Use of Airborne Monopulse Radar as a Low Approach Aid

The potential of airborne radar to provide pictorial displays as an aid to low approach has stimulated invention of several aircraft approach systems. Early developments are reviewed briefly, and an experiment in producing and flight testing a two-dimensional, range and azimuth, pictorial radar display is described. The monopulse radar equipment and a monopulse display improvement (MDI) technique used in the flight test to enhance the B-scope display are also described in some detail. Representative radar scope photographs are used to illustrate the display available in the aircraft.     

Coronal radio-sounding detection of a CME during the 1997 Galileo solar conjunction

Frequency fluctuations of the Galileo S-band radio signal were recorded nearly continuously during the spacecraft’s solar conjunction from December 1996 to February 1997. A strong propagating disturbance, most probably associated with a coronal mass ejection (CME), was detected on 7 February when the radio ray path proximate point was on the west solar limb at about 54 solar radii from the Sun. The CME passage through the line of sight is characterized by a significant increase in the fluctuation intensity of the recorded frequency and by an increase in the plasma speed from about 234 km s⁻¹ up to about 755 km s⁻¹. These velocity estimates are obtained from a correlation analysis of frequency fluctuations recorded simultaneously at two widely-separated ground stations. The density turbulence power spectrum is found to steepen behind the CME front. The Galileo radio-sounding data are compared with SOHO/LASCO observations of the CME in the corona and with WIND spacecraft data near the Earth’s orbit.     

Simplified Solution for a Class of Fading Memory Filters

A fading memory filter is a least squares estimator (LSE) thatapplies an exponentially decaying weight to past measurements.When compared with a standard Kalman filter, its key advantagesare asymptotic stability and reduced sensitivity to modeling errors.This paper derives a simple solution for a class of fading memoryfilters, resulting in a reduction in computational complexity. Steadystate filter solutions are obtained for second-and third-order filtersused in a global positioning system (GPS) receiver for high dynamicvehicles.     

On the fundamental acoustic mode in variable area,low Mach number nozzles

We consider the propagation of sound in nozzles of substantially varying cross-section, taking into account reflections from the tapering walls and non-uniform convection by the axially accelerated or decelerated mean flow. Exact solutions of the acoustic equations are obtained for the simplest case of the fundamental longitudinal mode in quasi-one-dimensional, low Mach number nozzle flow. The effects of non-uniform mean flow on sound are demonstrated by comparing horns with nozzles, and 15 properties (stated in italics and labelled P1, P2 ... P15 in the text) are proved and discussed, viz. concerning (1) relations between acoustic pressure and velocity; (2) equipartition or biasing of kinetic and compression energies; (3) conservation or evolution of wave action; (4) existence of elementary or special solutions and (5) cut-off frequencies, and amplitude and phase laws. We conclude with a simple formula for the approximate calculation of the acoustic fields; the formula can be made more accurate by using a correction factor for amplitude and phase, which is plotted against area ratio for propagation upstream or downstream in diffusers and convergent nozzles.     

Comets and life.

Some of the chemical species which have been detected in comets include H2O, HCN, CH3CN, CO, CO2, NH3, CS, C2 and C3. All of these have also been detected in the interstellar medium, indicating a probable relationship between interstellar dust and gas clouds and comets. Laboratory experiments carried out with different mixtures of these molecules give rise to the formation of the biochemical compounds which are necessary for life, such as amino acids, purines, pyrimidines, monosaccharides, etc. However, in spite of suggestions to the contrary, the presence of life in comets is unlikely. On the other hand, the capture of cometary matter by the primitive Earth is considered essential for the development of life on this planet. The amount of cometary carbon-containing matter captured by the Earth, as calculated by different authors, is several times larger than the total amount of organic matter present in the biosphere (10(18)g). The major classes of reactions which were probably involved in the formation of key biochemical compounds are discussed. Our tentative conclusions are that: 1) comets played a predominant role in the emergence of life on our planet, and 2) they are the cosmic connection with extraterrestrial life.     

Connection between the discrete auroral structures drifting equatorward during the substorm expansion phase and the energetic particle injections at the geostationary orbit

The formation of an auroral bulge with a bright dynamical arc at its polar boundary is one of the main manifestations of the magnetospheric substorm expansion phase at the ionospheric level. At the same time, the region of discrete aurora broadens not only polewards but equatorwards as well. The discrete forms of auroras moving equatorwards form a dynamical equatorial boundary of the auroral bulge shifting together with them. The paper presents a spatial-time comparison of the drifting discrete auroras to the injection of energetic particles at the geostationary orbit. It is shown that bursts in the fluxes of energetic particles at the LANL geostationary satellites located in the same sector of MLT correspond to the majority of drifting discrete auroral structures observed by the all-sky camera. In the cases when the bursts in the fluxes are absent, the minimum latitude reached by the auroral structures at the equatorward drift is higher than the ionospheric projection of the geostationary orbit. A possible relation of the drifting discrete auroras to the plasma stream jets in the plasma sheet is discussed.     

Instrumentation for investigation of the depth-dose distribution by the Liulin-5 instrument of a human phantom on the Russian segment of ISS for estimation of the radiation risk during long term space flights.

Described is the Liulin-5 experiment and instrumentation, developed for investigation of the space radiation doses depth distribution in a human phantom on the Russian Segment of the International Space Station (ISS). Liulin-5 experiment is a part of the international project MATROSHKA-R on ISS. The experiment MATROSHKA-R is aimed to study the depth dose distribution at the sites of critical organs of the human body, using models of human body-anthropomorphic and spherical tissue-equivalent phantoms. The aim of Liulin-5 experiment is long term (4-5 years) investigation of the radiation environment dynamics inside the spherical tissue-equivalent phantom, mounted in different places of the Russian Segment of ISS. Energy deposition spectra, linear energy transfer spectra, flux and dose rates for protons and the biologically-relevant heavy ion components of the galactic cosmic radiation will be measured simultaneously with near real time resolution at different depths of the phantom by a telescope of silicon detectors. Data obtained together with data from other active and passive dosimeters will be used to estimate the radiation risk to the crewmembers, verify the models of radiation environment in low Earth orbit, validate body transport model and correlate organ level dose to skin dose. Presented are the test results of the prototype unit. The spherical phantom will be flown on the ISS in 2004 year and Liulin-5 experiment is planned for 2005 year.