Light microscopic analysis of the gravireceptor in Xenopus larvae developed in hypogravity.

The paper describes an investigation of the influence of gravity on the early differentiation of gravity receptors in Xenopus embryos and larvae. There is evidence that the expression of crystals in the saccus endolymphaticus was statistically greater when the embryos developed in near weightlessness (hypogravity) than on earth. The function of these crystals is unknown but they may contribute to the functioning of the vestibular apparatus.     

Conical ion distributions at one earth radius — observations from the acceleration region?

Thermal ion measurements from the Retarding Ion Mass Spectrometer (RIMS) on Dynamics Explorer 1 (DE 1) in the night side auroral region were surveyed for evidence of ion acceleration. The RIMS measurements showed evidence for ion acceleration in the 2–10,000 km altitude range, with ion distributions peaked near 90°, and with temperatures of 1 to 10 eV. Two illustrations of the RIMS data for such observations are given here. The conical distributions are found at the low latitude edge of the auroral region, just outside the plasmapause. In the first example, the three major ion species (H+, He+, and O+) show evidence of acceleration. The angular distributions are peaked at different pitch angles, indicating that the different species have been accelerated at different altitudes. The H+ flux is higher than the O+ flux in this first example, in the RIMS energy range (0–50 eV). This is apparently typical of the RIMS observations on the night side. In the second example, only O+ is transversely accelerated.     

Spatial variation for flares observed with the gamma ray spectrometer aboard the SMM satellite

We have searched for anisotropic X-ray bremsstrahlung photon production from relativistic electrons by studying the heliocentric angular dependence of 53 flares detected at energies above 300 keV. We have found no evidence for a higher rate of detectable flares near the limb at the 80% confidence level. This result implies that the X-ray directivity as defined by the ratio of photon intensity at 75° and 0° of heliocentric angle is less than 1.5 above 300 keV and strongly rejects any flare model predicting X-ray production from a radial “beam” of energetic electrons.     

Direct measurement of the composition and spectra of cosmic rays above 1 TeV/amu from Jacee

Direct measurements on cosmic ray protons through iron above about 1 TeV/amu have been performed in a series of balloon-borne experiments with emulsion chambers. The measured energy spectra of protons and helium are power laws with exponents of 2.77 ± 0.09 and 2.72 ± 0.11 in the energy range 5 to 500 TeV and 2 to 50 TeV/amu, respectively. The proton spectrum shows no evidence of the steepening near 2 TeV which was reported by other experiments. Helium has a slightly higher intensity compared to extrapolations from lower energy measurements. The heavier elements, carbon to sulfur, show a small tendency for intensity enhancement in the relative abundance above 10 TeV/amu.     

XMM-Newton study of soft excess X-ray emission in clusters of galaxies

We discuss the detection of soft excess X-ray emission in a sample of 19 clusters of galaxies observed by XMM-Newton. In 6/19 clusters evidence for a soft X-ray excess is found. Four of these clusters show soft X-ray and O VII line emission from gas with a temperature of 0.2 keV. The centroid of this oxygen line is consistent with the redshift of the cluster. The intensity and spatial extend of the soft excess agrees with previous PSPC measurements. These observations are interpreted as emission from warm-hot intergalactic medium filaments, with density enhancements near the cluster centers, consistent with theoretical predictions. In the other two soft excess clusters a non-thermal origin is consistent with the data.     

The search for extra-solar planetary systems.

I review the observational evidence for planetary systems around nearby stars and, using our own solar system as a guide, assess the stringent requirements that new searches need to meet in order to unambiguously establish the presence of another planetary system. Basically, these requirements are: 1 milliarcsecond or better positional accuracy for astrometric techniques, 9 orders of magnitude or better star to planet luminosity ratio discrimination at 0.5 to 1" separation in the optical for direct imaging techniques, 10 meters sec-1 or better radial velocity accuracy for reflex motion techniques and +/-1% or better brightness fluctuation accuracy for planet/star occultation measurements. The astrometric accuracy is in reach of HST, direct imaging will require much larger telescopes and/or a 50 times smoother mirror than HST while the reflex motion and occultation techniques best performed on the ground are just becoming viable and promise exciting new discoveries. On the other band, new indirect evidence on the existence of other planetary systems also comes from the observation of large dusty disks around nearby main sequence stars not too dissimilar from our sun. In one particular case, that of Beta Pictoris, a flattened disk seen nearly edge-on has been imaged in the optical and near IR down to almost 70 AU of the star. It probably represents a young planetary system in its clearing out phase as planetesimals collide, erode and are swept out of the inner system by radiation pressure. The hypothesized Kuiper belt around our solar system may be the analogous structure in a later evolutionary stage. Features of this type have been detected in the far IR and sub-millimeter wavelength regions around 50-100 nearby main sequence and pre-main sequence stars. I discuss a battery of new accurate observations planned in the near future of these objects some of which may actually harbour planets or planetesimals that will certainly dramatically improve our knowledge of planetary system formation processes and our peculiar position in this scheme.     

Neutral upper atmospheres of Venus and Mars

Numerous measurements of the neutral upper atmosphere above 100 km have been made from spacecraft over Venus and over Mars. The Venus exospheric temperatures are unexpectedly low (less than 300°K near noon and less than 130°K near midnight). These very low temperatures may be partially caused by collisional excitation of CO₂ vibrational states by atomic oxygen and partially by eddy cooling. The Venus atmosphere is unexpectedly insensitive to solar EUV variability. On the other hand, the Martian dayside exospheric temperature varies from 150°K to 400°K over the 11-year solar cycle, where CO₂ 15-μm cooling may be less effective because of lower atomic oxygen mixing ratios. On Venus, temperature increases with altitude on the dayside (thermosphere), but decreases with altitude from 100 to 150 km on the nightside (cryosphere). However, dayside Martian temperatures near solar minimum for maximum planet-sun distance and low solar activity are essentially isothermal from 40 km to 200 km. During high solar activity, the thermospheric temperatures of Mars sharply increase. The Venus neutral upper atmosphere contains CO₂, O, CO, C, N₂, N, He, H, D and hot nonthermal H, O, C, and N, while the dayside Mars neutral upper atmosphere contains CO₂, O, O₂, CO, C, N₂, He, H, and Ar. There is evidence on Venus for inhibited day-to-night transport as well as superrotation of the upper atmosphere. Both atmospheres have substantial wave activity. Various theoretical models used to interpret the planetary atmospheric data are discussed.     

红精灵发光光谱的数值模拟研究

红精灵是发生在雷暴层云顶的一类大气瞬态发光现象, 是能量由对流层耦合到中高层大气的直接证据. 其发光光谱研究是了解整个事件对中高层大气能量注入的重要手段, 有助于认识事件发生区域的大气电离度及事件过程的能量电子分布, 进一步为研究红精灵的产生机制提供重要信息, 同时为大气辐射背景资料研究提供重要依据. 本文利用Boltzmann方程求解了电场作用下弱电离气体中电子能量分布的时变函数, 以此为基础, 模拟计算了红精灵各典型发射带的光谱强度. 模拟计算结果表明, 约化电场E/N越强, 电子获得的能量就越多, 高能电子也就越多, 致使撞击中性大气产生的辐射光强就越强; 模拟显示红精灵光辐射谱分布从远紫外直至近红外.      

The Jovian magnetotail

This paper will review the present state of knowledge of plasma, magnetic field and plasma wave characteristics of the Jovian magnetotail, near Jupiter and to distances as great as 9,000 Jupiter radii, and from both the large and small scale perspectives. Our knowledge of Jupiter's tail, especially the distant tail, comes primarily from data from five experiments onboard Voyager 2, some of which will be presented. The Jovian tail has many unusual properties, such as the large scale sausage-string shape of its outer boundary, but shares some important properties with earth's magnetotail, such as a central current sheet and a surrounding region resembling a plasma sheet consisting of hot ions (E > 28 keV). This new interpretation of the existence of a “plasma sheet” clears up the dilemma of the so-called core regions, which we will discuss. There is a significant flow of plasma of solar wind origin in the distant tail lobes having (tailward) speeds and densities suggestive of boundary layer plasma. We will discuss tail size, estimated magnetic flux content, degree of field helicity, magnetic turbulence (in near vs. far tail regions), and evidence for the tearing away of the tail (probably by field reconnection) at the time of an interplanetary magnetic sector boundary passage.     

Monitoring the moon's transient atmosphere with an all-sky imager

An indispensable tool in terrestrial aeronomy, all-sky imaging has recently been shown to be useful in studies of the Moon's exosphere. Two days after the peak of the 1998 Leonid meteor shower, an extended region of neutral sodium emission was detected in the night sky using a bare-CCD imaging system. The feature was found to be a train of sodium gas originating from the Moon. Subsequent observations indicate the feature is normally visible (max. brightness ∼15–90 Rayleighs (R)) during nights near the time of new Moon. Monthly monitoring of the feature using an all-sky system can provide useful information about the time-variability of the lunar atmosphere. Several processes are believed to be responsible for the production of lunar Na and evidence is presented indicating that two of these processes were each responsible for the observed brightness enhancements of the sodium feature on two separate new Moon periods in January and March 2000.     

基于非开普勒轨道的高超声速临近空间飞行器自主天文导航研究

针对航天器自主导航方法不适合高超声速临近空间飞行器的问题, 研究了基于非开普勒轨道的高超声速临近空间飞行器自主天文导航方案. 论述了基于非开普勒轨道的自主天文导航机理, 通过对高超声速临近空间飞行器受力分析, 建立了动力学方程; 利用矢量倒数法则推导出空间运动方程; 设计了基于非开普勒轨道的状态模型和基于星光折射间接敏感地平的观测模型, 采用卡尔曼滤波进行了仿真验证. 仿真结果表明, 基于非开普勒轨道的高超声速临近空间飞行器自主天文导航可达到较高的位置和速度精度.      

A new eclipsing low-mass X-ray binary with a giant companion

We detected hard X-ray emission from the unidentified Galactic bulge source 1RXS J175721.2-304405 with ASCA. The observed absorption column, flux and power-law index led us to consider that 1RXS J175721.2-304405 may be a new low-mass X-ray binary located near the Galactic center. Furthermore, the X-ray light-curve shows a step-function-like time variability, which is likely due to the occultation of a companion star. Future follow-up observations by missions such as ASTROSAT may reveal a periodic eclipse from 1RXS J175721.2-304405 if it is covered long enough. Since the long orbital period suggests a giant companion, follow-up observations will give firm evidence that 1RXS J175721.2-304405 is a new and rare eclipsing low-mass X-ray binary with a giant companion.     

Debris swarms seen by SMEI

The large 3° × 60° fields-of-view of the Solar Mass Ejection Imager (SMEI) instruments are oriented on the stabilized Coriolis satellite to image most of the sky each Sun-synchronous orbit. Besides observing coronal mass ejections, the SMEI mission objective, SMEI also has detected a plethora of Earth-orbiting satellites (resident space objects or RSOs) brighter than ∼8th magnitude at a rate of about 1 per minute. Occasionally, SMEI sees an RSO swarm: a sudden onset of a large number of RSOs, many more than the nominal rate, upto dozens detected in a 4-s frame. These swarms usually last for a few minutes. A sample of six such RSO ensembles is analyzed in this paper in which the distance and the direction of the velocity vector for individual objects are estimated. We present the observational evidence indicating that the swarms must be near-field objects traveling in orbits near that of Coriolis, and that the relatively speeds between the objects and Coriolis are low. Further, analyses indicate that the RSOs are quite close (<20 m) and are generally moving radially away from the satellite. The predicted encounter geometries for Coriolis passing through or near a small debris cloud is, generally, quite inconsistent with the observations. The most likely explanation consistent with the observations is that SMEI is seeing debris being ejected from the Coriolis spacecraft itself. An analysis of distance and brightness for a subset of the RSOs indicates that the median diameter of the debris particles is ∼80 μm.     

ISEE-1 and 2 observations of field-aligned currents in the distant midnight magnetosphere

Magnetic field measurements obtained in the nightside magnetosphere by the co-orbiting ISEE-1 and 2 spacecraft have been examined for signatures of field-aligned currents (FAC). Such currents are found on the boundary of the plasma sheet both when the plasma sheet is expanding and when it is thinning. Plasma sheet boundary layer current structure and substorm associated dynamics can be determined using the two spacecraft, although for slow traversals of the FAC sheet the spatial/temporal ambiguity is still an issue. We often find evidence for the existence of waves on the plasma sheet boundary, leading to multiple crossings of the FAC sheet. At times the boundary layer FAC sheet orientation is nearly parallel to the X-Z GSM plane, suggesting ‘protrusions’ of plasma sheet into the lobes. The boundary layer current polarity is, as expected, into the ionosphere in the midnight to dawn local time sector, and outward near dusk. Current sheet thicknesses and velocities are essentially independent of plasma sheet expansion or thinning, having typical values of 1500 km and 20–40 km/s respectively. Characteristic boundary layer current densities are about 10 nanoamps per square meter.     

近壁区理论耗散率模型的改进

提出了在边界层的近壁区,采用共振三波的理论模型描述湍流边界层相干结构,由此解决了对称三维波理论模型不能处理三阶相关量的问题,根据新的理论模型对ε方程逐项进行计算和分析.与原理论模型计算结果相比,本文理论结果与直接数值模拟(DNS)符合更好.     

基于二次方程组的邻近圆轨道四冲量最优交会

研究了一种基于二次方程组的邻近圆轨道四冲量最优交会的求解方法．给出邻近圆轨道交会的无量纲化动力学方程及相应的基向量方程,介绍由Carter提出的一种基于二次方程组的四冲量最优交会的求解方法,在提出邻近圆轨道最优冲量交会的原始解、相反解、对偶解、对偶相反解概念的基础上,分析基于二次方程组的四冲量最优交会的求解方法存在的问题,并给出修正方法．仿真结果表明,该方法是对Carter提出的基于二次方程组的四冲量最优交会求解方法的有效补充．     

临近空间科学探测数据的共享与实践

为促进鸿鹄专项临近空间科学探测数据资源的有效应用,为国家科学数据资源增加新的数据成员,开展临近空间科学探测数据共享相关技术研究.依据相关元数据国家标准与规范,借鉴参考多个领域科学数据元数据的构建方法,通过分析临近空间科学探测数据的数据特征,研究设计了符合临近空间科学探测数据共享需求的核心元数据模型,从不同角度描述了临近空间科学探测数据的数据特征和用户访问数据时所关心信息,并基于该模型实现了临近空间科学探测数据资源目录服务,设计了临近空间科学探测数据共享服务平台,实现了临近空间科学探测数据的归档管理和共享分发,为使用鸿鹄专项数据开展科学研究和有效应用提供了有效支撑.      

Models of the geomagnetic effect in the earth's thermosphere

A study was made of the variations in exospheric temperature in the disturbed thermosphere as a function of geomagnetic latitude and local time and of the level of disturbance. Temperatures were derived from the N₂ densities measured by the gas analyzer aboard the polar-orbiting satellite ESRO 4. Results indicated two maxima in the temperature response in high geomagnetic latitudes that are probably associated with particle precipitation. These maxima occur near the poleward limit of the auroral belts, at about 9 and 0 hours of local magnetic time. There is also evidence of the effect of Joule heating due to the auroral electrojets in the morning and evening auroral belts. Enhancement of the temperature response in middle latitudes is observed throughout the night side and in a region centered in the late afternoon.     

Scientific results from the pioneer Saturn infrared radiometer

The Pioneer 11 Infrared Radiometer instrument made observations of Saturn and its rings in broadband channels centered at 20 and 45 μm and obtained whole-disk information on Titan. A planetary average effective temperature of 96.5±2.5 K implies a total emission 2.8 times the absorbed sunlight. Correlation with radio science results implies that the molar fraction of H₂ is 90±3% (assuming the rest is He). Temperatures at the 1 bar level are 137 to 140 K; regions appearing cooler may be overlain by a cloud acting as a 124 K blackbody surface. A minimum temperature averaging 87 K is reached near 0.06 bars. Ring boundaries and optical depths are consistent with those at optical wavelengths. Ring temperatures are 64–86 K on the south (illuminated) side, ～54 K on the north (unilluminated) side, and at least 67 K in Saturn's shadow. There is evidence for a south to north drop in ring temperatures. Titan's 45 μm brightness temperature is 75±5 K.     

转静干涉对转子叶片颤振特性的影响

在不同气动工况、不同几何模型下,采用自行开发程序对全环多排的高压压气机进行了流固耦合数值模拟,分析了进口导流叶片(IGV,以下简称导叶)对转子叶片颤振稳定性的影响。通过对气动弹性标准算例4的数值模拟验证了程序在颤振领域的有效性。针对导叶-转子模型和单转子模型,考察了近堵塞点、近设计点和近失速点3个工况下,节径变化对叶片颤振稳定性的影响,给出了气动弹性最不稳定状态对应的叶片振动形式。通过对比发现,导叶作用随工况而异,近堵塞点导叶使得转子1阶弯曲模态气动阻尼提高130.63%。研究表明:导叶引起的非定常压力波反射增强了转子叶片的非定常压力扰动幅值,使得弯曲振型的颤振稳定性增强。基于单转子模型的颤振分析给出了不准确的气动阻尼值。