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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 631 records · Page 35
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
NASA NTRS1976

Measurements of field-aligned currents in a multiple auroral arc system

A rocket-borne experiment to study the currents associated with a system of multiple auroral arcs was conducted at Poker Flat, Alaska, at 1122 UT on Feb. 2, 1972. The magnetic field in the vicinity of the auroral system was measured with a cesium vector magnetometer. Possible configurations were inferred by constructing model current systems that reproduced the magnetic field variations measured along the flight path. The data are interpreted in terms of a model current system consisting of two eastward electrojets and one westward electrojet and three pairs of oppositely directed Birkeland sheet currents, all lying in a plane approximately parallel to the auroral arcs. Sheet thicknesses ranged from 20 to 60 km and current densities from 10 to 45 microampere/sq m; the electrojet currents ranged from 1000 to 2000 A. A possible alternate model consisted of four pairs of sheets whose thicknesses range from 10 to 40 km with current densities from 10 to 90 microampere/sq m. There was quite good agreement between the locations of the visual arcs and the upward current sheets. The overall current configuration is discussed in view of the theoretical models constructed by Atkinson and Sato and Holzer and of other observations.

Sesiano, J.↗
NASA NTRS1978

Crystallization of a lunar magma ocean

The results of applying the presently most detailed thermal model to the cooling, crystallization and differentiation of a lunar magma ocean are used to delineate its general features, i.e., those features that are model independent within reasonable variations in ocean characteristics. Two primitive lunar compositions are used to illustrate the effect of different compositions and phase equilibria on the solidification time and mineralogy of magma oceans. The magma ocean thermal model led to some inferences about the thermal evolution of the outer portion of the moon modeled as isolated magma pods rather than as a magma ocean.

Minear, J. W.↗
NASA NTRS1980

Collapsing cloud models for Bok globules

The dynamic collapse of rotating gas clouds is calculated for a wide range of initial conditions. Properties of cloud models are compared with observed radio and optical properties of Bok globules, to test the hypothesis that globules undergo collapse and to determine parameters which are not easily observed. Five of the six globules studied are consistent with collapse models. It is inferred that these objects have masses of about 100 solar masses and ages smaller than their free-fall times. Inferred initial densities are much larger than minimum densities for gravitational collapse, suggesting that collapse is initiated by strong external compression or that globules are fragments of larger condensed clouds. Values inferred for the (C-13)O/H2 ratio are smaller than previous estimates and depend strongly on cloud density.

Villere, K. R.↗
NASA NTRS1980

Electromagnet configurations for extreme attitude testing in magnetic suspension and balance systems

The inclusion of adequate versatility into the electromagnet array configuration requires sizing the electromagnets to satisfy particular absolute force and moment requirements. Magnetic performance of a permanent magnet model core, air cored electromagnet may easily and reliably be computed by using the FORCE program which calculates model forces and moments via representations of the model as an assembly of dipoles and the electromagnets as an assembly of line currents. Some aspects of the performance of an ellipsoidal iron cored model may be inferred from the above under certain circumstances.

Britcher, C. P.↗
NASA NTRS1981

Lunar volcanic glasses and their constraints on mare petrogenesis

The compositional properties of volcanic glasses from the Apollo 11, 14, 15 and 16 landing sites are examined and implications of the results for mare basalt petrogenesis and deep lunar structures are discussed. Major-element and nickel analyses were performed on the glasses using electron probe techniques, and R-mode principal component analysis was performed on the 19 different compositions of glass distinguished. The glasses are found to form two distinct chemical arrays based on the major elements and Ni. The presence of two chemically isolated cumulate systems in the mantle at different depths is thus inferred, and a model is developed for mare petrogenesis in which each system was itself composed of two lithologic components that underwent hybridization, assimilation or mixing to generate the large compositional range of magmas represented by the lunar volcanic glasses. The surface-correlated elements associated with the volcanic glasses are attributed to another reservoir in the deep interior which may be responsible for gas emissions causing lunar transient phenomena. The model developed allows predictions to be made concerning the liquidus phase relations, trace and radiogenic element distributions, nonradiogenic isotope compositions and sample ages.

Delano, J. W.↗
NASA NTRS1982

A statistical examination of Nimbus 7 SMMR data and remote sensing of sea surface temperature, liquid water content in the atmosphere and surfaces wind speed

Nimbus 7 Scanning Multichannel Microwave Radiometer (SMMR) brightness temperature measurements over the global oceans have been examined with the help of statistical and empirical techniques. Such analyses show that zonal averages of brightness temperature measured by SMMR, over the oceans, on a large scale are primarily influenced by the water vapor in the atmosphere. Liquid water in the clouds and rain, which has a much smaller spatial and temporal scale, contributes substantially to the variability of the SMMR measurements within the latitudinal zones. The surface wind not only increases the surface emissivity but through its interactions with the atmosphere produces correlations, in the SMMR brightness temperature data, that have significant meteorological implications. It is found that a simple meteorological model can explain the general characteristics of the SMMR data. With the help of this model methods to infer over the global oceans, the surface temperature, liquid water content in the atmosphere, and surface wind speed are developed. Monthly mean estimates of the sea surface temperature and surface winds are compared with the ship measurements. Estimates of liquid water content in the atmosphere are consistent with earlier satellite measurements.

Prabhakara, C.↗
NASA NTRS1983

Radial diffusion in Saturn's radiation belts - A modeling analysis assuming satellite and ring E absorption

A modeling analysis is carried out of six experimental phase space density profiles for nearly equatorially mirroring protons using methods based on the approach of Thomsen et al. (1977). The form of the time-averaged radial diffusion coefficient D(L) that gives an optimal fit to the experimental profiles is determined under the assumption that simple satellite plus Ring E absorption of inwardly diffusing particles and steady-state radial diffusion are the dominant physical processes affecting the proton data in the L range that is modeled. An extension of the single-satellite model employed by Thomsen et al. to a model that includes multisatellite and ring absorption is described, and the procedures adopted for estimating characteristic satellite and ring absorption times are defined. The results obtained in applying three representative solid-body absorption models to evaluate D(L) in the range where L is between 4 and 16 are reported, and a study is made of the sensitivity of the preferred amplitude and L dependence for D(L) to the assumed model parameters. The inferred form of D(L) is then compared with that which would be predicted if various proposed physical mechanisms for driving magnetospheric radial diffusion are operative at Saturn.

Hood, L. L.↗
NASA NTRS1983

Nuclear cascades in Saturn's rings - Cosmic ray albedo neutron decay and origins of trapped protons in the inner magnetosphere

The nearly equatorial trajectory of the Pioneer 11 spacecraft through Saturn's high energy proton radiation belts and under the main A-B-C rings provided a unique opportunity to study the radial dependence of the greater than 30 MeV proton intensities in the belts in terms of models for secondary nucleon production by cosmic ray interactions in the rings, in situ proton injection in the radiation belts by neutron beta decay, magnetospheric diffusion, and absorption by planetary rings and satellites. Maximum trapped proton intensities measured by Pioneer 11 in the radiation belts are compared with calculated intensities and found consistent with trapping times of roughly 40 years and a radial diffusion coefficient of about 10 to the -15th L to the 9th R sub s squared/s. Differential energy spectra proportional to E to the -2 estimated from integral measurements of trapped photons with E greater than 100 MeV are consistent with the beta decay model, but an inferred turndown of the spectra toward lower energies and reported integral proton anisotropies of a specified form both indicate the need for more realistic calculations of the neutron source from the rings and the radiation belt loss processes.

Cooper, J. F.↗
NASA NTRS1983

A statistical examination of Nimbus-7 SMMR data and remote sensing of sea surface temperature, liquid water content in the atmosphere and surface wind speed

Nimbus 7 Scanning Multichannel Microwave Radiometer (SMMR) brightness temperature measurements over the global oceans have been examined with the help of statistical and empirical techniques. Such analyses show that zonal averages of brightness temperature measured by SMMR over the oceans on a large scale are primarily influenced by the water vapor in the atmosphere. Liquid water in the clouds and rain, which has a much smaller spatial and temporal scale, contributes substantially to the variability of the SMMR measurements within the latitudinal zones. The surface wind not only increases the surface emissivity, but through its interactions with the atmosphere produces correlations in the SMMR brightness temperature data that have significant meteorological implications. It is found that a simple meteorological model can explain the general characteristics of the SMMR data. With the help of this model, methods to infer over the global oceans, the surface temperature, liquid water content in the atmosphere, and surface wind speed are developed. Monthly mean estimates of the sea surface temperature and surface winds are compared with the ship measurements. Estimates of liquid water content in the atmosphere are consistent with earlier satellite measurements. Previously announced in STAR as N83-19187

Prabhakara, C.↗
NASA NTRS1988

A 2 kiloparsec accretion disk (?) inside a 17 kiloparsec H-alpha bar in the cooling flow cluster 2A 0335+096

Observations of the central region of the galaxy cluster associated with 2A 0335+096, obtained in H-alpha, R, I, and b45 (4506 A with FWHM 355 A) using an 800 x 800-pixel CCD detector on the 4-m telescope at KPNO on December 27 and 30, 1986, are reported. The data are presented graphically and analyzed. Features discussed include a 17-kpc-long bar of H-alpha emission surrounded by filaments, a smaller elongated H-alpha structure (possibly an accretion disk) centered on the nucleus of the central galaxy, a secondary galaxy with a red H-alpha-bright nucleus located within the 17-kpc bar about 6 arcsec from the central-galaxy nucleus, and evidence for excess blue emission (indicating star formation at about 8 solar mass/yr in the cooling flow). From the presence of dust in the emission-line gas it is inferred that theoretical models based on preferential formation of low-mass stars may not be applicable to this object.

Romanishin, W.↗
NASA NTRS1988

The origin of broad emission line clouds in active galactic nuclei

Numerous arguments suggest that the broad emission lines characteristic of many types of active galactic nuclei are formed in comparatively cool clouds embedded in a much hotter medium of roughly equal pressure. Here it is shown that a cycle exists in which cooler condensations form within the hot medium via a finite-amplitude thermal instability, drop to temperatures characteristic of photoionization equilibrium, are destroyed by hydrodynamic processes, and then return their material to the hot medium. Clouds of characteristic pressure about 10 to the 14th K/cu cm and thickness about 10 to the 23rd/sq cm are produced by this mechanism, in agreement with the pressure and thickness inferred from photoionization model analysis of observed emission-line ratios. Only a fraction of the hot medium's mass must encounter a finite-amplitude perturbation in order to produce the observed mass in clouds.

Krolik, Julian H.↗
NASA NTRS1988

Development of an expert planning system for OSSA

This paper presents concepts related to preliminary work for the development of an expert planning system for NASA's Office for Space Science and Applications (OSSA). The expert system will function as a planner's decision aid in preparing mission plans encompassing sets of proposed OSSA space science initiatives. These plans in turn will be checked against budgetary and technical constraints and tested for constraint violations. Appropriate advice will be generated by the system for making modifications to the plans to bring them in line with the constraints. The OSSA Planning Expert System (OPES) has been designed to function as an integral part of the OSSA mission planning process. It will be able to suggest a best plan, be able to accept and check a user-suggested strawman plan, and should provide a quick response to user request and actions. OPES will be written in the C programming language and have a transparent user interface running under Windows 386 on a Compaq 386/20 machine. The system's sorted knowledge and inference procedures will model the expertise of human planners familiar with the OSSA planning domain. Given mission priorities and budget guidelines, the system first sets the launch dates for each mission. It will check to make sure that planetary launch windows and precursor mission relationships are not violated. Additional levels of constraints will then be considered, checking such things as the availability of a suitable launch vehicle, total mission launch mass required vs. the identified launch mass capability, and the total power required by the payload at its destination vs. the actual power available. System output will be in the form of Gantt charts, spreadsheet hardcopy, and other presentation quality materials detailing the resulting OSSA mission plan.

Groundwater, B.↗
NASA NTRS1990

A structure for maturing intelligent tutoring system student models

A special structure is examined for evolving a detached model of the user of an intelligent tutoring system. Tutoring is used in the context of education and training devices. A detached approach to populating the student model data structure is examined in the context of the need for time dependent reasoning about what the student knows about a particular concept in the domain of interest. This approach, to generating a data structure for the student model, allows an inference engine separate from the tutoring strategy determination to be used. This methodology has advantages in environments requiring real-time operation.

Holmes, Willard M.↗
NASA NTRS1990

Canopy bidirectional reflectance dependence on leaf orientation

The dependence of the bidirectional reflectance (BR) on the inclination and azimuthal orientation of a leaf is analyzed, with the primary assumption that, in terms of both obscuration and shadowing, the entire canopy consists of the same leaves. The BR patterns of a dense canopy are examined as a function of canopy architecture. It is assumed that the leaves are opaque Lambertian reflectors, having identical orientation and relfecting properties throughout the canopy, and distributed randomly with respect to the the irradiation field and the viewing direction. Analytical expressions are presented and analyzed for the BR factor. It is noted that maximal BR occurs at large viewing zenith angles. A complex and often steep dependence of the BR on azimuthal location is reported, noting that the BR thus depends on the leaf azimuth as well as the zenith angle. It is concluded that the question of azimuthal distribution has to be addressed when conducting model inversions to infer canopy characteristics and architecture.

Brakke, Thomas W.↗
NASA NTRS1991

Millimeter continuum observations of Galactic center giant molecular cloud cores

Results are presented of observations of 1.3- and 0.8-mm continuum emission toward the cores of three Galactic center molecular clouds with ongoing massive star formation, Sagittarius B2, C, and D, which were made in order to study possible variations in the high-mass star formation rate per unit mass between the Galactic center and the disk. The luminosity-to-mass ratio, based on the mass estimates derived from the millimeter continuum emission, is used as a tracer of the high-mass star formation rate in GMC cores. The magnitude of errors involved in using millimeter continuum emission for determining the core mass is estimated through radiative transfer modeling. It is inferred from the present millimeter data, along with previously published far-infrared data, that the Sgr C and D cores are very similar in terms of mean dust optical depth and temperature. The luminosity-to-mass ratios derived for the Sgr C and D cores are found to be consistent with those of typical disk GMC cores with comparable far-infrared luminosities.

Lis, D. C.↗
NASA NTRS1991

Optically thin cirrus clouds over oceans and possible impact on sea surface temperature of warm pool in western Pacific

Over the convectively active tropical ocean regions, the measurement made from space in the IR and visible spectrum have revealed the presence of optically thin cirrus clouds, which are quite transparent in the visible and nearly opaque in the IR. The Nimbus-4 IR Interferometer Spectrometer (IRIS), which has a field of view (FOV) of approximately 100 km, was utilized to examine the IR optical characteristics of these cirrus clouds. From the IRIS data, it was observed that these optically thin cirrus clouds prevail extensively over the warm pool region of the equatorial western Pacific, surrounding Indonesia. It is found that the seasonal cloud cover caused by these thin cirrus clouds exceeds 50 percent near the central regions of the warm pool. For most of these clouds, the optical thickness in the IR is less than or = 2. It is deduced that the dense cold anvil clouds associated with deep convection spread extensively and are responsible for the formation of the thin cirrus clouds. This is supported by the observation that the coverage of the dense anvil clouds is an order of magnitude less than that of the thin cirrus clouds. From these observations, together with a simple radiative-convective model, it is inferred that the optically thin cirrus can provide a greenhouse effect, which can be a significant factor in maintaining the warm pool. In the absence of fluid transports, it is found that these cirrus clouds could lead to a runaway greenhouse effect. The presence of fluid transport processes, however, act to moderate this effect. Thus, if a modest 20 W/sq m energy input is considered to be available to warm the ocean, then it is found that the ocean mixed-layer of a 50-m depth will be heated by approximately 1 C in 100 days.

Prabhakara, C.↗
NASA NTRS1992

An axisymmetric magnetohydrodynamic model for the Crab pulsar wind bubble

We extend Kennel and Coroniti's (1984) spherical magnetohydrodynamic models for the Crab Nebula to include the pinching effect of the toroidal magnetic field. Since the bulk nebular flow is likely to be very submagnetosonic, a quasi-static treatment is possible. We show that the pinching effect can be responsible for the observed elongation of the pulsar wind bubble, as indicated by the surface brightness contours of optical synchrotron radiation. From the observed elongation we estimate a value for sigma, the ratio of Poynting flux to plasma kinetic energy flux in the free pulsar wind, which is consistent with previous results from spherical models. Using the inferred magnetic field configuration inside the pulsar wind bubble, combined with the observed dimensions of the X-ray nebula, we are able to constrain the particle distribution function. We conclude that, for a power-law injection function, the maximum energy has to be much larger in the pulsar equatorial region than in the polar region.

Begelman, Mitchell C.↗
NASA NTRS1992

The chronology of the formation of the Galaxy

Recent advances in our understanding of horizontal-branch (HB) stars and in precision CCD photometry make it possible to establish a chronology of the formation of the Galaxy from the fossil record. The Lee et al. HB evolutionary models and the inferred age-metallicity relation of the Galactic globular-cluster system are now strengthened by many pieces of supporting evidence. This provides valuable information regarding the formation chronology of the halo and disk. Moreover, there is strong evidence from RR Lyrae stars that the radial variation in HB morphology observed in the halo continues to the very center of the Galaxy, which suggests that the formation of the bulge and halo was an inside-out process. These two crucial pieces of information are combined to extend the Searle and Zinn picture of halo formation to include the formation of the bulge and disk. The emerging picture is consistent with the idea that galaxies formed as clusters and mergers of many small gas-rich subsystems, rather than by the rapid collapse of single large protogalactic clouds.

Lee, Young-Wook↗