Spherical Couette flow involves fluid sheared between concentric coaxially rotating spheres. Its scientific relevance lies not only in the simplicity of the system but also in its applicability to astrophysical objects such as atmospheres, oceans, and planetary cores. One common behavior in all rotating flows, including spherical Couette flow, is the presence of inertial modes, which are linear...

Understanding a planet's atmosphere is a necessary condition for understanding not only the planet itself, but also its formation, structure, evolution, and habitability. This requirement puts a premium on obtaining spectra and developing credible interpretative tools with which to retrieve vital planetary information. However, for exoplanets, these twin goals are far from being realized. In th...

The formation of complex organic molecules in a reactor filled with gaseous mixtures possibly reproducing the primitive terrestrial atmosphere and ocean demonstrated more than 50 years ago that inorganic synthesis of prebiotic molecules is possible, provided that some form of energy is provided to the system. After that groundbreaking experiment, gas-phase prebiotic molecules have been observed...

The upper atmosphere is a strongly driven system in which the global state is rapidly altered by the solar drivers. Oneof themaindrivers of theupper atmosphere is the solar irradiance in the extremeultraviolet andx-raybands.The solar irradiance in these bands is proxied by ground-basedmeasurements ofF10.7, which is the solar irradiance at the wavelength of 10.7 cm. The problem of estimating F10...

The tenuous atmospheres and ionospheres of comets and outer planet satellites share many common properties and features. Such similarities include a strong interaction with their outer radiation, fields and particles environs. For comets the interaction is with the magnetized solar wind plasma, whereas for satellites the interaction is with the strongly magnetized and corotating planetary magne...

HIJOGETT, CLAYTON. Combustion processes in the aerospace environment. Aerospace Med. 40(11) :1176-1180. 1969. The aerospace environment introduces new and enhanced fire hazards because the special atmosphere employed may increase the frequency and intensity of fires, because the confinement associated with aerospace systems adversely affects the dynamics of fire development and control, and bec...

In this paper we discuss themorphology of two elliptical, point-symmetric planetary nebulae (PNe) with tilted axes: M1-79 and Wei 1-5. By means of simple geometry and the assumption of optical thinness in [OIII] wewere able to reproduce the observational (morphological) data on these two objects.We have constructed three-dimensional models consisting of an inner and an outer ellipsoid which can...

Temperatures Vary Vertically The global temperature profile of the Earth’s atmosphere reflects a balance between the radiative, convective and dynamical heating/cooling of the surface-atmosphere system. Radiation from the Sun is the source of energy for the Earth’s climate, with most of it absorbed at the surface. Combined with the physical properties of the atmosphere and dynamical processes, ...

Strongly coupled data assimilation emulates the real-world pairing of the atmosphere andocean by solving the assimilation problem in terms of a single combined atmosphere–ocean state. A significant challenge in strongly coupled variational atmosphere–ocean data assimilation is a priori specification of the cross covariances between the errors in the atmosphere and ocean model forecasts. These c...

The Cassini spacecraft has been in orbit around Saturn since 30 June 2004, yielding a wealth of data about the Saturn system. This review focuses on the atmosphere and magnetosphere and briefly outlines the state of our knowledge after the Cassini prime mission. The mission has addressed a host of fundamental questions: What processes control the physics, chemistry, and dynamics of the atmosphe...