Modulation of galactic cosmic rays in a north–south asymmetrical heliosphere

Observations made with the two Voyager spacecraft confirmed that the solar wind decelerates to form the heliospheric termination shock. Voyager 1 crossed this termination shock at ∼94 AU in 2004, while Voyager 2 crossed it in 2007 at a different heliolatitude, about 10 AU closer to the Sun. These different positions of the termination shock confirm the dynamic and cyclic nature of the shock’s position. Observations from the two Voyager spacecraft inside the heliosheath indicate significant differences between them, suggesting that apart from the dynamic nature caused by changing solar activity there also may exist a global asymmetry in the north–south (polar) dimensions of the heliosphere, in addition to the expected nose–tail asymmetry. This relates to the direction in which the heliosphere is moving in interstellar space and its orientation with respect to the interstellar magnetic field. In this paper we focus on illustrating the effects of this north–south asymmetry on modulation of galactic cosmic ray Carbon, between polar angles of 55° and 125°, using a numerical model which includes all four major modulation processes, the termination shock and the heliosheath. This asymmetry is incorporated in the model by assuming a significant dependence on heliolatitude of the thickness of the heliosheath. When comparing the computed spectra between the two polar angles, we find that at energies E < ∼1.0 GeV the effects of the assumed asymmetry on the modulated spectra are insignificant up to 60 AU from the Sun but become increasingly more significant with larger radial distances to reach a maximum inside the heliosheath. In contrast, with E > ∼1.0 GeV, these effects remain insignificant throughout the heliosphere even very close to the heliopause. Furthermore, we find that a higher local interstellar spectrum for Carbon enhances the effects of asymmetric modulation between the two polar angles at lower energies (E < ∼300 MeV). In conclusion, it is found that north–south asymmetrical effects on the modulation of cosmic ray Carbon depend strongly on the extent of the geometrical asymmetry of the heliosheath together with the assumed value of the local interstellar spectrum.     

Variations of the magnetosheath ion flux and geomagnetic activity

The magnetosheath plays a dominant role in the Sun–Earth connection because the magnetosheath field and plasma actually interact with the magnetosphere. The interactions change the magnetospheric magnetic field from its nominal value through a long chain of different processes. The change is usually described by geomagnetic indices and thus it can be expected that these indices would reflect changes in the magnetosheath. The present paper analyzes the relation between geomagnetic activity characterized by changes of the K_p, D_ST and AE indices and ion flux measured in the night-side magnetosheath. The results suggest a weak dependence of the D_ST index on the ion flux in the inner magnetosheath that is connected with a magnetopause displacement. On the other hand, fluctuations of the ion flux in the analyzed frequency range do not correlate with any of the indices.     

第22太阳周地磁活动峰值和时间的预计

本文讨论了从第13—22太阳周太阳和地磁周的特征.运用自激励门限自回归时间序列模型和最大熵谱原理自回归数学方法来模拟和预报地磁aa指数年均值峰值和时间.峰值时间是1993年秋天或1994年春天.地磁aa指数年均值峰值是26—29.第22地磁周是一个中等活动的周.     

弹性变形金属的力学化学效应与腐蚀过程相关性的研究

１根据力学，热力学、电化学的原理，就弹性变形对金属热力势和电机电势的影响，从而加速金属腐蚀的问题，进行了详细的理论分析与探讨。     

基于星载加速度计反演载人航天轨道大气密度

热层大气密度直接影响低轨道航天器的精密定轨,热层大气密度模型的误差是影响载人航天定轨精度的关键因素。选取400km为载人航天轨道的代表高度,利用CHAMP卫星数据修正热层大气密度模型,进而反演得到2002年的热层大气密度,统计其中长期变化特征,并分析大气密度与太阳活动和地磁活动的关系,得出热层大气密度与两种指数的总体变化趋势一致的结论,且地磁活动与大气密度的相关性更好。同时将大气密度的反演值与神舟三号飞船的实测密度值进行对比,结果显示二者有较好的一致性,其平均残差和均方根误差分别为0．03和0．24,并且地磁平静期的误差明显小于磁暴期。结果表明,利用星载加速度计数据反演载人航天轨道大气密度是一种有效的方法。     

Regular features of the polar ionosphere characteristics from Digisonde measurements over Norilsk

Regular features of the polar ionosphere have been studied using its local empirical model of the electron density distribution in the bottomside ionosphere. The local empirical model was derived from the hand-scaled ionogram data recorded by DPS-4 Digisonde at Norilsk, Russia (69.4N, 88.1E; 60N GLAT, 166E GLON) for a 6-year period from December, 2002 to December, 2008. The paper describes the technique used to build the local empirical model and discusses its diurnal, seasonal, and solar activity specifications in comparison with the standard IRI-2007 climatological model for the same period of time, long-term observations from the European Incoherent Scatter UHF radar (1988–1999), and the high-latitude ionosondes data. Primary focus of the paper is behavior of the three F2 layer parameters: the F2 peak density (NmF2), the peak height (hmF2) and the bottomside thickness (B0). Special emphasis of the paper is the analysis of the winter anomaly manifestation at Norilsk and the peculiar diurnal–seasonal behavior of hmF2 under low solar activity, named as a “polar day effect”.     

Sawtooth substorms generated under conditions of the steadily high solar wind energy input into the magnetosphere: Relationship between PC, AL and ASYM indices

Periodicity in occurrence of magnetic disturbances in polar cap and auroral zone under conditions of steady and powerful solar wind influence on the magnetosphere is analyzed on the example of 9 storm events with distinctly expressed sawtooth substorms (N = 48). Relationships between the polar cap magnetic activity (PC-index), magnetic disturbances in the auroral zone (AL-index) and value of the ring current asymmetry (ASYM index) were examined within the intervals of the PC growth phase and the PC decline phase inherent to each substorm. It is shown that the substorm sudden onsets are always preceded by the PC growth and that the substorm development does not affect the PC growth rate. On achieving the disturbance maximum, the PC and AL indices are simultaneously fall down to the level preceding the substorm, so that the higher the substorm intensity, the larger is the AL and PC drop in the decline phase. The ASYM index increases and decreases in conformity with the PC and AL behavior, the correlation between ASYM and PC being better than between ASYM and AL. Level of the solar wind energy input into the magnetosphere determines periodicity and intensity of disturbances: the higher the coupling function E_KL, the higher is substorm intensity and shorter is substorm length. Taking into account the permanently high level of auroral activity and inconsistency of aurora behavior and magnetic onsets during sawtooth substorms, the conclusion is made that auroral ionosphere conductivity is typically high and ensures an extremely high intensity of field-aligned currents in R1 FAC system. The periodicity of sawtooth substorms is determined by recurrent depletions and restorations of R1 currents, which are responsible for coordinated variations of magnetic activity in the polar cap and auroral zone.     

Correction of B2bot for NeQuick during low solar activity at Hainan station

This work is a continuation of the previous article and it focuses on low solar activity and modeling effort. NeQuick model uses Epstein layer formalism to model each part of the profile. We study the diurnal and seasonal variations of B2_bot, ΔB2 (B2_best − B2_NeQuick2) and R (B2_best/B2_{NeQuick 2}) at Hainan station during low solar activity. The results show it is possible to improve the B2_bot parameter of the NeQuick model at that region during low solar activity. Then, we use a function ?(t) with LT in different seasons to correct the B2_bot formula of NeQuick 2. The correction shows that (1) By the correction formula, the B2_bot of NeQuick is improved. The maximum standard deviation is improved for 9 km. (2) The correction formula is more effective in summer than in equinox and winter and performs better during early morning hours than during the rest of the day.     

Near 13.5-day periodicity in Muon Detector data during late 2001 and early 2002

In this study we perform a continuous Morlet wavelet transform method in time series of secondary cosmic rays and 1 AU interplanetary medium parameters for the interval from October 2001 to October 2002. The near 13.5-day periodicity was obtained during late 2001, and it was remarkable for muon data. Even though some works have pointed out that the main activations of the 13.5 day recurrence in near-Earth solar wind are related, e.g., with the heliosheet crossings or to the occurrence at 1 AU of two high speed streams approximately 180° apart in solar longitude per solar rotation, we aim to show that the period of about half the solar rotation during the end months of 2001 present in muon time series was apparently due to the occurrence of non-recurrent interplanetary disturbances. The interconnections among successive Forbush decreases, recovery phases and gradual muon depressions (associated with corotating interaction regions) seem to play an important role in such 13.5-day periodicity.     

Effects observed in the equatorial and low latitude ionospheric F-region in the Brazilian sector during low solar activity geomagnetic storms and comparison with the COSMIC measurements

The main objective of the present investigation has been to compare the ionospheric parameters (NmF2 and hmF2) observed by two ground-based ionospheric sounders (one at PALMAS- located near the magnetic equator and the other at Sao Jose dos Campos-located in the low-latitude region) in the Brazilian sector with that by the satellite FORMOSAT-3/COSMIC radio occultation (RO) measurements during two geomagnetic storms which occurred in December 2006 and July 2009. It should be pointed out that in spite of increasing the latitude (to 10°) and longitude (to 20°) around the stations; we had very few common observations. It has been observed that both the peak electron density (NmF2) and peak height (hmF2) observed by two different techniques (space-borne COSMIC and ground-based ionosondes) during both the geomagnetic storm events compares fairly well (with high correlation coefficients) at the two stations in the Brazilian sector. It should be pointed out that due to equatorial spread F (ESF) in the first storm (December 2006) and no-reflections from the ionosphere during nighttime in the second storm (July 2009), we had virtually daytime data from the two ionosondes.