Latitudinal variations in the solar wind electron heat flux

Ulysses measurements of the solar wind electron heat flux as a function of heliographic latitude are presented. The latitudinal in the electron heat flux presented have been normalized by the radial gradient in the electron heat flux obtained during the in-ecliptic phase of the Ulysses mission (q_e R^–3.0). We find no significant variation in electron heat flux with latitude.     

First results from the six-axis electron spectrometer on ISEE-1

A survey, using results from the first 25 orbits of ISEE-1, has been made of some aspects of electrons in the dawn magnetosheath. There are indications that the flow of plasma is not uniformly turbulent over this region. The electron heat flux is observed to be directed away from the shock and to have an average value of about twice the interplanetary heat flux. Many magnetopause crossings were observed and usually resemble abrupt transitions from one well-defined plasma state to another. The ejection of plasma from flux tubes converted up against the magnetopause is observed for about half the time, and its thickness and dependence on the solar wind mach number agree with theoretical predictions. A full traversal of the whole forward hemisphere of the magnetosheath is required to fully confirm these deductions.     

基于Helmholtz的低感抗电子束偏转扫描线圈仿真

为了提高电子束偏转扫描频率和磁场均匀性,采用Helmholtz空心线圈结构设计了一种低感抗电子枪偏转扫描线圈。采用ANSYS有限元分析软件对偏转扫描线圈的电磁场分布进行仿真,并采用高斯计对线圈内部的电磁场进行了测量,仿真结果与实际测量值基本吻合,线圈内部的磁感应强度大小和电磁场分布的均匀性可以满足电子束高频偏转扫描的要求。实际扫描试验表明,该线圈实现了两点电子束高频偏转扫描,扫描频率可达30 k Hz。     

Observations of substorm-associated particle-flux variations at 6⩽L⩽8 with GEOS-1

Measurements made with the charged particle spectrometer of the Max-Planck-Institut für Aeronomie onboard GEOS-1 were used to investigate the behaviour of energetic electrons and ions in the dusk sector of the magnetosphere. During substorms the integral ion flux ( 24 KeV) increased whereas the integral electron flux ( 20 KeV) first decreased and later on also increased. The dependences of these flux variations on pitch-angle and particle energy are described and discussed in terms of particle drift in the geomagnetic and geoelectric fields and adiabatic energy variations. The results also provide some information on the source region of the drifting particles.     

Ion Acoustic Waves in the Heliosphere

Observations of ion acoustic waves in the solar wind during the first and second orbit of the Ulysses spacecraft are presented. The observations show variations of the wave activity with the heliolatitude and with the phase of the solar cycle. The interrelationships between the wave intensity and the electron heat flux and the ratio of electron to proton temperature, T _e/T _p, are examined. This revised version was published online in August 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

UVCS Observations of Temperature and Velocity Profiles in Coronal Holes

The spectroscopic observations of the Ultraviolet Coronagraph Spectrometer (UVCS), on board the SOHO observatory, allow the study and the full characterization of the expansion of the solar atmosphere by means of measurements of the outflow speeds and the physical properties of the wind, directly in the region where the solar plasma is heated and accelerated: the extended corona. During solar minimum, when the magnetic configuration of the corona is rather simple, the open magnetic fields emerging from the wide polar coronal holes channel toward the heliosphere both the fast and the slow wind. The fast wind flows along flux tubes with lower areal divergence than the slow wind which is guided by flux tubes characterized by non-monotonic areal expansion functions. Differences in the physical properties, such as kinetic temperature, electron density, composition and density fluctuations, of the fast and slow wind in the corona are discussed.     

The TESP electron spectrometer and correlator (F7) on Freja

The two-dimensional electron spectrometer onFreja consists of a top-hat-type electrostatic analyzer with the addition of entrance aperture deflection plates. The field of view of the concentric-hemisphere analyzer is modified from a plane to a cone up to 25° from this plane by application of bipolar high voltages to the deflection plates. Fast high-voltage sweeps allow full 10 eV–25 KeV, 500-point distribution function measurements in 32 ms. Constant-energy or limited energy-sweep modes allow time resolutions down to 1 ms.A set of electronics combines the electron data with F4 wave data to allow on-board calculations of cross-correlations between electron fluxes and wave electric fields. Additionally, a fast signal processor is capable of searching the electron pulse sequence from one or several channeltrons for high-frequency modulations in the electron flux.     

The IMPACT Solar Wind Electron Analyzer (SWEA)

SWEA, the solar wind electron analyzers that are part of the IMPACT in situ investigation for the STEREO mission, are described. They are identical on each of the two spacecraft. Both are designed to provide detailed measurements of interplanetary electron distribution functions in the energy range 1～3000 eV and in a 120°×360° solid angle sector. This energy range covers the core or thermal solar wind plasma electrons, and the suprathermal halo electrons including the field-aligned heat flux or strahl used to diagnose the interplanetary magnetic field topology. The potential of each analyzer will be varied in order to maintain their energy resolution for spacecraft potentials comparable to the solar wind thermal electron energies. Calibrations have been performed that show the performance of the devices are in good agreement with calculations and will allow precise diagnostics of all of the interplanetary electron populations at the two STEREO spacecraft locations.     

Erosion of a Polyimide Material Exposed to Simulated Atomic Oxygen Environment

Oxygen plasma source generated by thermal cathode filament discharge has been used to study the erosion process of polyimide (PI) materials in atomic oxygen (AO) environment, and their mass loss, surface morphology and surface chemical compositions have been examined by scanning electron microscope (SEM) and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) after exposure to incremental AO flux. The data indicate that the physical adsorption of AO at the samples' surface results in the increase of oxygen concentration when polyimide is exposed to AO flux. Then selective chemical reactions of groups of polyimide materials with AO yield volatile organic compounds, sample mass loss is on linear increase and carpet-like surface morphology forms. In the initial exposure to AO, the reaction occurs mainly between AO and carbon in specific location of aromatic ring, then the reaction rate of C=O groups gradually increases. After AO exposure, the oxygen concentration increases while nitrogen and carbon concentration decreases. Reaction rate of groups containing nitrogen is slower compared with carbon and oxygen.     

P70霍尔推力器新型缓冲腔磁路对预电离及放电的影响

为有效利用从P70霍尔推力器放电通道进入缓冲腔的快电子能量,考虑两个磁场特征以提高缓冲腔预电离率。一是提高磁感应强度,二是缓冲腔内从气体分配器到放电通道方向的负梯度。采用FEMM有限元磁场计算软件,在不改变推力器电离和加速通道内优化磁场特征的前提下,设计的新型缓冲腔磁路满足上述磁场特征。放电实验结果表明,在新型缓冲腔磁路下放电电流低频振荡幅值更小。新型磁路有助于延长推力器寿命,有助于电离和加速通道内电离与加速区的分离。     

The Plasma Environment of Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko Throughout the Rosetta Main Mission

The plasma environment of comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko, the Rosetta mission target comet, is explored over a range of heliocentric distances throughout the mission: 3.25 AU (Rosetta instruments on), 2.7 AU (Lander down), 2.0 AU, and 1.3 AU (perihelion). Because of the large range of gas production rates, we have used both a fluid-based magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) model as well as a semi-kinetic hybrid particle model to study the plasma distribution. We describe the variation in plasma environs over the mission as well as the differences between the two modeling approaches under different conditions. In addition, we present results from a field aligned, two-stream transport electron model of the suprathermal electron flux when the comet is near perihelion.     

Summary of quantitative interpretation of IMAGE far ultraviolet auroral data

Direct imaging of the magnetosphere by instruments on the IMAGE spacecraft is supplemented by simultaneous observations of the global aurora in three far ultraviolet (FUV) wavelength bands. The purpose of the multi-wavelength imaging is to study the global auroral particle and energy input from the magnetosphere into the atmosphere. This paper describes the method for quantitative interpretation of FUV measurements. The Wide-Band Imaging Camera (WIC) provides broad band ultraviolet images of the aurora with maximum spatial resolution by imaging the nitrogen lines and bands between 140 and 180 nm wavelength. The Spectrographic Imager (SI), a dual wavelength monochromatic instrument, images both Doppler-shifted Lyman-α emissions produced by precipitating protons, in the SI-12 channel and OI 135.6 nm emissions in the SI-13 channel. From the SI-12 Doppler shifted Lyman-α images it is possible to obtain the precipitating proton flux provided assumptions are made regarding the mean energy of the protons. Knowledge of the proton (flux and energy) component allows the calculation of the contribution produced by protons in the WIC and SI-13 instruments. Comparison of the corrected WIC and SI-13 signals provides a measure of the electron mean energy, which can then be used to determine the electron energy flux. To accomplish this, reliable emission modeling and instrument calibrations are required. In-flight calibration using early-type stars was used to validate the pre-flight laboratory calibrations and determine long-term trends in sensitivity. In general, very reasonable agreement is found between in-situ measurements and remote quantitative determinations.     

Auroral Plasma Acceleration Above Martian Magnetic Anomalies

Aurora is caused by the precipitation of energetic particles into a planetary atmosphere, the light intensity being roughly proportional to the precipitating particle energy flux. From auroral research in the terrestrial magnetosphere it is known that bright auroral displays, discrete aurora, result from an enhanced energy deposition caused by downward accelerated electrons. The process is commonly referred to as the auroral acceleration process. Discrete aurora is the visual manifestation of the structuring inherent in a highly magnetized plasma. A strong magnetic field limits the transverse (to the magnetic field) mobility of charged particles, effectively guiding the particle energy flux along magnetic field lines. The typical, slanted arc structure of the Earth’s discrete aurora not only visualizes the inclination of the Earth’s magnetic field, but also illustrates the confinement of the auroral acceleration process. The terrestrial magnetic field guides and confines the acceleration processes such that the preferred acceleration of particles is frequently along the magnetic field lines. Field-aligned plasma acceleration is therefore also the signature of strongly magnetized plasma. This paper discusses plasma acceleration characteristics in the night-side cavity of Mars. The acceleration is typical for strongly magnetized plasmas – field-aligned acceleration of ions and electrons. The observations map to regions at Mars of what appears to be sufficient magnetization to support magnetic field-aligned plasma acceleration – the localized crustal magnetizations at Mars (Acuña et al., 1999). Our findings are based on data from the ASPERA-3 experiment on ESA’s Mars Express, covering 57 orbits traversing the night-side/eclipse of Mars. There are indeed strong similarities between Mars and the Earth regarding the accelerated electron and ion distributions. Specifically acceleration above Mars near local midnight and acceleration above discrete aurora at the Earth – characterized by nearly monoenergetic downgoing electrons in conjunction with nearly monoenergetic upgoing ions. We describe a number of characteristic features in the accelerated plasma: The “inverted V” energy-time distribution, beam vs temperature distribution, altitude distribution, local time distribution and connection with magnetic anomalies. We also compute the electron energy flux and find that the energy flux is sufficient to cause weak to medium strong (up to several tens of kR 557.7 nm emissions) aurora at Mars. Monoenergetic counterstreaming accelerated ions and electrons is the signature of field-aligned electric currents and electric field acceleration. The topic is reasonably well understood in terrestrial magnetospheric physics, although some controversy still remains on details and the cause-effect relationships. We present a potential cause-effect relationship leading to auroral plasma acceleration in the nightside cavity of Mars – the downward acceleration of electrons supposedly manifesting itself as discrete aurora above Mars.     

高超声速电离绕流的数值模拟

本文从三维N－S方程出发，采用稳式L－U分解算法和7组分15个反应的化学模型，数值模拟高超声速电离空气绕流。首先采用对称TVD格式、AUSMPW＋格式和Van Leer的矢通量分裂格式计算了高超声速球头绕流，并对它们的计算结果做了对比分析。然后用前两种格式，对RAM－C飞行试验模型三个再入高度（81km、71km、61km）的流场进行了数值模拟，计算的流场电子数密度值和试验测量数据符合较好。     

电离对高超声速稀薄流飞行器气动热影响

将电离反应模型扩展到（direct simulation Monte Carlo,DSMC）方法中,研究了电离反应效应对高超声速稀薄流飞行器气动热的影响特性.针对稀薄流场中电子出现带来的实际困难,引入“捆绑法”思想处理电子在流场中的运动,并给出了电离反应模型及电离反应处理方法.在以RAM-C Ⅱ飞行器外形为例对增加了电离反应的DSMC代码进行验证的基础上,以“星尘号”探测器外形为研究对象,针对不同飞行高度下5组元混合气体模型（无电离）和11组元混合气体模型（含电离）的化学非平衡流动开展了数值模拟,细致分析和对比了电离反应效应对探测器气动热的影响规律.研究结果表明:采用的电离反应处理方案能够模拟带电离反应的高超声速化学非平衡稀薄流动.在飞行高度为60km时电离反应对探测器气动热的影响最为强烈,使探测器的驻点热流密度降低了5.12%,电离反应对探测器气动热的影响随气体稀薄程度增加而减弱.      

The Magnetic Field Pile-up and Density Depletion in the Martian Magnetosheath: A Comparison with the Plasma Depletion Layer Upstream of the Earth's Magnetopause

Using magnetometer and electron observations from the Mars Global Surveyor (MGS) and the Wind spacecraft we show that the region of magnetic field pile-up and density decrease located between the Martian ionosphere and bow shock exhibit strong similarities with the plasma depletion layer (PDL) observed upstream of the Earth's magnetopause in the absence of magnetic reconnection when the magnetopause is a solid obstacle in the solar wind. A PDL is formed upstream of the terrestrial magnetopause when the magnetic field piles up against the obstacle and particles in the pile-up region are squeezed away from the high magnetic pressure region along the field lines as the flux tubes convect toward the magnetopause. We here discuss the possibility that at least part of the region of magnetic field pile-up and density depletion upstream of Mars may be formed by the same physical processes which generate the PDL upstream of the Earth's magnetopause. More complete ion, electron, and neutral measurements are needed to conclusively determine the relative importance of the plasma depletion process versus exospheric processes.