Computer-Aided Design and Graphics Applied to the Study of Inductor-Energy -Storage Dc-to-Dc Electronic Power Converters

A series of nine programs are developed for the design of the inductors of single-winding flyback converters. Three converter types are considered: voltage step-up, current step-up, and voltage step-up/current step-up. For each of the converter types, three pulse modulators are considered: constant frequency, constant transistor on-time, and constant transistor off-time. Computer-graphics displays are used to assist in evaluating characteristics of the various converter-modulator combinations.     

Titan: some new results.

New analyses of Voyager spectra of Titan have led to improvements in the determination of abundances of minor constituents as a function of latitude and altitude. Ground-based microwave observations have extended the Voyager results for HCN, and have demonstrated that CO is mysteriously deficient in the stratosphere. The origin of the CH4, CO, and N2 in Titan's atmosphere is still unresolved. Both primordial and evolutionary sources are compatible with the available evidence.     

An Adaptive Estimation Algorithm for Time-Varying Bit Synchronizers

This paper presents an adaptive estimation algorithm for bit synchronization, assuming that the parameters of the incoming data process are time varying. The data are linearly related to the state variable to be determined. By employing the Gauss-Markov theorem, the optimal recursive estimate (including the nonstationary property of the system), which is a matrix operation on the transformed data, is obtained. The efficiency of the estimator is measured by the amount of data required and the speed of convergence. Both of these have proved to be of satisfactory and acceptable quality.     

Vertical distribution of NH3 in the upper Jovian atmosphere from IUE observations

The first unambiguous identification of ammonia in the upper atmosphere of Jupiter has been obtained from the observation of individual NH₃ bands in an IUE high resolution spectrum in the 2100–2400 Å spectral range. The variation with wavelength of the strengths of these NH₃ bands implies that the NH₃ abundance has to be strongly reduced by photolysis in the upper jovian atmosphere. Preliminary analysis by means of scattering models shows that the ammonia mixing ratio cannot be constant with altitude. The mixing ratio NH₃/H₂ ranges from 5 10^?8 to 5 10^?7 at the 250 mb pressure level, and decreases as P or P² toward higher altitudes.     

Galileo Probe Mass Spectrometer experiment

The Galileo Probe Mass Spectrometer (GPMS) is a Probe instrument designed to measure the chemical and isotopic composition including vertical variations of the constituents in the atmosphere of Jupiter. The measurement will be performed by in situ sampling of the ambient atmosphere in the pressure range from approximately 150 mbar to 20 bar. In addition batch sampling will be performed for noble gas composition measurement and isotopic ratio determination and for sensitivity enhancement of non-reactive trace gases.The instrument consists of a gas sampling system which is connected to a quadrupole mass analyzer for molecular weight analysis. In addition two sample enrichment cells and one noble gas analysis cell are part of the sampling system. The mass range of the quadrupole analyzer is from 2 amu to 150 amu. The maximum dynamic range is 10⁸. The detector threshold ranges from 10 ppmv for H₂O to 1 ppbv for Kr and Xe. It is dependent on instrument background and ambient gas composition because of spectral interference. The threshold values are lowered through sample enrichment by a factor of 100 to 500 for stable hydrocarbons and by a factor of 10 for noble gases. The gas sampling system and the mass analyzer are sealed and evacuated until the measurement sequence is initiated after the Probe enters into the atmosphere of Jupiter. The instrument weighs 13.2 kg and the average power consumption is 13 W.The instrument follows a sampling sequence of 8192 steps and a sampling rate of two steps per second. The measurement period lasts appropriately 60 min through the nominal pressure and altitude range.     

Martian Volatiles: Isotopic Composition, Origin, and Evolution

Information about the composition of volatiles in the Martian atmosphere and interior derives from Viking spacecraft and ground-based measurements, and especially from measurements of volatiles trapped in Martian meteorites, which contain several distinct components. One volatile component, found in impact glass in some shergottites, gives the most precise measurement to date of the composition of Martian atmospheric Ar, Kr, and Xe, and also contains significant amounts of atmospheric nitrogen showing elevated ¹⁵N/¹⁴N. Compared to Viking analyses, the ³⁶Ar/¹³²Xe and ⁸⁴Kr/¹³²Xe elemental ratios are larger in shergottites, the ¹²⁹Xe/¹³²Xe ratio is similar, and the ⁴⁰Ar/³⁶Ar and ³⁶Ar/³⁸Ar ratios are smaller. The isotopic composition of atmospheric Kr is very similar to solar Kr, whereas the isotopes of atmospheric Xe have been strongly mass fractionated in favor of heavier isotopes. The nakhlites and ALH84001 contain an atmospheric component elementally fractionated relative to the recent atmospheric component observed in shergottites. Several Martian meteorites also contain one or more Martian interior components that do not show the mass fractionation observed in atmospheric noble gases and nitrogen. The D/H ratio in the atmosphere is strongly mass fractionated, but meteorites contain a distinct Martian interior hydrogen component. The isotopic composition of Martian atmospheric carbon and oxygen have not been precisely measured, but these elements in meteorites appear to show much less variation in isotopic composition, presumably in part because of buffering of the atmospheric component by larger condensed reservoirs. However, differences in the oxygen isotopic composition between meteorite silicate minerals (on the one hand) and water and carbonates indicate a lack of recycling of these volatiles through the interior. Many models have been presented to explain the observed isotopic fractionation in Martian atmospheric N, H, and noble gases in terms of partial loss of the planetary atmosphere, either very early in Martian history, or over extended geological time. The number of variables in these models is large, and we cannot be certain of their detailed applicability. Evolutionary data based on the radiogenic isotopes (i.e., ⁴⁰Ar/³⁶Ar, ¹²⁹Xe/¹³²Xe, and ¹³⁶Xe/¹³²Xe ratios) are potentially important, but meteorite data do not yet permit their use in detailed chronologies. The sources of Mars' original volatiles are not well defined. Some Martian components require a solar-like isotopic composition, whereas volatiles other than the noble gases (C, N, and H₂O) may have been largely contributed by a carbonaceous (or cometary) veneer late in planet formation. Also, carbonaceous material may have been the source of moderate amounts of water early in Martian history.     

Non-adiabatic Ion Acceleration in the Earth Magnetotail and Its Various Manifestations in the Plasma Sheet Boundary Layer

Many physical phenomena in space involve energy dissipation which generally leads to charged particle acceleration, often up to very high energies. In the Earth magnetosphere energy accumulation and release occur in the magnetotail, namely in its Current Sheet (CS). The kinetic analysis of non-adiabatic ion trajectories in the CS region with finite but positive normal component of the magnetic field demonstrated that this region is essentially non-uniform in terms of scattering characteristics of ion orbits and contains spatially localized, well-separated sites of enhanced and reduced chaotization. The latter represent sources from which accelerated and energy-collimated ions are ejected into Plasma Sheet Boundary Layer (PSBL) and stream towards the Earth. Numerical simulations performed as part of a Large-Scale Kinetic Model have shown the multiplet ion structure of the PSBL is formed by a set of ion beams (beamlets) localized both in physical and velocity space. This structure of the PSBL is quite different from the one produced by CS acceleration near a magnetic reconnection region in which more energetic ion beams are generated with a broad range of parallel velocities. Multi-point Cluster observations in the magnetotail PSBL not only showed that non-adiabatic ion acceleration occurs on closed magnetic field lines with at least two CS sources operating simultaneously, but also allowed an estimation of their spatial and temporal characteristics. In this paper we discuss and compare the PSBL manifestations of both mechanisms of CS particle acceleration: one based on the peculiar properties of non-adiabatic ion trajectories which operates on closed magnetic field lines and the other representing the well-explored mechanism of particle acceleration during the course of magnetic reconnection. We show that these two mechanisms supplement each other and the first operates mostly during quiescent magnetotail periods.     

The formation of sulfate and elemental sulfur aerosols under varying laboratory conditions: implications for early earth

The presence of sulfur mass-independent fractionation (S-MIF) in sediments more than 2.45?×?10(9) years old is thought to be evidence for an early anoxic atmosphere. Photolysis of sulfur dioxide (SO(2)) by UV light with λ?相似文献   

Potential climatic impact of organic haze on early Earth

We have explored the direct and indirect radiative effects on climate of organic particles likely to have been present on early Earth by measuring their hygroscopicity and cloud nucleating ability. The early Earth analog aerosol particles were generated via ultraviolet photolysis of an early Earth analog gas mixture, which was designed to mimic possible atmospheric conditions before the rise of oxygen. An analog aerosol for the present-day atmosphere of Saturn's moon Titan was tested for comparison. We exposed the early Earth aerosol to a range of relative humidities (RHs). Water uptake onto the aerosol was observed to occur over the entire RH range tested (RH=80-87%). To translate our measurements of hygroscopicity over a specific range of RHs into their water uptake ability at any RH < 100% and into their ability to act as cloud condensation nuclei (CCN) at RH > 100%, we relied on the hygroscopicity parameter κ, developed by Petters and Kreidenweis. We retrieved κ=0.22?±0.12 for the early Earth aerosol, which indicates that the humidified aerosol (RH < 100 %) could have contributed to a larger antigreenhouse effect on the early Earth atmosphere than previously modeled with dry aerosol. Such effects would have been of significance in regions where the humidity was larger than 50%, because such high humidities are needed for significant amounts of water to be on the aerosol. Additionally, Earth organic aerosol particles could have activated into CCN at reasonable-and even low-water-vapor supersaturations (RH > 100%). In regions where the haze was dominant, it is expected that low particle concentrations, once activated into cloud droplets, would have created short-lived, optically thin clouds. Such clouds, if predominant on early Earth, would have had a lower albedo than clouds today, thereby warming the planet relative to current-day clouds.     

Planetary Atmospheres

The predominance of nitrogen in highly volatile forms and of carbon in solids set the abundance ratios of these elements in the inner planets, meteorites and comets. The absence of carbon compounds in an atmosphere then signals large deposits of carbon-bearing compounds in surface and/or subsurface deposits. In contrast, the icy planetesimals that contributed heavy elements to Jupiter must have had identical enrichments (relative to hydrogen) of both C and N, as well as other heavy elements that have been measured, compared to solar values. Capture of N and Ar suggests that the icy planetesimals that carried these elements must have formed at low temperatures, <40 K. New measurements of isotopes of nitrogen support this picture, but we must have more measurements in more atmospheres to be certain of this scenario.