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At least 73 records · Page 4
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
NASA NTRS1972

Optical polarimetric properties of the Echo 2 and PAGEOS 1 engineering surfaces

Experimental investigations of the percent polarization of sunlight reflected from the surfaces of each of the Echo 2 Satellite and PAGEOS (Passive Geodetic Earth Orbiting Satellite) were performed to determine the stability of their surfaces in the space environment. The Echo 2 surface material was amorphous phosphate chemically bonded to a rolled aluminum substrate while the PAGEOS 1 surface material is vapor deposited aluminum on a poly (ethylene terephthalate) film. The stability of the satellites' surfaces was analyzed by comparing the light polarizing properties of the satellites, to those of test surfaces representative of the satellites' surfaces. The properties of flat test surfaces were measured experimentally in the laboratory, and the effects of surface strain, surface geometry, and vacuum upon these properties were examined. The laboratory analyses revealed that the polarization properties of the Echo 2 surface were significantly affected by surface geometry and vacuum, and that the properties of the PAGEOS 1 surface were not significantly altered by any of the above mechanisms.

Lee, R. B., III↗
NASA NTRS1972

Middle ear muscle contractions and their relation to pulse and echo evoked potentials in the bat

An analysis is made of pulse and echo orientation cries of the Mustache Bat. That bat's cries are characterized by a long, 60 to 30 msec, pure tone component and brief beginning and terminal FM sweeps. In addition to obvious echo overlap and middle ear muscle contractions, the following are examined: (1) characteristics of pulse- and echo-evoked potential under various conditions, (2) evidence of changes in hearing sensitivity during and after pulse emission, and (3) the role of the middle ear muscles in bringing about these changes.

Henson, O. W., Jr.↗
NASA NTRS1977

Thunderstorm-scale variations of echoes associated with left-turn tornado families

The origin of tornadoes is studied on the basis of changing radar echo shapes and tornado location relative to the echoes. Three types of tornadoes appear to be associated with different hook echo configurations. No-turn or right-turn tornadoes are linked to a steady hook which does not change shape or orientation. Left-turn tornado families are generated in cases where the hook is unsteady and changes orientation at each successive tornado birth. Finally, left-turn tornado families may also be formed when the hook undergoes no orientation change and the tornadoes move along the rear of the hook. The correlation between a thunderstorm-scale cycle and periodic tornado production is also discussed.

Forbes, G. S.↗
NASA NTRS1980

Spectral parameter estimation of CAT radar echoes in the presence of fading clutter

The analysis technique and a part of the results obtained from CAT radar echoes from higher troposphere and lower stratosphere are presented. First, the effect of processing distortion caused by the periodogram method using FFT algorithm on the slowly fading ground clutter echo is discussed. It is shown that an extremely narrow clutter spectrum can spill over the entire frequency range if the data are truncated at a tie sorter than their correlation time affecting largely the estimation of the CAT spectrum contribution, especially when the latter is a few tens of dB weaker than the former. A nonlinear least squares fitting procedure is used to parameterize the observed power spectrum in terms of CAT echo power, Doppler shift, spectral width, and the parameters which specify the shape of the clutter component.

Sato, T.↗
NASA NTRS1983

Properties of echo spectra observed by MST radars

Turbulent scatter and Fresnel reflection are the fundamental echoing mechanisms to interpret the signals observed by Mesosphere-stratosphere-troposphere (MST) radars. Turbulent scattered echoes provide information about the turbulence structure and mean flow of the atmosphere. Observational results with VHF MST radars, however, show the importance of Fresnel reflection due to the infinite gradient of reflectivity at the edges of a scattering layer. This condition is excluded for the weak fluctuation models but it is still possible to include the observed aspect sensitivity by assuming an anisotropic structure of fluctuations. Another explanation of the aspect sensitivity observed by MST radars is advanced. Spectral estimates by the widely used periodogram were related to a four-dimensional spectrum of atmospheric fluctuations with anisotropic structure. Effects of the radar system such as antenna beam width, beam direction and Fast Fourier Transformations (FFT) data length were discussed for the anisotropic turbulent atmosphere. Echo parameters were also estimated.

Wakasugi, K.↗
NASA NTRS1984

Radar echoes at 2.66 and 40.92 MHz from the mesosphere, part 2.6A

During recent decades, the ionospheric D region has been scanned extensively by radar in the frequency range from 1 to 60 MHz. Progress has been made in understanding the reflection/scattering of radio waves in that area. Rocket measurement of ion density irregularities were compared to radar echo observations at 2.75 MHz with the conclusion that the received radar signal was due to scattering from isotropic and homogeneous turbulence in the altitude region between 70 and 95 km. However, scattering cross sections at 2 and 6 mHz suggest that the radar echo from the region below 80 km is in part due to partial reflection from stratified layers. The VHF scattering cross section is aspect sensitive in the D region below about 75 km and tends to be isotropic at higher altitudes. Positive correlations between scattered signal power and signal correlation time (P/C) have been observed by VHF radars in the lower mesosphere, with the conclusion that it might be an additional indication of partial reflection from stratified layers. In the upper mesosphere where the P/C correlation is negative, it is generally believed that the scattering is caused by isotropic turbulence. Radar echoes at the 2.16 and 40.92 MHz ranges are compared, assuming that both result from turbulent scatter. Adjusting the radar Bragg wavelength, it was found that both sets are due to scattering from the same layer of turbulence-generated irregularities.

Royrvik, O.↗
NASA NTRS1985

The infrared echo of Type II supernovae with circumstellar dust shells. II - A probe into the presupernova evolution of the progenitor star

This paper studies the spectral appearance and evolution of the infrared light curve, also referred to as the infrared echo, of Type II supernovae embedded in carbon- or oxygen-rich circumstellar dust shells. The distinct spectral signature of the echo and its temporal evolution can be used to estimate the mass of the shell and identify the composition of the dust. Since the shell mass and dust composition are determined by the combined effect of stellar mass loss and the dredging of newly synthesized heavy elements to the stellar surface, observations of the infrared echo may provide useful clues to the presupernova evolution of the progenitor star.

Dwek, E.↗
NASA NTRS1986

Application of the cepstrum to remove echoes from rotor acoustic spectra

The application of the power cepstrum technique to the analysis of model scale helicopter rotor noise spectra is investigated. The power cepstrum technique emerges as a useful tool for the removal of undesired acoustic reflections from measured rotor spectra. It is most effective when the reflections are exact duplicates of the signal, i.e., when the echo transfer function is linear. Moreover, the technique is best applied to a measured spectrum which is due entirely to the signal and its echoes, when no nonsource related signals are present. It is noted that this technique can be applied without prior knowledge of the echo characteristics.

Martin, R. M.↗
NASA NTRS1987

Light echoes - Supernovae 1987A and 1986G

The sudden brilliance of a supernova (SN) eruption will be reflected on surrounding dust grains to create a phantom nebula. The paper presents a series of calculations in which the apparent brightness of this 'light echo' is predicted for a variety of situations where the dust is part of the interstellar medium (ISM). It is found that the supernova 1987 A will have a very bright echo off the ISM that may perhaps be visible with binoculars for many years. At a time of 400 days past maximum, the SN 1986G is found to be 2.7 mag brighter than would be predicted by an extrapolation of its light curve. This unique property has an easy explanation as a light echo off the dust in the dust lane of Cen A.

Schaefer, Bradley E.↗
NASA NTRS1993

Searching gamma-ray bursts for gravitational lensing echoes - Implications for compact dark matter

The first available 44 gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) detected by the Burst and Transient Source Experiment on board the Compton Gamma-Ray Observatory have been inspected for echo signals following shortly after the main signal. No significant echoes have been found. Echoes would have been expected were the GRBs distant enough and the universe populated with a sufficient density of compact objects composing the dark matter. Constraints on dark matter abundance and GRB redshifts from the present data are presented and discussed. Based on these preliminary results, a universe filled to critical density of compact objects between 10 exp 6.5 and 10 exp 8.1 solar masses are now marginally excluded, or the most likely cosmological distance paradigm for GRBs is not correct. We expect future constraints to be able either to test currently popular cosmological dark matter paradigms or to indicate that GRBs do not lie at cosmological distances.

Nemiroff, R. J.↗
NASA NTRS1993

A high quality voice coder with integrated echo canceller and voice activity detector for mobile satellite applications

In the last decade, low bit rate speech coding research has received much attention resulting in newly developed, good quality, speech coders operating at as low as 4.8 Kb/s. Although speech quality at around 8 Kb/s is acceptable for a wide variety of applications, at 4.8 Kb/s more improvements in quality are necessary to make it acceptable to the majority of applications and users. In addition to the required low bit rate with acceptable speech quality, other facilities such as integrated digital echo cancellation and voice activity detection are now becoming necessary to provide a cost effective and compact solution. In this paper we describe a CELP speech coder with integrated echo canceller and a voice activity detector all of which have been implemented on a single DSP32C with 32 KBytes of SRAM. The quality of CELP coded speech has been improved significantly by a new codebook implementation which also simplifies the encoder/decoder complexity making room for the integration of a 64-tap echo canceller together with a voice activity detector.

Kondoz, A. M.↗
NASA NTRS1994

An in situ evaluation of TOPEX/Poseidon altimetric measurements versus meaurements made by moorings and inverted echo sounders for sea surface height

The classical method of observing the sea surface height has been to make shipboard measurements of the vertical - density profile, and then calculating the surface height relative to a deeper reference surface. Two methods (a moored vertical string of instruments and an inverted echo sounder) were subsequently developed to obtain longer time in situ measurements. The first of these can be thought of as an extension of the discrete bottle hydrocast while the second integrates acoustically over the water column. One purpose of this note is to compare the result when coincidental observations are made by these two methods. This was done at two sites in the western tropical Pacific. Two inverted echo sounders were deployed alongside two enhanced TOGA-COARE moorings to be used in an in situ evaluation of TOPEX/Poseidon altimetric measurements of sea surface height. The mooring and inverted echo sounder data reproduced one another, at low frequency, with a correlation of 0.93 and 0.95 and the altimeter correlated with each of the above values ranging from 0.84 to 0.94. It is concluded that the altimetric measurements are statistically equivalent to the in situ measurements in the area of study.

Source record↗
NASA NTRS1995

Pulse-echo ultrasonic imaging method for eliminating sample thickness variation effects

A pulse-echo, immersion method for ultrasonic evaluation of a material is discussed. It accounts for and eliminates nonlevelness in the equipment set-up and sample thickness variation effects employs a single transducer, automatic scanning and digital imaging to obtain an image of a property of the material, such as pore fraction. The nonlevelness and thickness variation effects are accounted for by pre-scan adjusments of the time window to insure that the echoes received at each scan point are gated in the center of the window. This information is input into the scan file so that, during the automatic scanning for the material evaluation, each received echo is centered in its time window. A cross-correlation function calculates the velocity at each scan point, which is then proportionalized to a color or grey scale and displayed on a video screen.

Roth, Don J.↗
NASA NTRS1997

Pulse-Echo Ultrasonic Imaging Method for Eliminating Sample Thickness Variation Effects

A pulse-echo, immersion method for ultrasonic evaluation of a material which accounts for and eliminates nonlevelness in the equipment set-up and sample thickness variation effects employs a single transducer and automatic scanning and digital imaging to obtain an image of a property of the material, such as pore fraction. The nonlevelness and thickness variation effects are accounted for by pre-scan adjustments of the time window to insure that the echoes received at each scan point are gated in the center of the window. This information is input into the scan file so that, during the automatic scanning for the material evaluation, each received echo is centered in its time window. A cross-correlation function calculates the velocity at each scan point, which is then proportionalized to a color or grey scale and displayed on a video screen.

Roth, Don J.↗
NASA NTRS2004

Echo Mapping of Active Galactic Nuclei

Echo mapping makes use of the intrinsic variability of the continuum source in active galactic nuclei to map out the distribution and kinematics of line-emitting gas from its light travel time-delayed response to continuum changes. Echo mapping experiments have yielded sizes for the broad line-emitting region in about three dozen AGNs. The dynamics of the line-emitting gas seem to be dominated by the gravity of the central black hole, enabling measurement of the black-hole masses in AGNs. We discuss requirements for future echo-mapping experiments that will yield the high quality velocity-delay maps of the broad-line region that are needed to determine its physical nature.

Peterson, B. M.↗
NASA NTRS2006

The Echoes of Earth Science

NASA s Earth Observing System Data and Information System (EOSDIS) acquires, archives, and manages data from all of NASA s Earth science satellites, for the benefit of the Space Agency and for the benefit of others, including local governments, first responders, the commercial remote sensing industry, teachers, museums, and the general public. EOSDIS is currently handling an extraordinary amount of NASA scientific data. To give an idea of the volume of information it receives, NASA s Terra Earth-observing satellite, just one of many NASA satellites sending down data, sends it hundreds of gigabytes a day, almost as much data as the Hubble Space Telescope acquires in an entire year, or about equal to the amount of information that could be found in hundreds of pickup trucks filled with books. To make EOSDIS data completely accessible to the Earth science community, NASA teamed up with private industry in 2000 to develop an Earth science "marketplace" registry that lets public users quickly drill down to the exact information they need. It also enables them to publish their research and resources alongside of NASA s research and resources. This registry is known as the Earth Observing System ClearingHOuse, or ECHO. The charter for this project focused on having an infrastructure completely independent from EOSDIS that would allow for more contributors and open up additional data access options. Accordingly, it is only fitting that the term ECHO is more than just an acronym; it represents the functionality of the system in that it can echo out and create interoperability among other systems, all while maturing with time as industry technologies and standards change and improve.

Source record↗
NASA NTRS2008

Daytime Observations of Mid-Latitude Sporadic-E and QP Radar Echoes

Although sporadic-E layers and quasi-periodic (QP) radars are typically detected during nighttime conditions at mid-latitudes, they also may exist in the daytime lower ionosphere as well. We present observations of ionosonde observations of daytime sporadic-E layers gathered at the Wallops Flight Facility, Virginia, in the late morning to noon local times. The data reveal sporadic-E characteristics similar to nighttime observations including considerable variations in frequency and altitude. For one event, observed on 23 July 1999 near 14 U.T. (10 L.T.), we present coincident strong Wallops ionosonde sporadic-E observations and SOMHz backscatter radar observations of quasi-periodic echoes gathered with the University of Illinois radar situated at Ft. Macon, N.C., whose beam was perpendicular to the magnetic field in the lower E-region over Wallops. The radar data show daytime QP structuring that is very similar to the nighttime observations, suggesting a similar driving mechanism. A statistical survey of the daytime ionogram data at Wallops shows a preponderance of daytime sporadic-E events occurring during the local summer months, a seasonal dependence that is well-established for nighttime sporadic-E conditions in the northern hemisphere. No clear correlation is observed between the daytime sporadic- E events and magnetic storms, suggesting that the daytime sporadic-E events are not necessarily driven by the disturbance dynamo. Rather, we speculate that the same large wind shears that are believed to be the main engine for the nighttime sporadic-E and QP echoes, may also be at work during the daytime. The existence of enhanced plasma density layers during the daytime and their role in generating QP-echoes during the day remain open questions.

Pfaff, Robert↗
NASA NTRS2011

Meteoroid Fragmentation as Revealed in Head- and Trail-Echoes Observed with the Arecibo UHF and VHF Radars

We report recent 46.8/430 MHz (VHF/UHF) radar meteor observations at Arecibo Observatory (AO) that reveal many previously unreported features in the radar meteor return - including flare-trails at both UHF and VHF - that are consistent with meteoroid fragmentation. Signature features of fragmentation include strong intra-pulse and pulse-to-pulse fading as the result of interference between or among multiple meteor head-echo returns and between head-echo and impulsive flare or "point" trail-echoes. That strong interference fading occurs implies that these scatterers exhibit well defined phase centers and are thus small compared with the wavelength. These results are consistent with and offer advances beyond a long history of optical and radar meteoroid fragmentation studies. Further, at AO, fragmenting and flare events are found to be a large fraction of the total events even though these meteoroids are likely the smallest observed by the major radars. Fragmentation is found to be a major though not dominate component of the meteors observed at other HPLA radars that are sensitive to larger meteoroids.

Mathews, J. D.↗