Noise in wireless systems from solar radio bursts

Solar radio bursts were first discovered as result of their interference in early defensive radar systems during the Second World War (1942). Such bursts can still affect radar systems, as well as new wireless technologies. We have investigated a forty-year record of solar radio burst data (1960–1999) as well as several individual radio events in the 23rd solar cycle. This paper reviews the results of a portion of this research. Statistically, for frequencies f  1 GHz (near current wireless bands), there can be a burst with amplitudes >10³ solar flux units (SFU; 1 SFU = 10⁻²² W/m²) every few days during solar maximum conditions, and such burst levels can produce problems in contemporary wireless systems.     

Coronal mass ejection detection using wavelets,curvelets and ridgelets: Applications for space weather monitoring

Coronal mass ejections (CMEs) are large-scale eruptions of plasma and magnetic field that can produce adverse space weather at Earth and other locations in the Heliosphere. Due to the intrinsic multiscale nature of features in coronagraph images, wavelet and multiscale image processing techniques are well suited to enhancing the visibility of CMEs and suppressing noise. However, wavelets are better suited to identifying point-like features, such as noise or background stars, than to enhancing the visibility of the curved form of a typical CME front. Higher order multiscale techniques, such as ridgelets and curvelets, were therefore explored to characterise the morphology (width, curvature) and kinematics (position, velocity, acceleration) of CMEs. Curvelets in particular were found to be well suited to characterising CME properties in a self-consistent manner. Curvelets are thus likely to be of benefit to autonomous monitoring of CME properties for space weather applications.     

天气因素导致的航班延误问题研究

针对天气干扰下的分季节的航班过站衔接时间优化问题,在对各个航班的潜在延误风险等级评价的基础上,通过历史数据研究天气因素导致的航班延误概率分布,求得各航班波及延误的期望,以优化前后总的波及延误之差最大化为目标函数,分别建立分季节优化松约束模型和紧约束模型,对航班衔接过站时间进行优化.最后以国内某航空公司的航班数据为算例,进行验证并比较.研究结果表明,分季节的松约束模型和紧约束模型均比原计划减少了波及延误的时间,且松约束模型的优化效果更明显.     

危险天气下航班等待与改航的实时集成优化

为了提高航班准点率,降低危险天气对航班飞行的影响,同时考虑等待策略和改航策略,进行实时空中交通流量管理的研究。以改航起始点至改航结束点间的总航行时长最短为目标,安全可行性、技术可行性为约束,建立了数学模型,并设计了两阶段求解算法,先基于遗传算法优化等待时长和改航路径,再基于"化曲为直"和"二分法"的思想调整改航路径,得到了最佳等待时长和改航路径。仿真结果表明,该算法得到的实时优化结果优于几何切线法;相比静态改航,更能提高空域利用率;相比单独考虑等待策略,总航行时长降低了17.04%;相比单独考虑改航策略,总航行时长降低了3.98%;验证了危险天气下航班等待时长与改航路径实时集成优化在实时空中交通流量管理中的有效性。     

提高航班签派或放行中的天气评估能力

在实际航班运行中,导致返航备降的各类原因里,天气因素占首位,因此,为保证航班安全、正常地运行,飞行签派员务必在航班签派或放行中做好天气的评估工作。     

超级单体雷暴下的改航模型研究

运用形态学的方法,从雷暴图中解析出飞行限制区,并以各个顶点的移动来描述雷暴天气的变化,从而建立危险天气模型。考虑到改航的可行性和便捷性,以最短航段距离和最大转弯角度为限制条件,在航线的两侧设置改航点,建立改航空间。在保证安全间隔的情况下,选择最短的改航路径,并按照航班优先等级确定各个航空器的改航顺序。仿真结果表明,所建模型可以在航路网受超级单体雷暴影响的情况下,为多个航空器规划出改航路径。     

The hydroxyl radical as an indicator of SEP fluxes in the high-latitude terrestrial atmosphere

The low background values at nighttime of the mesospheric hydroxyl (OH) radical make it easier to single out the atmospheric response to the external solar forcing in Polar Regions. Because of the short lifetime of HO_x, it is possible to follow the trails of Solar Energetic Particle (SEP) events in the terrestrial atmosphere, as shown by Storini and Damiani (2008). The sensitivity of this indicator makes discernible not only extreme particle events with a flux peak of several thousand pfu [1 pfu = 1 particle/(cm² s sr)] at energies >10 MeV, but also those with lower flux up to about 300 pfu. Using data from the Microwave Limb Sounder (MLS) on board the EOS AURA satellite, we examined the correlation of OH abundance vs. solar proton flux for almost all the identified SEP events spanning from November 2004 to December 2006 (later on no more SEP events occurred during Solar Cycle no. 23). The channels at energies greater than 5 MeV and 10 MeV showed the best correlation values (r ∼ 0.90–0.95) at altitudes around 65–75 km whereas, as expected, the most energetic channels were most highly correlated at lower altitudes. Therefore, it is reasonably possible to estimate the solar proton flux from values of mesospheric OH (and viceversa) and it could be useful in studying periods with gaps in the records of solar particles.     

The relationship between plasma effects and cosmic radiation studied with TriTel-LMP measurements during the ESEO mission

The main point of the paper is to use the simultaneous measurements of the energetic particle flux by TriTel and those of electron density by a Langmuir probe to study the question of to what extent solar electromagnetic and corpuscular radiation (galactic cosmic rays, particle precipitation from the radiation belts) are responsible for the ionization of the atmosphere. The electron density measured by the Langmuir probe is the sum of the ionization produced by the solar electromagnetic radiation and that due to the corpuscular radiation. The ionization produced by the solar electromagnetic radiation may be computed. The flux of energetic particles in an energy range may be determined by taking the difference between the threshold energy of the TriTel telescopes and the energy corresponding to the local cut-off rigidity. As the ESEO satellite will have a quasi-polar and circular orbit, the cut-off rigidity will change from low to high latitudes, thus enabling the assignment of different energy bands for the telescopes. Thus, it will be possible to determine which energy bands of particle produce ionization at different latitudes.     

Space weather center in Japan

Progress in information technology has enabled to collecting data in near real-time. This significantly improves our ability to monitor space weather conditions. We deliver information on near real-time space weather conditions via the internet. We have started two collaborations with space weather users. One is a measurement of geomagnetically induced current (GIC) of power grids in collaboration with a Japanese power company. The other concerns radiation hazards for aircrews. The radiation exposure level for aircrews was been determined by the Japanese government by the end of 2005. The proposed upper limit is 5 mSV a year. We are actively seeking ways to contribute to this subject. Our activities at the Japanese space weather center are reported in this paper.     

Propagation and interaction of interplanetary transient disturbances. Numerical simulations

We study the heliocentric evolution of ICME-like disturbances and their associated transient forward shocks (TFSs) propagating in the interplanetary (IP) medium comparing the solutions of a hydrodynamic (HD) and magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) models using the ZEUS-3D code [Stone, J.M., Norman, M.L., 1992. Zeus-2d: a radiation magnetohydrodynamics code for astrophysical flows in two space dimensions. i – the hydrodynamic algorithms and tests. Astrophysical Journal Supplement Series 80, 753–790]. The simulations show that when a fast ICME and its associated IP shock propagate in the inner heliosphere they have an initial phase of about quasi-constant propagation speed (small deceleration) followed, after a critical distance (deflection point), by an exponential deceleration. By combining white light coronograph and interplanetary scintillation (IPS) measurements of ICMEs propagating within 1 AU [Manoharan, P.K., 2005. Evolution of coronal mass ejections in the inner heliosphere: a study using white-light and scintillation images. Solar Physics 235 (1–2), 345–368], such a critical distance and deceleration has already been inferred observationally. In addition, we also address the interaction between two ICME-like disturbances: a fast ICME 2 overtaking a previously launched slower ICME 1. After interaction, the leading ICME 1 accelerates and the tracking ICME 2 decelerates and both ICMEs tend to arrive at 1 AU having similar speeds. The 2-D HD and MHD models show similar qualitative results for the evolution and interaction of these disturbances in the IP medium.