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NASA NTRS2010

Application of a Near Infrared Imaging System for Thermographic Imaging of the Space Shuttle during Hypersonic Re-Entry

High resolution calibrated near infrared (NIR) imagery was obtained of the Space Shuttle s reentry during STS-119, STS-125, and STS-128 missions. The infrared imagery was collected using a US Navy NP-3D Orion aircraft using a long-range infrared optical package referred to as Cast Glance. The slant ranges between the Space Shuttle and Cast Glance were approximately 26-41 nautical miles at point of closest approach. The Hypersonic Thermodynamic Infrared Measurements (HYTHIRM) project was a NASA Langley led endeavor sponsored by the NASA Engineering Safety Center, the Space Shuttle Program Office and the NASA Aeronautics Research Mission Directorate to demonstrate a quantitative thermal imaging capability. HYTHIRM required several mission tools to acquire the imagery. These tools include pre-mission acquisition simulations of the Shuttle trajectory in relationship to the Cast Glance aircraft flight path, radiance modeling to predict the infrared response of the Shuttle, and post mission analysis tools to process the infrared imagery to quantitative temperature maps. The spatially resolved global thermal measurements made during the Shuttle s hypersonic reentry provides valuable flight data for reducing the uncertainty associated with present day ground-to-flight extrapolation techniques and current state-of-the-art empirical boundary-layer transition or turbulent heating prediction methods. Laminar and turbulent flight data is considered critical for the development of turbulence models supporting NASA s next-generation spacecraft. This paper will provide the motivation and details behind the use of an upgraded NIR imaging system used onboard a Navy Cast Glance aircraft and describe the characterizations and procedures performed to obtain quantitative temperature maps. A brief description and assessment will be provided of the previously used analog NIR camera along with image examples from Shuttle missions STS-121, STS-115, and solar tower test. These thermal observations confirmed the challenge of a long-range acquisition during re-entry. These challenges are due to unknown atmospheric conditions, image saturation, vibration etc. This provides the motivation for the use of a digital NIR sensor. The characterizations performed on the digital NIR sensor included radiometric, spatial, and spectral measurements using blackbody radiation sources and known targets. An assessment of the collected data for three Space Shuttle atmospheric re-entries, STS-119, STS-125, and STS-128, are provided along with a description of various events of interest captured using the digital NIR imaging system such as RCS firings and boundary layer transitions. Lastly the process used to convert the raw image counts to quantitative temperatures is presented along with comparisons to the Space Shuttle's onboard thermocouples.

Zalameda, Joseph N.↗
NASA NTRS2013

The Martian Dust Cycle: Observations and Modeling

The dust cycle is critically important for Mars' current climate system. Suspended atmospheric dust affects the radiative balance of the atmosphere, and thus greatly influences the thermal and dynamical state of the atmosphere. Evidence for the presence of dust in the Martian atmosphere can be traced back to yellow clouds telescopically observed as early as the early 19th century. The Mariner 9 orbiter arrived at Mars in November of 1971 to find a planet completely enshrouded in airborne dust. Since that time, the exchange of dust between the planet's surface and atmosphere and the role of airborne dust on Mars' weather and climate has been studied using observations and numerical models. The goal of this talk is to give an overview of the observations and to discuss the successes and challenges associated with modeling the dust cycle. Dust raising events on Mars range in size from meters to hundreds of kilometers. During some years, regional storms merge to produce hemispheric or planet encircling dust clouds that obscure the surface and raise atmospheric temperatures by tens of kelvin. The interannual variability of planet encircling dust storms is poorly understood. Although the occurrence and season of large regional and global dust storms are highly variable from one year to the next, there are many features of the dust cycle that occur year after year. A low-level dust haze is maintained during northern spring and summer, while elevated levels of atmospheric dust occur during northern autumn and winter. During years without global-scale dust storms, two peaks in total dust loading are generally observed: one peak occurs before northern winter solstice and one peak occurs after northern winter solstice. Numerical modeling studies attempting to interactively simulate the Martian dust cycle with general circulation models (GCMs) include the lifting, transport, and sedimentation of radiatively active dust. Two dust lifting processes are commonly represented in these models: wind-stress lifting (i.e., saltation) and dust devil lifting. Although the predicted patterns of dust lifting and atmospheric dust loading from these simulations capture some aspects of the observed dust cycle, there are many notable differences between the simulated and observed dust cycles. For example, it is common for models to predict one peak in global dust loading near northern winter solstice due to excessive dust lifting in the Hellas basin at this season. Additionally, it is difficult for models to realistically capture the observed interannual variability in global dust storms. New avenues of dust cycle modeling research include exploring the effects of finite surface dust reservoirs and the effects of coupling the dust and water cycles on the predicted dust cycle.

Kahre, Melinda A.↗
NASA NTRS2009

Analytic Shielding Optimization to Reduce Crew Exposure to Ionizing Radiation Inside Space Vehicles

A sustainable lunar architecture provides capabilities for leveraging out-of-service components for alternate uses. Discarded architecture elements may be used to provide ionizing radiation shielding to the crew habitat in case of a Solar Particle Event. The specific location relative to the vehicle where the additional shielding mass is placed, as corroborated with particularities of the vehicle design, has a large influence on protection gain. This effect is caused by the exponential- like decrease of radiation exposure with shielding mass thickness, which in turn determines that the most benefit from a given amount of shielding mass is obtained by placing it so that it preferentially augments protection in under-shielded areas of the vehicle exposed to the radiation environment. A novel analytic technique to derive an optimal shielding configuration was developed by Lockheed Martin during Design Analysis Cycle 3 (DAC-3) of the Orion Crew Exploration Vehicle (CEV). [1] Based on a detailed Computer Aided Design (CAD) model of the vehicle including a specific crew positioning scenario, a set of under-shielded vehicle regions can be identified as candidates for placement of additional shielding. Analytic tools are available to allow capturing an idealized supplemental shielding distribution in the CAD environment, which in turn is used as a reference for deriving a realistic shielding configuration from available vehicle components. While the analysis referenced in this communication applies particularly to the Orion vehicle, the general method can be applied to a large range of space exploration vehicles, including but not limited to lunar and Mars architecture components. In addition, the method can be immediately applied for optimization of radiation shielding provided to sensitive electronic components.

Gaza, Razvan↗
NASA NTRS1991

From orbital debris capture systems through internal combustion engines on Mars

The investigation and conceptualization of an orbital debris collector was the primary area of design. In addition, an alternate structural design for Space Station Freedom and systems supporting resource utilization at Mars and the moon were studied. Hardware for production of oxygen from simulate Mars atmosphere was modified to permit more reliable operation at low pressures (down to 10 mb). An internal combustion engine was altered to study how Mars atmosphere could be used as a diluent to control combustion temperatures and avoid excess Mars propellant production requirements that would result from either methane-rich or oxygen-rich, methane-oxygen combustion. An elastic loop traction system that could be used for lunar construction vehicles was refined to permit testing. A parabolic heat rejection radiator system was designed and built to determine whether it was capable of increasing heat rejection rates during lunar daytime operation. In addition, an alternate space station truss design, utilizing a pre-integrated concept, was studied and found to reduce estimate extravehicular activity (EVA) time and increase the structural integrity when compared to the original Warren truss concept. An orbital-debris-capturing spacecraft design which could be mated with the Orbital Maneuvering Vehicle was studied. The design identified Soviet C-1B boosters as the best targets of opportunity in Earth orbits between an altitude of 900 km and 1100 km and at an inclination of 82.9 deg. A dual robot pallet, which could be spun to match the tumbling rate of the C-1B booster, was developed as the conceptual design.

Source record↗
NASA NTRS1990

Lightning electromagnetic radiation field spectra in the interval from 0.2 to 20 MHz

New Fourier transforms of wideband time-domain electric fields (E) produced by lightning (recorded at the Kennedy Space Center during the summers of 1985 and 1987) were recorded in such a way that several different events in each lightning flash could be captured. Average HF spectral amplitudes for first return strokes, stepped-leader steps, and 'characteristic pulses' are given for significantly more events, at closer ranges, and with better spectral resolution than in previous literature reports. The method of recording gives less bias toward the first large event in the flash and thus yields a large sample of a wide variety of lightning processes. As a result, reliable composite spectral amplitudes are obtained for a number of different processes in cloud-to-ground lightning over the frequency interval from 0.2 to 20 MHz.

Willett, J. C.↗
NASA NTRS1984

Molecular processes in a high temperature shock layer

Models of the shock layer encountered by an Aeroassisted Orbital Transfer Vehicle require as input accurate cross sections and rate constants for the atomic and molecular processes that characterize the shock radiation. From the estimated atomic and molecular densities in the shock layer and the expected residence time of 1 m/s, it can be expected that electron-ion collision processes will be important in the shock model. Electron capture by molecular ions followed by dissociation, e.g., O2(+) + e(-) yields 0 + 0, can be expected to be of major importance since these processes are known to have high rates (e.g., 10 to the -7th power cu/cm/sec) at room temperature. However, there have been no experimental measurements of dissociative recombination (DR) at temperatures ( 12000K) that are expected to characterize the shock layer. Indeed, even at room temperature, it is often difficult to perform experiments that determine the dependence of the translational energy and quantum yields of the product atoms on the electronic and vibrational state of the reactant molecular ions. Presented are ab initio quantum chemical studies of DR for molecular ions that are likely to be important in the atmospheric shock layer.

Guberman, S. L.↗
NASA NTRS2010

Polar Lunar Regions: Exploiting Natural and Augmented Thermal Environments

In the polar regions of the Moon, some areas within craters are permanently shadowed from solar illumination and can drop to temperatures of 100 K or lower. These sites may serve as cold traps, capturing ice and other volatile compounds, possibly for eons. Interestingly, ice stored in these locations could potentially alter how lunar exploration is conducted. Within craters inside craters (double-shaded craters) that are shaded from thermal re-radiation and from solar illuminated regions, even colder regions should exist and, in many cases, temperatures in these regions never exceed 50 K. Working in these harsh environments with existing conventional systems, exploration or mining activities could be quite daunting and challenging. However, if the unique characteristics of these environments were exploited, the power, weight, and total mass that is required to be carried from the Earth to the Moon for lunar exploration and research would be substantially reduced. In theory, by minimizing the heat transfer between an object and the lunar surface, temperatures near absolute zero can be produced. In a single or double-shaded crater, if the object was isolated from the variety of thermal sources and was allowed to radiatively cool to space, the achievable temperature would be limited by the 3 K cosmic background and the anomalous solar wind that can strike the object being cooled. Our analysis shows that under many circumstances, with some simple thermal radiation shielding, it is possible to establish environments with temperatures of several degrees Kelvin.

Brannon, David↗
NASA NTRS2013

Thermal Remote Sensing and the Thermodynamics of Ecosystem Development

Thermal remote sensing can provide environmental measuring tools with capabilities for measuring ecosystem development and integrity. Recent advances in applying principles of nonequilibrium thermodynamics to ecology provide fundamental insights into energy partitioning in ecosystems. Ecosystems are nonequilibrium systems, open to material and energy flows, which grow and develop structures and processes to increase energy degradation. More developed terrestrial ecosystems will be more effective at dissipating the solar gradient (degrading its exergy content) and can be measured by the effective surface temperature of the ecosystem on a landscape scale. Ecosystems are viewed as open thermodynamic systems with a large gradient impressed on them by the exergy flux from the sun. Ecosystems, according to the restated second law, develop in ways that systematically increases their ability to degrade the incoming solar exergy, hence negating it's ability to set up even larger gradients. Thus it should be expected that more mature ecosystems degrade the exergy they capture more completely than a less developed ecosystem. The degree to which incoming solar exergy is degraded is a function of the surface temperature of the ecosystem. If a group of ecosystems receives the same amount of incoming radiation, we would expect that the most mature ecosystem would reradiate its energy at the lowest quality level and thus would have the lowest surface temperature (coldest black body temperature). Initial development work was done using NASA's airborne Thermal Infrared Multispectral Scanner (TIMS) followed by the use of a multispectral visible and thermal scanner-Airborne Thermal and Land Applications Sensor (ATLAS). Luvall and his coworkers have documented ecosystem energy budgets, including tropical forests, midlatitude varied ecosystems, and semiarid ecosystems. These data show that under similar environmental conditions (air temperature, relative humidity, winds, and solar irradiance) and within a given biome type, the more developed the ecosystem, the cooler it's surface temperature and the more degraded the quality of it's reradiated energy. HyspIRI is a hyperspectral visible/Near IR and multispectral thermal future global satellite mission that will collect data to study the world's ecosystems and will provide a benchmark on the state of the worlds ecosystems against which future changes can be assessed. HyspIRI will provide global data sets that will provide a means for measuring ecosystem development and integrity.

Luvall, Jeffrey C.↗
NASA NTRS2013

Thermal Remote Sensing and the Thermodynamics of Ecosystem Development

Thermal remote sensing can provide environmental measuring tools with capabilities for measuring ecosystem development and integrity. Recent advances in applying principles of nonequilibrium thermodynamics to ecology provide fundamental insights into energy partitioning in ecosystems. Ecosystems are nonequilibrium systems, open to material and energy flows, which grow and develop structures and processes to increase energy degradation. More developed terrestrial ecosystems will be more effective at dissipating the solar gradient (degrading its exergy content) and can be measured by the effective surface temperature of the ecosystem on a landscape scale. Ecosystems are viewed as open thermodynamic systems with a large gradient impressed on them by the exergy flux from the sun. Ecosystems, according to the restated second law, develop in ways that systematically increases their ability to degrade the incoming solar exergy, hence negating it's ability to set up even larger gradients. Thus it should be expected that more mature ecosystems degrade the exergy they capture more completely than a less developed ecosystem. The degree to which incoming solar exergy is degraded is a function of the surface temperature of the ecosystem. If a group of ecosystems receives the same amount of incoming radiation, we would expect that the most mature ecosystem would reradiate its energy at the lowest quality level and thus would have the lowest surface temperature (coldest black body temperature). Initial development work was done using NASA's airborne Thermal Infrared Multispectral Scanner (TIMS) followed by the use of a multispectral visible and thermal scanner- Airborne Thermal and Land Applications Sensor (ATLAS). Luvall and his coworkers have documented ecosystem energy budgets, including tropical forests, midlatitude varied ecosystems, and semiarid ecosystems. These data show that under similar environmental conditions (air temperature, relative humidity, winds, and solar irradiance) and within a given biome type, the more developed the ecosystem, the cooler it's surface temperature and the more degraded the quality of it's reradiated energy. HyspIRI is a hyperspectral visible/Near IR and multispectral thermal future global satellite mission that will collect data to study the world's ecosystems and will provide a benchmark on the state of the worlds ecosystems against which future changes can be assessed. HyspIRI will provide global data sets that will provide a means for measuring ecosystem development and integrity.

Luvall, Jeffrey C.↗
NASA NTRS2012

Incorporating Plant Phenology Dynamics in a Biophysical Canopy Model

The Multi-Layer Canopy Model (MLCan) is a vegetation model created to capture plant responses to environmental change. Themodel vertically resolves carbon uptake, water vapor and energy exchange at each canopy level by coupling photosynthesis, stomatal conductance and leaf energy balance. The model is forced by incoming shortwave and longwave radiation, as well as near-surface meteorological conditions. The original formulation of MLCan utilized canopy structural traits derived from observations. This project aims to incorporate a plant phenology scheme within MLCan allowing these structural traits to vary dynamically. In the plant phenology scheme implemented here, plant growth is dependent on environmental conditions such as air temperature and soil moisture. The scheme includes functionality that models plant germination, growth, and senescence. These growth stages dictate the variation in six different vegetative carbon pools: storage, leaves, stem, coarse roots, fine roots, and reproductive. The magnitudes of these carbon pools determine land surface parameters such as leaf area index, canopy height, rooting depth and root water uptake capacity. Coupling this phenology scheme with MLCan allows for a more flexible representation of the structure and function of vegetation as it responds to changing environmental conditions.

environmental changes↗
NASA NTRS1999

Ultralow Energy Electron Attachment at Sub-Millielectron Volt Resolution

The technique of rare-gas photoionization has been extended by use of direct laser ionization to electron energies epsilon in the range 0-100 meV, with a resolution Delta(epsilon) of 0.4-0.5 meV (FWHM). Tunable UV light at (Lambda)276 nm is produced using a pulsed Nd:YAG laser and nonlinear mixing techniques. The beam is frequency tripled in a pulsed jet of xenon. The VUV radiation, tunable at (Lambda)92 nm, is then used to photoionize Xe at its 2P(sub 1/2) threshold (single-photon ionization). The photoelectrons produced interact with admixed target gas to generate negative ions through the s-wave capture process. Recent results in electron attachment to SF(sub 6) will be reported which show resonance structure at the opening of the ground-state vibrational channels. This structure corresponds to the process of vibrational excitation + attachment, which is superimposed on the underlying s-wave (direct) capture process. It should be a general phenomenon, present in a wide variety of zero-energy electron attaching molecules.

Chutjian, A.↗
NASA NTRS2008

Synchrotron X-Ray Diffraction Studies of Olivine from Comet Wild 2

We have analyzed a collection of the Comet Wild 2 coma grains returned by the NASA Stardust Mission, using micro-area Laue diffraction equipment. The purpose of the diffraction experiment is to permit the structure refinement of olivine including site occupancies. In addition to the intrinsic importance of the olivine structures for revealing the thermal history of Wild 2 materials, we wish to test reports that olivine recovered after hypervelocity capture in silica aerogel has undergone a basic structural change due to capture heating [1]. The diffraction equipment placed at beam line BL- 4B1 of PF, KEK was developed with a micropinhole and an imaging plate (Fuji Co. Ltd.) using the Laue method combined with polychromatic X-ray of synchrotron radiation operated at energy of 2.5 GeV. The incident beam is limited to 1.6 m in diameter by a micropinhole set just upstream of the sample [2, 3]. It is essential to apply a microbeam to obtain diffracted intensities with high signal to noise ratios. This equipment has been successfully applied to various extraterrestrial materials, including meteorites and interplanetary dust particles [4]. The Laue pattern of the sample C2067,1,111,4 (Fig. 1) was successfully taken on an imaging plate after a 120 minute exposure (Fig. 2).

Source record↗
NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Earth Radiation Budget Climate Record Composed of Multiple Satellite Observations

Effects of cloud diurnal cycle on top-of-atmosphere (TOA) and surface regional monthly mean irradiances, climatological mean, and anomalies are analyzed using CERES derived TOA irradiances and surface irradiances computed with MODIS derived cloud properties. Cloud properties derived from Terra and Aqua MODIS are sufficient to capture cloud diurnal cycle to compute regional monthly mean surface irradiances. While missing cloud diurnal cycle leads to a biased TOA and surface regional irradiances for regions with a strong cloud diurnal cycle, monthly regional TOA and surface anomalies derived from one sun-synchronous orbit agrees well with those derived from two sun-synchronous orbits. Based on these results, the algorithm to produce Edition 4.2 CERES EBAF product is developed. Regional TOA and surface climatological means derived from one sun-synchronous orbit are adjusted to match corresponding climatological means derived from Terra+Aqua observations. This climatological adjustment approach is used to merge the Terra only period to the Terra+Aqua period and to extend the Terra and Aqua record by merging NOAA20 observations. Two additional differences of Edition 4.2 EBAF algorithm to compute surface irradiances compared to the earlier version are: 1) no geostationary satellite derived cloud properties are used and 2) temperature and humidity from MERRA-2 instead of GEOIS-5.4.1 are used. Once surface monthly regional mean irradiances are compared with surface observations, the agreement is equivalent to the agreement with the earlier version. However, because surface irradiances are not affected by geostationary satellite artifacts, regional surface irradiance anomaly time series is significantly improved, especially for longwave irradiances.

Seiji Kato↗
NASA NTRS1977

The influence of autoionization accompanied by excitation on dielectronic recombination and ionization equilibrium

In the process of dielectronic recombination, the doubly excited state formed by radiationless capture may autoionize preferentially into an excited state of the recombining ion. This additional autoionization process has not been discussed in previous treatments of dielectronic recombination. The dielectronic recombination rates for certain nonhydrogenic Fe ions, although still larger than the direct radiative recombination rates, are found to be substantially reduced by the inclusion of the additional autoionization rate in the branching ratio for the stabilizing radiative transition. Consequently, the temperatures of maximum equilibrium abundance are significantly lower than those predicted by recent calculations. Finally, the radiative energy loss rate coefficients are calculated for radiation processes involving electron Fe-ion collisions in high-temperature plasmas. Electron impact excitation of resonance line radiation is the dominant radiative cooling mechanism in steady-state plasmas at temperatures where ions with bound electrons are abundant. However, it is found that the radiation emitted during dielectronic recombination can be more important than direct recombination radiation and bremsstrahlung.

Jacobs, V. L.↗
NASA NTRS2011

Enhancing a Simple MODIS Cloud Mask Algorithm for the Landsat Data Continuity Mission

The presence of clouds in images acquired by the Landsat series of satellites is usually an undesirable, but generally unavoidable fact. With the emphasis of the program being on land imaging, the suspended liquid/ice particles of which clouds are made of fully or partially obscure the desired observational target. Knowing the amount and location of clouds in a Landsat scene is therefore valuable information for scene selection, for making clear-sky composites from multiple scenes, and for scheduling future acquisitions. The two instruments in the upcoming Landsat Data Continuity Mission (LDCM) will include new channels that will enhance our ability to detect high clouds which are often also thin in the sense that a large fraction of solar radiation can pass through them. This work studies the potential impact of these new channels on enhancing LDCM's cloud detection capabilities compared to previous Landsat missions. We revisit a previously published scheme for cloud detection and add new tests to capture more of the thin clouds that are harder to detect with the more limited arsenal channels. Since there are no Landsat data yet that include the new LDCM channels, we resort to data from another instrument, MODIS, which has these bands, as well as the other bands of LDCM, to test the capabilities of our new algorithm. By comparing our revised scheme's performance against the performance of the official MODIS cloud detection scheme, we conclude that the new scheme performs better than the earlier scheme which was not very good at thin cloud detection.

Wilson, Michael J.↗
NASA NTRS2012

Modeling of Aerobrake Ballute Stagnation Point Temperature and Heat Transfer to Inflation Gas

A trailing Ballute drag device concept for spacecraft aerocapture is considered. A thermal model for calculation of the Ballute membrane temperature and the inflation gas temperature is developed. An algorithm capturing the most salient features of the concept is implemented. In conjunction with the thermal model, trajectory calculations for two candidate missions, Titan Explorer and Neptune Orbiter missions, are used to estimate the stagnation point temperature and the inflation gas temperature. Radiation from both sides of the membrane at the stagnation point and conduction to the inflating gas is included. The results showed that the radiation from the membrane and to a much lesser extent conduction to the inflating gas, are likely to be the controlling heat transfer mechanisms and that the increase in gas temperature due to aerodynamic heating is of secondary importance.

Bahrami, Parviz A.↗
NASA NTRS2014

Next Generation Aura-OMI SO2 Retrieval Algorithm: Introduction and Implementation Status

We introduce our next generation algorithm to retrieve SO2 using radiance measurements from the Aura Ozone Monitoring Instrument (OMI). We employ a principal component analysis technique to analyze OMI radiance spectral in 310.5-340 nm acquired over regions with no significant SO2. The resulting principal components (PCs) capture radiance variability caused by both physical processes (e.g., Rayleigh and Raman scattering, and ozone absorption) and measurement artifacts, enabling us to account for these various interferences in SO2 retrievals. By fitting these PCs along with SO2 Jacobians calculated with a radiative transfer model to OMI-measured radiance spectra, we directly estimate SO2 vertical column density in one step. As compared with the previous generation operational OMSO2 PBL (Planetary Boundary Layer) SO2 product, our new algorithm greatly reduces unphysical biases and decreases the noise by a factor of two, providing greater sensitivity to anthropogenic emissions. The new algorithm is fast, eliminates the need for instrument-specific radiance correction schemes, and can be easily adapted to other sensors. These attributes make it a promising technique for producing long-term, consistent SO2 records for air quality and climate research. We have operationally implemented this new algorithm on OMI SIPS for producing the new generation standard OMI SO2 products.

Sulfur dioxide↗