Meteoric Layers in Planetary Atmospheres

Metallic ions coming from the ablation of extraterrestrial dust, play a significant role in the distribution of ions in the Earth’s ionosphere. Ions of magnesium and iron, and to a lesser extent, sodium, aluminium, calcium and nickel, are a permanent feature of the lower E-region. The presence of interplanetary dust at long distances from the Sun has been confirmed by the measurements obtained by several spacecrafts. As on Earth, the flux of interplanetary meteoroids can affect the ionospheric structure of other planets. The electron density of many planets show multiple narrow layers below the main ionospheric peak which are similar, in magnitude, to the upper ones. These layers could be due to long-lived metallic ions supplied by interplanetary dust and/or their satellites. In the case of Mars, the presence of a non-permanent ionospheric layer at altitudes ranging from 65 to 110 km has been confirmed and the ion Mg⁺?CO₂ identified. Here we present a review of the present status of observed low ionospheric layers in Venus, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn and Neptune together with meteoroid based models to explain the observations. Meteoroids could also affect the ionospheric structure of Titan, the largest Saturnian moon, and produce an ionospheric layer at around 700 km that could be investigated by Cassini.     

Impact of a novel hybrid accelerometer on satellite gravimetry performance

The state-of-the-art electrostatic accelerometers (EA) used for the retrieval of non-gravitational forces acting on a satellite constitute a core component of every dedicated gravity field mission. However, due to their difficult-to-control thermal drift in the low observation frequencies, they are also one of the most limiting factors of the achievable performance of gravity recovery. Recently, a hybrid accelerometer consisting of a regular EA and a novel cold atom interferometer (CAI) that features a time-invariant observation stability and constantly recalibrates the EA has been developed in order to remedy this major drawback. In this paper we aim to assess the value of the hybrid accelerometer for gravity field retrieval in the context of GRACE-type and Bender-type missions by means of numerical closed-loop simulations where possible noise specifications of the novel instrument are considered and different components of the Earth’s gravity field signal are added subsequently. It is shown that the quality of the gravity field solutions is mainly dependent on the CAI’s measurement accuracy. While a low CAI performance (10^?8 to 10^?9?m/s²/Hz^1/2) does not lead to any gains compared to a stand-alone EA, a sufficiently high one (10^?11?m/s²/Hz^1/2) may improve the retrieval performance by over one order of magnitude. We also show that improvements which are limited to low-frequency observations may even propagate into high spherical harmonic degrees. Further, the accelerometer performance seems to play a less prominent role if the overall observation geometry is improved as it is the case for a Bender-type mission. The impact of the accelerometer measurements diminishes further when temporal variations of the gravity field are introduced, pointing out the need for proper de-aliasing techniques. An additional study reveals that the hybrid accelerometer is – contrary to a stand-alone EA – widely unaffected by scale factor instabilities.     

Sesame – An Experiment of the Rosetta Lander Philae: Objectives and General Design

SESAME is an instrument complex built in international co-operation and carried by the Rosetta lander Philae intended to land on comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko in 2014. The main goals of this instrument suite are to measure mechanical and electrical properties of the cometary surface and the shallow subsurface as well as of the particles emitted from the cometary surface. Most of the sensors are mounted within the six soles of the landing gear feet in order to provide good contact with or proximity to the cometary surface. The measuring principles, instrument designs, technical layout, operational concepts and the results from the first in-flight measurements are described. We conclude with comments on the consequences of the last minute change of the target comet and how to improve and to preserve the knowledge during the long-duration Rosetta mission.     

The Rolis Experiment on the Rosetta Lander

ROLIS (Rosetta Lander Imaging System) is one of the two imaging systems carried by Rosetta’s Lander Philae, successfully launched to comet 67P/ Churyumov-Gerasimenko in March 2004. Consisting of a highly-miniaturized CCD camera, ROLIS will operate as a descent imager, acquiring imagery of the landing site with increasing spatial resolution. After touchdown ROLIS will focus at an object distance of 30 cm, taking pictures of the comet’s surface below the Lander. Multispectral imaging is achieved through an illumination device consisting of four arrays of monochromatic light emitting diodes working in the 470, 530, 640 and 870 nm spectral bands. The drill sample sites, as well as the Alpha X-Ray Spectrometer (APXS) target locations will be imaged to provide context for the measurements performed by the in situ analyzers. After the drilling operation, the borehole will be inspected to study its morphology and to search for stratification. Taking advantage of the Lander’s rotation capability, stereo image pairs will be acquired, which will facilitate the mapping and identification of surface structures.     

Theoretical studies of shock-initiated detonations

The dynamics of shock propagation have been studied theoretically for a variety of two-dimensional lattices. The approach used is based on molecular dynamics and hinges on the exact numerical solution by computer of the equations of motion for the individual atoms or molecules in each lattice. Shocks have been launched into the lattices under study by methods designed to simulate flyer-plate impact. Two different interatomic potentials have been used, one endothermic and one net-exothermic. For both types of potential, a shock launched at one side of the lattice will spall a group of atoms off the other side. However, the subsequent behavior of the two types of lattice is very different. For endothermic potentials, after the initial atomic spall, the residual lattice is quiescent with little further activity. For net-exothermic potentials, the initial atomic spall injects additional energy into the system in such a manner that subsequently further spall occurs at both sides. Once this new spall is initiated, it leads rapidly to further bond breaking and explosive disintegration of the system.     

An examination of a technique for estimating the longwave radiation budget from satellite radiance observations

Intercomparisons of the zonally averaged outgoing longwave fluxes estimated from 10 μm radiance observations on NOAA polar orbiters and flat plate observations on the Nimbus 6 ERB experiment have shown the NOAA estimates to be higher than the ERB measurements. Our analysis shows that the operational technique systematically overestimates calculated fluxes for middle and high cloud conditions. A different radiative transfer model and new assumptions concerning clouds reduce the NOAA-ERB flux difference by approximately 35%.     

MLS: keeping pace with the future

It is argued that the instrument landing system (ILS) is now at its operational limit in terms of radio frequency availability, approach flexibility, and technology. The operational requirements for a microwave landing system (MLS), which will overcome key limitations of the ILS and provide growth to meet future requirements of precision landing systems, are discussed, John F. Kennedy (JFK) International Airport and LaGuardia Airport in New York City are discussed as examples to demonstrate the capabilities of MLS     

Synthetic aperture radar image formation from compressed data usinga new computation technique

A convolution technique is proposed that allows direct reconstruction of the processed synthetic-aperture radar (SAR) image from the digitally-sampled, block-encoded raw data. This computational compression technique reduces the number of arithmetic operations from that required by fast Fourier transform (FFT) convolution for SAR processing. SAR phase histories are block encoded and directly processed into an image where only arithmetic additions are required for the processing. For SAR data previously block encoded, the processing time is reduced by a factor of 100 or more. A speed-up of three times over SAR processing by FET convolution has been demonstrated when both computation of the block encoding and subsequent direct processing are included in the time. SAR image quality measurements for a method of block encoding called vector quantization at compression ration ranging from 5:1 to 50:1 show image degradation proportional to the compression ratio. For a 5:1 compression radio, image quality measurements show minimal degradation     

Periodic or random acceleration in solar flares?

The issue whether acceleration and injection of electron beams is coherently modulated by a single quasi-periodic source, or whether the injection is driven by a stochastic process in time or (eventually fragmented) in space, is investigated by menas of a periodicity analysis of metric type III bursts.We analyze 260 continuous type III groups observed byIkarus (ETH Zurich) in the frequency range of 100–500 MHz during 359 solar flares with simultaneous 25 keV hard X-ray emission, in the years 1980–1983. Pulse periods have been measured between 0.5 and 10 s, and can be described by an exponential distribution, i.e.N(P) e ^–P/1.0s. We measure the mean periodP and its standard deviation p in each type III group, and quantify the degree of periodicity by the dimensionless parameter p/P. The representative sample of 260 type III burst groups shows a mean periodicity of p/P=0.37±0.12, while Monte-Carlo simulations of an equivalent set of truly random time series show a distinctly different value of p/P=0.93±0.26. This result suggests that the injection of electron beams is periodically modulated by a particle acceleration source which is either compact or has a global organization on a time scale of seconds.     

Atmospheric Aerosol and Cloud Condensation Nuclei Formation: A Possible Influence of Cosmic Rays?

A physical mechanism which may have a potential to connect climate with cosmic rays (CR) involves aerosol particle formation by CR generated atmospheric ions followed by new particle growth. Only grown particles can scatter sunlight efficiently and can eventually act as cloud condensation nuclei (CCN) and thereby may influence climate. Moreover grown particles live longer as they are less rapidly scavenged by pre-existing larger particles. The present paper discusses aerosol particle formation and growth in the light of new measurements recently made by our MPIK Heidelberg group. Emphasis is placed upon the upper troposphere where very low temperatures tend to facilitate new particle formation by nucleation. The new measurements include: laboratory measurements of cluster ions, aircraft measurements of ambient atmospheric ions, and atmospheric measurements of the powerful nucleating gas H₂SO₄ and its precursor SO₂. The discussion also addresses model simulations of aerosol formation and growth. It is concluded that in the upper troposphere new aerosol formation by CR generated ions is a frequent process with relatively large rates. However new particle formation by homogeneous nucleation (HONU) which is not related to CR also seems to be efficient. The bottleneck in the formation of upper troposphere aerosol particles with sizes sufficiently large to be climate relevant is not nucleation but growth of small particles. Our recent upper troposphere SO₂ measurements suggest that particle growth by gaseous sulphuric acid condensation is at least occasionally efficient. If so CR mediated formation of CCN sized particles should at least occasionally be operative in the upper troposphere.