Far-field sonic boom prediction considering atmospheric turbulence effects: An improved approach

Accurate prediction of sonic boom is one of key challenges for the design of a low-boom supersonic aircraft. For most of available far-field prediction methods, the effect of atmospheric turbulence appearing in the planetary boundary layer cannot be considered, which results in remarkable inaccuracy of predicting ground-level sonic boom waveform. Although some efforts have been made to overcome the shortcoming, the turbulence effects are not yet well described so far. This article proposes an improved method by extending the two-dimensional Heterogeneous One-Way Approximation for the Resolution of Diffraction (HOWARD) equation to account for the axial and transverse convections of wind fluctuation as well as the effect of temperature fluctuation. The proposed method is validated by comparing the predictions with the flight-test data of JAXA D-SEND#1 LBM, which shows that the result of the proposed method is in better agreement with the flight-test data than that of the method without considering atmospheric turbulence effects. Then, distortion mechanism of sonic boom waveforms caused by atmospheric turbulence is analyzed by using the proposed method. It is indicated that the effect of turbulent convection makes uniform sonic-boom wavefronts irregular, which creates the condition of diffraction effect to perturb waveforms. Finally, the proposed method is applied to investigate the behavior of two types of waveforms given by the sonic boom minimization theory. Results show that a far-field waveform with a weaker initial shock is more beneficial for low-boom design of a supersonic aircraft.     

A comparative analysis of the role of interplanetary magnetic field (IMF) and sudden impulse (SI) in triggering a substorm

During a typical Akasofu-type of substorm, the southward component of IMF Bz is necessary prior to the onset. However, a sudden compression of solar wind, if intense enough, can also sometimes trigger a substorm, and is independent of the IMF orientation. The Akasofu-type substorm and the Impulse-induced substorm may differ in their occurrence mechanism and ground-based observations. This is shown using the initial four substorm events discussed in this paper having distinctly different IMF and sudden impulse conditions. A question then arises is how will these signatures vary when both sudden impulse and a southward component of IMF Bz are present prior to the onset. To account for the same, we analyze two substorm events of 05th April 2010 and 22nd June 2015. The substorm onsets on these days not just coincided with the sudden impulse but also a southward component of IMF Bz was present prior to the onsets. The present study accounts for the similarities and differences among isolated IMF induced substorms, isolated impulse-induced substorms and when both sudden impulse and a southward component of IMF Bz are present. We examined the relative dominance between the two factors in triggering a substorm using ground-based and satellite-based observations. If IMF Bz is near zero, a strong pressure pulse and/or large IMF By can lead to particle precipitation away from the usual midnight. To further ensure whether a pressure pulse or IMF By predominantly influences the substorm onset location, a statistical analysis of isolated substorms will be needed.