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Stars make up most of what we see in the universe. Stars are born from giant, collapsing clouds of gas (and dust). Star formation requires lots of physics working together over millions of years.
Particle accumulation processes are discussed for a variety of physical environments, ranging from the collapse phase of an interstellar cloud to the different parts of the models of the primitive solar nebula constructed by Cameron and Pine (1973). The interstellar collapse phase, the settling of particles to the control plane, processes in the convective zone, the accumulation of planetary bodies, and gas accretion are discussed. Attention is given to the formation of satellites, angular momentum aspects of star formation, the formation of comets, the formation of Mercury, the T Tauri solar wind, the evolution of the terrestrial planets, the radial distances of the planets, and the dissipation of excess solids.
The RF radiation produced during intracloud lightning flashes is presented, together with associated fast and slow electric field changes. These data were collected during the Thunderstorm Research International Project in Florida during the summer of 1977. The RF radiation is essentially simultaneous with the fast-field change but has a tendency to peak during the initial half-cycle of the bipolar field changes associated cloud processes. This is in marked contrast to previous observations of RF radiation during return strokes in cloud-to-ground discharges and provides a clue to the physics of the intracloud discharge.
Copernicus UV data on interstellar lines toward Epsilon Ori and Pi-5 Ori are analyzed to study abundances and physical conditions in both low- and intermediate-velocity components. Clouds at -8 and +5 km/s (LSR) toward Epsilon Ori show typical depletions of Fe, Ti, Mg, and Si in dense (H number density about 100 per cu cm) gas. Low-column-density intermediate-velocity clouds toward both stars, with low densities (hydrogen number density less than 1 per cu cm) and near-cosmic Si abundances, are consistent with a widespread pattern of high-velocity gas over a 15-deg area surrounding the Orion region. Such activity may be attributed to the repeated action of supernovae in a patchy low-density region of interstellar gas.
The physical characteristics of optically thick ablation fronts such as interstellar clouds are analyzed. Attention is given to cold clumps in both planar and spherical geometries and modifications caused by accelerations in a gravitational field or by evaporation of the clumps when encountered hot gas. The effects of ablation on the appearance of the Rayleigh-Taylor instability are examined in both linear and nonlinear regimes. The results of the calculations are applied to the astrophysical phenomena of cold clumps immersed in a supersonic flow, optically thick jets, and ablation in stellar envelopes. Evaporation in an optically thick front is projected to be orders of magnitude larger than evaporation in electron-conduction fronts in optically thin conditions. The optically thick processes could then be useful for modeling flows from, e.g., newly formed stars and active galactic nuclei.
Stars of various types are believed to be the main source of interstellar (IS) dust grans. The most important confirmed source is evolved giant and supergiant stars. Supernovae also contribute to the mass loss. The differences between circumstellar (CS) and IS dust were reviewed using the following topics: alteration of CS dust grains, size distribution, space observation of CS and IS dust, comparison of infrared spectra, isotopic signatures, Magellanic clouds and nearby galaxies, life cycles of dust grains, and physical and chemical data.
In this paper, numerical models are developed to follow the time-dependent behavior of inclined gas disks in nonspherical galaxies. Differential equations are developed which describe the time rate of change of the orbits of mass elements composing a thin, smoothly warping and twisting gas disk. These equations include multiple moments due to the nonsphericity of the galactic mass distribution, Coriolis effects arising from determination of orbits in a reference frame which tumbles with the surface figure of the galaxy, and viscous forces arising from cloud-cloud collisions. A cloud-fluid approach is used in determining the viscous forces. Physical arguments are used to determine the maximum permissible local value of the coefficient of kinematic viscosity. For small initial inclinations, analytic expressions are obtained for the inclination as a function of time and for the settling time, and the features of the solution are discussed.
Venus 2.7-mm continuum emission and CO J = 1-0 transition observations conducted in January 1987, when Venus was at western elongation, indicate a 10 percent brightness temperature increase from the day to the nightside. It is suggested that this brightness temperature variation, which is greater than anticipated on the basis of physical variations in temperature, may be associated with potentially cloud-related atmospheric opacity variations. Model fits to the CO spectra suggest that, while the CO at altitudes greater than 90 km decreases from night to day, low altitude CO may exhibit a general enhancement.
The Pioneer Venus Orbiter and probe missions have provided a wealth of in situ and remote sensing data. The probe mission sounded the clouds and lower atmosphere at four separate locations returning chemical, physical, and meteorological data on the Venus atmosphere. The orbiter observed the surface of Venus with a radar altimeter and crude radar imager. It sounded the atmosphere in the infrared and monitored the ultraviolet emissions. It also provided in situ data on the neutral and ionized environment of the planet and the magnetic fields and plasma waves in these regions. The results of the over-12-years of orbiter observations of Venus, especially those of relevance to the interpretation of data on the upper atmosphere, ionosphere and solar wind interaction with Mars are stressed.
Measurements of the shapes, velocities, and intensities of FIR lines all help to probe the dynamics, physical associations, and excitation conditions of warm gas in molecular clouds. With this in mind, we have observed the J=9-8, 12-11,14-13, and 16-15 lines of (12)CO and the 158 micron line of C II in a number of positions in 4 selected clouds. The data were obtained with a laser heterodyne spectrometer aboard NASA's Kuiper Airborne Observatory. Line measurements at 0.6 km/s resolution allow us to resolve the profiles completely, and thereby to distinguish between UV-and shock-heating mechanisms for the high-excitation gas. For CO, the high-J linewidths lie in the range of 4-20 km/s (FWHM), similar to those observed for low-J (J less than 4) transitions in these sources. This correspondence suggests that the hotter gas (T = 200-600 K) is dynamically linked to the quiescent gas component, perhaps by association with the UV-heated peripheries of the numerous cloud clumps. Much of the C II emission is thought to emanate from these cloud peripheries, but the line profiles generally do not match those seen in CO. None of the observed sources show any evidence in high-J (12)CO emission for shock-excitation (i.e., linewidths greater than 30 km/s).
Global Modeling and Assimilation Office (GMAO) is close to having a working 4DVAR system and has developed a linearized version of GEOS-5.This talk outlines a series of improvements made to the linearized dynamics, physics and trajectory.Of particular interest is the development of linearized cloud microphysics, which provides the framework for 'all-sky' data assimilation.
Motivations - Radiative Transfer (RT) model is a component in satellite remote sensing (Observation System Simulation Experiment, sensor performance end-to-end simulations or sensitivity studies, and retrieval and data assimilations); - Line-by-line RT model is too slow, over a million RT needed to cover infrared spectral region; - Traditional Channel-based RT models deal with one channel at a time. Modern sensors have thousands of channels and 0.1-1 million spectra per day, only 4-10% of data are used in satellite data assimilations (too slow for climate OSSE). It is essential to have a RT model: - Accurate and fast - Works in all spectral regions - Includes as accurate physics as possible - Takes advantage of spectral correlations - Can handle cloud and aerosols PCRTM (Principal Component-based Radiative Transfer model) was developed to satisfy the need listed above.
Recent modeling studies have revealed that ice crystal number concentration is one of the dominant factors in the effect of clouds on radiation. Since the ice crystal enhancement factor and ice nuclei concentration determine the concentration, they are both important in quantifying the contribution of increased ice nuclei to global warming. In this study, long-term cloud-resolving model (CRM) simulations are compared with field observations to estimate the ice crystal enhancement factor in tropical and midlatitudinal clouds, respectively. It is found that the factor in tropical clouds is ~10 3-104 times larger than that of mid-latitudinal ones, which makes physical sense because entrainment and detrainment in the Tropics are much stronger than in middle latitudes. The effect of entrainment/detrainment on the enhancement factor, especially in tropical clouds, suggests that cloud microphysical parameterizations should be coupled with subgrid turbulence parameterizations within CRMs to obtain a more accurate depiction of cloud-radiative forcing.
This award supported an experimental study of the properties of the dust acoustic wave, low-frequency, l ongitudinal wave mode that propagates through the dust component of a dusty plasma system and is self-excited by the free energy from the ion streaming p ast the dust, in the presence of a high magnetic fiel d. In particular, this project measured the thermal state of dusty plasma system by measuring the dispersi on relation of the dust acoustic wave while varying (1) the strength and direction of the magnetic field relative to the propagation direction of the wave and (2) the neutral gas pressure. By exploiting the unique ability of the MDPX facility to generate a dusty plasma in a high magnetic field environment, it is possible to create a preferential ion flow along the magnetic field lines as the ions become magnetized. In this way, the magnetic field strength can be used to control t he strength of the ion flow through the dust cloud an d provide insight into the contribution that one of the physical mechanisms, a two-stream ion-dust instability, thought to be responsible for high temperatures that have been previously observed might have. This work was completed over two, one-week long runs o n the Magnetized Dusty Plasma eXperiment (MDPX) in the Magnetized Plasma Research Laboratory at Auburn University and supported by work at Wittenberg University (development of an electrode system that would allow for the wave mode to propagate in th e direction of gravity as the orientation of the magnetic field is changed by rotating the magnets on the M DPX device, analysis of data acquired during the experimental campaigns, testing alternative strategies to form a dust cloud based on what was learned the first experimental campaign, etc.).
The main objectives of the research are: to increase the understanding of biological production (and carbon fluxes) along the ice edge, in frontal regions, and in open water areas of the Arctic and the physical factors controlling that production through the use of satellite and aircraft remote sensing techniques; and to develop relationships between measured radiances from the Multichannel Aircraft Radiometer System (MARS) and the bio-optical properties of the water in the Arctic and adjacent seas. Several recent Coastal Zone Color Scanner (CZCS) studies in the Arctic have shown that, despite constraints imposed by cloud cover, satellite ocean color is a useful means of studying mesoscale physical and biological oceanographic phenomena at high latitudes. The imagery has provided detailed information on ice edge and frontal processes such as spring breakup and retreat of the ice edge, influence of ice on ice effects of stratification on phytoplankton production, river sediment transport, effects of spring runoff, water mass boundaries, circulation patterns, and eddy formation in Icelandic waters and in the Greenland, Barents, Norwegian, and Bering Seas.
Ascending space vehicles are vulnerable to both natural and triggered lightning. Launches under the jurisdiction of the United States are generally subject to a set of rules called the Lightning Launch Commit Criteria (LLCC). The LLCC protect both the vehicle and the public by assuring that the launch does not take place in conditions posing a significant risk of a lightning strike to the ascending vehicle. Such a strike could destroy the vehicle and its payload, thus causing failure of the mission while releasing both toxic materials and debris. To assure safety, the LLCC are conservative and sometimes they may seriously limit the ability of the launch operator to fly as scheduled even when conditions are benign. In order to safely reduce the number of launch scrubs and delays attributable to the LLCC, the Airborne Field Mill (ABFM) program was undertaken in 2000 - 2001. The effort was directed to collecting detailed high-quality data on the electrical, microphysical, radar and meteorological properties of thunderstorm-associated clouds. The expectation was that this additional knowledge would provide a better physical basis for the LLCC and allow them to be revised to be both safer and less restrictive. That expectation was fulfilled, leading to significant revisions to the LLCC in 2003 and 2005. The 2005 revisions included the application of a new radar-derived quantity called the Volume Averaged Height Integrated Radar Reflectivity (VAHIRR) in the rules governing flight through anvil clouds. Analysis of the ABFM data has continued, and two additional revisions to the LLCC were proposed in late 2006 for adoption in 2007 or 2008. One proposal was to apply the VAHIRR concept to debris clouds, and the other was to reduce the "stand-off distances" in the rules for anvil and/or debris clouds. The stand-off distance is the clearance (out side of the cloud) required between the flight path of the vehicle and the edge of a cloud that it is not permissible to fly through. This paper will discuss these proposed changes in the LLCC and the scientific rationale for adopting or rejecting them based on ABFM data.
Low-level clouds are ubiquitous over the oceans, and their impact on the Earth’ radiative budget is important. However, general circulation models (GCMs) that are used to represent our climate and its evolution still experience problems to represent their correct amount and radiative impact. In the extratropical latitudes (~30-60 N/S), cloud properties are strongly modulated by the occurrence of anti-cyclones (high pressure systems) and cyclones (low pressure systems). While deep clouds dominate in cyclones near the center and along the cold and warm fronts, low-level clouds populate the colder regions of the cyclones, and more specifically the region in the wake of the cold fronts, the post-cold frontal region (PCF). The GCMs mentioned above were found to underestimate the amount of these PCF clouds, and this caused errors in their representation of the amount of solar radiation at the surface of the southern hemisphere oceans, causing an excess in absorption and errors in long-term predictions. To better understand which processes are ill-represented in the GCMs to cause such issues, we used ground-based observations from the Eastern North Atlantic (ENA) ARM site and a high resolution regional model (called WRF) to examine the properties of PCF clouds. With the WRF model, we simulated the passage of a cold front at the ENA site using theoretically distinct representations of convection and the physics of the boundary layer. While these physical representations had little impact on the timing, structure and circulation of the cold front, we found a high sensitivity to how the large scale information was fed into the model. Errors rapidly developed if the incoming flow information was injected too far from the site, but 1000 km was found to be an optimal distance between the outer boundary and the ENA site for a realistic cold front passage. With this model, we then conducted a series of experiment where convection and boundary layer schemes were changed, and revealed that 1) the clouds were more sensitive to the convection than boundary layer schemes and 2) the interaction between the two has a large impact. Furthermore, changing the representation of the physics in the model had greater impacts on PCF clouds than changing the initial conditions. As large-scale models increase their spatial resolution, convection will eventually be resolved but it remains that their representation of the physics of the boundary layer will matter for the correct representation of shallow (low-level) clouds. Observations were used to find which large-scale information had a clear relationship with PCF cloud and precipitation properties, in view of helping with GCM parameterizations and evaluation. Both lower troposphere stability and surface forcing were found to be important for PCF clouds that experience more vigorous dynamics than their tropical or subtropical counterparts. For cloud base and top heights, a simple measure of the change in potential temperature between the surface and the 800 hPa was found to be a good predictor. This relationship was found to hold as well when using data from campaigns recently conducted in the southern ocean south of Tasmania. A recent GCM was found to succeed in representing similar relations. For cloud depth, water content, and different characteristics of precipitation both the temperature contrast between the surface and near-air and the near-surface wind speed had a strong relationship. To summarize, through observational constraints and regional model experiments, the project has provided guidance to evaluate GCMs and tools to improve their representation of low-level clouds in the extratropics. It has also highlighted differences in behavior between these clouds and those typically found in the subtropics, thus opening new avenues of research for shallow clouds in general.
Aerosol-cloud interactions (ACI) in warm clouds alter reflected shortwave radiation by influencing cloud microphysical and macrophysical properties. The variable of state controlling ACI is the cloud droplet number concentration (N d ). Here, we examine the perturbations in N d due to anthropogenic aerosols (ΔN d, PD-PI ) using a perturbed parameter ensemble (PPE) hosted in the sixth Community Atmosphere Model (CAM6). Surrogate models are created for the CAM6 PPE outputs and are used to generate 1 million model variants of CAM6 by sampling 45 sources of parameter uncertainty. The range of uncertain physical parameters related to ACI are constrained with observations of aerosol and cloud properties from SOCRATES. The likely range of uncertain parameters and the associated range of ΔN d, PD-PI are more strongly constrained with observations of N d relative to observations of cloud condensation nuclei. We conduct sensitivity tests of how constraints on ΔN d, PD-PI are affected by systematic uncertainties in observations and our limitations in our surrogate models created for CAM6 PPE outputs. Based on this, we provide guidance on the impact of reducing systematic uncertainty in airborne microphysical observations and in surrogate models.