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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.

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At least 109 records · Page 6
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
NASA NTRS1989

High rate concatenated coding systems using bandwidth efficient trellis inner codes

High-rate concatenated coding systems with bandwidth-efficient trellis inner codes and Reed-Solomon (RS) outer codes are investigated for application in high-speed satellite communication systems. Two concatenated coding schemes are proposed. In one the inner code is decoded with soft-decision Viterbi decoding, and the outer RS code performs error-correction-only decoding (decoding without side information). In the other, the inner code is decoded with a modified Viterbi algorithm, which produces reliability information along with the decoded output. In this algorithm, path metrics are used to estimate the entire information sequence, whereas branch metrics are used to provide reliability information on the decoded sequence. This information is used to erase unreliable bits in the decoded output. An errors-and-erasures RS decoder is then used for the outer code. The two schemes have been proposed for high-speed data communication on NASA satellite channels. The rates considered are at least double those used in current NASA systems, and the results indicate that high system reliability can still be achieved.

Deng, Robert H.↗
NASA NTRS1999

Gamma-Ray Burst Class Properties

Guided by the Supervised pattern recognition algorithm C4.5, we examine the three gamma-ray burst classes identified by Mukherjee et al. C4.5 provides strong statistical support for this classification. However, with C4.5 and our knowledge of the BATSE instrument, we demonstrate that Class 3 (intermediate fluence, intermediate duration, soft) does not have to be a distinct source population: statistical/systematic errors in measuring burst attributes combined with the well-known hardness/intensity correlation can cause low peak flux Class I (high fluence, long, intermediate hardness) bursts to take on Class 3 characteristics naturally. Based on our hypothesis that the third class is not a distinct one, we provide rules so that future events can be placed in either Class I or Class 2 (low fluence, short, hard). Using classified bursts from the BATSE 4B Catalog, we plot log(N>P) vs. log(P) curves and study spectral features of each class. We find that the two classes are relatively distinct on the basis of spectral parameters, alpha, Beta, and E(sub peak) alone. Although this does not indicate a better basis for classification, it does suggest that different physical conditions exist for Class I and Class 2 bursts. In the process of studying burst class characteristics, we identify a new bias that affects measurement of burst fluences and durations. Using a simple model of how burst duration can be underestimated, we generally characterize how this fluence duration bias affects BATSE measurements, and demonstrate the type of effect it can have on the BATSE fluence vs. peak flux diagram.

Hakkila, Jon↗
NASA NTRS2000

Gamma-Ray Burst Class Properties

Guided by the supervised pattern recognition algorithm C4.5 developed by Quinlan in 1986, we examine the three gamma-ray burst classes identified by Mukherjee et al. in 1998. C4.5 provides strong statistical support for this classification. However, with C4.5 and our knowledge of the Burst and Transient Source Experiment (BATSE) instrument, we demonstrate that class 3 (intermediate fluence, intermediate duration, soft) does not have to be a distinct source population: statistical/systematic errors in measuring burst attributes combined with the well-known hardness/intensity correlation can cause low peak flux class 1 (high fluence, long, intermediate hardness) bursts to take on class 3 characteristics naturally. Based on our hypothesis that the third class is not a distinct one, we provide rules so that future events can be placed in either class 1 or class 2 (low fluence, short, hard). We find that the two classes are relatively distinct on the basis of Band's work in 1993 on spectral parameters alpha, beta, and E (sub peak) alone. Although this does not indicate a better basis for classification, it does suggest that different physical conditions exist for class 1 and class 2 bursts. In the process of studying burst class characteristics, we identify a new bias affecting burst fluence and duration measurements. Using a simple model of how burst duration can be underestimated, we show how this fluence duration bias can affect BATSE measurements and demonstrate the type of effect it can have on the BATSE fluence versus peak flux diagram.

Hakkila, Jon↗
NASA NTRS1982

Study of and proposals for the correction of errors in a radar ranging device designed to facilitate docking of a teleoperator maneuvering system

A frequency modulated continuous wave radar system was developed. The system operates in the 35 gigahertz frequency range and provides millimeter accuracy range and range rate measurements. This level of range resolution allows soft docking for the proposed teleoperator maneuvering system (TMS) or other autonomous or robotic space vehicles. Sources of error in the operation of the system which tend to limit its range resolution capabilities are identified. Alternative signal processing techniques are explored with emphasis on determination of the effects of inserting various signal filtering circuits in the system. The identification and elimination of an extraneous low frequency signal component created as a result of zero range immediate reflection of radar energy from the surface of the antenna dish back into the mixer of the system is described.

Mcdonald, M. W.↗
NASA NTRS1999

Results from the First Two Flights of the Static Computer Memory Integrity Testing Experiment

This paper details the scientific objectives, experiment design, data collection method, and post flight analysis following the first two flights of the Static Computer Memory Integrity Testing (SCMIT) experiment. SCMIT is designed to detect soft-event upsets in passive magnetic memory. A soft-event upset is a change in the logic state of active or passive forms of magnetic memory, commonly referred to as a "Bitflip". In its mildest form a soft-event upset can cause software exceptions, unexpected events, start spacecraft safeing (ending data collection) or corrupted fault protection and error recovery capabilities. In it's most severe form loss of mission or spacecraft can occur. Analysis after the first flight (in 1991 during STS-40) identified possible soft-event upsets to 25% of the experiment detectors. Post flight analysis after the second flight (in 1997 on STS-87) failed to find any evidence of soft-event upsets. The SCMIT experiment is currently scheduled for a third flight in December 1999 on STS-101.

Hancock, Thomas M., III↗
NASA NTRS1990

High-order neural models for error correcting code

The decoding and error-correction of data transmitted over a noisy channel is in principle equivalent to the operation of a neural network performing as a content-addressable memory. For a successful application, however, the neural network has to be capable of storing arbitrary words, and it has to be guaranteed that the stored words represent the only stable attractors of the memory. This paper presents a novel high-order neural network architecture that has these characteristics. The analog nature of the network can be used to perform soft-decision decoding with any block code. The performance in terms of postdecoding bit error rate versus SNR is demonstrated for two exemplary block codes. The comparison with a conventional decoding algorithm for a (15,5) cyclic redundancy code shows, for example, that the bit error rate at 7dB SNR can be decreased by two orders of magnitude.

Jeffries, Clark↗
NASA NTRS1999

Modeling of polychromatic attenuation using computed tomography reconstructed images

This paper presents a procedure for estimating an accurate model of the CT imaging process including spectral effects. As raw projection data are typically unavailable to the end-user, we adopt a post-processing approach that utilizes the reconstructed images themselves. This approach includes errors from x-ray scatter and the nonidealities of the built-in soft tissue correction into the beam characteristics, which is crucial to beam hardening correction algorithms that are designed to be applied directly to CT reconstructed images. We formulate this approach as a quadratic programming problem and propose two different methods, dimension reduction and regularization, to overcome ill conditioning in the model. For the regularization method we use a statistical procedure, Cross Validation, to select the regularization parameter. We have constructed step-wedge phantoms to estimate the effective beam spectrum of a GE CT-I scanner. Using the derived spectrum, we computed the attenuation ratios for the wedge phantoms and found that the worst case modeling error is less than 3% of the corresponding attenuation ratio. We have also built two test (hybrid) phantoms to evaluate the effective spectrum. Based on these test phantoms, we have shown that the effective beam spectrum provides an accurate model for the CT imaging process. Last, we used a simple beam hardening correction experiment to demonstrate the effectiveness of the estimated beam profile for removing beam hardening artifacts. We hope that this estimation procedure will encourage more independent research on beam hardening corrections and will lead to the development of application-specific beam hardening correction algorithms.

NASA Discipline Musculoskeletal↗
NASA NTRS1987

Evaluation of a scale-model experiment to investigate long-range acoustic propagation

Tests were conducted to evaluate the feasibility of using a scale-model experiment situated in an anechoic facility to investigate long-range sound propagation over ground terrain. For a nominal scale factor of 100:1, attenuations along a linear array of six microphones colinear with a continuous-wave type of sound source were measured over a wavelength range from 10 to 160 for a nominal test frequency of 10 kHz. Most tests were made for a hard model surface (plywood), but limited tests were also made for a soft model surface (plywood with felt). For grazing-incidence propagation over the hard surface, measured and predicted attenuation trends were consistent for microphone locations out to between 40 and 80 wavelengths. Beyond 80 wavelengths, significant variability was observed that was caused by disturbances in the propagation medium. Also, there was evidence of extraneous propagation-path contributions to data irregularities at more remote microphones. Sensitivity studies for the hard-surface and microphone indicated a 2.5 dB change in the relative excess attenuation for a systematic error in source and microphone elevations on the order of 1 mm. For the soft-surface model, no comparable sensitivity was found.

Parrott, Tony L.↗
NASA NTRS1975

Space vehicle Viterbi decoder

The design and fabrication of an extremely low-power, constraint-length 7, rate 1/3 Viterbi decoder brassboard capable of operating at information rates of up to 100 kb/s is presented. The brassboard is partitioned to facilitate a later transition to an LSI version requiring even less power. The effect of soft-decision thresholds, path memory lengths, and output selection algorithms on the bit error rate is evaluated. A branch synchronization algorithm is compared with a more conventional approach. The implementation of the decoder and its test set (including all-digital noise source) are described along with the results of various system tests and evaluations. Results and recommendations are presented.

Source record↗
NASA NTRS1988

Acoustic measurement of the surface tension of levitated drops

The measurement of the frequency of the fundamental mode of shape oscillation of acoustically levitated drops has been carried out to determine the surface tension of the drop material. Sound fields of about 20 kHz in frequency allow the suspension of drops a few millimeters in size, as well as the necessary drive for oscillations. The surface tension of water, hexadecane, silicone oil, and aqueous solutions of glycerin levitated in air has been measured, and the results have been compared with those obtained with standard ring tensiometry. The two sets of data are in good agreement, the largest discrepancy being about 10 percent. Uncertainties in the effects of the nonspherical static shape of drops levitated in the earth's gravitational field and the rotation state of the sample are the major contributors to the experimental error. A decrease of the resonance frequency of the fundamental mode indicates a soft nonlinearity as the oscillation amplitude increases.

Trinh, E. H.↗
NASA NTRS2007

Relativistic Iron K Emission and Absorption in the Seyfert 1.9 Galaxy MCG-05-23-16

We present the results of the simultaneous deep XMM-Newton and Chandra observations of the bright Seyfert 1.9 galaxy MCG-5-23-16, which is thought to have one of the best known examples of a relativistically broadened iron Kalpha line. We detected a narrow sporadic absorption line at 7.7 keV which appears to be variable on a time-scale of 20 ksec. If associated with FeXXVI this absorption is indicative of a possible variable high ionization, high velocity outflow. The time averaged spectral analysis shows that the iron K-shell complex is best modeled with an unresolved narrow emission component (FWHM less than 5000 kilometers per second, EW approx. 60 eV) plus a broad component. This latter component has FWHM approx. 44000 kilometers per second, an EW approx. 50 eV and its profile is well described with an emission line originating from the accretion disk viewed with an inclination angle approx. 40 deg. and with the emission arising from within a few tens of gravitational radii of the central black hole. The time-resolved spectral analysis of the XMM-Newton EPIC-pn spectrum shows that both the narrow and broad components of the Fe K emission line appear to be constant within the errors. The analysis of the XMM-Newton/RGS spectrum reveals that the soft X-ray emission of MCG-5-23-16 is likely dominated by several emission lines superimposed on an unabsorbed scattered power-law continuum. The lack of strong Fe L shell emission together with the detection of a strong forbidden line in the O VII triplet supports a scenario where the soft X ray emission lines are produced in a plasma photoionized by the nuclear emission.

Braito, V.↗
NASA NTRS1995

EUV emission from a sample of Active Galactic Nuclei

Active Galactic Nuclei (AGN) emit a substantial fraction of their total radiated power in the EUV passband, because spectroscopically this band is situated at or near the peak of the 'big blue bump,' which is bounded on either side by the UV and soft X-ray excesses. Owing to the lack of observational data, the shape of AGN spectra in the EUV is not well known. This paper presents broad band (65-190 eV) count rates of 11 AGN detected by the Extreme Ultraviolet Explorer (EUVE). Assuming a power law spectral shape for the EUV and soft X-ray energies, we demonstrate that the photon indices of the sources are considerably steeper than typical AGN indices. For 6 sources where ROSAT data are available to provide a more precise determination of their spectral parameters in the 0.1-2.5 keV range, we have used these parameters to compute predicted EUVE count rates and compared them with the observed values. The two sets of quantities agree to within experimental error. We conclude that there is no evidence of spectral steepening or turn-over of the soft X-ray excess at EUV wavelengths for a sample of AGN which covers a wide range of brightness.

Lieu, R.↗
NASA NTRS1984

Effects of NRZ-M Modulation on Convolutional Codes Performance

Non-return-to-zero mark (NRZ-M) modulation is often used to resolve data sense in suppressed carrier telemetry systems because such systems are subject to half cycle slips that result in complementing the encoded data stream. The performance of coded telemetry systems with NRZ-M is sensitive to the order in which the various operations are done. A system that demodulates the NRZ-M waveform and then decodes performs differently from a system that does the decoding first. The performance of the NASA standard (7, 1/2) convolutional codes is determined for several systems using NRZ-M. Several different demodulation schemes for NRZ-M are considered. It is shown that, even for the best soft-decision method examined, there is a 2.7 dB loss at a decoded bit error rate of 0.005 if the NRZ-M demodulation occurs before rather than after Viterbi decoding.

Deutsch, L. J.↗
NASA NTRS1991

On multilevel block modulation codes

The multilevel (ML) technique for combining block coding and modulation is investigated. A general formulation is presented for ML modulation codes in terms of component codes with appropriate distance measures. A specific method for constructing ML block modulation codes (MLBMCs) with interdependency among component codes is proposed. Given an MLBMC C with no interdependency among the binary component codes, the proposed method gives an MLBC C-prime that has the same rate as C, a minimum squared Euclidean distance not less than that of C, a trellis diagram with the same number of states as that of C, and a smaller number of nearest-neighbor codewords than that of C. Finally, a technique is presented for analyzing the error performance of MLBMCs for an additive white Gaussian noise channel based on soft-decision maximum-likelihood decoding.

Kasami, Tadao↗
NASA NTRS1991

Suboptimum decoding of block codes

This paper investigates a class of decomposable codes, their distance and structural properties. it is shown that this class includes several classes of well known and efficient codes as subclasses. Several methods for constructing decomposable codes or decomposing codes are presented. A two-stage soft decision decoding scheme for decomposable codes, their translates or unions of translates is devised. This two-stage soft-decision decoding is suboptimum, and provides an excellent trade-off between the error performance and decoding complexity for codes of moderate and long block length.

Lin, Shu↗
NASA NTRS1997

Investigation of the Use of Erasures in a Concatenated Coding Scheme

A new method for declaring erasures in a concatenated coding scheme is investigated. This method is used with the rate 1/2 K = 7 convolutional code and the (255, 223) Reed Solomon code. Errors and erasures Reed Solomon decoding is used. The erasure method proposed uses a soft output Viterbi algorithm and information provided by decoded Reed Solomon codewords in a deinterleaving frame. The results show that a gain of 0.3 dB is possible using a minimum amount of decoding trials.

Kwatra, S. C.↗
NASA NTRS1972

Simulation results for the Viterbi decoding algorithm

Concepts involved in determining the performance of coded digital communications systems are introduced. The basic concepts of convolutional encoding and decoding are summarized, and hardware implementations of sequential and maximum likelihood decoders are described briefly. Results of parametric studies of the Viterbi decoding algorithm are summarized. Bit error probability is chosen as the measure of performance and is calculated, by using digital computer simulations, for various encoder and decoder parameters. Results are presented for code rates of one-half and one-third, for constraint lengths of 4 to 8, for both hard-decision and soft-decision bit detectors, and for several important systematic and nonsystematic codes. The effect of decoder block length on bit error rate also is considered, so that a more complete estimate of the relationship between performance and decoder complexity can be made.

Batson, B. H.↗