Vol 32, No 1 (2016)

The sources of ultrahigh energy cosmic rays (UHECRs, E >10¹⁸ eV) are still unknown, mainly due to the loss of the direction to the source after the deflection of cosmic rays’ (CRs) trajectories in the galactic and extragalactic magnetic fields. With the increase in CR energy (rigidity), the influence of the magnetic field weakens; therefore, the most promising approach is to search for the sources of events with the highest energy. In our work, we expand the existing UHECR (E > 10²⁰ eV) sample from 33 to 42 events by calibrating the AUGER events. The sample is characterized by the presence of an event triplet in a circle of radius 3°. The highest-energy event is still the shower (E = 3.2 × 10²⁰ eV) detected with the Fly’s Eye fluorescent detector (FE-event) in 1993. The possible sources of the triplet and the FE-event are analyzed. Taking into account the deflection of CR trajectories in the extragalactic and galactic magnetic fields, it is shown that transient sources of the FE-event and the triplet may be galaxies with active star formation, where CRs are accelerated by newborn millisecond pulsars. Among the galactic sources, the potential candidates are young pulsars that might have had millisecond periods at birth and giant magnetar flares.

Spectra of an Ellerman bomb in the NOAA 11024 active region were obtained in spectropolarimetric observations with the French–Italian THEMIS telescope (Tenerife, Spain). The variations of profiles of the Stokes parameters I, Q, U, and V of photospheric lines were analyzed. The chosen lines had different intensities and magnetic-field sensitivities. It was found that the photospheric line profiles in the Ellerman bomb spectra differed greatly from the profiles for the quiet photosphere outside the active region. The Stokes I profiles of photospheric lines in the Ellerman bomb spectra were much weaker. The largest values of the Stokes parameters Q, U, and V were derived for the Fe I λ 630.25 nm magnetosensitive line. The Stokes parameter V was the highest in the central region of the Ellerman bomb, while the maximum Q and U parameters were observed at one of the edges of the Ellerman bomb. It follows from the comparison of the Stokes parameters for the Ellerman bomb and microflares that the Q, U, and V parameters for the bomb are much higher than those for flares.

The values of the imaginary part of the refractive index n_i of aerosol in bright (EZ, NTrZ, and STrZ) and dark (NTB, NEB, SEB, and STB) latitudinal bands of Jupiter’s disc have been determined. They are averaged over the effective depth where the intensity of radiation diffusely reflected by the planet is formed. These values turned out to be lower in the zones than in the belts: specifically, 0.00017–0.00041 vs. 0.00063–0.00098, 0.00019–0.00041 vs. 0.00065–0.00097, 0.00017–0.00041 vs. 0.00070–0.00112, and 0.00019–0.00044 vs. 0.00069–0.00111 at λ = 605, 631, 714, and 742 nm, respectively. These results probably indicate the difference in the vertical stratification of the nature of cloud layers, as well as in the sizes of aerosol particles (they are larger in the belts).

The catalog of equatorial coordinates α and δ and B-magnitudes of stars has been created at the Main Astronomical Observatory, National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine (MAO NASU), for the circumpolar region (from 58° to 90°) of the Northern Sky Survey (FON) project within the work on the rational use of resources accumulated in the JDA (Joint Digital Archive) of the Ukrainian Virtual Observatory (UkrVO). The total number of processed plates is 477. The plates were digitized with the using Microtek ScanMaker 9800XL TMA and Epson Expression 10000XL scanners (scanning mode was 1200 dpi, the linear size of plates was 30 × 30 cm or 13000 × 13000 px). The catalog includes 1 975 967 stars and galaxies with B of up to 16.5^m as of the epoch of 1985.28. The coordinates of stars and galaxies were obtained in the Tycho-2 reference system and B-magnitudes were obtained in the system of photoelectric standards. The internal errors of the catalog for all the objects are σ_αδ = 0.23′′ and σ_B = 0.12^m, and those for stars of the B range from 8^m–14^m, 0.11′′ and 0.06^m, respectively. The convergence between the calculated and reference positions is σ_αδ = 0.06′′ (for 171124 stars from Tycho-2), and that between the photoelectric stellar B-magnitudes is σ_B = 0.15m (for 5130 stars). The external error from the comparison with UCAC-4 are σ_αδ = 0.33′′ (1928367 stars and galaxies have been cross identified).

Dynamics of horizontal and vertical motions of East European GNSS stations has been studied at the GNSS Data Analysis Center, Main Astronomical Observatory, National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine (MAO NASU). The GNSS station coordinates have been estimated from regional processing and reprocessing performed with the Bernese GNSS Software ver. 5.2 at the GNSS Data Analysis Center, MAO NASU. The velocity values have been computed for 42 GNSS stations, 15 of them located in Ukraine. Global and local offsets of the horizontal and vertical motions of the GNSS stations have been determined.