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Full-Text Articles in Physical Sciences and Mathematics

Investigation Of Radio Wave Propagation In The Martian Ionosphere Utilizing Hf Sounding Techniques, Robert J. Yowell Jun 1996

Investigation Of Radio Wave Propagation In The Martian Ionosphere Utilizing Hf Sounding Techniques, Robert J. Yowell

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis presents a preliminary design of an ionospheric sounder to be carried aboard one or more of NASA's Mars Surveyor landers. Past Russian and American probes have indicated the existence of an ionosphere, but none of these missions remotely sensed this atmospheric layer from the surface. The rationale for utilizing a surface-based Martian ionospheric sounder is discussed. Based on NASA's choice of launch vehicle and power source, a low-weight, low-powered Chirp sounder using a horizontally-polarized dipole antenna is recommended for the sounder experiment. The sounder experiment should be conducted for at least one Martian year, in order to investigate …


Application Of Autoregressive Moving Average Linear Prediction Filters To The Characterization Of Solar Wind-Magnetosphere Coupling, Carter N. Borst Jan 1996

Application Of Autoregressive Moving Average Linear Prediction Filters To The Characterization Of Solar Wind-Magnetosphere Coupling, Carter N. Borst

Theses and Dissertations

Linear prediction filtering techniques have been used in studying the coupling processes between the solar wind and magnetosphere. The magnetosphere is a complex, dynamic system with at least two independent coupling methods for energy input, driven and unloading. Linear models were built and tested on the Bargatze data set, consisting of over 70 days of geomagnetic indices and solar wind data ordered in 34 intervals of increasing geomagnetic activity. Linear filtering techniques employing single-and multiple-input, autoregressive models predicted values of the magnetic index AL from solar wind data. The impulse response curves of the AL-coupling function groups showed amplitude peaks …


The Role Of Frame Selection And Bispectrum Phase Reconstruction For Speckle Imaging Through Atmospheric Turbulence, Elizabeth A. Harpold Dec 1995

The Role Of Frame Selection And Bispectrum Phase Reconstruction For Speckle Imaging Through Atmospheric Turbulence, Elizabeth A. Harpold

Theses and Dissertations

Frame selection using quality sharpness metrics have been shown in previous AFIT theses, to be effective in improving the final product of images obtained using adaptive optics. This thesis extends this idea to noncompensated speckle image data. Speckle image reconstruction is simulated with and without frame selection. Speckle images require the processing of hundreds of data frames. Frame selection is a method of reducing the amount of data required to reconstruct the image. A collection of short exposure image data frames of a single object are sorted based on sharpness metrics. Only the highest quality frames are retained and processed …


A Comparison Of Methods For Estimating Rms Error: A `Brute Force" Approach Versus A Mathematically-Elegant Approach, As Applied To The Calculation Of A Specific Retrieval Error For A Limb-Scanning Microwave Radiometer-Spectrometer, Larry L. Johnson Dec 1995

A Comparison Of Methods For Estimating Rms Error: A `Brute Force" Approach Versus A Mathematically-Elegant Approach, As Applied To The Calculation Of A Specific Retrieval Error For A Limb-Scanning Microwave Radiometer-Spectrometer, Larry L. Johnson

Theses and Dissertations

The Millimeter-wave Atmospheric Sounder (MAS) is a high resolution limb- scanning microwave radiometer-spectrometer which has been flown aboard the Space Shuttle. The instrument was designed to sense the microwave emission from several upper atmospheric constituents, including water vapor and ozone. The resonant frequencies of water vapor and ozone are extremely close (183 and 184 GHz, respectively), so that the high-frequency wing of the water vapor spectrum overlaps the low frequency wing of the ozone spectrum. Consequently, the measured ozone spectrum incorporates a slight water vapor contribution; therefore, the retrieved ozone profile is dependent on the true water vapor profile. The …


Analysis And Interpretation Of Ion Data Associated With Neutral Gas Releases In The Earth's Ionosphere, Timothy M. Shadid Dec 1995

Analysis And Interpretation Of Ion Data Associated With Neutral Gas Releases In The Earth's Ionosphere, Timothy M. Shadid

Theses and Dissertations

Barium and strontium release experiments were conducted throughout 1991 from the Combined Release and Radiation Effects Satellite (CRRES) to study both natural and man-made disturbances in the earth's ionosphere. A mass spectrometer on the spacecraft counted the Ba and Sr ions as the cloud expanded. In this study, data from the G-1 (in sunlight) and G-11b (in darkness) releases were modeled to understand the source of the ion signals. The model reproduced the Ba+ sun data well assuming photoionization (τ = 28 s) was the primary ionization mechanism. However, it was not able to account for the remaining ion …


The Effect Of Meteorological Data Averaging Times On Plume Concentrations From Explosive Ordnance Disposal Open Burning Operations, Ida L. Widmann Dec 1995

The Effect Of Meteorological Data Averaging Times On Plume Concentrations From Explosive Ordnance Disposal Open Burning Operations, Ida L. Widmann

Theses and Dissertations

Explosive Ordnance Disposal (EOD) Open Burning (OB) operations are performed to treat and dispose of unserviceable munitions in the Department of Defense (DOD) inventory. Air pollution modeling of OB operations is an Environmental Protection Agency requirement for permit issuance at OB sites. Specific OB regulation is still in its infancy; therefore, establishment of OB modeling techniques is still in the early stages. This thesis effort sought to develop a computer model, based upon the Gaussian Puff Equation. The model varies from standard plume modeling practices by not making the assumption that the wind direction, wind speed and turbulence are uniform …


The Effects Of Vegetative Canopies On Atmospheric Dispersion, John R. Lindell Dec 1995

The Effects Of Vegetative Canopies On Atmospheric Dispersion, John R. Lindell

Theses and Dissertations

This research was conducted to improve our understanding of the effects of vegetative canopy-induced turbulence on the dispersion of air pollution. The computer model most often used to calculate atmospheric dispersion is the Gaussian plume model, which requires some method to compute the downwind dispersions coefficients. These coefficients are a parameterization of the atmospheric stability or the level of turbulence in the atmosphere. The Environmental Protection Agency's recommended parameterization scheme is the Pasquill-Gifford method. By comparing the Pasquill-Gifford method to the Modified Mitchell method using sigma theta, the standard deviation of the horizontal wind fluctuations, the relative precision of each …


Characterization Of Atmospheric Turbulence Over Long Horizontal Paths Using Optical Slope Measurements, Eric E. Silbaugh Dec 1995

Characterization Of Atmospheric Turbulence Over Long Horizontal Paths Using Optical Slope Measurements, Eric E. Silbaugh

Theses and Dissertations

Atmospheric turbulence has long been recognized as one of the fundamental factors affecting optical systems operating through the atmosphere. Turbulence over vertical paths has been well characterized, both theoretically and experimentally. Much less is known about turbulence over long, horizontal paths. Perturbations of the wave front phase can be measured using a Hartmann wave front sensor (H-WFS). Theoretical expressions for the tilt removed structure function of the H-WFS slope measurements were derived and evaluated using quadrature. These slope structure functions are functions of the phase structure function. The Kolmogorov turbulence model was assumed. Simulated H-WFS slope measurements were generated using …


Laser Beam Propagation In Non-Kolmogorov Atmospheric Turbulence, Bruce E. Stribling Dec 1994

Laser Beam Propagation In Non-Kolmogorov Atmospheric Turbulence, Bruce E. Stribling

Theses and Dissertations

Several observations of atmospheric turbulence statistics have been reported which do not obey Kolmogorov's power spectral density model. These observations have prompted the study of optical propagation through turbulence described by non-classical power spectra. This thesis presents an analysis of optical propagation through turbulence which causes index of refraction fluctuations to have spatial power spectra that obey arbitrary power laws. The spherical and plane wave structure functions are derived using Mellin transform techniques and are applied to the field mutual coherence function (MCF) using the extended Huygens-Fresnel principle. The MCF is used to compute the Strehl ratio of a focused, …


Air Pollution Transport Modeling, David M. Paal Dec 1993

Air Pollution Transport Modeling, David M. Paal

Theses and Dissertations

This research effort addresses modeling of the transportation of air pollution in the atmosphere and the numerical analysis of the partial differential equations used in such modeling. Three Gaussian models are examined and compared using example problems. Several finite difference schemes are developed to solve the partial differential equations used in air pollution transport modeling. This study examines three Gaussian models SCREEN, AFTOX, and the program GAUSPLUM. The model GAUSPLUM is developed in this study and uses the Ada programming language and the analytic solution to the advection- diffusion equation. Numerical analysis of the partial differential equations PDE used in …


Shock Wave Interaction With L-Shaped Structures, Richard C. Miller Dec 1993

Shock Wave Interaction With L-Shaped Structures, Richard C. Miller

Theses and Dissertations

This study investigated the interaction of shock waves with L-shaped structures using the CTH hydrodynamics code developed by Sandia National Laboratories. Computer models of shock waves traveling through air were developed using techniques similar to shock tube experiments. Models of L-shaped buildings were used to determine overpressures achieved by the reflecting shock versus angle of incidence of the shock front. An L-shaped building model rotated 45 degrees to the planar shock front produced the highest reflected overpressure of 9.73 atmospheres in the corner joining the two wings, a value 9.5 times the incident overpressure of 1.02 atmospheres. The same L-shaped …


Performance Impacts For Actuator Misalignments And Failures In Large- Aperture Adaptive-Optic Telescopes, Timothy D. Hogan Dec 1993

Performance Impacts For Actuator Misalignments And Failures In Large- Aperture Adaptive-Optic Telescopes, Timothy D. Hogan

Theses and Dissertations

Large-aperture telescopes require adaptive optics in order to compensate for atmospheric turbulence which would otherwise negate the resolution advantages of using large apertures. This investigation analyzes the impacts of misalignments and failures, in the deformable mirror actuators, upon the performance of such systems. A numerical simulation of a standard adaptive optics system is used to generate characteristic optical transfer function OTF and signal-to-noise ratio SNR performance metrics. The performance impacts of the misalignments are shown to be dependent upon the Fried parameter effective telescope diameter, the source object brightness, and the control system time delay. The degree of performance degradation …


Characterization Of Laboratory Generated Turbulence By Optical Phase Measurements, Eric P. Magee Mar 1993

Characterization Of Laboratory Generated Turbulence By Optical Phase Measurements, Eric P. Magee

Theses and Dissertations

The resolution achieved by an optical imaging system in the presence of the random effects of the atmosphere is severely degraded from the theoretical diffraction limit. Techniques exist for recovering near diffraction limited performance of an imaging system in the presence of atmospheric turbulence. As opposed to laboratory testing, testing image enhancement techniques in the Earth's atmosphere imposes many limitations. Unfavorable weather conditions could result in the loss of time and money invested in conducting the experiments. With a properly characterized turbulence generator, with statistics that match those of the atmosphere, experimental testing of image enhancement techniques can be conducted …