The High Resolution Spectrograph for Spectrum UV

The Spectrum-UV mission, a general purpose ultraviolet observatory equipped with a 170-cm aperture telescope for imaging and spectroscopy in the 912 to 3600 Å range, will be launched in a seven days, high elliptical orbit in the late '90s by a Proton booster. The German contribution to the focal plane instrument complex is described: HIRDES, a High Resolution Double Echelle Spectrograph.     

The Spectrum-UV Mission: an International Ultraviolet Observatory

The Spectrum-UV Mission is an ultraviolet space observatory, scheduled to be launched at the break of the century into a 7-day, highly excentric orbit aboard a Spectrum Series platform. The Observatory is endowed with a 170-cm aperture telescope and a focal plane instrument complement for spectroscopy and imaging in the 912 to 3600 range. The results of an advanced feasibility study, being carried out in the four partecipating Countries (Germany, Italy, Russia and Ukraine) are presented.     

LEGRI Science Operation Center. Architecture and Operations

The LEGRI Science Operation Center (SOC) is the single contact pointbetween the MINISAT-01 Centro de Operaciones Científicas (COC)located at Villafranca del Castillo (Madrid) and the LEGRI Consortium.Its architecture, operational procedures and associated software hasbeen developed at the Universities of Valencia and Birmingham on thescope to define a integrated Data Analysis System, able to perform thedaily follow-up of the instrument health, raw data files decompressionand archiving activities (on-line and historical). Pointing and telecommandfiles generation is also a SOC responsibility.The aim of this paper is to report the SOC activities during the two yearsof LEGRI operations. Conclusions about the SOC architecture and proceduresevolution on how to handle the operations for space-borne instrumentation,are also presented.Special attention has been paid to the operative evaluation of the pointingreconstruction solutions from the MINISAT-01 Attitude Control System bycomparing them with those obtained with the LEGRI Star Sensor. The analysisof one year of observations shows the good agreement between both sets ofdata. No systematic deviations have been found with an averaged standarddeviation of 1 degree in alpha and delta coordinates. For most of the timethe MINISAT pointing system is working slightly better than expected andwithin specifications.     

The 3s 2S–4p 2Po transition probability in Mg ii

The superposition of configurations (SOC) method has been used to calculate f -values for the Mg  ii doublet at 1240 Å, which has been observed in the interstellar medium near stars such as ζ Ophiuchi. Our best value for the multiplet oscillator strength is 0.00083. SOC calculations have also been undertaken for the stronger (3s−3p) doublet at 2800 Å giving a multiplet f -value of 0.92.     

LEGRI instrument health. A historical review

LEGRI has been operating successfully on MINISAT-01 since its switch-on the 22nd of May 1997. HouseKeeping (HK) data have been continuously receivedfor nearly two years by LEGRI SOC in Valencia, and subsequently checked on adaily basis and then stored for long term monitoring analysis.LEGRI HouseKeeping data include three critical operating parameters:temperature, power and polarisation voltages. Six temperature sensors arespread over the different LEGRI units: Detector Unit, Data Processing Unit,High Voltage Unit and Star Sensor. Voltages are measured at eight differentpoints. Detector Unit temperature and polarisation voltage are thecritical parameters for LEGRI operation. Solid state detectors aresensitive to changes not only in polarisation but also in temperature.Around one and a half million of measurements for each of the HK fourteen parameters have been recorded and analysed. The data show a very remarkablestability, within the expected margins, and the averages are very close to theoptimal design values. Special attention has been paid to the detectorpolarisation voltages analysis with a mean value of 286 ± 2 V when the detectors are operating. Thermal control over all the LEGRI units shows a remarkable stability in their temperatures.On the detector plane a mean value of T _det = 13 ± 2 ^°C has been found.We can therefore conclude that LEGRI as a system has been operating withinits optimal design conditions. We also want to point out the excellentperformance of the MINISAT-01 thermal control system.     

On the power-law distributions of X-ray fluxes from solar flares observed with GOES

The power-law frequency distributions of the peak flux of solar flare X-ray emission have been studied extensively and attributed to a system having self-organized criticality(SOC).In this paper,we first show that,so long as the shape of the normalized light curve is not correlated with the peak flux,the flux histogram of solar flares also follows a power-law distribution with the same spectral index as the powerlaw frequency distribution of the peak flux,which may partially explain why power-law distributions are ubiquitous in the Universe.We then show that the spectral indexes of the histograms of soft X-ray fluxes observed by GOES satellites in two different energy channels are different:the higher energy channel has a harder distribution than the lower energy channel,which challenges the universal power-law distribution predicted by SOC models and implies a very soft distribution of thermal energy content of plasmas probed by the GOES satellites.The temperature(T) distribution,on the other hand,approaches a power-law distribution with an index of 2 for high values of T.Hence the application of SOC models to the statistical properties of solar flares needs to be revisited.     

The State of Self-organized Criticality of the Sun during the Last Three Solar Cycles. II. Theoretical Model

The observed power-law distributions of solar-flare parameters can be interpreted in terms of a nonlinear dissipative system in a state of self-organized criticality (SOC). We present a universal analytical model of an SOC process that is governed by three conditions: i) a multiplicative or exponential growth phase, ii) a randomly interrupted termination of the growth phase, and iii) a linear decay phase. This basic concept approximately reproduces the observed frequency distributions. We generalize it to a randomized exponential growth model, which also includes a (log-normal) distribution of threshold energies before the instability starts, as well as randomized decay times, which can reproduce both the observed occurrence-frequency distributions and the scatter of correlated parameters more realistically. With this analytical model we can efficiently perform Monte-Carlo simulations of frequency distributions and parameter correlations of SOC processes, which are simpler and faster than the iterative simulations of cellular automaton models. Solar-cycle modulations of the power-law slopes of flare-frequency distributions can be used to diagnose the thresholds and growth rates of magnetic instabilities responsible for solar flares.     

The Effect of Helicity Dissipation on the Critical State of an Avalanche Model for Solar Flares

We perform numerical simulations using an avalanche model for solar flares, in which the effect of avalanche event duration is included and the lateral boundary condition can be either open or periodic. The results from the simulations show that self-organized criticality (SOC) exists under a variety of conditions of helicity dissipation, and they are similar in the sense that the indices of power-law distributions of avalanche sizes are the same, while the duration and waiting time distributions differ little. Of interest are: (1) if there exists helicity dissipation in the course of avalanches, SOC exists only when the amount of helicity dissipation per avalanche is small; (2) sudden reductions in the total helicity of the system do not severely disturb SOC, if the amount reduced is moderate; (3) the distribution of waiting times is shown to be exponential, in consistent with the Poisson statistics other avalanche models have predicted, and the exponent increases as the effect of event duration becomes larger. The self-similar structure of the avalanche time series is also examined. These results imply that, although helicity is dissipated in resistive diffusion of flares, the amount of dissipation should be small and the conservation law of helicity thus holds in an approximate sense. Also, the coronal mass ejections (CMEs), observed to take helicity out of the solar corona in an eruptive way, may disrupt the statistical equilibrium of the corona only temporarily.     

Can self-organized critical accretion disks generate a log-normal emission variability in AGN?

Active Galactic Nuclei (AGN), such as Seyfert galaxies, quasars, etc., show light variations in all wavelength bands, with various amplitude and in many time scales. The variations usually look erratic, not periodic nor purely random. Many of these objects also show lognormal flux distribution and RMS–flux relation and power law frequency distribution. So far, the lognormal flux distribution of black hole objects is only observational facts without satisfactory explanation about the physical mechanism producing such distribution in the accretion disk. One of the most promising models based on cellular automaton mechanism has been successful in reproducing PSD (Power Spectral Density) of the observed objects but could not reproduce lognormal flux distribution. Such distribution requires the existence of underlying multiplicative process while the existing SOC models are based on additive processes. A modified SOC model based on cellular automaton mechanism for producing lognormal flux distribution is presented in this paper. The idea is that the energy released in the avalanche and diffusion in the accretion disk is not entirely emitted instantaneously as in the original cellular automaton model. Some part of the energy is kept in the disk and thus increase its energy content so that the next avalanche will be in higher energy condition and will release more energy. The later an avalanche occurs, the more amount of energy is emitted to the observers. This can provide multiplicative effects to the flux and produces lognormal flux distribution.     

The Science Operations and Data Center (SODC) of the ASO-S mission

A ground data analysis center is very important to the success of a mission. We introduce the Science Operations and Data Center(SODC) for the ASO-S mission, which consists of a scientific operation subcenter, a data management subcenter, a data analysis subcenter and a user service subcenter. The mission planning process, instrument observation modes and the data volume are presented. We describe the data flow and processing procedures from spacecraft telemetry to high-level science data, and the long-term archival as well. The data policy and distributions are also briefly introduced.     

Detection and mitigation of RFI in SBRS observation data

In view of the inconsistency of channel gains and a large amount of interference noise in Solar Broadband Radio Spectrometer(SBRS) observation data, they will seriously affect the analysis of SBRS data. In this paper, a method of Radio Frequency Interference(RFI) detection and mitigation for SBRS observation data is reported. Firstly, the SBRS observation data are preprocessed, a part of the observation data was selected to calculate the mean and variance to achieve the normalization of the entire observation data, which can avoid the influence of strong noise on the normalization result. Furthermore, we proposed an adaptive threshold RFI detection method based on fusion wavelet transform reconstruction and an RFI elimination method based on neighborhood weighted filling. It is worth mentioning that to detect RFI interference signals of different magnitudes, we adopted an iterative approach to the RFI detection and mitigation process. Through qualitative analysis of real observation data and quantitative analysis of simulated data, it is shown that the method proposed in this paper can effectively eliminate RFI in SBRS observation data, and improve the quality of observation data for further scientific analysis.     

Harmonic analysis of cosmic microwave background data – I. Ring reductions and point-source catalogue

We present a harmonic model for the data analysis of an all-sky cosmic microwave background survey, such as Planck , where the survey is obtained through ring-scans of the sky. In this model, resampling and pixelization of the data are avoided. The spherical transforms of the sky at each frequency, in total intensity and polarization, as well as the bright-point-source catalogue, are derived directly from the data reduced on to the rings. Formal errors and the most significant correlation coefficients for the spherical transforms of the frequency maps are preserved. A clean and transparent path from the original samplings in the time domain to the final scientific products is thus obtained. The data analysis is largely based on Fourier analysis of rings; the positional stability of the instrument's spin axis during these scans is a requirement for the data model and is investigated here for the Planck satellite. Brighter point sources are recognized and extracted as part of the ring reductions and, on the basis of accumulated data, used to build the bright-point-source catalogue. The analysis of the rings is performed in an iterative loop, involving a range of geometric and detector response calibrations. The geometric calibrations are used to reconstruct the paths of the detectors over the sky during a scan and the phase offsets between scans of different detectors; the response calibrations eliminate short- and long-term variations in detector response. Point-source information may allow the reconstruction of the beam profile. The reconstructed spherical transforms of the sky in each frequency channel form the input to the subsequent analysis stages. Although the methods in this paper were developed with the data processing for the Planck satellite in mind, there are many aspects which have wider implementation possibilities, including the construction of real-space pixelized maps.     

用于测量世界时的大型光纤陀螺仪的噪声分析

大型光纤陀螺仪可以精确测量地球自转角速率,进而可以运用于世界时(UT1)的解算工作中.光纤陀螺仪包含的噪声会影响测量的精确度以及稳定性,运用Allan方差可以对光纤陀螺仪的输出数据进行噪声分析,同时对陀螺仪测量数据进行功率谱分析,分析测量数据中存在的高频振动变化影响,并结合分析结果,从数据处理方法上提出改进措施.分析结果可以对光纤陀螺仪的改进以及数据处理方法的建立提供参考.     

上海天文台CHAMP掩星资料处理结果的统计分析

随着GPS全球定位系统的发展,已经有可能使用GPS掩星技术反演精确的大气温度,压强和湿度剖面．在概要地描述上海天文台(SHAO)开发的GPS掩星数据资料反演地球大气流程模块以后,分析了2002年8月1日至2002年8月17日期间2700多次CHAMP掩星数据资料的结果,并且与欧洲中尺度天气预报分析(ECMWF)资料进行比较和统计分析,讨论了CHAMP掩星数据的质量,并分析了CHAMP掩星数据的观测误差和ECMWF的分析模型误差．提出了一种优化的统计分析方法,它能更客观地反映GPS掩星技术的外部符合．统计分析结果表明GPS掩星数据将有可能成为数值天气预报和长期监测地球气候的非常有价值的数据资料．     

Using sparse photometric data sets for asteroid lightcurve studies

With the advent of wide-field imagers, it has become possible to conduct a photometric lightcurve survey of many asteroids simultaneously, either for that single purpose (e.g., Dermawan, B., Nakamura, T., Yoshida, F. [2011]. Publ. Astron. Soc. Japan 63, S555–S576; Masiero, J., Jedicke, R., ?urech, J., Gwyn, S., Denneau, L., Larsen, J. [2009]. Icarus 204, 145–171), or as a part of a multipurpose survey (e.g., Pan-STARRS, LSST). Such surveys promise to yield photometric data for many thousands of asteroids, but these data sets will be “sparse” compared to most of those taken in a “targeted” mode directed to one asteroid at a time.We consider the potential limitations of sparse data sets using different sampling rates with respect to specific research questions that might be addressed with lightcurve data. For our study we created synthetic sparse data sets similar to those from wide-field surveys by generating more than 380,000 individual lightcurves that were combined into more than 47,000 composite lightcurves. The variables in generating the data included the number of observations per night, number of nights, noise, and the intervals between observations and nights, in addition to periods ranging from 0.1 to 400 h and amplitudes ranging from 0.1 to 2.0 mag.A Fourier analysis pipeline was used to find the period for each composite lightcurve and then review the derived period and period spectrum to gauge how well an automated analysis of sparse data sets would perform in finding the true period. For this part of the analysis, a normally distributed noise level of 0.03 mag was added to the data, regardless of amplitude, thus simulating a relatively high SNR for the observations. For the second part of the analysis, a smaller set of composite curves was generated with fixed core parameters of eight observations per night, 8 nights within a 14-day span, periods ranging from 2 to 6 h, and an amplitude of either 0.3 mag or 0.4 mag. Individual data sets using these fixed parameters added normally-distributed noise of 0.05, 0.1, or 0.2 mag. The analysis examined the success rates for finding the true period as the noise increased towards levels simulating data for objects close to sky background levels.After applying a filter to remove highly-ambiguous solution sets, the best chance for success was found to be when the true period was in the range of P ≈ 2–5 h and amplitudes were A ? 0.5 mag. The solution sets for lightcurves with low amplitude, long periods, and/or those that were sampled too sparsely in comparison to the period were often too ambiguous to be considered reliable for statistical rotation studies. Analysis of slow rotators (P > 24 h) found that somewhat reasonable solutions of P < 6 h could be found for about 15–20% of those objects, even at higher amplitudes, indicating that the Fourier analysis had locked onto the noise in the data.Efforts to produce an automated pipeline to help determine an unambiguous (or nearly so) solution based on the period spectrum from the Fourier analysis were made. These proved unsuccessful because of the number of parameters that must be considered and the difficulties in assigning an objective weight to each one in finding a final result. Despite this initial failure, further attempts will be made to quantify the U rating system.Comparison of the synthetic data analysis results to those from two actual surveys shows a reasonable agreement between the two. A review of the pros and cons of sparse versus dense data sets shows that each has a significant role in future studies and that it will be critical to establish open lines of communications and data exchange between the deep wide-field sparse data surveys and dense data programs.     

Point source detection performance of Hard X-ray Modulation Telescope imaging observation

The Hard X-ray Modulation Telescope(HXMT) will perform an all-sky survey in the hard X-ray band as well as deep imaging of a series of small sky regions.We expect various compact objects to be detected in these imaging observations. Point source detection performance of HXMT imaging observation depends not only on the instrument but also on the data analysis method that is applied since images are reconstructed from HXMT observed data with numerical methods. The denoising technique used plays an important part in the HXMT imaging data analysis pipeline along with demodulation and source detection. In this paper we have implemented several methods for denoising HXMT data and evaluated the point source detection performances in terms of sensitivities and location accuracies. The results show that direct demodulation with 1-fold cross-correlation should be the default reconstruction and regularization method, although both sensitivity and location accuracy could be further improved by selecting and tuning numerical methods in data analysis used for HXMT imaging observations.     

AVES: A high performance computer cluster array for the INTEGRAL satellite scientific data analysis

In this paper we describe a new computing system array, designed, built and now used at the Space Astrophysics and Planetary Institute (IAPS) in Rome, Italy, for the INTEGRAL Space Observatory scientific data analysis. This new system has become necessary in order to reduce the processing time of the INTEGRAL data accumulated during the more than 9 years of in-orbit operation. In order to fulfill the scientific data analysis requirements with a moderately limited investment the starting approach has been to use a ??cluster?? array of commercial quad-CPU computers, featuring the extremely large scientific and calibration data archive on line.     

RHESSI Data Analysis Software: Rationale and Methods

The Reuven Ramaty High-Energy Solar Spectroscopic Imager (RHESSI) performs imaging spectroscopy of the Sun with high spatial and spectral resolution from 3 keV to 17 MeV using indirect Fourier-transform techniques. We review the rationale behind the RHESSI data analysis software, and explain the underlying structure of the software tools. Our goal was to make the large data set available within weeks after the RHESSI launch, and to make it possible for any member of the scientific community to analyze it easily. This paper describes the requirements for the software and explores our decisions to use the SolarSoftWare and Interactive Data Language programming packages, to support both Windows and Unix platforms, and to use object-oriented programming. We also describe how the data are rapidly disseminated and how ancillary data sets are used to enhance the RHESSI science. Finally, we give a schematic overview of some of the data flow through the high-level analysis tools. More information on the data and analysis procedures can be found at the RHESSI Data Center website, http://hesperia.gsfc.nasa.gov/rhessidatacenter. Supplementary material to this paper is available in electronic form at http://dx.doi.org/10.1023/A:1022444531435     

SOHO, Yohkoh, Ulysses and Trace: The four solar missions in perspective, and available resources

Four solar observing spacecraft, now in operation, have obtained and continue to obtain data during the late phase of solar cycle 22 and hopefully most of cycle 23. The data are available for scientific analysis, practically in an unrestricted manner. A large pool of software suited for the processing and to help programming any data analysis is freely available. An almost random list of results that are being obtained with this data is presented as an example of what can be done by analysing the data from these spacecraft, either alone or combining results among them, with ground observatories, or with other spacecraft, such as those that measure particles and fields in interplanetary space or in geospace, to study solar physics or solar-terrestrial relations. This revised version was published online in July 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.