[1] We present a global chemical transport model called the Integrated Massively Parallel Atmospheric Chemical Transport (IMPACT) model. This model treats chemical and physical processes in the troposphere, the stratosphere, and the climatically critical tropopause region, allowing for physically based simulations of past, present, and future ozone and its precursors. The model is driven by meteorological fields from general circulation models (GCMs) or assimilated fields representing particular time periods. It includes anthropogenic and natural emissions, advective and convective transport, vertical diffusion, dry deposition, wet scavenging, and photochemistry. Simulations presented here use meteorological fields from the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) Middle Atmospheric Community Climate Model, Version 3 (MACCM3). IMPACT simulations of radon/lead are compared to observed vertical profiles and seasonal cycles. IMPACT results for a full chemistry simulation, with approximately 100 chemical species and 300 reactions representative of a mid-1990s atmosphere, are presented. The results are compared with surface, satellite, and ozonesonde observations. The model calculates a total annual flux from the stratosphere of 663 Tg O 3 /year, and a net in situ tropospheric photochemical source (that is, production minus loss) of 161 Tg O 3 /year, with 826 Tg O 3 /year dry deposited. NO x is overpredicted in the lower midlatitude stratosphere, perhaps because model aerosol surface densities are lower than actual values or the NO x to NO y conversion rate is underpredicted. Analysis of the free radical budget shows that ozone and NO y abundances are simulated satisfactorily, as are HO x catalytic cycles and total production and removal rates for ozone.

The morphology of selected groups of sources in the FIRST (Faint Images of the Radio Sky at Twenty Centimeters) survey and catalog is examined. Sources in the FIRST catalog (April 2003 release, 811117 entries) were sorted into singles, doubles, triples and groups of higher-count membership based on a proximity criteria. The 7106 groups with four or more components were examined individually for bent types including, but not limited to, wide-angle tail (WAT) and narrowangle tail (NAT) types. In the process of this examination, ring, double-double (DD), X-shaped, hybrid morphology (HYMOR), giant radio sources (GRS), and the herein described W-shaped and tri-axial morphology systems were also identified. For the convenience of the reader separate tables for distinctive types were generated. A few curiosities were found. For the 16,950 three-component groups and 74,788 two-component groups, catalogs with probability estimates for bent classification, as determined by pattern recognition techniques, are presented.

Using three epochs of VLA observations of the Galactic Plane in the first quadrant taken ∼ 15 years apart, we have conducted a search for a population of variable Galactic radio emitters in the flux density range 1-100 mJy at 6 cm. We find 39 variable sources in a total survey area of 23.2 deg 2 . Correcting for various selection effects and for the extragalactic variable population of active galactic nuclei, we conclude there are ∼ 1.6 Galactic sources deg −2 which vary by more than 50% on a time scale of years (or shorter). We show that these sources are much more highly variable than extragalactic objects; more than 50% show variability by a factor > 2 compared to < 10% for extragalactic objects in the same flux density range. We also show that the fraction of variable sources increases toward the Galactic center (another indication that this is a Galactic population), and that the spectral indices of many of these sources are flat or inverted. A small number of the variables are coincident with mid-IR sources and two are coincident with X-ray emitters, but most have no known counterparts at other wavelengths. Intriguingly, one lies at the center of a supernova remnant, while another appears to be a very compact planetary nebula; several are likely to represent activity associated with star formation regions. We discuss the possible source classes which could contribute to the variable cohort and followup observations which could clarify the nature of these sources.

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