Effect of moderate geomagnetic storms on equatorial plasma bubbles over eastern Africa in the year 2012: Evolution and electrodynamics

Equatorial plasma bubbles (EPBs) are common features of the equatorial and low-latitude ionosphere and are known to cause radio wave scintillation which leads to the degradation of communication and navigation systems. Although these structures have been studied for decades, a full understanding of their evolution and dynamics remains important for space weather mitigation purposes. In this study, we present cases of EPBs occurrences around April and July 2012 geomagnetic storm periods over the African equatorial sector. The EPBs were observed from the Communications/Navigation Outage Forecasting System (C/NOFS) and generally correlated well to the ionospheric irregularities observed from the Global Positioning System total electron content (GPS-TEC) measurements (rate of TEC change, ROT). This study revealed that the evolution of the EPBs during moderate storms is controlled by the strength of the daytime equatorial electrojet (EEJ) currents regardless of the strength of the equatorial ionization anomaly (EIA), the latter is observed during the July storm case in particular. These effects were more evident during the main and part of the early recovery phases of the geomagnetic storm days considered. However, the evening hours TEC gradients between regions of the magnetic equator and ionization crests also played roles in the existence of ionospheric irregularities.     

RPC-MAG The Fluxgate Magnetometer in the ROSETTA Plasma Consortium

The fluxgate magnetometer experiment onboard the ROSETTA spacecraft aims to measure the magnetic field in the interaction region of the solar wind plasma with comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko. It consists of a system of two ultra light (about 28 g each ) triaxial fluxgate magnetometer sensors, mounted on the 1.5 m long spacecraft boom. The measurement range of each sensor is ±16384 nT with quantization steps of 31 pT. The magnetometer sensors are operated with a time resolution of up to 0.05 s, corresponding to a bandwidth of 0–10 Hz. This performance of the RPC-MAG sensors allows detailed analyses of magnetic field variations in the cometary environment. RPC-MAG furthermore is designed to study possible remnant magnetic fields of the nucleus, measurements which will be done in close cooperation with the ROSETTA lander magnetometer experiment ROMAP.     

空气压强对激光推进器冲量耦合系数影响

设计并加工了激光推进器实验模型,以空气为推进工质,利用脉冲式CO2激光器,研究了空气压强对激光推进器冲量耦合系数影响。实验结果表明,空气压强对激光推进器性能有显著影响。在文中实验条件下,当空气压强大于6 kPa时,激光推进器冲量耦合系数随压强减小而减少较慢;当空气压强小于6 kPa时,激光推进器冲量耦合系数随压强减小而减少很快。     

铣槽结构液体火箭发动机推力室壳体热应力分析

介绍了液体火箭发动机推力室铣槽结构热应力的数值分析方法,通过建立液体火箭发动机推力室的流场燃烧和导热理论模型,运用有限体积法考虑液膜冷却计算出发动机工作时的燃气、燃烧室壳体和冷却工质的温度场,将得出的结果作为壳体热应力计算模型的边界条件进行热应力场有限元分析。内、外壁温度的计算数据与实验结果基本相符。     

国外几种新型微化学推力器

介绍了国外几种以微机电系统 (MEMS)技术为基础的液体和固体微化学推力器。这些新型微化学推力器具有MEMS技术微型化、低成本和批量生产的优点 ,并考虑了体积限制和高度集成等空间限制 ,能产生 10 -6～ 10N·s的推力脉冲 ,可用于微型卫星和纳米卫星的姿态调整、变轨和定向的精确控制。同时阐述了这几种微推力器结构特点和制造工艺 ,并与其他类型的推进器进行了比较     

氙离子推力器束流分布特性研究

建立了离子推力器束流分布的高斯模型,以200mm氙离子推力器为例,在不同工作环境下对推力器束流分布进行了数值模拟,并通过试验测量了推力器引出切面不同位置(轴向z=50mm,z=100mm)下的径向束电流密度和束离子密度分布。通过对数值模拟结果与试验测量结果的比较,误差为17%,认为数值模拟结果与试验测量结果吻合较好。表明离子推力器引出束流呈轴对称分布,在推力器出口附近,束离子密度很大,越往下游,密度越小且束流出现发散。     

一种脉冲液体流量标准装置主标准器的测量不确定度评定方法

介绍了一种活塞位移型体积管常数的测定方法、数学模型及其测量标准不确定度分量,并给出了不确定度评定实例和验证结果。     

空间飞行体与等离子体在压缩区内的非稳态相互作用研究

研究了空间飞行体在运动过程中，其前端压缩区内飞行体与等离子体的、非稳态相互作用问题，得到了在强天线辐射源高频场作用下的控制方程．通过计算表明，飞行体上的天线可作为调制不稳定性的激发源，在等离子体中激发起很强的电磁孤波．     

微束等离子焊接钛合金薄板保护规律的研究

 通过试验认为微束等离子焊接钛合金薄板的保护问题,关键在于控制施焊时焊缝处于700℃以上的加热范围,和700℃到400℃的冷却时间。并论证了以氧的污染层厚度作为钛合金焊接污染程度判据的合理性。本文采用电子探针法对氧污染层厚度进行了测定,求出污染方程。从而。使微束等离子焊接钛合金薄板的污染问题,可通过调整焊接规范进行控制。     

Magnetosphere Imaging Instrument (MIMI) on the Cassini Mission to Saturn/Titan

The magnetospheric imaging instrument (MIMI) is a neutral and charged particle detection system on the Cassini orbiter spacecraft designed to perform both global imaging and in-situ measurements to study the overall configuration and dynamics of Saturn’s magnetosphere and its interactions with the solar wind, Saturn’s atmosphere, Titan, and the icy satellites. The processes responsible for Saturn’s aurora will be investigated; a search will be performed for substorms at Saturn; and the origins of magnetospheric hot plasmas will be determined. Further, the Jovian magnetosphere and Io torus will be imaged during Jupiter flyby. The investigative approach is twofold. (1) Perform remote sensing of the magnetospheric energetic (E > 7 keV) ion plasmas by detecting and imaging charge-exchange neutrals, created when magnetospheric ions capture electrons from ambient neutral gas. Such escaping neutrals were detected by the Voyager l spacecraft outside Saturn’s magnetosphere and can be used like photons to form images of the emitting regions, as has been demonstrated at Earth. (2) Determine through in-situ measurements the 3-D particle distribution functions including ion composition and charge states (E > 3 keV/e). The combination of in-situ measurements with global images, together with analysis and interpretation techniques that include direct “forward modeling’’ and deconvolution by tomography, is expected to yield a global assessment of magnetospheric structure and dynamics, including (a) magnetospheric ring currents and hot plasma populations, (b) magnetic field distortions, (c) electric field configuration, (d) particle injection boundaries associated with magnetic storms and substorms, and (e) the connection of the magnetosphere to ionospheric altitudes. Titan and its torus will stand out in energetic neutral images throughout the Cassini orbit, and thus serve as a continuous remote probe of ion flux variations near 20R _S (e.g., magnetopause crossings and substorm plasma injections). The Titan exosphere and its cometary interaction with magnetospheric plasmas will be imaged in detail on each flyby. The three principal sensors of MIMI consists of an ion and neutral camera (INCA), a charge–energy–mass-spectrometer (CHEMS) essentially identical to our instrument flown on the ISTP/Geotail spacecraft, and the low energy magnetospheric measurements system (LEMMS), an advanced design of one of our sensors flown on the Galileo spacecraft. The INCA head is a large geometry factor (G ∼ 2.4 cm² sr) foil time-of-flight (TOF) camera that separately registers the incident direction of either energetic neutral atoms (ENA) or ion species (≥5^∘ full width half maximum) over the range 7 keV/nuc < E < 3 MeV/nuc. CHEMS uses electrostatic deflection, TOF, and energy measurement to determine ion energy, charge state, mass, and 3-D anisotropy in the range 3 ≤ E ≤ 220 keV/e with good (∼0.05 cm² sr) sensitivity. LEMMS is a two-ended telescope that measures ions in the range 0.03 ≤ E ≤ 18 MeV and electrons 0.015 ≤ E≤ 0.884 MeV in the forward direction (G ∼ 0.02 cm² sr), while high energy electrons (0.1–5 MeV) and ions (1.6–160 MeV) are measured from the back direction (G ∼ 0.4 cm² sr). The latter are relevant to inner magnetosphere studies of diffusion processes and satellite microsignatures as well as cosmic ray albedo neutron decay (CRAND). Our analyses of Voyager energetic neutral particle and Lyman-α measurements show that INCA will provide statistically significant global magnetospheric images from a distance of ∼60 R _S every 2–3 h (every ∼10 min from ∼20 R _S). Moreover, during Titan flybys, INCA will provide images of the interaction of the Titan exosphere with the Saturn magnetosphere every 1.5 min. Time resolution for charged particle measurements can be < 0.1 s, which is more than adequate for microsignature studies. Data obtained during Venus-2 flyby and Earth swingby in June and August 1999, respectively, and Jupiter flyby in December 2000 to January 2001 show that the instrument is performing well, has made important and heretofore unobtainable measurements in interplanetary space at Jupiter, and will likely obtain high-quality data throughout each orbit of the Cassini mission at Saturn. Sample data from each of the three sensors during the August 18 Earth swingby are shown, including the first ENA image of part of the ring current obtained by an instrument specifically designed for this purpose. Similarily, measurements in cis-Jovian space include the first detailed charge state determination of Iogenic ions and several ENA images of that planet’s magnetosphere.This revised version was published online in July 2005 with a corrected cover date.