Planetary Magnetic Dynamo Effect on Atmospheric Protection of Early Earth and Mars

In light of assessing the habitability of Mars, we examine the impact of the magnetic field on the atmosphere. When there is a magnetic field, the atmosphere is protected from erosion by solar wind. The magnetic field ensures the maintenance of a dense atmosphere, necessary for liquid water to exist on the surface of Mars. We also examine the impact of the rotation of Mars on the magnetic field. When the magnetic field of Mars ceased to exist (about 4 Gyr ago), atmospheric escape induced by solar wind began. We consider scenarios which could ultimately lead to a decrease of atmospheric pressure to the presently observed value of 7 mbar: a much weaker early martian magnetic field, a late onset of the dynamo, and high erosion rates of a denser early atmosphere.     

MICROWAVE SENSOR DEVELOPMENT IN RECENT TWO YEARS IN CHINA

The development of microwave sensors in recent two years in China are in troduced with an emphasis on spaceborne sensors without the applications in cluded. The microwave sensors as the main payloads to be boarded on the future operational satellites, such as FY-3 meteorological satellites and HY-2 marine satellite are introduced with much in detail. Besides these, four new sensors are outlined, i.e. the imaging radar altimeter,synthetic aperture radiometer, and polarimetric radiometer. Two recently conducted flight experiment campaigns are also introduced with results shown.     

城市环境空气中臭氧的污染综合分析报告——以西安市城区2013年环境空气臭氧监测数据为例

新近颁布的《环境空气质量标准》(GB3095-2012)已经把臭氧8小时浓度限值纳入其中,臭氧已成为城市环境空气重要的污染物。分析了对人类有害的地面臭氧的主要来源,并以西安市城区2013年环境空气臭氧监测数据为例,分析了臭氧月际、日积的平均浓度、最大浓度等的变化情况。进而分析了西安市城区臭氧的主要污染来源,最后提出了城区环境空气中臭氧污染防治的7个基本对策。     

A review on the upper atmospheric sodium observations from India: Insights

This review article briefly brings out the historical development of atmospheric sodium (Na) measurements over India and the importance of coordinated measurements with multiple techniques to address physical processes in the Earth's upper atmosphere. These measurements were initiated in the early 1970s by observing Na airglow emission intensities with broad band airglow photometer from Mt. Abu, a low-latitude hill station in India. Considerable amount of night-to-night variations in nocturnal emission intensities of the Na airglow were observed. Later, investigations regarding the dependence with the magnetic activities from the equatorial and low latitudes were carried out and double-humped structures in the nocturnal variation of intensities were reported. With the advent of Na lidar at Gadanki around 2005, the measurements of atmospheric neutral Na atom concentration became possible and more frequent occurrences of sporadic Na layers over the magnetic low latitude station compared to other latitudes were detected indicating the role played by electrodynamics. Later, a possible relationship between E-region field aligned plasma irregularities and the concentration of neutral Na atoms was investigated using coordinated measurements of VHF radar and Na lidar. Further, simultaneous measurements with Na lidar and a narrow band airglow photometer with narrow field of view brought out the importance of coordinated observation wherein the characterization of gravity waves could be carried out and also revealed the importance of collisional quenching due to ambient molecules in the Na airglow emission processes. In addition, combining the ground based measurements of Na lidar and meteor wind radar along with satellite measurements made possible to hypothesize the over-turning Kelvin–Helmholtz billow in the Na layer manifests “C-type” or inverted lambda shape structures in the height-time-concentration map of neutral Na atoms. This review paper presents a synoptic view mostly based on the previously reported observations of Na airglow emission, Na lidar and coordinated Na airglow and Na lidar observations from the Indian sector and highlights the importance of simultaneous measurements of mesospheric Na and its emissions along with satellite-borne measurements to address interesting geophysical processes in the Earth's upper atmosphere.     

Advances in Researches on the Middle and Upper Atmosphere in 2008-2010

This paper summarizes the results of the researches on the middle and upper atmosphere obtained by Chinese scientists in 2008-2010. The focuses are specifically placed on the researches being associated with ground-based observation capability development, dynamical processes, the property of atmospheric circulation and the chemistry-climate coupling of the middle atmospheric layers.     

Predicting atmospheric delays for rapid ambiguity resolution in precise point positioning

Integer ambiguity resolution in precise point positioning (PPP) can shorten the initialization and re-initialization time, and ambiguity-fixed PPP solutions are also more reliable and accurate than ambiguity-float PPP solutions. However, signal interruptions are unavoidable in practical applications, particularly while operating in urban areas. Such signal interruptions can cause discontinuity of carrier phase arc, which introduces new integer ambiguities. Usually it will take approximately 15 min of continuous tracking to a reasonable number of satellites to fix new integer ambiguities. In many applications, it is impractical for a PPP user to wait for such a long time for the re-initialization. In this paper, a method for rapid ambiguity fixing in PPP is developed to avoid such a long re-initialization time. Firstly, the atmospheric delays were estimated epoch by epoch from ambiguity-fixed PPP solutions before the data gap or cycle slip occurs. A random walk procedure is then applied to predict the atmospheric delays accurately over a short time span. The predicted atmospheric delays then can be used to correct the observations which suffer from signal interruptions. Finally, the new ambiguities can be fixed with a distinct WL-LX-L3 (here LX denotes either of L1, L2) cascade ambiguity resolution strategy. Comprehensive experiments have demonstrated that the proposed method and strategy can fix zero-difference integer ambiguities successfully with only a single-epoch observation immediately after a short data gap. This technique works even when all satellites are interrupted at the same time. The duration of data gap bridged by this technique could be possibly extended if a more precise atmospheric delay prediction is found or on-the-fly (OTF) technology is applied. Based on the proposed method, real-time PPP with integer ambiguity fixing becomes more feasible in practice.     

Study of satellite retrieved CO2 and CH4 concentration over India

This paper reports a study of spatial and temporal variations of columnar averaged concentration of CO₂ and CH₄ over India using SCanning Imaging Absorption spectroMeter for Atmospheric CHartographY (SCIAMACHY) and Greenhouse gas Observing SATellite (GOSAT) data. Comparison of these data with the global view National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) land data and also location specific flask data is made. The temporal variation in column averaged global CO₂ is similar to that over India and it is also similar to the NOAA surface flask data and global view. The variation in NOAA surface CH₄ is location dependent and its global view appears to vary seasonally in opposite phase with the column averaged CH₄ values from satellites, reflecting the limited comparability of surface and column averaged data. Over India the CO₂ maximum is in May and minimum in August/September while for CH₄ the maximum is in September and minimum in February/March. The seasonal variation of CH₄ over India is correlated with the eastern coastal rice cultivation.     

航天器大气进入过程制导方法综述

研究承担进入任务的升阻比小于0.5的小升阻比航天器,基于对该类航天器大气进入制导方法的调研,分别以地球大气再入和火星大气进入过程为例,分析了进入制导需满足的各种约束和待解决的技术难题,并对大气进入制导控制方法的研究现状进行了阐述,对不同方法的优缺点进行了对比研究分析和归纳总结,对未来研究发展方向进行了展望。