The electrical Environment of the Earth's Atmosphere: A Review

The study of the electrical environment of the Earth's atmosphere has rapidly advanced during the past century. Great strides have been made towards the understanding of lightning and thunderstorms and in relating them to the global electric circuit. The electromagnetic fields and currents connect different parts of the Earth's environment, and any type of perturbation in one region affects another region. Starting from the traditional views in which the electrodynamics of one region has been studied in isolation from the neighboring regions, the modern theory of the global electrical circuit has been discussed briefly. Interconnection and electrodynamic coupling of various regions of the Earth's environment can be easily studied by using the global electric circuit model. Deficiencies in the model and the possibility of improvement in it have been suggested. Application of the global electric circuit model to the understanding of the Earth's changes of climate has been indicated.     

Height of shock formation in the solar corona inferred from observations of type II radio bursts and coronal mass ejections

Employing coronagraphic and EUV observations close to the solar surface made by the Solar Terrestrial Relations Observatory (STEREO) mission, we determined the heliocentric distance of coronal mass ejections (CMEs) at the starting time of associated metric type II bursts. We used the wave diameter and leading edge methods and measured the CME heights for a set of 32 metric type II bursts from solar cycle 24. We minimized the projection effects by making the measurements from a view that is roughly orthogonal to the direction of the ejection. We also chose image frames close to the onset times of the type II bursts, so no extrapolation was necessary. We found that the CMEs were located in the heliocentric distance range from 1.20 to 1.93 solar radii (Rs), with mean and median values of 1.43 and 1.38 Rs, respectively. We conclusively find that the shock formation can occur at heights substantially below 1.5 Rs. In a few cases, the CME height at type II onset was close to 2 Rs. In these cases, the starting frequency of the type II bursts was very low, in the range 25–40 MHz, which confirms that the shock can also form at larger heights. The starting frequencies of metric type II bursts have a weak correlation with the measured CME/shock heights and are consistent with the rapid decline of density with height in the inner corona.     

Low-velocity detonations in cast and pressed high explosives

A model of low velocity detonations in charges of cast and pressed high explosives confined in metal tubes with thin walls is suggested. An analytical solution is obtained and velocities and pressures of stationary LVD waves are calculated as functions of the parameters of the wall confinement. The fraction of the total chemical energy transferred to maintain the shock wave and the average rate of reaction in the wave are estimated and the dynamics of transient predetonation processes are analysed. An explanation of the causes of the secondary shock wave formation in the transition from deflagration to normal detonations is suggested and the delay of this secondary wave is calculated and compared with experimental data.     

The strong stability of most natural motions

Problems of Hamiltonian Mechanics can generally be simplified by some Von Zeipel transformations which reduce the influence of short period parameters and lead to very slowly variable functions: the “quasi-integrals”; however these transformations are implicit and then difficult to use.An explicit construction of the quasi-integrals is presented here and is used to integrate the motion of an artificial satellite perturbed by the zonal harmonics of the Earth gravitational potential; the quasi-integrals are also used to obtain informations on the stability of natural satellites, i.e. lower bounds on the duration of escape or capture.     

Hermes vehicle

The presence of Europe in the future developments of spatial programs, which are foreseen, for the 1990s and further, needs the availability of vehicles, modules and all related technologies adapted to operational use of low earth orbit station.The manned HERMES vehicle shall be part of the in-orbit infrastructure realized either in the European context or in cooperation between Europe and the United States.The main mission for this vehicle will be to run a shuttle with the station that means transport and change of the crews, its safe return in abort condition and cargo transport of consumable and experimental equipment.Secondary missions could be servicing on automatic platform, making autonomous scientific experiments. Lastly, the vehicle, by means of its on-board propulsion capability, could be used to accomplish in-orbit tow and assembly missions.Studies which are undertaken now about the vehicle are devoted to the aerodynamic shape (research of a compromise between aerothermic and overall fitting), the system (functional architecture, ground and flight configuration); further works dealing with technology are presently on hand in the field of thermal protection, aerodynamics, power generation with a high massic yield.