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We present new calculations of pion radiation and neutron emission from solar flares. We fit the recently reported high energy GAMMA-1 observations with pion radiation produced in a solar flare magnetic loop. We calculate the expected neutron emission in such a loop model and make predictions of the neutron fluences expected from the 1991 June X-class flares.
A class of steady-state stochastic regulator problems for abstract wave equations in a Hilbert space - of relevance to the problem of feedback control of large space structures using co-located controls/sensors - is studied. Both the control operator, as well as the observation operator, are finite-dimensional. As a result, the usual condition of exponential stabilizability invoked for existence of solutions to the steady-state Riccati equations is not valid. Fortunately, for the problems considered it turns out that strong stabilizability suffices. In particular, a closed form expression is obtained for the minimal (asymptotic) performance criterion as the control effort is allowed to grow without bound.
A new class of ULF waves with periods near 3 s in the earth's upstream region is found by examining the high time resolution magnetic field data from the ISEE spacecraft. These waves are observed in the part of the upstream region which is magnetically connected to the bow shock, but only when the solar wind plasma beta is high (greater than 1). The waves are always right-handed, nearly circularly polarized in the spacecraft frame. The directions of the wave vectors are in the general direction of the average magnetic field, and the waves are convected downstream in the spacecraft frame. This study of these waves has shown that they appear to be intrinsically left-handed ion cyclotron waves in the plasma rest frame.
Stability conditions for a class of interconnected systems modeled by linear abstract evolution equations and a memoryless nonlinearity are derived. These conditions are stated in terms of the passivity of each of the subsystems and can be considered as a partial generalization of the hyperstability theorem. A Liapunov function approach is used in the proof without requiring the positive definiteness of the Liapunov function. Application to the robustness analysis of the infinite-dimensional linear quadratic regulator is also discussed.
The issue of developing effective and robust schemes to implement a class of the Ogden-type hyperelastic constitutive models, for large-strain analysis of rubber-like materials, is addressed. To this end, explicit forms for the corresponding material tangent-stiffness tensors are developed, and these are valid for the entire deformation range; i.e., with both distinct as well as repeated principal-stretch values. Throughout the analysis the various implications of the underlying property of separability of the strain-energy functions are exploited, thus leading to compact final forms of the tensor expressions. In particular, this facilitated the treatment of the complex cases of uncoupled volumetric/deviatoric formulations for incompressible materials, which are becoming increasingly popular in recent years. The forms derived are also amenable for use with symbolic-manipulation packages for systematic code generation.
A class of self-similar solutions for relativistic winds driven by rotating magnetic fields is constructed. These winds are collimated to cylindrical jet flows of finite radii and may attain supermagnetosonic speeds with high Lorentz factors. Most of the flow acceleration results from the 'magnetic nozzle' effect and occurs beyond the fast magnetosonic point, which is typically located a few light cylinder radii from the rotation axis. Approximate equipartition between the electromagnetic and flow kinetic energies is generally achieved for these jets, in contrast to the radial wind case in which the flow is magnetically dominated at all radii.
Component erosion and material deposition sites were identified and analyzed during tests of various configurations of 100 kW class, applied-field, water-cooled magnetoplasmadynamic (MPD) thrusters. Severe erosion of the cathode and the boron nitride insulator was observed for the first series of tests, which was significantly decreased by reducing the levels of propellant contamination. Severe erosion of the copper anode resulting from sputtering by the propellant was also observed. This is the first observation of this phenomenon in MPD thrusters. The anode erosion indicates that development of long life MPD thrusters requires the use of light gas propellants such as hydrogen, deuterium, or lithium.
The issue of developing effective and robust schemes to implement a class of the Ogden-type hyperelastic constitutive models is addressed. To this end, special purpose functions (running under MACSYMA) are developed for the symbolic derivation, evaluation, and automatic FORTRAN code generation of explicit expressions for the corresponding stress function and material tangent stiffness tensors. These explicit forms are valid over the entire deformation range, since the singularities resulting from repeated principal-stretch values have been theoretically removed. The required computational algorithms are outlined, and the resulting FORTRAN computer code is presented.
This paper analyses the internal operation of fuzzy logic controllers as referenced to the human cognitive tasks of control and decision making. Two goals are targeted. The first goal focuses on the cognitive interpretation of the mechanisms employed in the current design of fuzzy logic controllers. This analysis helps to create a ground to explore the potential of enhancing the functional intelligence of fuzzy controllers. The second goal is to outline the features of a new class of fuzzy controllers, the Clearness Transformation Fuzzy Logic Controller (CT-FLC), whereby some new concepts are advanced to qualify fuzzy controllers as 'cognitive devices' rather than 'expert system devices'. The operation of the CT-FLC, as a fuzzy pattern processing controller, is explored, simulated, and evaluated.
This paper presents an application comparison between two classes of fuzzy controllers: the Clearness Transformation Fuzzy Controller (CTFC) and the CRI-based Fuzzy Controller. The comparison is performed by studying the application of the controllers to simulation examples of nonlinear systems. The CTFC is a new approach for the organization of fuzzy controllers based on a cognitive model of parameter driven control, the notion of fuzzy patterns to represent fuzzy knowledge and the Clearness Transformation Rule of Inference (CTRI) for approximate reasoning. The approach facilitates the implementation of the basic modules of the controller: the fuzzifier, defuzzifier, and the control protocol in a rule-based architecture. The CTRI scheme for approximate reasoning does not require the formation of fuzzy relation matrices yielding improved performance in comparison with the traditional organization of fuzzy controllers.
A contextual classifier which can utilize both spatial and temporal interpixel dependency contexts is investigated. After spatial and temporal neighbors are defined, a general form of maximum a posterior spatiotemporal contextual classifier is derived. This contextual classifier is simplified under several assumptions. Joint prior probabilities of the classes of each pixel and its spatial neighbors are modeled by the Gibbs random field. The classification is performed in a recursive manner to allow a computationally efficient contextual classification. Experimental results with bitemporal TM data show significant improvement of classification accuracy over noncontextual pixelwise classifiers. This spatiotemporal contextual classifier should find use in many applications of remote sensing, especially when the classification accuracy is important.
An efficient, direct, second-order solver for the discrete solution of a class of two-dimensional separable elliptic equations on the sphere (which generally arise in implicit and semi-implicit atmospheric models) is presented. The method involves a Fourier transformation in longitude and a direct solution of the resulting coupled second-order finite-difference equations in latitude. The solver is made efficient by vectorizing over longitudinal wave-number and by using a vectorized fast Fourier transform routine. It is evaluated using a prescribed solution method and compared with a multigrid solver and the standard direct solver from FISHPAK.
The hard X-ray source detected with SIGMA at an offset of about 15 arcmin from 3C 273 may be identified with an uncataloged Einstein X-ray source detected in the deep Einstein HRI exposure of 3C 273 and in subsequent short IPC exposures. We have identified this source, within the SIGMA error circle, with a faint (mag 19-20) QSO at z = 0.57. Comparison of the SIGMA and Einstein fluxes with this optical object suggest it is highly self-absorbed, and possibly highly variable. The discovery of such a class of AGN would have important consequences for the cosmic X-ray background.
We have constructed a new class of exact, nonlinear solutions to the Grad-Shafranov equation, representing force-free magnetic fields with translational symmetry. These exact solutions are pertinent to the study of magnetic structures in the solar corona that are subjected to photospheric shearing motions.
Incomplete field formulations have recently been the subject of intense research because of their potential in coupled analysis of independently modeled substructures, adaptive refinement, domain decomposition, and parallel processing. This paper discusses the design and analysis of time-integration algorithms for these formulations and emphasizes the treatment of their inter-subdomain constraint equations. These constraints are shown to introduce a destabilizing effect in the dynamic system that can be analyzed by investigating the behavior of the time-integration algorithm at infinite and zero frequencies. Three different approaches for constructing penalty-free unconditionally stable second-order accurate solution procedures for this class of hybrid formulations are presented, discussed and illustrated with numerical examples. The theoretical results presented in this paper also apply to a large family of nonlinear multibody dynamics formulations. Some of the algorithms outlined herein are important alternatives to the popular technique consisting of transforming differential/algebraic equations into ordinary differential equations via the introduction of a stabilization term that depends on arbitrary constants and that influences the computed so1ution.
A new class of six-degree-of-freedom parallel minimanipulators capable of providing high resolution and high-stiffness for fine position and force control in a hybrid serial-parallel manipulator system is presented. Positional resolution and stiffness of minimanipulators are improved using two-degree-of-freedom planar linkages as drivers. The minimanipulators are based on only three inextensible limbs, as opposed to most of the six-limbed parallel manipulators, which makes it possible to reduce its direct kinematics to solving a polynomial in a single variable and to diminish possibility of mechanical interference between limbs. The base-mounted minimanipulator actuators are characterized by high payload capacity, small actuator size, and low power dissipitation.
We have analyzed the 241 bursts for which peak counts (C)max exist in the publicly available Burst and Transient Source Experiment (BATSE) catalog. Introducing peak counts in 1024 ms as a measure of burst brightness B and the ratio of peak counts in 64 and 1024 ms as a measure of short timescale variability V, we find a statistically significant correlation between the brightness and the short time scale variability of gamma-ray bursts. The bursts which are smoother on short time scales are both faint and bright, while the bursts which are variable on short time scales are faint only, suggesting the existence of two distinct morphological classes of bursts.
We have studied the duration distribution of the gamma-ray bursts of the first BATSE catalog. We find a bimodality in the distribution, which separates GRBs into two classes: short events (less than 2 s) and longer ones (more than 2 s). Both sets are distributed isotropically and inhomogeneously in the sky. We find that their durations are anticorrelated with their spectral hardness ratios: short GRBs are predominantly harder, and longer ones tend to be softer. Our results provide a first GRB classification scheme based on a combination of the GRB temporal and spectral properties.