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NASA NTRS1993

Minutes of the Sixth CEOS Plenary Meeting

The Committee on Earth Observations Satellites (CEOS) minutes for the sixth plenary meeting held in London, December 9-11, 1992 are presented. Attending as prospective members were the Russian Space Agency (RSA), the Committee for Hydrometeorology and Environmental Monitoring of the Ministry for Ecology and Natural resources of the Russian Federation (ROSCOMGIDROMET), the Chinese Academy of Space Technology (CAST) and the National Remote Sensing Center of China (NRSCC). Actions taken at the meeting included membership issues, CEOS proposals, data policy, and working group reports. Data requirements of CEOS affiliates were also reported on. Additional summations and statements as well as lists of participants and future meetings are included. In general, topics covered related to remote sensing and global change.

Source record↗
NASA NTRS1993

Primary studies of Chinese spaceborne SAR

The primary studies on spaceborne synthetic aperture radar (SAR) in China are discussed. The SAR will be launched aboard a Chinese satellite and operated at L-band with HH polarization. The purpose of the mission in consideration is dedicated to resources and environment uses, especially to natural disaster monitoring. The ground resolution is designed as 25 m x 25 m for detailed mode and 100 m x 100 m for wide scan-SAR mode. The off-nadir angle can be varied from 20 to 40 deg. The key system concepts are introduced.

Wang, Zhen-Song↗
NASA NTRS1993

Zaoyang chondrite cooling history from pyroxene Fe(2+)-Mg intracrystalline ordering and exolutions

The Zaoyang ordinary chondrite fell as a single 14.15-kg mass in Hubey province (China) in October 1984 and was classified as a non-brecciated H5 chondrite, shock facies b. Cooling rate in pyroxenes can be calculated down to about 1000 C by using fine textures and at still lower temperatures (700 to 200 C) by intracrystalline ordering processes. The crystal chemistry of clinopyroxene and orthopyroxene from the matrix of the H5 Zaoyang chondrite has been investigated by X-ray structure refinement and detailed microprobe analysis. By comparison with terrestrial pyroxenes cell and polyhedral volumes in clino- and orthopyroxenes show a low crystallization pressure. Fe(2+) and Mg are rather disordered in M1 and M2 sites of clino- and orthopyroxenes; the closure temperatures of the exchange reaction are 600 and 512 C respectively, which is consistent with a quite fast cooling rate, estimated of the order of one degree per day. The closure temperature for the intercrystalline Ca-Mg exchange reaction for clino- and orthopyroxene showing clinopyroxene lamellae about 10 microns thick. Kinetic evaluations based on the thickness of exolved lamellae give a cooling rate of not more than a few degrees per 10(exp 4) years. The different cooling rates obtained from Fe(2+)-Mg intracrystalline partitioning and exolution lamellae suggest an initial episode of slow cooling at 900 C, followed by faster cooling at temperatures of 600-500 C at low pressure conditions. The most probable scenario of the meteorite history seems that the exolved orthopyroxene entered the parental chondrite body after exolution had taken place at high temperature. Subsequent fast cooling occurred at low temperature after the formation of the body.

Molin, G. M.↗
NASA NTRS1994

The end-Permian mass extinction: A complex, multicausal extinction

The end-Permian mass extinction was the most extensive in the history of life and remains one of the most complex. Understanding its causes is particularly important because it anchors the putative 26-m.y. pattern of periodic extinction. However, there is no good evidence for an impact and this extinction appears to be more complex than others, involving at least three phases. The first began with the onset of a marine regression during the Late Permian and resulting elimination of most marine basins, reduction in habitat area, and increased climatic instability; the first pulse of tetrapod extinctions occurred in South Africa at this time. The second phase involved increased regression in many areas (although apparently not in South China) and heightened climatic instability and environmental degradation. Release of gas hydrates, oxidation of marine carbon, and the eruption of the Siberian flood basalts occurred during this phase. The final phase of the extinction episode began with the earliest Triassic marine regression and destruction of nearshore continental habitats. Some evidence suggests oceanic anoxia may have developed during the final phase of the extinction, although it appears to have been insufficient to the sole cause of the extinction.

Erwin, D. H.↗
NASA NTRS1994

Photovoltaic power without batteries for continuous cathodic protection

The COASTSYSTA designed, installed, and started up on 20 Jan. 1990, a state-of-the-art stand alone photovoltaic powered impressed current cathodic protection system (PVCPSYS) not requiring any auxiliary/battery backup power for steel and iron submerged structures. The PVCPSYS installed on 775' of steel sheet piling of a Navy bulkhead is continuing to provide complete, continuous corrosion protection. This has been well documented by COASTSYSTA and verified on-site by the U.S. Army Civil Engineering Research Laboratory, Champaign, Illinois and the Navy Energy Program Office-Photovoltaic Programs, China Lake, California. The Department of Defense (DoD) Photovoltaic Review Committee and Sandia National Laboratories consider this successful and cost effective system a major advance in the application of photovoltaic power. The PVCPSYS uses only renewable energy and is environmentally clean. A patent is pending on the new technology. Other possible PVCPSYS applications are mothballed ships, docks, dams, locks, bridges, marinas, offshore structures, and pipelines. The initial cost savings by installing a PVCPSYS vs. a conventional CP system was in excess of $46,000.00.

Muehl, W. W., Sr.↗
NASA NTRS1993

Use of SPOT and ERS-1 SAR data to study the tectonic and climatic history of arid regions

In order to separate the effects of the different tectonic and climatic processes on the shapes of desert piedmonts, a modified conic equation was fitted to digital topographic data for individual alluvial fans in Death Valley (California, U.S.). The topographic data were obtained from a SPOT panchromatic stereo pair and from the airborne interferometric SAR (Synthetic Aperture Radar) (TOPSAR). The conic fit allows parameters for the epex position, slope, and radial curvature to be compared with unit age, uplift rate, and climatic conditions. Preliminary results indicate that slope flattens with age and radial curvature is concave up, but decreases with age. Work is continuing on correlation of fit residuals and apex position with fan unit age. This information will help in the determination of tectonic uplift rates and the climatic history of the western U.S. ERS-1 SAR images were used to study an area of western China where a large strike slip fault crosses a series of alluvial fans and stream valleys. Previous analysis of SPOT panchromatic images of the area shows that offsets fans and streams can be recognized. Measurement of the rate of motion of this fault will help in the overall model of deformation of the Asian tectonic plate in response to the collision of the Indian plate.

Farr, Tom G.↗
NASA NTRS1994

Permanent GPS Geodetic Array in Southern California (PGGA) and GPS observations in Indonesia

The Permanent GPS Geodetic Array (PGGA) is a network of permanent monitoring GPS stations in southern California devoted to the continuous measurement of crustal deformation in near real-time. The PGGA plays a unique role in studies of the kinematics of crustal deformation and the earthquake cycle in southern California because it is also providing temporally dense geodetic measurements of crustal motion over periods of minutes to variations in regional crustal strain. As it expands and matures the PGGA will play an increasingly important role in the study of active tectonics of southern California by bridging the frequency range between seismology, observatory geodesy, paleoseismology, and geology. In Indonesia GPS data is used for measurement of a large scale crustal deformation, extending from north China to the Indonesian archipelago. Indonesia offers a tremendous laboratory to study some of the processes that build continents, and mountains are active there. We began GPS observations in August 1989 on mainland Sumatra and the Mentawai Islands to study the phenomena of oblique plate convergence. We have analyzed the Indonesian data in conjunction with data collected on Christmas and Cocos Islands and at Darwin, Australia, and with the triangulation data in Sumatra.

Bock, Yehuds↗
NASA NTRS1994

Neotectonics of Asia: Thin-shell finite-element models with faults

As India pushed into and beneath the south margin of Asia in Cenozoic time, it added a great volume of crust, which may have been (1) emplaced locally beneath Tibet, (2) distributed as regional crustal thickening of Asia, (3) converted to mantle eclogite by high-pressure metamorphism, or (4) extruded eastward to increase the area of Asia. The amount of eastward extrusion is especially controversial: plane-stress computer models of finite strain in a continuum lithosphere show minimal escape, while laboratory and theoretical plane-strain models of finite strain in a faulted lithosphere show escape as the dominant mode. We suggest computing the present (or neo)tectonics by use of the known fault network and available data on fault activity, geodesy, and stress to select the best model. We apply a new thin-shell method which can represent a faulted lithosphere of realistic rheology on a sphere, and provided predictions of present velocities, fault slip rates, and stresses for various trial rheologies and boundary conditions. To minimize artificial boundaries, the models include all of Asia east of 40 deg E and span 100 deg on the globe. The primary unknowns are the friction coefficient of faults within Asia and the amounts of shear traction applied to Asia in the Himalayan and oceanic subduction zones at its margins. Data on Quaternary fault activity prove to be most useful in rating the models. Best results are obtained with a very low fault friction of 0.085. This major heterogeneity shows that unfaulted continum models cannot be expected to give accurate simulations of the orogeny. But, even with such weak faults, only a fraction of the internal deformation is expressed as fault slip; this means that rigid microplate models cannot represent the kinematics either. A universal feature of the better models is that eastern China and southeast Asia flow rapidly eastward with respect to Siberia. The rate of escape is very sensitive to the level of shear traction in the Pacific subduction zones, which is below 6 MPa. Because this flow occurs across a wide range of latitudes, the net eastward escape is greater than the rate of crustal addition in the Himalaya. The crustal budget is balanced by extension and thinning, primarily within the Tibetan plateau and the Baikal rift. The low level of deviation stresses in the best models suggests that topographic stress plays a major role in the orogeny; thus, we have to expect that different topography in the past may have been linked with fundamentally different modes of continental collision.

Kong, Xianghong↗
NASA NTRS1994

Third International Workshop on Squeezed States and Uncertainty Relations

The purpose of these workshops is to bring together an international selection of scientists to discuss the latest developments in Squeezed States in various branches of physics, and in the understanding of the foundations of quantum mechanics. At the third workshop, special attention was given to the influence that quantum optics is having on our understanding of quantum measurement theory. The fourth meeting in this series will be held in the People's Republic of China.

Han, D.↗
NASA NTRS1994

Produce documents and media information

Lightning data and information were collected from the United States, Germany, France, Brazil, China, and Australia for the dual purposes of compiling a global lightning data base and producing publications on the Marshall Space Flight Center's lightning program. Research covers the history of lightning, the characteristics of a storm, types of lightningdischarges, observations from airplanes and spacecraft, the future fole of planes and spacecraft in lightning studies, lightning detection networks, and the relationships between lightning and rainfall. Descriptions of the Optical Transient Dectector, the Lightning Imaging Sensor, and the Lightning Mapper Sensor are included.

Alzmann, Melanie A.↗
NASA NTRS1994

Bureau of the Census Center for International Research

This paper describes the organization and activities of the Center for International Research at the Bureau of the Census. There is a formal publication exchange program with other government's statistical programs. This has resulted in the Center's collection being one of the world's largest in the area of international census and demographic information. Foreign statistical publications are in three libraries, one being dedicated to the former Soviet Union and one to the Peoples Republic of China. In addition to the libraries there are two computerized data bases. The International data base is a source of demographic and socio-economic statistics for all countries of the world. The second data base is the HIV/AIDS Surveillance Data Base which contains information related to the publication and dissemination of the results of seroprevalence surveys.

Pinto, Nina Pane↗
NASA NTRS1995

Evaluation of Pd-Cr Wires for Strain Gage Application

A newly developed alloy, palladium-13 weight percent chromium (Pd13Cr), was identified by United Technologies Research Center under a NASA contract to be the best material for high temperature strain gage applications. An electrical resistance strain gage that can provide accurate static strain measurement to a temperature higher than that of a commercially available gage is urgently needed in aerospace and aeronautics research. A strain gage made of a 25.4 micron (1 mil) diameter Pd13Cr wire has been recently demonstrated to be usable for static strain measurements to 800 C. This compares to the 400 C temperature limit of the commercially available strain gages. The performance of the Pd-Cr gage, however, strongly depends on the quality of the Pd13Cr wire. Four batches of Pd-Cr wires purchased from three different manufacturers were therefore evaluated to determine the best source of the wire for strain gage applications. The three suppliers were Precious Metal Institute in China, Sigmund Cohn Co., and G & S Titanium, Inc. in the United States. Two batches of wires obtained from Previous Metal Institute in 1987 and 1992, respectively are referred to herein as China87 and China92 wires. The mechanical, chemical and electrical properties of these wires, both as-received and after high temperature exposures at 800 C for 50 hours were analyzed. The elastic modulus and the failure strength of the wires were evaluated using a tensile test machine equipped with a laser speckle strain measurement system. The chemical and microstructural properties of the wires were inspected using a plasma atomic emission spectrometer and a scanning electron microscope (SEM) equipped with an energy dispersive X-ray spectroscope (EDS). The electrical stability and repeatability of the wires were determined by measuring the electrical resistance of the wires during three thermal cycles to 1000 C and a ten-hour soak at 1000 C. As a result of this study, the wire which has the highest strength, the least impurities content, the best oxidation resistance and the best electrical stability will be selected for upcoming strain gage applications.

Lei, Jih-Fen↗
NASA NTRS1995

Biennial oscillation associated with the East Asian summer monsoon and tropical sea surface temperatures

In this paper, the interannual variability of the East Asian summer monsoon (EASM) rainfall and the tropical sea surface temperature (SST) have been studied. It is found that the EASM rainfall prossesses a strong biennial signal, which is particularly pronounced over the southeast China. For the SST, the biennial oscillation is the second most significant quasi-periodic signal over the entire tropical Indian and Pacific Oceans. Results indicate that the biennial variations in the SST and EASM rainfall are closely linked. The SST pattern which is best correlated with EASM rainfall appears in the form of a double see-saw with quasi-stationary centers of action over the Indian Ocean, the Asian monsoon region and the eastern Pacific. The most pronounced SST signals are found in the equatorial eastern Pacific and Indian Ocean about two seasons preceding and following the EASM rainfall. Evidence is presented suggesting that the biennial variability of the EASM rainfall is phase-locked to a global scale biennial oscillation involving the interplay of the Asian monsoon, the Hadley and Walker circulations, and basin wide fluctuations in SST. In particular, the eastward propagation of zonal wind anomalies from the Indian Ocean to the western Pacific, which regulates the moisture fluxes from the western Pacific to the East Asian region, appears to be a key component of the biennial fluctuation associated with EASM rainfall. Results suggest that the relationship between the Asian monsoon and tropical SST is more robust in the biennial that the El Nino/Southern Oscillation (ENSO) time scale, hence raising the possibility that the biennial oscillation may be more fundamentally related to monsoon-ocean-atmosphere interaction than ENSO itself.

Shen, Suhung↗
NASA NTRS1995

Space-based Communications Infrastructure for Developing Countries

This study examines the potential use of satellites to augment the telecommunications infrastructure of developing countries with advanced satellites. The study investigated the potential market for using satellites in developing countries, the role of satellites in national information infractructures (NII), the technical feasibility of augmenting NIIs with satellites, and a nation's financial conditions necessary for procuring satellite systems. In addition, the study examined several technical areas including onboard processing, intersatellite links, frequency of operation, multibeam and active antennas, and advanced satellite technologies. The marketing portion of this study focused on three case studies: China, Brazil, and Mexico. These cases represent countries in various stages of telecommunication infrastructure development. The study concludes by defining the needs of developing countries for satellites, and recommends steps that both industry and NASA can take to improve the competitiveness of U.S. satellite manufacturing.

Barker, Keith↗
NASA NTRS1995

G301: The Flying Falcon geological remote sensing experiment

Get-Away Special (GAS) G-301, named the Flying Falcon and scheduled for launch on the STS-77 Space Shuttle in April, 1996, is being prepared to perform an experiment designed by the Department of Geology, Bowling Green State University (BGSU). The experiment will employ a new type of infrared imager designed and built by a consortium of Teltron Technologies Inc., Hudson Research Inc., and BGSU that is an uncooled, quantrum ferro-electric, infrared return beam vidicon (IRBV) camera capable of detecting thermal infrared radiation throughout the 2.0-50.0 micron wavelength region, and to which an integral, unable Fabry-Perot filter and a telescopic lens have been added. The primary objectives in the experiment include the mapping of methane plumes from solid waste landfills and wetlands in the midwestern U.S., the mapping of methane plumes offshore in the Gulf of Mexico and in the Middle East, brief monitoring for precursors of volcanoes or earthquakes in the South China sea and the East Pacific Rise (about 300 km west of Easter Island), and the mapping of silica content in exposed outcrops and residual soils of the southwestern U.S. and Middle East.

Vincent, Robert K.↗
NASA NTRS1996

Fourth International Conference on Squeezed States and Uncertainty Relations

The fourth International Conference on Squeezed States and Uncertainty Relations was held at Shanxi University, Taiyuan, Shanxi, China, on June 5 - 9, 1995. This conference was jointly organized by Shanxi University, the University of Maryland (U.S.A.), and the Lebedev Physical Institute (Russia). The first meeting of this series was called the Workshop on Squeezed States and Uncertainty Relations, and was held in 1991 at College Park, Maryland. The second and third meetings in this series were hosted in 1992 by the Lebedev Institute in Moscow, and in 1993 by the University of Maryland Baltimore County, respectively. The scientific purpose of this series was initially to discuss squeezed states of light, but in recent years, the scope is becoming broad enough to include studies of uncertainty relations and squeeze transformations in all branches of physics, including, of course, quantum optics and foundations of quantum mechanics. Quantum optics will continue playing the pivotal role in the future, but the future meetings will include all branches of physics where squeeze transformations are basic transformation. This transition took place at the fourth meeting of this series held at Shanxi University in 1995. The fifth meeting in this series will be held in Budapest (Hungary) in 1997, and the principal organizer will be Jozsef Janszky of the Laboratory of Crystal Physics, P.O. Box 132, H-1052. Budapest, Hungary.

Han, D.↗
NASA NTRS1996

[STS-75 Post Flight Presentation]

The flight crew of the STS-75 Space Shuttle, Cmdr. Andrew Allen, Pilot Scott Horowitz, Payload Cmdr. Franklin Chang-Diaz, Payload Specialist Umberto Guidoni (Italy), and Mission Specialists Jeffrey Hoffman, Maurizio Cheli (ESA) and Claude Nicollier (ESA), present a post flight analysis of their mission through the use of color slides and video footage. Prelaunch and launch activities are shown along with Earth entry and landing footage. Both middeck and payload bay microgravity experiments are shown and briefly discussed. The deployment and loss of the European Tethered Satellite experiment are presented and discussed. Earth views include the Nile Valley, Chad, the Himalayas and Mount Everest, and China. A unique moonset is also shown.

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NASA NTRS1995

Shuttle Earth Views, 1994

In this fourth part of a four-part video compilation of Space Shuttle Earth views, various geographical areas are shown, including both land and water masses. The views covered the Middle East (Saudi Arabia, Sinai, Jordan , Egypt, Iran, Iraq, Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar, and the United Arab Emirates), northeastern Africa (Yemen, Oman, Ethiopia, Somalia, and Djibouti), Russia, Siberia, India, Sri Lanka, Tibet, Bhutan, western China, and Mongolia. Various lakes, seas, rivers, and islands are shown, along with several pieces of film footage of sunsets, moon sets, clouds, and tropical storms. Each film clip has a heading that names the shuttle and the geographical location of the footage.

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