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At least 289 records · Page 16

Plasma density mapping in the solar wind through use of VHF radio to measure electron content

How the electron content between the Solar probe and the earth can be observed with a minimum of equipment and give a quantitative rationale for the use of a signal near 400 MHz to supplement the telecommunications signal is described. The emphasis is on the method of making content observations and on their value. While far from the Sun, the electron content is so low that the S-X dual-frequency system is insufficiently sensitive and a UHF system is optimum. As the probe approaches the Sun, the UHF may be disrupted by scintillation and the variations of the telecommunications signal must be used for the content measurement. By operating the suggested system in different modes as the solar distance changes, operation during the entire mission is possible.

Croft, T. A.↗

An empirical model for the complex dielectric permittivity of soils as a function of water content

The recent measurements on the dielectric properties of soils shows that the variation of dielectric constant with moisture content depends on soil types. The observed dielectric constant increases only slowly with moisture content up to a transition point. Beyond the transition it increases rapidly with moisture content. The moisture value of transition region was found to be higher for high clay content soils than for sandy soils. Many mixing formulas were compared with, and were found incompatible with, the measured dielectric variations of soil-water mixtures. A simple empirical model was proposed to describe the dielectric behavior of ths soil-water mixtures. The relationship between transition moisture and wilting point provides a means of estimating soil dielectric properties on the basis of texture information.

Wang, J. R.↗

Total electron content and F-region electron density distribution near the magnetic equator in India

Total electron content derived from the group delay measurements of ATS-6 radio beacons received at Ootacamund (India) are compared with the electron-density vs height distributions derived from the ionosonde data of the nearby station Kodaikanal. The daily variation of equivalent vertical total electron content does not show the midday bite out which is so prominently present in the corresponding daily variation of the maximum F-region electron density. The topside electron content continues to increase from sunrise to a maximum value around 1500 LT, while the bottomside electron content reaches a maximum value around 0500 LT. Daily variations of these as well as other parameters, e.g. the vertical slab thickness, the bottomside semi-thickness, the height of the F2 peak have been also studied for a geomagnetically quiet and a disturbed day.

Rastogi, R. G.↗

Comparison of total electron content measurements made with the ATS-6 radio beacon over the U.S. and Europe

The ATS-6 radio beacon measurements made at three stations in the U.S.A. are compared and contrasted with similar measurements made in Europe the following year at two locations. It is shown that over the U.S.A. the winter plasmaspheric content reaches its maximum near 0300 LT whereas in Europe the maximum occurs near noon. The plasmaspheric content decreases with increase of magnetic activity in both continents. Winter night maxima are observed in ionospheric content in both hemispheres. Marked differences occurred in magnetic storm effects and in the day-to-night ratio of ionospheric electron content.

Davies, K.↗

The combined effects of ionizing radiation and weightlessness on calcium and phosphorus content in the mineral fraction of the calcified tissues in the rat skeleton

Phosphorus and calcium content in the ash from skeletal bones (ribs, scapula, vertebra, and crus) of 30 rats exposed to ionizing radiation (800 rads) on the flight of the Kosmos 690 biosatellite was studied. A 10 percent decrease in ash content coefficient and 29 percent decrease in phosphorus content was found immediately after the flight, and a 9 percent decrease in phosphorus content persisted after 26 days of readaptation to terrestrial conditions.

Prokhonchukov, A. A.↗

The dielectric behaviour of snow: A study versus liquid water content

Snow is treated as a heterogeneous dielectric material consisting of ice, air, and water. The greater difference in the high frequency relative permittivity of dry snow and water allows to determine the liquid water content by measurements of the relative permittivity of snow. A plate condenser with a volume of about 1000 cv cm was used to measure the average liquid water content in a snow volume. Calibration was carried out using a freezing calorimeter. In order to measure the liquid water content in thin snow layers, a comb-shaped condenser was developed, which is the two dimensional analogon of the plate condenser. With this moisture meter the liquid water content was measured in layers of a few millimeters in thickness, whereby the effective depth of measurement is given by the penetration depth of electric field lines which is controlled by the spacing of the strip lines. Results of field measurements with both moisture meters, the plate condenser and the comb-shaped condenser, are given.

Ambach, W.↗

An empirical model for the complex dielectric permittivity of soils as a function of water content

Recent measurements on the dielectric properties of soils have shown that the variation of dielectric constant with moisture content depends on soil types. The observed dielectric constant increases only slowly with moisture content up to a transition point. Beyond the transition it increases rapidly with moisture content. The moisture value at transition region was found to be higher for high clay content soils than for sandy soils. Many mixing formulas reported in the literature were compared with, and were found incompatible with, the measured dielectric variations of soil-water mixtures. A simple empirical model was proposed to describe the dielectric behavior of the soil-water mixtures. This model employs the mixing of either the dielectric constants or the refraction indices of ice, water, rock, and air, and treats the transition moisture value as an adjustable parameter. The calculated mixture dielectric constants from the model were found to be in reasonable agreement with the measured results over the entire moisture range of 0-0.5 cu cm/cu cm. The transition moistures derived from the model range from 0.16 to 0.33 and are strongly correlated with the wilting points of the soils estimated from their textures. This relationship between transition moisture and wilting point provides a means of estimating soil dielectric properties on the basis of texture information.

Wang, J. R.↗

Remote sensing of soil moisture content over bare field at 1.4 GHz frequency

An algorithm for estimating moisture content of a bare soil from the observed brightness temperature at 1.4 GHz is discussed and applied to a limited data base. The method is based on a radiative transfer model calculation, which has been successfully used in the past to account for many observational results, with some modifications to take into account the effect of surface roughness. Besides the measured brightness temperatures, the three additional inputs required by the method are the effective soil thermodynamic temperature, the precise relation between moisture content and the smooth field brightness temperatures and a pair of parameters related to surface roughness. The procedures of estimating surface roughness parameters and of obtaining moisture content from observed brightness temperature are discussed. The algorithm is applied to observations from truck mounted and airborne radiometers. The estimated moisture contents compare favorably with the observations in the top 2 cm layer.

Wang, J. R.↗

An Oil-Stream Photomicrographic Aeroscope for Obtaining Cloud Liquid-Water Content and Droplet Size Distributions in Flight

An airborne cloud aeroscope by which droplet size, size distribution, and liquid-water content of clouds can be determined has been developed and tested in flight and in wind tunnels with water sprays. In this aeroscope the cloud droplets are continuously captured in a stream of oil, which Is then photographed by a photomicrographic camera. The droplet size and size distribution can be determined directly from the photographs. With the droplet size distribution known, the liquid-water content of the cloud can be computed from the geometry of the aeroscope, the airspeed, and the oil-flow rate. The aeroscope has the following features: Data are obtained semi-automatically, and permanent data are taken in the form of photographs. A single picture usually contains a sufficient number of droplets to establish the droplet size distribution. Cloud droplets are continuously captured in the stream of oil, but pictures are taken at Intervals. The aeroscope can be operated in icing and non-icing conditions. Because of mixing of oil in the instrument, the droplet-distribution patterns and liquid-water content values from a single picture are exponentially weighted average values over a path length of about 3/4 mile at 150 miles per hour. The liquid-water contents, volume-median diameters, and distribution patterns obtained on test flights and in the Lewis icing tunnel are similar to previously published data.

Hacker, Paul T.↗

Remote sensing of atmospheric water content from Bhaskara SAMIR data

The 19.35 GHz and 22.235 GHz passive microwave radiometers (SAMIR) on board the Indian satellite Bhaskara have provided very useful data. From these data has been demonstrated the feasibility of deriving atmospheric and ocean surface parameters such as water vapor content, liquid water content, rainfall rate and ocean surface winds. Different approaches have been tried for deriving the atmospheric water content. The statistical and empirical methods have been used by others for the analysis of the Nimbus data. A simulation technique has been attempted for the first time for 19.35 GHz and 22.235 GHz radiometer data. The results obtained from three different methods are compared with radiosonde data. A case study of a tropical depression has been undertaken to demonstrate the capability of Bhaskara SAMIR data to show the variation of total water vapor and liquid water contents.

Gohil, B. S.↗

Microwave bistatic reflectivity dependence on the moisture content and matric potential of bare soil

Results are presented of an experimental program to determine the functional dependence of the microwave reflectivity of nonvegetated soil surfaces upon volumetric soil moisture and matric potential. A combination evaporation-drainage field experiment was conducted on a bare Captina slit loam with reflectivity, soil moisture content, and matric potential monitored for extended time periods. Results show that for a restricted pressure range (approximately -0.05 to -0.75 bar) there is excellent linear correlation between the log of bistatic reflectivity and both volumetric moisture content and matric potential. Layering effects due to steep moisture content (and matric potential) gradients in the profile are demonstrated to have two distinct and significant effects on the reflectivity response. At near saturation of rough surfaces a very thin dry surface layer appears to modify the effective roughness. This leads to a saturation of reflectivity at high moisture contents. As the surface proceeds to dry further, deeper layers produce coherent interference patterns in the reflectivity response, particularly at the higher frequencies.

Waite, W. P.↗

Comparison of the information contents of Landsat TM and MSS data

A communications-theory approach is taken to analyze the dispersion and concentration of signal values in various data spaces, irrespective of specific class membership. Entropy is used to quantify information, and mutual information is used to measure the information represented by subsets of spectral variables. Several different comparisons of information content are made. These include comparisons of system design capacities, of data volumes occupied by agricultural data in the spaces defined by original bands and by transformed spectral (Tasseled Cap) variables, of the information contents of original bands and Tasseled Cap variables, and of the information contents of TM and MSS for the given agricultural data sets. Also, the effects of sample size, scene content, and quantization level are examined.

Malila, W. A.↗

Comparison of the information contents of LANDSAT TM and MSS data

A communications-theory approach is taken to analyze the dispersion and concentration of signal values in various data spaces, irrespective of specific class membership. Entropy is used to quantify information, and mutual information is used to measure the information represented by subsets of spectral variables. Several different comparisons of information content are made. These include comparisons of system design capacities, of data volumes occupied by agricultural data in the spaces defined by original bands and by transformed spectral (Tasseled Cap) variables, of the information contents of original bands and Tasseled Cap variables, and of the information contents of TM and MSS for the given agricultural data sets. Also, the effects of sample size, scene content, and quantization level are examined.

Malila, W. A.↗

Determination of cloud ice water content and geometrical thickness using microwave and infrared radiometric measurements

Cloud ice water content and cloud geometrical thickness have been determined using a combination of near-infrared, thermal infrared and thermal microwave radiometric measurements. The radiometric measurements are from a Multispectral Cloud Radiometer, which has seven channels ranging from visible to thermal infrared, and an Advanced Microwave Moisture Sounder, which has four channels ranging from 90 to 183 GHz. Studies indicate that the microwave brightness temperatures depend not only on the amount of ice water content but also on the vertical distribution of ice water content. Studies also show that the low brightness temperature at 92 GHz for large ice water content is due to cloud reflection which reflects most of the irradiance incident at the cloud base downward. Therefore the 92 GHz channel detects a low brightness temperature at the cloud top.

Wu, Man-Li C.↗

Be-10 and Al-26 contents of eucrites - Implications for production rates and exposure ages

This paper presents the Be-10 contents of 20 and the Al-26 contents of nine eucrites. Most have Be-10 production rates between 16 and 26 dpm/kg. The average value of 21.8 dpm/kg agrees to within 10 percent with the value expected and does not support the suggestion that the eucrites received an unusually low flux of cosmic rays during the last few million years. Measured Be-10 and Al-26 contents are consistent with semiempirical calculations of nuclear production rates. The Al-26 contents provide a basis for computing shielding-corrected Ar-38 exposure ages of eucrites which show little evidence for clustering. Relatively more eucrites than diogenites are younger than 20 Ma.

Aylmer, D.↗

A scheme for parameterizing ice cloud water content in general circulation models

A method for specifying ice water content in GCMs is developed, based on theory and in-cloud measurements. A theoretical development of the conceptual precipitation model is given and the aircraft flights used to characterize the ice mass distribution in deep ice clouds is discussed. Ice water content values derived from the theoretical parameterization are compared with the measured values. The results demonstrate that a simple parameterization for atmospheric ice content can account for ice contents observed in several synoptic contexts.

Heymsfield, Andrew J.↗

A contention-based bus-control scheme for multiprocessor systems

The authors study contention-based bus-control schemes for scheduling processors in using a bit-parallel shared bus. The protocol is designed under the requirements that each processor exhibit a random access behavior, that there be no centralized bus control in the system, and that access be granted in real time. The proposed scheme is based on splitting algorithms used in conventional contention-resolution schemes, and utilizes two-state information obtained from collision detection. Two versions of the bus-control scheme are studied. The static one resolves contentions of N requesting processors in an average of O(logW/2N) iterations, where W is the number of bits in the bit-parallel bus. An adaptive version resolves contentions in an average time that is independent of N.

Juang, Jie-Yong↗

The frequency content of the control input and airplane response obtained during service operations of fighter airplanes

The frequency content of the control input and resulting airplane motions is presented as power spectral densities for one operational flight of the fighter airplane (Republic F-84G). The frequency content, which is described by the shape of the spectrum, may be useful in providing inputs for the design of power control systems. For normal load factors, the results presented for the operational flight considered are in general agreement with the results of more complete data on three fighter airplanes (Republic F-84G, Republic F-84F, and North American F-86A) . The frequency content for the three control positions was similar and the frequency content for the three angular velocities was also similar when normalized by dividing the mean-square value.

Mayer, John P↗