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At least 343 records · Page 19

Climate Analytics as a Service

Exascale computing, big data, and cloud computing are driving the evolution of large-scale information systems toward a model of data-proximal analysis. In response, we are developing a concept of climate analytics as a service (CAaaS) that represents a convergence of data analytics and archive management. With this approach, high-performance compute-storage implemented as an analytic system is part of a dynamic archive comprising both static and computationally realized objects. It is a system whose capabilities are framed as behaviors over a static data collection, but where queries cause results to be created, not found and retrieved. Those results can be the product of a complex analysis, but, importantly, they also can be tailored responses to the simplest of requests. NASA's MERRA Analytic Service and associated Climate Data Services API provide a real-world example of climate analytics delivered as a service in this way. Our experiences reveal several advantages to this approach, not the least of which is orders-of-magnitude time reduction in the data assembly task common to many scientific workflows.

big data↗

Discrimination of lithologic units of the basis of botanical associations and Landsat TM spectral data in the Ridge and Valley province, Pennsylvania

Data collected on November 2, 1982 by the Landsat 4 Thematic Mapper (TM) over 72 forested sites in the Ridge and Valley province in Pennsylvania were compared with corresponding botanical and site variable field data. The analysis revealed that both the TM and the botanical data sets can be divided into four groups based on lithology and aspect. Lithology, which is clearly the dominant controlling factor in both sets of data, determines elevation and slope. The aspect (essentially north- and south-facing slope) determines the intensity of solar illumination which affects both the moisture available to the vegetation and the intensity of reflected radiance. Each of the four lithologic/aspect units support unique forest associations, clearly separable both on the basis of ground-based 1/10-acre forest association surveys and on the basis of their TM spectral signatures.

Price, C. V.↗

Visualization tools for the processing of airglow data from RAIDS

In anticipation of large data sets associated with a number of atmospheric imaging instruments being prepared for long term global coverage, NRL is developing graphical interfaces for all aspects of the program. For the first of these projects, RAIDS (the Remote Atmospheric and Ionospheric Detection System), a graphical approach to data handling, visualization, and analysis is envisioned and will set the stage for the satellites that follow. An overall system of hardware and a set of software 'tools,' that will allow for both the routine handling of all data and the analysis of large data sets assembled by scientists and instrument engineers, are currently being developed. The software for standard processing and visualization of instrument data is independent of computer platform and will allow for easy adaptation from one experiment to another. The processing will produce data sets that have similar characteristics, allowing for easy comparison of data obtained under similar circumstances. The visualization of both the engineering and scientific data is an important part of the system. By creating graphical environments for engineering evaluations and for scientific analysis data sets can be viewed and analyzed rapidly. This rapid analysis of data will contribute towards a greater portion of the RAIDS data being utilized.

Miller, Gordon J.↗

NASA's Research & Development in Airspace Management for Drones, Air Taxis, and Beyond

Today's National Airspace System is extremely safe. Multiple people and organizations are involved in the handling of flights at all phases. We are, however, at the dawn of a new era in aviation where new entrants are emerging from multiple domains. These new entrants will need to be integrated into the airspace safely and given the flexibility to scale. With that integration and flexibility comes the need and responsibility to develop concepts and systems that will work with the regulatory and operational needs of the Federal Aviation Administration while accounting for the needs of industry. NASA is at the leading edge of research, development, and testing across multiple domains to enable the realization of new entrants such as drones, air cargo and taxis, and high altitude vehicles. Addressing the potential for public good coming from these new capabilities is also a NASA focus area. While there has been considerable effort in the engineering aspects of this research, another thrust that is of importance is that of data integration and visualization. With respect to visualization, NASA Ames Research Center has been leading the advancement in data visualization for these new domains and has spent considerable efforts in the exploration of incorporating Augmented and Mixed Reality as a situation awareness platform. This presentation will outline the new developments in airspace integration and tie in NASA's efforts in visualizing the associated operational data.

airspace management↗

Controlled Environmental Effects on Creep Test Data of Woven Fabric Webbings for Inflatable Space Modules

eveloping technologies for proposed lunar and Mars space exploration missions. Enhanced habitation sy g studied as potential habitats due to their inherent low mass and small launch volume. One goal of inflatable module research is quantification of the safe-life and end-of-life creep-strain spectrum. Full-scale pressurized inflatable modules are large, costly, and difficult to experimentally study. Therefore, material subcomponents are often studied as an alternative. An experimental thermally controlled long-term creep study of VectranTM webbings for application to inflatable modules is presented. Vectran fibers have high strength and low creep properties. High strength webbing materials are desirable for the load bearing restraint layer of inflatable modules because they are strong, flexible, and lightweight. Characterization of the creep behavior, safe-life, and end-of- life of webbing specimens will help quantify comparable life properties for inflatable modules. Several experimental multiple-year creep studies of webbing specimens in uncontrolled thermal environments have been conducted at NASA Langley Research Center. Experimental data obtained exhibits the classic creep-strain curve due to load, coupled with unique sinusoidal variation due to variation in temperature and humidity over daily and annual time periods. Results also have indicated that specimens fail within a year if the applied load is greater than 50 percent of the rated load. The primary goal of this study is to eliminate thermal effects from the creep data for a group of webbing specimens, and to allow uncontrolled thermal effects to influence the creep data of a second group of webbing specimens. Comparison of both sets of data will define how temperature influences creep data. A unique creep test facility was fabricated to facilitate the generation and comparison of the two sets of data. The facility consists of five creep test stands with an integrated heating and cooling system, and four creep test stands exposed to external environmental or ambient conditions. The facility contains displacement, temperature, humidity, and load sensors. Test specimens consist of one- inch wide, 48-inch long Vectran webbings rated at 12,500 pounds-per-inch. Experimental thermally controlled creep-strain data has been generated for two groups of webbing specimens. Applied load for all test stands was above 9000 lbs and greater than 50 percent of the rated load. Temperatures varied between 58˚F and 83˚F for the four test stands exposed to ambient conditions. Associated creep data exhibited the classic creep- strain profiles. The temperature was set to 72˚F for the five test stands in the controlled temperature environment. Creep data for tests with temperature control also exhibited the classic strain profiles. Data indicated that if the load is greater n thermal effects do not manifest. Therefore, creep tests with loads less than 50 percent of the rated load are planned for in the near future.

Kenner, Winfred S.↗

Orion EFT-1 Catalytic Tile Experiment Overview and Flight Measurements

This paper describes the design and results of a surface catalysis flight experiment flown on the Orion Multipurpose Crew Vehicle during Exploration Flight Test 1 (EFT1). Similar to previous Space Shuttle catalytic tile experiments, the present test consisted of a highly catalytic coating applied to an instrumented TPS tile. However, the present catalytic tile experiment contained significantly more instrumentation in order to better resolve the heating overshoot caused by the change in surface catalytic efficiency at the interface between two distinct materials. In addition to collecting data with unprecedented spatial resolution of the "overshoot" phenomenon, the experiment was also designed to prove if such a catalytic overshoot would be seen in turbulent flow in high enthalpy regimes. A detailed discussion of the results obtained during EFT1 is presented, as well as the challenges associated with data interpretation of this experiment. Results of material testing carried out in support of this flight experiment are also shown. Finally, an inverse heat conduction technique is employed to reconstruct the flight environments at locations upstream and along the catalytic coating. The data and analysis presented in this work will greatly contribute to our understanding of the catalytic "overshoot" phenomenon, and have a significant impact on the design of future spacecraft.

Salazar, Giovanni↗

Simplifying Analysis of Hierarchical HDF5 and NetCDF4 Files with Xarray-Datatree

NASA’s Earth Observing System Data and Information System (EOSDIS) contains thousands of Earth science datasets from satellites, models, and field campaigns. EOSDIS data are stored in formats that are well supported by the Earth Science community. These formats include the Hierarchical Data Format (HDF), with derivative flavors such as HDF-5 and the Network Common Data Format (NetCDF-4). The HDF specification allows for a directory-like hierarchy within a single file, known as "groups". Observational data and associated metadata within a single file can be distributed amongst multiple internal groups, which can also be nested to multiple levels. Working with datasets that have a group hierarchical structure can be difficult because of the nested structure of groups. Widely used packages, such as xarray, have data models that do not accommodate the hierarchical structure within HDF files, requiring users to traverse the file and open different HDF groups as separate, unrelated objects. Xarray-datatree is a Python package developed to solve the difficulty of traversing HDFs with a hierarchical group structure by creating a tree-like hierarchical data structure in xarray. The tree-like structure allows each group to be accessed once a DataTree object is instantiated. The migration of xarray-datatree into the xarray core library will reduce barriers to accessing Earth science data by eliminating the need to understand and traverse the specific hierarchy of a grouped HDF file.

Eni Awowale↗

NLR activities in the field of wind tunnel wall interference

Measured field data as a boundary condition for calculating the interference flow field were applied. They are divided into two categories. In the first category, the field data must consist of distributions of a single velocity component, and an accurate estimate of the hypothetical free air contribution of the model to this component is required. The differences between measured values and estimated model contributions are attributed to wall interference and they establish the boundary condition. The associated field data measurements are simple, yet the necessary model representation generally is a serious drawback. The second category requires field data which consist of velocity vector distributions at the price of multicomponent measurements, but at the profit that no information at all is required about the model. In solid wall test sections, the price is reduced to virtually zero but the profit remains.

Smith, J.↗

Data traffic reduction schemes for Cholesky factorization on asynchronous multiprocessor systems

Communication requirements of Cholesky factorization of dense and sparse symmetric, positive definite matrices are analyzed. The communication requirement is characterized by the data traffic generated on multiprocessor systems with local and shared memory. Lower bound proofs are given to show that when the load is uniformly distributed the data traffic associated with factoring an n x n dense matrix using n to the alpha power (alpha less than or equal 2) processors is omega(n to the 2 + alpha/2 power). For n x n sparse matrices representing a square root of n x square root of n regular grid graph the data traffic is shown to be omega(n to the 1 + alpha/2 power), alpha less than or equal 1. Partitioning schemes that are variations of block assignment scheme are described and it is shown that the data traffic generated by these schemes are asymptotically optimal. The schemes allow efficient use of up to O(n to the 2nd power) processors in the dense case and up to O(n) processors in the sparse case before the total data traffic reaches the maximum value of O(n to the 3rd power) and O(n to the 3/2 power), respectively. It is shown that the block based partitioning schemes allow a better utilization of the data accessed from shared memory and thus reduce the data traffic than those based on column-wise wrap around assignment schemes.

Naik, Vijay K.↗

Ecological applications of high resolution spectrometry

Future directions of NASA's space program plans include a significant effort at studying the Earth as a system of interrelated ecosystems. As part of NASA's Earth Observing System (Eos) Program a series of space platforms will be launched and operated to study the Earth with a variety of active and passive instruments. Several of the Eos instruments will be capable of imaging the planet's surface reflectance on a large number of very narrow portions of the solar spectrum. After the development of appropriate algorithms, this reflectance information will be used to determine key parameters about the structure and function of terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems and the pattern and processes of those systems across large areas of the globe. Algorithm development applicable to terrestrial systems will permit the inference of ecological processes from high resolution spectrometry data, similar to that to be forthcoming from the Eos mission. The first summer was spent working with tropical soils and relating their reflectance characteristics to particle size, iron content, and color. This summer the emphasis is on vegetation and work was begun with the Forest Ecosystems Dynamics Project in the Earth Resources Branch where both optical and radar characteristics of a mixed conifer/hardwood forest in Maine are being studied for use in a ecological modeling effort. A major series of aircraft overflights will take place throughout the summer. Laboratory and field spectrometers are used to measure the spectral reflectance of a hierarchy of vegetation from individual leaves to whole canopies for eventual modeling of their nutrient content using reflectance data. Key leaf/canopy parameters are being approximated including chlorophyll, nitrogen, phosphorus, water content, and leaf specific weight using high resolution spectrometry alone. Measurements are made of carbon exchange across the landscape for input to a spatial modeling effort to gauge production within the forest. A Geographic Information System approach is used to associate these data, images, and other collateral information for the forest into a database with a common projection suitable for spatial modeling.

Lawrence, William T.↗

Spatial Data Management System (SDMS)

The Spatial Data Management System (SDMS) is a testbed for retrieval and display of spatially related material. SDMS permits the linkage of large graphical display objects with detail displays and explanations of its smaller components. SDMS combines UNIX workstations, MIT's X Window system, TCP/IP and WAIS information retrieval technology to prototype a means of associating aggregate data linked via spatial orientation. SDMS capitalizes upon and extends previous accomplishments of the Software Technology Branch in the area of Virtual Reality and Automated Library Systems.

Hutchison, Mark W.↗

Working Toward a Healthy Planet

Using information from NASA s Earth Science Public Health Applications Program, Dr. Maynard will address how remote sensing data and associated technologies can be used toward a better understanding of the links among human health, the environment and weather/climate - and, how this increased understanding plus improved information sharing can empower local health and environmental decision-makers to better predict climate-related health problems, take preventive measures, and improve response actions. Remotely-sensed data and observations are providing powerful new tools for addressing climate and environment-related human health problems through increased capabilities for monitoring and surveillance of parameters useful to such problems as infectious and vector-borne diseases, air and water quality, harmful algal blooms, UV radiation, contaminant and pathogen transport in air and water, and thermal stress. NASA s multi-disciplinary scientific team is demonstrating how satellites from their unique vantage point in space can serve as sentinels for weather, climate, and health problems through studies on asthma, malaria, Rift Valley Fever, Asian and African dust, and West Nile Virus

Maynard, Nancy G.↗

Medical Database Accomplishments and Lessons Learned - 2021

The Medical Database (MD) is a virtual repository consisting of two software components: the Medical Item Database (MedID) and the Evidence Library (EL). MedID consists of engineering data and associated information for specific medical resource items (e.g., pharmaceutical, medical devices, and supporting components), while the EL is a tool which provides all of the medical evidence necessary. The Medical Database will serve as the single “source of truth” for the Informing Mission Planning via Analysis of Complex Tradespaces (IMPACT) tool suite for both medical evidence and medical resource engineering data. It will be used in conjunction with the IMPACT tool suite to inform research prioritizations and perform systematic trade study evaluations using probabilistic risk assessment and simulated human spaceflight missions to aid stakeholders in making informed decisions during Pre-Phase-A planning of human spaceflight missions. The IMPACT project is conducted under the Exploration Medical Capability (ExMC) element of the Human Research Program (HRP), within NASA’s Human Exploration and Operations Mission Directorate. Over the past year, the MedID software has been successfully merged with the Evidence Library into one cohesive Medical Database with two independent user interface experiences for modifying either clinical evidence or resource engineering data. As MD has evolved substantially over the past year, a number of challenges have been encountered and overcome along the way. A number of ‘lessons learned’ and practical/logistical realizations have emerged which will be detailed in the forthcoming Medical Database presentation.

Exploration Medical Capability↗

Analysis of the Value Added When Deploying a Model-Based Approach for the Validation and Verification of the Medical Database Software

The Medical Database (MD) is a virtual repository consisting of two software components: Medical Item Database (MedID) and the Evidence Library (EL). MedID consists of engineering data and associated information for specific medical resource items (e.g., pharmaceutical, medical devices, and supporting components), while the EL is a tool which provides all of the medical evidence necessary. The MD will 1) serve as the single “source of truth” for the Informing Mission Planning via Analysis of Complex Tradespaces (IMPACT) tool suite for both medical evidence and medical resource engineering data and 2) will be used in conjunction with the IMPACT tool suite to inform research prioritizations and perform systematic trade study evaluations to aid stakeholders in making informed decisions regarding simulated human spaceflight missions. The MD project used a Model-Based Systems Engineering (MBSE) approach to support all life cycles of the software development, while in parallel the human factors engineering team used modeling to support Human Centered Design (HCD) strategies in an effort to improve software usability. HCD is a frequently used approach in design frameworks that develops resolutions to complexities and challenges by involving the human perspective in all steps of the problem-solving process. By integrating the model-based approaches used for systems engineering and human factors activities, the project is able to leverage the model-based artifacts originally created for HCD activities for system level and human factors validation. In this presentation, our team highlights the value added when leveraging these model-based artifacts to support the on-going verification and validation activities.

C. Laing↗

Developing Information Power Grid Based Algorithms and Software

This was an exploratory study to enhance our understanding of problems involved in developing large scale applications in a heterogeneous distributed environment. It is likely that the large scale applications of the future will be built by coupling specialized computational modules together. For example, efforts now exist to couple ocean and atmospheric prediction codes to simulate a more complete climate system. These two applications differ in many respects. They have different grids, the data is in different unit systems and the algorithms for inte,-rating in time are different. In addition the code for each application is likely to have been developed on different architectures and tend to have poor performance when run on an architecture for which the code was not designed, if it runs at all. Architectural differences may also induce differences in data representation which effect precision and convergence criteria as well as data transfer issues. In order to couple such dissimilar codes some form of translation must be present. This translation should be able to handle interpolation from one grid to another as well as construction of the correct data field in the correct units from available data. Even if a code is to be developed from scratch, a modular approach will likely be followed in that standard scientific packages will be used to do the more mundane tasks such as linear algebra or Fourier transform operations. This approach allows the developers to concentrate on their science rather than becoming experts in linear algebra or signal processing. Problems associated with this development approach include difficulties associated with data extraction and translation from one module to another, module performance on different nodal architectures, and others. In addition to these data and software issues there exists operational issues such as platform stability and resource management.

Dongarra, Jack↗

Data Integration Support for Data Served in the OPeNDAP and OGC Environments

NASA is coordinating a technology development project to construct a gateway between system components built upon the Open-source Project for a Network Data AcceSs Protocol (OPeNDAP) and those made available made available via interfaces specified by the Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC). This project is funded though the Advanced Collaborative Connections for Earth-Sun System Science (ACCESS) Program and is a NASA contribution to the Committee on Earth Satellites (CEOS) Working Group on Information Systems and Services (WGISS). The motivation for the project is the set of data integration needs that have been expressed by the Coordinated Enhanced Observing Period (CEOP), an international program that is addressing the study of the global water cycle. CEOP is assembling a large collection in situ and satellite data and mode1 results from a wide variety of sources covering 35 sites around the globe. The data are provided by systems based on either the OPeNDAP or OGC protocols but the research community desires access to the full range of data and associated services from a single client. This presentation will discuss the current status of the OPeNDAP/OGC Gateway Project. The project is building upon an early prototype that illustrated the feasibility of such a gateway and which was demonstrated to the CEOP science community. In its first year as an ACCESS project, the effort has been has focused on the design of the catalog and data services that will be provided by the gateway and the mappings between the metadata and services provided in the two environments.

McDonald, Kenneth R.↗

Data structure characterization of miltispectral data using principal component and principal factor analysis

Both principal component analysis (PCA) and principal factor analysis (PFA) were used to analyze an experimental multispectral data structure in terms of common and unique variance. Only the common variance of the multispectral data was associated with the principal factor, while higher-order principal components were associated with both common and unique variance. The unique variance was found to represent small spectral variations within each cover type as well as noise vectors, and was most abundant in the lower-order principal components. The lower-order principal components can be useful in research designed to discriminate minor physical variations within features, and to highlight localized change when using multitemporal-multispectral data. Conversely, PFA of the multispectral data provided an insight into a great potential for discriminating basic land-cover types by excluding the unique variance which was related to the noise and minor spectral variations.

Lee, Jae K.↗

User's manual for Interactive Data Display System (IDDS)

A computer graphics package for the visualization of three-dimensional flow in turbomachinery has been developed and tested. This graphics package, called IDDS (Interactive Data Display System), is able to 'unwrap' the volumetric data cone associated with a centrifugal compressor and display the results in an easy to understand two-dimensional manner. IDDS will provide the majority of the visualization and analysis capability for the ICE (Integrated CFD and Experiment) system. This document is intended to serve as a user's manual for IDDS in a stand-alone mode. Currently, IDDS is capable of plotting two- or three-dimensional simulation data, but work is under way to expand IDDS so that experimental data can be accepted, plotted, and compared with a simulation dataset of the actual hardware being tested.

Stegeman, James D.↗