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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 379 records · Page 21
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NASA NTRS2012

Polarization and Compressibility of Oblique Kinetic Alfven Waves

Even though solar wind, as a collisionless plasma, is properly described by the kineticMaxwell-Vlasov description, it can be argued that much of our understanding of solar wind observational data comes from an interpretation and numerical modeling which is based on a fluid description of magnetohydrodynamics. In recent years, there has been a significant interest in better understanding the importance of kinetic effects, i.e. the differences between the kinetic and usual fluid descriptions. Here we concentrate on physical properties of oblique kinetic Alfvn waves (KAWs), which are often recognized as one of the key ingredients in the solar wind turbulence cascade. We use three different fluid models with various degrees of complexity and calculate polarization and magnetic compressibility of oblique KAWs (propagation angle q = 88), which we compare to solutions derived from linear kinetic theory. We explore a wide range of possible proton plasma b = [0.1,10.0] and a wide range of length scales krL = [0.001,10.0]. It is shown that the classical isotropic two-fluid model is very compressible in comparison with kinetic theory and that the largest discrepancy occurs at scales larger than the proton gyroscale. We also show that the two-fluid model contains a large error in the polarization of electric field, even at scales krL 1. Furthermore, to understand these discrepancies between the two-fluid model and the kinetic theory, we employ two versions of the Landau fluid model that incorporate linear low-frequency kinetic effects such as Landau damping and finite Larmor radius (FLR) corrections into the fluid description. It is shown that Landau damping significantly reduces the magnetic compressibility and that FLR corrections (i.e. nongyrotropic contributions) are required to correctly capture the polarization.We also show that, in addition to Landau damping, FLR corrections are necessary to accurately describe the damping rate of KAWs. We conclude that kinetic effects are important even at scales which are significantly larger than the proton gyroscale krL 1.

Turbulence↗
NASA NTRS1971

Oil slick studies using photographic and multispectral scanner data.

Field studies of spills of Nos. 6 (Bunker C), 4, and 2 fuel oils and menhaden fish oil in the southern Chesapeake Bay have been supplemented with aerial photographic and multispectral scanner data. Thin films showed best in ultraviolet and blue bands and thick films in the green. Color film was effective for all thicknesses. Thermal infrared imagery provided clear detection, but required field temperature and thickness data to distinguish thickness/emissivity variations from temperature variations. Slick spreading rates agree with the theory of Fay (1969); further study of spreading is in progress.

Munday, J. C., Jr.↗
NASA NTRS1973

Optical modeling of agricultural fields and rough-textured rock and mineral surfaces

Review was made of past models for describing the reflectance and/or emittance properties of agricultural/forestry and geological targets in an effort to select the best theoretical models. An extension of the six parameter Allen-Gayle-Richardson model was chosen as the agricultural plant canopy model. The model is used to predict the bidirectional reflectance of a field crop from known laboratory spectra of crop components and approximate plant geometry. The selected geological model is based on Mie theory and radiative transfer equations, and will assess the effect of textural variations of the spectral emittance of natural rock surfaces.

Suits, G. H.↗
NASA NTRS1976

Analysis of transonic flow over lifting and oscillating airfoils

Finite element procedures are presented for the numerical solution of transonic flow over lifting and oscillating airfoils based on small disturbance theory. The algorithm is simple and effective in handling the mixed flow problem and, for airfoil in free air, treats the entire flow domain by making use of the far field asymptotic solution. Numerical results are presented and compared with experimental data and those obtained by finite difference relaxation techniques.

Chan, S. T. K.↗
NASA NTRS1982

Fragmentation of interstellar clouds and star formation

The principal issues are addressed: the fragmentation of molecular clouds into units of stellar mass and the impact of star formation on molecular clouds. The observational evidence for fragmentation is summarized, and the gravitational instability described of a uniform spherical cloud collapsing from rest. The implications are considered of a finite pressure for the minimum fragment mass that is attainable in opacity-limited fragmentation. The role of magnetic fields is discussed in resolving the angular momentum problem and in making the collapse anisotropic, with notable consequences for fragmentation theory. Interactions between fragments are described, with emphasis on the effect of protostellar winds on the ambient cloud matter and on inhibiting further star formation. Such interactions are likely to have profound consequences for regulating the rate of star formation and on the energetics and dynamics of molecular clouds.

Silk, J.↗
NASA NTRS1981

The influence of the interplanetary magnetic field and thermal pressure on the position and shape of the magnetopause

An ellipsoidal model, in which the size of an ellipsoid of revolution with a constant eccentricity is inversely proportional to the sixth root of the stream pressure of the solar wind, is used to represent the location of the dayside magnetopause and to study the influences of the interplanetary magnetic field and thermal pressure on its location. The effects of the IMF and thermal pressure on the location of the magnetopause are calculated analytically by using the Chapman-Ferraro theory. The changes in magnetopause size, shape and orientation caused by including the thermal pressure are inversely proportional to the square of the sonic Mach number of the solar wind and are sufficient to explain the observed slight departure of the magnetotail from the expected aberration due to the earth's orbital motion. The results suggest that little angular momentum is being carried away from the sun by the solar wind.

Zhuang, H. C.↗
NASA NTRS1983

Rotor-vortex interaction noise

A theoretical and experimental study is carried out to develop a first-principles analysis for predicting noise generated by helicopter main-rotor shed vortices interacting with the tail rotor. The generalized prediction procedure calls for a knowledge of the incident vortex velocity field, the rotor geometry, and the rotor operating conditions. The analysis encompasses compressibility effects and chordwise and spanwise noncompactness and treats oblique intersections with the blade planform. In assessing the theory, a model rotor experiment which isolates the blade-vortex interaction noise from other rotor noise mechanisms is conducted. An isolated tip vortex, generated by an upstream semispan airfoil, is convected into the model rotor, and acoustic spectra, pressure signatures, and directivity are measured. Ingestion of the vortex by the rotor is experimentally observed to generate harmonic noise and impulsive waveforms.

Schlinker, R. H.↗
NASA NTRS1986

Jet shielding of jet noise

An experimental and theoretical study was conducted to develop a validated first principle analysis for predicting the jet noise reduction achieved by shielding one jet exhaust flow with a second, closely spaced, identical jet flow. A generalized fuel jet noise analytical model was formulated in which the acoustic radiation from a source jet propagates through the velocity and temperature discontinuity of the adjacent shielding jet. Input variables to the prediction procedure include jet Mach number, spacing, temperature, diameter, and source frequency. Refraction, diffraction, and reflection effects, which control the dual jet directivity pattern, are incorporated in the theory. The analysis calculates the difference in sound pressure level between the dual jet configuration and the radiation field based on superimposing two independent jet noise directivity patterns. Jet shielding was found experimentally to reduce noise levels in the common plane of the dual jet system relative to the noise generated by two independent jets.

Simonich, J. C.↗
NASA NTRS1989

Local intensity adaptive image coding

The objective of preprocessing for machine vision is to extract intrinsic target properties. The most important properties ordinarily are structure and reflectance. Illumination in space, however, is a significant problem as the extreme range of light intensity, stretching from deep shadow to highly reflective surfaces in direct sunlight, impairs the effectiveness of standard approaches to machine vision. To overcome this critical constraint, an image coding scheme is being investigated which combines local intensity adaptivity, image enhancement, and data compression. It is very effective under the highly variant illumination that can exist within a single frame or field of view, and it is very robust to noise at low illuminations. Some of the theory and salient features of the coding scheme are reviewed. Its performance is characterized in a simulated space application, the research and development activities are described.

Huck, Friedrich O.↗
NASA NTRS1988

Shapes of star-gas waves in spiral galaxies

Density-wave profile shapes are influenced by several effects. By solving viscous fluid equations, the nonlinear effects of the gas and its gravitational interaction with the stars can be analyzed. The stars are treated through a linear theory developed by Lin and coworkers. Short wavelength gravitational forces are important in determining the gas density profile shape. With the inclusion of disk finite thickness effects, the gas gravitational field remains important, but is significantly reduced at short wavelengths. Softening of the gas equation of state results in an enhanced response and a smoothing of the gas density profile. A Newtonian stress relation is marginally acceptable for HI gas clouds, but not acceptable for giant molecular clouds.

Lubow, Stephen H.↗
NASA NTRS1989

The inverse gravimetric problem in gravity modelling

One of the main purposes of geodesy is to determine the gravity field of the Earth in the space outside its physical surface. This purpose can be pursued without any particular knowledge of the internal density even if the exact shape of the physical surface of the Earth is not known, though this seems to entangle the two domains, as it was in the old Stoke's theory before the appearance of Molodensky's approach. Nevertheless, even when large, dense and homogeneous data sets are available, it was always recognized that subtracting from the gravity field the effect of the outer layer of the masses (topographic effect) yields a much smoother field. This is obviously more important when a sparse data set is bad so that any smoothing of the gravity field helps in interpolating between the data without raising the modeling error, this approach is generally followed because it has become very cheap in terms of computing time since the appearance of spectral techniques. The mathematical description of the Inverse Gravimetric Problem (IGP) is dominated mainly by two principles, which in loose terms can be formulated as follows: the knowledge of the external gravity field determines mainly the lateral variations of the density; and the deeper the density anomaly giving rise to a gravity anomaly, the more improperly posed is the problem of recovering the former from the latter. The statistical relation between rho and n (and its inverse) is also investigated in its general form, proving that degree cross-covariances have to be introduced to describe the behavior of rho. The problem of the simultaneous estimate of a spherical anomalous potential and of the external, topographic masses is addressed criticizing the choice of the mixed collection approach.

Sanso, F.↗
NASA NTRS1990

Numerical simulation of particle-wave interaction in boundary layers

The effects of wall injection and particle motion on the spatial stability of two-dimensional plane channel flow are investigated. For this purpose, an accurate Navier-Stokes solver to simulate the space-time evolution of disturbances in three-dimensional flows has been developed. The code is operational on the NASA Langley CRAY2 and can be ported to any other supercomputer. The code has been tested extensively in tracking the spatial evolution of two-dimensional disturbances in plane channel flow and provided excellent agreement with the linear theory including at the inflow/outflow boundaries. Preliminary calculations have been performed to investigate the effects of stationary and moving sources of vortical disturbances simulating a particle traveling in the flow field. Results suggest that even at very low amplitudes, vortical disturbances act as amplifiers on the Tollmien-Schlichting waves promoting rapid instability. It is also found that slow moving particles are more dangerous than both stationary and fast moving particles for the same disturbance levels.

Biringen, S.↗
NASA NTRS1993

Clumpy Langmuir waves in type III radio sources - Comparison of stochastic-growth theory with observations

Detailed comparisons are made between the Langmuir-wave properties predicted by the recently developed stochastic-growth theory of type III sources and those observed by the plasma wave experiment on ISEE 3, after correcting for the main instrumental and selection effects. Analysis of the observed field-strength distribution confirms the theoretically predicted form and implies that wave growth fluctuates both spatially and temporally in sign and magnitude, leading to an extremely clumpy distribution of fields. A cutoff in the field-strength distribution is seen at a few mV/m, corresponding to saturation via nonlinear effects. Analysis of the size distribution of Langmuir clumps yields results in accord with those obtained in earlier work and with the size distribution of ambient density fluctuations in the solar wind. This confirms that the inhomogeneities in the Langmuir growth rate are determined by the density fluctuations and that these fluctuations persist during type III events.

Robinson, P. A.↗
NASA NTRS1993

Rotational effects on convection simulated at different latitudes

We simulate numerically convection inside the solar convection zone under the influence of rotation at different latitudes. The computational domain is a small rectangular box with stress-free upper and lower boundaries, and with periodicity assumed in the lateral directions. We study the transport of angular momentum, which is important for the generation of differential rotation. The sign and the latitudinal dependence of the horizontal Reynolds stress component turn out to be in good agreement with correlation measurements of sunspot proper motions and with predictions from the theory of the Lambda effect. We also investigate the other components of the Reynolds stress as well as the eddy heat flux tensor, both of which are needed in mean field models of differential rotation.

Pulkkinen, Pentti↗
NASA NTRS1994

The Molecular Structure of cis-FONO

The molecular structure of cis-FONO has been determined with the CCSD(T) correlation method using an spdf quality basis set. In agreement with previous coupled-cluster calculations but in disagreement with density functional theory, cis-FONO is found to exhibit normal bond distances. The quadratic and cubic force fields of cis-FONO have also been determined in order to evaluate the effect of vibrational averaging on the molecular geometry. Vibrational averaging is found to increase bond distances, as expected, but it does not affect the qualitative nature of the bonding. The CCSD(T)/spdf harmonic frequencies of cis-FONO support our previous assertion that a band observed at 1200 /cm is a combination band (upsilon(sub 3) + upsilon(sub 4)), and not a fundamental.

Lee, Timothy J.↗
NASA NTRS2020

Fluorescence Correction Vegetation Index (FCVI): A physically based reflectance index to separate physiological and non-physiological information in far-red sun-induced chlorophyll fluorescence

Sun-induced chlorophyll fluorescence (SIF) has been used to track vegetation photosynthetic activity for improving estimation of gross primary productivity (GPP) and detecting plant stress. There are both physical and physiological controls of SIF measured at the surface and retrieved from remote sensing including satellite observations. In order to accurately use SIF for monitoring of plant physiology, the effects of physically-based radiation processes related to leaf and canopy structure, notably photosynthetically active radiation (PAR) absorption and SIF scattering and re-absorption, must be characterized. In this study, we investigate both PAR absorption and SIF scattering processes and find that although it is difficult to quantify their effects individually by using just reflectance, the combined effects of the two processes can be well approximated by a reflectance index. This index, referred to as FCVI (Fluorescence Correction Vegetation Index), is defined as the difference between near-infrared (NIR) and broad-band visible (VIS, 400–700 nm) reflectance acquired under identical sun-canopy-observer geometry of the SIF measurements. The development of the index was based on the physical connection between reflectance and far-red SIF, which was revealed by using the spectral invariant theory. The utility of FCVI to correct far-red SIF for PAR absorption and scattering effects, thus improving the link to photosynthesis, was tested with data from: (i) a field experiment for a growing season; and (ii) a numerical experiment which included a number of scenarios generated by a radiative transfer model. For both the observations and simulations, the FCVI provided a promising estimate of the impact of the physically-based radiation processes on far-red SIF of moderately dense canopies (i.e., FCVI ≥ 0.18). Normalizing the TOC far-red SIF by both the incident PAR (iPAR) and the FCVI provided a good estimate of the far-red fluorescence emission efficiency of the canopies examined. This approach enhances our ability to generalize retrievals for vegetation processes as they change through natural growth phases and seasons. Taken together, far-red SIF and FCVI may enable the assessment of the light partitioning of vegetation canopies, an essential step to facilitate the use of far-red SIF for tracking physiological processes.

Peiqi Yang↗
NASA NTRS1980

The effect of finite turbulence spatial scale on the amplification of turbulence by a contracting stream

The turbulence downstream of a rapid contraction is calculated for the case when the turbulence scale can have the same magnitude as the mean-flow spatial scale. The approach used is based on the formulation of Goldstein (1978) for turbulence downstream of a contraction, with the added assumptions of a parallel mean flow at downstream infinity and turbulence calculated far enough downstream so that the nonuniformity of the mean flow field has decayed, and by treating the inverse contraction ratio as a small parameter. Consideration is given to the large-contraction-ratio and classical rapid-distortion theory limits, and to results at an arbitrary contraction ratio. It is shown that the amplification effect of the contraction is reduced when the spatial scale of the turbulence increases, with the upstream turbulence actually suppressed for a contraction ratio less than five and a turbulence spatial scale greater than three times the transverse dimensions of the downstream channel.

Goldstein, M. E.↗