ALBERT

Description: We present calculations of the early stages of the formation of Jupiter via core nucleated accretion and gas capture. The core begins as a seed body of about 350 kilometers in radius and orbits in a swarm of planetesimals whose initial radii range from 15 meters to 100 kilometers. We follow the evolution of the swarm by accounting for growth and fragmentation, viscous and gravitational stirring, and for drag-induced migration and velocity damping. Gas capture by the core substantially enhances the cross-section of the planet for accretion of small planetesimals. The dust opacity within the atmosphere surrounding the planetary core is computed self-consistently, accounting for coagulation and sedimentation of dust particles released in the envelope as passing planetesimals are ablated. The calculation is carried out at an orbital semi-major axis of 5.2 AU and an initial solids' surface density of 10/g/cm^2 at that distance. The results give a core mass of 7 Earth masses and an envelope mass of approximately 0.1 Earth mass after 500,000 years, at which point the envelope growth rate surpasses that of the core. The same calculation without the envelope gives a core mass of only 4 Earth masses.

Description: No abstract available

Description: No abstract available

Description: Disk disperse in a few million years, before which they must form planets. Photoevaporation and viscosity are mainly responsible for disk dispersal. EUV, FUV and X-rays have all been suggested as photoevaporation agents, disk evolutionary scenarios and predicted mass loss rates in each case differ. Stellar mass and radiation field, disk properties, magnitude of viscosity, and dust evolution all play significant roles in determining the evolution of the disk and its lifetime. Observational diagnostics of photoevaperative flows include [Nell] and perhaps [OI]. These are at present inconclusive and better diagnostics are needed.

Description: Motivation for the study is: (1) Lunar Radio Array for low frequency, high redshift Dark Ages/Epoch of Reionization observations (z =6-50, f=30-200 MHz) (2) High precision cosmological measurements of 21 cm H I line fluctuations (3) Probe universe before first star formation and provide information about the Intergalactic Medium and evolution of large scale structures (5) Does the current cosmological model accurately describe the Universe before reionization? Lunar Radio Array is for (1) Radio interferometer based on the far side of the moon (1a) Necessary for precision measurements, (1b) Shielding from earth-based and solar RFI (12) No permanent ionosphere, (2) Minimum collecting area of approximately 1 square km and brightness sensitivity 10 mK (3)Several technologies must be developed before deployment The power needed to process signals from a large array of nonsteerable elements is not prohibitive, even for the Moon, and even in current technology. Two different concepts have been proposed: (1) Dark Ages Radio Interferometer (DALI) (2)( Lunar Array for Radio Cosmology (LARC)

Description: We report on multifrequency observations performed during 2012 December-2013 August of the first narrow-line Seyfert 1 galaxy detected in gamma rays, PMN J0948+0022 (z equal to 0.5846). A gamma-ray flare was observed by the Large Area Telescope on board Fermi during 2012 December-2013 January, reaching a daily peak flux in the 0.1-100 GeV energy range of (155 plus or minus 31)10(exp 8) ph cm (exp 2) s (exp 1) on 2013 January 1, corresponding to an apparent isotropic luminosity of approximately 1.510)exp 48) erg s(exp 1). The gamma-ray flaring period triggered Swift and VERITAS observations in addition to radio and optical monitoring by OVRO, MOJAVE, and CRTS. A strong flare was observed in optical, UV, and X- rays on 2012 December 30, quasi-simultaneously to the gamma-ray flare, reaching a record flux for this source from optical to gamma rays. VERITAS observations at very high energy (E greater than 100 GeV) during 2013 January 6-17 resulted in an upper limit of F(sub greater than 0.2 TeV) less than 4.0 10(exp 12) ph cm(exp 2) s(exp 1). We compared the spectral energy distribution (SED) of the flaring state in 2013 January with that of an intermediate state observed in 2011. The two SEDs, modelled as synchrotron emission and an external Compton scattering of seed photons from a dust torus, can be modelled by changing both the electron distribution parameters and the magnetic field.

Description: The architecture of a cross-correlator for a synthesis radio telescope with N greater than 1000 antennas is studied with the objective of minimizing power consumption. It is found that the optimum architecture minimizes memory operations, and this implies preference for a matrix structure over a pipeline structure and avoiding the use of memory banks as accumulation registers when sharing multiply-accumulators among baselines. A straw-man design for N = 2000 and bandwidth of 1 GHz, based on ASICs fabricated in a 90 nm CMOS process, is presented. The cross-correlator proper (excluding per-antenna processing) is estimated to consume less than 35 kW.

Description: L’Italia e l’Indonesia hanno avviato nel 2005-2006 un progetto di cooperazione sulle tematiche della mitigazione del rischio vulcanico. Nell’ambito di questo progetto è stata individuata la zona ovest di Sumatra come area di intervento. In particolare è stato preso in considerazione il vulcanoMarapi. Questo vulcano ha avuto frequente attività eruttiva nelle ultime decine di anni. L’ultima eruzione si è verificata nel 2004. La sua attività, sebbene di moderata intensità, pone un problema di protezione civile, poiché dal 1980 ad oggi ha causato diversi feriti e alcune vittime tra i turisti che hanno visitato l’area craterica sommitale. Allo scopo di monitorare lo stato di attività del Marapi, nell’ambito del citato progetto è stata realizzata una rete sismica a larga banda composta da 4 stazioni e basata su sensori Guralp GMG-40T da 60s di periodo e su acquisitori di tipo GAIA2, prodotti presso l’Istituto Nazionale di Geofisica e Vulcanologia. La strumentazione è stata portata dall’Italia ed è stata installata da un gruppo di lavoro formato da italiani ed indonesiani. Oltre all’installazione della strumentazione in campagna è stato necessario allestire un vero e proprio Centro di Monitoraggio presso l’Osservatorio di Bukittinggi, in prossimità delle pendici nordoccidentali del vulcano, dotato di calcolatori per l’acquisizione, l’analisi dei dati e la loro archiviazione. Il sistema per ilmonitoraggio sismologico realizzato alMarapi costituisce un importante strumento di prevenzione del rischio associato all’attività di questo vulcano e sta permettendo di creare un ricco data set utile a caratterizzare la sismicità della struttura vulcanica e dell’area circostante. Da un’analisi preliminare dei dati registrati nel periodo 19/10/2006 - 24/11/2008 si evidenzia che il vulcanomanifesta una sismicità di tipo VT ed LP. Nell’ agosto 2007 sono stati inoltre registrati segnali probabilmente attribuibili a modesta attività esplosiva nell’area sommitale. Italy and Indonesia started a cooperation project in 2005-2006 to cover issues for the mitigation of volcanic risk. In this project, the west area of Sumatra was identified as the area for intervention. In particular, the Marapi volcano was considered. This volcano has shown frequent eruptive activity over recent decades, with the last eruption occurring in 2004. Although its activity is of moderate intensity, it creates a civil protection problem, because since 1980 it has resulted in several injuries and a number of deaths among the tourists who visit the summit crater area. To monitor the activity of Marapi volcano as part of this project, a broadband seismic network has been implemented that consists of four stations based on Guralp GMG 40T sensors with period of 60 s and on GAIA2 data-loggers, which are produced at the INGV. The instrumentation was brought from Italy and was installed by a working group comprising Italians and Indonesians. In addition to the instrumentation in the field, it was necessary to set up a monitoring centre in the Bukittinggi Observatory, which is near the north-western slopes of the Marapi volcano. This is equipped with computers for data acquisition, analysis and archiving. The system for seismological monitoring that has been realized atMarapi volcano is an important tool in the prevention of the risk associated with this volcano, and it is providing a rich dataset that will be of great use for the characterization of the seismicity of the Marapi volcanic structure and the surrounding area. A preliminary analysis of the data recorded during the period 19/10/2006 - 24/11/2008 evidences that the volcano shows VT and LP seismicity. In August 2007 were also recorded signals probably attributable to small explosive activity in the summit area.

Description: INGV Istituto Nazionale di Geofisica e Vulcanologia

Description: Published

Description: 5-21

Description: 1.4. TTC - Sorveglianza sismologica delle aree vulcaniche attive

Description: N/A or not JCR

Description: open

Description: Twenty-five lava fountains occurred on Mt. Etna from January 2011 to April 2012. In summer 2012 volcanic activity resumed in a milder form within the Bocca Nuova crater, before it came to an essential halt in August 2012. All these unrests offer rich material for testing automatic procedures of data processing and alert systems, running 24/7, in the context of volcano surveillance. We focus on the seismic background radiation – volcanic tremor – which plays a key role in the monitoring of Mt. Etna. Since 2006 a multistation alert system has been established in the INGV operative centre of Catania exploiting STA/LTA ratios. Besides, also the spectral characteristics of the signal, which change correspondingly to the type of volcanic activity, can be exploited for warning purposes. Here we apply Self Organizing Maps and Fuzzy Clustering which offer an efficient way to visualize signal characteristics and its development with time. All these techniques allow to identify early stages of eruptive events, and automatically flag a critical status before this becomes evident in conventional monitoring techniques. Changes of tremor characteristics are related to the position of the source of the signal. The location of the sources exploits the distribution of the amplitudes across the seismic network. The locations were extremely useful for warning, throughout both the flank eruption in 2008 as well as the 2011 lava fountains, during which a clear migration of tremor sources towards the eruptive centres could be noticed in advance. The location of the sources completes the picture of an imminent volcanic unrest, and corroborates early warnings flagged by the changes of signal characteristics. Real time data processing requires computational efficiency, robustness of the methods and stability of data acquisition. The amplitude based multi-station approach is not sensitive to the failure of single stations and therefore offers a good stability. The single station approach, exploiting unsupervised classification techniques, limits logistic efforts, as only one or few key stations are necessary. Both strategies have proven to be insensitive to disturbances (undesired transients like earthquakes, noise, short gaps in the continuous data flow). False alarms were not encountered so far. Stable data acquisition and processing come with a properly designed data storage solution. The reliability of data storage and its access is a critical issue. A cluster architecture has been realized for failover protection, including a Storage Area Network system, which allow easy data access following predefined user policies. We present concepts of the software architectures deployed at INGV Osservatorio Etneo in order to implement this tremor-based multi approach system. We envisage the integration of seismic data and those originating from other scientific fields (e. g., volcano imagery, geochemistry, deformation, gravity, magneto-telluric). This will facilitate cross-checking of evidences encountered from the single data streams, in particular allow their immediate verification with respect to ground truth.

Description: Published

Description: Nicolosi (Catania, Italy)

Description: 1.4. TTC - Sorveglianza sismologica delle aree vulcaniche attive

Description: 5.6. TTC - Attività di Sala Operativa

Description: open

Description: Eighteen paroxysmal episodes occurred on Mt Etna in 2011, and provided rich material for testing automatic procedures of data processing and alert systems in the context of volcano monitoring. The 2011 episodes represent a typical picture of activity of Mt Etna: in 2000 and 2001, before the 2001 flank eruption, more than one hundred lava fountains were encountered. Other major lava fountains occurred before the flank eruptions of 2002/03 and 2008. All these fountains, which are powerful but usually short lived phenomena, originated from the South-East Crater area and caused the formation of thick ash clouds, followed by the fallout of material with severe problems for the infrastructure of the metropolitan area of Catania. We focus on the seismic background radiation – volcanic tremor – which plays a key role in the surveillance of Mt Etna. Since 2006 a multi-station alert system has been established in the INGV operative centre of Catania exploiting STA/LTA ratios. Besides, it has been demonstrated that also the spectral characteristics of the signal changes correspondingly to the type of volcanic activity. The simultaneous application of Self Organizing Maps and Fuzzy Clustering offers an efficient way to visualize signal characteristics and its development with time, allowing to identify early stages of eruptive events and automatically flag a critical status before this becomes evident in conventional monitoring techniques. Changes of tremor characteristics are related to the position of the source of the signal. The location of the sources exploits the distribution of the amplitudes across the seismic network. The locations were extremely useful for warning throughout both a flank eruption in 2008 as well as the 2011 lava fountains, during which a clear migration of tremor sources towards the eruptive centres could be noticed in advance. The location of the sources completes the picture of an imminent volcanic unrest and corroborates early warnings flagged by the changes of signal characteristics. On-line data processing requires computational efficiency, robustness of the methods and reliability of data acquisition. The amplitude based multi-station approach offers a reasonable stability as it is not sensitive to the failure of single stations. The single station approach, based on our unsupervised classification techniques, is cost-effective with respect to logistic efforts, as only one or few key stations are necessary. Both systems have proven to be robust with respect to disturbances (undesired transients like earthquakes, noise, short gaps in the continuous data flow), and false alarms were not encountered so far. Another critical aspect is the reliability of data storage and access. A hardware cluster architecture has been proposed for failover protection, including a Storage Area Network system. We outline concepts of the software architectures which allow easy data access following predefined user policies. We envisage the integration of seismic data and those originating from other scientific fields (such as volcano imagery, geochemistry, deformation, gravity, magneto-telluric), in order to facilitate cross-checking of the findings encountered from the single data streams, in particular allowing their immediate verification with respect to ground truth.

Description: Published

Description: 53-92

Description: 1.4. TTC - Sorveglianza sismologica delle aree vulcaniche attive

Description: partially_open