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At least 379 records · Page 21

Simulation studies of the physical and chemical processes occurring in the stratospheric clouds of the Mount St. Helens eruptions of May and June 1980

The large and diverse set of observational data collected in the high-altitude clouds of May 18, May 25, and June 13, 1980 was organized and analyzed for trends which reveal the processes at work. The data were used to guide and constrain model simulations of the volcanic eruptions. A comprehensive one-dimensional model of stratospheric sulfate aerosols, sulfur precursor gases, and volcanic ash and dust particles is utilized which accounts for homogeneous and heterogeneous chemistry in the clouds, aerosol nucleation and growth, and cloud expansion. Computational results are given for the time histories of the gaseous species concentrations, sulfate aerosol size dispersions, and ash burdens in the eruption clouds. The long-term buildup of stratospheric aerosols in the Northern Hemisphere and the persistent effects of injected chlorine and water vapor on ozone are discussed. It is concluded that SO2, water vapor, and ash are the most important substances injected by the volcano into the stratosphere, with respect to both the widespread effects on composition and the impact on climate. It is found that the volcano probably had little influence on the climate ( 0.05 K global surface cooling) or on stratospheric ozone ( 0.2 percent maximum hemispherical reduction).

Turco, R. P.↗

Massively Parallel Assimilation of TOGA/TAO and Topex/Poseidon Measurements into a Quasi Isopycnal Ocean General Circulation Model Using an Ensemble Kalman Filter

A massively parallel ensemble Kalman filter (EnKF)is used to assimilate temperature data from the TOGA/TAO array and altimetry from TOPEX/POSEIDON into a Pacific basin version of the NASA Seasonal to Interannual Prediction Project (NSIPP)ls quasi-isopycnal ocean general circulation model. The EnKF is an approximate Kalman filter in which the error-covariance propagation step is modeled by the integration of multiple instances of a numerical model. An estimate of the true error covariances is then inferred from the distribution of the ensemble of model state vectors. This inplementation of the filter takes advantage of the inherent parallelism in the EnKF algorithm by running all the model instances concurrently. The Kalman filter update step also occurs in parallel by having each processor process the observations that occur in the region of physical space for which it is responsible. The massively parallel data assimilation system is validated by withholding some of the data and then quantifying the extent to which the withheld information can be inferred from the assimilation of the remaining data. The distributions of the forecast and analysis error covariances predicted by the ENKF are also examined.

Keppenne, Christian L.↗

Evidence for nonlocal thermodynamic equilibrium in the nu3 mode of mesospheric ozone

Laboratory kinetic studies suggest that an appreciable fraction of the ozone produced by recombination of atomic oxygen is vibrationally excited in the nu3 mode. Further, laboratory data are available for the physical quenching of nu3, its radiative relaxation, and its radiative excitation by resonant absorption. It is shown that these chemical and physical processes are likely to result in substantial departures from local thermodynamic equilibrium for the nu3 mode of ozone in the mesosphere and therefore have important effects on infrared mesospheric ozone measurments by emission in the 9.6-micron band. Implications of these effects on data from the Limb Infrared Monitor of the Stratosphere (Remsberg et al, 1984), particularly their night/day ratio, are discussed.

Solomon, S.↗

The solar wind near the sun - The solar envelope.

Recent observational data and models for the structure of the solar envelope are discussed, with emphasis on those physical processes in the envelope which are decisive in determining solar wind states at 1 AU. Diffusion of relativistic solar flare protons, collisionless damping of a variable flux of hydromagnetic waves, heat transfer from electrons to protons, acceleration by Alfven waves, and magnetic field effects are examined from the viewpoint of possible contributions to solar wind behavior.

Burlaga, L. F.↗

Marine and maritime uses

Activities related to: (1) understanding, controlling, and using the ocean's biological and physical processes for food and energy production and ship design purposes, and (2) providing navigation, communication, and data transmission technological aids which improve efficiency and enhance safety in maritime operations are disclosed.

Source record↗

Sample fields of the Viking landers, physical properties, and aeolian processes

Surface sampler activities on Mars during the Viking extended mission are considered, including excavation of deep trenches, construction of conical piles of materials, backhoe touchdown experiments, and acquisition of contiguous pictures of the surface beneath number 2 terminal descent engines using mirrors. Results of the Physical Properties Investigation that are relevant to aeolian processes are also discussed. Both pictures and surface sampler data indicate that the surface materials in the sample fields of the Viking landers may be grouped, in order of increasing strength, into drift material, crusty to cloddy material, blocky material and rocks.

Moore, H. J.↗

Inferences on the Emplacement Dynamics of Martian Impact Crater Ejecta: Constraints from Mola Topography

Lobate ejecta deposits surround many of the younger impact craters on Mars. Viking Orbiter images indicate the distal parts of the ejecta blankets of these lobate craters are characterized by ramparts. In the absence of detailed topographic data for characterizing the topology of these apparently fluidized ejecta deposits, physical models have relied upon their morphologic characteristics. The most widely accepted model for the formation of such rampart ejecta deposits on Mars invokes fluidization of the ejecta to produce one or more viscous flow lobes. The availability of high-precision topographic data from the Mars Orbiter Laser Altimeter [4,51 facilitates a more quantitative examination of the physical processes involved in the formation of rampart ejecta deposits on Mars. Here we investigate the emplacement constraints that can be developed from the dimensions, topography, and morphology of martian rampart craters. The primary assumptions we have adopted are: (1) the ejecta blanket is emplaced as a continuum flow over the martian surface, rather than an airfall deposit, and (2) that the observable dimensions of the deposits are indicative of flow dimensions during emplacement.

Garvin, J. B.↗

Solar-B X-ray Telescope (XRT) Concept Study Report

The X-ray observations from the Yohkoh SXT provided the greatest step forward in our understanding of the solar corona in nearly two decades. Expanding on the accomplishments of Yohkoh, we believe that the scientific objectives of the Solar-B mission are achieved with a significantly improved X-ray telescope (XRT) similar to the SXT. The Solar-B XRT will have twice the spatial resolution and a broader temperature response, while building on the knowledge gained from the successful Yohkoh mission. We present the scientific justification for this view, discuss the instrumental requirements that flow from the scientific objectives, and describe the instrumentation to meet these requirements. We then provide a detailed discussion of the design activities carried out during Phase A, noting the conclusions that were reached in terms of their implications for the detailed design activities which are now commencing. Details of the instrument that have changed as a result of the Phase A studied are specifically noted, and areas of concern going into Phase B are highlighted. XRT is a grazing-incidence (GI) modified Wolter I X-ray telescope, of 35cm inner diameter and 2.7m focal length. The 2048x2048 back-illuminated CCD (now an ISAS responsibility) has 13.5 micron pixels, corresponding to 1.0 arcsec and giving full Sun field of view. This will be the highest resolution GI X-ray telescope ever flown for Solar coronal studies, and it has been designed specifically to observe both the high and low temperature coronal plasma. A small optical telescope provides visible light images for co-alignment with the Solar-B optical and EUV instruments. The XRT science team is working in close cooperation with our Japanese colleagues in the design and construction of this instrument. All of the expertise and resources of the High Energy and Solar/Stellar Divisions of the Center for Astrophysics are being made available to this program, and our team will carry its full share of responsibility for mission operations, data reduction and education and public outreach. All aspects of the XRT design were reviewed during Phase A. The study focussed particularly on those aspects that have the greatest affect on instrument performance and extended lifetime, on the image quality error budget, and on the camera (mechanical and electrical) interface and the instrument mounting interfaces. The present instrument design differs in some details from that originally proposed. Selection of the XRT for Phase A study was contingent upon the removal of the camera and its associated electronics, and the acceptance of a stringent cost cap. The removal of the electronics left the XRT without control electronics for the instrument mechanisms. A mechanism controller was therefore added. The removal of the camera resulted in major complications to the integration and test plan. After many discussions, it was decided that the system would be less expensive, and the risk of unacceptable performance lower, if we include a focus mechanism. The remainder of the XRT design baseline matches the proposed configuration. Data requirements for the XRT are driven by the science plans, which are based on the physical processes in the solar outer atmosphere. Discussions to date of the XRT observing plan, both alone and in conjunction with the other Solar-B instruments, shows that the XRT needs 2 Gbits of on-board storage, at least one circulating buffer of 640 Mbits, and twelve 10- minute downlinks per day in order to carry out its required programs.

Golub, Leon↗

Stratospheric Analysis and Forecasting in the Northern Winter of 1999/2000: The NASA DAO's GEOS-3 System

An evaluation is presented of the performance in the northern winter 1999/2000 of the GEOS-3 troposphere-stratosphere data assimilation system (DAS). The impacts of the two main input data types are assessed: upper-air soundings (sondes) provide wind and temperature information and satellite-based (Tiros Operational Vertical Sounders: TOVS) give estimates of the thermal structure. It is shown that in the low stratosphere (300-70hPa) the analyses are generally slightly warmer than the sonde data, but colder than the TOVS data; this relationship reverses between 70 and 10 hPa. There are geographical biases, related to the spatial and temporal coverage of the observation types and to the statistical weights assigned to them in the DAS. Forecasts show a tendency to reduce zonal asymmetries in the atmospheric flow and to suppress stratospheric temperature minima. In the DAS, the analysis increments compensate for this, but it leads to important biases in the multi-day forecasts. The analysis increments are as large as the diabatic forcing in the lower polar stratosphere, indicating a substantial model bias. The results provide important insights into the roles of different data types and the circulation model in producing accurate analyses for studies of polar chemistry and physical processes.

Pawson, Steven↗

Intelligent Devices - Sensors and Actuators - A KSC Perspective

The primary objective of this workshop is to identify areas of advancement in sensor measurements and technologies that will help to define standard practices and procedures that will better enable the infusion into flight programs of sensors with improved capabilities but limited or no flight heritage. These standards would be crucial to demonstrating a methodology for validating current models while also creating the possibility of being able to have sufficient data to either update these models (e. g., spatial or temporal resolution, etc.) or develop new models based on the ability to simulate the new measured physical parameters. The workshop is also intended to narrow the gap between sensor measurements (and techniques), data processing techniques and the ability to make use of that data by gathering together experts in the field for a short workshop. This collaboration will unite NASA and other government agencies with contractor capabilities industry-wide to prevent duplication, spawn synergistic growth in sensor technology, help analysts make good engineering decisions and help focus new sensor maturation efforts to better meet future flight program customers' needs. This is the first such workshop designed to specifically address establishing a standardized protocol/methodology for demonstrating the technology readiness of non-flight heritage sensor systems. While other similar workshops are held covering many areas of interest to the sensor development community, no other meeting is specific enough to address this vital but often overlooked topic. By encouraging cross-fertilization of ideas from instrument experts from many different backgrounds, it is hoped that this workshop will initiate innovative new ideas and concepts in sensor development, calibration and validation. It is anticipated this workshop will repeat periodically as needed.

Mata, Carlos T.↗

Generation After Next Propulsor Research: Robust Design for Embedded Engine Systems

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration, United Technologies Research Center and Virginia Polytechnic and State University have contracted to pursue multi-disciplinary research into boundary layer ingesting (BLI) propulsors for generation after next environmentally responsible subsonic fixed wing aircraft. This Robust Design for Embedded Engine Systems project first conducted a high-level vehicle system study based on a large commercial transport class hybrid wing body aircraft, which determined that a 3 to 5 percent reduction in fuel burn could be achieved over a 7,500 nanometer mission. Both pylon-mounted baseline and BLI propulsion systems were based on a low-pressure-ratio fan (1.35) in an ultra-high-bypass ratio engine (16), consistent with the next generation of advanced commercial turbofans. An optimized, coupled BLI inlet and fan system was subsequently designed to achieve performance targets identified in the system study. The resulting system possesses an inlet with total pressure losses less than 0.5%, and a fan stage with an efficiency debit of less than 1.5 percent relative to the pylon-mounted, clean-inflow baseline. The subject research project has identified tools and methodologies necessary for the design of next-generation, highly-airframe-integrated propulsion systems. These tools will be validated in future large-scale testing of the BLI inlet / fan system in NASA's 8 foot x 6 foot transonic wind tunnel. In addition, fan unsteady response to screen-generated total pressure distortion is being characterized experimentally in a JT15D engine test rig. These data will document engine sensitivities to distortion magnitude and spatial distribution, providing early insight into key physical processes that will control BLI propulsor design.

Arend, David J.↗

Navigating CONTOUR using the noncoherent transceiver technique

The successful navigation of the Comet Nucleus Tour spacecraft was performed at JPL and was conducted with the use of the new noncoherent transceiver technique developed by the Applied Physics Laboratory. Discussions include the conditioning performed on the 2-way noncoherent Doppler data, the orbit determination process, and the post SRM trajectory reconstruction.

CONTOUR↗

Preface to the Special Issue on Modeling and Data Analysis Methods for the SMILE mission

The SMILE (Solar wind Magnetosphere Ionosphere Link Explorer) project (http://www.nssc.cas.cn/smile/, https://www.cosmos.esa.int/web/smile/mission) is a joint spacecraft mission of the European Space Agency (ESA) and the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) with an expected launch in 2025. SMILE aims to study the global interactions of solar wind–magnetosphere–ionosphere innovatively by imaging the Earth’s magnetosheath and cusps in soft X-rays and the northern auroral region in ultraviolet (UV) while simultaneously measuring plasma and magnetic field parameters in the solar wind and magnetosheath along a highly-elliptical and highly-inclined orbit. This special issue is composed of 22 articles, presenting recent progress in modeling and data analysis techniques developed for the SMILE mission. In this preface, we categorize the articles into the following seven topics and provide brief summaries: (1) instrument descriptions of the Soft X-ray Imager (SXI), (2) numerical modeling of the X-ray signals, (3) data processing of the X-ray images, (4) boundary tracing methods from the simulated images, (5) physical phenomena and a mission concept related to the scientific goals of SMILE-SXI, (6) studies of the aurora, and (7) ground-based support for SMILE.

SMILE↗

Analyzing Source Apportioned Methane in Northern California During DISCOVER-AQ-CA Using Airborne Measurements and Model Simulations

This study analyzes source apportioned methane (CH4) emissions and atmospheric concentrations in northern California during the Discover-AQ-CA field campaign using airborne measurement data and model simulations. Source apportioned CH4 emissions from the Emissions Database for Global Atmospheric Research (EDGAR) version 4.2 were applied in the 3-D chemical transport model GEOS-Chem and analyzed using airborne measurements taken as part of the Alpha Jet Atmospheric eXperiment over the San Francisco Bay Area (SFBA) and northern San Joaquin Valley (SJV). During the time period of the Discover-AQ-CA field campaign EDGAR inventory CH4 emissions were 5.30 Gg/day (Gg 1.0 109 grams) (equating to 1.9 103 Gg/yr) for all of California. According to EDGAR, the SFBA and northern SJV region contributes 30 of total emissions from California. Source apportionment analysis during this study shows that CH4 concentrations over this area of northern California are largely influenced by global emissions from wetlands and local/global emissions from gas and oil production and distribution, waste treatment processes, and livestock management. Model simulations, using EDGAR emissions, suggest that the model under-estimates CH4 concentrations in northern California (average normalized mean bias (NMB) -5 and linear regression slope 0.25). The largest negative biases in the model were calculated on days when hot spots of local emission sources were measured and atmospheric CH4 concentrations reached values 3.0 parts per million (model NMB -10). Sensitivity emission studies conducted during this research suggest that local emissions of CH4 from livestock management processes are likely the primary source of the negative model bias. These results indicate that a variety, and larger quantity, of measurement data needs to be obtained and additional research is necessary to better quantify source apportioned CH4 emissions in California and further the understanding of the physical processes controlling them.

Methane↗

An introduction to chaotic and random time series analysis

The origin of chaotic behavior and the relation of chaos to randomness are explained. Two mathematical results are described: (1) a representation theorem guarantees the existence of a specific time-domain model for chaos and addresses the relation between chaotic, random, and strictly deterministic processes; (2) a theorem assures that information on the behavior of a physical system in its complete state space can be extracted from time-series data on a single observable. Focus is placed on an important connection between the dynamical state space and an observable time series. These two results lead to a practical deconvolution technique combining standard random process modeling methods with new embedded techniques.

Scargle, Jeffrey D.↗

Utilization of Machine Learning Techniques for Managing the Tracking and Data Relay Satellite Constellation

National Aeronautics and Space Administration’s (NASA) Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC) operates a constellation of ten geosynchronous Tracking and Data Relay Satellites (TDRS). The TDRS constellation consists of multiple geosynchronous communication relay satellites located around the equator so they can provide continual coverage of any mission in low earth orbit. The TDRS are located primarily in three oceanic regions around the earth. NASA’s White Sands Complex provides the ground communication support for TDRS located over the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. Another TDRS ground station in Guam supports the TDRS over the Indian Ocean. With these satellites the TDRS network can provide continuous coverage of satellites in low-earth orbit. The NASA Space Network (SN) project office at GSFC manages the constellation of spacecraft. Major customers of the TDRS constellation include, but are not limited to, the International Space Station and the Hubble Space Telescope. The TDRS constellation has three generations of satellites and has been active for over 30 years providing reliable communication links between customer satellites and corresponding ground stations. However, one of the major concerns for TDRS, and in any space mission, is to ensure the health and safety of the spacecraft. Generally, engineers use telemetry data to monitor and analyze the performance and state of health of the spacecraft. Telemetry data contains hundreds of parameters that monitor each important component in the spacecraft, which can be utilized to recognize and characterize the behavior of the spacecraft. Each parameter contains considerable information to represent time-dependent properties of each spacecraft subsystem and component. During the entire life of a TDRS spacecraft, thousands of gigabytes of telemetry data are transmitted in real-time from the spacecraft to the ground station at the White Sands Complex in Las Cruces, New Mexico, and recorded as historical data sets for engineers to process and analyze the events that occurred on-orbit. These parameters contain the function of multiple spacecraft subsystems, such as the attitude control system (ACS), Thermal, Electrical Power Subsystem (EPS), etc. . The first and second generations have exceeded their required lifetime and NASA is keen to manage these spacecrafts carefully in order to maximize the remaining life using the spacecraft telemetry. The challenge is to know when the risk of losing a spacecraft in geosynchronous orbit exceeds the benefit of continued operations for customer support. In the TDRS fleet, the EPS is the most critical subsystem related to spacecraft operations. Failure of the EPS would strand a spacecraft in geosynchronous orbit. Since EPS provides power to the spacecraft, component failures ultimately lead to the inability to support the spacecraft loads and the communications payload. For instance, TDRS-8 has several anomalies in EPS including the Bus Voltage Limiter (BVL) shunt current, solar array loss of circuits, and failed battery cells. Any of these anomalies can cause critical issues to the spacecraft. Therefore, developing a system to analyze and perform early detection of a potential anomaly is an important issue in telemetry data analysis. In recent years, Telemetry Mining (TM) has been proposed to process telemetry data by using Data Mining (DM) techniques such as classification, clustering, regression and anomaly detection. Anomaly detection, also known as outlier detection, has been widely used in many data mining areas such as remote sensing, medical data processing and digital image processing. The goal of anomaly detection is to detect abnormal data, which contains a relatively low probability of occurrence among the entire data set. Early detection of anomalies is one of the most significant issues in managing the spacecraft configuration. If anomalies can be detected early enough, then the redundant resources can be used to extend the life of the operational spacecraft. We present an unsupervised anomaly detection method to process the EPS data extracted from TDRS-8. This is different from traditional analytical methods, which use telemetry data to illustrate behavior and physical meaning of each spacecraft component. TM connects multiple parameters as a vector and then conducts data analysis on this high dimension telemetry vector. This method is looking at the properties of a high dimensional vector that is able to consider the relationship between different parameters in the anomaly detection problem. This kind of method performs much better than the traditional limit checking method. In addition, we propose a new approach of real-time anomaly detection to process telemetry data in real-time, which can then be applied to spacecraft monitoring with high reliability, low cost and high accuracy.

Machine Learning (ML)↗

The Physics of Accretion in X-Ray Binaries

This project consists of several related investigations directed to the study of mass transfer processes in X-ray binaries. Models developed over several years incorporating highly detailed physics will be tested on a balanced mix of existing data and planned observations with both ground and space-based observatories. The extended time coverage of the observations and the existence of simultaneous X-ray, ultraviolet, and optical observations will be particularly beneficial for studying the accretion flows. These investigations, which take as detailed a look at the accretion process in X-ray binaries as is now possible, test current models to their limits, and force us to extend them. We now have the ability to do simultaneous ultraviolet/X-ray/optical spectroscopy with HST, Chandra, XMM, and ground-based observatories. The rich spectroscopy that these observations give us must be interpreted principally by reference to detailed models, the development of which is already well underway; tests of these essential interpretive tools are an important product of the proposed investigations.

Vrtilek, S.↗

Physical Parameters of Space Mission Asteroid Targets

Ground-based characterization of asteroids that are planned or potential targets of space missions provides important data on their physical parameters and properties. Knowledge of the properties of mission targets is important especially during mission preparation and planning, as it serves to select best or suitable targets for specific purpose of a given mission, to prepare mission plans, to constrain possible mission scenarios, and to design mission experiments. Such characterization efforts may be particularly critical for flyby missions that take only limited data during the high-speed flybys of their target asteroids, but they also provide very crucial data for targets of rendezvous missions. Moreover, long-term observations taken from Earth also allows the modelling of, or constraining, processes acting on the asteroids over extended time scales. Over the past years and decades we have obtained rich data on physical parameters of 82 asteroids that are planned or potential targets of space missions. Our primary observing technique is time-resolved (lightcurve) photometry, but we use also data obtained with other techniques, such as spectroscopy, thermal or radar observations. 15 of the 82 characterized asteroids are planned or possible targets of several space missions that are in flight or preparation, such as ESA’s Hera, RAMSES and PRIAMOS, NASA’s OSIRIS-APEX, JAXA’s Hayabusa2#, DESTINY+ and Next Generation Sample Return (NGSR), the Emirates Mission to Asteroids (EMA), and Karman+’s High Frontier, but we have also characterized 67 asteroids that are potential targets of space missions for their low delta-V’s and were announced as being “of interest to NASA” in the Small-Bodies-Observations- NASA mailing list or listed on the NHATS page of “Accessible NEAs”. The sample of asteroid targets span 3 orders of magnitude in size, with absolute magnitudes H from 12.57 to 26.8, corresponding to diameters from about 10 m to about 10 km. The sample contains a variety of taxonomic types and physically or dynamically interesting objects. Among them, we have identified 5 binary asteroids and 20 tumblers (i.e., asteroids in excited, non-principal axis rotation states). Rotation periods of the characterized asteroids range from 1.45 min to 280 h, reflecting diversity of their properties and formation/evolution paths. We will present an overview of the data set and highlight several representative cases.

Petr Pravec↗