Results for “OTHER INSTRUMENTATION” — Page 60

NASA NTRSDate not supplied

The Hyperspectral Microwave Photonic Instrument (HyMPI)

We present an overview of the Hyperspectral Microwave Photonic Instrument (HyMPI), a NASA Instrument Incubation Proposal funded research project aimed at developing a hyperspectral microwave instrument intended for enhanced remote sensing of atmospheric temperature and water vapor from space. This paper provides preliminary results on HyMPI’s spectral and noise characteristics and a preliminary demonstration of its enhanced water vapor sensitivity and vertical resolution, with a particular focus on the Earth’s Planetary Boundary Layer.

Hyperspectral↗

NASA NTRS2021

Instrument Thermal Management for Lunar Night Survival without Radioisotopes

This paper summarizes the technology development progress on two JPL projects focused on developing thermal designs/technologies that enable lunar instrument overnight survival without radioisotopes. Through an internal project known as ARTEMIS, JPL has developed lunar night survivable designs for magnetometer, seismometer, and IR spectrometer science payloads (SPs). These designs incorporate four hyper-isolative thermal management features under development on the NASA GCD-funded PALETTE project: (a) a dual enclosure system with high strength, low k tension cable (TC) supports and a variable conductance thermal link (VCTL) composed of a reverse-operation DTE thermal switch (ROD-TSW) in series with a miniaturized loop heat pipe (mini-LHP); (b) a parabolic reflector radiator (PRR) for low-to-mid latitude lunar sites; (c) ultra-low e* “spacerless” MLI, in which individual layers are hung from the TC supports; and (d) ultra-low G thermal isolators made with polymeric material or polymer/TC assemblies. Each instrument design incorporates solar panels, batteries, telecom, C&DH, and other features necessary for self-sufficient, extended-duration operation on the lunar surface. This paper will provide an overview of the ARTEMIS and PALETTE projects and provide a top-level description of the instrument thermal management approach.

Lin, Ying↗

NASA NTRS2022

Precious Cargo: Transporting Contamination-Sensitive Instruments & Optics

The James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) is a multi-national program with instruments and hardware supplied by companies all over the world and numerous states in the United States. In order to transport larger assemblies, like the Optical Telescope Element / Integrated Science Instrument Module (OTIS), and ultimately JWST, the Space Telescope Transporter for Air, Road and Sea (STTARS) was designed and constructed. STTARS is a massive mobile cleanroom (longer than 2 semi-trailers) that provides an ISO class 7 payload environment while being transported by road, airborne and marine vehicles. Temperature, humidity, and particle counts are controlled and continuously tracked, with fallout and NVR witness samples placed in strategic locations for confirmation. Instruments or sensitive hardware were purged continuously during transport. STTARS has 5 main components: the upper tent frame, lower tent frame, pallet, strong back and lid. After transporting OTIS to Northrup Grumman (NG), STTARS was modified to increase its height to house the JWST Observatory on its voyage to French Guiana. This new configuration was designated Observatory STTARS (OSTTARS). OSTTARS was too tall to travel by C5 aircraft, so the trip to the launch site was made by ship. Through JWST’s land, air, and sea transports, STTARS and OSTTARS kept JWST hardware exceptionally clean and safe.

James Webb Space Telescope↗

NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Precious Cargo: Transporting contamination-sensitive instruments & optics

The James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) is a multi-national program with instruments and hardware supplied by companies all over the world and numerous states in the United States. In order to transport larger assemblies, like the Optical Telescope Element / Integrated Science Instrument Module (OTIS), and ultimately JWST, the Space Telescope Transporter for Air, Road and Sea (STTARS) was designed and constructed. STTARS is a massive mobile cleanroom (longer than 2 semi-trailers) that provides an ISO class 7 payload environment while being transported by road, airborne and marine vehicles. Temperature, humidity, and particle counts are controlled and continuously tracked, with fallout and NVR witness samples placed in strategic locations for confirmation. Instruments or sensitive hardware were purged continuously during transport. STTARS has 5 main components: the upper tent frame, lower tent frame, pallet, strong back and lid. After transporting OTIS to Northrup Grumman (NG), STTARS was modified to increase its height to house the JWST Observatory on its voyage to French Guiana. This new configuration was designated Observatory STTARS (OSTTARS). OSTTARS was too tall to travel by C5 aircraft, so the trip to the launch site was made by ship. Through JWST’s land, air, and sea transports, STTARS and OSTTARS kept JWST hardware exceptionally clean and safe.

James Webb Space Telescope↗

NASA NTRS2022

The Cusp Plasma Imaging Detector (Cupid) Cubesat Observatory: Instrumentation

The Cusp Plasma Imaging Detector (CuPID) CubeSat observatory is a 6U CubeSat designed to observe solar wind charge exchange in magnetospheric cusps to test competing theories of magnetic reconnection at the Earth’s magnetopause. The CuPID is equipped with three instruments, namely, a wide field-of-view (4.6° × 4.6°) soft x-ray telescope, a micro-dosimeter suite, and an engineering magnetometer optimized for the science operation. The instrument suite has been tested and calibrated in relevant environments, demonstrating successful design. The testing and calibration of these instruments produced metrics and coefficients that will be used to create the CuPID mission’s data product.

Magnetospheric dynamics↗

NASA NTRS2022

The Hyperspectral Microwave Photonic Instrument (HyMPI) -Advancing Our Understanding of the Earth’s Planetary Boundary Layer From Space

This paper presents an overview of the Hyperspectral Microwave Photonic Instrument (HyMPI), a 2021 NASA Instrument Incubation Proposal funded project aimed at developing the very first hyperspectral microwave sensor to augment thermodynamic sounding capability from space, with a focus on the Earth’s Planetary Boundary Layer. This research responds to the recommendation expressed in the 2018 National Academies of Sciences decadal survey to accelerate the readiness of high-priority PBL observables not feasible for cost-effective spaceflight in 2017-2027. This paper provides an overview on HyMPI’s design, configured as the objective instrument concept needed to fly in the future PBL mission and presents preliminary trade studies aim at demonstrating HyMPI’s enhanced thermodynamic sounding skill in the Earth’s Planetary Boundary Layer over conventional microwave sounders from the current Program of Record.

hyperspectral microwave↗

NASA NTRS2022

Radar Back End for NASA/ISRO Synthetic Aperture Radar (NISAR) Instrument

In this paper we present design, manufacture and qualification of a Radar Back End (RBE) for NISAR Mission’s Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) Instrument. The instrument uses Sweep SAR technique to generate high fidelity radar images while capturing an image over a large swath. It requires highly stable clocks to accomplish that. NISAR RBE is the heart of the L-band Synthetic Aperture Radar (LSAR) instrument. It generates radar’s transmit chirp signals, ultra-stable clocks and oscillators signals. In order to generate ultra-stable clocks some novel filtering and frequency multiplication techniques were utilized. These techniques have been presented in this paper. NISAR mission requires over 200 chirps to perform science measurements. Hardware and firmware architecture utilized to generate chirps have been presented in this paper. Unique space qualified techniques for DC to DC conversion has been presented in this paper. In addition, RBE was designed to be block redundant space qualified assembly. Novel cross strapping techniques were implemented to achieve that. Validation and qualification process employed to certify RBE flight hardware for flight has been presented in this paper.

Quddus, Momin↗

NASA NTRS2023

Lessons Learned From Evaluation and Mitigation of Space Charging Threat Due to Use of Isolated (Hybrid) Bearings on the Pace Ocean Color Instrument

A high precision, high resolution Ocean Color Instrument (OCI) was developed for the Plankton, Aerosol, Cloud ocean Ecosystem (PACE) mission which required the use of electrically isolated Hybrid Bearings (silicon nitride balls). While desirable for technical performance of the instrument, this application caused portions of the instrument to become electrically isolated and come under threat of space charging effects from charged particles and the resultant differential charging. An evaluation of the environment, susceptibility of the components, such as bearings and electronics, and mitigation strategies were performed. As part of that process, simulations of the charging environment, analysis of internal mechanism charging and prediction of most likely discharge paths, testing of the bearings for susceptibility as well as resulting damage were performed and analyzed. Additionally, a novel method to deal with charging was developed. Considerations for dealing with electrically isolated mechanisms, results of the above-mentioned efforts as well as lessons learned are presented.

space charging↗

NASA NTRSDate not supplied

An Initial Assessment of the Impact of System Spectral Response Parameters on Driving Ocean Color Applications for the GeoXO Ocean Color Instrument (OCX)

NOAA’s Geostationary Extended Observations (GeoXO) program is planning to include a hyperspectral ocean color instrument (OCX) in geostationary orbit slated for operations by the early 2030s. Shared international focus has led to a diverse legacy of space-based remote sensing ocean color missions that have and will continue to provide ocean color products into the future at a variety of spatial, temporal, and spectral resolutions. This work reports on an investigation of the impacts of system spectral response parameters on spectral shape and algal bloom detection for the planned OCX instrument. A dataset of high resolution (1 nm spectral sampling) in-situ spectra of red tide collected with an above water spectrometer, and associated K. brevis cell concentrations, were used to simulate OCX observations of varying system spectral response parameters. The OCX Performance Operational Requirements Document (PORD) level spectral resolution and sampling are varied concurrently and the location of band centers is varied independently. The impacts to the spectral shape using hyperspectral signature analysis, as well as the impacts to two heritage multispectral algal bloom detection algorithms – red band difference (RBD) and Karenia brevis bloom index (KBBI) – are assessed considering both changes in resolution/sampling and band center location. This work provides a quantitative assessment of the impacts of system spectral response requirements on both the spectral shape of observations as well as the algal bloom detection to provide insight on how various instrument performance parameters influence science and operational utility of OCX. Future work will seek to expand this analysis to include a larger dataset that considers additional water cases.

Monica Cook↗

NASA NTRSDate not supplied

An assessment of the impact of system spectral response parameters on spectral shape and algal bloom detection for the GeoXO ocean color instrument (OCX)

NOAA’s Geostationary Extended Observations (GeoXO) program is planning to include a hyperspectral ocean color instrument (OCX) in geostationary orbit slated for operations by the early 2030s. Shared international focus has led to a diverse legacy of space-based remote sensing ocean color missions that have and will continue to provide ocean color products into the future at a variety of spatial, temporal, and spectral resolutions. This work reports on an investigation of the impacts of system spectral response parameters on spectral shape and algal bloom detection for the planned OCX instrument. A large dataset in-situ spectra, from a variety of locations and water cases collected with an above water spectrometer, was used to simulate OCX observations of varying system spectral response parameters. The OCX Performance Operational Requirements Document (PORD) level spectral resolution and sampling are varied concurrently and the location of band centers is varied independently. The impacts to the spectral shape using hyperspectral signature analysis, as well as the impacts to two heritage multispectral algal bloom detection algorithms – red band difference (RBD) and Karenia brevis bloom index (KBBI) – are assessed considering both changes in resolution/sampling and band center location. This work provides a quantitative assessment of the impacts of system spectral response requirements on both the spectral shape of observations as well as the algal bloom detection to provide insight on how various instrument performance parameters influence science and operational utility of OCX.

Monica Cook↗

NASA NTRSDate not supplied

An Initial Assessment of the Impact of System Spectral Response Parameters on Driving Ocean Color Applications for the GeoXO Ocean Color Instrument (OCX)

NOAA’s Geostationary Extended Observations (GeoXO) program is planning to include a hyperspectral ocean color instrument (OCX) in geostationary orbit slated for operations by the early 2030s. Shared international focus has led to a diverse legacy of space-based remote sensing ocean color missions that have and will continue to provide ocean color products into the future at a variety of spatial, temporal, and spectral resolutions. This work reports on an investigation of the impacts of system spectral response parameters on spectral shape and algal bloom detection for the planned OCX instrument. A dataset of high resolution (1 nm spectral sampling) in-situ spectra of red tide collected with an above water spectrometer, and associated K. brevis cell concentrations, were used to simulate OCX observations of varying system spectral response parameters. The OCX Performance Operational Requirements Document (PORD) level spectral resolution and sampling are varied concurrently and the location of band centers is varied independently. The impacts to the spectral shape using hyperspectral signature analysis, as well as the impacts to two heritage multispectral algal bloom detection algorithms – red band difference (RBD) and Karenia brevis bloom index (KBBI) – are assessed considering both changes in resolution/sampling and band center location. This work provides a quantitative assessment of the impacts of system spectral response requirements on both the spectral shape of observations as well as the algal bloom detection to provide insight on how various instrument performance parameters influence science and operational utility of OCX. Future work will seek to expand this analysis to include a larger dataset that considers additional water cases.

M. Cook↗

NASA NTRSDate not supplied

GeoXO Atmospheric Composition Instrument (AC) Measurements Conditions Assessment

NOAA’s next generation Geostationary Extended Observations (GeoXO) satellite system will advance Earth observations from geostationary orbit. GeoXO will supply vital information supporting the U.S. weather, ocean, and climate operations. The recommended three-satellite constellation includes spacecraft at GOES-Central position, that will carry an Atmospheric Composition Instrument (ACX) among its payloads; the requirement on the ACX is to scan its region of interest in one hour. An assessment of ACX observational conditions is presented, based on view geometry and solar angle range over the year. The availability for observations of each pixel is estimated per day of the year, as function of the geometric air mass factor (AMF), which can be related to signal to noise ratio using a model of the ACX instrument performance, and ultimately to expected column error for specific atmospheric species. In addition, cloud climatology – based on statistics derived from GOES-16 ABI cloud product data – is considered to determine typical fractions of cloud-free ACX observations and typical cloud optical depths, for each pixel as function of time of day and season. The results of such assessments can be used to prepare for GeoXO ACX data and further the understanding and development of the future instrument operations.

Boryana Efremova↗

NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Assessment of Long-term Trends in the Collection 4 Total Ozone Record from the Ozone Monitoring Instrument

Long-term changes in total ozone affect the amount of harmful UV radiation reaching Earth’s surface and reflect progress made towards recovery of stratospheric ozone. Satellite total ozone data are also used to estimate long-term trends in tropospheric ozone, a reactive and potent greenhouse gas, by subtracting the stratospheric column timeseries from that of total ozone. For these scientific applications, the long-term stability should be better than 1%. Left unchecked, instrument calibration drift can produce a trend of this magnitude or greater. NASA has produced nearly twenty years of total ozone data from the Ozone Monitoring Instrument (OMI) using the Total Ozone Mapping Spectrometer (TOMS) algorithm. The drift in the OMI instrument as monitored by ice radiance calibration has been relatively slow, but it has reached a level of ~3% over the mission lifetime. This drift was corrected in the recently released Collection 4 OMI calibrated radiances, updating the Collection 3 calibration released in 2006. We have reprocessed the OMI total ozone record using the Collection 4 calibration and updates to the TOMS algorithm. We summarize these changes and evaluate their impact by comparing to the previous Collection 3 OMI dataset, the Suomi NPP Ozone Mapping and Profiler Suite Nadir Mapper (OMPS-NM) and Solar Backscatter UV (SBUV) Merged Ozone Dataset (MOD) total ozone records and other independent satellite total ozone datasets. Climatological radiance residuals from OMI and OMPS-NM are calculated and compared to investigate differences in spectral calibration that can cause drifts in long-term total ozone trends. We also analyze the tropospheric ozone record produced using the Collection 4 OMI total ozone and stratospheric column ozone from MLS. Collection 3 OMI data processed with the TOMS algorithm show a positive drift relative to other satellite and ground-based data of 1-2 DU per decade. Initial results show that this drift is reduced in Collection 4 OMI, due to the updated OMI calibration. In this work we will quantify the improvements in Collection 4 OMI relative to independent data sources at both the ozone and radiance level

Collection 4 OMI Total Ozone↗

NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Use of TEMPO as a Proxy for Hyperspectral Geostationary Ocean Color Measurements from the GeoXO OCX Instrument: Harnessing Machine Learning and Principal Component Techniques for Atmospheric and Glint Correction

Retrievals of ocean color from space are important for better understanding the ocean ecosystem. The launch of atmospheric geostationary hyperspectral sensors such as TEMPO, provides a unique opportunity to examine the diurnal variability in ocean ecology. While TEMPO does not have as high spatial resolution or full spectral coverage as planned coastal ocean sensors such as the Geosynchronous Littoral Imaging and Monitoring Radiometer (GLIMR) or GeoXO Ocean Color instrument (OCX), its hourly measurements provide coverage of regions such as Lake Erie and the Gulf of Mexico at spatial scales of approximately 5 km. These data can be useful for testing new algorithms. We will apply our newly developed machine learning based atmospheric correction approach for ocean color retrievals to TEMPO data. Our approach begins by decomposing measured radiances from hyperspectral sensors into spectral features that describe the scattering and absorption of the atmosphere as well as the underlying surface reflectance. The coefficients of the principal components are then used to train a neural network to predict ocean color properties derived from collocated MODIS/VIIRS physically-based retrievals. This machine learning approach does not rely on radiative transfer modeling, and the use of MODIS/VIIRS data for training accounts for possible calibration b in hyperspectral data. Previously, we applied our approach using blue and UV wavelengths with the Ozone Monitoring Instrument (OMI) and TROPOspheric Monitoring Instrument (TROPOMI) to show that it can estimate ocean color properties in less-than-ideal conditions such as lightly to moderately clouded conditions as well as sun glint and thus improve the spatial coverage of ocean color measurements. TEMPO provides an opportunity to improve on this approach since it will provide collocated measurements at green and red wavelengths that were not available from OMI and TROPOMI and are important particularly for coastal waters. Additionally, our technique can be applied early in the mission and has potential to demonstrate the value of near real time ocean color products that are important for monitoring of harmful algae blooms and other oceanic phenomena.

Zachary Fasnacht↗

NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Performance Evaluation of Clouds and the Earth’s Radiant Energy System (CERES) Instruments in Generating A Stable Earth Radiation Budget Multi-Decadal Data Record

Clouds and the Earth’s Radiant Energy System (CERES) instrument is designed to measure the earth-reflected solar and earth-emitted longwave radiances, two components of the Earth Radiation Budget. CERES instrument measure radiances in 0.3 to 5.0 micron region with Shortwave (SW) sensor, 0.3 to >100 microns with Total (TOT) sensor, and either 8 - 12 micron with Window (WN) sensor or 5 – 35 micron with longwave (LW) sensor. The on-board internal calibration module (ICM) is used to monitor the stability of the sensors and to correct the pre-launch determined sensor gains for radiance calculations. Corrections for spectral changes occurring in different wavelength regions observed through vicarious studies were applied to sensor response function used in radiance determination. The resulting global flux long term trends from each instrument have shown consistent behavior and provided a stable global record of Top of the Atmosphere (TOA) shortwave and longwave fluxes for the Earth radiation budget climate data record.

Clouds and Earth Radiation Energy System (CERES)↗

NASA NTRS2024

A Portable Nitrogen Dioxide Instrument Using Cavity-Enhanced Absorption Spectroscopy

The Portable (2.7 kg) Cavity-enhanced Absorption of Nitrogen Dioxide (PCAND) instrument for measuring in situ nitrogen dioxide (NO2) was developed using incoherent, broadband cavity-enhanced absorption spectroscopy (IBBCEAS). An LED light source centered at 408 nm was coupled to a cavity 15 cm in length, achieving an effective optical pathlength of ~520 m. Our precision was measured as 94 pptv (1 s). To date, we have flown this instrument on 3 balloon and 1 UAV test flights. This instrument records data to an SD card and outputs data (via an RS232 port) to external devices including a commercial radiosonde (iMet) for real-time data downlink.

TROPOMI↗

NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Performance Evaluation of Clouds and the Earth’s Radiant Energy System (CERES) Instruments in Generating A Stable Earth Radiation Budget Multi-Decadal Data Record

Clouds and the Earth’s Radiant Energy System (CERES) instrument is designed to measure the earth-reflected solar and earth-emitted longwave radiances, two components of the Earth Radiation Budget. CERES instrument measure radiances in 0.3 to 5.0 micron region with Shortwave (SW) sensor, 0.3 to >100 microns with Total (TOT) sensor, and either 8 - 12 micron with Window (WN) sensor or 5 – 35 micron with longwave (LW) sensor. The on-board internal calibration module (ICM) is used to monitor the stability of the sensors and to correct the pre-launch determined sensor gains for radiance calculations. Corrections for spectral changes occurring in different wavelength regions observed through vicarious studies were applied to sensor response function used in radiance determination. The resulting global flux long term trends from each instrument have shown consistent behavior and provided a stable global record of Top of the Atmosphere (TOA) shortwave and longwave fluxes for the Earth radiation budget climate data record.

Earth Radiation Budget↗

NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Towards an Optimal Estimation Retrieval of Cirrus Cloud Optical and Microphysical Properties Using Hyperspectral Shortwave Instruments and A Fast Radiative Transfer Algorithm

Cirrus cloud retrieval products (here, cloud optical depth, effective particle size, and cloud top height) are important inputs into numerical weather and climate models. Uncertainties in such retrieval products, as a matter of course, propagate downstream, impacting model calculations. Improvements in high-quality global cirrus cloud optical and microphysical data products from satellite observations are needed to understand and reduce retrieval uncertainties. Hyperspectral instruments produce high-resolution and information-dense radiance spectra, thus offering the opportunity to reduce uncertainties in retrieval products. An optimal estimation-based cirrus cloud optical and microphysical product retrieval is under development for the NASA Airborne Visible/Infrared Imaging Spectrometer (AVIRIS) and the Earth Surface Mineral Dust Source Investigation (EMIT) instruments, and the forthcoming Climate Absolute Radiance and Refractivity Observatory Pathfinder (CLARREO-Pathfinder). The spectral coverage of all three instruments includes the ultraviolet, visible, and near-infrared. In this study a very fast radiative transfer model, the Principal Component-based Radiative Transfer Model in the solar spectral region (PCRTM-Solar), is used for forward modeling computations. This will reduce the computational burden in the forward radiance and Jacobian calculations as the cost function is minimized, enabling the entire AVIRIS, EMIT, and CLARREO-Pathfinder spectral range to be used in the optimal estimation framework. Using the entire spectrum will maximize the information content, resulting in a more robust and more accurate retrieval. As a first step, the retrieval is being designed for single layer ice clouds over open ocean water. Preliminary results will be shown.

Jeffrey Mast↗