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At least 775 records · Page 43

The BATSE Earth Occultation Catalog of Low Energy Gamma-Ray Sources

The Burst and Transient Source Experiment (BATSE),aboard the COmptOn Gamma Ray Observatory (CGRO), provided a record of the hard X-ray/low energy gamma ray sky between April 1991 and June 2000. During that time, a catalog of known sources was derived from existing catalogs such as HEAO A-4 (Levine et al. 19841, as well as new transient sources discovered with RATSE and other X-ray monitors operating in the CGRO era. The Earth Occultation Technique (Harmon et al. 2001, astro-ph/0109069) was used to monitor a combination of these sources, mostly galactic, totaling about 175 objects. The catalog will present the global properties of these sources and their probability of detection (>lO mCrab, 20-100 keV) with BATSE. Systematic errors due to unknown sources or background components are included. Cursory analyses to search for new transients (35-80 mCrab in the 20-100 keV band) and super-orbital periods in known binary sources are also presented. Whole mission light curves and associated data production/analysis tools are being delivered to the HEASARC for public use.

Harmon, B. A.↗

Venus Gravity: 180th Degree and Order Model

The Megallan Doppler radiometric tracking data provides unprecedented precision for spacecraft based gravity measurements with the maximum resolution approaching spherical harmonic degree and order 180 in selected equatorial regions.

degree and order 180↗

Computer-implemented method and apparatus for autonomous position determination using magnetic field data

A computer-implemented method and apparatus for determining position of a vehicle within 100 km autonomously from magnetic field measurements and attitude data without a priori knowledge of position. An inverted dipole solution of two possible position solutions for each measurement of magnetic field data are deterministically calculated by a program controlled processor solving the inverted first order spherical harmonic representation of the geomagnetic field for two unit position vectors 180 degrees apart and a vehicle distance from the center of the earth. Correction schemes such as a successive substitutions and a Newton-Raphson method are applied to each dipole. The two position solutions for each measurement are saved separately. Velocity vectors for the position solutions are calculated so that a total energy difference for each of the two resultant position paths is computed. The position path with the smaller absolute total energy difference is chosen as the true position path of the vehicle.

Ketchum, Eleanor A.↗

Magnetic Gearboxes for Aerospace Applications

Magnetic gearboxes are contactless mechanisms for torque-speed conversion. They present no wear, no friction and no fatigue. They need no lubricant and can be customized for other mechanical properties as stiffness or damping. Additionally, they can protect structures and mechanisms against overloads, limitting the transmitted torque. In this work, spur, planetary and "magdrive" or "harmonic drive" configurations are compared considering their use in aerospace applications. The most recent test data are summarized to provide some useful help for the design engineer.

Perez-Diaz, Jose Luis↗

The catalog-to-cosmology framework for weak lensing and galaxy clustering for LSST

We present TXPipe, a modular, automated and reproducible pipeline for ingesting catalog data and performing all the calculations required to obtain quality-assured two-point measurements of lensing and clustering, and their covariances, with the metadata necessary for parameter estimation. The pipeline is developed within the Rubin Observatory Legacy Survey of Space and Time (LSST) Dark Energy Science Collaboration (DESC), and designed for cosmology analyses using LSST data. In this paper, we present the pipeline for the so-called 3x2pt analysis -- a combination of three two-point functions that measure the auto- and cross-correlation between galaxy density and shapes. We perform the analysis both in real and harmonic space using TXPipe and other LSST-DESC tools. We validate the pipeline using Gaussian simulations and show that it accurately measures data vectors and recovers the input cosmology to the accuracy level required for the first year of LSST data under this simplified scenario. We also apply the pipeline to a realistic mock galaxy sample extracted from the CosmoDC2 simulation suite (Korytov et al. 2019). TXPipe establishes a baseline framework that can be built upon as the LSST survey proceeds. Furthermore, the pipeline is designed to be easily extended to science probes beyond the 3x2pt analysis.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗

Determination of Ceres Physical Parameters Using Radiometric and Optical Data

The Dawn spacecraft was launched on September 27th, 2007. Its mission is to rendezvous with and observe the two largest bodies in the main asteroid belt, Vesta and Ceres. It has completed over a year’s worth of direct observations of Vesta from early 2011 through late 2012. In the spring of 2015, the Dawn spacecraft entered orbit around the asteroid Ceres for the start of what is expected to be more than a year of science operations. The science data collected from this encounter consist of infrared (IR) images and spectra, visible images through a number of color filters, gamma ray detections and measurements of the Ceres gravity field. These data will be collected during several science phases: an Approach phase (1500000-4860 km from Ceres), a Survey orbit (4860 km radius), a High Altitude Mapping Orbit (HAMO) (1940 km radius) and a Low Altitude Mapping Orbit (LAMO) (855 km radius). The Approach phase included three Rotational Characterization (RC) opportunities. Designing each science orbit and successfully transferring into that orbit requires a sufficiently accurate estimate of Ceres physical parameters (body fixed frame, GM and harmonics). This paper focuses on work performed to estimate Ceres physical parameters using Deep Space Network (DSN) radiometric tracking data and optical measurements derived from science camera imagery. This paper describes planning for the data acquisition, as well as processing techniques and methodology. The trajectories predicted by the gravity field estimations are also compared with the actual as-flown trajectories. Observations of the gravity at high altitudes are found to be sufficient to design precision orbits at lower altitudes. Follow-up analysis after successfully reaching LAMO is included, as is a discussion of lessons learned.

Kennedy, Brian M.↗

Equivalent source modeling of the main field using Magsat data

Magsat dipole solution models were obtained with both 32 deg and 21 deg resolution based on a data set extending over 4 months. Time dependence was modeled using first time derivatives for the dipole magnetization vector components. This doubles the n total number of parameters in the solution. The solutions displayed a very slow convergence in time derivatives although at each iteration the conversion of the dipole parameters to spherical harmonic coefficients showed close agreement with the MGST (12/80) spherical harmonic model to degree 13 in the constant terms and 8 in the secular variation terms. The program error in the option to simultaneously estimate observatory anomaly biases was found and corrected. A 32 deg resolution dipole model was generated using the selected magnetic observatory data from 1960-1977 used in the GSFC (9/80) spherical harmonic model.

Source record↗

Determination of Celestial Body Principal Axes via Gravity Field Estimation

The determination of physical parameters of celestial bodies provides critical navigational and scientific information. Determining the mass, rotation state, and density distribution is an important task of the navigation team on an operational mission. One representation of the internal density distribution, spherical harmonics, may be leveraged to compute the orientation of the principal axis frame of the celestial body, which in turn informs the dynamics of the body’s motion. Using data from NASA’s Dawn mission to the massive asteroids (1) Ceres and (4) Vesta, a method is proposed that refines the knowledge of the principal axis frame by utilizing estimated spherical harmonic coefficients. Applying an iterative rotation scheme to the solved-for body-fixed frame leads to convergence on a frame that is very close to the actual dynamical principal axis frame.

Takahashi, Yu↗

CubeSat constellations provide enhanced crop phenology and digital agricultural insights using daily leaf area index retrievals

Satellite remote sensing has great potential to deliver on the promise of a data-driven agricultural revolution, with emerging space-based platforms providing spatiotemporal insights into precision-level attributes such as crop water use, vegetation health and condition and crop response to management practices. Using a harmonized collection of high-resolution Planet CubeSat, Sentinel-2, Landsat-8 and additional coarser resolution imagery from MODIS and VIIRS, we exploit a multi-satellite data fusion and machine learning approach to deliver a radiometrically calibrated and gap-filled time-series of daily leaf area index (LAI) at an unprecedented spatial resolution of 3 m. The insights available from such high-resolution CubeSat-based LAI data are demonstrated through tracking the growth cycle of a maize crop and identifying observable within-field spatial and temporal variations across key phenological stages. Daily LAI retrievals peaked at the tasseling stage, demonstrating their value for fertilizer and irrigation scheduling. An evaluation of satellite-based retrievals against field-measured LAI data collected from both rain-fed and irrigated fields shows high correlation and captures the spatiotemporal development of intra- and inter-field variations. Novel agricultural insights related to individual vegetative and reproductive growth stages were obtained, showcasing the capacity for new high-resolution CubeSat platforms to deliver actionable intelligence for precision agricultural and related applications.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗

EVA Wiki - Transforming Knowledge Management for EVA Flight Controllers and Instructors

The EVA (Extravehicular Activity) Wiki was recently implemented as the primary knowledge database to retain critical knowledge and skills in the EVA Operations group at NASA's Johnson Space Center by ensuring that information is recorded in a common, searchable repository. Prior to the EVA Wiki, information required for EVA flight controllers and instructors was scattered across different sources, including multiple file share directories, SharePoint, individual computers, and paper archives. Many documents were outdated, and data was often difficult to find and distribute. In 2011, a team recognized that these knowledge management problems could be solved by creating an EVA Wiki using MediaWiki, a free and open-source software developed by the Wikimedia Foundation. The EVA Wiki developed into an EVA-specific Wikipedia on an internal NASA server. While the technical implementation of the wiki had many challenges, the one of the biggest hurdles came from a cultural shift. Like many enterprise organizations, the EVA Operations group was accustomed to hierarchical data structures and individually-owned documents. Instead of sorting files into various folders, the wiki searches content. Rather than having a single document owner, the wiki harmonized the efforts of many contributors and established an automated revision control system. As the group adapted to the wiki, the usefulness of this single portal for information became apparent. It transformed into a useful data mining tool for EVA flight controllers and instructors, and also for hundreds of other NASA and contract employees. Program managers, engineers, astronauts, flight directors, and flight controllers in differing disciplines now have an easier-to-use, searchable system to find EVA data. This paper presents the benefits the EVA Wiki has brought to NASA's EVA community, as well as the cultural challenges it had to overcome.

Johnston, Stephanie↗

EVA Wiki - Transforming Knowledge Management for EVA Flight Controllers and Instructors

The EVA Wiki was recently implemented as the primary knowledge database to retain critical knowledge and skills in the EVA Operations group at NASA's Johnson Space Center by ensuring that information is recorded in a common, easy to search repository. Prior to the EVA Wiki, information required for EVA flight controllers and instructors was scattered across different sources, including multiple file share directories, SharePoint, individual computers, and paper archives. Many documents were outdated, and data was often difficult to find and distribute. In 2011, a team recognized that these knowledge management problems could be solved by creating an EVA Wiki using MediaWiki, a free and open-source software developed by the Wikimedia Foundation. The EVA Wiki developed into an EVA-specific Wikipedia on an internal NASA server. While the technical implementation of the wiki had many challenges, one of the biggest hurdles came from a cultural shift. Like many enterprise organizations, the EVA Operations group was accustomed to hierarchical data structures and individually-owned documents. Instead of sorting files into various folders, the wiki searches content. Rather than having a single document owner, the wiki harmonized the efforts of many contributors and established an automated revision controlled system. As the group adapted to the wiki, the usefulness of this single portal for information became apparent. It transformed into a useful data mining tool for EVA flight controllers and instructors, as well as hundreds of others that support the EVA. Program managers, engineers, astronauts, flight directors, and flight controllers in differing disciplines now have an easier-to-use, searchable system to find EVA data. This paper presents the benefits the EVA Wiki has brought to NASA's EVA community, as well as the cultural challenges it had to overcome.

Johnston, Stephanie S.↗

EVA Wiki - Transforming Knowledge Management for EVA Flight Controllers and Instructors

The EVA Wiki was recently implemented as the primary knowledge database to retain critical knowledge and skills in the EVA Operations group at NASA's Johnson Space Center by ensuring that information is recorded in a common, easy to search repository. Prior to the EVA Wiki, information required for EVA flight controllers and instructors was scattered across different sources, including multiple file share directories, SharePoint, individual computers, and paper archives. Many documents were outdated, and data was often difficult to find and distribute. In 2011, a team recognized that these knowledge management problems could be solved by creating an EVA Wiki using MediaWiki, a free and open-source software developed by the Wikimedia Foundation. The EVA Wiki developed into an EVA-specific Wikipedia on an internal NASA server. While the technical implementation of the wiki had many challenges, one of the biggest hurdles came from a cultural shift. Like many enterprise organizations, the EVA Operations group was accustomed to hierarchical data structures and individually-owned documents. Instead of sorting files into various folders, the wiki searches content. Rather than having a single document owner, the wiki harmonized the efforts of many contributors and established an automated revision controlled system. As the group adapted to the wiki, the usefulness of this single portal for information became apparent. It transformed into a useful data mining tool for EVA flight controllers and instructors, as well as hundreds of others that support EVA. Program managers, engineers, astronauts, flight directors, and flight controllers in differing disciplines now have an easier-to-use, searchable system to find EVA data. This paper presents the benefits the EVA Wiki has brought to NASA's EVA community, as well as the cultural challenges it had to overcome.

Johnston, Stephanie S.↗

Detect and correct bias in multi-site neuroimaging datasets

The desire to train complex machine learning algorithms and to increase the statistical power in association studies drives neuroimaging research to use ever-larger datasets. The most obvious way to increase sample size is by pooling scans from independent studies. However, simple pooling is often ill-advised as selection, measurement, and confounding biases may creep in and yield spurious correlations. In this work, we combine 35,320 magnetic resonance images of the brain from 17 studies to examine bias in neuroimaging. In the first experiment, Name That Dataset, we provide empirical evidence for the presence of bias by showing that scans can be correctly assigned to their respective dataset with 71.5% accuracy. Given such evidence, we take a closer look at confounding bias, which is often viewed as the main shortcoming in observational studies. In practice, we neither know all potential confounders nor do we have data on them. Hence, we model confounders as unknown, latent variables. Kolmogorov complexity is then used to decide whether the confounded or the causal model provides the simplest factorization of the graphical model. Finally, we present methods for dataset harmonization and study their ability to remove bias in imaging features. In particular, we propose an extension of the recently introduced ComBat algorithm to control for global variation across image features, inspired by adjusting for unknown population stratification in genetics. Overall, our results demonstrate that harmonization can reduce dataset-specific information in image features. Further, confounding bias can be reduced and even turned into a causal relationship. However, harmonization also requires caution as it can easily remove relevant subject-specific information. Code is available at https://github.com/ai-med/Dataset-Bias.

42 ENGINEERING↗

Dynamical Mass Estimates of the β Pictoris Planetary System through Gaussian Process Stellar Activity Modeling

Nearly 15 yr of radial velocity (RV) monitoring and direct imaging enabled the detection of two giant planets orbiting the young, nearby star β Pictoris. The δ Scuti pulsations of the star, which overwhelm planetary signals, need to be carefully suppressed. In this work, we independently revisit the analysis of the RV data following a different approach than available in the literature to model the activity of the star. We show that a Gaussian process (GP) with a stochastically driven damped harmonic oscillator kernel can model the δ Scuti pulsations. It provides similar results to parametric models but with a simpler framework, using only three hyperparameters. It also enables us to model poorly sampled RV data that were excluded from previous analyses, hence extending the RV baseline by nearly five years. Altogether, the orbit and mass of both planets can be constrained from RV only, which was not possible with the parametric modeling. To characterize the system more accurately, we also perform a joint fit of all available relative astrometry and RV data. Our orbital solutions for β Pic b favor a low eccentricity of 0.029$_{−0.024}^{+0.061}$ and a relatively short period of 21.1$_{−0.8}^{+2.0}$ yr. The orbit of β Pic c is eccentric with 0.206$_{−0.063}^{+0.074}$ with a period of 3.36 ± 0.03 yr. We find model-independent masses of 11.7 ± 1.4 and 8.5 ± 0.5 M Jup for β Pic b and c, respectively, assuming coplanarity. The mass of β Pic b is consistent with the hottest start evolutionary models, at an age of 25 ± 3 Myr. A direct detection of β Pic c would provide a second calibration measurement in a coeval system.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗

Scalar magnetic anomaly maps of Earth derived from POGO and Magsat data

A new Polar Orbit Geophysical Observatory (POGO) scalar magnetic anomaly map at 400 km altitude is presented which consists of spherical harmonics of degree 15-60. On the basis of the common features of this map with two new Magsat anomaly maps, dawn and dusk, two scalar magnetic anomaly maps of the Earth are presented using two selection criteria with different levels of stringency. These selection criteria suppress the noncrustal components of the original maps by different amounts. The more stringent selection criteria seek to eliminate as much contamination as possible, at the expense of suppressing some anomaly signal. This map is represented by spherical harmonics of degree 15-60. The less stringent selection criteria seek to retain as much crustal signal as possible, at the expense of also retaining some contaminating fields. This map is represented by spherical harmonics of degree 15-65. The resulting two maps are highly correlated with degree correlation coefficients greater than 0.8.

Arkani-Hamed, Jafar↗

FloodPlanet: High-Resolution Commercial Imagery for Training and Validation of Deep Learning-Based Models of Inundation Extent

Flooding events are becoming increasingly frequent worldwide and are known to cause extensive damage. Public optical and radar satellite imagery can be used to detect large areas of inundation in rural areas, however, long revisit times and coarse spatial resolution limit applications for short-lived events and urban areas. Commercial constellations such as those operated by Planet offer increased spatial and temporal resolution and can supplement mapping efforts to provide more information to disaster response, relief, and mitigation efforts. Deep learning requires high quality labeled data for training across coincident sensors. The FloodPlanet dataset presented here contains labeled surface water for 18 events across the world based on Planetscope imagery with coincident Harmonized Landsat Sentinel-2 ( HLS) or Sentinel-1 and builds upon the previously existing Sen1Floods11, xBD, and NASA Sentinel-1 datasets. Sen1Floods11 includes 4,831 512x512 pixel overlapping tiles of coincident Sentinel-1 and Sentinel-2 data observing 11 flood events across the world from 2017-2019. The dataset contains a combination of automated and hand-labeled surface water for use in training and validation of inundation modeling efforts. The xBD dataset identifies flood-damaged buildings and indicates the scale of damage to each (none, minor, moderate, and major) from four flood events which occurred in the United States, India, Nepal, and Bangladesh from the same time period. The NASA dataset contains hand-labeled water bodies observed in Sentinel-1 imagery during five flood events within the 2017-2019 period. The effort presented here utilizes observations from these previously investigated flood events to generate labels of surface water at the 3-5m spatial resolution provided by Planetscope and facilitate the comparison between public and commercial data. A data pipeline was built which uses clustering algorithms to pick the most suitable overlapping chips between the public data and PlanetScope data for manual labeling. Labels were created manually using NASA’s ImageLabeler tool and include areas of high- and low-confidence water. The high confidence designation is reserved for areas of open, unobstructed water while low confidence is used for areas of suspected water beneath vegetation, clouds, or cloud shadows. Expected to be released in late 2022, the FloodPlanet dataset will include tiled imagery with a unique ID for each 1024x1024 pixel tile, 7 bands of HLS data, and high- and low-confidence flood labels in both shapefile and tiff formats. The authors will follow Spatial Temporal Access Catalog (STAC) guidelines to release FloodPlanet on the Radiant Earth ML hub, which hosts public datasets for machine learning.

Alexander Melancon↗

Precise solution for a finite set of spherical coefficients from equiangular gridded data

An important goal of geodesy is to determine the anomalous potential and its derivatives outside of the earth. Representing the surface anomalies by a series of spherical harmonics is useful since it is then possible to do a term by term solution of Laplace's equation and upward continuation. The problem of finding such a spherical harmonic series for anomaly values given on an equiangular surface grid is addressed. (This is a first step toward the more complicated problem of finding a function such that locally averaged values fit a grid of mean anomalies.) Three approaches to this fitting problem are discussed and compared: the discrete Fourier technique, the discrete integral technique, and a new approach. The peculiar nature of the equiangular grid, with its increasing density of (noisy) data toward the poles, causes each method to exhibit a different type of difficulty. The new method is shown to be practical as well as precise since the numerical conditioning problems which appear can be successfully handled by such well-known techniques as a (simple) Kalman filter.

Zucker, Paul A.↗