Spacecraft potential control aboard Equator-S as a test for Cluster-II

The payload of Equator-S was complemented by the potential control device (PCD) to stabilise the electric potential of the spacecraft with respect to the ambient plasma. Low potentials are essential for accurate measurements of the thermal plasma. The design of PCD is inherited from instruments for Geotail and Cluster and utilises liquid metal ion sources generating a beam of indium ions at several keV. The set-up of the instrument and its interaction with the plasma instruments on board is presented. When the instrument was switched on during commissioning, unexpectedly high ignition and operating voltages of some ion emitters were observed. An extensive investigation was initiated and the results, which lead to an improved design for Cluster-II, are summarised. The cause of the abnormal behaviour could be linked to surface contamination of some emitters, which will be monitored and cured by on-board procedures in future. The mission operations on Equator-S were not at all affected, because of the high redundancy built into the instrument so that a sufficient number of perfectly operating emitters were available and were turned on routinely throughout the mission. Observations of the effect of spacecraft potential control on the plasma remained limited to just one event on January 8, 1998, which is analysed in detail. It is concluded that the ion beam lead to the predicted improvement of the particle measurements even outside the low density regions of the magnetosphere where the effect of spacecraft potential control would have been much more pronounced, and that the similar instruments for the four Cluster-II spacecraft to be launched in 2000 will be very important to ensure accurate plasma data from this mission.     

Study of the magnetic turbulence in a corotating interaction region in the interplanetary medium

We study the geometry of magnetic fluctuations in a CIR observed by Pioneer 10 at 5 AU between days 292 and 295 in 1973. We apply the methodology proposed by Bieber et al. to make a comparison of the relative importance of two geometric arrays of vector propagation of the magnetic field fluctuations: slab and two-dimensional (2D). We found that inside the studied CIR this model is not applicable due to the restrictions imposed on it. Our results are consistent with Alfvenic fluctuations propagating close to the radial direction, confirming Mavromichalaki et al.’s findings. A mixture of isotropic and magnetoacoustic waves in the region before the front shock would be consistent with our results, and a mixture of slab/2D and magnetoacoustic waves in a region after the reverse shock. We base the latter conclusions on the theoretical analysis made by Kunstmann. We discuss the reasons why the composite model can not be applied in the CIR studied although the fluctuations inside it are two dimensional.     

Sausage mode instability of thin current sheets as a cause of magnetospheric substorms

Observations have shown that, prior to substorm explosions, thin current sheets are formed in the plasma sheet of the Earth’s magnetotail. This provokes the question, to what extent current-sheet thinning and substorm onsets are physically, maybe even causally, related. To answer this question, one has to understand the plasma stability of thin current sheets. Kinetic effects must be taken into account since particle scales are reached in the course of tail current-sheet thinning. We present the results of theoretical investigations of the stability of thin current sheets and about the most unstable mode of their decay. Our conclusions are based upon a non-local linear dispersion analysis of a cross-magnetic field instability of Harris-type current sheets. We found that a sausage-mode bulk current instability starts after a sheet has thinned down to the ion inertial length. We also present the results of three-dimensional electromagnetic PIC-code simulations carried out for mass ratios up to M_i/m_e = 64. They verify the linearly predicted properties of the sausage mode decay of thin current sheets in the parameter range of interest.     

空间域位置相关法道间插值

为了消除地震资料空间采样不够造成的空间假频现象,在ｃｌａｅｒｂｏｕｔ空间２－Ｄ预测误差滤波器的启示下,本文提出了空间域位置相关法道内插值,在地面实际资料处理中都取得了良好的效果。     

基于韦伯-费希纳定律的营养状态普适韦伯指数公式

在适当设定各营养状态指标"参照值"Cj0的基础上,用相应于"参照值"Cj0的指标"规范值"xj作为基于韦伯-费希纳定律的营养状态指数公式中的刺激量.由于各项指标的同级营养状态标准的"规范值"xjl差异不大,从而可认为各指标的营养状态韦伯指数公式都具有一个共同适用的韦伯常数α,并采用智能解域搜索算法优化α,得出对所有14项营养指标皆适用的营养状态普适韦伯指数公式.将营养状态韦伯指数公式应用于数十个湖泊的富营养化评价,并与其它多种方法的评价结果进行比较,结果表明该公式不但理论依据充分,而且具有简单、适用的特点.     

南钢无锡金鑫轧钢厂设备基座搬迁精密工程测量方法

本文主要介绍了针对无锡轧钢厂设备基座的精密工程测量,并结合测量中的实际情况,重点提出如何避免和降低误差对大型机械设备测量的影响.     

海域使用权立体分层确权及管理配套制度探讨

由于社会经济的不断发展和科技的快速进步,我国对海域空间资源的开发利用已从二维平面转向三维立体空间开发,但随之也对我国海域空间范围界定和权属管理提出了更高的要求。文章从海域立体空间分层特性出发,对我国海域使用权立体分层确权的内涵、基本原则、考虑因素进行了深入剖析,并对我国海域三维立体开发利用中面临的困境和管理配套制度的设计进行了综合探讨。研究结果表明：海域空间可以分为水面上方、水面、水体、海床和底土5个部分,海域使用权立体分层确权则是在同一海域多层次利用中,对基于特定功能用途所占用的特定海域空间开展使用权确权的过程,在海域使用权管理的过程中,必须构建和完善海域空间三维产权法律制度体系,以确保海域使用权立体分层确权的实施。     

Scaling laws and coherent structures in the solar wind

The interplanetary medium is characterized by a very high Reynolds number and is pervaded by fluctuations providing information on a wide range of scales, from fractions of second up to the solar rotation period. In the past decade or so, turbulence in the solar wind has been used as a large wind tunnel to investigate scaling laws of turbulent fluctuations and multifractal models. Moreover, new interesting insights in the theory of turbulence have been derived from the point of view which considers a turbulent flow as a complex system, a sort of benchmark for the theory of dynamical systems. Important finding like the lack of a strict self-similarity of the fluctuations with the consequent nonapplicability of strict scale invariance, the strong anisotropy of velocity and magnetic field fluctuations, the clear lack of equipartition between magnetic and kinetic fluctuations all contributed to suggest the idea that interplanetary fluctuations could possibly be due to a mixture of propagating waves and static structures convected by the wind. In this paper we further discuss this point and bring new evidence about the fact that the presence of a background magnetic field introduces not only a symmetry breaking in interplanetary space but also organizes fluctuations about its large scale orientation.     

Flexibility, technology, and the daily life practices of distance students living beyond the digital mainstream

In this paper it is argued that even though communication technologies release distance students considerably from their dependency on a campus, students are still very much connected to places in their daily lives. These connections are constituted through the “placing” of technology, the students’ relations to people in their daily lives and the students’ relations to the education institution. Communication technology not only releases students from the spatial dimensions; it also attaches them to specific places. It is argued that the use of technology in distance education can reduce the students’ flexibility even if they do not have to attend campus regularly. The empirical analysis presented in this paper is based on a case study of a Master’s degree programme in Public Management offered by Open University Indonesia (Universitas Terbuka).     

In-flight Performance of the Advanced Camera for Surveys CCDs

The Advanced Camera for Surveys (ACS), installed in the Hubble Space telescope in March 2002, will significantly extend HST's deep, survey imaging capabilities. ACS has met, or exceeded, all of its key performance specifications. In this paper we briefly review the in-flight performance of the instrument's CCD detectors and preview early ACS science observations. This revised version was published online in July 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.