257 research outputs found
Remote sunfall monitor: A concept
Monitor is proposed as spectral monitor system designed to record digital data simultaneously from two types of sensors, mounted on both stationary assembly and tracking assembly. Both direct and total values of solar radiation are recorded. System may measure solar energy collector efficiencies for three main conversion technologies
Origin of molecular oxygen in Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko
Molecular oxygen has been detected in the coma of comet
67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko with abundances in the 1-10% range by the ROSINA-DFMS
instrument on board the Rosetta spacecraft. Here we find that the radiolysis of
icy grains in low-density environments such as the presolar cloud may induce
the production of large amounts of molecular oxygen. We also show that
molecular oxygen can be efficiently trapped in clathrates formed in the
protosolar nebula, and that its incorporation as crystalline ice is highly
implausible because this would imply much larger abundances of Ar and N2 than
those observed in the coma. Assuming that radiolysis has been the only O2
production mechanism at work, we conclude that the formation of comet
67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko is possible in a dense and early protosolar nebula in
the framework of two extreme scenarios: (1) agglomeration from pristine
amorphous icy grains/particles formed in ISM and (2) agglomeration from
clathrates that formed during the disk's cooling. The former scenario is found
consistent with the strong correlation between O2 and H2O observed in 67P/C-G's
coma while the latter scenario requires that clathrates formed from ISM icy
grains that crystallized when entering the protosolar nebula.Comment: The Astrophysical Journal Letters, in pres
Solar wind interaction with comet 67P: impacts of corotating interaction regions
International audienceWe present observations from the Rosetta Plasma Consortium of the effects of stormy solar wind on comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko. Four corotating interaction regions (CIRs), where the first event has possibly merged with a coronal mass ejection, are traced from Earth via Mars (using Mars Express and Mars Atmosphere and Volatile EvolutioN mission) to comet 67P from October to December 2014. When the comet is 3.1â2.7 AU from the Sun and the neutral outgassing rate âŒ1025â1026 sâ1, the CIRs significantly influence the cometary plasma environment at altitudes down to 10â30 km. The ionospheric low-energy (âŒ5 eV) plasma density increases significantly in all events, by a factor of >2 in events 1 and 2 but less in events 3 and 4. The spacecraft potential drops below â20 V upon impact when the flux of electrons increases. The increased density is likely caused by compression of the plasma environment, increased particle impact ionization, and possibly charge exchange processes and acceleration of mass-loaded plasma back to the comet ionosphere. During all events, the fluxes of suprathermal (âŒ10â100 eV) electrons increase significantly, suggesting that the heating mechanism of these electrons is coupled to the solar wind energy input. At impact the magnetic field strength in the coma increases by a factor of 2â5 as more interplanetary magnetic field piles up around the comet. During two CIR impact events, we observe possible plasma boundaries forming, or moving past Rosetta, as the strong solar wind compresses the cometary plasma environment. We also discuss the possibility of seeing some signatures of the ionospheric response to tail disconnection events
Spatial distribution of low-energy plasma around 2 comet 67P/CG from Rosetta measurements
International audienceWe use measurements from the Rosetta plasma consortium (RPC) Langmuir probe (LAP) and mutual impedance probe (MIP) to study the spatial distribution of low-energy plasma in the near-nucleus coma of comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko. The spatial distribution is highly structured with the highest density in the summer hemisphere and above the region connecting the two main lobes of the comet, i.e. the neck region. There is a clear correlation with the neutral density and the plasma to neutral density ratio is found to be âŒ1-2·10 â6 , at a cometocentric distance of 10 km and at 3.1 AU from the sun. A clear 6.2 h modulation of the plasma is seen as the neck is exposed twice per rotation. The electron density of the collisonless plasma within 260 km from the nucleus falls of with radial distance as âŒ1/r. The spatial structure indicates that local ionization of neutral gas is the dominant source of low-energy plasma around the comet
Suprathermal electron environment of comet 67P/Churyumov-Geraimenko: Observations from the Rosetta Ion and Electron Sensor
CONTEXT. The Rosetta spacecraft is currently escorting comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko until its perihelion approach at 1.2 AU. This mission has provided unprecedented views into the interaction of the solar wind and the comet as a function of heliocentric distance. AIMS. We study the interaction of the solar wind and comet at large heliocentric distances (>2 AU) using data from the Rosetta Plasma Consortium Ion and Electron Sensor (RPC-IES). From this we gain insight into the suprathermal electron distribution, which plays an important role in electron-neutral chemistry and dust grain charging. METHODS. Electron velocity distribution functions observed by IES fit to functions used to previously characterize the suprathermal electrons at comets and interplanetary shocks. We used the fitting results and searched for trends as a function of cometocentric and heliocentric distance. RESULTS. We find that interaction of the solar wind with this comet is highly turbulent and stronger than expected based on historical studies, especially for this weakly outgassing comet. The presence of highly dynamical suprathermal electrons is consistent with observations of comets (e.g., Giacobinni-Zinner, Grigg-Skjellerup) near 1 AU with higher outgassing rates. However, comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko is much farther from the Sun and appears to lack an upstream bow shock. CONCLUSIONS. The mass loading process, which likely is the cause of these processes, plays a stronger role at large distances from the Sun than previously expected. We discuss the possible mechanisms that most likely are responsible for this acceleration: heating by waves generated by the pick-up ion instability, and the admixture of cometary photoelectrons
Zooming in on local level statistics by supersymmetric extension of free probability
We consider unitary ensembles of Hermitian NxN matrices H with a confining
potential NV where V is analytic and uniformly convex. From work by
Zinn-Justin, Collins, and Guionnet and Maida it is known that the large-N limit
of the characteristic function for a finite-rank Fourier variable K is
determined by the Voiculescu R-transform, a key object in free probability
theory. Going beyond these results, we argue that the same holds true when the
finite-rank operator K has the form that is required by the Wegner-Efetov
supersymmetry method of integration over commuting and anti-commuting
variables. This insight leads to a potent new technique for the study of local
statistics, e.g., level correlations. We illustrate the new technique by
demonstrating universality in a random matrix model of stochastic scattering.Comment: 38 pages, 3 figures, published version, minor changes in Section
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