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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 1,117 records · Page 62
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
NASA NTRS1988

Detecting air pollution stress in southern California vegetation using Landsat Thematic Mapper band data

Landsat Thematic Mapper (TM) and aircraft-borne Thematic Mapper simulator (TMS) data were collected over two areas of natural vegetation in southern California exposed to gradients of pollutant dose, particularly in photochemical oxidants: the coastal sage scrub of the Santa Monica Mountains in the Los Angeles basin, and the yellow pine forests in the southern Sierra Nevada. In both situations, natural variations in canopy closure, with subsequent exposure of understory elements (e.g.,rock or soil, chaparral, grasses, and herbs), were sufficient to cause changes in spectral variation that could obscure differences due to visible foliar injury symptoms observed in the field. TM or TMS data are therefore more likely to be successful in distinguishing pollution injury from background variation when homogeneous communities with closed canopies are subjected to more severe pollution-induced structural and/or compositional change. The present study helps to define the threshold level of vegetative injury detectable by TM data.

Westman, Walter E.↗
NASA NTRS1983

A sea surface height estimator using synthetic aperture radar complex imagery

A method is developed for estimating the sea surface height using the complex imagery from synthetic aperture radar (SAR). Algorithms are developed for the envelope and phase demodulation, regression, and filtering of the SAR complex imagery and are applied to simulated and actual satellite radar SEASAT-SAR data. A simulation of a simplified stationary scene is utilized in order to establish tentative sufficient conditions on large-scale SAR and sampling parameters for the accurate estimation of the scale structure's height. It is shown that the algorithm accurately estimated a long wavelength low-amplitude sea height structure present in the SEASAT-SAR data, which was determined to be consistent with observations.

Harger, R. O.↗
NASA NTRS2015

Statistical Analysis of Large Simulated Yield Datasets for Studying Climate Effects

Many studies have been carried out during the last decade to study the effect of climate change on crop yields and other key crop characteristics. In these studies, one or several crop models were used to simulate crop growth and development for different climate scenarios that correspond to different projections of atmospheric CO2 concentration, temperature, and rainfall changes (Semenov et al., 1996; Tubiello and Ewert, 2002; White et al., 2011). The Agricultural Model Intercomparison and Improvement Project (AgMIP; Rosenzweig et al., 2013) builds on these studies with the goal of using an ensemble of multiple crop models in order to assess effects of climate change scenarios for several crops in contrasting environments. These studies generate large datasets, including thousands of simulated crop yield data. They include series of yield values obtained by combining several crop models with different climate scenarios that are defined by several climatic variables (temperature, CO2, rainfall, etc.). Such datasets potentially provide useful information on the possible effects of different climate change scenarios on crop yields. However, it is sometimes difficult to analyze these datasets and to summarize them in a useful way due to their structural complexity; simulated yield data can differ among contrasting climate scenarios, sites, and crop models. Another issue is that it is not straightforward to extrapolate the results obtained for the scenarios to alternative climate change scenarios not initially included in the simulation protocols. Additional dynamic crop model simulations for new climate change scenarios are an option but this approach is costly, especially when a large number of crop models are used to generate the simulated data, as in AgMIP. Statistical models have been used to analyze responses of measured yield data to climate variables in past studies (Lobell et al., 2011), but the use of a statistical model to analyze yields simulated by complex process-based crop models is a rather new idea. We demonstrate herewith that statistical methods can play an important role in analyzing simulated yield data sets obtained from the ensembles of process-based crop models. Formal statistical analysis is helpful to estimate the effects of different climatic variables on yield, and to describe the between-model variability of these effects.

climate↗
NASA NTRS1977

A single field of view method for retrieving tropospheric temperature profiles from cloud-contaminated radiance data

The paper presents a method for retrieving single field of view tropospheric temperature profiles directly from cloud-contaminated radiance data through the use of auxiliary data such as observed shelter temperatures and estimated cloud-top height. A model was formulated to calculate cloud parameters for use with the radiative transport equation at an estimated cloud-top level. The cloud and temperature data are used in conjunction with real and simulated radiance data from NOAA satellites.

Hodges, D. B.↗
NASA NTRS1984

Aboveground Biomass Estimation in a Tidal Brackish Marsh Using Simulated Thematic Mapper Spectral Data

Spectral radiance data were collected from the ground and from a low altitude aircraft in an attempt to gain some insight into the potential utility of actual Thematic Mapper data for biomass estimation in wetland plant communities. No attempt was made to distinguish individual plant species within brackish marsh plant associations. Rather, it was decided to lump plant species with similar canopy morphologies and then estimate from spectral radiance data the biomass of the group. The rationale for such an approach is that plants with a similar morphology will produce a similar reflecting or absorping surface (i.e., canopy) for incoming electromagnetic radiation. Variations in observed reflectance from different plant communities with a similar canopy morphology are more likely to be a result of biomass differences than a result of differences in canopy architecture. If the hypothesis that plants with a similar morphology exhibit similar reflectance characteristics is true, then biomass can be estimated based on a model for the dominant plant morphology within a plant association and the need for species discrimination has effectively been eliminated.

Hardisky, M.↗
NASA NTRS1988

A simulator investigation of the use of digital data link for pilot/ATC communications in a single pilot operation

Studies have shown that radio communications between pilots and air traffic control contribute to high pilot workload and are subject to various errors. These errors result from congestion on the voice radio channel, and missed and misunderstood messages. The use of digital data link has been proposed as a means of reducing this workload and error rate. A critical factor, however, in determining the potential benefit of data link will be the interface between future data link systems and the operator of those systems, both in the air and on the ground. The purpose of this effort was to evaluate the pilot interface with various levels of data link capability, in simulated general aviation, single-pilot instrument flight rule operations. Results show that the data link reduced demands on pilots' short-term memory, reduced the number of communication transmissions, and permitted the pilots to more easily allocate time to critical cockpit tasks while receiving air traffic control messages. The pilots who participated unanimously indicated a preference for data link communications over voice-only communications. There were, however, situations in which the pilot preferred the use of voice communications, and the ability for pilots to delay processing the data link messages, during high workload events, caused delays in the acknowledgement of messages to air traffic control.

Hinton, David A.↗
NASA NTRS1992

A wall interference assessment/correction system

A Wall Signature method originally developed by Hackett has been selected to be adapted for the Ames 12-ft Wind Tunnel WIAC system in the project. This method uses limited measurements of the static pressure at the wall, in conjunction with the solid wall boundary condition, to determine the strength and distribution of singularities representing the test article. The singularities are used in turn for estimating blockage wall interference. The lifting interference will be treated separately by representing in a horseshoe vortex system for the model's lifting effects. The development and implementation of a working prototype will be completed, delivered and documented with a software manual. The WIAC code will be validated by conducting numerically simulated experiments rather than actual wind tunnel experiments. The simulations will be used to generate both free-air and confined wind-tunnel flow fields for each of the test articles over a range of test configurations. Specifically, the pressure signature at the test section wall will be computed for the tunnel case to provide the simulated 'measured' data. These data will serve as the input for the WIAC method--Wall Signature method. The performance of the WIAC method then may be evaluated by comparing the corrected data with those of the free-air simulation.

Lo, Ching F.↗
NASA NTRS1994

A new method for recognizing quadric surfaces from range data and its application to telerobotics and automation, final phase

In the final phase of the proposed research a complete top to down three dimensional object recognition scheme has been proposed. The various three dimensional objects included spheres, cones, cylinders, ellipsoids, paraboloids, and hyperboloids. Utilizing a newly developed blob determination technique, a given range scene with several non-cluttered quadric surfaces is segmented. Next, using the earlier (phase 1) developed alignment scheme, each of the segmented objects are then aligned in a desired coordinate system. For each of the quadric surfaces based upon their intersections with certain pre-determined planes, a set of distinct features (curves) are obtained. A database with entities such as the equations of the planes and angular bounds of these planes has been created for each of the quadric surfaces. Real range data of spheres, cones, cylinders, and parallelpipeds have been utilized for the recognition process. The developed algorithm gave excellent results for the real data as well as for several sets of simulated range data.

Mielke, Roland↗
NASA NTRS1998

Analysis of New Orion Gamma Ray Data and Monte Carlo Simulations of BATSE Gamma Ray Bursts

These studies were stimulated by the reported COMPTEL detection of nuclear gamma ray line emission from the Orion star formation region. Although the observation have very recently been retracted, the detailed analyses that we carried out clearly showed that the low energy cosmic rays that would have been required to explain the reported fluxes were exceedingly restrictive and thus highly improbable. Moreover, these studies proved to be the trigger for very productive new work. In particular, they led us into carefully re-examining the problem of the origin of the light elements, Li, Be and B, where we showed that the light elements could, in fact, be produced primarily by Galactic cosmic rays and did not require an unobserved low energy cosmic ray source , as had been suggested. We further showed that the observed abundances of Be and B in old halo stars contradicted the common belief that the Galactic cosmic rays were accelerated out of the well mixed interstellar medium, and required instead that they be accelerated out of freshly synthesized matter from supernovae. This work, in turn, led us to propose a new origin of Galactic cosmic rays from the refractory grains in supernova enriched cores of superbubbles.

Lingenfelter, Richard E.↗
NASA NTRS2009

Satellite Proving Ground for the GOES-R Geostationary Lightning Mapper (GLM)

The key mission of the Satellite Proving Ground is to demonstrate new satellite observing data, products and capabilities in the operational environment to be ready on Day 1 to use the GOES-R suite of measurements. Algorithms, tools, and techniques must be tested, validated, and assessed by end users for their utility before they are finalized and incorporated into forecast operations. The GOES-R Proving Ground for the Geostationary Lightning Mapper (GLM) focuses on evaluating how the infusion of the new technology, algorithms, decision aids, or tailored products integrate with other available tools (weather radar and ground strike networks; nowcasting systems, mesoscale analysis, and numerical weather prediction models) in the hands of the forecaster responsible for issuing forecasts and warning products. Additionally, the testing concept fosters operation and development staff interactions which will improve training materials and support documentation development. Real-time proxy total lightning data from regional VHF lightning mapping arrays (LMA) in Northern Alabama, Central Oklahoma, Cape Canaveral Florida, and the Washington, DC Greater Metropolitan Area are the cornerstone for the GLM Proving Ground. The proxy data will simulate the 8 km Event, Group and Flash data that will be generated by GLM. Tailored products such as total flash density at 1-2 minute intervals will be provided for display in AWIPS-2 to select NWS forecast offices and national centers such as the Storm Prediction Center. Additional temporal / spatial combinations are being investigated in coordination with operational needs and case-study proxy data and prototype visualizations may also be generated from the NASA heritage Lightning Imaging Sensor and Optical Transient Detector data. End users will provide feedback on the utility of products in their operational environment, identify use cases and spatial/temporal scales of interest, and provide feedback to the developers for adjusted or new products.

Goodman, Steven J.↗
NASA NTRS2019

GEOS-Carb III: Delivering Mature Carbon Flux and Concentration Datasets in Support of NASA's Carbon Monitoring System

The GEOS-Carb project seeks to make high quality, data-driven products that support NASA's Carbon Monitoring System Program. These include bottom-up land and ocean flux estimates along with fossil fuel emissions, all informed by satellite data and the MERRA-2 reanalysis. These flux data support atmospheric carbon products that include both simulations and data assimilation products. We show examples of this work and discuss applications to future mission planning.

Ott, L.↗
NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Assessing the Impact of SMAP Soil Moisture Data Assimilation on the Simulation and Prediction of Tropical Cyclone Idai

The role of soil moisture in the evolution of tropical cyclones (TCs) approaching land has long been recognized. Dry land surface conditions can lead to faster dissipation of a TC over land (often associated with changes in precipitation structure), whereas very wet conditions can help sustain or even re-intensify a TC. The ability to forecast post-landfall TC evolution and mitigate the associated socio-economic impact thus hinges on accurate knowledge of land surface conditions prior to landfall. The NASA Soil Moisture Active Passive (SMAP) mission provides accurate observations of soil moisture globally and at high revisit times of 2-3 days. It has been shown that the assimilation of SMAPbrightness temperatures (Tb) significantly improves modeled land surface states and thus has the potential to constrain land surface initial conditions in TC forecasts. In this presentation, we investigate this potential through an extensive set of Observing System Experiments that systematically assess the impact of assimilating SMAP Tbs on TC forecast skill in the Goddard Earth Observing System. Focusing on the case of TC Idai, we show that the assimilation of SMAP generally leads to a drier soil moisture analysis for the land surface underneath much of the storm’s circulation. An exception is the direct TC track, where SMAP assimilation increases soil moisture. These changes are reflected in the surface fluxes, which propagate the land surface state changes to the atmosphere. This results a TC that is overall weaker with lower winds, but with a better-defined eye and a slightly smaller track error than a simulation without SMAP DA. The changes in soil moisture resulting from the assimilation of SMAP also impact the total precipitation amounts as well as the precipitation structure associated with TC Idai.

SMAP↗