Ultraviolet spectrometer and polarimeter (UVSP) software development and hardware tests for the solar maximum mission

The Ultraviolet Spectrometer/Polarimeter Instrument (UVSP) for the Solar Maximum Mission (SMM) was based on the re-use of the engineering model of the high resolution ultraviolet spectrometer developed for the OSO-8 mission. Lockheed assumed four distinct responsibilities in the UVSP program: technical evaluation of the OSO-8 engineering model; technical consulting on the electronic, optical, and mechanical modifications to the OSO-8 engineering model hardware; design and development of the UVSP software system; and scientific participation in the operations and analysis phase of the mission. Lockheed also provided technical consulting and assistance with instrument hardware performance anomalies encountered during the post launch operation of the SMM observatory. An index to the quarterly reports delivered under the contract are contained, and serves as a useful capsule history of the program activity

Kung Fu Panda - A Good Story Well Done

Storytelling is incredibly important in the everyday lives of humans. Over the course of history, the methods of storytelling have advanced much in the same way society has advanced. However, the constant components of a good story and classic literature have never changed: enticing plots, courageous heroes, and narrative beauty. One of the most popular, modern methods for storytelling for both young and old alike is the animated motion picture. The Kung Fu Panda movies are a series of animated children’s movies created by Dreamworks Animation studios that have witnessed great success in box offices worldwide. However, the journey of Po, the unlikely kung fu master in the Kung Fu Panda franchise, is not a story commonly associated with classical, timeless literature. This paper discusses whether the Kung Fu Panda movies can be considered a modern, animated interpretation of a story with a classic foundation. The discussion considers several aspects of the story. The first consists of a comparison of Po’s journey as a hero to the traditional steps identified by Joseph Campbell in The Hero With a Thousand Faces. The second consists of an analysis of the plot and emotional story arcs. The last aspect explored is the symbolism and depiction of the Asian martial art culture. The paper concludes the Kung Fu Panda movies demonstrate classic storytelling through Po’s traditional journey as a hero, the consistent and cohesive adherence to plot structure and familiar story arcs and beautiful depictions of Asian martial art culture and symbolism

SPDE: Solar Plasma Diagnostic Experiment

The physics of the Solar corona is studied through the use of high resolution soft x-ray spectroscopy and high resolution ultraviolet imagery. The investigation includes the development and application of a flight instrument, first flown in May, 1992 on NASA sounding rocket 36.048. A second flight, NASA founding rocket 36.123, took place on 25 April 1994. Both flights were successful in recording new observations relevant to the investigation. The effort in this contract covers completion of the modifications to the existing rocket payload, its reflight, and the preliminary day reduction and analysis. Experience gained from flight 36.048 led us to plan several payload design modifications. These were made to improve the sensitivity balance between the UV and EUV spectrographs, to improve the scattered light rejection in the spectrographs, to protect the visible light rejection filter for the Normal Incidence X-ray Imager instrument (NIXI), and to prepare one new multilayer mirror coating to the NIXI. We also investigated the addition of a brassboard CCD camera to the payload to test it as a possible replacement for the Eastman type 101-07 film used by the SPDE instruments. This camera was included in the experimeter's data package for the Project Initiation Conference for the flight of NASA Mission 36.123, held in January, 1994, but for programmatic reasons was deleted from the final payload configuration. The payload was shipped to the White Sands Missile Range on schedule in early April. The launch and successful recovery took place on 25 April, in coordination with the Yohkoh satellite and a supporting ground-based observing campaign

SPARTAN high resolution solar studies

This report summarizes the work performed on Contract NAS5-29739, a sub-orbital research program directed toward the study of the geometry of and physical conditions in matter found in the upper layers of the solar atmosphere. The report describes a new sounding rocket payload developed under the contract, presents a guide to the contents of semiannual reports submitted during the contract, discusses the results of the first flight of the payload and the progress on scientific analysis. A bibliography of papers and publications is included

Nature and Place of Transition from True Prairie to Mixed Prairie

As a memorial to Dr. Frederic E. Clements, it is a pleasure to present this paper on the midcontinental grasslands of North America. Born and reared at Lincoln, Nebraska, he developed a remarkable interest in and love for the prairie. He has often stated to the first author that of all the vegetation of North America, he liked the grassland best. Clements was the first to recognize the Mixed Prairie as a distinct plant association and to describe its nature and range and the grouping of the dominants ( 1920). When one examines the prairies of western Iowa and then proceeds some distance westward, he is impressed by several changes. The vegetation is reduced in height, it becomes less dense, ant1 takes on a distinctly more xeric impress. These changes result from gradually increasing unfavorable water relations as the vegetation of True Prairie gives way to that of Mixed Prairie. Along the Nebraska-Kansas interstate line, for example, the 33-inch annual precipitation near the Missouri River decreases westward at an average rate of about an inch every 15 miles. Conversely, rate of evaporation rapidly increases. In Nebraska, the transition from True to Mixed Prairie occurs over three types of topography. South of the Platte Valley Lowland it has been traced over the nearly level portion of the Loess Plain Region (Fig.1) . Northward, the transition takes place in the greatly dissected Loess Hills and Plains. East of the northern Sandhill Region, it occurs on the Holt-Pierce Plain and Boyd Shale Plain

A Seven-Year Quantitative Study of Succession in Grassland

The study of plant succession has contributed more than any other single line of investigation to a deeper insight into the nature of vegetation. Earlier studies of succession, especially in grassland, were largely those of the primary sere. But with the utilization of the prairies for grazing, and the abandonment of submarginal land after a short period of cropping, numerous investigations of secondary successions were made. The earlier studies have been discussed by Clements (1916) in Plant Succession. Sampson\u27s plant succession in relation to range management appeared in 1919. Many of the more recent investigations of subseres in grassland and on abandoned lands have been reviewed by Drew (1942). Costello (1944) has studied the grassland subsere in northeastern Colorado. Weaver and Albertson (1944) have traced the subsere following the recent great drought over a vast central area of both true and mixed prairie. Information on the rate and nature of natural re-vegetation of depleted ranges and abandoned cultivated land is of basic importance to many problems of soil conservation and land use

Nature and Place of Transition from True Prairie to Mixed Prairie

As a memorial to Dr. Frederic E. Clements, it is a pleasure to present this paper on the midcontinental grasslands of North America. Born and reared at Lincoln, Nebraska, he developed a remarkable interest in and love for the prairie. He has often stated to the first author that of all the vegetation of North America, he liked the grassland best. Clements was the first to recognize the Mixed Prairie as a distinct plant association and to describe its nature and range and the grouping of the dominants ( 1920). When one examines the prairies of western Iowa and then proceeds some distance westward, he is impressed by several changes. The vegetation is reduced in height, it becomes less dense, ant1 takes on a distinctly more xeric impress. These changes result from gradually increasing unfavorable water relations as the vegetation of True Prairie gives way to that of Mixed Prairie. Along the Nebraska-Kansas interstate line, for example, the 33-inch annual precipitation near the Missouri River decreases westward at an average rate of about an inch every 15 miles. Conversely, rate of evaporation rapidly increases. In Nebraska, the transition from True to Mixed Prairie occurs over three types of topography. South of the Platte Valley Lowland it has been traced over the nearly level portion of the Loess Plain Region (Fig.1) . Northward, the transition takes place in the greatly dissected Loess Hills and Plains. East of the northern Sandhill Region, it occurs on the Holt-Pierce Plain and Boyd Shale Plain

The Lockheed OSO-8 program. Task 2: Analysis of data from the high resolution ultraviolet spectrometer experiment

The complete set of C 4 time sequences generated by the University of Colorado high resolution ultraviolet spectrometer experiment on OSO-8 were examined in a comprehensive and systematic fashion. As a result a new limit is placed on the acoustic flux passing through the transition zone of the Sun's atmosphere. It is found to be three orders of magnitude too small to heat the corona, and is consistent with zero. In collaborative efforts, the properties of transient C 4 brightenings were examined in considerable detail

Dynamic evolution of the source volumes of gradual and impulsive solar flare emissions

This study compares flare source volumes inferred from impulsive hard X-rays and microwaves with those derived from density sensitive soft X-ray line ratios in the O VII spectrum. The data for this study were obtained with the SMM Hard X-Ray Burst Spectrometer, Earth-based radio observatories, and the SOLEX-B spectrometer on the P78-1 satellite. Data were available for the flares of 1980 April 8, 1980 May 9, and 1981 February 26. The hard X-ray/microwave source volume is determined under the assumption that the same electron temperature or power law index characterizes both the source of hard X-rays and the source of microwaves. The O VII line ratios yield the density and volume of the 2 X 10 to the 6th K plasma. For all three flares, the O VII source volume is found to be smallest at the beginning of the flare, near the time when the impulsive hard X-ray/microwave volume reaches its first maximum. At this time, the O VII volume is three to four orders of magnitude smaller than that inferred from the hard X-ray/microwave analysis. Subsequently, the O VII source volume increases by one or two orders of magnitude then remains almost constant until the end of the flare when it apparently increases again