Baseline tests of the EVA change-of-pace coupe electric passenger vehicle

The EVA Change-of-Pace Coupe, is an electric passenger vehicle, to characterize the state-of-the-art of electric vehicles. The EVA Change-of-Pace Coupe is a four passenger sedan that has been coverted to an electric vehicle. It is powered by twenty 6 volt traction batteries through a silicon controlled rectifier chopper controller actuated by a foot throttle to change the voltage applied to the series wound, direct current motor. Braking is accomplished with a vacuum assist hydraulic braking system. Regenerative braking is also provided

Cavity-enhanced optical frequency comb spectroscopy in the mid-infrared - application to trace detection of H2O2

We demonstrate the first cavity-enhanced optical frequency comb spectroscopy in the mid-infrared wavelength region and report the sensitive real-time trace detection of hydrogen peroxide in the presence of a large amount of water. The experimental apparatus is based on a mid-infrared optical parametric oscillator synchronously pumped by a high power Yb:fiber laser, a high finesse broadband cavity, and a fast-scanning Fourier transform spectrometer with autobalancing detection. The comb spectrum with a bandwidth of 200 nm centered around 3.75 {\mu}m is simultaneously coupled to the cavity and both degrees of freedom of the comb, i.e., the repetition rate and carrier envelope offset frequency, are locked to the cavity to ensure stable transmission. The autobalancing detection scheme reduces the intensity noise by a factor of 300, and a sensitivity of 5.4 {\times} 10^-9 cm^-1 Hz^-1/2 with a resolution of 800 MHz is achieved (corresponding to 6.9 {\times} 10^-11 cm^-1 Hz^-1/2 per spectral element for 6000 resolved elements). This yields a noise equivalent detection limit for hydrogen peroxide of 8 parts-per-billion (ppb); in the presence of 2.8% of water the detection limit is 130 ppb. Spectra of acetylene, methane and nitrous oxide at atmospheric pressure are also presented, and a line shape model is developed to simulate the experimental data.Comment: submitted to special FLAIR 2011 issue of Appl. Phys.

On the Oceanic Communication Between the Western Subartic Gyre and the Deep Bering Sea

The article of record as published may be found at http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.dsr.2012.04.001Sparse information is available on the communication between the northern North Pacific and the southern Bering Sea. We present results from a multi-decadal simulation of a high-resolution, pan-Arctic ice-ocean model to address the long-term mean and variability and synthesize limited observations in the Alaskan Stream, Western Subarctic Gyre, and southern Bering Sea. While the mean circulation in the Bering Sea basin is cyclonic, during the 26-year simulation meanders and eddies are continuously present throughout the region, which is consistent with observations from Cokelet and Stabeno (1997). Prediction (instead of prescription) of the Alaskan Stream and Aleutian throughflow allows reproduction of meanders and eddies in the Alaskan Stream and Kamchatka Current similar to those that have been observed previously (e.g. Crawford et al., 2000; Rogachev and Carmack, 2002; Rogachev and Gorin, 2004). Interannual variability in mass transport and property fluxes is particularly strong across the western Aleutian Island Passes, including Buldir Pass, Near Strait, and Kamchatka Strait. Much of this variability can be attributed to the presence of meanders and eddies found both north and south of the passes, which are found to directly cause periodic flow reversals and maxima in the western passes. Given that modeled flow reversals and maxima last for time periods ranging between three months and two years, short-term observations (months to few years) may not be representative of the actual mean flow. These extremes in the communication across the Aleutian Island Passes have a large impact on the oceanic environmental conditions in the southern Bering Sea and could directly impact biological species there and further downstream. Therefore, we identify a need for continuous monitoring of the flow through Buldir Pass, Near, and Kamchatka straits.Energy Climate and Environmental Sciences Division of the Biological and Environmental Research programNational Science Foundation Office of Polar ProgramsOffice of Naval ResearchUS Department of Defense High Performance Computer Modernization Program (HPCMP), for computer resource

Baseline tests of the EPC Hummingbird electric passenger vehicle

The rear-mounted internal combustion engine in a four-passenger Volkswagen Thing was replaced with an electric motor made by modifying an aircraft generator and powered by 12 heavy-duty, lead-acid battery modules. Vehicle performance tests were conducted to measure vehicle maximum speed, range at constant speed, range over stop-and-go driving schedules, maximum acceleration, gradeability limit, road energy consumption, road power, indicated energy consumption, braking capability, battery charger efficiency, and battery characteristics. Test results are presented in tables and charts

2008 Report for the project entitled: A Comprehensive Modeling Approach Towards Understanding and Prediction of the Alaskan Coastal System Response to Changes in an Ice-diminished Arctic

LONG-TERM GOALS: Our research combines state-of-the-art regional modeling of sea ice, ocean, atmosphere and ecosystem to provide a system approach to advance the knowledge and predictive capability of the diverse impacts of changing sea ice cover on the bio-physical marine environment of coastal Alaska and over the larger region of the western Arctic Ocean. The focus of this project on seasonally ice-free Alaskan coasts and shelves is in direct support of the ‘Coastal Effects of a Diminished-ice Arctic Ocean’ and littoral studies of interest to the U.S. Navy. Given the continued warming and summer sea ice cover decrease in the Arctic during the past decades, this research will have broader and long-term impacts by facilitating studies of the potential increased exploration of natural resources along the seasonally ice-free northern Alaskan coasts and shelves and of the use of northern sea routes from the Pacific Ocean to Europe. Such activities will change the strategic importance of the entire pan-Arctic region. The research will allow a better understanding and planning of current and future operational needs in support of the continued US commercial and tactical interests in the region.Award Number: N0001407WR2029

Baseline tests of the battronic Minivan electric delivery van

An electric passenger vehicle was tested to develop data characterizing the state of the art of electric and hybrid vehicles. The test measured vehicle maximum speed, range at constant speed, range over stop-and-go driving schedules, maximum acceleration, gradeability and limit, road energy consumption, road power, indicated energy consumption, braking capability and battery charge efficiency. The data obtained are to serve as a baseline to compare improvements in electric and hybrid vehicle technologies and to assist in establishing performance standards

A Comprehensive Modeling Approach Towards Understanding and Prediction

Long-Term Goals: Our research combines state-of-the-art regional modeling of sea ice, ocean, atmosphere and ecosystem to provide a system approach to advance the knowledge and predictive capability of the diverse impacts of changing sea ice cover on the bio-physical marine environment of coastal Alaska and over the larger region of the western Arctic Ocean. The focus of this project on seasonally ice-free Alaskan coasts and shelves is in direct support of the ‘Coastal Effects of a Diminished-ice Arctic Ocean’ and littoral studies of interest to the U.S. Navy. Given the continued warming and summer sea ice cover decrease in the Arctic during the past decades, this research will have broader and long-term impacts by facilitating studies of the potential increased exploration of natural resources along the seasonally ice-free northern Alaskan coasts and shelves and of the use of northern sea routes from the Pacific Ocean to Europe. Such activities will change the strategic importance of the entire pan-Arctic region. The research will allow a better understanding and planning of current and future operational needs in support of the continued US commercial and tactical interests in the region.Award Number: N0001407WR2029

Periodicities in data observed during the minimum and the rising phase of solar cycle 23; years 1996 - 1999

Three types of observations: the daily values of the solar radio flux at 7 frequencies, the daily international sunspot number and the daily Stanford mean solar magnetic field were processed in order to find all the periodicities hidden in the data. Using a new approach to the radio data, two time series were obtained for each frequency examined, one more sensitive to spot magnetic fields, the other to large magnetic structures not connected with sunspots. Power spectrum analysis of the data was carried out separately for the minimum (540 days from 1 March 1996 to 22 August 1997) and for the rising phase (708 days from 23 August 1997 to 31 July 1999) of the solar cycle 23. The Scargle periodograms obtained, normalized for the effect of autocorrelation, show the majority of known periods and reveal a clear difference between the periodicities found in the minimum and the rising phase. We determined the rotation rate of the `active longitudes' in the rising phase as equal to 444.4 $\pm$ 4 nHz (26\fd0 \pm 0\fd3). The results indicate that appropriate and careful analysis of daily radio data at several frequencies allows the investigation of solar periodicities generated in different layers of the solar atmosphere by various phenomena related to the periodic emergence of diverse magnetic structures.Comment: 15 pages, 8 figure

Ergodic Boundary/Point Control of Stochastic Semilinear Systems

This is the published version, also available here: http://dx.doi.org/10.1137/S0363012996303190.A controlled Markov process in a Hilbert space and an ergodic cost functional are given for a control problem that is solved where the process is a solution of a parameter-dependent semilinear stochastic differential equation and the control can occur only on the boundary or at discrete points in the domain. The linear term of the semilinear differential equation is the infinitesimal generator of an analytic semigroup. The noise for the stochastic differential equation can be distributed, boundary and point. Some ergodic properties of the controlled Markov process are shown to be uniform in the control and the parameter. The existence of an optimal control is verified to solve the ergodic control problem. The optimal cost is shown to depend continuously on the system parameter