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At least 865 records · Page 48

A practical guide to quartz crystal microbalance with dissipation monitoring of thin polymer films

Quartz crystal microbalance with dissipation (QCM-D) monitoring is a powerful tool used to sensitively examine the real-time responses of polymer films to external responses. For example, the technique is commonly used to monitor film growth, material adsorption, thin film swelling, and ion exchange. With its rapidly expanding use, this review is intended to introduce new users to the basic principles of QCM-D, along with practical challenges and remedies specific to polymer thin films. For both new and experienced users, specific case studies are highlighted including layer-by-layer assembly, electrochemical QCM-D, swelling, sensing, and biological application. Finally, the review recommends future directions for research and areas of growth.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗

HCPerf: Driving Performance-Directed Hierarchical Coordination for Autonomous Vehicles

The rapid development of autonomous driving poses new research challenges to the on-vehicle computing system. In particular, the execution time of autonomous driving tasks highly depends on the specific driving environment. For instance, the execution time of configurable sensor fusion increases significantly as the scene becomes complex, which leads to end-to-end deadline misses from sensing to control and may cause accidents. Thus, a framework that can effectively utilize the system resources to guarantee the end-to-end deadlines of autonomous driving tasks as well as effectively prioritize the responsiveness and throughput of the control commands is crucial for autonomous driving. In this paper, we propose HCPerf, a performance-directed hierarchical coordination framework that intelligently coordinates the autonomous driving tasks with high execution time variation and complex dependencies according to the driving performance in real-time. Specifically, HCPerf mainly consists of two coordinators. The internal coordinator intelligently schedules the tasks according to the driving performance of the vehicle in order to help them meet the end-to-end deadlines while well prioritizing the responsiveness and throughput of the control commands. At the same time, the external coordinator dynamically tunes the rates of tasks according to the schedulability in order to efficiently utilize the system resource. We conduct extensive experiments on both simulation and hardware testbeds with the representative autonomous driving application. The results show that HCPerf can effectively improve the driving performance by 7.69%-45.94% in different driving scenarios.

Ma, Jialiang↗

Analysis of Piezoelectric Structural Sensors with Emergent Computing Techniques

The purpose of this project was to try to interpret the results of some tests that were performed earlier this year and to demonstrate a possible use of emergence in computing to solve IVHM problems. The test data used was collected with piezoelectric sensors to detect mechanical changes in structures. This project team was included of Dr. Doug Ramers and Dr. Abdul Jallob of the Summer Faculty Fellowship Program, Arnaldo Colon-Lopez - a student intern from the University of Puerto Rico of Turabo, and John Lassister and Bob Engberg of the Structural and Dynamics Test Group. The tests were performed by Bob Engberg to compare the performance two types of piezoelectric (piezo) sensors, Pb(Zr(sub 1-1)Ti(sub x))O3, which we will label PZT, and Pb(Zn(sub 1/3)Nb(sub 2/3))O3-PbTiO, which we will label SCP. The tests were conducted under varying temperature and pressure conditions. One set of tests was done by varying water pressure inside an aluminum liner covered with carbon-fiber composite layers (a cylindrical "bottle" with domed ends) and the other by varying temperatures down to cryogenic levels on some specially prepared composite panels. This report discusses the data from the pressure study. The study of the temperature results was not completed in time for this report. The particular sensing done with these piezo sensors is accomplished by the sensor generating an controlled vibration that is transmitted into the structure to which the sensor is attached, and the same sensor then responding to the induced vibration of the structure. There is a relationship between the mechanical impedance of the structure and the resulting electrical impedance produced in the in the piezo sensor. The impedance is also a function of the excitation frequency. Changes in the real part of impendance signature relative to an original reference signature indicate a change in the coupled structure that could be the results of damage or strain. The water pressure tests were conducted by pressurizing the bottle on a test stand, and running sweeps of excitations frequencies for each of the piezo sensors and recording the resulting impedance. The sweeps were limited to 401 points by the available analyzer, and it was decided to perform individual sweeps at five different excitation frequency ranges. The frequency ranges used for the PZTs were different in two of the five ranges from the ranges used for the SCP. The bottles were pressurized to empty (no water), 0psig, 77 psig, 155 psig, 227 psig in nearly uniform increments of about 77psi. One of each of the two types of piezo sensors was fastened on to the bottle surface at two locations: about midway between the ends on cylindrical portion of the bottle and at the very edge of one of the end domes. The data was collected in files by sensor type (2 cases), by location (2 cases), by frequency range (5 cases), and pressure (5cases) to produce 100 data sets of 401 impedances. After familiarization with the piezo sensing technology and obtaining the data, the team developed a set of questions to try to answer regarding the data and made assignments of responsibilities. The next section lists the questions, and the remainder of the report describes the data analysis work performed by Dr. Ramers. This includes a discussion of the data, the approach to answering the question using statistical techniques, the use of an emergent system to investigate the data where statistical techniques were not usable, conclusions regarding the data, and recommendations.

Ramers, Douglas L.↗

Surface Shortwave Radiative Fluxes Derived from the U.S. Air Force Cloud Depiction Forecast System World-Wide Merged Cloud Analysis

We present a global-scale evaluation of surface shortwave (SW↓) radiative fluxes as derived with cloud amount information from the U.S. Air Force (USAF) Cloud Depiction Forecast System (CDFS) II World-Wide Merged Cloud Analysis (WWMCA) and implemented in the framework of the NASA Land Information System (LIS). Evaluation of this product is done against ground observations, a satellite-based product from the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS), and several reanalysis outputs. While the LIS/USAF product tends to overestimate the SW↓ fluxes when compared to ground observations and satellite estimates, its performance is comparable or better than the following reanalysis products: ERA5, CFSR, and MERRA-2. Results are presented using all available observations over the globe and independently for several regional domains of interest. When evaluated against ground observations over the globe, the bias in the LIS/USAF product at daily time scale was about 9.34 W m −2 and the RMS was 29.20 W m −2 while over the United States the bias was about 10.65 W m −2 and the RMS was 35.31 W m −2 . The sample sizes used were not uniform over the different regions, and the quality of both ground truth and the outputs of the other products may vary regionally. It is important to note that the LIS/USAF is a near-real-time (NRT) product of interest for potential users and as such fills a need that is not met by most products. Due to latency issues, the level of observational inputs in the NRT product is less than in the reanalysis data.

Cloud radiative effects↗

Multisensor Agile Adaptive Sampling (MAAS): A Methodology to Collect Radar Observations of Convective Cell Life Cycle

Abstract Multisensor Agile Adaptive Sampling (MAAS), a smart sensing framework, was adapted to increase the likelihood of observing the vertical structure (with little to no gaps), spatial variability (at subkilometer scale), and temporal evolution (at ∼2-min resolution) of convective cells. This adaptation of MAAS guided two mechanically scanning C-band radars (CSAPR2 and CHIVO) by automatically analyzing the latest NEXRAD data to identify, characterize, track, and nowcast the location of all convective cells forming in the Houston domain. MAAS used either a list of predetermined rules or real-time user input to select a convective cell to be tracked and sampled by the C-band radars. The CSAPR2 tracking radar was first tasked to collect three sector plan position indicator (PPI) scans toward the selected cell. Edge computer processing of the PPI scans was used to identify additional targets within the selected cell. In less than 2 min, both the CSAPR2 and CHIVO radars were able to collect bundles of three to six range–height indicator (RHI) scans toward different targets of interest within the selected cell. Bundles were successively collected along the path of cell advection for as long as the cell met a predetermined set of criteria. Between 1 June and 30 September 2022 over 315 000 vertical cross-section observations were collected by the C-band radars through ∼1300 unique isolated convective cells, most of which were observed for over 15 min of their life cycle. To the best of our knowledge, this dataset, collected primarily through automatic means, constitutes the largest dataset of its kind.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗

Optimality of incompletely measurable active and passive attitude control systems

Passive attitude control systems and active systems with incomplete state measurements are only suboptimal systems in the sense of optimal control theory, since optimal systems require complete state measurements or state estimations. An optimal system, then, requires additional hardware (especially in the case of flexible spacecraft) which results in higher costs. Therefore, it is a real engineering problem to determine how much an optimal system exceeds the suboptimal system, or in other words, what is the suboptimal system's degree of optimality. The problem will be treated in three steps: (1) definition of the degree of optimality for linear, time-invariant systems; (2) a computation method using the quadratic cost functional; (3) application to a gravity-gradient stabilized three-body satellite and a spinning flexible satellite.

Schiehlen, W.↗

Real-Time Reconfigurable Adaptive Speech Recognition Command and Control Apparatus and Method

An adaptive speech recognition and control system and method for controlling various mechanisms and systems in response to spoken instructions and in which spoken commands are effective to direct the system into appropriate memory nodes, and to respective appropriate memory templates corresponding to the voiced command is discussed. Spoken commands from any of a group of operators for which the system is trained may be identified, and voice templates are updated as required in response to changes in pronunciation and voice characteristics over time of any of the operators for which the system is trained. Provisions are made for both near-real-time retraining of the system with respect to individual terms which are determined not be positively identified, and for an overall system training and updating process in which recognition of each command and vocabulary term is checked, and in which the memory templates are retrained if necessary for respective commands or vocabulary terms with respect to an operator currently using the system. In one embodiment, the system includes input circuitry connected to a microphone and including signal processing and control sections for sensing the level of vocabulary recognition over a given period and, if recognition performance falls below a given level, processing audio-derived signals for enhancing recognition performance of the system.

Salazar, George A.↗

Hurricane Wind Field Measurements with Scanning Airborne Doppler Lidar During CAMEX-3

During the 1998 Convection and Moisture Experiment (CAMEX-3), the first hurricane wind field measurements with Doppler lidar were achieved. Wind fields were mapped within the eye, along the eyewall, in the central dense overcast, and in the marine boundary layer encompassing the inflow region. Spatial coverage was determined primarily by cloud distribution and opacity. Within optically-thin cirrus slant range of 20- 25 km was achieved, whereas no propagation was obtained during penetration of dense cloud. Measurements were obtained with the Multi-center Airborne Coherent Atmospheric Wind Sensor (MACAWS) on the NASA DC-8 research aircraft. MACAWS was developed and operated cooperatively by the atmospheric lidar remote sensing groups of NOAA Environmental Technology Laboratory, NASA Marshall Space Flight Center, and Jet Propulsion Laboratory. A pseudo-dual Doppler technique ("co-planar scanning") is used to map the horizontal component of the wind at several vertical levels. Pulses from the laser are directed out the left side of the aircraft in the desired directions using computer-controlled rotating prisms. Upon exiting the aircraft, the beam is completely eyesafe. Aircraft attitude and speed are taken into account during real-time signal processing, resulting in determination of the ground-relative wind to an accuracy of about 1 m/s magnitude and about 10 deg direction. Beam pointing angle errors are about 0.1 deg, equivalent to about 17 m at 10 km. Horizontal resolution is about 1 km (along-track) for typical signal processor and scanner settings; vertical resolution varies with range. Results from CAMEX-3 suggest that scanning Doppler wind lidar can complement airborne Doppler radar by providing wind field measurements in regions that are devoid of hydrometeors. At present MACAWS observations are being assimilated into experimental forecast models and satellite Doppler wind lidar simulations to evaluate the relative impact.

Rothermel, Jeffry↗

Wearable Environmental and Physiological Sensing Unit

The wearable environmental and physiological sensing unit (WEPS) is a prototype of systems to be worn by emergency workers (e.g., firefighters and members of hazardous-material response teams) to increase their level of safety. The WEPS includes sensors that measure a few key physiological and environmental parameters, a microcontroller unit that processes the digitized outputs of the sensors, and a radio transmitter that sends the processed sensor signals to a computer in a mobile command center for monitoring by a supervisor. The monitored parameters serve as real-time indications of the wearer s physical condition and level of activity, and of the degree and type of danger posed by the wearer s environment. The supervisor could use these indications to determine, for example, whether the wearer should withdraw in the face of an increasing hazard or whether the wearer should be rescued.

Spremo, Stevan↗

Simulating Visible/Infrared Imager Radiometer Suite Normalized Difference Vegetation Index Data Using Hyperion and MODIS

The success of MODIS (the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectrometer) in creating unprecedented, timely, high-quality data for vegetation and other studies has created great anticipation for data from VIIRS (the Visible/Infrared Imager Radiometer Suite). VIIRS will be carried onboard the joint NASA/Department of Defense/National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration NPP (NPOESS (National Polar-orbiting Operational Environmental Satellite System) Preparatory Project). Because the VIIRS instruments will have lower spatial resolution than the current MODIS instruments 400 m versus 250 m at nadir for the channels used to generate Normalized Difference Vegetation Index data, scientists need the answer to this question: how will the change in resolution affect vegetation studies? By using simulated VIIRS measurements, this question may be answered before the VIIRS instruments are deployed in space. Using simulated VIIRS products, the U.S. Department of Agriculture and other operational agencies can then modify their decision support systems appropriately in preparation for receipt of actual VIIRS data. VIIRS simulations and validations will be based on the ART (Application Research Toolbox), an integrated set of algorithms and models developed in MATLAB(Registerd TradeMark) that enables users to perform a suite of simulations and statistical trade studies on remote sensing systems. Specifically, the ART provides the capability to generate simulated multispectral image products, at various scales, from high spatial hyperspectral and/or multispectral image products. The ART uses acquired ( real ) or synthetic datasets, along with sensor specifications, to create simulated datasets. For existing multispectral sensor systems, the simulated data products are used for comparison, verification, and validation of the simulated system s actual products. VIIRS simulations will be performed using Hyperion and MODIS datasets. The hyperspectral and hyperspatial properties of Hyperion data will be used to produce simulated MODIS and VIIRS products. Hyperion-derived MODIS data will be compared with near-coincident MODIS collects to validate both spectral and spatial synthesis, which will ascertain the accuracy of converting from MODIS to VIIRS. MODIS-derived VIIRS data is needed for global coverage and for the generation of time series for regional and global investigations. These types of simulations will have errors associated with aliasing for some scene types. This study will help quantify these errors and will identify cases where high-quality, MODIS-derived VIIRS data will be available.

Ross, Kenton W.↗

A graph signal processing‐based multiple model Kalman filter ( GSP‐MMKF ) tool for predictive analytics: An air separation unit process application

Abstract The industrial Air Separations Unit (ASU) is a complicated and tightly operated process. The use of dynamic process analytics is also a key element of safe and economic operation of these processes, with increasing focus on predictive analytics to take preemptive actions. With the availability of real‐time data from hundreds of sensors, the data analysis process should also consider the topology of the data, as seen in sensor networks. In this paper, a novel tool is presented that considers the complex connectivity patterns in the sensor network and uses local adaptive disturbance estimations to predict global network‐scale trends. The paper introduces the emerging field of Graph Signal Processing (GSP) and presents a rigorous derivation of the tool starting from the extraction of the sensor‐network (in a graph theoretical sense) from the data. This network, which is in the form of a matrix, is then used to derive a Kalman‐filter type of state‐space model driven by input disturbances. Multiple disturbance models (e.g., step, ramp, periodic) are included to allow the model to have different kinds of disturbance propagation. Each graph node (representing the sensors used) dynamically adapts to the most recent detected disturbance individually. These estimated disturbances are propagated to the global network using the graph. Modifications to ensure stability are also discussed. The fidelity of the tool is tested on certain downtime events and the paper concludes by discussing the advantages of the method and planned future improvements.

Ghosh, Sambit↗

Performance of the Wavelet Decomposition on Massively Parallel Architectures

Traditionally, Fourier Transforms have been utilized for performing signal analysis and representation. But although it is straightforward to reconstruct a signal from its Fourier transform, no local description of the signal is included in its Fourier representation. To alleviate this problem, Windowed Fourier transforms and then wavelet transforms have been introduced, and it has been proven that wavelets give a better localization than traditional Fourier transforms, as well as a better division of the time- or space-frequency plane than Windowed Fourier transforms. Because of these properties and after the development of several fast algorithms for computing the wavelet representation of any signal, in particular the Multi-Resolution Analysis (MRA) developed by Mallat, wavelet transforms have increasingly been applied to signal analysis problems, especially real-life problems, in which speed is critical. In this paper we present and compare efficient wavelet decomposition algorithms on different parallel architectures. We report and analyze experimental measurements, using NASA remotely sensed images. Results show that our algorithms achieve significant performance gains on current high performance parallel systems, and meet scientific applications and multimedia requirements. The extensive performance measurements collected over a number of high-performance computer systems have revealed important architectural characteristics of these systems, in relation to the processing demands of the wavelet decomposition of digital images.

El-Ghazawi, Tarek A.↗

Integration of Nuclear Material Accounting Data and Process Monitoring Data for Improvement on Detection Probability in Safeguarding Electrochemical Processing Facilities (Final Technical Report)

The KAERI advanced spent fuel conditioning process (ACP) process is a critical component of the US- South Korean nuclear cooperation and the following “123 Agreement.” Its development has received considerable attention in both countries. The ACP is an electrochemical processing (pyroprocessing) that recycles over 96% of the used nuclear fuel (UNF). It is also intrinsically proliferation-resistant in theory. In normal operation, the U/TRU product is very hot radiologically. In addition, the Cm provides a high level of spontaneous neutrons, making the product unsuitable for weapon use. However, as pointed in some study, “the need for safeguards to protect against the diversion and misuse of separated plutonium applies essentially equally to all grades of plutonium.” As pointed by many studies, the well-established traditional Nuclear Material Accounting (NMA) approach cannot be directly applied to electrochemical processing because of the lack of an input accountability tank, the non-continuous material flow, and the unsatisfactory level of confidence in sampling methods. Therefore, nuclear safeguards remain a grand challenge in the developing of commercial electrochemical separations facilities, especially around the heart of such facilities, the electrorefiner (ER) systems. In contrast to NMA data, process monitoring (PM) data is normally an indirect measurement of the SNM and is acquired much more frequently. In a broad sense, PM includes monitoring by various types of equipment, e.g. radiation detectors, cameras, voltage, current sensors. Because it is already being collected by the operator, the additional cost to safeguards is low. It has long been believed that PM data can supplement NMA data and help improve safeguards, although the benefits are hard to quantify. The U.S. DOE’s Material Protection, Accounting, and Control Technology (MPACT) campaign has made substantial investments into innovative PM sensor technology and predictive model development for real- or near real-time measurement and prediction of molten salt density and level, salt composition and actinide concentration especially Pu, the cell voltage, and the cell current to supplement traditional NMA. For aqueous-based reprocessing facilities, it is reported that PM, integrated with traditional NMA, have a high detection probability for specific diversions. For electrochemical reprocessing, preliminary studies have shown that PM data can support traditional NMA in various ways by providing a basis to estimate some of the in-processing nuclear material inventories. Despite early success, further studies on fusion of PM data and NMA data are still needed, which is the goal of this proposed work.

11 NUCLEAR FUEL CYCLE AND FUEL MATERIALS↗

Utilization of Machine Learning Techniques for Managing the Tracking and Data Relay Satellite Constellation

National Aeronautics and Space Administration’s (NASA) Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC) operates a constellation of ten geosynchronous Tracking and Data Relay Satellites (TDRS). The TDRS constellation consists of multiple geosynchronous communication relay satellites located around the equator so they can provide continual coverage of any mission in low earth orbit. The TDRS are located primarily in three oceanic regions around the earth. NASA’s White Sands Complex provides the ground communication support for TDRS located over the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. Another TDRS ground station in Guam supports the TDRS over the Indian Ocean. With these satellites the TDRS network can provide continuous coverage of satellites in low-earth orbit. The NASA Space Network (SN) project office at GSFC manages the constellation of spacecraft. Major customers of the TDRS constellation include, but are not limited to, the International Space Station and the Hubble Space Telescope. The TDRS constellation has three generations of satellites and has been active for over 30 years providing reliable communication links between customer satellites and corresponding ground stations. However, one of the major concerns for TDRS, and in any space mission, is to ensure the health and safety of the spacecraft. Generally, engineers use telemetry data to monitor and analyze the performance and state of health of the spacecraft. Telemetry data contains hundreds of parameters that monitor each important component in the spacecraft, which can be utilized to recognize and characterize the behavior of the spacecraft. Each parameter contains considerable information to represent time-dependent properties of each spacecraft subsystem and component. During the entire life of a TDRS spacecraft, thousands of gigabytes of telemetry data are transmitted in real-time from the spacecraft to the ground station at the White Sands Complex in Las Cruces, New Mexico, and recorded as historical data sets for engineers to process and analyze the events that occurred on-orbit. These parameters contain the function of multiple spacecraft subsystems, such as the attitude control system (ACS), Thermal, Electrical Power Subsystem (EPS), etc. . The first and second generations have exceeded their required lifetime and NASA is keen to manage these spacecrafts carefully in order to maximize the remaining life using the spacecraft telemetry. The challenge is to know when the risk of losing a spacecraft in geosynchronous orbit exceeds the benefit of continued operations for customer support. In the TDRS fleet, the EPS is the most critical subsystem related to spacecraft operations. Failure of the EPS would strand a spacecraft in geosynchronous orbit. Since EPS provides power to the spacecraft, component failures ultimately lead to the inability to support the spacecraft loads and the communications payload. For instance, TDRS-8 has several anomalies in EPS including the Bus Voltage Limiter (BVL) shunt current, solar array loss of circuits, and failed battery cells. Any of these anomalies can cause critical issues to the spacecraft. Therefore, developing a system to analyze and perform early detection of a potential anomaly is an important issue in telemetry data analysis. In recent years, Telemetry Mining (TM) has been proposed to process telemetry data by using Data Mining (DM) techniques such as classification, clustering, regression and anomaly detection. Anomaly detection, also known as outlier detection, has been widely used in many data mining areas such as remote sensing, medical data processing and digital image processing. The goal of anomaly detection is to detect abnormal data, which contains a relatively low probability of occurrence among the entire data set. Early detection of anomalies is one of the most significant issues in managing the spacecraft configuration. If anomalies can be detected early enough, then the redundant resources can be used to extend the life of the operational spacecraft. We present an unsupervised anomaly detection method to process the EPS data extracted from TDRS-8. This is different from traditional analytical methods, which use telemetry data to illustrate behavior and physical meaning of each spacecraft component. TM connects multiple parameters as a vector and then conducts data analysis on this high dimension telemetry vector. This method is looking at the properties of a high dimensional vector that is able to consider the relationship between different parameters in the anomaly detection problem. This kind of method performs much better than the traditional limit checking method. In addition, we propose a new approach of real-time anomaly detection to process telemetry data in real-time, which can then be applied to spacecraft monitoring with high reliability, low cost and high accuracy.

Machine Learning (ML)↗

The Role of Remotely Sensed and Relayed Data in the Delaware River Basin

The planned integration of the existing water quality monitoring and data processing systems in the Delaware River Basin with a data relay experiment proposed for the ERTS-1 is discussed. The experiment is designed to use ERTS-1 as a data relay link for a maximum of 20 hydrologic stations in the basin, including stream gaging, reservoir level, ground water level, and water quality monitoring stations. This experiment has the potential for reducing the time lag between data collection and dissemination to less than 12 hours. The experiment will also provide impetus to develop an operational system of real time data processing and dissemination to handle the large quantity of data that will be obtained from the stations in the basin. The results of this experiment will demonstrate the relative merits of satellite relay of data versus conventional means of data telemetry and will provide a basis for the development of operational satellite relay of hydrologic data.

Paulson, R. W.↗

High-Temperature Thermometer Using Cr-Doped GdAlO3 Broadband Luminescence

A new concept has been developed for a high-temperature luminescence-based optical thermometer that both shows the desired temperature sensitivity in the upper temperature range of present state-of-the-art luminescence thermometers (above 1,300 C), while maintaining substantial stronger luminescence signal intensity that will allow these optical thermometers to operate in the presence of the high thermal background radiation typical of industrial applications. This objective is attained by using a Cr-doped GdAlO3 (Cr:GdAlO3) sensor with an orthorhombic perovskite structure, resulting in broadband luminescence that remains strong at high temperature due to the favorable electron energy level spacing of Cr:GdAlO3. The Cr:GdAlO3 temperature (and pressure) sensor can be incorporated into, or applied onto, a component s surface when a non-contact surface temperature measurement is desired, or alternatively, the temperature sensor can be attached to the end of a fiber-optic probe that can then be positioned at the location where the temperature measurement is desired. In the case of the fiber-optic probe, both the pulsed excitation and the luminescence emission travel through the fiber-optic light guide. In either case, a pulsed light source provides excitation of the luminescence, and the broadband luminescence emission is collected. Real-time temperature measurements are obtain ed using a least-squares fitting algorithm that determines the luminescence decay time, which has a known temperature dependence established by calibration. Due to the broad absorption and emission bands for Cr:GdAlO3, there is considerable flexibility in the choice of excitation wavelength and emission wavelength detection bands. The strategic choice of the GdAlO3 host is based on its high crystal field, phase stability, and distorted symmetry at the Cr3+ occupation sites. The use of the broadband emission for temperature sensing at high temperatures is a key feature of the invention and is novel since broadband luminescence emission normally shows severe thermal quenching. The tightly bound AlO6 octahedra in GdAlO3 results in a larger energy barrier to nonradiative decays than in other materials and therefore makes using broadband emission for temperature sensing possible at high temperatures. This approach results in a substantial increase in temperature capability. For example, the most commonly used Cr-doped crystal used for luminescence-based temperature measurements, ruby, has only been demonstrated up to 600 C, whereas the Cr:GdAlO3 optical thermometer under development has already been shown to exhibit useful luminescence up to 1,300 C. Because GdAlO3 is non-reactive and is stable in harsh, high-temperature environments, sensors composed of Cr:GdAlO3 will be very well suited for remote high-temperature measurements in engine or industrial environments where its intense high-temperature luminescence will stand out above significant thermal radiation background levels.

Eldridge, Jeffrey↗

From CMS to the U.S. Greenhouse Gas Center – Improved Tracking of Recent Changes in Co 2 and Ch 4 From NASA’s Quasi-Operational Modeling Systems

Reliable, low latency delivery of high quality global flux and concentration information is a growing but still unmet need to advance expanding measurement, monitoring, reporting, and verification efforts that underpin federal climate mitigation strategies. Here we present on progress toward developing space-based greenhouse gas (GHG) monitoring systems that can provide comprehensive information trailing real time by a matter of weeks to a few months. Through support from its Carbon Monitoring System (CMS) program, NASA has developed the capability to assimilate XCO 2 retrievals from the Orbiting Carbon Observatory, 2 (OCO 2 ) into the Goddard Earth Observing System (GEOS) Constituent Data Assimilation System (CoDAS) to create gap-filled, three-dimensional (3D) estimates of CO 2 mixing ratio. When observations are unavailable, concentration fields are further informed by observationally-informed bottom-up flux packages that incorporate remotely sensed fire, nighttime lights, and vegetation observations combined with estimates of atmospheric growth rate based on surface in situ data. The 3D nature of these datasets supports evaluation with independent aircraft data to improve confidence in satellite data, development of new regional modeling approaches, and quantification of the climate impacts of GHGs. The system has recently been expanded to assimilate XCH 4 from ESA’s TROPOspheric Monitoring Instrument (TROPOMI) instrument and is supported by companion efforts to improve delivery of estimates of bottom-up land and ocean fluxes. The quasi-operational GEOS-GHG system is contributing to the recently announced U.S. Greenhouse Gas Center (GHG Center) by delivering information on recent changes in CO 2 and CH 4 emissions and concentrations to support stakeholder and research communities. In this presentation, we provide an overview of the current system configured to support the GHG Center. We highlight examples of how this data contributes to broader NASA initiatives including the Earth Information Center, an innovative virtual and physical exhibit designed to show how NASA data helps the nation combat climate change. We conclude by discussing how innovations in CMS research can address remaining data gaps and modeling challenges to advance operational GHG monitoring in the future.

Lesley Ott↗

Enhanced Monitoring and Forecasting of South Asian Air Quality Episodes with Multi-Sensor Satellite Products and Dispersion Modeling

Air pollution and particulates represent a serious environmental, public health, and overarching societal concern in the Hindu Kush Himalaya (HKH) region of south-central Asia, especially during the boreal winter and spring months. Frequent contributors to poor air quality of the region include dust and particulate matter transport from the Middle East region and western India, persistent nocturnal fog and smog during the stable dry monsoon months, and biomass burning during the pre-monsoon months of boreal spring. Nocturnal and multi-day persistent stable fog and smog events can occur during the stable conditions of the dry monsoon months that lead to hazardous visibility reductions (e.g., at major airports such as Delhi, India)and poor air quality, particularly in urban corridors.Our project goal is therefore to design and implement a robust air quality and chemistry observation and modeling system using the Hybrid Single-Particle Lagrangian Integrated Trajectory (HYSPLIT) and the Weather Research and Forecasting coupled with Chemistry (WRF-Chem) models. This system effectively assimilates aerosol and trace gas retrievals from geostationary and polar-orbiting satellites to advance the monitoring and prediction capabilities of air quality and visibility reductions throughout the HKH region. For this presentation, we highlight several[multi-spectral] geostationary satellite products and dispersion modeling capabilities being developed and implemented for improved situational awareness and forecasting of air quality episodes.Launched in December 2018, the Advanced Meteorological Imager (AMI) aboard the Geostationary-Korean Multi-Purpose Satellite-2A (GEO-KOMPSAT-2A, or GK2A) provides 16 channels of multi-spectral information similar to the U.S. GOES-16/17 satellites. Proven community recipes for generating multi-spectral Red-Green-Blue (RGB) composite products to detect specific meteorological phenomena are applied to the AMI data for the HKH region. We implemented four such RGB products consisting of truecolor with Rayleigh correction to aid in smoke detection; dust RGB for monitoring larger particulate matter; nighttime microphysics for fog/smog detection;and natural color fire RGB and the shortwave 3.8 micron channel for fire hot-spot detection.We additionally configured HYSPLIT for dust/sand dispersion and concentration forecasts over HKH. The HYSPLIT dispersion simulations are initially being conducted with two different methodologies: (1) dust/sand lofting based on initializing plume releases from visual inspection of the dust RGB imagery; and (2) dust/sand release and dispersion using the internal HYSPLIT algorithm that determines lofting from input wind speeds and prescribed land use. The goal is to develop a near real-time HYSPLIT modeling solution for routinely simulating the transport and dispersion of dust plumes across the HKH region. This presentation illustrates these products and capabilities for various use cases from the 2019 to 2021 period, highlighting a particularly unhealthy episode during late March 2021 across Nepal.

Remote Sensing↗