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NASA NTRS2013

LSP Composite Susbtrate Manufacturing Processing Guide

This document is intended to define Carbon Fiber Reinforced Plastic (CFRP) test panel configurations that can be employed for the purposes of evaluating the protection capabilities of Lightning Strike Protection (LSP) materials developed by the Aerospace Industry. The configurations are intended to provide consistent behavior in their response to simulated lightning strikes at pre-defined levels when tested by a capable vendor according to a test procedure written to enable consistent results (ref section 2.1.2). In response to an attachment of a simulated lightning strike on a CFRP panel, one can expect to see various levels of ablation and delamination, both through the thickness of the panel and with respect to the amount of panel surface area that exhibits damage. Panel configurations defined in this document include: An "unprotected" configuration 128694-1 (ref section 4.1), consisting of a cured CFRP laminate stackup of tape and fabric prepregs, coated with a typical aerospace primer and paint finishing scheme, attached to aluminum grounding bars intended to draw electrical current from the lightning attachment point to the panel edges and thus to ground. A "protected" configuration 128694-2 (ref section 4.1), wherein a layer of an LSP material form often used in the Aerospace Industry is included in the laminate stackup prior to cure. The CFRP materials, finishes and grounding arrangement for ths configuration are the same as for the "unprotected" configuration.

Kovach, Daniel J.↗

NASA NTRS2014

Next Generation Aura-OMI SO2 Retrieval Algorithm: Introduction and Implementation Status

We introduce our next generation algorithm to retrieve SO2 using radiance measurements from the Aura Ozone Monitoring Instrument (OMI). We employ a principal component analysis technique to analyze OMI radiance spectral in 310.5-340 nm acquired over regions with no significant SO2. The resulting principal components (PCs) capture radiance variability caused by both physical processes (e.g., Rayleigh and Raman scattering, and ozone absorption) and measurement artifacts, enabling us to account for these various interferences in SO2 retrievals. By fitting these PCs along with SO2 Jacobians calculated with a radiative transfer model to OMI-measured radiance spectra, we directly estimate SO2 vertical column density in one step. As compared with the previous generation operational OMSO2 PBL (Planetary Boundary Layer) SO2 product, our new algorithm greatly reduces unphysical biases and decreases the noise by a factor of two, providing greater sensitivity to anthropogenic emissions. The new algorithm is fast, eliminates the need for instrument-specific radiance correction schemes, and can be easily adapted to other sensors. These attributes make it a promising technique for producing long-term, consistent SO2 records for air quality and climate research. We have operationally implemented this new algorithm on OMI SIPS for producing the new generation standard OMI SO2 products.

Sulfur dioxide↗

NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Single Field-of-View Sounding Atmospheric Products

The Single Field-of-view Sounder Atmospheric Products (SiFSAP) answer the need for a novel high spatial resolution atmospheric data product for major hyper-spectral infrared (IR) sounder missions. SiFSAP include a complete set of atmospheric vertical profiles, cloud, and surface properties, which are physically retrieved from top-of-atmosphere (TOA) spectral radiances under all-sky conditions via a rigorously defined radiative transfer relationship. By using a state-of-art fast radiative transfer model and a carefully designed optimal estimation based physical retrieval scheme, the SiFSAP algorithm ensures both an ultra-fast data processing speed needed for operational weather applications and the radiometric consistency desired by long-term climate studies. SiFSAP supplement existing operational products by providing data at the native resolution of the sounder instruments, the direct and accurate retrieval of cloud scattering properties, and the establishment of ‘radiance closure.’

Wan Wu↗

NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Single Field-of-View Sounding Atmospheric Products

The Single Field-of-view Sounder Atmospheric Products (SiFSAP) answer the need for a novel high spatial resolution atmospheric data product for major hyper-spectral infrared (IR) sounder missions. SiFSAP include a complete set of atmospheric vertical profiles, cloud, and surface properties, which are physically retrieved from top-of-atmosphere (TOA) spectral radiances under all-sky conditions via a rigorously defined radiative transfer relationship. By using a state-of-art fast radiative transfer model and a carefully designed optimal estimation based physical retrieval scheme, the SiFSAP algorithm ensures both an ultra-fast data processing speed needed for operational weather applications and the radiometric consistency desired by long-term climate studies. SiFSAP supplement existing operational products by providing data at the native spatial resolution of the sounder instruments, the direct and accurate retrieval of cloud scattering properties, and the establishment of ‘radiance closure.’

single-field-of-view, retrieval, hyperspectral sou↗

NASA NTRS1994

Feedback Control of Plasma Instabilities with Charged Particle Beams and Study of Plasma Turbulence

A new non-perturbing technique for feedback control of plasma instabilities has been developed in the Columbia Linear Machine (CLM). The feedback control scheme involves the injection of a feedback modulated ion beam as a remote suppressor. The ion beam was obtained from a compact ion beam source which was developed for this purpose. A Langmuir probe was used as the feedback sensor. The feedback controller consisted of a phase-shifter and amplifiers. This technique was demonstrated by stabilizing various plasma instabilities to the background noise level, like the trapped particle instability, the ExB instability and the ion-temperature-gradient (ITG) driven instability. An important feature of this scheme is that the injected ion beam is non-perturbing to the plasma equilibrium parameters. The robustness of this feedback stabilization scheme was also investigated. The principal result is that the scheme is fairly robust, tolerating about 100% variation about the nominal parameter values. Next, this scheme is extended to the unsolved general problem of controlling multimode plasma instabilities simultaneously with a single sensor-suppressor pair. A single sensor-suppressor pair of feedback probes is desirable to reduce the perturbation caused by the probes. Two plasma instabilities the ExB and the ITG modes, were simultaneously stabilized. A simple 'state' feedback type method was used where more state information was generated from the single sensor Langmuir probe by appropriate signal processing, in this case, by differentiation. This proof-of-principle experiment demonstrated for the first time that by designing a more sophisticated electronic feedback controller, many plasma instabilities may be simultaneously controlled. Simple theoretical models showed generally good agreement with the feedback experimental results. On a parallel research front, a better understanding of the saturated state of a plasma instability was sought partly with the help of feedback. A plasma instability is usually observed in its saturated state and appears as a single feature in the frequency spectrum with a single azimuthal and parallel wavenumbers. The physics of the non-zero spectral width was investigated in detail because the finite spectral width can cause "turbulent" transport. One aspect of the "turbulence" was investigated by obtaining the scaling of the linear growth rate of the instabilities with the fluctuation levels. The linear growth rates were measured with the established gated feedback technique. The research showed that the ExB instability evolves into a quasi-coherent state when the fluctuation level is high. The coherent aspects were studied with a bispectral analysis. Moreover, the single spectral feature was discovered to be actually composed of a few radial harmonics. The radial harmonics play a role in the nonlinear saturation of the instability via three-wave coupling.

Tham, Philip Kin-Wah↗

NASA NTRS1985

Sulfate-reducing bacteria: Microbiology and physiology

The sulfate reducing bacteria, the first nonphotosynthetic anaerobic bacteria demonstrated to contain c type cytochromes, perform electron transfer coupled to phosphorylation. A new bioenergetic scheme for the formation of a proton gradient for growth of Desulfovibrio on organic substrates and sulfate involving vectors electron transfer and consistent with the cellular localization of enzymes and electron transfer components was proposed. Hydrogen is produced in the cytoplasm from organic substrates and, as a permease molecule diffuses rapidly across the cytoplasmic membrane, it is oxidized to protons and electrons by the periplasmic hydrogenase. The electrons only are transferred across the cytoplasmic membrane to the cytoplasm where they are used to reduce sulfate to sulfide. The protons are used for transport or to drive a reversible ATPOSE. The net effect is the transfer of protons across the cytoplasmic membrane with the intervention of a proton pump. This type of H2 cycling is relevant to the bioenergetics of other types of anaerobic microorganisms.

Peck, H. D.↗

NASA NTRS1988

Application of finite element and remeshing technique to shock interference on a cylindrical leading edge

The problem of planar oblique shock impingement on a cylindrical leading edge in hypersonic flow is modeled using a Galerkin-Runge Kutta finite element method. The method utilizes a four stage Runge-Kutta time stepping scheme to solve the compressible Euler equations. Freestream Mach numbers of 6.5, 8.0 and 16.0 are studied. The computed surface pressure distributions consistently agree well with available experimental data. The peak pressure amplification ranges from 5.45 at M = 6.5 to approximately 17.0 at M = 16.0. Stagnation point heat transfer rate amplifications are calculated from the inviscid solution using the method of Fay and Riddell. The value and wall location of the peak pressure and heat transfer rate amplifications are extremely sensitive to the location of the impinging shock/bow shock intersection point.

Stewart, James R.↗

NASA NTRS1991

Galaxy formation through hierarchical clustering

Analytic methods for studying the formation of galaxies by gas condensation within massive dark halos are presented. The present scheme applies to cosmogonies where structure grows through hierarchical clustering of a mixture of gas and dissipationless dark matter. The simplest models consistent with the current understanding of N-body work on dissipationless clustering, and that of numerical and analytic work on gas evolution and cooling are adopted. Standard models for the evolution of the stellar population are also employed, and new models for the way star formation heats and enriches the surrounding gas are constructed. Detailed results are presented for a cold dark matter universe with Omega = 1 and H(0) = 50 km/s/Mpc, but the present methods are applicable to other models. The present luminosity functions contain significantly more faint galaxies than are observed.

White, Simon D. M.↗

NASA NTRS2001

Bias Correction and Random Error Characterization for the Assimilation of HRDI Line-of-Sight Wind Measurements

A new approach to the analysis of systematic and random observation errors is presented in which the error statistics are obtained using forecast data rather than observations from a different instrument type. The analysis is carried out at an intermediate retrieval level, instead of the more typical state variable space. This method is carried out on measurements made by the High Resolution Doppler Imager (HRDI) on board the Upper Atmosphere Research Satellite (UARS). HRDI, a limb sounder, is the only satellite instrument measuring winds in the stratosphere, and the only instrument of any kind making global wind measurements in the upper atmosphere. HRDI measures doppler shifts in the two different O2 absorption bands (alpha and B) and the retrieved products are tangent point Line-of-Sight wind component (level 2 retrieval) and UV winds (level 3 retrieval). This analysis is carried out on a level 1.9 retrieval, in which the contributions from different points along the line-of-sight have not been removed. Biases are calculated from O-F (observed minus forecast) LOS wind components and are separated into a measurement parameter space consisting of 16 different values. The bias dependence on these parameters (plus an altitude dependence) is used to create a bias correction scheme carried out on the level 1.9 retrieval. The random error component is analyzed by separating the gamma and B band observations and locating observation pairs where both bands are very nearly looking at the same location at the same time. It is shown that the two observation streams are uncorrelated and that this allows the forecast error variance to be estimated. The bias correction is found to cut the effective observation error variance in half.

Tangborn, Andrew↗

NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Improved Treatment of Snow Over Ice Sheets in the NASA GISS Climate Model: Towards Ice Sheet–Climate Coupling

Representing the interactions between ice sheets and climate is essential for more accurate prediction of climate change and sea level rise. Ice sheets interact with the overlying atmosphere via the accumulation of snow and its compaction into firn, then ice, as well as the melting of surface snow and ice and the creation of runoff water. Getting an adequate representation of heat transfer, compaction, and melting processes is essential for an accurate representation of snow on land ice in global climate models. We are implementing an improved snow model on top of land ice as part of an effort to couple the NASA GISS climate model with the PISM ice sheet model. The new snow model includes additional layers and processes that are not currently incorporated (e.g., liquid water retention, percolation and refreezing, and snow densification), and mass and energy transfer methods that are consistent with both static ice sheets (with implicit iceberg fluxes) and interactive ice sheets (with explicit dynamics). We are tuning the densification scheme of this snow model with temperature and density data from common FirnCover and SumUp observations at locations in the accumulation zone of Greenland, and we compare the resulting density profiles to other SumUp density profiles in Greenland and Antarctica. We will assess the impact of this new snow model in climate model simulations with a static ice sheet compared with the previous (simpler) 2-layer snow model. Finally, we aim to use the non-coupled simulations as a baseline to assess the impact of dynamic coupling with an interactive ice sheet model.

snow↗

NASA NTRS1995

Coordinated Control Of Mobile Robotic Manipulators

Computationally efficient scheme developed for on-line coordinated control of both manipulation and mobility of robots that include manipulator arms mounted on mobile bases. Applicable to variety of mobile robotic manipulators, including robots that move along tracks (typically, painting and welding robots), robots mounted on gantries and capable of moving in all three dimensions, wheeled robots, and compound robots (consisting of robots mounted on other robots). Theoretical basis discussed in several prior articles in NASA Tech Briefs, including "Increasing the Dexterity of Redundant Robots" (NPO-17801), "Redundant Robot Can Avoid Obstacles" (NPO-17852), "Configuration-Control Scheme Copes With Singularities" (NPO-18556), "More Uses for Configuration Control of Robots" (NPO-18607/NPO-18608).

Seraji, Homayoun↗

NASA NTRS1971

An Empirical Method for Determining the Lunar Gravity Field

A method has been devised to determine the spherical harmonic coefficients of the lunar gravity field. This method consists of a two-step data reduction and estimation process. In the first step, a weighted least-squares empirical orbit determination scheme is applied to Doppler tracking data from lunar orbits to estimate long-period Kepler elements and rates. Each of the Kepler elements is represented by an independent function of time. The long-period perturbing effects of the earth, sun, and solar radiation are explicitly modeled in this scheme. Kepler element variations estimated by this empirical processor are ascribed to the non-central lunar gravitation features. Doppler data are reduced in this manner for as many orbits as are available. In the second step, the Kepler element rates are used as input to a second least-squares processor that estimates lunar gravity coefficients using the long-period Lagrange perturbation equations.

Ferrari, A. J.↗

NASA NTRS1973

Lunar gravity derived from long-period satellite motion - A proposed method.

A new method has been devised to determine the spherical harmonic coefficients of the lunar gravity field. This method consists of a two-step data reduction and estimation process. In the first step, a weighted least-squares empirical orbit determination scheme is applied to Doppler tracking data from lunar orbits to estimate long-period Kepler elements and rates. Each of the Kepler elements is represented by an independent function of time. The long-period perturbing effects of the earth, sun, and solar radiation are explicitly modeled in this scheme. Kepler element variations estimated by this empirical processor are then ascribed to the non-central lunar gravitation features. Doppler data are reduced in this manner for as many orbits as are available. In the second step, the Kepler element rates are used as input to a second least-squares processor that estimates lunar gravity coefficients using the long-period Lagrange perturbation equations.

Ferrari, A. J.↗

NASA NTRS1979

Control of large flexible space structures using pole placement design techniques

A design approach via the pole placement techniques for the class of large flexible space structures is developed. The numerical problems in pole placement algorithm, arising from large dimension systems and the extremely low frequency eigenvalues which occur in large space structure models are examined. It shows these numerical difficulties may be overcome by properly selecting the sensor/actuator locations and introducing a frequency scaling scheme. The concepts of this paper are illustrated by some numerical studies on the linear feedback control design of a representative large spacecraft consisting of a small rigid core with ten radial booms (five booms 1000 ft long and five shorter booms 700 ft long) lying in a plane.

Wu, Y. W.↗

NASA NTRS1981

Dissipational galaxy formation - Confrontation with observations

An exploration is presented of the hypothesis that a protogalaxy consists of an aggregate of interacting gas clouds which undergo mergers with neighboring systems, as envisaged by both the hierarchical clustering and fragmentation schemes of galaxy formation. Both gaseous dissipation and violet relaxation play fundamental roles in this galaxy formation model, in order to account for such diverse structural and dynamical properties of spheroidal galaxies as velocity anisotropy and metallicity gradients. Protogalaxy mergers during the initial stages of galaxy clustering can account for the observed spatial distribution of spiral, S0, and elliptical galaxies, and galaxy formation can occur slowly and at late epochs, since the time scale for disk formation is less than about 10 to the 10th years.

Silk, J.↗

NASA NTRS1991

Interface conditions for domain decomposition with radical grid refinement

Interface conditions for coupling the domains in a physically motivated domain decomposition method are discussed. The domain decomposition is based on an asymptotic-induced method for the numerical solution of hyperbolic conservation laws with small viscosity. The method consists of multiple stages. The first stage is to obtain a first approximation using a first-order method, such as the Godunov scheme. Subsequent stages of the method involve solving internal-layer problem via a domain decomposition. The method is derived and justified via singular perturbation techniques.

Scroggs, Jeffrey S.↗

NASA NTRS1992

An unsteady Euler scheme for the analysis of ducted propellers

An efficient unsteady solution procedure has been developed for analyzing inviscid unsteady flow past ducted propeller configurations. This scheme is first order accurate in time and second order accurate in space. The solution procedure has been applied to a ducted propeller consisting of an 8-bladed SR7 propeller with a duct of NACA 0003 airfoil cross section around it, operating in a steady axisymmetric flowfield. The variation of elemental blade loading with radius, compares well with other published numerical results.

Srivastava, R.↗

NASA NTRS1993

Numerical study of the transient flow in the driven tube and the nozzle section of a shock tunnel

The initial flow in a shock tunnel was examined numerically using computational fluid dynamics (CFD). A finite-volume total variation diminishing (TVD) scheme was used to calculate the transient flow in a shock tunnel. Both viscous and inviscid, chemically nonreacting flows were studied. The study consisted of two parts, the first dealt with the transient flow in the driven-tube/nozzle interface region (inviscid calculations). The effects of varying the geometry in this region was examined. The second part of the study examined the transient flow in the nozzle (viscous calculations). The results were compared to experimental data.

Tokarcik-Polsky, Susan↗