Calculation of tractive nozzle characteristics with altitude compensation

The numerical calculations of flows in conical and contoured nozzles with slots in the supersonic part that operate under overexpansion conditions are presented. The calculations were made with the aid of the authors’ algorithm and program of simulating turbulent two-dimensional (axisymmetric) flows of a viscous heat-conducting gas. The results of computational investigations of tractive slot nozzle characteristics and the amount of combustion product leakage from an annular slot depending on the flight altitude are given. It is shown that the flight altitude at which the gas flow through the annular slot is “chocked” depends on its size and location in the supersonic nozzle part.     

Electric currents from thunderstorms to the ionosphere during a solar cycle: Quasi-static modeling of the coupling mechanism

Conduction and displacement currents, and their sum the Maxwell current, generated over a thunderstorm (TS) with recurrent lightning discharges are investigated theoretically. The aim is to study better the influence of different factors on these currents, which form the link between thunderstorms and the ionosphere in the global atmospheric electrical circuit. The factors studied concern the thunderstorm characteristics (the charge separation current, and the lightning discharge parameters), as well as the atmospheric and cloud conductivity. Some of these factors may show long-term changes with the 11-year solar cycle, possibly realized through an inverse dependence of the cosmic ray flux on solar activity. Earlier investigations have suggested that the lightning-related charge redistribution and subsequent relaxation, rather than the high intensity current, is mainly the source of the energy coupled to the ionosphere. With respect to this, a quasi-electrostatic analytical model is proposed, based on Maxwell’s equations. The currents are generated by a TS modeled as a positive vertical dipole with charges which are first accumulated and then destroyed by lightning. Our computations show that the mean and peak values of the conduction and total Maxwell currents to the ionosphere depend significantly on the charge moment change. The mean currents are also sensitive to the reduction of the conductivity in thunderclouds. Small variations of the stratospheric conductivity (20% at geomagnetic latitude 40° and 40–50% at 55°) with the solar activity do not influence the currents to the ionosphere very much.     

Analytical approach to cosmic ray ionization by nuclei with charge Z in the middle atmosphere – Distribution of galactic CR effects

The effects of galactic and solar cosmic rays (CR) in the middle atmosphere are considered in this work. A new analytical approach for CR ionization by protons and nuclei with charge Z in the lower ionosphere and middle atmosphere is developed in this paper. For this purpose the ionization losses (dE/dh) according to the Bohr–Bethe–Bloch formula for the energetic charged particles are approximated in three different energy intervals. More accurate expressions for energy decrease E(h) and electron production rate profiles q(h) are derived. The obtained formulas allow comparatively easy computer programming. The integrand in q(h) gives the possibility for application of adequate numerical methods – such as Romberg method or Gauss quadrature, for the solution of the mathematical problem. On this way the process of interaction of cosmic ray particles with the upper, middle and lower atmosphere will be described much more realistically. Computations for cosmic ray ionization in the middle atmosphere are made. The full CR composition is taken into account: protons, Helium (α-particles), light L, medium M, heavy H and very heavy VH group of nuclei.     

Host–parasite interactions in closed and open microbial cultivation system

The study addresses interaction of bacteria and phages in the host–parasite system in batch and continuous cultures. The study system consists of the auxotrophic strain of Brevibacterium – Brevibacterium sp. 22L – and the bacteriophage of Brevibacterium sp., isolated from the soil by the enrichment method.

1.

Closed system. In the investigation of the relationship between the time of bacterial lysis and multiplicity of phage infection it has been found that at a lower phage amount per cell it takes a longer time for the lysis of the culture to become discernible. Another important factor determining cytolysis in liquid medium is the physiological state of bacterial population. Specific growth rate of bacteria at the moment of phage infection has been chosen as an indicator of the physiological state of bacteria. It has been shown that the shortest latent period and the largest output of the phage are observed during the logarithmic growth phase of bacteria grown under favorable nutrient conditions. In the stationary phase, bacterial cells become “a bad host” for the phage, whose reproduction rate decreases, and the lysis either slows down significantly or does not occur at all.     

High resolution science with high redshift galaxies

We summarize the high-resolution science that has been done on high redshift galaxies with Adaptive Optics (AO) on the world’s largest ground-based facilities and with the Hubble Space Telescope (HST). These facilities complement each other. Ground-based AO provides better light gathering power and in principle better resolution than HST, giving it the edge in high spatial resolution imaging and high resolution spectroscopy. HST produces higher quality, more stable PSF’s over larger field-of-views in a much darker sky-background than ground-based AO, and yields deeper wide-field images and low-resolution spectra than the ground. Faint galaxies have steadily decreasing sizes at fainter fluxes and higher redshifts, reflecting the hierarchical formation of galaxies over cosmic time. HST has imaged this process in great structural detail to z  6, and ground-based AO and spectroscopy has provided measurements of their masses and other physical properties with cosmic time. Last, we review how the 6.5 m James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) will measure First Light, reionization, and galaxy assembly in the near–mid-IR after 2013.     

Field emission characteristics of gold dust grains

The space plasma environment usually contains charged dust grains. The grain charge is an important parameter determining its migration through the space, coagulation, formation of dust clouds and so on. The knowledge of its charge is thus one of the basic information we want to know. There are several emission processes leading to both positive and negative charges, among others photoemission, all kinds of secondary emissions, field emissions, etc. The present study is focused on a laboratory simulation of emissions caused by impacts by energetic ions. Our experiment is based on the Paul trap which gives us an opportunity to catch a single dust grain for several days inside the vacuum vessel and exposed it by electron/ion beams. This experimental approach allows us to separate an individual charging process. We have chosen spherically shaped gold grains and discussed the processes leading to the limitation of the grain charge. We suggested that the implantation of charging ions leads to deformations of the grain surface. The deformations enhance the local electric field strength that becomes sufficient for the field ionization.     

Relation between galactic and solar cosmic radiation at aviation altitude

Cosmic radiation bombards us at high altitude with ionizing particles; the radiation has a galactic component, which is normally dominant, and a component of solar origin. Cosmic ray particles are the primary source of ionization in the atmosphere above 1 km; below 1 km radon is a dominant source of ionization in many areas.     

The Dynamic Albedo of Neutrons (DAN) experiment for NASA's 2009 Mars Science Laboratory

We present a summary of the physical principles and design of the Dynamic Albedo of Neutrons (DAN) instrument onboard NASA's 2009 Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) mission. The DAN instrument will use the method of neutron-neutron activation analysis in a space application to study the abundance and depth distribution of water in the martian subsurface along the path of the MSL rover.     

Planetary rings as relics of plasma pre-rings

A possibility is discussed that the rings of large planets observed in the modern epoch are relics of some pre-rings consisting of magnetized plasma (according to a hypothesis by H. Alfven). The solution to a model problem published in [36, 37] is used. Its main result is a mechanism of stratification of an evolutionally mature plasma pre-ring into a large number of narrow elite rings separated by anti-rings (gaps). Another result is the theoretical substantiation of the presence in the near-planetary space of a region of existence and stability (in what follows it is referred to as ES-region) of plasma rings. The data obtained in the course of the Voyager, Galileo, and Cassini missions are used below for verification of the model on which the solutions presented in [36, 37] are based.     

Numerical simulation of effects of the August 11, 1999 solar eclipse in the outer ionosphere

The results of a numerical simulation of such parameters of the topside ionosphere as concentration N _e and temperature T _e of electrons, and concentration n(H⁺) and fluxes along the magnetic field lines Φ(H⁺) of H⁺ ions at an altitude of ～2000 km for the conditions of the August 11, 1999 solar eclipse are presented. The calculations were performed using the Global Self-consistent Model of the Thermosphere, Ionosphere, and Protonosphere of the Earth (GSM TIP). It is shown that during the eclipse, in addition to a region of decreased values of T _e in the Northern Hemisphere and in the magnetically conjugate region in the Southern Hemisphere, regions of electron heating emerge in both hemispheres. Simultaneously, an extended region of decreased values of N _e comes into existence and moves behind the Moon’s shadow. Regions with decreased (down to ～30%) and enhanced (up to ～50%) concentrations of H⁺ ions are detected in the global distribution of these ions.