The Student Dust Counter on the New Horizons Mission

The Student Dust Counter (SDC) experiment of the New Horizons Mission is an impact dust detector to map the spatial and size distribution of dust along the trajectory of the spacecraft across the solar system. The sensors are thin, permanently polarized polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF) plastic films that generate an electrical signal when dust particles penetrate their surface. SDC is capable of detecting particles with masses m>10^?12 g, and it has a total sensitive surface area of about 0.1 m², pointing most of the time close to the ram direction of the spacecraft. SDC is part of the Education and Public Outreach (EPO) effort of this mission. The instrument was designed, built, tested, integrated, and now is operated by students.     

How the astronomical aspects of climate science were settled? On the Milankovitch and Bacsák anniversaries,with lessons for today

It was 100 years ago (on August 7, 1920), that the comprehensive mathematical foundations of climate change research, written by a Serbian researcher, Milutin Milankovitch, were published. A later interpreter and developer of his results, Georg (in Hungarian: György) Bacsák (Pozsony/Pressburg/Bratislava, June 5, 1870 - Fonyód, March 4, 1970) was born 150 years ago and died at the age of one hundred, half a century ago. In this commemorative paper we look back to special circumstances in revealing the secrets of ice ages that had puzzled scientists for at least several centuries. Recently, after 100 years, the Milankovitch theory, including related short-term forcings (ranging from interannual, multidecadal to millennial timescales) has not only been confirmed, but its climate forcing mechanism has also been identified and proposed. Owing to the uniqueness of the problem, the science of the orbital forcing of climate change can be proclaimed to be essentially settled.     

Dispersive shock waves in partially ionised plasmas

Compressional waves propagating in the partially ionised solar lower atmospheric plasmas can easily steepen into nonlinear waves, including shocks. Here we investigate the effect of weak dispersion generated by Hall currents perpendicular to the ambient magnetic field on the characteristics of shock waves. Our study will also focus on the interplay between weak dispersion and partial ionisation of the plasma. Using a multiple scale technique we derive the governing equation in the form of a Korteweg-de Vries-Burgers equation. The effect of weak dispersion on shock waves is obtained using a perturbation technique. The secular behaviour of second order terms is addressed with the help of a renormalization technique. Our results show that dispersion modifies the characteristics of shock waves and this change is dependent also on the ionisation degree of the plasma. Dispersion can create short lived oscillations in the shocked plasma. The shock fronts become wider with the increase in the number of neutrals in the plasma.     

Spatio-temporal variability of the wet component of the troposphere – Application to satellite altimetry

Due to the presence of water vapour and cloud liquid water in the atmosphere, the wet component of the troposphere is responsible for a delay in the propagation of the altimeter signals, the Wet Path Delay (WPD). The high space–time variability of the water vapour distribution makes the modelling of WPD difficult, its effect still being one of the main error sources in satellite altimetry applications, e.g. in the estimation of Mean Sea Level (MSL). The understanding and the quantification of the WPD variability on various spatial and temporal scales are the main purposes of this study, in view to improve the MSL error budget. The dominant timescales of WPD variability and its correlation with Sea Level Anomaly (SLA) are examined. In these analyses, the atmospheric reanalysis ERA-Interim model from the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF) is used to derive a global dataset of daily grids of WPD, spanning a 28-year period from January 1988 to December 2015. The Seasonal-Trend decomposition procedure based on Loess (STL) is used to extract precise WPD annual and interannual signals. Linear trends have been derived from the interannual time series and the contribution of each STL component was mapped globally, allowing the understanding of the WPD variability in spatial terms. The correlation between SLA and WPD is mapped and decomposed into seasons using monthly mean grids, for a period of 21-years, from January 1993 to December 2013.Aiming at inspecting the sensitivity of the results to the used data set, the WPD temporal analysis is extended to the data set provided by the Special Sensor Microwave Imager (SSM/I) and SSM/I Sounder (SSM/IS) Sensors. The WPD from SSM/I(S) is compared against those from the ERA-Interim and from the National Centers for Environmental Prediction (NCEP).Results show that climate phenomena, especially the El Niño Southern Oscillation (ENSO) are the cause for this high variability, since they affect the water vapour and temperature. The observed trends from ERA-Interim, computed globally and over ocean regions only, allow concluding that WPD is increasing with time by approximately 0.1?mm per year, and the maximum trends are observed for the Pacific North and Indian Oceans. High correlation between WPD and SLA is found over the western tropical Pacific.The comparison between WPD from SSM/I(S) and from ERA-Interim and NCEP, allows concluding that the trends computed using only the SSM/I(S) measurement points are substantially larger.     

Pre-earthquake ionospheric anomalies before three major earthquakes by GPS-TEC and GIM-TEC data during 2015–2017

The dual-frequency satellite-based measurements from Global Positioning System (GPS) may provide feasible ways of studying and potentially detecting of earthquake (EQ) related anomalies in the ionosphere. In this paper, GPS based Total Electron Content (TEC) data are studied for three major M?>?7.0 EQs in Nepal and Iran-Iraq border during 2015–2017 by implementing statistical procedures on temporal and spatial scale. Previous studies presented different time interval of pre-seismic ionospheric anomalies, however, this study showed that EQs ionospheric precursors may occur within 10?days. Furthermore, the ionospheric anomalies on the suspected day occurred during UT?=?08:00–12:00?h before the main shock. The Global Ionospheric Map TEC (GIM-TEC) data retrieved over the epicenter of M7.8 (Nepal EQ) showed a significant increase of 6 TECU on April 24, 2015 (one day before the main shock), which is recorded by the ground GPS station data of Islamabad (station lies within the EQ preparation zone). Furthermore, the spatial GIM-TEC result imply significant anomalies over the epicenter during the time interval between UT?=?08:00–12:00?h (LT?=?13:00–17:00). For M7.3 (Nepal EQ), the TEC anomalies were detected on May 10, 2015 (2?days before the event) in the temporal data. The spatial TEC data imply the huge clouds over the epicenter at about UT?=?08:00–12:00?h on May 10, 2015, that may be associated with this EQ in the quiet geomagnetic storm conditions. Similarly, temporal and spatial TEC showed anomaly on November 3, 2017, during UT?=?08:00–12:00 (9?days before the Iran-Iraq border EQ) after implementing the statistical method on it. Conversely, there exists a short-term but low magnitude TEC anomaly synchronized with a geomagnetic storm on November 7–8, 2017 (4 to 5?days prior to M7.3 Iran-Iraq border EQ). The diurnal and hourly GIM-TEC and VTEC data also imply the execution of ionospheric anomalies within 10?days prior to all events. All these positive anomalies in TEC may be due to the existence of a huge energy from the epicenter during the EQ preparation period.     

Old-Aged Primary Distance Indicators

Old-aged stellar distance indicators are present in all Galactic structures (halo, bulge, disk) and in galaxies of all Hubble types and, thus, are immensely powerful tools for understanding our Universe. Here we present a comprehensive review for three primary standard candles from Population II: (i) RR Lyrae type variables (RRL), (ii) type II Cepheid variables (T2C), and (iii) the tip of the red giant branch (TRGB). The discovery and use of these distance indicators is placed in historical context before describing their theoretical foundations and demonstrating their observational applications across multiple wavelengths. The methods used to establish the absolute scale for each standard candle is described with a discussion of the observational systematics. We conclude by looking forward to the suite of new observational facilities anticipated over the next decade; these have both a broader wavelength coverage and larger apertures than current facilities. We anticipate future advancements in our theoretical understanding and observational application of these stellar populations as they apply to the Galactic and extragalactic distance scale.     

Fine structure of the interplanetary shock front according to measurements of the ion flux of the solar wind with high time resolution

According to the data of the BMSW/SPEKTR-R instrument, which measured the density and velocity of solar wind plasma with a record time resolution, up to ~3 ×10^–2 s, the structure of the front of interplanetary shocks has been investigated. The results of these first investigations were compared with the results of studying the structure of the bow shocks obtained in previous years. A comparison has shown that the quasi-stationary (averaged over the rapid oscillations) distribution of plasma behind the interplanetary shock front was significantly more inhomogeneous than that behind the bow-shock front, i.e., in the magnetosheath. It has also been shown that, to determine the size of internal structures of the fronts of quasi-perpendicular (θ_BN > 45°) shocks, one could use the magnetic field magnitude, the proton density, and the proton flux of the solar wind on almost equal terms. A comparison of low Mach (М _А < 2), low beta (β₁ < 1) fronts of interplanetary and bow shocks has shown that the dispersion of oblique magnetosonic waves plays an essential role in their formation.     

The Modern Near-Surface Martian Climate: A Review of In-situ Meteorological Data from Viking to Curiosity

We analyze the complete set of in-situ meteorological data obtained from the Viking landers in the 1970s to today’s Curiosity rover to review our understanding of the modern near-surface climate of Mars, with focus on the dust, CO₂ and H₂O cycles and their impact on the radiative and thermodynamic conditions near the surface. In particular, we provide values of the highest confidence possible for atmospheric opacity, atmospheric pressure, near-surface air temperature, ground temperature, near-surface wind speed and direction, and near-surface air relative humidity and water vapor content. Then, we study the diurnal, seasonal and interannual variability of these quantities over a span of more than twenty Martian years. Finally, we propose measurements to improve our understanding of the Martian dust and H₂O cycles, and discuss the potential for liquid water formation under Mars’ present day conditions and its implications for future Mars missions. Understanding the modern Martian climate is important to determine if Mars could have the conditions to support life and to prepare for future human exploration.