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Search indexed NASA NTRS and DOE OSTI research on propulsion, heat transfer, battery materials and energy systems. Follow report and document links to the original sources.

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At least 199 records · Page 11
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NASA NTRS2003

Radiation Risk Projections for Space Travel

Space travelers are exposed to solar and galactic cosmic rays comprised of protons and heavy ions moving with velocities close to the speed of light. Cosmic ray heavy ions are known to produce more severe types of biomolecular damage in comparison to terrestrial forms of radiation, however the relationship between such damage and disease has not been fully elucidated. On Earth, we are protected from cosmic rays by atmospheric and magnetic shielding, and only the remnants of cosmic rays in the form of ground level muons and other secondary radiations are present. Because human epidemiology data is lacking for cosmic rays, risk projection must rely on theoretical understanding and data from experimental models exposed to space radiation using charged particle accelerators to simulate space radiation. Although the risks of cancer and other late effects from cosmic rays are currently believed to present a severe challenge to space travel, this challenge is centered on our lack of confidence in risk projections methodologies. We review biophysics and radiobiology data on the effects of the cosmic ray heavy ions, and the current methods used to project radiation risks . Cancer risk projections are described as a product of many biological and physical factors, each of which has a differential range of uncertainty due to lack of data and knowledge. Risk projections for space travel are described using Monte-Carlo sampling from subjective error di stributions that represent the lack of knowledge in each factor that contributes to the projection model in order to quantify the overall uncertainty in risk projections. This analysis is applied to space mi ssion scenarios including lunar colony, deep space outpost, and a Mars mission. Results suggest that the number of days in space where cancer mortality risks can be assured at a 95% confidence level to be below the maximum acceptable risk for radi ation workers on Earth or the International Space Station is only on the order of 100-200 days. Approaches to reduce these unceI1ainties and mitigate risks are described.

Cucinotta, Francis↗
NASA NTRS2014

Space Radiation and Risks to Human Health

The radiation environment in space poses significant challenges to human health and is a major concern for long duration manned space missions. Outside the Earth's protective magnetosphere, astronauts are exposed to higher levels of galactic cosmic rays, whose physical characteristics are distinct from terrestrial sources of radiation such as x‐rays and gamma‐rays. Galactic cosmic rays consist of high energy and high mass nuclei as well as high energy protons; they impart unique biological damage as they traverse through tissue with impacts on human health that are largely unknown. The major health issues of concern are the risks of radiation carcinogenesis, acute and late decrements to the central nervous system, degenerative tissue effects such as cardiovascular disease, as well as possible acute radiation syndromes due to an unshielded exposure to a large solar particle event. The NASA Human Research Program's Space Radiation Program Element is focused on characterization and mitigation of these space radiation health risks along with understanding these risks in context of the other biological stressors found in the space environment. In this overview, we will provide a description of these health risks and the Element's research strategies to understand and mitigate these risks.

Huff, Janice L.↗
NASA NTRS2014

Space Radiation and Risks to Human Health

The radiation environment in space poses significant challenges to human health and is a major concern for long duration manned space missions. Outside the Earth's protective magnetosphere, astronauts are exposed to higher levels of galactic cosmic rays, whose physical characteristics are distinct from terrestrial sources of radiation such as x‐rays and gamma‐rays. Galactic cosmic rays consist of high energy and high mass nuclei as well as high energy protons; they impart unique biological damage as they traverse through tissue with impacts on human health that are largely unknown. The major health issues of concern are the risks of radiation carcinogenesis, acute and late decrements to the central nervous system, degenerative tissue effects such as cardiovascular disease, as well as possible acute radiation syndromes due to an unshielded exposure to a large solar particle event. The NASA Human Research Program's Space Radiation Program Element is focused on characterization and mitigation of these space radiation health risks along with understanding these risks in context of the other biological stressors found in the space environment. In this overview, we will provide a description of these health risks and the Element's research strategies to understand and mitigate these risks.

Huff, Janice L.↗
NASA NTRS1991

Rapid computation of the radiative absorption rate in the nu3 mode of mesospheric and lower thermospheric ozone

An algorithm has been developed to calculate rapidly and accurately the rate at which the ozone nu3 fundamental band absorbs IR radiation in the terrestrial upper mesosphere and lower thermosphere. Accurate knowledge of this rate is essential for studies of non-LTE processes in ozone and for estimating ozone concentrations from measurements of non-LTE IR emission from the middle atmosphere. In the algorithm, the 1252 ozone nu3 fundamental lines that govern radiative absorption are divided into 13 groups according to line strength. The absorption rate due to a single line representative of the mean line strength of each group is then calculated. The total absorption rate is obtained by multiplying the absorption rate for each mean line by the total number of lines within each group and adding the resultant products for all 13 groups.

Mlynczak, Martin G.↗
NASA NTRS2019

Can We Use the QA4ECV Black-sky Fraction of Absorbed Photosynthetically Active Radiation (FAPAR) using AVHRR Surface Reflectance to Assess Terrestrial Global Change?

NOAA platforms provide the longest period of terrestrial observation since the 1980s. The progress in calibration, atmospheric corrections and physically based land retrieval offers the opportunity to reprocess these data for extending terrestrial product time series. Within the Quality Assurance for Essential Climate Variables (QA4ECV) project, the black-sky Joint Research Centre (JRC)-fraction of absorbed photosynthetically active radiation (FAPAR) algorithm was developed for the AVHRR sensors on-board NOAA-07 to -16 using the Land Surface Reflectance Climate Data Record. The retrieval algorithm was based on the radiative transfer theory, and uncertainties were included in the products. We proposed a time and spatial composite for providing both 10-day and monthly products at 0.05º × 0.05º. Quality control and validation were achieved through benchmarking against third-party products, including Sea-Viewing Wide Field-of-View Sensor (SeaWiFS) datasets produced with the same retrieval algorithm. Past ground-based measurements, providing a proxy of FAPAR, showed good agreement of seasonality values over short homogeneous canopies and mixed vegetation. The average difference between SeaWiFS and QA4ECV monthly products over 2002–2005 is about 0.075 with a standard deviation of 0.091. We proposed a monthly linear bias correction that reduced these statistics to 0.02 and 0.001. The complete harmonized long-term time series was then used to address its fitness for the purpose of analysis of global terrestrial change.

AVHRR↗
NASA NTRS1990

Evidence for lightning on Venus

Lightning in the clouds on Venus should most nearly resemble intra-cloud discharges on earth. Intra-cloud discharges are weaker, shorter and more frequent than cloud-to-ground discharges and cause more slowly varying luminosity. Terrestrial lightning also has both geographic and local time orderings. At Venus, there is much evidence for lightning similar to terrestrial lightning. The Venera landers saw electromagnetic radiation much like sferics from terrestrial lightning. Pioneer Venus also saw such signals leaking out into the night ionosphere. These signals have a strong local time dependence not unlike terrestrial lightning. The local time distribution helps explain the mixed results of optical surveys. The successful observation was on the evening side where there is much apparently lightning-generated electromagnetic radiation; the unsuccessful observations were on the morning side where such plasma waves, and hence lightning discharges, appear to be rare.

Russell, C. T.↗
NASA NTRS1986

El Nino and outgoing longwave radiation: An atlas of Nimbus-7 Earth radiation budget observations

Five years of broadband Earth Radiation Budget (ERB) measurements taken by the Nimbus-7 ERB experiment have been archived. This five year period included the 1982 to 1983 El Nino/Southern Oscillation event, which reached its peak in January 1983 (near the beginning of the fifth data year). An outgoing longwave radiation subset of the data, for the period June 1980 to October 1983, was processed to enhance spatial resolution. This atlas contains the analyses of the resultant fields. In addition, a set of anomaly maps, based on a definition of pre-El Nino climatology, is included. Together, these two sets of maps provide the first broadband glimpse of the terrestrial outgoing longwave radiation response to the El Nino event.

Kyle, H. L.↗
NASA NTRS1982

Growth rate calculations of auroral kilometric radiation using the relativistic resonance condition

The relativistic cyclotron resonance condition for right-handed extraordinary mode waves defines an ellipse in velocity space. The position of the center and size of the semiminor axis of this ellipse are functions of the plasma frequency, gyrofrequency, wave frequency, and wave normal angle. The effect of varying these parameters on the position and size of the resonance contour is analyzed. The results show that as the wave normal angle decreases, the semiminor axis increases in size and as the plasma frequency to gyrofrequency ratio decreases, the minimum energy for resonating electrons decreases and the maximum wave normal angle allowed by the resonance condition increases. Also, as the wave frequency to gyrofrequency ratio increases, the center of the resonance ellipse moves away from the origin. The relativistic resonance condition and the electron distribution in velocity space obtained by the S3-3 satellite are used to calculate numerically growth rates for the terrestrial auroral kilometric radiation. It is shown that the loss cone region of the electron distribution can give rise to growth rates for the extraordinary mode that are sufficiently large to account for the observed radio emission intensities.

Omidi, N.↗
NASA NTRS1968

Infrared rocket observations.

IR telescope for rocket observations using liquid nitrogen coolant to eliminate terrestrial and telescope radiation, using InAs and InSb detectors

Harwit, M.↗
NASA NTRS1973

Interference patterns of a horizontal electric dipole over layered dielectric media.

Interference patterns for electromagnetic fields due to a subsurface reflector below a layered lossy dielectric are calculated with the geometrical optics approximation for use in interpreting data to be collected on the moon by Apollo 17 as well as data currently being obtained on terrestrial glaciers. The radiating antenna lies on the surface. All six field components are calculated and studied. For the endfire solutions, the peak of the first reflected wave is found to be different from that of the broadside ones. To facilitate a physical discussion, we plotted the radiation patterns due to the antenna on the surface.

Tsang, L.↗
NASA NTRS1984

The Effect of Cosmic Rays on MSI Devices

Low-power devices susceptible to cosmic-ray particles. Five MSI device technologies, including TTL, low power TTL, Schottky, CMOS, and low-power Schottky, subjected to 120-MeV krypton-ion beam from cyclotron and monitored for single-event upset. Results find terrestrial application for radiation hardening of electronic devices and systems.

Nichols, D. K.↗
NASA NTRS1987

Evolution of the Southern Oscillation as observed by the Nimbus-7 ERB experiment

The Nimbus-7 satellite has been in a 955-km, sun-synchronous orbit since October 1978. The Earth Radiation Budget (ERB) experiment has taken approximately 8 years of high-quality data during this time, of which seven complete years have been archived at the National Space Science Data Center. A final reprocessing of the wide-field-of-view channel dataset is underway. Error analyses indicate a long-term stability of 1 percent better over the length of the data record. As part of the validation of the ERB measurements, the archived 7-year Nimbus-7 ERB dataset is examined for the presence and accuracy of interannual variations including the Southern Oscillation signal. Zonal averages of broadband outgoing longwave radiation indicate a terrestrial response of more than 2 years to the oceanic and atmospheric manifestations of the 1982-83 El Nino/Southern Oscillation (ENSO) event, especially in the tropics. This signal is present in monthly and seasonal averages and is shown here to derive primarily from atmospheric responses to adjustments in the Pacific Ocean. The calibration stability of this dataset thus provides a powerful new tool to examine the physics of the ENSO phenomena.

Ardanuy, Philip E.↗
NASA NTRS1990

Advanced Solid-State Array Spectroradiometer (ASAS) support of 1989 field experiments

An overview of the ASAS data acquired in support of the 1989 field experiments is presented and data quality is discussed. The precision of the ASAS data is considered through the presentation of SNRs derived from both field and laboratory data. ASAS is an airborne, off-nadir pointing, imaging spectroradiometer that acquires digital image data for 29 visible and near-infrared spectral bands (465 to 871 nm) with a spectral resolution of 15 nm. Surfaces observed for the field experiments include volcanic surfaces and a playa within a sparsely vegetated semiarid ecosystem, grass canopies within a prairie ecosystem, and tree canopies within a northern forest ecosystem. It is shown that calibrated ASAS data are sufficiently exact for investigations of the directional distribution of radiation scattered from terrestrial surfaces.

Irons, James R.↗
NASA NTRS1993

The natural thermoluminescence of meteorites. V - Ordinary chondrites at the Allan Hills ice fields

Natural thermoluminescence (TL) data have been obtained for 167 ordinary chondrites from the ice fields in the vicinity of the Allan Hills in Victoria Land, Antarctica, in order to investigate their thermal and radiation history, pairing, terrestrial age, and concentration mechanisms. Natural TL values for meteorites from the Main ice field are fairly low, while the Farwestern field shows a spread with many values 30-80 krad, suggestive of less than 150-ka terrestrial ages. There appear to be trends in TL levels within individual ice fields which are suggestive of directions of ice movement at these sites during the period of meteorite concentration. These directions seem to be confirmed by the orientations of elongation preserved in meteorite pairing groups. The proportion of meteorites with very low natural TL levels at each field is comparable to that observed at the Lewis Cliff site and for modern non-Antarctic falls and is also similar to the fraction of small perihelia orbits calculated from fireball and fall observations. Induced TL data for meteorites from the Allan Hills confirm trends which show that a select group of H chondrites from the Antarctic experienced a different extraterrestrial thermal history to that of non-Antarctic H chondrites.

Benoit, Paul H.↗
NASA NTRS1993

The Natural Thermoluminescence of Meteorites: Ordinary Chondrites at the Allan Hills Ice Fields - Part 5

Natural thermoluminescence (TL) data have been obtained for 167 ordinary chondrites from the ice fields in the vicinity of the Allan Hills in Victoria Land, Antarctica, in order to investigate their thermal and radiation history, pairing, terrestrial age, and concentration mechanisms. Using fairly conservative criteria (including natural and induced TL, find location, and petrographic data), the 167 meteorite fragments are thought to represent a maximum of 129 separate meteorites. Natural TL values for meteorites from the Main ice field are fairly low (typically 5-30 krad, indicative of terrestrial ages of approx. 400 ka), while the Far western field shows a spread with many values 30-80 krad, suggestive of less then 150-ka terrestrial ages. There appear to be trends in TL levels within individual ice fields which are suggestive of directions of ice movement at these sites during the period of meteorite concentration. These directions seem to be confirmed by the orientations of elongation preserved in meteorite pairing groups. The proportion of meteorites with very low natural TL levels (less then 5 krad) at each field is comparable to that observed at the Lewis Cliff site and for modern non-Antarctic falls and is also similar to the fraction of small perihelia (less then 0.85 AU) orbits calculated from fireball and fall observations. Induced TL data for meteorites from the Allan Hills confirm trends observed for meteorites collected during the 1977/1978 and 1978/1979 field seasons which show that a select group of H chondrites from the Antarctic experienced a different extraterrestrial thermal history to that of non-Antarctic H chondrites.

Benoit, Paul H.↗
NASA NTRS2000

Satellite Observation of El Nino Effects on Amazon Forest Phenology and Productivity

Climate variability may affect the functioning of Amazon moist tropical forests, and recent modeling analyses suggest that the carbon dynamics of the region vary interannually in response to precipitation and temperature anomalies. However, due to persistent orbital and atmospheric artifacts in the satellite record, remote sensing observations have not provided quantitative evidence that climate variation affects Amazon forest phenology or productivity, We developed a method to minimize and quantify non-biological artifacts in NOAA AVHRR satellite data, providing a record of estimated forest phenological variation from 1982-1993. The seasonal Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) amplitude (a proxy for phenology) increased throughout much of the basin during El Nino periods when rainfall was anomalously low. Wetter La Nina episodes brought consistently smaller NDVI amplitudes. Using radiative transfer and terrestrial biogeochemical models driven by these satellite data, we estimate that canopy-energy absorption and net primary production of Amazon forests varied interannually by as much as 21% and 18%, respectively. These results provide large-scale observational evidence for interannual sensitivity to El Nino of plant phenology and carbon flux in Amazon forests.

Asner, Gregory P.↗