Far-UVC light as a new tool to reduce microbial burden during spacecraft assembly

This work aims to investigate far-UVC light at 222 nm as a new microbial reduction tool for planetary protection purposes which could potentially be integrated into the spacecraft assembly process. The major advantage of far-UVC (222 nm) compared to traditional germicidal UVC (254 nm) is the potential for application throughout the spacecraft assembly process in the presence of humans without adverse health effects due to the limited penetration of far-UVC light into biological materials. Testing the efficacy of 222-nm light at inactivating hardy bacterial cells and spores isolated from spacecraft and associated surfaces is a necessary step to evaluate this technology. We assessed survival of Bacillus pumilus SAFR-032 and Acinetobacter radioresistens 50v1 exposed to 222-nm light on proxy spacecraft surfaces simulated by drying the bacteria on aluminum coupons. The survival fraction of both bacteria followed a single stage decay function up to 60 mJ/cm², revealing similar susceptibility of both species to 222-nm light, which was independent of the exposure rate. Irradiation with far-UVC light at 222 nm is an effective method to decontaminate the proxy spacecraft materials tested in this study.     

Variation of dayside chorus waves associated with solar wind dynamic pressure based on MMS observations

The whistler-mode chorus waves are one of the most important plasma waves in the Earth’s magnetosphere. Generally, the amplitude of whistler-mode chorus waves prefers to strengthen when the energetic fluxes of anisotropic electrons increase outside the plasmapause. This characteristic is commonly associated with the geomagnetic storms or substorms. However, the relationship between the solar wind dynamic pressure (P_sw) and the long-time variation of chorus waves during the quiet period of the geomagnetic activity still needs more detailed investigations. In this paper, based on MMS observations, we present a chorus event just observed in the inner side of magnetopause without obvious geomagnetic storms or substroms. Interestingly, during this time interval, some P_sw fluctuations were recorded. Both the amplitudes and frequencies of chorus waves changed as a response to the variation in P_sw. It proved that the enhancement of P_sw increases the energetic electrons fluxes, which provides free energies for the chorus amplification. Furthermore, the wave growth rates calculated using linear theory increases and the central frequency of the chorus waves shifts to a higher frequency when the P_sw enhancement is greater, which are also consistent well with the observations. The results provide a direct evidence that the P_sw play an important role in the long-time variation of whistler-mode chorus waves inside the magnetopause.     

Late Stages of Stellar Evolution

A large fraction of ISO observing time was used to study the late stages of stellar evolution. Many molecular and solid state features, including crystalline silicates and the rotational lines of water vapour, were detected for the first time in the spectra of (post-)Asymptotic Giant Branch (AGB) stars. Their analysis has greatly improved our knowledge of stellar atmospheres and circumstellar environments. A surprising number of objects, particularly young planetary nebulae with Wolf-Rayet (WR) central stars, were found to exhibit emission features in their ISO spectra that are characteristic of both oxygen-rich and carbon-rich dust species, while far-IR observations of the PDR around NGC 7027 led to the first detections of the rotational line spectra of CH and CH⁺. Based on observations with ISO, an ESA project with instruments funded by ESA Member States (especially the PI countries: France, Germany, The Netherlands, and the United Kingdom), and with the participation of ISAS and NASA.     

Relativistic MHD Simulations of Jets with Toroidal Magnetic Fields

This paper presents an application of the recent relativistic HLLC approximate Riemann solver by Mignone & Bodo to magnetized flows with vanishing normal component of the magnetic field. The numerical scheme is validated in two dimensions by investigating the propagation of axisymmetric jets with toroidal magnetic fields. The selected jet models show that the HLLC solver yields sharper resolution of contact and shear waves and better convergence properties over the traditional HLL approach.     

Emergence of a Habitable Planet

We address the first several hundred million years of Earth’s history. The Moon-forming impact left Earth enveloped in a hot silicate atmosphere that cooled and condensed over ∼1,000 yrs. As it cooled the Earth degassed its volatiles into the atmosphere. It took another ∼2 Myrs for the magma ocean to freeze at the surface. The cooling rate was determined by atmospheric thermal blanketing. Tidal heating by the new Moon was a major energy source to the magma ocean. After the mantle solidified geothermal heat became climatologically insignificant, which allowed the steam atmosphere to condense, and left behind a ∼100 bar, ∼500 K CO₂ atmosphere. Thereafter cooling was governed by how quickly CO₂ was removed from the atmosphere. If subduction were efficient this could have taken as little as 10 million years. In this case the faint young Sun suggests that a lifeless Earth should have been cold and its oceans white with ice. But if carbonate subduction were inefficient the CO₂ would have mostly stayed in the atmosphere, which would have kept the surface near ∼500 K for many tens of millions of years. Hydrous minerals are harder to subduct than carbonates and there is a good chance that the Hadean mantle was dry. Hadean heat flow was locally high enough to ensure that any ice cover would have been thin (<5 m) in places. Moreover hundreds or thousands of asteroid impacts would have been big enough to melt the ice triggering brief impact summers. We suggest that plate tectonics as it works now was inadequate to handle typical Hadean heat flows of 0.2–0.5 W/m². In its place we hypothesize a convecting mantle capped by a ∼100 km deep basaltic mush that was relatively permeable to heat flow. Recycling and distillation of hydrous basalts produced granitic rocks very early, which is consistent with preserved >4 Ga detrital zircons. If carbonates in oceanic crust subducted as quickly as they formed, Earth could have been habitable as early as 10–20 Myrs after the Moon-forming impact.     

声重波激发的赤道Spread—F的拓扑特性研究

本文对声重波激发的Spread-F扰动的非线性制约方程的拓扑特性进行了定性讨论和数值计算．研究了Spread-F的混沌特征及参数范围．结果表明声重波在不同条件时对Spread-F的激发作用有本质的不同．     

太阳风质子束流的演化

太阳神飞船观测表明，太阳风高速流中质子束分量相对于核分量的密度随日心距离增加而增加．提出解释这一观测现象的机理并给出二维数值模拟结果．由于阿尔芬波速随日心距离增加而减少，第二支左旋波将与更多的质子共振，把部分原来属于核分布的质子拉到束分布中来．用数值模拟方程方法求解回旋波共振导致的准线性扩散方程，数值结果与观测结果相符合．     

极区中层惯性重力波的VHF雷达观测

本文采用ＳＯＵＳＹＶＨＦ雷达１９８７年６月在挪威Ａｎｄｏｐｖａ（６９°Ｎ，１０°Ｅ）的观测数据，研究中层惯性重力波的传播特征．几个周期为数小时的准单色波例子，在垂直方向上有确定的相位移动，表明它们是惯性内重力波．通过分析波相关的流体速度东向和北向分量的变化，获得水平传播矢量的大小和方向，它们与中层高度上典型的观测值一致．同时还观察到三个等相面上行的惯性重力波，其速度偏振椭圆是逆时针旋转的．波相关的扰动速度为１５－４０ｍ／ｓ，说明在中层存在强烈的向下的能量传输．估算出它的运动学参量，周期为数小时，垂直相速度在０．ｌ—０．６ｍ／ｓ之间，垂直波长约为６．０ｋｍ．     

边界层流动的非平行稳定性研究

采用极为有效的抛物化稳定性方程（PSE）方法研究边界民支的非平行稳定性。并利用抛物线坐标变换、有限远延拓边界条件、及流向和法向全差分的数值方法，对不同频率的二维Tollmien-Schichting波的非平行稳定尾进行了计算和分析，计算结果与Orr-Sommerfeld方程（OES）的解以及谱配置方法的PSE结果作了详细的比较，得到了满意的结果。