A high pressure magnetic ion source Final report
High pressure magnetic ion source for mass spectrometer systems
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High pressure magnetic ion source for mass spectrometer systems
A physical mechanism is proposed that couples the Sun's dynamo magnetic field to its gravitational potential energy. The mechanism involves the isotropic field pressure resulting in a lifting force on the convective envelope, thereby raising its potential energy. Decay of the field due to solar activity allows the envelop to subside and releases this energy, which can augment the otherwise steady solar luminosity. Equations are developed and applied to the Sun for several field configurations. The best estimate model suggests that uniform luminosity variations as large as 0.02% for half a sunspot cycle may occur. Brief temporal variations or the rotation of spatial structures could allow larger excursions in the energy released.
Magnetic-pickup transducers operate at temperature as high as 1,100 C and pressures in excess of 2.5 kilobars. Transducers obtain simulated seismic data in laboratory experiments at high temperatures and pressure. They also have potential applications in industrial instrumentation for measurements under similarly difficult conditions. Transducers use high-temperature cement to bond parts together and high-temperature-insulated copper or aluminum wire for windings.
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Background pressure and magnetic field shape effect on MPD thrustor performance, testing radiation cooled thrustors
Force-free equilibrium configurations of magnetic-pressure-dominated magnetized supersonic jets confined by slowly varying external pressure are investigated analytically. For the case where internal dissipation mechanisms are active, the lowest-energy field configuration is found to be the superposition of an axisymmetric mode and a helical mode with a wavelength equal to 5 times the jet radius, and the pressure below which the nonaxisymmetric mode becomes energetically favorable is given as 2700 times the product of the 4th power of the magnetic helicity per unit length and the -6th power of the magnetic flux. A model of the total and polarized emission of such a configuration is developed and applied to the extended well-collimated astronomically resolved jet NGC 6251. The model is shown to reproduce significant features such as transverse oscillations of the ridge line, width oscillations and emission knots, the projected magnetic-field configuration, oscillations of the degree of polarization, and the distribution of the Faraday rotation measure.
Ion equation of state in the quasi-parallel collisionless shock is deduced from simulation results. The simulations were performed for theta(bn) = 10 deg, beta = 0.5 and M sub A in the range from 1.2 to 8, where M sub A is the Alfven Mach number, beta is the upstream ratio of plasma pressure to magnetic pressure, and theta(bn) is the angle between the shock normal and the upstream magnetic field. The equation of state can be approximated by a power law with different exponents in the upstream and downstream sides of the shock transition region. The exponent in the upstream side of the transition region is much greater than the adiabatic value of 5/3 and increases with M sub A. The exponent in the downstream side of the transition region is slightly less than 5/3. The results show that ion heating in the quasi-parallel shock is highly nonadiabatic with a large increase in entropy and in temperature ratio in the upstream side of the transition region, while the heating is highly isentropic with a large increase in temperature difference across the principal density jump in the downstream side of the transition region.
The beta dependence (where beta is the ratio between plasma pressure to magnetic pressure) of the collisionless tearing instability at the dayside magnetopause current sheet was investigated analytically for several current sheet models. The results show that, when the asymmetry of the dayside magnetopause current sheet is taken into account, the beta dependence of the collisionless tearing instability at the dayside magnetopause is controlled by the magnetic field profile across the magnetopause current sheet.
The solar cycle variations of various solar wind parameters are reviewed. It is shown that there is a gradual decrease in the duration of high-speed streams from the declining phase of solar cycle 20 through the ascending phase of cycle 21 and a corresponding decrease in the annual average of the proton speed toward solar maximum. Beta, the ratio of the proton thermal pressure to magnetic pressure, undergoes a significant solar cycle variation, as expected from the variation in the IMF. Individual hourly averages of beta often exceed unity with 20 cases exceeding 10 and one case as high as 25. The Alfven Mach number shows a solar cycle variation similar to beta, lower aboard solar maximum. High-speed streams can be seen clearly in epsilon and the y component of the interplanetary magnetic field.
The location of the dayside Venus ionopause, as observed by the Pioneer Venus Orbiter, is shown to depend on the magnetic pressure in the shocked, highly compressed solar wind plasma just outside the ionopause. Assuming a balance exclusively between this external magnetic pressure and internal ionospheric thermal pressure, invariance of ionospheric conditions, and an isothermal ionosphere, it is possible to determine pressure scale heights for various solar zenith angle intervals. These scale heights yield ionospheric temperatures which agree with direct measurements obtained independently. Not surprisingly, the average ionopause altitude is higher near the terminator, where the average external magnetic pressure is lower. The near-terminator ionopause has much greater positional variability than that at lower solar zenith angles; this appears to be due principally to concomitant variations in the external magnetic pressure, presumably related to solar wind pressure changes.
Magnetic transitions in terbium and dysprosium as affected by hydrostatic pressure at various high pressures and low temperatures
We explore a model in which QSO broad absorption lines (BALS) are formed in a radiation pressure-driven wind emerging from a magnetized accretion disk. The magnetic field threading the disk material is dragged by the flow and is compressed by the radiation pressure until it is dynamically important and strong enough to contribute to the confinement of the BAL clouds. We construct a simple self-similar model for such radiatively driven magnetized disk winds, in order to explore their properties. It is found that solutions exist for which the entire magnetized flow is confined to a thin wedge over the surface of the disk. For reasonable values of the mass-loss rate, a typical magnetic field strength such that the magnetic pressure is comparable to the inferred gas pressure in BAL clouds, and a moderate amount of internal soft X-ray absorption, we find that the opening angle of the flow is approximately 0.1 rad, in good agreement with the observed covering factor of the broad absorption line region.
We solve the force-free equation J x B = 0 for fields which are toroidally symmetric. The technique utilizes an expansion about a cylindrical field and is therefore valid or tori with a large aspect ratio such as long, thin, coronal loops. The calculation is performed in spatial toroidal coordinates, rather than in the flux coordinates used by previous authors; this allows direct calculation of the loci of flux surfaces and of surfaces of constant magnetic pressure. Our solutions differ significantly from toroidal fields in laboratories, which are in general not force-free. They are characterized by field lines whose projections in the poloidal planes are circles with centers displaced by varying distances from the axis of the torus. In general, flux surfaces do not correspond to surfaces of constant magnetic pressure. We have examined solutions corresponding to simple analytic zero-order cylindrical fields. For moderate twists in the zero-order (cylindrical) field, the magnetic pressure is larger on the inner toroidal radius. However, this effect diminishes with twist angle and in fact, for extreme initial twists, the magnetic pressure can be larger on the outer radius. We compare our results with previous work utilizing flux coordinates.
Continuous optical observations of cusp/cleft auroral activities within approximately equal to 09-15 MLT and 70-76 deg magnetic latitude are studied in relation to changes in solar wind dynamic pressure and interplanetary magnetic field (IMF) variability. The observed latitudinal movements of the cusp/cleft aurora in response to IMF B(sub z) changes may be explained as an effect of a variable magnetic field intensity in the outer dayside magnetosphere associated with the changing intensity of region 1 field-aligned currents and associated closure currents. Ground magnetic signatures related to such currents were observed in the present case (January 10, 1993). Strong, isolated enhancements in solar wind dynamic pressure (Delta p/p is greater than or equal to 0.5) gave rise to equatorward shifts of the cusp/cleft aurora, characteristic auroral transients, and distinct ground magnetic signatures of enhanced convection at cleft latitudes. A sequence of auroral events of approximately equal to 5-10 min recurrence time, moving eastward along the poleward boundary of the persistent cusp/cleft aurora in the approximately equal to 10-14 MLT sector, during negative IMF B(sub z) and B(sub y) conditions, were found to be correlated with brief pulses in solar wind dynamic pressure (0.1 is less than Delta p/p is less than 0.5). Simultaneous photometer observations from Ny Alesund, Svalbard, and Danmarkshavn, Greenland, show that the events often appeared on the prenoon side (approximately equal to 10-12 MLT), before moving into the postnoon sector in the case we study here, when IMF B(sub y) is less than 0. In other cases, similar auroral event sequences have been observed to move westward in the prenoon sector, during intervals of positive B(sub y). Thus a strong prenoon/postnoon asymmetry of event occurence and motion pattern related to the IMF B(sub y) polarity is observed. We find that this category of auroral event sequence is stimulated bursts of electron precipitation that originate from magnetosheath plasma that has accessed that dayside magnetosphere in the noon or near-noon sector, possibly at high latitudes, partly governed by the IMF orientation as well as by solar wind dynamic pressure pulses.
Using data from 41 substorm events in the near-Earth magnetotail, we have combined plasma, energetic ion, and magnetic field data from the AMPTE/IRM spacecraft to perform a superposed epoch analysis of changes in the total pressure and in the magnetic field configuration as a function of time relative to substorm onset. Unloading is evident in the total pressure profile; the pressure decreases by about 20 percent. Pressure changes during the growth phase are not as uniform for the different substorms as the pressure changes during the expansion phase. To study changes in the magnetic field configuration, we have determined the development of the plasma pressure profiles in z for an average of data from 15 to 19 R(E). At substorm onset, the field line dipolarization begins on the innermost field lines and then progresses to the outer field lines. The field lines map the closest to the Earth about 45 min after substorm onset, and then begin to stretch out again during the recovery phase of the substorm.
In this paper we describe our plans to better understand this phenomenon using TEC measurements from ground and space-borne GPS receivers.
'Pressure-balanced structures' (PBSs) in the heliosphere are microscale phenomena with a characteristic length along the radial dimension of the order of 0.05 AU across which the sum of the thermal pressures and the magnetic pressure is constant. PBSs have been identified in the Voyager data from 1 AU to 24 AU. If the density of pickup ions were proportional to the proton density across a PBS, and if the electron pressure were negligible, then from measurements of the magnetic field and the proton density and temperature across pressure balanced structures a pickup ion density is derived which is significantly smaller than the density predicted by a model based on the same assumption. This suggests that there are processes which 'smear out' the pressure of the pickup ions so that it is nearly constant on the scale of a PBS. If the pressure of the pickup ions is uniform across a PBS, then one can determine the electron temperature from the pressure balance condition.
Spacecraft observations from the Earth's magnetotail show that the flaring angle depends on the downtail distance, the upstream solar wind dynamic pressure and the B(sub z) component of the interplanetary magnetic field (1993). Measurements from the Phobos 2 spacecraft along a circular orbit at 2.8 Mars radii allow a similar study of the Mars magnetotail. Under the assumption that the magnetic pressure in the Martian tail lobes is much greater than the plasma pressure in the lobe, we use the pressure balance condition between the tail lobe magnetic pressure and the normal component of the solar wind pressure to infer the angle at which the tail magnetopause flares. As in the case of the terrestrial magnetotail, the flaring angle of Mars tail depends on the solar wind dynamic pressure, but this angle (at 2.5 R(sub M)) is about one half of the terrestrial value (at 17 R(sub E)). The median inferred flaring angle is about 13 deg.