Coronal mass ejection detection using wavelets,curvelets and ridgelets: Applications for space weather monitoring

Coronal mass ejections (CMEs) are large-scale eruptions of plasma and magnetic field that can produce adverse space weather at Earth and other locations in the Heliosphere. Due to the intrinsic multiscale nature of features in coronagraph images, wavelet and multiscale image processing techniques are well suited to enhancing the visibility of CMEs and suppressing noise. However, wavelets are better suited to identifying point-like features, such as noise or background stars, than to enhancing the visibility of the curved form of a typical CME front. Higher order multiscale techniques, such as ridgelets and curvelets, were therefore explored to characterise the morphology (width, curvature) and kinematics (position, velocity, acceleration) of CMEs. Curvelets in particular were found to be well suited to characterising CME properties in a self-consistent manner. Curvelets are thus likely to be of benefit to autonomous monitoring of CME properties for space weather applications.     

绳索断裂对二维二次太阳翼展开过程影响分析

为识别二维二次太阳翼关键环节和预示其在轨展开故障模式，开展不同位置绳索断裂失效对太阳翼展开的影响程度分析。采用考虑绳索断裂的绳索联动轮力学模型，建立了适应于不同联动轮半径的联动轮受力模型，提出角度触发约束消除方法，解决了太阳翼第2次展开过程连续仿真问题，建立了太阳翼第2次展开动力学方程，分析了不同位置绳索断裂失效对太阳翼各板展开角度、展开构型和其他绳索张力的影响。分析表明，越靠近星体的绳索联动机构失效对太阳翼展开过程的影响越大，其中连接架上绳索联动机构失效可直接导致二维二次太阳翼在轨展开失败。     

HTPB官能度数学模型建立

为了研究自由基型液体端羟基聚丁二烯预聚物(HTPB)体系官能度分布情况,对其化学合成中自由电子转移情况进行了分析,并通过数学统计的方法对其官能度分布进行理论数值模拟,建立了适用于自由基型HTPB官能度分布的函数关系式,并与GPC所测结果进行对比。结果显示,计算所得函数关系式与测试数据吻合结果较好,数值模拟结果准确性较高;自由基聚合生产的不同批次的HTPB官能度分布存在较大差异,单官能度分子含量可从5%~24%,二官能度分子的含量可从50%~81%;利用数学统计得到的函数关系,可将复杂的HTPB官能度测试转变为简单的分子量分布测试。     

Modeling the broadband persistent emission of magnetars

In this paper, we discuss our first attempts to model the broadband persistent emission of magnetars within a self-consistent, physical scenario. We present the predictions of a synthetic model that we calculated with a new Monte Carlo 3D radiative code. The basic idea is that soft thermal photons (e.g. emitted by the star surface) can experience resonant cyclotron upscattering by a population of relativistic electrons treated in the twisted magnetosphere. Our code is specifically tailored to work in the ultra-magnetized regime; polarization and QED effects are consistently accounted for, as well different configurations for the magnetosphere. We discuss the predicted spectral properties in the 0.1–1000 keV range, the polarization properties, and we present the model application to a sample of magnetars soft X-ray spectra.     

Contamination of short GRBs by giant magnetar flares: Significance of downward revision in distance to SGR 1806–20

We highlight how the downward revision in the distance to the star cluster associated with SGR 1806–20 by Bibby et al. (2008) reconciles the apparent low contamination of BATSE short GRBs by intense flares from extragalactic magnetars without recourse to modifying the frequency of one such flare per 30 years per Milky Way galaxy. We also discuss the variety in progenitor initial masses of magnetars based upon cluster ages, ranging from ∼50 M_⊙ for SGR 1806–20 and AXP CXOU J164710.2–455216 in Westerlund 1 to ∼17 M_⊙ for SGR 1900+14 according to Davies et al. (2009) and presumably also 1E 1841–045 if it originated from one of the massive RSG clusters #2 or #3.     

The beaming of external Compton emission

We consider a relativistically moving blob consisting of an isotropic electron distribution that Compton-scatters photons from an external isotropic radiation field. We compute the resulting beaming pattern, i.e. the distribution of the scattered photons, in the blob frame as well as in the observer’s frame by using the full Klein–Nishina cross section and the exact incident photon distribution. In the Thomson regime the comparison of our approach with Dermer (1995) results in concurrent characteristics but different absolute number of the scattered photons by a factor of f_corr = 3.09. Additionally, our calculation yields a slightly lower boost factor which varies the more from the corresponding value in Dermer (1995) the higher the spectral index p of the electron distribution gets.     

A fast pulse phase estimation method for X-ray pulsar signals based on epoch folding

X-ray pulsar-based navigation (XPNAV) is an attractive method for autonomous deep-space navigation in the future. The pulse phase estimation is a key task in XPNAV and its accuracy directly determines the navigation accuracy. State-of-the-art pulse phase estimation techniques either suffer from poor estimation accuracy, or involve the maximization of generally non-convex object function, thus resulting in a large computational cost. In this paper, a fast pulse phase estimation method based on epoch folding is presented. The statistical properties of the observed profile obtained through epoch folding are developed. Based on this, we recognize the joint prob-ability distribution of the observed profile as the likelihood function and utilize a fast Fourier transform-based procedure to estimate the pulse phase. Computational complexity of the proposed estimator is analyzed as well. Experimental results show that the proposed estimator significantly outperforms the currently used cross-correlation (CC) and nonlinear least squares (NLS) estima-tors, while significantly reduces the computational complexity compared with NLS and maximum likelihood (ML) estimators.     

Evaluation and improvement of coastal GNSS reflectometry sea level variations from existing GNSS stations in Taiwan

Global sea level rise due to an increasingly warmer climate has begun to induce hazards, adversely affecting the lives and properties of people residing in low-lying coastal regions and islands. Therefore, it is important to monitor and understand variations in coastal sea level covering offshore regions. Signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) data of Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) have been successfully used to robustly derive sea level heights (SLHs). In Taiwan, there are a number of continuously operating GNSS stations, not originally installed for sea level monitoring. They were established in harbors or near coastal regions for monitoring land motion. This study utilizes existing SNR data from three GNSS stations (Kaohsiung, Suao, and TaiCOAST) in Taiwan to compute SLHs with two methods, namely, Lomb–Scargle Periodogram (LSP)-only, and LSP aided with tidal harmonic analysis developed in this study. The results of both methods are compared with co-located or nearby tide gauge records. Due to the poor quality of SNR data, the worst accuracy of SLHs derived from traditional LSP-only method exceeds 1?m at the TaiCOAST station. With our procedure, the standard deviations (STDs) of difference between GNSS-derived SLHs and tide gauge records in Kaohsiung and Suao stations decreased to 10?cm and the results show excellent agreement with tide gauge derived relative sea level records, with STD of differences of 7?cm and correlation coefficient of 0.96. In addition, the absolute GNSS-R sea level trend in Kaohsiung during 2006–2011 agrees well with that derived from satellite altimetry. We conclude that the coastal GNSS stations in Taiwan have the potential of monitoring absolute coastal sea level change accurately when our proposed methodology is used.     

强不确定系统“全系数之和等于1”的实现方法

摘要： 研究强不确定系统“全系数之和等于1”的实现方法，强不确定系统指的是系统的静态增益及其界不完全确知且范围较大.“全系数之和等于1”是吴宏鑫院士20世纪80年代发现的，该原理表明，对于未知连续系统，其离散化系统的系数的和在一定条件下是1.该原理的发现对于解决闭环辨识和自适应控制的瓶颈问题具有关键作用.“全系数之和等于1”是在一定条件下成立的.为了实现系统的“全系数之和等于1”，需要对系统进行一定的变换，以满足所需条件.其中，采用静态增益的标称值的倒数进行输入变换的方法在实际中得到了广泛应用.但是，当系统的不确定性较大时，该变换将带来较大偏差.针对该问题开展了深入研究，明确给出了系统静态增益的不确定性与标称值的比值的关系对于实现“全系数之和等于1”的影响.当不确定性与标称值的比值较小时，可以近似实现“全系数之和等于1”；当比值较大时，进一步给出了通过选取合适的采样周期，近似实现“全系数之和等于1”的方法.本文的研究对于特征模型理论在实际中的应用提供了一定的基础.