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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 325 records · Page 18
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
NASA NTRS1975

Cosmic ray intensity gradients in the solar system

Recent progress in the determination of cosmic-ray intensity gradients is reviewed. Direct satellite measurements of the integral gradient are described together with various types of indirect measurements, including measurements of the Ar-37/Ar-39 ratio in samples from the Lost City meteorite, studies of anisotropies in neutron-monitor counting rates, and analysis of the sidereal diurnal anisotropy observed at a single point on earth. Nucleonic radial gradients and electron gradients measured by satellites in differential energy windows are discussed, and theoretical studies of the physical processes involved in these gradients are summarized. Observations of intensity gradients in heliographic latitude are reported.

Mckibben, R. B.↗
NASA NTRS1988

Radii, shapes, and topography of the satellites of Uranus from limb coordinates

The present use of limb coordinates to ascertain radii, shape and local topographic characteristics for the five large Uranian satellites directly measured satellite ellipsoidal shapes, determining radii with subpixel accuracy. While Umbriel, Titania, and Oberon are spherical, Miranda and Ariel are noted to be ellipsoids whose equatorial bulges agree with previously determined mean densities. Miranda's topography exhibits substantial deformation of cratered terrain and the younger coronae, as well as uplift and complex faulting at coronae margins.

Thomas, P. C.↗
NASA NTRS1989

Basic properties of developed wind waves and their influence on microwave remote sensing signatures

Error trends in wind speed measurements by satellite scatterometer altimeter and microwave radiometer are shown to be correlated with the degree of wave development. These errors are analyzed theoretically by studying the rms wave slope which, directly or indirectly, affects all microwave signatures. For equilibrium sea state, the influence of spectrum parameters on the wave slope is reviewed. In well-developed seas, the dominant wavelength is shown to have no effect on the slope. Temporal-spatial rates of steep and breaking waves are derived and compared with field observations. The inner scale that determines a rapid falloff of spectral density function at high frequencies is estimated. The dependence of the spectral parameters on wind speed and sea maturity is studied using NOAA buoy observations. It is concluded that the removal of environmental error trends from satellite measurements can be best accomplished by a joint processing of microwave returns from several independent instruments.

Glazman, Roman E.↗
NASA NTRS1991

The great Chinese fire of 1987 - A view from space

One of the largest forest fires ever recorded burned in the People's Republic of China (PRC) and the Soviet Union in May 1987. The fire covered over 1.0 million hectares in the PRC and almost 4 million hectares in the Soviet Union. The progress and areal extent of the fire were measured using satellite images analyzed in the imaging facilities at NASA-Langley and Forestry Canada. The analyses show the utility and value of satellite measurements to assess the areal extent and geographical distribution of fires, and have important implications for future measurements to be obtained from space platforms, such as the Earth Observing System.

Cahoon, Donald R., Jr.↗
NASA NTRS1992

Effects of temperature-dependent molecular absorption coefficients on the thermal infrared remote sensing of the earth surface

The effect of temperature-dependent molecular absorption coefficients on thermal infrared spectral signatures measured from satellite sensors is investigated by comparing results from the atmospheric transmission and radiance codes LOWTRAN and MODTRAN and the accurate multiple scattering radiative transfer model ATRAD for different atmospheric profiles. The sensors considered include the operational NOAA AVHRR and two research instruments planned for NASA's Earth Observing System (EOS): MODIS-N (Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectrometer-Nadir-Mode) and ASTER (Advanced Spaceborne Thermal Emission and Reflection Radiometer). The difference in band transmittance is as large as 6 percent for some thermal bands within atmospheric windows and more than 30 percent near the edges of these atmospheric windows. The effect of temperature-dependent molecular absorption coefficients on satellite measurements of sea-surface temperature can exceed 0.6 K. Quantitative comparison and factor analysis indicate that more accurate measurements of molecular absorption coefficients and better radiative transfer simulation methods are needed to achieve SST accuracy of 0.3 K, as required for global numerical models of climate, and to develop land-surface temperature algorithms at the 1-K accuracy level.

Wan, Zhengming↗
NASA NTRS1994

Inference of subsurface thermohaline structure from fields measurable by satellite

Satellites now provide global measurements of the ocean's surface height and temperature. Ocean climatologies for the northwest Pacific and northwest Atlantic Oceans that relate sea surface height, sea surface temperature, day of the year, latitude, and longitude to temperature and salinity profiles were produced using least-squares regression. These analyses use over 33,000 profiles of historical temperature and salinity data and are considerably streamlined and compacted by expressing each profile in terms of empirical orthogonal functions. Evaluations and error analyses of the climatologies, including a comparison to the navy's Generalized Digital Environmental Model, were performed and differences between the regions are discussed. Two sample vertical sections are shown to be closely reproduced with the climatologies. Climatologies based on surface height and temperature are found to offer considerable improvement over climatologies based only on position.

Carnes, Michael R.↗
NASA NTRS1984

Phase 2 development of Great Lakes algorithms for Nimbus-7 coastal zone color scanner

A series of experiments have been conducted in the Great Lakes designed to evaluate the application of the NIMBUS-7 Coastal Zone Color Scanner (CZCS). Atmospheric and water optical models were used to relate surface and subsurface measurements to satellite measured radiances. Absorption and scattering measurements were reduced to obtain a preliminary optical model for the Great Lakes. Algorithms were developed for geometric correction, correction for Rayleigh and aerosol path radiance, and prediction of chlorophyll-a pigment and suspended mineral concentrations. The atmospheric algorithm developed compared favorably with existing algorithms and was the only algorithm found to adequately predict the radiance variations in the 670 nm band. The atmospheric correction algorithm developed was designed to extract needed algorithm parameters from the CZCS radiance values. The Gordon/NOAA ocean algorithms could not be demonstrated to work for Great Lakes waters. Predicted values of chlorophyll-a concentration compared favorably with expected and measured data for several areas of the Great Lakes.

Tanis, Fred J.↗
NASA NTRS1986

Observations of low-energy ions in the wake of a magnetospheric satellite

Measurements of low-energy ions made by the retarding ion mass spectrometer (RIMS) onboard the Dynamics Explorer 1 (DE 1) satellite are used to study some aspects of 'body-plasma interactions' in the terrestrial plasmasphere. Preliminary results are presented, yielding the degree of H+ and He+ ion depletion in the wake of the satellite in terms of specific and average ion Mach numbers, average ion mass, body size normalized to ionic Debye length, and body potential normalized to ion thermal energy. Some results from the RIMS measurements are compared with relevant results from the Explorer 31 and the Atmosphere Explorer C ionospheric satellites. Wake depletion is found to vary approximately linearly for small bodies (R-sub-Di less than about 12) and exponentially for large bodies (R-sub-Di greater than 50).

Samir, U.↗
NASA NTRS1972

Tests of a procedure for inserting satellite radiance measurements into a numerical circulation model.

Description of experiments designed to test the sensitivity of a new method for retrieving vertical temperature profiles from satellite radiance measurements to the initial guess of temperature distribution. Emphasis is placed on initial guesses of the kind that would be provided by a numerical model of the atmospheric circulation, with the objective of developing a procedure for direct use of satellite radiation measurements as input to a numerical forecasting scheme.

Hogan, J. S.↗
NASA NTRS1976

A study of satellite remote measurements of stratospheric aerosol and gas parameters using the solar occultation technique

Satellite remote measurements of stratospheric aerosol and ozone profiles using the solar occultation approach were analyzed based on the known properties of the atmospheric parameters. Atmospheric refraction effects which are important in this experiment were determined analytically. Different inversion techniques were developed based on inverting simulated irradiance data. It was shown that aerosol and ozone profiles in the stratosphere can be inverted from the irradiance measurements to an accuracy of better than 10 percent.

Chu, W. P.↗
NASA NTRS1990

Comparison of ground and satellite based measurements of the fraction of photosynthetically active radiation intercepted by tall-grass prairie

The fraction, of photosynthetically active radiation absorbed by vegetation, F sub ipar, is an important requirement for estimating vegetation biomass productivity and related quantities. This was an integral part of a large international effort; the First ISLSCP Field Experiment (FIFE). The main objective of FIFE was to study the effects of vegetation on the land atmosphere interactions and to determine if these interactions can be assessed from satellite spectral measurements. The specific purpose of this experiment was to find out how well measurements of F sub ipar relate to ground, helicopter, and satellite based spectral reflectance measurements. Concurrent measurements of F sub ipar and ground, helicopter, and satellite based measurements were taken at 13 tall grass prairie sites in Kansas. The sites were subjected to various combinations of burning and grazing managements.

Demetriades-Shah, T. H.↗
NASA NTRS1977

Orbit design for solar and dual satellite occultation measurements of atmospheric constituents

Two types of satellite-based occultation missions are considered for measuring atmospheric constituents. Nominal cases for each type are presented to demonstrate representative solutions to orbit design problems. For the solar occultation mode, large areas of the globe can be covered during a 1-year mission, but the measurements are limited to local dawn or dusk. For the dual satellite mode, with a laser aboard a second satellite to act as a source, diurnal coverage can be obtained at the expense of more complex systems and mission scenarios. In this mode, orbit pairs are selected which maintain their relative orbit plane geometry while their differing periods drive cyclic patterns of latitude coverage. A simulated 1-year solar occultation mission is used to illustrate one way of analyzing occultation data by averaging measurements within bands of constant latitude.

Brooks, D. R.↗
NASA NTRS1982

Interactive initialization of heat flux parameters for numerical models using satellite temperature measurements

A method for obtaining patterns of moisture availability (and net evaporation) from satellite infrared measurements employs Carlson's boundary layer model and a variety of image processing routines executed by a minicomputer. To test the method with regard to regional scale moisture analyses, two case studies were chosen because of the availability of HCMM data and because of the presence of a large horizontal gradient in antecedent precipitation and crp moisture index. Results show some correlation in both cases between antecedent precipitation and derived moisture availability. Apparently, regional-scale moisture availability patterns can be determined with some degree of fidelity but the values themselves may be useful only in the relative sense and significant to within plus or minus one category of dryness over a range of 4 or 5 categories between absolutely dry and field saturation. Preliminary results suggest that the derived moisture values correlate best with longer-term precipitation totals, suggesting that the infrared temperatures respond more sensitively to a relatively deep substrate layer.

Carlson, T. N.↗
NASA NTRS2005

Spatiotemporal Path-Matching for Comparisons Between Ground- Based and Satellite Lidar Measurements

The spatiotemporal sampling differences between ground-based and satellite lidar data can contribute to significant errors for direct measurement comparisons. Improvement in sample correspondence is examined by the use of radiosonde wind velocity to vary the time average in ground-based lidar data to spatially match coincident satellite lidar measurements. Results are shown for the 26 February 2004 GLAS/ICESat overflight of a ground-based lidar stationed at NASA GSFC. Statistical analysis indicates that improvement in signal correlation is expected under certain conditions, even when a ground-based observation is mismatched in directional orientation to the satellite track.

Berkoff, Timothy A.↗
NASA NTRS2004

Contribution to the Study of Regional Magnetization of Satellite Magnetic Measurement: Magsat, Orsted, and Champ (with Gravity Field)

A discussion of and introduction to satellite-altitude geopotential field studies and their interpretation with emphasis on results from metalliferous regions will be given. The magnetic and gravimetric measurements from satellite altitudes show heterogeneity in deeper parts of the lithosphere. These patterns of magnetic anomalies do not only reveal the largest iron ore deposits such as Kiruna, Sweden, Kursk, Russia, and Banugi, Central African Republic but also linear features indicating structural discontinuities. Changes of magnetic amplitude of these patterns are caused by intersecting transverse fractures localizing magmatism and concentration of metals. In addition satellite altitude data are related to variations in crustal thickness and heat flow. Deep-rooted structural discontinuities, defined by combination of geological and geophysical criteria, with spacing of several hundred kilometers, reveal a quite uniform pattern in the deeper parts of the lithosphere. As these structures provide favorable pathways for the ascent of heat, magmas and ore-forming fluids, their recognition is of crucial importance and can be used in the compilation of a new type of mineral prognosis map. An example from Europe includes a pattern of east west trending structural discontinuities or belts and their junction with the NW-trending Tornqvist-Teisseyre Line. The Upper Silesian-Cracovian Zn-Pb district occurs along one of the latitudinal belts. Leslaw Teper of the University of Silesia has been invited to show the fractures in crystalline basement beneath the sediments hosting the Zn-Pb ores.

Taylor, Patrick T.↗