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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 217 records · Page 12
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NASA NTRS1980

The application of artificial electron beams to magnetospheric research

Scientific and technical progress made in the utilization of electron beams injected from large sounding rockets for the investigation of magnetospheric structure and dynamics and plasma physics is reviewed. Consideration is given to the problem of vehicle neutralization during the generation of electron beams in the ionosphere and the stability and electromagnetic wave emissions of electron beams propagating in space. Optical effects observed during the two Hess artificial aurora experiments, the Minnesota Echo IV and V experiments, the Zarnitsa-1 artificial aurora experiment and the Precede-Excede experiments are discussed, together with atmospheric scattering effects observed during Echo I, II and III, and results of the three experimental programs which have detected and analyzed beams after passage through the distant magnetosphere (the second Hess experiment, ARAKS and the Electron Echo experiments) are presented. Finally, plans for future research are outlined, and a chronology and complete bibliography of the programs conducted to date are included.

Winckler, J. R.↗
NASA NTRS1980

Spectrophotometry of Pluto from 3500 to 7350 A

Spectra of Pluto have been obtained on six nights during February 1979 by the use of the Cassegrain Digicon spectrograph on the 2.1-m Struve reflector and the IDS spectrograph on the 2.7-m reflector of McDonald Observatory. These spectra, with nominal resolution of 6-7 A, have been reduced to relative fluxes. Relative albedos were then calculated using the solar irradiances of Arvesen et al. (1969). The spectra taken in the blue show no indication of the upturn in albedo at wavelengths less than 3800 A previously reported by Fix, et al. (1970). The lack of a UV upturn cannot be interpreted in terms of a Rayleigh scattering atmosphere unless the albedo of the underlying surface is known. From the lack of methane absorption at the wavelength of the 6190- or 7270-A methane bands, an upper limit of 1-3 m-am of gaseous CH4 is derived. The albedo curve has a constant slope between 3500 and 7300 A. The only other solar system body which has this feature is an S-type asteroid.

Barker, E. S.↗
NASA NTRS1982

Dayglow emissions of the O2 Herzberg bands and the Rayleigh backscattered spectrum of the earth

It is pointed out that numerous fluorescent emissions from the Herzberg bands of molecular oxygen lie in the spectral region 242-300 nm. This coincides with the wavelength range used by orbiting spectrometers that observe the Rayleigh backscattered spectrum of the earth for the purpose of monitoring the vertical distribution of stratospheric ozone. Model calculations suggest that Herzberg band emissions in the dayglow could provide significant contamination of the ozone measurements if the quenching rate of O2(A3Sigma) is sufficiently small. It is noted that this is especially true near 255 nm, where the most intense fluorescent emissions relative to the Rayleigh scattered signal are located and where past satellite measurements have shown a persistent excess radiance above that expected for a pure ozone absorbing and molecular scattering atmosphere. Very small quenching rates, however, are adequate to reduce the dayglow emission to negligible levels. Noting that available laboratory data have not definitely established the quenching on the rate of O2(A3Sigma) as a function of vibration level, it is emphasized that such information is required before the Herzberg band contributions can be evaluated with confidence.

Frederick, J. E.↗
NASA NTRS1982

Effects of varying soil moisture contents and vegetation canopies on microwave emissions

Results of NASA airborne passive microwave scans of bare and vegetated fields for comparison with ground truth tests are discussed and a model for atmospheric scattering of radiation by vegetation is detailed. On-board radiometers obtained data at 21, 2.8, and 1.67 cm during three passes over each of 46 fields, 28 of which were bare and the others having wheat or alfalfa. Ground-based sampling included moisture in five layers down to 15 cm in addition to soil temperature. The relationships among the brightness temperature and soil moisture, as well as the surface roughness and the vegetation canopy were examined. A model was developed for the dielectric coefficient and volume scattering for a vegetation medium. L- to C-band data were found useful for retrieving soil information directly. A surface moisture content of 5-35% yielded an emissivity of 0.9-0.7. The data agreed well with a combined multilayer radiative transfer model with simple roughness correction.

Burke, H.-H. K.↗
NASA NTRS1982

Modeling of vegetation canopy reflectance: Status, issues and recommended future strategy

Various technical issues related to mapping of vegetative type, condition and stage of maturity, utilizing remotely sensed spectral data are reviewed. The existing knowledge base of models, especially of radiative properties of the vegetation canopy and atmosphere, is reviewed to establish the state of the art for addressing the problem of vegetation mapping. Activities to advance the state of the art are recommended. They include working on canopy reflectance and atmospheric scattering models, and field measurements of canopy reflectance as well as of canopy components. Leaf area index (LAI) and solar radiation interception (SRI) are identified as the two most important vegetation variables requiring further investigation. It is recommended that activities related to sensing them or understanding their relationships with measurable variables, should be encouraged and supported.

Goel, N. S.↗
NASA NTRS1982

Study to assess the importance of errors introduced by applying NOAA 6 and NOAA 7 AVHRR data as an estimator of vegetative vigor: Feasibility study of data normalization

The use of NOAA AVHRR data to map and monitor vegetation types and conditions in near real-time can be enhanced by using a portion of each GAC image that is larger than the central 25% now considered. Enlargement of the cloud free image data set can permit development of a series of algorithms for correcting imagery for ground reflectance and for atmospheric scattering anisotropy within certain accuracy limits. Empirical correction algorithms used to normalize digital radiance or VIN data must contain factors for growth stage and for instrument spectral response. While it is not possible to correct for random fluctuations in target radiance, it is possible to estimate the necessary radiance difference between targets in order to provide target discrimination and quantification within predetermined limits of accuracy. A major difficulty lies in the lack of documentation of preprocessing algorithms used on AVHRR digital data.

Duggin, M. J.↗
NASA NTRS1982

Retrieval of aerosol optical characteristics from polarization measurements of reflected solar radiation above the oceans

The reflected near infrared solar radiation observed from space above the oceans is due mainly to the atmosphere scattering, as the ocean surface is nearly black. The molecular Rayleigh contribution is also minimized at infrared wavelengths and it can be evaluated. It is shown that the degree of polarization is much more sensitive to the aerosol properties than the radiance. Measurements of polarization at two wavelengths and with an angular scanning are simulated and an inversion algorithm is proposed. It aims at finding an 'equivalent aerosol model', which reproduces the optical thickness and the asymmetry factor of the actual aerosol at all wavelengths in the solar spectrum.

Santer, R.↗
NASA NTRS1984

Rapid extraction of relative topography from Viking orbiter images. 2: Application to irregular topographic features

The ratio and flat field photoclinometric methods for determining crater form topography are described. Both methods compensate for the effects of atmospheric scattering by subtracting a haze value from all brightness values. Algorithms were altered to derive relative topographic data for irregular features such as ejecta blankets, lava flows, graben and ridge scarps, dune forms, and stratified materials. After the elevations along the profiles are obtained by integration of the photometric function, a matrix transformation is applied to the image coordinates of each pixel within each profile, utilizing each pixel's integral height, to produce a projection of each profile line onto the surface. Pixel brightness values are then resampled along the projected track of each profile to determine a more correct height value for each pixel. Precision of the methods is discussed.

Davis, P. A.↗
NASA NTRS1984

Relative radiometric calibration of LANDSAT TM reflective bands

Raw thematic mapper (TM) calibration data from pre-launch tests and in-orbit acquisitions from LANDSAT 4 and 5 satellites are analyzed to assess the radiometric characteristics of the TM sensor. A software program called TM radiometric and algorithmic performance program (TRAPP) was used for the majority of analyses. Radiometric uncertainty in the final TM image originates from: (1) scene variability (solar irradiance and atmospheric scattering); (2) optical and electrical variability of the sensor; and (3) variability introduced during image processing.

Barker, J. L.↗
NASA NTRS1984

Auroral photometry from the atmosphere Explorer satellite

Attention is given to the ability of remote sensing from space to yield quantitative auroral and ionospheric parametrers, in view of the auroral measurements made during two passes of the Explorer C satellite over the Poker Flat Optical Observatory and the Chatanika Radar Facility. The emission rate of the N2(+) 4278 A band computed from intensity measurements of energetic auroral electrons has tracked the same spetral feature that was measured remotely from the satellite over two decades of intensity, providing a stringent test for the measurement of atmospheric scattering effects. It also verifies the absolute intensity with respect to ground-based photometric measurements. In situ satellite measurments of ion densities and ground based electron density profile radar measurements provide a consistent picture of the ionospheric response to auroral input, while also predicting the observed optical emission rate.

Rees, M. H.↗
NASA NTRS1983

Scan angle dependence of radiance recorded by the NOAA-AVHRR

NOAA-AVHRR data is being used to monitor global vegetation type and condition and to study various environmental factors in addition to performance of meteorological functions. The AVHRR instrument has + or - 54 deg as maximum scan angle limits and it is necessary to be aware of the effects of sun-target-sensor geometry at extreme scan angles to be able to properly interpret the satellite images. In order to interpret the images for vegetation type and condition analysis, it is necessary to calibrate back to the nadir view position. Both simulation studies and empirical investigations with digital scanner data have been performed in order to sufficiently understand the effects of scan angle and sun angle, as well as the effects of atmospheric scattering, to eventually perform adequate calibrations. Not surprisingly, the effects are large and studies are continuing to provide improved calibrations.

Duggin, M. J.↗
NASA NTRS1984

Mars polar volatiles: Topographic and geologic setting

Progress on a project to elucidate the geological and topographic setting of the Martian polar volatiles is reported. The following accomplishments are enumerated: (1) all of the Mariner 9 imaging data sets available through JPL were acquired and copied; (2) Mariner 9 imagery was investigated in terms of the accuracy of the imaging footprints, dark current, and residual image; (3) the transfer functions of both vidicons were investigated; and (4) the magnitude of the atmospheric scattering was examined.

Murray, B.↗
NASA NTRS1985

Atmospheric transmittance from spacecraft using multiple view angle imagery

A procedure for determining atmospheric transmittance using surface images acquired at several view angles from space is presented. Fourier filtering of the image data is used to mitigate the effects of atmospheric path radiance and instrument noise. Although it is essential for some contrast to be present in the images, knowledge of the atmospheric scattering phase function or the surface bidirectional reflectance function is not required. The method appears to provide absolute transmittances with an accuracy of better than 10 percent, which is useful in some applications.

Diner, D. J.↗
NASA NTRS1986

Non-Lambertian effects on remote sensing of surface reflectance and vegetation index

This paper discusses the effects of non-Lambertian reflection from a homogeneous surface on remote sensing of the surface reflectance and vegetation index from a satellite. Remote measurement of the surface characteristics is perturbed by atmospheric scattering of sun light. This scattering tends to smooth the angular dependence of non-Lambertian surface reflectances, an effect that is not present in the case of Lambertian surfaces. This effect is calculated to test the validity of a Lambertian assumption used in remote sensing. For the three types of vegetations considered in this study, the assumption of Lambertian surface can be used satisfactorily in the derivation of surface reflectance from remotely measured radiance for a view angle outside the backscattering region. Within the backscattering region, however, the use of the assumption can result in a considerable error in the derived surface reflectance. Accuracy also deteriorates with increasing solar zenith angle. The angular distribution of the surface reflectance derived from remote measurements is smoother than that at the surface. The effect of surface non-Lambertianity on remote sensing of vegetation index is very weak. Since the effect is similiar in the visible and near infrared part of the solar spectrum for the vegetations treated in this study, it is canceled in deriving the vegetation index. The effect of the diffuse skylight on surface reflectance measurements at ground level is also discussed.

Lee, T. Y.↗
NASA NTRS1987

Thematic mapper research in the earth sciences: Small scale patches of suspended matter and phytoplankton in the Elbe River Estuary, German Bight and Tidal Flats

A Thematic Mapper (TM) field experiment was followed by a data analysis to determine TM capabilities for analysis of suspended matter and phytoplankton. Factor analysis showed that suspended matter concentration, atmospheric scattering, and sea surface temperature can be retrieved as independent factors which determine the variation in the TM data over water areas. Spectral channels in the near infrared open the possibility of determining the Angstrom exponent better than for the coastal zone color scanner. The suspended matter distribution may then be calculated by the absolute radiance of channel 2 or 3 or the ratio of both. There is no indication of whether separation of chlorophyll is possible. The distribution of suspended matter and sea surface temperature can be observed with the expected fine structure. A good correlation between water depth and suspended matter distribution as found from ship data can now be analyzed for an entire area by the synoptic view of the TM scenes.

Grassl, H.↗
NASA NTRS1988

Latitudinal variation of thermospheric hydrogen near solstice from AE-D observations

Variations of thermospheric neutral atomic hydrogen with latitude during a solstice season near solar minimum were investigated using data acquired with the polar-orbiting AE-D satellite. Hydrogen concentrations at low latitude were found to be comparable to those found from observations with the AE-E satellite, but were slightly higher than concentrations derived from the 1983 mass spectrometer incoherent scatter atmospheric model. Results confirm the general summer-to-winter density increase, large latitudinal gradients in the summer hemisphere, and the winter enhancement of hydrogen observed in AE-C nighttime measurements. The AE-D data, however, show a small polar depression in hydrogen concentration at high winter latitudes, attributed to atmospheric dynamics following auroral heating. The density gradients observed by AE-D in the summer hemisphere were in sharp contrast to the more constant horizontal daytime profiles reported from OGO-6 and previous AE-C measurements, indicating the possibility of local time effects.

Sanatani, S.↗
NASA NTRS1989

The far ultraviolet reflection spectrum of Uranus - Results from the Voyager encounter

The present analysis of the 1250-1700 A region Uranus spectrum obtained by Voyager's US spectrometer characterizes these observation results as due primarily to solar light reflected from an H2 Rayleigh and Raman scattering atmosphere with small but measurable hydrocarbon absorption. The hydrocarbon abundances obtained are substantially lower than those at comparable levels of the Saturn or Jupiter atmospheres; it is suggested, in one-dimensional terms, that this is due to diffusive separation, in conjunction with photochemical depletion caused by a very low eddy-diffusion coefficient. Strong latitudinal variations in the hydrocarbon abundances are suggested in the subsolar, polar stratosphere.

Yelle, Roger V.↗
NASA NTRS1989

Small scale patches of suspended matter and phytoplankton in the Elbe River estuary, German Bight and tidal flats

Landsat 5 TM measurements are found suitable for study of small scale features in coastal waters; three independent factors, namely suspended matter concentration, atmospheric scattering, and sea-surface temperature, were extracted from all seven TM channels on the basis of factor analysis. The distribution of suspended matter in near-surface water layer and sea surface temperature is observable with a spatial resolution of at least 120 x 120 sq m. The high correlation between water depth and suspended matter distribution established by ship-gathered data supports the presently hypothesized control by bottom topography and wind-modified tidal currents of eddy and front formation.

Doerffer, R.↗