Vertical motions in Thailand after the 2004 Sumatra–Andaman Earthquake from GPS observations and its geophysical modelling

Following previous findings from ongoing GPS research in Thailand since 2004 we continue to exploit the GPS technique to monitor and model land motions induced by the Sumatra–Andaman Earthquake. Our latest results show that up to the end of 2010, Thailand has been co-seismically displaced and is subsequently undergoing a post-seismic horizontal deformation with total displacements (co-seismic plus post-seismic) ranging from 10.5 to 74.7 cm. We observed the largest horizontal displacements in the southern part of Thailand and moderate and small displacements in the central and northern parts. In addition to horizontal displacements throughout Thailand, continuous GPS measurements show that large parts of Thailand are subsiding at rates up to 1 cm/yr. It is the first time that such vertical post-seismic deformations at large distances (650–1500 km away from the Earthquake’s epicentre) have been recorded. We have investigated the physical processes leading to the observed subsidence. While after-slip on the subduction interface induces negligible or even slightly positive vertical motions, relaxation in the asthenosphere is associated with a sizable subsidence. Predictions from a 3D finite element model feature an asthenosphere with an effective viscosity of the order of 3 * 10¹⁸ Pas, fit the horizontal post-seismic data and the observed subsidence well. This model is then used to predict the subsidence over the whole seismic cycle. The subsidence should go on with a diminishing rate through the next two decades and its final magnitude should not exceed 10 cm in the Bangkok area.     

Demonstration of a high sensitivity GNSS software receiver for indoor positioning

Advances in signal processing techniques contributed to the significant improvements of GNSS receiver performance in dense multipath environments and created the opportunities for a new category of high-sensitivity GNSS (HS-GNSS) receivers that can provide GNSS location services in indoor environments. The difficulties in improving the availability, reliability, and accuracy of these indoor capable GNSS receivers exceed those of the receivers designed for the most hostile urban canyon environments. The authors of this paper identified the vector tracking schemes, signal propagation statistics, and parallel processing techniques that are critical to a robust HS-GNSS receiver for indoor environments and successfully incorporated them into a fully functional high-sensitivity software receiver. A flexible vector-based receiver architecture is introduced to combine these key indoor signal processing technologies into GSNRx-hs™ – the high sensitivity software navigation receiver developed at the University of Calgary. The resulting receiver can perform multi-mode vector tracking in indoor environment at various levels of location and timing uncertainties. In addition to the obvious improvements in time-to-first-fix (TTFF) and signal sensitivity, the field test results in indoor environments surrounded by wood, glass, and concrete showed that the new techniques effectively improved the performance of indoor GNSS positioning. With fine GNSS timing, the proposed receiver can consistently deliver indoor navigation solution with the horizontal accuracy of 2–15 m depending on the satellite geometry and the indoor environments. If only the coarse GNSS timing is available, the horizontal accuracy of the indoor navigation solution from the proposed receiver is around 30 m depending on the coarse timing accuracy, the satellite geometry, and the indoor environments. From the preliminary field test results, it has been observed that the signal processing sensitivity is the dominant factor on the availability of the indoor navigation solution, while the GNSS timing accuracy is the dominant factor on the accuracy of the indoor navigation solution.     

From TOPEX/Poseidon to Jason-2/OSTM in the Amazon basin

A major interest of radar altimetry over rivers is to monitor water resources and associated risk in basins where there is little or no conventional in situ data. The objective of the present study is to calibrate altimetry data in a place where conventional data are available, and use the results to estimate the potential error committed in the estimation of water levels in an ungauged or poorly gauged basin. The virtual stations extracted with Jason-2 in this study concern a very broad sample of river channel width and complexity. Minimum channel width has been estimated at 400 m. Unlike TOPEX/Poseidon (T/P), Jason-2 seems to have the capability to distinguish the river bed from its floodplain. The quality of the results obtained with Jason-2 is incomparably better than that obtained with T/P. Despite the fact that no absolute calibration has been assessed for river in this study, the bias calculated converge around 0, 35 m, which could be then the error estimated on the water stage derived from Jason-2 ranges, when no other validation is available. ICE3 algorithm seems to be performing as well as ICE1, and further research is needed to design retracking algorithm specifically for continental water.     

MIDACO on MINLP space applications

A numerical study on two challenging mixed-integer non-linear programming (MINLP) space applications and their optimization with MIDACO, a recently developed general purpose optimization software, is presented. These applications are the optimal control of the ascent of a multiple-stage space launch vehicle and the space mission trajectory design from Earth to Jupiter using multiple gravity assists. Additionally, an NLP aerospace application, the optimal control of an F8 aircraft manoeuvre, is discussed and solved. In order to enhance the optimization performance of MIDACO a hybridization technique, coupling MIDACO with an SQP algorithm, is presented for two of these three applications. The numerical results show, that the applications can be solved to their best known solution (or even new best solution) in a reasonable time by the considered approach. Since using the concept of MINLP is still a novelty in the field of (aero)space engineering, the demonstrated capabilities are seen as very promising.     

Performance evaluation of IRI-2007 at equatorial latitudes and its Matlab version for GNSS applications

International Reference Ionosphere (IRI) model is the widely used empirical model for ionospheric predictions, especially TEC which is an important parameter for radio navigation and communication. The Fortran based IRI-2007 does not support real-time interactive visualization and debugging. Therefore, the source code is converted into Matlab and is validated for the purposes of this study. This facilitates easy representation of results and for near real-time implementation of IRI in the applications including spacecraft launching, now casting, pseudolite based navigation systems etc. In addition, the vertical delay results over the equatorial region derived from IRI and GPS data of three IGS stations namely Libreville (Garbon, Africa), Brasilia (Brazil, South America) and Hyderabad (India, Asia) are compared. As the IRI model does not account for plasmasphere TEC, the vertical delays are underestimated compared to vertical delays of GPS signals. Therefore, the model should be modified accordingly for precise TEC estimation.     

Active debris removal of multiple priority targets

Today’s space debris environment shows major concentrations of objects within distinct orbital regions for nearly all size regimes. The most critical region is found at orbital altitudes near 800 km with high declinations. Within this region many satellites are operated in so called sun-synchronous orbits (SSO). Among those, there are Earth observation, communication and weather satellites. Due to the orbital geometry in SSO, head-on encounters with relative velocities of about 15 km/s are most probable and would thus result in highly energetic collisions, which are often referred to as catastrophic collisions, leading to the complete fragmentation of the participating objects. So called feedback collisions can then be triggered by the newly generated fragments, thus leading to a further population increase in the affected orbital region. This effect is known as the Kessler syndrome.     

Height of shock formation in the solar corona inferred from observations of type II radio bursts and coronal mass ejections

Employing coronagraphic and EUV observations close to the solar surface made by the Solar Terrestrial Relations Observatory (STEREO) mission, we determined the heliocentric distance of coronal mass ejections (CMEs) at the starting time of associated metric type II bursts. We used the wave diameter and leading edge methods and measured the CME heights for a set of 32 metric type II bursts from solar cycle 24. We minimized the projection effects by making the measurements from a view that is roughly orthogonal to the direction of the ejection. We also chose image frames close to the onset times of the type II bursts, so no extrapolation was necessary. We found that the CMEs were located in the heliocentric distance range from 1.20 to 1.93 solar radii (Rs), with mean and median values of 1.43 and 1.38 Rs, respectively. We conclusively find that the shock formation can occur at heights substantially below 1.5 Rs. In a few cases, the CME height at type II onset was close to 2 Rs. In these cases, the starting frequency of the type II bursts was very low, in the range 25–40 MHz, which confirms that the shock can also form at larger heights. The starting frequencies of metric type II bursts have a weak correlation with the measured CME/shock heights and are consistent with the rapid decline of density with height in the inner corona.     

Estimation of ballistic coefficients of low altitude debris objects from historical two line elements

This paper presents a new method for estimating ballistic coefficients (BCs) of low perigee debris objects from their historical two line elements (TLEs). The method uses the drag perturbation equation of the semi-major axis of the orbit. For an object with perigee altitude below 700 km, the variation in the mean semi-major axis derived from the TLE is mainly caused by the atmospheric drag effect, and therefore is used as the source in the estimation of the ballistic coefficient. The method is tested using the GRACE satellites, and a number of debris objects with external ballistic coefficient values, and agreements of about 10% are achieved.     

Annual solar UV exposure and biological effective dose rates on the Martian surface.

The ultraviolet (UV) environment of Mars has been investigated to gain an understanding of the variation of exposure throughout a Martian year, and link this flux to biological effects and possible survival of organisms at the Martian surface. To gain an idea of how the solar UV radiation varies between different regions, including planned landing sites of two future Mars surface missions, we modelled the total solar UV surface flux throughout one Martian year for two different dust scenarios. To understand the degree of solar UV stress on micro-organisms and/or molecules essential for life on the surface of Mars, we also calculated the biologically effective dose (BED) for T7 and Uracil in relevant wavelength regions at the Martian surface as a function of season and latitude, and discuss the biological survival rates in the presence of Martian solar UV radiation. High T7/Uracil BED ratios indicate that even at high latitudes where the UV flux is significantly reduced, the radiation environment is still hostile for life due to the persisting UV-C component of the flux.