Infrared source counts at wavelengths 3 < λ < 10 μm cover more than 10 magnitudes in source brightness, four orders of magnitude in surface density, and reach an integrated surface density of 10 sources deg. At m < 14 mag, most of the sources are Galactic stars, in agreement with models. After removal of Galactic stars, galaxy counts are consistent with what few measurements exist at nearby wav...

introduction dust storms, one type of dust event, are in most cases the result of turbulent winds, including convective haboobs, which raise large quantities of dust from desert surfaces and reduce visibility to less than 1 km. this dust reaches concentrations in excess of 6000 mg m3 in severe events. the major dust source regions are areas of arid and hyper-arid, with mean annual rainfalls of ...

Shivering, you drag yourself, as if gun-shot, to the living room, to the old movie channel, to a Bogart festival, your mind fogged over (like the street on the screen) edging toward feverish sleep when Bogey snarls at Ida Lupino: “Of all the 14-carat saps...” Hours later when you wake, he’s smacking Peter Lorre: “When you’re slapped, you’ll take it and like it!” And as if cuffed, you black out,...

Few books about the environment have generated as much heated debate as Bjørn Lomborg's 'The Skeptical Environmentalist: Measuring the Real State of the World', published by Cambridge University Press in 2001. A flavor of the controversy can be gleaned from a series of reviews and rebuttals published in 'Scientific American' (Rennie 2002). In general, most positive reviews appeared in the popul...

We present measurements of the integrated flux relative to the local background of the Large and Small Magellanic Clouds and the region 30-Doradus (the Tarantula Nebula) in the LMC in four frequency bands centered at 245, 400, 460, and 630 GHz, based on observations made with the TopHat telescope. We combine these observations with the corresponding measurements for the DIRBE bands 8, 9, and 10...

OH megamasers (OHMs) emit primarily in the main lines at 1667 and 1665 MHz, and differ from their Galactic counterparts due to their immense luminosities, large linewidths and 1667/1665 MHz flux ratios, which are always greater than one. We find that these maser properties result from strong 53 μm radiative pumping combined with line overlap effects caused by turbulent linewidths ∼ 20 km s; pum...

We present sequential optical spectra of the afterglow of GRB 010222 obtained one day apart using the Low Resolution Imaging Spectrometer (LRIS) and the Echellette Spectrograph and Imager (ESI) on the Keck telescopes. Three lowionization absorption systems are spectroscopically identified at z1 = 1.47688, z2 = 1.15628, and z3 = 0.92747. The higher resolution ESI spectrum reveals two distinct co...

Imaging of the Antennae galaxies (NGC 4038/4039) with the Infrared Array Camera (IRAC) aboard the Spitzer Space Telescope reveals large concentrations of star forming activity away from both nuclei of the two merging galaxies. These images confirm earlier findings based on ISO data with lower angular resolution. The short wavelength emission shows numerous compact sources identified as stellar ...

Loose particles on impervious surfaces are an important carrier to transfer pesticides into residential runoff water and subsequently contribute to contamination of urban streams and estuaries by urban-use pesticides. However, data regarding levels of pesticide contamination in the runoff-transferable dusts are scarce and their runoff potential and toxicity impacts to urban watersheds still rem...