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At least 199 records · Page 11
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
NASA NTRS1992

Reaction cycle and thermodynamics in bacteriorhodopsin

Light causes the all-trans to 13-cis isomerization of the retinal in bacteriorhodopsin; the thermal relaxation leading back to the initial state drives proton transport first via proton transfer between the retinal Schiff base and D85 and then between the Schiff base and D96. The reaction sequence and thermodynamics of this photocycle are described by measuring time-resolved absorption changes with a gated multichannel analyzer between 100 ns and 100 ms, at six temperatures between 5 degrees C and 30 degrees C. Analysis of the energetics of the chromophore reaction sequence is on the basis of a recently proposed model (Varo & Lanyi, Biochemistry 30, 5016-5022, 1991) which consists of a single cycle and many reversible reactions: BR -hv-->K<==>L<==>M1-->M2<==>N<==>O-->BR. The existence of the M1-->M2 reaction, which functions as the switch in the proton transfer, is confirmed by spectroscopic evidence. The calculated thermodynamic parameters indicate that the exchange of free energy between the protein and the protons is at the switch step. Further, a large entropy decrease at this reaction suggests a protein conformation change which will conserve delta G for driving the completion of the reaction cycle. The results provide insights to mechanism and energy coupling in this system, with possible relevance to the general question of how ion pumps function.

Review↗
NASA NTRS2004

Resistivity of Carbon-Carbon Composites Halved

Carbon-carbon composites have become the material of choice for applications requiring strength and stiffness at very high temperatures (above 2000 C). These composites comprise carbon or graphite fibers embedded in a carbonized or graphitized matrix. In some applications, such as shielding sensitive electronics in very high temperature environments, the performance of these materials would be improved by lowering their electrical resistivity. One method to lower the resistivity of the composites is to lower the resistivity of the graphite fibers, and a proven method to accomplish that is intercalation. Intercalation is the insertion of guest atoms or molecules into a host lattice. In this study the host fibers were highly graphitic pitch-based graphite fibers, or vapor-grown carbon fibers (VGCF), and the intercalate was bromine. Intercalation compounds of graphite are generally thought of as being only metastable, but it has been shown that the residual bromine graphite fiber intercalation compound is remarkably stable, resisting decomposition even at temperatures at least as high as 1000 C. The focus of this work was to fabricate composite preforms, determine whether the fibers they were made from were still intercalated with bromine after processing, and determine the effect on composite resistivity. It was not expected that the resistivity would be lowered as dramatically as with graphite polymer composites because the matrix itself would be much more conductive, but it was hoped that the gains would be substantial enough to warrant its use in high-performance applications. In a collaborative effort supporting a Space Act Agreement between the NASA Glenn Research Center and Applied Sciences, Inc. (Cedarville, OH), laminar preforms were fabricated with pristine and bromine-intercalated pitch-based fibers (P100 and P100-Br) and VGCF (Pyro I and Pyro I-Br). The green preforms were carbonized at 1000 C and then heat treated to 3000 C. To determine whether the fibers in the samples were still intercalated after composite fabrication, they were subjected to X-ray diffraction. The composites containing intercalated graphite fibers showed much higher background scatter than that of pristine fibers, indicating the presence of bromine in the samples. More importantly, faint features indicative of intercalation were visible in the diffraction pattern, showing that the fibers were still intercalated.

Gaier, James R.↗
NASA NTRS2003

Fate of the CHBrsub2O radical in air

Trace amounts of bromoform in air have been photolyzed at 266 and 303 nm to form Br atoms and CHBr2 radicals. The Br concentration as a funtion of time is followed by resonance fluorescence. The CHBr2 radicals react with O2 in the air to form peroxy radicals.

bromoform bromine atoms CHBr2O radicals↗
NASA NTRS2012

Tropospheric Bromine Chemistry: Implications for Present and Pre-industrial Ozone and Mercury

We present a new model for the global tropospheric chemistry of inorganic bromine (Bry) coupled to oxidant-aerosol chemistry in the GEOS-Chem chemical transport model (CTM). Sources of tropospheric Bry include debromination of sea-salt aerosol, photolysis and oxidation of short-lived bromocarbons, and transport from the stratosphere. Comparison to a GOME-2 satellite climatology of tropospheric BrO columns shows that the model can reproduce the observed increase of BrO with latitude, the northern mid-latitudes maximum in winter, and the Arctic maximum in spring. This successful simulation is contingent on the HOBr + HBr reaction taking place in aqueous aerosols and ice clouds. Bromine chemistry in the model decreases tropospheric ozone mixing ratios by <1-8 nmol/mol (6.5% globally), with the largest effects in the northern extratropics in spring. The global mean tropospheric OH concentration decreases by 4 %. Inclusion of bromine chemistry improves the ability of global models (GEOS-Chem and p-TOMCAT) to simulate observed 19th-century ozone and its seasonality. Bromine effects on tropospheric ozone are comparable in the present-day and pre-industrial atmospheres so that estimates of anthropogenic radiative forcing are minimally affected. Br atom concentrations are 40% higher in the pre-industrial atmosphere due to lower ozone, which would decrease by a factor of 2 the atmospheric lifetime of elemental mercury against oxidation by Br. This suggests that historical anthropogenic mercury emissions may have mostly deposited to northern mid-latitudes, enriching the corresponding surface reservoirs. The persistent rise in background surface ozone at northern mid-latitudes during the past decades could possibly contribute to the observations of elevated mercury in subsurface waters of the North Atlantic.

bromine↗
NASA NTRS2014

Effects of Retronasal Smelling, Variety and Choice on Appetite and Satiety

Four principal areas were investigated. Nasal Patency: Measure nasal tissue swelling and airflow in BR and compare this to PreBR baseline and PostBR recovery; Ask subjects to self‐assess nasal congestion at each test to compare with Astronaut self‐assessment. Odorant Identification: Measure subject's ability to recognize odorants obtained from food samples taken from FARU (Flight Analog Research Unit) menu and compare this with recognition of food odors not available on FARU; Compare subject assessed ratings of odorant intensity and food liking with nasal airflow measurements to determine effect of fluid shift on smell ability. Meal Acceptability: Determine the onset and progression of reported 'menu fatigue' during BR; Determine whether decreased nasal airflow or smell ability are factors in 'menu fatigue'. Daily Mood and Health: Record mood changes during study and compare with meal acceptability and smell ability. A change in smell ability is measured by tracking subject perception of 35 odorants from admission to the FARU through to dismissal.

Hunter, Jean↗
NASA NTRS2013

Evaluating Global Emission Inventories of Biogenic Bromocarbons

Emissions of halogenated very short-lived substances (VSLS) are poorly constrained. However, their inclusion in global models is required to simulate a realistic inorganic bromine (Bry) loading in both the troposphere, where bromine chemistry perturbs global oxidizing capacity, and in the stratosphere, where it is a major sink for ozone (O3). We have performed simulations using a 3-D chemical transport model (CTM) including three top-down and a single bottom-up derived emission inventory of the major brominated VSLS bromoform (CHBr3) and dibromomethane (CH2Br2). We perform the first concerted evaluation of these inventories, comparing both the magnitude and spatial distribution of emissions. For a quantitative evaluation of each inventory, model output is compared with independent long-term observations at National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) ground-based stations and with aircraft observations made during the NSF (National Science Foundation) HIAPER Pole-to-Pole Observations (HIPPO) project. For CHBr3, the mean absolute deviation between model and surface observation ranges from 0.22 (38 %) to 0.78 (115 %) parts per trillion (ppt) in the tropics, depending on emission inventory. For CH2Br2, the range is 0.17 (24 %) to 1.25 (167 %) ppt. We also use aircraft observations made during the 2011 Stratospheric Ozone: Halogen Impacts in a Varying Atmosphere (SHIVA) campaign, in the tropical western Pacific. Here, the performance of the various inventories also varies significantly, but overall the CTM is able to reproduce observed CHBr3 well in the free troposphere using an inventory based on observed sea-to-air fluxes. Finally, we identify the range of uncertainty associated with these VSLS emission inventories on stratospheric bromine loading due to VSLS (Br(VSLS/y)). Our simulations show Br(VSLS/y) ranges from approximately 4.0 to 8.0 ppt depending on the inventory. We report an optimized estimate at the lower end of this range (approximately 4 ppt) based on combining the CHBr3 and CH2Br2 inventories which give best agreement with the compilation of observations in the tropics.

bromocarbons↗
NASA NTRS2018

Global High Resolution Crustal Magnetic Field at the Surface of the Moon from Low-Altitude Lunar Prospector Magnetic Gradient Data

We derived new vector gradients based models of crustal magnetic field at the lunar surface with data from the Lunar Prospector (LP) satellite using two model parameterization approaches: a global set of 35820 1° spaced (~30 km) equal area monopoles at 20 km below the surface (O’Brien and Parker, 1994; Olsen et al., 2017) and combined results of subsets of 100000 0.66° spaced monopoles at the same depth. We use the scheme of iteratively reweighted least-squares inversion to compute the initial model. Then the amplitudes of these monopoles are determined by minimizing the misfit to the components together with the global average of |Br| at the ellipsoid surface (i.e. applying a L1 model regularization of Br). In previous approaches using vector fields for modeling, we found that external field contamination leads to spurious anomalies in the downward continued field models even with stringent data selection criteria and ad-hoc noise removal techniques (e.g., satellite’s position in the Moon’s wake w.r.t. the solar wind and in the Earth’s magnetotail, internal/external dipoles fields removal, low-order polynomial removal, joint equivalent source cross-validation technique and visually removing remaining anomalous segments). On the other hand, with the use of gradients-only data (along-track first finite differences), we were able to completely bypass the ad-hoc techniques. Similar processing of Kaguya magnetic data, which have only higher altitude coverage over the most of the Moon except in the region of the South Pole–Aitken (SPA) basin, completely misses some of the anomalies seen in the Lunar Prospector data. The combined Lunar Prospector and Kaguya gradient-based models also severely degrade the derivation of the anomaly fields in many regions. Euler analysis of isolated anomaly features from the Reiner Gamma swirl suggests top depths of about 0.3 to 1.5 km and center depths of 10-14 km; in the region between Stein and Vallier craters north of the SPA basin our analysis suggests top depths of around 1.5 km and center depths of 13-15 km. With the spectral depth determination techniques, the SPA basin region yields depths to the base of magnetization ranging between 15 and 40 km. Three-dimensional modeling and the bulk magnetization determinations of the sources constrained by the Euler and spectral methods is underway.

Gradient↗
NASA NTRS2020

Magnetic Field Dropouts at Near-Sun Switchback Boundaries: A Superposed Epoch Analysis

During Parker Solar Probe’s first close encounter with the Sun in early 2018 November, a large number of impulsive rotations in the magnetic field were detected within 50 Rs; these also occurred in association with short-lived impulsive solar wind bursts in speed. These impulsive features are now called“switchback”events. We examined a set of these switchbacks where the boundary transition into and out of the switchback was abrupt, with fast B rotations and simultaneous solar wind speed changes occurring on timescales of less than ∼10 s; these thus appear as step function-like changes in the radial component of B and V. Our objective was to search for any diamagnetic effects that might occur especially if the boundaries are associated with quick changes in density(i.e.,a steep spatial density gradient at the switchback boundary). We identified 25 switchback entries where the radial component of B,Br, quickly transitioned from large negative to positive values and Vr simultaneously abruptly increased(i.e., step-up transitions)and 28 switchback exits where Br quickly transitioned from large positive to negative values and Vr simultaneously abruptly decreased (i.e., step-down transitions). We then performed a superposed epoch analysis on each of these sets of events. We found these fast-transitioning events typically had a clear and distinct decrease in the magnetic field magnitude by 7%–8% detected exactly at the boundary. The presence of the B dropout suggests there is a diamagnetic current present at the boundary.

W M Farrell↗
NASA NTRS1995

Heliomagnetic Latitude Dependence of Heliospheric Magnetic Field

ICE and IMP-8 magnetic field data from 1984 1988 were analyzed in a magnetic coordinate system defined by the orientation of the solar magnetic dipole. The heliomagnetic latitude dependence of the radial component of the magnetic field (Br) was then investigated in the range of magnetic latitudes from 60 above and below the heliospheric current sheet. Investigators found that Br reverses sign abruptly across the current sheet, consistent with solar magnetic field models, but inconsistent with the source surface models.

ICE↗
NASA NTRS2020

Lunar Magnetic Field Models From Lunar Prospector and SELENE/Kaguya Along-Track Magnetic Field Gradients

We use L1-norm model regularization of |Br| component at the surface on magnetic monopoles bases and along-track magnetic field differences alone (without vector observations) to derive high quality global magnetic field models at the surface of the Moon. The practical advantages to this strategy are the following: monopoles are more stable at closer spacing in comparison to dipoles, improving spatial resolution; L1-norm model regularization leads to sparse models which may be appropriate for the Moon which has regions of localized magnetic field features; and along-track differences reduce the need for ad-hoc external field noise reduction strategies. We examine also the use of Lunar Prospector and SELENE/Kaguya magnetometer data, combined and separately, and find that the Lunar Prospector along-track vector field differences lead to surface field models that require weaker regularization and, hence, result in higher spatial resolution. Significantly higher spatial resolution (wavelengths of roughly 25–30 km) and higher amplitude surface magnetic fields can be derived over localized regions of high amplitude anomalies (due to their higher signal-to-noise ratio). These high-resolution field models are also compared with the results of Surface Vector Mapping approach of Tsunakawa et al. (2015, https://doi.org/10.1002/2014JE004785). Finally, the monopoles- as well as dipoles-based patterns of the Serenitatis high amplitude magnetic feature have characteristic textbook patterns of Br and Bθ component fields from a nearly vertically downwardly magnetized source region and it implies that the principal source of the anomaly was formed when the region was much closer to the north magnetic pole of the Moon.

D. Ravat↗
NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Implications of seagrass changes on manatee distributions in the Indian River Lagoon waters surrounding NASA’s Kennedy Space Center

The presentation will discuss Kennedy Space Center’s (KSC) long term monitoring of seagrass and manatees in the Banana River (BR) prior to 2010, the remarkable decline in seagrass habitat that occurred thereafter, and the notable shift in manatee distribution. For Banana River, from 2010 to 2015, seagrass declined while manatee presence increased, with an average of 525 manatees per flight in 2015. After 2016, both seagrasses and manatee presence declined. Concurrently, increasing manatee numbers were reported for Mosquito Lagoon (ML), where historical manatee occurrence was relatively low. In 2016, aerial surveys were expanded to include the southern half of ML to document this significant distribution shift. By 2022, ML had become the hub of manatee occurrence on KSC, with an average of 946 manatees per flight and only 48 per flight in BR. These data enhance information for IRL stakeholders regarding seagrass habitat and manatee protection in the northern IRL.

Seagrass↗
NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Implications of Seagrass Changes on Manatee Distributions in the Indian River Lagoon Waters Surrounding NASA's Kennedy Space Center

The presentation will discuss Kennedy Space Center’s (KSC) long term monitoring of seagrass and manatees in the Banana River (BR) prior to 2010, the remarkable decline in seagrass habitat that occurred thereafter, and the notable shift in manatee distribution. For Banana River, from 2010 to 2015, seagrass declined while manatee presence increased, with an average of 525 manatees per flight in 2015. After 2016, both seagrasses and manatee presence declined. Concurrently, increasing manatee numbers were reported for Mosquito Lagoon (ML), where historical manatee occurrence was relatively low. In 2016, aerial surveys were expanded to include the southern half of ML to document this significant distribution shift. By 2022, ML had become the hub of manatee occurrence on KSC, with an average of 946 manatees per flight and only 48 per flight in BR. These data enhance information for IRL stakeholders regarding seagrass habitat and manatee protection in the northern IRL.

Indian River Lagoon↗
NASA NTRS1967

Surface-spike growth on NiBr sub 2 crystals - A VLS mode of crystal growth.

Droplets associated with surface-spike growth of crystals of NiBr 2 by sublimation have been analyzed and found to contain Cu, Co, Mn, and Fe in addition to Ni and Br. These elements exist in the bulk of the original charge material in concentrations that are several orders of magnitude lower than that in the droplets. During crystal growth by sublimation the impurities collect on the surface of growing crystals, until sufficient concentrations are reached to cause the nucleation of a metastable liquid phase droplet. Once the liquid phase droplets have been nucleated, they may then become attached to growth steps and produce accelerated growth from these sites. Such processes occur in NiBr 2 , during growth by sublimation, at approximately 500 °C below the melting point of NiBr 2 .

Edward N Sickafus↗
NASA NTRS1969

Zone purification of potassium chloride

Procedure for removal of sodium and bromine from KCl involves zone refining in dilute halogen atmosphere. Distribution of Na and Br at concentrations of parts per million is followed by neutron-activation analyses.

Susman, S.↗