Signatures of strong geomagnetic storms in the equatorial latitude

Ionosonde data from two equatorial stations in the African sector have been used to study the signatures of four strong geomagnetic storms on the height – electron density profiles of the equatorial ionosphere with the objective of investigating the effects and extent of the effects on the three layers of the equatorial ionosphere. The results showed that strong geomagnetic storms produced effects of varying degrees on the three layers of the ionosphere. Effect of strong geomagnetic storms on the lower layers of the equatorial ionosphere can be significant when compared with effect at the F2-layer. Fluctuations in the height of ionization within the E-layer were as much as 0% to +20.7% compared to −12.5% to +8.3% for the F2-layer. The 2007 version of the International Reference Ionosphere, IRI-07 storm-time model reproduced responses at the E-layer but overestimated the observed storm profiles for the F1- and F2-layers.     

Comparison of half-bridge off-line, ZCS-QRC and ZVS-MRC

The performance of the half-bridge (HB) zero-current-switched (ZCS) quasi-resonant converter (QRC) and zero-voltage-switched (ZVS) multiresonant converter (MRC) is compared with respect to their efficiency, input voltage range, semiconductor stresses, power density, and reliability. The efficiency of the HB ZVS-MRC at a given nominal input is shown to be highly dependent on the range of the input voltage, and it suffers when the converter has to be designed to cover a wide range. However, this is not the case for the HB ZCS-QRC. Experimental versions of the HB ZCS-QRC and HB ZVS-MRC were designed for the input voltage range from 150 to 350 V and a maximum output power of 100 W, under the same constraints, to facilitate their comparison     

Diurnal and seasonal variations of F2 layer characteristics over Irkutsk during the decrease in solar activity in 2003–2006: Observations and IRI-2001 model predictions

The diurnal and seasonal variations of F2 layer characteristics (critical frequency, peak height and bottomside thickness) over Irkutsk, Russia (52.3 N and 104.3 E) are studied by the method of running medians. The comparison with the IRI-2001 model during the decrease in solar activity in 2003–2006 revealed cases of both close agreement and systematic differences between predictions and observations. The systematic difference is not the only reason for disagreement between IRI and observations; there are also intrayear variations which are not associated with seasonal behavior. The period of observation was too short to make conclusions about solar activity dependence of the noon bottomside thickness and the modification of its diurnal behavior with decreasing solar activity.     

High resolution science with high redshift galaxies

We summarize the high-resolution science that has been done on high redshift galaxies with Adaptive Optics (AO) on the world’s largest ground-based facilities and with the Hubble Space Telescope (HST). These facilities complement each other. Ground-based AO provides better light gathering power and in principle better resolution than HST, giving it the edge in high spatial resolution imaging and high resolution spectroscopy. HST produces higher quality, more stable PSF’s over larger field-of-views in a much darker sky-background than ground-based AO, and yields deeper wide-field images and low-resolution spectra than the ground. Faint galaxies have steadily decreasing sizes at fainter fluxes and higher redshifts, reflecting the hierarchical formation of galaxies over cosmic time. HST has imaged this process in great structural detail to z  6, and ground-based AO and spectroscopy has provided measurements of their masses and other physical properties with cosmic time. Last, we review how the 6.5 m James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) will measure First Light, reionization, and galaxy assembly in the near–mid-IR after 2013.