The ionization degree of hydrogen is crucial in the physics of the plasma in the solar chromosphere. It specifically limits the range of plasma temperatures that can be determined from the Hα line. Given that the chromosphere greatly deviates from the local thermodynamic equilibrium (LTE) condition, precise determinations of hydrogen ionization require the solving of the full set of non-LTE radiative transfer equations throughout the atmosphere, which is usually a formidable task. In many cases, it is still necessary to obtain a quick estimate of hydrogen ionization without having to solve for the non-LTE radiative transfer. Here, we present a simple method to meet this need. We adopt the assumption that the photoionizing radiation field changes little over time, even if physical conditions change locally. With this assumption, the photoionization rate can be obtained from a published atmosphere model and can be used to determine the degree of hydrogen ionization when the temperature and electron density are specified. The application of our method indicates that in the chromospheric environment, plasma features contain more than 10% neutral hydrogen at temperatures lower than 17,000 K but less than 1% neutral hydrogen at temperatures higher than 23,000 K, implying that the hydrogen temperature determined from the Hα line is physically plausible if it is lower than 20,000 K, but may not be real, if it is higher than 25,000 K. We conclude that our method can be readily exploited to obtain a quick estimate of hydrogen ionization in plasma features in the solar chromosphere.
In this work, the problem of resonance caused by some gravitational potentials due to Mercury and a third body, namely the Sun, together with some non-gravitational perturbations, specifically coronal mass ejections and solar wind in addition to radiation pressure, are investigated. Some simplifying assumptions without loss of accuracy are employed. The considered force model is constructed. Then the Delaunay canonical set is introduced. The Hamiltonian of the problem is obtained then it is expressed in terms of the Deluanay canonical set. The Hamiltonian is re-ordered to adopt it to the perturbation technique used to solve the problem. The Lie transform method is surveyed. The Hamiltonian is doubly averaged. The resonance capture is investigated. Finally, some numerical simulations are illustrated and are analyzed. Many resonant inclinations are revealed.
In this study, a preliminary trajectory design is conducted for a conceptual spacecraft mission to a near-Earth asteroid (NEA) (99942) Apophis, which is expected to pass by Earth merely 32,000 km from the Earth’s surface in 2029. This close approach event will provide us with a unique opportunity to study changes induced in asteroids during close approaches to massive bodies, as well as the general properties of NEAs. The conceptual mission is set to arrive at and rendezvous with Apophis in 2028 for an advanced study of the asteroid, and some near-optimal (in terms of fuel consumption) trajectories under this mission architecture are to be investigated using a global optimization algorithm called monotonic basin hopping. It is shown that trajectories with a single swing-by from Venus or Earth, or even simpler ones without gravity assist, are the most feasible. In addition, launch opportunities in 2029 yield another possible strategy of leaving Earth around the 2029 close approach event and simply following the asteroid thereafter, which may be an alternative fuel-efficient option that can be adopted if advanced studies of Apophis are not required.
The data set collected during the night of the discovery of a minor body constitutes a too-short arc (TSA), resulting in failure of the differential correction procedure. This makes it necessary to recover the object during subsequent nights to gather more observations that will allow a preliminary orbit to be calculated. In this work, we present a recovery technique based on sampling the admissible region (AdRe) by the constrained Delaunay triangulation. We construct the AdRe in its topocentric and geocentric variants, using logarithmic and exponential metrics, for the following near-Earth-asteroids: (3122) Florence, (3200) Phaethon, 2003 GW, (1864) Daedalus, 2003 BH84 and 1977 QQ5; and the main-belt asteroids: (1738) Oosterhoff, (4690) Strasbourg, (555) Norma, 2006 SO375, 2003 GE55 and (32811) Apisaon. Using our sampling technique, we established the ephemeris region for these objects, using intervals of observation from 25 minutes up to 2 hours, with propagation times from 1 up to 47 days. All these objects were recoverable in a field of vision of 95’ × 72’, except for (3122) Florence and (3200) Phaethon, since they were observed during their closest approach to the Earth. In the case of 2006 SO375, we performed an additional test with only two observations separated by 2 minutes, achieving a recovery of up to 28 days after its discovery, which demonstrates the potential of our technique.
We report, for the first time, the afternoon (i.e., from noon to sunset time) observations of the northern mid-latitude E-region field-aligned irregularities (FAIs) made by the very high frequency (VHF) coherent backscatter radar operated continuously since 29 December 2009 at Daejeon (36.18°N, 127.14°E, 26.7°N dip latitude) in South Korea. We present the statistical characteristics of the mid-latitude afternoon E-region FAIs based on the continuous radar observations. Echo signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) of the afternoon E-region FAIs is found to be as high as 35 dB, mostly occurring around 100–135 km altitudes. Most spectral widths of the afternoon echoes are close to zero, indicating that the irregularities during the afternoon time are not related to turbulent plasma motions. The occurrence of afternoon E-regional FAI is observed with significant seasonal variation, with a maximum in summer and a minimum in winter. Furthermore, to investigate the afternoon E-region FAIs- Sporadic E (Es) relationship, the FAIs have also been compared with Es parameters based on observations made from an ionosonde located at Icheon (37.14°N, 127.54°E, 27.7°N dip latitude), which is 100 km north of Daejeon. The virtual height of Es (h’Es) is mainly in the height range of 105 km to 110 km, which is 5 km to 10 km greater than the bottom of the FAI. There is no relationship between the FAI SNR and the highest frequencies (ftEs) (or blanket frequencies (fbEs)). SNR of FAIs, however, is found to be related well with (ftEs–fbEs).
In this work, preliminary launch opportunities from NARO Space Center to the Sun-Earth Lagrange point are analyzed. Among five different Sun-Earth Lagrange points, L1 and L2 points are selected as suitable candidates for, respectively, solar and astrophysics missions. With high fidelity dynamics models, the L1 and L2 point targeting problem is formulated regarding the location of NARO Space Center and relevant Target Interface Point (TIP) for each different launch date is derived including launch injection energy per unit mass (C3), Right ascension of the injection orbit Apoapsis Vector (RAV) and Declination of the injection orbit Apoapsis Vector (DAV). Potential launch periods to achieve L1 and L2 transfer trajectory are also investigated regarding coasting characteristics from NARO Space Center. The magnitude of the Lagrange Orbit Insertion (LOI) burn, as well as the Orbit Maintenance (OM) maneuver to maintain more than one year of mission orbit around the Lagrange points, is also derived as an example. Even the current work has been made under many assumptions as there are no specific mission goals currently defined yet, so results from the current work could be a good starting point to extend diversities of future Korean deep-space missions.