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At least 73 records · Page 4

Visualization Software for VisIT Java Client

The VisIT Java Client (JVC) library is a lightweight thin client that is designed and written purely in the native language of Java (the Python & JavaScript versions of the library use the same concept) and communicates with any new unmodified standalone version of VisIT, a high performance computing parallel visualization toolkit, over traditional or web sockets and dynamically determines capabilities of the running VisIT instance whether local or remote.

Billings, JayJay↗

Visualization Software for VisIT Java Client

The VisIT Java Client (JVC) library is a lightweight thin client that is designed and written purely in the native language of Java (the Python & JavaScript versions of the library use the same concept) and communicates with any new unmodified standalone version of VisIT, a high performance computing parallel visualization toolkit, over traditional or web sockets and dynamically determines capabilities of the running VisIT instance whether local or remote.

Billings, Jay Jay↗

Modular Finite Element Methods

MFEM is a free, lightweight, scalable C++ library for finite element methods. The goal of MFEM is to enable research and development of scalable finite element discretization and solver algorithms through general finite element abstractions, accurate and flexible visualization, and tight integration with the hypre library. Conceptually, MFEM can be viewed as a finite element toolbox that provides the building blocks for developing finite element algorithms in a manner similar to that of MATLAB for linear algebra methods.

ECP↗

A Robust and Scalable Software Library for Parallel Adaptive Refinement on Unstructured Meshes

The design and implementation of Pyramid, a software library for performing parallel adaptive mesh refinement (PAMR) on unstructured meshes, is described. This software library can be easily used in a variety of unstructured parallel computational applications, including parallel finite element, parallel finite volume, and parallel visualization applications using triangular or tetrahedral meshes. The library contains a suite of well-designed and efficiently implemented modules that perform operations in a typical PAMR process. Among these are mesh quality control during successive parallel adaptive refinement (typically guided by a local-error estimator), parallel load-balancing, and parallel mesh partitioning using the ParMeTiS partitioner. The Pyramid library is implemented in Fortran 90 with an interface to the Message-Passing Interface (MPI) library, supporting code efficiency, modularity, and portability. An EM waveguide filter application, adaptively refined using the Pyramid library, is illustrated.

Lou, John Z.↗

Demonstrating SolarPILOT’s Python API Through Heliostat Optimal Aimpoint Strategy Use Case

SolarPILOT is a software package that generates solar field layouts and characterizes the optical performance of concentrating solar power (CSP) tower systems. SolarPILOT was developed by the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) as a stand-alone desktop application but has also been incorporated into NREL’s1 System Advisor Model (SAM) in a simplified format. Prior means for user interaction with SolarPILOT have included the application’s graphical interface, the SAM routines with limited configurability, and through a built-in scripting language called “LK.” This paper presents a new, full-featured, Python-based application programmable interface (API) for SolarPILOT, which we hereafter refer to as CoPylot. CoPylot provides access to all SolarPILOT’s capabilities to generate and characterize power tower CSP systems seamlessly through Python. Supported capabilities include (i) creating and destroying a model instance with message reporting tools; (ii) accessing and setting any SolarPILOT variable including custom land boundaries for field layouts; (iii) programmatically managing receiver and heliostat objects with varied attributes for systems with multiple receiver or heliostat types; (iv) generating, assigning, and modifying solar field layouts including the ability to set individual heliostat locations, aimpoints, soiling rates, and reflectivity levels; (v) simulating solar field performance; (vi) returning detailed results describing performance of individual heliostats, the aggregate field, and receiver flux distribution; and, (vii) exporting Python-based model instances to multiple file formats. CoPylot enables Python users to perform detailed CSP tower analysis utilizing either the Hermite expansion technique (analytical) or the SolTrace ray-tracing engine. In addition to CoPylot’s functionality, Python users have access to the over 100,000 open-source libraries to develop, analyze, optimize, and visualize power tower CSP research. This enables CSP researchers to perform analysis that was previously not possible through SolarPILOT’s existing interfaces. This paper discusses the capabilities of CoPylot and presents a use case wherein we demonstrate optimal solar field aiming strategies.

41 EE - Solar Energy Technologies Office (EE-4S)↗

Unsaturated and Saturated Hydraulic Parameters of Soils at the East River Watershed, Colorado Calculated using the Pedotransfer Function Method.

The purpose of the data package is to present the results of calculations of the following unsaturated-saturated hydraulic parameters of soils of the East River Watershed, Colorado: fully saturated water content (Qs), residual saturation (Qr), van genuchten parameters alpha and n, field capacity (FC), and saturated hydraulic conductivity (Ks). Calculations were conducted for the following soil texture types: sandy_loam, loam, silty_clay_loam, clay_loam, silt loam; the particle size distribution included the percentage of sand, silt, clay, and the bulk density (BD) of soils. Calculations were conducted for the following areas- Lower_Subalpine (6 samples),- Lower_Montane_lower_hillslope (7 samples),- Floodplain_at_base_of_lower_montane_hillslope, (11 samples),- PLM-0 (10 samples),- PLM-1 (10 samples), and - PLM-3 (13 samples)Calculations were conducted using the Pedotransfer Function Method developed by Tóth et al. (2014) with the application of the code ”euptf” in Rstudio. The data are being summarized in the Excel file ”Unsaturated_Saturated_Hydraulic_Parameters_PTF_calculated_EASt_EIver.xls" including two worksheets:“full_data_EAST_RIVER” which includes (a) the input data used for calculations, the soil texture triangle, and the plots of the water retention curves and unsaturated hydraulic conductivity for several types of soil texture, and (b) the summary table with the averaged parameters for each area. The the texture triangle was plotted using the Rstudio "soiltexture." Microsoft Excel software is required to open the Excel file. The metadata and a list of references to the Rstudio libraries used for calculations and data visualization are giving in the Word Readme file.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗

Scalable Analysis Methods and In Situ Infrastructure for Extreme Scale Knowledge Discovery

High performance computers have for many years been on a trajectory that gives them extraordinary compute power with the addition of more and more compute cores. At the same time, other system parameters such as the amount of memory per core and bandwidth to storage have remained constant or have barely increased. This creates an imbalance in the computer, giving it the ability to compute a lot of data that it cannot reasonably save out due to time and storage constraints. While technologies have been invented to mitigate this problem (burst buffers, etc.), software has been adapting to employ in situ libraries which perform data analysis and visualization on simulation data while it is still resident in memory. This avoids the need to ever have to pay the costs of writing many terabytes of data files. Instead, in situ enables the creation of more concentrated data products such as statistics, plots, and data extracts, which are all far smaller than the full-sized volume data. With the increasing popularity of in situ, multiple in situ infrastructures have been created, each with its own mechanism for integrating with a simulation. To make it easier to instrument a simulation with multiple in situ infrastructures and include custom analysis algorithms, this project created the SENSEI framework.

97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING↗

Integrated Computational System for Aerodynamic Steering and Visualization

In February of 1994, an effort from the Fluid Dynamics and Information Sciences Divisions at NASA Ames Research Center with McDonnel Douglas Aerospace Company and Stanford University was initiated to develop, demonstrate, validate and disseminate automated software for numerical aerodynamic simulation. The goal of the initiative was to develop a tri-discipline approach encompassing CFD, Intelligent Systems, and Automated Flow Feature Recognition to improve the utility of CFD in the design cycle. This approach would then be represented through an intelligent computational system which could accept an engineer's definition of a problem and construct an optimal and reliable CFD solution. Stanford University's role focused on developing technologies that advance visualization capabilities for analysis of CFD data, extract specific flow features useful for the design process, and compare CFD data with experimental data. During the years 1995-1997, Stanford University focused on developing techniques in the area of tensor visualization and flow feature extraction. Software libraries were created enabling feature extraction and exploration of tensor fields. As a proof of concept, a prototype system called the Integrated Computational System (ICS) was developed to demonstrate CFD design cycle. The current research effort focuses on finding a quantitative comparison of general vector fields based on topological features. Since the method relies on topological information, grid matching and vector alignment is not needed in the comparison. This is often a problem with many data comparison techniques. In addition, since only topology based information is stored and compared for each field, there is a significant compression of information that enables large databases to be quickly searched. This report will (1) briefly review the technologies developed during 1995-1997 (2) describe current technologies in the area of comparison techniques, (4) describe the theory of our new method researched during the grant year (5) summarize a few of the results and finally (6) discuss work within the last 6 months that are direct extensions from the grant.

Hesselink, Lambertus↗

Demonstrating SolarPILOT's Python API Through Heliostat Optimal Aimpoint Strategy Use Case: Preprint

SolarPILOT is a software package that generates heliostat field layouts and characterizes the optical performance of concentrating solar power (CSP) tower systems. SolarPILOT was developed by the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) as a stand-alone desktop application but has also been incorporated into NREL's System Advisor Model (SAM) in a simplified format. Prior means for user interaction with SolarPILOT have included the application's graphical interface, the SAM routines with limited configurability, and through a built-in scripting language called "LK." This paper presents a new, full-featured Python-based application programmable interface (API) for SolarPILOT, which we hereafter refer to as CoPylot. CoPylot provides access to all SolarPILOT's capabilities to generate and characterize power tower CSP systems seamlessly through Python. Supported capabilities include (i) creating and destroying a model instances with message reporting tools; (ii) accessing and setting any SolarPILOT variable including custom land boundaries for field layout; (iii) programmatically managing receiver and heliostat objects with varied attributes for systems with multiple receiver or heliostat types; (iv) generating, assigning, and modifying heliostat field layouts including the ability to set individual heliostat locations, aimpoints, soiling rates, and reflectivity levels; (v) simulating heliostat field performance; (vi) returning detailed results describing performance of individual heliostats, the aggregate field, and receiver flux; and, (vii) exporting Python-based model instances to multiple file formats. CoPylot enables Python users to perform detailed tower CSP analysis utilizing either the Hermite expansion technique (analytical) or the SolTrace ray-tracing engine. In addition to CoPylot's functionality, Python users have access to the over 100,000 open-source libraries to develop, analyze, optimize, and visualize CSP tower research.

41 EE - Solar Energy Technologies Office (EE-4S)↗

On Development of Three-Dimensional Visualization Capabilities in Glenn Research Center Communication Analysis Suite

With NASA’s upcoming mission to return to the Moon sustainably by 2024 and using that success as a means to step onto the barren world of Mars, it remains more important than ever to conduct research and planning as thoroughly and efficiently as possible. In a mission as complex as landing humans onto another celestial body, a network of orbiting satellites and ground stations must accurately and reliably communicate with each other, enabling crucial data communications throughout the mission. Visualizing this important data communication increases the understanding of the data and can accelerate analyses efforts. The purpose of this software development is to create an interactive visualization with data taken MATLAB® scripts in the GRC Communication Analysis Suite that is easy to understand, can show all necessary data, and display the data accurately. The main types of data to visualize are from the State Propagation, Line of Sight and Dynamic Link Margin scripts. These all show positions and orbits of satellites and ground stations, while the Line of Sight data shows when they have the ability to communicate with each other based on their respective antenna positions and fields of view. Additionally, the Dynamic Link Margin mode color-codes the communication link performance onto the Line of Sight access lines. Visualization requires a graphics language that is easily accessible, has the needed features, and able to easily read data produced by the GRC Communication Analysis Suite MATLAB® scripts. ThreeJS, a graphics library for Web Graphics Library, coded in JavaScript was selected for the visualization. The next part of the software development was to move the data from MATLAB® to the JavaScript. The best way to accomplish this was to implement a MATLAB® function converting the output data of the scripts to a JavaScript Object Notation file. A key part of the development was creating the visualization within JavaScript and ThreeJS to visualize any combination of planets, moons, orbits, satellites, ground stations, line of sight links, and handle future features without changing major parts of the code. The current visualization capability runs directly from MATLAB®, and can dynamically create any scene. This software development currently supports the lunar communications analysis underway by NASA, and can be easily expanded upon in the future to aid any analysis requirements to help plan current and future space missions.

Visualization↗

Dimensionally Aligned Signal Projection Algorithms Library

Dimensionally aligned signal projection (DASP) algorithms are used to analyze fast Fourier transforms (FFTs) and generate visualizations that help focus on the harmonics for specific signals. At a high level, these algorithms extract the FFT segments around each harmonic frequency center, and then align them in equally sized arrays ordered by increasing distance from the base frequency. This allows for a focused view of the harmonic frequencies, which, among other use cases, can enable machine learning algorithms to more easily identify salient patterns. This work seeks to provide an effective open-source implementation of the DASP algorithms proposed by Vann et al. (2018) as well as functionality to help explore and test how these algorithms work with an interactive dashboard and signal-generation tool. The DASP library is implemented in Python and contains four types of algorithms for implementing these feature engineering techniques: fixed harmonically aligned signal projection (HASP), decimating HASP, interpolating HASP, and frequency aligned signal projection (FASP). Each algorithm returns a numerical array, which can be visualized as an image. The HASP algorithms are variations of the algorithms originally presented by Vann et al. (2018). For consistency, FASP, which is the terminology used for the short-time Fourier transform (STFT), has been implemented as part of the library to provide a similar interface to the STFT of the raw signal. Additionally, the library contains an algorithm to generate artificial signals with basic customizations such as the base frequency, sample rate, duration, number of harmonics, noise, and number of signals. Finally, the library provides multiple interactive visualizations, each of which is implemented using IPyWidgets and works in a Jupyter environment. A dashboard-style visualization is provided, which contains some common signal-processing visual components (signal, FFT, spectogram) updating in unison with the HASP functions (see Figure 1 below). Separate from the dashboard, an independent visualization is provided for each of the DASP algorithms as well as for the artifical signal generator. These visualizations are included in the library to aid in developing an intuitive understanding how the algorithms are affected by different input signals and parameter selections.

harmonics↗

GCAS Visualization Codebase Augmentation Migration to Modern Standards and Feature Enhancements

The Glenn Research Center Communication Analysis Suite (GCAS) includes many analysis tools that can be used to support a wide range of scenarios. It includes a visualization tool that implements the three.js graphics library to display a three-dimensional (3D) representation of its results. This software will enable researchers, engineers, and mission planners to interact intuitively with and understand the results of their analyses, which might not be apparent from raw data. With NASA’s efforts to return humans to the Moon as a part of the Artemis missions, the GCAS has been used extensively for lunar terrain and landing system development analysis, which is vital to ensuring mission achievability and safety. This has created the need to add several significant features to the visualization tool, such as the ability to display the terrain of the lunar surface accurately and to provide information demonstrating how a given region might impact mission objectives. Many of the changes made to the visualization tool can be separated into one of three general advancements: code restructuring to adhere to modern coding standards and practices, new user camera controls for first-person and third-person perspective views, and a terrain generation feature to enable rendering highly accurate terrains based on any celestial body’s digital elevation model (DEM) in GeoTIFF format. These improvements notably elevate the visualization tool's functionality, accuracy, and user interaction while providing a robust foundation for future development.

Visualization↗

Structure- and Physics-Preserving Reductions of Power Grid Models

The large size of multiscale, distribution and transmission, power grids hinders fast systemwide estimation and real-time control and optimization of operations. This paper studies graph reduction methods of power grids that are favorable for fast simulations and follow-up applications. While the classical Kron reduction has been successful in reduced order modeling of power grids with traditional, hierarchical design, the selection of reference nodes for the reduced model in a multiscale, distribution and transmission, network becomes ambiguous. In this work we extend the use of the iterative Kron reduction by utilizing the electric grid's graph topology for the selection of reference nodes, consistent with the design features of multiscale networks. Additionally, we propose further reductions by aggregation of coherent subnetworks of triangular meshes, based on the graph topology and network characteristics, in order to preserve currents and build another power-flow equivalent network. Our reductions are achieved through the use of iterative aggregation of subgraphs that include general tree structures, lines, and triangles. Important features of our reduction algorithms include that (i) the reductions are either equivalent to the Kron reduction or otherwise produce a power-flow equivalent network; (ii) due to the mentioned power-flow equivalence, the reduced network can model the dynamic of the swing equations for a lossless, inductive, steady state network; (iii) the algorithms efficiently utilize hash tables to store the sequential reduction steps. The third feature allows for easy reintroduction of detailed models into the reduced, conceptual network and makes the final reduced order model backward compatible with a sequence of intermediate, partially reduced networks with varying resolution---the ordered sequence of iterative reductions corresponds to a sequence of reduced order models. The performance of our graph reduction algorithms and features of the reduced grids are discussed on a real-word transmission and distribution grid. We produce visualizations of the reduced models through open source libraries and release our reduction algorithms with example code and toy data.

24 POWER TRANSMISSION AND DISTRIBUTION↗

The Automated Instrumentation and Monitoring System (AIMS): Design and Architecture

Whether a researcher is designing the 'next parallel programming paradigm', another 'scalable multiprocessor' or investigating resource allocation algorithms for multiprocessors, a facility that enables parallel program execution to be captured and displayed is invaluable. Careful analysis of such information can help computer and software architects to capture, and therefore, exploit behavioral variations among/within various parallel programs to take advantage of specific hardware characteristics. A software tool-set that facilitates performance evaluation of parallel applications on multiprocessors has been put together at NASA Ames Research Center under the sponsorship of NASA's High Performance Computing and Communications Program over the past five years. The Automated Instrumentation and Monitoring Systematic has three major software components: a source code instrumentor which automatically inserts active event recorders into program source code before compilation; a run-time performance monitoring library which collects performance data; and a visualization tool-set which reconstructs program execution based on the data collected. Besides being used as a prototype for developing new techniques for instrumenting, monitoring and presenting parallel program execution, AIMS is also being incorporated into the run-time environments of various hardware testbeds to evaluate their impact on user productivity. Currently, the execution of FORTRAN and C programs on the Intel Paragon and PALM workstations can be automatically instrumented and monitored. Performance data thus collected can be displayed graphically on various workstations. The process of performance tuning with AIMS will be illustrated using various NAB Parallel Benchmarks. This report includes a description of the internal architecture of AIMS and a listing of the source code.

Yan, Jerry C.↗

Information Extraction for System-Software Safety Analysis: Calendar Year 2007 Year-End Report

This annual report describes work to integrate a set of tools to support early model-based analysis of failures and hazards due to system-software interactions. The tools perform and assist analysts in the following tasks: 1) extract model parts from text for architecture and safety/hazard models; 2) combine the parts with library information to develop the models for visualization and analysis; 3) perform graph analysis on the models to identify possible paths from hazard sources to vulnerable entities and functions, in nominal and anomalous system-software configurations; 4) perform discrete-time-based simulation on the models to investigate scenarios where these paths may play a role in failures and mishaps; and 5) identify resulting candidate scenarios for software integration testing. This paper describes new challenges in a NASA abort system case, and enhancements made to develop the integrated tool set.

Malin, Jane T.↗

Information Extraction for System-Software Safety Analysis: Calendar Year 2008 Year-End Report

This annual report describes work to integrate a set of tools to support early model-based analysis of failures and hazards due to system-software interactions. The tools perform and assist analysts in the following tasks: 1) extract model parts from text for architecture and safety/hazard models; 2) combine the parts with library information to develop the models for visualization and analysis; 3) perform graph analysis and simulation to identify and evaluate possible paths from hazard sources to vulnerable entities and functions, in nominal and anomalous system-software configurations and scenarios; and 4) identify resulting candidate scenarios for software integration testing. There has been significant technical progress in model extraction from Orion program text sources, architecture model derivation (components and connections) and documentation of extraction sources. Models have been derived from Internal Interface Requirements Documents (IIRDs) and FMEA documents. Linguistic text processing is used to extract model parts and relationships, and the Aerospace Ontology also aids automated model development from the extracted information. Visualizations of these models assist analysts in requirements overview and in checking consistency and completeness.

Malin, Jane T.↗

Automation for System Safety Analysis

This presentation describes work to integrate a set of tools to support early model-based analysis of failures and hazards due to system-software interactions. The tools perform and assist analysts in the following tasks: 1) extract model parts from text for architecture and safety/hazard models; 2) combine the parts with library information to develop the models for visualization and analysis; 3) perform graph analysis and simulation to identify and evaluate possible paths from hazard sources to vulnerable entities and functions, in nominal and anomalous system-software configurations and scenarios; and 4) identify resulting candidate scenarios for software integration testing. There has been significant technical progress in model extraction from Orion program text sources, architecture model derivation (components and connections) and documentation of extraction sources. Models have been derived from Internal Interface Requirements Documents (IIRDs) and FMEA documents. Linguistic text processing is used to extract model parts and relationships, and the Aerospace Ontology also aids automated model development from the extracted information. Visualizations of these models assist analysts in requirements overview and in checking consistency and completeness.

Malin, Jane T.↗

Data-Acquisition Software for PSP/TSP Wind-Tunnel Cameras

Wing-Viewer is a computer program for acquisition and reduction of image data acquired by any of five different scientificgrade commercial electronic cameras used at Langley Research center to observe wind-tunnel models coated with pressure or temperature-sensitive paints (PSP/TSP). Wing-Viewer provides full automation of camera operation and acquisition of image data, and has limited data-preprocessing capability for quick viewing of the results of PSP/TSP test images. Wing- Viewer satisfies a requirement for a standard interface between all the cameras and a single personal computer: Written by use of Microsoft Visual C++ and the Microsoft Foundation Class Library as a framework, Wing-Viewer has the ability to communicate with the C/C++ software libraries that run on the controller circuit cards of all five cameras.

Amer, Tahani R.↗