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At least 127 records · Page 7
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
NASA NTRS1973

Evaluation of ERTS-1 imagery for mapping Quaternary deposits and landforms in the Great Plains and Midwest

The author has identified the following significant results. The main landform associations and larger landforms are readily identifiable on the better images and commonly the gross associations of surficial Quaternary deposits also can be determined primarily by information on landforms and soils (obtained by analysis of stream dissection and drainage and stream-divide patterns, land use patterns, etc.). Maps showing the Quaternary geologic-terrain units that can be distinguished on the ERTS-1 images are being prepared for study areas in Illinois, Iowa, Missouri, Kansas, Nebraska, and South Dakota. Preliminary maps of 1:1,000,000 scale are included for three of the study areas: the Grand Island and Fremont, Nebraska, and the Davenport, Iowa-Illinois, 1 deg x 2 deg quadrangles. These maps exemplify the first phase of investigations, which consists of identifying and mapping landform and land use characteristics and geologic-surficial materials directly from the ERTS-1 images alone, with no additional information. These maps show that commonly the boundaries of geologic-terrain units can be delineated more accurately on ERTS-1 images than on topographic maps at 1:250,000 scale.

Morrison, R. B.↗
NASA NTRS1973

Evaluation of ERTS-1 imagery for mapping Quaternary deposits and landforms in the Great Plains and Midwest

The author has identified the following significant results. The main landform associations and larger landforms are readily identifiable on the better images and commonly the gross associations of surficial Quaternary deposits also can be differentiated, primarily by information on landforms and soils. Maps showing the Quaternary geologic-terrain units that can be differentiated from the ERTS-1 images are being prepared for study areas in Illinois, Iowa, Missouri, Kansas, Nebraska, and South Dakota. Preliminary maps at 1:1 million scale are given of two of the study areas, the Peoria and Decatur, Illinois, 1 deg x 2 quadrangles. These maps exemplify the first phase of investigations, which consists of identifying and mapping landform and land use characteristics and geologic-surficial materials directly from ERTS-1 images alone, without input of additional data. These maps shown that commonly the boundaries of geologic-terrain units can be identified more accurately on ERTS-1 images than on topographic maps of 1:250,000 scale. From analysis of drainage patterns, stream-divide relations, and tone and textural variations on the ERTS-1 images, the trends of numerous moraines of Wisconsinan and possibly some of Illinoian age were mapped. In the Peoria study area the trend of a buried valley of the Mississippi River is revealed.

Morrison, R. B.↗
NASA NTRS1982

The origin of the Kirkwood gaps - A mapping for asteroidal motion near the 3/1 commensurability

A mapping of the phase space onto itself with the same low-order resonance structure as the 3/1 commensurability in the planar-elliptic restricted three-body problem is obtained. This mapping is about 1,000 times faster than the usual method of numerically integrating the averaged equations of motion. It exhibits some surprising behavior that might provide a key to the origin of the Kirkwood gaps. It is noted that a test asteroid placed in the gap may evolve for a million years with low eccentricity (less than 0.05) and then suddenly jump to large eccentricity (greater than 0.3), becoming a Mars crosser. The removal of the asteroid by a close encounter with Mars would then be possible. As a first test of this hypothesis, a distribution of 300 test asteroids in the area of the 3/1 commensurability was evolved for two million years. When the Mars crossers are removed, the distribution of initial conditions reveals a gap at the location of the 3/1 Kirkwood gap.

Wisdom, J.↗
NASA NTRS1985

Electrostatic ion-cyclotron waves in a nonuniform magnetic field

The properties of electrostatic ion-cyclotron waves excited in a single-ended cesium Q machine with a nonuniform magnetic field are described. The electrostatic ion-cyclotron waves are generated in the usual manner by drawing an electron current to a small exciter disk immersed in the plasma column. The parallel and perpendicular (to B) wavelengths and phase velocities are determined by mapping out two-dimensional wave phase contours. The wave frequency f depends on the location of the exciter disk in the nonuniform magnetic field, and propagating waves are only observed in the region where f is approximately greater than fci, where fci is the local ion-cyclotron frequency. The parallel phase velocity is in the direction of the electron drift. From measurements of the plasma properties along the axis, it is inferred that the electron drift velocity is not uniform along the entire current channel. The evidence suggests that the waves begin being excited at that axial position where the critical drift velocity is first exceeded, consistent with a current-driven excitation mechanism.

Cartier, S. L.↗
NASA NTRS1991

Topography estimation with interferometric synthetic aperture radar using fringe detection

Methods are presented for using Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) interferometry data to estimate surface topography. An expression is given to relate the elevation of a ground point to the phase difference of SAR images received from two spatially separated antennas. An iterative algorithm which solves for the position and elevation of each point in the image simultaneously is developed. One of the critical issues that determines the accuracy of the terrain mapping is the phase unwrapping. An approach to the problem by fringe line detection is proposed. The algorithms are tested with two Seasat SAR images of terrain near Yellowstone National Park. The resultant elevation map is compared with a USGS terrain elevation model. The error of the SAR elevation with respect to the digital terrain map is about 8.2 percent of the total terrain variation.

Lin, Qian↗
NASA NTRS2011

Stochastic Ion Heating by the Lower-Hybrid Waves

The resonance lower-hybrid wave-ion interaction is described by a group (differentiable map) of transformations of phase space of the system. All solutions to the map belong to a strange attractor, and chaotic motion of the attractor manifests itself in a number of macroscopic effects, such as the energy spectrum and particle heating. The applicability of the model to the problem of ion heating by waves at the front of collisionless shock as well as ion acceleration by a spectrum of waves is discussed. Keywords: plasma; ion-cyclotron heating; shocks; beat-wave accelerator.

Khazanov, G.↗
NASA NTRS1997

Maximum a posteriori decoder for digital communications

A system and method for decoding by identification of the most likely phase coded signal corresponding to received data. The present invention has particular application to communication with signals that experience spurious random phase perturbations. The generalized estimator-correlator uses a maximum a posteriori (MAP) estimator to generate phase estimates for correlation with incoming data samples and for correlation with mean phases indicative of unique hypothesized signals. The result is a MAP likelihood statistic for each hypothesized transmission, wherein the highest value statistic identifies the transmitted signal.

Altes, Richard A.↗
NASA NTRS1980

Application Explorer Mission-A heat capacity mapping mission

The author has identified the following significant results. Fine orogenic sediments, not detectable on the images recorded within the visible wavelength region, can be clearly recognized on all night IR-images. The area of glaciation in the northern foreland of the Alps can be partially identified on the basis of night-IR data. The terminal moraine of various glacierization phases can be mapped and the relative dry and unsorted moraine material consisting of crystalline components can be located through the vegetation cover. The eastern part of the glaciation area can be traced because of reverse temperature effect. In addition to the upper Bavarian lakes, the night-IR images clearly indicate the distribution of high soil moisture areas such as swamps and bogs. The geological border of the upper fresh water molasse in the northern part of the basin north of Munich is identifiable on night IR-imagery. Drift peat areas can be located on day-IR images of the dry season of the year.

Source record↗
NASA NTRS2023

Galvanic Protected Anode Materials for Molten Regolith Electrolysis

This effort aimed to explore the use of refractory alloys as long-lifetime electrode materials for use in a molten regolith electrolysis (MRE) reactor, a technology that can produce oxygen (O2) from regolith. To find a material capable of withstanding the high temperatures and corrosive nature of molten regolith, first-principles thermodynamic calculations were performed on platinum group metals in the presence of iron (Fe) and silicon (Si) to determine favorable compositions for resisting unwanted secondary phases that could form on the surface of the material. As a result of these first-principles calculations, the kinetic properties of elements such as aluminum (Al), Fe, and Si can be more easily derived, which would provide insight into the longevity of such a material when used in an MRE reactor. The effort funded by this CIF project mapped the entire phase diagram of platinum group metals, which is beneficial not only to MRE where high temperatures and molten material are present, but also aerospace applications like turbine materials, terrestrial metal processing techniques, and energy storage applications. This project narrowed a broad spectrum of refractory metals down to a small list of alloys that would be able to survive not only the high temperatures of an MRE reactor, but also the thermodynamic forces that would cause inferior alloys to form secondary phases, which would ultimately consume the electrodes of the reactor. This research needs to be followed up with experimental demonstrations of these alloys in an MRE environment.

Kevin Grossman↗
NASA NTRS1996

Direct Volume Rendering with Shading via Three-Dimensional Textures

A new and easy-to-implement method for direct volume rendering that uses 3D texture maps for acceleration, and incorporates directional lighting, is described. The implementation, called Voltx, produces high-quality images at nearly interactive speeds on workstations with hardware support for three-dimensional texture maps. Previously reported methods did not incorporate a light model, and did not address issues of multiple texture maps for large volumes. Our research shows that these extensions impact performance by about a factor of ten. Voltx supports orthographic, perspective, and stereo views. This paper describes the theory and implementation of this technique, and compares it to the shear-warp factorization approach. A rectilinear data set is converted into a three-dimensional texture map containing color and opacity information. Quantized normal vectors and a lookup table provide efficiency. A new tesselation of the sphere is described, which serves as the basis for normal-vector quantization. A new gradient-based shading criterion is described, in which the gradient magnitude is interpreted in the context of the field-data value and the material classification parameters, and not in isolation. In the rendering phase, the texture map is applied to a stack of parallel planes, which effectively cut the texture into many slabs. The slabs are composited to form an image.

Van Gelder, Allen↗
NASA NTRS1996

Direct Volume Rendering with Shading via Three-Dimensional Textures

A new and easy-to-implement method for direct volume rendering that uses 3D texture maps for acceleration, and incorporates directional lighting, is described. The implementation, called Voltx, produces high-quality images at nearly interactive speeds on workstations with hardware support for three-dimensional texture maps. Previously reported methods did not incorporate a light model, and did not address issues of multiple texture maps for large volumes. Our research shows that these extensions impact performance by about a factor of ten. Voltx supports orthographic, perspective, and stereo views. This paper describes the theory and implementation of this technique, and compares it to the shear-warp factorization approach. A rectilinear data set is converted into a three-dimensional texture map containing color and opacity information. Quantized normal vectors and a lookup table provide efficiency. A new tesselation of the sphere is described, which serves as the basis for normal-vector quantization. A new gradient-based shading criterion is described, in which the gradient magnitude is interpreted in the context of the field-data value and the material classification parameters, and not in isolation. In the rendering phase, the texture map is applied to a stack of parallel planes, which effectively cut the texture into many slabs. The slabs are composited to form an image.

VanGelder, Allen↗
NASA NTRS1988

Satellite radar interferometry - Two-dimensional phase unwrapping

Interferometric synthetic aperture radar observations provide a means for obtaining high-resolution digital topographic maps from measurements of amplitude and phase of two complex radar images. The phase of the radar echoes may only be measured modulo 2 pi; however, the whole phase at each point in the image is needed to obtain elevations. An approach to 'unwrapping' the 2 pi ambiguities in the two-dimensional data set is presented. It is found that noise and geometrical radar layover corrupt measurements locally, and these local errors can propagate to form global phase errors that affect the entire image. It is shown that the local errors, or residues, can be readily identified and avoided in the global phase estimation. A rectified digital topographic map derived from the unwrapped phase values is presented.

Goldstein, Richard M.↗
NASA NTRS1975

Adiabatic invariants and phase equilibria for first-order orbital resonances

In the planar circular restricted three-body problem, the evolution of near-commensurable orbits is studied under change in the mass ratio, mu. The evolution involves preservation of two adiabatic invariants. Transition from circulation to libration may occur; such transitions are of two types. Type I transition occurs when the evolutionary track in phase space passes through near-zero eccentricity; as in the ordinary case (no transition), pre- and post-evolutionary states are linked by solution of a two-point boundary-value problem. Type II transition occurs when the evolutionary track encounters an unstable phase equilibrium or periodic orbit. There is then a discontinuous change in one adiabatic invariant, and pre- and post-evolutionary states are linked by solution of a three-point boundary-value problem. No evolutionary track can encounter a stable phase equilibrium, but the class of all stable phase equilibria is mapped into itself under mu change.

Heppenheimer, T. A.↗
NASA NTRS1985

Theoretical Thermodynamics of Mixtures at High Pressures

The development of an understanding of the chemistry of mixtures of metallic hydrogen and abundant, higher-z material such as oxygen, carbon, etc., is important for understanding of fundamental processes of energy release, differentiation, and development of atmospheric abundances in the Jovian planets. It provides a significant theoretical base for the interpretation of atmospheric elemental abundances to be provided by atmospheric entry probes in coming years. Significant differences are found when non-perturbative approaches such as Thomas-Fermi-Dirac (TFD) theory are used. Mapping of the phase diagrams of such binary mixtures in the pressure range from approx. 10 Mbar to approx. 1000 Mbar, using results from three-dimensional TFD calculations is undertaken. Derivation of a general and flexible thermodynamic model for such binary mixtures in the relevant pressure range was facilitated by the following breakthrough: there exists an accurate nd fairly simple thermodynamic representation of a liquid two-component plasma (TCP) in which the Helmholtz free energy is represented as a suitable linear combination of terms dependent only on density and terms which depend only on the ion coupling parameter. It is found that the crystal energies of mixtures of H-He, H-C, and H-O can be satisfactorily reproduced by the same type of model, except that an effective, density-dependent ionic charge must be used in place of the actual total ionic charge.

Hubbard, W. B.↗
NASA NTRS1985

Statistical mechanics of light elements at high pressure. VIII - Thomas-Fermi-Dirac theory for binary mixtures of H with He, C, and O

We present three-dimensional Thomas-Fermi-Dirac calculations of lattice mixing energies of hydrogen with carbon and oxygen atoms, respectively. The results are used to derive effective interatomic potentials for use in liquid-state mixture calculations. We then use the potentials to derive analytic expressions for binary mixture-free energies and to map out the phase diagrams of mixtures of hydrogen with, respectively, helium, carbon, and oxygen, over a pressure range of about 5 to about 10 to the 3rd Mbar. Within this pressure range, all three of the latter elements are found to have unlimited solubility in metallic hydrogen over a temperature range which lies above their pure-element melting temperatures, and which includes likely interior temperatures in the Jovian planets.

Hubbard, W. B.↗
NASA NTRS1988

On the preferred mode of jet instability

The preferred mode of instability was investigated in an axisymmetric air jet of moderate Reynolds number. Natural instabilities are shown to scale with local shear-layer thickness and the preferred mode is shown to be a shear-layer instability. The spatial evolution of the preferred mode was examined by exciting the flow acoustically and then mapping the phase-locked velocity fluctuations. Throughout the potential core region the phase-locked profiles are shown to agree with the eigensolutions of the Orr-Sommerfeld stability equations provided the calculations are based on measured, mean velocity profiles. The excitation intensity was varied from low levels, where the flow was merely tagged, to high levels where the mean flow was substantially distorted, and over that range of excitation there was no apparent deterioration in the agreement with stability predictions.

Petersen, R. A.↗
NASA NTRS2011

The Impact History of Vesta: New Views from the Dawn Mission

The Dawn mission has completed its Survey and High-Altitude Mapping Orbit (HAMO) phases at Vesta, resulting in 60-70 meter per pixel imaging, high-resolution image-derived topography, and visual and infrared spectral data covering up to approx.50 degrees north latitude (the north pole was in shadow during these mission phases). These data have provided unprecedented views of the south polar impact structure first detected in HST imaging [1], now named Rheasilvia, and in addition hint at the existence of a population of ancient basins. Smaller craters are seen at all stages from fresh to highly-eroded, with some exposing atypically bright or dark material. The morphology of some craters has been strongly influenced by regional slope. Detailed studies of crater morphology are underway. We have begun making crater counts to constrain the relative ages of different regions of the surface, and are working towards developing an absolute cratering chronology for Vesta's surface.

OBrien, D. P.↗