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The concentrating solar collector panels comprise a complete package array consisting of collector panels using modified Fresnel prismatic lenses for a 10 to 1 concentrating ratio, supporting framework, fluid manifolding and tracking drive system, and unassembled components for field erection.
The effect of surface roughness on the brightness temperature of a moist terrain was studied through the modification of Fresnel reflection coefficient and using the radiative transfer equation. The modification involves introduction of a single parameter to characterize the roughness. It is shown that this parameter depends on both the surface height variance and the horizontal scale of the roughness. Model calculations are in good quantitative agreement with the observed dependence of the brightness temperature on the moisture content in the surface layer. Data from truck mounted and airborne radiometers are presented for comparison. The results indicate that the roughness effects are greatest for wet soils where the difference between smooth and rough surfaces can be as great as 50K.
A model of the zodiacal cloud is used to predict the position of the photometric axis (the locus of points of maximum brightness) of the zodiacal light at any elongation angle from the sun for any time of the year for various symmetry planes: the orbital planes of Venus, Mars, and Jupiter, the invariable plane, and the solar equatorial plane. Using a scattering function which combines isotropic scattering and Fresnel reflection, the geocentric distance of the dust that contributes most of the brightness at each elongation angle is determined by computing the brightness contribution along the line of sight. A comparison of the predicted and observed positions shows that at elongation angles of 15 to 60 deg, the axis of symmetry appears to be close to the orbital plane of Venus. At angles of less than 10 deg, it is difficult to distinguish among the proposed planes of symmetry. Observations of the photometric axis at angles of 60 to 180 deg are scarce and do not permit precise determination of the axis of symmetry in that region.
Information used to evaluate the design of the Northrup concentrating collector is presented. Included are the system performance specifications, the applications manual, and the detailed design drawings of the collector. The collector is a water/glycol/working fluid type, with a dipped galvanized steel housing, transparent acrylic Fresnel lens cover, copper absorber tube, and fiber glass insulation. It weights 98 pounds. A collector assembly includes four collector units within a tracking mount array.
Research was carried out on existing and new designs for minimally intrusive measurement of flow fields in the Geophysical Fluid Flow Cell and the proposed Atmospheric General Circulation Experiment. The following topics are discussed: (1) identification and removal of foreign particles, (2) search for higher dielectric photochromic solutions, (3) selection of uv light source, (4) analysis of refractive techniques and (5) examination of fresnel lens applicability.
The effect of loading for antennas over an imperfect ground is analyzed. The Fresnel reflection coefficient technique is used to derive an E-integral equation for the antenna current. An optimization method is employed to determine the critical loading parameter which enforces a traveling wave current on the antenna. Results are given for the critical loading parameters, antenna currents, input impedances, and radiation patterns for various antenna dimensions and ground parameters. Calculations of the time-domain behavior of the current are presented to show the effect of loading on antenna transient response.
Power spectra of phase and intensity scintillations during occultation by turbulent planetary atmospheres are significantly affected by the inhomogeneous background upon which the turbulence is superimposed. Such coupling is particularly pronounced in the intensity, where there is also a marked difference in spectral shape between a central and grazing occultation. While the former has its structural features smoothed by coupling to the inhomogeneous background, such features are enhanced in the latter. Indeed, the latter power spectrum peaks around the characteristic frequency that is determined by the size of the free-space Fresnel zone and the ray velocity in the atmosphere; at higher frequencies strong fringes develop in the power spectrum. A confrontation between the theoretical scintillation spectra computed here and those calculated from the Mariner 5 Venus mission by Woo et al. (1974) is inconclusive, mainly because of insufficient statistical resolution. Phase and/or intensity power spectra computed from occultation data may be used to deduce characteristics of the turbulence and to distinguish turbulence from other perturbations in the refractive index. Such determinations are facilitated if observations are made at two or more frequencies (radio occultation) or in two or more colors (stellar occultation).
Mercury orbiter mission study results have shown that conventional silicon solar cell array technology is not adequate to produce power because of expected temperatures which range from -90 C to +285 C in about 50 minutes for 16 sun eclipses/day. The solar thermoelectric generator (STG), which requires relatively high temperatures, is being developed as a replacement power source. Several thermoelectric technologies (i.e., lead telluride alloys, bismuth telluride, selenide, and silicon-germanium alloys have been examined for their suitability. Solar concentrator configurations (i.e., flat plate, Fresnel lens, mini-cone, and Cassegrain types) were also studied as candidates for increasing incident radiation during Mercury orbital operations. Detailed results are presented, and show that an STG design based on the use of silicon-germanium alloy thermoelectric material and using high-voltage thermopiles with individual miniconical concentrators presents the optimum combination of technology and configuration for minimizing power source mass.
The effect of surface roughness on the brightness temperature of a moist terrain has been studied through the modification of Fresnel reflection coefficient and using the radiative transfer equation. The modification involves introduction of a single parameter to characterize the roughness. It is shown that this parameter depends on both the surface height variance and the horizontal scale of the roughness. Model calculations are in good quantitative agreement with the observed dependence of the brightness temperature on the moisture content in the surface layer. Data from truck mounted and airborne radiometers are presented for comparison. The results indicate that the roughness effects are great for wet soils where the difference between smooth and rough surfaces can be as great as 50 K.
The paper covers the principles, observational procedures, and results relating to occultations of stars by solar system bodies other than the moon. Physical processes involved in occultations are presented including (1) extinction by ring material, (2) differential refraction by a planetary atmosphere, (3) extinction by a planetary atmosphere, and (4) Fresnel diffraction by sharp edges. It is noted that from a sufficient number of immersion and emersion timings of a stellar occultation, the radius and ellipticity of the occulting body can be accurately determined. From an occultation by a planet having an atmosphere, temperature, pressure, and number density profiles can be obtained along with information about the composition of the atmosphere and the extinction.
Heating and cooling system uses Fresnel lens concentrating collectors. Major system components are 36 collectors, 1,500 gallon thermal storage tank, absorption cooler, cooling tower, heating coil, pumps, heat exchanger, and backup heating and air conditioning. Final report includes detailed breakdown of component and installation costs for seven project subsystems.
The computational procedure for signal propagation in the presence of an exhaust plume is presented. Comparisons with well-known analytic diffraction solutions indicate that accuracy suffers when mesh spacing is inadequate to resolve the first unobstructed Fresnel zone at the plume edge. Revisions to the procedure to improve its accuracy without requiring very large arrays are discussed. Comparisons to field measurements during a shuttle solid rocket motor (SRM) test firing suggest that the plume is sharper edged than one would expect on the basis of time averaged electron density calculations. The effects, both of revisions to the computational procedure and of allowing for a sharper plume edge, are to raise the signal level near tail aspect. The attenuation levels then predicted are still high enough to be of concern near SRM burnout for northerly launches of the space shuttle.
Analytic expressions are found for Euler's Equations of Motion and for the Eulerian Angles for both symmetric and near symmetric rigid bodies under the influence of arbitrary constant body-fixed torques. These solutions provide the body-fixed angular velocities and the attitude of the body, respectively, as functions of time. They are of special interest in applications to spinning spacecraft (such as the Galileo Spacecraft to be launched in 1984) because they include the effect of time-varying spin rate. Thus they can be applied to spin-up and spin-down maneuvers as well as to error analysis for thruster misalignments. The solutions are given for arbitrary initial conditions in terms of Fresnel, Sine and Cosine Integrals. Numerical integration of the governing differential equations has verified that the approximate analytic solutions are very accurate in many physical situations of interest.
Two procurements within the Industrial Application Experiment Series of the Thermal Power Systems Project are discussed. The first procurement, initiated in April 1980, resulted in an award to the Applied Concepts Corporation for the Capital Concrete Experiment: two Fresnel concentrating collectors will be evaluated in single-unit installations at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory Parabolic Dish Test Site and at Capitol Concrete Products, Topeka, Kansas. The second procurement, initiated in March 1981, is titled, "Thermal System Engineering Experiment B." The objective of the procurement is the rapid deployment of developed parabolic dish collectors.
The dielectric properties of polluted waters are measured with a reflection-type resonant cavity at 1.43 GHz. Very small water samples in quartz tubes of known volume are placed in the center of the maximum electric field. Measurement of the resonance-frequency variation and a change of the cavity's quality factor are used to determine the dielectric properties. The microwave emissivity of the polluted water is then calculated via the Fresnel equation and applied to data reductions of microwave radiometer measurements.
Microwave approaches for the remote sensing of soil moisture are discussed, with the advantages described as follows: (1) the all-weather capability, (2) the greater penetration depth into the soil and through vegetation than with optical or infrared sensors, and (3) the large changes in the dielectric properties of soil produced by changes in water content. Both active and passive microwave approaches are discussed. The dependence of the relationship between microwave response and soil moisture on such things as soil texture, surface roughness, vegetative cover and nonuniform moisture and temperature profiles is analyzed from both the experimental and theoretical viewpoints. The dielectric properties of the soil are analyzed quantitatively, as these control the reflective and emissive properties of the soil surface, and a model for estimating a soil's dielectric properties from its texture and moisture content is also presented. Emissivity is calculated using the Fresnel equation of electromagnetic theory, and reflectivity is shown to be decreased by surface roughness, while the backscatter coefficient increases. It is demonstrated, that microwave radiometers are sensitive to soil moisture for a wide range of surface conditions, and that the longer wavelengths are best for soil moisture sensing.
As in the cases of Mariner 5 and 10 and Venera 9, the Pioneer Venus radio occultation measurements of Venus show an upper region of turbulence located in the vicinity of 60 km. Estimates of the deduced intensity of turbulence are consistent with the upper bound obtained earlier from the complementary Pioneer Venus probe measurements. Comparison with the Pioneer Venus in situ temperature measurements of 1 km scale size also shows very good agreement. It is clear that for scale sizes smaller than the Fresnel size (approximately 1 km), the refractive index irregularities are represented by a continuum of scale sizes having a spatial wave number spectrum that is power law and close to Kolmogorov. These irregularities are elongated in the horizontal direction (axial ratios are large, greater than approximately 10). The fact that the upper region of turbulence coincides with a region of high stability marked by one or more peaks in the stability profile suggests that the turbulence is associated with trapped gravity waves. The amplitude scintillations appear to increase poleward of about 70 deg which is interpreted as an increase in turbulence level with latitude.
A secondary optical element may be added to a parabolic dish solar concentrator to increase the geometric concentration ratio attainable at a given intercept factor. This secondary may be a Fresnel lens or a mirror, such as a compound elliptic concentrator or a hyperbolic trumpet. At a fixed intercept factor, higher overall geometric concentration may be obtainable with a long focal length primary and a suitable secondary matched to it. Use of a secondary to increase the geometric concentration ratio is more likely to e worthwhile if the receiver temperature is high and if errors in the primary are large. Folding the optical path with a secondary may reduce cost by locating the receiver and power conversion equipment closer to the ground and by eliminating the heavy structure needed to support this equipment at the primary focus. Promising folded-path configurations include the Ritchey-Chretien and perhaps some three element geometries. Folding the optical path may be most useful in systems that provide process heat.