NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS) 19960003990: R and T report: Goddard Space Flight Center

245 Pages·498.2 MB·English

by  NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

NASA-TM-111131
ORIGINAL . ,<iAINS
COLOR ILLUSTRATIONS
3o
This dramatic photo taken from the Space Shuttle Endeavour during the First Hubble Servicing Mission shows
the importance of a human presence in space to support Space Sciences missions such as the Hubble Space
Telescope. The view of Earth in the background shows the northwestern coast of Australia from the Exmouth
Gulf extending up the coastline along the Eighty Mile Beach. The Hamersly Range is the mountain chain on
the extreme left of the continent.
RESEARCH AND TECHNOLOGY
R&T REPORT
Goddard Space Flight Center
FOREWORD
This has been a year of remarkable accomplishments for the Goddard Space Flight Center. The success of the
First Servicing Mission of Hubble will give us an opportunity to explore the sky with considerably greater resolu-
tion than during the first phase of Bubble's existence, which has already gained worldwide attention. The results of the
Cosmic Background Explorer continue to fascinate the astrophysical community; the data have stimulated many tech-
nical papers, national and international conferences, and inspired contemporary cosmologists to generate new ideas
about the origin of our universe. Instruments on the Upper Atmosphere Research Satellite and Meteor (Total Ozone
Mapping Spectrometer) have provided important data that have greatly improved our ability to model the chemistry of
the Earth's upper atmosphere.
Global socioeconomic changes are reflected in our own national concerns. Redirection of the aerospace industry into
new endeavors, the need to modify our educational goals and methods, and the examination of the scale and focus of
Federal research is gaining popular attention. In such times of change it is essential that we build on our ability to
produce discoveries and developments that help provide direction for our future. While "reinventing government" is a
popular phrase that accompanies change, this Center continues on a steady course to follow our vision of exploring the
Earth and the Universe.
As exemplified in this year's Report, we continue to develop increasingly more powerful sensors to address the full
range of the electromagnetic spectrum. Our optics and cryogenic developments are helping to define state-of-the-art
technologies. The use of lasers and lidar in space is coming of age and we are awaiting the results of their widespread
use. Data systems, information processing, modeling, and testing the models represent the next cutting edge of science;
we intend to maintain our strengths in these important fields. Goddard is developing as a focal point for our entire
knowledge base of global change: hydrological, meteorological, geological, and biological.
We are examining new methods of testing new materials, and new ways of handling spacecraft telemetry. System and
software engineering have become major players in our planning for the future. Our attention to flight assurance
continues to keep us alert for "hidden" dangers. Balloons and sounding rockets again prove to be very useful during this
period of capitalizing on small, focused experiments. Our key contribution to the U.S. Global Change Research Pro-
gram, Mission To Planet Earth, looms large on the horizon.
Our unique relation to a sister agency, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), in developing
their observational spacecraft, is an important responsibility that matches our own capability and our interest in the
Earth as a planet. Next year's Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite (GOES) mission will introduce a new
line of geostationary spacecraft that will deliver new data to support the need to predict weather and climate changes.
In addition, the NOAA-J spacecraft, another Total Ozone Mapping Spectrometer (TOMS) mission, and both the Wind
and Polar spacecraft in support of the Global Geospace Science (GGS) mission will be launched.
The vigor and vitality of our technical staff are illustrated by the innovation and new ideas fostered in interdisciplinary
fields represented by many of the articles in this report. Science and engineering are the primary strengths of the
nation's economy, and I am proud that GSFC continues to retain its place in the front line of so many technical areas.
John M. Klineberg
Director, Goddard Space Flight Center
PREFACE
This year s edition of the GSFC Research and Technology Report is dedicated to the hun-
dreds of people who have contributed to the success of the Hubble Space Telescope First
Servicing Mission and to the magnificent window on the universe that they have provided.
Change is the order of the day. One encounters change on every front: global change in terms of the climate; economic
change in world markets; political change as exemplified by the collapse of the Soviet Union; change of the millennium
a few years away; change in educational methods and school curricula; change in lifestyle; and change in free markets.
Should we look at a useful change in the annual Research and Technology Report? We thought so.
This year, we have introduced a format change, hopefully without affecting the book's quality. We are trying a "story
board" format. Each article starts on a new page, and wherever possible, we have asked for a single page or a two-page
spread to convey the basic idea and the supporting data. The authors are still the people doing the work. We have
requested that they try to write to fixed space; in almost all cases, this worked very well. I want to thank these authors
for their thoughtful cooperation. We think this format will make the Report easier to read. Certainly the document will
be easier to peruse.
One other item of interest we would like to call to your attention is a change in accessibility. The text of this 1993
Research and Technology Report is now being used to describe Goddard research activities in FEDIX,* the on-line
database of Federal Government information for colleges, universities, and other interested parties. It, along with a
wealth of other information on Federal research and education opportunities, can be accessed via modem at 800-232-
4879, or over the Internet at fedix.fie.com.
Gerald A. Soffen
Executive Editor
*FEDIX provides free access to its holdings. Follow the prompts to establish access to the system. To get to the GSFC material, at
the first FEDIX menu, choose item (1) Comprehensive Agency Information. At the succeeding menus, choose item (3) NASA, item
(5) Space Centers, then item (2) GSFC, respectively. The GSFC menu will present menu items that correspond to the major sections
of the R&T Report.
CONTENTS
FLIGHT PROJECTS
A Space Investment Strategy Put to the Test
Greg Davidson 3
Technology Benefits Arising from Hubble Space Telescope's First Servicing Mission
Sanford Hinkal 5
HST Benefits: Advances in Detector Technology
Carolyn Krebs 7
Hubble Space Telescope's Wide-Field/Planetary Camera: Problems and Solutions
Dave Scheve 9
The Development of the Corrective Optics Space Telescope Axial Replacement
Paul Geithner 12
HST Real-Time Ground System for the HST First Servicing Mission
Edward Ruitberg and Charles Scaffidi 14
The Challenge of GOES Performance Verification
Arthur Obenschain 15
Gravity and Magnetic Earth Surveyor
John Oberright 18
Development of S-band and Ku-band GaAs Field Effect Transistor Solid-State Power Amplifiers
for TORS
Marco Toral and Harry Shaw 21
SPACE SCIENCES
Cosmology
Ripples in Space, the Origin of Structures in the Universe
Edward Cheng 28
The Cosmic Background Explorer: Measuring the Big Bang
John Mather 31
A Comparison of the Cosmic Microwave and Cosmic X-ray Backgrounds: Constraints on
Local Sources of the Fluctuations Observed by COBE
Keith Jahoda .. ..34
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PRECEDING PAGE BUVNK NOT FILMED
CONTENTS
High-Energy
The X-ray Sky as Revealed by ROSAT
Robert Petre 36
Diffuse Gamma-Ray Emission in the Galaxy
David Bertsch 39
Gamma-Ray Pulsars: Efficiency Increases with Age
David Thompson 41
The Energetic Gamma-Ray Experiment Telescope Observes the Highest Energy Emission from
Gamma-Ray Bursts
Carl Fichtel and Brenda Dingus 42
Towards Resolving the Gamma-Ray Burst Mystery
Jay Norris and Thomas Cline 43
Advanced Satellite for Cosmology and Astrophysics Successfully Launched and Returning Results
Nicholas White ... ...45
Stars and Galaxies
High Resolution UV Spectroscopy of the Flare Star AU Mic
Stephen Maran and Bruce Woodgate 47
New Data Processing Software Leads to the Discovery of High-Excitation Line Emission in the
Gravitational Lens Q0957+561
Andrew Michalitsianos 49
( (informal Gravity and Galactic Rotation Curves
Demosthenes Kazanas 51
Gravitational A'-Body Simulations on a Massively Parallel, Single-Instruction/Multiple-Dataset
Computer
John Dorband and Kevin Olson ... ... 52
Solar System
Ulysses at Jupiter: Radio and Plasma-Wave Observations
Robert MacDowall and Robert Stone .. ... 55
VIII
CONTENTS
Light Ion Escape: Implications for Evolution of Water on Venus
Richard Hartle 57
The Wind from the Sun: The SPARTAN 201 Mission
Richard Fisher 59
The Solar, Anomalous, and Magnetospheric Particle Explorer Mission
Daniel Baker 61
Hybrid Simulations of Collisionless Magnetic Reconnection and Electron Pressure Anisotropy
Michael Hesse 63
Formation Mechanisms and Intensities of the Solar He 304 A Line
Stuart Jordan, Werner Neupert, Joseph Davila, and Roger Thomas 65
EARTH SCIENCES
Process Modeling
Seasonal Transition of Global Circulation Simulated by the Goddard Earth Observing System
General Circulation Model
Richard Rood, Chung-Kyu Park, Andrea Molod, Lawrence Takacs, and Jae-Kyung Schemm 72
The Relative Influence of Land and Ocean Processes on Precipitation Variability
Randal Koster and Max Suarez 74
Finding the "Best" Global Precipitation Estimate
Robert Adler and George Huffman 76
Possible Solar Influences on Climatic Change
Kenneth Schatten and Douglas Hoyt 79
Hydrology/Cryology
Coolness in the Tropical Pacific During an El Nino Episode
Ming-Dah Chou 81
Mapping of the Greenland Ice Sheet: A Contribution to Global Climate Monitoring
Robert Bindschadler 83
The Contribution of Alaskan, Siberian, and Canadian Coastal Polynyas to the Cold Halocline
Layer of the Arctic Ocean
Donald Cavalieri 85
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CONTENTS
Are Gulf Stream Warm Core Rings Dipoles?
Stanford Hooker 87
Atmospheres
Development of Modified Total Ozone Mapping Spectrometer < >, Algorithms for Marine
Stratocumulus Regions
Anne Thompson and Richard McPeters 90
Optically Thin Cirrus Clouds: Radiative Impact on the Warmpool
Cuddapah Prabhakara 92
Modeling the Middle and Upper Atmosphere
Hans Mayr and Kwing Chan 93
Simulation of the Great Plains Low-Level Jet and the Associated Moisture Transport Over the U.S.
H. Mark Helfand and Siegfried Schubert %
Modeling Turbulent Dispersion of Pollutants
Vittorio Canuto and Y. Cheng 98
Differential Absorption Lidar Measurements of Tropospheric Water Vapor Using
Aluminum-Gallium-Arsenide Lasers Modulated With Pseudorandom Codes
Jonathan Rail and James Abshire ... 100
Biosphere
Evaluating the Effects of UV-B and UV-A Irradiances on Plant Pigments, Photosynthesis, and
Growth in Glycine max L
Elizabeth Middleton 102
Radar Signal Saturation and Forest Biomass: Are Current Sensors Adequate for Global Carbon
Modeling?
Marclmhoff 105
Solid Earth
Impact Cratering in the Geologic Record
Richard Stothers .. .. 108
CONTENTS
NETWORKS, PLANNING, AND INFORMATION SYSTEMS
Communications/Networks
VMEbus-Based Nascom Block Error Detector
Clayton Sigman 115
Demand-Access Communications for Tracking and Data Relay Satellite System Users
David Zillig and Robert McOmber 117
Tracking and Data Relay Satellite System Support for NASA Research Aircraft
Fernando Pellerano, Ted Benjamin, and George Kossakes 120
Charge-Coupled Device Integrated Receiver Prototype
David Israel, Aaron Weinberg, and Thomas Land 123
The Automated Ground Network System
Miles Smith... ..126
Support for Mission Operations
Practical Application of Real-Time Distributed Processing Concepts on the Hubble Space
Telescope Ground System
Ed Ruitberg and Dave Bohning 129
Solar and Heliospheric Observatory Near-Real-Time Commanding Process
Cindi Adams, Alan Centa, William Potter, and Mike Rackley 132
Advancing Satellite Operations with Graphical Expert Systems
Peter Hughes and Gregory Shirah 134
Space Views
Daniel Mandl... ..136
Data Distribution
IPD's Data Distribution Facility
Mary Reph, Pat Carreon, andJeannine Shirley 137
The Goddard Distributed Active Archive Center Version-0 System
Paul Chan... ..140
XI