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At least 1,045 records · Page 58

Building Capacity to Use Earth Observations for Land Monitoring: A Synoptic Review of NASA DEVELOP’s Terrestrial Projects

The NASA DEVELOP Program addresses environmental and public policy issues through interdisciplinary research studies that apply the lens of Earth observations to decision making. The program builds capacity in both programmatic participants (e.g., students and recent graduates) and partner organizations (e.g., federal agencies and non-governmental organizations) to use and integrate Earth science information into environmental decision making. DEVELOP conducts 50-60 projects each year, with approximately three quarters of projects focusing on terrestrial-related topics such as monitoring and assessing land use/land change, vegetation health, agriculture, water resources, and urban development. This presentation will share the DEVELOP model for building capacity, highlight example project case studies, and share lessons learned working with a wide variety of partner organizations.

Capacity Building↗

NASA DEVELOP’s Approach to Building Capacity to Apply Earth Observations for Coastal and Marine Decision Making

Part of NASA’s Applied Sciences, the DEVELOP Program builds capacity through 10-week interdisciplinary feasibility studies that identify how NASA Earth observations can be integrated into decision making processes. The program is a dual capacity building effort that fosters programmatic participants (early and transitioning career professionals, students, and recent graduates) to apply Earth observations to partner organizations’ decision making needs. The program conducts 50-60 projects annually, with about 10-15% of those focused on coastal and marine community concerns. These projects explore the use of satellite data and model outputs for measuring and mapping shoreline delineation, barrier island transgression, mangrove health and extent, sedimentation and water quality, and tropical cyclone impacts to coastal regions. This presentation will introduce DEVELOP and a series of project case studies, an overview of the organizations engaged and Earth observations utilized, and lessons learned.

Capacity Building↗

Advancing STEM in Bhutan through Increased Earth Observation Capacity: Applying NASA DEVELOP’s Model to Bhutanese Scholars

The NASA DEVELOP Program, a dual capacity building effort within NASA’s Applied Sciences, fosters the development of skills and knowledge to use Earth observations for environmental decision making. The program engages students, recent graduates, early career individuals, and transitioning career professionals through 10-week feasibility studies that assess the potential for integrating NASA Earth observing satellite data into partner organization decision making processes. DEVELOP projects provide an experiential learning opportunity for participants while building the institutional capacity of partner organizations. Since 2020, DEVELOP has worked with the Government of Bhutan to engage 30 Bhutanese scholars on a series of projects focused on environmental issues in Bhutan. These projects have offered an opportunity for Bhutanese scholars studying in the US to gain geospatial knowledge and skills, project management and leadership skills, and science communication experience. This presentation will highlight the DEVELOP model of empowering its participants, collaborative projects, and highlight example outcomes of the Bhutan engagement.

Capacity Building↗

Developing Soft Skill in the Geosciences: NASA DEVELOP’s Approach to Strengthening Soft Skills in the Future Geospatial Workforce

Part of NASA’s Applied Sciences, the DEVELOP Program bridges the gap between NASA Earth Science and potential users through rapid feasibility studies that apply Earth observations to environmental decision making needs. The program conducts 50-60 studies a year that engage participants – students, recent graduates, early career individuals, and transitioning career professionals – in autonomous teamwork with an emphasis on professional development and communication. The experience offers participants a robust opportunity to build their teaming skills (facilitated through programmatic personality assessments and discussions), interpersonal communication, and critical thinking skills which are central to project work in the DEVELOP model. The program also offers leadership opportunities where participants lead their peers within a supportive environment. This presentation will introduce the DEVELOP model for soft skill development, lessons learned, and highlight testimonials of past participants.

Amanda Clayton↗

Configuration and Projected Capabilities of the Common Habitat Medical Care Facility

The Common Habitat is a large, long-duration habitat being explored as part of a conceptual study (not an active NASA program) that uses an SLS core stage Liquid Oxygen (LOX) tank as its primary structure. It is intended for use on the Moon as part of a permanently occupied outpost, on Mars as part of an outpost that will be occupied for hundreds of days at a time, and in deep space as part of the Deep Space Exploration Vehicle where it will support crewed missions up to 1200 days in duration. A study of internal orientation and crew size resulted in a Common Habitat configuration sized for a crew of eight with a three-deck horizontal orientation. Additional work outside the scope of this paper is developing a vertical translation system, a crew mobility aids system based on wearable gecko-derived grippers, and a crew seating/restraint system. These systems are all assumed for use in conjunction with the Medical Care Facility, which is needed to maintain crew well-being during these missions, where distance from Earth precludes the possibility of evacuation to Earth. This paper describes recent improvements in the Common Habitat Medical Care Facility and associated benefits for crew survivability in long duration missions beyond Earth orbit. These improvements were made with the assistance of a NASA Pathways intern whose experience includes a tour of duty in Afghanistan as an Army combat medic with the 691st GHOST-T, attached to the 1st and 7th US Special Forces Groups as part of Operation Freedom’s Sentinel, where he helped provide far-forward surgical capabilities in austere combat environments. The initial baseline Medical Care Facility was developed working in conjunction with University of Houston Space Architecture graduate students. The facility was placed on the upper deck of the Common Habitat in a location that provided privacy, operational volume, and was close to the vertical translation pathway. The notional outfitting repurposed component CAD models from unrelated studies and notionally indicated a level of care roughly equivalent to that aboard the International Space Station. The CAD modeling provided notional stowage volumes, a deployable surface, some fixed equipment, an ultrasound, and a potentially reconfigurable treatment table. While this facility is clearly a competent arrangement, it was desired to leverage available expertise and upgrade the station given the vast distances from Earth to be experienced by the Common Habitat. Key driving requirements applied to the upgrade included to provide Medical Level of Care V, offer enhanced telemedicine capabilities, provide patient physical accommodation, provide caregiver access to the patient from all sides, include sliding pocket doors for access to hygiene and to the Vertical Translation System, and to add any additional capability possible for the best achievable medical care. The first step in the facility upgrade was to quantify the current medical inventory on the International Space Station and ensure that sufficient stowage volume was present for this purpose. To that end, the ISS medical kits were reviewed, and eight full size mid deck lockers were placed in the facility. A number of additional devices were also added, based on the intern’s combat medic experience. Also, two fixed shelves and one horizontal work surface were added to the Medical Care Facility, with the shelves providing storage space for the additional devices and the work surface providing a location for the caregiver to work or stage equipment. Four display monitors were added to the wall above the horizontal work surface, supporting data display, telemedicine, conferencing, or other needs. The existing treatment table was replaced with a mobile surgical stretcher-chair. Two additional doors were added to the Medical Care Facility. One leads directly to the hygiene compartment, allowing it to support medical operations in addition to providing galley/wardroom support. The other door leads directly into the Vertical Translation System. The wall adjacent to the subsystems bay was moved, adding additional volume to the Medical Care Facility. This improved caregiver access to the patient and allowed for a larger number of caregivers to be present. It also provided options for relocation of support equipment relative to the patient as needed. In the upgraded Medical Care Facility, the Surgical Stretcher-Chair and the Vertical Translation System can work together to provide incapacitated crew member transport from a site of injury on any deck of the Common Habitat to the Medical Care Facility. It can also support patient treatment in a variety of positions including a variety of sitting postures and a supine posture at a variety of pitch angles. The facility can also support caregiver office work for review of examination results, private consultation, inventory and maintenance, and a variety of other purposes. A forward activity will be to conduct evaluations of the Medical Care Facility with different medical scenarios. Additionally, ambient and task lighting selections remain as forward work. The eight mid deck lockers can be augmented to use as portable equipment carts, similar to a manner in which maintenance facility stowage was used as portable carts during the NASA Desert Research and Technology Studies in the Constellation Program. Trash accommodation will also need forward work to assess, including provision for wet trash, dry trash, and biological waste. It will be important to assess a redesign of the surgical stretcher-chair. The commercial version used in the upgrade can only enable vertical translation in the seated configuration, requiring the patient to bend both hips and knees. A possible redesign of the chair will allow for vertical translation without requiring any bending at the hip or knees. Also, the commercial version is wheeled, making it mobile in gravity but unanchored in microgravity. Work will be needed to adapt the chair for gravity-independent performance. The hygiene compartment can be redesigned for dual-use medical scrub and galley handwash facility. Pending sufficient volume, it may also be possible to place sanitation equipment in this location to clean medical tools. Finally, most space architectures have never allowed for more than one incapacitated crew member, but several scenarios could potentially injure two or more crew in the same incident. This facility could be assessed to determine its present ability to address two or more injured crew in parallel and determine the potential upper limit for number of treatable crew in a multi-crew injury scenario, or to treat polytrauma of a single patient.

Habitat↗

Configuration and Projected Capabilities of the Common Habitat Medical Care Facility

The Common Habitat is a large, long-duration habitat being explored as part of a conceptual study (not an active NASA program) that uses an SLS core stage Liquid Oxygen (LOX) tank as its primary structure. It is intended for use on the Moon as part of a permanently occupied outpost, on Mars as part of an outpost that will be occupied for hundreds of days at a time, and in deep space as part of the Deep Space Exploration Vehicle where it will support crewed missions up to 1200 days in duration. A study of internal orientation and crew size resulted in a Common Habitat configuration sized for a crew of eight with a three-deck horizontal orientation. Additional work outside the scope of this paper is developing a vertical translation system, a crew mobility aids system based on wearable gecko-derived grippers, and a crew seating/restraint system. These systems are all assumed for use in conjunction with the Medical Care Facility, which is needed to maintain crew well-being during these missions, where distance from Earth precludes the possibility of evacuation to Earth. This paper describes recent improvements in the Common Habitat Medical Care Facility and associated benefits for crew survivability in long duration missions beyond Earth orbit. These improvements were made with the assistance of a NASA Pathways intern whose experience includes a tour of duty in Afghanistan as an Army combat medic with the 691st GHOST-T, attached to the 1st and 7th US Special Forces Groups as part of Operation Freedom’s Sentinel, where he helped provide far-forward surgical capabilities in austere combat environments. The initial baseline Medical Care Facility was developed working in conjunction with University of Houston Space Architecture graduate students. The facility was placed on the upper deck of the Common Habitat in a location that provided privacy, operational volume, and was close to the vertical translation pathway. The notional outfitting repurposed component CAD models from unrelated studies and notionally indicated a level of care roughly equivalent to that aboard the International Space Station. The CAD modeling provided notional stowage volumes, a deployable surface, some fixed equipment, an ultrasound, and a potentially reconfigurable treatment table. While this facility is clearly a competent arrangement, it was desired to leverage available expertise and upgrade the station given the vast distances from Earth to be experienced by the Common Habitat. Key driving requirements applied to the upgrade included to provide NASA’s Medical Level of Care V, offer enhanced telemedicine capabilities, provide patient physical accommodation, provide caregiver access to the patient from all sides, include sliding pocket doors for access to hygiene and to the Vertical Translation System, and to add any additional capability possible for the best achievable medical care. The first step in the facility upgrade was to quantify the current medical inventory on the International Space Station and ensure that sufficient stowage volume was present for this purpose. To that end, the ISS medical kits were reviewed, and eight full size mid deck lockers were placed in the facility. A number of additional devices were also added, based on the co-author’s combat medic experience. Also, two fixed shelves and one horizontal work surface were added to the Medical Care Facility, with the shelves providing storage space for the additional devices and the work surface providing a location for the caregiver to work or stage equipment. Four display monitors were added to the wall above the horizontal work surface, supporting data display, telemedicine, conferencing, or other needs. The existing treatment table was replaced with a mobile surgical stretcher-chair. Two additional doors were added to the Medical Care Facility. One leads directly to the hygiene compartment, allowing it to support medical operations in addition to providing galley/wardroom support. The other door leads directly into the Vertical Translation System. The wall adjacent to the subsystems bay was moved, adding additional volume to the Medical Care Facility. This improved caregiver access to the patient and allowed for a larger number of caregivers to be present. It also provided options for relocation of support equipment relative to the patient as needed. In the upgraded Medical Care Facility, the Surgical Stretcher-Chair and the Vertical Translation System can work together to provide incapacitated crew member transport from a site of injury on any deck of the Common Habitat to the Medical Care Facility. It can also support patient treatment in a variety of positions including a variety of sitting postures and a supine posture at a variety of pitch angles. The facility can also support caregiver office work for review of examination results, private consultation, inventory and maintenance, and a variety of other purposes. A forward activity will be to conduct evaluations of the Medical Care Facility with different medical scenarios. Additionally, ambient and task lighting selections remain as forward work. The eight middeck lockers can be augmented to use as portable equipment carts, similar to a manner in which maintenance facility stowage was used as portable carts during the NASA Desert Research and Technology Studies in the Constellation Program. Trash accommodation will also need forward work to assess, including provision for wet trash, dry trash, and biological waste. It will be important to assess a redesign of the surgical stretcher-chair. The commercial version used in the upgrade can only enable vertical translation in the seated configuration, requiring the patient to bend both hips and knees. A possible redesign of the chair will allow for vertical translation without requiring any bending at the hip or knees. Also, the commercial version is wheeled, making it mobile in gravity but unanchored in microgravity. Work will be needed to adapt the chair for gravity-independent performance. The hygiene compartment can be redesigned to serve both as a medical scrub facility and for galley hand washing. Pending sufficient volume, it may also be possible to place sanitation equipment in this location to clean medical tools. Finally, most space architectures have never allowed for more than one incapacitated crew member, but several scenarios could potentially injure two or more crew in the same incident. This facility could be assessed to determine its present ability to address two or more injured crew in parallel and determine the potential upper limit for number of treatable crew in a multi-crew injury scenario, or to treat polytrauma of a single patient.

Common Habitat↗

Quantifying Errors in 3D CME Parameters Derived from Synthetic Data Using White-Light Reconstruction Techniques

Current efforts in space weather forecasting of CMEs have been focused on predicting their arrival time and magnetic structure. To make these predictions, methods have been developed to derive the true CME speed, size, position, and mass, among others. Difficulties in determining the input parameters for CME forecasting models arise from the lack of direct measurements of the coronal magnetic fields and uncertainties in estimating the CME 3D geometric and kinematic parameters after eruption. White-light coronagraph images are usually employed by a variety of CME reconstruction techniques that assume more or less complex geometries. This is the first study from our International Space Science Institute (ISSI) team “Understanding Our Capabilities in Observing and Modeling Coronal Mass Ejections”, in which we explore how subjectivity affects the 3D CME parameters that are obtained from the Graduated Cylindrical Shell (GCS) reconstruction technique, which is widely used in CME research. To be able to quantify such uncertainties, the “true” values that are being fitted should be known, which are impossible to derive from observational data. We have designed two different synthetic scenarios where the “true” geometric parameters are known in order to quantify such uncertainties for the first time. We explore this by using two sets of synthetic data: 1) Using the ray-tracing option from the GCS model software itself, and 2) Using 3D magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) simulation data from the Magnetohydrodynamic Algorithm outside a Sphere code. Our experiment includes different viewing configurations using single and multiple viewpoints. CME reconstructions using a single viewpoint had the largest errors and error ranges overall for both synthetic GCS and simulated MHD white-light data. As the number of viewpoints increased from one to two, the errors decreased by approximately 4° in latitude, 22° in longitude, 14° in tilt, and 10° in half-angle. Our results quantitatively show the critical need for at least two viewpoints to be able to reduce the uncertainty in deriving CME parameters. We did not find a significant decrease in errors when going from two to three viewpoints for our specific hypothetical three spacecraft scenario using synthetic GCS white-light data. As we expected, considering all configurations and numbers of viewpoints, the mean absolute errors in the measured CME parameters are generally significantly higher in the case of the simulated MHD white-light data compared to those from the synthetic white-light images generated by the GCS model. We found the following CME parameter error bars as a starting point for quantifying the minimum error in CME parameters from white-light reconstructions: Δθ (latitude)=6° +2° -3° , Δϕ (longitude)=11° +18° -6° , Δγ (tilt)=25° +8° -7° , Δx (half-angle)=10° +12° -6° , Δh (height)=0.6 +1.2 -0.4 R ⨀ , and Δκ (ratio)=0.1 +0.03 -0.02 .

Coronal mass ejections↗

NASA's Quesst Mission Status

Construction of NASA’s X-59 low-boom aircraft is nearing completion with its first flight scheduled within the next several months. The X-59 will be the low-boom noise source for a series of community noise surveys across the USA. The goal of NASA’s Quesst Mission is to collect and correlate noise and perceptual response data to low-loudness sonic booms so that the current prohibition on commercial supersonic aircraft flight overland can be reconsidered. This presentation describes the current state and future plans for the Quesst Mission and Commercial Supersonic Technology. Employment and internship opportunities for students and graduates are also outlined.

X-59↗

Localizing Earth Science: The NASA DEVELOP Model of Community Science & Engagement

NASA’s DEVELOP Program conducts rapid feasibility studies that apply Earth observations to address community priorities and needs and enable informed decision making. Part of NASA’s Applied Sciences’ Capacity Building Program, DEVELOP builds skills in both participants (students, recent graduates, and early/transitioning career professionals) who conduct projects on small teams, and partner organizations (state and local governments, federal agencies, non-profit and for-profit organizations, and international organizations) that work closely with DEVELOP to design the project. While only a subset of DEVELOP partner organizations are local municipalities or community-led non-profits, the DEVELOP model is an effective engagement tool and often used by NASA as an introduction for communities to engage in Earth science research and familiarization with satellite remote sensing. This presentation will highlight the DEVELOP model of co-production and community collaboration, lessons learned in partnering with local communities, and evaluation activities that look at the program’s reach and efforts.

Robert Cecil Byles↗

The NASA DEVELOP Model: Multidisciplinary Teams Conduct Interdisciplinary Projects to Produce Transdisciplinary Outcomes

The DEVELOP Program, part of NASA’s Earth Applied Sciences’ Capacity Building Program, conducts 50-70 feasibility studies each year that utilize Earth observations to address local decision-making challenges and help inform action. DEVELOP uses these projects as the mechanism to build skills in its participants and partner organizations to assess and apply satellite data insights to environmental decision-making processes. While organized by thematic focus (ex. water resource management, ecological forecasting, disaster management), projects use a multidisciplinary team approach with teams of students, recent graduates, early career professionals, and transitioning career professionals, bringing different disciplines, life experience, and perspectives to execute projects that have been collaboratively designed with end-user partner organizations (federal agencies, state and local governments, non-profit and for-profit organizations, and international organizations). Projects are interdisciplinary in nature as they integrate methods from multiple disciplines, with a focus on the incorporation of satellite data with other data sources such as socioeconomic and demographic data, in situ measurements, model outputs, and partners’ knowledge, and take place under the guidance of science advisors from NASA, academia, and other partner organizations. The culmination of these multidisciplinary teams working on projects that draw from interdisciplinary methods and approaches, is a transdisciplinary solution for the partner organizations to explore further for potential adoption. This presentation will highlight the DEVELOP model of co-production and collaboration, lessons learned integrating people and project methodologies, and impact assessment activities surrounding the program’s efforts.

Capacity Building↗

Atmospheric Research 2020 Technical Highlights

Welcome to the 2020 Atmospheres Highlights report. Here we summarize research and scientific communication/outreach accomplishments from the portion of atmospheric science activities at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC) that comprises the Earth Science Division’s Atmospheres organization. As in previous years, this report is intended for a broad audience, including colleagues within NASA, scientists outside the Agency, science graduate students, and members of the public. Organizationally, the report covers research activities under the Office of Deputy Organizationally, the report covers research activities under the Office of Deputy Director for Atmospheres (610AT), which is within Earth Sciences Division (Code Director for Atmospheres (610AT), which is within Earth Sciences Division (Code 610) in the Sciences and Exploration Directorate (600). Laboratories and office within 610) in the Sciences and Exploration Directorate (600). Laboratories and office within 610AT include: Mesoscale Atmospheric Processes Laboratory (612), Climate and 610AT include: Mesoscale Atmospheric Processes Laboratory (612), Climate and Radiation Laboratory (613), Atmospheric Chemistry and Dynamics Laboratory (614), Radiation Laboratory (613), Atmospheric Chemistry and Dynamics Laboratory (614), and the Wallops Field Support Office (610.W). As of this writing, the 277 personnel and the Wallops Field Support Office (610.W). As of this writing, the 277 personnel in Code 610AT consist of 53 civil servants and 224 cooperative agreement associates, in Code 610AT consist of 53 civil servants and 224 cooperative agreement associates, postdoctoral fellows and contractors, postdoctoral fellows and contractors.

Annual Report↗

Atmospheric Research 2021 Technical Highlights

Welcome to the 2021 Atmospheres Highlights report. Here, we summarize research and scientific communication/outreach accomplishments from the portion of atmospheric science activities at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC) that comprises the Earth Science Division’s Atmospheres organization. As in previous years, this report is intended for a broad audience, including colleagues within NASA, scientists outside the Agency, science graduate students, and members of the public. Organizationally, the report covers research activities under the Office of Deputy Director for Atmospheres (610AT), which is within Earth Sciences Division (Code 610) in the Sciences and Exploration Directorate (600). Laboratories and office within 610AT include: Mesoscale Atmospheric Processes Laboratory (612), Climate and Radiation Laboratory (613), Atmospheric Chemistry and Dynamics Laboratory (614), and the Wallops Field Support Office (610.W). As of this writing, the 266 personnel in Code 610AT consist of 53 civil servants and 213 cooperative agreement associates, postdoctoral fellows and contractors.

Annual Report↗

Results of the 2022 Mental Health Survey of the Planetary Science Community

The mental health struggles within academia and research are well recognized in the science community and have been further illustrated by the numerous cultural memes and comics (e.g., PhD Comics). With the recent COVID-19 pandemic, mental health has become a topic of concern more so than ever before, as depression and anxiety have become an invisible consequence of social isolation and distancing. In addition, recent social events in the United States have reignited attention towards important social injustices surrounding people of color, women, and LGBTQ+ in academia. If diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility are to become major components of improving planetary science, it is also important to understand the mental health status of the community, as it could expose deeply embedded policies, rules, and culture that may hinder any work in sustaining and advancing people belonging to marginalized groups. Studies have been conducted to further understand the mental health of those in academia. These studies have shown that before the pandemic, there was a mental health crisis among graduate students, which became a larger problem with increasing anxiety and depression due to the pandemic. Soon after, the planetary science community recognized this concern in the recent 2023 Planetary Science Decadal White Paper, which proposed that NASA should invest in understanding the scope and impact of mental health problems within the planetary science community and how to address the issue. In this study, we conducted a mental health survey to examine the mental health of the planetary science community. We examined the overall anxiety, depression, and stress severity of the community, rather than diagnosing the community’s condition or determining the proportion of the population having a clinical anxiety, depressive, stress, or trauma-related diagnosis. To emphasize, the results are not intended to make clinical diagnoses, nor are they being used to do so for the purpose of this study.

D Trang↗

The NASA Astrobiology Program’s Professional Advancement Workshop Series: Next Steps

Introduction: In the modern-day competitive job search, it is not enough for a candidate to have an excellent academic resume. Candidates must also present themselves well in various styles of interviews, have managerial skills, and be capable of engaging in complex interpersonal relationships and team building. The NASA Astrobiology Program’s Professional Advancement Workshop Series (PAWS) addresses the need for professional skills development that is not traditionally taught in graduate programs. PAWS is designed to supplement academic teachings by providing a space where early career scientists can learn new skills to help them explore, interview for, and be hired in the jobs and careers they want. This is especially true for jobs that are outside of the traditional academic “pipeline” (the path of student to postdoc to tenure-track professor). PAWS embraces the braided river model of career development [1], which emphasizes flexibility as a scientist’s needs change throughout their life. PAWS also presents an opportunity for other early career scientists to meet and network with each other outside of conferences and other formal events. This is especially important as the world emerges from the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. Finally, PAWS creates an informative space full of resources available to everyone, which lowers institutional barriers regarding knowledge of opportunities and potentially provides mentorship to those in need. Both items are identified as supportive of a more diverse and inclusive future workforce [2–4]. PAWS began in August 2021 and was originally intended to last until the Astrobiology Science Conference in May 2022. The NASA Astrobiology Program initially sponsored PAWS, allowing the PAWS Leadership to bring in expert speakers from outside of NASA. These external speakers exposed the event attendees to new techniques and perspectives. PAWS has been able to continue beyond May 2022 because of many people volunteering their time for panels and a good balance between panels and expert-led workshops. Here, we share how PAWS works, what the results have been so far, and the future plans for PAWS.

Worshop↗

Ensemble Simulations of the 2012 July 12 Coronal Mass Ejection with the Constant-turn Flux Rope Model

Flux-rope-based magnetohydrodynamic modeling of coronal mass ejections (CMEs) is a promising tool for prediction of the CME arrival time and magnetic field at Earth. In this work, we introduce a constant-turn flux rope model and use it to simulate the 2012 July 12 16:48 CME in the inner heliosphere. We constrain the initial parameters of this CME using the graduated cylindrical shell (GCS) model and the reconnected flux in posteruption arcades. We correctly reproduce all the magnetic field components of the CME at Earth, with an arrival time error of approximately 1 hr. We further estimate the average subjective uncertainties in the GCS fittings by comparing the GCS parameters of 56 CMEs reported in multiple studies and catalogs. We determined that the GCS estimates of the CME latitude, longitude, tilt, and speed have average uncertainties of 5°.74, 11°.23, 24°.71, and 11.4%, respectively. Using these, we have created 77 ensemble members for the 2012 July 12 CME. We found that 55% of our ensemble members correctly reproduce the sign of the magnetic field components at Earth. We also determined that the uncertainties in GCS fitting can widen the CME arrival time prediction window to about 12 hr for the 2012 July 12 CME. On investigating the forecast accuracy introduced by the uncertainties in individual GCS parameters, we conclude that the half-angle and aspect ratio have little impact on the predicted magnetic field of the 2012 July 12 CME, whereas the uncertainties in longitude and tilt can introduce relatively large spread in the magnetic field predicted at Earth.

Talwinder Singh↗

VfOx in GEER: Functional Test of a Venus Oxygen Fugacity Sensor

VfOx, which stands for “Venus Oxygen Fugacity” is the DAVINCI mission’s Student Collaboration Experiment (SCE); a small single- objective sensor used to measure the partial pressure of molecular oxygen in Venus’ lower atmosphere. Through the mission timeline, VƒOx will be designed, fabricated, tested, operated, and results analyzed by undergraduate and graduate students mentored by the DAVINCI team in partnership with Johns Hopkins University and other institutions. The simple principal of VƒOx is a ceramic O 2 sensor derived from common applications, utilizing diffusion of O -2 ions between a standard (PdO) inside the sensor and the target atmosphere measured by a mW level voltage that depends directly on the standard/sample fO 2 ratio. A 60-day environmental test of a prototype design of the sensor was conducted at the Glenn Extreme Environment Rig (GEER) from August to October of 2022, in which VƒOx (Fig. 1) was placed inside the experimental chamber (Fig. 2) and brought to Venus surface temperature (460 °C) and pressure (92 bar) conditions, in a Venus like atmosphere (96.5% CO 2 , 3.5% N 2 ) that included trace gases like SO 2 , maintained by occasional “boosts” of extra gas during the experimental run.

Noam R. Izenberg↗

Space Health Impacts for the NASA Experience (SHINE): 2023 Space Radiation Didactic Curriculum

SHINE Training Program - Provide important information about the relevant scientific elements of the Human Research Program (HRP) Space Radiation is hopefully just the first to provide a curriculum - Targets graduate students to potential new investigators with an emphasis on early career investigators - Virtual program meant to improve inclusion

S. Robin Elgart↗

Quantifying Errors in 3D CME Parameters Derived From Synthetic Data Using White-Light Reconstruction Techniques

Current efforts in space weather forecasting of CMEs have been focused on predicting their arrival time and magnetic structure. To make these predictions, methods have been developed to derive the true CME speed, size, position, and mass, among others. Difficulties in determining the input parameters for CME forecasting models arise from the lack of direct measurements of the coronal magnetic fields and uncertainties in estimating the CME 3D geometric and kinematic parameters after eruption. White-light coronagraph images are usually employed by a variety of CME reconstruction techniques that assume more or less complex geometries. This is the first study from our International Space Science Institute (ISSI) team “Understanding Our Capabilities in Observing and Modeling Coronal Mass Ejections”, in which we explore how subjectivity affects the 3D CME parameters that are obtained from the Graduated Cylindrical Shell (GCS) reconstruction technique, which is widely used in CME research. To be able to quantify such uncertainties, the “true” values that are being fitted should be known, which are impossible to derive from observational data. We have designed two different synthetic scenarios where the “true” geometric parameters are known in order to quantify such uncertainties for the first time. We explore this by using two sets of synthetic data: 1) Using the ray-tracing option from the GCS model software itself, and 2) Using 3D magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) simulation data from the Magnetohydrodynamic Algorithm outside a Sphere code. Our experiment includes different viewing configurations using single and multiple viewpoints. CME reconstructions using a single viewpoint had the largest errors and error ranges overall for both synthetic GCS and simulated MHD white-light data. As the number of viewpoints increased from one to two, the errors decreased by approximately 4° in latitude, 22° in longitude, 14° in tilt, and 10° in half-angle. Our results quantitatively show the critical need for at least two viewpoints to be able to reduce the uncertainty in deriving CME parameters. We did not find a significant decrease in errors when going from two to three viewpoints for our specific hypothetical three spacecraft scenario using synthetic GCS white-light data. As we expected, considering all configurations and numbers of viewpoints, the mean absolute errors in the measured CME parameters are generally significantly higher in the case of the simulated MHD white-light data compared to those from the synthetic white-light images generated by the GCS model. We found the following CME parameter error bars as a starting point for quantifying the minimum error in CME parameters from white-light reconstructions: Δθ (latitude)=6° +2° -3° , Δϕ (longitude)=11° +18° -6° , Δγ (tilt)=25° +8° -7° , Δx (half-angle)=10° +12° -6° , Δh (height)=0.6 +1.2 -0.4 R ⨀ , and Δκ (ratio)=0.1 +0.03 -0.02 .

Coronal mass ejections↗