Ambipolar diffusion in the solar atmosphere

The process of non-linear ambipolar diffusion in the region overlying the solar surface can be an effective mechanism for producing sharp magnetic structures and current sheets. These may be the sites responsible for the occurrence of connectivity of magnetic field lines, and the subsequent explosive input of energy for heating of some of the features in the atmosphere of the Sun..     

Mass composition of the escaping plasma at Mars

Data from the Ion Mass Analyzer (IMA) sensor of the ASPERA-3 instrument suite on Mars Express have been analyzed to determine the mass composition of the escaping ion species at Mars. We have examined 77 different ion-beam events and we present the results in terms of flux ratios between the following ion species: CO⁺₂/O⁺ and O⁺₂/O⁺. The following ratios averaged over all events and energies were identified: CO⁺₂/O⁺ = 0.2 and O⁺₂/O⁺ = 0.9. The values measured are significantly higher, by a factor of 10 for O⁺₂/O⁺, than a contemporary modeled ratio for the maximum fluxes which the martian ionosphere can supply. The most abundant ion species was found to be O⁺, followed by O⁺₂ and CO⁺₂. We estimate the loss of CO⁺₂ to be by using the previous measurements of Phobos-2 in our calculations. The dependence of the ion ratios in relation to their energy ranges we studied, 0.3-3.0 keV, indicated that no clear correlation was found.     

GPS无线电掩星数据处理系统

GPS无线电掩星技术能提供高精度、高分辨率、全球覆盖的地球电离层和中性层大气剖面。它具有全天候、低费用、无系统长期漂移等优点。从1995年4月至1997年3月,首次GPS／MET试验的成功显示了GPS掩星技术对监测全球大气能够发挥重要的作用,从而成为当前空间探测技术的研究热点之一。该文主要叙述了无线电掩星技术的数据处理系统的有关情况,并介绍了美国UCAR的掩星数据处理系统CDAAC的概况,可作为我国开展无线电掩星计划有关工作的借鉴。     

锆石Ce 氧逸度计和早期地球的氧化还原状态

氧逸度可以用于定量描述一个体系的氧化还原状态,是地球科学非常重要的一个热力学指标。早期地球的氧逸度及其变化趋势的重建,对大气圈、水圈、生物圈乃至整个地球的起源和演化具有重要的科学意义,也是地球科学长期探索的重要目标。锆石提供了地球上已发现的最古老天然样品,几乎是目前研究早期(冥古宙)地球的唯一可靠对象。近年来的研究发现,锆石中Ce的含量对其母岩浆体系的氧逸度很敏感,并由此发展出了锆石的Ce氧逸度计。这一技术对认识早期地球的氧化还原状态十分关键。文章对锆石Ce氧逸度计进行了简单介绍,进而对早期地壳和地幔的氧化还原状态进行了综合评述。在此基础上,对早期地球几个重要圈层(大气圈、大陆地壳和上地幔)氧逸度的演化及相互间的耦合关系进行了讨论。     

Optimal orbits for Mars atmosphere remote sensing

Most of the spacecrafts currently around Mars (or planned to reach Mars in the near future) use Sun-synchronous or near-polar orbits. Such orbits offer a very poor sampling of the diurnal cycle. Yet, sampling the diurnal cycle is of key importance to study Mars meteorology and climate. A comprehensive remote sensing data set should have been obtained by the end of the MRO mission, launched in 2005. For later windows, time-varying phenomena should be given the highest priority for remote sensing investigations. We present possible orbits for such missions which provide a rich spatial and temporal sampling with a relatively short repeat cycle (50 sols). After computation and determination of these orbits, said “optimal orbits”, we illustrate our results by tables of sampling and comparison with other orbits.     

Propagation of Alfvén waves in multi-layer solar atmosphere model

In this paper, we idealize the actual solar atmosphere as a multi-isothermal-layer system so as to obtain the energy transmittance of the linear Alfvén wave that propagates through such a system in presence of a uniform oblique magnetic filed. The results indicate that the two-layer model is essentially different to the three-layer one. In the two-layer model, the temperature jump acts as a high pass filter. In the three-layer model, resonant transfer will take place and the transmittance undergoes oscillation as the trigonometric function terms dominate its behavior. For actual solar atmosphere, the result reveals that the lower parts of solar atmosphere are more suitable for those Alfvén waves with period of seconds to transfer their energy.     

SWAS observations of water vapor in the Venus mesosphere

We present the first detections of the ground-state H₂¹⁶O (₁₁₀-₁₀₁) rotational transition (at 556.9 GHz) and the ¹³CO (5-4) rotational transition from the atmosphere of Venus, measured with the Submillimeter Wave Astronomy Satellite (SWAS). The observed spectral features of these submillimeter transitions originate primarily from the 70-100 km altitude range, within the Venus mesosphere. Observations were obtained in December 2002, and January, March, and July 2004, coarsely sampling one Venus diurnal period as seen from Earth. The measured water vapor absorption line depth shows large variability among the four observing periods, with strong detections of the line in December 2002 and July 2004, and no detections in January and March 2004. Retrieval of atmospheric parameters was performed using a multi-transition inversion algorithm, combining simultaneous retrievals of temperature, carbon monoxide, and water profiles under imposed constraints. Analysis of the SWAS spectra resulted in measurements or upper limits for the globally averaged mesospheric water vapor abundance for each of the four observation periods, finding variability over at least two orders of magnitude. The results are consistent with both temporal and diurnal variability, but with short-term fluctuations clearly dominating. These results are fully consistent with the long-term study of mesospheric water vapor from millimeter and submillimeter observations of HDO [Sandor, B.J., Clancy, R.T., 2005. Icarus 177, 129-143]. The December 2002 observations detected very rapid change in the mesospheric water abundance. Over five days, a deep water absorption feature consistent with a water vapor abundance of 4.5±1.5 parts per million suddenly gave way to a significantly shallower absorption, implying a decrease in the water vapor abundance by a factor of nearly 50 in less that 48 h. In 2004, similar changes in the water vapor abundance were measured between the March and July SWAS observing periods, but variability on time scales of less than a week was not detected. The mesospheric water vapor is expected to be in equilibrium with aerosol particles, primarily composed of concentrated sulfuric acid, in the upper haze layers of the Venus atmosphere. If true, moderate amplitude (10-15 K) variability in mesospheric temperature, previously noted in millimeter spectroscopy observations of Venus, can explain the rapid water vapor variability detected by SWAS.     

Low latitude airglow

Tropical airglow work during the last few years is reviewed. Airglow instrumentation is becoming more complex. Some of these sophisticated airglow experiments giving important information about the upper atmosphere such as ionospheric F region electron density, height of maximum electron density, dynamics of and irregularities in the F region, mesospheric neutral temperature and its variation, dynamics of mesospheric, etc. are mentioned. At the end some problems which could be tackled in near future with airglow techniques have been suggested. Invited Review paper, Commission 21, IAU, Patras, Greece, August, 1982.     

The Boussinesq-BO equation for algebraic gravity solitary waves in baroclinic atmosphere and the research of squall lines formation mechanism

The gravity solitary waves are a kind of waves which are caused by the disturbance of static equilibrium. The nonlinearity concentration of the gravity solitary waves makes the energy assemble together and forms disastrous weather phenomena, such as squall lines. By the calculation condition and theoretical method limit, previous studies tried hard to reduce the variable numbers and discussed the gravity solitary waves in barotropic atmosphere, but the baroclinic problem of atmosphere is inevitable topic. In this paper, from the basic kinetic equations in baroclinic non-static equilibrium atmosphere, by using multi-scale analysis and perturbation method, a new model is derived to describe the algebraic gravity solitary waves, we call it Boussinesq-BO equation. Comparing with the former models, the Boussinesq-BO model can describe the propagation process of waves in two directions and is more suitable for the real atmosphere condition. With the help of the trial function method, an exact solution of Boussinesq-BO equation is obtained and the fission property of algebraic gravity solitary waves is discussed. Finally, we can find that the fission of algebraic gravity solitary waves is also a possible formation mechanism of squall lines.     

Mapping of Ozone and Water in the Atmosphere of Mars near the 1997 Aphelion

We present absolute abundances and latitudinal variations of ozone and water in the atmosphere of Mars during its late northern spring (L_s=67.3°) shortly before aphelion. Long-slit maps of the a¹Δ_g state of molecular oxygen (O₂) and HDO, an isotopic form of water, were acquired on UT January 21.6 1997 using a high-resolution infrared spectrometer (CSHELL) at the NASA Infrared Telescope Facility. O₂(a¹Δ_g) is produced by ozone photolysis, and the ensuing dayglow emission at 1.27 μm is used as a tracer for ozone. Retrieved vertical column densities for ozone above ∼20 km ranged between 1.5 and 2.8 μm-atm at mid- to low latitudes (30°S-60°N) and decreased outside that region. A significant decrease in ozone density is seen near 30°N (close to the subsolar latitude of 23.5°N). The rotational temperatures retrieved from O₂(a-X) emissions show a mean of 172±2.5 K, confirming that the sensed ozone lies in the middle atmosphere (∼24 km). The ν₁ fundamental band of HDO near 3.67 μm was used as a proxy for H₂O. The retrieved vertical column abundance of water varies from 3 precipitable microns (pr-μm) at ∼30°S to 24 pr-μm at ∼60°N. We compare these results with current photochemical models and with measurements obtained by other methods.