Ray statistics in a random medium with stratified background. Diffusion of rays in random media
Mathematical models of light ray propagation in random media
Liu, C. H.↗
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Middle atmosphere modeling
Breaking gravity waves generate and maintain a background level of turbulence which is capable of producing substantial cooling and/or heating in the upper mesosphere and lower thermosphere. The net thermodynamic effect of breaking gravity waves is critically dependent on the eddy Prandt number (P sub t) applicable to mesospheric turbulence. When P sub t is approximately 1, the calculations of the heat budget for the mesopause region imply that the globally averaged eddy or turbulent diffusion coefficient cannot exceed .000001 sq cm/s. This upper limit on turbulant diffusion applies to both potential temperature transport and chemically inert tracer transport when radiative damping is neglible. For chemically active species larger diffusion coefficients are permitted, because the effective eddy diffusion coefficient is increased by an additive term L/2 gamma (sup 2), where L is the chemical loss rate and gamma is the vertical wavenumber. For P sub t is approximately 4 to 6, the turbulent diffusion of momentum (D sub M) is sufficiently greater than the turbulent diffusion of heat (D sub H) that the conversion of gravity wave energy to heat with high efficiency nearly balances the divergence of the downward eddy heat flux in the wave breaking zone. Therefore the heat budget of the mesopause region would no longer provide a powerful and useful constraint on D sub H. If P sub t exceeds 6 with high efficiency for energy conversion to heat, gravity waves would heat the mesosphere throughout the wave breaking region.
Strobel, D. F.↗
SAS 3 survey of the soft X-ray background
The results of a survey of the soft X-ray sky in the C band (0.10-0.28keV) are reported. The observations were carried out using two independent flow proportional counters on board the SAS 3 X-ray satellite which had a total angular resolution of 2.9 deg FWHM, and a total exposure of 2.2 x 10 to the 4th per sq cm s sr. It is found that C band counting rates were generally inversely correlated with the column density of the neutral hydrogen on all angular scales down to the lowest angular resolution of the detectors. In the region 90-180 deg l and 0-10 deg b, the relation between C-band rates and the column densities of neutral hydrogen was fitted with a residual rms deviation of less than 13 percent by a two-component numerical model of the X-ray background. For the apparent attenuation column density a value of 2.7 x 10 to the 20th per sq cm was obtained. On the basis of a computer simulation of the SAS 3 data, it is shown that the observed clumping of interstellar matter was consistent with the magnitude of spatial fluctuations in the C-band map. When the background rates were subtracted from the survey map, the subsequent map showed foreground emission and absorption features with improved sensitivity and clarity. A series of computer-generated maps incorporating the SAS 3 data is given in an appendix.
Marshall, F. J.↗
On the Relationship of Multiple Solutions in Tropospheric Photochemistry to Observable Phenomena
Multiple steady-state solutions are a fairly robust feature of simplified models of tropospheric photochemistry and have been reported for a range of different modeling assumptions. Multiple solutions occur through a bifurcation as changes in a control parameter induce a transition from low to high NO(x) conditions. The usual control parameters are the sources of NO and of CO, CH4 or non-methane hydrocarbons. Typically, with increasing NO source, bifurcations occur at NO(x). concentrations that are higher than would be expected of even heavily polluted conditions. However, there are other ways of inducing a low NO(x) - high NO(x) transition. In this paper the primary control parameter is solar zenith angle. This is varied throughout the year by computing noontime steady states on successive days. Background NO(x), varied by assuming different NO(x) sources values, is used as a secondary control parameter. It is found that bifurcations can occur from high to low NO(x) conditions, for reasonable background NO(x) levels, as the model progresses through spring and then from low to high NO,, during the progression through fall. A time dependent version of this model has been run for the same parameter values as in the steady state runs. This shows rapid spring and fall transitions between high and low NO(x) states. H2O2, for example, rises from sub-ppb levels to about 2 ppb over a five day period in spring and declines quickly, but less precipitously, in fall. This study supports the suggestions that the rapid change in peroxide concentrations between summer and winter conditions may be understood as a manifestation of different underlying steady-state behavior.
Stewart, Richard W.↗
Electron time dispersion
Observations of electrons during a sounding rocket flight from Sondrestromfjord, Greenland, in 1985 showed numerous instances of electron time-of-flight dispersion, that is, a coherent structure in which fast electrons arrived before slow electrons. The instrumentation measured many pitch angles simultaneously with high time resolution, providing a detailed view of the temporal evolution of the electron signature at rocket altitudes which was indicative of an impulsive injection of electrons over a range of energies. A model utilizing an extended, quasi-static (static on a timescale of 1 s), parallel electric field was developed to investigate a possible mechanism for the injection of these electrons. The model is found to fit the data well only when a background is added which cannot be self-consistently generated by the model, although other parameters used in the model are in general agreement with previous reports. This leads to the conclusion that electron dispersion is more probably generated by a wave acceleration mechanism.
Kletzing, C. A.↗
Testing for the Gaussian nature of cosmological density perturbations through the three-point temperature correlation function
One of the crucial aspects of density perturbations that are produced by the standard inflation scenario is that they are Gaussian where seeds produced by topological defects tend to be non-Gaussian. The three-point correlation function of the temperature anisotropy of the cosmic microwave background radiation (CBR) provides a sensitive test of this aspect of the primordial density field. In this paper, this function is calculated in the general context of various allowed non-Gaussian models. It is shown that the Cosmic Background Explorer and the forthcoming South Pole and balloon CBR anisotropy data may be able to provide a crucial test of the Gaussian nature of the perturbations.
Luo, Xiaochun↗
Assimilation of Atmospheric InfraRed Sounder (AIRS) Profiles using WRF-Var
The Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) model contains a three-dimensional variational (3DVAR) assimilation system (WRF-Var), which allows a user to join data from multiple sources into one coherent analysis. WRF-Var combines observations with a background field traditionally generated using a previous model forecast through minimization of a cost function. In data sparse regions, remotely-sensed observations may be able to improve analyses and produce improved forecasts. One such source comes from the Atmospheric Infrared Sounder (AIRS), which together with the Advanced Microwave Sounding Unit (AMSU), represents one of the most advanced space-based atmospheric sounding systems. The combined AIRS/AMSU system provides radiance measurements used as input to a sophisticated retrieval scheme which has been shown to produce temperature profiles with an accuracy of 1 K over 1 km layers and humidity profiles with accuracy of 15% in 2 km layers in both clear and partly cloudy conditions. The retrieval algorithm also provides estimates of the accuracy of the retrieved values at each pressure level, allowing the user to select profiles based on the required error tolerances of the application. The purpose of this paper is to describe a procedure to optimally assimilate high-resolution AIRS profile data into a regional configuration of the Advanced Research WRF (ARW) version 2.2 using WRF-Var. The paper focuses on development of background error covariances for the regional domain and background field type using gen_be and an optimal methodology for ingesting AIRS temperature and moisture profiles as separate overland and overwater retrievals with different error characteristics in the WRF-Var. The AIRS thermodynamic profiles are obtained from the version 5.0 Earth Observing System (EOS) science team retrieval algorithm and contain information about the quality of each temperature layer. The quality indicators are used to select the highest quality temperature and moisture data for each profile location and pressure level. Analyses are run to produce quasi-real-time regional weather forecasts over the continental U.S. The preliminary assessment of the impact of the AIRS profiles will focus on intelligent use of the quality indicators, optimized tuning of the WRF-Var, and comparison of analysis soundings to radiosondes.
Zavodsky, Brad↗
Remote sensing of ozone in the middle ultraviolet
Earlier studies of the remote sensing of the ozone distribution from satellites in the middle ultraviolet are extended, giving particular attention to the analytic model method. After a brief introduction, the historical background of this subject is presented. This is followed by a summary and review of early work based upon the analytic model. Then a linearized approach to the problem and a linearized equation for a density correction are discussed. These indicate some of the general limitations of the inversion method. Finally the parametrized model approach is reexamined by using both simulated data and some actual satellite data.
Green, A. E. S.↗
A standard satellite control reference model
This paper describes a Satellite Control Reference Model that provides the basis for an approach to identify where standards would be beneficial in supporting space operations functions. The background and context for the development of the model and the approach are described. A process for using this reference model to trace top level interoperability directives to specific sets of engineering interface standards that must be implemented to meet these directives is discussed. Issues in developing a 'universal' reference model are also identified.
Golden, Constance↗
Discrete Rotational Energy for Polyatomic Molecules in Direct Simulation Monte Carlo
The environments experienced by vehicles upon entry into planetary atmospheres generally result in severe aerothermodynamic loading. These flows are characterized by the formation of strong shock waves, behind which high temperatures and non-equilibrium environments are generated, and the accurate prediction of internal energy relaxation and chemical kinetics becomes important. This manuscript focuses on the internal relaxation of the rotational energy of polyatomic molecules. Previous work has described the implementation of a discrete rotational energy model for diatomic molecules (linear rotators). Later, Gimelshein et. al extended this model to include polyatomic molecular internal energies. However, they did not include details on how to generate the particles at equilibrium conditions and centrifugal distortion was not included in their model. The purpose of the present study is to extend the afore-mentioned models to the treatment of discrete rotational energy in polyatomic molecules with the addition of centrifugal distortion. An overview of the background theory needed for the implementation of the model will be given followed by the model itself and verification of the model. For example, sampled versus Boltzmann distributions are compared in Figure 1 for CH3 (oblate rotator – two quantum numbers) and examples of thermal relaxation behavior for linear and non-linear rotators are presented in Figure 2. In addition, comparisons of thermophysical properties will be presented, as well as examples of adiabatic relaxation and application to hypersonic flow.
Rarefied Gas Dynamics↗
Comparison of N2O Emissions from Soils at Three Temperate Agricultural Sites
Nitrous oxide (N2O) flux simulations by four models were compared with year-round field measurements from five temperate agricultural sites in three countries. The field sites included an unfertilized, semi-arid rangeland with low N2O fluxes in eastern Colorado, USA; two fertilizer treatments (urea and nitrate) on a fertilized grass ley cut for silage in Scotland; and two fertilized, cultivated crop fields in Germany where N2O loss during the winter was quite high. The models used were daily trace gas versions of the CENTURY model, DNDC, ExpertN, and the NASA-Ames version of the CASA model. These models included similar components (soil physics, decomposition, plant growth, and nitrogen transformations), but in some cases used very different algorithms for these processes. All models generated similar results for the general cycling of nitrogen through the agro-ecosystems, but simulated nitrogen trace gas fluxes were quite different. In most cases the simulated N20 fluxes were within a factor of about 2 of the observed annual fluxes, but even when models produced similar N2O fluxes they often produced very different estimates of gaseous N loss as nitric oxide (NO), dinitrogen (N2), and ammonia (NH3). Accurate simulation of soil moisture appears to be a key requirement for reliable simulation of N2O emissions. All models simulated the general pattern of low background fluxes with high fluxes following fertilization at the Scottish sites, but they could not (or were not designed to) accurately capture the observed effects of different fertilizer types on N2O flux. None of the models were able to reliably generate large pulses of N2O during brief winter thaws that were observed at the two German sites. All models except DNDC simulated very low N2O fluxes for the dry site in Colorado. The US Trace Gas Network (TRAGNET) has provided a mechanism for this model and site intercomparison. Additional intercomparisons are needed with these and other models and additional data sets; these should include both tropical agro-ecosystems and new agricultural management techniques designed for sustainability.
Frolking, S. E.↗
Extraterrestrial high energy neutrino fluxes
Using the most recent cosmic ray spectra up to 2x10 to the 20th power eV, production spectra of high energy neutrinos from cosmic ray interactions with interstellar gas and extragalactic interactions of ultrahigh energy cosmic rays with 3K universal background photons are presented and discussed. Estimates of the fluxes from cosmic diffuse sources and the nearby quasar 3C273 are made using the generic relationship between secondary neutrinos and gammas and using recent gamma ray satellite data. These gamma ray data provide important upper limits on cosmological neutrinos. Quantitative estimates of the observability of high energy neutrinos from the inner galaxy and 3C273 above atmospheric background for a DUMAND type detector are discussed in the context of the Weinberg-Salam model with sq sin theta omega = 0.2 and including the atmospheric background from the decay of charmed mesons. Constraints on cosmological high energy neutrino production models are also discussed. It appears that important high energy neutrino astronomy may be possible with DUMAND, but very long observing times are required.
Stecker, F. W.↗
A magnetohydrodynamic model for corotating interplanetary structures
A model is developed which treats interplanetary structures as a small-scale incompressible Alfvenic fluctuation superposed on a large-scale background flow, and uses the complete magnetohydrodynamic equations and the full energy equation to describe the interplanetary structures. For steady-state corotating structures the model assumes the background flow to be field aligned, and the nonlinear system is treated as being composed of two subsets: one dealing with the expansion of the solar wind in stream tubes, the other with the interaction between neighboring stream tubes. The expansion subset has a singularity at Parker's critical radius, and the interaction subset has a singularity at the Alfvenic point. Concerning the region where the flow velocity is super-Alfvenic, the characteristic equation is derived, and a general method of numerical solution for the three-dimensional problems based on the characteristics theory is discussed. In addition, a viscous WKB solution of the microscale system is presented.
Whang, Y. C.↗
A New Unsteady Model for Dense Cloud Cavitation in Cryogenic Fluids
Contents include the following: Background on thermal effects in cavitation. Physical properties of hydrogen. Multi-phase cavitation with thermal effect. Solution procedure. Cavitation model overview. Cavitation source terms. New cavitation model. Source term for bubble growth. One equation les model. Unsteady ogive simulations: liquid nitrogen. Unsteady incompressible flow in a pipe. Time averaged cavity length for NACA15 flowfield.
Hosangadi, Ashvin↗
The NuSTAR Extragalactic Surveys: The Number Counts Of Active Galactic Nuclei And The Resolved Fraction Of The Cosmic X-ray Background
We present the 3-8 kiloelectronvolts and 8-24 kiloelectronvolts number counts of active galactic nuclei (AGNs) identified in the Nuclear Spectroscopic Telescope Array (NuSTAR) extragalactic surveys. NuSTAR has now resolved 33 percent -39 percent of the X-ray background in the 8-24 kiloelectronvolts band, directly identifying AGNs with obscuring columns up to approximately 10 (exp 25) per square centimeter. In the softer 3-8 kiloelectronvolts band the number counts are in general agreement with those measured by XMM-Newton and Chandra over the flux range 5 times 10 (exp -15) less than or approximately equal to S (3-8 kiloelectronvolts) divided by ergs per second per square centimeter less than or approximately equal to 10 (exp -12) probed by NuSTAR. In the hard 8-24 kiloelectronvolts band NuSTAR probes fluxes over the range 2 times 10 (exp -14) less than or approximately equal to S (8-24 kiloelectronvolts) divided by ergs per second per square centimeter less than or approximately equal to 10 (exp -12), a factor approximately 100 times fainter than previous measurements. The 8-24 kiloelectronvolts number counts match predictions from AGN population synthesis models, directly confirming the existence of a population of obscured and/or hard X-ray sources inferred from the shape of the integrated cosmic X-ray background. The measured NuSTAR counts lie significantly above simple extrapolation with a Euclidian slope to low flux of the Swift/BAT15-55 kiloelectronvolts number counts measured at higher fluxes (S (15-55 kiloelectronvolts) less than or approximately equal to 10 (exp -11) ergs per second per square centimeter), reflecting the evolution of the AGN population between the Swift/BAT local (redshift is less than 0.1) sample and NuSTAR's redshift approximately equal to 1 sample. CXB (Cosmic X-ray Background) synthesis models, which account for AGN evolution, lie above the Swift/BAT measurements, suggesting that they do not fully capture the evolution of obscured AGNs at low redshifts
nucle↗
A dynamic model of filament eruptions and two ribbon flares
Two basically different models for the filament equilibrium by Kippenhahn and Schluter (1957) and Kuperus and Raadu (1974) have appeared in the literature. A further analyses by van Tend and Kuperus (1978) added the force due to the horizontal component of the background field to the Kuperus and Raadu model. In order to obtain a better model which actually describes these phenomena, the evolution of the filament has to be considered in detail. A first attempt was recently presented by Kaastra. Kaastra did not formulate the precise energy balance equations for the problem, as is done in the present work. In the present model not only the force balance, but also the energy balance of the filament is taken into account. Thus a fully closed system of equations is obtained, that describes the evolution of the filament, first in force equilibrium during the current build-up phase, then in the non-equilibrium phase before the eruption, and the eruption itself. A neutral point appears above the photospheric surface in the non-equilibrium phase, but long before the eruption. It was found that although the filament itself may be in non-equilibrium, the evolution may still be slow up to the height where the eruption takes place. The eruption of the filament itself causes a large induced electric field at the neutral point which leads to the observed flare phenomena.
Kuin, N. Paul M.↗
A dipole moment of the microwave background as a cosmological effect
A spherically symmetrical Tolman-Bondi cosmological model is presented in which the curvature of space and the entropy variety with distance from the center. The dipole and quadrupole moments in the distribution of the microwave background radiation are calculated as a function of cosmic time and position of an observer, assuming that the distance to the horizon is much smaller than any characteristic scale in the model. The quadrupole moment is found to be affected mostly by the gradient in the curvature of space while the dipole moment is dominated by the gradient of entropy. The results indicate that the observed dipole in the microwave background may be cosmological in origin. Observational tests of this argument are suggested.
Paczynski, Bohdan↗
Enhancements to the SSME transfer function modeling code
This report details the results of a one year effort by Ohio University to apply the transfer function modeling and analysis tools developed under NASA Grant NAG8-167 (Irwin, 1992), (Bartholomew, 1992) to attempt the generation of Space Shuttle Main Engine High Pressure Turbopump transfer functions from time domain data. In addition, new enhancements to the transfer function modeling codes which enhance the code functionality are presented, along with some ideas for improved modeling methods and future work. Section 2 contains a review of the analytical background used to generate transfer functions with the SSME transfer function modeling software. Section 2.1 presents the 'ratio method' developed for obtaining models of systems that are subject to single unmeasured excitation sources and have two or more measured output signals. Since most of the models developed during the investigation use the Eigensystem Realization Algorithm (ERA) for model generation, Section 2.2 presents an introduction of ERA, and Section 2.3 describes how it can be used to model spectral quantities. Section 2.4 details the Residue Identification Algorithm (RID) including the use of Constrained Least Squares (CLS) and Total Least Squares (TLS). Most of this information can be found in the report (and is repeated for convenience). Section 3 chronicles the effort of applying the SSME transfer function modeling codes to the a51p394.dat and a51p1294.dat time data files to generate transfer functions from the unmeasured input to the 129.4 degree sensor output. Included are transfer function modeling attempts using five methods. The first method is a direct application of the SSME codes to the data files and the second method uses the underlying trends in the spectral density estimates to form transfer function models with less clustering of poles and zeros than the models obtained by the direct method. In the third approach, the time data is low pass filtered prior to the modeling process in an effort to filter out high frequency characteristics. The fourth method removes the presumed system excitation and its harmonics in order to investigate the effects of the excitation on the modeling process. The fifth method is an attempt to apply constrained RID to obtain better transfer functions through more accurate modeling over certain frequency ranges. Section 4 presents some new C main files which were created to round out the functionality of the existing SSME transfer function modeling code. It is now possible to go from time data to transfer function models using only the C codes; it is not necessary to rely on external software. The new C main files and instructions for their use are included. Section 5 presents current and future enhancements to the XPLOT graphics program which was delivered with the initial software. Several new features which have been added to the program are detailed in the first part of this section. The remainder of Section 5 then lists some possible features which may be added in the future. Section 6 contains the conclusion section of this report. Section 6.1 is an overview of the work including a summary and observations relating to finding transfer functions with the SSME code. Section 6.2 contains information relating to future work on the project.
Irwin, R. Dennis↗