight support. Conversely, at lower concentrations the absence of particle clusters typically leads to formation of poorly mobile dense beds that deposit massive layers. Based on this transport dichotomy, we present a numerical dense-dilute parameter that allows a PDC's dominant transport mechanism to be determined directly from the deposit geometry and grainsize characteristics.

Navy Tactical Applications Guide. Volume 2. Environmental Phenomena and Effects

DTIC Science & Technology

1979-01-01

usually distinguished: the polar-front jet stream, associated with extratropical frontal systems; and the subtropical jet stream, overlying the poleward...patterns have formed in the cold air behind a frontal cloud band which extends from North Africa into Southern Europe . Note that the cellular cloud field...but because of the future potential of such areas for rapid storm " , development. (See Case 3 for the further development of these vorticity centers

Detection of nitric oxide in the dark cloud L134N

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Mcgonagle, D.; Irvine, W. M.; Minh, Y. C.; Ziurys, L. M.

1990-01-01

The first detection of interstellar nitric oxide (NO) in a cold dark cloud, L134N is reported. Nitric oxide was observed by means of its two 2 Pi 1/2, J = 3/2 - 1/2, rotational transitions at 150.2 and 150.5 GHz, which occur because of Lambda-doubling. The inferred column density for L134N is about 5 x 10 to the 14th/sq cm toward the SO peak in that cloud. This value corresponds to a fractional abundance relative to molecular hydrogen of about 6 x 10 to the -8th and is in good agreement with predictions of quiescent cloud ion-molecule chemistry. NO was not detected toward the dark cloud TMC-1 at an upper limit of 3 x 10 to the -8th or less.

Water Absorption in Galactic Translucent Clouds: Conditions and History of the Gas Derived from Herschel/HIFI PRISMAS Observations

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Flagey, N.; Goldsmith, P. F.; Lis, D. C.; Gerin, M.; Neufeld, D.; Sonnentrucker, P.; De Luca, M.; Godard, B.; Goicoechea, J. R.; Monje, R.; Phillips, T. G.

2013-01-01

We present Herschel/HIFI observations of the three ground state transitions of H2O (556, 1669, and 1113 GHz) and H218O (547, 1655, and 1101 GHz)—as well as the first few excited transitions of H2O (987, 752, and 1661 GHz)—toward six high-mass star-forming regions, obtained as part of the PRISMAS (PRobing InterStellar Molecules with Absorption line Studies) Guaranteed Time Key Program. Water vapor associated with the translucent clouds in Galactic arms is detected in absorption along every line of sight in all the ground state transitions. The continuum sources all exhibit broad water features in emission in the excited and ground state transitions. Strong absorption features associated with the source are also observed at all frequencies except 752 GHz. We model the background continuum and line emission to infer the optical depth of each translucent cloud along the lines of sight. We derive the column density of H2O or H218O for the lower energy level of each transition observed. The total column density of water in translucent clouds is usually about a few 1013 cm-2. We find that the abundance of water relative to hydrogen nuclei is 1 × 10-8 in agreement with models for oxygen chemistry in which high cosmic ray ionization rates are assumed. Relative to molecular hydrogen, the abundance of water is remarkably constant through the Galactic plane with X(H2O) =5 × 10-8, which makes water a good traced of H2 in translucent clouds. Observations of the excited transitions of H2O enable us to constrain the abundance of water in excited levels to be at most 15%, implying that the excitation temperature, T ex, in the ground state transitions is below 10 K. Further analysis of the column densities derived from the two ortho ground state transitions indicates that T ex ~= 5 K and that the density n(H2) in the translucent clouds is below 104 cm-3. We derive the water ortho-to-para ratio for each absorption feature along the line of sight and find that most of the clouds show ratios consistent with the value of 3 expected in thermodynamic equilibrium in the high-temperature limit. However, two clouds with large column densities exhibit a ratio that is significantly below 3. This may argue that the history of water molecules includes a cold phase, either when the molecules were formed on cold grains in the well-shielded, low-temperature regions of the clouds, or when they later become at least partially thermalized with the cold gas (~25 K) in those regions; evidently, they have not yet fully thermalized with the warmer (~50 K) translucent portions of the clouds. Herschel is an ESA space observatory with science instruments provided by European-led Principal Investigator consortia and with important participation from NASA.

Fantastic Striations and Where to Find Them: The Origin of Magnetically Aligned Striations in Interstellar Clouds

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Chen, Che-Yu; Li, Zhi-Yun; King, Patrick K.

2017-10-01

Thin, magnetically aligned striations of relatively moderate contrast with the background are commonly observed in both atomic and molecular clouds. They are also prominent in MHD simulations with turbulent converging shocks. The simulated striations develop within a dense, stagnated sheet in the midplane of the post-shock region where magnetically induced converging flows collide. We show analytically that the secondary flows are an inevitable consequence of the jump conditions of oblique MHD shocks. They produce the stagnated, sheet-like sub-layer through a secondary shock when, roughly speaking, the Alfvénic speed in the primary converging flows is supersonic, a condition that is relativelymore » easy to satisfy in interstellar clouds. The dense sub-layer is naturally threaded by a strong magnetic field that lies close to the plane of the sub-layer. The substantial magnetic field makes the sheet highly anisotropic, which is the key to the striation formation. Specifically, perturbations of the primary inflow that vary spatially perpendicular to the magnetic field can easily roll up the sheet around the field lines without bending them, creating corrugations that appear as magnetically aligned striations in column density maps. On the other hand, perturbations that vary spatially along the field lines curve the sub-layer and alter its orientation relative to the magnetic field locally, seeding special locations that become slanted overdense filaments and prestellar cores through enhanced mass accumulation along field lines. In our scenario, the dense sub-layer, which is unique to magnetized oblique shocks, is the birthplace for both magnetically aligned diffuse striations and massive star-forming structures.« less

ISM gas studies towards the TeV PWN HESS J1825-137 and northern region

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Voisin, F.; Rowell, G.; Burton, M. G.; Walsh, A.; Fukui, Y.; Aharonian, F.

2016-05-01

HESS J1825-137 is a pulsar wind nebula (PWN) whose TeV emission extends across ˜1 . Its large asymmetric shape indicates that its progenitor supernova interacted with a molecular cloud located in the north of the PWN as detected by previous CO Galactic survey (e.g. Lemiere, Terrier & Djannati-Ataï). Here, we provide a detailed picture of the interstellar medium (ISM) towards the region north of HESS J1825-137, with the analysis of the dense molecular gas from our 7 and 12 mm Mopra survey and the more diffuse molecular gas from the Nanten CO(1-0) and GRS 13CO(1-0) surveys. Our focus is the possible association between HESS J1825-137 and the unidentified TeV source to the north, HESS J1826-130. We report several dense molecular regions whose kinematic distance matched the dispersion measured distance of the pulsar. Among them, the dense molecular gas located at (RA, Dec.) = (18h421h,-13.282°) shows enhanced turbulence and we suggest that the velocity structure in this region may be explained by a cloud-cloud collision scenario. Furthermore, the presence of a H α rim may be the first evidence of the progenitor supernova remnant (SNR) of the pulsar PSR J1826-1334 as the distance between the H α rim and the TeV source matched with the predicted SNR radius RSNR ˜ 120 pc. From our ISM study, we identify a few plausible origins of the HESS J1826-130 emission, including the progenitor SNR of PSR J1826-1334 and the PWN G018.5-0.4 powered by PSR J1826-1256. A deeper TeV study however, is required to fully identify the origin of this mysterious TeV source.

Pattern Formations for Optical Switching Using Cold Atoms as a Nonlinear Medium

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Schmittberger, Bonnie; Greenberg, Joel; Gauthier, Daniel

2011-05-01

The study of spatio-temporal pattern formation in nonlinear optical systems has both led to an increased understanding of nonlinear dynamics as well as given rise to sensitive new methods for all-optical switching. Whereas the majority of past experiments utilized warm atomic vapors as nonlinear media, we report the first observation of an optical instability leading to pattern formation in a cloud of cold Rubidium atoms. When we shine a pair of counterpropagating pump laser beams along the pencil-shaped cloud's long axis, new beams of light are generated along cones centered on the trap. This generated light produces petal-like patterns in the plane orthogonal to the pump beams that can be used for optical switching. We gratefully acknowledge the financial support of the NSF through Grant #PHY-0855399 and the DARPA Slow Light Program.

Occurrence and Forms of Water and Ice on the Earth and Beyond, and the Origin(s) of Life

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Blake, David F.; DeVincenzi, Donald L. (Technical Monitor)

1998-01-01

The natural history of the biogenic elements (H,C,O,N) from their first association within cold molecular clouds to their delivery to the Earth during the late bombardment of the inner solar system, is intimately linked to water ice. The earliest organic compounds are formed in cold interstellar molecular clouds as a result of UV and thermal processing of sub-micrometer ice grains which contain trapped carbon and nitrogen molecules. Structural changes in the water ice host underlie and fundamentally control important macroscopic phenomena such as the outgassing of volatiles, the rates of chemical reactions, and processing and retention of organic compounds. Prebiotic organic material was in all likelihood delivered the early Earth in a pristine state as a consequence of its sequestration within a protective water ice host.

VizieR Online Data Catalog: Planck Catalogue of Galactic cold clumps (PGCC) (Planck+, 2016)

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Planck Collaboration; Ade, P. A. R.; Aghanim, N.; Arnaud, M.; Ashdown, M.; Aumont, J.; Baccigalupi, C.; Banday, A. J.; Barreiro, R. B.; Bartolo, N.; Battaner, E.; Benabed, K.; Benoit, A.; Benoit-Levy, A.; Bernard, J.-P.; Bersanelli, M.; Bielewicz, P.; Bonaldi, A.; Bonavera, L.; Bond, J. R.; Borrill, J.; Bouchet, F. R.; Boulanger, F.; Bucher, M.; Burigana, C.; Butler, R. C.; Calabrese, E.; Catalano, A.; Chamballu, A.; Chiang, H. C.; Christensen, P. R.; Clements, D. L.; Colombi, S.; Colombo, L. P. L.; Combet, C.; Couchot, F.; Coulais, A.; Crill, B. P.; Curto, A.; Cuttaia, F.; Danese, L.; Davies, R. D.; Davis, R. J.; de Bernardis, P.; De Rosa, A.; de Zotti, G.; Delabrouille, J.; Desert, F.-X.; Dickinson, C.; Diego, J. M.; Dole, H.; Donzelli, S.; Dore, O.; Douspis, M.; Ducout, A.; Dupac, X.; Efstathiou, G.; Elsner, F.; Ensslin, T. A.; Eriksen, H. K.; Falgarone, E.; Fergusson, J.; Fergusson, J.; Finelli, F.; Forni, O.; Frailis, M.; Fraisse, A. A.; Franceschi, E.; Frejsel, A.; Galeotta, S.; Galli, S.; Ganga, K.; Giard, M.; Giraud-Heraud, Y.; Gjerlow, E.; Gonzalez-Nuevo, J.; Gorsk, I. K. M.; Gratton, S.; Gregorio, A.; Gruppuso, A.; Gudmundsson, J. E.; Hansen, F. K.; Hanson, D.; Harrison, D. L.; Helou, G.; Henrot-Versille, S.; Hernandez-Monteagudo, C.; Herranz, D.; Hildebrandt, S. R.; Hivon, E.; Hobson, M.; Holmes, W. A.; Hornstrup, A.; Hovest, W.; Huffenberger, K. M.; Hurier, G.; Jaffe, A. H.; Jaffe, T. R.; Jones, W. C.; Juvela, M.; Keihanen, E.; Keskitalo, R.; Kisner, T. S.; Knoche, J.; Kunz, M.; Kurki-Suonio, H.; Lagache, G.; Lamarre, J.-M.; Lasenby, A.; Lattanzi, M.; Lawrence, C. R.; Leonardi, R.; Lesgourgues, J.; Levrier, F.; Liguori, M.; Lilje, P. B.; Linden-Vornle, M.; Lopez-Caniego, M.; Lubin, P. M.; Macias-Perez, J. F.; Maggio, G.; Maino, D.; Mandolesi, N.; Mangilli, A.; Marshall, D. J.; Martin, P. G.; Martinez-Gonzalez, E.; Masi, S.; Matarrese, S.; Mazzotta, P.; McGehee, P.; Melchiorri, A.; Mendes, L.; Mennella, A.; Migliaccio, M.; Mitra, S.; Miville-Deschenes, M.-A.; Moneti, A.; Montier, L.; Morgante, G.; Mortlock, D.; Moss, A.; Munshi, D.; Murphy, J. A.; Naselsky, P.; Nati, F.; Natoli, P.; Netterfield, C. B.; Norgaard-Nielsen, H. U.; Noviello, F.; Novikov, D.; Novikov, I.; Oxborrow, C. A.; Paci, F.; Pagano, L.; Pajot, F.; Paladini, R.; Paoletti, D.; Pasian, F.; Patanchon, G.; Pearson, T. J.; Pelkonen, V.-M.; Perdereau, O.; Perotto, L.; Perrotta, F.; Pettorino, V.; Piacentini, F.; Piat, M.; Pierpaoli, E.; Pietrobon, D.; Plaszczynski, S.; Pointecouteau, E.; Polenta, G.; Pratt, G. W.; Prezeau, G.; Prunet, S.; Puget, J.-L.; Rachen, J. P.; Reach, W. T.; Rebolo, R.; Reinecke, M.; Remazeilles, M.; Renault, C.; Renzi, A.; Ristorcelli, I.; Rocha, G.; Rosset, C.; Rossetti, M.; Roudier, G.; Rubino-Martin, J. A.; Rusholme, B.; Sandri, M.; Santos, D.; Savelainen, M.; Savini, G.; Scott, D.; Seiffert, M. D.; Shellard, E. P. S.; Spencer, L. D.; Stolyarov, V.; Sudiwala, R.; Sunyaev, R.; Sutton, D.; Suur-Uski, A.-S.; Sygnet, J.-F.; Tauber, J. A.; Terenzi, L.; Toffolatti, L.; Tomasi, M.; Tristram, M.; Tucci, M.; Tuovinen, J.; Umana, G.; Valenziano, L.; Valiviita, J.; van Tent, B.; Vielva, P.; Villa, F.; Wade, L. A.; Wandelt, B. D.; Wehus, I. K.; Yvon, D.; Zacchei, A.; Zonca, A.

2017-01-01

The Planck Catalogue of Galactic Cold Clumps (PGCC) is a list of 13188 Galactic sources and 54 sources located in the Small and Large Magellanic Clouds. The sources have been identified in Planck data as sources colder than their environment. It has been built using the 48 months Planck data at 857, 545, and 353GHz combined with the 3THz IRAS data. (1 data file).