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At least 307 records · Page 17

Intro and Recent Advances: Remote Data Access via OPeNDAP Web Services

During the upcoming Summer 2016 meeting of the ESIP Federation (July 19-22), OpenDAP will hold a Developers and Users Workshop. While a broad set of topics will be covered, a key focus is capitalizing on recent EOSDIS-sponsored advances in Hyrax, OPeNDAPs own software for server-side realization of the DAP2 and DAP4 protocols. These Hyrax advances are as important to data users as to data providers, and the workshop will include hands-on experiences of value to both. Specifically, a balanced set of presentations and hands-on tutorials will address advances in1.server installation,2.server configuration,3.Hyrax aggregation capabilities,4.support for data-access from clients that are HTTP-based, JSON-based or OGC-compliant (especially WCS and WMS),5.support for DAP4,6.use and extension of server-side computational capabilities, and7.several performance-affecting matters. Topics 2 through 7 will be relevant to data consumers, data providers and notably, due to the open-source nature of all OPeNDAP software to developers wishing to extend Hyrax, to build compatible clients and servers, and/or to employ Hyrax as middleware that enables interoperability across a variety of end-user and source-data contexts. A session for contributed talks will elaborate the topics listed above and embrace additional ones.

hyrax↗

Data Accountability and Uncertainty Analysis for the Mars Science Laboratory

This paper presents machine learning-based approaches to automate and optimize the detection of volume loss for the downlink process of telemetry data from the Mars Curiosity Rover. The Curiosity observes volume loss and data corruption, requiring re-transmits from the rover and Ground Data System Analysts (GDSA) to monitor the data flow. To resolve this issue, we created a data pipeline to accumulate data from various data sources in the downlink process and detect where the data is missed. In this paper, we benchmarked different methodologies based on the accuracy and excitability of them to identify whether a downlink data that is received to the ground system is complete or incomplete. Our results show that machine learning methods can improve the performance of the GDSA by 55% while the user can diagnose why data is missed and provide an explanation for the data accountability problem.

Chowdhury, Ameera↗

Prediction of Safety Incidents

Crystal Ball is an application being developed that accesses multiple safety databases as a means to improve prediction of safety incidents. Year 1 was data integration, year 2 was predictive modeling, and then year 3(FY20), was the merging of those two prior year efforts into the final application, Crystal Ball (ssc.crystalball.insight.nasa.gov). Crystal Ball sits on the Insight platform (Insight is a NASA platform used to process, manage, integrate, analyze and visualize data at scale, insight.nasa.gov). InFY20, the project focus concentrated on the larger vision of Prediction of Safety Incidents using Crystal Ball as the data source. The Insight platform developer incorporated the predictive modeled data sets, and included a graphical user interface, resulting in a Dashboard for the Crystal Ball application; This application is a one-stop-shop for SMA employees working across data sets and provides a snapshot of current relative risk in different types of locations across the center. The ultimate goal is to have a tool that management can use to aid in decisions that are based on data already being collected. Ideally, the tool would highlight areas of increased risk for any given day. SMA will be conducting case studies to further refine the process of identifying higher areas of risk and potentially strategically direct resources where needed more. Our partners who leveraged funds for this project may consider use at other NASA organizations.

Kamili Shaw↗

Super-Resolution from Space: Using MERRA-2 and MAIAC Satellite Imagery to Produce Daily Continuous 1 km PM2.5 Estimates

PM2.5 measurements from ground stations are the gold standard when available, but the expense and coverage of such stations limits widespread monitoring. Having accurate PM2.5 estimates outside the range of these stations is important for monitoring this crucial aspect of air quality. The goal of this project is to produce daily 1 km continuous PM2.5 estimates for the contiguous US relying primarily on satellite-derived data sources. This is important because models based on such data can be more easily expanded outside the study area and produce global estimates as well. The temporal availability of such data products is often weekly/daily, unlike land-use products with are often available at a yearly or worse temporal resolution. To achieve our goal, we use a couple of different deep neural network architectures to produce PM2.5 measurements at 10 km and 1 km resolution. We use two model architectures, a UNET-like model and a GAN-based model. We train both models using MERRA-2 data and MAIAC AOD data scaled to 10 km and 1 km for the two different prediction resolutions. MERRA-2 imagery is data rich with a wide range of geospatial variables at 50 km and has long historical availability (beginning in 1980). We’re also using higher spatial resolution MAIAC data at 1 km to provide finer resolution spatial context. This essentially leverages the spatial resolution of MAIAC data and the “wider” information of MERRA-2 data to predict PM2.5. For the target data we’re using a modeled 1 km PM2.5 dataset produced by Harvard to pre-train our models and then fine-tune our models using ground station measurements. Not only are our results comparable with the performance of the Harvard dataset, but can be generalized to any area or time where MERRA-2 and MAIAC data is available.

satellite imagery↗

The Weather Analysis Display (WAND) Tool: Developing a Meteorological Data Display Tool for Situational Awareness During Day-Of-Launch of Space Launch Vehicles Using Python

Atmospheric conditions are an important driver in the design and operation of space launch vehicles. The Profile Envision and Splicing Tool (PRESTO) was developed by NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center (MSFC) Natural Environments Branch (NE) to generate vertically complete atmospheric profiles from various data sources at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center (KSC), co-located on the United States Air Force (USAF) Eastern Range (ER), for NASA’s Space Launch System (SLS) day-of-launch (DOL) loads and trajectory analysis. PRESTO was designed solely to generate a vertically complete atmospheric profile (Orcutt et al., 2017). However, NE has also been tasked to provide a quality assessment of meteorological data examined on DOL, which goes beyond PRESTO’s utility. Thus, NE developed the Weather Analysis Display (WAND) to visualize data from all available observation systems in conjunction with climatological databases. WAND can display data from various sources in multiple ways, including Skew-T Log-P plots, time-height cross sections, and time series. WAND was developed in Python 3 taking advantage of common packages, such as NumPy for data handling, SciPy for mathematical functions, Matplotlib for data visualization, and Tkinter for the execution of the Graphical User Interface (GUI).

Orcutt, John M.↗

Real-Time Surface Traffic Adviser

A real-time data management system which uses data generated at different rates by multiple heterogeneous incompatible data sources are presented. In one embodiment, the invention is as an airport surface traffic data management system (traffic adviser) that electronically interconnects air traffic control, airline, and airport operations user communities to facilitate information sharing and improve taxi queuing. The system uses an expert system to fuse dam from a variety of airline, airport operations, ramp control, and air traffic control sources, in order to establish, predict, and update reference data values for every aircraft surface operation.

Brian J Glass↗

Overview of the NASA Wallops Flight Facility Mobile Range Control System

The NASA GSFC's Wallops Flight Facility (WFF) Mobile Range Control System (MRCS) is based on the functionality of the WFF Range Control Center at Wallops Island, Virginia. The MRCS provides real time instantaneous impact predictions, real time flight performance data, and other critical information needed by mission and range safety personnel in support of range operations at remote launch sites. The MRCS integrates a PC telemetry processing system (TELPro), a PC radar processing system (PCDQS), multiple Silicon Graphics display workstations (IRIS), and communication links within a mobile van for worldwide support of orbital, suborbital, and aircraft missions. This paper describes the MRCS configuration; the TELPro's capability to provide single/dual telemetry tracking and vehicle state data processing; the PCDQS' capability to provide real time positional data and instantaneous impact prediction for up to 8 data sources; and the IRIS' user interface for setup/display options. With portability, PC-based data processing, high resolution graphics, and flexible multiple source support, the MRCS system is proving to be responsive to the ever-changing needs of a variety of increasingly complex missions.

Davis, Rodney A.↗

The Influence of Prescribed Boundary Conditions on Near-Surface Temperature over the Arctic in the MERRA-2 Atmospheric Model

An accurate historical record of evolving Arctic conditions is integral to furthering our understanding of climate processes and to providing a foundation for predicting future climate scenarios in northern high latitudes. Atmospheric reanalyses are seen as an important source of information on the recent past for the data-sparse Arctic region. An assessment of near-surface Arctic air temperatures finds significant discrepancies among the various modern reanalyses. An important point is the treatment of surface boundary conditions: specifically, the sea ice cover and sea surface temperatures (SSTs) over the Arctic Ocean. Reanalyses use different methodologies and data sources for SSTs and sea ice concentration boundary forcing. Notably, the Modern Era Retrospective analysis for Research and Applications, version 2 (MERRA-2) and the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts Interim Re-Analysis (ERA-Interim) both use boundary forcing derived from the Operational Sea Surface Temperature and Sea Ice Analysis (OSTIA) over an extended, overlapping period of time. This allows for an examination of differences between the two systems while both concurrently employ the same fractional sea ice coverage. To further understand these differences, an ensemble of AMIP-style simulations using the MERRA-2 atmospheric model - but without data assimilation - shows considerable differences in Arctic temperatures as compared to reanalyses, particularly in autumn and winter months. Results from the AMIP simulations suggest that the surface representation over sea ice used in the MERRA-2 model provides an intrinsic warm bias and obfuscates Arctic Amplification, an established feature present in observations and reanalyses. An additional ensemble of AMIP-style simulations using the MERRA-2 atmospheric model was performed using boundary conditions derived from the ERA-Interim reanalysis. An in-depth comparison of surface temperatures over the Arctic from the two reanalyses and two AMIP-style ensembles will be presented, along with an assessment of the effects of the varying Arctic temperature time series on the atmospheric general circulation and energy budget.

Collow, Allison B. Marquardt↗

Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM) Precipitation Data and Services for Research and Applications

Precipitation is a critical component of the Earth's hydrological cycle. Launched on 27 November 1997, TRMM is a joint U.S.-Japan satellite mission to provide the first detailed and comprehensive data set of the four-dimensional distribution of rainfall and latent heating over vastly under-sampled tropical and subtropical oceans and continents (40 S - 40 N). Over the past 14 years, TRMM has been a major data source for meteorological, hydrological and other research and application activities around the world. The purpose of this short article is to inform that the NASA Goddard Earth Sciences Data and Information Services Center (GES DISC) provides TRMM archive and near-real-time precipitation data sets and services for research and applications. TRMM data consist of orbital data from TRMM instruments at the sensor s resolution, gridded data at a range of spatial and temporal resolutions, subsets, ground-based instrument data, and ancillary data. Data analysis, display, and delivery are facilitated by the following services: (1) Mirador (data search and access); (2) TOVAS (TRMM Online Visualization and Analysis System); (3) OPeNDAP (Open-source Project for a Network Data Access Protocol); (4) GrADS Data Server (GDS); and (5) Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC) Web Map Service (WMS) for the GIS community. Precipitation data application services are available to support a wide variety of applications around the world. Future plans include enhanced and new services to address data related issues from the user community. Meanwhile, the GES DISC is preparing for the Global Precipitation Measurement (GPM) mission which is scheduled for launch in 2014.

Liu, Zhong↗

Discrete ordinates-Monte Carlo coupling: A comparison of techniques in NERVA radiation analysis

In the radiation analysis of the NERVA nuclear rocket system, two-dimensional discrete ordinates calculations are sufficient to provide detail in the pressure vessel and reactor assembly. Other parts of the system, however, require three-dimensional Monte Carlo analyses. To use these two methods in a single analysis, a means of coupling was developed whereby the results of a discrete ordinates calculation can be used to produce source data for a Monte Carlo calculation. Several techniques for producing source detail were investigated. Results of calculations on the NERVA system are compared and limitations and advantages of the coupling techniques discussed.

Lindstrom, D. G.↗

Interplanetary medium data book: Supplement 3A, 1977-1985

Supplement 3 of the Interplanetary Medium Data Book contains a detailed discussion of a data set compilation of hourly averaged interplanetary plasma and magnetic field parameters. The discussion addresses data sources, systematic and random differences, time shifting of ISEE 3 data, and plasma normalizations. Supplement 3 also contains solar rotation plots of field and plasma parameters. Supplement 3A contains computer-generated listings of selected parameters from the composite data set. These parameters are bulk speed (km/sec), density (per cu cm), temperature (in units of 1000 K) and the IMF parameters: average magnitude, latitude and longitude angles of the vector made up of the average GSE components, GSM Cartesian components, and the vector standard deviation. The units of field magnitude, components, and standard deviation are gammas, while the units of field direction angles and degrees.

Couzens, David A.↗

Multispectral retrieval of rainfall rates using the Special Sensor Microwave/Imager (SSM/I)

Collocated SSM/I and radar measurements are compared to model simulated radiances upwelling from precipitating clouds. A methodology maximizing the correlation between the radar rain rate estimates and surface rainfall amounts is presented, along with data sources and samples. Geolocation of both the satellite and radar data is assessed, and statistical rainfall-rate retrieval algorithms are analyzed. Regression analysis of collocated SSM/I brightness-temperature measurements and radar-derived rainfall rates show the potential of the SSM/I to provide 25-km resolution rain-rate estimates over land and ocean surfaces.

Olson, William S.↗

Issues and Solutions for Bringing Heterogeneous Water Cycle Data Sets Together

The water cycle research community has generated many regional to global scale products using data from individual NASA missions or sensors (e.g., TRMM, AMSR-E); multiple ground- and space-based data sources (e.g., Global Precipitation Climatology Project [GPCP] products); and sophisticated data assimilation systems (e.g., Land Data Assimilation Systems [LDAS]). However, it is often difficult to access, explore, merge, analyze, and inter-compare these data in a coherent manner due to issues of data resolution, format, and structure. These difficulties were substantiated at the recent Collaborative Energy and Water Cycle Information Services (CEWIS) Workshop, where members of the NASA Energy and Water cycle Study (NEWS) community gave presentations, provided feedback, and developed scenarios which illustrated the difficulties and techniques for bringing together heterogeneous datasets. This presentation reports on the findings of the workshop, thus defining the problems and challenges of multi-dataset research. In addition, the CEWIS prototype shown at the workshop will be presented to illustrate new technologies that can mitigate data access roadblocks encountered in multi-dataset research, including: (1) Quick and easy search and access of selected NEWS data sets. (2) Multi-parameter data subsetting, manipulation, analysis, and display tools. (3) Access to input and derived water cycle data (data lineage). It is hoped that this presentation will encourage community discussion and feedback on heterogeneous data analysis scenarios, issues, and remedies.

Acker, James↗

Ascent Aerodynamic Force and Moment Database Development for the Space Launch System

The Space Launch System Aerodynamics Task Team is responsible for delivering aerodynamic force and moment databases from liftoff through ascent until the rocket leaves the Earth’s atmosphere. The process for developing the ascent portion of this database is described in the current paper. The data used to develop the database were generated using a combination of wind tunnel testing and CFD simulations. The details of the wind tunnel testing performed at the NASA Ames Unitary Plan Wind Tunnel and CFD simulations performed using FUN3D at wind tunnel and flight conditions are discussed, and comparisons of these data sets are provided. The methods used for converting the source data into the final database response surfaces with corresponding uncertainty are also detailed.

Shea, Patrick R.↗

Air Quality Data Fusion with Sensors, Satellites, and Models

Global forecasting models, satellite remote sensing, and ground-based regulatory and low-cost monitors all have strengths and weaknesses with respect to providing locally relevant information about air quality. This presentation will give a brief overview of these data sources and then discuss a method for combining them via data fusion to support near-real-time air quality estimation and forecasting at sub-city scales. The basic idea behind the approach will be summarized, followed by an update on recent developments towards creating an operational system using Google Earth Engine and on quantifying uncertainties related to data fusion outputs.

Carl Malings↗

Image coding by adaptive block quantization.

A new source encoder called the adaptive block quantizer is proposed for coding data sources that emit a sequence of correlated real numbers with known first- and second-order statistics. Blocks of source output symbols are first classified and then block quantized in a manner that depends on their classification. The system is optimized relative to both the mean square error and the subjective quality of the reconstructed data for a certain class of pictorial data, and the resulting system performance demonstrated. Some interesting relationships between mean square error and subjective picture quality are presented.

Tasto, M.↗

Pitfalls and Precautions When Using Predicted Failure Data for Quantitative Analysis of Safety Risk for Human Rated Launch Vehicles

Launch vehicle reliability analysis is largely dependent upon using predicted failure rates from data sources such as MIL-HDBK-217F. Reliability prediction methodologies based on component data do not take into account risks attributable to manufacturing, assembly, and process controls. These sources often dominate component level reliability or risk of failure probability. While consequences of failure is often understood in assessing risk, using predicted values in a risk model to estimate the probability of occurrence will likely underestimate the risk. Managers and decision makers often use the probability of occurrence in determining whether to accept the risk or require a design modification. Due to the absence of system level test and operational data inherent in aerospace applications, the actual risk threshold for acceptance may not be appropriately characterized for decision making purposes. This paper will establish a method and approach to identify the pitfalls and precautions of accepting risk based solely upon predicted failure data. This approach will provide a set of guidelines that may be useful to arrive at a more realistic quantification of risk prior to acceptance by a program.

Hatfield, Glen S.↗

Pitfalls and Precautions When Using Predicted Failure Data for Quantitative Analysis of Safety Risk for Human Rated Launch Vehicles

Launch vehicle reliability analysis is largely dependent upon using predicted failure rates from data sources such as MIL-HDBK-217F. Reliability prediction methodologies based on component data do not take into account system integration risks such as those attributable to manufacturing and assembly. These sources often dominate component level risk. While consequence of failure is often understood, using predicted values in a risk model to estimate the probability of occurrence may underestimate the actual risk. Managers and decision makers use the probability of occurrence to influence the determination whether to accept the risk or require a design modification. The actual risk threshold for acceptance may not be fully understood due to the absence of system level test data or operational data. This paper will establish a method and approach to identify the pitfalls and precautions of accepting risk based solely upon predicted failure data. This approach will provide a set of guidelines that may be useful to arrive at a more realistic quantification of risk prior to acceptance by a program.

Hatfield, Glen S.↗