Slant total electron content for Sirio-Mortelliccio ray path

The Total Electron Content (TEC) is used to indicate the ionisation of the ionosphere. TEC is a quantity that concern for predicting space weather effects on telecommunications, improving the accuracy of satellite navigation, fly control vehicles and other systems that use transionospheric signals, because the ionospheric layer affects the mentioned signals. In this work the Slant Total Electron Content (STEC) was calculated with a technique that uses so-called «auxiliaries stations model», and a Chapman layer with scale height equal to atomic oxygen scale height (CHO). The validity was checked with STEC measurements obtained from geosynchronous satellite signals, for SIRIO-Mortelliccio link considering solstices and equinox, in high solar activity period. In general, the deviations between predictions and measurements were lower than 30% for 16 h per day (average). The results suggest that additional studies for other links and solar activity are required in order to improve the model predictions

The field theoretic derivation of the contact value theorem in planar geometries and its modification by the Casimir effect

The contact value theorem for Coulomb gases in planar or film-like geometries is derived using a Hamiltonian field theoretic representation of the system. The case where the film is enclosed by a material of different dielectric constant to that of the film is shown to contain an additional Casimir-like term which is generated by fluctuations of the electric potential about its mean-field value.Comment: Link between Sine-Gordon and Coulomb gas pressures via subtraction of self interaction terms included. Discussion of results within Debye-Huckel approximation included. Added reference

MIRTO: a prototype for real-time ionospheric imaging over the Mediterranean area

MIRTO (Mediterranean Ionosphere with Real-time TOmography) is a collaborative project between Istituto Nazionale di Geofisica (INGV) of Rome, the University of Bath (U.K.) and the Istituto Fisica Applicata «Nello Carrara»-Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche (IFAC-CNR) of Florence. The goal of the project is the development of a prototype for real-time imaging of the ionosphere over the Italian region with extension to the Mediterranean Sea. MIRTO uses an original imaging technique developed at the University of Bath and upgraded for real-time use in cooperation with IFAC. The prototype makes use of the data acquired by the real-time ionospheric and geodetic instrumentation operated by INGV. Such measurements drive the imaging algorithm to produce the image of electron density as well as maps and movies of the Total Electron Content (TEC) over the considered area

Relations between electron contentand peak density: regular and extreme behaviour

Electron content statistics offers important information for planning and operation of various application systems that make use of the transionospheric propagation of radio signals. Electron content statistics meet with an important difficulty: the majority of data stem from observations on the radio signals of orbiting satellites. The database for vertical electron content derived from observations of radio signals emitted from geostationary satellites is only very small. Therefore it is important to make use of statistics for peak density from ionosonde measurements. Quantile statistics do not contain information about ionization extremes. Therefore it is necessary to complement the statistics with case studies which reveal unusual and extreme electron content structures in space and in time

Electrolytic depletion interactions

We consider the interactions between two uncharged planar macroscopic surfaces immersed in an electrolyte solution which are induced by interfacial selectivity. These forces are taken into account by introducing a depletion free-energy density functional, in addition to the usual mean-field Poisson-Boltzmann functional. The minimization of the total free-energy functional yields the density profiles of the microions and the electrostatic potential. The disjoining pressure is obtained by differentiation of the total free energy with respect to the separation of the surfaces, holding the range and strength of the depletion forces constant. We find that the induced interaction between the two surfaces is always repulsive for sufficiently large separations, and becomes attractive at shorter separations. The nature of the induced interactions changes from attractive to repulsive at a distance corresponding to the range of the depletion forces.Comment: 17 pages, 4 Postscript figures, submitted to Physical Review

A project for polarimetric observations in single dish with Medicina and Noto 32 m antennas

A project with multidisciplinary characteristics, aimed to implement the possibility of polarimetric measurements in single dish at the VLBI stations of Medicina and Noto, is presented. The project will open a new window on many astrophysical items that may be approached using the already existing instrumentation and facilities of the two Italian radioastronomical stations. We report here some scientific backgrounds, together with some technical evaluations, on which the feasibility of the project is based