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At least 1,171 records · Page 65

Visualizing Distributions from Multi-Return Lidar Data to Understand Forest Structure

Spatially distributed probability density functions (pdfs) are becoming relevant to the Earth scientists and ecologists because of stochastic models and new sensors that provide numerous realizations or data points per unit area. One source of these data is from multi-return airborne lidar, a type of laser that records multiple returns for each pulse of light sent towards the ground. Data from multi-return lidar is a vital tool in helping us understand the structure of forest canopies over large extents. This paper presents several new visualization tools that allow scientists to rapidly explore, interpret and discover characteristic distributions within the entire spatial field. The major contribution from-this work is a paradigm shift which allows ecologists to think of and analyze their data in terms of the distribution. This provides a way to reveal information on the modality and shape of the distribution previously not possible. The tools allow the scientists to depart from traditional parametric statistical analyses and to associate multimodal distribution characteristics to forest structures. Examples are given using data from High Island, southeast Alaska.

Kao, David L.↗

New GES DISC Services Shortening the Path in Science Data Discovery

The Current GES DISC available services only allow user to select variables from a single dataset at a time and too many variables from a dataset are displayed, choice is hard. At American Geophysical Union (AGU) 2016 Fall Meeting, Goddard Earth Sciences Data Information Services Center (GES DISC) unveiled a new service: Datalist. A Datalist is a collection of predefined or user-defined data variables from one or more archived datasets. Our science support team curated predefined datalist and provided value to the user community. Imagine some novice user wants to study hurricane and typed in hurricane in the search box. The first item in the search result is GES DISC provided Hurricane Datalist. It contains scientists recommended variables from multiple datasets like TRMM, GPM, MERRA, etc. Datalist uses the same architecture as that of our new website, which also provides one-stop shopping for data, metadata, citation, documentation, visualization and other available services.We implemented Datalist with new GES DISC web architecture, one single web page that unified all user interfaces. From that webpage, users can find data by either type in keyword, or browse by category. It also provides user with a sophisticated integrated data and services package, including metadata, citation, documentation, visualization, and data-specific services, all available from one-stop shopping.

Datalist↗

Visualization of International Solar-Terrestrial Physics Program (ISTP) data

The International Solar-Terrestrial Physics Program (ISTP) is a multispacecraft, multinational program whose objective is to promote further understanding of the Earth's complex plasma environment. Extensive data sharing and data analysis will be needed to ensure the success of the overall ISTP program. For this reason, there has been a special emphasis on data standards throughout ISTP. One of the key tools will be the common data format (CDF), developed, maintained, and evolved at the National Space Science Data Center (NSSDC), with the set of ISTP implementation guidelines specially designed for space physics data sets by the Space Physics Data Facility (associated with the NSSDC). The ISTP guidelines were developed to facilitate searching, plotting, merging, and subsetting of data sets. We focus here on the plotting application. A prototype software package was developed to plot key parameter (KP) data from the ISTP program at the Science Planning and Operations Facility (SPOF). The ISTP Key Parameter Visualization Tool is based on the Interactive Data Language (IDL) and is keyed to the ISTP guidelines, reading data stored in CDF. With the combination of CDF, the ISTP guidelines, and the visualization software, we can look forward to easier and more effective data sharing and use among ISTP scientists.

Kessel, Ramona L.↗

Effects of various runway lighting parameters upon the relation between runway visual range and visual range of centerline and edge lights in fog

Thirty six students and 54 commercial airline pilots were tested in the fog chamber to determine the effect of runway edge and centerline light intensity and spacing, fog density, ambient luminance level, and lateral and vertical offset distance of the subject from the runway's centerline upon horizontal visual range. These data were obtained to evaluate the adequacy of a balanced lighting system to provide maximum visual range in fog viewing both centerline and runway edge lights. The daytime system was compared against two other candidate lighting systems; the nighttime system was compared against other candidate lighting systems. The second objective was to determine if visual range is affected by lights between the subject and the farthestmost light visible through the fog. The third objective was to determine if college student subjects differ from commercial airline pilots in their horizontal visual range through fog. Two studies were conducted.

Haines, R. F.↗

A Collaborative Decision Environment for UAV Operations

NASA is developing Intelligent Mission Management (IMM) technology for science missions employing long endurance unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV's). The IMM groundbased component is the Collaborative Decision Environment (CDE), a ground system that provides the Mission/Science team with situational awareness, collaboration, and decisionmaking tools. The CDE is used for pre-flight planning, mission monitoring, and visualization of acquired data. It integrates external data products used for planning and executing a mission, such as weather, satellite data products, and topographic maps by leveraging established and emerging Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC) standards to acquire external data products via the Internet, and an industry standard geographic information system (GIs) toolkit for visualization As a Science/Mission team may be geographically dispersed, the CDE is capable of providing access to remote users across wide area networks using Web Services technology. A prototype CDE is being developed for an instrument checkout flight on a manned aircraft in the fall of 2005, in preparation for a full deployment in support of the US Forest Service and NASA Ames Western States Fire Mission in 2006.

D'Ortenzio, Matthew V.↗

Global Land Data Assimilation System (GLDAS) Products, Services and Application from NASA Hydrology Data and Information Services Center (HDISC)

The Global Land Data Assimilation System (GLDAS) is generating a series of land surface state (e.g., soil moisture and surface temperature) and flux (e.g., evaporation and sensible heat flux) products simulated by four land surface models (CLM, Mosaic, Noah and VIC). These products are now accessible at the Hydrology Data and Information Services Center (HDISC), a component of the NASA Goddard Earth Sciences Data and Information Services Center (GES DISC). Current data holdings include a set of 1.0 degree resolution data products from the four models, covering 1979 to the present; and a 0.25 degree data product from the Noah model, covering 2000 to the present. The products are in Gridded Binary (GRIB) format and can be accessed through a number of interfaces. Users can search the products through keywords and perform on-the-fly spatial and parameter subsetting and format conversion of selected data. More advanced visualization, access and analysis capabilities will be available in the future. The long term GLDAS data are used to develop climatology of water cycle components and to explore the teleconnections of droughts and pluvial.

Fang, Hongliang↗

Explore GPM IMERG and Other Global Precipitation Products with GES DISC GIOVANNI

New features and capabilities in the newly released GIOVANNI allow exploring GPM IMERG (Integrated Multi-satelliE Retrievals for GPM) Early, Late and Final Run global half-hourly and monthly precipitation products as well as other precipitation products distributed by the GES DISC such as TRMM Multi-Satellite Precipitation Analysis (TMPA), MERRA (Modern Era Retrospective-Analysis for Research and Applications), NLDAS (North American Land Data Assimilation Systems), GLDAS (Global Land Data Assimilation Systems), etc. GIOVANNI is a web-based tool developed by the GES DISC (Goddard Earth Sciences and Data Information Services Center) to visualize and analyze Earth science data without having to download data and software. The new interface in GIOVANNI allows searching and filtering precipitation products from different NASA missions and projects and expands the capabilities to inter-compare different precipitation products in one interface. Knowing differences in precipitation products is important to identify issues in retrieval algorithms, biases, uncertainties, etc. Due to different formats, data structures, units and so on, it is not easy to inter-compare precipitation products. Newly added features and capabilities (unit conversion, regridding, etc.) in GIOVANNI make inter-comparisons possible. In this presentation, we will describe these new features and capabilities along with examples.

Giovanni↗

Flight set 360L007 (STS-33) insulation component. Volume 3: Final release

Volume 3 of this postfire report deals with the insulation component of the RSRM. The report is released twice for each flight set. The interim release contract date is on or before 60 days after the last field joint or nozzle to case joint is disassembled at KSC and contain the results of the KSC visual evaluation. The data contained in Volume 3 interim release supersedes the insulation data presented in the KSC 10 day report. The final release contract data is on or before 60 days after the last factory joint is disassembled at the Clearfield H-7 facility and contains the results of all visual evaluations and a thermal safety factor analysis. The data contained in the Volume 3 final release supersedes the interim release and the insulation data presented in the Clearfield 10 day report.

Hicken, Steve↗

Conflict Alerts for Aircraft Conducting Visual Approaches

It is common for aircraft to conduct visual and instrument final approaches to a single runway or multiple parallel runways. Useful, nonexcessive safety alerts on aircraft conducting visual approaches are helpful to air traffic controllers, though pilots are responsible for separation with the preceding aircraft. A variety of visual approaches to various runway configurations are studied, and a set of safety alert thresholds is proposed. Fast-time simulations with recorded real-world air traffic data of mostly visual approach flights are performed on a prototype tactical separation assurance system for terminal airspace. Alerts are generated -- with both the standard separation thresholds and the proposed safety alert thresholds -- and compared with those from the Conflict Alert (CA) functionality in the Standard Terminal Automation Replacement System (STARS). The results show that the number of Mode-C Intruder alerts generated was reduced 76% as compared to STARS CA. The nuisance alerts generated by assuming visual to be instrument approaches was reduced by 92% when the proposed safety alert thresholds were used and visual approaches were assumed.A set of safety alert thresholds, which allow safety alerts to be provided to the controllers for aircraft conductingvisual approaches to a single runway or multiple parallel runways, has been proposed based on input from SubjectMatter Experts as well as visual approach procedures and common practices. The goal is to maximize the thresholdswithin the guidance of the procedures and common practices and to minimize the number of nuisance alerts and totalnumber of alerts with the support of flight intent information. Tests have been performed using a recently developedprototype tactical separation assurance system for terminal airspace, called Terminal Tactical Separation-AssuredFlight Environment (T-TSAFE). The input was a full day of air traffic data from Dallas/Fort Worth (DFW) TRACONwith most arriving flights conducting visual approaches. The results compare favorably with those of the ConflictAlert (CA) functionality of the Standard Terminal Automation Replacement System (STARS).When fast-time simulation experiment was performed using T-TSAFE with all arriving flights assumed to conductinstrument approaches, the expected large number of separation alerts were observed. When compared with STARSCA, the conflict pairs common to both T-TSAFE and STARS CA was only 21% of the total STARS CA alerts. As aresult, the nuisance-alert rate for STARS CA was estimated to be about 70%, which is comparable to a similar previously estimation of 80% nuisance-alert rate for CARTS (Common Automated Radar Terminal System) CA. The Mode-CIntruder (MCI) alerts were also reduced by 76% as compared to STARS CA.Examination of the common conflict pairs between T-TSAFE and STARS CA shows that they are valid separationconflicts with good alert lead times for T-TSAFE. However, many of them would still be considered nuisance alertsif the aircraft were conducting visual approaches. This was confirmed by another visual approach fast-time simulationT-TSAFE experiment, in which all DFW arriving flights were assumed to be on visual approaches and our proposedsafety alert thresholds were used and tested. The result of the experiment showed that the number of non-MCI alertswas less by 92% as compared to the number when all DFW arrivals were assumed to be conducting instrumentapproaches. The common conflict pairs involving aircraft conducting visual approaches to parallel runways werereduced by 93% as well. Thus, the flight intent information and the safety alert thresholds are effective in reducingnuisance alerts.T-TSAFE can thus provide separation and safety conflict alerts seamlessly in the real-world environment of mixedterminal operations with arriving flights of both visual and instrument approaches. Compared with STARS CA, TTSAFEhas fewer false alerts, larger alert lead time, and larger alert thresholds. While the nuisance alerts are reducedsignificantly with the safety alert thresholds, further work is needed to study if the alert lead time for safety alerts issufficient.

Tang, Huabin↗

Pictorial communication in virtual and real environments

Papers about the communication between human users and machines in real and synthetic environments are presented. Individual topics addressed include: pictorial communication, distortions in memory for visual displays, cartography and map displays, efficiency of graphical perception, volumetric visualization of 3D data, spatial displays to increase pilot situational awareness, teleoperation of land vehicles, computer graphics system for visualizing spacecraft in orbit, visual display aid for orbital maneuvering, multiaxis control in telemanipulation and vehicle guidance, visual enhancements in pick-and-place tasks, target axis effects under transformed visual-motor mappings, adapting to variable prismatic displacement. Also discussed are: spatial vision within egocentric and exocentric frames of reference, sensory conflict in motion sickness, interactions of form and orientation, perception of geometrical structure from congruence, prediction of three-dimensionality across continuous surfaces, effects of viewpoint in the virtual space of pictures, visual slant underestimation, spatial constraints of stereopsis in video displays, stereoscopic stance perception, paradoxical monocular stereopsis and perspective vergence. (No individual items are abstracted in this volume)

Ellis, Stephen R.↗

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.↗

Connecting Users and Applications with Po.daac Hosted GHRSST Data

The 80+ GHRSST public datasets represent a rich resource for sea surface temperature research and applications given their time series length, resolution, spatial coverage, varying measurement types and processing levels, and availability in the full spectrum of PO.DAAC tools and services ecosystem. The PO.DAAC has created a publicly accessible recipe suite for the user community to perform straightforward yet powerful computations on GHRSST data using python recipes, Jupyter notebooks, R, Matlab, and the NCO programming language. These recipes include numerical computations for regional and global SST trends, anomaly derivations, EOF analysis, climate signal reproduction, and ocean phenology. For example, one recipe reproduces a famous SST based warming figure from the Fourth National Climate Assessment (USA) while another focuses on quantifying the regional changes in ocean SST phenology. Most are python-based while some contain hybrid calls and leverage the NCO programming interface too. All are available on the PO.DAAC user forum (https://podaac.jpl.nasa.gov/forum/) and/or via the open source NASA GitHub repository (https://github.com/nasa/podaac_tools_and_services). Several are available in the Jupyter notebook framework including podaacypy (https://github.com/nasa/podaacpy), a recipe for GHRSST granule metadata discovery and application, and more recently a Jupyter notebook developed to support data analysis and visualization of a cloud-based Zarr formatted Level 4 MUR dataset in the AWS Open Data Registry. Throughout the summer of 2020, the PO.DAAC intends to add and migrate more of its numerical recipes to the Jupyter notebook framework and publish them on its open source GitHub repository.

Gentemann, Chelle↗

Fire Island Water Resources: Assessing Sediment Dynamics and Turbidity Changes Along Fire Island National Seashore Using Satellite Data

Fire Island National Seashore has experienced damaging effects as a result of coastal erosion. Erosion has become an increasingly damaging problem that has led to the destruction of park and community infrastructure, contributed to rising groundwater tables, and posed a serious threat to a globally rare holly maritime forest. Beach nourishment project efforts have been made to mitigate damage, but dredging is expensive and can be thwarted by high rates of erosion. The NASA DEVELOP team partnered with the National Park Service and Fire Island National Seashore and used imagery from Landsat 5 Thematic Mapper (TM), Landsat 8 Operational Land Imager (OLI), and Sentinel-2 MultiSpectral Instrument (MSI) to analyze turbidity and sediment dynamics through surface reflectance data from 2000-2021. Imagery was atmospherically corrected using Atmospheric Correction for OLI Lite (ACOLITE) and visualized in SeaWiFS Data Analysis Systems (SeaDAS). Additionally, shoreline change was analyzed using high-resolution imagery from WorldView-2 acquired from Maxar for pre-Hurricane Sandy on July 25th, 2010 and post-Hurricane Sandy on December 18th, 2019. The results of this analysis showed that turbidity is highest in the winter seasons. The shoreline analysis estimated total shoreline loss of about 62 acres on the ocean side, and 11 acres on the bay side of the island. These results will be used to better inform future partner-designed shoreline management projects in the face of further erosion and sea level rise.

Kelly Young↗

Enabling Analysis of Air Quality Data From Tropospheric Emissions: Monitoring of POllution (Tempo) Via Cloud-Based Tools

Launched in April 2023, the Tropospheric Emissions: Monitoring of POllution (TEMPO) instrument provides high-resolution measurements of key atmospheric pollutants, such as ozone, nitrogen dioxide, and formaldehyde. Maximizing the use and utility of this new source of air quality information requires streamlining data access for a wide variety of research, public health, and other interested users. These varied applications often require the data to be structured in different ways, e.g., specific formats, array shapes, or file sizes. To enable access to TEMPO data in different forms, the NASA Atmospheric Science Data Center (ASDC), as part of the NASA Earth Science Data and Information System (ESDIS), provides a variety of cloud-based data transformation and GIS visualization tools. This presentation demonstrates methods of accessing and working with TEMPO data through these services, while highlighting aspects of the software and algorithmic workflows that perform the necessary data transformations. Examples include data subsetting, concatenation, and visualizations accessible via Jupyter notebooks and GIS software.

Daniel Kaufman↗

High resolution thermal infrared mapping of Martian channels

Viking Infrared Thermal Mapper (IRTM) high resolution (2 to 5 km) data were compiled and compared to Viking Visual Imaging Subsystem (VIS) data and available 1:5M geologic maps for several Martian channels including Dao, Harmakhis, Mangala, Shalbatana, and Simud Valles in an effort to determine the surface characteristics and the processes active during and after the formation of these channels. Results show a dominance of aeolian processes active in and around the channels. These processes have left materials thick enough to mask any genuine channel deposits. Results also indicate that very comparable Martian channels and their surrounding terrain are blanketed by deposits which are homogeneous in their thermal inertia values. However, optimum IRTM data does not cover the entire Martian surface and because local deposits of high thermal inertia material may not be large enough in areal extent or may be in an unfavorable location on the planet, a high resolution data track may not always occur over these deposits. Therefore, aeolian processes may be even more active than the IRTM data tracts can always show.

Craddock, R. A.↗

A new presentation of complex voltage data for Goldstone radar astronomy

A presentation method similar to a vector field display or a data-based grid has been used to visualize complex voltage test data taken over multiple subchannels. Unlike simple plots of all data points on the complex plane, the position of the data in the time series is part of the presentation, providing additional information to aid in fault isolation during readiness testing. The 'phase-magnitude' presentation, as it has come to be called, was designed for the demands of real-time data acquisition and processing with remote monitoring over low bandwidth communication links.

Howard, S. D.↗

Utilizing Higher Resolution Land Surface Remote Sensing Data for Assessing Recent Trends over Asia Monsoon Region

The slide presentation discusses the integration of 1-kilometer spatial resolution land temperature data from the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS), with 8-day temporal resolution, into the NASA Monsoon-Asia Integrated Regional Study (MAIRS) Data Center. The data will be available for analysis and visualization in the Giovanni data system. It discusses the NASA MAIRS Data Center, presents an introduction to the data access tools, and an introduction of Products available from the service, discusses the higher resolution Land Surface Temperature (LST) and presents preliminary results of LST Trends over China.

Shen, Suhung↗

Application of ERTS-1 and multiplexed SLAR imagery for the study of flooded shorelines

The major purpose of this study is to determine the accuracy of visual interpretations of data from two different sensors (ERTS-1; ERIM's multiplexed SLAR) for the study of flooded shorelines. Uncomplicated and primarily visual interpretation techniques are employed. These methods are considered most readily available to officials of local and small regional organizations who may need rapid reconnaissance mapping and information for the organization of disaster relief. Assumptions concerning the timely receipt of such remotely sensed data by those directing the relief have been made. Generally, it is determined that ERTS-1 and SLAR data are complementary, especially with respect to the interpretation of urban or built-up areas which are flooded, and together they can provide the necessary information for guiding relief operations.

Bryan, M. L.↗