SEARCH · Search NASA

Results for “PLASMA TURBULENCE”

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.

SourceResearch connectionFrom yearThrough year

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

At least 487 records · Page 27

All sources NASA NTRS DOE OSTI

NASA NTRS1990

Current-driven plasma acceleration versus current-driven energy dissipation. I - Wave stability theory

The dominant unstable electrostatic wave modes of an electromagnetically accelerated plasma are investigated. The study is the first part of a three-phase program aimed at characterizing the current-driven turbulent dissipation degrading the efficiency of Lorentz force plasma accelerators such as the MPD thruster. The analysis uses a kinetic theory that includes magnetic and thermal effects as well as those of an electron current transverse to the magnetic field and collisions, thus combining all the features of previous models. Analytical and numerical solutions allow a detailed description of threshold criteria, finite growth behavior, destabilization mechanisms and maximized-growth characteristics of the dominant unstable modes. The lower hybrid current-driven instability is implicated as dominant and was found to preserve its character in the collisional plasma regime.

Kelly, A. J.↗

NASA NTRS1995

Intermittency and extended self-similarity in the solar wind turbulence

Using the satellite measurements of the velocity field in the interplanetary plasma. we present some analysis which show the presence of a self-similar intermittent state in the solar wind turbulence. We used the so called Extended Self-Similarity hypothesis, which is well visible in the solar wind turbulence, showing convincing evidences for the presence of universal anomalous scaling laws. Through the Extended Self-Similarity we are able to calculate the scaling exponents of the velocity structure functions with very small uncertainties, and we show that these scaling exponents are in very good agreement with the multifractal models describing intermittency in magnetohydrodynamic flows.

Bruno, R.↗

NASA NTRS1974

Further characteristics of the evening energetic electron decreases during substorms

Evaluation of the results of studying the evening energetic electron decreases observed at synchronous altitudes with the use of high-resolution data (25.6-sec averages). The high-resolution data show that the evening particle events sometimes undergo rapid time variations, faster than the 6-min time-averaged data previously used by Lezniak and Winckler (1970). Periodic structures of 2- to 12-min period often accompany the evening particle decreases. Interpretation of these observations in terms of enhanced plasma energy density at synchronous altitudes during substorms, as evidenced by DeForest and McIlwain (1971) and Sharp and Johnson (1972), suggests that such plasma regions are highly nonuniform and turbulent.

Lin, C. S.↗

NASA NTRS1975

Role of magnetic fields in physics and astrophysics; Proceedings of the Conference, Copenhagen, Denmark, June 5-7, 1974

The papers deal with the role of magnetism in astrophysics and the properties of matter in the presence of unusually large magnetic fields. Topics include a quantum-mechanical treatment of high-energy charged particles radiating in a homogeneous magnetic field, the solution and properties of the Dirac equation for magnetic fields of any strength up to 10 to the 13th power gauss, experimental difficulties encountered and overcome in generating megagauss fields, the effect of strong radiation damping for an ultrarelativistic charge in an external electromagnetic field, magnetic susceptibilities of nuclei and elementary particles, and Compton scattering in strong external electromagnetic fields. Other papers examine static uniform electric and magnetic polarizabilities of the vacuum in arbitrarily strong magnetic fields, quantum-mechanical processes in neutron stars, basic ideas of mean-field magnetohydrodynamics, helical MHD turbulence, relations between cosmic and laboratory plasma physics, and insights into the nature of magnetism provided by relativity and cosmology. Individual items are announced in this issue.

Canuto, V.↗

NASA NTRS1984

Characteristics of solar and heliospheric ion populations observed near earth

The composition and spectra of ions in solar-energetic-particle and energetic-storm-particle events, of diffuse ions upstream of the earth bow shock, and of ions in deep-geomagnetic-tail plasmoids are characterized in a summary of in situ observations. Data are presented in graphs and tables, and remarkable similarities are noted in the distribution functions of the heliospheric ion populations. The solar wind, acting through acceleration mechanisms associated with shocks and turbulence, is identified as the major plasma source of suprathermal and energetic particles.

Gloeckler, G.↗

NASA NTRS1984

On the heating mechanism of magnetic flux loops in the solar atmosphere

An investigation is conducted of physical heating mechanisms due to the ponderomotive forces exerted by turbulent waves along the solar atmosphere's curved magnetic flux loops. Results indicate that the temperature difference between the inside and outside of the flux loop can be classified into three parts, two of which represent the cooling or heating effect exerted by the ponderomotive force, while the third is the heating effect due to turbulent energy conversion from the localized plasma. This heating mechanism is used to illustrate solar atmospheric heating by means of an example that leads to the formulation of plages.

Song, M. T.↗

NASA NTRS1987

Spiky parallel dc electric fields in the aurora

A series of computer simulations is reported on the detailed shape and distribution of the dc electric fields that result when an external potential drop is applied to a plasma with strong low-frequency turbulence. The structures are shown to depend on the size of the potential drop and upon the shape of the ion turbulence. For the type of turbulence expected for current driven electrostatic ion cyclotrron waves the dc fields seen in the simulations are in good agreement with those observed in the aurora.

Rowland, H. L.↗

NASA NTRS1995

Solar wind eddies and the heliospheric current sheet

Ulysses has collected data between 1 and 5 AU during, and just following solar maximum, when the heliospheric current sheet (HCS) can be thought of as reaching its maximum tilt and being subject to the maximum amount of turbulence in the solar wind. The Ulysses solar wind plasma instrument measures the vector velocity and can be used to estimate the flow speed and direction in turbulent 'eddies' in the solar wind that are a fraction of an astronomical unit in size and last (have either a turnover or dynamical interaction time of) several hours to more than a day. Here, in a simple exercise, these solar wind eddies at the HCS are characterized using Ulysses data. This character is then used to define a model flow field with eddies that is imposed on an ideal HCS to estimate how the HCS will be deformed by the flow. This model inherently results in the complexity of the HCS increasing with heliocentric distance, but the result is a measure of the degree to which the observed change in complexity is a measure of the importance of solar wind flows in deforming the HCS. By comparison with randomly selected intervals not located on the HCS, it appears that eddies on the HCS are similar to those elsewhere at this time during the solar cycle, as is the resultant deformation of the interplanetary magnetic field (IMF). The IMF deformation is analogous to what is often termed the 'random walk' of interplanetary magnetic field lines.

Suess, S. T.↗

NASA NTRS2010

Magnetospheric Multiscale (MMS) Mission Attitude Ground System Design

This paper describes the attitude ground system (AGS) design to be used for support of the Magnetospheric MultiScale (MMS) mission. The AGS exists as one component of the mission operations control center. It has responsibility for validating the onboard attitude and accelerometer bias estimates, calibrating the attitude sensors and the spacecraft inertia tensor, and generating a definitive attitude history for use by the science teams. NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC) in Greenbelt, Maryland is responsible for developing the MMS spacecraft, for the overall management of the MMS mission, and for mission operations. MMS is scheduled for launch in 2014 for a planned two-year mission. The MMS mission consists of four identical spacecraft flying in a tetrahedral formation in an eccentric Earth orbit. The relatively tight formation, ranging from 10 to 400 km, will provide coordinated observations giving insight into small-scale magnetic field reconnection processes. By varying the size of the tetrahedron and the orbital semi-major axis and eccentricity, and making use of the changing solar phase, this geometry allows for the study of both bow shock and magnetotail plasma physics, including acceleration, reconnection, and turbulence. The mission divides into two phases for science; these phases will have orbit dimensions of 1.2 x 12 Earth radii in the first phase and 1.2x25 Earth radii in the second in order to study the dayside magnetopause and the nightside magnetotail, respectively. The orbital periods are roughly one day and three days for the two mission phases. Each of the four MMS spacecraft will be spin stabilized at 3 revolutions per minute (rpm), with the spin axis oriented near the ecliptic north pole but tipped approximately 2.5 deg towards the Sun line. The main body of each spacecraft will be an eight-sided platform with diameter of 3.4 m and height of 1.2 m. Several booms are attached to this central core: two axial booms of 14.9 m length, two radial magnetometer booms of 5 m length, and four radial wire booms of 60 m length. Attitude and orbit control will use a set of axial and radial thrusters. A four-head star tracker and a slit-type digital Sun sensor (DSS) provide input for attitude determination. In addition, an accelerometer will be used for closed-loop orbit maneuver control. The primary AGS product will be a daily definitive attitude history. Due to power limitations, the star tracker and accelerometer data will not be available at all times. However, tracker data from at least 10 percent of each orbit and continuous DSS data will be provided. An extended Kalman filter (EKF) will be used to estimate the three-axis attitude (i.e., spin axis orientation and spin phase) and rotation rate for all times when the tracker data is valid. For other times, the attitude is generated by assuming a constant angular momentum vector in the inertial frame. The DSS sun pulse will provide a timing signal to maintain an accurate spin phase. There will be times when the Sun is occulted and DSS data is not available. If this occurs at the start or end of a definitive attitude product, then the spin phase will be extrapolated using the mean rate determined by the EKF.

Sedlak, Joseph E.↗

NASA NTRS2011

Observational Evidence of How Magnetofluid Turbulence in the Solar Wind Dissipates

The solar wind appears to be a fully developed turbulent magnetofluid. As this magnetofluid expands into the heliosphere, it cools significantly less rapidly than would be expected of an adiabatically expanding gas. The evolution of the temperature with distance is roughly what would be expected if the turbulence dissipated by heating the thermal plasma. Several physical mechanisms have been proposed, including resonance absorption of waves and Landau damping. Recently, high-time resolution magnetic field data from the four Cluster spacecraft have illustrated damping of the fluctuations out to the electron inertial scale. Use of the wave telescope/k-filtering technique during two intervals of busrt mode data suggests that dissipation of the fluctuations is due to Landau damping, first on protons, then on electrons.

Goldstein, Melvyn L.↗

NASA NTRS2012

Shock Generation and Control Using DBD Plasma Actuators

This report is the final report of a NASA Phase I SBIR contract, with some revisions to remove company proprietary data. The Shock Boundary Layer Interaction (SBLI) phenomena in a supersonic inlet involve mutual interaction of oblique shocks with boundary layers, forcing the boundary layer to separate from the inlet wall. To improve the inlet efficiency, it is desired to prevent or delay shock-induced boundary layer separation. In this effort, Innovative Technology Applications Company (ITAC), LLC and the University of Notre Dame (UND) jointly investigated the use of dielectric-barrier-discharge (DBD) plasma actuators for control of SBLI in a supersonic inlet. The research investigated the potential for DBD plasma actuators to suppress flow separation caused by a shock in a turbulent boundary layer. The research involved both numerical and experimental investigations of plasma flow control for a few different SBLI configurations: (a) a 12 wedge flow test case at Mach 1.5 (numerical and experimental), (b) an impinging shock test case at Mach 1.5 using an airfoil as a shock generator (numerical and experimental), and (c) a Mach 2.0 nozzle flow case in a simulated 15 X 15 cm wind tunnel with a shock generator (numerical). Numerical studies were performed for all three test cases to examine the feasibility of plasma flow control concepts. These results were used to guide the wind tunnel experiments conducted on the Mach 1.5 12 degree wedge flow (case a) and the Mach 1.5 impinging shock test case (case b) which were at similar flow conditions as the corresponding numerical studies to obtain experimental evidence of plasma control effects for SBLI control. The experiments also generated data that were used in validating the numerical studies for the baseline cases (without plasma actuators). The experiments were conducted in a Mach 1.5 test section in the University of Notre Dame Hessert Laboratory. The simulation results from cases a and b indicated that multiple spanwise actuators in series and at a voltage of 75 kVp-p could fully suppress the flow separation downstream of the shock. The simulation results from case c showed that the streamwise plasma actuators are highly effective in creating pairs of counter-rotating vortices, much like the mechanical vortex generators, and could also potentially have beneficial effects for SBLI control. However, to achieve these effects, the positioning and the quantity of the DBD actuators used must be optimized. The wind tunnel experiments mapped the baseline flow with good agreement to the numerical simulations. The experimental results were conducted with spanwise actuators for cases a and b, but were limited by the inability to generate a sufficiently high voltage due to arcing in the wind-tunnel test-section. The static pressure in the tunnel was lower than the static pressure in an inlet at flight conditions, promoting arching and degrading the actuator performance.

Patel, Mehul P.↗

NASA NTRS2011

Magnetospheric Multiscale (MMS) Mission Attitude Ground System Design

This paper describes the attitude ground system (AGS) design to be used for support of the Magnetospheric MultiScale (MMS) mission. The AGS exists as one component of the mission operations control center. It has responsibility for validating the onboard attitude and accelerometer bias estimates, calibrating the attitude sensors and the spacecraft inertia tensor, and generating a definitive attitude history for use by the science teams. NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC) in Greenbelt, Maryland is responsible for developing the MMS spacecraft, for the overall management of the MMS mission, and for mission operations. MMS is scheduled for launch in 2014 for a planned two-year mission. The MMS mission consists of four identical spacecraft flying in a tetrahedral formation in an eccentric Earth orbit. The relatively tight formation, ranging from 10 to 400 km, will provide coordinated observations giving insight into small-scale magnetic field reconnection processes. By varying the size of the tetrahedron and the orbital semi-major axis and eccentricity, and making use of the changing solar phase, this geometry allows for the study of both bow shock and magnetotail plasma physics, including acceleration, reconnection, and turbulence. The mission divides into two phases for science; these phases will have orbit dimensions of l.2xl2 Earth radii in the first phase and l.2x25 Earth radii in the second in order to study the dayside magnetopause and the nightside magnetotail, respectively. The orbital periods are roughly one day and three days for the two mission phases. Each of the four MMS spacecraft will be spin stabilized at 3 revolutions per minute (rpm), with the spin axis oriented near the ecliptic north pole but tipped approximately 2.5 deg towards the Sun line. The main body of each spacecraft will be an eight-sided platform with diameter of 3.4 m and height of 1.2 m. Several booms are attached to this central core: two axial booms of 14.9 m length, two radial magnetometer booms of 5 m length, and four radial -wire booms of 60 m length. Attitude and orbit control will use a set of axial and radial thrusters. A four-head star tracker and a slit-type digital Sun sensor (DSS) provide input for attitude determination. In addition, an accelerometer will be· used for closed-loop orbit maneuver control. The primary AGS product will be a daily definitive attitude history. Due to power limitations; the star tracker and accelerometer data will not be available at all times. However, tracker data from at least 10 percent of each orbit and continuous DSS data will be provided. An extended Kalman filter (EKF) will be used to estimate the three-axis attitude (i.e., spin axis orientation and spin phase) and rotation rate for all times when the tracker data is valid. For other times, the attitude is generated by assuming a constant angular momentum vector in the inertial frame. The DSS sun pulse will provide a timing signal to maintain an accurate spin phase. There will be times when the Sun is occulted and DSS data is not available. If this occurs at the start or end of a definitive attitude product, then the spin phase will be extrapolated using the mean rate determined by the EKF.

Sedlak, Joseph E.↗

NASA NTRS2022

Strong Reconnection Electric Fields in Shock-Driven Turbulence

Turbulent magnetic reconnection in a quasi-parallel shock under parameters relevant to the Earth's bow shock is investigated by means of a two-dimensional particle-in-cell simulation. The addressed aspects include the reconnection electric field, the reconnection rate, and the electron and the ion outflow speeds. In the shock transition region, many current sheets are generated in shock-driven turbulence, and electron-only reconnection and reconnection where both ions and electrons are involved can occur in those current sheets. The electron outflow speed in electron-only reconnection shows a positive correlation with the theoretical speed, which is close to the local electron Alfvén speed, and a strong convection electric field is generated by the large electron outflow. As a result, the reconnection electric field becomes much larger than those in the standard magnetopause or magnetotail reconnection. In shock-driven reconnection that involves ion dynamics, both electron outflows and ion outflows can reach of the order of 10 times the Alfvén speed in the X-line rest frame, leading to a reconnection electric field the same order as that in electron-only reconnection. An electron-only reconnection event observed by the magnetospheric multiscale mission downstream of a quasi-parallel shock is qualitatively similar to those in the simulation and shows that the outflow speed reaches approximately half the local electron Alfvén speed, supporting the simulation prediction.

magnetic reconnection↗

NASA NTRS2012

New Insight into Short-Wavelength Solar Wind Fluctuations from Vlasov Theory

The nature of solar wind (SW) turbulence below the proton gyroscale is a topic that is being investigated extensively nowadays, both theoretically and observationally. Although recent observations gave evidence of the dominance of kinetic Alfven waves (KAWs) at sub-ion scales with omega < omega(sub ci), other studies suggest that the KAW mode cannot carry the turbulence cascade down to electron scales and that the whistler mode (i.e., omega > omega (sub ci)) is more relevant. Here, we study key properties of the short-wavelength plasma modes under limited, but realistic, SW conditions, Typically Beta(sub i) approx. > Beta (sub e) ∼ 1 and for high oblique angles of propagation 80 deg <= Theta (sub kB) < 90 deg as observed from the Cluster spacecraft data. The linear properties of the plasma modes under these conditions are poorly known, which contrasts with the well-documented cold plasma limit and/or moderate oblique angles of propagation (Theta (sub kB) < 80 deg). Based on linear solutions of the Vlasov kinetic theory, we discuss the relevance of each plasma mode (fast, Bernstein, KAW, whistler) in carrying the energy cascade down to electron scales. We show, in particular, that the shear Alfven mode (known in the magnetohydrodynamic limit) extends at scales kappa rho (sub i) approx. > 1 to frequencies either larger or smaller than omega (sub ci), depending on the anisotropy kappa (parallel )/ kappa(perpendicular). This extension into small scales is more readily called whistler (omega > omega (sub ci)) or KAW (omega < omega (sub ci)) although the mode is essentially the same. This contrasts with the well-accepted idea that the whistler branch always develops as a continuation at high frequencies of the fast magnetosonic mode. We show, furthermore, that the whistler branch is more damped than the KAW one, which makes the latter the more relevant candidate to carry the energy cascade down to electron scales. We discuss how these new findings may facilitate resolution of the controversy concerning the nature of the small-scale turbulence, and we discuss the implications for present and future spacecraft wave measurements in the SW.

waves↗

NASA NTRS1978

Plasma waves near the sun: Advances possible with a solar probe

A review is presented of current experimental and theoretical knowledge of plasma waves in the solar wind, with comments on the scientific importance of obtaining plasma wave measurements in the region near the sun with the solar probe. The waves discussed include the acoustic waves and shocks which are thought to be the primary source for heating the solar corona, Alfven waves, ion-cyclotron waves, whistler-mode turbulence, ion-acoustic waves, and electron plasma oscillations associated with solar radio emissions. A discussion is presented of the types of measurements which would be needed to study these waves on the solar probe, the constraints imposed on the spacecraft and the research and development which would be needed to provide the necessary instrumentation.

Gurnett, D. A.↗

NASA NTRS2012

Turbulence in a Global Magnetohydrodynamic Simulation of the Earth's Magnetosphere during Northward and Southward Interplanetary Magnetic Field

We report the results of MHD simulations of Earth's magnetosphere for idealized steady solar wind plasma and interplanetary magnetic field (IMF) conditions. The simulations feature purely northward and southward magnetic fields and were designed to study turbulence in the magnetotail plasma sheet. We found that the power spectral densities (PSDs) for both northward and southward IMF had the characteristics of turbulent flow. In both cases, the PSDs showed the three scale ranges expected from theory: the energy-containing scale, the inertial range, and the dissipative range. The results were generally consistent with in-situ observations and theoretical predictions. While the two cases studied, northward and southward IMF, had some similar characteristics, there were significant differences as well. For southward IMF, localized reconnection was the main energy source for the turbulence. For northward IMF, remnant reconnection contributed to driving the turbulence. Boundary waves may also have contributed. In both cases, the PSD slopes had spatial distributions in the dissipative range that reflected the pattern of resistive dissipation. For southward IMF there was a trend toward steeper slopes in the dissipative range with distance down the tail. For northward IMF there was a marked dusk-dawn asymmetry with steeper slopes on the dusk side of the tail. The inertial scale PSDs had a dusk-dawn symmetry during the northward IMF interval with steeper slopes on the dawn side. This asymmetry was not found in the distribution of inertial range slopes for southward IMF. The inertial range PSD slopes were clustered around values close to the theoretical expectation for both northward and southward IMF. In the dissipative range, however, the slopes were broadly distributed and the median values were significantly different, consistent with a different distribution of resistivity.

magnetohydrodynamics (MHD)↗

NASA NTRS1979

Pitch-angle diffusion by whistler mode waves near the Io plasma torus

As Voyager 1 traversed the inner radiation belt of Jupiter, wave-particle interactions involving energetic electrons and whistler mode turbulence were strongly affected by the presence of the Io plasma torus. Within the high density torus the resonant electron energy was low and the associated high index of refraction yielded high B-to-E ratios for the wave fields, leading to very strong pitch-angle scattering. It is shown that significant spatial and temporal variations in plasma conditions produced large fluctuations in local scattering times, and the problems associated with the evaluation of precipitation lifetime are discussed.

Scarf, F. L.↗

NASA NTRS2021

ARTEMIS Observations of Plasma Waves in Laminar and Perturbed Interplanetary Shocks

The ‘Acceleration, Reconnection, Turbulence and Electrodynamics of the Moon's Interaction with the Sun’ (ARTEMIS) mission provides a unique opportunity to study the structure of interplanetary shocks and the associated generation of plasma waves with frequencies between ~50-8000 Hz due to its long duration electric and magnetic field burst waveform captures. We compare wave properties and occurrence rates at 11 quasi-perpendicular interplanetary shocks with burst data within 10 minutes (~3200 proton gyroradii upstream, ~1900 downstream) of the shock ramp. A perturbed shock is defined as possessing a large amplitude whistler precursor in the quasi-static magnetic field with an amplitude greater than ⅓ the difference between the upstream and downstream average magnetic field magnitudes; laminar shocks lack these large precursors and have a smooth, step function-like transition. In addition to wave modes previously observed, including ion acoustic, whistler, and electrostatic solitary waves, waves in the ion acoustic frequency range that show rapid temporal frequency change are common. Three shocks had burst captures in the ramp; of these, the two laminar shocks with burst data in the ramp contained a wide range of large amplitude wave modes in the ramp whereas the one perturbed shock contained no such waves. Thus, energy dissipation through wave-particle interactions is more prominent in these two laminar shocks than in the perturbed shock. Based on observations from all 11 shocks, the The wave occurrence rates for laminar shocks are higher in the transition region, especially the ramp, than downstream. In contrast, perturbed shocks have approximately 2-3 times the wave occurrence rate downstream than laminar shocks.

L. A. Davis↗