Trends in the rainfall pattern over India Guhathakurta, P.; Rajeevan, M.
International journal of climatology,
September 2008, Letnik:
28, Številka:
11
Journal Article
The Panoramic Imaging Survey of Centaurus and Sculptor (PISCeS) is constructing a wide-field map of the resolved stellar populations in the extended halos of these two nearby, prominent galaxies. We ...present new Magellan/Megacam imaging of a ∼3 deg2 area around Centaurus A (Cen A), which filled in much of our coverage to its south, leaving a nearly complete halo map out to a projected radius of ∼150 kpc and allowing us to identify two new resolved dwarf galaxies. We have additionally obtained deep Hubble Space Telescope (HST) optical imaging of 11 out of the 13 candidate dwarf galaxies identified around Cen A and presented in Crnojevi et al. 2016a: seven are confirmed to be satellites of Cen A, while four are found to be background galaxies. We derive accurate distances, structural parameters, luminosities, and photometric metallicities for the seven candidates confirmed by our HST/ACS imaging. We further study the stellar population along the ∼60 kpc long (in projection) stream associated with Dw3, which likely had an initial brightness of MV ∼ −15 and shows evidence for a metallicity gradient along its length. Using the total sample of 11 dwarf satellites discovered by the PISCeS survey, as well as 13 brighter previously known satellites of Cen A, we present a revised galaxy luminosity function for the Cen A group down to a limiting magnitude of MV ∼ −8, which has a slope of −1.14 0.17, comparable to that seen in the Local Group and in other nearby groups of galaxies.
We present the widest-field resolved stellar map to date of the closest (D~ 3.8 Mpc) massive elliptical galaxy NGC 5128 (Centaurus A; Cen A), extending out to a projected galactocentric radius of ...~150 kpc. The data set is part of our ongoing Panoramic Imaging Survey of Centaurus and Sculptor (PISCeS) utilizing the Magellan/Megacam imager. We resolve a population of old red giant branch (RGB) stars down to ~1.5 mag below the tip of the RGB, reaching surface brightness limits as low as muv,0~ 32 mag arcsec super(-2). The resulting spatial stellar density map highlights a plethora of previously unknown streams, shells, and satellites, including the first tidally disrupting dwarf around Cen A (CenA-MM-Dw3), which underline its active accretion history. We report 13 previously unknown dwarf satellite candidates, of which 9 are confirmed to be at the distance of Cen A (the remaining 4 are not resolved into stars), with magnitudes in the range Mv=-7.2 to -13.0, central surface brightness values of muv,0= 25.4-26.9 mag arcsec super(-2), and half-light radii of rh= 0.22-2.92 kpc. These values are in line with Local Group dwarfs but also lie at the faint/diffuse end of their distribution; interestingly, CenA-MM-Dw3 has similar properties to the recently discovered ultradiffuse galaxies in Virgo and Coma. Most of the new dwarfs are fainter than the previously known Cen A satellites. The newly discovered dwarfs and halo substructures are discussed in light of their stellar populations, and they are compared to those discovered by the PAndAS survey of M31.
ABSTRACT
The trends and epochal variability of southwest monsoon over the country as a whole and four homogeneous regions are examined using monthly rainfall data (1901–2011) of 640 political ...districts of India. The district rainfall data is computed from station rainfall data. The same station data is used to analyse the trends in the frequency of rainfall events of different intensities for examining extreme rainfall events. The existence of the multidecadal epochal variability of rainfall is clearly established in the all‐India monsoon rainfall as well as monsoon rainfall over the four homogenous regions. However, over different homogenous regions, the phases of multidecadal variability are found to be different. Principal component analysis brings out Northeast India (NEI) rainfall as more dominant mode for all‐India rainfall. Significant decrease in southwest monsoon rainfall over NEI is observed during the post 1950 period. Decreasing trends are also observed over the monsoon core region during the post‐1950 period. Over these regions, monsoon rainfall has increased significantly during the pre‐1950 period. It has been shown that the decreasing trend in monsoon rainfall during the post 1950 period is the result of multidecadal epochal variability. Geographical regions that experienced significant changes in the frequency of days of rainfall with different intensities are also identified. Significant change/turning points are also detected in the southwest monsoon rainfall. Frequency of moderate rainfall events (5 mm ≤ daily rainfall < 100 mm) decreased significantly during the period 1951–2010 over the monsoon core region of India whereas no significant changes are observed in the frequencies of heavy (daily rainfall >100 mm) or very heavy rain (daily rainfall >150 mm) during the southwest monsoon season. Climatic shift or change point in monsoon rainfall in India is also detected by an established statistical test.
The extragalactic background light (EBL) is of fundamental importance both for understanding the entire process of galaxy evolution and for γ-ray astronomy, but the overall spectrum of the EBL ...between 0.1 and 1000 μm has never been determined directly from galaxy spectral energy distribution (SED) observations over a wide redshift range. The evolving, overall spectrum of the EBL is derived here utilizing a novel method based on observations only. This is achieved from the observed evolution of the rest-frame K-band galaxy luminosity function up to redshift 4, combined with a determination of galaxy-SED-type fractions. These are based on fitting Spitzer Wide-Area Infrared Extragalactic Survey (SWIRE) templates to a multiwavelength sample of about 6000 galaxies in the redshift range from 0.2 to 1 from the All-wavelength Extended Groth Strip International Survey (AEGIS). The changing fractions of quiescent galaxies, star-forming galaxies, starburst galaxies and active galactic nucleus (AGN) galaxies in that redshift range are estimated, and two alternative extrapolations of SED types to higher redshifts are considered. This allows calculation of the evolution of the luminosity densities from the ultraviolet (UV) to the infrared (IR), the evolving star formation rate density of the Universe, the evolving contribution to the bolometric EBL from the different galaxy populations including AGN galaxies and the buildup of the EBL. Our EBL calculations are compared with those from a semi-analytic model, another observationally based model and observational data. The EBL uncertainties in our modelling based directly on the data are quantified, and their consequences for attenuation of very-high-energy γ-rays due to pair production on the EBL are discussed. It is concluded that the EBL is well constrained from the UV to the mid-IR, but independent efforts from IR and γ-ray astronomy are needed in order to reduce the uncertainties in the far-IR.
The occurrence of exceptionally heavy rainfall events and associated flash floods in many areas during recent years motivate us to study long-term changes in extreme rainfall over India. The analysis ...of the frequency of rainy days, rain days and heavy rainfall days as well as one-day extreme rainfall and return period has been carried out in this study to observe the impact of climate change on extreme rainfall events and flood risk in India. The frequency of heavy rainfall events are decreasing in major parts of central and north India while they are increasing in peninsular, east and north east India. The study tries to bring out some of the interesting findings which are very useful for hydrological planning and disaster managements. Extreme rainfall and flood risk are increasing significantly in the country except some parts of central India.
We analyze resolved stellar near-infrared photometry of 21 Hubble Space Telescope (HST) fields in M31 to constrain the impact of metallicity on the formation of carbon stars. Observations of nearby ...galaxies show that carbon stars are increasingly rare at higher metallicity. Models indicate that carbon star formation efficiency drops due to the decrease in dredge-up efficiency in metal-rich thermally pulsing Asymptotic Giant Branch (TP-AGB) stars, coupled to a higher initial abundance of oxygen. However, while models predict a metallicity ceiling above which carbon stars cannot form, previous observations have not yet pinpointed this limit. Our new observations reliably separate carbon stars from M-type TP-AGB stars across 2.6-13.7 kpc of M31's metal-rich disk using HST WFC3/IR medium-band filters. We find that the ratio of C to M stars (C/M) decreases more rapidly than extrapolations of observations in more metal-poor galaxies, resulting in a C/M that is too low by more than a factor of 10 in the innermost fields and indicating a dramatic decline in C star formation efficiency at metallicities higher than M/H −0.1 dex. The metallicity ceiling remains undetected, but must occur at metallicities higher than what is measured in M31's inner disk (M/H +0.06 dex).
We present late-time (∼240-260 days after peak brightness) optical photometry and nebular (+236 and +264 days) spectroscopy of SN 2018oh, the brightest supernova (SN) Ia observed by the Kepler ...telescope. The Kepler/K2 30 minute cadence observations started days before explosion and continued past peak brightness. For several days after explosion, SN 2018oh had blue "excess" flux in addition to a normal SN rise. The flux excess can be explained by the interaction between the SN and a Roche-lobe filling non-degenerate companion star. Such a scenario should also strip material from the companion star that would emit once the SN ejecta become optically thin, imprinting relatively narrow emission features in its nebular spectrum. We search our nebular spectra for signs of this interaction, including close examination of wavelengths of hydrogen and helium transitions, finding no significant narrow emission. We place upper limits on the luminosity of these features of 2.6, 2.9 and 2.1 × 1037 erg s−1 for H , He i λ5875, and He i λ6678, respectively. Assuming a simple model for the amount of swept-up material, we estimate upper mass limits for hydrogen of 5.4 × 10−4 M and helium of 4.7 × 10−4 M . Such stringent limits are unexpected for the companion-interaction scenario consistent with the early data. No known model can explain the excess flux, its blue color, and the lack of late-time narrow emission features.
Meteorological drought during the southwest monsoon season and for the northeast monsoon season over five meteorological subdivisions of India for the period 1901–2015 has been examined using ...district and all India standardized precipitation index (SPI). Whenever all India southwest monsoon rainfall was less than −10% or below normal, for those years all India SPI was found as −1 or less. Composite analysis of SPI for the below normal years,
viz.,
less than −15% and −20% of normal rainfall years indicate that during those years more than 30% of country’s area was under drought condition, whenever all India southwest monsoon rainfall was –15% or less than normal. Trend analysis of monthly SPI for the monsoon months identified the districts experiencing significant increase in drought occurrences. Significant positive correlation has been found with the meteorological drought over most of the districts of central, northern and peninsular India, while negative correlation was seen over the districts of eastern India with NINO 3.4 SST. For the first time, meteorological drought analysis over districts and its association with equatorial pacific SST and probability analysis has been done for the northeast monsoon over the affected regions of south peninsular India. Temporal correlation of all India southwest monsoon SPI and south peninsular India northeast monsoon SPI has been done with the global SST to identify the teleconnection of drought in India with global parameters.
We present kinematic and metallicity profiles for the M 31 dwarf elliptical (dE) satellite galaxies NGC 147 and NGC 185. The profiles represent the most extensive spectroscopic radial coverage for ...any dE galaxy, extending to a projected distance of 8 half-light radii (8r{sub eff} {approx} 14'). We achieve this coverage via Keck/DEIMOS multislit spectroscopic observations of 520 and 442 member red giant branch stars in NGC 147 and NGC 185, respectively. In contrast to previous studies, we find that both dEs have significant internal rotation. We measure a maximum rotational velocity of 17 +- 2 km s{sup -1} for NGC 147 and 15 +- 5 km s{sup -1} for NGC 185. While both rotation profiles suggest a flattening in the outer regions, there is no indication that we have reached the radius of maximum rotation velocity. The velocity dispersions decrease gently with radius with average dispersions of 16 +- 1 km s{sup -1} and 24 +- 1 km s{sup -1} for NGC 147 and NGC 185, respectively. The average metallicities for NGC 147 and NGC 185 are Fe/H = -1.1 +- 0.1 and Fe/H = -1.3 +- 0.1, respectively; both dEs have internal metallicity dispersions of 0.5 dex, but show no evidence for a radial metallicity gradient. We construct two-{integral} axisymmetric dynamical models and find that the observed kinematical profiles cannot be explained without modest amounts of non-baryonic dark matter. We measure central mass-to-light ratios of M/L{sub V} = 4.2 +- 0.6 and M/L{sub V} = 4.6 +- 0.6 for NGC 147 and NGC 185, respectively. Both dE galaxies are consistent with being primarily flattened by their rotational motions, although some anisotropic velocity dispersion is needed to fully explain their observed shapes. The velocity profiles of all three Local Group dEs (NGC 147, NGC 185, and NGC 205) suggest that rotation is more prevalent in the dE galaxy class than previously assumed, but often manifests only at several times the effective radius. Since all dEs outside the Local Group have been probed to only inside the effective radius, this opens the door for formation mechanisms in which dEs are transformed or stripped versions of gas-rich rotating progenitor galaxies.
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