The adjusted optical properties for Galileo/BeiDou-2/QZS-1 satellites and initial results on BeiDou-3e and QZS-2 satellites

Solar Radiation Pressure (SRP) is the dominant non-gravitational perturbation for GNSS (Global Navigation Satellite System) satellites. In the absence of precise surface models, the Empirical CODE Orbit Models (ECOM, ECOM2) are widely used in GNSS satellite orbit determination. Based on previous studies, the use of an a priori box-wing model enhances the ECOM model, especially if the spacecraft is a stretched body satellite. However, so far not all the GNSS system providers have published their metadata. To ensure a precise use of the a priori box-wing model, we estimate the optical parameters of all the Galileo, BeiDou-2, and QZS-1 (Quasi Zenith Satellite System) satellites based on the physical processes from SRP to acceleration. Validation using orbit prediction proves that the adjusted parameters of Galileo and QZS-1 satellites exhibit almost the same performance as the corresponding published and “best guess” values. Whereas, the estimated parameters of BeiDou-2 satellites demonstrate an improvement of more than 60% over the initial “guess” values. The resulting optical parameters of all the satellites are introduced into an a priori box-wing model, which is jointly used with ECOM and ECOM2 model in the orbit determination. Results show that the pure ECOM2 model exhibits better performance than the pure ECOM model for Galileo, BeiDou-2 GEO and QZS-1 orbits. Combined with the a priori box-wing model the ECOM model (ECOM+BW) results in the best Galileo, BeiDou-2 GEO and QZS-1 orbits. The standard deviation (STD) of satellite laser ranging residuals reduce by about 20% and 5% with respect to the pure ECOM2 model for Galileo and BeiDou-2 GEO orbits, while the reductions are about 40% and 60% for QZS-1 orbits in yaw-steering and orbit-normal mode respectively. BeiDou-2 IGSO and MEO satellite orbits do not benefit much from the a priori box-wing model. In summary, we suggest setting up a unified SRP model of ECOM+BW for Galileo, QZS-1, and BeiDou-2 orbits based on the adjusted metadata. In addition, we estimate the optical parameters of BeiDou-3e and QZS-2 satellites using a limited number of tracking stations. Results regarding the unified SRP model indicate the same advantages, the STD of satellite laser ranging residuals reduces by about 30% and 20% for QZS-2 and BeiDou-3e orbits respectively over orbit products without a priori model. The estimation procedure is effective and easy to apply to the new emerging satellites in the future.     

Daytime VHF amplitude scintillations recorded at an Indian low-latitude station,Waltair (17.7°N, 83.3°E) during 1997–2003

In this research, it is presented the daytime amplitude scintillations recorded at VHF frequency (244 MHz) at an Indian low-latitude station, Waltair (17.7°N, 83.3°E) during seven continuous years (1997–2003). Contrary to the nighttime scintillation seasonal trends, the occurrence of daytime scintillations maximizes during summer followed by winter and the equinox seasons. The fade depths, scintillation indices and the patch durations of daytime scintillations are meager when compared with their nighttime counterparts. A co-located digital high frequency (HF) ionosonde radar confirms the presence of sporadic (Es) layers when daytime scintillations are observed. The presence of daytime scintillations is evident when the critical frequency of the Es-layer (foEs) is ≥4 MHz and Es-layers are characterized by a highly diffuse range spread Es echoes as can be seen on ionograms. It is surmised that the gradient drift instability (GDI) seems to be the possible mechanism for the generation of these daytime scintillations. It is quite likely that the spread Es-F-layer coupling is done through polarization electric fields (Ep) that develop inside the destabilized patches of sporadic E layers, which are mapped up to the F region along the field lines as to initiate the daytime scintillations through the GDI mechanism. Further, the presence of additional stratification of ionosphere F-layer, popularly known as the F3-layer, is observed on ionograms once the Es-layers and daytime scintillations are ceased.     

Validation of non-linear split window algorithm for land surface temperature estimation using Sentinel-3 satellite imagery: Case study; Tehran Province,Iran

In recent years, land surface temperature (LST) has become critical in environmental studies and earth science. Remote sensing technology enables spatiotemporal monitoring of this parameter on large scales. This parameter can be estimated by satellite images with at least one thermal band. Sentinel-3 SLSTR data provide LST products with a spatial resolution of 1 km. In this research, direct and indirect validation procedures were employed to evaluate the Sentinel-3 SLSTR LST products over the study area in different seasons from 2018 to 2019. The validation method was based on the absolute (direct) evaluation of this product with field data and comparison (indirect) evaluation with the MODIS LST product and the estimated LST using the non-linear split-window (NSW) algorithm. Also, two emissivity estimation methods, (1) NDVI thresholding method (NDVI-THM) and (2) classification-based emissivity method (CBEM), were used to estimate the LST using the NSW method according to the two thermal bands of Sentinel-3 images. Then, the accuracy of these methods in estimating LST was evaluated using field data and temporal changes of vegetation, which the NDVI-THM method generated better results. For indirect evaluation between the Sentinel-3 LST product, MODIS LST product, and LST estimated using NSW, four filters based on spatial and temporal separates between pairs of pixels and pixel quality were used to ensure the accuracy and consistency of the compared pairs of a pixel. In general, the accuracy results of the LST products of MODIS and Sentinel-3, and LST estimated using NSW showed a similar trend for LST changes during the seasons. With respect to the two absolute and comparative validations for the Sentinel-3 LST products, summer with the highest values of bias (?1.24 K), standard deviation (StDv = 2.66 K), and RMSE (2.43 K), and winter with the lowest ones (bias of 0.14 K, StDv of 1.13 K, and RMSE of 1.12 K) provided the worst and best results for the seasons in the period of 2018–2019, respectively. According to both absolute and comparative evaluation results, the Sentinel-3 SLSTR LST products provided reliable results for all seasons on a large temporal and spatial scale over our studied area.     

Methane pyrolysis in preparation of pyrolytic carbon: Thermodynamic and kinetic analysis by density functional theory

The density functional theory has been successfully applied in analyzing pyrolytic carbon deposition by methane pyrolysis from the view of thermodynamics and kinetics based on a total number of 39 elementary reactions. M06-2X/def2-TZVP level was employed to optimize species structures and locate the transition states. The enthalpy changes and Gibbs free energy changes of all the reactions in the temperature range of 298.15–1800 K were derived with optimized species. Results show that the reacting temperature should be above 1200 K based on the equilibrium constant analysis, which is consistent with the typical reaction temperature adopted in experiments. Potential energy surface profiles report that radical attacking reactions have lower energy barriers than those direct decomposition reactions, especially hydrogen radical attacking reactions. The energy barriers of the first steps, dehydrogenations of methane and ethylene, are 272.4 kJ·mol⁻¹ and 288.9 kJ·mol⁻¹ at 1200 K, which are very close to the experimental activation energy for methane pyrolysis. The most favorable decomposition reaction path is the path of hydrogen radical attacking reactions. The highest energy barrier of the path at 1200 K is 185.7 kJ·mol⁻¹ presented by the C–H bond breaking in ethynyl attacked by hydrogen radical.     

Orbit determination of BDS-3 satellite based on regional ground tracking station and inter-satellite link observations

The BeiDou global navigation satellite system (BDS-3) has established the Ka-band inter-satellite link (ISL) to realize a two-way ranging function between satellites, which provides a new observation technology for the orbit determination of BDS-3 satellites. Therefore, this study presents a BDS satellite orbit determination model based on ground tracking station (GTS) observations and ISL ranging observations firstly to analyze the impact of the ISL ranging observations on the orbit determination of BDS-3 satellites. Subsequently, considering the data fusion processing, the variance component estimation (VCE) algorithm is applied to the parameter estimation process of the satellite orbit determination. Finally, using the measured data from China’s regional GTS observations and BDS-3 ISL ranging observations, the effects of ISL ranging observations on the orbit determination accuracy of BDS-3 satellites are analyzed. Moreover, the impact of the VCE algorithm on the fusion data processing is evaluated from the aspects of orbit determination accuracy, Ka-band hardware delay parameter stability, and ISL ranging observation residuals. The results show that for China’s regional GTSs, the addition of BDS-3 ISL ranging observations can significantly improve the orbit determination accuracy of BDS-3 satellites. The observed orbit determination accuracy of satellite radial component is improved from 48 cm to 4.1 cm. In addition, when the initial weight ratio between GTS observations and ISL ranging observations is not appropriate, the various indicators which include orbit determination accuracy, ISL hardware delay, and ISL observation residuals were observed to have improved after the adjustment of the VCE algorithm. These results validate the effectiveness of the VCE algorithm for the fusion data processing of the GTS observations and ISL ranging observations.     

A comparative study of ionospheric IRIEup and ISP assimilative models during some intense and severe geomagnetic storms

Three-dimensional (3-D) electron density matrices, computed in the Mediterranean area by the IRI climatological model and IRIEup and ISP nowcasting models, during some intense and severe geomagnetic-ionospheric storms, were ingested by the ray tracing software tool IONORT, to synthesize quasi-vertical ionograms. IRIEup model was run in different operational modes: (1) assimilating validated autoscaled electron density profiles only from a limited area which, in our case, is the Mediterranean sector (IRIEup_re(V) mode); (2) assimilating electron density profiles from a larger region including several stations spread across Europe: (a) without taking care of validating the autoscaled data in the assimilation process (IRIEup(NV)); (b) validating carefully the autoscaled electron density profiles before their assimilation (IRIEup(V)).The comparative analysis was carried out comparing IRI, IRIEup_re(V), ISP, IRIEup(NV), and IRIEup(V) foF2 synthesized values, with corresponding foF2 measurements autoscaled by ARTIST, and then validated, at the truth sites of Roquetes (40.80°N, 0.50°E, Spain), San Vito (40.60°N, 17.80°E, Italy), Athens (38.00°N, 23.50°E, Greece), and Nicosia, (35.03°N, 33.16°E, Cyprus). The outcomes demonstrate that: (1) IRIEup_re(V), performs better than ISP in the western Mediterranean (around Roquetes); (2) ISP performs slightly better than IRIEup_re(V) in the central part of Mediterranean (around Athens and San Vito); (3) ISP performance is better than the IRIEup_re(V) one in the eastern Mediterranean (around Nicosia); (4) IRIEup(NV) performance is worse than the IRIEup(V) one; (5) in the central Mediterranean area, IRIEup(V) performance is better than the IRIEup_re(V) one, and it is practically the same for the western and eastern sectors.Concerning the overall performance, nowcasting models proved to be considerably more reliable than the climatological IRI model to represent the ionosphere behaviour during geomagnetic-ionospheric storm conditions; ISP and IRIEup(V) provided the best performance, but neither of them has clearly prevailed over the other one.     

Relative equilibria in quasi-homogeneous planar three body problems

In this paper we find the families of relative equilibria for the three body problem in the plane, when the interaction between the bodies is given by a quasi-homogeneous potential. The number of the relative equilibria depends on the values of the masses and on the size of the system, measured by the moment of inertia.     

基于多尺度 3D-2D卷积神经网络的高光谱图像分类

设计提出了 1种针对高光谱图像分类任务的 3D-MSCNN模型。在 PCA降维的基础上,利用 3D空谱特征提 取网络和 2D多尺度特征提取网络实现高光谱图像特征提取,充分发挥高光谱图像空谱信息价值,增强对不同尺度 地表覆盖的表达能力。最后,利用 Softmax分类损失函数实现高光谱图像分类任务。实验结果表明,本文算法在 In. dian Pines和 Pavia University数据集上都取得了较好的分类效果。与 CD-CNN、3D-CNN、SS-Net和 HybirdSN等方法相 比,本文算法能够有效提升总体精度、平均精度和 Kappa系数等客观评价指标。     

超临界RP-3航空煤油喷嘴内部流动与相变特性研究

未来航空燃气轮机采用燃油作为冷却剂,对发动机冷却空气及热端部件进行冷却,使得燃油在进入燃烧室之前超过其热力学临界点,燃油的热力学性质发生巨大变化,将对燃油在喷嘴内的流动和喷嘴下游的喷射掺混过程产生重要的影响,因此有必要对超临界RP-3在喷嘴内的流动与相变特性展开研究。本文采用自主设计的喷嘴内部收缩通道模拟试验件,对超临界RP-3在喷嘴内的沿程压力分布进行测量,并采用基于一维等熵假设的计算方法进行数值模拟。试验首次获得了超临界航空煤油RP-3在喷嘴收缩通道内的沿程静压分布随喷射压力、温度变化的规律。通过与模型对比,发现未发生相变时,计算结果与试验值拟合精度较高,可以较好地预测RP-3在喷嘴内的流动参数,喷嘴内的静压分布也趋于一致;发生冷凝相变时,计算结果与试验值产生误差较大,喷射参数对于静压分布存在着较大的影响。本文试验获得的超临界RP-3航空煤油在喷嘴内的流动与相变特性,为航空发动机超临界RP-3喷射的喷嘴设计提供了重要的设计依据。     

温度参数下轴编C/C复合材料的超高温热结构性能分析

为了研究轴编碳/碳（C/C）复合材料的超高温热结构性能,开展了2800℃超高温载荷下复合材料的拉伸实验,表征了复合材料组分材料的高温失效形貌;提出了立方体单胞和正六棱柱单胞的温度周期性边界条件的算法和预测复合材料等效热结构参数的方法,在材料属性各向同性正六棱柱单胞模型上验证了方法的正确性;最后建立了轴编C/C复合材料的代表性体积单元,计算了复合材料随温度载荷变化下的等效热结构参数,与实验数据进行了对比分析。分析表明：开展的轴编C/C复合材料的超高温拉伸实验,可以得到复合材料在2800℃载荷下复合材料的等效刚度值,同时分析了轴向试件和径向试件的高温失效机理,径向试件的纤维束拉伸强度对复合材料的径向拉伸强度起到决定性的作用。在应用位移以及温度周期性边界条件的基础上,提出的方法可以得到随温度载荷变化下复合材料的等效热结构参数,得出复合材料在横向满足近似各向同性的特性,预测结果表明只改变温度参数下复合材料的等效热导率不会发生改变。提出的方法同样也适用于其他编织复合材料的热结构性能研究。