New vacuum solar telescope and observations with high resolution

The New Vacuum Solar Telescope （NVST） is a one meter vacuum solar telescope that aims to observe fine structures on the Sun. The main goals of NVST are high resolution imaging and spectral observations, including measurements of the solar magnetic field. NVST is the primary ground-based facility used by the Chinese solar research community in this solar cycle. It is located by Fuxian Lake in southwest China, where the seeing is good enough to perform high resolution observations. We first introduce the general conditions at the Fuxian Solar Observatory and the primary science cases of NVST. Then, the basic structures of this telescope and instruments are described in detail. Finally, some typical high resolution data of the solar photosphere and chromosphere are also shown.

Hawk‐eye‐inspired perception algorithm of stereo vision for obtaining orchard 3D point cloud navigation map

The binocular stereo vision is the lowest cost sensor for obtaining 3D information.Considering the weakness of long‐distance measurement and stability,the improvement of accuracy and stability of stereo vision is urgently required for application of precision agriculture.To address the challenges of stereo vision long‐distance measurement and stable perception without hardware upgrade,inspired by hawk eyes,higher resolution perception and the adaptive HDR(High Dynamic Range)were introduced in this paper.Simulating the function from physiological structure of‘deep fovea’and‘shallow fovea’of hawk eye,the higher resolution reconstruction method in this paper was aimed at ac-curacy improving.Inspired by adjustment of pupils,the adaptive HDR method was proposed for high dynamic range optimisation and stable perception.In various light conditions,compared with default stereo vision,the accuracy of proposed algorithm was improved by 28.0%evaluated by error ratio,and the stability was improved by 26.56%by disparity accuracy.For fixed distance measurement,the maximum improvement was 78.6%by standard deviation.Based on the hawk‐eye‐inspired perception algorithm,the point cloud of orchard was improved both in quality and quantity.The hawk‐eye‐inspired perception algorithm contributed great advance in binocular 3D point cloud recon-struction in orchard navigation map.

The earliest evidence for a microblade adaptation in the remote,high altitude regions of the Tibetan Plateau

Microblade assemblages are among the most common prehistoric archaeological materials found on the Tibetan Plateau(TP)and are thought to indicate large scale migration to and settlement of the TP.Few microblade sites,however,have been systematically excavated,especially in the remotest,highest-elevation regions of the TP.The timing of the large-scale arrival,spread,and permanent settlement of people on the TP therefore remains controversial.In this paper,we report on a recently excavated site,Locality 3 of the Nwya Devu Site(ND3),located at 4600 meters above sea level(masl),near the shore of Ngoin Lake,on the interior TP.Our analyses reveal a fairly typical microblade technological orientation and two types of microblade cores:wedge-shaped and semi-conical,which are similar to those found throughout North China.Using Optically Stimulated Luminescence(OSL)dating and AMS^(14)C dating,the age of ND3 ranges from 11 to 10 ka.This date range indicates ND3 is the oldest microblade site yet recorded in the remote,high-elevation regions of the TP and thus provides important information about when and how hunter-gatherers using microblades began exploiting the higher altitudes of the TP.Taken together,studies at ND3 and throughout the TP suggest that a microblade adaptation is associated with the first prolonged human occupation of the plateau and that microblades played a significant role in mediating the risks and facilitating the mobility necessary to permanently inhabit the TP.

First generation solar adaptive optics system for 1-m New Vacuum Solar Telescope at Fuxian Solar Observatory

The first generation solar adaptive optics （AO） system, which consists of a fine tracking loop with a tip-tilt mirror （TTM） and a correlation tracker, and a high-order correction loop with a 37-element deformable mirror （DM）, a correlating Shack-Hartmann （SH） wavefront sensor （WFS） based on the ab- solute difference algorithm and a real time controller （RTC）, has been developed and installed at the 1-m New Vacuum Solar Telescope （NVST） that is part of Fuxian Solar Observatory （FSO）. Compared with the 37-element solar AO system developed for the 26-cm Solar Fine Structure Telescope, administered by Yunnan Astronomical Observatories, this AO system has two updates： one is the subaperture arrangement of the WFS changed from square to hexagon; the other is the high speed camera of the WFS and the corre- sponding real time controller. The WFS can be operated at a frame rate of 2100 Hz and the error correction bandwidth can exceed 100 Hz. After AO correction, the averaged residual image motion and the averaged RMS wavefront error are reduced to 0.06＂ and 45 nm, respectively. The results of on-sky testing obser- vations demonstrate better contrast and finer structures of the images taken with AO than those without AO.

Ensemble Transform Sensitivity Method for Adaptive Observations

The Ensemble Transform（ET） method has been shown to be useful in providing guidance for adaptive observation deployment.It predicts forecast error variance reduction for each possible deployment using its corresponding transformation matrix in an ensemble subspace.In this paper,a new ET-based sensitivity（ETS） method,which calculates the gradient of forecast error variance reduction in terms of analysis error variance reduction,is proposed to specify regions for possible adaptive observations.ETS is a first order approximation of the ET;it requires just one calculation of a transformation matrix,increasing computational efficiency（60%-80%reduction in computational cost）.An explicit mathematical formulation of the ETS gradient is derived and described.Both the ET and ETS methods are applied to the Hurricane Irene（2011） case and a heavy rainfall case for comparison.The numerical results imply that the sensitive areas estimated by the ETS and ET are similar.However,ETS is much more efficient,particularly when the resolution is higher and the number of ensemble members is larger.

New Channel Simulator for Adaptive HF Communication Systems

The high frequency (HF) channel simulators with time-varying parameters based on the Watterson model are analyzed. The methods of simulating the HF channel with time-varying parameters are proposed. The linearly time-varying delay spread is introduced into the channel simulators to simulate the transition states between two channel modes of CCIR520-1. Two signals, including a 500 Hz and a 1 000 Hz bandwidth signal are respectively input into the standard Watterson HF channel model and the proposed channel model with time-varying parameters. Some simulation results prove that the proposed HF channel model with time-varying parameters can reflect the time-varying characteristics of frequency selected fading of HF channel.

High power generation of adaptive laser beams in a Nd：YVO4 MOPA system

We report efficient power scaling of the laser output with an adaptive bemn profile from an Nd：YAG dual-cavity master oscillator using a three-stage end-pumped Nd：YVO4 amplifier. We succeed ill the last switching of an excited laser mode by modulating an acousto-optic modulator loss in a dual-cavity master oscillator, thereby achieving temporal modulation of the output beam profile. The outputs from the master oscillator are amplified via a three-stage power amplifier yielding 36.6, 40.5, and 45.4 W of the maximum output at 116.8 W of incident pump power for the transverse electromagnetic, Laguerre-Gaussian, and quasi-top-hat beam, respectively. The prospects for further power scaling and applications via the dual-cavity master-oscillator power-amplifier （MOPA） system are considered.

Thermal expanded core technique applied to high power fiber mode field adapter

A mode field adapter （MFA） fabricated by the thermal expanded core （TEC） technique is investigated. Firstly, the mode field characteristics of the TEC large mode area fiber （LMAF） are analyzed. Compared with the single-mode fiber （SMF）, the mode field diameter of the LMAF enlarged slower than that of the SMF. Secondly, the mode field characteristics of the different fibers with TEC treatment are discussed. Thirdly, the transmission efficiency of the MFA fabricated by the SMF and LMAF is also investigated. Finally, we used the 6/125 μm SMF and 15/130 μm LMAF to fabricate an MFA with transmission efficiency of 92% and the handling power as high as 100 W.

Cryo-EM structure of a tetrameric photosystem I from Chroococcidiopsis TS-821, a thermophilic, unicellular, non-heterocyst-forming cyanobacterium

Photosystem I(PSI)is one of two photosystems involved in oxygenic photosynthesis.PSI of cyanobacteria exists in monomeric,trimeric,and tetrameric forms,in contrast to the strictly monomeric form of PSI in plants and algae.The tetrameric organization raises questions about its structural,physiological,and evolutionary significance.Here we report the3.72 A˚resolution cryo-electron microscopy structure of tetrameric PSI from the thermophilic,unicellular cyanobacterium Chroococcidiopsis sp.TS-821.The structure resolves 44 subunits and 448 cofactor molecules.We conclude that the tetramer is arranged via two different interfaces resulting from a dimer-of-dimers organization.The localization of chlorophyll molecules permits an excitation energy pathway within and between adjacent monomers.Bioinformatics analysis reveals conserved regions in the PsaL subunit that correlate with the oligomeric state.Tetrameric PSI may function as a key evolutionary step between the trimeric and monomeric forms of PSI organization in photosynthetic organisms.

A VHF RFPGA with adaptive phase-correction technique

This paper presents a VHF（30-300 MHz） RF programmable gain amplifier（PGA） with an adaptive phase correction technique.The proposed technique effectively mitigates phase errors over the VHF band,and the RFPGA as a whole satisfies all the specifications of the China mobile multimedia broadcasting VHF band applications.The RFPGA is implemented with a TSMC 0.25μm CMOS process.Measurement results reveal a gain range of around 61 dB,an ⅡP3 of-7 dBm at maximum gain,a power consumption of 10.2 mA at maximum gain,and a phase imbalance of less than 0.3 degrees.