Ionospheric parameters in the European sector during the magnetic storm of August 25–26, 2018

Variations of ionospheric parameters Total Electron Content (TEC) by GNSS, critical frequency (foF2) by vertical sounding and electron density (Ne) by low-altitude satellite were studied at high, mid and low latitudes of the European sector during the magnetic storm of August 25–26, 2018. During the main phase of the storm the ionospheric F2-layer was under the positive disturbance at mid and low latitudes. Then the transition from the positive to negative ΔfoF2 values occurred at all latitudes. The recovery phase was characterized by negative ionospheric disturbance at all latitudes. This is due to the decrease of thermospheric O/N2 ratio during the recovery phase of the storm. The intense Es layers screened the reflections from the F2-layer on August 26th at high and at low latitudes but at different times. Some blackouts occurred due to the high absorption level at high latitudes. In general, foF2 and TEC data were highly correlated. The major Ne changes were at the low latitudes. In general, Ne data confirmed the ionospheric dynamics revealed with foF2 and TEC.     

计入带电粒子入射角度对次级电子效应影响时航天飞行器的带电特性

本文采用由实验得到的带电粒子入射角度对次级电子的影响关系,根据轨道限制电流收集理论,导出了不同几何形体航天器的次级电子数通量表达式;并按局部电流平衡模型,计算了航天器背阴面的带电电位。结果表明,计入带电粒子入射角的影响后,航天器表面负电位的数值有一定减少。因此,在计算航天器表面带电时,应当考虑这种影响。     

GPS total electron content and surface latent heat flux variations before the 11 March 2011 M9.0 Sendai earthquake

The present paper describes the variations of the GPS total electron content (TEC) from the International GNSS service network and surface latent heat flux (SLHF) from the Scientific Computing Division of the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) before the 11 March 2011 M9.0 Sendai earthquake, respectively. The analysis shows pronounced enhancements in the GPS TEC and SLHF a few days prior to the earthquake event. The maximum increase in the GPS TEC was about 30 TECu with an extended spatial distribution on a geomagnetically quiet day (Dst ? −20 nT, between two moderate geomagnetic storms), 8 March, 3 days prior to the earthquake. This giant positive disturbance was possibly associated with the impending disastrous earthquake and contributed from the enhanced solar radiation. Moreover, there were several anomalous regions of SLHF on the global map, but an area of enhanced SLHF very close to the epicenter. The purpose of this paper is to report the existence of the changes in surface and ionosphere, and show the potential application of multi-source data to identify seismic precursors.     

Preparation of bimodal grain size 7075 aviation aluminum alloys and their corrosion properties

The bimodal grain size metals show improved strength and ductility compared to traditional metals; however, their corrosion properties are unknown. In order to evaluate the corrosion properties of these metals, the bimodal grain size 7075 aviation aluminum alloys containing different ratios of coarse(100 μm in diameter) and fine(10 μm in diameter) grains were prepared by spark plasma sintering(SPS). The effects of grain size as well as the mixture degree of coarse and fine grains on general corrosion were estimated by immersion tests, electrochemical measurements and complementary techniques such as scanning electron microscope(SEM) and transmission electron microscope-energy disperse spectroscopy(TEM-EDS). The results show that, compared to fine grains, the coarse grains have a faster dissolution rate in acidic NaCl solution due to the bigger size,higher alloying elements content and larger area fraction of second phases in them. In coarse grains,the hydrogen ions have a faster reduction rate on cathodic second phases, therefore promoting the corrosion propagation. The mixture of coarse and fine grains also increases the electrochemical heterogeneity of alloys in micro-scale, and thus the increased mixture degree of these grains in metal matrix accelerates the corrosion rate of alloys in acidic NaCl solution.     

Plasmaspheric electron content derived from GPS TEC and FORMOSAT-3/COSMIC measurements: Solar minimum condition

The plasmaspheric electron content (PEC) was estimated by comparison of GPS TEC observations and FORMOSAT-3/COSMIC radio occultation measurements at the extended solar minimum of cycle 23/24. Results are retrieved for different seasons (equinoxes and solstices) of the year 2009. COSMIC-derived electron density profiles were integrated up to the height of 700 km in order to retrieve estimates of ionospheric electron content (IEC). Global maps of monthly median values of COSMIC IEC were constructed by use of spherical harmonics expansion. The comparison between two independent measurements was performed by analysis of the global distribution of electron content estimates, as well as by selection specific points corresponded to mid-latitudes of Northern America, Europe, Asia and the Southern Hemisphere. The analysis found that both kinds of observations show rather similar diurnal behavior during all seasons, certainly with GPS TEC estimates larger than corresponded COSMIC IEC values. It was shown that during daytime both GPS TEC and COSMIC IEC values were generally lower at winter than in summer solstice practically over all specific points. The estimates of PEC (h > 700 km) were obtained as a difference between GPS TEC and COSMIC IEC values. Results of comparative study revealed that for mid-latitudinal points PEC estimates varied weakly with the time of a day and reached the value of several TECU for the condition of solar minimum. Percentage contribution of PEC to GPS TEC indicated the clear dependence from the time with maximal values (more than 50–60%) during night-time and lesser values (25–45%) during day-time.     

Comparison of model and experimental ionospheric parameters at high latitudes

Modern use and study of the auroral region needs to attract a wider class of models for describing conditions of radio wave propagation in the ionosphere. In this paper the possibilities of the International Reference Ionosphere model, well-proven and widespread in the mid-latitudes, are investigated in the high latitude zone. Model and measured values of the critical frequency foF2 for two mid-latitude stations (Juliusruh and Goosebay) and four high-latitude ones (Loparskaya, Sodankyla, Sondrestrom, Thule) are compared. Deviations of medians, variations from day to day and solar activity trends seemed to be similar for both areas. This similarity is irrespective of the RZ12 index. Special attention is paid to the TEC parameter and its determination using 6 versions of models, a new version of the model IRI2010 (IRI-Plas) among them. It is shown that the IRI-Plas model significantly improves the definition of TEC in contrast to the versions of IRI2007 and the new model NeQuick. The use of the median of the experimental equivalent slab thickness, together with the current values of the TEC, increases by a factor of two the agreement between calculated and measured foF2 values as compared with the variations from day to day. This allows foF2 to be defined in near-real time.     

高超声速流的电子束诊断法(英文)

本文描述用电子束辉光法测量高超声速流中平均密度、速度以及密度变化特征的物理原理和过程。对此法用于平板上激波层稳定性问题的适用范围和限制条件作了分析。内容通过风洞实验结果加以说明。     

Special Technologies Related to Electron Beam Welding

In order to improve the manufacturing quality of electron beam welding,some technologies are developed by using the special features of electron beam.Comparing with the conventional electron beam welding,the usage of multi-beam technology and micro-beam technology are introduced.In addition.the development of beam diagnostic system is also presented.     

Differential code bias estimation based on uncombined PPP with LEO onboard GPS observations

Differential Code Bias (DCB) is an essential correction that must be provided to the Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) users for precise position determination. With the continuous deployment of Low Earth Orbit (LEO) satellites, DCB estimation using observations from GNSS receivers onboard the LEO satellites is drawing increasing interests in order to meet the growing demands on high-quality DCB products from LEO-based applications, such as LEO-based GNSS signal augmentation and space weather research. Previous studies on LEO-based DCB estimation are usually using the geometry-free combination of GNSS observations, and it may suffer from significant leveling errors due to non-zero mean of multipath errors and short-term variations of receiver code and phase biases. In this study, we utilize the uncombined Precise Point Positioning (PPP) model for LEO DCB estimation. The models for uncombined PPP-based LEO DCB estimation are presented and GPS observations acquired from receivers onboard three identical Swarm satellites from February 1 to 28, 2019 are used for the validation. The results show that the average Root Mean Square errors (RMS) of the GPS satellite DCBs estimated with onboard data from each of the three Swarm satellites using the uncombined PPP model are less than 0.18 ns when compared to the GPS satellite DCBs obtained from IGS final daily Global Ionospheric Map (GIM) products. Meanwhile, the corresponding average RMS of GPS satellite DCBs estimated with the conventional geometry-free model are 0.290, 0.210, 0.281 ns, respectively, which are significantly larger than those obtained with the uncombined PPP model. It is also noted that the estimated GPS satellite DCBs by Swarm A and C satellites are highly correlated, likely attributed to their similar orbit type and space environment. On the other hand, the Swarm receiver DCBs estimated with uncombined PPP model, with Standard Deviation (STD) of 0.065, 0.037 and 0.071 ns, are more stable than those obtained from the official Swarm Level 2 products with corresponding STD values of 0.115, 0.101, and 0.109 ns, respectively. The above indicates that high-quality DCB products can be estimated based on uncombined PPP with LEO onboard observations.     

First results of operational ionospheric dynamics prediction for the Brazilian Space Weather program

It is shown the development and preliminary results of operational ionosphere dynamics prediction system for the Brazilian Space Weather program. The system is based on the Sheffield University Plasmasphere–Ionosphere Model (SUPIM), a physics-based model computer code describing the distribution of ionization within the Earth mid to equatorial latitude ionosphere and plasmasphere, during geomagnetically quiet periods. The model outputs are given in a 2-dimensional plane aligned with Earth magnetic field lines, with fixed magnetic longitude coordinate. The code was adapted to provide the output in geographical coordinates. It was made referring to the Earth’s magnetic field as an eccentric dipole, using the approximation based on International Geomagnetic Reference Field (IGRF-11). During the system operation, several simulation runs are performed at different longitudes. The original code would not be able to run all simulations serially in reasonable time. So, a parallel version for the code was developed for enhancing the performance. After preliminary tests, it was frequently observed code instability, when negative ion temperatures or concentrations prevented the code from continuing its processing. After a detailed analysis, it was verified that most of these problems occurred due to concentration estimation of simulation points located at high altitudes, typically over 4000 km of altitude. In order to force convergence, an artificial exponential decay for ion–neutral collisional frequency was used above mentioned altitudes. This approach shown no significant difference from original code output, but improved substantially the code stability. In order to make operational system even more stable, the initial altitude and initial ion concentration values used on exponential decay equation are changed when convergence is not achieved, within pre-defined values. When all code runs end, the longitude of every point is then compared with its original reference station longitude, and differences are compensated by changing the simulation point time slot, in a temporal adjustment optimization. Then, an approximate neighbor searching technique was developed to obtain the ion concentration values in a regularly spaced grid, using inverse distance weighting (IDW) interpolation. A 3D grid containing ion and electron concentrations is generated for every hour of simulated day. Its spatial resolution is 1° of latitude per 1° of longitude per 10 km of altitude. The vertical total electron content (VTEC) is calculated from the grid, and plotted in a geographic map. An important feature that was implemented in the system is the capacity of combining observational data and simulation outputs to obtain more appropriate initial conditions to the ionosphere prediction. Newtonian relaxation method was used for this data assimilation process, where ionosonde data from four different locations in South America was used to improve the system accuracy. The whole process runs every day and predicts the VTEC values for South America region with almost 24 h ahead.