Camera calibration by an integrating sphere for the auroral tomography observation

Auroral tomography is a technique to reconstruct three-dimensional (3 D) luminous structure from multiple two-dimensional (2D) images of aurora. The reconstructed auroral luminous structure can provide useful information such as altitude profiles and vortex configuration. In order to obtain the absolute volume emission rate of the aurora distribution, it is essential to have the absolute sensitivity calibration of imaging by formulating the relation between pixel values and absolute brightness of corresponding direction of each pixel. The relation between pixel value and brightness is formulated and calculated from the absolute sensitivity calibration. We took the flat-field images of the integrating sphere calibration standard at National Institute of Polar Research using one camera system, which was installed at Merasjarvi (one of the ALIS observing site, ALIS is the acronym of Auroral Large Imaging System, which is a multi-station ground-based optical observing network). National Institute of Polar Research, Japan and Swedish Institute of Space Physics in Kiruna, Sweden have carried out collaborative observations for auroral tomography under ALIS. The sensitivity calibration result is applied to the reconstruction of volume emission rate distribution from the tomographic images observed by ALIS on March 1, 1998

Polar Patrol Balloon experiment in Antarctica during 2002-2003

The first scientific campaign of the Polar Patrol Balloon (PPB) experiment (1st-PPB) was performed at Syowa Station in Antarctica during 1990-1991 and 1992-1993. Based on the fruitful results of the 1st-PPB experiment, the next campaign (2nd-PPB) will be carried out in the austral summer of 2002-2003. This paper summarizes the 2nd-PPB experiment. Four balloons in total will be launched to make astrophysics observations (1 balloon) and upper atmosphere physics observations (3 balloons). The first payload will carry a very sophisticated instrument that will observe primary cosmic-ray electrons in the energy range of 10 GeV - 1 TeV. The payloads of the latter 3 flights are identical to each other. They will be launched in as rapid a succession as weather conditions permit to form a cluster of balloons during their flights. Such a "Balloon Cluster" is suitable for observing the temporal evolution and spatial distribution of various phenomena in the various magnetospheric and ionospheric regions and their boundaries that the balloons will traverse during their circumpolar trajectory. The expected flight duration of each balloon is 20 days. Observation data will be obtained mainly by a satellite communication system with a much higher temporal resolution than that used in the 1st-PPB experiment

Heavy-light decay constants from clover heavy quark action in QCD with two flavors of dynamical quarks

We present results on an analysis of the decay constants fBd and fBs with two flavours of sea quark. The calculation has been carried out on 3 different bare gauge couplings and 4 sea quark masses at each gauge coupling with mπ/mvarrho ranging from 0.8 to 0.6. We employ the Fermilab formalism to perform calculations with heavy quarks whose mass is in the range of the b-quark. A detailed comparison with a quenched calculation using the same action is made to elucidate the effects due to the sea quarks.othe

Phase structure and critical temperature of two-flavor QCD with a renormalization group improved gauge action and clover improved Wilson quark action

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Observations of hard X-rays of auroral origin with Polar Patrol Balloons No. 8 and 10

In the Polar Patrol Balloon (PPB) project, two balloons named PPB-8 and -10 were launched in rapid succession to form a cluster of balloons during their flight on January 13, 2003, from Syowa Station, Antarctica. In order to make the two-dimensional images for auroral X-rays and to obtain the energy spectra of auroras with energy range from 30 keV to 778 keV, the same instruments for hard X-rays were installed on PPB-8 and -10, respectively. These detection systems observed several auroral X-ray events during the flight. In particularly on January 25, 2003, strong auroral events were detected at about 0919 UT by PPB-10 and at 0927 UT by PPB-8. The aurora observed by PPB-10 was observed after about 8 min by PPB-8 located a 650 km west of PPB-10. The energy spectra of the bright aurora at 0919 UT and 0927 UT for PPB-10 and -8 is obtained as E0 = (78+-5) keV and (70+-5) keV, respectively

Heavy quarkonia from anisotropic and isotropic lattices

We report on recent results for the spectrum of heavy quarkonia. Using coarse and anisotropic lattices we achieved an unprecedented control over statistical and systematic errors for higher excited states such as exotic hybrid states. In a parallel study on isotropic lattices we also investigate the effect of two dynamical flavours on the spin structure of charmonium and bottomonium for several symmetric lattices.othe

Equation of state in finite-temperature QCD with improved Wilson quarks

We study finite-temperature phase transition and equation of state for two-flavor QCD at Nt = 4 using an RG-improved gauge action and a meanfield-improved clover quark action. The pressure is computed using the integral method. The O(4) scaling of chiral order parameter is also examined.othe

High energy electron observation by Polar Patrol Balloon flight in Antarctica

We accomplished a balloon observation of the high-energy cosmic-ray electrons in 10-1000GeV to reveal the origin and the acceleration mechanism. The observation was carried out for 13 days at an average altitude of 35km by the Polar Patrol Balloon (PPB) around Antarctica in January 2004. The detector is an imaging calorimeter composed of scintillating-fiber belts and plastic scintillation counters sandwiched between lead plates. The geometrical factor is about 600cm^2sr, and the total thickness of lead absorber is 9 radiation lengths. The performance of the detector has been confirmed by a test flight at the Sanriku Balloon Center and by an accelerator beam test using the CERN-SPS (Super Proton Synchrotron at CERN). The new telemetry system using the Iridium satellite, the power system supplied by solar panels and the automatic flight level control operated successfully during the flight. We collected 5.7×10^3 events over 100GeV, and selected the electron candidates by a preliminary data analysis of the shower images. We report here an outline of both detector and observation, and the first result of the electron energy spectrum over 100GeV obtained by an electronic counter

Transient ionization of the mesosphere during auroral breakup: Arase satellite and ground-based conjugate observations at Syowa Station

オーロラが爆発するとヴァン・アレン帯の電子が上空65 kmにまで侵入することを解明. 京都大学プレスリリース. 2019-02-12.Transient mesospheric echo in the VHF range was detected at an altitude of 65–70 km during the auroral breakup that occurred from 2220 to 2226 UT on June 30, 2017. During this event, the footprint of the Arase satellite was located within the field of view of the all-sky imagers at Syowa Station in the Antarctic. Auroral observations at Syowa Station revealed the dominant precipitation of relatively soft electrons during the auroral breakup. A corresponding spike in cosmic noise absorption was also observed at Syowa Station, while the Arase satellite observed a flux enhancement of > 100 keV electrons and a broadband noise without detecting chorus waves or electromagnetic ion cyclotron waves. A general-purpose Monte Carlo particle transport simulation code was used to quantitatively evaluate the ionization in the middle atmosphere. Results of this study indicate that the precipitation of energetic electrons of > 100 keV, rather than X-rays from the auroral electrons, played a dominant role in the transient and deep (65–70 km) mesospheric ionization during the observed auroral breakup