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.     

Ambiguity Resolution for Satellite Doppler Positioning Systems

The implementation of satellite-based Doppler positioning systems frequently requires the recovery of transmitter position from a single pass of Doppler data. The least-squares approach to the problem yieds conjugate solutions on either side of the satellite subtrack. It is important to develop a procedure for choosing the proper solution which is correct in a high percentage of cases. A test for ambiguity resolution which is the most powerful in the sense that it maximizes the probability of a correct decision is derived. When systematic error sources are properly included in the least-squares reduction process to yield an optimal solution the test reduces to choosing the solution which provides the smaller valuation of the least-squares loss function. When systematic error sources are ignored in the least-squares reduction, the most powerful test is a quadratic form compasison with the weighting matrix of the quadratic form obtained by computing the pseudoinverse of a reduced-rank square matrix. A formula for computing the power of the most powerful test is provided. Numerical examples are included in which the power of the test is computed for situations that are relevant to the design of a satellite-aided search and rescue system.     

Selection of a Charging Choke Damping Network

The availability and ease of programming for many computer aided design (CAD) languages permits their use where, formerly, bread boarding or analytical means would have been employed to solve specific circuit analysis problems. One of many available CAD languages is the electronic circuit analysis program (ECAP). The ECAP language is divided into three sections, dc-analysis. acanalysis, and transient analysis. The three modes of ECAP together with fast computer access provide a helpful tool for the design engineer. Following is a typical problem of oscillatory transients encountered in line-type modulators. The solution to the problem is a model of sufficient correlation with the observed oscillation as an aid to find a network which will critically damp the oscillation.     

Meteorological control of the D region

After a short review of the characteristics of ionized state and meteorology of the mesopause region, the winter anomaly of the D region electron density and its variability are described as manifestations of meteorological control. A major mechanism is the redistribution of nitric oxide, another important mechanism is the strong temperature dependence of cluster ion formation rates. The meteorological control can be described either in a ‘concerted’ scenario of more or less independently acting mechanisms, or in a ‘unitary’ scenario where all mechanisms are regarded as effects of a common cause, viz., the strong winter vortex circulation of the middle atmosphere.     

The effect of realistic surface properties on low temperature space observatories

We highlight the effect on space-telescope temperatures of thedirectionality of the radiative properties of materials, by showing results from a Monte-Carlo simulation of telescope cooling. The need for further measurements of directional properties is stressed.