The atmospheric cosmic- and solar energetic particle radiation environment at aircraft altitudes

Galactic cosmic rays interact with the solar wind, the earth's magnetic field and its atmosphere to produce hadron, lepton and photon fields at aircraft altitudes. In addition to cosmic rays, energetic particles generated by solar activity bombard the earth from time to time. These particles, while less energetic than cosmic rays, also produce radiation fields at aircraft altitudes which have qualitatively the same properties as atmospheric cosmic rays. We have used a code based on transport theory to calculate atmospheric cosmic-ray quantities and compared them with experimental data. Agreement with these data is seen to be good. We have then used this code to calculate equivalent doses to aircraft crews. We have also used the code to calculate radiation doses from several large solar energetic particle events which took place in 1989, including the very large event that occurred on September 29^th and 30^th of that year. The spectra incident on the atmosphere were determined assuming diffusive shock theory.     

Gravisensing in plants and fungi.

The principle of establishing and maintaining a gravitropic set point angle depends on gravisensing and a subsequent cascade of events that result in differential elongation of the responsive structures. Since gravity acts upon masses, the gravisensing mechanisms of all biological systems must follow the same principle, namely the sensing of some force due to differential acceleration of the perceiving entity and a reference structure. This presentation will demonstrate that gravisensing can be accomplished by various means, ranging from cytoskeletal organization, mechano-elastic stress to perturbation of electric signals. However, several arguments indicate that sedimentation of either dense plastids (statoliths), the entire protoplast, or a combination of these represents the primary step in graviperception in plants. In fungi, nuclei and cytoskeletal proteins are believed to form a network capable of gravisensing but sedimenting organelles that may function as statoliths have been identified. Theoretical and practical limitations of gravisensing and detection of acceleration forces necessitate microgravity experiments to identify the primary perceptor, subsequent biochemical mechano-transduction, and biological response processes.     

Mutagenic effects of heavy ions in bacteria.

The peculiarities and mechanisms of the mutagenic action of gamma-rays and heavy ions on bacterial cells have been investigated. Direct mutations in the lac-operon of E. coli in wild type cells and repair deficient strains have been detected. Furthermore, the induction of revertants in Salmonella tester strains was measured. It was found that the mutation rate was a linear-quadratic function of dose in the case of both gamma-rays and heavy ions with LET up to 200 keV/micrometer. The relative biological effectiveness (RBE) increased with LET up to 20 keV/micrometer. Low mutation rates were observed in repair deficient mutants with a block of SOS-induction. The induction of SOS-repair by ionizing radiation has been investigated by means of the "SOS-chromotest" and lambda-prophage induction. It was shown that the intensity of the SOS-induction in E. coli increased with increasing LET up to 40-60 keV/micrometer.     

Source and loss processes in the magnetotail

Space Science Reviews -     

An empirical model to predict the 1-AU arrival of interplanetary shocks

We extend the empirical coronal mass ejection (CME) arrival model of Gopalswamy et al. [Gopalswamy, N. et al. Predicting the 1-AU arrival times of coronal mass ejections, J. Geophys. Res. 106, 29207, 2001] to predict the 1-AU arrival of interplanetary (IP) shocks. A set of 29 IP shocks and the associated magnetic clouds observed by the Wind spacecraft are used for this study. The primary input to this empirical shock arrival model is the initial speed of white-light CMEs obtained using coronagraphs. We use the gas dynamic piston–shock relationship to derive the ESA model which provides a simple means of obtaining the 1-AU speed and arrival times of interplanetary shocks using CME speeds.     

Suboptimal Algorithms for Nonlinear Smoothing

This paper presents second-order algorithms for fixed- point and fixed-lag smoothing problems for nonlinear systems. The algorithms are obtained on the basis of the state augmentation approach, used earlier by the authors, for dealing with linear smoothing problems. Both discrete-and continuous-time forms of solutions are presented and the results are illustrated by considering a radar tracking problem. Some of the advantages of the proposed smoothing solutions compared to existing ones are also discussed.     

Conjecture on superrotation in planetary atmospheres: A diffusion model with mixing length theory

Superrotation on Venus is discussed in the context of comparative planetary atmospheres. In our planetary system, the rigid shell component (global average) of superrotation is ubiquitous (Jupiter, Saturn, Earth, Venus, Mars, Titan). The largest equatorial values of the component are between 25 and 150 m/sec. We present a simplified, heuristic analysis, utilizing mixing length theory to describe the small scale non-linear advections of energy and angular momentum, thereby providing a closure of the dynamic system. This leads to the conjecture that the zonal velocity may be crudely estimated by

, approximating the observed planetary trends; with c the speed of sound, the parameter a being 1 or 2 for geostrophic or cyclostrophic conditions respectively, P_α an effective Prandtl number which becomes less than one when radiative cooling is important, S_o the average stability, Γ the adiabatic lapse rate and γ the ratio of specific heats.