Measurements of atmospheric antiprotons

We measured atmospheric antiproton spectra in the energy range 0.2 to 3.4 GeV, at sea level and at balloon altitude in the atmospheric depth range 4.5 to 26 g/cm². The observed energy spectra, including our previous measurements at mountain altitude, were compared with estimated spectra calculated on various assumptions regarding the energy distribution of antiprotons that interacted with air nuclei.     

Electroacoustic atmospheric sounding

Radiophysics Scientific-Research Institute. Translated from Izvestiya Vysshikh Uchebnykh Zavedenii, Radiofizika, Vol. 35, No. 1, pp. 15–23, January, 1992.     

Iron-containing atmospheric aerosols

The Mössbauer spectroscopy was applied to study the structure of iron-containing particles of atmospheric aerosols. From the temperature dependence of the Mössbauer spectra it was concluded that iron appears in atmospheric aerosol mostly in the form of ultrafine, superparamagnetic particles of Fe₂O₃. The analysis of the quadrupole splitting distributions provides information on the differences of particle sizes in aerosols collected in different geographical locations.     

A horizontal atmospheric temperature sounder: Applications to remote sensing of atmospheric hazards

Several atmospheric hazards, including wind shear, clear-air turbulence, and wake vortices cause special problems for aircraft. These phenomena are usually characterized by a change in temperature relative to ambient, which may be detected by a millimeter wave radiometer operating on an absorption line in the atmosphere. Because of available componentry with excellent performance and relative freedom from interference by water vapor, the family of oxygen absorptions centered near 60 GHz is considered the best atmospheric feature on which the design of such an instrument could be based. This paper describes a multi-channel radiometer operating near 60 GHz which should be capable of detecting the hazards mentioned above as well as other potential dangers such as the passage of strong fronts and other severe weather. It is shown that a carefully designed instrument will be capable of measuring range to a hazard to an accuracy of about 5 percent and temperature difference to an accuracy of approximately half the actual measured difference, depending on range and temperature. An actual design is proposed, and graphs of expected performance are included.     

Mixing of atmospheric gas concentrations

Atmospheric gas concentrations were measured at 1 s intervals in the upper troposphere during a flight through and near the anvil of a storm. The observed very high correlations between the concentrations of CO and CH4 are interpreted as arising from the mixing of two distinct air masses with differing concentrations of each species, and is due to the nearly identical diffusivities of CO and CH4 in air. We find that the correlations depend on the period over which each concentration measurement was made. Correlations in measurements made over short periods decay with time, while correlations over larger scales remain high. We interpret this using a simple mixing model.     

Nucleation of atmospheric aerosol particles

A significant fraction of the total number of particles present in the atmosphere is formed originally by nucleation from the gas phase. Binary nucleation of sulphuric acid and water, ternary nucleation of sulphuric acid, water and ammonia and ion-induced nucleation are thought to be the most important aerosol nucleation processes in the atmosphere. Within the last two decades, instrumentation to observe and characterize nucleation has improved greatly and numerous observations of nucleation have been made including quantification of the nucleation rate, characterization of the growth process and first chemical characterizations of the freshly formed particles. Nucleation has been observed at many different places in the atmosphere: in the boundary layer, in the free troposphere, in remote locations, in coastal areas, in boreal forests as well as urban areas and pollution plumes. In most cases gaseous sulphuric acid is assumed to be the key precursor gas. After nucleation, other supersaturated substances, especially low vapour pressure organics often take part in the subsequent aerosol growth. Iodine oxides seem to be responsible for nucleation observed in some coastal areas.Recent advances in modelling allow for a kinetic treatment of the nucleation process based on measured thermochemical data for the cluster formation. Considerable improvement over the classical nucleation treatment is expected from this approach.A detailed understanding of atmospheric aerosol nucleation processes is needed as the freshly formed particles directly influence the number concentration and size distribution of the atmospheric aerosol. The formation of clouds and precipitation is affected and influences on climate are anticipated. Anthropogenic emissions influence atmospheric aerosol nucleation processes considerably.Despite the comprehensive research efforts, substantial inconsistencies remain and conflicting results of laboratory studies, model studies as well as atmospheric observations persist. Several key questions about the predictability of atmospheric nucleation in general, about the substances, that take part in nucleation and subsequent growth and about the size and composition of the critical cluster, have not been resolved so far. To cite this article: J. Curtius, C. R. Physique 7 (2006).     

Experimental measurements of atmospheric neutrinos

This talk reports the latest indications of an anomaly in the measurements of atmospheric neutrinos. New results from Soudan-2 and Super-Kamiokande provide evidence that the ratio of ν_μ to ν_e interactions is not as expected. High energy Super-Kamiokande data indicates the cause is a deficit of upward-going ν_μ, and the zenith angle dependence of the effect is consistent with neutrino oscillations. Upward-going muon measurements by several detectors are discussed, but in total they provide inconclusive evidence for the anomaly.     

High-energy spectra of atmospheric neutrinos

A calculation of the atmospheric high-energy muon neutrino spectra and zenith-angle distributions is performed for two primary spectrum parameterizations (by Gaisser and Honda and by Zatsepin and Sokolskaya) with the use of QGSJET-II-03 and SIBYLL 2.1 hadronic models. A comparison of the zenith angle-averaged muon neutrino spectrum with the data of Frejus, AMANDA-II, and IceCube40 experiments makes it clear that, even at energies above 100 TeV, the prompt neutrino contribution is not apparent because of the considerable uncertainties of the experimental data in the high-energy region.     

大气风速对大气传输光束相位特性的影响

采用功率谱反演法构建湍流相位屏,通过横向平移相位屏的方法模拟大气风速引起的湍流时间变化,进而模拟分析了包括时间进程的激光大气传输特性,从波前相位功率谱密度的角度,定量分析了大气风速引起的激光束在大气湍流中传输时的相位特性变化。在此基础上,采用影响函数模拟变形镜对畸变波前的校正作用,对激光束经大气湍流传输后的自适应校正效果进行了预估,分析了大气风速对校正效果的影响。结果表明,大气风速对边界层湍流中光束相位特性的影响很小,然而,对于自由大气湍流中的传输光束,大气风速越大,波前相位畸变程度越大,畸变波前中高频相位比例也越大;环状光束的校正效果受大气风速的影响比平顶光束更小,并且,随着环状光束阶数的增大,校正效果所受影响逐渐减小;在一定相位畸变范围内,畸变程度越大的环状光束的相位校正效果受大气风速的影响越小。     

Lidar measurements of atmospheric transmissivity

Summary The possibility of performing atmospheric-transmissivity measurements by lidar is considered. In the present paper two distinct methods have been successfully applied. The first one is based on the detection of the Raman return from molecular nitrogen. An alternative method is based on the simultaneous detection of the elastic and N₂ Raman returns. Measurements based on both techniques are discussed in detail, the second technique producing more accurate results. Through this technique an estimation of the ?ngstr?m coefficient can also be obtained.     

Pathlength distributions of atmospheric neutrinos

We discuss the distribution of the production heights of atmospheric neutrinos as a function of zenith angle and neutrino energy. The distributionscan be used as the input for evaluation of neutrino propagation under various hypotheses for neutrino flavor oscillations. Their use may alter substantially the estimates of the oscillation parameters for almost horizontal atmospheric neutrinos.     

太赫兹波大气传输衰减模型

基于修正的Van-Vleck Weisskopf线型、辐射传输色散理论和水汽连续体吸收模型,结合HITRAN数据库,建立了太赫兹波大气传输衰减模型——VVWH,形成了对宽频太赫兹波在真实大气中水平传输衰减的数值模拟能力。同时对太赫兹时域光谱技术(THz-TDS)获取的透射光谱实测数据进行了对比分析。计算结果与实验结果总体变化趋势一致,在吸收谱线处两者吻合良好,但在低频的大气窗口区,实验结果相比计算呈现出更强的传输衰减。考察了相对湿度对太赫兹波大气传输衰减特性的影响变化。     

Results from atmospheric neutrinos

With the announcement of new evidence for muon neutrino disappearance observed by the super-Kamiokande experiment, the more than a decade old atmospheric neutrino anomaly moved from a possible indication for neutrino oscillations to an apparently inescapable fact. The evidence is reviewed, and new indications are presented that the oscillations are probably between muon and tau neutrinos. Implications and future directions are discussed.     

大气廓线参数反演中基于大气可反演指数的正 则化参数选择方法

以大气可反演指数为指标, 采用Nelder-Mead单纯形法求解方法, 提出了一种卫星遥感资料反演大气廓线算法中动态的正则化参数选择方案. 同时针对四条典型区域廓线, 进行了选择试验. 从选择结果看, 不同廓线所对应的最优正则化参数变化幅度非常小, 因此在实际反演过程中, 为提高计算效率, 可近似取正则化参数为固定值. 这为利用卫星遥感资料进行大气廓线反演问题中正则化参数的选择提供了一种可借鉴的方法.     

Lidar measurements of atmospheric backscattering amplification

Results of long-term continuous measurements of the atmospheric backscattering amplification coefficient on a 2-km-long near-ground path with the use of a two-channel micropulse lidar based on a waveguide laser are presented. It is shown that the backscattering amplification coefficient has a pronounced daily variation. In the night and in the afternoon, atmospheric backscattering amplification is maximal and the amplification coefficient can exceed 2. The amplification is low or absent in morning and evening hours at neutral temperature stratification in the near-ground layer of the atmosphere. The backscattering amplification coefficient increases with an increase in the structure constant of the air refracting index and variance of the image jitter of the illumination spot created by the probing laser beam on the wall of a 2-km-distant building.