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Search indexed NASA NTRS and DOE OSTI research on propulsion, heat transfer, battery materials and energy systems. Follow report and document links to the original sources.

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All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
NASA NTRS1996

Stochastic Filtering of Rain Profiles Using Radar, Surface-Referenced Radar, or Combined Radar-Radiometer Measurements

This paper describes a computationally efficient nearly optimal Bayesian algorithm to estimate rain (and drop size distribution) profiles, given a radar reflectivity profile at a single attenuating wavelength. In addition to estimating the averages of all the mutually ambiguous combinations of rain parameters that can produce the data observed, the approach also calculates the n-ns uncertainty in its estimates (this uncertainty thus quantifies "the amount of ambiguity" in the "solution"). The paper also describes a more general approach that can make estimates based on a radar reflectivity profile together with an approximate measurement of the path-integrated attenuation, or a radar reflectivity profile and a set of passive microwave brightness temperatures. This more general "combined" algorithm is currently being adapted for the Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission.

Haddad, Ziad S.↗
NASA NTRS1987

Separating Peaks in X-Ray Spectra

Deconvolution algorithm assists in analysis of x-ray spectra from scanning electron microscopes, electron microprobe analyzers, x-ray fluorescence spectrometers, and like. New algorithm automatically deconvolves x-ray spectrum, identifies locations of spectral peaks, and selects chemical elements most likely producing peaks. Technique based on similarities between zero- and second-order terms of Taylor-series expansions of Gaussian distribution and of damped sinusoid. Principal advantage of algorithm: no requirement to adjust weighting factors or other parameters when analyzing general x-ray spectra.

Nicolas, David↗
NASA NTRS1990

Network, system, and status software enhancements for the autonomously managed electrical power system breadboard. Volume 2: Protocol specification

This volume (2 of 4) contains the specification, structured flow charts, and code listing for the protocol. The purpose of an autonomous power system on a spacecraft is to relieve humans from having to continuously monitor and control the generation, storage, and distribution of power in the craft. This implies that algorithms will have been developed to monitor and control the power system. The power system will contain computers on which the algorithms run. There should be one control computer system that makes the high level decisions and sends commands to and receive data from the other distributed computers. This will require a communications network and an efficient protocol by which the computers will communicate. One of the major requirements on the protocol is that it be real time because of the need to control the power elements.

Mckee, James W.↗
NASA NTRS2005

Distributed Optimization

We demonstrate a new framework for analyzing and controlling distributed systems, by solving constrained optimization problems with an algorithm based on that framework. The framework is ar. information-theoretic extension of conventional full-rationality game theory to allow bounded rational agents. The associated optimization algorithm is a game in which agents control the variables of the optimization problem. They do this by jointly minimizing a Lagrangian of (the probability distribution of) their joint state. The updating of the Lagrange parameters in that Lagrangian is a form of automated annealing, one that focuses the multi-agent system on the optimal pure strategy. We present computer experiments for the k-sat constraint satisfaction problem and for unconstrained minimization of NK functions.

Macready, William↗
NASA NTRS2019

Microphysical Retrievals from Simultaneous Measurements by Airborne and Ground Radars during OLYMPEX

The OLYMPEX field campaign took place over the Olympic Peninsula of Washington during winter 2015-2016. During the intensive observing period, several aircraft flights obtained multi-frequency airborne radar measurements at X-, Ku-, Ka, and W-band from radars aboard the ER-2 and DC-8 aircraft. In addition, ground radars at S- and X-band performed RHI scans under the aircraft ground tracks. These coincident datasets provide a wealth of complementary information about the hydrometeor particle sizes, shapes, and orientations.In order to synthesize these measurements and test the robustness of scattering models, an optimal estimation retrieval based upon a Hitschfeld-Bordan profiling algorithm has been developed. This algorithm retrieves profiles of the particle size distribution parameters Nw and Dm, and, in the ice phase, relative proportions of aggregate, pristine, and rimed particles, using scattering models with different size-density and size-aspect ratio relationships. Under this formulation, only the pristine particles are horizontally aligned and capable of producing non-zero ZDR and KDP.From the nadir-looking airborne multifrequency radars, we find that aggregates may be readily distinguished from rimed and pristine particles owing to their uniqueness in triple-frequency space. However, rimed and pristine particles occupy a similar region in this space and thus polarimetric measurements greatly enhance their identification in our retrieval framework. With these capabilities we will present analyses of three-dimensional hydrometeor mapping obtained during various OLYMPEX cases. Some features retrieved in these cases include a layer of enhanced aggregation about 2km above the melting layer, hypothesized to be maintained by orographic uplift. This layer is often situated above a layer of denser, aligned particles. Regions of riming and supercooled liquid water beneath generating cells are also identified by our retrieval algorithm. Comparisons to in-situ observations and evaluation of scattering models will be presented.

Munchak, S. Joseph↗
NASA NTRS1994

Passive microwave remote sensing of rainfall with SSM/I: Algorithm development and implementation

A physically based algorithm sensitive to emission and scattering is used to estimate rainfall using the Special Sensor Microwave/Imager (SSM/I). The algorithm is derived from radiative transfer calculations through an atmospheric cloud model specifying vertical distributions of ice and liquid hydrometeors as a function of rain rate. The algorithm is structured in two parts: SSM/I brightness temperatures are screened to detect rainfall and are then used in rain-rate calculation. The screening process distinguishes between nonraining background conditions and emission and scattering associated with hydrometeors. Thermometric temperature and polarization thresholds determined from the radiative transfer calculations are used to detect rain, whereas the rain-rate calculation is based on a linear function fit to a linear combination of channels. Separate calculations for ocean and land account for different background conditions. The rain-rate calculation is constructed to respond to both emission and scattering, reduce extraneous atmospheric and surface effects, and to correct for beam filling. The resulting SSM/I rain-rate estimates are compared to three precipitation radars as well as to a dynamically simulated rainfall event. Global estimates from the SSM/I algorithm are also compared to continental and shipboard measurements over a 4-month period. The algorithm is found to accurately describe both localized instantaneous rainfall events and global monthly patterns over both land and ovean. Over land the 4-month mean difference between SSM/I and the Global Precipitation Climatology Center continental rain gauge database is less than 10%. Over the ocean, the mean difference between SSM/I and the Legates and Willmott global shipboard rain gauge climatology is less than 20%.

Ferriday, James G.↗
NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Joint Spectrum Access and Power Control in Air-Air Communications - A Deep Reinforcement Learning Based Approach

This paper considers the dynamic spectrum access and power control problem in a single-hop point-to-point Air-Air Communication Network (AACN). Due to spectrum scarcity, we assume the number of Aircraft-to-Aircraft (A2A) communication links is greater than that of the available channels, such that some communication links need to share the same channel, causing co-channel interference. We formulate the joint channel selection and power control optimization problem to maximize the Weighted Sum Spectral Efficiency (WSSE). A distributed and dynamic deep Q learning-based algorithm is proposed to find the optimal solution. Specifically, we design two different policies that are trained by conducting a trial-and-error scheme. Each communication link can achieve the optimal policy by exploiting the local information from its neighbors, and this distributive approach make it scalable to large networks. Finally, our experimental results demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed solution in various AACN scenarios.

Zhe Wang↗
NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Joint Spectrum Access and Power Control in Air-Air Communications - A Deep Reinforcement Learning Based Approach

This paper considers the dynamic spectrum access and power control problem in a single-hop point-to-point Air-Air Communication Network (AACN). Due to spectrum scarcity, we assume the number of Aircraft-to-Aircraft (A2A) communication links is greater than that of the available channels, such that some communication links need to share the same channel, causing co-channel interference. We formulate the joint channel selection and power control optimization problem to maximize the Weighted Sum Spectral Efficiency (WSSE). A distributed and dynamic deep Q learning-based algorithm is proposed to find the optimal solution. Specifically, we design two different policies that are trained by conducting a trial-and-error scheme. Each communication link can achieve the optimal policy by exploiting the local information from its neighbors, and this distributive approach make it scalable to large networks. Finally, our experimental results demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed solution in various AACN scenarios.

Zhe Wang↗
NASA NTRS1981

Middle atmosphere project: A radiative heating and cooling algorithm for a numerical model of the large scale stratospheric circulation

A Curtis matrix is used to compute cooling by the 15 micron and 10 micron bands of carbon dioxide. Escape of radiation to space and exchange the lower boundary are used for the 9.6 micron band of ozone. Voigt line shape, vibrational relaxation, line overlap, and the temperature dependence of line strength distributions and transmission functions are incorporated into the Curtis matrices. The distributions of the atmospheric constituents included in the algorithm, and the method used to compute the Curtis matrices are discussed as well as cooling or heating by the 9.6 micron band of ozone. The FORTRAN programs and subroutines that were developed are described and listed.

Wehrbein, W. M.↗
NASA NTRS1972

A method for direct numerical integration of the Boltzmann equation

The principal difficulties in numerical solution of the Boltzmann equation are considered. The study is aimed at formulating a numerical solution in such a manner that it contains a minimum amount of excess information at the distribution function level. It is pointed out that the accurate calculation of the distribution function at each point in phase space requires a tremendous number of operations, due to the necessity of solving five-fold quadratures in the collision integral. This results in the operational memory of the digital computer being insufficient to store all the data on the distribution functions at the necessary points in phase space. An algorithm is constructed involving successive iterations of the Boltzmann equation which does not require storage of each step of the new distribution function.

Cheremisin, F. G.↗
NASA NTRS1996

Design and Implementation of Replicated Object Layer

One of the widely used techniques for construction of fault tolerant applications is the replication of resources so that if one copy fails sufficient copies may still remain operational to allow the application to continue to function. This thesis involves the design and implementation of an object oriented framework for replicating data on multiple sites and across different platforms. Our approach, called the Replicated Object Layer (ROL) provides a mechanism for consistent replication of data over dynamic networks. ROL uses the Reliable Multicast Protocol (RMP) as a communication protocol that provides for reliable delivery, serialization and fault tolerance. Besides providing type registration, this layer facilitates distributed atomic transactions on replicated data. A novel algorithm called the RMP Commit Protocol, which commits transactions efficiently in reliable multicast environment is presented. ROL provides recovery procedures to ensure that site and communication failures do not corrupt persistent data, and male the system fault tolerant to network partitions. ROL will facilitate building distributed fault tolerant applications by performing the burdensome details of replica consistency operations, and making it completely transparent to the application.Replicated databases are a major class of applications which could be built on top of ROL.

Koka, Sudhir↗
NASA NTRS1990

Real-time adaptive aircraft scheduling

One of the most important functions of any air traffic management system is the assignment of ground-holding times to flights, i.e., the determination of whether and by how much the take-off of a particular aircraft headed for a congested part of the air traffic control (ATC) system should be postponed in order to reduce the likelihood and extent of airborne delays. An analysis is presented for the fundamental case in which flights from many destinations must be scheduled for arrival at a single congested airport; the formulation is also useful in scheduling the landing of airborne flights within the extended terminal area. A set of approaches is described for addressing a deterministic and a probabilistic version of this problem. For the deterministic case, where airport capacities are known and fixed, several models were developed with associated low-order polynomial-time algorithms. For general delay cost functions, these algorithms find an optimal solution. Under a particular natural assumption regarding the delay cost function, an extremely fast (O(n ln n)) algorithm was developed. For the probabilistic case, using an estimated probability distribution of airport capacities, a model was developed with an associated low-order polynomial-time heuristic algorithm with useful properties.

Kolitz, Stephan E.↗
NASA NTRSDate not supplied

A Study of Precipitation Mean Particle Size with the GPM Combined Radar-Radiometer Algorithm

The Global Precipitation Measurement (GPM) mission provides quantitative estimates of the mass-weighted mean diameter, Dm, a characteristic parameter of the precipitation particle size distribution (PSD). This study investigates the three-dimensional distribution of Dm retrieved by the GPM Combined Radar-Radiometer Algorithm (CORRA) using observations from GPM’s dual-frequency precipitation radar and microwave imager. We examine Dm in individual precipitation systems in different climate regimes and investigate a six-year global climatology. The vertical structure of Dm is demonstrated with cases of deep convection, frontal rain and snow, and stratocumulus light rain. The Dm values, detectable by GPM, range from appx 0.7 mm in stratocumulus precipitation to >3.5 mm in the ice layers of intense convection. Within the constraint of the 12-dBZ detectability threshold, the smallest climatological mean Dm (~ 0.8 mm) are found in the eastern oceans, and the largest values (~ 2 mm) occur above the melting levels in convection over land in summer. The standard deviation is generally < 0.45 mm below 6 km. Climate regimes are characterized with Dm annual/seasonal variations, its convective/stratiform components, and vertical variabilities (2-10 km). The US Central Plains and Argentina are associated with the largest Dm in a deep layer. Tropical Africa has larger Dm and standard deviation than Amazon. Large convective Dm occurs at high latitudes of Eurasia and North America in summer; the southern hemisphere high latitudes have shallower systems with smaller Dm. Oceanic storm tracks in both hemispheres have relatively large Dm, particularly for convective Dm in winter.

Mei Han↗
NASA NTRS2018

Recent Updates in the SMAP Level-4 Soil Moisture Algorithm

The NASA Soil Moisture Active Passive (SMAP) mission generates, among other data sets, the Level-4 Soil Moisture (L4_SM) product. The L4_SM data are published with a mean latency of ~2.5 days from the time of observation and provide global, three-hourly, 9-km resolution estimates of surface and root-zone soil moisture and related land surface states and fluxes. The L4_SM algorithm is based on the assimilation of SMAP radiometer brightness temperature observations into the NASA Catchment land surface model using a spatially distributed ensemble Kalman filter (EnKF). In 2018, the L4_SM algorithm was upgraded from Version 3 to Version 4. Underlying the new version is a revised modeling system that includes improved input parameter datasets for land cover, topography, and vegetation height that are based on recent, high-quality, space-borne remote sensing observations. Additionally, SMAP Level-2 soil moisture retrievals and in situ soil moisture measurements were used to calibrate a particular Catchment model parameter that governs the recharge of surface soil moisture from below under non-equilibrium conditions, which brings the model's surface soil moisture more in line with the SMAP Level-2 and in situ soil moisture. Moreover, the calibration of the assimilated SMAP brightness temperatures changed substantially from Version 3 to Version 4, and the "catchment deficit" model variable was removed from the EnKF state vector to avoid degrading the model's groundwater estimates.Considerable effort went into the version upgrade, creating an expectation that the new version is improved over the old version. Indeed, some aspects of the new version are clearly better. However, other aspects are not. In this presentation we summarize the skill of the new and old versions vs. independent in situ measurements and in terms of data assimilation diagnostics, including, for example, the statistics of the (soil moisture) analysis increments and the observation-minus-forecast (brightness temperatures) residuals. We share our experience with trying to improve to the L4_SM product and the lessons learned from the effort.

Reichle, Rolf H.↗
NASA NTRS2001

A Bell-Curved Based Algorithm for Mixed Continuous and Discrete Structural Optimization

An evolutionary based strategy utilizing two normal distributions to generate children is developed to solve mixed integer nonlinear programming problems. This Bell-Curve Based (BCB) evolutionary algorithm is similar in spirit to (mu + mu) evolutionary strategies and evolutionary programs but with fewer parameters to adjust and no mechanism for self adaptation. First, a new version of BCB to solve purely discrete optimization problems is described and its performance tested against a tabu search code for an actuator placement problem. Next, the performance of a combined version of discrete and continuous BCB is tested on 2-dimensional shape problems and on a minimum weight hub design problem. In the latter case the discrete portion is the choice of the underlying beam shape (I, triangular, circular, rectangular, or U).

Kincaid, Rex K.↗
NASA NTRS1992

O(+) and He(+) restricted and extended (bi-modal) ion conic distributions

An automated procedure using standard image processing techniques has been developed that finds and characterizes energetic ion conic events in the data acquired by the Energetic Ion Composition Spectrometer on DE-1 in the altitude range 8000 to 24000 km. The algorithm discriminates between the two types of ion conic distribution, those restricted to a narrow angular range and those extended in angle. Extended (bimodal) ion conic distributions also have a significant flux of field-aligned energetic ions. Extended ion conics constitute more than one third of the ion conics found. The two types of ion conic distribution have different altitude dependences. The average properties of energetic conic distributions suggest that conic formation by localized, explosive, transverse energization is not the dominant mechanism responsible for producing energetic conic distributions above 8000 km.

Peterson, W. K.↗
NASA NTRS1997

Genetic Algorithm Approaches to Prebiobiotic Chemistry Modeling

We model an artificial chemistry comprised of interacting polymers by specifying two initial conditions: a distribution of polymers and a fixed set of reversible catalytic reactions. A genetic algorithm is used to find a set of reactions that exhibit a desired dynamical behavior. Such a technique is useful because it allows an investigator to determine whether a specific pattern of dynamics can be produced, and if it can, the reaction network found can be then analyzed. We present our results in the context of studying simplified chemical dynamics in theorized protocells - hypothesized precursors of the first living organisms. Our results show that given a small sample of plausible protocell reaction dynamics, catalytic reaction sets can be found. We present cases where this is not possible and also analyze the evolved reaction sets.

Lohn, Jason↗