Engineering Papers⌕ Search

SEARCH · Engineering Papers

Results for “data needs”

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 1,009 records · Page 56

Some advances in digital flow visualization

The ability to visualize complex objects, concepts, interactions, and phenomena, to 'SEE' them in the mind's eye, has always been a fundamental component of the engineering discipline. Today, driven by increasingly demanding design requirements and an avalanche of data from powerful new computers and sophisticated experimental devices, the need to visualize data effectively is more important than ever before. This pressing need has resulted in the rapid increase in the use of computer-generated graphics in engineering. This is particularly true in the field of fluid dynamics where the internal structure of flow, not just surface or geometric effects, must be interpreted and communicated. This paper reports on several recent developments in the application of digital computer-generated graphics to engineering requirements for visualization of flow.

Belie, R. G.↗

BOREAS Level 3-b AVHRR-LAC Imagery: Scaled At-sensor Radiance in LGSOWG Format

The BOREAS Staff Science Satellite Data Acquisition Program focused on providing the research teams with the remotely sensed satellite data products they needed to compare and spatially extend point results. Data acquired from the AVHRR instrument on the NOAA-9, -11, -12, and -14 satellites were processed and archived for the BOREAS region by the MRSC and BORIS. The data were acquired by CCRS and were provided for use by BOREAS researchers. A few winter acquisitions are available, but the archive contains primarily growing season imagery. These gridded, at-sensor radiance image data cover the period of 30-Jan-1994 to 18-Sep-1996. Geographically, the data cover the entire 1,000-km x 1,000-km BOREAS region. The data are stored in binary image format files.

Hall, Forrest G.↗

Rapid and Reliable Damage Proxy Map from InSAR Coherence

Future radar satellites will visit SoCal within a day after a disaster event. Data acquisition latency in 2015-2020 is 8 to approx. 15 hours. Data transfer latency that often involves human/agency intervention far exceeds the data acquisition latency. Need interagency cooperation to establish automatic pipeline for data transfer. The algorithm is tested with ALOS PALSAR data of Pasadena, California. Quantitative quality assessment is being pursued: Meeting with Pasadena City Hall computer engineers for a complete list of demolition/construction project 1. Estimate the probability of detection and probability of false alarm 2. Estimate the optimal threshold value.

InSAR↗

Generating Ground Reference Data for a Global Impervious Surface Survey

We are developing an approach for generating ground reference data in support of a project to produce a 30m impervious cover data set of the entire Earth for the years 2000 and 2010 based on the Landsat Global Land Survey (GLS) data set. Since sufficient ground reference data for training and validation is not available from ground surveys, we are developing an interactive tool, called HSegLearn, to facilitate the photo-interpretation of 1 to 2 m spatial resolution imagery data, which we will use to generate the needed ground reference data at 30m. Through the submission of selected region objects and positive or negative examples of impervious surfaces, HSegLearn enables an analyst to automatically select groups of spectrally similar objects from a hierarchical set of image segmentations produced by the HSeg image segmentation program at an appropriate level of segmentation detail, and label these region objects as either impervious or nonimpervious.

Image Processing↗

Model Output Is Data, Too: And Other Futuristic Views

The NASA space science data environment has been undergoing significant changes during the past decade: Data has become significantly more voluminous and more varied. At the same time it became much more openly available to the scientific community. As a result a number of efforts have been made to document the data content at NSSDC/SPDF, PDS, the ISTP program and more recently as part of the newly developing Virtual Observatories. Concurrently, our need to access data has become much more immediate dictating a distributed environment where users can obtain their data directly from the production sites. But where does this change lead? And what more needs to be done to further enable scientific productivity? A view of our data system 5- years in the future will be offered that envisions distributed data processing services whereby the user can obtain the type of data that is needed not necessarily what is produced. Moreover, in an ideal system the means should exist to treat models as instruments allowing the ready mixing of their output with spacecraft generated data.

Szabo, A.↗

Development of a Genetic Algorithm to Automate Clustering of a Dependency Structure Matrix

Much technology assessment and organization design data exists in Microsoft Excel spreadsheets. Tools are needed to put this data into a form that can be used by design managers to make design decisions. One need is to cluster data that is highly coupled. Tools such as the Dependency Structure Matrix (DSM) and a Genetic Algorithm (GA) can be of great benefit. However, no tool currently combines the DSM and a GA to solve the clustering problem. This paper describes a new software tool that interfaces a GA written as an Excel macro with a DSM in spreadsheet format. The results of several test cases are included to demonstrate how well this new tool works.

Rogers, James L.↗

NASA World Wind: Infrastructure for Spatial Data

The world has great need for analysis of Earth observation data, be it climate change, carbon monitoring, disaster response, national defense or simply local resource management. To best provide for spatial and time-dependent information analysis, the world benefits from an open standards and open source infrastructure for spatial data. In the spirit of NASA's motto "for the benefit of all" NASA invites the world community to collaboratively advance this core technology. The World Wind infrastructure for spatial data both unites and challenges the world for innovative solutions analyzing spatial data while also allowing absolute command and control over any respective information exchange medium.

Hogan, Patrick↗

Laboratory Data for X-Ray Astronomy

Laboratory facilities have made great strides in producing large sets of reliable data for X-ray astronomy, which include ionization and recombination cross sections needed for charge balance calculations as well as the atomic data needed for interpreting X-ray line formation. We discuss data from the new generation sources and pay special attention to the LLNL electron beam ion trap experiment, which is unique in its ability to provide direct laboratory access to spectral data under precisely controlled conditions that simulate those found in many astrophysical plasmas. Examples of spectral data obtained in the 1-160 A wavelength range are given illustrating the type of laboratory X-ray data produced in support of such missions as Chandra, X-Ray Multi-Mirror telescope (XMM), Advanced Satellite for Cosmology and Astrophysics (ASCA) and Extreme Ultraviolet Explorer Satellite (EUVE).

Beiersdorfer, P.↗

Pipeline for Applications-Based Data Discovery

From disaster response and mitigation to monitoring water quality or protecting wildlife habitat, satellite Earth observation data can be applied in countless ways to meet pressing needs and benefit society. The crucial first step toward successful data application is data discovery. Potential users often know exactly what data they need--what Earth feature or phenomenon they need to observe, how frequently, and at what resolution or level of accuracy--but may still struggle to discover the existing observations that meet their needs. We have developed a pipeline to connect applications-based users to specific satellites and data collections within NASA's Earth observation program of record that are highly relevant to their data needs. This pipeline combines available information on satellite and instrument measurement characteristics with an innovative machine learning-based approach that identifies instruments that are most relevant to the feature or phenomenon of interest.

Katrina S Virts↗

Exploring and Visualizing A-Train Instrument Data

The succession of US and international satellites that follow each other in close succession, known as the A-Train, affords an opportunity to atmospheric researchers that no single platform could provide: Increasing the number of observations at any given geographic location.. . a more complete "virtual science platform". However, vertically and horizontally, co-registering and regridding datasets from independently developed missions, Aqua, Calipso, Cloudsat, Parasol, and Aura, so that they can be inter-compared can be daunting to some, and may be repeated by many. Scientists will individually spend much of their time and resources acquiring A-Train datasets of interest residing at various locations, developing algorithms to match up and graph datasets along the A-Train track, and search through large amounts of data for areas and/or phenomena of interest. The aggregate amount of effort that can be expended on repeating pre-science tasks could climb into the tens of millions of dollars. The goal of the A-Train Data Depot (ATDD) is to enable free movement of remotely located A-Train data so that they are combined to create a consolidated vertical view of the Earth's Atmosphere along the A-Train tracks. The innovative approach of analyzing and visualizing atmospheric profiles along the platforms track (i.e., time) is accomplished by through the ATDDs Giovanni data analysis and visualization tool. Giovanni brings together data from Aqua (MODIS, AIRS, AMSR-E), Cloudsat (cloud profiling radar) and Calipso (CALIOP, IIR), as well as the Aura (OMI, MLS, HIRDLS, TES) to create a consolidated vertical view of the Earth's Atmosphere along the A-Train tracks. This easy to learn and use exploration tool will allow users to create vertical profiles of any desired A-Train dataset, for any given time of choice. This presentation shows the power of Giovanni by describing and illustrating how this tool facilitates and aids A-Train science and research. A web based display system Giovanni provides users with the capability of creating co-located profile images of temperature and humidity data from the MODIS, MLS and AIRS instruments for a user specified time and spatial area. In addition, Cloud and Aerosol profiles may also be displayed for the Cloudsat and Caliop instruments. The ability to modify horizontal and vertical axis range, data range and dynamic color range is also provided. Two dimensional strip plots of MODIS, AIRS, OM1 and POLDER parameters, co-located along the Cloudsat reference track, can also be plotted along with the Cloudsat cloud profiling data. Center swath pixels for the same parameters can also be shown as line plots overlaying the Cloudsat or Calipso profile images. Images and subsetted data produced in each analysis run may be downloaded. Users truly can explore and discover data specific to their needs prior to ever transferring data to their analysis tools.

Kempler, S.↗

Terrestrial Hydrological Data from NASA's Hydrology Data and Information Services Center (HDISC): Products, Services, and Applications

Terrestrial hydrological variables are important in global hydrology, climate, and carbon cycle studies. The North American and Global Land Data Assimilation Systems (NLDAS and GLDAS, respectively) have been generating a series of land surface states (soil moisture, snow, and temperature) and fluxes (evapotranspiration, radiation, and heat flux) variables. These data, hosted at and available from NASA s Hydrology Data and Information Services Center (HDISC), include the NLDAS hourly 1/8 degree products and the GLDAS 3-hourly 0.25 and 1.0 degree products. HDISC provides easy access and visualization and analysis capabilities for these products, thus reducing the time and resources spent by scientists on data management and facilitating hydrological research. Users can perform spatial and parameter subsetting, data format transformation, and data analysis operations without needing to first download the data. HDISC is continually being developed as a data and services portal that supports weather and climate forecasts, and water and energy cycle research.

Fang, Hongliang↗

Conformance Testing: Measurement Decision Rules

The goal of a Quality Management System (QMS) as specified in ISO 9001 and AS9100 is to provide assurance to the customer that end products meet specifications. Measuring devices, often called measuring and test equipment (MTE), are used to provide the evidence of product conformity to specified requirements. Unfortunately, processes that employ MTE can become a weak link to the overall QMS if proper attention is not given to the measurement process design, capability, and implementation. Documented "decision rules" establish the requirements to ensure measurement processes provide the measurement data that supports the needs of the QMS. Measurement data are used to make the decisions that impact all areas of technology. Whether measurements support research, design, production, or maintenance, ensuring the data supports the decision is crucial. Measurement data quality can be critical to the resulting consequences of measurement-based decisions. Historically, most industries required simplistic, one-size-fits-all decision rules for measurements. One-size-fits-all rules in some cases are not rigorous enough to provide adequate measurement results, while in other cases are overly conservative and too costly to implement. Ideally, decision rules should be rigorous enough to match the criticality of the parameter being measured, while being flexible enough to be cost effective. The goal of a decision rule is to ensure that measurement processes provide data with a sufficient level of quality to support the decisions being made - no more, no less. This paper discusses the basic concepts of providing measurement-based evidence that end products meet specifications. Although relevant to all measurement-based conformance tests, the target audience is the MTE end-user, which is anyone using MTE other than calibration service providers. Topics include measurement fundamentals, the associated decision risks, verifying conformance to specifications, and basic measurement decisions rules.

Mimbs, Scott M.↗

Data Access Services that Make Remote Sensing Data Easier to Use

This slide presentation reviews some of the processes that NASA uses to make the remote sensing data easy to use over the World Wide Web. This work involves much research into data formats, geolocation structures and quality indicators, often to be followed by coding a preprocessing program. Only then are the data usable within the analysis tool of choice. The Goddard Earth Sciences Data and Information Services Center is deploying a variety of data access services that are designed to dramatically shorten the time consumed in the data preparation step. On-the-fly conversion to the standard network Common Data Form (netCDF) format with Climate-Forecast (CF) conventions imposes a standard coordinate system framework that makes data instantly readable through several tools, such as the Integrated Data Viewer, Gridded Analysis and Display System, Panoply and Ferret. A similar benefit is achieved by serving data through the Open Source Project for a Network Data Access Protocol (OPeNDAP), which also provides subsetting. The Data Quality Screening Service goes a step further in filtering out data points based on quality control flags, based on science team recommendations or user-specified criteria. Further still is the Giovanni online analysis system which goes beyond handling formatting and quality to provide visualization and basic statistics of the data. This general approach of automating the preparation steps has the important added benefit of enabling use of the data by non-human users (i.e., computer programs), which often make sub-optimal use of the available data due to the need to hard-code data preparation on the client side.

Lynnes, Christopher↗

The GEOS-5 Neural Network Retrieval (NNR) for AOD

One of the difficulties in data assimilation is the need for multi-sensor data merging that can account for temporal and spatial biases between satellite sensors. In the Goddard Earth Observing System Model Version 5 (GEOS-5) aerosol data assimilation system, a neural network retrieval (NNR) is used as a mapping between satellite observed top of the atmosphere (TOA) reflectance and AOD, which is the target variable that is assimilated in the model. By training observations of TOA reflectance from multiple sensors to map to a common AOD dataset (in this case AOD observed by the ground based Aerosol Robotic Network, AERONET), we are able to create a global, homogenous, satellite data record of AOD from MODIS observations on board the Terra and Aqua satellites. In this talk, I will present the implementation of and recent updates to the GEOS-5 NNR for MODIS collection 6 data.

Castellanos, Patricia↗

The GEOS Neural Network Retrieval (NNR) for Multi-spectral AOD

One of the difficulties in data assimilation is the need for multi-sensor data merging that can account for temporal and spatial biases between satellite sensors. In the Goddard Earth Observing System Model Version 5 (GEOS-5) aerosol data assimilation system, a neural network retrieval (NNR) is used as a mapping between satellite observed top of the atmosphere (TOA) reflectance and AOD, which is the target variable that is assimilated in the model. By training observations of TOA reflectance from multiple sensors to map to a common AOD dataset (in this case AOD observed by the ground based Aerosol Robotic Network, AERONET), we are able to create a global, homogenous, satellite data record of AOD from multiple sensors. In this presentation, I will present recent updates to the GEOS-5 NNR for estimation of spectral AOD from MODIS and VIIRS, and the potential for multi-channel AOD assimilation to provide constraints on aerosol composition.

GEOS↗

The GEOS Neural Network Retrieval (NNR) for Multi-spectral AOD

One of the difficulties in data assimilation is the need for multi-sensor data merging that can account for temporal and spatial biases between satellite sensors. In the Goddard Earth Observing System Model Version 5 (GEOS-5) aerosol data assimilation system, a neural network retrieval (NNR) is used as a mapping between satellite observed top of the atmosphere (TOA) reflectance and AOD, which is the target variable that is assimilated in the model. By training observations of TOA reflectance from multiple sensors to map to a common AOD dataset (in this case AOD observed by the ground based Aerosol Robotic Network, AERONET), we are able to create a global, homogenous, satellite data record of AOD from multiple sensors. In this presentation, I will present recent updates to the GEOS-5 NNR for estimation of spectral AOD from MODIS and VIIRS, and the potential for multi-channel AOD assimilation to provide constraints on aerosol composition.

Patricia Castellanos↗

Inflight combined vertical and lateral space vehicular accelerations - Human tolerances

Human tolerance studies related to inflight rolling (tumbling) accelerations are discussed, with emphasis on the need to provide data on combinations of Gy, as experienced during an anomalous roll aboard Gemini VIII during which upper body (-) Gz forces and lower body (+) Gz forces were experienced. The study also points to the need to provide data on tolerances to (+) or (-) Gy combined with (-) Gz, in addition to the lowered tolerances to Gy and Gz accelerations experienced by those adapted to microgravity. It is noted that such data can be used to establish limits on spacecraft acceleration maneuvering specifications.

Mohler, S. R.↗

Aerodynamic data banks for Clark-Y, NACA 4-digit and NACA 16-series airfoil families

With the renewed interest in propellers as means of obtaining thrust and fuel efficiency in addition to the increased utilization of the computer, a significant amount of progress was made in the development of theoretical models to predict the performance of propeller systems. Inherent in the majority of the theoretical performance models to date is the need for airfoil data banks which provide lift, drag, and moment coefficient values as a function of Mach number, angle-of-attack, maximum thickness to chord ratio, and Reynolds number. Realizing the need for such data, a study was initiated to provide airfoil data banks for three commonly used airfoil families in propeller design and analysis. The families chosen consisted of the Clark-Y, NACA 16 series, and NACA 4 digit series airfoils. The various component of each computer code, the source of the data used to create the airfoil data bank, the limitations of each data bank, program listing, and a sample case with its associated input-output are described. Each airfoil data bank computer code was written to be used on the Amdahl Computer system, which is IBM compatible and uses Fortran.

Korkan, K. D.↗