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At least 37 records · Page 2

Benefits of NASA to the USA and Humanity

During his 28+ as a NASA employee, Mr. Duarte has had the privilege to work in several programs and projects (Space Shuttle Main Engine; Advanced Solid Rocket Booster; X-33; X-34; X-36; External Tank for the Space Shuttle; Space Shuttle missions and others) related to the NASA aerospace exploration program. At the VIII version of F-AIR COLOMBIA, the organizers want to have Colombian born aerospace professionals with experience in aerospace matters to contribute as panelists for this years theme, Benefits of Space Development for A Country. For more than 50 years NASA has lead the world in exploration through continuous advancement in science and innovative technologies. The results have been not only of a service to the nation but to humankind, as well. Those remarkable developments have resulted in positive impact in social and economic growth, enhancements in academics and educational horizons, creation of numerous investment opportunities for large corporations and small business, and a more comprehensive understanding of the universe. NASA has layout path for space exploration and has been of inspiration for scientist, academics and students. Benefits of NASA to the USA and Humanity, will provide a relevant contribution to the theme and objectives of this national event in Colombia.

Duarte, Alberto↗

Investigating the Impacts of Land Use Change on Urban Heat and Vulnerability in Cali, Columbia

The urban heat island effect (UHI) is an environmental phenomenon where cities experience higher temperatures than rural areas due to increased pavement and decreased cooling from vegetation. Approximately 76% of people in Colombia live in urban areas, and the city of Santiago de Cali is facing UHI challenges exacerbated by land use change. Wetlands and forests formerly surrounded the city but were replaced by development and agriculture. The Colombian municipal government agency Departamento Administrativo de Gestión del Medio Ambiente and the community organization Fundacion Dinamizadores Ambientales partnered with NASA DEVELOP to evaluate communities in Cali most vulnerable to urban heat. This project illustrated the utility of using NASA Earth observations to evaluate the relationship between land use, temperature, and social factors in Cali, Colombia between 2013 and 2023. The team used Landsat 7 Enhanced Thematic Mapper Plus (ETM+), Landsat 8 Operational Land Imager (OLI) and Thermal Infrared Sensor (TIRS), and Landsat 9 OLI-2/TIRS-2 to generate land surface temperature (LST), normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI), and albedo maps in Google Earth Engine. Heavy cloud cover limited the accuracy of the LST but incorporating up to three satellites for a median image reduced potential errors. Through further analysis in ArcGIS Pro, the team classified land use change using a deep learning model and found that LST was significantly higher in urban areas than in wetlands or forests. Using R studio, the team ran a principal component analysis to determine which social factors had the strongest correlation with LST. The team found that health care and green space access were negatively correlated, and Afro-Colombian ethnicity was positively correlated with LST. With awareness of the most impacted and vulnerable regions, the partner organizations can work to prioritize green space establishment in those areas to reduce the impacts of urban heat. Addressing the urban heat island effect will reduce environmental justice concerns within the city and improve overall health, air, and water quality for those who live there.

Brenna Bruffey↗

Preliminary analysis of NASA optical data obtained in barium ion cloud experiment of September 21, 1971.

This paper reviews the optical data obtained by NASA in the joint NASA-MPE experiment conducted on September 21, 1971, involving the release of a barium cloud at an altitude of about 31,500 km over Colombia, South America. The data indicated an anomalously high rate of elongation and an unexpectedly large rate of deceleration of the main core of the ion cloud. The outermost striational features achieved a steady velocity within a few minutes, thus indicating that they had acquired the velocity of the ambient plasma. From the observed drift of these striations, one deduces an electric field that, when referred to a coordinate system rotating with the earth, has a meridional component directed toward the interior of the magnetic loop of 0.14 mV/m and a component perpendicular to the meridional plane of 0.15 mV/m directed to the west.

Adamson, D.↗

Overall evaluation of Skylab imagery for mapping of Latin America

The author has identified the following significant results. Skylab imagery is both desired and needed by the Latin American catographic agencies. The imagery is cost beneficial for the production of new mapping and maintenance of existing maps at national topographic series scales. If this information was available on a near time routine coverage basis, it would provide an excellent additional data base to the Latin American cartographic community, specifically Argentina, Bolivia, Chile, Colombia, Dominican Republic, Guatemala, Paraguay, and Venezuela.

Staples, J. E.↗

An inundation study of the Lower Magdalena-Cauca River Basin

Annual floodings affect about 35,000 sq km of the Lower Magdalena-Cauca River Basin in the northern part of Colombia. Efforts made to determine the effects of inundation extension and complex factors involved in the flooding problem are reported. An integrated survey was made of the entire river basin with the object of land reclamation in the lower part and determining the effects of inundation extension and other complex factors on flooding. Modern remote sensing techniques were for the study.

Vanes, E.↗

Study of future world markets for agricultural aircraft

The future world market for US-manufactured agricultural aircraft was studied and the technology needs for foreign markets were identified. Special emphasis was placed on the developing country market, but the developed countries and the communist group were also included in the forecasts. Aircraft needs were projected to the year 2000 by a method which accounted for field size, crop production, treated area, productivity, and attrition of the fleet. A special scenario involving a significant shift toward aerial fertilization was also considered. An operations analysis was conducted to compare the relative application costs of various existing and hypothetical future aircraft. A case study was made of Colombia as an example of a developing country in which aviation is emerging as an important industry.

Gobetz, F. W.↗

Market assessment of photovoltaic power systems for agricultural applications worldwide

Agricultural sector PV market assessments conducted in the Phillippines, Nigeria, Mexico, Morocco, and Colombia are extrapolated worldwide. The types of applications evaluated are those requiring less than 15 kW of power and operate in a stand alone mode. The major conclusions were as follows: PV will be competitive in applications requiring 2 to 3 kW of power prior to 1983; by 1986 PV system competitiveness will extend to applications requiring 4 to 6 kW of power, due to capital constraints, the private sector market may be restricted to applications requiring less than about 2 kW of power; the ultimate purchase of larger systems will be governments, either through direct purchase or loans from development banks. Though fragmented, a significant agriculture sector market for PV exists; however, the market for PV in telecommunications, signalling, rural services, and TV will be larger. Major market related factors influencing the potential for U.S. PV Sales are: lack of awareness; high first costs; shortage of long term capital; competition from German, French and Japanese companies who have government support; and low fuel prices in capital surplus countries. Strategies that may aid in overcoming some of these problems are: setting up of a trade association aimed at overcoming problems due to lack of awareness, innovative financing schemes such as lease arrangements, and designing products to match current user needs as opposed to attempting to change consumer behavior.

Cabraal, A.↗

Andean tectonics: Implications for Satellite Geodesy

Current knowledge and theories of large scale Andean tectonics as they relate to site planning for the NASA Crustal Dynamics Program's proposed high precision geodetic measurements of relative motions between the Nazca and South American plates are summarized. The Nazca Plate and its eastern margin, the Peru-Chile Trench, is considered a prototype plate marked by rapid motion, strong seismicity and well defined boundaries. Tectonic activity across the Andes results from the Nazca Plate subducting under the South American plate in a series of discrete platelets with different widths and dip angles. This in turn, is reflected in the tectonic complexity of the Andes which are a multitutde of orogenic belts superimposed on each other since the Precambrian. Sites for Crustal Dynamics Program measurements are being located to investigate both interplate and extraplate motions. Observing operations have already been initiated at Arequipa, Peru and Easter Island, Santiago and Cerro Tololo, Chile. Sites under consideration include Iquique, Chile; Oruro and Santa Cruz, Bolivia; Cuzco, Lima, Huancayo and Bayovar, Peru; and Quito and the Galapagos Islands, Ecuador. Based on scientific considerations, Santa Cruz, Huancayo (or Lima), Quito and the Galapagos Islands should be replaced by Isla San Felix, Chile; Brazilia or Petrolina, Brazil; and Guayaquil, Ecuador. If resources permit, additional important sites would be Buenaventura and Villavicencio or Puerto La Concordia, Colombia; and Mendoza and Cordoba, Argentina.

Allenby, R. J.↗

Central and South America GPS geodesy - CASA Uno

In January 1988, scientists from over 25 organizations in 13 countries and territories cooperated in the largest GPS campaign in the world to date. A total of 43 GPS receivers collected approximately 590 station-days of data in American Samoa, Australia, Canada, Colombia, Costa Rica, Ecuador, New Zealand, Norway, Panama, Sweden, United States, West Germany, and Venezuela. The experiment was entitled CASA Uno. Scientific goals of the project include measurements of strain in the northern Andes, subduction rates for the Cocos and Nazca plates beneath Central and South America, and relative motion between the Caribbean plate and South America. A second set of measurements are planned in 1991 and should provide preliminary estimates of crustal deformation and plate motion rates in the region.

Kellogg, James N.↗

First GPS baseline results from the North Andes

The CASA Uno GPS experiment (January-February 1988) has provided the first epoch baseline measurements for the study of plate motions and crustal deformation in and around the North Andes. Two dimensional horizontal baseline repeatabilities are as good as 5 parts in 10 to the 8th for short baselines (100-1000 km), and better than 3 parts in 10 to the 8th for long baselines (greater than 1000 km). Vertical repeatabilities are typically 4-6 cm, with a weak dependence on baseline length. The expected rate of plate convergence across the Colombia Trench is 6-8cm/yr, which should be detectable by the repeat experiment planned for 1991. Expected deformation rates within the North Andes are of the order of 1 cm/yr, which may be detectable with the 1991 experiment.

Kellogg, James N.↗

The annual cycle in equatorial convection and sea surface temperature

The coupled atmosphere-ocean system in the equatorial eastern Pacific and Atlantic exhibits a distinct annual cycle that is reflected in contrasting conditions at the times of the two equinoxes. The contrasts are so strong that they dominate the annual march of zonally averaged outgoing long wave radiation for the equatorial belt. The March equinox corresponds to the warm season when the equatorial cold tongues in the eastern Pacific and Atlantic area absent. With the onset of summer monsoon convection over Colombia, Central America, and West Africa in May-June, northward surface winds strengthen over the eastern Pacific and Atlantic, the equatorial cold tongues reappear, and the marine convection shifts from the equatorial belt to the intertropical convergence zones (ITCZs) along 8 deg N. On the basis of observational evidence concerning the timing and year-to-year regularity of the surface wind changes during the development of the cold tongues, it is argued that (1) the increase in the northward surface winds in response to the onset of the northern summer monsoon may be instrumental in reestablishing the cold tongues, and (2) positive feedbacks involving both the zonal and meridional wind components contribute to the remarkable robustness of the cold tongue-ITCZs complexes in both oceans.

Mitchell, Todd P.↗

Elemental abundance anomalies in the late Cenomanian extinction interval - A search for the source(s)

Measurements of elemental abundances by neutron activation methods across the Cenomanian-Turonian extinction interval in samples collected from 16 sites in the Western Interior Basin of North America from 12 widely separated locations around the globe, including six ODP/DSDP sites, are reported. In most Western Interior Basin sites, in Colombia, and in Western Europe, two closely spaced elemental abundance peaks occur in the upper Cenomanian (about 92 m.y.), spanning the ammonite zones of Sciponoceras gracile through Neocardioceras juddii. Elements with anomalously high concentrations include Sc, Ti, V, Cr, Mn, Co, Ni, Ir, Pt, and Au. The lower peak coincides with the disappearance (extinction) of the foraminifer Rotalipora cushmani. In North American sections R. greenhornensis also disappears at or just below this horizon, but in Europe it disappears considerably earlier than R. cushmani. Although the weak geochemical signal from comet impact(s) could be masked by the strong terrestrial-like overprint, these anomalies more likely resulted in the large late Cenomanian through early Turonian eustatic rise and deep-water opening of the South Atlantic.

Orth, Charles J.↗

Anatomy of a system accident: The crash of Avianca Flight 052

On January 25, 1990, Avianca Flight 052 crashed after running out of fuel following a missed approach to New York's John F. Kennedy Airport. Weather was poor on the East Coast of the United States that day, and the flight had experienced several holding patterns enroute from Medellin, Colombia, to New York. The accident is analyzed in terms of Helmreich and Foushee's (1993) model of crew performance and Reason's (1990) model of latent pathogens in system operations.

Helmreich, Robert L.↗

Rating the Relevance of QUORUM-Selected ASRS Incident Narratives to a "Controlled Flight into Terrain" Accident

An exploratory study was conducted to identify commercial aviation incidents that are relevant to a "controlled flight into terrain" (CFIT) accident using a NASA-developed text processing method. The QUORUM method was used to rate 67820 incident narratives, virtually all of the narratives in the Aviation Safety Reporting System (ASRS) database, according to their relevance to two official reports on the crash of American Airlines Flight 965 near Cali, Colombia in December 1995. For comparison with QUORUM's ratings, three experienced ASRS analysts read the reports of the crash and independently rated the relevance of the 100 narratives that were most highly rated by QUORUM, as well as 100 narratives randomly selected from the database. Eighty-four of 100 QUORUM-selected narratives were rated as relevant to the Cali accident by one or more of the analysts. The relevant incidents involved a variety of factors, including, over-reliance on automation, confusion and changes during descent/approach, terrain avoidance, and operations in foreign airspace. In addition, the QUORUM collection of incidents was found to be significantly more relevant than the random collection.

McGreevy, Michael W.↗

STS-40/SLS-1: Lift to Cargo Bay

The footage shows the lifting of the solid state micro-accelerometer into Colombia's cargo bay. This was done in a clean room setting and is part of the In Orbit Technology Demonstration Program.

Source record↗

[Development and Use of Hidrosig]

The NASA portion of this joint NSF-NASA grant consists of objective 2 and a part of objective 3. A major effort was made on objective 2, and it consisted of developing a numerical GIs environment called Hidrosig. This major research tool is being developed by the University of Colorado for conducting river-network-based scaling analyses of coupled water-energy-landform-vegetation interactions including water and energy balances, and floods and droughts, at multiple space-time scales.Objective 2: To analyze the relevant remotely sensed products from satellites, radars and ground measurements to compute the transported water mass for each complete Strahler stream using an 'assimilated water balance equation' at daily and other appropriate time scales. This objective requires analysis of concurrent data sets for Precipitation (PPT), Evapotranspiration (ET) and stream flows (Q) on river networks. To solve this major problem, our decision was to develop Hidrosig, a new Open-Source GIs software. A research group in Colombia, South America, developed the first version of Hidrosig, and Ricardo Mantilla was part of this effort as an undergraduate student before joining the graduate program at the University of Colorado in 2001. Hydrosig automatically extracts river networks from large DEMs and creates a "link-based" data structure, which is required to conduct a variety of analyses under objective 2. It is programmed in Java, which is a multi-platform programming language freely distributed by SUN under a GPL license. Some existent commercial tools like Arc-Info, RiverTools and others are not suitable for our purpose for two reasons. First, the source code is not available that is needed to build on the network data structure. Second, these tools use different programming languages that are not most versatile for our purposes. For example, RiverTools uses an IDL platform that is not very efficient for organizing diverse data sets on river networks. Hidrosig establishes a clear data organization framework that allows a simultaneous analysis of spatial fields along river network structures involving Horton- Strahler framework. Software tools for network extraction from DEMs and network-based analysis of geomorphologic and topologic variables were developed during the first year and a part of second year.

Gupta, Vijay K.↗