VLBI Data Processing on Coronal Radio-sounding Experiments of Mars Express

Ma, Maoli; Calvés, Guifre Molera; Cimò, G.; Zhang, Peijin; Xiong, Ming; Li, Peijia; Kummamuru, Pradyumna; Zhang, Chu; Jiang, Tianyu; Xia, Bo; Kondo, Tetsuro; Tong, Fengxian; Vicente, P. de; Quick, J.; Zhang, Hua; Chen, Zhong

doi:10.3847/1538-3881/ac0dc1

Cited by 7 publications

(14 citation statements)

References 39 publications

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“…The shift is determined using a polynomial fit. Typically, in spacecraft detections we use a sixth-order polynomial fit but Ma et al (2021) determined that fourth and fifth order profile fits give nearly similar results. Figure 3 shows an example of the detection of the MEX spacecraft signal and the fitted frequency shift profile.…”

Section: Swspecmentioning

confidence: 99%

A monitoring campaign (2013–2020) of ESA’s Mars Express to study interplanetary plasma scintillation

Kummamuru

Calvés²,

Cimò³

et al. 2023

Publ. Astron. Soc. Aust.

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The radio signal transmitted by the Mars Express (MEX) spacecraft was observed regularly between the years 2013–2020 at X-band (8.42 GHz) using the European Very Long Baseline Interferometry (EVN) network and University of Tasmania’s telescopes. We present a method to describe the solar wind parameters by quantifying the effects of plasma on our radio signal. In doing so, we identify all the uncompensated effects on the radio signal and see which coronal processes drive them. From a technical standpoint, quantifying the effect of the plasma on the radio signal helps phase referencing for precision spacecraft tracking. The phase fluctuation of the signal was determined for Mars’ orbit for solar elongation angles from 0 to 180 deg. The calculated phase residuals allow determination of the phase power spectrum. The total electron content of the solar plasma along the line of sight is calculated by removing effects from mechanical and ionospheric noises. The spectral index was determined as $-2.43 \pm 0.11$ which is in agreement with Kolmogorov’s turbulence. The theoretical models are consistent with observations at lower solar elongations however at higher solar elongation ( $>$ 160 deg) we see the observed values to be higher. This can be caused when the uplink and downlink signals are positively correlated as a result of passing through identical plasma sheets.

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Section: Swspecmentioning

confidence: 99%

A monitoring campaign (2013–2020) of ESA’s Mars Express to study interplanetary plasma scintillation

Kummamuru

Calvés²,

Cimò³

et al. 2023

Publ. Astron. Soc. Aust.

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“…SDtracker has since been used extensively in collaborations with the European Space Agency (ESA) for S-band and X-band planetary missions-including ESA's own missions Venus Express [4], Mars Express [5], Rosetta, and BepiColombo, and the Chinese National Space Agency's (CNSA) Tianwen [6].…”

Section: The Solutionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Developments in Spacecraft Doppler tracking software (SDtracker)

Calvés¹,

Buttfield-Addison²

2023

Proceedings of 15th European VLBI Network Mini-Symposium and Users' Meeting — PoS(EVN2022)

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Arising from software developed for the 2005 Huygens probe landing, the first official version of SDtracker was used for the 2008 initial detection test of the ESA's Venus Express (VEX) space mission. In the 13 years since, SDtracker has been regularly updated to accommodate different radio telescope configurations, newer VLBI data formats, different hardware architectures, and more. Recently, a major upgrade was released to address a number of performance and usability issues. This newer version has simplified the installation process, removed or updated dependencies, and optimised the code. Herein, the features, scientific achievements and future of the improved software are discussed.

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“…Wexler et al (2020) presented a two-component model for interpretation of the FF from the Akatsuki spacecraft and determined the radial profile of slow wind speed in the extended corona using mass-flux continuity. Ma et al (2021a) measured the radial solar wind velocity within 10 Rs with very long baseline interferometry (VLBI) radio telescopes.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…We do not calculate the lag of the Ys related baseline for the spike of Ys is not distinct enough to find the typical point.The lag and velocity estimation by visual comparison of spikes at different stations can give us a straightforward understanding about the propagation of the solar wind density structures. To depict the velocity variation during the whole observation, we then perform the cross-correlation analysis on the time series of the FF(Ma et al 2021a).…”

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confidence: 99%

Detecting the Oscillation and Propagation of the Nascent Dynamic Solar Wind Structure at 2.6 Solar Radii Using Very Long Baseline Interferometry Radio Telescopes

Ma¹,

Calvés²,

Cimò³

et al. 2022

ApJL

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Probing the solar corona is crucial to study the coronal heating and solar wind acceleration. However, the transient and inhomogeneous solar wind flows carry large-amplitude inherent Alfvén waves and turbulence, which make detection more difficult. We report the oscillation and propagation of the solar wind at 2.6 solar radii (Rs) by observation of China’s Tianwen and ESA’s Mars Express with radio telescopes. The observations were carried out on 2021 October 9, when one coronal mass ejection (CME) passed across the ray paths of the telescope beams. We obtain the frequency fluctuations (FFs) of the spacecraft signals from each individual telescope. First, we visually identify the drift of the frequency spikes at a high spatial resolution of thousands of kilometers along the projected baselines. They are used as traces to estimate the solar wind velocity. Then we perform the cross-correlation analysis on the time series of FF from different telescopes. The velocity variations of solar wind structure along radial and tangential directions during the CME passage are obtained. The oscillation of tangential velocity confirms the detection of a streamer wave. Moreover, at the tail of the CME, we detect the propagation of an accelerating fast field-aligned density structure indicating the presence of magnetohydrodynamic waves. This study confirms that the ground-station pairs are able to form particular spatial projection baselines with high resolution and sensitivity to study the detailed propagation of the nascent dynamic solar wind structure.

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VLBI Data Processing on Coronal Radio-sounding Experiments of Mars Express

Cited by 7 publications

References 39 publications

A monitoring campaign (2013–2020) of ESA’s Mars Express to study interplanetary plasma scintillation

A monitoring campaign (2013–2020) of ESA’s Mars Express to study interplanetary plasma scintillation

Developments in Spacecraft Doppler tracking software (SDtracker)

Detecting the Oscillation and Propagation of the Nascent Dynamic Solar Wind Structure at 2.6 Solar Radii Using Very Long Baseline Interferometry Radio Telescopes

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