Improvement in the GERB short wave flux estimations over snow covered surfaces

Because space-borne radiometers do not measure the Earth’s outgoing fluxes directly, angular distribution models (ADMs) are required to relate actual radiance measurement to flux at given solar angle, satellite-viewing geometries, surface, and atmospheric conditions. The conversion of one footprint broad-band radiance into the corresponding flux requires therefore one to first characterize each footprint in terms of surface type and cloud cover properties to properly select the adequate ADM.

A snow (and sea-ice) retrieval technique based on spectral measurements from the Spinning Enhanced Visible and Infrared Imager (SEVIRI) on board Meteosat 8 is presented. It has been developed to improve the scene identification and thus the ADM selection in the near-real time processing of the Geostationary Earth Radiation Budget (GERB) data at the Royal Meteorological Institute of Belgium. The improvement in the GERB short wave flux estimations over snow covered scene types resulting from angular conversion using dedicated snow ADMs (e.g., empirical snow ADMs and/or pre-computed theoretical snow ADM) instead of empirical snow-free ADMs is discussed.     

Intermittency of solar wind density fluctuations and its relation to sharp density changes

The paper presents the study of turbulent properties of the solar wind plasma, namely, the intermittency of fluctuations of the solar wind ion flux in the earlier unexplored region of comparatively high frequencies (0.01–1 Hz). Special attention is given to a comparison of intermittency for solar wind observation intervals containing sharp (shorter than 10 min) and high-amplitude (greater than 20%) changes of the ion flux to intervals without such changes. The solar wind observation intervals containing sharp changes of the flux are found to be essentially more intermittent than the intervals of quiet solar wind. Such a comparison allows one to reveal the fundamental difference in turbulent properties of the solar wind depending on the presence or absence of sharp boundaries in plasma structures.     

Spaceflight results in increase of thick filament but not thin filament proteins in the paramyosin mutant of Caenorhabditis elegans

We have investigated the effect of microgravity during spaceflight on body-wall muscle fiber size and muscle proteins in the paramyosin mutant of Caenorhabditis elegans. Both mutant and wild-type strains were subjected to 10 days of microgravity during spaceflight and compared to ground control groups. No significant change in muscle fiber size or quantity of the protein was observed in wild-type worms; where as atrophy of body-wall muscle and an increase in thick filament proteins were observed in the paramyosin mutant unc-15(e73) animals after spaceflight. We conclude that the mutant with abnormal muscle responded to microgravity by increasing the total amount of muscle protein in order to compensate for the loss of muscle function.     

Heliopause stability revisited: dispersion analysis and numerical simulations

The heliopause, a surface separating the tenuous hot heliosheath flow and the dense, strongly magnetized interstellar flow, is subject to instabilities of the Rayleigh–Taylor and Kelvin–Helmholtz types. The dynamic evolution of this discontinuity is of considerable importance for understanding the neutral atom and cosmic-ray filtration at the interface. Here, we investigate the stability of the upwind heliopause in the presence of charge exchange collisions using both an analytic (dispersion relation) approach and a numerical model that includes the interstellar magnetic field. The linear analysis yields a cubic dispersion relation that admits imaginary solutions for the full range of wavenumbers, implying that the stagnation point on the heliopause is unconditionally Rayleigh–Taylor unstable to small perturbations propagating parallel to the discontinuity surface. We confirm this result by following the nonlinear development of the instability with a time-dependent simulation using a four fluid MHD-neutral numerical code. For the typical solar wind and LISM conditions, we obtain cyclical evolution of the upwind heliopause with a period of the order of 100 years. We also identify two areas of space physics where the instability may have important implications.     

Nonlinear decoupling sliding mode control and attitude control ofspacecraft

Control of a class of uncertain nonlinear systems which can be decoupled by state-variable feedback is considered. A variable-structure-control (VSC) law is derived so that in the closed-loop system the output variables asymptotically track given output trajectories in spite of any uncertainty in the system. On the basis of this result, a control law is derived for the attitude control of an orbiting spacecraft in the presence of uncertainty using reaction jets. The controlled outputs are the three Euler angles which describe the orientation of the spacecraft relative to an orbital frame. Simulation results are presented to show that, in the closed-loop system, precise attitude control is accomplished in spite of the uncertainty in the system     

Use of measurements from an imaging sensor for precision targettracking

The extraction of measurements for precision tracking of the centroid of a target from a forward-looking infrared imaging sensor is presented. The size of the image of the target is assumed to be small, i.e. around 10 pixels. The statistical characterization of the centroid of the target is obtained. Similarly, the statistical properties of the image correlation of two frames, which measures the target offset, are derived. Explicit expressions that map the video noise statistics into measurement noise statistics are obtained. The offset measurement noise is shown to be autocorrelated. State variable models for tracking the target centroid with these measurements are then presented. Simulation results and quantitative conclusions about achievable subpixel tracking accuracy are given. It is shown that the filter that models the autocorrelated measurement noise provides the best performance     

Plant cell plasma membrane structure and properties under clinostatting.

Structural-functional organization of plasma membrane of pea roots seedling was investigated by methods of chemiluminescence, fluorescence probes, chromatography and freeze-fracture studies under normal conditions and clinostatting. Phase character of lipid peroxidation intensity was fixed. The initial phase of this process is characterized by lipid peroxidation decreasing with its next induction. The primary changes depending on free-radical mechanisms of lipid peroxidation were excellently revealed by chemiluminescence. Plasmalemma microviscosity increased on the average of 15-20% under microgravity at the initial stages of its phenomenon. There were major changes of phosphatidilcholine and phosphatidilethanolamine contents. The total quantity of phospholipids remained rather stable. Changes of phosphatide acid concentration point to degradation and phospholipids biosynthesis. There were increases of unsaturated fatty acids mainly at the expense of linoleic and linolenic acids and also a decrease of saturated fatty acid content at the expense of palmitic and stearic acids. Unsaturation index of fatty acids increased as well. On the whole fatty acid composition was variable in comparison with phospholipids. Probably it is one of mechanisms of maintaining of microviscosity within definite limits. Considerable structural changes in organization of plasmalemma protein-lipid complex were not revealed by the freeze-fracture studies.