Engineering Papers⌕ Search

SEARCH · Engineering Papers

Results for “location map”

Search indexed NASA NTRS and DOE OSTI research on propulsion, heat transfer, battery materials and energy systems. Follow report and document links to the original sources.

Quote a phrase for an exact phrase match. Source license links do not imply unrestricted reuse.

At least 847 records · Page 47

Lightning Detection in a Flash

In a joint project with NASA's Kennedy Space Center, Global Atmospherics, Inc. (GAI), participated in the upgrade and commercialization of the Lightning Detection and Ranging (LDAR) System. Under a Space Act Agreement, GAI and Kennedy agreed to the joint development of a new LDAR system that meets the needs of both NASA and private industry. The resulting development was a volumetric lightning mapping system. NASA operates a three- dimensional LDAR system capable of determining the exact location and altitude of in-cloud and cloud-to-cloud lightning. Under the Space Act Agreement, GAI contributed its wealth of experience and resources to update and improve the current lightning mapping system used by NASA. Previously, commercial systems were only capable of locating cloud-to-ground lightning. The resulting innovations allowed GAI to position the LDAR system for commercial applications. The upgraded product has the ability to measure in-cloud and cloud-to-cloud lightning. Notable improvements have also been made in the system's location accuracy and signal detection. The new product, known as LDAR II, is targeted for use by utility providers, aviation companies, airports, and commercial space vehicle launch facilities. Presently, forecasting services, research facilities, and a utility company are using the system.

Source record↗

Reliability of unstable periodic orbit based control strategies in biological systems

Presence of recurrent and statistically significant unstable periodic orbits (UPOs) in time series obtained from biological systems is now routinely used as evidence for low dimensional chaos. Extracting accurate dynamical information from the detected UPO trajectories is vital for successful control strategies that either aim to stabilize the system near the fixed point or steer the system away from the periodic orbits. A hybrid UPO detection method from return maps that combines topological recurrence criterion, matrix fit algorithm, and stringent criterion for fixed point location gives accurate and statistically significant UPOs even in the presence of significant noise. Geometry of the return map, frequency of UPOs visiting the same trajectory, length of the data set, strength of the noise, and degree of nonstationarity affect the efficacy of the proposed method. Results suggest that establishing determinism from unambiguous UPO detection is often possible in short data sets with significant noise, but derived dynamical properties are rarely accurate and adequate for controlling the dynamics around these UPOs. A repeat chaos control experiment on epileptic hippocampal slices through more stringent control strategy and adaptive UPO tracking is reinterpreted in this context through simulation of similar control experiments on an analogous but stochastic computer model of epileptic brain slices. Reproduction of equivalent results suggests that far more stringent criteria are needed for linking apparent success of control in such experiments with possible determinism in the underlying dynamics.

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗

Energy Zones Study: A Comprehensive Web-Based Mapping Tool to Identify and Analyze Clean Energy Zones in the Eastern Interconnection

This report describes the work conducted in support of the Eastern Interconnection States’ Planning Council (EISPC) Energy Zones Study and the development of the Energy Zones Mapping Tool performed by a team of experts from three National Laboratories. The multi-laboratory effort was led by Argonne National Laboratory (Argonne), in collaboration with the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) and Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL). In June 2009, the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) and the National Energy Technology Laboratory published Funding Opportunity Announcement FOA-0000068, which invited applications for interconnection-level analysis and planning. In December 2009, the Eastern Interconnection Planning Collaborative (EIPC) and the EISPC were selected as two award recipients for the Eastern Interconnection. Subsequently, in 2010, DOE issued Research Call RC-BM-2010 to DOE’s Federal Laboratories to provide research support and assistance to FOA-0000068 awardees on a variety of key subjects. Argonne was selected as the lead laboratory to provide support to EISPC in developing a methodology and a mapping tool for identifying potential clean energy zones in the Eastern Interconnection. In developing the EISPC Energy Zones Mapping Tool (EZ Mapping Tool), Argonne, NREL, and ORNL closely collaborated with the EISPC Energy Zones Work Group which coordinated the work on the Energy Zones Study. The main product of the Energy Zones Study is the EZ Mapping Tool, which is a web-based decision support system that allows users to locate areas with high suitability for clean power generation in the U.S. portion of the Eastern Interconnection. The mapping tool includes 9 clean (low- or no-carbon) energy resource categories and 29 types of clean energy technologies. The EZ Mapping Tool contains an extensive geographic information system database and allows the user to apply a flexible modeling approach for the identification and analysis of potential energy zones and is publicly available at http://eispctools.anl.gov. In addition to enabling EISPC members and other stakeholders to identify areas with a high concentration of clean energy resources that could provide significant power generation in the future, another objective of the study was to promote open and transparent collaboration among state-level energy planning and regulatory agencies and to foster consistent and coordinated direction for regional and interconnection-level electricity analyses and planning. Funding for the project was provided by DOE’s Office of Electricity Delivery and Energy Reliability (DOE/OE) under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. Page

24 POWER TRANSMISSION AND DISTRIBUTION↗

TRACER-MAP_2022_volatile_organic_compounds_PTRMS

VOCs collected by quadrupole proton transfer reaction mass spectrometry for July-August 2022. A description of this instrument is included in the related publication. The location of the measurement is indicated by latitude and longitude coordinates; TRACER-MAP included time at the AMF site in La Porte and additional sites around Houston. Data below the minimum detection limit are not included here.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗

Microearthquake Studies at the Salton Sea Geothermal Field

The objective of this project is to detect and locate microearthquakes to aid in the characterization of reservoir fracture networks. Accurate identification and mapping of the large numbers of microearthquakes induced in EGS is one technique that provides diagnostic information when determining the location, orientation and length of underground crack systems for use in reservoir development and management applications. Conventional earthquake location techniques often are employed to locate microearthquakes. However, these techniques require labor-intensive picking of individual seismic phase onsets across a network of sensors. For this project we adapt the Matched Field Processing (MFP) technique to the elastic propagation problem in geothermal reservoirs to identify more and smaller events than traditional methods alone.

15 GEOTHERMAL ENERGY↗

Reflection Optical Imaging to Study Oxygen Evolution Reactions

Discovery of high-efficiency water-splitting catalysts is critical for clean hydrogen fuel generation. Quantitative and reliable chemical imaging methods can play a crucial role in providing critical catalyst efficiency information for materials development and screening. Here, we developed a reflection optical imaging method to map the performance of transition metal oxide catalysts for oxygen evolution reaction (OER). The generated high concentration of oxygen in the electrolyte will decrease the refractive index of the solutions near the electrode and change the reflectivity of optical images. We successfully imaged and measured the OER on cobalt oxide, and the localized current density and overpotential distribution maps have been extracted. The oxidation and reduction of cobalt oxide can be imaged with our reflection optical imaging method as well. These maps showed that the catalytic activities are quite different at different locations, and some regions showed much higher activities. This is due to the non-uniformity created by the catalyst synthesis process and demonstrates the importance of using the optical imaging method to map the localized catalytic efficiency. In addition, the NiFe alloy’s OER catalytic activities have been studied as well. The proposed reflection optical imaging method could find many applications in catalyst activity measurement and screening.

Electrochemistry↗

ON THE GEOMETRY OF THE IBEX RIBBON

The Energetic Neutral Atom (ENA) full-sky maps obtained with the Interstellar Boundary Explorer (IBEX) show an unexpected bright narrow band of increased intensity. This so-called ENA ribbon results from charge exchange of interstellar neutral atoms with protons in the outer heliosphere or beyond. Among other hypotheses it has been argued that this ribbon may be related to a neutral density enhancement, or H-wave, in the local interstellar medium. Here we quantitatively demonstrate, on the basis of an analytical model of the principal large-scale heliospheric structure, that this scenario for the ribbon formation leads to results that are fully consistent with the observed location of the ribbon in the full-sky maps at all energies detected with high-energy sensor IBEX-Hi.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗

HCO+ imaging of comet Hale-Bopp (C/1995 O1)

The HCO+ J = 1-0 rotational transition at 89.189 GHz has been mapped in comet Hale-Bopp (C/1995 O1) over a total of 38 individual days spanning the period 1997 March 10-June 20 with the Five College Radio Astronomy Observatory 14 m antenna. HCO+ is detectable over an extended region of the comet, with the peak emission commonly located 50,000-100,000 km in the antisolar direction. Maps made throughout the apparition show significant variability in the structure of the HCO+ coma, sometimes on timescales of several hours. The HCO+ brightness is usually depressed at the nucleus position, and on some occasions, the emission is spread into a ring around the position of the nucleus. Individual spectra within the maps display broad (approximately 4 km s-1) lines redshifted by 1-2 km s-1 or more from the nominal velocity of the nucleus, with the redshift typically increasing in the antisolar direction. The spectra and maps may be generally explained by models in which the ions are accelerated tailward at a rate on the order of 10 cm s-2, provided that HCO+ is destroyed within 50,000-100,000 km of the nucleus.

Non-NASA Center↗

Mapping Arctic sea ice from the Earth Resources Technology Satellite

The author has identified the following significant results. Methods of detecting ice and for distinguishing between ice and clouds are discussed, and examples of ERTS-1 data showing ice distributions in northern Hudson Bay, M'Clure Strait, the eastern Beaufort Sea, and the Greenland Sea are presented. The results of the initial analysis of ERTS-1 data indicate that the locations of ice edges and ice concentrations can be accurately mapped, and that considerable information on ice type can be derived through use of the various spectral bands. Ice features as small as 80 to 100 m width can be mapped.

Barnes, J. C.↗

Evaluation of iconic versus F-map microburst displays

Previous studies have shown graphical presentation methods of hazardous wind shear to be superior to textual or audible warnings alone. Positional information and the strength of the hazard were observed to be and were cited by pilots as the most important factors in a display. In this experiment the use of the three different graphical presentations of hazardous wind shear are examined. Airborne predictive detectors of wind shear enable the dissemination of varying levels of information. The effectiveness of iconic and mapping display modes of different complexities are addressed through simulation and analysis. Different positional and time-varying situations are presented in a 'part-task' Boeing 767 simulator using data from actual microburst events. Experienced airline pilots fly approach profiles using both iconic and F-map wind shear alerting displays. Microburst accompanied each event is also shown to the pilot. Mapping display types are expected to be found exceptionally efficient at conveying location comparison information while iconic displays simplify the threat recognition process. Preliminary results from the simulator study are presented. Recommendations concerning the suitability of multilevel iconic and mapping displays are made. Situational problems with current display prototypes are also addressed.

Salzberger, Mark↗

Exploratory analysis of machine learning techniques in the Nevada geothermal play fairway analysis

Play fairway analysis (PFA) is commonly used to generate geothermal potential maps and guide exploration studies, with a particular focus on locating and characterizing blind geothermal systems. This study evaluates the application of machine learning techniques to PFA in the Great Basin region of Nevada. Following the evaluation of various techniques, we identified two approaches to PFA that produced promising results, 1) supervised Bayesian probabilistic neural networks to generate geothermal potential maps with confidence intervals, and 2) unsupervised principal component analysis paired with k-means clustering to generate both cluster maps to help identify spatial patterns, as well as new combined feature inputs. We applied these techniques to perform a comparative analysis between two principal sets of geological and geophysical features related to permeability and heat and a set of positive (known geothermal resources) and negative training sites (known drill sites with unsuitable geothermal conditions). We found that these methods constrain previously unrecognized feature controls on geothermal favorability, many of which are spatially organized within the extent of cluster groups and the major structural-hydrologic domains of the study area. Furthermore, we utilized exploratory unsupervised modeling to highlight spatial relationships between input data and predictive output results of our supervised modeling. As a result, we demonstrate how our models compare to the previous Nevada PFA and how the rapid insights these machine learning techniques offer may support future assessments of both known and undiscovered blind geothermal systems in the Great Basin region of Nevada and beyond.

15 GEOTHERMAL ENERGY↗

Evaluation of satellite remote sensing and automatic data techniques for characterization of wetlands and coastal marshlands

The author has identified the following significant results. The evaluation was conducted in a humid swamp and marsh area of southern Louisiana. ERTS digital multispectral scanner data was compared with similar data gathered by intermediate altitude aircraft. Automatic data processing was applied to several data sets to produce simulated color infrared images, analysis of single bands, thematic maps, and surface classifications. These products were used to determine the effectiveness of satellites to monitor accretion of land, locate aquatic plants, determine water characteristics, and identify marsh and forest species. The results show that to some extent all of these can be done with satellite data. It is most effective for monitoring accretion and least effective in locating aquatic plants. The data sets used show that the ERTS data is superior in mapping quality and accuracy to the aircraft data. However, in some applications requiring high resolution or maximum use of intermittent clear weather conditions, data gathering by aircraft is preferable. Data processing costs for equivalent areas are about three times greater for aircraft data than ERTS data. This is primarily because of the larger volume of data generated by the high resolution aircraft system.

Cartmill, R. H.↗

Local and statistical maps of lightning-generated wave power density estimated at the Van Allen Probes footprints from the World-Wide Lightning Location Network database

We introduce a new method that uses the World-Wide Lightning Location Network (WWLLN) to estimate both the local and the drift lightning power density at the Van Allen Probes footprints during 4.3 years (~2x10 8 strokes.). The ratio of the drift power density to the local power density defines a time-resolved WWLLN-based model of lightning-generated wave (LGW) power density ratio, $\mathcal{R_{WWLLN}}$. $\mathcal{R_{WWLLN}}$ is computed every ~34s. This ratio multiplied by the time-resolved LGW intensity measured by the Probes allows direct computation of pitch angle diffusion coefficients used in radiation belts codes. According to Statistical analysis, the median power density ratio is $\mathcal{\hat{R}_{WWLLN}}$ = 0.3 - 4 over the Americas. Elsewhere, $\mathcal{\hat{R}_{WWLLN}}$ > 1 in general. Over oceans, $\mathcal{\hat{R}_{WWLLN}}$ is larger than ~10 and varies with season (x2.5 from winter to summer). The yearly median $\mathcal{\hat{R}_{WWLLN}}$ decays as $\mathcal{\hat{R}_{WWLLN}}$~9.9/L 0.91 . The strong geographical and temporal variation should be kept in assessing effects in space. $\mathcal{R_{WWLLN}}$> 1 suggests significant LGW effects in the inner belt.

58 GEOSCIENCES↗

The location and scope of geographic remote sensing training in the United States

Maps displaying the distribution of graduate departments of geography in the United States and enrollments in remote sensing courses in all geography departments during the past two calendar years were compiled. It was anticipated that the two distributions would show a marked similarity since remote sensing is a relatively new geographic tool requiring specialized training to use as well as equipment not normally found in most geography departments. Thus only the larger graduate departments can afford to devote time and resources to this specialty. A broad correspondence does exist between the graduate departments of geography and the courses in remote ensing. However, the correlation is far from complete and the exceptions are frequent and large enough to cast doubt upon the accuracy of the original hypothesis. Whereas many large departments do offer courses in remote sensing, many smaller colleges and universities do also. A number of possible explanations can be offered for the discrepancies: (1) course titles, (2) the liberal arts orientation of geography departments in many universities, (3) job-oriented skills which many smaller departments have emphasized, and (4) in the tight job market many new graduates of even the larger departments have had to accept position in smaller departments and colleges.

Hawley, A. J.↗

Information Systems Coordinate Emergency Management

The rescue crews have been searching for the woman for nearly a week. Hurricane Katrina devastated Hancock County, the southernmost point in Mississippi, and the woman had stayed through the storm in her beach house. There is little hope of finding her alive; the search teams know she is gone because the house is gone. Late at night in the art classroom of the school that is serving as the county s emergency operations center, Craig Harvey is discussing the search with the center s commander. Harvey is the Chief Operating Officer of a unique company called NVision Solutions Inc., based at NASA s Stennis Space Center in Bay St. Louis, only a couple of miles away. He and his entire staff have set up a volunteer operation in the art room, supporting the emergency management efforts using technology and capabilities the company developed through its NASA partnerships. As he talks to the commander, Harvey feels an idea taking shape that might lead them to the woman s location. Working with surface elevation data and hydrological principles, Harvey creates a map showing how the floodwaters from the storm would have flowed along the topography of the region around the woman s former home. Using the map, search crews find the woman s body in 15 minutes. Recovering individuals who have been lost is a sad reality of emergency management in the wake of a disaster like Hurricane Katrina in 2005. But the sooner answers can be provided, the sooner a community s overall recovery can take place. When damage is extensive, resources are scattered, and people are in dire need of food, shelter, and medical assistance, the speed and efficiency of emergency operations can be the key to limiting the impact of a disaster and speeding the process of recovery. And a key to quick and effective emergency planning and response is geographic information. With a host of Earth-observing satellites orbiting the globe at all times, NASA generates an unmatched wealth of data about our ever-changing planet. This information can be captured, analyzed, and visualized by geographic information systems (GIS) to produce maps, charts, and other tools that can reveal information essential to a wide variety of applications including emergency management. Knowing precise, real-time information about the size, location, environmental conditions, and resulting damage of an event like a flood or wildfire as well as the location and numbers of emergency responders and other resources contributes directly to the effectiveness of disaster mitigation. The need for such information is also evident when responding to homeland security threats, such as a terrorist attack. Recognizing the value of its geospatial information resources for this and other purposes, in 1998 Stennis and the state of Mississippi partnered to form what became the Enterprise for Innovative Geospatial Solutions (EIGS) industry cluster, supporting the growth of remote sensing and GIS-based research and business. As part of EIGS, several companies partnered with NASA through dual use and Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) contracts. Among those was NVision.

Source record↗

The distribution of interstellar dust in the solar neighborhood

We surveyed the IRAS data base at the positions of the 1808 O6-B9.5 stars in The Bright Star Catalog for extended objects with excess emission at 60 microns, indicating the presence of interstellar dust at the location of the star. Within 400 pc the filling factor of the interstellar medium, for dust clouds with a density greater than 0.5/cu cm is 14.6 + or - 2.4%. Above a density of 1.0/cu cm, the density distribution function appears to follow a power law index - 1.25. When the dust clouds are mapped onto the galactic plane, the sun appears to be located in a low-density region of the interstellar medium of width about 60 pc extending at least 500 pc in the direction of longitudes 80 deg - 260 deg, a feature we call the 'local trough'.

Gaustad, John E.↗

SU-G-IeP1-15: Towards Accurate Cerebral Blood Flow Quantification with Distortion- Corrected Pseudo-Continuous Arterial Spin Labeling

Purpose: Traditional arterial spin labeling (ASL) acquisitions with echo planar imaging (EPI) readouts suffer from image distortion due to susceptibility effects, compromising ASL’s ability to accurately quantify cerebral blood flow (CBF) and assess disease-specific patterns associated with CBF abnormalities. Phase labeling for additional coordinate encoding (PLACE) can remove image distortion; our goal is to apply PLACE to improve the quantitative accuracy of ASL CBF in humans. Methods: Four subjects were imaged on a 3T Philips Ingenia scanner using a 16-channel receive coil with a 21/21/10cm (frequency/phase/slice direction) field-of-view. An ASL sequence with a pseudo-continuous ASL (pCASL) labeling scheme was employed to acquire thirty dynamics of single-shot EPI data, with control and label datasets for all dynamics, and PLACE gradients applied on odd dynamics. Parameters included a post-labeling delay = 2s, label duration = 1.8s, flip angle = 90°, TR/TE = 5000/23.5ms, and 2.9/2.9/5.0mm (frequency/phase/slice direction) voxel size. “M0” EPI-reference images and T1-weighted spin-echo images with 0.8/1.0/3.3mm (frequency/phase/slice directions) voxel size were also acquired. Complex conjugate image products of pCASL odd and even dynamics were formed, a linear phase ramp applied, and data expanded and smoothed. Data phase was extracted to map control, label, and M0 magnitude image pixels to their undistorted locations, and images were rebinned to original size. All images were corrected for motion artifacts in FSL 5.0. pCASL images were registered to M0 images, and control and label images were subtracted to compute quantitative CBF maps. Results: pCASL image and CBF map distortions were removed by PLACE in all subjects. Corrected images conformed well to the anatomical T1-weighted reference image, and deviations in corrected CBF maps were evident. Conclusion: Eliminating pCASL distortion with PLACE can improve CBF quantification accuracy using minimal pulse sequence modifications and no additional scan time, improving ASL’s clinical applicability.

60 APPLIED LIFE SCIENCES↗

Solving very large, sparse linear systems on mesh-connected parallel computers

The implementation of Pan and Reif's Parallel Nested Dissection (PND) algorithm on mesh connected parallel computers is described. This is the first known algorithm that allows very large, sparse linear systems of equations to be solved efficiently in polylog time using a small number of processors. How the processor bound of PND can be matched to the number of processors available on a given parallel computer by slowing down the algorithm by constant factors is described. Also, for the important class of problems where G(A) is a grid graph, a unique memory mapping that reduces the inter-processor communication requirements of PND to those that can be executed on mesh connected parallel machines is detailed. A description of an implementation on the Goodyear Massively Parallel Processor (MPP), located at Goddard is given. Also, a detailed discussion of data mappings and performance issues is given.

Opsahl, Torstein↗