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At least 1,153 records · Page 64

Energetic Neutral Atom Imaging at Low Altitudes from the Swedish Microsatellite Astrid: Extraction of the Equatorial Ion Distribution

Energetic neutral atom (ENA) images obtained by the ENA imager on- board the Astrid satellite in the polar cap at 1000 km during a moderate magnetic storm (Dst greater than or equal to 80 nT) on 8 February 1995 are simulated using a parameterized model of the equatorial ion distribution and a six-component Chamberlain exo-sphere with parameters from the MSISE-90 model. By changing the ion parameters until a matching ENA image is obtained one can extract the equatorial ion distribution. Four consecutive images from different view points several of minutes apart are simulated assuming H(+) and O(+), respectively, as parent ions. The optimal set of parameters is extracted by minimizing the chi(exp 2) difference between simulated and observed ENA image using Powell's minimization algorithm. The optimal equatorial model ion distribution consists of O(+) peaked in around dusk. The lower intensity of fluxes obtained from vantage points closer to the pole is an effect of the loss cone of the parent ion distribution being empty.

Brandt, Pontus C:son↗

Mitigating keyhole pore formation by nanoparticles during laser powder bed fusion additive manufacturing

Keyhole pore formation is one of the most detrimental subsurface defects in the laser metal additive manufacturing process. However, effective ways to mitigate keyhole pore formation beyond tuning laser processing conditions during keyhole mode laser melting are still lacking. Here we report a novel approach to mitigate keyhole pore formation during laser powder bed fusion (LPBF) process by using stable nanoparticles. The critical keyhole depth for keyhole pore generation (i.e., the largest keyhole depth without keyhole pore formation) during LPBF of Al6061 increases from 246 µm to 454 µm (85% increase) after adding TiC nanoparticles. In-depth x-ray imaging studies and thermo-fluid dynamics simulation enable us to identify that two mechanisms work together to mitigate keyhole pore generation: (1) adding nanoparticles prevents the keyhole from collapsing by increasing the liquid viscosity to impede the protrusion development; (2) adding nanoparticles slows down the keyhole pore movement by increasing the liquid viscosity, resulting in the recapturing of the pore by the keyhole. We further demonstrate that adding TiC nanoparticles can also eliminate the keyhole fluctuation induced keyhole pore during LPBF of Al6061. Our research provides a potential way to mitigate keyhole pore formation for defect lean metal additive manufacturing.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗

Michel Electron Selection with SPINE for DUNE Far Detector Simulation

Michel electrons are a valuable input for particle detector calibration due to their consistent kinetic energy distribution. This report details the evaluation of a Michel electron identification method's application to simulated data from the DUNE (Deep Underground Neutrino Experiment) far detector. This method, which relies on the neural network-based particle classification software SPINE (Scalable Particle Imaging with Neural Embeddings), was developed and calibrated using simulated data for the SBND (Short-Baseline Neutrino Detector) experiment before being applied to simulated DUNE data from a 1x2x6 subset of far detector modules.

Wilson, Dante [Colorado State U.]↗

The NASA Airborne Earth Science Microwave Imaging Radiometer (AESMIR): A New Sensor for Earth Remote Sensing

The Airborne Earth Science Microwave Imaging Radiometer (AESMIR) is a versatile new airborne imaging radiometer recently developed by NASA. The AESMIR design is unique in that it performs dual-polarized imaging at all standard passive microwave frequency bands (6-89 GHz) using only one sensor headscanner package, providing an efficient solution for Earth remote sensing applications (snow, soil moisture/land parameters, precipitation, ocean winds, sea surface temperature, water vapor, sea ice, etc.). The microwave radiometers themselves will incorporate state-of-the-art receivers, with particular attention given to instrument calibration for the best possible accuracy and sensitivity. The single-package design of AESMIR makes it compatible with high-altitude aircraft platforms such as the NASA ER-2s. The arbitrary 2-axis gimbal can perform conical and cross-track scanning, as well as fixed-beam staring. This compatibility with high-altitude platforms coupled with the flexible scanning configuration, opens up previously unavailable science opportunities for convection/precip/cloud science and co-flying with complementary instruments, as well as providing wider swath coverage for all science applications. By designing AESMIR to be compatible with these high-altitude platforms, we are also compatible with the NASA P-3, the NASA DC-8, C-130s and ground-based deployments. Thus AESMIR can provide low-, mid-, and high- altitude microwave imaging. Parallel filter banks allow AESMIR to simultaneously simulate the exact passbands of multiple satellite radiometers: SSM/I, TMI, AMSR, Windsat, SSMI/S, and the upcoming GPM/GMI and NPOESS/CMIS instruments --a unique capability among aircraft radiometers. An L-band option is also under development, again using the same scanner. With this option, simultaneous imaging from 1.4 to 89 GHz will be feasible. And, all receivers except the sounding channels will be configured for 4-Stokes polarimetric operation using high-speed digital correlators in the near future. The capabilities and unique design features of this new sensor will be described, and example imagery will be presented.

Kim, Edward↗

Dynamics and Control of a Disordered System in Space

In this paper, we present some ideas regarding the modeling, dynamics and control aspects of granular spacecraft. Granular spacecraft are complex multibody systems composed of a spatially disordered distribution of a large number of elements, for instance a cloud of grains in orbit. An example of application is a spaceborne observatory for exoplanet imaging, where the primary aperture is a cloud instead of a monolithic aperture. A model is proposed of the multi-scale dynamics of the grains and cloud in orbit, as well as a control approach for cloud shape maintenance and alignment, and preliminary simulation studies are carried out for the representative imaging system.

granular matter↗

Dynamics and Control of Granular Imaging Systems

In this paper, we present some ideas regarding the modeling, dynamics and control aspects of granular spacecraft. Granular spacecraft are complex multibody systems composed of a spatially disordered distribution of a large number of elements, for instance a cloud of grains in orbit. An example of application is a spaceborne observatory for exoplanet imaging, where the primary aperture is a cloud instead of a monolithic aperture. A model is proposed of the multi-scale dynamics of the grains and cloud in orbit, as well as a control approach for cloud shape maintenance and alignment, and preliminary simulation studies are carried out for the representative imaging system.

optical trapping↗

Comparison of SAR and CYNSS surface water extent metrics over the Yucatan Lake wetland site

Wetlands have a major role in the carbon cycle, outgassing large quantities of carbon dioxide and methane through processes that are directly and strongly influenced by the duration and timing of inundation. Therefore, understanding the seasonal pattern of inundation can be a component for regional to global scale carbon models. Measurement of inundation extent also establishes a benchmark for the current status of wetland areas, useful in assessing the future impacts of climate change. The incorporation of frequent measurements of inundation extent into large-scale hydrological models would permit the evaluation of more detailed seasonal and longer-term floodplain dynamics and their associated management implications.The Cyclone GNSS (CYGNSS) constellation of satellites launched in 2016, and carries receivers capable of receiving data from L-band GNSS reflections. Delay Doppler maps (DDM) are generated on board and telemetered to the ground, along with a small number of raw data takes that can be used for special processing on the ground for evaluation purposes. It has been previously shown that these data can be sensitive to inundation.The NASA ISRO Synthetic Aperture Radar, currently planned for launch in January 2023, has both an L-band and S-band SAR for earth imaging. The L-band SAR, which will image the Earth's land mass twice every 12 days, has a requirement for measuring wetland inundation extent at the 1 ha scale. One of the sites that will be used to validate this requirement is Yucatan Lake, Louisiana. This oxbow lake and surrounding area located adjacent to the Mississippi river experiences periodic and extensive flooding in the surrounding forest areas.In 2019, NASA's UAVSAR fully polarimetric airborne L-band SAR conducted a flight campaign to image a dozen sites in the SE USA at approximately 12-day intervals and both in the morning and evening, to simulate the type of data NISAR will obtain. One site imaged during this campaign was the Yucatan Lake area, spanning water stages from low to high flood conditions.It has been demonstrated previously that GNSS reflectometry such as that measured by CYGNSS may be used to characterize surface inundation. It has also been known for decades that L-band SAR may be used to characterize not only the presence of open water, but also the presence of subcanopy inundation in forested areas. In this paper we will present results comparing data from these two types of instruments.

Lavalle, Marco↗

Experiments and CFD simulation of mass transfer and hydrodynamics in a cylindrical bubble column

Flow visualization, Particle Image Velocimetry (PIV) and dissolved oxygen charging experiments are carried out in a small-scale cylindrical air-water bubble column at different superficial gas velocities. Void fraction profile, total gas holdup, liquid phase velocity field and volumetric mass transfer coefficient are obtained. Details of each experiment are given, with a new procedure for obtaining a 2D void fraction profile from flow visualization by image processing and time averaging which could provide useful information for CFD model validation. The experimental results are analyzed and compared with simulations where good agreement is found for both local and global flow patterns. The averaged governing equations and constitutive relations used in the simulation are discussed briefly, with emphasis on the proper comparison between simulations and experiments based on the derivation of the two-fluid model. Finally, by conducting three sets of experiments related to phase distribution, velocity field and mass transfer in the same apparatus, a validated CFD model for multiphase mass transfer is established and can be used in the future design of a multi-phase reactor.

42 ENGINEERING↗

Arterial gas emboli in altitude-induced decompression sickness

Exposure to high altitudes can result in the evolved-gas condition referred to as decompression sickness (DCS). Ultrasonic monitoring techniques have clearly demonstrated the presence of venous gas emboli (VGE) during decompression. Although important to DCS research and our understanding of the physiological mechanisms of this condition, Venus gas emboli have not been considered clinically hazardous, unless in extreme numbers. Arterial gas emboli (AGE), on the other hand, are generally viewed with great concern. Arterial gas emboli can enter the cerebral arterial circulation and arrest blood flow resulting in potentially serious injury. Left ventricular gas emboli were observed with echo imaging in five volunteer subjects during exposure to simulated altitude. These serendipitous findings occurred during altitude exposure under 3 separate research protocols involving 79 subject exposures. The voluntary, fully informed consent of the subjects used in this research was obtained as required by AFR 169-3. A Hewlett-Packard SONOS 1000 Echo Imaging System was used to monitor for precordial gas emboli. The improved resolution of the SONOS 1000 appears to account for these new findings. Four subjects had high incidence DCS and VGE during previous research flights. One subject only had one flight. The altitudes and AGE onset times for the five cases were: (1) 25,500 ft/2:23, (2) 29,000 ft/0:27, (3) 19,500 ft/3:49, (4) 29,500 ft/3:15, and (5) 29,500 ft/1:31. In all five cases, at the time of AGE onset, the VGE scores were high from all monitored locations. Four of the cases were symptomatic at the time of AGE onset (pain and skin mottling). No cerebral manifestations were observed. All subjects were immediately recompressed to ground level and successfully treated with 2 hours of post-breathing or with hyperbaric oxygen therapy. In conclusion, previously undetected AGE were demonstrated--with and without DCS symptoms--during exposure to altitude. It appears that this gas transferred from the venous side to the arterial side via either intracardiac defects or the pulmonary circulation. The clinical and operational implications of this finding are yet to be determined.

Pilmanis, Andrew A.↗

Associative memories using complex-valued Hopfield networks based on spin-torque oscillator arrays

Abstract Simulations of complex-valued Hopfield networks based on spin-torque oscillators can recover phase-encoded images. Sequences of memristor-augmented inverters provide tunable delay elements that implement complex weights by phase shifting the oscillatory output of the oscillators. Pseudo-inverse training suffices to store at least 12 images in a set of 192 oscillators, representing 16 × 12 pixel images. The energy required to recover an image depends on the desired error level. For the oscillators and circuitry considered here, 5% root mean square deviations from the ideal image require approximately 5 μ s and consume roughly 130 nJ. Simulations show that the network functions well when the resonant frequency of the oscillators can be tuned to have a fractional spread less than 10 −3 , depending on the strength of the feedback.

Prasad, Nitin (ORCID:0000000180880164)↗

NEURAL NETWORK FOR COHERENT DIFFRACTION IMAGE INVERSION

A deep neural network model plus automatic differentiation is developed for retrieving phase information from 3D coherent diffraction images. The model is implemented using Tensorflow and the training dataset is generated using physics-based atomistic simulations. Custom codes are written to handle the resampling of diffraction images to oversampling ratios appropriate for the neural network model.

CHAN, HENRY↗

Scintillation event imaging with a single photon avalanche diode camera

Position and time measurements of scintillation events encode information about the radiation source. Single photon avalanche diode (SPAD) arrays offer multiple-megapixel spatial resolution and tens of picoseconds temporal resolution for detecting single photons. Current lensless designs for measuring scintillation events use sensors that are lower in spatial resolution. Camera-based designs use sensors that are lower in temporal resolution or readout rate and cannot image individual interactions. Here we propose to image scintillation events in a thick, monolithic scintillator using a high-resolution SPAD camera. We demonstrate that a commercial SPAD camera is able to gather sufficient signal to image individual scintillation events and observe 3D shifts in their spatial distribution. Simulations show that a SPAD camera can localize individual scintillation events in 3D. We report direct imaging of gamma-ray interactions in a scintillator with a SPAD camera. The proposed design may allow to measure complex signatures of individual particles interacting in the scintillator.

47 OTHER INSTRUMENTATION↗

A coded aperture with sub-mean-free-path thickness for implosion geometry imaging on ICF and IFE experiments

Inertial confinement fusion and inertial fusion energy experiments diagnose the geometry of the fusion region through imaging of the neutrons released through fusion reactions. Pinhole arrays typically used for such imaging require thick substrates to obtain high contrast along with a small pinhole diameter to obtain high resolution capability, resulting in pinholes that have large aspect ratios. This leads to expensive pinhole arrays that have small solid angles and are difficult to align. Here, we propose a coded aperture with scatter and partial attenuation (CASPA) for fusion neutron imaging that relaxes the thick substrate requirement for good image contrast. These coded apertures are expected to scale to larger solid angles and are easier to align without sacrificing imaging resolution or throughput. We use Monte Carlo simulations (Geant4) to explore a coded aperture design to measure neutron implosion asymmetries on fusion experiments at the National Ignition Facility (NIF) and discuss the viability of this technique, matching the current nominal resolution of 10 µm. The results show that a 10 mm thick tungsten CASPA can image NIF implosions with neutron yields above 10 14 with quality comparable to unprocessed data from a current NIF neutron imaging aperture. Furthermore, this CASPA substrate is 20 times thinner than the current aperture arrays for fusion neutron imaging and less than one mean free-path of 14.1 MeV neutrons through the substrate. Since the resolution, solid angle, and throughput are decoupled in coded aperture imaging, the resolution and solid angle achievable with future designs will be limited primarily by manufacturing capability.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗

Coordinate transformation methodology for simulating quasistatic elastoplastic solids

Molecular dynamics simulations frequently employ periodic boundary conditions where the positions of the periodic images are manipulated in order to apply deformation to the material sample. For example, Lees-Edwards conditions use moving periodic images to apply simple shear. Here, we examine the problem of precisely comparing this type of simulation to continuum solid mechanics. We employ a hypo-elastoplastic mechanical model, and develop a projection method to enforce quasi-static equilibrium. We introduce a simulation framework that uses a fixed Cartesian computational grid on a reference domain, and imposes deformation via a time-dependent coordinate transformation to the physical domain. As a test case for our method, we consider the evolution of shear bands in a bulk metallic glass using the shear transformation zone theory of amorphous plasticity. We examine the growth of shear bands in simple shear and pure shear conditions as a function of the initial preparation of the bulk metallic glass.

74 ATOMIC AND MOLECULAR PHYSICS↗

Physics guided machine learning for multi-material decomposition of tissues from dual-energy CT scans of simulated breast models with calcifications

We introduce a physics guided data-driven method for image-based multi-material decomposition for dual-energy computed tomography (CT) scans. The method is demonstrated for CT scans of virtual human phantoms containing more than two types of tissues. The method is a physics-driven supervised learning technique. We take advantage of the mass attenuation coefficient of dense materials compared to that of muscle tissues to perform a preliminary extraction of the dense material from the images using unsupervised methods. We then perform supervised deep learning on the images processed by the extracted dense material to obtain the final multi-material tissue map. The method is demonstrated on simulated breast models with calcifications as the dense material placed amongst the muscle tissues. The physics-guided machine learning method accurately decomposes the various tissues from input images, achieving a normalized root-mean-squared error of 2.75%.

Gopalakrishnan Meena, Murali↗

Doppler radar imaging of spherical planetary surfaces

This paper describes a technique for using echo power-spectra for making radar images of spherical planetary targets. In developing the Doppler-radar imaging system, the target's reflectivity distribution is expanded in a truncated spherical harmonic series; the distribution of echo power in rotational phase and the Doppler frequency are obtained in form of a system of linear equations which express the echo spectra as functions of the series coefficients. To estimate the coefficients from an observed phase-Doppler distribution, the inversion is cast as a least-squares problem, and is solved using singular value decompositions, yielding a linear imaging system which can be fully characterized by its impulse response as a function of latitude. Simulations were designed and used to explore the capabilities of Doppler radar imaging, and the sensitivity of imaging to such factors as subradar altitude coverage and signal-to-noise ratio was investigated.

Hudson, R. Scott↗

Ringing Artifact Reduction Method for Ultrasound Reconstruction Using Multi-Agent Consensus Equilibrium

Non-destructive characterization of multi-layered structures that can be accessed from only a single side is important for applications such as well-bore integrity inspection. Existing methods related to Synthetic Aperture Focusing Technique (SAFT) rapidly produce acceptable results but with significant artifacts. Recently, ultrasound model-based iterative reconstruction (UMBIR) approaches have shown significant improvements over SAFT. However, even these methods produce ringing artifacts due to the high fractional-bandwidth of the excitation signal.In this paper, we propose a ringing artifact reduction method for ultrasound image reconstruction that uses a multi-agent consensus equilibrium (RARE-MACE) framework. Our approach integrates a physics-based forward model that accounts for the propagation of a collimated ultrasonic beam in multi-layered media, a spatially varying image prior, and a denoiser designed to suppress the ringing artifacts that are characteristic of reconstructions from high-fractional bandwidth ultrasound sensor data. We test our method on simulated and experimental measurements and show substantial improvements in image quality compared to SAFT and UMBIR.

Alanazi, Abdulrahman M↗