The Solar Sail Materials (SSM) project – Status of activities

SSM (Solar Sail Materials) is an on-going project for the European Space Agency (ESA) relying on past and recent European solar sail design projects. It aims at developing and testing future technologies suitable for large, operational solar sailcrafts.     

太阳风--磁层相互作用的磁流体力学数值模拟研究

磁层位于地球空间的最外层, 太阳风与磁层的相互作用是空间天气变化因果链中承上启下的关键环节, 是揭示地球空间天气基本规律的关键科学课题. 地球空间由于时变、多成分、多自由度的关联相互作用,使得传统的理论分析变得非常困难. 数值模拟作为近几十年发展起来的一个新的研究手段,对地球空间的理论和应用研究产生了深刻的影响. 国际上磁层的全球MHD数值模拟工作开始于20世纪70年代末, 最初的研究局限于二维空间. 由于磁层内在的三维特性, 20世纪80年代三维MHD数值模拟工作兴起. 本文简要说明了三维全球磁层MHD (磁流体力学)研究的特点及现状, 给出了三维全球磁层模型的基本框架, 综述了行星际激波与磁层相互作用、大尺度电流体系、重联电压和越极电位、磁层顶K-H不稳定性等方面的太阳风--磁层相互作用的MHD数值模拟的研究进展.     

The gas pixel detector as a solar X-ray polarimeter and imager

The Sun is the nearest astrophysical source with a very intense emission in the X-ray band. The study of energetic events, such as solar flares, can help us to understand the behaviour of the magnetic field of our star. There are in the literature numerous studies published about polarization predictions, for a wide range of solar flares models involving the emission from thermal and/or non-thermal processes, but observations in the X-ray band have never been exhaustive.The gas pixel detector (GPD) was designed to achieve X-ray polarimetric measurements as well as X-ray images for far astrophysical sources. Here we present the possibility to employ this instrument for the observation of our Sun in the X-ray band.     

第2009卡林顿周太阳活动的初步分析

介绍了第 2 0 0 9卡林顿周大黑子群AR484,AR486和AR488产生的太阳活动以及这些太阳活动对地球空间环境造成的影响。依据对太阳活动的统计研究 ,简要分析了三个大黑子群活动的差异。分析结果指出 ,关注某一时期太阳活动的活动经度带以及太阳活动在某一半球的主次是解决太阳活动短期预报非常重要的思路     

CCD等高仪测定太阳直径的模拟计算及其精度分析

本文根据用光电等高仪测定太阳直径的基本原理,给出了用CCD作探测器测定太阳直径的处理方法,并用模拟方法对不同的seeing值产生了几组太阳曝光的CCD底片。通过对这些CCD底片的数字图象的处理和计算,对太阳直径的测定精度进行了估计和分析。计算分析表明,不论对单像还是双像方案,CCD等高仪都能以好于0."05的精度测定太阳的直径。     

稻城太阳射电望远镜(DSRT)天线遮挡效应仿真

稻城太阳射电望远镜（DSRT）由313面6 m直径抛物面天线组成。天线接收信号幅值和相位的精确修正是决定DSRT成像质量的关键因素。然而DSRT阵列可能会出现邻近天线相互遮挡的问题,从而改变接收信号的幅值和相位,影响其成像质量。利用电磁仿真软件计算了接收频率为300 MHz（波长λ=1 m）时的相邻两单元与相邻三单元两种情况。三元系统中遮挡效应的影响仅比双元系统中相关影响略为显著。在本文考虑的最严重的遮挡情况（天线边缘的投影间距D = –1λ）下,对于双/三元系统,相对于单天线系统水平和垂直增益分别降低了0.6/0.6 dB和 0.3/0.4 dB,相位偏差分别为–3.3º/–3.871º和–1.744º/–2.244º。此外还分析了其他遮挡情况。研究表明DSRT系统中的天线遮挡效应分析可由双元系统充分描述,在后期数据处理时应适当考虑该效应,尽量提升DSRT数据的利用效率和成图质量。     

航天用太阳电池地面标定测试装置研究

传统的标准太阳电池标定方法分为高空标定与地面标定,地面标定方法已纳入国际标准。地面标定由于操作简便、标定结果较为精准目前被广泛应用。太阳电池标定结果准确与否对航天器电源系统姿态敏感期、地面环境模拟的设计具有重要意义。本文对太阳电池地面标定方法展开研究,根据国家标准中地面标定方法原理研制了便携式、高准确度的地面标定测试设备,包括准直孔、太阳电池托盘、太阳跟踪器等标定装置,使地面标定过程简易化,对航天用太阳电池地面标定有着重要意义。     

Recent Progresses on Ionospheric Climatology Investigations

The ionosphere varies over multiple time scales, which are classified into two categories: the climatology and weather variations. In this national report, we give a brief summary of recent progresses in ionospheric climatology with focus on (1) the seasonal variations, (2) solar cycle effects, and (3) empirical modeling of the ionosphere. The seasonal variations of the ionosphere have been explored in many works to give a more detailed picture with regional and global features at various altitudes by analyzing the observation data from various sources and models. Moreover, a series of studies reported the response of the ionosphere to solar cycle variations, which revealed some novel and detailed features of solar activity dependence of ionospheric parameters at different altitudes. These investigations have improved our understanding on the states of the ionosphere and underlying fundamental processes, provided clues to future studies on ionospheric weather, and guided ionospheric modeling, forecasting and related applications.     

2007-2009谷年期间高热层大气密度的变化

在第23至第24太阳活动周的峰年之间,太阳活动谷年具有持续时间长,极低F_10.7太阳辐射通量（低至65）和超长期的零太阳黑子数记录等特点,因此是观测和研究在这种特殊背景下热层大气变化的极好机会.尤其是能充分理解和掌握在宁静环境下热层大气密度对弱太阳活动和小地磁扰动的响应特性.本文利用高度650 km以上星载大气密度探测器2007—2009年的连续探测数据进行分析,结果表明,在太阳辐射通量F_10.7极低值期间,较高热层大气密度对F_10.7的起伏具有更显著的响应变化.当F_10.7由70降至65时,日均大气密度会有4～5倍的显著降变,远大于通常大气模式中的降变值.同样在F_10.7极低值期间,较高热层大气密度对小地磁扰动也具有显著的响应增变,当日K_p指数之和由23增至30时,较高热层大气密度则会有80%～160%的强增变.     

Sunspot cycle 23 descent to an unusual minimum and forecasts for cycle 24 activity

The decay phase of the sunspot cycle 23 exhibited two unusual features. First, it lasted too long. Second, the interplanetary magnetic field intensity at earth orbit reached the lowest value since in situ measurements in space began in October 1963. These physical anomalies significantly altered the early forecasts for the sunspot activity parameters for cycle 24, made by several colleagues. We note that there was a significant change in the solar behavior during cycle 22. We discuss the observed trends and their effect on our empirical solar activity forecast technique, leading to our prediction for cycle 24 parameters; cycle 24 will be only half as active as cycle 23, reaching its peak in May 2013. We speculate on the possible implications of this outcome on future earth climate change and the ensuing socio-economic consequences.