CLUSTER and IMAGE: New Ways to Study the Earth’s Plasmasphere

Ground-based instruments and a number of space missions have contributed to our knowledge of the plasmasphere since its discovery half a century ago, but it is fair to say that many questions have remained unanswered. Recently, NASA’s Image and ESA’s Cluster probes have introduced new observational concepts, thereby providing a non-local view of the plasmasphere. Image carried an extreme ultraviolet imager producing global pictures of the plasmasphere. Its instrumentation also included a radio sounder for remotely sensing the spacecraft environment. The Cluster mission provides observations at four nearby points as the four-spacecraft configuration crosses the outer plasmasphere on every perigee pass, thereby giving an idea of field and plasma gradients and of electric current density. This paper starts with a historical overview of classical single-spacecraft data interpretation, discusses the non-local nature of the Image and Cluster measurements, and emphasizes the importance of the new data interpretation tools that have been developed to extract non-local information from these observations. The paper reviews these innovative techniques and highlights some of them to give an idea of the flavor of these methods. In doing so, it is shown how the non-local perspective opens new avenues for plasmaspheric research.     

Total Solar Irradiance: What Have We Learned from the Last Three Cycles and the Recent Minimum?

The record of total solar irradiance (TSI) during the past 35 years shows similarities of the three solar cycles, but also important differences. During the recent minimum with an unusually long periods with no sunspots, TSI was also extremely low, namely 25% of a typical cycle amplitude lower than in 1996. Together with the values during the previous minima this points to a long-term change related to the strength of solar activity. On the other hand, activity indices as the 10.7?cm radio flux (F10.7), the CaII and MgII indices and also the Ly-α irradiance, show a much smaller decrease. This means that proxy models for TSI based on the photometric sunspot index (PSI), and on e.g. MgII index to represent faculae and network have to be complemented by a further component for the long-term change. TSI values at minima are correlated with the simultaneous values of the open magnetic field of the Sun at 1 AU and thus, these values may be used as a surrogate for the long-term change component. Such a 4-component model explains almost 85% of the variance of TSI over the three solar cycles available. This result supports also the idea that the long-term change of TSI is not due to manifestations of surface magnetism as the solar cycle modulation, but due to a change of the global temperature of Sun modulated by the strength of activity—being lower during low activity. To explain the difference between the minima in 1996 and 2008 we need a change of only 0.25?K.     

Selective laser melting of Al–8.5Fe–1.3V–1.7Si alloy: Investigation on the resultant microstructure and hardness

This article presents the microstructure and hardness variation of an Al–8.5Fe–1.3V–1.7Si(wt%, FVS0812) alloy after selective laser melting(SLM) modification. Three zones were distinguished across the melting pool of the SLM-processed FVS0812 alloy: the laser melted zone(LMZ), the melting pool border, and the heat affected zone(HAZ) in the previously deposited area around the melting pool. Inside the LMZ, either an extremely fine cellular-dendritic structure or a mixture zone of the a-Al matrix and nanoscale Al_(12)(Fe,V)_3Si particles appeared. With a decreased laser beam scanning speed, the cellular-dendritic structure zone within the LMZ shrank significantly while the mixture zone expanded. The a-Al and Al_(12)(Fe,V)_3Si mixture zone was also observed in the HAZ, but another phase, submicron h-Al_(13)Fe_4 particles with rectangular or hexagonal shapes,formed along the melting pool border. Microhardness tests indicated that the hardness of the SLM-processed FVS0812 samples far exceeded that of the as-cast FVS0812 alloy.     

Damage characteristics and constitutive modeling of the 2D C/SiC composite: Part Ⅱ–Material model and numerical implementation

In this work, a macroscopic non-linear constitutive model accounting for damage, inelastic strain and unilateral behavior is proposed for the 2D plain-woven C/Si C composite. A set of scalar damage variables and a new thermodynamic potential expression are introduced in the framework of continuum damage mechanics. In the deduced constitutive equations, the material's progressive damage deactivation behavior during the compression loading is described by a continuous function, and different deactivation rates under uniaxial and biaxial compression loadings are also considered. In damage evolution laws, the coupling effect among the damage modes and impediment effect of compression stress on the development of shear damage in different plane stress states are taken into account. Besides, the general plasticity theory is applied to describing the evolution of inelastic strain in tension and/or shear stress state. The Tsai–Wu failure criterion is adopted for strength analysis. Additionally, the material model is implemented as a user-defined material subroutine(UMAT) and linked to the ABAQUS finite element software, and its performance is demonstrated through several numerical examples.     

Voyager energetic particle observations at interplanetary shocks and upstream of planetary bow shocks: 1977–1990

The Voyager 1 and 2 spacecraft include instrumentation that makes comprehensive ion (E 28 keV) and electron (E 22 keV) measurements in several energy channels with good temporal, energy, and compositional resolution. Data collected over the past decade (1977–1988), including observations upstream and downstream of four planetary bow shocks (Earth, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus) and numerous interplanetary shocks to 30 AU, are reviewed and analyzed in the context of the Fermi and shock drift acceleration (SDA) models. Principal findings upstream of planetary bow shocks include the simultaneous presence of ions and electrons, detection of tracer ions characteristic of the parent magnetosphere (O, S, O⁺), power-law energy spectra extending to 5 MeV, and large (up to 100:1) anisotropies. Results from interplanetary shocks include observation of acceleration to the highest energies ever seen in a shock ( 22 MeV for protons, 220 MeV for oxygen), the saturation in energy gain to 300 keV at quasi-parallel shocks, the observation of shock-accelerated relativistic electrons, and separation of high-energy (upstream) from low-energy (downstream) populations to within 1 particle gyroradius in a near-perpendicular shock. The overall results suggest that ions and electrons observed upstream of planetary bow shocks have their source inside the parent magnetosphere, with first order Fermi acceleration playing a secondary role at best. Further, that quasi-perpendicular interplanetary shocks accelerate ions and electrons most efficiently to high energies through the shock-drift process. These findings suggest that great care must be exercised in the application of concepts developed for heliosphere shocks to cosmic ray acceleration through shocks at supernova remnants.     

Stratosphere NO y Species Measured by MIPAS and GOMOS Onboard ENVISAT During 2002–2010: Influence of Plasma Processes onto the Observed Distribution and Variability

We present observations of stratosphere NO _y species from 2002 to 2010 taken by the Michelson Interferometer for Passive Atmospheric Sounding (MIPAS) and by the Global Ozone Monitoring by Occultation of Stars (GOMOS) instruments on board ENVISAT. We jointly used observations of MIPAS NO₂, HNO₃, N₂O₅, ClONO₂ and N₂O, and GOMOS NO₂ and NO₃. MIPAS results are part of the MIPAS2D database retrieved adopting a full 2D tomographic approach. We describe the mean distribution and variability of NO _y species in the stratosphere, identifying changes induced by plasma processes. Beside enhancements due to sporadic solar proton events, we show that winter polar NO₂ has an almost linear relationship with the geomagnetic activity index Ap down to about 10?hPa. This indicates a dominant role of energetic precipitating particles in the production of upper atmosphere NO _y . The correlation has clear signatures extending to mid latitudes. Partitioning of the NO _y reservoir species are also traced, with HNO₃ and N₂O₅ showing a correlation with Ap extending to lower altitude within the polar regions. We found no large signatures of an impact of thunderstorm-induced plasma processes onto monthly means of NO _y species in the stratosphere.     

Dynamic flexural strength of Aluminosilicate glass with a perspective of impulsive and quasi-impulsive responses: An experimental–numerical coupled evaluation

The flexural strength of glass is a critical design parameter for applications encountering impact loadings. However, the micro defects, specimen geometry, loading rate, and load transformation from a quasi-dynamic to quasi-impulsive state may influence the measurement accuracy.Due to the stochastic and amorphous nature of the material, an accurate determination of the flexural strength remains a challenge. In this two-fold study, a coupled experimental–numerical strategy was devised to evaluate the dynamic flexural strength. In the first phase, three-point bending experiments were conducted on a novel ‘‘Electromagnetic Split Hopkinson Pressure Bar (ESHPB)”. The incident stress signal and fracture time were recorded from experimental data, while the flexural strength was indirectly computed from a numerical algorithm. A quantitative comparison of the flexural strength with those in existing literature established the accuracy of the proposed methodology. Results of the study indicate that the specimen response became independent of the support conditions under impulsive loading. That being said, the specimen behaved like it had an infinite span length, and the measured flexural strength remained the same whether the specimen was supported or not. Besides, the specimen also maintained contact at the interfaces of the incident barand fixture supports for the entire loading duration. In the second part of this study, the computed flexural strength was used to calibrate the existing JH-2 model. Numerical prediction of the damage propagation corroborated with that obtained from reprography images, though qualitatively. This work presents a precise and robust methodology to determine the dynamic flexural strength of brittle ceramics like Aluminosilicate glass over traditional experimental procedures to facilitate its adoption.