Convective Heating Rates Research Articles

Reduction of the Tropical Atmospheric Dynamics Into Shallow‐Water Analogs: A Formulation Analysis

AbstractThe shallow‐water analogue models for the tropical atmosphere are examined from a formulational point of view. The normal‐mode approach provides a formal procedure to reduce the primitive equation system to a shallow‐water analogue, although approaches based on vertical integrals of the primitive equation system may be more intuitively appealing. Under a general framework of the latter, classical models by Gill (1980, https://doi.org/10.1256/smsqj.44904) and Lindzen and Nigam (1987, 2.0.co;2>https://doi.org/10.1175/1520‐0469(1987)044<2418:otross>2.0.co;2) are derived in a deductive manner, by elucidating their limitations, implications, as well physical processes assumed. Major advantage of shallow‐water analogue models is that after a vertical integral, the determination of convective heating rate simply reduces to that of a precipitation rate. Consequently, the question of representing convection also almost reduces to that of precipitation. This fact leads to confusions in literature about distinction between large‐scale precipitation and subgrid‐scale convection. This framework further supports a popular notion of the moisture as a key variable for describing convection. By reviewing the existing formulations, it is shown that convection can be parameterized without moisture under the limit of the parcel‐environment quasi‐equilibrium.

Transient Heat Transfer Analysis on Composite Solids for Hypersonic Flow Applications

Surface heating rates have the importance in high speed flow due to viscous or aerodynamic heating which leads to enormous rise in surface temperature. Prediction of exact heat transfer rates is essential for design of protection systems for aerodynamic bodies aimed. For the thermal protection system, the aerodynamic Surfaces are generally configured with multiple solids. Hence present study is planned to develop the conjugate heat transfer (CHT) solver for composite solids. A CHT solver is in hypersonic flow environment. Finite volume framework and explicit time stepping have been implemented for both the compressible Navier-Stokes solver and conduction solver. Loose coupling has been established between the above mentioned fluid and solid domain solvers. The following observations were made in the CHT simulations. In the case of hypersonic flows over finite thickness flat plate, considerable difference in surface heat transfer rate has been noticed along the stream wise direction at the solid-fluid interface and also the Effect of wall material on heat diffusion for hypersonic application has been analyzed using loosely coupled CHT solver. The CHT solver has also been implemented for hypersonic flow over composite cylinder. Necessity of insulating material in the region of stagnation point has been realized as the outcome of these studies.
 HIGHLIGHTS
 
 Accurate prediction of Convective heating rates is essential for the design of thermal protection system for hypersonic vehicles
 In The thermal protection system, the aerodynamic surfaces are generally configured with multiple solids. Hence the present study is planned to develop the conjugate heat transfer (CHT) solver for composite solids
 The CHT solver has been implemented for hypersonic flow over composite flat plate and cylinder. It has been observed flows over finite thickness flat plate, a considerable difference in surface heat transfer rate has been noticed along the stream wise direction at the solid-fluid interface and the necessity of insulating material in the region of stagnation point has been realized as the outcome of these studies
 
 GRAPHICAL ABSTRACT

Radiative Cooling, Latent Heating, and Cloud Ice in the Tropical Upper Troposphere

Abstract The radiative cooling rate in the tropical upper troposphere is expected to increase as climate warms. Since the tropics are approximately in radiative–convective equilibrium (RCE), this implies an increase in the convective heating rate, which is the sum of the latent heating rate and the eddy heat flux convergence. We examine the impact of these changes on the vertical profile of cloud ice amount in cloud-resolving simulations of RCE. Three simulations are conducted: a control run, a warming run, and an experimental run in which there is no warming but a temperature forcing is imposed to mimic the warming-induced increase in radiative cooling. Surface warming causes a reduction in cloud fraction at all upper-tropospheric temperature levels but an increase in the ice mixing ratio within deep convective cores. The experimental run has more cloud ice than the warming run at fixed temperature despite the fact that their latent heating rates are equal, which suggests that the efficiency of latent heating by cloud ice increases with warming. An analytic expression relating the ice-related latent heating rate to a number of other factors is derived and used to understand the model results. This reveals that the increase in latent heating efficiency is driven mostly by 1) the migration of isotherms to lower pressure and 2) a slight warming of the top of the convective layer. These physically robust changes act to reduce the residence time of ice at any particular temperature level, which tempers the response of the mean cloud ice profile to warming. Significance Statement Here we examine how the amount of condensed ice in part of the atmosphere—the tropical upper troposphere (UT)—responds to global warming. In the UT, the energy released during ice formation is balanced by the emission of radiation to space. This emission will strengthen with warming, suggesting that there will also be more ice. Using a model of the tropical atmosphere, we find that the increase in ice amount is mitigated by a reduction in the amount of time ice spends in the UT. This could have important implications for the cloud response to global warming, and future work should focus on how these changes are manifested across the distribution of convective cloud types.

Flight control methodologies for Neptune aerocapture trajectories

In this work, a comparison of potential flight control methodologies for Neptune aerocapture trajectories is presented. Lifting trajectories pertaining to bank angle modulation and direct force control as well as ballistic trajectories pertaining to continuously-variable drag modulation are investigated. A parametric study of vehicle configurations is explored to quantitatively compare the flight envelope between lifting and ballistic trajectories. A closed-loop numerical predictor–corrector aerocapture guidance architecture is utilized to unify each flight control technique for trajectory comparisons. A series of Monte Carlo simulations of blunt body Neptune aerocapture trajectories are conducted to assess each flight control’s robustness to uncertainties in vehicle aerodynamics, atmospheric knowledge, and entry state. Direct force control can achieve 100% successful science orbit insertion within a 120 m/s total ΔV budget. Bank angle modulation can achieve 100% successful science orbit insertion within a 300 m/s total ΔV budget. Continuously-variable drag modulation can achieve 99.3% successful science orbit insertion within a 190 m/s total ΔV budget but at 3 times lower peak stagnation point convective heating rate.

Experimental study of turbulent air natural convection in open-ended vertical parallel plates under asymmetric heating conditions

In this study, we investigated the turbulent air natural convection phenomena between open-ended vertical parallel plates under asymmetric heating conditions. The rectangular air channel consisted of two insulating walls and two heated walls: one of the vertical walls is heated to maintain uniform wall temperature conditions at various temperatures from 50 to 500 °C, and the other wall is indirectly heated by thermal radiation from the directly heated wall. We measured both wall temperature distributions in the vertical direction and the air temperature profiles with the horizontal direction at certain heights.The results showed that when both walls are heated asymmetrically, reverse flow was absent at the outlet of the channel, as confirmed by a simple visualization method. In addition, we confirmed the practical result of a deviation between the mean air temperature and the measured air temperature at the center of the channel. From the results of the wall temperature distributions and the air temperature profiles, we suggest a reasonable flow behavior, which is the generation of two different recirculation flow patterns that are not affected by changes in the thermal boundary. In addition, we compared the ratio between the convective and radiative heat rates on the directly heated wall. Based on the experimental results, we analyzed the natural convection heat transfer between vertical parallel plates and we proposed two correlations. The heat transfer correlation agreed well with the correlation for turbulent natural convection on a single infinite vertical plate. The correlating equation related to the induced flow rate was presented as a modified Rayleigh number to estimate the flow rate.

Heat transfer rate and surface pressure measurements in short duration hypersonic flow

ABSTRACTExperiments were carried out with air as the test gas to obtain the surface convective heating rate and surface pressure distribution on blunt and sharp cone models flying at hypersonic speeds. Tests were performed in a hypersonic shock tunnel at two different angles of attack: ${0}^\circ$ and ${5}^\circ$ with angles of rotation $\phi = {0}^\circ, {90}^\circ$, and ${180}^\circ$. The experiments were conducted at a stagnation enthalpy of 1.4MJ/kg, flow Mach number of 6.56 and free stream Reynolds number based on the model length of $9.1 \times {10}^{5}$. The effective test time of the shock tunnel is 3ms. The results obtained for cone model with a bluntness ratio of 0.2 were compared with sharp cone models for $\alpha ={0}^\circ$. The measured stagnation heat transfer value matched well with the theoretical value predicted by the Fay and Riddell correlation and with the CFD results.

Differences in the Tropical Convective Activities at the Opposite Phases of the Quasi-Biennial Oscillation

Differences in convective activities in the tropical region (30°S–30°N, 180°E–180°W) during different phases of the quasi-biennial oscillation (QBO) are investigated over 32 years (1979–2010) using five metrics representing tropical convection: (i) precipitation and (ii) outgoing longwave radiation from observations and (iii) convective available potential energy (CAPE), (iv) deep convective heating rate, and (v) convective cloud top pressure from reanalysis data. The easterly (QBOE) and westerly (QBOW) phases of the QBO are defined using the zonal wind anomaly from the monthly climatology at 50 hPa. During the QBOE (QBOW), the convective activities are intensified (weakened) over the Maritime Continent and weakened (intensified) over the equatorial eastern and central Pacific. Therefore, the zonal mean values of the five metrics averaged over chronically convective regions show stronger convective activities during the QBOE than during the QBOW, while the opposite is true for the whole tropical region. Composite analyses are also performed during the neutral, El Nino, and La Nina periods. In the neutral period, the convective activities during QBOE are stronger than during QBOW except in the equatorial region (10°S–10°N). The convective activities over the Maritime Continent (central and eastern Pacific) are enhanced when La Nina and the QBOE (El Nino and the QBOW) occur simultaneously. All metrics show similar pattern to one another, implying that the metrics from reanalysis data represent the variations in the convective activities with respect to the QBO reasonably well. Among the five metrics, the CAPE is most sensitive to the QBO phase, likely because the virtual temperature in the upper troposphere is modulated by anomalous meridional circulations induced by different QBO phases.

Convective heat-transfer rate and surface pressure distribution over a cone model at hypersonic speeds

In this article, experiments are carried out in a hypersonic shock tunnel with helium as driver gas and air as the test gas to obtain the convective heating rate and surface pressure distribution on a cone model placed at hypersonic speed. Test is performed in hypersonic shock tunnel for a flow Mach number of 6.5 at two different angles of attack, 0° and 5°. The sputtered thin film platinum sensors are used to measure the heat flux on a cone model. The measured heat-transfer rate compares well with theoretically estimated values using reference enthalpy method and computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulation. The measured surface pressure compares well with CFD.

Heat flux measurement analysis from thin film gauge in convective heat transfer mode

In many research activities related to the heated environment near the wall or surface, measurement of transient surface temperature and determination of convective heating rate is one of the most important tasks. Since the effective measurement time available for the regime to enumerate is very small, it is essential to use temperature detectors with highly sensitive, precise and instantaneous temperature measurement properties. Thin film gauges with these properties are best suited for such short duration transient surface temperature measurements. This study focuses on the establishment of new calibration technique in convection heat transfer mode. A fabricated calibration set-up is used to supply the heat flux to the thin film gauge, which is in-house built with platinum as sensing element and quartz as an insulating substrate. The heat load applied on the thin film gauge is of impact or step type. The deduction of heat flux value is carried out with recorded transient temperature data. Moreover, the numerical analysis is also carried out to get the heat flux values. The authenticity of the experimental set up and thin film gauge effectiveness is supported by the excellent agreement of the experimental and numerical results.

Heating and Moistening of the MJO during DYNAMO in ECMWF Reforecasts

Reforecasts produced by the ECMWF Integrated Forecast System (IFS) were used to study heating and moistening processes associated with three MJO events over the equatorial Indian Ocean during the Dynamics of the Madden–Julian Oscillation (DYNAMO) field campaign. Variables produced by and derived from the IFS reforecast (IFS-RF) agree reasonably well with observations over the DYNAMO sounding arrays, and they vary smoothly from the western to eastern equatorial Indian Ocean. This lends confidence toward using IFS-RF as a surrogate of observations over the equatorial Indian Ocean outside the DYNAMO arrays. The apparent heat source Q1 and apparent moisture sink Q2 produced by IFS are primarily generated by parameterized cumulus convection, followed by microphysics and radiation. The vertical growth of positive Q1 and Q2 associated with the progression of MJO convection can be gradual, stepwise, or rapid depending on the event and its location over the broader equatorial Indian Ocean. The time for convective heating and drying to progress from shallow (800 hPa) to deep (400 hPa) can be <1 to 6 days. This growth time of heating and drying is usually short for convective processes alone but becomes longer when additional microphysical processes, such as evaporative moistening below convective and stratiform clouds, are in play. Three ratios are calculated to measure the possible role of radiative feedback in the MJO events: amplitudes of radiative versus convective heating rates, changes in radiative versus convective heating rates, and diabatic (with and without the radiative component) versus adiabatic heating rates. None of them unambiguously distinguishes the MJO from non-MJO convective events.

Momentum Flux of Convective Gravity Waves Derived from an Offline Gravity Wave Parameterization. Part I: Spatiotemporal Variations at Source Level

Abstract Spatiotemporal variations in momentum flux spectra of convective gravity waves (CGWs) at the source level (cloud top), including nonlinear forcing effects, are examined based on calculations using an offline version of CGW parameterization and global reanalysis data for a period of 32 years (1979–2010). The cloud-top momentum flux (CTMF) is not solely proportional to the convective heating rate but is affected by the wave-filtering and resonance factor and background stability and temperature underlying the convection. Consequently, the primary peak of CTMF is in the winter hemisphere midlatitudes, associated with storm tracks, where a secondary peak of convective heating exists, whereas the secondary peak of CTMF appears in the summer hemisphere tropics and intertropical convergence zone (ITCZ), where the primary peak of convective heating exists. The magnitude of CTMF fluctuates largely with 1-yr and 1-day periods in major CTMF regions. At low latitudes and Pacific storm-track regions, a 6-month period is also significant, and the decadal cycle appears in the southern Andes. The equatorial eastern Pacific region exhibits a substantial interannual to decadal scale of variabilities. The correlation between convective heating and the CTMF is relatively lower in the equatorial region than in other regions. The CTMF in 10°N–10°S during the period of the pre-Concordiasi campaign approximately follows a lognormal distribution but with a slight underestimation in the tail of the probability density function. In Part II, the momentum flux and drag of CGW in the stratosphere will be examined.

The regional impact of Land-Use Land-cover Change (LULCC) over West Africa from an ensemble of global climate models under the auspices of the WAMME2 project

The population of the Sahel region of West Africa has approximately doubled in the past 50 years, and could potentially double again by the middle of this century. This has led to the northward expansion of agricultural areas at the expense of natural savanna, leading to widespread land use -land cover change (LULCC). Because there is strong evidence of significant surface-atmosphere coupling in this region, one of the main goals of the West African Monsoon Modeling and Evaluation project phase II is to provide basic understanding of LULCC on the regional climate, and to evaluate the sensitivity of the seasonal variability of the West African Monsoon to LULCC. The prescribed LULCC is based on the changes from 1950 through 1990, representing a maximum feasible degradation scenario in the past half century. It is applied to 5 state of the art global climate models (GCMs) over a 6-year simulation period. Multiple GCMs are used because the magnitude of the impact of LULCC depends on model-dependent coupling strength between the surface and the overlying atmosphere, the magnitude of the surface biophysical changes, and how the key processes linking the surface with the atmosphere are parameterized within a particular model framework. Land cover maps and surface parameters may vary widely among models; therefore a special effort was made to impose consistent biogeophysical responses of surface parameters to LULCC using a simple experimental setup. The prescribed LULCC corresponds to degraded vegetation conditions, which mainly cause increases in the Bowen ratio and decreases in the surface net radiation, and result in a significant reduction in surface evaporation (upwards of 1 mm day−1 over a large part of the Sahel). This, in turn, mainly leads to less moisture convergence and precipitation over the LULCC zone. The overall impact is a rainfall reduction with every model, which ranges across models from 4 to 25 % averaged over the Sahel, and a southward shift of the rainfall peak in three of the five models which evokes a precipitation dipole pattern which is consistent with the observed pattern for dry climate anomalies over this region. The African Easterly Jet shifts equator-ward, although the strength of this change varies considerably among the models. In most of the models, the main factor causing diabatic cooling of the upper troposphere and enhanced subsidence over the region of LULCC is the reduction of convective heating rates linked to reduced latent heat flux and moisture flux convergence. In broad agreement with previous studies, the impact of degradation on the regional climate is found to vary among the different models, however, the signal is stronger and more consistent between the models here than in previous inter-comparison projects. This is likely related to our emphasis on prioritizing a consistent impact of LULCC on the surface biophysical properties.

On the dynamical downscaling and bias correction of seasonal‐scale winter precipitation predictions over North India

This study presents the results of high‐resolution (30 km) climate simulations over North India using an optimized configuration of the Regional Climate Model (RegCM), driven by a global spectral model (T80 model with horizontal resolution of ∼1.4°) for a period of 28 years (1982–2009). The main aim of this work is to analyze the capabilities of the RegCM to simulate the wintertime precipitation over North India in the recent past. The RegCM validation revealed a good improvement in reproducing the precipitation compared to results obtained from the T80 model. This improvement comes due to better representation of vertical pressure velocity, moisture transport, convective heating rate and temperature gradient at two different latitudinal zones. Moreover, orography in the high‐resolution RegCM improves the precipitation simulation in the region where sharp orography gradient plays an important role in wintertime precipitation processes. Two bias correction (BC) methods namely mean bias‐remove (MBR) and quantile mapping (QM) have been applied on the T80 driven RegCM model simulations. It was found that the QM method is more skillful than the MBR in simulating the wintertime precipitation over North India. A comparison of model‐simulated and bias corrected precipitation with observed precipitation at 17 station locations has also been carried out. Overall, the results suggest that when the BC is applied on dynamically downscaled model, it has better skill in simulating the precipitation over North India and this model is a useful tool for further regional downscaling studies.

Inverse design of underfloor heating power rates and air-supply temperature for an aircraft cabin

Thermal boundary conditions in commercial airliner cabins are crucial for creating a comfortable cabin environment. Cabin temperature distributions depend on the thermo-fluid boundary conditions of the boundary walls and the air supply. This paper proposed a combined inverse-forward model for designers to determine the total underfloor heating rates and the air-supply temperature in an aircraft cabin. The contribution ratio of indoor climate (CRI) is applied to describe the cause–effect relationship between the boundary wall convective heat release rates and the resulting temperature rise at certain points, which can be cast into a matrix. The solution contains three sub-models: (i) regularized inversion of the cause–effect matrix with the target cabin air temperatures as the known input, which solves the convective heat rates of the underfloor heaters and the air-supply temperature, (ii) solution of underfloor heater's surface temperatures based on Newton's law of cooling, and (iii) computation of the radiative heat rates. The above model was used to determine the total underfloor heating rates and air-supply temperature in a single-aisle aircraft cabin. The design targets are to create an average temperature of 24 °C near the upper human body and 26 °C at the ankle level. An experimental test was conducted in a simplified half section of an aircraft cabin for model validation. The results show that the proposed methodology is able to provide the total underfloor heating rates and air-supply temperature in good agreement with the measurement data and forward-simulation boundary conditions.

Modification of cumulus convection and planetary boundary layer schemes in the GRAPES global model

Cumulus convection is a key linkage between hydrological cycle and large-scale atmospheric circulation. Cumulus parameterization scheme is an important component in numerical weather and climate modeling studies. In the Global/Regional Assimilation and Prediction Enhanced System (GRAPES), turbulent mixing and diffusion approach is applied in its shallow convection scheme. This method overestimates the vertical transport of heat and moisture fluxes but underestimates cloud water mixing ratio over the region of stratocumulus clouds. As a result, the simulated low stratocumulus clouds are less than observations. To overcome this problem, a mass flux method is employed in the shallow convection scheme to replace the original one. Meanwhile, the deep convection scheme is adjusted correspondingly. This modification is similar to that in the US NCEP Global Forecast System (GFS), which uses the simplified Arakawa Schubert Scheme (SAS). The planetary boundary layer scheme (PBL) is also revised by considering the coupling between the PBL and stratocumulus clouds. With the modification of both the cumulus and PBL schemes, the GRAPES simulation of shallow convective heating rate becomes more reasonable; total amounts of stratocumulus clouds simulated over the eastern Pacific and their vertical structure are more consistent with observations; the underestimation of stratocumulus clouds simulated by original schemes is less severe with the revised schemes. Precipitation distribution in the tropics becomes more reasonable and spurious precipitation is effectively suppressed. The westward extension and northward movement of the western Pacific subtropical high simulated with the revised schemes are more consistent with Final Operational Global Analysis (FNL) than that simulated with the original schemes. The statistical scores for the global GRAPES forecast are generally improved with the revised schemes, especially for the simulation of geopotential height in the Northern Hemisphere and winds in the tropics. Root mean square errors (RMSEs) decrease in the lower and upper troposphere with the revised schemes. The above results indicate that with the revised cumulus and PBL schemes, model biases in the tropics decrease and the global GRAPES performance is greatly improved.

A convection‐based gravity wave parameterization in a general circulation model: Implementation and improvements on the QBO

AbstractIn order to simulate stratospheric phenomena, such as the Quasi‐Biennial Oscillation (QBO), atmospheric general circulation models (GCM) require parameterizations of small‐scale gravity waves (GW). In the tropics, the main source of GWs is convection, showing high spatial and temporal variability in occurrence and strength. In this study, we implement in the GCM ECHAM6 a source parameterization for GWs forced by convection. The GW source parameterization is based on the convective heating depth, convective heating rate, and the background wind. First, we show that the heating depth distribution of convective properties strongly influences the waves' source spectra. The strong sensitivity of spectral wave characteristics on heating property distributions highlights the importance of a realistic parameterization of convective processes in a GCM. Second, with the convection‐based GW scheme as the unique source of GWs, the GCM simulates a QBO with realistic features. While the vertical extent of the easterly jet shows deficiencies, the wind speeds of the jet maxima and the variance of wind alteration show a clear improvement, compared to the standard model which employs a parameterization with constant, prescribed GW sources. Furthermore, the seasonality of the QBO jets downward progression is modeled more realistically due to the seasonality of physically based gravity wave sources.

Measurements of convective and radiative heating in wildland fires

Time-resolved irradiance and convective heating and cooling of fast-response thermopile sensors were measured in 13 natural and prescribed wildland fires under a variety of fuel and ambient conditions. It was shown that a sensor exposed to the fire environment was subject to rapid fluctuations of convective transfer whereas irradiance measured by a windowed sensor was much less variable in time, increasing nearly monotonically with the approach of the flame front and largely declining with its passage. Irradiance beneath two crown fires peaked at 200 and 300 kW m–2, peak irradiance associated with fires in surface fuels reached 100 kW m–2 and the peak for three instances of burning in shrub fuels was 132 kW m–2. The fire radiative energy accounted for 79% of the variance in fuel consumption. Convective heating at the sensor surface varied from 15% to values exceeding the radiative flux. Detailed measurements of convective and radiative heating rates in wildland fires are presented. Results indicate that the relative contribution of each to total energy release is dependent on fuel and environment.

Laser Based Calibration Technique of Thin Film Gauges for Short Duration Transient Measurements

Surface temperature history and determination of convective heating rate are the important activity in many research programs for devising an effective cooling system in internal combustion engines or for typical high speed aerodynamic reentry vehicles. Thin film sensors have high response time (∼ few microseconds) and are invariantly used for these applications due to their precision measurement. Moreover, they can be fabricated in-house and thus cost effective. Present investigations are focused on the fabrication of such sensors and establishment of an experimental setup for calibration. Thin film sensors are prepared in-house by platinum ink mounted on an insulated substrate (Pyrex). Experiments are carried out by applying step heat load on the thin film sensor using laser light of known wattage. Recorded transient temperature data are processed for estimation of laser wattage using numerical and analytical models. For the known heating load, temperature signal is also predicted using one-dimensional transient heat conduction solver using ansys. Encouraging agreement of these predictions has demonstrated the success of the designed calibration set up and cost-effective means of in-house fabrication of thin film sensors.

Numerical Study of Film Cooling Scheme on a Blunt-Nosed Body in Hypersonic Flow

In hypersonic flight, the prediction of aerodynamic heating and the construction of a proper thermal protection system (TPS) are significantly important. In this study, the method of a film cooling technique, which is already the state of the art in cooling of gas turbine engines, is proposed for a fully reusable and active TPS. Effectiveness of the film cooling scheme to reduce convective heating rates for a blunt-nosed spacecraft flying at Mach number 6.56 and 40 deg angle of attack is investigated numerically. The inflow boundary conditions used the standard values at an altitude of 30 km. The computational domain consists of infinite rows of film cooling holes on the bottom of a blunt-nosed slab. Laminar and several turbulent calculations have been performed and compared. The influence of blowing ratios on the film cooling effectiveness is investigated. The results exhibit that the film cooling technique could be an effective method for an active cooling of blunt-nosed bodies in hypersonic flows.

Direct Coupling of the NEQAIR Radiation and DPLR CFD Codes

The NEQAIR line-by-line radiation code is incorporated into the DPLR flow solver such that NEQAIR is now a callable subroutine of DPLR. The radiant energy source term computed by NEQAIR acts as an energy sink, reducing the convective and radiative heating rates, and brings the shock wave closer to the body. The effects of fluid dynamics/radiation coupling are examined by comparing coupled and uncoupled DPLR-NEQAIR results against FIRE II flight measurements and previous computations. Radiation coupling had the greatest effect at the 1643 s FIRE II trajectory point where the stagnation point total heating rate was reduced by 15.1 %. The coupled 1643 s results were closely correlated to the flight measurements. The change in stagnation point total heating rate was 6% at the 1636 and 1645 s trajectory points, and radiation coupling effects were essentially nonexistent at the 1651 s trajectory point. The coupled DPLR-NEQAIR surface heating rate profiles converged after only two updates of the radiant energy source term.