Coupled Clouds and Chemistry of the Giant Planets— A Case for Multiprobes

In seeking to understand the formation of the giant planets and the origin of their atmospheres, the heavy element abundance in well-mixed atmosphere is key. However, clouds come in the way. Thus, composition and condensation are intimately intertwined with the mystery of planetary formation and atmospheric origin. Clouds also provide important clues to dynamical processes in the atmosphere. In this chapter we discuss the thermochemical processes that determine the composition, structure, and characteristics of the Jovian clouds. We also discuss the significance of clouds in the big picture of the formation of giant planets and their atmospheres. We recommend multiprobes at all four giant planets in order to break new ground.     

Solar modulation model with reentrant particles

We developed a one dimensional model of particle transport in the heliosphere. As opposite to widely used models, we apply a method where a quasi-particle is traced back in time. The model gives us the possibility to work on the possible existence of reentrant particles in the heliosphere that can be hardly solved by the traditional forward tracking method. Particles escape from the heliosphere and may reenter back. We estimate how these particles affect the modulation process in the heliosphere. Presented here are the results for different values of particles mean free path in the interstellar space and for different interstellar magnetic field values.     

日球层内外能量中性原子的探测

能量中性原子(Energetic Neutral Atoms, ENA, 简称能原子)是指在日球层内外空间, 拥有>0.1keV动能的原子.在此空间领域并没有温度>106K的中性气体, 但却充满动能>0.1keV的正离子.因此能原子A应该是A+离子与原地稀薄气体B原子或分子交换电荷所产生的, 即A++B→A+B+. 电荷交换涉及极小的动能变化, 新生的能原子A和离子B+基本上各自保持原有动能. 离子B+随即被当地磁场俘获, 能原子A则脱离磁场约束并携带其原属离子群的成分和能量信息而直线运动, 成为遥测空间等离子体的有效媒介. 美国人造卫星 IBEX (Interstellar Boundary Explorer) 直接探测得到来自日球层以外星际空间的能原子, 大幅延伸了利用能原子遥测空间等离子体的领域. 本文据此论述了空间能原子的发现, 综述了探测空间能原子的基本概念与实例、取得的主要成果、仪器设计和研制进展以及未来空间利用能原子遥测的发展趋势.      

Coronal radio-sounding detection of a CME during the 1997 Galileo solar conjunction

Frequency fluctuations of the Galileo S-band radio signal were recorded nearly continuously during the spacecraft’s solar conjunction from December 1996 to February 1997. A strong propagating disturbance, most probably associated with a coronal mass ejection (CME), was detected on 7 February when the radio ray path proximate point was on the west solar limb at about 54 solar radii from the Sun. The CME passage through the line of sight is characterized by a significant increase in the fluctuation intensity of the recorded frequency and by an increase in the plasma speed from about 234 km s⁻¹ up to about 755 km s⁻¹. These velocity estimates are obtained from a correlation analysis of frequency fluctuations recorded simultaneously at two widely-separated ground stations. The density turbulence power spectrum is found to steepen behind the CME front. The Galileo radio-sounding data are compared with SOHO/LASCO observations of the CME in the corona and with WIND spacecraft data near the Earth’s orbit.     

Analysis of Detection Probability for the Acoustooptic Receiver

A numerical method is described for analyzing the performance of an acoustooptic receiver. The method provides output waveforms, probability density functions for samples of the output, and detection probabilities for output samples. The approach is general in that input pulse envelope shapes, pulse offset frequencies, and output rilter magnitude responses are arbitrary. The basic analysis is also independent of the shape of the optical beam and of the photodiode windows.