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Rubincam, D. P.

Publications and source records attributed to Rubincam, D. P..

At least 19 records
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
NASA NTRS2001

Pluto and Triton: Interactions Between Volatiles and Dynamics

Volatiles moving across the surfaces of Pluto and Triton can give rise to interesting dynamical consequences. Conversely, measurement of dynamical states can help constrain the movement of volatiles and interior structure of both bodies. Polar wander may theoretically occur on both Triton and Pluto. Triton's obliquity is low, so that the equatorial regions receive more insolation than the poles. Hence there is a tendency for nitrogen ice to sublime at the equator and condense at the poles, creating polar caps. If the nitrogen supply is large enough, then these caps could move in approximately 10(exp 5) years the global equivalent of 200 m of ice to the poles. At this point the equatorial moment of inertia becomes larger than the moment of inertia measured about the rotation axis, so that Triton overbalances and becomes dynamically unstable. The satellite then undergoes polar wander, restoring stability when the new equator contains the excess matter. Hence the pole may be continually wandering. Neptune raises a permanent tidal bulge on Triton, so that the satellite's surface is elongated like a football, with the long axis pointing at Neptune. This is expected to be the axis about which the pole wanders. Volatile migration would resurface the satellite to some depth and wandering would disturb leading side/trailing side crater statistics. Additional information is contained in the original extended abstract.

Rubincam, D. P.↗
NASA NTRS2000

Mars Secular Obliquity Decrease and the Layered Terrain

Mars may have substantially decreased its average axial tilt over geologic time due to the waxing and waning of water ice caps through the phenomenon of climate friction (also called obliquity-oblateness feedback). Depending upon Mars' climate and internal structure, water caps of the order of 10(exp 17) - 10(exp 18) kg cycling with the obliquity oscillations could have either increased or decreased the average obliquity by possibly tens of degrees over the age of the solar system. Gravity and topography observations by the Mars Global Surveyor indicate that the south polar cap is mostly uncompensated, so that Mars may be largely rigid on the obliquity timescale. Further, Mars may be a water-rich planet, so that there is a large phase angle between insolation forcing and the size of the obliquity-driven water caps. A stiff, water-rich planet implies an obliquity decrease over the eons. Such a decrease might account for the apparent youthfulness of the polar layered terrain. The idea is that fewer volatiles were available to be cycled into and out of the terrain at high mean obliquity, because of the eveness of insolation between equator and pole, and because of small insolation variations as the obliquity oscillated; so that the movement of volatiles and dust produced thin layers or perhaps no layers at all. As the average obliquity decreased, the insolation contrast between high and low latitudes increased, plus the insolation variations over the obliquity cycle grew somewhat bigger, so that more volatiles and dust might have shuttled into and out of the polar regions, forming the observed thick layers late in Mars' history. It may also be that the average tilt has decreased to the point where the climate friction mechanism is starving itself: more and more water has gotten locked up in the polar regions, making less available for cycling with the oscillations. And the layer-forming mechanism may be starving too: not only less water, but also at low average obliquity the atmospheric pressure is lower, so that dust storms become rarer, making less dust available to be deposited in the layers. The rate of water ice sublimation and the atmospheric pressure are both expected to drop sharply for obliquities only slightly lower than the present one. Hence there are qualitative reasons for believing that (a) the mean obliquity may be about as low as it can get, and (b) the mechanism for making the layers may turn off at low average obliquity, so that the layered terrain is a transient phenomenon. Thus the formation of the layered terrain may be intimately connected to a change in the mean axial tilt.

Rubincam, D. P.↗
NASA NTRS2000

The YORP Effect and the Spin of Small Asteroids

The YORP effect is the spinning up or down small bodies via the absorption of sunlight and its re-emission as infrared radiation. YORP may be competitive with collisions and tidal encounters for changing the rotation states of kilometer-sized and smaller asteroids.

Rubincam, D. P.↗
NASA NTRS1986

Earth albedo and the orbit of Lageos

The long-period perturbations in the orbit of the Lageos satellite due to the Earth's albedo have been found using a new analytical formalism. The Earth is assumed to be a sphere whose surface diffusely reflects sunlight according to Lambert's law. Specular reflection is not considered. The formalism is based on spherical harmonics; it produces equations which hold regardless of whether the terminator is seen by the satellite or not. Specializing to the case of a realistic zonal albedo shows that Lageos' orbital semimajor axis changes periodically by only a few millimeters and the eccentricity by one part in 100,000. The longitude of the node increases secularly. The effect considered here can explain neither the secular decay of 1.1 mm/day in the semimajor axis nor the observed along-track variations in acceleration of order 2 x 10 to the minus 12 power/sq ms.

Rubincam, D. P.↗
NASA NTRS1985

The orbit of Lageos and solar eclipses

An eclipse of the sun by the moon as seen by the Lageos satellite can affect the orbital semimajor axis at the centimeter level. The weakened radiation pressure acting on Lageos perturbs the orbit differently from that due to full sunlight. This difference amounted to less than 2 mm in the semimajor axis for 23 of the 30 eclipses Lageos experienced between launch in 1976 and the end of 1983. However, it was 17.6 mm for the eclipses on 28 March 1979 and 11.2 mm for the one on 15 December 1982. Differences such as these generate large enough along-track errors to make it worthwhile to include eclipses in complex orbit determination programs such as GEODYN which integrate the orbit. Eclipses cannot explain the presently unmolded variations in along-track acceleration which have a magnitude of about 3 x 10(-12) ms(-2).

Rubincam, D. P.↗
NASA NTRS1985

Earth Albedo and the orbit of LAGEOS

The long-period perturbations in the orbit of the Lageos satellite due to the Earth's albedo have been found using a new analytical formalism. The Earth is assumed to be a sphere whose surface diffusely reflects sunlight according to Lambert's law. Specular reflection is not considered. The formalism is based on spherical harmonics; it produces equations which hold regardless of whether the terminator is seen by the satellite or not. Specializing to the case of a realistic zonal albedo shows that Lageos' orbital semimajor axis changes periodically by only the a few millimeters and the eccentricity by one part in 100,000. The longitude of the node increases secularly. The effect considered here can explain neither the secular decay of 1.1 mm/day in the semimajor axis nor the observed along-track variations in acceleration of order 2 x 10 to the minus 12 power/sq ms.

Rubincam, D. P.↗
NASA NTRS1984

Lageos orbit and the albedo problem

The objective was to obtain an analytic expression for the radiation pressure force on a satellite due to sunlight reflected from the Earth. The Lageos satellite undergoes unexplained along-track accelerations. These accelerations are believed to be due mainly to terrestrial radiation pressure. The effect of sunlight reflected off the surface of the Earth must thus be modeled to insure an accurate orbit for Lageos. An accurate orbit is necessary for carrying out Lageos' mission of measuring tectonic plate motion, polar motion, and Earth rotation. The present investigation focuses on a spherical harmonic approach to the problem. An equation for the force was obtained by assuming the Earth's surface reflects sunlight according to Lambert's law. The equation is an integral over the whole Earth's surface. Expressions occurring inside the integral are expressed in terms of spherical harmonics. The problem is thus reduced to integrating products of spherical harmonics.

Rubincam, D. P.↗
NASA NTRS1984

Lageos orbit and solar eclipses

The objective was to assess the importance of solar eclipses on Lageos' orbit. Solar radiation pressure perturbs the orbit of the Lageos satellite. The GEODYN orbit determination computer program includes solar radiation pressure as one of the forces operating on the satellite as it integrates the orbit. GEODYN also takes into account the extinction of sunlight when Lageos moves into the Earth's shadow. The effect of solar eclipses on the semimajor axis of Lageos' orbit was computed analytically by assuming Lageos to be in a circular orbit, the Sun and the Moon to be in the plane of the orbit, and the Moon to be stationary in the sky in front of the Sun. Also, the magnitude of the radiation pressure is assumed to be linearly related to the angular separation of the Sun and Moon, and that Lageos is a perfect absorber of radiation. The computation indicates that an eclipse of the Sun by the Moon as seen by Lageos can affect the semimajor axis at the 1 centimeter (1 cm) level. Such a change is significant enough to include in GEODYN, in order to get an accurate orbit for Lageos.

Rubincam, D. P.↗
NASA NTRS1984

The orbit of Lageos and solar eclipses

An eclipse of the Sun by the Moon as seen by the Lageos satellite can affect the orbital semimajor axis at the centimeter level. The weakened radiation pressure acting on Lageos perturbs the orbit differently from that due to full sunlight. This difference amounted to less than 2 mm in the semimajor axis for 23 of the 30 eclipses Lageos experienced between launch in 1976 and the end of 1983. However, it was 17.6 mm for the eclipses on 28 March 1979 and 11.2 mm for the one on 15 December 1982. Differences such as these generate large enough along-track errors to make it worthwhile to include eclipses in complex orbit determination programs such as GEODYN which integrate the orbit. Eclipses cannot explain the presently unmolded variations in along-track acceleration which have a magnitude of about 3 x 10(-12) ms(-2).

Rubincam, D. P.↗
NASA NTRS1984

Postglacial rebound observed by Lageos and the effective viscosity of the lower mantle

Sixty-four observations of the orbital node made by the Lageos satellite over a five year time interval reveal an acceleration of (-8.1 + or - 1.8) x 10 to the -8 power arcseconds day/2 due to a source which is not presently modeled in the GEODYN orbit determination computer program. This acceleration cannot be explained by the ocean tide with 18.6 year period, assuming it to be an equilibrium tide. Instead it seems to be due to postglacial rebound, which changes the J(2) coefficient in the spherical harmonic expansion of the earth's gravitational field at the rate of (-8.2 + or - 18) x 10 to the -19th power/s; this in turn accelerates the node. This rate does not agree with the -32 x 10 to the -19th power/s predicted by Wu and Peltier's (1982) L2 model, which has upper and lower mantle effective viscosities of 10 to the 21st and 22nd powers Pa's, respectively. It does agree well with their L1 model, which gives about 10 x 10 to the 19th power/s. Since the effective viscosity is 10 to the 21st power Pa s throughout the entire mantle in the L1 model, the results support the contentions that the efective viscosity is near 10 to the 21st power Pa s everyhere in the mantle, and this relatively low value for the effective viscosity may have permitted several degrees of polar wander due to glaciation during the Quaternary Ice Age. Previously announced in STAR as N84-13705

Rubincam, D. P.↗
NASA NTRS1983

Postglacial rebound observed by Lageos and the effective viscosity of the lower mantle

Sixty-four observations of the orbital node made by the Lageos satellite over a five year time interval reveal an acceleration of (-8.1 + or 1.8) x 10 to the -8 power arcseconds day/2 due to a source which is not presently modeled in the GEODYN orbit determination computer program. This acceleration cannot be explained by the ocean tide with 18.6 year period, assuming it to be an equilibrium tide. Instead it seems to be due to postglacial rebound, which changes the J(2) coefficient in the spherical harmonic expansion of the earth's gravitational field at the rate of (-8.2 + or - 18) x 10 to the -19th power/s; this in turn accelerates the node. This rate does not agree with the -32 x 10 to the -19th power/s predicted by Wu and Peltier's (1982) L2 model, which has upper and lower mantle effective viscosities of 10 to the 21st and 22nd powers Pa's, respectively. it does agree well with their L1 model, which gives about 10 x 10 to the 19th power/s. Since the effective viscosity is 10 to the 21st power Pa s throughout the entire mantle in the L1 model, the results support the contentions that the effective viscosity is near 10 to the 21st power Pa s everywhere in the mantle, and this relatively low value for the effective viscosity may have permitted several degrees of polar wander due to glaciation during the Quaternary Ice Age.

Rubincam, D. P.↗
NASA NTRS1981

Information theory lateral density distribution for Earth inferred from global gravity field

Information Theory Inference, better known as the Maximum Entropy Method, was used to infer the lateral density distribution inside the Earth. The approach assumed that the Earth consists of indistinguishable Maxwell-Boltzmann particles populating infinitesimal volume elements, and followed the standard methods of statistical mechanics (maximizing the entropy function). The GEM 10B spherical harmonic gravity field coefficients, complete to degree and order 36, were used as constraints on the lateral density distribution. The spherically symmetric part of the density distribution was assumed to be known. The lateral density variation was assumed to be small compared to the spherically symmetric part. The resulting information theory density distribution for the cases of no crust removed, 30 km of compensated crust removed, and 30 km of uncompensated crust removed all gave broad density anomalies extending deep into the mantle, but with the density contrasts being the greatest towards the surface (typically + or 0.004 g cm 3 in the first two cases and + or - 0.04 g cm 3 in the third). None of the density distributions resemble classical organized convection cells. The information theory approach may have use in choosing Standard Earth Models, but, the inclusion of seismic data into the approach appears difficult.

Rubincam, D. P.↗
NASA NTRS1980

Inverting x,y grid coordinates to obtain latitude and longitude in the vanderGrinten projection

The latitude and longitude of a point on the Earth's surface are found from its x,y grid coordinates in the vanderGrinten projection. The latitude is a solution of a cubic equation and the longitude a solution of a quadratic equation. Also, the x,y grid coordinates of a point on the Earth's surface can be found if its latitude and longitude are known by solving two simultaneous quadratic equations.

Rubincam, D. P.↗
NASA NTRS1980

On the secular decrease in the semimajor axis of Lageos orbit

The semimajor axis of the Lageos orbit is decreasing secularly at the rate of -1.1 mm/day due to an unknown force. Nine possible mechanisms are investigated. Five of the mechanisms, resonance with the Earth's gravitational field, gravitational radiation, the Poynting-Robertson effect, transfer of spin angular momentum to the orbital angular momentum, and drag from near Earth dust are ruled out because they are too small to require unacceptable assumptions to account for the observed rate. Three other mechanisms, the Yarkovsky effect, the Schach effect, and terrestrial radiation pressure could possibly give the proper order of magnitude for the decay rate, but the characteristic signatures of these perturbations do not agree with the observed secular decrease. Atmospheric drag from a combination of charged and neutral particles is the most likely cause for the orbital decay. This mechanism explains at least 71 percent of the observed rate of decrease of the semimajor axis.

Rubincam, D. P.↗
NASA NTRS1980

Atmospheric drag as the cause of the secular decrease in the semimajor axis of LAGEOS's orbit

An unmodeled acceleration is causing the semimajor axis of LAGEOS to decrease at the rate of about 1.1 mm/day. Drag from charged particles or neutral helium or both is the most probable cause. The rate of orbital decay is conceivably explained by the theories of charged particle drag. Unfortunately, these theories are not yet developed to the point where a definitive statement as to the importance of charged particle drag can be made. Neutral helium may also be the cause of the orbital decay. While the abundance required to account for the secular decrease is high, it also helps solve the 'helium problem'. Neutral hydrogen probably accounts for no more than 12 percent of the observed decay.

Rubincam, D. P.↗