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NASA NTRS1996

A Compact Prototype of an Optical Pattern Recognition System

In the Technology 2006 Case Studies/Success Stories presentation, we will describe and demonstrate a prototype of a compact optical pattern recognition system as an example of a successful technology transfer and continuuing development of state-of-the-art know-how by the close collaboration among government, academia, and small business via the NASA SBIR program. The prototype consists of a complete set of optical pattern recognition hardware with multi-channel storage and retrieval capability that is compactly configured inside a portable 1'X 2'X 3' aluminum case.

MSF↗

NASA NTRS2019

Remote Sensing of Solar-Induced Chlorophyll Fluorescence (SIF) in Vegetation: 50 Years of Progress

Remote sensing of solar-induced chlorophyll fluorescence (SIF) is a rapidly advancing front in terrestrial vegetation science, with emerging capability in space-based methodologies and diverse application prospects. Although remote sensing of SIF – especially from space – is seen as a contemporary new specialty for terrestrial plants, it is founded upon a multi-decadal history of research, applications, and sensor developments in active and passive sensing of chlorophyll fluorescence. Current technical capabilities allow SIF to be measured across a range of biological, spatial, and temporal scales. As an optical signal, SIF may be assessed remotely using highly-resolved spectral sensors and state-of-the-art algorithms to distinguish the emission from reflected and/or scattered ambient light. Because the red to far-red SIF emission is detectable non-invasively, it may be sampled repeatedly to acquire spatio-temporally explicit information about photosynthetic light responses and steady-state behaviour in vegetation. Progress in this field is accelerating with innovative sensor developments, retrieval methods, and modelling advances. This review distills the historical and current developments spanning the last several decades. It highlights SIF heritage and complementarity within the broader field of fluorescence science, the maturation of physiological and radiative transfer modelling, SIF signal retrieval strategies, techniques for field and airborne sensing, advances in satellite-based systems, and applications of these capabilities in evaluation of photosynthesis and stress effects. Progress, challenges, and future directions are considered for this unique avenue of remote sensing.

Review↗

NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Flow Characterization of the NASA Langley Unitary Plan Wind Tunnel, Test Section 2: Computational Results

This is an abstract for an invited paper at the AIAA Aviation Conference, June 2021. The work described here is part of an effort of coordinated experiments in the Unitary Plan Wind Tunnel (UPWT) facility at the NASA Langley Research Center (LaRC) and matching CFD simulations. The primary goal of the work is to assess the productivity and true predictive accuracy of CFD, absent any guidance from experiment, in the high supersonic speed range as compared to experiments performed at the NASA LaRC’s UPWT facility. This report concerns CFD simulation of the primary flow-path in the empty wind tunnel, including the settling chamber, nozzle, test section, and some of the tunnel downstream of the test section. The Mach number in the test section ranges from M~2.4 to M~4.6, and the required area ratio variation is achieved by translation of a nozzle block which constricts the area of a loosely S-shaped throat. Flow past protuberances in the settling chamber and into this S-bend throat are predicted by CFD to generate streamwise vorticity that may, or may not, persist through the throat and into the test section as coherent vortices. Some flow conditions are notably unsteady at frequencies well below those of turbulence, due to unsteady separated flow ahead of the nozzle block. The bulk flow moves at velocities ranging from 'walking speed' in the settling chamber to M~4.6 in the test section. Heat transfer to the settling chamber walls and buoyancy are significant at high Mach number. Subtle variations in surface curvature in the nozzle generate Mach waves that propagate into the test section. CFD of the empty tunnel serves two purposes. Firstly, the full-tunnel simulations are used to provide upstream boundary conditions for CFD of vehicle aerodynamics which are generally performed in a domain confined to the wind tunnel test section; these companion studies are addressed in other papers. Secondly, it is a challenging test for CFD to resolve all of the empty tunnel flow phenomena relevant to flow in the test section. It requires a more complete definition of geometry than was originally anticipated. In addition, it requires good spatial and temporal accuracy, and turbulence modeling that performs well on specific phenomena such as corner flows. The boundary conditions and solution algorithms must perform well from incompressible to almost hypersonic speeds. The final state of the pre-test CFD was a product of an iterative self-improvement process. The initial simulations of the empty tunnel were deficient in many respects, but hints to those deficiencies were recognized in the solutions, and remedies were implemented. Possible further improvements will be studied in the post-test phase when comparisons with experimental data are possible. The CFD was performed by five separate collaborative teams using four different flow solvers: FUN3D, Overflow, Star-CCM+ and USM3D. The level of effort of these teams varied significantly, but each made important contributions to the goals of the work. A concerted effort to use uncertainty quantification methods (UQ) in CFD is also a goal of this work. To this end, variations in CFD results due to grid refinement, turbulence modeling, and boundary conditions have been characterized. Code-to-code variation is another means of assessing CFD uncertainty. All CFD solvers predict similarity among the primary flow features; these include the variation of Mach number due to changes in Reynolds number, and the bulk flow angularity due to tunnel-wall curvature. All CFD solvers also predict similar trends in secondary flows, such as the downwash in the side-wall boundary layers. Three of the high-spatial resolution simulations give similar predictions of a complex secondary flow phenomena, streamwise vortices generated in the S-bend throat that persist into the side-wall boundary layers of the test section. Two of the highest-resolution simulations, run with the same turbulence model in different CFD solvers, gave encouragingly similar predictions of a complex tertiary flow phenomenon, small transient "sprites" of upwash flows, resulting from vortices that presumably originate in the separated flow near the leading edge of the nozzle block. While the CFD was done in a "blind pre-test" mode, requests from the experimental team for CFD results pertaining to unsteadiness and total temperature variations in the test section resulted in CFD runs that included a cooled wall in settling chamber. This then led to a change in the standard practice for running the Overflow results, which would not have occurred without this "release" of this experimental information. CFD was also used to guide some measurements. The paper will focus on establishing the consensus among CFD results and understanding differences among those results. Initial findings from the efforts to characterize CFD uncertainty have been done and will be included in the paper.

Robert Edward Childs↗

NASA NTRS1999

Solar Radiation and Cloud Radiative Forcing in the Pacific Warm Pool Estimated Using TOGA COARE Measurements

The energy budget of the tropical western Pacific (TWP) is particularly important because this is one of the most energetic convection regions on the Earth. Nearly half of the solar radiation incident at the top of atmosphere is absorbed at the surface and only about 22% absorbed in the atmosphere. A large portion of the excess heat absorbed at the surface is transferred to the atmosphere through evaporation, which provides energy and water for convection and precipitation. The western equatorial Pacific is characterized by the highest sea surface temperature (SST) and heaviest rainfall in the world ocean. A small variation of SST associated with the eastward shift of the warm pool during El-Nino/Souther Oscillation changes the atmospheric circulation pattern and affects the global climate. In a study of the TWP surface heat and momentum fluxes during the Tropical Ocean and Global Atmosphere Coupled Ocean-Atmosphere Response Experiment (TOGA COARE) Intensive observing period (IOP) from November 1992 to February have found that the solar radiation is the most important component of the surface energy budget, which undergoes significant temporal and spatial variation. The variations are influenced by the two 40-50 days Madden Julian Oscillations (MJOs) which propagated eastward from the Indian Ocean to the Central Pacific during the IOP. The TWP surface solar radiation during the COARE IOP was investigated by a number of studies. In addition, the effects of clouds on the solar heating of the atmosphere in the TWP was studied using energy budget analysis. In this study, we present some results of the TWP surface solar shortwave or SW radiation budget and the effect of clouds on the atmospheric solar heating using the surface radiation measurements and Japan's Geostationary Meteorological Satellite 4 radiance measurements during COARE IOP.

Chou, Ming-Dah↗

NASA NTRS1997

The Aggregate Description of Semi-Arid Vegetation with Precipitation-Generated Soil Moisture Heterogeneity

Meteorological measurements in the Walnut Gulch catchment in Arizona were used to synthesize a distributed, hourly-average time series of data across a 26.9 by 12.5 km area with a grid resolution of 480 m for a continuous 18-month period which included two seasons of monsoonal rainfall. Coupled surface-atmosphere model runs established the acceptability (for modelling purposes) of assuming uniformity in all meteorological variables other than rainfall. Rainfall was interpolated onto the grid from an array of 82 recording rain gauges. These meteorological data were used as forcing variables for an equivalent array of stand-alone Biosphere-Atmosphere Transfer Scheme (BATS) models to describe the evolution of soil moisture and surface energy fluxes in response to the prevalent, heterogeneous pattern of convective precipitation. The calculated area-average behaviour was compared with that given by a single aggregate BATS simulation forced with area-average meteorological data. Heterogeneous rainfall gives rise to significant but partly compensating differences in the transpiration and the intercepted rainfall components of total evaporation during rain storms. However, the calculated area-average surface energy fluxes given by the two simulations in rain-free conditions with strong heterogeneity in soil moisture were always close to identical, a result which is independent of whether default or site-specific vegetation and soil parameters were used. Because the spatial variability in soil moisture throughout the catchment has the same order of magnitude as the amount of rain failing in a typical convective storm (commonly 10% of the vegetation's root zone saturation) in a semi-arid environment, non-linearitv in the relationship between transpiration and the soil moisture available to the vegetation has limited influence on area-average surface fluxes.

White, Cary B.↗

NASA NTRS1990

Hypervelocity atmospheric flight: Real gas flow fields

Flight in the atmosphere is examined from the viewpoint of including real gas phenomena in the flow field about a vehicle flying at hypervelocity. That is to say, the flow field is subject not only to compressible phenomena, but is dominated by energetic phenomena. There are several significant features of such a flow field. Spatially, its composition can vary by both chemical and elemental species. The equations which describe the flow field include equations of state and mass, species, elemental, and electric charge continuity; momentum; and energy equations. These are nonlinear, coupled, partial differential equations that were reduced to a relatively compact set of equations of a self-consistent manner (which allows mass addition at the surface at a rate comparable to the free-stream mass flux). The equations and their inputs allow for transport of these quantities relative to the mass-averaged behavior of the flow field. Thus transport of mass by chemical, thermal, pressure, and forced diffusion; transport of momentum by viscosity; and transport of energy by conduction, chemical considerations, viscosity, and radiative transfer are included. The last of these complicate the set of equations by making the energy equation a partial integrodifferential equation. Each phenomenon is considered and represented mathematically by one or more developments. The coefficients which pertain are both thermodynamically and chemically dependent. Solutions of the equations are presented and discussed in considerable detail, with emphasis on severe energetic flow fields. For hypervelocity flight in low-density environments where gaseous reactions proceed at finite rates, chemical nonequilibrium is considered and some illustrations are presented. Finally, flight where the flow field may be out of equilibrium, both chemically and thermodynamically, is presented briefly.

Howe, John T.↗

NASA NTRS2006

Detection of Ice Polar Stratospheric Clouds from Assimilation of Atmospheric Infrared Sounder Data

A novel technique is presented for detection of ice polar stratospheric clouds (PSCs) that form at extremely low temperatures in the lower polar stratosphere during winter. Temperature is a major factor in determining abundance of PSCs, which in turn provide surfaces for heterogeneous chemical reactions leading to ozone loss and radiative cooling. The technique infers the presence of ice PSCs using radiances from the Atmospheric Infrared Sounder (AIRS) in the Goddard Earth Observing System version 5 (GEOS-5) data assimilation system. Brightness temperatures are computed from short-term GEOS-5 forecasts for several hundred AIRS channels, using a radiation transfer module. The differences between collocated AIRS observations and these computed values are the observed-minus-forecast (O-F) residuals in the assimilation system. Because the radiation model assumes clear-sky conditions, we hypothesize that these O-F residuals contain quantitative information about PSCs. This is confirmed using sparse data from the Polar Ozone and Aerosol Measurement (POAM) III occultation instrument. The analysis focuses on 0-F residuals for the 6.79pm AIRS moisture channel. At coincident locations, when POAM III detects ice clouds, the AIRS O-F residuals for this channel are lower than -2K. When no ice PSCs are evident in POAM III data, the AIRS 0-F residuals are larger. Given this relationship, the high spatial density of AIRS data is used to construct maps of regions where 0-F residuals are lower than -2K, as a proxy for ice PSCs. The spatial scales and spatio-temporal variations of these PSCs in the Antarctic and Arctic are discussed on the basis of these maps.

Stajner, Ivanka↗

NASA NTRS1976

Radiative transfer in circumstellar dust shells

An iterative numerical procedure is developed to calculate the radiation field as a function of position, direction, and wavelength within a spherically symmetric circumstellar dust shell. The dust shell is assumed to consist of gray, isotropically scattering dust particles in thermal equilibrium with the radiation field and to be characterized by seven parameters: radius of the central star, inner radius of the shell, outer radius of the shell, total optical depth of the shell, an index which specifies the density distribution, albedo of the dust particles, and temperature of the central star. When the shell is close to the star, the angular distribution of the stellar component of the radiation field is determined by direct integration along lines of sight to the stellar surface, and the back-warming effect of the shell is included in the calculations to determine the net stellar flux. Using this procedure, the temperature distributions and radiation fields within several model dust shells are determined and used to calculate for each shell the spectral-energy and spatial-energy distributions of the radiation emitted at 11 wavelengths from 0.4 to 20 microns. For shells of moderate optical depth, it is found that the radiation field is quite anisotropic, especially at shorter wavelengths, and that the shape of the spectral-energy distribution is strongly dependent on all seven model parameters. The Eddington factor as a function of wavelength and optical depth is calculated for each model.

Harvel, C. A.↗

NASA NTRS1987

Combined optimization of image-gathering and image-processing systems for scene feature detection

The relationship between the image gathering and image processing systems for minimum mean squared error estimation of scene characteristics is investigated. A stochastic optimization problem is formulated where the objective is to determine a spatial characteristic of the scene rather than a feature of the already blurred, sampled and noisy image data. An analytical solution for the optimal characteristic image processor is developed. The Wiener filter for the sampled image case is obtained as a special case, where the desired characteristic is scene restoration. Optimal edge detection is investigated using the Laplacian operator x G as the desired characteristic, where G is a two dimensional Gaussian distribution function. It is shown that the optimal edge detector compensates for the blurring introduced by the image gathering optics, and notably, that it is not circularly symmetric. The lack of circular symmetry is largely due to the geometric effects of the sampling lattice used in image acquisition. The optimal image gathering optical transfer function is also investigated and the results of a sensitivity analysis are shown.

Halyo, Nesim↗

NASA NTRS1989

Hypervelocity atmospheric flight: Real gas flow fields

Flight in the atmosphere is examined from the viewpoint of including real gas phenomena in the flow field about a vehicle flying at hypervelocity. That is to say, the flow field is subject not only to compressible phenomena, but is dominated by energetic phenomena. There are several significant features of such a flow field. Spatially, its composition can vary by both chemical and elemental species. The equations which describe the flow field include equations of state and mass, species, elemental, and electric charge continuity; momentum; and energy equations. These are nonlinear, coupled, partial differential equations that have been reduced to a relatively compact set of equations in a self-consistent manner (which allows mass addition at the surface at a rate comparable to the free-stream mass flux). The equations and their inputs allow for transport of these quantities relative to the mass-average behavior of the flow field. Thus transport of mass by chemical, thermal, pressure, and forced diffusion; transport of momentum by viscosity; and transport of energy by conduction, chemical considerations, viscosity, and radiative transfer are included. The last of these complicate the set of equations by making the energy equations a partial integrodifferential equation. Each phenomenon is considered and represented mathematically by one or more developments. The coefficients which pertain are both thermodynamically and chemically dependent. Solutions of the equations are presented and discussed in considerable detail, with emphasis on severe energetic flow fields. Hypervelocity flight in low-density environments where gaseous reactions proceed at finite rates chemical nonequilibrium is considered, and some illustrations are presented. Finally, flight where the flow field may be out of equilibrium, both chemically and thermodynamically, is presented briefly.

Howe, John T.↗

NASA NTRS1994

Heavy ion action on single cells: Cellular inactivation capability of single accelerated heavy ions

Heavy ions (HZE-particles) constitute an important part of radiation in space. Although their number is small the high amount of energy transferred by individual particles may cause severe biological effects. Their investigation requires special techniques which were tested by experiments performed at the UNILAC at the GSI (Darmstadt). Diploid yeast was used which is a suitable eucaryotic test system because of its resistance to extreme conditions like dryness and vacuum. Cells were placed on nuclear track detector foils and exposed to ions of different atomic number and energy. To assess the action of one single ion on an individual cell, track parameters and the respective colony forming abilities (CFA) were determined with the help of computer aided image analysis. There is mounting evidence that not only the amount of energy deposited along the particle path, commonly given by the LET, is of importance but also the spatial problem of energy deposition at a submicroscopical scale. It is virtually impossible to investigate track structure effects in detail with whole cell populations and (globally applied) high particle fluences. It is, therefore, necessary to detect the action of simple ions in individual cells. The results show that the biological action depends on atomic number and specific energy of the impinging ions, which can be compared with model calculations of recent track structure models.

Kost, M.↗

NASA NTRS1999

Interplanetary Microlaser Transponders

The feasibility of an asynchronous (i.e. independently firing) interplanetary laser transponder, capable of ranging between Earth and Mars and using the automated SLR2000 Satellite Laser Ranging (SLR) system as an Earth base station, has been suggested. Since that time, we have received a small amount of discretionary funding to further explore the transponder concept and to develop and test an engineering breadboard. Candidate operational scenarios for acquiring and tracking the opposite laser terminal over interplanetary distances have been developed, and breadboard engineering parameters were chosen to reflect the requirements of an Earth-Mars link Laboratory tests have been devised to simulate the Earth- Mars link between two independent SLR2000 transceivers and to demonstrate the transfer of range and time in single photon mode. The present paper reviews the concept of the asynchronous microlaser transponder, the transponder breadboard design, an operational scenario recently developed for an asteroid rendezvous, and the laboratory test setup. The optical head of the transponder breadboard fits within a cylinder roughly 15 cm in diameter and 32 cm in length and is mounted in a commercial two axis gimbal driven by two computer-controlled stepper motors which allows the receiver optical axis to be centered on a simulated Earth image. The optical head is built around a small optical bench which supports a 14.7 cm diameter refractive telescope, a prototype 2 kHz SLR2000 microlaser transmitter, a quadrant microchannel plate photomultiplier (MCP/PMT), a CCD array camera, spatial and spectral filters, assorted lenses and mirrors, and protective covers and sun shields. The microlaser is end-pumped by a fiber-coupled diode laser array. An annular mirror is employed as a passive transmit/receive (T/R) switch in an aperture-sharing arrangement wherein the transmitted beam passes through the central hole and illuminates only the central 2.5 cm of the common telescope (adequate to achieve a 10 arcsecond full laser beam divergence) while the receiver uses the remainder of the 14.7 cm aperture. Additional electronic instrumentation includes the diode pump array and associated heat sink and current drivers, rubidium frequency standard, timing distribution module, range gate generator, a recently developed all-digital correlation range receiver, and system computer. Acquisition of the opposite transponder terminal requires a search within a three-dimensional volume determined by the initial pointing uncertainty and a maximum 500 microsecond uncertainty in the laser time of fire at the opposite terminal for totally uncorrelated Earth and spacecraft clocks. The angular search is aided by a sensitive CCD array capable of imaging the Earth, Moon, and surrounding stars within the nominal + 0.5 degree cone of uncertainty associated with the initial pointing of a spacecraft body or microwave communications dish.

Degnan, John J.↗

NASA NTRS2006

An Initial Non-Equilibrium Porous-Media Model for CFD Simulation of Stirling Regenerators

The objective of this paper is to define empirical parameters (or closwre models) for an initial thermai non-equilibrium porous-media model for use in Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) codes for simulation of Stirling regenerators. The two CFD codes currently being used at Glenn Research Center (GRC) for Stirling engine modeling are Fluent and CFD-ACE. The porous-media models available in each of these codes are equilibrium models, which assmne that the solid matrix and the fluid are in thermal equilibrium at each spatial location within the porous medium. This is believed to be a poor assumption for the oscillating-flow environment within Stirling regenerators; Stirling 1-D regenerator models, used in Stirling design, we non-equilibrium regenerator models and suggest regenerator matrix and gas average temperatures can differ by several degrees at a given axial location end time during the cycle. A NASA regenerator research grant has been providing experimental and computational results to support definition of various empirical coefficients needed in defining a noa-equilibrium, macroscopic, porous-media model (i.e., to define "closure" relations). The grant effort is being led by Cleveland State University, with subcontractor assistance from the University of Minnesota, Gedeon Associates, and Sunpower, Inc. Friction-factor and heat-transfer correlations based on data taken with the NASAlSunpower oscillating-flow test rig also provide experimentally based correlations that are useful in defining parameters for the porous-media model; these correlations are documented in Gedeon Associates' Sage Stirling-Code Manuals. These sources of experimentally based information were used to define the following terms and parameters needed in the non-equilibrium porous-media model: hydrodynamic dispersion, permeability, inertial coefficient, fluid effective thermal conductivity (including themal dispersion and estimate of tortuosity effects}, and fluid-solid heat transfer coefficient. Solid effective thermal conductivity (including the effect of tortuosity) was also estimated. Determination of the porous-media model parameters was based on planned use in a CFD model of Infinia's Stirling Technology Demonstration Convertor (TDC), which uses a random-fiber regenerator matrix. The non-equilibrium porous-media model presented is considered to be an initial, or "draft," model for possible incorporation in commercial CFD codes, with the expectation that the empirical parameters will likely need to be updated once resulting Stirling CFD model regenerator and engine results have been analyzed. The emphasis of the paper is on use of available data to define empirical parameters (and closure models) needed in a thermal non-equilibrium porous-media model for Stirling regenerator simulation. Such a model has not yet been implemented by the authors or their associates. However, it is anticipated that a thermal non-equilibrium model such as that presented here, when iacorporated in the CFD codes, will improve our ability to accurately model Stirling regenerators with CFD relative to current thermal-equilibrium porous-media models.

Tew, Roy↗

NASA NTRS2013

The 0.5-2.22 micrometer Scattered Light Spectrum of the Disk around TW Hya: Detection of a Partially Filled Disk Gap at 80 AU*

We present a 0.5-2.2 micrometer scattered light spectrum of the circumstellar disk around TW Hya from a combination of spatially resolved Hubble Space Telescope STIS spectroscopy and NICMOS coronagraphic images of the disk. We investigate the morphology of the disk at distances greater than 40 AU over this wide range of wavelengths, and identify the presence of a depression in surface brightness at approximately 80 AU that could be caused by a gap in the disk. Additionally, we quantify the surface brightness, azimuthal symmetry, and spectral character of the disk as a function of radius. Our analysis shows that the scattering efficiency of the dust is largely neutral to blue over the observed wavelengths. We model the disk as a steady α-disk with an ad hoc gap structure. The thermal properties of the disk are selfconsistently calculated using a three-dimensional radiative transfer code that uses ray tracing to model the heating of the disk interior and scattered light images. We find a good fit to the data over a wide range of distances from the star if we use a model disk with a partially filled gap of 30% depth at 80 AU and with a self-similar truncation knee at 100 AU. The origin of the gap is unclear, but it could arise from a transition in the nature of the disk's dust composition or the presence of a planetary companion. Based on scalings to previous hydrodynamic simulations of gap-opening criteria for embedded proto-planets, we estimate that a planetary companion forming the gap could have a mass between 6 and 28 solar mass.

radiative transfer↗

NASA NTRS1999

Comparisons of Upper Tropospheric Humidity Retrievals from TOVS and METEOSAT

Two different methods for retrieving Upper Tropospheric Humidities (UTH) from the TOVS (TIROS Operational Vertical Sounder) instruments aboard NOAA polar orbiting satellites are presented and compared. The first one, from the Environmental Technology Laboratory, computed by J. Bates and D. Jackson (hereafter BJ method), estimates UTH from a simplified radiative transfer analysis of the upper tropospheric infrared water vapor channel at wavelength measured by HIRS (6.3 micrometer). The second one results from a neural network analysis of the TOVS (HIRS and MSU) data developed at, the Laboratoire de Meteorologie Dynamique (hereafter the 3I (Improved Initialization Inversion) method). Although the two methods give very similar retrievals in temperate regions (30-60 N and S), an absolute bias up to 16% appears in the convective zone of the tropics. The two datasets have also been compared with UTH retrievals from infrared radiance measurements in the 6.3 micrometer channel from the geostationary satellite METEOSAT (hereafter MET method). The METEOSAT retrievals are systematically drier than the TOVS-based results by an absolute bias between 5 and 25%. Despite the biases, the spatial and temporal correlations are very good. The purpose of this study is to explain the deviations observed between the three datasets. The sensitivity of UTH to air temperature and humidity profiles is analysed as are the clouds effects. Overall, the comparison of the three retrievals gives an assessment of the current uncertainties in water vapor amounts in the upper troposphere as determined from NOAA and METEOSAT satellites.

Escoffier, C.↗

NASA NTRS2002

An Improved Retrieval of Tropospheric Nitrogen Dioxide from GOME

We present a retrieval of tropospheric nitrogen dioxide (NO2) columns from the Global Ozone Monitoring Experiment (GOME) satellite instrument that improves in several ways over previous retrievals, especially in the accounting of Rayleigh and cloud scattering. Slant columns, which are directly fitted without low-pass filtering or spectral smoothing, are corrected for an artificial offset likely induced by spectral structure on the diffuser plate of the GOME instrument. The stratospheric column is determined from NO2 columns over the remote Pacific Ocean to minimize contamination from tropospheric NO2. The air mass factor (AMF) used to convert slant columns to vertical columns is calculated from the integral of the relative vertical NO2 distribution from a global 3-D model of tropospheric chemistry driven by assimilated meteorological data (Global Earth Observing System (GEOS)-CHEM), weighted by altitude dependent scattering weights computed with a radiative transfer model (Linearized Discrete Ordinate Radiative Transfer), using local surface albedos determined from GOME observations at NO2 wavelengths. The AMF calculation accounts for cloud scattering using cloud fraction, cloud top pressure, and cloud optical thickness from a cloud retrieval algorithm (GOME Cloud Retrieval Algorithm). Over continental regions with high surface emissions, clouds decrease the AMT by 20- 30% relative to clear sky. GOME is almost twice as sensitive to tropospheric NO2 columns over ocean than over land. Comparison of the retrieved tropospheric NO2 columns for July 1996 with GEOS-CHEM values tests both the retrieval and the nitrogen oxide radical (NOx) emissions inventories used in GEOS-CHEM. Retrieved tropospheric NO2 columns over the United States, where NOx emissions are particularly well known, are within 18% of GEOS-CHEM columns and are strongly spatially correlated (r = 0.78, n = 288, p less than 0.005). Retrieved columns show more NO2 than GEOS-CHEM columns over the Transvaal region of South Africa and industrial regions of the northeast United States and Europe. They are lower over Houston, India, eastern Asia, and the biomass burning region of central Africa, possibly because of biases from absorbing aerosols.

Martin, Randall V.↗

NASA NTRS1993

Observations of seasonal variations in atmospheric greenhouse trapping and its enhancement at high sea surface temperature

Greenhouse trapping is examined theoretically using a version of the radiative transfer equations that demonstrates how atmospheric greenhouse trapping can vary. Satellite observations of atmospheric greenhouse trapping are examined for four months representing the various seasons. The cause of the super greenhouse effect at the highest SSTs is examined, and four processes are found to contribute. The middle and upper troposphere must be particularly moist and the temperature lapse rate must be increasingly unstable over the warmest regions to explain the observed distribution of atmospheric greenhouse trapping. Since the highest SSTs are generally associated with deep convection, this suggests that deep convection acts to moisten the middle and upper troposphere in regions of the highest SSTs relative to other regions. The tropical atmospheric circulation acts to both increase the temperature lapse rate and greatly increase the atmospheric water vapor concentration with spatially increasing SST.

Hallberg, Robert↗

NASA NTRS2005

What Does Reflection from Cloud Sides Tell Us About Vertical Distribution of Cloud Droplet Sizes?

Cloud development, the onset of precipitation and the effect of aerosol on clouds depend on the structure of the cloud profiles of droplet size and phase. Aircraft measurements of cloud profiles are limited in their temporal and spatial extent. Satellites were used to observe cloud tops not cloud profiles with vertical profiles of precipitation-sized droplets anticipated from Cloudsat. The recently proposed CLAIM-3D satellite mission (cloud aerosol interaction mission in 3D) suggests to measure profiles of cloud microphysical properties by retrieving them from the solar and infrared radiation reflected or emitted from cloud sides. Inversion of measurements from the cloud sides requires rigorous understanding of the 3-dimensional (3D) properties of clouds. Here we discuss the reflected sunlight from the cloud sides and top at two wavelengths: one nonabsorbing to solar radiation (0.67 micrometers) and one with liquid water efficient absorption of solar radiation (2.1 micrometers). In contrast to the plane-parallel approximation, a conventional approach to all current operational retrievals, 3D radiative transfer is used for interpreting the observed reflectances. General properties of the radiation reflected from the sides of an isolated cloud are discussed. As a proof of concept, the paper shows a few examples of radiation reflected from cloud fields generated by a simple stochastic cloud model with the prescribed vertically resolved microphysics. To retrieve the information about droplet sizes, we propose to use the probability density function of the droplet size distribution and its first two moments instead of the assumption about fixed values of the droplet effective radius. The retrieval algorithm is based on the Bayesian theorem that combines prior information about cloud structure and microphysics with radiative transfer calculations.

Marshak, Alexander↗