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Observations of comet Kohoutek made with a 3-mm line receiver mounted on the 11-m NRAO radio dish at Kitt Peak are presented. The detection of line transitions of hydrogen cyanide and methyl cyanide is reported and discussed along with the variability of neutral gas jets. Microwave transitions in molecules of cometary origin are also examined.
Nonpulsed but variable X-ray emission has been detected from the binary system containing the radio pulsar PSR 1259-63 during two pointed ROSAT observations, taken 5 months apart. This 47.7 ms radio pulsar is in a highly eccentric (epsilon approximately 0.85) binary system with the 10-15 solar mass Be star SS 2883. It is the first radio pulsar found to be in a binary system with a massive main-sequence companion; it is also the most highly eccentric binary system known to contain a neutron star. The level of X-ray flux detected in the ROSAT observations has increased with orbital phase by a factor of at least 10 between 1992 February and 1993 February. The X-ray flux is significantly greater than expected from the Be star's corona and seems likely to originate either from low-level stellar wind accretion onto the neutron star or from the shock between the stellar wind and the relativistic pulsar wind. The system may be the progenitor of the more slowly rotating Be X-ray binary pulsar systems.
The typical atmospheric boundary layer (ABL) over the southeast (SE) Pacific Ocean is featured with a strong temperature inversion and a sharp moisture gradient across the ABL top. The strong moisture and temperature gradients result in a sharp refractivity gradient that can be precisely detected by the Global Positioning System (GPS) radio occultation (RO) measurements. In this paper, the Constellation Observing System for Meteorology, Ionosphere & Climate (COSMIC) GPS RO soundings, radiosondes and the high-resolution ECMWF analysis over the SE Pacific are analyzed. COSMIC RO is able to detect a wide range of ABL height variations (1-2 kilometer) as observed from the radiosondes. However, the ECMWF analysis systematically underestimates the ABL heights. The sharp refractivity gradient at the ABL top frequently exceeds the critical refraction (e.g., −157 N-unit per kilometer) and becomes the so-called ducting condition, which results in a systematic RO refractivity bias (or called N-bias) inside the ABL. Simulation study based on radiosonde profiles reveals the magnitudes of the N-biases are vertical resolution dependent. The N-bias is also the primary cause of the systematically smaller refractivity gradient (rarely exceeding −110 N-unit per kilometer) at the ABL top from RO measurement. However, the N-bias seems not affect the ABL height detection. Instead, the very large RO bending angle and the sharp refractivity gradient due to ducting allow reliable detection of the ABL height from GPS RO. The seasonal mean climatology of ABL heights derived from a nine-month composite of COSMIC RO soundings over the SE Pacific reveals significant differences from the ECMWF analysis. Both show an increase of ABL height from the shallow stratocumulus near the coast to a much higher trade wind inversion further off the coast. However, COSMIC RO shows an overall deeper ABL and reveals different locations of the minimum and maximum ABL heights as compared to the ECMWF analysis. At low latitudes, despite the decreasing number of COSMIC RO soundings and the lower percentage of soundings that penetrate into the lowest 500-m above the mean-sea-level, there are small sampling errors in the mean ABL height climatology. The difference of ABL height climatology between COSMIC RO and ECMWF analysis over SE Pacific is significant and requires further studies.
Terrestrial gamma ray flashes (TGFs) are submillisecond flashes of energetic radiation that are believed to emanate from intracloud lightning inside thunderstorms. This emission can be detected hundreds of kilometers from the source by space-based observatories such as the Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope (Fermi). The location of the TGF-producing storms can be determined using very low frequency (VLF) radio measurements made simultaneously with the Fermi detection, allowing additional insight into the mechanisms which produce these phenomena. In this paper, we report 37 TGFs originating from tropical storm systems for the first time. Previous studies to gain insight into how tropical cyclones formed and how destructive they can be include the investigation of lightning flash rates and their dependence on storm evolution. We find TGFs to emanate from a broad range of distances from the storm centers. In hurricanes and severe tropical cyclones, the TGFs are observed to occur predominately from the outer rainbands. A majority of our sample also show TGFs occurring during the strengthening phase of the encompassing storm system. These results verify that TGF production closely follows when and where lightning predominately occurs in cyclones. The intrinsic characteristics of these TGFs were not found to differ from other TGFs reported in larger samples. We also find that some TGF-producing storm cells in tropical storm systems far removed from land have a low number of WWLLN sferics. Although not unique to tropical cyclones, this TGF/sferic ratio may imply a high efficiency for the lightning in these storms to generate TGFs.
Several rotational transitions of HCN, H2S, H2CO, and CH3OH were detected in comets P/Brorsen-Metcalf 1989 X, Austin (1989c1) and Levy (1990c) with the Institute for Millimeter Radioastronomy (IRAM) 30-m radio telescope. This allows us to determine the production rates of these molecules and to probe the physical conditions of the coma.
The cross-correlation of a source list from the ROSAT All Sky Survey with the Molonglo 408 MHz Survey (MRC) yields a calalogue of 549 sources. The majority of the objects are quasars and radio galaxies with known optical counterparts, most of them detected in X-rays for the first time. More than one third of the objects are optically unidentified. In this paper we will present a discussion of the representative properties of the 337 previously optically identified active galactic nuclei (AGN). We find strong correlations between luminosities in the radio, optical, and X-ray bands which differ for quasars and radio galaxies. Several of the statistical source characteristics seem not to support simple unification schemes. However, for many objects some of their key properties like redshift, radio morphology and environmental conditions are not known yet. The fraction of X-ray detected quasars in the MRC is around 30%, higher than that of radio galaxies (less tha 8%). It is not currently known which intrinsic properties are responsible for the X-ray loudness of these radio objects. We further have evidence for a considerable number of objects being radio- and X-ray loud, but optically very faint.
A very simple mathematical sequence is detected in a half century of thermal radio flux from the Sun. Since the only known physical cause of the sequence is global oscillations trapped in the nonconvecting solar interior, g-modes and probably r-modes are active. If so, their rotation frequencies are detected and some previously reported difference frequencies are confirmed with high confidence. All angular harmonics for 2 less than or = l less than or = 7 are detected as well as some others up to the limit l less than or = 14 resolvable by the observations (a Fourier spectrum of the 10.7 cm flux time series). The mean sidereal rotation of the nonconvecting interior is 428.2 nHz as averaged by g-modes and 429.8 nHz by the r-modes, indicating that g-mode energy is a bit more centrally concentrated. Helioseismology measures such rotation rates near 0.36R (R = solar radius), so the global modes would have about half their kinetic energy above and below that level. This, and the known log(r) energy dependence of most modes implies that these oscillations are significantly reflected near 0.18R, the same level at which sound speed measurements display a maximum departure from theoretical models.
A significant fraction of known galaxies contain an active galactic nucleus (AGN) at their cores, the site of violent activity and non-stellar radiation seen across the entire electromagnetic spectrum. This activity is thought to be due to the accretion of gas onto a massive black hole. A fraction of AGNs also eject collimated beams of energetic material, usually seen by virtue of its synchrotron emission in the radio band. Efforts to study these jets from AGNs in the X-ray band with the Einstein Observatory has led to several detections, most notably the jets in the nearby radio galaxies Centaurus A and Virgo A = M87. In their study of M87, Schreier, Gorenstein and Feigelson (1982) noted that, in addition to the synchrotron jet 10"-20" from the nucleus, X-rays appear to be generated in the diffuse radio halo 2'-5' from the nucleus. This finding may be particularly important as it may constitute the first known case of X-ray inverse Compton emission from AGN ejecta, allowing for the first time direct determination of the magnetic field strengths.
Recent studies of the cosmic X-ray background (XRB) have suggested the possible existence of a population of relatively faint sources with hard X-ray spectra; however, the emission mechanism remains unclear. If the hard X-ray emission is from the radiatively inefficient, advection-dominated accretion flows (ADAFs) around massive black holes in galactic nuclei, X-ray luminosity and radio luminosity satisfy the approximate relation L(sub R) approx. 7 x 10(exp 35)(upsilon/15 GHz)(sup 7/5(M/10(exp 7)solar mass)(L(sub X) ergs/s)(sup 1/10 ergs/s, where L(sub R) = (upsilon)L(sub upsilon) is the radio luminosity at frequency upsilon, M is the mass of the accreting black hole, and 10(exp 40) less than or equal to L(sub X) less than or equal to 10(exp 42) ergs/s is the 2-10 keV X-ray luminosity. These sources are characterized by inverted radio spectra I(sub upsilon) varies as upsilon(exp 2/5). For example, an ADAF X-ray source with luminosity L(sub X) approx. 10(exp 41) ergs/s has a nuclear radio luminosity of approx. 4 x 10(M/3 x 10(exp 7) solar mass) ergs/s at approx. 20 GHz, and if it is at a distance of approx. 10(M/3 x 10(exp 7) solar mass) Mpc, it would be detected as a approx. 1 mJy point radio source. High-frequency (approx. 20 GHz), high angular resolution radio observations provide an important test of the ADAF emission mechanism. Since L,, depends strongly on black hole mass and only weakly on X-ray luminosity, the successful measurement of nuclear radio emission could provide an estimate of black hole mass. Because the X-ray spectra produced by ADAFs are relatively hard, sources of this emission are natural candidates for contributing to the hard (greater than 2 keV) background.
The goal of a coordinated effort between groups at GWU and NASA GSFC is the development of a low-cost, global, surface instrument network that continuously monitors three key carbon cycle gases in the atmospheric column: carbon dioxide (CO2), methane (CH4), carbon monoxide (CO), as well as oxygen (O2) for atmospheric pressure profiles. The network will implement a low-cost, miniaturized, laser heterodyne radiometer (mini-LHR) that has recently been developed at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center. This mini-LHR is designed to operate in tandem with the passive aerosol sensor currently used in AERONET (a well established network of more than 450 ground aerosol monitoring instruments worldwide), and could be rapidly deployed into this established global network. Laser heterodyne radiometry is a well-established technique for detecting weak signals that was adapted from radio receiver technology. Here, a weak light signal, that has undergone absorption by atmospheric components, is mixed with light from a distributed feedback (DFB) telecommunications laser on a single-mode optical fiber. The RF component of the signal is detected on a fast photoreceiver. Scanning the laser through an absorption feature in the infrared, results in a scanned heterodyne signal io the RF. Deconvolution of this signal through the retrieval algorithm allows for the extraction of altitude contributions to the column signal. The retrieval algorithm is based on a spectral simulation program, SpecSyn, developed at GWU for high-resolution infrared spectroscopies. Variations io pressure, temperature, composition, and refractive index through the atmosphere; that are all functions of latitude, longitude, time of day, altitude, etc.; are modeled using algorithms developed in the MODTRAN program developed in part by the US Air Force Research Laboratory. In these calculations the atmosphere is modeled as a series of spherically symmetric shells with boundaries specified at defined altitudes. Temperature, pressure, and species mixing ratios are defined at these boundaries. Between the boundaries, temperature is assumed to vary linearly with altitude while pressure (and thus gas density) vary exponentially. The observed spectrum at the LHR instrument will be the integration of the contributions along this light path. For any absorption measurement the signal at a particular spectral frequency is a linear combination of spectral line contributions from several species. For each species that might absorb in a spectral region, we have pre-calculated its contribution as a function of temperature and pressure. The integrated path absorption spectrum can then by calculated using the initial sun angle (from location, date, and time) and assumptions about pressure and temperature profiles from an atmospheric model. The modeled spectrum is iterated to match the experimental observation using standard multilinear regression techniques. In addition to the layer concentrations, the numerical technique also provides uncertainty estimates for these quantities as well as dependencies on assumptions inherent in the atmospheric models.
The focus of project SETI is on microwave frequencies, where receivers fundamentally have the best sensitivity for the detection of narrow band signals. Such receivers, when coupled to existing radio telescopes, form an optimum system for broad area searches over the sky. Detection of narrow band infrared signals is best done with a laser heterodyne reciever similar in function to a microwave spectral line receiver. A receiver was built for astrophysical observations at 30 THz (10 microns) and the spectrometer is being adapted for SETI work. The receiver uses a small CO2 laser as the local oscillator, a HgCdTe diode as the photomixer, and a multichannel intermediate frequency (IF) filterbank. An advanced multichannel IF processor is now being built to detect infrared line radiation in 1000 spectral channels each 1 MHz wide. When completed this processor will be used with a ground based telescope next year for a survey of several hundred selected stars for narrow band CO2 laser signals at 30 THz.
We report here the observation of radar echoes from the ionization trails of high-energy particle cascades. Data were taken at the SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory, where the full electron beam ( ~ 10 9 e - at ~ 10 GeV / e - ) was directed into a plastic target to simulate an ultrahigh-energy neutrino interaction. The target was interrogated with radio waves, and coherent radio reflections from the cascades were detected with properties consistent with theoretical expectations. This is the first definitive observation of radar echoes from high-energy particle cascades, which could lead to a viable neutrino detection technology for energies ≳ 10 16 eV .
Detector operates in conjunction with radio frequency portion of receiver to detect digital signals transmitted in known modulation formats. Signal is constructed by assigning known and distinct modulation waveforms to sequence of message symbols. It reconstructs transmitted digital sequence with minimum probability that any reconstructed digit will be in error.
System with two radio interferometer systems is used to detect crustal bulging of Earth's surface, which may be directly related to earthquakes.
A conical scan tracking system for tracking spacecraft and distant radio sources is described. The system detects small sinusoidal modulation in received power from a source that is off target with a frequency equal to a very low scan rate, an amplitude proportional to angular deviation of the source from the target, and a phase directly related to the direction the source is off target. The sinusoid is digitally correlated with inphase and out-of-phase scan sinusoids to obtain azimuth/elevation and hour angle/declination signals which are digitally integrated over exactly one scan period to obtain correction signals for an antenna pointing subsystem.
The X-ray source H1908+050 (=4U 1908+05 = A1909+04) was observed for three 6 day periods in 1977 and 1978 with the HEAO A-2 experiment. Because of the positional error box and variability of the source, the unusual emission-line object and variable radio source SS 433 has been suggested as the optical counterpart. The X-ray luminosity of the source varied by a factor of about 2 on a time scale of 6 months, and the spectrum of the object is consistent with either a power law of photon index of 2.1 or with 14.3 KeV thermal bremsstrahlung emission with an about 575 eV equivalent-width iron line. These X-ray characteristics argue against the source being extragalactic, but do not uniquely identify the type of source. The measurements are consistent with emission from a white dwarf with 100 million gauss magnetic field, but are also similar to the X-ray emission sometimes seen from Cir X-1. A search has been made for X-ray emission from similar radio sources, but no new X-ray sources were detected. A previously known source, A1850+00, is a possible counterpart for one of these radio sources.
A report by Kaiser and Desch (1985) indicates that nonthermal radio emissions from Uranus were not detectable from the Voyager spacecraft at a range of less than 0.7 AU. This observation suggests that the planet may have significantly different magnetospheric characteristics than Jupiter and Saturn. The ratio of atomic to molecular emission in the hydrogenic atmospheres of the outer planets varies over a wide range depending on the nature of the exciting process and the altitude of the sources. The importance of the ratio of atomic to molecular emission is discussed along with the escape of atomic hydrogen. On the basis of an evaluation of the observations, the possibility is raised that the strong EUV radiation from Uranus may not be auroral in origin.
The 1981 December 5 solar filament eruption that is associated with an energetic (E greater than 50 MeV) particle event observed at 1 AU. The eruption was photographed in H-alpha and was observed by the Solwind whitelight coronagraph on P78-1. It occurred well away from any solar active region and was not associated with an impulsive microwave burst, indicating that magnetic complexity and a detectable impulsive phase are not required for the production of a solar energetic particle (SEP) event. No metric type II or IV emission was observed, but an associated interplanetary type II burst was detected by the low-frequency radio experiment on ISEE 3. The December 5 and two other SEP events lacking evidence for low coronal shocks had unusually steep energy spectra (gamma greater than 3.5). In terms of shock acceleration, this suggests that shocks formed relatively high in the corona may produce steeper energy spectra than those formed at lower altitudes. It is noted that the filament itself maybe one source of the ions accelerated to high energies, since it is the only plausible coronal source of the He(+) ions observed in SEP events.