ALBERT

Description: We analyzed ropy glasses from Apollo 12 soils 12032 and 12033 by a variety of techniques including SEM/EDX, electron microprobe analysis, INAA, and Ar-39-Ar-40 age dating. The ropy glasses have potassium rare earth elements phosphorous (KREEP)-like compositions different from those of local Apollo 12 mare soils; it is likely that the ropy glasses are of exotic origin. Mixing calculations indicate that the ropy glasses formed from a liquid enriched in KREEP and that the ropy glass liquid also contained a significant amount of mare material. The presence of solar Ar and a trace of regolith-derived glass within the ropy glasses are evidence that the ropy glasses contain a small regolith component. Anorthosite and crystalline breccia (KREEP) clasts occur in some ropy glasses. We also found within these glasses clasts of felsite (fine-grained granitic fragments) very similar in texture and composition to the larger Apollo 12 felsites, which have a Ar-39-Ar-40 degassing age of 800 +/- 15 Ma. Measurements of 39-Ar-40-Ar in 12032 ropy glass indicate that it was degassed at the same time as the large felsite although the ropy glass was not completely degassed. The ropy glasses and felsites, therefore, probably came from the same source. Most early investigators suggested that the Apollo 12 ropy glasses were part of the ejecta deposited at the Apollo 12 site from the Copernicus impact. Our new data reinforce this model. If these ropy glasses are from Copernicus, they provide new clues to the nature of the target material at the Copernicus site, a part of the Moon that has not been sampled directly.

Description: Auroral hiss is observed to propagate over distances comparable to an Earth radius from its source in the auroral oval. The role of Landau damping is investigated for upward propagating auroral hiss. By using a ray tracing code and a simplified model of the distribution function, the effect of Landau damping is calculated for auroral hiss propagation through the environment around the auroral oval. Landau damping is found to be the likely mechanism for explaining some of the one-sided auroral hiss funnels observed by Dynamics Explorer 1. It is also found that Landau damping puts a lower limit on the wavelength of auroral hiss. Poleward of the auroral oval, Landau damping is found in a typical case to limit omega/k(sub parallel) to values of 3.4 x 10(exp 4) km/s or greater, corresponding to resonance energies of 3.2 keV or greater and wavelengths of 2 km or greater. For equatorward propagation, omega/k(sub parallel) is limited to values greater than 6.8 x 10(exp 4) km/s, corresponding to resonance energies greater than 13 keV and wavelengths greater than 3 km. Independent estimates based on measured ratios of the magnetic to electric field intensity also show that omega/k(sub parallel) corresponds to resonance energies greater than 1 keV and wavelengths greater than 1 km. These results lead to the difficulty that upgoing electron beams sufficiently energetic to directly generate auroral hiss of the inferred wavelength are not usually observed. A partial transmission mechanism utilizing density discontinuities oblique to the magnetic field is proposed for converting auroral hiss to wavelengths long enough to avoid damping of the wave over long distances. Numerous reflections of the wave in an upwardly flared density cavity could convert waves to significantly increased wavelengths and resonance velocities.

Description: Results are presented from an analysis of core samples obtained from different depths of the Chico (New Mexico) L6 chondrite for various cosmogenic nuclides (Be-10, Al-26, and stable isotopes of He, Ne, and Ar). The relationships between the measured abundances of cosmogenic nuclides and cosmogenic Ne-22/Ne-21 ratio were compared with predictions of recent semiempirical models of Graf et al. (1990) and Reedy (1991), and it was found that both models closely reproduce the observed trends and absolute values of the data obtained. Noble gas data indicate that Chico experienced shielding similar to that of Jilin and greater than those of the Knyahinya or the Keyes chondrites. The exposure history for Chico is discussed.

Description: The (Ar-39) (Ar-40) chronologies were determined for 14 different mesosiderites representing the full range of classification according to recrystallization, and these chronologies were compared with analogous data for other meteorite types and for lunar highland rocks. Results of Ar-Ar chronologies indicate the history of a degassing of Ar due to a major thermal event that occurred less than 3.9 Ga ago; this event is not the metal-silicate mixing event, which is known to have occurred earlier than 4.4 Ga ago. It is suggested that a major collisional disruption-reassembly event less than 3.9 Ga ago took place, leaving the metal-silicate breccias buried under tens of kilometers of rubble, where they cooled slowly through the Ar closure temperatures.

Description: The Koshak site is a new K/T section located about 125 km EEN of the Fort Shevchenko city, Mangyshlak, Kazakhstan. In this paper, we report results of geochemical and mineralogical studies of this section which indicate a deep element fractionation and an oxidation event at the K/T boundary.

Description: The flyby of Voyager 1 at Saturn resulted in the detection of a large variety of plasma waves, e.g., chorus, hiss, and electron cyclotron harmonics. Just before the outbound equator crossing, at about 6.1 R(sub s), the Voyager 1 plasma wave instrument detected a strong, well-defined low-frequency enhancement. Initially it was suggested that plasma waves might be responsible for the spectral feature but more recently dust was suggested as at least a partial contributor to the enhancement. In this report we present evidence which supports the conclusion that dust contributes to the low-frequency enhancement. A new method has been used to derive the dust impact rate. The method relies mainly on the 16-channel spectrum analyzer data. The few wide band waveform observations available (which have been used to study dust impacts during the Voyager 2 ring plane crossing) were useful for calibrating the impact rate from the spectrum analyzer data. The mass and, hence, the size of the dust particles were also obtained by analyzing the response of the plasma wave spectrum analyzer. The results show that the region sampled by Voyager 1 is populated by dust particles that have rms masses of up to few times 10(exp -11) g and sizes of up to a few microns. The dust particle number density is on the order of 10(exp -3) m(exp 3). The optical depth of the region sampled by the spacecraft is 1.04 x 10(exp -6). The particle population is centered about 2500 km south of the equatorial plane and has a north-south thickness of about 4000 km. Possible sources of these particles are the moons Enceladus and Tethys whose orbits lie within the E-ring radial extent. These results are in reasonable agreement with photometric studies and numerical simulations.

Description: By mineral and bulk compositions, the Lewis Cliff (LEW) 88516 meteorite is quite similar to the ALHA77005 martian meteorite. These two meteorites are not paired because their mineral compositions are distinct, they were found 500 km apart in ice fields with different sources for meteorites, and their terrestrial residence ages are different. Minerals in LEW88516 include: olivine, pyroxenes (low- and high-Ca), and maskelynite (ater plagioclase); and the minor minerals chromite, whitlockite, ilmenite, and pyrrhotite. Mineral grains in LEW88516 range up to a few mm. Texturally, the meteorite is complex, with regions of olivine and chromite poikilitically enclosed in pyroxene, regions of interstitial basaltic texture, and glass-rich (shock) veinlets. Olivine compositions range from Fo(sub 64) to Fo(sub 70), (avg. Fo(sub 67)), more ferroan and with more variation than in ALHA77005 (Fo(sub 69) to Fo(sub 73)). Pyroxene compositions fall between En(sub 77)Wo(sub 4) and En(sub 65)Wo(sub 15) and in clusters near En(sub 63)Wo(sub 9) and En(sub 53)Wo(sub 33), on average more magnesian and with more variation than in ALHA77005. Shock features in LEW88516 range from weak deformation through complete melting. Bulk chemical analyses by modal recombination of electron microprobe analyses, instrumental neutron activation, and radiochemical neutron activation confirm that LEW88516 is more closely related to ALHA77005 than to other known martian meteorites. Key element abundance ratios are typical of martian meteorites, as is it nonchondritic rare earth pattern. Differences between the chemical compositions of LEW88516 and ALHA77005 are consistent with slight differences in the proportions of their constituent minerals and not from fundamental petrogenetic differences. Noble gas abundances in LEW88516, like those in ALHA77005, show modest excesses of Ar-40 and Xe-129 from trapped (shock-implanted) gas. As with other ALHA77005 and the shergottite martian meteorites (except EETA79001), noble gas isotope abundances in LEW88516 are consistent with exposure to cosmic rays for 2.5-3 Ma. The absence of substantial effects of shielding from cosmic rays suggest LEW88516 spent this time as an object no larger than a few cm in diameter.

Description: This paper presents analyses of mesospheric and lower thermospheric zonal mean winds observed by the High Resolution Doppler Imager (HRDI) on the Upper Atmosphere Research Satellite (UARS). Monthly averages of the equatorial zonal mean zonal winds are presented for January 1992 through June 1993. Equatorial zonal winds in the 70-90 km region are dominated by a semiannual oscillation (SAO), ranging from 30 m/s (westerly) to -100 m/s (easterly). At high latitudes the zonal wind variations are predominantly annual. Above 90 km, the low-latitude flow is easterly at all times, punctuated by a small semiannual variation. This behavior may be related to the deposition of momentum by the diurnal tides.

Description: Observations of the winds in the upper atmosphere obtained with the High-Resolution Doppler Imager (HRDI) on the Upper Atmosphere Research Satellite (UARS) are discussed. This instrument is a very stable high-resolution triple-etalon Fabry-Perot interferometer, which is used to observe the slight Doppler shifts of absorption and emission lines in the O2 Atmospheric bands induced by atmospheric motions. Preliminary observations indicate that the winds in the mesosphere and lower thermosphere are a mixture of migrating and non-migrating tides, and planetary-scale waves. The mean meridional winds are dominated by the 1,1 diurnal tide which is easily extracted from the daily zonal means of the satellite observations. The daily mean zonal winds are a mixture of the diurnal tide and a zonal flow which is consistent with theoretical expectations.

Description: High-energy electrons have been measured systematically in a low-altitude (520 x 675 km), nearly polar (inclination = 82 deg) orbit by sensitive instruments onboard the Solar, Anomalous, and Magnetospheric Particle Explorer (SAMPEX). Count rate channels with electron energy thresholds ranging from 0.4 MeV to 3.5 MeV in three different instruments have been used to examine relativistic electron variations as a function of L-shell parameter and time. A long run of essentially continuous data (July 1992 - July 1993) shows substantial acceleration of energetic electrons throughout much of the magnetosphere on rapid time scales. This acceleration appears to be due to solar wind velocity enhancements and is surprisingly large in that the radiation belt 'slot' region often is filled temporarily and electron fluxes are strongly enhanced even at very low L-values (L aprroximately 2). A superposed epoch analysis shows that electron fluxes rise rapidly for 2.5 is approximately less than L is approximately less than 5. These increases occur on a time scale of order 1-2 days and are most abrupt for L-values near 3. The temporal decay rate of the fluxes is dependent on energy and L-value and may be described by J = Ke-t/to with t(sub o) approximately equals 5-10 days. Thus, these results suggest that the Earth's magnetosphere is a cosmic electron accelerator of substantial strength and efficiency.