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NASA NTRS1984

Interactions between volume and surface EM waves in layered structures

Using light scattering spectroscopy, the interaction of Surface Plasmon Polariton SPP in silver films on a glass substrate is with the incident radiation and with optical phonons of an external medium in contact with the film. The mean free path and the field strength of SPP are determined. The same SPP plays an important role in light emitting tunnel junctions (LETJ) in which an electrical current is converted into Volume Electromagnetic Wave VEW. The efficiency of light emission from LETJ through a prism coupler rather than through surface roughness is discussed. The coupling between phonon surface polaritons (PhSP) and optical guided waves (OGW) in thin films of GaP is also examined.

Ushioda, S.↗
NASA NTRS1983

Protons from the decay of solar flare neutrons

Fluxes of energetic protons in interplanetary space are observed which are interpreted as the decay products of neutrons generated in a solar flare on 1982 June 3 at 11:42 UT. Because of the particular geometry of this event the spectrum of neutrons escaping from the sun can be constructed with great accuracy in the kinetic energy range 10-100 MeV. The resulting spectrum places stringent constraints on the free parameters used in previously published calculations of neutron production in solar flares. An estimate is made of the diffusion mean free path of charged particles in the interplanetary medium in a new way.

Evenson, P.↗
NASA NTRS1984

The solar optical telescope

This paper describes NASA's Solar Optical Telescope (SOT), which is designed to measure the density temperature, magnetic fields, and the nonthermal velocity fields of solar features on a scale at which the basic physical processes are occurring. A series of 7- to 14-day missions carrying a 1.3-meter solar-observing telescope that has a spatial resolution only slightly larger than the photon mean-free-path of about 80 km will be flown as a Spacelab-attached payload aboard the Space Transportation System (STS) in mid-1990. The telescope (Fig. 1) will be built and integrated by the Perkin-Elmer Corporation and is managed by NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center. Coarse pointing to the sun is provided by the Spacelab instrument pointing system (IPS), whereas fine pointing is provided by the Observatory pointing and control system. The science instruments for the first mission, the photometric filtergraph and the coordinated filtergraph/spectrograph, that are integrated into a combined instrument package are also described.

Hogan, G. D.↗
NASA NTRS1984

Science with the solar optical telescope

The Solar Optical Telescope (SOT) is designed to provide the solar physics community with the data necessary for solving several fundamental problems in the energetics and dynamics of the solar atmosphere. Among these problems are questions on the origin and evolution of the sun's magnetic field, heating of the outer solar atmosphere, and sources of the solar wind in the lower lying regions of the outer atmosphere. The SOT will be built under the management of NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, with science instruments provided by teams led by Principal Investigators. The telescope will be built by the Perkin-Elmer Corporation, and the science instruments selected for the first flight will be provided by the Lockheed Palo Alto Research Laboratory (LPARL) and the California Institute of Technology, with actual construction of a combined science instrument taking place at the LPARL. The SOT has a 1.3-meter-diameter primary mirror that will be capable of achieving diffraction-limited viewing in the visible of 0.1 arc-second. This dimension is less than a hydrodynamic scale-height or a mean-free-path of a continuum photon in the solar atmosphere. Image stability will be achieved by a control system in the telescope, which moves both the primary and tertiary mirrors in tandem, and will be further enhanced by a correlation tracker in the combined science instrument. The SOT Facility is currently scheduled for its first flight on Spacelab at the beginning of the 1990's.

Jordan, S. D.↗
NASA NTRS1984

The effect of convection upon charged particle transport in random magnetic fields

In a coordinate system moving with the plasma and random magnetic fields of a wind that blows with constant velocity in the direction of the guiding field, transport of energetic particles is described by a Boltzmann equation which is similar to the one that describes unconvected transport. Although this formulation is mathematically identical to that developed by Luhmann, which refers to the system where the guiding field is static, there are both practical and fundamental reasons to adopt the new approach. It leads to first-order approximate transport equations which are similar to those that apply in the absence of convection. However, these equations are more general than Parker's description of diffusion and convection, for they describe the coherent modes of transport that appear when the mean free path is large compared to the scale length for spatial variations of the guiding field, and they are valid for arbitrary wind velocity. The latter characteristic opens up new possibilities for analyzing particle transport in relativistic flows seen in some astronomical objects.

Earl, J. A.↗
NASA NTRS1984

Infrared spectroscopy of interstellar shocks

Infrared emission lines from interstellar shocks provide valuable diagnostics for violent events in the interstellar medium, such as supernova remnants and mass outflow from young stellar objects. There are two types of interstellar shocks: in J shocks, gas properties 'jump' from their preshock to their postshock values in a shock front with a thickness equal to or less than one mean free path; radiation is emitted behind the shock front, primarily in the visible and ultraviolet, but with a few strong infrared lines, such as OI(63 microns). Such shocks occur in ionized or neutral atomic gas, or at high velocities (equal to or greater than 50 km/s) in molecular gas. In C shocks, gas is accelerated and heated by collisions between charged particles, which have a low concentration and are coupled to the magnetic field, and neutral particles; radiation is generated throughout the shock and is emitted almost entirely in infrared emission lines. Such shocks occur in weakly ionized molecular gas for shock velocities below about 50 km/s.

Mckee, C. F.↗
NASA NTRS1984

Ultrasoft X-ray Background Observations of the Local Interstellar Medium

Preliminary results from a May 8, 1984 sounding rocket survey of the soft X-ray background are presented. The X-ray detectors are sensitive to X-rays in three soft X-ray bandpasses: 80 to 110 eV, 90 to 188 eV, and 284 to 532 eV (at 20% of peak response). The lowest energy X-rays in this range have a mean free path of order 10 to the 19th power/sq cm and provide information about the local interstellar medium. The count rate in the 80 to 110 eV energy band (the Be band) tracks the 90 to 188 (eV band (the B band) very well, indicating that the same approx. 1 million degree gas that is responsible for the B band emission may be responsible for the bulk of the Be band X-rays as well.

Sanders, W. T.↗
NASA NTRS1984

Method and apparatus for mapping the distribution of chemical elements in an extended medium

Contaminants in an extended medium such as the wall of a building are mapped by locating neutron excitation source on one side of the wall and a gamma ray spectrometer, including a gamma ray detector on the opposite side of the wall facing the excitation source. The source and detector are moved in unison in discrete steps over opposing wall surfaces so as to determine the chemical composition of the elements in a hemispheric region of the wall adjacent the detector with the radius of the region being substantially that of the mean free path distance of gamma rays emitted from elements interacting with neutrons on the detector side of the wall. The source and detector are reversed for relatively thick walls for mapping the distribution of elements on the other side of the wall thickness. The output of the detector is fed to a multichannel pulse height analyzer where the intensity of the various gamma ray spectral lines are indicated relative to a dominant constituent element such as silicon. Resolution of anomalies such as the presence of voids and/or determining the bulk density of the medium is achieved by substituting a gamma ray source technique is also applied to metal alloys, such as iron alloys, in either the solid or molten state.

Evans, L. G.↗
NASA NTRS1984

Science with the Solar Optical Telescope (SOT)

Use of the Solar Optical Telescope (SOT) to study the energetics and dynamics of the solar atmosphere is described. Studies include the origin and evolution of the Sun's magnetic field, the structure of solar subsurface convection, the heating of the outer solar atmosphere, and sources of the solar wind in the lower lying regions of the outer atmosphere. To achieve the scientific goals of the SOT, it is necessary to observe features in the solar atmosphere on the scale of a typical photon mean-free-path in continuum radiation and also of the hydrodynamic or density scale-height. The 1.3 m telescope, of a Gregorian configuration, achieves close to 0.1 arcsec angular resolution on the Sun in visible and ultraviolet wavelengths.

Jordan, S. D.↗
NASA NTRS1985

Constraints of solar flare particle transport models from anisotropy observations at Voyager 1

In general a particle transport model for energetic solar flare particles contains a number of free parameters which are determined by fitting various features of observed particle events. Frequently the parameter values are not uniquely determined. In order to place tighter constraints on the models, the anisotropy of 1 and 25 MeV/nuc protons and helium nuclei were examined during the 22 November 1977 solar particle event using data from the LECP experiment on Voyager 1 at 1.6 AU. These observations were combined with the time intensity profiles at Voyager 1 and at 1 AU from ISEE-1 and IMP-8 to determine the magnitude and radial dependence of the interplanetary diffusion coefficient and the required injection duration at the sun. The first order anisotropy amplitudes for both 1 MeV and 25 MeV protons are observed to decrease from maximum values (approx. 1) during the event onset at Voyager 1 to values consistent with convection in the solar wind at about 3 days into the event decay phase. The intensity and anisotropy profiles at 1.6 AU are consistent with predictions of diffusive transport with a modest mean free path (lambda = approx. 0.1 AU).

Hamilton, D. C.↗
NASA NTRS1985

The dispersive evolution of charged-particle bunches in random magnetic fields

Shortly after a strongly anisotropic beam of charged particles is injected along a guiding magnetic field on which is superimposed a small random conponent, the particle density can be represented by a Gaussian profile whose center moves with the coherent velocity and whose width increases with time at a rate controlled by the coefficient of dispersion. Both parameters depend upon the mean free path, which characterizes scattering by the random fields, and the focusing length, which characterizes spatial variations of the guiding field. These dependencies are known explicitly for the coherent velocity. Formulae for coefficient of dispersion are available only in the limits of very weak and very strong focusing. A new expression for coefficient of dispersion, which spans this gap, is presented.

Earl, J. A.↗
NASA NTRS1985

Cosmic ray modulation in a random anisotropic magnetic field

Inhomogeneities of the interplanetary magnetic field can be divided into small scale and large scale ones as may be required by the character of the problem of cosmic ray (CR) propagation. CR propagation in stochastic magnetic fields is of diffusion character. The main contribution into the scattering of CR particles is made by their interaction with inhomogeneities of the magnetic field H which have characteristic dimensions 1 of the order of Larmor radius R=cp/eH of particle (p is the absolute value of particle momentum, e is particle charge, c is velocity of light). Scattering of particles on such inhomogeneities leads to their diffusion mostly along a magnetic field with characteristic dimensions of variation in space exceeding the mean free path.

Dorman, L. I.↗
NASA NTRS1985

Interstellar turbulence, random density variations, and scintillation measurements

The presence of random electron variations suggests that the ionized interstellar medium is turbulent. In the interstellar plasma the presence of power spectra of such variations extending to spatial scales much less than a Coulomb mean free path, Lambda sub c, is required by analyses of measurements of scintillation and angular broadening of pulsar radio signals. The existence of corresponding variations in magnetic field strength could efficiently scatter cosmic rays and thus constrain cosmic-ray propagation. Unfortunately both the origin of the electron density variations and mechanisms by which these variations couple to fluctuations in magnetic field strength are unknown. It is conjectured that the small-scale density variations are generated by the convective distortion of initially large-scale isobaric entropy structures in the turbulent interstellar plasma. An investigation of the spectra of turbulent entropy structures, velocity, and magnetic fields at small spatial scales is made. The modifier small is employed to characterize length scales much less than the dimension, L, containing the bulk of the turbulent energy.

Higdon, J. C.↗
NASA NTRS1985

Stochastic particle acceleration in flaring stars

The acceleration of electrons by the Fermi-Parker mechanisms in a quasistationary turbulent plasma of dimension l, mean magnetic field strength B, and mean number density n are considered. The electrons suffer radiative and ionization losses and have a scattering mean free path that increases linearly with their momentum. Analytic solutions for the steady-state electron energy spectra are presented. The spectra are characterized by an exponential cutoff above a given momentum determined by the synchrontron or the confinement time, depending on the physical characteristics of the accelerating region.

Bogdan, T. J.↗
NASA NTRS1985

Estimation of the total inelasticity coefficient in interaction of greater than or equal to 20 TeV hadrons with lead

Experimental data on the interaction mean free path of hadrons with energy E 20 TeV in lead obtained with multilayer X-ray emulsion chambers(XEC) are compared with results of simulation of nuclear-electromagnetic cascades in lead chamber. It is shown that, to explain experimental data, the value of the inelasticity coefficients, K .8 should be assumed.

Kanevsky, B. L.↗
NASA NTRS1985

Penetrative nature of high energy showers observed in Chacaltaya emulsion chamber

About 30% of single core showers with E (sup gamma) 10 TeV have stronger penetrating power than that expected from electromagnetic showers (e,gamma). On the other hand, their starting points of cascades in the chamber are found to be as shallow as those of (e,gamma) components. It is suggested that those showers are very collimated bundles of hadron and (e,gamma) component. Otherwise, it is assumed that the collision mean free path of those showers in the chamber is shorter than that of hadron with geometrical value.

Funayama, Y.↗
NASA NTRS1985

High-energy neutrinos from a lunar observatory

The detection of high-energy (HE) cosmic and solar-flare neutrions near the lunar surface would be feasible at energies much lower than for a terrestrial observatory. At these lower energies ( 10 to the 9th eV), the neutrino background is drastically reduced below that generated by cosmic rays in the Earth's atmosphere. Because of the short mean free path ( 1m) of the progenitor pi and K mesons against nuclear interactions in lunar rocks, the neutrino background would be quite low. At 1 GeV, less than 1% of the pions would decay; at 10 GeV, 0.1%. Thus, if the neutrino flux to be observed is intense enough, and its spectrum is steep enough, then the signal-to-noise ratio is very favorable. The observation of HE neutrinos from solar flares would be dramatically enhanced, especially at lower energies, since the flare spectra are very steep. Detection of these neutrinos on Earth does not appear to be feasible. A remarkable feature of solar flares as viewed in HE neutrinos from a lunar base is that the entire surface of the Sun would be visible.

Shapiro, M. M.↗
NASA NTRS1985

Search for anomalons using plastic nuclear track detectors

A stack of CR39 track detectors containing Ag foils was exposed to 1.7 GeV/nucleon Fe-56 beam and the anomalous mean free path effect investigated. Neither the whole set of 7517 nor a subset of 2542 interacting fragments produced probably in the Ag target show an effect. By combining the data of this and an earlier experiment we can also exclude an effect for 3219 interacting fragments produced in delta Z=1 collisions.

Heinrich, W.↗