Publications

2009

• Diagnosis of magnetic structures and intermittency in space-plasma turbulence using the technique of surrogate data
  
  • Sahraoui Fouad
  • Goldstein M. L.
  , 2009.
• Europlanet Integrated and Distributed Information Service
  
  • Schmidt Walter
  • Capria Maria Teresa
  • Chanteur Gérard
  • Tscherning C. C.
  , 2009, 11, pp.9366. During the past decades the various disciplines in planetary sciences have developed to a very high international standard. But the collaboration between the different fields should be improved. To overcome the current fragmentation of the EU Planetary Science community and thereby to increase the scientific return of the related investment, the EU commission is funding via its Framework Program 7 the development of the "Europlanet Research Infrastructure -Europlanet RI". The Europlanet RI will consolidate the integration of the European Planetary Science community which started with Europlanet's FP6 project and will integrate major parts of the related distributed European infrastructure to be shared, fed and expanded by all planetary scientists. This infrastructure encompasses as diverse components as space exploration, ground-based observations, laboratory experiments and numerical modeling teams. Europlanet RI aims at bringing scientists from Europe and beyond together who are working in these fields, support the exchange of experts and ideas and make as many resources and data as possible available to the research community. A central part of Europlanet RI is the "Integrated and Distributed Information Service" or Europlanet-IDIS. The task of IDIS as central part of Europlanet is to provide an easy-to-use Web-based platform to locate teams and laboratories with special knowledge needed to support the own research activities, give access to the wealth of already available data, initiate new research activities needed to interpret accumulated data or to solve open questions, and to exploit synergies between space-based missions and capabilities of ground based observatories. It also offers to a wide range of teams and laboratories the possibility to share their data, advertise their capabilities and increase the scientific return by cooperation. IDIS is organized as an EU FP7 Support Activity, consisting of different access nodes which are connected by integrated search facilities, compatible structures and a common management. Each of these nodes concentrates on a special field of planetary sciences, has its own team of related international experts and is responsible for the access to information and data centres related to its area of competence. Integrated keyword-based search-possibilities direct inquiries to those node(s), most likely to return the wanted information. These nodes are hosted by the following organizations: - The Finnish Meteorological Institute (FMI) in Helsinki, Finland, hosts the Technical Node for a wide range of support activities and provides the network management. - The Institute of Planetary Research (IPR) of DLR in Berlin, Germany, hosts the Planetary Surfaces and Interiors Node, concentrating on internal structure, formation and evolution of the planets, their moons, asteroids and comets. - The Institut für Weltraumforschung, IWF (Space Research Institute) of the Austrian Academy of Sciences (OeAW) in Graz hosts the Planetary Plasma Node in close cooperation with the French space plasma data center CDPP in Toulouse. - The Institut Pierre-Simon Laplace in Paris hosts the Planetary Atmospheres Node. - The Paris Observatory hosts the Virtual Observatory Paris Data Center providing among others access to a wide range of atomic and molecular spectral databases. - The Istituto di Fisica dello Spazio Interplanetario (IFSI) in Rome hosts the Small Bodies and Dust Node, in cooperation with the ESA/ESTECs Virtual Meteor Observatory in Noordwijk, The Netherlands, concentrating on research and observations related to solar system asteroids, comets, meteors and interplanetary dust. During the next four years a set of tools for describing, accessing and combining information and data from different sources will be developed, offering finally a Virtual Observatory like access to many data essential for planetary research from European and None-European sources. Web access via any of the mentioned nodes, e.g. the Technical Node at http://www.europlanet-idis.fi
• MHD wave turbulence, numerical results
  
  • Grappin Roland
  , 2009.
• Titan s plasma wake geometry from RPWS and MAG observations
  
  • Modolo Ronan
  • Canu P.
  • Bertucci C.
  • Rosenqvist L.
  • Kurth W. S.
  • Gurnett D.
  • Dougherty M. K.
  , 2009, 11, pp.EGU2009-5912. Up to now, several tens of Titan flybys have been successfully completed by Cassini and have revealed a highly dynamic structure of the near space environment of Titan. The upstream condition of the plasma flow is expected to affect Titan's induced magnetosphere. The Titan's plasma wake has been investigated using observations from the Radio and Plasma Wave Science (RPWS) instruments (Gurnett et al, 2004) and the dual Magnetometer Technique MAG instruments (Dougherty et al, 2004). Electric field emissions were detected by the RPWS antennas during Cassini passes through Titan's wake. These narrow band emissions are identified as upper hybrid resonance emissions and therefore can provide a density estimate of the Titan's cold plasma. Some of Titan's wake flybys show a very strong asymmetry between the inbound and the outbound pass. Good examples are Ta and Tb flybys (Wahlund et al, 2005). Both flybys have a similar trajectory in Titan Interaction coordinate System (TIIS) and have the same illumination condition but the density profiles present major differences. Some of the Cassini flybys have been set back in the DRAP coordinate system (Neubauer et al, 2006) such that the upstream direction of the magnetic field is fixed, in order to determine the geometry of the plasma wake and study asymmetries. Maps of cold plasma in Titan's environment are presented. Information concerning the geometry of the wake is crucial to estimate accurately the plasma escape.
• Nonstationarity of perpendicular shocks
  
  • Hellinger P.
  • Travnicek P.
  • Lembège Bertrand
  • Savoini Philippe
  , 2009.
• Heavy species kinetics in low-pressure dc pulsed discharges in air
  
  • Pintassilgo C.D.
  • Guaitella Olivier
  • Rousseau Antoine
  Plasma Sources Science and Technology, IOP Publishing, 2009, 18, pp.025005. A time-dependent kinetic model is presented to study low-pressure (133 and 210 Pa) pulsed discharges in air for dc currents ranging from 20 to 80mA with a pulse duration from 0.1 up to 1000 ms. The model provides the temporal evolution of the heavy species along the pulse within this range time, where the coupling between vibrational and chemical kinetics is taken into account. This work shows that the predicted values for NO(X) molecules and O(3P) atoms reproduce well previous measured data for these two species. A systematic analysis is carried out on the interpretation of experimental results. It is observed that the N2(X, v 13) + O → NO(X) + N(4S) and the reverse process NO(X) + N(4S) → N2(X, v ∼ 3) + O have practically the same rates for a pulse duration longer than 10 ms, each of them playing a dominant role in the populations of NO(X), N(4S) and, to a lesser extent, in O(3P) kinetics. Our simulations show that for shorter pulse durations, from 0.1 to 10 ms, NO(X) is produced mainly via the processes N2(A) + O → NO(X) + N(2D) and N(2D) + O2 → NO(X) + O, while the oxygen atoms are created mostly from electron impact dissociation of O2 molecules and by dissociative collisions with N2(A) and N2(B) molecules. (10.1088/0963-0252/18/2/025005)
  DOI : 10.1088/0963-0252/18/2/025005
• Etch process control with a deposition-tolerant planar electrostatic probe
  
  • Booth Jean-Paul
  • Keil D.
  • Thorgrimsson C.
  • Nagai M.
  • Albarede L.
  , 2009.
• Physics of multiple-frequency capacitive discharges
  
  • Chabert Pascal
  • Levif P.
  • Raimbault Jean-Luc
  • Turner M.M.
  • Lieberman M.A.
  , 2009.
• Analysis of energetic efficiency and kinetics of intermediates in the problem of plasma assisted ignition (AIAA-2009-692)
  
  • Aleksandrov N.L.
  • Kindusheva S.V.
  • Kosarev I.N.
  • Starikovskaia Svetlana
  • Starikovskii A.Yu.
  , 2009.
• Auroral evidence for multiple reconnection in the magnetospheric tail plasma sheet
  
  • Treumann R. A.
  • Jaroschek C. H.
  • Pottelette Raymond
  EPL - Europhysics Letters, European Physical Society / EDP Sciences / Società Italiana di Fisica / IOP Publishing, 2009, 85, pp.49001. We present auroral evidence for multiple and, most probably, small-scale reconnection in the near-Earth magnetospheric plasma sheet current layer during auroral activity. Hall currents as the source of upward and downward field-aligned currents require the generation of the corresponding electron fluxes. The auroral spatial ordering in a multiple sequence of these fluxes requires the assumption of the existence of several ―-and possibly―- even many tailward reconnection sites. (10.1209/0295-5075/85/49001)
  DOI : 10.1209/0295-5075/85/49001
• Observations of Double Layers in Earth's Plasma Sheet
  
  • Ergun R. E.
  • Andersson L.
  • Tao J. B.
  • Angelopoulos V.
  • Bonnell J. W.
  • Mcfadden J. P.
  • Larson D. E.
  • Eriksson S.
  • Johansson T.
  • Cully C. M.
  • Newman D. N.
  • Goldman M. V.
  • Roux A.
  • Le Contel Olivier
  • Glassmeier K.-H.
  • Baumjohann W.
  Physical Review Letters, American Physical Society, 2009, 102, pp.155002. We report the first direct observations of parallel electric fields (E<SUB>||</SUB>) carried by double layers (DLs) in the plasma sheet of Earth's magnetosphere. The DL observations, made by the THEMIS spacecraft, have E<SUB>||</SUB> signals that are analogous to those reported in the auroral region. DLs are observed during bursty bulk flow events, in the current sheet, and in plasma sheet boundary layer, all during periods of strong magnetic fluctuations. These observations imply that DLs are a universal process and that strongly nonlinear and kinetic behavior is intrinsic to Earth's plasma sheet. (10.1103/PhysRevLett.102.155002)
  DOI : 10.1103/PhysRevLett.102.155002
• NO production on pyrex under, and after plasma exposure
  
  • Marinov Daniil
  • Guaitella Olivier
  • Rousseau Antoine
  , 2009.
• Mechanisms of filamentary plasma/catalyst coupling for air treatment
  
  • Guaitella Olivier
  • Rousseau Antoine
  • Allegraud Katia
  • Celestin S.
  , 2009.
• Kinetics of ignition of saturated hydrocarbons by nonequilibrium plasma : C<SUB>2</SUB>H<SUB>6</SUB>- to C<SUB>5</SUB>H<SUB>12</SUB>-containing mixtures
  
  • Kosarev I.N.
  • Aleksandrov N.L.
  • Kindysheva S.V.
  • Starikovskaia Svetlana
  • Starikovskii A.Yu.
  Combustion and Flame, Elsevier, 2009, 156 (1), pp.221-233. The kinetics of ignition in CnH2n 2:O2:Ar mixtures for n = 2 to 5 has been studied experimentally and numerically after a high-voltage nanosecond discharge. The ignition delay time behind a reflected shock wave was measured with and without the discharge. It was shown that the initiation of the discharge with a specific deposited energy of 1030 mJ/cm3 leads to an order of magnitude decrease in the ignition delay time. Discharge processes and following chain chemical reactions with energy release were simulated. The generation of atoms, radicals and excited and charged particles was numerically simulated using the measured time-resolved discharge current and electric field in the discharge phase. The calculated densities of the active particles were used as input data to simulate plasma-assisted ignition. The sensitivity of the results to variation in electron cross sections, reaction rates and radical composition was investigated. Good agreement was obtained between the calculated ignition delay times and the experimental data. The analysis of the simulation results showed that the effect of nonequilibrium plasma on the ignition delay is associated with faster development of chain reactions, due to atoms and radicals produced by the electron impact dissociation of molecules in the discharge phase. Finally, we studied the role of various hydrocarbon radicals in the plasma-assisted ignition of the mixtures under consideration. (10.1016/j.combustflame.2008.07.013)
  DOI : 10.1016/j.combustflame.2008.07.013
• Edge-to-center plasma density ratio in high density plasma sources
  
  • Raimbault Jean-Luc
  • Chabert Pascal
  Plasma Sources Science and Technology, IOP Publishing, 2009, 18, pp.014017. The flux of positive ions leaving a classical low-temperature plasma discharge is proportional to the plasma density at the plasmasheath edge, and the edge-to-center plasma density ratio, the so-called hl factor, normally depends only on the discharge size and the neutral gas pressure. The ion flux leaving the discharge is therefore linearly proportional to the central plasma density. The hl factor has been previously derived by solving the plasma transport equations over a large pressure range, with the assumption of constant neutral gas density within the discharge. Tonks and Langmuir derived the low pressure (collisionless) solution of this problem in 1929. More recent works have shown that the neutral gas density is no longer constant when the plasma pressure becomes comparable to the neutral gas pressure. In this paper, we solve the plasma transport equations in this new situation and we propose a new expression for the hl factor. It is shown that hl becomes a function of the central plasma density which implies that the ion flux leaving the discharge is no longer proportional to this density. This effect has to be included in particle and energy balance equations used in global models of high density plasma sources. (10.1088/0963-0252/18/1/014017)
  DOI : 10.1088/0963-0252/18/1/014017
• Study of hydrogen plasma in the negative-ion extraction region
  
  • Svarnas P.
  • Annaratone B.M.
  • Béchu Stéphane
  • Pelletier J.
  • Bacal M.
  Plasma Sources Science and Technology, IOP Publishing, 2009, 18, pp.045010. (10.1088/0963-0252/18/4/045010)
  DOI : 10.1088/0963-0252/18/4/045010
• Regeneration of adsorbent/catalytic material by a Dielectric Barrier Discharge (DBD)
  
  • Youssef Joseph
  • Bouamra K.
  • Makarov M.
  • Guaitella Olivier
  • Rousseau Antoine
  , 2009.
• Influence of dielectric material on chemistry reactivity in Dielectric Barrier Discharge (DBD)
  
  • Youssef Joseph
  • Bouamra K.
  • Makarov M.
  • Guaitella Olivier
  • Rousseau Antoine
  , 2009.
• Long range correlation studies : Tore Supra contribution, DREVE project
  
  • Vermare Laure
  • Hennequin Pascale
  • Gürcan Özgür D.
  • Honoré Cyrille
  • Sabot R.
  • Giacalone J-C.
  • Tore Supra Team
  , 2009.
• Electrostatic solitary waves in current layers: from Cluster observations during a super-substorm to beam experiments at the LAPD
  
  • Pickett J. S.
  • Chen L.-J.
  • Santolík O.
  • Grimald S.
  • Lavraud B.
  • Verkhoglyadova O. P.
  • Tsurutani B. T.
  • Lefebvre B.
  • Fazakerley A.
  • Lakhina G. S.
  • Ghosh S. S.
  • Grison B.
  • Décréau Pierrette
  • Gurnett D. A.
  • Torbert R.
  • Cornilleau-Wehrlin Nicole
  • Dandouras I.
  • Lucek E.
  Nonlinear Processes in Geophysics, European Geosciences Union (EGU), 2009, 16 (3), pp.431-442. Electrostatic Solitary Waves (ESWs) have been observed by several spacecraft in the current layers of Earth's magnetosphere since 1982. ESWs are manifested as isolated pulses (one wave period) in the high time resolution waveform data obtained on these spacecraft. They are thus nonlinear structures generated out of nonlinear instabilities and processes. We report the first observations of ESWs associated with the onset of a super-substorm that occurred on 24 August 2005 while the Cluster spacecraft were located in the magnetotail at around 18-19 R<SUB>E</SUB> and moving northward from the plasma sheet to the lobes. These ESWs were detected in the waveform data of the WBD plasma wave receiver on three of the Cluster spacecraft. The majority of the ESWs were detected about 5 min after the super-substorm onset during which time 1) the PEACE electron instrument detected significant field-aligned electron fluxes from a few 100 eV to 3.5 keV, 2) the EDI instrument detected bursts of field-aligned electron currents, 3) the FGM instrument detected substantial magnetic fluctuations and the presence of Alfvén waves, 4) the STAFF experiment detected broadband electric and magnetic waves, ion cyclotron waves and whistler mode waves, and 5) CIS detected nearly comparable densities of H and O ions and a large tailward H velocity. We compare the characteristics of the ESWs observed during this event to those created in the laboratory at the University of California-Los Angeles Plasma Device (LAPD) with an electron beam. We find that the time durations of both space and LAPD ESWs are only slightly larger than the respective local electron plasma periods, indicating that electron, and not ion, dynamics are responsible for generation of the ESWs. We have discussed possible mechanisms for generating the ESWs in space, including the beam and kinetic Buneman type instabilities and the acoustic instabilities. Future studies will examine these mechanisms in more detail using the space measurements as inputs to models, and better relate the ESW space measurements to the laboratory through PIC code models. (10.5194/npg-16-431-2009)
  DOI : 10.5194/npg-16-431-2009
• Influence of dielectric material in Dielectric Barrier Discharge (DBD) for chemistry reactivity control
  
  • Youssef Joseph
  • Bouamra K.
  • Makarov M.
  • Guaitella Olivier
  • Rousseau Antoine
  , 2009.
• Oblique propagation of whistler mode waves in the chorus source region
  
  • Santolík O.
  • Gurnett D. A.
  • Pickett J. S.
  • Chum J.
  • Cornilleau-Wehrlin Nicole
  Journal of Geophysical Research Space Physics, American Geophysical Union/Wiley, 2009, 114. Whistler mode chorus has been shown to play a role in the process of local acceleration of electrons in the outer Van Allen radiation belt. Most of the quasi-linear and nonlinear theoretical studies assume that the waves propagate parallel to the terrestrial magnetic field. We show a case where this assumption is invalid. We use data from the Cluster spacecraft to characterize propagation and spectral properties of chorus. The recorded high-resolution waveforms show that chorus in the source region can be formed by a succession of discrete wave packets with decreasing frequency that sometimes change into shapeless hiss. These changes occur at the same time in the entire source region. Multicomponent measurements show that waves in both these regimes can be found at large angles to the terrestrial magnetic field. The hiss intervals contain waves propagating less than one tenth of a degree from the resonance cone. In the regime of discrete wave packets the peak of the wave energy density is found at a few degrees from the resonance cone in a broad interval of azimuth angles. The wave intensity increases with the distance from the magnetic field minimum along a given field line, indicating a gradual amplification of chorus in the source region. (10.1029/2009JA014586)
  DOI : 10.1029/2009JA014586
• Self synchronization of surface discharges in a two electrodes device
  
  • Allegraud Katia
  • Rousseau Antoine
  IEEE Transactions on Dielectrics and Electrical Insulation, Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, 2009, 16 (2), pp.435-439. A twin electrode device coupled to the same high voltage power supply is used to study the propagation of surface streamers. These two identical electrodes are separated from the grounded one by a pyrex plate acting as a dielectric barrier. The gas is dry air, at atmospheric pressure. 1 ns time resolved imaging of the discharge propagation is performed to monitor the discharge ignition and propagation. The discharge consists in filaments which propagate on the dielectric as cathode directed streamers. Each filament transfers 1 nC. The propagation velocities vary from 3.4times107 cm/s at the beginning of the propagation to 7times106 cm/s at the end of the propagation. Ignition at one electrode triggers ignition at the other within 2 ns. (10.1109/TDEI.2009.4815175)
  DOI : 10.1109/TDEI.2009.4815175
• Time-dependent hydrodynamical simulations of slow solar wind, coronal inflows, and polar plumes
  
  • Pinto Rui
  • Grappin Roland
  • Wang Y-M
  • Léorat Jacques
  Astronomy & Astrophysics - A&A, EDP Sciences, 2009, 497 (2), pp.537--543. Aims. We explore the effects of varying the areal expansion rate and coronal heating function on the solar wind flow. Methods. We use a one-dimensional, time-dependent hydrodynamical code. The computational domain extends from near the photosphere, where nonreflecting boundary conditions are applied, to 30 , and includes a transition region where heat conduction and radiative losses dominate. Results. We confirm that the observed inverse relationship between asymptotic wind speed and expansion factor is obtained if the coronal heating rate is a function of the local magnetic field strength. We show that inflows can be generated by suddenly increasing the rate of flux-tube expansion and suggest that this process may be involved in the closing-down of flux at coronal hole boundaries. We also simulate the formation and decay of a polar plume, by including an additional, time-dependent heating source near the base of the flux tube. (10.1051/0004-6361/200811183)
  DOI : 10.1051/0004-6361/200811183
• Physics of non-diffusive turbulent transport of momentum and the origins of spontaneous rotation in tokamaks
  
  • Diamond P.H.
  • Mcdevitt C.J.
  • Gürcan Özgür D.
  • Hahm T.S.
  • Wang W.X.
  • Yoon E.S.
  • Holod I.
  • Lin Z.
  • Naulin V.
  • Singh R.
  Nuclear Fusion, IOP Publishing, 2009, 49, pp.045002. Recent results in the theory of turbulent momentum transport and the origins of intrinsic rotation are summarized. Special attention is focused on aspects of momentum transport critical to intrinsic rotation, namely the residual stress and the edge toroidal flow velocity pinch. Novel results include a systematic decomposition of the physical processes which drive intrinsic rotation, a calculation of the critical external torque necessary to hold the plasma stationary against the intrinsic residual stress, a simple model of net velocity scaling which recovers the salient features of the experimental trends and the elucidation of the impact of the particle flux on the net toroidal velocity pinch. Specific suggestions for future experiments are offered. (10.1088/0029-5515/49/4/045002)
  DOI : 10.1088/0029-5515/49/4/045002