The most fundamental problem in solar system research is still unsolved: how can the Sun with a surface temperature of only 5800 K heat up its atmosphere to more than a million K? In fact, the solar atmosphere is so hot that not even the Sun’s enormous gravity can contain it. Part of it is continuously evaporating into interplanetary space: the SOLAR WIND. As a highly ionized magnetized plasma ...

It is generally believed that the low-frequency variability of climatic parameters seems to be connected to solar cycles. The principal periodicities are: 11-year (Schwabe), 22-year (Hale), 33-year (Bruckner) and 80–100year (Gleissberg) cycles. The main heliophysical factors acting on climate, the biosphere and the atmosphere are solar irradiance, the intensity of solar and galactic cosmic rays...

We develop a semiempirical grey radiative model to quantify Titan's surface temperature as a function of pressure and composition of a nitrogen-methane-hydrogen atmosphere, solar flux and atmospheric haze. We then use this model, together with non-ideal gas-liquid equilibrium theory to investigate the behavior of the coupled surface-atmosphere system on Titan. We find that a volatile-rich Titan...

Introduction: Noble gases in Martian meteorites are an important source of our knowledge of composition and evolution of the volatile inventory of Mars [1]. Ancient (ALH 84001), fractionated (nakhlites), and recent atmosphere (shock-produced glass in shergottite EETA 79001) as well as at least one component originating from the interior (Chassigny) have been identified based on analyses of the ...

Human activities are releasing tiny particles (aerosols) into the atmosphere. These human-made aerosols enhance scattering and absorption of solar radiation. They also produce brighter clouds that are less efficient at releasing precipitation. These in turn lead to large reductions in the amount of solar irradiance reaching Earth's surface, a corresponding increase in solar heating of the atmos...

Solar physicists have recently been focusing on the examination of solar cavities, circular structures appearing on the sun's upper atmosphere. The high volume of continuously received solar data from observing spacecraft make it difficult to find and identify solar cavities. In this study, we developed a computer model for automated detection of solar cavities using Haar cascade classifiers. O...

One of the most interesting properties of spatially extended dynamical systems in nature is that they can exhibit critical behavior. That terminology loosely derives from the theory of phase transitions in equilibrium statistical mechanics but has come to mean more generally that the system manifests power-law statistics in its characteristic space-time distributions. There may be long range or...

We report colloidal quantum dot solar cells fabricated under ambient atmosphere with an active area of 2.9 mm(2) that exhibit 3.6% solar power conversion efficiency. The devices are based on PbS tuned via the quantum size effect to have a first excitonic peak at 950 nm. Because the formation of native oxides and sulfates on PbS leads to p-type doping and deep trap formation and because such dop...

Context. The SOLar SPECtrum (SOLSPEC) experiment is part of the Solar Monitoring Observatory (SOLAR) payload, and has been externally mounted on the Columbus module of the International Space Station (ISS) since 2008. SOLAR/SOLSPEC combines three absolutely calibrated double monochromators with concave gratings for measuring the solar spectral irradiance (SSI) from 166 nm to 3088 nm. This physi...

Cutting-edge observations with the 1.6-meter telescope at Big Bear Solar Observatory (BBSO) in California have taken research into the activity of the Sun to new levels of understanding of the structure and evolution of the solar atmosphere at high-resolution spatial and temporal scales. On August 7, 2013 the NST observed active region NOAA 11810 in photospheric and chromospheric wavelengths. T...