The Soft X-ray Imager(SXI)on the SMILE Mission

The Soft X-ray Imager(SXI)is part of the scientific payload of the Solar wind Magnetosphere Ionosphere Link Explorer(SMILE)mission.SMILE is a joint science mission between the European Space Agency(ESA)and the Chinese Academy of Sciences(CAS)and is due for launch in 2025.SXI is a compact X-ray telescope with a wide field-of-view(FOV)capable of encompassing large portions of Earth’s magnetosphere from the vantage point of the SMILE orbit.SXI is sensitive to the soft X-rays produced by the Solar Wind Charge eXchange(SWCX)process produced when heavy ions of solar wind origin interact with neutral particles in Earth’s exosphere.SWCX provides a mechanism for boundary detection within the magnetosphere,such as the position of Earth’s magnetopause,because the solar wind heavy ions have a very low density in regions of closed magnetic field lines.The sensitivity of the SXI is such that it can potentially track movements of the magnetopause on timescales of a few minutes and the orbit of SMILE will enable such movements to be tracked for segments lasting many hours.SXI is led by the University of Leicester in the United Kingdom(UK)with collaborating organisations on hardware,software and science support within the UK,Europe,China and the United States.

Comparison of Ising Model and Potts Model on Non-Local Directed Small-World Networks

Further to the investigation of the critical properties of the Potts model with q = 3 and 8 states in one dimension (1D) on directed small-world networks reported by Aquino and Lima, which presents, in fact, a second-order phase transition with a new set of critical exponents, in addition to what was reported in Sumour and Lima in studying Ising model on non-local directed small-world for several values of probability 0 < P < 1. In this paper the behavior of two models discussed previously, will be re-examined to study differences between their behavior on directed small-world networks for networks of different values of probability P = 0.1, 0.2, 0.3, 0.4 and 0.5 with different lattice sizes L = 10, 20, 30, 40, and 50 to compare between the important physical variables between Ising and Potts models on the directed small-world networks. We found in our paper that is a phase transitions in both Ising and Potts models depending essentially on the probability P.

Human Memory/Learning Inspired Control Method for Flapping-Wing Micro Air Vehicles

The problem of flapping motion control of Micro Air Vehicles (MAVs) with flapping wings was studied in this paper.Based upon the knowledge of skeletal and muscular components of hummingbird, a dynamic model for flapping wing wasdeveloped.A control scheme inspired by human memory and learning concept was constructed for wing motion control ofMAVs.The salient feature of the proposed control lies in its capabilities to improve the control performance by learning fromexperience and observation on its current and past behaviors, without the need for system dynamic information.Furthermore,the overall control scheme has a fairly simple structure and demands little online computations, making it attractive for real-timeimplementation on MAVs.Both theoretical analysis and computer simulation confirms its effectiveness.

Characterization of multi-scale ionospheric irregularities using ground-based and space-based GNSS observations

Ionospheric irregularities can adversely affect the performance of Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS). How-ever, this opens the possibility of using GNSS as an effective ionospheric remote sensing tool. Despite ionospheric monitoring has been undertaken for decades, these irregularities in multiple spatial and temporal scales are still not fully understood. This paper reviews Virginia Tech’s recent studies on multi-scale ionospheric irregularities using ground-based and space-based GNSS observations. First, the relevant background of ionospheric irregularities and their impact on GNSS signals is reviewed. Next, three topics of ground-based observations of ionospheric irregulari-ties for which GNSS and other ground-based techniques are used simultaneously are reviewed. Both passive and active measurements in high-latitude regions are covered. Modelling and observations in mid-latitude regions are considered as well. Emphasis is placed on the increased capability of assessing the multi-scale nature of ionospheric irregularities using other traditional techniques (e.g., radar, magnetometer, high frequency receivers) as well as GNSS observations (e.g., Total-Electron-Content or TEC, scintillation). Besides ground-based observations, recent advances in GNSS space-based ionospheric measurements are briefly reviewed. Finally, a new space-based ionospheric observa-tion technique using GNSS-based spacecraft formation flying and a differential TEC method is demonstrated using the newly developed Virginia Tech Formation Flying Testbed (VTFFTB). Based on multi-constellation multi-band GNSS, the VTFFTB has been developed into a hardware-in-the-loop simulation testbed with external high-fidelity global ionospheric model(s) for 3-satellite formation flying, which can potentially be used for new multi-scale ionospheric measurement mission design.

Contributions to data transmission at critical moments on unmanned aerial vehicles

As for unmanned aircraft, the knowledge of the aircraft performance is directly related with the navigation, guidance, and control system programming. Therefore, the measured data in each phase of the flight must be sufficiently precise to obtain a good characterization of aircraft.This article proposes new methods of sending information to ground, which make it possible to know the aircraft behavior accurately, and for this purpose, four contributions have been made for ALO(Avión Ligero de Observación, Spanish acronym for Light Observation Aircraft). Currently, the characterization is based on data obtained at ten samples per second, insufficient to acquire detailed knowledge of what happened during the whole flight of an aircraft. As a result of these contributions, many more samples per second of accelerations and angular velocities are obtained at the most critical moments of the flight, such as takeoff or landing. Among the improvements included are data compression techniques, providing references to locate the measured data in time and identifying labels of each parameter.