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At least 415 records · Page 23

Assessment of Thermal Control and Protective Coatings

This final report is concerned with the tasks performed during the contract period which included spacecraft coating development, testing, and applications. Five marker coatings consisting of a bright yellow handrail coating, protective overcoat for ceramic coatings, and specialized primers for composites (or polymer) surfaces were developed and commercialized by AZ Technology during this program. Most of the coatings have passed space environmental stability requirements via ground tests and/or flight verification. Marker coatings and protective overcoats were successfully flown on the Passive Optical Sample Assembly (POSA) and the Optical Properties Monitor (OPM) experiments flown on the Russian space station MIR. To date, most of the coatings developed and/or modified during this program have been utilized on the International Space Station and other spacecraft. For ISS, AZ Technology manufactured the 'UNITY' emblem now being flown on the NASA UNITY node (Node 1) that is docked to the Russian Zarya (FGB) utilizing the colored marker coatings (white, blue, red) developed by AZ Technology. The UNITY emblem included the US American flag, the Unity logo, and NASA logo on a white background, applied to a Beta cloth substrate.

Mell, Richard J.↗

Neural-Net Processed Characteristic Patterns for Measurement of Structural Integrity of Pressure Cycled Components

A neural-net inspection process has been combined with a bootstrap training procedure and electronic holography to detect changes or damage in a pressure-cycled International Space Station cold plate to be used for cooling instrumentation. The cold plate was excited to vibrate in a normal mode at low amplitude, and the neural net was trained by example to flag small changes in the mode shape. The NDE (nondestructive-evaluation) technique is straightforward but in its infancy; its applications are ad-hoc and uncalibrated. Nevertheless previous research has shown that the neural net can detect displacement changes to better than 1/100 the maximum displacement amplitude. Development efforts that support the NDE technique are mentioned briefly, followed by descriptions of electronic holography and neural-net processing. The bootstrap training procedure and its application to detection of damage in a pressure-cycled cold plate are discussed. Suggestions for calibrating and quantifying the NDE procedure are presented.

Decker, A. J.↗

Early Results from the MODIS Atmosphere Cloud Algorithms

The Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) is one of five instruments aboard the Terra Earth Observing System platform launched in December 1999. With 36 spectral bands from the visible through the infrared, and spatial resolution from 250m to 1km, the instrument provides an unprecedented opportunity for global cloud studies. A comprehensive set of remote sensing algorithms for cloud masking and retrieval of cloud physical and optical properties have been developed by members of the MODIS atmosphere team. The archived products from these algorithms have applications in climate change studies, climate modeling, numerical weather prediction, as well as fundamental atmospheric research. In addition to an extensive cloud mask, products include cloud top physical parameters (temperature, pressure, emissivity), cloud phase, cloud optical parameters (optical depth, effective particle radius, water path), visible cirrus reflectance, a contrail flag, and other derived parameters. All products are archived into two categories: pixel-level retrievals at a 1 km or 5 km spatial resolution at nadir (referred to as Level-2 products) and 1 degree global gridded statistics (Level-3 products). An overview of the MODIS atmosphere algorithms and products, their status, validation activities, and early level-2 and -3 results will be presented.

Platnick, S.↗

Apollo 10 - 11

This video gives overviews of the Apollo 10 and Apollo 11 missions to the moon, including footage from the launches and landings of the Command Module Columbia, which is used for both flights. The Apollo 10 crewmembers, Commander Thomas Stafford, Command Module Pilot John Young, and Lunar Module Pilot Eugene Cernan, are seen as they suit-up in preparation for launch and then as they experiment with the microgravity environment on their way to the moon. The moon's surface is seen in detail as the Command Module orbits at an altitude of 69 miles. The Apollo 11 crewmembers, Commander Neil Armstrong, Command Module Pilot Michael Collins, and Lunar Module Pilot Buzz Aldrin, are seen during various training activities, including simulated lunar gravity training, practicing collecting lunar material, and using the moonquake detector. Footage shows the approach and landing of the Lunar Module Eagle on the moon. Armstrong and Aldrin descend to the moon's surface, collect a sample of lunar dust, and erect the American flag. Eagle's liftoff from the moon is seen.

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SeaWiFS Postlaunch Calibration and Validation Analyses

The effort to resolve data quality issues and improve on the initial data evaluation methodologies of the SeaWiFS Project was an extensive one. These evaluations have resulted, to date, in three major reprocessings of the entire data set where each reprocessing addressed the data quality issues that could be identified up to the time of the reprocessing. Three volumes of the SeaWiFS Postlaunch Technical Report Series (Volumes 9, 10, and 11) are needed to document the improvements implemented since launch. Volume 10 continues the sequential presentation of postlaunch data analysis and algorithm descriptions begun in Volume 9. Chapter 1 of Volume 10 describes an absorbing aerosol index, similar to that produced by the Total Ozone Mapping Spectrometer (TOMS) Project, which is used to flag pixels contaminated by absorbing aerosols, such as, dust and smoke. Chapter 2 discusses the algorithm being used to remove SeaWiFS out-of-band radiance from the water-leaving radiances. Chapter 3 provides an itemization of all significant changes in the processing algorithms for each of the first three reprocessings. Chapter 4 shows the time series of global clear water and deep-water (depths greater than 1,000m) bio-optical and atmospheric properties (normalized water-leaving radiances, chlorophyll, atmospheric optical depth, etc.) based on the eight-day composites as a check on the sensor calibration stability. Chapter 5 examines the variation in the derived products with scan angle using high resolution data around Hawaii to test for residual scan modulation effects and atmospheric correction biases. Chapter 6 provides a methodology for evaluating the atmospheric correction algorithm and atmospheric derived products using ground-based observations. Similarly, Chapter 7 presents match-up comparisons of coincident satellite and in situ data to determine the accuracy of the water-leaving radiances, chlorophyll a, and K(490) products.

Hooker, Stanford B.↗

Meteoric Ions in Planetary Ionospheres

Solar system debris, in the form of meteoroids, impacts every planet. The flux, relative composition and speed of the debris at each planet depends on the planet's size and location in the solar system. Ablation in the atmosphere evaporates the meteoric material and leaves behind metal atoms. During the ablation process metallic ions are formed by impact ionization. For small inner solar system planets, including Earth, this source of ionization is typically small compared to either photoionization or charge exchange with ambient molecular ions. For Earth, the atmosphere above the main deposition region absorbs the spectral lines capable of ionizing the major metallic atoms (Fe and Mg) so that charge exchange with ambient ions is the dominant source. Within the carbon dioxide atmosphere of Mars (and possibly Venus), photoionization is important in determining the ion density. For a heavy planet like Jupiter, far from the sun, impact ionization of ablated neutral atoms by impacts with molecules becomes a prominent source of ionization due to the gravitational acceleration to high incident speeds. We will describe the processes and location and extent of metal ion layers for Mars, Earth and Jupiter, concentrating on flagging the uncertainties in the models at the present time. This is an important problem, because low altitude ionosphere layers for the planets, particularly at night, probably consist predominantly of metallic ions. Comparisons with Earth will be used to illustrate the differing processes in the three planetary atmospheres.

Pesnell, W. D.↗

Apollo Presentation

This video is a compilation of scenes from the Apollo 11 mission, from the speech President Kennedy gave declaring America's intention to go to the Moon through the Lunar Module liftoff from the Moon's surface, including footage from the Apollo 11 spacecraft launch, astronaut activities on the lunar surface, the placing of the American flag on the surface on the Moon, and an astronaut on the Lunar Rover.

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Apollo 11 Onboards

Footage shows the surface of the Moon from orbit and the Earth seen from the Moon. Apollo 11 astronauts Neil Armstrong and Edwin Aldrin, Jr. are seen on the lunar surface as they set up the American flag.

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Apollo 11 Onboards

Footage shows the surface of the Moon as the Lunar Module passes overhead. The astronauts Neil Armstrong and Edwin Aldrin, Jr., are seen as they erect the American flag on lunar surface. Various shots show Earth from the Moon and an Earth sunset from space.

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Dynamic Load Balancing For Grid Partitioning on a SP-2 Multiprocessor: A Framework

Computational requirements of full scale computational fluid dynamics change as computation progresses on a parallel machine. The change in computational intensity causes workload imbalance of processors, which in turn requires a large amount of data movement at runtime. If parallel CFD is to be successful on a parallel or massively parallel machine, balancing of the runtime load is indispensable. Here a framework is presented for dynamic load balancing for CFD applications, called Jove. One processor is designated as a decision maker Jove while others are assigned to computational fluid dynamics. Processors running CFD send flags to Jove in a predetermined number of iterations to initiate load balancing. Jove starts working on load balancing while other processors continue working with the current data and load distribution. Jove goes through several steps to decide if the new data should be taken, including preliminary evaluate, partition, processor reassignment, cost evaluation, and decision. Jove running on a single IBM SP2 node has been completely implemented. Preliminary experimental results show that the Jove approach to dynamic load balancing can be effective for full scale grid partitioning on the target machine IBM SP2.

Sohn, Andrew↗

Dynamic Load Balancing for Finite Element Calculations on Parallel Computers

Computational requirements of full scale computational fluid dynamics change as computation progresses on a parallel machine. The change in computational intensity causes workload imbalance of processors, which in turn requires a large amount of data movement at runtime. If parallel CFD is to be successful on a parallel or massively parallel machine, balancing of the runtime load is indispensable. Here a frame work is presented for dynamic load balancing for CFD applications, called Jove. One processor is designated as a decision maker Jove while others are assigned to computational fluid dynamics. Processors running CFD send flags to Jove in a predetermined number of iterations to initiate load balancing. Jove starts working on load balancing while other processors continue working with the current data and load distribution. Jove goes through several steps to decide if the new data should be taken, including preliminary evaluate, partition, processor reassignment, cost evaluation, and decision. Jove running on a single SP2 node has been completely implemented. Preliminary experimental results show that the Jove approach to dynamic load balancing can be effective for full scale grid partitioning on the target machine SP2.

Pramono, Eddy↗

Dynamic Load Balancing for Grid Partitioning on a SP-2 Multiprocessor: A Framework

Computational requirements of full scale computational fluid dynamics change as computation progresses on a parallel machine. The change in computational intensity causes workload imbalance of processors, which in turn requires a large amount of data movement at runtime. If parallel CFD is to be successful on a parallel or massively parallel machine, balancing of the runtime load is indispensable. Here a framework is presented for dynamic load balancing for CFD applications, called Jove. One processor is designated as a decision maker Jove while others are assigned to computational fluid dynamics. Processors running CFD send flags to Jove in a predetermined number of iterations to initiate load balancing. Jove starts working on load balancing while other processors continue working with the current data and load distribution. Jove goes through several steps to decide if the new data should be taken, including preliminary evaluate, partition, processor reassignment, cost evaluation, and decision. Jove running on a single EBM SP2 node has been completely implemented. Preliminary experimental results show that the Jove approach to dynamic load balancing can be effective for full scale grid partitioning on the target machine IBM SP2.

Sohn, Andrew↗

Contagious Coronal Heating from Recurring Emergence of Magnetic Flux

For each of six old bipolar active regions, we present and interpret Yohkoh/SXT and SOHO/MDI observations of the development, over several days, of enhanced coronal heating in and around the old bipole in response to new magnetic flux emerge= within the old bipole. The observations show: 1. In each active region, new flux emerges in the equatorward side of the old bipole, around a lone remaining leading sunspot and/or on the equatorward end of the neutral line of the old bipole. 2. The emerging field is marked by intense internal coronal heating, and enhanced coronal heating occurs in extended loops stemming from the emergence site. 3. In five of the six cases, a "rooster tail" of coronal loops in the poleward extent of the old bipole also brightens in response to the flux emergence. 4. There are episodes of enhanced coronal heating in surrounding magnetic fields that are contiguous with the old bipole but are not directly connected to the emerging field. From these observations, we suggest that the accommodation of localized newly emerged flux within an old active region entails far reaching adjustments in the 3D magnetic field throughout the active region and in surrounding fields in which the active region is embedded, and that these adjustments produce the extensive enhanced coronal heating. We also note that the reason for the recurrence of flux emergence in old active regions may be that active region flux tends to emerge in giant-cell convection downflows. If so, the poleward "rooster tail" is a coronal flag of a long-lasting downflow in the convection zone. This work was funded by NASA's Office of Space Science through the Solar Physics Supporting Research and Technology Program and the Sun-Earth Connection Guest Investigator Program.

Moore, Ronald L.↗

Comparative Floral Development of Mir-Grown and Ethylene-Treated, Earth-Grown Super Dwarf Wheat

To study plant growth in microgravity, we grew Super Dwarf wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) in the Svet growth chamber onboard the orbiting Russian space station, Mir, and in identical ground control units at the Institute of BioMedical Problems in Moscow, Russia. Seedling emergence was 56% and 73% in the two root-module compartments on Mir and 75% and 90% on Earth. Growth was vigorous (produced ca. 1 kg dry mass), and individual plants produced 5 to 8 tillers on Mir compared with 3 to 5 on Earth-grown controls. Upon harvest in space and return to Earth, however, all inflorescences of the flight-grown plants were sterile. To ascertain if Super Dwarf wheat responded to the 1.1 to 1.7 micromol/mol atmospheric levels of ethylene measured on the Mir prior to and during flowering, plants on earth were exposed to 0, 1, 3, 10, and 20 micromol/mol of ethylene gas and 1200 micromol/mol CO2 from 7d after emergence to maturity. As in our Mir wheat, plant height, awn length, and the flag leaf were significantly shorter in the ethylene-exposed plants than in controls; inflorescences also exhibited 100% sterility. Scanning electron microscopic (SEM) examination of florets from Mir-grown and ethylene-treated, earth-grown plants showed that development ceased prior to anthesis, and the anthers did not dehisce. Laser scanning confocal microscopic (LSCM) examination of pollen grains from Mir and ethylene-treated plants on earth exhibited zero, one, and occasionally two, but rarely three nuclei; pollen produced in the absence of ethylene was always trinucleate, the normal condition. The scarcity of trinucleate pollen, abrupt cessation of floret development prior to anthesis, and excess tillering in wheat plants on Mir and in ethylene-containing atmospheres on earth build a strong case for the ethylene on Mir as the agent for the induced male sterility and other symptoms, rather than microgravity.

Campbell, William F.↗

Recommended Experimental Procedures for Evaluation of Abrupt Wing Stall Characteristics

This paper presents a review of the experimental program under the Abrupt Wing Stall (AWS) Program. Candidate figures of merit from conventional static tunnel tests are summarized and correlated with data obtained in unique free-to-roll tests. Where possible, free-to-roll results are also correlated with flight data. Based on extensive studies of static experimental figures of merit in the Abrupt Wing Stall Program for four different aircraft configurations, no one specific figure of merit consistently flagged a warning of potential lateral activity when actual activity was seen to occur in the free-to-roll experiments. However, these studies pointed out the importance of measuring and recording the root mean square signals of the force balance.

Capone, F. J.↗

The Application of Hilbert-Huang Transforms to Meteorological Datasets

Recently a new spectral technique as been developed for the analysis of aperiodic and nonlinear signals - the Hilbert-Huang transform. This paper shows how these transforms can be used to discover synoptic and climatic features: For sea level data, the transforms capture the oceanic tides as well as large, aperiodic river outflows. In the case of solar radiation, we observe variations in the diurnal and seasonal cycles. Finally, from barographic data, the Hilbert-Huang transform reveals the passage of extratropical cyclones, fronts, and troughs. Thus, this technique can flag significant weather events such its a flood or the passage of a squall line.

Duffy, Dean G.↗

[Development Of 25-Year Imp 8 Bow Shock Crossing "List, Ingestion Of This List To Cdaweb, & Enhancement"]

The MIT portion of this project was to use the plasma data from IMP 8 to identify bow shock crossings for construction of a bow shock data base. In collaboration with Goddard, we determined which shock parameters would be included in the catalog and developed a set of flags for characterizing the data. IMP 8 data from 1973-2001 were surveyed for bow shock crossings; the crossings apparent in the plasma data were compared to a list of crossing chosen in the magnetometer data by Goddard. Differences were reconciled to produce a single list. The data were then provided to the NSSDC for archiving. All the work ascribed to MIT in the proposal was completed.

Merka, J.↗

A Low-Cost Clustered Archive Approach for Storing Remote Sensing Data

As part of NASA's Earth Observing System (EOS) Data and Information System (EOSDIS), the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectrometer (MODIS) Data Processing System (MODAPS) is now processing data from two instruments on the EOS flag ship spacecraft Terra and Aqua. Between the two, MODAPS is generating over 1 Terrabyte of data per day and has surpassed 3 Petabytes of total data. The bulk of the data is stored near-line in StorageTek Powerhorn tape jukeboxes. Accessing data that has been moved to tape involves submitting an order, scheduling the tape, and waiting for the data to become available. I am developing a low cost clustered archive that could enable storing a very large amount of data such as the MODIS data described above in an organized fashion on a cluster of commodity hardware using low cost SATA hard drives such that the files are directly available online. The system takes full advantage of Open Source software, using the GNULinux operating system, PostgreSQL relational database and the Apache HTTP Server. This poster session will depict my approach, the interface to the archive, a brief discussion of the internals of the system and some performance numbers from my prototyping. I will also describe various costs and benefits of this approach versus the traditional large tape jukebox approach currently in use in the EOSDIS.

Tilmes, Curt↗