The solar-terrestrial event of 23 February 1956

The solar flare of 23 February 1956 and the resulting geophysical disturbance ranks as one of the most remarkable solar-terrestrial events of the twentieth century. It sparked many papers and has seldom been equalled. Fifty years after the International Geophysical Year, it seems timely to review the observations of the event from today’s perspective, and to draw on the recollections of scientists who were active at the time.     

Fluctuations of cosmic rays and IMF in the vicinity of interplanetary shocks

Fluctuations of cosmic rays and interplanetary magnetic field upstream of interplanetary shocks are studied using data of ground-based polar neutron monitors as well as measurements of energetic particles and solar wind plasma parameters aboard the ACE spacecraft. It is shown that coherent cosmic ray fluctuations in the energy range from 10 keV to 1 GeV are often observed at the Earth’s orbit before the arrival of interplanetary shocks. This corresponds to an increase of solar wind turbulence level by more than the order of magnitude upstream of the shock. We suggest a scenario where the cosmic ray fluctuation spectrum is modulated by fast magnetosonic waves generated by flux of low-energy cosmic rays which are reflected and/or accelerated by an interplanetary shock.     

A Review of Density Holes Upstream of Earth's Bow Shock

Larmor size transient structures with density depletions as large as 99% of ambient solar wind density levels occur commonly upstream of Earth＇s collisionless bow shock. These ＂density holes＂ have a me...     

Solar and magnetic control on night-time enhancement in TEC near the crest of the Equatorial Ionization Anomaly

The ionospheric Total Electron Content (TECs), derived by dual frequency signals from the Global Positioning System (GPS) recorded near the Indian equatorial anomaly region, Bhopal (23.2°N, 77.4°E, Geomagnetic 14.2°N) were analyzed for the period of January, 2005 to February, 2008. The work deals with monthly, diurnal, solar and magnetic activity variations on night-time enhancement in TEC. From a total of 157 night-time enhancements, 75 occur during pre-midnight and 82 post-midnight hours. The occurrence of night-time enhancement in TEC is utmost during summer months, followed by equinox and winter months. The occurrence of night-time enhancement in TEC decreases with increase in solar and magnetic activities. We observed that peak size and half amplitude duration are positively correlated, while time of occurrence of night-time enhancement in TEC and time of peak enhancement are negatively correlated with solar activity. The peak size, half amplitude duration, time of peak enhancement and time of occurrence of night-time enhancement in TEC shows negative correlation with magnetic activity. The results have been compared with the earlier ones and discussed in terms of possible source mechanism responsible for the enhancement at anomaly crest region.     

Influence of Earth’s shadowing effects on space debris stability

Solar radiation pressure affects the evolution of high area-to-mass geostationary space debris. In this work, we extend the stability study of Valk et al. (2009) by considering the influence of Earth’s shadows on the short- and long-term time evolutions of space debris. To assess the orbits stability, we use the Mean Exponential Growth factor of Nearby Orbits (MEGNO), which is an efficient numerical tool to distinguish between regular and chaotic behaviors. To reliably compute long-term space debris motion, we resort to the Global Symplectic Integrator (GSI) of Libert et al. (2011) which consists in the symplectic integration of both Hamiltonian equations of motion and variational equations. We show how to efficiently compute the MEGNO indicator in a complete symplectic framework, and we also discuss the choice of a symplectic integrator, since propagators adapted to the structure of the Hamiltonian equations of motion are not necessarily suited for the associated variational equations. The performances of our method are illustrated and validated through the study of the Arnold diffusion problem. We then analyze the effects of Earth’s shadows, using the adapted conical and cylindrical Earth’s shadowing models introduced by Hubaux et al. (2012) as the smooth shadow function deriving from these models can be easily included into the variational equations. Our stability study shows that Earth’s shadows greatly affect the global behaviour of space debris orbits by increasing the size of chaotic regions around the geostationary altitude. We also emphasize the differences in the results given by conical or cylindrical Earth’s shadowing models. Finally, such results are compared with a non-symplectic integration scheme.     

Evaluation of uncertainty in gravity wave potential energy calculations through GPS radio occultation measurements

The application of the Global Positioning System (GPS) radio occultation (RO) method to the atmosphere enables the determination of height profiles of temperature, among other variables. From these measurements, gravity wave activity is usually quantified by calculating the potential energy through the integration of the ratio of perturbation and background temperatures between two given altitudes in each profile. The uncertainty in the estimation of wave activity depends on the systematic biases and random errors of the measured temperature, but also on additional factors like the selected vertical integration layer and the separation method between background and perturbation temperatures. In this study, the contributions of different parameters and variables to the uncertainty in the calculation of gravity wave potential energy in the lower stratosphere are investigated and quantified. In particular, a Monte Carlo method is used to evaluate the uncertainty that results from different GPS RO temperature error distributions. In addition, our analysis shows that RO data above 30 km height becomes dubious for gravity waves potential energy calculations.     

SuperDARN cross polar cap potential dependence on the solar wind conditions and comparisons with models

In this study SuperDARN Cross Polar Cap Potentials (CPCPs), collected over the year 2000, are investigated with a goal to statistically assess its relationship with various parameters of the solar wind and Interplanetary Magnetic Field (IMF). We show that SuperDARN CPCPs tend to cluster around discrete values, prescribed by the statistical model, unless the amount of points on each convection map is above ∼300. By selecting CPCP data obtained with radar coverage of >300 points, we investigate the CPCP relationship with IMF B_z and B_y, IMF clock angle, solar wind speed and dynamic pressure, Alfven velocity, Alfven–Mach number, and interplanetary electric field. Some reported tendencies, such as dependence upon IMF B_z, were found to be consistent with measurements by other instruments. We demonstrate that SuperDARN CPCPs show consistency with several theories/empirical models (predicting the CPCP) in terms of a linear trend but, on average, the slopes of the dependencies are at least two times smaller. We also determine the coupling function, out of those published in literature, best correlating with SuperDARN CPCPs.     

空间非合作目标消旋技术研究现状总结与展望

针对空间非合作目标开展在轨服务、轨道清除等需要在轨捕获任务的顺利实施,在捕获前一般需要对非合作目标进行消旋。系统调研了国内外针对空间非合作目标的消旋方案,并将其分为基于能量转移和基于能量损耗的两种方案。在对两类方案的具体原理及操作过程与关键技术进行总结的基础上,概括了各方案的特性及其适用场景,分析了未来空间非合作目标消旋技术的发展方向。     

超长航时太阳能无人机关键技术综述

超长航时太阳能无人机（UAV）以其高效节能、原理上可实现无限巡航的特点受到广泛关注，而其独特的设计指标与任务特性也对各项关键技术提出了较高要求。多设计要素的高度耦合意味着不同于常规飞行器的总体设计方法，低密度、低速度的飞行条件使其具有明显的低雷诺数气动特性，柔性超大展弦比机翼带来了复杂的气动弹性问题，低翼载荷特性与较大的风场扰动增加了控制难度，极端的飞行环境与苛刻的任务指标对能源、动力系统带来了新挑战，飞行性能对能源系统的高度依赖开辟了飞行轨迹优化的研究方向。本文梳理了超长航时太阳能无人机关键技术的研究现状，在此基础上对各项技术中的难点问题进行了阐释，并对超长航时太阳能无人机未来发展趋势进行了展望。     

Variation of ionospheric total electron content in Taiwan region of the equatorial anomaly from 1994 to 2003

The ionospheric total electron content (TEC) in the northern hemispheric equatorial ionospheric anomaly (EIA) region is studied by analyzing dual-frequency signals of the Global Position System (GPS) acquired from a chain of nine observational sites clustered around Taiwan (21.9–26.2°N, 118.4–112.6°E). In this study, we present results from a statistical study of seasonal and geomagnetic effects on the EIA during solar cycle 23: 1994–2003. It is found that TEC at equatorial anomaly crests yield their maximum values during the vernal and autumnal months and their minimum values during the summer (except 1998). Using monthly averaged I_c (magnitude of TEC at the northern anomaly crest), semi-annual variations is seen clearly with two maxima occurring in both spring and autumn. In addition, I_c is found to be greater in winter than in summer. Statistically monthly values of I_c were poorly correlated with the monthly Dst index (r = −0.22) but were well correlated with the solar emission F_10.7 index (r = 0.87) for the entire database for the period during 1994–2003. In contrast, monthly values of I_c were correlated better with Dst (r ? 0.72) than with F_10.7 (r ? 0.56) in every year during the low solar activity period (1994–1997). It suggests that the effect of solar activity on I_c is a longer term (years), whereas the effect of geomagnetic activity on I_c is a shorter term (months).