A 2-d ionospheric model for low latitude area – Hong Kong

The ionosphere is an important part of the atmosphere and it is the largest error source of GNSS positioning for single-frequency users. So establishing a precise ionosphere model is one of the critical steps for satellite navigation and also for ionospheric research.     

Key ecological challenges for closed systems facilities

Closed ecological systems are desirable for a number of purposes. In space life support systems, material closure allows precious life-supporting resources to be kept inside and recycled. Closure in small biospheric systems facilitates detailed measurement of global ecological processes and biogeochemical cycles. Closed testbeds facilitate research topics which require isolation from the outside (e.g. genetically modified organisms; radioisotopes) so their ecological interactions and fluxes can be studied separate from interactions with the outside environment. But to achieve and maintain closure entails solving complex ecological challenges. These challenges include being able to handle faster cycling rates and accentuated daily and seasonal fluxes of critical life elements such as carbon dioxide, oxygen, water, macro- and mico-nutrients. The problems of achieving sustainability in closed systems for life support include how to handle atmospheric dynamics including trace gases, producing a complete human diet, recycling nutrients and maintaining soil fertility, the maintenance of healthy air and water and preventing the loss of critical elements from active circulation. In biospheric facilities, the challenge is also to produce analogues to natural biomes and ecosystems, studying processes of self-organization and adaptation in systems that allow specification or determination of state variables and cycles which may be followed through all interactions from atmosphere to soils. Other challenges include the dynamics and genetics of small populations, the psychological challenges for small isolated human groups and backup technologies and strategic options which may be necessary to ensure long-term operation of closed ecological systems.     

Latitudinal variation of F2-region response to geomagnetic disturbance

The effect of geomagnetic storms on the F2 region was studied by calculating the deviation, ΔfoF2, of foF2 during 40 magnetic storms, ranging from moderate (Dst < −50 nT) to very intense (Dst < −200 nT) of the 21st solar cycle. In order to study the variation of storm-time foF2 with latitude, season and storm strength, ionosonde data were obtained from eight stations spanning a latitudinal range of +60–−60°. The stations chosen lay in a narrow longitudinal range of 140–151°, so that local time difference between the stations is practically negligible. The features exhibited by positive and negative phases were essentially different. The storm time ΔfoF2 clearly exhibited a latitudinal variation and this variation were found to be coupled with the seasonal variation. As for the variation with storm intensity, though ΔfoF2 was found to vary even between two storms of almost equal intensity, the amplitude of a positive or negative phase, |ΔfoF2max| showed a distinct upper limit for each intensity category of storms.     

The variability and IRI2007-predictability of hmF2 over South Africa

This paper presents an investigation into the variability and predictability of the maximum height of the ionospheric F2 layer, hmF2 over the South African region. Data from three South African stations, namely Madimbo (22.4°S, 26.5°E, dip angle: −61.47°), Grahamstown (33.3°S, 26.5°E, dip angle: −64.08°) and Louisvale (28.5°S, 21.2°E, dip angle: −65.44°) were used in this study. The results indicate that hmF2 shows a larger variability around midnight than during the daytime for all seasons. Monthly median hmF2 values were used in all cases and were compared with predictions from the IRI-2007 model, using the URSI (Union Radio-Scientifique Internationale) coefficient option. The analysis covers the diurnal and seasonal hourly hmF2 values for the selected months and time sectors e.g. January, July, April and October for 2003 and 2005. The time ranges between (03h00–23h00 UT; LT = UT + 2h) representing the local sunrise, midday, sunset and midnight hours. The time covers sunrise, midday, sunrise, and midnight hours (03–06h00 UT, 07–11h00 UT, sunrise 16–18h00 UT and 22–23h00 UT; LT = UT + 2h). The dependence of the results on solar activity levels was also investigated. The IRI-2007 predictions follow fairly well the diurnal and seasonal variation patterns of the observed hmF2 values at all the stations. However, the IRI-2007 model overestimates and underestimates the hmF2 value during different months for all the solar activity periods.     

First quality assessment of the Cryosat-2 altimetric system over ocean

This paper presents the results of a Calval analysis performed for the Cryosat-2 mission over ocean. The data set used in this analysis consists of products generated by the Cryosat-2 Processor Prototype developed by CNES (Center National d’Etudes Spatiales). This data set has been analysed focusing on LRM (Low Resolution Mode) mode only. One major objective of this paper is to illustrate the potential of Cryosat-2 data over ocean, mainly for waves and Sea Level Anomaly applications. All the results indicate very good performances of the SIRAL (SAR/Interferometric Altimeter) altimeter over ocean. Crossover standard deviation is close to 6.5 cm over the analysed period (3 months) which is close to the Jason-2 and ENVISAT performance. All these results confirm that Cryosat’s altimeter can provide data almost as valuable as other flying altimetric missions, and that it has the potential to contribute to oceanography (e.g. multi-mission climate record, mesoscale monitoring in near real time) and to geodesy (e.g. mean sea surface, bathymetry).     

An introduction to China FY3 radio occultation mission and its measurement simulation

GNSS (Global Navigation Satellite System) radio occultation mission for remote sensing of the Earth’s atmosphere will be performed by GNOS (GNSS Occultation Sounder) instrument on China FengYun-3 (FY3) 02 series satellites, the first of which FY3-C will be launched in the year 2013. This paper describes the FY3 GNOS mission and presents some results of measurement simulation. The key designed specifications of GNOS are also shown. The main objective of simulation is to provide scientific support for GNOS occultation mission on the FY3-C satellites. We used EGOPS software to simulate occultation measurements according to GNOS designed parameters. We analyzed the accuracy of retrieval profiles based on two typical occultation events occurring in China South–East area among total simulated events. Comparisons between the retrieval atmospheric profiles and background profiles show that GNOS occultation has high accuracy in the troposphere and lower stratosphere. The sensitivities of refractivity to three types of instrumental error, i.e. Doppler biases, clock stability and local multipath, were analyzed. The results indicated that the Doppler biases introduced by along-ray velocity error and GNOS clock error were the primary error sources for FY3-C occultation mission.     

巨磁电阻材料La1-xZnxMnO3化合物的制备工艺及其结构研究

对巨磁电阻材料La1-xZnxMnO3(x=0.1,0.3,0.5,0.7,0.9,1.0)样品的制备工艺、晶体结构、微观结构进行研究。结果表明,样品ZnO与MnO2固相反应的烧结温度和时间分别大于1300℃和6h时,反应生成具有四面体结构的ZnMnO3化合物;压制成型的压力对结构具有一定影响;不同浓度的Zn2 (x=0.1,0.3,0.5,0.7,0.9)掺杂样品在1350℃烧结12h后,均具有钙钛矿结构,但掺杂浓度在大于x=0.5时有新的衍射峰,产生新的物相,从而影响巨磁电阻效应性能。     

利用遗传算法和LMI设计固定结构H2/H∞飞行控制律

 在设计飞翼式无人机(UAV)的横航向飞行控制系统时,为了使无人机具有较好的动态特性和阵风抑制能力,同时又便于工程实现,提出了固定结构的H₂/H_∞控制律设计方法。对于由此遇到的双线性矩阵不等式(BMI)问题,先用线性矩阵不等式(LMI)方法得到控制律参数和H₂/H_∞性能指标的映射关系,再用此映射关系作为适应度函数,用改进的遗传算法求解使H₂/H_∞性能最优的控制律参数。仿真结果表明,使用固定结构的H₂/H_∞控制方法的无人机动态响应迅速平滑,在侧风干扰下的滚转角振荡幅值仅是原经典控制方法的一半。     

火箭助推器对雷达观测的影响研究

针对运载火箭二级助推器及分离时产生的大的碎片对雷达观测可能造成的影响,阐述了雷达成像重叠轨道(ROIO)的概念,并就雷达处于火箭载荷轨道平面内的情况分析了ROIO的存在条件、确定方法和观测中火箭载荷轨道及其ROIO上所对应的位置相对于雷达的角度差.仿真结果表明,目标轨道的观测范围及雷达相对于该观测范围的距离决定了ROIO的确定.     

基于CPLD的LBE总线与I^2C总线接口的实现

分析了I^2C串行总线的数据传输机制,描述了LBE总线的时序要求,设计了基于CPLD的I^2C总线主模式与LBE总线的接口电路,其中包括LBE总线接口逻辑和I^2C总线接口逻辑两部分。最后,给出了在Lattice4.1＋ModelSim6.0软件平台中进行逻辑综合与时序仿真的结果。