China’s Aviation Industry: a Global Partnership Strategy

This article discusses one of the main strategies which China has implemented to develop its competency in the aviation field. It is strategic for China to boost its aviation industry via international cooperation and several models of involvement into the global aviation value chain with leading aviation industries. As it is depicted as a strategy here, it is not necessary to say that a formal strong national strategy in encouraging exists. Actually, it is clearly a way China’s aero industry takes to develop its competency and business at the context it encounters. From an observer’s perspective, it is indeed a critical strategy. This article describes this strategy via the context, policies, program cases, as well as the evolution of the cooperation models in order to synthesize the strategy.     

The Magnetic Field of the Earth’s Lithosphere

The lithospheric contribution to the Earth’s magnetic field is concealed in magnetic field data that have now been measured over several decades from ground to satellite altitudes. The lithospheric field results from the superposition of induced and remanent magnetisations. It therefore brings an essential constraint on the magnetic properties of rocks of the Earth’s sub-surface that would otherwise be difficult to characterize. Measuring, extracting, interpreting and even defining the magnetic field of the Earth’s lithosphere is however challenging. In this paper, we review the difficulties encountered. We briefly summarize the various contributions to the Earth’s magnetic field that hamper the correct identification of the lithospheric component. Such difficulties could be partially alleviated with the joint analysis of multi-level magnetic field observations, even though one cannot avoid making compromises in building models and maps of the magnetic field of the Earth’s lithosphere at various altitudes. Keeping in mind these compromises is crucial when lithospheric field models are interpreted and correlated with other geophysical information. We illustrate this discussion with recent advances and results that were exploited to infer statistical properties of the Earth’s lithosphere. The lessons learned in measuring and processing Earth’s magnetic field data may prove fruitful in planetary exploration, where magnetism is one of the few remotely accessible internal properties.     

Lightning Related Transient Luminous Events at High Altitude in the Earth’s Atmosphere: Phenomenology, Mechanisms and Effects

This paper presents a literature survey on the recent developments related to experimental and modeling studies of transient luminous events (TLEs) in the middle atmosphere termed elves, sprites and jets that are produced in association with thunderstorm activity at tropospheric altitudes. The primary emphasis is placed on publications that appeared in refereed literature starting from year 2008 and up to the present date. The survey covers general phenomenology of TLEs and their relationships to characteristics of individual thunderstorms and lightning, physical mechanisms and modeling of TLEs, past, present and future orbital observations of TLEs, and their chemical, energetic and electric effects on local and global scales.     

High-precision RCS measurement of aircraft’s weak scattering source

The radar cross section(RCS) of weak scattering source on the surface of an aircraft is usually less than 40 d Bsm.How to accurately measure the RCS characteristics of weak scattering source is a technical challenge for the aircraft's RCS measurement.This paper proposes separating and extracting the two-dimensional(2D) reflectivity distribution of the weak scattering source with the microwave imaging algorithm and spectral transform so as to enhance its measurement precision.Firstly,we performed the 2D microwave imaging of the target and then used the 2D gating function to separate and extract the reflectivity distribution of the weak scattering source.Secondly,we carried out the spectral transform of the reflectivity distribution and eventually obtained the RCS of the weak scattering source through calibration.The prototype experimental results and their analysis show that the measurement method is effective.The experiments on an aircraft's low-scattering conformal antenna verify that the measurement method can eliminate the clutter on the surface of aircraft.The precision of measuring a 40 d Bsm target is 3–5 d B better than the existing RCS measurement methods.The measurement method can more accurately obtain the weak scattering source's RCS characteristics.     

Observations and Models of the Long-Term Evolution of Earth’s Magnetic Field

The geomagnetic signal contains an enormous temporal range—from geomagnetic jerks on time scales of less than a year to the evolution of Earth’s dipole moment over billions of years. This review compares observations and numerical models of the long-term range of that signal, for periods much larger than the typical overturn time of Earth’s core. On time scales of 10⁵–10⁹ years, the geomagnetic field reveals the control of mantle thermodynamic conditions on core dynamics. We first briefly describe the general formalism of numerical dynamo simulations and available paleomagnetic data sets that provide insight into paleofield behavior. Models for the morphology of the time-averaged geomagnetic field over the last 5 million years are presented, with emphasis on the possible departures from the geocentric axial dipole hypothesis and interpretations in terms of core dynamics. We discuss the power spectrum of the dipole moment, as it is a well-constrained aspect of the geomagnetic field on the million year time scale. We then summarize paleosecular variation and intensity over the past 200 million years, with emphasis on the possible dynamical causes for the occurrence of superchrons. Finally, we highlight the geological evolution of the geodynamo in light of the oldest paleomagnetic records available. A summary is given in the form of a tentative classification of well-constrained observations and robust numerical modeling results.     

Seismic Coupling of Short-Period Wind Noise Through Mars’ Regolith for NASA’s InSight Lander

NASA’s InSight lander will deploy a tripod-mounted seismometer package onto the surface of Mars in late 2018. Mars is expected to have lower seismic activity than the Earth, so minimisation of environmental seismic noise will be critical for maximising observations of seismicity and scientific return from the mission. Therefore, the seismometers will be protected by a Wind and Thermal Shield (WTS), also mounted on a tripod. Nevertheless, wind impinging on the WTS will cause vibration noise, which will be transmitted to the seismometers through the regolith (soil). Here we use a 1:1-scale model of the seismometer and WTS, combined with field testing at two analogue sites in Iceland, to determine the transfer coefficient between the two tripods and quantify the proportion of WTS vibration noise transmitted through the regolith to the seismometers. The analogue sites had median grain sizes in the range 0.3–1.0 mm, surface densities of \(1.3\mbox{--}1.8~\mbox{g}\,\mbox{cm}^{-3}\), and an effective regolith Young’s modulus of \(2.5^{+1.9}_{-1.4}~\mbox{MPa}\). At a seismic frequency of 5 Hz the measured transfer coefficients had values of 0.02–0.04 for the vertical component and 0.01–0.02 for the horizontal component. These values are 3–6 times lower than predicted by elastic theory and imply that at short periods the regolith displays significant anelastic behaviour. This will result in reduced short-period wind noise and increased signal-to-noise. We predict the noise induced by turbulent aerodynamic lift on the WTS at 5 Hz to be \(\sim2\times10^{-10}~\mbox{ms}^{-2}\,\mbox{Hz}^{-1/2}\) with a factor of 10 uncertainty. This is at least an order of magnitude lower than the InSight short-period seismometer noise floor of \(10^{-8}~\mbox{ms}^{-2}\,\mbox{Hz}^{-1/2}\).     

Correction to: Determining the Relative Cratering Ages of Regions of Psyche’s Surface

Space Science Reviews - Analysis of Homestake, Gallex and GNO measurements reveals evidence of variability of presumed solar-neutrino-flux measurements. Analysis of Super-Kamiokande neutrino...     

Acceleration of Particles to High Energies in Earth’s Radiation Belts

Discovered in 1958, Earth’s radiation belts persist in being mysterious and unpredictable. This highly dynamic region of near-Earth space provides an important natural laboratory for studying the physics of particle acceleration. Despite the proximity of the radiation belts to Earth, many questions remain about the mechanisms responsible for rapidly energizing particles to relativistic energies there. The importance of understanding the radiation belts continues to grow as society becomes increasingly dependent on spacecraft for navigation, weather forecasting, and more. We review the historical underpinning and observational basis for our current understanding of particle acceleration in the radiation belts.     

A Review of the Effects of Non-migrating Atmospheric Tides on the Earth’s Low-Latitude Ionosphere

Solar thermal tides are planetary-scale waves in the neutral atmosphere with periods that are harmonics of 24?hours. In the thermosphere, they can achieve significant amplitude and can be the dominant source of variation in the atmosphere. Through their modification of the neutral atmosphere, they can also significantly modify the ionosphere, especially at low-latitudes where the dynamics of the Earth’s ionosphere is determined to a large extent by the neutral atmosphere. Much recent work has focused on characterizing and understanding the impact of one sub-group of tides, known as non-migrating tides, on the ionosphere. Whereas migrating tides are responsible for creating strong day-night variations in the ionosphere, non-migrating tides create longitudinal variations in the ionosphere, the signature of which can only be detected with distributed networks of ground-based observations or spacecraft. The present work reviews the recent observations and modeling efforts that have helped to characterize and explain this longitudinal variability. Emphasis is placed on the characteristics of tides throughout the thermosphere, their impacts on the chemical composition of the thermosphere, and impacts on the ionosphere.     

Nonlinear deforming of laminated composite shells of revolution under finite deflections and normal’s rotation angles

The discretization of the boundary value problem for laminated composite shells is based on the finite difference approach using the regular mesh with the constant grid step and the difference operators of the second order of accuracy. The dynamic relaxation method is proposed for the solution of the nonlinear problem. The evolutionary equations of the dynamic relaxation are constructed, and the optimum parameters of the converging linear iterative process are estimated.     

Evaluation of simulation-based training for aircraft carrier marshalling with learning cubic and Kirkpatrick’s models

Simulation-based training is a promising way to train a carrier flight deck crew because of the complex and dangerous working environment. Quantitative evaluation of simulation-based training quality is vital to make simulation-based training practical for aircraft carrier marshalling.This paper develops a personal computer-based aircraft carrier marshalling simulation system and a cave automatic virtual environment(CAVE)-based immersive environment. In order to compare the training effectiveness of simulation-based training and paper-based training, a learning cubic model is proposed and a contrast experiment is carried out as well. The experimental data is analyzed based on a simplified Kirkpatrick’s model. The results show that simulation-based training is better than paper-based training by 26.80% after three rounds of testing, which prove the effectiveness of simulation-based aircraft carrier marshalling training.     

Modeling of Thermal Perturbations Using Raytracing Method with Preliminary Results for a Test Case Model of the Pioneer 10/11 Radioisotopic Thermal Generators

Electromagnetic radiation emitted from a source carries momentum. Thus, the dissipation of waste thermal energy can produce disturbance forces on spacecraft surfaces if the energy is not dissipated in a symmetric pattern. This force can be computed for a plate element as the quotient of the radiated power in normal direction and the speed of light. Depending on mission and spacecraft design the resulting surface forces have to be included into the disturbance budget. At ZARM an elaborated method for the exact modeling of the disturbances caused by heat radiation was developed which can be used for any satellite mission with high requirements on perturbation knowledge (e.g. LISA, LISA pathfinder, MICROSCOPE). The method which will be presented in this paper is based on raytracing and finite element (FE) thermal analysis. As a demonstration of the potential of the method, preliminary results acquired with a test case model of the Pioneer 10/11 Radioisotopic Thermal Generators (RTGs) will be shown.     

Utilisation of turboelectric distribution propulsion in commercial aviation: A review on NASA’s TeDP concept

Emissions produced by the aviation industry are currently a severe environmental threat; therefore, aviation agencies and governments have set emission targets and formulated plans to restrict emissions within the next decade. Hybrid aircraft technology is being considered to meet these targets. The importance of these technologies lies in their advancements in terms of aircraft life cycles and environmental benignity. Owing to these advancements, hybrid electric systems with more than one power source have become promising for the aviation industry, considering that the growth of air traffic is projected to double in the next decade. Hybrid technologies have given future hybrid fans and motor-fan engines potential as alternative power generators. Herein, Turboelectric Distributed Propulsion (TeDP) is discussed in terms of power distribution and power sources. The fundamentals of turbofan and turboshaft engines are presented along with their electricity-generation mechanism. TeDP is discussed from a design viewpoint, with a detailed discussion of different types of hybrid electric and turboelectric systems. Examples of proposed TeDP aircraft models and numerical modelling tools used to simulate the performance of TeDP models are reviewed. Finally, innovative turboelectric systems in which electric power savers and mechanical gear changers have been discarded for weight optimisation are presented along with other prospective models, engines, approaches, and architectures. The findings of this review indicate the knowledge gaps in the field of numerical modelling for NASA’s TeDP and its capability to increase the efficiency by up to 24% with a 50% reduction in emissions relative to those of conventional gas turbines.     

Analysis and tuning of a ‘Total Energy Control System’ control law using eigenstructure assignment

The Total Energy Control System (TECS) is a complete airplane longitudinal dynamics flight control concept for autopilot operational control modes and Fly-By-Wire command augmentation for civil airplanes. Unlike conventional strategies, it facilitates fully integrated control of the airplane elevator and engines. This system, which is based on simple proportional and integral control of the energy states of the airplane, is much easier to design and understand than most conventional airplane controllers.This paper describes why the high visibility of the two input, two output command augmentation structure of TECS is an improvement over current flight control system architectures. Deriving a control law for TECS is currently a heuristic process. However, there is potential for tuning to be done more systematically, and this is examined by using eigenstructure analysis and assignment. To illustrate the concepts, a linear model of the longitudinal dynamics of the Aerospace Technologies Demonstrator (ATD) airplane is used. A heuristically designed TECS controller for this model is first described. The controlled airplane is then analysed using eigenstructure analysis and the results are utilised to produce an improved TECS controller for the ATD model using eigenstructure assignment.     

Measuring the Earth’s Magnetic Field from Space: Concepts of Past, Present and Future Missions

Observations of the Earth’s magnetic field from low-Earth orbiting (LEO) satellites started very early on, more than 50 years ago. Continuous such observations, relying on more advanced technology and mission concepts, have however only been available since 1999. The unprecedented time-space coverage of this recent data set opened revolutionary new possibilities for monitoring, understanding and exploring the Earth’s magnetic field. In the near future, the three-satellite Swarm constellation concept to be launched by ESA, will not only ensure continuity of such measurements, but also provide enhanced possibilities to improve on our ability to characterize and understand the many sources that produce this field. In the present paper we review and discuss the advantages and drawbacks of the various LEO space magnetometry concepts that have been used so far, and report on the motivations that led to the latest Swarm constellation concept. We conclude with some considerations about future concepts that could possibly be implemented to ensure the much needed continuity of LEO space magnetometry, possibly with enhanced scientific return, by the time the Swarm mission ends.