Comparison of GPS derived TEC with the TEC predicted by IRI 2012 model in the southern Equatorial Ionization Anomaly crest within the Eastern Africa region

We have compared the TEC obtained from the IRI-2012 model with the GPS derived TEC data recorded within southern crest of the EIA in the Eastern Africa region using the monthly means of the 5 international quiet days for equinoxes and solstices months for the period of 2012 – 2013. GPS-derived TEC data have been obtained from the Africa array and IGS network of ground based dual-frequency GPS receivers from four stations (Kigali (1.95°S, 30.09°E; Geom. Lat. 11.63°S), Malindi (2.99°S, 40.19°E; Geom. Lat. 12.42°S), Mbarara (0.60°S, 30.74°E; Geom. Lat. 10.22°S) and Nairobi (1.22°S, 36.89°E; Geom. Lat. 10.69°S)) located within the EIA crest in this region. All the three options for topside Ne of IRI-2012 model and ABT-2009 for bottomside thickness have been used to compute the IRI TEC. Also URSI coefficients were considered in this study. These results are compared with the TEC estimated from GPS measurements. Correlation Coefficients between the two sets of data, the Root-Mean Square Errors (RMSE) of the IRI-TEC from the GPS-TEC, and the percentage RMSE of the IRI-TEC from the GPS-TEC have been computed. Our general results show that IRI-2012 model with all three options overestimates the GPS-TEC for all seasons and at all stations, and IRI-2001 overestimates GPS-TEC more compared with other options. IRI-Neq and IRI-01-corr are closely matching in most of the time. The observation also shows that, GPS TEC are underestimated by TEC from IRI model during noon hours, especially during equinoctial months. Further, GPS-TEC values and IRI-TEC values using all the three topside Ne options show very good correlation (above 0.8). On the other hand, the TEC using IRI-Neq and IRI-01- corr had smaller deviations from the GPS-TEC compared to the IRI-2001.     

Non-stationarity and cross-correlation effects in the MHD solar activity

The analysis of turbulent processes in sunspots and pores which are self-organizing long-lived magnetic structures is a complicated and not yet solved problem. The present work focuses on studying such magneto-hydrodynamic (MHD) formations on the basis of flicker-noise spectroscopy using a new method of multi-parametric analysis. The non-stationarity and cross-correlation effects taking place in solar activity dynamics are considered. The calculated maximum values of non-stationarity factor may become precursors of significant restructuring in solar magnetic activity. The introduced cross-correlation functions enable us to judge synchronization effects between the signals of various solar activity indicators registered simultaneously.     

Analysis of the data processing strategies of spherical harmonic expansion model on global ionosphere mapping for moderate solar activity

Spherical harmonic (SH) expansion is widely used to model the global ionosphere map (GIM) of vertical total electron content (VTEC). According to the impact of different data processing methods of the SH expansion model on the VTEC maps, we specifically performed comprehensive analysis in terms of the data sampling rate, the time resolution, the spherical harmonic degree, and the relative constraint. One month of GPS data (January in 2016) from the International GNSS (Global Navigation Satellite System) Service (IGS) network in a moderate ionospheric activity period at the descending phase of Solar Cycle 24 was processed. To improve the computational efficiency of the daily GIM generation, the data sampling rate of 5?min was recommended allowing the GIM precision loss within 0.10 TECU (total electron content unit). The global VTEC map could be better represented in temporal and spatial domains with higher time resolution and higher spherical harmonic degree, especially at low latitude bands and in the southern hemisphere. The GIM precision improvement was about 10.91% for 1-h and about 15.15% for 0.5-h compared with the commonly used 2-h time resolution. The use of spherical harmonic degree 17 or 20 instead of 15 could improve the precision by 3.19% or 6.06%. We also found that an optimal relative constraint had to be found experimentally considering both the GIM precision and the GIM root mean square (RMS) map.     

Bayesian coronal seismology

In contrast to the situation in a laboratory, the study of the solar atmosphere has to be pursued without direct access to the physical conditions of interest. Information is therefore incomplete and uncertain and inference methods need to be employed to diagnose the physical conditions and processes. One of such methods, solar atmospheric seismology, makes use of observed and theoretically predicted properties of waves to infer plasma and magnetic field properties. A recent development in solar atmospheric seismology consists in the use of inversion and model comparison methods based on Bayesian analysis. In this paper, the philosophy and methodology of Bayesian analysis are first explained. Then, we provide an account of what has been achieved so far from the application of these techniques to solar atmospheric seismology and a prospect of possible future extensions.     

RATAN-600 and RadioAstron reveal the neutrino-associated blazar TXS 0506+056 as a typical variable AGN

The possible association with the high-energy neutrino event IceCube-170922A has sparked interest in the blazar TXS 0506+056. We present 72 instantaneous 1–22 GHz spectra measured over the past 20 years with the RATAN-600 telescope and compare them with the results of observations of 700 variable Active Galactic Nuclei (AGN) studied within the same program. The recent radio flare of TXS 0506+056 started from a minimum in 2013 and reached its first peak in December 2017 and a second peak in May-June 2018. This was the third strong radio flare in this source since 1997. The spectrum remains nearly flat during the flares. The spectral shape and variability pattern observed in TXS 0506+056 are typical for variable AGN. RadioAstron Space VLBI observations in 2013–2015 did not detect TXS 0506+056 on space-ground baselines of more than 9 Earth diameters. However, an observation on 23 September 2015 resulted in the detection of interferometric signal on 6 Earth diameter baselines at 18 cm close to the detection limit. We consider the possibility that TXS 0506+056 and other AGN may accelerate relativistic protons more efficiently than electrons. Relativistic protons are necessary to produce both the high-energy neutrinos observed in the IceCube Observatory and the high AGN brightness temperatures implied by the RadioAstron detection. They may also provide the main contribution to the observed synchrotron radiation of parsec-scale AGN jets. This supports the suggestion that relativistic protons may play a much more important part in extragalactic astrophysics than earlier anticipated.     

Numerical investigation of flow mechanisms of tandem impeller inside a centrifugal compressor

This study numerically investigated a single stage centrifugal compressor ‘‘Radiver’’ with a wedge diffuser and several tandem-designed impellers to explore the flow phenomena within the tandem impeller and the potential to enhance compressor performance. The results demonstrate that tandem design and clocking fraction (λ_s) significantly affects the compressor performance. The compressor stage with tandem impellers of Series A of boundary layer growth interruption alone are observed to have a widely operating range but efficiency and total pressure ratio penalty compared with that of conventional impeller. The tandem impeller with at least the same impeller efficiency as the conventional design is considered as a critical design criteria so that further modification process based on the flow characteristic of tandem impeller is necessary. In order to restrain the inducer wake and exducer shock losses, parameters modification of blade angle and thickness distributions are necessary and the modified tandem impeller of Series B is obtained. The modified tandem impeller with 25% clocking arrangement shows an 8.45% stall margin increase and maintains the total pressure ratio and efficiency as the conventional design, which proves the potential of tandem impeller to improve compressor stage performance. It is noteworthy that the tandem impellers of Radiver have not shown obviously balanced exit flow field and the fundamental mechanism of stall margin extending of tandem impeller lies on the improved impeller/diffuser matching performance resulting from the incidence angle variation at diffuser inlet.     

S-08钢真空熔模精密铸造工艺研究

通过工艺试验和系统分析,研究出一套用真空感应铸造炉生产S-08钢铸件的工艺方法,解决S—08钢真空熔模精密铸造过程中的关键工艺技术问题,使S-08钢铸造的液氧／煤油发动机低压壳体、氧主阀下壳体等关键铸件满足高压、高冲击的负荷指标。     

电机生产企业绿色工厂评价内容、指标及方法的研究

为积极响应《中国制造2025》以及《工业和信息化部办公厅关于开展绿色制造体系建设的通知》,针对我国目前在电机生产行业相关绿色工厂评价要求缺失的现状,结合我国电机生产企业的物料使用特点、生产工艺特点、生产装备特点、产品特点、能源利用特点、主要污染物排放特点等6个方面,对电机生产企业绿色工厂评价内容、指标及方法进行研究。该研究为我国电机生产行业全面推行绿色制造,加快电机生产行业绿色改造升级,构建电机生产行业绿色制造体系,提高我国电机生产行业的国际竞争力作出积极贡献。     

基于模板匹配整帧屏幕视频帧内无损编码方法

当前主流的视频压缩标准,如H.264、HEVC等,主要是针对摄像机拍摄的视频而设计的.而屏幕内容(SC)的视频是由计算机生成的,无噪声,要求更高的压缩效率,同时与摄像机拍摄的视频相比包含更多的结构相似性.提出了一种利用屏幕视频中相似性的模板匹配帧内编码方法,采用由21个像素点组成的模板,以像素点为最小单位对整帧进行模板匹配,并使用哈希函数实现高效的模板查找,最后对残差图像进行熵编码.实验结果显示,与标准的HEVC扩展方法相比,该方法在无损编码上压缩率可以提高一倍,编码时间减小了近一半.      

Probing the origin of the iron Kα line around stellar and supermassive black holes using X-ray polarimetry

Asymmetric, broad iron lines are a common feature in the X-ray spectra of both X-ray binaries (XRBs) and type-1 Active Galactic Nuclei (AGN). It was suggested that the distortion of the Fe Kα emission results from Doppler and relativistic effects affecting the radiative transfer close to the strong gravitational well of the central compact object: a stellar mass black hole (BH) or neutron star (NS) in the case of XRBs, or a super massive black hole (SMBH) in the case of AGN. However, alternative approaches based on reprocessing and transmission of radiation through surrounding media also attempt to explain the line broadening. So far, spectroscopic and timing analyzes have not yet convinced the whole community to discriminate between the two scenarios. Here we study to which extent X-ray polarimetric measurements of black hole X-ray binaries (BHXRBs) and type-1 AGN could help to identify the possible origin of the line distortion. To do so, we report on recent simulations obtained for the two BH flavors and show that the proposed scenarios are found to behave differently in polarization degree and polarization angle. A relativistic origin for the distortion is found to be more probable in the context of BHXRBs, supporting the idea that the same mechanism should lead the way also for AGN. We show that the discriminating polarization signal could have been detectable by several X-ray polarimetry missions proposed in the past.