Lightning on Venus inferred from whistler-mode waves in the ionosphere

The occurrence of lightning in a planetary atmosphere enables chemical processes to take place that would not occur under standard temperatures and pressures. Although much evidence has been reported for lightning on Venus, some searches have been negative and the existence of lightning has remained controversial. A definitive detection would be the confirmation of electromagnetic, whistler-mode waves propagating from the atmosphere to the ionosphere. Here we report observations of Venus' ionosphere that reveal strong, circularly polarized, electromagnetic waves with frequencies near 100 Hz. The waves appear as bursts of radiation lasting 0.25 to 0.5 s, and have the expected properties of whistler-mode signals generated by lightning discharges in Venus' clouds.     

The structure of Venus' middle atmosphere and ionosphere

The atmosphere and ionosphere of Venus have been studied in the past by spacecraft with remote sensing or in situ techniques. These early missions, however, have left us with questions about, for example, the atmospheric structure in the transition region from the upper troposphere to the lower mesosphere (50-90 km) and the remarkably variable structure of the ionosphere. Observations become increasingly difficult within and below the global cloud deck (<50 km altitude), where strong absorption greatly limits the available investigative spectrum to a few infrared windows and the radio range. Here we report radio-sounding results from the first Venus Express Radio Science (VeRa) occultation season. We determine the fine structure in temperatures at upper cloud-deck altitudes, detect a distinct day-night temperature difference in the southern middle atmosphere, and track day-to-day changes in Venus' ionosphere.     

A possible nitrogen crisis for Archaean life due to reduced nitrogen fixation by lightning.

Nitrogen is an essential element for life and is often the limiting nutrient for terrestrial ecosystems. As most nitrogen is locked in the kinetically stable form, N2, in the Earth's atmosphere, processes that can fix N2 into biologically available forms-such as nitrate and ammonia-control the supply of nitrogen for organisms. On the early Earth, nitrogen is thought to have been fixed abiotically, as nitric oxide formed during lightning discharge. The advent of biological nitrogen fixation suggests that at some point the demand for fixed nitrogen exceeded the supply from abiotic sources, but the timing and causes of the onset of biological nitrogen fixation remain unclear. Here we report an experimental simulation of nitrogen fixation by lightning over a range of Hadean (4.5-3.8 Gyr ago) and Archaean (3.8-2.5 Gyr ago) atmospheric compositions, from predominantly carbon dioxide to predominantly dinitrogen (but always without oxygen). We infer that, as atmospheric CO2 decreased over the Archaean period, the production of nitric oxide from lightning discharge decreased by two orders of magnitude until about 2.2 Gyr. After this time, the rise in oxygen (or methane) concentrations probably initiated other abiotic sources of nitrogen. Although the temporary reduction in nitric oxide production may have lasted for only 100 Myr or less, this was potentially long enough to cause an ecological crisis that triggered the development of biological nitrogen fixation.     

Possible cometary origin of heavy noble gases in the atmospheres of Venus, Earth and Mars

Models that trace the origin of noble gases in the atmospheres of the terrestrial planets (Venus, Earth and Mars) to the 'planetary component' in chondritic meteorites confront several problems. The 'missing' xenon in the atmospheres of Mars and Earth is one of the most obvious; this gas is not hidden or trapped in surface materials. On Venus, the absolute abundances of neon and argon per gram of rock are higher even than those in carbonaceous chondrites, whereas the relative abundances of argon and krypton are closer to solar than to chondritic values (there is only an upper limit on xenon). Pepin has developed a model that emphasizes hydrodynamic escape of early, massive hydrogen atmospheres to explain the abundances and isotope ratios of noble gases on all three planets. We have previously suggested that the unusual abundances of heavy noble gases on Venus might be explained by the impact of a low-temperature comet. Further consideration of the probable history of the martian atmosphere, the noble-gas data from the (Mars-derived) SNC meteorites and laboratory experiments on the trapping of noble gases in ice lead us to propose here that the noble gases in the atmospheres of all of the terrestrial planets are dominated by a mixture of an internal component and contribution from impacting icy planetesimals (comets). If true, this hypothesis illustrates the importance of impacts in determining the volatile inventories of these planets.     

The four final rotation states of Venus.

Venus rotates very slowly on its axis in a retrograde direction, opposite to that of most other bodies in the Solar System. To explain this peculiar observation, it has been generally believed that in the past its rotational axis was itself rotated to 180 degrees as a result of core-mantle friction inside the planet, together with atmospheric tides. But such a change has to assume a high initial obliquity (the angle between the planet's equator and the plane of the orbital motion). Chaotic evolution, however, allows the spin axis to flip for a large set of initial conditions. Here we show that independent of uncertainties in the models, terrestrial planets with dense atmosphere like Venus can evolve into one of only four possible rotation states. Moreover, we find that most initial conditions will drive the planet towards the configuration at present seen at Venus, albeit through two very different evolutionary paths. The first is the generally accepted view whereby the spin axis flips direction. But we have also found that it is possible for Venus to begin with prograde rotation (the same direction as the other planets) yet then develop retrograde rotation while the obliquity goes towards zero: a rotation of the spin axis is not necessary in this case.     

A giant thunderstorm on Saturn

Lightning discharges in Saturn's atmosphere emit radio waves with intensities about 10,000 times stronger than those of their terrestrial counterparts. These radio waves are the characteristic features of lightning from thunderstorms on Saturn, which last for days to months. Convective storms about 2,000 kilometres in size have been observed in recent years at planetocentric latitude 35° south (corresponding to a planetographic latitude of 41° south). Here we report observations of a giant thunderstorm at planetocentric latitude 35° north that reached a latitudinal extension of 10,000 kilometres-comparable in size to a 'Great White Spot'-about three weeks after it started in early December 2010. The visible plume consists of high-altitude clouds that overshoot the outermost ammonia cloud layer owing to strong vertical convection, as is typical for thunderstorms. The flash rates of this storm are about an order of magnitude higher than previous ones, and peak rates larger than ten per second were recorded. This main storm developed an elongated eastward tail with additional but weaker storm cells that wrapped around the whole planet by February 2011. Unlike storms on Earth, the total power of this storm is comparable to Saturn's total emitted power. The appearance of such storms in the northern hemisphere could be related to the change of seasons, given that Saturn experienced vernal equinox in August 2009.     

Little or no solar wind enters Venus' atmosphere at solar minimum

Venus has no significant internal magnetic field, which allows the solar wind to interact directly with its atmosphere. A field is induced in this interaction, which partially shields the atmosphere, but we have no knowledge of how effective that shield is at solar minimum. (Our current knowledge of the solar wind interaction with Venus is derived from measurements at solar maximum.) The bow shock is close to the planet, meaning that it is possible that some solar wind could be absorbed by the atmosphere and contribute to the evolution of the atmosphere. Here we report magnetic field measurements from the Venus Express spacecraft in the plasma environment surrounding Venus. The bow shock under low solar activity conditions seems to be in the position that would be expected from a complete deflection by a magnetized ionosphere. Therefore little solar wind enters the Venus ionosphere even at solar minimum.     

基于直接数字频率合成技术的信号发生器

本文利用直接数字频率合成技术,以单片机PIC16F818作为控制中心,选用AD9850作为信号发生器,可编程产生0Hz-400MHz间任意频率信号,并以产生频率为100kHz的正弦信号为实例。采用直接数字频率合成技术产生的信号频率稳定,分辨率高且操作方便,在工程应用中前景非常广泛。     

Enhanced atmospheric loss on protoplanets at the giant impact phase in the presence of oceans

The atmospheric compositions of Venus and Earth differ significantly, with the venusian atmosphere containing about 50 times as much 36Ar as the atmosphere on Earth. The different effects of the solar wind on planet-forming materials for Earth and Venus have been proposed to account for some of this difference in atmospheric composition, but the cause of the compositional difference has not yet been fully resolved. Here we propose that the absence or presence of an ocean at the surface of a protoplanet during the giant impact phase could have determined its subsequent atmospheric amount and composition. Using numerical simulations, we demonstrate that the presence of an ocean significantly enhances the loss of atmosphere during a giant impact owing to two effects: evaporation of the ocean, and lower shock impedance of the ocean compared to the ground. Protoplanets near Earth's orbit are expected to have had oceans, whereas those near Venus' orbit are not, and we therefore suggest that remnants of the noble-gas rich proto-atmosphere survived on Venus, but not on Earth. Our proposed mechanism explains differences in the atmospheric contents of argon, krypton and xenon on Venus and Earth, but most of the neon must have escaped from both planets' atmospheres later to yield the observed ratio of neon to argon.     

非Gaussian信道DS-CDMA系统中的多用户检测算法

对于实际非Gaussian加性噪声信道条件下的DS-CDMA系统,基于理想Gaussian白噪声假设的多用户接收机的性能会严重下降。为了同时抑制多址干扰和非Gaussian脉冲噪声的影响,提出了一种自适应多用户接收机,其模型参数的估计和传输数据的检测采用EM/SAGE递归结构联合进行。该接收机具有实现简单、鲁棒性高、适用性强的优点。分析和仿真结果表明,无论是在多址干扰还是在非Gaussian脉冲噪声占主导的情况下,EM/SAGE-MUD算法在降低误码率,克服远近效应方面比起传统的多用户检测方法有显著改善。     

用于煤与瓦斯突出的3D电磁辐射探测系统

针对煤与瓦斯突出时产生的电磁辐射信号微弱的情况,给出一种3D电磁辐射探测系统。该系统采用3个空间相互垂直的偶极天线感应探测电磁辐射信号,利用超外差接收原理,通过混频、放大、滤波、模数转换等处理,完成感应电磁辐射信号的处理。采用这种装置,既可分别独立探测空间3个相互垂直的电磁辐射信号,也可进行3维电磁辐射信号的综合探测。实测表明,系统具有很好的性能,其工作频率范围为100kHz~3GHz,电场感应灵敏度为0.1V/m。接口可以输出中心频率为36MHz,带宽为6MHz的电磁辐射信号,也可实时进行FFT等信号处理。     

A warm layer in Venus' cryosphere and high-altitude measurements of HF, HCl, H2O and HDO

Venus has thick clouds of H2SO4 aerosol particles extending from altitudes of 40 to 60 km. The 60-100 km region (the mesosphere) is a transition region between the 4 day retrograde superrotation at the top of the thick clouds and the solar-antisolar circulation in the thermosphere (above 100 km), which has upwelling over the subsolar point and transport to the nightside. The mesosphere has a light haze of variable optical thickness, with CO, SO2, HCl, HF, H2O and HDO as the most important minor gaseous constituents, but the vertical distribution of the haze and molecules is poorly known because previous descent probes began their measurements at or below 60 km. Here we report the detection of an extensive layer of warm air at altitudes 90-120 km on the night side that we interpret as the result of adiabatic heating during air subsidence. Such a strong temperature inversion was not expected, because the night side of Venus was otherwise so cold that it was named the 'cryosphere' above 100 km. We also measured the mesospheric distributions of HF, HCl, H2O and HDO. HCl is less abundant than reported 40 years ago. HDO/H2O is enhanced by a factor of approximately 2.5 with respect to the lower atmosphere, and there is a general depletion of H2O around 80-90 km for which we have no explanation.     

可调节频率和功率的固态微波功率源的设计

提出了一种利用锁相环和压控衰减器构成可调节频率和功率的固态微波功率源的设计方案,并且给出了电路实物及测试结果。测试结果表明该方案具有较宽的频率范围(400~500 MHz)和功率范围(-7~36 d Bm),且频率精度高(100k Hz)、功率平坦度好(0.49 d B),具有广泛的应用价值。     

长波授时系统相位跟踪点检测的数字化研究

为了实现长波授时系统接收机的数字化，提高检测效率，对接收到的100kHz长波信号进行1MHz指定频率的采样，充分研究天波对地波信号的影响，找出相位跟踪点与被检测信号的几何关系，提出了一种用数字方式确定相位跟踪点的周期累加值算法．与传统的检测方式相比，该算法基于现场可编程逻辑器件（FPGA）实现，采用大量采样数据代替传统的单个峰值，实现了天波与地波的检测分离，并在运行的同时给出了协调世界时秒信息．采用FPGA相关工具的仿真结果表明，该算法能够有效地消除噪声与天波的干扰，在数字滤波后信号的信噪比高于21．6dB时，该算法能达到0．0％～0．4％的低失误率．     

The loss of ions from Venus through the plasma wake

Venus, unlike Earth, is an extremely dry planet although both began with similar masses, distances from the Sun, and presumably water inventories. The high deuterium-to-hydrogen ratio in the venusian atmosphere relative to Earth's also indicates that the atmosphere has undergone significantly different evolution over the age of the Solar System. Present-day thermal escape is low for all atmospheric species. However, hydrogen can escape by means of collisions with hot atoms from ionospheric photochemistry, and although the bulk of O and O2 are gravitationally bound, heavy ions have been observed to escape through interaction with the solar wind. Nevertheless, their relative rates of escape, spatial distribution, and composition could not be determined from these previous measurements. Here we report Venus Express measurements showing that the dominant escaping ions are O+, He+ and H+. The escaping ions leave Venus through the plasma sheet (a central portion of the plasma wake) and in a boundary layer of the induced magnetosphere. The escape rate ratios are Q(H+)/Q(O+) = 1.9; Q(He+)/Q(O+) = 0.07. The first of these implies that the escape of H+ and O+, together with the estimated escape of neutral hydrogen and oxygen, currently takes place near the stoichometric ratio corresponding to water.     

宇宙水分子脉泽谱线接收系统和观测研究

详细分析了１３ ｍｍ谱线接收系统的结构和这个系统设计的独特之处．接收机是制冷的ＨＥＭＴ接收系统，工作温度为２０ Ｋ，噪声温度为５０ Ｋ，带宽为２ＧＨｚ．频谱分析终端是一架基于付里叶线性调频Ｚ变换（ＣＺＦ）的声表面波频谱仪（ＳＡＷ），总带宽为４０ ＭＨｚ，频率分辨率为４０ｋＨｚ，每帧输出为６７ｕｓ，工作效率为 １００％．利用这套系统已观测到了一批Ｈ２Ｏ脉泽源，发现有的源有激烈的变化．     

HSPA+中的多天线与高阶调制技术

增强高速分组接入(HSPA )是一项新的B3G技术,其目的是为了对现有的高速分组接入系统(HSPA)进行平滑升级,从而在尽量保护现有系统投资基础上满足用户对更高数据速率的应用需求.在介绍3GPP标准中提出的HSPA 基础上,重点讨论了HSPA 系统物理层新引入的多天线收发(MIMO)和高阶调制技术,讨论了这些技术的具体实现方法以及对原HSPA系统带来的性能提升.通过仿真结果,可以看到这些性能上的提升使HSPA 系统可以在5 MHz带宽上获得与3GPP长期演进系统(LTE)相近的性能.     

GPS radio occultation: A potential new data source for improvement of antarctic pressure field

Radio occultation technique, first demonstrated by the GPS/MET experiment in 1995[1], has the potential to provide improved spatial and temporal resolution in the probing of the Earth's neutral atmosphere, including pressure,temperature and water vapor profiles, in addition to traditional measurements (e.g.,radiosonde, spaceborne radiometers) and ground-based GPS networks for precipitable water vapor (PWV) measurements. This paper provides an overview of the radio occultation concept and retrieval procedure and current technical limitations including lower troposphere inhomogeneities, signal penetration, multipath, and water vapor ambiguity. The current limitations using atmospheric model pressure fields (ECMWF and NCEP) for the modeling of atmospheric mass load over Antarctica, for its separation from climate sensitive signals observed by gravity mapping satellite,GRACE, are quantified. Atmospheric pressure fields over Antarctica are poorly known and higher temporal variability of pressure causes an "aliasing" error in GRACE-observed climate-sensitive signals such as hydrology, mass balance and oceanic mass variations. In particular, comparison of ECMWF 6-hour data with the Automatic Weather Station (AWS) in Antarctica indicates mean differences of 5 hPa,and rms of 1.7 hPa, exceeding the accuracy requirement for GRACE. Aliasing effec tmanifests as high-frequency errors in GRACE-observed gravity signals and are more pronounced over Antarctica. The possibility of using current operating satellite(SAC-C, CHAMP and GRACE) occultation data to improve Antarctic surface pressure fields is proposed. Preliminary results indicate that in the absence of water vapor over Antarctica, retrieved CHAMP pressure profile agrees well with radiosonde data from Neumayer station, and that occultation signals reach near the surface.     

A dynamic upper atmosphere of Venus as revealed by VIRTIS on Venus Express

The upper atmosphere of a planet is a transition region in which energy is transferred between the deeper atmosphere and outer space. Molecular emissions from the upper atmosphere (90-120 km altitude) of Venus can be used to investigate the energetics and to trace the circulation of this hitherto little-studied region. Previous spacecraft and ground-based observations of infrared emission from CO2, O2 and NO have established that photochemical and dynamic activity controls the structure of the upper atmosphere of Venus. These data, however, have left unresolved the precise altitude of the emission owing to a lack of data and of an adequate observing geometry. Here we report measurements of day-side CO2 non-local thermodynamic equilibrium emission at 4.3 microm, extending from 90 to 120 km altitude, and of night-side O2 emission extending from 95 to 100 km. The CO2 emission peak occurs at approximately 115 km and varies with solar zenith angle over a range of approximately 10 km. This confirms previous modelling, and permits the beginning of a systematic study of the variability of the emission. The O2 peak emission happens at 96 km +/- 1 km, which is consistent with three-body recombination of oxygen atoms transported from the day side by a global thermospheric sub-solar to anti-solar circulation, as previously predicted.     

大动态宽带数字中频接收机的优化设计

结合DIFR现有的工程实现技术,研究其优化设计技术.对3种典型的RFAF(射频模拟前端)电路做了对比分析和仿真,讨论了适用于大动态宽带DIFR的RFAF电路结构及性能特点,给出了一种新的数字RF AGC控制电路.以一个带宽为10 MHz,动态范围为-100～-10 dB,采样频率为80 MHz的DIFR设计为例,研究了RF模拟前端各部分的指标分配与整机性能指标设计,导出了RFAF的增益、噪声系数与DIFR的动态范围和RF AGC的增益控制代码之间的关系,并给出了仿真结果.