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At least 1,369 records · Page 76

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NASA NTRS1971

Pollution detection by digital correlation of multispectral, stero-image pairs.

Remote detection of air pollution circulation patterns is proposed to eventually predict the accumulation of hazardous surface concentrations in time for preventive emission control operations. Earth observations from space platforms will contain information on the height, mean velocity and lateral mixing scales of inversion layers and pollution plumes. Although this information is often not visible on photographs, it could conceivably be retrieved through a digital cross-correlation of multispectral stereo image pairs. Laboratory and field test results are used to illustrate the detection of non-visual inversion layers, the reduction of dominant signal interference, and the spectroscopic identification of combustion products.

Krause, F. R.↗

NASA NTRS1971

Gain kinetics of CO2 gasdynamic laser mixtures at high pressure.

Description of a combined analytical and experimental investigation of rapidly expanded CO2 laser mixtures. Study of the vibrational kinetics indicates that population inversions with high vibrational energy density can be produced at high pressures by utilizing low (starved) concentrations of CO2. Scaling laws for predicting the gain of starved systems are developed. A description is given of gain measurements carried out using a CO2 laser to probe the flow in a nozzle at the point where the Mach number is approximately four. Population inversions at static pressures as high as about 1 atm have been observed and found to be in reasonable agreement with predictions.

Christiansen, W. H.↗

NASA NTRS1972

A finite-difference method for transonic airfoil design.

This paper describes an inverse method for designing transonic airfoil sections or for modifying existing profiles. Mixed finite-difference procedures are applied to the equations of transonic small disturbance theory to determine the airfoil shape corresponding to a given surface pressure distribution. The equations are solved for the velocity components in the physical domain and flows with embedded shock waves can be calculated. To facilitate airfoil design, the method allows alternating between inverse and direct calculations to obtain a profile shape that satisfies given geometric constraints. Examples are shown of the application of the technique to improve the performance of several lifting airfoil sections. The extension of the method to three dimensions for designing supercritical wings is also indicated.

Steger, J. L.↗

NASA NTRS1972

Automatic N(h,t) profiles of the ionosphere with a digital ionosonde

A method is described to accomplish automatic data selection and profile inversion to obtain ionospheric electron density profiles from digitized radio soundings. The profile inversion is based on a well-established formulation by which the optimum radio frequency sounding intervals can be specified from an approximate knowledge of the profile; the expected virtual height coordinates (h) at these frequencies (f) are estimated, and procedures are then used to select h(f) observations nearest the predicted coordinates from a subsequent digital ionogram. From these the next profile is obtained. The process adaptively follows the changing shape and detail of the profile. The procedure requires an average of 15 sec per profile on a standard data processing computer, and can be adapted, with benefit to online real-time use in a digital ionosonde.

Wright, J. W.↗

NASA NTRS1972

Culling of redundant data

The inversion of a large data set, with it errors, is demonstrated and the tradeoff curve, or resolving power calculations, are discussed. Consideration is given to inverse problems of the earth, represented in the idealized form of a single scaler function of a single coordinate. The difference between the functional for the real earth and the functional for some model is formulated. A procedure is given for using the linear relationships between the differences in the data and the differences in the model as side conditions. Through a process of diagonalization a model is created that fits the data. The data are culled by accepting only those relative standard errors that are less than 100 percent.

Gilbert, F.↗

NASA NTRS1972

Analysis of a boron-carbide-drum-controlled critical reactor experiment

In order to validate methods and cross sections used in the neutronic design of compact fast-spectrum reactors for generating electric power in space, an analysis of a boron-carbide-drum-controlled critical reactor was made. For this reactor the transport analysis gave generally satisfactory results. The calculated multiplication factor for the most detailed calculation was only 0.7-percent Delta k too high. Calculated reactivity worth of the control drums was $11.61 compared to measurements of $11.58 by the inverse kinetics methods and $11.98 by the inverse counting method. Calculated radial and axial power distributions were in good agreement with experiment.

Mayo, W. T.↗

NASA NTRS1973

HYMPS: Numerical Techniques

The digital calculations that drive the classification portion of the Hybrid Pattern Recognition System (HYMPS) are considered. A revision of these calculations is suggested that involves three items: matrix inversion, det calculations and singularity, and covariance factorization. It is shown that it is more economical to first factor the covariance matrix, and by so doing, delete the matrix inversion routine. In addition, the necessary det calculations can be more easily realized by use of simple theoretical facts about the factorization.

Decell, H. P., Jr.↗

NASA NTRS1973

An efficient technique for determining apparent temperature distributions from antenna temperature measurements

A method by which the apparent microwave temperature characteristic of a flat scene is estimated from dual polarized measurements is derived and interpreted. Approximate linear relationships between antenna and apparent temperatures are established by weighting emission components in spherical bands under the assumption that the surface is isotropic. The weighting factors are formed by integrating the antenna pattern functions over these bands. The vector aspect of the formulation is retained to account for the difference between the definition of the antenna polarizations and the polarizations of the emitted fields. The method is largely applicable to the measurement of smooth temperature distributions by an antenna having good spatial resolution of the distributions and is considered efficient for inverting large volumes of measurements. Sample cases are presented and the implications of these cases on remote radiometer observations are discussed. It is shown that cross-coupling occurs between the polarizations of the emitted fields and the polarizations of the antenna. For this reason and because practical antennas have cross-polarized patterns associated with them, it is necessary to conduct measurements at both horizontal and vertical polarizations to realize the inversion. It is also made evident that thorough inversions require that the apparent temperatures be sampled at a sufficient number of points between nadir and zenith.

Claassen, J. P.↗

NASA NTRS1973

Arithmetic algorithms for error-coded operands.

Arithmetic algorithms for separate and nonseparate codes are considered. The nonseparate AN code is formed when an uncoded operand X is multiplied by the check modulus A to give the coded operand AX. The separate codes are the residue code, and the inverse-residue code, which has significant advantages in fault detection of repeated-use faults. A set of algorithms for low-cost AN-coded operands is discussed together with questions of their implementation in a byte-organized arithmetic processor. Algorithms for inverse-residue coded operands of the STAR computer are also examined.

Avizienis, A.↗

NASA NTRS1974

On-line diagnosis of unrestricted faults

A formal model for the study of on-line diagnosis is introduced and used to investigate the diagnosis of unrestricted faults. A fault of a system S is considered to be a transformation of S into another system S' at some time tau. The resulting faulty system is taken to be the system which looks like S up to time tau, and like S' thereafter. Notions of fault tolerance error are defined in terms of the resulting system being able to mimic some desired behavior as specified by a system similar to S. A notion of on-line diagnosis is formulated which involves an external detector and a maximum time delay within which every error caused by a fault in a prescribed set must be detected. It is shown that if a system is on-line diagnosable for the unrestricted set of faults then the detector is at least as complex, in terms of state set size, as the specification. The use of inverse systems for the diagnosis of unrestricted faults is considered. A partial characterization of those inverses which can be used for unrestricted fault diagnosis is obtained.

Meyer, J. F.↗

NASA NTRS1973

On the reduction of occultation light curves

The two basic methods of reducing occultation light curves - curve fitting and inversion - are reviewed and compared. It is shown that the curve fitting methods have severe problems of nonuniqueness. In addition, in the case of occultation curves dominated by spikes, it is not clear that such solutions are meaningful. The inversion method does not suffer from these drawbacks. Methods of deriving temperature profiles from refractivity profiles are then examined. It is shown that, although the temperature profiles are sensitive to small errors in the refractivity profile, accurate temperatures can be obtained, particularly at the deeper levels of the atmosphere. The ambiguities that arise when the occultation curve straddles the turbopause are briefly discussed.

Wasserman, L.↗

NASA NTRS1974

Propagation of waves along an impedance boundary

A theoretical analysis of the scalar wave field due to a point source above a plane impedance boundary is presented. A surface wave is found to be an essential component of the total wave field. It is shown that, as a result of ducting of energy by the surface wave, the amplitude of the total wave near the boundary can be greater than it would be if the boundary were perfectly reflecting. Asymptotic results, valid near the boundary, are obtained both for the case of finite impedance (the soft-boundary case) and for the limiting case in which the impedance becomes infinite (the hard-boundary case). In the latter, the wave amplitude in the farfield decreases essentially inversely as the horizontal propagation distance; in the former (if the surface-wave term is neglected), it decreases inversely as the square of the horizontal propagation distance.

Wenzel, A. R.↗

NASA NTRS1974

An induced junction photovoltaic cell

Silicon solar cells operating with induced junctions rather than diffused junctions have been fabricated and tested. Induced junctions were created by forming an inversion layer near the surface of the silicon by supplying a sheet of positive charge above the surface. Measurements of the response of the inversion layer cell to light of different wavelengths indicated it to be more sensitive to the shorter wavelengths of the sun's spectrum than conventional cells. The greater sensitivity occurs because of the shallow junction and the strong electric field at the surface.

Call, R. L.↗

NASA NTRS1975

Possible isotopic shifts with changes in the geomagnetic field

The geomagnetic fields of the past geological epochs are studied on the basis of observations on the rock residual magnetization. This paper evaluates the shifts in the isotopic composition of the same elements in the rocks affected by cosmic rays. The possibility of using the shifts in the isotopic composition for revealing geomagnetic field inversions is discussed. Geomagnetic field inversion periods traced by the rock residual magnetization are in good agreement with the periods of the greatest qualitative changes in the animal world throughout the last 500 million years.

Bulashevich, Y. P.↗

NASA NTRS1975

A film-rupture model of hydrogen-induced, slow crack growth in alpha-beta titanium

The appearance of the terrace like fracture morphology of gaseous hydrogen induced crack growth in acicular alpha-beta titanium alloys is discussed as a function of specimen configuration, magnitude of applied stress intensity, test temperature, and hydrogen pressure. Although the overall appearance of the terrace structure remained essentially unchanged, a distinguishable variation is found in the size of the individual terrace steps, and step size is found to be inversely dependent upon the rate of hydrogen induced slow crack growth. Additionally, this inverse relationship is independent of all the variables investigated. These observations are quantitatively discussed in terms of the formation and growth of a thin hydride film along the alpha-beta boundaries and a qualitative model for hydrogen induced slow crack growth is presented, based on the film-rupture model of stress corrosion cracking.

Nelson, H. G.↗

NASA NTRS1975

Electron density profiles from ionograms - Underlying ionization corrections and their comparison with rocket results

Electron density profiles from nine daytime rocket flights at Wallops Island, Va., conducted at high and low levels of solar activity are compared with profiles calculated by inversion of ionograms obtained at the same times and location. Sources of error and uncertainty in the ionogram inversion are discussed, as are means for their amelioration. In most cases, agreement between the two kinds of measurement within a few percent in electron density and within a few percent of a scale height can be achieved.

Wright, J. W.↗

NASA NTRS1975

Asymptotic form of the charge-exchange cross section in three-body rearrangement collisions

A three-body general-type rearrangement collision is considered in which the initial and final bound states are described by hydrogen-like wave functions. It is shown that the charge-exchange amplitude in the first Born approximation can be expanded at all incident energies in terms of the inverse powers of the principal quantum number (n). By expanding the exchange amplitude in this way, it is demonstrated conclusively that the cross section for capture into the s, p, and d states as well as for the sum over all the angular-momentum states is proportional to 1/n-cubed plus terms proportional to higher inverse odd powers of n. It is found that the low-lying levels cannot be scaled to the 1/n-cubed law irrespective of the value of the incident energy except in the case of capture into the s states in accordance with the Oppenheimer-Brinkman-Kramers approximation. Zeros and minima in the differential cross sections are given in the limit of high principal quantum number for electron capture by protons from atomic hydrogen and for positronium formation by proton-atomic hydrogen collisions.

Omidvar, K.↗

NASA NTRS1975

Solutions for incompressible separated boundary layers including viscous-inviscid interaction

Numerical solutions are presented for the laminar and turbulent boundary-layer equations for incompressible flows with separation and reattachment. The separation angularity is avoided by using an inverse technique in which the displacement thickness is prescribed and the pressure is deduced from the resulting solution. The turbulent results appear qualitatively correct despite the use of a two-layer eddy-viscosity model which is generally assumed appropriate only for mild-pressure-gradient flows. A new viscous-inviscid interaction technique is presented in which the inviscid flow is solved inversely by prescribing the pressure from the boundary-layer solution and deducing the new displacement thickness from the solution of a Cauchy integral. Calculations are presented using this interaction procedure for a laminar flow in which separation and reattachment occur on a solid surface.

Carter, J. E.↗