Ray Structure of the Coronal Streamer Belt and Its Manifestation as Sharp Large Peaks of Solar Wind Plasma Density at the Earth''''s Orbit

The white-light corona calibrated data with processing level L1 from the LASCO-C2/SOHO instrument, and data from the Wind spacecraft with one-hour and one-minute time resolution on quasi-stationary slow (v between 300-450 km/s at the Earth's orbit) the Solar Wind (SW) parameters in the absence of sporadic SW streams are examined. Within distances from the Sun's center less than R in the range of 20-30 Rs, (Rs, the solar radius), slow wind is known as the streamer belt, and at larger distances it is called the He-liospheric Plasma Sheet (HPS). It is shown that the streamer belt comprises a sequence of pairs of rays. In general, ray brightnesses in each pair can differ, and the magnetic field is oppositely directed in them. The neutral line of the radial magnetic field of the Sun runs along the belt between the rays of each of the pairs. The area in which the streamer belt intersects the ecliptic plane and which lies at the central meridian, will be recorded at the earth's orbit with a time delay of 5-6 days, in the form of one or several peaks with Nmax> 10cm-3. Furthermore, the simplest density profile of the portion of the HCS has the form of two peaks of a different or identical amplitude . The such a profile is observed in cases where the angle of intersection of the streamer belt with the ecliptic plane near the Sun is sufficiently large, i.e. close to 90°. The two-ray structure of the cross-section of the streamer-belt moves from the Sun to the Earth, it retains not only the angular size of the peaks but also the relative density variations, and the position of the neutral line (sector boundary) in between. At the Earth's orbit the ray structure of the streamer belt provides the source for sharp (i.e. with steep fronts of a duration of a few minutes or shorter) solar wind plasma density peaks (of a duration of several hours) with maximum values Nmax> 10cm-3.     

Solar particle precipitation into the polar atmosphere and their dependence on hemisphere and local time

The precipitation of solar energetic particles, protons as well as electrons, at high latitudes is commonly assumed to be homogeneous across both polar caps. Using Low-Earth Orbit POES (Polar Orbiting Environmental Satellites) we determine particle penetration ratios into the polar atmosphere for protons ranging from about 0.1 MeV to 500 MeV and for electrons spanning about one order of magnitude in energy with a maximum of 0.3 MeV. Based on power law fits for the POES spectrum we show, that for energies interesting for middle and lower atmosphere chemistry, particle flux over the poles is comparable in magnitude to flux at the geostationary orbit or at L1 in interplanetary space. The time period under study are the solar energetic particle (SEP) event series of October/November 2003 and January 2005.     

Study of the solar Slow Sonic,Alfvén and Fast Magnetosonic transition surfaces

In this paper we study the shape, extend and time variations of the solar wind transition surfaces using the Lima and Priest (1993) hydrodynamic model adequately adapted for the case of the solar wind flow. The transition surfaces, namely the Slow (Sonic), the Alfvén, and the Fast Magnetosonic surface, are important boundaries around the Sun and play a crucial role in the development of the solar wind and the structure of the inner heliosphere. We determine the shape and dimension of these surfaces as a function of heliographic latitude using measurements from Ulysses spacecraft, and we also study their temporal variation using data from spacecrafts at 1 AU (OMNI database). Furthermore, we establish their dependence with the solar activity, demonstrating their shape and location for the last two solar cycles. From this we noticed that the temporal variation of all transition surfaces follows the 11-year solar cycle. Finally, from the OMNI database, we have studied the temporal variation over the past 40 years of the plasma β parameter, the kinetic to magnetic and the kinetic to thermal energy ratios, at a distance of 1 AU from the Sun.     

Numerical simulation on antenna temperature field of complex structure satellite in solar simulator

A thermal network model is developed for studying the temperature variation of complicated structure satellite surfaces. The solar incident areas, the infrared and solar radiation transfer coefficients among surfaces are numerically simulated by means of Monte Carlo ray tracing (MCRT) method in model. The non-uniformity and the instability of solar radiation, which plays the important roles in simulating outer-space heat flux designation parameters by solar simulator, are studied for analysis variation of antenna temperature fields in detail. Results showed non-uniformity irradiation effects are greater than those of instability for this kind of geometry sheltering structure.     

折叠太阳翼支承点分布优化分析

为了研究支承点分布对折叠太阳翼固有频率的影响,以典型两折叠太阳翼结构为研究对象,根据能量守恒原理和Rayleigh-Ritz理论推导出两折叠太阳翼的振动方程和频率方程。对折叠太阳翼固有特性及支承点分布对其固有特性的影响进行深入分析,并以基频最大为目标对其支承点的分布进行优化,获得最优支承位置。算例分析表明,在给定支承点分布情况下,理论计算结果与有限元分析结果具有较好的一致性。研究结果可为折叠太阳翼支承点分布的设计提供理论分析依据。     

基于多目标遗传算法的太阳高纬探测器轨道设计

针对太阳高纬度探测器轨道设计任务要求, 研究了基于多目标遗传算法的小推力借力飞行轨道设计方法. 基于圆锥曲线拼接假设, 将探测器轨道分为小推力日心转移轨道段和木星借力飞行轨道段两部分. 在日心转移轨道段, 选择燃料最省为优化目标, 采用标称轨道法设计小推力的推力控制率. 在借力飞行轨道段, 选择借力后日心轨道倾角为优化目标, 对借力飞行的关键参数进行分析. 采用多目标遗传算法对该多目标进行了优化. 结果表明, 多目标遗传算法可以有效地解决轨道设计中的多目标优化问题. 优化得到的小推力控制率不仅可以节省发射能量, 还可以保证借力飞行后探测器能够进入太阳高纬度探测轨道.     

蓄热式太阳能热光伏-热推进双模系统设计与性能分析

为有效解决在日蚀区太阳能热推进器推力失效、电力中断的问题,提出了蓄热式太阳能热光伏-热推进双模系统结构,并对系统各部件建立相关物理数学模型,分析了工质种类、工质流量等因素对推进性能的影响。结果表明,为保证推进器在日蚀区30min内持续提供推力和电力供应,砷化镓热光伏电池在无工质工况下能提供10W左右的低功率电力供应,在设计工况下能提供50W～110W的电力供应;液氢作为工质时,最大比冲将达到806s,随着工质流量的持续增加,比冲损失速率呈现先加快后减慢的变化趋势;液氨作为替代工质具有更快的加热速率,其比冲为240s～300s远低于氢工质比冲,其推力系数1.77要略高于氢工质推力系数1.7。通过本文研究,蓄热式太阳能双模推进系统具有较好的可行性,且推力及比冲适中,有望弥补低比冲化学推进和小推力电推进技术的不足。     

Monte Carlo calibration of the response of the University of Chicago’s Cosmic Ray Nuclei Experiment (CRNE) on IMP-8 to electrons above 0.5 MeV

Modern instrument-simulation techniques offer the possibility of increasing the scientific yield from archival space datasets. In this paper, we report on a simulation of the electron response of the University of Chicago’s Cosmic Ray Nuclei Experiment (CRNE) instrument on the IMP-8 satellite. IMP-8/CRNE returned data from 1973 to 2006. The CRNE particle telescope was designed to measure the isotopic composition of Galactic cosmic-ray (GCR) nuclei and has also been used in many studies of protons and ions above 10 MeV/nucleon from solar energetic particle (SEP) events. But CRNE also functions as a highly-capable detector for solar electrons above 0.5 MeV, an energy range that has not been extensively studied. Utilization of the CRNE electron data has heretofore been limited by the fact that CRNE was never calibrated for electrons. We have therefore used the GEANT4 Monte Carlo simulation package to model the CRNE response to electrons and (separately) protons for multiple energies and incident angles. The results were used to compute the energy- and angle-dependence of the effective area and the energy-dependence of the geometric factor. The response to protons, which was already well understood, was used to verify the mass model, the simulation settings, and the post-processing software. Our simulation of the IMP-8/CRNE electron response now allows analysis of hundreds of relativistic solar electron events observed by CRNE over the years, including studies of evolution of electron energy spectra with high time resolution. We show examples of these results and briefly discuss potential applications to future scientific investigations.     

Test alert service against very large SEP Events

The Aragats Solar Environment Center provides real time monitoring of different components of secondary cosmic ray fluxes. We plan to use this information to establish an early warning alert system against extreme, very large solar particle events with hard spectra, dangerous for satellite electronics and for the crew of the Space Station. Neutron monitors operating at altitude 2000 and 3200 m are continuously gathering data to detect possible abrupt variations of the particle count rates. Additional high precision detectors measuring muon and electron fluxes, along with directional information are under construction on Mt. Aragats. Registered ground level enhancements, in neutron and muon fluxes along with correlations between different species of secondary cosmic rays are analyzed to reveal possible correlations with expected times of arrival of dangerous solar energetic particles.