Effect of moderate geomagnetic storms on equatorial plasma bubbles over eastern Africa in the year 2012: Evolution and electrodynamics

Equatorial plasma bubbles (EPBs) are common features of the equatorial and low-latitude ionosphere and are known to cause radio wave scintillation which leads to the degradation of communication and navigation systems. Although these structures have been studied for decades, a full understanding of their evolution and dynamics remains important for space weather mitigation purposes. In this study, we present cases of EPBs occurrences around April and July 2012 geomagnetic storm periods over the African equatorial sector. The EPBs were observed from the Communications/Navigation Outage Forecasting System (C/NOFS) and generally correlated well to the ionospheric irregularities observed from the Global Positioning System total electron content (GPS-TEC) measurements (rate of TEC change, ROT). This study revealed that the evolution of the EPBs during moderate storms is controlled by the strength of the daytime equatorial electrojet (EEJ) currents regardless of the strength of the equatorial ionization anomaly (EIA), the latter is observed during the July storm case in particular. These effects were more evident during the main and part of the early recovery phases of the geomagnetic storm days considered. However, the evening hours TEC gradients between regions of the magnetic equator and ionization crests also played roles in the existence of ionospheric irregularities.     

低速轴流压气机尾流撞击效应的数值模拟

利用二维数值模拟研究了低速轴流压气机上游尾迹对下游相邻叶排的非定常分离流场的影响。研究表明：满足一定通过频率和亏损幅值条件的尾迹能够有效抑制下游相邻叶排尾缘涡的生成，达到控制或是推迟附面层非定常分离的目的，从而使得流场时均性能大幅度的提高，损失系数降低了40．2％，功损比增加93％。为固有非定常潜能的利用提供了一类新途径。     

Occurrence of equatorial plasma bubbles over Kolhapur

This paper reports the nightglow observations of OI 630.0 nm emissions, made by using all sky imager operating at low latitude station Kolhapur (16.8°N, 74.2°E and dip lat. 10.6°N) during high sunspot number years of 24th solar cycle. The images are analyzed to study the nocturnal, seasonal and solar activity dependence occurrence of plasma bubbles. We observed EPBs in images regularly during a limited period 19:30 to 02:30 LT and reach maximum probability of occurrence at 22:30 LT. The observation pattern of EPBs shows nearly no occurrence during the month of May and it maximizes during the period October–April. The equinox and solstice seasonal variations in the occurrence of plasma bubbles show nearly equal and large differences, respectively, between years of 2010–11 and 2011–12.     

Grinding performance evaluation of porous composite-bonded CBN wheels for Inconel 718

For high-efficiency grinding of difficult-to-cut materials such as titanium and nickel alloys, a high porosity is expected and also a sufficient mechanical strength to satisfy the function.However, the porosity increase is a disadvantage to the mechanical strength. As a promising pore forming agent, alumina bubbles are firstly induced into the abrasive layer to fabricate porous cubic boron nitride（CBN） wheels. When the wheel porosity reaches 45%, the bending strength is still high up to 50 MPa with modified orderly pore distribution. A porous CBN wheel was fabricated with a total porosity around 30%. The grinding performance of the porous composite-bonded CBN wheel was evaluated in terms of specific force, specific grinding energy, and grinding temperature, which were better than those of the vitrified one under the same grinding conditions. Compared to the vitrified CBN wheel, clear straight cutting grooves and less chip adhesion are observed on the ground surface and there is also no extensive loading on the wheel surface after grinding.     

跨音速细长体三维分离的数值研究

本文数值模拟了半球柱在跨音速、中等攻角时的粘性层流绕流，研究了流场中的复杂三维分离形态结构，其中包含流向与横向的主分离、二次分离、以及激波边界层的相互干扰，解释了在球柱接合部精确捕获的压力波动与流动主分离、二次分离的影响关系，这个现象是前人的计算［５，６］未捕捉到的。     

激波-边界层-分离流相互干扰三维湍流的数值模拟

本文采用数值方法求解时间相关三维可压缩雷诺平均Ｎａｖｉｅｒ－Ｓｔｏｋｅｓ方程组,模拟激波—边界层—分离流相互干扰三维湍流流动。湍流模型为Ｂａｄｗｉｎ－Ｌｏｍａｘ两层代数模型,改进后用于三维内流问题。采用单元中心有限体积法离散流场控制方程,ＶａｎＬｅｅｒ矢通量格式计算无粘通量,中心差分法计算粘性通量,ＬＵＳＧＳ时间推进格式计算定常流场。本文以二元跨音速扩压器内三流动为算例,数值模拟较强激波—边界层—分离流相互干扰维湍流流动,并与实验结果进行了比较。数值模拟结果,在激波强度、分离点位置和再附点位置等方面,与实验结果吻合较好。     

Mission-oriented cooperative 3D path planning for modular solar-powered aircraft with energy optimization

Modular Solar-Powered Aircraft(M-SPA) is a kind of High-Altitude Long-Endurance(HALE) aircraft which exploits the mission advantage of swarm UAV and the HALE advantage of large aspect-ratio SPA. M-SPA’s separated mode and combined mode give it the potential to maximize the mission efficiency with limited solar energy. In this paper, firstly, oriented by the mission of maximizing the cruise area, the overall design of the M-SPA is modeled, including the energy model, the aerodynamic model and the...     

Total electron content of the ionosphere at two stations in East Africa during the 24–25 October 2011 geomagnetic storm

The equatorial ionosphere has been known to become highly disturbed and thus rendering space-based navigation unreliable during space weather events, such as geomagnetic storms. Modern navigation systems, such as the Global Positioning System (GPS) use radio-wave signals that reflect from or propagate through the ionosphere as a means of determining range or distance. Such systems are vulnerable to effects caused by geomagnetic storms, and their performance can be severely degraded. This paper analyses total electron content (TEC) and the corresponding GPS scintillations using two GPS SCINDA receivers located at Makerere University, Uganda (Lat: 0.3^o N; Lon: 32.5^o E) and at the University of Nairobi, Kenya (Lat: 1.3^o S; Lon: 36.8^o E), both in East Africa. The analysis shows that the scintillations actually correspond to plasma bubbles. The occurrence of plasma bubbles at one station was correlated with those at the other station by using observations from the same satellite. It was noted that some bubbles develop at one station and presumably “die off” before reaching the other station. The paper also discusses the effects of the geomagnetic storm of the 24–25 October 2011 on the ionospheric TEC at the two East African stations. Reductions in the diurnal TEC at the two stations during the period of the storm were observed and the TEC depletions observed during that period showed much deeper depletions than on the non-storm days. The effects during the storm have been attributed to the uplift of the ionospheric plasma, which was then transported away from this region by diffusion along magnetic field lines.     

DIRECT NUMERICAL SIMULATIONS OF MULTIPHASE FLOWS

INTRODUCTIONMultiphase and multifluid flows are commonin many natural and technologically importantprocesses. Rain,spray combustion,spray paint-ing,and boiling heat transfer are just a few ex-amples.While it is the overall,integral charac-teristics of such flows that are of most interest,the global behavior is determined to a large de-gree by the evolution of the smallestscales in theflow.The combustion of sprays,for example,depends on the size and the number density ofthe drops.Generally…     

Four-peak longitudinal distribution of the equatorial plasma bubbles observed in the topside ionosphere: Possible troposphere tide influence

In this paper we consider an idea of the troposphere tide influence on the character of the longitudinal variations in the distribution of the equatorial plasma bubbles (EPBs) observed in the topside ionosphere. For this purpose, the obtained EPB longitudinal patterns were compared with the thermosphere and ionosphere characteristics having the prominent “wave-like” longitudinal structures with wave number 4, which are uniquely associated with the influence of the troposphere DE3 tides. The characteristics of the equatorial mass density anomaly (EMA), equatorial ionization anomaly (EIA), zonal wind and pre-reversal E?×?B drift enhancement (PRE) were used for comparison. The equinox seasons during high solar activity were under consideration. It was obtained that the longitudinal patterns of the EMA and zonal wind show the surprising similarity with the EPB distributions (R???0.8, R???0.72). On the other hand, the resemblance with the ionosphere characteristics (EIA, PRE) is rather faint (R???0.37, R???0.12). It was shown that the thermosphere zonal winds are the most possible transfer mediator of the troposphere DE3 tide influence. The most successful moment for the transfer of the troposphere DE3 tide energy takes place in the beginning of the EPB production, namely, during the seed perturbation development.