Calculation of the transonic dip of airfoils using viscous-inviscid aerodynamic interaction method

A numerical procedure for the calculation of the transonic dip of airfoils in the time domain is presented. A viscous-inviscid aerodynamic interaction method is taken to calculate the unsteady aerodynamic loads. In the present case the integral boundary layer equations are coupled with the Transonic Small Disturbance (TSD) Potential Equation. The coupling between structural motion and aerodynamic loads is carried out using State Space equation. It is solved by State Transition Matrix technique. Results are presented for NACA 64A010 and NLR 7301 airfoils with structural data from Isogai and DLR, respectively. Comparisons show good agreement with other numerical results. Certain deviations of experimental data taken from literature need more insight in the detailed test conditions.     

A review on the upper atmospheric sodium observations from India: Insights

This review article briefly brings out the historical development of atmospheric sodium (Na) measurements over India and the importance of coordinated measurements with multiple techniques to address physical processes in the Earth's upper atmosphere. These measurements were initiated in the early 1970s by observing Na airglow emission intensities with broad band airglow photometer from Mt. Abu, a low-latitude hill station in India. Considerable amount of night-to-night variations in nocturnal emission intensities of the Na airglow were observed. Later, investigations regarding the dependence with the magnetic activities from the equatorial and low latitudes were carried out and double-humped structures in the nocturnal variation of intensities were reported. With the advent of Na lidar at Gadanki around 2005, the measurements of atmospheric neutral Na atom concentration became possible and more frequent occurrences of sporadic Na layers over the magnetic low latitude station compared to other latitudes were detected indicating the role played by electrodynamics. Later, a possible relationship between E-region field aligned plasma irregularities and the concentration of neutral Na atoms was investigated using coordinated measurements of VHF radar and Na lidar. Further, simultaneous measurements with Na lidar and a narrow band airglow photometer with narrow field of view brought out the importance of coordinated observation wherein the characterization of gravity waves could be carried out and also revealed the importance of collisional quenching due to ambient molecules in the Na airglow emission processes. In addition, combining the ground based measurements of Na lidar and meteor wind radar along with satellite measurements made possible to hypothesize the over-turning Kelvin–Helmholtz billow in the Na layer manifests “C-type” or inverted lambda shape structures in the height-time-concentration map of neutral Na atoms. This review paper presents a synoptic view mostly based on the previously reported observations of Na airglow emission, Na lidar and coordinated Na airglow and Na lidar observations from the Indian sector and highlights the importance of simultaneous measurements of mesospheric Na and its emissions along with satellite-borne measurements to address interesting geophysical processes in the Earth's upper atmosphere.     

Plasma instabilities and their simulations in the equatorial F region – Recent results

In this paper the developments made in the last five years on numerical simulation/modeling studies of a complex nighttime equatorial spread F phenomenon are reviewed. Emphasis is given to the Indian work and necessary comparisons are done with other international works on this field. Investigations involving the important aspects, namely the confinement of the plasma bubble in the bottomside of the ionosphere, linear and nonlinear effects of molecular ions in the development of plasma bubbles, interaction of two modes as a seed perturbation are discussed in detail. This revised version was published online in August 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.