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At least 469 records · Page 26
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NASA NTRS1986

Doppler lidar studies of atmospheric wind field dynamics

For the past 5 years the Wave Propagation Lab. has operated a pulsed CO2 Doppler lidar system to evaluate coherent laser radar technology and to investigate applications of the technique in atmospheric research. The capability of the system to provide measurements of atmospheric winds, backscatter, and water vapor has been extensively studied over this period. Because Doppler lidar can measure atmospheric wind structure in the clear air without degradation by terrain features, it offers a unique capability as a research tool for studies of many transient or local scale atmospheric events. This capability was demonstrated in recent field experiments near Boulder, Colo. and Midland, Tex., in which the lidar clearly depicted the wind field structure associated with several types of phenomena, including thunderstorm microbursts, valley drainage flow, and passage of a dryline front. To improve sensitivity during the periods of low aerosol backscatter, the system has recently been upgraded with new transmitter/receiver hardware. The upgraded system, which transmit 2 J per pulse of output energy at a rate of 50 Hz and incorporates computer control for automated operation, underwent calibration testing during the spring of 1986.

Hardesty, R. M.↗
NASA NTRS1986

Colorado wind profilers

The Wave Propagation Laboratory (WPL) has operated a network of wind profiling radars in Colorado. The current configuration of the network is described. All radars operate continuously and unattended to supply hourly-averaged wind profiles to a central computer in Boulder in real time. The hardware and software changes made to improve reliability are discussed. This research network will continue to be used to provide wind profiles for operational and research meteorologists and the performance of various wavelength systems will be evaluated.

Strauch, R. G.↗
NASA NTRS1986

Solar-geophysical data number 499, March 1986, supplement

This supplement contains the description and explanation of the data in the monthly publication Solar-Geophysical Data, compiled by the National Geophysical Data Center (NGDC) in Boulder, Colo., USA. Solar-Geophysical Data is intended to keep research workers informed on a timely schedule of the major events of solar activity and the associated interplanetary, ionospheric, radio propagation and other geophysical effects.

Source record↗
NASA NTRS1986

Interpreting forest and grassland biome productivity utilizing nested scales of image resolution and biogeographical analysis

Several hardware, software, and data collection problems encountered were conquered. The Geographic Information System (GIS) data from other systems were converted to ERDAS format for incorporation with the image data. Statistical analysis of the relationship between spectral values and productivity is being pursued. Several project sites, including Jackson, Pope, Boulder, Smokies, and Huntington Forest are evolving as the most intensively studied areas, primarily due to availability of data and time. Progress with data acquisition and quality checking, more details on experimental sites, and brief summarizations of research results and future plans are discussed. Material on personnel, collaborators, facilities, site background, and meetings and publications of the investigators are included.

Iverson, L. R.↗
NASA NTRS1987

The application of flow competence evaluations to the assessment of flood-flow velocities and stresses

The concept of flow competence is generally employed to evaluate the velocities, discharges, and bottom stresses of river floods inferred from the size of the largest sediment particles transported. Flow competence has become an important tool for evaluating the hydraulics of exceptional floods on Earth, including those which eroded the Channeled Scabland of eastern Washington, and has potential for similar evaluations of the floods which carved the outflow channels on Mars. For the most part, flow-competence evaluations were empirical, based on data compiled from a variety of sources including major terrestrial floods caused by natural processes or dam failures. Such flow-competence relationships would appear to provide a straight-forward assessment of flood-flow stresses and velocities based on the maximum size of gravel and boulders transported. However, a re-examination of the data base and comparisons with measurements of selective entrainment and transport of gravel in rivers open to question such evaluations. Analyses of the forces acting on the grain during entrainment by pivoting, rolling, or sliding, an approach which focuses more on the physical processes than the purely empirical relationships can be demonstrated. These derived equations require further testing by flume and field measurements before being applied to flow-competence evaluations. Such tests are now underway.

Komar, Paul D.↗
NASA NTRS1986

Continuous measurement of nontidal variations of gravity

Records from seven superconducting gravimeters operated at five different locations in California and one in Boulder, CO, are examined after removal of tides and the gravitational attraction of the atmosphere. Fluctuations over periods between a few days and several months were observed at all sites with peak amplitudes of order 10 microgal. By contrast, a 640-day record obtained with one of the instruments in Germany showed peak fluctuations of only 2 microgal. In most of the records the causes of these aperiodic variations were not determined so that they serve to set limits on the vertical motion or displacement of mass at the respective locations. However, at The Geysers geothermal field, much of the gravity variation is correlated with seismic activity, reinjection rate, and rainfall. Measurements of this type were not possible prior to the development of the superconducting device. Consequently, these results provide the first evidence for the existence of gravity variations on the time scale and of the magnitude described here. Vertical crustal motion, motion related to seismic events, and hydrological phenomena can lead to variations on this scale. Unambiguous identification of causal relationships will require either special circumstances such as found at The Geysers or operation of the instruments in pairs.

Goodkind, John M.↗
NASA NTRS1987

Simultaneous field measurements of biogenic emissions of nitric oxide and nitrous oxide

Seasonal and diurnal emissions of NO and N2O from agricultural sites in Jamestown, Virginia and Boulder, Colorado are estimated in terms of soil temperature; percent moisture; and exchangeable nitrate, nitrite, and ammonium concentrations. The techniques and procedures used to analyze the soil parameters are described. The spatial and temporal variability of the NO and N2O emissions is studied. A correlation between NO fluxes in the Virginia sample and nitrate concentration, temperature, and percent moisture is detected, and NO fluxes for the Colorado site correspond with temperature and moisture. It is observed that the N2O emissions are only present when percent moisture approaches or exceeds the field capacity of the soil. The data suggest that NO is produced primarily by nitrification in aerobic soils, and N2O is formed by denitrification in anaerobic soils.

Anderson, Iris Cofman↗
NASA NTRS1987

Cometesimals in the inner solar system

Spectra obtained by the ultraviolet spectrometer on the Voyager 2 spacecraft between 1 and 2.5 AU are shown to provide evidence for a very large number of 'cometesimals' with radii between a few meters and a few tens of meters in the neighborhood of the earth. The evidence consists of a component in the interplanetary Lyman-alpha radiation that decreases rapidly with heliocentric distance. It is proposed that the source consists of cometesimals which are ice-coated, porous, low-density refractory boulders that may be the building blocks of ordinary comet nuclei. It is shown that the cometesimals required to produce the observed Lyman-alpha emission can also account for all the lunar craters with diameters between 200 m and 1500 m produced during the phase 3200 million years at sites such as Mare Tranquillitatis.

Donahue, T. M.↗
NASA NTRS1988

Fade measurements at L-band and UHF in mountainous terrain for land mobile satellite systems

Fading results related to land mobile satellite communications at L-band (1502 MHz) and UHF (870 MHz) are described. These results were derived from an experiment performed in a series of canyon passes in the Boulder, Colorado region of the US. The experimental configuration involved a helicopter as the source platform, which maintained a relatively fixed geometry with a mobile van containing the receiver and data-acquisition system. An unobstructed line of sight between the radiating sources and the receiving van was, for the most part, also maintained. In this configuration, the dominant mechanism causing signal fading (or enhancement) is a result of multipath. The resulting fade distributions demonstrated that at the 1 percent and 5 percent levels, 5.5- and 2.6-dB fades were on the average exceeded at L-band and 4.8- and 2.4-dB at UHF, respectively, for a path elevation angle of 45 deg. The canyon results as compared with previous roadside-tree-shadowing results demonstrate that the deciding factor dictating fade margin for future land mobile satellite systems is tree shadowing rather than fades caused by multipath.

Vogel, Wolfhard J.↗
NASA NTRS1988

Temperature dependence of the atmospheric photolysis rate coefficient for NO2

Accurate values for the photolysis rate coefficient of NO2 (j1) are required for studies related to the observed imbalance in the photostationary state of O3, NO, and NO2 in the troposphere. Direct measurements of the temperature dependence of j1 at temperatures from -70 to 30 C were made in sunlight for relatively cloudless summer days in Boulder, Colorado. The ratios of j1 (30 C)/j1 (T C) for T = -10 C and -70 C, respectively, were 1.046 + or - 0.040 and 1.070 + or - 0.031. The j1 ratios were independent of solar zenith angle. Theoretical estimates of the temperature-dependent j1 ratios based upon recently reported cross section (sigma) and quantum yield (phi) data are more consistent with these experimental measurements than those based upon the currently accepted sigma and phi data.

Shetter, Richard E.↗
NASA NTRS1988

A Mars orbital laser altimeter for rover trafficability: Instrument concept and science potential

Limited information on the types of geologic hazards (boulders, troughs, craters etc.) that will affect rover trafficability on Mars are available for the two Viking Lander sites, and there are no prospects for increasing this knowledge base in the near future. None of the instrument payloads on the upcoming Mars Observer or Soviet PHOBOS missions can directly measure surface obstacles on the scales of concern for rover safety (a few meters). Candidate instruments for the Soviet Mars 92 orbiter/balloon/rover mission such as balloon-borne stereo imaging, rover panoramic imaging, and orbital synthetic aperature imaging (SAR) are under discussion, but data from this mission may not be available for target areas of interest for the U.S. Mars Rover Sample Return (MRSR) mission. In an effort to determine how to directly measure the topography of surface obstacles that could affect rover trafficability on Mars, we are studying how to design a laser altimeter with extremely high spatial and vertical resolution that would be suitable for a future Mars Orbiter spacecraft (MRSR precursor or MRSR orbiter). This report discusses some of the design issues associated with such an instrument, gives examples of laser altimeter data collected for Mars analog terrains on Earth, and outlines the scientific potential of data that could be obtained with the system.

Garvin, J. B.↗
NASA NTRS1989

Generic element processor (application to nonlinear analysis)

The focus here is on one aspect of the Computational Structural Mechanics (CSM) Testbed: finite element technology. The approach involves a Generic Element Processor: a command-driven, database-oriented software shell that facilitates introduction of new elements into the testbed. This shell features an element-independent corotational capability that upgrades linear elements to geometrically nonlinear analysis, and corrects the rigid-body errors that plague many contemporary plate and shell elements. Specific elements that have been implemented in the Testbed via this mechanism include the Assumed Natural-Coordinate Strain (ANS) shell elements, developed with Professor K. C. Park (University of Colorado, Boulder), a new class of curved hybrid shell elements, developed by Dr. David Kang of LPARL (formerly a student of Professor T. Pian), other shell and solid hybrid elements developed by NASA personnel, and recently a repackaged version of the workhorse shell element used in the traditional STAGS nonlinear shell analysis code. The presentation covers: (1) user and developer interfaces to the generic element processor, (2) an explanation of the built-in corotational option, (3) a description of some of the shell-elements currently implemented, and (4) application to sample nonlinear shell postbuckling problems.

Stanley, Gary↗
NASA NTRS1989

Aerosol in the Pacific troposphere

The use of near real-time optical techniques is emphasized for the measurement of mid-tropospheric aerosol over the Central Pacific. The primary focus is on measurement of the aerosol size distribution over the range of particle diameters from 0.15 to 5.0 microns that are essential for modeling CO2 backscatter values in support of the laser atmospheric wind sounder (LAWS) program. The measurement system employs a LAS-X (Laser Aerosol Spectrometer-PMS, Boulder, CO) with a custom 256 channel pulse height analyzer and software for detailed measurement and analysis of aerosol size distributions. A thermal preheater system (Thermo Optic Aerosol Descriminator (TOAD) conditions the aerosol in a manner that allows the discrimination of the size distribution of individual aerosol components such as sulfuric acid, sulfates and refractory species. This allows assessment of the relative contribution of each component to the BCO2 signal. This is necessary since the different components have different sources, exhibit independent variability and provide different BCO2 signals for a given mass and particle size. Field activities involve experiments designed to examine both temporal and spatial variability of these aerosol components from ground based and aircraft platforms.

Clarke, Antony D.↗
NASA NTRS1989

NASA Propagation Information Center

The NASA Propagation Information Center became formally operational in July 1988. It is located in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering of the University of Colorado at Boulder. The Center is several things: a communications medium for the propagation with the outside world, a mechanism for internal communication within the program, and an aid to management.

Smith, Ernest K.↗
NASA NTRS1990

The Colorado/Missouri 1989 cirrus mini IFO

A series of experiments with aircraft were planned for Nov. and Dec. 1989 to study cirrus ice crystal nucleation mechanisms and to test new aircraft instrumentation. The measurements were conducted using the NCAR Sabreliner and King Air. Sampling was conducted near Boulder, Colorado, in lenticular (mountain wave) clouds, and over Missouri in cirrus generating cells. Field samples of aerosol and ice crystal replicas and melt water from these cirrus clouds were collected and studied. Aircraft instrumentation and sampling techniques are discussed.

Heymsfield, Andrew J.↗
NASA NTRS1990

Heterodyne spectrophotometry of ozone in the 9.6-micron band using a tunable diode laser

Tunable diode laser heterodyne spectrophotometry (TDLHS) has been used to make extremely high resolution (0.0003/cm) solar spectra in the 9.6-micron ozone band. Observations have shown that a signal-to-noise ratio of 120:1 (about 30 percent of theoretical) for an integration time of 1/8 s can be achieved at a resolution of 0.0013 wave numbers. The spectral data have been inverted to yield a total column amount of ozone, in good agreement with that measured at the nearby NOAA ozone monitoring facility in Boulder, Colorado. Line positions for several ozone lines in the spectral region 996-997/cm are reported. Recent improvements have produced a signal-to-noise ratio of 95:1 (about 40 percent of theoretical) at 0.0003/cm and extended the range of wavelengths which can be observed.

Mcelroy, C. T.↗
NASA NTRS1990

Flows, flares, and formation of umbrae and light bridges in BBSO region No. 1167

High-resolution observations of the large active region BBSO No. 1167 (Boulder No. 5060) are presented, based on data obtained with 65-cm telescope with spatial resolution of about 0.5 sec for much of two 11-hr periods. Rapid flux emergence in the large but simple active region observed for several days is analyzed. The magnetograms show complex fine structure, with some closely interwined regions of opposite polarity. It is found that, in a region of a new flux emergence, positive (leading polarity) flux flows along elongated channels immersed in the negative flux; and that moving magnetic features occur around all of the spots. Other aspects of this large region are also examined, such as characteristics of penumbra as related to umbra, and characteristics of combining spots of the same polarity. It is concluded that the emerging flux loops are discrete entities.

Zirin, Harold↗
NASA NTRS1990

NASA propagation information center

The NASA Propagation Information Center became formally operational in July 1988. It is located in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering of the University of Colorado at Boulder. The center is several things: a communications medium for the propagation with the outside world, a mechanism for internal communication within the program, and an aid to management.

Smith, Ernest K.↗