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NASA NTRS1984

Signatures of the coalescence instability in solar flares

Double sub-peak structures in the quasi periodic oscillations in the time profiles of solar flares in 1980 and 1982 are discussed. Computer simulations of the coalescence instability of two current loops agree with observations of the (widely differing) flares. The simultaneous accelerations of electrons and ions, and the double sub-peak structure in quasi periodic pulses are well explained. The double sub-peak structure is more pronounced when the currents in the two loops are sufficient for fast coalescence to occur. This corresponds to the 1980 flare. When the currents are insufficient for fast coalescence, the double sub-peak structure is less pronounced, as in the 1982 flare. Observations suggest the collision of the two microwave sources for the 1982 event. It is argued that this mechanism is a plausible particle acceleration mechanism in solar flares.

Nakajima, H.↗

NASA NTRS1987

Current loop coalescence model of solar flares

A computer simulation and theoretical study of the physical characteristics of the explosive coalescence of current-carrying loops is presented. Characteristics of the explosive coalescence include a large impulsive increase of the kinetic energies of electrons and ions, the simultaneous heating and acceleration of electrons and ions in high and low energy ranges, and a break in the energy spectra of electrons and ions. A characteristic double subpeak structure is found in the quasi-periodic oscillations found in the time profiles of the solar flares of June 7, 1980 and November 26, 1982 which can be explained in terms of the coalescence instability of two current loops.

Tajima, T.↗

NASA NTRS1989

The role of cometary particle coalescence in chemical evolution

Important prebiotic organic compounds might have been transported to earth in dust or produced in vapor clouds resulting from atmospheric explosions or impacts of comets. These compounds coalesced in the upper atmosphere with particles ejected from craters formed by impacts of large objects. Coalescence during exposure to UV radiation concentrated organic monomers and enhanced formation of oligomers. Continuing coalescence added material to the growing particles and shielded prebiotic compounds from prolonged UV radiation. These particles settled into the lower atmosphere where they were scavenged by rain. Aqueous chemistry and evaporation of raindrops containing monomers in high temperature regions near the earth's surface also promoted continued formation of oligomers. Finally, these oligomers were deposited in the oceans where continued prebiotic evolution led to the most primitive cell. Results of present studies suggest that prebiotic chemical evolution may be an inevitable consequence of impacting comets during the late accretion of planets anywhere in the universe if oceans remained on those planetary surfaces.

Oberbeck, V. R.↗

NASA NTRS1992

The coalescence instability in collisionless plasmas

The process whereby magnetic island structures tend to merge into larger units is known as magnetic island coalescence. This coalescence process is investigated for the case of a collisionless plasma by means of 2D particle simulations. The pairwise merging of a preformed island chain leads to a gentle redistribution of the density and current density profiles. The nonlinear evolution of the collisionless tearing instability in a long system is found to lead to a much more violent coalescence process resulting in the formation of a vacuum X region. This stage is characterized by enhanced growth rates for the long-wavelength modes that exceed the maximum linear tearing growth rate, super-Alfvenic flows away from the reconnection X line, substantial bulk heating in the parallel direction, and the formation of energetic particle tails in the direction of the inductive electric field.

Pritchett, P. L.↗

NASA NTRS1993

Bubble coalescence in magmas

The most important factors governing the nature of volcanic eruptions are the primary volatile contents, the ways in which volatiles exsolve, and how the resulting bubbles grow and interact. In this contribution we assess the importance of bubble coalescence. The degree of coalescence in alkali basalts has been measured using Image Analysis techniques and it is suggested to be a process of considerable importance. Binary coalescence events occur every few minutes in basaltic melts with vesicularities greater than around 35 percent.

Herd, Richard A.↗

NASA NTRS1993

Current loop coalescence studied by 3-D electromagnetic particle code

Solar flare plasma data from the Yohkoh satellite is analyzed. The interactions of current loops were observed in the active regions on the Sun. This observation pointed out the importance of the idea that the solar flare is generated by the coalescence of current loops. The three dimensional electromagnetic particle simulations are to help in understanding the global interaction between two current loops including the evolution of the twist of loops due to instabilities. Associated rapid dynamics of current loop coalescence such as reconnection, shock waves and associated kinetic processes such as energy transfer, acceleration of particles, and electromagnetic emissions are to be studied by the code to complement analytical theories and magnetohydrodynamic simulations of the current loop coalescence. The simulation results show the strong interactions between two current loops, beam and whistler instabilities, and associated parallel and perpendicular particle heating.

Nishikawa, Ken-Ichi↗

NASA NTRS1996

Non-Coalescence Effects in Microgravity

It has been observed experimentally that two drops (or a single drop and a planar surface) of the same liquid can be made to resist coalescence under certain conditions which lead to relative motion of the interfaces. Such relative motion may be brought about through the mechanism of thermocapillarity of forced convection motion of one of the interfaces. Such non-coalescence phenomena have been observed to persist for hours, indicative of the stability of the phenomena. This stability, in turn, implies that such non-coalescence may be put to use in a microgravity environment. One potential application is the development of easily formed, low friction, self-centering bearings for microgravity experimentation.

Neitzel, G. Paul↗

NASA NTRS1997

Non-Coalescence Effects in Microgravity

Non-coalescence of two bodies of the same liquid and the suppression of contact between liquid drops and solid surfaces is being studied through a pair of parallel investigations being conducted at the Georgia Institute of Technology and the Microgravity Research and Support (MARS) Center in Naples, Italy. Both non-coalescence and contact suppression are achieved by exploiting the mechanism of thermocapillary convection to drive a lubricating film of surrounding gas (air) into the space between the two liquid free surfaces (non-coalescence) or between the drop free surface and the solid (contact suppression). Experiments performed to date include flow visualization experiments in both axisymmetric and (nearly) two-dimensional geometries and quantitative measurements of film thickness in the contact-suppression case in both geometries.

Neitzel, G. Paul↗

NASA NTRS1997

Non-Coalescence Effects in Microgravity

Neitzel, G. Paul↗

NASA NTRS1999

Non-Coalescence Effects in Microgravity

Forced non-coalescence between two bodies of the same liquid may be achieved by a variety of means, all of which provide relative tangential motion of the adjacent free-surfaces. This motion serves to provide a lubricating film of the surrounding gas to the gap which prevents the liquid surfaces from coming into contact. One means of forcing non-coalescence is to use thermocapillarity to drive the lubricating film by having the liquids at different temperatures. This paper will examine a number of scenarios of non-coalescence behavior, both qualitatively and quantitatively, and describe some envisioned applications of the phenomenon which may have relevance in both microgravity and terrestrial environments.

Neitzel, G. P.↗

NASA NTRS2010

Viscosity Measurement via Drop Coalescence: A Space Station Experiment

The concept of using low gravity experimental data together with CFD simulations for measuring the viscosity of highly viscous liquids was recently validated on onboard the International Space Station (ISS). A series of microgravity tests were conducted for this purpose on the ISS in July, 2004 and in May of 2005. In these experiments two liquid drops were brought manually together until they touched and were allowed to coalesce under the action of the capillary force alone. The coalescence process was recorded photographically from which the contact radius speed of the merging drops was measured. The liquid viscosity was determined by fitting the measured data with accurate numerical simulation of the coalescence process. Several liquids were tested and for each liquid several drop diameters were employed. Experimental and numerical results will be presented in which the viscosity of several highly viscous liquids were determined using this technique.

Antar, Basil↗

NASA NTRS2012

Search for Gravitational Waves from Low Mass Compact Binary Coalescence in LIGO's Sixth Science Run and Virgo's Science Runs 2 and 3

We report on a search for gravitational waves from coalescing compact binaries using LIGO and Virgo observations between July 7, 2009, and October 20. 2010. We searched for signals from binaries with total mass between 2 and 25 Stellar Mass; this includes binary neutron stars, binary black holes, and binaries consisting of a black hole and neutron star. The detectors were sensitive to systems up to 40 Mpc distant for binary neutron stars, and further for higher mass systems. No gravitational-wave signals were detected. We report upper limits on the rate of compact binary coalescence as a function of total mass. including the results from previous LIGO and Virgo observations. The cumulative 90% confidence rate upper limits of the binary coalescence of binary neutron star, neutron star-black hole, and binary black hole systems are 1.3 x 10(exp -4), 3.1 x 10(exp -5), and 6.4 x 10(exp -6)/cu Mpc/yr, respectively. These upper limits are up to a factor 1.4 lower than previously derived limits. We also report on results from a blind injection challenge.

Abadie, J.↗

NASA NTRS2022

Limitations of Separate Cloud and Rain Categories in Parameterizing Collision-Coalescence for Bulk Microphysics Schemes

Warm rain collision-coalescence has been persistently difficult to parameterize in bulk microphysics schemes. We use a flexible bulk microphysics scheme with bin scheme process parameterizations, called AMP, to investigate reasons for the difficulty. AMP is configured in a variety of ways to mimic bulk schemes and is compared to simulations with the bin scheme upon which AMP is built. We find that an important limitation in traditional bulk schemes is the use of separate cloud and rain categories. When the drop size distribution is instead represented by a continuous distribution, the simulation of cloud-to-rain conversion is substantially improved. We also find large sensitivity to the threshold size to distinguish cloud and rain in traditional schemes; substantial improvement is found by decreasing the threshold from 40 to 25 μm. Neither the use of an assumed functional form for the size distribution nor the choice of predicted distribution moments has a large impact on the ability of AMP to simulate rain production. When predicting four total moments of the liquid drop size distribution, either with a traditional two-category, two-moment scheme with a reduced size threshold, or a four-moment single-category scheme, errors in the evolution of mass and the cloud size distribution are similar, but the single-category scheme has a substantially better representation of the rain size distribution. Optimal moment combinations for the single-category approach are investigated and appear to be linked more to the information content they provide for constraining the size distributions than to their correlation with collision-coalescence rates.

autoconversion↗

NASA NTRS1984

Coalescence of two pressure waves associated with stream interactions

An MHD unsteady 1-D model is used to simulate the interaction and coalescence of two pressure waves in the outer heliosphere. Each of the two pressure waves was a compression region bounded by a shock pair. Computer simulation using Voyager data as input demonstrates the interaction and coalescence process involving one pressure wave associated with a fast stream and the other pressure wave without a fast stream. The process produced a significant change in the magnetic field and plasma signatures. The propagation of the forward and reverse shocks first widened the radial dimension of the shock compression region with increasing heliocentric distances. The shocks belonging to two neighboring compression regions eventually collided and two compression regions began to overlap with each other. This type of interaction is a dominant dynamical process in the outer heliosphere, and significantly and irreversible alters the structure of the medium.

Whang, Y. C.↗

NASA NTRS1985

Coalescence of two pressure waves associated with stream interactions

Whang, Y. C.↗

NASA NTRS1985

The coalescence instability in solar flares

The nonlinear coalescence instability of current carrying solar loops can explain many of the characteristics of the solar flares such as their impulsive nature, heating and high energy particle acceleration, amplitude oscillations of electromagnetic and emission as well as the characteristics of two-dimensional microwave images obtained during a flare. The plasma compressibility leads to the explosive phase of loop coalescence and its overshoot results in amplitude oscillations in temperatures by adiabatic compression and decompression. It is noted that the presence of strong electric fields and super-Alfvenic flows during the course of the instability play an important role in the production of nonthermal particles. A qualitative explanation on the physical processes taking place during the nonlinear stages of the instability is given.

Tajima, T.↗

NASA NTRS1986

Explosive coalescence of magnetic islands

Simulation results from both the EM collisionless particle code and the MHD particle code reveal an explosive reconnection process associated with nonlinear evolution of the coalescence instability. The explosive coalescence is a self-similar process of magnetic collapse, and ensuing amplitude oscillations in the magnetic and electrostatic energies and temperatures are modeled by an equation of motion for the scale factor in the Sagdeev potential. This phenomenon may explain the rapid energy release of a certain class of solar flares during their impulsive phase.

Tajima, T.↗

NASA NTRS1990

Modeling of collision and coalescence of droplets during microgravity processing of Zn-Bi immiscible alloys

A population balance model is presented for the coarsening of the dispersed phase of liquid-liquid two-phase mixtures in microgravity due to gravity sedimentation and Marangoni migration, which lead to the collision and coalescence of droplets. The model is used to predict the evolution of the size distribution of the dispersed phase in a liquid-phase miscibility gap system, Zn-Bi, which has been used in a number of experimental microgravity processing studies in which significant phase segregation has been observed. The analysis shows that increasing the temperature gradient, gravity level, volume fraction of the dispersed phase, initial average drop radius, initial standard deviation of droplet radii, or the temperature coefficient of the interfacial tension leads to an increase in the rate of droplet growth due to collision and coalescence. Comparison of the distribution evolutions for unimodal and bimodal initial distributions shows that the latter yield significantly more rapid droplet growth. Finally, it is shown that droplet growth can be dramatically reduced with antiparallel orientation of the gravity vector and the temperature gradient, provided that the relative magnitude of these two vectors is properly chosen.

Davis, R. H.↗