The sound of a Martian dust devil Murdoch, N; Stott, A E; Gillier, M ...
Nature communications,
12/2022, Volume:
13, Issue:
1
Journal Article
Peer reviewed
Open access
Dust devils (convective vortices loaded with dust) are common at the surface of Mars, particularly at Jezero crater, the landing site of the Perseverance rover. They are indicators of atmospheric ...turbulence and are an important lifting mechanism for the Martian dust cycle. Improving our understanding of dust lifting and atmospheric transport is key for accurate simulation of the dust cycle and for the prediction of dust storms, in addition to being important for future space exploration as grain impacts are implicated in the degradation of hardware on the surface of Mars. Here we describe the sound of a Martian dust devil as recorded by the SuperCam instrument on the Perseverance rover. The dust devil encounter was also simultaneously imaged by the Perseverance rover's Navigation Camera and observed by several sensors in the Mars Environmental Dynamics Analyzer instrument. Combining these unique multi-sensorial data with modelling, we show that the dust devil was around 25 m large, at least 118 m tall, and passed directly over the rover travelling at approximately 5 m s
. Acoustic signals of grain impacts recorded during the vortex encounter provide quantitative information about the number density of particles in the vortex. The sound of a Martian dust devil was inaccessible until SuperCam microphone recordings. This chance dust devil encounter demonstrates the potential of acoustic data for resolving the rapid wind structure of the Martian atmosphere and for directly quantifying wind-blown grain fluxes on Mars.
Variable levels of methane in the martian atmosphere have eluded explanation partly because the measurements are not repeatable in time or location. We report in situ measurements at Gale crater made ...over a 5-year period by the Tunable Laser Spectrometer on the Curiosity rover. The background levels of methane have a mean value 0.41 ± 0.16 parts per billion by volume (ppbv) (95% confidence interval) and exhibit a strong, repeatable seasonal variation (0.24 to 0.65 ppbv). This variation is greater than that predicted from either ultraviolet degradation of impact-delivered organics on the surface or from the annual surface pressure cycle. The large seasonal variation in the background and occurrences of higher temporary spikes (~7 ppbv) are consistent with small localized sources of methane released from martian surface or subsurface reservoirs.
We provide a preliminary interpretation of the Rover Environmental Monitoring Station (REMS) pressure data from the first 100 Martian solar days (sols) of the Mars Science Laboratory mission. The ...pressure sensor is performing well and has revealed the existence of phenomena undetected by previous missions that include possible gravity waves excited by evening downslope flows, relatively dust‐free convective vortices analogous in structure to dust devils, and signatures indicative of the circulation induced by Gale Crater and its central mound. Other more familiar phenomena are also present including the thermal tides, generated by daily insolation variations, and the CO2 cycle, driven by the condensation and sublimation of CO2 in the polar regions. The amplitude of the thermal tides is several times larger than those seen by other landers primarily because Curiosity is located where eastward and westward tidal modes constructively interfere and also because the crater circulation amplifies the tides to some extent. During the first 100 sols tidal amplitudes generally decline, which we attribute to the waning influence of the Kelvin wave. Toward the end of the 100 sol period, tidal amplitudes abruptly increased in response to a nearby regional dust storm that did not expand to global scales. Tidal phases changed abruptly during the onset of this storm suggesting a change in the interaction between eastward and westward modes. When compared to Viking Lander 2 data, the REMS daily average pressures show no evidence yet for the 1–20 Pa increase expected from the possible loss of CO2 from the south polar residual cap.
Key Points
REMS pressure sensor is operating nominally
New phenomena have been discovered
Familiar phenomena have been detected
The integration of state-of-the-art molecular techniques and analyses, together with a broad taxonomic sampling, can provide new insights into bird interrelationships and divergence. Despite their ...evolutionary significance, the relationships among several rail lineages remain unresolved as does the general timescale of rail evolution. Here, we disentangle the deep phylogenetic structure of rails using anchored phylogenomics. We analysed a set of 393 loci from 63 species, representing approximately 40% of the extant familial diversity. Our phylogenomic analyses reconstruct the phylogeny of rails and robustly infer several previously contentious relationships. Concatenated maximum likelihood and coalescent species-tree approaches recover identical topologies with strong node support. The results are concordant with previous phylogenetic studies using small DNA datasets, but they also supply an additional resolution. Our dating analysis provides contrasting divergence times using fossils and Bayesian and non-Bayesian approaches. Our study refines the evolutionary history of rails, offering a foundation for future evolutionary studies of birds.
Anaplastic lymphoma kinase (ALK) is a receptor tyrosine kinase aberrantly expressed in neuroblastoma, a devastating pediatric cancer of the sympathetic nervous system. Germline and somatically ...acquired ALK aberrations induce increased autophosphorylation, constitutive ALK activation and increased downstream signaling. Thus, ALK is a tractable therapeutic target in neuroblastoma, likely to be susceptible to both small-molecule tyrosine kinase inhibitors and therapeutic antibodies-as has been shown for other receptor tyrosine kinases in malignancies such as breast and lung cancer. Small-molecule inhibitors of ALK are currently being studied in the clinic, but common ALK mutations in neuroblastoma appear to show de novo insensitivity, arguing that complementary therapeutic approaches must be developed. We therefore hypothesized that antibody targeting of ALK may be a relevant strategy for the majority of neuroblastoma patients likely to have ALK-positive tumors. We show here that an antagonistic ALK antibody inhibits cell growth and induces in vitro antibody-dependent cellular cytotoxicity of human neuroblastoma-derived cell lines. Cytotoxicity was induced in cell lines harboring either wild type or mutated forms of ALK. Treatment of neuroblastoma cells with the dual Met/ALK inhibitor crizotinib sensitized cells to antibody-induced growth inhibition by promoting cell surface accumulation of ALK and thus increasing the accessibility of antigen for antibody binding. These data support the concept of ALK-targeted immunotherapy as a highly promising therapeutic strategy for neuroblastomas with mutated or wild-type ALK.
We describe preliminary results from the first 100 sols of ground temperature measurements along the Mars Science Laboratory's traverse from Bradbury Landing to Rocknest in Gale. The ground ...temperature data show long‐term increases in mean temperature that are consistent with seasonal evolution. Deviations from expected temperature trends within the diurnal cycle are observed and may be attributed to rover and environmental effects. Fits to measured diurnal temperature amplitudes using a thermal model suggest that the observed surfaces have thermal inertias in the range of 265–375 J m−2 K−1 s−1/2, which are within the range of values determined from orbital measurements and are consistent with the inertias predicted from the observed particle sizes on the uppermost surface near the rover. Ground temperatures at Gale Crater appear to warm earlier and cool later than predicted by the model, suggesting that there are multiple unaccounted for physical conditions or processes in our models. Where the Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) descent engines removed a mobile layer of dust and fine sediments from over rockier material, the diurnal temperature profile is closer to that expected for a homogeneous surface, suggesting that the mobile materials on the uppermost surface may be partially responsible for the mismatch between observed temperatures and those predicted for materials having a single thermal inertia. Models of local stratigraphy also implicate thermophysical heterogeneity at the uppermost surface as a potential contributor to the observed diurnal temperature cycle.
Key Points
Diurnal ground temperatures vary with location
Diurnal temperature curves are not well matched by a homogeneous thermal model
GTS data are consistent with a varied stratigraphy and thermophysical properties
•Calculations indicate the air within Gale Crater is less dusty than expected.•Low dust within the crater reconciles column optical depths at MER-B and MSL.•REMS and Navcam comparison indicate ...vortices are unable to raise dust at Gale.•One optically thick dust devil is observed at 3-sigma level and described.•Dustless vortices, low in-crater dust consistent with modeled suppressed PBL modeled suppressed PBL.
The Navigation Cameras (Navcam) of the Mars Science Laboratory rover, Curiosity, have been used to examine two aspects of the planetary boundary layer: vertical dust distribution and dust devil frequency. The vertical distribution of dust may be obtained by using observations of the distant crater rim to derive a line-of-sight optical depth within Gale Crater and comparing this optical depth to column optical depths obtained using Mastcam observations of the solar disc. The line of sight method consistently produces lower extinctions within the crater compared to the bulk atmosphere. This suggests a relatively stable atmosphere in which dust may settle out leaving the air within the crater clearer than air above and explains the correlation in observed column opacity between the floor of Gale Crater and the higher elevation Meridiani Planum. In the case of dust devils, despite an extensive campaign only one optically thick vortex (τ=1.5±0.5×10−3) was observed compared to 149 pressure events >0.5Pa observed in REMS pressure data. Correcting for temporal coverage by REMS and geographic coverage by Navcam still suggests 104 vortices should have been viewable, suggesting that most vortices are dustless. Additionally, the most intense pressure excursions observed on other landing sites (pressure drop >2.5Pa) are lacking from the observations by the REMS instrument. Taken together, these observations are consistent with pre-landing circulation modeling of the crater showing a suppressed, shallow boundary layer. They are further consistent with geological observations of dust that suggests the northern portion of the crater is a sink for dust in the current era.
Background: Little is known about how the intensity of exercise influences cardiovascular fitness and body composition, especially in obese adolescents. Objective: Our goal was to determine the ...effects of physical training intensity on the cardiovascular fitness, percentage of body fat (%BF), and visceral adipose tissue (VAT) of obese adolescents. Design: Obese 13-16-y-olds (n = 80) were assigned to 1) biweekly lifestyle education (LSE), 2) LSE + moderate-intensity physical training, or 3) LSE + high-intensity physical training. The intervention lasted 8 mo. Physical training was offered 5 d/wk, and the target energy expenditure for all subjects in physical training groups was 1047 kJ (250 kcal)/session. Cardiovascular fitness was measured with a multistage treadmill test, %BF with dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry, and VAT with magnetic resonance imaging. Results: The increase in cardiovascular fitness in the high-intensity physical training group, but not in the moderate-intensity group, was significantly greater than that in the LSE alone group (P = 0.009); no other comparisons of the 3 groups were significant. Compared with the LSE alone group, a group composed of subjects in both physical training groups combined who attended training sessions ≥2 d/wk showed favorable changes in cardiovascular fitness (P < 0.001), %BF (P = 0.001), and VAT (P = 0.029). We found no evidence that the high-intensity physical training was more effective than the moderate-intensity physical training in enhancing body composition. Conclusions: The cardiovascular fitness of obese adolescents was significantly improved by physical training, especially high-intensity physical training. The physical training also reduced both visceral and total-body adiposity, but there was no clear effect of the intensity of physical training.
Summary
A key step in pollen formation is the segregation of the products of male meiosis into a tetrad of microspores, each of which develops into a pollen grain. Separation of microspores does not ...occur in tetraspore (tes) mutants of Arabidopsis thaliana, owing to the failure of male meiotic cytokinesis. tes mutants thus generate large ‘tetraspores’ containing all the products of a single meiosis. Here, we report the positional cloning of the TES locus and details of the role played by the TES product in male cytokinesis. The predicted TES protein includes an N‐terminal domain homologous to kinesin motors and a C‐terminus with little similarity to other proteins except for a small number of plant kinesins. These include the Arabidopsis HINKEL protein and NACK1 and two from tobacco (Nishihama et al., 2002), which are involved in microtubule organization during mitotic cytokinesis. Immunocytochemistry shows that the characteristic radial arrays of microtubules associated with male meiotic cytokinesis fail to form in tes mutants. The TES protein therefore is likely to function as a microtubule‐associated motor, playing a part either in the formation of the radial arrays that establish spore domains following meiosis, or in maintaining their stability.
Reactions induced by radioactive {sup 6,8}He beams from the SPIRAL facility were studied on {sup 63,65}Cu and {sup 188,190,192}Os targets and compared to reactions with the stable {sup 4}He ...projectiles from the Mumbai Pelletron. Partial residue cross sections for fusion and neutron transfer obtained from the measured intensities of characteristic in-beam {gamma} rays for the {sup 6}He+{sup 63,65}Cu systems are presented. Coincidence measurements of heavy reaction products, identified by their characteristic {gamma} rays, with projectilelike charged particles, provide direct evidence for a large transfer cross section with Borromean nuclei {sup 6}He at 19.5 and 30 MeV and {sup 8}He at 27 MeV. Reaction cross sections were also obtained from measured elastic angular distributions for {sup 6,8}He+Cu systems. Cross sections for fusion and direct reactions with {sup 4,6}He beams on heavier targets of {sup 188,192}Os at 30 MeV are also presented. The present work underlines the need to distinguish between various reaction mechanisms leading to the same products before drawing conclusions about the effect of weak binding on the fusion process. The feasibility of extracting small cross sections from inclusive in-beam {gamma}-ray measurements for reaction studies near the Coulomb barrier with low intensity isotope separation on-line beams is highlighted.
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