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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 307 records · Page 17
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
NASA NTRS2018

Historical and Contemporary Trends in the Size, Drift, and Color of Jupiter's Great Red Spot

Observations of Jupiter's Great Red Spot (GRS) span more than 150 years. This allows for careful measurements of its size and drift rate. High spatial resolution spacecraft data also allow tracking of its spectral characteristics and internal dynamics and structure. The GRS continues to shrink in longitudinal length at an approximately linear rate of 0 deg .194 yr(exp −1) and in latitudinal width at 0 deg .048 yr (exp −1). Its westward drift rate (relative to System III W. longitude) has increased from approx. 0 deg .26/day in the 1980s to approx. 0 deg .36/day currently. Since 2014, the GRS's short wavelength (less than 650 nm) reflectance has continued to decrease, while it has become brighter at 890 nm, indicating a change in clouds/haze at high altitudes. In addition, its north–south color asymmetry has decreased, and the dark core has become smaller. Internal velocities have increased on its east and west edges, and decreased on the north and south, resulting in decreased relative vorticity and circulation. The GRS's color changes from 2014 to 2017 may be explained by changes in stretching vorticity or divergence acting to balance the decrease in relative vorticity.

Simon, Amy A.↗
NASA NTRS2014

Regional Characteristics of the Relationship Between Columnar AOD and Surface PM2.5: Application of Lidar Aerosol Extinction Profiles over Baltimore-Washington Corridor During DISCOVER-AQ

The first field campaign of DISCOVER-AQ (Deriving Information on Surface conditions from COlumn and VERtically resolved observations relevant to Air Quality) took place in July 2011 over Baltimore-Washington Corridor (BWC). A suite of airborne remote sensing and in-situ sensors was deployed along with ground networks for mapping vertical and horizontal distribution of aerosols. Previous researches were based on a single lidar station because of the lack of regional coverage. This study uses the unique airborne HSRL (High Spectral Resolution Lidar) data to baseline PM2.5 (particulate matter of aerodynamic diameter less than 2.5 μm) estimates and applies to regional air quality with satellite AOD (Aerosol Optical Depth) retrievals over BWC (∼6500 sq. km). The linear approximation takes into account aerosols aloft above AML (Aerosol Mixing Layer) by normalizing AOD with haze layer height (i.e., AOD/HLH). The estimated PM2.5 mass concentrations by HSRL AOD/HLH are shown within 2 RMSE (Root Mean Square Error ∼9.6 μg/cu. m) with correlation ∼0.88 with the observed over BWC. Similar statistics are shown when applying HLH data from a single location over the distance of 100 km. In other words, a single lidar is feasible to cover the range of 100 km with expected uncertainties. The employment of MPLNET-AERONET (MicroPulse Lidar NETwork - AErosol RObotic NETwork) measurements at NASA GSFC produces similar statistics of PM2.5 estimates as those derived by HSRL. The synergy of active and passive remote sensing aerosol measurements provides the foundation for satellite application of air quality on a daily basis. For the optimal range of 10 km, the MODIS-estimated PM2.5 values are found satisfactory at 27 (out of 36) sunphotometer locations with mean RMSE of 1.6-3.3 μg/cu. m relative to PM2.5 estimated by sunphotometers. The remaining 6 of 8 marginal sites are found in the coastal zone, for which associated large RMSE values ∼4.5-7.8 μg/cu. m are most likely due to overestimated AOD because of water-contaminated pixels.

DISCOVER-AQ↗
NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Sonic Boom Propagation Model Based on a Single-Ray Jacobian

A sonic boom is a nonlinear event whose propagation can be modeled involving two stages. The first stage consists of ray path calculations using linear approximations, while the second stage deals with a nonlinear transport of the acoustic energy along these paths. This presentation discusses a second-order finite difference numerical approach used to predict the ray paths in range-dependent atmospheres and compares it to existing finite difference schemes. The approach is validated using exact solutions obtained for stratified atmospheres. In the second stage, the geometrical spreading effect needed in determining sonic boom waveforms from a Burgers' equation is obtained using a method that only needs a single ray rather than four rays required by most existing sonic boom propagation codes. The single-ray method calculates the Jacobian, associated with the coordinate transformation from a suitable ray coordinate system to the Cartesian coordinate system, directly from the ray tracing equations. While the four-ray method approximates the geometrical spreading using a finite difference scheme involving the four rays, the single-ray method does not rely on this approximation and instead depends purely on the acoustical kinematic properties of the atmosphere. Comparisons of results using these two methods are discussed.

sonic boom↗
NASA NTRS1993

Possible Near-IR Channels for Remote Sensing Precipitable Water Vapor from Geostationary Satellite Platforms

Remote sensing of tropospheric water vapor profiles from current geostationary weather satellites are made using a few broadband infrared (IR) channels in the 6 to 13- micrometers region. Uncertainties greater than 20 percent exist in derived water vapor values just above the surface from the IR emission measurements. In this paper, we propose three near-IR channels, one within the 0.94-micrometer water vapor band absorption region, and the other two in nearby atmospheric windows, for remote sensing of precipitable water vapor over land areas, excluding lakes and rivers, during daytime from future geostationary satellite platforms. The physical principles are as follows. The reflectance of most surface targets varies approximately linearly with wavelength near 1 micrometer. The solar radiation on the sun-surface-sensor ray path is attenuated by atmospheric water vapor...

Green, R. O.↗
NASA NTRS2019

MultiLayer Clustered Sampling (MLCS) technique for near-earth asteroid impact hazard assessment

Because of planetary encounters, the motion of near-Earth asteroids is chaotic and small differences in the initial conditions tend to diverge exponentially. Linear approximations for propagating orbital uncertainties can lead to inaccurate estimates of the probability of an Earth collision. We present a novel fully nonlinear strategy for estimating the probability of an asteroid impact using sequential Monte Carlo layers. The method first explores a low-resolution layer to locate potentially relevant regions. Then, we conduct localized searches on deeper layers with higher resolution. The method retains the accuracy of brute-force Monte Carlo sampling while reducing the computational cost by only sampling relevant regions.

Farnocchia, Davide↗
NASA NTRS2018

Practical Orbit Determination for Aerobraking with Accumulated Accelerometer Data

Navigation during aerobraking missions has historically relied solely on radiometric Doppler data. Accelerometer data, available on all modern spacecraft, has the potential to supplement Doppler data, increasing operational tempos, filling tracking data gaps, and improving the accuracy of orbit determination solutions. However, integration of Doppler and accelerometer data into the batch filter solutions used for operational navigation has proven to be practically challenging, due to the narrow region of adequate linear approximation for acceleration incurred by drag. This work proposes to use the accumulated velocity changes derived from these values as a more compatible data type. Demonstrations of results focus on NASA’s Maven and ESA’s TGO mission, and how this technique can be used to improve operations for the upcoming Maven aerobraking phase with reduced tracking data and lighter staffing requirements.

Young, Brian↗
NASA NTRS2021

Variation of Ice Microphysical Properties With Temperature and Humidity at Tops of Convective Clouds

A better understanding of the many interacting processes governing the evaluation of ice in natural clouds is required to improve the representation of ice clouds in global circulation models. Recent studies suggest a dominant role of vapor growth processes in determining the temperature dependence of cloud top ice sizes and shapes. Using airborne cloud remote sensing along with reanalysis data, here we show that observed cloud top ice effective radii and estimated normalized growth rates at cloud top highly correlate with an approximately linear relationship, which is consistent with a conceptual model also presented. Furthermore, significant differences in crystal shape characteristics and scattering asymmetry parameters are found between sub- and super-saturated cloud tops over ocean, although not over land. These results provide valuable observational targets for studying ice formation and evolution processes using models, while also helping interpretation of satellite observations of ice microphysical properties at cloud tops.

ice↗
NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Mitigating the Impact of Momentum Unloads on Station-Keeping Around Libration Point Orbits

Station-keeping maneuvers are required to maintain a spacecraft close to a Libration point orbit, where the size of these maneuvers depends on different perturbations and any unmodeled forces. In many missions, despite being small, frequent momentum unloads can have a large impact on the size of station-keeping maneuvers. In this paper we will show that applying momentum unloads in the Linear Approximation of the Non-Escape (LANE) direction can significantly reduce their impact on the station-keeping delta-v budget.

Libration Point Orbits↗
NASA NTRS2003

MHD Turbulence at Moderate Magnetic Reynolds Number

In the present article we will consider the decay of MHD turbulence under the influence of a strong external magnetic field at moderate magnetic Reynolds numbers. Typical values of R(sub m) that are considered here range from R(sub m) approx. 0.1 to R(sub m) approx. 20. As a comparison, the initial kinetic Reynolds number common to all our simulations is Re(sub L) = 199. This means that the range of Prandtl numbers explored is 5 x 10(exp -4) to 10(exp -1). Our motivation is mainly to exhibit how the transition from the QS approximation to FMHD occurs. At the lowest values of R(sub m) studied here, the QS approximation is shown to model the flow faithfully. However, for the higher values of R(sub m) considered, it is clearly inadequate but can be replaced by another approximation which will be referred to as the Quasi-Linear (QL) approximation. Another objective of the present study is to describe how variations in the magnetic Reynolds number (while maintaining all other parameters constant) affect the dynamics of the flow. This complements past studies where variations in either the strength of the external magnetic field or the kinetic Reynolds number were considered. This article is organized as follows. In section 2 we recall the definition of the quasi-static approximation. Section 3 is devoted to the description of the numerical experiments performed using the quasi-static approximation and full MHD. In section 4 we describe the quasi-linear approximation and test it numerically against full MHD. A concluding summary is given in section 5.

Knaepen, B.↗
NASA NTRS1981

Some approximations in the linear dynamic equations of thin cylinders

Theoretical analysis is performed on the linear dynamic equations of thin cylindrical shells to find the error committed by making the Donnell assumption and the neglect of in-plane inertia. At first, the effect of these approximations is studied on a shell with classical simply supported boundary condition. The same approximations are then investigated for other boundary conditions from a consistent approximate solution of the eigenvalue problem. The Donnell assumption is valid at frequencies high compared with the ring frequencies, for finite length thin shells. The error in the eigenfrequencies from omitting tangential inertia is appreciable for modes with large circumferential and axial wavelengths, independent of shell thickness and boundary conditions.

El-Raheb, M.↗
NASA NTRS1993

Testing approximations for non-linear gravitational clustering

The accuracy of various analytic approximations for following the evolution of cosmological density fluctuations into the nonlinear regime is investigated. The Zel'dovich approximation is found to be consistently the best approximation scheme. It is extremely accurate for power spectra characterized by n = -1 or less; when the approximation is 'enhanced' by truncating highly nonlinear Fourier modes the approximation is excellent even for n = +1. The performance of linear theory is less spectrum-dependent, but this approximation is less accurate than the Zel'dovich one for all cases because of the failure to treat dynamics. The lognormal approximation generally provides a very poor fit to the spatial pattern.

Coles, Peter↗
NASA NTRS1990

Overshooting thunderstorm cloud top dynamics as approximated by a linear Lagrangian parcel model with analytic exact solutions

Results are presented from a linear Lagrangian entraining parcel model of an overshooting thunderstorm cloud top. The model, which is similar to that of Adler and Mack (1986), gives analytic exact solutions for vertical velocity and temperature by representing mixing with Rayleigh damping instead of nonlinearly. Model results are presented for various combinations of stratospheric lapse rate, drag intensity, and mixing strength. The results are compared to those of Adler and Mack.

Schlesinger, Robert E.↗
NASA NTRS1993

An integral equation solution for multistage turbomachinery design calculations

A method was developed to calculate flows in multistage turbomachinery. The method is an extension of quasi-three-dimensional blade-to-blade solution methods. Governing equations for steady compressible inviscid flow are linearized by introducing approximations. The linearized flow equations are solved using integral equation techniques. The flows through both stationary and rotating blade rows are determined in a single calculation. Multiple bodies can be modelled for each blade row, so that arbitrary blade counts can be analyzed. The method's benefits are its speed and versatility.

Mcfarland, Eric R.↗