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Description and evaluation of the remotely operated Lick Observatory Cassegrain focus of the 120-inch telescope. The experience with this instrument has revealed that an automated system can profoundly change the observer's approach to his work. This makes it difficult to evaluate the 'advantage' of an automated telescope over a conventional instrument. Some of the problems arising with automation in astronomy are discussed.
The properties of the plasmapause as a VLF wave guide are studied. The guidance that occurs is a form of gradient trapping of VLF wave energy. It is shown that guiding is possible at both the inner and outer edges of the plasmapause and that more efficient guiding occurs as the plasmapause gradients become stronger. In the case of strong gradients, waves coming from a latitude range of about 8 deg are focused tightly about the plasmapause field lines, resulting in a wave intensity increase of approximately 3 dB near the magnetic equatorial plane. It is shown that plasmapause-guided waves can be observed on the ground and can echo between hemispheres, precisely as can waves guided in normal whistler ducts. The single distinguishing feature of plasmapause-guided waves is a lowered upper cutoff frequency. The results indicate that the vicinity of the plasmapause represents a natural and readily accessible region of VLF wave guidance and focusing where both passive and active VLF experiments can be studied through ground and in situ satellite measurements.
A Microgravity Materials Science Laboratory (MMSL) has been planned, designed, and is being developed. This laboratory will support related efforts to define the requirements for the Microgravity and Materials Processing Laboratory (MMPF) and the MMPF Test Bed for the Space Station. The MMSL will serve as a check out and training facility for science mission specialists for STS, Spacelab and Space Station prior to the full operation of the MMPF Test Bed. The focus of the MMSL will be on experiments related to the understanding of metal/ceramic/glass solidification, high perfection crystal growth and fluid physics. This ground-based laboratory will be used by university/industry/government researchers to examine and become familiar with the potential of new microgravity materials science concepts and to conduct longer term studies aimed at fully developing a l-g understanding of materials and processing phenomena. Such research will help create new high quality concepts for space experiments and will provide the basis for modeling, theories, and hypotheses upon which key space experiments can be defined and developed.
New methods and approaches are being tried and evaluated with the goal of increasing productivity and quality. The underlying concept in all of these approaches, methods or processes is that people require interactive communication to maximize the organization's strengths and minimize impediments to productivity improvement. This paper examines Bendix Field Engineering Corporation's organizational structure and experiences with employee involvement programs. The paper focuses on methods Bendix developed and implemented to open lines of communication throughout the organization. The Bendix approach to productivity and quality enhancement shows that interactive communication is critical to the successful implementation of any productivity improvement program. The paper concludes with an examination of the Bendix methodologies which can be adopted by any corporation in any industry.
The behavioral processes in aviation crew system design are theoretically discussed. Interviews with designers concerning actual design experiences were conducted in a structured manner, focusing on the nature of the design problem, the designers's tasks, how decisions governing the human operator's role are made, and how this decision making can be supported. Two taxonomies emerge, one of which summarizes the nature of the design problem and the second of which summarizes the tasks that designers perform toward solving the problem. Combining the taxonomies yields a design problem space that is used to classify existing forms of support. The results of this classification and the implications for needed supports are discussed.
Teleoperation experiments at JPL have shown that advanced features in a telerobotic system are a necessary condition for good results, but that they are not sufficient to assure consistently good performance by the operators. Two or three operators are normally used during training and experiments to maintain the desired performance. An alternative to this multi-operator control station is a man-machine interface embedding computer programs that can perform some of the operator's functions. In this paper we present our first experiments with these concepts, in which we focused on the areas of real-time task monitoring and interactive path planning. In the first case, when performing a known task, the operator has an automatic aid for setting control parameters and camera views. In the second case, an interactive path planner will rank different path alternatives so that the operator will make the correct control decision. The monitoring function has been implemented with a neural network doing the real-time task segmentation. The interactive path planner was implemented for redundant manipulators to specify arm configurations across the desired path and satisfy geometric, task, and performance constraints.
Objectives of this research are: (1) to measure the hysteresis loop, Kerr rotation angle, anisotropy energy profile, Hall voltage, and magnetoresistance of thin-film magneto-optic media using our loop-tracer; (2) measure the wavelength-dependence of the Kerr rotation angle, Theta(sub k), and ellipticity, epsilon(sub k), for thin-film media using our magneto-optic Kerr spectrometer (MOKS); (3) measure the dielectric tensor of thin-film and multilayer samples using our variable-angle magneto-optic ellipsometer (VAMOE); (4) measure the hysteresis loop, coercivity, remanent magnetization, saturation magnetization, and anisotropy energy constant for thin film magnetic media using vibrating sample magnetometry; (5) observe small magnetic domains and investigate their interaction with defects using magnetic force microscopy; (6) perform static read/write/erase experiments on thin-film magneto-optic media using our static test station; (7) integrate the existing models of magnetization, magneto-optic effects, coercivity, and anisotropy in an interactive and user-friendly environment, and analyze the characterization data obtained in the various experiments, using this modeling package; (8) measure focusing- and tracking-error signals on a static testbed, determine the 'feedthrough' for various focusing schemes, investigate the effects of polarization and birefringence, and compare the results with diffraction-based calculations; and (9) measure the birefringence of optical disk substrates using two variable angle ellipsometers.
The effects of small-scale heterogeneity in land surface characteristics on the large-scale fluxes of water and energy in land-atmosphere system has become a central focus of many of the climatology research experiments. The acquisition of high resolution land surface data through remote sensing and intensive land-climatology field experiments (like HAPEX and FIFE) has provided data to investigate the interactions between microscale land-atmosphere interactions and macroscale models. One essential research question is how to account for the small scale heterogeneities and whether 'effective' parameters can be used in the macroscale models. To address this question of scaling, three modeling experiments were performed and are reviewed in the paper. The first is concerned with the aggregation of parameters and inputs for a terrestrial water and energy balance model. The second experiment analyzed the scaling behavior of hydrologic responses during rain events and between rain events. The third experiment compared the hydrologic responses from distributed models with a lumped model that uses spatially constant inputs and parameters. The results show that the patterns of small scale variations can be represented statistically if the scale is larger than a representative elementary area scale, which appears to be about 2 - 3 times the correlation length of the process. For natural catchments this appears to be about 1 - 2 sq km. The results concerning distributed versus lumped representations are more complicated. For conditions when the processes are nonlinear, then lumping results in biases; otherwise a one-dimensional model based on 'equivalent' parameters provides quite good results. Further research is needed to fully understand these conditions.
The effects of small-scale heterogeneity in land surface characteristics on the large-scale fluxes of water and energy in the land-atmosphere system has become a central focus of many of the climatology research experiments. The acquisition of high resolution land surface data through remote sensing and intensive land-climatology field experiments (like HAPEX and FIFE) has provided data to investigate the interactions between microscale land-atmosphere interactions and macroscale models. One essential research question is how to account for the small scale heterogeneities and whether 'effective' parameters can be used in the macroscale models. To address this question of scaling, the probability distribution for evaporation is derived which illustrates the conditions for which scaling should work. A correction algorithm that may appropriate for the land parameterization of a GCM is derived using a 2nd order linearization scheme. The performance of the algorithm is evaluated.
SAVS (a Space and Atmospheric Visualization Science system) is an integrated system with user-friendly functionality that employs a 'push-button' software environment that mimics the logical scientific processes in data acquisition, reduction, analysis, and visualization. All of this is accomplished without requiring a detailed understanding of the methods, networks, and modules that link the tools and effectively execute the functions. This report describes SAVS and its components, followed by several applications based on generic research interests in interplanetary and magnetospheric physics (IMP/ISTP), active experiments in space (CRRES), and mission planning focused on the earth's thermospheric, ionospheric, and mesospheric domains (TIMED). The final chapters provide a user-oriented description of interface functionalities, hands-on operations, and customized modules, with details of the primary modules presented in the appendices. The overall intent of the report is to reflect the accomplishments of the three-year development effort and to introduce potential users to the power and utility of the integrated data acquisition, analysis, and visualization system.
NASA's Atmospheric Boundary Layer Experiment conducted during the summer of 1990 focused on the distribution of trace species in central and northeastern Canada (altitudes less than 6 km) and the importance of surface sources/sinks, local emissions, distant transport, tropospheric/stratospheric exchange. Aircraft flights were based from North Bay, Ontario, and Goose Bay, Labrador, Canada. As part of the aircraft measurements, aerosol number density (0.2- to 3-micrometers diameter) was measured using an optical laser technique. Results show that summertime aerosol budgets of central and northeastern Canada can be significantly impacted by the transport of pollutants from distant source regions. Biomass burning in Alaska and western and central Canada exerts major influences on regional aerosol budgets. Urban emissions transported from the U.S./Canadian border regions are also important. Aerosol enhancements (mixed layer and free troposphere) were most prevalent in air with carbon monoxide mixing ratios greater than 110 parts per billion by volume (ppbv). When data were grouped as to the source of the air (5-day back trajectories) either north or south of the polar jet, aerosol number density in the mixed layer showed a tendency to be enhanced for air south of the jet relative to north of the jet. However, this difference was not observed for measurements at the higher altitudes (4 to 6 km). For some flights, mixed layer aerosol number densities were greater than 100 higher than free-tropospheric values (3- to 6-km altitude). The majority of the observed mixed layer enhancement was associated with transport of effluent-rich air into the Canadian regions. Aerosol emissions from natural Canadian ecosystems were relatively small when compared to transport.
An analysis is made of equatorial ozone variations for 5 years, 1984-1989, using the ozone profile data derived from the Stratospheric Aerosol and Gas Experiment II (SAGE II) instrument. Attention is focused on the annual cycle and also on interannual variability, particularly the quasi-biennial oscillation (QBO) and El Nino-Southern Oscillation (ENSO) variations in the lower stratosphere, where the largest contribution to total column ozone takes place. The annual variation in zonal mean total ozone around the equator is composed of symmetric and asymmetric modes with respect to the equator, with maximum contributions being around 19 km for the symmetric mode and around 25 km for the asymmetric mode. The persistent zonal wavenumber 1 structure observed by the total ozone mapping spectrometer over the equator is almost missing in the SAGE-derived column amounts integrated in the stratosphere, suggesting a significant contribution from tropospheric ozone. Interannual variations in the equatorial ozone are dominated by the QBO above 20 km and the ENSO-related variation below 20 km. The ozone QBO is characterized by zonally uniform phase changes in association with the zonal wind QBO in the equatorial lower stratosphere. The ENSO-related ozone variation consists of both the east-west vacillation and the zonally uniform phase variation. During the El Nino event, the east-west contrast with positive (negative) deviations in the eastern (western) hemisphere is conspicuous, while the decreasing tendency of the zonal mean values is maximum at the same time.
The research environment faced by space and atmospheric scientists in the 1990s is characterized by unprecedented volumes of new data, by ever-increasing repositories of unexploited mission files, and by the widespread use of empirical and large-scale computational models needed for the synthesis of understanding across data sets and discipline boundaries. The effective analysis and interpretation of such massive amounts of information have become the subjects of legitimate concern. With SAVS (a Space and Atmospheric Visualization Science System), we address these issues by creating a 'push-button' software environment that mimics the logical scientific processes in data acquisition, reduction, and analysis without requiring a detailed understanding of the methods, networks, and modules that link the tools and effectively execute the functions. SAVS provides (1) a customizable framework for accessing a powerful set of visualization tools based on the popular AVS visualization software with hooks to PV-Wave and access to Khoros modules, (2) a set of mathematical and statistical tools, (3) an extensible library of discipline-specific functions and models (e.g., MSIS, IRI, Feldstein Oval, IGRF, satellite tracking with CADRE-3, etc.), and (4) capabilities for local and remote data base access. The system treats scalar, vector, and image data, and runs on most common Unix workstations. We present a description of SAVS and its components, followed by several applications based on generic research interests in interplanetary and magnetospheric physics (IMP/ISTP), active experiments in space (CRRES), and mission planning focused on the Earth's thermospheric, ionospheric, and mesospheric domains (TIMED).
The optical excitation function of prompt Lyman-Alpha radiation, produced by electron impact on atomic hydrogen, has been measured over the extended energy range from threshold to 1.8 keV. Measurements were obtained in a crossed-beams experiment using both magnetically confined and electrostatically focused electrons in collision with atomic hydrogen produced by an intense discharge source. A vacuum-ultraviolet mono- chromator system was used to measure the emitted Lyman-Alpha radiation. The absolute H(1s-2p) electron impact excitation cross section was obtained from the experimental optical excitation function by normalizing to the accepted optical oscillator strength, with corrections for polarization and cascade. Statistical and known systematic uncertainties in our data range from +/- 4% near threshold to +/- 2% at 1.8 keV. Multistate coupling affecting the shape of the excitation function up to 1 keV impact energy is apparent in both the present experimental data and present theoretical results obtained with convergent close- coupling (CCC) theory. This shape function effect leads to an uncertainty in absolute cross sections at the 10% level in the analysis of the experimental data. The derived optimized absolute cross sections are within 7% of the CCC calculations over the 14 eV-1.8 keV range. The present CCC calculations converge on the Bethe- Fano profile for H(1s-2p) excitation at high energy. For this reason agreement with the CCC values to within 3% is achieved in a nonoptimal normalization of the experimental data to the Bethe-Fano profile. The fundamental H(1s-2p) electron impact cross section is thereby determined to an unprecedented accuracy over the 14 eV - 1.8 keV energy range.
The phenomenon known as aeroelastic divergence is the focus of this work. The analyses and experiment presented here show that divergence can occur without a structural dynamic mode losing its oscillatory nature. Aeroelastic divergence occurs when the structural restorative capability or stiffness of a structure is overwhelmed by the static aerodynamic moment. This static aeroelastic coupling does not require the structural dynamic system behavior to cease, however. Aeroelastic changes in the dynamic mode behavior are governed not only by the stiffness, but by damping and inertial properties. The work presented here supports these fundamental assertions by examining a simple system: a typical section airfoil with only a rotational structural degree of freedom. Analytical results identified configurations that exhibit different types of dynamic mode behavior as the system encounters divergence. A wind tunnel model was designed and tested to examine divergence experimentally. The experimental results validate the analytical calculations and explicitly examine the divergence phenomenon where the dynamic mode persists. Three configurations of the wind tunnel model were tested. The experimental results agree very well with the analytical predictions of subcritical characteristics, divergence velocity, and behavior of the noncritical dynamic mode at divergence.
Methods by which radiation shielding is optimized need to be developed and materials of improved shielding characteristics identified and validated. The galactic cosmic rays (GCR) are very penetrating and the energy absorbed by the astronaut behind the shield is nearly independent of shield composition and even the shield thickness. However, the mix of particles in the transmitted beam changes rapidly with shield material composition and thickness. This results in part from the breakup of the high-energy heavy ions of the GCR which make contributions to biological effects out of proportion to their deposited energy. So the mixture of particles in the radiation field changes with shielding and the control of risk contributions from dominant particle types is critical to reducing the hazard to the astronaut. The risk of biological injury for a given particle type depends on the type of biological effect and is specific to cell or tissue type. Thus, one is faced with choosing materials which may protect a given tissue against a given effect but leave unchanged or even increase the risk of other effects in the same tissue or increase the risks to other adjacent tissues of a different type in the same individual. The optimization of shield composition will then be tied to a specific tissue and risk to that tissue. Such peculiarities arise from the complicated mixture of particles, the nature of their biological response, and the details of their interaction with material constituents. Aside from the understanding of the biological response to specific components, one also needs an accurate understanding of the radiation emerging from the shield material. This latter subject has been a principal element of this project. In the past ten years our understanding of space radiation interactions with materials has changed radically, with a large impact on shield design. For example, the NCRP estimated that only 2 g/sq cm. of aluminum would be required to meet the annual 500 mSv limit for the exposure of the blood forming organs (this limit is strictly for LEO but can be used as a guideline for the Mars mission analysis). The current estimates require aluminum shield thicknesses above 50 g/sq cm., which is impractical. In such a heavily shielded vehicle, the neutrons produced throughout the vehicle also contribute significantly to the exposure and this demands greater care in describing the angular dependence of secondary particle production processes. As such the continued testing of databases and transport procedures in laboratory and spaceflight experiments has continued. This has been the focus of much of the last year's activity and has resulted in improved neutron prediction capability. These new methods have also improved our understanding of the surface environment of Mars. The Mars 2003 NRA HEDS related surface science requirements were driven by the need to validate predictions on the upward flux of neutrons produced in the Martian regolith and bedrock made by the codes developed under this project. The codes used in the surface environment definition are also being used to look at in situ resources for the development of construction material for Martian surface facilities. For example, synthesis of polyimides and polyethylene as binders of regolith for developing basic structural elements has been studied and targets built for accelerator beam testing of radiation shielding properties. Preliminary mechanical tests have also been promising. Improved spacecraft materials have been identified (using the criteria reported by this project at the last conference) as potentially important for future shielding materials. These are liquid hydrogen, hydrogenated nanofibers, liquid methane, LiH, Polyethylene, Polysulfone, and Polyetherimide (in order of decreasing shield performance). Some of the materials are multifunctional and are required for other onboard systems. We are currently preparing software for trade studies with these materials relative to the Mars Reference Mission as required in the project's final year.
The laboratory studies of interstellar carbon materials analogs (PAHs, Fullerenes, chains) will be discussed with their advantages and limitations from the point of view of the application to astrophysical processes. The discussion will focus on the newest generation of laboratory experiments that has been developed in order to provide a closer simulation of space environments and a better support to space missions. The astrophysical implications and future perspectives will be stressed.
The Fourth Convection and Moisture Experiment (CAMEX 4) was a scientific field experiment based in Florida in summer 2001 focused on the study of hurricanes off the east coast of the United States. Sponsored by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration's Office of Earth Science, and conducted in collaboration with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's annual hurricane research program, CAMEX 4 utilized aircraft, ground-based and satellite instrumentation to obtain unprecedented, three dimensional characterizations of these important storms. The Aerosonde UAV was selected by NASA to participate in CAMEX 4 because it provided a unique capability to obtain measurements in the atmospheric boundary layer in and around the storms, unattainable by other platforms or measurement capabilities. This talk focuses on the NASA review process that was followed to coordinate the UAV activity with the conventional aircraft operations, as well as with the other participating agencies and the FAA. We will discuss how Aerosonde addressed the issues of safety, coordination and communication and summarize the lessons learned.