Charge Generation and Separation Processes

This paper presents a short overview of our current understanding of the generation of charged particles in different environments and circumstances (e.g. thunderclouds, dust storms, volcanic plumes, rings, and planetary surfaces) and the subsequent spatial separation that leads to the formation of electrical fields. Different mechanisms are involved on various scales, starting from the molecular level, through the single particle (droplet, crystal, solid) and finally the entraining volume (cloud, plume etc.). Encapsulated within a dynamic and turbulent medium, particles need to come into contact and to immediately separate, to be later transported away from each other. In order to explain the observed electrical fields and ensuing lightning or other forms of discharge, these processes need to be extremely effective. The section will briefly review laboratory results and modeling efforts of charge separation and electric field build-up in various planetary settings, and cite the appropriate observations of electrical activity on different planets.     

Ground-to-satellite laser communication experiments

Ground-to-satellite laser communication experiments between the optical ground station located in Koganei, central Tokyo, and a low earth orbit (LEO) satellite were jointly performed by the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency and the National Institute of Information and Communications Technology. In 18 trials during three non-consecutive months, the satellite was acquired and tracked 61 % of the time, when clear or partly-clear conditions were predominant. The optical link was maintained for about 6 minutes when the satellite was visible in spite of the high angular velocity of the satellite. In 3 of the 18 trials, the link was not interrupted due to clouds during the six-minute transit. The failures (39% of the time) occurred when cloudy or rainy conditions were predominant. Fluctuation in the uplink received signal power was minimized by using multiple laser beam transmissions. The measured uplink and downlink bit error ratios were 10^-7-10^-4. These results demonstrate the applicability of free-space laser communication for not only geostationary earth orbit-LEO optical links but also ground-to-LEO optical links.     

单通道和双通道微波衰减测量系统中的射频泄漏分析

研究了单通道和双通道微波衰减测量系统中的射频泄漏所导致的测量误差。使用电磁屏蔽箱和以铝片包裹连接头的方法降低外部辐射泄漏,在双通道衰减测量系统中使用隔离器以减小内部泄漏。利用高灵敏度锁相放大器测量了射频泄漏信号,通过在60 MHz和5 GHz所得的实测数据比较了单通道和双通道衰减测量系统的射频泄漏误差。实验结果表明射频泄漏得到了有效的抑制。     

Investigation of the atmospheric aerosols by the visible and IR channels of the AVHRR radiometer on NOAA-6

The diffusely reflected radiation in the daytime and diffusely transmitted radiation at night from an inhomogeneous, plane parallel planetary atmosphere bounded by the ocean surface was calculated at the visible and IR region. In the daytime the effect of the solar radiation from top was taken into account. The present study has dealt with the problem of no cloud contamination in data. In the atmosphere, water vapor, molecular nitrogen, nitrous oxide, carbon dioxide and methane as absorbent constituents and aerosols as the scattering constituent were taken into account. The ocean surface as a lower boundary was simulated by many facets whose slopes are according to the isotropic Gaussian distribution [1]. It was found that it is suitable for deriving the total optical thickness in the direction of about 15 degrees away from the specular direction at 3.7μm in the daytime, with the aid of visible region of spectrum [2]. As for sea surface temperature, for a sample analysis, derived SST was within the accuracy of 1–2K at the center of the sun glint and within the accuracy of 0.5K in the rest of the region at 3.7μm in the daytime, Furthermore computational results suggest that the comparison of temperature in the daytime with that at night at 3.7μm make it possible to separate the effect of aerosols from the total optical thickness. Thus it was found from the computations that with the aid of daytime and night time data, it is possible to derive the atmospheric water vapor, aerosols and sea surface temperature simultaneously.     

Peculiarities of the solar proton events of 19 October 1989 and 23 March 1991 according to the measurements onboard the Mir space station.

Flux and dose rate dynamics of solar cosmic rays were measured by the Lyulin dosimeter during the events 19 October 1989 and 23 March 1991. The maximum dose rate registered was 0.4, 0.12 and 0.01 cGy/hour, respectively. Based on the latitude distribution of particle flux a power law form for the energy spectra of solar protons in the anisotropic phase of the events on 19 October 1989 and 23 March 1991 was determined. It was obtained that after the development of geomagnetic storm protons with energies more than 1 GeV were registered.     

Practical Comparison of Iterative Matrix Orthogonalization Algorithms

In previous work several algorithms for orthogonalizing the direction cosine matrix were introduced and their convergence rate and range were theoretically investigated. Three of the most promising algorithms are examined in this paper. lt is shown that the so-called Dual Algorithm is by far superior to the other two from the point of view of speed, computer memory, accuracy, and convergence rate. lt is therefore recommended that whenever the direction cosine matrix is computed by simple numerical integration of a matrix differential equation, the Dual Algorithm be used to orthogonalize the resultant matrix.     

An Adaptive Interference Canceling Array Utilizing Hybrid Techniques

The steady state properties of an adaptive array utilizing prior knowledge of both approximate signal arrival direction and signal characteristics are presented. The method combines the features of a directionally constrained array and an array with a self-generated reference signal. Explicit results are obtained for output signal, interference, and noise powers assuming a single interferer is present. The inclusion of a self-generated reference circuit is shown to reduce the sensitivity to pointing error typical of arrays utilizing a zero order directional constraint, the improvement being a consequence of the reduction of the desired signal component fed back to the sidelobe canceling circuit. A relationship between the degree of sensitivity reduction and the quality of the reference signal is developed. Results of computations of signal to interference plus noise ratios for a 7-element 10-wavelength nonuniformly spaced array as a function of pointing error are presented. These results show the behavior with one interferer inside and outside the beamwidth of the quiescent array and with multiple interferers for various degrees of perfection of the reference generating circuit. In all cases the computations confirm that the otherwise severe effects of small pointing errors are substantially reduced.     

Upper Bound of a Loop Gain in a Power Inversion Adaptive Array

A loop gain is an important parameter in a power inversion adaptive array. The upper bound value of the loop gain is obtained which prevents the array suppressing a desired signal seriously. This result is very useful for determining the loop gain.     

Results on Artemia cysts, lettuce and tobacco seeds in the Biobloc 4 experiment flown aboard the Soviet Biosatellite Cosmos 1129.

Artemia cysts, lettuce and tobacco seeds were flown aboard the Cosmos 1129 for 19 days. A correlative method was used in order to determine the passage of cosmic heavy ions (HZE particles) through the biological test objects. This space flight resulted in a decrease on hatchability, nucleic acid and protein synthesis in hydrated Artemia cysts. HZE particle effects on plant cellular chromosomes are confirmed. In tobacco seeds, a stimulating effect on germination rate and a higher frequency of abnormalities were observed. Dormant biological objects are a very suitable material to study cosmic ray effects: these objects can be arranged in monolayers and sandwiched between visual track detectors in order to determine the passage of the cosmic heavy ions (HZE particles). On the other hand this method allows us to study effects of microgravity and those of the protonic component of cosmic rays in the objects not hit by the HZE articles.