STEREO Space Weather and the Space Weather Beacon

The Solar Terrestrial Relations Observatory (STEREO) is primarily a solar and interplanetary research mission, with one of the natural applications being in the area of space weather. The obvious potential for space weather applications is so great that NOAA has worked to incorporate the real-time data into their forecast center as much as possible. A subset of the STEREO data will be continuously downlinked in a real-time broadcast mode, called the Space Weather Beacon. Within the research community there has been considerable interest in conducting space weather related research with STEREO. Some of this research is geared towards making an immediate impact while other work is still very much in the research domain. There are many areas where STEREO might contribute and we cannot predict where all the successes will come. Here we discuss how STEREO will contribute to space weather and many of the specific research projects proposed to address STEREO space weather issues. The data which will be telemetered down in the Space Weather Beacon is also summarized here. Some of the lessons learned from integrating other NASA missions into the forecast center are presented. We also discuss some specific uses of the STEREO data in the NOAA Space Environment Center.     

Methods for Characterising Microphysical Processes in Plasmas

Advanced spectral and statistical data analysis techniques have greatly contributed to shaping our understanding of microphysical processes in plasmas. We review some of the main techniques that allow for characterising fluctuation phenomena in geospace and in laboratory plasma observations. Special emphasis is given to the commonalities between different disciplines, which have witnessed the development of similar tools, often with differing terminologies. The review is phrased in terms of few important concepts: self-similarity, deviation from self-similarity (i.e. intermittency and coherent structures), wave-turbulence, and anomalous transport.     

Wind Power System Using an Adaptive Sherbius Induction Machine

A wind turbine driven variable speed power generation system using a static Sherbius scheme in the generation mode is described. A control methodology to adapt the power output characteristics of double output induction generator to the output characteristics of the driving turbine is proposed. The control scheme has been implemented and experimental test results show that the induction machine can be made to adapt to the desired characteristics.     

Test results with the direct flux linkage control of synchronousmotors

Synchronous motors are important in large drives. The application of the direct flux linkage control (DFLC) in synchronous machine drives is examined. This control method guarantees the best possible dynamics for the drive. Torque steps the height of which correspond to the motor nominal torque are achieved within a few milliseconds     

Analysis of solar spike events by means of symbolic dynamics methods

We have searched for interrelations of spikes emitted simultaneously at different frequencies during the impulsive phase of flare events (Fig.1). As the spikes are related to the flare energy release and are interpreted as emissions that originate at different sites having different magnetic field strengths, any relation in frequency is interpretated as a relation in space. Quantities of symbolic dynamics, such as mutual information, Shannon information and algorithmic complexity are appropriate to characterize such spatiotemporal patterns, whereas the popular estimate of fractal dimensions can be applied to low-dimensional systems only.The goal is to decide between two possible types of fragmentation depending on the energy release and emission processes, which we callglobal andlocal organization. In the global organization the whole region becomes supercritical, and the energy is released in independent, small regions. The alternative local scenario requires a trigger that spreads from initial localized events and ignites nearby regions.Mutual information which is a generalization of correlation indicates a relation in frequency beyond the bandwidth of individual spikes. The scans in the spectrograms with large mutual information also show a low level of Shannon information and algorithmic complexity, indicating that the simultaneous appearance of spikes at other frequencies is not a completely stochastic phenomenon (white noise). It may be caused by a nonlinear deterministic system or by a Markov process. By means of mutual information we find a memory over frequency intervals up to 60 MHz (Fig. 2). Shannon information and algorithmic complexity, however, describe spike events as a whole, i.e. a global source region. A global organization is also apparent in quasi-periodic changes of the Shannon information and algorithmic complexity in the range of 2–8 seconds (Fig. 3).This findings is compatible with a scenario of local organization in which the information of one spike event spreads spatially and hence triggers further spike events at different places. The region is not an ensemble of independently flashing sources, each representing a system that cascades in energy after an initial trigger. On the contrary, there is a causal connection between the sources at any time.The analysis of four spike events suggests that the simultaneous appearance of spikes is not stochastically independent but a process in which spikes at nearby locations are simultaneously triggered by a common exciter.We have shown in the case in the case of spikes that quantities from nonlinear dynamics used in this paper are helpful in detecting structural properties of complex spatio-temporal patterns. This approach seems to be promising also for several other astrophysical applications.     

Coronal mass ejection (CME) activity of low mass M stars as an important factor for the habitability of terrestrial exoplanets. I. CME impact on expected magnetospheres of Earth-like exoplanets in close-in habitable zones

Low mass M- and K-type stars are much more numerous in the solar neighborhood than solar-like G-type stars. Therefore, some of them may appear as interesting candidates for the target star lists of terrestrial exoplanet (i.e., planets with mass, radius, and internal parameters identical to Earth) search programs like Darwin (ESA) or the Terrestrial Planet Finder Coronagraph/Inferometer (NASA). The higher level of stellar activity of low mass M stars, as compared to solar-like G stars, as well as the closer orbital distances of their habitable zones (HZs), means that terrestrial-type exoplanets within HZs of these stars are more influenced by stellar activity than one would expect for a planet in an HZ of a solar-like star. Here we examine the influences of stellar coronal mass ejection (CME) activity on planetary environments and the role CMEs may play in the definition of habitability criterion for the terrestrial type exoplanets near M stars. We pay attention to the fact that exoplanets within HZs that are in close proximity to low mass M stars may become tidally locked, which, in turn, can result in relatively weak intrinsic planetary magnetic moments. Taking into account existing observational data and models that involve the Sun and related hypothetical parameters of extrasolar CMEs (density, velocity, size, and occurrence rate), we show that Earth-like exoplanets within close-in HZs should experience a continuous CME exposure over long periods of time. This fact, together with small magnetic moments of tidally locked exoplanets, may result in little or no magnetospheric protection of planetary atmospheres from a dense flow of CME plasma. Magnetospheric standoff distances of weakly magnetized Earth-like exoplanets at orbital distances 相似文献