Remote sounding of atmospheric gravity waves with satellite limb and nadir techniques

Recent advances in satellite techniques hold great potential for mapping global gravity wave (GW) processes at various altitudes. Poor understanding of small-scale GWs has been a major limitation to numerical climate and weather models for making reliable forecasts. Observations of short-scale features have important implication for validating and improving future high-resolution numerical models. This paper summarizes recent GW observations and sensitivities from several satellite instruments, including MLS, AMSU-A, AIRS, GPS, and CLAES. It is shown in an example that mountain waves with horizontal wavelengths as short as 30 km now can be observed by AIRS, reflecting the superior horizontal resolution in these modern satellite instruments. Our studies show that MLS, AMSU-A and AIRS observations reveal similar GW characteristics, with the observed variances correlated well with background winds. As a complementary technique, limb sounding instruments like CRISTA, CLAES, and GPS can detect GWs with better vertical but poorer horizontal resolutions. To resolve different parts of the broad GW spectrum, both satellite limb and nadir observing techniques are needed, and a better understanding of GW complexities requires joint analyses of these data and dedicated high-resolution model simulations.     

A Self-Consistent Determination of the Temperature Profile and The Magnetic Field Geometry in Winds of Late-Type Stars

Cool giant and supergiant stars generally present low velocity winds with high mass-loss rates. Several models have been proposed to explain the acceleration process of these winds. Although dust is known to be present in these objects, the radiation pressure on these particles is uneffective in reproducing the observed physical parameters of the wind. The most promising acceleration mechanism cited in the literature is the transference of momentum and energy from Alfvén waves to the gas. Usually, these models consider the wind to be isothermal. We present a stellar wind model in which the Alfvén waves are used as the main acceleration mechanism, and determine the temperature profile by solving the energy equation taking into account both the radiative losses and the wave heating. We also determine, self-consistently, the magnetic field geometry as the result of the competition between the magnetic field and the thermal pressure gradient. As the main result, we show that the magnetic geometry presents a super-radial index in the region where the gas pressure is increasing. However, this super-radial index is greater than that observed for the solar corona.     

Cassini Radio Science

Cassini radio science investigations will be conducted both during the cruise (gravitational wave and conjunction experiments) and the Saturnian tour of the mission (atmospheric and ionospheric occultations, ring occultations, determinations of masses and gravity fields). New technologies in the construction of the instrument, which consists of a portion on-board the spacecraft and another portion on the ground, including the use of the Ka-band signal in addition to that of the S- and X-bands, open opportunities for important discoveries in each of the above scientific areas, due to increased accuracy, resolution, sensitivity, and dynamic range.This revised version was published online in July 2005 with a corrected cover date.     

非线性动力Alfven波的演化

本文讨论了非线性动力Alfven波在1＞＞β＞＞me／mi条件下形成孤子解的限制条件，表明只有亚Alfven速度才能形成压缩型孤子．由动力Alfven波孤子和湍流产生的极大纵向电子速度不会超过本底电子热速度，但由此产生的纵向电场在小尺度范围可以很强，这可能对太阳风的能量传输与粒子加速产生一定影响．     

Superthermal electron’s effects on lump solitons structures in magnetized auroral plasma

Based on the considerations of the acknowledgements of the numerous space observations by satellites in the auroral plasma, astrophysics plasmas, spacecraft observations, various plasma models have been framed and revealed different interesting features, like electrostatic structures, solitary waves, double layers, supersolitons, etc. Soliton theory is a very efficient and competent way to describe nonlinear features. Using Viking satellite data in the auroral plasma, we have derived lump soliton solutions of the Kadomstev-Petviashvili (KP) equation by employing Hirota bilinear method. Due to its wide range of applications, the study of lump soliton is very attractive and important too. It has been shown that the lump solitons structures as well as in the one-dimensional form of lump soliton are varied with associated parameters in the auroral magnetized plasma. During the analysis of the features of the lump solitons, it is found that the system parameters play a pivotal role on the lump solitons structures.     

Propagation of cylindrical and spherical dust–ion acoustic solitary waves in a relativistic dusty plasma

The properties of cylindrical and spherical dust–ion acoustic solitary waves (DIASW) in an unmagnetized dusty plasma comprising of relativistic ions, Boltzmann electrons, and stationary dusty particles are investigated. Under a suitable coordinate transformation, the cylindrical KdV equation can be solved analytically. The change of the DIASW structure due to the effect of geometry, relativistic streaming factor, ion density and electron temperature is studied by numerical calculation of the cylindrical/spherical Kdv equation. It is noted that with ion pressure the effect of relativistic streaming factor to solitary waves structure is different. Without ion pressure, as the relativistic streaming factor decreases, the amplitude of the solitary wave decreases. However, when the ion pressure is taken into account, the amplitude decreases as the relativistic streaming factor increases and is highly sensitive to relativistic streaming factor. Our results may have relevance in the understanding of astrophysical plasmas.     

Nonplanar electron acoustic shock waves

The properties of cylindrical and spherical electron acoustic shock waves (EASWs) in an unmagnetized plasma consisting of cold electrons, immobile ions and Boltzmann distributed hot electrons are investigated by employing the reductive perturbation method. A Korteweg–de Vries Burgers (KdVB) equation is derived and its numerical solution is obtained. The effects of several parameters and ion kinematic viscosity on the basic features of EA shock waves are discussed in nonplanar geometry. It is found that nonplanar EA shock waves behave quite differently from their one-dimensional planar counterpart.     

Nonlinear electromagnetic perturbations in a degenerate electron–positron plasma

Nonlinear propagation of fast and slow magnetosonic perturbation modes in an ultra-cold, degenerate (extremely dense) electron–positron (EP) plasma (containing non-relativistic, ultra-cold, degenerate electron and positron fluids) has been investigated by the reductive perturbation method. It is shown that due to the property of being equal mass of the plasma species (_me=_mp$m_e=m_p$, where _me$m_e$ and _mp$m_p$ are electron and positron mass, respectively), the degenerate EP plasma system supports the K-dV solitons which are associated with either fast or slow magnetosonic perturbation modes. It is also found that the basic features of the electromagnetic solitary structures, which are found to exist in such a degenerate EP plasma, are significantly modified by the effects of degenerate electron and positron pressures. The applications of the results in an EP plasma medium, which occurs in compact astrophysical objects, particularly in white dwarfs, have been briefly discussed.     

A numerical model characterizing internal gravity wave propagation into the upper atmosphere

A new two-dimensional, time-dependent and fully nonlinear model is developed to numerically simulate plane wave motions for internal gravity waves in a non-isothermal and windy atmosphere that accounts for the dissipation due to eddy and molecular processes. The atmosphere has been treated as a well mixed total gas with a constant mean molecular weight. The effects of Rayleigh friction and Newtonian cooling are applied near the upper boundary of the model to simulate the radiation conditions as well as to act as a sponge layer; lateral boundaries are periodic over a horizontal wavelength to simulate a horizontally infinite domain. The thermal excitation to initiate upward propagating waves is spatially localized in the troposphere and is a Gaussian function of time. A time-splitting technique is applied to the finite difference equations that are derived from the Navier–Stokes equations. The time integration for these highly coupled equations is performed using an explicit second order Lax–Wendroff scheme and an implicit Newton–Raphson scheme. The wave solutions derived from the model are found to be broadly agreeable with those derived from a Wentzel–Kramers–Brillouin theory.     

Broadband electrostatic noise and low-frequency waves in the Earth’s magnetosphere

Broadband electrostatic noise (BEN) is commonly observed in different regions of the Earth’s magnetosphere, eg., auroral region, plasma sheet boundary layer, etc. The frequency of these BENs lies in the range from lower hybrid to the local electron plasma frequency and sometimes even higher. Spacecraft observations suggest that the high and low-frequency parts of BEN appear to be two different wave modes. There is a well established theory for the high-frequency part which can be explained by electrostatic solitary waves, however, low-frequency part is yet to be fully understood. The linear theory of low-frequency waves is developed in a four-component magnetized plasma consisting of three types of electrons, namely cold background electron, warm electrons, warm electron beam and ions. The electrostatic dispersion relation is solved, both analytically and numerically. For the parameters relevant to the auroral region, our analysis predict excitation of electron acoustic waves in the frequency range of 17 Hz to 2.6 kHz with transverse wavelengths in range of (1–70) km. The results from this model may be applied to explain some features of the low-frequency part of the broadband electrostatic noise observed in other regions of the magnetosphere.