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.     

一种具有较强泛化能力的神经网络模型研究与应用

分析了影响神经网络模型泛化能力的因素。以电解铝过程中氧化铝浓度的神经网络软测量为例 ,提出了利用先验知识确定网络结构 ,采用特定实验保证样本数量和质量 ,离线训练加在线学习修正模型等措施 ,改善神经网络模型的泛化能力。现场应用表明这些措施是有效的。这样建立的神经网络模型准确 ,泛化能力强 ,为实现过程的先进控制提供了可靠保障     

激光宏观结构化金刚石砂轮磨削氧化铝工艺

为了研究砂轮表面结构化对砂轮磨削性能的影响,利用脉冲激光对树脂结合剂金刚石砂轮进行了表面宏观结构化。采用6种不同类型的金刚石砂轮表面宏观结构进行了氧化铝的磨削实验,建立了激光宏观结构化金刚石砂轮的磨削力模型,比较了6种不同激光宏观结构化金刚石砂轮与非结构化砂轮在不同磨削参数下磨削力的差异,分析了砂轮制造后的表面形貌与结构化砂轮的磨损特性。实验结果表明,砂轮宏观结构化对磨削性能有很大影响,激光宏观结构化砂轮的磨削力可以减小2. 5%~24. 5%,砂轮结构化后的表面形貌出现石墨化现象;宏观结构化砂轮沟槽边缘磨损加剧,但沟槽磨损并没有明显加快宏观结构化砂轮的磨损。     

低浸渗压力制备短纤维增强铝硅合金复合材料

利用液态浸渗技术制备了氧化铝纤维增强铝基复合材料。结果表明，在低压下使液态合金浸渗纤维预制件制备铝基复合材料是可行的，在浸渗过程中，液态合金的温度对浸渗压力有较大影响。所制备的复合材料组织均匀，基体中的共晶组织可依附在纤维表面形核生长。     

Grinding performance evaluation of porous composite-bonded CBN wheels for Inconel 718

For high-efficiency grinding of difficult-to-cut materials such as titanium and nickel alloys, a high porosity is expected and also a sufficient mechanical strength to satisfy the function.However, the porosity increase is a disadvantage to the mechanical strength. As a promising pore forming agent, alumina bubbles are firstly induced into the abrasive layer to fabricate porous cubic boron nitride（CBN） wheels. When the wheel porosity reaches 45%, the bending strength is still high up to 50 MPa with modified orderly pore distribution. A porous CBN wheel was fabricated with a total porosity around 30%. The grinding performance of the porous composite-bonded CBN wheel was evaluated in terms of specific force, specific grinding energy, and grinding temperature, which were better than those of the vitrified one under the same grinding conditions. Compared to the vitrified CBN wheel, clear straight cutting grooves and less chip adhesion are observed on the ground surface and there is also no extensive loading on the wheel surface after grinding.     

Occurrence of equatorial plasma bubbles over Kolhapur

This paper reports the nightglow observations of OI 630.0 nm emissions, made by using all sky imager operating at low latitude station Kolhapur (16.8°N, 74.2°E and dip lat. 10.6°N) during high sunspot number years of 24th solar cycle. The images are analyzed to study the nocturnal, seasonal and solar activity dependence occurrence of plasma bubbles. We observed EPBs in images regularly during a limited period 19:30 to 02:30 LT and reach maximum probability of occurrence at 22:30 LT. The observation pattern of EPBs shows nearly no occurrence during the month of May and it maximizes during the period October–April. The equinox and solstice seasonal variations in the occurrence of plasma bubbles show nearly equal and large differences, respectively, between years of 2010–11 and 2011–12.     

Total electron content of the ionosphere at two stations in East Africa during the 24–25 October 2011 geomagnetic storm

The equatorial ionosphere has been known to become highly disturbed and thus rendering space-based navigation unreliable during space weather events, such as geomagnetic storms. Modern navigation systems, such as the Global Positioning System (GPS) use radio-wave signals that reflect from or propagate through the ionosphere as a means of determining range or distance. Such systems are vulnerable to effects caused by geomagnetic storms, and their performance can be severely degraded. This paper analyses total electron content (TEC) and the corresponding GPS scintillations using two GPS SCINDA receivers located at Makerere University, Uganda (Lat: 0.3^o N; Lon: 32.5^o E) and at the University of Nairobi, Kenya (Lat: 1.3^o S; Lon: 36.8^o E), both in East Africa. The analysis shows that the scintillations actually correspond to plasma bubbles. The occurrence of plasma bubbles at one station was correlated with those at the other station by using observations from the same satellite. It was noted that some bubbles develop at one station and presumably “die off” before reaching the other station. The paper also discusses the effects of the geomagnetic storm of the 24–25 October 2011 on the ionospheric TEC at the two East African stations. Reductions in the diurnal TEC at the two stations during the period of the storm were observed and the TEC depletions observed during that period showed much deeper depletions than on the non-storm days. The effects during the storm have been attributed to the uplift of the ionospheric plasma, which was then transported away from this region by diffusion along magnetic field lines.     

DIRECT NUMERICAL SIMULATIONS OF MULTIPHASE FLOWS

INTRODUCTIONMultiphase and multifluid flows are commonin many natural and technologically importantprocesses. Rain,spray combustion,spray paint-ing,and boiling heat transfer are just a few ex-amples.While it is the overall,integral charac-teristics of such flows that are of most interest,the global behavior is determined to a large de-gree by the evolution of the smallestscales in theflow.The combustion of sprays,for example,depends on the size and the number density ofthe drops.Generally…     

Radiative properties of alumina/aluminum particles and influence on radiative heat transfer in solid rocket motor

The thermal radiation of micron-sized condensed phase particles plays a dominant role during the heat transfer process in aluminized Solid Rocket Motors（SRMs）. Open research mainly focuses on the radiative properties of alumina particles while the study considering the presence of aluminum is lacking. In addition, the thermal radiation inside the SRM with consideration of the participating particles is seldom studied. In this work, the multiscale method of predicting the thermal environment insi...     

Four-peak longitudinal distribution of the equatorial plasma bubbles observed in the topside ionosphere: Possible troposphere tide influence

In this paper we consider an idea of the troposphere tide influence on the character of the longitudinal variations in the distribution of the equatorial plasma bubbles (EPBs) observed in the topside ionosphere. For this purpose, the obtained EPB longitudinal patterns were compared with the thermosphere and ionosphere characteristics having the prominent “wave-like” longitudinal structures with wave number 4, which are uniquely associated with the influence of the troposphere DE3 tides. The characteristics of the equatorial mass density anomaly (EMA), equatorial ionization anomaly (EIA), zonal wind and pre-reversal E?×?B drift enhancement (PRE) were used for comparison. The equinox seasons during high solar activity were under consideration. It was obtained that the longitudinal patterns of the EMA and zonal wind show the surprising similarity with the EPB distributions (R???0.8, R???0.72). On the other hand, the resemblance with the ionosphere characteristics (EIA, PRE) is rather faint (R???0.37, R???0.12). It was shown that the thermosphere zonal winds are the most possible transfer mediator of the troposphere DE3 tide influence. The most successful moment for the transfer of the troposphere DE3 tide energy takes place in the beginning of the EPB production, namely, during the seed perturbation development.