Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre

About: Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre is a facility organization based out in Thiruvananthapuram, India. It is known for research contribution in the topics: Aerosol & Ultimate tensile strength. The organization has 2092 authors who have published 3058 publications receiving 47975 citations. The organization is also known as: VSSC.

Chandra Observation of an X-Ray Flare at Saturn: Evidence of Direct Solar Control on Saturn’s Disk X-Ray Emissions

Abstract: Saturn was observed by Chandra ACIS-S on 2004 January 20 and 26-27 for one full Saturn rotation (10.7 hr) at each epoch. We report here the first observation of an X-ray flare from Saturn's nonauroral (low-latitude) disk, which is seen in direct response to an M6-class flare emanating from a sunspot that was clearly visible from both Saturn and Earth. Saturn's disk X-ray emissions are found to be variable on timescales of hours to weeks to months and are correlated with solar 10.7 cm flux. Unlike Jupiter, X-rays from Saturn's polar (auroral) region have characteristics similar to those from its disk. This report, combined with earlier studies, establishes that disk X-ray emissions of the giant planets Saturn and Jupiter are directly regulated by processes happening on the Sun. We suggest that these emissions could be monitored to study X-ray flaring from solar active regions when they are on the far side and not visible to near-Earth space weather satellites.

Spatial distribution and spectral characteristics of aerosol single scattering albedo over the Bay of Bengal inferred from shipborne measurements

Abstract: [1] Aerosol single scattering albedos (SSA) were deduced from extensive and collocated measurements of spectrally resolved aerosol scattering (σ sca ) and absorption (σ abs ) coefficients, carried out for the first time over the entire Bay of Bengal (BoB). Notwithstanding the high values of σ sca , and σ abs , comparatively higher values of SSA were noticed over the head BoB (north of 16°N) and coastal regions while lower values of SSA persisted over the Central BoB indicating the dominance of absorbing aerosols far away from continental source regions. At mid visible wavelength (550 nm) SSA ranged from 0.84 to 0.96 over different parts of the BoB showing large heterogeneity. However, more than 80% of the values lay between 0.9 and 0.95. Spectral variation of SSA was distinctly different over the northern and southern BoB.

Sea-breeze front effects on boundary-layer aerosols at a tropical coastal station

Abstract: The effects of sea breeze on optical depth, size distribution, and columnar loading of aerosols at the tropical coastal station of Trivandrum are studied. It has been observed that sea-breeze front activity results in a significant and short-lived enhancement in aerosol optical depth and columnar loading in contrast to the effects seen on normal sea-breeze days. Examination of the changes in columnar aerosol size distribution associated with sea-breeze activity revealed an enhancement of small-particle (size less than 0.28 [mu]m) concentration. The aerosol size distribution deduced from optical depth measurements generally show a pronounced bimodal structure associated with the frontal activity. 22 refs., 12 figs., 1 tab.