The effect of total solar eclipse of October 3, 2005, on the total electron content over Europe

GPS observations from EUREF permanent GPS network were used to observe the response of TEC (Total Electron Content) to the total solar eclipse on October 3, 2005, under quiet geomagnetic conditions of the daytime ionosphere. The effect of the eclipse was detected in diurnal variations and more distinctly in the variations of TEC along individual satellite passes. The trough-like variations with a gradual decrease and followed by an increase of TEC at the time of the eclipse were observed over a large region. The depression of TEC amounted to 3–4 TECU. The maximum depression was observed over all stations located at the maximum path of the solar eclipse. The delay of a minimum level of TEC with respect to the maximum phase of the eclipse was about 20–30 min.     

Statistical description of low-latitude plasma blobs as observed by DMSP F15 and KOMPSAT-1

The global distribution of low-latitude plasma blobs was investigated by in-situ plasma density measurements from the Korea Multi-Purpose Satellite-1 (KOMPSAT-1) and Defense Meteorological Satellite Program (DMSP) F15. In the observations, blobs occurred in the longitude sector where the activity of the equatorial plasma bubble (EPB) was appreciable, and additional blobs were found at the lower (KOMPSAT-1) altitude as in the EPBs. However, several notable differences exist between the distributions of EPBs and blobs. First, KOMPSAT-1 found few blobs around 0°E in March and June, as did DMSP F15 from 30°W to 120°E for every season. Second, the overall occurrences in December and March at the DMSP F15 (840 km) altitude were somewhat lower than expected from those of the EBPs. Third, at the DMSP F15 altitude, the occurrence probability of plasma blobs was less controlled by yearly variations in the solar activity. These results imply that topside ionospheric conditions as well as the existence of EPBs control further development of blobs. Additionally, it was found that the blob latitudes became higher as the yearly solar activity increased. Moreover, most of the blobs were encountered in the winter hemisphere, possibly due to the low ambient density.     

复杂外形气动力计算的阻力修正方法

基于气动力计算的位流线化理论,发展了一种亚音速附面层阻力修正方法。采用联合流场求解方法获得复杂外形的表面压力分布,在此基础上,将绕复杂外形物体沿流向面元划分为片条,在片条上,把三维附面层转换为二维附面层,对二维附面层进行数值求解,得到附面层粘性阻力修正。算例表明,该方法计算量小,与实验和N-S数值解结果吻合较好。为复杂气动外形飞行器初期设计、方案选型及评估提供了较为理想的工程设计手段。     

Spread-F occurrence during geomagnetic storms near the southern crest of the EIA in Argentina

This work presents, for the first time, the analysis of the occurrence of ionospheric irregularities during geomagnetic storms at Tucumán, Argentina, a low latitude station in the Southern American longitudinal sector (26.9°S, 294.6°E; magnetic latitude 15.5°S) near the southern crest of the equatorial ionization anomaly (EIA). Three geomagnetic storms occurred on May 27, 2017 (a month of low occurrence rates of spread-F), October 12, 2016 (a month of transition from low to high occurrence rates of spread-F) and November 7, 2017 (a month of high occurrence rates of spread-F) are analyzed using Global Positioning System (GPS) receivers and ionosondes. The rate of change of total electron content (TEC) Index (ROTI), GPS Ionospheric L-band scintillation, the virtual height of the F-layer bottom side (h'F) and the critical frequency of the F2 layer (foF2) are considered. Furthermore, each ionogram is manually examined for the presence of spread-F signatures.The results show that, for the three events studied, geomagnetic activity creates favorable conditions for the initiation of ionospheric irregularities, manifested by ionogram spread-F and TEC fluctuation. Post-midnight irregularities may have occurred due to the presence of eastward disturbance dynamo electric fields (DDEF). For the May storm, an eastward over-shielding prompt penetration electric field, (PPEF) is also acting. A possibility is that the PPEF is added to the DDEF and produces the uplifting of the F region that helps trigger the irregularities. Finally, during October and November, strong GPS L band scintillation is observed associated with strong range spread-F (SSF), that is, irregularities extending from the bottom-side to the topside of the F region.     

Comprehensive outage compensation of real-time orbit and clock corrections with broadcast ephemeris for ambiguity-fixed precise point positioning

The main challenge in real-time precise point positioning (PPP) is that the data outages or large time lags in receiving precise orbit and clock corrections greatly degrade the continuity and real-time performance of PPP positioning. To solve this problem, instead of directly predicting orbit and clock corrections in previous researches, this paper presents an alternative approach of generating combined corrections including orbit error, satellite clock and receiver-related error with broadcast ephemeris. Using ambiguities and satellite fractional-cycle biases (FCBs) of previous epoch and the short-term predicted tropospheric delay through linear extrapolation model (LEM), combined corrections at current epoch are retrieved and weighted with multiple reference stations, and further broadcast to user for continuous enhanced positioning during outages of orbit and clock corrections. To validate the proposed method, two reference station network with different inter-station distance from National Geodetic Survey (NGS) network are used for experiments with six different time lags (i.e., 5 s, 10 s, 15 s, 30 s, 45 s and 60 s), and one set of data collected by unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) is also used. The performance of LEM is investigated, and the troposphere prediction accuracy of low elevation (e.g., 10–20degrees) satellites has been improved by 44.1% to 79.0%. The average accuracy of combined corrections before and after LEM is used is improved by 12.5% to 77.3%. Without LEM, an accuracy of 2–3 cm can be maintained only in case of small time lags, while the accuracies with LEM are all better than 2 cm in case of different time lags. The performance of simulated kinematic PPP at user end is assessed in terms of positioning accuracy and epoch fix rate. In case of different time lags, after LEM is used, the average accuracy in horizontal direction is better than 3 cm, and the accuracy in up direction is better than 5 cm. At the same time, the epoch fix rate has also increased to varying degrees. The results of the UAV data show that in real kinematic environment, the proposed method can still maintain a positioning accuracy of several centimeters in case of 20 s time lag.     

Correction method of airfoil thickness effect in hinge moment calculation of a folding wing

The influences of airfoil thickness on the aerodynamic loading distribution and the hinge moments of folding wing aircraft are presented in this work. The traditional panel method shows deficiencies in the calculation of folding wing’s hinge moments. Thus, a thickness correction strategy for the aerodynamic model with CFD results is proposed, and an aeroelastic flight simulation platform is constructed based on the secondary development of ADAMS. Based on the platform, the developed aerodynamic model is verified, then the flight-folding process of the folding wing aircraft is simulated, and the influences of airfoil thickness on the results are investigated. Results show that the developed aerodynamic model can effectively describe the thickness effect of the folding wing. Airfoil thickness, which cannot be considered by the panel method, has a great influence on the hinge moments during the folding process, and the thickness correction has great significance in the calculation of folding wing’s hinge moments.     

考虑星敏感器安装误差的弹道导弹捷联星光/惯性复合制导

弹道导弹捷联星光/惯性制导是在惯性制导基础上辅以星光修正的一种复合制导方法，能够显著提高导弹制导精度。由于星敏感器捷联安装在弹体上，安装误差会影响恒星测量的精度，进而影响复合制导精度，为此提出一种在线辨识并修正星敏感器安装误差的复合制导方法。建立了星敏感器观测量与数学平台失准角、星敏感器安装误差的关系方程，在导弹主动段关机后测量3颗独立的恒星获得6个观测量，利用最小二乘法估计出失准角和星敏感器安装、误差。改进了星光/惯性复合制导的最佳修正系数确定方程，直接修正了星敏感器安装误差的影响。数值仿真结果表明：所提方法可以有效地估计平台失准角和星敏感器安装误差，提高了捷联星光/惯性复合制导的精度。     

装备研制项目的模糊挣值管理方法

由于装备研制项目广泛存在着技术风险,其预算成本难以用确定数描述,而现有挣值管理技术通常用确定数描述项目费用基线,忽视了项目的技术风险因素。为此,将技术风险引入挣值管理(EVM)方法,提出了一种装备研制项目的模糊挣值管理(FEVM)改进方法。该方法充分考虑了装备研制中的技术风险问题,利用技术成熟度(TRL)对项目计划成本进行估算,在此基础上,利用模糊数学理论,给出了一种基于可能度的高风险项目的成本和进度的模糊评价标准,并对项目的完工成本(ECC)和完工时间(ECT)进行了模糊预测。最后,通过案例对文中的方法进行了阐述。该方法针对装备研制项目技术风险大的特点,进一步拓展了挣值管理的适用性,对于决策者控制风险、保证项目的费用和进度具有一定指导意义和参考价值。     

Statistical evaluation of GLONASS amplitude scintillation over low latitudes in the Brazilian territory

The ionospheric scintillation, generated by the ionospheric plasma irregularities, affects the radio signals that pass through it. Their effects are widely studied in the literature with two different approaches. The first one deals with the use of radio signals to study and understand the morphology of this phenomenon, while the second one seeks to understand and model how much this phenomenon interferes in the radio signals and consequently in the services to which these systems work. The interest of several areas, particularly to those that are life critical, has increased using the concept of satellite multi-constellation, which consists of receiving, processing and using data from different navigation and positioning systems. Although there is a vast literature analyzing the effects of ionospheric scintillation on satellite navigation systems, the number of studies using signals received from the Russian satellite positioning system (named GLONASS) is still very rare. This work presents for the first time in the Brazilian low-latitude sector a statistical analysis of ionospheric scintillation data for all levels of magnetic activities obtained by a set of scintillation monitors that receive signals from the GLONASS system. In this study, data collected from four stations were used in the analysis; Fortaleza, Presidente Prudente, São José dos Campos and Porto Alegre. The GLONASS L-band signals were analyzed for the period from December 21, 2012 to June 20, 2016, which includes the peak of the solar cycle 24 that occurred in 2014. The main characteristics of scintillation presented in this study include: (1) the statistical evaluation of seasonal and solar activity, showing the chances that an user on similar geophysical conditions may be susceptible to the effects of ionospheric scintillation; (2) a temporal analysis based on the local time distribution of scintillation at different seasons and intensity levels; and (3) the evaluation of number of simultaneously affected channels and its effects on the dilution of precision (DOP) for GNSS users are also presented in order to alert the timetables in which navigation will be most susceptible to such effects, as well as statistics on simultaneously affected channels. Relevant results about these statistical characteristics of scintillation are presented and analyzed providing relevant information about availability of a navigation system.     

Near real-time PPP-based monitoring of the ionosphere using dual-frequency GPS/BDS/Galileo data

Ionosphere delay is very important to GNSS observations, since it is one of the main error sources which have to be mitigated even eliminated in order to determine reliable and precise positions. The ionosphere is a dispersive medium to radio signal, so the value of the group delay or phase advance of GNSS radio signal depends on the signal frequency. Ground-based GNSS stations have been used for ionosphere monitoring and modeling for a long time. In this paper we will introduce a novel approach suitable for single-receiver operation based on the precise point positioning (PPP) technique. One of the main characteristic is that only carrier-phase observations are used to avoid particular effects of pseudorange observations. The technique consists of introducing ionosphere ambiguity parameters obtained from PPP filter into the geometry-free combination of observations to estimate ionospheric delays. Observational data from stations that are capable of tracking the GPS/BDS/GALILEO from the International GNSS Service (IGS) Multi-GNSS Experiments (MGEX) network are processed. For the purpose of performance validation, ionospheric delays series derived from the novel approach are compared with the global ionospheric map (GIM) from Ionospheric Associate Analysis Centers (IAACs). The results are encouraging and offer potential solutions to the near real-time ionosphere monitoring.