Spatial and temporal characteristics of Rossby waves in the North Pacific from satellite altimetry (abstract)
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In the current National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) budget plan, there exists a new proposed program aimed at opening up the outer solar system to new robotic science missions.
Despite the apparent regularity of planetary motions, the dynamics of the solar system is in reality extremely nonlinear and replete with chaos. The difficulty in detecting this chaos is the long time scale of this dynamics as compared with human observations.
MIRO is a scientific instrument designed for the orbiter of the Rosetta International Mission. It will address the nature of the cometary nucleus, outgassing, and the development of the coma as strongly interrelated aspects of cometary physics. Detailed parameters of the MIRO instrument and the scientific objectives to be met will be discussed. Simulated observations with the MIRO instrument will be shown.
Observations of the Ulysses SWOOPS plasma experiment are used to determine the dependencies of solar wind ion temperatures upon radial distance, speed, and other parameters, and to estimate solar wind heating. Comparisons with three dimensional temperature estimates determined from the ion spectra by a least squares fitting program will be provided (only small samples of data have been reduced with this program).
Prior to the launch of TOPEX/ Poseidon in August 1992, NASA established its primary in situ verification site on the Harvest oil platform located in the Pacific Ocean off the coast of central California. Data from a suite of geodetic and oceanographic instruments attached to the platform have been combined to yield a precise record of absolute sea level simce the beginning of the mission. Critical to the computation of this geocentric sea level record is the precise determination of the platform geodetic height and the vertical velocity in the global terrestrial reference frame.We compare estimates of the platform height and vertical velocity from global positioning system (GPS) data alone and from a combination of GPS and satellite laser ranging (SLR) information. Current estimates suggest the platform is subsiding at a rate of about 8 mm per year. This height information is combined with in situ tide gauge measurements of sea level relative to a platform reference mark in order to produce a continuous record of the local geocentric sea height.
We have examined the ISEE-3 distant tail data during three intense magnetic storms and have identified the tail response to high speed solar wind streams, interplanetary magnetic clouds, and near-Earth storms.
The two distant ISEE-3 geomagnetic tail passes have been examined to identify all slow-mode shocks present in the data. We find a total of 86 events from 439 plasmasheet/lobe crossings, using five criteria based on relations between the upstream lobe and the downstream plasmasheet magnetic field and plasma measurements.
The Alaska SAR Facility (ASF) is currently processing data from four satellites. All of these generate SAR data useful for ice observations and three of them generate data useful for ocean observations. The data sets from these satellites are available to approved US and other investigators although the approval mechanisms are different. More satellites are planned. These will carry SAR instruments of increased capability for ocean and ice observations. We will discuss the anticipated situation for access to these data sets by the scientific community and we will speculate on what the major oceanographic applications may be.
First results are reported from the four.
As part of a program at our laboratory to extend the spectroscopic database of the halogen oxides and oxo-acids which participate in atmospheric ozone chemistry, we have continued the investigations on BrO and HOBr. The rotational spectra for certain states of BrO have been observed for the first time. Observations of other states have been extended.
The Physical Oceanography Distributed Active Archive Center (PO.DAAC) at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory archives and distributes data as part of the Earth Observing System Data and Information System (EOSDIS). Products available from JPL are largely satellite derived and include sea-surface height, surface-wind speed and vectors, integrated water vapor, atmospheric liquid water, sea-surface temperature, heat flux, and in-situ data as it pertains to satellite data. Much of the data is global and spans fourteen years.There is email access, a WWW site, product catalogs, and FTP capabilities. Data is free of charge.
ERS-1 SAR images are examined with the intent of identifying mesoscale oceanic phenomena in the Southern California Bight (SCB). The SCB is a region of dynamic physical and biological processes, and as such has long been studied. The ERS-1 SAR images are augmented with other remote sensing data, including SIR-C SAR, AVHRR, ERS-1 ATSR, and Space Shuttle hand-held photography. Analysis of these images has revealed a more dynamic mesoscale field than was previously suspected. Eddies with scales on the order of 20-30 km in diameter have been the most common mesoscale features evident, but the presence of oceanic fronts and internal waves, as well as atmospheric internal waves, have been documented as well. The multisensor data record will provide insight as to the underlying ocean and meterological conditions that lead to the prevalence especially of the eddies in this region.
Model results indicate that understanding summer heat balance and freshwater balance in the polar oceans requires knowledge of how much goes into vertical and lateral sea ice melt. In addition to thickness, two of the key ice parameters that affect melt rate are ice concentration and floe size. Smaller ice floes and more open water enables more heat to go into lateral melt preferentially to vertical melt, thereby enhancing warming up the upper ocean and increasing stratification. Using ERS-1 SAR imagery along two areas, one in the Beaufort Sea and another in the Chukchi Sea, floe size distributions were obtained during the summer period in 1992. Comparisons will be made of floe distributions, together with meteorological and buoy measurements, to examine the differences between an ice sink region (Chukchi) and a multiyear ice region (Beaufort) in the summer melt process.
The excitation function of prompt Lyman-alpha radiation, produced by electron impact excitation of atomic hydrogen in the energy range from threshold to 1.8 keV, has been measured in a crossed-beam experiment. The present data are significantly different from earlier experimental results and are in good agreement with recent theoretical convergent close coupling calculations over a two order of magnitude range in impact energy. Multistate coupling affecting the excitation function to 1 keV is apparent in both the present experimental and recent theoretical results.