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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 469 records · Page 26
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
NASA NTRS1977

A low-cost system for reception and processing of line-scan data from LANDSAT and other sources

A low-cost transportable earth resources ground station was built in Canada and installed to operational status at Shoe Cove, Newfoundland. The system concepts developed for this station provide timely availability of data in both photographic and digital form. The system was designed with several objectives in mind: (1) to provide a system which could receive, store and process line-scan image data from a wide variety of satellites, most especially the LANDSAT and NOAA (VHRR) series, as well as aircraft scanner data, and data from future remote sensing and meteorological satellites; (2) the system has been designed to be operated by a small staff and to produce black and white images and computer-compatible tapes (CCT's) of all relevant data; (3) the system is compact in its physical design so that it is possible to configure it as a self-contained ground station, housed in a 3 x 12 meter trailer; (4) the system is designed to process all data at real-time rates or better and is designed in a modular fashion so that it can be easily upgraded to do further processing of the data, and/or to handle new satellites and sensors.

Sloan, D. S.↗
NASA NTRS1993

High-resolution Y-axis readout for delay-line microchannel anodes

We have devised a method to obtain a high-resolution Y-axis event position determination from microchannel plate delay-line detectors. The method is based on the double-delay-line wedge-wedge charge partition principle of Lampton et al. (1990), where the X axis is read out by a pair of side-by-side delay lines and the Y-axis coordinate is determined by comparing the charges on the two parallel delay lines. However, our new method abandons the common field return path of the two delay lines, and splits them into two adjacent but independent transformer coupled timing circuits having no common ground connection except via the charge-measurement amplifiers. Thus we eliminate the large electrostatic capacitance of the delay lines from the input of the charge-measuring system. Over its limited working field, the spatial resolution in the Y coordinate can easily equal the resolution provided in the X coordinate by the delay line. Applications to extreme and FUV photon-counting spectroscopy are envisioned.

Raffanti, R.↗
NASA NTRS1989

Laser gain on 3p-3d and 3s-3p transitions and X-ray line ratios for the nitrogen isoelectronic sequence

Results are presented on calculations of the 72 levels belonging to the 2s(2)2p(3), 2s2p(4), 2p(5), 2s(2)2p(2)3s, 2s(2)2p(2)3p, and 2s(2)2p(2)3d configurations of the N I isoelectronic sequence for the ions Ar XII, Ti XVI, Fe XX, Zn XXIV, and Kr XXX, for electron densities up to 10 to the 24th/cu cm. It was found that large population inversions and gain occur between levels in the 2s(2)2p(2)3p configuration and levels in the 2s(2)2p(2)3d configuration that cannot decay to the ground configuration by an electric dipole transition. For increasing electron densities, the intensities of the X-ray transitions from the 2s(2)2p(2)3p configuration to the ground configuration decrease relative to the transitions from the 2s(2)2p(2)3s and 2s(2)2p(2)3d configurations to the ground configuration. The density dependence of these X-ray line ratios is presented.

Feldman, U.↗
NASA NTRS1983

Dielectronic recombination rates, ionization equilibrium, and radiative emission rates for Mn ions in low-density high-temperature plasmas

The analysis of optically-thin far-ultraviolet and X-ray emission lines of multiply-charged ions is one of the basic methods for determining the temperatures and densities of laboratory and astrophysical plasmas. In addition, the energy balance in these plasmas can be significantly influenced by the emission of radiation from relatively low concentrations of multiple-charged atomic ions. Because the populations of the excited levels are expected to depart substantially from their local thermodynamic equilibrium values a detailed treatment of the elementary collisional and radiative processes must be employed in order to predict the emission line intensities. In this investigation the authors present the results of calculations based on a corona equilibrium model in which a detailed evaluation is made of the dielectronic recombination rate coefficients. The ionization and autoionization following inner-shell electron excitation from each ground state are balanced by direct radiative and dielectronic recombination. The spectral line intensities emitted by the low-lying excited states, which are assumed to undergo spontaneous radiative decay in times that are short compared with the collision time, are evaluated in terms of the corona ionization equilibrium distributions of the ground states and their electron-impact excitation states.

Jacobs, V. L.↗
NASA NTRS1995

Analysis of three-dimensional-cavity-backed aperture antennas using a Combined Finite Element Method/Method of Moments/Geometrical Theory of Diffraction technique

A combined finite element method (FEM) and method of moments (MoM) technique is presented to analyze the radiation characteristics of a cavity-fed aperture in three dimensions. Generalized feed modeling has been done using the modal expansion of fields in the feed structure. Numerical results for some feeding structures such as a rectangular waveguide, circular waveguide, and coaxial line are presented. The method also uses the geometrical theory of diffraction (GTD) to predict the effect of a finite ground plane on radiation characteristics. Input admittance calculations for open radiating structures such as a rectangular waveguide, a circular waveguide, and a coaxial line are shown. Numerical data for a coaxial-fed cavity with finite ground plane are verified with experimental data.

Reddy, C. J.↗
NASA NTRS1999

Plasma Waves Observed During CUSP Energetic Particle Events and Their Correlation With Polar and Akebono Satellite and Ground Data

We present Polar plasma wave data during cusp energetic particle (CEP) events at 6-9 R(sub E). These data suggest the presence of coherent electrostatic structures that are highly localized and that have typical velocities on the order of hundreds to thousands of kilometers per second along the ambient magnetic field. Some of the wave signatures are solitary waves and some are wave packets. The Polar wave instrument also provides evidence that some of the bursts of electromagnetic waves (with frequencies of a few hundred Hz and just below the electron cyclotron frequency around 800 Hz to 1-2 kHz) that are observed are coher&nt and propagating both up and down the field lines. Electron cyclotron harmonic (ECH) waves are often detected but their duration is usually short (less than 1 second). Low Frequency (less than 1 kHz), broadband, bursty electromagnetic waves are also present. The Polar wave data results are used to obtain a better understanding of the macro/microphysics during a CEP event that takes place on September 11, 1996, by correlating various Polar (approximately 7.0 R(sub E)) and Akebono (approximately 1.4 R(sub E)) data while both spacecraft are in or near the cusp/cleft region and nearly on the same field line, and magnetometer data from the Canadian Intermagnet and Canopus ground stations, which lie near the base of the magnetic footprint passing through Polar. Solar wind and magnetic field data from the interplanetary medium and magnetosheath are provided by the Geotail and IMP-8 satellites, respectively. Some of the cusp waves may be indicators of the reconnection process taking place through the cusp, the result of mixing of magnetosheath with magnetospheric plasma, and the consequence of an anisotropic electron population in a depressed magnetic field. The low frequency electromagnetic waves are still under study to determine their role, if any, in the heating and acceleration of the MeV He ions during CEP events.

Pickett, J. S.↗
NASA NTRS1982

Merging LANDSAT Derived Land Covers into Quad-referenced Geographic Information Systems

An approach for merging multiscene LANDSAT data bases into existing geographic information systems having 5-second or smaller cells is described. The approach uses the output from the State of Maryland's UNIVAC 1180-based LANDSAT classification program ASTEP (Algorithm Simulation Test and Evaluation) developed by NASA. The structure of the technique was designed to address the problems that emerged as part of the LANDSAT classification of the 64,000 square mile Chesapeake water shed involving twelve scenes. The removal of overlap among adjacent scenes, the crossreferencing of ground control points, and the isolation of the appropriate pixels from the LANDSAT data base for subsequent positioning into a file containing ancillary data referenced to a specific USGS 7 1/2 minute quadrangle sheet are described. Examples illustrate the clustering of classified LANDSAT pixels to define the dominant land use for each of 8,100 cells within a series of quadrangle sheets distributed over the State of Maryland. The approach uses a hard copy terminal tied to an ASTEP algorithm through telephone lines. A coordinate digitizing board for inputing the position of ground control points is also valuable, although manual measurements are possible. The approach is quite efficient and should be especially attractive for use on regional scale studies.

White, J. M.↗
NASA NTRS2011

Getting around Antarctica: New High-Resolution Mappings of the Grounded and Freely-Floating Boundaries of the Antarctic Ice Sheet Created for the International Polar Year

Two ice-dynamic transitions of the Antarctic ice sheet - the boundary of grounded ice features and the freely-floating boundary - are mapped at 15-m resolution by participants of the International Polar Year project ASAID using customized software combining Landsat-7 imagery and ICESat/GLAS laser altimetry. The grounded ice boundary is 53 610 km long; 74% abuts to floating ice shelves or outlet glaciers, 19% is adjacent to open or sea-ice covered ocean, and 7% of the boundary ice terminates on land. The freely-floating boundary, called here the hydrostatic line, is the most landward position on ice shelves that expresses the full amplitude of oscillating ocean tides. It extends 27 521 km and is discontinuous. Positional (one-sigma) accuracies of the grounded ice boundary vary an order of magnitude ranging from +/- 52m for the land and open-ocean terminating segments to +/- 502m for the outlet glaciers. The hydrostatic line is less well positioned with errors over 2 km. Elevations along each line are selected from 6 candidate digital elevation models based on their agreement with ICESat elevation values and surface shape inferred from the Landsat imagery. Elevations along the hydrostatic line are converted to ice thicknesses by applying a firn-correction factor and a flotation criterion. BEDMAP-compiled data and other airborne data are compared to the ASAID elevations and ice thicknesses to arrive at quantitative (one-sigma) uncertainties of surface elevations of +/-3.6, +/-9.6, +/-11.4, +/-30 and +/-100m for five ASAID-assigned confidence levels. Over one-half of the surface elevations along the grounded ice boundary and over one-third of the hydrostatic line elevations are ranked in the highest two confidence categories. A comparison between ASAID-calculated ice shelf thicknesses and BEDMAP-compiled data indicate a thin-ice bias of 41.2+/-71.3m for the ASAID ice thicknesses. The relationship between the seaward offset of the hydrostatic line from the grounded ice boundary only weakly matches a prediction based on beam theory. The mapped products along with the customized software to generate them and a variety of intermediate products are available from the National Snow and Ice Data Center.

Bindschadler, R.↗
NASA NTRS1968

Turbofan-engine noise suppression.

Program for perceived noise levels reduction on ground of turbofan powered commercial transport by acoustically absorptive lining of ducts

Marsh, A. H.↗
NASA NTRS1972

Solar wind physics

A double-chambered gas proportional counter was constructed to detect and identify solar wind ions after acceleration by a high voltage power supply. It was determined that the best method of detecting deuterium in the solar wind is to use a tritium target as proposed for IMP H and J. The feasibility of detecting H(+) and He(+) ions of interstellar origin is considered. A program is described to carry out ground-based astronomical observations of faint, diffuse optical emission lines from interstellar gas. Hydrogen and oxygen emission lines from galactic sources were detected and the galactic and geocoronal H alpha and beta lines were clearly resolved.

Source record↗
NASA NTRS1974

Analysis of ERTS-1 linear features in New York State

The author has identified the following significant results. All ERTS-1 linears confirmed to date have topographic expression although they may appear as featureless tonal linears on the imagery. A bias is unavoidably introduced against any linears which may parallel raster lines, lithological trends, or the azimuth of solar illumination. Ground study of ERTS-1 topographic lineaments in the Adirondacks indicates: outcrops along linears are even more rare than expected, fault breccias are found along some NNE lineaments, chloritization and slickensiding without brecciation characterize one EW lineament whereas closely-spaced jointing plus a zone of plastic shear define another. Field work in the Catskills suggests that the prominent new NNE lineaments may be surface manifestations of normal faulting in the basement, and that it may become possible to map major joint sets over extensive plateau regions directly on the imagery. Fall and winter images each display some unique linears, and long linears on the fall image commonly appear as aligned segments on the winter scene. A computer-processed color composite image permitted the extraction or additional information on the shaded side of mountains.

Isachsen, Y. W.↗
NASA NTRS1974

Perturbation of the calcium principal series by metastable calcium atoms

The absorption of the principal series of calcium is observed with about 4% of the atoms placed in the 4s4p 3P level by selective laser excitation, and is compared with the absorption with all atoms in the ground state. We observe a broadening of the absorption lines accompanied by a shift to longer wavelengths and the occurrence of satellite lines at shorter wavelengths.

Mcilrath, T. J.↗
NASA NTRS1976

Improvements in navigation resulting from the use of dual spacecraft radiometric data

If two spacecraft lying along similar geocentric lines-of-sight are simultaneously tracked by two nearby ground stations (dual spacecraft two-station tracking), navigational capabilities may be substantially improved. A thorough accuracy analysis study of dual spacecraft tracking using simulated tracking data based on the trajectories of Viking and Mariner Jupiter-Saturn '77(MJS '77) missions has been carried out. Results of the study reveal the following advantages: (1) cancellation of platform parameter and transmission media modelling errors in short arc solutions, (2) accurate encounter guidance for the trailing spacecraft, (3) reduction of total tracking time requirements, and (4) rapid determination of the orbit following a maneuver on either spacecraft. It is shown that dual spacecraft data types can improve navigational capabilities by a factor of 5 to 10, under the conditions of small angular separation (not exceeding 3 degrees) of the two spacecraft and well determined trajectory of the reference spacecraft. The research to carry out and the data to obtain before the new technique can be used in interplanetary navigation are pointed out.

Chao, C. C.↗
NASA NTRS1980

Implications of cyclotron features in the X-ray spectrum of Hercules X-1

The modification of physical processes due to an intense magnetic field is investigated in order to uncover implications for X-ray spectra from binary pulsars. It is found that for large enough fields, the quantum nature of electron orbits must be taken into account, and for densities typical of binary X-ray pulsars it is found that electrons spend most of their time in the ground state. For this case, the production of cyclotron line photons following collisional excitation is estimated and the effects of the transfer of line photons through the hot plasma are considered. A line feature as narrow as reported by Truemper et al. appears unlikely. However, more recent observations allow a much broader line; in addition, a consistent absorption feature due to knock-on electrons may explain the spectral steepening at about 20 keV.

Bussard, R. W.↗
NASA NTRS1982

Io: Escape and ionization of atmospheric gases

The model for the Io oxygen cloud was improved and is now capable of calculating the two dimensional sky plane intensity for the 6300A, 1304A and 880A lines, where volume excitation and ionization rates are determined by impact collisions with Io plasma torus electrons. These three emission lines are those for which observations were performed by ground based, rocket, Earth orbiting satellites and Voyager spacecraft nstruments. Comparison of model results with observations at 6300A suggests an isotropic oxygen flux from Io of about (1.5 to 3.0) x 10 to the 9th power atoms cm/sec or an overall source rate of (0.6 to 1.2) x 10 to the 27th power atoms/sec. A model for the expected but yet undetected Io sulfur cloud was also developed and very preliminary results are discussed. Quantitative analysis of the Io sodium cloud focused upon the initial task of acquiring and preliminary evaluation of sodium cloud and Io plasma torus data.

Smyth, W. H.↗
NASA NTRS1983

Diode laser heterodyne observations of silicon monoxide in sunspots - A test of three sunspot models

Absorption features from the 8 micron SiO fundamental (upsilon = 1-0) and hot bands (upsilon = 2-1) have been observed in sunspots at sub-Doppler resolution using a ground-based tunable diode laser heterodyne spectrometer. The observed line widths suggest an upper limit of 0.5 km/s for the microturbulent velocity in sunspot umbrae. Since the silicon monoxide abundance is very sensitive to sunspot temperature, the measured equivalent widths permit an unambiguous determination of the temperature-pressure relation in the upper layers of the umbral atmosphere. In the region of SiO line formation (log P sub g = 3.0-4.5), the results support the sunspot model suggested by Stellmacher and Wiehr (1970).

Glenar, D. A.↗
NASA NTRS1984

Diurnal variation of stratospheric chlorine monoxide - A critical test of chlorine chemistry in the ozone layer

Ground-based observations of a mm-wave spectral line at 278 GHz have yielded stratospheric chlorine monoxide column density diurnal variation records which indicate that the mixing ratio and column density of this compound above 30 km are about 20 percent lower than model predictions based on 2.1 parts/billion of total stratospheric chlorine. The observed day-to-night variation is, however, in good agreement with recent model predictions, both confirming the existence of a nighttime reservoir for chlorine and verifying the predicted general rate of its storage and retrieval.

Solomon, P. M.↗
NASA NTRS1985

Measurement of sea ice backscatter characteristics at 36 GHz using the surface contour radar

Scattering studies of sea ice off the coast of Greenland were performed in January 1984 using the 36-GHz Surface Contour Radar (SCR) aboard the NASA P-3 aircraft. An oscillating mirror scans an actual half-power width of 0.96 degrees laterally to measure the surface at 51 evenly spaced points. By banking the aircraft, real-time topographical mapping and relative backscattered power are obtained at incidence angles between 0 and 30 degrees off-nadar, achieving at 175 m altitude a 2.9 by 4.4 m spatial resolution at nadir. With an aircraft ground speed of 100 m/s, 5-m successive scan line spacing and 1.8-m cross-track direction spacing is provided. By circling the aircraft in the 15 degree bank, the azimuthal anisotropy of the scattering is investigated along with the incidence angle dependence.

Fedor, L. S.↗