61 research outputs found

    Constitutive Models for Tumour Classification

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    The aim of this paper is to formulate new mathematical models that will be able to differentiate not only between normal and abnormal tissues, but, more importantly, between benign and malignant tumours. We present preliminary results of a tri-phasic model and numerical simulations of the effect of cellular adhesion forces on the mechanical properties of biological tissues. We pursued the following three approaches: (i) the simulation of the time-harmonic linear elastic models to examine coarse scale effects and adhesion properties, (ii) the investigation of a tri-phasic model, with the intent of upscaling this model to determine effects of electro-mechanical coupling between cells, and (iii) the upscaling of a simple cell model as a framework for studying interface conditions at malignant cells. Each of these approaches has opened exciting new directions of research that we plan to study in the future

    Seasonal and solar cycle variations in high-latitude thermospheric winds

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    Thermospheric wind measurements have been collected systematically every winter for over nine years from a high-latitude site at Kiruna, Sweden (67.8-degrees-N, 20.4-degrees-E). The database contains 1242 nights of data collected with a Fabry-Perot Interferometer (FPI), perhaps the largest single- site database of thermospheric winds. This analysis shows a marked seasonal and solar cycle variation. Particularly at high solar activity, sunward winds of the evening period (16 - 20 UT) are more than 50% stronger at Spring than at Autumn equinox. This large asymmetry in the behaviour of high-latitude thermospheric winds at spring and autumn equinox has not yet been predicted by model simulations

    First E region observations of mesoscale neutral wind interaction with auroral arcs

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    We report the first observations of E region neutral wind fields and their interaction with auroral arcs at mesoscale spatial resolution during geomagnetically quiet conditions at Mawson, Antarctica. This was achieved by using a scanning Doppler imager, which can observe thermospheric neutral line-of-sight winds and temperatures simultaneously over a wide field of view. In two cases, the background E region wind field was perpendicular to an auroral arc, which when it appeared caused the wind direction within ∌50 km of the arc to rotate parallel along the arc, reverting to the background flow direction when the arc disappeared. This was observed under both westward and eastward plasma convection. The wind rotations occurred within 7–16 min. In one case, as an auroral arc propagated from the horizon toward the local zenith, the background E region wind field became significantly weaker but remained unaffected where the arc had not passed through. We demonstrate through modeling that these effects cannot be explained by height changes in the emission layer. The most likely explanation seems to be the greatly enhanced ion drag associated with the increased plasma density and localized ionospheric electric field associated with auroral arcs. In all cases, the F region neutral wind appeared less affected by the auroral arc, although its presence is clear in the data

    Fine-scale electric fields and Joule heating from observations of the Aurora

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    Optical measurements from three selected wavelengths have been combined with modelling of emissions from an auroral event to estimate the magnitude and direction of small-scale electric fields on either side of an auroral arc. The temporal resolution of the estimates is 0.1 seconds, which is much higher resolution than measurements from SuperDARN in the same region, with which we compare our estimates. Additionally, we have used the SCANDI instrument to measure the neutral wind during the event in order to calculate the height integrated Joule heating. Joule heating obtained from the small scale electric fields gives larger values (17 ± 11 and 6 ± 9 mWm−2 on average on each side of the arc) than the Joule heating obtained from more conventionally used SuperDARN data (5 mWm−2). This result is significant, because Joule heating will cause changes in the thermosphere from thermal expansion and thermal conductivity, and may also affect the acceleration of the neutral wind. Our result indicates that high spatial and temporal resolution electric fields may play an important role in the dynamics of the magnetosphere-ionosphere-thermosphere system

    CubeSat measurements of thermospheric plasma: spacecraft charging effects on a plasma analyzer

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    Spacecraft charging affects the accuracy of in-situ plasma measurements in space. We investigate the impact of spacecraft charging on upper thermospheric plasma measurements captured by a 2U CubeSat called Phoenix. Using the Spacecraft Plasma Interactions Software (SPIS), we simulate dayside surface potentials of − 0.6 V, and nightside potentials of − 0.2 V. We also observe this charging mechanism in the distribution function captured by the Ion and Neutral Mass Spectrometer (INMS) on-board Phoenix. Whilst negative charging in the dense ionosphere is known, the diurnal variation in density and temperature has resulted in dayside potentials that are smaller than at night. We apply charging corrections in accordance with Liouville’s theorem and employ a least-squares fitting routine to extract the plasma density, bulk speed, and temperature. Our routine returns densities that are within an order of magnitude of the benchmarks above, but they carry errors of at least 20%. All bulk speeds are greater than the expected range of 60–120 m/s and this could be due to insufficient charging corrections. Our parameterised ion temperatures are lower than our empirical benchmark but are in-line with other in-situ measurements. Temperatures are always improved when spacecraft charging corrections are applied. We mostly attribute the shortcomings of the findings to the ram-only capture mode of the INMS. Future work will improve the fitting routine and continue to cross-check with other in-flight data

    Comparing High-Latitude Thermospheric Winds From FPI and CHAMP Accelerometer Measurements

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    It is generally assumed that horizontal wind velocities are independent of height above the F1 -region (> 300 km) due to the large viscosity of the upper thermosphere. This assumption is used to compare two completely different methods of thermospheric neutral wind observation, using two distinct locations in the highlatitude Northern Hemisphere. The measurements are from ground-based FabryPerot Interferometers (FPI), and from in-situ accelerometer measurements onboard the CHAMP satellite, which was in a near polar orbit. The UCL KEOPS FPI is located in the vicinity of the auroral oval at the ESRANGE site near Kiruna, Sweden (67.8°N, 20.4°E). The UCL Longyearbyen FPI is a polar cap site. It is located at the Kjell Henriksen Observatory on Svalbard (78.1°N, 16.0°E). The comparison is done in a statistical sense, comparing a longer time series obtained during nighttime hours in the winter months (November to January); with overflights of the CHAMP satellite between 2001 and 2008 over the observational sites, within ±2° (±220 km horizontal range). The FPI is assumed to measure the line-of-sight winds at ~240 km height. This is the peak emission height of the atomic oxygen 630.0 nm (red line) emission. The cross-track winds are derived from state-of-the-art precision accelerometer measurements at altitudes between 450 km (in 2001) to 330 km (in 2008); i.e. 100- 200 km above the FPI wind observations. In addition to testing the consistency of the different measurement approaches, the study aims to clarify the effects of viscosity on the height dependence of thermospheric winds

    Multi‐instrument Observations of Ion‐Neutral Coupling in the Dayside Cusp

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    Using data from the Scanning Doppler Imager, the Super Dual Auroral Radar Network, the EISCAT Svalbard Radar and an auroral all‐sky imager, we examine an instance of F‐region neutral winds which have been influenced by the presence of poleward moving auroral forms near the dayside cusp region. We observe a reduction in the time taken for the ion‐drag force to re‐orientate the neutrals into the direction of the convective plasma (on the order of minutes), compared to before the auroral activity began. Additionally, because the ionosphere near the cusp is influenced much more readily by changes in the solar wind via dayside reconnection, we observe the neutrals responding to an interplanetary magnetic field change within minutes of it occurring. This has implications on the rate that energy is deposited into the ionosphere via Joule heating, which we show to become dampened by the neutral winds

    DWM07 global empirical model of upper thermospheric storm-induced disturbance winds

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    We present a global empirical disturbance wind model (DWM07) that represents average geospace-storm-induced perturbations of upper thermospheric (200-600 km altitude) neutral winds. DWM07 depends on the following three parameters: magnetic latitude, magnetic local time, and the 3-h Kp geomagnetic activity index. The latitude and local time dependences are represented by vector spherical harmonic functions ( up to degree 10 in latitude and order 3 in local time), and the Kp dependence is represented by quadratic B-splines. DWM07 is the storm time thermospheric component of the new Horizontal Wind Model (HWM07), which is described in a companion paper. DWM07 is based on data from the Wind Imaging Interferometer on board the Upper Atmosphere Research Satellite, the Wind and Temperature Spectrometer on board Dynamics Explorer 2, and seven ground-based Fabry-Perot interferometers. The perturbation winds derived from the three data sets are in good mutual agreement under most conditions, and the model captures most of the climatological variations evident in the data
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