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NASA NTRS1987

Observations and theory of the AMPTE magnetotail barium releases

The barium releases in the magnetotail during the Active Magnetospheric Particle Tracer Explorers (AMPTE) operation were monitored by ground-based imagers and by instruments on the Ion Release Module. After each release, the data show the formation of a structured diamagnetic cavity. The cavity grows until the dynamic pressure of the expanding ions balances the magnetic pressure on its surface. The magnetic field inside the cavity is zero. The barium ions collect on the surface of the cavity, producing a shell. Plasma irregularities form along magnetic field lines draped over the surface of the cavity. The scale size of the irregularities is nearly equal to the thickness of the shell. The evolution and structuring of the diamagnetic cavity are modeled using magnetohydrodynamics theory.

Bernhardt, P. A.↗

NASA NTRS1989

Vortex control for tail buffet alleviation on a twin-tail fighter configuration

Two aerodynamic concepts proposed for alleviating high-alpha tail buffet characteristics of a LEX (Leading Edge Extension) vortex dominated twin-tail fighter configuration were explored in low-speed tunnel tests on generic models via flow visualizations, 6-component balance measurements and monitoring of tail dynamics. Passive dorsal-fin extensions of the vertical tails, and an active LEX arrangement with up-deflected edge sections were evaluated as independent means of re-structuring the adverse vortical flow environment in the tail region. Each of these techniques successfully reduced the buffet as measured by the root-mean-square of tail accelerometer output, particularly at post-stall angles of attack when the baseline configuration was characterized by high buffet intensity. Used in combination, the two concepts indicated significant tail buffet relief with relatively minor impact on the high-alpha configuration aerodynamics.

Rao, Dhanvada M.↗

NASA NTRS1992

A new skin friction balance and selected measurements

A new skin friction balance with moving belt has been developed for measurement of the surface shear stress component in the direction of belt motion. The device is described in this paper with typical measurement results. This instrument is symmetric in design with small moving mass negligible internal friction. It is 3.8 cm high, 3.8 cm long and 2.1 cm wide, with the sensing surface 0.7 cm wide and 1.5 cm long, and it can be made in various sizes. The unique design of this instrument has reduced some of the errors associated with conventional floating-element balances. The instrument can use various sensing systems and the output signal is a linear function of the wall shear stress. Measurements show good agreement with data obtained by the floating element balances and flat plate prediction techniques. Dynamic measurements have been made in a limited range. The overall uncertainty of measurement is estimated to be +/- 2 percent.

Vakili, A. D.↗

NASA NTRS1993

Torque equilibrium attitudes for the Space Station

All spacecraft orbiting in a low earth orbit (LEO) experience external torques due to environmental effects. Examples of these torques include those induced by aerodynamic, gravity-gradient, and solar forces. It is the gravity-gradient and aerodynamic torques that produce the greatest disturbances to the attitude of a spacecraft in LEO, and large asymmetric spacecraft, such as the space station, are affected to a greater degree because the magnitude of the torques will, in general, be larger in proportion to the moments of inertia. If left unchecked, these torques would cause the attitude of the space station to oscillate in a complex manner and the resulting motion would destroy the micro-gravity environment as well as prohibit the orbiter from docking. The application of control torques will maintain the proper attitude, but the controllers have limited momentum capacity. When any controller reaches its limit, propellant must then be used while the device is reset to a zero or negatively-biased momentum state. Consequently, the rate at which momentum is accumulated is a significant factor in the amount of propellant used and the frequency of resupply necessary to operate the station. A torque profile in which the area curve for a positive torque is not equal to the area under the curve for a negative torque is 'biased,' and the consequent momentum build-up about that axis is defined as secular momentum because it continues to grow with time. Conversely, when the areas are equal, the momentum is cyclic and bounded. A Torque Equilibrium Attitude (TEA) is thus defined as an attitude at which the external torques 'balance' each other as much as possible, and which will result in lower momentum growth in the controllers. Ideally, the positive and negative external moments experienced by a spacecraft at the TEA would exactly cancel each other out and small cyclic control torques would be required only for precise attitude control. Over time, the only momentum build-up in the controllers would be due to electro-mechanical losses within the device. However, the atmospheric torques are proportional to the density of the atmosphere and the density varies with the orbital position, time of day, time of year, and the solar cycle. In addition, there are unmodeled disturbances and uncertainties in the mass and inertias. Therefore, there is no constant attitude that will completely balance the environmental torques and the dynamic TEA cannot be solved in closed form. The objective of this research was to determine a method to calculate a dynamic TEA such that the rate of momentum build-up in the controllers would be minimized and to implement this method in the MATRIX(x) simulation software by Integrated Systems, Inc.

Thompson, Roger C.↗

NASA NTRS1993

GGOT total pressure loss control concept evaluation

Total pressure loss is one of the most important parameters in the design of a turbine. This parameter effects not only the turbine performance, but consequently the engine power balance and engine performance. Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) can be an effective tool in predicting turbine total pressure loss, and also for performing sensitivity studies to achieve an optimal design with respect to pressure loss. In the present study, the AEROVISC code was used to predict the total pressure loss in the Turbine Technology Team Gas Generator Oxidizer Turbine (GGOT). The objectives in this study are two-fold. It is first necessary to determine an optimal methodology in predicting total pressure loss. The type of grid, grid density and distribution are parameters which may affect the loss prediction. Also, the effect of using a standard K-epsilon turbulence model with wall functions versus a two-layer turbulence model needs to be investigated. The use of grid embedding to resolve areas with high flow gradients needs to be explored. The second objective of the study is to apply the optimal methodology toward evaluating different tip leakage control concepts.

Blumenthal, R. F.↗

NASA NTRS1997

Data Partitioning and Load Balancing in Parallel Disk Systems

Parallel disk systems provide opportunities for exploiting I/O parallelism in two possible waves, namely via inter-request and intra-request parallelism. In this paper we discuss the main issues in performance tuning of such systems, namely striping and load balancing, and show their relationship to response time and throughput. We outline the main components of an intelligent, self-reliant file system that aims to optimize striping by taking into account the requirements of the applications and performs load balancing by judicious file allocation and dynamic redistributions of the data when access patterns change. Our system uses simple but effective heuristics that incur only little overhead. We present performance experiments based on synthetic workloads and real-life traces.

Scheuermann, Peter↗

NASA NTRS1994

Parallel DSMC Solution of Three-Dimensional Flow Over a Finite Flat Plate

This paper describes a parallel implementation of the direct simulation Monte Carlo (DSMC) method. Runtime library support is used for scheduling and execution of communication between nodes, and domain decomposition is performed dynamically to maintain a good load balance. Performance tests are conducted using the code to evaluate various remapping and remapping-interval policies, and it is shown that a one-dimensional chain-partitioning method works best for the problems considered. The parallel code is then used to simulate the Mach 20 nitrogen flow over a finite-thickness flat plate. It is shown that the parallel algorithm produces results which compare well with experimental data. Moreover, it yields significantly faster execution times than the scalar code, as well as very good load-balance characteristics.

Nance, Robert P.↗

NASA NTRS2008

The Presence of Methane in the Atmosphere of an Extrasolar Planet

Molecules present in the atmospheres of extrasolar planets are expected to influence strongly the balance of atmospheric radiation, to trace dynamical and chemical processes, and to indicate the presence of disequilibrium effects. As molecules have the potential to reveal atmospheric conditions and chemistry, searching for them is a high priority. The rotational-vibrational transition bands of water, carbon monoxide and methane are anticipated to be the primary sources of non-continuum opacity in hot-Jupiter planets. As these bands can overlap in wavelength, and the corresponding signatures from them are weak, decisive identification requires precision infrared spectroscopy. Here we report a near-infrared transmission spectrum of the planet HD 189733b that shows the presence of methane. Additionally, a resolved water vapour band at 1.9 (micro)m confirms the recent claim4 of water in this object. On thermochemical grounds, carbon monoxide is expected to be abundant in the upper atmosphere of hot-Jupiter planets, but is not identifiable here; therefore the detection of methane rather than carbon monoxide in such a hot planet could signal the presence of a horizontal chemical gradient away from the permanent dayside, or it may imply an ill-understood photochemical mechanism that leads to an enhancement of methane.

atmospheric radiation↗

NASA NTRS2023

Modelling the Greenland Ice Sheet's Committed Contribution to Sea Level During the 21st Century

Mass loss from the Greenland Ice Sheet can be partitioned between surface mass balance and discharge due to ice dynamics through its marine-terminating outlet glaciers. A perturbation to a glacier terminus (e.g., a calving event) results in both an instantaneous response in velocity and mass loss and a diffusive response due to the evolution of ice thickness over time. This diffusive response means the total impact of a retreat event can take decades to be fully realized. Here we model the committed response of the Greenland Ice Sheet by applying perturbations to the marine-terminating glacier termini that represent recent observed changes, and simulating the response over the 21st century, while holding the climate forcing constant. The sensitivity of the ice sheet response to model parameter uncertainty is explored within an ensemble framework, and Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment data is used to constrain the results using a Bayesian calibration approach. We find that the Greenland Ice Sheet's committed contribution to 21st century sea level rise is at least 33.5 [17.5 52.4] mm (25th and 75th percentiles in brackets), with at least 6 mm being attributable directly to terminus retreat that occurred between 2007 and 2015. The spread in our projections is driven by uncertainty in the basal friction coefficient. Our results complement the ISMIP6 Greenland projections, which report the ice sheet response to future forcing, excluding the background response. In this way, we can obtain estimates of Greenland's total contribution to sea level rise in 2100.

Isabel J. Nias↗

NASA NTRS2022

Global Total Ozone Recovery Trends Attributed to Ozone-Depleting Substance (ODS) Changes Derived From Five Merged Ozone Datasets

We report on updated trends using different merged zonal mean total ozone datasets from satellite and ground-based observations for the period from 1979 to 2020. This work is an update of the trends reported in Weber et al. (2018) using the same datasets up to 2016. Merged datasets used in this study include NASA MOD v8.7 and NOAA Cohesive Data (COH) v8.6, both based on data from the series of Solar Backscatter Ultraviolet (SBUV), SBUV-2, and Ozone Mapping and Profiler Suite (OMPS) satellite instruments (1978–present), as well as the Global Ozone Monitoring Experiment (GOME)-type Total Ozone – Essential Climate Variable (GTO-ECV) and GOME-SCIAMACHY-GOME-2 (GSG) merged datasets (both 1995–present), mainly comprising satellite data from GOME, SCIAMACHY, OMI, GOME-2A, GOME-2B, and TROPOMI. The fifth dataset consists of the annual mean zonal mean data from ground-based measurements collected at the World Ozone and Ultraviolet Radiation Data Centre (WOUDC). Trends were determined by applying a multiple linear regression (MLR) to annual mean zonal mean data. The addition of 4 more years consolidated the fact that total ozone is indeed slowly recovering in both hemispheres as a result of phasing out ozone-depleting substances (ODSs) as mandated by the Montreal Protocol. The near-global (60° S–60° N) ODS-related ozone trend of the median of all datasets after 1995 was 0.4 ± 0.2 (2σ) %/decade, which is roughly a third of the decreasing rate of 1.5 ± 0.6 %/decade from 1978 until 1995. The ratio of decline and increase is nearly identical to that of the EESC (equivalent effective stratospheric chlorine or stratospheric halogen) change rates before and after 1995, confirming the success of the Montreal Protocol. The observed total ozone time series are also in very good agreement with the median of 17 chemistry climate models from CCMI-1 (Chemistry-Climate Model Initiative Phase 1) with current ODS and GHG (greenhouse gas) scenarios (REF-C2 scenario). The positive ODS-related trends in the Northern Hemisphere (NH) after 1995 are only obtained with a sufficient number of terms in the MLR accounting properly for dynamical ozone changes (Brewer–Dobson circulation, Arctic Oscillation (AO), and Antarctic Oscillation (AAO)). A standard MLR (limited to solar, Quasi-Biennial Oscillation (QBO), volcanic, and El Niño–Southern Oscillation (ENSO)) leads to zero trends, showing that the small positive ODS-related trends have been balanced by negative trend contributions from atmospheric dynamics, resulting in nearly constant total ozone levels since 2000.

Total Column Ozone Trends↗

NASA NTRS1996

Global Load Balancing with Parallel Mesh Adaption on Distributed-Memory Systems

Dynamic mesh adaption on unstructured grids is a powerful tool for efficiently computing unsteady problems to resolve solution features of interest. Unfortunately, this causes load imbalance among processors on a parallel machine. This paper describes the parallel implementation of a tetrahedral mesh adaption scheme and a new global load balancing method. A heuristic remapping algorithm is presented that assigns partitions to processors such that the redistribution cost is minimized. Results indicate that the parallel performance of the mesh adaption code depends on the nature of the adaption region and show a 35.5X speedup on 64 processors of an SP2 when 35% of the mesh is randomly adapted. For large-scale scientific computations, our load balancing strategy gives almost a sixfold reduction in solver execution times over non-balanced loads. Furthermore, our heuristic remapper yields processor assignments that are less than 3% off the optimal solutions but requires only 1% of the computational time.

Biswas, Rupak↗

NASA NTRS1996

Global Load Balancing with Parallel Mesh Adaption on Distributed-Memory Systems

Dynamic mesh adaptation on unstructured grids is a powerful tool for efficiently computing unsteady problems to resolve solution features of interest. Unfortunately, this causes load inbalances among processors on a parallel machine. This paper described the parallel implementation of a tetrahedral mesh adaption scheme and a new global load balancing method. A heuristic remapping algorithm is presented that assigns partitions to processors such that the redistribution coast is minimized. Results indicate that the parallel performance of the mesh adaption code depends on the nature of the adaption region and show a 35.5X speedup on 64 processors of an SP2 when 35 percent of the mesh is randomly adapted. For large scale scientific computations, our load balancing strategy gives an almost sixfold reduction in solver execution times over non-balanced loads. Furthermore, our heuristic remappier yields processor assignments that are less than 3 percent of the optimal solutions, but requires only 1 percent of the computational time.

Biswas, Rupak↗

NASA NTRS2019

Observations of Surface Mass Balance on Pine Island Glacier, West Antarctica, and the Effect of Strain History in Fast-Flowing Sections

Surface mass balance (SMB) is the net input of mass on a glacier's upper surface, composed of snow deposition, melt and erosion processes, and is a major contributor to the overall mass balance. Pine Island Glacier (PIG) in West Antarctica has been dynamically imbalanced since the early 1990s, indicating that discharge of solid ice into the oceans exceeds snow deposition. However, observations of the SMB pattern on the fast flowing regions are scarce, and are potentially affected by the firn's strain history. Here, we present new observations from radar-derived stratigraphy and a relatively dense network of firn cores, collected along a ~900 km traverse of PIG. Between 1986 and 2014, the SMB along the traverse was 0.505 m w.e. a−1 on average with a gradient of higher snow deposition in the South-West compared with the North-East of the catchment. We show that along ~80% of the traverse the strain history amounts to a misestimation of SMB below the nominal uncertainty, but can exceed it by a factor 5 in places, making it a significant correction to the SMB estimate locally. We find that the strain correction changes the basin-wide SMB by ~0.7 Gt a−1 and thus forms a negligible (1%) correction to the glacier's total SMB.

ice core↗

NASA NTRS1998

Internal Dynamics and Boundary Forcing Characteristics Associated with Interannual Variability of the Asian Summer Monsoon

In this paper, we present a description of the internal dynamics and boundary forcing characteristics of two major components of the Asian summer monsoon (ASM), i.e., the South Asian (SAM) and the Southeast-East Asian monsoon (SEAM). The description is based on a new monsoon-climate paradigm in which the variability of ASM is considered as the outcome of the interplay of a "fast" and an "intermediate" monsoon subsystem, under the influenced of the "slow" varying external forcings. Two sets of regional monsoon indices derived from dynamically consistent rainfall and wind data are used in this study. For SAM, the internal dynamics is represented by that of a "classical" monsoon system where the anomalous circulation is governed by Rossby-wave dynamics, i.e., generation of anomalous vorticity induced by an off-equatorial heat source is balanced by planetary vorticity advection. On the other hand, the internal dynamics of SEAM is characterized by a "hybrid" monsoon system featuring multi-cellular meridional circulation over the East Asian section, extending from the deep tropics to midlatitudes. These meridional-cells link tropical heating to extratropical circulation system via the East Asian jetstream, and are responsible for the characteristic occurrences of zonally oriented anomalous rainfall patterns over East Asian and the subtropical western Pacific. In the extratropical regions, the major upper level vorticity balance is by anomalous vorticity advection and generation by the anomalous divergent circulation. A consequence of this is that compared to SAM, the SEAM is associated with stronger teleconnection patterns to regions outside the ASM. A strong SAM is linked to basin-scale sea surface temperature (SST) fluctuation with significant signal in the equatorial eastern Pacific. During the boreal spring SST warming in the Arabian Sea and the subtropical western Pacific may lead to a strong SAM. For SEAM, interannual variability is tied to SSTA over the Sea of Japan and the South China Sea regions, while the linkage to equatorial basin-scale SSTA is weak at best. A large scale SSTA dipole with warming (cooling) in the subtropical central (eastern) Pacific foreshadows a strong SEAM.

Lau, K.- M.↗

NASA NTRS2000

Tidal Energy Dissipation from Topex/Poseidon

In a recent paper ({\it Nature, 405,} 775, 2000) we concluded that 25 to 30\% of the ocean's tidal energy dissipation, or about 1 terawatt, occurs in the deep ocean, with the remaining 2.6 TW in shallow seas. The physical mechanism for deep-ocean dissipation is apparently scattering of the surface tide into internal modes; Munk and Wunsch have suggested that this mechanism may provide half the power needed for mixing the deep-ocean. This paper builds further evidence for $1\pm 0.2$ TW of deep-ocean dissipation. The evidence is extracted from tidal elevations deduced from seven years of Topex/Poseidon satellite altimeter data. The dissipation rate Is formed as a balance between the rate of working by tidal forces and the energy flux divergence. While dynamical assumptions are required to compute fluxes, area integrals of the energy balance are, owing to the tight satellite constraints, remarkably insensitive to these assumptions. A large suite of tidal solutions based on a wide range of dynamical assumptions, on perturbations to bathymetric models, and on simulated elevation data are used to assess this sensitivity. These and Monte Carlo error fields from a generalized inverse model are used to establish error uncertainties.

Ray, Richard D.↗

NASA NTRS1972

Computer experiments on the structure and dynamics of spiral galaxies

The evolution of an initially balanced rotating disk of stars with an initial velocity dispersion given by Toomre's local criterion was investigated by means of a computer model for isolated disks of stars. It was found that the disk is unstable against very large scale modes. A stable axisymmetric disk with a velocity dispersion much larger than that given by Toomre's criterion was generated. The final mass distribution for the disk gives a high density central core and a disk population of stars that is closely approximated by an exponential variation. Various methods and rates of cooling the hot axisymmetric disks were investigated. It was found that the cooling resulted in the development of two-arm spiral structures which persisted as long as cooling continued. An experiment was performed to induce spiral structure in a galaxy by means of the close passage of a companion galaxy. Parameters similar to those expected for M51 and its companion were used. It was found that because of the high velocity dispersion of the disturbed disk galaxy, only a weak two-arm spiral structure appeared. The evolution of a uniformly rotating disk galaxy which is a stationary solution of the collisionless Boltzmann equation was investigated for various values of the initial rms velocity dispersion. It was found that the disk becomes stable at a value of the velocity dispersion predicted by theory.

Hohl, F.↗

NASA NTRS1971

Dynamics of plane stellar systems.

The evolution of initially balanced rotating disks of stars is investigated with a computer model for isolated disks of stars. An isolated, initially cold balanced disk is found to be violently unstable. Adding a sufficient amount of velocity dispersion will stabilize all small-scale disturbances. However, the disks are still unstable against slowly growing long wave-length modes and after about two rotations most disks tend to assume a bar-shaped structure. It is found that the final mass distribution over most of the disk can be closely approximated by an exponential variation, irrespective of the initial mass distribution. The gravitational two-stream instability is investigated by means of a modified computer model for infinite doubly periodic stellar systems.

Hohl, F.↗

NASA NTRS1972

Dynamics of plane stellar systems.

Hohl, F.↗