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At least 55 records · Page 3

Assessing the Relative Performance of Microwave-Based Satellite Rain Rate Retrievals Using TRMM Ground Validation Data

Space-borne microwave sensors provide critical rain information used in several global multi-satellite rain products, which in turn are used for a variety of important studies, including landslide forecasting, flash flood warning, data assimilation, climate studies, and validation of model forecasts of precipitation. This study employs four years (2003-2006) of satellite data to assess the relative performance and skill of SSM/I (F13, F14 and F15), AMSU-B (N15, N16 and N17), AMSR-E (Aqua) and the TRMM Microwave Imager (TMI) in estimating surface rainfall based on direct instantaneous comparisons with ground-based rain estimates from Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM) Ground Validation (GV) sites at Kwajalein, Republic of the Marshall Islands (KWAJ) and Melbourne, Florida (MELB). The relative performance of each of these satellite estimates is examined via comparisons with space- and time-coincident GV radar-based rain rate estimates. Because underlying surface terrain is known to affect the relative performance of the satellite algorithms, the data for MELB was further stratified into ocean, land and coast categories using a 0.25deg terrain mask. Of all the satellite estimates compared in this study, TMI and AMSR-E exhibited considerably higher correlations and skills in estimating/observing surface precipitation. While SSM/I and AMSU-B exhibited lower correlations and skills for each of the different terrain categories, the SSM/I absolute biases trended slightly lower than AMSR-E over ocean, where the observations from both emission and scattering channels were used in the retrievals. AMSU-B exhibited the least skill relative to GV in all of the relevant statistical categories, and an anomalous spike was observed in the probability distribution functions near 1.0 mm/hr. This statistical artifact appears to be related to attempts by algorithm developers to include some lighter rain rates, not easily detectable by its scatter-only frequencies. AMSU-B, however, agreed well with GV when the matching data was analyzed on monthly scales. These results signal developers of global rainfall products, such as the TRMM Multi-Satellite Precipitation Analysis (TMPA), and the Climate Data Center s Morphing (CMORPH) technique, that care must be taken when incorporating data from these input satellite estimates in order to provide the highest quality estimates in their products.

Wolff, David B.↗

Advanced Control Algorithms for Compensating the Phase Distortion Due to Transport Delay in Human-Machine Systems

The desire to create more complex visual scenes in modern flight simulators outpaces recent increases in processor speed. As a result, simulation transport delay remains a problem. New approaches for compensating the transport delay in a flight simulator have been developed and are presented in this report. The lead/lag filter, the McFarland compensator and the Sobiski/Cardullo state space filter are three prominent compensators. The lead/lag filter provides some phase lead, while introducing significant gain distortion in the same frequency interval. The McFarland predictor can compensate for much longer delay and cause smaller gain error in low frequencies than the lead/lag filter, but the gain distortion beyond the design frequency interval is still significant, and it also causes large spikes in prediction. Though, theoretically, the Sobiski/Cardullo predictor, a state space filter, can compensate the longest delay with the least gain distortion among the three, it has remained in laboratory use due to several limitations. The first novel compensator is an adaptive predictor that makes use of the Kalman filter algorithm in a unique manner. In this manner the predictor can accurately provide the desired amount of prediction, while significantly reducing the large spikes caused by the McFarland predictor. Among several simplified online adaptive predictors, this report illustrates mathematically why the stochastic approximation algorithm achieves the best compensation results. A second novel approach employed a reference aircraft dynamics model to implement a state space predictor on a flight simulator. The practical implementation formed the filter state vector from the operator s control input and the aircraft states. The relationship between the reference model and the compensator performance was investigated in great detail, and the best performing reference model was selected for implementation in the final tests. Theoretical analyses of data from offline simulations with time delay compensation show that both novel predictors effectively suppress the large spikes caused by the McFarland compensator. The phase errors of the three predictors are not significant. The adaptive predictor yields greater gain errors than the McFarland predictor for short delays (96 and 138 ms), but shows smaller errors for long delays (186 and 282 ms). The advantage of the adaptive predictor becomes more obvious for a longer time delay. Conversely, the state space predictor results in substantially smaller gain error than the other two predictors for all four delay cases.

Guo, Liwen↗

Assessing the Relative Performance of Microwave-based Satellite Rain Rate Retrievals using TRMM Ground Validation Data

Space-borne microwave sensors provide critical rain information used in several global multi-satellite rain products, which in turn are used for a variety of important studies, including landslide forecasting, flash flood warning, data assimilation, climate studies, and validation of model forecast of precipitation. This study employs four years (2003-2006) of satellite data to assess the relative performance and skill of SSM/I (F13, F14 and F15), AMSU-B (N15, N16 and N17), AMSR-E (AQUA) and the TRMM Microwave Imager (TMI) in estimating surface rainfall based on direct instantaneous comparison with ground-based rain estimates from Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM) Ground Validation (GV) sites at Kwajalein, Republic of the Marshall Islands (KWAJ) and Melbourne, Florida (MELB). The relative performance of each of these satellites is examined via comparisons with GV radar-based rain rate estimates. Because underlying surface terrain is known to affect the relative performance of the satellite algorithms, the data for MELB was further stratified into ocean, land and coast categories using a 0.25 terrain mask. Of all the satellite estimates compared in this study, TMI and AMSR-E exhibited considerably higher correlations and skills in estimating/observing surface precipitation. While SSM/I and AMSU-B exhibited lower correlations and skills for each of the different terrain categories, the SSM/I absolute biases trended slightly lower than AMSRE over ocean, where the observations from both emission and scattering channels were used in the retrievals. AMSU-B exhibited the least skill relative to GV in all of the relevant statistical categories, and an anomalous spike was observed in the probability distribution functions near 1.0 mm hr-1. This statistical artifact appears to be related to attempts by algorithm developers to include some lighter rain rates, not easily detectable by its scatter-only frequencies. AMSU-B, however, agreed well with GV when the matching data was analyzed on monthly scales. These results signal developers of global rainfall products, such as the TRMM Multi-Satellite Precipitation Analysis (TMPA), and the Climate Data Center s Morphing (CMORPH) technique, that care must be taken when incorporating data from these input satellite estimates in order to provide the highest quality estimates in their products.

Wolff, David B.↗

Automated Generation of Integrated Digital and Spiking Neuromorphic Machine Learning Accelerators

The growing numbers of application areas for artificial intelligence (AI) methods have led to an explosion of domain-specific accelerators that could support every new machine learning (ML) algorithm advancement, clearly highlighting the need for a capability to quickly and automatically transition from algorithm definition to hardware implementation and explore design space along a variety of SWaP (size, weight and Power). The software defined architectures (SODA) synthesizer implements a compiler-based modular infrastructure for the end-to-end generation of machine learning accelerators from high-level frameworks to hardware description language. At the same time, neuromorphic computing, by mimicking how the brain operates, promises to perform artificial intelligence tasks at efficiencies orders of magnitude higher than the current conventional tensor-processing based accelerators, as demonstrated by a variety of specialized designs leveraging Spiking Neural Networks (SNNs). Nevertheless, the mapping of an artificial neural network (ANN) to solutions supporting SNNs is still a non-trivial and very device-specific task, and completely lack the possibility to design hybrid systems that integrate conventional and spiking neural models. In this paper we discuss the support for such an integrated generation leveraging the SODA Synthesizer framework and its modular structure. In particular, we present a new MLIR dialect (part of the SODA frontend) that allows expressing spiking neural network features (e.g., available resources, spiking sequences, analog signal reading, etc.) and illustrate how it enables mapping to Spiking Neurons and deployment to the related specialized hardware (which, in the digital domain, could be generated through the other existing layers of the SODA Synthesizer). We then discuss the opportunities for even deeper integration afforded by the hardware compilation infrastructure, providing a path towards the generation of complex heterogeneous artificial intelligence systems.

Curzel, Serena↗

Computational studies of a fluid spike as a leading edge protection device for shock-shock interference heating

The effectiveness of a fluid spike as a device to protect leading edges of hypersonic atmospheric flight vehicles from high aerothermal loads produced by complex shock-shock interference is studied. The two-dimensional Navier-Stokes equations are solved using an unstructured cell-centered, fully implicit, flux-difference split algorithm. Adaptively generated unstructured meshes are employed. A type IV shock-shock interference for Mach 8 flow on a cylindrical leading edge with and without a small contraflow supersonic jet (fluid spike) placed at two different locations on the body is solved. A typical flow past a blunt body with a type IV shock-shock interference produces very high pressures and heat fluxes on the leading edge. Present results indicate that a fluid spike displaces the bow shock further in front of the body and modifies the shock-shock interference pattern. This leads to reduced peak pressures and heat fluxes on the body.

Prabhu, Ramadas K.↗

DFSynthesizer: Dataflow-based Synthesis of Spiking Neural Networks to Neuromorphic Hardware

Spiking Neural Networks (SNNs) are an emerging computation model that uses event-driven activation and bio-inspired learning algorithms. SNN-based machine learning programs are typically executed on tile-based neuromorphic hardware platforms, where each tile consists of a computation unit called a crossbar, which maps neurons and synapses of the program. However, synthesizing such programs on an off-the-shelf neuromorphic hardware is challenging. This is because of the inherent resource and latency limitations of the hardware, which impact both model performance, e.g., accuracy, and hardware performance, e.g., throughput. We propose DFSynthesizer, an end-to-end framework for synthesizing SNN-based machine learning programs to neuromorphic hardware. The proposed framework works in four steps. First, it analyzes a machine learning program and generates SNN workload using representative data. Second, it partitions the SNN workload and generates clusters that fit on crossbars of the target neuromorphic hardware. Third, it exploits the rich semantics of the Synchronous Dataflow Graph (SDFG) to represent a clustered SNN program, allowing for performance analysis in terms of key hardware constraints such as number of crossbars, dimension of each crossbar, buffer space on tiles, and tile communication bandwidth. Finally, it uses a novel scheduling algorithm to execute clusters on crossbars of the hardware, guaranteeing hardware performance. We evaluate DFSynthesizer with 10 commonly used machine learning programs. Our results demonstrate that DFSynthesizer provides a much tighter performance guarantee compared to current mapping approaches.

Computer Science↗

Precise ROCOF estimation algorithm for low inertia power grids

The precise estimation of Rate Of Change Of Frequencies (ROCOFs) in a generation trip event can be helpful on power system inertia estimation, fast system response, and accurate event capturing. However, the ROCOF estimations from the existing Synchronized Measurement Devices (SMDs) are usually simply calculated by the finite difference between two adjacent frequency measurement points. The ineluctable noises, disturbances, and spikes from real-world frequency measurements can bring large dynamics to the ROCOF estimation and thus can result in an inaccurate estimation of the initial ROCOF. This issue becomes more serious when the target power grid has low inertia, and a large amount of distributed energy sources are deployed. To address this issue, a precise ROCOF estimation algorithm is designed based on least square method with flexible window size. In addition, a median filter is also designed and applied on the frequency measurements before using the proposed algorithm. The window size and thresholds in the proposed algorithm are determined with historical event data analysis. The proposed algorithm is deployed in a low cost, flexible, and distribution level universal grid analyzer (UGA) platform. In conclusion, multiple experiments are conducted in both a laboratory and the Hawaiian Islands to verify the effectiveness of the proposed algorithm.

24 POWER TRANSMISSION AND DISTRIBUTION↗

WISP: Watching grid Infrastructure Stealthily through Proxies (Final Technical Report)

The complex interdependencies of cyber systems (sensors and communications), physical grids and associated electricity market operations make protecting electric power grids a significant challenge. The energy sector is constantly under new, targeted, advanced and dangerous cyber-attacks that have the potential to result in the loss of human life. These threats are further exacerbated by our need to modernize the grid. One focus of cyber security research in smart grids is the securing of the SCADA system through advanced intrusion detection systems (IDS) and bad data detection algorithms in state estimation. These methods either require full knowledge of the system topology and parameters or fail to understand the physical behaviors under attack. WISP (Watching grid Infrastructure Stealthily through Proxies) is designed to provide additional protection to the power grid using only publicly available data. In particular, WISP exploits the spatio-temporal nature of the real time locational marginal prices (LMPs), in conjunction with other information such as bids, weather, outages and load data to analyze anomalous power pricing behaviors and then correlate those observations to localize regions of interest and identify potential cyber events. WISP is non-intrusive as the tool is deployed as a service in the Cloud or on premise and provides reliable information to system operators for enhanced situational awareness, without impeding energy delivery functions. The WISP technology comprises three modules: the data-driven anomaly detection core, the vulnerability and risk analysis and the root cause analysis. The data-driven anomaly detection core performs the tasks of feature selection, anomaly detection and attack region localization. The vulnerability and risk analysis module provides system level information of the vulnerable variables and times, assisting the operators in selecting monitoring and protection nodes. The root cause analysis module takes the detection results and identifies potential operational conditions that contribute to the detected anomalies. In Phase I, we have demonstrated the feasibility and effectiveness of WISP. We developed a realistic electricity market simulator capable of generating normal and attack market data under various operational conditions. We developed a series of cyber-attack detection and analysis algorithms and evaluated them under multiple data sources. Finally, we integrated all modules into an end-to-end software, providing functions for data management, data analytics and visualization. Specifically, we have achieved: (i) real-time data acceptance from external utility interfaces with >99% acceptance rate; (ii) high performance anomaly detection algorithms with >98% detection accuracy and <0.1% false alarm rate; and (iii) ultra-low computing delay <50 milliseconds. Additionally, our team developed algorithms to identify the vulnerable variables in electricity market operations and root cause analysis functions to identify major contributors to the price spikes. These ancillary modules are necessary when deploying WISP in real world industry environment. In Phase II, we have demonstrated the effectiveness of WISP software on realistic largescale power systems. We performed red team testing for the Phase I WISP software and identified software vulnerabilities and implemented corresponding mitigation solutions. We adapted the electricity market simulator for the Texas synthetic 2000-bus system and generated datasets for the false data injection attacks. We created database and visualization interfaces for the Texas system and the ISO New England system. We performed software optimization in terms of operation efficiency, computing speed and detection accuracy. Finally, we tested the software on the Texas system and the ISO New England system and evaluated the detection performance. Overall, we achieved above 89% detection rate, below 3% false alarm rate and below 37 seconds of end-to-end detection delay.

24 POWER TRANSMISSION AND DISTRIBUTION↗

On-Sensor Data Filtering using Neuromorphic Computing for High Energy Physics Experiments

This work describes the investigation of neuromorphic computing-based spiking neural network (SNN) models used to filter data from sensor electronics in high energy physics experiments conducted at the High Luminosity Large Hadron Collider. We present our approach for developing a compact neuromorphic model that filters out the sensor data based on the particle's transverse momentum with the goal of reducing the amount of data being sent to the downstream electronics. The incoming charge waveforms are converted to streams of binary-valued events, which are then processed by the SNN. We present our insights on the various system design choices - from data encoding to optimal hyperparameters of the training algorithm - for an accurate and compact SNN optimized for hardware deployment. Our results show that an SNN trained with an evolutionary algorithm and an optimized set of hyperparameters obtains a signal efficiency of about 91% with nearly half as many parameters as a deep neural network.

R. Kulkarni, Shruti↗

A glimpse into the fungal metabolomic abyss: Novel network analysis reveals relationships between exogenous compounds and their outputs

Fungal specialized metabolites are a major source of beneficial compounds that are routinely isolated, characterized, and manufactured as pharmaceuticals, agrochemical agents, and industrial chemicals. The production of these metabolites is encoded by biosynthetic gene clusters that are often silent under standard growth conditions. There are limited resources for characterizing the direct link between abiotic stimuli and metabolite production. Herein, we introduce a network analysis-based, data-driven algorithm comprising two routes to characterize the production of specialized fungal metabolites triggered by different exogenous compounds: the direct route and the auxiliary route. Both routes elucidate the influence of treatments on the production of specialized metabolites from experimental data. The direct route determines known and putative metabolites induced by treatments and provides additional insight over traditional comparison methods. The auxiliary route is specific for discovering unknown analytes, and further identification can be curated through online bioinformatic resources. We validated our algorithm by applying chitooligosaccharides and lipids at two different temperatures to the fungal pathogen Aspergillus fumigatus. After liquid chromatography–mass spectrometry quantification of significantly produced analytes, we used network centrality measures to rank the treatments’ ability to elucidate these analytes and confirmed their identity through fragmentation patterns or in silico spiking with commercially available standards. Later, we examined the transcriptional regulation of these metabolites through real-time quantitative polymerase chain reaction. Our data-driven techniques can complement existing metabolomic network analysis by providing an approach to track the influence of any exogenous stimuli on metabolite production. Our experimental-based algorithm can overcome the bottlenecks in elucidating novel fungal compounds used in drug discovery.

59 BASIC BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES↗

Neuromorphic ionic computing in droplet interface synapses

Ionic devices with memory capabilities can emulate neural functionality, enabling neuromorphic computing and biomedical applications. In this study, we report an ionic spiking synapse based on aqueous droplet interface bilayer assembly. Under stepwise triangular voltages, the device displays coupled memcapacitive-memristive behavior, showing noncrossing pinched hysteretic I-V loops. This hysteretic ion dynamics can be regulated by modifying bilayer components, reconstituting protein channels, or adjusting droplet assembly configuration. Droplet interface synapses (DIS) exhibit fundamental neuromorphic behaviors such as paired-pulse facilitation/depression, spike rate–dependent plasticity, Hebbian learning, and short-term associative learning under classical conditioning. We also used reservoir computing with DIS to implement two learning algorithms: a classification algorithm that recognizes handwritten digits and a reinforcement learning algorithm that learns to play a board game of tic-tac-toe.

Li, Zhongwu [Lawrence Livermore National Laborator↗

SNNVis: Visualizing Graph Embedding of Evolutionary Optimization for Spiking Neural Networks

While Spiking Neural Networks (SNNs) show a lot of promise, it is difficult to optimize them because applying traditional gradient-based optimization techniques is difficult. Even though evolutionary algorithms (EAs) have been shown to promise to optimize SNNs, understanding the relationship between evolving the characteristics of SNNs and their performance to improve the optimization algorithm is challenging because of the complex characteristics and huge population size. We propose visual analytics with novel graph embedding for evolutionary SNNs to address the challenges. While existing graph embedding techniques have limitations in preserving the specific features of the nodes and edges, our approach maintains them. Also, we develop visual analytics for understanding the relationship between the network performance and the features of nodes and edges and exploring and analyzing the evolving SNNs to build insights into improving the EA.

Chae, Junghoon [ORNL] (ORCID:0000000206016746)↗

A comparison of three SAR interference filters

Three interference filters are discussed and their ability to remove the interference while leaving target signal data is quantified. The filters are adaptive frequency-domain spike filtering; adaptive frequency-domain interference determination and masking; and interference-target correlation masking. Using Jet Propulsion Laboratory Airborne Synthetic Aperture Radar (JPL AIRSAR) data, the algorithms are applied to three data sets. The resultant compressed Stokes matrix data are compared with the normally processed interference-free image in a quantitative sense. The algorithms are evaluated by measuring the polarization signature, SNR, equivalent number of looks, and impulse response of the processed images.

Chapman, B.↗

Artemis I Liftoff Measurements Issues and Corrections

The SLS rocket was instrumented to collect liftoff environment data during Artemis I launch. The instruments were microphones and pressure transducers. Most data were acceptable for analysis, but required corrections for port resonance, mean signal drift, data system delays, and data spikes. The data were all transmitted via telemetry and in this process some of the measurements experienced unexpectedly long gaps in the data stream. A time validated reconstruction algorithm failed when encountering the long gaps and required use of data from a simpler reconstruction process, with manually inserted data delay corrections. This paper discusses the issues and the corrections that were necessary for the launch data to determine the true physics of the acoustics occurring during launch.

environments↗

Artemis I Liftoff Measurements Issues and Corrections

The SLS rocket was instrumented to collect liftoff environment data during Artemis I launch. The instruments were microphones and pressure transducers. Most data were acceptable for analysis, but required corrections for port resonance, mean signal drift, data system delays, and data spikes. The data were all transmitted via telemetry and in this process some of the measurements experienced unexpectedly long gaps in the data stream. A time validated reconstruction algorithm failed when encountering the long gaps and required use of data from a simpler reconstruction process, with manually inserted data delay corrections. This paper discusses the issues and the corrections that were necessary for the launch data to determine the true physics of the acoustics occurring during launch.

environments↗

Implementing and Benchmarking the Locally Competitive Algorithm on the Loihi 2 Neuromorphic Processor

Neuromorphic processors have garnered considerable interest in recent years for their potential in enabling energy-efficient and high-speed computing. The Locally Competative Algorithm (LCA) has been utilized for power efficient sparse coding on neuromophic processors, including the first Loihi processor \cite{appletospikes, loihi1}. With the Loihi 2 processor enabling custom neuron models and graded spike communication, more complex implementations of LCA are possible \cite{loihi2}. We present a new implementation of LCA designed for the Loihi 2 processor and perform an initial set of benchmarks comparing it to LCA on CPU and GPU devices. In these experiments LCA on Loihi 2 is faster and orders of magnitude more efficient, while maintaining similar reconstruction quality. We find this performance improvement increases as the LCA parameters are tuned towards greater representation sparsity. Our study highlights the potential of neuromorphic processors, particularly Loihi 2, in enabling intelligent,autonomous, real-time processing on small robots, satellite where there are strict SWaP (small, lightweighr, and low-power) requirement. By demonstrating the superior performance of LCA on Loihi 2 compared to conventional computing device, our study suggests that Loihi 2 could be a valuable tool in advancing these types of applications. Overall, our study highlights the potential of neuromorphic processors for efficient and accurate data processing on resource-constrained devices.

Parpart, Gavin G.↗

Applying the Cognitive Space Gateway to Swarm Topologies

NASA's future vision for interplanetary networking includes a lunar network, Cube Satellite (CubeSat) constellations, and deep space robotic missions, comprising what could be viewed as a network of networks. Delay-tolerant networking (DTN) architecture and protocols provide a standard network layer among these varying scenarios and mitigate many challenges of the space environment, such as long delays, unplanned service interruptions, and asymmetric links. The Cognitive Space Gateway (CSG) is a routing method in a DTN architecture that uses spiking neural networks as the learning element to optimize routing decisions in a complex environment. This work aims to further develop cognitive networking technologies in several critical areas, including DTN, the CSG algorithm, CubeSat swarm topologies, and cloud services. To test the algorithm in a realistic scenario, the emulated network topology is based on a CubeSat swarm. The swarm may function as a mesh of nodes or as a hub-and-spoke network. An emulation environment will be built upon a commercial cloud service, such as Amazon Web Services (AWS) Elastic Compute Cloud. The cloud environment may enable a flexible, lower maintenance approach versus a multi-hop network based in a physical laboratory. The cloud platform will provide a secure environment allowing for collaboration among government and academic entities.

Ricardo Lent↗

Applying the Cognitive Space Gateway to Swarm Topologies

NASA’s future vision for interplanetary networking includes a lunar network, Cube Satellite (CubeSat) constellations, and deep space robotic missions, comprising what could be viewed as a network of networks. Delay-tolerant networking (DTN) architecture and protocols provide a standard network layer among these varying scenarios and mitigate many challenges of the space environment, such as long delays, unplanned service interruptions, and asymmetric links. The Cognitive Space Gateway (CSG) is a routing method in a DTN architecture that uses spiking neural networks as the learning element to optimize outing decisions in a complex environment. This work aims to further develop cognitive networking technologies in several critical areas, including DTN, the CSG algorithm, SmallSat swarm topologies, and cloud services. The CSG algorithm is tested in a realistic scenario in which the emulated network topology is based on a SmallSat swarm. The emulation environment will be built upon a commercial cloud service, such as Amazon Web Services (AWS) Elastic Compute Cloud. This work investigates the ability of such a platform to enable a flexible, lower maintenance approach to creating a multihop network outside of a physical laboratory. The cloud platform will provide a secure environment allowing for collaboration among government and academic entities.

Ricardo Lent↗