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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 271 records · Page 15
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
NASA NTRS1976

Energetics of the midlatitude thermosphere

Thermospheric energetics is examined from the point of view of atomic and molecular processes which convert solar EUV radiative energy into kinetic energy of the ambient electron, ion, and neutral gases. The energy flow from photon to photoelectron-ion pair through energy loss and ion-molecule transfer to eventual electron-ion recombination is traced in detail. Upper and lower bounds are placed on the efficiency of conversion of radiative to thermal energy. Implications for the question of consistency of measured solar EUV fluxes and ionospheric models are discussed.

Stolarski, R. S.↗
NASA NTRS1982

Lightning activity on Jupiter

Photographic observations of the nightside of Jupiter by the Voyager 1 spacecraft show the presence of extensive lightning activity. Detection of whistlers by the plasma wave analyzer confirms the optical observations and implies that many flashes were not recorded by the Voyager camera because the intensity of the flashes was below the threshold sensitivity of the camera. Measurements of the optical energy radiated per flash indicate that the observed flashes had energies similar to that for terrestrial superbolts. The best estimate of the lightning energy dissipation rate of 0.0004 W/sq m was derived from a consideration of the optical and radiofrequency measurements. The ratio of the energy dissipated by lightning compared to the convective energy flux is estimated to be between 0.000027 and 0.00005. The terrestrial value is 0.0001.

Borucki, W. J.↗
NASA NTRS2008

Reviewing E(sub peak) Relations with Swift and Suzaku Data

In recent years several authors have derived correlations between gamma-ray burst (GRB) spectral peak energy (E(sub peak)) and either isotropic-equivalent radiated energy (E(sub iso)) or peak luminosity (L(sub iso)). Since these relationships are controversial, but could provide redshift estimators, it is important to determine whether bursts detected by Swift exhibit the same correlations. Swift has greatly added to the number of GRBs for which redshifts are known and hence E(sub iso) and L(sub iso) could be calculated. However, for most bursts it is not possible to adequately constrain E(sub peak) with Swift data alone since most GRBs have E(sub peak) above the energy range (15-50 keV) of the Swift Burst Alert Telescope (BAT). Therefore we have analyzed the spectra of 78 bursts (31 with redshift) which were detected by both Swift/BAT and the Suzaku Wide-band All-sky Monitor (WAM), which covers the energy range 50-5000 keV. For most bursts in this sample we can precisely determine E(sub peak) and for bursts with known redshift we can compare how the E(sub peak) relations for the Swift/Suzaku sample compare to earlier published results. Keywords: gamma rays: bursts

Krimm, Hans A.↗
NASA NTRS1962

Proceedings of the Symposium on the Protection Against Radiation Hazards in Space Book 1: Radiation Environment in Space. Effects of Space Radiation on Radio Sensitive Objects. Biological Effects of Space Radiation

The realization in recent years that outer space is traversed by high-energy radiations has caused man to reevaluate the feasibility of manned or even instrumented exploration outside our atmosphere. Fortunately, it is possible to determine the nature and intensities of these radiations and to produce similar radiations on earth by means of accelerators. Thus we can learn how to attenuate them and to design capsules which afford protection against them. Of course this protection carries a weight penalty so that there is a premium on optimizing the shield design. Many groups in the United states are engaged in research to this end,and it was the purpose of this symposium to bring these groups together so that they could exchange information. To make the meeting more comprehensive, sessions on the nature of the radiations and their effects on people and things were included. However, the major part of the meeting was devoted to discussions on shielding research, comprising theoretical calculations and experiments carried out mainly with high-energy accelerators. The symposium committee feels that the aims of the symposium were met and that progress in space research program was greatly accelerated thereby.

Source record↗
NASA NTRS1997

Laboratory Kinetic Studies of OH and CO2 Relevant to Upper Atmospheric Radiation Balance

The purpose of this project was to quantify the rates of two processes which are crucial to our understanding of radiative energy balance in the upper atmosphere. The first process is radiative emission from vibrationally hot OH radicals following the H + O3 reaction in the upper mesosphere. The importance of this process depends strongly on the OH radiative emission coefficients. Our goal was to measure the OH permanent dipole moment in excited vibrational states and to use these measurements to construct an improved OH dipole moment function and improved radiative emission coefficients. Significant progress was made on these experiments including the construction of a supersonic jet source for vibrationally excited OH radicals. Unfortunately, our efforts to transport the OH radicals into a second lower pressure vacuum chamber were not successful, and we were unable to make improved dipole moment measurements for OH. The second key kinetic process which we attempted to quantify during this project is the rate of relaxation of bend-excited CO2 by oxygen atoms. Since excitation of the bending vibrational mode of CO2 is the major cooling mechanism in the upper mesosphere/lower thermosphere, the cooling rate of this region depends crucially on the rate of energy transfer out of this state. It is believed that the most efficient transfer mechanism is via atomic oxygen but the rate for this process has not been directly measured in the laboratory at appropriate temperatures and even the room temperature rate remains controversial. We attempted to directly measure the relaxation rate Of CO2 (010) by oxygen atoms using the discharge flow technique. This experiment was set up at Aerodyne Research. Again, significant progress was achieved in this experiment. A hot CO2 source was set up, bend excited CO2 was detected and the rate of relaxation of bend excited CO2 by He atoms was measured. Unfortunately, the project ran out of time before the oxygen atom kinetic studies could be implemented.

Nelson, David D.↗
NASA NTRS1983

Hot accretion disks in the centers of quasars

Hot accretion disks around massive, rotating black holes could exist in the centers of quasars. These hot accretion disks produce copious amounts of e(+)e(-) pairs, gamma-rays and X-rays. Most of the disk models that produce significant amounts of gamma-rays, say 10 percent of the total luminosity, and have an energy flux spectral index at X-rays of order unity, are optically thick to gamma-gamma pair production. Gamma-rays, therefore, more energetic than a few MeV do not escape from the disk but are degraded to lower energy radiation. The application of this picture to specific high-energy spectra of active galactic nuclei and quasars as well as high-energy background is explored. A hot accretion disk around a stellar black hole may also account for the positron source in the center of the Milky Way.

Kafatos, M.↗
NASA NTRS1986

Responses of Dielectrics to Space Radiation

Nature, extent, and possible prevention of radiation damage discussed. Report summarizes likely effects of high-energy radiation in outer space on variety of commercially-available dielectric materials used in spacecraft. Effects reported on basis of recent Galileo tests, unpublished tests involving proton or electron irradiation, and published information. In general, organic materials with carbon or inorganic fillers most resistant to radiation.

Bouquet, F. L.↗
NASA NTRS1988

Distribution of energy in polymers due to incident electrons and protons

The recoil spectrum of nuclei in polymers for incident protons below 10 MeV in energy is calculated by using the Rutherford cross-section with screening corrections. Employing the work of McKinley and Feshbach on the Coulomb scattering of relativistic electrons by nuclei, the recoil spectrum of the nuclei is also calculated for electron energies varying from threshold to 10 MeV. The partitioning of energy between electronic excitation and ionization and nuclear recoil is then studied to search for possible difference in polymer radiation response as a function of radiation energy and type.

NASA Discipline Number 22-70↗
NASA NTRS1992

Application of self-preservation in the diurnal evolution of the surface energy budget to determine daily evaporation

Evaporation from natural land surfaces often exhibits a strong variation during the course of a day, mostly in response to the daily variation of radiative energy input at the surface. This makes it difficult to derive the total daily evaporation, when only one or a few instantaneous estimates of evaporation are available. It is often possible to resolve this difficulty by assuming self-preservation in the diurnal evolution of the surface energy budget. Thus if the relative partition of total incoming energy flux among the different components remains the same, the ratio of latent heat flux and any other flux component can be taken as constant through the day. This concept of constant flux ratios is tested by means of data obtained during the First ISLSCP Field Experiment; the instantaneous evaporation values were calculated by means of the atmospheric boundary layer bulk similarity approach with radiosonde profiles and radiative surface temperatures. Good results were obtained for evaporative flux ratios with available energy flux, with net radiation, and with incoming shortwave radiation.

Brutsaert, Wilfried↗
NASA NTRS2024

Deployed Electromagnetic Radiation Deflector Shield Creating a Zone of Minimum Radiation and Magnetic/Plasma Effects for Spacecraft

Spaceflight outside of the Earth's protective magnetic field is dangerous from a cosmic radiation perspective. Inside Earth's magnetic field, where the manned International Space Station (ISS) orbits, the radiation encountered is minimal and almost all is deflected by our planet's magnetic fields. However, outside that protective shield, the Sun's solar wind (high energy radiation, solar energetic particles or SEPs) consisting of protons, electrons, alpha particles and plasmas continuously bombards the spacecraft for the months or years of spaceflight. On occasion the Sun produces a CME (Coronal Mass Ejection) that vastly increases the energy and volume of this radiation. These particles damage human DNA as well as living tissue and can destroy sensitive electronics. The Deployed Electromagnetic Radiation Deflector Shield (DERDS) provides a magnetic field that will deflect SEPs and CMEs and other harmful solar and cosmic rays away from a manned spacecraft, robotic spacecraft, or manned extra-planetary base stations using an electromagnet that is deployed between the spacecraft/station and the source of radiation and creates a magnetosphere or zone of minimal radiation in which the spacecraft or base station would reside.

Patent↗
DOE OSTI2026

Modeling thermal radiation waves in silica plasmas for the Mooncat NIF experiment

The Mooncat experiment on the National Ignition Facility uses a laser-driven hohlraum to create a thermal radiation wave in a titanium-doped silica plasma. The titanium dopant enables absorption spectroscopy measurements to infer the temperature of the wave as it propagates. This measurement can be used to constrain multi-physics simulation codes to better understand when simulations do not match an experiment. In this paper, we present radiation-hydrodynamics simulations of the thermal radiation wave in the first full-platform shots of the Mooncat experiment. We examine the important parameters of the simulation, focusing on the radiation temperature source, the material model of the silica plasma as it pertains to radiation transport, and lateral leakage through a beryllium tube enclosing the silica. We compare different simulation modeling strategies to an analytic model of diffusive radiation transport and find that the simulation agrees with the analytic model when it is sufficiently simplified. These simulations show how radiation energy couples to matter to develop a shock wave in a radiative heat wave, an important topic in astrophysics and nuclear fusion plasmas.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗
NASA NTRS1987

Experimental test of liquid droplet radiator performance

The liquid droplet radiator (LDR) is a heat rejection system for space power systems wherein an array of heated liquid droplets radiates energy directly to space. The use of submillimeter droplets provides large radiating area-to-mass ratio, resulting in radiator systems which are several times lighter than conventional solid surface radiators. An experiment is described in which the power radiated by an array of 2300 streams of silicone oil droplets is measured to test a previously developed theory of the LDR radiation process. This system would be capable of rejecting several kW of heat in space. Furthermore, it would be suitable as a modular unit of an LDR designed for 100-kW power levels. The experiment provided confirmation of the theoretical dependence of droplet array emissivity on optical depth. It also demonstrated the ability to create an array of more than 1000 droplet streams having a divergence less than 1 degree.

Mattick, A. T.↗
NASA NTRS1989

Gravitational radiation from extreme Kerr black hole

Gravitational radiation induced by a test particle falling into an extreme Kerr black hole was investigated analytically. Assuming the radiation is dominated by the infinite sequence of quasi-normal modes which has the limiting frequency m/(2M), where m is an azimuthal eigenvalue and M is the mass of the black hole, it was found that the radiated energy diverges logarithmically in time. Then the back reaction to the black hole was evaluated by appealing to the energy and angular momentum conservation laws. It was found that the radiation has a tendency to increase the ratio of the angular momentum to mass of the black hole, which is completely different from non-extreme case, while the contribution of the test particle is to decrease it.

Sasaki, Misao↗