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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 NTRS2016

Transition Prediction in Hypersonic Boundary Layers Using Receptivity and Freestream Spectra

Boundary-layer transition in hypersonic flows over a straight cone can be predicted using measured freestream spectra, receptivity, and threshold values for the wall pressure fluctuations at the transition onset points. Simulations are performed for hypersonic boundary-layer flows over a 7-degree half-angle straight cone with varying bluntness at a freestream Mach number of 10. The steady and the unsteady flow fields are obtained by solving the two-dimensional Navier-Stokes equations in axisymmetric coordinates using a 5th-order accurate weighted essentially non-oscillatory (WENO) scheme for space discretization and using a third-order total-variation-diminishing (TVD) Runge-Kutta scheme for time integration. The calculated N-factors at the transition onset location increase gradually with increasing unit Reynolds numbers for flow over a sharp cone and remain almost the same for flow over a blunt cone. The receptivity coefficient increases slightly with increasing unit Reynolds numbers. They are on the order of 4 for a sharp cone and are on the order of 1 for a blunt cone. The location of transition onset predicted from the simulation including the freestream spectrum, receptivity, and the linear and the weakly nonlinear evolutions yields a solution close to the measured onset location for the sharp cone. The simulations over-predict transition onset by about twenty percent for the blunt cone.

Balakumar, P.↗
NASA NTRS2017

Synchronization of Human Autonomic Nervous System Rhythms with Geomagnetic Activity in Human Subjects

A coupling between geomagnetic activity and the human nervous system's function was identified by virtue of continuous monitoring of heart rate variability (HRV) and the time-varying geomagnetic field over a 31-day period in a group of 10 individuals who went about their normal day-to-day lives. A time series correlation analysis identified a response of the group's autonomic nervous systems to various dynamic changes in the solar, cosmic ray, and ambient magnetic field. Correlation coefficients and p values were calculated between the HRV variables and environmental measures during three distinct time periods of environmental activity. There were significant correlations between the group's HRV and solar wind speed, Kp, Ap, solar radio flux, cosmic ray counts, Schumann resonance power, and the total variations in the magnetic field. In addition, the time series data were time synchronized and normalized, after which all circadian rhythms were removed. It was found that the participants' HRV rhythms synchronized across the 31-day period at a period of approximately 2.5 days, even though all participants were in separate locations. Overall, this suggests that daily autonomic nervous system activity not only responds to changes in solar and geomagnetic activity, but is synchronized with the time-varying magnetic fields associated with geomagnetic field-line resonances and Schumann resonances.

Magnetic Fields↗
NASA NTRS2018

The Laser Enhanced Arc-Jet Facility (LEAF-Lite): Simulating Convective and Radiative Heating with Arc-Jets and Multiple 50-KW CW Lasers

LEAF-Lite (Laser Enhanced Arc-Jet Facility) is a radiative laser heating facility that has been added to the 60 MW Interaction Heating Facility (IHF) convective plasma arc-jet located at NASA Ames Research Center. Together, these two systems can simulate both convective and radiative heating at heat fluxes reaching 551 W/cm2 by simultaneously combining a highest measured heat flux of 160 W/cm2 convective and 391 W/cm2 radiative heating on a 152-mm x 152-mm wedge model configuration. Adding radiant heating to an existing convective facility better simulates Earth atmospheric entry from hyperbolic lunarreturn speeds. The radiative heat is provided by multiple 50-kW CW IR lasers, which is nearly uniform across the illuminated surface with a total variation less than 6%, while the convective heat is provided by a high enthalpy plasma arc-jet. In a later phase, the facility will expand to test panel test articles of 432-mm x 432-mm and provide 100 W/cm2 of radiative heating in a plasma convective flow environment. The paper describes this new combined heating capability, its current testing conditions, and the unique application of the laser system with respect to the Orion test flight lunar orbits.

Cushman, Geoff↗
NASA NTRS1974

Effect of wall to total temperature ratio variation on heat transfer to the leeside of a space shuttle configuration at M equals 10.3

An experimental study has been conducted of the influence of wall to total temperature ratio on the heat transfer to the leeside of a 040A space shuttle configuration. The heat transfer tests were made at a Mach number of 10 and a Reynolds number of one million per foot for angles of attack from 0 deg to 30 deg. Range of wall to total temperature ratio was from 0.16 to 0.43. Where the heat transfer was relatively high and the laminar boundary layer attached, the local heat transfer decreased by about 20 percent as the wall to total temperature ratio was increased from the minimum to the maximum test value. On regions of separated flow and vortex reattachment, very low heating rates were measured at some conditions and indicate significant changes are occurring in the leeside flow field. No single trend of heat transfer variation with wall to total temperature ratio could be observed.

Dunavant, J. C.↗
NASA NTRS1997

Total solar irradiance variations: The construction of a composite and its comparison with models

Measurements of the total solar irradiance (TSI) during the last 18 years from spacecraft are reviewed. Corrections are determined for the early measurements made by the HF radiometer within the ERB experiment on NIMBUS 7 and the factor to refer active cavity radiometer irradiation monitoring (ACRIM) 2 to the ACRIM 1 irradiance scale. With these corrections, a composite TSI is constructed with a model that combines a magnetic brightness proxy with observed sunspot darkening and explains nearly 90 percent of the observed short and long term variance. Possible, but still unverified degradation of the radiometers hampers conclusions about irradiance changes on decadal time scales and longer.

Froehlich, Claus↗
NASA NTRS1990

Solar Activity and the Sea-surface Temperature Record-evidence of a Long-period Variation in Solar Total Irradiance

There have been many suggestions over the years of a connection between solar activity and the Earth's climate on time scales long compared to the 11-year sunspot cycle. They have remained little more than suggestions largely because of the major uncertainties in the climate record itself, and the difficulty in trying to compile a global average from an assembly of measurements that are uneven in both quality and distribution. Different climate time response to solar activity, some suggesting a positive correlation, some a negative correlation, and some no correlation at all. The only excuse for making yet another such suggestion is that much effort has been devoted in recent years to compiling climate records for the past century or more that are internally consistent and believable, and that a decadal-scale record of solar total irradiance is emerging from spacecraft measurements, and can be used to set limits on the variation that is likely to have occurred on these time scales. The work described here was originally inspired by the observation that the time series of globally averaged sea-surface temperatures over the past 120 years or so, as compiled by the British Meteorological Office group (Folland and Kates, 1984), bore a resonable similarity to the long-term average sunspot number, which is an indicator of the secular variability of solar activity. The two time series are shown where the sunspot number is shown as the 135-month running mean, and the SST variation is shown as the departure from an arbitrary average value. The simplest explanation of the similarity, if one accepts it as other than coincidental, is that the sun's luminosity may have been varying more or less in step with the level of solar activity, or in other words that there is a close coupling between the sun's magnetic condition and its radiative output on time scales longer than the 11-year cycle. Such an idea is not new, and in fact the time series shown can be regarded as a modern extension of the proposal put forward by Eddy (1977) to explain the covariance between various global climate indicators and solar activity as revealed by the C-14 record over the past millenium.

Reid, George C.↗
NASA NTRS1989

Sr isotopic variations in Upper Proterozoic carbonates from Svalbard and East Greenland

Precambrian Sr isotope stratigraphy was investigated by determining variations in Sr-87/Sr-86 ratios in the Upper Proterozoic carbonate succession from Svalbard and East Greenland. Data from this study were combined with those from literature to construct a curve of Sr-87/Sr-86 versus time for Upper Proterozoic seawater. The curve for the Upper Riphean-Vandian showed that the isotopic composition of Sr in seawater was low (Delta Sr-87 of about -500) between 900 and 650 Ma but rose rapidly to about +30 by 600 Ma (this range of long-term variation exceeds the total Phanerozoic variation). The very low values of Delta Sr-87 inferred for the Riphean require that, for this time, the submarine hydrothermal water flux was a large fraction of the Sr input to the oceans, while the rise in Delta Sr-87 in the Upper Proterozoic seawater reflects both a change in the ratio of hydrothermal and continental fluxes of Sr to the oceans, and a change in the isotopic composition of Sr from continental sources.

Derry, Louis A.↗
NASA NTRS1989

Total ozone time variations during the spring reversals in the high latitudinal stratosphere of the Northern Hemisphere during the 20th and 21st solar cycles

The principal features of the thermodynamic regime of the stratosphere are governed by the development of the winter stratospheric low and the Aleutian and Atlantic heights. These are fed by the influx of the eddy energy transported into the stratosphere by the planetary waves. The intensity and variability of planetary waves and vortices associated with the waves determine the conditions of low-to-high latitudes ozone transport in the winter hemisphere. The ozone distributions are zonally inhomogeneous. The planetary wave dynamics are affected by solar activity variations during solar cycles. The 20th solar cycle maximum was accompanied by decreases of stratospheric planetary wave amplitudes, the 21st cycle was accompanied by increases of amplitudes.

Kidiyarova, V. G.↗
NASA NTRS1990

An Alternative Derivation of the Nimbus 7 Total Solar Irradiance Variations

Nimbus 7 solar irradiance values have been made available to the scientific community through the open literature (e.g., Hickey et al., 1988) and through NASA data centers. A comparison of these measurements to the Solar Maximum Mission/Active Cavity Radiometer Irradiance Monitor (SSM/ACRIM) time series indicated differences which might be caused in part by the method of converting the Nimbus 7 raw data counts to solar irradiance values. In an effort to see if the derivation of the solar irradiance could be improved, the raw counts were extracted from the tapes and analyzed to see how a new algorithm could be constructed. The basic form of the calibration remains the same as in the previous solar irradiance derivations. However, the input values to the equation differ from what was used before. In particular, improved values of the Earth-sun distance are incorporated and new temperature sensitivities were derived. Several problems with the instrument were uncovered which previously had not been noticed. The sun did not appear to cross the center of field of the radiometer but was systematically off by 1.5 to 2.5 degrees. The analog to digital convertor changed its properties in July 1980. The gain of the electronics apparently increased by 0.03 percent in September 1987. Applying these and other changes in the processing, the day to day variations appear much more like the SMM observations. In fact, the Nimbus 7 observations are sufficiently stable that a problem with the SSM observations in the spin mode period of 1981 to 1984 can be detected when the two time series are compared.

Hoyt, Douglas V.↗
NASA NTRS2007

Intraseasonal Variations of the Tropical Total Ozone and their Connection to the Madden-Julian Oscillation

We investigate the intraseasonal (30-90 day) variations in satellite-observed tropical total ozone (O3) and their connection to the Madden-Julian Oscillation (MJO). Tropical total O3 intraseasonal variations are large (approximately +/- 10 DU) and comparable to those in annual and interannual time scales. These O3 anomalies are mainly evident in the subtropics over the Pacific an eastern; hemisphere and propagate slowly eastward (approximately 5 m s-1). The subtropical negative (positive) O3 anomalies are typically collocated with the subtropical upper troposphere anticyclones (cyclones) generated by equatorial MJO convection and flank or lie to the west of the equatorial enhanced (suppressed) MJO convection. The subtropical O3 are anticorrelated with geopotential height anomalies near the tropopause and thus mainly associated with the O3 variability in the stratosphere rather the troposphere. Over the equatorial regions, total O3 anomalies are small.

Atmospheric Infrared Sounder (AIRS)↗
NASA NTRS1982

Active-region evolution and solar rotation variations in solar UV irradiance, total solar irradiance, and soft X rays

Variations in the total solar irradiance, solar UV spectral irradiance, and solar soft X-ray emission caused by active region evolution and solar rotation are analyzed by using concurrent measurements from the NIMBUS 7 and GOES satellites. The observations are interpreted by using simple empirical models that relate ground-based observations of the size and location of sunspots and plages to the full-disk temporal variations. It is found that the major dips in the photospheric total solar irradiance S, which are evident in both satellite measurements and model predictions, are usually not accompanied by outstanding enhancements in the chromospheric and upper photospheric UV spectral irradiance or coronal X rays. The main cause of this difference between the variability of S and of the UV flux is that the total chromospheric plage enhancements are not outstanding at those times when the total sunspot are outstanding. X rays are even more variable because of a much wider CMD sensitivity.

Donnelly, R. F.↗
NASA NTRS1993

Dynamical response of the tropical total ozone to sea surface temperature changes

Interannual variations of total ozone in the equatorial region are discussed in terms of the lower-stratospheric dynamical processes associated with sea surface temperature (SST) changes on an El Nino-Southern Oscillation time scale. Tropospheric diabatic heating by the latent heat release in convective systems drives the interannual variations of tropopause height and atmospheric vertical motions. The adiabatic cooling associated with the dynamically forced ascending motion is subject to radiative heating, which further extends the upwelling motion into the stratosphere. SST variations can thus influence total ozone amounts by changing the tropopause height and vertical advection through modulation of tropospheric diabatic heating. Mechanistic relationships that describe total ozone fluctuations through the advection effect and the tropopause effect of SST variations are derived using the equivalent potential temperature. Total ozone fluctuations are estimated using a quantitative formulation of these mechanistic equations together with the observed SST data. These results indicate that the interannual variations of the zonal wave component of equatorial total ozone are governed by the tropopause effect of SST variations. Preliminary investigation suggests that the annual cycle of tropical total ozone is coupled to the tropopause height changes under the influence of the planetary wave-induced lower-stratospheric temperature rather than local SST.

Hasebe, Fumio↗
NASA NTRS1981

Total ozone seasonal and interannual variations derived from the 7 year Nimbus-4 BUV data set

BUV total ozone data from the Nimbus 4 satellite were used to derive the seasonal and interannual variations of total ozone over a 7-year period. The variations were studied using harmonic and superposition analyses of zonal mean data at 10 deg latitudinal increments. Harmonic analysis of the zonal mean data revealed a clear quasibiennial oscillation (QBO) strongest in the tropics and at high latitudes in the Southern Hemisphere. An estimation of the QBO period using a superposition analysis for each latitude zone revealed a decreasing period with latitude in both hemispheres. A maximum period of 27 months occurs in the tropics, while the minimum period in the Northern Hemisphere is about 20 months. This decrease in QBO period with latitude implies that the observed QBO in ozone at low and high latitudes are not directly related. The results do indicate, however, that the interannual variations are latitude dependent.

Hilsenrath, E.↗
NASA NTRS1981

Quasi-biennial variations in zonal mean total columnar ozone derived from 7 years of BUV data

A study is conducted of the quasi-biennial oscillations (QBO) variations in zonal mean total columnar ozone, taking into account seven years of Nimbus 4 backscattered ultraviolet (BUV) measurements. The data analysis technique employed is briefly discussed, and theoretical results reported by Reed (1964) are reviewed. The BUV results are compared with the theoretical expectations and Dobson-derived results. In the tropics, the results are found to be in agreement with the theoretical study of Reed. This agreement suggests that the principal effect is through quasi-biennial variations in Hadley cell strength. Favorable comparisons are found between the BUV results and the results based on Dobson data.

Tolson, R. H.↗