Engineering topics

Kelly, Robert D.

Publications and source records attributed to Kelly, Robert D..

9 records

NASA NTRS2000

BOREAS AFM-2 King Air 1994 Aircraft Flux and Moving Window Data

The BOREAS AFM-2 team collected pass-by-pass fluxes (and many other statistics) for a large number of level (constant altitude), straight-line passes used in a variety of flight patterns. The data were collected by the University of Wyoming King Air in 1994 BOREAS IFCs 1-3. Most of these data were collected at 60-70 m above ground level, but a significant number of passes were also flown at various levels in the planetary boundary layer, up to about the inversion height. This documentation concerns only the data from the straight and level passes that are presented as original (over the NSA and SSA) and moving window values (over the Transect). Another archive of King Air data is also available, containing data from all the soundings flown by the King Air 1994 IFCs 1-3. The data are stored in tabular ASCII files. The data files are available on a CD-ROM (see document number 20010000884) or from the Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) Distributed Active Archive Center (DAAC).

Kelly, Robert D.↗

NASA NTRS2000

BOREAS AFM-2 Wyoming King Air 1994 Aircraft Sounding Data

The BOREAS AFM-2 team used the University of Wyoming King Air aircraft during IFCs 1, 2, and 3 in 1994 to collected pass-by-pass fluxes (and many other statistics) for the large number of level (constant altitude), straight-line passes used in a variety of flight patterns over the SSA and NSA and areas along the transect between these study areas. The data described here form a second set, namely soundings that were incorporated into nearly every research flight by the King Air in 1994. These soundings generally went from near the surface to above the inversion layer. Most were flown immediately after takeoff or immediately after finishing the last flux pattern of that particular day's flights. The parameters that were measured include wind direction, wind speed, west wind component (u), south wind component (v), static pressure, air dry bulb temperature, potential temperature, dewpoint, temperature, water vapor mixing ratio, and CO2 concentration. Data on the aircraft's location, attitude, and altitude during data collection are also provided. These data are stored in tabular ASCH files. The data files are available on a CD-ROM (see document number 20010000884) or from the Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) Distributed Active Archive Center (DAAC).

Kelly, Robert D.↗

NASA NTRS1992

Atmospheric boundary layer studies in FIFE - Challenges and advances

A review is presented of a number of other articles concerning the atmospheric boundary layer (ABL) that focus on challenges and progress in experimental design and analysis represented by those studies. The articles address problems posed by the experimental site itself (inhomogeneity of terrain, size, and vegetation) and examine relationships between the ABL and remote sensing measurements.

Kelly, Robert D.↗

NASA NTRS1992

A comparison of surface sensible and latent heat fluxes from aircraft and surface measurements in FIFE 1987

Surface fluxes of sensible and latent heat over a tall-grass prairie in central Kansas, as measured by 22 surface stations during FIFE 1987, are compared with values gained indirectly by linear extrapolation of aircraft-measured flux profiles to the surface. The results of 33 such comparisons covering the period 26 June to 13 October 1987 indicate that the sensible heat flux profiles were generally more linear with less scatter in the measurements at each level than were the latent heat flux profiles, the profile extrapolations of sensible heat flux in general underestimate the surface averages by about 30 percent, with slightly better agreement during periods of small flux, and the profile extrapolations of latent heat flux in general underestimate the surface averages by about 15 percent, with overestimates during periods of small fluxes (dry conditions) and overestimates during periods of large fluxes (moist conditions). Possible origins of the differences between the two sets of measurements are discussed, as directions for further research.

Kelly, Robert D.↗

NASA NTRS1992

An airborne study of boundary layer heat and moisture fluxes for project FIFE

A summary of work accomplished during the first International Satellite Cloud Climatology Project (ISLSCP) Field Experiment is presented. The Wyoming King Air participated in Intensive Field Campaigns (IFCs) 3 and 4 in 1987, which were committed to a combination of airborne sensible and latent heat flux measurements and soil moisture mappings, with the University of Kansas' X-band side-looking airborne radar (SLAR). A total of 9 flux missions were flown in 1987 using several different flight designs. A critical decision in the first round of aircraft flux analyses, agreed to by all the flux aircraft investigators, was to pass the aircraft data through a high-pass filter prior to the eddy-correlation flux calculations. Several conclusions were drawn from this study: (1) boundary layer (BL) profiles of heat fluxes were usually linear; (2) high-pass filtering applied to the aircraft data did not add to the disagreement between the profile; (3) undersampling at high frequencies could have accounted for as much as a 15 percent underestimate of surface fluxes; (4) disagreement between the aircraft and surface latent heat fluxes changed signs between summer and fall; (5) magnitude and sign of disagreement between aircraft and surface heat fluxes varied systematically with BL depth or height of aircraft profile; and (6) Bowen ratios from both detrended and filtered aircraft data agreed with surface values better for moist, summer cases than for dry cases.

Kelly, Robert D.↗

NASA NTRS1991

Satellite remote sensing of surface energy and mass balance - Results from FIFE

Results obtained from the FIFE experiments conducted in 1987 and 1989 are summarized. Data analyses indicate that the hypotheses linking energy balance components to surface biology and remote sensing are reasonable at a point level, and that satellite remote sensing can potentially provide useful estimates of the surface energy budget. An investigation of atmospheric scattering and absorption effects on satellite remote sensing of surface radiance shows that the magnitude of atmospheric opacity variations within the FIFE site and with season can have a large effect on satellite measured values of surface radiances. Comparisons of atmospherically corrected TM radiances with surface measured radiances agreed to within about two percent at the visible and near-infrared wavelengths and to 6 percent in the midinfrared.

Hall, F. G.↗

NASA NTRS1990

A comparison of surface sensible and latent heat fluxes from aircraft and surface measurements in FIFE 1987

Kelly, Robert D.↗

NASA NTRS1990

FIFE, First ISLSCP Field Experiment - Results overview

Results of the analyses of the First International Satellite Land-Surface Climatology Project Field Experiment (FIFE) are described which relate to the mass and energy flux of a particular area. The extensive satellite and ground data are used to analyze the energy balance over the FIFE site, monitor the energy-budget components, study atmospheric effects on remote sensing, examine cloud cover, and investigate fluxes in the atmospheric boundary layer. The results verify existing theories relating energy-balance components with surface biology and remote sensing, and satellites can be used to estimate surface-energy budgets. Some analyses provide data that contradict present theories regarding thermodynamic and biophysical methodologies for estimating surface-heat fluxes.

Hall, F. G.↗

NASA NTRS1989

An airborne study of microwave surface sensing and boundary layer heat and moisture fluxes for Project FIFE

This is the third semiannual status report describing the University of Wyoming participation in project FIFE, under NASA Grant NAG 5-913. The reader is referred to the first and second semiannual status reports for this grant for descriptions of University of Wyoming participation in the field operations of 1987. This report is concerned with continuing analysis of field data. Most of the instrument calibration effort has concentrated on interpretation and use of the high-rate water vapor measurements with the University of Wyoming Lyman-alpha device. In addition, fluxes of water vapor have been corrected for sensible heat flux, and all the high-rate (10 Hz for the Wyoming King Air) data have been filtered before the flux calculations. For each flight the Lyman-alpha data (10 Hz) are calibrated against the Cambridge dew-point hygrometer (1 Hz), by using data from the take-off sounding. The reasoning here is that the takeoff sounding (held to 500 fpm rate-of-climb specifically for the calibration) covers the widest range of humidity conditions of any sequence of the flight. For each takeoff sounding, then, the Lyman-alpha data, averaged to 1 Hz, are matched to the dewpoint data with a second-order least-squares fit. The resulting quadratic equation is then used in all subsequent analyses to convert the Lyman-alpha voltages to vapor desities for that specific flight. An alternative method is to use the range of fluctuation for the same two devices from horizontal passes to establish the calibration function. However, since the Lyman-alpha data are used only in the flux calculations, i.e., only the fluctuation and not the absolute values are used, this method is thought unnecessary.

Kelly, Robert D.↗