Solar Influences on Dynamical Coupling Between the Stratosphere and Troposphere

We use a simplified atmospheric general circulation model (AGCM) to investigate the response of the lower atmosphere to thermal perturbations in the lower stratosphere. The results show that generic heating of the lower stratosphere tends to weaken the sub-tropical jets and the tropospheric mean meridional circulations. The positions of the jets, and the extent of the Hadley cells, respond to the distribution of the stratospheric heating, with low latitude heating displacing them poleward, and uniform heating displacing them equatorward. The patterns of response to the low latitude heating are similar to those found to be associated with solar variability in previous observational data analysis, and to the effects of varying solar UV radiation in sophisticated AGCMs. In order to investigate the chain of causality involved in converting the stratospheric thermal forcing to a tropospheric climate signal we conduct an experiment which uses an ensemble of model spin-ups to analyse the time development of the response to an applied stratospheric perturbation. We find that the initial effect of the change in static stability at the tropopause is to reduce the eddy momentum flux convergence in this region. This is followed by a vertical transfer of the momentum forcing anomaly by an anomalous mean circulation to the surface, where it is partly balanced by surface stress anomalies. The unbalanced part drives the evolution of the vertically integrated zonal flow. We conclude that solar heating of the stratosphere may produce changes in the circulation of the troposphere even without any direct forcing below the tropopause. We suggest that the impact of the stratospheric changes on wave propagation is key to the mechanisms involved.     

地磁导航技术研究进展

地磁场是地球的固有资源,利用地磁场匹配进行导航是一种新型导航技术.与传统的惯性导航和卫星导航比较,地磁导航具有无积累误差、抗干扰、隐蔽性好、导航信息丰富等优势.文章介绍了地磁导航的3个基本要素,即磁场测量技术、地磁模型以及定位与导航技术.分析了弱磁场磁力仪在地磁导航中的应用及其优缺点,讨论了地磁场模型和地磁匹配算法,展望了地磁导航技术的应用前景.     

基于UKF的高动态飞行器无源组合导航系统研究

针对飞行器在进行高动态飞行中卫星导航系统易受干扰、GPS可能被屏蔽,从而导致导航系统失稳甚至发散的问题,采用无迹卡尔曼滤波(UKF)算法对基于捷联惯导系统(SINS)、地磁导航系统(GNS)和嵌入式大气数据系统(FADS)的组合无源导航系统性能进行了改进.建立了地磁数据模型和无源组合导航模型,并针对新的组合导航系统观测方程非线性程度较高问题,提出了利用非线性UKF对导航数据进行融合的方法.利用高动态飞行轨迹对所提出的组合导航系统进行了仿真及误差分析,结果表明该系统对SINS误差估计具有适中的精度.     

太阳风暴及其对人类社会活动的影响

第24个太阳活动周峰年即将到来。太阳风暴由于其给现代人类社会活动带来的巨大灾难,引起了越来越多的关住。文章首先回顾了太阳风暴及其对人类社会活动的影响,然后对历史上1859年卡林顿事件中太阳风暴和近几十年来著名的太阳风暴的强度进行了比较,最后简要介绍了太阳风暴所涉及的科学和技术问题,并且提出了减轻太阳风暴给社会活动带来灾害的对策。     

Trans-ionospheric GPS signal delay gradients observed over mid-latitude Europe during the geomagnetic storms of October–November 2003

Ionospheric disturbances are known to have adverse effects on the satellite-based communication and navigation. One particular type of ionospheric effects, observed during major geomagnetic storms and threatening the integrity performance of both ground-based and space-based GNSS augmentation systems, is the sharp increase/decrease in the ionospheric delay that propagates in horizontal direction, thus called for convenience ‘moving ionospheric wall’. This paper presents preliminary results from researching such anomalous ionospheric delay gradients at European middle latitudes during the storm events of 29 October 2003 and 20 November 2003. For the purpose, 30-s GPS data from the Belgian permanent network was used for calculating and analysing the slant ionospheric delay and total electron content values. It has been found that, during these two particular storm events, substantial gradients did occur in Europe although they were not so pronounced as in the American sector.     

地磁图制备方法及其有效性评估

高精度地磁图制备是地磁匹配导航关键技术之一.在简单介绍4种网格插值方法原理的基础上(反距离加权插值法、克里金插值法、改进的谢别德插值法以及径向基函数法),应用实测地磁数据,选取测点分布较均匀区域,根据上述插值方法分别制备地磁图,并通过交叉验证统计准则对地磁图制备方法的有效性进行评估.结果表明,径向基函数插值法制备的地磁图"鸭蛋"形分布较少,地磁图等值线较圆滑,其标准偏差远小于其它方法的标准偏差,且其标准误差以及平均偏差也最小,具有较高的插值精度,能更好地反映该区域地磁场分布情况.     

强磁暴期间磁尾高速流的多卫星联合观测

使用多时空尺度的多卫星数据研究磁尾高速流,已经取得了很多重要成果。文章介绍了一次持续时间大约为3天的强磁暴期间的地磁台站和多卫星联合观测。IMAGE卫星的极光观测表明有14个孤立亚暴发生。运行在靠近磁尾的CLUSTER星簇（C1、C3卫星）和运行在靠近地球的DSP-1卫星均观测到了多次地向和尾向高速整体流。多卫星联合观测给出了不同位置处地向和尾向高速整体流的分布特征。     

Storm-time atmospheric density modeling using neural networks and its application in orbit propagation

Upper atmospheric densities during geomagnetic storms are usually poorly estimated due to a lack of clear understanding of coupling mechanisms between the thermosphere and magnetosphere. Consequently, the orbit determination and propagation for low-Earth-orbit objects during geomagnetic storms have large uncertainties. Artificial neural networks are often used to identify nonlinear systems in the absence of rigorous theory. In the present study, an attempt has been made to model the storm-time atmospheric density using neural networks. Considering the debate over the representative of geomagnetic storm effect, i.e. the geomagnetic indices ap and Dst, three neural network models (NNM) are developed with ap, Dst and a combination of ap and Dst respectively. The density data used for training the NNMs are derived from the measurements of the satellites CHAMP and GRACE. The NNMs are evaluated by looking at: (a) the mean residuals and the standard deviations with respect to the density data that are not used in training process, and (b) the accuracy of reconstructing the orbits of selected objects during storms employing each model. This empirical modeling technique and the comparisons with the models NRLMSIS-00 and Jacchia-Bowman 2008 reveal (1) the capability of neural networks to model the relationship between solar and geomagnetic activities, and density variations; and (2) the merits and demerits of ap and Dst when it comes to characterizing density variations during storms.     

Seasonal variations of storm-time TEC at European middle latitudes

Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) measurements of the Total Electron Content (TEC) from local (Dourbes, 50.1°N, 04.6°E) and European IGS (International GNSS Service) stations were used to obtain the TEC changes during the geomagnetic storms of the latest solar activity cycle. A common epoch analysis, with respect to geomagnetic storm intensity, season, and latitude, was performed on data representing nearly 300 storm events. In general, the storm-time behaviour of TEC shows clear positive and negative phases, relative to the non-storm (median) behaviour, with amplitudes that tend to increase during more intense storms. The most pronounced positive phase is observed during winter, while the strongest and yet shortest negative phase is detected during equinox. Average storm-time patterns in the TEC behaviour are deduced for potential use in ionosphere prediction services.     

Magnetospheric physics in China: 2008—2010

In the past two years, most of the works on magnetospheric physics were made by using the data of Double Star Program and Cluster missions. However some works were still conducted by computer simulation or using the data from other space missions and ground geomagnetic observations. This paper briefly review these previous works based on papers selected from the 28 publications from April 2008 to April 2010. The subjects covered various sub-branches of magnetospheric physics, including geomagnetic storm, magnetospheric substorm and etc.