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Search indexed NASA NTRS and DOE OSTI research on propulsion, heat transfer, battery materials and energy systems. Follow report and document links to the original sources.

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At least 469 records · Page 26
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
NASA NTRS2001

On the Detection of Energetically Efficient Trajectories for Spacecraft

We propose a new method for the detection of energy-efficient trajectories for spacecraft. Via a so called target-shooting approach a pseudo-orbit between the relevant points in space is constructed in a simple model of the problem. This approximate trajectory is meant to serve as input for a more sophisticated direct method in order to compute a true trajectory in the full model. We demonstrate the applicability of the new method by considering the redesign of part of the trajectory of the NASA/JPL Genesis discovery mission.

Genesis mission↗
NASA NTRS2003

Lunar transfer trajectory design and the four-body problem

The existence of a ballistic trajectory from the Earth to orbit about the Moon was long considered to be impossible based on analysis of the three-body problem. In 1990 a ballistic trajectory from the Earth to lunar orbit was discovered while analyzing a plan to salvage the Muses A (Hiten) spacecraft. This trajectory utilized the Sun's gravity in conjunction with the Earth and Moon's gravity and was thus the first example of a practical four-body trajectory design. This paper presents a review of lunar transfer trajectories that go beyond three-body theory and the Jacobi integral. These include Hiten, Lunar A and the Genesis return trajectory from the vicinity of the Moon to Earth.It is shown that these trajectories may be analyzed by piecing together segments where three-body motion dominates.

Muses↗
NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Attitude Reconstruction of Free-Flight CFD Generated Trajectories Using Non-Linear Pitch Damping Coefficient Curves

Attitude history reconstruction of Free-flight CFD generated trajectories with non-linear pitch damping coefficient curves is investigated. Free-flight CFD simulations of the capsule shape used for the Genesis sample return mission and the upcoming Dragonfly mission to Titan are conducted for 1-, 2-, and 3-degree-of-freedom cases. Two different data reduction methodologies are employed to derive a pitch damping curve as a function of instantaneous angle of attack. These curves are then used to reconstruct the attitude history of the body which is compared to the raw simulation results. While both data reduction methods produce pitch damping curves that can generally reconstruct the motion seen in the Free-flight simulations, it is found that optimization of the pitch damping curve using an inverse estimation process yields superior and more generalizable results. Further refinement of this technique could allow pitch damping curves derived using CFD to serve as a capability complementary to existing techniques for dynamic stability characterization.

entry↗
NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Attitude Reconstruction of Free-Flight CFD Generated Trajectories Using Non-Linear Pitch Damping Coefficient Curves

Attitude history reconstruction of Free-flight CFD generated trajectories with non-linear pitch damping coefficient curves is investigated. Free-flight CFD simulations of the capsule shape used for the Genesis sample return mission and the upcoming Dragonfly mission to Titan are conducted for 1-, 2-, and 3-degree-of-freedom cases. Two different data reduction methodologies are employed to derive a pitch damping curve as a function of instantaneous angle of attack. These curves are then used to reconstruct the attitude history of the body which is compared to the raw simulation results. While both data reduction methods produce pitch damping curves that can generally reconstruct the motion seen in the Free-flight simulations, it is found that optimization of the pitch damping curve using an inverse estimation process yields superior and more generalizable results. Further refinement of this technique could allow pitch damping curves derived using CFD to serve as a capability complementary to existing techniques for dynamic stability characterization.

entry↗
DOE OSTI2016

A meridional dipole in premonsoon Bay of Bengal tropical cyclone activity induced by ENSO

Analysis of Bay of Bengal tropical cyclone (TC) track data for the months of May–June during 1979–2014 reveals a meridional dipole in TC intensification: TC intensification rates increased significantly in the northern region and decreased in the southern region. The dipole is consistent with changes in the large–scale TC environment estimated using the Genesis Potential Index (GPI) for the same period. While an increase in lower troposphere cyclonic vorticity and midtroposphere humidity in the northern Bay of Bengal made the environment more favorable for TC intensification, enhanced vertical wind shear in the southern Bay of Bengal tended to reduce TC development. Furthermore, these environmental changes were associated with a strengthening of the monsoon circulation for the months of May–June, driven by a La Niña–like shift in tropical Pacific SSTs and associated tropical wave dynamics. Finally, analysis of a suite of climate models from the Coupled Model Intercomparison Project Phase 5 archive shows that most models correctly reproduce the link between ENSO and premonsoon Bay of Bengal TC activity at interannual timescales, demonstrating the robustness of our main conclusions.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2017

The Response of Atlantic Tropical Cyclones to Suppression of African Easterly Waves

Atlantic tropical cyclone (TC) genesis is strongly linked with African easterly waves (AEWs) on the synoptic time scale. However, the TC–AEW relationship is unclear on interannual to climate time scales, and it is unknown whether AEWs are necessary to maintain climatological TC frequency, that is, whether TCs are limited by AEWs. We investigated the impact of AEW suppression on seasonal Atlantic TC activity using a 10–member ensemble of regional climate model simulations in which AEWs were either prescribed or removed through the lateral boundary condition. The climate model experiments produced no significant change in seasonal Atlantic TC number, indicating that AEWs are not necessary to maintain climatological basin–wide TC frequency even though TCs readily originate from these types of disturbances. This suggests that the specific type of “seedling” disturbance is unimportant for determining basin–wide seasonal Atlantic TC number and that in the absence of AEWs, TCs will generate by other mechanisms. Furthermore, the results imply that changes in the presence of AEWs may not be reliable predictors of seasonal variability and future change in Atlantic TC frequency.

58 GEOSCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2017

Mesoscale convective systems over the Amazon basin. Part I: climatological aspects

ABSTRACT Mesoscale convective systems ( MCSs ) over the Amazon basin provide a large contribution to regional precipitation, which strongly influences the maintenance of unique ecosystems. Despite the importance of these MCSs , their characteristics are not well described in the literature. The present study uses a 14‐year long (2000–2013) data set of high‐resolution (4 km; 30 min) infrared satellite images to compile a climatology of MCSs that during the period of analysis were within the borders of the Amazon basin at some point in their lifespan. MCSs that originated over the continent and the ocean are considered separately. It is found that on average about 7200 continental and 50 oceanic MCSs occurred per year in the Amazon basin. The majority (minority) of continental (oceanic) MCSs completed their lifecycles between 3 and 5.5 h. These MCSs are studied separately from those with lifespan longer than 6 h. Continental and oceanic MCSs over the Amazon occurred primarily during austral summer and autumn–winter, respectively. The preferred regions and time for genesis of continental and oceanic MCSs are identified. The average area, propagation speed and direction of displacement for MCSs in the different stages of their lifecycle are also examined.

Rehbein, Amanda↗
DOE OSTI2023

Depth profiling and standardization from the back side of a sample for accurate analyses: Emphasis on quantifying low‐fluence, shallow implants in diamond‐like carbon

Rationale Back‐side thinning of wafers is used to eliminate issues with transient sputtering when analyzing near‐surface element distributions. Precise and accurate calibrated implants are created by including a standard reference material during the implantation. Combining these methods allows accurate analysis of low‐fluence, shallow features even if matrix effects are a concern. Methods Implanted Na (<2.0 × 10 11 ions/cm 2 , peaking <50 nm) in diamond‐like carbon (DLC) film on silicon (solar wind returned by NASA's Genesis mission) was prepared for measurement as follows. Implanted surfaces of samples were epoxied to wafers and back‐side‐thinned using physical or chemical methods. Thinned samples were then implanted with reference ions for accurate quantification of the solar wind implant. Analyses used a CAMECA IMS 7f‐GEO SIMS in depth‐profiling mode. Results Back‐side‐implanted reference ions reduced the need to change sample mounts or stage position and could be spatially separated from the solar wind implant even when measuring monoisotopic ions. Matrix effects in DLC were mitigated and the need to find an identical piece of DLC for a reference implant was eliminated. Accuracy was only limited by the back‐side technique itself. Conclusions Combining back‐side depth profiling with back‐side‐implanted internal standards aides quantification of shallow mono‐ and polyisotopic implants. This technique helps mitigate matrix effects and keeps measurement conditions consistent. Depth profile acquisition times are longer, but if sample matrices are homogeneous, procedural changes can decrease measurement times.

37 INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CH↗
DOE OSTI2016

Cosmic clustering

We show that the late time Hartle-Hawking wave function for a free massless scalar in a fixed de Sitter background encodes a sharp ultrametric structure for the standard Euclidean distance on the space of field configurations. This implies a hierarchical, tree-like organization of the state space, reflecting its genesis as a branched diffusion process. In conclusion, an equivalent mathematical structure organizes the state space of the Sherrington-Kirkpatrick model of a spin glass.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2017

Supergravitational conformal Galileons

The worldvolume actions of 3+1 dimensional bosonic branes embedded in a five-dimensional bulk space can lead to important effective field theories, such as the DBI conformal Galileons, and may, when the Null Energy Condition is violated, play an essential role in cosmological theories of the early universe. These include Galileon Genesis and “bouncing” cosmology, where a pre-Big Bang contracting phase bounces smoothly to the presently observed expanding universe. Perhaps the most natural arena for such branes to arise is within the context of superstring and M -theory vacua. Here, not only are branes required for the consistency of the theory, but, in many cases, the exact spectrum of particle physics occurs at low energy. However, such theories have the additional constraint that they must be N = 1 supersymmetric. This motivates us to compute the worldvolume actions of N = 1 supersymmetric three-branes, first in flat superspace and then to generalize them to N = 1 supergravitation. In this paper, for simplicity, we begin the process, not within the context of a superstring vacuum but, rather, for the conformal Galileons arising on a co-dimension one brane embedded in a maximally symmetric AdS 5 bulk space. We proceed to N = 1 supersymmetrize the associated worldvolume theory and then generalize the results to N = 1 supergravity, opening the door to possible new cosmological scenarios

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗
DOE OSTI2014

Inflation from Minkowski space

Here, we propose a class of scalar models that, once coupled to gravity, lead to cosmologies that smoothly and stably connect an inflationary quasi-de Sitter universe to a low, or even zero-curvature, maximally symmetric spacetime in the asymptotic past, strongly violating the null energy condition (H • >>H2) at intermediate times. The models are deformations of the conformal galileon lagrangian and are therefore based on symmetries, both exact and approximate, that ensure the quantum robustness of the whole picture. The resulting cosmological backgrounds can be viewed as regularized extensions of the galilean genesis scenario, or, equivalently, as ‘early-time-complete’ realizations of inflation. The late-time inflationary dynamics possesses phenomenologically interesting properties: it can produce a large tensor-to-scalar ratio within the regime of validity of the effective field theory and can lead to sizeable equilateral nongaussianities.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2017

Investigating added value of regional climate modeling in North American winter storm track simulations

Extratropical Cyclone (EC) characteristics depend on a combination of large-scale factors and regional processes. However, the latter are considered to be poorly represented in global climate models (GCMs), partly because their resolution is too coarse. This work describes a framework using possibilities given by regional climate models (RCMs) to gain insight into storm activity during winter over North America (NA). Recent past climate period (1981–2005) is considered to assess EC activity over NA using the NCEP regional reanalysis (NARR) as a reference, along with the European reanalysis ERA-Interim (ERAI) and two CMIP5 GCMs used to drive the Canadian Regional Climate Model—version 5 (CRCM5) and the corresponding regional-scale simulations. While ERAI and GCM simulations show basic agreement with NARR in terms of climatological storm track patterns, detailed bias analyses show that, on the one hand, ERAI presents statistically significant positive biases in terms of EC genesis and therefore occurrence while capturing their intensity fairly well. On the other hand, GCMs present large negative intensity biases in the overall NA domain and particularly over NA eastern coast. In addition, storm occurrence over the northwestern topographic regions is highly overestimated. When the CRCM5 is driven by ERAI, no significant skill deterioration arises and, more importantly, all storm characteristics near areas with marked relief and over regions with large water masses are significantly improved with respect to ERAI. Conversely, in GCMdriven simulations, the added value contributed by CRCM5 is less prominent and systematic, except over western NA areas with high topography and over the Western Atlantic coastlines where the most frequent and intense ECs are located. Despite this significant added-value on seasonalmean characteristics, a caveat is raised on the RCM ability to handle storm temporal ‘seriality’, as a measure of their temporal variability at a given location. In fact, the driving models induce some significant footprints on the RCM skill to reproduce the intra-seasonal pattern of storm activity.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2016

Oxygen isotope evolution of the Lake Owyhee volcanic field, Oregon, and implications for the low-δ 18 O magmatism of the Snake River Plain–Yellowstone hotspot and other low-δ 18 O large igneous provinces

The Snake River Plain–Yellowstone (SRP-Y) hotspot track represents the largest known low-δ 18 O igneous province; however, debate persists regarding the timing and distribution of meteoric hydrothermal alteration and subsequent melting/assimilation relative to hotspot magmatism. To further constrain alteration relations for SRP-Y low-δ 18 O magmatism, we present in situ δ 18 O and U–Pb analyses of zircon, and laser fluorination δ 18 O analyses of phenocrysts, from the Lake Owyhee volcanic field (LOVF) of east-central Oregon. U–Pb data place LOVF magmatism between 16.3 and 15.4 Ma, and contain no evidence for xenocrystic zircon. LOVF δ 18 O(Zrc) values demonstrate (1) both low-δ 18 O and high-δ 18 O caldera-forming and pre-/post-caldera magmas, (2) relative increases in δ 18 O between low-δ 18 O caldera-forming and post-caldera units, and (3) low-δ 18 O magmatism associated with extension of the Oregon-Idaho Graben. The new data, along with new compilations of (1) in situ zircon δ 18 O data for the SRP-Y, and (2) regional δ 18 O(WR) and δ 18 O(magma) patterns, further constrain the thermal and structural associations for hydrothermal alteration in the SRP-Y. Models for low-δ 18 O magmatism must be compatible with (1) δ 18 O(magma) trends within individual SRP-Y eruptive centers, (2) along axis trends in δ 18 O(magma), and (3) the high concentration of low-δ 18 O magmas relative to the surrounding regions. When considered with the structural and thermal evolution of the SRP-Y, these constraints support low-δ 18 O magma genesis originating from syn-hotspot meteoric hydrothermal alteration, driven by hotspot-derived thermal fluxes superimposed on extensional tectonics. Lastly, this model is not restricted to continental hotspot settings and may apply to several other low-δ 18 O igneous provinces with similar thermal and structural associations.

58 GEOSCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2018

Geochemical and isotopic evidence on the recharge and circulation of geothermal water in the Tangshan Geothermal System near Nanjing, China: implications for sustainable development

Geothermal resources are practical and competitive clean-energy alternatives to fossil fuels, and study on the recharge sources of geothermal water supports its sustainable exploitation. In order to provide evidence on the recharge source of water and circulation dynamics of the Tangshan Geothermal System (TGS) near Nanjing (China), a comprehensive investigation was carried out using multiple chemical and isotopic tracers (δ{sup 2}H, δ{sup 18}O, δ{sup 34}S, {sup 87}Sr/{sup 86}Sr, δ{sup 13}C, {sup 14}C and {sup 3}H). The results confirm that a local (rather than regional) recharge source feeds the system from the exposed Cambrian and Ordovician carbonate rocks area on the upper part of Tangshan Mountain. The reservoir temperature up to 87 °C, obtained using empirical as well as theoretical chemical geothermometers, requires a groundwater circulation depth of around 2.5 km. The temperature of the geothermal water is lowered during upwelling as a consequence of mixing with shallow cold water up to a 63% dilution. The corrected {sup 14}C age shows that the geothermal water travels at a very slow pace (millennial scale) and has a low circulation rate, allowing sufficient time for the water to become heated in the system. This study has provided key information on the genesis of TGS and the results are instructive to the effective management of the geothermal resources. Further confirmation and even prediction associated with the sustainability of the system could be achieved through continuous monitoring and modeling of the responses of the karstic geothermal reservoir to hot-water mining.

58 GEOSCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2019

Max-Compound Cox Processes. I

Extreme values are considered in samples with random size that have a mixed Poisson distribution that is generated by a doubly stochastic Poisson process. Some inequalities are proved relating the distributions and moments of extrema with those of the leading process (the mixing distribution). Limit theorems are proved for the distributions of max-compound Cox processes, and limit distributions are described. An important particular case of the negative binomial distribution of a sample size corresponding to the case where the Cox process is led by a gamma Lévy process is considered, explaining a possible genesis of tempered asymptotic models.

97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING↗
DOE OSTI2015

The Influence of Constitutional Supercooling on the Distribution of Te-particles in Melt-Grown CZT

A section of a vertical gradient freeze Cd 0.9 Zn 0.1 Te boule approximately 2100-mm 3 with a planar area of 300-mm 2 was prepared and examined using transmitted IR microscopy at various magnifications to determine the three-dimensional spatial and size distributions of Te-particles over large longitudinal and radial length scales. Te-particle density distributions were determined as a function of longitudinal and radial positions in these strips and exhibited a multi-modal lognormal size density distribution that indicated a slight preference for increasing size with longitudinal growth time, while showing a pronounced cellular network structure. Higher magnification images revealed a typical Rayleigh-instability pearl string morphology with large and small satellite droplets. This study includes solidification experiments in small crucibles of 30:70 mixtures of Cd:Te performed over a wide range of cooling rates that clearly demonstrated a growth instability with Te-particle capture that is suggested to be responsible for one of the peaks in the size distribution using size discrimination visualization. The results are discussed with regard to a manifold Te-particle genesis history as Te-particle direct capture from melt-solid growth instabilities due to constitutional supercooling and as Te-particle formation from the breakup of Te-ribbons via a Rayleigh-Plateau instability.

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗
DOE OSTI2019

Ubiquitin-specific peptidase 39 regulates the process of proliferation and migration of human ovarian cancer via p53/p21 pathway and EMT

Ovarian cancer is one of the most lethal gynecological cancers; owning to its late detection and chemoresistance, understanding the pathogenesis of this malignant tumor is much critical. Previous studies have reported that ubiquitin-specific peptidase 39 (USP39) is generally overexpressed in a variety of cancers, including hepatocellular carcinoma, gastric cancer and so forth. Furthermore, USP39 is proved to be associated with the proliferation of malignant tumors. However, the function and mechanism of USP39 in ovarian cancer have not been elucidated. In the present study, we observed that USP39 was frequently overexpressed in human ovarian cancer and was highly correlated with TNM stage. Suppression of USP39 markedly inhibited the growth and migration of ovarian cancer cell lines HO-8910 and SKOV3 and induced cell cycle G2/M arrest. Moreover, knockdown of USP39 inhibited ovarian tumor growth in a xenograft model. In addition, our findings indicated that cell cycle arrest induced by USP39 knockdown might be involved in p53/p21 signaling pathway. Furthermore, we found that the depletion of USP39 inhibited the migration of ovarian cancer cells via blocking epithelial–mesenchymal transition. Taken together, these results suggest that USP39 may play vital roles in the genesis and progression and may serve as a potential biomarker for diagnosis and therapeutic target of ovarian cancer.

62 RADIOLOGY AND NUCLEAR MEDICINE↗
DOE OSTI2023

On the relationship between eastern China aerosols and western North Pacific tropical cyclone activity

How aerosols affect the weather and climate system has received increasing attention. This study finds a significant negative correlation between March–May eastern China aerosol optical depth (AOD) and July–November western North Pacific (WNP) tropical cyclone (TC) frequency during 2003–2020. This time period spans when several aerosol reanalyses are available and both Terra and Aqua Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer AOD retrievals are assimilated therein. Composite analyses and budget analyses of dynamical genesis potential indices indicate the importance of large-scale environmental factors, especially vertical velocity and vertical wind shear, associated with changes in AOD that in turn modulate changes in WNP TC frequency. Increased eastern China AOD may facilitate negative Pacific meridional mode development via modulation of the westerly jet, which then forces an anticyclonic circulation over the WNP basin. Increased AOD can also directly decrease the inter-hemispheric temperature differential and increases the intra-hemispheric temperature differential between the equator and the mid-latitudes, thus weakening ascending motion and enhancing vertical wind shear over the WNP, especially the southeastern portion of the basin. Further, all of these large-scale environment changes induced by increased eastern China AOD tend to suppress WNP TCs. This study highlights the potential influence of eastern China aerosol loadings on WNP TCs, thus improving our understanding of TC climate variability over the WNP.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗