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Tonlé Sap Food Security and Agriculture II: Evaluating Changes in Ecosystem Vitality and Freshwater Healthin the Tonlé Sap Basin using Remotely Sensed Data

The Tonlé Sap Lake and river basin in central Cambodia provide critical ecosystem services to the region, including fisheries, agricultural irrigation, hydropower, and biodiverse habitats. Deforestation, increased pumping for farming, and effects of climate change such as droughts and forest fires threaten the health of the lake and food security in the region. This project built upon the previous term through a partnership with Conservation International (CI), the Cambodian Ministry of Water Resources and Meteorology, and the Tonlé Sap Authority to assess ecosystem vitality and implement CI’s Freshwater Health Index (FHI) tool, in an effort to prioritize resource expenditure and highlight areas of concern. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic and related travel restrictions, partners had not been able to readily collect in situ data for the past year, which make up the majority of FHI inputs. To help fill this data gap, we developed a methodology for using Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE) satellite data to calculate groundwater storage depletion, and a Python Application Programming Interface for processing and formatting remotely-sensed data for the Soil and Water Assessment Tool (SWAT) model. We then used SWAT to model nutrient flows and of phosphorous, nitrogen and suspended sediments amounts in the basin from October 2000 to December 2020. These outputs served as inputs for the FHI and provided policy makers with robust monitoring information to aid decision-making in the area and safeguard the lake’s vital fisheries and biodiversity.

Justine Spore↗

Bridging the Last Mile with Open-Source Advancements: Empowering Communities through Fusion of Aerosol Optical Depth (AOD) Products from Multi-Satellite Sensors

Aerosol Optical Depth (AOD) is a crucial parameter for understanding atmospheric aerosol distribution and their impact on climate and air quality. With the growing number of Earth observation satellites, there is an abundance of AOD products derived from various sensors onboard both geostationary and low-orbit satellites. The availability of multiple datasets provides an opportunity to harness the strengths of each sensor and create comprehensive and accurate AOD datasets for climate and air quality studies at different temporal and spatial scales. Our NASA aerosol MEaSURES project has made significant strides in recent years by undertaking the ambitious task of developing an open-source package tailored for fusing AOD products from different sources. The package is based on OOP (Object-Oriented Programming) design and is implemented in Python modules. Generic interfaces enable easy inclusion of large and heterogeneous data. The package may be utilized to produce harmonized AOD datasets with enhanced spatial and temporal coverage. The latest version of the package is able to process and integrate the dark-target AOD data from six different sensors: AHI Himawari-8, ABI GOES-West, ABI GOES-East, MODIS AQUA, MODIS TERRA, and VIIRS SNPP. Rigorous validation and intercomparison studies have been performed to assess the accuracy and reliability of the fused AOD product against ground-based measurements and reference datasets. The open-source nature of the developed package ensures transparency, reproducibility, and community engagement. The research community and stakeholders can access, contribute to, and further improve the fusion methodology, making it adaptable to other studies, or expanding it to include new satellite data as they become available. In this poster presentation, we will introduce the accomplishments and challenges faced during the development of the open-source package for AOD data fusion, and demonstrate the advantages of combining AOD products from the six aforementioned satellite sensors. The presentation aims to foster discussions, collaborations, and future directions in integrating Earth observation and remote sensing data, which may contribute to a better understanding of atmospheric aerosols and their impacts on our environment.

Zhaohui Zhang↗

Re-imagining a Stata/Python Combination

At last year's Stata Conference, I presented some ideas for combining Stata and the Python programming language within a single interface. Two methods were presented: in one, Python was used to automate Stata; in the other, Python was used to send simulated keystrokes to the Stata GUI. The first method has the drawback of only working in Windows, and the second can be slow and subject to character input limits. In this presentation, I will demonstrate a method for achieving interaction between Stata and Python that does not suffer these drawbacks, and I will present some examples to show how this interaction can be useful.

Fiedler, James↗

Radiation Data Portal: Connection of Radiation Measurements on Airplane Flights with Observations of Solar-Terrestrial Environment

The impact of solar radiation dramatically increases at high altitudes in the Earth’s atmosphere and in space. Therefore, continuous monitoring of the radiation environment is critical for the safety of aircraft and spacecraft crews and passengers. Addressing the problem requires a complex approach of integration of different data sources and enhancement of the visualization and search capabilities. The Radiation Portal Database represents an interactive web-based application for convenient search and visualization of in-flight radiation measurements and exploration of various properties related to the radiation environment. The primary element of the Radiation Portal back-end is a MySQL relational database that currently contains the radiation measurements obtained from the Automated Radiation Measurements for Aerospace Safety (ARMAS)device, and soft X-ray and proton fluxes from Geostationary Orbiting Environmental Satellite (GOES). The developed Application Programming Interface (API) and related Python routines allow a user to retrieve the database records directly and efficiently, without interaction with the web interface. As a use case of the Radiation Portal, we examine the properties of the ARMAS flights taken during the enhanced Solar Proton (SP) fluxes and compare them to the flights of similar time and location taken during SP-quiet periods.

SMD↗

Simulation of the Microwave Emission of Multi-layered Snowpacks Using the Dense Media Radiative Transfer Theory: the DMRT-ML Model

DMRT-ML is a physically based numerical model designed to compute the thermal microwave emission of a given snowpack. Its main application is the simulation of brightness temperatures at frequencies in the range 1-200 GHz similar to those acquired routinely by spacebased microwave radiometers. The model is based on the Dense Media Radiative Transfer (DMRT) theory for the computation of the snow scattering and extinction coefficients and on the Discrete Ordinate Method (DISORT) to numerically solve the radiative transfer equation. The snowpack is modeled as a stack of multiple horizontal snow layers and an optional underlying interface representing the soil or the bottom ice. The model handles both dry and wet snow conditions. Such a general design allows the model to account for a wide range of snow conditions. Hitherto, the model has been used to simulate the thermal emission of the deep firn on ice sheets, shallow snowpacks overlying soil in Arctic and Alpine regions, and overlying ice on the large icesheet margins and glaciers. DMRT-ML has thus been validated in three very different conditions: Antarctica, Barnes Ice Cap (Canada) and Canadian tundra. It has been recently used in conjunction with inverse methods to retrieve snow grain size from remote sensing data. The model is written in Fortran90 and available to the snow remote sensing community as an open-source software. A convenient user interface is provided in Python.

snowpacks↗

PandExo: A Community Tool for Transiting Exoplanet Science with JWST and HST

As we approach the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) era, several studies have emerged that aim to (1) characterize how the instruments will perform and (2) determine what atmospheric spectral features could theoretically be detected using transmission and emission spectroscopy. To some degree, all these studies have relied on modeling of JWST's theoretical instrument noise. With under two years left until launch, it is imperative that the exoplanet community begins to digest and integrate these studies into their observing plans, as well as think about how to leverage the Hubble Space Telescope (HST) to optimize JWST observations. To encourage this and to allow all members of the community access to JWST & HST noise simulations, we present here an open-source Python package and online interface for creating observation simulations of all observatory-supported timeseries spectroscopy modes. This noise simulator, called PandExo, relies on some aspects of Space Telescope Science Institute's Exposure Time Calculator, Pandeia. We describe PandExo and the formalism for computing noise sources for JWST. Then we benchmark PandExoʼs performance against each instrument team's independently written noise simulator for JWST, and previous observations for HST. We find that PandExo is within 10% agreement for HST/WFC3 and for all JWST instruments.

Batalha, Natasha E.↗

Machine Learning-Based Predictive Analytics for Aircraft Engine Conceptual Design

Big data and artificial intelligence/machine learning are transforming the global business environment. Data is now the most valuable asset for enterprises in every industry. Companies are using data-driven insights for competitive advantage. With that, the adoption of machine learning-based data analytics is rapidly taking hold across various industries, producing autonomous systems that support human decision-making. This work explored the application of machine learning to aircraft engine conceptual design. Supervised machine-learning algorithms for regression and classification were employed to study patterns in an existing, open-source database of production and research turbofan engines, and resulting in predictive analytics for use in predicting performance of new turbofan designs. Specifically, the author developed machine learning-based analytics to predict cruise thrust specific fuel consumption (TSFC) and core sizes of high-efficiency turbofan engines, using engine design parameters as the input. The predictive analytics were trained and deployed in Keras, an open-source neural networks application program interface (API) written in Python, with Google’s TensorFlow (an open source library for numerical computation) serving as the backend engine. The promising results of the predictive analytics show that machine-learning techniques merit further exploration for application in aircraft engine conceptual design.

deep-learning↗

Software for Optical (Laser) Ground Station Monitor and Control ​

Previous NASA laser communication missions have been supported by ground terminals specific to the mission. The Low-Cost Optical Terminal project (LCOT) aims to serve as a commercial off-the-shelf (COTS), reusable, and modular optical ground terminal prototype, provide a blueprint for future optical ground terminals, and enable optical communication experiments with a variety of spacecraft from Low Earth Orbit to lunar orbit. The goal of the internship was the development of LCOT’s Gimbal Monitor and Control (GMC) application, within the LCOT Monitor and Control Subsystem (MCS). Mount control software PWI4 was provided by mount and gimbal vendor Planewave Instruments; developed in Python, GMC integrates and interfaces with PWI4 using third party libraries such as Protobuf and RabbitMQ. As a stand in for the Monitor and Control Subsystem (MCS), a test Graphical User Interface (GUI) was created to send commands to and receive telemetry from the GMC application; these commands and telemetry are sent through the RabbitMQ message bus as Protobuf encoded messages. GMC then interfaces with PWI4 which passes along desired commands and telemetry to and from a vendor provided mount and gimbal simulator. The GMC software developed allows LCOT’s Monitor and Control Subsystem (MCS) to take advantage of the existing mount control software, advancing LCOT’s efforts in the development of the MCS. The MCS and GMC software developed will contribute to LCOT’s goal as a flexible and modular optical ground terminal prototype and blueprint, which supports development towards a potential optical ground terminal network.

space communications↗

Benefits of using Electronic Data Sheets (EDS) with coreFlight Systems (cFS) - A Project Example

Recently there has been interest in the incorporation of core Flight Systems (cFS) with Spacecraft Onboard Interface Services (SOIS) Electronic Data Sheets (EDS) in the spaceflight software community. The Regenerative Fuel Cell project at the Glenn Research Center is using cFS architecture with EDS support for its monitoring and control software. The presentation will outline the benefits to using cFS with EDS support: First, EDS establishes a single source of truth for the definitions of data structures used throughout an entire mission that may otherwise be programmed in different languages and designed with different processor architectures. Not only does this help with inter-application communication via the software bus, but it also greatly simplifies communication between systems. An EDS Application Programming Interface (API) library allows the conversion of EDS data structures to and from native data structures. Second, bindings for other programming languages (e.g. Lua, Python, JSON) have been written to allow the creation and manipulation of EDS data objects within those languages. The RFC project uses Lua scripts to automatically generate binary configuration files at build time to be loaded into our cFS programs. We also use Python bindings in a graphical user interface (GUI) to allow an operator to send commands and view telemetry messages sent from cFS instances. Finally, using Lua scripts we can set up specific simulation scenarios to perform automatic functional testing. During the development of the RFC software, the software team put together a generic python GUI called “cFS-EDS-GroundStation” that provides a basic interface to an instance of cFS with EDS support. The GUI includes a basic telecommand and telemetry system that reads directly from the generated EDS databases. In the telecommand system, dropdown menus are populated with all user commands that are defined in EDS. In the telemetry system, telemetry messages are automatically decoded, written to the screen, and saved to a binary file. Additional Python scripts have been written to convert the binary data files into a comma separated value (CSV) format for further processing. We will demonstrate the basic use of the cFS-EDS-GroundStation software including adding additional commands and telemetry payload values in EDS and see them appear automatically in the cFS-EDS-Groundstation software. About the RFC project: The Regenerative Fuel Cell project is tasked with developing and demonstrating a power system consisting of a fuel cell and electrolyzer to provide power during a lunar day/night cycle. During the night, the fuel cell takes Hydrogen and Oxygen gasses and converts them into electricity, water, and heat. During the day, the electrolyzer takes input power (e.g. from a photovoltaic array) and converts water back into Hydrogen and Oxygen gasses.

Mathew Mccaskey↗

Aero-Engines AI - A Machine-Learning App for Aircraft Engine Concepts Assessment

Effective deployment of machine-learning (ML) models could drive a high level of efficiency in aircraft engine conceptual design. Aero-Engines AI is a user-friendly app that has been created to deploy trained machine-learning (ML) models to assess aircraft engine concepts. It was created using tkinter, a GUI (graphical user interface) module that is built into the standard Python library. Employing tkinter greatly facilitates the sharing of ML application as an executable file which can be run on Windows machines (without the need to have Python or any library installed). The app gets user input for a turbofan design, preprocesses the input data, and deploys trained ML models to predict turbofan thrust specific fuel consumption (TSFC), engine weight, core size, and turbomachinery stage-counts. The ML predictive models were built by employing supervised deep-learning and K-nearest neighbor regression algorithms to study patterns in an existing open-source database of production and research turbofan engines. They were trained, cross-validated, and tested in Keras, an open-source neural networks API (application programming interface) written in Python, with TensorFlow (Google open-source artificial intelligence library) serving as the backend engine. The smooth deployment of these ML models using the app shows that Aero-Engines AI is an easy-touse and a time-saving tool for aircraft engine design-space exploration during the conceptual design stage. Current version of the app focuses on the performance prediction of conventional turbofans. However, the scope of the app can easily be expanded to include other engine types (such as turboshaft and hybrid-electric systems) after their ML models are developed. Overall, the use of a machine-learning app for aircraft engine concept assessment represents a promising area of development in aircraft engine conceptual design.

machine learning↗

Aero-Engines AI - A Machine-Learning App for Aircraft Engine Concepts Assessment

Effective deployment of machine-learning (ML) models could drive a high level of efficiency in aircraft engine conceptual design. Aero-Engines AI is a user-friendly app that has been created to deploy trained machine-learning (ML) models to assess aircraft engine concepts. It was created using tkinter, a GUI (graphical user interface) module that is built into the standard Python library. Employing tkinter greatly facilitates the sharing of ML application as an executable file which can be run on Windows machines (without the need to have Python or any library installed). The app gets user input for a turbofan design, preprocesses the input data, and deploys trained ML models to predict turbofan thrust specific fuel consumption (TSFC), engine weight, core size, and turbomachinery stage-counts. The ML predictive models were built by employing supervised deep-learning and K-nearest neighbor regression algorithms to study patterns in an existing open-source database of production and research turbofan engines. They were trained, cross-validated, and tested in Keras, an open-source neural networks API (application programming interface) written in Python, with TensorFlow (Google open-source artificial intelligence library) serving as the backend engine. The smooth deployment of these ML models using the app shows that Aero-Engines AI is an easy-touse and a time-saving tool for aircraft engine design-space exploration during the conceptual design stage. Current version of the app focuses on the performance prediction of conventional turbofans. However, the scope of the app can easily be easily expanded to include other engine types (such as turboshaft and hybrid-electric systems) after their ML models are developed. Overall, the use of a machine-learning app for aircraft engine concept assessment represents a promising area of development in aircraft engine conceptual design.

machine learning↗

Aero-Engines AI - A Machine-Learning App for Aircraft Engine Concepts Assessment

Effective deployment of trained machine-learning models could drive a high level of efficiency in aircraft engine conceptual design. Aero-Engines AI is a Windows app that has been created to deploy trained machine-learning models to assess aircraft engine concepts. It was created using tkinter, a GUI (graphical user interface) module that is built into the standard Python library. Employing tkinter greatly facilitates the sharing of machine-learning application as an executable file which can be run on Windows machines (without the need to have Python or any library installed). Current version of the app focuses on the performance prediction of conventional turbofans. The app gets user input for a turbofan design, preprocesses the input data, and deploys trained machine-learning models to predict turbofan thrust specific fuel consumption (TSFC), engine weight, core size, and turbomachinery stage-counts. The machine-learning predictive models were built by employing supervised deep-learning algorithm to study patterns in an existing open-source database of production and research turbofan engines. They were trained, cross-validated, and tested in Keras, an open-source neural networks API (application programming interface) written in Python, with TensorFlow (Google open-source artificial intelligence library) serving as the backend engine. The smooth deployment of these machine-learning models using the app shows that Aero-Engines AI is an easy-to-use and a time-saving tool for aircraft engine design-space exploration during the conceptual design stage.

machine learning↗

Radiation-Hard Parallel Readout Circuit for Low-Frequency Voltage Signal Measurements

NASA Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC) has successfully developed and tested a custom-designed low-noise multi-channel digitizer (MCD) application specific integrated circuit (ASIC) for operation in harsh radiation environments. The MCD-ASIC is optimized for low-frequency and low-voltage signal measurements from sensors and transducers. It has 20 input channels where each channel is comprised of auto-zeroed chopper variable-gain amplifier, post amplifier, and a second order ∑∆ modulator. ∑∆ analog-to-digital converter (ADC) relies on oversampling and noise shaping to achieve high-resolution conversion. However, the MCD-ASIC requires digital filtering and decimation to convert the output single bit streams from the ADC to useful data words. A parallel digital platform such as a field-programmable-gate-array (FPGA) is highly suitable to fully leverage the capabilities of the MCD-ASIC. The FPGA controls the MCD-ASIC via serial peripheral interface (SPI) protocol and acquires data from it. A Python-script communicates with the FPGA board through a USB interface on a cross operating platform. Using this architecture, the system is capable of monitoring up to 20 voltage readout channels simultaneously in a real-time manner. Each channel’s parameters can be programmed independently allowing maximum user versatility. In this paper, we present analysis of the analog front-end, the implementation of the digital processing unit on the FPGA, and provide noise performance results from the MCD-ASIC readout.

ASIC↗

Cross-correlation and image alignment for multi-band IR sensors

We present the development of a cross-­‐correlation algorithm for correlating objects in the long wave, mid wave and short wave Infrared sensor arrays. The goal is to align the images in the multi-­‐ sensor suite by correlating multiple key features in the images. Due to the wavelength differences, the object appears very differently in the sensor images even the sensors focus on the same object. In order to perform accurate correlation of the same object in the multi-­‐band images, we perform image processing on the images so that the features of the object become similar to each other. Fourier domain band pass filters are used to enhance the images. Mexican Hat and Gaussian Derivative Wavelets are used to further enhance the features of the object. A Python based QT graphical user interface has been implemented to carry out the process. We show reliable results of the cross-­‐correlation of the objects in multiple band videos.

Torres, Gilbert↗

3D Scanning System to Assess Gravity-Dependent Body Shape Changes

The human body shows unique morphological changes when exposed to different gravity conditions, including muscle atrophy, fluid shift, and spinal elongation. Such changes need to be incorporated for human-system integration in the vehicle habitat, garment, and spacesuit designs, as inaccurate body measurements can result in suboptimal crew protection that can potentially decrease injury tolerance. However, measurement tools have not been available for accurate assessments of body shape changes. This work aimed to develop a prototype 3-D body scanning system with the configuration and performance optimized for in-flight crewmember body scanning. A scan hardware system was developed using Intel RealSense commercial off-the-shelf 3D sensors. The sensor parameters were iteratively optimized and tested to obtain the performance level needed for body scanning. A scan booth structure was fabricated, with the overall size 4 x 4 x 8 feet. The specific number of sensors and mounting positions were determined by iterative simulations, which indicated that 16 cameras can capture 94% and 96% of body surface area from the 1st percentile female and 99th percentile male crew population subject. The mounted sensors were linked through a mix of USB-C and USB-3 cables and operated for data acquisition from a Linux laptop computer. A software prototype was developed using Python and Tkinter graphical user interface toolkit. A calibration procedure was also built using a panel of QR codes. A computer vision tool detected and decoded the unique ID and pattern locations of the QR codes. The calibration information determined the position and orientation of the 3D sensors with respect to each other. The scanner performance was assessed using a set of 3D printed custom manikins. The manikin size and shape were derived from the previous ISS study, which measured the crewmembers’ anthropometry changes across the different flight phases. The average anthropometric measurements at the pre-flight and flight day 15 were sampled and projected onto the 1st percentile female and 99th percentile male body shapes. Another pair of manikins were also 3D printed to simulate the neutral body posture, estimated from ISS microgravity environments. A preliminary analysis assessed the performance of the newly developed scanner against the reference scanner, which has been used at the NASA JSC for crew and test subject anthropometry. Although the new scanner data showed several artifacts and missing geometries in the occluded body areas such as armpits and crotch, overall shape matched with the reference scan. When the manikin surface coordinates were compared, a root mean square error of 1.3 cm was observed from the manikin torso segment. Linear measurements including the stature, knee height and circumference measurements at the chest and calf showed differences from the reference scan measurements, ranging between 0.3 and 0.9 cm. Overall, this work demonstrated a development framework for an in-flight scanner with design and operation optimized for crewmember body scanning. Further improvement can potentially provide previously unavailable anthropometric data from different gravitational environments, including 0-g, 1/6-g, and 1-g. Such data can improve suit fit, habitat design, exercise efficacy quantification and sizing of orthostatic intolerance garments.

K H Kim↗

CEA2022: A Modernization of NASA Glenn’s Software CEA (Chemical Equilibrium with Applications)

The software program “Chemical Equilibrium with Applications” (CEA) is used to solve chemical equilibrium, and compute thermodynamic and transport properties of the resulting mixture, and also has special solvers dedicated to rocket, shock, and detonation problems. We have recently completed a full re-write of CEA with modernization and improvements, called “CEA2022”. In this paper, we will give an overview of CEA2022’s features, and discuss some of the fundamental equations used by CEA2022, as well as the fundamental assumptions, in order to provide users with a complete understanding of the software’s methodology. Several enhancements have been made to the software, including modern software development practices, interface improvements, and additional features. The feature enhancements include: running cases in parallel with thread safe solves, thermodynamic and transport database updates, and allowing for negative and inert reactants. In terms of interface improvements, we have made CEA a reusable library by adding APIs for multiple languages, including Python, Matlab, Excel, Fortran, and C. The subroutine interface allows for integration with other applications, including flow-solver integration (i.e. with CFD). We also compare results between CEA2022 and the previous version (CEA2) as a validation of the new software.

chemical equilibrium↗

Multidisciplinary Tool for Systems Analysis of Planetary Entry, Descent, and Landing

Systems analysis of a planetary entry (SAPE), descent, and landing (EDL) is a multidisciplinary activity in nature. SAPE improves the performance of the systems analysis team by automating and streamlining the process, and this improvement can reduce the errors that stem from manual data transfer among discipline experts. SAPE is a multidisciplinary tool for systems analysis of planetary EDL for Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, and Titan. It performs EDL systems analysis for any planet, operates cross-platform (i.e., Windows, Mac, and Linux operating systems), uses existing software components and open-source software to avoid software licensing issues, performs low-fidelity systems analysis in one hour on a computer that is comparable to an average laptop, and keeps discipline experts in the analysis loop. SAPE uses Python, a platform-independent, open-source language, for integration and for the user interface. Development has relied heavily on the object-oriented programming capabilities that are available in Python. Modules are provided to interface with commercial and government off-the-shelf software components (e.g., thermal protection systems and finite-element analysis). SAPE currently includes the following analysis modules: geometry, trajectory, aerodynamics, aerothermal, thermal protection system, and interface for structural sizing.

Samareh, Jamshid A.↗

A Multidisciplinary Tool for Systems Analysis of Planetary Entry, Descent, and Landing (SAPE)

SAPE is a Python-based multidisciplinary analysis tool for systems analysis of planetary entry, descent, and landing (EDL) for Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, and Titan. The purpose of SAPE is to provide a variable-fidelity capability for conceptual and preliminary analysis within the same framework. SAPE includes the following analysis modules: geometry, trajectory, aerodynamics, aerothermal, thermal protection system, and structural sizing. SAPE uses the Python language-a platform-independent open-source software for integration and for the user interface. The development has relied heavily on the object-oriented programming capabilities that are available in Python. Modules are provided to interface with commercial and government off-the-shelf software components (e.g., thermal protection systems and finite-element analysis). SAPE runs on Microsoft Windows and Apple Mac OS X and has been partially tested on Linux.

Samareh, Jamshid A.↗