POES companion: Objectives, methodology, and benefits

POES Companion is a small satellite that would carry an atmospheric sounding instrument identical to one on a nearby operational polar orbiting spacecraft. The spacing between the two satellites would be controlled and variable. The mission is designed to establish the upper bound on the distance between the two satellites within which data from the instruments are statistically equivalent, and further would demonstrate that two neighboring spacecraft can be managed safely and efficiently. POES Companion will validate new Companion options outlined in this paper that could substantially reduce costs attributable to satellite-based atmospheric sounders for both operational and research programs.     

Is space global disaster warning and monitoring now nearing reality?

It is now well established that the annual cost of natural disasters world-wide is in excess of $400 billion. Support of relief agencies and governments depends on the timely receipt of information on the scale and nature of these disasters, and much of this information comes from ground-based sources. It is also recognised, however, that significant input could be provided by space-based sensor systems, both for disaster warning as well as disaster monitoring. Recent major disasters have demonstrated that the scale of devastation cannot adequately be monitored from ground-based information sources alone. This paper addresses current developments in a study to provide a global space-based monitoring and information system, with the associated ability to provide advanced warning of many types of disaster. Also addressed are the latest developments in sensor technology (optical, IR, Radar) including a UK initiative in high resolution imaging from a microsatellite, the logistics and cost of such a system and the feasibility of using communications networks for providing the infrastructure for such a system.     

Associating the Solar Wind Measured by Ulysses with its Source at the sun

Radio occultation, ultraviolet, and white-light measurements have expanded our knowledge of the morphology of density and velocity in polar coronal holes, and made it possible to carry out the first systematic comparisons between the Ulysses solar wind measurements and quantitative white-light observations of the solar corona. This paper summarizes the rationale and salient features of this new approach which has been used to relate the solar wind observed by Ulysses in 1993–1995 to the inner corona. The statistical characteristics (average, standard deviation, and autocorrelation function) of the Ulysses density measurements of the fast wind are found to be mirrored in those of polarized brightness measurements of path-integrated density made by the High Altitude Observatory (HAO) Mauna Loa K-coronagraph at 1.15 R _⊙. These results reinforce the conclusions from comparisons between measurements of the outer and inner corona. They show that the polar coronal hole extends radially into the solar wind, and that sources of the fast wind are not limited to coronal holes. This revised version was published online in August 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

Inferring non-point pollution from land cover analysis

Best Management Practices (BMP's) in farming were found to significantly reduce agricultural non-point water pollution in Central Indiana. Through the implementation of systems of conservation tillage practices and structural measures at the farm level, reductions in runoff were achieved, thereby minimizing erosion and subsequent sedimentation and pollution of the surface water system.These conclusions resulted from a three and one-half year study entitled, “The Indiana Heartland Model Implementation Project” administered by the Indiana Heartland Coordinating Commission, involving cooperation and coordination of farmers, citizens, and a multi-agency, multi-disciplinary team comprised of four universities and numerous governmental agencies. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency funded research, while the U.S. Department of Agriculture provided cost share monies for BMP implementation.A comprehensive geographically encoded computer-aided data base was constructed which included information on land cover, elevation, slope, aspect, soils, etc. Land cover map files were compiled through remote sensing including Landsat MSS digital data and low altitude color infrared aerial photography sources. This digital data base was suited for spatial and statistical analyses and transferred easily as input to Purdue University's ANSWERS Model for further watershed assessment. The ANSWERS Model is a distributed deterministic model which simulates the monitored reaction of subwatersheds to actual storm events. Through this model inferences were made as to the expected water quality improvements, given BMP's were implemented at critical areas for erosion throughout both watersheds.     

Gravitational-collapse supernovae

The gravitational collapse of the core of a massive star releases ample energy for a supernova explosion. The mechanisms by which this energy can be imparted to the outer parts of the stars to actually yield an explosion is outlined, and some of the related physical processes are examined. In particular the generation of entropy and the loss of neutrinos during the collapse of the core and the generation of lepton-driven buoyancy instabilities are discussed in some detail.     

Post: Polar stratospheric telescope

The tropopause, typically at 16 to 18 km altitude at the lower latitudes, dips to 8 km in the polar regions. This makes the cold, dry and nonturbulent lower stratosphere accessible to tethered aerostats. Tethered aerostats can fly as high as 12 km and are extremely reliable, lasting for many years. In contrast to free-flying balloons, they can stay on station for weeks at a time, and payloads can be safely recovered for maintenance and adjustment and relaunched in a matter of hours. We propose to use such a platform, located first in the Arctic (near Fairbanks, Alaska) and, potentially, later in the Antarctic, to operate a new technology 6-meter, diluted aperture telescope with diffraction-limited performance in the near infrared. Thanks to the low ambient temperature (220 K), thermal emission from the optics is of the same order as that of the zodiacal light in the 2 to 3 micron band. Since this wavelength interval is the darkest part of the zodiacal light spectrum from optical wavelengths to 100 microns, the combination of high resolution images and a very dark sky make it the spectral region of choice for observing the redshifted light from galaxies and clusters of galaxies at moderate to high redshifts.Affiliated to the Astrophysics Division, Space Science Department, European Space Agency     

Doppler scintillation measurements of the heliospheric current sheet and coronal streamers close to the Sun

Prominent enhancements in Doppler scintillation lasting a fraction of a day (solar source several degrees wide) and overlying the neutral line represent the signature of the heliospheric current sheet and the apparent interplanetary manifestation of coronal streamers near the Sun. This first detection of coronal streamers in radio scintillation measurements provides the link betweenin situ measurements of the spatial wavenumber spectrum of electron density fluctuations beyond 0.3 AU and earlier measurements deduced from radio scintillation and scattering observations inside 0.3 AU. Significant differences between the density spectra of fast streams and slow solar wind associated with the heliospheric current sheet near the Sun reinforce the emerging picture that high- and low-speed flows are organized by the large-scale solar magnetic field, and that while the contrast between solar wind properties of the two flows is highest near the Sun, it undergoes substantial erosion in the ecliptic plane as the solar wind expands.     

The consequences of micropulsations on geomagnetically trapped particles

Non-adiabatic radiation belt dynamics is largely controlled by interactions between geomagnetically trapped particles and various modes of plasma turbulence. Long period electric field fluctuations act as a major source mechanism for the inner zone through the process of inward radial diffusion of particles injected into the convection dominated outer zone. Higher frequency turbulence provides a major loss mechanism by pitch-angle scattering into the atmospheric loss cone. The wave particle interactions may take the form of self induced instabilities or parasitic scattering. Examples of each will be given in this review.