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All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
NASA NTRS1999

Ocean Wave Studies with Applications to Ocean Modeling and Improvement of Satellite Altimeter Measurements

Combining analysis of satellite data (altimeter, scatterometer, high-resolution visible and infrared images, etc.) with mathematical modeling of non-linear wave processes, we investigate various ocean wave fields (on scales from capillary to planetary), their role in ocean dynamics and turbulent transport (of heat and biogeochemical quantities), and their effects on satellite altimeter measuring accuracy. In 1998 my attention was focused on long internal gravity waves (10 to 1000 km), known also as baroclinic inertia-gravity (BIG) waves. We found these waves to be a major factor of altimeter measurements "noise," resulting in a greater uncertainty [up to 10 cm in terms of sea surface height (SSH) amplitude] in the measured SSH signal than that caused by the sea state bias variations (up to 5 cm or so). This effect still remains largely overlooked by the satellite altimeter community. Our studies of BIG waves address not only their influence on altimeter measurements but also their role in global ocean dynamics and in transport and turbulent diffusion of biogeochemical quantities. In particular, in collaboration with Prof Peter Weichman, Caltech, we developed a theory of turbulent diffusion caused by wave motions of most general nature. Applied to the problem of horizontal turbulent diffusion in the ocean, the theory yielded the effective diffusion coefficient as a function of BIG wave parameters obtainable from satellite altimeter data. This effort, begun in 1997, has been successfully completed in 1998. We also developed a theory that relates spatial fluctuations of scalar fields (such as sea surface temperature, chlorophyll concentration, drifting ice concentration, etc.) to statistical characteristics of BIG waves obtainable from altimeter measurements. A manuscript is in the final stages of preparation. In order to verify the theoretical predictions and apply them to observations, we are now analyzing Sea-viewing Wide Field of view Sensor (SeaWiFS) and Field of view Sensor (SeaWiFS) and Advanced Very High-Resolution Radiometer (AVHRR) data on sea surface temperature (SST) and chlorophyll concentration jointly with TOPEX/POSEIDON data on SSH variations.

Glazman, Roman E.↗
NASA NTRS2011

Crack Growth Behavior in the Threshold Region for High Cycle Fatigue Loading

This presentation describes results obtained from a research project conducted at the NASA Johnson Space Center (JSC) that was jointly supported by the FAA Technical Center and JSC. The JSC effort was part of a multi-task FAA program involving several U.S. laboratories and initiated for the purpose of developing enhanced analysis tools to assess damage tolerance of rotorcraft and aircraft propeller systems. The research results to be covered in this presentation include a new understanding of the behavior of fatigue crack growth in the threshold region. This behavior is important for structural life analysis of aircraft propeller systems and certain rotorcraft structural components (e.g., the mast). These components are often designed to not allow fatigue crack propagation to exceed an experimentally determined fatigue crack growth threshold value. During the FAA review meetings for the program, disagreements occurred between the researchers regarding the observed fanning (spread between the da/dN curves of constant R) in the threshold region at low stress ratios, R. Some participants believed that the fanning was a result of the ASTM load shedding test method for threshold testing, and thus did not represent the true characteristics of the material. If the fanning portion of the threshold value is deleted or not included in a life analysis, a significant penalty in the calculated life and design of the component would occur. The crack growth threshold behavior was previously studied and reported by several research investigators in the time period: 1970-1980. Those investigators used electron microscopes to view the crack morphology of the fatigue fracture surfaces. Their results showed that just before reaching threshold, the crack morphology often changed from a striated to a faceted or cleavage-like morphology. This change was reported to have been caused by particular dislocation properties of the material. Based on the results of these early investigations, a program was initiated at JSC to repeat these examinations on a number of aircraft structural alloys that were currently being tested for obtaining fatigue crack growth properties. These new scanning electron microscope (SEM) examinations of the fatigue fracture faces confirmed the change in crack morphology in the threshold crack tip region. In addition, SEM examinations were further performed in the threshold crack-tip region before breaking the specimens open (not done in the earlier published studies). In these examinations, extensive crack forking and even 90-degree crack bifurcations were found to have occurred in the final threshold crack-tip region. The forking and bifurcations caused numerous closure points to occur that prevented full crack closure in the threshold region, and thus were the cause of the fanning at low-R values. Therefore, we have shown that the fanning behavior was caused by intrinsic dislocation properties of the different alloy materials and were not the result of a plastic wake that remains from the load-shedding test phase. Also, to accommodate the use of da/dN data which includes fanning at low R-values, an updated fanning factor term has been developed and will be implemented into the NASGRO fatigue crack growth software. The term can be set to zero if it is desired that the fanning behavior is not be modeled for particular cases, such as when fanning is not a result of the intrinsic properties of a material.

Forman, Royce G.↗
NASA NTRS2010

The Effect of Incident Light Polarization on Vegetation Bidirectional Reflectance Factor

The Laboratory-based Bidirectional Reflectance Factor (BRF) polarization study of vegetation is presented in this paper. The BRF was measured using a short-arc Xenon lamp/monochromator assembly producing an incoherent, tunable light source with a well-defined spectral bandpass at visible and near-infrared wavelengths of interest at 470 nm and 870 nm and coherent light source at 1.656 microns. All vegetation samples were measured using P and S linearly polarized incident light over a range of incident and scatter angles. By comparing these results, we quantitatively examine how the BRF of the samples depends on the polarization of the incident light. The differences are significant, depend strongly on the incident and scatter angles, and can be as high as 120% at 67 deg incident and 470nm. The global nature of Earth's processes requires consistent long-term calibration of all instruments involved in data retrieval. The BRF defines the reflection characteristics of Earth surface. It provides the reflectance of a target in a specific direction as a function of illumination and viewing geometry. The BRF is a function of wavelength and reflects the structural and optical properties of the surface. Various space and airborne radiometric and imaging remote sensing instruments are used in the remote sensing characterization of vegetation canopies and soils, oceans, or especially large pollution sources. The satellite data is validated through comparison with airborne, ground-based and laboratory-based data in an effort to fully understand the vegetation canopy reflectance, The Sun's light is assumed to be unpolarized at the top of the atmosphere; however it becomes polarized to some degree due to atmospheric effects by the time it reaches the vegetation canopy. Although there are numerous atmospheric correction models, laboratory data is needed for model verification and improvement.

Georgiev, Georgi T.↗
NASA NTRS1999

NASGRO 3.0: A Software for Analyzing Aging Aircraft

Structural integrity analysis of aging aircraft is a critical necessity in view of the increasing numbers of such aircraft in general aviation, the airlines and the military. Efforts are in progress by NASA, the FAA and the DoD to focus attention on aging aircraft safety. The present paper describes the NASGRO software which is well-suited for effectively analyzing the behavior of defects that may be found in aging aircraft. The newly revised Version 3.0 has many features specifically implemented to suit the needs of the aircraft community. The fatigue crack growth computer program NASA/FLAGRO 2.0 was originally developed to analyze space hardware such as the Space Shuttle, the International Space Station and the associated payloads. Due to popular demand, the software was enhanced to suit the needs of the aircraft industry. Major improvements in Version 3.0 are the incorporation of the ability to read aircraft spectra of unlimited size, generation of common aircraft fatigue load blocks, and the incorporation of crack-growth models which include load-interaction effects such as retardation due to overloads and acceleration due to underloads. Five new crack-growth models, viz., generalized Willenborg, modified generalized Willenborg, constant closure model, Walker-Chang model and the deKoning-Newman strip-yield model, have been implemented. To facilitate easier input of geometry, material properties and load spectra, a Windows-style graphical user interface has been developed. Features to quickly change the input and rerun the problem as well as examine the output are incorporated. NASGRO has been organized into three modules, the crack-growth module being the primary one. The other two modules are the boundary element module and the material properties module. The boundary-element module provides the ability to model and analyze complex two-dimensional problems to obtain stresses and stress-intensity factors. The material properties module allows users to store and curve-fit fatigue-crack growth data. On-line help and documentation are provided for each of the modules. In addition to the popular PC windows version, a unix-based X-windows version of NASGRO is also available. A portable C++ class library called WxWindows was used to facilitate cross-platform availability of the software.

Mettu, S. R.↗
NASA NTRS2003

Experimental Evaluation of Verification and Validation Tools on Martian Rover Software

To achieve its science objectives in deep space exploration, NASA has a need for science platform vehicles to autonomously make control decisions in a time frame that excludes intervention from Earth-based controllers. Round-trip light-time is one significant factor motivating autonomy capability, another factor is the need to reduce ground support operations cost. An unsolved problem potentially impeding the adoption of autonomy capability is the verification and validation of such software systems, which exhibit far more behaviors (and hence distinct execution paths in the software) than is typical in current deepspace platforms. Hence the need for a study to benchmark advanced Verification and Validation (V&V) tools on representative autonomy software. The objective of the study was to access the maturity of different technologies, to provide data indicative of potential synergies between them, and to identify gaps in the technologies with respect to the challenge of autonomy V&V. The study consisted of two parts: first, a set of relatively independent case studies of different tools on the same autonomy code, second a carefully controlled experiment with human participants on a subset of these technologies. This paper describes the second part of the study. Overall, nearly four hundred hours of data on human use of three different advanced V&V tools were accumulated, with a control group that used conventional testing methods. The experiment simulated four independent V&V teams debugging three successive versions of an executive controller for a Martian Rover. Defects were carefully seeded into the three versions based on a profile of defects from CVS logs that occurred in the actual development of the executive controller. The rest of the document is structured a s follows. In section 2 and 3, we respectively describe the tools used in the study and the rover software that was analyzed. In section 4 the methodology for the experiment is described; this includes the code preparation, seeding of defects, participant training and experimental setup. Next we give a qualitative overview of how the experiment went from the point of view of each technology; model checking (section 5), static analysis (section 6), runtime analysis (section 7) and testing (section 8). The find section gives some preliminary quantitative results on how the tools compared.

Brat, Guillaume↗
DOE OSTI2016

Introduction of a novel ultrahigh sensitivity collimator for brain SPECT imaging

Purpose: Noise levels of brain SPECT images are highest in central regions, due to preferential attenuation of photons emitted from deep structures. To address this problem, the authors have designed a novel collimator for brain SPECT imaging that yields greatly increased sensitivity near the center of the brain without loss of resolution. This hybrid collimator consisted of ultrashort cone-beam holes in the central regions and slant-holes in the periphery (USCB). We evaluated this collimator for quantitative brain imaging tasks. Methods: Owing to the uniqueness of the USCB collimation, the hole pattern required substantial variations in collimator parameters. To utilize the lead-casting technique, the authors designed two supporting plates to position about 37 000 hexagonal, slightly tapered pins. The holes in the supporting plates were modeled to yield the desired focal length, hole length, and septal thickness. To determine the properties of the manufactured collimator and to compute the system matrix, the authors prepared an array of point sources that covered the entire detector area. Each point source contained 32 μCi of Tc-99m at the first scan time. The array was imaged for 5 min at each of the 64 shifted locations to yield a 2-mm sampling distance, and hole parameters were calculated. The sensitivity was also measured using a point source placed along the central ray at several distances from the collimator face. High-count projection data from a five-compartment brain phantom were acquired with the three collimators on a dual-head SPECT/CT system. The authors calculated Cramer-Rao bounds on the precision of estimates of striatal and background activity concentration. In order to assess the new collimation system to detect changes in striatal activity, the authors evaluated the precision of measuring a 5% decrease in right putamen activity. The authors also reconstructed images of projection data obtained by summing data from the individual phantom compartments. Results: The sensitivity of the novel cone-beam collimator varied with distance from the detector face; it was higher than that of the fan-beam collimator by factors ranging from 2.7 to 162. Examination of the projections of the point sources revealed that only a few holes were distorted or partially blocked, indicating that the intensive manual fabrication process was very successful. Better reconstructed phantom images were obtained from the USCB+FAN collimator pair than from either LEHR or FAN collimation. For the left caudate, located near the center of the brain, the detected counts were 9.8 (8.3) times higher for UCSB compared with LEHR (FAN), averaged over 60 views. The task-specific SNR for detecting a 5% decrease in putamen uptake was 7.4 for USCB and 3.2 for LEHR. Conclusions: The authors have designed and manufactured a novel collimator for brain SPECT imaging. The sensitivity is much higher than that of a fan-beam collimator. Because of differences between the manufactured collimator and its design, reconstruction of the data requires a measured system matrix. The authors have demonstrated the potential of USCB collimation for improved precision in estimating striatal uptake. The novel collimator may be useful for early detection of Parkinson’s disease, and for monitoring therapy response and disease progression.

60 APPLIED LIFE SCIENCES↗
NASA NTRS1998

Elemental Fractionation During Rapid Accretion of the Moon Triggered by a Giant Impact

Recently, Ida et al. made an N-body simulation of lunar accretion from a protolunar disk formed by a giant impact. One of their important conclusions is that the accretion time of the Moon is as short as one month. Such rapid accretion is a necessary consequence of the high surface density of a lunar mass disk accreting just beyond the Roche limit (about 3Re); the Safronov accretion time (a few days) is even shorter. The energy of accretion always exceeds the gravitational binding energy of newly arriving matter. Hence, without an energy sink, the accreting body is thermally unstable. For the Earth and other planets, radiation acts as the sink. However, in such a short accretion time, the Moon cannot radiate the accretional energy. Even radiating at a silicate cloudtop temperature of roughly 2000 K, it would take more than 100 yr to radiatively cool the Moon. The plausible alternative heat sinks are heat capacity, latent heat of vaporization, and thermal escape of the gas to space (i.e., hydrodynamic blowoff). The latter becomes plausible for the Moon because the scale height at 2000 K (about 300 km) is a significant fraction of the lunar radius. The early stages of lunar (or "lunatesimal") growth release relatively little energy and can occur simply by heating the material, especially if the accreting material is originally cold. However, the material is unlikely to be cold, because the disk itself is hot and cooling time is long, while the lunar accretion time iss very short. Therefore, the moon is likely to accrete condensed material just after it condenses. Accordingly, the newly accreted material will be on the verge of vaporization and will have very little heat capacity to spare. The immediate heat sink is the latent heat of vaporization. Most of the vapor will escape from the moon, because the thermal energy in the gas can be used to drive escape. However, vaporization is generally incomplete. the latent heat of vaporization exceeds the energy of accretion. Viewed globally, the accretional energy is about half the energy required to vaporize the entire Moon. Thus to first approximation, half of the Moon-forming material can be vaporized and lost during accretion. During this process, we would expect preferential loss of relatively volatile elements. Escape will retard the rate of accretion. To test these ideas, we computed detailed models of the thermal state of the Moon during accretion. We pay special attention to the structure of the silicate atmosphere and its loss rate by calculating the chemical species at equilibrium. We used the PHEQ program which includes 12 elements (H,O,C,Mg,Si,Fe,Ca, Al, Na,Ti, and N.) and 272 compounds (including ionic compounds). Because of the large heats of vaporization and ionization, the adiabatic atmosphere is nearly isothermal and massive escape is expected. The pressure of the atmosphere is determined by the balance between vaporization of a accreting material and escape. If the accretion time is one month, a 0.3 bar atmosphere is expected. Elemental fractionation depends strongly on the temperature of the accreting material. The initial temperature of the material can be estimated from the condition of gravitational instability in the protolunar disk. As shown by Ida et al, accretion starts when gravitational instability occurs when more than 99% of the material condenses. At this point, all of Ca, Al, Si, Mg, and Fe, and 95% of Na (probably K also), are in condensed phases. If the moon is formed from the accretion of such material, volatile elements such as Na, and K are retained by the moon only early in accretion. At later times, K and Na are lost and a fraction of the MG, Si and Fe is lost. However, refractory elements such as Ca and Al are retained and so achieve a mild degree (factor 2) of superabundance.

Abe, Y.↗
NASA NTRS1973

Use of Polarization Lidar for Investigation of Meteorological Formations

This paper presents the results of theoretical and experimental, investigations of depolarization characteristics of different meteorological formations. Experimental investigations are carried out with a monostatic lidar. The ruby laser radiation is polarized in a vertical plane. The radiation reflected is accepted by a lens system of 150 rom in diameter and a viewing angle of 12' and further it is divided by Wollaston prism into the components polarized orthogonally. In this case the principal plane of the prism is exposed parallel with the laser polarization plane. Investigations show the degree of radiation polarization, reflected from water clouds, to be changed within 1/0.7 (seldom up to 0.6) depending on their density. In most cases a signal reflected from the cloud leading edge is polarized completely. The time shift is observed between polarized and crosspolarized components of a Fignal, reflected from a cloud, depending on the density of a meteorological object. While penetrating into the cloud depth a degree of polarization decreases up to 0.8-0.7, and the character of this decrease is different for various types of clouds. For crystal clouds the shift between the components of the reflected signal is not observed and the magnitude of polarization degree amounts to 0.1/0.3 in comparison with water clouds. The polarization degree of radiation reflected by fog is not less than 0.6, and that in the rains of average intensity (about 5 mm/h) is always about 1. The authors have suggested an algorithm of numerical solution of nonstationary transfer equation in the vector form to forecast the influence of multiple scattering effects on polarization characteristics of the lidar light signal. The method of statistical simulation (Monte-Carlo technique) forms the basis of the algorithm. Numerical estimates obtained for a model of stratocumulus at lambda = 0.6943 microns under boundary conditions close to the conditions of natural experiment being discussed proved to be in a good agreement with the results of observation. Specifically, Fig. 1 shows the profiles of polarization (p) versus depth (L) of the following drop formations: fog (curve 1) with horizontal meteorological visibility of 4 km two stratocumulus at a height of 1100 m with the attenuation factors delta = 0.01m(exp -1) (curve 2) and delta = 0.05m(exp -1) (curve 3). Curve 3 shows the results of numerical estimates and the value of their statistical error.

Balin, Yu. S.↗
NASA NTRS2013

NIR Imaging Spectroscopy of the Inner Few Arcseconds of NGC 4151 with OSIRIS at Keck

We present H- and K-band data from the inner arcsecond of the Seyfert 1.5 galaxy NGC 4151 obtained with the adaptive optics assisted near-infrared imaging field spectrograph OSIRIS at the Keck Observatory. The angular resolution is about a few parsecs on-site and thus competes easily with optical images taken previously with the Hubble Space Telescope. We present the morphology and dynamics of most species detected but focus on the morphology and dynamics of the narrow line region (as traced by emission of [FeII]λ1.644 μm), the interplay between plasma ejected from the nucleus (as traced by 21 cm continuum radio data) and hot H2 gas and characterize the detected nuclear HeIλ2.058 μm absorption feature as a narrow absorption line (NAL) phenomenon. Emission from the narrow line region (NLR) as traced by [FeII] reveals a biconical morphology and we compare the measured dynamics in the [FeII] emission line with models proposing acceleration of gas in the NLR and simple ejection of gas into the NLR. In the inner 2.5 arcseconds the acceleration model reveals a better fit to our data than the ejection model.We also see evidence that the jet very locally enhances emission in [FeII] at certain positions in our field-of-view such that we were able to distinct the kinematics of these clouds from clouds generally accelerated in the NLR. Further, the radio jet is aligned with the bicone surface rather than the bicone axis such that we assume that the jet is not the dominant mechanism responsible for driving the kinematics of clouds in the NLR. The hot H2 gas is thermal with a temperature of about 1700 K. We observe a remarkable correlation between individual H2 clouds at systemic velocity with the 21 cm continuum radio jet. We propose that the radio jet is at least partially embedded in the galactic disk of NGC 4151 such that deviations from a linear radio structure are invoked by interactions of jet plasma with H2 clouds that are moving into the path of the jet because of rotation of the galactic disk of NGC 4151. Additionally, we observe a correlation of the jet as traced by the radio data, with gas as traced in Brγ and H2, at velocities between systemic and +/- 200 km/s at several locations along the path of the jet. The HeIλ2.058 μm line in NGC 4151 appears in emission with a blueshifted absorption component from an outflow. The emission (absorption) component has a velocity offset of 10 km/s (-280 km/s) with a Gaussian (Lorentzian) full-width (half-width) at half maximum of 160 km/s (440 km/s). The absorption component remains spatially unresolved and its kinematic measures differ from that of UV resonance absorption lines. From the amount of absorption we derive a lower limit of the HeI 2S column density of 1 × 10(exp 14) cm−2 with a covering factor along the line-of-sight of C(sub los) approximately equal to 0.1.

K-band data↗
DOE OSTI2025

Subventricular Accumulation of Cu in the Aging Mouse Brain Does Not Associate with Anticipated Increases in Markers of Oxidative Stress

Natural aging is associated with mild memory loss and cognitive decline, and age is the greatest risk factor for neurodegenerative diseases, such as Alzheimer’s disease. There is substantial evidence that oxidative stress is a major contributor to both natural aging and neurodegenerative disease, and coincidently, levels of redox active metals such as Fe and Cu are known to be elevated later in life. Recently, a pronounced age-related increase in Cu content has been reported to occur in mice and rats around a vital regulatory brain region, the subventricular zone of lateral ventricles. In our study herein, we have characterized lateral ventricle Cu content in a unique murine model of accelerated aging, senescence accelerated mouse-prone 8 (SAMP8) mice. Our results confirm an age-related increase in ventricle Cu content, consistent with the studies by others in wild-type mice and rats. Specifically, we observed Cu content to increase over the time frame 1 to 5 months and 5 to 9 months, but interestingly, no significant increase occurred between 9 and 12 months (although brain Cu content at 12 months was significantly elevated relative to 1 and 5 month-old animals). Despite the magnitude of Cu increase observed within the cells that comprise the subventricular zone of lateral ventricles (average 3 mM Cu, with isolated subcellular concentrations of 17 mM), we did not detect spectroscopic markers of thiol oxidation, protein aggregation, or lipid oxidation. The lack of evidence for oxidative stress in ex vivo animal tissue is in contrast to in vitro studies demonstrating that thiol, protein, and lipid oxidation is pronounced at these Cu concentrations. We suggest that our findings most likely indicate that the Cu ions in this brain region are sequestered in an unreactive form, possibly extended chains of Cu-thiolate complexes, which do not readily redox cycle in the aqueous cytosol. In conclusion, these results also appear to partially challenge the long-held view that age-related increases in brain metal content drive oxidative stress as we did not observe a concomitant association between age-related Cu increase and markers of oxidative stress, nor did we observe a net increase in Cu content between mice aged 9 and 12 months.

X-ray fluorescence↗
DOE OSTI2016

Deep view of the Large Magellanic Cloud with six years of Fermi -LAT observations

Context. The nearby Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC) provides a rare opportunity of a spatially resolved view of an external star-forming galaxy in -rays. The LMC was detected at 0.1–100 GeV as an extended source with CGRO/EGRET and using early observations with the Fermi-LAT. The emission was found to correlate with massive star-forming regions and to be particularly bright towards 30 Doradus. Aims. Studies of the origin and transport of cosmic rays (CRs) in the Milky Way are frequently hampered by line-of-sight confusion and poor distance determination. The LMC offers a complementary way to address these questions by revealing whether and how the -ray emission is connected to specific objects, populations of objects, and structures in the galaxy. Methods. We revisited the -ray emission from the LMC using about 73 months of Fermi-LAT P7REP data in the 0.2–100 GeV range. We developed a complete spatial and spectral model of the LMC emission, for which we tested several approaches: a simple geometrical description, template-fitting, and a physically driven model for CR-induced interstellar emission. Results. In addition to identifying PSR J0540-6919 through its pulsations, we find two hard sources positionally coincident with plerion N 157B and supernova remnant N 132D, which were also detected at TeV energies with H.E.S.S. We detect an additional soft source that is currently unidentified. Extended emission dominates the total flux from the LMC. It consists of an extended component of about the size of the galaxy and additional emission from three to four regions with degree-scale sizes. If it is interpreted as CRs interacting with interstellar gas, the large-scale emission implies a large-scale population of ~1–100GeV CRs with a density of ~30% of the local Galactic value. On top of that, the three to four small-scale emission regions would correspond to enhancements of the CR density by factors 2 to 6 or higher, possibly more energetic and younger populations of CRs compared to the large-scale population. An alternative explanation is that this is emission from an unresolved population of at least two dozen objects, such as pulsars and their nebulae or supernova remnants. This small-scale extended emission has a spatial distribution that does not clearly correlate with known components of the LMC, except for a possible relation to cavities and supergiant shells. Conclusions. The Fermi-LAT GeV observations allowed us to detect individual sources in the LMC. Three of the newly discovered sources are associated with rare and extreme objects. The 30 Doradus region is prominent in GeV -rays because PSR J0540-6919 and N 157B are strong emitters. The extended emission from the galaxy has an unexpected spatial distribution, and observations at higher energies and in radio may help to clarify its origin. Key words. Gamma

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
NASA NTRS2008

The Time Series Technique for Aerosol Retrievals over Land from MODIS: Algorithm MAIAC

Atmospheric aerosols interact with sun light by scattering and absorbing radiation. By changing irradiance of the Earth surface, modifying cloud fractional cover and microphysical properties and a number of other mechanisms, they affect the energy balance, hydrological cycle, and planetary climate [IPCC, 2007]. In many world regions there is a growing impact of aerosols on air quality and human health. The Earth Observing System [NASA, 1999] initiated high quality global Earth observations and operational aerosol retrievals over land. With the wide swath (2300 km) of MODIS instrument, the MODIS Dark Target algorithm [Kaufman et al., 1997; Remer et al., 2005; Levy et al., 2007] currently complemented with the Deep Blue method [Hsu et al., 2004] provides daily global view of planetary atmospheric aerosol. The MISR algorithm [Martonchik et al., 1998; Diner et al., 2005] makes high quality aerosol retrievals in 300 km swaths covering the globe in 8 days. With MODIS aerosol program being very successful, there are still several unresolved issues in the retrieval algorithms. The current processing is pixel-based and relies on a single-orbit data. Such an approach produces a single measurement for every pixel characterized by two main unknowns, aerosol optical thickness (AOT) and surface reflectance (SR). This lack of information constitutes a fundamental problem of the remote sensing which cannot be resolved without a priori information. For example, MODIS Dark Target algorithm makes spectral assumptions about surface reflectance, whereas the Deep Blue method uses ancillary global database of surface reflectance composed from minimal monthly measurements with Rayleigh correction. Both algorithms use Lambertian surface model. The surface-related assumptions in the aerosol retrievals may affect subsequent atmospheric correction in unintended way. For example, the Dark Target algorithm uses an empirical relationship to predict SR in the Blue (B3) and Red (B1) bands from the 2.1 m channel (B7) for the purpose of aerosol retrieval. Obviously, the subsequent atmospheric correction will produce the same SR in the red and blue bands as predicted, i.e. an empirical function of 2.1. In other words, the spectral, spatial and temporal variability of surface reflectance in the Blue and Red bands appears borrowed from band B7. This may have certain implications for the vegetation and global carbon analysis because the chlorophyll-sensing bands B1, B3 are effectively substituted in terms of variability by band B7, which is sensitive to the plant liquid water. This chapter describes a new recently developed generic aerosol-surface retrieval algorithm for MODIS. The Multi-Angle Implementation of Atmospheric Correction (MAIAC) algorithm simultaneously retrieves AOT and surface bi-directional reflection factor (BRF) using the time series of MODIS measurements.

Lyapustin, Alexei↗
NASA NTRS2016

Deep View of the Large Magellanic Cloud with Six Years of Fermi-LAT Observations

Context. The nearby Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC) provides a rare opportunity of a spatially resolved view of an external star-forming galaxy in gamma-rays. The LMC was detected at 0.1-100 GeV as an extended source with CGRO/EGRET and using early observations with the Fermi-LAT. The emission was found to correlate with massive star-forming regions and to be particularly bright towards 30 Doradus. Aims. Studies of the origin and transport of cosmic rays (CRs) in the Milky Way are frequently hampered by line-of-sight confusion and poor distance determination. The LMC offers a complementary way to address these questions by revealing whether and how the gamma-ray emission is connected to specific objects, populations of objects, and structures in the galaxy. Methods. We revisited the gamma-ray emission from the LMC using about 73 months of Fermi-LAT P7REP data in the 0.2-100 GeV range. We developed a complete spatial and spectral model of the LMC emission, for which we tested several approaches: a simple geometrical description, template-fitting, and a physically driven model for CR-induced interstellar emission. Results. In addition to identifying PSR J0540-6919 through its pulsations, we find two hard sources positionally coincident with plerion N 157B and supernova remnant N 132D, which were also detected at TeV energies with H.E.S.S. We detect an additional soft source that is currently unidentified. Extended emission dominates the total flux from the LMC. It consists of an extended component of about the size of the galaxy and additional emission from three to four regions with degree-scale sizes. If it is interpreted as CRs interacting with interstellar gas, the large-scale emission implies a large-scale population of approximately 1-100 GeV CRs with a density of approximately 30% of the local Galactic value. On top of that, the three to four small-scale emission regions would correspond to enhancements of the CR density by factors 2 to 6 or higher, possibly more energetic and younger populations of CRs compared to the large-scale population. An alternative explanation is that this is emission from an unresolved population of at least two dozen objects, such as pulsars and their nebulae or supernova remnants. This small-scale extended emission has a spatial distribution that does not clearly correlate with known components of the LMC, except for a possible relation to cavities and supergiant shells. Conclusions. The Fermi-LAT GeV observations allowed us to detect individual sources in the LMC. Three of the newly discovered sources are associated with rare and extreme objects. The 30 Doradus region is prominent in GeV gamma-rays because PSR J0540-6919 and N 157B are strong emitters. The extended emission from the galaxy has an unexpected spatial distribution, and observations at higher energies and in radio may help to clarify its origin.

gamma rays: galaxies – Magellanic Clouds – cos↗
DOE OSTI2015

Scattering Solar Thermal Concentrators

This program set out to explore a scattering-based approach to concentrate sunlight with the aim of improving collector field reliability and of eliminating wind loading and gross mechanical movement through the use of a stationary collection optic. The approach is based on scattering sunlight from the focal point of a fixed collection optic into the confined modes of a sliding planar waveguide, where it is transported to stationary tubular heat transfer elements located at the edges. Optical design for the first stage of solar concentration, which entails focusing sunlight within a plane over a wide range of incidence angles (>120 degree full field of view) at fixed tilt, led to the development of a new, folded-path collection optic that dramatically out-performs the current state-of-the-art in scattering concentration. Rigorous optical simulation and experimental testing of this collection optic have validated its performance. In the course of this work, we also identified an opportunity for concentrating photovoltaics involving the use of high efficiency microcells made in collaboration with partners at the University of Illinois. This opportunity exploited the same collection optic design as used for the scattering solar thermal concentrator and was therefore pursued in parallel. This system was experimentally demonstrated to achieve >200x optical concentration with >70% optical efficiency over a full day by tracking with <1 cm of lateral movement at fixed latitude tilt. The entire scattering concentrator waveguide optical system has been simulated, tested, and assembled at small scale to verify ray tracing models. These models were subsequently used to predict the full system optical performance at larger, deployment scale ranging up to >1 meter aperture width. Simulations at an aperture widths less than approximately 0.5 m with geometric gains ~100x predict an overall optical efficiency in the range 60-70% for angles up to 50 degrees from normal. However, the concentrator optical efficiency was found to decrease significantly with increasing aperture width beyond 0.5 m due to parasitic waveguide out-coupling loss and low-level absorption that become dominant at larger scale. A heat transfer model was subsequently implemented to predict collector fluid heat gain and outlet temperature as a function of flow rate using the optical model as a flux input. It was found that the aperture width size limitation imposed by the optical efficiency characteristics of the waveguide limits the absolute optical power delivered to the heat transfer element per unit length. As compared to state-of-the-art parabolic trough CPV system aperture widths approaching 5 m, this limitation leads to an approximate factor of order of magnitude increase in heat transfer tube length to achieve the same heat transfer fluid outlet temperature. The conclusion of this work is that scattering solar thermal concentration cannot be implemented at the scale and efficiency required to compete with the performance of current parabolic trough CSP systems. Applied within the alternate context of CPV, however, the results of this work have likely opened up a transformative new path that enables quasi-static, high efficiency CPV to be implemented on rooftops in the form factor of traditional fixed-panel photovoltaics.

14 SOLAR ENERGY↗
DOE OSTI2015

Boiler materials for ultra supercritical coal power plants

The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) and the Ohio Coal Development Office (OCDO) have undertaken a project aimed at identifying, evaluating, and qualifying the materials needed for the construction of the critical components of coal-fired boilers capable of operating at much higher efficiencies than current generation of supercritical plants. This increased efficiency is expected to be achieved principally through the use of advanced ultrasupercritical (A-USC) steam conditions up to 760°C (1400°F) and 35 MPa (5000 psi). A limiting factor to achieving these higher temperatures and pressures for future A-USC plants are the materials of construction. The goal of this project is to assess/develop materials technology to build and operate an A-USC boiler capable of delivering steam with conditions up to 760°C (1400°F)/35 MPa (5000 psi). The project has successfully met this goal through a focused long-term public-private consortium partnership. The project was based on an R&D plan developed by the Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI) and an industry consortium that supplemented the recommendations of several DOE workshops on the subject of advanced materials. In view of the variety of skills and expertise required for the successful completion of the proposed work, a consortium led by the Energy Industries of Ohio (EIO) with cost-sharing participation of all the major domestic boiler manufacturers, ALSTOM Power (Alstom), Babcock and Wilcox Power Generation Group, Inc. (B&W), Foster Wheeler (FW), and Riley Power, Inc. (Riley), technical management by EPRI and research conducted by Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) has been developed. The project has clearly identified and tested materials that can withstand 760°C (1400°F) steam conditions and can also make a 700°C (1300°F) plant more economically attractive. In this project, the maximum temperature capabilities of these and other available high-temperature alloys have been assessed to provide a basis for materials selection and application under a range of conditions prevailing in the boiler. A major effort involving eight tasks was completed in Phase 1. In a subsequent Phase 2 extension, the earlier defined tasks were extended to finish and enhance the Phase 1 activities. This extension included efforts in improved weld/weldment performance, development of longer-term material property databases, additional field (in-plant) corrosion testing, improved understanding of long-term oxidation kinetics and exfoliation, cyclic operation, and fabrication methods for waterwalls. In addition, preliminary work was undertaken to model an oxyfuel boiler to define local environments expected to occur and to study corrosion behavior of alloys under these conditions. This final technical report provides a comprehensive summary of all the work undertaken by the consortium and the research findings from all eight (8) technical tasks including A-USC boiler design and economics (Task 1), long-term materials properties (Task 2), steam- side oxidation (Task 3), Fireside Corrosion (Task 4), Welding (Task 5), Fabricability (Task 6), Coatings (Task 7), and Design Data and Rules (Task 8).

01 COAL, LIGNITE, AND PEAT↗
DOE OSTI2017

A density functional theory based approach for predicting melting points of ionic liquids

Accurate prediction of melting points of ILs is important both from the fundamental point of view and from the practical perspective for screening ILs with low melting points and broadening their utilization in a wider temperature range. In this work, we present an ab initio approach to calculating melting points of ILs with known crystal structures and illustrate its application for a series of 11 ILs containing imidazolium/pyrrolidinium cations and halide/polyatomic fluoro-containing anions. The melting point is determined as a temperature at which the Gibbs free energy of fusion is zero. The Gibbs free energy of fusion can be expressed through the use of the Born-Fajans-Haber cycle via the lattice free energy of forming a solid IL from gaseous phase ions and the sum of the solvation free energies of ions comprising IL. Dispersion-corrected density functional theory (DFT) involving (semi)local (PBE-D3) and hybrid exchange-correlation (HSE06-D3) functionals is applied to estimate the lattice enthalpy, entropy, and free energy. The ions solvation free energies are calculated with the SMD-generic-IL solvation model at the M06-2X/6-31+G(d) level of theory under standard conditions. The melting points of ILs computed with the HSE06-D3 functional are in good agreement with the experimental data, with a mean absolute error of 30.5 K and a mean relative error of 8.5%. The model is capable of accurately reproducing the trends in melting points upon variation of alkyl substituents in organic cations and replacement one anion by another. The results verify that the lattice energies of ILs containing polyatomic fluoro-containing anions can be approximated reasonably well using the volume-based thermodynamic approach. However, there is no correlation of the computed lattice energies with molecular volume for ILs containing halide anions. Moreover, entropies of solid ILs follow two different linear relationships with molecular volume for halides and polyatomic fluoro-containing anions. As a result, continuous progress in predicting crystal structures of organic salts with halide anions will be a key factor for successful prediction of melting points with no prior knowledge of the crystal structure.

37 INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CH↗
NASA NTRS2017

Imaging Systems for Size Measurements of Debrisat Fragments

The overall objective of the DebriSat project is to provide data to update existing standard spacecraft breakup models. One of the key sets of parameters used in these models is the physical dimensions of the fragments (i.e., length, average-cross sectional area, and volume). For the DebriSat project, only fragments with at least one dimension greater than 2 mm are collected and processed. Additionally, a significant portion of the fragments recovered from the impact test are needle-like and/or flat plate-like fragments where their heights are almost negligible in comparison to their other dimensions. As a result, two fragment size categories were defined: 2D objects and 3D objects. While measurement systems are commercially available, factors such as measurement rates, system adaptability, size characterization limitations and equipment costs presented significant challenges to the project and a decision was made to develop our own size characterization systems. The size characterization systems consist of two automated image systems, one referred to as the 3D imaging system and the other as the 2D imaging system. Which imaging system to use depends on the classification of the fragment being measured. Both imaging systems utilize point-and-shoot cameras for object image acquisition and create representative point clouds of the fragments. The 3D imaging system utilizes a space-carving algorithm to generate a 3D point cloud, while the 2D imaging system utilizes an edge detection algorithm to generate a 2D point cloud. From the point clouds, the three largest orthogonal dimensions are determined using a convex hull algorithm. For 3D objects, in addition to the three largest orthogonal dimensions, the volume is computed via an alpha-shape algorithm applied to the point clouds. The average cross-sectional area is also computed for 3D objects. Both imaging systems have automated size measurements (image acquisition and image processing) driven by the need to quickly and accurately measure tens of thousands of debris fragments. Moreover, the automated size measurement reduces potential fragment damage/mishandling and ability for accuracy and repeatability. As the fragment characterization progressed, it became evident that the imaging systems had to be revised. For example, an additional view was added to the 2D imaging system to capture the height of the 2D object. This paper presents the DebriSat project's imaging systems and calculation techniques in detail; from design and development to maturation. The experiences and challenges are also shared.

Shiotani, B.↗
DOE OSTI2016

High-temperature asymptotics of supersymmetric partition functions

We study the supersymmetric partition function of 4d supersymmetric gauge theories with a U(1) R-symmetry on Euclidean S 3 × S β 1 , with S 3 the unit-radius squashed three-sphere, and β the circumference of the circle. For superconformal theories, this partition function coincides (up to a Casimir energy factor) with the 4d superconformal index. The partition function can be computed exactly using the supersymmetric localization of the gauge theory path-integral. It takes the form of an elliptic hypergeometric integral, which may be viewed as a matrix-integral over the moduli space of the holonomies of the gauge fields around S β 1 . At high temperatures (β → 0, corresponding to the hyperbolic limit of the elliptic hypergeometric integral) we obtain from the matrix-integral a quantum effective potential for the holonomies. The effective potential is proportional to the temperature. Therefore the high-temperature limit further localizes the matrix-integral to the locus of the minima of the potential. If the effective potential is positive semi-definite, the leading high-temperature asymptotics of the partition function is given by the formula of Di Pietro and Komargodski, and the subleading asymptotics is connected to the Coulomb branch dynamics on R 3 × S 1 . In theories where the effective potential is not positive semi-definite, the Di Pietro-Komargodski formula needs to be modified. In particular, this modification occurs in the SU(2) theory of Intriligator-Seiberg-Shenker, and the SO(N) theory of Brodie-Cho-Intriligator, both believed to exhibit “misleading” anomaly matchings, and both believed to yield interacting superconformal field theories with c < a. Lastly, two new simple tests for dualities between 4d supersymmetric gauge theories emerge as byproducts of our analysis.

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗