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At least 181 records · Page 10

Fermi GBM: Highlights from the First Year

The Fermi Gamma ray Burst Monitor is an all-sky instrument sensitive to photons from about 8 keV to 40 MeV. I will summarize highlights from the first year, including triggered observations of gamma ray bursts, soft gamma ray repeaters, and terrestrial gamma flashes, and observations in the continuous data of X-ray binaries and accreting X-ray pulsars. GBM provides complementary observations to Swift/BAT, observing many of the same sources, but over a wider energy range.

Wilson-Hodge, Colleen A.↗

WFC3: In-Flight Performance Highlights

Wide Field Camera 3 (WFC3), a powerful new imager for the Hubble Space Telescope (HST), was successfully installed in the telescope in May 2009 during the first dramatic spacewalk of space shuttle flight STS-125, also known as HST Servicing Mission 4. This new camera offers unique observing capabilities in two channels spanning a broad wavelength range from the near ultraviolet to the near infrared (200-1000nm in the UV/Visible [UVIS] channel; 850-1700nm in the IR channel). After an initial outgassing period, WFC3 was cooled to its observing configuration in June. In the following months, a highly successful Servicing Mission Observatory Verification (SMOV4) program was executed, which has confirmed the exciting scientific potential of the instrument. Detailed performance results from the SMOV 4 program are presented in a number of papers in this session. In this paper, we highlight some top-level performance assessments (throughput, limiting magnitudes, survey speeds) for WFC3, which is now actively engaged in the execution of forefront astronomical observing programs.

Kimble, Randy A.↗

Highlights from 10 Years of NASA/KNMI/FMI Collaboration on UV Remote Sensing from Space

The first joint meeting between NASA, KNMI and FMI scientists was held on 13 & 14 June, 2000, almost exactly 10 years ago. NASA had recently selected 14 US scientists to work on instrument calibration, science algorithms, and validation activities related to the Ozone Monitoring Instrument (OMI) that we being built by collaboration between the Netherlands and Finland for flight on NASA's EOS Aura satellite. The progress on this project had been remarkable for a space based instrument. Only two years before this meeting my colleague Ernest Hilsenrath and I had visited Netherlands at the invitation of Fokker Space to persuade KNMI management to collaborate with NASA on this mission. And only 4 years after the first science meeting was held OMI was lunched on the Aura spacecraft. Next month will be the 6 th anniversary of this launch and very successful operation of OMI. All this was possible because of the leadership from Dr. Hennie Kelder and KNMI management who in 1998 saw the opportunity for Netherlands in the mission and stepped up to the challenge by creating a young and talented team of scientists at KNMI under the leadership of Dr. Pieterenel Levelt. This vision has now put Netherlands as the leading country in the world in monitoring air quality from space. Recent selection of TROPOMI by ESA attests to the success of this vision. I will present some selected highlights of our very successful collaboration on this project over the past 10 years.

Bhartia, Pawan K.↗

Highlights of Transient Plume Impingement Model Validation and Applications

This paper describes highlights of an ongoing validation effort conducted to assess the viability of applying a set of analytic point source transient free molecule equations to model behavior ranging from molecular effusion to rocket plumes. The validation effort includes encouraging comparisons to both steady and transient studies involving experimental data and direct simulation Monte Carlo results. Finally, this model is applied to describe features of two exotic transient scenarios involving NASA Goddard Space Flight Center satellite programs.

Woronowicz, Michael↗

Highlights of Space Weather Services/Capabilities at NASA/GSFC Space Weather Center

The importance of space weather has been recognized world-wide. Our society depends increasingly on technological infrastructure, including the power grid as well as satellites used for communication and navigation. Such technologies, however, are vulnerable to space weather effects caused by the Sun's variability. NASA GSFC's Space Weather Center (SWC) (http://science.gsfc.nasa.gov//674/swx services/swx services.html) has developed space weather products/capabilities/services that not only respond to NASA's needs but also address broader interests by leveraging the latest scientific research results and state-of-the-art models hosted at the Community Coordinated Modeling Center (CCMC: http://ccmc.gsfc.nasa.gov). By combining forefront space weather science and models, employing an innovative and configurable dissemination system (iSWA.gsfc.nasa.gov), taking advantage of scientific expertise both in-house and from the broader community as well as fostering and actively participating in multilateral collaborations both nationally and internationally, NASA/GSFC space weather Center, as a sibling organization to CCMC, is poised to address NASA's space weather needs (and needs of various partners) and to help enhancing space weather forecasting capabilities collaboratively. With a large number of state-of-the-art physics-based models running in real-time covering the whole space weather domain, it offers predictive capabilities and a comprehensive view of space weather events throughout the solar system. In this paper, we will provide some highlights of our service products/capabilities. In particular, we will take the 23 January and the 27 January space weather events as examples to illustrate how we can use the iSWA system to track them in the interplanetary space and forecast their impacts.

Fok, Mei-Ching↗

The Chandra X-Ray Observatory: Progress Report and Highlights

Over the past 13 years, the Chandra X-ray Observatory's ability to provide high resolution X-ray images and spectra have established it as one of the most versatile and powerful tools for astrophysical research in the 21st century. Chandra explores the hot, high-energy regions of the universe, observing X-ray sources with fluxes spanning more than 10 orders of magnitude, from the X-ray brightest, Sco X-1, to the faintest sources in the Chandra Deep Field South survey. Thanks to its continuing operational life, the Chandra mission now also provides a long observing baseline which, in and of itself, is opening new research opportunities. Observations in the past few years alone have deepened our understanding of the co-evolution of supermassive black holes and galaxies, the details of black hole accretion, the nature of dark energy and dark matter, the details of supernovae and their progenitors, the interiors of neutron stars, the evolution of massive stars, and the high-energy environment of protoplanetary nebulae and the interaction of an exo-planet with its star. Here we update the technical status, highlight some of the scientific results, and very briefly discuss future prospects. We fully expect that the Observatory will continue to provide outstanding scientific results for many years to come.

Weisskopf, Martin C.↗

Science Highlights and Lessons Learned from the Atmospheric Infrared Sounder (AIRS)

The Atmospheric Infrared Sounder (AIRS) and companion instrument, the Advanced Microwave Sounding Unit (AMSU) on the NASA Earth Observing System Aqua spacecraft are facility instruments designed to support measurements of atmospheric temperature, water vapor and a wide range of atmospheric constituents in support of weather forecasting and scientific research in climate and atmospheric chemistry. This paper is an update to the science highlights from a paper by the authors released last year and also looks back at the lessons learned and future needs of the scientific community. These lessons not only include requirements on the measurements, but scientific shortfalls as well. Results from the NASA Science Community Workshop in IR and MW Sounders relating to AIRS and AMSU requirements and concerns are covered and reflect much of what has been learned and what is needed for future atmospheric sounding from Low Earth Orbit.

Atmospheric Composition↗

NASA Environmentally Responsible Aviation Projects Propulsion Technology Phase I Overview and Highlights of Accomplishments

The NASA Environmentally Responsible Aviation (ERA) Project is focused on developing and demonstrating integrated systems technologies to TRL 4-6 by 2020 that enable reduced fuel burn, emissions, and noise for futuristic air vehicles. The specific goals aim to simultaneously reduce fuel burn by 50%, reduce Landing and Take-off Nitrous Oxides emissions by 75% relative to the CAEP 6 guidelines, and reduce cumulative noise by 42 Decibels relative to the Stage 4 guidelines. These goals apply to the integrated vehicle and propulsion system and are based on a reference mission of 3000nm flight of a Boeing 777-200 with GE90 engines. This paper will focus primarily on the ERA propulsion technology portfolio, which consists of advanced combustion, propulsor, and core technologies to enable these integrated air vehicle systems goals. An overview of the ERA propulsion technologies will be described and highlights of the results obtained during the first phase of ERA will be presented.

jet propulsion↗

Atmospheric Research 2012 Technical Highlights

This annual report, as before, is intended for a broad audience. Our readers include colleagues within NASA, scientists outside the Agency, science graduate students, and members of the general public. Inside are descriptions of atmospheric research science highlights and summaries of our education and outreach accomplishments for calendar year 2012.The report covers research activities from the Mesoscale Atmospheric Processes Laboratory, the Climate and Radiation Laboratory, the Atmospheric Chemistry and Dynamics Laboratory, and the Wallops Field Support Office under the Office of Deputy Director for Atmospheres, Earth Sciences Division in the Sciences and Exploration Directorate of NASAs Goddard Space Flight Center. The overall mission of the office is advancing knowledge and understanding of the Earths atmosphere. Satellite missions, field campaigns, peer-reviewed publications, and successful proposals are essential to our continuing research.

Climate↗

Fifteen Years of Chandra Operation: Scientific Highlights and Lessons Learned

NASA's Chandra X-Ray Observatory, designed for three years of operation with a goal of five years is now entering its 15-th year of operation. Thanks to its superb angular resolution, the Observatory continues to yield new and exciting results, many of which were totally unanticipated prior to launch. We will review some scientific highlights and present "lessons learned" from the experience of operating this great observatory.

Weisskopf, Martin C.↗

Fifteen Years of Chandra Operation: Scientific Highlights and Lessons Learned

NASA's Chandra X-Ray Observatory, designed for three years of operation with a goal of five years is now entering its 15-th year of operation. Thanks to its superb angular resolution, the Observatory continues to yield new and exciting results, many of which were totally unanticipated prior to launch. We discuss the current technical status, review recent scientific highlights, indicate a few future directions, and present what we feel is the most important lesson learned from our experience of building and operating this great observatory.

Weisskopf, Martin C.↗

Highlights from a Decade of OMI-TOMS Total Ozone Observations on EOS Aura

Total ozone measurements from OMI have been instrumental in meeting Aura science objectives. In the last decade, OMI has extended the length of the TOMS total ozone record to over 35 years to monitor stratospheric ozone recovery. OMI-TOMS total ozone measurements have also been combined synergistically with measurements from other Aura instruments and MLS in particular, which provides vertically resolved information that complements the total O3 mapping capability of OMI. With this combined approach, the EOS Aura platform has produced more accurate and detailed measurements of tropospheric ozone. This has led in turn to greater understanding of the sources and transport of tropospheric ozone as well as its radiative forcing effect. The combined use of OMI and MLS data was also vital to the analysis of the severe Arctic ozone depletion event of 2011. The quality of OMI-TOMS total O3 data used in these studies is the result of several factors: a mature and well-validated algorithm, the striking stability of the OMI instrument, and OMI's hyperspectral capabilities used to derive cloud pressures. The latter has changed how we think about the effects of clouds on total ozone retrievals. We will discuss the evolution of the operational V8.5 algorithm and provide an overview and motivation for V9. After reviewing results and developments of the past decade, we finally highlight how ozone observations from EOS Aura are playing an important role in new ozone mapping missions.

Ozone↗

Satellite Monitoring Over the Canadian Oil Sands: Highlights from Aura OMI and TES

Satellite remote sensing provides a unique perspective for air quality monitoring in and around the Canadian Oil Sands as a result of its spatial and temporal coverage. Presented are Aura satellite observations of key pollutants including nitrogen dioxide (NO2), sulfur dioxide (SO2), carbon monoxide (CO), ammonia (NH3), methanol (CH3OH), and formic acid (HCOOH) over the Canadian Oil Sands. Some of the highlights include: (i) the evolution of NO2 and SO2 from the Ozone Monitoring Instrument (OMI), including comparisons with other nearby sources, (ii) two years of ammonia, carbon monoxide, methanol, and formic acid observations from 240 km North-South Tropospheric Emission Spectrometer (TES) transects through the oils sands, and (iii) preliminary insights into emissions derived from these observations.

NO2↗

Highlights from the 11-Year Record of Tropospheric Ozone from OMI/MLS and Continuation of that Long Record Using OMPS Measurements

Since October 2004 the Ozone Monitoring Instrument (OMI) and Microwave Limb Sounder (MLS) onboard the Aura satellite have provided over 11 years of continuous tropospheric ozone measurements. These OMI/MLS measurements have been used in many studies to evaluate dynamical and photochemical effects caused by ENSO, the Madden-Julian Oscillation (MJO) and shorter timescales, as well as long-term trends and the effects of deep convection on tropospheric ozone. Given that the OMI and MLS instruments have now extended well beyond their expected lifetimes, our goal is to continue their long record of tropospheric ozone using recent Ozone Mapping Profiler Suite (OMPS) measurements. The OMPS onboard the Suomi National Polar-orbiting Partnership NPP satellite was launched on October 28, 2011 and is comprised of three instruments: the nadir mapper, the nadir profiler, and the limb profiler. Our study combines total column ozone from the OMPS nadir mapper with stratospheric column ozone from the OMPS limb profiler to measure tropospheric ozone residual. The time period for the OMPS measurements is March 2012 present. For the OMPS limb profiler retrievals, the OMPS v2 algorithm from Goddard is tested against the University of Saskatchewan (USask) Algorithm. The retrieved ozone profiles from each of these algorithms are evaluated with ozone profiles from both ozonesondes and the Aura Microwave Limb Sounder (MLS). Effects on derived OMPS tropospheric ozone caused by the 2015-2016 El Nino event are highlighted. This recent El Nino produced anomalies in tropospheric ozone throughout the tropical Pacific involving increases of approximately 10 DU over Indonesia and decreases approximately 5-10 DU in the eastern Pacific. These changes in ozone due to El Nino were predominantly dynamically-induced, caused by the eastward shift in sea-surface temperature and convection from the western to the eastern Pacific.

MJO↗

Highlights of Recent Research Activities at the NASA Orbital Debris Program Office

The NASA Orbital Debris Program Office (ODPO) was established at the NASA Johnson Space Center in 1979. The ODPO has initiated and led major orbital debris research activities over the past 38 years, including developing the first set of the NASA orbital debris mitigation requirements in 1995 and supporting the establishment of the U.S. Government Orbital Debris Mitigation Standard Practices in 2001. This paper is an overview of the recent ODPO research activities, ranging from ground-based and in-situ measurements, to laboratory tests, and to engineering and long-term orbital debris environment modeling. These activities highlight the ODPO's commitment to continuously improve the orbital debris environment definition to better protect current and future space missions from the low Earth orbit to the geosynchronous Earth orbit regions.

Liou, J - C.↗

Center Overview and UAV Highlights at NASA Ames Research Center

The PowerPoint presentation gives an overview of NASA Ames Research Center and its core competencies, as well as some of the highlights of Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) and Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS) accomplishments and innovations by researchers at Ames.

Unmanned Aircraft Systems↗

NASA Soil Moisture Active Passive Mission Status and Science Highlights

The Soil Moisture Active Passive (SMAP) observatory was launched January 31, 2015, and its L-band radiometer and radar instruments became operational during April 2015. This paper provides a summary of the quality assessment of its baseline soil moisture and freeze/thaw products as well as an overview of new products. The first new product explores the Backus Gilbert optimum interpolation based on the oversampling characteristics of the SMAP radiometer. The second one investigates the disaggregation of the SMAP radiometer data using the European Space Agency's Sentinel-1 C-band synthetic aperture radar (SAR) data to obtain soil moisture products at about 1 to 3 km resolution. In addition, SMAPs L-band data have been found useful for many scientific applications, including depictions of water cycles, vegetation opacity, ocean surface salinity and hurricane ocean surface wind mapping. Highlights of these new applications will be provided.The SMAP soil moisture, freeze/taw state and SSSprovide a synergistic view of water cycle. For example, Fig.7 illustrates the transition of freeze/thaw state, change of soilmoisture near the pole and SSS in the Arctic Ocean fromApril to October in 2015 and 2016. In April, most parts ofAlaska, Canada, and Siberia remained frozen. Melt onsetstarted in May. Alaska, Canada, and a big part of Siberia havebecome thawed at the end of May; some freshwater dischargecould be found near the mouth of Mackenzie in 2016, but notin 2015. The soil moisture appeared to be higher in the Oband Yenisei river basins in Siberia in 2015. As a result,freshwater discharge was more widespread in the Kara Seanear the mouths of both rivers in June 2015 than in 2016. TheNorth America and Siberia have become completely thawedin July. After June, the freshwater discharge from other riversinto the Arctic, indicated by blue, also became visible. Thefreeze-up started in September and the high latitude regionsin North America and Eurasia became frozen. Comparing thespread of freshwater in August 2015 and 2016 suggests thatthere was more discharge from Ob and Yenisei in 2015,which appeared to correspond to a higher soil moisturecontent in the Ob and Yenisei basins. In contrast, Mackenzieappeared to have more discharge in September 2016.

soil moisture↗

Annual Highlights of Results from the International Space Station

To date, research on the International Space Station (ISS) has helped answer scientific questions ranging from 'How do fluids flow in space?' to 'What are the origins of the universe?', and the science and technology returns have grown at a steady pace. The on-orbit international crew have been busier than ever performing research and technology development activities for use on Earth and in space. As of October 1, 2016, more than 2000 investigations were conducted across the international partnership resulting in more than 1900 publications in journals, conferences, and other gray literature (such as magazines, DVDs, and patents). This report is intended to provide an overall highlight of research results published from October 1, 2015 to October 1, 2016 from investigations operated on the ISS. These results represent the research of approximately 500 scientists around the world for investigations sponsored by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), the Roscosmos State Corporation for Space Activities (Roscosmos), the Japanese Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA), the European Space Agency (ESA), and the Canadian Space Agency (CSA). Like a typical laboratory on Earth, the logistics of the ISS allows for many investigations to be carried forward over several ISS crew expeditions, enabling repeated experimentation and data collection important for answering critical research questions. Impacts of these results reach beyond the field of space research into traditional areas of science in multidisciplinary ways.

Ruttley, Tara↗