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At least 1,063 records · Page 59

Regional climate change predictions from the Goddard Institute for Space Studies high resolution GCM

A new diagnostic tool is developed for examining relationships between the synoptic scale circulation and regional temperature distributions in GCMs. The 4 x 5 deg GISS GCM is shown to produce accurate simulations of the variance in the synoptic scale sea level pressure distribution over the U.S. An analysis of the observational data set from the National Meteorological Center (NMC) also shows a strong relationship between the synoptic circulation and grid point temperatures. This relationship is demonstrated by deriving transfer functions between a time-series of circulation parameters and temperatures at individual grid points. The circulation parameters are derived using rotated principal components analysis, and the temperature transfer functions are based on multivariate polynomial regression models. The application of these transfer functions to the GCM circulation indicates that there is considerable spatial bias present in the GCM temperature distributions. The transfer functions are also used to indicate the possible changes in U.S. regional temperatures that could result from differences in synoptic scale circulation between a 1XCO2 and a 2xCO2 climate, using a doubled CO2 version of the same GISS GCM.

Crane, Robert G.↗

Large-scale features of Last Interglacial climate: results from evaluating the lig127k simulations for the Coupled Model Intercomparison Project (CMIP6)–Paleoclimate Modeling Intercomparison Project (PMIP4)

The modeling of paleoclimate, using physically based tools, is increasingly seen as a strong out-of-sample test of the models that are used for the projection of future climate changes. New to the Coupled Model Intercomparison Project (CMIP6) is the Tier 1 Last Interglacial experiment for 127 000 years ago (lig127k), designed to address the climate responses to stronger orbital forcing than the midHolocene experiment, using the same state-of-the-art models as for the future and following a common experimental protocol. Here we present a first analysis of a multi-model ensemble of 17 climate models, all of which have completed the CMIP6 DECK (Diagnostic, Evaluation and Characterization of Klima) experiments. The equilibrium climate sensitivity (ECS) of these models varies from 1.8 to 5.6°C. The seasonal character of the insolation anomalies results in strong summer warming over the Northern Hemisphere continents in the lig127k ensemble as compared to the CMIP6 piControl and much-reduced minimum sea ice in the Arctic. The multi-model results indicate enhanced summer monsoonal precipitation in the Northern Hemisphere and reductions in the Southern Hemisphere. These responses are greater in the lig127k than the CMIP6 midHolocene simulations as expected from the larger insolation anomalies at 127 than 6 ka. New synthesis for surface temperature and precipitation, targeted for 127 ka, have been developed for comparison to the multi-model ensemble. The lig127k model ensemble and data reconstructions are in good agreement for summer temperature anomalies over Canada, Scandinavia, and the North Atlantic and for precipitation over the Northern Hemisphere continents. The model–data comparisons and mismatches point to further study of the sensitivity of the simulations to uncertainties in the boundary conditions and of the uncertainties and sparse coverage in current proxy reconstructions. The CMIP6–Paleoclimate Modeling Intercomparison Project (PMIP4) lig127k simulations, in combination with the proxy record, improve our confidence in future projections of monsoons, surface temperature, and Arctic sea ice, thus providing a key target for model evaluation and optimization.

Last Interglacial climate↗

Development of limited-view tomography for measurement of Spray G plume direction and liquid volume fraction

Abstract The method for direct injection of fuel in the cylinder of an IC engines is important to high-efficiency and low-emission performance. Optical spray diagnostics plays an important role in understanding plume movement and interaction for multi-hole injectors, and providing baseline understanding used for computational optimization of fuel delivery. Traditional planar or line-of-sight diagnostics fail to capture the liquid distribution because of optical thickness concerns. This work proposes a high-speed (67 kHz) extinction imaging technique at various injector rotations coupled to computed tomography (CT) for time-resolved reconstruction of liquid volume fraction in three dimensions. The number of views selected and processing were based on synthetic (modeled) liquid volume fraction data where extinction and CT adequately reconstructed each plume. The exercise showed that for an 8-hole, symmetric-design injector (ECN Spray G), only three different views are enough to reproduce the direction of each plume, and particularly the mean plume direction. Therefore, the number of views was minimized for experiments to save expense. Measurements applying this limited-view technique confirm plume–plume variations also detected with mechanical patternation, while providing better spatial and temporal resolution than achieved previously. Uncertainties due to the limited view within pressurized spray chambers, the droplet size, and optically thick regions are discussed. Graphic abstract

42 ENGINEERING↗

J-2X Turbopump Cavitation Diagnostics

The J-2X is the upper stage engine currently being designed by Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne (PWR) for the Ares I Crew Launch Vehicle (CLV). Propellant supply requirements for the J-2X are defined by the Ares Upper Stage to J-2X Interface Control Document (ICD). Supply conditions outside ICD defined start or run boxes can induce turbopump cavitation leading to interruption of J-2X propellant flow during hot fire operation. In severe cases, cavitation can lead to uncontained engine failure with the potential to cause a vehicle catastrophic event. Turbopump and engine system performance models supported by system design information and test data are required to predict existence, severity, and consequences of a cavitation event. A cavitation model for each of the J-2X fuel and oxidizer turbopumps was developed using data from pump water flow test facilities at Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne (PWR) and Marshall Space Flight Center (MSFC) together with data from Powerpack 1A testing at Stennis Space Center (SSC) and from heritage systems. These component models were implemented within the PWR J-2X Real Time Model (RTM) to provide a foundation for predicting system level effects following turbopump cavitation. The RTM serves as a general failure simulation platform supporting estimation of J-2X redline system effectiveness. A study to compare cavitation induced conditions with component level structural limit thresholds throughout the engine was performed using the RTM. Results provided insight into system level turbopump cavitation effects and redline system effectiveness in preventing structural limit violations. A need to better understand structural limits and redline system failure mitigation potential in the event of fuel side cavitation was indicated. This paper examines study results, efforts to mature J-2X turbopump cavitation models and structural limits, and issues with engine redline detection of cavitation and the use of vehicle-side abort triggers to augment the engine redline system.

Santi, I. Michael↗

A hybrid neural architecture: Online attosecond x-ray characterization

The emergence of high-repetition-rate x-ray free-electron lasers (XFELs), such as SLAC’s LCLS-II, serves as our canonical example for autonomous controls that necessitate high-throughput diagnostics paired with streaming computational pipelines capable of single-shot analysis with extremely low latency. We present the deterministic characterization with an integrated parallelizable hybrid resolver architecture, a hybrid machine learning framework designed for fast, accurate analysis of XFEL diagnostics using angular streaking-based sinogram images. This architecture integrates convolutional neural networks and bidirectional long short-term memory models to denoise input, identify x-ray sub-spike features, and extract sub-spike relative delays with sub-30 attosecond temporal resolution. Deployed on low-latency hardware, it achieves over 10 kHz throughput with 168.3 μs inference latency, indicating scalability to 14 kHz with field-programmable gate array integration. By transforming regression tasks into classification problems and leveraging optimized error encoding, we achieve high precision with low-latency performance that is critical for real-time streaming event selection and experimental control feedback signals. This represents a key development in real-time control pipelines for next-generation autonomous science, generally, and high repetition-rate x-ray experiments in particular.

Accelerator Physics (physics.acc-ph)↗

Demonstration of tokamak vertical stability control based on non-inductive Faraday-effect polarimetry measurements

Long-pulse or steady-state fusion reactors are envisioned to control vertical stability based on non-inductive measurements, i.e. that do not rely on temporal change of magnetic field. For the first time, vertical stability control using non-inductive Faraday-effect polarimetry measurements has been demonstrated. The Radial Interferometer-Polarimeter system on DIII-D is capable of microsecond resolution and was used to absolutely determine the vertical position of the plasma magnetic axis Z 0 . A vertical stability controller was developed to robustly stabilize diverted plasmas using Faraday-based measurements. The system was able to stabilize against vertical displacement events with growth rates up to 350 s -1 in elongated and elliptical plasma shapes, and instabilities with even higher growth rates are likely to be controllable with further improvements to controller tuning. Tests show that the Faraday-based controller remains effective and is capable of recovering from loss of control even when the plasma vertical position is far from the region where the linear model used to calculate Z 0 is most valid. Faraday control has also been activated during plasma ramp-up, demonstrating the robustness of the technique to larger systematic diagnostic uncertainty at low electron density.

Faraday-effect polarimetry↗

Evaluation of Deep Learning Model Architectures for Point-of-Care Ultrasound Diagnostics

Point-of-care ultrasound imaging is a critical tool for patient triage during trauma for diagnosing injuries and prioritizing limited medical evacuation resources. Specifically, an eFAST exam evaluates if there are free fluids in the chest or abdomen but this is only possible if ultrasound scans can be accurately interpreted, a challenge in the pre-hospital setting. In this effort, we evaluated the use of artificial intelligent eFAST image interpretation models. Widely used deep learning model architectures were evaluated as well as Bayesian models optimized for six different diagnostic models: pneumothorax (i) B- or (ii) M-mode, hemothorax (iii) B- or (iv) M-mode, (v) pelvic or bladder abdominal hemorrhage and (vi) right upper quadrant abdominal hemorrhage. Models were trained using images captured in 27 swine. Using a leave-one-subject-out training approach, the MobileNetV2 and DarkNet53 models surpassed 85% accuracy for each M-mode scan site. The different B-mode models performed worse with accuracies between 68% and 74% except for the pelvic hemorrhage model, which only reached 62% accuracy for all model architectures. These results highlight which eFAST scan sites can be easily automated with image interpretation models, while other scan sites, such as the bladder hemorrhage model, will require more robust model development or data augmentation to improve performance. With these additional improvements, the skill threshold for ultrasound-based triage can be reduced, thus expanding its utility in the pre-hospital setting.

47 OTHER INSTRUMENTATION↗

The temporal development of hollow cathode discharges

The temporal development of hollow cathode discharges was studied by means of electrical and optical diagnostic techniques. The results indicate that the discharge develops in two stages. The initial breakdown occurs along the longest straight path of the system, i.e., from the anode to the bottom of the cathode hole. This predischarge is confined to a narrow filament along the axis and carries a current of up to hundreds of milliamperes. The resulting distortion of the electric field in the cathode hole is assumed to cause a radial breakdown from the filamentary plasma on the axis to the edge of the cathode hole. After this second breakdown, an increase in current by more than three orders of magnitude is observed. Measurements with axial magnetic fields support the two-stage model.

Ngo, Mai T.↗

Fan Beam Emission Tomography for Laminar Fires

Obtaining information on the instantaneous structure of turbulent and transient flames is important in a wide variety of applications such as fire safety, pollution reduction, flame spread studies, and model validation. Durao et al. has reviewed the different methods of obtaining structure information in reacting flows. These include Tunable Laser Absorption Spectroscopy, Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy, and Emission Spectroscopy to mention a few. Most flames emit significant radiation signatures that are used in various applications such as fire detection, light-off detection, flame diagnostics, etc. Radiation signatures can be utilized to maximum advantage for determining structural information in turbulent flows. Emission spectroscopy is most advantageous in the infrared regions of the spectra, principally because these emission lines arise from transitions in the fundamental bands of stable species such as CO2 and H2O. Based on the above, the objective of this work was to develop a fan beam emission tomography system to obtain the local scalar properties such as temperature and mole fractions of major gas species from path integrated multi-wavelength infrared radiation measurements.

Sivathanu, Yudaya↗

Learning perturbation-inducible cell states from observability analysis of transcriptome dynamics

Abstract A major challenge in biotechnology and biomanufacturing is the identification of a set of biomarkers for perturbations and metabolites of interest. Here, we develop a data-driven, transcriptome-wide approach to rank perturbation-inducible genes from time-series RNA sequencing data for the discovery of analyte-responsive promoters. This provides a set of biomarkers that act as a proxy for the transcriptional state referred to as cell state. We construct low-dimensional models of gene expression dynamics and rank genes by their ability to capture the perturbation-specific cell state using a novel observability analysis. Using this ranking, we extract 15 analyte-responsive promoters for the organophosphate malathion in the underutilized host organism Pseudomonas fluorescens SBW25. We develop synthetic genetic reporters from each analyte-responsive promoter and characterize their response to malathion. Furthermore, we enhance malathion reporting through the aggregation of the response of individual reporters with a synthetic consortium approach, and we exemplify the library’s ability to be useful outside the lab by detecting malathion in the environment. The engineered host cell, a living malathion sensor, can be optimized for use in environmental diagnostics while the developed machine learning tool can be applied to discover perturbation-inducible gene expression systems in the compendium of host organisms.

59 BASIC BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES↗

Opacity Table Generation

Radiation opacity is a key property of material systems which describes the absorption and scattering of photons. Such processes are an important part of energy transport, diagnostics, and astrophysical phenomena. Recent experiments in iron opacity and continuum lowering have sparked renewed interest in and careful vetting of opacity models. Even within the local thermodynamic equilibrium approximation, opacity varies over a large parameter space: material, temperature, density, and energy. Opacity tables that span wide regimes of this parameter space are of prime importance to radiation-hydrodynamics codes. Accurate opacity calculations cannot be achieved inline during a radiation hydrodynamics simulation since they involve accounting for all possible electron transitions of all important atomic states of a thermal ensemble. Livermore’s current framework utilizes precalculated tables at many densities, temperatures, and energies. Last year, the opacity theory team completed an L2 milestone concerning the development of a new code, Opus, which served the dual purpose of creating a modern code infrastructure and version control as well as the basis for training new members of that team, a critical need as key members near or are passed retirement. For the current L2 milestone, we exercised and validated Opus on three elements: boron, carbon, and nitrogen, which have few enough electrons to allow a careful convergence study over many input parameters. Here, we report on the production of new tables, show their convergence with respect to important parameters, state some of their limitations, and document a mostly automated production process. In this section, we address the milestone completion criteria, found on the title page and the subsection headings. In section 2, we validate Opus against Tycho and compare with TabOp and Atomic. Section 3 details some of the physics implemented in Opus and relevant to this report. We then cover details of the density-temperature grid in section 4 and do a spectral comparison between different parameter settings and different codes in section 5. After summarizing these results in section 6, we give instructions how to run the opacity table scripts in appendix A and document the scripts and input/output files in appendix B.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗

Theoretical and experimental studies relevant to interpretation of auroral emissions

This report describes the accomplishments of a program designed to develop the tools necessary to interpret auroral emissions measured from a space-based platform. The research was divided into two major areas. The first area was a laboratory study designed to improve our understanding of the space vehicle external environment and how it will affect the space-based measurement of auroral emissions. Facilities have been setup and measurements taken to simulate the gas phase environment around a space vehicle; the radiation environment encountered by an orbiting vehicle that passes through the Earth's radiation belts; and the thermal environment of a vehicle in Earth orbit. The second major area of study was a modeling program to develop the capability of using auroral images at various wavelengths to infer the total energy influx and characteristic energy of the incident auroral particles. An ab initio auroral calculation has been added to the extant ionospheric/thermospheric global modeling capabilities within our group. Once the addition of the code was complete, the combined model was used to compare the relative intensities and behavior of various emission sources (dayglow, aurora, etc.). Attached papers included are: 'Laboratory Facility for Simulation of Vehicle-Environment Interactions'; 'Workshop on the Induced Environment of Space Station Freedom'; 'Radiation Damage Effects in Far Ultraviolet Filters and Substrates'; 'Radiation Damage Effects in Far Ultraviolet Filters, Thin Films, and Substrates'; 'Use of FUV Auroral Emissions as Diagnostic Indicators'; and 'Determination of Ionospheric Conductivities from FUV Auroral Emissions'.

Keffer, Charles E.↗

DIAMS revisited: Taming the variety of knowledge in fault diagnosis expert systems

The DIAMS program, initiated in 1986, led to the development of a prototype expert system, DIAMS-1 dedicated to the Telecom 1 Attitude and Orbit Control System, and to a near-operational system, DIAMS-2, covering a whole satellite (the Telecom 2 platform and its interfaces with the payload), which was installed in the Satellite Control Center in 1993. The refinement of the knowledge representation and reasoning is now being studied, focusing on the introduction of appropriate handling of incompleteness, uncertainty and time, and keeping in mind operational constraints. For the latest generation of the tool, DIAMS-3, a new architecture has been proposed, that enables the cooperative exploitation of various models and knowledge representations. On the same baseline, new solutions enabling higher integration of diagnostic systems in the operational environment and cooperation with other knowledge intensive systems such as data analysis, planning or procedure management tools have been introduced.

Haziza, M.↗

Physics Mining of Multi-Source Data Sets

Powerful new parallel data mining algorithms can produce diagnostic and prognostic numerical models and analyses from observational data. These techniques yield higher-resolution measures than ever before of environmental parameters by fusing synoptic imagery and time-series measurements. These techniques are general and relevant to observational data, including raster, vector, and scalar, and can be applied in all Earth- and environmental science domains. Because they can be highly automated and are parallel, they scale to large spatial domains and are well suited to change and gap detection. This makes it possible to analyze spatial and temporal gaps in information, and facilitates within-mission replanning to optimize the allocation of observational resources. The basis of the innovation is the extension of a recently developed set of algorithms packaged into MineTool to multi-variate time-series data. MineTool is unique in that it automates the various steps of the data mining process, thus making it amenable to autonomous analysis of large data sets. Unlike techniques such as Artificial Neural Nets, which yield a blackbox solution, MineTool's outcome is always an analytical model in parametric form that expresses the output in terms of the input variables. This has the advantage that the derived equation can then be used to gain insight into the physical relevance and relative importance of the parameters and coefficients in the model. This is referred to as physics-mining of data. The capabilities of MineTool are extended to include both supervised and unsupervised algorithms, handle multi-type data sets, and parallelize it.

Helly, John↗

Diagnostic Statistics for the Assessment and Characterization of Complex Turbulent Flows

A simple parameterization scheme for a complex turbulent flow using nondimensional parameters coming from the Reynolds stress equations is given. Definitions and brief descriptions of the physical significance of several nondimensional parameters that are used to characterize turbulence from the viewpoint of single-point turbulence closures are given. These nondimensional parameters reflect measures of (1) the spectral band width of the turbulence; (2) deviations from the ideal Kolmogorov behavior; (3) the relative magnitude, orientation, and temporal duration of the deformation to which the turbulence is subjected; (4) one and two-point measures of the large and small scale anisotropy of the turbulence; and (5) inhomogeneity. This is an attempt to create a more systematic methodology for the diagnosis and classification of turbulent flows as well as in the development, validation, and application of turbulence model strategies. The parameters serve also to indicate the adequacy of various assumptions made in single-point turbulence models and in suggesting the appropriate turbulence strategy for a particular complex flow. The compilation will be of interest to experimentalists and to those involved in either computing turbulent flows or whose interests lies in verifying the adequacy of the phenomenological beliefs used in turbulence closures.

Ristorcelli, J. R.↗

In situ stratospheric ozone measurements by long path UV absorption - Developments and interpretation

A high-sensitivity, in situ UV absorption ozone sensor has been developed for use in the stratosphere. The instrument couples 254-nm radiation from a low-pressure mercury discharge lamp into a 40-pass White cell to attain a high-sensitivity ozone absorption measurement. Preflight/postflight laboratory tests utilizing an ozone source coupled to a laboratory UV ozone photometer in a fast-flow system as well as in-flight diagnostics verify the successful operation of the instrument. Evidence is presented to verify that in situ UV absorption ozone photometers can measure stratospheric ozone with better than 3 percent precision and 5 percent accuracy, provided proper attention is given to both the thermal field surrounding the gondola and the ambient pressure measurements. Ozone data are compared with modeled profiles in the 28- to 40-km region. An assessment of the disagreement between observations and modeled profiles is given along with suggestions for future experiments designed to constrain photochemical models.

Weinstock, E. M.↗

Retrieval of Temperature and Species Distributions from Multispectral Image Data of Surface Flame Spread in Microgravity

Weight, size, and power constraints severely limit the ability of researchers to fully characterize temperature and species distributions in microgravity combustion experiments. A powerful diagnostic technique, infrared imaging spectrometry, has the potential to address the need for temperature and species distribution measurements in microgravity experiments. An infrared spectrum imaged along a line-of-sight contains information on the temperature and species distribution in the imaged path. With multiple lines-of-sight and approximate knowledge of the geometry of the combustion flowfield, a three-dimensional distribution of temperature and species can be obtained from one hyperspectral image of a flame. While infrared imaging spectrometers exist for collecting hyperspectral imagery, the remaining challenge is retrieving the temperature and species information from this data. An initial version of an infrared analysis software package, called CAMEO (Combustion Analysis Model et Optimizer), has been developed for retrieving temperature and species distributions from hyperspectral imaging data of combustion flowfields. CAMEO has been applied to the analysis of multispectral imaging data of flame spread over a PMMA surface in microgravity that was acquired in the DARTFire program. In the next section of this paper, a description of CAMEO and its operation is presented, followed by the results of the analysis of microgravity flame spread data.

Annen, K. D.↗

Features of the Upgraded Imaging for Hypersonic Experimental Aeroheating Testing (IHEAT) Software

The Imaging for Hypersonic Experimental Aeroheating Testing (IHEAT) software is used at the NASA Langley Research Center to analyze global aeroheating data on wind tunnel models tested in the Langley Aerothermodynamics Laboratory. One-dimensional, semi-infinite heating data derived from IHEAT are used in the design of thermal protection systems for hypersonic vehicles that are exposed to severe aeroheating loads, such as reentry vehicles during descent and landing procedures. This software program originally was written in the PV-WAVE(Registered Trademark) programming language to analyze phosphor thermography data from the two-color, relative-intensity system developed at Langley. To increase the efficiency, functionality, and reliability of IHEAT, the program was migrated to MATLAB(Registered Trademark) syntax and compiled as a stand-alone executable file labeled version 4.0. New features of IHEAT 4.0 include the options to perform diagnostic checks of the accuracy of the acquired data during a wind tunnel test, to extract data along a specified multi-segment line following a feature such as a leading edge or a streamline, and to batch process all of the temporal frame data from a wind tunnel run. Results from IHEAT 4.0 were compared on a pixel level to the output images from the legacy software to validate the program. The absolute differences between the heat transfer data output from the two programs were on the order of 10(exp -5) to 10(exp -7). IHEAT 4.0 replaces the PV-WAVE(Registered Trademark) version as the production software for aeroheating experiments conducted in the hypersonic facilities at NASA Langley.

Mason, Michelle L.↗