Atmosphere-ionosphere coupling from convectively generated gravity waves

Ionospheric variability impacts operational performances of a variety of technological systems, such as HF communication, Global Positioning System (GPS) navigation, and radar surveillance. The ionosphere is not only perturbed by geomagnetic inputs but is also influenced by atmospheric tides and other wave disturbances propagating from the troposphere to high altitudes. Atmospheric Gravity Waves (AGWs) excited by meteorological sources are one of the largest sources of mesoscale variability in the ionosphere. In this paper, Total Electron Content (TEC) data from networks of GPS receivers in the United States are analyzed to investigate AGWs in the ionosphere generated by convective thunderstorms. Two case studies of convectively generated gravity waves are presented. On April 4, 2014 two distinct large convective systems in Texas and Arkansas generated two sets of concentric AGWs that were observed in the ionosphere as Traveling Ionospheric Disturbances (TIDs). The period of the observed TIDs was 20.8 min, the horizontal wavelength was 182.4 km, and the horizontal phase speed was 146.4 m/s. The second case study shows TIDs generated from an extended squall line on December 23, 2015 stretching from the Gulf of Mexico to the Great Lakes in North America. Unlike the concentric wave features seen in the first case study, the extended squall line generated TIDs, which exhibited almost plane-parallel phase fronts. The TID period was 20.1 min, its horizontal wavelength was 209.6 km, and the horizontal phase speed was 180.1 m/s. The AGWs generated by both of these meteorological events have large vertical wavelength (>100 km), which are larger than the F2 layer thickness, thus allowing them to be discernible in the TEC dataset.     

非均匀来流下三维激波反问题的微元密切轴对称解法

传统的密切轴对称理论被广泛应用于均匀来流下的三维密切曲面激波反设计，为解决非均匀来流条件下的三维曲面激波反问题，提出了一种微元密切轴对称流场（MOA）求解方法。该方法沿激波面的周向和流向构建一系列微元密切面，在每个微元面内进行三维向二维流动的等效转换，从而突破了传统密切方法中不能有横向波后流动的限制。利用该方法编写设计程序，分别基于带攻角来流条件和外锥型流来流条件重构了标准内锥曲面激波，并与数值仿真结果进行了比较。结果表明，非均匀来流下激波曲面的三维形状均与预设形状完全一致，实现了非均匀来流下曲面激波形状可控。MOA方法在吸气式高超声速推进领域中前体/进气道一体化设计方面有重要应用前景。     

Nonlinear quantum ion acoustic shock wave dynamics with exchange-correlation effects

The dynamics of linear and nonlinear electrostatic shock excitations is studied in homogeneous, unmagnetized, unbounded and dissipative quantum plasma consisting of electrons and ions. The dissipation in the system is taken into account by incorporating the ion kinematic viscosity. The system is modelled using the quantum hydrodynamic equations in which the electrons are significantly affected by the quantum forces, viz., the quantum statistical pressure, the quantum Bohm potential and electron exchange-correlations due to electron spin. In the weakly nonlinear limit, using reductive perturbation method deformed Korteweg-de Vries Burgers’s (KdVB) equation, which elegantly combines the effects of nonlinearity, dispersion and dissipation is derived. It is found that the present model predicts the existence of both nonlinear oscillatory and monotonic shock structures. The temporal evolution, stability and phase-space dynamics of nonlinear ion acoustic shocks are investigated numerically to elucidate the effects of quantum diffraction, electron exchange correlation and ion kinematic viscosity.     

Review of theoretical achievements for starting flow problem for all Mach numbers

The typical behavior of unsteady flow and force evolution in a number of applications, such as aero-elastics, gust-wing interaction, flapping flight and flight maneuvering, can be understood using the starting flow model. Starting flow model is obtained either by setting rapidly an angle of attack for a wing moving at constant speed, or by accelerating a wing to a constant speed while gaining an angle of attack. In the limiting case of impulsively starting flow, the wing is assumed to gain suddenly an angle of attack in an initially uniform flow. Theories have been developed for impulsively starting flow at small angle of attack long before and at large angle of attack only recently, especially for incompressible and supersonic flow. This paper intends to provide a state-of-art overview of the typical flow phenomena, force evolution characteristics and developed theories for impulsively starting flow at any angle of attack and for both lower speed flow (vortex dominated) and high speed flow (compressible wave dominated). This review also provides some new topics that deserve further studies.     

Ionospheric and geomagnetic Pc5 oscillations as observed by the ionosonde and magnetometer at Sodankylä

The study is based on the data of the rapid-run ionosonde at the Sodankylä Geophysical Observatory at auroral latitude (L?=?5.25) which routinely performs one-minute sounding since 2007. This dataset allows a unique opportunity for investigating possible effects of ultra-low frequency (ULF, 1–7?mHz) waves in the auroral ionosphere. Suitable observations were made during moderately disturbed geomagnetic conditions typically at recovery of the geomagnetic storms caused by solar wind high-speed streams, in the daytime between 9 and 16 MLT. The ionospheric oscillations corresponding to Pc5 geomagnetic pulsations were found in variations of the virtual height of the F layer and the power of ionosonde reflections from E and F layers. The later are most probably caused by modulation of electron precipitation, which is also manifested in weak (about 0.01–0.06?dB) variations of cosmic noise absorption. The most important and novel result is that the pulsations of power of reflection from E and F layers typically has a spectral maximum at nearly half the periodicity of the Pc5 geomagnetic pulsations, whereas such spectral peak is negligible in the geomagnetic pulsations.     

A review on the upper atmospheric sodium observations from India: Insights

This review article briefly brings out the historical development of atmospheric sodium (Na) measurements over India and the importance of coordinated measurements with multiple techniques to address physical processes in the Earth's upper atmosphere. These measurements were initiated in the early 1970s by observing Na airglow emission intensities with broad band airglow photometer from Mt. Abu, a low-latitude hill station in India. Considerable amount of night-to-night variations in nocturnal emission intensities of the Na airglow were observed. Later, investigations regarding the dependence with the magnetic activities from the equatorial and low latitudes were carried out and double-humped structures in the nocturnal variation of intensities were reported. With the advent of Na lidar at Gadanki around 2005, the measurements of atmospheric neutral Na atom concentration became possible and more frequent occurrences of sporadic Na layers over the magnetic low latitude station compared to other latitudes were detected indicating the role played by electrodynamics. Later, a possible relationship between E-region field aligned plasma irregularities and the concentration of neutral Na atoms was investigated using coordinated measurements of VHF radar and Na lidar. Further, simultaneous measurements with Na lidar and a narrow band airglow photometer with narrow field of view brought out the importance of coordinated observation wherein the characterization of gravity waves could be carried out and also revealed the importance of collisional quenching due to ambient molecules in the Na airglow emission processes. In addition, combining the ground based measurements of Na lidar and meteor wind radar along with satellite measurements made possible to hypothesize the over-turning Kelvin–Helmholtz billow in the Na layer manifests “C-type” or inverted lambda shape structures in the height-time-concentration map of neutral Na atoms. This review paper presents a synoptic view mostly based on the previously reported observations of Na airglow emission, Na lidar and coordinated Na airglow and Na lidar observations from the Indian sector and highlights the importance of simultaneous measurements of mesospheric Na and its emissions along with satellite-borne measurements to address interesting geophysical processes in the Earth's upper atmosphere.     

Flow characteristics around airfoils near transonic buffet onset conditions

In transonic flow, buffet is a phenomenon of flow instability caused by shock wave/boundary layer interaction and flow separation. The phenomenon is common in transonic flow, and it has serious impact on the structural strength and fatigue life of aircraft. In this paper, three typical airfoils: the supercritical OAT15A, the high-speed symmetrical NACA64A010, and the thin, transonic/supersonic NACA64A204 are selected as the research objects. The flow fields of these airfoils under pre-buffet and buffet onset conditions are simulated by Unsteady Reynolds Averaged Navier-Stokes (URANS) method, and the mode analysis of numerical results is carried out by Dynamic Mode Decomposition (DMD). Qualitative and quantitative analysis of the shock wave motion, shock wave intensity, shock foot bubble and trailing edge separation, and pressure coefficient fluctuation were performed to attain deep insight of transonic buffet flow features of different airfoils near buffet onset conditions. The results of DMD analysis show that the energy proportion of the steady mode of these airfoils decreases dramatically when approaching the buffet onset angle of attack, while the growth rate of the primary mode increases inversely. It was found that at the onset of buffet, there exist different degrees of merging behavior between shock foot bubble and trailing edge separation during one buffet cycle, and the instability of shock wave and separation induced shear layer are closely related to the merging behavior.     

Some features of the day-to-day MLT wind variability in winter 2017–2018 as seen with a European/Siberian meteor radar network

We present results of wind measurements near the mesopause carried out with meteor radars (MRs) at Collm (51°N, 13°E), Obninsk (55°N, 37°E), Kazan (56°N, 49°E), Angarsk (52°N, 104°E) and Anadyr (65°N, 178°E) from October 1, 2017 till March 31, 2018. The Collm and Kazan MRs are SKiYMET radars with vertical transmission and radio echo height finding, while the other radars operate with horizontal transmission and without height finding. We paid particular attention to the meridional wind variability with periods of 4–6 days and 9–11 days. The waves with these periods are seen as spots of the wave activity in the wavelet spectra and include oscillations with different periods and different discrete zonal wavenumbers. These wave packets successively propagate as a group of waves from one site to another one in such a way that they are observed at one site and almost disappear at the previous one. The 4–6 wave group includes planetary-scale oscillations (individual spectral components) which have eastward phase velocities and mostly zonal wavenumbers 2 and 3, and the vertical wavelength exceeds 70 km at middle latitudes. The source of the oscillations is the polar jet instability. The wave group itself propagates westward, and the amplitudes of wind oscillations are approximately 5–6 m/s as obtained from the wind data averaged over the meteor zone. The 9–11 day wave set propagates westward as a group and mainly consists of spectral components which have westward phase velocity and zonal wavenumber 1. Amplitudes of these wind perturbations strongly vary from station to station and can reach, approximately, 8 m/s. The vertical wavenumber is 0.014 km⁻¹ as taken from the Kazan and 0.05 km⁻¹ according to the Collm data. We obtained a global view on the waves by using the AURA MLS geopotential data. We found a good correspondence between wave features obtained from the MR wind measurements and the MLS data. To our knowledge, such a wave propagation of planetary wave in the mesosphere/lower thermosphere (MLT) region has so far not obtained much attention.