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At least 1,153 records · Page 64

Magnetic Polarization Measurements of the Multi-modal Plasma Response to 3D fields in the EAST Tokamak

A multi-modal plasma response to applied non-axisymmetric fields has been found in EAST tokamak plasmas. Here, multi-modal means the radial and poloidal structure of an individually driven toroidal harmonic is not fixed. The signature of such a multi-modal response is the magnetic polarization (ratio of radial and poloidal components) of the plasma response field measured on the low field side device mid-plane. A difference in the 3D coil phasing (the relative phase of two coil arrays) dependencies between the two responses is observed in response to n=2 fields in the same plasma for which the n=1 responses are well synchronized. Neither the maximum radial nor the maximum poloidal field response to n=2 fields agrees with the best applied phasing for mitigating edge localized modes, suggesting that the edge plasma response is not a dominant component of either polarization. GPEC modeling reproduces the discrepant phasing dependences of the experimental measurements, and confirms the edge resonances are maximized by the coil phasing that mitigates ELMs in the experiments. The model confirms the measured plasma response is not dominated by resonant current drive from the external field. Instead, non-resonant contributions play a large role in the diagnostic signal for both toroidal harmonics n=1 and n=2. The analysis in this paper demonstrates the ability of 3D modeling to connect external magnetic sensor measurements to the internal plasma physics and accurately predict optimal applied 3D field configurations in multi-modal plasmas.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗

Evolution of Precipitation Particle Size Distributions within MC3E Systems and its Impact on Aerosol-Cloud-Precipitation Interactions: Final Report

This is a multi-institutional, collaborative project using observations and modeling to study the evolution (e.g. formation and growth) of hydrometeors in continental convective clouds. Our contribution was in data analysis for the generation of high-value cloud and precipitation products and derive cloud statistics for model validation. There are two areas in data analysis that we contributed: i) the development of novel, state-of-the-art dual-wavelength radar algorithms for the retrieval of cloud microphysical properties and ii) the evaluation of large domain, high-resolution models using comprehensive multi-sensor observations. Our research group developed statistical summaries from numerous sensors and developed retrievals of vertical air motion in deep convection.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗

Suboptimal stochastic controller for an n-body spacecraft

The problem is studied of determining a stochastic optimal controller for an n-body spacecraft. The approach used in obtaining the stochastic controller involves the application, interpretation, and combination of advanced dynamical principles and the theoretical aspects of modern control theory. The stochastic controller obtained for a complicated model of a spacecraft uses sensor angular measurements associated with the base body to obtain smoothed estimates of the entire state vector, can be easily implemented, and enables system performance to be significantly improved.

Larson, V.↗

A suboptimal stochastic controller for an N-body spacecraft

Considerable attention, in the open literature, is being focused on the problem of developing a suitable set of deterministic dynamical equations for a complex spacecraft. This paper considers the problem of determining a stochastic optimal controller for an n-body spacecraft. The approach used in obtaining the stochastic controller involves the application, interpretation, and combination of advanced dynamical principles and the theoretical aspects of modern control theory. The stochastic controller obtained herein for a complicated model of a spacecraft uses sensor angular measurements associated with the base body to obtain smoothed estimates of the entire state vector. It can be easily implemented, and it enables system performance to be significantly improved.

Larson, V.↗

Trade-off analysis of modes of data handling for earth resources (ERS), volume 1

Data handling requirements are reviewed for earth observation missions along with likely technology advances. Parametric techniques for synthesizing potential systems are developed. Major tasks include: (1) review of the sensors under development and extensions of or improvements in these sensors; (2) development of mission models for missions spanning land, ocean, and atmosphere observations; (3) summary of data handling requirements including the frequency of coverage, timeliness of dissemination, and geographic relationships between points of collection and points of dissemination; (4) review of data routing to establish ways of getting data from the collection point to the user; (5) on-board data processing; (6) communications link; and (7) ground data processing. A detailed synthesis of three specific missions is included.

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Guidance of an autonomous planetary rover based on a short-range hazard detection system

The guidance of an autonomous planetary roving vehicle using a scanning laser/multidetector terrain sensor for short-range hazard detection has been simulated. The sensor data are used to model the terrain, thereby providing the information required by a path selection algorithm to control the motion of the rover. These simulation studies are providing the basis for developing both the real-time computer control software and the hardware systems for laboratory and field testing of rover.

Yerazunis, S. W.↗

Middle infrared multispectral aircraft scanner data - Analysis for geological applications

Multispectral middle IR (8-13 microns) data were acquired with an aircraft scanner over Utah. Because these digital image data were dominated by temperature, all six channels were highly correlated. Extensive processing was required to allow geologic photointerpretation based on subtle variations in spectral emittance between rock types. After preliminary processing, ratio images were produced and color ratio composites created from these. Sensor calibration and an atmospheric model allowed determination of surface brightness, temperature, emittance, and color composite emittance images. The best separation of major rock types was achieved with a principal component transformation, followed by a Gaussian stretch, followed by an inverse transformation to the original axes.

Kahle, A. B.↗

Naval Remote Ocean Sensing System (NROSS) study

A set of hardware similar to the SEASAT A configuration requirement, suitable for installation and operation aboard a NOAA-D bus and a budgetary cost for one (1) protoflight model was provided. The scatterometer sensor is conceived as one of several sensors for the Navy Remote Ocean Sensing System (NROSS) Satellite Program. Deliverables requested were to include a final report with appropriate sketches and block diagrams showing the scatterometer design/configuration and a budgetary cost for all labor and materials to design, fabricate, test, and integrate this hardware into a NOAA-D satellite bus. This configuration consists of two (2) hardware assembles - a transmitter/receiver (T/R) assembly and an integrated electronics assembly (IEA). The T/R assembly as conceived is best located at the extreme opposite end of the satellite away from the solar array assembly and oriented in position to enable one surface of the assembly to have unobstructed exposure to space. The IEA is planned to be located at the bottom (Earth viewing) side of the satellite and requires a radiating plate.

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Wideband Disturbance Accomodation in Precision Flexible Space Structures

Numerous spacecraft missions currently being formulated exhibit several basic and sharply conflicting features: selected components (e.g., an optical train) of inherently flexible structures are to maintain precision pointing performance in a wideband disturbance environment. Within the overall process of synthesizing an active controller to deal with this difficult problem, the aspects of reduced-order modelling and of actuator and sensor selection are crucial to the successful implementation of any controller feedback strategy. The principal focus in this paper is on the influence of actuator and sensor selection upon the effectiveness of a specified controller strategy for wideband disturbance accommodation. A genetic optical support structure is used for a number of design examples. Active transducer selections are made systematically based upon their direct contributuion to optical pointing error. Controller designs incorporating the various transducer selections exhibit stability in the presence of unmodeled modes over a frequency range substantially beyond the bandwidth of the disturbance.

Hegg, D. R.↗

TRICCS: A proposed teleoperator/robot integrated command and control system for space applications

Robotic systems will play an increasingly important role in space operations. An integrated command and control system based on the requirements of space-related applications and incorporating features necessary for the evolution of advanced goal-directed robotic systems is described. These features include: interaction with a world model or domain knowledge base, sensor feedback, multiple-arm capability and concurrent operations. The system makes maximum use of manual interaction at all levels for debug, monitoring, and operational reliability. It is shown that the robotic command and control system may most advantageously be implemented as packages and tasks in Ada.

Will, R. W.↗

In-flight wobble identification for Galileo

To achieve in-flight wobble compensation for Galileo, wobble identification is implemented using star scanner data or automatic gain control (AGC) signal as measurement in all-spin mode. The star scanner provides spacecraft attitude in inertial space while the AGC signal provides the spacecraft pointing relative to earth. A linear observation model is defined for each sensor which is being applied to a Kalman Estimator. It can be shown from simulation that better result can be achieved using a combined set of data than any one sensor alone due to correlation reduction among error sources.

Lai, J. Y.↗

Spacecraft Dynamics and Control Program at AFRPL

A number of future DOD and NASA spacecraft such as the space based radar will be not only an order of magnitude larger in dimension than the current spacecraft, but will exhibit extreme structural flexibility with very low structural vibration frequencies. Another class of spacecraft (such as the space defense platforms) will combine large physical size with extremely precise pointing requirement. Such problems require a total departure from the traditional methods of modeling and control system design of spacecraft where structural flexibility is treated as a secondary effect. With these problems in mind, the Air Force Rocket Propulsion Laboratory (AFRPL) initiated research to develop dynamics and control technology so as to enable the future large space structures (LSS). AFRPL's effort in this area can be subdivided into the following three overlapping areas: (1) ground experiments, (2) spacecraft modeling and control, and (3) sensors and actuators. Both the in-house and contractual efforts of the AFRPL in LSS are summarized.

Das, A.↗

The factor of scale in remote sensing

A method that measures the spatial structure of images as a function of spatial resolution is presented for selecting the appropriate scale for remote sensing. Graphs are obtained by imaging the scene at fine resolution and then collapsing the image to successively coarser resolutions while calculating the local variance. For the spatial resolution of SPOT and TM imagery, local image variance is relatively high for forested and urban/suburban environments, indicating that information-extraction techniques using texture, context, and mixture modeling are appropriate for these sensor systems. For agricultural environments where local variance is low, more traditional classifiers are appropriate.

Woodcock, Curtis E.↗

Science synergism study for EOS on evolution of desert surfaces

The effectiveness of EOS data as a basis for the study of desert surfaces' evolution is presently evaluated for both long and short term geomorphic evolution. Attention is given to the usefulness of such sensor systems planned for EOS as MODIS for regional vegetation distribution/variability monitoring, HIRIS for visible-near IR observations, TIMS for lithological identification, HMMR and SSMI for soil characteristics, LASA for atmospheric profiles, SAR for surface roughness, ALT for two-dimensional topography, ACR for the calibration of imaging sensors, and ERBE for climate modeling and regional surface albedo variation determinations.

Farr, Tom G.↗

Certainty grids for mobile robots

A numerical representation of uncertain and incomplete sensor knowledge called Certainty Grids has been used successfully in several mobile robot control programs, and has proven itself to be a powerful and efficient unifying solution for sensor fusion, motion planning, landmark identification, and many other central problems. Researchers propose to build a software framework running on processors onboard the new Uranus mobile robot that will maintain a probabilistic, geometric map of the robot's surroundings as it moves. The certainty grid representation will allow this map to be incrementally updated in a uniform way from various sources including sonar, stereo vision, proximity and contact sensors. The approach can correctly model the fuzziness of each reading, while at the same time combining multiple measurements to produce sharper map features, and it can deal correctly with uncertainties in the robot's motion. The map will be used by planning programs to choose clear paths, identify locations (by correlating maps), identify well-known and insufficiently sensed terrain, and perhaps identify objects by shape. The certainty grid representation can be extended in the same dimension and used to detect and track moving objects.

Moravec, H. P.↗

Atmospheric correction of NS-001 data and extraction of multiple angle reflectance data sets

The percentage of incident solar flux reflected by a surface is a quantity of considerable interest in remote sensing studies. To calculate reflectance from remotely sensed radiance data some estimate of incident flux is needed. Since simultaneous ground-based radiometric measurements are often not available for observations by aircraft or satellite sensors, a procedure based on modeling atmospheric transmittance and scattering was developed. The primary application is to an aircraft data set collected with the NASA C-130 over the Superior National Forest, Minnesota. Atmospherically corrected multiple angle reflectance data sets and reflectance images are generated for areas of natural forest vegetation. These data and the technique may be useful for studies of the interactions of light with forested canopies.

Strebel, D. E.↗

Compatibility of large space based power systems with environmental sensors

A methodology is presented for reviewing various interactions between power systems and the environment that affect the longevity, calibration, maintenance, and accuracy of sensors. The analysis uses the low-earth-orbit environment and interactions with the space station power system as a case study in system compatibility. Space-based power systems and sensor systems are described, compatibility modeling is discussed, and the analysis of the space station case is presented. Steps to be taken during design to promote compatibility are outlined.

Murphy, G.↗

High accuracy optical rate sensor

Optical rate sensors, in particular CCD arrays, will be used on Space Station Freedom to track stars in order to provide inertial attitude reference. An algorithm to provide attitude rate information by directly manipulating the sensor pixel intensity output is presented. The star image produced by a sensor in the laboratory is modeled. Simulated, moving star images are generated, and the algorithm is applied to this data for a star moving at a constant rate. The algorithm produces accurate derived rate of the above data. A step rate change requires two frames for the output of the algorithm to accurately reflect the new rate. When zero mean Gaussian noise with a standard deviation of 5 is added to the simulated data of a star image moving at a constant rate, the algorithm derives the rate with an error of 1.9 percent at a rate of 1.28 pixels per frame.

Uhde-Lacovara, J.↗