Escaping near-relativistic electron beams from the solar corona

Processes in the solar corona are prodigious accelerators of energetic ions, and electrons. The angular distribution, composition, and spectra of energetic particles observed near Earth gives information on the acceleration mechanisms. A class of energetic particle observations particularly useful in understanding the solar acceleration is the near-relativistic impulsive beam-like electron events. During five years of operation the Advanced Composition Explorer (ACE) has measured well over 400 electron events. Approximately 25% of these electron events are impulsive beam-like events that are released onto interplanetary field lines predominantly from western solar longitudes. We extend our initial 3 year study during the rise to solar maximum (Haggerty and Roelof, 2002; Simnett et al., 2002) to a five year statistical analysis of these beam-like energetic electron events in relationship to optical flares, microwave emission, soft X-ray emission, metric and decametric type-III radio bursts, and coronal mass ejections.     

The Frequency Agile Solar Radiotelescope

The Frequency Agile Solar Radiotelescope (FASR), a telescope concept currently under study, will be a ground based solar-dedicated radio telescope designed and optimized to produce high resolution, high-fidelity, and high-dynamic-range images over a broad frequency range (0.1–24 GHz). As such, FASR will address an extremely broad science program, including the nature and evolution of coronal magnetic fields, the physics of flares, drivers of space weather, and the quiet Sun. An important goal is to mainstream solar radio observations by providing a number of standard data products for use by the wider solar physics community. The instrument specifications and the key science elements that FASR will address are briefly discussed, as well as several operational issues.     

Induced abnormality in Mir- and Earth grown Super Dwarf wheat.

Super-dwarf wheat grown on the Mir space station using the Svet "Greenhouse" exhibited morphological, metabolic and reproductive abnormalities compared with Earth-grown wheat. Of prominent importance were the abnormalities associated with reproductive ontogeny and the total absence of seed formation on Mir. Changes in the apical meristem associated with transition from the vegetative phase to floral initiation and development of the reproductive spike were all typical of 'Super-Dwarf' wheat up to the point of anthesis. Observation of ruptured anthers from the Mir-grown plants revealed what appeared to be normally developed pollen. These pollen gains, however, contained only one nuclei, while normal viable pollen is tri-nucleate. A potentially important difference in the flight experiment, compared with ground reference studies, was the presence of a high level of atmospheric ethylene (1,200 ppb). Ground studies conducted by exposing 'Super-Dwarf' wheat to ethylene just prior to anthesis resulted in manifestation of the same abnormalities observed in the space flight samples.     

卫星:所有通信业务发展的必由之路

1　概述□□未来航天活动的特点是,建造卫星星座,开展新业务及新应用,增强运载火箭推力。还应当考虑为地面通信网开发有关技术,满足用户不断增长的需求。为了对上述变化作好准备,乃至采取未雨绸缪的行动,阿尔卡特航天公司(AlcatelSpace)已经对其组织结构进行了变动。1998年,阿尔卡特公司卫星业务部和法国宇航公司及汤姆逊-CSF公司合并,组建了拥有近6000名员工的AlcatelSpace。目前,这家世界主要的卫星制造商从事两种主要的活动:1制造由阿尔卡特航天工业公司(AlcatelSpaceIndustries)负责;2运行和业务由阿尔卡特空间通信公司(AlcatelSpa…     

2000年和2001年52°N地区OI5577气辉强度与原子氧浓度峰值的时间变化特征

分析了2000年和2001年期间52°N地区OI5577气辉强度的夜间变化特征和季节变化特征．利用由 OI5577气辉强度反演原子氧浓度峰值的方法反演出原子氧浓度的峰值,分析了峰值的夜间变化特征和季节变化特征．结果表明, OI5577气辉强度的夜间变化特征随季节变化, 2000年春季的夜间强度最大值出现在0000LT 之后,夏季和秋季的出现在0000LT之前,冬季的出现在0000LT,2001年春季和秋季的夜间强度最大值出现在0000LT之前,夏季和冬季的出现在0000LT;OI5577气辉强度在2000年2月份,8月份和10月份出现最大值,在2001年9月份有最大值．就主要特征而言,反演出的原子氧浓度峰值的夜间变化特征和季节变化特征分别与OI5577气辉强度的一致．     

First estimations of the aerosol optical thickness using Langley Method at Southern Brazil (29.4°S, 53.8°W)

The first estimations of the aerosol optical thickness (AOT) using Langley Method at Southern Space Observatory (SSO) at Southern Brazil (29.4°S, 53.8°W) are presented. In addition to ozone and sulphur dioxide columns, AOT can be obtained using Brewer Spectrophotometer at specific wavelengths: 306.3, 310.1, 313.5, 316.8 and 320.1 nm. The AOT was obtained for the period from November/2002 to May/2003. Very low AOT averages were obtained, whose values were about 0.21 ± 0.03 at 306.3 nm, 0.21 ± 0.02 at 310.1 nm, 0.19 ± 0.02 at 313.5 nm, 0.20 ± 0.02 at 316.8 nm and 0.20 ± 0.02 at 320.0 nm for all period analysed. Different behaviour of AOT were obtained at two daily specific periods of aerosol accumulation, one in the afternoons from November/2002 to February/2003, caused mainly by a mild biomass burning season’s in the region and other in the mornings from March to May/2003, due the high relative humidity presented in the region studied.     

The Scanning Sky Monitor (SSM) on ASTROSAT

The Scanning Sky Monitor is one of the experiments onboard the ASTROSAT, an Indian multiwavelength astronomy satellite mission. This experiment will detect and monitor X-ray transients in the energy band 2–10 keV. It is similar in design to the ASM on RXTE. It consists of position-sensitive proportional counters with one-dimensional mask. We describe the configuration of the experiment. We also discuss some of the results obtained using a detector which has already been fabricated and tested in our laboratory.     

Keck observations of ROSAT ultra-luminous X-ray source candidates

We present results of optical follow-up observations of candidate ultra-luminous X-ray sources (ULXs). Using Keck optical spectroscopy, 17 of the candidates from the Colbert and Ptak [Colbert, E.J.M., Ptak, A.F. A catalog of candidate intermediate-luminosity X-ray objects. ApJS 143, 25–45, 2002] catalog have been identified; this is one of the largest sets of optical identifications of such objects thus far. Fifteen are background active galactic nuclei (AGN); two are foreground stars in our Galaxy. These findings are consistent with background and foreground object expectations, as derived from log N–log S relations. Also, the results are briefly discussed in terms of the spiral-galaxy/ULX connection.     

Magnetar descendants in HMXBs?

We investigate the relation between the pulse and orbital periods in high-mass X-ray binaries (HMXBs), in order to find the candidates of magnetar descendants in HMXBs. We suggest that magnetar descendants can be found among the HMXBs with relatively shorter orbital periods and longer pulse periods.     

Two years of INTEGRAL observation of the BHC IGR J17464-3213

On March 2003, IBIS, the γ-ray imager on board the INTEGRAL satellite, detected an outburst from a new source, IGR J17464-3213, that turned out to be an HEAO-1 transient, namely H1743-322. The spectral and temporal evolutions of the source were observed by INTEGRAL in different periods. Also RXTE observed the source for the first time on 2003 March 29 during a PCA Galactic bulge scan. The source flux decayed below the RXTE PCA sensitivity limit in November 2003, then in April 2004 it was again detected by INTEGRAL. On July 3, 2004 the source was again detected by RXTE/PCA at a 2–10 keV intensity of 16 mCrab and on July 7, reached 69 mCrab. Recently, a new outburst was observed on August 2005. We briefly summarise here the behaviour of the source observed by INTEGRAL from March 2003 to August 2005. The new outbursts of the source and the analysis of all the data collected (now public) give a global view of the spectral and time behaviour of this X-ray transient.