A wavelet and Zernike-polynomial-based shearing interferometry approach to analyse hydrodynamic instabilities at interfaces

We present a hybrid algorithm to analyse complex interferograms with significant fringe deformations without an a-priori given zero-phase image containing the optical aberration of the instrument. Situations of this type frequently appear in fluid physics experiments using lateral shearing interferometers. The algorithm proposed employs a wavelet transformation in parallel with an approximation of the phase field directly after the experimental container is filled applying Zernike polynomials. As a result the aberrations of the interferometer can be described by a few coefficients. The subtraction of these phase aberrations can be traced back to a complex multiplication in the wavelet space which strongly reduces the effort of the phase unwrapping using the Goldstein algorithm. We explain the performance of the algorithm, which is not restricted to a particular interferometer type, by applying it to interferograms captured during a recent microgravity experiment.     

Policy issues in communicating with ETI

Two possible scenarios for the detection of extraterrestrial intelligence are presented and the issues they would raise discussed. The article then goes on to examine operational questions and reply policy in the event of contact being made. Questions of how such contact should be announced to the world--and by whom; who should send a reply; how it would be designed and what it would say, are explored. Creating a beacon actively to beam a message into the galaxy could provide a test case for international consultation and cooperation in responding to ETI.     

Impacts of solar and auroral storms on power line systems

A sensitive search for pulsars inside a sample of gamma-ray source error boxes has been carried out using the Arecibo and Parkes radiotelescopes. The paper describes the motivation of this search and the characteristics of the experiments used. As a preliminary result, new pulsars have been discovered and some of them are possibly candidates to be the counterparts of the gamma-ray sources.     

Civil Access to NAVSTAR GPS

US government policy is established and procedures are being formulated to direct the implementation of techniques providing limited civil access to full GPS accuracy. The results of these efforts balance the conflicting needs of civil GPS navigation and positioning against national security requirements. Granting this access will require sufficient and demonstrable user need, must clearly provide for both national and security interests, and may lead to the imposition of a user service charge. This access will only apply to Precise Positioning Service configured, code-tracking GPS receivers.     

Kilometric Type III Radio Bursts,Electron Beams,and Interplanetary Density Structures

We briefly review kilometric type III radio bursts and what their physical characteristics reveal about the propagation and characteristics of suprathermal electron beams and about density structures in interplanetary medium. This revised version was published online in August 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

Jupiter's radiation belts

The recent close encounters of Pioneer-10 (December 1973) and Pioneer-11 (December 1974) with the planet Jupiter provided the first in situ observations of zenomagnetically trapped particle radiation. Such observations represented a major advance in planetary research. Prior estimates of radiation intensities (particle fluxes) at Jupiter had necessarily relied (in the case of electrons) upon inferences from Jovian decimetric radio emission observed at the Earth and (in the case of protons) upon postulates for the numerical scaling from terrestrial proton intensities. The Pioneer-10 and Pioneer-11 observations have stimulated continuing theoretical efforts to understand the reported findings and to extrapolate from them to other planets and other epochs. While the analysis of trapped-radiation data from the Pioneer spacecraft is far from being completed, a consensus has developed with respect to the physical mechanisms that must be considered. The observed radiation belts seem to be populated by radial diffusion from an external source. The diffusion coefficient seems to be that derived from fluctuations in the polarization electric field produced by neutral winds in the Jovian ionosphere, which is coupled to the magnetosphere by equipotential B-field lines. Radiation-belt electrons lose energy and change their equatorial pitch angles by virtue of synchrotron emission. Radiation-belt ions and electrons both may be subject to pitch-angle diffusion caused by waves that the respective particle anisotropies have created through plasma instabilities. Finally, radiation-belt ions and electrons seem to experience absorption by the inner Jovian satellites (moons) in a manner that may depend upon the species and energy of the incident radiation-belt particle. It is not yet known whether satellite-associated clouds of sodium and sulfur contribute substantially to the inferred particle absorption. Also still open is the question of whether the satellites provide a substantial source of radiation-belt particles. Moreover, there remains doubt concerning the configuration of the outer Jovian magnetosphere and the influence of this configuration on the zenomagnetic trapping of energetic charged particles.Proceedings of the Symposium on Solar Terrestrial Physics held in Innsbruck, May–June 1978.     

Black hole accretion and X-ray spectra of QSOS

Changes in Eddington accretion ratios are thought to result in X-ray spectral index changes in Galactic binary black hole systems. Objects with higher Eddington ratios have softer X-ray spectra. Can we apply this result to much more massive black hole systems such as QSOs? If so, X-ray observations will give us valuable insight into the physics of QSOs. Among QSOs, X-ray spectral index is part of a large set of correlated optical and UV observational properties, especially optical Fe II and [O III] strengths in the Hβ region. To investigate whether this set of correlations is related to Eddington ratio, we use as probes, BALQSOs that have been suggested to be youthful super-accretors. We conducted infrared spectroscopy of the Hβ rest wavelength region for a sample of BALQSOs and compared line measurements with those for high and low redshift non-BAL QSOs. Hβ line widths and bolometric luminosity are used to calculate QSO black hole masses and Eddington ratios. Our results support the hypothesis that optical Fe II and [O III] line strengths are Eddington ratio indicators in QSO central engines. A possible explanation is that strong Fe II and weak [O III] indicate abundant cold gas that could fuel near Eddington accretion.     

Travel, Sex, and Food: What's Speciation Got to Do with It?

Abstract We discuss the potential interactions among travel (dispersal and gene flow), bacterial "sex" (mainly as horizontal gene transfer), and food (metabolic plasticity and responses to nutrient availability) in shaping microbial communities. With regard to our work at a unique desert oasis, the Cuatro Ciénegas Basin in Coahuila, Mexico, we propose that diversification and low phosphorus availability, in combination with mechanisms for nutrient recycling and community cohesion, result in enhanced speciation through reproductive as well as geographic isolation. We also discuss these mechanisms in the broader sense of ecology and evolution. Of special relevance to astrobiology and central to evolutionary biology, we ask why there are so many species on Earth and provide a working hypothesis and a conceptual framework within which to consider the question. Key Words: Microbial ecology-Microbial mats-Evolution-Horizontal gene transfer-Metabolism. Astrobiology 12, 634-640.