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At least 1,045 records · Page 58

The stratospheric major warming of early December 1987

The NMC observations of temperature and geopotential carried out during the stratospheric major warming event of early December 1987 are analyzed. The December 1987 warming event displayed features typical of other major warmings, including vortex displacement, erosion, and splitting and, as such, was the earliest major warming yet observed in the Northern Hemisphere winter. The December 1987 major warming was unusual in that it took place during the (deep) westerly phase of the equatorial quasi-biennial oscillation and was not preceded by any significant preconditioning of the extratropical vortex. It is suggested that this unusually early major warming was mainly attributable to an anomalously large tropospheric forcing.

Baldwin, Mark P.↗

Particle displacement tracking applied to air flows

Electronic Particle Image Velocimeter (PIV) techniques offer many advantages over conventional photographic PIV methods such as fast turn around times and simplified data reduction. A new all electronic PIV technique was developed which can measure high speed gas velocities. The Particle Displacement Tracking (PDT) technique employs a single cw laser, small seed particles (1 micron), and a single intensified, gated CCD array frame camera to provide a simple and fast method of obtaining two-dimensional velocity vector maps with unambiguous direction determination. Use of a single CCD camera eliminates registration difficulties encountered when multiple cameras are used to obtain velocity magnitude and direction information. An 80386 PC equipped with a large memory buffer frame-grabber board provides all of the data acquisition and data reduction operations. No array processors of other numerical processing hardware are required. Full video resolution (640x480 pixel) is maintained in the acquired images, providing high resolution video frames of the recorded particle images. The time between data acquisition to display of the velocity vector map is less than 40 sec. The new electronic PDT technique is demonstrated on an air nozzle flow with velocities less than 150 m/s.

Wernet, Mark P.↗

The development of laser speckle velocimetry for the study of vortical flows

A research program was undertaken to develop a new experimental technique commonly known as particle image displacement velocity (PIVD) to measure an instantaneous two dimensional velocity field in a selected plane of flow field. This technique was successfully developed and applied to the study of several aerodynamic problems. A detailed description of the technique and a broad review of all the research activity carried out in this field are reported. A list of technical publications is also provided. The application of PIDV to unsteady flows with large scale structures is demonstrated in a study of the temporal evolution of the flow past an impulsively started circular cylinder. The instantaneous two dimensional flow in the transition region of a rectangular air jet was measured using PIDV and the details are presented. This experiment clearly demonstrates the PIDV capability in the measurement of turbulent flows. Preliminary experiments were also conducted to measure the instantaneous flow over a circular bump in a transonic flow. Several other experiments now routinely use PIDV as a non-intrustive measurement technique to obtain instantaneous two dimensional velocity fields.

Krothapalli, A.↗

Photospheric velocity gradients in B1 supergiants

We present IUE spectra for a set of B1 supergiants. These data clearly demonstrate that the Si III 1300A multiplet (lower level 6.6 ev above ground) becomes progressively more asymmetric with increasing luminosity or, equivalently, mass loss. In the most luminous supergiants, the cores of the 1300A multiplets become displaced by up to -150 km/s relative to nearby, weaker lines. In addition, systematic velocity shifts and asymmetries are also present in the strong Si III singlets 1312A and 1417A in the more luminous stars. The obvious implication of these observations is that the outer photospheres of B supergiants are affected by radial expansion, and this may account for why even non-LTE line analyses of these stars require large micro-turbulent velocity fields, and why line blanketed LTE models underestimate their overall UV line blanketing.

Massa, D.↗

Particle displacement tracking applied to air flows

Electronic Particle Image Velocimetric (PIV) techniques offer many advantages over conventional photographic PIV methods such as fast turn around times and simplified data reduction. A new all electronic PIV technique was developed which can measure high speed gas velocities. The Particle Displacement Tracking (PDT) technique employs a single CW laser, small seed particles (1 micron), and a single intensified, gated CCD array frame camera to provide a simple and fast method of obtaining two-dimensional velocity vector maps with unambiguous direction determination. Use of a single CCD camera eliminates registration difficulties encountered when multiple cameras are used to obtain velocity magnitude and direction information. An 80386 PC equipped with a large memory buffer frame-grabber board provides all of the data acquisition and data reduction operations. No array processors of other numerical processing hardware are required. Full video resolution (640 x 480 pixel) is maintained in the acquired images, providing high resolution video frames of the recorded particle images. The time between data acquisition to display of the velocity vector map is less than 40 sec. The new electronic PDT technique is demonstrated on an air nozzle flow with velocities less than 150 m/s.

Wernet, Mark P.↗

The induction of water to the inlet air as a means of internal cooling in aircraft-engine cylinders

Report presents the results of investigations conducted on a full-scale air-cooled aircraft-engine cylinder of 202-cubic inch displacement to determine the effects of internal cooling by water induction on the maximum permissible power and output of an internal-combustion engine. For a range of fuel-air and water-fuel ratios, the engine inlet pressure was increased until knock was detected aurally, the power was then decreased 7 percent holding the ratios constant. The data indicated that water was a very effective internal coolant, permitting large increases in engine power as limited by either knock or by cylinder temperatures.

Rothrock, Addison M↗

Ultrasound measurement of transcranial distance during head-down tilt

Exposure to microgravity elevates blood pressure and flow in the head, which may increase intracranial volume (ICV) and intracranial pressure (ICP). Rhesus monkeys exposed to simulated microgravity in the form of 6 degree head-down tilt (HDT) experience elevated ICP. With humans, twenty-four hours of 6 degree HDT bed rest increases cerebral blood flow velocity relative to pre-HDT upright posture. Humans exposed to acute 6 degree HDT experiments increased ICP, measured with the tympanic membrane displacement (TMD) technique. Other studies suggest that increased ICP in humans and cats causes measurable cranial bone movement across the sagittal suture. Due to the slightly compliant nature of the cranium, elevation of the ICP will increase ICV and transcranial distance. Currently, several non-invasive approaches to monitor ICP are being investigated. Such techniques include TMD and modal analysis of the skull. TMD may not be reliable over a large range of ICP and neither method is capable of measuring the small changes in pressure. Ultrasound, however, may reliably measure small distance changes that accompany ICP fluctuations. The purpose of our study was to develop and evaluate an ultrasound technique to measure transcranial distance changes during HDT.

Torikoshi, S.↗

Short-latency primate vestibuloocular responses during translation

Short-lasting, transient head displacements and near target fixation were used to measure the latency and early response gain of vestibularly evoked eye movements during lateral and fore-aft translations in rhesus monkeys. The latency of the horizontal eye movements elicited during lateral motion was 11.9 +/- 5.4 ms. Viewing distance-dependent behavior was seen as early as the beginning of the response profile. For fore-aft motion, latencies were different for forward and backward displacements. Latency averaged 7.1 +/- 9.3 ms during forward motion (same for both eyes) and 12.5 +/- 6.3 ms for the adducting eye (e.g., left eye during right fixation) during backward motion. Latencies during backward motion were significantly longer for the abducting eye (18.9 +/- 9.8 ms). Initial acceleration gains of the two eyes were generally larger than unity but asymmetric. Specifically, gains were consistently larger for abducting than adducting eye movements. The large initial acceleration gains tended to compensate for the response latencies such that the early eye movement response approached, albeit consistently incompletely, that required for maintaining visual acuity during the movement. These short-latency vestibuloocular responses could complement the visually generated optic flow responses that have been shown to exhibit much longer latencies.

Non-NASA Center↗

Search for heavy neutral leptons in decays of W bosons using leptonic and semi-leptonic displaced vertices in $\sqrt{s}$ = 13 TeV pp collisions with the ATLAS detector

A search is performed for long-lived heavy neutral leptons (HNLs), produced through the decay of a W boson along with a muon or electron. Two channels are explored: a leptonic channel, in which the HNL decays into two leptons and a neutrino, and a semi-leptonic channel, in which the HNL decays into a lepton and a charged pion. The search is performed with 140 fb −1 of $\sqrt{s}$ = 13 TeV proton-proton collision data collected by ATLAS during Run 2 of the Large Hadron Collider. No excess of events is observed; Dirac-like and Majorana-like HNLs with masses below 14.5 GeV and mixing coefficients as small as 10 −7 are excluded at the 95% confidence level. The results are interpreted under different assumptions on the flavour of the leptons from the HNL decays.

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗

The Role of Land‐Atmosphere Feedbacks in Midlatitude Wintertime Surface Temperature Variability

Accurately representing synoptic near-surface temperature variability is crucial to predict weather extremes, yet models remain biased. Existing studies primarily attribute wintertime midlatitude near-surface temperature variability to tropospheric large-scale advection, assuming minimal land influence. However, nudging the model's circulation toward observations yields little improvement in wintertime temperature variance over Northern Hemisphere land, suggesting that land-atmosphere interactions also warrant attention. We introduce a new scaling framework for temperature variance that incorporates local land-atmosphere feedbacks. Comparing our framework to the mixing length approach—which links temperature variance to the meridional temperature gradient and air parcel displacement (mixing length)—shows that land-atmosphere feedbacks are inherently embedded in the mixing length, a connection previously overlooked. Roles of land–atmosphere feedbacks are evaluated via model experiments with perturbed circulation, land, or both. We find that longwave radiative damping dominates temperature variance responses over meridional temperature gradient when both land and circulation are perturbed.

atmosheric science↗

Superionic-like diffusion in yttrium dihydride

For the next-generation high temperature microreactors, yttrium dihydride (YH 2 ) is an attractive solid state neutron moderator. Despite a number of recent investigations, the mechanism of hydrogen transport remains poorly understood. Experimental evaluations of diffusivity are inconclusive with large variations in diffusivities and activation energies. In this work, we perform ab initio molecular dynamics (AIMD) simulations on YH 2 for temperatures spanning 300 K to 1200 K. Our main finding is that YH 2 shows a superionic-like behavior with hydrogen atoms hopping from one native site to another above a characteristic temperature of 800 K. This correlated motion results in quasi-one-dimensional string-like displacements that enable the hydrogen atoms to diffuse rapidly. We confirm that the octahedral sites are mostly unoccupied, although channeling through them is the most favored pathway between lattice hops above 800 K. At the highest temperature of 1200 K, the string relaxation time is merely of the order of a few picoseconds, which indicates a liquid-like diffusive behavior. Based on the formation of spontaneous thermal vacancies, an order-disorder crossover temperature T α ~ 800 K is established for YH 2 with an activation energy of 0.83 eV for hydrogen diffusion in the superionic-like state.

Superionic-like Diffusion↗

Effects of free-stream turbulence on diffuser performance

An experimental evaluation of the effects of free-stream turbulence on the performance of a subsonic two-dimensional diffuser has been made. Increases of the diffuser's static pressure recovery coefficient of 11.3 and 23.9 percent at total included divergence angles of 12 and 20 degrees respectively were obtained when the value of the inlet integral free-stream scale of turbulence in the flow direction was at least 7.2 times larger than the inlet boundary layer displacement thickness, when the inlet total free-stream turbulence intensity was at least 3.5 percent, and when the axes of upstream rods used to generate turbulence were perpendicular to the flow and parallel to the diverging walls of the diffuser. It is hypothesized that a larger scale of turbulence with the specified eddy axis orientation transmits the free-stream energy to the walls more effectively and, when coupled with large turbulence intensities, are mechanisms which act to decrease the distortion and delay separation within the diffuser.

Hoffmann, J. A.↗

Finite element analysis of wrinkling membranes

The finite element analysis of wrinkling membranes was investigated. The determination of stresses and deformations within large partly wrinkled membrane surfaces is a problem of significant technical interest in such areas as conceptual design and analysis of ultra lightweight spacecraft structures. A closed-form solution to an axisymmetric problem involving partial wrinkling of an inflated shallow membrane was obtained. In particular, a membrane in the shape of a sperical annulus was considered. The outer edge of the annulus was assumed to be fixed so that no displacements occur along the outer perimeter. The inner edge is assumed to be clamped to a rigid movable plug. Solutions for the complete stress, strain, and displacement fields under the assumption of inextensional material behavior are presented for the case of pure torsional loads applied to the plug, and for the case of pure axial loads applied to the plug.

Miller, R. K.↗

Two lunar global asymmetries

The Moon's center of mass is displaced from its center of figure about 2 km in a roughly earthward direction. Most maria are on the side of the Moon which faces the Earth. It is assumed that the Moon was initially spherically symmetric. The emplacement of mare basalts transfers mass which produces most of the observed center of mass displacement toward the Earth. The cause of the asymmetric distribution of lunar maria was examined. The Moon is in a spin orbit coupled relationship with the Earth and the effect of the Earth's gravity on the Moon is asymmetric. The earth-facing side of the Moon is a gravitational favored location for the extrusion of mare basalt magma in the same way that the topographically lower floor of a large impact basin is a gravitationally favored location. This asymmetric effect increases inversely with the fourth power of the Earth Moon distance. The history of the Earth-Moon system includes: formation of the Moon by accretion processes in a heliocentric orbit ner that of the Earth; a gravitational encounter with the Earth about 4 billion years ago resulting in capture of the Moon into a geocentric orbit and heating of the Moon through dissipation of energy related to tides raised during close approaches to the Earth(5) to produce mare basalt magma; and evolution of the Moon's orbit to its present position, slowly at first to accommodate more than 500 million years during which magmas were extruded.

Hartung, J. B.↗

Topography of the Moon from the Clementine Lidar

Range measurements from the lidar instrument carried aboard the Clementine spacecraft have been used to produce an accurate global topographic model of the Moon. This paper discusses the function of the lidar; the acquisition, processing, and filtering of observations to produce a global topographic model; and the determination of parameters that define the fundamental shape of the Moon. Our topographic model: a 72nd degree and order spherical harmonic expansion of lunar radii, is designated Goddard Lunar Topography Model 2 (GLTM 2). This topographic field has an absolute vertical accuracy of approximately 100 m and a spatial resolution of 2.5 deg. The field shows that the Moon can be described as a sphere with maximum positive and negative deviations of approx. 8 km, both occurring on the farside, in the areas of the Korolev and South Pole-Aitken (S.P.-Aitken) basins. The amplitude spectrum of the topography shows more power at longer wavelengths as compared to previous models, owing to more complete sampling of the surface, particularly the farside. A comparison of elevations derived from the Clementine lidar to control point elevations from the Apollo laser altimeters indicates that measured relative topographic heights generally agree to within approx. 200 in over the maria. While the major axis of the lunar gravity field is aligned in the Earth-Moon direction, the major axis of topography is displaced from this line by approximately 10 deg to the cast and intersects the farside 24 deg north of the equator. The magnitude of impact basin topography is greater than the lunar flattening (approx. 2 km) and equatorial ellipticity (approx. 800 m), which imposes a significant challenge to interpreting the lunar figure. The floors of mare basins are shown to lie close to an equipotential surface, while the floors of unflooded large basins, except for S.P.-Aitken, lie above this equipotential. The radii of basin floors are thus consistent with a hydrostatic mechanism for the absence of significant farside maria except for S.P.-Aitken, whose depth and lack of mare require significant internal compositional and/or thermal heterogeneity. A macroscale surface roughness map shows that roughness at length scales of 10(exp 1) - 10(exp 2) km correlates with elevation and surface age.

Smith, David E.↗

Investigating the linkage between simulated precipitation climatology and ENSO-related precipitation anomaly based on multi-model and perturbed parameter ensembles

It remains a challenge for climate models to correctly capture the relationship between precipitation and ENSO. This studyexamines the linkage between the simulated precipitation climatology and ENSO-related precipitation anomaly during borealwinter based on the multi-model ensemble from the Atmospheric Model Intercomparison Project Phase 5 (AMIP5) and perturbedparameter ensemble (PPE) with the Beijing Climate Center (BCC) atmospheric model. The AMIP5 models have large biases insimulating the tropical precipitation anomaly during El Niño, such as the shifts of the Inter-Tropical Convergence Zone (ITCZ)and South Pacific Convergence Zone (SPCZ). The inter-model differences show that the precipitation change in response to seasurface temperature (SST) change increases with enhanced precipitation climatology. The ENSO-related precipitation anomalycan also be related to the spatial distribution of the mean-state precipitation. The simulated ITCZ/SPCZ displacements aresignificantly correlated with the spatial precipitation-SST relationship in the mean state. Models with stronger mean-stateprecipitation-SST relationship also produce stronger SPCZ/ITCZ displacements. The mean-state tropical precipitation also hasstrong impacts on the ENSO-related precipitation anomalies over East Asia. In the BCC PPE, the connection between the mean-state precipitation and ENSO-related precipitation anomaly is overall consistent with that in AMIP5. Parameters associated withthe low-cloud and deep convection processes are the most influential ones for the precipitation simulations in BCC. Comparedwith the version in AMIP5, the new BCC model can better simulate the precipitation climatology and the relationship betweenENSO and precipitation over southern China. These results have important implications for model development and model-basedclimate predictions.

Yang, Ben↗

Using high pressure solutions of polyfluoroacrylate and CO 2 to Seal cement cracks for improved wellbore integrity

Polyfluoroacrylate (PFA) is a hydrophobic and oleophobic polymer that is soluble in high pressure carbon dioxide (CO 2 ). In this study, the ability of PFA-CO 2 solutions to greatly reduce the apparent permeability of split or cracked Portland cement cylindrical samples is assessed. The apparent permeability values of confined samples were determined before and after treatment with PFA-CO 2 solutions. In four tests, PFA-CO 2 solutions were continuously displacing pure CO 2 from the cracked cement and the decrease in apparent permeability due to PFA adsorption and wettability alteration was monitored. The lowest apparent permeability cracked cement sample (81 nD) was completely sealed with a very small amount of solution. Samples with initial apparent permeabilities of 89 μD and 29.4 mD exhibited 92% and 99% reductions in permeability, respectively, before the experiments had to be stopped because of the excessively large increase in pressure drop. A 50% reduction in apparent permeability was observed with a 3.80 mD sample. Four other split cement samples (bound together with tape) with an initial apparent permeability in the 9.0–70 mD range were removed from the core holder and immersed in a PFA-CO 2 solution for 24 h to allow for PFA adsorption. Then the PFA-CO 2 solution was depressurized, allowing for the deposition of additional PFA from the solution within the crack as the pressure fell below the cloud point pressure of the PFA-CO 2 solution. These four samples were then confined again in a core holder and apparent permeability reductions of 29–93% were observed. Finally, results from these eight experiments indicates that the more substantial reductions in the nD – mD apparent permeability of the cracked cement correlated to lower initial crack permeability, higher PFA concentration, and slower injection rate of the PFA-CO 2 solution into the crack.

58 GEOSCIENCES↗

Non-linear MHD modelling of transients in tokamaks: a review of recent advances with the JOREK code

Transient magneto-hydrodynamic (MHD) events like edge localized modes (ELMs) or disruptions are a concern for magnetic confinement fusion power plants. Research with the MHD code JOREK towards understanding control of such instabilities is reviewed here in a concise way to provide a complete overview, while we refer to the original publications for details. Experimental validation for unmitigated vertical displacement events progressed. The mechanism of vertical force mitigation by impurity injection was identified. Two-way eddy current coupling to CARIDDI was completed. Shattered pellet injection was simulated in JET, KSTAR, ASDEX Upgrade (AUG) and ITER. Benign runaway electron beam termination in JET and ITER was studied. Coupling of kinetic REs to the MHD is ongoing and a virtual RE synchrotron radiation diagnostic was developed. Regarding pedestal physics, regimes devoid of large ELMs in AUG were simulated and predictive JT60-SA simulations are ongoing. For ELM suppression by resonant magnetic perturbations (RMPs), AUG, ITER and EAST simulations were performed. A free boundary RMP model was validated against experiments. Evidence for penetrated magnetic islands at the pedestal top based on AUG experiments and simulations was found. Simulations of the naturally ELM-free quiescent H-mode in AUG and HL-3 show external kink mode formation prevents pedestal build-up towards an ELM within windows of the edge safety factor. With kinetic neutral particles, high field side high density formation in ITER was simulated and with kinetic impurities, tungsten transport in AUG RMP plasmas was studied. To capture turbulent transport, electro-static full-f particle in cell models for ion temperature gradient and trapped electron modes were established and benchmarked. Application to RMP plasmas shows enhanced turbulence in comparison to unperturbed states. Energetic particle interactions with MHD were studied. Flux pumping that prevents the safety factor on axis from dropping below unity was simulated. First non-linear stellarator applications include current relaxation in $l$ = 2 stellarators, while verification for advanced stellarators progresses.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗