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At least 199 records · Page 11
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
NASA NTRS1981

General description and operation of the agro-environmental system: Crop management modeling

Input for a data management system to provide farmers with information to improve crop management practices in Virginia requires monitoring of control crops at field stations, crop surveys derived from remotely sensed aircraft data, meteorological data from synchronous satellites, and details of local agricultural conditions. Presently models are under development for determining pest problems, water balance in the soil, stages of plant maturity, and optimum planting date. The status of the Cerospora leafspot model for peanut crop management is considered. Other models under development planned relate to Cylindtocladium Blackrot and Sclerotinia blight of peanuts, cyst nematode (Globerdena solanacearum) of tobacco, and red crown rot of soybeans. A software for program for estimating precipitation and solar radiation on a statewise basis is also being developed.

Gross, E.↗
NASA NTRS1983

Three Mars years - Viking Lander 1 imaging observations

The Mutch Memorial Station (Viking Lander 1) on Mars acquired imaging and meteorological data over a period of 2245 martian days (3.3 martian years). This article discusses the deposition and erosion of thin deposits (ten to hundreds of micrometers) of bright red dust associated with global dust storms, and the removal of centimeter amounts of material in selected areas during a dust storm late in the third winter. Atmospheric pressure data acquired during the period of intense erosion imply that baroclinic disturbances and strong diurnal solar tidal heating combined to produce strong winds. Erosion occurred principally in areas where soil cohesion was reduced by earlier surface sampler activities. Except for redistribution of thin layers of materials, the surface appears to be remarkably stable, perhaps because of cohension of the undisturbed surface material.

Arvidson, R. E.↗
NASA NTRS1989

The evolution of space mechanisms in the ESA R and D program

The status of recently completed and already ongoing technology developments, as well as some of the most important future developments of the European Space Agency are discussed. Among the subjects considered are Scientific Satellites, Columbus space station development, applications spacecraft for communications, Earth observation and meteorology, and the Ariane V and Hermes space transportation systems.

Wyn-Roberts, D.↗
NASA NTRS2000

Wavelet and Fractal Analysis of Remotely Sensed Surface Temperature with Applications to Estimation of Surface Sensible Heat Flux Density

Wavelet and fractal analyses have been used successfully to analyze one-dimensional data sets such as time series of financial, physical, and biological parameters. These techniques have been applied to two-dimensional problems in some instances, including the analysis of remote sensing imagery. In this respect, these techniques have not been widely used by the remote sensing community, and their overall capabilities as analytical tools for use on satellite and aircraft data sets is not well known. Wavelet and fractal analyses have the potential to provide fresh insight into the characterization of surface properties such as temperature and emissivity distributions, and surface processes such as the heat and water vapor exchange between the surface and the lower atmosphere. In particular, the variation of sensible heat flux density as a function of the change In scale of surface properties Is difficult to estimate, but - in general - wavelets and fractals have proved useful in determining the way a parameter varies with changes in scale. We present the results of a limited study on the relationship between spatial variations in surface temperature distribution and sensible heat flux distribution as determined by separate wavelet and fractal analyses. We analyzed aircraft imagery obtained in the thermal infrared (IR) bands from the multispectral TIMS and hyperspectral MASTER airborne sensors. The thermal IR data allows us to estimate the surface kinetic temperature distribution for a number of sites in the Midwestern and Southwestern United States (viz., San Pedro River Basin, Arizona; El Reno, Oklahoma; Jornada, New Mexico). The ground spatial resolution of the aircraft data varied from 5 to 15 meters. All sites were instrumented with meteorological and hydrological equipment including surface layer flux measuring stations such as Bowen Ratio systems and sonic anemometers. The ground and aircraft data sets provided the inputs for the wavelet and fractal analyses, and the validation of the results.

Schieldge, John↗
NASA NTRS2007

Objective Lightning Probability Forecast Tool Phase II

This presentation describes the improvement of a set of lightning probability forecast equations that are used by the 45th Weather Squadron forecasters for their daily 1100 UTC (0700 EDT) weather briefing during the warm season months of May-September. This information is used for general scheduling of operations at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station and Kennedy Space Center. Forecasters at the Spaceflight Meteorology Group also make thunderstorm forecasts during Shuttle flight operations. Five modifications were made by the Applied Meteorology Unit: increased the period of record from 15 to 17 years, changed the method of calculating the flow regime of the day, calculated a new optimal layer relative humidity, used a new smoothing technique for the daily climatology, and used a new valid area. The test results indicated that the modified equations showed and increase in skill over the current equations, good reliability, and an ability to distinguish between lightning and non-lightning days.

Lambert, Winnie↗
NASA NTRS2007

Update to the Lightning Probability Forecast Equations at Kennedy Space Center/Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Florida

This conference presentation describes the improvement of a set of lightning probability forecast equations that are used by the 45th Weather Squadron forecasters for their daily 1100 UTC (0700 EDT) weather briefing during the warm season months of May- September. This information is used for general scheduling of operations at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station and Kennedy Space Center. Forecasters at the Spaceflight Meteorology Group also make thunderstorm forecasts during Shuttle flight operations. Five modifications were made by the Applied Meteorology Unit: increased the period of record from 15 to 17 years, changed the method of calculating the flow regime of the day, calculated a new optimal layer relative humidity, used a new smoothing technique for the daily climatology, and used a new valid area. The test results indicated that the modified equations showed and increase in skill over the current equations, good reliability, and an ability to distinguish between lightning and non-lightning days.

Lambert, Winifred↗
NASA NTRS2013

Update to the Objective Lightning Probability Forecast Tool in use at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Florida

This conference poster describes the improvement of a set of lightning probability forecast equations that are used by the 45th Weather Squadron forecasters for their daily 1100 UTC (0700 EDT) weather briefing during the warm season months of May-September. This information is used for general scheduling of operations at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station and Kennedy Space Center. Forecasters at the Spaceflight Meteorology Group also make thunderstorm forecasts during Shuttle flight operations. Five modifications were made by the Applied Meteorology Unit: increased the period of record from 15 to 17 years, changed the method of calculating the flow regime of the day, calculated a new optimal layer relative humidity, used a new smoothing technique for the daily climatology, and used a new valid area. The test results indicated that the modified equations showed and increase in skill over the current equations, good reliability and an ability to distinguish between lightning and non-lightning days.

Lambert, Winifred↗
NASA NTRS2007

Update to the Lightning Probability Forecast Equations at Kennedy Space Center/Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Florida

This conference presentation describes the improvement of a set of lightning probability forecast equations that are used by the 45th Weather Squadron forecasters for their daily 1100 UTC (0700 EDT) weather briefing during the warm season months of May-September. This information is used for general scheduling of operations at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station and Kennedy Space Center. Forecasters at the Spaceflight Meteorology Group also make thunderstorm forecasts during Shuttle flight operations. Five modifications were made by the Applied Meteorology Unit: increased the period of record from 15 to 17 years, changed the method of calculating the flow regime of the day, calculated a new optimal layer relative humidity, used a new smoothing technique for the daily climatology, and used a new valid area. The test results indicated that the modified equations showed and increase in skill over the current equations, good reliability, and an ability to distinguish between lightning and non-lightning days.

Lambert, Winifred↗
NASA NTRS2008

Update to the Objective Lightning Probability Forecast Tool in Use at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Florida

This conference presentation describes the improvement of a set of lightning probability forecast equations that are used by the 45th Weather Squadron forecasters for their daily 1100 UTC (0700 EDT) weather briefing during the warm season months of May-September. This information is used for general scheduling of operations at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station and Kennedy Space Center. Forecasters at the Spaceflight Meteorology Group also make thunderstorm forecasts during Shuttle flight operations. Five modifications were made by the Applied Meteorology Unit: increased the period of record from 15 to 17 years, changed the method of calculating the flow regime of the day, calculated a new optimal layer relative humidity, used a new smoothing technique for the daily climatology, and used a new valid area. The test results indicated that the modified equaitions showed and increase in skill over the current equations, good reliability, and an ability to distinguish between lightning and non-lightning days.

Lambert, Winifred↗
NASA NTRS2017

The Profile Envision and Splice Tool (PRESTO): Developing an Atmospheric Wind Analysis Tool for Space Launch Vehicles Using Python

Tropospheric winds are an important driver of the design and operation of space launch vehicles. Multiple types of weather balloons and Doppler Radar Wind Profiler (DRWP) systems exist at NASA's Kennedy Space Center (KSC), co-located on the United States Air Force's (USAF) Eastern Range (ER) at the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station (CCAFS), that are capable of measuring atmospheric winds. Meteorological data gathered by these instruments are being used in the design of NASA's Space Launch System (SLS) and other space launch vehicles, and will be used during the day-of-launch (DOL) of SLS to aid in loads and trajectory analyses. For the purpose of SLS day-of-launch needs, the balloons have the altitude coverage needed, but take over an hour to reach the maximum altitude and can drift far from the vehicle's path. The DRWPs have the spatial and temporal resolutions needed, but do not provide complete altitude coverage. Therefore, the Natural Environments Branch (EV44) at Marshall Space Flight Center (MSFC) developed the Profile Envision and Splice Tool (PRESTO) to combine balloon profiles and profiles from multiple DRWPs, filter the spliced profile to a common wavelength, and allow the operator to generate output files as well as to visualize the inputs and the spliced profile for SLS DOL operations. PRESTO was developed in Python taking advantage of NumPy and SciPy for the splicing procedure, matplotlib for the visualization, and Tkinter for the execution of the graphical user interface (GUI). This paper describes in detail the Python coding implementation for the splicing, filtering, and visualization methodology used in PRESTO.

Orcutt, John M.↗
NASA NTRSDate not supplied

An Overview of the Meteorological Instrumentation Utilized for the Design and Operations of Space Launch Vehicles

One of the first hurdles a space vehicle must overcome is the ability to successfully traverse Earth’s atmosphere. In order to achieve this goal, there must exist both climatological and real-time atmospheric data from the surface to the Karman line. The Natural Environments Branch at the National Aeronautics and Space Administration’s Marshall Space Flight Center utilizes both traditional and specialized meteorological instrumentation to aide in both the design and operations of launch vehicles. Weather balloons measuring thermodynamic and wind data from 0 - 70 kft are an example of the more traditional instrumentation. While the Tropospheric Doppler Radar Weather Profiler that measures winds from roughly 5 kft – 60 kft every five minutes is an example of a more specialized instrument. Other instruments include: 915 MHz Doppler Radar Wind Profilers, rain gauges, meteorological towers, lightning detection networks, Automated Weather Observing System stations, Mobile Launcher weather stations, and more. This presentation will give a high-level overview of which instruments are utilized, how the data are acquired, and how the data are ultimately used in design and/or operations.

Nathan L. Curtis↗
NASA NTRS2018

Influence of Precipitation Forcing Uncertainty on Hydrological Simulations with the NASA South Asia Land Data Assimilation System

Accurate meteorological estimates are critical for process-based hydrological simulationand prediction. This presents a significant challenge in mountainous Asia where in situmeteorological stations are limited and major river basins cross international borders. In thiscontext, remotely sensed and model-derived meteorological estimates are often necessary inputsfor distributed hydrological analysis. However, these datasets are difficult to evaluate on accountof limited access to ground data. In this case, the implications of uncertainty associated withprecipitation forcing for hydrological simulations is explored by driving the South Asia Land DataAssimilation System (South Asia LDAS) using a range of meteorological forcing products.MERRA2, GDAS, and CHIRPS produce a wide range of estimates for rainfall, which causes awidespread simulated streamflow and evapotranspiration. A combination of satellite-derived andlimited in situ data are applied to evaluate model simulations and, by extension, to constrain theestimates of precipitation. The results show that available gridded precipitation estimates based onin situ data may systematically underestimate precipitation in mountainous regions and thatperformance of gridded satellite-derived or modeled precipitation estimates varies systematicallyacross the region. Since no station-based data or product including station data is satisfactoryeverywhere, our results suggest that the evaluation of the hydrological simulation of streamflowand ET can be used as an indirect evaluation of precipitation forcing based on ground-basedproducts or in-situ data. South Asia LDAS produces reasonable evapotranspiration and streamflowwhen forced with appropriate meteorological forcing and the choice of meteorological forcingshould be made based on the geographical location as well as on the purpose of the simulations.

South Asia land data assimilation system (South As↗
NASA NTRS2012

Short Trips and a Traverse

Dr. Cameron joined the Arctic Institute of North America in 1956 to participate in IGY-related activities in Antarctica. He served as Chief Glaciologist at Wilkes Station, on the coast of East Antarctica. This was a joint Navy-civilian operation consisting of 17 Navy personnel and 10 scientists. Specifically, his glaciological team consisted of two colleagues with whom he had worked before - Olav Loken in Norway in the summer of 1953, and John Molholm in Greenland in the summer of 1954. This team spent much of its time at a remote station established 80 kilometers (50 miles) inland, where they conducted both meteorological and glaciological studies. One of the glaciological studies entailed digging a 35-meter (approx.115-foot) vertical pit to study snow densification and stratigraphy. The assignment for the Navy Seabees was to first establish a joint US-NZ base at Cape Hallett and then go along the coast of East Antarctica and set up Wilkes Station.

Cameron, Richard↗
NASA NTRS2021

Performance Assessment of the Eastern Range Mosquito Lagoon 915-MHz Doppler Radar Wind Profiler

Please find enclosed the performance assessment for the Mosquito Lagoon 915-MHz Doppler Radar Wind Profiler (DRWP). This assessment was conducted following the installation of the new DRWP systems at the Eastern Range. DRWP profiles were compared to Automated Meteorological Profiling System balloons launched from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station. Launching balloons from the DRWP site was discussed, but was determined to be unfeasible. Therefore, these results include errors due to the spatial separation of winds. Mean wind component deltas generally ranged between -1.4-2.0 m/s between the balloons and DRWP systems. Data availability at discrete altitudes ranged from 7% to 98% with the least amount of available profiles being in the upper altitude ranges between 4000 m and 5000 m as well as below 300 m. The effective vertical resolution was not able to be estimated in this study, likely due to the relatively small dataset. The results from this analysis were requested by the United States Space Force for use of the acceptance of the DRWP system and for internal EV44 reference.

meteorology↗
NASA NTRS1977

United States data collection activities and requirements, volume 1

The potential market for a data collection system was investigated to determine whether the user needs would be sufficient to support a satellite relay data collection system design. The activities of 107,407 data collections stations were studied to determine user needs in agriculture, climatology, environmental monitoring, forestry, geology, hydrology, meteorology, and oceanography. Descriptions of 50 distinct data collections networks are described and used to form the user data base. The computer program used to analyze the station data base is discussed, and results of the analysis are presented in maps and graphs. Information format and coding is described in the appendix.

Hrin, S.↗
NASA NTRS2002

Statistical Short-Range Guidance for Peak Wind Speed Forecasts on Kennedy Space Center/Cape Canaveral Air Force Station: Phase I Results

This report describes the results of the ANU's (Applied Meteorology Unit) Short-Range Statistical Forecasting task for peak winds. The peak wind speeds are an important forecast element for the Space Shuttle and Expendable Launch Vehicle programs. The Keith Weather Squadron and the Spaceflight Meteorology Group indicate that peak winds are challenging to forecast. The Applied Meteorology Unit was tasked to develop tools that aid in short-range forecasts of peak winds at tower sites of operational interest. A 7 year record of wind tower data was used in the analysis. Hourly and directional climatologies by tower and month were developed to determine the seasonal behavior of the average and peak winds. In all climatologies, the average and peak wind speeds were highly variable in time. This indicated that the development of a peak wind forecasting tool would be difficult. Probability density functions (PDF) of peak wind speed were calculated to determine the distribution of peak speed with average speed. These provide forecasters with a means of determining the probability of meeting or exceeding a certain peak wind given an observed or forecast average speed. The climatologies and PDFs provide tools with which to make peak wind forecasts that are critical to safe operations.

Lambert, Winifred C.↗
NASA NTRS1995

Science Rationale for a Micro-Met Mission to Augment InterMarsNet

The 2003 opportunity has the potential to carry out for the first time in Mars exploration history, coordinated measurements from the surface and from orbit that can address fundamental issues associated with the Martian global circulation and climate system. Coordinated measurements are defined here to mean collecting meteorological data from a network of 12-16 globally distributed surface stations simultaneously with an orbiter carrying an atmospheric sounder. With such measurements it is possible to define the horizontally varying (barotropic) and vertically varying (baroclinic) components of the global circulation from which the full 3-dimensional horizontal wind field can be reconstructed. It is also possible to precisely define the CO2 cycle, the main component of the current climate system. InterMarsNet, as currently envisioned, consists of 3-4 landers with a supporting communications orbiter that may carry some instrumentation. The landers are likely to touch down in low latitudes and will probably be configured to optimize seismological objectives. We propose to augment the InterMarsNet meteorological objectives by flying an additional 10-15 "MicroMet" landers equipped to measure surface pressure and nothing else. Surface pressure is the most fundamental meteorological parameter and it is the easiest to measure. The sensors are light, operate with minimal power, and do not require orientation or deployment. Consequently the landers can be very small (< 10 kg) and 10-15 of them can be delivered by a Med-lite launcher. This would enable global network science for meteorology and, when combined wAh the more sophisticated measurements from the InterMarsNet landers and the simultaneous temperature and dust profiling measurements from an atmospheric sounder aboard the orbiter, it would enable us to reconstruct global scale circulation patterns.

Haberle, Robert M.↗
NASA NTRS1982

Effects of miso- and mesoscale obstructions on PAM winds obtained during project NIMROD

Data from 27 PAM (Portable Automated Mesonet) stations, operational as a phase of project NIMROD (Northern Illinois Meteorological Research on Downburst), are presented. It was found that PAM-measured winds are influenced by the mesoscale obstruction of the Chicago metropolitan area, as well as by the misoscale obstruction of identified trees and buildings. The mesoscale obstruction was estimated within the range of near zero to 50%, increasing toward the city limits, while the misoscale obstruction was estimated as being as large as 58% near obstructing trees which were empirically calculated to cause a wind speed deficit 50-80 times their height. Despite a statistical analysis based on one-million PAM winds, wind speed and stability transmission factors could not be accurately calculated; thus, in order to calculate the airflow free from obstacle, PAM-measured winds must be corrected.

Fujita, T. T.↗