SEARCH · Engineering Papers

Results for “threshold”

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.

SourceResearch connectionFrom yearThrough year

Quote a phrase for an exact phrase match. Source license links do not imply unrestricted reuse.

At least 1,225 records · Page 68

All sources NASA NTRS DOE OSTI

NASA NTRS1993

Quantum-well lasers for direct solar photopumping

Semiconductor lasers directly photopumped by focused sunlight may be viable sources of coherent light for intersatellite communications and other low-power spaceborne applications. In this work, we theoretically explore the possibility of realizing such devices. We specifically assess solar pumped operation of separate-confinement-quantum-well heterostructure (SCQWH) lasers based on InGaAs, GaAs, and AlGaA, as fabrication technology for these lasers is mature and they can operate at very low thresholds. We develop a model for step-index single-well SCQWH lasers photopumped by sunlight, examine how threshold solar photoexcitation intensities depend upon material and structure parameters, design optimum structures for solar-pumped operation, and identify design tradeoffs. Our results suggest that laser action should be possible in properly designed structures at readily achievable solar concentrations and that optimum designs for solar-pumped SCQWH lasers differ significantly from those for analogous current injection devices.

Unnikrishnan, Sreenath↗

NASA NTRS1993

A study of metal-ceramic wettability in SiC-Al using dynamic melt infiltration of SiC

Pressure-assisted infiltration with a 2014 Al alloy of plain and Cu-coated single crystal platelets of alpha silicon carbide was used to study particulate wettability under dynamic conditions relevant to pressure casting of metal-matrix composites. The total penetration length of infiltrant metal in porous compacts was measured at the conclusion of solidification as a function of pressure, infiltration time, and SiC size for both plain and Cu-coated SiC. The experimental data were analyzed to obtain a threshold pressure for the effect of melt intrusion through SiC compacts. The threshold pressure was taken either directly as a measure of wettability or converted to an effective wetting angle using the Young-Laplace capillary equation. Cu coating resulted in partial but beneficial improvements in wettability as a result of its dissolution in the melt, compared to uncoated SiC.

Asthana, R.↗

NASA NTRS1994

Global surface-based cloud observation for ISCCP

Visual observations of cloud cover are hindered at night due to inadequate illumination of the clouds. This usually leads to an underestimation of the average cloud cover at night, especially for the amounts of middle and high clouds, in climatologies on surface observations. The diurnal cycles of cloud amounts, if based on all the surface observations, are therefore in error, but they can be obtained more accurately if the nighttime observations are screened to select those made under sufficient moonlight. Ten years of nighttime weather observations from the northern hemisphere in December were classified according to the illuminance of moonlight or twilight on the cloud tops, and a threshold level of illuminance was determined, above which the clouds are apparently detected adequately. This threshold corresponds to light from a full moon at an elevation angle of 6 degrees or from a partial moon at higher elevation, or twilight from the sun less than 9 degrees below the horizon. It permits the use of about 38% of the observations made with the sun below the horizon. The computed diurnal cycles of total cloud cover are altered considerably when this moonlight criterion is imposed. Maximum cloud cover over much of the ocean is now found to be at night or in the morning, whereas computations obtained without benefit of the moonlight criterion, as in our published atlases, showed the time of maximum to be noon or early afternoon in many regions. Cloud cover is greater at night than during the day over the open oceans far from the continents, particularly in summer. However, near noon maxima are still evident in the coastal regions, so that the global annual average oceanic cloud cover is still slightly greater during the day than at night, by 0.3%. Over land, where daytime maxima are still obtained but with reduced amplitude, average cloud cover is 3.3% greater during the daytime. The diurnal cycles of total cloud cover we obtain are compared with those of ISCCP for a few regions; they are generally in better agreement if the moonlight criterion is imposed on the surface observations. Using the moonlight criterion, we have analyzed ten years (1982-1991) of surface weather observations over land and ocean, worldwide, for total cloud cover and for the frequency of occurrence of clear sky, fog and precipitation The global average cloud cover (average of day and night) is about 2% higher if we impose the moonlight criterion than if we use all observations. The difference is greater in winter than in summer, because of the fewer hours of darkness in the summer. The amplitude of the annual cycle of total cloud cover over the Arctic Ocean and at the South Pole is diminished by a few percent when the moonlight criterion is imposed. The average cloud cover for 1982-1991 is found to be 55% for northern hemisphere land, 53% for southern hemisphere land, 66% for northern hemisphere ocean, and 70% for southern hemisphere ocean, giving a global average of 64%. The global average for daytime is 64.6% for nighttime 63.3%.

Source record↗

NASA NTRS1994

Method and apparatus for detection and control of prelasing in a Q-switched laser

The present invention detects prelasing in a Q-switch laser and terminates laser operation upon such detection. A detector senses the presence of light beyond a Q-switch and generates an appropriate electrical signal. A comparison stage circuit compares this detector signal with an established threshold value indicative of prelasing and generates a trigger signal if this detector signal exceeds this threshold value. A control stage circuit receives both this trigger value and a sampled Q-switch signal indicative of an opening of the Q-switch. The control stage circuit terminates operation of the laser if the trigger signal from the comparison stage is received while the sampled Q-switch signal is being received to avoid the effects of prelasing. Appropriate delays and timing sequences are established.

Lockard, George E.↗

NASA NTRS1993

Quantitative analysis of voids in percolating structures in two-dimensional N-body simulations

We present in this paper a quantitative method for defining void size in large-scale structure based on percolation threshold density. Beginning with two-dimensional gravitational clustering simulations smoothed to the threshold of nonlinearity, we perform percolation analysis to determine the large scale structure. The resulting objective definition of voids has a natural scaling property, is topologically interesting, and can be applied immediately to redshift surveys.

Harrington, Patrick M.↗

NASA NTRS1993

Role of somatosensory and vestibular cues in attenuating visually induced human postural sway

The purpose was to determine the contribution of visual, vestibular, and somatosensory cues to the maintenance of stance in humans. Postural sway was induced by full field, sinusoidal visual surround rotations about an axis at the level of the ankle joints. The influences of vestibular and somatosensory cues were characterized by comparing postural sway in normal and bilateral vestibular absent subjects in conditions that provided either accurate or inaccurate somatosensory orientation information. In normal subjects, the amplitude of visually induced sway reached a saturation level as stimulus amplitude increased. The saturation amplitude decreased with increasing stimulus frequency. No saturation phenomena was observed in subjects with vestibular loss, implying that vestibular cues were responsible for the saturation phenomenon. For visually induced sways below the saturation level, the stimulus-response curves for both normal and vestibular loss subjects were nearly identical implying that (1) normal subjects were not using vestibular information to attenuate their visually induced sway, possibly because sway was below a vestibular-related threshold level, and (2) vestibular loss subjects did not utilize visual cues to a greater extent than normal subjects; that is, a fundamental change in visual system 'gain' was not used to compensate for a vestibular deficit. An unexpected finding was that the amplitude of body sway induced by visual surround motion could be almost three times greater than the amplitude of the visual stimulus in normals and vestibular loss subjects. This occurred in conditions where somatosensory cues were inaccurate and at low stimulus amplitudes. A control system model of visually induced postural sway was developed to explain this finding. For both subject groups, the amplitude of visually induced sway was smaller by a factor of about four in tests where somatosensory cues provided accurate versus inaccurate orientation information. This implied that (1) the vestibular loss subjects did not utilize somatosensory cues to a greater extent than normal subjects; that is, changes in somatosensory system 'gain' were not used to compensate for a vestibular deficit, and (2) the threshold for the use of vestibular cues in normals was apparently lower in test conditions where somatosensory cues were providing accurate orientation information.

Peterka, Robert J.↗

NASA NTRS1995

Receiver design, performance analysis, and evaluation for space-borne laser altimeters and space-to-space laser ranging systems

Laser altimeters measure the time of flight of the laser pulses to determine the range of the target. The simplest altimeter receiver consists of a photodetector followed by a leading edge detector. A time interval unit (TIU) measures the time from the transmitted laser pulse to the leading edge of the received pulse as it crosses a preset threshold. However, the ranging error of this simple detection scheme depends on the received, pulse amplitude, pulse shape, and the threshold. In practice, the pulse shape and the amplitude are determined by the target target characteristics which has to be assumed unknown prior to the measurement. The ranging error can be improved if one also measures the pulse width and use the average of the leading and trailing edges (half pulse width) as the pulse arrival time. The ranging error becomes independent of the received pulse amplitude and the pulse width as long as the pulse shape is symmetric. The pulse width also gives the slope of the target. The ultimate detection scheme is to digitize the received waveform and calculate the centroid as the pulse arrival time. The centroid detection always gives unbiased measurement even for asymmetric pulses. In this report, we analyze the laser altimeter ranging errors for these three detection schemes using the Mars Orbital Laser Altimeter (MOLA) as an example.

Davidson, Frederic M.↗

NASA NTRS1994

Reconnection layer at the flank magnetopause in the presence of shear flow

We present hybrid simulations of reconnection layer at the flank magnetopause, where a large plasma flow speed is present in the magnetosheath. It is found that there exists a threshold flow speed v(sub *) such that for the magnetosheath flow speed v(sub s) less than v(sub *) (v(sub s) greater than v(sub *)), the rotational discontinuity with a larger field rotation angle exists on the magnetosheath (magnetospheric) side of the reconnection layer. The threshold speed is found to be v(sub *) = v(sub Am) - v(sub As), where v(sub Am) (v(sub As)) is the Alfven speed on the magnetospheric (magnetosheath) side of the reconnection layer. Furthermore, for v(sub s) much less than v(sub *), the rotational discontinuity on the magnetosheath side is very thin, and an accelerated high-speed flow is located earthward of the rotational discontinuity, as observed at the dayside magnetopause. For v(sub s) approximately v(sub *), the magnetic field transition region is thick, and the accelerated flow is present in the entire field transition region, as observed at the flank magnetopause.

Lin, Y.↗

NASA NTRS1994

Effect of high-latitude ionospheric convection on Sun-aligned polar caps

A coupled magnetospheric-ionospheric (M-I) magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) model has been used to simulate the formation of Sun-aligned polar cap arcs for a variety of interplanetary magnetic field (IMF) dependent polar cap convection fields. The formation process involves launching an Alfven shear wave from the magnetosphere to the ionosphere where the ionospheric conductance can react self-consistently to changes in the upward currents. We assume that the initial Alfven shear wave is the result of solar wind-magnetosphere interactions. The simulations show how the E region density is affected by the changes in the electron precipitation that are associated with the upward currents. These changes in conductance lead to both a modified Alfven wave reflection at the ionosphere and the generation of secondary Alfven waves in the ionosphere. The ensuing bouncing of the Alfven waves between the ionosphere and magnetosphere is followed until an asymptotic solution is obtained. At the magnetosphere the Alfven waves reflect at a fixed boundary. The coupled M-I Sun-aligned polar cap arc model of Zhu et al.(1993a) is used to carry out the simulations. This study focuses on the dependence of the polar cap arc formation on the background (global) convection pattern. Since the polar cap arcs occur for northward and strong B(sub y) IMF conditions, a variety of background convection patterns can exist when the arcs are present. The study shows that polar cap arcs can be formed for all these convection patterns; however, the arc features are dramatically different for the different patterns. For weak sunward convection a relatively confined single pair of current sheets is associated with the imposed Alfven shear wave structure. However, when the electric field exceeds a threshold, the arc structure intensifies, and the conductance increases as does the local Joule heating rate. These increases are faster than a linear dependence on the background electric field strength. Furthermore, above the threshold, the single current sheet pair splits into multiple current sheet pairs. For the fixed initial ionospheric and magnetospheric conditions used in this study, the separation distance between the current pairs was found to be almost independent of the background electric field strength. For either three-cell or distorted two-cell background convection patterns the arc formation favored the positive B(sub y) case in the northern hemisphere.

Sojka, J. J.↗

NASA NTRS1994

Three-dimensional numerical simulation of current collection by a probe in a magnetized plasma

A three-dimensional numerical model for current collection in a magnetized plasma is reported. The model is based on an electrostatic particle-in-cell code. The model yields self-consistent sheath structure including distributions of plasma and the electric potential around the body and the collection of electrons. The analytical theory of current collection by a body in a magnetized plasma yields an upper bound for the collected current determined by the conservation of energy and canonical angular momentum. The theory shows that the collected charged particles come from a cylindrical volume aligned with the magnetic shadow of the body; the maximum radius r(sub o) of this volume is determined by the body size, body potential, and the ambient magnetic field. This theory does not deal with the sheath structure around the body. The condition for the actual current to approach the upper-bound value has been a matter of debate. Our simulations reveal when and why the collected current becomes equal to its upper-bound value. Sheath size in the radial direction perpendicular to the axial ambient magnetic field is determined by the current-limiting radius r(sub o). Our simulation yields time-average current in good agreement with its upper bound. This feature of the current collection is explained as follows: Once electrons enter the sheath, some of them are freely accelerated perpendicular to the magnetic field because they are demagnetized by the large gradients in the perpendicular electric fields. Simulations show a large perpendicular acceleration, producing perpendicular energy as large as that determined by the potential on the body, especially in the region where perpendicular electric fields (E perpendicular) are the strongest. An analysis shows that the demagnetization of electrons occurs above a threshold potential on the body. This threshold condition follows from the breakdown of the adiabaticity of the electron dynamics inside the sheath.

Singh, Nagendra↗

NASA NTRS1995

Inferring the spatial and energy distribution of gamma-ray burst sources. 1: Methodology

We describe Bayesian methods for analyzing the distribution of gamma-ray burst peak photon fluxes and directions. These methods fit the differential distribution, and have the following advantages over rival methods: (1) they do not destroy information by binning or averaging the data (as do, say, chi squared, the averaged value of V/V(sub max), and angular moment analyses); (2) they straightforwardly handle uncertainties in the measured quantities; (3) they analyze the strength and direction information jointly; (4) they use information available about nondetections; and (5) they automatically identify and account for biases and selection effects given a precise description of the experiment. In these methods, the most important information needed about the instrument threshold is not its value at the times of burst triggers, as is used in the average value of V/V(sub max) analyses, but rather the value of the threshold at times when no trigger occurred. We show that this information can be summarized as an average detection efficiency that is similar to the product of the exposure and efficiency reported in the First Burst and Transient Source Experiment (BATSE) Burst (1B) Catalog, but significantly different from it at low fluxes. We also quantify an important bias that results from estimating the peak flux by scanning the burst to find the peak number of counts in a window of specified duration, as was done for the 1B Catalog. When the duration of the peak of the light curve is longer than the window duration, a simple flux estimate based on the peak counts significantly overestimates the peak flux in a nonlinear fashion that distorts the shape of the log(N)-log(P) distribution. This distortion also corrupts analyses of the V/V(sub max) distribution that use ratios of counts above background to estimate V/V(sub max). The Bayesian calculation specifies how to account for this bias. Implementation of the Bayesian approach requires some changes in the way burst data are reported that we describe in detail. Subsequent papers will report analyses of the 1B Catalog data using the methods described here.

Loredo, Thomas J.↗

NASA NTRS1994

Topological analysis of the CfA redshift survey

We study the topology of large-scale structure in the Center for Astrophysics Redshift Survey, which now includes approximately 12,000 galaxies with limiting magnitude m(sub B) is less than or equal to 15.5. The dense sampling and large volume of this survey allow us to compute the topology on smoothing scales from 6 to 20/h Mpc; we thus examine the topology of structure in both 'nonlinear' and 'linear' regimes. On smoothing scales less than or equal to 10/h Mpc this sample has 3 times the number of resolution elements of samples examined in previous studies. Isodensity surface of the smoothed galaxy density field demonstrate that coherent high-density structures and large voids dominate the galaxy distribution. We compute the genus-threshold density relation for isodensity surfaces of the CfA survey. To quantify phase correlation in these data, we compare the CfA genus with the genus of realizations of Gaussian random fields with the power spectrum measured for the CfA survey. On scales less than or equal to 10/h Mpc the observed genus amplitude is smaller than random phase (96% confidence level). This decrement reflects the degree of phase coherence in the observed galaxy distribution. In other words the genus amplitude on these scales is not good measure of the power spectrum slope. On scales greater than 10/h Mpc, where the galaxy distribution is rougly in the 'linear' regime, the genus ampitude is consistent with the random phase amplitude. The shape of the genus curve reflects the strong coherence in the observed structure; the observed genus curve appears broader than random phase (94% confidence level for smoothing scales less than or equal to 10/h Mpc) because the topolgoy is spongelike over a very large range of density threshold. This departre from random phase consistent with a distribution like a filamentary net of 'walls with holes.' On smoothing scales approaching approximately 20/h Mpc the shape of the CfA genus curve is consistent with random phase. There is very weak evidence for a shift of the genus toward a 'bubble-like' topology. To test cosmological models, we compute the genus for mock CfA surveys drawn from large (L greater than or approximately 400/h Mpc) N-body simulations of three variants of the cold dark matter (CDM) cosmogony. The genus amplitude of the 'standard' CDM model (omega h = 0.5, b = 1.5) differs from the observations (96% confidence level) on smoothing scales is less than or approximately 10/h Mpc. An open CDM model (omega h = 0.2) and a CDM model with nonzero cosmological constant (omega h = 0.24, lambda (sub 0) = 0.6) are consistent with the observed genus amplitude over the full range of smoothing scales. All of these models fail (97% confidence level) to match the broadness of the observed genus curve on smoothing scales is less than or equal to 10/h Mpc.

Vogeley, Michael S.↗

NASA NTRS1995

Electron excitation cross sections for the 2s(2)2p(3)4S(O) -- 2s(2)2p(3)2D(O) (forbidden) and 4S(O) -- 2s2p(4) 4P (resonance) transitions in O II

Experimental and theoretical excitation cross sections are reported for the first forbidden transition 4S(O) -- 2S(2)2p(3) 2D(O) (lambda-lambda 3726, 3729) and the first allowed (resonance) transition 4S(O) -- 2s2p(4) 4P(lambda-833) in O II. Use is made of electron energy loss and merged-beams methods. The electron energy range covered is 3.33 (threshold) to 15 eV for the S -- D transition, and 14.9 (threshold) to 40 eV for the S -- P transition. Care was taken to assess and minimize the metastable fraction of the O II beam. An electron mirror was designed and tested to reflect inelastically backscattered electrons into the forward direction to account for the full range of polar scattering angles. Comparisons are made between present experiments and 11-state R-matrix calculations. Calculations are also presented for the 4S(O) -- 2s(2)2p(3)2P(O) (lambda-2470) transition.

Zuo, M.↗

NASA NTRS1994

Altered thermoregulatory responses after 15 days of head-down tilt

To determine whether extended exposure to a simulation of microgravity alters thermoregulatory reflex control of skin blood flow, six adult males were exposed to 15 days of 6 deg head-down tilt (HDT). On an ambulatory control day before HDT exposure and on HDT day 15 the core temperature of each subject was increased by 0.5 - 1.0 C by whole body heating with a water-perfused suit. Mean skin temperature, oral temperature (T (sub or)), mean arterial pressure, and forearm blood flow were measured throughout the protocol. Forearm vascular conductance (FVC) was calculated from the ratio of forearm blood flow to mean arterial pressure. After HDT exposure, the T(sub or) threshold at which reflex thermally induced increases in FVC began was elevated, whereas the slope of the T(sub or)-FVC relationship after this threshold was reduced. Moreover, normothermic FVC and FVC at the highest common T(sub or) between pre- and post-HDT trials were reduced after HDT. These data suggest that HDT exposure reduces thermoregulatory responses to heat stress. The mechanisms resulting in such an impaired thermoregulatory response are unknown but are likely related to the relative dehydration that accompanies this exposure.

Crandall, Craig G.↗

NASA NTRS1994

Hot proton anisotropies and cool proton temperatures in the outer magnetosphere

The hot protons of the outer magnetosphere typically exhibit a temperature anistropy such that T(sub perp)/T(sub parallel) greater than 1, where perpendicular and parallel symbols denote directions relative to the background magnetic field. If this anisotrpy is sufficiently large, the electomagneitc proton cyclotron anistropy instability may be excited. This instability is studied using linear Vlasov theory and one-dimensional hybrid simulations for a homogeneous plasma model representative of conditions in the outer magnetosphere with a hot anisotropic proton component (denoted by subscript h) and a cool, initially isotropic proton component (subscript c). Linear theory yields an instability threshold condition on the hot proton temperature anistropy where as the simulations imply an upper bound on T(sub perp h)/T(sub parallel h); both the threshold and the upper bound have similar scaling with the maximum growth rate gamma (sub m), the parallel beta of the hot component, beta(sub parallel h), and the relative density of the hot component n(sub h)/n(sub e). An anlysis of plasma observations from the Los Alamos magnetospheric plasma analyzer (MPA) in geosynchronous orbits finds that the maximum value of the hot proton temperature anisotropy approximately satisfies the predicted scaling with beta(sub parallel h) and nu(sub h)/n(sub e) and yields the proportionality factor that quantifies this upper bound. The simulations are also used to examine the heating of the cool proton cyclotron instability. The simulations yield a scaling for the dimensionless late-time cool proton average temperature T(sub c)/T(sub parallel h) as (n(sub h)/n(sub e))/beta(sub parallel h exp 0.5). Analysis of MPA data shows that the observed values of T(sub c)/T(sub parallel h) have similar scaling and again yield the proportionality factor which quantifies this relationship.

Gary, S. Peter↗

NASA NTRS1993

Comparison of ISCCP and other cloud amounts

A new 8-year global cloud climatology has been produced by the International Satellite Cloud Climatology Project (ISCCP) that provides information every 3 h at 280-km spatial resolution covering the period from July 1983 through June 1991. If cloud detection errors and differences in area sampling are neglected, individual ISCCP cloud amounts agree with individual surface observations to within 15% rms with biases of only a few percent. When measurements of small-scale, broken clouds are isolated in the comparison, the rms differences between satellite and surface cloud amounts are about 25%, similar to the rms difference between ISCCP and Landsat determinations of cloud amount. For broken clouds, the average ISCCP cloud amounts are about 5% smaller than estimated by surface observers (difference between earth cover and sky cover), but about 5% larger than estimated from very high spatial resolution satellite observations (overestimate due to low spatial resolution offset by underestimate due to finite radiance thresholds). Detection errors caused by errors in the ISCCP clear-sky radiances or incorrect radiance threshold magnitudes, are the dominant source of error in monthly average cloud amounts. The ISCCP cloud amounts appear to be too low over land by about 10%, somewhat less in summer and somewhat more in winter, and about right (maybe slightly low) over oceans. In polar regions, ISCCP cloud amounts are probably too low by about 15%-25% in summer and 5%-10% in winter. Comparison of the ISCCP climatology to three other cloud climatologies shows excellent agreement in the geographic distribution and seasonal variation of cloud amounts; there is little agreement about day/night contrasts in cloud amount. Notable results from ISCCP are that the gobal annual mean cloud amount is about 63%, being about 23% higher over oceans than over land, that it varies by less than 1% rms from month to month, and that it has varied by about 4% on a time scale approximately equal to 2-4 years. The magnitude of interannual variations of local (280-km scale) monthly mean cloud amounts is about 7%-9%. Longitudinal contrasts in cloud amount are just as large as latitudinal contrasts. The largest seasonal variation of cloud amount occurs in the tropics, being larger in summer than in winter; the seasonal variation in the middle latitudes has the opposite phase. Polar regions may have little seasonable variability in cloud amount. The ISCCP results show slightly more nightime than daytime cloud amount over oceans and more daytime than nightime cloud amount over land.

Rossow, William B.↗

NASA NTRS1994

Numerical study of the wave-vector dependence of the electron interband impact ionization rate in bulk GaAs

Ensemble Monte Carlo calculations of the electron interband impact ionization rate in bulk GaAs are presented using a wave-vector (k)-dependent formulation of the ionization transition rate. The transition rate is evaluated through the use of numerically generated wavefunctions determined via a k-p calculation within the first two conduction bands at numerous points within a finely spaced three-dimensional grid in k space. The transition rate is determined to be greatest for states within the second conduction band. Is is found that the interband impact ionization transition rate in bulk GaAs is best characterized as having an exceedingly soft threshold energy. As a consequence, the dead space, defined as the distance over which the ionization probability for a given carrier is assumed to be zero, is estimated to be much larger than that estimated using a harder threshold. These results have importance in the design of the multiquantum-well avalanche photodiodes.

Wang, Yang↗

NASA NTRS1995

Passive microwave-derived snow melt regions on the Greenland ice sheet

By comparing data from the Special Sensor Microwave Imager (SSM/I) to field data, a melt threshold of the cross-polarized gradient ratio (XPGR), which is a normalized difference between the 19 GHz horizontally-polarized and 37 GHz vertically polarized brightness temperatures, is determined. This threshold, XPGR = -0.025, is used to classify dry and wet snow. The annual areal extent of melt is mapped for the years 1988 through 1991, and inter-annual variations of melt extent are examined. The results show that the melt extent varied from a low of 38.3% of the ice sheet (1990) to a high of 41.7% (1991) during the years 1988-1991.

Abdalati, Waleed↗