Spectral analyses of solar photospheric fluctuations

The application of the fast-Fourier-transform (FFT) algorithm to calculating one-dimensional and bi-dimensional (temporal and spatial), power and cross-power (coherence and phase) spectra is examined for solar photospheric fluctuations. Alternative methods for smoothing raw spectra, direct averaging (employing various weights) and indirect truncation of the correlation function, are compared, and indirect smoothing is compared with spectra calculated by mean-lagged-product (MLP) methods. Besides providing the raw spectrum, FFT techniques easily allow computing a series of spectra with varying amounts of smoothing. From these spectra a range of satisfactory compromise between resolution and stability can be determined which helps in the interpretation of spectral trends, and in identifying more clearly the existence and significance of spectral features. For bi-dimensional spectra presented as contour plots, this range of satisfactory smoothing can be restricted, particularly when spectral trends must be represented by small-scale contours. Equivalent spectra (i.e. comparable equivalent degrees of freedom) computed or smoothed by different methods have minor, but not negligible, differences. Examination of these differences favors computing of FFT spectra smoothed by averaging for photospheric fluctuations.     

光压摄动计算中地影间断的处理

人卫精密定轨中受摄星历（或称精密星历,即状态转移）,可由分析解或数值解提供,相应的定轨方法亦有分析法定轨与数值法定轨之称。对于后者,在一般情况下,现有的常微分方程数值解法（或称积分器）已能满足精度要求,除长弧定轨外,有一定问题是值得注意的,即地影“间断”问题的处理,这关系到如何在保证星历精度的前提下提高计算效率的问题。本文针对这一问题,给出了相应的改进算法,并通过数值验证表明算法的有效性。     

Numerical verification of analytic expressions for the perturbations due to an arbitrary zonal harmonic of the geopotential

Expressions are given for the first order node-to-node perturbations in the orbital elements of a satellite due to an arbitrary zonal harmonic of the geopotential. Accurate and efficient procedures for computing such perturbations are necessary for orbit determination methods which will fully utilize the highly accurate observations now available.Comparison with a double precision numerical integration is made for an intermediate altitude satellite, TELSTAR I. (Second order perturbations due to the second harmonic, derived elsewhere, are included, as are the first order perturbations due to the zonals through fourteenth order.) Discrepancies in semi-major axis after 1 period are of the order of 0.1 mm. Discrepancies in timing are of the order of 0.03 msec. A detailed discussion of computational efficiency is included.     

Computation of Relative Magnetic Helicity in Spherical Coordinates

Magnetic helicity is a quantity of great importance in solar studies because it is conserved in ideal magnetohydrodynamics. While many methods for computing magnetic helicity in Cartesian finite volumes exist, in spherical coordinates, the natural coordinate system for solar applications, helicity is only treated approximately. We present here a method for properly computing the relative magnetic helicity in spherical geometry. The volumes considered are finite, of shell or wedge shape, and the three-dimensional magnetic field is considered to be fully known throughout the studied domain. Testing of the method with well-known, semi-analytic, force-free magnetic-field models reveals that it has excellent accuracy. Further application to a set of nonlinear force-free reconstructions of the magnetic field of solar active regions and comparison with an approximate method used in the past indicates that the proposed method can be significantly more accurate, thus making our method a promising tool in helicity studies that employ spherical geometry. Additionally, we determine and discuss the applicability range of the approximate method.     

Matrix formulation of the Picard method for parallel computation

Celestial Mechanics and Dynamical Astronomy - The increasing availability of computing machines capable of parallel computation has accelerated interest in numerical methods that exhibit natural...     

Development Of The Hamiltonian Function Using The Jacobi System Of Reference

In this paper we describe two different methods to expand the second term of the planetary Hamiltonian function. The Jacobi system of coordinates is adopted leading to a unique evaluation of the Hamiltonian. Previous analytical or semi-analytical planetary theories suffer from the drawback of computing the perturbation function for each planet, which is quite cumbersome. The inclinations of planets are referred to a common fixed plane and the longitudes to a common origin. This is necessary when we deal with n > 2 planets. The treatment is straightforward, and no complexities appear throughout the analysis. This revised version was published online in July 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

Efficient Symplectic Integration of Satellite Orbits

The use of the extended phase space and time transformations for constructing efficient symplectic methods for computing the long term behavior of perturbed two‐body systems are discussed. Main applications are for artificial satellite orbits. The methods suggested here are efficient also for large eccentricities. This revised version was published online in July 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

2-D models of rapidly rotating stars

Recent observational advances in the fields of asteroseismology and interferometry, have put in evidence the need of physically realistic models of rapidly rotating stars. In rapidly rotating stars, the centrifugal force affects dramatically the structure of the star and makes it necessary to use 2-D methods that take fully into account the deformation of the star. We compute the structure of rapidly rotating stars using 2-D spectral methods. The advantage of spectral methods compared with finite difference methods is that they can achieve the same accuracy while reducing significantly the number of grid points, thus saving computing time. The models include core convection and realistic microphysics (tabulated equation of state and opacity).     

考虑地球扁率摄动影响的初轨计算方法

在二体问题意义下的短弧定轨,Laplace型方法是最主要最典型的一种初轨计算方法。若测角资料达到10^-4-10^-5精度(相当于2″—20″之间),那么要使定轨精度达到与其相应的程度,地球非球形引力位中的扁率项摄动应该考虑,在此前提下,同样可以采用相应的Laplace型定轨方法。即给出这种严格包含扁率摄动的初轨计算方法的原理和具体计算过程以及计算实例,除采用多资料定轨方法外,这种方法也是提高初轨计算精度的一种途径,它同样可用于多资料的情况,这种方法对于大扁率主天体(即中心天体)的卫星定轨将更有实用价值。     

An optimal (m+3)[m+4] Runge Kutta algorithm

Recurrent power series methods are particularly applicable to problems in celestial mechanics since the Taylor coefficients may be expressed by recurrence relations. However, as the number of Taylor coefficients increases as is often necessary because of accuracy requirements, the computing time grows prohibitively large. In order to avoid this unfavorable situation, Dr E. Fehlberg introduced in 1960 Runge-Kutta methods that use the firstm Taylor coefficients obtained by recursive relations, or some other technique.Optimalm-fold Runge-Kutta methods are introduced. Embedded methods of order (m+3)[m+4] and (m+4)[m+5] are presented which have coefficients that produce minimum local truncation errors for the higher order pair of solutions of the method, as well as providing a near maximum absolute stability region. It is emphasized that the methods are formulated such that the higher order pair of solutions is to be utilized. These optimal methods are compared to the existingm-fold methods for several test problems. The numerical comparisons show that the optimal methods are more efficient. It is stressed that these optimal methods are particularly efficient whenm is small.     

Longterm Prediction of Solar Activity Using the Combined Method

The Combined Method is a non-parametric regression technique for long-term prediction of smoothed monthly sunspot numbers. Starting from a solar minimum, a prediction of the succeeding maximum is obtained by using a dynamo-based relation between the geomagnetic aa index and succeeding solar maxima. Then a series of predictions is calculated by computing the weighted average of past cycles of similar level. This technique leads to a good prediction performance, particularly in the ascending phase of the solar cycle where purely statistical methods tend to be inaccurate. For cycle 23 the combined method predicts a maximum of 160 (in terms of smoothed sunspot number) early in the year 2000.     

Dependence on the observational time intervals and domain of convergence of orbital determination methods

In the framework of the orbital determination methods, we study some properties related to the algorithms developed by Gauss, Laplace and Mossotti. In particular, we investigate the dependence of such methods upon the size of the intervals between successive observations, encompassing also the case of two nearby observations performed within the same night. Moreover we study the convergence of Gauss algorithm by computing the maximal eigenvalue of the jacobian matrix associated to the Gauss map. Applications to asteroids and Kuiper belt objects are considered.     

The evolution of the surface temperature of Mars

Changes in the average surface temperature of Mars are studied as a function of the time that has elapsed since the origin of the planet. Time variations in the factors influencing the surface temperature are investigated: and approximate methods for computing the effect of such variations are discussed. Three possible degassing sequences are postulated, and their likely effects for the presence of liquid water on the Martian surface are assessed.     

Generalized photoclinometry for Mariner 9

The present investigation develops a new theory for the photoclinometric determination of topography when the photometric function of the planetary surface (or that which corresponds to the mean optical depth of emergent scattered solar radiation from an optically thick planetary atmosphere) is not restricted beyond the expectation that it is a function of phase angle, angle of incidence, and angle of emergence. Several versions of such an operational theory, which differ according to the auxiliary conditions employed to achieve mathematical determinacy, together with several approaches to the numerical analysis, have been evolved. The differences in the numerical methods arise from a variable trade-off between computing speed and stability and computer storage requirements. Although the computer encoding process is not yet fully operational, a first result has been worked out for an early frame in the Mariner 9 mission in which the dust-laden atmosphere appears to exhibit standing-wave patterns. Provided the assumption of homologous departures from plane-parallel atmospheric configuration is valid, the photoclinometric implication is that laminar flow lines in the optically viewable dust layer undergo a near-sinusoidal rise and fall of about 40 to 50m. Regardless of assumption, the resulting surface is a rigorous mean-emission surface.     

A robust determination of halo environment in the cosmic field

A number of methods for studying the large-scale cosmic matter distribution exist in the literature. One particularly common method employed to define the cosmic web is to examine the density, velocity or potential field. Such methods are advantageous since a Hessian matrix can be constructed whose eigenvectors (and eigenvalues) indicate the principal directions (and strength) of local collapse or expansion. Technically this is achieved by diagonalizing the Hessian matrix using a fixed finite grid. The resultant large-scale structure quantification is thus inherently limited by the grid’s finite resolution. Here, we overcome the obstacle of finite grid resolution by introducing a new method to determine halo environment using an adaptive interpolation which is more robust to resolution than the typical “Nearest Grid Point” (NGP) method. Essentially instead of computing and diagonalizing the Hessian matrix once for the entire grid, we suggest doing so once for each halo or galaxy in question. We examine how the eigenvalues and eigenvector direction’s computed using our algorithm and the NGP method converge for different grid resolutions, finding that our new method is convergent faster. Namely changes of resolution have a much smaller effect than in the NGP method. We therefore suggest this method for future use by the community.     

Universal Keplerian state transition matrix

A completely general method for computing the Keplerian state transition matrix in terms of Goodyear's universal variables is presented. This includes a new scheme for solving Kepler's problem which is a necessary first step to computing the transition matrix. The Kepler problem is solved in terms of a new independent variable requiring the evaluation of only one transcendental function. Furthermore, this transcendental function may be conveniently evaluated by means of a Gaussian continued fraction.This work was supported at The Charles Stark Draper Laboratory, Inc., by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration under Contract NAS9-16023.     

用改进的SPEA求解轨道转移的时间-能量极小化问题

提出了改进的SPEA，这是一种多目标进化算法，适于求解大尺度空间的多目标优化的Pareto最优解，并应用于求解轨道转移的时间—能量极小化问题，计算结果表明算法的有效性。     

The gravitational field of three-dimensional galaxies

The simplest method of calculating gravitational fields is to use a set of biorthogonal pairs of mass-potential functions. A suitable set of functions for three dimensional mass distributions is derived which uses ultraspherical polynomials. Algorithms for computing the gravitational field are discussed which attempt to maximise computational efficiency.     

Accurate free–free Gaunt factors for astrophysical plasmas

New calculations of free–free transition matrix element integrals are performed using modern symbolic computing techniques to evaluate the hypergeometric functions with complex arguments. The results are presented in both graphical and tabular form including accurate extrapolation methods. The results are accurate to the level of ∼ 10⁻⁴, beyond which relativistic corrections would be needed, which are not included. The results are also computed over a very wide range of scaled ionic temperature (γ²) and wavelength, extending earlier results to new regimes encountered in highly photoionized and non-equilibrium ionization plasmas. These results will be useful in the spectral range from submillimetre to hard X-ray wavelengths and temperatures from 10 to 10⁹ K.     

Dynamic discretization method for solving Kepler’s equation

Kepler’s equation needs to be solved many times for a variety of problems in Celestial Mechanics. Therefore, computing the solution to Kepler’s equation in an efficient manner is of great importance to that community. There are some historical and many modern methods that address this problem. Of the methods known to the authors, Fukushima’s discretization technique performs the best. By taking more of a system approach and combining the use of discretization with the standard computer science technique known as dynamic programming, we were able to achieve even better performance than Fukushima. We begin by defining Kepler’s equation for the elliptical case and describe existing solution methods. We then present our dynamic discretization method and show the results of a comparative analysis. This analysis will demonstrate that, for the conditions of our tests, dynamic discretization performs the best.