Numerical study of traveling ionosphere disturbances with vertical incidence data

High frequency ionosphere vertical sounding, as an important and representative application for detecting the ionosphere and studying the characteristics of radio propagation, can be utilized to monitor the ionosphere continuously variation and to acquire the ionosphere asymmetrical features of diverse scale above the ionosphere vertical sounding stations. This is a first article on real time application of numerical methods to obtain the parameters of traveling ionosphere disturbances (TIDs) using vertical incident ionograms. In this paper, the distribution of ionosphere electron density with TIDs is constructed using a background ionosphere model superimposed a perturbation theory model. The background ionosphere electron density is modelled by the inversion of vertical incident ionograms which are observed before the appearance of the disturbance. Based on the fourth order Adams-Bashforth-Moulton (the so-called ABM) predictor corrector method, instead of Runge-Kutta method, the fast digital ray tracing method is established. According to process of the disturbed trace simulation and parameters inversion, the characteristic parameters of ionosphere disturbance at different detection time can be obtained in real time. The numerical analysis of TIDs is then captured completely.     

A comparative study of ionospheric IRIEup and ISP assimilative models during some intense and severe geomagnetic storms

Three-dimensional (3-D) electron density matrices, computed in the Mediterranean area by the IRI climatological model and IRIEup and ISP nowcasting models, during some intense and severe geomagnetic-ionospheric storms, were ingested by the ray tracing software tool IONORT, to synthesize quasi-vertical ionograms. IRIEup model was run in different operational modes: (1) assimilating validated autoscaled electron density profiles only from a limited area which, in our case, is the Mediterranean sector (IRIEup_re(V) mode); (2) assimilating electron density profiles from a larger region including several stations spread across Europe: (a) without taking care of validating the autoscaled data in the assimilation process (IRIEup(NV)); (b) validating carefully the autoscaled electron density profiles before their assimilation (IRIEup(V)).The comparative analysis was carried out comparing IRI, IRIEup_re(V), ISP, IRIEup(NV), and IRIEup(V) foF2 synthesized values, with corresponding foF2 measurements autoscaled by ARTIST, and then validated, at the truth sites of Roquetes (40.80°N, 0.50°E, Spain), San Vito (40.60°N, 17.80°E, Italy), Athens (38.00°N, 23.50°E, Greece), and Nicosia, (35.03°N, 33.16°E, Cyprus). The outcomes demonstrate that: (1) IRIEup_re(V), performs better than ISP in the western Mediterranean (around Roquetes); (2) ISP performs slightly better than IRIEup_re(V) in the central part of Mediterranean (around Athens and San Vito); (3) ISP performance is better than the IRIEup_re(V) one in the eastern Mediterranean (around Nicosia); (4) IRIEup(NV) performance is worse than the IRIEup(V) one; (5) in the central Mediterranean area, IRIEup(V) performance is better than the IRIEup_re(V) one, and it is practically the same for the western and eastern sectors.Concerning the overall performance, nowcasting models proved to be considerably more reliable than the climatological IRI model to represent the ionosphere behaviour during geomagnetic-ionospheric storm conditions; ISP and IRIEup(V) provided the best performance, but neither of them has clearly prevailed over the other one.     

Atmospheric pressure variations at extratropical latitudes associated with Forbush decreases of galactic cosmic rays

Changes of troposphere pressure associated with short-time variations of galactic cosmic rays (GCRs) taking place in the Northern hemisphere’s cold months (October–March) were analyzed for the period 1980–2006, NCEP/NCAR reanalysis data being used. Noticeable pressure variations during Forbush decreases of GCRs were revealed at extratropical latitudes of both hemispheres. The maxima of pressure increase were observed on the 3rd–4th days after the event onsets over Northern Europe and the European part of Russia in the Northern hemisphere, as well as on the 4th–5th days over the eastern part of the South Atlantic opposite Queen Maud Land and over the d’Urville Sea in the Southern Ocean. According to the weather chart analysis, the observed pressure growth, as a rule, results from the weakening of cyclones and intensification of anticyclone development in these areas. The presented results suggest that cosmic ray variations may influence the evolution of extratropical baric systems and play an important role in solar-terrestrial relationships.     

宇宙噪声的电离层闪烁与电离层不规则结构的结构参数

利用宇宙噪声是均匀的。各向同性的背景电磁辐射的假设,对电子密度涨落空间分布波数谱为负幂律函数的电离层不规则结构,用射线光学方法导出了闪烁功率谱的表示式。与射电星和轨道人造卫星信标的电离层闪烁相比,减少了因相对运动弓队的变量。用数值计算方法研究了电离层不规则结构的结构参量L_y、l_y、p、η对功率谱的影响。与实测资料比较,发现电离层吸收事件期间且Riometer记录的闪烁资料中,60%以上相应的不规则结构有L_y>103,η>η₀(0.2<η₀<0.5).      

强磁场扰动对宇宙线调制的统计研究

对1978─1982太阳活动高年时发生的激波、强磁场扰动及激波与强磁场扰动共存这三类事件引起的宇宙线变化进行了统计研究,得到如下结果:(1)激波与强磁场扰动共存时引起的宇宙线强度下降最为显着;只有激波或强磁场扰动时,宇宙线的强度变化相对较小;(2)标志速度间断的激波是产生宇宙线Forbush下降的重要因素;(3)速度间断在强磁场扰动对宇宙线的调制中可能起一个触发的作用。      

Ni,Ti及NiTi合金低能电子散射的Monte Carlo模拟

采用MonteCarlo方法,模拟了低能电子束(能量E0≤5keV)作用下Ni,Ti及NiTi合金固体中的电子散射,分析了3种金属/合金中散射电子的能量与空间分布。研究表明:(1)入射电子能量E0越小,各材料的背散射电子(BSEs)深度、吸收电子(AEs)深度及散射电子能量损失的深度均越小,分辨率越高;(2)相同E0下,各材料的BSEs,AEs及能量损失深度均有NiNiTi>Ti;(3)NiTi合金的BSEs深度、AEs深度及能量损失的深度和分辨率分别近似于Ni,Ti固体相应量的平均值。     

宇宙线变化特征在强地磁暴预报中的应用

利用宇宙线中子探测数据定性分析了地面宇宙线多台站之间的相互联系以及大磁暴与宇宙线之间的响应关系. 以Irkutsk和Oulu宇宙线台站为例, 运用小波去噪技术提高数据的稳定性. 结果表明, 相同世界时条件下, 两站宇宙线通量相关性在事件发生时较高; 而相同地方时条件下, 相关性则在平静期较高. 进一步采用相同地方时条件对不同宇宙线台站的通量在平静期和扰动期的相对变化进行分析, 选取2004年7月强地磁暴典型事例进行直观分析, 发现大地磁暴前Irkutsk和Oulu台站的宇宙线相对通量发生明显差异, 可以尝试作为强地磁暴宇宙线先兆特征. 通过对2001年3月至2005年5月的强磁暴和中强磁暴进行统计, 得到与强地磁暴相关的适当宇宙线相对差异阈值. 将得到的阈值对2005年9月至2011年12月所有强磁暴及中强磁暴进行验证, 总成功率达到87.5%, 误报率为35.7%, 结果较好.      

Structural and collisional data for Mg III and Al IV

We present in this work energy levels, oscillator strengths, radiative decay rates and fine structure collision strengths for the Mg III and Al IV ions. The 11 configurations: (1s²) 2s²2p⁶, 2s²2p⁵3l, 2s2p⁶3l, 2s²2p⁵4l   (l?n-1$l?n-1$, where n is the principal quantum number), yielding the lowest 75 levels are used. The collisional data for these two ions are missing in the literature, especially the database CHIANTI, this is the principal motivation behind the present work. Calculations have been performed using the AUTOSTRUCTURE code. AUTOSTRUCTURE treats the scattering problem in the distorted wave approach. Fine structure collision strengths are calculated for a range of electron energies from 10 Ry to 240 Ry. The atomic structure data are compared to available experimental and theoretical results.     

Analysis of data of “Clementine” and “KAGUYA” missions and “ULCN” and “KSC-1162” catalogues

In this paper an analysis of data coordinate systems from selenographic catalogues and space missions was carried out. The lunar macrorelief models were made on basis of the software package ASNI USTU using method of the spherical harmonic expansion. These models accurately describe the global features of the lunar figure. To construct these models the following sources of topographic information were used: “Clementine” and “KАGUYА” (Selena, Japan mission) missions, “KSC-1162” (Kazan selenocentric catalogue), “Kiev” (selenodesic catalogue), “SAI” (Chuikova (1975)), “Bills, Ferrari”, “ULCN” (The Unified Lunar Control Network 2005). Direct comparison hypsometric information “KSС-1162” catalogue data with “Clementine” mission was carried out. These researches confirmed a good agreement of the hypsometric information of compared systems. The normalized coefficients were obtained on basis of the hypsometric information expansion for eight sources. The displacement of the lunar center of mass (LCM) relatively to the lunar center of figure (LCF) was obtained by using topographic data selenodetical catalogues and space missions.     

Effects of solar modulation on the cosmic ray positron fraction

We implemented a 2D Monte Carlo model to simulate the solar modulation of galactic cosmic rays. The model is based on the Parker’s transport equation which contains diffusion, convection, particle drift and energy loss. Following the evolution in time of the solar activity, we are able to modulate a local interstellar spectrum (LIS), that we assumed isotropic beyond the termination shock, down to the Earth position inside the heliosphere. In this work we focused our attention to the cosmic ray positron fraction at energy below ∼10 GeV, showing how the particle drift processes could explain different results for AMS-01 and PAMELA. We compare our modulated spectra with observations at Earth, and then make a prediction of the cosmic ray positron fraction for the AMS-02 experiment.