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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 1,225 records · Page 68
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
NASA NTRS1995

Observations on the Circulation in the Alboran Sea Using ERS1 Altimetry and Sea Surface Temperature Data

Data from the altimeter onboard the European Remote Sensing Satellite (ERS1) was used to study the circulation of the Alboran Sea between -6 to 0 degrees and 35 to 38 degrees North. The results indicate that combining sea surface temperature data and sea level data from altimetry hold promise for understanding the circulation of the Western Mediterranean.

remote sensing Alboran Sea altimetry Mediterranean↗
NASA NTRS2006

A Conceptual Titan Orbiter Mission Using Advanced Radioisotope Power Systems

This study details a conceptual follow-on Titan orbiter mission that would provide full global topographic coverage. surface imaging, and meteorological characterization of the atmosphere over a nominal 5-year science mission duration. The baseline power requirement is approx.1 kWe at EOM and is driven by a high power radar instrument that would provide 3-dimensional measurements of atmospheric clouds, precipitation, and surface topography. While this power level is moderately higher than that of the Cassini spacecraft. higher efficiency advanced RPSs could potentially reduce the plutonium usage to less than 1/3rd of that used on the Cassini spacecraft. The Titan Orbiter mission is assumed to launch in 2015. It would utilize advanced RPSs to provide all on-board power.

radioisotope power systems (RPS)↗
NASA NTRS2009

ATK Launch Vehicle (ALV-X1) Liftoff Acoustic Environments: Prediction vs. Measurement

The ATK Launch Vehicle (ALV-X1) provided an opportunity to measure liftoff acoustic noise data. NASA Marshall Space Flight Center (MSFC) engineers were interested in the ALV-X1 launch because the First Stage motor and launch pad conditions, including a relativity short deflector ducting, provide a potential analogue to future Ares I launches. This paper presents the measured liftoff acoustics on the vehicle and tower. Those measured results are compared to predictions based upon the method described in NASA SP-8072 "Acoustic Loads Generated by the Propulsion System" and the Vehicle Acoustic Environment Prediction Program (VAEPP) which was developed by MSFC acoustics engineers. One-third octave band sound pressure levels will be presented. This data is useful for the ALV-X1 in validating the pre-launch environments and loads predictions. Additionally, the ALV-X1 liftoff data can be scaled to define liftoff environments for the NASA Constellation program Ares vehicles. Vehicle liftoff noise is caused by the supersonic jet flow interaction with surrounding atmosphere or more simply, jet noise. As the vehicle's First Stage motor is ignited, an acoustic noise field is generated by the exhaust. This noise field persists due to the supersonic jet noise and reflections from the launch pad and tower, then changes as the vehicle begins to liftoff from the launch pad. Depending on launch pad and adjacent tower configurations, the liftoff noise is generally very high near the nozzle exit and decreases rapidly away from the nozzle. The liftoff acoustic time range of interest is typically 0 to 20 seconds after ignition. The exhaust plume thermo-fluid mechanics generates sound at approx.10 Hz to 20 kHz. Liftoff acoustic noise is usually the most severe dynamic environment for a launch vehicle or payload in the mid to high frequency range (approx.50 to 2000 Hz). This noise environment can induce high-level vibrations along the external surfaces of the vehicle and surrounding launch facility structures. The acoustic pressure fluctuations will induce severe vibrations in relatively large lightweight structures. Consequently, there is the potential for failure of the structure or attached electrical components. Due to these potential failures, the liftoff acoustic noise is one of the noise source inputs used to determine the vibro-acoustic qualification environment for a launch vehicle and its components.

Houston, Janice↗
NASA NTRS2010

Probabilistic Design and Analysis Framework

PRODAF is a software package designed to aid analysts and designers in conducting probabilistic analysis of components and systems. PRODAF can integrate multiple analysis programs to ease the tedious process of conducting a complex analysis process that requires the use of multiple software packages. The work uses a commercial finite element analysis (FEA) program with modules from NESSUS to conduct a probabilistic analysis of a hypothetical turbine blade, disk, and shaft model. PRODAF applies the response surface method, at the component level, and extrapolates the component-level responses to the system level. Hypothetical components of a gas turbine engine are first deterministically modeled using FEA. Variations in selected geometrical dimensions and loading conditions are analyzed to determine the effects of the stress state within each component. Geometric variations include the cord length and height for the blade, inner radius, outer radius, and thickness, which are varied for the disk. Probabilistic analysis is carried out using developing software packages like System Uncertainty Analysis (SUA) and PRODAF. PRODAF was used with a commercial deterministic FEA program in conjunction with modules from the probabilistic analysis program, NESTEM, to perturb loads and geometries to provide a reliability and sensitivity analysis. PRODAF simplified the handling of data among the various programs involved, and will work with many commercial and opensource deterministic programs, probabilistic programs, or modules.

Strack, William C.↗
NASA NTRS2012

A New Look at Titan's Zonal Winds from Cassini Radio Occultations

We use the existing thirteen Cassini radio'occultation soundings to construct a meridional cross section of geopotential height vs. pressure and latitude. The assumption of balanced flow permits the construction of a similar cross section of zonal winds, from near the surface to the 0.1'mbar level. In the lower troposphere, the winds are approx.10 m/s, except within 20deg of the equator, where they are much smaller. The winds increase higher up in the troposphere to nearly 40 m/s in the tropopause region, but then decay rapidly in the lower stratosphere to near'zero values at 20 mbar (approx.80 km), reminiscent of the Huygens Doppler Wind Experiment result. This null zone extends over most latitudes, except for limited bands at mid'latitudes. Higher up in the stratosphere, the winds become larger. They are highest in the northern (winter) hemisphere. We compare the occultation results with the DWE and CIRS retrievals and discuss the similarities and differences among the data sets.

Flasar, F. M.↗
NASA NTRS2013

High Bypass Ratio Jet Noise Reduction and Installation Effects Including Shielding Effectiveness

An experimental investigation was performed to study the propulsion airframe aeroacoustic installation effects of a separate flow jet nozzle with a Hybrid Wing Body aircraft configuration where the engine is installed above the wing. Prior understanding of the jet noise shielding effectiveness was extended to a bypass ratio ten application as a function of nozzle configuration, chevron type, axial spacing, and installation effects from additional airframe components. Chevron types included fan chevrons that are uniform circumferentially around the fan nozzle and T-fan type chevrons that are asymmetrical circumferentially. In isolated testing without a pylon, uniform chevrons compared to T-fan chevrons showed slightly more low frequency reduction offset by more high frequency increase. Phased array localization shows that at this bypass ratio chevrons still move peak jet noise source locations upstream but not to nearly the extent, as a function of frequency, as for lower bypass ratio jets. For baseline nozzles without chevrons, the basic pylon effect has been greatly reduced compared to that seen for lower bypass ratio jets. Compared to Tfan chevrons without a pylon, the combination with a standard pylon results in more high frequency noise increase and an overall higher noise level. Shielded by an airframe surface 2.17 fan diameters from nozzle to airframe trailing edge, the T-fan chevron nozzle can produce reductions in jet noise of as much as 8 dB at high frequencies and upstream angles. Noise reduction from shielding decreases with decreasing frequency and with increasing angle from the jet inlet. Beyond an angle of 130 degrees there is almost no noise reduction from shielding. Increasing chevron immersion more than what is already an aggressive design is not advantageous for noise reduction. The addition of airframe control surfaces, including vertical stabilizers and elevon deflection, showed only a small overall impact. Based on the test results, the best overall nozzle configuration design was selected for application to the N2A Hybrid Wing Body concept that will be the subject of the NASA Langley 14 by 22 Foot Subsonic Tunnel high fidelity aeroacoustic characterization experiment. The best overall nozzle selected includes T-fan type chevrons, uniform chevrons on the core nozzle, and no additional pylon of the type that created a strong acoustic effect at lower bypass ratios. The T-fan chevrons are oriented azimuthally away from the ground observer locations. This best overall nozzle compared to the baseline nozzle was assessed, at equal thrust, to produce sufficient installed noise reduction of the jet noise component to enable the N2A HWB to meet NASA s noise goal of 42 dB cumulative below Stage 4.

Thomas, Russell H.↗
NASA NTRS2014

On the Hiatus in the Acceleration of Tropical Upwelling Since the Beginning of the 21st Century

Chemistry-climate models predict an acceleration of the upwelling branch of the Brewer-Dobson circulation as a consequence of increasing global surface temperatures, resulting from elevated levels of atmospheric greenhouse gases. The observed decrease of ozone in the tropical lower stratosphere during the last decades of the 20th century is consistent with the anticipated acceleration of upwelling. However, more recent satellite observations of ozone reveal that this decrease has unexpectedly stopped in the first decade of the 21st century, challenging the implicit assumption of a continuous acceleration of tropical upwelling. In this study we use three decades of chemistry transport-model simulations (1980-2013) to investigate this phenomenon and resolve this apparent contradiction. Our model reproduces the observed tropical lower stratosphere ozone record, showing a significant decrease in the early period followed by a statistically robust trend-change after 2002. We demonstrate that this trend-change is correlated with corresponding changes in the vertical transport and conclude that a hiatus in the acceleration of tropical upwelling occurred during the last decade.

trends↗
NASA NTRS2013

Evidence for Water Ie on the Moon: Results for Anomalous Polar Craters from the LRO Mini-RF Imaging Radar

The Mini-RF radar instrument on the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter spacecraft mapped both lunar poles in two different RF wavelengths (complete mapping at 12.6 cm S-band and partial mapping at 4.2 cm X-band) in two look directions, removing much of the ambiguity of previous Earth- and spacecraft-based radar mapping of the Moon's polar regions. The poles are typical highland terrain, showing expected values of radar cross section (albedo) and circular polarization ratio (CPR). Most fresh craters display high values of CPR in and outside the crater rim; the pattern of these CPR distributions is consistent with high levels of wavelength-scale surface roughness associated with the presence of block fields, impact melt flows, and fallback breccia. A different class of polar crater exhibits high CPR only in their interiors, interiors that are both permanently dark and very cold (less than 100 K). Application of scattering models developed previously suggests that these anomalously high-CPR deposits exhibit behavior consistent with the presence of water ice. If this interpretation is correct, then both poles may contain several hundred million tons of water in the form of relatively "clean" ice, all within the upper couple of meters of the lunar surface. The existence of significant water ice deposits enables both long-term human habitation of the Moon and the creation of a permanent cislunar space transportation system based upon the harvest and use of lunar propellant.

polar↗
NASA NTRS2013

Evidence for Water Ice on the Moon: Results for Anomalous Polar Craters from the LRO Mini-RF Imaging Radar

The Mini-RF radar instrument on the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter spacecraft mapped both lunar poles in two different RF wavelengths (complete mapping at 12.6 cm S-band and partial mapping at 4.2 cm X-band) in two look directions, removing much of the ambiguity of previous Earth- and spacecraft-based radar mapping of the Moon's polar regions. The poles are typical highland terrain, showing expected values of radar cross section (albedo) and circular polarization ratio (CPR). Most fresh craters display high values of CPR in and outside the crater rim; the pattern of these CPR distributions is consistent with high levels of wavelength-scale surface roughness associated with the presence of block fields, impact melt flows, and fallback breccia. A different class of polar crater exhibits high CPR only in their interiors, interiors that are both permanently dark and very cold (less than 100 K). Application of scattering models developed previously suggests that these anomalously high-CPR deposits exhibit behavior consistent with the presence of water ice. If this interpretation is correct, then both poles may contain several hundred million tons of water in the form of relatively "clean" ice, all within the upper couple of meters of the lunar surface. The existence of significant water ice deposits enables both long-term human habitation of the Moon and the creation of a permanent cislunar space transportation system based upon the harvest and use of lunar propellant.

Mini-RF radar↗
NASA NTRS2015

Advanced Curation: Solving Current and Future Sample Return Problems

Advanced Curation is a wide-ranging and comprehensive research and development effort at NASA Johnson Space Center that identifies and remediates sample related issues. For current collections, Advanced Curation investigates new cleaning, verification, and analytical techniques to assess their suitability for improving curation processes. Specific needs are also assessed for future sample return missions. For each need, a written plan is drawn up to achieve the requirement. The plan draws while upon current Curation practices, input from Curators, the analytical expertise of the Astromaterials Research and Exploration Science (ARES) team, and suitable standards maintained by ISO, IEST, NIST and other institutions. Additionally, new technologies are adopted on the bases of need and availability. Implementation plans are tested using customized trial programs with statistically robust courses of measurement, and are iterated if necessary until an implementable protocol is established. Upcoming and potential NASA missions such as OSIRIS-REx, the Asteroid Retrieval Mission (ARM), sample return missions in the New Frontiers program, and Mars sample return (MSR) all feature new difficulties and specialized sample handling requirements. The Mars 2020 mission in particular poses a suite of challenges since the mission will cache martian samples for possible return to Earth. In anticipation of future MSR, the following problems are among those under investigation: What is the most efficient means to achieve the less than 1.0 ng/sq cm total organic carbon (TOC) cleanliness required for all sample handling hardware? How do we maintain and verify cleanliness at this level? The Mars 2020 Organic Contamination Panel (OCP) predicts that organic carbon, if present, will be present at the "one to tens" of ppb level in martian near-surface samples. The same samples will likely contain wt% perchlorate salts, or approximately 1,000,000x as much perchlorate oxidizer as organic carbon. The chemical kinetics of this reaction are poorly understood at present under the conditions of cached or curated martian samples. Among other parameters, what is the maximum temperature allowed during storage in order to preserve native martian organic compounds for analysis? What is the best means to collect headspace gases from cached martian (and other) samples? This gas will contain not only martian atmosphere but also off-gassed volatiles from the cached solids.

Fries, M.↗
NASA NTRS2017

Cloudy with a Chance of Solar Flares: The Sun as a Natural Hazard

Space weather is a naturally occurring phenomenon that represents a quantifiable risk to space- and ground-based infrastructure as well as society at large. Space weather hazards include permanent and correctable faults in computer systems, Global Positioning System (GPS) and high-frequency communication disturbances, increased airline passenger and astronaut radiation exposure, and electric grid disruption. From the National Space Weather Strategy, published by the Office of Science and Technology Policy in October 2015, space weather refers to the dynamic conditions of the space environment that arise from emissions from the Sun, which include solar flares, solar energetic particles, and coronal mass ejections. These emissions can interact with Earth and its surrounding space, including the Earth's magnetic field, potentially disrupting technologies and infrastructures. Space weather is measured using a range of space- and ground-based platforms that directly monitor the Sun, the Earth's magnetic field, the conditions in interplanetary space and impacts at Earth's surface, like neutron ground-level enhancement. The NASA Goddard Space Flight Center's Space Weather Research Center and their international collaborators in government, industry, and academia are working towards improved techniques for predicting space weather as part of the strategy and action plan to better quantify and mitigate space weather hazards. In addition to accurately measuring and predicting space weather, we also need to continue developing more advanced techniques for evaluating space weather impacts on space- and ground-based infrastructure. Within the Earth's atmosphere, elevated neutron flux driven by atmosphere-particle interactions from space weather is a primary risk source. Ground-based neutron sources form an essential foundation for quantifying space weather impacts in a variety of systems.

neutron flux↗
NASA NTRS2016

Mass Evolution of Mediterranean, Black, Red, and Caspian Seas from GRACE and Altimetry: Accuracy Assessment and Solution Calibration

We present new measurements of mass evolution for the Mediterranean, Black, Red, and Caspian Seas as determined by the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC) GRACE time-variable global gravity mascon solutions. These new solutions are compared to sea surface altimetry measurements of sea level anomalies with steric corrections applied. To assess their accuracy, the GRACE and altimetry-derived solutions are applied to the set of forward models used by GSFC for processing the GRACE Level-1B datasets, with the resulting inter-satellite range acceleration residuals providing a useful metric for analyzing solution quality.

Loomis, B. D.↗
NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Impact of COVID-Global Shutdown on Earth's Radiation Budget

Climate is fueled by how much of the sun’s energy is absorbed by Earth. Changes in aerosol emissions have a direct impact how much solar energy is absorbed under clear-sky conditions, which occurs roughly one-third of the time globally. Aerosol emission changes can also indirectly influence clouds and further alter solar energy absorption. In this presentation, we examine the impact of the COVID-19 global shutdown on Earth’s radiation budget at global and regional scales and compare it with other changes that have had an influence on Earth's radiation budget during the past 20 years—including policy-related emission controls, wildfire events and changes in sea-ice extent in polar regions. We use a novel analysis technique together with data from NASA instruments on the Terra, Aqua and Aura satellites and reanalysis data from MERRA-2. We also compare results with state-of-the-art general circulation models that have been nudged to reanalysis data (winds, air temperature and surface 25 pressure) at all levels. Our preliminary results show that the largest COVID-19 impact occurs regionally over the East Asian Marginal Seas, just off the coast of China. We find a 30% reduction in aerosol optical depth according to the MODIS instrument, and an 8% reduction in reflected solar radiation according to the CERES radiation budget instrument. The climate model simulations show remarkable consistency with the observations and furthermore show no evidence of an indirect effect on cloud properties.

Norman G. Loeb↗
NASA NTRS2020

Irrigation Water Demand Sensitivity to Climate Variability across the Contiguous United States

Climate variability is an important driver of irrigation water use in many regions. Efforts to anticipate climate change impacts on future water availability can benefit from understanding how irrigation water demand has responded to these drivers to date. Here we apply satellite derived data, meteorological reanalysis, an advanced land surface model, and available state level reports to quantify irrigation demand sensitivities to temperature and precipitation across the Contiguous United States, for the period of 2002-2017. As expected, strong negative correlations are found between precipitation and irrigation withdrawals, both simulated and reported. Temperature sensitivities, however, vary by region and season, as do the interactive effects of temperature and precipitation on irrigation. Climate-induced irrigation variability is largest in transitional climate zones. These transitional zones are generally separate from the regions where rates of irrigation withdrawals are greatest, such that climate-induced variability in irrigation demand represents a water resource consideration that is distinct from chronic over pumping.

Wanshu Nie↗
NASA NTRS2004

Scientific impacts of wind direction errors

An assessment on the scientific impact of random errors in wind direction (< 45°) retrieved from space-based observations under weak wind (< 7 m/s) conditions was made. Half of the winds over global oceans are below 7 m/s, in their long-term averages, and these weak winds cover most of the tropical, sub-tropical, and coastal oceans. Introduction of these errors in the semi-daily winds causes, on average, 5% changes of the yearly mean Ekman and Sverdrup volume transports computed directly from the winds, respectively. These poleward movements of water are the main mechanisms to redistribute heat from the warmer tropical region to the colder highlatitude regions, and they are the major manifestations of the ocean’s function in modifying Earth’s climate. Simulation by an ocean general circulation model shows that the wind errors introduce a 5% error in the meridional heat transport at tropical latitudes. The simulation also shows that the erroneous winds cause a pile-up of warm surface water in the eastern tropical Pacific, similar to the conditions during El Niño episode. Similar wind directional errors cause significant change in sea-surface temperature and sea-level patterns in coastal oceans in a coastal model simulation. Previous studies have shown that assimilation of scatterometer winds improves 3–5 day weather forecasts in the Southern Hemisphere. When directional information below 7 m/s was withheld, approximately 40% of the improvement was lost.

Atlas, Robert↗
NASA NTRS1996

Metrology for Spatial Interferometry III

Very high resolution spatial interferometry requires picometer level one-dimensional metrology, surface metrology, and 3-dimensional metrology. The absolute distance measurements with accuracies of only 1 part in a million are required due to the careful design of spacecraft like the proposed Stellar Interferometry Mission (SIM), carrying high resolution stellar interferometers. An absolute calibration system for the surface gauge described in a previous paper is demonstrated. A self-calibrating absolute metrology system with a repeatability of 2 microns rms over a one-way distance of a meter is demonstrated. The accuracy calibration of this gauge is in progress. An auto-aligning, 3-dimensional metrology gauge is constructed using the sub-picometer linear metrology gauge described in earlier papers. Initial test results from this demonstration are presented.

high↗
NASA NTRS2021

On-Orbit Radiometric Performance on ICESat-2

NASA’s ICESat-2 mission measures Earth’s elevation with the Advanced Topographic Laser Altimeter System (ATLAS), a 6-beam photon-counting laser altimeter. The Global Geolocated Photon data product (ATL03) is the primary source of photon information used by surface-type-specific higher-level products, along with the Atmospheric Layer Characteristics product (ATL09). ATL03 provides time-tagged, geolocated photon heights referenced to the ellipsoid and a parameter providing an initial classification of photon events as signal or background. We use this classification to evaluate ATLAS radiometry (number of signal photons per transmitted laser pulse) over short time scales and over the mission to date. The radiometric performance of ATLAS will in part determine what differences in the signal and background photon rates are significant and indicate geophysical, rather than instrumental, changes. We find the ATLAS radiometry is very stable over short time scales and exhibits a long-term decrease of ∼1 signal photon per laser pulse (∼-12%) in the strong spots over the first 1.5 years of the mission.

Aimee Gibbons↗