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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.

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At least 217 records · Page 12
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
NASA NTRS1985

Energy spectra of elements with 18 less than or equal to Z less than or equal to 28 between 10 and 300 GeV/amu

The HEAO-3 Heavy Nuclei Experiment is composed of ionization chambers above and below a plastic Cherenkov counter. The energy dependence of the abundances of elements with atomic number, Z, between 18 and 28 were measured at very high energies where they are rare and thus need the large area x time of this experiment. The measurements of the Danish-French HEAO-3 experiment were extended to higher energies, using the relativistic rise of ionization signal as a measure of energy, and determine source abundances for Ar and Ca.

Jones, M. D.↗
NASA NTRS1978

The effects of divergent and nondivergent winds on the kinetic energy budget of a mid-latitude cyclone - A case study

The magnitude of the divergent component of the wind is relatively small compared to that of the nondivergent component in large-scale atmospheric flows; nevertheless, it plays an important role in the case of explosive cyclogenesis examined here. The kinetic energy budget for the life cycle of an intense, developing cyclone over North America is calculated. The principal kinetic energy source is the net horizontal transport across the boundaries of the region enclosing the cyclone. By investigating the relative importance of the divergent and nondivergent wind components in the kinetic energy budget, it was found, as expected, that neglecting the divergent wind component in calculating the magnitude of the kinetic energy is of little consequence, but that the horizontal flux convergence and generation of kinetic energy depend crucially upon the divergent component. Modification of the divergent wind component can result in significant changes in the kinetic energy budget of the synoptic system.

Chen, T.-C.↗
NASA NTRS1985

Use of direct electron pair method

A new method for energy measurement of heavy cosmic-ray nuclei in nuclear emulsion is considered: the use of Coulomb-pair production. The energy-dependent cross section for the production of direct electron pairs in nuclear emulsion is found sufficiently high to permit the energy determination of iron-group nuclei to better than +60 or -40 percent above 1 TeV/nucleon. An experimental calibration and a possible application of the method to Space Shuttle experiments are considered.

Takahashi, Y.↗
NASA NTRS2010

Radiation Environment and Surface Radiolytic Interactions at Mimas

Saturn's innermost principal moon Mimas shares the distinction with Europa at Jupiter of being the most irradiated icy moon in its respective planetary system, although the energetic electron energy flux at Mimas is forty times smaller than at Europa. High energy (> 10 MeV) proton fluxes are low in this moon's orbital corridor, likely since slowly diffusing protons from the weak but steady source of cosmic ray albedo neutron decay (CRAND) cannot accumulate without impacting the moon surface. Lower energy proton fluxes are also evidently suppressed in this orbital region. Plasma ion and electron fluxes are also low apparently due to cooling by interaction with E-ring dust and neutral gas from Enceladus. Due to energy-dependent effects of longitudinal gradient-curvature drift for the electrons, the trailing hemisphere is mainly irradiated by electrons at energies below 1 MeV that drift relative to Mimas in the prograde direction of orbital motion around Saturn, while higher energy electrons primarily impact the leading hemisphere. Plasma ions in the inner magnetosphere of Saturn are mainly pickup ions forming from the dissociation products of Enceladus plume water molecules, additionally including some contribution from photosputtering of the main rings, and do not introduce new elemental materials at Mimas via surface implantation from the corotating plasma. Thus the primary interaction at the surface is radiolytic chemistry induced in pure water ice by relatively deep penetration of the energetic electrons to millimeter and greater depths, as compared to the micron depths impacted by the corotating plasma ions. If surface erosion by sputtering from relatively low fluxes of the plasma and more energetic ions is indeed ineffective, then molecular products (OH, H2O2, 02, 03) of the radiolytic interactions may accumulate in the meters-deep impact regolith of the surface ices. An effect of regolith trapped gas accumulation could be to increase porosity and reduce thermal conductivity of the ice, potentially contributing to reported thermal anomalies from Cassini infrared map observations. Low amplitude of trailing-leading asymmetry in optical albedo and color maps at Mimas is suggestive of relative weakness of asymmetrical effects from low-energy ions. Greater induced asymmetries are expected and observed for the moons beyond Enceladus in the middle magnetospheric region of hot plasma ions at much greater fluxes than at Mimas. Low density (1.15 g/cc) of this moon indicates paucity of mineral salts and radiogenic heating to maintain subsurface liquids, so Enceladus-like cryovolcanism as a resurfacing process is unlikely despite closer proximity to Saturn, greater tidal forcing, and more intense surface irradiation than for Enceladus.

Cooper, J. F.↗
NASA NTRS1973

Direct observations in the dusk hours of the characteristics of the storm-time ring current particles during the beginning of magnetic storms

The characteristic features of the initial enhancement of the storm-time ring current particles in the evening hours are consistent with flow patterns resulting from a combination of inward convection, gradient drift, and corotation which carries plasma sheet protons into low L-values near midnight and the higher energy proton component into the plasmasphere and through the evening hours. Data from four magnetic storms during the early life of Explorer 45, when the local time of apogee was in the afternoon and evening hours, show that protons with lower magnetic moments penetrate deeper into the magnetosphere until a low limit, determined by the corotation and gradient drift forces, is reached. Such particle motions produce the stable energy dependent inner boundary of the ring current protons inside the plasmapause in the dusk sector and also provide the mechanism for energy injection into the ring current region. From the analyses of the pitch angle distributions it is evident that charge exchange and wave particle interactions are not the dominant causes of this inner boundary.

Smith, P. H.↗
NASA NTRS1984

Microwave signature of thick-target electron beams in solar flares

The steady-state behavior of a flux of nonthermal electrons injected into a fully ionized thick target is examined. Owing to the (inverse square) energy dependence of the Coulomb collisional cross section, it is found that injected electron distributions that are monotonically decreasing functions of electron energy develop at finite depths into distributions that have 'humps' in velocity space; the electron energy corresponding to the hump correlates with the overlying particle column density to the target. This results in a two-stream unstable situation. The distribution is constantly being relaxed by quasi-linear relaxation and re-created by collisions; in this way a steady nonthermal level of Langmuir plasma waves is created, and these waves in turn produce microwave plasma radiation with a typical flux of 3 x 10 to the -16th erg/sq cm-sec. This flux can be enhanced by a factor of up to 100 by a high level of low-frequency (such as ion-acoustic) turbulence, which prevents quasi-linear relaxation for a sufficient fraction of the path length.

Emslie, A. G.↗
NASA NTRS1993

Energy considerations in computational aeroacoustics

A finite-volume multistage time-stepping Euler code is used to investigate the use of CFD algorithms for the direct calculation of acoustics. The 2D compressible inviscid flow about an accelerating or decelerating circular cylinder is used as a model problem. The time evolution of the energy transfer from the cylinder to the fluid, as the cylinder is moved from rest to some nonnegligible velocity, is clearly seen. By examining the temporal and spatial characteristics of the numerical solution, a distinction can be made between the propagating acoustic energy, the convecting energy associated with the entropy change in the fluid, and the energy contained in the local aerodynamic field. Systematic variation of the cylinder acceleration shows that the radiated acoustic energy depends strongly upon the rate of acceleration or deceleration. The computational grid has a large effect on the ratio of acoustic energy to nonphysical entropy associated energy, while the role of the explicit artificial viscosity seems to be of second order. The entropy term was nearly negligible in all cases the cylinder was started slowly.

Brentner, Kenneth S.↗
NASA NTRS2020

A NICER View of Spectral and Profile Evolution for Three X-ray-Emitting Millisecond Pulsars

We present two years of Neutron star Interior Composition Explorer (NICER) X-ray observations of three energetic rotation-powered millisecond pulsars (MSPs): PSRs B1937+21, B1821−24, and J0218+4232. We fit Gaussians and Lorentzians to the pulse profiles for different energy sub-bands of the soft X-ray regime to measure the energy dependence of pulse separation and width. We find that the separation between pulse components of PSR J0218+4232 decreases with increasing energy at >3σ confidence. The 95% upper limit on pulse separation evolution for PSRs B1937+21 and B1821−24 is less than 2 milliperiods per keV. Our phase-resolved spectral results provide updated constraints on the non-thermal X-ray emission of these three pulsars. The photon indices of the modeled X-ray emission spectra for each pulse component of PSR B1937+21 are inconsistent with each other at the 90% confidence level, suggesting different emission origins for each pulse. We find that the PSR B1821−24 and PSR J0218+4232 emission spectra are invariant with phase at the 90% confidence level. We describe the implications of our profile and spectral results in the context of equatorial current sheet emission models for these three MSPs with non-thermal, magnetospheric X-ray emission.

Dominick M Rowan↗
NASA NTRS1971

Deformed Brueckner-Hartree-Fock calculation for light nuclei

For the first time the Brueckner-Hartree-Fock (BHF) method was applied to nuclei whose intrinsic structure is nonspherical. One aim was to investigate whether the energy dependent reaction matrix calculated from a realistic nucleon-nucleon interaction leads to deformations similar to, or different from, those obtained from energy independent interactions in Hartree-Fock (HF) calculations. Reaction matrix elements were calculated as a function of starting energy for the Hamada-Johnston interaction, using a Pauli operator appropriate to O-16 and a shifted oscillator spectrum for virtual excited states. Binding energies, single-particle energies, radii, and shape deformations of the intrinsic state in unrenormalized as well as renormalized BHF are discussed and compared with previous HF studies. Results are presented for C-12, O-16, and Ne-20.

Braley, R. C.↗
NASA NTRS2007

Testing Special Relativity at High Energies with Astrophysical Sources

Since the group of Lorentz boosts is unbounded, there is a question as to whether Lorentz invariance (LI) holds to infinitely short distances. However, special and general relativity may break down at the Planck scale. Various quantum gravity scenarios such as loop quantum gravity, as well as some forms of string theory and extra dimension models may imply Lorentz violation (LV) at ultrahigh energies. The Gamma-Ray Large Area Space Telescope (GLAST), to be launched in mid-December, will measure the spectra of distant extragalactic sources of high energy gamma-rays, particularly active galactic nuclei and gamma-ray bursts. GLAST can look for energy-dependent gamma-ray propagation effects from such sources as a signal of Lorentz invariance violation. These sources may also exhibit the high energy cutoffs predicted to be the result of intergalactic annihilation interactions with low energy photons having a flux level as determined by various astronomical observations. With LV the threshold for such interactions can be significantly raised, changing the predicted absorption turnover in the observed spectrum of the sources. Stecker and Glashow have shown that the existence such absorption features in the spectra of extragalactic sources puts constraints on LV. Such constraints have important implications for some quantum gravity and large extra dimension models. Future spaceborne detectors dedicated to measuring gamma-ray polarization can look for birefringence effects as a possible signal of loop quantum gravity. A very small LV may also result in the modification or elimination of the GZK effect, thus modifying the spectrum of ultrahigh energy cosmic rays. This possibility can be explored with ground-based arrays such as Auger or with a space based detector system such as the proposed OWL satellite mission.

Stecker, F. W.↗
NASA NTRS1992

Accelerated cometary ions observed downstream of the Comet Halley bow shock

Results are presented of fluxes of energetic ions with energies exceeding 100 keV that were detected upstream of the bow shock of Comet Halley by the Tuende instrument on board the VEGA 1 spacecraft. Downstream of the shock, ion fluxes in the energy range 100 to 180 keV were observed. The measured ion fluxes were transformed into distribution functions in the solar wind frame using a variety of assumptions concerning the energy dependence of the distribution function and the identity of the ion species. The derived distribution function upstream of the shock falls off steeply with energy between 100 and 150 keV, with an effective temperature of about 7 keV or spectral index of about -15. The distribution function increases with decreasing cometocentric distance, on average, reaching a maximum at the bow shock. The measured distribution functions are compared with those obtained by similar instruments on Giotto and ICE as well as with the predictions of several theoretical models that employ different acceleration mechanisms.

Kecskemety, K.↗
NASA NTRS1992

Photoelectric absorption cross sections with variable abundances

Polynomial fit coefficients have been obtained for the energy dependences of the photoelectric absorption cross sections of 17 astrophysically important elements. These results allow the calculation of X-ray absorption in the energy range 0.03-10 keV in material with noncosmic abundances.

Balucinska-Church, Monika↗
NASA NTRS2019

Forbush Decreases and < 2 Day GCR Flux Non-recurrent Variations Studied with LISA Pathfinder

Non-recurrent short-term variations of the galactic cosmic-ray (GCR) flux above 70 MeV n−1 were observed between 2016 February 18 and 2017 July 3 on board the European Space Agency LISA Pathfinder (LPF) mission orbiting around the Lagrange point L1 at 1.5 × 106 km from Earth. The energy dependence of three Forbush decreases is studied and reported here. A comparison of these observations with others carried out in space down to the energy of a few tens of MeV n−1 shows that the same GCR flux parameterization applies to events of different intensity during the main phase. FD observations in L1 with LPF and geomagnetic storm occurrence are also presented. Finally, the characteristics of GCR flux non-recurrent variations (peaks and depressions) of duration <2 days and their association with interplanetary structures are investigated. It is found that, most likely, plasma compression regions between subsequent corotating high-speed streams cause peaks, while heliospheric current sheet crossing causes the majority of the depressions.

M. Armano↗
NASA NTRS2019

Forbush Decreases and <2 Day GCR Flux Non-Recurrent Variations Studied with LISA Pathfinder

Non-recurrent short-term variations of the galactic cosmic-ray (GCR) flux above 70 MeV n(exp −1) were observed between 2016 February 18 and 2017 July 3 on board the European Space Agency LISA Pathfinder (LPF) mission orbiting around the Lagrange point L1 at 1.5 × 10 (exp 6) km from Earth. The energy dependence of three Forbush decreases is studied and reported here. A comparison of these observations with others carried out in space down to the energy of a few tens of MeV n(exp −1) shows that the same GCR flux parameterization applies to events of different intensity during the main phase. FD observations in L1 with LPF and geomagnetic storm occurrence are also presented. Finally, the characteristics of GCR flux non-recurrent variations (peaks and depressions) of duration <2 days and their association with interplanetary structures are investigated. It is found that, most likely, plasma compression regions between subsequent corotating high-speed streams cause peaks, while heliospheric current sheet crossing causes the majority of the depressions.

Cosmic rays↗
NASA NTRS1974

An interpretation of the carbon-oxygen to iron ratio

Data from recent measurements on the composition of primary cosmic rays above 1 GeV/nucleon are critically reviewed for information pertaining to selection of suitable energy-dependent composition models. Areas where crucial experimental information may result in selection of a suitable model are pointed out. In particular, the study of the energy distribution of VVH nuclei, and the derivation of more accurate energy spectra of 10 less than or equal to Z less than or equal to 14, 15 less than or equal to Z less than or equal to 23 and Z greater than 24 would contribute to discriminate between models which rely on interstellar propagation and those that ascribe a different source mechanism for Fe group nuclei.

Balasubrahmanyan, V. K.↗
NASA NTRS1979

Acceleration and transport of galactic cosmic rays

A recently proposed cosmic-ray acceleration mechanism is combined with a model of transport and loss from the Galaxy to construct a model for galactic cosmic rays. Various aspects of the cosmic-ray spectrum, including the secondary-to-primary ratio as a function of energy, are found to fit naturally into the overall picture. A solution to the dynamical-halo model with energy-dependent diffusion coefficient (kappa) is presented. This model is consistent with the observed spectra if kappa is proportional to the square root of the kinetic energy. The observed flattening of the secondary-to-primary ratio below about 1-2 GeV per nucleon is shown to be a natural consequence of the model. Similarly, the primary electron spectrum is predicted to flatten below about 1-2 GeV, which is consistent with deconvolution of the local nonthermal radio spectrum, although the flattening is not quite as much as indicated by the observations.

Jokipii, J. R.↗