Saw-tooth substorms: Inconsistency of repetitive bay-like magnetic disturbances with behavior of aurora

The relationships between the magnetic disturbance onsets, aurora dynamics and particles injections at the geostationary orbit have been analyzed in detail for 25 sawtooth substorms. It is shown that inconsistency between the above signatures of the substorms onset is typical of the powerful sawtooth substorms, unlike the isolated (“classical”) magnetospheric substorms. The distinguishing feature of the aurora in case of saw-tooth substorms is permanently high level of auroral activity irrespective of the magnetic disturbance onsets and the double oval structure of the aurora display. The close relationship between the aurora behavior and the particle injections at geostationary orbit is also broken. The conclusion is made, that the classical concept of the substorm development, put forward by Akasofu (1964) for isolated substorms, is not workable in cases of the sawtooth disturbances, when the powerful solar wind energy pumping into the magnetosphere provides a permanent powerful aurora particle precipitation into the auroral zone.     

Henny J.G.L.M. Lamers and Jopseph P. Cassinelli (eds.), Introduction to Stellar Winds

Space Science Reviews -     

Lightning Related Transient Luminous Events at High Altitude in the Earth’s Atmosphere: Phenomenology, Mechanisms and Effects

This paper presents a literature survey on the recent developments related to experimental and modeling studies of transient luminous events (TLEs) in the middle atmosphere termed elves, sprites and jets that are produced in association with thunderstorm activity at tropospheric altitudes. The primary emphasis is placed on publications that appeared in refereed literature starting from year 2008 and up to the present date. The survey covers general phenomenology of TLEs and their relationships to characteristics of individual thunderstorms and lightning, physical mechanisms and modeling of TLEs, past, present and future orbital observations of TLEs, and their chemical, energetic and electric effects on local and global scales.     

Multicriteria choice of a carrier aircraft and main design parameters of an air launcher decoy

The multicriteria optimization problem on joint choice of a carrier aircraft and main design parameters of an air launcher decoy are considered. The estimation of the design parameter values for the aerial decoy is based on the statistical data processing with the use of the methods for constructing nonlinear regression. The result of solving this problem is a set of Pareto-optimal geometry characteristics of the carrier aircraft and aerial decoy. A person who is responsible for decision-making should choose the most reasonable variant from these characteristics. An example of solving the problem is presented.     

The Western Crete geodetic infrastructure: Long-range power-law correlations in GPS time series using Detrended Fluctuation Analysis

The Global Positioning System makes it possible, nowadays, to measure crustal displacements with unprecedented accuracy. These measurements can improve our understanding of the spatio-temporal evolution of motion along tectonic plate boundaries, as well as deepen our comprehension for the nature of earthquake fault behavior and earthquake cycle. The Hellenic subduction zone and the earthquake-prone Crete, with large crustal motions of 3–4 cm/yr, may provide such a natural laboratory for this type of investigation. In this work, we examine the statistical structure and behavior of time series, as produced by permanent GPS sites, established on the islands of Crete and Gavdos.     

Characterizing wood by microwaves

Common properties of raw wood can be determined by measuring the microwave propagation in the media. Unlike early designs from the 1970s and 1980s, simple constructions with phase and attenuation recording are now possible, if optimal frequencies are selected. At K-band, most quality impairments can be detected from basic group delay measurements, e.g., knots or insect holes smaller than 5 mm are observable. Impairments can be detected from a non-parallel viewing direction     

Big Bang Theory and Primordial Nuclei

A summary of the discussions of Working Group 1 (Rees, Reeves, Schramm, Steigman, Tammann, and TPW) on Big Bang Theory as it relates to primordial nuclei and their galactic evolution.