Feasibility of a data relay satellite system.
Direct communication relay between orbiting spacecraft and ground stations based on network of synchronous altitude satellites
Whelan, C. R.↗
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Aircraft measurements of the microwave scattering signature of the ocean
Microwave scattering signatures of the ocean have been measured over a range of surface wind speeds from 3 m/s to 23.6 m/s using the AAFE RADSCAT scatterometer in an aircraft. Normalized scattering coefficients are presented for vertical and horizontal polarizations as a function of incidence angle (nadir to 55 deg) and radar azimuth angle (0 to 360 deg) relative to surface wind direction. For a given radar polarization, incidence angle, and azimuth angle relative to the wind direction, these scattering data exhibit a power law dependence on surface wind speed. The relation of the scattering coefficient to azimuth angle obtained during aircraft circles (antenna conical scans) is anisotropic and suggests that microwave scatterometers can be used to infer both wind speed and direction. These results have been used for the design of the Seasat-A Satellite Scatterometer (SASS) to be flown in 1978 on this first NASA oceanographic satellite.
Jones, W. L.↗
The upper mantle beneath the Cascade Range: A comparison with the Gulf of California
Seismograms from 22 earthquakes along the northeast Pacific rim recorded in southern California form the data set for investigation of the upper mantle beneath the Cascade Range-Juan de Fuca region, a transitional area encompassing both very young ocean floor and a continental margin. These data consist of 853 seismograms (6 deg delta 42 deg) which produce 1068 travel times and 40 ray parameter estimates. These data are compared directly to another large suite of records representative of structure beneath the Gulf of California, an active spreading center. The spreading center model, GCA, was used as a starting point in WKBJ synthetic seismogram modeling and perturb GCA until the northeast Pacific data are matched. Application of wave field continuation to these two groups of data provides checks on model's consistency with the data as well as an estimate of the resolvability of differences between the two areas. Differences between the models derived from these two data sets are interpretable in terms of lateral structural variation beneath the two regimes.
Walck, M. C.↗
Baseline performance and emissions data for a single-cylinder, direct-injected diesel engine
Comprehensive fuel consumption, mean effective cylinder pressure, and emission test results for a supercharged, single-cylinder, direct-injected, four-stroke-cycle, diesel test engine are documented. Inlet air-to-exhaust pressure ratios were varied from 1.25 to 3.35 in order to establish the potential effects of turbocharging techniques on engine performance. Inlet air temperatures and pressures were adjusted from 34 to 107 C and from 193 to 414 kPa to determine the effects on engine performance and emissions. Engine output ranged from 300 to 2100 kPa (brake mean effective pressure) in the speed range of 1000 to 3000 rpm. Gaseous and particulate emission rates were measured. Real-time values of engine friction and pumping loop losses were measured independently and compared with motored engine values.
Dezelick, R. A.↗
Oceanic transports of mass, heat, and salt in the western North Pacific
An optimum orbit of the satellite will be presented for confirmation of estimates of tides and interpolation errors. Hydrographic surveys complementary to the routine surveys will be planned in Phase 1 by using research vessels belonging to Japanese universities. Direction measurements of oceanic transports with moored current meters and shipborne acoustic Doppler velocimeters will be planned for selected sections as an activity of the Japan-WOCE (World Ocean Circulation Experiment) Project. In the operational phase of TOPEX/POSEIDON, the delivered altimeter data will be used for the computation of surface geostrophic velocities to be applied in the hydrographic sections of the Japan Meteorological Agency, Hydrographic Department, Japan Fisheries Agency, and the universities. The estimates of transports are made by the co-investigators of each agency. The composite of the transports in the circulations will be made at the Japan Oceanographic Data Center. The direct measurements of current velocity and transports will be made mainly by the principal investigator.
Taira, K.↗
Direct measurements of tropospheric ozone from TOMS data
In the past year, we have made measurements of the tropospheric total column of ozone during the biomass burning season in Africa (August to October). Fishman et. al. had reported previously that by taking a time average of the low spatial resolution data from TOMS (Total Ozone Mapping Spectrometer) on Nimbus-7 (referred to as the Grid-T data set), during the biomass burning season in Africa, a plume of ozone extends from the East coast of Africa into the Atlantic. In this report, we present an analysis that we have made using the measured TOMS radiances taken from the High Density TOMS data set (referred as the HDT data set), which examines this plume in more detail.
Hudson, Robert D.↗
Direct measurements of tropospheric ozone using TOMS data
Fishman and Larsen have proposed a new algorithm, called 'tropospheric residual method,' which retrieves the climatological tropospheric ozone by using SAGE (Stratospheric Aerosol and Gas Experiment) and TOMS (Total Ozone Mapping Spectrometer) data. In this paper, we will examine the feasibility of detection for tropospheric ozone using only TOMS data. From a case study over the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of west Africa, it has been found that total ozone in the archived TOMS data has been overestimated over a region of marine-stratocumulus clouds.
Hudson, Robert D.↗
Aerosol Retrieval Using Synthetic Polder Multi-Angular Data
The POLarizations and Directionality of the Earth's Reflectances (POLDER) instrument onboard the Japanese ADEOS satellite offers unique possibilities for the retrieval of aerosol parameters with its polarization and multi-angular capability. In this study we examine a technique that simultaneously retrieve multiple aerosol parameters, namely asymmetry factor, single scattering albedo, surface albedo, and optical thickness. using simulated POLDER reflectances. It is found that. over dark or bright surfaces, simultaneous retrieval of multiple parameters is indeed possible, but not over surfaces with intermediate reflectivity. Among the four parameters, the single-scattering albedo is retrieved with the best accuracy and is the least vulnerable when the reflectance value is subjected to a 0.1% white noise.
Kuo, K. S.↗
Overview of the SMAP Applications and the SMAP Early Adopters Program - NASA's First Mission-Directed Outreach Effort
Satellite data provide global observations of many of the earths system processes and features. These data are valuable for developing scientific products that increase our understanding of how the earths systems are integrated. The water, energy and carbon cycle exchanges between the land and atmosphere are linked by soil moisture. NASAs Soil Moisture Active Passive (SMAP) mission provides soil moisture and freeze thaw measurements from space and allows scientists to link the water energy and carbon cycles. In order for SMAP data to be best integrated into decision support systems, the mission has engaged with the stakeholder community since 2009 and has attempted to scale the utility of the data to the thematic societal impacts of the satellite product applications. The SMAP Mission, which launched on January 31, 2015, has actively grown an Early Adopter (EA) community as part of its applications effort and worked with these EAs to demonstrate a scaled thematic impact of SMAP data product in societally relevant decision support applications. The SMAP mission provides global observations of the Earths surface soil moisture, providing high accuracy, resolution and continuous global coverage. Through the Early Adopters Program, the SMAP Applications Team will spend the next 2 years after launch documenting and evaluating the use of SMAP science products in applications related to weather forecasting, drought, agriculture productivity, floods, human health and national security.
SMAP↗
New Directions for SMAP: Combining SMAP and Sentinel Data for High-Resolution Soil Moisture Product
No abstract available
Das, Narendra N.↗
Toward a Reliable, Space-based CO2 Data Assimilation Framework: Current Status and Future Directions
Explore the source record for details and available documents.
CO2↗
Estimation of geopotential differences over intercontinental locations using satellite and terrestrial measurements
An error analysis study was conducted in order to assess the current accuracies and the future anticipated improvements in the estimation of geopotential differences over intercontinental locations. An observation/estimation scheme was proposed and studied, whereby gravity disturbance measurements on the Earth's surface, in caps surrounding the estimation points, are combined with corresponding data in caps directly over these points at the altitude of a low orbiting satellite, for the estimation of the geopotential difference between the terrestrial stations. The mathematical modeling required to relate the primary observables to the parameters to be estimated, was studied for the terrestrial data and the data at altitude. Emphasis was placed on the examination of systematic effects and on the corresponding reductions that need to be applied to the measurements to avoid systematic errors. The error estimation for the geopotential differences was performed using both truncation theory and least squares collocation with ring averages, in case observations on the Earth's surface only are used. The error analysis indicated that with the currently available global geopotential model OSU89B and with gravity disturbance data in 2 deg caps surrounding the estimation points, the error of the geopotential difference arising from errors in the reference model and the cap data is about 23 kgal cm, for 30 deg station separation.
Pavlis, Nikolaos K.↗
Mapping tree canopy cover and canopy height with L-band SAR using LiDAR data and Random Forests
Light detection and ranging (LiDAR) data can provide direct measurements of vegetation structures but are limited by the sparse spatial coverage. Polarimetric synthetic aperture radar (SAR) can perform large-scale high-resolution mapping without weather constraints but the information about vegetation and ground subsurface are mixed in the backscatter data. In this paper, we adopted the Random Forests algorithm to train an upscaling function using tree canopy cover (TCC) and canopy height model (CHM) derived from Goddard’s LiDAR, Hyperspectral and Thermal Imager (G-LiHT) data. The regression model is then applied to the L-band Uninhabited Aerial Vehicle Synthetic Aperture Radar (UAVSAR) data acquired during the 2017 Arctic-Boreal Vulnerability Experiment (ABoVE) airborne campaign to map the TCC and CHM over the Delta Junction area in interior Alaska.
Moghaddam, Mahta↗
Nonlinear Unsteady Aerodynamic Modeling Using Empirical Orthogonal Functions
Empirical orthogonal function modeling is explained and applied to identify compact discrete-time nonlinear unsteady aerodynamic models from data generated by an unsteady three-dimensional compressible Navier-Stokes flow solver for an airfoil undergoing various pitching motions. Model structures, model parameter estimates, and model parameter uncertainty estimates for nondimensional lift, drag, and pitching moment coefficient models were determined autonomously and directly from the data. Prediction tests using data that were not used in the modeling process showed that the identified models exhibited excellent prediction capability, which is a strong indicator of an accurate model.
empirical↗
Supersonic jet noise generated by large scale instabilities
The role of large scale wavelike structures as the major mechanism for supersonic jet noise emission is examined. With the use of aerodynamic and acoustic data for low Reynolds number, supersonic jets at and below 70 thousand comparisons are made with flow fluctuation and acoustic measurements in high Reynolds number, supersonic jets. These comparisons show that a similar physical mechanism governs the generation of sound emitted in he principal noise direction. These experimental data are further compared with a linear instability theory whose prediction for the axial location of peak wave amplitude agrees satisfactorily with measured phased averaged flow fluctuation data in the low Reynolds number jets. The agreement between theory and experiment in the high Reynolds number flow differs as to the axial location for peak flow fluctuations and predicts an apparent origin for sound emission far upstream of the measured acoustic data.
Seiner, J. M.↗
Budget of Turbulent Kinetic Energy in a Shock Wave Boundary-Layer Interaction
Implicit large-eddy simulation (ILES) of a shock wave/boundary-layer interaction (SBLI) was performed. Quantities present in the exact equation of the turbulent kinetic energy transport were accumulated and used to calculate terms like production, dissipation, molecular diffusion, and turbulent transport. The present results for a turbulent boundary layer were validated by comparison with direct numerical simulation data. It was found that a longer development domain was necessary for the boundary layer to reach an equilibrium state and a finer mesh resolution would improve the predictions. In spite of these findings, trends of the present budget match closely with that of the direct numerical simulation. Budgets for the SBLI region are presented at key axial stations. These budgets showed interesting dynamics as the incoming boundary layer transforms and the terms of the turbulent kinetic energy budget change behavior within the interaction region.
shock wave/boundary-layer interaction↗
Real Time Volcanic Cloud Products and Predictions for Aviation Alerts
Volcanic eruptions can inject significant amounts of sulfur dioxide (SO2) and volcanic ash into the atmosphere, posing a substantial risk to aviation safety. Ingesting near-real time and Direct Readout satellite volcanic cloud data is vital for improving reliability of volcanic ash forecasts and mitigating the effects of volcanic eruptions on aviation and the economy. NASA volcanic products from the Ozone Monitoring Insrument (OMI) aboard the Aura satellite have been incorporated into Decision Support Systems of many operational agencies. With the Aura mission approaching its 10th anniversary, there is an urgent need to replace OMI data with those from the next generation operational NASA/NOAA Suomi National Polar Partnership (SNPP) satellite. The data provided from these instruments are being incorporated into forecasting models to provide quantitative ash forecasts for air traffic management. This study demonstrates the feasibility of the volcanic near-real time and Direct Readout data products from the new Ozone Monitoring and Profiling Suite (OMPS) ultraviolet sensor onboard SNPP for monitoring and forecasting volcanic clouds. The transition of NASA data production to our operational partners is outlined. Satellite observations are used to constrain volcanic cloud simulations and improve estimates of eruption parameters, resulting in more accurate forecasts. This is demonstrated for the 2012 eruption of Copahue. Volcanic eruptions are modeled using the Goddard Earth Observing System, Version 5 (GEOS-5) and the Goddard Chemistry Aerosol and Radiation Transport (GOCART) model. A hindcast of the disruptive eruption from Iceland's Eyjafjallajokull is used to estimate aviation re-routing costs using Metron Aviation's ATM Tools.
Volcanic ash↗
Evidence for ion heat flux in the light ion polar wind
Cold flowing hydrogen and helium ions have been observed using the retarding ion mass spectrometer on board the Dynamics Explorer 1 spacecraft in the dayside magnetosphere at subauroral latitudes. The ions show a marked flux asymmetry with respect to the relative wind direction. The observed data are fitted by a model of drifting Maxwellian distributions perturbed by a first order-Spritzer-Haerm heat flux distribution function. It is shown that both ion species are supersonic just equatorward of the auroral zone at L = 14, and the shape of asymmetry and direction of the asymmetry are consistent with the presence of an upward heat flux. At L = 6, both species evolve smoothly into warmer subsonic upward flows with downward heat fluxes. In the case of subsonic flows the downward heat flux implies a significant heat source at higher altitudes. Spin curves of the spectrometer count rate versus the spin phase angle are provided.
Biddle, A. P.↗