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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 361 records · Page 20
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
NASA NTRS1990

Land surface parameterization for regional surface heat transfer in hilly grassland

Radiometrically obtained surface temperature data and wind and temperature data from the atmospheric boundary layer are analyzed to determine the regional surface-heat flux. Monin-Obukhov similarity theory is employed to analyze the wind speed and the relationship between the surface potential temperature and the potential temperature. The radiometric scalar roughness is considered and found to be related to solar elevation and canopy height, although the regional sensible heat flux derived by the similarity theory analysis agrees with measured flux values.

Sugita, Michiaki↗
NASA NTRS1990

A numerical simulation of the microburst phenomenon - Comparison of a discrete and a parameterized microphysical representation

Two versions of a microburst model that differ in how they represent microphysical processes are described and comparison of the numerical solutions is made. This study focuses on how the versions differ in representing the evaporation of raindrops and the differential sedimentation of drops that develops because of their fallspeeds. The two versions are then compared to demonstrate how predicted microburst characteristics are influenced by the choice of microphysical scheme.

Coen, Janice L.↗
NASA NTRS1992

Testing a detailed biophysical parameterization for land-air exchange in a high-resolution boundary-layer model

This study modifies the 1D PBL model of Zhang and Anthes (1982) to account more explicitly for the effects of a vegetation layer. New equations for the latent, sensible, and ground heat fluxes, reformulated in terms of vegetation parameters are substituted into the model. The model produces good agreement with observations over a wide range of conditions: for wet, high-vegetation conditions, and for dry, low-vegetation conditions in both the winter and the summer.

Argentini, S.↗
NASA NTRS1992

Parameterization of asymmetry in magnetoacoustic emission by numerical processes

Two methods for processing the digitized waveform data obtained from magnetoacoustic emission measurements on a high-strength steel are investigated. Two different techniques to obtain an asymmetry parameter are presented. It is shown that the variation in this asymmetry parameter from five embrittled samples and one unembrittled steel sample can be related to the impact toughness and is not dependent on the magnetic field strength. This technique is nondestructive and is shown to determine the normalized impact toughness of a high-strength steel to better than 14 percent in the decade of interest. A comparison of a magnetoacoustic emission burst and pickup coil output from an unembrittled steel sample and an embrittled sample is illustrated.

Birt, E. A.↗
NASA NTRS1992

Semiprognostic tests of the Arakawa-Schubert cumulus parameterization using simulated data

Semiprognostic tests are performed against data simulated by a cumulus ensemble model to evaluate the Arakawa-Schubert (A-S) cumulus parametrization. It is found that the A-S cumulus parametrization is generally valid despite the existence of mesoscale organization in cumulus convection. The nondiagnostic and nondeterministic aspects of the A-S cumulus parametrization are examined by testing the sensitivity of the parametrization to the horizontal grid resolution. It is also shown that the inclusion of convective-scale downdrafts improves the results of semiprognostic tests.

Xu, Kuan-Man↗
NASA NTRS1993

Parameterized study of the ionospheric modification associated with sun-aligned polar cap arcs

The local ionospheric modification that is due to a generalized steady state solar aligned (SA) arc structure is addressed. For a representative set of SA arc parameters which includes both convection and precipitation, emphasis is placed on the modification by SA polar cap arcs upon the F region electron density and the height integrated conductivity. At low fluxes and low characteristic energies, SA polar cap arcs have the most pronounced relative effect at F region altitudes in darkness for winter solar minimum conditions. The absolute enhancement in summer solar minimum and winter solar maximum is equivalent to that of winter solar minimum, but the higher ambient densities make the relative enhancement less. The TEC enhancement associated with an SA arc may be used to indicate the degree of plasma cross flow across the arc.

Crain, D. J.↗
NASA NTRS1992

Parameterization of surface heat fluxes above a forest with satellite thermal sensing

The authors discuss the feasibility of determining the surface flux of sensible heat from forests with surface temperatures measured by satellites together with temperature soundings in the unstable atmospheric boundary layer (ABL). The latent heat flux is derived from the sensible heat flux by means of the energy budget. The study makes use of data collected during HAPEX-MOBILHY (Hydrologic Atmospheric Pilot Experiment-Modelization du Bilan Hydrique). The methodology is based on turbulence similarity for the unstable ABL. The surface temperature data were derived from measurements by the advanced very high resolution radiometer (AVHRR) aboard the NOAA-9 satellite; the atmospheric profiles were obtained by radiosondes.

Brutsaert, Wilfried↗
NASA NTRS1993

Parameterization of subgrid-scale stress by the velocity gradient tensor

The objective of this work is to construct and evaluate subgrid-scale models that depend on both the strain rate and the vorticity. This will be accomplished by first assuming that the subgrid-scale stress is a function of the strain and rotation rate tensors. Extensions of the Caley-Hamilton theorem can then be used to write the assumed functional dependence explicitly in the form of a tensor polynomial involving products of the strain and rotation rates. Finally, use of this explicit expression as a subgrid-scale model will be evaluated using direct numerical simulation data for homogeneous, isotropic turbulence.

Lund, Thomas S.↗
NASA NTRS1990

Physical retrieval of precipitation water contents from Special Sensor Microwave/Imager (SSM/I) data. Part 1: A cloud ensemble/radiative parameterization for sensor response (report version)

The physical retrieval of geophysical parameters based upon remotely sensed data requires a sensor response model which relates the upwelling radiances that the sensor observes to the parameters to be retrieved. In the retrieval of precipitation water contents from satellite passive microwave observations, the sensor response model has two basic components. First, a description of the radiative transfer of microwaves through a precipitating atmosphere must be considered, because it is necessary to establish the physical relationship between precipitation water content and upwelling microwave brightness temperature. Also the spatial response of the satellite microwave sensor (or antenna pattern) must be included in the description of sensor response, since precipitation and the associated brightness temperature field can vary over a typical microwave sensor resolution footprint. A 'population' of convective cells, as well as stratiform clouds, are simulated using a computationally-efficient multi-cylinder cloud model. Ensembles of clouds selected at random from the population, distributed over a 25 km x 25 km model domain, serve as the basis for radiative transfer calculations of upwelling brightness temperatures at the SSM/I frequencies. Sensor spatial response is treated explicitly by convolving the upwelling brightness temperature by the domain-integrated SSM/I antenna patterns. The sensor response model is utilized in precipitation water content retrievals.

Olson, William S.↗
NASA NTRS1993

Joint sessions on moisture processes and cumulus parameterization

The session on measurement/modeling of moisture processes from the proceedings of the Colloquium and Workshop on Multiscale Coupled Modeling is covered. The specific recommendations of the workshop session on the measurement and modeling of moist processes are presented.

Cotton, William↗
NASA NTRS1994

Parameterization and scaling of Arctic ice conditions in the context of ice-atmosphere processes

This report summarizes achievements during year three of our project to investigate the use of ERS-1 SAR data to study Arctic ice and ice/atmosphere processes. The project was granted a one year extension, and goals for the final year are outlined. The specific objects of the project are to determine how the development and evolution of open water/thin ice areas within the interior ice pack vary under different atmospheric synoptic regimes; compare how open water/thin ice fractions estimated from large-area divergence measurements differ from fractions determined by summing localized openings in the pack; relate these questions of scale and process to methods of observation, modeling, and averaging over time and space; determine whether SAR data might be used to calibrate ice concentration estimates from medium and low-rate bit sensors (AVHRR and DMSP-OLS) and the special sensor microwave imager (SSM/I); and investigate methods to integrate SAR data for turbulent heat flux parametrization at the atmosphere interface with other satellite data.

Barry, R. G.↗
NASA NTRS1994

Parameterization of bulk condensation in numerical cloud models

The accuracy of the moist saturation adjustment scheme has been evaluated using a three-dimensional explicit microphysical cloud model. It was found that the error in saturation adjustment depends strongly on the Cloud Condensation Nucleii (CCN) concentration in the ambient atmosphere. The scheme provides rather accurate results in the case where a sufficiently large number of CCN (on the order of several hundred per cubic centimeter) is available. However, under conditions typical of marine stratocumulus cloud layers with low CCN concentration, the error in the amounts of condensed water vapor and released latent heat may be as large as 40%-50%. A revision of the saturation adjustment scheme is devised that employs the CCN concentration, dynamical supersaturation, and cloud water content as additional variables in the calculation of the condensation rate. The revised condensation model reduced the error in maximum updraft and cloud water content in the climatically significant case of marine stratocumulus cloud layers by an order of magnitude.

Kogan, Yefim L.↗
NASA NTRS1998

Parameterizations of Pion Energy Spectrum in Nucleon-Nucleon Collisions

The effects of pion (PI) production are expected to play an important role in radiation exposures in the upper atmosphere or on the Martian surface. Nuclear databases for describing pion production are developed for radiation transport codes to support these studies. We analyze the secondary energy spectrum of pions produced in nucleon-nucleon (NN) collisions in the relativistic one-pion exchange model. Parametric formulas of the isospin cross sections for one-pion production channels are discussed and are used to renormalize the model spectrum. Energy spectra for the deuteron related channels (NN yields dPi) are also described.

Cucinotta, Franics A.↗
NASA NTRS1998

Design, Evaluation and GCM-Performance of a New Parameterization for Microphysics of Clouds with Relaxed Arakawa-Schubert Scheme (McRas)

A prognostic cloud scheme named McRAS (Microphysics of clouds with Relaxed Arakawa-Schubert Scheme) was developed with the aim of improving cloud-microphysics, and cloud-radiation interactions in GCMs. McRAS distinguishes convective, stratiform, and boundary-layer clouds. The convective clouds merge into stratiform clouds on an hourly time-scale, while the boundary-layer clouds do so instantly. The cloud condensate transforms into precipitation following the auto-conversion relations of Sundqvist that contain a parametric adaptation for the Bergeron-Findeisen process of ice crystal growth and collection of cloud condensate by precipitation. All clouds convect, advect, and diffuse both horizontally and vertically with a fully active cloud-microphysics throughout its life-cycle, while the optical properties of clouds are derived from the statistical distribution of hydrometeors and idealized cloud geometry. An evaluation of McRAS in a single column model (SCM) with the GATE Phase III data has shown that McRAS can simulate the observed temperature, humidity, and precipitation without discernible systematic errors. An evaluation with the ARM-CART SCM data in a cloud model intercomparison exercise shows reasonable but not an outstanding accurate simulation. Such a discrepancy is common to almost all models and is related, in part, to the input data quality. McRAS was implemented in the GEOS II GCM. A 50 month integration that was initialized with the ECMWF analysis of observations for January 1, 1987 and forced with the observed sea-surface temperatures and sea-ice distribution and vegetation properties (biomes, and soils), with prognostic soil moisture, snow-cover, and hydrology showed a very realistic simulation of cloud process, incloud water and ice, and cloud-radiative forcing (CRF). The simulated ITCZ showed a realistic time-mean structure and seasonal cycle, while the simulated CRF showed sensitivity to vertical distribution of cloud water which can be easily altered by the choice of time constant and incloud critical cloud water amount regulators for auto-conversion. The CRF and its feedbacks also have a profound effect on the ITCZ. Even though somewhat weaker than observed, the McRAS-GCM simulation produces robust 30-60 day oscillations in the 200 hPa velocity potential. Two ensembles of 4-summer (July, August, September) simulations, one each for 1987 and 1988 show that the McRAS-GCM simulates realistic and statistically significant precipitation differences over India, Central America, and tropical Africa. Several seasonal simulations were performed with McRAS-GEOS II GCM for the summer (June-July- August) and winter (December-January-February) periods to determine how the simulated clouds and CRFs would be affected by: i) advection of clouds; ii) cloud top entrainment instability, iii) cloud water inhomogeneity correction, and (iv) cloud production and dissipation in different cloud-processes. The results show that each of these processes contributes to the simulated cloud-fraction and CRF.

Sud, Y. C.↗
NASA NTRS1998

Cloud Scaling Properties and Cloud Parameterization

Cloud liquid and cloud traction variability is studied as a function of horizontal scale in the ECMWF forecast model during several 10-day runs at the highest available model resolution, recently refined from approximately 60 km (T213) down to approximately 20 km (T639). At higher resolutions, model plane-parallel albedo biases are reduced, so that models may be tuned to have larger, more realistic, cloud liquid water amounts, However, the distribution of cloud liquid assumed -within- each gridbox, for radiative and thermodynamic computations, depends on ad hoc assumptions that are not necessarily consistent with observed scaling properties, or with scaling properties produced by the model at larger scales. To study the larger-scale cloud properties, ten locations on the Earth are chosen to coincide with locations having considerable surface data available for validation, and representing a variety of climatic regimes, scaling exponents are determined from a range or scales down to model resolution, and are re-computed every three hours, separately for low, medium and high clouds, as well as column-integrated cloudiness. Cloud variability fluctuates in time, due to diurnal, synoptic and other' processes, but scaling exponents are found to be relatively stable. various approaches are considered for applying computed cloud scaling to subgrid cloud distributions used for radiation, beyond simple random or maximal overlap now in common use. Considerably more work is needed to compare model cloud scaling with observations. This will be aided by increased availability of high-resolution surface, aircraft and satellite data, and by the increasing resolution of global models,

Cahalan, R. F.↗
NASA NTRS1999

Accurate Universal Parameterization of Absorption Cross Sections: Light Systems - 3

Our prior nuclear absorption cross sections model is extended for light systems (A less than or equal to 4) where either both projectile and target are light particles or one is light particle and the other is medium or heavy nucleus. The agreement with experiment is excellent for these cases as well. Present work in combination with our original model provides a comprehensive picture of absorption cross sections for light, medium and heavy systems. As a result the extended model can reliably be used in all studies "where there is a need for absorption cross sections.

Tripathi, R. K.↗
NASA NTRS1999

Universal Parameterization of Absorption Cross Sections

Our prior nuclear absorption cross sections model is extended for light systems (A less than or equal to 4) where either both projectile and target are light particles or one is a light particle and the other is a medium or heavy nucleus. The agreement with experiment is excellent for these cases as well. Present work in combination with our original model provides a comprehensive picture of absorption cross sections for light, medium, and heavy systems, a very valuable input for radiation protection studies.

Tripathi, R. K.↗