Accurate approximation of in-ecliptic trajectories for E-sail with constant pitch angle

Propellantless continuous-thrust propulsion systems, such as electric solar wind sails, may be successfully used for new space missions, especially those requiring high-energy orbit transfers. When the mass-to-thrust ratio is sufficiently large, the spacecraft trajectory is characterized by long flight times with a number of revolutions around the Sun. The corresponding mission analysis, especially when addressed within an optimal context, requires a significant amount of simulation effort. Analytical trajectories are therefore useful aids in a preliminary phase of mission design, even though exact solution are very difficult to obtain. The aim of this paper is to present an accurate, analytical, approximation of the spacecraft trajectory generated by an electric solar wind sail with a constant pitch angle, using the latest mathematical model of the thrust vector. Assuming a heliocentric circular parking orbit and a two-dimensional scenario, the simulation results show that the proposed equations are able to accurately describe the actual spacecraft trajectory for a long time interval when the propulsive acceleration magnitude is sufficiently small.     

不同密度弹丸对水冰的超高速撞击成坑实验

为了研究冰冻天体表面撞击坑的形成与演化，开展了水冰的超高速撞击成坑实验。使用二级轻气炮发射1.0 mm直径的球形弹丸，以3 km/s、5 km/s和7 km/s速度对圆柱状冰块进行撞击。弹丸材料包括聚碳酸酯和不锈钢两种，冰块温度为253 K。实验观察到了不同弹丸和不同速度条件下，冰块中撞击坑的形貌特征。对撞击坑直径、深度和剖面形状进行了测量，并与文献中铝弹丸对水冰的撞击坑进行了比较分析。获得了水冰撞击坑特征随撞击参数的变化规律，结果表明：撞击坑直径和深度的主导机制不同，坑深主要由弹丸侵彻作用形成，而坑径主要由冰块的剥落所致；坑深比坑径具有更强的对于弹丸密度的依赖性，高密度弹丸撞击坑直径具有比低密度弹丸更强的对于撞击速度的依赖性；撞击坑体积与撞击能量成正比，高密度弹丸形成的撞击坑直径表现出“能量缩比”行为，而低密度弹丸形成的撞击坑直径表现出“动量缩比”行为。     

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.     

27-day variation in solar-terrestrial parameters: Global characteristics and an origin based approach of the signals

The Earth and the near interplanetary medium are affected by the Sun in different ways. Those processes generated in the Sun that induce perturbations into the Magnetosphere-Ionosphere system are called geoeffective processes and show a wide range of temporal variations, like the 11-year solar cycle (long term variations), the variation of ～27?days (recurrent variations), solar storms enduring for some days, particle acceleration events lasting for some hours, etc.In this article, the periodicity of ～27?days associated with the solar synodic rotation period is investigated. The work is mainly focused on studying the resulting 27-day periodic signal in the magnetic activity, by the analysis of the horizontal component of the magnetic field registered on a set of 103 magnetic observatories distributed around the world. For this a new method to isolate the periodicity of interest has been developed consisting of two main steps: the first one consists of removing the linear trend corresponding to every calendar year from the data series, and the second one of removing from the resulting series a smoothed version of it obtained by applying a 30-day moving average. The result at the end of this process is a data series in which all the signal with periods larger than 30?days are canceled.The most important characteristics observed in the resulting signals are two main amplitude modulations: the first and most prominent related to the 11-year solar cycle and the second one with a semiannual pattern. In addition, the amplitude of the signal shows a dependence on the geomagnetic latitude of the observatory with a significant discontinuity at approx. ±60°.The processing scheme was also applied to other parameters that are widely used to characterize the energy transfer from the Sun to the Earth: F10.7 and Mg II indices and the ionospheric vertical total electron content (vTEC) were considered for radiative interactions; and the solar wind velocity for the non-radiative interactions between the solar wind and the magnetosphere. The 27-day signal obtained in the magnetic activity was compared with the signals found in the other parameters resulting in a series of cross-correlations curves with maximum correlation between 3 and 5?days of delays for the radiative and between 0 and 1?days of delay for the non-radiative parameters. This result supports the idea that the physical process responsible for the 27-day signal in the magnetic activity is related to the solar wind and not to the solar electromagnetic radiation.     

A new interpretation of the historical records of observing Venus in daytime with naked eye: Focusing on the meteorological factors in the astronomical observation records

Observing Venus during the daytime is challenging. However, observational data of Venus during the daytime can be found in history books from East Asian countries such as Korea, China and Japan. In this study, we are focused on data from Korean history book, and using records left in the Joseon wangjo sillok, one of the Korean history books from the Joseon dynasty (CE 1392–1910), tries to prove whether the reported observations were actual observation data. We collected these 4663 records from the Joseon wangjo sillok to determine whether they were actual observations, and to confirm the scientific validity of the records. When we looked at the distribution of observations on a yearly basis, we noticed that there were more observations in the fall and winter, while there were only limited numbers of observations in the spring. This difference in distribution suggests that observations were strongly affected by atmospheric conditions due to the weather. From the 4663 data collected, we found a cycle of about 1.6?years. The cycle of about 1.6?years is assumed to be related to the conjunction cycle of Venus. And, we found a cycle of about 1.0?years. The cycle of about 1.0?years is assumed to reflect the indirect effects of the Asian dust phenomenon. Our research result verified the record as actual observational data. In addition, this result verified that meteorological factors were involved in the recorded astronomical observation data. We think that our data can be helpful to climate studies on the natural sources of key climate-affecting aerosols.     

Broadening of Fe X (6374 Å) profiles above the limb in a coronal hole

Profiles of the visible Fe X (6374 Å) coronal emission line as a function of height above the limb were obtained out to 1.16 solar radii in a coronal hole using the NSO/Sacramento Peak Observatory Coronagraph, Universal Spectrograph and a CCD camera. These are the first coronal line profiles obtained as a function of height in a coronal hole from the ground. Analysis of the line widths suggests a large component of nonthermal broadening which increases with height ranging from 40 to 60 km/s, depending upon the assumed temperature or thermal component of the profile.     

Spectroscopic Measurement of Coronal Compositions

Although the elemental composition in all parts of the solar photosphere appears to be the same this is clearly not the case with the solar upper atmosphere (SUA). Spectroscopic studies show that in the corona elemental composition along solar equatorial regions is usually different from polar regions; composition in quiet Sun regions is often different from coronal hole and active region compositions and the transition region composition is frequently different from the coronal composition along the same line of sight. In the following two issues are discussed. The first involves abundance ratios between the high-FIP O and Ne and the low-FIP Mg and Fe that are important for meaningful comparisons between photospheric and SUA compositions and the second involves a review of composition and time variability of SUA plasmas at heights of 1.0≤h≤1.5R _⊙.     

The Genesis Solar Wind Concentrator Target: Mass Fractionation Characterised by Neon Isotopes

The concentrator on Genesis provided samples of increased fluences of solar wind ions for precise determination of the oxygen isotopic composition. The concentration process caused mass fractionation as a function of the radial target position. This fractionation was measured using Ne released by UV laser ablation and compared with modelled Ne data, obtained from ion-trajectory simulations. Measured data show that the concentrator performed as expected and indicate a radially symmetric concentration process. Measured concentration factors are up to ∼30 at the target centre. The total range of isotopic fractionation along the target radius is 3.8%/amu, with monotonically decreasing ²⁰Ne/²²Ne towards the centre, which differs from model predictions. We discuss potential reasons and propose future attempts to overcome these disagreements.     

Sharp boundaries of solar wind plasma structures and their relationship to solar wind turbulence

Sharp (<10 min) and large (>20%) solar wind ion flux changes are common phenomena in turbulent solar wind plasma. These changes are the boundaries of small- and middle-scale solar wind plasma structures which can have a significant influence on Earth’s magnetosphere. These solar wind ion flux changes are typically accompanied by only a small change in the bulk solar wind velocity, hence, the flux changes are driven mainly by plasma density variations. We show that these events occur more frequently in high-density solar wind. A characteristic of solar wind turbulence, intermittency, is determined for time periods with and without these flux changes. The probability distribution functions (PDF) of solar wind ion flux variations for different time scales are calculated for each of these periods and compared. For large time scales, the PDFs are Gaussian for both data sets. For small time scales, the PDFs from both data set are more flat than Gaussian, but the degree of flatness is much larger for the data near the sharp flux change boundaries.     

What Determines the Composition of SEPs in Gradual Events?

Gradual solar energetic particle (SEP) events are evidently accelerated by coronal/interplanetary shocks driven by coronal mass ejections. This talk addresses the different factors which determine the composition of the accelerated ions. The first factor is the set of available seed populations including the solar wind core and suprathermal tail, remnant impulsive events from preceding solar flares, and remnant gradual events. The second factor is the fractionation of the seed ions by the injection process, that is, what fraction of the ions are extracted by the shock to participate in diffusive shock acceleration. Injection is a controversial topic since it depends on the detailed electromagnetic structure of the shock transition and the transport of ions in these structured fields, both of which are not well understood or determined theoretically. The third factor is fractionation during the acceleration process, due to the dependence of ion transport in the turbulent electromagnetic fields adjacent to the shock on the mass/charge ratio. Of crucial importance in the last two factors is the magnetic obliquity of the shock. The form of the proton-excited hydromagnetic wave spectrum is also important. Finally, more subtle effects on ion composition arise from the superposition of ion contributions over the time history of the shock along the observer’s magnetic flux tube, and the sequence of flux tubes sampled by the observer.