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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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Speech motor control and acute mountain sickness

BACKGROUND: An objective method that accurately quantifies the severity of Acute Mountain Sickness (AMS) symptoms is needed to enable more reliable evaluation of altitude acclimatization and testing of potentially beneficial interventions. HYPOTHESIS: Changes in human articulation, as quantified by timed variations in acoustic waveforms of specific spoken words (voice onset time; VOT), are correlated with the severity of AMS. METHODS: Fifteen volunteers were exposed to a simulated altitude of 4300 m (446 mm Hg) in a hypobaric chamber for 48 h. Speech motor control was determined from digitally recorded and analyzed timing patterns of 30 different monosyllabic words characterized as voiced and unvoiced, and as labial, alveolar, or velar. The Environmental Symptoms Questionnaire (ESQ) was used to assess AMS. RESULTS: Significant AMS symptoms occurred after 4 h, peaked at 16 h, and returned toward baseline after 48 h. Labial VOTs were shorter after 4 and 39 h of exposure; velar VOTs were altered only after 4 h; and there were no changes in alveolar VOTs. The duration of vowel sounds was increased after 4 h of exposure and returned to normal thereafter. Only 1 of 15 subjects did not increase vowel time after 4 h of exposure. The 39-h labial (p = 0.009) and velar (p = 0.037) voiced-unvoiced timed separations consonants and the symptoms of AMS were significantly correlated. CONCLUSIONS: Two objective measures of speech production were affected by exposure to 4300 m altitude and correlated with AMS severity. Alterations in speech production may represent an objective measure of AMS and central vulnerability to hypoxia.

NASA Discipline Space Human Factors↗

Electronographic cameras for space astronomy.

Magnetically-focused electronographic cameras have been under development at the Naval Research Laboratory for use in far-ultraviolet imagery and spectrography, primarily in astronomical and optical-geophysical observations from sounding rockets and space vehicles. Most of this work has been with cameras incorporating internal optics of the Schmidt or wide-field all-reflecting types. More recently, we have begun development of electronographic spectrographs incorporating an internal concave grating, operating at normal or grazing incidence. We also are developing electronographic image tubes of the conventional end-window-photo-cathode type, for far-ultraviolet imagery at the focus of a large space telescope, with image formats up to 120 mm in diameter.

Carruthers, G. R.↗

Electrographic instrumentation for ultraviolet imaging and spectrography

The latest results in the NRL program of far-UV electrographic camera development, and application of these cameras to astrophysical and upper-atmospheric investigations, are presented. A new large electrographic Schmidt camera, of 15 cm aperture and f/2 focal ratio, has been successfully used in two sounding rocket flights, one for direct imagery in the 1230-2000 A wavelength range and the second for objective spectrography in the 950-2000 A range, of stars and nebulae in the Cygnus region of the sky. The camera has an 11 deg field of view and better than 30 arcsec resolution (2 A spectral resolution with 600 line/mm objective grating). A nebular spectrograph, based on a microchannel-intensified electrographic Schmidt camera, is the payload of a May 1979 rocket flight. It will reach emission line features as faint as 5 Rayleighs in 100 second exposures in the 1050-2000 A range, with 5 A spectral resolution.

Carruthers, G. R.↗

A Global Ozone Climatology from Ozone Soundings via Trajectory Mapping: A Stratospheric Perspective

This study explores a domain-filling trajectory approach to generate a global ozone climatology from sparse ozonesonde data. Global ozone soundings of 51,898 profiles at 116 stations over 44 years (1965-2008) are used, from which forward and backward trajectories are performed for 4 days, driven by a set of meteorological reanalysis data. Ozone mixing ratios of each sounding from the surface to 26 km altitude are assigned to the entire path along the trajectory. The resulting global ozone climatology is archived monthly for five decades from the 1960s to the 2000s with grids of 5 degree 5 degree 1 km (latitude, longitude, and altitude). It is also archived yearly from 1965 to 2008. This climatology is validated at 20 ozonesonde stations by comparing the actual ozone sounding profile with that found through the trajectories, using the ozone soundings at all the stations except one being tested. The two sets of profiles are in good agreement, both individually with correlation coefficients between 0.975 and 0.998 and root mean square (RMS) differences of 87 to 482 ppbv, and overall with a correlation coefficient of 0.991 and an RMS of 224 ppbv. The ozone climatology is also compared with two sets of satellite data, from the Satellite Aerosol and Gas Experiment (SAGE) and the Optical Spectrography and InfraRed Imager System (OSIRIS). Overall, the ozone climatology compares well with SAGE and OSIRIS data by both seasonal and zonal means. The mean difference is generally under 20 above 15 km. The comparison is better in the northern hemisphere, where there are more ozonesonde stations, than in the southern hemisphere; it is also better in the middle and high latitudes than in the tropics, where assimilated winds are imperfect in some regions. This ozone climatology can capture known features in the stratosphere, as well as seasonal and decadal variations of these features. Furthermore, it provides a wealth of detail about longitudinal variations in the stratosphere such as the spring ozone maximum over the Canadian Arctic. It also covers higher latitudes than current satellite data. The climatology shows clearly the depletion of ozone from the 1970s to the mid 1990s and ozone recovery in the 2000s. When this climatology is used as the upper boundary condition in an Environment Canada operational chemical forecast model, the forecast is improved in the vicinity of the upper tropospherelower stratosphere region. As this ozone climatology is neither dependent on a priori data or photochemical modeling, it provides independent information and insight that can supplement satellite data and model simulations and enhance our understanding of stratospheric ozone.

SAGE↗