Engineering topics
Publications and source records attributed to Sparks, L..
The approach outlined in this paper conservatively bounds the ionospheric errors even for the worst observed ionospheric conditions to date, using data sets taken from the operational receivers in the WAAS reference station network.
Explore the source record for details and available documents.
To provide delay corrections to single frequency users, wide area differential GPS systems depend upon accurate determination of ionospheric total electron content (TEC).
Dual-frequency transmissions from the Global Positioning System satellites can be used to measure and map ionospheric total electron content (TEC) on global scales. Using data exclusively from ground-based GPS networks, global ionosphere mapping has been successfully applied using either two or three dimensional techniques.
The accuracy of single-frequency ocean altimeters benefits from calibration of the total electron content (TEC) of the ionosphere below the satellite.
The Global Positioning System (GPS) constellation of satellites is revolutionizing the science and technology of the Earth's ionosphere.
Explore the source record for details and available documents.
The ionospheric storm evolution process was monitored during the January 10, 1997 magnetic cloud event, through measurements of the inonospheric total electron content (TEC) from 150 GPS stations. The first significant response of the inonospheric TEC to the geomagnetic storm was at 0300 UT as an auroral/subauroral enhancement around the Alaskan evening sector.
Explore the source record for details and available documents.
Explore the source record for details and available documents.
The global evolution of two major ionospheric storms, occurring on November 4, 1993 and November 26, 1994, respectively, is studied using measurements of total electron content (TEC) obtained from a worldwide network of ground-based GPS receivers.
A simple yet efficient method is presented for calculating spectral absorption coefficients to high numerical accuracy. The accuracy achieved is independent of the sampling interval. The method is applicable to any analytic model of the spectral line shape.
To model radiative transfer through the atmosphere with high accuracy, one must resort to the calculation of spectral absorption coefficients on a line-by-line basis. The calculation of these coefficients is computationally expensive for three reasons: (1) thousands of spectral lines can contribute to absorption at a single frequency; (2) the tails of spectral line profiles are long (i.e., a given line can contribute to absorption over a wide range of frequencies); and (3) the sampling frequencies at which monochromatic radiances are to be calculated must be spaced sufficiently close together to resolve the thinnest lines of interest (e.g., those that arise in the stratosphere). We have developed a new algorithm to accelerate the calculation of spectral absorption coefficients while retaining high numerical accuracy.
Explore the source record for details and available documents.
Thermal instability driven by optically thin radiation is believed to initiate the formation of plasma filaments in the solar corona. The fact that filaments are observed generally to separate regions of opposite, line-of-sight, magnetic polarity in the underlying photosphere suggests that filament formation requires the presence of a highly sheared, local magnetic field. Two-dimensional, nonlinear, magnetohydrodynamic simulations of the local genesis and growth of solar filaments in a force-free, sheared, magnetic field were performed, and the evolution of generic perturbations possessing broad spatial profiles was traced. It was found that simulations of the evolution of initial random-noise perturbations produce filamentary plasma structures that exhibit densities and temperatures characteristic of observed solar filaments. Furthermore, in each of these simulations, the filament axis lies at a finite angle with respect to the local magnetic field, consistent with solar observations.
Thermal instability is believed to determine the evolution and formation of cool structures in the solar atmosphere such as the transition region and prominences (or filaments). The linear modes that arise in a sheared, force-free, magnetic field due to thermal instability are studied numerically. Previous studies have considered separately modes that arise due to the effects of radiation, compression, anisotropic thermal conduction, and ohmic heating. Here the results of such studies are integrated, first by presenting simple arguments that illustrate the essential physics of ideal, sheared-field, condensation modes, and second by showing numerically how finite resistivity affects the condensational instability in parameter regimes applicable to the solar corona.
The structure and growth rate of the radiative instability in a sheared magnetic field B have been calculated analytically using the Braginskii fluid equations. In a shear layer, temperature and density perturbations are linked by the propagation of sound waves parallel to the local magnetic field. As a consequence, density clumping or condensation plays an important role in driving the instability. Parallel thermal conduction localizes the mode to a narrow layer where K(parallel) is small and stabilizes short wavelengths k larger-than(c) where k(c) depends on the local radiation and conduction rates. Thermal coupling to ions also limits the width of the unstable spectrum. It is shown that a broad spectrum of modes is typically unstable in tokamak edge plasmas and it is argued that this instability is sufficiently robust to drive the large-amplitude density fluctuations often measured there.
The thermal stability of a resistive, force-free plasma in a two-dimensional, slab geometry is investigated numerically. Linearly unstable modes that arise as an energetic consequence of Ohmic heating are examined in relation to the dynamic magnetic-tearing instability. Plasma compression is found to give rise to a set of unstable thermal modes not seen in previous incompressible studies. Such modes can occur in parameter regimes where no purely growing tearing mode exists.