Comparison of ≳40 keV Electron Events at High and Low Heliolatitudes: Ulysses/HI-SCALE and ACE/EPAM

We have performed a joint survey of anisotropic ≳40 keV electron events from August 1997 to September 2000 using the matched detectors on the Ulysses (ULS)/HI-SCALE and the ACE/EPAM instruments. A computer algorithm selected events with strong, statistically significant pitch-angle anisotropies. Electron pitch-angle distributions at ACE (∼1 AU) are often ‘beams’ that are strongly collimated along the local interplanetary magnetic field (IMF). These flare-associated impulsive injections can display rapid rise times (∼15 min) and slower decays, or more irregular intensity histories. At ULS, the electron intensities are lower and the time histories smoother, but strong anisotropies are still observable, indicating direct, nearly field-aligned propagation outward from the Sun. We focus on four event periods, selected from the survey, during times when the angle between the footpoints of the IMF lines intersecting ACE and ULS is small. These events span three full years and cover a wide range of distances and heliographic latitudes. We found one reasonably good association between impulsive electron events at ACE and ULS, and two events with small field-aligned gradients. This revised version was published online in August 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

Detecting moving targets in SAR imagery by focusing

A new method for detecting moving targets in a synthetic aperture radar (SAR) image is presented. It involves segmenting a complex-valued SAR image into patches, focusing each patch separately, and measuring the sharpness increase in the focused patch. The algorithm is sensitive to azimuth velocities and is exquisitely sensitive to radial accelerations of the target, allowing it to detect motion in any direction. It is complementary to conventional Doppler-sensing moving target indicators, which can sense only the radial velocity of rapidly moving targets.     

Structure of a two-phase flow of boiling water at low-head adiabatic efflux through the laval nozzle

The critical flow conditions and structural forms of a two-phase flow that is formed during water efflux from the region of moderate and low pressures into a rarefied medium are analyzed. The difference in the structural forms of a flow realized at the low-head efflux from the structure of a flow occurring in the fluid flow with moderate and high initial pressures is established. The critical pressure differential characterizing the establishment of the maximum flowrate is determined and the decisive influence of turbulence on the vapor phase generation and flow conditions of a two-phase medium is shown.     

Scientific Planning and Commanding of the Rosetta Payload

ESA’s Rosetta mission was launched in March 2004 and is on its way to comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko, where it is scheduled to arrive in summer 2014. It comprises a payload of 12 scientific instruments and a Lander. All instruments are provided by Principal Investigators, which are responsible for their operations. As for most ESA science missions, the ground segment of the mission consists of a Mission Operations Centre (MOC) and a Science Operations Centre (SOC). While the MOC is responsible for all spacecraft-related aspects and the final uplink of all command timelines to the spacecraft, the scientific operations of the instruments and the collection of the data and ingestion into the Planetary Science Archive are coordinated by the SOC. This paper focuses on the tasks of the SOC and in particular on the methodology and constraints to convert the scientific goals of the Rosetta mission to operational timelines.     

Wave resistance of rough plane channel walls in the supersonic flow

We propose a method that makes it possible to obtain in the framework of linear approximation the exact formulas for the wave resistance of the channel walls with an arbitrary plane pattern in the first and subsequent interference zones. It is shown by a particular example of the sinusoidal pattern that the pressure wave interference may lead to the positive or negative resistance resonance.     

The Origin of Mercury’s Internal Magnetic Field

Mariner 10 measurements proved the existence of a large-scale internal magnetic field on Mercury. The observed field amplitude, however, is too weak to be compatible with typical convective planetary dynamos. The Lorentz force based on an extrapolation of Mariner 10 data to the dynamo region is 10⁻⁴ times smaller than the Coriolis force. This is at odds with the idea that planetary dynamos are thought to work in the so-called magnetostrophic regime, where Coriolis force and Lorentz force should be of comparable magnitude. Recent convective dynamo simulations reviewed here seem to resolve this caveat. We show that the available convective power indeed suffices to drive a magnetostrophic dynamo even when the heat flow though Mercury’s core–mantle boundary is subadiabatic, as suggested by thermal evolution models. Two possible causes are analyzed that could explain why the observations do not reflect a stronger internal field. First, toroidal magnetic fields can be strong but are confined to the conductive core, and second, the observations do not resolve potentially strong small-scale contributions. We review different dynamo simulations that promote either or both effects by (1) strongly driving convection, (2) assuming a particularly small inner core, or (3) assuming a very large inner core. These models still fall somewhat short of explaining the low amplitude of Mariner 10 observations, but the incorporation of an additional effect helps to reach this goal: The subadiabatic heat flow through Mercury’s core–mantle boundary may cause the outer part of the core to be stably stratified, which would largely exclude convective motions in this region. The magnetic field, which is small scale, strong, and very time dependent in the lower convective part of the core, must diffuse through the stagnant layer. Here, the electromagnetic skin effect filters out the more rapidly varying high-order contributions and mainly leaves behind the weaker and slower varying dipole and quadrupole components (Christensen in Nature 444:1056–1058, 2006). Messenger and BepiColombo data will allow us to discriminate between the various models in terms of the magnetic fields spatial structure, its degree of axisymmetry, and its secular variation.     

The finite element approximation of vector fields in curvilinear coordinates

We demonstrate that it is possible to express each component of the displacement vector for the interior point of the finite element (FE) through all components of nodal unknowns in curvilinear coordinates. The effectiveness of the valid technique of vector approximation for displacement fields has been verified on an example.     

金属间化合物TiAl(W,Si)合金的蠕变行为和机制

 研究了 Ti-47Al-2 W-0.5 Si合金在 650～ 750℃区间的蠕变行为和变形机制。结果表明,合金 650℃蠕变寿命与施加应力之间符合线性的双对数关系,可用表达式 lg^t_f=10 lg^R+30来描述。蠕变寿命与最小蠕变速率之间满足 Monkman-Grant关系的修正式。合金的比蠕变强度与抗热腐蚀镍基高温合金 K438G相当。在700℃变载荷下蠕变时具有与恒载荷下蠕变相类似的特征。 800℃长期时效粗化合金组织,降低蠕变寿命。位错滑移和形变孪生是合金蠕变的主要变形机制。     

Relationship Between Substorm Auroras and Processes in the Near-Earth Magnetotail

Although the auroral substorm has been long regarded as a manifestation of the magnetospheric substorm, a direct relation of active auroras to certain magnetospheric processes is still debatable. To investigate the relationship, we combine the data of the UV imager onboard the Polar satellite with plasma and magnetic field measurements by the Geotail spacecraft. The poleward edge of the auroral bulge, as determined from the images obtained at the LHBL passband, is found to be conjugated with the region where the oppositely directed fast plasma flows observed in the near-Earth plasma sheet during substorms are generated. We conclude that the auroras forming the bulge are due to the near-Earth reconnection process. This implies that the magnetic flux through the auroral bulge is equal to the flux dissipated in the magnetotail during the substorm. Comparison of the magnetic flux through the auroral bulge with the magnetic flux accumulated in the tail lobe during the growth phase shows that these parameters have the comparable values. This is a clear evidence of the loading–unloading scheme of substorm development. It is shown that the area of the auroral bulge developing during substorm is proportional to the total (magnetic plus plasma) pressure decrease in the magnetotail. These findings stress the importance of auroral bulge observations for monitoring of substorm intensity in terms of the magnetic flux and energy dissipation.     

Mechanism of error propagation from the subdaily Universal Time model into the celestial pole offsets estimated by VLBI

Within the analysis of space geodetic observations, errors of the applied subdaily Earth rotation model can induce systematic effects in different estimated parameters. In this paper, we focus on the impact of the subdaily Universal Time (UT1) model on the celestial pole offsets (CPO) estimated from very long baseline interferometry (VLBI) observations. We provide a mechanism that describes the error propagation from the subdaily UT1 into the daily CPO.In typical 24-h VLBI sessions the observed quasars are well distributed over the sky. But the observations, if looked at from the Earth-fixed frame, are not homogeneously distributed. The amount of observations performed in different terrestrial directions shows an irregularity which can be roughly compared to the case where the observations are collected in only one Earth-fixed direction. This peculiarity leads to artefacts in VLBI solutions, producing a correlation between the subdaily variations in UT1 and the position of the celestial pole. As a result errors in diurnal terms of the subdaily UT1 model are partly compensated by the estimated CPO. We compute for each 24-h VLBI session from 1990 until 2011 the theoretical response of the CPO to an error in the subdaily UT1 by setting up a least-squares adjustment model and using as input the coordinates of the observed quasars and observation epochs. Then real observed response of the estimated CPO derived from the VLBI session solutions is compared to the predicted one. A very good agreement between the CPO values estimated from VLBI and the predicted values was achieved. The presented model of error propagation from the subdaily UT1 into the daily CPO allows to predict and explain the behaviour of CPO estimates of VLBI solutions computed with different subdaily Earth rotation models, what can be helpful for testing the accuracy of different subdaily tidal models.