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Search indexed NASA NTRS and DOE OSTI research on propulsion, heat transfer, battery materials and energy systems. Follow report and document links to the original sources.

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At least 109 records · Page 6
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
NASA NTRS1992

AMPTE CCE observations of Pi 2 pulsations in the inner magnetosphere

Magnetic field data acquired with the AMPTE Charge Composition Explorer satellite in the inner magnetosphere (L = 2-5) often show Pi 2 pulsations whose waveforms match Pi 2 pulsations simultaneously observed on the ground at Kakioka (L = 1.2). From a study such events, it is found that the magnetic pulsations in the equatorial magnetosphere are dominated by poloidal-mode oscillations. The relative phase between the compressional component at CCE and the horizontal component at Kakioka is either near zero or near 180 deg, with the 180 lag observed only when the satellite is at L greater than 3. This observation implies that there is a node of a radial standing wave at L greater than 3. It is argued that the nodal structure arises from reflection of MHD fast-mode waves at some inner boundary of the magnetosphere and discuss the relevance of the nodal structure to cavity-mode resonances and oscillations in the inner magnetosphere forced by a source wave external to the inner magnetosphere.

Takahashi, Kazue↗
NASA NTRS1992

The spatial extent of radial magnetic pulsation events observed in the dayside near synchronous orbit

The spatial extent of magnetic pulsation events with predominantly radial polarization was investigated using simultaneous observations made aboard the AMPTE CCE satellite and aboard the GOES 5 and GOES 6 satellites. The results show that radially polarized pulsations in the equatorial dayside outer magnetosphere occur in radially narrow and often sharply bounded strips extending typically from late morning to dusk. The frequencies of these waves, which appear to be confined to the outer plasmasphere, are determined by local conditions. No correlation was found between plasma beta (in the range from 0.23 to 1.09) and the wave onset, the amplitude, or the ratio of compressional to radial components. These characteristics suggest that the wave growth and energy dissipation, the wave polarization, and the pulsation frequency are all dependent on the characteristics of the lowest-energy plasmas present in this region and/or along the affected flux tubes.

Engebretson, M. J.↗
NASA NTRS1992

Discrete-vortex simulation of pulsating flow on a turbulent leading-edge separation bubble

Studies are made of the turbulent separation bubble in a two-dimensional semi-infinite blunt plate aligned to a uniform free stream with a pulsating component. The discrete-vortex method is applied to simulate this flow situation because this approach is effective for representing the unsteady motions of the turbulent shear layer and the effect of viscosity near the solid surface. The numerical simulation provides reasonable predictions when compared with the experimental results. A particular frequency with a minimum reattachment is related to the drag reduction. The most effective frequency is dependent on the amplified shedding frequency. The turbulent flow structure is scrutinized. This includes the time-mean and fluctuations of the velocity and the surface pressure, together with correlations between the fluctuating components. A comparison between the pulsating flow and the non-pulsating flow at the particular frequency of the minimum reattachment length of the separation bubble suggests that the large-scale vortical structure is associated with the shedding frequency and the flow instabilities.

Sung, Hyung Jin↗
NASA NTRS1992

VLA and Trieste observations of type I storms, type IV and pulsations

A prime objective of this experiment was to determine whether type I or IV sources at 333 MHz contain features of small (arcsec) scale. With the VLA, our resolution was better than 4 arcsec. However, we never observed any structure of size smaller than about 30 arcsec, with the typical source sizes being between about 40 arcsec and 90 arcsec. Many observations were simultaneous with the Trieste Astronomical Observatory records at 327 MHz. The observations were made on two days in November 1988. On November 8 the observations were of a type I storm about two hours after a major flare. On November 14 they were mostly of the main phase of a type IV event, including pulsations of a kind rarely seen, strongly circularly polarized, and having a well-defined period of about 12 s. The size of the pulsating source was about 40 arcsec by 60 arcsec, and the brightness temperature was about 10 exp 9 K. We compare these pulsations with those observed earlier.

Zlobec, P.↗
NASA NTRS2004

Searching for Pulsations from CEN X-4

The goal of this proposal is to detect or place sensitive upper limits on pulsations from the quiescent neutron-star X-ray binary Cen X-4. The observations were obtained on 1 March 2003. Unfortunately, due to problems with the standard pipeline processing of this observation, the data were not delivered until more than one year later, on 21 April 2004. No pulsations have yet been found in the data set. However, new optical spectra have been obtained which will lead to better constraints on the orbital period of Cen X-4 and which may enable detection of pulsations.

Kaaret, Philip↗
NASA NTRS1952

Amplitude of Supersonic Diffuser Flow Pulsations

A theoretical method for evaluating the stability characteristics and the amplitude and the frequency of pulsation of ram-jet engines without heat addition is presented herein. Experimental verification of the theoretical results are included where data were available. Theory and experiment show that the pulsation amplitude of a high mass-flow-ratio diffuser having no cone surface flow separation increases with decreasing mass flow. The theoretical trends for changes in amplitude, frequency, and mean-pressure recovery with changes in plenum-chamber volume were experimentally confirmed. For perforated convergent-divergent-type diffusers, a stability hysteresis loop was predicted on the pressure-recovery mass-flow-ratio curve. At a given mean mass-flow ratio, the higher.value of mean pressure recovery corresponded to oscillatory flow in the diffuser while the lower branch was stable. This hysteresis has been observed experimentally. The theory indicates that for a ram-jet engine of given diameter, the amplitude of pulsation of a supersonic diffuser is increased by decreasing the relative size of the plenum chamber with respect to the diffuser volume down to a critical value at which oscillations cease. In the region of these critical values, the stable mass-flow range of the diffuser may be increased either by decreasing the combustion chamber volume or by increasing the length of the diffuser.

Sterbentz, William H.↗
NASA NTRS2012

A Computational Study for the Utilization of Jet Pulsations in Gas Turbine Film Cooling and Flow Control

This report is the second part of a three-part final report of research performed under an NRA cooperative Agreement contract. The first part is NASA/CR-2012-217415. The third part is NASA/CR-2012-217417. Jets have been utilized in various turbomachinery applications in order to improve gas turbines performance. Jet pulsation is a promising technique because of the reduction in the amount of air removed from compressor. In this work two areas of pulsed jets applications were computationally investigated using the commercial code Fluent (ANSYS, Inc.); the first one is film cooling of High Pressure Turbine (HPT) blades and second one is flow separation control over Low Pressure Turbine (LPT) airfoil using Vortex Generator Jets (VGJ). Using pulsed jets for film cooling purposes can help to improve the effectiveness and thus allow higher turbine inlet temperature. Effects of the film hole geometry, blowing ratio and density ratio of the jet, pulsation frequency and duty cycle of blowing on the film cooling effectiveness were investigated. As for the low-pressure turbine (LPT) stages, the boundary layer separation on the suction side of airfoils can occur due to strong adverse pressure gradients. The problem is exacerbated as airfoil loading is increased. Active flow control could provide a means for minimizing separation under conditions where it is most severe (low Reynolds number), without causing additional losses under other conditions (high Reynolds number). The effects of the jet geometry, blowing ratio, density ratio, pulsation frequency and duty cycle on the size of the separated region were examined in this work. The results from Reynolds Averaged Navier-Stokes and Large Eddy Simulation computational approaches were compared with the experimental data.

Kartuzova, Olga V.↗
NASA NTRS2016

Temporal Characteristics and Energy Deposition of Pulsating Auroral Patches

We present a careful statistical analysis of pulsating aurora (PA) using all-sky green line (557.7 nm) images obtained at 3.3 Hz. Six well-defined individual PA patches are identified and extracted using a contouring technique. Quantitative parameters such as the patch duration (on-time and off-time), peak intensity, and integrated intensity are determined for each patch and each pulsation. The resulting characteristics serve as strict observational constraints that any of the many competing theories attempting to explain PA must predict. The purpose of this paper is to determine the characteristics of PA patches in order to provide better observational constraints on the suggested mechanisms. All aspects of the temporal behavior of the individual patches appear to be erratic. Historically, PA has been defined very loosely and we argue that the use of the term pulsating is inappropriate since our findings and other published results are not regularly periodic and thus a more appropriate term may be fluctuating aurora. Further, we find that the observational constraints do not fit well with the flow cyclotron maser theory, which in particular is suggested to create PA patches. There is no clear candidate of the suggested mechanisms and drivers to explain the observational constraints set by the PA patches in a satisfactory manner.

Humberset, B. K.↗
NASA NTRS2017

Detection and Interpretation of Long-lived X-Ray Quasi-Periodic Pulsations in the X-Class Solar Flare on 2013 May 14

Quasi-periodic pulsations (QPP) seen in the time derivative of the GOES soft X-ray light curves are analyzed for the X3.2 event on 2013 May 14. The pulsations are apparent for a total of at least two hours from the impulsive phase to well into the decay phase, with a total of 163 distinct pulses evident to the naked eye. A wavelet analysis shows that the characteristic timescale of these pulsations increases systematically from approx. 25 s at 01:10 UT, the time of the GOES peak, to approx. 100 s at 02:00 UT. A second ridge in the wavelet power spectrum, most likely associated with flaring emission from a different active region, shows an increase from approx. 40 s at 01:40 UT to approx. 100 s at 03:10 UT. We assume that the QPP that produced the first ridge result from vertical kink-mode oscillations of the newly formed loops following magnetic reconnection in the coronal current sheet. This allows us to estimate the magnetic field strength as a function of altitude given the density, loop length, and QPP timescale as functions of time determined from the GOES light curves and Ramaty High Energy Solar Spectroscopic Imager (RHESSI) images. The calculated magnetic field strength of the newly formed loops ranges from approx. 500 G at an altitude of 24Mm to a low value of approx. 10 G at 60 Mm, in general agreement with the expected values at these altitudes. Fast sausage-mode oscillations are also discussed and cannot be ruled out as an alternate mechanism for producing the QPP.

Dennis, Brian R.↗
NASA NTRS2013

The Discovery of Pulsating Hot Subdwarfs in NGC 2808

We present preliminary results of a Hubble Space Telescope program to search for pulsating hot subdwarfs in the core of NGC 2808. These observations, obtained in March of 2013, were motivated by the recent discovery of such stars in the outskirts of Omega Cen. Both Omega Cen and NGC 2808 are massive globular clusters exhibiting complex stellar populations and large numbers of extreme horizontal branch stars. Our far-UV photometric monitoring of over 100 UV-bright stars has revealed at least six pulsating subdwarfs with periods ranging from 100 to 150 seconds. In the UV color-magnitude diagram of NGC 2808, all six of these stars lie immediately below the canonical horizontal branch, a region populated by the subluminous blue hook stars.Three of these six pulsators also have low-resolution far-UV spectroscopy that is sufficient to broadly constrain their atmospheric abundances and effective temperatures. Curiously, the spectroscopic and photometric data do not exhibit the uniformity one might expect from a well-defined instability strip.

Hubble Space Telescope↗
NASA NTRS2019

Observing the Transient Pulsations of SMC X-1 with NuSTAR

We report on Nuclear Spectroscopic Telescope Array observations of transient pulsations in the neutron star X-ray binary SMCX-1. The transition from nonpulsing to pulsing states was not accompanied by a large change in flux.Instead, both pulsing and nonpulsing states were observed in a single observation during the low-flux super-orbital state. During the high state, we measure a pulse period of P=0.70117(9) s at Tref=56145 MJD. Spectral analysis during nonpulsing and pulsing states reveals that the observations can be consistently modeled by an absorbed power law with a phenomenological cutoff resembling a Fermi–Dirac distribution, or by a partially obscured cutoff power law. The shapes of the underlying continua show little variability between epochs, while the covering fraction and column density vary between super-orbital states. The strength of pulsations also varies, leading usto infer that the absence and reemergence of pulsations are related to changing obscuration, such as by a warped accretion disk. SMCX-1 is accreting near or above its Eddington limit, reaching an unabsorbed X-ray luminosity of LX(2–10 keV)5×1038 erg s1. This suggests that SMCX-1 may be a useful local analog to ultraluminous X-ray pulsars (ULXPs), which likewise exhibit strong variability in their pulsed fractions, as well as flux variability onsimilar timescales. In particular, the gradual pulse turn-on, which has been observed in M82X-2, is similar to the behavior we observe in SMCX-1. Thus we propose that pulse fraction variability of ULXPs may also be due tovariable obscuration.

Pike, Sean N.↗
NASA NTRS2022

Observations of Ion Upflow and 630.0 Nm Emission During Pulsating Aurora

In this study, we report observations made by filtered (557.7 and 630.0 nm) All-Sky Imagers located at Poker Flat, Alaska alongside Poker Flat Incoherent Scatter Radar data for an event observed on 5 February 2017. Together, the data indicate ion upflow in the vicinity of pulsating aurora. Additionally, the data show a strong 630.0 nm (red-line) auroral emission. Observations of pulsating aurora are typically reported at 557.7 and 427.8 nm, as these wavelengths are more sensitive to high-energy (∼ tens of keV) electron precipitation. In contrast, 630.0 nm emission is generated preferentially by low-energy soft electron precipitation (∼ hundreds of eV), and is less commonly observed. The All-Sky Imager data discussed here are unusual in that they suggest regions of enhanced soft electron precipitation in conjunction with enhanced ambipolar electric fields, which are a known factor contributing to ion outflow.

ion upflow↗
NASA NTRS1971

Quantitative results of stellar evolution and pulsation theories.

The discrepancy between the masses of Cepheid variables deduced from evolution theory and pulsation theory is examined. The effect of input physics on evolutionary tracks is first discussed; in particular, changes in the opacity are considered. The sensitivity of pulsation masses to opacity changes and to the ascribed values of luminosity and effective temperature are then analyzed. The Cepheid mass discrepancy is discussed in the light of the results already obtained. Other astronomical evidence, including the mass-luminosity relation for main sequence stars, the solar neutrino flux, and cluster ages are also considered in an attempt to determine the most likely source of error in the event that substantial mass loss has not occurred.

Fricke, K.↗
NASA NTRS1971

Globular-cluster stars - Results of theoretical evolution and pulsation studies compared with the observations.

Survey of recently published studies on globular clusters, and comparison of stellar evolution and pulsation theory with reported observations. The theory of stellar evolution is shown to be capable of describing, in principle, the behavior of a star through all quasi-static stages. Yet, as might be expected, estimates of bulk properties obtained by comparing observations with results of pulsation and stellar atmosphere theory differ somewhat from estimates of these same properties obtained by comparing observations with results of evolution theory. A description is given of how such estimates are obtained, and suggestions are offered as to where the weak points in each theory may lie.

Iben, I., Jr.↗