Search results for "light"
showing 10 items of 3575 documents
A 3-Year Sample of Almost 1,600 Elves Recorded Above South America by the Pierre Auger Cosmic-Ray Observatory
2020
The time and location of the 1,598 verified and reconstructed elves, used for the analysis showcased in this paper, are publicly available on the website of the Pierre Auger Observatory (https://www.auger.org/ index.php/science/data). We wish to thank the World Wide Lightning Location Network (http://wwlln.net), a collaboration among over 50 universities and institutions, for providing the lightning location data used in this paper. We acknowledge Robert Marshall for providing one of the most advanced elve simulations to the public, a key tool in understanding the elves observed by the Pierre Auger Observatory. The successful installation, commissioning, and operation of the Pierre Auger Ob…
Detection of X-ray flares from AX J1714.1-3912, the unidentified source near RX J1713.7-3946
2018
Molecular clouds are predicted to emit nonthermal X-rays when they are close to particle-accelerating supernova remnants (SNRs), and the hard X-ray source AX J1714.1-3912, near the SNR RX J1713.7-3946, has long been considered a candidate for diffuse nonthermal emission associated with cosmic rays diffusing from the remnant to a closeby molecular cloud. We aim at ascertaining the nature of this source by analyzing two dedicated X-ray observations performed with Suzaku and Chandra. We extracted images from the data in various energy bands, spectra, and light curves and studied the long-term evolution of the X-ray emission on the basis of the ~4.5 yr time separation between the two observatio…
Three X-ray Flares Near Primary Eclipse of the RS CVn Binary XY UMa
2016
We report on an archival X-ray observation of the eclipsing RS CVn binary XY UMa ($\rm P_{orb}\approx$ 0.48d). In two $\emph{Chandra}$ ACIS observations spanning 200 ks and almost five orbital periods, three flares occurred. We find no evidence for eclipses in the X-ray flux. The flares took place around times of primary eclipse, with one flare occurring shortly ($<0.125\rm P_{orb}$) after a primary eclipse, and the other two happening shortly ($<0.05\rm P_{orb}$) before a primary eclipse. Two flares occurred within roughly one orbital period ($\Delta \phi\approx1.024\rm P_{orb}$) of each other. We analyze the light curve and spectra of the system, and investigate coronal length scales both…
IGR J17329-2731: The birth of a symbiotic X-ray binary
2018
We report on the results of the multiwavelength campaign carried out after the discovery of the INTEGRAL transient IGR J17329-2731. The optical data collected with the SOAR telescope allowed us to identify the donor star in this system as a late M giant at a distance of 2.7$^{+3.4}_{-1.2}$ kpc. The data collected quasi-simultaneously with XMM-Newton and NuSTAR showed the presence of a modulation with a period of 6680$\pm$3 s in the X-ray light curves of the source. This unveils that the compact object hosted in this system is a slowly rotating neutron star. The broadband X-ray spectrum showed the presence of a strong absorption ($\gg$10$^{23}$ cm$^{-2}$) and prominent emission lines at 6.4 …
Photometric variability of the Be star CoRoT-ID 102761769
2010
Classical Be stars are rapid rotators of spectral type late O to early A and luminosity class V-III, wich exhibit Balmer emission lines and often a near infrared excess originating in an equatorially concentrated circumstellar envelope, both produced by sporadic mass ejection episodes. The causes of the abnormal mass loss (the so-called Be phenomenon) are as yet unknown. For the first time, we can now study in detail Be stars outside the Earth's atmosphere with sufficient temporal resolution. We investigate the variability of the Be Star CoRoT-ID 102761769 observed with the CoRoT satellite in the exoplanet field during the initial run. One low-resolution spectrum of the star was obtained wi…
Linking photosynthesis and sun-induced fluorescence at sub-daily to seasonal scales
2018
Abstract Due to its close link to the photosynthetic process, sun-induced chlorophyll fluorescence (F) opens new possibilities to study dynamics of photosynthetic light reactions and to quantify CO2 assimilation rates. Although recent studies show that F is linearly related to gross primary production (GPP) on coarse spatial and temporal scales, it is argued that this relationship may be mainly driven by seasonal changes in absorbed photochemical active radiation (APAR) and less by the plant light use efficiency (LUE). In this work a high-resolution spectrometer was used to continuously measure red and far-red fluorescence and different reflectance indices within a sugar beet field during t…
Plasma sloshing in pulse-heated solar and stellar coronal loops
2016
There is evidence that coronal heating is highly intermittent, and flares are the high energy extreme. The properties of the heat pulses are difficult to constrain. Here hydrodynamic loop modeling shows that several large amplitude oscillations (~ 20% in density) are triggered in flare light curves if the duration of the heat pulse is shorter that the sound crossing time of the flaring loop. The reason is that the plasma has not enough time to reach pressure equilibrium during the heating and traveling pressure fronts develop. The period is a few minutes for typical solar coronal loops, dictated by the sound crossing time in the decay phase. The long period and large amplitude make these os…
Mapping Vegetation Density in a Heterogeneous River Floodplain Ecosystem Using Pointable CHRIS/PROBA Data
2012
River floodplains in the Netherlands serve as water storage areas, while they also have the function of nature rehabilitation areas. Floodplain vegetation is therefore subject to natural processes of vegetation succession. At the same time, vegetation encroachment obstructs the water flow into the floodplains and increases the flood risk for the hinterland. Spaceborne pointable imaging spectroscopy has the potential to quantify vegetation density on the basis of leaf area index (LAI) from a desired view zenith angle. In this respect, hyperspectral pointable CHRIS data were linked to the ray tracing canopy reflectance model FLIGHT to retrieve vegetation density estimates over a heterogeneous…
On the timing between terrestrial gamma ray flashes, radio atmospherics, and optical lightning emission
2017
On 25 October 2012 the Reuven Ramaty High Energy Solar Spectroscope Imager (RHESSI) and the Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM) satellites passed over a thunderstorm on the coast of Sri Lanka. RHESSI observed a terrestrial gamma ray flash (TGF) originating from this thunderstorm. Optical measurements of the causative lightning stroke were made by the lightning imaging sensor (LIS) on board TRMM. The World Wide Lightning Location Network (WWLLN) detected the very low frequency (VLF) radio emissions from the lightning stroke. The geolocation from WWLLN, which we also assume is the TGF source location, was in the convective core of the cloud. By using new information about both RHESSI a…
Enhanced detection of terrestrial gamma-ray flashes by AGILE
2015
At the end of March 2015 the onboard software configuration of the Astrorivelatore Gamma a Immagini Leggero (AGILE) satellite was modified in order to disable the veto signal of the anticoincidence shield for the minicalorimeter instrument. The motivation for such a change was the understanding that the dead time induced by the anticoincidence prevented the detection of a large fraction of Terrestrial Gamma-Ray Flashes (TGFs). The configuration change was highly successful resulting in an increase of one order of magnitude in TGF detection rate. As expected, the largest fraction of the new events has short duration (<100 μs), and part of them has simultaneous association with lightning sfer…