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Results for “tidal dissipation”

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At least 199 records · Page 11
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
NASA NTRS1984

Internal waves in the Gulf of California - Observations from a spaceborne radar

Pronounced signatures of internal waves were detected repeatedly in the Gulf of California by the Seasat synthetic aperture radar (SAR). A series of nine images with exactly repeating ground coverage was used to study the temporal variability of the internal wave field in the area. It was found that the number of observed wave groups was highly correlated with the strength of the local tides: the maximum number occurred during spring tides and the minimum number occurred during neap tides, indicating that the internal waves were tidally forced. Most of the wave activity was found to the north of 28 deg N where the tides were the strongest in the Gulf. The application of a simple, nonlinear internal wave model to the observations indicated that the peak-to-peak amplitude of the observed waves was about 50 m with an uncertainty of a factor of 2. The estimated upper bound for the rate of the loss of tidal energy to internal waves was about 5 x 10 to the 15th erg/s, representing only 10 percent of the rate of the dissipation of the dominant M2 tide in the Gulf.

Fu, L.-L.↗
NASA NTRS1975

Development of a three dimensional numerical water quality model for continental shelf applications

A model to predict the distribution of water quality parameters in three dimensions was developed. The mass transport equation was solved using a non-dimensional vertical axis and an alternating-direction-implicit finite difference technique. The reaction kinetics of the constituents were incorporated into a matrix method which permits computation of the interactions of multiple constituents. Methods for the computation of dispersion coefficients and coliform bacteria decay rates were determined. Numerical investigations of dispersive and dissipative effects showed that the three-dimensional model performs as predicted by analysis of simpler cases. The model was then applied to a two dimensional vertically averaged tidal dynamics model for the Providence River. It was also extended to a steady state application by replacing the time step with an iteration sequence. This modification was verified by comparison to analytical solutions and applied to a river confluence situation.

Spaulding, M.↗
NASA NTRS1986

Daytime lidar measurements of tidal winds in the mesospheric sodium layer at Urbana, Illinois

For more than 15 years lidar systems have been used to study the chemistry and dynamics of the mesospheric sodium layer. Because the layer is an excellent tracer of atmospheric wave motions, sodium lidar has proven to be particularly useful for studying the influence of gravity waves and tides on mesospheric dynamics. These waves, which originate in the troposphere and stratosphere, propagate through the mesosphere and dissipate their energy near the mesopause making important contributions to the momentum and turbulence budget in this region of the atmosphere. Recently, the sodium lidar was modified for daytime operation so that wave phenomena and chemical effects could be monitored throughout the complete diurnal cycle. The results of continuous 24 hour lidar observations of the sodium layer structure are presented alond with measurement of the semidiurnal tidal winds.

Kwon, K. H.↗
NASA NTRS1994

A preliminary tidal analysis of TOPEX/POSEIDON altimetry

Approximately 12 months of data from the TOPEX/POSEIDON satellite altimeter mission are analyzed for the major short-period oceanic tides. A harmonic analysis is performed on data captured within bins defined on a deep-ocean grid, which, owing to tidal aliasing considerations, must have a relatively coarse spatial resolution. Our analysis is in terms of corrections to the Schwiderski and Cartwright-Ray models, and it confirms many of the Schwiderski differences previously reported by Cartwright and Ray. Our differences with respect to the Geosat-based Cartwright and Ray model form a sectorial pattern in M(sub 2) with high/low differences separated roughly 180 deg in longitude. We suggest that these sectorial errors were most likely induced by Geosat's relatively large orbit error. Comparisons to independent data validate the improved TOPEX/POSEIDON solutions; in-situ 'ground truth' shows M(sub 2) root mean square (RMS) differences of 4.10 cm (Schwiderski), 3.86 cm (cartwright and Ray), 2.63 cm (this paper). Global rates of energy dissipation confirm earlier estimates for M(sub 2), and show improved agreement with satellite tracking studies for K(sub 1) and S(sub 2). These preliminary exercises confirm that TOPEX/POSEIDON should results in a new generation of improved global tidal models.

Schrama, E. J. O.↗
NASA NTRS2017

STURM: Resuspension Mesocosms with Realistic Bottom Shear Stress and Water Column Turbulence for Benthic-Pelagic Coupling Studies: Design and Applications

Shear TUrbulence Resuspension Mesocosm (STURM) tanks, with high instantaneous bottom shear stress and realistic water column mixing in a single system, allow realistic benthic-pelagic coupling studies with sediment resuspension. The 1 m3 tanks can be programmed to produce tidal or episodic sediment resuspension for extended time periods (e.g. 4 weeks), over muddy sediments with a variety of benthic organisms. A resuspension paddle produces uniform bottom shear stress across the sediment surface while gently mixing a 1 m deep overlying water column. The STURM tanks can be programmed to different magnitudes, frequencies, and durations of bottom shear stress (and thus resuspension) with proportional water column turbulence levels over a wide range of mixing settings for benthic-pelagic coupling experiments. Over ten STURM calibration settings, RMS turbulent velocity ranged from 0.26 to 4.52 cm s−1, energy dissipation rate from 0.0016 to 2.65 cm2 s−3, the average bottom shear stress from 0.0035 to 0.19 Pa, and the instantaneous maximum bottom shear stress from 0.07 to 1.7 Pa. We have performed four 4-week benthic-pelagic coupling ecosystem experiments with tidal resuspension and stepwise erosion experiments (both with and without infaunal bivalves), carried out experiments on oyster biodeposit resuspension, mimicked storms overlain on tidal resuspension, and studied the effects of varying frequency and duration of resuspension on sedimentary contaminant release. The large size of the tanks allows water quality and particle measurements using standard oceanographic instrumentation. The realistic scale and complexity of the contained ecosystems has revealed indirect feedbacks and responses that are not observable in smaller, less complex experimental systems.

Porter, Elka T.↗
NASA NTRS1977

X-rays from massive black holes

Tidal disruption of nondegenerate stars is shown to provide an important heat source for gas accreting onto massive black holes (about 10 to 100 million solar masses) in galactic nuclei. Turbulent dissipation by accreting gas streams can also be significant, and the heat input suffices to give rise to temperatures above about 1 billion K, resulting in an appreciable hard X-ray luminosity.

Meszaros, P.↗
NASA NTRS1981

The free librations of a dissipative moon

It is noted that dissipation in the moon produces a small offset (approximately 0.23 arcsec) of the moon's rotation axis from the plane defined by the ecliptic and lunar orbit normals. Both solid body tidal friction and viscous fluid friction at a core-mantle interface are thought to be plausible mechanisms. The merits of both are discussed, and it is found that solid friction requires a low lunar tidal Q (approximately 28), whereas turbulent fluid friction requires a core with a radius of approximately 330 km to cause the signature observed by lunar laser ranging. Large (approximately 0.4-8.0 arcsec) free librations of the lunar figure have also been detected through laser ranging. Both a very recent impact on the moon and fluid turbulence in the lunar core are considered plausible mechanisms for generating these librations.

Yoder, C. F.↗
NASA NTRS1993

Gravity wave forcing in the middle atmosphere due to reduced ozone heating during a solar eclipse

We present an analysis of the gravity wave structure and the associated forcing of the middle atmosphere induced by the screening of the ozone layer from solar heating during a solar eclipse. Fourier integral techniques and numerical evaluation of the integral solutions were used to assess the wave field structure and to compute the gravity wave forcing of the atmosphere at greater heights. Our solutions reveal dominant periods of a few hours, characteristic horizontal and vertical scales of about 5000 to 10,000 km and 200 km, respectively, and an integrated momentum flux in the direction of eclipse motion of about 5.6 x 10 exp 8 N at each height above the forcing level. These results suggest that responses to solar eclipses may be difficult to detect above background gravity wave and tidal fluctuations until well into the thermosphere. Conversely, the induced body forces may penetrate to considerable heights because of the large wave scales and will have significant effects at levels where the wave field is dissipated.

Fritts, David C.↗
NASA NTRS1981

Effect of the fluid core on changes in the length of day due to long period tides

The long period luni-solar tidal potential is known to cause periodic changes in the earth's rotation rate. It is found that the effect of a dissipationless fluid outer core is to reduce the amplitudes of these tidal perturbations by about 11 percent. When the fluid core effect is added to Agnew and Farrell's (1978) estimate of the effect of an equilibrium ocean, the result is in accord with observation. The effects of dissipative processes within the fluid core are also examined. Out-of-phase perturbations are found which could be as large as about 10 ms at 18.6 yr. It is concluded, however, that the poorly understood decade fluctuations in the earth's rotation rate will prohibit observation of this effect.

Wahr, J. M.↗
NASA NTRS1989

Asymmetries in tidal structure between Adelaide and Kyoto

Continuous radar measurements of the wind oscillations caused by the solar diurnal and semidiurnal tides in the 80 to 110 km region of the atmosphere at the geographically conjugate stations of Adelaide (35 S, 138 E) and Kyoto (35 N, 136 E) are compared for the period 1983 to 1985. At the solstices it is found for both the 24- and 12-hr tides that the NS and EW oscillations tend to be in-phase and out-of-phase, respectively, behavior which indicates strong tidal asymmetries. The asymmetries in the 12-hr tide are consistent with a strong contribution from the (2,3) mode while the asymmetries in the 24-hr tide are ascribed to the effects of mean winds and dissipation acting to distort the (1,1) mode as it propagates up through the middle atmosphere.

Vincent, R. A.↗
NASA NTRS1997

Tidal Distortion and Disruption of Earth-Crossing Asteriods

We represent results of numerical simulations that show Earth's tidal forces can both distort and disrupt Earth-crossing asteriods (ECAs) that have weak rubble-pile structures. Building on previous studies, we consider more realistic asteriod shapes and trajectories, test a variety of spin and rates and axis orientations, and employ a dissipation algorithm to more accurately treat collisions between particles.

Tides Solid Body Asteriods Planetesimals Cratering↗
NASA NTRS1995

Hydrodynamics of coalescing binary neutron stars: Ellipsoidal treatment

We employ an approximate treatment of dissipative hydrodynamics in three dimensions to study the coalescence of binary neutron stars driven by the emission of gravitational waves. The stars are modeled as compressible ellipsoids obeying a polytropic equation of state; all internal fluid velocities are assumed to be linear functions of the coordinates. The hydrodynamics equations then reduce to a set of coupled ordinary differential equations for the evolution of the principal axes of the ellipsoids, the internal velocity parameters, and the binary orbital parameters. Gravitational radiation reaction and viscous dissipation are both incorporated. We set up exact initial binary equilibrium configurations and follow the transition from the quasi-static, secular decay of the orbit at large separation to the rapid dynamical evolution of the configurations just prior to contact. A hydrodynamical instability resulting from tidal interactions significantly accelerates the coalescence at small separation, leading to appreciable radial infall velocity and tidal lag angles near contact. This behavior is reflected in the gravitational waveforms and may be observable by gravitational wave detectors under construction. In cases where the neutron stars have spins which are not aligned with the orbital angular momentum, the spin-induced quadrupole moment can lead to precession of the orbital plane and therefore modulation of the gravitational wave amplitude even at large orbital radius. However, the amplitude of the modulation is small for typical neutron star binaries with spins much smaller than the orbital angular momentum.

Lai, Dong↗
NASA NTRS1994

An estimate of the momentum deposition in the lower thermosphere by the observed diurnal tide

This paper reports a calculation of the acceleration of the zonal mean flow induced by dissipating tides in the equatorial lower thermosphere. Estimates of the gravest symmetric gravitiational Hough mode (1,1) of the migrating diurnal tide are obtained from monthly composites of global winds observed by the Upper Atmosphere Research Satellite (UARS) High Resolution Doppler Imager (HRDI). Using the principles of classical tidal theory, the tidal momentum flux divergence is computed for a series of monthly mean (1,1) fields from January 1992 to May 1993. The contribution to the mean flow by the leading mode of the migrating tide ranges between -5 and -20 (easterly) m/s/day in the equatorial lower thermosphere. A semiannual variation is noted in the tidal amplitudes and the inferred tidal accelerations. These variations are consistent with observed trends in the zonal mean flow of the lower thermosphere.

Lieberman, Ruth S.↗
NASA NTRS1973

Rotation of solid bodies in the solar system

The effects of elastic distortion, nonprincipal axis rotation, precessing orbits, and internal dissipation on the rotation of a solid solar system body, which is in the gravitational field of an exterior body, are relatively easily analyzed by a Hamiltonian theory developed here. Examples of applications include the Chandler wobble, wobble of the moon, spin-orbit coupling, generalized Cassini laws, and tidal evolution.

Peale, S. J.↗
NASA NTRS1979

The interaction between giant gaseous protoplanets and the primitive solar nebula

The manner in which a giant gaseous protoplanet becomes embedded in the primitive solar nebula determines surface boundary conditions which must be used in studying the evolution of such objects. On the one hand, if the system resembles a contact binary system, then the envelope of the protoplanet should approach the entropy of the surrounding nebula. On the other hand angular momentum transfer by resonance and tidal effects between the nebula and the protoplanet may cause the nebula to exhibit a zone of avoidance near the protoplanet, thus inhibiting exchange of material. This problem has been studied with a computer program developed by D. N. C. Lin which simulates disk hydrodynamics by particle motions with dissipation. These studies suggest that for expected values of the protoplanet/protosun mass ratios, significant inhibition of mass exchange is likely, so that it is a reasonable next step to undertake protoplanet evolution studies with the imposition of minimum protoplanet surface temperatures.

Cameron, A. G. W.↗
DOE OSTI2021

Tidal disruption discs formed and fed by stream–stream and stream–disc interactions in global GRHD simulations

When a star passes close to a supermassive black hole (BH), the BH’s tidal forces rip it apart into a thin stream, leading to a tidal disruption event (TDE). In this work, we study the post-disruption phase of TDEs in general relativistic hydrodynamics (GRHD) using our GPU-accelerated code h-amr. We carry out the first grid-based simulation of a deep-penetration TDE (β = 7) with realistic system parameters: a black hole-to-star mass ratio of 10 6 , a parabolic stellar trajectory, and a non-zero BH spin. We also carry out a simulation of a tilted TDE whose stellar orbit is inclined relative to the BH midplane. We show that for our aligned TDE, an accretion disc forms due to the dissipation of orbital energy with ~20 percent of the infalling material reaching the BH. The dissipation is initially dominated by violent self-intersections and later by stream–disc interactions near the pericentre. The self-intersections completely disrupt the incoming stream, resulting in five distinct self-intersection events separated by approximately 12 h and a flaring in the accretion rate. We also find that the disc is eccentric with mean eccentricity e ≈ 0.88. For our tilted TDE, we find only partial self-intersections due to nodal precession near pericentre. Although these partial intersections eject gas out of the orbital plane, an accretion disc still forms with a similar accreted fraction of the material to the aligned case. These results have important implications for disc formation in realistic tidal disruptions. For instance, the periodicity in accretion rate induced by the complete stream disruption may explain the flaring events from Swift J1644+57.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2025

Characterizing in-stream turbulent flow for tidal energy converter siting in Cook Inlet, Alaska

Cook Inlet in Alaska is the most promising location for tidal energy development in the U.S. due to its significant tidal range of approximately 10 meters and high volume flux. The inlet's unique geometry and flow characteristics make it the most energetic tidal stream in the nation, with GW-scale potential energy capacity. With the growing interest in tidal energy converter (TEC) deployment in this area, we implemented a regional-scale, 3D hydrodynamic modeling framework to predict tidal current and turbulence characteristics that can assist TEC designers and project managers. We validated the model results extensively using various datasets collected with bottom-mounted acoustic Doppler current profilers and velocimeters. The comparison between the model outputs and observational data highlighted the effectiveness of the 3D FVCOM model and the Mellor-Yamada Level 2.5 Turbulence Model in accurately assessing macro-scale kinetic energy, turbulence intensity, and the production and dissipation rates at a prospective TEC site. Using two months of model simulation data, we examined the channel cross-section for TEC deployment, focusing on undisturbed power density and macro-scale turbulent properties. Further, our findings indicate that understanding the turbulence characteristics and flow properties can enhance Stage I/II resource characterization by identifying optimal locations for TECs and their layouts within the channel. Furthermore, we demonstrated that TEC designers can utilize macro-scale turbulence data from 3D coastal models as boundary conditions for other turbulence models, allowing for a more detailed resolution of the turbulence structure at TEC siting locations. Ultimately, this work emphasizes the importance of estimating flow and turbulence conditions in energetic systems to understand turbulent sites better and improve resource characterization.

16 TIDAL AND WAVE POWER↗