Experiment on diffuse reflection laser ranging to space debris and data analysis

Space debris poses a serious threat to human space activities and needs to be measured and cataloged. As a new technology for space target surveillance, the measurement accuracy of diffuse reflection laser ranging （DRLR） is much higher than that of microwave radar and optoelectronic measurement. Based on the laser ranging data of space debris from the DRLR system at Shanghai Astronomical Observatory acquired in March-April, 2013, the characteristics and precision of the laser ranging data are analyzed and their applications in orbit determination of space debris are discussed, which is implemented for the first time in China. The experiment indicates that the precision of laser ranging data can reach 39 cm-228 cm. When the data are sufficient enough （four arcs measured over three days）, the orbital accuracy of space debris can be up to 50 m.

Data processing and error analysis for the CE-1 Lunar microwave radiometer

The microwave radiometer （MRM） onboard the Chang＇ E-1 （CE-I） lu- nar orbiter is a 4-frequency microwave radiometer, and it is mainly used to obtain the brightness temperature （TB） of the lunar surface, from which the thickness, temperature, dielectric constant and other related properties of the lunar regolith can be derived. The working mode of the CE-1 MRM, the ground calibration （including the official calibration coefficients）, as well as the acquisition and processing of the raw data are introduced. Our data analysis shows that TB increases with increasing frequency, decreases towards the lunar poles and is significantly affected by solar illumination. Our analysis also reveals that the main uncertainty in TB comes from ground calibration.

Forecast daily indices of solar activity, F10.7, using support vector regression method

The 10.7 cm solar radio flux （F10.7）, the value of the solar radio emission flux density at a wavelength of 10.7 cm, is a useful index of solar activity as a proxy for solar extreme ultraviolet radiation. It is meaningful and important to predict F10.7 values accurately for both long-term （months-years） and short-term （days） forecasting, which are often used as inputs in space weather models. This study applies a novel neural network technique, support vector regression （SVR）, to forecasting daily values of F10.7. The aim of this study is to examine the feasibility of SVR in short-term F10.7 forecasting. The approach, based on SVR, reduces the dimension of feature space in the training process by using a kernel-based learning algorithm. Thus, the complexity of the calculation becomes lower and a small amount of training data will be sufficient. The time series of F10.7 from 2002 to 2006 are employed as the data sets. The performance of the approach is estimated by calculating the norm mean square error and mean absolute percentage error. It is shown that our approach can perform well by using fewer training data points than the traditional neural network.

A method and results of color calibration for the Chang'e-3 terrain camera and panoramic camera

The terrain camera （TCAM） and panoramic camera （PCAM） are two of the major scientific payloads installed on the lander and rover of the Chang＇e 3 mission re- spectively. They both use a Bayer color filter array covering CMOS sensor to capture color images of the Moon＇s surface. RGB values of the original images are related to these two kinds of cameras. There is an obvious color difference compared with human visual perception. This paper follows standards published by the International Commission on Illumination to establish a color correction model, designs the ground calibration experiment and obtains the color correction coefficient. The image qual- ity has been significantly improved and there is no obvious color difference in the corrected images. Ground experimental results show that： （1） Compared with uncor- rected images, the average color difference of TCAM is 4.30, which has been reduced by 62.1%. （2） The average color differences of the left and right cameras in PCAM are 4.14 and 4.16, which have been reduced by 68.3% and 67.6% respectively.

Analysis of the geomorphology surrounding the Chang'e-3 landing site

Chang＇e-3 （CE-3） landed on the Mare Imbrium basin in the east part of Sinus Iridum （19.51°W, 44.12°N）, which was China＇s first soft landing on the Moon and it started collecting data on the lunar surface environment. To better understand the environment of this region, this paper utilizes the available high-resolution topography data, image data and geological data to carry out a detailed analysis and research on the area surrounding the landing site （Sinus Iridum and 45 km×70 km of the landing area） as well as on the topography, landform, geology and lunar dust of the area surrounding the landing site. A general topographic analysis of the surrounding area is based on a digital elevation model and digital elevation model data acquired by Chang＇e-2 that have high resolution; the geology analysis is based on lunar geological data published by USGS; the study on topographic factors and distribution of craters and rocks in the surrounding area covering 4km^4km or even smaller is based on images from the CE-3 landing camera and images from the topographic camera; an analysis is done of the effect of the CE-3 engine plume on the lunar surface by comparing images before and after the landing using data from the landing camera. A comprehensive analysis of the results shows that the landing site and its surrounding area are identified as typical lunar mare with flat topography. They are suitable for maneuvers by the rover, and are rich in geological phenomena and scientific targets, making it an ideal site for exploration.

Automated estimation of stellar fundamental parameters from low resolution spectra: the PLS method

PLS （Partial Least Squares regression） is introduced into an automatic estimation of fundamental stellar spectral parameters. It extracts the most correlative spectral component to the parameters （Teff, log g and [Fe/H]）, and sets up a linear regression function from spectra to the corresponding parameters. Considering the properties of stellar spectra and the PLS algorithm, we present a piecewise PLS regression method for estimation of stellar parameters, which is composed of one PLS model for Teff, and seven PLS models for log g and [Fe/H] estimation. Its performance is investigated by large experiments on flux calibrated spectra and continuum normalized spectra at different signal-to-noise ratios （SNRs） and resolutions. The results show that the piecewise PLS method is robust for spectra at the medium resolution of 0.23 nm. For low resolution 0.5 nm and 1 nm spectra, it achieves competitive results at higher SNR. Experiments using ELODIE spectra of 0.23 nm resolution illustrate that our piecewise PLS models trained with MILES spectra are efficient for O ～ G stars： for flux calibrated spectra, the systematic offsets are 3.8%, 0.14 dex, and -0.09 dex for Teff, log g and [Fe/H], with error scatters of 5.2%, 0.44 dex and 0.38 dex, respectively; for continuum normalized spectra, the systematic offsets are 3.8%, 0.12dex, and -0.13 dex for Teff, log g and [Fe/H], with error scatters of 5.2%, 0.49 dex and 0.41 dex, respectively. The PLS method is rapid, easy to use and does not rely as strongly on the tightness of a parameter grid of templates to reach high precision as Artificial Neural Networks or minimum distance methods do.

Stellar spectra association rule mining method based on the weighted frequent pattern tree

Effective extraction of data association rules can provide a reliable basis for classification of stellar spectra. The concept of stellar spectrum weighted itemsets and stellar spectrum weighted association rules are introduced, and the weight of a single property in the stellar spectrum is determined by information entropy. On that basis, a method is presented to mine the association rules of a stellar spectrum based on the weighted frequent pattern tree. Important properties of the spectral line are highlighted using this method. At the same time, the waveform of the whole spectrum is taken into account. The experimental results show that the data association rules of a stellar spectrum mined with this method are consistent with the main features of stellar spectral types.

Preliminary results of solving the problem of geometric distortion for the 2.4 m telescope at Yunnan Observatory

We observed the open clusters NGC 1664 （43 exposures） and M35 （42 ex- posures） by the Yunnan Faint Object Spectrograph and Camera in the 2.4 m telescope at Yunnan Astronomical Observatory on 2011 January 3, and processed them by a method recently proposed by us. The result shows that there is a geometric distortion effect in the field of view and the maximum distortion is - 0.25 （i.e. 1 pixel）. After correcting the geometric distortion, the precision of stellar positional measurement is significantly improved. The best precision in each direction is 6 mas for well-exposed stars.

Phase analysis of sunspot group numbers on both solar hemispheres

Cross-correlation analysis and wavelet transform methods are proposed to investigate the phase relationship between the monthly sunspot group numbers in the solar northern and southern hemispheres. It is found that （1） the monthly sunspot group numbers in the northern hemisphere begin two months earlier than those in the southern one, which should lead to phase asynchrony between them but with a slight effect; （2） the Schwabe cycle length for the monthly sunspot group numbers in the two hemispheres obviously differs from each other, and the mean Schwabe cycle length of the monthly sunspot group numbers in the northern hemisphere is slightly larger than that in the southern one; （3） the monthly sunspot group numbers in the northern hemisphere precede those in the southern hemisphere during the years of about 1874- 1927, after which, the southern hemisphere leads the northern hemisphere in the years 1928-1964, and then the northern hemisphere leads in time till the present.

Combination of terrestrial reference frames based on space geodetic techniques in SHAO:methodology and main issues

Based on years of input from the four geodetic techniques （SLR, GPS, VLBI and DORIS）, the strategies of the combination were studied in SHAO to generate a new global terrestrial reference frame as the material realization of the ITRS defined in IERS Conventions. The main input includes the time series of weekly solutions （or fortnightly for SLR 1983-1993） of observational data for satellite techniques and session-wise normal equations for VLBI. The set of estimated unknowns includes 3- dimensional Cartesian coordinates at the reference epoch 2005.0 of the stations distributed globally and their rates as well as the time series of consistent Earth Orientation Parameters （EOPs） at the same epochs as the input. Besides the final solution, namely SOL-2, generated by using all the inputs before 2015.0 obtained from short-term observation processing, another reference solution, namely SOL- 1, was also computed by using the input before 2009.0 based on the same combination of procedures for the purpose of comparison with ITRF2008 and DTRF2008 and for evaluating the effect of the latest six more years of data on the combined results. The estimated accuracy of the x-component and y-component of the SOL- 1 TRF-origin was better than 0.1 mm at epoch 2005.0 and better than 0.3 mm yr- 1 in time evolution, either compared with ITRF2008 or DTRF2008. However, the z-component of the translation parameters from SOL-1 to ITRF2008 and DTRF2008 were 3.4 mm and -1.0 ram, respectively. It seems that the z-component of the SOL-1 TRF-origin was much closer to the one in DTRF2008 than the one in ITRF2008. The translation parameters from SOL-2 to ITRF2014 were 2.2, -1.8 and 0.9 mm in the x-, y- and z-components respectively with rates smaller than 0.4 mmyr-1. Similarly, the scale factor transformed from SOL-1 to DTRF2008 was much smaller than that to ITRF2008. The scale parameter from SOL-2 to ITRF2014 was -0.31 ppb with a rate lower than 0.01 ppb yr-1. The external precision （WRMS） compared with IERS EOP 08 C04 of the combined EOP series was smaller than 0.06 mas for the polar motions, smaller than 0.01 ms for the UT1-UTC and smaller than 0.02 ms for the LODs. The precision of the EOPs in SOL-2 was slightly higher than that of SOL-1.

A Periodicity Analysis of the Light Curve of 3C 454.3

We analyzed the radio light curves of 3C 454.3 at frequencies 22 and 37 GHz taken from the database of Metsaeovi Radio Observatory, and found evidence of quasi-periodic activity. The light curves show great activity with very complicated non-sinusoidal variations. Two possible periods, a very weak one of 1.57 ± 0.12 yr and a very strong one of 6.15 ±0.50 yr were consistently identified by two methods, the Jurkevich method and power specmun estimation. The period of 6.15 ± 0.50 yr is consistent with results previously reported by Ciaramella et al. and Webb et al. Applying the binary black hole model to the central structure we found black hole masses of 1.53 × 10^9M⊙ and 1.86 × 10^8M⊙, and predicted that the next radio outburst is to take place in 2006 March and April.

Photometric solution and period analysis of the contact binary system AH Cnc

Photometric observations of AH Cnc, a W UMa-type system in the open cluster M67, were car- fled out by using the 50BIN telescope. About 100h of time-series/3- and V-band data were taken, based on which eight new times of light minima were determined. By applying the Wilson-Devinney method, the light curves were modeled and a revised photometric solution of the binary system was derived. We con- firmed that AH Cnc is a deep contact （f = 51%）, low mass-ratio （q - 0.156） system. Adopting the distance modulus derived from study of the host cluster, we have re-calculated the physical parameters of the binary system, namely the masses and radii. The masses and radii of the two components were estimated to be respectively 1.188（4-0.061） Me, 1.332（4-0.063） RQ for the primary component and 0.185（4-0.032） Me, 0.592（4-0.051） Re for the secondary. By adding the newly derived minimum timings to all the available data, the period variations of AH Cnc were studied. This shows that the orbital period of the binary is con- tinuously increasing at a rate of dp/dt = 4.29 x 10-10 d yr-1. In addition to the long-term period increase, a cyclic variation with a period of 35.26 yr was determined, which could be attributed to an unresolved tertiary component of the system.

Performance analysis of parallel gravitational N-body codes on large GPU clusters

We compare the performance of two very different parallel gravitational N-body codes for astrophysical simulations on large Graphics Processing Unit（GPU） clusters, both of which are pioneers in their own fields as well as on certain mutual scales- NBODY6＋＋ and Bonsai. We carry out benchmarks of the two codes by analyzing their performance, accuracy and efficiency through the modeling of structure decomposition and timing measurements. We find that both codes are heavily optimized to leverage the computational potential of GPUs as their performance has approached half of the maximum single precision performance of the underlying GPU cards. With such performance we predict that a speed-up of200- 300 can be achieved when up to 1k processors and GPUs are employed simultaneously. We discuss the quantitative information about comparisons of the two codes, finding that in the same cases Bonsai adopts larger time steps as well as larger relative energy errors than NBODY6＋＋, typically ranging from10- 50 times larger, depending on the chosen parameters of the codes. Although the two codes are built for different astrophysical applications, in specified conditions they may overlap in performance at certain physical scales, thus allowing the user to choose either one by fine-tuning parameters accordingly.

Kinematics and stellar population properties of the Andromeda galaxy by using the spectroscopic observations of the Guoshoujing Telescope

The Andromeda galaxy was observed by the Guoshoujing Telescope （formerly named the Large Sky Area Multi-Object Fiber Spectroscopic Telescope -- LAMOST）, during the 2009 commissioning phase. Due to the absence of standard stars for flux calibration, we use the photometric data of 15 intermediate bands in the Beijing-Arizona-Taipei-Connecticut （BATC） survey to calibrate the spectra. In to- tal, 59 spectra located in the bulge and disk of the galaxy are obtained. Kinematic and stellar population properties of the stellar content are derived with these spectra. We obtain the global velocity field and calculate corresponding rotation velocities out to about 7 kpc along the major axis. These rotation velocity measurements comple- ment those of the gas content, such as the H I and CO. The radial velocity dispersion shows that the stars in the bulge are more dynamically thermal and the disk is more rotationally-supported. The age distribution shows that the bulge was formed about 12 Gyr ago, the disk is relatively younger and the ages of some regions along the spi- ral arms can reach as young as about 1 Gyr. These young stellar populations have a relatively richer abundance and larger reddening. The overall average metallicity of the galaxy approximates the solar metallicity and a very weak abundance gradient is gained. The reddening map gives a picture of a dust-free bulge and a distinct dusty ring in the disk.

Statistical analysis of geomagnetic field variations during the partial solar eclipse on 2011 January 4 in Turkey

Some geophysical parameters, such as those related to gravitation and the geomagnetic field, could change during solar eclipses. In order to observe geomagnetic fluctuations, geomagnetic measurements were carded out in a limited time frame during the partial solar eclipse that occurred on 2011 January 4 and was observed in Canakkale and Ankara, Turkey. Additionally, records of the geomagnetic field spanning 24 hours, obtained from another observatory （in Iznik, Turkey）, were also analyzed to check for any peculiar variations. In the data processing stage, a polynomial fit, following the application of a running average routine, was applied to the geomagnetic field data sets. Geomagnetic field data sets indicated there was a characteristic decrease at the beginning of the solar eclipse and this decrease can be well-correlated with previous geomagnetic field measurements that were taken during the total solar eclipse that was observed in Turkey on 2006 March 29. The behavior of the geomagnetic field is also consistent with previous observations in the literature. As a result of these analyses, it can be suggested that eclipses can cause a shielding effect on the geomagnetic field of the Earth.

Spectral Synthesis via Mean Field approach to Independent Component Analysis

We apply a new statistical analysis technique, the Mean Field approach to Independent Component Analysis（MF-ICA） in a Bayseian framework, to galaxy spectral analysis. This algorithm can compress a stellar spectral library into a few Independent Components（ICs）, and the galaxy spectrum can be reconstructed by these ICs. Compared to other algorithms which decompose a galaxy spectrum into a combination of several simple stellar populations, the MF-ICA approach offers a large improvement in efficiency. To check the reliability of this spectral analysis method, three different methods are used：（1） parameter recovery for simulated galaxies,（2） comparison with parameters estimated by other methods, and（3） consistency test of parameters derived with galaxies from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey. We find that our MF-ICA method can not only fit the observed galaxy spectra efficiently, but can also accurately recover the physical parameters of galaxies. We also apply our spectral analysis method to the DEEP2 spectroscopic data, and find it can provide excellent fitting results for low signal-to-noise spectra.

Subreflector model depending on elevation for the Tianma 65 m Radio Telescope

A subreflector adjustment system for the Tianma 65 m radio telescope, administered by Shanghai Astronomical Observatory, has been installed to compensate for gravitational deformation of the main re- flector and the structure supporting the subreflector. The position and attitude of the subreflector are variable in order to improve the efficiency at different elevations. The subreflector model has the goal of improving the antenna＇s performance. A new fitting formulation which is different from the traditional formulation is proposed to reduce the fitting error in the Y direction. The only difference in the subreflector models of the 65 m radio telescope is the bias of a constant term in the Z direction. We have investigated the effect of movements of the subreflector on the pointing of the antenna. The results of these performance measure- ments made by moving the antenna in elevation show that the subreflector model can effectively improve the efficiency of the 65 m radio telescope at each elevation. An antenna efficiency of about 60% at the Ku band is reached in the whole angular range of elevation.

Random forest algorithm for classification of multiwavelength data

We introduced a decision tree method called Random Forests for multiwavelength data classification. The data were adopted from different databases, including the Sloan Digital Sky Survey （SDSS） Data Release five, USNO, FIRST and ROSAT. We then studied the discrimination of quasars from stars and the classification of quasars, stars and galaxies with the sample from optical and radio bands and with that from optical and X-ray bands. Moreover, feature selection and feature weighting based on Random Forests were investigated. The performances based on different input patterns were compared. The experimental results show that the random forest method is an effective method for astronomical object classification and can be applied to other classification problems faced in astronomy. In addition, Random Forests will show its superiorities due to its own merits, e.g. classification, feature selection, feature weighting as well as outlier detection.

Observations of interplanetary scintillation with a single-station mode at Urumqi

The Sun affects physical phenomena on Earth in multiple ways. In particular, the material in interplanetary space comes from coronal expansion in the form of inhomogeneous plasma flow （solar wind）, which is the primary source of the interplanetary medium. Ground-based Interplanetary Scintillation （IPS） observations are an important and effective method for measuring solar wind speed and the structures of small diameter radio sources. We discuss one mode of ground-based single-station observations： Single-Station Single-Frequency （SSSF） mode. To study the SSSF mode, a new system has been established at Urumqi Astronomical Observatory （UAO）, China, and a series of experimental observations were successfully carried out from May to December, 2008.

Investigation of intergranular bright points from the New Vacuum Solar Telescope

Six high-resolution TiO-band image sequences from the New Vacuum Solar Telescope （NVST） are used to investigate the properties of intergranular bright points （igBPs）. We detect the igBPs using a Laplacian and morphological dilation algorithm （LMD） and automatically track them using a three- dimensional segmentation algorithm, and then investigate the morphologic, photometric and dynamic prop- erties of igBPs in terms of equivalent diameter, intensity contrast, lifetime, horizontal velocity, diffusion index, motion range and motion type. The statistical results confirm previous studies based on G-band or TiO-band igBPs from other telescopes. These results illustrate that TiO data from the NVST are stable and reliable, and are suitable for studying igBPs. In addition, our method is feasible for detecting and track- ing igBPs with TiO data from the NVST. With the aid of vector magnetograms obtained from the Solar Dynamics Observatory/Helioseismic and Magnetic Imager, the properties of igBPs are found to be strongly influenced by their embedded magnetic environments. The areal coverage, size and intensity contrast values of igBPs are generally larger in regions with higher magnetic flux. However, the dynamics of igBPs, includ- ing the horizontal velocity, diffusion index, ratio of motion range and index of motion type are generally larger in the regions with lower magnetic flux. This suggests that the absence of strong magnetic fields in the medium makes it possible for the igBPs to look smaller and weaker, diffuse faster, and move faster and further along a straighter path.