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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 1,117 records · Page 62
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NASA NTRS1999

Rendering Three-Dimensional Solar Coronal Structures of Active Region 8227

Coronal X-ray and EUV synthesized images are constructed of Active Region 8227 (May-June 1996) and are compared with Yohkoh/SXT, SOHO/EIT, and TRACE observations. Using the rendering technique of Gary (1997) and Alexander, Gary, and Thompson (1998), specific geometric and physical models are used to integrated the plasma emission along the line of sight to obtain a rendered image. The specific instrumental profiles are convolved in the integration process as well as specific heating functions. We analyze coronal X-ray and EUV structures by constructing synthesized image and comparison with observations provide test of specific physical models. We investigate how different pressure distributions within the active region loop system affect the emission characteristics and compare the various results with coronal observations. We investigate how the different heating functions in the active region are reflected in the effect of overall structure of the region. Specific heating rates are tested.

Gary, G. A.↗
NASA NTRS1998

Complex H(sub alpha) Loop Activity in a Long Duration Flare

A long duration Bare was observed in the active region NOAA 6555 on March 23, 1991 at a location of low magnetic shear. This flare displayed complex H(sub alpha) loop activity during the decay phase. Initially, there were a few long loops orientated at an angle of about 45 degree with the east-west axis followed by the appearance of east-west axis. This configuration was aligned shorter loops. By using different magnetic field models, we have extrapolated the photospheric magnetogram.9 to the chromospheric heights. The magnetic field lines computed by using the potential field model correspond to most of the observed H. loops. In this paper, we report the analysis of high resolution chromospheric observations of the event and describe a possible scenario for the post-flare loop activity.

Debi Prasad, Choudhary↗
NASA NTRS1998

Magnetotail Flow Bursts: Association to Global Magnetospheric Circulation, Relationship to Ionospheric Activity and Direct Evidence for Localization

A series of bursty bulk flow events (BBFs) were observed by GEOTAIL and WIND in the geomagnetotail. IMP8 at the solar wind showed significant energy coupling into the magnetosphere, while the UVI instrument of POALR evidenced significant energy transfer to the ionosphere during two substorms. There was good correlation between BBFs and ionospheric activity observed by UVI even when ground magnetic signatures were absent, suggesting that low ionospheric conductivity at the active sector may be responsible for this observation. During the second substorm no significant flux transport was evidenced past WIND in stark contrast to GEOTAIL and despite the small intersatellite separation ((3.54, 2.88, -0.06) Re). Throughout the intervals studied there were significant differences in the individual flow bursts at the two satellites, even during longitudinally extended ionospheric activations. We conclude that the half-scale-size of transport bearing flow bursts is less than 3 Re.

Angelopoulos, V.↗
NASA NTRS1998

Characteristics of Dynamic Activity in the Dayside Aurora

Long term global monitoring of the aurora by the Ultraviolet Imager (UVI) on the Polar spacecraft has enabled observation of auroral activity under various conditions of solar wind input. UVI is particularly suited to dayside imaging, especially in sunlit conditions during the northern hemisphere summer, owing to its solar blind narrow band filters. Several types of activity have been observed in the dayside aurora when observed on a global scale: enhancement of the auroral precipitation beginning at local noon and traveling along the flanks toward midnight observed in connection with solar wind shock fronts, regions of bright arcs traveling toward midnight that may be associated with boundary waves, and'break-up' like events in the high latitude midday region sometimes concurrent with a theta aurora. We will present several examples of dayside activity and discuss the possible mechanisms for these phenomena.

Brittnacher, M. J.↗
NASA NTRS1999

BeppoSAX Observations of the SGR 1900+14 in Quiescence and During an Active Period

We present results from two Beppo SAX Narrow Field Instrument (NFI) observations of SGR-1900+14 made during a quiescent and an active period of the source. We detect pulsations in the 1997 May 12-13 observation (quiescence) at 5.157190(7) sec and the 1998 September 15-16 observation (active period) at 5.16026](12) sec. Using results reported by Hurley et al. (1999a), we establish a long-term spin down rate during quiescence of 5.82(2)-approx. times 10(exp -11) s/s which implies a dipole magnetic field of sim 5.5 approx. times 10(exp 14) G. We confirm deviations from a constant spin down rate during the active period. We also find spectral similarities between SGR-1900+14 in quiescence and anomalous X-ray pulsars (AXPs).

Woods, Peter↗
NASA NTRS1999

Relation Between Lightning Activity of Summer and Winter Thunderclouds and Surface Electric Field Variation, Japan

In winter, active convective clouds frequently form along the coastline of the Hokuriku district, in association with strong advection of Siberian air masses over the Sea of Japan. On the other hand, in summer, many thunderclouds form in the Kanto region in the afternoon every day. Summer and winter thunderclouds were investigated by field works, operation of the C- and X-band weather radars and a car-borne fieldmill. The investigation found a very close relation between the temporal variation of 3-dimensional radar echo and surface electric field magnitude detected by a car-borne fieldmill in the case of summer thunderclouds and winter convective clouds or thunderclouds. The study probed the close relation among radar echoes, quantity of thunderclouds and surface electric field magnitude in the summer and winter seasons. We think that summer thundercloud activity can basically be equated with winter thundercloud lightning activity, except that the magnitude of surface electric field under summer thunderclouds in the case of the Kanto region cannot be equated with that under winter thunderclouds in the case of the Hokuriku district in winter.

Michimoto, K.↗
NASA NTRS1999

SERTS-95 Measurements of Wavelength Shifts in Coronal Emission Lines Across a Solar Active Region

We used slit spectra from the 1995 flight of Goddard Space Flight Center's Solar EUV Rocket Telescope and Spectrograph (SERTS-95) to measure wavelength shifts of coronal emission lines in the core of NOAA active region 7870 relative to its immediate surroundings (its "edge"). This method circumvents the unavailability of reliable laboratory rest wavelengths for the observed lines by using wavelengths from the edge spectrum as references. We derived the, SERTS-95 wavelength calibration from measurements of a post-flight laboratory spectrum containing 28 He II and Ne II EUV standard wavelengths known to high accuracy. Wavelength measurements for lines of He I, Ne III, and additional lines of Ne II in the laboratory calibration spectrum provide more accurate values than were previously available, enabling these lines also to serve as future calibration standards. Six solar lines were chosen for this study, namely, He II at 303.78 A, Fe XII at 193.51 A, Fe XIII at 202.05 A, Fe XIV at 211.33 A, Fe XV at 284.15 A, and Fe XVI at 335.41 A. Because these lines are free from known blends in the SERTS-95 spectra and are either intrinsically strong or near the SERTS-95 peak sensitivity, they are our most reliable lines for measuring relative wavelength shifts in the spatially resolved active region core spectra. The iron ions are the hottest ions ever used for this type of analysis. All six lines reveal statistically significant spatial variations in their measured relative wavelength shifts in the active region core, including mixtures of blueshifts and redshifts (each with maximum values corresponding to relative Doppler velocities approximately 15 km/s), indicating a dynamic, turbulent corona. For each of these lines we calculated weighted-average relative Doppler velocities from the wavelength shifts in the spatially resolved core spectra by weighting the shifts in the individual spatial pixels with their respective measurement uncertainties.

Brosius, Jeffery W.↗
NASA NTRS1999

Vehicle Engineering Development Activities at the Marshall Space Flight Center

New initiatives in the Space Transportation Directorate at the Marshall Space Flight Center include an emphasis on Vehicle Engineering to enhance the strong commitment to the Directorate's projects in the development of flight hardware and flight demonstrators for the advancement of space transportation technology. This emphasis can be seen in the activities of a newly formed organization in the Transportation Directorate, The Vehicle Subsystems Engineering Group. The functions and type of activities that this group works on are described. The current projects of this group are outlined including a brief description of the status and type of work that the group is performing. A summary section is included to describe future activities.

Fisher, Mark F.↗
NASA NTRS1998

Development of an Active Twist Rotor for Wind: Tunnel Testing (NLPN97-310

The development of the Active Twist Rotor prototype blade for hub vibration and noise reduction studies is presented in this report. Details of the modeling, design, and manufacturing are explored. The rotor blade is integrally twisted by direct strain actuation. This is accomplished by distributing embedded piezoelectric fiber composites along the span of the blade. The development of the analysis framework for this type of active blade is presented. The requirements for the prototype blade, along with the final design results are also presented. A detail discussion on the manufacturing aspects of the prototype blade is described. Experimental structural characteristics of the prototype blade compare well with design goals, and preliminary bench actuation tests show lower performance than originally predicted. Electrical difficulties with the actuators are also discussed. The presented prototype blade is leading to a complete fully articulated four-blade active twist rotor system for future wind tunnel tests.

Cesnik, Carlos E. S.↗
NASA NTRS2000

Validation of a "Kane's Dynamics" Model for the Active Rack Isolation System

Many microgravity space-science experiments require vibratory acceleration levels unachievable without active isolation. The Boeing Corporation's Active Rack Isolation System (ARIS) employs a novel combination of magnetic actuation and mechanical linkages, to address these isolation requirements on the International Space Station (ISS). ARIS provides isolation at the rack (international Standard Payload Rack, or ISPR) level. Effective model-based vibration isolation requires (1) an isolation device, (2) an adequate dynamic (i.e., mathematical) model of that isolator, and (3) a suitable, corresponding controller, ARIS provides the ISS response to the first requirement. In November 1999, the authors presented a response to the second ("A 'Kane's Dynamics' model for the Active Rack Isolation System", Hampton and Beech) intended to facilitate an optimal-controls approach to the third. This paper documents the validation of that high-fidelity dynamic model of ARIS. As before, this model contains the full actuator dynamics, however, the umbilical models are not included in this presentation. The validation of this dynamics model was achieved by utilizing two Commercial Off the Shelf (COTS) software tools: Deneb's ENVISION, and Online Dynamics' AUTOLEV. ENVISION is a robotics software package developed for the automotive industry that employs 3-dimensional (3-D) Computer Aided Design (CAD) models to facilitate both forward and inverse kinematics analyses. AUTOLEV is a DOS based interpreter that is designed in general to solve vector based mathematical problems and specifically to solve Dynamics problems using Kane's method.

Beech, Geoffrey S.↗
NASA NTRS1997

The Perennial Ice Cover of the Beaufort Sea from Active- and Passive-Microwave Observations

The perennial ice concentration in the Beaufort Sea was examined using active- and passive-microwave observations. We compared the ice type and concentration estimates from SSM/I and ERS-1 SAR data over a seasonal cycle from January 1992 to January 1993. It was found the multi-year (MY) ice-concentration estimates from the SAR data were very stable and were nearly equivalent to the ice concentration estimated at the end of the previous summer. We contrast this with the variability of the MY ice-concentration and ice-fraction estimates obtained using the NASA Team algorithm. The passive- and active-microwave algorithms provide total ice concentrations that are comparable during the winter, but the passive estimates are significantly lower during the summer. Passive-microwave estimates of multi-year-ice concentrations are consistently lower (up to 30%) than those from the SAR data. We discuss reasons for these discrepancies and the possible biases introduced by the active and passive algorithms.

Kwok, R.↗
NASA NTRS2000

NASA's Advanced Propulsion Technology Activities for Third Generation Fully Reusable Launch Vehicle Applications

NASA's Office of Aeronautics and Space Transportation Technology (OASTT) established the following three major goals, referred to as "The Three Pillars for Success": Global Civil Aviation, Revolutionary Technology Leaps, and Access to Space. The Advanced Space Transportation Program Office (ASTP) at the NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala. focuses on future space transportation technologies under the "Access to Space" pillar. The Propulsion Projects within ASTP under the investment area of Spaceliner100, focus on the earth-to-orbit (ETO) third generation reusable launch vehicle technologies. The goals of Spaceliner 100 is to reduce cost by a factor of 100 and improve safety by a factor of 10,000 over current conditions. The ETO Propulsion Projects in ASTP, are actively developing combination/combined-cycle propulsion technologies that utilized airbreathing propulsion during a major portion of the trajectory. System integration, components, materials and advanced rocket technologies are also being pursued. Over the last several years, one of the main thrusts has been to develop rocket-based combined cycle (RBCC) technologies. The focus has been on conducting ground tests of several engine designs to establish the RBCC flowpaths performance. Flowpath testing of three different RBCC engine designs is progressing. Additionally, vehicle system studies are being conducted to assess potential operational space access vehicles utilizing combined-cycle propulsion systems. The design, manufacturing, and ground testing of a scale flight-type engine are planned. The first flight demonstration of an airbreathing combined cycle propulsion system is envisioned around 2005. The paper will describe the advanced propulsion technologies that are being being developed under the ETO activities in the ASTP program. Progress, findings, and future activities for the propulsion technologies will be discussed.

Hueter, Uwe↗
NASA NTRS2000

Lightning Activity within a Tornadic Thunderstorm Observed by the Optical Transient Detector (OTD)

The first storm-scale, total lightning observations during tornadogenesis from space are presented. The NASA (National Aeronautics and Space Administration) OTD (Optical Transient Detector) overpass of an Oklahoma supercell, just minutes prior to tornado touchdown on 17 April 1995, detected a lightning flash rate of 45 flashes/ min. The total lighting activity was at least 15 times greater than the cloud-to-ground lightning activity detected by the National Lightning Detection Network (NLDN), indicating most of the lightning was intracloud. Total lightning rates were decreasing rapidly prior to tornadic touchdown. These observations are consistent with the limited results from recent ground based measurements of total lightning activity in tornadic storms, suggesting significant intracloud lightning and rapidly decreasing flash rates prior to tornado touchdown.

Buechler, D. E.↗
NASA NTRS2000

Research Activities within NASA's Morphing Program

In the last decade, smart technologies have become important enabling technologies that cut across traditional boundaries in science and engineering. Here smart is defined as the ability to respond to a stimulus in a predictable and reproducible manner. While multiple successes have been achieved in the laboratory, we have yet to see the general applicability of smart technologies to actual aircraft and spacecraft. The NASA Morphing program is an attempt to couple research across a wide range of disciplines to integrate smart technologies into high payoff applications on aircraft and spacecraft. The program bridges research in several technical disciplines and combines the effort into applications that include active aerodynamic control, active aeroelastic control, and vehicle performance improvement. System studies are used to assess the highest-payoff program objectives, and specific research activities are defined to address the technologies required for development of smart aircraft and spacecraft. This paper will discuss the overall goals of NASA's Morphing program, highlight some of the recent research efforts and discuss the multidisciplinary studies that support that research and some of the challenges associated with bringing the smart technologies to real applications on flight vehicles.

McGowan, Anna-Maria R.↗
NASA NTRS2000

Time-Resolved Spectroscopy of Active Binary Stars

This NASA grant covered EUVE observing and data analysis programs during EUVE Cycle 5 GO observing. The research involved a single Guest Observer project 97-EUVE-061 "Time-Resolved Spectroscopy of Active Binary Stars". The grant provided funding that covered 1.25 months of the PI's salary. The activities undertaken included observation planning and data analysis (both temporal and spectral). This project was awarded 910 ksec of observing time to study seven active binary stars, all but one of which were actually observed. Lambda-And was observed on 1997 Jul 30 - Aug 3 and Aug 7-14 for a total of 297 ksec; these observations showed two large complex flares that were analyzed by Osten & Brown (1999). AR Psc, observed for 350 ksec on 1997 Aug 27 - Sep 13, showed only relatively small flares that were also discussed by Osten & Brown (1999). EUVE observations of El Eri were obtained on 1994 August 24-28, simultaneous with ASCA X-ray spectra. Four flares were detected by EUVE with one of these also observed simultaneously, by ASCA. The other three EUVE observations were of the stars BY Dra (1997 Sep 22-28), V478 Lyr (1998 May 18-27), and sigma Gem (1998 Dec 10-22). The first two stars showed a few small flares. The sigma Gem data shows a beautiful complete flare with a factor of ten peak brightness compared to quiescence. The flare rise and almost all the decay phase are observed. Unfortunately no observations in other spectral regions were obtained for these stars. Analysis of the lambda-And and AR Psc observations is complete and the results were published in Osten & Brown (1999). Analysis of the BY Dra, V478 Lyr and sigma Gem EUVE data is complete and will be published in Osten (2000, in prep.). The El Eri EUV analysis is also completed and the simultaneous EUV/X-ray study will be published in Osten et al. (2000, in prep.). Both these latter papers will be submitted in summer 2000. All these results will form part of Rachel Osten's PhD thesis.

Brown, Alexander↗
NASA NTRS2000

Potential Subjective Effectiveness of Active Interior Noise Control in Propeller Airplanes

Active noise control technology offers the potential for weight-efficient aircraft interior noise reduction, particularly for propeller aircraft. However, there is little information on how passengers respond to this type of interior noise control. This paper presents results of two experiments that use sound quality engineering practices to determine the subjective effectiveness of hypothetical active noise control (ANC) systems in a range of propeller aircraft. The two experiments differed by the type of judgments made by the subjects: pair comparisons based on preference in the first and numerical category scaling of noisiness in the second. Although the results of the two experiments were in general agreement that the hypothetical active control measures improved the interior noise environments, the pair comparison method appears to be more sensitive to subtle changes in the characteristics of the sounds which are related to passenger preference. The reductions in subjective response due to the ANC conditions were predicted with reasonable accuracy by reductions in measured loudness level. Inclusion of corrections for the sound quality characteristics of tonality and fluctuation strength in multiple regression models improved the prediction of the ANC effects.

Powell, Clemans A.↗
NASA NTRS2000

Characteristics of Monolithically Integrated InGaAs Active Pixel Imager Array

Switching and amplifying characteristics of a newly developed monolithic InGaAs Active Pixel Imager Array are presented. The sensor array is fabricated from InGaAs material epitaxially deposited on an InP substrate. It consists of an InGaAs photodiode connected to InP depletion-mode junction field effect transistors (JFETs) for low leakage, low power, and fast control of circuit signal amplifying, buffering, selection, and reset. This monolithically integrated active pixel sensor configuration eliminates the need for hybridization with silicon multiplexer. In addition, the configuration allows the sensor to be front illuminated, making it sensitive to visible as well as near infrared signal radiation. Adapting the existing 1.55 micrometer fiber optical communication technology, this integration will be an ideal system of optoelectronic integration for dual band (Visible/IR) applications near room temperature, for use in atmospheric gas sensing in space, and for target identification on earth. In this paper, two different types of small 4 x 1 test arrays will be described. The effectiveness of switching and amplifying circuits will be discussed in terms of circuit effectiveness (leakage, operating frequency, and temperature) in preparation for the second phase demonstration of integrated, two-dimensional monolithic InGaAs active pixel sensor arrays for applications in transportable shipboard surveillance, night vision, and emission spectroscopy.

Kim, Q.↗
NASA NTRS1999

Breadth of Scientific Activities and Network Station Specifications in the IGS

This presentation provides a brief overview of the scientific activities of the International GPS Service (IGS). This was an approved activity of the International Association of Geodesy (IAG) with official start of service on 1 Jan 1994. The mission of the IGS is "To provide a service to support geodetic and geophysical research activities, through GPS data and data products." The presentation explains the concept of the IGS working group, and pilot projects, and reviews the current working groups and pilot projects.

Moore, A. W.↗