Vertical distribution of disequilibrium species in Jupiter's troposphere

Sources of organic matter and inorganic tracers on Jupiter, including solar UV photolysis, lightning discharges, and convective quenching of hot gases from the lower atmosphere, are reviewed in light of Earth-based and Voyager data with the purpose of predicting the tropospheric steady-state abundances and vertical distributions of HCN, CH₂O, and other species.It is concluded that a steady-state mole fraction of HCN in the Jovian troposphere of only 10^-12 could be maintained by vertical transport of hot gases from the deep atmosphere. The observed HCN abundance (roughly X_HCN = 10^-9) appears to be due to photochemical reactions.After HCN, the most abundant organic disequilibrium species in the troposphere is probably C₂H₆, derived from direct photolysis of CH₄ at high altitudes, with a mole fracton of 10^-10 at the H₂O cloud level. Inorganic tracers of disequilibrium processes are also briefly summarized.     

Game-theoretic modeling and control of a military air operation

An attrition-type discrete-time dynamic model is formulated for two opposing forces, labeled Blue and Red, engaged in a military air operation. The Blue force consists of combat air units and its objective is to destroy a fixed target, such as an airport or a bridge, which Is being defended by the Red force. The Red force consists of ground troops and air defense units. We model the objective functions for each side and identify the associated constraints on the control and state variables. We employ a two-level hierarchy of command and control for each force. An example scenario illustrating the implementation of this approach using concepts from non-zero sum dynamic game theory is presented     

InAsP cells for solar thermophotovoltaic applications

High temperature wide band gap InAsP cells have been specifically designed and fabricated for operating temperatures up 250°C to match with selective emitters operating near 1 μm in a TPV system. An important assumption is that the emitters can be heated up to the range of 1400 K to 2000 K by either solar concentrators or some other heat source. The efficiency of a selective emitter, which can be selected depending on the emitter operating temperatures, will be significantly higher than either a blackbody or a graybody emitter. The key for the TPV success is that the match between the band gap and selective emission must occur at the cell operating temperature. An appropriate cell band gap needs to be carefully selected; so when the band gap shrinks at the operating temperature, the desired match can be achieved. In this paper, two types of InAsP cells were investigated for this concept. The performance of these cells at elevated temperature and energy conversion efficiency are reported in this paper     

Space power for an expanded vision

The author suggests that the problem with the space program in the 1990s is that there are few short term benefits that the public can directly relate to and no long term vision that will motivate them. Recent surveys have shown that public would support an expanded space program if they understood the specific short term purpose that provides benefits coupled to a longer term vision. The author discusses a proposed space program that has a 100 Year Vision and a specific beneficial near term purpose. The specific near term purpose is to return to the Moon and develop He for nuclear fusion power on Earth, and then expand into the Solar System and eventually to the nearby stars with the purpose of finding new life as a long term vision. This is how the author sees it unfolding-in three Epochs. Epoch I is proposed as the minimum near term space program. Space Station Freedom in near-Earth orbit being serviced by the Space Shuttle, the National Aerospace Plane and the Single-Stage-To-Orbit Vehicle. Just above Freedom is an Earth Observing System Satellite that, as part of Mission to Planet Earth, will monitor and analyze our planet's ecological systems. There are also a great many scientific, defense and launch systems whose technologies will evolve to play critical roles in future epochs     

Convergence properties of Gram-Schmidt and SMI adaptive algorithms.II

For pt.I see ibid., vol.26, no.1, p.44-56, Jan. 1990. Theorems and relationships associated with the convergence rate of the Gram-Schmidt (GS) and sampled matrix inversion (SMI) algorithms are presented. Two forms of the GS canceler are discussed: concurrent block processing and sliding window processing. It is shown (as has been stated by other researchers) that the concurrent block processed GS canceler converges rapidly to its optimal signal-to-noise ratio. However, it is also shown that the result is deceptive in that the output residue samples may be highly correlated, which would significantly degrade postdetection processing. It is demonstrated that a specific form of a sliding window GS canceler has the same convergence properties as the concurrent block processed GS canceler     

Time delay techniques for satellite interference location system

Describes the development of a system for inferring the position of uplink ground stations, using existing domestic satellites, with minimal disruption of normal operation. The system uses the differential time delay of a single uplink signal passing through two adjacent spacecraft to infer the relative position of the uplink transmitter. A system for the measurement of such differential time delays is described. Since this technique alone does not provide an unambiguous determination of uplink transmitter location, the use of an interferometer to resolve such ambiguities is discussed     

The measured radiation environment within Spacelabs 1 and 2 and comparison with predictions

To measure the radiation environment in the Spacelab (SL) module and on the pallet, a set of passive and active radiation detectors was flown as part of the Verification Flight Instrumentation (VFI). SL 1 carried 4 passive and 2 active detector packages which, with the data from the 26 passive detectors of Experiment INS006, provided a comprehensive survey of the radiation environment within the spacecraft. SL 2 carried 2 passive VFI units on the pallet. Thermoluminescent dosimeters (TLDs) measured the low linear energy transfer (LET) dose component; the HZE fluence and LET spectra were mapped with CR-39 track detectors; thermal and epithermal neutrons were measured with the use of fission foils; metal samples analyzed by gamma ray spectroscopy measured low levels of several activation lines. The TLDs registered from 97 to 143 mrad in the SL 1 module. Dose equivalents of 330±70 mrem in the SL 1 module and 537±37 mrem on the SL 2 pallet were measured. The active units in the SL 1 module each contained an integrating tissue-equivalent ion chamber and two differently-shielded xenon-filled proportional counters. The ion chambers accumulated 125 and 128 mrads for the mission with 17 and 12 mrads accumulated during passages through the South Atlantic Anomaly (SAA). The proportional counter rates (1 cps at sea level) were 100 cps in the middle of the SAA (mostly protons), 35 cps at large geomagnetic latitudes (cosmic rays) and 100 cps in the South Horn of the electron belts (mostly bremsstrahlung). Detailed results of the measurements and comparison with calculated values are described.     

Reduced-order H/sub /spl infin// and L/sub 2/-L/sub /spl infin// filtering via linear matrix inequalities

Necessary and sufficient conditions are derived for the existence of a solution to the continuous-time and discrete-time reduced-order H/sub /spl infin// and L/sub 2/-L/sub /spl infin// filtering problems. These conditions are expressed in terms of linear matrix inequalities (LMIs) and a coupling nonconvex matrix rank constraint. Convex LMI problems are obtained for the full-order and the zeroth-order filtering. An explicit parametrization of all reduced-order filters that correspond to a feasible solution is derived in terms of a contractive matrix, and iterative algorithms are proposed to solve the reduced-order filtering problems using alternating projections.     

The Mercury Dual Imaging System on the MESSENGER Spacecraft

The Mercury Dual Imaging System (MDIS) on the MESSENGER spacecraft will provide critical measurements tracing Mercury’s origin and evolution. MDIS consists of a monochrome narrow-angle camera (NAC) and a multispectral wide-angle camera (WAC). The NAC is a 1.5° field-of-view (FOV) off-axis reflector, coaligned with the WAC, a four-element refractor with a 10.5° FOV and 12-color filter wheel. The focal plane electronics of each camera are identical and use a 1,024×1,024 Atmel (Thomson) TH7888A charge-coupled device detector. Only one camera operates at a time, allowing them to share a common set of control electronics. The NAC and the WAC are mounted on a pivoting platform that provides a 90° field-of-regard, extending 40° sunward and 50° anti-sunward from the spacecraft +Z-axis—the boresight direction of most of MESSENGER’s instruments. Onboard data compression provides capabilities for pixel binning, remapping of 12-bit data into 8 bits, and lossless or lossy compression. MDIS will acquire four main data sets at Mercury during three flybys and the two-Mercury-solar-day nominal mission: a monochrome global image mosaic at near-zero emission angles and moderate incidence angles, a stereo-complement map at off-nadir geometry and near-identical lighting, multicolor images at low incidence angles, and targeted high-resolution images of key surface features. These data will be used to construct a global image base map, a digital terrain model, global maps of color properties, and mosaics of high-resolution image strips. Analysis of these data will provide information on Mercury’s impact history, tectonic processes, the composition and emplacement history of volcanic materials, and the thickness distribution and compositional variations of crustal materials. This paper summarizes MDIS’s science objectives and technical design, including the common payload design of the MDIS data processing units, as well as detailed results from ground and early flight calibrations and plans for Mercury image products to be generated from MDIS data.     

Energy deposition in the upper atmosphere in the EXCEDE III experiment

The EXCEDE III sounding rocket flight of April 27, 1990 used a 18 Ampere 2.5 keV electron beam to produce an artificial aurora in the region 90 to 115 km. A “daughter” sensor payload remotely monitored the low-energy X-ray spectrum while scanning photometers measured the spatial profile of prompt emissions of N₂⁺ (1N) and N₂ (2P) transitions (3914Å and 3805Å, respectively). Two Ebert-Fastie spectrometers measured the spectral region from 1800 to 8000Å. On the “mother” accelerator payload, the return current electron differential energy spectra were monitored by an electrostatic analyzer (up to 10 keV) and by a retarding potential analyzer (0 eV to 100 eV). We present an overview of the results from this experiment.