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An iridium interfacial stack ("IrIS") and a method for producing the same are provided. The IrIS may include ordered layers of TaSi.sub.2, platinum, iridium, and platinum, and may be placed on top of a titanium layer and a silicon carbide layer. The IrIS may prevent, reduce, or mitigate against diffusion of elements such as oxygen, platinum, and gold through at least some of its layers.
The high-resolution capabilities of the Interface Region Imaging Spectrometer (IRIS) mission have allowed the exploration of the finer details of the solar magnetic structure from the chromosphere to the lower corona that have previously been unresolved. Of particular interest to us are the relatively short-lived, low-lying magnetic loops that have foot points in neighboring moss regions. These inter-moss loops have also appeared in several AIA pass bands, which are generally associated with temperatures that are at least an order of magnitude higher than that of the Si IV emission seen in the 1400 angstrom pass band of IRIS. While the emission lines seen in these pass bands can be associated with a range of temperatures, the simultaneous appearance of these loops in IRIS 1400 and AIA 171, 193, and 211 suggest that they are not in ionization equilibrium. To study these structures in detail, we have developed a series of algorithms to automatically detect signal brightening or events on a pixel-by-pixel basis and group them together as structures for each of the above data sets. These algorithms have successfully picked out all activity fitting certain adjustable criteria. The resulting groups of events are then statistically analyzed to determine which characteristics can be used to distinguish the inter-moss loops from all other structures. While a few characteristic histograms reveal that manually selected inter-moss loops lie outside the norm, a combination of several characteristics will need to be used to determine the statistical likelihood that a group of events be categorized automatically as a loop of interest. The goal of this project is to be able to automatically pick out inter-moss loops from an entire data set and calculate the characteristics that have previously been determined manually, such as length, intensity, and lifetime. We will discuss the algorithms, preliminary results, and current progress of automatic characterization.
Several key design upgrades have been recently made to the Iris Deep-Space Transponder baselined to be used on secondary payload missions of the upcoming Space Launch System Exploration Mission One (SLS EM-1). The Iris Transponder is a reconfigurable software-defined radio (SDR) designed for missions requiring interoperability with NASA's Deep Space Network (DSN) on X-band frequencies (7.2 GHz uplink, 8.4 GHz downlink). The transponder provides radiometric tracking support with the DSN to provide navigational products for precise orbit determination while performing standard uplink and downlink communications in a CubeSat/SmallSat-applicable package size. The recent hardware changes include a volume reduction of 30% from previous models, with the main transponder unit weighing less than 1.0 kg, while maintaining total ionizing dose (TID) radiation tolerance of >23 krads (Si) for deep-space missions. Lab tests indicate maximum downlink rates of up to 6.25 Msps can be supported by the transponder in conventional BPSK modulation, but most SLS EM-1 CubeSat missions are link-performance limited to less than 256 kbps. A prototype unit of the flight production units has been assembled and various performance and characterization tests are underway. This talk discusses the key design aspects and specifications of the Iris Transponder and presents preliminary results from early testing of the assembled transponder.
In the second year, the IRIS team developed the components necessary for successful offline deployment of the IRIS services. This includes custom automated speech recognition training on NASA audio data, and in-house development and integration of online and offline conversational services. Lastly, the team worked on integrating the IRIS technology with stakeholders and projects that have a strong need for voice interaction.
This issue of Advances in Space Research presents a selection of papers that document the progress in developing and improving the International Reference Ionosphere (IRI), a widely used standard for the parameters that describe the Earths ionosphere. The core set of papers was presented during the 2010 General Assembly of the Committee on Space Research in Bremen, Germany in a session that focused on the representation of the auroral and polar ionosphere in the IRI model. In addition, papers were solicited and submitted from the scientific community in a general call for appropriate papers.
Performance portability is becoming crucial as high-performance computing systems become increasingly heterogeneous. We have many options for CPUs and accelerators (e.g., GPUs) but also for non-Von Neumann architectures such as field-programmable gate arrays. This paper presents the CHARM-SYCL unified programming environment for multiple accelerator types as a performance-portable programming environment. It uses the IRIS library developed at Oak Ridge National Laboratory as the back end accelerator runtime. IRIS has a high-performance scheduler to distribute tasks across accelerators. This design allows us to run an application from the same source on multiple systems with multiple configurations. We provide three types of portability with CHARM-SYCL: Portable Workflow, Compiler and Runtime Portability, and Application and Performance Portability. We implement a Monte Carlo simulation benchmark code on the CHARM-SYCL execution environment and demonstrate that our programming environment can accommodate extremely heterogeneous systems.
Vendor libraries are tuned for a specific architecture and are not portable to others. Moreover, they lack support for heterogeneity and multi-device orchestration, which is required for efficient use of contemporary HPC and cloud resources. To address these challenges, we introduce MatRIS—a multilevel math library abstraction for scalable and performance-portable sparse/dense BLAS/LAPACK operations using IRIS runtime. The MatRIS-IRIS co-design introduces three levels of abstraction to make the implementation completely architecture agnostic and provide highly productive programming. We demonstrate that MatRIS is portable without any change in source code and can fully utilize multi-device heterogeneous systems by achieving high performance and scalability on Summit, Frontier, and a CADES cloud node equipped with four NVIDIA A100 GPUs and four AMD MI100 GPUs. A detailed performance study is presented in which MatRIS demonstrates multi-device scalability. When compared, MatRIS provides competitive and even better performance than libraries from vendors and other third parties.
Exploratory studies with Nimbus-3 infrared interferometer-spectrometer (IRIS) data indicate that, in addition to temperature, such meteorological parameters as geopotential heights of pressure surfaces, tropopause pressure, and tropopause temperature can be inferred from the observed spectra with the use of simple regression equations. The technique of screening the IRIS spectral data by means of stepwise regression to obtain the best radiation predictors of meteorological parameters is validated. The simplicity of application of the technique and the simplicity of the derived linear regression equations - which contain only a few terms - suggest usefulness for this approach. Based upon the results obtained, suggestions are made for further development and exploitation of the stepwise regression analysis technique.
Spectra from the satellite instrument IRIS (infra red interferometer spectrometer) were examined to find the number of independent variables needed to describe these broadband high spectral resolution data. The radiated power in the atmospheric window from 771 to 981/cm was the first parameter chosen for fitting observed spectra. At succeeding levels of analysis the residual variability (observed spectrum - best fit spectrum) in an ensemble of observations was partioned into spectral eigenvectors. The eigenvector describing the largest fraction of this variability was examined for a strong spectral signature; the power in the corresponding spectral band was then used as the next fitting parameter. The measured power in nine spectral intervals, when inserted in the spectral fitting functions, was adequate to describe most spectra to within the noise level of IRIS. Considerations of relative signal strength and scales of atmospheric variability suggest a combination sounder (multichannel-broad field of view) scanner (window channel-small field of view) as an efficient observing instrument.
Spectra from the satellite instrument Iris (infrared interferometer spectrometer) were examined to find the number of independent variables needed to describe the broad-band high-resolution spectral data. The radiated power in the atmospheric window from 771 to 981 per cm was the first parameter chosen for fitting observed spectra. At succeeding levels of analysis, the residual variability (observed spectrum minus best-fit spectrum) in an ensemble of observations was partitioned into spectral eigenvectors. The eigenvector describing the largest fraction of this variability was examined for a strong spectral signature; the power in the corresponding spectral band was then used as the next fitting parameter. The measured power in nine spectral intervals, when it was inserted in the spectral-fitting functions, was adequate to describe most spectra to within the noise level of Iris. Considerations of relative signal strength and scales of atmospheric variability suggest a combination sounder (multichannel, broad field of view) scanner (window channel, small field of view) as an efficient observing instrument.
A sensor system for the direct detection of extrasolar planets from an Earth orbit is evaluated: a spinning, infrared interferometer (IRIS). It is shuttle deployed, free flying, requires no on-orbit assembly and no reservicing over a design life of five years. The sensor concept and the mission objectives are reviewed, and the performance characteristics of a baseline sensor for standard observation conditions are derived. A baseline sensor design is given and the enabling technology discussed. Cost and weight estimates are performed; and a schedule for an IRIS program including technology development and assessment of risk are given. Finally, the sensor is compared with the apodized visual telescope sensor (APOTS) proposed for the same mission. The major conclusions are: that with moderate to strong technology advances, particularly in the fields of long life cryogenics, dynamical control, mirror manufacturing, and optical alignment, the detection of a Jupiter like planet around a Sunlike star at a distance of 30 light years is feasible, with a 3 meter aperture and an observation time of 1 hour. By contrast, major and possibly unlikely breakthroughs in mirror technology are required for APOTS to match this performance.
Preliminary results of an analysis of the ortho state/para state ratio (parallel/antiparallel) for molecular H2 in the Jovian atmosphere using Voyager IR spectrometer (IRIS) data are reported. The study was undertaken to expand the understanding of the thermodynamics of a predominantly H2 atmosphere, which takes about 100 million sec to reach equilibrium. IRIS data provided 4.3/cm resolution in the 300-700/cm spectral range dominated by H2 lines. Approximately 600 spectra were examined to detect any disequilibrium between the hydrogen species. The results indicate that the ortho-para ratio is not in an equilibrium state in the upper Jovian troposphere. A thorough mapping of the para-state molecules in the upper atmosphere could therefore aid in mapping the atmospheric flowfield.
Since the first edition of IRI in 1978, considerable efforts have been directed towards an improved and refined electron temperature description. Finally, a new empirical model was presented at the COSPAR meeting at Graz, Austria, in 1984 (Bilitza et al.). Based mainly on satellite data it highlights a more detailed diurnal, seasonal, and altitudinal variation. The implementation of this model into the IRI framework is described. A first comparison with incoherent scatter measurements indicates the improved diurnal and seasonal performance of the model.
The site for the International Research on the Interior of the Sun (IRIS) instrument housed at the Wilcox Solar Observatory at Stanford University (near San Francisco, USA) is described together with the instrument operation procedure. The IRIS instrument, which measures global oscillations of the sun, operates continuously every clear day since it was installed in August 1987.
Empirical formulas are fitted to existing theoretical absorption spectra of H2-H2 pairs in the far-infrared allowing the inclusion of dimer absorption, parameterized with the height dependence of the para-hydrogen profile, in the calculations. Comparison between synthetic and Voyager IRIS spectra shows that once the dimer absorption is included it is now possible to reproduce the hydrogen portion of the IRIS spectrum to within the precision of the measurements.
The tropospheric abundances of NH3 and PH3 in Jupiter's Great Red Spot (GRS) are presently determined on the basis of a group of Voyager IRIS spectra, and compared with those of the surrounding South Tropical Zone (STZ) obtained from another two groups of IRIS spectra, in order to characterize the GRS's chemistry and dynamics. Although the GRS is believed to be a region of strong vertical transport, NH3 depletion is surprisingly found to occur below the tropopause within the GRS. Since one of the STZ's selections has a temperature-pressure profile similar to that of the GRS below the 300 mbar level, condensation cannot explain the low NH3 abundance in the GRS.
We report 13-cm wavelength radar observations of the main-belt asteroids 7 Iris, 9 Metis, 12 Victoria, 216 Kleopatra, and 654 Zelinda obtained at Arecibo between 1980 and 1989. The echoes are highly polarized yet broadly distributed in Doppler frequency, indicating that our targets are smooth on decimeter scales but very rough on some scale(s) larger than about I m. The echo spectra are generally consistent with existing size, shape, and spin information based on radiometric, lightcurve, and occultation data. All of our targets possess distinctive radar signatures that reveal large- scale topography. Reflectivity spikes within narrow ranges of rotation phase suggest large flat regions on Iris, Metis, and Zelinda, while bimodal spectra imply nonconvex, possibly bifurcated shapes for Kleopatra and Victoria. Kleopatra has the highest radar albedo yet measured for a main-belt asteroid, indicating a high metal concentration and making Kleopatra the best main-belt candidate for a core remnant of a differentiated and subsequently disrupted parent body. Upon completion of the Arecibo telescope upgrade, there will be several opportunities per year to resolve main-belt asteroids with hundreds of delay-Doppler cells, which can be inverted to provide estimates of both three-dimensional shape and radar scattering properties.
Small spurious features are present in data from the Mariner 9 Infrared Interferometer Spectrometer (IRIS). These represent a low amplitude replication of the spectrum with a doubled wavenumber scale. This replication arises principally from an internal reflection of the interferogram at the input window. An algorithm is provided to correct for the effect, which is at the 2% level. We believe that the small error in the uncorrected spectra does not materially affect previous results; however, it may be significant for some future studies at short wavelengths. The IRIS spectra are also affected by a coding error in the original calibration that results in only positive radiances. This reduces the effectiveness of averaging spectra to improve the signal to noise ratio at small signal levels.