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NASA NTRS1999

A Global Ocean Tide Model From TOPEX/POSEIDON Altimetry: GOT99.2

Goddard Ocean Tide model GOT99.2 is a new solution for the amplitudes and phases of the global oceanic tides, based on over six years of sea-surface height measurements by the TOPEX/POSEIDON satellite altimeter. Comparison with deep-ocean tide-gauge measurements show that this new tidal solution is an improvement over previous global models, with accuracies for the main semidiurnal lunar constituent M2 now below 1.5 cm (deep water only). The new solution benefits from use of prior hydrodynamic models, several in shallow and inland seas as well as the global finite-element model FES94.1. This report describes some of the data processing details involved in handling the altimetry, and it provides a comprehensive set of global cotidal charts of the resulting solutions. Various derived tidal charts are also provided, including tidal loading deformation charts, tidal gravimetric charts, and tidal current velocity (or transport) charts. Finally, low-degree spherical harmonic coefficients are computed by numerical quadrature and are tabulated for the major short-period tides; these are useful for a variety of geodetic and geophysical purposes, especially in combination with similar estimates from satellite laser ranging.

Ray, Richard D.↗

NASA NTRS2018

Fast Linearized Coronagraph Optimizer (FALCO) I: A Software Toolbox for Rapid Coronagraphic Design and Wavefront Correction

The Fast Linearized Coronagraph Optimizer (FALCO) is an open-source toolbox of routines for coronagraphic focal plane wavefront correction. The goal of FALCO is to provide a free, modular framework for the simulation or testbed operation of several common types of coronagraphs. FALCO includes routines for pair-wise probing estimation of the complex electric ﬁeld and Electric Field Conjugation (EFC) control, and we ask the community to contribute other wavefront correction algorithms. FALCO utilizes and builds upon PROPER, an established optical propagation library. The key innovation in FALCO is the rapid computation of the linearized response matrix for each deformable mirror (DM), which facilitates re-linearization after each control step for faster DM-integrated coronagraph design and wavefront correction experiments. FALCO is freely available as source code in MATLAB at github.com/ajeldorado/falco-matlab and will be available later this year in Python 3 at github.com/ajeldorado/falco-python.

Shaklan, Stuart B.↗

NASA NTRS1992

A microwave holography methodology for diagnostics and performance improvement for large reflector antennas

This microwave holography technique utilizes the Fourier transform relation between the complex far field radiation pattern of an antenna and the complex aperture field distribution. Resulting aperture phase and amplitude distribution data can be used to precisely characterize various crucial performance parameters, including panel alignment, panel shaping, subreflector position, antenna aperture illumination, directivity at various frequencies, and gravity deformation effects. The methodology of data processing presented here was successfully applied to the Deep Space Network (DSN) 34-m beam waveguide antennas. The antenna performance was improved at all operating frequencies by reducing the main reflector mechanical surface rms error to 0.43 mm. At Ka-band (32 GHz), the estimated improvement is 4.1 dB, resulting in an aperture efficiency of 52 percent. The performance improvement was verified by efficiency measurements and additional holographic measurements.

Rochblatt, D. J.↗

NASA NTRS1992

Microwave antenna holography

Rochblatt, David J.↗

NASA NTRS2003

Measurements of cell-generated deformations on flexible substrata using correlation-based optical flow

The optical flow algorithm presented here is a robust method that rapidly yields a high-density field of substrate displacement vectors based on two optical images. We found that one of the limiting factors, at least for inexperienced experimentalists, is the consistency of focusing or the drift in microscope focus. However, with properly collected images the standard error of the measurement was estimated to be on the order of +/- 0.10 pixels. Finally, although the discussion has been focused on the displacement of flexible substrata, a similar method should be applicable for detecting movements on other types of images, as long as the movement involves a certain degree of local coordination.

Non-NASA Center↗

NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Optical Time Transfer for Bistatic SAR Spacecraft

A spacecraft-to-spacecraft optical time-transfer simulation has been developed as a tool for informing NASA’s Surface Deformation and Change (SDC) mission architecture. The SDC mission will combine radar images from multiple spacecraft to improve understanding of the Earth’s sea-level and landscape changes. Spacecraft must be precisely synchronized in order to create sharp radar images. Simulation of multiple spacecraft time-synchronizing via laser communication can inform technology choices of a mission by providing a picosecond-precision level estimate of clock error. This timing and ranging simulation has been combined with a radar system performance analysis pipeline. The simulated timing errors are used to predict performance of bistatic SAR systems in the presence of oscillator noise and time synchronization in accuracy. This analysis includes both analytic approximation equations from existing literature, and a numerical radar simulation to extract key system performance parameters like phase error and signal-to-noise ratio (SNR)degradation. Precision time-transfer techniques facilitate the accurate synchronization of clocks between any combination of terminals. Most time-transfer technology for comparing two clocks at different terminals use radio frequencies (RF) to measure the time delay between the sending and receiving of signals. Laser technology offers the capability to transmit high data rates with systems that are of smaller size and lower power than comparable RF systems. The clocks on independent spacecraft will have some phase and frequency errors between them that result in clock drift. The two clock models that are included in this bi-directional MATLAB simulation are a cesium-based Chip-Scale Atomic Clock (CSAC) and a rubidium-based Miniature Atomic Clock (MAC). The CSAC has flown as hardware for small satellite missions such as the University of Florida’s CHOMPTT mission. A study of example orbits, including that of NASA NASA-ISRO Synthetic Aperture Radar Mission (NISAR) mission, and lasing rates demonstrate the impact of flight configuration parameters on the synchronization error between two spacecraft. The MATLAB timing simulation uses a Runge-Kutta 4th-order method to propagate spacecraft orbits and computes the light-travel time estimate between them. The simulation outputs the estimated range and estimated clock error based on a user-defined spacecraft cluster configuration. The radar simulation and analytic approximations are applied to evaluate a potential future NASA bistatic SAR constellation architecture. In the proposed architecture, satellites follow each other in the same orbit at 800 km altitude, with a 210 km baseline. We also baseline the CSAC as an ultra stable oscillator, and use NASA’s NISAR for baseline radar system parameters to compute a clock-system introduced phase error of 5.6 degrees without synchronization by frequent time transfer. We build on this base case with a sensitivity analysis of radar performance over a proposed range of constellation and radar system parameters. With this analysis pipeline, we comment on which radar parameters should or should not be changed to minimize synchronization requirements. This analysis technique could be extended or modified to evaluate the timing requirements of other geometries for other future multistatic SAR missions, or other interferometric satellite missions.

Surface Deformation and Change↗

NASA NTRS1995

Micromechanical models for textile structural composites

The objective is to develop micromechanical models for predicting the stiffness and strength properties of textile composite materials. Two models are presented to predict the homogeneous elastic constants and coefficients of thermal expansion of a textile composite. The first model is based on rigorous finite element analysis of the textile composite unit-cell. Periodic boundary conditions are enforced between opposite faces of the unit-cell to simulate deformations accurately. The second model implements the selective averaging method (SAM), which is based on a judicious combination of stiffness and compliance averaging. For thin textile composites, both models can predict the plate stiffness coefficients and plate thermal coefficients. The finite element procedure is extended to compute the thermal residual microstresses, and to estimate the initial failure envelope for textile composites.

Marrey, Ramesh V.↗

NASA NTRS2001

Modeling of Ice Flow and Internal Layers Along a Flow Line Through Swiss Camp in West Greenland

An anisotropic ice flow line model is applied to a flow line through Swiss Camp (69.57 N, 49.28 W) in West Greenland to estimate the dates of internal layers detected by Radio-Echo Sounding measurements. The effect of an anisotropic ice fabric on ice flow is incorporated into the steady state flow line model. The stress-strain rate relationship for anisotropic ice is characterized by an enhancement factor based on the laboratory observations of ice deformation under combined compression and shear stresses. By using present-day data of accumulation rate, surface temperature, surface elevation and ice thickness along the flow line as model inputs, a very close agreement is found between the isochrones generated from the model and the observed internal layers with confirmed dates. The results indicate that this part of Greenland ice sheet is primarily in steady state.

Wang, W. L.↗

NASA NTRS2021

Estimation of Thermodynamic and Dynamic Contributions to Sea Ice Growth in the Central Arctic Using ICESat-2 and MOSAiC SIMBA Buoy Data

The fine spatial resolution of the ICESat-2 (IS2) satellite altimeter allows monitoring the evolution of sea ice thickness with detailed dynamic information (e.g. ridges and leads). In this study, we first assess the ability of IS2 to estimate thermodynamic ice growth and dynamic thickening during the ice-growing season in the central Arctic Ocean. As an indicator of the thermodynamic ice growth, we use 10 thermistor string-based sea ice mass balance array (SIMBA) buoys deployed at a scale of ~ 50 km from the Icebreaker Polarstern during the Multidisciplinary drifting Observatory for the Study of Arctic Climate (MOSAiC) expedition. We collect IS2 data within 20 km buffer distance from the individual buoys, and calculate the mode, median, and mean of the IS2-derived ice thickness. The IS2 modal thickness shows the least bias (−0.169 m) with the buoy ice thickness, representing level ice thickness. In addition, the increasing rate of the IS2 modal thickness is close to the thermodynamic ice growth with a small bias of −0.054 cm/day. However, the increasing rates of the IS2 median and mean thickness are greater than the thermodynamic ice growth by about 0.114 cm/day and 0.198 cm/day, respectively, because they also include ice growth caused by thickness redistribution during dynamic deformation. The dynamic contributions may account for 26.1 ± 10.3% and 34.4 ± 10.1% of the total increase of the IS2 median and mean thickness, respectively. Within a ~ 50 km radius area from the MOSAiC Central Observatory, IS2 measurements exhibit that the ridge fraction increased from <2% in November to ~ 4% in March (~0.029%/day of average increasing rate) and ridge height increased about 0.047 cm/day during the same period. However, lead formation does not show significant contributions to the dynamic ice thickening because leads are temporary features lasting only 2–3 days. Although there are considerable uncertainties in IS2 ice thickness estimation and IS2-buoy thickness comparison, this study emphasizes the importance of combining measurements by IS2 and SIMBA buoys to explain the regional sea ice mass balance with separating the thermodynamic and dynamic contributions.

satellite altimeter↗

NASA NTRS2016

Summary of Full-Scale Blade Displacement Measurements of the UH- 60A Airloads Rotor

Blade displacement measurements using multi-camera photogrammetry techniques were acquired for a full-scale UH-60A rotor, tested in the National Full-Scale Aerodynamic Complex 40-Foot by 80-Foot Wind Tunnel. The measurements, acquired over the full rotor azimuth, encompass a range of test conditions that include advance ratios from 0.15 to 1.0, thrust coefficient to rotor solidity ratios from 0.01 to 0.13, and rotor shaft angles from -10.0 to 8.0 degrees. The objective was to measure the blade displacements and deformations of the four rotor blades and provide a benchmark blade displacement database to be utilized in the development and validation of rotorcraft prediction techniques. An overview of the blade displacement measurement methodology, system development, and data analysis techniques are presented. Sample results based on the final set of camera calibrations, data reduction procedures and estimated corrections that account for registration errors due to blade elasticity are shown. Differences in blade root pitch, flap and lag between the previously reported results and the current results are small. However, even small changes in estimated root flap and pitch can lead to significant differences in the blade elasticity values.

Displacement↗

NASA NTRS1980

Contact law and impact responses of laminated composites

Static identation tests were performed to determine the law of contact between a steel ball and glass/epoxy and graphite/epoxy laminated composites. For both composites the power law with an index of 1.5 was found to be adequate for the loading curve. Substantial permanent deformations were noted after the unloading. A high order beam finite element was used to compute the dynamic contact force and response of the laminated composite subjected to the impact of an elastic sphere. This program can be used with either the classical Hertzian contact law or the measured contact law. A simple method is introduced for estimating the contact force and contact duration in elastic impacts.

Sun, C. T.↗

NASA NTRS2000

Monitoring Global Sea Level: Eustatic Variations, Local Variations, and Solid Earth Effects

Project BIFROST (Baseline Inferences for Fennoscandian Rebound Observations. Sea-level and Tectonics) combines networks of continuously operating CPS receivers in Sweden and Finland to measure ongoing crustal deformation due to glacial isostatic adjustment, (CIA). We present an analysis of data collected in the years 1993-1998. We compare the CPS determinations of three-dimensional crustal motion to predictions calculated using the high resolution Fennoscandian deglaciation model recently proposed by Lambeck et al. We find that the the maximum observed uplift rate (approx. 10 mm/ yr) and the maximum predicted uplift rate agree to better than 1 mm/ yr. The patterns of uplift also agree quite well, although differences are discernible. The chi(exp 2) difference between predicted and GPS-observed radial rates is reduced by a factor of 5-6 compared to that for the "null" (no uplift) model, depending on whether a mean difference is first removed. The north components of velocity agree at about the same relative level. whereas the agreement for the east components is worse, a problem possibly related to the lack of bias fixing. We have also compared the values for the observed radial deformation rates to those based on sea-level rates from Baltic tide gauges. The weighted RMS difference between CPS and tide-gauge rates (after removing a mean) is 0.6 mm/ yr, giving an indication of the combined accuracy of the CPS and tide-gauge measurement systems. Spectral analysis of the time series of position estimates yields spectral indices in the range -1 to -2. An EOF analysis indicates, however, that much of this power is correlated among the sites. The correlation appears to be regional and falls off only slightly with distance. Some of this correlated noise is associated with snow accumulation on the antennas or, for those antennas with radomes, on the radomes. This problem has caused us to modify the radomes used several times, leading to one of our more significant sources of uncertainty.

Davis, James L.↗

NASA NTRS2003

Coulomb Stress Accumulation along the San Andreas Fault System

Stress accumulation rates along the primary segments of the San Andreas Fault system are computed using a three-dimensional (3-D) elastic half-space model with realistic fault geometry. The model is developed in the Fourier domain by solving for the response of an elastic half-space due to a point vector body force and analytically integrating the force from a locking depth to infinite depth. This approach is then applied to the San Andreas Fault system using published slip rates along 18 major fault strands of the fault zone. GPS-derived horizontal velocity measurements spanning the entire 1700 x 200 km region are then used to solve for apparent locking depth along each primary fault segment. This simple model fits remarkably well (2.43 mm/yr RMS misfit), although some discrepancies occur in the Eastern California Shear Zone. The model also predicts vertical uplift and subsidence rates that are in agreement with independent geologic and geodetic estimates. In addition, shear and normal stresses along the major fault strands are used to compute Coulomb stress accumulation rate. As a result, we find earthquake recurrence intervals along the San Andreas Fault system to be inversely proportional to Coulomb stress accumulation rate, in agreement with typical coseismic stress drops of 1 - 10 MPa. This 3-D deformation model can ultimately be extended to include both time-dependent forcing and viscoelastic response.

Smith, Bridget↗

NASA NTRS2005

Satellite Geodetic Constraints On Earthquake Processes: Implications of the 1999 Turkish Earthquakes for Fault Mechanics and Seismic Hazards on the San Andreas Fault

Our principal activities during the initial phase of this project include: 1) Continued monitoring of postseismic deformation for the 1999 Izmit and Duzce, Turkey earthquakes from repeated GPS survey measurements and expansion of the Marmara Continuous GPS Network (MAGNET), 2) Establishing three North Anatolian fault crossing profiles (10 sitedprofile) at locations that experienced major surface-fault earthquakes at different times in the past to examine strain accumulation as a function of time in the earthquake cycle (2004), 3) Repeat observations of selected sites in the fault-crossing profiles (2005), 4) Repeat surveys of the Marmara GPS network to continue to monitor postseismic deformation, 5) Refining block models for the Marmara Sea seismic gap area to better understand earthquake hazards in the Greater Istanbul area, 6) Continuing development of models for afterslip and distributed viscoelastic deformation for the earthquake cycle. We are keeping close contact with MIT colleagues (Brad Hager, and Eric Hetland) who are developing models for S. California and for the earthquake cycle in general (Hetland, 2006). In addition, our Turkish partners at the Marmara Research Center have undertaken repeat, micro-gravity measurements at the MAGNET sites and have provided us estimates of gravity change during the period 2003 - 2005.

Reilinger, Robert↗

NASA NTRS1991

Absolute gravity measurements in California, 1984-1989

Repeated absolute gravity measurements have been made at 12 sites in California between 1984.3 and 1989.7. As determined in laboratory tests, the instrument used has an estimated accuracy of 10 microgal (approximately 10 to the -8th g). The repeatability of the measurements is consistent with this accuracy assessment. No gravity changes above the limits set by instrumental uncertainty and environmental noise are observed during this period; the field observations provide upper limits on the rates of secular gravity changes which could be attributed to crustal deformation with a resolution corresponding to vertical displacement rates of 1-2 cm/yr.

Sasagawa, Glenn↗

NASA NTRS1995

On the Feasibility of Satellite Altimeter Tomography

The time-varying field of sea surface height (SSH) reflects a large number of dynamical processes including a broad range of baroclinic waves. Inertia-gravity (IG) and Rossby waves (RW) are readily detected in power spectra F(k) of SSH spatial variations, as well as in wavenumber-frequency spectral, ,k), and autocorrelation functions W(). these statistical characteristics contain information on dynamical processes in the upper thermocline. We show that the well-known 3-segment shape of 1-d spectra (based on SSH variations along satellite tracks) is determined by the Internal Rossby radius of deformation and by the degree of nonlinearity of baroclinic IG waves. Analyzing altimeter-based spectra of SSH variations in the light of a recently proposed theory for IG wave turbulence, we demonstrate that baroclinic IG waves are typically highly nonlinear. For a number of mid- and high-latitude regions, the internal Rossby radius and the wave nonlinearity are estimated from T/P data and shown to agree with expected values. The degree of the wave nonlinearity is of great practical interest. In particular, it tells us about the intensity of internal wave breaking. Furthermore, estimating the velocity of baroclinic RW we derive additional information on the upper layer stratification. These experiments point to the feasibility of using observed SSH field statistics (such F(k) and W()) to monitor properties of and dynamical processes in the upper mixed layer of the ocean.

Satellite Altimeter↗

NASA NTRS1977

Present-day plate motions

A data set comprising 110 spreading rates, 78 transform fault azimuths and 142 earthquake slip vectors was inverted to yield a new instantaneous plate motion model, designated RM2. The mean averaging interval for the relative motion data was reduced to less than 3 My. A detailed comparison of RM2 with angular velocity vectors which best fit the data along individual plate boundaries indicates that RM2 performs close to optimally in most regions, with several notable exceptions. On the other hand, a previous estimate (RM1) failed to satisfy an extensive set of new data collected in the South Atlantic Ocean. It is shown that RM1 incorrectly predicts the plate kinematics in the South Atlantic because the presently available data are inconsistent with the plate geometry assumed in deriving RM1. It is demonstrated that this inconsistency can be remedied by postulating the existence of internal deformation with the Indian plate, although alternate explanations are possible.

Minster, J. B.↗

NASA NTRS2020

Stress Promotion of the 1958 Mw∼7.8 Fairweather Fault Earthquake and Others in Southeast Alaska by Glacial Isostatic Adjustment and Inter-earthquake Stress Transfer

We assess how recent glacial isostatic adjustment (GIA) and inter-earthquake stress transfer modulated the state of stress on major faults in Southeast Alaska, and how these effects may have influenced recent large and moderate earthquakes. The Glacier Bay Icefield has lost >3,000 km3 of ice since ca. 1770, with ice thinning up to 1.5 km, and the rest of southeast Alaska has been deglaciating since ca. 1900. The resulting GIA response in the solid earth produces present-day surface uplift rates of up to ∼4 cm/yr, among the fastest on Earth. This rapid deformation occurs directly alongside and atop the Fairweather Fault, which accommodates 4–5 cm/yr of right-lateral motion through slip in frequent large earthquakes, recently including a Mw∼7.8 earthquake in 1958. We find that the 1958 earthquake nucleated very close to the location of maximum GIA-induced Coulomb stress increase on the Fairweather Fault between 1770 and 1958 (estimated at ∼0.2–0.6 MPa), on the only section of fault where GIA-induced stress changes had involved both right-lateral shearing and unclamping. The September 10, 1899 Mw∼8.1 Yakutat Bay earthquake also promoted failure on at least the northwest part of the eventual 1958 rupture. In turn, the 1899 and 1958 earthquakes and GIA promoted failure along the St. Elias compressional margin, the site of a Mw∼7.4 event in 1979. While rapid tectonic loading is very likely the main driver of earthquakes in southeast Alaska, we estimate that 23 of 30 instrumentally constrained Mw ≥ 5.0 earthquakes in this region were also promoted by post-1770 GIA.

Chris Rollins↗