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At least 361 records · Page 20

Structure and energetics of standing eddies in the winter Northern Hemisphere simulated by the NCAR Community Climate Model and the GLA Climate Model

The structure and maintenance of standing eddies in the NCAR Community Climate Model and the Goddard Laboratory for Atmospheres Climate Model are examined. The energy equations and data used in the study, and the differences between the two GCMs are discussed. The three-dimensional structure (height, temperature, and vertical velocity) and potential and kinetic energies and thermal and dynamic interactions of the standing eddies are described.

Lee, Yen-Huei↗

Community reactions to helicopter noise - Results from an experimental study

Community reactions to low numbers of helicopter noise events (less than 50 per day) are investigated using a new type of study design. Although the effect of maximum noise level and number of noise events on helicopter noise annoyance was found to be similar to that represented by the energy summation principle contained in L(eq)-based noise indices, it is noted that the possibility that the number of noise events has only a small effect on annoyance cannot be rejected at the conventional p of less than 0.05 level. The effect of the duration of noise events was also shown to be consistent with L(eq)-based indices. After removing the effects of differences in duration and noise levels, little difference is found between reactions to impulsive and nonimpulsive types of helicopters.

Fields, James M.↗

Study of the atmospheric general circulation as an initial value problem with the NCAR Community Climate Model

The essential elements of the transition of a model atmosphere to the equilibrium state from two extreme rest states, a cold (240 K) state and a warm (310 K) state, were examined using the NCAR Community Climate Model. It is shown that the same equilibrium state was reached in the two spinup conditions, which was also the same that was reported for this model by Williamson and Williamson (1984), who started from still a different initial condition. The spinup from the cold initial condition was faster than that from the warm condition, although the final stages of the approach to equilibrium were very simular in both cases. It was also found that the spinup of the barotropic flow lagged behind that of the baroclinic flow and the thermal field, and the model tropics spinup was faster than that of the mid-latitudes.

Chen, Tsing-Chang↗

Establishing a communications-intensive network to resolve artificial intelligence issues within NASA's Space Station Freedom research centers community

MITRE Corporation's, A Review of Space Station Freedom Program Capabilities for the Development and Application of Advanced Automation, cites as a critical issue the following situation, extant at the NASA facilities visited in the course of preparing the review: The major issues noted with regard to design and research facilities deal with cooperative problem solving, technology transfer, and communication between these facilities. While the authors were visiting lab and test beds to collect information, personnel at many of these facilities were interested in any information they could collect on activities at other facilities. A formal means of gathering this information could not be identified by these personnel. While communication between some facilities was taking place or was planned, for technology transfer or coordination of schedules (e.g., for SADP demonstrations), poor communication between these facilities could lead to a lack of technical standards, duplication of effort, poorly defined interfaces, scheduling problems, and increased cost. Formal mechanisms by which effective communication and cooperative problem solving can take place, and information can be disseminated, must be defined. A solution is proposed for the communications aspects of the issues addressed above; and offered at the same time a solution which can prove effective in dealing with some of the problems being encountered with expertise being lost via retirement or defection to the private sector. The proffered recommendations are recognizably cost-effective and tap the rising sector of expert knowledge being produced by the American academic community.

Howard, E. Davis, III↗

A comparison of the climate simulated by the NCAR Community Climate Model (CCM1:R15) with ECMWF analyses

The Community Climate Model (CCM) is a comprehensive three-dimensional global atmospheric model assembled at the National Center for Atmospheric Research. Detailed comparisons are made between the climate simulated by a seasonal version of CCM, namely CCM1, at 12 level, R15 spectral resolution, and that revealed by ECMWF operational analyses over 1980-86 truncated to a similar resolution. A variety of circulation statistics are presented in order to reveal the spatial character and seasonality of CCM1 biases in temperature, winds, and wave flux quantities. The biases revealed for CCM1 are similar in many respects to those found in other climate models run at similar resolution. Results of this study are then presented, discussing temperature biases and thermodynamic balances, wind fields, zonal mean wave diagnostics, stationary waves, and local eddy statistics. The major findings are then summarized.

Randel, William J.↗

Comparison of cloud forcing derived from the Earth Radiation Budget Experiment with that simulated by the NCAR Community Climate Model

The cloud radiative forcing derived from the Earth Radiation Budget Experiment (ERBE) data was compared with cloud forcing simulated by a T42 version of the NCAR Community Climate Model (CCM). The comparison indicates a number of deficiencies in the CCM. Namely, it is shown that the model emits substantially more long-wave radiation than is observed by ERBE. This overestimation is attributed to two model characteristics: (1) the model is too dry and thus reduces the greenhouse longwave radiation effect of the atmosphere (permitting more longwave radiation to escape into space); and (2) the effective high cloud amount is quite small in the model.

Kiehl, J. T.↗

NASA/DOD Aerospace Knowledge Diffusion Research Project. Paper 6: Aerospace knowledge diffusion in the academic community: A report of phase 3 activities of the NASA/DOD Aerospace Knowledge Diffusion Research Project

Descriptive and analytical data regarding the flow of aerospace-based scientific and technical information (STI) in the academic community are presented. An overview is provided of the Federal Aerospace Knowledge Diffusion Research Project, illustrating a five-year program on aerospace knowledge diffusion. Preliminary results are presented of the project's research concerning the information-seeking habits, practices, and attitudes of U.S. aerospace engineering and science students and faculty. The type and amount of education and training in the use of information sources are examined. The use and importance ascribed to various information products by U.S. aerospace faculty and students including computer and other information technology is assessed. An evaluation of NASA technical reports is presented and it is concluded that NASA technical reports are rated high in terms of quality and comprehensiveness, citing Engineering Index and IAA as the most frequently used materials by faculty and students.

Pinelli, Thomas E.↗

Quasi-coherent structures in the turbulent boundary layer. I - Status report on a community-wide summary of the data

A review is presented of the approach, motivation and early results of a reevaluation of the knowledge collected by the research community during thirty years of research on the structure of turbulent boundary layers. Four distinctions or criteria concerning the need to improve the practices in this field are discussed: data versus inferences, possible versus actual versus significant events, one structure versus many, and one or two flows versus the totality of data. Attention given to the known quasi-coherent structures show that three factors significantly reduce the information available from laboratory data as a basis for forming a complete model of the quasi-coherent structure in the turbulent boundary layer: (1) the necessity to ensemble average probe output with resulting loss of phase information, (2) the inability to see more than one or two of the various types of structures simultaneously, and (3) the inability to see the spatial relations between the various quasi-coherent structures resulting from (1) and (2).

Kline, S. J.↗

Springtime soil moisture, natural climatic variability, and North American drought as simulated by the NCAR Community Climate Model 1

Previous results concerning the role that summertime soil moisture reductions can play in amplifying or maintaining North American droughts are extended to include the role of springtime soil moisture reductions and the role that natural climatic variability, as expressed in soil moisture, can play. General circulation model (GCM) simulations with the NCAR Community Climate Model have been made with initial desert-like soil moisture anomalies imposed on 1 May and on 1 March. The May simulation maintained the imposed anomaly throughout the summer, while in the March simulation the anomaly was ameliorated within one month. Thus, the timing of soil moisture reductions may be crucial. A 10-year model control integration with prescribed sea surface temperatures yielded 1 year with late spring and summer soil moisture values similar to those of the 1 May anomaly simulation. This suggests that occasional widespread North American droughts may be an inherent feature of at least the GCM employed for this study. The results also demonstrate the important role played by moisture transport from the Gulf of Mexico in modulating or ameliorating drought conditions for much of the south-central United States, a topic that requires considerable further investigation.

Oglesby, Robert J.↗

Validation of cloud forcing simulated by the National Center for Atmospheric Research Community Climate Model using observations from the Earth Radiation Budget Experiment

Satellite measurements of the effect of clouds on the top of atmosphere radiative energy budget are used to validate model simulations from the National Center for Atmospheric Research Community Climate Model (NCAR CCM). The ability of the NCAR CCM to reproduce the monthly mean global distribution and temporal variability on both daily and seasonal time scales is assessed. The comparison reveals several deficiencies in the CCM cloud representation. Most notable are the difficulties in properly simulating the effect of clouds on the planetary albedo. This problem arises from discrepancies in the model's portrayal of low-level cloudiness and leads to significant errors in the absorbed solar radiation simulated by the model. The CCM performs much better in simulating the effect of clouds on the longwave radiation emitted to space, indicating its relative success in capturing the vertical distribution of cloudiness. The daily variability of the radiative effects of clouds in both the shortwave and longwave spectral regions is systematically overestimated. Analysis of the seasonal variations illustrates a distinct lack of coupling in the seasonal changes in the radiative effects of cloudiness between the tropics and mid-latitudes and between the Northern and Southern Hemisphere. Much of this problem also arises from difficulties in simulating low-level cloudiness, placing further emphasis on the need for better model parameterizations of boundary layer clouds.

Soden, B. J.↗

The FAA/NASA flight loads monitoring program - The prototype system and its benefits for the aviation community

The FAA established the flight load monitoring program to collect a data base of typical flight operational loads experienced by commercial transports. This system will provide a comprehensive monitoring of aircraft loading conditions with over 20 flight parameters being recorded simultaneously. NASA is designing and testing a prototype data collection and analysis system which will be implemented into an FAA operational program. This paper presents the program's objectives and the proposed development testing on a commercial Boeing 737-400. The prototype system, its data processing schemes, and reports are described. The searching criteria or flight attributes generated for each flight are listed. The data processing system will provide the aviation community with a powerful tool for the study of transport flight loading conditions and the system's flexibility will accommodate individual studies and specialized concerns.

Whitehead, Julia H.↗

Present-day Antarctic climatology of the NCAR Community Climate Model Version 1

The ability of the NCAR Community Climate Model Version 1 (CCM1) with R 15 resolution to simulate the present-day climate of Antarctica was evaluated using the five-year seasonal cycle output produced by the CCM1 and comparing the model results with observed horizontal syntheses and point data. The results showed that the CCM1 with R 15 resolution can simulate to some extent the dynamics of Antarctic climate on the synoptic scale as well as some mesoscale features. The model can also simulate the phase and the amplitude of the annual and semiannual variation of the temperature, sea level pressure, and zonally averaged zonal (E-W) wind. The main shortcomings of the CCM1 model are associated with the model's anomalously large precipitation amounts at high latitudes, due to the tendency of the scheme to suppress negative moisture values.

Tzeng, Ren-Yow↗

Generic results of the space physics community survey

This report summarizes the results of a survey of the members of the space physics research community conducted in 1990-1991 to ascertain demographic information on the respondents and information on their views on a number of facets of their space physics research. The survey was conducted by questionnaire and the information received was compiled in a database and analyzed statistically. The statistical results are presented for the respondent population as a whole and by four different respondent cross sections: individual disciplines of space physics, type of employers, age groups, and research techniques employed. Data from a brief corresponding survey of the graduate students of respondents are also included.

Sharma, Rikhi R.↗

AstroMail: Electronic mail for the astrophysics community

As part of the NASA Science Internet User Support Services program, NASA Goddard was interested in R&D which could extend the SolarMail system developed by members of the Wilcox Space Observatory at Stanford University to support a larger astrophysics user community. Specific objectives of the R&D effort were to include: a clone of the existing SolarMail system with additional documentation, enabling a parallel mail system to be established by populating the database; a cloned version of SolarMail functioning with a user database similar to that of the High Energy Astrophysics Division (HEAD) of the American Astronomical Society; a report on the status and surveyed usage of SolarMail and its clones into an extendable distributed mail system to serve as the basis for AstroMail, including a draft declaration of policy; a prototype AstroMail system based on the above specifications and including at least SolarMail and one of its clones supporting a set of astronomy user databases as subsets; and a report on the status of the prototype AstroMail with recommendations for future modifications to AstroMail.

Scherrer, Phillip H.↗

Community noise sources and noise control issues

The topics covered include the following: community noise sources and noise control issues; noise components for turbine bypass turbojet engine (TBE) turbojet; engine cycle selection and noise; nozzle development schedule; NACA nozzle design; NACA nozzle test results; nearly fully mixed (NFM) nozzle design; noise versus aspiration rate; peak noise test results; nozzle test in the Low Speed Aeroacoustic Facility (LSAF); and Schlieren pictures of NACA nozzle.

Nihart, Gene L.↗

Community noise technology needs: Boeing's perspective

Airport community acceptance of High Speed Civil Transport (HSCT) noise levels will depend on the relative noise levels of airplanes flying at the time of introduction. The 85 dBA noise contours for the range of large subsonic airplanes that are expected to be in service in the early 21st century are shown as a shaded area. A certifiable HSCT noise contour as shown, would be somewhat wider along the runway, but about the same in the residential areas downrange. An HSCT noise rule should insure this noise capability.

Nihart, Gene L.↗

Diurnal heating and cloudiness in the NCAR Community Climate Model (CCM2)

In this paper, the authors assess the suitability of the heating fileds in the latest version of the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) Community Climate Model (CCM2) for modeling the thermal forcing of atmospheric tides. Accordingly, diurnal variations of the surface pressure, outgoing longwave radiation (OLR), cloudiness, and precipitation are examined in the CCM2. The fields of radiative, sensible, and latent heating are similarly analyzed. These results are subjectively compared with available data. Equatorial diurnal surface pressure tides are fairly well simulated by CCM2. The model successfully reproduces the semidiurnal surface pressure tides; however, this may result in part from reflection of wave energy at the upper boundary. The CCM2 large-scale diurnal OLR is generally consistent with observations. The moist-convective scheme in the model is able to reproduce the diurnally varying cloudiness and precipitation patterns associated with land-sea contrasts; however, the amplitudes of CCM2 diurnal continental convective cloudiness are weaker than observations. The CCM2 boundary-layer sensible heating is consistent with a very limited set of observations, and with estimates obtained from simple models of diffusive heating. Although the CCM2 tropospheric solar radiative heating is similar in magnitude to previous estimates, there are substantial differences in the vertical structures. A definitive assessment of the validity of the CCM2 diurnal cycle is precluded by the lack of detailed observations and the limitations of our CCM2 sample. Nevertheless, the authors conclude that the global-scale components of the CCM2 diurnal heating are useful proxies for the true diurnal forcing of the tides.

Lieberman, Ruth S.↗

The stratopause semiannual oscillation in the NCAR Community Climate Model

The middle atmospheric version of the NCAR Community Climate Model (CCM2) has been used to study the development of the equatorial semiannual oscillation (SAO) in the stratosphere. The model domain extends from the ground to about 80 km, with a vertical resolution of 1 km. Transport of nitrous oxide (N2O) with simplified photochemistry is included in the calculation to illustrate the influence of tropical circulations on the distribution of trace species. Diagnosis of model output reveals two distinct phases in the evolution of the zonal mean state on the equator. In early December, a strong and broad easterly jet appears near the stratopause in connection with a midlatitude wave event (sudden stratospheric warming) that reverses the winter westerlies of the Northern Hemisphere throughout the upper stratosphere. When the wave forcing dies out, the radiative drive allows the westerlies to recover at midlatitudes, while easterlies persist in the tropics. The resulting strong meridional gradient of the zonal mean wind provides favorable conditions for the development of inertial instability at lower latitudes. The meridional circulation associated with the instability shapes the 'nose' of the easterly jet, reducing the extension of the unstable region. In equinoctial conditions, a jet of westerlies appears in the lower equatorial mesosphere and descends to lower altitudes; positive accelerations associated with the descending westerlies are due primarily to Kelvin waves. The descent of the westerly jet does not reproduce well the observed behavior of the SAO westerly phase, either in amplitude or in the extent of downward propagation. As a consequence, the model does not simulate the 'double peak' observed in the tropical distribution of N2O. Comparison of wave amplitudes in the model with those derived from satellite observations shows that the calculated amplitudes are larger than observed in the upper stratosphere. It follows that inadequate Kelvin wave forcing is not the cause of the weak westerly phase in the model, and that some other mechanism must be responsible for the generation of the strong westerly phase observed.

Sassi, Fabrizio↗