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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 163 records · Page 9
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NASA NTRS1988

The absolute radiometric calibration of the advanced very high resolution radiometer

The need for independent, redundant absolute radiometric calibration methods is discussed with reference to the Thematic Mapper. Uncertainty requirements for absolute calibration of between 0.5 and 4 percent are defined based on the accuracy of reflectance retrievals at an agricultural site. It is shown that even very approximate atmospheric corrections can reduce the error in reflectance retrieval to 0.02 over the reflectance range 0 to 0.4.

Slater, P. N.↗
NASA NTRS1987

Absolute magnitude estimation and relative judgement approaches to subjective workload assessment

Two rating scale techniques employing an absolute magnitude estimation method, were compared to a relative judgment method for assessing subjective workload. One of the absolute estimation techniques used was an unidimensional overall workload scale and the other was the multidimensional NASA-Task Load Index technique. Thomas Saaty's Analytic Hierarchy Process was the unidimensional relative judgment method used. These techniques were used to assess the subjective workload of various single- and dual-tracking conditions. The validity of the techniques was defined as their ability to detect the same phenomena observed in the tracking performance. Reliability was assessed by calculating test-retest correlations. Within the context of the experiment, the Saaty Analytic Hierarchy Process was found to be superior in validity and reliability. These findings suggest that the relative judgment method would be an effective addition to the currently available subjective workload assessment techniques.

Vidulich, Michael A.↗
NASA NTRS1988

Absolute absorption cross-section measurements of ozone in the wavelength region 238-335 nm and the temperature dependence

The absolute absorption cross-section of ozone has been experimentally determined at the temperatures 195, 228, and 295 K at several discrete wavelengths in the 238-335-nm region. The present results for ozone at 295 K are found to be in agreement with those of Hearn (1961). Absolute cross-section measurements of ozone at 195 K have confirmed previous (Freeman et al., 1984) relative cross-section measurements throughout the 240-335-nm region.

Yoshino, K.↗
NASA NTRS1988

Spectrophotometry of Wolf-Rayet stars - Intrinsic colors and absolute magnitudes

Absolute spectrophotometry of about 10-A resolution in the range 3400-7300 A have been obtained for southern Wolf-Rayet stars, and line-free magnitudes and colors have been constructed. The emission-line contamination in the narrow-band ubvr systems of Westerlund (1966) and Smith (1968) is shown to be small for most WN stars, but to be quite significant for WC stars. It is suggested that the more severe differences in intrinsic color from star to star of the same spectral subtype noted at shorter wavelengths are due to differences in atmospheric extent. True continuum absolute visual magnitudes and intrinsic colors are obtained for the LMC WR stars. The most visually luminous WN6-WN7 stars are found to be located in the core of the 30 Doradus region.

Torres-Dodgen, Ana V.↗
NASA NTRS1989

Absolute Stability And Hyperstability In Hilbert Space

Theorems on stabilities of feedback control systems proved. Paper presents recent developments regarding theorems of absolute stability and hyperstability of feedforward-and-feedback control system. Theorems applied in analysis of nonlinear, adaptive, and robust control. Extended to provide sufficient conditions for stability in system including nonlinear feedback subsystem and linear time-invariant (LTI) feedforward subsystem, state space of which is Hilbert space, and input and output spaces having finite numbers of dimensions. (In case of absolute stability, feedback subsystem memoryless and possibly time varying. For hyperstability, feedback system dynamical system.)

Wen, John Ting-Yung↗
NASA NTRS1988

Absolute ages from crater statistics: Using radiometric ages of Martian samples for determining the Martian cratering chronology

In the absence of dates derived from rock samples, impact crater frequencies are commonly used to date Martian surface units. All models for absolute dating rely on the lunar cratering chronology and on the validity of its extrapolation to Martian conditions. Starting from somewhat different lunar chronologies, rather different Martian cratering chronologies are found in the literature. Currently favored models are compared. The differences at old ages are significant, the differences at younger ages are considerable and give absolute ages for the same crater frequencies as different as a factor of 3. The total uncertainty could be much higher, though, since the ratio of lunar to Martian cratering rate which is of basic importance in the models is believed to be known no better than within a factor of 2. Thus, it is of crucial importance for understanding the the evolution of Mars and determining the sequence of events to establish an unambiguous Martian cratering chronology from crater statistics in combination with clean radiometric ages of returned Martian samples. For the dating goal, rocks should be as pristine as possible from a geologically simple area with a one-stage emplacement history of the local formation. A minimum of at least one highland site for old ages, two intermediate-aged sites, and one very young site is needed.

Neukum, G.↗
NASA NTRS1988

The measurement of absolute absorption of millimeter radiation in gases - The absorption of CO and O2

An apparatus is described that will measure absolute absorption of millimeter radiation in gases. The method measures the change in the quality factor of a Fabry-Perot resonator with and without gas present. The magnitude of the change is interpreted in terms of the absorption of the lossy medium inside the resonator. Experiments have been performed on the 115-GHz CO line and the 119-GHz O2 line at two different temperatures to determine the linewidth parameter and the peak absorption value. These numbers can be combined to give the integrated intensity which can be accurately calculated from results of spectroscopy measurements. The CO results are within 2 percent percent of theoretically predicted valves. Measurements on O2 have shown that absorption can be measured as accurately as 0.5 dB/km with this technique. Results have been obtained for oxygen absolute absorption in the 60-80-GHz region.

Read, William G.↗
NASA NTRS1988

Radial velocity studies and absolute parameters of contact binaries. I - AB Andromedae

New radial velocity curves have been obtained for the contact binary AB And, using the cross-correlation technique. A mass ratio of 0.479 is determined, which is revised to 0.491 when the velocities are corrected for proximity effects using a light curve model. These values differ by less than ten percent from the photometric mass ratio. An analysis of the symmetric B and V light curves reported by Rigterink in 1973 using the spectroscopic mass ratio yields a consistent set of light and velocity curve elements. These also produce a reasonably good fit to the infrared J and K light curves reported by Jameson and Akinci in 1979. Absolute elements are determined, and these indicate that both components have a main-sequence internal structure. These absolute parameters, together with the Galactic kinematics, suggest an age for the system similar to or greater than that of the Sun.

Hrivnak, Bruce J.↗
NASA NTRS1988

Absolute, Extreme-Ultraviolet, Solar Spectral Irradiance Monitor (AESSIM)

AESSIM, the Absolute, Extreme-Ultraviolet, Solar Spectral Irradiance Monitor, is designed to measure the absolute solar spectral irradiance at extreme-ultraviolet (EUV) wavelengths. The data are required for studies of the processes that occur in the earth's upper atmosphere and for predictions of atmospheric drag on space vehicles. AESSIM is comprised of sun-pointed spectrometers and newly-developed, secondary standards of spectral irradiance for the EUV. Use of the in-orbit standard sources will eliminate the uncertainties caused by changes in spectrometer efficiency that have plagued all previous measurements of the solar spectral EUV flux.

Huber, Martin C. E.↗
NASA NTRS1989

Absolute and convective instability of a cylinder wake

The stability behavior of a circular cross-section cylinder's wake at Reynolds number values of up to 45 is presently investigated by means of local linear stability theory. The steady-wake profiles computed are Navier-Stokes solutions of a uniform, incompressible viscous flow around a cylinder obtained by a spectral method. An absolutely unstable region is found to begin to form at a Reynolds number of about 20, and grows with incresing Reynolds number. The onset of global instability response must be characterized by a critical length of an absolutely unstable region; a critical Reynolds number criterion and preferred frequency are proposed based on linear stability analysis.

Yang, X.↗
NASA NTRS1988

Absolute solar spectral irradiance 120 nm-400 nm (Results from the Solar Ultraviolet Spectral Irradiance Monitor-SUSIM-Experiment on board Spacelab 2)

The Solar UV Spectral Irradiance Monitor experiment flown on the Spacelab-2 mission measured the absolute solar spectral irradiance in the ultraviolet spectral range 120 nm-400 nm with two spectral passbands, 0.15 and 5 nm. The photometric error was + or - 5.0 percent relative to three different absolute calibration standards. Calibration procedures and error budget are discussed. The results are reported and compared with other measurements.

Vanhoosier, Michael E.↗
NASA NTRS1989

The absolute solar soft X ray flux in the 20- to 100-A region

Solar spectral data are used together with absolute neon ionization cell data to estimate the absolute solar soft X-ray flux and its variation with solar activity in the 20- to 100-A region. The dependence of the integrated solar soft X-ray flux between 20 and 100 A on the daily 10.7 cm radio flux observed at 1 AU is determined. An estimate is obtained of the maximum flux that can be expected over the solar cycle.

Feng, W.↗
NASA NTRS1989

Principles and procedures for determining absolute differential electron-molecule (atom) scattering cross sections

Procedures and calibration techniques for measuring the absolute elastic and inelastic differential cross sections (DCS) for electron impact on molecular (atomic) species are described and illustrated by examples. The elastic DCS for the molecule under study is first determined by calibration against helium using the relative flow technique. The second step involves the production of energy-loss spectra for the instrument response function, the unfolding of overlapping inelastic structures and the normalization of inelastic intensities to the elastic cross sections. It is concluded that this method of determining absolute differential electron-molecule (atom) scattering cross sections is generally applicable and provides reliable results.

Nickel, J. C.↗
NASA NTRS1990

Absolute wind measurements in the lower thermosphere of Venus using infrared heterodyne spectroscopy

The first absolute wind velocities above the Venusian cloud-tops were obtained using NASA/Goddard infrared heterodyne spectrometers at the NASA Infrared Telescope Facility (IRTF) and the McMath Solar Telescope. Beam-integrated Doppler displacements in the non-thermal emission core of (12)C(16)O2 10.33 micron R(8) sampled the line of sight projection of the lower thermospheric wind field (100 to 120 km). A field-usable Lamb-dip laser stabilization system, developed for spectrometer absolute frequency calibration to less than + or - 0.1 MHz, allowed S/N-limited line of sight velocity resolution at the 1 m/s level. The spectrometer's diffraction-limited beam (1.7 arc-second HPBW at McMath, 0.9 arc-second HPBW at IRTF), and 1 to 2 arc-second seeing, provided the spatial resolution necessary for circulation model discrimination. Qualitative analysis of beam-integrated winds provided definitive evidence of a dominant subsolar-antisolar circulation in the lower thermosphere. Beam-integrated winds were modelled with a 100x100 grid over the beam, incorporating beam spatial rolloff and across-the-beam gradients in non-thermal emission intensity, line of sight projection geometry, and horizontal wind velocity. Horizontal wind velocity was derived from a 2-parameter model wind field comprised of subsolar-antisolar and zonal components. Best-fit models indicated a dominant subsolar-antisolar flow with 120 m/s cross-terminator winds and a retrograde zonal component with a 25 m/s equatorial velocity. A review of all dynamical indicators above the cloud-tops allowed development of an integrated and self-consistent picture of circulation in the 70 to 200 km range.

Goldstein, Jeffrey J.↗
NASA NTRS1990

Cryogenic absolute radiometers as laboratory irradiance standards, remote sensing detectors, and pyroheliometers

The dramatic improvement in heat diffusivity of pure Cu at liquid-He temperatures makes possible very important advances in the absolute accuracy, reproducibility, sensitivity, and time constant of cryogenic electrical substitution radiometers (ESRs), relative to conventional ESRs. The design and characterization of a table-top cryogenic ESR now available for detector calibration work to the 0.01-percent level of absolute accuracy under laser illumination is discussed. A sensitive cryogenic ESR recently delivered to the NIST for radiometric calibrations of black bodies is also described, along with the design and testing of a very fast cryogenic ESR developed for NASA remote-sensing studies of the earth's radiation budget.

Foukal, Peter V.↗
NASA NTRS1991

Absolute magnitude calibration using trigonometric parallax - Incomplete, spectroscopic samples

A new numerical algorithm is used to calibrate the absolute magnitude of spectroscopically selected stars from their observed trigonometric parallax. This procedure, based on maximum-likelihood estimation, can retrieve unbiased estimates of the intrinsic absolute magnitude and its dispersion even from incomplete samples suffering from selection biases in apparent magnitude and color. It can also make full use of low accuracy and negative parallaxes and incorporate censorship on reported parallax values. Accurate error estimates are derived for each of the fitted parameters. The algorithm allows an a posteriori check of whether the fitted model gives a good representation of the observations. The procedure is described in general and applied to both real and simulated data.

Ratnatunga, Kavan U.↗
NASA NTRS1990

Correction to absolute proper motion using the IAS-Galaxy model

The IAS-Galaxy (IASG) model is a software interface between theoretical models of the Galaxy and observed kinematic distributions. It has been developed for analysis of many kinematic catalogs to study global galactic structure. In addition, the IASG model can be used to estimate corrections needed to derive absolute parallax and absolute proper motion by evaluating, on a star-by-star basis, the expected mean motion of the reference stars. A theoretical Galaxy model is defined on an inertial coordinate frame. Proper motions are measured in a reference frame defined by a fundamental catalog. The observed distribution of proper motions in star catalogs can be directly compared with the expected distributions evaluated using IASG to check the accuracy of the adopted reference frame in realizing the inertial coordinate frame in the sky.

Ratnatunga, Kavan U.↗
NASA NTRS1991

Asteroid absolute magnitudes and slope parameters

A new listing of absolute magnitudes (H) and slope parameters (G) has been created and published in the Minor Planet Circulars; this same listing will appear in the 1992 Ephemerides of Minor Planets. Unlike previous listings, the values of the current list were derived from fits of data at the V band. All observations were reduced in the same fashion using, where appropriate, a single basis default value of 0.15 for the slope parameter. Distances and phase angles were computed for each observation. The data for 113 asteroids was of sufficiently high quality to permit derivation of their H and G. These improved absolute magnitudes and slope parameters will be used to deduce the most reliable bias-corrected asteroid size-frequency distribution yet made.

Tedesco, Edward F.↗