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NASA NTRS1986

Rivited panel surface measurement using photogrammetry

Two riveted antenna panels on rings number 3 and 9 were removed from the 34m antenna at DSS-15, fixed in the leveled position and the surface was photographed indoors. The results from this pilot photogrammetric demonstration and diagnostics of panel surface contours, are presented. The photogrammetric network for each panel incorporated eight photographs, two from each of four camera stations and observed over 200 targets. The accuracy (1 sigma) of the XYZ coordinates for the error ellipsoids was + or - 0.013 mm (0.0005 inch). This level of precision relative to the object size corresponds roughly to 1 part in 250,000 which is superior to conventional dial sweep-arm template techniques by at least a factor of 4.

Merrick, W. D.↗

NASA NTRS1986

A proposal for adopting a standard coordinate system for defining atmospheric nomenclature for the giant planets

Although the albedo of specific belts and zones varies as a function of time, there is evidence that wind maxima may be fixed in latitude. Before considering a standard notation for wind jets, it is necessary to establish a coordinate system within which the nomenclature would be defined. Traditionally, the BAA has used planetographic latitudes; however, this system is based not only on an accurate determination of the polar diameter but also on the assumption that the equipotential surfaces can be represented by biaxial ellipsoids. The International Astronomical Union strives to adopt unambiguous nomenclature that will be universally acceptable. It is proposed that planetocentric coordinates be utilized and that a standardized value of the ratio of the polar diameter to the equatorial diameter be established for each planet to facilitate transformation into planetographic coordinates.

Beebe, R.↗

NASA NTRS1986

Using the boundary-layer equations in three-dimensional viscous flow simulation

A simple and computationally efficient algorithm for solving the unsteady three dimensional boundary layer equations in a time accurate or relaxation mode is presented. The algorithm is used to compute the separated flow over a 6:1 ellipsoid at angle of attack and the transonic flow over a finite wing with shock induced separation. These results are compared to available experimental data. A method of using the boundary layer algorithm to accelerate a Navier-Stokes computation is also presented. Example computations indicate that a boundary layer algorithm can be used to improve both the accuracy and efficiency of a Navier-Stokes algorithm.

Vandalsem, William R.↗

NASA NTRS1986

A three-dimensional model of the nucleus of Comet Halley

The nucleus of comet Halley was observed by the Halley Multicolor Camera (HMC) during the last minutes of the flyby sequence before reaching the point of closest approach. The phase angle change during the observational period was less than 17 deg, so HMC data can only define a two-dimensional contour of the nucleus at a certain time. The overall geometry during the HMC observations is outlined and the findings are related to information available from other sources at different times. The nucleus of the comet is described as a triaxial ellipsoid with major axes of 16, 10, and 9 km. The rotation axis is directed towards delta 1950 = -(40 + or - 5) deg and alpha 1950 = (50 + or - 10) deg. The rotation with a period of P = (54 + or - 1) is in a prograde sense with respect to the orbital motion.

Wilhelm, K.↗

NASA NTRS1986

Post-perihelion brightening of Halley's Comet: A case of nuclear summer

Increased brightness and gas production rates for Halley's comet after perihelion are explained as a result of seasonal effects on an obliquely rotating nucleus. The highly eccentric cometary orbit causes a rapid change in solar declination as the comet rounds perihelion, resulting in drastic changes in the insolation reaching the Northern and Southern Hemispheres of the nucleus. The rapid heating of the Northern Hemisphere post-perihelion likely results in substantial cracking of the non-volatile surface crust due to thermal stresses, exposing areas of fresh volatile ices. The orientation of the triaxial ellipsoid nucleus may also play a role in exposing more surface area to continuous sunlight and sublimation after perihelion. Post-perihelion brightening models based on heat flow and storage in sub-surface layers of the nucleus pre-perihelion are likely not viable because of the low thermal conductivities of porous, low density cometary surface materials.

Weissman, Paul R.↗

NASA NTRS1985

Airborne antenna radiation pattern code user's manual

The use of a newly developed computer code to analyze the radiation patterns of antennas mounted on a ellipsoid and in the presence of a set of finite flat plates is described. It is shown how the code allows the user to simulate a wide variety of complex electromagnetic radiation problems using the ellipsoid/plates model. The code has the capacity of calculating radiation patterns around an arbitrary conical cut specified by the user. The organization of the code, definition of input and output data, and numerous practical examples are also presented. The analysis is based on the Uniform Geometrical Theory of Diffraction (UTD), and most of the computed patterns are compared with experimental results to show the accuracy of this solution.

Burnside, Walter D.↗

NASA NTRS1987

Geoid undulation computations at laser tracking stations

Geoid undulation computations were performed at 29 laser stations distributed around the world using a combination of terrestrial gravity data within a cap of radius 2 deg and a potential coefficient set up to 180 deg. The traditional methods of Stokes' and Meissl's modification together with the Molodenskii method and the modified Sjoberg method were applied. Performing numerical tests based on global error assumptions regarding the terrestrial data and the geopotential set it was concluded that the modified Sjoberg method is the most accurate and promising technique for geoid undulation computations. The numerical computations for the geoid undulations using all the four methods resulted in agreement with the ellipsoidal minus orthometric value of the undulations on the order of 60 cm or better for most of the laser stations in the eastern United States, Australia, Japan, Bermuda, and Europe. A systematic discrepancy of about 2 meters for most of the western United States stations was detected and verified by using two relatively independent data sets. For oceanic laser stations in the western Atlantic and Pacific oceans that have no terrestrial data available, the adjusted GEOS-3 and SEASAT altimeter data were used for the computation of the geoid undulation in a collocation method.

Despotakis, Vasilios K.↗

NASA NTRS1986

Bidirectional reflectance modeling of non-homogeneous plant canopies

The objective of this research is to develop a 3-dimensional radiative transfer model for predicting the bidirectional reflectance distribution function (BRDF) for heterogeneous vegetation canopies. Leaf bidirectional reflectance and transmittance distribution functions were measured for corn and soybean leaves. The measurements clearly show that leaves are complex scatterers and considerable specular reflectance is possible. Because of the character of leaf reflectance, true leaf reflectance is larger than the nadir reflectances that are normally used to represent leaves. A 3-dimensional reflectance model, named BIGAR (Bidirectional General Array Model), was developed and compared with measurements from corn and soybean. The model is based on the concept that heterogeneous canopies can be described by a combination of many subcanopies, which contain all the foliage, and these subcanopy envelopes can be characterized by ellipsoids of various sizes and shapes. The model/measurement comparison results indicate that this relatively simple model captures the essential character of row crop BRDF's. Finally, two soil BDRF models were developed: one represents soil particles as rectangular blocks and the other represents soil particles as spheres. The sphere model was found to be superior.

Norman, John M.↗

NASA NTRS1986

Microwave absorption measurements of melting spherical and nonspherical hydrometeors

Measurements were made of the absorption behavior of melting and freezing hydrometeors using resonant cavity perturbation techniques at a wavelength of 2.82 cm. Melting ice spheres with equivalent melted diameters between 1.15 and 2.00 mm exhibit a period of strong absorption during melting as predicted by prior theoretical calculations. However, the measured magnitude of the absorption peak exceeds the predicted value. Absorption measuremets of melting oblate and prolate ice ellipsoids also exhibit enhanced absorption during melting.

Hansman, R. J., Jr.↗

NASA NTRS1986

Speckle interferometry of asteroids. III - 511 Davida and its photometry

Photometric interferometry data on the fifth largest minor planet, 511 Davida, are used to generate orbital elements and physical dimensions. The Seward 2.3 m telescope was employed to obtain the speckle interferometric data. The asteroid was assumed to be a uniform-surfaced triaxial ellipsoid rotating about its shortest axis. A simultaneous amplitude-magnitude aspect method is defined for determining the pole position of the object, which is calculated to be within 4 deg of (307 deg; +32). A weighted amplitude aspect relation provides similar data. The albedos are estimated to lie within the range 0.24-0.42, and an a/b axial ratio of 0.97-1.66 is projected. The variations in the photometric albedos are taken as evidence of a nonuniform surface, a conclusion similar to that reached after earlier photometric measurements of the asteroid Herculina.

Drummond, J. D.↗

NASA NTRS1987

Chemistry-split techniques for viscous reactive blunt body flow computations

The weak-coupling structure between the fluid and species equations has been exploited and resulted in three, closely related, time-iterative implicit techniques. While the primitive variables are solved in two separated groups and each by an Alternating Direction Implicit (ADI) factorization scheme, the rate-species Jacobian can be treated in either full or diagonal matrix form, or simply ignored. The latter two versions render the split technique to solving for species as scalar rather than vector variables. The solution is completed at the end of each iteration after determining temperature and pressure from the flow density, energy and species concentrations. Numerical experimentation has shown that the split scalar technique, using partial rate Jacobian, yields the best overall stability and consistency. Satisfactory viscous solutions were obtained for an ellipsoidal body of axis ratio 3:1 at Mach 35 and an angle of attack of 20 degrees.

Li, C. P.↗

NASA NTRS1986

Small satellites

Satellites smaller than Mimas (r = 195 km) are distinguished by irregular overall shapes and by rough limb topography. Material properties and impact cratering dominate the shaping of these objects. Long fragmentation histories can produce a variety of internal structures, but so far there is no direct evidence that any small satellite is an equilibrium ellipsoid made up of noncohesive gravitationally bound rubble. One many bodies that orbit close to their primary the tidal and rotational components of surface gravity strongly affect the directions of local g and thereby affect the redistribution of regolith by mass wasting. Downslope movement of regolith is extensive on Deimos, and is probably effective on many other small satellites. It is shown that in some cases observed patterns of downslope mass wasting cold produce useful constraints on the satellite's mean density. The diversity of features seen in the few high-resolution images of small satellites currently available suggests that these objects have undergone complex histories of cratering, fragmentation, and regolith evolution.

Thomas, P.↗

NASA NTRS1986

A grazing incidence extreme ultraviolet spectrometer for use with a diverging beam

Attention is given to the 100-350 A performance of a grazing incidence spectrometer configuration that accepts a diverging beam for the conduct of moderate resolution spectroscopy. Assuming a focal ratio of 10 for the diverging beam, the first optic of the configuration is an off-axis ellipsoid that is used at grazing incidence to refocus the diverging beam and increase the focal ratio. A detailed study is made of the performance of a plane, straight-groove, variable-line-space grating; the aberrations are evaluated analytically and verified by geometrical ray tracing. System resolution is a function of telescope image quality. An optimum design is found by varying six parameters and maximizing the average resolution over the bandpass. The spectrometer can be located far from the optical axis, and fed by a small grazing incidence pick-off mirror.

Hurwitz, Mark↗

NASA NTRS1987

The line integral approach to radarclinometry

Advances over previous work in radarclinometry (Wildey, 1984 and 1986) are proposed, including incorporation of a more exact treatment of the dependence on terrain orientation of the solid angle of integration of the microwave specific energy comprising individual pixel power, and the integration of the theory in the cross-ground-range direction. The local curvature hypothesis, making possible formulation of the theory in terms of a line integral, is expanded to include the possibilities of local cylindricity, local biaxial ellipsoidal hyperbolicity, and least-squares local sphericity. It is suggested that the banding noted in topographic maps which are produced on the basis of variation in the proportioning between curvature assumptions may be due to the lack of radiometric calibration.

Wildey, Robert L.↗

NASA NTRS1987

A nonspherically symmetric model for the peculiar A star Alpha-2

Observations show that in the optical region the peculiar A star Alpha-2 CVn has a flatter energy distribution during maximum light than during minimum light. This indicates that during maximum light a lower-temperature region, but necessarily larger surface area, than during minimum light is seen. This suggests a nonspherically symmetric star, which is oblate with respect to the magnetic axis and which is cooler at the magnetic poles than at the magnetic equator. The light variations of such nonspherically symmetric oblique rotator models have been studied. It is found that, for an oblate ellipsoid with an axial ratio of 0.92 and a temperature difference of about 1000 K between the poles and the equator, the overall variations of the optical and the ultraviolet energy distributions can be well understood.

Bohm-Vitense, Erika↗

NASA NTRS1987

Temperature dependence (4K to 300K) of the electrical resistivity of methane grown carbon fibers

Experimental measurements of the electrical resistivity vs temperature of methane vapor grown carbon fibers are presented. The fibers are heat treated from 1100 C (as-grown) to 3000 C. Data are fit to a standard two band model, which yields values for boundary scattering limited electron mobility, in-plane mean free path, energy band overlap, and total carrier density. The data are also fit to an ellipsoidal band model, where data fits yield effective masses, band overlap, Fermi velocity, phonon contributions to scattering, and ionized impurity scattering rates.

Woollam, John A.↗

NASA NTRS1987

Cell model and elastic moduli of disordered solids - Low temperature limit

The cell theory has been previously employed to compute the equation of state of a disordered condensed system. It is now generalized to include anisotropic stresses. The condition of affine deformation is adopted, transforming an orginally spherical into an ellipsoidal cell. With a Lennard-Jones n-m potential between nonbonded centers, the formal expression for the deformational free energy is derived. It is to be evaluated in the limit of the linear elastic range. Since the bulk modulus in this limit is already known, it is convenient to consider a uniaxial deformation. To begin with, restrictions are made to the low-temperature limit in the absence of entropy contributions. Young's modulus and Poisson's ratio then follow.

Peng, S. T. J.↗

NASA NTRS1987

Torsion as a source of expansion in a Bianchi type-I universe in the self-consistent Einstein-Cartan theory of a perfect fluid with spin density

It is shown that a generalized (or 'power law') inflationary phase arises naturally and inevitably in a simple (Bianchi type-I) anisotropic cosmological model in the self-consistent Einstein-Cartan gravitation theory with the improved stress-energy-momentum tensor with the spin density of Ray and Smalley (1982, 1983). This is made explicit by an analytical solution of the field equations of motion of the fluid variables. The inflation is caused by the angular kinetic energy density due to spin. The model further elucidates the relationship between fluid vorticity, the angular velocity of the inertially dragged tetrads, and the precession of the principal axes of the shear ellipsoid. Shear is not effective in damping the inflation.

Bradas, James C.↗