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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 127 records · Page 7
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
NASA NTRS1988

Cosmic-ray lifetime in the Galaxy - Experimental results and models

The separation of the cosmic-ray Be isotopes achieved by two satellite experiments is discussed. From the measured isotopic ratio between the radioactive Be-10 (half-life = 1,500,000 years) and the stable Be-9, it is deduced that the cosmic rays propagate through matter with an average density of 0.24 = or - 0.07 atoms/ cu cm. The implications of this result for the cosmic-ray age is reviewed in the context of two models of confinement and propagation: the homogeneous model, normally identified with confinement ot the galactic gaseous disk, and a diffusion model in which the cosmic rays extend into a galactic halo. A newly deduced cosmic-ray pathlength distribution, a self-consistent model of solar modulation, and a set of fragmentation cross sections are calculated. It is concluded that in a homogeneous model, the cosmic-ray age is 15 (+7, -4) million years, about a factor longer than early estimates based on the abundances of the light nuclei Li, Be, and B and a nominal interstellar density of 1 atom/ cu cm.

Simpson, J. A.↗
NASA NTRS1984

Propagation of heavy cosmic-ray nuclei

Techniques for modeling the propagation of heavy cosmic-ray nuclei, and the required atomic and nuclear data, are assembled in this paper. Emphasis is on understanding nuclear composition in the charge range Z = 3-83. Details of the application of 'matrix methods' above a few hundred MeV/nucleon, a new treatment of electron capture decay, and a new table of cosmic ray-stable isotopes are presented. Computation of nuclear fragmentation cross sections, stopping power, and electron stripping and attachment are briefly reviewed.

Letaw, J. R.↗
NASA NTRS1974

Physics of solar cosmic rays

A review of the historical development of solar cosmic ray research is presented and details concerning the solar atmosphere, the interplanetary space, and solar activity are considered, giving attention to solar-atmosphere structure, problems of radiative transfer, questions of solar magnetism, solar wind, and interplanetary plasmas. Solar flares and associated phenomena are discussed along with the generation of solar cosmic ray events, the mechanism of solar flares, the acceleration process of solar cosmic rays, the propagation of solar cosmic rays, and relations between the flow of energetic protons and solar active regions. Questions regarding the origin theory of cosmic rays are also explored, taking into account the solar origin theory and problems of flare stars.

Sakurai, K.↗
NASA NTRS1979

Evidence for the deficiency of short cosmic ray pathlengths and a physically realistic explanation - The no-near-sources model

Recent observations of the charge and energy spectra of cosmic-ray nuclei are used to construct secondary-to-primary charge ratios at the two ends of the charge spectrum. These ratios are found to be inconsistent with the ad hoc leaky-box model of cosmic-ray propagation which leads to an exponential pathlength distribution. Models for which the pathlength distribution function is deficient in short pathlengths provide a more consistent picture. Several of these models, both ad hoc and physical, are investigated. The physical model considered is one for which detailed galactic propagation parameters and boundary conditions are used and for which there exist no near sources of cosmic rays over a time interval corresponding to a few times the cosmic-ray age.

Lezniak, J. A.↗
NASA NTRS1987

On the possibility of observing cosmic ray sources in high energy gamma rays

If cosmic rays are accelerated by strong shocks, then cosmic ray sources should be characterized by spectra, dN/dE alpha E exp -(2.0-2.2), reflecting the strength of those shocks. This is expected from the 'standard leaky box' model of cosmic ray propagation in which the source spectra are harder than the observed spectra because higher energy particles have shorter residence times in the galactic magnetic fields. Furthermore, data on cosmic ray nucleons suggest that these sources might be surrounded by material. If the latter is true, such sources should be observable in gamma rays at energies beyond 1 GeV where the angular resolution of gamma-ray telescopes is optimized and the background is significantly reduced. For identified sources, the source location accuracy can be shown to improve with increasing energy in spite of the decreasing statistics, as long as the gamma-ray spectrum is harder than dN/dE alpha E exp -gamma. A Monte Carlo model is used to predict the photon spectra which would be expected from cosmic ray sources under varying assumptions about the strength of the shocks in the acceleration region.

Ormes, J. F.↗
NASA NTRS1977

Consequences of using nonlinear particle trajectories to compute spatial diffusion coefficients

In a study of cosmic ray propagation in interstellar and interplanetary space, a perturbed orbit resonant scattering theory for pitch angle diffusion in a slab model of magnetostatic turbulence is slightly generalized and used to compute the diffusion coefficient for spatial propagation parallel to the mean magnetic field. This diffusion coefficient has been useful for describing the solar modulation of the galactic cosmic rays, and for explaining the diffusive phase in solar flares in which the initial anisotropy of the particle distribution decays to isotropy.

Goldstein, M. L.↗
NASA NTRS2005

Numerical Model for Cosmic Rays Species Production and Propagation in the Galaxy

In recent years, considerable progress has been made in studying the propagation and origin of cosmic rays, as new and more accurate data have become available. Many models have been developed to study cosmic ray interactions and propagation showed flexibility in resembling various astrophysical conditions and good agreement with observational data. However, some astrophysical problems cannot be addressed using these models, such as the stochastic nature of the cosmic rays source, small-scale structures and inhomogeneities in the interstellar gas that can affect radioactive secondary abundance in cosmic rays. We have developed a new model and a corresponding computer code that can address some of these limitations. The model depends on the expansion of the backward stochastic solution of the general diffusion transport equation (Zhang 1999) starting from an observer position to solve a group of diffusion transport equations each of which represents a particular element or isotope of cosmic ray nuclei. In this paper we are focusing on key abundance ratios such as B/C, sub-Fe/Fe, (10)Be/(9)Be, (26)Al/(27)Al, (36)Cl/(37)Cl and (54)Mn/(55)Mn, which all have well established cross sections, to evaluate our model. The effect of inhomogeneity in the interstellar medium is investigated. The contribution of certain cosmic ray nuclei to the production of other nuclei is addressed. The contribution of various galactic locations to the production of cosmic ray nuclei observed at solar system is also investigated.

Farahat, Ashraf↗
NASA NTRS2005

Studies of Cosmic Ray Modulation and Energetic Particle Propagation in Time-Dependent 3-Dimensional Heliospheric Magnetic Fields

The primary goal of this project was to perform theoretical calculations of propagation of cosmic rays and energetic particles in 3-dimensional heliospheric magnetic fields. We used Markov stochastic process simulation to achieve to this goal. We developed computation software that can be used to study particle propagation in, as two examples of heliospheric magnetic fields that have to be treated in 3 dimensions, a heliospheric magnetic field suggested by Fisk (1996) and a global heliosphere including the region beyond the termination shock. The results from our model calculations were compared with particle measurements from Ulysses, Earth-based spacecraft such as IMP-8, WIND and ACE, Voyagers and Pioneers in outer heliosphere for tests of the magnetic field models. We particularly looked for features of particle variations that can allow us to significantly distinguish the Fisk magnetic field from the conventional Parker spiral field. The computer code will eventually lead to a new generation of integrated software for solving complicated problems of particle acceleration, propagation and modulation in realistic 3-dimensional heliosphere of realistic magnetic fields and the solar wind with a single computation approach.

Zhang, Ming↗
NASA NTRS1973

A study of the force-field equation for the propagation of galactic cosmic rays

A new development is given of the solution of the equation of the force-field approximation for the propagation of galactic cosmic rays in the interplanetary region. It leads to simpler methods for determining the force-field parameters. A method is given for determining the separable diffusion coefficient from observations of galactic electron spectrum and near-earth electron spectra; it is shown that this diffusion coefficient is not unique but may have a periodic-like dependence upon rigidity; and the method is used to obtain diffusion coefficients for 1965 and 1968. Approximate formulae relating small changes in intensity and diffusion coefficient are developed and some applications of these noted; in one it is shown that the form of, and changes in, diffusion coefficient deduced previously for a neutron monitor event during June-September 1969 are unnecessarily constrained and therefore probably not correct.

Gleeson, L. J.↗
NASA NTRS1985

Effects of solar magnetic field on cosmic rays

Aspects of the problem of galactic cosmic ray propagation, including inversion of the solar total magnetic field and an analysis of data related to the heliomagnetic cycle are discussed. It is noted that the global structure of the solar magnetic field results in an additional flux of galactic cosmic rays generated by curvature and gradient drifts. An analysis of heliomagnetic cycle data shows that the latitudinal gradient results in a N-S asymmetry, with the amplitude of the effect growing with depth in the atmosphere. The inversion of the solar total magnetic field, drift effects, and other space distributions are found to contribute to a 22-year cycle of solar activity.

Goncher, G. A.↗
NASA NTRS1997

Ultra Heavy Ion Collector (UHIC)

The purpose of this final report is to study the propagation of heavy nuclei in cosmic radiation. Topics include: Mass Distributions of Fragments from the Interactions of 600 MeV/n Silver Nuclei; Charge-pickup by Heavy Relativistic Nuclei; Fragmentation and Propagation Heavy UH Cosmic Ray Nuclei; Nuclear Fragmentation Parameters Needed for Interpretation of Observed Fluxes of UH Cosmic Ray Nuclei; Fragmentation and Electromagnetic Dissociation of 10.6 GeV/nucleon (197) Au Nuclei; Nuclear Interaction Cross Sections for UltraHeavy Nuclei; The Charge-Changing Fragmentation of 10.6 GeV/nucleon 197 Au Nuclei; Fragmentation Cross Sections of Relativistic 84/36 Kr and 109/47 Ag Nuclei in Targets from Hydrogen to Lead; Mission Concept for the Study of Ultraheavy Galactic Cosmic Rays; and Propagation of the Heaviest UH - Cosmic Ray Nuclei.

Stone, E. C.↗
NASA NTRS1973

Energy losses of galactic cosmic rays in the interplanetary medium.

Using realistic models of cosmic-ray propagation in interplanetary space we present, for electrons, protons and helium nuclei of a given energy near earth, calculations of their distribution in energy before entering the solar cavity and their mean energy loss. Interplanetary conditions appropriate for the epochs 1965 and 1969 have been used. Cosmic-ray energies in the range of 20 to 1000 MeV/nucleon have been considered.

Urch, I. H.↗
NASA NTRS1981

The sub-iron to iron ratios and the cosmic ray pathlength distribution

Data on the ratios of nuclei in the 21-25 charge range to iron, from the Danish-French cosmic ray isotope experiment on HEAO 3, are compared with cosmic ray propagation calculations based upon the latest cross sections. The results are incompatible with models in which the path length distribution has a peak at a path length larger than 1 g/sq cm, e.g., those in which there is more than 1 g/sq cm of matter around the cosmic ray source. They are most consistent with models in which the path length distribution includes substantial probabilities of having traversed very little matter.

Ormes, J. F.↗
NASA NTRS1985

Electron capture decay of cosmic rays: A model of the inhomogeneous interstellar medium

Traditional analyses of cosmic ray composition seek to identify the sources through a determination of a the isotopic abundances of these nuclei prior to acceleration. At the same time, it is both necessary and interesting to understand the nature of the medium through which cosmic rays pass before arriving at detectors. In fact, only within a model of the interstellar medium (ISM) sampled by cosmic rays can a refined estimate of source composition be made. An elaboration of the traditional model of the ISM used in studying cosmic ray propagation is explored. Inhomogeneity of the ISM is accomodated in this model. Within this model it is found that the abundances of some electron apture isotopes, are very sensitive to density inhomogeneities which might be expected in the ISM. These nuclei therefore measure the penetration of heavy cosmic rays into interstellar clouds.

Letaw, J. R.↗