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Features of visibility variation at Great Wall Station, Antarctica
Get PDFThe variation of visibility at Great Wall Station (GWS) was analyzed using manual observational data for the period of 1986 to 2012. Results show that the frequencies of occurrence of high (≥10 km) and low visibility (0―1 km) are 61.0% and 8.0%, respectively. Visibility at GWS shows an evident seasonal variation: The highest visibility between November and March, and the lowest visibility from June to October. Sea fog and precipitation are the main factors for low visibility during summer, whereas frequent adverse weather, such as falling snow, blowing snow, or blizzards, are responsible for low visibility in winter. The frequency of occurrence of low visibility has decreased significantly from 1986 to 2012. Conversely, the frequency of occurrence of high visibility has shown a significant increasing trend, especially during winter. The decreasing tendencies of fog, blowing snow, and snowfall have contributed to the increasing trend of high visibility during winter. Visibility at GWS exhibits significant synoptic-scale (2.1 to 8.3 d), annual, and inter-annual periods (2 a, 4.1 a, and 6.9 a to 8.2 a), among which the most significant period is 4.1 a. The visibility observed during 2012 indicates that instrumental observation can be applied in the continuous monitoring of visibility at GWS
Phenotypic plasticity in Bacillus cereus strains isolated from various Antarctic habitats
Get PDFWe studied five strains of psychrotolerant Bacillus cereus (B. cereus) isolated from Antarctic snow (BCsn), ice (BCic), lake water (BCwr), sediment (BCsd), and soil (BCsl) samples in terms of their growth, biochemical properties, and heat shock responses. Analyses of growth kinetics at 4℃ showed that BCsn had the fastest generation time (16.1 h), whereas BCwr had the slowest (30.8 h). Strain BCsd formed the largest zone of lipid hydrolysis (18 mm) whereas BCsn formed the smallest zone (3 mm).Only BCsd produced gelatinase. These physiological differences illustrate adaptations of B. cereus isolates to different niches. Strains BCsl and BCwr were resistant to all 12 of the antibiotics tested. Strains BCsn, BCic, and BCsd were resistant to cell wall synthesis inhibitors (penicillin and ampicillin) and susceptible to protein synthesis inhibitors (tetracycline and streptomycin). A carbon-substrate utilization assay revealed that BCsn, BCic, and BCwr could specifically utilize D-glucose-6-phosphate, salicin, and 2’-deoxyadenosine, respectively, indicating a degree of metabolic diversity among these Antarctic B. cereus strains. An analysis of heat shock proteins (HSPs) produced in response to a 60℃ heat treatment revealed significant variations in the amounts of HSP33 (p = 0.01, df = 4), HSP44 (p = 0.003, df = 4), and HSP60 (p = 0.04, df = 4) among the strains. This emphasizes the importance of HSPs in bacterial taxonomy. These results show that there are considerable adaptive variations among B. cereus strains from extremophilic environments. This could be significant in evaluating the taxonomy and evolution of this species
Country Report 2013: Reports from the Adhering Bodies of the International Permafrost Association
No full textAn integrated analysis platform merging SuperDARN data within the THEMIS tool developed by ERG-Science Center (ERG-SC)
Get PDFThe Energization and Radiation in Geospace (ERG) mission seeks to explore the dynamics of the radiation belts in the Earth’s inner magnetosphere with a space-borne probe (ERG satellite) in coordination with related ground observations and simulations/ modeling studies. For this mission, the Science Center of the ERG project (ERG-SC) will provide a useful data analysis platform based on the THEMIS Data Analysis software Suite (TDAS), which has been widely used by researchers in many conjunction studies of the Time History of Events and Macroscale Interactions during Substorms (THEMIS) spacecraft and ground data. To import SuperDARN data to this highly useful platform, ERG-SC, in close collaboration with SuperDARN groups, developed the Common Data Format (CDF) design suitable for fitacf data and has prepared an open database of SuperDARN data archived in CDF. ERG-SC has also been developing programs written in Interactive Data Language (IDL) to load fitacf CDF files and to generate various kinds of plots−not only range-time-intensity-type plots but also two-dimensional map plots that can be superposed with other data, such as all-sky images of THEMIS-GBO and orbital footprints of various satellites. The CDF-TDAS scheme developed by ERG-SC will make it easier for researchers who are not familiar with SuperDARN data to access and analyze SuperDARN data and thereby facilitate collaborative studies with satellite data, such as the inner magnetosphere data provided by the ERG (Japan)−RBSP (USA)−THEMIS (USA) fleet
A new method to determine the tropopause
Get PDFThe tropopause has a complex structure and some interference information may exist in high-resolution global positioning system (GPS)/low earth-orbiting (LEO) radio occultation (RO) data. The position of the tropopause cannot be accurately determined using traditional cold point tropopause (CPT) and lapse rate tropopause (LRT) algorithms. In this paper, an integrative algorithm is developed to determinate tropopause parameters. The algorithm is applied to GPS/COSMIC RO data to obtain a global distribution of the height and temperature of the tropopause. This algorithm improves the utilization rate of GPS/LEO RO data by 30% compared with that from the traditional CPT method. The rationality and reliability of GPS/LEO RO data in probing the Earth’s atmosphere are verified by our study of the tropopause using COSMIC data
Preliminary genome analysis of psychrotolerant marine bacterium Pseudoalteromonas sp. BSw20308 reveals its potential applications
Get PDFThe genus Pseudoalteromonas is ubiquitous in the marine environment and can synthesize a wide range of extracellular compounds. Psychrotolerant Pseudoalteromonas sp. BSw20308 was isolated from the Chukchi Sea, a marginal sea of the Arctic Ocean. It produces a number of extracellular enzymes that can degrade polysaccharides and proteins. The BSw20308 genome was sequenced to 38.1-fold coverage, and the sequences were assembled into 146 contigs (≥500 bp). In total, 4 172 open reading frames (ORFs) with an average gene length of 987 bp were detected. At least 86 ORFs were predicted by sequence analysis to encode a variety of catalytic modules involved in the degradation of polysaccharides, proteins, and lipids. In addition, 36 ORFs were predicted to encode catalytic modules involved in the degradation of organic pollutants and halogenated compounds, and in the production of bioactive compounds. The draft genome sequence of BSw20308 provides new information about the ecological function and adaptation of the genus Pseudoalteromonas in Arctic marine environments, and also indicates its potential applications in the biotechnology industries (e.g., enzymology, and pollutant degradation)
Analysis software for upper atmospheric data developed by the IUGONET project and its application to polar science
Get PDFTo comprehensively understand the Arctic and Antarctic upper atmosphere, it is often crucial to analyze various data that are obtained from many regions. Infrastructure that promotes such interdisciplinary studies on the upper atmosphere has been developed by a Japanese inter-university project called the Inter-university Upper atmosphere Global Observation Network (IUGONET). The objective of this paper is to describe the infrastructure and tools developed by IUGONET. We focus on the data analysis software. It is written in Interactive Data Language (IDL) and is a plug-in for the THEMIS Data Analysis Software suite (TDAS), which is a set of IDL libraries used to visualize and analyze satellite- and ground-based data. We present plots of upper atmospheric data provided by IUGONET as examples of applications, and verify the usefulness of the software in the study of polar science. We discuss IUGONET’s new and unique developments, i.e., an executable file of TDAS that can run on the IDL Virtual Machine, IDL routines to retrieve metadata from the IUGONET database, and an archive of 3-D simulation data that uses the Common Data Format so that it can easily be used with TDAS
Global distributions of storm-time ionospheric currents as seen in geomagnetic field variations
Get PDFTo investigate temporal and spatial evolution of global geomagnetic field variations from high-latitude to the equator during geomagnetic storms, we analyzed ground geomagnetic field disturbances from high latitudes to the magnetic equator. The daytime ionospheric equivalent current during the storm main phase showed that twin-vortex ionospheric currents driven by the Region 1 field-aligned currents (R1 FACs) are intensified significantly and expand to the low-latitude region of ~30° magnetic latitude. Centers of the currents were located around 70° and 65° in the morning and afternoon, respectively. Corresponding to intensification of the R1 FACs, an enhancement of the eastward/westward equatorial electrojet occurred at the daytime/nighttime dip equator. This signature suggests that the enhanced convection electric field penetrates to both the daytime and nighttime equator. During the recovery phase, the daytime equivalent current showed that two new pairs of twin vortices, which are different from two-cell ionospheric currents driven by the R1 FACs, appear in the polar cap and mid latitude. The former led to enhanced northward Bz (NBZ) FACs driven by lobe reconnection tailward of the cusps, owing to the northward interplanetary magnetic field (IMF). The latter was generated by enhanced Region 2 field-aligned currents (R2 FACs). Associated with these magnetic field variations in the mid-latitudes and polar cap, the equatorial magnetic field variation showed a strongly negative signature, produced by the westward equatorial electrojet current caused by the dusk-to-dawn electric field
Northward-propagating nighttime medium-scale traveling ionospheric disturbances observed with SuperDARN Hokkaido HF radar and GEONET
Get PDFWe report on the characteristics of nighttime medium-scale traveling ionospheric disturbances (MSTIDs) propagating northward observed with the SuperDARN Hokkaido HF radar, which has a field of view to the north of Japan, and occasionally with the GNSS Earth Observation NETwork (GEONET), which provides total electron content (TEC) data over Japan. From statistical analysis of MSTIDs observed with the Hokkaido radar during nighttime (1700–0700 LT) from January 2007 to July 2009, we find that these MSTIDs traveling northward, although rare in comparison with those traveling southwestward, have a relatively high occurrence rate after sunset and around midnight in May and August, which is partly consistent with the occurrence rate of MSTIDs over Japan observed with GEONET in 2002, when the MSTID event database is available. We also use the data from simultaneous observation of nightside MSTIDs by the Hokkaido radar and GEONET to find that when the HF radar observed northward-propagating MSTIDs, GEONET did not always observe such MSTIDs with the same propagation direction. Judging from this result and considering the HF radar field of view located to the north of the GEONET coverage area, we speculate that some physical parameters of the ionosphere/thermosphere over Japan differ from those to the north of Japan, which may result in the inconsistency of MSTID propagation direction. The present results provide new knowledge of MSTIDs propagating northward using the Hokkaido radar, whose field of view was not covered by GEONET
Transposon mutagenesis of Psychrobacter cryohalolentis PAMC 21807 by tri-parental conjugation
Get PDFRandom mutagenesis is commonly used to study gene function. The screening of mutants exhibiting specific phenotypes assists in the identification of phenotype-related genes. In the current study, we isolated Antarctic bacteria, and developed a transposon Tn5 mutagenesis system. A total of 26 strains were isolated from seawater and freshwater near Antarctic King Sejong Research Station, King George Island. Six Psychrobacter strains were identified as psychrophilic, with optimal growth temperatures of 10℃ or 15℃ Psychrobacter cryohalolentis PAMC 21807 with a high growth rate at 4℃ was selected for transposon mutagenesis. Tri-parental conjugation with a plasmid containing Tn5 produced 13 putative recombinants containing the selectable marker. Genomic Southern hybridization confirmed Tn5 existed as episomes for seven recombinants, and for a single recombinant, Tn5 was integrated into the genome of Psychrobacter cryohalolentis PAMC 21807. The result indicates that the mutagenesis method, although successful, has a relatively low rate. The psychrophilic bacteria isolated in this study may be a useful resource for studying cold adaptation mechanisms, and the mutagenesis method can be applied to genetic analysis