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NASA NTRS1984

Observations and theory of the solar semidiurnal tide in the mesosphere of Venus

The 1978 Pioneer Venus mission, in addition to producing strong IR radiometer experiment evidence for the existence of a semidiurnal solar tide in the Venus mesosphere, has yielded radiative flux and cloud particle distribution data about the structure of solar heating and IR cooling which facilitate calculations of tidal forcing functions and estimates of radiative dissipation rates. It is presently shown that a physically reasonable mean flow can be found which leads to theoretically predicted tides that are in excellent agreement with those observed. The zonal mean flow obtained exhibits a maximum velocity of about 130 m/sec at 70 km altitude, decreasing to about zero at 88 km, together with a jet-like meridional structure that strongly deviates from solid body rotation.

Fels, S. B.↗

NASA NTRS1990

Thermal characterization of an AMTEC recirculating test cell

An alkali metal thermoelectric converter (AMTEC) recirculating test cell has been operated in order to determine the magnitudes of the primary heat losses of the cell and the value of the emissivity of the condenser surface. The energy balance included radiation losses, conductive losses, and losses due to the flow of sodium into the cell. The radiative heat flux dominated the heat loss mechanism of the cell at open circuit, and the condenser emissivity was calculated to be about 0.1. It is shown that, if this emissivity can be reduced to 0.02, then parasitic losses in an AMTEC recirculating test cell operating near peak power would be less than 40 percent of the heat required by the cell. The condenser emissivity decreases with elapsed time, resulting in improved thermal performance of the cell.

Underwood, M. L.↗

NASA NTRS1993

A two-dimensional model with coupled dynamics, radiation, and photochemistry. 1: Simulation of the middle atmosphere

Spatial and seasonal distribution of ozone and other trace gases are simulated using a interactive two-dimensional model of the stratosphere updated to include full gas phase chemistry. The model consists of a primitive equation dynamics module, a full radiative transfer scheme, and a comprehensive gas phase chemistry module. The circulation is derived from heating rates in the stratosphere that are calculated using model-generated ozone. In the troposphere, parameterized heating rates are adopted. The eddy momentum flux divergence in the zonal mean momentum equation is given by the eddy fluxes of potential vorticity. Eddy fluxes of potential vorticity and tracers are parameterized using a set of predetermined diffusion coefficients. The adopted values for K(sub yy), show a hemispherical asymmetry in that the values in the lower stratosphere are consistently smaller in the southern hemisphere. The asymmetry in K(sub yy) and in the parameterization of the tropospheric heating rate results in an asymmetry in the circulation giving rise to unique signatures in the trace gas distributions. The model successfully simulates the observed asymmetry in the column abundance of the springtime ozone maxima between northern and southern hemisphere. Results for other trace gases are in agreement with the gross observed features although specific differences exist.

Ko, Malcolm K. W.↗

NASA NTRS1976

Structure of atmospheric turbulence in the friction layer below 500 meters

Measurements of wind direction and speed, vertical velocity, and temperature were made from several levels of the 444 m tower near Oklahoma City. Turbulence quantities were calculated from the covariances between observed variables over periods ranging from 5 min to 1 hr. It was found that in some cases parameters such as mean wind speed, shearing stress, and vertical heat flux could be expressed by simple equations for periods of 15 min to 1 hr. Changes in these quantities with time are related to changes in vertical motion and stability. Power spectra were calculated for sequential 15 min, 30 min, and 1 hr periods. The effects of stability, wind speed, and surface roughness on the spectra of longitudinal and lateral velocity were examined, along with the effect of height on the spectrum of vertical velocity. This region was shown to be composed of a lower region in which mechanical turbulence dominates and an upper region dominated by convective turbulence.

Maas, S. J.↗

NASA NTRS1994

Measurement of Effective Canopy Temperature: The Missing Link to Modeling Transpiration in Controlled Environments

The objectives were to apply energy balance principles to plant canopies, and to determine which parameters are essential for predicting plant canopy transpiration (E) in controlled environments. Transpiration was accurately measured in a gas-exchange system. Absorbed radiation (R(sub abs)) by the canopy was measured with a net radiometer and calculated from short and long-wave radiation components. Average canopy foliar temperature T(sub L) can be measured with an infrared radiometer, but since T(sub L) is seldom uniform, a weighed average measurement of T(sub L) must be made. The effective canopy temperature T(sub C) is that temperature that balances the energy flux between absorbed radiation and latent heat L(sub E) and sensible heat (H) fluxes. TC should exactly equal air temperature T(sub A) when L(sub E) equals R(sub abs). When unnecessary thermal radiation from the lighting system is removed by a water filter, the magnitude of L(sub E) from transpiration approaches Rabs and T(sub C) is close to T(sub A). Unlike field models, we included the energy used in photosynthesis and found that up to 10% of Rabs was used in photosynthesis. We calculated aerodynamic conductance for H from measurements of wind speed and canopy height using the wind profile equation. Canopy aerodynamic conductance ranged from.03 to.04 m/s for wind speeds from.6 to 1 m/s; thus a 0.1 C canopy to air temperature difference results in a sensible heat flux of about 4 W/sq m, which is only 1% of R(sub abs). We examined the ability of wide angle infrared transducers to accurately integrate T(sub L) from the top to the bottom of the canopy. We measured evaporation from the hydroponic media to be approximately 1 micro mol/sq m s or 10% of R(sub abs). This result indicates that separating evaporation from transpiration is more important than exact measurement of canopy temperature.

Monje, O. A.↗

NASA NTRS2001

Effect of Clouds on the Atmospheric Solar Heating in the Tropical Western Pacific

The sea surface solar radiative fluxes have been retrieved from the radiances measured by Japan's Geostationary Meteorological Satellite 5. The surface radiation data set covers the domain 40S-40N and 90E-170W and a period starting from January 1998. The retrieved surface radiation has been validated with the radiometric measurements at the Atmospheric Radiation Measurement (ARM) site on Manus Island in the equatorial western Pacific. Together with the Clouds and the Earth's Radiant Energy System (CERES) solar fluxes at the top of the atmosphere and the radiative transfer calculations of clear-sky fluxes, this surface radiation data set was used to study the impact of clouds on the solar heating of the atmosphere. It was found that clouds enhanced the atmospheric solar heating by approx. 21 watts per meter squared in the tropical western Pacific and the South China Sea, and the ratio of the cloud radiative forcing at the surface to that at the TOA was approximately 1.6.

Chou, Ming-Dah↗

NASA NTRS2019

Testing of Heat Flux Sensors at Cryogenic Temperatures

Normally, in order to characterize multilayer insulation installed onto a test tank, the boil-off of the tank is measured and then heat loads from structural and fluid penetrations are calculated from temperature measurements throughout the system. For the Structural Heat Intercept, Insulation, and Vibration Evaluation Rig testing, it was determined that this approach would have significant uncertainties (over 50%) and that another method was needed to characterize the heat load through the blanket. Heat flux sensors are widely used to measure heat loads and characterize insulation systems at room temperature, however, the heat fluxes measured are usually two orders of magnitude higher than high performance MLI. Three different heat flux sensors were initially checked out on a liquid hydrogen calorimeter. One was chosen for actual implementation and 20 sensors were ordered. Of those sensors, calibration was attempted on 7 of the sensors. The results from testing and calibration are discussed.

cryogenic fluid management↗

NASA NTRS1990

The effects of clouds on CO2 forcing

The cloud radiative forcing (CRF) is the difference between the radiative flux (at the top of the atmosphere) which actually occurs in the presence of clouds, and that which would occur if the clouds were removed but the atmospheric state were otherwise unchanged. The CO2 forcing is defined, in analogy with the cloud forcing, as the difference in fluxes and/or infrared heating rates obtained by instantaneously changing CO2 concentration (doubling it) without changing anything else, i.e., without allowing any feedback. An increased CO2 concentration leads to a reduced net upward longwave flux at the Earth's surface. This induced net upward flux is due to an increased downward emission by the CO2 in the atmosphere above. The negative increment to the net upward flux becomes more intense at higher levels in the troposphere, reaching a peak intensity roughly at the tropopause. It then weakens with height in the stratosphere. This profile implies a warming of the troposphere and cooling of the stratosphere. The CSU GCM was recently used to make some preliminary CO2 forcing calculations, for a single simulated, for July conditions. The longwave radiation routine was called twice, to determine the radiative fluxes and heating rates for both 2 x CO2 and 1 x CO2. As diagnostics, the 2-D distributions of the longwave fluxes at the surface and the top of atmosphere, as well as the 3-D distribution of the longwave cooling in the interior was saved. In addition, the pressure was saved (near the tropopause) where the difference in the longwave flux due to CO2 doubling has its largest magnitude. For convenience, this level is referred to as the CO2 tropopause. The actual difference in the flux at that level was also saved. Finally, all of these fields were duplicated for the hypothetical case of no cloudiness (clear sky), so that the effects of the clouds can be isolated.

Randall, David A.↗

NASA NTRS1992

Estimation of sensible heat flux from remotely sensed canopy temperatures

Temperatures of tallgrass priarie vegetation were measured with infrared thermometers (IRT) at different view zenith and azimuth angles. The optimum IRT view zenith angle for estimating sensible heat fluxes (H) was determined by comparing H estimated with eddy correlation and/or Bowen ratio techniques to H calculated by a method suggested by Hatfield et al. (1984). For wind speeds of 5 m/s or greater, H estimated with surface temperatures measured at a 0 deg or 20 deg view zenith angle gave the best agreement, but for wind speeds of less than 4 m/s the best estimate of H was made with surface temperatures measured at a 40 deg or 60 deg view zenith angle.

Vining, R. C.↗

NASA NTRS1993

Thermal analysis of combinatorial solid geometry models using SINDA

Algorithms have been developed using Monte Carlo techniques to determine the thermal network parameters necessary to perform a finite difference analysis on Combinatorial Solid Geometry (CSG) models. Orbital and laser fluxes as well as internal heat generation are modeled to facilitate satellite modeling. The results of the thermal calculations are used to model the infrared (IR) images of targets and assess target vulnerability. Sample analyses and validation are presented which demonstrate code products.

Gerencser, Diane↗

NASA NTRS1994

Development and application of computational aerothermodynamics flowfield computer codes

Research was performed in the area of computational modeling and application of hypersonic, high-enthalpy, thermo-chemical nonequilibrium flow (Aerothermodynamics) problems. A number of computational fluid dynamic (CFD) codes were developed and applied to simulate high altitude rocket-plume, the Aeroassist Flight Experiment (AFE), hypersonic base flow for planetary probes, the single expansion ramp model (SERN) connected with the National Aerospace Plane, hypersonic drag devices, hypersonic ramp flows, ballistic range models, shock tunnel facility nozzles, transient and steady flows in the shock tunnel facility, arc-jet flows, thermochemical nonequilibrium flows around simple and complex bodies, axisymmetric ionized flows of interest to re-entry, unsteady shock induced combustion phenomena, high enthalpy pulsed facility simulations, and unsteady shock boundary layer interactions in shock tunnels. Computational modeling involved developing appropriate numerical schemes for the flows on interest and developing, applying, and validating appropriate thermochemical processes. As part of improving the accuracy of the numerical predictions, adaptive grid algorithms were explored, and a user-friendly, self-adaptive code (SAGE) was developed. Aerothermodynamic flows of interest included energy transfer due to strong radiation, and a significant level of effort was spent in developing computational codes for calculating radiation and radiation modeling. In addition, computational tools were developed and applied to predict the radiative heat flux and spectra that reach the model surface.

Venkatapathy, Ethiraj↗

NASA NTRS1999

Quantifying the Wave Driving of the Stratosphere

The zonal mean eddy heat flux is directly proportional to the wave activity that propagates from the troposphere into the stratosphere. This quantity is a simple eddy diagnostic which is easily calculated from conventional meteorological analyses. Because this "wave driving" of the stratosphere has a strong impact on the stratospheric temperature, it is necessary to compare the impact of the flux with respect to stratospheric radiative changes caused by greenhouse gas changes. Hence, we must understand the precision and accuracy of the heat flux derived from our global meteorological analyses. Herein, we quantify the stratospheric heat flux using five different meteorological analyses, and show that there are 30% differences between these analyses during the disturbed conditions of the northern hemisphere winter. Such large differences result from the planetary differences in the stationary temperature and meridional wind fields. In contrast, planetary transient waves show excellent agreement amongst these five analyses, and this transient heat flux appears to have a long term downward trend.

Newman, Paul A.↗

NASA NTRS1998

Streamer Evaporation

Evaporation is the consequence of slow plasma heating near the tops of streamers where the plasma is only weakly contained by the magnetic field. The form it takes is the slow opening of field lines at the top of the streamer and transient formation of new solar wind. It was discovered in polytropic model calculations, where due to the absence of other energy loss mechanisms in magnetostatic streamers, its ultimate endpoint is the complete evaporation of the streamer. This takes, for plausible heating rates, weeks to months in these models. Of course streamers do not behave this way, for more than one reason. One is that there are losses due to thermal conduction to the base of the streamer and radiation from the transition region. Another is that streamer heating must have a characteristic time constant and depend on the ambient physical conditions. We use our global Magnetohydrodynamics (MHD) model with thermal conduction to examine a few examples of the effect of changing the heating scale height and of making ad hoc choices for how the heating depends on ambient conditions. At the same time, we apply and extend the analytic model of streamers, which showed that streamers will be unable to contain plasma for temperatures near the cusp greater than about 2xl0(exp 6) K. Slow solar wind is observed to come from streamers through transient releases. A scenario for this that is consistent with the above physical process is that heating increases the near-cusp temperature until field lines there are forced open. The subsequent evacuation of the flux tubes by the newly forming slow wind decreases the temperature and heating until the flux tubes are able to reclose. Then, over a longer time scale, heating begins to again refill the flux tubes with plasma and increase the temperature until the cycle repeats itself. The calculations we report here are first steps towards quantitative evaluation of this scenario.

Suess, Steven T.↗

NASA NTRS1992

A near-wall four-equation turbulence model for compressible boundary layers

A near-wall four-equation turbulence model is developed for the calculation of high-speed compressible turbulent boundary layers. The four equations used are the k-epsilon equations and the theta(exp 2)-epsilon(sub theta) equations. These equations are used to define the turbulent diffusivities for momentum and heat fluxes, thus allowing the assumption of dynamic similarity between momentum and heat transport to be relaxed. The Favre-averaged equations of motion are solved in conjunction with the four transport equations. Calculations are compared with measurements and with another model's predictions where the assumption of the constant turbulent Prandtl number is invoked. Compressible flat plate turbulent boundary layers with both adiabatic and constant temperature wall boundary conditions are considered. Results for the range of low Mach numbers and temperature ratios investigated are essentially the same as those obtained using an identical near-wall k-epsilon model. In general, the numerical predictions are in very good agreement with measurements and there are significant improvements in the predictions of mean flow properties at high Mach numbers.

Sommer, T. P.↗

NASA NTRS1993

Near-wall variable-Prandtl-number turbulence model for compressible flows

A near-wall four-equation turbulence model is developed for the calculation of high-speed compressible turbulent boundary layers. The four equations used are the k-epsilon equations and the theta(exp 2)-epsilon (sub theta) equations. These equations are used to define the turbulent diffusivities for momentum and heat fluxes, thus allowing the assumption of dynamic similarity between momentum and heat transport to be relaxed. The Favre-averaged equations of motion are solved in conjunction with the four transport equations. Calculations are compared with measurements and with another model's predictions where the assumption of the constant turbulent Prandtl number is invoked. Compressible flat plate turbulent boundary layers with both adiabatic and constant temperature wall boundary conditions are considered. Results for the range of low Mach numbers and temperature ratios investigated are essentially the same as those obtained using an identical near-wall k-epsilon model. In general, there are significant improvements in the predictions of mean flow properties at high Mach numbers.

Sommer, T. P.↗

NASA NTRS2008

An Axisymmetric Hydrodynamical Model for the Torus Wind in AGN: X-ray Excited Funnel Flow - 2

We have calculated a series of models of outflows from the obscuring torus in active galactic nuclei (AGN). Our modeling assumes that the inner face of a rotationally supported torus is illuminated and heated by the intense X-rays from the inner accretion disk and black hole. As a result of such heating a strong biconical outflow is observed in our simulations. We calculate 3-dimensional hydrodynamical models, assuming axial symmetry, and including the effects of X-ray heating, ionization, and radiation pressure. We discuss the behavior of a large family of these models, their velocity fields, mass fluxes and temperature, as functions of the torus properties and X-ray flux. Synthetic warm absorber spectra are calculated, assuming pure absorption, for sample models at various inclination angles and observing times. We show that these models have mass fluxes and flow speeds which are comparable to those which have been inferred from observations of Seyfert 1 warm absorbers, and that they can produce rich absorption line spectra.

Dorodnitsyn, A.↗

NASA NTRS1977

Electron energy distributions in uranium helium mixtures

The high energy portion of the electron energy distribution for mixtures of uranium and helium at 1 atm, 5000 K, and a neutron flux of 2x10 to the 12th power/sq cm-sec have been calculated. The addition of He improves the heat transport characteristics of the plasma and has the feature that the He energy levels lie in the high energy portion of the electron distribution, potentially allowing non maxwellian excitation. It is concluded, however, that the resulting reaction rates are marginal relative to achieving inversion in He.

Makowski, M. A.↗

NASA NTRS1985

The excitation of helium resonance lines in solar flares

Helium resonance line intensities are calculated for a set of six flare models corresponding to two rates of heating and three widely varying incident fluxes of soft X-rays. The differing ionization and excitation equilibria produced by these models, the processes which dominate the various cases, and the predicted helium line spectra are examined. The line intensities and their ratios are compared with values derived from Skylab NRL spectroheliograms for a class M flare, thus determining which of these models most nearly represents the density vs temperature structure and soft X-ray flux in the flaring solar transition region, and the temperature and dominant mechanaism of formation of the helium line spectrum during a flare.

Porter, J. G.↗