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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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Mechanism remotely controls de-mating of two bodies by unlock and withdrawal of one body from the other and, upon command, extends, locates, remates and relocks the two bodies. The system is designed to transfer fluids from a dispensing body to a receiving body.
Explorer 33 data used to assess geometry and lunar interaction of geomagnetic tail
We describe and calculate the growth rate of a magnetohydrodynamic neutral-sheet instability due to electron-inertia terms in the infinite-conductivity Ohm's law. The results are compared with an approximate Vlasov-equation calculation, and are shown to be particularly germane to the geomagnetic-tail instability.
Prominent intensity spikes in the flux of protons and alphas with less than 0.5 MeV per charge were observed in the region several hours behind an interplanetary shock front. The small spatial scale of these events and the high anisotropy of the particle flux suggest local acceleration. The spectra of the particles, which are cut off at equal energy per charge, suggest acceleration through an electric field. The possibility is examined that these events have their origin in active magnetic neutral sheets in the shocked solar wind.
Prominent intensity spikes in the flux of protons and alphas with less than 0.5 MeV per charge have been observed in the region several hours behind an interplanetary shock front. The small spatial scale of these events and the high anisotropy of the particle flux suggest local acceleration. The spectra of the particles, which are cut off at equal energy per charge, suggest acceleration through an electric field. The possibility that these events have their origin in active magnetic neutral sheets in the shocked solar wind is examined.
A speculative model for the nonlinear phase of the collisionless tearing instability is developed for the case of a single long wavelength tearing mode. Using an energy principle formalism, we find that the nonlinear growth rate is linearly proportional to the mode amplitude. Hence in the nonlinear phase, the tearing mode grows explosively in time, and saturates when the width of the magnetic islands become comparable to the thickness of the current sheet. For typical plasma sheet parameters, the explosive phase lasts 5-10 minutes, and develops cross-tail emf's of several 100 KV.
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A statistical study is made of the magnetic field components that occur in the presence of high-velocity flows. Results are reported for a statistical analysis of 324 intervals of intense bulk plasma flows in the plasma sheet of the geomagnetic tail, measured by the Imp 6 spacecraft. A pronounced tendency for southward fields to be associated with tailward flow more often than with earthward flow yields support for the merging concept, though not in its simplest form. Histograms of 15.36-s averages of vector magnetic field measurements during plasma flows reveal no significant changes in the distribution of beta-y between earthward or tailward plasma flow directions.
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(Previously announced in STAR as N81-32775)
When the current density in the center of a neutral sheet is increased to a critical value spontaneous current disruptions are observed. The release of stored magnetic field energy results in a large inductive voltage pulse which drops off inside the plasma in the form of a potential double layer. Particles are energized, microinstabilities are generated, the plasma is thinned, and the current flow is redirected. These laboratory observations qualitatively support recent models of magnetic substorms and solar flares.
(Previously announced in STAR as N82-20718)
Extensive statistical analysis of the vector components of fluctuating magnetic fields have been performed in a time dependent neutral magnetic sheet. Cross spectral analysis indicates a variety of wave numbers present for each frequency investigated. Comparison of Fourier components of the cross spectral function with dispersion surfaces in k space demonstrates the waves are large amplitude whistlers; this is verified by polarization analysis, which shows the random waves' magnetic fields to be right-hand circular. Ion acoustic and Langmuir turbulence are also observed along with bursts of microwave radiation. Measurements of the electron distribution function f(v, r, t) and its fluctuations in velocity space relate wave and particle activity.
The distribution of energetic ion anisotropies in flux transfer events (FTEs) about the dayside magnetopause has been determined for ISEE 2 crossings of the boundary in 1977 and 1978. When the events are sorted according to the sign of the east-west component of the magnetic field in the magnetosphere, a clear correlation is observed on the northern morningside. When the field is eastward, particles flow antiparallel to the field, implying field line connection to the Northern Hemisphere; when the field is westward, the opposite is true. On the afternoonside, the particle anisotropies are correlated with latitude. Explanations for this pattern are discussed which involve FTE formation at low latitudes with subsequent motion at a velocity given by the vector superposition of the Alfven velocity from the release of magnetic tension and the magnetosheath bulk flow velocity. Evidence that the geomagnetic and not the geocentric solar magnetospheric equator is the source of FTEs is considered.
Preliminary results of a search for heat-transfer signatures in electron data on 31 flux-transfer events (FTEs) are reported. Strong acceleration or deceleration, large parallel pressure anisotropies, and temperatures and densities between those of the magnetosphere and the magnetosheath are commonly observed within the surface of the flux-transfer interval defined by the heat-flow peaks, with some evidence of field-aligned ionospheric electrons. A theoretical model is developed to explain some of the observations and illustrated with diagrams. Dynamical tests on a large well-resolved FTE show that the data are consistent with a one-sided passage of the probe into and out of a rotational shear layer.
The formation of flux ropes in the magnetosphere of Venus due to velocity shear is examined in order to infer the properties of flux ropes in the earth magnetosphere. Observational data obtained by the International Sun-Earth Explorer (ISEE) spacecraft for the geometry of directed flows in the earth magnetosheath are compared with magnetometer measurements carried out on board Pioneer Venus Orbiter, and the results are discussed in detail. It is shown that the velocity shear is the dominant element shaping the magnetic structure of the magnetosheaths.
A plasma sheet encounter of the ISEE-3 spacecraft in the distant tail at 140 earth radii on March 20, 1983 is studied using magnetic field, energetic particle, and plasma electron data sets. The H-component magnetograms from auroral magnetometer stations, intensity-time profiles, high resolution magnetic field measurements, and electron and proton angular distributions are analyzed. The dynamics of the plasma sheet displayed by the strong tailward and earthward directed ion beams, large northward and southward magnetic fields excursions, and short tailward and earthward plasma flows are described.
SCATHA satellite observations of large-amplitude magnetic field oscillations in the magnetosheath and in the associated plasma are studied. Large-amplitude variations in the magnetosheath magnetic field intensity with a quasi-period of 10 s were observed. Nearly static structures of high-beta plasma associated with the magnetic field minima and low-beta plasma associated with the magnetic field maxima were observed convecting toward the earth. The morphology of charged particle data for the transition between the magnetosphere and the magnetosheath for a northward magnetosheath magnetic field is presented. A convection electric field of about 9 mV/m was inferred from the spectral difference between solar and antisolar drifting ions in the magnetosheath near a magnetopause rotational discontinuity. A trapped component was observed in the magnetosheath plasma during both northward and southward magnetosheath magnetic fields. It is concluded that flux transfer events arise from the interaction of the earthward convecting plasma filaments with the magnetospheric magnetic field at the magnetopause.