Nonlinear Adaptive Control of a Synchronous Machine

A nonlinear adaptive controller for a load-commutated brushless dc machine that allows the machine to develop high torque over a wide range of operating conditions, while satisfying voltage and current constraints on both stator and field circuits, is presented. The approach taken is fundamentally different from past work in that a nonlinear control is formulated from the steady-state model of the synchronous machine. Adaptive algorithms are presented for both the unknown load and motor cases.     

Donald Hamilton,The Evolving Universe,Astrophysics and Space Science Library,volume 321

Space Science Reviews -     

UVCS/SOHO Observations of Spectral Line Profiles in Polar Coronal Holes

Ultraviolet emission line profiles have been measured on 15-29 September 1997 for H I 1216 Å, O VI 1032, 1037 Å and Mg X 625 Å in a polar coronal hole, at heliographic heights ? (in solar radii) between 1.34 and 2.0. Observations of H I 1216 Å and the O VI doublet from January 1997 for ? = 1.5 to 3.0 are provided for comparison. Mg X 625 Å is observed to have a narrow component at ? = 1.34 which accounts for only a small fraction of the observed spectral radiance, and a broad component that exists at all observed heights. The widths of O VI broad components are only slightly larger than those for H I at ? = 1.34, but are significantly larger at ? = 1.5 and much larger for ? > 1.75. In contrast, the Mg X values are less than those of H I up to 1.75 and then increase rapidly up to at least ? = 2.0, but never reach the values of O VI.     

Soho Observations of Density Fluctuations in Coronal Holes

In recent UVCS/SOHO White Light Channel (WLC) observations we found quasi-periodic variations in the polarized brightness (pB) in the polar coronal holes at heliocentric distances of 1.9 to 2.45 solar radii. The motivation for the observation is the 2.5D MHD model of solar wind acceleration by nonlinear waves, that predicts compressive fluctuations in coronal holes. In February 1998 we performed new observations using the UVCS/WLC in the coronal hole and obtained additional data. The new data corroborate our earlier findings with higher statistical significance. The new longer observations show that the power spectrum peaks in the 10–12 minute range. These timescales agree with EIT observations of brightness fluctuations in polar plumes. We performed preliminary LASCO/C2 observations in an effort to further establish the coronal origin of the fluctuations. This revised version was published online in June 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

The Electron Beam Instrument (F6) on Freja

The Electron Beam Instrument (F6) onFreja is the first attempt to apply the electron drift technique in a region of large ambient magnetic fields. The paper describes the operational principles, the technical realization, and the difficulties encountered in the derivation of the electric fields.     

Eruptive prominences as sources of magnetic clouds in the solar wind

Large amounts of coronal material are propelled outward into interplanetary space by Coronal Mass Ejections (CMEs). Thus one might expect to find evidence for expanding flux ropes in the solar wind as well. To prove this assumption magnetic clouds were analyzed and correlated with H-observations of disappearing filaments. When clouds were found to be directly associated with a disappearing filament, the magnetic structure of the cloud was compared with that of the associated filament. Additionally the expansion of magnetic clouds was examined over a wide range of the heliosphere and compared with the expansion observed for erupting prominences.     

The Freja ultraviolet imager

Auroral images acquired by satellite instrumentation have proven to be a crucial component of the scientific equiry into the physical processes of the Earth's magnetosphere. TheFreja mission provided an opportunity to extend these measurements into the temporal and spatial regime commonly associated with ground-based optical imagers. Employing the basic procedure used successfully in theViking program allowed image repetition rates of 6 s to be achieved with simultaneous exposure of all pixels within the field-of-view. Typical exposure times of 0.3 s required development of an improved image intensifier system and operational requirements resulted in image formats covering approximately one-third of a spin. Simultaneously exposing two broad-band UV cameras, the instrument generates in its normal operational mode 264.6 kbytes per image pair. Results from initial operations confirm the design approach and suggest such imagers can be routinely included on challenging low cost missions such asFreja.     

Data fusion of decentralized local tracker outputs

An approach for fusing offboard track-level data at a central fusion node is presented. The case where the offboard tracker continues to update its local track estimate with measurement and system dynamics models that are not necessarily linear is considered. An algorithm is developed to perform this fusion at a central node without having access to the offboard measurements, their noise statistics, or the location of the local estimator. The algorithm is based on an extension of results that were originally established for linear offboard trackers. A second goal of this work is to develop an inequality constraint for selecting the proper sampling interval for the incoming state estimates to the fusion node. This interval is selected to allow use of conventional Kalman filter algorithms at the fusion node without suffering error performance degradation due to processing a correlated sequence of track state estimates     

GTD Terrain Reflection Model Applied to ILS Glide Scope

The capability of calculating the reflection of electromagnetic signals from uneven terrain has many applications. One of these is the determination of instrument landing system (ILS) glide slope performance. For this application the wavelength is approximately 1 m, incidence angles are usually near grazing, and the fields are horizontally polarized, so that gross irregularities such as dropoffs and hills are more important than surface roughness. Past approaches used to calculate the ground reflections for this application have been three-dimensional physical optics models which were very cumbersome and time consuming and which neglected important diffraction and shadowing phenomenon; a two-dimensional physical optics model which was faster than the three-dimensional models but ignored many shadowing and transverse terrain variation effects; and a half-plane diffraction model which is applicable only to a specified type of terrain geometry. In this paper a terrain reflection model based on the geometrical theory of diffraction (GTD) is described which can accommodate any piecewise linear terrain profile, requires less computer time than the physical optics models, is capable of including transverse terrain effects, and determines the reflected fields with all important diffraction and blockage effects included.     

Dynamic considerations for control of closed life support systems

Reliability of closed life support systems will depend on their ability to continue supplying the crew's needs in the face of perturbations and equipment failures. These dynamic considerations interact with the basic static (equilibrium) design through the sizing of storages, the specification of excess capacities in processors, and the choice of system initial state (total mass in the system). This paper uses a very simple system flow model to examine the possibilities for system failures even when there is sufficient storage to buffer the immediate effects of the perturbation. Two control schemes are shown which have different dynamic consequences in response to component failures.