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electron density profile as a function of normalized poloidal flux: psinorm ne(10^20/m^3) dne/dpsiN Pressure profile as a function of normalized poloidal flux: psinorm ptot(KPa) dptot/dpsiN scaled to oftain beta=5% at magnetic axis Magnetic safety factor profile as a function of normalized poloidal flux: psinorm q_profile All needed to perform the NOVA calculations.
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The electrodynamic tether consists of a satellite deployed to a distance of 20 km by an electrically conducting tether. The space station hardware consists of a 12 meter deployment boom, satellite cradle, tether reel and motor, and other tether support systems. The electrodynamic tether will be used to perform a variety of wave experiments by exciting a wide spectrum of low frequency waves in the ionospheric plasma. The system can also be used to artificially generate and study field aligned currents and associated plasma effects. Hydromagnetic waves generated by the passage of the system through the space plasma are of particular interest in space plasma research.
The electrodynamic tether consists of a satellite deployed to a distance of 20 km by an electrically conducting tether. The space station hardware consists of a 12 meter deployment boom, satellite cradle, tether reel and motor, and other tether support systems. The electrodynamic tether will be used to perform a variety of wave experiments by exciting a wide spectrum of low frequency waves in the ionospheric plasma. The system can also be used to artificially generate and study field aligned currents and associated plasma effects. Hydromagnetic waves generated by the passage of the system through the space plasma are of particular interest in space plasma are of particular interest in space plasma research.
Water molecules outgassed from the Space Shuttle suffer collisional charge-exchange with ionospheric oxygen ions, thereby forming unstable distributions of pick-up water ions and leading to high levels of plasma waves near the Shuttle. Liouville's equation with a charge-exchange source term is solved for the water ion distribution function as a function of position relative to the Shuttle. The observational characteristics of the near zone Shuttle waves are summarized. A linear theory in which beam like distributions of water ions drive Doppler shifted lower hybrid waves via the modified two stream instability is developed. This theory explains many characteristics of the near zone waves. Further work on the effects of wave nonlinearities and spatial inhomogeneity is required to explain the detailed frequency spectrum of the waves. The observed wave levels apparently satisfy the threshold condition for modulational instability of lower hybrid waves.
A multiple-scale eddy viscosity model is described in this paper. This model splits the energy spectrum into a high wave number regime and a low wave number regime. Dividing the energy spectrum into multiple regimes simplistically emulates the cascade of energy through the turbulence spectrum. The constraints on the model coefficients are determined by examining decaying turbulence and homogeneous turbulence. A direct link between the partitioned energies and the energy transfer process is established through the coefficients. This new model has been calibrated and tested for boundary-free turbulent shear flows. Calculations of mean and turbulent properties show good agreement with experimental data for two mixing layers, a plane jet and a round jet.
A multiple-scale eddy viscosity model is described. This model splits the energy spectrum into a high wave number regime and a low wave number regime. Dividing the energy spectrum into multiple regimes simplistically emulates the cascade of energy through the turbulence spectrum. The constraints on the model coefficients are determined by examining decaying turbulence and homogeneous turbulence. A direct link between the partitioned energies and the energy transfer process is established through the coefficients. This new model was calibrated and tested for boundary-free turbulent shear flows. Calculations of mean and turbulent properties show good agreement with experimental data for two mixing layers, a plane jet and a round jet.
After School Astronomy clubs are an important method of exposing students to astronomy at the critical middle school age when sparking an interest can inspire a lifelong career or hobby. We know that teachers complain that they can spend little time on astronomy in the classroom since they must teach to the test and the curriculum requirements do not have very extensive astronomy coverage. We also know that space is a very popular subject with students that can motivate them to join an after school club. One of the problems with after school astronomy clubs is that they don't often have a chance to observe the night sky. We propose to train club mentors on how to do daytime solar observing so students fulfill the IYA goal of looking through a telescope. We propose to provide a half day workshop for elementary and middle school teachers on starting and maintaining After School Astronomy clubs with special emphasis on observing the Sun not only in the visible spectrum but with radio waves and other parts of the spectrum as well. We will use NASA-oriented or NASA-funded educational materials and websites to bring a variety of ideas to the mentors and a broad knowledge of astronomy to the students. Attendees will be given an overview of the science of the Sun and how it can affect us on the Earth. They will be shown the dynamic nature of the Sun and what to look for to track the events happening there. The educators will be shown simple approaches to directly observing the Sun such as pinhole cameras, use of projection techniques with telescopes or binoculars, etc. They will be acquainted with sunspotter scopes and the advantages and disadvantages (such as expense) they pose for getting students involved. We will also point out the possibilities of using regular telescopes with solar filters and the specialized solar viewing telescopes such as the Coronado. Once the educators are comfortable with the simple approaches to viewing the Sun we will expose them to advanced topics such as remotely viewing the Sun using telescopes available on the web. Resources such as the Sun-Earth Viewer will allow them to study near real-time images of the Sun in multiple wavelengths. They will also be shown how they can monitor the Sun at radio wavelengths via remote telescopes or even how to purchase and build their own radio telescopes for hands-on monitoring of the Sun and other radio sources. We will conduct a brief evaluation of the participants knowledge of the Sun as they come into the workshop. We will also ask them to complete a brief knowledge survey at the end to determine if their knowledge and comfort level with solar science has improved significantly.
We propose a new method toward distinguishing the Dirac versus Majorana nature of neutrino masses from the spectrum of gravitational waves (GWs) associated with neutrino mass genesis. Motivated by the principle of generating small neutrino masses without tiny Yukawa couplings, we assume generic seesaw mechanisms for both Majorana and Dirac neutrino masses. For Majorana neutrinos, we further assume a spontaneously broken gauged U ( 1 ) B − L symmetry, independently of the type of Majorana seesaw mechanism, which gives a cosmic string induced GW signal flat over a wide range of frequencies. For Dirac neutrinos, we assume the spontaneous breaking of a Z 2 symmetry, the minimal symmetry choice associated with all Dirac seesaw mechanisms, which is softly broken, generating a peaked GW spectrum from the annihilation of the resulting domain walls. In fact, the GW spectra for all types of Dirac seesaws with such a broken Z 2 symmetry are identical, subject to a mild caveat. As an illustrative example, we study the simplest respective type-I seesaw mechanisms, and show that the striking difference in the shapes of the GW spectra can help differentiate between these Dirac and Majorana seesaws, complementing results of neutrinoless double beta decay experiments. We also discuss detailed implications of the recent NANOGrav data for Majorana and Dirac seesaw models. Published by the American Physical Society 2024
High-frequency gravity waves generated by convective storms likely play an important role in the general circulation of the middle atmosphere. Yet little is known about waves from this source. This work utilizes a fully compressible, nonlinear, numerical, two-dimensional simulation of a midlatitude squall line to study vertically propagating waves generated by deep convection. The model includes a deep stratosphere layer with high enough resolution to characterize the wave motions at these altitudes. A spectral analysis of the stratospheric waves provides an understanding of the necessary characteristics of the spectrum for future studies of their effects on the middle atmosphere in realistic mean wind scenarios. The wave spectrum also displays specific characteristics that point to the physical mechanisms within the storm responsible for their forcing. Understanding these forcing mechanisms and the properties of the storm and atmosphere that control them are crucial first steps toward developing a parameterization of waves from this source. The simulation also provides a description of some observable signatures of convectively generated waves, which may promote observational verification of these results and help tie any such observations to their convective source.
A deterministic approach is used to examine the atmospheric structure at any instant in time, with an assumption as to the degree of anisotropy. A statistical model is also used to relate the experimental data to atmospheric structure. With this model, the three dimensional spectrum of spatial wave numbers of the refractivity fluctuations are determined, along with correlations which exist within the spectrum.
A series of rocket measurements made twice daily at Wallops Island, Va., revealed a rapid heating of the mesosphere on the order of 10 K on days when thunderstorms or squall lines were in the area. This heating is explained as the result of frictional dissipation of vertically propagating internal gravity waves generated by intense tropospheric convection. Ray-tracing theory is used to determine the spectrum of gravity wave groups that actually reach mesospheric heights. This knowledge is used in an equation describing the spectral energy density of a penetrative convective element to calculate the fraction of the total energy initially available to excite those waves that do reach the level of heating. This value, converted into a vertical velocity, is used as the lower boundary condition for a multilayer model used to determine the detailed structure of the vertically propagating waves. The amount of frictional dissipation produced by the waves is calculated from the solutions of the frictionless model by use of a vertically varying eddy viscosity coefficient. The heating produced by the dissipation is then calculated from the thermodynamic equation.
Radio wave propagation in the 40- to 140-GHz band through the earth's atmosphere is strongly influenced by the behavior of the O2 microwave spectrum. This behavior causes the transfer function to depend critically upon altitude. The spectroscopic properties of O2 are discussed and reduced to engineering formulas expressing attenuation and phase dispersion rates in terms of frequency and meteorological parameters. The theory is supported on several accounts by reliable spectroscopic measurements. Pressure scanning spectroscopy is used to investigate the O2 microwave spectrum under simulated atmospheric conditions. The application of spectroscopic information to analytical treatments of transfer properties for inhomogeneous slant paths is demonstrated. Attenuation and phase dispersion between 49 and 72 GHz are evaluated for zenith and tangential paths.
A model for the wavenumber spectrum for fully developed seas is derived as a function of the mean wind gradient. The high wavenumber part of the spectrum, which defines the Bragg wavenumbers, is an equilibrium spectrum in balance by a wind forcing term determined by viscous dissipation, which is a strong function of water temperature, and dissipation by breaking and microbreaking. The low wavenumber spectrum, constructed from surface elevation observations of gravity waves, is merged with the high wavenumber spectrum. Parameters are adjusted to fit circle flight data for Ku-band. The full spectrum is used in the two-scale Bragg scattering theory, plus specular reflection, to compute backscatter as a function of wind speed, direction, incidence angle, and water temperature (which determines viscosity) for Ku-band.
Short wave ultraviolet image and spectrum of sun obtained during course of X-ray flare
Rotations of an axion field in field space provide a natural origin for an era of kination domination, where the energy density is dominated by the kinetic term of the axion field, preceded by an early era of matter domination. Remarkably, no entropy is produced at the end of matter domination and hence these eras of matter and kination domination may occur even after Big Bang Nucleosynthesis. We derive constraints on these eras from both the cosmic microwave background and Big Bang Nucleosynthesis. We investigate how this cosmological scenario affects the spectrum of possible primordial gravitational waves and find that the spectrum features a triangular peak. We discuss how future observations of gravitational waves can probe the viable parameter space, including regions that produce axion dark matter by the kinetic misalignment mechanism or the baryon asymmetry by axiogenesis. For QCD axion dark matter produced by the kinetic misalignment mechanism, a modification to the inflationary gravitational wave spectrum occurs above 0.01 Hz and, for high values of the energy scale of inflation, the prospects for discovery are good. We briefly comment on implications for structure formation of the universe.
Field aligned currents play an important role in the global coupling between the magnetosphere and the ionosphere and in their relationship to the auroral phenomena. Moreover, there exists evidence that resonant oscillations are related to large-scale Birkeland currents. The spatial confinement of the field-aligned currents forms an inhomogeneous system susceptible to low-frequency oscillations, which can be excited due to periodic variations in the solar wind pressure or to the Kelvin-Helmholtz (KH) instability. In this paper we present a study of ultralow-frequency (ULF) oscillations in an inhomogeneous magnetic field formed by a large-scale current. We investigate the effects of the field-aligned currents on the generation of localized Alfven waves. The field oscillations are described by an eigenvalue wave equation which includes the effects of the field aligned currents and which produces a discrete spectrum of Alfven waves. These waves are observed mainly in three regions of the magnetosphere: in the magnetosheath, in the polar cusp, and in the plasmasphere. In the present study we limit our investigation to the auroral region.
Hybrid (kinetic ion/fluid electron) simulations have been used to study self-consistently the injection and initial stages of acceleration of interstellar pickup ions at the solar wind termination shock. Results are presented from one-dimensional simulations of high Mach number oblique (40 deg-50 deg) shocks with a 10% population of interstellar pickup hydrogen. In these simulations, the pickup ions, the solar wind ions, the shock fields and the waves are all treated self-consistently. Pickup ions reflected by the shock excite large amplitude (DELTA.B / B approximately 0.3) upstream magnetosonic waves. These waves, in turn, scatter the pickup hydrogen, as expected in the diffusive shock acceleration process. The spectrum of excited waves broadens in time. We find that, for the parameters studied, the termination shock efficiently injects and accelerates the interstellar pickup hydrogen, and thus this work represents a microscopic verification of this anomalous cosmic ray injection mechanism. Comparison of injected fluxes from the simulations with Voyager fluxes extrapolated to the termination shock suggests that injection at the termination shock is probably greater than injection by interplanetary shocks. A study of accelerated pickup ion orbits shows that the energy gain comes predominantly from shock drift acceleration in the shock front, with the upstream waves aiding the acceleration by allowing multiple encounters with the shock.