Costas array generation and search methodology

Costas arrays are permutation matrices that provide sequencing schemes for frequency hop in FSK waveforms. Such frequency-shift keying (FSK) waveforms can be designed to have nearly ideal ambiguity function properties in both the time and frequency directions: the Costas property permits at most one coincident tone in autocorrelations in both time and frequency. Costas arrays are found by number-theoretic generators and their extensions, and by exhaustive search methods. Two new extensions of number-theoretic methods are introduced here that find two new Costas arrays. All Costas arrays for orders 24, 25, and 26 are disclosed here, including previously unknown examples.     

Pop-up threat models for persistent area denial

Pop-up threats usually appear or disappear randomly in a battle field. If the next pop-up threat locations could be predicted it would assist a search or attack team, such as in a persistent area denial (PAD) mission, in getting a team of unmanned air vehicles (UAVs) to the threats sooner. We present a Markov model for predicting pop-up ground threats in military operations. We first introduce a general Markov chain of order n to capture the dependence of the appearance of pop-up threats at previous locations of the pop-up threats over time. We then present an adaptive approach to estimate the stationary transition probabilities of the nth order Markov models. To choose the order of the Markov chain model for a specific application, we suggest using hypothesis tests from statistical inference on historical data of pop-up threat locations. Anticipating intelligent responses from an adversary, which might change its pop-up threat deployment strategy upon observing UAV movements, we present adaptive Markov chain models using a moving horizon approach to estimate possibly abrupt changes in transition probabilities. We combine predicted and actual pop-up target locations to develop efficient cooperative strategies for networked UAVs. A theoretical analysis and simulation results are presented to evaluate the Markov model used for predicting pop-up threats. These results demonstrate the effectiveness of cooperative strategies using the combined information of threats and predicted threats in improving overall mission performance.     

Magnetically suspended MEMS spinning wheel gyro

A concept of a magnetically suspended spinning wheel gyro is described. The gyro is based on a patented, planar magnetic actuator and position sensor configuration with a gyro wheel that is rotated by a multi-phase electromagnetic spin motor. The motor and actuator/sensor configurations, in addition to providing the necessary forces to suspend the spinning wheel, are amenable to fabrication using some of the developing MEMS fabrication technologies, making batch fabrication of the gyro possible. This provide the capability for high production yield in high volume through the use of batch processing, without the need for skilled hand labor, resulting in high yields, high reliability, and low cost of ownership. The gyro concept is described in detail. The high-speed rotation of the wheel, somewhat smaller than a dime, can produce an angular momentum much larger than that of the Coriolis force based MEMS gyros now receiving intensive development, and is expected to provide considerably higher performance than currently available from this class of instrument. Two axes of angular rate information and three axes of acceleration information are provided by the control loops that center the wheel within the case. Thus, two such magnetically suspended spinning wheel gyros can be used to implement a complete IMU, and can also provide redundancy in three of the five degrees of freedom     

Jovian periodicities (∼10 h, ∼40 min) on Ulysses’ Distant Jupiter Encounter observations around the Halloween CIR events

We analyzed data from four different instruments (HI-SCALE, URAP, SWOOPS, VHM/FGM) onboard Ulysses spacecraft (s/c) and we searched for possible evidence of Jovian emissions when the s/c approached Jupiter during the times of Halloween events (closest time approach/position to Jupiter: February 5, 2004/R = 1683 R_J,θ = ∼49°). In particular, we analyzed extensively the low energy ion measurements obtained by the HI-SCALE experiment in order to examine whether low energy ion/electron emissions show a symmetry, and whether they are observed at north high latitudes upstream from the jovian bow shock, as is known to occur in the region upstream from the south bow shock as well ( Marhavilas et al., 2001). We studied the period from October 2003 to March 2004, as Ulysses moved at distances 0.8–1.2 AU from the planet at north Jovicentric latitudes <75°, and we present here an example of characteristic Jovian periodicities in the measurements around a CIR observed by Ulysses on days ∼348–349/2003 (R = 1894 R_J,θ = 72°). We show that Ulysses observed low energy ion (∼0.055–4.7 MeV) and electron (>∼40 keV) flux and/or spectral modulation with the Jupiter rotation period (∼10 h) as well as variations with the same period in solar wind parameters, radio and magnetic field directional data. In addition, characteristic strong ∼40 min periodic variations were found superimposed on the ∼10 h ion spectral modulation. Both the ∼10 h and ∼40 min ion periodicities in HI-SCALE measurements were present in several cases during the whole period examined (October 2003 to March 2004) and were found to be more evident during some special conditions, for instance during enhanced fluxes around the start (forward shock) and the end (reverse shock) of CIRs. We infer that the Jovian magnetosphere was triggered by the impact of the CIRs, after the Halloween events, and it was (a) a principal source of forward and reverse shock-associated ion flux structures and (b) the cause of generation of ∼10 h quasi-periodic magnetic field and plasma modulation observed by Ulysses at those times.     

Comparative study of productivity of the Rosetta target Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko

In an attempt to evaluate correlations between several properties of comets we report the results of a cometary research involving a criterious analysis of gas and dust mass production rates in Comets 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko (main target of Rosetta Mission), 1P/Halley, Hyakutake (C/1996 B2), and 46P/Wirtanen and make a comparison between them.     

Physiologic and metabolic responses of wheat seedlings to elevated and super-elevated carbon dioxide

The metabolic consequence of suboptimal (400 μmol mol⁻¹ or ppm), near-optimal (1500 ppm) and supra-optimal (10,000 ppm) atmospheric carbon dioxide concentrations [CO₂] was investigated in an attempt to reveal plausible underlying mechanisms for the differential physiological and developmental responses to increasing [CO₂]. Both non-targeted and targeted metabolite profiling by GC–MS and LC–MS were employed to examine primary and secondary metabolites in wheat (Triticum aestivum, cv Yocoro rojo) continuously exposed to these [CO₂] levels for 14, 21 and 28 days. Metabolite profile was altered by both [CO₂] and physiological age. In general, plants grown under high [CO₂] exhibited a metabolite profile characteristic of older plants under ambient CO₂. Elevated [CO₂] resulted in higher levels of phosphorylated sugar intermediates, though no clear trend in the content of reducing sugars was observed. Transient starch content was enhanced by increasing [CO₂] to a much greater extent at 10,000 ppm CO₂ than at 1500 ppm CO₂. The percentage increase of starch content resulting from CO₂ enrichment declined as plants develope. In contrast, elevated [CO₂] promoted the accumulation of secondary metabolites (flavonoids) progressively to a greater extent as plants became mature. Elevated [CO₂] to 1500 ppm induced a higher initial growth rate, while super-elevated [CO₂] appeared to negate such initial growth promotion. However, after 4 weeks, there was no difference in vegetative growth between 1500 and 10,000 ppm CO₂-grown plants, both elevated CO₂ levels resulted in an overall 25% increase in biomass over the control plants. More interestingly, elevated atmospheric [CO₂] reduced evapotranspiration rate (ET), but further increase to the supra-optimal level resulted in increased ET (a reversed trend), i.e. ET at 1500 ppm < ET at 10,000 ppm < ET at 400 ppm. The differential effect of elevated and super-elevated CO₂ on plants was further reflected in the nitrogen dynamics. These results provide the potential metabolic basis for the differential productivity and stomatal function of plants grown under elevated and super-elevated CO₂ levels.     

Scale analysis of pre- and post-midnight ESF bubbles at storm time and quiet time

This paper adopts a scale analysis technique to investigate the properties of intermediate-scale plasma structures observed by ROCSAT-1 in the equatorial F-region. A procedure of scale analysis that is developed via the empirical mode decomposition (EMD) method of Hilbert–Huang transform (HHT) technique allows the mutually correlated components in velocity, density and relative density gradient to be identified and extracted. Comparing the three parameters, good match in wave form is found for density and velocity in the scales between kilometers and hundred meters (few kilometers to 300 m). It implies that there are electric fields proportional to density fluctuation −δn/n in the form similar to what is expected for the generalized Rayleigh–Taylor instability. We find that such a one-to-one match holds for various pre- and post-midnight ESF bubbles during quiet and storm times. It, therefore, means that spatial structures of electric field in the intermediate-scale (300 m to few kilometers) correlates to the density structures in a manner of δE ∝  −δn/n that is not necessarily depending on the driving mechanism of ESF bubbles, although it is known that ESF bubbles can be driven by different mechanisms under different space weather conditions. In smaller scales (300–50 m), fluctuation patterns of density and velocity do not correlate to each other any more, the good match is then found in the density gradient ∇_xn/n and velocity. It is known as the manifestation of the Boltzmann relation. We note that the GRT instability related relationship δV_z ∝  −δn/n for irregularities in scale of kilometers holds only for ESF bubbles that occur within ±5 dip latitude, while the Boltzmann relation (δV_z proportional to ∇_xn/n) holds for small-scale irregularities without such a limitation.     

Aerodynamic database development of the ESA intermediate experimental vehicle

This work deals with the aerodynamic database development of the Intermediate Experiment Vehicle.     

Intermediate-term periodicities in relativistic solar electron fluences during solar cycles 22 and 23

In this paper, we have investigated the intermediate-term periodicities of the relativistic (E > 10 MeV) solar electron flares measured by IMP-8 satellite of NASA for the time period of 1986–2001. This period of investigation includes the entire solar cycle 22; ascending, maximum and a part of descending phase of the current solar cycle 23. To determine accurately the occurrence rate of electron flux, we have employed three different spectral decomposition techniques, viz. fast Fourier transformation (FFT); maximum entropy method (MEM) and Lomb–Scargle periodogram analysis method. For solar cycle 22, in the low frequency range, power spectrum analysis exhibits statistically significant periodicities at ∼706, ∼504 and ∼392 days. In the intermediate frequency range, we have found a series of significant periodicities ∼294, ∼221, ∼153, ∼86, ∼73 and ∼66 days. For short term, periodicities of ∼21–23, ∼31 and ∼37 days were found in power spectrum. When solar cycle 23 is considered the significant periodicities are ∼20, ∼23, ∼29, ∼39, ∼54, ∼63, ∼118, ∼133 and ∼154 days. These results provide evidence that the best known Rieger period (∼153 days), appeared in the high energetic electron flux data for cycle 22 and also likely during maxima of cycle 23. The existence of these periodicities has been discussed in the light of earlier results.     

Time variations of cosmic-ray helium isotopes with BESS-Polar I

The Balloon-borne Experiment with a Superconducting Spectrometer (BESS) is configured with a solenoidal superconducting magnet and a suite of precision particle detectors, including time-of-flight hodoscopes based on plastic scintillators, a silica-aerogel Cherenkov detector, and a high resolution tracking system with a central jet-type drift chamber. The charges of incident particles are determined from energy losses in the scintillators. Their magnetic rigidities (momentum/charge) are measured by reconstructing each particle trajectory in the magnetic field, and their velocities are obtained by using the time-of-flight system. Together, these measurements can accurately identify helium isotopes among the incoming cosmic-ray helium nuclei up to energies in the GeV per nucleon region. The BESS-Polar I instrument flew for 8.5 days over Antarctica from December 13th to December 21st, 2004. Its long-duration flight and large geometric acceptance allow the time variations of isotopic fluxes to be studied for the first time. The time variations of helium isotope fluxes are presented here for rigidities from 1.2 to 2.5 GV and results are compared to previously reported proton data and neutron monitor data.