Study of ionospheric D region changes during solar flares using MF radar measurements

During solar flares, the X-ray radiation suddenly increases, resulting in an increase in the electron density of the atmospheric D region and a strong absorption of short-wave radio waves. Based on Langfang medium frequency (MF) radar, this paper analyzed the variation characteristics of D region in the lower ionosphere from 62 km to 82 km. The analysis focused on multiple C-level and M-level solar flare events before and after the large-scale flare event at 11:53 (UT) on September 6, 2017. The results show that it is difficult to detect the electron density over 70 km in Langfang during solar flares, but the electron density value can be obtained as low as 62 km, and the stronger the flare intensity, the lower the detectable electron density height. Besides, the equal electron density height, the received power of X and O waves will also be significantly reduced during the flares, and the reduction of equal electron density height has a weak linear relationship with flare intensity.     

Evaluation of the IRI-2016 and NeQuick electron content specification by COSMIC GPS radio occultation,ground-based GPS and Jason-2 joint altimeter/GPS observations

We examined performance of two empirical profile-based ionospheric models, namely IRI-2016 and NeQuick-2, in electron content (EC) and total electron content (TEC) representation for different seasons and levels of solar activity. We derived and analyzed EC estimates in several representative altitudinal intervals for the ionosphere and the plasmasphere from the COSMIC GPS radio occultation, ground-based GPS and Jason-2 joint altimeter/GPS observations. It allows us to estimate a quantitative impact of the ionospheric electron density profiles formulation in several altitudinal intervals and to examine the source of the model-data discrepancies of the EC specification from the bottom-side ionosphere towards the GPS orbit altitudes. The most pronounced model-data differences were found at the low latitude region as related to the equatorial ionization anomaly appearance. Both the IRI-2016 and NeQuick-2 models tend to overestimate the daytime ionospheric EC and TEC at low latitudes during all seasons of low solar activity. On the contrary, during high solar activity the model results underestimated the EC/TEC observations at low latitudes. We found that both models underestimated the EC for the topside ionosphere and plasmasphere regions for all levels of solar activity. For low solar activity, the underestimated EC from the topside ionosphere and plasmasphere can compensate the overestimation of the ionospheric EC and, consequently, can slightly decrease the resulted model overestimation of the ground-based TEC. For high solar activity, the underestimated EC from the topside ionosphere and plasmasphere leads to a strengthening of the model underestimation of the ground-based TEC values. We demonstrated that the major source of the model-data discrepancies in the EC/TEC domain comes from the topside ionosphere/plasmasphere system.     

Statistical study of the time delay of ionospheric TEC storms to geomagnetic storms in Taoyuan,Taiwan

We have studied the time delay of ionospheric storms to geomagnetic storms at a low latitude station Taoyuan (25.02°N, 121.21°E), Taiwan using the Dst and TEC data during 126 geomagnetic storms from the year 2002 to 2014. In addition to the known local time dependence of the time delay, the statistics show that the time delay has significant seasonal characteristics, which can be explained within the framework of the seasonal characteristics of the ionospheric TEC. The data also show that there is no correlation between the time delay and the intensity of magnetic storms. As for the solar activity dependence of the time delay, the results show that there is no relationship between the time delay of positive storms and the solar activity, whereas the time delay of negative storms has weakly negative dependence on the solar activity, with correlation coefficient −0.41. Especially, there are two kinds of extreme events: pre-storm response events and long-time delay events. All of the pre-storm response events occurred during 15–20 LT, manifesting the Equator Ionospheric Anomaly (EIA) feature at Taoyuan. Moreover, the common features of the pre-storm response events suggest the storm sudden commencement (SSC) and weak geomagnetic disturbance before the main phase onset (MPO) of magnetic storms are two main possible causes of the pre-storm response events. By analyzing the geomagnetic indices during the events with long-time delay, we infer that this kind of events may not be caused by magnetic storms, and they might belong to ionospheric Q-disturbances.     

Electron density inversed by plasma lines induced by suprathermal electron in the ionospheric modification experiment

Incoherent scatter radar (ISR) is the most powerful ground-based measurement facility to study the ionosphere. The plasma lines are not routinely detected by the incoherent scatter radar due to the low intensity, which falls below the measured spectral noise level of the incoherent scatter radar. The plasma lines are occasionally enhanced by suprathermal electrons through the Landau damping process and detectable to the incoherent scatter radar. In this study, by using the European Incoherent Scatter Association (EISCAT) UHF incoherent scatter radar, the experiment observation presents that the enhanced plasma lines were observed. These plasma lines were considered as manifest of the suprathermal electrons generated by the high-frequency heating wave during the ionospheric modification. The electron density profile is also obtained from the enhanced plasma lines. This study can be a promising technique for obtaining the accurate electron density during ionospheric modification experiment.     

太阳电子事件粒子源区的位置

对ISEE-3的引个太阳电子事件资料,进行了系统地分析。通过Saha平衡模型分别计算了高Fe事件和贫Fe事件源区的平衡温度大小,指出两类事件粒子源区不相重合,高Fe事件的粒子源区位于高色球层,贫Fe事件粒子源区在色球层-日冕之间的过渡区。对高Fe事件和贫Fe事件的形成作了初步的设想。      

电子移相方法的讨论

对精密测试中常用的几种移相方法进行了讨论,主要浅析小角度电路移相方法。     

Assessment of precision in ionospheric electron density profiles retrieved by GPS radio occultations

The Constellation Observing System for Meteorology Ionosphere and Climate (COSMIC) is a six satellite radio occultation mission that was launched in April 2006. The close proximity of these satellites during some months after launch provides a unique opportunity to evaluate the precision of Global Positioning System (GPS) radio occultation (RO) retrievals of ionospheric electron density from nearly collocated and simultaneous observations. RO data from 30 consecutive days during July and August 2006 are divided into ten groups in terms of daytime or nighttime and latitude. In all cases, the best precision values (about 1%) are found at the F peak height and they slightly degrade upwards. For all daytime groups, it is seen that electron density profiles above about 120 km height exhibit a substantial improvement in precision. Nighttime groups are rather diverse: in particular, the precision becomes better than 10% above different levels between 120 and 200 km height. Our overall results show that up to 100–200 km (depending on each group), the uncertainty associated with the precision is in the order of the measured electron density values. Even worse, the retrieved values tend sometimes to be negative. Although we cannot rely directly on electron density values at these altitudes, the shape of the profiles could be indicative of some ionospheric features (e.g. waves and sporadic E layers). Above 200 km, the profiles of precision are qualitatively quite independent from daytime or latitude. From all the nearly collocated pairs studied, only 49 exhibited a difference between line of sight angles of both RO at the F peak height larger than 10°. After analyzing them we find no clear indications of a significant representativeness error in electron density profiles due to the spherical assumption above 120 km height. Differences in precision between setting and rising GPS RO may be attributed to the modification of the processing algorithms applied to rising cases during the initial period of the COSMIC mission.     

用于火星探测的电子分析器定标

用于火星探测的电子分析器采用了带偏转板的同轴圆柱形静电分析器, 该传感器方案在满足性能指标的同时实现了小型化. 利用法国空间辐射研究中心(CESR)的电子源, 对电子分析器两个传感器通道的静电分析器因子、能量分辨率、偏转板偏转因子、 方位角分辨率和极角分辨率进行了定标. 给出了上述参数的定标结果, 并对结果进行了分析. 结果表明,仪器的能量范围、能量分辨率、方位角视场及角度分辨率等参数均优于指标要求. 定标结果为电子分析器在轨数据处理和分析以及在轨运行参数设置提供了依据.      

电子回旋共振离子推力器栅极光学系统的PIC/MCC模拟

为了寻求日益昂贵的电推力器工质氙气的替代品,探讨氩气作为电子回旋共振离子推力器工质的适用性,采用混合PIC方法模拟了氩等离子体在栅极光学系统中输运过程,分析了氩离子束流的聚焦效果、氩等离子体的空间分布和流动特性。结果表明:氩离子束流在已有栅极系统中具有良好的聚焦效果;束流中CEX离子仅占离子总数的万分之一,影响较小;氩气作为工质时,离子喷射速度为75km/s,加速栅极后回流速度为38km/s,与电动力学理论预估值一致。     

硅化物涂层电子束重熔表面改性技术

在Nb521铌合金表面采用料浆烧结法制备硅化物涂层,利用高频扫描电子束对硅化物涂层进行重熔处理,通过扫描电子显微镜对处理样品表面形貌进行组织结构分析。研究表明,经过电子束重熔处理,硅化物涂层表面陶瓷晶粒粒度降低,表面粗糙度降低,陶瓷颗粒之间烧结作用增强,重熔区域与未处理区域具有明显的边界,电子束能量分布较均匀,电子束重熔提高了硅化物涂层的抗氧化性能和抗热震性能。