Electrodynamics of the Maxwell-Lorentz type in the ten-dimensional space of the testing of special relativity - A case for Finsler type connections
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Vargas, Jose G.↗
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Electrodynamic response of the middle atmosphere to auroral pulsations
The MAC/EPSILON observational campaign encompassed the use of two Nike Orion rocket payloads which studied the effects of auroral energetics on the middle atmosphere. While one payload was launched during the recovery phase of a moderate magnetic substorm, during fairly stable auroral conditions, the other was launched during highly active postbreakup conditions during which Pc5 pulsations were in progress. The energetic radiation of the first event was composed almost entirely of relativistic electrons below 200 keV, while that of the second was dominated by much softer electrons whose high X-ray fluxes exceeded the cosmic ray background as an ionizing source down to below 30 km.
Goldberg, R. A.↗
Energy dissipation in structured electrodynamic environments
It is usually assumed that the profile of the ion Pedersen conductivity determines the altitude dependence of the energy dissipation rate This paper points out the strong altitude dependence of the energy dissipation rate on the spatial scale size of the imposed electric field. To illustrate the importance of such considerations, examples of the ubiquity to electric field structure in the high-latitude ionosphere are shown; this is particularly prominent when the interplanetary magnetic field has a northward component. It is then shown quantitatively how the existence of electric field structure with scale sizes of 10 km or less strongly impacts both the altitude extent over which the electromagnetic energy is dissipated and its partitioning between current systems perpendicular and parallel to the magnetic field.
Heelis, R. A.↗
A case study of the cusp electrodynamics by the Aureol-3 satellite - Evidence for FTE signatures?
Particle and field data from a pass of the Aureol-3 satellite through the polar cusp, several minutes after the southward turning of the IMF, are analyzed in detail. Superposed on the classical cusp, characterized by the typical ion and electron precipitations, several very narrow arcs are detected where large fluxes of electrons and ions, accelerated to 2-4 keV, precipitate simultaneously. These localized arcs correspond to the upward current sheets of a succession in latitude of narrow, alternatively upward and downward field-aligned current sheets. The data suggest that the satellite has crossed the ionospheric footprints of 2 adjacent flux transfer events separated by 100-150 km in latitude. Electric spikes and electromagnetic turbulence are typically associated with the region of downward currents.
Bosqued, Jean M.↗
Change in the coil distribution of electrodynamic suspension system
At the Miyazaki Maglev Test Center, the initial test runs were completed using a system design that required the superconducting coils to be parallel with the ground levitation coils. Recently, the coil distribution was changed to a system such that the two types of coils were perpendicular to each other. Further system changes will lead to the construction of a side wall levitation system. It is hoped that the development will culminate in a system whereby a superconducting coil will maintain all the functions: levitation, propulsion, and guidance.
Tanaka, Hisashi↗
Stratospheric electrodynamics from superpressure balloons - A technical challenge for small payload environments
The state-of-the-art in stratospheric balloon-borne vector electric field measurements, from its origins to the present is reviewed. Consideration is given to the Extended Life Balloon-Borne Observatories program that utilizes an extensively modified payload and dual telemetry systems to improve the measurements and increase the data rates.
Holzworth, R. H.↗
Low latitude electrodynamic plasma drifts - A review
The characteristics and driving mechanisms of low latitude ExB plasma drifts and electric fields particularly at F-region heights are reviewed. It is concluded that the general characteristics of the quiet-time plasma can be explained as resulting from E- and F-region dynamo and interhemispheric coupling processes. The disturbance dynamo effects are found to be responsible for the drift perturbations following the periods of enhanced magnetic activity. The prompt penetration of high-latitude electric fields to lower latitudes produces large perturbations on the upward/poleward drifts, but has no significant effect on the low-latitude and the equatorial zonal drifts. Detailed low-latitude and global numerical models for studying the characteristics of plasma drifts are capable of reproducing the latitudinal variation of the perturbation electric fields and their diurnal variations.
Fejer, B. G.↗
Theory of plasma contactor neutral gas emissions for electrodynamic tethers
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Samanta Roy, R. I.↗
Small-scale electrodynamics of the cusp with northward interplanetary magnetic field
Possible low-altitude field signatures of merging occurring at high latitudes during a period of strong northward directed interplanetary magnetic field are reported. Large electric and magnetic field spikes detected at the poleward edge of the magnetosheathlike particle precipitation are interpreted as field signatures of the low-altitude footprint of such merging line locations. A train of phase-shifted, almost linearly polarized electric and magnetic field fluctuations was detected just equatorward of the large electromagnetic spike. It is argued that these may be due to either ion cyclotron waves excited by penetrating magnetosheath ions or transient oscillations in the frame of convecting plasma, brought about by the sudden change in the flow at the magnetospheric end of the field line.
Basinska, Ewa M.↗
Homogeneous quantum electrodynamic turbulence
The electromagnetic field equations and Dirac equations for oppositely charged wave functions are numerically time-integrated using a spatial Fourier method. The numerical approach used, a spectral transform technique, is based on a continuum representation of physical space. The coupled classical field equations contain a dimensionless parameter which sets the strength of the nonlinear interaction (as the parameter increases, interaction volume decreases). For a parameter value of unity, highly nonlinear behavior in the time-evolution of an individual wave function, analogous to ideal fluid turbulence, is observed. In the truncated Fourier representation which is numerically implemented here, the quantum turbulence is homogeneous but anisotropic and manifests itself in the nonlinear evolution of equilibrium modal spatial spectra for the probability density of each particle and also for the electromagnetic energy density. The results show that nonlinearly interacting fermionic wave functions quickly approach a multi-mode, dynamic equilibrium state, and that this state can be determined by numerical means.
Shebalin, John V.↗
The electrodynamic and hydrodynamic phenomena in magnetically-levitated molten droplets. I - Steady state behavior
A mathematical formulation is given and computed results are presented describing the behavior of electromagnetically-levitated metal droplets under the conditions of microgravity. In the formulation the electromagnetic force field is calculated using a modification of the volume integral method and these results are then combined with the FIDAP code to calculate the steady state melt velocities. The specific computational results are presented for the conditions corresponding to the planned IML-2 Space Shuttle experiment, using the TEMPUS device, which has separate 'heating' and 'positioning' coils. While the computed results are necessarily specific to the input conditions, some general conclusions may be drawn from this work. These include the fact that for the planned TEMPUS experiments to positioning coils will produce only a weak melt circulation, while the heating coils are like to produce a mildly turbulent recirculating flow pattern within the samples. The computed results also allow us to assess the effect of sample size, material properties and the applied current on these phenomena.
Zong, Jin-Ho↗
The electrodynamics of charged dust in the cometary environment
Dust in the plasma and radiative environment of a comet is necessarily electrically charged. This charging has both physical and dynamical effects on the dust, being particularly important on the smallest particles observed in the dust size spectrum. In this paper, these dynamical effects are reviewed and the pertinent observations are discussed.
Horanyi, M.↗
Electrodynamic interactions between a space station and the ionospheric plasma environment
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Wang, J.↗
The electrodynamic and hydrodynamic phenomena in magnetically-levitated molten droplets. II - Transient behavior and heat transfer considerations
Computed results are presented describing the transient evolution of the velocity and the temperature fields in a levitation-melted, electromagnetically-positioned metallic sample under microgravity, for conditions, when the heating current is switched off. Thus the calculations trace the evolution from one steady state corresponding to the simultaneous operation of both the heating and the positioning coils to that corresponding to the operation of the positioning coils only. The calculations have shown that the velocity field will decay much more rapidly than the temperature field, so that the cooling and subsequent undercooling and recalescence of the samples should take place from an essentially stagnant melt, meeting the original objectives of the experiment. The computed results for the velocity decay appear to agree with asymptotic calculations and also appear to follow the scaling laws.
Zong, Jin-Ho↗
Research on Orbital Plasma-Electrodynamics (ROPE)
Since the development of probe theory by Langmuir and Blodgett, the problem of current collection by a charged spherically or cylindrically symmetric body has been investigated by a number of authors. This paper overviews the development of a fully three-dimensional particle simulation code which can be used to understand the physics of current collection in three dimensions and can be used to analyze data resulting from the future tethered satellite system (TSS). According to the TSS configurations, two types of particle simulation models were constructed: a simple particle simulation (SIPS) and a super particle simulation (SUPS). The models study the electron transient response and its asymptotic behavior around a three dimensional, highly biased satellite. The potential distribution surrounding the satellite is determined by solving Laplace's equation in the SIPS model and by solving Poisson's equation in the SUPS model. Thus, the potential distribution in space is independent of the density distribution of the particles in the SUPS model but it does depend on the density distribution of the particles in the SUPS model. The evolution of the potential distribution in the SUPS model is described. When the spherical satellite is charged to a highly positive potential and immersed in a plasma with a uniform magnetic field, the formation of an electron torus in the equatorial plane (the plane in perpendicular to the magnetic field) and elongation of the torus along the magnetic field are found in both the SIPS and the SUPS models but the shape of the torus is different. The areas of high potential that exist in the polar regions in the SUPS model exaggerate the elongation of the electron torus along the magnetic field. The current collected by the satellite for different magentic field strengths is investigated in both models. Due to the nonlinear effects present in SUPS, the oscillating phenomenon of the current collection curve during the first 10 plasma periods can be seen (this does not appear in SIPS). From the parametric studies, it appears that the oscillating phenomenon of the current collection curve occurs only when the magnetic field strength is less than 0.2 gauss for the present model.
Wu, S. T.↗
Plasma turbulence enhanced current collection: Results from the plasma motor generator electrodynamic tether flight
The plasma motor generator (PMG) experiment, launched June 26, 1993, was a tethered system of two identical plasma contactors connected via a 500-m conducting tether. The experiment was designed to demonstrate the ability of plasma contactors to provide a low-impedance connection between a spacecraft and the ionosphere for both the electron emission and collection. The flight data indicate that plasma contactors enhance electron collection and emission by both neutralizing the electron space charge and scattering electrons across the geomagnetic field lines. Up to a 0.3 A steady current flowed along the tether in a curcuit completed through the ionosphere. An analytical model for plasma contactor interaction with a background plasma which incorporates electron scattering by plasma waves is compared with the flight data. Good agreement between the model and the data is achieved for an effective scattering frequency equal to one twentieth of the local plasma contactor plasma frequency.
Katz, I.↗
Active Vibration Isolation of Microgravity Experiments with Spring Umbilicals Using an Electrodynamic Actuator
Microgravity experiments will require active vibration isolation in the low to mid frequency range of 0.1 Hz to 10 Hz. Approximately two orders of acceleration reduction (40 dB) will be required. Previous works have reported results for accelerations transmitted through the umbilical. This paper describes experimental and theoretical results for vibration isolation in one dimension (horizontal) where the simulated experiment is connected to the spacecraft by a spring umbilical. The experiment consisted of a spacecraft (shaker), experiment (mass), umbilical, accelerometer, control electronics, and Lorentz actuator. The experiment mass was supported in magnetic bearings to avoid any stiction problems. Acceleration feedback control was employed to obtain the vibration isolation. Three different spring umbilicals were employed. Acceleration reductions on the order of 40 dB were obtained over the frequency range of 0.1 Hz to 10 Hz. Good agreement was obtained between theory and experiment.
Banerjee, B. B.↗
The UAV: A unique platform for electrodynamic studies of upward lightning in the middle atmosphere
The use of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), a platform for investigations in an environment hostile to manned spacecraft, is discussed. A program which includes the use of UAVs coupled with ground-based measurements to conduct scientific studies on the electrical state of the atmosphere during electrically active periods is proposed. The radiating power from alternate current and transient components of the storm electrification was investigated.
Goldberg, Richard A.↗