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At least 145 records · Page 8
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NASA NTRS1992

Investigation of upwind, multigrid, multiblock numerical schemes for three dimensional flows. Volume 1: Runge-Kutta methods for a thin layer Navier-Stokes solver

A state-of-the-art computer code has been developed that incorporates a modified Runge-Kutta time integration scheme, upwind numerical techniques, multigrid acceleration, and multi-block capabilities (RUMM). A three-dimensional thin-layer formulation of the Navier-Stokes equations is employed. For turbulent flow cases, the Baldwin-Lomax algebraic turbulence model is used. Two different upwind techniques are available: van Leer's flux-vector splitting and Roe's flux-difference splitting. Full approximation multi-grid plus implicit residual and corrector smoothing were implemented to enhance the rate of convergence. Multi-block capabilities were developed to provide geometric flexibility. This feature allows the developed computer code to accommodate any grid topology or grid configuration with multiple topologies. The results shown in this dissertation were chosen to validate the computer code and display its geometric flexibility, which is provided by the multi-block structure.

Cannizzaro, Frank E.↗
NASA NTRS1994

Luminosity effects and the emission-line properties of quasars with 0 less than z less than 3.8

We present data and a spectral atlas for 76 quasars with 2.97 less than z less than 3.80 and for 33 quasars with z approximately 2, together with measures of 73 quasars from the IUE archives that mostly have z less than 1. The quasars provide a sampling of the luminosity-redshift plane at constant luminosity for 0 less than z less than 3.8, a range of a factor of 40 in luminosity for 3 less than z less than 3.8, and a range of 10(exp 3) in luminosity for z less than 1. We investigate the behavior of the principle emission lines from 1200-2000 A and find: (1) The Baldwin effect at z greater than 3 is definitely present in the C IV lambda 1549 line and in the other strong emission lines in varying degrees except for N v lambda-lambda(1240) and 1400, where the effect is very weak. (2) The component that varies with luminosity has a narrower full width at half maximum (FWHM) than the average line width and appears consistent with the first component of the principal component analysis of the Large Bright Quasar Survey sample by Francis et al. (1992). (3) There is no evidence for redshifted-dependent spectral changes, Baldwin or otherwise, in quasars of the same luminosity in the z approximately 2 and z greater than 3 samples. (4) The Baldwin effect in the IUE, z approximately 2, and z greater than 3 subsamples joins smoothly, although the slope of the effect steepens with increasing luminosity. (5) The results are consistent with the ionization parameter decreasing with increasing luminosity. (6) The large ratio of N v to Ly-alpha and its small change with luminosity are consistent with the arguments of Hamann & Ferland (1993a, b) that the N/C ratio is enhanced in high-luminosity quasars with z greater than 3.

Osmer, Patrick S.↗
NASA NTRS1995

Filtering Image Records Using Wavelets and the Zakai Equation

Consider the problem of detecting and localizing a faint object moving In an "essentially stationary" background, using a sequence of two-dimensional low-SNR images of the scene. A natural approach consists of "digitizing" each snapshot into a discrete set of observations, sufficiently (perhaps not exactly) matched to the object In question, then tracking the object using an appropriate stochastic filter. The tracking would be expected to make up for the low signal-to-noise ratio, this allowing one to "coherently" process successive images in order to beat down the noise and localize the object. Thus, "tracking" here does not refer to the usual notion of detecting then tracking: rather, we track in order to detect The problem then becomes one of choosing the appropriate image representation as well as the optimal (and necessarily nonlinear filter. We propose exact and approximate solutions using wavelets and the Zakai equation. The smoothness of the wavelets used is required in the derivation of the evolution equation for the conditional density giving the filter, and their orthogonality makes it possible to carry out actual computations of the Ito- and change-of-gauge-terms in the algorithm effectively.

Haddad, Ziad S.↗
NASA NTRS2001

Astrobiology Investigations at a Martian Hematite Site

Christensen et al, using data from the Mars Global Surveyor Thermal Emission Spectrometer (TES), have identified gray crystalline hematite in a 350 km by 750 km region near Sinus Meridiani. The deposit corresponds closely to the low-albedo highlands unit 'sm', mapped as a wind-eroded, ancient, subaqueous sedimentary deposit. Christensen et al interpreted the Sinus Meridiani deposit to be 'an in-place, rock-stratigraphic sedimentary unit characterized by smooth, friable layers composed primarily of basaltic sediments with approximately 10 to 15 % crystalline gray hematite.' Christensen et al discussed five possible mechanisms for the formation of this deposit: direct precipitation from standing, oxygenated, Fe-rich water; precipitation from Fe-rich hydrothermal fluids; low-temperature dissolution and precipitation through mobile groundwater leaching; surface weathering and coatings; thermal oxidation of magnetite-rich lavas. Four of these mechanisms involve the interactions of rock with water, and thus have implications in the search for evidence of microbial life.

Allen, Carlton, C.↗
NASA NTRS2003

Meridiani Planum Hematite Deposit: Potential for Preservation of Microfossils

Christensen et al., using data from the Mars Global Surveyor Thermal Emission Spectrometer (TES), have identified gray crystalline hematite in a 350 km by 750 km region near Meridiani Planum. The deposit corresponds closely to the low-albedo highlands unit sm, mapped as a wind-eroded, ancient, subaqueous sedimentary deposit. Christensen et al. interpreted the Meridiani Planum deposit to be an in-place, rock-stratigraphic sedimentary unit characterized by smooth, friable layers composed primarily of basaltic sediments with approximately 10 to 15% crystalline gray hematite. The Meridiani Planum hematite deposit has recently been designated as the prime landing site for one of the two Mars Exploration Rover (MER) spacecraft. The MER landings are scheduled for January, 2004. Christensen et al. discussed five possible mechanisms for the formation of this deposit: direct precipitation from standing, oxygenated, Fe-rich water; precipitation from Fe-rich hydrothermal fluids; low-temperature dissolution and precipitation through mobile groundwater leaching; surface weathering and coatings; thermal oxidation of magnetite-rich lavas. Four of these mechanisms involve the interactions of rock with water, and thus have implications in the search for evidence of microbial life.

C C Allen↗
NASA NTRS2014

Discovery of Finely Structured Dynamic Solar Corona Observed in the Hi-C Telescope

In the summer of 2012, the High-resolution Coronal Imager (Hi-C) flew aboard a NASA sounding rocket and collected the highest spatial resolution images ever obtained of the solar corona. One of the goals of the Hi-C flight was to characterize the substructure of the solar corona. We therefore examine how the intensity scales from AIA resolution to Hi-C resolution. For each low-resolution pixel, we calculate the standard deviation in the contributing high-resolution pixel intensities and compare that to the expected standard deviation calculated from the noise. If these numbers are approximately equal, the corona can be assumed to be smoothly varying, i.e. have no evidence of substructure in the Hi-C image to within Hi-C's ability to measure it given its throughput and readout noise. A standard deviation much larger than the noise value indicates the presence of substructure. We calculate these values for each low-resolution pixel for each frame of the Hi-C data. On average, 70 percent of the pixels in each Hi-C image show no evidence of substructure. The locations where substructure is prevalent is in the moss regions and in regions of sheared magnetic field. We also find that the level of substructure varies significantly over the roughly 160 s of the Hi-C data analyzed here. This result indicates that the finely structured corona is concentrated in regions of heating and is highly time dependent.

Winebarger, A.↗
NASA NTRS1996

Wavelet Sparse Approximate Inverse Preconditioners

There is an increasing interest in using sparse approximate inverses as preconditioners for Krylov subspace iterative methods. Recent studies of Grote and Huckle and Chow and Saad also show that sparse approximate inverse preconditioner can be effective for a variety of matrices, e.g. Harwell-Boeing collections. Nonetheless a drawback is that it requires rapid decay of the inverse entries so that sparse approximate inverse is possible. However, for the class of matrices that, come from elliptic PDE problems, this assumption may not necessarily hold. Our main idea is to look for a basis, other than the standard one, such that a sparse representation of the inverse is feasible. A crucial observation is that the kind of matrices we are interested in typically have a piecewise smooth inverse. We exploit this fact, by applying wavelet techniques to construct a better sparse approximate inverse in the wavelet basis. We shall justify theoretically and numerically that our approach is effective for matrices with smooth inverse. We emphasize that in this paper we have only presented the idea of wavelet approximate inverses and demonstrated its potential but have not yet developed a highly refined and efficient algorithm.

Chan, Tony F.↗
NASA NTRS1995

Efficient implementation of weighted ENO schemes

In this paper, we further analyze, test, modify and improve the high order WENO (weighted essentially non-oscillatory) finite difference schemes of Liu, Osher and Chan. It was shown by Liu et al. that WENO schemes constructed from the r-th order (in L1 norm) ENO schemes are (r+1)-th order accurate. We propose a new way of measuring the smoothness of a numerical solution, emulating the idea of minimizing the total variation of the approximation, which results in a 5-th order WENO scheme for the case r = 3, instead of the 4-th order with the original smoothness measurement by Liu et al. This 5-th order WENO scheme is as fast as the 4-th order WENO scheme of Liu et al., and both schemes are about twice as fast as the 4-th order ENO schemes on vector supercomputers and as fast on serial and parallel computers. For Euler systems of gas dynamics, we suggest computing the weights from pressure and entropy instead of the characteristic values to simplify the costly characteristic procedure. The resulting WENO schemes are about twice as fast as the WENO schemes using the characteristic decompositions to compute weights, and work well for problems which do not contain strong shocks or strong reflected waves. We also prove that, for conservation laws with smooth solutions, all WENO schemes are convergent. Many numerical tests, including the 1D steady state nozzle flow problem and 2D shock entropy wave interaction problem, are presented to demonstrate the remarkable capability of the WENO schemes, especially the WENO scheme using the new smoothness measurement, in resolving complicated shock and flow structures. We have also applied Yang's artificial compression method to the WENO schemes to sharpen contact discontinuities.

Jiang, Guang-Shan↗
NASA NTRS2000

The Generation of Smooth High Speed Solar Wind From Plume-Interplume Mixing

Ulysses has shown that fast solar wind is extremely smooth, with a variance of less than 5%, in contrast to slow wind with a variance of approximately 30%. Now UVCS has produced the surprising result that the flow speed within coronal holes, the source of fast wind, is not at all smooth. Specifically, Giordano et al. (ApJ, v531, L79-L82, 2000) report that at 1.7 R(sub SUN) the interplume flow speed is typically more than twice the plume flow speed. Other less direct evidence supports this same result, with speeds from less than 300 to over 1000 km/s reported at approximately 5 R(sub SUN). This presents the paradox of how strongly differing plume and interplume flow speeds can exist near the Sun and be absent far from the Sun. The only answer is that plume and interplume material or momentum must be strongly mixed and that the mixing must occur mainly inside 0.3 AU to be consistent with Helios observations of smooth fast wind. Pressure balance structures (PBSs) and He abundance anomalies (Reisenfeld, et al., GRL, v26(13), 1805-1808, 1999) have been identified as interplanetary remnants of plumes, implying momentum mixing is the dominant coronal process. One possible source for plume/interplume momentum mixing is MHD Kelvin-Helmholtz (KH) shear instabilities occurring on the velocity shear interfaces. The velocity shear is a source of free energy and KH fluctuations could, through nonlinear cascade, provide the forcing required for the plasma oscillations (Cranmer, ApJ, v532, 1197-1208, 2000) reported to exist in coronal holes. The physical properties in coronal holes are now sufficiently well known that we can show plume/interplume shear interfaces become unstable to the KH instability at 5 - 10 R(sub SUN). The KH dispersion relation can be used to analyze marginal stability, the most unstable wavelengths, and linear growth rates. Numerical simulations can be used to verify results from the linear analysis and study the nonlinear development of KH modes. Here we will describe the marginal stability criterion for the KH instability, how and where this condition is met in the corona, and the possible character of the resultant fluctuations.

Suess, Steve↗
NASA NTRS1972

The least squares process of MEDIA for computing DRVID calibration polynomials

A process is described and evaluated for computing a least squares polynomial approximation of data points in which the optimum degree of the polynomial is automatically determined. An iterative smoothing technique is used to replace every point with the value taken on by a moving least squares polynomial computed from a subset of points centered at the point to be replaced. The optimum degree of the resulting polynomial approximation is determined by analyzing the finite differences of each successive set of smoothed points. To evaluate the process, both artificially constructed data and actual Mariner Mars 1971 (MM'71) tracking data are used. This process was incorporated into a transmission media calibration computer program (MEDIA), which calibrates radiometric data to overcome the effects on the tracking signal of charged particle media. MEDIA was used in support of MM'71.

Leavitt, R. K.↗
NASA NTRS1976

Flight assessment of an atmospheric turbulence measurement system with emphasis on long wavelengths

A flight assessment has been made of a system for measuring the three components of atmospheric turbulence in the frequency range associated with airplane motions (0 to approximately 0.5 Hz). Results of the assessment indicate acceptable accuracy of the resulting time histories and power spectra. Small residual errors at the airplane short period and Dutch roll frequencies (0.5 and 0.25 Hz, respectively), as determined from in-flight maneuvers in smooth air, would not be detectable on the power spectra. However, errors at approximately 0.25 Hz can be present in the time history of the lateral turbulence component, particularly at the higher altitudes where airplane yawing motions are large. An assessment of the quantities comprising the vertical turbulence component leads to the conclusion that the vertical component is essentially accurate to zero frequency.

Rhyne, R. H.↗
NASA NTRS1978

X-ray reflectometer for optical efficiency and scatter measurements

An instrument has been developed to determine the reflection efficiency and scatter characteristics of optical samples at X-ray wavelengths from 1.5 to 113 A. The reflectometer operates in an oil-free vacuum chamber and measures the reflection efficiency and scatter characteristics as a function of the angle of incidence. The reflection efficiency is given for 8.34-A radiation incident on a fused silica sample finished to a flatness of one-tenth of a wavelength. The experimental reflection efficiency is compared with the theoretical data. The scatter curves are given for the direct X-ray beam and for the beam reflected from the fused silica sample at an angle of incidence of 50 arcmin. The full-width-at-half-maximum (FWHM) resolution of the instrument is approximately 13 arcsec, as determined by a least-squares smoothing of the experimental data.

Reynolds, J. M.↗
NASA NTRS1980

Uniaxial and biaxial tensioning effects on thin membrane materials

Thin laminated membranes are being considered for various surface applications on future large space structural systems. Some of the thin membranes would be stretched across or between structural members with the requirement that the membrane be maintained within specified limits of smoothness which would be dictated by the particular applications such as antenna reflector requirements. The multiaxial tensile force required to maintain the smoothness in the membrane needs to be determined for use in the structure design. Therefore, several types of thicknesses of thin membrane materials have been subjected to varied levels of uniaxial and biaxial tensile loads. During the biaxial tests, deviations of the material surface smoothness were measured by a noncontacting capacitance probe. Basic materials consisted of composites of vacuum deposited aluminum on Mylar and Kapton ranging in thickness from 0.00025 in (0.000635 cm) to 0.002 in (0.00508 cm). Some of the material was reinforced with Kevlar and Nomex scrim. The uniaxial tests determined the material elongation and tensile forces up to ultimate conditions. Biaxial tests indicated that a relatively smooth material surface could be achieved with tensile force of approximately 1 to 15 Newtons per centimeter, depending upon the material thickness and/or reinforcement.

Hinson, W. F.↗
NASA NTRS1980

Shuttle program. Solar activity prediction of sunspot numbers, predicted solar radio flux

A solar activity prediction technique for monthly mean sunspot numbers over a period of approximately ten years from February 1979 to January 1989 is presented. This includes the predicted maximum epoch of solar cycle 21, approximately January 1980, and the predicted minimum epoch of solar cycle 22, approximately March 1987. Additionally, the solar radio flux 10.7 centimeter smooth values are included for the same time frame using a smooth 13 month empirical relationship. The incentive for predicting solar activity values is the requirement of solar flux data as input to upper atmosphere density models utilized in mission planning satellite orbital lifetime studies.

Johnson, G. G.↗
NASA NTRS1981

A multigrid method for the transonic full potential equation discretized with finite elements on an arbitrary body fitted mesh

A multigrid method for the acceleration of transonic potential flow calculations based on a Galerkin finite element approach is described. In order to allow the use of arbitrary body fitted meshes it is necessary to introduce nonuniform interpolation and residual weighting. Emphasis is put on the construction of these operators consistent with the finite element approximation, while standard successive line overrelaxation is used as a smoothing step. Substantial convergence acceleration is obtained and results are presented for different transonic flow configurations including shocks.

Deconinck, H.↗
NASA NTRS1985

Recovering pointwise values of discontinuous data within spectral accuracy

The pointwise values of a function, f(x), can be accurately recovered either from its spectral or pseudospectral approximations, so that the accuracy solely depends on the local smoothness of f in the neighborhood of the point x. Most notably, given the equidistant function grid values, its intermediate point values are recovered within spectral accuracy, despite the possible presence of discontinuities scattered in the domain. (Recall that the usual spectral convergence rate decelerates otherwise to first order, throughout). To this end, a highly oscillatory smoothing kernel is employed in contrast to the more standard positive unit-mass mollifiers. In particular, post-processing of a stable Fourier method applied to hyperbolic equations with discontinuous data, recovers the exact solution modulo a spectrally small error. Numerical examples are presented.

Gottlieb, D.↗
NASA NTRS1985

Recovering pointwise values of discontinuous data within spectral accuracy

The pointwise values of a function, f(x), can be accurately recovered either from its spectral or pseudospectral approximations, so that the accuracy solely depends on the local smoothness of f in the neighborhood of the point x. Most notably, given the equidistant function grid values, its intermediate point values are recovered within spectral accuracy, despite the possible presence of discontinuities scattered in the domain. (Recall that the usual spectral convergence rate decelerates otherwise to first order, throughout). To this end, a highly oscillatory smoothing kernel is employed in contrast to the more standard positive unit-mass mollifiers. In particular, post-processing of a stable Fourier method applied to hyperbolic equations with discontinuous data, recovers the exact solution modulo a spectrally small error. Numerical examples are presented.

Gottlieb, D.↗
NASA NTRS1992

Accurate upwind-monotone (nonoscillatory) methods for conservation laws

The well known MUSCL scheme of Van Leer is constructed using a piecewise linear approximation. The MUSCL scheme is second order accurate at the smooth part of the solution except at extrema where the accuracy degenerates to first order due to the monotonicity constraint. To construct accurate schemes which are free from oscillations, the author introduces the concept of upwind monotonicity. Several classes of schemes, which are upwind monotone and of uniform second or third order accuracy are then presented. Results for advection with constant speed are shown. It is also shown that the new scheme compares favorably with state of the art methods.

Huynh, Hung T.↗