A Gaussian Mixture PHD Filter for Jump Markov System Models

The probability hypothesis density (PHD) filter is an attractive approach to tracking an unknown and time-varying number of targets in the presence of data association uncertainty, clutter, noise, and detection uncertainty. The PHD filter admits a closed-form solution for a linear Gaussian multi-target model. However, this model is not general enough to accommodate maneuvering targets that switch between several models. In this paper, we generalize the notion of linear jump Markov systems to the multiple target case to accommodate births, deaths, and switching dynamics. We then derive a closed-form solution to the PHD recursion for the proposed linear Gaussian jump Markov multi-target model. Based on this an efficient method for tracking multiple maneuvering targets that switch between a set of linear Gaussian models is developed. An analytic implementation of the PHD filter using statistical linear regression technique is also proposed for targets that switch between a set of nonlinear models. We demonstrate through simulations that the proposed PHD filters are effective in tracking multiple maneuvering targets.     

A Twin-CME Scenario for Ground Level Enhancement Events

Ground Level Enhancement (GLEs) events are extreme Solar Energetic Particle (SEP) events. Protons in these events often reach ～GeV/nucleon. Understanding the underlying particle acceleration mechanism in these events is a major goal for Space Weather studies. In Solar Cycle 23, a total of 16 GLEs have been identified. Most of them have preceding CMEs and in-situ energetic particle observations show some of them are enhanced in ICME or flare-like material. Motivated by this observation, we discuss here a scenario in which two CMEs erupt in sequence during a short period of time from the same Active Region (AR) with a pseudo-streamer-like pre-eruption magnetic field configuration. The first CME is narrower and slower and the second CME is wider and faster. We show that the magnetic field configuration in our proposed scenario can lead to magnetic reconnection between the open and closed field lines that drape and enclose the first CME and its driven shock. The combined effect of the presence of the first shock and the existence of the open close reconnection is that when the second CME erupts and drives a second shock, one finds both an excess of seed population and an enhanced turbulence level at the front of the second shock than the case of a single CME-driven shock. Therefore, a more efficient particle acceleration will occur. The implications of our proposed scenario are discussed.     

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.     

Practical stabilization in attitude thruster control

The attitude stabilization of a spacecraft using thrusters is considered from a practical point of view, i.e., when actuator constraints, uncertainties and failures, measurement noise, fuel consumption, and inertia matrix uncertainty are considered. A variable structure controller based on sliding modes is obtained first, which guarantees global exponential stability under actuator constraints, uncertainties, and failures. The design is based on a continuous average-proportional torque selection function and a set of feasible sliding surfaces, which may be adapted to improve performance. Exponential convergence towards ultimate bounds is guaranteed when all other practical issues arise.     

Particle filters for tracking with out-of-sequence measurements

An extension is presented to the particle filtering toolbox that enables nonlinear/non-Gaussian filtering to be performed in the presence of out-of-sequence measurements (OOSMs) with arbitrary lag, without the need to adopt linearising approximations in the filter and without the degradation of performance that would occur if the OOSMs were simply discarded. An estimate of the performance of the OOSM particle filter (OOSM-PF) is obtained for bearings-only tracking scenarios with a single target and a small number of sensors. These performance estimates are then compared with the posterior Cramer-Rao lower bound (CRLB) for the state estimate rms error and similar performance estimates obtained from the oosm extended Kalman filter (OOSM-EKF) algorithms recently introduced in the literature. For a mildly nonlinear bearings-only tracking problem the OOSM-PF and OOSM-EKF are shown to achieve broadly similar performance.     

Lower and Upper Ionosphere of Mars

The ionosphere of Mars has been explored mostly with the radio occultation experiment onboard Mariners 6, 7, 9; Mars 2, 3, 4, 6; Viking 1, 2, and more recently on Mars Global Surveyor (MGS) and Mars Express (MEX). In addition to the radio occultation experiment, MEX also carried Mars Advanced Radar for the Subsurface and Ionosphere Sounding (MARSIS) experiment which provided electron density profiles well above the main ionospheric peak. The atmosphere of Mars was measured directly by the neutral mass spectrometer onboard Viking 1 and 2 Landers. Later, an accelerometer and radio occultation experiment on MGS provided large data sets of atmospheric density at various locations in the upper and lower atmospheres of Mars, respectively. In this paper we review results of these upper and lower atmospheric/ionospheric measurements. Results of these measurements have been compared with theoretical models by several workers; therefore, we also review various atmospheric and ionospheric models of Mars.     

Reconnection Diffusion in Turbulent Fluids and Its Implications for Star Formation

Astrophysical fluids are turbulent a fact which changes the dynamics of many key processes, including magnetic reconnection. Fast reconnection of magnetic field in turbulent fluids allows the field to change its topology and connections. As a result, the traditional concept of magnetic fields being frozen into the plasma is no longer applicable. Plasma associated with a given magnetic field line at one instant is distributed along a different set of magnetic field lines at the next instant. This diffusion of plasmas and magnetic field is enabled by reconnection and therefore is termed “reconnection diffusion”. The astrophysical implications of this concept include heat transfer in plasmas, advection of heavy elements in interstellar medium, magnetic field generation etc. However, the most dramatic implications of the concept are related to the star formation process. The reason is that magnetic fields are dynamically important for most of the stages of star formation. The existing theory of star formation has been developed ignoring the possibility of reconnection diffusion. Instead, it appeals to the decoupling of mass and magnetic field arising from neutrals drifting in respect to ions entrained on magnetic field lines, i.e. through the process that is termed “ambipolar diffusion”. The predictions of ambipolar diffusion and reconnection diffusion are very different. For instance, if the ionization of media is high, ambipolar diffusion predicts that the coupling of mass and magnetic field is nearly perfect. At the same time, reconnection diffusion is independent of the ionization but depends on the scale of the turbulent eddies and on the turbulent velocities. In the paper we explain the physics of reconnection diffusion both from macroscopic and microscopic points of view, i.e. appealing to the reconnection of flux tubes and to the diffusion of magnetic field lines. We make use of the Lazarian and Vishniac (Astrophys. J. 517:700, 1999) theory of magnetic reconnection and show that this theory is applicable to the partially ionized gas. We quantify the reconnection diffusion rate both for weak and strong MHD turbulence and address the problem of reconnection diffusion acting together with ambipolar diffusion. In addition, we provide a criterion for correctly representing the magnetic diffusivity in simulations of star formation. We discuss the intimate relation between the processes of reconnection diffusion, field wandering and turbulent mixing of a magnetized media and show that the role of the plasma effects is limited to “breaking up lines” on small scales and does not affect the rate of reconnection diffusion. We address the existing observational results and demonstrate how reconnection diffusion can explain the puzzles presented by observations, in particular, the observed higher magnetization of cloud cores in comparison with the magnetization of envelopes. We also outline a possible set of observational tests of the reconnection diffusion concept and discuss how the application of the new concept changes our understanding of star formation and its numerical modeling. Finally, we outline the differences of the process of reconnection diffusion and the process of accumulation of matter along magnetic field lines that is frequently invoked to explain the results of numerical simulations.     

History of monopulse radar in the USSR

Monopulse radars have played an important role in air and missile defense systems since the development of the monopulse technique in the late 1940s. This paper outlines the application of monopulse radars in Russian defense systems, starting with the Moscow ABM system and continuing in instrumentation and air defense radars now widely deployed in Russia and elsewhere