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Development of a Global Reference Surface Reflectance and BRDF Datasets from Geostationary Satellite Observations and AERONET Measurements

Surface reflectances and their dependency on illumination-view geometries (i.e., BRDF) are the foundation of many high-level satellite products for land and water monitoring. Yet it is difficult to evaluate the quality of satellite-based surface reflectances with ground-based measurements due to the spatial scale differences. In order to fill the gap, here we develop a reference dataset of surface reflectance and BRDF at the global AERONET sites with data streams from operational geostationary sensors including Himawari 8/9 AHI, GK-2A AMI, and GOES 16/17 ABI. Taking the top-of-atmosphere (TOA) reflectance and the site measured atmospheric aerosol optical depth (AOD) as the main inputs, we apply the GeoNEX-AC algorithm to performance accurate atmospheric correction and derive 10-minute surface reflectance and daily Ross-Thick-Li-Sparse (RTLS) BRDF parameters at AERONET sites where coincident AOD measurements and TOA observations are available from 2016 (for Himawari) or 2018 (for GOES) onwards. The algorithm ensures that the retrieved surface BRDF parameters, along with the site-measured AOD, allow the atmospheric radiative transfer model, SHARM, accurately simulate the observed TOA reflectance at diurnal and longer time scales. They are our best estimates of the surface optical properties and thus can serve as the “reference” to evaluate the performance of operational atmospheric correction algorithms (where AOD is assumed unknown and needs to be retrieved). The reference BRDF also allow us to evaluate the spectral band ratios between the SWIR (e.g., 2200 nm) and the visible (e.g., 650 nm) regions, which are commonly used in operational atmospheric correction algorithms. Finally, we demonstrate that the reference dataset can be used to develop potential data synergies between different GEO satellites as well as GEO-LEO sensors.

Weile Wang↗
NASA NTRS1998

Multiple GISS AGCM Hindcasts and MSU Versions of 1979-1998

Multiple realizations of the 1979-1998 time period have been simulated by the Goddard Institute for Space Studies Atmospheric General Circulation Model (GISS AGCM) to explore its responsiveness to accumulated forcings, particularly over sensitive agricultural regions. A microwave radiative transfer postprocessor has produced the AGCM's lower tropospheric, tropospheric and lower stratospheric brightness temperature (Tb) time series for correlations with the various Microwave Sounding Unit (MSU) time series available. MSU maps of monthly means and anomalies were also used to assess the AGCM's mean annual cycle and regional variability. Seven realizations by the AGCM were forced by observed sea surface temperatures (sst) through 1992 to gather rough standard deviations associated with internal model variability. Subsequent runs hindcast January 1979 through April 1998 with an accumulation of forcings: observed ssts, greenhouse gases, stratospheric volcanic aerosols. stratospheric and tropospheric ozone and tropospheric sulfate and black carbon aerosols. The goal of narrowing gaps between AGCM and MSU time series was complicated by MSU time series, by Tb simulation concerns and by unforced climatic variability in the AGCM and in the real world. Lower stratospheric Tb correlations between the AGCM and MSU for 1979-1998 reached as high as 0.91 +/-0.16 globally with sst, greenhouse gases, volcanic aerosol, stratospheric ozone forcings and tropospheric aerosols. Mid-tropospheric Tb correlations reached as high as 0.66 +/-.04 globally and 0.84 +/-.02 in the tropics. Oceanic lower tropospheric Tb correlations similarly reached 0.61 +/-.06 globally and 0.79 +/-.02 in the tropics. Of the sensitive agricultural areas considered, Nordeste in northeastern Brazil was simulated best with mid-tropospheric Tb correlations up to 0.75 +/- .03. The two other agricultural regions, in Africa and in the northern mid-latitudes, suffered from higher levels of non-sst variability. Zimbabwe had a maximum mid-tropospheric correlation of 0.54 +/- 0.11 while the U.S. Cornbelt had only 0.25 +/- .10. Precipitation and surface temperature performance are also examined over these regions. Correlations of MSU and AGCM time series mostly improved with addition of explicit atmospheric forcings in zonal bands but not in agricultural regional bins each encompassing only six AGCM gridcells.

Shah, Kathryn Pierce↗
NASA NTRS2006

Assessment of Bulk Absorber Properties for Multi-Layer Perforates in Porous Honeycomb Liners

CONTINUING progress in materials technology provides potential for improved acoustic liners for attenuating broadband fan noise emissions from aircraft engine nacelles. Conventional liners (local-reacting perforate-over-honeycomb structures) provide significant narrow-band attenuation, but limited attenuation over wide bandwidths. Two approaches for increasing attenuation bandwidth are to (1) replace the honeycomb structure with bulk material, or (2) cascade multiple layers of perforate/honeycomb structures. Usage of the first approach is limited because of mechanical and maintenance reasons, while multi-layer liners are limited to about three layers because of their additional mechanical complexity, depth and weight. The current research concerns a novel approach reported by the University of Cincinnati, in which a single-layer conventional liner is converted into an extended-reaction, broadband absorber by making the honeycomb core structure porous. This modified single-layer liner requires no increase in depth and weight, and minimal increase in mechanical complexity. Langley has initiated research to identify potential benefits of liner structures with porous cell walls. This research has two complementary goals: (1) develop and validate experimental techniques for treating multi-layer perforates (representative of the internal cells of a liner with porous cell walls) as 1-D bulk materials, and (2) develop analytical approaches to validate this bulk material assumption. If successful, the resultant model can then be used to design optimized porous honeycomb liners. The feasibility of treating an N-layer perforate system (N porous plates separated by uniform air gaps) as a one-dimensional bulk absorber is assessed using the Two-Thickness Method (TTM), which is commonly used to educe bulk material intrinsic acoustic parameters. Tests are conducted with discrete tone and random noise sources, over an SPL range sufficient to determine the nonlinearity of the test specimens, for test specimens consisting of 5, 10 and 15% porous plates. Measured impedances for two liner thicknesses (e.g., 12 and 24 layers) are used as input to the TTM to determine the characteristic impedance and propagation constant that characterize these liners as bulk absorbers. These parameters are then used to calculate the predicted impedance of liners with different thicknesses (e.g., 36 layers), and a comparison of predicted and measured impedances for these other thicknesses is used to determine the efficacy of this approach. Finally, an independent method is used to educe the propagation constant for a single representative sample, and excellent comparison between the results for this method and those for the TTM provides increased confidence in the results achieved with the TTM. In general, the results demonstrate these multi-layer perforates can be acceptably treated as bulk absorbers.

Jones, Michael G.↗
NASA NTRS1999

Search for Pulsations from a Nearby Millisecond Pulsar and Wasilewski 49: Mirror for a Hidden Seyfert 1 Nucleus

Five studies are reported in this final report. The recently discovered 5.3 ms pulsar J1012+5307 at a distance of 520 pc is in an area of the sky which is particularly deficient in absorbing gas. The column density along the line of sight is less than 7.5 x 10(exp 19) CM(exp -2) which facilitates soft X-ray observations. Halpern reported a possible ROSAT Position Sensitive Proportional Counter (PSPC) detection of the pulsar in a serendipitous, off-axis observation. We have now confirmed the X-ray emission of PSR J1012+,5307 in a 23 ksec observation with the ROSAT High Resolution Imager (HRI). A point source is detected within 3" of the radio position. Its count rate of 1.6 +/- 0.3 x 10(exp -3) s(exp -1) corresponds to an unabsorbed 0. 1-2.4 keV flux of 6.4 x 10(exp -14) ergs cm(exp -2) s(exp -1), similar to that reported previously. This counts-to-flux conversion is valid for N(sub H) = 5 x 10(exp 19) cm(exp -2), and either a power-law spectrum of photon index 2.5 or a blackbody of kT = 0.1 keV. The implied X-ray luminosity of 2.0 x 10(exp 30) ergs s(exp -1) is 5 X 10(exp -4) of the pulsar's spin-down power dot-E, and similar to that of the nearest millisecond pulsar J0437-4715, which is nearly a twin of J1012+5307 in P dot-E. We subjected the 37 photons (and 13 background counts) within the source region to a pulsar search, but no evidence for pulsation was found. The pulsar apparently emits over a large fraction of its rotation cycle, and the absence of sharp modulation can be taken as evidence for surface thermal emission, as is favored for PSR J0437-4715, rather than magnetospheric X-ray emission which is apparent in the sharp pulses of the much more energetic millisecond pulsar B1821-24. A further test of this interpretation will be made with a longer ROSAT observation, which will increase the number of photons collected by a factor of 5, and permit a more sensitive examination of the light curve for modulation due to emission from heated polar caps. If found, such modulation will be further evidence that surface reheating by the impact of particles accelerated along open fiel;d lines operates in these approximately 10(exp -9) year old pulsars. In a second study, a new AM Her star serendipitously in a 25 day observation was detected with the EUVE satellite. A coherent period of 85.82 min is present in the EUVE Deep Survey imager light curve of this source. A spectroscopic optical identification is made with a 19th magnitude blue star that has H and He emission lines, and broad cyclotron humps typical of a magnetic cataclysmic variable. A lower limit to the polar magnetic field of 50 MG is estimated from the spacing of the cyclotron harmonics. EUVE J0425.6-5714 is also detected in archival ROSAT HRI observations spanning two months, and its stable and highly structured light curve permits us to fit a coherent ephemeris linking the ROSAT and EUVE data over a 1.3 yr gap. The derived period is 85.82107 +/- 0.00020 min, and the ephemeris should be accurate to 0.1 cycles until the year 2005. A narrow but partial X-ray eclipse suggests that this object belongs to the group of AM Her stars whose viewing geometry is such that the accretion stream periodically occults the soft X-ray emitting accretion spot on the surface of the white dwarf. A non-detection of hard X-rays from ASCA observations that are contemporaneous with the ROSAT HRI shows that the soft X-rays must dominate by at least an order of magnitude, which is consistent with a known trend among AM Her stars with large magnetic field. This object should not be confused with the Seyfert galaxy IH 0419-577 (= LB 1727), another X-ray/EUV source which lies only 3'95 away, and was the principal target of these monitoring observations. In a third report; the identity of the persistent high-energy (> 100 MeV) gamma-ray sources in the Galaxy, still largely a mystery is investigated. The second installment of the EGRET (2EG) lists a total of 128 sources, of which 51 are likely or possibly identified with AGNs, five with rotation-powered pulsars, and one is the LMC. There are 71 unidentified sources, of which 33, or almost half, lie in the narrow band of absolute value of b < 10 degrees along the Galactic plane. This excess of low-latitude sources must, therefore, constitute a Galactic population that is either similar to the already identified gamma-ray pulsars, or an entirely new class of gamma-ray emitters associated with the disk population. We are continuing our program, begun in A06, that is aimed at intermediate-latitude sources, arguing that X-ray detection of them is the most plausible method of identifying the Galactic population. The sources at high latitude must statistically be mostly AGNS, and are more straightforwardly identified through radio and optical means. For the fourth report, identification of the EGRET Source the identity of the persistent, high-energy gamma-ray sources in the Galactic plane is a mystery. The most likely scenario is a population of middle-aged pulsars, many of which could be radio quiet like Geminga. We have an ongoing program of ROSAT, VLA, and optical observations of selected EGRET error circles at intermediate Galactic latitude. For one of these fields, at (l, b) = (106 degrees, +3), our complete census of X-ray and radio sources, reveals a remarkable association between a radio shell with unique properties, and a complete census of X-ray and radio sources reveals a remarkable association between a radio shell with unique properties, and a compact X-ray source. Further observations are needed to determine whether or not this source has a hard X-ray spectrum like that of other gamma ray pulsars and, ideally, to find its pulsations. A fifth report reviews, Wasilewski 49, an interacting pair of Seyfert galaxies at z = 0.063, one of which contains a hidden Seyfert I nucleus as evidenced by broad wings on its Balmer lines.

Halpern, Jules P.↗
NASA NTRS1999

Exotic Molecules in Space: A Coordinated Astronomical Laboratory and Theoretical Study

The past three years have been a period of great progress in our laboratory investigation of molecules of astrophysical interest-the most productive by far in the 20-year history of a research program which has led to the discovery of over 20% of the 123 known interstellar and circumstellar molecules. Most of the discoveries made during this period have been the result of the construction in late 1995 and early 1996 of a Fourier transform microwave spectrometer working in the centimeter-wave band. The sensitivity of this instrument from the moment that it was turned on has exceeded our expectations by an order of magnitude. The Table below shows the 46 new molecules which have been discovered. Most are carbon chains, the dominant type of molecule which has been found in space. Several comments with respect to these molecules should be made: 1. There are probably no mistakes in any of the identifications, since these have been confirmed by the standard, powerful assays and tests used to check spectroscopic identifications: isotopic substitution, quantum calculations of the expected molecular structures, detection of hyperfine structure, Zeeman effect, etc. 2. The radio laboratory astrophysics of the entire set is complete for the time being, in the sense that essentially all the astronomically interesting radio transitions (including hfs when present) are either directly measured or can now be calculated from the derived spectroscopic constants to better than 1 part per million (or 0.3 km s-1 in radial velocity, and often much better than that). 3. Six of the forty six new molecules have already been identified in space, in every case but one on the basis of our laboratory measurements. 4. Sensitive as they are, our laboratory techniques are far from fundamental limits on sensitivity, and 5. One of the principal motivations of our research is to close the fairly small mass and size gap, now only a factor of a few, between the smallest postulated interstellar grains and the largest identified interstellar molecules.

Thaddeus, Patrick↗
NASA NTRS2010

Robust Optimization Design Algorithm for High-Frequency TWTs

Traveling-wave tubes (TWTs), such as the Ka-band (26-GHz) model recently developed for the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter, are essential as communication amplifiers in spacecraft for virtually all near- and deep-space missions. This innovation is a computational design algorithm that, for the first time, optimizes the efficiency and output power of a TWT while taking into account the effects of dimensional tolerance variations. Because they are primary power consumers and power generation is very expensive in space, much effort has been exerted over the last 30 years to increase the power efficiency of TWTs. However, at frequencies higher than about 60 GHz, efficiencies of TWTs are still quite low. A major reason is that at higher frequencies, dimensional tolerance variations from conventional micromachining techniques become relatively large with respect to the circuit dimensions. When this is the case, conventional design- optimization procedures, which ignore dimensional variations, provide inaccurate designs for which the actual amplifier performance substantially under-performs that of the design. Thus, this new, robust TWT optimization design algorithm was created to take account of and ameliorate the deleterious effects of dimensional variations and to increase efficiency, power, and yield of high-frequency TWTs. This design algorithm can help extend the use of TWTs into the terahertz frequency regime of 300-3000 GHz. Currently, these frequencies are under-utilized because of the lack of efficient amplifiers, thus this regime is known as the "terahertz gap." The development of an efficient terahertz TWT amplifier could enable breakthrough applications in space science molecular spectroscopy, remote sensing, nondestructive testing, high-resolution "through-the-wall" imaging, biomedical imaging, and detection of explosives and toxic biochemical agents.

Wilson, Jeffrey D.↗
NASA NTRS1994

Meso-beta scale numerical simulation studies of terrain-induced jet streak mass and momentum perturbations

An in-depth analysis of observed gravity waves and their relationship to precipitation bands over the Montana mesonetwork during the 11-12 July 1981 CCOPE case study indicated two episodes of coherent waves. While geostrophic adjustment, shearing instability, and terrain were all implicated separately or in combination as possible wave generation mechanisms, the lack of upper-air data within the wave genesis region made it difficult to define the genesis processes from observations alone. The first part of this paper, 3D Numerical Modeling Studies of Terrain-Induced Mass/Momentum Perturbations, employs a mesoscale numerical model to help diagnose the intricate early wave generation mechanisms during the first observed gravity wave episode. The meso-beta scale numerical model is used to study various simulations of the role of multiple geostrophic adjustment processes in focusing a region for gravity wave genesis. The second part of this paper, Linear Theory and Theoretical Modeling, investigates the response of non-resting rotating homogeneous and continuously stratified Boussinesq models of the terrestrial atmosphere to temporally impulsive and uniformly propagating three-dimensional localized zonal momentum sources representative of midlatitude jet streaks. The methods of linear perturbation theory applied to the potential vorticity (PV) and wave field equations are used to study the geostrophic adjustment dynamics. The total zonal and meridional wind perturbations are separated into geostrophic and ageostrophic components in order to define and follow the evolution of both the primary and secondary mesocirculations accompanying midlatitude jetogenesis forced by geostrophic adjustment processes. This problem is addressed to help fill the gap in understanding the dynamics and structure of mesoscale inertia-gravity waves forced by geostrophic adjustment processes in simple two-dimensional quiescent current systems and those produced by mesoscale numerical models simulating the orographic and diabatic perturbation of three-dimensional quasi-geostrophically balanced synoptic scale jet streaks associated with complex baroclinic severe storm producing environments.

Lin, Yuh-Lang↗
NASA NTRS1995

Soft x-ray properties of the binary millisecond pulsar J0437-4715

We obtained a light curve for the 5.75 ms pulsar J0437-4715 in the 65-120 A range with 0.5 ms time resolution using the Deep Survey instrument on the EUVE satellite. The single-peaked profile has a pulsed fraction of 0. 27 +/- 0.05, similar to the ROSAT data in the overlapping energy band. A combined analysis of the EUVE and ROSAT data is consistent with a power-law spectrum of energy index alpha = 1.2-1.5, intervening column density NH = (5-8) x 10(exp 19)/sq cm, and luminosity 5.0 x 10(exp 30) ergs/s in the 0.1-2. 4 keV band. We also use a bright EUVE/ROSAT source only 4.3 deg from the pulsar, the Seyfert galaxy RX J0437.4-4711 (= EUVE J0437-471 = lES 0435-472), to obtain an independent upper limit on the intervening absorption to the pulsar, NH less than 1.2 x 10(exp 20)/sq cm. Although a blackbody spectrum fails to fit the ROSAT data, two-component spectral fits to the combined EUVE/ROSAT data are used to limit the temperatures and surface areas of thermal emission that might make partial contributions to the flux. A hot polar cap of radius 50-600 m and temperature (1.0-3.3) x 10(exp 6) K could be present. Alternatively, a larger region with T = (4-12) x 10(exp 5) K and area less than 200 sq km, might contribute most of the EUVE and soft X-ray flux, but only if a hotter component were present as well. Any of these temperatures would require some mechanism(s) of surface reheating to be operating in this old pulsar, the most plausible being the impact of accelerated electrons and positrons onto the polar caps. The kinematically corrected spin-down power of PSR J0437-4715 is only 4 x 10(exp 33) ergs/s, which is an order of magnitude less than that of the lowest-luminosity gamma-ray pulsars Geminga and PSR B1055-52. The absence of high-energy gamma-rays from PSR J0437-4715 might signify an inefficient or dead outer gap accelerator, which in turn accounts for the lack of a more luminous reheated surface such as those intermediate-age gamma-ray pulsars may have.

Halpern, Jules P.↗
NASA NTRS2001

Soft X-Ray Properties of the Binary Millisecond Pulsar J0437-4715

We obtained a light curve for the 5.75 ms pulsar J0437-4715 in the 65-120 A range with 0.5 ms time resolution using the Deep Survey instrument on the EUVE satellite. The single-peaked profile has a pulsed fraction of 0.27 +/- 0.05, similar to the ROSAT data in the overlapping energy band. A combined analysis of the EUVE and ROSAT data is consistent with a power-law spectrum of energy index alpha = 1.2 - 1.5, intervening column density N(sub H) = (5 - 8) x 10(exp 19)/sq cm, and luminosity 5.0 x 10(exp 30) ergs/s in the 0.1 - 2.4 keV band. We also use a bright EUVE/ROSAT source only 4.2 min. from the pulsar, the Seyfert galaxy RX J0437.4-4711 (= EUVE J0437-471 = IES 0435-472), to obtain an independent upper limit on the intervening absorption to the pulsar, N(sub H) less than 1.2 x 10(exp 20)/sq cm. Although a blackbody spectrum fails to fit the ROSAT data, two-component spectral fits to the combined EUVE/ROSAT data are used to limit the temperatures and surface areas of thermal emission that might make partial contributions to the flux. A hot polar cap of radius 50 - 600 m and temperature (1.0 - 3.3) x 10(exp 6) K could be present. Alternatively, a larger region with T = (4 - 12) x 10(exp 5) K and area less than 200 sq km, might contribute most of the EUVE and soft X-ray flux, but only if a hotter component were present as well. Any of these temperatures would require some mechanism(s) of surface reheating to be operating in this old pulsar, the most plausible being the impact of accelerated electrons and positrons onto the polar caps. The kinematically corrected spin-down power of PSR J0437-4715 is only 4 x 10(exp 33) ergs/s, which is an order of magnitude less than that of the lowest-luminosity gamma-ray pulsars Geminga and PSR B1055-52. The absence of high-energy gamma-rays from PSR J0437-4715 might signify an inefficient or dead outer gap accelerator, which in turn accounts for the lack of a more luminous reheated surface such as those intermediate-age gamma-ray pulsars may have.

Halpern, Jules P.↗
NASA NTRS2019

Improving Satellite Global Chlorophyll a [alpha] Data Products Through Algorithm Refinement and Data Recovery

A recently developed algorithm to estimate surface ocean chlorophyll a concentrations (Chl in milligrams per cubic meter), namely, the ocean color index (OCI) algorithm, has been adopted by the U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration to apply to all satellite ocean color sensors to produce global Chl maps. The algorithm is a hybrid between a band‐difference color index algorithm for low‐Chl waters and the traditional band‐ratio algorithms (OCx) for higher‐Chl waters. In this study, the OCI algorithm is revisited for its algorithm coefficients and for its algorithm transition between color index and OCx using a merged data set of high‐performance liquid chromatography and fluorometric Chl. Results suggest that the new OCI algorithm (OCI2) leads to lower Chl estimates than the original OCI (OCI1) for Chl less than 0.05 milligrams per cubic meter, but smoother algorithm transition for Chl between 0.25 and 0.40 milligrams per cubic meter. Evaluation using in situ data suggests that similar to OCI1, OCI2 has significantly improved image quality and cross‐sensor consistency between SeaWiFS (Sea-viewing Wide Field-of-view Sensor), MODISA (Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer on Aqua), and VIIRS (Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite) over the OCx algorithms for oligotrophic oceans. Mean cross‐sensor difference in monthly Chl data products over global oligotrophic oceans reduced from approximately 10 percent for OCx to 1-2 percent for OCI2. More importantly, data statistics suggest that the current straylight masking scheme used to generate global Chl maps can be relaxed from 7 by 5 to 3 by 3 pixels without losing data quality in either Chl or spectral remote sensing reflectance (R (sub rs) by lambda (sensor wavelength), per steradian (sr (sup −1)) for not just oligotrophic oceans but also more productive waters. Such a relaxed masking scheme yields an average relative increase of 39 percent in data quantity for global oceans, thus making it possible to reduce data product uncertainties and fill data gaps.

Hu, Chuanmin↗
NASA NTRS2014

Ultra-Wideband, Dual-Polarized, Beam-Steering P-Band Array Antenna

A dual-polarized, wide-bandwidth (200 MHz for one polarization, 100 MHz for the orthogonal polarization) antenna array at P-band was designed to be driven by NASA's EcoSAR digital beam former. EcoSAR requires two wide P-band antenna arrays mounted on the wings of an aircraft, each capable of steering its main beam up to 35deg off-boresight, allowing the twin radar beams to be steered at angles to the flight path. The science requirements are mainly for dual-polarization capability and a wide bandwidth of operation of up to 200 MHz if possible, but at least 100 MHz with high polarization port isolation and low cross-polarization. The novel design geometry can be scaled with minor modifications up to about four times higher or down to about half the current design frequencies for any application requiring a dual-polarized, wide-bandwidth steerable antenna array. EcoSAR is an airborne interferometric P-band synthetic aperture radar (SAR) research application for studying two- and three-dimensional fine-scale measurements of terrestrial ecosystem structure and biomass, which will ultimately aid in the broader study of the carbon cycle and climate change. The two 2×8 element Pband antenna arrays required by the system will be separated by a baseline of about 25 m, allowing for interferometry measurements. The wide 100-to- 200-MHz bandwidth dual-polarized beams employed will allow the determination of the amount of biomass and even tree height on the ground. To reduce the size of the patches along the boresight dimension in order to fit them into the available space, two techniques were employed. One technique is to add slots along the edges of each patch where the main electric currents are expected to flow, and the other technique is to bend the central part of the patch away from the ground plane. The latter also facilitates higher mechanical rigidity. The high port isolation of more than 40 dB was achieved by employing a highly symmetrical feed mechanism for each pair of elements: three apertures coupling to the patch elements were placed along the two symmetry lines of the antenna element pair. Two apertures were used in tandem to excite two of the stacked patch elements for one polarization; the other was used to excite one element from one side and the other element from the other side, opposite in phase, taking care of the remaining polarization. The apertures narrow down to a small gap where they are excited by a crossing microstrip line to prevent any asymmetrical excitation of the two sides of the aperture gap, minimizing port-to-port coupling. Using patches that are non-planar leads to higher mechanical rigidity and smaller patch sizes to fit into the available space. Aperture coupling minimizes direct metal-to-metal connections. Using an aperture coupling feed mechanism results in a feed network for two antenna elements with a total of three feed points, plus one simple in-phase combiner to reduce it to two ports. It greatly reduces the complexity of the alternative, but more conventional, way of feeding a pair of two dual-polarized elements with high port isolation.

duToit, Cornelis↗
NASA NTRS2021

Quantifying Uncertainties in Nighttime Light Retrievals From Suomi-NPP and NOAA-20 VIIRS Day/Night Band Data

Satellite observations of nighttime lights (NTL) from Suomi-NPP and NOAA-20 VIIRS Day/Night Band data have been widely used to estimate human activities. Long-term changes such as urban development and abrupt short-term changes such as power outages have been monitored from temporal NTL acquired by satellites. While high temporal NTL variation has been found across NTL data of varying temporal scale (e.g., daily, monthly, and annual composites), the sources of measurement error and uncertainty are poorly understood. This paper quantifies the sources of VIIRS-derived NTL uncertainty due to view-illumination geometry, surface Bidirectional Reflectance Distribution Function (BRDF)/albedo, and the effects of snow cover, lunar irradiance, aerosol loading, cloud mask, vegetation, geometry, and ephemeral artifacts (e.g., the Aurora Borealis). Based on this current assessment of NASA Black Marble retrievals (VNP46, Collection V001), we found that angular and atmospheric effects dominate retrieval uncertainty. Errors introduced by upstream data inputs (e.g., a coarser nighttime snow cover flag and misclassification errors in the existing VIIRS nighttime cloud mask) were also found to impact retrieval quality. Despite these challenges, a consistent daily NTL time series record can be routinely generated from top-of-atmosphere VNP46 radiances. Key recommendations include: (1) the use of lunar-BRDF adjusted and atmospherically corrected NTL (i.e., as identified as high-quality retrievals in the VNP46 QA fields), (2) development and improvement to the VIIRS snow cover and cloud masks algorithms to accurately reflect NTL retrieval conditions, (3) characterizing seasonal variations in NTL due to vegetation and snow, (4) reducing geometric effects due to the spatial mismatch of gridded pixel and observation footprint, (5) employing angularly-consistent NTL observations from multiple VIIRS instruments (i.e., Suomi-NPP and NOAA-20) to reduce pixel-based uncertainties and address persistent data gaps, and (6) being mindful of surface-reflected radiance from aurora events at mid-to-high latitudes.

Zhuosen Wang↗
NASA NTRS2003

Progress Toward a Compact 0.05 K Magnet Refrigerator Operating from 10 K

Much of the most interesting information regarding our universe is hidden in the sub-millimeter, infrared, and x-rays bands of the spectrum, to which our atmosphere is largely opaque. Thus, missions exploring these bands are a very important part of NASA s Space Science program. Coincidentally, the most sensitive detectors in these spectral regions operate at extremely low temperatures, typically 0.05 - 0.10 K. Generally these temperatures will be achieved using magnetic refrigerators, also know as Adiabatic Demagnetization Refrigerators, or ADRs. Current ADRs, such as the one used in the XRS-II instrument on the Astro-E2 satellite, use a single-stage to cool detectors from 1.3 K to 0.06 K. The ADR is designed so that it can absorb the heat on the detector stage for at least 24 hours before it must stop, warm up to the helium bath temperature (1.3 K), and dump the accumulated heat. Future detector arrays will be much larger and will have higher heat dissipation. Furthermore, future missions will use mechanical cryocoolers to provide upper stage cooling, but they can only reach 4 - 10 K. Trying to scale heavy (-15 kg) single stage ADRs up to the higher heat loads and higher heat rejection temperatures required leads to unacceptably large systems. The GSFC Cryogenics Branch has developed the Continuous ADR (CADR) to solve this problem. The CADR consists of a series of ADR stages that sequentially pass heat from the load up to the high temperature heat sink. The stage connected to the load remains at a constant temperature. The continuous stage effectively decouples detector operation from ADR operation, allowing the ADR stages to be cycled much more rapidly. Rapid cycling leads to higher cooling power density. The cascading, multistage arrangement allows the magnetic refrigerant of each stage to be optimized for its own temperature swing. In the past year, we have made good progress toward a 0.05 to 10K system. A four-stage system that operates from 4.2 K was demonstrated. Magnetic shielding was added to eliminate inter-stage coupling. Improvements were made to superconducting and passive gas-gap heat switches. A second type of passive gas gap switch, one meant for use at higher temperature, was demonstrated. The presentation will focus primarily on these recent design improvements, and on the challenges that remain on the progress toward a system that will operate from 10 K or higher.

Canavan, Edgar↗
NASA NTRS1997

SS 433: Total Coverage of 162-Day Precession Phase in Four Years

The observations prior to AO-4 covered a number of precession phases, leaving a gap at phase 0.8. In addition, ASCA and previous observations of SS 433 did not observe the spectrum above approx. 10 keV, and consequently the continuum underlying the spectral lines was poorly constrained. Therefore RXTE observations were scheduled for April 1997 to extend the observed spectrum to higher energies; these observations were planned to sample the X-ray lightcurve during the 13.08 day binary period, concentrating on the eclipse of the compact object which emits the jets. We proposed and were awarded ASCA observations simultaneous with the RXTE observations; the purpose of the ASCA observations was to provide greater spectral resolution at the low end of the spectrum observed by RXTE, and to complete the phase coverage of SS 433. As a result of scheduling difficulties early in the mission the RXTE observations were confined to a much shorter time range than originally planned, April 18-91 1997. Optical observations of SS 433 were performed at a number of observatories. The ASCA observations occurred from April 18 13:10 (UT) to April 21 13:20 (UT) for a total effective exposure of 120 ks. The continuum X-ray light curve shows that the ASCA observations started shortly before the ingress into the X-ray partial eclipse, and ended approximately at the time of the egress. Light curves were also obtained for the prominent Fe emission lines in the blue-shifted frame (approaching jet), red-shifted frame (receding jet), and the stationary frame (fluorescent line from the ambient matter). Through the eclipse mapping technique using the light curves, the parameters of the jet emission model were constrained, showing that the kinetic power in the jet exceeds 104? erg s-l. If the energy source is gravitational accretion, as is commonly believed, the derived l;inetic power implies extremely supercritical accretion even for a black; hole with 10M. These results will be described more fully in a major presentation of all the ASCA observations of SS 433.

Band, David L.↗
NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Validation of Remotely Sensed and Modeled Soil Moisture at Forested and Unforested Sites

Soil moisture is an important driver for forest ecosystems, influencing fire occurrence and extent, insect and pathogen impacts, and tree growth, which creates a need for regular, globally extensive soil moisture information that only satellite-based sensors or models can achieve. However, the reliability of soil moisture measurements in forests is not well understood due to a lack of suitable validation sites (especially relative to unforested ecosystems) and interference caused by high vegetation water content on remotely sensed measurements; although recent studies have started to address this gap [1], [2], [3], [4]. Here we validate the performance of multiyear remotely sensed (SMAP/Sentinel), remotely sensed data assimilation modelled (SMAP-L4), and modelled (NLDAS) surface and root zone (0-1 m) soil moisture datasets with data from in-situ sensors at 39 National Ecological Observatory Network (NEON) sites throughout the contiguous US. Due to differences in spatial resolution, NEON soil moisture (~0.2 km measurement zone) correlations were expected to be stronger with the SMAP/Sentinel product (3 km resolution) than with coarser resolution SMAP-L4 (9 km resolution) or NLDAS products (13 km resolution). However, given the sensitivity of satellite measurements to vegetation water content we expected a deterioration in the correlations based on remotely sensed measurements (SMAP/Sentinel and SMAP-L4) as aboveground biomass increased, whereas the model-based data (NLDAS) was expected to be largely insensitive to vegetation type. We recognize that the SMAP/Sentinel product was developed for unforested regions, therefore our application is outside its primary use case. Soil moisture is measured at up to 8 depths in five soil plots spaced up to 40 m apart at each NEON terrestrial site. Correlation parameters were calculated for the three remotely sensed and modelled data products relative to in-situ measurement following Entekhabi et al. [5]. The datasets comprised 94 (SMAP-L4), 28 (SMAP/Sentinel), and 106 (NLDAS) sites-years for surface soils and 13 (SMAP-L4) and 14 (NLDAS) site-years for the root zone. At unforested sites, the performance of the three remotely sensed and modelled data products was similar for surface soils (Table 1). For example, unbiased RMSD (ubRMSD), which SMAP uses as its primary performance metric [6], ranged from 0.05 to 0.06 m3 m-3 (Table 1), indicating the ability of all three products to track changes in soil moisture over time. The performance of the three products deteriorated at forested sites, however, while the difference in performance was modest for SMAP-L4 and NLDAS, the deterioration in SMAP/Sentinel performance was substantial. For instance, SMAP/Sentinel ubRMSD increased from 0.06 to 0.11 m3 m-3 and absolute mean difference (Abs MD; which includes measurement bias and spatial representativeness errors) increased from 0.06 to 0.16 m3 m-3, indicating both a reduction in ability to track temporal changes and absolute amounts of soil moisture in forest ecosystems. SMAP-L4 and NLDAS had lower unbiased RMSD for root zone (0-1 m) than surface soils at both forested and unforested sites (Tables 1 and 2; SMAP/Sentinel does not produce a root zone measurement). However, in most cases the correlation coefficient (r) was lower for the root zone than surface soils, suggesting the lower unbiased RMSD may be attributed to greater temporal stability of soil moisture in the root zone rather than improved data product performance. Mean difference and absolute mean difference, which encompass measurement bias and spatial representativeness errors, were greater for root zone than surface soils at unforested sites for both data products, but the opposite was generally true at forested sites. As with surface soils, there was relatively little change in the performance of SMAP-L4 and NLDAS between the unforested and forested sites. In summary, all three data products were able to adequately represent soil moisture at unforested sites, at least when aggregating across sites. However, while the performance of all three products deteriorated at forested sites, SMAP-L4 and NLDAS maintained sufficient performance to remain suitable for some use cases (ubRMSD <0.06 m3 m-3 and RMSD <0.13 m3 m-3). In contrast, the relatively poorer performance of the SMAP/Sentinel product at forested sites seems insufficient for most use cases (ubRMSD >0.1 m3 m-3 and RMSD >0.2 m3 m-3). We attribute the large reduction in the performance of the SMAP/Sentinel product in forests to its use of C-band wavelengths, which are particularly sensitive to vegetation interference, and apparently outweighed any gains provided by its higher spatial resolution. A combined SMAP/NISAR soil moisture product may provide improved performance relative to SMAP/Sentinel due to NISAR’s use of L-band wavelengths, which are less sensitive to vegetation (NISAR is scheduled for launch in early 2024).

Edward Ayres↗