Confinement characteristic of primary electrons with the variation of channel width in the discharge chamber of annular ion thruster

In this paper, the confinement characteristic of primary electrons in the non-axisymmetric discharge chamber of annular ion thruster is investigated by a three-dimensional (3D) non-self-consistent particle tracking model with Monte Carlo Collision (MCC) method. The results show that: The density of primary electrons upstream of ion optics on cathode axis is about 5–50 times higher than that of the other side, which means that the density of primary electrons is obviously non-axisymmetric. The channel width has a significant effect on the average density and uniformity of primary electrons. The average density can be increased by nearly 1.5 times under the appropriate channel width, meanwhile, the variance of density distribution can be reduced by more than 2 times. This is because that increasing the channel width can improve the average confinement length of primary electrons greatly. Furthermore, there is an infection point in the increase of primary electron average confinement length with the channel width, which caused by the significant change of magnetic field structure. Under the case after the inflection point, primary electron mainly (more than 50%) moves to the channel center, which makes the average confinement length of primary electrons and their number in the discharge chamber increase largely.     

影响卫星故障的空间天气分析

基于美国国家地球物理数据中心(NGDC) 2384例和中国19颗卫星的263例卫星故障信息, 结合1963-2012年小时平均的多种空间环境数据, 定量分析了三种卫星故障发生期间的空间要素特征, 探讨单粒子锁定(SEU)、表面充电致静电放电(ESD)和内部深层充电所致电子引起的电磁脉冲(ECEMP)与空间天气事件的可能联系, 得出以下主要结论. (1)大部分SEU和ECEMP发生于空间天气平静时, 但在其前后3日内地磁活动达到了磁暴水平, 相对来说比例最大的发生在Dst_min之后第3日 (48～72h). (2) ESD受地磁活动和高能电子通量影响明显. 与磁暴、相对论电子通量增强事件的季节性相对应, 两分点附近ESD和ECEMP的发生率高; 93.6% 的 ESD发生前后72h内地磁活动达到磁暴水平, 故障发生时间均匀分布在 Dst_min前0～48h 和后0～24h; 54.9%的ESD 发生时处于地磁暴期(Dst <-30nT), 以-50～-30nT的小磁暴水平居多; 40.6%的ESD发生于高能电子通量高水平期(≥ 103pfu, 1pfu =1cm-2·s-1·sr-1), 81.9%的ESD发生前后72h 内高能电子通量峰值≥ 103pfu, 发生率最高时段为电子通量峰值前 48～72h. (3)高能电子对中国同步轨道卫星的SEU影响明显, 42.5% 故障发生 时高能电子通量≥ 103pfu, 故障在峰值前48～72h和峰值后48～72h 的发生概率相当, 约为23.0%. (4)同步轨道卫星SEU受太阳质子事件的影响相对较大, 22.5%的中国同步轨道卫星故障发生前后72h内发生了太阳质子事件, 季节性不明显.      

Qualitative estimation of magnetic storm efficiency in producing relativistic electron flux in the Earth’s outer radiation belt using geomagnetic pulsations data

It is well known that during many but not all of the geomagnetic storms enhanced fluxes of high-energy electrons are observed in the outer radiation belt. Here we examine relativistic (>2 MeV) electron fluxes measured by GOES at the synchronous orbit and on-ground observations of two types of ULF pulsations during 30 magnetic storms occurred during 1996–2000. To characterize the effectiveness of the chosen magnetic storms in producing relativistic electron fluxes, following to (Reeves, G.D., McAdams, K.L., Friedel, R.H.W., O’Brien, T.R. Acceleration and loss of relativistic electrons during geomagnetic storms. Geophys. Res. Lett. 30, doi:10.1029/2002GL016513, 2003), we calculate a ratio of the maximum daily-averaged electron flux measured during the recovery phase, to the mean pre-storm electron flux. A storm is considered an effective one if its ratio exceeds 2. We compare behavior of Pi1 and Pc5 geomagnetic pulsations during effective and non-effective storms and find a tendency for a storm efficiency to be higher when the mid-latitude Pi1 pulsations are observed for a long time during the magnetic storm main phase. We note also that the prolonged powerful Pc5 pulsation activity during the recovery phase of a magnetic storm is the necessary condition for the storm effectiveness. To interpret the found dependences, we suggest that there are two prerequisites for generating relativistic electron populations during a storm: (1) the availability of seed electrons in the magnetosphere, and Pi1 emissions are indicators of the mid-energy electron interaction with the ionosphere and (2) acceleration of the seed electrons to MeV energies, and interaction of electrons with the MHD wave activity in the Pc5 range is one of the most probable mechanisms proposed in the literature for this purpose.     

High-energy cosmic-ray electrons in the Galaxy

The intensity of cosmic-ray electrons is only ∼1% of the protons at 10 GeV, and decreases very rapidly with energy to be ∼0.1% of protons at 1 TeV. Nevertheless, electrons in cosmic-rays have unique features, complementary to all other cosmic-ray nucleonic components, because they enable us to find the origins of cosmic-rays and the properties of their propagation mechanisms in the Galaxy. High-energy electrons lose energy by synchrotron and inverse Compton processes during the propagation in the Galaxy. Since the energy loss rate by these processes is proportional to the square of energy, TeV electrons accelerated in the sources at distances larger than ∼1 kpc, or ages greater than a few 10⁵ yr, cannot reach the solar system. This suggests that some nearby sources leave unique signatures in the form of identifiable structures in the energy spectrum of TeV electrons, and show increases of the flux towards the sources. In this paper, I review the past observations of high-energy cosmic-ray electrons and discuss their astrophysical significance.     

Contributions from nearby pulsars to the local cosmic ray electron spectrum

PSR J0437-4715 is one of the closest millisecond pulsars (MSPs) to Earth, lying at a distance of ∼140 pc. This pulsar has a characteristic age of 4.9 Gyr and a relatively low spindown power of ∼10³⁴ ergs/s. During its rather long lifetime, a large fraction of the energy output has been in the form of multi-TeV electrons. In this paper, we investigate the possible contribution of this nearby MSP to the local interstellar electron spectrum (LIS). The old age of the system justifies a steady-state evaluation of the contribution from this pulsar to the LIS. We calculate the electron spectrum at the light cylinder in the framework of a General Relativistic polar cap (PC) model, and use this as an injection spectrum in a diffusion model. The younger Geminga pulsar is also very close to Earth and warrants investigation. A steady-state approach is however no longer justified, so we use an impulsive injection model. We will present results of a study of the contribution from these pulsars to the cosmic ray (CR) LIS. Our calculations show that pulsars like Geminga can make a non-negligible contribution to the LIS.     

转移轨道航天器深层充放电效应仿真分析

为研究转移轨道卫星介质深层动态充电规律特征,针对卫星动态辐射环境的特点,基于FLUMIC思想,建立辐射带动态电子环境模式。针对动态辐射环境下星上介质深层充电的特征,使用辐射诱导电导率(RIC)模型和Geant4建立了适用于转移轨道卫星动态环境下的介质深层充电应用模型。首次对地球同步转移轨道(GTO)和嫦娥一号卫星调相轨道运行过程中介质深层充电情况进行了仿真分析。结果表明:转移轨道卫星在运行时会多次穿越辐射带区域,电子通量存在明显波动,这种波动性反映在材料的充电电位变化中。材料峰值充电电位分别为-2 846V和-4 110V,介质内部平衡电场均超过106 V/m,存在内放电风险,需要在工程设计中进行针对性防护。     

Cosmic-ray electron spectrum above 100 GeV from PPB-BETS experiment in Antarctica

Cosmic-ray electrons have been observed in the energy region from 10 GeV to 1 TeV with the PPB-BETS by a long duration balloon flight using a Polar Patrol Balloon (PPB) in Antarctica. The observation was carried out for 13 days at an average altitude of 35 km in January 2004. The PPB-BETS detector is an imaging calorimeter composed of scintillating-fiber belts and plastic scintillators inserted between lead plates. In the study of cosmic-ray electrons, there have been some suggestions that high-energy electrons above 100 GeV are a powerful probe to identify nearby cosmic-ray sources and search for particle dark matter. In this paper, we present the energy spectrum of cosmic-ray electrons in the energy range from 100 GeV to 1 TeV at the top of atmosphere, and compare our spectrum with the results from other experiments.     

Search for primordial antiparticles with BESS

The Balloon-borne Experiment with a Superconducting Spectrometer (BESS) has been carried out to search for primordial antiparticles in cosmic rays. In ten flights from 1993 to 2004, it measured the cosmic-ray antiproton spectrum in the energy range 0.1–4.2 GeV at various solar activity conditions. It also searched for antideuterons and antihelium nuclei, and it made precise measurement of cosmic-ray particle spectra. The BESS program has been extended to long duration balloon (LDB) flights in Antarctica (BESS-Polar) with the goal of achieving unprecedented sensitivity in the search for primordial antiparticles. This report describes recent results from BESS and progress of the BESS-Polar program.     

Nonthermal effects on the cylindrical dusty ion shocks in nonthermal viscous space plasma

The propagating cylindrical shock dust ion wave (CDISW) in dusty four component plasma with three viscous component (ion and two polarity charged grains) has been introduced. The three dimensional (3D) Cylindrical Burgers (CB) equation is derived. The propagating cylindrical shock characteristics are established to becomes a very significantly improved by the supports of electron nonthermality, ion and negative (positive) kinematics viscosity coefficients. Furthermore, the shock strength depends on cylindrical directions. The obtained results may be profitable in understanding both the laboratory and space applications of plasmas.     

基于小孔成像技术的中能电子成像谱仪及其空间观测结果

中能电子测量对空间辐射环境的理论研究和空间航天器的防护设计具有重要意义。北京大学研制的中能电子成像谱仪(BD-IES)利用小孔成像技术实现多方向中能电子的能谱测量。地面标定试验结果表明,BD-IES具有良好的能量线性度和较小的系统噪声,能够有效实现对中能电子的能谱测量。该仪器已成功应用在我国导航卫星上。最新测量结果表明BD-IES对中能电子的测量是成功的,其结果对于研究如亚暴注入、波-粒子相互作用等空间物理热点问题具有重要意义。BD-IES未来将被应用到"风云"等空间环境探测平台上。