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At least 37 records · Page 2

Electromagnetic instability in high-beta plasmas with generalized distribution functions

The electrostatic instabilities in an anisotropic plasma have been studied quite extensively, but the electromagnetic instabilities in high-beta plasmas, where they play an important role, have not been thoroughly investigated. Recently, Davidson and Wu (1970) looked into the ordinary mode electromagnetic instability which can arise in high-beta bi-Maxwellian plasmas. Here, the magnetic instability is discussed in (A, beta) space (A is the anisotropy in the temperature of the plasma species and beta is the ratio of the kinetic pressure to the magnetic pressure), which can occur in generalized non-Maxwellian plasmas with an inverted population of different species.

Buti, B.↗

Solar wind parameters and magnetospheric coupling studies

This paper presents distributions, means, and standard deviations of the fluxes of solar wind protons, momentum, and energy as observed near earth during the solar quiet and active years 1976 and 1979. Distributions of ratios of energies (Alfven Mach number, plasma beta) and distributions of interplanetary magnetic field orientations are also given. Finally, the uncertainties associated with the use of the libration point orbiting ISEE-3 spacecraft as a solar wind monitor are discussed.

King, Joseph H.↗

The UV dayglow 2, Ly-alpha and Ly-beta emissions and the H distribution in the mesosphere and thermosphere

Rocket observations of the Lyman alpha and Lyman beta day airglow are analyzed using a nonisothermal spherical model of the radiation field. This new model provides, for the first time, a method of determining atomic hydrogen densities in the mesosphere and thermosphere. Interpretation of Lyman alpha data taken between 80 and 260 km is consistent with current mesospheric and thermospheric models, with H density equal to 1.9 x 10 to the 7th/cu cm at 100 km. Analysis of 1025 A data suggests that the emission is dominated by Lyman beta with perhaps as much as a 30% contribution from OI 1027.

Anderson, D. E., Jr.↗

A Bayesian analysis of two probability models describing thunderstorm activity at Cape Kennedy, Florida

A Bayesian analysis of the two discrete probability models, the negative binomial and the modified negative binomial distributions, which have been used to describe thunderstorm activity at Cape Kennedy, Florida, is presented. The Bayesian approach with beta prior distributions is compared to the classical approach which uses a moment method of estimation or a maximum-likelihood method. The accuracy and simplicity of the Bayesian method is demonstrated.

Williford, W. O.↗

Bayesian Approach for Reliability Assessment of Sunshield Deployment on JWST

Deployable subsystems are essential to mission success of most spacecraft. These subsystems enable critical functions including power, communications and thermal control. The loss of any of these functions will generally result in loss of the mission. These subsystems and their components often consist of unique designs and applications, for which various standardized data sources are not applicable for estimating reliability and for assessing risks. In this study, a Bayesian approach for reliability estimation of spacecraft deployment was developed for this purpose. This approach was then applied to the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) Sunshield subsystem, a unique design intended for thermal control of the observatory's telescope and science instruments. In order to collect the prior information on deployable systems, detailed studies of "heritage information", were conducted extending over 45 years of spacecraft launches. The NASA Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC) Spacecraft Operational Anomaly and Reporting System (SOARS) data were then used to estimate the parameters of the conjugative beta prior distribution for anomaly and failure occurrence, as the most consistent set of available data and that could be matched to launch histories. This allows for an emperical Bayesian prediction for the risk of an anomaly occurrence of the complex Sunshield deployment, with credibility limits, using prior deployment data and test information.

Kaminskiy, Mark P.↗

Coronal Temperature and Emission Measure Distributions for he Active G Supergiant Beta Dra and other ASCA Projects

This NASA grant supported my ASCA observing and data analysis programs during AOs 1-4. This research involved four Guest Observer projects. Analysis of data from all four programs has been completed. This grant included the following ASCA GO programs: AO1 - "Coronal Temperature and Emission Measure Distributions for the Active G Supergiant Beta Dra" AO2 - "Contemporaneous ASCA, EUVE, IUE, and VLA/AT Observations of Atmospheric Structure of the RS CVn Binary HR1099". AO3 - "Coronal Temperature and Emission Measure Distributions for the hybrid-chromosphere star alpha TrA". AO4-"Activity on the edge of convection: The atmosphere of Canopus (alpha Car, FO Ib-II)".

Brown, Alexander↗

Color threshold and ratio of S100 beta, MAP5, NF68/200, GABA & GAD. I. Distribution in inner ear afferents

Afferents of chick embryos (Gallus domesticus) VIIIth nerve were examined at E3, E6, E9, E13, El7, and hatching (NH) for anti-S100 beta, anti-MAP5, anti-GABA, anti-GAD and anti-NF68/200 stain. Different ages were processed together to determine if the distribution of these antibodies changed during synaptogenesis and myelination. Color thresholding showed that saturation of pixels changed for S100 beta only 5%, for NF68/200 10%, and for MAP5, 10%, between E9-NH. Color ratio of NF68/200 over MAP5 was 1.00 at E13 and 0.25 at E16 and NH. S100 beta, GABA and GAD were co-expressed on nerve endings at the edge of the maculae and center of the cristae, whereas hair cells in the center of the maculae expressed either S100 beta or GABA, but not both. S100 beta/NF68/200 shared antigenic sites on the chalices, but NF68/200 expression was higher than S100 beta in the chalices at hatching. MAP5 was expressed in more neurons than NF68/200 at E11, whereas NF68/200 was more abundant than MAP5 at hatching. The results suggest that: 1) the immunoexpression of these neuronal proteins is modulated concomitantly with the establishment of afferent synapses and myelination; 2) S100 beta may serve a neurotrophic function in the chalices where it is co-expressed with the neurotransmitter GABA and its synthesizing enzyme GAD.

NASA Discipline Neuroscience↗

Modeling surface temperature distributions in forest landscapes

A model of the frequency distributions of the spatial variability in surface temperature is presented. Surface temperature data are obtained from two daytime and two nighttime flights of the Thermal IR Multispectral Scanner (TIMS) over forest land in western Oregon in August, 1985. The temperature values are corrected for atmospheric attenuation and thermal radiation emission with the LOWTRAN-6 algorithm. The temperature distributions were modeled with a two-parameter beta probability density distribution and the fit of the model was evaluated by comparison with the TIMS data set. Use of the model's parameters to identify and classify surface types shows good discrimination among various surfaces for the daytime images, with less distinct discrimination for the nighttime images.

Holbo, H. R.↗

Meso-beta scale simulations of convective cloud systems over Florida utilizing synthetic data derived from GOES satellite imagery

An attempt is made to improve the simulation of the meso-alpha and meso-beta scales' precipitation distribution over the Florida peninsula during the warm season through improvement of the initialization of beta scale convective cloud systems, using GOES IR and visible satellite imagery. These data can be used to define the location and spatial extent of meso-beta scale cloud systems at a specified time. Attention is presently given to the results of the first phase of this study, in which only moisture information was synthesized from the satellite imagery.

Zack, John W.↗

First direct comparison of high and low ionization line kinematics in active galactic nuclei

We present first results of a comparison of emission line shift properties for the high (HILs) and low (LILs) ionization lines in 43 low-reshift quasars. We identify a core sample of C IV lambda 1549 and hydrogen beta profiles with a wide distribution of red- and blueshifts (less than or equal to +/- 1000 km/sec). We also identify two tails in this distribution: one with large hydrogen beta redshifts (greater than or equal to 2000 km/sec) and another with large C IV blueshifts (greater than or equal to 1500 km/sec). The tails are mutually exclusive. All objects with extreme hydrogen beta redshift are radio loud, and all objects with extreme C IV blueshift are radio quiet. The core samples of smaller shifts can be most simply divided into: (1) hydrogen beta - a redshifted radio-loud population (related to the tail) and a radio-quiet population with mean shift near zero, and (2) C IV - a blueshifted radio-quiet population (related to the tail) and a radio-loud population with mean shift near zero. The results suggest fundamentally different kinematics for the HILs and LILs. They also suggest very different kinematics for radio-loud and radio-quiet active galactic nuclei. They also favor a predominance of radial motion in a large fraction of the sample.

Sulentic, J. W.↗

Auroral emissions and particle precipitation in the noon sector.

Comparison of airborne optical measurements during December 1969 with satellite particle measurements made earlier in 1969. The latitudinal distributions of H beta, 4278-A and 6300-A emissions during quiet periods are observed to agree with what would be expected from the latitudinal distribution of particle precipitation during similar conditions. In particular, there is a belt 200 to 500 km wide (at ionospheric heights) in which the magnetosheath plasma penetrates down to low altitudes through the cusps in the dayside magnetosphere and in which both H beta and 6300-A emissions are observed. There are brighter red arcs with green lower borders within this belt. It is suggested that these are produced by narrow regions of precipitation of slightly more energetic electrons embedded in the cusp fluxes. Poleward of this belt the flux of particles is low, and the atmospheric emissions are very weak, except for occasional narrow regions of electron precipitation (without measurable protons) and the corresponding polar-cap aurora (without the H beta emission).

Heikkila, W. J.↗

Survey of Coherent Approximately 1 Hz Waves in Mercury's Inner Magnetosphere from MESSENGER Observations

We summarize observations by the MESSENGER spacecraft of highly coherent waves at frequencies between 0.4 and 5 Hz in Mercury's inner magnetosphere. This survey covers the time period from 24 March to 25 September 2011, or 2.1 Mercury years. These waves typically exhibit banded harmonic structure that drifts in frequency as the spacecraft traverses the magnetic equator. The waves are seen at all magnetic local times, but their observed rate of occurrence is much less on the dayside, at least in part the result of MESSENGER's orbit. On the nightside, on average, wave power is maximum near the equator and decreases with increasing magnetic latitude, consistent with an equatorial source. When the spacecraft traverses the plasma sheet during its equatorial crossings, wave power is a factor of 2 larger than for equatorial crossings that do not cross the plasma sheet. The waves are highly transverse at large magnetic latitudes but are more compressional near the equator. However, at the equator the transverse component of these waves increases relative to the compressional component as the degree of polarization decreases. Also, there is a substantial minority of events that are transverse at all magnetic latitudes, including the equator. A few of these latter events could be interpreted as ion cyclotron waves. In general, the waves tend to be strongly linear and characterized by values of the ellipticity less than 0.3 and wave-normal angles peaked near 90 deg. Their maxima in wave power at the equator coupled with their narrow-band character suggests that these waves might be generated locally in loss cone plasma characterized by high values of the ratio beta of plasma pressure to magnetic pressure. Presumably both electromagnetic ion cyclotron waves and electromagnetic ion Bernstein waves can be generated by ion loss cone distributions. If proton beta decreases with increasing magnetic latitude along a field line, then electromagnetic ion Bernstein waves are predicted to transition from compressional to transverse, a pattern consistent with our observations. We hypothesize that these local instabilities can lead to enhanced ion precipitation and directly feed field-line resonances.

ultra-low-frequency↗

On the Nature and Extent of Optically Thin Marine low Clouds

Macrophysical properties of optically thin marine low clouds over the nonpolar oceans (60 deg S-60 deg N) are measured using 2 years of full-resolution nighttime data from the Cloud-Aerosol Lidar with Orthogonal Polarization (CALIOP). Optically thin clouds, defined as the subset of marine low clouds that do not fully attenuate the lidar signal, comprise almost half of the low clouds over the marine domain. Regionally, the fraction of low clouds that are optically thin (f(sub thin,cld)) exhibits a strong inverse relationship with the low-cloud cover, with maxima in the tropical trades (f(sub thin,cld) greater than 0.8) and minima in regions of persistent marine stratocumulus and in midlatitudes (f(sub thin,cld) less than 0.3). Domain-wide, a power law fit describes the cloud length distribution, with exponent beta = 2.03 +/- 0.06 (+/-95% confidence interval). On average, the fraction of a cloud that is optically thin decreases from approximately 1 for clouds smaller than 2 km to less than 0.3 for clouds larger than 30 km. This relationship is found to be independent of region, so that geographical variations in the cloud length distribution explain three quarters of the variance in f(sub thin,cld). Comparing collocated trade cumulus observations from CALIOP and the airborne High Spectral Resolution Lidar reveals that clouds with lengths smaller than are resolvable with CALIOP contribute approximately half of the low clouds in the region sampled. A bounded cascade model is constructed to match the observations from the trades. The model shows that the observed optically thin cloud behavior is consistent with a power law scaling of cloud optical depth and suggests that most optically thin clouds only partially fill the CALIOP footprint.

Leahy, L. V.↗

Modulation of lens cell adhesion molecules by particle beams

Cell adhesion molecules (CAMs) are proteins which anchor cells to each other and to the extracellular matrix (ECM), but whose functions also include signal transduction, differentiation, and apoptosis. We are testing a hypothesis that particle radiations modulate CAM expression and this contributes to radiation-induced lens opacification. We observed dose-dependent changes in the expression of beta 1-integrin and ICAM-1 in exponentially-growing and confluent cells of a differentiating human lens epithelial cell model after exposure to particle beams. Human lens epithelial (HLE) cells, less than 10 passages after their initial culture from fetal tissue, were grown on bovine corneal endothelial cell-derived ECM in medium containing 15% fetal bovine serum and supplemented with 5 ng/ml basic fibroblast growth factor (FGF-2). Multiple cell populations at three different stages of differentiation were prepared for experiment: cells in exponential growth, and cells at 5 and 10 days post-confluence. The differentiation status of cells was characterized morphologically by digital image analysis, and biochemically by Western blotting using lens epithelial and fiber cell-specific markers. Cultures were irradiated with single doses (4, 8 or 12 Gy) of 55 MeV protons and, along with unirradiated control samples, were fixed using -20 degrees C methanol at 6 hours after exposure. Replicate experiments and similar experiments with helium ions are in progress. The intracellular localization of beta 1-integrin and ICAM-1 was detected by immunofluorescence using monoclonal antibodies specific for each CAM. Cells known to express each CAM were also processed as positive controls. Both exponentially-growing and confluent, differentiating cells demonstrated a dramatic proton-dose-dependent modulation (upregulation for exponential cells, downregulation for confluent cells) and a change in the intracellular distribution of the beta 1-integrin, compared to unirradiated controls. In contrast, there was a dose-dependent increase in ICAM-1 immunofluorescence in confluent, but not exponentially-growing cells. These results suggest that proton irradiation downregulates beta 1-integrin and upregulates ICAM-1, potentially contributing to cell death or to aberrant differentiation via modulation of anchorage and/or signal transduction functions. Quantification of the expression levels of the CAMs by Western analysis is in progress.

NASA Discipline Radiation Health↗

Vacuum ultraviolet photoelectron spectroscopy of atoms and molecules

For a complete study of the photoionization of atoms and molecules it is essential to make use of the technique of Photoelectron Spectroscopy and the continuum characteristics of synchrotron radiation. A brief review is given of the application of the above techniques in measuring partial photoionization cross sections and the angular distribution assymetry parameter beta. Selected results are given, which are compared to theoretical values.

Samson, J. A. R.↗

Magnetic fields in flowing magnetotail plasmas and their significance for magnetic reconnection

A statistical study is made of the magnetic field components that occur in the presence of high-velocity flows. Results are reported for a statistical analysis of 324 intervals of intense bulk plasma flows in the plasma sheet of the geomagnetic tail, measured by the Imp 6 spacecraft. A pronounced tendency for southward fields to be associated with tailward flow more often than with earthward flow yields support for the merging concept, though not in its simplest form. Histograms of 15.36-s averages of vector magnetic field measurements during plasma flows reveal no significant changes in the distribution of beta-y between earthward or tailward plasma flow directions.

Caan, M. N.↗

Cerenkov x total energy telescopes for the study of the mass composition of cosmic rays

The mass resolution attainable with cosmic ray telescopes employing Cerenkov counters for velocity measurement was examined. It is shown that in most cases, the limiting mass resolution is determined by the resolution of the Cerenkov counter. The resolution achieved in the UNH telescope flown on a balloon in 1977 is studied as a function of charge and energy. This telescope determines the mass using the Cerenkov x total energy technique. It is shown that the mass resolution for heavier nuclei can be accurately predicted using the response of the Cerenkov counter to sea level mu-mesons. The actual in flight resolution for heavier nuclei, including broadening effects, may be predicted using the beta = 1 Cerenkov distributions, and independently by studying the distribution function of the differences of the two banks of photomultipliers employed on each Cerenkov counter.

Webber, W. R.↗