基于合作目标和视觉的无人飞行器全天候自动着陆导引关键技术

 GPS受他国控制和易受干扰对基于该导航系统的无人飞行器导航和着陆具有潜在危险,为了使其安全自动着陆,提出通过在着陆跑道(广场或公路)上预设具有受控发射红外光的地面合作目标,实现无人飞行器的视觉全天候自动精确着陆新技术。首先研究得到切实可行的工作过程;然后研制了合作目标,通过理论分析和实验得出,无论能见度高低,8~12 μm中远红外视觉系统探测到的合作目标图像质量远优于可见光视觉系统,研究得到合作目标和背景的温差在170~200 ℃时,成像效果最好。在识别研究中发现,基于传统的不变矩算法对合作目标的识别可靠性稍差,为了进一步准确地识别合作目标,又提出了基于方向链码的合作目标识别算法,该方法的耗时为不变距的96%,但是识别的可靠性比前者有显著提高。     

飞行器红外隐身效能工程评价方法

 针对飞行器的红外隐身问题,推导出红外辐射对比度与作用距离的理论关系,采用指数拟合获得大气透过率与作用距离的近似关系表达式,简化了对作用距离的计算,并通过实际算例考察了目标表面温度、目标发射率和飞行速度对红外辐射对比度及作用距离的影响。结果表明：对比度和作用距离随目标表面温度、发射率及飞行速度的下降趋势基本一致;在一定条件下,对比度可代替作用距离作为评价目标红外隐身效果的简单、快速的参数,对比度越小目标的红外隐身效果越好。对比度的计算快速、准确、灵活性强和适用范围广,为今后进一步对飞行器的红外隐身研究提供一定的理论参考。     

RadioAstron reveals super-compact structures in the bursting H2O maser source G25.65+1.05

Water masers are well-known to be variable on a variety of time scales, but only three Galactic H₂O masers are known to flare to the level of 10⁵–10⁶ Jy (${\text{T}}_{\text{B}}\sim {10}^{17}$ K): Orion KL, W49N, and the recently discovered G25.65+1.05. Recently detected flaring activity of H₂O maser in the massive star-forming region G25.65+1.05 gave us a unique opportunity to study the fine structure of H₂O maser emission in the bursting state with extremely high space VLBI angular resolution. Observation of the source was carried out with ∼9 Earth diameter space-ground baseline within the framework of the RadioAstron project. H₂O maser emission from two spectral features, including the bursting one, was detected in the experiment. Only ∼1% of the bursting H₂O maser emission was detected on the space-ground baselines: it indicates the presence of a very compact spatial structure with a size of ∼25 $\mathrm{\mu }$as, which corresponds to 0.05 AU or ∼5 solar diameters at the distance to the source of 2.08 kpc, and the brightness temperature of ∼3 × 10¹⁶ K. Analysis of the flux density as a function of the baseline length for the bursting H₂O maser feature in the source shows that most of the emission comes from an extended “halo” structure, while the core of emission is very compact and has an extreme brightness temperature. These results are in agreement with the model of interacting maser clouds considered as the likely explanation of the nature of the burst in the source. Under the assumption of such a model, the beam size of maser emission is reduced while the brightness temperatures similar to the highest observed values are produced.     

Analysis of a long-duration AR throughout five solar rotations: Magnetic properties and ejective events

Coronal mass ejections (CMEs), which are among the most magnificent solar eruptions, are a major driver of space weather and can thus affect diverse human technologies. Different processes have been proposed to explain the initiation and release of CMEs from solar active regions (ARs), without reaching consensus on which is the predominant scenario, and thus rendering impossible to accurately predict when a CME is going to erupt from a given AR. To investigate AR magnetic properties that favor CMEs production, we employ multi-spacecraft data to analyze a long duration AR (NOAA 11089, 11100, 11106, 11112 and 11121) throughout its complete lifetime, spanning five Carrington rotations from July to November 2010. We use data from the Solar Dynamics Observatory to study the evolution of the AR magnetic properties during the five near-side passages, and a proxy to follow the magnetic flux changes when no magnetograms are available, i.e. during far-side transits. The ejectivity is studied by characterizing the angular widths, speeds and masses of 108 CMEs that we associated to the AR, when examining a 124-day period. Such an ejectivity tracking was possible thanks to the multi-viewpoint images provided by the Solar-Terrestrial Relations Observatory and Solar and Heliospheric Observatory in a quasi-quadrature configuration. We also inspected the X-ray flares registered by the GOES satellite and found 162 to be associated to the AR under study. Given the substantial number of ejections studied, we use a statistical approach instead of a single-event analysis. We found three well defined periods of very high CMEs activity and two periods with no mass ejections that are preceded or accompanied by characteristic changes in the AR magnetic flux, free magnetic energy and/or presence of electric currents. Our large sample of CMEs and long term study of a single AR, provide further evidence relating AR magnetic activity to CME and Flare production.     

A statistical study of CME-associated flare during the solar cycle 24

We investigate on the relationship between flares and coronal mass ejections (CMEs) in which a flare started before and after the CME events which differ in their physical properties, indicating potentially different initiation mechanisms. The physical properties of two types flare-correlated CME remain an interesting and important question in space weather. We study the relationship between flares and CMEs using a different approach requiring both temporal and spatial constraints during the period from December 1, 2008 to April 30, 2017 in which the CMEs data were acquired by SOHO/LASCO (Solar and Heliospheric Observatory/Large Angle Spectrometric Coronagraph) over the solar cycle 24. The soft X-ray flare flux data, such as flare class, location, onset time and integrated flux, are collected from Geostationary Environmental satellite (GOES) and XRT Flare catalogs. We selected 307 CMEs-flares pairs applying simultaneously temporal and spatial constraints in all events for the distinguish between two associated CME-flare types. We study the correlated properties of coincident flares and CMEs during this period, specifically separating the sample into two types: flares that precede a CME and flares that follow a CME. We found an opposite correlation relationship between the acceleration and velocity of CMEs in the After- and Before-CMEs events. We found a log-log relation between the width and mass of CMEs in the two associated types. The CMEs and flares properties show that there were significant differences in all physical parameters such as (mass, angular width, kinetic energy, speed and acceleration) between two flare-associated CME types.     

Ionospheric losses of Venus in the solar wind

The nature of ionospheric losses from Venus is of essential importance for understanding the ionosphere dynamics of this unmagnetized planet. A plausible mechanism that can explain the escape of charged particles involves the solar wind interaction with the upper atmospheric layers of Venus. The hydrodynamic approach proposed for plasma expansion in the present study comprises two populations of positive ions and the neutralizing electrons, which interact with the solar wind electrons and protons. The fluid equations describing the plasma are solved numerically using a self-similar approach. The behavior of plasma density, velocity, and electric potential, as well as their reliance upon solar wind parameters have been examined. It is found that for noon midnight sites, the oxygen ion-to-electron relative density may be the main factor to enhance the ionic loss. However, the other parameters, like hydrogen density and solar wind density and velocity seem to do not stimulate the runaway ions. For lower dawn-dusk region, the plasma are composed of hydrogen and oxygen ions as well as electrons, but for higher altitudes only hydrogen ions and electrons are encountered. All ionic densities play an important role either to reduce or boost the ionic loss. The streaming solar wind velocity has no effect on the plasma escaping for lower altitudes, but it reduces the expansion at higher altitudes.     

Topological and statistical properties of nonlinear force-free fields

We use our semi-analytic solution of the nonlinear force-free field equation to construct three-dimensional magnetic fields that are applicable to the solar corona and study their statistical properties for estimating the degree of braiding exhibited by these fields. We present a new formula for calculating the winding number and compare it with the formula for the crossing number. The comparison is shown for a toy model of two helices and for realistic cases of nonlinear force-free fields; conceptually the formulae are nearly the same but the resulting distributions calculated for a given topology can be different. We also calculate linkages, which are useful topological quantities that are independent measures of the contribution of magnetic braiding to the total free energy and relative helicity of the field. Finally, we derive new analytical bounds for the free energy and relative helicity for the field configurations in terms of the linking number. These bounds will be of utility in estimating the braided energy available for nano-flares or for eruptions.     

Phase asynchrony between coronal index and sunspot numbers

In this paper, the phase asynchrony between coronal index and sunspot numbers is investigated. It is found that, (1) the sunspot numbers begin one month earlier than coronal index, which should mathematically lead to phase asynchrony between them but with a slight effect; (2) the 11-year Schwabe cycle is the only one period with statistical significance for coronal index and sunspot numbers, and the difference between the length of the Schwabe cycle of them should also lead to phase asynchrony between them; (3) although coronal index and sunspot numbers are coherent in low-frequency components corresponding to the 11-year Schwabe cycle, they are asynchronous in phase in high-frequency components; (4) their different definitions and physical meanings may be a major reason why there is a phase asynchrony between them.     

Hot-cracking susceptibility and shear fracture behavior of dissimilar Ti6Al4V/AA6060 alloys in pulsed Nd:YAG laser welding

Laser welding of dissimilar titanium/aluminum alloys has been employed at an increasing rate, particularly in the aerospace industry, owing to its advantages in terms of current design flexibility and fuel/cost savings. The major problem with dissimilar Ti/Al welds arises from the difference in the thermal expansion and contraction of the two metals, which leads to hot-cracking susceptibility and the mitigation of the mechanical property after welding. In the present study, pulsed Nd:YAG laser welding of Ti6Al4V and AA6060 has been addressed. Hot-cracking susceptibility in the heat affected zone and the shear fracture behavior of the lap joints were investigated through microstructural characterization and mechanical tests. The results indicate that the hot cracking tendency can be reduced by increasing the pulse peak power (7.5–8.5 kW) and the laser point diameter (0.8–1.0 mm) with specific pulse duration and overlap. An alternative control strategy for less hot cracks in the Ti/Al lap joint can be to increase the weld width and decrease the cooling rate during solidification. The shear fracture of the Ti/Al lap joint is likely to occur along the lower side path of the weld interface with decreasing weld surface collapsed amount and increasing aluminum base metal melt depth.