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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.
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A water-window imaging X-ray telescope configured with normal-incidence multilayer X-ray mirrors has been developed to obtain images with unprecedented spatial resolution and contrast of carbon-based microstructures within living cells. The narrow bandpass response inherent in multilayer X-ray optics is accurately tuned to wavelengths within the water window.
Photos obtained during 5 min of observation time from the flight of a 25-cm-diameter normal-incidence soft-X-ray (63.5 A) telescope on September 11, 1989, are analyzed, and the data are compared to the results expected from tests of the mirror surfaces. These tests cover a range of spatial periods from 25 cm to 1 A. The photos demonstrate a resolution close to the photon shot-noise limit and a reduction in the scattering of the multilayer mirror compared to a single surface for scattering angles above 1 arcmin, corrresponding to surface irregularities with spatial periods below 10 microns. These results are used to predict the possible performance of future telescopes. Sounding rocket observations might be able to reach a resolution around 0.1 arcsec.
This paper presents elemental abundance analyses of sharp-lined normal late B stars. These stars exhibit mostly near-solar abundances, but each star also shows a few abundances which are a factor of 2 less than solar. The coadded photographic spectrograms are supplemented with Reticon data. A comparison of 261 equivalent widths on 2.4 A/mm spectra of sharp-lined B and A stars shows that the Reticon equivalent widths are about 95 percent of the coadded equivalent mean. The H-gamma profiles of the coadded and Reticon spectra for eight sharp-lined stars show generally good agreement. The generally high quality of the coadded data produced from 10 or more spectrograms is confirmed using the REDUCE graphics-oriented computed reduction code. For five stars, metal lines which fall in the gap between the U and V plates are analyzed using Reticon data.
Relations between radiative surface temperature (TR) and visible and near-IR reflectances expressed as the normalized difference (ND) from a Landsat Thematic Mapper scene are analyzed to examine the heat balance of agriculture and native evergreen forests in southeastern Australia. Factors determining the residual scatter about, and slope of, the TR/ND relationships were analyzed using a coupled two-layer soil-vegetation model of the surface heat balance. Inverse linear relationships were observed between TR and ND for agriculture, but not for forests. This was due to a wide range of ND and TR values in agricultural regions caused by wide variations in fractional vegetation cover.
The missions planned for the 1990's will greatly expand the knowledge of close binary systems and the physical phenomena that can be studied in a member of a close binary, from stellar active regions to the highest density black hole candidates known. These systems and the phenomena are reviewed with reference to major outstanding questions, the expected capability to answer them, and the expansion of capability that would be necessary. A 'super' XMM or LAMAR experiment with larger area, but similar moderate energy resolution and moderate spatial resolution, could detect 0.1 millisecond bursts from Cyg X-1 and 1 millisecond bursts in quiescent black hole candidates, measure Doppler and gravitational energy shifts in the iron line features for black holes and neutron stars. It would also identify these objects in galaxies a few Mpc away and open the way for evolution studies. A somewhat less ambitious goal would be high energy resolution of about the area of LAMAR to make full use of the information in the emission lines in both normal and compact binaries.
The objective was to develop the speech recognition system to be able to detect speech which is pronounced incorrectly, given that the text of the spoken speech is known to the recognizer. Research was performed in the following areas: (1) syntactic error modeling; (2) score normalization; and (3) phoneme error modeling. The study into the types of errors that a reader makes will provide the basis for creating tests which will approximate the use of the system in the real world. NASA-Johnson will develop this technology into a 'Literacy Tutor' in order to bring innovative concepts to the task of teaching adults to read.
The universal normal state anomalies in the CuO metals follow from a marginal Fermi liquid hypothesis: there exists a contribution to the polarizability over most of momentum space proportional to omega/T for omega/T much less than 1 and constant thereafter up to a cutoff omega(sub c). Using the same excitation spectrum, the properties of the superconductive state were calculated. The right order of T(sub c) can be obtained, the zero temperature gap, 2 delta (0)/T(sub c) and the nuclear relaxation rate near T(sub c). The possible microscopic physics leading to the marginal Fermi liquid hypothesis is discussed.
We present a unified approach based on the Fermi liquid picture which allows us to describe the normal as well as the superconducting properties of the doped cuprates. The theory that is presented is for the doped compounds which are metallic. One can distinguish two interrelated, but nevertheless, different directions in the physics of high T(sub c): one involving the problem of carrier doping and the transition to the metallic state, and the second being the description of the metallic state. It is important that this metallic phase undergoes the transition into the superconducting state; as a result, our analysis is directly related to the origin of high T(sub c). We are using a quasi-2D Fermi liquid model to estimate the fundamental parameters of these very interesting materials. We find that this description is able to describe these materials and also that phonons and plasmons play a major role in the mechanism of high T(sub c).
The transfer equations for normal waves in finite, inhomogeneous and plane-parallel magnetoactive media are solved using the discrete ordinate method. The physical process of absorption, emission, and multiple scattering are accounted for, and the medium may be forced both at the top and bottom boundary by anisotropic radiation as well as by internal anisotropic sources. The computational procedure is numerically stable for arbitrarily large optical depths, and the computer time is independent of optical thickness.
Relationships are studied between the normalized-difference vegetation index (NDVI) and absorbed photosynthetically active radiation (APAR) in a vegetation canopy. The SAIL model of bidirectional canopy radiative transfer is employed to compare NDVI measurements that are instantaneous with diurnally integrated canopy APAR capacity. The NDVI measurements - taken at solar-zenith angles of more than 60 deg and sensor views of less than 40 deg from nadir - give stable near-linear estimates of diurnal APAR capacity. Discrepancies in the relations between APAR and NDVI are associated with variations in the optical properties of the canopy and with background spectral reflectance. The results are significant for the practical use of these remote sensing techniques but suggest that instantaneous observations can be used to characterize the diurnally integrated APAR in vegetation canopies.
Laminar diffusion flames of methane, burning in quiescent oxidizing environments at atmospheric pressure, have been studied under both normal-gravity and microgravity conditions. Radiation from these flames is measured using a wide-view-angle, thermopile detector radiometer. The oxidizer was 18, 21, and 30 percent oxygen in nitrogen.
An analysis is made of the Martens-Kuin filament eruption model in relation to observations of coronal mass ejections (CMEs). The field lines of this model are plotted in the vacuum or infinite resistivity approximation with two background fields. The first is the dipole background field of the model and the second is the potential streamer model of Low. The Martens-Kuin model predicts that, as the filament erupts, the overlying coronal magnetic field lines rise in a manner inconsistent with observations of CMEs associated with eruptive filaments. This model and, by generalization the whole class of so-called Kuperus-Raadu configurations in which a neutral point occurs below the filament, are of questionable utility for CME modeling. An alternate case is considered in which the directions of currents in the Martens-Kuin model are reversed resulting in a so-called normal polarity configuration of the filament magnetic field. The background field lines now distort to support the filament and help eject it. While the vacuum field results make this configuration appear very promising, a full two- or more-dimensional MHD simulations is required to properly analyze the dynamics resulting from this configuration.
The paper discusses the dynamical behavior of vapor ingestion, liquid residual at the incipience of suction dip, slosh wave excitation under normal and reduced gravity and different flow rates during liquid hydrogen draining. Liquid residuals at the incipience of suction dip increase as the values of gravity decrease. Also liquid residuals increase with the draining flow rates. Lower ratio of Bond number and Weber number are unable to excite slosh waves. Lower flow rates and higher gravity excites waves with lower frequencies and higher wave amplitude slosh waves.
An analysis is conducted of the correspondence between the normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) calculated from average reflectances, or M(NDVI), and the I(NDVI) that is integrated from individual NDVIs, by simulating AVHRR data from high spatial resolution SPOT 1 radiometer and Landsat TM data. The West African and French sites analyzed at 300-1000 m scale show a strong correlation between the two types of index; the relationship is almost perfectly linear, with a slope that is somewhat dependent on vegetation cover. Effecting the scale change using M(NDVI) instead of I(NDVI) does not introduce significant errors.
This project investigates the interface stability of an inviscid fluid column in the presence of a periodic acceleration field which has a component normal to the longitudinal axis of the column. A ramification of this configuration is that perturbations cannot be considered axisymmetric. The column is taken to be infinite in length. Floquet analysis will be utilized in the stability investigation.
Let X be a two-dimensional random variable distributed according to N2(mu,Sigma) and let bar-X and S be the respective sample mean and covariance matrix calculated from N observations of X. Given a containment probability beta and a level of confidence gamma, we seek a number c, depending only on N, beta, and gamma such that the ellipsoid R = (x: (x - bar-X)'S(exp -1) (x - bar-X) less than or = c) is a tolerance region of content beta and level gamma; i.e., R has probability gamma of containing at least 100 beta percent of the distribution of X. Various approximations for c exist in the literature, but one of the simplest to compute -- a multiple of the ratio of certain chi-squared percentage points -- is badly biased for small N. For the bivariate normal case, most of the bias can be removed by simple adjustment using a factor A which depends on beta and gamma. This paper provides values of A for various beta and gamma so that the simple approximation for c can be made viable for any reasonable sample size. The methodology provides an illustrative example of how a combination of Monte-Carlo simulation and simple regression modelling can be used to improve an existing approximation.
New developments in transmission grating and photodiode technology now make it possible to realize spectrometers in the extreme ultraviolet (EUV) spectral region (wavelengths less than 1000 A) which are expected to be virtually constant in their diffraction and detector properties. Time dependent effects associated with reflection gratings are eliminated through the use of free standing transmission gratings. These gratings together with recently developed and highly stable EUV photodiodes have been utilized to construct a highly stable normal incidence spectrophotometer to monitor the variability and absolute intensity of the solar 304 A line. Owing to its low weight and compactness, such a spectrometer will be a valuable tool for providing absolute solar irradiance throughout the EUV. This novel instrument will also be useful for cross-calibrating other EUV flight instruments and will be flown on a series of Hitchhiker Shuttle Flights and on SOHO. A preliminary version of this instrument has been fabricated and characterized, and the results are described.
Simple cells in the striate cortex have been depicted as half-wave-rectified linear operators. Complex cells have been depicted as energy mechanisms, constructed from the squared sum of the outputs of quadrature pairs of linear operators. However, the linear/energy model falls short of a complete explanation of striate cell responses. In this paper, a modified version of the linear/energy model is presented in which striate cells mutually inhibit one another, effectively normalizing their responses with respect to stimulus contrast. This paper reviews experimental measurements of striate cell responses, and shows that the new model explains a significantly larger body of physiological data.