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Topics include: special coverage section on data acquisition and sensors and sections on electronic components and systems, software, materials, mechanics, machinery/automation, manufacturing/fabrication, bio-medical, physical sciences, information sciences, book and reports, and special section of Electronics Tech Briefs and Motion Control Tech briefs
The smart city approach requires collection of interdisciplinary data and information from multiple sources and integration with modern technologies to provide a new and cost-effective way for researchers and decision makers to study and manage cities. In this book chapter, we introduce NASA satellite-based global and regional observations with emphasis on the hydrologic cycle (e.g., precipitation, wind, temperature, soil moisture) for smart cities. These products, consisting of both near-real-time and historical datasets, are publicly available free of charge and can be used for global and regional research and applications. Examples of using these datasets in smart cities are included. The chapter is organized as follows, first, a brief overview of NASA global satellite-based data products, followed by data services and tools, two examples of using satellite-based datasets in megacities, and finally summary and future plans.
This document presents a listing of the Review Item Dispositions (RIDs) to be presented to the The Consultative Committee for Space Data Systems (CCSDS).
Residual vector quantization (RVQ), or multistage VQ, as it is also called, has recently been shown to be a competitive technique for data compression. The competitive performance of RVQ reported in results from the joint optimization of variable rate encoding and RVQ direct-sum code books. In this paper, necessary conditions for the optimality of variable rate RVQ's are derived, and an iterative descent algorithm based on a Lagrangian formulation is introduced for designing RVQ's having minimum average distortion subject to an entropy constraint. Simulation results for these entropy-constrained RVQ's (EC-RVQ's) are presented for memory less Gaussian, Laplacian, and uniform sources. A Gauss-Markov source is also considered. The performance is superior to that of entropy-constrained scalar quantizers (EC-SQ's) and practical entropy-constrained vector quantizers (EC-VQ's), and is competitive with that of some of the best source coding techniques that have appeared in the literature.
his research investigates the combination of task and data parallel language constructs within a single programming language. There are an number of applications that exhibit properties which would be well served by such an integrated language. Examples include global climate models, aircraft design problems, and multidisciplinary design optimization problems. Our approach incorporates data parallel language constructs into an existing, object oriented, task parallel language. The language will support creation and manipulation of parallel classes and objects of both types (task parallel and data parallel). Ultimately, the language will allow data parallel and task parallel classes to be used either as building blocks or managers of parallel objects of either type, thus allowing the development of single and multi-paradigm parallel applications. 1995 Research Accomplishments In February I presented a paper at Frontiers '95 describing the design of the data parallel language subset. During the spring I wrote and defended my dissertation proposal. Since that time I have developed a runtime model for the language subset. I have begun implementing the model and hand-coding simple examples which demonstrate the language subset. I have identified an astrophysical fluid flow application which will validate the data parallel language subset. 1996 Research Agenda Milestones for the coming year include implementing a significant portion of the data parallel language subset over the Legion system. Using simple hand-coded methods, I plan to demonstrate (1) concurrent task and data parallel objects and (2) task parallel objects managing both task and data parallel objects. My next steps will focus on constructing a compiler and implementing the fluid flow application with the language. Concurrently, I will conduct a search for a real-world application exhibiting both task and data parallelism within the same program m. Additional 1995 Activities During the fall I collaborated with Andrew Grimshaw and Adam Ferrari to write a book chapter which will be included in Parallel Processing in C++ edited by Gregory Wilson. I also finished two courses, Compilers and Advanced Compilers, in 1995. These courses complete my class requirements at the University of Virginia. I have only my dissertation research and defense to complete.
This book is a summary of interdisciplinary research (physiology, space medicine, engineering, computer science, mathematics) that spans two decades (1972-1992). The research was an attempt to use systems analysis, mathematical modeling, computer simulations, and database systems to integrate the biomedical spaceflight data that was being collected during this period. The goal of the effort was to achieve a better understanding of the human physiological response to short-term and long-term space travel. The activity was primarily devoted to analyzing the biomedical results of Skylab (1973-74), a series of three space missions which is still ranked as the most comprehensive of all long-term biomedical space studies to date. This work was begun as a coordinated effort between the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (Johnson Space Center) and the General Electric Company’s Space Division (Houston, TX). It was the intent that this multidisciplined, integrative approach could reveal aspects of the then-new science of microgravity adaptation that were not obvious by adhering to the traditional methodology of examining each organ system in isolation. Some joint work with the Russians, including the Apollo-Soyez test project and a joint bedrest study was also supported during this period. In the 1980’s the systems analysis group’s effort was redirected to support the science management of human and animal experiments on the Space Shuttle. A few examples from this era are also included in the book. Parts of this work have been published elsewhere, presented at technical meetings, and documented in reports with limited distribution. These publications will be referenced throughout the text and the interested reader is advised to use these as resource material where additional details are desired. The intent of this book is not to reproduce these documents but rather to present a coherent view of the integrative analysis under one cover. This volume contains the first detailed publication (other than in internal reports) of an extensive metabolic balance analysis of Skylab data, the development and validation of the “Whole-Body Algorithm,” and simulation studies of diverse hypogravic environments. An analysis of cardiovascular deconditioning and a description of the calcium regulatory model are also new. A long period has passed between the completion of the main body of work represented in this book and its publication in this form. It was inevitable that new research efforts would lead to developments related to the spaceflight problems addressed and thereby make some of our biomedical conclusions obsolete. Although in some cases reference to more recent work have been included, for the most part this book should be considered an historical summary demonstrating the approach and utility of systems analysis and computer modeling in the NASA Life Sciences program at the time the studies were conducted.
The Space Station contains safety critical computer software components in systems that can affect life and vital property. These components require a multilevel secure system that provides dynamic access control of the data and processes involved. A study is under way to define requirements for a security model providing access control through level B3 of the Orange Book. The model will be prototyped at NASA-Johnson Space Center.
Terrestrial water storage can be defined as the summation of all water on the land surface and in the subsurface. It includes surface soil moisture, root zone soil moisture, groundwater, snow,ice, water stored in the vegetation, river and lake water. Terrestrial water storage (TWS) changes have been observed by the Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE) mission since 2002. GRACE has provided an unprecedented view of the terrestrial water storage variations at large scales. Extremes in water storage often are associated with droughts and flooding events because they are driven by the surplus or deficit of water. Few hydrologic observing networks yield sufficient data for comprehensive monitoring of changes in the total amount of water stored in a region. GRACE observations have helped to fill this gap. This book chapter is divided into 4 sections.Section 1 provides an overview of the GRACE mission. Section 2 reviews the terrestrial water storage solutions that are available. Section 3 describes regional to global applications of GRACE for monitoring extremes in the terrestrial water storage, including droughts and flooding events. Conclusions and future directions are reported in Section 4.
The Facilities Engineering and Architectural Branch is responsible for the design and maintenance of buildings, laboratories, and civil structures. In order to improve efficiency and quality, the FEAB has dedicated itself to establishing a data infrastructure based on Geographic Information Systems, GIS. The value of GIS was explained in an article dating back to 1980 entitled "Need for a Multipurpose Cadastre" which stated, "There is a critical need for a better land-information system in the United States to improve land-conveyance procedures, furnish a basis for equitable taxation, and provide much-needed information for resource management and environmental planning." Scientists and engineers both point to GIS as the solution. What is GIS? According to most text books, Geographic Information Systems is a class of software that stores, manages, and analyzes mapable features on, above, or below the surface of the earth. GIS software is basically database management software to the management of spatial data and information. Simply put, Geographic Information Systems manage, analyze, chart, graph, and map spatial information. GIS can be broken down into two main categories, urban GIS and natural resource GIS. Further still, natural resource GIS can be broken down into six sub-categories, agriculture, forestry, wildlife, catchment management, archaeology, and geology/mining. Agriculture GIS has several applications, such as agricultural capability analysis, land conservation, market analysis, or whole farming planning. Forestry GIs can be used for timber assessment and management, harvest scheduling and planning, environmental impact assessment, and pest management. GIS when used in wildlife applications enables the user to assess and manage habitats, identify and track endangered and rare species, and monitor impact assessment.
The Facilities Engineering and Architectural Branch is responsible for the design and maintenance of buildings, laboratories, and civil structures. In order to improve efficiency and quality, the FEAB has dedicated itself to establishing a data infrastructure based on Geographic Information Systems, GIs. The value of GIS was explained in an article dating back to 1980 entitled "Need for a Multipurpose Cadastre which stated, "There is a critical need for a better land-information system in the United States to improve land-conveyance procedures, furnish a basis for equitable taxation, and provide much-needed information for resource management and environmental planning." Scientists and engineers both point to GIS as the solution. What is GIS? According to most text books, Geographic Information Systems is a class of software that stores, manages, and analyzes mapable features on, above, or below the surface of the earth. GIS software is basically database management software to the management of spatial data and information. Simply put, Geographic Information Systems manage, analyze, chart, graph, and map spatial information. At the outset, I was given goals and expectations from my branch and from my mentor with regards to the further implementation of GIs. Those goals are as follows: (1) Continue the development of GIS for the underground structures. (2) Extract and export annotated data from AutoCAD drawing files and construct a database (to serve as a prototype for future work). (3) Examine existing underground record drawings to determine existing and non-existing underground tanks. Once this data was collected and analyzed, I set out on the task of creating a user-friendly database that could be assessed by all members of the branch. It was important that the database be built using programs that most employees already possess, ruling out most AutoCAD-based viewers. Therefore, I set out to create an Access database that translated onto the web using Internet Explorer as the foundation. After some programming, it was possible to view AutoCAD files and other GIS-related applications on Internet Explorer, while providing the user with a variety of editing commands and setting options. I was also given the task of launching a divisional website using Macromedia Flash and other web- development programs.
Requirements for and definitions of a cost effective orbital facility concept, capable of supporting extended manned operations in earth orbit beyond those visualized for the 7 to 30 day shuttle/spacelab system, were studied. Data are given on requirements derivation, concepts identification, systems analysis and definition, and programmatics.
If tornadoes were counted as the Gross National Product, no other country on the surface of the earth could come even close to the United States. During the recent 70 year period, the United States produced 31,054 tornadoes which left behind a cumulative path of 132,005 miles (212,396 km) which would circle the world 5.3 times along the equator. In completing the book, staff members of the Satellite and Mesometeorlogy Research Project (1961 to the present) played an important role in collecting, evaluating, and archiving the historical tornado data.
We propose the series of three presentations described above for inclusion in your symposium. These presentations are similar to those we presented last November in plenary session at the Third International Symposium on Space Mission Operations and Ground Data Systems. Each presentation lasts 40 minutes and the presentations are designed to be given in order. The information in our presentations is extracted from a book of the same title scheduled for publication in August, 1995. Please note that since we have a book covering this topic, we will not prepare separate papers. An overview of each presentation is shown below.
Topics include: Data Acquisition; Computer-Aided Design and Engineering; Electronic Components and Circuits; Electronic Systems; Bio-Medical; Physical Sciences; Materials; Computer Programs; Mechanics; Machinery/Automation; Information Sciences; Books and reports.
On the job training is where new employees called operators can start gaining knowledge on what they will be working on during their time in JSC. In these lessons I learned different things that are important ranging from thermal systems to electrical systems. While doing OJT classes the student will learn how to use a portable computer system which has displays that I also helped edit and clean up. The way you can also learn is by reading system briefs which describes the different systems. Due to the fact of a possible change in the ISS I updated a systems brief so that it can be relevant to what is actually on the space station. I was given a task that will help develop my skills and make myself better prepared for my future in the work field. The project that I worked on had me pulling real time data from the International Space Station. The Data I obtained from the space station will be correlated to battery performance. The group I will be working which is called REBA and we will take the telemetry and evaluate the data. I will be working with my mentor Ben Chislom and co-op Tyler along with the Pro team. They then will put this data into a graph so that they can get the discrepancies and find a way to improve the battery performance. The first weeks I read familiarization books that informed me how the ISS works, how it was built, and the systems that are used to keep the station working. This project is going to benefit NASA by finding out how electricity is being used on the ISS and enabling us to see how it can be used more efficiently. This way we can operate the ISS without wasting power. While conducting research that goes on inside the space station knowing all electricity is being used efficiently.
The purpose of this project was to establish and maintain a Space Physics Data System (SPDS) node that supports the analysis and interpretation of current and future galactic cosmic ray (GCR) measurements by (1) providing on-line databases relevant to GCR propagation studies; (2) providing other on-line services, such as anonymous FTP access, mail list service and pointers to e-mail address books, to support the cosmic ray community; (3) providing a mechanism for those in the community who might wish to submit similar contributions for public access; (4) maintaining the node to assure that the databases remain current; and (5) investigating other possibilities, such as CD-ROM, for public dissemination of the data products. Shortly after the original grant to support these activities was established at Louisiana State University a detailed study of alternate choices for the node hardware was initiated. The chosen hardware was an Apple Workgroup Server 9150/120 consisting of a 120 MHz PowerPC 601 processor, 32 MB of memory, two I GB disks and one 2 GB disk. This hardware was ordered and installed and has been operating reliably ever since. A preliminary version of the database server was available during the first year effort and was used as part of the very successful SPDS demonstration during the Rome, Italy International Cosmic Ray Conference. For this server version we were able to establish the html and anonymous FTP server software, develop a Web page structure which can be easily modified to include new items, provide an on-line database of charge changing total cross sections, include the cross section prediction software of Silberberg & Tsao as well as Webber, Kish and Schrier for download access, and provide an on-line bibliography of the cross section measurement references by the Transport Collaboration. The preliminary version of this SPDS Cosmic Ray node was examined by members of the C&H SPDS committee and returned comments were used to refine the implementation.
This grant was intended to support the development of theoretical models needed to interpret and understand the observations by the Hubble Space Telescope and the Chandra X-ray telescope of the rapidly developing remnant of Supernova 1987A. In addition, we carried out a few investigations of related topics. The project was spectacularly successful. The models that we developed provide the definitive framework for predicting and interpreting this phenomenon. Following is a list of publications based on our work. Some of these papers include results of both theoretical modeling supported by this project and also analysis of data supported by the Space Telescope Science Institute and the Chandra X-ray Observatory. We first list papers published in refereed journals, then conference proceedings and book chapters, and also an educational web site.
PC-CUBE is an ensemble of IBM PCs or close compatibles connected in the hypercube topology with ordinary computer cables. Communication occurs at the rate of 115.2 K-band via the RS-232 serial links. Available for PC-CUBE is the Crystalline Operating System III (CrOS III), Mercury Operating System, CUBIX and PLOTIX which are parallel I/O and graphics libraries. A CrOS performance monitor was developed to facilitate the measurement of communication and computation time of a program and their effects on performance. Also available are CXLISP, a parallel version of the XLISP interpreter; GRAFIX, some graphics routines for the EGA and CGA; and a general execution profiler for determining execution time spent by program subroutines. PC-CUBE provides a programming environment similar to all hypercube systems running CrOS III, Mercury and CUBIX. In addition, every node (personal computer) has its own graphics display monitor and storage devices. These allow data to be displayed or stored at every processor, which has much instructional value and enables easier debugging of applications. Some application programs which are taken from the book Solving Problems on Concurrent Processors (Fox 88) were implemented with graphics enhancement on PC-CUBE. The applications range from solving the Mandelbrot set, Laplace equation, wave equation, long range force interaction, to WaTor, an ecological simulation.