Gamma-rays from Active Galactic Nuclei: Emission processes and particle acceleration

It is argued that the high-energy X-ray and -ray emission from flaring blazars is beamed radiation from the relativistic jet supporting the relativistic beaming hypothesis and the unified scenario for AGNs. Most probably the high-energy emission results from inverse Compton scattering by relativistic electrons and positrons in the jet of radiation originating external to the jet plus pair annihilation radiation from the jet. Future positive TeV detections of EGRET AGN sources will be decisive to identify the prominent target photon radiation field. Direct -ray production by energetic hadrons is not important for the flaring phase in -ray blazars, but the acceleration of energetic hadrons during the quiescent phase of AGNs is decisive as the source of secondary electrons and positrons through photo-pair and photo-pion production. Injection of ultrahigh energy secondary electrons and positrons into a stochastic quasilinear acceleration scheme during the quiescent AGN phase leads to cooling electron-positron distribution functions with a strong cut-off at low but relativistic energy that under certain local conditions may trigger a plasma instability that gives rise to an explosive event and the flaring -ray phase.     

Late Stages of Stellar Evolution

A large fraction of ISO observing time was used to study the late stages of stellar evolution. Many molecular and solid state features, including crystalline silicates and the rotational lines of water vapour, were detected for the first time in the spectra of (post-)Asymptotic Giant Branch (AGB) stars. Their analysis has greatly improved our knowledge of stellar atmospheres and circumstellar environments. A surprising number of objects, particularly young planetary nebulae with Wolf-Rayet (WR) central stars, were found to exhibit emission features in their ISO spectra that are characteristic of both oxygen-rich and carbon-rich dust species, while far-IR observations of the PDR around NGC 7027 led to the first detections of the rotational line spectra of CH and CH⁺. Based on observations with ISO, an ESA project with instruments funded by ESA Member States (especially the PI countries: France, Germany, The Netherlands, and the United Kingdom), and with the participation of ISAS and NASA.     

Progress in helicopter infrared signature suppression

Due to their low-attitude and relatively low-speed fight profiles, helicopters are subjected to serious threats from radio, infrared(IR), visual, and aural detection and tracking. Among these threats, infrared detection and tracking are regarded as more crucial for the survivability of helicopters. In order to meet the requirements of infrared stealth, several different types of infrared suppressor(IRS) for helicopters have been developed. This paper reviews contemporary developments in this discipline, with particular emphasis on infrared signature suppression, advances in mixer-ejectors and prediction for helicopters. In addition, several remaining challenges, such as advanced IRS, emissivity optimization technique, helicopter infrared characterization, etc., are proposed, as an initial guide and stimulation for future research. In the future, the comprehensive infrared suppression in the 3–5 lm and 8–14 lm bands will doubtfully become the emphasis of helicopter stealth. Multidisciplinary optimization of a complete infrared suppression system deserves further investigation.     

A new model to simulate infrared radiation from an aircraft exhaust system

A multi-scale narrow band correlated-k distribution(MSNBCK) model is developed to simulate infrared radiation(IR) from an exhaust system of a typical aircraft engine.In this model,an approximate approach instead of statistically uncorrelated assumption is used to treat overlapping bands in gas mixture.It significantly reduces the requirement for computing power through converting the exponential increase of computing power consumption with the increase of participating gas species to linear increase.Besides,MSNBCK model has a great advantage compared with conventional methods which can estimate each species' contribution to the total gas mixture radiation intensity.Line by line(LBL) results,experimental data and other results in the references are used to evaluate this new model,which demonstrates its advantage in terms of accuracy and computing efficiency.By coupling this model and finite volume method(FVM) into radiative transfer equation(RTE),a comparative study is conducted to simulate IR signature from the exhaust system.The results indicate that wall's IR emission should be considered in both 3-5 μm and8-14 μm bands while gases' IR emission plays an important role only in 3-5 μm band.For plume IR radiation,carbon dioxide's emission is much more significant than that of water vapor in both3-5μm and 8-14 μm bands.Especially in 3-5 μm band,the water vapor's IR signal can even be neglected compared with that of carbon dioxide.     

Numerical study on similarity of plume infrared radiation between reduced-scale solid rocket motors

This study seeks to determine the similarities in plume radiation between reduced and full-scale solid rocket models in ground test conditions through investigation of flow and radiation for a series of scale ratios ranging from 0.1 to 1. The radiative transfer equation(RTE) considering gas and particle radiation in a non-uniform plume has been adopted and solved by the finite volume method(FVM) to compute the three dimensional, spectral and directional radiation of a plume in the infrared waveband 2–6 μm. Conditions at wavelengths 2.7 μm and 4.3 μm are discussed in detail, and ratios of plume radiation for reduced-scale through full-scale models are examined. This work shows that, with increasing scale ratio of a computed rocket motor, area of the hightemperature core increases as a 2 power function of the scale ratio, and the radiation intensity of the plume increases with 2–2.5 power of the scale ratio. The infrared radiation of plume gases shows a strong spectral dependency, while that of Al_2O_3 particles shows spectral continuity of gray media.Spectral radiation intensity of a computed solid rocket plume's high temperature core increases significantly in peak radiation spectra of plume gases CO and CO_2. Al_2O_3 particles are the major radiation component in a rocket plume. There is good similarity between contours of plume spectral radiance from different scale models of computed rockets, and there are two peak spectra of radiation intensity at wavebands 2.7–3.0 μm and 4.2–4.6 μm. Directed radiation intensity of the entire plume volume will rise with increasing elevation angle.     

Morphological Structure and Chemical Composition of Cometary Nuclei and Dust

The chemical composition of comet nuclei derived from current data on interstellar dust ingredients and comet dust and coma molecules are shown to be substantially consistent with each other in both refractory and volatile components. When limited by relative cosmic abundances the water in comet nuclei is constrained to be close to 30% by mass and the refractory to volatile ratio is close to 1:1. The morphological structure of comet nuclei, as deduced from comet dust infrared continuum and spectral emission properties, is described by a fluffy (porous) aggregate of tenth micron silicate core-organic refractory mantle particle on which outer mantles of predominantly H₂O ices contain embedded carbonaceous and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon (PAH) type particles of size in the of 1 - 10nm range. This revised version was published online in June 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

Infrared radiation signature of exhaust plume from solid propellants with different energy characteristics

The infrared radiation signature of the plume from solid propellants with different energy characteristics is not the same. Three kinds of double-base propellants of different energy characteristics are chosen to measure the infrared spectral radiance from 1000 cm 1 to 4500 cm 1 of their plumes. The radiative spectrum is obtained in the tests. The experimental results indicate that the infrared radiation of the plume is determined by the energy characteristics of the propellant. The radiative transfer calculation models of the exhaust plume for the solid propellants are established. By including the chemical reaction source term and the radiation source term into the energy equation, the plume field and the radiative transfer are solved in a coupled way. The calculated results are consistent with the experimental data, so the reliability of the models is confirmed. The temperature distribution and the extent of the afterburning of the plume are distinct for the propellants of different energy characteristics, therefore the plume radiation varies for different propellants. The temperature of the fluid cell in the plume will increase or decrease to some extent by the influence of the radiation term.     

冷却结构塞式喷管红外特性抑制试验技术研究

利用涡扇发动机喷管红外辐射特征模拟试验台,对二元塞式喷管的红外辐射特征进行试验研究,得到塞锥冷却对二元塞式喷管红外辐射特性的影响规律,并与轴对称收扩喷管(基准喷管)进行了对比。试验结果表明:在探测角0°方向上,相比基准喷管,二元塞式喷管在不采取冷却措施时红外特征降低了12.1%,冷气流量为1.0%总流量时红外辐射强度降低了40.8%,冷气流量为2.8%总流量时红外辐射强度降低了51.2%。     

空间聚四氟乙烯的真空紫外辐射及其与原子氧的复合效应研究

聚四氟乙烯是航天器上常用的一种聚合物材料。在空间环境效应地面模拟试验设备中 ,对这种材料开展了真空紫外辐射、真空紫外辐射与原子氧复合效应的试验研究 ,总结和分析了试验前后试样外观、质量、光学参数和表面成分等方面的变化规律 ,并对真空紫外辐射及其与原子氧复合作用的过程和反应机理做了初步的分析。得出结论 :真空紫外辐射作用下试样表面积累了碳而发生暗化 ,原子氧又将其漂白 ,这两种因素的复合作用 ,可能会使Teflon材料产生更为严重的剥蚀。