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NASA NTRS2000

Team Training and Retention of Skills Acquired Above Real Time Training on a Flight Simulator

Above Real-Time Training (ARTT) is the training acquired on a real time simulator when it is modified to present events at a faster pace than normal. The experiments related to training of pilots performed by NASA engineers (Kolf in 1973, Hoey in 1976) and others (Guckenberger, Crane and their associates in the nineties) have shown that in comparison with the real time training (RTT), ARTT provides the following benefits: increased rate of skill acquisition, reduced simulator and aircraft training time, and more effective training for emergency procedures. Two sets of experiments have been performed; they are reported in professional conferences and the respective papers are included in this report. The retention of effects of ARTT has been studied in the first set of experiments and the use of ARTT as top-off training has been examined in the second set of experiments. In ARTT, the pace of events was 1.5 times the pace in RTT. In both sets of experiments, university students were trained to perform an aerial gunnery task. The training unit was equipped with a joystick and a throttle. The student acted as a nose gunner in a hypothetical two place attack aircraft. The flight simulation software was installed on a Universal Distributed Interactive Simulator platform supplied by ECC International of Orlando, Florida. In the first set of experiments, two training programs RTT or ART7 were used. Students were then tested in real time on more demanding scenarios: either immediately after training or two days later. The effects of ARTT did not decrease over a two day retention interval and ARTT was more time efficient than real time training. Therefore, equal test performance could be achieved with less clock-time spent in the simulator. In the second set of experiments three training programs RTT or ARTT or RARTT, were used. In RTT, students received 36 minutes of real time training. In ARTT, students received 36 minutes of above real time training. In RARTT, students received 18 minutes of real time training and 18 minutes of above real time training as top-off training. Students were then tested in real time on more demanding scenarios. The use of ARTT as top-off training after RTT offered better training than RTT alone or ARTT alone. It is, however, suggested that a similar experiment be conducted on a relatively more complex task with a larger sample of participants. Within the proposed duration of the research effort, the setting up of experiments and trial runs on using ARTT for team training were also scheduled but they could not be accomplished due to extra ordinary challenges faced in developing the required software configuration. Team training is, however, scheduled in a future study sponsored by NASA at Tuskegee University.

Ali, Syed Friasat↗

NASA NTRS2006

Imagine Moving Off the Planet

Moving off the planet will be a defining moment of this century as landing on the Moon was in the last. For that to happen for humans to go where humans cannot go-- simulation is the sole solution. NASA supports simulation for life-cycle activities: design, analysis, test, checkout, operations, review and training. We contemplate time spans of a century and more, teams dispersed to different planets and the need for systems that endure or adapt as missions, teams and technology change. Without imagination such goals are impossible. But with imagination we can go outside our present perception of reality to think about and take action on what has been, is and, especially, what might be. Consciously maturing an imagined, possibly workable, idea through framing it to optimization to design, and building the product provides us with a new approach to innovation and simulation fidelity. We address options, analyze, test and make improvements in how we think and work. Each step includes increasingly exact information about costs, schedule, who will be needed, where, when and how. NASA i integrating such thinking into its Exploration Product Realization Hierarchy for simulation and analysis, test and verification, and stimulus response goals. Technically NASA follows a timeline of studies, analysis, definition, design, development and operations with concurrent documentation. We have matched this Product Realization Hierarchy with a continuum from image to realization that incorporates commitment, current and needed research and communication to ensure superior and creative problem solving as well as advances in simulation. One result is a new approach to collaborative systems. Another is a distributed observer network prototyped using game engine technology bringing advanced 3-D simulation of a simulation to the desktop enabling people to develop shared consensus of its meaning. Much of the value of simulation comes from developing in people their ability to make good decisions and reflexes supporting impressive achievement. Synthesizing imagination systematically into our work - and thus our success - is a challenge. NASA engineers have inventive minds, and the task is determining how best to enable them to devise the simulation and other innovations that will make a story so clear and so intellectually sound that people can carry out the mission for 50-100 years. This demands skills and knowledge traditionally under-respected and under-represented in technology organizations. But we are beginning to see that the process encourages efficiency and enables us to attain more effective results. We have to elicit imaginative, intelligent and effective ways to make better use than ever of the minds we have and will have available. We have to accept the challenge to accomplish tasks among dispersed interdisciplinary teams who must overcome changing priorities and technology, time and distance in order to maximize interactivity and innovation as never before. Attention to the process of innovation is a practical means to increase the efficiency of our intelligence. We have an obligation to reexamine and improve the process by which we approach and exercise innovation as we accept the charge to move off the planet.

Elfrey, Priscilla R.↗

NASA NTRS1992

Determination of soil moisture distribution from impedance and gravimetric measurements

Daily measurements of the soil dielectric properties at 5 and 10 cm were obtained at five locations throughout the First ISLSCP Field Experiment (FIFE) test site during the 1987 intensive field campaigns (IFCs). An automated vector voltmeter was used to monitor the complex electrical impedance, at 10 MHz, of cylindrical volumes of soil delineated by specially designed soil moisture probes buried at these locations. The objective of this exercise was to test the hypothesis that the soil impedance is sensitive to the moisture content of the soil and that the imaginary part (that is, capacitive reactance) can be used to calculate the volumetric water content of the soil. These measurements were compared with gravimetric samples collected at these locations by the FIFE staff science team.

Ungar, Stephen G.↗

NASA NTRS2000

BOREAS TE-1 Soils Data Over The SSA Tower Sites in Raster Format

The BOREAS TE-1 team collected various data to characterize the soil-plant systems in the BOREAS SSA. This data set was gridded from vector layers of soil maps that were received from Dr. Darwin Anderson (TE-1), who did the original soil mapping in the field during 1994. The vector layers were gridded into raster files that cover approximately 1 square kilometer over each of the tower sites in the SSA. The data files are available on a CD-ROM (see document number 20010000884), or from the Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) Distributed Active Archive Center (DAAC).

Hall, Forrest G.↗

NASA NTRS2001

The Standard Autonomous File Server, a Customized, Off-the-Shelf Success Story

The Standard Autonomous File Server (SAFS), which includes both off-the-shelf hardware and software, uses an improved automated file transfer process to provide a quicker, more reliable, prioritized file distribution for customers of near real-time data without interfering with the assets involved in the acquisition and processing of the data. It operates as a stand-alone solution, monitoring itself, and providing an automated fail-over process to enhance reliability. This paper will describe the unique problems and lessons learned both during the COTS selection and integration into SAFS, and the system's first year of operation in support of NASA's satellite ground network. COTS was the key factor in allowing the two-person development team to deploy systems in less than a year, meeting the required launch schedule. The SAFS system his been so successful, it is becoming a NASA standard resource, leading to its nomination for NASA's Software or the Year Award in 1999.

Semancik, Susan K.↗

NASA NTRS2001

Living With a Star, the Geospace Mission Definition Team and Aeronomy

To gain an understanding of the Sun-Earth system, including how and why the sun varies, how the earth responds, and the impacts on humanity, research is needed that has a integrated and systematic approach. The Living With a Star (LWS) program represents an important element in this regard both to continued progress in space science in general and in Aeronomy in particular. A fundamental question in Aeronomy is how the variable sun affects the ionosphere, thermosphere, and mesosphere. The LWS program focuses on those areas of scientific understanding that promote progress in areas that have human impact and can be investigated with space borne instruments. The Geospace Mission Definition Team is charged with investigating the science priorities identified by the LWS Science Architecture Team and developing an approach to making the necessary measurements in concert with other missions and programs. An important aspect of this approach is that all LWS measurement programs are operating simultaneously for several years. We will review some of the areas that the LWS SAT have emphasized in Aeronomy, including understanding the effects of solar variability on ionospheric density and irregularities, the effects of solar variability on the mass density of the atmosphere at LEO altitudes, and the effects of solar variability on near-surface temperatures and on ozone distribution.

Kintner, Paul M., Jr.↗

NASA NTRS2004

Discoveries about Tropospheric Ozone Pollution from Satellite and Soundings

We have been producing near-red time tropospheric ozone satellite maps from the TOMS (Total Ozone Mapping Spectrometer) sensor since 1997. Maps for 1996-2000 for the operational Earth-Probe instrument are at: . Pollution in the tropics is influenced by biomass burning and by transport patterns that favor recirculation and in other cases reflect climate variability like the El-Nino-Southern Oscillation [Thompson et al., 2001]. The satellite view of chemical-dynamical interactions in tropospheric ozone is not adequate to capture vertical gradients in pollution. Thus, in 1998, NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center and a team of international sponsors established the SHADOZ (Southern Hemisphere ADditional OZonesondes) project to address the gap in tropical ozone soundings. SHADOZ augments launches and provides a public archive of ozonesonde data from twelve tropical stations at http://croc.gsfc.nasa.gov/shadoz. Further insights into the role of chemical and dynamical influences have emerged from the first 4-5 years of SHADOZ data (more than 2000 ozone profiles). Highly variable tropospheric ozone and a zonal wave-one pattern in tropospheric ozone suggest that dynamics is as important as pollution in determining tropical ozone distributions.

Thompson, Anne M.↗

NASA NTRS1998

X-33 Environmental Impact Statement: A Fast Track Approach

NASA is required by the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) to prepare an appropriate level environmental analysis for its major projects. Development of the X-33 Technology Demonstrator and its associated flight test program required an environmental impact statement (EIS) under the NEPA. The EIS process is consists of four parts: the "Notice of Intent" to prepare an EIS and scoping; the draft EIS which is distributed for review and comment; the final ETS; and the "Record of Decision." Completion of this process normally takes from 2 - 3 years, depending on the complexity of the proposed action. Many of the agency's newest fast track, technology demonstration programs require NEPA documentation, but cannot sustain the lengthy time requirement between program concept development to implementation. Marshall Space Flight Center, in cooperation with Kennedy Space Center, accomplished the NEPA process for the X-33 Program in 13 months from Notice of Intent to Record of Decision. In addition, the environmental team implemented an extensive public involvement process, conducting a total of 23 public meetings for scoping and draft EIS comment along with numerous informal meetings with public officials, civic organizations, and Native American Indians. This paper will discuss the fast track approach used to successfully accomplish the NEPA process for X-33 on time.

McCaleb, Rebecca C.↗

NASA NTRS2000

Ocean Data from MODIS at the NASA Goddard DAAC

Terra satellite carrying the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) was successfully launched on December 18, 1999. Some of the 36 different wavelengths that MODIS samples have never before been measured from space. New ocean data products, which have not been derived on a global scale before, are made available for research to the scientific community. For example, MODIS uses a new split window in the four-micron region for the better measurement of Sea Surface Temperature (SST), and provides the unprecedented ability (683 nm band) to measure chlorophyll fluorescence. At full ocean production, more than a thousand different ocean products in three major categories (ocean color, sea surface temperature, and ocean primary production) are archived at the NASA Goddard Earth Sciences (GES) Distributed Active Archive Center (DAAC) at the rate of approx. 230GB/day. The challenge is to distribute such large volumes of data to the ocean community. It is achieved through a combination of public and restricted EOS Data Gateways, the GES DAAC Search and Order WWW interface, and an FTP site that contains samples of MODIS data. A new Search and Order WWW interface at http://acdisx.gsfc.nasa.gov/data/ developed at the GES DAAC is based on a hierarchical organization of data, will always return non-zero results. It has a very convenient geographical representation of five-minute data granule coverage for each day MODIS Data Support Team (MDST) continues the tradition of quality support at the GES DAAC for the ocean color data from the Coastal Zone Color Scanner (CZCS) and the Sea Viewing Wide Field-of-View Sensor (SeaWiFS) by providing expert assistance to users in accessing data products, information on visualization tools, documentation for data products and formats (Hierarchical Data Format-Earth Observing System (HDF-EOS)), information on the scientific content of products and metadata. Visit the MDST website at http://daac.gsfc.nasa.gov/CAMPAIGN DOCS/MODIS/index.html

Leptoukh, Gregory G.↗

NASA NTRS2000

BOREAS TE-20 Soils Data Over the NSA-MSA and Tower Sites in Raster Format

The BOREAS TE-20 team collected several data sets for use in developing and testing models of forest ecosystem dynamics. This data set was gridded from vector layers of soil maps that were received from Dr. Hugo Veldhuis, who did the original mapping in the field during 1994. The vector layers were gridded into raster files that cover the NSA-MSA and tower sites. The data are stored in binary, image format files. The data files are available on a CD-ROM (see document number 20010000884), or from the Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) Distributed Active Center (DAAC).

Hall, Forrest G.↗

NASA NTRS2000

BOREAS AFM-5 Level-2 Upper Air Network Standard Pressure Level Data

The BOREAS AFM-5 team collected and processed data from the numerous radiosonde flights during the project. The goals of the AFM-05 team were to provide large-scale definition of the atmosphere by supplementing the existing AES aerological network, both temporally and spatially. This data set includes basic upper-air parameters interpolated at 0.5 kiloPascal increments of atmospheric pressure from data collected from the network of upper-air stations during the 1993, 1994, and 1996 field campaigns over the entire study region. The data are contained in tabular ASCII files. The data files are available on a CD-ROM (see document number 20010000884) or from the Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) Distributed Active Archive Center (DAAC).

Barr, Alan↗

NASA NTRS2000

BOREAS TE-21 Daily Surface Meteorological Data

The Boreal Ecosystem-Atmospheric Study (BOREAS) TE-21 (Terrestrial Ecology) team collected data sets in support of its efforts to characterize and interpret information on the meteorology of boreal forest areas. Daily meteorological data were derived from half-hourly BOREAS tower flux (TF) and Automatic Meteorological Station (AMS) mesonet measurements collected in the Southern and Northern Study Areas (SSA and NSA) for the period of 01 Jan 1994 until 31 Dec 1994. The data were stored in tabular ASCII files. The data files are available on a CD-ROM (see document number 20010000884), or from the Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) Distributed Active Archive Center (DAAC).

Kimball, John↗

NASA NTRS2003

The Mars Underground Mole (MUM): A Subsurface Penetration Device with Infrared Reflectance and Raman Spectroscopic Sensing Capability

Searching for evidence of life on Mars will probably require access to the subsurface. The Martian surface is bathed in ultraviolet radiation which decomposes organic compounds, destroying possible evidence for life. Also, experiments performed by the Viking Landers imply the presence of several strongly oxidizing compounds at the Martian surface that may also play a role in destroying organic compounds near the surface. While liquid water is unstable on the Martian surface, and ice is unstable at the surface at low latitudes, recent results from the Mars Odyssey Gamma Ray Spectrometer experiment indicate that water ice is widely distributed near the surface under a thin cover of dry soil. Organic compounds created by an ancient Martian biosphere might be preserved in such ice-rich layers. Furthermore, accessing the subsurface provides a way to identify unique stratigraphy such as small-scale layering associated with lacustrine sediments. Subsurface access might also provide new insights into the Mars climate record that may be preserved in the Polar Layered Deposits. Recognizing the importance of accessing the subsurface of Mars to the future scientific exploration of the planet, the Mars Surveyor 2007 Science Definition Team called for drilling beneath the surface soils. Subsurface measurements are also cited as high priority in by MEPAG. Recognizing the importance of accessing the Martian subsurface to search for life, the European Space Agency has incorporated a small automated burrowing device called a subsurface penetrometer or Mole onto the Beagle 2 lander planned for 2003 launch. This device, called the Planetary Underground Tool (PLUTO), is a pointed slender cylinder 2 cm wide and 28 cm long equipped with a small sampling device at the pointed end that collects samples and brings them to the surface for analysis. Drawing on the PLUTO design, we are developing a larger Mole carrying sensors for identifying mineralogy, organic compounds, and water.

Stoker, C. R.↗

NASA NTRS1978

Waterway Ice Thickness Measurements

The ship on the opposite page is a U. S. Steel Corporation tanker cruising through the ice-covered waters of the Great Lakes in the dead of winter. The ship's crew is able to navigate safely by plotting courses through open water or thin ice, a technique made possible by a multi-agency technology demonstration program in which NASA is a leading participant. Traditionally, the Great Lakes-St. Lawrence Seaway System is closed to shipping for more than three months of winter season because of ice blockage, particularly fluctuations in the thickness and location of ice cover due to storms, wind, currents and variable temperatures. Shippers have long sought a system of navigation that would allow year-round operation on the Lakes and produce enormous economic and fuel conservation benefits. Interrupted operations require that industrial firms stockpile materials to carry them through the impassable months, which is costly. Alternatively, they must haul cargos by more expensive overland transportation. Studies estimate the economic benefits of year-round Great Lakes shipping in the hundreds of millions of dollars annually and fuel consumption savings in the tens of millions of gallons. Under Project Icewarn, NASA, the U.S. Coast Guard and the National Oceanic Atmospheric Administration collaborated in development and demonstration of a system that permits safe year-round operations. It employs airborne radars, satellite communications relay and facsimile transmission to provide shippers and ships' masters up-to-date ice charts. Lewis Research Center contributed an accurate methods of measuring ice thickness by means of a special "short-pulse" type of radar. In a three-year demonstration program, Coast Guard aircraft equipped with Side-Looking Airborne Radar (SLAR) flew over the Great Lakes three or four times a week. The SLAR, which can penetrate clouds, provided large area readings of the type and distribution of ice cover. The information was supplemented by short-pulse radar measurements of ice thickness. The radar data was relayed by a NOAA satellite to a ground station where NOAA analyzed it and created picture maps, such as the one shown at lower left, showing where icebreakers can cut paths easily or where shipping can move through thin ice without the aid of icebreakers. The ice charts were then relayed directly to the wheelhouses of ships operating on the Lakes. Following up the success of the Great Lakes program, the icewarn team applied its system in another demonstration, this one a similarly successful application designed to aid Arctic coast shipping along the Alaskan North Slope. Further improvement of the ice-monitoring system is planned. Although aircraft-mounted radar is effective, satellites could provide more frequent data. After the launch this year of Seasat, an ocean-monitoring satellite, NASA will conduct tests to determine the ice-mapping capability and accuracy of satellite radar images.

Source record↗

NASA NTRS2011

An Integrated Hydrological and Water Management Study of the Entire Nile River System - Lake Victoria to Nile Delta

The Nile basin River system spans 3 million km(exp 2) distributed over ten nations. The eight upstream riparian nations, Ethiopia, Eretria, Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi, Congo, Tanzania and Kenya are the source of approximately 86% of the water inputs to the Nile, while the two downstream riparian countries Sudan and Egypt, presently rely on the river's flow for most of the their needs. Both climate and agriculture contribute to the complicated nature of Nile River management: precipitation in the headwaters regions of Ethiopia and Lake Victoria is variable on a seasonal and inter-annual basis, while demand for irrigation water in the arid downstream region is consistently high. The Nile is, perhaps, one of the most difficult trans-boundary water issue in the world, and this study would be the first initiative to combine NASA satellite observations with the hydrologic models study the overall water balance in a to comprehensive manner. The cornerstone application of NASA's Earth Science Research Results under this project are the NASA Land Data Assimilation System (LDAS) and the USDA Atmosphere-land Exchange Inverse (ALEXI) model. These two complementary research results are methodologically independent methods for using NASA observations to support water resource analysis in data poor regions. Where an LDAS uses multiple sources of satellite data to inform prognostic simulations of hydrological process, ALEXI diagnoses evapotranspiration and water stress on the basis of thermal infrared satellite imagery. Specifically, this work integrates NASA Land Data Assimilation systems into the water management decision support systems that member countries of the Nile Basin Initiative (NBI) and Regional Center for Mapping of Resources for Development (RCMRD, located in Nairobi, Kenya) use in water resource analysis, agricultural planning, and acute drought response to support sustainable development of Nile Basin water resources. The project is motivated by the recognition that accurate, frequent, and spatially distributed estimates of the water balance are necessary for effective water management. This creates a challenge for watersheds that are large, include data poor regions, and/or span multiple nations. All of these descriptors apply to the Nile River basin, yet successful management of the Nile is critical for development and political stability in the region. For this reason, improved hydrological data to support cooperative water management in the Nile basin is a priority for USAID, the US State Department, the World Bank and other international organizations. In this project, the U.S. based research team is working with partners at RCMRD, Nile Basin Initiative (NBI), and their member national-level agencies to develop satellite-based land cover maps, satellite-derived evapotranspiration estimates (using the ALEXI algorithm), and NASA's Land Data Assimilation System (LDAS) customized to match identified information needs. The cornerstone applied sciences product of the project is the development of a customized "Nile LDAS" that will produce optimal estimates of hydrological states and fluxes, as vetted against the in situ observations of NBI and RCMRD member organizations and independent satellite-derived hydrological estimates. Nile LDAS will be applied to improve the reliability of emerging Decision Support Systems in applications that include drought monitoring, reservoir management, and irrigation planning. The end-users such as RCMRD, NBI, Ethiopian and Kenya Meteorological and Famine Early Warning System Network (FEWSNet) will be the eventual benefactors of this work. There will be a capacity building process involving the above end-user organizations and transfer the models and the results for these organizations to execute for future use. The team has already initiated this study and the early results of first years' work are shown. The plan is to complete this work by late 2013.

Habib, Shahid↗

NASA NTRS2000

BOREAS HYD-3 Tree Measurements

The BOREAS HYD-3 team collected several data sets related to the hydrology of forested areas. This data set contains measurements of canopy density (closure), stem density, and DBH from a variety of sites. Canopy density measurements were made during the FFC-W and FFC-T 1994 in both the SSA and the NSA. Stem density measurements were made during FFC-W 1996 in the SSA only. Canopy density measurements were made using a forest densiometer, while measurements of stem density and DBH were made using standard techniques. This study was undertaken to predict spatial distributions of energy transfer, snow properties important to the hydrology, remote sensing signatures, and transmissivity of gases through the snow and their relation to forests in boreal ecosystems. The data are available in tabular ASCII files. The data files are available on a CD-ROM (see document number 20010000884) or from the Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) Distributed Active Archive Center (DAAC).

Hardy, Janet P.↗

NASA NTRS2000

BOREAS TE-20 Soils Data Over the NSA-MSA and Tower Sites in Vector Format

The BOREAS TE-20 team collected several data sets for use in developing and testing models of forest ecosystem dynamics. This data set contains vector layers of soil maps that were received from Dr. Hugo Veldhuis, who did the original mapping in the field during 1994. The vector layers were converted to ARCANFO EXPORT files. These data cover 1-kilometer diameters around each of the NSA tower sites, and another layer covers the NSA-MSA. The data files are available on a CD-ROM (see document number 20010000884), or from the Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) Distributed Active Center (DAAC).

Hall, Forrest G.↗

NASA NTRS2000

BOREAS TE-4 Branch Bag Data From Boreal Tree Species

The BOREAS TE-4 team collected continuous records of gas exchange under ambient conditions from intact boreal forest trees in the BOREAS NSA from 23-Jul-1996 until 14-Aug-1996. These measurements can be used to test models of photosynthesis, stomatal conductance, and leaf respiration, such as SiB2 (Sellers et al., 1996) or the leaf model (Collatz et al., 1991), and programs can be obtained from the investigators. The data are stored in tabular ASCII files. The data files are available on a CD-ROM (see document number 20010000884), or from the Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) Distributed Active Archive Center (DAAC).

Hall, Forrest G.↗