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At least 397 records · Page 22

SU-F-J-48: Effect of Scan Length On Magnitude of Imaging Dose in KV CBCT

Purpose: To study effect of scan length on magnitude of imaging dose deposition in Varian kV CBCT for head & neck and pelvis CBCT. Methods: To study effect of scan length we measured imaging dose at depth of 8 cm for head and neck Cone Beam Computed Tomography (CBCT) acquisition ( X ray beam energy is used 100kV and 200 degree of gantry rotation) and at 16 cm depth for pelvis CBCT acquisition ( X ray beam energy used is 125 kV and 360 degree of gantry rotation) in specially designed phantom. We used farmer chamber which was calibrated in kV X ray range for measurements .Dose was measured with default field size, and reducing field size along y direction to 10 cm and 5 cm. Results: As the energy of the beam decreases the scattered radiation increases and this contributes significantly to the dose deposited in the patient. By reducing the scan length to 10 Cm from default 20.6 cm we found a dose reduction of 14% for head and neck CBCT protocol and a reduction of 26% for pelvis CBCT protocol. Similarly for a scan length of 5cm compared to default the dose reduction in head and neck CBCT protocol is 36% while in the pelvis CBCT protocol the dose reduction is 50%. Conclusion: By limiting the scan length we can control the scatter radiation generated and hence the dose to the patient. However the variation in dose reduction for same length used in two protocols is because of the scan geometry. The pelvis CBCT protocol uses a full rotation and head and neck CBCT protocol uses partial rotation.

60 APPLIED LIFE SCIENCES↗

SU-F-J-117: Impact of Motion Artifacts On Image Quality and Accuracy of Tumor Motion Reconstruction in 4D CT-On-Rails and MV-CBCT Scans: A Phantom Study

Purpose: To compare and quantify respiratory motion artifacts in images from free breathing 4D-CT-on-Rails(CTOR) and those from MV-Cone-beam-CT(MVCB) and facilitate respiratory motion guided radiation therapy. Methods: 4D-CTOR: Siemens Somatom CT-on-Rails system with Anzai belt loaded with pressure sensor load cells. 4D scans were performed in helical mode, pitch 0.1, gantry rotation time 0.5s, 1.5mm slice thickness, 120kVp, 400 mAs. Normal and fast breathing (>12rpm) scanning protocols were investigated. Helical scan, AIP(average intensity projection) and MIP(maximum intensity projection) were generated from 4D-CTOR scans with amplitude sorting into 10 phases.MVCB: Siemens Artiste diamond view(1MV)MVCB was performed with 5MU thorax protocol with 60 second of full rotation.Phantom: Anzai AZ-733V respiratory phantom. The settings were set to normal and resp. modes with repetition rates at 15 rpm and 10 rpm. Surgical clips, acrylic, wooden, rubber and lung density, total six mock-ups were scanned and compared in this study.Signal-to-noise ratio(SNR), contrast-to-noise ratio(CNR) and reconstructed motion volume were compared to different respiratory setups for the mock-ups. Results: Reconstructed motion volume was compared to the real object volume for the six test mock-ups. It shows that free breathing helical in all instances underestimates the object excursions largest to −67.4% and least −6.3%. Under normal breathing settings, MIP can predict very precise motion volume with minimum 0.4% and largest −13.9%. MVCB shows underestimate of the motion volume with −1.11% minimum and −18.0% maximum. With fast breathing, AIP provides bad representation of the object motion; however, the MIP can predict the motion volume with −2.0% to −11.4% underestimate. Conclusion: Respiratory motion guided radiation therapy requires good motion recording. This study shows that regular CTOR helical scans provides bad guidance, 4D CTOR AIP cannot represent the fast breathing pattern, MIP can represent the best motion volume, MVCBCT can only be used for normal breathing with acceptable uncertainties.

60 APPLIED LIFE SCIENCES↗

SU-F-T-468: Efficient Scanning Data Analysis for TomoTherapy

Purpose: The standard TomoTherapy 2D scanning system requires manual analysis using spreadsheets or similar software. Manual analysis is time consuming and does not allow efficient use of the medical physicist or timely results that may indicate issues during the acquisition of data. The purpose of this study is to determine if an in-house solution can provide timely analysis of TomoTherapy scan data. Methods: A custom MATLAB program utilizing a streamlined graphical interface was developed to interpret the native scanning data acquired by the TomoTherapy Electrometer Measurement System (TEMS). The gold beam data provided by the manufacturer was used as a baseline for the acquired data. Two separate sets of scan data were used including longitudinal, transverse, and percent depth dose (PDD). The scan data were compared visually in an overlay and analytically for each beam width using the full width half max (FWHM) for longitudinal profiles and difference inside the field core for the transverse profiles as recommended by TG-148. A plot of the PDD percent error at each point along the curve was generated to show agreement. The time to analysis was measured on a laptop running an Intel i5 processor with 8GB of RAM. Results: The software program required on average less than 5 seconds to load and analyze the results. No conversion or reformatting of the data was required. This allowed real-time visualization of the comparison to the gold beam data as well as the parameters recommended by TG-148. The average percent difference was 0.3% for the longitudinal profiles and 0.1% for the transverse profiles. All PDD data was less than 1% different beyond dmax. Conclusion: We have developed a tool to analyze TomoTherapy scan data in real-time. This allows an efficient method to perform beam commissioning, annual QA, and adjust the beam parameters if necessary.

61 RADIATION PROTECTION AND DOSIMETRY↗

TH-CD-209-07: Preliminary Experimental Comparison of Spot- and Continuous Line Scanning with Or Without Rescanning for Gated Proton Therapy

Purpose: We aim to compare the performance of discrete spot- or continuous line scanning combined with rescanning in mitigating residual organ motion during gated proton therapy treatments. Methods: The Quasar respiratory phantom was used to move a 2D scintillation detector on a linear trajectory with sinusoidal motion pattern (sin{sup 4}), 20 mm peak-to-peak amplitude and 5 sec period. Its motion was monitored using a customized solution based on optical tracking technology. We compared spot and line scanning plans for a monoenergetic 150 MeV circular field, 50.4 mm radius at isocenter. Transverse dose distributions at 13 cm depth in PMMA (15.47 mm water equivalent) were measured to compare three options for motion mitigation: rescanning (10× factor), gating and their combination. The gating window was centered in the trajectory plateau to simulate end-exhale gated treatment in presence of 2 mm and 4 mm residual motion, parallel or perpendicular to the primary scanning direction. Results: When the target moves perpendicular to the primary scanning direction, large dose deviations are measured (γ3%/3mm=47%) without mitigation techniques. Beam gating combined with rescanning restores target coverage (γ3%/3mm=91%). For parallel target motion, observed dose distortions in the non-compensated irradiation are smaller (γ3%/3mm=77%). Beam gating alone recovers the 100% gamma pass-rate at 3%/3mm. Continuous line scanning reduces delivery time by up to 60% with respect to discrete spot scanning in presence of motion mitigation, and improves homogeneity when rescanning is applied (up to 20%, perpendicular motion, 4 mm residual motion). Conclusion: The direction of motion has a large impact on the target dose coverage. Nevertheless, even in the worst case scenario, gating combined with rescanning could mitigate the impact of motion on dose deposition. Moreover, continuous line rescanning improves the robustness against residual motion in the gating window. This study has received funding from the European Community’s Seventh Framework Programme (FP7/2007–2013) under grant agreement n.290605 (PSI-FELLOW/COFUND) and ‘Giuliana and Giorgio Stefanini Foundation’.

60 APPLIED LIFE SCIENCES↗

A Cloud-Tracking Data Set for the CSAPR2 Adaptive Scanning during TRACER

The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Atmospheric Radiation Measurement (ARM) User Facility (Mather and Voyles 2013) deployed the first ARM Mobile Facility (AMF1; Miller et al. 2016) near LaPorte, Texas to support the Tracking Aerosol Convection Interactions Experiment (TRACER) (Jensen et al. 2025) near Houston, Texas. From October 2021 to September 2022, AMF1 was deployed to 29.67° N, 95.06° W near LaPorte, Texas and the 2nd Generation C-band Scanning ARM Precipitation Radar (CSAPR2) was deployed to a supplementary site at 29.53° N, 95.28° W (Figure 1). During an intensive operational period (IOP) from 1 June to 30 September 2022, the CSAPR2 sampled precipitation echoes in an adaptive scanning mode following the Multisensor Agile Adaptive Scanning (MAAS) framework (Kollias et al. 2020). MAAS helped optimize the CSAPR2 scan strategy to perform frequent plan position indicator (PPI) and range height indicator (RHI) scans (Lamer et al. 2023). Details of the CSAPR2 scanning, data processing, and calibration procedures used by the principal investigator (PI), and the PI data files are described by Oue et al. (2023). Details of the CSAPR2 operational performance, ARM data processing and correction procedures, and data quality masks are described by Feng et al. (2024a).

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗

FAST (FAST AUTONOMOUS SCANNING TOOLKIT)

SF-23-006 FAST (FAST AUTONOMOUS SCANNING TOOLKIT)The software is deployed on an edge computing device at the beamline computer attached to a scanning microscope. It iteratively analyzes the data collected, then identifies new scan positions to scan next and directs the positioners that move the sample (or probe beam) to these positions. Overall, it identifies a sparse set of scan positions that are sufficient to image the full sample. This can reduce the scan time by >60%.

KANDEL, SAUGAT↗

Scanning system tradeoffs for remote optical sensing from geosynchronous orbit

The scanning and telescope field of view requirements for making Earth Resources (ER) and Meteorological (MET) phenomena observations from a Synchronous Earth Observation Satellite (SEOS) have been defined. The equations relating spacecraft scan capability to user scan field of view requirements are given and evaluated using four different telescope fields of view. The tradeoffs between telescope field-of-view and user scan fields of view requirements are shown, and it was determined that a 0.6 degree by 1.2 degree telescope FOV is optimum for the SEOS telescope. It was shown that an internal scan as well as external scan is required to satisfy both ER and MET users.

Young, P. J.↗

Rotating-unbalanced-mass Devices for Scanning Balloon-borne Experiments, Free-flying Spacecraft, and Space Shuttle/space Station Experiments

A new method is presented for scanning balloon-borne experiments, free-flying spacecraft, and gimballed experiments mounted to the space shuttle or the space station. It uses rotating-unbalanced-mass (RUM) devices for generating circular, line, or raster scan patterns and an auxiliary control system for target acquisition, keeping the scan centered on the target, and producing complementary motion for raster scanning. It is ideal for applications where the only possible way to accomplish the required scan is to physically scan the entire experiment or spacecraft as in x ray and gamma ray experiments. In such cases, this new method should have advantages over prior methods in terms of either power, weight, cost, performance, stability, or a combination of these.

Polites, Michael E.↗

New method for scanning spacecraft and balloon-borne/space-based experiments

A new method is presented for scanning balloon-borne experiments, free-flying spacecraft, and gimballed experiments mounted to the space shuttle or the space station. It uses rotating-unbalanced-mass (RUM) devices for generating circular, line, or raster scan patterns and an auxiliary control system for target acquisition, keeping the scan centered on the target, and producing complementary motion for raster scanning. It is ideal for applications where the only possible way to accomplish the required scan is to physically scan the entire experiment or spacecraft as in X-ray and gamma ray experiments. In such cases, this new method should have advantages over prior methods in terms of either power, weight, cost, performance, stability, or a combination of these.

Polites, Michael E.↗

Rotating Unbalanced-Mass Devices for Scanning: Proof-of-Concept Test Results

This experiment proves the concept of line-of-sight scanning space-based and balloon-borne instruments and telescopes with rotating unbalanced-mss (RUM) devices. Extending the concept to free-flying spacecraft is straightforward. When line-of-sight scanning is required, but optical or electronic line-of-sight scanning is impossible, then scanning with RUM devices can offer huge power and mass savings, better system reliability and stability, and improved scan accuracy. This is especially true with large instruments and telescopes scanning at high frequencies.

Alhorn, Dean C.↗

New Research by CCD Scanning for Comets and Asteroids

Spacewatch was begun in 1980; its purpose is to explore the various populations of small objects within the solar system. Spacewatch provides data for studies of comets and asteroids, finds potential targets for space missions, and provides information on the environmental problem of possible impacts. Moving objects are discovered by scanning the sky with charge-coupled devices (CCDS) on the 0.9-meter Spacewatch Telescope of the University of Arizona on Kitt Peak. Each Spacewatch scan consists of three drift scan passes over an area of sky using a CCD filtered to a bandpass of 0.5-1.0 pm (approximately V+R+I with peak sensitivity at 0.7 pm). The effective exposure time for each pass is 143 seconds multiplied by the secant of the declination. The area covered by each scan is 32 arcminutes in declination by about 28 minutes of time in right ascension. The image scale is 1.05 arcseconds per pixel. Three passes take about 1.5 hours to complete and show motions of individual objects over a one hour time baseline. The limiting magnitude is about 21.5 in single scans. CCD scanning was developed by Spacewatch in the early 1980s, with improvements still being made - particularly by bringing a new 1.8-m Spacewatch Telescope on line. In the meantime, we have been finding some 30,000 new asteroids per year and applying their statistics to the study of the collisional history of the solar system. Spacewatch had found a total of 150 Near-Earth Asteroids (NEAS) and 8 new comets, and had recovered one lost comet (P/Spitaler in 1993). Spacewatch is also efficient in recovery of known comets and has detected and reported positions for more than 137,000 asteroids, mostly new ones in the main belt, including more than 10,882 asteroids designated by the Minor Planet Center (MPC).

Gehrels, Tom↗

Pointing and Scanning Control of Instruments Using Rotating Unbalanced Masses

Motions of telescopes, satellites, and other flight bodies have been controlled by various means in the past. For example, gimbal mounted devices can use electric motors to produce pointing and scanning motions. Reaction wheels, control moment gyros, and propellant-charged reaction jets are other technologies that have also been used. Each of these methods has its advantages, but all actuator systems used in a flight environment face the challenges of minimizing weight, reducing energy consumption, and maximizing reliability. Recently, Polites invented and patented the Rotating Unbalanced Mass (RUM) device as a means for generation scanning motion on flight experiments. RUM devices have been successfully used to generate various scanning motions. The basic principle: a RUM rotating at constant annular velocity exerts a cyclic centrifugal force on the instrument or main body, thus producing a periodic scanning motion. A system of RUM devices exerts no reaction forces on the main body, requires very little energy, and is very simple to construct and control. These are significant advantages over electric motors, reaction wheels, and control moment gyroscopes. Although the RUM device very easily produces scanning motion, an auxiliary control system may be required to maintain the proper orientation, or pointing of the main body. It has been suggested that RUM devices can be used to control pointing dynamics, as well as generate the desired periodic scanning motion. The idea is that the RUM velocity will not be constant, but will vary over the period of one RUM rotation. The thought is that the changing angular velocity produces a centrifugal force having time-varying magnitude and direction. The scope of the present research project is to further study the pointing control concept, and to implement a microcontroller program to control an experimental hardware system. This report is subdivided into three themes. The basic dynamic modeling and control principles are described first. Then, the controller implementation and preliminary test results are discussed. Finally, suggestions for future work are presented.

Hung, John Y.↗

On Orbit Measurement of Response vs. Scan Angle for the Infrared Bands on TRMM/VIRS

The Visible and Infrared Scanner on the Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM/VIRS) is a whiskbroom imaging radiometer with two reflected solar bands and three emissive infrared bands. All five detectors are on a single cooled focal plane. This configuration necessitated the use of a paddlewheel scan mirror to avoid the effects of focal plane rotation that arise when using a scan mirror that is inclined to its axis of rotation. System radiometric requirements led to the need for protected silver as the mirror surface. Unfortunately, the SiO(x) coatings currently used to protect silver from oxidation introduce a change in reflectance with angle of incidence (AOI). This AOI dependence results in a modulation of system level response with scan angle. Measurement of system response vs. scan angle (RVS) was not difficult for the VIRS reflected solar bands, but attaining the required accuracy for the IR bands in the laboratory was not possible without a large vacuum chamber and a considerable amount of custom designed testing apparatus. Therefore, the decision was made to conduct the measurement on-orbit. On three separate occasions, the TRMM spacecraft was rotated about its pitch axis and, after the nadir view passed over the Earth's limb, the VIRS performed several thousand scans while viewing deep space. The resulting data has been analyzed and the RVS curves generated for the three IR bands are being used in the VIRS radiometric calibration algorithm. This, to our knowledge, the first time this measurement has been made on-orbit. Similar measurements are planned for the EOS-AM and EOS-PM MODIS sensors and are being considered for several systems under development. The VIRS on-orbit results will be compared to VIRS and MODIS system level laboratory measurements, MODIS scan mirror witness sample measurements and modeled data.

Barnes, William L.↗

Wide scanning spherical antenna

A novel method for calculating the surface shapes for subreflectors in a suboptic assembly of a tri-reflector spherical antenna system is introduced, modeled from a generalization of Galindo-Israel's method of solving partial differential equations to correct for spherical aberration and provide uniform feed to aperture mapping. In a first embodiment, the suboptic assembly moves as a single unit to achieve scan while the main reflector remains stationary. A feed horn is tilted during scan to maintain the illuminated area on the main spherical reflector fixed throughout the scan thereby eliminating the need to oversize the main spherical reflector. In an alternate embodiment, both the main spherical reflector and the suboptic assembly are fixed. A flat mirror is used to create a virtual image of the suboptic assembly. Scan is achieved by rotating the mirror about the spherical center of the main reflector. The feed horn is tilted during scan to maintain the illuminated area on the main spherical reflector fixed throughout the scan.

Shen, Bing↗

Dual-Frequency Airborne Scanning Rain Radar Antenna System

A compact, dual-frequency, dual-polarization, wide-angle-scanning antenna system has been developed as part of an airborne instrument for measuring rainfall. This system is an upgraded version of a prior single-frequency airborne rain radar antenna system and was designed to satisfy stringent requirements. One particularly stringent combination of requirements is to generate two dual-polarization (horizontal and vertical polarizations) beams at both frequencies (13.405 and 35.605 GHz) in such a way that the beams radiated from the antenna point in the same direction, have 3-dB angular widths that match within 25 percent, and have low sidelobe levels over a wide scan angle at each polarization-and-frequency combination. In addition, the system is required to exhibit low voltage standing-wave ratios at both frequencies. The system (see figure) includes a flat elliptical scanning reflector and a stationary offset paraboloidal reflector illuminated by a common-aperture feed system that comprises a corrugated horn with four input ports one port for each of the four frequency-and-polarization combinations. The feed horn is designed to simultaneously (1) under-illuminate the reflectors 35.605 GHz and (2) illuminate the reflectors with a 15-dB edge taper at 13.405 GHz. The scanning mirror is rotated in azimuth to scan the antenna beam over an angular range of 20 in the cross-track direction for wide swath coverage, and in elevation to compensate for the motion of the aircraft. The design of common-aperture feed horn makes it possible to obtain the required absolute gain and low side-lobe levels in wide-angle beam scanning. The combination of the common-aperture feed horn with the small (0.3) focal-length-to-diameter ratio of the paraboloidal reflector makes it possible for the overall system to be compact enough that it can be mounted on a DC-8 airplane.

Hussein, Ziad A.↗

In-Orbit Performance of the MWRI Scanning Mechanisms

Scanning Equipment supporting the Millimeter Wave Radiometer Instrument (MWRI) are flying in a sunsynchronized orbit of 850-km altitude with an inclination of 98.8 deg on the FY-3 meteorological satellite (FY = Feng Yun, Wind and Cloud). MWRI is a linearly polarized, ten-channel passive Radiometer; it measures precipitation and water clouds, sea ice, snow/water equivalent, drought and flood index, land temperature and soil moisture. Following the FY3-A, the FY3-B Satellite was launched in autumn 2010. Since that time, the Scanning Equipment was continuously operated. During the last three and a half years in orbit, the Scanning Mechanism has executed about 65 million revolutions, while the Scan Compensation Mechanism (SCM) - used for momentum compensation - has already successfully executed more than one billion revolutions. During the commissioning phase of the instrument and during the first operation phase, random torque spikes, which manifested themselves as a motor current increase, were observed in the Scan Drive Mechanism, whereas the Scan Compensation drive operated nominally from the beginning. The result of the root cause investigations performed in order to isolate the issue, and the consequences for the follow-on MWRI equipment which was successfully launched by end of September 2013 (now flying on the FY 3-C Spacecraft), are discussed.

Schmid, Manfred↗

Tracking On-Orbit Stability of the Response Versus Scan Angle for the S-NPP VIIRS Reflective Solar Bands

The Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite (VIIRS) on the Suomi NPP (National Polar-orbiting Partnership) satellite (http:npp.gsfc.nasa.govviirs.html) has been in operation for nearly five years. The onboard calibration of the VIIRS reflective solar bands (RSB) relies on a solar diffuser (SD) located at a fixed scan angle and a solar diffuser stability monitor (SDSM). The VIIRS response versus scan angle (RVS) was characterized prelaunch in ambient conditions and is currently used to determine the on-orbit response for all scan angles relative to the SD scan angle. Since the RVS is vitally important to the quality of calibrated level 1B products, it is important to monitor its on-orbit stability. In this study, the RVS stability is examined based on reflectance trends collected from 16-day repeatable orbits over pre-selected pseudo-invariant desert sites in Northern Africa. These trends nearly cover the entire Earth view scan range so that any systematic drifts in the scan angle direction would indicate a change in RVS. This study also compares VIIRS RVS on-orbit stability results with those from both Aqua and Terra MODIS over the first four years of mission for a few selected bands, which provides further information on potential VIIRS RVS on-orbit changes.

Wu, Aisheng↗

Determination of Response Versus Scan Angle for the NOAA-20 Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite Thermal Emissive Bands from Emissive Radiation Measurements During the Pitch Maneuver

The visible infrared imaging radiometer suite (VIIRS) is a key sensor onboard the newly launched (November 18, 2017) NOAA-20 satellite and the early launched Suomi National Polar-orbiting Partnership (SNPP) satellite. The two VIIRS sensors are nearly identical in design. Its onboard calibration components include a solar diffuser (SD) and a SD stability monitor for the reflective solar bands, a V-grooved blackbody for the thermal emissive bands (TEBs),and a space view port for background subtraction. These onboard calibrators are located at fixed scan angles. The response versus scan angle (RVS) of the VIIRS scan mirror was characterized prelaunch in lab-ambient conditions and is currently used to calibrate the on-orbit response for all scan angles relative to the calibrator's scan angle. A spacecraft-level pitch maneuver was scheduled during the initial intensive calibration and validation testing for both the NOAA-20 and SNPP. The pitch maneuver provided a rare opportunity for VIIRS to make observations of deep space over the entire range of the scan angle, which can be used to characterize the TEBRVS. We analyze the NOAA-20 pitch maneuver data and assess the derived TEB RVS. A comparison between the RVS determined by the pitch maneuver observations and prelaunch lab measurements is conducted for each band, detector, and mirror side of the half-angle mirror.

Wu, Aisheng↗