Real-time GLE alert in the ANMODAP Center for December 13, 2006

Within the last years, a real-time system to monitor high energy cosmic rays for space weather use has been operated at Athens cosmic ray station. Neutron monitors and satellite high resolution data in real time are used, making it possible to observe cosmic rays in dual energy range observations. In large solar energetic particle (SEP) events, ground level enhancement (GLE) can provide the earliest alert for the onset of the SEP event. This system watches for count rate increases recorded in real time by 23 neutron monitors, which triggers an alarm if a ground level enhancement (GLE) of cosmic ray intensity is detected.     

拉压、扭转载荷下铸铝合金的亿周疲劳性能研究

应用超声疲劳试验机对铸铝合金2-AS5U3G-Y35在扭转和拉压循环载荷下进行了超高周疲劳性能测试.介绍了超声扭转疲劳试验装置的设计.应用35 Hz常规疲劳试验机和20 kHz的超声疲劳试验机完成应力比R=-1的拉压、扭转疲劳试验,进而研究不同载荷条件、加载频率对铸铝合金超高周疲劳性能的影响.S-N曲线显示,铝合金在105～1010疲劳周次间仍发生疲劳断裂,不存在疲劳极限.断口分析表明,在超高周循环拉压载荷下,疲劳裂纹常萌生于试样次表面材料内部缩孔.与循环拉压载荷下的疲劳断裂机理不同,在循环扭转载荷下疲劳裂纹主要萌生于试样表面,疲劳断裂面为一种典型的沿试样轴向45°的螺旋面,即沿最大主应力平面断裂.扭转疲劳断面清晰的剪切条带表明扭转疲劳断裂实质上是剪切断裂.     

STARDUST: finessing expensive cometary sample returns

The STARDUST Discovery mission will collect samples of cometary coma and interstellar dust and return them to Earth. Five years after launch in February 1999, coma dust in the 1- to 100-micrometers size range will be captured by impact into ultra-low-density silica aerogel during a 6 kms-1 flyby of Comet Wild 2. The returned samples will be investigated at laboratories where the most critical information on these primitive materials is retained. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory will provide project management with Lockheed Martin Astronauts as the spacecraft industrial partner. STARDUST management will aggressively and innovatively achieve cost control through the use of Total Quality Management principles, the chief of which will be organization in a Project Engineering and Integration Team that "flattens" the traditional hierarchical structure by including all project elements from the beginning, in a concurrent engineering framework focusing on evolving Integrated Mission Capability.     

An inconvenient regulatory truth: Divergence in US and EU satellite export control policies on China

Since the early 1990s the USA has maintained export control sanctions against Chinese international commercial satellite launch services. In 1998 these sanctions were further strengthened, resulting in a de facto international embargo that is premised on ITAR export licenses. Since 1998 this de facto embargo has effectively prohibited China from launching Western commercial satellites of a sophisticated technological standard. Today, European commercial satellite manufacturers are positioned to fully benefit from ITAR-free technology investments, gaining access to Chinese launch services for the launch of commercial telecommunication satellites that are technologically comparable to US satellites. This article examines the policy implications for the USA in light of EU regulatory divergence and the impending return of China to the international commercial launch services market.     

Arm end-point trajectories under normal and micro-gravity environments

The purpose of the present experiment was to study the way in which the CNS represents gravitational force during vertical arm pointing movements. Movements in upward and downward directions were executed by two cosmonauts in normal-gravity and weightlessness. Analyses focused upon finger kinematics in the sagittal plane. In normal-gravity, downward direction movements showed smaller curvatures and greater relative times to peak velocity (AT/MT) when compared with upward direction movements. Data from the weightlessness experiments showed that whilst downward movements decreased their curvature during space flight, curvatures of upward movements changed slightly. Furthermore, AT/MT was modified during the first days in micro-gravity for both directions, recovering, however, to pre-flight values after 18 days in space. Results from the present study, provide evidence that gravitational force is centrally treated constituting an important component of the motor plan for vertical arm movements.     

Omnidirectional Instantaneous Direction Finding System

A system for providing near-instantaneous determination of the azimuthal angle of arrival of a received signal has been designed and fabricated at L band. Direction is determined by phase measurement of the outputs of a multimode antenna, which has no moving parts. Effects of multipath interference are reduced to a minimum through a combination of signal processing techniques. The position of the transmitting source is presented on a PPI display.     

Nonuniform array processing via the polynomial approach

A polynomial approach for maximum-likelihood (ML) estimation of superimposed signals in time-series problems and array processing was recently proposed. This technique was applied successfully to linear uniform arrays and to uniformly sampled complex exponential signals. However, uniformly spaced arrays are not optimal for minimum variance estimation of bearing, range or position, and uniform sampling of signals is not always possible in practice. The authors make use of the expectation-maximization algorithm to apply the polynomial approach to sublattice arrays and to missing samples in time-series problems     

The sun in the far infrared and sub-mm region

A review is given of the solar radiation between wavelengths of approx. 5 m. and 1 mm. After discussing the astrophysical background (Section 2), we review the brightness temperatures measured in the continuous spectrum in the disk center (Section 3), and compare them with model predictions. The observed limb darkening (or brightening) is described in Section 4, and the line spectrum in Section 5. In Section 6 considerations are given on the usefulness of infrared observations for the investigation of small structures on the Sun.     

Optimum Position Estimation Using Multiple-Frequency Omega

The maximum-likelihood estimator of the line of position (LOP) resulting from K frequencies received from each of two Omega stations for high SNR is derived. The estimator takes advantage of interfrequency correlation of phase uncertainties by modeling them as resulting from phase velocity uncertainties which are jointly Gaussian with known covariance. The utilization of Omega for search and rescue systems is examined. For this application, the result of increasing the size of the unambiguous lanes of Omega by addition of a fourth frequency to the present three-frequency format is examined. The results of Monte Carlo simulation, performed for several easily implemented fourth frequencies, are presented. The simulation results illustrate the extent to which lane errors can be expected as a function of various fourth frequencies, phase velocity uncertainties, and SNR.