MESSENGER: Exploring Mercury’s Magnetosphere

The MErcury Surface, Space ENvironment, GEochemistry, and Ranging (MESSENGER) mission to Mercury offers our first opportunity to explore this planet’s miniature magnetosphere since the brief flybys of Mariner 10. Mercury’s magnetosphere is unique in many respects. The magnetosphere of Mercury is among the smallest in the solar system; its magnetic field typically stands off the solar wind only ∼1000 to 2000 km above the surface. For this reason there are no closed drift paths for energetic particles and, hence, no radiation belts. Magnetic reconnection at the dayside magnetopause may erode the subsolar magnetosphere, allowing solar wind ions to impact directly the regolith. Inductive currents in Mercury’s interior may act to modify the solar wind interaction by resisting changes due to solar wind pressure variations. Indeed, observations of these induction effects may be an important source of information on the state of Mercury’s interior. In addition, Mercury’s magnetosphere is the only one with its defining magnetic flux tubes rooted beneath the solid surface as opposed to an atmosphere with a conductive ionospheric layer. This lack of an ionosphere is probably the underlying reason for the brevity of the very intense, but short-lived, ∼1–2 min, substorm-like energetic particle events observed by Mariner 10 during its first traversal of Mercury’s magnetic tail. Because of Mercury’s proximity to the sun, 0.3–0.5 AU, this magnetosphere experiences the most extreme driving forces in the solar system. All of these factors are expected to produce complicated interactions involving the exchange and recycling of neutrals and ions among the solar wind, magnetosphere, and regolith. The electrodynamics of Mercury’s magnetosphere are expected to be equally complex, with strong forcing by the solar wind, magnetic reconnection, and pick-up of planetary ions all playing roles in the generation of field-aligned electric currents. However, these field-aligned currents do not close in an ionosphere, but in some other manner. In addition to the insights into magnetospheric physics offered by study of the solar wind–Mercury system, quantitative specification of the “external” magnetic field generated by magnetospheric currents is necessary for accurate determination of the strength and multi-polar decomposition of Mercury’s intrinsic magnetic field. MESSENGER’s highly capable instrumentation and broad orbital coverage will greatly advance our understanding of both the origin of Mercury’s magnetic field and the acceleration of charged particles in small magnetospheres. In this article, we review what is known about Mercury’s magnetosphere and describe the MESSENGER science team’s strategy for obtaining answers to the outstanding science questions surrounding the interaction of the solar wind with Mercury and its small, but dynamic, magnetosphere.     

Formation flying reconfiguration manoeuvres via environmental forces in highly elliptical orbits

A study on reconfiguration manoevres applied to a tetrahedral formation in highly elliptical orbits is proposed, by using a propellantless solution. The manoeuvring strategy consists in exploiting certain environmental forces, specifically those provided by solar radiation pressure and atmospheric drag, by actively controlling the satellites’ attitudes. Through inverse dynamics particle swarm optimization the optimal attitudes required for the manoeuvres are evaluated, whereas the configuration’s evolution is simulated by a high-fidelity orbital simulator. The goal of the reconfiguration problem is to find an optimal control in order for the four spacecraft to reach a desired configuration in a specified portion of orbit, where the desired configuration is evaluated by a shape and size geometric parameter. By increasing the manoeuvring time and the satellites’ area to mass ratio, all the case studies considered are successfully verified.     

流星体和碎片——航天器的微粒环境综述

介绍了流星体和碎片环境的特征和分布以及它们对航天器的影响和危害,并简单介绍了它们的探测方法和计算模式以及防护措施。     

Are small-scale field-aligned currents and magnetosheath-like particle precipitation signatures of the same low-altitude cusp?

We examined some 75 observations from the low-altitude Earth orbiting DMSP, Ørsted and CHAMP satellites which were taken in the region of the nominal cusp. Our objective was to determine whether the actually observed cusp locations as inferred from magnetosheath-like particle precipitation (“particle cusp”) and intense small-scale magnetic field variations (“current cusp”), respectively, were identical and were consistent with the statistically expected latitude of the cusp derived from a huge number of charged particle spectrograms (“statistical cusp”).     

加速器切线照相技术研究

根据工作实践研究了固体发动机切线照相无损检测中黑度分布、散射线防治、象质计使用、检测概率计算、脱粘临界值确定等技术问题.     

一种基于随机集的模糊观测的多目标跟踪算法

为解决目标数未知或随时间变化时模糊观测的多目标跟踪问题,将多目标状态和模糊 观测数据表示为随机集形式,利用模糊观测的似然函数融合模糊数据,建立了模糊观测的概 率假设密度(probability hypothesis density,PHD)粒子滤波方法。这种方法首先利用 粒子滤波预测和更新随机集的PHD,然后估计目标数N,最后找出N个PHD最大的点就 是多目标的状态估计。在相同的仿真环境中,用这种方法与用重心去模糊器进行去模糊处理 后的观测数据同时跟踪目标数变化情况下的多目标,并进行了比较,结果表明,模糊观测多 目标跟踪的PHD粒子滤波能稳健跟踪目标数未知或随时间变化时的目标状态和目标数,性能 好于去模糊情况。     

一种空间邻近目标红外多传感器立体分辨方法

空间邻近目标在红外像平面的成像因相互交叠而形成簇状像斑,对红外传感器的信号处理提出了分辨的要求。为实现对空间邻近目标的立体跟踪定位,提出基于量子粒子群优化的空间邻近目标红外多传感器立体分辨方法。在对目标像平面成像建模基础上,构建基于最小二乘准则的空间邻近目标立体分辨目标函数,针对目标函数的高维非线性特点,以QP-SO解决目标函数优化问题,估计目标空间位置。仿真结果表明:相比于传统的先单传感器像平面分辨后多传感器视线交叉定位方法,此法具有更优的目标位置估计精度、辐射强度估计精度和目标个数估计正确率。     

基于离散小波变换的北方寒区年降水量多时间尺度特征分析

为深入剖析这种多层次时间尺度结构和局部化特征,本文以北方寒区典型城市哈尔滨市为例,运用小波理论,采用morlet小波函数对年降水量序列进行离散小波变换,进而分析其多时间尺度特性,揭示年降水量在不同时间尺度下的小波变换时频特征、丰枯交替变化的周期规律以及未来的发展趋势,为制定科学合理的用水制度提供一定的参考依据。研究结果表明:不同的时间尺度分辨率下,哈尔滨市年降水量序列会表现出不同的周期交替现象,主要存在3,16和28 a左右的周期。     

环电流区能量离子分布特性研究

为了考察环电流区离子的分布情况,采用环电流粒子理论模式,对环电流中10-100 keV的离子进行了模拟研究.这个模式能够根据近地注入区外边界处离子的分布函数得出磁暴主相期间环电流中的主要成分H+,O+,He+3种离子的通量分布.计算结果分析表明,在其他条件相同的情况下,不同种类离子的通量分布的形态结构十分相似.电场强度对环电流离子通量的空间分布具有决定性的作用;晨昏电场强度越强,离子的通量越高;晨昏电场越强,环电流离子的内边界越接近地球.10keV的离子在电场相当弱的时候还是存在着连续的通量分布,但他们的形态和结构随着电场的变化有明显的变化.电场很弱时,离子分布主要集中于内外两个环带,离子通量在晨侧的更多一些,离子通量的最大值基本上是在比较靠近地球的环带上;随着电场的增强,离子分布的内外两个环带逐步合并,离子的分布逐渐靠近地球,通量分布的最大值也移动到了昏侧.环电流离子投掷角分布具有各向异性,投掷角在90°左右的时候,离子通量能达到最大值.      

数字全息测量超高速撞击碎片云实验研究

在中国空气动力研究与发展中心(CARDC)超高速碰撞中心(HIRC)7.6 mm超高速碰撞设备的基础上,搭建纳秒级脉冲激光数字全息系统。提出滤波片和衰减片组合布置,减弱超高速碰撞等离子体自发光、提高信噪比的方法。实验获得了2.25 mm铝球弹丸以4.0 km/s的速度撞击0.5 mm厚铝板形成碎片云的全息图。采用小波变换算法对碎片云全息图进行重建,得到超高速撞击碎片云的三维结构和碎片大小。碎片云的轮廓呈椭球型,分为碎片云的前端、核心和外壳,碎片主要分布在弹丸破碎形成的碎片云核心,存在大碎片,且分布较集中,对后板的损伤也严重