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At least 1,603 records · Page 89

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NASA NTRS1988

Astrometric results of 1978-1985 Deep Space Network radio interferometry - The JPL 1987-1 extragalactic source catalog

An astrometric radio reference frame has been determined from intercontinental dual-frequency radio interferometric measurements. These measurements were carried out on a regular basis during 1978-1985 between NASA's Deep Space Network stations in California, Spain, and Australia. Analysis of 6800 pairs of delay and delay-rate observations made during 51 sessions produced estimates of 1300 parameters. The most significant of these are geophysical quantities and positions of extragalactic sources. The source catalog resulting from this analysis includes 106 sources fairly uniformly distributed over the celestial sphere, north of -45 deg declination. Almost all of the resulting source positions have formal uncertainties between 0.5 and 3 milliarcseconds (mas), with rms values of 2 mas in both angular coordinates. Internal consistency checks, as well as comparisons with independently determined source catalogs of comparable quality, indicate that relative source coordinates determined by VLBI contain systematic errors at the level of 1 to 2 mas.

Sovers, O. J.↗

NASA NTRS1988

The northern extension of the radio arc near the Galactic center

High-resolution observations of the positive-latitude extension of the radio continuum arc at 1 = 0.2 deg, the northern polarized lobe, have been carried out at both 6 and 20 cm wavelengths. These observations show clearly that the northern lobe is composed of a number of filaments which join continuously with the more prominent, linear, filamentary structures constituting the radio continuum arc, thus confirming the suggestion based on single-dish observations that the polarized lobe and the arc are physically associated. Attention is drawn to a puzzling absorption filament adjacent to the nonthermal filaments in the 6 cm images, implying the existence of a thermal component associated with the system of nonthermal filaments. These observations help clarify the spatial relationship between the thermal and nonthermal structures constituting the continuum arc, provide pictorial evidence that the nonthermal and thermal features are interacting, and support the hypothesis that the geometry of the magnetic field is poloidal near the Galactic center. The images are used to argue against the suggestion that the lobe is a manifestation activity associated with the Galactic nucleus.

Yusef-Zadeh, Farhad↗

NASA NTRS1988

A large family of compact radio sources in the starburst nucleus of NGC 253

Deep VLA maps of NGC 253 show that it has at least 35 compact radio sources similar to those in the prototypical IR starburst galaxy M82. It is noted that NGC 253 is a twin of M82 in IR spectrum and luminosity as well as distance. Some of the sources in M82 which are rapidly expanding and fading are believed to be extremely young supernova remnants. Most of the sources detected in NGC 253 are unresolved or only marginally resolved, with typical diameters no greater than 2-5 pc. If they are young supernova remnants expanding at 12,000 km/s, the source ages are no more than 160-400 yr. This requires a supernova rate of about 1/0.1 yr. If the compact radio sources are indeed young supernova remnants, star formation must have ceased shortly after the progenitors of the current supernovae were produced.

Antonucci, Robert R. J.↗

NASA NTRS1988

Digital avionics susceptibility to high energy radio frequency fields

Generally, noncritical avionic systems for transport category aircraft have been designed to meet radio frequency (RF) susceptibility requirements set forth in RTCA DO 160B, environmental conditions and test procedures for airborne equipment. Section 20 of this document controls the electromagnetic interference (EMI) hardening for avionics equipment to levels of 1 and 2 V/m. Currently, US equipment manufacturers are designing flight-critical fly-by-wire avionics to a much higher level. The US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has requested that the RTCA SC-135 high-energy radio frequency (HERF) working group develop appropriate testing procedures for section 20 of RTCA DO 160B for radiated and conducted susceptibility at the box and systems level. The FAA has also requested the SAE AE4R committee to address installed systems testing, airframe shielding effects and RF environment monitoring. Emitters of interest include radar (ground, ship, and aircraft) commercial broadcast and TV station, mobile communication, and other transmitters that could possibly affect commercial aircraft.

Larsen, William E.↗

NASA NTRS1988

Lunar radio astrometry

The accuracy of Earth-based radio astronomy is limited in a fundamental way by the variable delay of the troposphere and by the centimeter-scale motions of a dynamic Earth. Going to Earth orbit solves the variable delay problems, but problems with evolution of the baseline vector remain. The Moon can provide a stable platform where the potential accuracy of radio astromony is one or two orders of magnitude better than from the Earth.

Linfield, Roger↗

NASA NTRS1988

MERI: An ultra-long-baseline Moon-Earth radio interferometer

An extension of the very long baseline technique currently used with ground based telescopes which will produce a resolution of 0.4 micro-arcsec at 300 GHz is described. The MERI array will open an entirely new regime of wavelengths, resolutions, and sensitivities for radio astronomy. As with any such leap in astronomical instrumentation, this advancement will result in the observation of a variety of known radio sources and the exploration of their structures in unprecedented detail. Even so, it may be the serendipitous discoveries, which are by definition impossible to predict, that ultimately justify the construction of MERI.

Burns, Jack O.↗

NASA NTRS1988

A very low frequency radio astronomy observatory on the Moon

Because of terrestrial ionospheric absorption, very little is known of the radio sky beyond 10 m wavelength. An extremely simple, low cost very low frequency radio telescope is proposed, consisting of a large array of short wires laid on the lunar surface, each wire equipped with an amplifier and a digitizer, and connected to a common computer. The telescope could do simultaneous multifrequency observations of much of the visible sky with high resolution in the 10 to 100 m wavelength range, and with lower resolution in the 100 to 1000 m range. It would explore structure and spectra of galactic and extragalactic point sources, objects, and clouds, and would produce detailed quasi-three-dimensional mapping of interstellar matter within several thousand parsecs of the Sun.

Douglas, James N.↗

NASA NTRS1988

Ultraviolet and optical spectra of broadline radio galaxies

Near-simultaneous ultraviolet and optical spectra of three broadline radio galaxies (3C 382, 3C 445, and PKS 2349-014) have been obtained, and the emission lines of Ly-alpha, H-beta, and H-alpha have been deconvolved into narrow and broad components; published fluxes for 3C 390.3 are also included in this study. Although the broad Ly-alpha/H-beta ratios in these objects cover a large range (1.2-22.3), there is no evidence that these ratios are intrinsically different from those of Seyfert 1 galaxies or quasars. Thus, in general, the higher H-alpha/H-beta ratios in these broadline radio galaxies cannot entirely be due to additional reddening of the broadline region. However, in the specific case of 3C 445, there is evidence that the nonstellar continuum and broadline region are highly reddened.

Crenshaw, D. Michael↗

NASA NTRS1988

Radio reference frame stability from VLBI data

Intercontinental radio interferometric measurements between NASA's Deep Space Network stations yield a catalog of positions of 106 extragalactic radio sources, uniformly distributed between -45 and +85 deg declination. Almost all of the source positions have formal uncertainties between 0.5 and 3 milliarcseconds. Estimates of three independent sets of 32 source coordinates at average epochs 1980.0, 1983.2, and 1984.5 assess the level of stability of the reference frame over a five-year period. Comparisons of the three sets of source coordinates show a number of cases of greater than 2 sigma differences, particularly between the 1984-85 and 1981-83 periods. No sources, however, show 2 sigma shifts among both pairs of epochs. Upper limits of the order of 1 mas/yr can be placed on the time rates of change of the 32 source coordinates.

Sovers, O. J.↗

NASA NTRS1989

Impulsiveness and energetics in solar flares with and without type II radio bursts - A comparison of hard X-ray characteristics for over 2500 solar flares

The hard X-ray characteristics of more than 2500 solar flares are used to study the relative size, impulsiveness, and energetics of flares with and without type II radio bursts. A quantitative definition of the hard X-ray impulsiveness is introduced, which may be applied to a large number of events unambiguously. It is found that the flares with type II bursts are generally not significantly larger, more impulsive, or more energetic than those without type II bursts. Also, no evidence is found to suggest a simple classification of the flares as either 'impulsive' or 'gradual'. Because type II bursts are present even in small flares with relatively unimpulsive energy releases, it is concluded that changes in the ambient conditions of the solar atmosphere causing an unusually low Alfven speed may be important in the generation of the shock wave that produces type II radio bursts.

Pearson, Douglas H.↗

NASA NTRS1989

The role of refractive interstellar scintillation in the low frequency variability of extragalactic radio sources

A statistical analysis is presented of the 408 MHz flux density time series of 39 extragalactic radio sources, to study the role of refractive interstellar scintillation in the decimeter wavelength variability of compact extragalactic radio sources. It is found that the product of the scintillation index and the variability timescale is systematically larger for sources at lower galactic latitudes. This variation is obscured by much larger random variations. Possible explanations of these results are discussed.

Spangler, S.↗

NASA NTRS1989

Multicolor surface photometry of powerful radio galaxies. I - Observations and data reduction

The first of a series of papers which explore the optical morphology, photometric properties, and colors of powerful radio galaxies is presented. This paper reports the observations and data reduction process. The surface photometry techniques used in the analysis are described and the calibration of the results is given. The resulting images reveal that a significant fraction of powerful radio galaxies are morphologically distorted and that many of these galaxies have unusual colors. Results for individual objects are discussed.

Smith, Eric P.↗

NASA NTRS1989

Evolution of radio quasars for z of less than 2

A sample of 72 radio quasars is used to study the cosmic and individual evolution of quasars in the 1-2 redshift range. It is shown that the most luminous sources at all redshifts are unresolved, and that one-sided and two-sided structures correspond to progressively lower core (and total) luminosities. The sizes and fractional population of triple sources are found to fall steadily with increasing redshift to z of about 1.7. A correlation over many orders of magnitude is noted between the optical and maximum radio-core luminosity.

Neff, S. G.↗

NASA NTRS1988

Uranus radio emissions

An overview of the Voyager 2 Planetary Radio Astronomy instrument observations of the planet Uranus is presented. From these observations, a number of inferences have been made including the rotation period of the interior of the planet and the source locations of several of the radio components.

Kaiser, Michael L.↗

NASA NTRS1989

Multicolor surface photometry of powerful radio galaxies. II - Morphology and stellar content

Results on the morphology, photometric structure, and colors of 72 powerful radio galaxies (PRGs) are presented. It is found that galaxy interactions and mergers play an important role in the PRG phenomenon. Over 50 percent of the sample galaxies display optical morphological deviations from elliptical symmetry at high levels of surface brightness. About 20 percent of the galaxies have a second nucleus less than 10 kpc in projection from the main nucleus. The fraction of PRGs in a common envelope with neighboring galaxies is even larger. Surface brightness profiles for galaxies with weak or no emission lines are typically shallower in slope than normal radio-quiet elliptical galaxies, but similar to the brightest cluster galaxies. Surface brightness profiles for strong emission (SE) galaxies are more diverse in form. The SE PRGs have unusually blue average colors relative to giant elliptical galaxies. These colors are spatially extended and not merely due to light from a bright nucleus or extended emission-line gas.

Smith, Eric P.↗

NASA NTRS1989

Radio emission from young supernova remnants - Effects of an inhomogeneous circumstellar medium

The evolution of young supernova remnants has been modeled using a one-dimensional hydrodynamics code. Rayleigh-Taylor instabilities and the growth of Rayleigh-Taylor fingers have been included in the code. Turbulent dynamo amplification of magnetic fields and both turbulent and shock acceleration of relativistic electrons have been included macroscopically. From this, the distribution of synchrotron luminosity in the remnant has been calculated. It is found that the radio morphology of model remnants expanding into a homogeneous medium does not agree with observations. Expansion into a circumstellar medium with many small cloudlets does produce radio shells which agree with observations. It is suggested that supernova remnants reflect the interaction of ejected matter with a cloudy circumstellar medium.

Dickel, John R.↗

NASA NTRS1989

H I absorption measurements over the Galactic center Radio Arc region

The compact array of the VLA was used to study H I absorption in a 100-pc region in the center of the Galaxy. An absence of gas was observed at 40-50 km/s across the Radio Arc, suggesting that the '40 km/s molecular cloud' possibly associated with Sgr A is placed behind the Arc. At +20 km/s, the observations show absorption by material which could be depolarizing much of the synchrotron emission from the Arc filaments. The kinematic structure revealed by high-resolution molecular and radio recombination line observations is confirmed by the distribution of H I gas at -10 to -60 km/s.

Lasenby, J.↗

NASA NTRS1989

Radio structures of Seyfert galaxies. VII - Extension of a distance-limited sample

The VLA has been used at 6 and 20 cm to observe 27 Seyfert galaxies with recessional velocities less than 4600 km/s that had not been mapped previously. The sample shows weak trends for Seyfert 2 galaxies to have more luminous and larger radio sources than Seyfert 1 galaxies. A 20 cm radio luminosity function is constructed for each Seyfert type and shown to be fairly flat for powers betwen 10 to the 20th and 10 to the 23rd W/Hz. About 10 percent of the galaxies in the present sample may have flat-spectrum components contributing a substantial amount of their total flux density at centimeter wavelengths.

Ulvestad, James S.↗