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NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Heliospheric energetic particle transport: Analysis of near-field-aligned particle propagation for SEP events observed by Wind and MAVEN

Magnetic field alignments of spacecraft over large distances in the heliosphere are rare and are usually very limited in duration. Cruise phases of planetary transfers, however, are an exception to this rule, given the Hohmann-Parker effect. The transfer of the MAVEN s/c in 2014 is one such example. Multiple (~10) solar particle events occurred and were detected at both MAVEN and the Wind s/c, originating from solar activity near the foot points of both s/c. We show initial analysis results of the data collected by the solar wind and energetic particle instruments on both s/c while they were more than 0.2 AU apart, but practically Parker field aligned. Using a 1D model, we present initial simulations in qualitative agreement with energetic electron measurements. Next step is to implement the 2D model with approximate particle release from the Sun, and transport durations between Sun, Earth, and MAVEN. We will discuss implications for this data-model comparison, including the possibility to constrain particle scattering inside 1 AU, as well as its radial dependence between Earth and MAVEN.

Solar Energetic Particles↗
NASA NTRS2004

Global Geospace Science (GGS)/POLAR Thermal Ion Dynamics Experiments (TIDE) Co-Investigator Program: Mission Operations and Data Analysis (MO/DA)

We have pursued several investigations using the Polar/TIDE data set. The first was a comparison of TIDE high-altitude observations with similar ion flux signatures in the Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) magnetospheric plasma analyzer (MPA) data. There are several geosynchronously orbiting satellites with LANL MPA instruments onboard. When the satellite is immersed in fresh plasma sheet electrons, the spacecraft voltage drops to several hundred volts negative, and cold ions are accelerated in to the detector. In the LANL MPA spectrograms, the accelerated cold ions appear as a bright, narrow line, following the voltage of the spacecraft. This "ion line" is seen regularly on the nightside, but has not received much attention. The Polar TIDE observations indicated a ubiquitous "lobal wind" in the near-- magnetotail, a field-aligned stream of approx. 100 eV ions flowing out of both polar ionospheres. The interesting result of this research is that the MPA ion line is also peaked in the field-aligned direction, even though the potential well should be uniform in all directions. It is believed that this is evidence that the lobal winds not only populate the high-latitude lobes, but fill the lobes all the way in to the near-Earth plasma sheet (the location of geosynchronous orbit). This activity developed into a full-scale survey of the lobal wind observations in the TIDE database. The universality of these observations with respect to local time and solar wind conditions implies that the ionospheric outflow is supplying the near-Earth plasma sheet at all times, regardless of magnetic activity. We have conducted a statistical study of the characteristics of the lobal wind in these two data sets FIDE and LANL MPA), finding much similarity between them. Using these characteristics as input conditions to our inner magnetosphere ion transport model, we have conducted simulations of the flow of these particles inside of geosynchronous orbit to show the impact these particles will have on the near-Earth space environment. As the study has progressed, these results have been presented several times to the TIDE team during teleconferences. It is planned to present this survey at the GEM 2004 Summer Workshop, and hopefully at additional conferences in the near future. We are presently writing a paper on the lobal wind occurrence statistics, which should be submitted in April or May to the Journal of Geophysical Research for publication. An undergraduate student at the University of Alabama in Huntsville, Will Maddox, working at NASA MSFC with Dr. Paul Craven, is presently creating a database of the values TIDE moments for the lobal wind (under Dr. Liemohn's guidance), and this will be the focus of a follow-on paper.

Nagy, Andrew↗
NASA NTRS1973

Estimation of peak winds from hourly observations

Two closely related methods to obtain estimates of the hourly peak wind at Cape Kennedy were compared by statistical tests. The methods evaluated the Monin-Obukhov stability length and the standard deviation of the hourly observed wind speed, so as to augment the latter quantity by F standard deviations. F is an optimized factor. A third method utilizing an optimized gust factor was also applied to the hourly wind. The latter procedure estimated 2952 peak winds with an rms error of 2.81 knots, an accuracy which was not surpassed by the other methods. Peak ground wind speed data were developed for use in space shuttle design operation analyses.

Graves, M. E.↗
NASA NTRS2000

SSMI Wind Speed Climatology of the Time of Monsoon Wind Offset in the Western Arabian Sea

Forecasting the time of onset of monsoon wind in the western Arabian Sea, which is believed to precede the onset of rainfall along the west coast of India, is an important unsolved problem. Prior to measurements of the surface wind field by satellite, there was an absence of suitable surface wind observations. NASA scatterometer (NSCAT) surface wind vectors revealed that the time of the 1997 onset of 12 m/s southwest monsoon wind speeds in the western Arabian Sea preceded the onset of monsoon rainfall in Goa, India, by 3 - 4 days. Wind speed and direction data were necessary to establish a dynamical mechanism between times of onset of 12 m/s wind speed off Somalia and rainfall in Goa. Except for NSCAT, no satellite scatterometer wind product recorded adequately sampled 2-day 1deg x 1deg averaged wind vectors, which are the required space and time scales, to examine the wind-rain relationship in other years. However, the greater-than-95% steadiness of summer monsoon winds allows an opportunity to use satellite measurements of surface wind speed. The Special Sensor Microwave Imager (SSMI) recorded surface wind speed with adequate sampling to produce a 1-day, 1deg x 1deg data product during 1988 - 1998. SSMI data had been uniformly processed throughout the period. Times of onset of 12 m/s wind speed off Somalia determined with the SSMI data set were 21 May 1988, 24 May 1989, 17 May 1990, 28 May 1991, 8 June 1992, 28 May 1993, 30 May 1994, 7 June 1995, 29 May 1996, 12 June 1997, and 15 May 1998. Uncertainty of the 1992 and 1996 times of onset were increased because of the absence of SSMI data on 6 and 7 June 1992 and on 30 May 1996. Correlations of timing of monsoon wind onset with El Nino will be described. Variability of the time difference between times of onset of 12 m/s wind speed and Goa rainfall will be discussed. At the time of submission of the abstract, the Goa rainfall data have not arrived from the India Meteorological Department.

Halpern, David↗
NASA NTRS2016

Understanding Oceanic Heavy Precipitation Using Scatterometer, Satellite Precipitation, and Reanalysis Products

The primary aim of this study is to understand the heavy precipitation events over Oceanic regions using vector wind retrievals from space based scatterometers in combination with precipitation products from satellite and model reanalysis products. Heavy precipitation over oceans is a less understood phenomenon and this study tries to fill in the gaps which may lead us to a better understanding of heavy precipitation over oceans. Various phenomenon may lead to intense precipitation viz. MJO (Madden-Julian Oscillation), Extratropical cyclones, MCSs (Mesoscale Convective Systems), that occur inside or outside the tropics and if we can decipher the physical mechanisms behind occurrence of heavy precipitation, then it may lead us to a better understanding of such events which further may help us in building more robust weather and climate models. During a heavy precipitation event, scatterometer wind observations may lead us to understand the governing dynamics behind that event near the surface. We hypothesize that scatterometer winds can observe significant changes in the near-surface circulation and that there are global relationships among these quantities. To the degree to which this hypothesis fails, we will learn about the regional behavior of heavy precipitation-producing systems over the ocean. We use a "precipitation feature" (PF) approach to enable statistical analysis of a large database of raining features.

Winds↗
NASA NTRS2005

Multi-Spacecraft Observations of Interplanetary Shocks

Multi-spacecraft solar wind observations reveal that many interplanetary shocks deviate significantly from exact planarity on scale length of the magnetospheric cross section. A number of different IP shock observations with four spacecraft will be presented to demonstrate quantitatively the angular deviations between shock normals obtained from 4-spacecraft methods, using only the time and position information of shock observations but assuming a exactly planar geometry, and those obtained from a non-linear least squares fitting of the "Rankine-Hugoniot" conservation equations at each spacecraft. Moreover, the curvature of the shock fronts is strongly related to its driver, typically magnetic clouds. It will be demonstrated that small and slower moving magnetic clouds drive shocks with significantly more irregular surface geometries.

Szabo, Adam↗
NASA NTRS2007

Neutral Solar Wind Generated by Lunar Exospheric Dust at the Terminator

We calculate the flux of neutral solar wind observed on the lunar surface at the terminator due to solar wind protons penetrating exospheric dust with: (1) grains larger that 0.1 microns and (2) grains larger than 0.01 microns. For grains larger than 0.1 microns, the ratio of the neutral solar wind to solar wind flux is estimated to be approx.10(exp -4)-10(exp -3) at solar wind speeds in excess of 800 km/s, but much lower (less than 10(exp -5) at average to low solar wind speeds. However, when the smaller grain sizes are considered, the ratio of the neutral solar wind flux to solar wind flux is estimated to be greater than or equal to 10(exp -5) at all speeds and at speeds in excess of 700 km/s reaches 10(exp -3)-10(exp -2). These neutral solar wind fluxes are easily measurable with current low energy neutral atom instrumentation. Observations of neutral solar wind from the surface of the Moon could provide a very sensitive determination of the distribution of very small dust grains in the lunar exosphere and would provide data complementary to optical measurements at ultraviolet and visible wavelengths. Furthermore, neutral solar wind, unlike its ionized counterpart, is .not held-off by magnetic anomalies, and may contribute to greater space weathering than expected in certain lunar locations.

Collier, Michael R.↗
NASA NTRS1985

Utilization of satellite cloud information to diagnose the energy state and transformations in extratropical cyclones

An important component of the research was a continuing investigation of the impact of latent release on extratropical cyclone development. Previous efforts to accomplish this task have focused on the energy balance and the vertical motion field of an intense winter extratropical cyclone over the United States. During this fiscal year researchers turned their attention to a more fundamental diagnostic variable, the height tendency. Central to this effort is the use of a modified form of the quasi-geostrophic height tendency equation, in which geostrophic wind components have been replaced by observed winds and a latent heat release term has been added. This methodology was adopted to produce a simple diagnostic model which retains the essential mechanisms of quasi-geostrophic theory but more faithfully describes observed wave development when the Rossby Number approaches and exceeds 0.5. Results to date indicate that the new model yields height tendencies that are superior to those obtained from the quasi-geostrophic formulation and are sufficiently close to the observed tendencies to be a useful tool for diagnosing the principle large-scale forcing mechanisms in th e700-300 mb layer. Of the three forcing terms included in the new model, vortity advection is in general dominant. The most persistent challenge to this dominance is made by the thermal advection. On the whole, latent heat release plays a secondary role. Finally, during the rapid intensification observed for this cyclone, all three processes complement each other in forcing height falls.

Smith, P. J.↗
DOE OSTI2020

Understanding Irrigation Impacts on Low-Level Jets over the Great Plains

Low-level jets (LLJs) over the Great Plains are well-known for their importance in transporting moisture from the Gulf of Mexico and forming precipitation in the Central US. However, the impact of irrigation practice on LLJs is rarely studied. To understand the irrigation impact on the Great Plains LLJs, the Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) model is employed with and without an irrigation scheme. The simulated wind field is evaluated against the observed wind from Midlatitude Continental Convective Clouds Experiment (MC3E). The results show that adding irrigation improves the simulated wind, especially at lower altitudes below 800 hPa. Irrigation reduces the LLJ frequency over the Great Plains, mainly by reducing the intense LLJ frequency. The reduced LLJ frequency is caused by the irrigation-induced weakening of meridional wind. The favorable conditions for LLJs have been identified by examining the mechanism associated with LLJs: a ridge-like pattern with weak and calm synoptic-scale conditions in the mid-levels and a strong west-east temperature gradient at lower levels that promote meridional winds. Irrigation-induced cooling leads to a baroclinic pattern with high pressure at lower altitudes over the irrigation region and low pressure in the mid- and upper levels in the downstream region, resulting in a northerly component that hinders the formation of LLJs. Low-level surface cooling also decreases the west-east temperature gradient and hence weakens the thermal wind forcing. The irrigation-induced mid-level low and weaker west-east temperature gradient are responsible for the reduced meridional winds and the reduced LLJ frequencies.

Yang, Zhao↗
DOE OSTI2020

How wind speed shear and directional veer affect the power production of a megawatt-scale operational wind turbine

Most megawatt-scale wind turbines align themselves into the wind as defined by the wind speed at or near the center of the rotor (hub height). However, both wind speed and wind direction can change with height across the area swept by the turbine blades. A turbine aligned to hub-height winds might experience suboptimal or superoptimal power production, depending on the changes in the vertical profile of wind, also known as shear. Using observed winds and power production over 6 months at a site in the high plains of North America, we quantify the sensitivity of a wind turbine's power production to wind speed shear and directional veer as well as atmospheric stability. We measure shear using metrics such as α (the log-law wind shear exponent), β bulk (a measure of bulk rotor-disk-layer veer), β total (a measure of total rotor-disk-layer veer), and rotor-equivalent wind speed (REWS; a measure of actual momentum encountered by the turbine by accounting for shear). We also consider the REWS with the inclusion of directional veer, REWS θ , although statistically significant differences in power production do not occur between REWS and REWS θ at our site. When REWS differs from the hub-height wind speed (as measured by either the lidar or a transfer function-corrected nacelle anemometer), the turbine power generation also differs from the mean power curve in a statistically significant way. This change in power can be more than 70 kW or up to 5 % of the rated power for a single 1.5 MW utility-scale turbine. Over a theoretical 100-turbine wind farm, these changes could lead to instantaneous power prediction gains or losses equivalent to the addition or loss of multiple utility-scale turbines. At this site, REWS is the most useful metric for segregating the turbine's power curve into high and low cases of power production when compared to the other shear or stability metrics. Therefore, REWS enables improved forecasts of power production.

17 WIND ENERGY↗
NASA NTRS2001

Application of Remote Sensing to Assess the Impact of Short Term Climate Variability on Coastal Sedimentation

The University of Wisconsin and Louisiana State University have teamed to study the forcing of winter season cold frontal wind systems on sediment distribution patterns and geomorphology in the Louisiana coastal zone. Wind systems associated with cold fronts have been shown to modify coastal circulation and resuspend sediments along the microtidal Louisiana coast. The assessment includes quantifying the influence of cumulative winter season atmospheric forcing (through surface wind observations) from year to year in response to short term climate variability, such as El Nino events. A correlation between winter cyclone frequency and the strength of El Nino events has been suggested. The atmospheric forcing data are being correlated to geomorphic measurements along western Louisiana's prograding muddy coast. Remote sensing data is being used to map and track sediment distribution patterns for various wind conditions. Transferring a suspended sediment concentration (SSC) algorithm to EOS MODIS observations will enable estimates of SSC in case 2 waters over the global domain. Progress in Year 1 of this study has included data collection and analysis of wind observations for atmospheric forcing characterization, a field activity (TX-2001) to collect in situ water samples with co-incident remote sensing measurements from the NASA ER-2 based MODIS Airborne Simulator (MAS) and the EOS Terra based MODerate resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) instruments, aerial photography and of sediment burial pipe field measurements along the prograding muddy Chenier Plain coast of western Louisiana for documenting coastal change in that dynamic region, and routine collection of MODIS 250 in resolution data for monitoring coastal sediment patterns. The data sets are being used in a process to transfer an SSC estimation algorithm to the MODIS platform. Work is underway on assessing coastal transport for the winter 2000-01 season. Water level data for use in a Geomorphic Impact Index, which relates wind energy, water level conditions, and geomorphic change along the microtidal western Louisiana coastline is being assembled.

Moeller, Christopher C.↗
NASA NTRS1988

Stellar winds in two massive Herbig Be stars

A survey of the IUE archival spectra of Herbig Be stars, revealed 2 stars, HD 200775 and HD 259431, with winds which differ from those seen in more evolved stars and from the winds observed in the cooler Herbig Ae stars. The winds are strong, show a wide range of ionization from C IV to Mg II and Si II, and exhibit pronounced ionization gradients as a function of radial velocity. These winds are present at v sin i less than or = 100 km/sec, suggesting that winds from massive pre-main sequence Be stars extend to higher latitudes than those observed in more evolved stars. The presence of well-developed discrete absorption components, together with stronger winds than can be accounted for based on the stellar luminosity, suggests that mechanisms other than simple radiation pressure are important in initiating and driving stellar winds from these stars.

Grady, C. A.↗