Solar neutron events as a tool to study particle acceleration at the Sun

The Sun provides unique opportunities to study particle acceleration mechanisms using data from detectors placed on the Earth’s surface and on board spacecrafts. Particles may gain high energies by several physical mechanisms. Differentiating between these possibilities is a fundamental problem of cosmic ray physics. Energetic neutrons provide us with information that keeps the signatures of the acceleration site. A summary of some representative solar neutron events observed on the Earth’s surface, including associated X and γ-ray observations from spacecrafts is presented. We discuss evidence of acceleration of particles by the Sun to energies up to several tens of GeV. In addition, a recent solar neutron event that occurred on September 7th 2005 and detected by several observatories at Earth is analyzed in detail.     

Cubesat solar sail 3-axis stabilization using panel translation and magnetic torquing

A Cubesat mission with a deployable solar sail of 5 meter by 5 meter in a sun-synchronous low earth orbit is analyzed to demonstrate solar sailing using active attitude stabilization of the sail panel. The sail panel is kept parallel to the orbital plane to minimize aerodynamic drag and optimize the orbit inclination change caused by the solar pressure force normal to the sail surface. A practical control system is proposed, using a combination of small 2-dimensional translation of the sail panel and 3-axis magnetic torquing which is proved to have sufficient control authority over the gravity gradient and aerodynamic disturbance torques. Miniaturized CMOS cameras are used as sun and nadir vector attitude sensors and a robust Kalman filter is used to accurately estimate the inertially referenced body rates from only the sun vector measurements. It is shown through realistic simulation tests that the proposed control system, although inactive during eclipse, will be able to stabilize the sail panel to within ±2° in all attitude angles during the sunlit part of the orbit, when solar sailing is possible.     

Applications and usage of the real-time Neutron Monitor Database

A high-time resolution Neutron Monitor Database (NMDB) has started to be realized in the frame of the Seventh Framework Programme of the European Commission. This database will include cosmic ray data from at least 18 neutron monitors distributed around the world and operated in real-time. The implementation of the NMDB will provide the opportunity for several research applications most of which will be realized in real-time mode. An important one will be the establishment of an Alert signal when dangerous solar cosmic ray particles are heading to the Earth, resulting into ground level enhancements effects registered by neutron monitors. Furthermore, on the basis of these events analysis, the mapping of all ground level enhancement features in near real-time mode will provide an overall picture of these phenomena and will be used as an input for the calculation of the ionization of the atmosphere. The latter will be useful together with other contributions to radiation dose calculations within the atmosphere at several altitudes and will reveal the absorbed doses during flights. Moreover, special algorithms for anisotropy and pitch angle distribution of solar cosmic rays, which have been developed over the years, will also be set online offering the advantage to give information about the conditions of the interplanetary space. All of the applications will serve the needs of the modern world which relies at space environment and will use the extensive network of neutron monitors as a multi-directional spectrographic detector. On top of which, the decreases of the cosmic ray intensity – known as Forbush decreases – will also be analyzed and a number of important parameters such as galactic cosmic ray anisotropy will be made available to the users of NMDB. A part of the NMDB project is also dedicated to the creation of a public outreach website with the scope to inform about cosmic rays and their possible effects on humans, technological systems and space-terrestrial environment. Therefore, NMDB will also stand as an informative gate on space research through neutron monitor’s data usage.     

空间太阳能电站构想及其相关技术的发展

文章介绍了太阳功率卫星（SPS）的发展背景、基本原理和系统构成,分析了实现SPS的主要技术条件。通过分析目前国际上建设SPS所开展的实验及其相关技术的发展,以期对中国未来发展空间太阳能电站技术提供借鉴。     

Angular velocity determination of spinning solar sails using only a sun sensor

The direction of the sun is the easiest and most reliable observation vector for a solar sail running in deep space exploration. This paper presents a new method using only raw measurements of the sun direction vector to estimate angular velocity for a spinning solar sail. In cases with a con-stant spin angular velocity, the estimation equation is formed based on the kinematic model for the apparent motion of the sun direction vector;the least-squares solution is then easily calculated. A performance criterion is defined and used to analyze estimation accuracy. In cases with a variable spin angular velocity, the estimation equation is developed based on the kinematic model for the apparent motion of the sun direction vector and the attitude dynamics equation. Simulation results show that the proposed method can quickly yield high-precision angular velocity estimates that are insensitive to certain measurement noises and modeling errors.     

Effect of Coriolis and centrifugal forces on flow and heat transfer at high rotation number and high density ratio in non orthogonally internal cooling channel

Numerical predictions of three-dimensional flow and heat transfer are performed for a two-pass square channel with 45° staggered ribs in non-orthogonally mode-rotation using the second moment closure model. At Reynolds number of 25,000, the rotation numbers studied were 0,0.24, 0.35 and 1.00. The density ratios were 0.13, 0.23 and 0.50. The results show that at high buoyancy parameter and high rotation number with a low density ratio, the flow in the first passage is governed by the secondary flow induced by the rotation whereas the secondary flow induced by the skewed ribs was almost distorted. As a result the heat transfer rate is enhanced on both co-trailing and co-leading sides compared to low and medium rotation number. In contrast, for the second passage, the rotation slightly reduces the heat transfer rate on co-leading side at high rotation number with a low density ratio and degrades it significantly on both co-trailing and co-leading sides at high buoyancy parameter compared to the stationary, low and medium rotation numbers. The numerical results are in fair agreement with available experimental data in the bend region and the second passage, while in the first passage were overestimated at low and medium rotation numbers.     

航空发动机自动平衡技术发展综述

针对航空发动机在运行过程中不平衡振动过大的问题,采用自动平衡技术进行在线质量补偿,可有效降低其振动水平。目前自动平衡技术主要运用于航空发动机结构、控制算法、工程应用3个方面。基于影响系数法的电磁驱动型自动平衡在美国空军C-130H运输机上得到工程应用,飞行测试4个发动机螺旋处的振动均低于1.27mm/s,降低了94%,因螺旋桨振动导致的压气机处振动降低了75%。研究结果表明:航空发动机自动平衡技术可实现在线持续动平衡,能有效降低发动机及其组件的振动疲劳损伤,降低发动机维护费用,延长维修周期。自动平衡技术在航空发动机领域得到工程应用是一个循序渐进的过程,还需要进一步开展结构设计、控制策略、系统集成等方面的研究工作,并在航空发动机设计阶段就考虑纳入自动平衡结构。      

转速非稳态变化对中心进气旋转盘平均换热的影响

实际的中心进气涡轮盘被简化成中心进气外缘加热的旋转盘模型, 以实验的方法研究了涡轮旋转盘附近冷气在非定常情况下的流动与换热特性, 主要是转速变化对盘面温度和盘面的平均努赛尔特数的影响。转盘的有效半径为 2 0 0 mm,最大转速为 3 0 0 0 r/min,加热功率为 1 0 0 0 W。实验结果表明: 盘缘区域温度随时间的变化率大于中心区域温度随时间的变化率; 转速增加使盘面平均努赛尔特数增大; 在给定时间内转速增至最大后使系统稳定还是分段使系统稳定后再增加转速, 对盘面平均努赛尔特数的影响不是特别明显。      

Specific features of the high-speed plasma stream cycles

The high-speed plasma streams in the solar wind are investigated during the solar cycles nos. 20–22 (1964–1996), separately on the two types of streams according to their solar origin: the HSPS produced by coronal holes (co-rotating) and the flare-generated, in keeping with the classification made in different catalogues. The analysis is performed taking into account the following high-speed stream parameters: the durations (in days), the maximum velocities, the velocity gradients and, the importance of the streams. The time variation of these parameters and the high-speed plasma streams occurrence rate show an 11-year periodicity with some differences between the solar cycles considered. A detailed analysis of the high-speed stream 11-year cycles is made by comparison with the “standard” cycles of the sunspot relative number (Wolf number). The different behaviour of the high-speed stream parameters between even and odd solar cycles could be due to the 22-year solar magnetic cycle. The increased activity of the high-speed plasma streams on the descendant phases of the cycles, regardless of their solar sources, proves the existence of some special local conditions of the solar plasma and the magnetic field on a large scale that allow the ejection of the high energy plasma streams. This fact has led us to the analysis the stream parameters during the different phases of the solar cycles (minimum, ascendant, maximum and, descendant) as well as during the polar magnetic field reversal intervals. The differences between the phases considered are pointed out. The solar cycles 20 and 22 reveal very similar dynamics of the flare-generated and also co-rotating stream parameters during the maximum, descendant and reversal intervals. This fact could be due to their position in a Hale Cycle (the first component of the 22-year solar magnetic cycle). The 21st solar cycle dominance of all co-rotating stream parameters against the 20th and 22nd solar cycle ones, during almost all phases, could be due to the same structure of a Hale Cycle – solar cycle 21 is the second component in a 22-year SC. During the reversal intervals, all high-speed stream parameters have comparable values with the ones of the maximum phases of the cycles even if this interval contains a small part of the descendant branch (solar cycles 20 and 22).