The Physical Foundation of Forecasting Disturbances in the Geospace From Solar Disk Characteristics

The five main types of antisunward propagating energetic fluxes (particles and emission) may be thought of as well established to date, the effects of which lead to a particilar character of disturbance in the near-terrestrial environment (the Earth's magnetosphere, ionosphere and atmosphere). The strongest global restructuring of the magnetosphere and ionosphere is caused by fluxes of relatively dense n of 1-70 cm-3 at the Earth's orbit) Solar Wind (SW) quasi-neutral, low-energy (E ＜ 10 keV) plasma which cause magnetospheric and ionospheric storms lasting 24 hours or longer. For that reason, main attention is given to their study at the initial stage of research. The physical essence of the method of predicting disturbances in the near-terrestrial space environment, the amplitude of which can be expressed in, for example, the Kp index units, involves:(1) identifying all the most geo-effective SW streams of type, (2) determing their sources on the solar disk,and (3) quantifying the correlations between the characteristics of their solar sources with a maximum value of the Kp-index that is caused by the concerned type of SW stream. Semi-phenomenological relations have been obtained, which relate parameters of type SW stream sources to characteristics of geomagnetic storms:storm commencement, the time at which the storm intensity reaches its maximum values, the storm duration,as well as to the storm amplitude expressed in terms of geomagnetic indeces.      

Four-peak longitudinal distribution of the equatorial plasma bubbles observed in the topside ionosphere: Possible troposphere tide influence

In this paper we consider an idea of the troposphere tide influence on the character of the longitudinal variations in the distribution of the equatorial plasma bubbles (EPBs) observed in the topside ionosphere. For this purpose, the obtained EPB longitudinal patterns were compared with the thermosphere and ionosphere characteristics having the prominent “wave-like” longitudinal structures with wave number 4, which are uniquely associated with the influence of the troposphere DE3 tides. The characteristics of the equatorial mass density anomaly (EMA), equatorial ionization anomaly (EIA), zonal wind and pre-reversal E?×?B drift enhancement (PRE) were used for comparison. The equinox seasons during high solar activity were under consideration. It was obtained that the longitudinal patterns of the EMA and zonal wind show the surprising similarity with the EPB distributions (R???0.8, R???0.72). On the other hand, the resemblance with the ionosphere characteristics (EIA, PRE) is rather faint (R???0.37, R???0.12). It was shown that the thermosphere zonal winds are the most possible transfer mediator of the troposphere DE3 tide influence. The most successful moment for the transfer of the troposphere DE3 tide energy takes place in the beginning of the EPB production, namely, during the seed perturbation development.     

A Quasi-Spherical Air Pressure Probe

This paper considers an air pressure probe, the head part of which is made in the form of a polyhedron inscribed into a sphere. Wind tunnel testing of the probe models is performed, a mathematical model and an algorithm are constructed to calculate all the altitude and airspeed parameters, and an error estimation is given.     

Influence of Body Waves,Instrumentation Resonances,and Prior Assumptions on Rayleigh Wave Ellipticity Inversion for Shallow Structure at the InSight Landing Site

Based on an updated model of the regolith’s elastic properties, we simulate the ambient vibrations background wavefield recorded by InSight’s Seismic Experiment for Interior Structure (SEIS) on Mars to characterise the influence of the regolith and invert SEIS data for shallow subsurface structure. By approximately scaling the synthetics based on seismic signals of a terrestrial dust devil, we find that the high-frequency atmospheric background wavefield should be above the self-noise of SEIS’s SP sensors, even if the signals are not produced within 100–200 m of the station. We compare horizontal-to-vertical spectral ratios and Rayleigh wave ellipticity curves for a surface-wave based simulation on the one hand with synthetics explicitly considering body waves on the other hand and do not find any striking differences. Inverting the data, we find that the results are insensitive to assumptions on density. By contrast, assumptions on the velocity range in the upper-most layer have a strong influence on the results also at larger depth. Wrong assumptions can lead to results far from the true model in this case. Additional information on the general shape of the curve, i.e. single or dual peak, could help to mitigate this effect, even if it cannot directly be included into the inversion. We find that the ellipticity curves can provide stronger constraints on the minimum thickness and velocity of the second layer of the model than on the maximum values. We also consider the effect of instrumentation resonances caused by the lander flexible modes, solar panels, and the SEIS levelling system. Both the levelling system resonances and the lander flexible modes occur at significantly higher frequencies than the expected structural response, i.e. above 35 Hz and 20 Hz, respectively. While the lander and solar panel resonances might be too weak in amplitude to be recorded by SEIS, the levelling system resonances will show up clearly in horizontal spectra, the H/V and ellipticity curves. They are not removed by trying to extract only Rayleigh-wave dominated parts of the data. However, they can be distinguished from any subsurface response by their exceptionally low damping ratios of 1% or less as determined by random decrement analysis. The same applies to lander-generated signals observed in actual data from a Moon analogue experiment, so we expect this analysis will be useful in identifying instrumentation resonances in SEIS data.     

Satellite capture as a restricted 2 + 2 body problem

A restricted 2?+?2 body problem is proposed as a possible mechanism to explain the capture of small bodies by a planet. In particular, we consider two primaries revolving in a circular mutual orbit and two small bodies of equal mass, neither of which affects the motion of the primaries. If the small bodies are temporarily captured in the Hill sphere of the smaller primary, they may get close enough to each other to exchange energy in such a way that one of them becomes permanently captured. Numerical simulations show that capture is possible for both prograde and retrograde orbits.     

Dynamics of the Nightside Boundaries of the Auroral Oval during Magnetic Storm on May 27–29, 2017

Cosmic Research - Using the Meteor M2 low-orbit satellite, the dynamics of the boundaries of the auroral oval on the nightside during the magnetic storm observed from May 27 to 29, 2017, was...     

Dynamics of Quasi-Biennal Variations of Cosmic Rays and Solar Activity

The quasi-biennial variations in the flux of galactic cosmic rays (GCRs) have been studied based on the data of stratospheric sensing and measurements by neutron monitors, as well as in various manifestations of solar activity and interplanetary medium parameters. It has been shown that quasi-biennial GCR variations are caused by variations with the same period in the mean magnetic field of the Sun that coincide with them over time and have been identified in the anti-phase, which respond to the sign of this field. The variations in the quasi-biennial cosmic ray are caused by quasi-biennial variations in the mean magnetic field of the Sun via the quasi-biennial variations in the interplanetary magnetic field.     

Influence Analysis of the Second Bypass Air Bleed Parameters on the Engine Performance

This paper considers double bypass aircraft engine with controlled air bleed to the second bypass duct. Its performance is evaluated by mathematical modeling techniques. The second bypass air bleed amount is determined to provide the best engine efficiency at various operating modes.     

The Dynamics of a Satellite-Gyrostat with a Single Nonzero Component of the Vector of Gyrostatic Moment

The dynamics of a satellite-gyrostat moving in the central Newtonian force field along a circular orbit is studied. In the particular case when the vector of gyrostatic moment is parallel to one of the satellite’s principal central axes of inertia, all the equilibrium states are determined. For each equilibrium orientation, sufficient conditions of stability are obtained as a result of the analysis of the generalized energy integral, and necessary conditions of stability are determined as a result of analysis of the linearized equations of motion. The evolution of regions of validity for the conditions of stability of equilibrium positions are studied in detail depending on the parameters of the problem. All the bifurcation values of the parameters at which qualitative changes of the regions of stability take place are determined.__________Translated from Kosmicheskie Issledovaniya, Vol. 43, No. 4, 2005, pp. 283–294.Original Russian Text Copyright © 2005 by Sarychev, Mirer, Degtyarev.     

Composition,structure and properties of Venus rocks

Physical and mechanical properties as well as chemical and mineral composition of Venus rocks are discussed on the basic of the data obtained by ground-based radar observations and the experiments in situ.