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The Extreme Universe Space Observatory on a Super Pressure Balloon 2 (EUSO-SPB2) flew on May 13$^{\text{th}}$ and 14$^{\text{th}}$ of 2023. Consisting of two novel optical telescopes, the payload utilized next-generation instrumentation for the observations of extensive air showers from near space. One instrument, the fluorescence telescope (FT) searched for Ultra-High Energy Cosmic Rays (UHECRs) by recording the atmosphere below the balloon in the near-UV with a 1~$\mu$s time resolution using 108 multi-anode photomultiplier tubes with a total of 6,912 channels. Validated by pre-flight measurements during a field campaign, the energy threshold was estimated around 2~EeV with an expected event rate of approximately 1 event per 10 hours of observation. Based on the limited time afloat, the expected number of UHECR observations throughout the flight is between 0 and 2. Consistent with this expectation, no UHECR candidate events have been found. The majority of events appear to be detector artifacts that were not rejected properly due to a shortened commissioning phase. Despite the earlier-than-expected termination of the flight, data were recorded which provide insights into the detectors stability in the near-space environment as well as the diffuse ultraviolet emissivity of the atmosphere, both of which are impactful to future experiments.

Pulse-compression is a correlation-based measurement technique successfully used in many NDE applications to increase the SNR in the presence of huge noise, strong signal attenuation or when high excitation levels must be avoided. In thermography, the pulse-compression approach was firstly introduced in 2005 by Mulavesaala and co-workers, and then further developed by Mandelis and co-authors that applied to thermography the concept of the thermal-wave radar developed for photothermal measurements. Since then, many measurement schemes and applications have been reported in the literature by several groups by using various heating sources, coded excitation signals, and processing algorithms. The variety of such techniques is known as pulse-compression thermography or thermal-wave radar imaging. Even despite the continuous improvement of these techniques during these years, the advantages of using a correlation-based approach in thermography are still not fully exploited and recognized by the community. This is because up to now the reconstructed thermograms' time sequences after pulse-compression were affected by the so-called sidelobes. This is a severe drawback since it hampers an easy interpretation of the data and their comparison with other thermography techniques. To overcome this issue and unleash the full potential of the approach, this paper shows how it is possible to implement a pulse-compression thermography procedure capable of suppressing any sidelobe by using a pseudo-noise excitation and a proper processing algorithm., Comment: 24 paged, 20 figures

In this paper we report the detection of five strong Gamma-Ray Bursts (GRBs) by the High-Energy Particle Detector (HEPD-01) mounted on board the China Seismo-Electromagnetic Satellite (CSES-01), operational since 2018 on a Sun-synchronous polar orbit at a $\sim$ 507 km altitude and 97$^\circ$ inclination. HEPD-01 was designed to detect high-energy electrons in the energy range 3 - 100 MeV, protons in the range 30 - 300 MeV, and light nuclei in the range 30 - 300 MeV/n. Nonetheless, Monte Carlo simulations have shown HEPD-01 is sensitive to gamma-ray photons in the energy range 300 keV - 50 MeV, even if with a moderate effective area above $\sim$ 5 MeV. A dedicated time correlation analysis between GRBs reported in literature and signals from a set of HEPD-01 trigger configuration masks has confirmed the anticipated detector sensitivity to high-energy photons. A comparison between the simultaneous time profiles of HEPD-01 electron fluxes and photons from GRB190114C, GRB190305A, GRB190928A, GRB200826B and GRB211211A has shown a remarkable similarity, in spite of the different energy ranges. The high-energy response, with peak sensitivity at about 2 MeV, and moderate effective area of the detector in the actual flight configuration explain why these five GRBs, characterised by a fluence above $\sim$ 3 $\times$ 10$^{-5}$ erg cm$^{-2}$ in the energy interval 300 keV - 50 MeV, have been detected., Comment: Accepted for publication in The Astrophysical Journal (ApJ)

Mini-EUSO is a wide Field-of-View (FoV, 44$^{\circ}$) telescope currently in operation from a nadia-facing UV-transparent window in the Russian Zvezda module on the International Space Station (ISS). It is the first detector of the JEM-EUSO program deployed on the ISS, launched in August 2019. The main goal of Mini-EUSO is to measure the UV emissions from the ground and atmosphere, using an orbital platform. Mini-EUSO is mainly sensitive in the 290-430 nm bandwidth. Light is focused by a system of two Fresnel lenses of 25 cm diameter each on the Photo- Detector-Module (PDM), which consists of an array of 36 Multi-Anode Photomultiplier Tubes (MAPMTs), for a total of 2304 pixels working in photon counting mode, in three different time resolutions of 2.5 ${\mu}$s, 320 ${\mu}$s, 40.96 ms operation in parallel. In the longest time scale, the data is continuously acquired to monitor the UV emission of the Earth. It is best suited for the observation of ground sources and therefore has been used for the observational campaigns of the Mini-EUSO. In this contribution, we present the assembled UV flasher, the operation of the field campaign and the analysis of the obtained data. The result is compared with the overall efficiency computed from the expectations which takes into account the atmospheric attenuation and the parameterization of different effects such as the optics efficiency, the MAPMT detection efficiency, BG3 filter transmittance and the transparency of the ISS window.

A graph is 2-degenerate if every subgraph contains a vertex of degree at most 2. We show that every 2-degenerate graph can be drawn with straight lines such that the drawing decomposes into 4 plane forests. Therefore, the geometric arboricity, and hence the geometric thickness, of 2-degenerate graphs is at most 4. On the other hand, we show that there are 2-degenerate graphs that do not admit any straight-line drawing with a decomposition of the edge set into 2 plane graphs. That is, there are 2-degenerate graphs with geometric thickness, and hence geometric arboricity, at least 3. This answers two questions posed by Eppstein [Separating thickness from geometric thickness. In Towards a Theory of Geometric Graphs, vol. 342 of Contemp. Math., AMS, 2004]., Comment: 25 pages, 23 figures. Full version of extended abstracts appearing at EuroCG 2023 and SoCG 2023

Mini-EUSO is the first detector of the JEM-EUSO program deployed on the ISS. It is a wide field of view telescope currently operating from a nadir-facing UV-transparent window on the ISS. It is based on an array of MAPMTs working in photon counting mode with a 2.5 $\mu$s time resolution. Among the different scientific objectives it searches for light signals with time duration compatible to those expected from Extensive Air Showers (EAS) generated by EECRs interacting in the atmosphere. Although the energy threshold for cosmic ray showers is above $E>10^{21}$ eV, due the constraints given by the size of the UV-transparent window, the dedicated trigger logic has been capable of the detection of other interesting classes of events, like elves and ground flashers. An overview of the general performance of the trigger system is provided, with a particular focus on the identification of classes of events responsible for the triggers.

Mini-EUSO is a detector observing the Earth in the ultraviolet band from the International Space Station through a nadir-facing window, transparent to the UV radiation, in the Russian Zvezda module. Mini-EUSO main detector consists in an optical system with two Fresnel lenses and a focal surface composed of an array of 36 Hamamatsu Multi-Anode Photo-Multiplier tubes, for a total of 2304 pixels, with single photon counting sensitivity. The telescope also contains two ancillary cameras, in the near infrared and visible ranges, to complement measurements in these bandwidths. The instrument has a field of view of 44 degrees, a spatial resolution of about 6.3 km on the Earth surface and of about 4.7 km on the ionosphere. The telescope detects UV emissions of cosmic, atmospheric and terrestrial origin on different time scales, from a few micoseconds upwards. On the fastest timescale of 2.5 microseconds, Mini-EUSO is able to observe atmospheric phenomena as Transient Luminous Events and in particular the ELVES, which take place when an electromagnetic wave generated by intra-cloud lightning interacts with the ionosphere, ionizing it and producing apparently superluminal expanding rings of several 100 km and lasting about 100 microseconds. These highly energetic fast events have been observed to be produced in conjunction also with Terrestrial Gamma-Ray Flashes and therefore a detailed study of their characteristics (speed, radius, energy...) is of crucial importance for the understanding of these phenomena. In this paper we present the observational capabilities of ELVE detection by Mini-EUSO and specifically the reconstruction and study of ELVE characteristics., Comment: 12 pages, 7 figures, Proceedings of the 37th International Cosmic Ray Conference (ICRC 2021)

This paper introduces an improved image processing method usable in capacitive imaging applications. Standard capacitive imaging tends to prefer amplitude-based images over the use of phase due to better signal-to-noise ratios. The new approach exploits the best features of both types of information by combining them to form clearer images, hence improving both defect detection and characterization in non-destructive evaluation. The methodology is demonstrated and optimized using a benchmark sample. Additional experiments on glass fibre composite sample illustrate the advantages of the technique.

Eddy current stimulated thermography is an emerging technique for non-destructive testing and evaluation of conductive materials. However, quantitative estimation of the depth of subsurface defects in metallic materials by thermography techniques remains challenging due to significant lateral thermal diffusion. This work presents the application of eddy current pulse compression thermography to detect surface and subsurface defects with various depths in an aluminum sample. Kernel Principal Component analysis and Low Rank Sparse modelling were used to enhance the defective area, and cross point feature was exploited to quantitatively evaluate the defects depth. Based on experimental results, it is shown that the crossing point feature has a monotonic relationship with surface and subsurface defects depth, and it can also indicate whether the defect is within or beyond the eddy current skin depth. In addition, the comparison study between aluminum and composites in terms of impulse response and proposed features are also presented.

A flexible and low-cost device for eddy current non-destructive testing made of off-the-shelf components is described. The proposed system is compact and easy to operate, and it consists of a dual H-bridge stepper motor driver, a coil winded in-house on an additively manufactured support, a tunnel magnetoresistance sensor, and a data generation/acquisition module. For the latter, two different commercial devices have been used, and both setups have been then tested on a benchmark sample to detect small artificial cracks. The system can flexibly generate the square pulse or square wave with tunable duration and frequency, as well as pseudo-noise binary waveforms that are here used in combination with pulse-compression to increase the inspection sensitivity with respect to standard pulsed eddy current testing. A benchmark sample was analysed, and all the defects were correctly located, demonstrating the good detection capability of the sensor. This was achieved by assembling a very low-cost handy device, which can be further improved in portability and performances with the use of different off-the-shelf components, and that can be easily integrated with single-board PC, paving the way for future developments in this field., Comment: Preprint

Acoustic metamaterials constructed from conventional base materials can exhibit exotic phenomena such as negative refractive index, extraordinary transmission-absorption and sub-wavelength imaging. These are typically achieved by combining geometrical and resonance effects. Holey-structured acoustic metamaterials have already shown potential for sub-wavelength acoustic imaging in air, where it is relatively simple to achieve the required difference in acoustic impedance needed to create resonances within the holes. However, the use of polymers for metamaterial operation in water is difficult, due to the much lower difference in acoustic impedance between water and the many polymers used, for example, in additive manufacturing. Hence, metals are commonly used. Here we show that this can be overcome by trapping air layers so that they surround each water-filled channel, making sub-wavelength imaging in water possible. The operation of such a Trapped air design is confirmed at 200-300 kHz ultrasonic frequencies via both finite element modelling and experimental measurements in a water tank. It is also shown quantitatively that the trapped air design outperforms its metal counterpart. The results indicate a way forward for exploiting additive-manufacturing for realising acoustic metamaterials in water at ultrasonic frequencies., Comment: 29 pages, 14 figures

Metis is the first solar coronagraph designed for a space mission capable of performing simultaneous imaging of the off-limb solar corona in both visible and UV light. The observations obtained with Metis aboard the Solar Orbiter ESA-NASA observatory will enable us to diagnose, with unprecedented temporal coverage and spatial resolution, the structures and dynamics of the full corona from 1.7 $R_\odot$ to about 9 $R_\odot$. Due to the uniqueness of the Solar Orbiter mission profile, Metis will be able to observe the solar corona from a close vantage point (down to 0.28 AU), achieving out-of-ecliptic views with the increase of the orbit inclination over time. Moreover, observations near perihelion, during the phase of lower rotational velocity of the solar surface relative to the spacecraft, will allow longer-term studies of the coronal features. Thanks to a novel occultation design and a combination of a UV interference coating of the mirrors and a spectral bandpass filter, Metis images the solar corona simultaneously in the visible light band, between 580 and 640 nm, and in the UV H I Lyman-{\alpha} line at 121.6 nm. The coronal images in both the UV Lyman-{\alpha} and polarised visible light are obtained at high spatial resolution with a spatial scale down to about 2000 km and 15000 km at perihelion, in the cases of the visible and UV light, respectively. A temporal resolution down to 1 second can be achieved when observing coronal fluctuations in visible light. The Metis measurements will allow for complete characterisation of the main physical parameters and dynamics of the electron and neutral hydrogen/proton plasma components of the corona in the region where the solar wind undergoes acceleration and where the onset and initial propagation of coronal mass ejections take place, thus significantly improving our understanding of the region connecting the Sun to the heliosphere.

Pulse compression is often practiced in ultrasound Non Destructive Testing (NDT) systems using chirps. However, chirps are inadequate for setups where multiple probes need to operate concurrently in Multiple Input Multiple Output (MIMO) arrangements. Conversely, many coded excitation systems designed for MIMO miss some chirp advantages (constant envelope excitation, easiness of bandwidth control, etc.) and may not be easily implemented on hardware originally conceived for chirp excitations. Here, we propose a system based on random-FM excitations, capable of enabling MIMO with minimal changes with respect to a chirp-based setup. Following recent results, we show that random-FM excitations retain many advantages of chirps and provide the ability to frequency-shape the excitations matching the transducers features., Comment: 4 pages, 4 figures. Post-print from conference proceedings. Note that paper in conference proceedings at http://dx.doi.org/10.1109/ULTSYM.2012.0117 has some rendering issues