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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
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
NASA NTRS1982

The satellite power system - Assessment of the environmental impact on middle atmosphere composition and on climate

Numerical models were developed to calculate the total deposition of watervapor, hydrogen, CO2, CO, SO2, and NO in the middle atmosphere from operation of heavy lift launch vehicles (HLLV) used to build a satellite solar power system (SPS). The effects of the contaminants were examined for their effects on the upper atmosphere. One- and two-dimensional models were formulated for the photochemistry of the upper atmosphere and for rocket plumes and reentry. An SPS scenario of 400 launches per year for 10 yr was considered. The build-up of the contaminants in the atmosphere was projected to have no significant effects, even at the launch latitude. Neither would there by any dangerous ozone depletion. It was found that H, OH, and HO2 species would double in the thermosphere. No measurable changes in climate were foreseen.

Whitten, R. C.↗
NASA NTRS1985

Middle Atmosphere Program. Handbook for MAP. Volume 15: Balloon techniques

Some techniques employed by investigators using balloons to obtain data on the properties of the middle atmosphere are discussed. Much effort has gone into developing instruments which could be used on small balloons to measure temperature and variable species. These efforts are discussed. Remote sensing techniques used to obtain data on atmospheric composition are described. Measurement of stratospheric ions and stratospheric aerosols are also discussed.

Murcray, D. G.↗
NASA NTRS1991

Nonmigrating diurnal tides in the equatorial middle atmosphere

Data from the Nimbus-7 Limb Infrared Monitor of the Stratosphere (LIMS) are used to extend the analysis of diurnal tides in the middle atmosphere to include the zonally symmetric and eastward propagating components. These modes show vertical and meridional structures that are generally consistent with the predictions of linear tidal theory. The zonal and meridional wind fields are calculated from the tidal temperatures. Diurnal perturbations in LIMS temperature and derived winds agree well with equinoctial model calculations. Comparisons with day-night differences of radiosonde temperature and rocket winds show qualitative agreement in vertical structure and amplitude. The zonally symmetric and eastward migrating tidal components show a higher degree of temporal variability than the sun-synchronous component. These modes at times contribute substantially to the diurnal signal in wind and temperature, with combined amplitudes equal to or in excess of the amplitude of the main migrating diurnal tide. The observed vertical phase variations suggest that their forcing may originate below the stratosphere.

Lieberman, Ruth S.↗
NASA NTRS2017

Simultaneous Optical and Meteor Head Echo Measurements Using the Middle Atmosphere Alomar Radar System (MAARSY)

We describe a two year campaign of simultaneous automated meteor optical and head echo radar measurements conducted with the Middle Atmosphere Alomar Radar System (MAARSY). This campaign was established with the following goals: Compare trajectories as measured by MAARSY and the two optical stations for a range of meteoroid masses. Compare photometric and dynamic mass measured optically with radar-derived masses (inter-calibration of mass scales). Use the best observed simultaneous events to fuse all metric, photometric and ionization estimates together and apply different ablation models to self-consistently model these highest quality events.

Cooke, W. J.↗
NASA NTRS1993

Gravity wave forcing in the middle atmosphere due to reduced ozone heating during a solar eclipse

We present an analysis of the gravity wave structure and the associated forcing of the middle atmosphere induced by the screening of the ozone layer from solar heating during a solar eclipse. Fourier integral techniques and numerical evaluation of the integral solutions were used to assess the wave field structure and to compute the gravity wave forcing of the atmosphere at greater heights. Our solutions reveal dominant periods of a few hours, characteristic horizontal and vertical scales of about 5000 to 10,000 km and 200 km, respectively, and an integrated momentum flux in the direction of eclipse motion of about 5.6 x 10 exp 8 N at each height above the forcing level. These results suggest that responses to solar eclipses may be difficult to detect above background gravity wave and tidal fluctuations until well into the thermosphere. Conversely, the induced body forces may penetrate to considerable heights because of the large wave scales and will have significant effects at levels where the wave field is dissipated.

Fritts, David C.↗
NASA NTRS1980

Remote sensing of the middle atmospheric aerosol

It is shown that current or planned spacecraft measurements could contribute toward the input data required for studies of natural anthropogenic influences on the middle atmosphere and their effects on weather and climate. Emphasis is placed on the solar occultation sounding technique used in the SAGE I experiment on board the Atmospheric Explorer Mission B spacecraft. It is shown that the aerosol and ozone number densities cannot be recovered simultaneously without introducing some formula for the aerosol extinction, or assumptions on the form of the aerosol size distribution.

Fymat, A. L.↗
NASA NTRS1985

The middle atmosphere above Andoya Norway during the winter 1983/84 as derived from metrockets and OH nightglow observations

A total of 110 wind measurements were performed in the middle atmosphere above Andoya (69N, 16E) during the MAP/WINE Campaign from December 2, 1983 to February 23, 1984 using 57 inflatable passive falling spheres, 33 datasondes, 18 foil clouds and 2 instrumented active spheres. Temperature profiles were derived from 42 falling spheres, 26 datasondes and 2 active spheres. Near-mesopause temperatures were determined from OH nightglow observations. Synthesized charts of the temperatures as well as the zonal and meridional wind components between 0 and 90 km altitudes are presented. The temperature measurements indicate the occurrence of several minor and one major stratospheric warming, the latter being observed over Andoya at the end of the launch series.

Meyer, W.↗
NASA NTRS1987

Middle Atmosphere Program. Handbook for MAP, volume 25

GLOBMET (the Global Meteor Observation System) was first proposed by the Soviet Geophysical Committee and was accepted by the Middle Atmosphere Program Steering Committee in 1982. While the atmospheric dynamics data from the system are of primary interest to MAP, GLOBMET also encompasses the astronomical radio and optical observations of meteoroids, and the physics of their interaction with the Earth's atmosphere. These astronomical observations and interactional physics with the Earth's atmosphere are discussed in detail.

Roper, R. G.↗
NASA NTRS1990

Electrodynamic response of the middle atmosphere to auroral pulsations

The MAC/EPSILON observational campaign encompassed the use of two Nike Orion rocket payloads which studied the effects of auroral energetics on the middle atmosphere. While one payload was launched during the recovery phase of a moderate magnetic substorm, during fairly stable auroral conditions, the other was launched during highly active postbreakup conditions during which Pc5 pulsations were in progress. The energetic radiation of the first event was composed almost entirely of relativistic electrons below 200 keV, while that of the second was dominated by much softer electrons whose high X-ray fluxes exceeded the cosmic ray background as an ionizing source down to below 30 km.

Goldberg, R. A.↗
NASA NTRS1995

Ground-based microwave monitoring of middle atmosphere ozone: Comparison to lidar and Stratospheric and Gas Experiment 2 satellite observations

A dedicated ground-based microwave radiometer was in operation to monitor the middle atmospheric ozone concentration at Table Mountain Facility (TMF) of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), California (34.4 deg N, 117.7 deg W) from July 1989 to June 1992, as a part of the Network for Detection of Stratospheric Change. Ozone profiles from 56 to 0.04 mbar (approximately 20 - 70 km) were retrieved from the microwave data. The focus in this paper is to validate the microwave ozone observations from 56 to 1 mbar by comparing the results from a JPL ground-based lidar located at the same site and from the Stratospheric Aerosol and Gas Experiment 2 (SAGE 2) satellite overpasses within 1000 km of TMF and to examine the ability of these instruments to detect short-term, seasonal, and annual variations in ozone. The profile comparison results show that the mean differences of microwave ozone from lidar and SAGE 2 are about 5% or less and the root-mean-square scatter about the mean is mainly from the precision of the instruments. A correlation analysis of ozone time series suggests highly significant correlations up to 2.4 mbar between lidar and microwave measurements and up to 1 mbar between SAGE 2 and microwave. The short-term and seasonal variation of the ozone profile seen in the microwave measurements is shown to be consistent with the observations of lidar and SAGE 2, and the interannual variation of ozone appears to be detectable within an accuracy of a few percent with the microwave instrument.

Tsou, J. J.↗
NASA NTRS2005

Satellite Measurements of Middle Atmospheric Impacts by Solar Proton Events in Solar Cycle 23

Solar proton events (SPEs) are known to have caused changes in constituents in the Earth's neutral polar middle atmosphere in the most recent solar maximum period (solar cycle 23). The highly energetic protons produced ionizations, excitations, dissociations, and dissociative ionizations of the background constituents in the polar cap regions (greater than 60 degrees geomagnetic latitude), which led to the production of HOx (H, OH, HO2) and NOy (N, NO, NO2, NO3, N2O5, HNO3, HO2NO2, ClONO2, BrONO2). The HOx increases led to short-lived ozone decreases in the polar mesosphere and upper stratosphere due to the short lifetimes of the HOx constituents. Polar middle mesospheric ozone decreases greater than 50% were observed and computed to last for hours to days due to the enhanced HOx. The NOy increases led to long-lived polar stratospheric ozone changes because of the long lifetime of the NOy family in this region. Upper stratospheric ozone decreases of greater than 10% were computed to last for several months past the solar events in the winter polar regions because of the enhanced NOy. Solar cycle 23 was especially replete with SPEs and huge fluxes of high energy protons occurred in July and November 2000, September and November 2001, April 2002, October 2003, and January 2005. Smaller, but still substantial, proton fluxes impacted the Earth during other months in this cycle. Observations by the Upper Atmosphere Research Satellite (UARS) Halogen Occultation Experiment (HALOE) and Solar Backscatter Ultraviolet 2 (SBUV/2) instruments along with GSFC 2D Model predictions will be shown in this talk.

Jackman, C.↗
NASA NTRS1990

Effect of solar proton events on the middle atmosphere during the past two solar cycles as computed using a two-dimensional model

This paper investigates the effects of solar proton events (SPEs) on the middle atmosphere during the past two solar cycles (1963-1984), by examining changes in the production of odd nitrogen, NO(y), and ozone and using a proton energy degradation scheme to derive ion pair production rates. These calculations show that NO(y) is not substantially changed over a solar cycle by SPEs; significant SPEs last only 1-5 days, tend to occur near solar maximum, and are typically months to years apart, preventing a build up of SPE-produced NO(y). Fractional ozone changes are even smaller than the fractional NO(y) changes and are significant only for the August 1972 SPE. Ozone, like NO(y), returns to its ambient levels on time scales of several months to a year.

Jackman, Charles H.↗
NASA NTRS1988

The GISS global climate-middle atmosphere model. I - Model structure and climatology

A coupled global climate/middle atmosphere model (GCMAM) is developed by extending the Hansen et al. (1983) GISS global climate model to include the middle atmosphere up to 85 km. The model includes numerical solutions of the primitive equations, calculations of the radiative and surface fluxes, and a complete hydrologic cycle with convective and cloud-cover parameterizations. In addition, a parameterized gravity wave drag cycle is incorporated, in which gravity-wave momentum fluxes due to flow over topography, wind shear, and convection are calculated at each grid box, using theoretical relationships between the grid-scale variables and expected source strengths. The results of the GCMAM demonstrate that the model produces a reasonable simulation of the stratosphere. It is shown that the improvements over the previous version were achieved largely through the incorporation of the parameterized gravity wave drag.

Rind, D.↗
NASA NTRS1990

Satellite observations of instability in the middle atmosphere

Data from the Limb Infrared Monitor of the Stratosphere (LIMS) have been used to define zonally averaged basic-state temperature and zonal wind fields in the middle atmosphere for several periods during the winter of 1978-79. This basic state has been used to calculate the phase speeds, growth rates, and spatial structures of unstable modes using a linear, quasigeostrophic model. These results have been compared with temperature and ozone variance amplitudes from a spectral analysis of the same LIMS data. The comparison indicates that there is a close match between phase speeds for the most rapidly growing modes predicted by the model and phase speeds for statistically significant temperature and ozone variances. Both calculated and observed modes tend to be limited in latitudinal extent to a few tens of degrees and in vertical extent to about 10 km. These modes also tend to be nondispersive. Examples are given for the Southern Hemisphere near 0.25 mb (60 km) and for low latitudes of the Northern Hemisphere near 15 mb (30 km).

Elson, Lee S.↗
NASA NTRS1994

An assessment of satellite temperature distributions used to derive the net diabatic transport for zonally averaged models of the middle atmosphere

Determinations of the zonally averaged and diabatically derived residual mean circulation (RMC) are particularly sensitive to the assumed zonal mean temperature distribution used as input. Several different middle atmosphere satellite temperature distributions have been employed in models and are compared here: a 4-year (late 1978 to early 1982) National Meteorological Center (NMC) climatology, the Barnett and Corney (or BC) climatology, and the 7 months of Nimbus 7 limb infrared monitor of the stratosphere (LIMS) temperatures. All three climatologies are generally accurate below the 10 hPa level, but there are systematic differences between them of up to +/-5 K in the upper stratosphere and lower mesosphere. The NMC/LIMS differences are evaluated using time series of rocketsonde and reconstructed satellite temperatures at station locations. Much of those biases can be explained by the differing vertical resolutions for the satellite-derived temperatures; the time series of reconstructed LIMS profiles have higher resolution and are more accurate. Because the LIMS temperatures are limited to just two full seasons, one cannot obtain monthly RMCs from them for an annual model calculation. Two alternate monthly climatologies are examined briefly: the 4-year Nimbus 7 stratospheric and mesospheric sounder (SAMS) temperatures and for the mesosphere the distribution from the Solar Mesosphere Explorer (SME), both of which are limb viewers of medium vertical resolution. There are also differences of the order of +/-5 K for those data sets. It is concluded that a major source of error in the determination of diabatic RMCs is a persistent pattern of temperature bias whose characteristics vary according to the vertical resolution of each individual climatology.

Remsberg, Ellis E.↗
NASA NTRS1985

Mean winds of the upper middle atmosphere (60-110 km): A global distribution from radar systems (M.F., METEOR, VHF)

Since the development of the last CIRA in 1972, the number of radars providing winds in the upper middle atmosphere has increased significantly. These systems fill the data gap between 60 km and 110 km. The radars include medium frequency (MF) radars or partial reflection systems giving data from 60/70 to 100/110 km; meteor radars, 80 to 110 km, and M.S.T. radars operating as meteor radars. Data from 12 locations are shown, which represent a good Northern Hemispheric (NH) North American chain, an Oceanian chain which is mainly in the Southern Hemisphere (SH), and some Western Europe data. Generally tidal oscillations have been removed from days or groups of days, and the remaining mean winds and longer period oscillations plotted as height-time contours. Composite cross sections from the years 1978 to 1982 were formed where possible so that only the major temporal features remain.

Manson, A. H.↗
NASA NTRS1989

Middle atmosphere measurements of small-scale electron density irregularities and ion properties during the MAC/Epsilon campaign

Rocket payloads designed to measure small scale electron density irregularities and ion properties in the middle atmosphere were flown with each of the three main salvos of the MAC/Epsilon campaign conducted at the Andoya Rocket Range, Norway, during October to November 1987. Fixed bias, hemispheric nose tip probes measured small scale electron density irregularities, indicative of neutral air turbulence, during the rocket's ascent; and subsequently, parachute-borne Gerdien condensers measured the region's polar electrical conductivity, ion mobility and density. One rocket was launched during daylight (October 15, 1052:20 UT), and the other two launches occurred at night (October 21, 2134 UT: November 12, 0021:40 UT) under moderately disturbed conditions which enhanced the detection and measurement of turbulence structures. A preliminary analysis of the real time data displays indicates the presence of small scale electron density irregularities in the altitude range of 60 to 90 km. Ongoing data reduction will determine turbulence parameters and also the region's electrical properties below 90 km.

Blood, S. P.↗