Radar Imaging of Mercury

Earth-based radar has been one of the few, and one of the most important, sources of new information about Mercury during the three decades since the Mariner 10 encounters. The emphasis during the past 15 years has been on full-disk, dual-polarization imaging of the planet, an effort that has been facilitated by the development of novel radar techniques and by improvements in radar systems. Probably the most important result of the imaging work has been the discovery and mapping of radar-bright features at the poles. The radar scattering properties of these features, and their confinement to permanently shaded crater floors, is consistent with volume backscatter from a low-loss volatile such as clean water ice. Questions remain, however, regarding the source and long-term stability of the putative ice, which underscores the need for independent confirmation by other observational methods. Radar images of the non-polar regions have also revealed a plethora of bright features, most of which are associated with fresh craters and their ejecta. Several very large impact features, with rays and other bright ejecta spreading over distances of 1,000 km or more, have been traced to source craters with diameters of 80–125 km. Among these large rayed features are some whose relative faintness suggests that they are being observed in an intermediate stage of degradation. Less extended ray/ejecta features have been found for some of the freshest medium-size craters such as Kuiper and Degas. Much more common are smaller (<40 km diameter) fresh craters showing bright rim-rings but little or no ray structure. These smaller radar-bright craters are particularly common over the H-7 quadrangle. Diffuse areas of enhanced depolarized brightness have been found in the smooth plains, including the circum-Caloris planitiae and Tolstoj Basin. This is an interesting finding, as it is the reverse of the albedo contrast seen between the radar-dark maria and the radar-bright cratered highlands on the Moon.     

Network-Enabled Missile Deflection: Games and Correlation Equilibrium

The problem of deploying countermeasures (CM) against antiship missiles is investigated from a network centric perspective in which multiple ships coordinate to defend against a known missile threat. Using the paradigm of network enabled operations (NEOPS), the problem is formulated as a transient stochastic game with communication where the appropriate strategy takes the form of an optimal stationary correlated equilibrium. Under this strategy, ships cooperate through real-time communication to satisfy both local and collective interests. The use of communication results in a performance improvement over the noncommunicating, Nash equilibrium scenario. This framework allows us to develop a theoretical foundation for NEOPS and captures the trade-off between information exchange and performance, while generalizing the standard Nash equilibrium solution for the missile deflection game given in [1], The NEOPS equilibrium strategy is characterized as the solution to an optimization problem with linear objective and bilinear constraints, which can be solved calculating successive improvements starting from an initial noncooperative (Nash) solution. The communication overhead required to implement this strategy is associated with the mutual information between individual action probability distributions at equilibrium. Numerical results illustrate the trade-off between communication and performance.     

Performance characteristics of lithium ion cells at low temperatures

The low temperature charge and discharge characteristics of experimental MCMB-Li/sub x/Ni/sub y/Co/sub 1-y/O/sub 2/ cells containing different electrolytes were investigated. The use of low ethylene carbonate (EC)-content electrolyte formulations has resulted in good discharge performance to temperatures as low as -40/spl deg/C. The effect of charge voltage and charge current upon the individual electrode potentials at low temperature was investigated using the three electrode cells (containing lithium reference electrodes). In some cases, lithium plating was observed to occur upon low temperature charge, and found to be facilitated by high charge voltages, high charge currents, and poor anode kinetics. Electrochemical characterization of the cells has helped to establish the conditions under which lithium plating can occur by providing information regarding the polarization effects present at each electrode.     

An experimental and empirical model of electron temperature for altitudes of 500 to 1000 km and for a high solar activity period

On the basis of systematic electron temperature measurements onboard the Interkosmos-19 satellite, an experimental global model of electron temperature T_e has been constructed; namely, a set of samples representing 10 intervals of measured T_e, accompanied by values of the geographic longitude, solar zenith angle, season of the year, Covington index, Dst and Kp, grouped according to the invariant latitude, geomagnetic time and altitude. On the basis of the experimental model, the coefficients of the empirical models for the summer and winter seasons, for geophysically quiet conditions, and for heights of 520, 600, 920 and 1000 km are calculated. For heights of 680, 760 and 840 km with fewer data available, the coefficients are provisional.     

Interaction of artificially injected plasma flows with ionospheric plasma

Results of rocket experiments on study of plasma flows (PF) artificially injected by sources separated from vehicles and their effect on medium parameters in ionosphere at altitudes 160:230 km are presented.PF were injected comprising lithium ions with velocities 1,2 x 10⁴ m/sec. and cesium-potassium ions with velocities (1,4–1,5)x10³ m/sec. Mass flow rate in case of lithium PS is 2 mg/sec, and in case of cesium-potassium PS is 0,2 g/sec. During experiments mass-spectrometer measurements of ion medium content in ranges of different ion masses were held, disturbancies of electric fields with frequencies up to 20 kHz and electron flows with energies 0,7keV, 4,6keV and over 40 keV were controlled at distancies from 150m to (500–600)m between plasma source and scientific equipment.     

The effect of I,Q mismatch errors on adaptive cancellation

The effects of in-phase (I) and quadrature-phase (Q) amplitude errors and low-pass-filter (LPF) errors on adaptive cancellers are investigated. I,Q errors occur because of errors in the synthesis process of the mixers and LPFs designed to be identical for each input channel. These I,Q errors among the channels result in cancellation degradation. Tapped delay line transversal filters have been proposed as a way to compensate for these errors and thus improve cancellation performance. However, it is shown that if there is any LPF mismatch, then transversal filtering has a small effect on improving canceler performance. The use of individual I,Q adaptive transversal filter weighting is suggested as a means of completely eliminating the phase amplitude errors, and making the canceler performance responsive to transversal filter compensation     

The sticking probability of a hydrogen atom on icy mantle.

In the present work, we investigate the sticking process of a hydrogen atom on the surface of dust grains. As a realistic model for the icy mantle of dust grains, we produced slab-shaped amorphous water ice with infinite area by classical molecular dynamics (MD) computational simulation using two-dimensional periodic boundary condition. The resulting amorphous water ice slabs at 10 K and 70 K were found to be in good agreement with the experimental high-density and low-density amorphous water ice, respectively. Then, we investigated the dynamical behaviors of an impinging H atom on the surface of it by MD simulations. The sticking probabilities of incident H atoms with several initial temperatures on 10 K and 70 K ice were obtained. It was found that most of H atoms colliding with the 10 K ice stuck on the surface of it. After having stuck, the impinging H atoms diffused on the surface of ice and became trapped in one of potential wells on the surface. The mobility of a H atom on the surface of the amorphous water ice was found to depend only upon the temperature of ice.     

Functional state of chromatin and proliferative activity of meristematic cells in pea seedlings under various clinostatic conditions.

Data from a complex cytochemical analysis show that the functional state of chromatin and the level of the cell proliferative activity may be reliable cytological criteria for primary structural and functional changes that result in disturbances of plant growth and development. Autoradiographic and cytophotonetric studies made it possible to establish certain differences, induced by fast rotation (50 rev/min) on the clinostat, in the chromatin state and cell reproduction of the pea seedling root meristem for the initial stages of plant development. There were no essential differences for the given parameters under slow (2 rev/min) clinostatic conditions.     

Computer analysis of the lineaments of Nepal

Various information has been obtained by computer analysis of the lineaments of Nepal. The data were carefully studied and correlated to establish the relationships of lineaments with geological units, structure, mineralization, etc. The lineament map of Nepal was prepared during 1977–1978; the lineament data were digitized in 1982—using a Hewlett Packard system 45 desktop computer—separated by area (east, central and west Nepal) and also according to geological units. By trial and error and using all variables, the different preferred orientation classes were identified for east, central and west Nepal. Lineaments were grouped according to length into less than 10 km, 10–20 km, 20–30 km and more than 30 km, for the entire country and also for major geological units, i.e., Siwalik (sub-Himalaya), Lesser Himalaya (midlands) and Higher Himalaya. Various rose diagrams and histograms showing frequency and lengths of lineaments were plotted for the different geological units and the different sectors. Lineaments associated with granites of major subdivisions were plotted separately and analysed.