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All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
NASA NTRS1985

New aspects in nucleon-nucleus collisions and EAS properties around 10(6) GeV

At energies higher than 2 x 10 to the 5 GeV, very little information exists on detailed properties of nucleon-nucleon collision; the rare elements are coming from jets, and, as nondirect improvements from gamma-ray families. The results exhibit some conflicting features, or, at least, very large fluctuations like copious production of gamma-rays in opposition to Centauro-like events, sometimes suggest that phase transition to quark gluon plasma occurs in nucleus-nucleus collisions and even in nucleon-nucleus collision. The multicluster phenomenological model (MPM) extrapolated for extensive air showers EAS simulation up to 5 x 10 to the 6 GeV to put in evidence some significant deviation between experimental data and prediction.

Capdevielle, J. N.↗
NASA NTRS1985

Photo nuclear energy loss term for muon-nucleus interactions based on xi scaling model of QCD

Extensive air showers (EMC) experiments discovered a significant deviation of the ratio of structure functions of iron and deuteron from unity. It was established that the quark parton distribution in nuclei are different from the corresponding distribution in the nucleus. It was examined whether these results have an effect on the calculation of photo nucleus energy loss term for muon-nucleus nuclear interaction. Though the EMC and SLAC data were restricted to rather large q sq region it is expected that the derivation would persist even in the low q sq domain. For the ratio of iron and deuteron structure function a rather naive least square fit of the form R(x) = a + bx was taken and it is assumed that the formula is valid for the whole q sq region the absence of any knowledge of R(x) for small q sq.

Roychoudhury, R.↗
NASA NTRS1993

Anode power deposition in magnetoplasmadynamic thrusters

Results of anode heat-flux and anode fail measurements from a multimegawatt self-field quasi-steady magnetoplasmadynamic (MPD) thruster are presented. Measurements were obtained with argon and helium propellants for a variety of currents and mass flow rates. Anode heat flux was directly measured with thermocouples attached to the inner surface of a hollowed section. Anode falls were determined both from floating probes and through heat flux measurements. Comparison of data acquired through either method shows excellent agreement. Anode falls varied between 4-50 V with anode power fractions reaching 70 percent with helium at 150 kW, and 50 percent with argon at 1.9 MW. The anode fall was found to correlate well with electron Hall parameters calculated from triple Langmuir and magnetic probe data collected near the anode. Two possible explanations for this result are proposed: (1) the establishment of large electric fields at the anode to maintain current conduction across the strong magnetic fields; and (2) anomalous resistivity resulting from the onset of microturbulence in the plasma. To investigate the latter hypothesis, electric field, magnetic field, and current density profiles measured in the vicinity of the anode were incorporated into Ohm's law to estimate the electrical conductivity. Results of this analysis show a substantial deviation of the measured conductivity from that calculated with classical formulas. These results imply that anomalous effects are present in the plasma near the anode.

Gallimore, A. D.↗
NASA NTRS2020

Research Report: Building a Wide Reach Corpus for Secure Parser Development

Whether developing from a specification or deriving parsers from samples, LangSec parser developers require widereach corpora of their target file format in order to identify key edge cases or common deviations from the format’s specification. In this work-in-progress paper, we report the details of several methods we’ve used to gather 30 million files, extract features and make these features amenable to search and other analytics. This paper documents opportunities and limitations of some popular open source data and tools and this paper will benefit researchers who need to efficiently gather a large file corpus.

Timmaraju, Virisha↗
NASA NTRS1984

The nonaxisymmetric baroclinic instability in thin accretion disks

The instability of linear, nonaxisymmetric baroclinic waves in the radiative regions of a thin accretion disk is investigated with simplifying assumptions used in the representation of the structure of the basic state. As in stars with rotation laws deviating from rotation on cylinders, the departure from barotropy ('baroclinicity') resulting from such rotation feeds potential energy from the basic state into the kinetic energy of the baroclinic motions. The baroclinic instability is considered as a possible mechanism for driving turbulence in disks. Estimations of the Reynolds stress from baroclinic waves indicate that the degree of baroclinicity in stationary disk models is insufficient to account for the large viscosity inferred from observations of, e.g., cataclysmic variables.

Cabot, W.↗
NASA NTRS1994

Comets, impacts, and atmospheres

Studies of element abundances and values of D/H in the atmospheres of the giant planets and Titan have emphasized the important role of icy planetesimals in the formation of these bodies. In these atmospheres, C/H and D/H increase as the relative masses of the 'cores' of the planets increase. N/H appears to deviate from this trend in an interesting way. In the inner solar system, the traditional approach of using carbonaceous chondrites as the source of planetary volatiles is in serious trouble because of the depletion of xenon and the unusual pattern of xenon isotopes found in the atmospheres of Earth and Mars, and because of the solar-type abundance ratios of argon, krypton and xenon and the large amounts of neon and argon on Venus. Recent studies of elemental abundances in comets, especially P/Halley, coupled with laboratory studies of the trapping of gas in ice formed at low temperatures by A. Bar-Nun et al. provide a consistent interpretation of all of these results. This interpretation emphasizes the fundamental importance of icy planetesimals (comets) and the randomness of early impacts in the formation of planetary systems. Cometary delivery by itself will not explain the noble gas abundances on the inner planets. There is good evidence for at least one additional source, which presumably consists of the rocky material making up the bulk of the planets. The existence of this rocky reservoir is manifested in the nucleogenic isotopes and in the neon which is found in all these atmospheres and is also present in the Earth's mantle. This neon may well be a relic of the planets' earliest, accretional atmospheres.

Owen, Tobias↗
NASA NTRS2023

M2-SCREAM: A Stratospheric Composition Reanalysis of Aura MLS Data With MERRA-2 Transport

MERRA-2 Stratospheric Composition Reanalysis of Aura Microwave Limb Sounder (M2-SCREAM) is a new reanalysis of stratospheric ozone, water vapor, hydrogen chloride (HCl), nitric acid (HNO 3 ) and nitrous oxide (N 2 O) between 2004 and the present (with a latency of several months). The assimilated fields are provided at a 50-km horizontal resolution and at a three-hourly frequency. M2-SCREAM assimilates version 4.2 Microwave Limb Sounder (MLS) profiles of the five constituents alongside total ozone column from the Ozone Monitoring Instrument. Dynamics and tropospheric water vapor are constrained by the MERRA-2 reanalysis. The assimilated species are in excellent agreement with the MLS observations, except for HNO 3 in polar night, where data are not assimilated. Comparisons against independent observations show that the reanalysis realistically captures the spatial and temporal variability of all the assimilated constituents. In particular, the standard deviations of the differences between M2-SCREAM and constituent mixing ratio data from The Atmospheric Chemistry Experiment Fourier Transform Spectrometer are much smaller than the standard deviations of the measured constituents. Evaluation of the reanalysis against aircraft data and balloon-borne frost point hygrometers indicates a faithful representation of small-scale structures in the assimilated water vapor, HNO 3 and ozone fields near the tropopause. Comparisons with independent observations and a process-based analysis of the consistency of the assimilated constituent fields with the MERRA-2 dynamics and with large-scale stratospheric processes demonstrate the utility of M2-SCREAM for scientific studies of chemical and transport variability on time scales ranging from hours to decades. Analysis uncertainties and guidelines for data usage are provided.

MERRA-2↗
NASA NTRS1989

Rain attenuation measurements: Variability and data quality assessment

Year to year variations in the cumulative distributions of rain rate or rain attenuation are evident in any of the published measurements for a single propagation path that span a period of several years of observation. These variations must be described by models for the prediction of rain attenuation statistics. Now that a large measurement data base has been assembled by the International Radio Consultative Committee, the information needed to assess variability is available. On the basis of 252 sample cumulative distribution functions for the occurrence of attenuation by rain, the expected year to year variation in attenuation at a fixed probability level in the 0.1 to 0.001 percent of a year range is estimated to be 27 percent. The expected deviation from an attenuation model prediction for a single year of observations is estimated to exceed 33 percent when any of the available global rain climate model are employed to estimate the rain rate statistics. The probability distribution for the variation in attenuation or rain rate at a fixed fraction of a year is lognormal. The lognormal behavior of the variate was used to compile the statistics for variability.

Crane, Robert K.↗
NASA NTRS1994

Kinetic Alfven waves as a source of plasma transport at the dayside magnetopause

As the shocked solar wind with variable plasma density and magnetic field impinges on the dayside magnetopause, it is likely to generate large-scale Alfven waves at the solar wind magnetosphere interface. However, large gradients in the density and magnetic field at the magnetopause boundary effectively couple large-scale Alfven waves with kinetic Alfven waves may play an important role in plasma transport at the dayside magnetopause and in electron acceleration along field lines. The transport can occur because, unlike the magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) shear Alfven wave, the kinetic Alfven wave has an associated parallel electric field which breaks down the 'frozen-in' condition and decouples the plasma from field lines. We calculate the average deviation of the plasma from the field line from which we estimate the diffusion coefficient associated with these 'bundles' of lead to acceleration of electrons along field lines in the magnetopause boundary and may possibly provide an explanation for observed counterstreaming electron beams characterized by energies of 50-200 eV.

Lee, L. C.↗
NASA NTRS1998

Influence of Subpixel Scale Cloud Top Structure on Reflectances from Overcast Stratiform Cloud Layers

Recent observational studies have shown that satellite retrievals of cloud optical depth based on plane-parallel model theory suffer from systematic biases that depend on viewing geometry, even when observations are restricted to overcast marine stratus layers, arguably the closest to plane parallel in nature. At moderate to low sun elevations, the plane-parallel model significantly overestimates the reflectance dependence on view angle in the forward-scattering direction but shows a similar dependence in the backscattering direction. Theoretical simulations are performed that show that the likely cause for this discrepancy is because the plane-parallel model assumption does not account for subpixel, scale variations in cloud-top height (i.e., "cloud bumps"). Monte Carlo simulation, comparing ID model radiances to radiances from overcast cloud field with 1) cloud-top height variation, but constant cloud volume extinction; 2) flat tops but horizontal variations in cloud volume extinction; and 3) variations in both cloud top height and cloud extinction are performed over a approximately equal to 4 km x 4 km domain (roughly the size of an individual GAC AVHRR pixel). The comparisons show that when cloud-top height variations are included, departures from 1D theory are remarkably similar (qualitatively) to those obtained observationally. In contrast, when clouds are assumed flat and only cloud extinction is variable, reflectance differences are much smaller and do not show any view-angle dependence. When both cloud-top height and cloud extinction variations are included, however, large increases in cloud extinction variability can enhance reflectance difference. The reason 3D-1D reflectance differences are more sensitive to cloud-top height variations in the forward-scattering direction (at moderate to low, sun elevations) is because photons leaving the cloud field in that direction experience fewer scattering events (low-order scattering) and are restricted to the topmost portions of the cloud. While reflectance deviations from 1D theory are much larger for bumpy clouds than for flat clouds with variable cloud extinction, differences in cloud albedo are comparable for these two cases.

Loeb, N. G.↗
NASA NTRS1999

Electric Field Double Probe Measurements on Satellites with Very Low Perigees

Measurements of DC and AC electric Fields at low altitudes (less than 150 km) in the Earth's ionosphere address a wide array of important scientific questions including Joule Heating, the closure of field aligned currents, and the deviation of E x B electron velocities from ion velocity vectors influenced by collisions. Double probes represent a well-proven technique for gathering high quality DC and AC electric field measurements for which the design of the boom system is of critical importance for the success of the experiment. In general, ionospheric DC electric field instruments that achieve accuracies of 0.1 mV/m or better, place sensors at large distances from the spacecraft body in order to extend well beyond the spacecraft wake and sheath and to achieve the large signal-to-noise ratios for DC and long wavelength measurements. Additional sets of sensors inboard of the primary, outermost sensors provide useful additional information, both for diagnostics of the plasma contact potentials, which particularly enhance the DC electric field measurements on non-spinning spacecraft, and for wavelength and phase velocity measurements that use the spaced receiver or "Interferometer" technique. Accurate attitude knowledge enables V x B contributions to be subtracted from the measured potentials, and permits the measured components to be rotated into meaningful geophysical reference frames. This presentation discusses the expected performance of electric field double probe experiments and their boom mechanisms on both spinning and non-spinning satellite platforms with very low perigees. Careful selection of probe surface materials, such as titanium nitride, for the low perigee environment, as well as thermal considerations are also discussed.

Pfaff, R. F., Jr.↗
NASA NTRS2011

Observational and Numerical Diagnostics of Galaxy Cluster Outer Regions

Aims. We present the analysis of a local (z = 0.04 - 0.2) sample of 31 galaxy clusters with the aim of measuring the density of the X-ray emitting gas in cluster outskirts. We compare our results with numerical simulations to set constraints on the azimuthal symmetry and gas clumping in the outer regions of galaxy clusters. Methods. We exploit the large field-of-view and low instrumental background of ROSAT/PSPC to trace the density of the intracluster gas out to the virial radius. We perform a stacking of the density profiles to detect a signal beyond r(sub 200) and measure the typical density and scatter in cluster outskirts. We also compute the azimuthal scatter of the profiles with respect to the mean value to look for deviations from spherical symmetry. Finally, we compare our average density and scatter profiles with the results of numerical simulations. Results. As opposed to several recent results, we observe a steepening of the density profiles beyond approximately 0.3r(sub 500). Comparing our density profiles with simulations, we find that non-radiative runs predict too steep density profiles, whereas runs including additional physics and/or gas clumping are in better agreement with the observed gas distribution. We note a systematic difference between cool-core and non-cool core clusters beyond approximately 0.3r(sub 200), which we explain by a different distribution of the gas in the two classes. Beyond approximately r(sub 500), galaxy clusters deviate significantly from spherical symmetry, with only little differences between relaxed and disturbed systems. We find good agreement between the observed and predicted scatter profiles, but only when the 1% densest clumps are filtered out in the simulations. Conclusions. The general trend of steepening density around the virial radius indicates that the shallow density profiles found in several recent works were probably obtained along particular directions (e.g., filaments) and are not representative of the typical behavior of clusters. Comparing our results with numerical simulations, we find that non-radiative simulations fail to reproduce the gas distribution, even well outside cluster cores. Therefore, a detailed treatment of gas cooling, star formation, clumping, and AGN feedback is required to construct realistic models of cluster outer regions.

Eckert, D.↗
NASA NTRS2011

Dust Optical Properties Over North Africa and Arabian Peninsula Derived from the AERONET Dataset

Dust optical properties over North Africa and the Arabian Peninsula are extracted from the quality assured multi-year datasets obtained at 14 sites of the Aerosol Robotic Network (AERONET). We select the data with (a) large aerosol optical depth (AOD >= 0.4 at 440 nm) and (b) small Angstrom exponent (A(sub ext)<= 0.2) for retaining high accuracy and reducing interference of non-dust aerosols. The result indicates that the major fraction of high aerosol optical depth days are dominated by dust over these sites even though it varies depending on location and time. We have found that the annual mean and standard deviation of single scattering albedo, asymmetry parameter, real refractive index, and imaginary refractive index for Saharan and Arabian desert dust is 0.944 +/- 0.005, 0.752 +/- 0.014, 1.498 +/- 0.032, and 0.0024 +/- 0.0034 at 550 nm wavelength, respectively. Dust aerosol selected by this method is less absorbing than the previously reported values over these sites. The weaker absorption of dust from this study is consistent with the studies using remote sensing techniques from satellite. These results can help to constrain uncertainties in estimating global dust shortwave radiative forcing.

Kim, D.↗
NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Stagnation Point Convective Heating Correlations for Entry Into H2/He Atmospheres

New convective heating correlations have been developed over a broad range of entry conditions into H2/He atmospheres. The correlations are based on calculations of stagnation point convective heat fluxes over a large range of velocities, densities, and effective nose radii. The heat fluxes and corresponding flowfields are computed using NASA’s hypersonic computational fluid dynamics code, DPLR. Cases in this study have been computed using both a temperaturelimited, radiative equilibrium wall and a cold wall temperature boundary condition. The results for the scaled heat flux, as a function of the difference in freestream and wall enthalpies, show a clear deviation from the linear trend predicted by the method of Sutton and Graves. Therefore, updated non-linear correlations are proposed for the prediction of stagnation point convective heat fluxes. Generally, these updated correlations predict lower heat loads and therefore smaller required TPS thicknesses when compared to previous correlations for a range of test cases in the Neptune, Saturn, and Uranus atmospheres.

Alex T. Carroll↗
NASA NTRS1974

Agriculture, forestry, range resources

In the area of crop specie identification, it has been found that temporal data analysis, preliminary stratification, and unequal probability analysis were several of the factors that contributed to high identification accuracies. Single data set accuracies on fields of greater than 80,000 sq m (20 acres) are in the 70- to 90-percent range; however, with the use of temporal data, accuracies of 95 percent have been reported. Identification accuracy drops off significantly on areas of less than 80,000 sq m (20 acres) as does measurement accuracy. Forest stratification into coniferous and deciduous areas has been accomplished to a 90- to 95-percent accuracy level. Using multistage sampling techniques, the timber volume of a national forest district has been estimated to a confidence level and standard deviation acceptable to the Forest Service at a very favorable cost-benefit time ratio. Range specie/plant community vegetation mapping has been accomplished at various levels of success (69- to 90-percent accuracy). However, several investigators have obtained encouraging initial results in range biomass (forage production) estimation and range readiness predictions. Soil association map correction and soil association mapping in new area appear to have been proven feasible on large areas; however, testing in a complex soil area should be undertaken.

Crea, W. J.↗
NASA NTRS1983

Geometrically nonlinear analysis of layered composite plates and shells

A degenerated three dimensional finite element, based on the incremental total Lagrangian formulation of a three dimensional layered anisotropic medium was developed. Its use in the geometrically nonlinear, static and dynamic, analysis of layered composite plates and shells is demonstrated. A two dimenisonal finite element based on the Sanders shell theory with the von Karman (nonlinear) strains was developed. It is shown that the deflections obtained by the 2D shell element deviate from those obtained by the more accurate 3D element for deep shells. The 3D degenerated element can be used to model general shells that are not necessarily doubly curved. The 3D degenerated element is computationally more demanding than the 2D shell theory element for a given problem. It is found that the 3D element is an efficient element for the analysis of layered composite plates and shells undergoing large displacements and transient motion.

Chao, W. C.↗
NASA NTRS2001

Reliability Analysis and Reliability-Based Design Optimization of Circular Composite Cylinders Under Axial Compression

This report describes the preliminary results of an investigation on component reliability analysis and reliability-based design optimization of thin-walled circular composite cylinders with average diameter and average length of 15 inches. Structural reliability is based on axial buckling strength of the cylinder. Both Monte Carlo simulation and First Order Reliability Method are considered for reliability analysis with the latter incorporated into the reliability-based structural optimization problem. To improve the efficiency of reliability sensitivity analysis and design optimization solution, the buckling strength of the cylinder is estimated using a second-order response surface model. The sensitivity of the reliability index with respect to the mean and standard deviation of each random variable is calculated and compared. The reliability index is found to be extremely sensitive to the applied load and elastic modulus of the material in the fiber direction. The cylinder diameter was found to have the third highest impact on the reliability index. Also the uncertainty in the applied load, captured by examining different values for its coefficient of variation, is found to have a large influence on cylinder reliability. The optimization problem for minimum weight is solved subject to a design constraint on element reliability index. The methodology, solution procedure and optimization results are included in this report.

Rais-Rohani, Masoud↗
NASA NTRS2015

High-Latitude Topside Ionospheric Vertical Electron-Density-Profile Changes in Response to Large Magnetic Storms

Large magnetic-storm induced changes have been detected in high-latitude topside vertical electron-density profiles Ne(h). The investigation was based on the large database of topside Ne(h) profiles and digital topside ionograms from the International Satellites for Ionospheric Studies (ISIS) program available from the NASA Space Physics Data Facility (SPDF) at http://spdf.gsfc.nasa.gov/isis/isis-status.html. This large database enabled Ne(h) profiles to be obtained when an ISIS satellite passed through nearly the same region of space before, during, and after a major magnetic storm. A major goal was to relate the magnetic-storm induced high-latitude Ne(h) profile changes to solar-wind parameters. Thus an additional data constraint was to consider only storms where solar-wind data were available from the NASA/SPDF OMNIWeb database. Ten large magnetic storms (with Dst less than -100 nT) were identified that satisfied both the Ne(h) profile and the solar-wind data constraints. During five of these storms topside ionospheric Ne(h) profiles were available in the high-latitude northern hemisphere and during the other five storms similar ionospheric data were available in the southern hemisphere. Large Ne(h) changes were observed during each one of these storms. Our concentration in this paper is on the northern hemisphere. The data coverage was best for the northern-hemisphere winter. Here Ne(h) profile enhancements were always observed when the magnetic local time (MLT) was between 00 and 03 and Ne(h) profile depletions were always observed between 08 and 10 MLT. The observed Ne(h) deviations were compared with solar-wind parameters, with appropriate time shifts, for four storms.

solar wind↗