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At least 469 records · Page 26
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
NASA NTRS2004

A Polar Specific 20-year Data Set of Cloud Fraction and Height Derived from Satellite Radiances

This is a final report to fulfill reporting requirements on NASA grant NASA NAG5-11800. Jennifer Francis, PI at Rutgers University is currently continuing work on this project under a no-cost extension. Work at the University of Washington portion of the project is completed and reported here. Major accomplishments and results from this portion of the project include: 1) Extension and reprocessing of TOVS Polar Pathfinder (Path-P) data set; 2) Analysis of Arctic cloud variability; 3) Validation of Southern Hemisphere ocean cloud retrievals; 4) Intercompared cloud height information from AVHRR retrievals and surface-based cloud radar information.

Francis, Jennifer↗
NASA NTRS1956

Effect of Wing Height and Dihedral on the Lateral Stability Characteristics at Low Lift of a 45 Deg Swept-Wing Airplane Configuration as Obtained from Time-Vector Analyses of Rocket-Propelled-Model Flights at Mach Numbers from 0.7 to 1.3

Lateral-stability flight tests were made over the Mach number range from 0.7 to 1.3 of models of three airplane configurations having 45deg sweptback wings. One model had a high wing; one, a low wing; and one, a high wing with cathedral. The models were otherwise identical. The lateral oscillations of the models resulting from intermittent yawing disturbances were interpreted in terms of full-scale airplane flying qualities and were further analyzed by the time-vector method to obtain values of the lateral stability derivatives. The effects of changes i n wing height on the static sideslip derivatives were fairly constant in the speed range investigated and agreed well with estimated values based on subsonic wind-tunnel tests. Effects of geometric dihedral on the rolling moment due to sideslip agreed well with theoretical and other experimental results and with a theoretical relation involving the damping in roll. The damping in roll, when compared with theoretical and other experimental results, shared good agreement at supersonic speeds but was somewhat higher at a Mach number of 1.0 and at subsonic speeds. The damping in yaw shared no large changes in the transonic region.

Gillis, Clarence L.↗
NASA NTRS2005

Method for the Production of Nanometer Scale Step Height Reference Specimens

Methods are disclosed that provide for structures and techniques for the fabrication of ordered arrangements of crystallographically determined nanometer scale steps on single crystal substrates, particularly Sic. The ordered nanometer scale step structures are produced on the top surfaces of mesas by a combination of growth and etching processes. These structures sometimes referred to herein as artifacts are to enable step-height calibration, particularly suitable for scanning probe microscopes and profilometers, from less than one nanometer (nm) to greater than 10 nm, with substantially no atomic scale roughness of the plateaus on either side of each step.

Phillip B Abel↗
NASA NTRS2003

Height reconstruction techniques for synthetic aperture lidar systems

The data-processing techniques and acquisition modes of a synthetic aperture lidar (SAL) instrument operating at optical wavelengths are closely related to the analogous modes of a synthetic aperture radar (SAR) instrument operating at microwave frequencies. It is consequently natural to explore the applicability of SAR processing techniques to SAL sensors. In this paper, we examine the feasibility of adopting SAR height-reconstruction techniques with SAL sensors to obtain high-resolution 3-D imagery at optical wavelengths.

synthetic aperture lidar (SAL)↗
NASA NTRS2008

Integration of Satellite-Derived Cloud Phase, Cloud Top Height, and Liquid Water Path into an Operational Aircraft Icing Nowcasting System

Operational products used by the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration to alert pilots of hazardous icing provide nowcast and short-term forecast estimates of the potential for the presence of supercooled liquid water and supercooled large droplets. The Current Icing Product (CIP) system employs basic satellite-derived information, including a cloud mask and cloud top temperature estimates, together with multiple other data sources to produce a gridded, three-dimensional, hourly depiction of icing probability and severity. Advanced satellite-derived cloud products developed at the NASA Langley Research Center (LaRC) provide a more detailed description of cloud properties (primarily at cloud top) compared to the basic satellite-derived information used currently in CIP. Cloud hydrometeor phase, liquid water path, cloud effective temperature, and cloud top height as estimated by the LaRC algorithms are into the CIP fuzzy logic scheme and a confidence value is determined. Examples of CIP products before and after the integration of the LaRC satellite-derived products will be presented at the conference.

Haggerty, Julie↗
NASA NTRS2007

A Simple Stochastic Model for Generating Broken Cloud Optical Depth and Top Height Fields

A simple and fast algorithm for generating two correlated stochastic twodimensional (2D) cloud fields is described. The algorithm is illustrated with two broken cumulus cloud fields: cloud optical depth and cloud top height retrieved from Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectrometer (MODIS). Only two 2D fields are required as an input. The algorithm output is statistical realizations of these two fields with approximately the same correlation and joint distribution functions as the original ones. The major assumption of the algorithm is statistical isotropy of the fields. In contrast to fractals and the Fourier filtering methods frequently used for stochastic cloud modeling, the proposed method is based on spectral models of homogeneous random fields. For keeping the same probability density function as the (first) original field, the method of inverse distribution function is used. When the spatial distribution of the first field has been generated, a realization of the correlated second field is simulated using a conditional distribution matrix. This paper is served as a theoretical justification to the publicly available software that has been recently released by the authors and can be freely downloaded from http://i3rc.gsfc.nasa.gov/Public codes clouds.htm. Though 2D rather than full 3D, stochastic realizations of two correlated cloud fields that mimic statistics of given fields have proved to be very useful to study 3D radiative transfer features of broken cumulus clouds for better understanding of shortwave radiation and interpretation of the remote sensing retrievals.

Prigarin, Sergei M.↗
NASA NTRS2008

Volume Averaged Height Integrated Radar Reflectivity (VAHIRR) Cost-Benefit Analysis

Lightning Launch Commit Criteria (LLCC) are designed to prevent space launch vehicles from flight through environments conducive to natural or triggered lightning and are used for all U.S. government and commercial launches at government and civilian ranges. They are maintained by a committee known as the NASA/USAF Lightning Advisory Panel (LAP). The previous LLCC for anvil cloud, meant to avoid triggered lightning, have been shown to be overly restrictive. Some of these rules have had such high safety margins that they prohibited flight under conditions that are now thought to be safe 90% of the time, leading to costly launch delays and scrubs. The LLCC for anvil clouds was upgraded in the summer of 2005 to incorporate results from the Airborne Field Mill (ABFM) experiment at the Eastern Range (ER). Numerous combinations of parameters were considered to develop the best correlation of operational weather observations to in-cloud electric fields capable of rocket triggered lightning in anvil clouds. The Volume Averaged Height Integrated Radar Reflectivity (VAHIRR) was the best metric found. Dr. Harry Koons of Aerospace Corporation conducted a risk analysis of the VAHIRR product. The results indicated that the LLCC based on the VAHIRR product would pose a negligible risk of flying through hazardous electric fields. Based on these findings, the Kennedy Space Center Weather Office is considering seeking funding for development of an automated VAHIRR algorithm for the new ER 45th Weather Squadron (45 WS) RadTec 431250 weather radar and Weather Surveillance Radar-1988 Doppler (WSR-88D) radars. Before developing an automated algorithm, the Applied Meteorology Unit (AMU) was tasked to determine the frequency with which VAHIRR would have allowed a launch to safely proceed during weather conditions otherwise deemed "red" by the Launch Weather Officer. To do this, the AMU manually calculated VAHIRR values based on candidate cases from past launches with known anvil cloud LLCC violations. An automated algorithm may be developed if the analyses from past launches show VAHIRR would have provided a significant cost benefit by allowing a launch to proceed. The 45 WS at the ER and 30th Weather Squadron (30 WS) at the Western Range provided the AMU with launch weather summaries from past launches that were impacted by LLCC. The 45 WS provided summaries from 14 launch attempts and the 30 WS fkom 5. The launch attempts occurred between December 2001 and June 2007. These summaries helped the AMU determine when the LLCC were "red" due to anvil cloud. The AMU collected WSR-88D radar reflectivity, cloud-to-ground lightning strikes, soundings and satellite imagery. The AMU used step-by-step instructions for calculating VAHIRR manually as provided by the 45 WS. These instructions were used for all of the candidate cases when anvil cloud caused an LLCC violation identified in the launch weather summaries. The AMU evaluated several software programs capable of visualizing radar data so that VAHIRR could be calculated and chose GR2Analyst from Gibson Ridge Software, LLC. Data availability and lack of detail from some launch weather summaries permitted analysis of six launch attempts from the ER and none from the WR. The AMU did not take into account whether or not other weather LCC violations were occurring at the same time as the anvil cloud LLCC since the goal of this task was to determine how often VAHIRR provided relief to the anvil cloud LLCC at any time during several previous launch attempts. Therefore, in the statistics presented in this report, it is possible that even though VAHIRR provided relief to the anvil cloud LLCC, other weather LCC could have been violated not permitting the launch to proceed. The results of this cost-benefit analysis indicated VAHIRR provided relief from the anvil cloud LLCC between about 15% and 18% of the time for varying 5-minute time periods based on summaries fkom six launch attempts and would have allowed launch to proceed that were otherwise "NO GO" due to the anvil cloud LLCC if the T-0 time occurred during the anvil cloud LLCC violations.

Bauman, William H., III↗
NASA NTRS2010

Evaluation of Satellite-Based Upper Troposphere Cloud Top Height Retrievals in Multilayer Cloud Conditions During TC4

Upper troposphere cloud top heights (CTHs), restricted to cloud top pressures (CTPs) less than 500 hPa, inferred using four satellite retrieval methods applied to Twelfth Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite (GOES-12) data are evaluated using measurements during the July August 2007 Tropical Composition, Cloud and Climate Coupling Experiment (TC4). The four methods are the single-layer CO2-absorption technique (SCO2AT), a modified CO2-absorption technique (MCO2AT) developed for improving both single-layered and multilayered cloud retrievals, a standard version of the Visible Infrared Solar-infrared Split-window Technique (old VISST), and a new version of VISST (new VISST) recently developed to improve cloud property retrievals. They are evaluated by comparing with ER-2 aircraft-based Cloud Physics Lidar (CPL) data taken during 9 days having extensive upper troposphere cirrus, anvil, and convective clouds. Compared to the 89% coverage by upper tropospheric clouds detected by the CPL, the SCO2AT, MCO2AT, old VISST, and new VISST retrieved CTPs less than 500 hPa in 76, 76, 69, and 74% of the matched pixels, respectively. Most of the differences are due to subvisible and optically thin cirrus clouds occurring near the tropopause that were detected only by the CPL. The mean upper tropospheric CTHs for the 9 days are 14.2 (+/- 2.1) km from the CPL and 10.7 (+/- 2.1), 12.1 (+/- 1.6), 9.7 (+/- 2.9), and 11.4 (+/- 2.8) km from the SCO2AT, MCO2AT, old VISST, and new VISST, respectively. Compared to the CPL, the MCO2AT CTHs had the smallest mean biases for semitransparent high clouds in both single-layered and multilayered situations whereas the new VISST CTHs had the smallest mean biases when upper clouds were opaque and optically thick. The biases for all techniques increased with increasing numbers of cloud layers. The transparency of the upper layer clouds tends to increase with the numbers of cloud layers.

Chang, Fu-Lung↗
NASA NTRS2010

Assessment of the Jason-2 Extension to the TOPEX/Poseidon, Jason-l Sea-Surface Height Time Series for Global Mean Sea Level Monitoring

The Jason-2 (OSTM) follow-on mission to Jason-I provides for the continuation of global and regional mean sea level estimates along the ground-track of the initial phase of the TOPEX/Poseidon mission. During the first several months, Jason-I and Jason-2 flew in formation separated by only 55 seconds, enabling the isolation of intermission instrument biases through direct collinear differencing of near simultaneous observations. The Jason-2 Ku-band range bias with respect to Jason-I is estimated to be -84 +/- 9 mm, based on the orbit altitudes provided on the Geophysical Data Records. Modest improved agreement is achieved with the GSFC replacement orbits, which further enables the isolation of subtle 1 cm) instrument-dependent range correction biases. Inter-mission bias estimates are confirmed with an independent assessment from comparisons to a 64-station tide-gauge network, also providing an estimate of the stability of the 17-year time series to be less than 0.1 mm/yr +/- 0.4 mm/yr. The global mean sea level derived from the multi-mission altimeter sea-surface height record from January 1993 through September 2009 is 3.3 +/- 0.4 mm/yr. Recent trends over the period from 2004 through 2008 are smaller and estimated to be 2.0 +/- 0.4 mm/yr.

Beckley, B. D.↗
NASA NTRS2005

Portable Airborne Laser System Measures Forest-Canopy Height

(PALS) is a combination of laser ranging, video imaging, positioning, and data-processing subsystems designed for measuring the heights of forest canopies along linear transects from tens to thousands of kilometers long. Unlike prior laser ranging systems designed to serve the same purpose, the PALS is not restricted to use aboard a single aircraft of a specific type: the PALS fits into two large suitcases that can be carried to any convenient location, and the PALS can be installed in almost any local aircraft for hire, thereby making it possible to sample remote forests at relatively low cost. The initial cost and the cost of repairing the PALS are also lower because the PALS hardware consists mostly of commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) units that can easily be replaced in the field. The COTS units include a laser ranging transceiver, a charge-coupled-device camera that images the laser-illuminated targets, a differential Global Positioning System (dGPS) receiver capable of operation within the Wide Area Augmentation System, a video titler, a video cassette recorder (VCR), and a laptop computer equipped with two serial ports. The VCR and computer are powered by batteries; the other units are powered at 12 VDC from the 28-VDC aircraft power system via a low-pass filter and a voltage converter. The dGPS receiver feeds location and time data, at an update rate of 0.5 Hz, to the video titler and the computer. The laser ranging transceiver, operating at a sampling rate of 2 kHz, feeds its serial range and amplitude data stream to the computer. The analog video signal from the CCD camera is fed into the video titler wherein the signal is annotated with position and time information. The titler then forwards the annotated signal to the VCR for recording on 8-mm tapes. The dGPS and laser range and amplitude serial data streams are processed by software that displays the laser trace and the dGPS information as they are fed into the computer, subsamples the laser range and amplitude data, interleaves the subsampled data with the dGPS information, and records the resulting interleaved data stream.

Nelson, Ross↗
NASA NTRS2012

The Algorithm Theoretical Basis Document for the Derivation of Range and Range Distributions from Laser Pulse Waveform Analysis for Surface Elevations, Roughness, Slope, and Vegetation Heights

The primary purpose of the GLAS instrument is to detect ice elevation changes over time which are used to derive changes in ice volume. Other objectives include measuring sea ice freeboard, ocean and land surface elevation, surface roughness, and canopy heights over land. This Algorithm Theoretical Basis Document (ATBD) describes the theory and implementation behind the algorithms used to produce the level 1B products for waveform parameters and global elevation and the level 2 products that are specific to ice sheet, sea ice, land, and ocean elevations respectively. These output products, are defined in detail along with the associated quality, and the constraints, and assumptions used to derive them.

Brenner, Anita C.↗
NASA NTRS2012

Applications of MODIS Fluorescent Line Height Measurements to Monitor Water Quality Trends and Algal Bloom Activity

Recent advances in satellite and airborne remote sensing, such as improvements in sensor and algorithm calibrations, processing techniques and atmospheric correction procedures have provided for increased coverage of remote-sensing, ocean-color products for coastal regions. In particular, for the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectrometer (MODIS) sensor calibration updates, improved aerosol retrievals and new aerosol models has led to improved atmospheric correction algorithms for turbid waters and have improved the retrieval of ocean color in coastal waters. This has opened the way for studying ocean phenomena and processes at finer spatial scales, such as the interactions at the land-sea interface, trends in coastal water quality and algal blooms. Human population growth and changes in coastal management practices have brought about significant changes in the concentrations of organic and inorganic, particulate and dissolved substances entering the coastal ocean. There is increasing concern that these inputs have led to declines in water quality and have increase local concentrations of phytoplankton, which cause harmful algal blooms. In two case studies we present MODIS observations of fluorescence line height (FLH) to 1) assess trends in water quality for Tampa Bay, Florida and 2) illustrate seasonal and annual variability of algal bloom activity in Monterey Bay, California as well as document estuarine/riverine plume induced red tide events. In a comprehensive analysis of long term (2003-2011) in situ monitoring data and satellite imagery from Tampa Bay we assess the validity of the MODIS FLH product against chlorophyll-a and a suite of water quality parameters taken in a variety of conditions throughout a large optically complex estuarine system. A systematic analysis of sampling sites throughout the bay is undertaken to understand how the relationship between FLH and in situ chlorophyll-a responds to varying conditions and to develop a near decadal trend in water quality changes. In situ monitoring locations that correlated well with satellite imagery were in depths greater than seven meters and were located over five kilometers from shore. Water quality parameter of total nitrogen, phosphorous, turbidity and biological oxygen demand had high correlations with these sites, as well. Satellite FLH estimates show improving water quality from 2003-2007 with a slight decline up through 2011. Dinoflagellate blooms in Monterey Bay, California (USA) have recently increased in frequency and intensity. Nine years of MODIS FLH observations are used to describe the annual and seasonal variability of bloom activity within the Bay. Three classes of MODIS algorithms were correlated against in situ chlorophyll measurements. The FLH algorithm provided the most robust estimate of bloom activity. Elevated concentrations of phytoplankton were evident during the months of August-November, a period during which increased occurrences of dinoflagellate blooms have been observed in situ. Seasonal patterns of FLH show the on- and offshore movement of areas of high phytoplankton biomass between oceanographic seasons. Higher concentrations of phytoplankton are also evident in the vicinity of the land-based nutrient sources and outflows, and the cyclonic bay-wide circulation can transport these nutrients to the northern Bay bloom incubation region. Both of these case studies illustrate the utility MODIS FLH observations in supporting management decisions in coastal and estuarine waters.

Fischer, Andrew↗
NASA NTRS2013

Northern North Atlantic Sea Surface Height and Ocean Heat Content Variability

The evolution of nearly 20 years of altimetric sea surface height (SSH) is investigated to understand its association with decadal to multidecadal variability of the North Atlantic heat content. Altimetric SSH is dominated by an increase of about 14 cm in the Labrador and Irminger seas from 1993 to 2011, while the opposite has occurred over the Gulf Stream region over the same time period. During the altimeter period the observed 0-700 m ocean heat content (OHC) in the subpolar gyre mirrors the increased SSH by its dominantly positive trend. Over a longer period, 1955-2011, fluctuations in the subpolar OHC reflect Atlantic multidecadal variability (AMV) and can be attributed to advection driven by the wind stress ''gyre mode'' bringing more subtropical waters into the subpolar gyre. The extended subpolar warming evident in SSH and OHC during the altimeter period represents transition of the AMV from cold to warm phase. In addition to the dominant trend, the first empirical orthogonal function SSH time series shows an abrupt change 2009-2010 reaching a new minimum in 2010. The change coincides with the change in the meridional overturning circulation at 26.5N as observed by the RAPID (Rapid Climate Change) project, and with extreme behavior of the wind stress gyre mode and of atmospheric blocking. While the general relationship between northern warming and Atlantic meridional overturning circulation (AMOC) volume transport remains undetermined, the meridional heat and salt transport carried by AMOC's arteries are rich with decade-to-century timescale variability.

Sea-surface↗
NASA NTRS2014

Remote Sensing of Cloud Top Height from SEVIRI: Analysis of Eleven Current Retrieval Algorithms

The role of clouds remains the largest uncertainty in climate projections. They influence solar and thermal radiative transfer and the earth's water cycle. Therefore, there is an urgent need for accurate cloud observations to validate climate models and to monitor climate change. Passive satellite imagers measuring radiation at visible to thermal infrared (IR) wavelengths provide a wealth of information on cloud properties. Among others, the cloud top height (CTH) - a crucial parameter to estimate the thermal cloud radiative forcing - can be retrieved. In this paper we investigate the skill of ten current retrieval algorithms to estimate the CTH using observations from the Spinning Enhanced Visible and InfraRed Imager (SEVIRI) onboard Meteosat Second Generation (MSG). In the first part we compare ten SEVIRI cloud top pressure (CTP) data sets with each other. The SEVIRI algorithms catch the latitudinal variation of the CTP in a similar way. The agreement is better in the extratropics than in the tropics. In the tropics multi-layer clouds and thin cirrus layers complicate the CTP retrieval, whereas a good agreement among the algorithms is found for trade wind cumulus, marine stratocumulus and the optically thick cores of the deep convective system. In the second part of the paper the SEVIRI retrievals are compared to CTH observations from the Cloud-Aerosol LIdar with Orthogonal Polarization (CALIOP) and Cloud Profiling Radar (CPR) instruments. It is important to note that the different measurement techniques cause differences in the retrieved CTH data. SEVIRI measures a radiatively effective CTH, while the CTH of the active instruments is derived from the return time of the emitted radar or lidar signal. Therefore, some systematic differences are expected. On average the CTHs detected by the SEVIRI algorithms are 1.0 to 2.5 kilometers lower than CALIOP observations, and the correlation coefficients between the SEVIRI and the CALIOP data sets range between 0.77 and 0.90. The average CTHs derived by the SEVIRI algorithms are closer to the CPR measurements than to CALIOP measurements. The biases between SEVIRI and CPR retrievals range from −0.8 kilometers to 0.6 kilometers. The correlation coefficients of CPR and SEVIRI observations vary between 0.82 and 0.89. To discuss the origin of the CTH deviation, we investigate three cloud categories: optically thin and thick single layer as well as multi-layer clouds. For optically thick clouds the correlation coefficients between the SEVIRI and the reference data sets are usually above 0.95. For optically thin single layer clouds the correlation coefficients are still above 0.92. For this cloud category the SEVIRI algorithms yield CTHs that are lower than CALIOP and similar to CPR observations. Most challenging are the multi-layer clouds, where the correlation coefficients are for most algorithms between 0.6 and 0.8. Finally, we evaluate the performance of the SEVIRI retrievals for boundary layer clouds. While the CTH retrieval for this cloud type is relatively accurate, there are still considerable differences between the algorithms. These are related to the uncertainties and limited vertical resolution of the assumed temperature profiles in combination with the presence of temperature inversions, which lead to ambiguities in the CTH retrieval. Alternative approaches for the CTH retrieval of low clouds are discussed.

Hamann, U.↗
NASA NTRS2013

Extracting Tree Height from Repeat-Pass PolInSAR Data : Experiments with JPL and ESA Airborne Systems

In this paper we present our latest developments and experiments with the random-motion-over-ground (RMoG) model used to extract canopy height and other important forest parameters from repeat-pass polarimetricinterferometric SAR (Pol-InSAR) data. More specifically, we summarize the key features of the RMoG model in contrast with the random-volume-over-ground (RVoG) model, describe in detail a possible inversion scheme for the RMoG model and illustrate the results of the RMoG inversion using airborne data collected by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) and the European Space Agency (ESA).

Pol-InSAR↗