On the Origin of the Strong Intermittent Nature of Interplanetary Magnetic Field

We briefly discuss the strong intermittent nature of the interplanetary magnetic field, observing that similarity between its statistical properties and the passive scalar ones exists, and may arise from different dynamical mechanisms.     

Shocks: Commonalities in Solar-Terrestrial Chains

Shocks are found throughout the heliosphere, wherever supersonic (or super-magnetosonic) flows encounter obstacles or other, slowly moving, media. Although some of the physical parameters are in different regimes, all shocks heat and decelerate the media incident upon them. Most shocks must propagate in a collisionless plasma, thereby adding importance to the particle interactions with the electromagnetic fields, and enabling some particles to be accelerated to high energies. This paper explores the commonalities, and differences, in shocks throughout the heliosphere, and concentrates on the role of shock microstructure in effecting the shock transition and in governing the resulting energy partition amongst the constituent species. Shocks play a significant role in the solar-terrestrial chain.     

Magnetic Reconnection Phenomena In Interplanetary Space

Interplanetary magnetic reconnection(IMR) phenomena are explored based on the observational data with various time resolutions from Helios, IMP-8, ISEE3, Wind, etc. We discover that the observational evidence of the magnetic reconnection may be found in the various solar wind structures, such as at the boundary of magnetic cloud, near the current sheet, and small-scale turbulence structures, etc. We have developed a third order accuracy upwind compact difference scheme to numerically study the magnetic reconnection phenomena with high-magnetic Reynolds number (R _M=2000–10000) in interplanetary space. The simulated results show that the magnetic reconnection process could occur under the typical interplanetary conditions. These obtained magnetic reconnection processes own basic characteristics of the high R _M reconnection in interplanetary space, including multiple X-line reconnection, vortex velocity structures, filament current systems, splitting, collapse of plasma bulk, merging and evolving of magnetic islands, and lifetime in the range from minutes to hours, etc. These results could be helpful for further understanding the interplanetary basic physical processes. This revised version was published online in August 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

多重激波的数值模拟研究

本文用一维混合粒子模拟Code研究了包括中间激波在内的多重激波.模拟了四种情形,可以分为两类:(1)由快激波和中间激波构成的两重激波,(2)快激波、中间激波和慢激波构成的三重激波.结果表明:多重激波是不稳定的,它趋向于发展成磁流体旋转间断和MHD波,左旋圆偏振波逐渐在上游区内发展起来.文章对导致多重激波不稳定性的可能原因进行了简单的讨论.     

Interplanetary shocks and geomagnetic activity during solar maximum (2000) and solar minimum (1995–1996)

Plasma and magnetic field parameter variations through fast forward interplanetary shocks were correlated with the peak geomagnetic activity index Dst in a period from 0 to 3 days after the shock, during solar maximum (2000) and solar minimum (1995–1996). Solar wind speed (V) and total magnetic field (B_t) were the parameters with higher correlations with peak Dst index. The correlation coefficients were higher during solar minimum (r² = 56% for V and 39% for B_t) than during solar maximum (r² = 15% for V and 12% for B_t). A statistical distribution of geomagnetic activity levels following interplanetary shocks was obtained. It was observed that during solar maximum, 36% and 28% of interplanetary shocks were followed by intense (Dst  −100 nT) and moderate (−50  Dst < −100 nT) geomagnetic activity, whereas during solar minimum 13% and 33% of the shocks were followed by intense and moderate geomagnetic activity. It can be concluded that the upstream/downstream variations of V and B_t through the shocks were the parameters better correlated with geomagnetic activity level, and during solar maximum a higher relative number of interplanetary shocks can be followed by intense geomagnetic activity than during solar minimum. One can extrapolate, for forecasting goals, that during a whole solar cycle a shock has a probability of around 50% to be followed by intense/moderate geomagnetic activity.     

最优两脉冲行星际轨道转移优化算法

 研究了最优两脉冲轨道转移问题。以行星际飞行为背景，结合状态转移矩阵和古典变分理论，推导了两脉冲行星际轨道转移的性能指标对可调参数的解析偏导数,并利用这些解析偏导数提出了一种快速的两脉冲轨道转移优化算法。解决了传统两脉冲行星际转移轨道优化算法中存在的计算速度慢,无法控制计算精度的问题。最后，以地球-火星轨道转移为例，将提出的优化算法计算的结果与传统的“能量等高线法”的计算结果进行对比，验证了此算法的正确性和快速性。     

Reverse shock acceleration of electrons and protons at mid-heliolatitudes from 5.3-3.8 AU

We examine the intensity, anisotropy and energy spectrum of 480–966 keV protons and 38–315 keV electrons observed by the HI-SCALE instrument on Ulysses associated with Corotating Interaction Regions (CIR) from mid-1992 to early 1994. The particle events are most clearly ordered by the reverse shocks bounding the CIRs. The bulk of the ion fluxes appear either straddling, or with their maximum intensity following, the reverse shock. The electron intensities rise sharply to their maximum upon the passage of the reverse shock, and are delayed with respect to the protons. We believe that following acceleration at the reverse shock the electrons re-enter the inner heliosphere and mirror, to return to the reverse shock for repeated acceleration. This process is more effective for electrons (vc/2) than for ions, and also favours the higher velocity electrons, which accounts for the observed spectral hardening with latitude.     

一种新的计算非稳态流动的自适应无网格方法

基于带权点填充布点方法,结合指定流场参数梯度的分布,提出了一种新的无网格自适应方法计算非稳态问题。该方法的自适应探测器 E 由节点的权重和参数梯度组成。使用自适应探测器识别出加密或者粗化的区域,形成加密空腔和粗化空腔,然后重新填充布点。新节点的权重由自适应探测器 E 结合该处的梯度大小通过预测-校正迭代算法计算得到。另外,由于参数梯度在激波附近波动范围比较大,所以新节点的权重存在最大值和最小值。首先对预先设置压强梯度的流场区域进行自适应布点,并与传统自适应布点结果进行对比,点云分布图显示所提自适应方法重新生成的点云结构疏密分布更加合理。进一步,将此自适应方法应用于 Riemann 问题和激波碰撞圆柱问题,计算结果表明该方法可以在节点数目较低的情况下显著提高运动激波的分辨率。在激波碰撞圆柱问题中,比较了使用自适应算法和非自适应算法得到相当的结果所使用时间,前者是后者的20.6%,因此该自适应算法在计算效率方面也具有较大的优势。     

Working Group 3 Report: Coronal Hole Boundaries and Interactions with Adjacent Regions

Summarized below are the discussions of working group 3 on "Coronal hole boundaries and interactions with adjacent regions" which took place at the 7th SOHO workshop in Northeast Harbor, Maine, USA, 28 September to 1 October 1998. A number of recent observational and theoretical results were presented during the discussions to shed light on different aspects of coronal hole boundaries. The working group also included presentations on streamers and coronal holes to emphasis the difference between the plasma properties in these regions, and to serve as guidelines for the definition of the boundaries. Observations, particularly white light observations, show that multiple streamers are present close to the solar limb at all times. At some distance from the sun, typically below 2 R, these streamers merge into a relatively narrow sheet as seen, for example, in LASCO and UVCS images. The presence of multiple current sheets in interplanetary space was also briefly addressed. Coronal hole boundaries were defined as the abrupt transition from the bright appearing plasma sheet to the dark coronal hole regions. Observations in the inner corona seem to indicate a transition of typically 10 to 20 degrees, whereas observations in interplanetary space, carried out from Ulysses, show on one hand an even faster transition of less than 2 degrees which is in agreement with earlier Helios results. On the other hand, these observations also show that the transition happens on different scales, some of which are significantly larger. The slow solar wind is connected to the streamer belt/plasma sheet, even though the discussions were still not conclusive on the point where exactly the slow solar wind originates. Considered the high variability of plasma characteristics in slow wind streams, it seems most likely that several types of coronal regions produce slow solar wind, such as streamer stalks, streamer legs and open field regions between active regions, and maybe even regions just inside of the coronal holes. Observational and theoretical studies presented during the discussions show evidence that each of these regions may indeed contribute to the solar slow wind. This revised version was published online in June 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

改进的Tour-Map借力飞行图形设计方法

针对借力飞行轨道初始设计阶段的任务需求,提出一种改进的Tour-Map借力飞行图形设计方法,用于分析借力效果,确定借力方案和设计参数初值.在圆锥曲线拼接假设基础上,建立了借力飞行超越速度矢量和借力天体位置、速度的几何模型,推导了借力后日心轨道要素的解析表达式,并将分析结果绘制成经纬度坐标的Tour-Map轨道要素等高线图,图中综合了借力飞行后大量可行的日心转移轨道信息,为分析借力飞行的作用提供了形象的参考.将其应用在木星借力太阳高纬度探测轨道设计中,证明了方法的有效性和实用性.