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At least 1,243 records · Page 69
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
NASA NTRS2013

Evidence of Nanoflare Heating in Coronal Loops Observed with Hinolde-XRT and SDO-AIA

We study a series of coronal loop lightcurves from X-ray and EUV observations. In search for signatures of nanoflare heating, we analyze the statistical properties of the observed lightcurves and compare them with synthetic cases obtained with a 2D cellular-automaton model based on nanoflare heating driven by photospheric motions. Our analysis shows that the observed and the model lightcurves have similar statistical properties. The asymmetries observed in the distribution of the intensity fluctuations indicate the possible presence of widespread cooling processes in sub-resolution magnetic strands.

Lopez-Fuentes, M. C.↗
NASA NTRS2011

Imaging the Moon's Core with Seismology

Constraining the structure of the lunar core is necessary to improve our understanding of the present-day thermal structure of the interior and the history of a lunar dynamo, as well as the origin and thermal and compositional evolution of the Moon. We analyze Apollo deep moonquake seismograms using terrestrial array processing methods to search for the presence of reflected and converted energy from the lunar core. Although moonquake fault parameters are not constrained, we first explore a suite of theoretical focal spheres to verify that fault planes exist that can produce favorable core reflection amplitudes relative to direct up-going energy at the Apollo stations. Beginning with stacks of event seismograms from the known distribution of deep moonquake clusters, we apply a polarization filter to account for the effects of seismic scattering that (a) partitions energy away from expected components of ground motion, and (b) obscures all but the main P- and S-wave arrivals. The filtered traces are then shifted to the predicted arrival time of a core phase (e.g. PcP) and stacked to enhance subtle arrivals associated with the Moon s core. This combination of filtering and array processing is well suited for detecting deep lunar seismic reflections, since we do not expect scattered wave energy from near surface (or deeper) structure recorded at varying epicentral distances and stations from varying moonquakes at varying depths to stack coherently. Our results indicate the presence of a solid inner and fluid outer core, overlain by a partial-melt-containing boundary layer (Table 1). These layers are consistently observed among stacks from four classes of reflections: P-to-P, S-to-P, P-to-S, and S-to-S, and are consistent with current indirect geophysical estimates of core and deep mantle properties, including mass, moment of inertia, lunar laser ranging, and electromagnetic induction. Future refinements are expected following the successful launch of the GRAIL lunar orbiter and SELENE 2 lunar lander missions.

Weber, Renee C.↗
NASA NTRS1992

The Acid Growth Theory of auxin-induced cell elongation is alive and well

Plant cells elongate irreversibly only when load-bearing bonds in the walls are cleaved. Auxin causes the elongation of stem and coleoptile cells by promoting wall loosening via cleavage of these bonds. This process may be coupled with the intercalation of new cell wall polymers. Because the primary site of auxin action appears to be the plasma membrane or some intracellular site, and wall loosening is extracellular, there must be communication between the protoplast and the wall. Some "wall-loosening factor" must be exported from auxin-impacted cells, which sets into motion the wall loosening events. About 20 years ago, it was suggested that the wall-loosening factor is hydrogen ions. This idea and subsequent supporting data gave rise to the Acid Growth Theory, which states that when exposed to auxin, susceptible cells excrete protons into the wall (apoplast) at an enhanced rate, resulting in a decrease in apoplastic pH. The lowered wall pH then activates wall-loosening processes, the precise nature of which is unknown. Because exogenous acid causes a transient (1-4 h) increase in growth rate, auxin must also mediate events in addition to wall acidification for growth to continue for an extended period of time. These events may include osmoregulation, cell wall synthesis, and maintenance of the capacity of walls to undergo acid-induced wall loosening. At present, we do not know if these phenomena are tightly coupled to wall acidification or if they are the products of multiple independent signal transduction pathways.

NASA Discipline Number 40-50↗
NASA NTRS2010

Vertical Crustal Motion Derived from Satellite Altimetry and Tide Gauges, and Comparisons with DORIS Measurements

A somewhat unorthodox method for determining vertical crustal motion at a tide-gauge location is to difference the sea level time series with an equivalent time series determined from satellite altimetry, To the extent that both instruments measure an identical ocean signal, the difference will be dominated by vertical land motion at the gauge. We revisit this technique by analyzing sea level signals at 28 tide gauges that are colocated with DORIS geodetic stations. Comparisons of altimeter-gauge vertical rates with DORIS rates yield a median difference of 1.8 mm/yr and a weighted root-mean-square difference of2.7 mm/yr. The latter suggests that our uncertainty estimates, which are primarily based on an assumed AR(l) noise process in all time series, underestimates the true errors. Several sources of additional error are discussed, including possible scale errors in the terrestrial reference frame to which altimeter-gauge rates are mostly insensitive, One of our stations, Male, Maldives, which has been the subject of some uninformed arguments about sea-level rise, is found to have almost no vertical motion, and thus is vulnerable to rising sea levels. Published by Elsevier Ltd. on behalf of COSPAR.

Ray, R. D.↗
NASA NTRS1999

Inertial processing of vestibulo-ocular signals

New evidence for a central resolution of gravito-inertial signals has been recently obtained by analyzing the properties of the vestibulo-ocular reflex (VOR) in response to combined lateral translations and roll tilts of the head. It is found that the VOR generates robust compensatory horizontal eye movements independent of whether or not the interaural translatory acceleration component is canceled out by a gravitational acceleration component due to simultaneous roll-tilt. This response property of the VOR depends on functional semicircular canals, suggesting that the brain uses both otolith and semicircular canal signals to estimate head motion relative to inertial space. Vestibular information about dynamic head attitude relative to gravity is the basis for computing head (and body) angular velocity relative to inertial space. Available evidence suggests that the inertial vestibular system controls both head attitude and velocity with respect to a gravity-centered reference frame. The basic computational principles underlying the inertial processing of otolith and semicircular canal afferent signals are outlined.

NASA Discipline Neuroscience↗
NASA NTRS2004

Understanding Sea Level Changes

Today more than 100 million people worldwide live on coastlines within one meter of mean sea level; any short-term or long-term sea level change relative to vertical ground motion is of great societal and economic concern. As palm-environment and historical data have clearly indicated the existence and prevalence of such changes in the past, new scientific information regarding to the nature and causes and a prediction capability are of utmost importance for the future. The 10-20 cm global sea-level rise recorded over the last century has been broadly attributed to two effects: (1) the steric effect (thermal expansion and salinity-density compensation of sea water) following global climate; (2) mass-budget changes due to a number of competing geophysical and hydrological processes in the Earth-atmosphere-hydrosphere-cryosphere system, including water exchange from polar ice sheets and mountain glaciers to the ocean, atmospheric water vapor and land hydrological variations, and anthropogenic effects such as water impoundment in artificial reservoirs and extraction of groundwater, all superimposed on the vertical motions of solid Earth due to tectonics, rebound of the mantle from past and present deglaciation, and other local ground motions. As remote-sensing tools, a number of space geodetic measurements of sea surface topography (e.g., TOPEX/Poseidon, Jason), ice mass (e.g., ICESat), time-variable gravity (e.g. GRACE), and ground motions (SLR, VLBI, GPS, InSAR, Laser altimetry, etc.) become directly relevant. Understanding sea level changes "anywhere, anytime" in a well-defined terrestrial reference frame in terms of climate change and interactions among ice masses, oceans, and the solid Earth, and being able to predict them, emerge as one of the scientific challenges in the Solid Earth Science Working Group (SESWG, 2003) conclusions.

Chao, Benjamin F.↗
NASA NTRS1993

Automated fiber placement composite manufacturing: The mission at MSFC's Productivity Enhancement Complex

Automated fiber placement is a manufacturing process used for producing complex composite structures. It is a notable leap to the state-of-the-art in technology for automated composite manufacturing. The fiber placement capability was established at the Marshall Space Flight Center's (MSFC) Productivity Enhancement Complex in 1992 in collaboration with Thiokol Corporation to provide materials and processes research and development, and to fabricate components for many of the Center's Programs. The Fiber Placement System (FPX) was developed as a distinct solution to problems inherent to other automated composite manufacturing systems. This equipment provides unique capabilities to build composite parts in complex 3-D shapes with concave and other asymmetrical configurations. Components with complex geometries and localized reinforcements usually require labor intensive efforts resulting in expensive, less reproducible components; the fiber placement system has the features necessary to overcome these conditions. The mechanical systems of the equipment have the motion characteristics of a filament winder and the fiber lay-up attributes of a tape laying machine, with the additional capabilities of differential tow payout speeds, compaction and cut-restart to selectively place the correct number of fibers where the design dictates. This capability will produce a repeatable process resulting in lower cost and improved quality and reliability.

Vickers, John H.↗
NASA NTRS1976

Response of deep and shallow tropical maritime cumuli to large-scale processes

The bulk diagnostic method of Yanai et al. (1973) and a simplified version of the spectral diagnostic method of Nitta (1975) are used for a more quantitative evaluation of the response of various types of cumuliform clouds to large-scale processes, using the same data set in the Marshall Islands area for a 100-day period in 1956. The dependence of the cloud mass flux distribution on radiative cooling, large-scale vertical motion, and evaporation from the sea is examined. It is shown that typical radiative cooling rates in the tropics tend to produce a bimodal distribution of mass spectrum exhibiting deep and shallow clouds. The bimodal distribution is further enhanced when the large-scale vertical motion is upward, and a nearly unimodal distribution of shallow clouds prevails when the relative cooling is compensated by the heating due to the large-scale subsidence. Both deep and shallow clouds are modulated by large-scale disturbances. The primary role of surface evaporation is to maintain the moisture flux at the cloud base.

Yanai, M.↗
NASA NTRS1976

Planetary spin period acceleration of particles in the Jovian magnetosphere

A four-step mechanism is proposed for the acceleration of energetic protons and relativistic electrons in Jupiter's magnetosphere. According to this mechanism, photoelectrons and ions from the Jovian ionosphere are: (1) ejected along magnetic-field lines toward the equator by the centrifugal force of corotation; (2) accelerated by magnetic-field annihiliation in the magnetotail, which process is modulated at Jupiter's rotational frequency; (3) trapped on closed field lines in the reconnection process, convected inward toward Jupiter from the merging region, and subjected to adiabatic compression; and (4) diffused inward by the conventional radial-diffusion process through a violation of the third adiabatic invariant. It is shown that the proposed mechanism produces magnetic moments much larger than those available from inward diffusion of solar-wind particles or motional emf acceleration at the Galilean satellites, provides a natural explanation for the 10-hr periodicity of the energetic particle fluxes observed inside the magnetosphere by the Pioneer spacecraft, and also produces a 10-hr periodicity in the energetic particle flux from the magnetosphere into interplanetary space in such a way that the phase of interplanetary flux variations is locked to the rotational phase of Jupiter

Carbary, J. F.↗
NASA NTRS1978

Molecular evolution of contracting clouds - Basic methods and initial results

The relationship between the dynamics of the interstellar gas and the thermal and chemical effects associated with interstellar molecules and dust is investigated. The evolution of a rather massive isolated initially diffuse cloud under self-gravity is studied, using the equations of hydrodynamics; only radial motions are considered, and the heat, chemical, and radiative-transfer equations are solved simultaneously with the hydrodynamic equations. The relevant chemistry is described along with the thermal model, the radiative-transfer process, and the numerical methods employed. Results for a contracting cloud are discussed in terms of the problem of initial conditions, the dynamical evolution of the cloud, its chemical and thermal evolution, time scales, and column densities. It is shown that the chemical evolution of a massive contracting diffuse cloud is sensitive to such physical properties as temperature and ion abundances, that warm and cool versions of a typical cloud evolve differently, and that the physical origin of this effect is the level of heating due to H2 formation on interstellar dust grains.

Gerola, H.↗
NASA NTRS1981

Electrical behavior of a Shuttle Electrodynamic Tether System /SETS/

Many novel electrodynamic and space plasma physics experiments can be done from the space shuttle using a gravity gradient stabilized subsatellite tethered 10-30 km above the Orbiter via a long, conducting wire which is insulated from the ionospheric plasma. This system, called the Shuttle Electrodynamic Tether System (SETS), is described in the present paper with emphasis upon the various electrical processes which determine its coupling to the ambient plasma. The three most important physical effects include sheath formation and electron collection by the subsatellite, the generation of a large emf through the orbital motion of the tether across geomagnetic field lines, and the active ejection of electrons from the Orbiter into the surrounding ionosphere. An electrical circuit analogy is presented for SETS together with a brief outline of possible areas related to the artificial generation of magnetohydrodynamic waves.

Banks, P. M.↗
NASA NTRS1984

Analysis of the Earth's variable rotation

The objective was to analyze the Earth's rotation, and to compare the observations with the atmospheric and seismic excitation functions. The variation in the Earth's rotation can be separated into the length-of-day (LOD) variation and the polar motion. Possible driving mechanisms include: atmospheric/oceanic circulations, seismic activities, solar-lunar tides, mantle convection, core-mantle coupling, and solar activities. The major problem of concern was the identification of these dynamical processes as primary driving mechanisms for the various features in the variation of the Earth's rotation.

Chao, B. F.↗
NASA NTRS1983

Method for compression testing of composite materials at high strain rates

A method is presented for testing composite materials in compression at strain rates up to approximately 500 per s. The method uses a thin ring specimen (4 in. in diameter, 1 in. wide, six-eight plies thick) loaded dynamically by an external pressure pulse applied explosively through a liquid. Strains in the specimen and in a steel calibration ring are recoorded with a digital processing oscilloscope. Results are plotted by an x-y plotter in the form of a dynamic stress-strain curve. Data analysis is based on a numerical solution of the equation of motion. A computer program is used which involves smoothing and approximation of the strain magnitude, strain rate, and strain acceleration. Dynamic stress-strain curves obtained for 0-deg and 90-deg specimens of two graphite/epoxy composites are presented.

Daniel, I. M.↗
NASA NTRS1984

Analytic modeling of a spray diffusion flame

A detailed model for a spray diffusion flame is described. The model is based on the boundary layer form of the equations of motion, with droplet transport accounted for using a discretized droplet size distribution function. Interphase transport of mass and energy are accounted for, with a flame-sheet model used to describe the combustion process on a droplet scale. Near dynamic equilibrium is assumed for the description of droplet transport; droplets can diffuse relative to the gas phase. Gas-phase mixing is accounted for using a two-equation turbulence model; buoyancy effects are included, with a temperature fluctuation equation used to account for buoyancy effects on turbulence structure. Thermal radiation from gas-phase CO2 and H2O is included. Gas-phase chemical kinetics are modeled using a 20-reaction, 10-species version of the advanced quasi-global chemical kinetics formulation. Results are compared with data for a vaporizing Freon spray and a pentane spray flame. It is shown that the computational approach provides a reasonably valid picture of the overall development of a spray diffusion flame, and, furthermore, provides a useful tool for the parametric examination of the spray combustion process.

Harsha, P. T.↗
NASA NTRS1988

VHF radar remote sensing of atmospheric parameters over Taiwan during the time period of Typhoon Wayne

The VHF radar located at the subtropical and low latitude observing site of Taiwan has been used to observe atmospheric parameters from the troposphere to the middle atmosphere during the time passage of Typhoon Wayne in August 1986. Time-dependent wind velocities with three-dimensional profiles have been plotted by processing the recorded data of the backscattered echo power and the Doppler spectral width of the signal returns from the VHF radar. Propagation characteristics of the gravity waves excited by the enhanced convective motions of Typhoon Wayne have been detected from the Fourier power spectrum analysis of the three-dimensional wind velocities from multiple beams of the VHF radar and their cross-correlation analysis. The density perturbations caused by the propagation of the gravity waves can be calculated from the VHF radar observations. The VHF radar can also be used to detect time-dependent vertical profiles of the liquid water content. The present study shows that the equivalent rainfall rate calculated from the VHF radar is in good agreement with the ground-based measurement of rainfall rate at the same area.

Hung, R. J.↗
NASA NTRS1990

Real-time fuzzy inference based robot path planning

This project addresses the problem of adaptive trajectory generation for a robot arm. Conventional trajectory generation involves computing a path in real time to minimize a performance measure such as expended energy. This method can be computationally intensive, and it may yield poor results if the trajectory is weakly constrained. Typically some implicit constraints are known, but cannot be encoded analytically. The alternative approach used here is to formulate domain-specific knowledge, including implicit and ill-defined constraints, in terms of fuzzy rules. These rules utilize linguistic terms to relate input variables to output variables. Since the fuzzy rulebase is determined off-line, only high-level, computationally light processing is required in real time. Potential applications for adaptive trajectory generation include missile guidance and various sophisticated robot control tasks, such as automotive assembly, high speed electrical parts insertion, stepper alignment, and motion control for high speed parcel transfer systems.

Pacini, Peter J.↗
NASA NTRS1994

Stochastic solution to quantum dynamics

The quantum Liouville equation in the Wigner representation is solved numerically by using Monte Carlo methods. For incremental time steps, the propagation is implemented as a classical evolution in phase space modified by a quantum correction. The correction, which is a momentum jump function, is simulated in the quasi-classical approximation via a stochastic process. The technique, which is developed and validated in two- and three- dimensional momentum space, extends an earlier one-dimensional work. Also, by developing a new algorithm, the application to bound state motion in an anharmonic quartic potential shows better agreement with exact solutions in two-dimensional phase space.

John, Sarah↗
NASA NTRS1997

Getting Astrophysical Information from LISA Data

Gravitational wave signals from a large number of astrophysical sources will be present in the LISA data. Information about as many sources as possible must be estimated from time series of strain measurements. Several types of signals are expected to be present: simple periodic signals from relatively stable binary systems, chirped signals from coalescing binary systems, complex waveforms from highly relativistic binary systems, stochastic backgrounds from galactic and extragalactic binary systems and possibly stochastic backgrounds from the early Universe. The orbital motion of the LISA antenna will modulate the phase and amplitude of all these signals, except the isotropic backgrounds and thereby give information on the directions of sources. Here we describe a candidate process for disentangling the gravitational wave signals and estimating the relevant astrophysical parameters from one year of LISA data. Nearly all of the sources will be identified by searching with templates based on source parameters and directions.

Stebbins, R. T.↗