Validation of University of New Brunswick Ionospheric Modeling Technique with ionosonde TEC estimation over South Africa

For more than a decade, ionospheric research over South Africa has been carried out using data from ionosondes geographically located at Madimbo (28.38°S, 30.88°E), Grahamstown (33.32°S, 26.50°E), and Louisvale (28.51°S, 21.24°E). The objective has been modelling the bottomside ionospheric characteristics using neural networks. The use of Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) data is described as a new technique to monitor the dynamics and variations of the ionosphere over South Africa, with possible future application in high frequency radio communication. For this task, the University of New Brunswick Ionospheric Modelling Technique (UNB-IMT) was applied to compute midday (10:00 UT) GNSS-derived total electron content (GTEC). GTEC values were computed using GNSS data for stations located near ionosondes for the years 2002 and 2005 near solar maximum and minimum, respectively. The GTEC was compared with the midday ionosonde-derived TEC (ITEC) measurements to validate the UNB-IMT results. It was found that the variation trends of GTEC and ITEC over all stations are in good agreement and show a pronounced seasonal variation for the period near solar maximum, with maximum values (∼80 TECU) around autumn and spring equinoxes, and minimum values (∼22 TECU) around winter and summer. Furthermore, the residual ΔTEC = GTEC − ITEC was computed. It was evident that ΔTEC, which is believed to correspond to plasmaspheric electron content, showed a pronounced seasonal variation with maximum values (∼20 TECU) around equinoxes and minimum (∼5 TECU) around winter near solar maximum. The equivalent ionospheric and total slab thicknesses were also computed and comprehensively discussed. The results verified the use of UNB-IMT as one of the tools for future ionospheric TEC research over South Africa.     

对凝聚态工质激光推进的思考

液体和固体等凝聚态物质以其自身独有的特性引起了广泛的研究兴趣。目前的研究结果表明,液体工质的冲量耦合系数较高,固体工质的比冲较高,但是能量转化效率都比较低。对照化学火箭发动机的理想热力循环过程,在对激光推进工作过程合理简化假设的基础上,给出了激光推进的理想热力循环过程,对激光推进的能量转化效率和化学火箭发动机的热效率进行了定量对比分析,结果表明,在能量转化效率方面激光推进并没有优势。分析了掺杂材料、含能工质以及液膜对激光推进理想热力循环过程的影响。定量研究结果表明,含能工质对能量转化效率的提高作用最明显,掺杂材料和含能工质对能量转化效率的提高效果比较明显。     

铸型搅动法细晶铸造对K418B合金整体涡轮组织和力学性能的影响

铸型搅动法细晶铸造使Ｋ４１８Ｂ合金整体涡轮获得了细小、均匀的等轴晶粒,改善了合金中初生ＭＣ和γ′相的分布形态,并使它们的平均尺寸减小。细晶铸造Ｋ４１８Ｂ合金整体涡轮材料在４５０～６５０℃的低周疲劳寿命至少是普通铸造的４倍。     

The water cycle in closed ecological systems: Perspectives from the Biosphere 2 and Laboratory Biosphere systems

To achieve sustainable, healthy closed ecological systems requires solutions to challenges of closing the water cycle – recycling wastewater/irrigation water/soil medium leachate and evaporated water and supplying water of required quality as needed for different needs within the facility. Engineering Biosphere 2, the first multi-biome closed ecological system within a total airtight footprint of 12,700 m² with a combined volume of 200,000 m³ with a total water capacity of some 6 × 10⁶ L of water was especially challenging because it included human inhabitants, their agricultural and technical systems, as well as five analogue ecosystems ranging from rainforest to desert, freshwater ecologies to saltwater systems like mangrove and mini-ocean coral reef ecosystems. By contrast, the Laboratory Biosphere – a small (40 m³ volume) soil-based plant growth facility with a footprint of 15 m² – is a very simplified system, but with similar challenges re salinity management and provision of water quality suitable for plant growth. In Biosphere 2, water needs included supplying potable water for people and domestic animals, irrigation water for a wide variety of food crops, and recycling and recovering soil nutrients from wastewater. In the wilderness biomes, providing adequately low salinity freshwater terrestrial ecosystems and maintaining appropriate salinity and pH in aquatic/marine ecosystems were challenges. The largest reservoirs in Biosphere 2 were the ocean/marsh with some 4 × 10⁶ L, soil with 1 to 2 × 10⁶ l, primary storage tank with 0 to 8 × 10⁵ L and storage tanks for condensate and soil leachate collection and mixing tanks with a capacity of 1.6 × 10⁵ L to supply irrigation for farm and wilderness ecosystems. Other reservoirs were far smaller – humidity in the atmosphere (2 × 10³ L), streams in the rainforest and savannah, and seasonal pools in the desert were orders of magnitude smaller (8 × 10⁴ L). Key technologies included condensation from humidity in the air handlers and from the glass space frame to produce high quality freshwater, wastewater treatment with constructed wetlands and desalination through reverse osmosis and flash evaporation were key to recycling water with appropriate quality throughout the Biosphere 2 facility. Wastewater from all human uses and the domestic animals in Biosphere 2 was treated and recycled through a series of constructed wetlands, which had hydraulic loading of 0.9–1.1 m³ day⁻¹ (240–290 gal d⁻¹). Plant production in the wetland treatment system produced 1210 kg dry weight of emergent and floating aquatic plant wetland which was used as fodder for the domestic animals while remaining nutrients/water was reused as part of the agricultural irrigation supply. There were pools of water with recycling times of days to weeks and others with far longer cycling times within Biosphere 2. By contrast, the Laboratory Biosphere with a total water reservoir of less than 500 L has far quicker cycling rapidity: for example, atmospheric residence time for water vapor was 5–20 min in the Laboratory Biosphere vs. 1–4 h in Biosphere 2, as compared with 9 days in the Earth’s biosphere. Just as in Biosphere 2, humidity in the Laboratory Biosphere amounts to a very small reservoir of water. The amount of water passing through the air in the course of a 12-h operational day is two orders of magnitude greater than the amount stored in the air. Thus, evaporation and condensation collection are vital parts of the recycle system just as in Biosphere 2. The water cycle and sustainable water recycling in closed ecological systems presents problems requiring further research – such as how to control buildup of salinity in materially closed ecosystems and effective ways to retain nutrients in optimal quantity and useable form for plant growth. These issues are common to all closed ecological systems of whatever size, including planet Earth’s biosphere and are relevant to a global environment facing increasing water shortages while maintaining water quality for human and ecosystem health. Modular biospheres offer a test bed where technical methods of resolving these problems can be tested for feasibility.     

面向大飞机项目全生命周期的产学研合作模式研究

基于全生命周期的视角,将大飞机的生命周期划分为3个主要的阶段:飞机研发设计阶段、飞机工程制造阶段、飞机商业运营阶段.对应提出了3种不同的产学研合作模式:企业大学共同创新的战略型合作模式、企业工程化主导的协同型合作模式；企业商业化主导的价值型合作模式.通过对这3种模式的剖析,以期为大飞机研制过程中产学研合作模式的选择提供理论支撑.     

Improvements in and actual performance of the Plant Experiment Unit onboard Kibo,the Japanese experiment module on the international space station

In 2004, Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency developed the engineered model of the Plant Experiment Unit and the Cell Biology Experiment Facility. The Plant Experiment Unit was designed to be installed in the Cell Biology Experiment Facility and to support the seed-to-seed life cycle experiment of Arabidopsis plants in space in the project named Space Seed. Ground-based experiments to test the Plant Experiment Unit showed that the unit needed further improvement of a system to control the water content of a seedbed using an infrared moisture analyzer and that it was difficult to keep the relative humidity inside the Plant Experiment Unit between 70 and 80% because the Cell Biology Experiment Facility had neither a ventilation system nor a dehumidifying system. Therefore, excess moisture inside the Cell Biology Experiment Facility was removed with desiccant bags containing calcium chloride. Eight flight models of the Plant Experiment Unit in which dry Arabidopsis seeds were fixed to the seedbed with gum arabic were launched to the International Space Station in the space shuttle STS-128 (17A) on August 28, 2009. Plant Experiment Unit were installed in the Cell Biology Experiment Facility with desiccant boxes, and then the Space Seed experiment was started in the Japanese Experiment Module, named Kibo, which was part of the International Space Station, on September 10, 2009 by watering the seedbed and terminated 2 months later on November 11, 2009. On April 19, 2010, the Arabidopsis plants harvested in Kibo were retrieved and brought back to Earth by the space shuttle mission STS-131 (19A). The present paper describes the Space Seed experiment with particular reference to the development of the Plant Experiment Unit and its actual performance in Kibo onboard the International Space Station. Downlinked images from Kibo showed that the seeds had started germinating 3 days after the initial watering. The plants continued growing, producing rosette leaves, inflorescence stems, flowers, and fruits in the Plant Experiment Unit. In addition, the senescence of rosette leaves was found to be delayed in microgravity.     

不含短环的（n，3，k）LDPC码的几何构造方法

提出了基于不含短环的(n,2,k)规则低密度奇偶校验(LDPC)码的一种最短环长为8的(n,3,k)规则LDPC码的几何构造方法。该方法简单直观而有效。仿真结果显示,在AWGN信道中该码具有明显优于随机构造的规则LDPC码的性能。     

Solar Variation and Stratospheric Response

We have shown in several recent publications that it is necessary to group the meteorological data according to the phase of the Quasi-Biennial Oscillation (QBO) throughout the year, in order to find a clear signal of the 11-year sunspot cycle (SSC). This work is summarized here. It is the purpose of this paper (1) to update earlier results of the solar cycle – QBO relationship for the northern winter, (2) to stress the interaction between the hemispheres and (3) to summarize the influence of the QBO on the solar variability signal, as well as the influence of the solar variability signal on the QBO throughout the year. For this, the constructed annual mean of the solar cycle – QBO relationship is introduced.     

A new approach to solar cycle forecasting

We describe a novel approach for determining the timing of the solar cycle and tracking its evolution relative to other cycles. This method also has predictive capability for forecasting the cycle “onset.” Based on current trends, we expect that Cycle 23 will be about 1 year longer than the previous two cycles.     

基于成本考虑的天地往返技术途径分析

采用能量分析方法,对天地往返成本的影响因素进行了分析。重点对入轨方式、发射方法和动力系统等因素进行了分析。提出了未来天地往返运输技术的研究设想。