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At least 217 records · Page 12

A fail safe laser activated switch used as an emergency control link at the Langley Vortex Research Facility

A fail safe light activated switch was used as an emergency control link at the Langley Vortex Research Facility. In this facility aircraft models were towed through a still air test chamber by a gasoline powered vehicle which was launched from one end of a 427-meter track and attained velocities to 31 m/sec in the test chamber. A 5 mW HeNe laser with a mechanical copper provided a connecting link with the moving tow vehicle on which a silicon photodiode receiver with a specially designed amplifier provided a fail safe switching action. This system provided an emergency means of stopping the vehicle by turning off the laser to interrupt the power to the vehicle ignition and brake release systems.

Kassel, P. C., Jr.↗

Emergency and microfog lubrication and cooling of bearings for Army helicopters

An analysis and system study was performed to provide design information regarding lubricant and coolant flow rates and flow paths for effective utilization of the lubricant and coolant in a once-through oil-mist (microfog) and coolant air system. A system was designed, manufactured, coupled with an existing rig and evaluation tests were performed using 46 mm bore split-inner angular-contact ball bearings under 1779N (400 lb.) thrust load. An emergency lubrication aspirator system was also manufactured and tested under lost lubricant conditions. The testing demonstrated the feasibility of using a mist oil and cooling air system to lubricate and cool a high speed helicopter engine mainshaft bearing. The testing also demonstrated the feasibility of using an emergency aspirator lubrication system as a viable survivability concept for helicopter mainshaft engine bearing for periods as long as 30 minutes.

Rosenlieb, J. W.↗

Bright X-ray arcs and the emergence of solar magnetic flux

The Skylab S-056 and S-082A experiments and ground-based magnetograms have been used to study the role of bright X-ray arcs and the emergence of solar magnetic flux in the McMath region 12476. The S-056 X-ray images show a system of one or sometimes two bright arcs within a diffuse emitting region. The arcs seem to directly connect regions of opposite magnetic polarity in the photosphere. Magnetograms suggest the possible emergence of a magnetic flux. The width of the main arc is approximately 6 arcsec when most clearly defined, and the length is approximately 30-50 arcsec. Although the arc system is observed to vary in brightness over a period exceeding 24 hours, it remains fixed in orientation. The temperature of the main arc is approximately 3 x 10 to the 6th K. It is suggested that merging magnetic fields may provide the primary energy source, perhaps accompanied by resistive heating from a force-free current.

Chapman, G. A.↗

Search and rescue emergency locating transmitter detection/location procedure via TIROS satellite

A procedure is described which works effectively to detect and locate emergency locating transmitters (ELTs) and emergency position indicating radio beacons (EPIRBs) in a multisignal environment. Using data generated from several manufactured ELTs with diverse superimposed Doppler curves, as many as 9 simultaneous ELTs can be detected and located at a variety of signal strengths. It is noted that average position errors of 10 km are attainable today at signal power to noise spectral density ratios as low as 17 dB-Hz.

Wren, P. E.↗

Safe Emergency Evacuation From Tall Structures

Emergency egress system allows people to be evacuated quickly from tall structures. New emergency system applicable to rescues from fires in tall hotels and other buildings. System consists of basket on slide wire. Basket descends by gravity on sloped slide wire staked to ground.

Stephan, E. S.↗

Emergency Medical Service (EMS): Rotorcraft Technology Workshop

A lead organization on the national level should be designated to establish concepts, locations, and the number of shock trauma air medical services. Medical specialists desire a vehicle which incorporates advances in medical technology trends in health care. Key technology needs for the emergency medical services helicopter of the future include the riding quality of fixed wing aircraft (reduced noise and vibration), no tail rotor, small rotor, small rotor diameter, improved visibility, crashworthy vehicle, IFR capability, more affordability high reliability, fuel efficient, and specialized cabins to hold medical/diagnostic and communications equipment. Approaches to a national emergency medical service are discussed.

Bauchspies, J. S.↗

Emerging monochromatic fluxes and colors of red degenerate stars

The emerging monochromatic fluxes and the B-V, V-I, J-H, and V-K color indices are presented for red degenerate stars with helium atmospheres which were calculated using an equation of state and opacities based on a hot Thomas-Fermi model of the helium gas. The effective temperature range is 4500-2500 K. It is found that although the emerging fluxes resemble blackbody curves, red degenerates emit more radiation than blackbodies in the short wavelength range and less in the long wavelength range. Thus, red degenerates appear bluer than blackbodies of the same temperature. The calculated colors of these models are compared to the colors of some of the coolest known non-DA degenerate stars. In particular it is found that the B-V and V-I colors of the cool white dwarf VB 11, whose temperature had been previously estimated to be higher than 4000 K, suggest a temperature of 3750 K. If this result is correct, then VB 11 is probably the coolest known white dwarf.

Kapranidis, S.↗

Emergency Management Computer-Aided Trainer (EMCAT)

The Emergency Management Computer-Aided Trainer (EMCAT) developed by Essex Corporation or NASA and the Federal Emergency Management Administration's (FEMA) National Fire Academy (NFA) is described. It is a computer based training system for fire fighting personnel. A prototype EMCAT system was developed by NASA first using video tape images and then video disk images when the technology became available. The EMCAT system is meant to fill the training needs of the fire fighting community with affordable state-of-the-art technologies. An automated real time simulation of the fire situation was needed to replace the outdated manual training methods currently being used. In order to be successful, this simulator had to provide realism, be user friendly, be affordable, and support multiple scenarios. The EMCAT system meets these requirements and therefore represents an innovative training tool, not only for the fire fighting community, but also for the needs of other disciplines.

Rodriguez, R. C.↗

Development experience with a simple expert system demonstrator for pilot emergency procedures

Expert system techniques, a major application area of artificial intelligence (AI), are examined in the development of pilot associate to handle aircraft emergency procedures. The term pilot associate is used to describe research involving expert systems that can assist the pilot in the cockpit. The development of expert systems for the electrical system and flight control system emergency procedures are discussed. A simple, high-level expert system provides the means to choose which knowledge domain is needed. The expert systems were developed on a low-cost, FORTH-based package, using a personal computer.

Vannorman, M.↗

The emergence of Zipf's law - Spontaneous encoding optimization by users of a command language

The distribution of commands issued by experienced users of a computer operating system allowing command customization tends to conform to Zipf's law. This result documents the emergence of a statistical property of natural language as users master an artificial language. Analysis of Zipf's law by Mandelbrot and Cherry shows that its emergence in the computer interaction of experienced users may be interpreted as evidence that these users optimize their encoding of commands. Accordingly, the extent to which users of a command language exhibit Zipf's law can provide a metric of the naturalness and efficiency with which that language is used.

Ellis, S. R.↗

Self-Identifying Emergency Radio Beacons

Rescue teams aided by knowledge of vehicle in distress. Similar to conventional emergency transmitters except contains additional timing and modulating circuits. Additions to standard emergency transmitter enable transmitter to send rescuers identifying signal in addition to conventional distress signal created by sweep generator. Data generator contains identifying code.

Friedman, Morton L.↗

Sizing an emergency venting system for a cryogenic dewar

If the vacuum vessel that insulates a cryogenic dewar for a spaceborne experiment prior to launch is damaged, air will leak into the vacuum insulation space. As the sudden heat load causes the pressure to rise in the dewar, a safety disk in the emergency vent line will burst at the design pressure differential to allow vaporized cryogenic fluid to escape. The emergency vent line should be sized such that sufficient gaseous cryogen will be vented to keep the pressure inside the dewar below the design limit. On the other hand, the line should not be so large as to impose an unnecessary heat load on the dewar filled with cryogenic fluid. A vent-line computer program was generated to compute the maximum flow rate allowed for a proposed vent-line system. Parametric studies have been carried out for different burst disk pressure differentials, liquid cryogen ullage, and vent-line sizes.

Liu, C. K.↗

The separation velocity of emerging magnetic flux

The separation velocities and magnetic fluxes of 24 emerging bipoles on the sun are measured in order to provide data on the emerging mechanism. Velocities are shown to range from about 0.2-1 km/s, bipole fluxes to range over more than two orders of magnitude, and the mean field strength and the sizes to range over one order of magnitude. No correlation is noted between measured separation velocities and either the flux or the mean field strength of the bipole. Predicted separation velocities are found be about one order of magnitude greater than measured values.

Chou, Dean-Yi↗

High-resolution digital movies of emerging flux and horizontal flows in active regions on the sun

High-resolution observations of active regions in many wavelength bands obtained at the Vacuum Tower Telescope of NSO/Sunspot (Sacramento Peak) are presented. The SOUP tunable filter, HRSO 1024 x 1024 CCD camera, and a sunspot tracker for image stabilization were used. Subarrays of 512 x 512 pixels were processed digitally and recorded on videodisk in movie format. The movies with 0.5 to 1 arcsecond resolution of the following simultaneous observations were shown: green continuum, longitudinal magnetogram, Doppler velocity, Fe I 5576 A line center, H alpha wings, and H alpha line center. The best set of movies show a 90 x 90 arcsecond field-of-view of an active region at S29, W11. When viewed at speeds of a few thousand times real-time, the photospheric movies clearly show the active region fields being distorted by a remarkable combination of systematic flows and small eruptions of new flux. Flux emergence is most easily discovered in line center movies: an elongated dark feature appears first, followed soon after by bright points at one or both ends. A brief, strong upflow is seen when the dark feature first appears; downflow in the bright points persists much longer. The magnetic flux appears to increase gradually over this extended period. Some of the flux emergence events were studied in detail, with measurements of horizontal and vertical velocities and magnetic flux versus time within one footpoint of the loop.

Topka, K.↗

Digital Controller For Emergency Beacon

Prototype digital controller intended for use in 406-MHz emergency beacon. Undergoing development according to international specifications, 406-MHz emergency beacon system includes satellites providing worldwide monitoring of beacons, with Doppler tracking to locate each beacon within 5 km. Controller turns beacon on and off and generates binary codes identifying source (e.g., ship, aircraft, person, or vehicle on land). Codes transmitted by phase modulation. Knowing code, monitor attempts to communicate with user, monitor uses code information to dispatch rescue team appropriate to type and locations of carrier.

Ivancic, William D.↗

Modems for emerging digital cellular-mobile radio system

Digital modem techniques for emerging digital cellular telecommunications-mobile radio system applications are described and analyzed. In particular, theoretical performance, experimental results, principles of operation, and various architectures of pi/4-QPSK (pi/4-shifted coherent or differential QPSK) modems for second-generation US digital cellular radio system applications are presented. The spectral/power efficiency and performance of the pi/4-QPSK modems (American and Japanese digital cellular emerging standards) are studied and briefly compared to GMSK (Gaussian minimum-shift keying) modems (proposed for European DECT and GSM cellular standards). Improved filtering strategies and digital pilot-aided (digital channel sounding) techniques are also considered for pi/4-QPSK and other digital modems. These techniques could significantly improve the performance of digital cellular and other digital land mobile and satellite mobile radio systems. More spectrally efficient modem trends for future cellular/mobile (land mobile) and satellite communication systems applications are also highlighted.

Feher, Kamilo↗

Cosmic Background Explorer (COBE): Emergency support

The Cosmic Background Explorer (COBE) Mission will measure the diffuse radiation from the universe in the wavelength band 1 micron to 9.6 mm. The band includes the 3 K cosmic background radiation, the known relic of the primeval cosmic explosion. The COBE satellite will be launched from the Western Space and Missile Center (EWSMC) via a Delta launch vehicle into a circular parking orbit of about 300 km. COBE will be placed into a 900-km altitude circular orbit. Coverage will be provided by the Deep Space Network (DSN) for COBE emergencies that would prevent communications via the normal channels of the Tracking and Data Relay Satellite System (TDRSS). Emergency support will be provided by the DSN 26-m subnetwork. Information is given in tabular form for DSN network support, frequency assignments, telemetry, and command.

Stanford, R.↗

Earth Radiation Budget Satellite (ERBS): Emergency support

The primary purpose of the Earth Radiation Budget Satellite (ERBS) project is to study the Earth's atmospheric processes and their relationship to the Earth's climate. Following deployment from the Space Shuttle, the satellite was maneuvered into a circular orbit of 610 km x 610 km x 57 degrees, with a period of 99.6 minutes. The Deep Space Network (DSN) will support the ERBS during emergency situations in the event that the standard Tracking and Data Relay Satellite System (TDRSS) to White Sands data link is inoperative. Emergency support will be provided by the DSN's 26-meter antenna subnetwork. Information is given in tabular form for DSN network support, frequency assignments, telemetry, and command.

Williamson, J.↗