Discriminatory Analysis for Determining the Environment of Deposition of South-central Part of Kaladgi Basin,Belagavi District,Karnataka, India

Doklady Earth Sciences - Kaladgi rocks are very well exposed in Belgaum district of Karnatak state, with adjacent to Maharashtra state. The rocks exposed in the study area comprises mainly of...     

The influence of solar activity on the rainfall over India: Cycle-to-cycle variations

We use 130 years data for studying correlative effects due to solar cycle and activity phenomena on the occurrence of rainfall over India. For the period of different solar cycles, we compute the correlation coefficients and significance of correlation coefficients for the seasonal months of Jan–Feb (JF), Mar–May (MAM), June–Sept (JJAS) and Oct–Dec (OND) and,annual mean data. We find that: (i) with a moderate-to-high significance, Indian rainfall is correlated with the sunspot activity and, (ii) there is an overall trend that during the period of low sunspot activity, occurrence of rainfall is high compared to the period of high sunspot activity. We speculate in this study a possible physical connection between the occurrence of the rainfall and the sunspot activities and, the flux of galactic cosmic rays. Some of the negative correlations between the occurrences of the sunspot and rainfall activities obtained for different solar cycle periods are interpreted as effects of aerosols on the rain forming clouds due to either intermittent volcanic eruptions or due to intrusion of interstellar dust particles in the Earth’s atmosphere.     

Analysis of one-dimesional wave propagation in a fluid-saturated finite soil column

Biot's dynamic equations of motion for one-dimensional wave propagation in a fluid-saturated linear elastic isotropic soil are solved using Laplace transformation followed by numerical inversion and the results compared with a direct finite element formulation. A soil column of finite dimension subjected to velocity boundary conditions is analysed, allowing for reflection of waves from boundaries. Comparison of time histories at given points along the column shows that the finite element solution gives good agreement with the Laplace transform solution for low as well as high drag.     

Observational searches for chromospheric G-mode oscillations from CaII H-line observations

We have used a high spatial and temporal resolution of long time sequence of spectra in CaII H-line obtained at the Vacuum Tower Telescope (VTT) of the Sacramento Peak Observatory on a quiet region at the center of the solar disk over a large number of bright points and network elements to search for atmospheric (chromospheric) g-mode oscillations. An important parameter of the H-line profile, intensity at H_2v(Ih_2V), has been derived from a large number of line profiles. We derived the light curves of all the bright points and network elements. The light curves represent the main pulse with large intensity amplitude and followed by several follower pulses with lower intensity amplitudes. The light curves of these bright points would give an impression that one can as well draw curves towards and away from the highest peak (main pulse) showing an exponential growth and decay of the amplitudes. An exponential decaying function has been fitted for all the light curves of the bright points to determine the damping time of the modes that are more or less the same, and one value of the coefficient of exponent can represent reasonably well the decay for all the cases. The FFT analysis of temporal variation of both the bright points and the network elements indicates around 10-min periodicity. We speculate that this longer period of oscillation may be related to chromospheric g-mode oscillations.     

Development of a Code to Analyze the Solar White-Light Images from the Kodaikanal Observatory: Detection of Sunspots,Computation of Heliographic Coordinates and Area

Sunspots are the most conspicuous aspects of the Sun. They have a lower temperature, as compared to the surrounding photosphere; hence, sunspots appear as dark regions on a brighter background. Sunspots cyclically appear and disappear with a 11-year periodicity and are associated with a strong magnetic field ( ～10³ G) structure. Sunspots consist of a dark umbra, surrounded by a lighter penumbra. Study of umbra–penumbra area ratio can be used to give a rough idea as to how the convective energy of the Sun is transported from the interior, as the sunspot’s thermal structure is related to this convective medium.An algorithm to extract sunspots from the white-light solar images obtained from the Kodaikanal Observatory is proposed. This algorithm computes the radius and center of the solar disk uniquely and removes the limb darkening from the image. It also separates the umbra and computes the position as well as the area of the sunspots. The estimated results are compared with the Debrecen photoheliographic results. It is shown that both area and position measurements are in quite good agreement.     

Finite-difference analysis of mass transfer effects on flow past an impulsively started infinite isothermal vertical plate in dissipative fluid

The effects of mass transfer on the flow of a viscous incompressible fluid past an impulsively started infinite vertical isothermal plate are studied. The non-linear coupled equations governing the problem are solved by explicit finite-difference method. The presence of different gases like H₂O, CO₂, ete in air are considered. Velocity and temperature profiles are shown on graphs. The finite-difference results are compared with the results derived from the exact solution and they are found to agree well     

Prediction of solar cycle 24 and beyond

In the previous study (Hiremath, Astron. Astrophys. 452:591, 2006a), the solar cycle is modeled as a forced and damped harmonic oscillator and from all the 22 cycles (1755–1996), long-term amplitudes, frequencies, phases and decay factor are obtained. Using these physical parameters of the previous 22 solar cycles and by an autoregressive model, we predict the amplitude and period of the present cycle 23 and future fifteen solar cycles. The period of present solar cycle 23 is estimated to be 11.73 years and it is expected that onset of next sunspot activity cycle 24 might starts during the period 2008.57±0.17 (i.e., around May–September 2008). The predicted period and amplitude of the present cycle 23 are almost similar to the period and amplitude of the observed cycle. With these encouraging results, we also predict the profiles of future 15 solar cycles. Important predictions are: (i) the period and amplitude of the cycle 24 are 9.34 years and 110 (±11), (ii) the period and amplitude of the cycle 25 are 12.49 years and 110 (±11), (iii) during the cycles 26 (2030–2042 AD), 27 (2042–2054 AD), 34 (2118–2127 AD), 37 (2152–2163 AD) and 38 (2163–2176 AD), the sun might experience a very high sunspot activity, (iv) the sun might also experience a very low (around 60) sunspot activity during cycle 31 (2089–2100 AD) and, (v) length of the solar cycles vary from 8.65 years for the cycle 33 to maximum of 13.07 years for the cycle 35.     

The extreme solar activity during october–november 2003

The positional measurements of sunspots from the Kodaikanal Observatory and Solar Geophysical data are used to study the association between occurrence of the abnormal activities of big sunspot groups that were observed during the period of October–November 2003 and occurrence of the flares. During the evolution of the sunspot groups, we have investigated the temporal variations in (i) areas; (ii) rotation rates; (iii) longitudinal extents; and (iv) number of small spots produced in a sunspot group. Among all these activity variations, we find that the spot groups that experience abnormal rotation rates during their evolutionary phases eventually trigger the flares.     

Metallicity of Sun-like G-stars that have Exoplanets

By considering the physical and orbital characteristics of G type stars and their exoplanets, we examine the association between stellar mass and its metallicity that follows a power law. Similar relationship is also obtained in case of single and multiplanetary stellar systems suggesting that, \(\hbox {Sun}^{\prime }\)s present mass is about 1% higher than the estimated value for its metallicity. Further, for all the stellar systems with exoplanets, association between the planetary mass and the stellar metallicity is investigated, that suggests planetary mass is independent of stellar metallicity. Interestingly, in case of multiplanetary systems, planetary mass is linearly dependent on the stellar absolute metallicity, that suggests, metal rich stars produce massive (\(\ge \)1 Jupiter mass) planets compared to metal poor stars. This study also suggests that there is a solar system planetary missing mass of \({\sim }\)0.8 Jupiter mass. It is argued that probably 80% of missing mass is accreted onto the Sun and about 20% of missing mass might have been blown off to the outer solar system (beyond the present Kuiper belt) during early history of solar system formation. We find that, in case of single planetary systems, planetary mass is independent of stellar metallicity with an implication of their non-origin in the host star’s protoplanetary disk and probably are captured from the space. Final investigation of dependency of the orbital distances of planets on the host stars metallicity reveals that inward migration of planets is dominant in case of single planetary systems supporting the result that most of the planets in single planetary systems are captured from the space.