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NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Hail Storm Risk Assessment Using Space-Borne Remote Sensing Observations and Reanalyses

Much of the world is impacted by severe thunderstorms, but whether they become disasters depends upon resilience--our capacity to prepare, mitigate, respond, and recover. Hail is the costliest severe weather hazard for the insurance industry, generating ~70% of severe convective storm losses due to damage to assets such as homes, businesses, agriculture, and infrastructure. Most insurance companies do not reserve enough capital to cover catastrophes, so they acquire reinsurance. The reinsurance industry uses catastrophe models (CatModels) to statistically estimate risk to an insurer’s portfolio. Hail CatModels are developed with climatologies that define hailstorm frequency and severity. Hail-prone areas can be defined using hail reports from trained spotters, the media, and the general public. Extremely severe hail (2+ inch diameter) occurs nearly every day across the world. Weather radars can detect hail because hailstones strongly reflect microwave signals that they emit. However, hail climatologies are difficult to derive because hail covers small areas and there are neither hail reporting mechanisms (e.g. website or mobile app) nor radar networks in most places outside the US and Europe. This lack of ground truth on severe hail puts society and economies at risk. Hail is generated within storms by strong updrafts. These updrafts exhibit unique signatures in NASA and other agency satellite observations, offering new opportunities for hailstorm analysis. Geostationary (GEO) visible and infrared imagery has been collected for ~15-25 years across the world (region dependent) and methods have been developed at NASA Langley Research Center (LaRC) to detect hailstorm updrafts using GEO imagery. Climatological GEO updraft data has been used by Willis Towers Watson (WTW), a leader in catastrophe risk assessment for the insurance industry, and Karlsruhe Institute of Technology to develop CatModels over Europe and Australia. Hail can also be inferred with passive microwave imagery collected by low-Earth-orbiting sensors such as the GPM GMI, TRMM TMI, AMSR-E, AMSR-2, SSM/I, and SSMIS over the last 20+ years using methods developed at the Marshall Space Flight Center (MSFC). Hailstorms generate enhanced lightning flash rates that can be tracked using new GOES-R series GEO Lightning Mapping (GLM) imagery. Atmospheric reanalyses can be used to define favorable hailstorm environments for combination with the satellite-based storm detections. This presentation will describe a framework for developing continental to global hail climatologies and CatModels based on NASA satellite data and capabilities. This is a collaboration between LaRC and MSFC, WTW, and partners in Brazil, Argentina, and South Africa. This project seeks to mitigate hail disasters by aiding development of new satellite-based severe storm nowcasting tools by regional partners and developing climatologies to improve societal understanding of hail frequency. GEOO visible and infrared metrics of storm intensity, environmental conditions based on reanalyses, spotter hail reports and radar MESH observations are intercompared to quantify the detectability of hailstorms, and our ability to discriminate hailstorms from other severe storms. We are also maturing methods using land surface imaging satellite data (e.g. MODIS, Landsat, Sentinel 1 and 2) to identify hail damage to agriculture. Work with WTW will improve socioeconomic resilience through development of new CatModels. Southern Brazil, Uruguay, Paraguay, and Argentina feature some of the most intense thunderstorms on Earth. South America and South Africa are developing insurance markets of interest to WTW clients, and is similar to other regions routinely impacted by hail that do not have comprehensive hail reporting or radars to assess hailstorm frequency. Project datasets will be made available via online GIS-enabled tools developed at the LaRC Atmospheric Science Data Center (ASDC) which will visualize data and provide it in multiple formats for use in a wide range of open source and commercial tools.

Kristopher Michael Bedka↗
NASA NTRS1986

Method and apparatus for measuring frequency and phase difference

The present invention is a system for deriving direct digital indications of frequency and phase difference between two incoming pulse trains adaptable for collision avoidance systems or the like. A pair of radar beams are directed toward a target and corresponding beams returning therefrom are detected. A digital difference circuit forms a pulse train from the Doppler shift frequencies of each beam pair having a repetition rate functionally related to the difference in magnitude of the shift frequencies. Pulses from the pulse train are counted as a function of time. Visual indications thereof on display are correlative to target position relative to beams.

Shores, Paul↗
NASA NTRS2007

Derivation and Application of a Global Albedo yielding an Optical Brightness To Physical Size Transformation Free of Systematic Errors

Orbital object data acquired via optical telescopes can play a crucial role in accurately defining the space environment. Radar systems probe the characteristics of small debris by measuring the reflected electromagnetic energy from an object of the same order of size as the wavelength of the radiation. This signal is affected by electrical conductivity of the bulk of the debris object, as well as its shape and orientation. Optical measurements use reflected solar radiation with wavelengths much smaller than the size of the objects. Just as with radar, the shape and orientation of an object are important, but we only need to consider the surface electrical properties of the debris material (i.e., the surface albedo), not the bulk electromagnetic properties. As a result, these two methods are complementary in that they measure somewhat independent physical properties to estimate the same thing, debris size. Short arc optical observations such as are typical of NASA's Liquid Mirror Telescope (LMT) give enough information to estimate an Assumed Circular Orbit (ACO) and an associated range. This information, combined with the apparent magnitude, can be used to estimate an "absolute" brightness (scaled to a fixed range and phase angle). This absolute magnitude is what is used to estimate debris size. However, the shape and surface albedo effects make the size estimates subject to systematic and random errors, such that it is impossible to ascertain the size of an individual object with any certainty. However, as has been shown with radar debris measurements, that does not preclude the ability to estimate the size distribution of a number of objects statistically. After systematic errors have been eliminated (range errors, phase function assumptions, photometry) there remains a random geometric albedo distribution that relates object size to absolute magnitude. Measurements by the LMT of a subset of tracked debris objects with sizes estimated from their radar cross sections indicate that the random variations in the albedo follow a log-normal distribution quite well. In addition, this distribution appears to be independent of object size over a considerable range in size. Note that this relation appears to hold for debris only, where the shapes and other properties are not primarily the result of human manufacture, but of random processes. With this information in hand, it now becomes possible to estimate the actual size distribution we are sampling from. We have identified two characteristics of the space debris population that make this process tractable and by extension have developed a methodology for performing the transformation.

Mulrooney, Dr. Mark K.↗
NASA NTRS2002

Calibration Plans for the Global Precipitation Measurement (GPM)

The Global Precipitation Measurement (GPM) is an international effort led by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) of the U.S.A. and the National Space Development Agency of Japan (NASDA) for the purpose of improving research into the global water and energy cycle. GPM will improve climate, weather, and hydrological forecasts through more frequent and more accurate measurement of precipitation world-wide. Comprised of U.S. domestic and international partners, GPM will incorporate and assimilate data streams from many spacecraft with varied orbital characteristics and instrument capabilities. Two of the satellites will be provided directly by GPM, the core satellite and a constellation member. The core satellite, at the heart of GPM, is scheduled for launch in November 2007. The core will carry a conical scanning microwave radiometer, the GPM Microwave Imager (GMI), and a two-frequency cross-track-scanning radar, the Dual-frequency Precipitation Radar (DPR). The passive microwave channels and the two radar frequencies of the core are carefully chosen for investigating the varying character of precipitation over ocean and land, and from the tropics to the high-latitudes. The DPR will enable microphysical characterization and three-dimensional profiling of precipitation. The GPM-provided constellation spacecraft will carry a GMI radiometer identical to that on the core spacecraft. This paper presents calibration plans for the GPM, including on-board instrument calibration, external calibration methods, and the role of ground validation. Particular emphasis is on plans for inter-satellite calibration of the GPM constellation. With its Unique instrument capabilities, the core spacecraft will serve as a calibration transfer standard to the GPM constellation. In particular the Dual-frequency Precipitation Radar aboard the core will check the accuracy of retrievals from the GMI radiometer and will enable improvement of the radiometer retrievals. Observational intersections of the core with the constellation spacecraft are essential in applying this technique to the member satellites. Information from core spacecraft retrievals during intersection events will be transferred to the constellation radiometer instruments in the form of improved calibration and, with experience, improved radiometric algorithms. In preparation for the transfer standard technique, comparisons using the Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM) with sun-synchronous radiometers have been conducted. Ongoing research involves study of critical variables in the inter-comparison, such as correlation with spatial-temporal separation of intersection events, frequency of intersection events, variable azimuth look angles, and variable resolution cells for the various sensors.

Bidwell, S. W.↗
NASA NTRS1973

Microwave holography for nondestructive testing

Holographic methods permit use of very large effective apertures so that weak signals can be collected over wide area and integrated to form image. Technique, modification of side-looking radar principle, can be used at very short ranges needed for nondestructive inspection of test specimens.

Cribbs, R. W.↗
NASA NTRS1977

Radiometry of satellites and of the rings of Saturn

Brightness temperatures at wavelengths between 8 microns and 3.7 cm are tabulated for satellites of known size; except for Titan, they are consistent with blackbody emission values. For Titan a more complex thermal radiation spectrum with three separate regimes is identified. Radiometric brightness measurements, when used in conjunction with photometry, are shown to determine satellite sizes and albedos; this technique is calibrated by using satellites and asteroids with radii evaluated from other methods. Eclipse radiometry indicates the thermophysical properties of surface layers; such observations show that the uppermost coverings of Phobos, Callisto, and Ganymede have remarkably low thermal conductivities. Infrared and radar detections of the rings of Saturn are surveyed; the important constraints that they provide on ring particle sizes and bulk composition are outlined.

Morrison, D.↗
NASA NTRS1982

Geological-structural interpretation using products of remote sensing in the region of Carrancas, Minas Gerais, Brazil

The efficiency of some criteria developed for the utilization of small scale and low resolution remote sensing products to map geological and structural features was demonstrated. Those criteria were adapted from the Logical Method of Photointerpretation which consists of textural qualitative analysis of landforms and drainage net patterns. LANDSAT images of channel 5 and 7, 4 LANDSAT-RBV scenes, and 1 radar mosiac were utilized. The region of study is characterized by supracrustal metassediments (quartzites and micaschist) folded according to a "zig-zag" pattern and gnaissic basement. Lithological-structural definition was considered outstanding when compared to data acquired during field work, bibliographic data and geologic maps acquired in larger scales.

Parada, N. D. J.↗
NASA NTRS1990

Spaceborne weather radar

The present work on the development status of spaceborne weather radar systems and services discusses radar instrument complementarities, the current forms of equations for the characterization of such aspects of weather radar performance as surface and mirror-image returns, polarimetry, and Doppler considerations, and such essential factors in spaceborne weather radar design as frequency selection, scanning modes, and the application of SAR to rain detection. Attention is then given to radar signal absorption by the various atmospheric gases, rain drop size distribution and wind velocity determinations, and the characteristics of clouds, as well as the range of available estimation methods for backscattering, single- and dual-wavelength attenuation, and polarimetric and climatological characteristics.

Meneghini, Robert↗
NASA NTRS1991

Determination and prediction of Magellan's orbit

The Magellan spacecraft has been systematically mapping the surface of Venus since September 15, 1990, using a synthetic aperture radar. The spacecraft orbit about Venus is nearly polar, with an orbital period of 3.26 hours and periapsis altitude of 295 km. The radiometric measurements and the data reduction method used to determine and predict the spacecraft state are described. Orbit determination and prediction results are given for the first 146 days of mapping (through February 8, 1991, 60 percent of the first rotation of Venus). Orbit accuracy requirements of 150 meters in the radial position, and 1 km in the along-track and cross-track positions are shown to be met, but with exceptions. All error requirements were exceeded during a combined period of limited in-plane orbit observability due to earth-orbit relative geometry, and increased measurement noise due to superior conjunction.

Engelhardt, D. B.↗
NASA NTRS1994

Analysis of EUV/FUV dayglow and auroral measurements

This report documents investigations carried out over the twelve month period which commenced in November 1992. The contract identifies the following three tasks: analysis of the O II 83.4 nm dayglow and comparison with incoherent scatter radar data, analysis of the EUV spectrum of an electron aurora, and analysis of the EUV spectrum of a proton-hydrogen-electron aurora. The analysis approach, data reduction methods, and results, including plots of O I 98.9 nm versus time and average spectra, are presented for the last two tasks. The appendices contain preprints of two papers written under the first task. The first paper examines the effect of new O(3P) photoionization cross sections, N2 photoabsorption cross sections, and O(+) oscillator strengths and transition probabilities on the O II 83.4 nm dayglow. The second addresses the problem of remotely sensing the dayside F2 region using limb O II 83.4 nm data.

Majeed, T.↗
NASA NTRS1994

A study of occurrence rates of Electromagnetic Interference (EMI) to aircraft with a focus on HIRF (external) High Intensity Radiated Fields

This report presents the methodology and results of a subjective study done by Polytechnic University to investigate Electromagnetic Interference (EMI) events on aircraft. The results cover various types of EMI from on-board aircraft systems, passenger carry-on devices, and externally generated disturbances. The focus of the study, however, was on externally generated EMI, termed High Intensity Radiated Fields (HIRF), from radars, radio and television transmitters, and other man-made emitters of electromagnetic energy. The study methodology used an anonymous questionnaire distributed to experts to gather the data. This method is known as the Delphi or Consensus Estimation technique. The questionnaire was sent to an expert population of 230 and there were 57 respondents. Details of the questionnaire, a few anecdotes, and the statistical results of the study are presented.

Shooman, Martin L.↗
NASA NTRS2002

Four Station Interferometric Radar Observations of Mars

Planetary targets have been observed with radar since the late 1950s when it was first used for ranging experiments with the Moon. As telescope size and power increased, it became possible to observe more distant targets (Venus, Mars, and the outer satellites). Inherent to radar observations is the uncertainty as to the source of the reflection, there being two points where range and Doppler rings intersect on a sphere. The use of interferometric methods, first used on the moon with two stations and later on Venus and Mars, solved this problem. We extend the method through the addition of a fourth receiving telescope (thus doubling the number of projected baselines) and integration of the newly available Mars Orbiter Laser Altimeter (MOLA) topographic datasets.

Larsen, K. W.↗
NASA NTRS2006

Relationship between Weather, Traffic and Delay Based on Empirical Methods

The steady rise in demand for air transportation over the years has put much emphasis on the need for sophisticated air traffic flow management (TFM) within the National Airspace System (NAS). The NAS refers to hardware, software and people, including runways, radars, networks, FAA, airlines, etc., involved in air traffic management (ATM) in the US. One of the metrics that has been used to assess the performance of NAS is the actual delays provided through FAA's Air Traffic Operations Network (OPSNET). The OPSNET delay data includes those reportable delays, i.e. delays of 15 minutes or more experienced by Instrument Flight Rule (IFR) flights, submitted by the FAA facilities. These OPSNET delays are caused by the application of TFM initiatives in response to, for instance, weather conditions, increased traffic volume, equipment outages, airline operations, and runway conditions. TFM initiatives such as, ground stops, ground delay programs, rerouting, airborne holding, and miles-in-trail restrictions, are actions which are needed to control the air traffic demand to mitigate the demand-capacity imbalance due to the reduction in capacity. Consequently, TFM initiatives result in NAS delays. Of all the causes, weather has been identified as the most important causal factor for NAS delays. Therefore, in order to accurately assess the NAS performance, it has become necessary to create a baseline for NAS performance and establish a model which characterizes the relation between weather and NAS delays.

Sridhar, Banavar↗
NASA NTRS2016

Methods for Determining Aircraft Surface State at Lesser-Equipped Airports

Tactical departure scheduling within a terminal airspace must accommodate a wide spectrum of surveillance and communication capabilities at multiple airports. The success of such a scheduler is highly dependent upon the knowledge of a departure's state while it is still on the surface. Airports within a common Terminal RAdar CONtrol (TRACON) airspace possess varying levels of surface surveillance infrastructure which directly impacts uncertainties in wheels-off times. Large airports have access to surface surveillance data, which is shared with the TRACON, while lesser-equipped airports still rely solely on controllers in Air Traffic Control Towers (Towers). Coordination between TRACON and Towers can be greatly enhanced when the TRACON controller has access to the surface surveillance and the associated decision-support tools at well-equipped airports. Similar coordination at lesser-equipped airports is still based on verbal communications. This paper investigates possible methods to reduce the uncertainty in wheels-off time predictions at the lesser-equipped airports through the novel use of Over-the-Air (OTA) data transmissions. We also discuss the methods and equipment used to collect sample data at lesser-equipped airports within a large US TRACON, as well as the data evaluation to determine if meaningful information can be extracted from it.

departure scheduling↗
NASA NTRS1972

Echo movement and evolution from real-time processing.

Preliminary experimental data on the effectiveness of conventional radars in measuring the movement and evolution of meteorological echoes when the radar is connected to a programmable real-time processor are examined. In the processor programming is accomplished by conceiving abstract machines which constitute the actual programs used in the methods employed. An analysis of these methods, such as the center of gravity method, the contour-displacement method, the method of slope, the cross-section method, the contour crosscorrelation method, the method of echo evolution at each point, and three-dimensional measurements, shows that the motions deduced from them may differ notably (since each method determines different quantities) but the plurality of measurement may give additional information on the characteristics of the precipitation.

Schaffner, M. R.↗
NASA NTRS1985

Angle-of-attack estimation for analysis of CAT encounters

Recent studies of clear-air turbulence (CAT) encounters involving wide-body airliners have been based upon flight-path wind estimates made by analyzing digital flight-data-recorder (DFDR) records and radar records. Such estimates require a time history of the aircraft angle of attack, a record that is not usually included in the DFDR measurement set. This paper describes a method for reconstructing angle of attack that utilizes available flight record and aircraft-specific information associated with an aerodynamic model of the lift coefficient. Results from two wide-body incidents in which vane measurements of angle of attack were recorded show good agreement between measured and calculated time histories. This research has been performed in cooperation with the National Transportation Safety Board to provide a better understanding of the CAT phenomenon.

Bach, R. E., Jr.↗
NASA NTRS1987

On the spatial structure of the Perseids meteor stream

The analysis of radar observations of the Perseid meteor stream conducted in an ionospherical laboratory in the period from 1964 to 1981 is presented. The Perseids meteor rates were determined by the fluctuation method. Analysis of their hourly distributions showed that the stream maximum position is different for different years, i.e., the stream nodal position is constantly changing. The results of the analysis are presented and discussed.

Andreev, G. V.↗
NASA NTRS1988

Decision time on orbital debris

The problem of orbital debris, especially in LEO is discussed, stressing ways to minimize hazards caused by debris. There are over 7,000 objects making up 2.4 X 10 to the 6th kg of debris in LEO with velocities up to 7 km/sec. The least costly way of minimizing hazards from debris is to make spent rocket stages inert, to preclude failures after their useful life, by insuring that all residual propellants and pressurant gases are vented while the stage is still subject to command. A more costly option is the actively controlled deorbit of spent stages and spacecraft at the end of their useful mission life. The removal of inert stages or spacecraft is too costly to be practical. The least expensive methods of removal are deorbit for altitudes below 25,000 km and placing the object in earth-escape trajectory for objects at higher altitudes. NASA is developing a special radar to measure the existing small-particle debris and its changes over time, and international agreements are expected to set standards of operational practices to minimize debris.

Loftus, Joseph P.↗