Mini-EUSO is part of the JEM-EUSO program and operates on board the International Space Station (ISS). It is a UV-telescope with single-photon counting capability looking at nighttime downwards to ...the Earth through a nadir-facing UV-transparent window. As part of the pre-flight tests, the Mini-EUSO engineering model, a telescope with 1/9 of the original focal surface and a lens of 2.5 cm diameter, has been built and tested. Tests of the Mini-EUSO engineering model have been made in laboratory and in open-sky conditions. Laboratory tests have been performed at the TurLab facility, located at the Physics Department of the University of Turin, equipped with a rotating tank containing different types of materials and light sources. In this way, the configuration for the observation of the Earth from space was emulated, including the Mini-EUSO trigger schemes. In addition to the qualification and calibration tests, the Mini-EUSO engineering model has also been used to evaluate the possibility of using a JEM-EUSO-type detector for applications such as observation of space debris. Furthermore, observations in open-sky conditions allowed the studies of natural light sources such as stars, meteors, planets, and artificial light sources such as airplanes, satellites reflecting the sunlight, and city lights. Most of these targets could be detected also with Mini-EUSO. In this paper, the tests in laboratory and in open-sky conditions are reported, as well as the obtained results. In addition, the contribution that such tests provided to foresee and improve the performance of Mini-EUSO on board the ISS is discussed.
This paper presents the project Comprehensive spAce wEather Studies for the ASPIS prototype Realization (CAESAR), which aims to tackle the relevant aspects of Space Weather (SWE) science and develop ...a prototype of the scientific data centre for Space Weather of the Italian Space Agency (ASI) called ASPIS (ASI SPace Weather InfraStructure). To this end, CAESAR involves the majority of the SWE Italian community, bringing together 10 Italian institutions as partners, and a total of 92 researchers. The CAESAR approach encompasses the whole chain of phenomena from the Sun to Earth up to planetary environments in a multidisciplinary, comprehensive, and unprecedented way. Detailed and integrated studies are being performed on a number of well-observed “target SWE events”, which exhibit noticeable SWE characteristics from several SWE perspectives. CAESAR investigations synergistically exploit a great variety of different products (datasets, codes, models), both long-standing and novel, that will be made available in the ASPIS prototype: this will consist of a relational database (DB), an interface, and a wiki-like documentation structure. The DB will be accessed through both a Web graphical interface and the ASPIS.py module, i.e., a library of functions in Python, which will be available for download and installation. The ASPIS prototype will unify multiple SWE resources through a flexible and adaptable architecture, and will integrate currently available international SWE assets to foster scientific studies and advance forecasting capabilities.
Chemometric Brains for Artificial Tongues Oliveri, Paolo; Chiara Casolino, M.; Forina, Michele
Advances in Food and Nutrition Research,
2010, 2010-00-00, 20100101, Letnik:
61
Book Chapter, Journal Article
Recenzirano
The last years showed a significant trend toward the exploitation of rapid and economic analytical devices able to provide multiple information about samples. Among these, the so-called artificial ...tongues represent effective tools which allow a global sample characterization comparable to a fingerprint. Born as taste sensors for food evaluation, such devices proved to be useful for a wider number of purposes.
In this review, a critical overview of artificial tongue applications over the last decade is outlined. In particular, the focus is centered on the chemometric techniques, which allow the extraction of valuable information from nonspecific data. The basic steps of signal processing and pattern recognition are discussed and the principal chemometric techniques are described in detail, highlighting benefits and drawbacks of each one. Furthermore, some novel methods recently introduced and particularly suitable for artificial tongue data are presented.
The EUSO@TurLab project aims at performing experiments to reproduce Earth UV emissions as seen from a low Earth orbit by the planned missions of the JEM-EUSO program. It makes use of the TurLab ...facility, which is a laboratory, equipped with a 5 m diameter and 1 m depth rotating tank, located at the Physics Department of the University of Turin. All the experiments are designed and performed based on simulations of the expected response of the detectors to be flown in space. In April 2016 the TUS detector and more recently in October 2019 the Mini-EUSO experiment, both part of the JEM-EUSO program, have been placed in orbit to map the UV Earth emissions. It is, therefore, now possible to compare the replicas performed at TurLab with the actual images detected in space to understand the level of fidelity in terms of reproduction of the expected signals. We show that the laboratory tests reproduce at the order of magnitude level the measurements from space in terms of spatial extension and time duration of the emitted UV light, as well as the intensity in terms of expected counts per pixel per unit time when atmospheric transient events, diffuse nightlow background light, and artificial light sources are considered. Therefore, TurLab is found to be a very useful facility for testing the acquisition logic of the detectors of the present and future missions of the JEM-EUSO program and beyond in order to reproduce atmospheric signals in the laboratory.
Boron Isotopes in the PAMELA Experiment Bogomolov, E. A.; Vasilyev, G. I.; Menn, W. ...
Physics of atomic nuclei,
2024, Letnik:
87, Številka:
2
Journal Article
Recenzirano
In this work, a new analysis of the isotopic composition of boron nuclei (B) in galactic cosmic rays (GCRs) in the range of rigidities of 1–5 GV (nuclear energies 0.1–1.5 GeV/nucleon) was carried out ...using data from the PAMELA space experiment 2006–2014 on the rigidity of detected nuclei and their velocity (time-of-flight analysis and ionization losses in the instrument’s multilayer calorimeter). The new results of the PAMELA experiment expand the energy range of previous measurements, are consistent with the few existing data, and indicate deviations of the B isotope ratios from the GALPROP simulation data for the GCR, similar to the deviations for the Li and Be isotopes in the PAMELA data, which can be interpreted as evidence of observation against the background of the GCR of the contribution of several local sources from explosions of nearby (hundreds of parsecs) supernovae.
The new electricity market paradigm pushes the generation companies to profit as much as possible in the competitive scenario. One relevant issue faced by generation companies is the commitment of ...the units, the scheduling of them over a daily (or longer) time frame. The unit-commitment results strongly depend on the plant operational generation costs, which in turn depend on the choices taken at the design stage. Then, design technical choices should also aim at determining the best generation cost structure of generating units with respect to present and future market opportunities.
The paper analyzes the relevance of some design choices (structure, size, regulation type) on the economics of the operation of gas–steam combined cycle generating units. In particular, attention is focused on the unit-commitment problem, assuming simple representations of both the configuration of the plant and of the market.
Numerical examples are developed which clearly show the sensitivity of the unit commitment solutions to the market conditions and to the design choice about the regulation of the units.
The beam dump facility (BDF) is a project for a new facility at CERN dedicated to high intensity beam dump and fixed target experiments. Currently in its design phase, the first aim of the facility ...is to search for light dark matter and hidden sector models with the Search for Hidden Particles (SHiP) experiment. At the core of the facility sits a dense target/dump, whose function is to absorb safely the400GeV/cSuper Proton Synchrotron (SPS) beam and to maximize the production of charm and beauty mesons. An average power of 300 kW will be deposited on the target, which will be subjected to unprecedented conditions in terms of temperature, structural loads and irradiation. In order to provide a representative validation of the target design, a prototype target has been designed, manufactured, and tested under the SPS fixed-target proton beam during 2018, up to an average beam power of 50 kW, corresponding to 350 kJ per pulse. The present contribution details the target prototype design and experimental setup, as well as a first evaluation of the measurements performed during beam irradiation. The analysis of the collected data suggests that a representative reproduction of the operational conditions of the beam dump facility target was achieved during the prototype tests, which will be complemented by a postirradiation examination campaign during 2020.
The field measurement campaigns have revealed that voltage sags also occur as clusters and not only as rare phenomena. The clusters of sags represent a stochastic process due to their time ...dependence; the rare satisfy the requirements for a Poisson distribution process. To forecast both kinds of sags using the statistics of the measurements, different approaches are required. In this study, a general method for predicting both types of sags is proposed with a procedure that can be implemented automatically. The method uses intermittent indices to distinguish between the sites that have a prevalent number of rare sags and the sites where rare sags and clusters occurred. Based on this means of identification, the technique offers two distinct models for predicting each kind of sag. The final goal is to implement the procedure in a measurement system that can automatically pre-analyze the recorded sags and choose the best technique for prediction depending on the type of sag. The first results were satisfying with forecast errors reduced in comparison with those obtained without the proposed procedure.
We present a precise measurement of downward going albedo proton fluxes for kinetic energy above ∼70 MeV performed by the Payload for Antimatter Matter Exploration and Light‐nuclei Astrophysics ...(PAMELA) experiment at an altitude between 350 and 610 km. On the basis of a trajectory tracing simulation, the analyzed protons were classified into quasi‐trapped, concentrating in the magnetic equatorial region, and untrapped spreading over all latitudes, including both short‐lived (precipitating) and long‐lived (pseudotrapped) components. In addition, features of the penumbra region around the geomagnetic cutoff were investigated in detail. PAMELA results significantly improve the characterization of the high‐energy albedo proton populations at low‐Earth orbits.
Key Points
A new and accurate study of HE reentrant albedo protons based on PAMELA data
Different components identified and reconstructed by trajectory tracing methods
Significant fluxes of pseudotrapped protons were found in the penumbra region
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