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At least 1,117 records · Page 62

Solar-terrestrial models at the National Space Science Data Center

The National Space Science Data Center (NSSDC) and World Data Center A for Rockets and Satellites (WDC-A-R&S) has a long record of participation in the worldwide efforts to establish and improve empirical models for the different regions of the solar-terrestrial environment. The center maintains a unique archive of solar-terrestrial models and related applications software, described in a recently published models catalog. The software packages are distributed on tape, diskette, and on-line on the Space Physics Analysis Network (SPAN). Four of the most frequently requested models (IRI, MSIS/CIRA, IGRF, AE-8/AP-8) can also be accessed and run on the NSSDC Online Documentation and Information Service (NODIS) account, which can be reached from any SPAN node.

Bilitza, D.↗

The EMSS catalog of X-ray-selected clusters of galaxies. 1: An atlas of CCD images of 41 distant clusters

An atlas of deep, wide-field R-band charge coupled device (CCD) images of a complete sample of distant, X-ray-selected clusters of galaxies is presented. These clusters are the 41 most distant (z is greater than or equal to 0.15) and most X-ray-luminous (L(sub x) is greater than or equal to 2 x 10(exp 44) ergs/s) clusters in the Einstein Observatory Extended Medium Sensitivity Survey (EMSS) catalog that are observable from Mauna Kea (delta is greater than -40 deg). The sample spans a redshift range of 0.15 is less than or equal to z is less than or equal to 0.81 and includes at least two and possibly as many as six rich clusters with z is greater than 0.5. For the most part, the data are of superior quality, with a median seeing of 0.8 sec full width half-maximum (FWHM) and coverage of at least 1 Mpc x 1 Mpc in the cluster frame (H(sub 0) = 50; q(sub 0) = 1/2). In addition, we update the available optical, X-ray, and radio data on the entire EMSS sample of 104 clusters. We outline the cluster selection criteria in detail and emphasize that X-ray-selected cluster samples may prove to be more useful for cosmological studies than optically selected samples. The EMSS cluster sample in particular can be exploited for diverse cosmological investigations, as demonstrated by the detection of evolution in the X-ray luminosity function previously reported, and more recently by the discovery of a large number of gravitationally lensed images in these clusters.

Gioia, I. M.↗

The infrared universe revealed by IRAS

Some of the astrophysical phenomena revealed by IRAS are reviewed. The relation of IRAS data to understanding the origin of the interplanetary dust cloud, to the discovery of protoplanetary disks around other stars, to understanding the birth and death of stars, and to comprehending the energetics of the interstellar medium are addressed. Extragalactic results suggesting that IRAS may have found the birthplace of quasars are examined, and the surprising cosmological implications of the IRAS catalog are considered.

Beichman, C. A.↗

The infrared properties of quasars and radio galaxies - Testing the unification schemes

The IRAS data base is used to compare the mid-FIR properties of two classes of radio-loud AGN whose LF radio emission arises in large-scale radio lobes. The two primary samples consist of 42 quasars and 75 narrow-line radio galaxies selected on the basis of their 178 MHz radio flux density from the 3 CR catalog and having redshifts of not less than 0.3 and Galactic latitudes of not less than 20 deg. The mid-FIR emission was found to be about four times stronger on average in the quasars than in the radio galaxies. Even though the radio galaxies are systematically weaker mid-FIR sources than the quasars, they are still exceptionally luminous (about 10 exp 12 solar luminosities) in the mid-FIR. These powerful radio galaxies contain potent sources of radiation that are either hidden or energetically unimportant at shorter wavelengths.

Heckman, Timothy M.↗

Quantitative spectral types for 19 Algol secondaries

Time-resolved spectra of 19 short-period Algol-type binary star systems obtained during total eclipse are used to derive the temperature spectral class of the mass-losing secondary component. The spectral classifications employed a quantitative comparison of the strengths of absorption features in stars of known spectral class with those of the program stars. The luminosity spectral class can not be determined from these data, so both main-sequence and giant stars were used for the comparison. Our spectral types are compared with published types and found to be generally in good agreement, unless the published types are derived from the light curves. The photometrically determined types are systematically later than our directly determined types. This effect is shown also to exist in catalogs of Algol parameters.

Yoon, Tae S.↗

Characterization of the breakup of the Pegasus rocket body 1994-029B

The breakup of a Pegasus hydrazine auxiliary propulsion system in June 1996, officially recognized as the worst satellite breakup in terms of cataloged debris, is considered. The fragmentation event is analyzed and it is discussed how these debris contribute to the current and future near earth space environment. The low altitude of the breakup and the large range of ejection velocities present concerns for other earth orbiting space vehicles, especially the Space Shuttle and the Hubble Space Telescope. In addition to orbit data collected by the U.S. Space Surveillance Network, observations were conducted with ground-based radar observatories. These observations show that the overabundance of debris is not limited to the trackable population, but also extends down to debris with sizes of less than 1 cm. Attempts to detect the debris with optical sensors were less successful.

Matney, Mark↗

Universal Scaling Laws for Solar and Stellar Atmospheric Heating: Catalog of Power-law Index between Solar Activity Proxies and Various Spectral Irradiances

The formation of extremely hot outer atmospheres is one of the most prominent manifestations of magnetic activity common to late-type dwarf stars, including the Sun. It is widely believed that these atmospheric layers, the corona, transition region, and chromosphere, are heated by the dissipation of energy transported upwards from the stellar surface by the magnetic field. This is signified by the spectral line fluxes at various wavelengths, scaled with power-law relationships against the surface magnetic flux over a wide range of formation temperatures, which are universal to the Sun and Sunlike stars of different ages and activity levels. This study describes a catalog of power-law indices between solar activity proxies and various spectral line fluxes. Compared to previous studies, we expanded the number of proxies, which now includes the total magnetic flux, total sunspot number, total sunspot area, and the F10.7 cm radio flux, and further enhanced the number of spectral lines by a factor of 2. This provides the data to study in detail the flux–flux scaling laws from the regions specified by the temperatures of the corona (log(T/K) = 6–7) to those of the chromosphere (log(T/K) ∼ 4), as well as the reconstruction of various spectral line fluxes of the Sun in the past, F-, G-, and K-type dwarfs, and the modeled stars.

Stellar coronae↗

Task description for the 1983 catalog of tasks for the materials processing in space program

Ground based research necessary to establish all of the optimum experimental conditions required to accomplish the best possible electrophoretic separation of human kidney cell fractions which produce urokinase, gravulocyte stimulating factor, or erythropoietin was carried out. This overall effort includes: (1) development of optimum buffer systems, (2) viability tests, (3) ground based research on electrophoretic mobilities, (4) development of standard cells, standard cell culture methods, and standard urokinase assay procedures, (5) acquisition of the ground control data to be compared with results using cells returned from the electrophoretic separations carried out in microgravity, and (6) ground based research on the electrophoretic mobilities of suspended pituitary cells.

Pentecost, E.↗

Galaxies clustering around QSOs with z = 0.9-1.5 and the origin of blue field galaxies

Deep CCD images were obtained in Mould-Cousins R and I passbands of 16 radio quasars with z values between 0.9 and 1.5 and absolute values of b above 35 deg, chosen from the Veron-Cetty and Veron (1984) catalog. Results indicate that, in this population of radio quasars, there is a statistically significant excess of galaxies within 15 arcsec of the quasars and brighter than R = 23 and I = 22. However, contrary to the report of Tyson (1986), no excess was found of galaxies with R less than 21 lying within 30 arcsec of quasars in this redshift range. Data were also obtained for very blue galaxies seen among objects in the general field, all of which are bluer in R-I than Magellanic irregulars at any redshift less than 3. It is suggested that this population might be comprised of low-redshift low-luminosity (H II region) galaxies of the type studied by French (1980) and/or higher redshift galaxies with strong cooling flows and forbidden O II lines.

Hintzen, Paul↗

Cordoba Durchmusterung, volume 1

The 'Cordoba Durchmusterung' (CD) is a visual survey of southern stars in the declination zones -22 to -89 deg, carried out as an extension to the 'Bonner Durchmusterung' (BD) catalogs of Argelander and Schoenfeld. This volume covers the declination range -22 deg through -30 deg. The survey was performed using techniques similar to those used for the BD; i.e., the stars were cataloged by allowing the telescope to drift along the mean declination of each zone and recording the positions and magnitudes of stars crossing the transit line of the field. The goal of the survey was to obtain a position and estimated visual magnitude for every star down to 10.0 magnitude inclusive, but the faint limit was confirmed from comparisons with other catalogs, to be somewhat below 10. The positions are given to 0.1 s in right ascension and 0.1 min in declination for the equinox 1875. The positional uncertainties quoted in the original publications are plus or minus 0.42 s and plus or minus 0.23 min for zones -22 deg to -32 deg. A list of all corrections made to the original data as a result of published corrigenda is presented. No other corrections or changes were incorporated into the original data, e.g., from more modern positions and magnitudes or comparison with the 'Cape Photographic Durchmusterung'.

Source record↗

Cordoba Durchmusterung, volume 4

The 'Cordoba Durchmusterung' (CD) is a visual survey of southern stars in the declination zones -22 to -89 deg, carried out as an extension to the 'Bonner Durchmusterung' (BD) catalogs of Argelander and Schoenfeld. This volume covers the declination range -40 deg through -49 deg. The survey was performed using techniques similar to those used for the BD; i.e., the stars were cataloged by allowing the telescope to drift along the mean declination of each zone and recording the positions and magnitudes of stars crossing the transit line of the field. The goal of the survey was to obtain a position and estimated visual magnitude for every star down to 10.0 magnitude inclusive, but the faint limit was confirmed from comparisons with other catalogs, to be somewhat below 10. The positions are given to 0.1 s in right ascension and 0.1 min in declination for the equinox 1875. The positional uncertainties quoted in the original publications are plus or minus 0.42 sec and plus or minus 0.23 min for zones -22 deg to -32 deg. A list of all corrections made to the original data as a result of published corrigenda is presented. No other corrections or changes were incorporated into the original data, e.g., from more modern positions and magnitudes or comparison with the 'Cape Photographic Durchmusterung'.

Source record↗

Expert Seeker: A People-Finder Knowledge Management System

The first objective for this report was to perform a comprehensive research of industry models currently being used for similar purposes, in order to provide the Center with ideas of what is being done in area by private companies and government agencies. The second objective was to evaluate the use of taxonomies or ontologies to describe and catalog the areas of expertise at GSFC. The creation of a knowledge taxonomy is necessary for information extraction in order for The Expert Seeker to adequately search and find experts in a particular area of expertise. The requirements to develop a taxonomy are: provide minimal descriptive text; have the appropriate level of abstration; facilitate browsing; ease of use and speed of data entry are critical for success; customized to the organization and its culture; extent of knowledge areas; expandable, so new skills could be develop; could be complemented with free text fields to allow users the option to describe their knowledge in detail.

Becerra-Fernandez, Irma↗

A catalog of red stars near L1454

In view of their potential interest as individual objects of study, a catalog is presented of stars noted by the Duerr and Craine (1982) study of the nature of the dark cloud L1454 to have V-I magnitudes greater than about 2.5. Finding charts are given for these 156 stars, with attention to the individual quadrants of the region studied. The original star counts had been made with Near Infrared Photographic Sky Survey data.

Duerr, R.↗

Molecular line parameters for the atmospheric trace molecule spectroscopy experiment

During its first mission in 1985 onboard Spacelab 3, the ATMOS (atmospheric trace molecule spectroscopy) instrument, a high speed Fourier transform spectrometer, produced a large number of high resolution infrared solar absorption spectra recorded in the occultation mode. The analysis and interpretation of these data in terms of composition, chemistry, and dynamics of the earth's upper atmosphere required good knowledge of the molecular line parameters for those species giving rise to the absorptions in the atmospheric spectra. This paper describes the spectroscopic line parameter database compiled for the ATMOS experiment and referenced in other papers describing ATMOS results. With over 400,000 entries, the linelist catalogs parameters of 46 minor and trace species in the 1-10,000/cm region.

Brown, L. R.↗

An Investigation Into Transecting Satellites in Future Space Traffic Management Scenarios

The number of satellites expected to populate the near-Earth space environment is set to dramatically increase in the coming decade as new large constellations are approved and deployed. Current strategies for placing new batches of these satellites on orbit often involve launching into an initial orbit, and then performing apogee raising maneuvers to reach a target altitude. Similarly, end-of-life planning for these constellation satellites can consist of de-orbit burns that lower perigee to permit disposal via re-entry. Both the raising and de-orbiting maneuvers can result in the individual satellites traveling in high-eccentricity orbits that have the potential to transect other spacecraft trajectories. While individual large constellations may be able to coexist in separate altitude and inclination bands, having thousands of satellites moving between these bands as new satellites are replaced and old ones are removed could pose additional collision risks. Similar concerns have been raised regarding the impact that large numbers of university-class CubeSats might have in terms of their overall collision risk, especially as these satellites typically do not have propulsion systems for active maneuvering. To assess the impact that transecting satellites might have to future space traffic management strategies, this study explored a variety of future realistic scenarios using a high-fidelity simulation tool. The model can simulate the orbit of tens of thousands of resident space objects (RSOs) simultaneously, to include active satellites, debris, rocket bodies, or even future hypothetical scenarios, using a realistic force model that incorporates non-spherical gravity, atmospheric drag, solar radiation pressure, and more. As the model is run forward in time, various statistics and meta-data are gathered on any predicted conjunction event, providing insight into the nature and frequency of potential collisions, e.g., what size are the two satellites, who operates the satellites, are they active or passive objects, etc. Additional customization is available in terms of how probability of collision is computed, and how the probability ellipsoids and screening volumes are determined. The simulation tool also allows for rule-based maneuvers for active satellites, e.g, given an advance conjunction “warning,” one or both of the satellites can maneuver to a safe distance. A wide range of maneuvers can be implemented using impulsive or low-thrust methods, and the latencies can also be varied, e.g., using maneuver lead times of 48 hours, 24 hours, or 12 hours. Validation of the simulation results is performed against current and historical datasets available, to include comparisons to prior conjunction data messages (CDMs), object properties (mass, volume, etc.), and two-line-element records from both public and internal sources. Using the simulation environment, an assessment on the general risks that transecting satellites might pose for hypothetical future space object environments will be presented. This will involve the simulation of approximately 50,000 new large constellation satellites, in addition to the existing catalog of approximately 20,000 known resident space objects (RSOs), over propagation periods of one month to one year. A description of the simulation methodologies, scenarios evaluated, and validation methods will also be presented, as well as a preliminary assessment of the effectiveness of several candidate maneuver strategies that have the potential to reduce collision risk between active satellites.

Brian Gunter↗

Naval Space Surveillance Center uses of time, frequency, and phase

The Naval Space Surveillance Center (NAVSPASUR) is an operational naval command that has the mission of determining the location of all manmade objects in space and transmitting information on objects of interest to the fleet. NAVSPASUR operates a 217 MHz radar fence that has 9 transmitting and receiving stations deployed in a line across southern Continental United States (CONUS). This surveillance fence provides unalerted detection of satellites overflying CONUS. NAVSPASUR also maintains a space catalog of all orbiting space objects. NAVSPASUR plays an important role as operational alternate to the primary national Space Surveillance Center (SSC) and Space Defence Operations Center (SPADOC). In executing these responsibilities, NAVSPASUR needs precise and/or standardized time and frequency in a number of applications. These include maintenance of the radar fence references to specification, and coordination with other commands and agencies for data receipt and dissemination. Precise time and frequency must be maintained within each site to enable proper operation of the interferometry phasing technique used. Precise time-of-day clocking must exist between sites for proper intersite coordination. After 'time tags' are attached to the data at the receiver sites, proper referencing and standardization are necessary at the Dahlgren, Va. operations center to ensure proper data synchronization and communications with the fleet and other agencies.

Carroll C. Hayden↗

Building a virtual planet

The virtual Planetary Laboratory (VPL) is a recently funded 5-yr project, which seeks toimprove our understanding of the range of plausible environments and the likely signatures for life on extrasolar terrestrial planets. To achieve these goals we are developing a suite of innovative modeling tools to simulate the environments and spectra of extrasolar planets. The core of the VPL IS a coupled radiative transfer/climate/chemistry model, which is augmented by interchangeable modules which characterize geological, exogenic, atmospheric escape, and life processes. The VPL is validated using data derived from terrestrial planets within our own solar system. The VPL will be used to explore the plausible range of atmospheric composittions and globally averaged spectra for extrasolar planets and for early Earth, and will improve our understanding of the effect of life on a planet's atmospheric spectrum and composition. The models will also be used to create a comprehensive spectral catalog to provide recommendations on the optimum wavelength range, spectral resolution, and instrument sensitivity required to characterize extrasolar terrestrial planets. Although developed by our team, the VPL is envisioned to be a comprehensive and flexible tool, which can be collaboratively used by the broader planetary science and astrobiology communities. This presentation will describe the project concept, the tasks involved, and will outline current progress to date. This work is funded by the NASA Astrobiology Institute.

astrobiology↗

Occultation studies of the Solar System

The planetary occultation program began at Lowell Observatory in 1973 with a worldwide campaign to observe mutual occultations and eclipses of the Galilean Satellites. Then the temperature profile of the Martian atmosphere was measured from data taken during the occultation of epsilon Geminorum, the Rings of Uranus were discovered as they occulted SAO 158687, and the dimensions of Pallas were measured when that minor planet occulted SAO 85009. In 1979 the present grant was initiated, providing funds for portable photometric instrumentation used to observe occultations by asteroids as well as by Uranus and Neptune. Software for predicting occultations of catalog stars by asteroids, planets, and comets was written in 1983. Lowell currently provides most of the available predictions for asteroid occultations. Realizing in 1983 that the lack of a high-quality astrometric telescope dedicated to occultation work was limiting progress, an 18-inch, F/8 lens was acquired and adapted to an existing mounting at Lowell. Although acquisition of the lens and implementation of the new telescope has been accomplished primarily with non-grant funds, the instrument makes a major contribution to occultation research.

Millis, Robert L.↗