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The NIMBUS 7 Scanning Multichannel Microwave Radiometer (SMMR) data are analyzed. The impact of cross polarization and Faraday rotation on SMMR derived brightness temperatures is evaluated. The algorithms used to retrieve the geophysical parameters are tested, refined, and compared with values derived by other techniques. The technical approach taken is described and the results presented.
Voluntary active head rotations produced vestibulo-ocular reflex eye movements (VOR) with the subject viewing a fixation target. When this target jumped, the size of the refixation saccades were a function of the ongoing initial velocity of the eye. Saccades made against the VOR were larger in magnitude. Simulation of a reciprocally innervated model eye movement provided results comparable to the experimental data. Most of the experimental effect appeared to be due to linear summation for saccades of 5 and 10 degree magnitude. For small saccades of 2.5 degrees, peripheral nonlinear interaction of state variables in the neuromuscular plant also played a role as proven by comparable behavior in the simulated model with known controller signals.
Heat Capacity Mapping Mission (HCMM) in the form of an apparent thermal inertia image were merged with shaded relief maps and Bouguer gravity maps. The HCMM data show that the dominant structural grain in Missouri strikes in a northwesterly direction. The strike is the same as a major basement fault or flexure identified on the basis of gravity images.
Progress in the preparation of manuscripts on the discovery of a Precambrian rift running NW-SE through Missouri as seen in free air and Bouguer gravity anomalies and in HCMM data, and on digital image processing of potential field and topographic data on the rift is reported. Copies of the papers are attached. Contrast-enhanced HCMM images that have been transformed to Mercator projections are presented. Shaded relief map overlays of thermal and apparent thermal inertia images used as part of a masers thesis examining correlations between HCMM data products, linears, and geologic units are presented. Progress in examination of the difference in information content of daytime infrared, night time infrared, albedo, and thermal inertia images and their application to he identification of linears not directly controlled by topography is reported. Thermal infrared and albedo data were coded as hue, saturation and brightness values to generate a color display, which is included.
Strips of ground control can be established with current and future satellite sensors. These can provide precise and reliable geometric references for locating and correcting satellite image data and to support temporal image registration. This paper briefly describes the concept and approach for implementing this data base called a Ground Control Strip, and recommends additional work. The advent of new solid state imaging systems, in particular the linear array detectors (pushbroom sensors), make this new concept particularly attractive and practical.
The TOMS experiment and algorithms are described. Detailed information on the data available on computer tape is provided.
Total-ozone and ozone vertical profile results for Solar Backscattered Ultraviolet/Total Ozone Mapping Spectrometer (SBUV/TOMS) Nimbus 7 operation from November 1978 to November 1979 are available. The algorithm used have been thoroughly tested, the instrument performance has been examined in details, and the ozone results have been compared with Dobson, Umkehr, balloon, and rocket observations. The accuracy and precision of the satellite ozone data are good to at least within the ability of the ground truth to check and are self-consistent to within the specifications of the instrument. The 'SBUV User's Guide' describes the SBUV experiment and algorithms used. Detailed information on the data available on computer tape is provided including how to order tapes from the National Space Science Data Center.
BUV total ozone data from the Nimbus 4 satellite were used to derive the seasonal and interannual variations of total ozone over a 7-year period. The variations were studied using harmonic and superposition analyses of zonal mean data at 10 deg latitudinal increments. Harmonic analysis of the zonal mean data revealed a clear quasibiennial oscillation (QBO) strongest in the tropics and at high latitudes in the Southern Hemisphere. An estimation of the QBO period using a superposition analysis for each latitude zone revealed a decreasing period with latitude in both hemispheres. A maximum period of 27 months occurs in the tropics, while the minimum period in the Northern Hemisphere is about 20 months. This decrease in QBO period with latitude implies that the observed QBO in ozone at low and high latitudes are not directly related. The results do indicate, however, that the interannual variations are latitude dependent.
The design of a standard gear mesh is treated with the objective of minimizing the gear size for a given ratio, pinion torque, and allowable tooth strength. Scoring, pitting fatigue, bending fatigue, and the kinematic limits of contact ratio and interference are considered. A design space is defined in terms of the number of teeth on the pinion and the diametral pitch. This space is then combined with the objective function of minimum center distance to obtain an optimal design region. This region defines the number of pinion teeth for the most compact design. The number is a function of the gear ratio only. A design example illustrating this procedure is also given.
The northwestern corner of the Caribbean plate has at least sixteen centers of alkalic volcanism, most of which is Quaternary in age. Sr-87/Sr-86 ratios of the rocks in these centers are used to distinguish three geographical groups: a low-ratio group (0.7026-0.7031) at the Nicaraguan Rise, an intermediate-ratio group (0.7036-0.7038) in northeastern Costa Rica, and a high-ratio group (0.7047-0.7063) in Hispaniola. It is suggested that the increased radiogenic strontium in both Costa Rica and Hispaniola may have come from volatile-rich fluids escaping from adjacent subducting slabs of oceanic crust. The isotopic differences between the two areas is explained by the relative longevity and high rate of subduction in Costa Rica compared to that in Hispaniola. The Costa Rican alkaline rocks cover a segment of the Cocos plate which is being subducted at a smaller angle (about 35 deg) than at the rest of the Central American arc.
Orbital X-ray data from the Apollo 16 region indicate that physiographic units identified before the lunar mission can be classified as chemical units as well. The Descartes Mountains, however, appear to be an extension of the Kant Plateau composition that is unusually anorthositic and resembles farside terra. The Cayley Plains have closer affinities to basaltic materials than terra materials, physically, spectrally and chemically. The Theophilus impact, 330 km east of the landing site, excavated magnesium-rich basalts from below less-magnesian flows in Mare Nectaris; but, mafic ejecta was substantially blocked from the Apollo 16 site by the Kant Plateau that rises 5 km above the level of the mare. Apollo 16 soil samples from stations selected to collect either Descartes Mountains material or Cayley Plains material were surprisingly similar. However, they do, indeed, show the chemical trends indicative of the two units as defined by the orbiting geochemistry detectors. The Kant Plateau and Descartes Mountains material may be among the rare nearside examples of a plagioclase-rich cumulate of the primordial magma ocean.
Backscattered ultraviolet (BUV) data from the Nimbus-4 spacecraft for the period 1970-1977 have been processed to a refined level. The seasonal and interannual variations of total ozone are examined on a global scale, using daily zonal means of 10 deg latitude bands and a time-latitude cross section. A harmonic analysis was performed on the daily zonal means and the amplitude, days of peak ozone values, and percentage of variance were computed for the annual, semiannual and higer harmonics for several years and each year. A clear quasi-biennial oscillation (QBO) was revealed from the tropics to midlatitudes after removing the mean annual wave. Asymmetries in the annual wave in the two hemispheres found earlier for the period 1970-1972 persist through the entire observation period. Interannual variations appear to be the result of the QBO of ozone from low to midlatitudes. Asymmetries in the QBO amplitude phase, and period were also detected in the two hemispheres.
A description is provided of the algorithm used by the Ozone Processing Team at NASA to process seven years of Backscatter Ultraviolet (BUV) ozone profile data. The algorithm is a modification of the original retrieval algorithm developed by Mateer (1972) to process some of the early data from the BUV experiment. Principal changes made are in the first guess selection scheme, the use of all wavelengths in the inversion, and the weighting of the various wavelengths according to the errors in the radiance estimation. It is found that the described BUV ozone profile algorithm is an extremely efficient algorithm for retrieving large amounts of satellite data. The algorithm makes full use of all the available information from the measured radiances including the longer wavelength radiances which previously had not been used.
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Algorithms for point interpolation and contouring on the surface of the sphere and in Cartesian two-space are developed from Shepard's (1968) well-known, local search method. These mapping procedures then are used to investigate the errors which appear on small-scale climate maps as a result of the all-too-common practice of of interpolating, from irregularly spaced data points to the nodes of a regular lattice, and contouring Cartesian two-space. Using mean annual air temperatures field over the western half of the northern hemisphere is estimated both on the sphere, assumed to be correct, and in Cartesian two-space. When the spherically- and Cartesian-approximted air temperature fields are mapped and compared, the magnitudes (as large as 5 C to 10 C) and distribution of the errors associated with the latter approach become apparent.
Rats acclimated to either 23 or 5 C were concurrently exposed to cold and hypergravic fields to test the proposal that mammals have parallel controllers for thermoregulation. The two groups of rats were used to evaluate the different relative contributions of shivering and nonshivering thermogenesis to the increased oxygen consumption of the cold-exposed rats in hypergravic fields. The lower magnitude of the cold-induced oxygen consumption observed when cold-exposed rats are moved from 1 G to hypergravic fields is probably due to an inactivation of shivering rather than nonshivering thermogenesis. The observation that shivering, but not nonshivering thermogenesis, appears to be impaired by hypergravic fields is consistent with the representation of central thermoregulation by multiple controllers.
The 400th round trip ticket to space via the space shuttle is booked in the name of an Italian journal. Students from that country are offered an opportunity to propose an experiment for NASA's Get Away Special program. The dimensional characteristics of the container, as specified by NASA, are given as well as limitations of weight, volume, diameter, and height for the experiment. The types of experiments in the OSS-1 payload and their operation are described.
The emplacement of kimberlites in the North American and African continents since the early Palaeozoic appears to have occurred during periods of relatively slow motion of these continents. The distribution of kimberlites in time may reflect the global pattern of convection, which forces individual plates to move faster or slower at different times. Two-dimensional numerical experiments on a convecting layer with a moving upper boundary show two different regimes: in the first, when the upper boundary velocity is high, heat is transferred by the large-scale circulation and in the second, when the upper boundary velocity is lower, heat is predominantly transferred by thermal plumes rising from the lower boundary layer. For a reasonable mantle solidus, this second regime can give rise to partial melting beneath the moving plate, far from the plate boundaries. The transition between these modes takes place over a small range of plate velocities; for a Rayleigh number of 1,000,000 it occurs around 20 mm/yr. It is suggested that the generation of kimberlite magmas may result from thermal plumes incident on the base of a slowly moving plate.