Engineering topics

Menyuk, C. R.

Publications and source records attributed to Menyuk, C. R..

6 records

NASA NTRS1990

Particle acceleration by a wave in a strong magnetic field - Regular and stochastic motion

A general theory for the acceleration of a charged particle by a coherent wave of arbitrary polarization, propagation angle, and phase velocity in the presence of a uniform and strong magnetic field is presented. It is shown that the Hamiltonian surfaces are topologically open for waves with parallel phase velocity, equal to or larger than the speed of light. The trapping width is found to be a strong function of the index of refraction (N), and for N = 1 the trapping width increases as a function of the harmonic number. A novel mechanism for coherently accelerating particles to unlimited energies is presented.

Karimabadi, H.↗

NASA NTRS1987

Electron cyclotron harmonic wave acceleration

A nonlinear analysis of particle acceleration in a finite bandwidth, obliquely propagating electromagnetic cyclotron wave is presented. It has been suggested by Sprangle and Vlahos in 1983 that the narrow bandwidth cyclotron radiation emitted by the unstable electron distribution inside a flaring solar loop can accelerate electrons outside the loop by the interaction of a monochromatic wave propagating along the ambient magnetic field with the ambient electrons. It is shown here that electrons gyrating and streaming along a uniform, static magnetic field can be accelerated by interacting with the fundamental or second harmonic of a monochromatic, obliquely propagating cyclotron wave. It is also shown that the acceleration is virtually unchanged when a wave with finite bandwidth is considered. This acceleration mechanism can explain the observed high-energy electrons in type III bursts.

Karimabadi, H.↗

NASA NTRS1985

Error reduction in laser remote sensing - Combined effects of cross correlation and signal averaging

A systematic analysis is presented of the extent to which the accuracy of a differential-absorption lidar (DIAL) measurement may be improved by using the combined effects of signal averaging and temporal cross correlation. Previous studies which considered these effects separately are extended by incorporating both effects into a single analytical framework. In addition, experimental results involving lidar returns from a diffusely reflecting target using a dual-CO2 laser DIAL system with both heterodyne and direct detection are presented. These results are shown to be in good agreement with the theoretical analysis and help establish the limits of accuracy achievable under various experimental conditions.

Menyuk, N.↗

NASA NTRS1983

Signal averaging limitations in heterodyne- and direct-detection laser remote sensing measurements

The improvement in measurement uncertainty brought about by the averaging of increasing numbers of pulse return signals in both heterodyne- and direct-detection lidar systems is investigated. A theoretical analysis is presented which shows the standard deviation of the mean measurement to decrease as the inverse square root of the number of measurements, except in the presence of temporal correlation. Experimental measurements based on a dual-hybrid-TEA CO2 laser differential absorption lidar system are reported which demonstrate that the actual reduction in the standard deviation of the mean in both heterodyne- and direct-detection systems is much slower than the inverse square-root dependence predicted for uncorrelated signals, but is in agreement with predictions in the event of temporal correlation. Results thus favor the use of direct detection at relatively short range where the lower limit of the standard deviation of the mean is about 2 percent, but advantages of heterodyne detection at longer ranges are noted.

Menyuk, N.↗

NASA NTRS1982

Limitations of signal averaging due to temporal correlation in laser remote-sensing measurements

Laser remote sensing involves the measurement of laser-beam transmission through the atmosphere and is subject to uncertainties caused by strong fluctuations due primarily to speckle, glint, and atmospheric-turbulence effects. These uncertainties are generally reduced by taking average values of increasing numbers of measurements. An experiment was carried out to directly measure the effect of signal averaging on back-scattered laser return signals from a diffusely reflecting target using a direct-detection differential-absorption lidar (DIAL) system. The improvement in accuracy obtained by averaging over increasing numbers of data points was found to be smaller than that predicted for independent measurements. The experimental results are shown to be in excellent agreement with a theoretical analysis which considers the effect of temporal correlation. The analysis indicates that small but long-term temporal correlation severely limits the improvement available through signal averaging.

Menyuk, N.↗

NASA NTRS1978

VLBI observations of 3C 345 and NRAO 512 in right and left circular polarization

In October 1975, the radio telescopes of the Haystack, National Radio Astronomy, and Owens Valley Radio Observatories were used as an interferometer to monitor, at 8 GHz, the right and left circularly polarized radiation emitted by the quasars 3C 345 and NRAO 512. The data for each polarization are used separately to estimate several parameters describing a model of the fine structure of the radio brightness of 3C 345 and, subsequently, the angular separation between 3C 345 and NRAO 512. The results for the two polarizations are in approximate agreement, indicating that to the limit of resolution about 0.5 milliarcsec), the fourth Stokes parameter, V, is not significantly different from zero within the compact components of these radio sources. The corresponding quantitative limits on the degree of circular polarization are 0.08 + or - 0.07 for 3C 345 and 0.01 + or - 0.08 for NRAO 512.

Menyuk, C. R.↗