Essential features of long-term changes of areas and diameters of sunspot groups in solar activity cycles 12–24

We analyze the Greenwich catalog data on areas of sunspot groups of last thirteen solar cycles. Various parameters of sunspots are considered, namely: average monthly smoothed areas, maximum area for each year and equivalent diameters of groups of sunspots. The first parameter shows an exceptional power of the 19th cycle of solar activity, which appears here more contrastively than in the numbers of spots (that is, in Wolf’s numbers). It was found that in the maximum areas of sunspot groups for a year there is a unique phenomenon: a short and high jump in the 18th cycle (in 1946–1947) that has no analogues in other cycles. We also studied the integral distributions for equivalent diameters and found the following: (a) the average value of the index of power-law approximation is 5.4 for the last 13 cycles and (b) there is reliable evidence of Hale's double cycle (about 44?years). Since this indicator reflects the dispersion of sunspot group diameters, the results obtained show that the convective zone of the Sun generates embryos of active regions in different statistical regimes which change with a cycle of about 44?years.     

The bistatic radar capabilities of the Medicina radiotelescopes in space debris detection and tracking

An accurate measurement of the position and trajectory of the space debris fragments is of primary importance for the characterization of the orbital debris environment. The Medicina Radioastronomical Station is a radio observation facility that is here proposed as receiving part of a ground-based space surveillance system for detecting and tracking space debris at different orbital regions (from Low Earth Orbits up to Geostationary Earth Orbits). The proposed system consists of two bistatic radars formed by the existing Medicina receiving antennas coupled with appropriate transmitters. This paper focuses on the current features and future technical development of the receiving part of the observational setup. Outlines of possible transmitting systems will also be given together with the evaluation of the observation strategies achievable with the proposed facilities.     

Space Debris Mitigation in France,Germany, Italy and United Kingdom

The Space systems today provide growing benefits to enhance the quality of humankind. However, as a by-product, the orbiting objects inevitably leaves some debris which after 50 years of space activities represent a concern for all space agencies and manufacturers and operators. Since last year no international agreement was in place to mitigate the growing population of space debris objects. The successful result obtained at UN-COPUOS in 2007 and available in the OOSA web site, now gives to the public, a set of voluntary international guidelines that could, if adopted by each space fairing Country, help in maintaining the present space environment. More further steps are necessary in the future to define a legal and normative framework. The paper will present the seven established UN Space Debris guidelines as well as examples of the minimum steps to be carried out at national level to enable the UN-COPUOS to start the discussion of the legal aspect associated with the space debris issue.     

卫星红外遥感器辐射定标光机系统 热-结构耦合变形分析

辐射定标光机系统在模拟空间环境下的热变形直接影响定标光学系统成像质量,并决定星载遥感器辐射定标试验精度。文章建立的辐射定标光机系统有限元模型,以某卫星多光谱扫描仪辐射定标试验中的实测温度变化作为温度载荷,计算和研究了该系统在真空低温环境下的热-结构耦合变形的分布情况和分布规律。结果表明:在非均匀稳态低温环境下,该系统光学支架热变形使主镜及主反射镜发生刚性位移,引起垂轴方向位移、倾斜,黑体的离焦和光学系统焦距变化;反射镜表面畸变RMS值均为1/40波长以下,可以满足实际光学系统的面形准确度要求。     

Particle acceleration and gamma rays in solar flares: Recent observations and new modeling

Experiments on SMM, GAMMA, Yohkoh, GRANAT, Compton GRO, INTEGRAL, RHESSI and CORONAS-F satellites over the past three decades have provided copious data for fundamental research relating to particle acceleration, transport and energetics of flares and to the ambient abundance of the solar corona, chromosphere and photosphere. We summarize main results of solar gamma-astronomy (including some results of several joint Russian–Chinese projects) and try to appraise critically a real contribution of those results into modern understanding of solar flares, particle acceleration at the Sun and some properties of the solar atmosphere. Recent findings based on the RHESSI, INTEGRAL and CORONAS-F measurements (source locations, spectrum peculiarities, ³He abundance etc.) are especially discussed. Some unusual features of extreme solar events (e.g., 28 October 2003 and 20 January 2005) have been found in gamma-ray production and generation of relativistic particles (solar cosmic rays, or SCR). A number of different plausible assumptions are considered concerning the details of underlying physical processes during large flares: (1) existence of a steeper distribution of surrounding medium density as compared to a standard astrophysical model (HSRA) for the solar atmosphere; (2) enhanced content of the ³He isotope; (3) formation of magnetic trap with specific properties; (4) prevailing non-uniform (e.g., fan-like) velocity (angular) distributions of secondary neutrons, etc. It is emphasized that real progress in this field may be achieved only by combination of gamma-ray data in different energy ranges with multi-wave and energetic particle observations during the same event. We especially note several promising lines for the further studies: (1) resonant acceleration of the ³He ions in the corona; (2) timing of the flare evolution by gamma-ray fluxes in energy range above 90 MeV; (3) separation of gamma-ray fluxes from different sources at/near the Sun (e.g., different acceleration sources/episodes during the same flare, contribution of energetic particles accelerated by the CME-driven shocks etc.); (4) asymmetric magnetic geometry and new magnetic topology models of the near-limb flares; (5) modeling of self-consistent time scenario of the event.     

某无人机爬升过程中燃油温度变化规律仿真研究

采用 RON95# 车用汽油或 100LL 航空汽油为燃料的中空长航时无人机在爬升过程中容易遭遇气阻。利用 Flowmaster 软件搭建某型无人机燃油系统的仿真模型,以实际飞行试验中的环境温度、初始燃油温度、初始燃油量、耗油率等参数作为边界条件,通过仿真得到飞行过程中油箱内燃油温度,并与实际飞行试验数据进行对比,验证仿真模型的可行性;利用该模型定量研究环境温度、燃油油量、耗油率、爬升速度等因素对燃油温度变化规律的影响。结果表明:对于某型无人机燃油系统,在连续爬升过程中燃油温度的变化受初始外界环境温度、爬升速度的影响比较大,而燃油油量、耗油率则对燃油温度变化的影响较小;初始外界环境温度越低、燃油油量越少、耗油率越快、爬升速度越大则燃油温度下降幅度越大。     

The radio recombination lines of hydrogen

The impact theory of spectral line broadening is used to obtain complete profiles for radio recombination lines broadened by electron and proton impact. Electron impact dominates but proton impact becomes increasingly significant as Δn$\mathrm{\Delta }n$ increases. Thus these new calculations essentially confirm previous results and so a longstanding discrepancy between observation and theory remains unresolved.     

World Space Observatory-Ultraviolet: ISSIS,the imaging instrument

The Imaging and Slitless Spectroscopy Instrument (ISSIS) will be flown as part of the science instrumentation in the World Space Observatory-Ultraviolet (WSO-UV). ISSIS will be the first UV imager to operate in a high Earth orbit from a 2 m class space telescope. In this contribution, the science driving the ISSIS design and the main characteristics of this instrument are presented.