Geometrical simulation of regular and irregular folded structures

Some general problems on simulation of folded cores are considered. The application potential of the present-day parametrical CAD systems for designing constructions based on the regular and irregular structures is shown.     

ARTEMIS Science Objectives

NASA??s two spacecraft ARTEMIS mission will address both heliospheric and planetary research questions, first while in orbit about the Earth with the Moon and subsequently while in orbit about the Moon. Heliospheric topics include the structure of the Earth??s magnetotail; reconnection, particle acceleration, and turbulence in the Earth??s magnetosphere, at the bow shock, and in the solar wind; and the formation and structure of the lunar wake. Planetary topics include the lunar exosphere and its relationship to the composition of the lunar surface, the effects of electric fields on dust in the exosphere, internal structure of the Moon, and the lunar crustal magnetic field. This paper describes the expected contributions of ARTEMIS to these baseline scientific objectives.     

Curiosity’s Mars Hand Lens Imager (MAHLI) Investigation

The Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) Mars Hand Lens Imager (MAHLI) investigation will use a 2-megapixel color camera with a focusable macro lens aboard the rover, Curiosity, to investigate the stratigraphy and grain-scale texture, structure, mineralogy, and morphology of geologic materials in northwestern Gale crater. Of particular interest is the stratigraphic record of a ～5?km thick layered rock sequence exposed on the slopes of Aeolis Mons (also known as Mount Sharp). The instrument consists of three parts, a?camera head mounted on the turret at the end of a robotic arm, an electronics and data storage assembly located inside the rover body, and a calibration target mounted on the robotic arm shoulder azimuth actuator housing. MAHLI can acquire in-focus images at working distances from ～2.1?cm to infinity. At the minimum working distance, image pixel scale is ～14?μm per pixel and very coarse silt grains can be resolved. At the working distance of the Mars Exploration Rover Microscopic Imager cameras aboard Spirit and Opportunity, MAHLI’s resolution is comparable at ～30?μm per pixel. Onboard capabilities include autofocus, auto-exposure, sub-framing, video imaging, Bayer pattern color interpolation, lossy and lossless compression, focus merging of up to 8 focus stack images, white light and longwave ultraviolet (365 nm) illumination of nearby subjects, and 8 gigabytes of non-volatile memory data storage.     

几何非线性固体壳单元新列式的研究

通过定义广义应力，提出了一个改进的刚度矩阵，以克服固体壳元的厚度自锁问题；由一个基于广义应力的新的非线性变分泛函，推导了一个用于几何非线性分析的十八节点固体壳单元，精心选择低、高阶应力插值模式，保证二者正交，且对应于低阶项的刚度阵与减缩积分单元相当，对应高阶项的刚度阵用于克服单元的零能模式且可推得显式，从而显著提高了计算效率，此外该单元还拥有优秀的收敛性能，即使在非常大的载荷步下也能取得好的收敛结果。     

Amino acid synthesis from CO-N2 and CO-N2-H2 gas mixtures via complex organic compounds.

Reaction among hydrogen cyanide (HCN), formaldehyde (H2CO) and ammonia (NH3) are generally considered an important reaction in amino acid synthesis by electric discharge. Precursors of glycine and aspartic acid were, however, synthesized by adding water to metastable complex compounds produced by quenching a CO-N2 high-temperature plasma. In order to investigate effects of water remaining in an experimental vacuum chamber, optical emission spectroscopic and mass spectrometric measurements were conducted with CO-N2 and CO-N2-H2 gas mixtures. Although residual hydrogen atoms were detected in the CO-N2 experiment, the amount of them was much less than that in the CO-N2-H2 experiment.     

Biomass recycle as a means to improve the energy efficiency of CELSS algal culture systems.

Algal cultures can be very rapid and efficient means to generate biomass and regenerate the atmosphere for closed environmental life support systems. However, as in the case of most higher plants, a significant fraction of the biomass produced by most algae cannot be directly converted to a useful food product by standard food technology procedures. This waste biomass will serve as an energy drain on the overall system unless it can be efficiently recycled without a significant loss of its energy content. We report experiments in which cultures of the algae Scenedesmus obliquus were grown in the light and at the expense of an added carbon source, which either replaced or supplemented the actinic light. As part of these experiments we tested hydrolyzed waste biomass from these same algae to determine whether the algae themselves could be made part of the biological recycling process. Results indicate that hydrolyzed algal (and plant) biomass can serve as carbon and energy sources for the growth of these algae, suggesting that the efficiency of the closed system could be significantly improved using this recycling process.     

Simulation study of motion of charged particles trapped in Earth’s magnetosphere

This article aims to understand the motion of the charged particles trapped in the Earth’s inner magnetosphere. The emphasis is on identifying the numerical scheme, which is appropriate to characterize the trajectories of the charged particles of different energies that enter the Earth’s magnetosphere and get trap along the magnetic field lines. These particles perform three different periodic motions, namely: gyration, bounce, and azimuthal drift. However, often, the gyration of the particle is ignored, and only the guiding center of the particle is traced to reduce the computational time. It is because the simulation of all three motions (gyro, bounce, and drift) together needed a robust numerical scheme, which has less numerical dissipation. We have developed a three-dimensional test particle simulation model in which the relativistic equation of motion is solved numerically using the fourth and sixth-order Runge-Kutta methods. The stability of the simulation model is verified by checking the conservation of total kinetic energy and adiabatic invariants linked with each type of motion. We found that the sixth-order Runge-Kutta method is suitable to trace the complete trajectories of both proton and electron of a wide energy range, 5 keV to 250 MeV for L = 2 – 6. We have estimated the bounce and drift periods from the simulations, and they are found to be in good agreement with the theory. The study implies that a simulation model with sixth-order Runge-Kutta method can be applied to the time-vary, non-analytical form of magnetic configuration in future studies to understand the dynamics of charged particles trapped in Earth’s magnetosphere.     

Longitudinal variations of geomagnetic and ionospheric parameters in the Northern Hemisphere during magnetic storms according to multi-instrument observations

We present a joint analysis of longitude-temporal variations of ionospheric and geomagnetic parameters at middle and high latitudes in the Northern Hemisphere during the two severe magnetic storms in March and June 2015 by using data from the chains of magnetometers, ionosondes and GPS/GLONASS receivers. We identify the fixed longitudinal zones where the variability of the magnetic field is consistently high or low under quiet and disturbed geomagnetic conditions. The revealed longitudinal structure of the geomagnetic field variability in quiet geomagnetic conditions is caused by the discrepancy of the geographic and magnetic poles and by the spatial anomalies of different scales in the main magnetic field of the Earth. Variations of ionospheric parameters are shown to exhibit a pronounced longitudinal inhomogeneity with changing geomagnetic conditions. This inhomogeneity is associated with the longitudinal features of background and disturbed structure of the geomagnetic field. During the recovery phase of a storm, important role in dynamics of the mid-latitude ionosphere may belong to wave-like thermospheric disturbances of molecular gas, propagating westward for several days. Therefore, it is necessary to extend the time interval for studying the ionospheric effects of strong magnetic storms by a few days after the end of the magnetospheric source influence, while the disturbed regions in the thermosphere continues moving westward and causes the electron density decrease along the trajectories of propagation.     

Short-term periodicities in the downward longwave radiation and their associations with cosmic ray and solar interplanetary data

In this study downward longwave (LW) atmospheric radiation data for the period of 2014–2020 were used to search for short-term periodicities using fast Fourier transform (FFT). Several local peaks in the power spectrum density were found and established. The time series exhibits a series of significant peaks (exceeding the 95% confidence limit), such as at 273 days, 227 days, 200 days, 178 days, 157 days, 110 days, 120 days, 87 days, 73 days, 53–56 days, 35–30 days, 25–27 days, 21 days, 13 days, and 9–10 days.Moreover, cosmic ray data from KACST muon detector and the Oulu neutron monitor, as well as the data for the solar radio flux at 10.7 cm (F10.7 cm), Dst index, and solar wind speed for the same period as the LW data, were used to look for common cyclic variations and periodicities matching those found in the LW radiation. This was done to investigate the possible effect of the solar activity parameters on LW radiation. Several common periodicities were observed in the spectra of all the variables considered, such as 227 days, 154–157 days, 25–27 days, and 21 days. Some of the periodicities found in the LW radiation spectrum can be attributed to the modulation of the cosmic ray intensity by solar activity. Others are attributed to the disturbances in the interplanetary magnetic field. Based on the spectral results, we suggest that the solar signals may directly or indirectly affect the variations of the downward longwave radiation, which in turn may affect climate change.     

Investigation of Satellite Trace (ST) and Multi-reflected Echo (MRE) ionogram signatures and its possible correlation to nighttime spread F development from Cyprus over the solar mini-max (2009–2016)

Multi-reflected echoes (MREs) and satellite traces (STs) are referred in literature as ionogram signatures of Travelling Ionospheric Disturbances (TIDs) which is a phenomenon that apparently drives spread F development mainly at nighttime mid-latitude ionosphere. A long-term statistical study has been undertaken to investigate the morphological aspect of these signatures over the lower midlatitude European station of Nicosia, Cyprus (35.19°N, 33.38°E geographic; magnetic dip. 29.38°N) by inspecting all ionograms recorded by the DPS-4D digisonde in the interval 2009–2016. The results underline the systematic manifestation of these TID signatures over Cyprus with a possible (although not quite clear) solar activity dependence and a distinctive seasonal and diurnal occurrence rate with a seasonal peak of STs during summer and of MREs during January to April. Based on the experimental results of the present study, the seasonal occurrence rate of MREs and STs is found to increase by 75% and 56% during high solar activity periods. Satellite traces are well known ionogram signatures of TIDs and mostly correlated to the nighttime spread F formation. The occurrence of mid-latitude spread Fs over European longitude sector normally increases during summer. The occurrences of TIDs are also prominent at this interval of the year over nighttime mid-latitude ionosphere. The presence of MREs as an ionogram signature of TIDs over mid-latitude ionosphere is unique in nature.