大气质量综合航空测量系统简介

在全球范围内,大气污染日趋严重,已影响到人类的生存和发展。近几年高光谱遥感技术应用,可准确探明地球地貌,识别军事目标,区分岩性和植被。而高光谱数据和大气质量有关,即受大气污染和大气含尘量的影响。为此,我国境内大气质量监测等项工作势在必行。本文列出了评价大气质量的几个主要参数、所需设备的基本情况,并在此基础上进行了系统设计,讨论了解决在硬件设计和软件编程过程中所遇到的问题等。     

The Coronal Diagnostic Spectrometer for the solar and heliospheric observatory

The Coronal Diagnostic Spectrometer is designed to probe the solar atmosphere through the detection of spectral emission lines in the extreme ultraviolet wavelength range 150 – 800 . By observing the intensities of selected lines and line profiles, we may derive temperature, density, flow and abundance information for the plasmas in the solar atmosphere. Spatial and temporal resolutions of down to a few arcseconds and seconds, respectively, allow such studies to be made within the fine-scale structure of the solar corona. Futhermore, coverage of large wavelength bands provides the capability for simultaneously observing the properties of plasmas across the wide temperature ranges of the solar atmosphere.     

Remote sensing of clouds and aerosols with cosmic rays

Remote sensing of atmosphere is conventionally done via a study of extinction/scattering of light from natural (Sun, Moon) or artificial (laser) sources. Cherenkov emission from extensive air showers generated by cosmic rays provides one more natural light source distributed throughout the atmosphere. We show that Cherenkov light carries information on three-dimensional distribution of clouds and aerosols in the atmosphere and on the size distribution and scattering phase function of cloud/aerosol particles. Therefore, it could be used for the atmospheric sounding. The new atmospheric sounding method could be implemented via an adjustment of technique of imaging Cherenkov telescopes. The atmospheric sounding data collected in this way could be used both for atmospheric science and for the improvement of the quality of astronomical gamma-ray observations.     

Emergence of polar-jet polygons from jet instabilities in a Saturn model

Voyager flybys of Saturn in 1980-1981 revealed a circumpolar wave at ≈78° north planetographic latitude. The feature had a dominant wavenumber 6 mode, and has been termed the Hexagon from its geometric appearance in polar-projected mosaics. It was also noted for being stationary with respect to Saturn’s Kilometric Radiation (SKR) rotation rate. The Hexagon has persisted for over 30 years since the Voyager observations until now. It has been observed from ground based telescopes, Hubble Space Telescope and multiple instruments onboard Cassini in orbit around Saturn. Measurements of cloud motions in the region reveal the presence of a jet stream whose path closely follows the Hexagon’s outline. Why the jet stream takes the characteristic six-sided shape and how it is stably maintained across multiple saturnian seasons are yet to be explained. We present numerical simulations of the 78.3°N jet using the Explicit Planetary Isentropic-Coordinate (EPIC) model and demonstrate that a stable hexagonal structure can emerge without forcing when dynamic instabilities in the zonal jet nonlinearly equilibrate. For a given amplitude of the jet, the dominant zonal wavenumber is most strongly dependent on the peak curvature of the jet, i.e., the second north-south spatial derivative of the zonal wind profile at the center of the jet. The stable polygonal shape of the jet in our simulations is formed by a vortex street with cyclonic and anticyclonic vortices lining up towards the polar and equatorial side of the jet, respectively. Our result is analogous to laboratory experiments of fluid motions in rotating tanks that develop polygonal flows out of vortex streets. However, our results also show that a vortex street model of the Hexagon cannot reproduce the observed propagation speed unless the zonal jet’s speed is modified beyond the uncertainties in the observed zonal wind speed, which suggests that a vortex street model of the Hexagon and the observed zonal wind profile may not be mutually compatible.     

Scale-dependent infrared radiative damping rates on Mars and their role in the deposition of gravity-wave momentum flux

Using a Curtis-matrix model of 15 μm CO₂ radiative cooling rates for the martian atmosphere, we have computed vertical scale-dependent IR radiative damping rates from 0 to 200 km altitude over a broad band of vertical wavenumbers ∣m∣ = 2π(1-500 km)⁻¹ for representative meteorological conditions at 40°N and average levels of solar activity and dust loading. In the middle atmosphere, infrared (IR) radiative damping rates increase with decreasing vertical scale and peak in excess of 30 days⁻¹ at ∼50-80 km altitude, before gradually transitioning to scale-independent rates above ∼100 km due to breakdown of local thermodynamic equilibrium. We incorporate these computed IR radiative damping rates into a linear anelastic gravity-wave model to assess the impact of IR radiative damping, relative to wave breaking and molecular viscosity, in the dissipation of gravity-wave momentum flux. The model results indicate that IR radiative damping is the dominant process in dissipating gravity-wave momentum fluxes at ∼0-50 km altitude, and is the dominant process at all altitudes for gravity waves with vertical wavelengths ?10-15 km. Wave breaking becomes dominant at higher altitudes only for “fast” waves of short horizontal and long vertical wavelengths. Molecular viscosity plays a negligible role in overall momentum flux deposition. Our results provide compelling evidence that IR radiative damping is a major, and often dominant physical process controlling the dissipation of gravity-wave momentum fluxes on Mars, and therefore should be incorporated into future parameterizations of gravity-wave drag within Mars GCMs. Lookup tables for doing so, based on the current computations, are provided.     

Impact of atmospheric gravity waves on the jovian ionosphere

We investigate the effects of atmospheric gravity waves on the vertical and horizontal structure of the ionosphere of Jupiter. The presented non-linear, two-dimensional model of the jovian ionosphere allows for spatially and temporally varying neutral wind and temperature fields and tracks the time evolution of six ionospheric species, , and . An analytical approach is used to validate the model results for linear, small-amplitude waves and to elucidate the mechanisms that leads to perturbations in the density of the main ion species, H⁺ and . We demonstrate that the long-lived H⁺ ions are perturbed directly by wave dynamics whereas short-lived ions such as are perturbed by chemical interactions with other perturbed ion species. The model is then applied using larger gravity wave amplitudes consistent with observations. Atmospheric gravity waves propagating at high altitudes create layers of enhanced electron density similar to the system of layers observed during the J0-ingress radio occultation of the Galileo spacecraft. Our best fit to the J0-ingress observation is achieved using an 82 min period forcing wave with horizontal and vertical wavelengths of 500 km and 60 km respectively, and peaks at 510 km above the 1 bar pressure level. We further investigate the effects of the wave-induced ion flux on the background ionospheric structure and demonstrate that in the presence of a gravity wave the background density profiles of the H⁺ and ions are significantly modified. We also find that the column density of has variations that can exceed 10% as the wave propagates.     

Is there methane on Mars?

There have been several reports of methane on Mars at the 10-60 ppbv level. Most suggest that methane is both seasonally and latitudinally variable. Here we review why variable methane on Mars is physically and chemically implausible, and then we critically review the published reports. There is no known mechanism for destroying methane chemically on Mars. But if there is one, methane oxidation would deplete the O₂ in Mars’s atmosphere in less than 10,000 years unless balanced by an equally large unknown source of oxidizing power. Physical sequestration does not raise these questions, but adsorption in the regolith or condensation in clathrates ignore competition for adsorption sites or are inconsistent with clathrate stability, respectively. Furthermore, any mechanism that relies on methane’s van der Waals’ attraction is inconsistent with the continued presence of Xe in the atmosphere at the 60 ppbv level. We then use the HITRAN database and transmission calculations to identify and characterize the absorption lines that would be present on Earth or Mars at the wavelengths of the published observations. These reveal strong competing telluric absorption that is most problematic at just those wavelengths where methane’s signature seems most clearly seen from Earth. The competing telluric lines must be removed with models. The best case for martian methane was made for the ¹²CH₄ν₃ R0 and R1 lines seen in blueshift when Mars was approaching Earth in early 2003 (Mumma, M.J., Villanueva, G.L., Novak, R.E., Hewagama, T., Bonev, B.P., DiSanti, M.A., Mandell, A.M., Smith, M.D. [2009]. Science 323, 1041-1045). For these the Doppler shift moves the two martian lines into near coincidence with telluric ¹³CH₄ν₃ R1 and R2 lines that are 10-50× stronger than the inferred martian lines. By contrast, the ¹²CH₄ν₃ R0 and R1 lines when observed in redshift do not contend with telluric ¹³CH₄. For these lines, Mumma et al.’s observations and analyses are consistent with an upper limit on the order of 3 ppbv.     

Post-equinox observations of Uranus: Berg’s evolution, vertical structure, and track towards the equator

We present observations of Uranus taken with the near-infrared camera NIRC2 on the 10-m W.M. Keck II telescope, the Wide Field Planetary Camera 2 (WFPC2) and the Wide Field Camera 3 (WFC3) on the Hubble Space Telescope (HST) from July 2007 through November 2009. In this paper we focus on a bright southern feature, referred to as the “Berg.” In Sromovsky et al. (Sromovsky, L.A., Fry, P.M., Hammel, H.B., Ahue, A.W., de Pater, I., Rages, K.A., Showalter, M.R., van Dam, M. [2009]. Icarus 203, 265-286), we reported that this feature, which oscillated between latitudes of −32° and −36° for several decades, suddenly started on a northward track in 2005. In this paper we show the complete record of observations of this feature’s track towards the equator, including its demise. After an initially slow linear drift, the feature’s drift rate accelerated at latitudes ∣θ∣ < 25°. By late 2009 the feature, very faint by then, was spotted at a latitude of −5° before disappearing from view. During its northward track, the feature’s morphology changed dramatically, and several small bright unresolved features were occasionally visible poleward of the main “streak.” These small features were sometimes visible at a wavelength of 2.2 μm, indicative that the clouds reached altitudes of ∼0.6 bar. The main part of the Berg, which is generally a long sometimes multipart streak, is estimated to be much deeper in the atmosphere, near 3.5 bars in 2004, but rising to 1.8-2.5 bars in 2007 after it began its northward drift. Through comparisons with Neptune’s Great Dark Spot and simulations of the latter, we discuss why the Berg may be tied to a vortex, an anticyclone deeper in the atmosphere that is visible only through orographic companion clouds.     

The dispersal of pyroclasts from Apollinaris Patera, Mars: Implications for the origin of the Medusae Fossae Formation

The Medusae Fossae Formation (MFF) has long been thought to be of Amazonian age, but recent studies propose that a significant part of its emplacement occurred in the Hesperian and that many of the Amazonian ages represent modification (erosional and redepositional) ages. On the basis of the new formational age, we assess the hypothesis that explosive eruptions from Apollinaris Patera might have been the source of the Medusae Fossae Formation. In order to assess the likelihood of this hypothesis, we examine stratigraphic relationships between Apollinaris Patera and the MFF and analyze the relief of the MFF using topographic data. We predict the areal distribution of tephra erupted from Apollinaris Patera using a Mars Global Circulation Model (GCM) combined with a semi-analytical explosive eruption model for Mars, and compare this with the distribution of the MFF. We conclude that Apollinaris Patera could have been responsible for the emplacement of the Medusae Fossae Formation.     

Heavy ion escape from Mars, influence from solar wind conditions and crustal magnetic fields

We have used more than 4 years of Mars Express ion data to estimate the escape of heavy ions ( and ) from Mars. To take the limited field of view of the instrument into account, the data has been binned into spatial bins and angular bins to create average distribution functions for different positions in the near Mars space. The net escape flux for the studied low solar activity period, between May 2007 and May 2011, is 2.0 ± 0.2 × 10²⁴ s⁻¹. The escape has been calculated independently for four different quadrants in the Y_MSO − Z_MSO plane, south, dusk, north and dawn. Escape is highest from the northern and dusk quadrants, 0.6 ± 0.1 × 10²⁴ s⁻¹, and smallest from the south and dawn quadrants, 0.4 ± 0.1 × 10²⁴ s⁻¹. The flux ratio of molecular ( and ) to O⁺ ions is 0.9 ± 0.1, averaged over all quadrants. The flux difference between the north and south quadrants is statistically significant, and is presumed to be due to the presence of significant crustal magnetic fields in the southern hemisphere, reducing the outflow. The difference between the dawn and dusk quadrants is likely due to the magnetic tension associated with the nominal Parker angle spiral, which should lead to higher average magnetic tension on the dusk side. The escape increases during periods of high solar wind flux and during times when co-rotating interaction regions (CIR) affect Mars. In the latter case the increase is a factor 2.4-2.9 as compared to average conditions.