Search NASA⌕ Search

SEARCH · Search NASA

Results for “spectral function”

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.

Quote a phrase for an exact phrase match. Source license links do not imply unrestricted reuse.

At least 469 records · Page 26
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
NASA NTRS1980

Photovoltaic module soiling studies, May 1978 - October 1980

Comparative electrical and optical performance data from photovoltaic modules and materials subjected to outdoor exposure at field test sites throughout the United States were collected and examined. The results show significant time and site dependence. During periods when natural removal processes do not dominate, the rate of particulate contamination accumulation appears to be largely material-independent. The effectiveness of natural removal processes, especially rain, is strongly material-dependent. Glass and acrylic top cover materials retain fewer particles than silicone rubber does. Side by side outdoor exposure testing for long duration is presently the most effective means of evaluating soiling differences between materials. Changes in spectral transmission as a function of time and location and limited scattering data are presented.

Hoffman, A. R.↗
NASA NTRS1981

Canopy reflectance as influenced by solar illumination angle

The interaction of the solar illumination angle and row azimuth angle of the measured reflectance factor (RF) of soybean canopies was investigated. Diurnal changes of nearly 140% were observed in the red wavelength region when canopies covered 64% of the soil. The amount of shadow observed was a function of the plant geometry and row width. As soil cover approached 100%, the diurnal changes diminished. A function tht describes the solar illumination angle with respect to the row azimuth explained most of the diurnal variation in the measured RF. Variation in near infrared response was much less and did not appear to be as strongly related to Sun-row angle interactions. The near infrared/red ratio was highly sensitive to Sun angle-row direction interactions, whereas the greenness function, utilizing all four spectral bands, was not.

Bauer, M. E.↗
NASA NTRS1982

Observations and interpretations of the pulsed emission from the Crab pulsar

HEAO 1 observations of the 18-200 keV pulsed emission from the Crab pulsar show that the systematic variation of spectral slope as a function of pulse shape rises continuously from 4-60 keV to at least 150 keV. This strengthens the claims for the existence of both the emission from the two main pulse peaks, and a separate, interpulse emission connecting the two peaks which contributes 22% of the total pulsed flux in the 15-200 keV range and has a harder spectrum than that of the two pulse peaks. These observations are combined with others from IR to gamma-ray energies. It is concluded that the phase-averaged pulsed spectrum, dominated by the emission from the two pulse peaks, calls for at least three power law components, and that the interpulse emission has a spectrum which is better fitted by either a thin, thermal bremsstrahlung model or a Comptonization model.

Knight, F. K.↗
NASA NTRS1983

Preliminary rotor wake measurements with a laser velocimeter

A laser velocimeter (LV) was used to determine rotor wake characteristics. The effect of various fuselage widths and rotor-fuselage spacings on time averaged and detailed time dependent rotor wake velocity characteristics was defined. Definition of time dependent velocity characteristics was attempted with the LV by associating a rotor azimuth position with each velocity measurement. Results were discouraging in that no apparent time dependent velocity characteristics could be discerned from the LV measurements. Since the LV is a relatively new instrument in the rotor wake measurement field, the cause of this lack of periodicity is as important as the basic research objectives. An attempt was made to identify the problem by simulated acquisition of LV-type data for a predicted rotor wake velocity time history. Power spectral density and autocorrelation function estimation techniques were used to substantiate the conclusion that the primary cause of the lack of time dependent velocity characteristics was the nonstationary flow condition generated by the periodic turbulence level that currently exists in the open throat configuration of the wind tunnel.

Hoad, D. R.↗
NASA NTRS1983

Annual cycle and spatial spectra of earth emitted radiation at large scales

Monthly averaged, resolution enhanced global distributions of the earth's emitted radiation, as measured by the Nimbus-6 Earth Radiation Budget (ERB) wide field of view radiometers, have been analyzed for 1 year of data from July 1975 to June 1976. These distributions are expressed in terms of spherical harmonic coefficients, and time and space variability of the emitted radiation field is studied in terms of these coefficients. The average annual distribution accounts for 78 percent of the space-time power, and the annual cycle accounts for 17 percent of the power. Spatial variations over the globe are described in terms of degree variance, and longitudinal variations are described in terms of spectral power as a function of latitude. The longitudinal spectra were found to vary strongly with time.

Smith, G. L.↗
NASA NTRS1984

HEAO 3 observations of the Crab pulsar

The Crab pulsar (PSR 0531+21) is the only pulsar which has been observed throughout almost the entire electromagnetic spectrum from 0.5 keV to over 2000 GeV. In general, the emission from the Crab nebula and its pulsar has been remarkably constant in time (except for the pulsations). However, several recent observations, especially of gamma-ray line emission, indicate possible time variations. The present investigation is concerned with the data obtained with the HEAO C-1 experiment. The data have been studied with the hope of finding information regarding a number of questions, taking into account the existence of line emission from the pulsar, the variation of the shape of the light curve with time, and the spectral variations as a function of pulsar phase. The spectrum of the total phase-averaged pulsed emission is found to be consistent with a single power-law spectrum from 50 keV to 10 MeV.

Mahoney, W. A.↗
NASA NTRS1985

Halo of NGC 4631 and models of cosmic-ray transport

The halo of edge on spiral galaxy of NGC 4631 is studied from 327 MHz to 10700 MHz to delineate the models of cosmic ray transport. Preliminary studies show that the spectral steepening as a function of height above the plane can be understood in terms of the simplest cosmic ray transport models, viz., simple isotropic diffusion in an infinite medium.

Cowsik, R.↗
NASA NTRS1986

An infrared search for extraterrestrial laser signals

The focus of project SETI is on microwave frequencies, where receivers fundamentally have the best sensitivity for the detection of narrow band signals. Such receivers, when coupled to existing radio telescopes, form an optimum system for broad area searches over the sky. Detection of narrow band infrared signals is best done with a laser heterodyne reciever similar in function to a microwave spectral line receiver. A receiver was built for astrophysical observations at 30 THz (10 microns) and the spectrometer is being adapted for SETI work. The receiver uses a small CO2 laser as the local oscillator, a HgCdTe diode as the photomixer, and a multichannel intermediate frequency (IF) filterbank. An advanced multichannel IF processor is now being built to detect infrared line radiation in 1000 spectral channels each 1 MHz wide. When completed this processor will be used with a ground based telescope next year for a survey of several hundred selected stars for narrow band CO2 laser signals at 30 THz.

Betz, A.↗
NASA NTRS1987

IRAS colors of normal stars

Using stars from the Bright Star Catalog, supplemented by cool dwarf stars from the Gliese catalog, that were detected by IRAS, the authors define empirically the median intrinsic visual-to-infrared color indices for 'normal' stars as a function of IRAS wavelength, spectral type and luminosity class. Anomalously red stars are discussed. Two otherwise undistinguished F giant stars are found with significant excesses at 12 microns. Be stars differ markedly from nonemission B stars in their V-(12) indices due to contamination of the former by free-free emission. Both B and Be stars show large dispersions in V-(25) colors that are associated with the heating of local, but strictly interstellar, dust clouds by some of the non-emission B stars. The derived sequences of stellar colors are closely approximated by either simple blackbody predictions or by model-atmosphere calculations.

Cohen, Martin↗
NASA NTRS1988

An adaptive pseudospectral method for discontinuous problems

The accuracy of adaptively chosen, mapped polynomial approximations is studied for functions with steep gradients or discontinuities. It is shown that, for steep gradient functions, one can obtain spectral accuracy in the original coordinate system by using polynomial approximations in a transformed coordinate system with substantially fewer collocation points than are necessary using polynomial expansion directly in the original, physical, coordinate system. It is also shown that one can avoid the usual Gibbs oscillation associated with steep gradient solutions of hyperbolic pde's by approximation in suitably chosen coordinate systems. Continuous, high gradient solutions are computed with spectral accuracy (as measured in the physical coordinate system). Discontinuous solutions associated with nonlinear hyperbolic equations can be accurately computed by using an artificial viscosity chosen to smooth out the solution in the mapped, computational domain. Thus, shocks can be effectively resolved on a scale that is subgrid to the resolution available with collocation only in the physical domain. Examples with Fourier and Chebyshev collocation are given.

Augenbaum, Jeffrey M.↗
NASA NTRS1988

Magnetically Induced Spectral Line Redshifts Full Disk Measurements

A method which allows the calibration of the magnetically induced velocities and permits an improvement of the information from various planned solar oscillation experiments is presented. Based on the differential sensitivity to the magnetic effects of various spectral lines, a correction function giving the Doppler shift in each line as a function of the difference between shifts of the lines is derived. For 5250 A, the correction to be added to the observed velocity is -0.9 + or - 0.1 (V = 5237 to 5250).

Ulrich, Roger K.↗
NASA NTRS1985

Radial velocity information in solar-type spectra

A criterion is developed for determining the amount of radial velocity information theoretically available at the earth's surface from a star as a function of wavelength and spectral resolution. A description of the study is provided. The wavelength dependence is examined as well as the dependence on resolution, frequency information, and the problem of time-dependent astrophysical phenomena.

Merline, W. J.↗
NASA NTRS1990

Sensor performance analysis

The theory is described and the equations required to design are developed and the performance of electro-optical sensor systems that operate from the visible through the thermal infrared spectral regions are analyzed. Methods to compute essential optical and detector parameters, signal-to-noise ratio, MTF, and figures of merit such as NE delta rho and NE delta T are developed. A set of atmospheric tables are provided to determine scene radiance in the visible spectral region. The Planck function is used to determine radiance in the infrared. The equations developed were incorporated in a spreadsheet so that a wide variety of sensor studies can be rapidly and efficiently conducted.

Montgomery, H. E.↗
NASA NTRS1989

An adaptive pseudospectral method for discontinuous problems

The accuracy of adaptively chosen, mapped polynomial approximations is studied for functions with steep gradients or discontinuities. It is shown that, for steep gradient functions, one can obtain spectral accuracy in the original coordinate system by using polynomial approximations in a transformed coordinate system with substantially fewer collocation points than are necessary using polynomial expansion directly in the original, physical, coordinate system. It is also shown that one can avoid the usual Gibbs oscillation associated with steep gradient solutions of hyperbolic pde's by approximation in suitably chosen coordinate systems. Continuous, high gradient solutions are computed with spectral accuracy (as measured in the physical coordinate system). Discontinuous solutions associated with nonlinear hyperbolic equations can be accurately computed by using an artificial viscosity chosen to smooth out the solution in the mapped, computational domain. Thus, shocks can be effectively resolved on a scale that is subgrid to the resolution available with collocation only in the physical domain. Examples with Fourier and Chebyshev collocation are given.

Augenbaum, J. M.↗
NASA NTRS1990

The shape of Eros

Monte Carlo simulations are presently used to optimize estimation, ascertain associated errors, and guide bias-correction procedures, for the Eros polar silhouette convex hull that has been estimated from radar echo spectra. This hull is trapezoidal; this nonaxisymmetric shape may account for odd harmonics in Eros' echo spectral signature as a function of rotation phase. Additional constraints have been obtained for the figure of Eros through the inversion of the optical lightcurve to estimate the asteroid's two-dimensional average of the three-dimensional shape. This 'mean cross-section' and the polar silhouette exhibit similar elongations.

Ostro, S. J.↗
NASA NTRS1990

First-order Fermi particle acceleration by relativistic shocks

Monte Carlo calculations of test particle spectra and acceleration times are presented from first-order Fermi particle acceleration for parallel shocks with arbitrary flow velocities and compression ratios r up to seven, shock velocities u1 up to 0.98c, and injection energies ranging from thermal to highly superthermal. Far above the injection energy, the spectra are well-approximated by a power law and the spectra are always harder than for nonrelativistic shocks. Approximate analytic expression are given for the spectral slope as a function of u1 and r. The acceleration time as a function of particle energy is less than for nonrelativistic shocks by a factor that increases with u1 and is about three for u1 = 0.98c. It is confirmed that the spectrum for pitch-angle diffusion is considerably steeper than for large-angle scattering for the same shock parameters.

Ellison, Donald C.↗
NASA NTRS1991

Determination of lunar ilmenite abundances from remotely sensed data

The mineral ilmenite (FeTiO3) was found in abundance in lunar mare soils returned during the Apollo project. Lunar ilmenite often contains greater than 50 weight-percent titanium dioxide (TiO2), and is a primary potential resource for oxygen and other raw materials to supply future lunar bases. Chemical and spectroscopic analysis of the returned lunar soils produced an empirical function that relates the spectral reflectance ratio at 400 and 560 nm to the weight percent abundance of TiO2. This allowed mapping of the lunar TiO2 distribution using telescopic vidicon multispectral imaging from the ground; however, the time variant photometric response of the vidicon detectors produced abundance uncertainties of at least 2 to 5 percent. Since that time, solid-state charge-coupled device (CCD) detector technology capable of much improved photometric response has become available. An investigation of the lunar TiO2 distribution was carried out utilizing groundbased telescopic CCD multispectral imagery and spectroscopy. The work was approached in phases to develop optimum technique based upon initial results. The goal is to achieve the best possible TiO2 abundance maps from the ground as a precursor to lunar orbiter and robotic sample return missions, and to produce a better idea of the peak abundances of TiO2 for benefaction studies. These phases and the results are summarized.

Larson, Stephen M.↗
NASA NTRS1991

Electron attachment line shapes, cross sections, and rate constants at ultralow energies in CF3SO3H, (CF3SO2)2O, and CF3I

Electron attachment cross sections are reported in the energy range 0-160 meV, and at resolutions of 6.0-6.5 meV (FWHM) for the molecules CF3SO3H (triflic acid), (CF3SO2)2O (triflic anhydride), and CF3I (methyl iodide). Use is made of the Kr photoionization method. Attachment line shapes are deconvoluted from the spectral slit (electron energy) function, and are converted to cross sections by normalization to thermal attachment rate constants at 300 K. Rate constants as a function of mean electron energy are calculated from the cross sections using a Maxwellian electron energy distribution function. Present data are compared with flowing-afterglow, Langmuir-probe results in triflic acid and anhydride, and with high-Rydberg ionization results in CF3I.

Alajajian, S. H.↗