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Hall, J.

Publications and source records attributed to Hall, J..

At least 37 records · Page 2

The North Alabama Lightning Mapping Array: Recent Results and Future Prospects

The North Alabama Lightning Mapping Array became operational in November 2001 as a principal component of a severe weather test bed to infuse new science and technologies into the short-term forecasting of severe and hazardous weather and the warning decision-making process. The LMA project is a collaboration among NASA scientists, National Weather Service (NWS) weather forecast offices (WFOs), emergency managers, and other partners. The time rate-of-change of storm characteristics and life-cycle trending are accomplished in real-time through the second generation Lightning Imaging Sensor Data Applications Display (LISDAD II) system, initially developed in T997 through a collaboration among NASA/MSFC, MIT/Lincoln Lab and the Melbourne, FL WFO. LISDAD II is now a distributed decision support system with a JAVA-based display application that allows anyone, anywhere to track individual storm histories within the Tennessee Valley region of the southeastern U.S. Since the inauguration of the LMA there has been an abundance of severe weather. During 23-24 November 2001, a major tornado outbreak was monitored by LMA in its first data acquisition effort (36 tornadoes in Alabama). Since that time the LMA has collected a vast amount of data on hailstorms and damaging wind events, non-tornadic supercells, and ordinary non-severe thunderstorms. In this paper we provide an overview of LMA observations and discuss future prospects for improving the short-term forecasting of convective weather.

Goodman, S. J.

Venus Sample Return - A Hot Topic

Within th Solar System, Venus presents a set of unique challenges to obtaining samples and returning them to Earth.

Venus Sample Return Solar System samples Venus

Technology Validation Program for Mars Aerobot Micromission

The Mars Aerobot Validation Program (MABVAP) was initiated in August 1997 to develop and validate key technologies needed for aerobot missions on Mars. The major elements of the program are the development of balloons for flight on Mars, robust techniques for deployment and inflation and modeling and simulation of balloon flight paths, selection, development and tests of available balloon materials, design and fabrication of balloons (both superpressure and solar-heated), design and fabrication of deployment and inflation systems for aerial deployment, design and fabrication of avionics to control deployment/inflation process and to get telemetry and video data. The program includes laboratory, wind tunnel, vacuum chamber tests of the system components and a number of tropospheric and stratospheric flight tests of deployment and inflation of light-film balloons in a simulated Martian environment Key issues in the design include: the use of proven materials or their combinations; the availability of adequate balloon fabrication technologies and processes; evacuation of gas from the balloon prior to packaging and the design of a balloon container capable of storing the balloon over a wide range of ambient pressures. Tests that have been made at JPL and at the Vertical Wind Tunnel at NASA Langley Research Center clarified many of the first order issues discussed above and lead to the baseline configuration with inflation from the bottom without a reefing mechanism.

Cutts, J.

Gas Contamination Effects on Pulse Tube Performance

Experiments were performed to quantify the effect of contamination in the helium working gas of a typical pulse tube cryocooler operating at 60 K with 1 W of applied heating load.

Gas Contamination helium gas heating load

Low frequency electrical noise across contacts between a normal conductor and superconducting bulk YBa2Cu3O7

Virtually every device that makes use of the new ceramic superconductors will need normal conductor to superconductor contacts. The current-voltage and electrical noise characteristics of these contacts could become important design considerations. I-V and low frequency electrical noise measurements are presented on contacts between a normal conductor and superconducting polycrystalline YBa2Cu3O7. The contacts were formed by first sputtering gold palladium pads onto the surface of the bulk superconductor and then using silver epoxy to attach a wire(s) to each pad. Voltage across the contacts was found for small current densities. The voltage spectral density, S sub v(f), a quantity often used to characterize electrical noise, very closely followed an empirical relationship given by S sub v(f) = C(VR)sq/f, where V is the DC voltage across the contact, R is the contact resistance, F is frequency, and C is a contant found to be 2 x 10(exp -10)/Omega sq at 78 K. This relationship was found to be independent of contact area, contact geometry, sample fabrication technique, and sample density.

Hall, J.

Low frequency electrical noise across contacts between a normal conductor and superconducting bulk YBa2Cu3O7

Virtually every device that makes use of the new ceramic superconductors will need normal conductor to supercondutor contacts. The current-voltage and electrical noise characteristics of these contacts could be become important design considerations. I-V and low frequency electrical noise measurements are presented on contacts between a normal conductor and superconducting polycrystalline YBa2Cu3O7. The contacts were formed by first sputtering gold palladium pads onto the surface of the bulk superconductor and then using silver epoxy to attach a wire(s) to each pad. Voltage across the contacts was found for small current densities. The voltage spectral density, S sub v(f), a quanity often used to characterize electrical noise, very closely followed an empirical relationship given by, S sub v(f) = C(VR)sq/f, where V is the DC voltage across the contact, R is the contact resistance, F is frequency, and C is a contant found to be 2 x 10(exp -10)/Omega sq at 78 K. This relationship was found to be independent of contact area, contact geometry, sample fabrication technique, and sample density.

Hall, J.