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At least 487 records · Page 27

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NASA NTRS1972

A catalogue of normalized intensity functions and polarization from a cloud of particles with a size distribution of alpha to the minus 4th power

The Mie theory of light scattering by spheres was used to calculate the scattered intensity functions resulting from single scattering in a polydispersed collection of spheres. The distribution used behaves according to the inverse fourth power law; graphs and tables for the angular dependence of the intensity and polarization for this law are given. The effects of the particle size range and the integration increment are investigated.

Craven, P. D.↗

NASA NTRS1973

On the interpretation of the 'inverse phase effect' for CO2 equivalent widths on Venus

Computations of the equivalent widths of absorption lines as a function of planetary phase angle are made for a homogeneous cloud with particles having the properties (shape, refractive index, and size distribution) deduced from polarimetry of Venus. The computed equivalent widths show an 'inverse phase effect' comparable to that which is observed for CO2 lines on Venus. This result verifies a recent suggestion of Regas et al. that the existence of an inverse phase effect does not by itself imply the presence of multiple layers of scattering particles in the atmosphere of Venus.

Whitehill, L. P.↗

NASA NTRS1987

The dependence of electroglow on the solar flux

Data from Voyager 2 UV spectrometer observations of electroglow at wavelengths below 110 nm in the atmospheres of Saturn, Jupiter, and Uranus are presented in extensive tables and graphs, analyzed statistically, and compared with the predictions of theoretical models. Findings reported include (1) a dependence (to within 10 percent) of electroglow intensity on the inverse square of heliocentric distance, (2) Uranian electroglow spectra consistent with Rayleigh-Raman scattering of sunlight, and (3) local-time electroglow variations suggesting a solar-flux-dependent excitation mechanism. Mechanisms involving the fluorescence of solar UV radiation in the H2 Lyman and Werner bands or H(-) photolysis are discussed.

Yelle, Roger V.↗

NASA NTRS1989

Time-domain imaging

The quest for the highest resolution microwave imaging and principle of time-domain imaging has been the primary motivation for recent developments in time-domain techniques. With the present technology, fast time varying signals can now be measured and recorded both in magnitude and in-phase. It has also enhanced our ability to extract relevant details concerning the scattering object. In the past, the interface of object geometry or shape for scattered signals has received substantial attention in radar technology. Various scattering theories were proposed to develop analytical solutions to this problem. Furthermore, the random inversion, frequency swept holography, and the synthetic radar imaging, have two things in common: (1) the physical optic far-field approximation, and (2) the utilization of channels as an extra physical dimension, were also advanced. Despite the inherent vectorial nature of electromagnetic waves, these scalar treatments have brought forth some promising results in practice with notable examples in subsurface and structure sounding. The development of time-domain techniques are studied through the theoretical aspects as well as experimental verification. The use of time-domain imaging for space robotic vision applications has been suggested.

Tolliver, C. L.↗

NASA NTRS1994

Radio continuum polarimetric imaging of high redshift radio galaxies

Multifrequency images of total and polarized radio continuum emission from the two high redshift radio galaxies 0902+343 (z = 3.40) and 0647+415 (4C 41.17, z = 3.80) are presented. These images represent the most sensitive polarimetric study of high redshift ratio galaxies to date. The emission from both galaxies is substantially polarized, up to 30% in some regions, and both sources sit behind deep 'Faraday screens,' producing large rotation measures, over 10(exp 3) rad/sq. m in magnitude, and large rotation measure gradients across the sources. Such large rotation measures provide further evidence that high redshift radio galaxies are situated in very dense environments. Drawing the analogy to a class of low redshift powerful radio galaxies with similarly large rotation measures, we suggest that 0902+343 and 0647+415 are situated at the centers of dense, x-ray 'colling flow' clusters, and that the cluster gas is substantially magnetized. The remarkable similarity between the optical and radio morphologies of 0647+415 on scales as small as 0.1 sec is presented. We consider, and reject, both synchrotron and inverse Compton radiation as possible sources of the optical emission. We also consider both scattering of light out of a 'cone' of radiation from an obscured nucleus, and jet-induced star formation, and find that both models encounter difficulties in explaining this remarkably close radio-optical alignment. High resolution spectral index images reveal compact, flat spectrum components in both sources. We suggest that these components are the active nuclei of the galaxies. Lastly, high resolution images of 0902+343 show that the southernmost component forms a 'ring' of 0.2 sec radius. We discuss the possibility that this ring is the result of gravitational lensing, along the lines proposed by Kochanek & Lawrence (1990).

Carilli, C. L.↗

NASA NTRS2002

Clues to Coral Reef Health: Integrating Radiative Transfer Modeling and Hyperspectral Data

An important contribution to coral reef research is to improve spectral distinction between various health states of coral species in areas subject to harmful anthropogenic activity and climate change. New insights into radiative transfer properties of corals under healthy and stressed conditions can advance understandings of ecological processes on reefs and allow better assessments of the impacts of large-scale bleaching and disease events, Our objective was to examine the spectral and spatial properties of hyperspectral sensors that may be used to remotely sense changes in reef community health. We compare in situ reef environment spectra (healthy coral, stressed coral, dead coral, algae, and sand) with airborne hyperspectral data to identify important spectral characteristics and indices. Additionally, spectral measurements over a range of water depths, relief, and bottom types are compared to help quantify bottom-water column influences. In situ spectra were collected in July and August 2002 at the Long Rock site in the Andros Island, Bahamas coastal zone coral reef. Our primary emphasis was on Acropora palmata (or elkhorn coral), a major reef building coral, which is prevalent in the study area, but is suffering from white band disease. A. palmata is currently being, proposed as an endangered species because its populations have severely declined in many areas of the Caribbean. In addition to the A. palmata biotope, we have collected spectra of at least seven other coral biotopes that exist within the study area, each with different coral community composition, density of corals, relief, and size of corals. Coral spectral reflectance was then input into a radiative transfer model, CORALMOD (CM1), which is based on a leaf radiative transfer model. In CM1, input coral reflectance measurements produce modeled reflectance through an inversion at each visible wavelength to provide the absorption spectrum. Initially, we imposed a scattering baseline that is the same regardless of the coral condition and that coral is optically thick and no light is transmitted through coral. Here we will focus on methodology, experimental design, and initial findings of the in situ spectral measurements and preliminary output from the radiative transfer model.

Guild, Liane↗

DOE OSTI2020

Physics-Informed Generative Adversarial Networks for Stochastic Differential Equations

We developed a new class of physics-informed generative adversarial networks (PI-GANs) to solve forward, inverse, and mixed stochastic problems in a unified manner based on a limited number of scattered measurements. Unlike standard GANs relying solely on data for training, here we encoded into the architecture of GANs the governing physical laws in the form of stochastic differential equations (SDEs) using automatic differentiation. In particular, we applied Wasserstein GANs with gradient penalty (WGAN-GP) for its enhanced stability compared to vanilla GANs. We first tested WGAN-GP in approximating Gaussian processes of different correlation lengths based on data realizations collected from simultaneous reads at sparsely placed sensors. We obtained good approximation of the generated stochastic processes to the target ones even if there is a mismatch between the input noise dimensionality and the effective dimensionality of the target stochastic processes. We also studied the overfitting issue for both the discriminator and the generator, and we found that overfitting occurs also in the generator in addition to the discriminator as previously reported. Subsequently, we considered the solution of elliptic SDEs requiring approximations of three stochastic processes, namely the solution, the forcing, and the diffusion coefficient. Here again, we assumed data collected from simultaneous reads at a limited number of sensors for the multiple stochastic processes. Furthermore, three generators were used for the PI-GANs: two of them were feed forward deep neural networks (DNNs), while the other one was the neural network induced by the SDE. For the case where we have one group of data, we employed one feed forward DNN as the discriminator, while for the case of multiple groups of data we employed multiple discriminators in PI-GANs. We solved forward, inverse, and mixed problems without changing the framework of PI-GANs, obtaining both the means and the standard deviations of the stochastic solution and the diffusion coefficient in good agreement with benchmarks. In this work, we have demonstrated the effectiveness of PI-GANs in solving SDEs for about 120 dimensions. In principle, PI-GANs could tackle very high dimensional problems given more sensor data with low-polynomial growth in computational cost.

97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING↗

DOE OSTI2023

Effects of elevated-temperature deposition on the atomic structure of amorphous Ta 2 O 5 films

Brownian thermal noise as a result of mechanical loss in optical coatings will become the dominant source of noise at the most sensitive frequencies of ground-based gravitational-wave detectors. Experiments found, however, that a candidate material, amorphous Ta 2 O 5 , is unable to form an ultrastable glass and, consequently, to yield a film with significantly reduced mechanical loss through elevated-temperature deposition alone. X-ray scattering PDF measurements are carried out on films deposited and subsequently annealed at various temperatures. Inverse atomic modeling is used to analyze the short and medium range features in the atomic structure of these films. Furthermore, in silico deposition simulations of Ta 2 O 5 are carried out at various substrate temperatures and an atomic level analysis of the growth at high temperatures is presented. It is observed that upon elevated-temperature deposition, short range features remain identical, whereas medium range order increases. After annealing, however, both the short and medium range orders of films deposited at different substrate temperatures are nearly identical. A discussion on the surface diffusion and glass transition temperatures indicates that future pursuits of ultrastable low-mechanical-loss films through elevated temperature deposition should focus on materials with a high surface mobility, and/or lower glass transition temperatures in the range of achievable deposition temperatures.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗

NASA NTRS1987

Polarization of light scattered by clover

This study was undertaken in order to better understand the factors that govern the polarization of light scattered from vegetation and soils. This phenomenon is not well understood but is potentially of interest for remote sensing of the earth. The intensity and polarization of light scattered by clover in vivo and soil were measured at a number of different angles of incidence and reflectance. Both individual leaves and natural patches of vegetation were measured. The Umov effect, or inverse relation between polarization and reflectance noted by many earlier workers, was observed here and is shown to be a very general property of diffusely scattering surfaces. The light transmitted through the leaves was found to be negatively polarized. The polarization of light scattered from aggregations of leaves is affected by this negatively polarized, transmitted light. The light scattered from the upper leaf surfaces was found to be positively polarized in a manner which could be accounted for quantitatively by specular Fresnel reflection from small, randomly oriented facets on the surfaces of the leaves.

Woessner, Paul↗

NASA NTRS1987

Asteroid lightcurve inversion

One of the most fundamental physical properties of any asteroid is its shape. Lightcurves provide the only source of shape information for most asteroids. Unfortunately, the functional form of a lightcurve is determined by the viewing/illumination geometry and the asteroid's light scattering characteristics as well as its shape, and in general it is impossible to determine an asteroid's shape from lightcurves. A technique called convex-profile inversion (CPI) that obtains a convex profile, P, from any lightcurve is introduced. If certain ideal conditions are satisfied, then P is an estimator for the asteroid's mean cross section, C, a convex set defined as the average of all cross sections C(z) cut by planes a distance z above the asteroids's equatorial plane. C is therefore a 2-D average of the asteroid's 3-D shape.

Ostro, Steven J.↗

DOE OSTI2026

Exploring the impact of nucleotide length on lipid nanoparticle structure and properties

Lipid nanoparticles (LNPs) are versatile carriers for nucleic acid (NA) therapeutics, including ASOs, siRNA, mRNA, and poly-IC. While lipid composition is known to influence LNP properties, the impact of NA length on morphology and internal structure is less understood, particularly during the stages of carrier–cargo assembly. Here, we examine NA length and lipid composition immediately after mixing using high-throughput SAXS, dynamic light scattering, and cryogenic electron microscopy. All LNPs form ordered NA/lipid compartments, with longer NAs promoting inverse hexagonal (H II ) phases and larger intercompartment distances. In contrast, short NAs, especially in formulations with SM102 ionizable lipid, favor lamellar phases. SAXS peak deconvolution quantifies ordered versus disordered phases via a Robustness of Ordered Phase factor, which correlates with particle size and encapsulation efficiency. Formulations with MC3 ionizable and DOPE helper lipids exhibit the most stable H II -phase packing, highlighting the role of helper-lipid curvature in compartment stabilization. Variations in NA compartmentalization indicate differences in payload capacity, offering a framework for rational LNP design across diverse nucleic acid cargos.

60 APPLIED LIFE SCIENCES↗

NASA NTRS1985

Numerical Techniques for Scattering from Submerged Objects

To represent the final results in terms of matrices, one expands all appropriate physical quantities in terms of partial wave basis states. This includes expansions for the incident and scattered fields and the surface quantities. The method then utilizes the Huygen-Poincare integral representation for both the exterior and interior solutions, leading to the required matrix equations. One thus deals with matrix equations, the complexity of which depends on the nature of the problem. It is shown that in general a transition matrix T can be obtained relating the incident field A with the scattered field f having the form T = PQ(-1), where f = TA. The structure of Q can be quite complicated and can itself be composed of other matrix inversions such as arise from layered objects. Recent improvements in this method appropriate for a variety of physical problems are focused on, and on their implementation. Results are outlined from scattering simulations for very elongated submerged objects and resonance scattering from elastic solids and shells. The final improvement concerns eigenfunction expansions of surface terms, arising from solution of the interior problem, obtained via a preconditioning technique. This effectively reduces the problem to that of obtaining eigenvalues of a Hermitian operator. This formalism is reviewed for scattering from targets that are rigid, sound-soft, acoustic, elastic solids, elastic shells, and elastic layered objects. Two sets of the more interesting results are presented. The first concerns scattering from elongated objects, and the second to thin elastic spheroids.

Werby, M. F.↗

NASA NTRS1986

The usefulness of Klett's inversion algorthms to simulated satellite Lidar returns

The lidar equation is a special form of the radiative transport equation in single scattering approximation and describes the return signal of a lidar. Klett's algorithm for retrieving the total extinction coefficient profile was developed for application to ground-based lidar returns by a backward integration from the far end to the near end, the range where the incident and backscattered pulse overlap totally. The applicability of Klett's algorithm to satellite backscatter lidar returns was assessed. The simulated data of a 1 J Alexandrite laser operated at about 0.7 micron and at a satellite flight level of 840 km.

Kastner, M.↗

NASA NTRS1988

Quantum mechanical calculations of vibrational population inversion in chemical reactions - Numerically exact L-squared-amplitude-density study of the H2Br reactive system

Numerically exact, fully three-dimensional quantum mechanicl reactive scattering calculations are reported for the H2Br system. Both the exchange (H + H-prime Br to H-prime + HBr) and abstraction (H + HBR to H2 + Br) reaction channels are included in the calculations. The present results are the first completely converged three-dimensional quantum calculations for a system involving a highly exoergic reaction channel (the abstraction process). It is found that the production of vibrationally hot H2 in the abstraction reaction, and hence the extent of population inversion in the products, is a sensitive function of initial HBr rotational state and collision energy.

Zhang, Y. C.↗

DOE OSTI2026

High-Efficiency Solar-To-Fuel Photoelectrochemistry in Disordered Photonic Glass Electrodes (Final Technical Report)

This project investigated how photonic glass (PG) photoelectrodes—disordered arrangements of dielectric scatterers—can serve as scalable, tunable platforms for light trapping in photoelectrochemical (PEC) solar-to-fuel systems. By leveraging disorder-driven optical phenomena such as multiple scattering resonances and light localization, PG structures offer an alternative to conventional photonic crystals and inverse opals that require high structural precision. The scientific goals were to twofold: (1) develop approaches to predictive models for high performance PG electrodes based on light absorption simulations, and (2) fabricate, characterize, and optimize PG-based photoelectrodes for solar-to-hydrogen and solar-to-fuel photoelectrochemical applications. To overcome the complexity of ensemble optical simulations for disordered materials, the researchers developed a machine-learning-accelerated emulation of all configurations in the design space. With this approach, PG photoelectrodes based on a TiO2 semiconductor were designed to enhance PEC currents of up to one hundred times higher than the equivalent ultra-thin film photoanodes and several times higher than the equivalent photonic crystal. The research also explored integrated systems for electrochemical hydrogen production based on replacing water oxidation with the specific glycerol oxidation electrocatalysis. Overall, the project outlined an approach to a simple-to-fabricate photoelectrode system to drive photoelectrochemical reactions relevant to solar photochemical energy conversion.

14 SOLAR ENERGY↗

NASA NTRS1977

Inverse solution of the pseudoscalar transfer equation through nonlinear matrix inversion

Nonlinear matrix inversion operators have been developed which, applied to observed radiances, infer maximal information regarding atmospheric scattering parameters and vertical distribution of radiant sources and sinks. The algorithm has the attractive feature of noise discrimination, attributing instrumental errors to extra-atmospheric sources.

King, J. I. F.↗

NASA NTRS2011

Hyperspectral Remote Sensing of Atmosphere and Surface Properties

Atmospheric Infrared Sounder (AIRS), Infrared Atmospheric Sounding Interferometer (IASI), and Cross-track Infrared Sounder (CrIS) are all hyper-spectral satellite sensors with thousands of spectral channels. Top of atmospheric radiance spectra measured by these sensors contain high information content on atmospheric, cloud, and surface properties. Exploring high information content contained in these high spectral resolution spectra is a challenging task due to computation e ort involved in modeling thousands of spectral channels. Usually, only very small fractions (4{10 percent) of the available channels are included in physical retrieval systems or numerical weather forecast (NWP) satellite data assimilations. We will describe a method of simultaneously retrieving atmospheric temperature, moisture, cloud, and surface properties using all available spectral channels without sacrificing computational speed. The essence of the method is to convert channel radiance spectra into super-channels by an Empirical Orthogonal Function (EOF) transformation. Because the EOFs are orthogonal to each other, about 100 super-channels are adequate to capture the information content of the radiance spectra. A Principal Component-based Radiative Transfer Model (PCRTM) developed at NASA Langley Research Center is used to calculate both the super-channel magnitudes and derivatives with respect to atmospheric profiles and other properties. There is no need to perform EOF transformations to convert super channels back to spectral space at each iteration step for a one-dimensional variational retrieval or a NWP data assimilation system. The PCRTM forward model is also capable of calculating radiative contributions due to multiple-layer clouds. The multiple scattering effects of the clouds are efficiently parameterized. A physical retrieval algorithm then performs an inversion of atmospheric, cloud, and surface properties in super channel domain directly therefore both reducing the computational need and preserving the information content of the IASI measurements. The inversion algorithm is based on a non-linear Levenberg-Marquardt method with climatology covariance matrices and a priori information as constraints. One advantage of this approach is that it uses all information content from the hyper-spectral data so that the retrieval is less sensitive to instrument noise and eliminates the need for selecting a sub-set of the channels.

Liu, Xu↗

NASA NTRS2014

A Numerical Testbed for Remote Sensing of Aerosols, and its Demonstration for Evaluating Retrieval Synergy from a Geostationary Satellite Constellation of GEO-CAPE and GOES-R

We present a numerical testbed for remote sensing of aerosols, together with a demonstration for evaluating retrieval synergy from a geostationary satellite constellation. The testbed combines inverse (optimal-estimation) software with a forward model containing linearized code for computing particle scattering (for both spherical and non-spherical particles), a kernel-based (land and ocean) surface bi-directional reflectance facility, and a linearized radiative transfer model for polarized radiance. Calculation of gas absorption spectra uses the HITRAN (HIgh-resolution TRANsmission molecular absorption) database of spectroscopic line parameters and other trace species cross-sections. The outputs of the testbed include not only the Stokes 4-vector elements and their sensitivities (Jacobians) with respect to the aerosol single scattering and physical parameters (such as size and shape parameters, refractive index, and plume height), but also DFS (Degree of Freedom for Signal) values for retrieval of these parameters. This testbed can be used as a tool to provide an objective assessment of aerosol information content that can be retrieved for any constellation of (planned or real) satellite sensors and for any combination of algorithm design factors (in terms of wavelengths, viewing angles, radiance and/or polarization to be measured or used). We summarize the components of the testbed, including the derivation and validation of analytical formulae for Jacobian calculations. Benchmark calculations from the forward model are documented. In the context of NASA's Decadal Survey Mission GEOCAPE (GEOstationary Coastal and Air Pollution Events), we demonstrate the use of the testbed to conduct a feasibility study of using polarization measurements in and around the O2 A band for the retrieval of aerosol height information from space, as well as an to assess potential improvement in the retrieval of aerosol fine and coarse mode aerosol optical depth (AOD) through the synergic use of two future geostationary satellites, GOES-R (Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite R-series) and TEMPO (Tropospheric Emissions: Monitoring of Pollution). Strong synergy between GEOS-R and TEMPO are found especially in their characterization of surface bi-directional reflectance, and thereby, can potentially improve the AOD retrieval to the accuracy required by GEO-CAPE.

Aerosols↗