Fault rupture model of the 2008 Dangxiong (Tibet,China) Mw 6.3 earthquake from Envisat and ALOS data

On October 6, 2008, an Mw 6.3 earthquake occurred in Dangxiong county, southern Tibetan Plateau. In this study, Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) images from Envisat ASAR C-band descending Track 176 and ALOS PALSAR L-band ascending Track 500 are processed to generate the coseismic deformation caused by the earthquake. To estimate the source model, a downhill simplex non-linear inversion method is used to determine the fault rupture geometry, and an automatic fault discretization technique is employed to divide the fault plane to construct the optimal slip model, in which the uncertainties of the fault parameters are assessed by a Monte Carlo method. The inversion results show that the earthquake strikes almost south–north and has a normal faulting focal mechanism with rake angle and slip of −111.7° and 1.33 m, respectively. Peak slip of 2.15 m is located at a depth of 7.5 km. The estimated geodetic moment is 4.06 × 10¹⁸ N m (Mw 6.37), 71.2% of which is released in the depth range 4.5–11 km. The slip model suggests that coseismic slip also takes place at some fault patches near the earth’s surface and postseismic afterslip occurs below the coseismic rupture area after the earthquake.     

Intermittency of solar wind density fluctuations and its relation to sharp density changes

The paper presents the study of turbulent properties of the solar wind plasma, namely, the intermittency of fluctuations of the solar wind ion flux in the earlier unexplored region of comparatively high frequencies (0.01–1 Hz). Special attention is given to a comparison of intermittency for solar wind observation intervals containing sharp (shorter than 10 min) and high-amplitude (greater than 20%) changes of the ion flux to intervals without such changes. The solar wind observation intervals containing sharp changes of the flux are found to be essentially more intermittent than the intervals of quiet solar wind. Such a comparison allows one to reveal the fundamental difference in turbulent properties of the solar wind depending on the presence or absence of sharp boundaries in plasma structures.     

Parametric resonance in the solar corona

When studying microwave emission of active regions on the Sun, an effect of parametric resonance between 5-min velocity oscillations in the solar photosphere and sound oscillations of coronal magnetic loops modulating the microwave emission has been discovered for the first time. The effect shows itself as simultaneous excitation in coronal magnetic loop of oscillations with periods 5, 10, and 3 min, which correspond to the pumping frequency, subharmonic, and the first upper frequency of parametric resonance. The parametric resonance can serve as an effective channel of transporting the energy of photospheric oscillations into the upper layers of the solar atmosphere. This effect opens up the important prospects in understanding the mechanisms of coronal plasma heating.     

Possible role of electrostatic potential in formation of sharp boundaries of small-scale and middle-scale solar wind structures

Sharp boundaries of small-scale and middle-scale structures of the solar wind are an essential part of a turbulized solar wind. Such boundaries are observed near the Earth’s orbit as sharp and large-amplitude changes of parameters (in particular, ion density) of the solar wind. In this paper, the observed phenomena are briefly described, and an account of their basic properties and specific features is given. Using the kinetic approach, a possible theoretical mechanism is suggested in order to explain some peculiarities in the formation of these structures.