Engineering Papers⌕ Search

SEARCH · Engineering Papers

Results for “Earth Model”

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.

Quote a phrase for an exact phrase match. Source license links do not imply unrestricted reuse.

At least 343 records · Page 19
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
NASA NTRS1985

Empirical model for the Earth's cosmic ray shadow at 400 KM: Prohibited cosmic ray access

The possibility to construct a unit sphere of access that describes the cosmic radiation allowed to an Earth-orbiting spacecraft is discussed. It is found that it is possible to model the occluded portion of the cosmic ray sphere of access as a circular projection with a diameter bounded by the satellite-Earth horizon. Maintaining tangency at the eastern edge of the spacecraft-Earth horizon, this optically occluded area is projected downward by an angle beta which is a function of the magnetic field inclination and cosmic ray arrival direction. This projected plane, corresponding to the forbidden area of cosmic ray access, is bounded by the spacecraft-Earth horizon in easterly directions, and is rotated around the vertical axis by an angle alpha from the eastern direction, where the angle alpha is a function of the offset dipole latitude of the spacecraft.

Humble, J. E.↗
NASA NTRS2007

Earth Global Reference Atmospheric Model (GRAM99): Short Course

Earth-GRAM is a FORTRAN software package that can run on a variety of platforms including PC's. For any time and location in the Earth's atmosphere, Earth-GRAM provides values of atmospheric quantities such as temperature, pressure, density, winds, constituents, etc.. Dispersions (perturbations) of these parameters are also provided and have realistic correlations, means, and variances - useful for Monte Carlo analysis. Earth-GRAM is driven by observations including a tropospheric database available from the National Climatic Data Center. Although Earth-GRAM can be run in a "stand-alone" mode, many users incorporate it into their trajectory codes. The source code is distributed free-of-charge to eligible recipients.

Leslie, Fred W.↗
NASA NTRS1974

A global model of the earth's ionosphere for use in space applications

A general expression is derived for the F layer electron density profile as a function of latitude and longitude for that part of the earth which is in direct sunlight including dawn and dusk. Furthermore, the derived model is extended to encompass the night-time ionosphere. The expressions allow determination by standard means of the range correction for arbitrary ray path directions. It is also shown that the naive application of the Chapman ionospheric model entails range correction errors which for low elevation angles (less than 20 deg) and large solar zenith angles (40 deg) cannot be tolerated. Numerical calculations are displayed showing the dependence of the range correction on the pertinent parameters.

Von Roos, O. H.↗
NASA NTRS1988

Initial development of a new empirical model of the earth's inner magnetosphere for density, temperature, and composition

The analytical representation of plasma characteristics in the near earth environment is a valuable tool for studying wave propagation, for new instrument and spacecraft design, and for developing a better theoretical understanding of plasmaspheric processes. There are no empirical models currently available that encompass the near-earth environment and include the core or low-energy plasma characteristic of that region. The initial steps to constructing a new empirical model of plasmaspheric density, temperature, and composition are discussed. A limited set of density measurements from the retarding ion mass spectrometer and the plasma wave instrument on the Dynamics Explorer 1 spacecraft is used to demonstrate features of the proposed analytical formalism.

Gallagher, D. L.↗
NASA NTRSDate not supplied

BERT-E: An Earth Science Specific Language Model for Domain-Specific Downstream Tasks

Language models are fast approaching human-like understanding of natural language. They have been shown to perform equally, if not better than humans in a myriad of language tasks such as next sentence prediction, question answering, entity extraction etc. Part of the success of the models are owed to the fact that they have been trained on varied natural language text over the internet. By virtue of this, the models do not contain the semantic information present in Earth science literature. Hence, there is a lot of room for improvement when using these models for earth science specific tasks. In this work, we showcase our approach on developing Earth science specific language models. Furthermore, we justify the need for such a model by using the embeddings generated by the model to perform a domain specific downstream task that performs better than a generic model.

Prasanna Koirala↗
NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Atmosphere Modeling and Performance Sensitivity for the Mars Sample Return Earth Entry System

The Capture, Containment, and Return System (CCRS) mission is a key element of the joint NASA-European Space Agency (ESA) planned Mars Sample Return (MSR) Campaign. The CCRS assembled Earth Entry System (EES) will enter the mission’s final segment in its Approach, Entry, Descent, and Landing (AEDL) Phase. The EES AEDL aims to deliver a highly reliable, safe, and accurate return while maintaining strict containment assurance targets established by the campaign. As currently designed, the EES would be the first fully passive sample return capsule with no parachute or onboard control system, prompting a significant effort in Earth atmosphere characterization and modeling. Earth’s atmosphere, specifically winds, have a strong influence on EES flight mechanics and landing footprint during its free fall landing. This paper describes Earth atmosphere modeling, atmosphere characterization, and performance sensitivities incorporated into the teams’s efforts to ensure AEDL success. By utilizing high resolution balloon radiosondes, analyzing wind structural and distributional compositions, and investigating flight mechanics sensitivities, the AEDL atmosphere team has been able to better understand and simulate local wind conditions at the Utah Test and Training Range (UTTR). Utilizing tools such as horizontal turbulent kinetic energy, vertical wind shear, or integrated wind, the team have been able to reveal valuable information about wind profiles in a deeper context than previously conducted, ultimately improving understanding of AEDL flight mechanics sensitivity and EES design.

Kaustubh Ray↗
NASA NTRS1978

Early climate on earth-reduced gas models and early climate on Mars-reduced gas and obliquity models

At high obliquity, Martian polar ground temperatures could exceed the melting point of ice for considerable periods of time (approximately 90 Earth days). Under special conditions ice itself might melt. Carbon dioxide adsorbed on the Martian regolith is not expected to buffer the seasonal pressure wave except in the unlikely event that the soil pore size is very large (50 micron). For a basaltic soil composition the maximum CO2 that could be desorbed over obliquity time scales due to thermal forces is a few millibars. At low obliquities the atmospheric pressures may drop, desorbing the soil. The only means to achieve higher CO2 pressures is to have much higher planet-wide temperatures due to some greenhouse effect, or to be at an epoch before the regolith or carbonates formed. The water ice budget between north and south polar caps was considered and summer sublimation rates imply that the ice could be exchanged between the poles during obliquity cycles. A critical factor in the polar cap water budget is the interaction of water and dust. The origin of the Martian polar laminae is probably due to variations in this interaction.

Toon, O. B.↗
NASA NTRS2018

Constraining the Climate and Ocean PH of the Early Earth with a Geological Carbon Cycle Model

The early Earth's environment is controversial. Climatic estimates range from hot to glacial, and inferred marine pH spans strongly alkaline to acidic. Better understanding of early climate and ocean chemistry would improve our knowledge of the origin of life and its coevolution with the environment. Here, we use a geological carbon cycle model with ocean chemistry to calculate self-consistent histories of climate and ocean pH. Our carbon cycle model includes an empirically justified temperature and pH dependence of seafloor weathering, allowing the relative importance of continental and seafloor weathering to be evaluated. We find that the Archean climate was likely temperate (0-50deg C) due to the combined negative feedbacks of continental and seafloor weathering. Ocean pH evolves monotonically from 6.6(sup + 0.6) (sub -0.4) (2 sigma) at 4.0 Ga to 7.0(sup +0.7) (sub-0.5) (2 sigma) at the Archean-Proterozoic boundary, and to 7.9(sup +0.1) (sub -0.2) (2 sigma) at the Proterozoic-Phanerozoic boundary. This evolution is driven by the secular decline of pCO2, which in turn is a consequence of increasing solar luminosity, but is moderated by carbonate alkalinity delivered from continental and seafloor weathering. Archean seafloor weathering may have been a comparable carbon sink to continental weathering, but is less dominant than previously assumed, and would not have induced global glaciation. We show how these conclusions are robust to a wide range of scenarios for continental growth, internal heat flow evolution and outgassing history, greenhouse gas abundances, and changes in the biotic enhancement of weathering.

Krissansen-Totton, Joshua↗
NASA NTRS2017

Near Earth Asteroid Scout Thrust and Torque Model

The Near Earth Asteroid (NEA) Scout is a solar sail mission whose objective is to scout at least one Near Earth Asteroid in preparation for manned missions to asteroids. NEA Scout will use a solar sail as the primary means of propulsion. Thus it is important for mission planning to accurately characterize the thrust of the sail. Additionally, the solar sail creates a relatively large solar disturbance torque that must be mitigated. For early mission design studies a flat plate model of the solar sail with a fixed center of pressure was adequate, but as mission concepts and the sail design matured, greater fidelity was required. Here we discuss the progress to a three-dimensional sail model that includes the effects of tension and thermal deformation that has been derived from a large structural Finite Element Model (FEM) developed by the Langley Research Center. We have found that the deformed sail membrane affects torque relatively much more than thrust. We have also found that other than uncertainty over the precise shape, the effect of small (approximately millimeter scale) wrinkles on the diffusivity of the sail is the leading remaining source of uncertainty. We demonstrate that millimeter-scale wrinkles can be modeled analytically as a change in the fraction of specular reflection. Finally we discuss the implications of these results for the NEA Scout mission.

Heaton, Andrew↗
NASA NTRS2013

Development of Two-Moment Cloud Microphysics for Liquid and Ice Within the NASA Goddard Earth Observing System Model (GEOS-5)

This work presents the development of a two-moment cloud microphysics scheme within the version 5 of the NASA Goddard Earth Observing System (GEOS-5). The scheme includes the implementation of a comprehensive stratiform microphysics module, a new cloud coverage scheme that allows ice supersaturation and a new microphysics module embedded within the moist convection parameterization of GEOS-5. Comprehensive physically-based descriptions of ice nucleation, including homogeneous and heterogeneous freezing, and liquid droplet activation are implemented to describe the formation of cloud particles in stratiform clouds and convective cumulus. The effect of preexisting ice crystals on the formation of cirrus clouds is also accounted for. A new parameterization of the subgrid scale vertical velocity distribution accounting for turbulence and gravity wave motion is developed. The implementation of the new microphysics significantly improves the representation of liquid water and ice in GEOS-5. Evaluation of the model shows agreement of the simulated droplet and ice crystal effective and volumetric radius with satellite retrievals and in situ observations. The simulated global distribution of supersaturation is also in agreement with observations. It was found that when using the new microphysics the fraction of condensate that remains as liquid follows a sigmoidal increase with temperature which differs from the linear increase assumed in most models and is in better agreement with available observations. The performance of the new microphysics in reproducing the observed total cloud fraction, longwave and shortwave cloud forcing, and total precipitation is similar to the operational version of GEOS-5 and in agreement with satellite retrievals. However the new microphysics tends to underestimate the coverage of persistent low level stratocumulus. Sensitivity studies showed that the simulated cloud properties are robust to moderate variation in cloud microphysical parameters. However significant sensitivity in ice cloud properties was found to variation in the dispersion of the ice crystal size distribution and the critical size for ice autoconversion. The implementation of the new microphysics leads to a more realistic representation of cloud processes in GEOS-5 and allows the linkage of cloud properties to aerosol emissions.

Aerosol-Cloud Interactions↗
NASA NTRS2003

Low Earth Orbit Plasma Variability Model

The empirical International Reference Ionosphere is a widely used model for estimating low Earth orbit plasma characteristics for use in spacecraft design and mission analysis. The climatological model provides mean values of plasma density, temperature, composition, and other ionospheric parameters that can be used to estimate the average magnitude of spacecraft charging, current collection for electrodynamic tethers, and other effects on spacecraft design. Mean IRI parameters are not adequate to answer questions such as what is the maximum or minimum value of the spacecraft potential, does the maximum spacecraft potential exceed a program requirement, will an electrodynamic tether provide adequate drag to deorbit a satellite at end of life, and will the tether provide sufficient thrust to reboost a spacecraft at any time in the solar cycle. These questions require estimates of the variability of the ionospheric environment about the mean values. This presentation describes the status of work at MSFC to develop an empirical ionospheric variability model that can be used in conjunction with the climatological IRI model to provide both mean ionospheric parameters and variations of the environment about the mean. Our technique will use an extensive database of satellite and radar observations of the electron density and temperature to derive variances of the data about the model values. The variances will then be incorporated into Fortran wrapper software that calls the IRI-2001 model and provides statistical estimates of the deviation of the environment about the mean IRI values. We will provide an update on the state of the database development and provide examples of analysis and modeling efforts completed specifically for an International Space Station application.

Minow, Joseph I.↗
NASA NTRS2006

Updated Computational Model of Cosmic Rays Near Earth

An updated computational model of the galactic-cosmic-ray (GCR) environment in the vicinity of the Earth, Earth s Moon, and Mars has been developed, and updated software has been developed to implement the updated model. This model accounts for solar modulation of the cosmic-ray contribution for each element from hydrogen through iron by computationally propagating the local interplanetary spectrum of each element through the heliosphere. The propagation is effected by solving the Fokker-Planck diffusion, convection, energy-loss boundary-value problem. The Advanced Composition Explorer NASA satellite has provided new data on GCR energy spectra. These new data were used to update the original model and greatly improve the accuracy of prediction of interplanetary GCR.

ONeill, Patrick M.↗
NASA NTRS2017

Comparative Study of Three Reconnection X Line Models at the Earth's Dayside Magnetopause Using in Situ Observations

This work examines the large-scale aspects of magnetic field reconnection at the Earth's dayside magnetopause. We use two sets of reconnection events, which are identified mostly by the in situ detection of accelerated and Alfvenic plasma flows. We intercompare three analytical models that predict the reconnection X line location and orientation, namely, the Trattner et al. (2007) and Swisdak and Drake (2007) models and also a modified version of the component merging model. In the first set of reconnection observations, we show three fortuitous, quasi-simultaneous dayside magnetopause crossing events where two widely separated spacecraft detect reconnection signatures, and the X line location and orientation can be inferred from the observations. We compare X line model predictions to those inferred from observations. These three reconnection events indicate the presence of an extended (greater than 7 Earth radii in length), component-type reconnection X line on Earth's dayside magnetopause connecting and structuring the reconnection signatures at locations far apart. In the second set of reconnection events, we analyze the X line models' performance in predicting the observed reconnection outflow direction, i.e., its north-south and/or east-west senses, in a total of 75 single, rather than multiple and quasi-simultaneous, magnetopause crossing events, where reconnection-associated plasma flows were clearly present. We found that the Swisdak and Drake's (2007) X line model performs slightly better, albeit not statistically significant, when predicting both accelerated plasma flow north-south and east-west components in 73% and 53% of the cases, respectively, as compared to the Trattner et al. (2007) model (70% north-south and 42% east-west) and the modified component merging model (66% north-south and 50% east-west).

Souza, V. M.↗
NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Utilizing Earth Observations to Model Probable Coastal Wetland Extent, Sea-Level Rise Inundation Risk, and Assess Impacts on Historic Hawaiian Lands

Climate induced sea-level rise poses a risk to coastal areas on the Island of Hawai’i, and many of the island’s historic cultural lands are in danger of becoming overtaken by wetlands or inundation. In partnership with the County of Hawai’i, State of Hawai’i Department of Land and Natural Resources, and Arizona State University, NASA DEVELOP mapped wetland extent and short-term sea-level rise inundation risk. We utilized Earth observations over a 10-year span (2013 – 2022) that included the NASA MEaSUREs Gridded Sea Surface Height Anomalies and MEaSUREs Group for High Resolution Sea Surface Temperature datasets, United States Geological Survey (USGS) Hawaii Digital Elevation Models (DEM), and in situ tidal gauge data. Flood risk index values were acquired for 5 known Hawai’i flood events between 2019 – 2021 from the Global Flood Mapper tool on Google Earth Engine. We used a random forest model to predict short-term sea-level rise inundation risk along the entire coast of Hawai’i. Current wetland extents and probabilistic locations of new wetlands were modeled with the most recently available data from PlanetScope Surface Reflectance optical imagery (2022), USGS 3D Elevation Program (3DEP) 10m DEM (2020), temperature and precipitation data from the Hawai’i Climate Atlas, and soils data from the Hawai’i Soil Atlas (2014) using the Wetland Intrinsic Potential tool. Results indicated locations that had the highest probability of wetland creation. The end products aimed to help the partners prioritize efforts to meeting regulation requirements for wetlands protection, evaluate the inundation risk to historical features, and support decision-making for their Shoreline Setback and Climate Adaption plans.

Lisa Tanh↗
NASA NTRS1988

Comparisons of global topographic/isostatic models to the Earth's observed gravity field

The Earth's gravitational potential, as described by a spherical harmonic expansion to degree 180, was compared to the potential implied by the topography and its isostatic compensation using five different hypothesis. Initially, series expressions for the Airy/Heiskanen topographic isostatic model were developed to the third order in terms of (h/R), where h is equivalent rock topography and R is a mean Earth radius. Using actual topographic developments for the Earth, it was found that the second and third terms of the expansion contributed 30 and 3 percents, of the first of the expansion. With these new equations it is possible to compute depths (D) of compensation, by degree, using 3 different criteria. The results show that the average depth implied by criterion I is 60 km while it is about 33 km for criteria 2 and 3 with smaller compensation depths at the higher degrees. Another model examined was related to the Vening-Meinesz regional hypothesis implemented in the spectral domain. Finally, oceanic and continental response functions were derived for the global data sets and comparisons made to locally determined values.

Rummel, Reiner↗
NASA NTRS2022

Coevolution of Machine Learning and Process-Based Modelling to Revolutionize Earth and Environmental Sciences: A Perspective

Machine learning (ML) applications in Earth and environmental sciences (EES) have gained incredible momentum in recent years. However, these ML applications have largely evolved in ‘isolation’ from the mechanistic, process-based modelling (PBM) paradigms, which have historically been the cornerstone of scientific discovery and policy support. In this perspective, we assert that the cultural barriers between the ML and PBM communities limit the potential of ML, and even its ‘hybridization’ with PBM, for EES applications. Fundamental, but often ignored, differences between ML and PBM are discussed as well as their strengths and weaknesses in light of three overarching modelling objectives in EES, (1) nowcasting and prediction, (2) scenario analysis, and (3) diagnostic learning. The paper ponders over a ‘coevolutionary’ approach to model building, shifting away from a borrowing to a co-creation culture, to develop a generation of models that leverage the unique strengths of ML such as scalability to big data and high-dimensional mapping, while remaining faithful to process-based knowledge base and principles of model explainability and interpretability, and therefore, falsifiability.

Saman Razavi↗