@article{TrinhEllisBlandHawthornetal.2013, author = {Trinh, Christopher Q. and Ellis, Simon C. and Bland-Hawthorn, Joss and Lawrence, Jon S. and Horton, Anthony J. and Leon-Saval, Sergio G. and Shortridge, Keith and Bryant, Julia and Case, Scott and Colless, Matthew and Couch, Warrick and Freeman, Kenneth and L{\"o}hmannsr{\"o}ben, Hans-Gerd and Gers, Luke and Glazebrook, Karl and Haynes, Roger and Lee, Steve and O'Byrne, John and Miziarski, Stan and Roth, Martin M. and Schmidt, Brian and Tinney, Christopher G. and Zheng, Jessica}, title = {Gnosis - the first instrument to use fiber bragg gratings for OH suppression}, series = {The astronomical journal}, volume = {145}, journal = {The astronomical journal}, number = {2}, publisher = {IOP Publ. Ltd.}, address = {Bristol}, issn = {0004-6256}, doi = {10.1088/0004-6256/145/2/51}, pages = {13}, year = {2013}, abstract = {The near-infrared is an important part of the spectrum in astronomy, especially in cosmology because the light from objects in the early universe is redshifted to these wavelengths. However, deep near-infrared observations are extremely difficult to make from ground-based telescopes due to the bright background from the atmosphere. Nearly all of this background comes from the bright and narrow emission lines of atmospheric hydroxyl (OH) molecules. The atmospheric background cannot be easily removed from data because the brightness fluctuates unpredictably on short timescales. The sensitivity of ground-based optical astronomy far exceeds that of near-infrared astronomy because of this long-standing problem. GNOSIS is a prototype astrophotonic instrument that utilizes "OH suppression fibers" consisting of fiber Bragg gratings and photonic lanterns to suppress the 103 brightest atmospheric emission doublets between 1.47 and 1.7 mu m. GNOSIS was commissioned at the 3.9 m Anglo-Australian Telescope with the IRIS2 spectrograph to demonstrate the potential of OH suppression fibers, but may be potentially used with any telescope and spectrograph combination. Unlike previous atmospheric suppression techniques GNOSIS suppresses the lines before dispersion and in a manner that depends purely on wavelength. We present the instrument design and report the results of laboratory and on-sky tests from commissioning. While these tests demonstrated high throughput (approximate to 60\%) and excellent suppression of the skylines by the OH suppression fibers, surprisingly GNOSIS produced no significant reduction in the interline background and the sensitivity of GNOSIS+IRIS2 is about the same as IRIS2. It is unclear whether the lack of reduction in the interline background is due to physical sources or systematic errors as the observations are detector noise dominated. OH suppression fibers could potentially impact ground-based astronomy at the level of adaptive optics or greater. However, until a clear reduction in the interline background and the corresponding increasing in sensitivity is demonstrated optimized OH suppression fibers paired with a fiber-fed spectrograph will at least provide a real benefit at low resolving powers.}, language = {en} } @misc{KienelWulfBowenByrneetal.2009, author = {Kienel, Ulrike and Wulf Bowen, Sabine and Byrne, Roger and Park, Jungjae and B{\"o}hnel, Harald and Dulski, Peter and Luhr, James F. and Siebert, Lee and Haug, Gerald H. and Negendank, J{\"o}rg F. W.}, title = {First lacustrine varve chronologies from Mexico}, series = {Postprints der Universit{\"a}t Potsdam : Mathematisch Naturwissenschaftliche Reihe}, journal = {Postprints der Universit{\"a}t Potsdam : Mathematisch Naturwissenschaftliche Reihe}, number = {860}, issn = {1866-8372}, doi = {10.25932/publishup-43279}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus4-432794}, pages = {587 -- 609}, year = {2009}, abstract = {We present varve chronologies for sediments from two maar lakes in the Valle de Santiago region (Central Mexico): Hoya La Alberca (AD 1852-1973) and Hoya Rincn de Parangueo (AD 1839-1943). These are the first varve chronologies for Mexican lakes. The varved sections were anchored with tephras from Colima (1913) and Paricutin (1943/1944) and (210)Pb ages. We compare the sequences using the thickness of seasonal laminae and element counts (Al, Si, S, Cl, K, Ti, Mn, Fe, and Sr) determined by micro X-ray fluorescence spectrometry. The formation of the varve sublaminae is attributed to the strongly seasonal climate regime. Limited rainfall and high evaporation rates in winter and spring induce precipitation of carbonates (high Ca, Sr) enriched in (13)C and (18)O, whereas rainfall in summer increases organic and clastic input (plagioclase, quartz) with high counts of lithogenic elements (K, Al, Ti, and Si). Eolian input of Ti occurs also in the dry season. Moving correlations (5-yr windows) of the Ca and Ti counts show similar development in both sequences until the 1930s. Positive correlations indicate mixing of allochthonous Ti and autochthonous Ca, while negative correlations indicate their separation in sublaminae. Negative excursions in the correlations correspond with historic and reconstructed droughts, El Nio events, and positive SST anomalies. Based on our data, droughts (3-7 year duration) were severe and centred around the following years: the early 1850s, 1865, 1880, 1895, 1905, 1915 and the late 1920s with continuation into the 1930s. The latter dry period brought both lake systems into a critical state making them susceptible to further drying. Groundwater overexploitation due to the expansion of irrigation agriculture in the region after 1940 induced the transition from calcite to aragonite precipitation in Alberca and halite infiltration in Rincn. The proxy data indicate a faster response to increased evaporation for Rincn, the lake with the larger maar dimensions, solar radiation receipt and higher conductivity, whereas the smaller, steeper Alberca maar responded rapidly to increased precipitation.}, language = {en} } @article{KienelBowenByrneetal.2009, author = {Kienel, Ulrike and Bowen, Sabine Wulf and Byrne, Roger and Park, Jungjae and Boehnel, Harald and Dulski, Peter and Luhr, James F. and Siebert, Lee and Haug, Gerald H. and Negendank, Joerg F. W.}, title = {First lacustrine varve chronologies from Mexico : impact of droughts, ENSO and human activity since AD 1840 as recorded in maar sediments from Valle de Santiago}, issn = {0921-2728}, doi = {10.1007/s10933-009-9307-x}, year = {2009}, abstract = {We present varve chronologies for sediments from two maar lakes in the Valle de Santiago region (Central Mexico): Hoya La Alberca (AD 1852-1973) and Hoya Rincn de Parangueo (AD 1839-1943). These are the first varve chronologies for Mexican lakes. The varved sections were anchored with tephras from Colima (1913) and Paricutin (1943/ 1944) and Pb-210 ages. We compare the sequences using the thickness of seasonal laminae and element counts (Al, Si, S, Cl, K, Ti, Mn, Fe, and Sr) determined by micro X-ray fluorescence spectrometry. The formation of the varve sublaminae is attributed to the strongly seasonal climate regime. Limited rainfall and high evaporation rates in winter and spring induce precipitation of carbonates (high Ca, Sr) enriched in C-13 and O-18, whereas rainfall in summer increases organic and clastic input (plagioclase, quartz) with high counts of lithogenic elements (K, Al, Ti, and Si). Eolian input of Ti occurs also in the dry season. Moving correlations (5-yr windows) of the Ca and Ti counts show similar development in both sequences until the 1930s. Positive correlations indicate mixing of allochthonous Ti and autochthonous Ca, while negative correlations indicate their separation in sublaminae. Negative excursions in the correlations correspond with historic and reconstructed droughts, El Nio events, and positive SST anomalies. Based on our data, droughts (3-7 year duration) were severe and centred around the following years: the early 1850s, 1865, 1880, 1895, 1905, 1915 and the late 1920s with continuation into the 1930s. The latter dry period brought both lake systems into a critical state making them susceptible to further drying. Groundwater overexploitation due to the expansion of irrigation agriculture in the region after 1940 induced the transition from calcite to aragonite precipitation in Alberca and halite infiltration in Rincn. The proxy data indicate a faster response to increased evaporation for Rincn, the lake with the larger maar dimensions, solar radiation receipt and higher conductivity, whereas the smaller, steeper Alberca maar responded rapidly to increased precipitation.}, language = {en} }