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At least 1,783 records · Page 99

The theory of sunspots

This review covers the present state of our theoretical understanding of the physics of sunspots, along with the principal observational results that need to be explained. The topics covered range from the detailed structure of an individual sunspot to the broad connection between sunspots and the global solar magnetic field and the solar cycle. Our aim is to give a critical discussion of the theoretical ideas and models without presenting mathematical details. After outlining the historical development of the basic concepts associated with the magnetohydrodynamic theory of sunspots, we discuss recent treatments of their properties and structure, placing special emphasis on developments that have occurred within the last ten years. There have been remarkable improvements in the theoretical modelling of sunspots, led by new ideas and by more elaborate and realistic numerical simulations. At the same time, new observations have raised new theoretical questions or caused old ones to be reconsidered. In particular, measurements of oscillations in and around sunspots have opened up the new field of sunspot seismology, while recent high-resolution observations have forced us to rethink the structure of a sunspot penumbra.

Thomas, John H.↗

Mineralogic and Petrologic Studies of Meteorites

This report lists publications related to work done under NASA grant. Topics as indicated by title include: condensation in fractionated nebular systems, nebular processes in different constituents of the CH chondrite NWA 470, growth mechanism and additional constraints on FeNi metal condensation in the solar nebula, the ZONMET thermodynamic and kinetic model of metal condensation, the first occurrence of CaAl2O4 in a CAI (calcium aluminum inclusion) from the new CH chondrite NWA 470.

Wood, John↗

Water Vapor Measurement and Compensation in the Near and Mid-infrared with the Keck Interferometer Nuller

A viewgraph presentation describing the methods, motivation and methods for water vapor measurement with the Keck interferometer near and mid infrared radiation band is shown. The topics include: 1) Motivation: Why measure H2O?; 2) Method: How do we measure H2O?; 3) Data: Phase and Group Delays for the K and N Bands; 4) Predicted and Actual Nband Phase and Dispersion; and 5) Validation of Atmospheric Turbulence Models with KI Data.

exozodiacal dust↗

CERES Single Scanner Satellite Footprint, TOA, Surface Fluxes and Clouds (SSF) data in HDF (CER_SSF_TRMM-PFM-VIRS_Edition1)

The Single Scanner Footprint TOA/Surface Fluxes and Clouds (SSF) product contains one hour of instantaneous Clouds and the Earth's Radiant Energy System (CERES) data for a single scanner instrument. The SSF combines instantaneous CERES data with scene information from a higher-resolution imager such as Visible/Infrared Scanner (VIRS) on TRMM or Moderate-Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on Terra and Aqua. Scene identification and cloud properties are defined at the higher imager resolution and these data are averaged over the larger CERES footprint. For each CERES footprint, the SSF contains the number of cloud layers and for each layer the cloud amount, height, temperature, pressure, optical depth, emissivity, ice and liquid water path, and water particle size. The SSF also contains the CERES filtered radiances for the total, shortwave (SW), and window (WN) channels and the unfiltered SW, longwave (LW), and WN radiances. The SW, LW, and WN radiances at spacecraft altitude are converted to Top-of-the-Atmosphere (TOA) fluxes based on the imager defined scene. These TOA fluxes are used to estimate surface fluxes. Only footprints with adequate imager coverage are included on CER_SSF_TRMM-PFM-VIRS_Subset_Edition1the SSF which is much less than the full set of footprints on the CERES ES-8 product. The following CERES SSF data sets are currently available: CER_SSF_TRMM-PFM-VIRS_Edition1 CER_SSF_TRMM-PFM-VIRS_Subset_Edition1 CER_SSF_TRMM-PFM-VIRS_Edition2A CER_SSF_TRMM-SIM-VIRS_Edition2_VIRSonly CER_SSF_TRMM-PFM-VIRS_Edition2A-TransOps CER_SSF_TRMM-PFM-VIRS_Edition2B-TransOps CER_SSF_TRMM-PFM-VIRS_Edition2B CER_SSF_Terra-FM1-MODIS_Edition1A CER_SSF_Terra-FM1-MODIS_Edition1A CER_SSF_Terra-FM1-MODIS_Edition2A CER_SSF_Terra-FM2-MODIS_Edition2A CER_SSF_Terra-FM1-MODIS_Edition2B CER_SSF_Terra-FM2-MODIS_Edition2B CER_SSF_Aqua-FM4-MODIS_Beta1 CER_SSF_Aqua-FM3-MODIS_Beta2 CER_SSF_Aqua-FM4-MODIS_Beta2. [Location=GLOBAL] [Temporal_Coverage: Start_Date=1998-01-01; Stop_Date=2000-03-31] [Spatial_Coverage: Southernmost_Latitude=-90; Northernmost_Latitude=90; Westernmost_Longitude=-180; Easternmost_Longitude=180] [Data_Resolution: Temporal_Resolution=1 hour; Temporal_Resolution_Range=Hourly - < Daily].

SHORTWAVE FLUX↗

CERES Single Satellite Footprint, TOA and Surface Fluxes, Clouds (SSF) data in HDF (CER_SSF_Aqua-FM3-MODIS_Edition2A)

The Single Scanner Footprint TOA/Surface Fluxes and Clouds (SSF) product contains one hour of instantaneous Clouds and the Earth's Radiant Energy System (CERES) data for a single scanner instrument. The SSF combines instantaneous CERES data with scene information from a higher-resolution imager such as Visible/Infrared Scanner (VIRS) on TRMM or Moderate-Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on Terra and Aqua. Scene identification and cloud properties are defined at the higher imager resolution and these data are averaged over the larger CERES footprint. For each CERES footprint, the SSF contains the number of cloud layers and for each layer the cloud amount, height, temperature, pressure, optical depth, emissivity, ice and liquid water path, and water particle size. The SSF also contains the CERES filtered radiances for the total, shortwave (SW), and window (WN) channels and the unfiltered SW, longwave (LW), and WN radiances. The SW, LW, and WN radiances at spacecraft altitude are converted to Top-of-the-Atmosphere (TOA) fluxes based on the imager defined scene. These TOA fluxes are used to estimate surface fluxes. Only footprints with adequate imager coverage are included on CER_SSF_TRMM-PFM-VIRS_Subset_Edition1the SSF which is much less than the full set of footprints on the CERES ES-8 product. The following CERES SSF data sets are currently available: CER_SSF_TRMM-PFM-VIRS_Edition1 CER_SSF_TRMM-PFM-VIRS_Subset_Edition1 CER_SSF_TRMM-PFM-VIRS_Edition2A CER_SSF_TRMM-SIM-VIRS_Edition2_VIRSonly CER_SSF_TRMM-PFM-VIRS_Edition2A-TransOps CER_SSF_TRMM-PFM-VIRS_Edition2B-TransOps CER_SSF_TRMM-PFM-VIRS_Edition2B CER_SSF_Terra-FM1-MODIS_Edition1A CER_SSF_Terra-FM1-MODIS_Edition1A CER_SSF_Terra-FM1-MODIS_Edition2A CER_SSF_Terra-FM2-MODIS_Edition2A CER_SSF_Terra-FM1-MODIS_Edition2B CER_SSF_Terra-FM2-MODIS_Edition2B CER_SSF_Aqua-FM4-MODIS_Beta1 CER_SSF_Aqua-FM3-MODIS_Beta2 CER_SSF_Aqua-FM4-MODIS_Beta2. [Location=GLOBAL] [Temporal_Coverage: Start_Date=1998-01-01; Stop_Date=2006-01-01] [Spatial_Coverage: Southernmost_Latitude=-90; Northernmost_Latitude=90; Westernmost_Longitude=-180; Easternmost_Longitude=180] [Data_Resolution: Temporal_Resolution=1 hour; Temporal_Resolution_Range=Hourly - < Daily].

CLOUD INFRARED EMISSIVITY↗

Calculation of State Specific Rate Coefficients for Non-Equilibrium Hypersonics Applications: from H(Psi) = E(Psi) to k(T) = A *exp(-E(sub a)/RT)

Development of High-Fidelity Physics-Based Models to describe hypersonic flight through the atmospheres of Earth and Mars is underway at NASA Ames Research Center. The goal is to construct chemistry models of the collisional and radiative processes that occur in the bow shock and boundary layers of spacecraft during atmospheric entry that are free of empiricism. In this talk I will discuss our philosophy and describe some of our progress. Topics to be covered include thermochemistry, internal energy relaxation, collisional dissociation and radiative emission and absorption. For this work we start by solving the Schrodinger equation to obtain accurate interaction potentials and radiative properties. Then we invoke classical mechanics to compute state-specific heavy particle collision cross sections and reaction rate coefficients. Finally, phenomenological rate coefficients and relaxation times are determined from master equation solutions.

aerothermodynamics↗

Review of MLI Behavior at Low Temperatures and Application to L'Ralph Thermal Modeling

In this presentation, the theory and application of multi-layer insulation (MLI) behavior, with a specific focus on lower temperature applications (<180K), is discussed. Many parameters can affect the performance of MLI (i.e. construction method, size, materials, grounding, penetrations, etc.) and these factors can make the prediction of MLI performance a challenge. Often, MLI performance is measured in terms of estar, and analysts commonly apply bias between a high and a low estar value. However, this approach can be dangerous when a mission goes through a wide range of temperatures during its lifetime (such as our mission, L'Ralph) due to temperature dependence of estar, with estar values increasing exponential as temperatures get colder. Many research papers and correlations have been published about MLI behavior, showing how estar values can rapidly rise at low temperatures. These correlations also show how the different parameters of MLI can affect and amplify this growth. Various correlations are presented as well as how L'Ralph is approaching the MLI problem. L'Ralph thermal model is built with Thermal Desktop (TD), and a discussion of how to apply the temperature dependent MLI behavior within TD is included. The presentation also includes reviews of different methods of mitigating heat leaks through MLI, touching briefly on topics such as integrated-MLI (IMLI), Dacron vs silk netting, and using multi-layered meshes to improve estar performance.

MLI↗

Importance of Contrast-to-Noise Ratio Sensitivity Function in Nondestructive Evaluation

A reliable nondestructive evaluation (NDE) technique provides minimum 90% probability of detection (POD) with 95% confidence for detection of cracklike flaws of a specific size. This requirement comes from fracture control. Fracture control is a risk assessment and control approach for preventing structural failure of fracture critical hardware during its service life. One of the approaches of fracture control is damage tolerance safe life analysis, which assumes that NDE reliably detectable size flaw may exist in the hardware post nondestructive evaluation. Analysis and/or testing are performed to verify that the hardware will not fail during its service life despite existence of such a flaw. NDE methods are conventionally qualified by probability of detection (POD) demonstration testing to ensure reliable flaw detection. Here, a novel and alternative to POD flaw detection reliability approach that uses contrast-to-noise ratio (CNR) is given. The approach uses CNR sensitivity function (SF) and CNR. CNR SF is the minimum CNR needed for reliable flaw detection as a function of certain flaw indication characteristics. Primary difference between POD approaches and CNR flaw detection reliability approach is resolution of flaw detection system. POD approach does not account for the resolution of the system, while CNR approach accounts for the flaw detection resolution. Resolution is determined from the modulation transfer function (MTF) of the flaw detection system. CNR flaw detection reliability approach emphasizes quantitative assessment of “how well each flaw indication is detected”. Therefore, CNR approach is helpful in reducing number of flaws in the sample used in NDE procedure qualification, resulting in cost and time savings. CNR approach is also a case of multi-hit flaw detection analysis which has better flaw detectability size than conventional single-hit flaw detectability. Thus, CNR approach, where applicable, may be superior to conventional POD approach. The paper is an overview of development of CNR modeling, CNR SF modeling and measurement by the author. The paper gives key references to currently used NDE procedure POD qualification approaches including those specific to CNR and CNR SF development in multi-hit flaw detection in NDE. The paper covers core topics in nondestructive evaluation engineering.

Contrast-to-noise ratio↗

Report of the Snowmass 2021 Topical Group on Lattice Gauge Theory

Lattice gauge theory continues to be a powerful theoretical and computational approach to simulating strongly interacting quantum field theories, whose applications permeate almost all disciplines of modern-day research in High-Energy Physics. Whether it is to enable precision quark- and lepton-flavor physics, to uncover signals of new physics in nucleons and nuclei, to elucidate hadron structure and spectrum, to serve as a numerical laboratory to reach beyond the Standard Model, or to invent and improve state-of-the-art computational paradigms, the lattice-gauge-theory program is in a prime position to impact the course of developments and enhance discovery potential of a vibrant experimental program in High-Energy Physics over the coming decade. This projection is based on abundant successful results that have emerged using lattice gauge theory over the years: on continued improvement in theoretical frameworks and algorithmic suits; on the forthcoming transition into the exascale era of high-performance computing; and on a skillful, dedicated, and organized community of lattice gauge theorists in the U.S. and worldwide. The prospects of this effort in pushing the frontiers of research in High-Energy Physics have recently been studied within the U.S. decadal Particle Physics Planning Exercise (Snowmass 2021), and the conclusions are summarized in this Topical Report.

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗

A First–Principles–Based Sub–Lattice Formalism for Predicting Off–Stoichiometry in Materials for Solar Thermochemical Applications: The Example of Ceria

Theoretical models that reliably can predict off-stoichiometry in materials via accurate descriptions of underlying thermodynamics are crucial for energy applications. For example, transition-metal and rare-earth oxides that can tolerate a large number of oxygen vacancies, such as CeO 2 and doped CeO 2 , can split water and carbon dioxide via a two-step, oxide-based solar thermochemical (STC) cycle. The search for new STC materials with a performance superior to that of state-of-the-art CeO 2 can benefit from predictions accurately describing the thermodynamics of oxygen vacancies. The sub-lattice formalism, a common tool used to fit experimental data and build temperature-composition phase diagrams, can be useful in this context. Here, sub-lattice models are derived solely from zero-temperature quantum mechanics calculations to estimate fairly accurate temperature- and oxygen-partial-pressure-dependent off-stoichiometries in CeO 2 and Zr-doped CeO 2 . Physical motivations for deriving some of the “excess” sub-lattice model parameters directly from quantum mechanical calculations, instead of fitting to minimize deviations from experimental and/or theoretical data, are identified. As a result, important limitations and approximations of the approach used are specified and extensions to multi-cation oxides are also suggested to help identify novel candidates for water and carbon dioxide splitting and related applications.

08 HYDROGEN↗

CERES Monthly TOA and SRB Averages (SRBAVG) data in HDF-EOS Grid (CER_SRBAVG_TRMM-PFM-VIRS_Edition2B)

The Monthly TOA/Surface Averages (SRBAVG) product contains a month of space and time averaged Clouds and the Earth's Radiant Energy System (CERES) data for a single scanner instrument. The SRBAVG is also produced for combinations of scanner instruments. The monthly average regional flux is estimated using diurnal models and the 1-degree regional fluxes at the hour of observation from the CERES SFC product. A second set of monthly average fluxes are estimated using concurrent diurnal information from geostationary satellites. These fluxes are given for both clear-sky and total-sky scenes and are spatially averaged from 1-degree regions to 1-degree zonal averages and a global average. For each region, the SRBAVG also contains hourly average fluxes for the month and an overall monthly average. The cloud properties from SFC are column averaged and are included on the SRBAVG. [Location=GLOBAL] [Temporal_Coverage: Start_Date=1998-02-01; Stop_Date=2000-03-31] [Spatial_Coverage: Southernmost_Latitude=-90; Northernmost_Latitude=90; Westernmost_Longitude=-180; Easternmost_Longitude=180] [Data_Resolution: Latitude_Resolution=1 degree; Longitude_Resolution=1 degree; Horizontal_Resolution_Range=100 km - < 250 km or approximately 1 degree - < 2.5 degrees; Temporal_Resolution=1 month; Temporal_Resolution_Range=Monthly - < Annual].

CLEAR-SKY ALBEDO↗

Bayesian differential programming for robust systems identification under uncertainty

This paper presents a machine learning framework for Bayesian systems identification from noisy, sparse and irregular observations of nonlinear dynamical systems. The proposed method takes advantage of recent developments in differentiable programming to propagate gradient information through ordinary differential equation solvers and perform Bayesian inference with respect to unknown model parameters using Hamiltonian Monte Carlo sampling. This allows an efficient inference of the posterior distributions over plausible models with quantified uncertainty, while the use of sparsity-promoting priors enables the discovery of interpretable and parsimonious representations for the underlying latent dynamics. A series of numerical studies is presented to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed methods, including nonlinear oscillators, predator–prey systems and examples from systems biology. Taken together, our findings put forth a flexible and robust workflow for data-driven model discovery under uncertainty. All codes and data accompanying this article are available at https://bit.ly/34FOJMj .

Science & Technology - Other Topics↗

Middle and upper atmosphere results; Proceedings of the Topical Meeting of the Interdisciplinary Scientific Commission C (Meetings C2 and C3) of the COSPAR 28th Plenary Meeting, The Hague, Netherlands, June 25-July 6, 1990

Papers are first presented on atmospheric trace species, with particular attention given to stratospheric trace species and possible improvements to reference atmospheres. The equatorial thermosphere and aeronomy are considered with reference to models and San Marco satellite/ground-based observations. Papers on the coupling of dynamic, radiative, and chemical processes in the middle atmosphere are also presented.

Keating, G. M.↗

QuGAN: A Quantum State Fidelity based Generative Adversarial Network

In the recent years, Generative Adversarial Networks (GANs) have been arguably one of the largest strides forward in Deep Learning. Many papers illustrate the use of GANs to accomplish extremely impressive goals, such as text-to-image or image augmentation. Specifically, GANs have seen this success in the computer vision domain. However, GANs are not without their own set of problems. GANs are computationally expensive, sometimes computationally prohibitive, and can suffer a multitude of convergence problems. As research on classical GANs continues to push the topic further, a branch of GANs, namely Quantum GANs, has seen research interest in the past years. In this work, we intend to push this research further with an illustration of a Quantum GAN architecture that provide stable convergence of the model and is extended onto real data sets. Furthermore, unlike many other Quantum GANs out there, our model's GAN architecture runs the discriminator and the generator primarily on Quantum hardware through the use of a Quantum-based similarity metric. When compared to the very few other Quantum GAN papers, our architecture leads to significantly better results in almost all aspects.

Stein, Samuel A.↗

New Developments and Capabilities Within WEC-Sim

WEC-Sim is an open-source software for simulating wave energy converters and has been actively developed and applied since its initial release in 2014 to simulate a wide variety of device archetypes. WEC-Sim is developed jointly by the National Renewable Energy Laboratory and Sandia National Laboratories within the MATLAB/SIMULINK environment. A general wave-to-wire model begins with a deployment site resource characterization, which is used to complete the hydrodynamic simulation of wave energy converters (WEC), with the power generation profile imported to a grid simulator to understand the influence on the local electrical network. While modeling the entire wave-to-wire is difficult and encompasses multiple time scales and physics, WEC-Sim is focused on the hydrodynamics simulation to predict, analyze, and optimize WEC dynamics and power performance. WEC-Sim simulations are performed in the time domain based on the radiation and diffraction method using hydrodynamics coefficients derived from boundary element method (BEM)-based frequency-domain potential flow solvers (e.g., WAMIT, NEMOH, Capytaine, or ANSYS-AQWA). With this level of modeling fidelity, WEC-Sim can handle floating body hydrodynamics, mechanical and electrical power generation methods, advanced control implementation, mooring systems, and other unique applications such as desalination. Additional WEC-Sim functionalities include pre-built Simulink blocks and MATLAB scripts that can simulate a wide range of floating systems and the corresponding auxiliary subsystems. The developers of WEC-Sim continue to release new versions of the software, at least annually, with the latest release in September 2022. These releases include bug fixes, updates to software documentation, as well as new features to expand WEC-Sim's capabilities to model a wide range of WEC concepts. This publication will highlight the new features added to WEC-Sim between versions 4.1.0 to 5.0.1, which spans a 2-year period from June 2020 to September 2022. New features described here include topics such as continuous integration checks, revised Morison Element and nonlinear hydro implementations, run directly from Simulink (required for hardware-in-the-loop execution), BEMIO updates to import Capytaine BEM hydrodynamics, addition of cable blocks, and new wave visualization features.

TIDAL AND WAVE POWER↗