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At least 109 records · Page 6

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NASA NTRS1989

Wind models for the NSTS ascent trajectory biasing for wind load alleviation

New concepts are presented for aerospace vehicle ascent wind profile biasing. The purpose for wind biasing the ascent trajectory is to provide ascent wind loads relief and thus decrease the probability for launch delays due to wind loads exceeding critical limits. Wind biasing trajectories to the profile of monthly mean winds have been widely used for this purpose. The wind profile models presented give additional alternatives for wind biased trajectories. They are derived from the properties of the bivariate normal probability function using the available wind statistical parameters for the launch site. The analytical expressions are presented to permit generalizations. Specific examples are given to illustrate the procedures. The wind profile models can be used to establish the ascent trajectory steering commands to guide the vehicle through the first stage. For the National Space Transportation System (NSTS) program these steering commands are called I-loads.

Smith, O. E.↗

NASA NTRS1989

Deterministic photon bias in speckle imaging

A method for determining photo bias terms in speckle imaging is presented, and photon bias is shown to be a deterministic quantity that can be calculated without the use of the expectation operator. The quantities obtained are found to be identical to previous results. The present results have extended photon bias calculations to the important case of the bispectrum where photon events are assigned different weights, in which regime the bias is a frequency dependent complex quantity that must be calculated for each frame.

Beletic, James W.↗

NASA NTRS1989

Observations on electromagnetic bias in radar altimeter sea surface measurements

Because the relative radar cross section of the sea surface increases below mean sea level and decreases above it, the range measurements of satellite radar altimeters are biased toward the wave troughs. Published and unpublished direct measurements of this electromagnetic (EM) bias are examined as well as the predictions of theoretical developments. The EM bias is predominantly a function of the radar frequency used, averaging 1.2 percent of the wave height of Ka band and 3.3 percent of the wave height at X band. The airborne measurements present a consistent picture of the variation of the relative radar cross section as a function of deviation from mean sea level. A technique to measure EM bias at the Ku and C band operating frequencies of the Topex satellite altimeter is described.

Walsh, Edward J.↗

NASA NTRS1990

Wind models for the NSTS ascent trajectory biasing for wind load alleviation

New concepts are presented for aerospace vehicle ascent wind profile biasing. The purpose for wind biasing the ascent trajectory is to provide ascent wind loads relief and thus decrease the probability for launch delays due to wind loads exceeding critical limits. Wind biasing trajectories to the the profile of monthly mean winds have been widely used for this purpose. The wind profile models presented give additional alternatives for wind biased trajectories. They are derived from the properties of the bivariate normal probability function using the available wind statistical parameters for the launch site. The analytical expressions are presented to permit generalizations. Specific examples are given to illustrate the procedures. The wind profile models can be used to establish the ascent trajectory steering commands to guide the vehicle through the first stage. For the National Space Transportation System (NSTS) program these steering commands are called I-loads.

Smith, O. E.↗

NASA NTRS1991

Magnetic bearings with zero bias

A magnetic bearing operating without a bias field has supported a shaft rotating at speeds up to 12,000 rpm with the usual four power supplies and with only two. A magnetic bearing is commonly operated with a bias current equal to half of the maximum current allowable in its coils. This linearizes the relation between net force and control current and improves the force slewing rate and hence the band width. The steady bias current dissipates power, even when no force is required from the bearing. The power wasted is equal to two-thirds of the power at maximum force output. Examined here is the zero bias idea. The advantages and disadvantages are noted.

Brown, Gerald V.↗

NASA NTRS1993

Ionospheric plasma flow about a system of electrically biased flat plates

The steady state interaction of two electrically biased parallel plates immersed in a flowing plasma characteristic of low earth orbit is studied numerically. Fluid equations are developed to describe the motion of the cold positively charged plasma ions, and are solved using finite-differences in two dimensions on a Cartesian grid. The behavior of the plasma electrons is assumed to be described by the Maxwell-Boltzmann distribution. Results are compared to an analytical and a particle simulation technique for a simplified flow geometry consisting of a single semi-infinite negatively biased plate. Comparison of the extent of the electrical disturbance into the flowing plasma and the magnitude of the current collected by the plate is very good. The interaction of two equally biased parallel plates is studied as a function of applied potential. The separation distance at which the current collected by either plate decreases by five and twenty percent is determined as a function of applied potential. The percent decreases were based on a non-interacting case. The decrease in overall current is caused by a decrease in ionic density in the region between the plates. As the separation between the plates decreases, the plates collect the ions at a faster rate than they are supplied to the middle region by the oncoming plasma flow. The docking of spacecraft in orbit is simulated by moving two plates of unequal potential toward one another in a quasi-static manner. One plate is held at a large negative potential while the other floats electrically in the resulting potential field. It is found that the floating plate does not charge continuously negative as it approaches the other more negatively biased plate. Instead, it charges more and then less negative as ionic current decreases and then increases respectively upon approach. When the two plates come into contact, it is expected that the electrically floating plate will charge rapidly negative to a potential near that of the other plate.

Herr, Joel L.↗

NASA NTRS1993

Effect of Malmquist bias on correlation studies with IRAS data base

The relationships between galaxy properties in the sample of Trinchieri et al. (1989) are reexamined with corrections for Malmquist bias. The linear correlations are tested and linear regressions are fit for log-log plots of L(FIR), L(H-alpha), and L(B) as well as ratios of these quantities. The linear correlations for Malmquist bias are corrected using the method of Verter (1988), in which each galaxy observation is weighted by the inverse of its sampling volume. The linear regressions are corrected for Malmquist bias by a new method invented here in which each galaxy observation is weighted by its sampling volume. The results of correlation and regressions among the sample are significantly changed in the anticipated sense that the corrected correlation confidences are lower and the corrected slopes of the linear regressions are lower. The elimination of Malmquist bias eliminates the nonlinear rise in luminosity that has caused some authors to hypothesize additional components of FIR emission.

Verter, Frances↗

NASA NTRS1993

Biasing and hierarchical statistics in large-scale structure

In this paper we consider the consequences for galaxy formation of an arbitrary, effectively local biasing transformation of a hierarchical underlying matter distribution. We show that a general form of such a transformation preserves the hierarchical properties and the shape of the dispersion in the limit of small fluctuations, i.e., on large scales, although the values of the hierarchical amplitudes may change arbitrarily. We present expressions for the induced hierarchical amplitudes S(g,j) of the galaxy distribution in terms of the matter amplitudes S(j) and biasing parameters for j = 3-7. For higher order correlations, j greater than 2, restricting to a linear bias is not a consistent approximation even at very large scales. To draw any conclusions from the galaxy distribution about matter correlations of order j, properties of biasing must be specified completely to order j - 1.

Fry, J. N.↗

NASA NTRS1994

A long-baseline method for HST gyro drift rate bias calibration

The routine on-orbit calibration of the Hubble Space Telescope (HST) rate gyro assemblies (RGA's) has depended on several related algorithms for drift rate bias calibration. The gyros have exhibited time-varying biases, which must be regularly corrected to maintain pointing stability. Currently, gyro drift parameters are uplinked to the spacecraft every 1-2 days for low rate mode and every 7 days for high rate mode. In order to minimize the impact of frequent calibrations on the HST science schedule, we have refined the gyro calibration algorithms and data collection schemes to reduce the amounts of telemetry data and processing time required for accurate bias calibration. We present a review of the evolution of the gyro calibration algorithms, with particular attention to what we have called the long-baseline bias (LBBIAS) technique, and describe the relative success of these methods in maintaining spacecraft stability.

Boia, John J.↗

NASA NTRS1995

Minority-carrier lifetime in InP as a function of light bias

Minority-carrier lifetime in InP is studied as a function of doping level and laser intensity using time-resolved photoluminescence. A continuous wave diode laser illuminates bulk InP and acts as a light bias, injecting a steady-state concentration of carriers. A 200 ps laser pulse produces a small transient signal on top of the steady-state luminescence, allowing lifetime to be measured directly as a function of incident intensity. For p-InP, lifetime increases with light bias up to a maximum value. Bulk recombination centers are presumably filled to saturation, allowing minority carriers to live longer. The saturation bias scales with dopant concentration for a particular dopant species. As light bias is increased for n-InP, minority-carrier lifetime increases slightly but then decreases, suggesting radiative recombination as a dominant decay mechanism.

Yater, Jane A.↗

NASA NTRS1995

Estimation of attitude sensor timetag biases

This paper presents an extended Kalman filter for estimating attitude sensor timing errors. Spacecraft attitude is determined by finding the mean rotation from a set of reference vectors in inertial space to the corresponding observed vectors in the body frame. Any timing errors in the observations can lead to attitude errors if either the spacecraft is rotating or the reference vectors themselves vary with time. The state vector here consists of the attitude quaternion, timetag biases, and, optionally, gyro drift rate biases. The filter models the timetags as random walk processes: their expectation values propagate as constants and white noise contributes to their covariance. Thus, this filter is applicable to cases where the true timing errors are constant or slowly varying. The observability of the state vector is studied first through an examination of the algebraic observability condition and then through several examples with simulated star tracker timing errors. The examples use both simulated and actual flight data from the Extreme Ultraviolet Explorer (EUVE). The flight data come from times when EUVE had a constant rotation rate, while the simulated data feature large angle attitude maneuvers. The tests include cases with timetag errors on one or two sensors, both constant and time-varying, and with and without gyro bias errors. Due to EUVE's sensor geometry, the observability of the state vector is severely limited when the spacecraft rotation rate is constant. In the absence of attitude maneuvers, the state elements are highly correlated, and the state estimate is unreliable. The estimates are particularly sensitive to filter mistuning in this case. The EUVE geometry, though, is a degenerate case having coplanar sensors and rotation vector. Observability is much improved and the filter performs well when the rate is either varying or noncoplanar with the sensors, as during a slew. Even with bad geometry and constant rates, if gyro biases are independently known, the timetag error for a single sensor can be accurately estimated as long as its boresight is not too close to the spacecraft rotation axis.

Sedlak, J.↗

NASA NTRS1994

On the determination of biases in satellite-derived temperature profiles

Comparisons are presented between Nimbus 7 LIMS (Limb Infrared Monitor of the Stratosphere) mapped temperatures and both Datasonde and sphere in situ rocketsonde temperature measurements. With this approach up to 666 LIMS/Datasonde pairs were obtained for various pressure levels to look for small biases in LIMS temperatures as a function of altitude, latitude and season. Between 10-1 hPa LIMS and Datasonde agree everywhere to better than +/- 2 K with the exception of a warm bias of about 3 K at 2 hPa at high latitudes. However, LIMS is colder than the Datasonde by about 4 K at 0.4 hPa and by about 8-10 K at 0.1 hPa. When compared with the more accurate sphere temperatures the bias at 0.1 hPa is reduced by nearly one-half. These results indicate that the LIMS zonal mean constituent profiles are nearly free of temperature bias, except perhaps at 0.1 hPa.

Bhatt, Praful P.↗

NASA NTRS1994

The sea state bias in altimeter estimates of sea level from collinear analysis of TOPEX data

The wind speed and significant wave height (H(sub 1/3)) dependencies of the sea state bias in altimeter estimates of sea level, expressed in the form (Delta)h(sub SSB) = bH(sub 1/3), are examined from least squares analysis of 21 cycles of collinear TOPEX data. The bias coefficient b is found to increase in magnitude with increasing wind speed up to about 12 m/s and decrease monotonically in magnitude with increasing H(sub 1/3). A parameterization of b as a quadratic function of wind speed only, as in the formation used to produce the TOPEX geophysical data records (GDRs), is significantly better than a parameterization purely in terms of H(sub 1/3). However, a four-parameter combined wind speed and wave height formulation for b (quadratic in wind speed plus linear in H(sub 1/3)) significantly improves the accuracy of the sea state bias correction. The GDR formulation in terms of wind speed only should therefore be expanded to account for a wave height dependence of b. An attempt to quantify the accuracy of the sea state bias correction (Delta)h(sub SSB) concludes that the uncertainty is a disconcertingly large 1% of H(sub 1/3).

Chelton, Dudley B.↗

NASA NTRS1993

Kalman filter estimation of attitude and gyro bias with the QUEST observation model

The loss function for the Wahba attitude estimation problem employs unit vector observations with scalar weights. It is usually associated with the QUEST observation model, where the actual sensor noise is assumed the same for all components of the observed vector, regardless of the position in the field of view. The QUEST model has the great advantage of being sensor-independent except for the scalar parameter that characterizes the sensor errors. Although efficient algorithms for solving the Wahba problem exist, extending these algorithms to estimate gyro biases or sensor alignments has had mixed success. However, it is straightforward to estimate bias and alignment parameters with a Kalman filter. This paper investigates the use of an extended Kalman filter for the attitude and gyro bias that incorporates the QUEST observation model, to be referred to as the Unit Vector Filter (UVF). The UVF results are compared with those from a more conventional filter, the Real-Time Sequential Filter (RTSF), for which the residual is the two-dimensional projection of the unit vector onto the plane perpendicular to the sensor boresight. The RTSF is similar in design to that used by Multimission Modular Spacecraft for onboard attitude determination. An apparent obstacle to the use of unit vectors as measurements is their singular noise covariance matrix. Shuster has shown that this problem should not affect filter performance. The UVF and RTSF are tested using actual flight data from the Extreme Ultraviolet Explorer (EUVE). It is found that these filters generate nearly identical attitude and gyro bias estimates, thus validating the use of unit vectors and the QUEST noise model.

Sedlak, J.↗

NASA NTRS1999

Validation of the AMSU-B Bias Corrections Based on Satellite Measurements from SSM/T-2

The NOAA-15 Advanced Microwave Sounding Unit-B (AMSU-B) was designed in the same spirit as the Special Sensor Microwave Water Vapor Profiler (SSM/T-2) on board the DMSP F11-14 satellites, to perform remote sensing of spatial and temporal variations in mid and upper troposphere humidity. While the SSM/T-2 instruments have a 48 km spatial resolution at nadir and 28 beam positions per scan, AMSU-B provides an improvement with a 16 km spatial resolution at nadir and 90 beam positions per scan. The AMSU-B instrument, though, has been experiencing radio frequency interference (RFI) contamination from the NOAA-15 transmitters whose effect is dependent upon channel, geographic location, and current spacecraft antenna configuration. This has lead to large cross-track biases reaching as high as 100 Kelvin for channel 17 (150 GHz) and 50 Kelvin for channel 19 (183 +/-3 GHz). NOAA-NESDIS has recently provided a series of bias corrections for AMSU-B data starting from March, 1999. These corrections are available for each of the five channels, for every third field of view, and for three cycles within an eight second period. There is also a quality indicator in each data record to indicate whether or not the bias corrections should be applied. As a precursor to performing retrievals of mid and upper troposphere humidity, a validation study is performed by statistically analyzing the differences between the F14 SSM/T-2 and the bias corrected AMSU-B brightness temperatures for three months in the spring of 1999.

Kolodner, Marc A.↗

NASA NTRS2000

Experimental Impedance of Single Liner Elements with Bias Flow

An experimental investigation was conducted to generate a high quality database, from which the effects of a mean bias flow on the acoustic impedance of lumped-element single-degree-of-freedom liners was determined. Acoustic impedance measurements were made using the standard two-microphone method in the NASA Langley Normal Incidence Tube. Each liner consisted of a perforated sheet with a constant-area cavity. Liner resistance was shown to increase and to become less frequency and sound pressure level dependent as the bias flow was increased. The resistance was also consistently lower for a negative bias flow (suction) than for a positive bias flow (blowing) of equal magnitude. The slope of the liner reactance decreased with increased flow.

Follet, J. I.↗

NASA NTRS2001

Estimating Bias Error Distributions

This paper formulates the general methodology for estimating the bias error distribution of a device in a measuring domain from less accurate measurements when a minimal number of standard values (typically two values) are available. A new perspective is that the bias error distribution can be found as a solution of an intrinsic functional equation in a domain. Based on this theory, the scaling- and translation-based methods for determining the bias error distribution arc developed. These methods are virtually applicable to any device as long as the bias error distribution of the device can be sufficiently described by a power series (a polynomial) or a Fourier series in a domain. These methods have been validated through computational simulations and laboratory calibration experiments for a number of different devices.

Liu, Tian-Shu↗

NASA NTRS2001

Bias Correction and Random Error Characterization for the Assimilation of HRDI Line-of-Sight Wind Measurements

A new approach to the analysis of systematic and random observation errors is presented in which the error statistics are obtained using forecast data rather than observations from a different instrument type. The analysis is carried out at an intermediate retrieval level, instead of the more typical state variable space. This method is carried out on measurements made by the High Resolution Doppler Imager (HRDI) on board the Upper Atmosphere Research Satellite (UARS). HRDI, a limb sounder, is the only satellite instrument measuring winds in the stratosphere, and the only instrument of any kind making global wind measurements in the upper atmosphere. HRDI measures doppler shifts in the two different O2 absorption bands (alpha and B) and the retrieved products are tangent point Line-of-Sight wind component (level 2 retrieval) and UV winds (level 3 retrieval). This analysis is carried out on a level 1.9 retrieval, in which the contributions from different points along the line-of-sight have not been removed. Biases are calculated from O-F (observed minus forecast) LOS wind components and are separated into a measurement parameter space consisting of 16 different values. The bias dependence on these parameters (plus an altitude dependence) is used to create a bias correction scheme carried out on the level 1.9 retrieval. The random error component is analyzed by separating the gamma and B band observations and locating observation pairs where both bands are very nearly looking at the same location at the same time. It is shown that the two observation streams are uncorrelated and that this allows the forecast error variance to be estimated. The bias correction is found to cut the effective observation error variance in half.

Tangborn, Andrew↗