The COS-B X-ray observations of X-ray binaries

The observational information on X-ray binaries that was collected with the 80 cm² auxiliary X-ray detector onboard the COS-B gamma-ray satellite is reviewed. The results illustrate that in the study of X-ray binaries observations of long duration are extremely effective, even when using a small instrument.     

Narrative psychological content analysis as a tool for psychological status monitoring of crews in isolated,confined and extreme settings

This paper is about a pilot application of narrative psychological content analysis in the psychological status monitoring of Crew 71 of a space analog simulation environment, the Mars Desert Research Station (MDRS). Both the method and its theoretical framework, Scientific Narrative Psychology, are original developments by Hungarian psychologists [5] (László, 2008). The software was NooJ, a multilingual linguistic development environment [11] (Silberztein, 2008). Three measures were conceptualized and assessed: emotional status, team spirit and subjective physical comfort. The results showed the patterns of these three measures on a daily basis at group level, and allowed for detecting individual differences as well. The method is adaptable to languages involved in space psychology, e.g. Russian, French and German in addition to English.     

Observed relation between solar luminosity and radius

We compile measurements of the total solar irradiance S_o made in the period 1967 to 1983 from balloons, rockets, and spacecrafts. These data, when corrected for atmospheric and calibration differences, suggest a systematic increase in S_o of about 0.025% per year. In 1979 and after the ACRIM/SMM and the ERB/NIMBUS data reveal a systematic decrease of about the same magnitude. The period of the early apparent increase embraces a full solar activity cycle of 11 years: hence the effect cannot be that of simple sunspot blocking. This trend of a slow increase followed by a similar decrease is compared with solar diameter measurements obtained from daily meridian transit timings of the Sun made during the same period at the Royal Greenwich Observatory and at the U.S. Naval Observatory. We find in both of these data sets an apparent increase in solar diameter of about 0.03″arc per year during the period of increasing solar irradiance and a weaker suggestion of a similar, subsequent decline. If the apparent trends in diameter and luminosity are real they allow us to estimate the empirical relationship between the two quantities. For this period we find W=ΔlogR/ΔlogL=0.078±0.026.     

Corotating events in the energy range 4–13 MeV as observed on board Helios 1 and 2 in 1975 and 1976

Intensity increases of 4 – 13 MeV protons correlated with recurrent high speed solar wind streams were observed on board Helios 1 and 2 at heliocentric distances between 0.3 and 1.0 AU. Study of events which occurred in the time period 1975 – 1976 showed that recurrent fast solar wind streams were sometimes not accompanied by corotating events and small events were more frequently observed than large corotating events, which occurred only occasionally. The explanation for these phenomena seems to be the variation of the number of suprathermal particles injected into the acceleration process. Radial gradients of corotating events from February till April 1976 were investigated. The gradient changed its sign in successive solar rotations and exhibited strong time dependence inside 1 AU. Clearly negative gradients were measured in corotating events which occurred in February and April 1976. These observations showed that probably there were no stationary corotating structures in interplanetary space. We suggest that this effect is related to local disturbances of solar origin, e. g. flare initiated shocks.     

First results of the growing of PbTe single crystals under microgravity conditions

Two sublimation experiments with PbTe were performed at 850°C and 750°C under microgravity conditions during the “Salyut-6”-“Soyuz-31” mission in 1978. The sublimation took place on the (100)-face of a PbTe crystal. The condensate grown at 850°C shows in the upper part the formation of a pyramidal habit. The bulk consists of parallel growth colums with [100]-boundary faces. The charge carrier concentration of the electrons (N=1,5·10¹⁹ cm^?3) is higher than the homogeniety limit for 800°C should permit. This is in contrast to the result obtained on the PbTe crystal of the parallel experiment on the earth. At 750°C a laminated condensate is grown with a low growth rate. The microphotograph of the substrate shows the beginning whisker formation according to the VLS-mechanism.     

Most suitable conditions for aerosol monitoring from space

Numerical modelling is used to search for the most suitable conditions, with the object of determining the atmospheric turbidity (aerosol optical depth) from upward emerging spectral radiances in cloudfree pixels over water surfaces. The most suitable conditions are those where the influence of the turbidity on the radiance most strongly outweighs that of the other optically acting constituents. Since the actual values of these constituents of atmosphere and surface are usually known only within certain limits, using the most suitable conditions minimizes the uncertainty in the turbidity to be derived from satellite measurements. As a result, favorable zenith angles of the satellite and favorable wavelengths are presented for an atmosphere with maritime aerosols with and without Saharan dust. The results represent an advance on a paper published by the authors in 1981 [1].     

On the off-ecliptic distributions of anomalous cosmic rays and their relation to the large-scale geometry of the heliospheric shock

The scenario explaining the origin of the anomalous component of cosmic rays (ACR) implies a close relation between these high energy particles and the solar wind termination shock representing their main acceleration region. Consequently, one should expect the ACR distributions in the heliosphere to reflect some information about the structure as well as the large-scale geometry of the shock. We study the influence of a non-spherically symmetric heliospheric shock on the off-ecliptic — i.e. high latitude — ACR distributions using a two-dimensional model including their anisotropic diffusion and drift in the heliospheric magnetic field as well as a solar wind flow dependent on the heliographic latitude. The model calculations are used to investigate the probability of a possible polar elongation of the heliospheric shock from observations of the distributions of the ACR at high latitudes during solar minimum conditions.