No Arabic abstract
We update two kinds of results obtained with the SWAN instrument on board SOHO. First, we use H cell data recorded in 2001 and derive the H flow direction in the same way we performed the study at solar minimum. We compare with the Helium flow and doing so we correct for the coordinate system change between the Ulysses and SOHO mission. The deflection plane we obtain is compatible with the previous result within error bars, confirming the predominant role of the interstellar magnetic field. Secondly, we extend the derivation of solar wind ionization temporal evolution as a function of heliolatitude. The pattern for the present solar minimum is strikingly different from the previous minimum, with a much wider slow solar wind equatorial belt which persists until at least 2008. Comparing with synoptic LASCO/C2 electron densities we infer from a preliminary study that the acceleration of the high speed solar wind occurs at a higher altitude during this minimum, a change expansion models should be able to explain.
Observations of the Suns surface suggest a nonuniform radiated flux as related to the presence of bright active regions and darker coronal holes. The variations of the FUV/EUV source radiation can be expected to affect the Lyman-alpha backscatter glow measured by spaceborne instruments. In particular, inferring the heliolatitudinal structure of the solar wind from helioglow variations in the sky can be quite challenging if the heliolatitudinal structure of the solar FUV/EUV radiation is not properly included in the modeling of the heliospheric glow. We present results of analysis of the heliolatitudinal structure of the solar Lyman-alpha radiation as inferred from comparison of SOHO/SWAN satellite observations of the helioglow intensity with modeling results obtained from the recently-developed WawHelioGlow model. We find that in addition to time-dependent heliolatitudinal anisotropy of the solar wind, also time-dependent heliolatitudinal variations of the intensity of the solar Lyman-alpha and photoionizing emissions must be taken into account to reproduce the observed helioglow modulation in the sky. We present a particular latitudinal and temporal dependence of the solar Lyman-alpha flux obtained as a result of our analysis. We analyze also differences between polar-equatorial anisotropies close to the solar surface and seen by an observer located far from the Sun. We discuss the implications of these findings for the interpretation of heliospheric-glow observations.
In observations of diffuse emissions like, e.g., the Lyman-$alpha$ heliospheric glow, contributions to the observed signal from point sources (e.g., stars) are considered as a contamination. There are relatively few brightest point sources that are usually properly resolved and can be subtracted or masked. We present results of analysis of the distribution of point sources using UV sky-survey maps from the SOHO/SWAN instrument and spectrophotometry data from the IUE satellite. The estimated distribution suggests that the number of these sources increases with decreasing intensity. Below a certain threshold, these sources cannot be resolved against the diffuse signal from the backscatter glow, that results in a certain physical background from unresolved point sources. Detection, understanding and subtraction of the point-source background has implications for proper characterization of diffuse emissions and accurate comparison with models. Stars are also often used as standard candles for in-flight calibration of satellite UV observations, thus proper understanding of signal contributions from the point sources is important for the calibration process. We present a general approach to quantify the background radiation level from unresolved point sources in UV sky-survey maps. In the proposed method, a distribution of point sources as a function of their intensity is properly integrated to compute the background signal level. These general considerations are applied to estimate the unresolved-point-sources background in the SOHO/SWAN observations that on average amounts to $28.9$ R. We discuss also the background radiation anisotropies and general questions related to modeling the point-source contributions to diffuse UV-emission observations.
Acceleration in symbolic verification consists in computing the exact effect of some control-flow loops in order to speed up the iterative fix-point computation of reachable states. Even if no termination guarantee is provided in theory, successful results were obtained in practice by different tools implementing this framework. In this paper, the acceleration framework is extended to data-flow analysis. Compared to a classical widening/narrowing-based abstract interpretation, the loss of precision is controlled here by the choice of the abstract domain and does not depend on the way the abstract value is computed. Our approach is geared towards precision, but we dont loose efficiency on the way. Indeed, we provide a cubic-time acceleration-based algorithm for solving interval constraints with full multiplication.
The two CCD photometries of the intermediate polar TV Columbae are made for obtaining the two updated eclipse timings with high precision. There is an interval time sim 17yr since the last mid-eclipse time observed in 1991. Thus, the new mid-eclipse times can offer an opportunity to check the previous orbital ephemerides. A calculation indicates that the orbital ephemeris derived by Augusteijn et al. (1994) should be corrected. Based on the proper linear ephemeris (Hellier, 1993), the new orbital period analysis suggests a cyclical period variation in the O-C diagram of TV Columbae. Using Applegates mechanism to explain the periodic oscillation in O-C diagram, the required energy is larger than that a M0-type star can afford over a complete variation period sim 31.0(pm 3.0)yr. Thus, the light travel-time effect indicates that the tertiary component in TV Columbae may be a dwarf with a low mass, which is near the mass lower limit sim 0.08Msun as long as the inclination of the third body high enough.