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At least 883 records · Page 49
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
NASA NTRS1994

Observations of cloud liquid water path over oceans: Optical and microwave remote sensing methods

Published estimates of cloud liquid water path (LWP) from satellite-measured microwave radiation show little agreement, even about the relative magnitudes of LWP in the tropics and midlatitudes. To understand these differences and to obtain more reliable estimate, optical and microwave LWP retrieval methods are compared using the International Satellite Cloud Climatology Project (ISCCP) and special sensor microwave/imager (SSM/I) data. Errors in microwave LWP retrieval associated with uncertainties in surface, atmosphere, and cloud properties are assessed. Sea surface temperature may not produce great LWP errors, if accurate contemporaneous measurements are used in the retrieval. An uncertainty of estimated near-surface wind speed as high as 2 m/s produces uncertainty in LWP of about 5 mg/sq cm. Cloud liquid water temperature has only a small effect on LWP retrievals (rms errors less than 2 mg/sq cm), if errors in the temperature are less than 5 C; however, such errors can produce spurious variations of LWP with latitude and season. Errors in atmospheric column water vapor (CWV) are strongly coupled with errors in LWP (for some retrieval methods) causing errors as large as 30 mg/sq cm. Because microwave radiation is much less sensitive to clouds with small LWP (less than 7 mg/sq cm) than visible wavelength radiation, the microwave results are very sensitive to the process used to separate clear and cloudy conditions. Different cloud detection sensitivities in different microwave retrieval methods bias estimated LWP values. Comparing ISCCP and SSM/I LWPs, we find that the two estimated values are consistent in global, zonal, and regional means for warm, nonprecipitating clouds, which have average LWP values of about 5 mg/sq cm and occur much more frequently than precipitating clouds. Ice water path (IWP) can be roughly estimated from the differences between ISCCP total water path and SSM/I LWP for cold, nonprecipitating clouds. IWP in the winter hemisphere is about 3 times the LWP but only half the LWP in the summer hemisphere. Precipitating clouds contribute significantly to monthly, zonal mean LWP values determined from microwave, especially in the intertropical convergence zone (ITCZ), because they have almost 10 times the liquid water (cloud plus precipitation) of nonprecipitating clouds on average. There are significant differences among microwave LWP estimates associated with the treatment of precipitating clouds.

Lin, Bing↗
NASA NTRS1995

The AAMP5/AAMP-FV project

This presentation describes a project, formal verification of the microcode in the AAMP5 microprocessor, conducted to explore how formal techniques for specification and verification could be introduced into an industrial process. Sponsored by the Systems Validation Branch of NASA Langley and by Collins Commercial Avionics, a division of Rockwell International, it was conducted by Collins and the SRI International Computer Science Laboratory. The project consisted of specifying in the PVS language developed by SRI a portion of a Rockwell proprietary microprocessor, the AAMP5, at both the instruction set and register-transfer levels and using the PVS theorem prover to prove the microcode correct for a representative subset of instructions. While this presentation includes a brief technical overview, its emphasis is on the lessons learned in using PVS for an example of this size and the implications for using formal methods in an industrial setting. The central result of this project was to demonstrate the feasibility of formally specifying a commercial microprocessor and the use of mechanical proofs of correctness to verify microcode. This is particularly significant since the AAMP5 was not designed for formal verification, but to provide a more than three fold performance improvement, by pipelining instruction execution, while remaining object code compatible with the earlier AAMP2. As a consequence, the AAMP5 is one of the most complex microprocessors to which formal methods have been applied. Another key result was the discovery of both actual and seeded errors. Two actual microcode errors were discovered and corrected during development of the formal specification, illustrating the value of simply creating a precise specification. Two seeded errors were systematically uncovered while doing correctness proofs. One of these was an actual error that had been discovered after first fabrication but left in the microcode provided to SRI. The other error was designed to be unlikely to be detected by walkthroughs, testing, or simulation. Several other results emerged during the project, including the ease with which practicing engineers became comfortable with PVS, the need for libraries of general purpose theories, the usefulness of formal specification in revealing errors, the natural fit between formal specification and inspections, the difficulty of selecting the best style of specification for a new problem domain, the high level of assurance provided by proofs of correctness, and the need to engineer proof strategies for reuse.

Miller, Steven P.↗
NASA NTRS1976

Readout method for stored information

Readout technique increases density of stored information for projection onto facsimile reproduction. Data stored on line structures is scanned at 90 deg. angle over area larger than recorded format to ensure complete recovery of information.

Lewicki, G. W.↗
NASA NTRS1978

Continuous Czochralski growth: Silicon sheet growth development of the large area silicon sheet task of the Low Cost Silicon Solar Array project

The primary objective of this contract is to develop equipment and methods for the economic production of single crystal ingot material by the continuous Czochralski (CZ) process. Continuous CZ is defined for the purpose of this work as the growth of at least 100 kilograms of ingot from only one melt container. During the reporting period (October, 1977 - September, 1978), a modified grower was made fully functional and several recharge runs were performed. The largest run lasted 44 hours and over 42 kg of ingot was produced. Little, if any, degradation in efficiency was observed as a result of pulling multiple crystals from one crucible. Solar efficiencies observed were between 9.3 and 10.4% AMO (13.0 and 14.6% AMI) compared to 10.5% (14.7% AMI) for optimum CZ material control samples. Using the SAMICS/IPEG format, economic analysis of continuous CZ suggests that 1986 DoE cost goals can only be met by the growth of large diameter, large mass crystals.

Source record↗
NASA NTRS1993

Aeroelastic stability and response of rotating structures

A summary of the work performed during the progress period is presented. Analysis methods for predicting loads and instabilities of wind turbines were developed. Three new areas of research to aid the Advanced Turboprop Project (ATP) were initiated and developed. These three areas of research are aeroelastic analysis methods for cascades including blade and disk flexibility; stall flutter analysis; and computational aeroelasticity.

Keith, Theo G., Jr.↗
NASA NTRS2016

Consistent Practices for the Probability of Detection (POD) of Fracture Critical Metallic Components Project

NASA-STD-5009 requires that successful flaw detection by NDE methods be statistically qualified for use on fracture critical metallic components, but does not standardize practices. This task works towards standardizing calculations and record retention with a web-based tool, the NNWG POD Standards Library or NPSL. Test methods will also be standardized with an appropriately flexible appendix to -5009 identifying best practices. Additionally, this appendix will describe how specimens used to qualify NDE systems will be cataloged, stored and protected from corrosion, damage, or loss.

Hughitt, Brian↗
NASA NTRS2021

A Method for Landsat and Sentinel 2 (HLS) BRDF Normalization

The Harmonized Landsat/Sentinel-2 (HLS) project aims to generate a seamless surface reflectance product by combining observations from USGS/NASA Landsat-8 and ESA Sentinel-2 remote sensing satellites. These satellites’ sampling characteristics provide nearly constant observation geometry and low illumination variation through the scene. However, the illumination variation throughout the year impacts the surface reflectance by producing higher values for low solar zenith angles and lower reflectance for large zenith angles. In this work, we present a model to derive the bidirectional reflectance distribution function (BRDF) normalization and apply it to the HLS product at 30m spatial resolution. It is based on the BRDF parameters estimated from the MODerate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) surface reflectance product (M{O,Y}D09) at 1 km spatial resolution using the VJB method (Vermote et al., 2009). Unsupervised classification (segmentation) of HLS images is used to disaggregate the BRDF parameters to the HLS spatial resolution and to build a BRDF parameters database at HLS scale. We first test the proposed BRDF normalization for different solar zenith angles over two homogeneous sites, in particular one desert and one Peruvian Amazon forest. The proposed method reduces both the correlation with the solar zenith angle and the coefficient of variation (CV) of the reflectance time series in the red and near infrared bands to 4% in forest and keeps a low CV of 3% to 4% for the deserts. Additionally, we assess the impact of the view zenith angle (VZA) in an area of the Brazilian Amazon forest close to the equator, where impact of the angular variation is stronger because it occurs in the principal plane. The directional reflectance shows a strong dependency with the VZA. The current HLS BRDF correction reduces this dependency but still shows an under-correction, especially in the near infrared, while the proposed method shows no dependency with the view angles. We also evaluate the BRDF parameters using field surface albedo measurements as a reference over seven different sites of the US surface radiation budget observing network (SURFRAD) and five sites of the Australian OzFlux network.

Belen Franch↗
NASA NTRS1991

Design optimization of space structures

The topology-shape-size optimization of space structures is investigated through Kikuchi's homogenization method. The method starts from a 'design domain block,' which is a region of space into which the structure is to materialize. This domain is initially filled with a finite element mesh, typically regular. Force and displacement boundary conditions corresponding to applied loads and supports are applied at specific points in the domain. An optimal structure is to be 'carved out' of the design under two conditions: (1) a cost function is to be minimized, and (2) equality or inequality constraints are to be satisfied. The 'carving' process is accomplished by letting microstructure holes develop and grow in elements during the optimization process. These holes have a rectangular shape in two dimensions and a cubical shape in three dimensions, and may also rotate with respect to the reference axes. The properties of the perforated element are obtained through an homogenization procedure. Once a hole reaches the volume of the element, that element effectively disappears. The project has two phases. In the first phase the method was implemented as the combination of two computer programs: a finite element module, and an optimization driver. In the second part, focus is on the application of this technique to planetary structures. The finite element part of the method was programmed for the two-dimensional case using four-node quadrilateral elements to cover the design domain. An element homogenization technique different from that of Kikuchi and coworkers was implemented. The optimization driver is based on an augmented Lagrangian optimizer, with the volume constraint treated as a Courant penalty function. The optimizer has to be especially tuned to this type of optimization because the number of design variables can reach into the thousands. The driver is presently under development.

Felippa, Carlos↗
NASA NTRS1985

Development of optical diaphragm deflection sensors

The objective of this project was to develop high-temperature pressure sensors using non-metallic components and optical sensing methods. The sensors are to operate over a temperature range from room temperature approx. 20C to 540C, to respond to internal pressure up to 690 kPa, to respond to external pressure up to 690 kPa, and to withstand external overpressure of 2070 kPa. Project tasks include evaluating sensing techniques and sensor systems. These efforts include materials and sensing method selection, sensor design, sensor fabrication, and sensor testing. Sensors are tested as a function of temperature, pressure, overpressure, and vibration. The project results show that high-temperature pressure sensors based on glass components and optical sensing methods are feasible. The microbend optical diaphragm deflection sensor exhibits the required sensitivity and stability for use as a pressure sensor with temperature compensation. for the microbend sensor, the 95% confidence level deviation of input pressure from the pressure calculated from the overall temperature-compensated calibration equation is 3.7% of full scale. The limitations of the sensors evaluated are primarily due to the restricted temperature range of suitable commercially available optical fibers and the problems associated with glass-to-metal pressure sealing over the entire testing temperature range.

Ghering, W. L.↗
NASA NTRS2014

Use Of The Operational Air Quality Monitor (AQM) For In-Flight Water Testing Project

A primary requirement for manned spaceflight is Environmental Health which ensures air and water contaminants, acoustic profiles, microbial flora, and radiation exposures within the cabin are maintained to levels needed for crew health and for vehicle system functionality. The reliance on ground analyses of returned samples is a limitation in the current environmental monitoring strategy that will prevent future Exploration missions beyond low-Earth orbit. This proposal attempts to address this shortcoming by advancing in-flight analyses of water and air. Ground analysis of in-flight, air and water samples typically employ vapor-phase analysis by gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS) to identify and quantify organic compounds present in the samples. We envision the use of newly-developed direct ionization approaches as the most viable avenue leading towards an integrated analytical platform for the monitoring of water, air, and, potentially bio-samples in the cabin environment. Development of an in-flight instrument capable of analyzing air and water samples would be the logical next step to meeting the environmental monitoring needs of Exploration missions. Currently, the Air Quality Monitor (AQM) on-board ISS provides this specific information for a number of target compounds in the air. However, there is a significant subset of common target compounds between air and water. Naturally, the following question arises, "Can the AQM be used for both air and water quality monitoring?" Previous directorate-level IR&D funding led to the development of a water sample introduction method for mass spectrometry using electrothermal vaporization (ETV). This project will focus on the integration of the ETV with a ground-based AQM. The capabilities of this integrated platform will be evaluated using a subset of toxicologically important compounds.

Macatangay, Ariel↗
NASA NTRS2016

Benchmark Comparison of Cloud Analytics Methods Applied to Earth Observations

Cloud computing has the potential to bring high performance computing capabilities to the average science researcher. However, in order to take full advantage of cloud capabilities, the science data used in the analysis must often be reorganized. This typically involves sharding the data across multiple nodes to enable relatively fine-grained parallelism. This can be either via cloud-based file systems or cloud-enabled databases such as Cassandra, Rasdaman or SciDB. Since storing an extra copy of data leads to increased cost and data management complexity, NASA is interested in determining the benefits and costs of various cloud analytics methods for real Earth Observation cases. Accordingly, NASA's Earth Science Technology Office and Earth Science Data and Information Systems project have teamed with cloud analytics practitioners to run a benchmark comparison on cloud analytics methods using the same input data and analysis algorithms. We have particularly looked at analysis algorithms that work over long time series, because these are particularly intractable for many Earth Observation datasets which typically store data with one or just a few time steps per file. This post will present side-by-side cost and performance results for several common Earth observation analysis operations.

science data management↗
NASA NTRS1990

Foundations of measurement and instrumentation

The user of instrumentation has provided an understanding of the factors that influence instrument performance, selection, and application, and of the methods of interpreting and presenting the results of measurements. Such understanding is prerequisite to the successful attainment of the best compromise among reliability, accuracy, speed, cost, and importance of the measurement operation in achieving the ultimate goal of a project. Some subjects covered are dimensions; units; sources of measurement error; methods of describing and estimating accuracy; deduction and presentation of results through empirical equations, including the method of least squares; experimental and analytical methods of determining the static and dynamic behavior of instrumentation systems, including the use of analogs.

Warshawsky, Isidore↗
NASA NTRS2019

Method for Tracking and Communicating Aggregate Risk Through the Use of Model-Based Systems Engineering (MBSE) Tools

Large, complex projects can identify a significant number and variety of risks, throughout the project life cycle. These risks are analyzed, mitigated, closed or accepted as independent uncertainties. Once closed or accepted, it is easy for projects to lose awareness of their impact. In reality, each of these risks contributes some amount to the overall risk posture of the project. The ability to track and effectively communicate this aggregate risk has represented a challenge to project management. There have been previous attempts to create a schema to communicate the aggregate effect of risks, without notable success. Most of these attempts have centered on some additive metric derived from the scoring of likelihood and consequence values. This, in and of itself, is a logical approach, but all too often the scores were then aggregated to a level where all context was lost. One weakness has been a lack of attempt to create linkages or logical groups of the risks upon which useful aggregation could then occur. The overall move to model-based (systems) engineering (MBSE) has opened up a vast frontier of opportunities to better integrate all project data. MBSE provides an underlying layer that links data items to each other. Objectives link to requirements, which then link to functions, functions to physical architecture items, and so on, as far down as projects want to model. While it started with a focus on modeling requirements based on things like use cases, efforts are now underway to integrate safety and mission assurance (S&MA) information and analyses, such as risks. This effort, called Model Based Mission Assurance (MBMA), is yielding models that are more useful and are a more accurate representations of the systems. MBSE models, with this ability to link related items, provide a new means of tracking and communicating aggregate risks. In the proposed method, risks are added into the models as distinct items, having attributes that communicate a scoring derived from the likelihood and consequence values as charted on the standard NASA 5x5 risk matrix. Like earlier efforts, each box in the 5x5 has an associated scoring, which may include both a current score and potential post-mitigation/control score. The risk items are then linked to elements of the model, such as system objectives/goals, requirements, functions, or physical architecture items, with "Risk to" relationships. These risks will then be communicated by use of reports generated from the model, detailing all risks and/or hazards linked to model elements. These reports can include aggregate impacts, including a current scoring and potential future state scoring based on the planned mitigations and/or controls. These reports will show all risks, open, accepted, and closed, linked to project objectives or requirements. When run as part of an upcoming risk acceptance discussion, these reports will serve to remind the team of all previous risks that relate to the effected portion of the system. When included as part of periodic program or project reviews, risk reviews, and safety reviews, this method can improve the overall understanding of the system's true risk posture. This proposed method takes full advantage of the advances that modern modeling techniques provide, with a minimal investment of additional time. Utilizing the model environment also enables a near constant access to current state of aggregate risks.

model based mission assurance↗
NASA NTRS2013

Manager's Role in Electromagnetic Interference (EMI) Control

This presentation captures the essence of electromagnetic compatibility (EMC) engineering from a project manager's perspective. It explains the basics of EMC and the benefits to the project of early incorporation of EMC best practices. The EMC requirement products during a project life cycle are identified, along with the requirement verification methods that should be utilized. The goal of the presentation is to raise awareness and simplify the mystique surrounding electromagnetic compatibility for managers that have little or no electromagnetics background

Safety↗
NASA NTRS2024

Preface to the Special Issue on Modeling and Data Analysis Methods for the SMILE mission

The SMILE (Solar wind Magnetosphere Ionosphere Link Explorer) project (http://www.nssc.cas.cn/smile/, https://www.cosmos.esa.int/web/smile/mission) is a joint spacecraft mission of the European Space Agency (ESA) and the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) with an expected launch in 2025. SMILE aims to study the global interactions of solar wind–magnetosphere–ionosphere innovatively by imaging the Earth’s magnetosheath and cusps in soft X-rays and the northern auroral region in ultraviolet (UV) while simultaneously measuring plasma and magnetic field parameters in the solar wind and magnetosheath along a highly-elliptical and highly-inclined orbit. This special issue is composed of 22 articles, presenting recent progress in modeling and data analysis techniques developed for the SMILE mission. In this preface, we categorize the articles into the following seven topics and provide brief summaries: (1) instrument descriptions of the Soft X-ray Imager (SXI), (2) numerical modeling of the X-ray signals, (3) data processing of the X-ray images, (4) boundary tracing methods from the simulated images, (5) physical phenomena and a mission concept related to the scientific goals of SMILE-SXI, (6) studies of the aurora, and (7) ground-based support for SMILE.

SMILE↗
NASA NTRS1982

Earth rotation information derived from MERIT and POLARIS VLBI observations

Advanced methods involving observations of extraterrestrial objects, such as artificial satellites or quasars, may make it possible to monitor geometrical variations in survey networks of regional, continental, and global scale with a spatial resolution of a few centimeters and a temporal resolution of better than one day. However, in connection with a realization of this potential, it is necessary to account for variations in the orientation of the earth in space. The accuracy provided by the conventional approaches for determining the orientation of the earth is not sufficient in this case. However, an appropriate method could be based on the utilization of independent clock radio interferometry (commonly referred to as VLBI) observations of extragalactic radio sources. The project POLARIS (Polar-motion Analysis by Radio Interferometric Sampling) is concerned with an implementation of this method. The MERIT (Monitor Earth Rotation and Intercompare the Techniques of observation and analysis) observations represent an aid to project POLARIS. Attention is given to details regarding these programs and the results obtained thus far.

Robertson, D. S.↗
NASA NTRS1987

Projection filters for modal parameter estimate for flexible structures

Single-mode projection filters are developed for eigensystem parameter estimates from both analytical results and test data. Explicit formulations of these projection filters are derived using the pseudoinverse matrices of the controllability and observability matrices in general use. A global minimum optimization algorithm is developed to update the filter parameters by using interval analysis method. Modal parameters can be attracted and updated in the global sense within a specific region by passing the experimental data through the projection filters. For illustration of this method, a numerical example is shown by using a one-dimensional global optimization algorithm to estimate model frequencies and dampings.

Huang, Jen-Kuang↗