Television meteor radiant mapping

We have carried out double-station TV meteor observations between 1990 and 1994. The orbits of 326 meteors have been determined from doubly observed meteors, and radiant distributions are studied. The mean magnitude of the observed meteors was as faint as +4.7, since I.I. (Image Intensifier) and Video cameras were used. Radiants were widely distributed over the celestial sphere. The velocity distribution showed some similarity with the distribution predicted by the theoretical radiant distribution from comets rather than that from asteroids. In all 13 showers including both major and minor meteor showers were detected from radiant distributions of the observed meteors; from the orbital elements and meteor velocities as well as from the radiant directions.     

Recent studies of meteors in South Africa

Recent meteor research in South Africa, arising largely from the development of forward and back scatter observing systems, is briefly reviewed. The main areas of investigation have been the use of single station radars to deduce meteor radiant structures, the study of upper atmospheric wind patterns, and research into the factors which influence the performance of meteor burst communication systems.     

Star passages through the Oort cloud

Stars passing through the Oort cloud eject comets to interstellar space and initiate showers of comets into the planetary region. Monte Carlo simulations of such passages are performed on a representative distribution of cometary orbits. Ejected comets generally lie along a narrow tunnel drilled by the star through the cloud. However, shower comets come from the entire cloud, and do not give a strong signature of the star's passage, except in the inverse semimajor axis distribution for the shower comets. The planetary system is likely not experiencing a cometary shower at this time.     

昆明全天空流星雷达观测中高层大气温度

利用昆明电波观测站（25.6°N,103.8°E）两台不同工作频率的全天空流星雷达在2011年特殊联合观测试验期间的数据,基于Hocking的方法利用不同的温度梯度,在确定了昆明地区中层顶位于流星峰值高度之上的情况下,反演了昆明地区上空88 km和85 km高度的大气温度,并与Aura卫星观测的温度进行比较.对比研究发现,两台流星雷达可以分别正确获得88 km和85 km高度的大气温度,但其中由全球温度梯度模式反演得到的大气温度与卫星观测温度相关性不是很好,而利用卫星观测的温度梯度,两台雷达反演出的大气温度与卫星观测温度存在很好的相关性.结果表明了准确的温度梯度在流星雷达观测大气温度过程中是至关重要的.     

NMOHEMS的概念与设计

针对我国远海水文环境监测技术的发展,结合未来海洋环境保障需求特点,基于无人机技术、流星余迹通信技术和海洋现场探测技术,构建了一种新型远海机动环境现场监测体制(New Mobile Offshore Hydrologic Environment Monitoring System,简称NMOHEMS),重点探讨如何突破现有系统机动性、数据远传和同步观测技术瓶颈的问题,为有效提升远海水文环境监测的安全性、隐蔽性和顽存性奠定理论基础。     

ARGO-YBJ constraints on very high energy emission from GRBs

The ARGO-YBJ (Astrophysical Radiation Ground-based Observatory at YangBaJing) experiment is designed for very high energy γ-astronomy and cosmic ray researches. Due to the full coverage of a large area (5600 m²) with resistive plate chambers at a very high altitude (4300 m a.s.l.), the ARGO-YBJ detector is used to search for transient phenomena, such as Gamma-ray bursts (GRBs). Because the ARGO-YBJ detector has a large field of view (2 sr) and is operated with a high duty cycle (>90%), it is well suited for GRB surveying and can be operated in searches for high energy GRBs following alarms set by satellite-borne observations at lower energies. In this paper, the sensitivity of the ARGO-YBJ detector for GRB detection is estimated. Upper limits to fluence with 99% confidence level for 26 GRBs inside the field of view from June 2006 to January 2009 are set in the two energy ranges 10–100 GeV and 10 GeV–1 TeV.     

Thinned simulations of extremely energetic showers in dense media for radio applications

This paper presents our results for full 3-D simulations of very-high to ultra-high energy electromagnetic cascades – and the associated coherent Cherenkov radiation – as might be produced by high-energy neutrino interactions in dense media. Using “thinning” techniques, we develop an algorithm based on the existing “ZHS” code, and demonstrate that the new “ZHS-thinned” code can produce fast and accurate results for showers up to . Using ZHS-thinned, we develop new parameterisations for the radiation from showers in ice, salt, and the lunar regolith, with a separate treatment of the megaregolith (deep regolith). Our parameterisations include for the first time a method to simulate fluctuations in shower length induced by the LPM effect. Our results, which avoid the pit-falls of scaling simulations from lower energies, allow improved calculations of the detection probability for experiments searching for high-energy neutrinos using the radio technique.