Global Response of Martian Plasma Environment to an Interplanetary Structure: From Ena and Plasma Observations at Mars

As a part of the global plasma environment study of Mars and its response to the solar wind, we have analyzed a peculiar case of the subsolar energetic neutral atom (ENA) jet observed on June 7, 2004 by the Neutral Particle Detector (NPD) on board the Mars Express satellite. The “subsolar ENA jet” is generated by the interaction between the solar wind and the Martian exosphere, and is one of the most intense sources of ENA flux observed in the vicinity of Mars. On June 7, 2004 (orbit 485 of Mars Express), the NPD observed a very intense subsolar ENA jet, which then abruptly decreased within ∼10 sec followed by quasi-periodic (∼1 min) flux variations. Simultaneously, the plasma sensors detected a solar wind structure, which was most likely an interplanetary shock surface. The abrupt decrease of the ENA flux and the quasi-periodic flux variations can be understood in the framework of the global response of the Martian plasma obstacle to the interplanetary shock. The generation region of the subsolar ENA jet was pushed towards the planet by the interplanetary shock; and therefore, Mars Express went out of the ENA jet region. Associated global vibrations of the Martian plasma obstacle may have been the cause of the quasi-periodic flux variations of the ENA flux at the spacecraft location.     

Large-scale electric field in the magnetosphere

A review is given on the distribution and origin of the large-scale electric field in the magnetosphere and its influence on the dynamical behavior of the magnetospheric plasma. Following a general discussion on the gross structure of the magnetosphere and its tail, two principal electric field systems are deduced from ground-based geomagnetic variations. One is responsible for the polar substorm, the DP 1 field, which is closely associated with the activation of the auroral electrojet. The other is responsible for the twin current vortices, the DP 2 field, and this represents the general convective system set up in the magnetospheric plasma.The origin of these magnetospheric electric fields is possibly resided in the domain of the solar wind interacting with the outer geomagnetic field. However, the mechanism, in which the energy is transferred, is still quite controversial. Several theories so far proposed are re-examined, and some modification of them are suggested to have a consistent understanding of these two types of electric fields. The effects of electric fields on magnetospheric plasma dynamics are described, such as the formation of the plasmapause, the acceleration and diffusion of energetic particles in the radiation belt.     

Io’s Atmosphere and Surface-Atmosphere Interactions

Our knowledge of Io’s atmosphere has improved dramatically in the last fifteen years, with a wealth of new observational data at millimeter, UV and IR wavelengths, and the development of numerous models describing its horizontal and vertical structure, composition, photochemistry and plasma interaction. Io’s atmosphere is dominantly composed of SO2, present mostly at low-tomid latitudes with column densities of a few 1016 cm⁻² and important (factors of 5-10) longitudinal variations. Minor compounds include SO, S₂, and NaCl. Sublimation equilibrium with SO₂ frost and direct volcanic output coexist to maintain Io’s atmosphere against condensation, photolytic and escape losses.     

The Freja wave and plasma density experiment

The Wave Experiment, F4, on the Swedish/German satelliteFreja, is designed to measure the electric wave fields up to 4 MHz, the magnetic wave fields up to 16 kHz and the plasma density and its relative variations up to 2 kHz. Six wave signals and four density probe signals can be measured simultaneously. The wave forms of all signals are transmitted to ground without any analysis onboard. The limited TM allocation does not allow continuous sampling of the wave signals, so normally the measurements are made in snapshots of various lengths dependent on sampling frequency, etc. Continuous sampling can be made for shorter time periods by using a 6 Mbyte memory as a buffer.     

Plasma characteristics determined by the Freja electric field instrument

A new approach to the study of ionospheric plasma characteristics is presented using data from the Freja double probe electric field instrument. Plasma characteristics are derived from continuous measurements of the satellite potential and from intermittent Langmuir sweeps. These provide information on both relative variations in the plasma density and absolute density and temperature, useful for comparisons with other plasma measurements on Freja, and essential for the interpretation of the electric field measurements. The on-board memory makes it possible to obtain full-orbit coverage of this type of information, which is a new feature of the Freja measurements. The memory is also used for high time resolution Langmuir sweeps which allow for the first time detailed studies of the time behavior of the probe response and computation of the probe-plasma capacitance. Comparisons are also made with similar measurements on earlier missions.     

Quasistatic electric field measurements with spherical double probes on the GEOS and ISEE satellites

Spherical double probes for measurements of electric fields on the GEOS-1, GEOS-2, and ISEE-1 satellites are described. An essential feature of these satellites is their conductive surfaces which eliminate errors due to differential charging and enable meaningful diagnostic experiments to be carried out. The result of these experiments is a good understanding of interactions between the plasma, the satellite and the probes, including photo-electron emission on satellite and probes. Electric field measurements are compared with measurements of plasma drift perpendicular to the magnetic field in the solar wind and the magnetosphere and the error bar for the absolute values of the electric field is found to be in the range ±(0.5–1.0) mV m^-1 whereas relative variations can be determined with much better accuracy. A useful by-product from a spherical double probe system is the determination of satellite floating potential which is related to the plasma electron flux. This measurement allows high time resolution studies of boundary crossings. Examples of electric field measurements, which reflect the recent scientific results, are given for different regions of the magnetosphere from the bow shock, the inner magnetosphere and the tail. Several examples of simultaneous GEOS-ISEE observations are described.     

The outer ionosphere

The results from ionospheric beacon observations are compared with the theory of F-layer and outer ionosphere. Near sunspot minimum the total electron content up to 1000 km at medium latitudes is 1–2 × 10¹⁷ m^-2 in the afternoon and about 0.3 × 10¹⁷ m^-2 at night. The diurnal and latitudinal variations are more irregular during summer than during winter. Near sunspot maximum the respective values are about 1.5 × 10¹⁷ m^-2 at night, 6–7 x 10¹⁷ m^-2 near winternoon, 4 × 10¹⁷ m^-2 near summernoon.The complete theory of diffusion in a multi-ion plasma gives very complicated expressions. Simpler approximations can be found respectively. Some models were calculated numerically and the dependence of the total electron on the parameters of the balance equation is investigated.Comparison with experimental results shows, that some main features of the diurnal and latitudinal variations of the total electron can be explained. The seasonal anomaly, the slow decrease in the late night hours and the large increase toward equator cannot be explained without additional assumptions.     

Reconnection in the magnetotail

The ion tearing mode is considered as the only mechanism capable of initiating reconnection processes in the equilibrium plasma sheet whose scale considerably exceeds the ion Larmor radius. The paper gives a brief review of linear theory of the tearing mode instability that allows the onset of its development to be determined. It is shown that the explosive growth of the tearing mode in a nonlinear stage is consistent with the dynamics of charged particle acceleration and the behaviour of the magnetic field variations and plasma flow in the magnetotail. The tail structure formed, as a result of the development of the tearing mode, is also discussed.Proceedings of the Symposium on Solar Terrestrial Physics held in Innsbruck, May–June 1978.     

Spatial fragmentation of solar flare plasma and beams

The observational and theoretical arguments for spatial fragmentation of the bulk of the thermal and non-thermal components of solar flare plasma are summarised. Observational aspects considered include XUV filling factors, EUV centre to limb variations, andH impact polarisation. Theoretical points addressed are the high flare inductance and beam/return current closure at the acceleration site.A high degree of beam/plasma filamentation implies strong transverse temperature gradients so that cross-field conduction must be included in energy transport modelling. Preliminary results are described for a simple two-component model.     

介质阻挡体放电对甲烷扩散火焰CH*自发辐射影响实验研究

为分析非平衡等离子体对空气/甲烷扩散火焰的助燃效果,实验以发射中心谱线430nm的激发态自由基CH*表征火焰燃烧状态,采用同轴圆柱构型激励器在高频交流模式下激发等离子体,分析了火焰CH*自发辐射图像、火焰高度、CH*径向分布和燃烧释热速率等火焰特性在不同空气流量和当量比下随放电电压的变化规律。结果表明：等离子体激励在空气流量较低时,会显著增强火焰上游甲烷燃烧,从而降低CH*空间分布高度和火焰高度;空气流量增大后,有利于促进甲烷充分燃烧,增大火焰下游CH*辐射强度和分布范围。在火焰上游区域,等离子体气动效应可有效扩展甲烷径向分布,实现剪切层更宽范围燃烧,其活化效应会明显提高剪切层燃烧强度,并随电压增大作用效果逐渐增强。此外,等离子体激励会使燃烧器喷嘴出口附近火焰释热速率显著增大,该现象在空气-甲烷动量比较大时更容易发生。     

On electromagnetic effects in the neighbourhood of a satellite or a vehicle moving in the ionosphere or interplanetary space

The effects arising in the neighbourhood of a body moving in the Ionosphere or Interplanetary Space, and the character of their variations when the body moves off from the Earth are discussed.The results of theoretical calculations are considered. Various disturbances are estimated: concentration and particle flux disturbances, the body potential, scattering of radio waves, the electric field, excitation of plasma waves, erosion of the body surface, etc. Some experimental data characterizing the considered effects are used.     

Modeling of dielectric barrier discharge-induced fluid dynamics and heat transfer

A dielectric barrier discharge, operating at kHz and kV conditions, can generate largely isothermal surface plasma and induce wall-jet-like fluid flow. It can serve as an aerodynamic actuator, and has advantages of no moving parts. In order to better understand the mechanism of the momentum coupling between the plasma and the fluid flow, both computational modeling and experimental information are presented. Furthermore, the impact of such athermal, non-equilibrium plasma discharges on low-speed aerodynamics and heat transfer is discussed. The plasma and fluid species are treated as a two-fluid system exhibiting decades of length and time-scale disparities. For Reynolds numbers of 10⁴–10⁵, the time-scales ratios between those characterizing the discharge physics (convection, diffusion, and reaction/ionization) and the fluid flow mechanisms are separated by several decades, allowing the effect of plasma on the fluid dynamics modeled via a one-way body force treatment. At a phenomenological level, the plasma model can be established using a linearized force distribution to approximate the discharge structure. A high-fidelity approach using a first-principle-based hydrodynamic-plasma model is also reviewed. Numerical techniques such as operating splitting are introduced in order to handle the computational stiffness resulting from the time and length scale variations. The goal is to use time-step sizes in the range of the fluid dynamics level while treating the fast varying ones statistically. The momentum coupling is discussed in the context of discharge chemistry; species transport properties, insulator and electrode materials, and dielectric barrier discharge (DBD) geometry. Parametric studies conducted on the operating variables such as voltage, frequency and geometric arrangements offer substantial insight into the plasma physics, as well as a basis to explore thermal management and flow control applications.     

The Galileo magnetic field investigation

The Galileo Orbiter carries a complement of fields and particles instruments designed to provide data needed to shed light on the structure and dynamical variations of the Jovian magnetosphere. Many questions remain regarding the temporal and spatial properties of the magnetospheric magnetic field, how the magnetic field maintains corotation of the embedded plasma and the circumstances under which corotation breaks down, the nature of magnetic perturbations that transport plasma across magnetic shells in different parts of the system, and the electromagnetic properties of the Jovian moons and how they interact with the magnetospheric plasma. Critical to answering these closely related questions are measurements of the dc and low-frequency magnetic field. The Galileo Orbiter carries a fluxgate magnetometer designed to provide the sensitive measurements required for this purpose. In this paper, the magnetometer is described. The instrument has two boom-mounted, three-axis sensor assemblies. Flipper mechanisms are included in each sensor assembly for the purpose of offset calibration. The microprocessor controlled data handling system produces calibrated despun data that can be used directly without further processing. A memory system stores data for those periods when the spacecraft telemetry is not active. This memory system can also be used for storing high time-resolution snapshots of data.     

Solar Variability and the Earth's Climate: Introduction and Overview

Numerous attempts have been made over the years to link various aspects of solar variability to changes in the Earth's climate. There has been growing interest in this possible connection in recent years, spurred largely by the need to understand the natural causes of climate change, against which the expected global warming due to man's activities will have to be detected. The time scale of concern here is that of decades to centuries, and excludes the longer millennial scale in which orbital variations play a dominant role. The field has long been plagued by the lack of an acceptable physical mechanism by which solar variability can affect climate, but the discovery of variability in the Sun's total irradiance (the solar ``constant' of meteorology) by spacecraft instruments has pointed to a direct mechanism. Other less direct mechanisms that have been suggested involve variations in the Sun's ultraviolet flux and in the plasma outflow of the solar wind. The purpose of this paper is to summarize the current state of the field, emphasizing the proposed mechanisms as an introduction to the more detailed papers that follow. The particular case of sea-surface temperature data will be used as an illustration.     

The streaming of solar flare particles and plasma in interplanetary space

A review is given of the features of solar particle emissions which cause various terrestrial disturbances. Three types of corpuscular emissions, namely, solar cosmic rays, energetic storm protons and plasma clouds, are associated with intense solar flares. Outward streaming of the solar wind and of beams of enhanced activity originate from the quiescent solar corona. It is shown that these solar particles propagate through interplanetary space, being modulated in a systematic way by existing magnetic fields. Time variations of solar flare particle flux, and their energy spectrum, are discussed.     

Experimental study of an anti-icing method over an airfoil based on pulsed dielectric barrier discharge plasma

Aircraft icing has long been a plague to aviation for its serious threat to flight safety. Even though lots of methods for anti-icing have been in use or studied for quite a long time, new methods are still in great demand for both civil and military aircraft. The current study in this paper uses widely used Dielectric Barrier Discharge(DBD) plasma actuation to anti-ice on a NACA0012 airfoil model with a chord length of 53.5 cm in a closed-circuit icing wind tunnel. An actuator was installed at the leading edge of the airfoil model, and actuated by a pulsed low-temperature plasma power source. The actuator has two types of layout, a striped electrode layout and a meshy electrode layout.The ice accretion process or anti-icing process was recorded by a CCD camera and an infrared camera. Instantaneous pictures and infrared contours show that both types of DBD plasma actuators have the ability for anti-ice under a freestream velocity of 90 m/s, a static temperature of -7℃,an Median Volume droplet Diameter(MVD) of 20 lm, and an Liquid Water Content(LWC) of 0.5 g/m~3. The detected variations of temperatures with time at specific locations reveal that the temperatures oscillate for some time after spraying at first, and then tend to be nearly constant values.This shows that the key point of the anti-icing mechanism with DBD plasma actuation is to achieve a thermal equilibrium on the model surface. Besides, the power consumption in the anti-icing process was estimated in this paper by Lissajous figures measured by an oscilloscope, and it is lower than those of existing anti-icing methods. The experimental results presented in this paper indicate that the DBD plasma anti-icing method is a promising technique in the future.     

经济增长方式转变的临界点

经济增长的构成可分为三部分：（１）由生产率变化而引起的经济增长；（２）由投入量变化而引起的经济经济；（３）由生产率变化和投入量变化交互作用而引起的经济增长。经济增长方式的转变，其粗放和集约程度可由集约指数和粗放指数表征，其转变的临界点可以求解，并由此进行量化判别，经济增长方式转变的核心问题是促进集约（进化），防止粗放（退化），保持适度的经济增长，千方百计提高生产率；归根结底，主要源于技术创新。     

Some aspects of the low latitude geomagnetic response under different solar wind conditions*

We review some aspects of low latitudes (L≤2) geomagnetic field variations associated with magnetospheric pulsations as well as with continuous and impulsive variations of the solar wind (SW) pressure. This revised version was published online in August 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.