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At least 163 records · Page 9

The emissions of broadband electrostatic noise in the near vicinity of the Shuttle Orbiter

Measurements of the Space Shuttle environment from the STS-3 and Spacelab 2 missions indicate the presence of oblique ion streams and broadband electrostatic noise. A two-dimensional theoretical model is applied to study a possible causal relationship between the ion streams and the broadband noise, especially in terms of the ion acoustic wave and ion-ion wave modes. This model predicts the generation of waves with frequencies ranging from the ion cyclotron frequency up to values greater than the ion plasma frequency, with the maximum growth rate occurring in the 10-kHz range. These results are consistent with the observational data from the STS-3 mission. The model also shows that these two wave modes can coexist only when the wave vectors of the two wave modes are nearly perpendicular. The parametric dependence of the wave instabilities on the plasma parameters and the inclination of the wave propagation vector is also studied.

Hwang, K. S.↗

COMETBOARDS Can Optimize the Performance of a Wave-Rotor-Topped Gas Turbine Engine

A wave rotor, which acts as a high-technology topping spool in gas turbine engines, can increase the effective pressure ratio as well as the turbine inlet temperature in such engines. The wave rotor topping, in other words, may significantly enhance engine performance by increasing shaft horse power while reducing specific fuel consumption. This performance enhancement requires optimum selection of the wave rotor's adjustable parameters for speed, surge margin, and temperature constraints specified on different engine components. To examine the benefit of the wave rotor concept in engine design, researchers soft coupled NASA Lewis Research Center's multidisciplinary optimization tool COMETBOARDS and the NASA Engine Performance Program (NEPP) analyzer. The COMETBOARDS-NEPP combined design tool has been successfully used to optimize wave-rotor-topped engines. For illustration, the design of a subsonic gas turbine wave-rotor-enhanced engine with four ports for 47 mission points (which are specified by Mach number, altitude, and power-setting combinations) is considered. The engine performance analysis, constraints, and objective formulations were carried out through NEPP, and COMETBOARDS was used for the design optimization. So that the benefits that accrue from wave rotor enhancement could be examined, most baseline variables and constraints were declared to be passive, whereas important parameters directly associated with the wave rotor were considered to be active for the design optimization. The engine thrust was considered as the merit function. The wave rotor engine design, which became a sequence of 47 optimization subproblems, was solved successfully by using a cascade strategy available in COMETBOARDS. The graph depicts the optimum COMETBOARDS solutions for the 47 mission points, which were normalized with respect to standard results. As shown, the combined tool produced higher thrust for all mission points than did the other solution, with maximum benefits around mission points 11, 25, and 31. Such improvements can become critical, especially when engines are sized for these specific mission points.

Patnaik, Surya N.↗

Computer extension and analytic continuation of Stokes' expansion for gravity waves

Stokes' infinitesimal-wave expansion for steady progressive free-surface waves has been extended to high order using a computer to perform the coefficient arithmetic. Stokes' expansion has been found to be incapable of yielding the highest wave for any value of the water depth since convergence is limited by a square-root branch-point some distance short of the maximum. By reformulating the problem using a different independent parameter, the highest waves are obtained correctly. Series summation and analytic continuation are facilitated by the use of Pade approximants. The method is valid in principle for any finite value of the wavelength and solutions of high accuracy can be obtained for most values of the wave height and water depth.

Schwartz, L. W.↗

Modification of the Rankine-Hugoniot relations for shocks in space.

The Rankine-Hugoniot (R-H) equations for hydromagnetic shocks are extended to take into consideration the energy flux and momentum flux due to waves and/or turbulence and/or heat flow in the vicinity of shocks. Eighteen shocks obseved in space were analyzed. It is found that, in order to satisfy the R-H relations with the values of measured parameters in space, waves and/or turbulence and/or heat flow are needed for the shocks with a Mach number of greater than 2, and no waves and/or turbulence are needed to satisfy the R-H equations for the shocks with a Mach number of less than 2. A discussion of the waves, turbulence, and heat flow is given. Fluctuations may considerably affect the time-averaged R-H relations.

Chao, J. K.↗

Propagation of planetary waves between the troposphere and stratosphere

The propagation of planetary waves between the troposphere and stratosphere is investigated using a linear, time-dependent, primitive equation model. It is found that the tropopause acts like a valve for the propagation of planetary waves. The key parameters controlling the valve are the vertical gradient of buoyancy frequency and the vertical shear of the zonal winds at the tropopause. For a given wind profile smaller gradient of buoyancy frequency enhances the propagation of planetary waves. For a given profile of buoyancy frequency the larger the shear, the more the wave activity is trapped in the troposphere, and therefore, there is less left to propagate into the stratosphere. The transmission across the tropopause is, however, not sensitive to zonal winds in the upper stratosphere. The propagation of planetary waves is very sensitive to transience. More transient waves propagate more vertically within the troposphere, and for more transient waves, more wave activity is transferred into the stratosphere from the troposphere.

Chen, Ping↗

The pressure broadening of NO2 in the millimeter and submillimeter wave spectral region

Pressure-broadening parameters for 19 transitions of the millimeter and submillimeter wave spectrum of NO2 have been obtained experimentally. Results for broadening by N2, O2, and He are presented and compared with earlier theoretical calculations of the N2 and O2 parameters. A discussion of the relation between theoretical calculations and experimental measurements is presented.

Goyette, Thomas M.↗

EMIC Wave Energy Dissipation as a Source of O + Conics and Warm Plasma Cloak in the Earth's Inner Magnetosphere

This study focuses on a specific source of the O + conics and warm plasma cloak in the Earth's inner magnetosphere due to electromagnetic ion cyclotron (EMIC) wave energy dissipation. We analyze the EMIC wave event observed by Van Allen Probe-A in the early afternoon off equatorial magnetosphere on 18 November 2015, where the two dominant EMIC wave bands, He + -band and H + -band, were observed for ∼4 min. All the wave and plasma parameters, the DC magnetic field, and ion distributions needed for our analysis are taken from the Van Allen Probe-A observations during the event. The major results of our analysis are as follows. (a) The H + and He + heating by EMIC waves is negligible. (b) A strong heating of O + by the wave energy dissipation around the third, fifth, and sixth harmonics of the O + gyrofrequency is revealed, where the majority of energy dissipated goes into heating of O + with the energies ≲100 eV and pitch angles ∼20°–90°. The estimated energy deposition rate is ∼0.1–3.4 eV/s per O + , totaling to the deposition of ∼20–800 eV per O + during the event. (c) EMIC waves substantially contribute to the formation of O + conics and warm plasma cloak by heating the upgoing low-energy ionospheric O + because waves heat ions with the energies and pitch angles that are characteristic of conics and warm plasma cloak, and the energy deposition per O + is comparable to those characteristic energies.

Konstantin V. Gamayunov↗

Astrophysics to z approx. 10 with Gravitational Waves

The most useful characterization of a gravitational wave detector's performance is the accuracy with which astrophysical parameters of potential gravitational wave sources can be estimated. One of the most important source types for the Laser Interferometer Space Antenna (LISA) is inspiraling binaries of black holes. LISA can measure mass and spin to better than 1% for a wide range of masses, even out to high redshifts. The most difficult parameter to estimate accurately is almost always luminosity distance. Nonetheless, LISA can measure luminosity distance of intermediate-mass black hole binary systems (total mass approx.10(exp 4) solar mass) out to z approx.10 with distance accuracies approaching 25% in many cases. With this performance, LISA will be able to follow the merger history of black holes from the earliest mergers of proto-galaxies to the present. LISA's performance as a function of mass from 1 to 10(exp 7) solar mass and of redshift out to z approx. 30 will be described. The re-formulation of LISA's science requirements based on an instrument sensitivity model and parameter estimation will be described.

Stebbins, Robin↗

Conditions for the validity of unmagnetized-plasma theory in describing weakly magnetized plasmas

The application of the unmagnetized-plasma theory to the derivation of the expression for the dielectric tensor for weakly magnetized plasmas is examined. The analysis of Baldwin et. al. (1969) is employed to determine the conditions under which the magnetic effects on the dielectric tensor of a plasma are small. The relation between wave and plasma parameters and the plasma distribution function is studied. Axisymmetric distribution functions in magnetized plasma are considered. The derived conditions are analyzed in terms of resonance ellipses of the cyclotron maser theory. Examples are presented in which the conditions are applied to a nonrelativistic Maxwellian distribution and the dispersion and instability of Langmuir and Bernstein waves in weakly magnetized plasma. The data reveal that the conditions under which the magnetic field can be completely neglected depend on the forms of the distribution function.

Robinson, P. A.↗

Verification of Atmospheric Signals Associated with Major Seismicity by Space and Terrestrial Observations

Observations from the last twenty years suggest the existence of electromagnetic (EM) phenomena during or preceding some earthquakes [Haykawa et a!, 2004; Pulinets at al, 1999,2004, 2006, Ouzounov et all 2007 and Liu et all 20041. Both our previous studies [Pulinets at al, 2005, 2006, Ouzounov et al, 2006, 20071 and the latest review by the Earthquake Remote Precursor Sensing panel [ERPS; 2003- 20051; have shown that there were precursory atmospheric TIR signals observed on the ground and in space associated with several recent earthquakes. [Tramutoli at al, 2005, 2006, Cervone et al, 2006, Ouzounov et all 2004,2006JT.o study these signals, we applied both multi parameter statistical analysis and data mining methods that require systematic measurements from an Integrated Sensor Web of observations of several physical and environmental parameters. These include long wave earth infra-red radiation, ionospheric electrical and magnetic parameters, temperature and humidity of the boundary layer, seismicity and may be associated with major earthquakes. Our goal is to verify the earthquake atmospheric correlation in two cases: (i) backward analysis - 2000-2008 hindcast monitoring of multi atmospheric parameters over the Kamchatka region, Russia ; and (ii) forward real-time alert analysis over different seismo-tectonic regions for California, Turkey, Taiwan and Japan. Our latest results, from several post-earthquake independent analyses of more then 100 major earthquakes, show that joint satellite and some ground measurements, using an integrated web, could provide a capability for observing pre-earthquake atmospheric signals by combining the information from multiple sensors into a common framework. Using our methodology, we evaluated and compared the observed signals preceding the latest M7.9 Sichuan earthquake (0511212008), M8.0 earthquake in Peru (0811512007), M7.6 Kashmir earthquake (1010812005) and M9.0 Sumatra earthquake (1212812004). We found evidence of the systematic appearance of both atmospheric and ionospheric anomalies preceding most of the major events during the period of our analysis 2001 -2008.

Taylor, Patrick↗

Effects of internal heat transfer on the structure of self-similar blast waves

An analysis of the problem of self-similar, nonadiabatic blast waves, where both conduction and radiation are allowed to take place, show the problem to be reducible to the integration of a system of six coupled nonlinear ordinary differential equations. Consideration of these equations shows that although radiation tends to produce uniform fields through temperature gradient attenuation, all the energy carried by radiation is deposited on the front and the bounding shock becomes increasingly overdriven. When conduction is taken into account, the distribution of gasdynamic parameters in blast waves in the case of Rosseland diffusion radiation is more uniform than in the case of the Planck emission radiation.

Ghoniem, A. F.↗

Observation of Chorus Waves by the Van Allen Probes: Dependence on Solar Wind Parameters and Scale Size

Highly energetic electrons in the Earths Van Allen radiation belts can cause serious damage to spacecraft electronic systems and affect the atmospheric composition if they precipitate into the upper atmosphere. Whistler mode chorus waves have attracted significant attention in recent decades for their crucial role in the acceleration and loss of energetic electrons that ultimately change the dynamics of the radiation belts. The distribution of these waves in the inner magnetosphere is commonly presented as a function of geomagnetic activity. However, geomagnetic indices are nonspecific parameters that are compiled from imperfectly covered ground based measurements. The present study uses wave data from the two Van Allen Probes to present the distribution of lower band chorus waves not only as functions of single geomagnetic index and solar wind parameters but also as functions of combined parameters. Also the current study takes advantage of the unique equatorial orbit of the Van Allen Probes to estimate the average scale size of chorus wave packets, during close separations between the two spacecraft, as a function of radial distance, magnetic latitude, and geomagnetic activity, respectively. Results show that the average scale size of chorus wave packets is approximately 13002300 km. The results also show that the inclusion of combined parameters can provide better representation of the chorus wave distributions in the inner magnetosphere and therefore can further improve our knowledge of the acceleration and loss of radiation belt electrons.

Aryan, Homayon↗

Wave-Plan Analysis of Unsteady Flow

An analytical method for computing unsteady flow conditions in liquid-filled flow systems is developed. The method which is called the wave plan incorporates distributed parameter and nonlinear effects including the effects of viscous resistance. The wave plan is essentially a solution synthesized from the effects of incremental step pressure pulses. The pressure pulses are generated because of incremental flow-rate changes that originate in a hydraulic system from a variety of sources, including the mechanical motion of the system structure. The pressure pulses propagate throughout the system at sonic velocity and are partially transmitted and reflected at each discontinuity. The velocity change caused by each pressure pulse is obtained from the Joukowski relation. Pressure and velocity time histories at any point in the system are obtained by a timewise summation of the contributions of the incremental pressure pulses passing that point. The analysis is presented in a form general enough to be applied to a variety of hydraulic systems. To illustrate the application of the method to a specific system, the response of a straight hydraulic line to a sinusoidal orifice-area variation of an upstream valve is computed. Both a constant-cross- section line and a tapered line are analyzed in the examples, and various nonlinear effects evaluated. Comparisons are carried out with experimental data obtained for the constant-diameter line and good agreement is shown to exist.

UNSTEADY FLOW↗

A Cascade Model of Wave Turbulence with Applications to Surface Gravity and Capillary Waves

A heuristic approach to the derivation of power spectra of wave motion is described and applied to capillary waves. The case of gravity waves studied earlier is briefly reviewed. In contract to the previous studies, the nonlinearity of the wave motion is not required to be small, and the mean number of resonantly interacting wave harmonics is not limited to a smallest possible number (which is 4 for gravity waves on a deep fluid and 3 for capillary waves). The main external parameter of the problem is the input flux Q of the wave energy related to the mean wind velocity. Depending on its value, wave spectra take various forms---from that corresponding to the weak-turbulence limit to that corresponding to the saturated (Phillips') wave spectra...

Glazman, Roman E.↗

Crystalline structure and symmetry dependence of acoustic nonlinearity parameters

A quantitative measure of elastic wave nonlinearity in crystals is provided by the acoustic nonlinearity parameters. The nonlinearity parameters are defined for arbitrary propagation modes for solids of arbitrary crystalline symmetry and are determined along the pure mode propagation directions for 33 crystals of cubic symmetry from data reported in the literature. The magnitudes of the nonlinearity parameters are found to exhibit a strong dependence on the crystalline structure and symmetries associated with the modal direction in the solid. Calculations based on the Born-Mayer potential for crystals having a dominant repulsive contribution to the elastic constants from the interatomic pair potential suggest that the origin of the structure dependence is associated with the shape rather than the strength of the potential. Considerations based on variations in crystal symmetry during loading along pure mode propagation directions of face-centered-cubic solids provide a qualitative explanation for the dependence of the acoustic nonlinearity parameters on modal direction.

Cantrell, John H.↗

X-ray structure of the Cygnus loop

An X-ray surface brightness map of the Cygnus Loop in the energy range 0.15-0.85 keV is presented. The X-ray distribution is compared with the optical and radio pictures of the Loop. The location of the center of the supernova shell as derived from the X-ray data is in excellent agreement with the apparent optical and radio centers. We obtain a mean diameter for the X-ray shell of 2.75 (+ or - 0.2) deg. The X-ray spectral data yield a characteristic thermal temperature averaged over the Loop of 2.9 million (+ or - 1.5 million) K. We have calculated anew X-ray parameters for adiabatic blast waves using X-ray production spectra which include line radiation. These parameters are compared with the results of the present experiment. An age of 18,000 years, initial blast energy equal to 3 times 10 to the 50-th power ergs, and ambient interstellar density of 0.25 per cu cm are found.

Rappaport, S.↗

Program planning, chapter 5, part D

Recommendations for future activities necessary to support satellite microwave sensing are reported. Areas covered include component development, data processing, calibration, design and fabrication of multifrequency systems, and experimental test programs to establish interactions of electromagnetic waves and sensed parameters.

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