Polar orbit electrostatic charging of objects in shuttle wake

A survey of DMSP data has uncovered several cases where precipitating auroral electron fluxes are both sufficiently intense and energetic to charge spacecraft materials such as teflon to very large potentials in the absence of ambient ion currents. Analytical bounds are provided which show that these measured environments can cause surface potentials in excess of several hundred volts to develop on objects in the orbiter wake for particular vehicle orientations

Disciplined or Punished? The Future of Graduate Education in Women's Studies

This article considers the ways in which graduate programs in women's studies and the students in those programs are challenged by the still-present emphasis on disciplinary training. It discusses some methodological, ethical, and programmatic questions associated with running graduate programs in women's studies, and some practical recommendations in response, ones that resist making a choice between either sustaining or abandoning women's studies programming. Résumé Cet article considère les façons dont les programmes d’études des femmes du deuxième cycle et les défis que doivent relever les étudiantes de ces programmes qui continuent à mettre l’accent sur la formation disciplinaire. Il discute de certaines questions méthodologiques, éthiques, et programmatoires associées avec l’administration des programmes d’études des femmes, et de certaines recommendations pratiques en réponse, celles qui résistent de faire un choix entre soutenir ou abandonner la programmation d’études des femmes

Monolithic microwave integrated circuit water vapor radiometer

A proof of concept Monolithic Microwave Integrated Circuit (MMIC) Water Vapor Radiometer (WVR) is under development at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL). WVR's are used to remotely sense water vapor and cloud liquid water in the atmosphere and are valuable for meteorological applications as well as for determination of signal path delays due to water vapor in the atmosphere. The high cost and large size of existing WVR instruments motivate the development of miniature MMIC WVR's, which have great potential for low cost mass production. The miniaturization of WVR components allows large scale deployment of WVR's for Earth environment and meteorological applications. Small WVR's can also result in improved thermal stability, resulting in improved calibration stability. Described here is the design and fabrication of a 31.4 GHz MMIC radiometer as one channel of a thermally stable WVR as a means of assessing MMIC technology feasibility

Forward Contracting--Selling Crops Before Harvest.

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Angular dependence of the magnetization of isotropic superconductors: which is the vortex direction?

We present studies of the dc magnetization of thin platelike samples of the isotropic type II superconductor PbTl(10%), as a function of the angle between the normal to the sample and the applied magnetic field ${\bf H}$. We determine the magnetization vector ${\bf M}$ by measuring the components both parallel and normal to ${\bf H}$ in a SQUID magnetometer, and we further decompose it in its reversible and irreversible contributions. The behavior of the reversible magnetization is well understood in terms of minimization of the free energy taking into account geometrical effects. In the mixed state at low fields, the dominant effect is the line energy gained by shortening the vortices, thus the flux lines are almost normal to the sample surface. Due to the geometrical constrain, the irreversible magnetization ${\bf M}_{irr}$ remains locked to the sample normal over a wide range of fields and orientations, as already known. We show that in order to undestand the angle and field dependence of the modulus of ${\bf M}_{irr}$, which is a measure of the vortex pinning, and to correctly extract the field dependent critical current density, the knowledge of the modulus and orientation of the induction field ${\bf B}$ is required.Comment: 11 pages, 6 figure

Studies of the auroral substorm. I - Characteristics of modulated energetic electron precipitation occurring during auroral substorms

Characteristics of modulated energetic electron precipitation occurring during auroral substorm

Extracting joint weak values with local, single-particle measurements

Weak measurement is a new technique which allows one to describe the evolution of postselected quantum systems. It appears to be useful for resolving a variety of thorny quantum paradoxes, particularly when used to study properties of pairs of particles. Unfortunately, such nonlocal or joint observables often prove difficult to measure weakly in practice (for instance, in optics -- a common testing ground for this technique -- strong photon-photon interactions would be needed). Here we derive a general, experimentally feasible, method for extracting these values from correlations between single-particle observables.Comment: 6 page

Weak Measurements with Arbitrary Pointer States

The exact conditions on valid pointer states for weak measurements are derived. It is demonstrated that weak measurements can be performed with any pointer state with vanishing probability current density. This condition is found both for weak measurements of noncommuting observables and for $c$-number observables. In addition, the interaction between pointer and object must be sufficiently weak. There is no restriction on the purity of the pointer state. For example, a thermal pointer state is fully valid.Comment: 4 page

Charge-State Equilibrium and Nonequilibrium Modeling of the Carbon-Pellet Plasma Interaction

Self-consistent equilibrium and nonequilibrium charge-state models are formulated for the spherical expansion of low-Z pellet vapor as an inviscid perfect gas of constant ratio of specific heats being heated volumetrically by the incident electrons of a thermonuclear plasma. The two models are found to be in agreement in the region where the ratio of the ionization length ζj to pellet radius rp is less than unity, but a single parameter, such as the magnitude of this ratio on the sonic surface, is insufficient to determine whether an equilibrium model will be valid for all regions of the ablatant for carbon pellets. Thus a nonequilibrium model is necessary to model the outer regions of the ablatant cloud even for thermonuclear plasma conditions when the cloud is very dense. Also, the effect of the ionization of the ablatant by the incident plasma electrons is found to be 10% or less for even the C+3 region in the thermonuclear regime. Finally, although the model used for the healing of the ablatant by the plasma electrons is that for a neutral carbon ablatant, it is shown that the differences in heating by the plasma electrons between this model and that for an ionized ablatant are small