Engineering Papers⌕ Search

SEARCH · Engineering Papers

Results for “passively”

Search indexed NASA NTRS and DOE OSTI research on propulsion, heat transfer, battery materials and energy systems. Follow report and document links to the original sources.

Quote a phrase for an exact phrase match. Source license links do not imply unrestricted reuse.

At least 1,081 records · Page 60

Active and Passive Radiative Transfer Simulations for GPM-Related Field Campaigns

Using a three-dimensional radiative transfer model combined with cloud-resolving model output, we simulate active and passive sensor observations of clouds and precipitaiton. This combination of tools allows us to diagnose the contributions of various hydrometeor types. Radar multiple scattering is most closely associated with the presence of graupel. At Wband, massive amounts multiple scattering in deep convection can decorrelate the reflectivity profile from the vertical structure, but for less intense events, multiple scattering could be a useful indicator of riming. For passive sensors, polarization differences at 166 GHz indicate the presence of horizontally aligned frozen particles with pronounced aspect ratios, while high concentrations of more isotropic aggregates and graupel dampen the polarization difference while also contributing to the lowest brightness temperature depressions. The insights into remote sensing measurements will facilitate the development of improved algorithms and advanced sensors.

Adams, Ian S.↗

Analyzing Machine Learning Predictions of Passive Microwave Brightness Temperature Spectral Difference Over Snow-Covered Terrain in High Mountain Asia

Snow is an important component of the terrestrial freshwater budget in high mountainAsia (HMA) and contributes to the runoff in Himalayan rivers through snowmelt. Despitethe importance of snow in HMA, considerable spatiotemporal uncertainty exists across the different estimates of snow water equivalent for this region. In order to better estimate snow water equivalent, radiative transfer models are often used in conjunction with microwave brightness temperature measurements. In this study, the efficacy of support vector machines (SVMs), a machine learning technique, to predict passive microwave brightness temperature spectral difference (1Tb) as a function of geophysical variables (snow water equivalent, snow depth, snow temperature, and snow density) is explored through a sensitivity analysis. The use of machine learning (as opposed to radiative transfer models) is a relatively new and novel approach for improving snow water equivalent estimates. The Noah-MP land surface model within the NASALand Information System framework is used to simulate the hydrologic cycle over HMA and model geophysical variables that are then used for SVM training. The SVMsserve as a nonlinear map between the geophysical space (modeled in Noah-MP) andthe observation space (1Tb as measured by the radiometer). Advanced MicrowaveScanning Radiometer-Earth Observing System measured passive microwave brightness temperatures over snow-covered locations in the HMA region are used as training data during the SVM training phase. Sensitivity of well-trained SVMs to each Noah-MP modeled state variable is assessed by computing normalized sensitivity coefficients. Sensitivity analysis results generally conform with the known first-order physics. Input states that increase volume scattering of microwave radiation, such as snow density and snow water equivalent, exhibit a plurality of positive normalized sensitivity coefficients. In general, snow temperature was the most sensitive input to the SVM predictions. The sensitivity of each state is location and time dependent. The signs of normalized sensitivity coefficients that indicate physical irrationality are ascribed to significant cross-correlation between Noah-MP simulated states and decreased SVM prediction capability at specific locations due to insufficient training data. SVM prediction pitfalls do exist that serve to highlight the limitations of this particular machine learning algorithm.

high mountain Asia↗

Challenges of Designing a Passive Thermal Control System for the Astrobotic Peregrine Lunar Lander

The Astrobotic Peregrine is a lunar lander currently undergoing design by Astrobotic Technology with help from NASA through the Lunar Cargo Transportation and Landing by Soft Touchdown (Lunar CATALYST) program. This paper will discuss the challenges of designing a passive thermal control system for the lander, and how the design has evolved from the initial passive concept. These challenges include drastically varying worst hot and worst cold case thermal environments, narrow temperature limits of critical components, limited available locations for spacecraft component mounting, and unexpected changes causing significant thermal impacts. The initial thermal control strategy was to cold bias the spacecraft by thermally coupling all spacecraft components to one mounting deck, which also doubled as a radiator, and using heaters to maintain each component’s temperature above its lower temperature limit when in the cold environments. As the design evolved, this strategy alone became inadequate. As heat dissipations increased and became more varying with the addition of components, the thermal design was changed and additional thermal control technologies added. Thermal control strategies incorporated into the design include dictating the lander orientation in demanding environments, defining locations for critical spacecraft components, limiting component operation when possible, and using technology to create variable thermal contacts. Additional design changes will occur as the design continues to evolve to optimize the most effective thermal control system. The thermal design of Peregrine is still in progress, with Critical Design Review (CDR) scheduled for December 2019.

Mauro, Stephanie↗

Exploring the Utility of Machine Learning-Based Passive Microwave Brightness Temperature Data Assimilation over Terrestrial Snow in High Mountain Asia

This study explores the use of a support vector machine (SVM) as the observation operator within a passive microwave brightness temperature data assimilation framework (herein SVM-DA) to enhance the characterization of snow water equivalent (SWE) over High Mountain Asia (HMA). A series of synthetic twin experiments were conducted with the NASA Land Information System (LIS) at a number of locations across HMA. Overall, the SVM-DA framework is effective at improving SWE estimates (~70% reduction in RMSE relative to the Open Loop) for SWE depths less than 200 mm during dry snowpack conditions. The SVM-DA framework also improves SWE estimates in deep, wet snow (~45% reduction in RMSE) when snow liquid water is well estimated by the land surface model, but can lead to model degradation when snow liquid water estimates diverge from values used during SVM training. In particular, two key challenges of using the SVM-DA framework were observed over deep, wet snowpacks. First, variations in snow liquid water content dominate the brightness temperature spectral difference (TB) signal associated with emission from a wet snowpack, which can lead to abrupt changes in SWE during the analysis update. Second, the ensemble of SVM-based predictions can collapse (i.e., yield a near-zero standard deviation across the ensemble) when prior estimates of snow are outside the range of snow inputs used during the SVM training procedure. Such a scenario can lead to the presence of spurious error correlations between SWE and TB, and as a consequence, can result in degraded SWE estimates from the analysis update. These degraded analysis updates can be largely mitigated by applying rule-based approaches. For example, restricting the SWE update when the standard deviation of the predicted TB is greater than 0.05 K helps prevent the occurrence of filter divergence. Similarly, adding a thin layer (i.e., 5 mm) of SWE when the synthetic TB is larger than 5 K can improve SVM-DA performance in the presence of a precipitation dry bias. The study demonstrates that a carefully constructed SVM-DA framework cognizant of the inherent limitations of passive microwave-based SWE estimation holds promise for snow mass data assimilation.

Kwon, Yonghwan↗

Early Prototype Development of the Passive Orbital Nutrient Delivery System (PONDS)

Long-duration space missions will eventually require a fresh food supply to supplement crew diets, which means growing crops in space. The Passive Orbital Nutrient Delivery System (PONDS) is a new plant growth approach that contains both an area for a contained substrate and a reservoir for water and/or plant nutrient solutions. Ground studies have shown that the system facilitates both reliable water delivery to seeds for germination (e.g., while avoiding overwatering), and transport of water from the reservoir for improved plant growth while providing nutrients and oxygen to the root zone. In ground prototypes a capillary mat wicking material passively links the water/nutrient solution reservoir to a removable rooting module containing a substrate adapted to support plant growth. Oxygen permeable membranes are incorporated into both the reservoir walls and the rooting modules, bringing in oxygen from outside of the system into the reservoir and then into the rooting modules where the plant roots proliferate. Water is delivered from the reservoir to the substrate contained within the rooting module through the use of wicking material inserted into the plant growth substrate both from the bottom and from the sides of the rooting module. The capillary mat material is intrinsically hydrophilic and continuously wicks water to the substrate throughout the plant growth interval. The system is therefore self-watering in terms of supplying water to the root zone encompassed within the rooting module on demand. At the top, a hydrophilic phenolic foam plug surrounds the wick in the seed insertion zone, and both contains the substrate within the rooting module, and facilitates removal of excess moisture from the capillary mat wick before it can encompass seeds prior to germination. This work is supported by NASA’s Space Life and Physical Sciences and Research Applications Division (SLPSRAD).

Levine, Howard G.↗

Passive Thermal Control of the Primordial Inflation Polarization Explorer (PIPER) Flight Electronics

The scientific balloon program at NASA offers an exciting and open area of opportunity for testing new technologies and for conducting meaningful experimentation at a fraction of the cost of a space mission. This paper outlines a simple thermal model developed and employed for the Primordial Inflation Polarization ExplorER (PIPER). The sub-orbital environment that PIPER operates in hosts an interesting mix of atmospheric and space thermal challenges. The work done was to mitigate thermal loads and passively cool the payload's exterior mounted electronics at an altitude of 36.6 km. This was done by characterizing the thermal environment and then designing solutions for the heat loads through a combined radiation and conduction passive cooling radiator system thermal model. Despite the simplicity and subsequent limitations of the model, as well as some unexpected payload operational events, the model produced results between 0.31% and 11.8% difference between the predicted values and measured average temperatures. From these results, the model was able to successfully provide estimates for the electronics temperatures. Additional flights will be needed to eliminate unknowns encountered in this flight in order to further refine the model for higher accuracy.

Walts, Alexander R.↗

Passive Aeroelastic Tailoring

The Passive Aeroelastic Tailoring (PAT) project was tasked with investigating novel methods to achieve passive aeroelastic tailoring on high aspect ratio wings. The goal of the project was to identify structural designs or topologies that can improve performance and/or reduce structural weight for high-aspect ratio wings. This project considered two unique approaches, which were pursued in parallel: through-thickness topology optimization and composite tow-steering.

Smith, Benjamin↗

Silver Foam A Long-Term Passive Biocide for Potable Water Systems: 2020 Update

A spacecraft water disinfection system suitable for extended length space exploration missions should prevent or control the growth of microbes, prevent or limit biofilm formation, and prevent microbiologically-influenced corrosion. In addition, the system should have minimal maintenance requirements, the effluent should be chemically compatible with all materials in contact with the water, be safe for human consumption, and suitable to be shared across international spacecraft platforms and mission architectures. Silver ions are a proven broad spectrum biocide and the chosen potable water biocide for future exploration missions. The leading technology for actively dosing silver in future water systems is based on electrolytic production. Several challenges remain with this approach which have prompted additional investigations into alternative dosing techniques. Control-release technology is an attractive option for developing a high-reliability passive silver dosing device. This paper describes the development of a nanoparticle (NP)/polyurethane (PU) composite foam for the controlled release of silver ions, and is intended to build upon the 2019 International Conference on Environmental Systems (ICES) paper of the same name. In this paper, the technical background and results from the updated silver chloride (AgCl) NP/PU composite foam synthesis and property testing is provided. The ultimate goal of the project is to develop a stable and reliable passive dosing silver ion release device for use in future spacecraft potable water systems.

Irwin, Tesia D.↗

Silver Foam: A Novel Approach for Long-Term Passive Dosing of Biocide in Spacecraft Potable Water Systems

A spacecraft water disinfection system suitable for extended length space exploration should prevent or control the growth of microbes, prevent or limit biofilm formation, and prevent microbiologically influenced corrosion. In addition, the system should have minimal maintenance requirements,should be chemically compatible with all materials in contact with the water, be safe for human consumption, and suitable to be shared across international spacecraft platforms and mission architectures. Silver ions are a proven broad-spectrum biocide under consideration as a potable water biocide for future exploration missions. The leading technology for actively dosing silver in future water systems is based on electrolytic production. Several challenges remain with this approach that have prompted additional investigations into alternative dosing techniques. Control-release technology is an attractive option for developing a high-reliability passive silver dosing device. This paper describes the development of a silver chloride (AgCl) nanoparticle (NP)/polyurethane (PU) composite foam for the controlled release of silver ions, and is intended to build upon the 2019 International Conference on Environmental Systems (ICES) paper number 272.This paper provides the technical background and results from the updated AgClNP/PU composite foam (AgFoam) synthesis and property testing. The ultimate goal of the project is to develop a stable and reliable passive dosing silver ion release device for use in future spacecraft potable water systems.

Tesia Dawn Irwin↗

Soil Moisture Active Passive (SMAP) observer power system architecture

The Soil Moisture Active and Passive (SMAP) observer is scheduled for launch in 2014. The primary science objective of SMAP is the high-resolution mapping of earth’s soil moisture. These measurements will be used to enhance understanding of processes that link the water, energy and carbon cycles, and to extend the capabilities of weather and climate prediction models. The SMAP orbit, sun-synchronous with an altitude of 680 km, was chosen to optimize the sampling characteristics of the instruments while ensuring that the resolution requirements are met. The combined active radar and passive radiometer measurement approach takes advantage of the spatial resolutions of the radar (3 km x 1000 km) and the radiometer (39 km x 47 km).

Carr, Gregory↗

Methods for Passive Optical Detection and Relative Navigation for Rendezvous with a Non-Cooperative Object at Mars

Long-range passive optical detection of an orbiting inert sphere by a robotic Mars orbiter is investigated and trades are described in terms of detectability via reflected visible light in the presence of orbit uncertainty, gravitational perturbations, and camera electronics noise. A new approximate equation for signal-tonoise ratio (SNR) is developed to include most relevant camera imperfections, diffraction, and stray light from the Mars limb as relevant to this scenario. Using this method, a notional camera suite is designed to meet detection, navigation, and redundancy requirements for an example mission scenario. Results from a simulation tool demonstrate the long-range initial detection strategy in the presence of perturbations from various sources. Finally, navigation analysis shows that the information gathered using passive optical detection is sufficient to begin orbit matching.

Woolley, Ryan C.↗

Silver Foam: A Novel Approach for Long-Term Passive Dosing of Biocide in Spacecraft Potable Water Systems

A spacecraft water disinfection system, suitable for extended length space exploration, should prevent or control the growth of microbes, prevent or limit biofilm formation, and prevent microbiologically influenced corrosion. In addition, the system should have minimal maintenance requirements, be chemically compatible with all materials in contact with the water, be safe for human consumption, and be suitable to be shared across international spacecraft platforms and mission architectures. Silver ions are a proven broad-spectrum potable water biocide under investigation for future exploration missions. The competing technology for dosing silver ions in future water systems is based on actively dosing the ions via electrolytic production. Several challenges with this approach have prompted additional investigations into alternative dosing techniques. Control-release technology is an attractive option for developing a high-reliability passive silver dosing device. This paper describes the development of a nanoparticle/polyurethane (NP/PU) composite foam for the controlled release of silver ions, and is intended to build upon the 2020 International Conference onEnvironmental Systems (ICES) paper number 128. This paper provides the technical background and performance results from the updated silver chloride (AgCl) NP/PU. The ultimate goal of the project is to develop a stable and reliable passive dosing silver ion release device for use in future spacecraft potable water systems.

Tesia D. Irwin↗

Investigation of the 30P30N Slat Flow Field with Passive Control Devices Using Particle Image Velocimetry

The leading-edge slat of a high-lift wing is one of the main noise contributors during approach and landing. This paper describes an experimental investigation of the velocity field associated with multiple passive noise treatments, including slat-cusp extensions, a cove filler, and a gap filler, on a two-dimensional multi-element high-lift 30P30N airfoil. Previous work documented comparisons of both surface and far field pressure fluctuations in the presence of these devices with those for a baseline case at different flow conditions. However, important information related to the velocity fields was missing from the previous measurements, hindering our ability to elucidate the changes in the flow physics associated with the noise treatments. Therefore, two-component Particle Image Velocity has been used to investigate the influence of passive noise treatments on the flow fields. All measurements are taken at an effective, free-air angle of attack of 5.5 degrees and a stowed-chord-based Reynolds number of 1.71 × 10e6. The measurements show that the slat extensions shorten the slat-cove shear layer trajectory, resulting in reduced growth of disturbances within the slat-cove shear layer. This leads to a shift of tonal peaks to higher frequencies and a reduction in the tonal amplitudes. The gap filler blocks the flow path through the gap, causing the reattachment location to shift to the main wing leading edge lower surface. Consequently, the feedback loop associated with the flow-acoustic interaction in the baseline case is eliminated, and the turbulent kinetic energy in the slat-cove shear layer is significantly reduced. However, extensive flow separation is observed on the suction side of the gap filler, which does not eliminate the noise reduction benefit due to the gap filler, but does degrade the aerodynamic performance of the high-lift configuration. Finally, the overall flow field in the presence of the cove filler is similar to that in the baseline case at the design angle of attack, but the slat-cove shear layer is eliminated leading to a suppression of the cavity tones associated with the shear layer. This change accounts for the reduction in slat noise as measured in previous work.

Aeroacoustics↗

Evaluation of Global Surface Water Temperature Data Sets for use in Passive Remote Sensing of Soil Moisture

Inland open water bodies often pose a systematic error source in the passive remote sensing retrievals of soil moisture. Water temperature is a necessary variable used to compute water emissions that is required to be subtracted from satellite observation to yield actual emissions from the land portion, which in turn generates accurate soil moisture retrievals. Therefore, overestimation of soil moisture can often be corrected using concurrent water temperature data in the overall mitigation procedure. In recent years, several data sets of lake water temperature have become available, but their specifications and accuracy have rarely been investigated in the context of passive soil moisture remote sensing on a global scale. For this reason, three lake temperature products were evaluated against in-situ measurements from 2007 to 2011. The data sets include the lake surface water temperature (LSWT) from Global Observatory of Lake Responses to Environmental Change (GloboLakes), the Copernicus Global Land Operations Cryosphere and Water (C-GLOPS), as well as the lake mix-layer temperature (LMLT) from the European Centers for Medium-Range Weather Forecast (ECMWF) ERA5 Land Reanalysis. GloboLakes, C-GLOPS, and ERA5 Land have overall comparable performance with Pearson correlations (R) of 0.87, 0.92 and 0.88 in comparison with in-situ measurements. LSWT products exhibit negative median biases of −0.27 K (GloboLakes) and −0.31 K (C-GLOPS), whereas the median bias of LMLT is 1.56 K. When mapped from their respective native resolutions to a common 9 km Equal-Area Scalable Earth (EASE) Grid 2.0 projection, similar relative performance was observed. LMLT and LSWT data are closer in performance over the 9 km grid cells that exhibit a small range of lake cover fractions (0.05–0.5). Despite comparable relative performance, ERA5 Land shows great advantages in spatial coverage and temporal resolution. In summary, an integrated evaluation on data accuracy, long-term availability, global coverage, temporal resolution, and regular forward processing with modest data latency led us to conclude that LMLT from the ERA5 Land Reanalysis product represents the most optimal path for use in the development of a long-term soil moisture product.

Runze Zhang↗

Detecting Hail from Space: Using a Multi-Frequency Passive-Microwave Retrieval to Analyze the Global Climatology and Diurnal Cycle of Severe Hail

Severe hail poses myriad threats to society, causing extensive damage to infrastructure and agriculture. As hail is severe, relatively infrequent, and highly localized, it is difficult to measure in-situ and if left unresolved in models and precipitation retrievals, hail can cause large errors and uncertainties. The difficulty in measuring hail in situ and the inconsistency of surface-based hail reporting drive the motivation to use spaceborne remote-sensing platforms to retrieve hail and construct climatologies in a globally uniform way. We leverage the scattering signatures of severe hail in spaceborne passive-microwave datasets paired with surface hail reports to construct a multi-frequency hail retrieval using Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM) microwave imager (TMI) data. Using coincident Global Precipitation Measurement (GPM) Ku-band precipitation radar, we assessed this retrieval and several others in the literature for their effectiveness and regional variability. We use this retrieval to construct global passive-microwave climatologies of severe hail using the TRMM, GPM, Advanced Microwave Scanning Radiometer for EOS (AMSR-E), and Advanced Microwave Scanning Radiometer 2 (AMSR2) sensors and extend into the pre-TRMM era to the Special Sensor Microwave Imager/Sounder (SSMI/(S)) data. We also leverage the sensors in inclined orbits to assess the diurnal variability of severe hail globally and the effect the diurnal cycle has on the detection of hail by sensors in sun-synchronous orbit. The goal is to construct a robust, multi-decade multi-satellite climatology of hail. As part of the NASA Disasters Applied Sciences program, we assess these climatologies against other satellite severe weather datasets and use these climatologies in collaboration with stakeholders and end-users to help them assess risk, and improve the prediction, preparation, and response to severe storms around the world.

Sarah D Bang↗

Deep Domain Adaptation based Cloud Type Detection using Active and Passive Satellite Data

Domain adaptation techniques have been developed to handle data from multiple sources or domains. Most existing domain adaptation models assume that source and target domains are homogeneous, i.e., they have the same feature space. Nevertheless, many real world applications often deal with data from heterogeneous domains that come from completely different feature spaces. In our remote sensing application, data in source domain (from an active spaceborne Lidar sensor CALIOP onboard CALIPSO satellite) contain 25 attributes, while data in target domain (from a passive spectroradiometer sensor VIIRS onboard Suomi-NPP satellite) contain 20 different attributes. CALIOP has better representation capability and sensitivity to aerosol types and cloud phase, while VIIRS has wide swaths and better spatial coverage but has inherent weakness in differentiating atmospheric objects on different vertical levels. To address this mismatch of features across the domains/sensors, we propose a novel end-to-end deep domain adaptation with domain mapping and correlation alignment (DAMA) to align the heterogeneous source and target domains in active and passive satellite remote sensing data. It can learn domain invariant representation from source and target domains by transferring knowledge across these domains, and achieve additional performance improvement by incorporating weak label information into the model (DAMA-WL). Our experiments on a collocated CALIOP and VIIRS dataset show that DAMA and DAMA-WL can achieve higher classification accuracy in predicting cloud types.

domain adaptation↗

Design and Analysis of V-Groove Passive Cryogenic Radiators for Space-borne Telescopes & Instruments

V-groove passive radiators are extremely efficient passive designs to thermally isolate a cryogenic telescope or instrument from warm environments in space, like the Sun, Earth, Moon or Spacecrafts. Compared to traditional multi-layer insulation blankets employed for thermal isolation, the V-Groove radiators provide as much as an order of magnitude improvement. The V-Groove design typically constitutes three low emissivity, lightweight and thin aluminized Mylar/Kapton sheets angled from each other by just few degrees. These successively reflect heat from warmer shields to space via their angular openings, thus minimizing heat flow into the cryogenic system. Thermal analysis of these V-Groove radiators is typically performed by sophisticated thermal software that uses hundreds of thousands of rays to simulate radiative heat flow between successive shields via reflections, which can be very time & resource intensive. We have arrived at very simple closed form equations to predict the thermal behavior of these radiators, that includes their radiative heat transfer factors and temperatures as a function of their basic thermo-optical properties and inter-shield angles. These predictions can be done by hand calculators or in spreadsheet tools like MS-Excel. They compare very well to those from sophisticated computer programs. The ease in the use of these simple equations allow for instantaneous predictions of cryogenic temperatures and their trends for design options and trade studies. A case study of this was utilized for the telescope project that is currently being designed for an all sky spectral survey of the universe. This paper will describe the derivations of these equations, their comparison with computer software results and their applicability for current and future cryogenic space telescope and instrument missions

Bhandari, Pradeep↗

Silver Foam: A Novel Approach for Long-Term Passive-Dosing of Biocide in Spacecraft Potable Water Systems – Update 2022

A spacecraft water disinfection system suitable for extended length space exploration should meet a list of requirements. It should prevent or control the growth of microbes, prevent or limit biofilm formation, and prevent microbiologically influenced corrosion. In addition, the system should have minimal maintenance requirements, be chemically compatible with all materials in contact with the water, be safe for human consumption, and be suitable to be shared across international spacecraft platforms and mission architectures. Silver ions are a proven broad-spectrum potable water biocide under investigation for future exploration missions. The competing technology for dosing silver ions in future water systems is based on actively dosing the ions via electrolytic production. Several challenges with this approach have prompted additional investigations into alternative dosing techniques. Control-release technology is an attractive option for developing a high-reliability passive silver dosing device. This paper describes the continued development of a nanoparticle/polyurethane (NP/PU) composite foam for the controlled release of silver ions and is intended to build upon previously published work. This paper provides the technical background and performance results (wash testing and ongoing long-term silver ion release testing) from the silver chloride (AgCl) NP/PU composite foams. The goal of the project is to develop a stable and reliable passive-dosing silver ion release device for use in future spacecraft potable water systems.

Tesia D Irwin↗