Scientific results from the pioneer Saturn infrared radiometer

The Pioneer 11 Infrared Radiometer instrument made observations of Saturn and its rings in broadband channels centered at 20 and 45 μm and obtained whole-disk information on Titan. A planetary average effective temperature of 96.5±2.5 K implies a total emission 2.8 times the absorbed sunlight. Correlation with radio science results implies that the molar fraction of H₂ is 90±3% (assuming the rest is He). Temperatures at the 1 bar level are 137 to 140 K; regions appearing cooler may be overlain by a cloud acting as a 124 K blackbody surface. A minimum temperature averaging 87 K is reached near 0.06 bars. Ring boundaries and optical depths are consistent with those at optical wavelengths. Ring temperatures are 64–86 K on the south (illuminated) side, ～54 K on the north (unilluminated) side, and at least 67 K in Saturn's shadow. There is evidence for a south to north drop in ring temperatures. Titan's 45 μm brightness temperature is 75±5 K.     

Effects of increased shielding on gamma-radiation levels within spacecraft.

The Shuttle Activation Monitor (SAM) experiment was flown on the Space Shuttle Columbia (STS-28) from 8-13 August, 1989 in a 57 degrees, 300 km orbit. One objective of the SAM experiment was to determine the relative effect of different amounts of shielding on the gamma-ray backgrounds measured with similarly configured sodium iodide (NaI) and bismuth germante (BGO) detectors. To achieve this objective twenty-four hours of data were taken with each detector in the middeck of the Shuttle on the ceiling of the airlock (a high-shielding location) as well as on the sleep station wall (a low-shielding location). For the cosmic-ray induced background the results indicate an increased overall count rate in the 0.2 to 10 MeV energy range at the more highly shielded location, while in regions of trapped radiation the low shielding configuration gives higher rates at the low energy end of the spectrum.     

Extreme dryness and DNA-protein cross-links.

Exposure of fungal conidia (Aspergillus ochraceus) or spores of Bacillus subtilis to extreme dryness or vacuum induces DNA lesions, including strand breaks and the formation of DNA-protein cross-links. In wet cells only a small amount of protein is bound to DNA, but exposure to conditions of lowered water activity results in an increasing number of cross-links between DNA and proteins. In fungal conidia these cross-links are detected after selective iodination (125 J) of the DNA-bound proteins followed by gel electrophoresis and subsequent autoradiography. Another approach is the labelling of DNA with 32P by means of nick translation and the detection of differences in the electrophoretic mobility of DNA before and after digestion with proteinase K of proteins bound to DNA.     

The γ-ray bursts as a result of the proper activity of the neutron star

The model of the Γ-ray burst is developed which is based on the nuclear explosion in the neutron star envelope because of the chain fission reaction of the superheavy nuclei. It is shown, that the main part of the Γ-ray burst radiation must have thermal origin, but the nonthermal component and Γ-ray lines may be present. The parameters of the strong burst of 5 March 1979 are evaluated on the basis of its radiation spectra and the present model. The distance to this burst is about 100 pc and the total energy of this Γ-ray burst is about 2.1039 ergs.     

Adaptive Input Filter Compensation for Switching Regulators

An input filter is frequently employed between a switching regulator and its power source. However, its presence often results in degradation of dynamic performances and stability. The detrimental interaction is between an input filter and a switching regulator and is a function of the input filter parameters and also of the supply voltage. An earlier paper presented an analysis and design procedure aimed at developing a feed-forward loop to cancel this undesirable interaction. The feed-forward design is extended here to encompass a scheme that automatically accounts for changes in the supply voltage; the result is an adaptive compensation that tracks the input voltage variations. Experimental results are presented that confirm the adaptive nature of the design.     

Some Results on Digital Chirp

Generating chirp waveforms by means of phase coding yields a simple, cost-effective mechanization. The coding process, however, introduces phase errors whose effect must be included in the design. An approximate analysis is presented, valid for moderate to high compression ratios, which allows error effects on compressed pulse amplitude and sidelobes to be calculated in a simple manner. The anaylsis provides criteria for selecting the coding bit width (sample rate), weighting network bandwidth, and phase-coder quantization interval and transition times. Weighting functions for maximizing the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) or for producing desired close-in sidelobe performance are derived, as is an exact expression for the transmitted spectrum. Numerical results are presented for Gaussian and the maximum-SNR weighting. The results indicate that performance will be satisfactory for many applications.     

Energy coupling between the solar wind and the magnetosphere

This paper describes in detail how we are led to the first approximation expression for the solar wind-magnetosphere energy coupling function , which correlates well with the total energy consumption rate U _T of the magnetosphere. It is shown that is the primary factor which controls the time development of magnetospheric substorms and storms. The finding of this particular expression indicates how the solar wind couples its energy to the magnetosphere; the solar wind and the magnetosphere constitute a dynamo. In fact, the power P generated by the dynamo can be identified as by using a dimensional analysis. Furthermore, the finding of indicates that the magnetosphere is closer to a directly driven system than to an unloading system which stores the generated energy before converting it to substorm and storm energies. Therefore, the finding of and its implications have considerably advanced and improved our understanding of magnetospheric processes. The finding of has also led us to a few specific future problems in understanding relationships between solar activity and magnetospheric disturbances, such as a study of distortion of the solar current disk and the accompanying changes of . It is also pointed out that one of the first tasks in the energy coupling study is an improvement of the total energy consumption rate U _T of the magnetosphere. Specific steps to be taken in this study are suggested.     

Target-Handling Capacity of a Phased-Array Tracking Radar

The factors which affect the target-handling capacity of an agile-beamelectronically scanned multitarget-tracking radar are reviewed and analyze.Consideration is given to the choice of strategy for dwell allocation amongtargets, the choice of trajectory extrapolation algorithms for target tracking, and the determination of saturation target acquisition rates. Emphasisis placed upon radar systems with control computers having limited speed and memory, and recommendations are made for allocation strategy and targetytracking algorithms, based on uniform sampling, to be used in maximizing thetarget-handling capacity in this situation.     

Wireless Sensor Networks – A potential tool to probe for water on Moon

A Wireless Sensor Network for in situ probing of lunar water/ice is proposed. The mission scenario in single and multi-tier architectures for probing water in a permanently shadowed region of the Moon and different scenarios of exploration are discussed. The ideas presented in the paper are a positive assertion of feasibility for the sensor node hardware, given current levels of technological advancements.     

Mathematical modeling of plasma drifts over equatorial low latitude regions

This paper presents a mathematical model to simulate ionospheric plasma drifts at equatorial low latitude regions by coupling of E- and F-regions. The governing non-linear differential equations (of elliptic and parabolic nature) are solved numerically through finite-difference schemes and obtained neutral winds and electric fields. The temperature and electron density profiles are generated utilizing MSIS-86 atmospheric model. The continuity equation is employed to obtain night-time E-region density profile using measured ionograms at Trivandrum (India). The computed vertical and zonal plasma drifts are comparable with measured Jacamarca plasma drifts with little variations during noon and evening times. The plasma drifts at Trivandrum (8.5° N, 76.5° E, dip 0.5° N) are compared with those of Jicamarca (12° S, 76.9° W, dip 2° N). Neutral wind simulations of present model agree well with those of horizontal wind model (HWM-93). The post-sunset enhancement and its reversal are also discussed.