Engineering Papers⌕ Search

SEARCH · Engineering Papers

Results for “solar opacity”

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.

Quote a phrase for an exact phrase match. Source license links do not imply unrestricted reuse.

At least 181 records · Page 10
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
NASA NTRS1983

The Delta band dissociation of nitric oxide - A potential mechanism for coupling thermospheric variations to the mesosphere and stratosphere

Depletion of solar radiation at discrete wavelengths by nitric oxide has a significant impact on the dissociation rate of this gas in the delta(0, 0) and delta(1, 0) bands. Inclusion of the opacity provided by a typical NO profile reduces the dissociation rate in the upper stratosphere to 50-75 pct of that predicted when the optical depth calculation omits this contribution. A substantial fraction of the NO column abundance as measured near the stratopause resides in the lower thermosphere where correlations of NO with solar and magnetic activity are well documented. Variations in the thermospheric NO abundance therefore modulate the radiation field at the precise wavelengths absorbed by this molecule in the mesosphere and upper stratosphere. Predicted changes in the dissociation rate arising from a varying thermospheric opacity exceed 8 pct throughout the mesosphere and reach 15 pct between 65 km and 95 km.

Frederick, J. E.↗
NASA NTRS1978

IUE observations of cool stars - Alpha Aurigae, HR1099, Lambda Andromedae, and Epsilon Eridani

Initial IUE observations of four cool stars are reported. Observed fluxes and surface fluxes are given for several UV emission lines in the spectral range 1175-2000 A, obtained at low and high dispersion with the short-wavelength spectrograph and camera. These lines are formed in the outer atmospheres of these stars, in regions presumably analogous to the solar chromosphere and transition region. The surface fluxes in the lines increase along the sequence: quiet sun, Epsilon Eri, Lambda And, Alpha Aur, and HR1099. The 2.8-d RS CVn-type binary HR1099, observed on 1 March 1978 near the end of a major flaring episode, has line surface fluxes roughly 100 times that of the quiet sun, similar to those seen in solar flares. Line profiles and flux ratios in multiplets for Capella are presented, and comments given on the opacity of the lines and on a tendency of line width to increase with temperature of formation.

Linsky, J. L.↗
NASA NTRS1987

Model ozone photochemistry on the basis of Solar Mesosphere Explorer mesospheric observations

Morning and afternoon mesospheric ozone profiles (50-90 km) measured by the Solar Mesosphere Explorer (SME) satellite are analyzed with one-dimensional photochemical models. The observed ozone abundances are 40 percent and 100 percent greater than the model ozone abundances at 50 and 80 km, respectively. Diurnal model calculations are compared with SME observations of ozone profiles at about 0400 and 1400 LT for high northern summer latitudes. Analysis of the ratios of these early morning and midafternoon ozone profiles provides the additional constraint that larger odd-oxygen production rates are required if lower odd-hydrogen activity is invoked to increase model O3 abundances. The increase in odd-oxygen production must be solar zenith angle independent in the mesosphere, ruling out significant changes in the Schumann-Runge band O2 opacities from Allen and Frederrick (1982).

Clancy, R. T.↗
NASA NTRS2001

Boundary Conditions of the Heliosphere

We present new calculations of the ionization of the Local Interstellar Cloud (LIC) by directly observed sources including nearby stellar extreme ultraviolet (EUV) sources and the diffuse emission of the Soft X-ray Background (SXRB). In addition, we model the important, unobserved EUV emission both from the hot gas responsible for the SXRB and from a possible evaporative boundary between the LIC and the hot gas. We show that these ionization sources can provide the necessary ionization and heating of the cloud to match observations. Including the radiation from the conductive boundary, while not required, does improve the agreement with observations of the temperature of the LIC. The ionization predicted in our models shows good agreement with pickup ion results, interstellar absorption line data towards epsilon CMa, and EUV opacity measurements of nearby white dwarf stars. The areas of disagreement point to a possible underabundance (relative to solar abundance) of neon in the LIC. The presence of dust in the cloud, or at least depleted abundances, is necessary to maintain the heating/cooling balance and reach the observed temperature.

Slavin, Jonathan D.↗
NASA NTRS1992

A burst from a thermonuclear runaway on an ONeMg white dwarf

Studies which examine the consequences of accretion, at rates of 10(exp -9) solar mass/yr and 10(exp -10) solar mass/yr, onto an ONeMg white dwarf with a mass of 1.35 solar masses are performed. In these studies, a Lagrangian, hydrodynamic, one-dimensional computer code was used. The code now includes a network with 89 nuclei up to Ca-40, elemental diffusion, new opacities, and new equation of state. The initial abundance distribution corresponded to a mixture that was enriched to either 25, 50, or 75 percent in products of carbon burning. The remaining material in each case is assumed to have a solar composition. The evolution of the thermonuclear runaway in the 1.35 solar mass white dwarf, with M = 10(exp -9) solar mass, produced peak temperatures in the shell source exceeding 300 million degrees. The sequence produced significant amounts of Na-22 from proton captures onto Ne-20 and significant amounts of Al-26 from proton captures on Mg-24. This sequence ejected 5.2 x 10(exp -6) solar mass moving with speeds from approximately 100 km/s to 2300 km/s. When the mass accretion rate was decreased to 10(exp -10) solar mass, the resulting thermonuclear runaway produced a shock that moved through the outer envelope of the white dwarf and raised the surface luminosity to L greater than 10(exp 7) solar luminosity and the effective temperature to values exceeding 10(exp 7) K. The interaction of the material expanding from off of the white dwarf with the accretion disk should produce a burst of gamma-rays.

Starrfield, S.↗
NASA NTRS2000

Model Atmospheres and Spectra for Extrasolar Giant Planets

In the past few years much new observational data has become available for brown dwarfs and extra solar planets. Not only are new objects being discovered but the availability of higher resolution spectra is improving. This allows a better comparison between the models and the available data, and places new constraints on the models which now have to be made more physically realistic in order to better interpret the observations. Under this grant, an array of new opacities were calculated and successfully applied to a variety of physical situations that were used as input to model available observations of brown dwarfs and extra solar giant planets.

Freedman, Richard S.↗
NASA NTRS1980

Influence of a stellar wind on the evolution of a star of 30 solar masses

A coarse grid of theoretical evolutionary tracks was calculated for a 30 solar mass star to determine the role of mass loss in the evolution of the star during core He burning. The Cox-Stewart opacities were applied, and the rate of mass loss, criterion for convection, and initial chemical composition were taken into consideration. Using the Schwarzschild criterion, the star undergoes little mass loss during core He burning and remains a blue supergiant separated from main sequence stars on the H-R diagram. The stellar remnant consists of the original He core and may appear bluer than equally luminous main sequence stars; a variety of possible evolutionary tracks can be obtained for an initial solar mass of 30 with proper choices of free parameters.

Stothers, R.↗
NASA NTRS1993

Possible dust contamination of the early solar system

Measurements carried out over more than twenty years indicate a deficiency of neutrinos emitted from the deep interior of the Sun in conjunction with the neutrino flux expected from canonical solar models. The early measurements were sensitive only to high-energy neutrinos emitted from B-8 on a minor branch of the energy-producing nuclear reactions in the solar interior. Thus these measurements were not widely considered to be a definitive test of solar physics. However the more recent measurements, which are sensitive to lower energy neutrinos, produced primarily by the p-p reaction on the main energy-producing branch of the solar nuclear reactions, pose a far more significant mystery in physics. One possibility is that the Sun's interior opacity is lower than expected due to a paucity of elements. This paper discusses that the Sun formed from material less abundant in heavy elements than usually believed, and the subsequent contamination due to the settling of surrounding dust brought the abundance of heavy elements - in the protoplanetary nebula, and in the Sun's convective envelope - up to the currently observed value.

Levy, E. H.↗
NASA NTRS1977

Solar seismology. I - The stability of the solar p-modes

The stability of the radial p-modes of the sun is investigated by computing nonadiabatic eigenvalues and eigenfunctions for a solar envelope model which extends from an inner radius of about 0.3 solar radius out to an optical depth of about 0.0003. The calculations take into account in a crude fashion the response of the convective flux to the oscillation. The dynamical effect of turbulence in the convection zone is parametrized in terms of a turbulent shear viscosity. The results show that if damping by turbulent viscosity is neglected, all modes with periods longer than 6 minutes are unstable. The familiar kappa-mechanism, which operates in the H ionization-H(-) opacity region, is the dominant source of driving of the oscillations. Modes with periods shorter than 6 minutes are stabilized by radiative damping in the solar atmosphere. When turbulent dissipation of pulsational energy is included, all modes are predicted to be stable. However, the margin of stability is very small. In view of the large uncertainty that must be assigned to the estimate of turbulent damping, it is concluded that theoretical calculations cannot unequivocally resolve the question of the stability of the solar p-modes.

Goldreich, P.↗
NASA NTRS1986

The global evolution of the primordial solar nebula

Complete radial, time-dependent calculations of the structure and evolution of the primordial solar nebula during the viscous diffusion stage are presented. The viscous stress is derived from analytic one-zone models of the vertical nebular structure based on detailed grain opacities. Comparisons with full numerical integrations indicate that the effective viscous alpha parameter is about 0.01. The evolution time of a minimum mass nebula is one-million yr or less. The flow pattern of fluid elements in the disk is examined and the implications the results have on the theory of the formation of the solar system are discussed.

Ruden, S. P.↗
NASA NTRS1993

Siphon flows in isolated magnetic flux tubes. V - Radiative flows with variable ionization

Steady siphon flows in arched isolated magnetic flux tubes in the solar atmosphere are calculated here including radiative transfer between the flux tube and its surrounding and variable ionization of the flowing gas. It is shown that the behavior of a siphon flow is strongly determined by the degree of radiative coupling between the flux tube and its surroundings in the superadiabatic layer just below the solar surface. Critical siphon flows with adiabatic tube shocks in the downstream leg are calculated, illustrating the radiative relaxation of the temperature jump downstream of the shock. For flows in arched flux tubes reaching up to the temperature minimum, where the opacity is low, the gas inside the flux tube is much cooler than the surrounding atmosphere at the top of the arch. It is suggested that gas cooled by siphon flows contribute to the cool component of the solar atmosphere at the height of the temperature minimum implied by observations of the infrared CO bands at 4.6 and 2.3 microns.

Montesinos, Benjamin↗
NASA NTRS1976

Stellar evolution at high mass with semiconvective mixing according to the Schwarzschild criterion

Evolutionary sequences for stellar models with 10, 15, 30, and 60 solar masses, as well as four different initial chemical compositions, are calculated to the end of core helium burning using the Schwarzschild criterion for convection. The results are analyzed in terms of the modifications of interior structure and surface parameters induced by semiconvective mixing as a result of adopting the Schwarzschild criterion. It is found that the main differences from results based on the Ledoux criterion are the great extent of the convectively unstable layers in the intermediate zone and the eventual development of a fully convective zone at the base of the semiconvective one. It is shown that semiconvection develops outside the convective core just after the ZAMS stage for masses greater than 12 solar masses and just before the stage of central hydrogen exhaustion for masses greater than 6 solar masses. The present models are found to be insufficiently hot in comparison with the bulk of observed stable blue supergiants and to predict far too many red supergiants fro the range above 20 solar masses. It is concluded that something is fundamentally wrong with the models, the most likely suspects being the stellar opacities adopted and the neglect of mass loss.

Stothers, R.↗
NASA NTRS1993

Helioseismological test of a new model for stellar convection

We compare the predictions of two solar models with the observed p-mode eigenfrequencies. The two models use the same input microphysics (nuclear reaction rates, opacity, and equation of a state) and the same numerical evolutionary code, but differ in the treatment of turbulent convection. The first model employs the standard mixing-length theory of convection (MLT), while the second model employs a new model of turbulent convection (CM) whose primary goal was that of accounting for the whole spectrum of turbulent eddies so as to avoid the MLT approximation that such a wide spectrum be represented by a single, large eddy. The main result of this paper is that the p-mode eigenfrequencies calculated with the CM model show an overall improvement with respect to those calculated with the standard MLT model.

Paterno, L.↗
NASA NTRS2017

Sonora: A New Generation Model Atmosphere Grid for Brown Dwarfs and Young Extrasolar Giant Planets

Brown dwarf and giant planet atmospheric structure and composition has been studied both by forward models and, increasingly so, by retrieval methods. While indisputably informative, retrieval methods are of greatest value when judged in the context of grid model predictions. Meanwhile retrieval models can test the assumptions inherent in the forward modeling procedure. In order to provide a new, systematic survey of brown dwarf atmospheric structure, emergent spectra, and evolution, we have constructed a new grid of brown dwarf model atmospheres. We ultimately aim for our grid to span substantial ranges of atmospheric metallilcity, C/O ratios, cloud properties, atmospheric mixing, and other parameters. Spectra predicted by our modeling grid can be compared to both observations and retrieval results to aid in the interpretation and planning of future telescopic observations. We thus present Sonora, a new generation of substellar atmosphere models, appropriate for application to studies of L, T, and Y-type brown dwarfs and young extrasolar giant planets. The models describe the expected temperature-pressure profile and emergent spectra of an atmosphere in radiative-convective equilibrium for ranges of effective temperatures and gravities encompassing 200 less than or equal to T(sub eff) less than or equal to 2400 K and 2.5 less than or equal to log g less than or equal to 5.5. In our poster we briefly describe our modeling methodology, enumerate various updates since our group's previous models, and present our initial tranche of models for cloudless, solar metallicity, and solar carbon-to-oxygen ratio, chemical equilibrium atmospheres. These models will be available online and will be updated as opacities and cloud modeling methods continue to improve.

emergent spectra↗
NASA NTRS2001

Our Sun IV: The Standard Model and Helioseismology: Consequences of Uncertainties in Input Physics and in Observed Solar Parameters

Helioseismic frequency observations provide an extremely accurate window into the solar interior; frequencies from the Michaelson Doppler Imager (MDI) on the Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO) spacecraft, enable the adiabatic sound speed and adiabatic index to be inferred with an accuracy of a few parts in 10(exp 4) and the density with an accuracy of a few parts in 10(exp 3). This has become a Serious challenge to theoretical models of the Sun. Therefore, we have undertaken a self-consistent, systematic study of the sources of uncertainties in the standard solar models. We found that the largest effect on the interior structure arises from the observational uncertainties in the photospheric abundances of the elements, which affect the sound speed profile at the level of 3 parts in 10(exp 3). The estimated 4% uncertainty in the OPAL opacities could lead to effects of 1 part in 10(exp 3); the approximately 5%, uncertainty in the basic pp nuclear reaction rate would have a similar effect, as would uncertainties of approximately 15% in the diffusion constants for the gravitational settling of helium. The approximately 50% uncertainties in diffusion constants for the heavier elements would have nearly as large an effect. Different observational methods for determining the solar radius yield results differing by as much as 7 parts in 10(exp 4); we found that this leads to uncertainties of a few parts in 10(exp 3) in the sound speed int the solar convective envelope, but has negligible effect on the interior. Our reference standard solar model yielded a convective envelope position of 0.7135 solar radius, in excellent agreement with the observed value of 0.713 +/- 0.001 solar radius and was significantly affected only by Z/X, the pp rate, and the uncertainties in helium diffusion constants. Our reference model also yielded envelope helium abundance of 0.2424, in good agreement with the approximate range of 0.24 to 0.25 inferred from helioseismic observations; only extreme Z/X values yielded envelope helium abundance outside this range. We found that other current uncertainties, namely, in the solar age and luminosity, in nuclear rates other than the pp reaction, in the low-temperature molecular opacities, and in the low-density equation of state, have no significant effect on the quantities that can be inferred from helioseismic observations. The predicted pre-main-sequence lithium depletion is uncertain by a factor of 2. The predicted neutrino capture rate is uncertain by approximately 30% for the Cl-27 experiment and by approximately 3% for Ga-71 experiments, while the B-8 neutrino flux is uncertain by approximately 30%.

Boothroyd, Arnold I.↗
NASA NTRS1991

Feasibility of solar power for Mars

NASA, through Project Pathfinder, has put in place an advanced technology program to address future needs of manned space exploration. Included in the missions under study is the establishment of outposts on the surface of Mars. The Surface Power program in Pathfinder is aimed at providing photovoltaic array technology for such an application (as well as for the lunar surface). Another important application is for unmanned precursor missions, such as the photovoltaic-power aircraft, which will scout landing sites and investigate Mars geology for a 1 to 2 year mission without landing on the surface. Effective design and utilization of solar energy depend to a large extent on adequate knowledge of solar radiation characteristics in the region of solar energy system operation. The two major climatic components needed for photovoltaic system designs are the distributions of solar insolation and ambient temperature. These distributions for the Martian climate are given at the two Viking lander locations but can also be used, to the first approximation, for other latitudes. One of the most important results is that there is a large diffuse component of the insolation, even at high optical depth, so that solar energy system operation is still possible. If the power system is to continue to generate power even on high optical opacity days, it is thus important that the photovoltaic system be designed to collect diffuse irradiance as well as direct. In absence of long term insolation and temperature data for Mars, the data presented can be used until updated data are available. The ambient temperature data are given as measured directly by the temperature sensor; the insolation data are calculated from optical depth measurements of the atmosphere.

Appelbaum, Joseph↗
NASA NTRS1986

Water vapor in Jupiter's atmosphere

High spectral resolution observations of Jupiter at 2.7 and 5 microns acquired from the Kuiper Airborne Observatory were used to infer the vertical distribution of H2O between 0.7 and 6 bars. The H2O mole fraction, qH2O, is saturated for P<2 bars, qH2O = 4x.000001 in the 2 to 4 bar range and it increases to 3x.00001 at 6 bars where T = 288 K. The base of the 5 micron line formation region is determined by pressure-induced H2 opacity. At this deepest accessible level, the O/H ratio in Jupiter is depleted by a factor of 50 with respect to the solar atmosphere. High spatial resolution Voyager IRIS spectra of Jupiter's North Tropical Zone, Equatorial Zone, and Hot Spots in the North and South Equatorial Belt were analyzed to determine the spatial variation of H2O across the planet. The column abundance of H2O above the 4 bar level is the same in the zones as in the SEB Hot Spots, about 20 cm-amgt. A cloud model for Jupiter's belts and zones was developed in order to fit the IRIS 5 micron spectra. An absorbing cloud located at 2 bars whose 5 micron optical thickness varies between 1 in the Hot Spots and 4 in the coldest zones satisfactorily matches the IRIS data.

Bjoraker, G. L.↗