Hard X-Ray/Soft Gamma-Ray Experiments and Missions: Overview and Prospects

Starting from 1960s, a great number of missions and experiments have been performed for the study of the high-energy sky. This review gives a wide vision of the most important space missions and balloon experiments that have operated in the 10–600 keV band, a crucial window for the study of the most energetic and violent phenomena in the Universe. Thus it is important to take the stock of the achievements to better establish what we have still to do with future missions in order to progress in this field, to establish which are the technologies required to solve the still open issues and to extend our knowledge of the Universe.     

The Noise Model of the SEIS Seismometer of the InSight Mission to Mars

The SEIS (Seismic Experiment for Interior Structures) instrument on board the InSight mission to Mars is the critical instrument for determining the interior structure of Mars, the current level of tectonic activity and the meteorite flux. Meeting the performance requirements of the SEIS instrument is vital to successfully achieve these mission objectives. The InSight noise model is a key tool for the InSight mission and SEIS instrument requirement setup. It will also be used for future operation planning. This paper presents the analyses made to build a model of the Martian seismic noise as measured by the SEIS seismometer, around the seismic bandwidth of the instrument (from 0.01 Hz to 1 Hz). It includes the instrument self-noise, but also the environment parameters that impact the measurements. We present the general approach for the model determination, the environment assumptions, and we analyze the major and minor contributors to the noise model.     

Interstellar Mapping and Acceleration Probe (IMAP): A New NASA Mission

The Interstellar Mapping and Acceleration Probe (IMAP) is a revolutionary mission that simultaneously investigates two of the most important overarching issues in Heliophysics today: the acceleration of energetic particles and interaction of the solar wind with the local interstellar medium. While seemingly disparate, these are intimately coupled because particles accelerated in the inner heliosphere play critical roles in the outer heliospheric interaction. Selected by NASA in 2018, IMAP is planned to launch in 2024. The IMAP spacecraft is a simple sun-pointed spinner in orbit about the Sun-Earth L1 point. IMAP’s ten instruments provide a complete and synergistic set of observations to simultaneously dissect the particle injection and acceleration processes at 1 AU while remotely probing the global heliospheric interaction and its response to particle populations generated by these processes. In situ at 1 AU, IMAP provides detailed observations of solar wind electrons and ions; suprathermal, pickup, and energetic ions; and the interplanetary magnetic field. For the outer heliosphere interaction, IMAP provides advanced global observations of the remote plasma and energetic ions over a broad energy range via energetic neutral atom imaging, and precise observations of interstellar neutral atoms penetrating the heliosphere. Complementary observations of interstellar dust and the ultraviolet glow of interstellar neutrals further deepen the physical understanding from IMAP. IMAP also continuously broadcasts vital real-time space weather observations. Finally, IMAP engages the broader Heliophysics community through a variety of innovative opportunities. This paper summarizes the IMAP mission at the start of Phase A development.     

INTEGRAL: Science Highlights and Future Prospects

ESA??s hard X-ray and soft gamma-ray observatory INTEGRAL is covering the 3 keV to 10 MeV energy band, with excellent sensitivity during long and uninterrupted observations of a large field of view (??100 square degrees), with ms time resolution and keV energy resolution. It links the energy band of pointed soft X-ray missions such as XMM-Newton with that of high-energy gamma-ray space missions such as Fermi and ground based TeV observatories. Key results obtained so far include the first sky map in the light of the 511 keV annihilation emission, the discovery of a new class of high mass X-ray binaries and detection of polarization in cosmic high energy radiation. For the foreseeable future, INTEGRAL will remain the only observatory allowing the study of nucleosynthesis in our Galaxy, including the long overdue next nearby supernova, through high-resolution gamma-ray line spectroscopy. Science results to date and expected for the coming mission years span a wide range of high-energy astrophysics, including studies of the distribution of positrons in the Galaxy; reflection of gamma-rays off clouds in the interstellar medium near the Galactic Centre; studies of black holes and neutron stars particularly in high- mass systems; gamma-ray polarization measurements for X-ray binaries and gamma-ray bursts, and sensitive detection capabilities for obscured active galaxies with more than 1000 expected to be found until 2014. This paper summarizes scientific highlights obtained since INTEGRAL??s launch in 2002, and outlines prospects for the INTEGRAL mission.     

The Stressed State of a Stiffened Conical Shell with Thermal Protective Coating with Temperature-Dependent Properties

The equations of the mathematical model are solved in terms of special functions. The results for the design scheme of the aircraft forebody are obtained with a guaranteed accuracy by the stable method of functional normalization.     

Incoherent Scatter Plasma Lines: Observations and Applications

Space plasmas are host to the electrostatic Langmuir waves and a rich range of processes associated with them. Many of such processes that are of interest in micro-scale plasma physics and magnetosphere-ionosphere physics are open to investigation via incoherent scatter plasma lines—i.e., a pair of resonant peaks in the incoherent scatter radar (ISR) spectrum, symmetrically displaced from the radar transmitting frequency by about the plasma frequency, as the signature of Langmuir waves in the ISR spectrum. There now exists a large body of literature devoted to the investigation of a number of topics in ionospheric physics via plasma line theory and observation. It is the goal of this work to provide a comprehensive review of this literature, from the early theoretical works on oscillations in magnetized plasma to the recent advances in plasma line measurements and applications. This review includes detailed theoretical discussions on the intensity and frequency displacement of plasma lines. It reviews the experimental observations of plasma lines enhanced by various sources of energy and discusses the implications of the observations in the context of ionospheric physics. The review also covers the practical aspects of plasma line measurements, from measurement techniques to the applications of plasma lines in estimating the bulk parameters of the ionosphere.     

Magnetic Fields in Astrophysical Jets: From Launch to Termination

Long-lived, stable jets are observed in a wide variety of systems, from protostars, through Galactic compact objects to active galactic nuclei (AGN). Magnetic fields play a central role in launching, accelerating, and collimating the jets through various media. The termination of jets in molecular clouds or the interstellar medium deposits enormous amounts of mechanical energy and momentum, and their interactions with the external medium, as well, in many cases, as the radiation processes by which they are observed, are intimately connected with the magnetic fields they carry. This review focuses on the properties and structures of magnetic fields in long-lived jets, from their launch from rotating magnetized young stars, black holes, and their accretion discs, to termination and beyond. We compare the results of theory, numerical simulations, and observations of these diverse systems and address similarities and differences between relativistic and non-relativistic jets in protostellar versus AGN systems. On the observational side, we focus primarily on jets driven by AGN because of the strong observational constraints on their magnetic field properties, and we discuss the links between the physics of these jets on all scales.