|
|
| Overview of LISA Pathfinder (LISA-LPF-RP-0001) |
| An overview of the LISA Pathfinder mission written by Paul McNamara (LISA Pathfinder Project Scientist).
|
| Publication date: 29 Apr 2009 |
|
|
| Cluster observations and numerical modeling of energy-dispersed ionospheric H+ ions bouncing at the plasma sheet boundary layer |
| The Cluster mission offers a unique opportunity to investigate the origin of the energy-dispersed ion structures frequently observed at 4.5-5 RE altitude in the auroral region. We present a detailed study of the 14 February 2001 northern pass, characterized by the successive observation by three spacecraft of a series of energy-dispersed structures at ~72-75° ILAT in a region of poleward convection. Equatorward, the satellites also observed a localized, steady, and intense source of outflowing energetic (3-10 keV) H+ and O+ ions. These substructures were modeled by launching millions of H+ ions from this ionospheric source and following them through time-dependent electric and magnetic fields obtained from a global MHD simulation of this event. Despite the complexity of ion orbits, the simulations showed that a large number of ions returned to the Cluster location, poleward of their source, in a number of adjacent or overlapping energy-latitude substructures with the correct dispersion. The first dispersed echo was unexpectedly generated by "half-bouncing" ions that interacted with the current sheet to return to the same hemisphere. The time-shifted observations made by two Cluster (SC1 and SC3) spacecrafts were correctly reproduced. Almost all the ions returning to the spacecraft underwent a ~2-5 keV nonadiabatic acceleration at each interaction with the current sheet in a very confined resonant region. This acceleration explains the overall energy increase from one structure to the next. This event confirms the importance of the ionospheric source in populating bouncing ion clusters within the magnetosphere, even at high latitudes. |
| Publication date: 28 Apr 2009 |
|
|
| IXO - Science Requirements |
| Overview of the key performance requirements for the IXO mission science objectives. |
| Publication date: 28 Apr 2009 |
|
|
| IXO - Payload Definition Document |
This is SRE-PA/2009.019 issue 6 revision1
The Payload Definition Document (PDD) has been compiled by ESA with major inputs from the various instrument teams, forming part of the IXO Instrument Working Group (IWG). This document is agreed by the IWG chairmen as well as the IWG Instrument contact persons and contributors and describes a reference payload that satisfies the measurement requirements given in the Mission Requirements Document [AD-1].
This reference payload is used to establish the overall system design and the corresponding cost envelope. |
| Publication date: 24 Apr 2009 |
|
|
| The Disappearance of the Progenitors of Supernovae 1993J and 2003gd |
| Using images from the Hubble Space Telescope and the Gemini Telescope, we confirmed the disappearance of the progenitors of two type II supernovae (SNe) and evaluated the presence of other stars associated with them. We found that the progenitor of SN 2003gd, an M-supergiant star, is no longer observed at the SN location and determined its intrinsic brightness using image subtraction techniques. The progenitor of SN 1993J, a K-supergiant star, is also no longer present, but its B-supergiant binary companion is still observed. The disappearance of the progenitors confirms that these two supernovae were produced by red supergiants. |
| Publication date: 24 Apr 2009 |
|
|
| Structure of the Venus neutral atmosphere as observed by the Radio Science experiment VeRa on Venus Express |
| The European Space Agency Venus Express Radio Science experiment (VeRa) obtained 118 radio occultation measurements of the Venusian atmosphere between July 2006 and June 2007. Southern latitudes are uniformly sampled; measurements in the northern hemisphere are concentrated near the pole. Radial profiles of neutral number density derived from the occultations cover the altitude range 40-90 km, which are converted to profiles of temperature (T) and pressure (p) versus height (h). Profiles of static stability are found to be latitude-dependent and nearly adiabatic in the middle cloud region. Below the clouds the stability decreases at high latitudes. At an altitude of 65 km, the VeRa T[p(h)] profiles generally lie between the Venus International Reference Atmosphere (VIRA) and VIRA-2 models; the retrieved temperatures at any given pressure level typically are within 5 K of those derived from the Pioneer Venus Orbiter Radio Occultation experiments. A large equator-to-pole temperature contrast of ~30 K is found at the 1-bar (1000 hPa) level. The VeRa observations reveal a distinct cold collar region in the southern hemisphere, complementing that in the north. At the latitudes of the cold collars, the tropopause altitude increases relative to higher and lower latitudes by ~7 km while the temperature drops roughly 60 K. The observations indicate the existence of a wave number 2 structure poleward of ±75° latitude at altitudes of 62 km. |
| Publication date: 23 Apr 2009 |
|
|
| A massive hypergiant star as the progenitor of the supernova SN 2005gl |
| Our understanding of the evolution of massive stars before their final explosions as supernovae is incomplete, from both an observational and a theoretical standpoint. A key missing piece in the supernova puzzle is the difficulty of identifying and studying progenitor stars. In only a single case - that of supernova SN 1987A in the Large Magellanic Cloud - has a star been detected at the supernova location before the explosion, and been subsequently shown to have vanished after the supernova event. The progenitor of SN 1987A was a blue supergiant, which required a rethink of stellar evolution models. The progenitor of supernova SN 2005gl was proposed to be an extremely luminous object, but the association was not robustly established (it was not even clear that the putative progenitor was a single luminous star). Here we report that the previously proposed object was indeed the progenitor star of SN 2005gl. This very massive star was likely a luminous blue variable that standard stellar evolution predicts should not have exploded in that state. |
| Publication date: 16 Apr 2009 |
|
|
| Evolution of dipolarization in the near-Earth current sheet induced by Earthward rapid flux transport |
| We report on the evolution of dipolarization and associated disturbances of the near-Earth current sheet during a substorm on 27 October 2007, based upon Cluster multi-point, multi-scale observations of the night-side plasma sheet at X~-10 RE. Three dipolarization events were observed accompanied by activations on ground magnetograms at 09:07, 09:14, and 09:22 UT. We found that all these events consist of two types of dipolarization signatures: (1) Earthward moving dipolarization pulse, which is accompanied by enhanced rapid Earthward flux transport and is followed by current sheet disturbances with decrease in BZ and enhanced local current density, and subsequent (2) increase in BZ toward a stable level, which is more prominent at Earthward side and evolving tailward. During the 09:07 event, when Cluster was located in a thin current sheet, the dipolarization and fast Earthward flows were also accompanied by further thinning of the current sheet down to a half-thickness of about 1000 km and oscillation in a kink-like mode with a period of ~15 s and propagating duskward. Probable cause of this "flapping current sheet" is shown to be the Earthward high-speed flow. The oscillation ceased as the flow decreased and the field configuration became more dipolar. The later rapid flux transport events at 09:14 and 09:22 UT took place when the field configuration was initially more dipolar and were also associated with BZ disturbance and local current density enhancement, but to a lesser degree. Hence, current sheet disturbances induced by initial dipolarization pulses could differ, depending on the configuration of the current sheet. |
| Publication date: 09 Apr 2009 |
|
|
| Magnetic field and electric currents in the vicinity of polar cusps as inferred from Polar and Cluster data |
| A detailed statistical study of the magnetic structure of the dayside polar cusps is presented, based on multi-year sets of magnetometer data of Polar and Cluster spacecraft, taken in 1996-2006 and 2001-2007, respectively. Thanks to the dense data coverage in both Northern and Southern Hemispheres, the analysis spanned nearly the entire length of the cusps, from low altitudes to the cusp "throat" and the magnetosheath. Subsets of data falling inside the polar cusp "funnels" were selected with the help of TS05 and IGRF magnetic field models, taking into account the dipole tilt and the solar wind/IMF conditions. The selection funnels were shifted within ±10° of SM latitude around the model cusp location, and linear regression parameters were calculated for each sliding subset, further divided into 10 bins of distance in the range 2<=R<=12 RE, with the following results. (1) Diamagnetic depression, caused by the penetrated magnetosheath plasma, becomes first visible at R~4-5 RE, rapidly deepens with growing R, peaks at R~6-9 RE, and then partially subsides and widens in latitude at the cusp's outer end. (2) The depression peak is systematically shifted poleward (by ~2° of the footpoint latitude) with respect to the model cusp field line, passing through the min{|B|} point at the magnetopause. (3) At all radial distances, clear and distinct peaks of the correlation between the local By and By(IMF) and of the corresponding proportionality coefficient are observed. A remarkably regular variation of that coefficient with R quantitatively confirms the field-aligned geometry of the cusp currents associated with the IMF By, found in earlier observations. |
| Publication date: 02 Apr 2009 |
|
|
| Dual source populations of substorm-associated ring current ions |
| Sources of low-energy ring current ions in the early morning sector (eastward drifting energy domain of about <5 keV) are examined using both statistical analyses and numerical tracing methods (phase-space mapping and simulation). In about 90% of Cluster perigee traversals at 02~07 local time, these low-energy ring current ions have dual ion populations: one is wedge-like energy-dispersed ions, and the other is a band-like ions over different latitudes in a narrow energy range at the upper energy threshold of the wedge-like energy-dispersed ions. Both components are most likely created during past substorm activities. Numerical tracing results strongly suggest that these two components have different sources with different temperatures and elapsed times. The band-like part most likely comes from ions with plasma sheet temperature (~1 keV), and the energy-dispersed part most likely comes from cold ions (temperature <0.1 keV). The source density of the cold component (0.2~0.5x106m-3) is slightly less than that of the hot component (0.5x106m-3), while Cluster observation shows slightly higher density for the wedge-like part than the low-energy band-like part. The hot source component also explains the observed high-energy (>10 keV) ions drifting westward after adiabatic energization in the nightside under time-varying electric field. The wedge-like part has much shorter elapsed time, i.e., less charge-exchange loss, than the band-like part. |
| Publication date: 01 Apr 2009 |
|
|
