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At least 127 records · Page 7
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
NASA NTRS2001

An Analytical Model for Non-Uniform Magnetic Field Effects on Two-Dimensional Laminar Jet Diffusion Flames

In 1846, Michael Faraday found that permanent magnets could cause candle flames to deform into equatorial disks. He believed that the change in flame shape was caused by the presence of charged particles within the flames interacting with the magnetic fields. Later researchers found that the interaction between the flame ions and the magnetic fields were much too small to cause the flame deflection. Through a force analysis, von Engel and Cozens showed that the change in the flame shape could be attributed to the diamagnetic flame gases in the paramagnetic atmosphere. Paramagnetism occurs in materials composed of atoms with permanent magnetic dipole moments. In the presence of magnetic field gradients, the atoms align with the magnetic field and are drawn into the direction of increasing magnetic field. Diamagnetism occurs when atoms have no net magnetic dipole moment. In the presence of magnetic gradient fields, diamagnetic substances are repelled towards areas of decreasing magnetism. Oxygen is an example of a paramagnetic substance. Nitrogen, carbon monoxide and dioxide, and most hydrocarbon fuels are examples of diamagnetic substances. In order to evaluate the usefulness of these magnets in altering flame behavior, a study has been undertaken to develop an analytical model to describe the change in the flame length of a laminar diffusion jet in the presence of a nonuniform magnetic field.

Calvert, M. E.↗
NASA NTRS1992

The effects of RF plasma ashing on zinc orthotitanate/potassium silicate thermal control coatings

Samples of YB-71, a white thermal control coating composed of zinc orthotitanate pigment in a potassium silicate binder, were exposed in air plasma and in oxygen plasma to determine optical property and surface chemistry changes. Results show that YB-71 undergoes a significant reflectance decrease upon exposure to the simulated LEO atomic oxygen environment provided by an air plasma asher. YB-71 samples exposed to the same effective fluence in oxygen plasma, or in a UV screening Faraday cage in air or oxygen, do not undergo as severe reflectance decreases as the samples exposed in the air plasma asher environment. The UV and VUV radiation present in the plasma ashers affects the YB-71 degradation. It is noted that, when using plasma ashers to determine LEO degradation, it is necessary to take into account the sensitivity of the material to the synergistic effects of atomic oxygen and accelerated UV radiation.

Dever, Joyce A.↗
NASA NTRS1991

Plastic superconductor bearings any size-any shape: 77 K and up

'Friction free' bearings at 77 K or higher are possible using the high T(sub c) copper oxide ceramic superconductors. The conventional method for making such bearings is to use a sintered ceramic monolith. This puts great restraints on size, shape, and postforming machining. The material is hard and abrasive. It is possible to grind up ceramic superconductors and suspend the granules in a suitable matrix. Mechanical properties improve and are largely dependent on the binder. The Meissner effect is confined to individual grains containing electron vortices. Tracks, rails, levitation areas, and bearings can be made this way with conventional plastic molding and extruding machines or by painting. The parts are easily machined. The sacrifice is in bulk electrical conductivity. A percolating wick feed for LN2 is used to cool remote superconductors and large areas quite effectively. A hollow spheroid or cylinder of superconductor material is molded with the internal surfaces shielded by the Meissner effect. It can be thought of as the DC magnetic analog of the Faraday cage and the inside is the 'Meissner space'. It is selective. The AC fields are transmitted with minor attenuation. Particle size and distribution have a profound effect on final magnetic and electrical characteristics.

Reick, Franklin G.↗
NASA NTRS1990

Plastic superconductor bearings any size, any shape, 77 k and up

Friction free bearings at 77 k or higher are possible using the high T(sub c) copper oxide ceramic superconductors. The conventional method for making such bearings is to use a sintered ceramic monolith. This puts great restraints on size, shape and postforming machining. The material is hard and abrasive. It's possible to grind up ceramic superconductors and suspend the granules in a suitable matrix. Mechanical properties improve and are largely dependent on the binder. The Meissner effect is confined to individual grains containing electron vortices. Tracks, rails, levitation areas and bearings can be made this way with conventional plastic molding and extruding machines or by painting. The parts are easily machined. The sacrifice is in bulk electrical conductivity. A percolating wick feel for LN2 can be used to cool remote superconductors and large areas quite effectively. A hollow spheroid or cylinder of superconductor material can be molded with the internal surfaces shielded by the Meissner effect. It might be thought of as the dc magnetic analogue of the Faraday cage and the inside can be called the Meissner space. It's selective. The ac fields are transmitted with minor attenuation. Particle size and distribution have a profound effect on final magnetic and electrical characteristics.

Reick, Franklin G.↗
NASA NTRS1977

Solar plasma: Viking 1975 interplanetary spacecraft dual-frequency Doppler data

Viking 1975 interplanetary S- and X-band Doppler data are surveyed. These data show consistency with differenced range versus integrated Doppler (DRVID) data when there is solar plasma and with Faraday rotation data otherwise. An increase of solar plasma effects with decreasing sun-earth-probe (SEP) angle (approaching Mars orbit insertion) is demonstrated. The 2-way/3-way data indicate a homogeneous solar plasma structure over a 8,000-km spread. Occasional cycle slips in the data are pinpointed and tabulated.

Wu, S. C.↗
NASA NTRS1992

Faraday anomalous dispersion optical tuners

Common methods for frequency stabilizing diode lasers systems employ gratings, etalons, optical electric double feedback, atomic resonance, and a Faraday cell with low magnetic field. Our method, the Faraday Anomalous Dispersion Optical Transmitter (FADOT) laser locking, is much simpler than other schemes. The FADOT uses commercial laser diodes with no antireflection coatings, an atomic Faraday cell with a single polarizer, and an output coupler to form a compound cavity. This method is vibration insensitive, thermal expansion effects are minimal, and the system has a frequency pull in range of 443.2 GHz (9A). Our technique is based on the Faraday anomalous dispersion optical filter. This method has potential applications in optical communication, remote sensing, and pumping laser excited optical filters. We present the first theoretical model for the FADOT and compare the calculations to our experimental results.

Wanninger, P.↗
NASA NTRS1983

Plasma Effects

Radio communication with space probes requires sending signals through the Earth's ionosphere and usually the solar wind. During planetary flybys, the signal may also pass through the ionosphere of another planet. These ionized media can perturb the radio signal in a variety of ways. Examples of these perturbations are variations in the electrical length between the spacecraft and the ground station, Faraday rotation of linearly polarized signals, amplitude and phase scintillations, and spectral and angular broadening. These plasma effects can have undesirable influences on telemetry performance and thus need to be understood from a communications engineering viewpoint. The plasma effects are, however, useful from a scientific viewpoint, since the effects on the communications link can often be inverted to estimate the physical conditions in the plasma.

Armstrong, J. W.↗
NASA NTRS1992

The behavior of a liquid drop levitated and drastically flattened by an intense sound field

The deformation and break-up are studied of a liquid drop in levitation through the radiation pressure. Using high-speed photography ripples are observed on the central membrane of the drop, atomization of the membrane by emission of satellite drops from its unstable ripples, and shattering of the drop after upward buckling like an umbrella, or after horizontal expansion like a sheet. These effects are captured on video. The ripples are theorized to be capillary waves generated by the Faraday instability excited by the sound vibration. Atomization occurs whenever the membrane becomes so thin that the vibration is sufficiently intense. The vibration leads to a destabilizing Bernoulli correction in the static pressure. Buckling occurs when an existent equilibrium is unstable to a radial (i.e., tangential) motion of the membrane because of the Bernoulli effect. Besides, the radiation stress at the rim of the drop is a suction stress which can make equilibrium impossible, leading to the horizontal expansion and the subsequent break-up.

Lee, C. P.↗
NASA NTRS1977

Maps of Jovian radio emission

Observations were made of Jupiter with the Westerbork telescope at all three frequencies available: 610 MHz, 1415 MHz, and 4995 MHz. The raw measurements were corrected for position errors, atmospheric extinction, Faraday rotation, clock, frequency, and baseline errors, and errors due to a shadowing effect. The data was then converted into brightness distribution of the sky by Fourier transformation. Maps of both thermal and nonthermal radiation were developed. Results indicate that the thermal disk of Jupiter measured at a wavelength of 6 cm has a temperature of 236 + or - 15 K. The radiation belts have an overall structure governed by the trapping of electrons in the dipolar field of the planet with significant beaming of the synchrotron radiation into the plane of the magnetic equator.

Depater, I.↗
NASA NTRS1990

The role of magnetic fields in cluster cooling flows

An investigation is made of the dynamical effects of the intracluster magnetic field, whose radial inflow and shear can produce a dramatic increase in the field's strength while rendering it more radial, with cooling flows. It is found that field reconnection is the most likely dominant-loss mechanism, so that buoyancy effects are probably not important. Attention is given to the effect of the magnetic field on thermal instabilities. The most important observable effect of the magnetic field in cooling flows will probably be very strong Faraday rotation of the polarization of radio sources within or behind the cooling flow.

Soker, Noam↗
NASA NTRS1992

Constraints on cosmic ray propagation in the galaxy

The goal was to derive a more detailed picture of magnetohydrodynamic turbulence in the interstellar medium and its effects on cosmic ray propagation. To do so, radio astronomical observations (scattering and Faraday rotation) were combined with knowledge of solar system spacecraft observations of MHD turbulence, simulations of wave propagation, and modeling of the galactic distribution to improve the knowledge. A more sophisticated model was developed for the galactic distribution of electron density turbulence. Faraday rotation measure data was analyzed to constrain magnetic field fluctuations in the ISM. VLBI observations were acquired of compact sources behind the supernova remnant CTA1. Simple calculations were made about the energies of the turbulence assuming a direct link between electron density and magnetic field variations. A simulation is outlined of cosmic ray propagation through the galaxy using the above results.

Cordes, James M.↗
NASA NTRS2006

Effects of the Antenna Aperture on Remote Sensing of Sea Surface Salinity at L-Band

Remote sensing of sea surface salinity with sufficient accuracy to meet the needs of global oceanography is a challenging task. The global variability of the salinity signal in the open ocean is only a few Kelvin even at L-band and an accuracy on the order of 0.1K is desired to study the influence of salinity on ocean circulation and energy exchange with the atmosphere. On the other hand, resolution is not an issue for understanding the dynamics of the open ocean where scales of hundreds of km are not uncommon. This permits remote sensing with large antenna footprints and spatial averaging to reduce noise. However, antennas with large footprints introduce other problems. For example, the angle of incidence and hence the brightness temperature varies over the footprint. Similarly, the polarization of brightness temperature relative to the antenna ports changes. Studies have been conducted using antenna patterns representative of the antenna that will be flown on the Aquarius mission to examine these effects. Aquarius is a pushbroom style radiometer with three beams looking across track away from the sun. The beams are at incidences angles (at the spacecraft) of about 26.5, 34 and 40 degrees each with a half-power beam width of about 5.8 degrees. It is shown that the measured brightness temperature is biased relative to the value at boresight because of changes across the field of view. The bias can be as much as 4K and positive or negative depending on polarization. Polarization mixing because of the variations of the local plane of incidence across the footprint also occur and can result in biased polarimetric measurements. A bias in the third Stokes parameter of as much as 0.4K is possible. Such effects may affect algorithms that use the third Stokes parameter to correct for Faraday rotation. Another issue associated with the antenna is sun glint. This is an issue determined by surface roughness and antenna sidelobes. Examples will be given for the random component (glint) for the case of the Aquarius antenna beams. Fortunately, the Aquarius beams mostly look to the dark side of the day-night termination, but during some portions of the year they will see sun-lighted ocean. In this case, glint could be an issue for the inner-most beam.

Dinnat, Emmanuel P.↗
NASA NTRS1985

Comparison of the calibration of ionospheric delay in VLBI data by the methods of dual frequency and Faraday rotation

When both S-band and X-band data are recorded for a signal which has passed through the ionosphere, it is possible to calculate the ionospheric contribution to signal delay. In Very Long Baseline Interferometry (VLBI) this method is used to calibrate the ionosphere. In the absence of dual frequency data, the ionospheric content measured by Faraday rotation, using a signal from a geostationary satellite, is mapped to the VLBI observing direction. The purpose here is to compare the ionospheric delay obtained by these two methods. The principal conclusions are: (1) the correlation between delays obtained by these two methods is weak; (2) in mapping Faraday rotation measurements to the VLBI observing direction, a simple mapping algorithm which accounts only for changes in hour angle and elevation angle is better than a more elaborate algorithm which includes solar and geomagnetic effects; (3) fluctuations in the difference in total electron content as seen by two antennas defining a baseline limit the application of Faraday rotation data to VLBI.

Scheid, J. A.↗
NASA NTRS2013

Effect of Background Pressure on the Performance and Plume of the HiVHAc Hall Thruster

During the Single String Integration Test of the NASA HiVHAc Hall thruster, a number of plasma diagnostics were implemented to study the effect of varying facility background pressure on thruster operation. These diagnostics include thrust stand, Faraday probe, ExB probe, and retarding potential analyzer. The test results indicated a rise in thrust and discharge current with background pressure. There was also a decrease in ion energy per charge, an increase in multiply-charged species production, a decrease in plume divergence, and a decrease in ion beam current with increasing background pressure. A simplified ingestion model was applied to determine the maximum acceptable background pressure for thrust measurement. The maximum acceptable ingestion percentage was found to be around 1%. Examination of the diagnostics results suggest the ionization and acceleration zones of the thruster were shifting upstream with increasing background pressure.

Electric propulsion↗
NASA NTRS1962

Ionospheric Studies with the Differential Doppler Technique

This report is essentially a review of the measurements related to the ionosphere utilizing the differential Doppler technique. A brief study of the theory is presented, in which the error incurred in measurements of ionospheric electron content, caused by the assumption of common-path propagation, is shown as a function of the zenith angle of observation for different values of the critical frequency foF2. Some measurements of electron densities, electron content, horizontal gradients, irregularities, and magnetic-storm effects are discussed. Comments are also made about the method of combining the differential Doppler with the Faraday rotation measurements to establish a necessary constant of integration in the measurements made with satellites. It is concluded that the differential Doppler technique, with harmonically related frequencies transmitted to or from rockets or satellites, can provide accurate information about the electron density or electron content of the medium, and that the knowledge of these quantities is valuable in understanding the morphology of the ionospheric processes.

IONOSPHERE↗
NASA NTRS1984

Comparison of NAVSTAR satellite L band ionospheric calibrations with Faraday rotation measurements

It is pointed out that interplanetary navigation at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) is performed by analyzing measurements derived from the radio link between spacecraft and earth and, near the target, onboard optical measurements. For precise navigation, corrections for ionospheric effects must be applied, because the earth's ionosphere degrades the accuracy of the radiometric data. These corrections are based on ionospheric total electron content (TEC) determinations. The determinations are based on the measurement of the Faraday rotation of linearly polarized VHF signals from geostationary satellites. Problems arise in connection with the steadily declining number of satellites which are suitable for Faraday rotation measurements. For this reason, alternate methods of determining ionospheric electron content are being explored. One promising method involves the use of satellites of the NAVSTAR Global Positioning System (GPS). The results of a comparative study regarding this method are encouraging.

Royden, H. N.↗