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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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At least 1,405 records · Page 78
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
NASA NTRS1974

Seasonal and magnetic storm related changes in the thermosphere induced by eddy mixing

The possibility of explaining the seasonal and magnetic storm related changes in the thermosphere and the ionosphere through variation in eddy diffusion coefficient in the lower thermosphere is investigated theoretically by obtaining simultaneous numerical solutions of the relevant continuity, momentum, and energy balance equations in a self-consistent manner. It is shown that various important features of thermospheric seasonal behavior, including the winter helium bulge phenomenon, can be explained by assuming effective reduction in the winter-time eddy diffusion coefficient by about one order of magnitude. Storm related changes in the thermal structure and composition are seen to arise by assuming a downward shift of turbulence. Physical implications and relative significance of variation in thermospheric turbulence and large scale inter-hemispheric circulation are briefly discussed.

Sinha, A. K.↗
NASA NTRS1975

Polar symmetric flow of a viscous compressible atmosphere - An application to Mars

The atmosphere is assumed to be driven by a polar symmetric temperature field. The surface pressure gradient exhibits a latitudinal dependence opposite that of the depth-averaged temperature. The magnitude of the gradient is dependent upon the depth of the boundary layer, which depends upon the eddy viscosity, the boundary conditions imposed at the surface, and upon the temperature lapse rate. Using a temperature model for Mars based on Mariner 9 infrared spectral data with a 30% increase in the depth-averaged temperature from the winter pole to the subsolar point, the increase in surface pressure from the subsolar point to the winter pole was calculated as a function of eddy viscosity with no-slip conditions imposed at the surface. The meridional cellular flow rate is correlated with the eddy viscosity, causing a complete overturning of the atmosphere in tens of days for an eddy viscosity of .1 billion sq cm/sec and in hundreds of days for 1 million sq cm/sec. The implication of this overturning in the dust storm observed during the early part of the Mariner 9 mission is discussed briefly.

Pirraglia, J. A.↗
NASA NTRS1975

An operational all-weather Great Lakes ice information system

A description is given of the NASA developed all-weather ice information system for the Great Lakes winter navigation program. The system utilizes an X-band side looking airborne radar (SLAR) for determining type, location, and areal distribution of the ice cover in the Great Lakes and an airborne, S band, down looking short pulse radar for obtaining ice thickness. Digitized SLAR data are relayed in real time via the NOAA-GOES satellite in geosynchronous orbit. The SLAR images along with hand drawn interpretative ice charts for various Great Lakes winter shipping areas are broadcast to facsimile recorders aboard vessles is the area via the MARAD marine VHF-FM radio network. These data assist such vessels in navigating both through and around the ice.

Gedney, R. T.↗
NASA NTRS1975

Coast Guard/NOAA/NASA Great Lakes Project Icewarn

The operational feasibility of using remote sensing to provide all weather ice formation for Great Lakes winter navigation is explored. A combination airborne pulsed radar system to measure actual ice thickness, a satellite data link system, and a hand drawn interpretive ice chart proved valuable for extending winter navigation through the icepack.

Brennan, T. D.↗
NASA NTRS1976

Martian atmospheric lee waves

Areas of extensive mountain lee wave phenomenon in the northern midlatitudes during late winter are observed in Mariner 9 television pictures of Mars. The lee wave pattern is due to the discrete spectrum of waves generated by a crater ridge in an airstream. The cloud patterns resulting from the waves generated by the flow across a mountain or crater are dependent on the velocity profile of the airstream and the vertical stability of the atmosphere. A two-layer velocity model of the airstream is used in calculations based on the theory of mountain lee waves. Regardless of the simple model used for the airstream, the calculations appear to be capable of reproducing the observed wave patterns. The many observations of lee waves suggest that the near surface wind speeds as implied by the lower stream velocities do not greatly exceed, and most of the time are less than, 40 m/sec in the northern midlatitudes during late winter except possibly on a very localized scale. Results are in agreement with circulation models, especially the Leovy and Mintz (1969) two-layer numerical model.

Pirraglia, J. A.↗
NASA NTRS1976

Stratospheric long waves - Comparison of thermal structure in the Northern and Southern Hemispheres

Stratospheric radiance and temperature data obtained in the Northern and Southern Hemispheres during 1971 and 1972 are analyzed in order to compare planetary-wave behavior in both hemispheres. The data sources include the reduced radiance data of the Nimbus 4 selective chopper radiometer, National Meteorological Center gridded data, and Eole constant-level balloon data. Large-amplitude wave oscillations with energy in the period range from 20 to 30 days are observed along with the eastward propagation of planetary wave 2 in the Southern Hemisphere and a strong vertical coherence in wave phase at all levels between 200 mb and the upper stratosphere. The results show that: (1) despite stationary forcing, eastward phase progression occurs for wave 2 in the south as well as during the amplification phase of wave 1 in both hemispheres; (2) the upper stratosphere in midwinter contains regions of apparent barotropic instability, especially in the south; (3) wave number 2 amplitudes grow from very low values in early winter to high values in late winter; (4) the meridional amplitude structure is similar in the upper stratosphere in both hemispheres; and (5) the equatorward extent of waves is directly related to zonal wind speed in the upper stratosphere.

Leovy, C. B.↗
NASA NTRS1976

Large Area Crop Inventory Experiment (LACIE). Phase 1: Evaluation report

It appears that the Large Area Crop Inventory Experiment over the Great Plains, can with a reasonable expectation, be a satisfactory component of a 90/90 production estimator. The area estimator produced more accurate area estimates for the total winter wheat region than for the mixed spring and winter wheat region of the northern Great Plains. The accuracy does appear to degrade somewhat in regions of marginal agriculture where there are small fields and abundant confusion crops. However, it would appear that these regions tend also to be marginal with respect to wheat production and thus increased area estimation errors do not greatly influence the overall production estimation accuracy in the United States. The loss of segments resulting from cloud cover appears to be a random phenomenon that introduces no significant bias into the estimates. This loss does increase the variance of the estimates.

Source record↗
NASA NTRS1977

A dynamical model of upper-atmospheric helium

This numerical study of the global distribution of helium in the terrestrial thermosphere is based on the extension of a three-dimensional single-fluid numerical model of the thermosphere previously developed by the authors to treat the dynamics of a minor gas imbedded in a background gas made up of N2, O2, and O. The Cira (1972) model of the upper atmosphere, based on satellite drag data, is used to specify the background gas density and temperature as functions of altitude, latitude, and local time for a given day of the year. Specific emphasis is placed on a study of the helium distribution at solstice, i.e., the 'winter helium bulge'. Effects of solar activity, eddy diffusion, and exospheric transport on the global distribution of helium are investigated. The model reproduces the general features of the winter helium bulge, including the variation of its amplitude with solar activity, as determined by comparison of data from several recent satellite-borne mass spectrometers.

Straus, J. M.↗
NASA NTRS1977

Satellite observations of the global distribution of stratospheric ozone

Observations of backscattered radiation from an orbiting geophysical observatory (Ogo) satellite for the period September 1967 to February 1968 have been used to determine the global distribution of ozone at different levels in the middle and upper stratosphere (30-55 km). The derived distributions show significant seasonal and geographic variations with important differences indicated between winter and summer hemisphere distributions. The Ogo-derived distributions are compared with other observations (rocket and satellite) and with photochemical calculations. It is suggested that the increased ozone mixing ratio in the high-latitude winter hemisphere can be accounted for by transport processes up to about 40-45 km and by temperature-sensitive chemistry above.

London, J.↗
NASA NTRS1976

Satellite observations of the global distribution of stratospheric ozone

Observations of backscattered radiation from an Orbiting Geophysical Observatory (OGO) Satellite were used to determine the global distribution of ozone in different layers in the middle and upper stratosphere. The derived distributions show significant seasonal and geographic variations with important differences indicated between winter and summer hemisphere distributions. The OGO derived distributions are compared with other observations (rocket and satellite) and with photochemical calculations. It is suggested that the increased ozone mixing ratio in the high latitude winter hemisphere can be accounted for by transport processes up to about 40-45 km and by the effects of seasonal variations of NOX, HOX and temperature in the region above.

London, J.↗
NASA NTRS1976

Forest land management by satellite: LANDSAT-derived information as input to a forest inventory system

The author has identified the following significant results. Analysis of LANDSAT temporal data, specifically the digitally merged winter and summer scenes, provided the best overall classification results. Comparison of temporal classification results with available ground truth reveal a 94% agreement in the delineation of hardwood categories, a 96% agreement for the combined pine category, and a greater than 50% agreement for each individual pine subcategory. For nearly 1000 acres, compared clearcut acreage estimated with LANDSAT digital data differed from company inventory records by only 3%. Through analysis of summer data, pine stands were successfully classified into subcategories based upon the extent of crown closure. Maximum spectral separability of hardwood and pine stands was obtained from the analysis of winter data.

Williams, D. L.↗
NASA NTRS1978

Helium ion outflow from the terrestrial ionosphere

For situations where ion outflow occurs from the topside ionosphere, steady-state solutions for the He(+) continuity, momentum, and energy equations have been obtained self-consistently, yielding density, velocity, and temperature profiles of He(+) from 200 to 2000 km altitude. The study indicates that the outflowing He(+) has density profiles of similar shape to those of H(+), for basically different reasons; the effect of the perpendicular electric field differs considerably for H(+) and He(+); the fractional heating of He(+) due to the He(+)-O(+) relative flow is not as effective in heating He(+) as the flow is in heating H(+); during magnetospheric disturbances the He(+) peak density decreases only by approximately a factor of 2; and the He(+) escape flux over the winter pole is approximately a factor of 20 greater than the He(+) escape flux over the summer pole. The possibility of interhemispheric He(+) flux from winter to summer on high-latitude closed field lines is considered.

Raitt, W. J.↗
NASA NTRS1978

The zonally averaged circulation of the middle atmosphere

The steady-state, zonally averaged circulation of the middle atmosphere (15-125 km) is studied with a quasigeostrophic, numerical model that explicitly includes a self-consistent calculation of solar radiative heating due to O2 and O3 absorption, Newtonian cooling, Rayleigh friction, tropopause boundary conditions based on climatological averages, and the effects of vertically propagating planetary waves. It is found that the direct, radiatively driven pole-to-pole circulation at solstice is sufficient to account for the cold summer mesopause and warm isothermal winter mesosphere with associated zonal jets of realistic magnitude. The climatological heat and momentum fluxes associated with planetary wavenumber 2 have a negligible effect on the mean circulation. With planetary wavenumber 1, no steady-state solution could be obtained due to the formation of easterlies and hence critical layers in the winter mesosphere. The radiative heating associated with secondary peaks in the O3 density at the mesopause could render the polar mesopause region convectively unstable.

Schoeberl, M. R.↗
NASA NTRS1978

A numerical simulation of seasonal stratospheric climate. II - Energetics

The paper analyzes the energetics involved in the two numerical experiments described in Part I, concerning a longwave radiative transfer model and a simple Newtonian cooling (or heating) model. A three-dimensional quasi-geostrophic model is developed and used over the entire annual cycle to test the climatic responses of the stratospheric circulation to the cited two different longwave radiative heating models. It is shown that the eddy energy parameters (eddy kinetic energy, eddy available potential energy, generation of the latter, and vertical propagation of eddy geopotential energy) undergo annual variations with maximum values in winter and minimum values in summer. The zonal energy parameters exhibit semiannual variations with major maximum values in winter, minor maxima in summer and minima in spring and fall. Analysis of the energy cycle reveals that the vertical propagation of eddy geopotential energy and the generation of eddy available potential energy are the energy sources for energetics in the upper stratosphere. Ways in which the longwave radiative processes may affect the stratospheric energetics are identified.

Chen, T.-C.↗
NASA NTRS1977

Crop identification and area estimation by computer-aided analysis of Landsat data

This report describes the results of a study involving the use of computer-aided analysis techniques applied to Landsat MSS data for identification and area estimation of winter wheat in Kansas and corn and soybeans in Indiana. Key elements of the approach included use of aerial photography for classifier training, stratification of Landsat data and extension of training statistics to areas without training data, and classification of a systematic sample of pixels from each county. Major results and conclusions are: (1) Landsat data was adequate for accurate identification and area estimation of winter wheat in Kansas, but corn and soybean estimates for Indiana were less accurate; (2) computer-aided analysis techniques can be effectively used to extract crop identification information from Landsat MSS data, and (3) systematic sampling of entire counties made possible by computer classification methods resulted in very precise area estimates at county as well as district and state levels.

Bauer, M. E.↗
NASA NTRS1978

Mars meteorology - Three seasons at the surface

We summarize some meteorological results from Viking for northern summer, autumn and winter. Little Sol-to-Sol meteorological change was observed during summer, except for secular pressure change. However, a regular sequence of weather disturbances, interpreted as baroclinic waves, appeared primarily at VL-2 during autumn and winter. The number of Rossby waves present at a given instant is calculated to be 4 and 6 for these seasons. The extreme regularity and low wave number make these systems closely resemble the baroclinic waves of rotating annulus experiments.

Ryan, J. A.↗
NASA NTRS1978

Forest resource information system

The author has identified the following significant results. Satisfactory results were obtained separately from both winter and spring LANDSAT data for areal estimates. Bitemporal results were improved by combining winter and spring data. Per-point and per-field classifiers performed comparably, except regarding time, where the per-field classifiers were more efficient.

Mroczynski, R. P.↗
NASA NTRS1978

Asymmetries in ozone depressions between the polar stratospheres following a solar proton event

Ozone depletions in the polar stratosphere during the energetic solar proton event on 4 August 1972 were observed by the backscattered ultraviolet (BUV) experiments on the Nimbus 4 satellite. The observed ozone contents, the ozone depressions and their temporal variations above the 4 mb level exhibited distinct asymmetries between the northern and southern hemispheres. Since the ozone destroying solar particles precipitate rather symmetrically into the two polar atmospheres, due to the geomagnetic dipole field, it is suggested that these asymmetries may be explained in terms of the differences in dynamics between the summer and the winter polar atmospheres. In the summer (northern) hemisphere, the stratospheric and mesospheric ozone depletion and recovery are smooth functions of time due to the preponderance of undistributed orderly flow in this region. On the other hand, the temporal variation of the upper stratospheric ozone in the winter polar atmosphere (southern hemisphere) exhibits large amplitude irregularities. These characteristic differences between the two polar atmospheres are also evident in the vertical distributions of temperatures and winds observed by balloons and rocket soundings.

Maeda, K.↗