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NASA NTRS1974

Absorption of laser radiation in a H-He plasma. I - Theoretical calculation of the absorption coefficient

The theory for calculating the absorption of laser radiation by hydrogen is outlined for the temperatures and pressures of common laboratory plasmas. Nonhydrogenic corrections for determining the absorption by helium are also included. The coefficients for the absorption of He-Ne laser radiation at the wavelengths of 0.633, 1.15, and 3.39 microns in a H plasma is presented for temperatures in the range from 10,000 to 40,000 K and electron number densities in the range from 10 to the 15th power to 10 to the 18th power per cu cm. The total absorption of a H-He plasma calculated from this theory is compared with the measured absorption. The theoretical composition of the H-He absorption is analyzed with respect to the significant absorption processes, inverse bremsstrahlung, photoionization, resonance excitation, and photodetachment.

Stallcop, J. R.↗

NASA NTRS1978

Lifting-line theory of oblique wings

The study extends Prandtl's lifting-line theory to planar wings involving swept and curved centerlines. Attention is focused on distinct features of such a theory, with special emphasis on an oblique wing in a steady incompressible potential flow. The analysis presented is compared with exact solutions derived from an inverse method and with results from a panel method.

Cheng, H. K.↗

NASA NTRS1980

Analysis of localized fringes in the holographic optical Schlieren system

The relation between localization of interference fringes in classical and holographic interferometry is reviewed and an application of holographic interferometry is considered for which the object is a transparent medium with nonhomogeneous refractive index. The technique is based on the analysis of the optical path length change of the object wave as it propagates through a transparent medium. Phase shifts due to variations of the speed of light within the medium give rise to an interference pattern. The resulting interferogram can be used to determine the physical properties of the medium or transparent object. Such properties include the mass density of fluids, electron densities of plasmas, the temperature of fluids, the chemical species concentration of fluids, and the state of stress in solids. The optical wave used can be either a simple plane or spherical wave, or it may be a complicated spatial wave scattered by a diffusing screen. The mathematical theory on the formation and analysis of localized fringes, the general theoretical concepts used, and a computer code for analysis are included along with the inversion of fringe order data.

Kurtz, R. L.↗

NASA NTRS1983

Strong turbulence and atmospheric waves in stellar occultations

General techniques for producing model lightcurves for a variety of realistic atmospheric irregularities, including turbulence and inertia-gravity waves, are presented and applied. The restrictions of weak scintillation theory are relaxed and model lightcurves are constructed using wave optics for atmospheres with strong, anisotropic turbulence. This is accomplished by numerical simulations which model the propagation of a wave through a phase-changing screen while maintaining complete amplitude and phase information from the wave. The results are compared with available weak scintillation theory and with recent occultation data. The effects of large scale atmospheric waves with realistic horizontal structure are examined, and the reliability of the numerical inversion method in retrieving the true atmospheric vertical structure under conditions of strong ray crossing and horizontal inhomogeneities is assessed. The nature of model lightcurve spikes generated using geometric optics and wave optics are compared.

French, R. G.↗

NASA NTRS1994

Asymmetry parameters of the phase function for densely packed scattering grains

Spatial correlation among densely packed particles can substantially change their single-scattering properties, thus making questionable the applicability of the independent scattering approximation in calculations of light scattering by planetary regoliths. The same problem arises in geophysics in light scattering computations for snow, frosts, and bare soil. In this paper, we use a dense-medium light-scattering theory based on the introduction of the static structure factor to calculate asymmetry parameters of the phase function for densely packed particles with real refractive indices 1.31 and 1.66, approximating water ice and soil particles, respectively, and imaginary refractive indices 0, 0.01, and 0.3. For sparsely distributed, independently scattering grains, the calculated asymmetry parameters are always positive and always larger than those for densely packed particles. For densely packed grains, the asymmetry parameters may be negative but only for radius-to-wavelength ratios from about 0.1 to about 0.4. With decreasing particle size, the calculated asymmetry parameters tend to zero independently of the compaction state. In the geometrical optics regime, the asymmetry parameters for densely packed scatterers are positive and very close to those for independently scattering grains. These results may have important implications for remote sensing of the Earth and solid planetary surfaces. In particular, it is demonstrated that negative asymmetry parameters derived with some approximate multiple-scattering theories may be physically irrelevant and can be the result of using an inaccurate bidirectional reflection function combined with the ill-conditionally of the inverse scattering problem.

Mishchenko, Michael I.↗

NASA NTRS1997

The Dissipation Rate Transport Equation and Subgrid-Scale Models in Rotating Turbulence

The dissipation rate transport equation remains the most uncertain part of turbulence modeling. The difficulties arc increased when external agencies like rotation prevent straightforward dimensional analysis from determining the correct form of the modelled equation. In this work, the dissipation rate transport equation and subgrid scale models for rotating turbulence are derived from an analytical statistical theory of rotating turbulence. In the strong rotation limit, the theory predicts a turbulent steady state in which the inertial range energy spectrum scales as k(sup -2) and the turbulent time scale is the inverse rotation rate. This scaling has been derived previously by heuristic arguments.

Rubinstein, Robert↗

NASA NTRS1997

X-Ray Emission from the Be Star/Pulsar System PSR 1259-63

The collaboration involved researchers at Columbia University, ISAS-Tokyo, Princeton University for the data analysis part, and UC Berkeley for the theoretical analysis. Four different ASCA observations of the Be star/pulsar system PSR 1259-63 were successfully carried out in 1994. Data for the first three observations near periastron were analyzed first, and the analysis was completed in 1995 and a summary paper was published by the Astrophysical Journal. A comprehensive theoretical analysis of the X-ray data together with the results of the simultaneous GRO gamma-ray observational campaign was carried out and the results published in a series of papers. We find that the ASCA results can strongly constrain outflow models from the Be star companion of PSR 1259-63 as well as the radiation mechanisms as the pulsar orbits around the periastron region. The X-ray data suggest a misalignment between the pulsar orbital plane and the Be star outflow equatorial plane. We find that shock-driven emission from synchrotron radiating electron/positrons of the pulsar wind is in agreement with all data obtained. For the first time in a plerionic system, particle acceleration can be shown to be more efficient and fast than inverse Compton and synchrotron radiation cooling of typical timescales near 10(exp 2) - 10(exp 3) sec. These results are of great importance for the theory of particle acceleration in transverse shocks. A second theoretical paper on the study of the relativistic pulsar wind and shock acceleration mechanisms is being completed.

Tavani, Marco↗

NASA NTRS1996

The Structure and Stability of B(n)H(+) Clusters

The geometries of the B(n)H(+) clusters for n=1-13 have been optimized at the B3LYP level of theory. Excluding B2H(+) all clusters are low-spin coupled. The structures appear to be related to the bare B(+)(n) clusters in two ways: 1) an H atom is added to the B(+)(n) cluster or 2) a BH is added to the B(+)(n-1) cluster. The B(+)(n)-H binding energies are computed at the B3LYP level of theory, and calibrated n using the CCSD(T) level of theory. The computed results tend to fall between the experimental best estimates and the experimental lower bounds. The B(+)(n)-H binding energies show an inverse correspondence with the B+(n-1)-B values) while the B(+)(n-1)-B and B(+)(n-1)-BH results tend to parallel each other.

Ricca, Alessandra↗

NASA NTRS2004

Magnetocaloric Pumping of Liquid Oxygen

The field-induced force density on a magnetic fluid is proportional to the magnetic susceptibility times the gradient of the magnetic field squared. The direction of the force is towards increasing magnetic field (positive gradient). Applying a magnetic field to a magnetic fluid will result in a force from all directions towards the location of peak field. Since the magnetic field is conservative and there are no magnetic monopoles, the net field-induced force on any fluid of constant susceptibly will be zero. The only manner to obtain a nonzero net field-induced force is to vary the susceptibility of the fluid. At the gas/liquid interface of liquid oxygen, the susceptibility varies drastically, and the exploitation of the resultant large net forces. An alternative method of varying the magnetic susceptibility is to vary the temperature of the fluid. The magnetic susceptibility of paramagnetic liquid oxygen obeys the Curie-Weiss law: it is inversely proportional to temperature. By applying a temperature gradient in the presence of a symmetric magnetic field, a nonzero net force results. Much of the theory of the so-called Magnetocaloric Effect has previously been developed for and applied to ferromagnetic fluids, or ferrofluids, but is readily applied to paramagnetic liquid oxygen.

Immer, Christopher↗

NASA NTRS1975

Jet noise source location by cross-correlation of far field microphone signals

A theoretical analysis is presented for the evaluation of correlation functions of many spatially separated noise sources in a jet. A one-dimensional model is considered in which the noise sources are located on the axis of the jet downstream of the nozzle. The theory for extracting the spatial distribution from far field cross-correlations by signal analysis is derived. The advantage of this method is that difficult numerical inversions are not needed.

Parthasarathy, S. P.↗

NASA NTRS1981

Parallax and atmospheric scattering effects on the inversion of satellite auroral observations

A technique for the inversion of satellite auroral brightness observations is developed, which takes into account the backscattering of light from the snow-covered ground and atmospheric scattering. The theory includes parallax effects. Parallax arises when a point in the aurora is observed from different angles against a background with a variable brightness. It is shown that observations from a spinning satellite at any given angle from nadir are sufficient to recover the auroral form.

Abreu, V. J.↗

NASA NTRS1985

On the emission region of gamma ray bursts

Within the last few years the rapid accumulation of gamma ray burst spectral data, especially those of KONUS and solar maximum mission, has made the confrontation between theories of the gamma ray emission mechanisms and observations much more urgent and challenging. At present the most viable mode seems to be some combination of inverse Comptonization and synchrotron emission. Here, an attempt is made to limit the acceptable parameter space of the emission region by taking into account the maximum set of observational constraints. These are then applied to two specific scenarios: surface emission versus magnetospheric emission. Some observable predictions based on these scenarios are considered.

Liang, E. P.↗

NASA NTRS1990

Global effects of thermal conduction on two-phase media

The evolution of two-phase systems of astrophysical gases which change mass between the phases is studied to see whether a steady state is ever reached. The criterion for thermal instability in a cloudy medium is derived. The evolution of the pressure and density of the intercloud medium under the combined effects of heating and radiative cooling of the intercloud gas on the one hand and evaporation and condensation of the clouds on the other is determined. The equilibrium density to which the system evolves is determined for the case when the pressure is fixed. The theory is illustrated by the case in which the intercloud gas is heated by Compton scattering in a hard radiation field and cooled by bremsstrahlung and inverse Compton scattering.

Begelman, Mitchell C.↗

NASA NTRS1977

Transformations from an oblate spheroid to a plane and vice versa: The equations used in the cartographic projection program MAP2

The relationships between the coordinates of a point on the surface on an oblate spheroid and the coordinates of the projection of that point in several common map projections are discussed. Because several of the projections are conformal, the theory of conformally mapping an oblate spheroid to the plane is summarized. For each projection considered, the equations which map the spheroid to the plane and their inverses are given.

Elliott, D. A.↗

NASA NTRS1978

The ammonia mixing ratio in Jupiter's stratosphere

The paper describes the theory that underlies the model calculations which show that the far-infrared bands of ammonia are very sensitive to the ammonia distribution above the Jovian atmospheric inversion layer. Observation of the J = 5 and J = 6 ammonia bands at moderate resolution might permit choice between a cold trap model or the irreversible uv photodestruction model for the ammonia distribution. The lack of prominent emission cores in the NH3 rotation-inversion lines only implies that the mixing ratio is low. The ammonia is uniformly mixed if the inversion temperature is low but, at a higher inversion temperature, emission cores will be observed unless the photodissociation is extremely efficient down to at least the inversion layer.

Goorvitch, D.↗

NASA NTRS1979

Ultraviolet observations of AM Herculis with IUE

Ultraviolet observations of the binary X-ray source AM Herculis from the IUE satellite show strong emission lines of ions from O I to N V, probably originating in photoionized gas, and a continuum which is partially eclipsed in phase with the X-ray eclipse. The emission lines have broad (about 600 km/s) and sharp (about 80 km/s) components at different velocities, as has been seen in optical lines. The continuum is interpreted as two components, a blackbody (blackbody kT of 25-30 eV) which accounts for the X-ray emission below 0.5 keV and the eclipsed part of the UV continuum, and a component which is never eclipsed, whose spectrum is roughly proportional to the inverse of frequency. Strong ultraviolet emission due to optically thick cyclotron emission, which has been predicted theoretically, is not observed. This presents a severe difficulty for the theory of accretion onto the magnetic pole of a white dwarf.

Raymond, J. C.↗

NASA NTRS1981

A variable mixing-length ratio for convection theory

It is argued that a natural choice for the local mixing length in the mixing-length theory of convection has a value proportional to the local density scale height of the convective bubbles. The resultant variable mixing-length ratio (the ratio between the mixing length and the pressure scale height) of this theory is enhanced in the superadiabatic region and approaches a constant in deeper layers. Numerical tests comparing the new mixing length successfully eliminate most of the density inversion that typically plagues conventional results. The new approach also seems to indicate the existence of granular motion at the top of the convection zone.

Chan, K. L.↗

NASA NTRS1993

Ion anisotropies in the magnetosheath

One- and two-dimensional initial value hybrid computer simulations are used with a magnetosheath parameter model to study the consequences of the growth of the mirror and ion cyclotron anisotropy instabilities. Magnetosheath observations have demonstrated inverse correlations between the proton and helium ion temperature anisotropies and the proton parallel beta. Using the maximum growth rate as a fitting pararamter, linear Vlasov instability theory for the proton cyclotron and helium cyclotron anisotropy instabilities reproduces both observed correlations. Furthermore, results from the asymptotic states of simulations of the ion cyclotron instabilities qualitatively reproduce both observations.

Gary, S. P.↗