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All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
NASA NTRS2010

Tool for Forecasting Cool-Season Peak Winds Across Kennedy Space Center and Cape Canaveral Air Force Station

The expected peak wind speed for the day is an important element in the daily morning forecast for ground and space launch operations at Kennedy Space Center (KSC) and Cape Canaveral Air Force Station (CCAFS). The 45th Weather Squadron (45 WS) must issue forecast advisories for KSC/CCAFS when they expect peak gusts for >= 25, >= 35, and >= 50 kt thresholds at any level from the surface to 300 ft. In Phase I of this task, the 45 WS tasked the Applied Meteorology Unit (AMU) to develop a cool-season (October - April) tool to help forecast the non-convective peak wind from the surface to 300 ft at KSC/CCAFS. During the warm season, these wind speeds are rarely exceeded except during convective winds or under the influence of tropical cyclones, for which other techniques are already in use. The tool used single and multiple linear regression equations to predict the peak wind from the morning sounding. The forecaster manually entered several observed sounding parameters into a Microsoft Excel graphical user interface (GUI), and then the tool displayed the forecast peak wind speed, average wind speed at the time of the peak wind, the timing of the peak wind and the probability the peak wind will meet or exceed 35, 50 and 60 kt. The 45 WS customers later dropped the requirement for >= 60 kt wind warnings. During Phase II of this task, the AMU expanded the period of record (POR) by six years to increase the number of observations used to create the forecast equations. A large number of possible predictors were evaluated from archived soundings, including inversion depth and strength, low-level wind shear, mixing height, temperature lapse rate and winds from the surface to 3000 ft. Each day in the POR was stratified in a number of ways, such as by low-level wind direction, synoptic weather pattern, precipitation and Bulk Richardson number. The most accurate Phase II equations were then selected for an independent verification. The Phase I and II forecast methods were compared using an independent verification data set. The two methods were compared to climatology, wind warnings and advisories issued by the 45 WS, and North American Mesoscale (NAM) model (MesoNAM) forecast winds. The performance of the Phase I and II methods were similar with respect to mean absolute error. Since the Phase I data were not stratified by precipitation, this method's peak wind forecasts had a large negative bias on days with precipitation and a small positive bias on days with no precipitation. Overall, the climatology methods performed the worst while the MesoNAM performed the best. Since the MesoNAM winds were the most accurate in the comparison, the final version of the tool was based on the MesoNAM winds. The probability the peak wind will meet or exceed the warning thresholds were based on the one standard deviation error bars from the linear regression. For example, the linear regression might forecast the most likely peak speed to be 35 kt and the error bars used to calculate that the probability of >= 25 kt = 76%, the probability of >= 35 kt = 50%, and the probability of >= 50 kt = 19%. The authors have not seen this application of linear regression error bars in any other meteorological applications. Although probability forecast tools should usually be developed with logistic regression, this technique could be easily generalized to any linear regression forecast tool to estimate the probability of exceeding any desired threshold . This could be useful for previously developed linear regression forecast tools or new forecast applications where statistical analysis software to perform logistic regression is not available. The tool was delivered in two formats - a Microsoft Excel GUI and a Tool Command Language/Tool Kit (Tcl/Tk) GUI in the Meteorological Interactive Data Display System (MIDDS). The Microsoft Excel GUI reads a MesoNAM text file containing hourly forecasts from 0 to 84 hours, from one model run (00 or 12 UTC). The GUI then displays e peak wind speed, average wind speed, and the probability the peak wind will meet or exceed the 25-, 35- and 50-kt thresholds. The user can display the Day-1 through Day-3 peak wind forecasts, and separate forecasts are made for precipitation and non-precipitation days. The MIDDS GUI uses data from the NAM and Global Forecast System (GFS), instead of the MesoNAM. It can display Day-1 and Day-2 forecasts using NAM data, and Day-1 through Day-5 forecasts using GFS data. The timing of the peak wind is not displayed, since the independent verification showed that none of the forecast methods performed significantly better than climatology. The forecaster should use the climatological timing of the peak wind (2248 UTC) as a first guess and then adjust it based on the movement of weather features.

Barrett, Joe H., III↗
DOE OSTI2020

Code to map Xray reflectivity data from real space to reciprocal space

Code to map X-ray reflectivity data from real space to reciprocal space. The code is written as a Jupyter notebook. Example data are included as a separate file (example_data.csv). These data were collected on a Panalytical XRD system. As a first step, run all cells in the notebook. Opportunities are identified for users to make their own choices for choosing the boundaries of the region of interest to estimate background. A simple algorithm is used to estimate background from the outer regions of the data collection region, interpolating the result inside the region of interest. The background is removed and then the data mapped to Qx-Qz (reciprocal space) coordinates. The results are written as NumPy binary and Matlab formatted files.

Fitzsimmons, Michael [Oak Ridge National Lab. (ORN↗
NASA NTRS2012

Improving operations: Metrics to Results

As a result of the mission failure of the Mars Climate Orbiter (MCO) spacecraft in 1999, the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) initiated the development of a Mission Operations Assurance (MOA) program to be implemented across all flight projects managed by JPL. One of the initiatives undertaken in 2001 was the collection of data on command file errors occurring in the operational phase of the mission. This paper defines command file errors and how and where they occur in the operations process. It also describes the problem reporting system (PRS) in use for mission operations at JPL. We examine the recent modifications to the PRS that enable the collection of metrics, specifically on command file errors. This paper discusses what the data show us since metrics have been collected for the operational missions conducted by JPL. We examine the evolution of an operational working group initiative to evaluate proximate, contributing, and root causes for the errors. As part of this discussion we see what the metrics have indicated over a decade. At the macro level, we can say that the aggregate command file error rate has been cut to roughly one third of the initial 2001 level by the end of 2011. Additionally, we explore efficient and innovative means to continually integrate the findings and recommendations from the working group back into the flight operations environment.

command file errors↗
NASA NTRS1999

Tracker: Image-Processing and Object-Tracking System Developed

Tracker is an object-tracking and image-processing program designed and developed at the NASA Lewis Research Center to help with the analysis of images generated by microgravity combustion and fluid physics experiments. Experiments are often recorded on film or videotape for analysis later. Tracker automates the process of examining each frame of the recorded experiment, performing image-processing operations to bring out the desired detail, and recording the positions of the objects of interest. It can load sequences of images from disk files or acquire images (via a frame grabber) from film transports, videotape, laser disks, or a live camera. Tracker controls the image source to automatically advance to the next frame. It can employ a large array of image-processing operations to enhance the detail of the acquired images and can analyze an arbitrarily large number of objects simultaneously. Several different tracking algorithms are available, including conventional threshold and correlation-based techniques, and more esoteric procedures such as "snake" tracking and automated recognition of character data in the image. The Tracker software was written to be operated by researchers, thus every attempt was made to make the software as user friendly and self-explanatory as possible. Tracker is used by most of the microgravity combustion and fluid physics experiments performed by Lewis, and by visiting researchers. This includes experiments performed on the space shuttles, Mir, sounding rockets, zero-g research airplanes, drop towers, and ground-based laboratories. This software automates the analysis of the flame or liquid s physical parameters such as position, velocity, acceleration, size, shape, intensity characteristics, color, and centroid, as well as a number of other measurements. It can perform these operations on multiple objects simultaneously. Another key feature of Tracker is that it performs optical character recognition (OCR). This feature is useful in extracting numerical instrumentation data that are embedded in images. All the results are saved in files for further data reduction and graphing. There are currently three Tracking Systems (workstations) operating near the laboratories and offices of Lewis Microgravity Science Division researchers. These systems are used independently by students, scientists, and university-based principal investigators. The researchers bring their tapes or films to the workstation and perform the tracking analysis. The resultant data files generated by the tracking process can then be analyzed on the spot, although most of the time researchers prefer to transfer them via the network to their offices for further analysis or plotting. In addition, many researchers have installed Tracker on computers in their office for desktop analysis of digital image sequences, which can be digitized by the Tracking System or some other means. Tracker has not only provided a capability to efficiently and automatically analyze large volumes of data, saving many hours of tedious work, but has also provided new capabilities to extract valuable information and phenomena that was heretofore undetected and unexploited.

Klimek, Robert B.↗
DOE OSTI2021

Brady Geodatabase for Geothermal Exploration Artificial Intelligence

These files contain the geodatabases related to Brady's Geothermal Field. It includes all input and output files for the Geothermal Exploration Artificial Intelligence. Input and output files are sorted into three categories: raw data, pre-processed data, and analysis (post-processed data). In each of these categories there are six additional types of raster catalogs which are titled Radar, SWIR, Thermal, Geophysics, Geology, and Wells. These inputs and outputs were used with the Geothermal Exploration Artificial Intelligence to identify indicators of blind geothermal systems at the Brady Hot Springs Geothermal Site. The included zip file is a geodatabase to be used with ArcGIS and the tar file is an inclusive database that encompasses the inputs and outputs for the Brady Hot Springs Geothermal Site.

15 GEOTHERMAL ENERGY↗
DOE OSTI2020

Automatic and rapid calibration of urban building energy models by learning from energy performance database

Urban building energy modeling (UBEM) is attracting increasing attention in the energy modeling filed. Unlike modeling a single building using detailed building systems information, UBEM generally uses limited high-level building stock data to infer default assumptions about building characteristics and operations. Additionally, this practice inherently brings uncertainty to UBEM. This study introduced a novel method of automatic and rapid calibration of UBEM based on the annual electricity and natural gas energy use data by learning the correlations between crucial model input parameters and the building energy use from the reference building models. A case study was presented to calibrate 72 large office buildings built before 1978 in San Francisco. Seventeen model parameters were selected and Monte Carlo sampling was used to create 1000 samples that reasonably represent the parameter space. Then 1000 simulations were performed for the reference building model to create an energy performance database. The results showed that by learning from the energy performance database, it took less than four simulation runs on average to calibrate a building model. After the calibration, the distributions of each parameter were obtained to replace their single predefined default values. For example, the default lighting power density of 21.39 W/m 2 was calibrated to be 7.50 W/m 2 on average. The case study successfully demonstrated the effectiveness of the novel calibration method for UBEM in the mild climate. The method will be further tested in future for other climate zones and other building types.

32 ENERGY CONSERVATION, CONSUMPTION, AND UTILIZATI↗
DOE OSTI2020

A methodology for customizing implantation profiles of light ions using a single thin foil energy degrader

We report a method was developed to quantify the spatial distribution and implantation depth of energy-degraded light ions with a thin foil rotating energy degrader for use during multiple ion beam irradiation. The methodology covers three physical phenomena: ions passing through the thin foil, ions travelling through the vacuum to the target, and ion implantation into the target, and accounts for the distribution of ions both in depth and in plane. The processes of energy straggling and scattering were calculated using SRIM. The effects of raster-scanning, and the geometry of the system were implemented in scripts handling the SRIM output files. Elastic backscattering (EBS) using 2.38 MeV H+ protons was used to measure the helium depth profiles after implantation with and without thin foil energy degradation. Defect analysis with transmission electron microscopy confirmed the implantation profiles measured with EBS and calculated with SRIM.

46 INSTRUMENTATION RELATED TO NUCLEAR SCIENCE AND ↗
DOE OSTI2017

Enabling the democratization of the genomics revolution with a fully integrated web-based bioinformatics platform, Version 1.5 and 1.x.

EDGE bioinformatics was developed to help biologists process Next Generation Sequencing data (in the form of raw FASTQ files), even if they have little to no bioinformatics expertise. EDGE is a highly integrated and interactive web-based platform that is capable of running many of the standard analyses that biologists require for viral, bacterial/archaeal, and metagenomic samples. EDGE provides the following analytical workflows: quality trimming and host removal, assembly and annotation, comparisons against known references, taxonomy classification of reads and contigs, whole genome SNP-based phylogenetic analysis, and PCR analysis. EDGE provides an intuitive web-based interface for user input, allows users to visualize and interact with selected results (e.g. JBrowse genome browser), and generates a final detailed PDF report. Results in the form of tables, text files, graphic files, and PDFs can be downloaded. A user management system allows tracking of an individual’s EDGE runs, along with the ability to share, post publicly, delete, or archive their results.

Chain, Patrick↗
DOE OSTI2018

Multispecies Hypersonic Flow Simulator

MHYSA is a conservative finite-difference code to solve the 1D, 2D, and 3D multispecies Navier-Stokes equations for hypersonic flow applications. It supports Cartesian grids only and has the option of including immersed boundaries. - Solves 1D Euler and 2D and 3D Navier-Stokes equations. - Solves the PDEs over Cartesian grids. - Written entirely in C and uses the MPICH library. It also uses OpenMP threads but this is a work-inprogress. - Can be compiled with PETSc (http://www.mcs.anl.gov/petsc/), if available, where it can use PETSc's time integration module TS (http://www.mcs.anl.gov/petsc/petsc-current/src/ts/). - For 3-dimensional simulations, the immersed boundaries can be used to solve over non-Cartesian geometries. MHYSA has been developed to be scalable, and apart from the usual functionalities to solve a system of PDEs on distributed architectures, it provides scalable file I/O functions.

Ghosh, Debojyoti↗
DOE OSTI2015

MOIS CAD Models

SolidWorks models of the Modular Ocean Instrumentation System (MOIS) data acquisition system components in it's subsea enclosure. The zip file contains all the components necessary for the assembly.

16 TIDAL AND WAVE POWER↗
DOE OSTI2017

Closure Report for Corrective Action Unit 573: Alpha Contaminated Sites Nevada National Security Site, Nevada with ROTC 1

This Closure Report (CR) presents information supporting the closure of Corrective Action Unit (CAU) 573: Alpha Contaminated Sites, Nevada National Security Site, Nevada. CAU 573 comprises the two corrective action sites (CASs): 05-23-02-GMX Alpha Contaminated Are-Closure in Place and 05-45-01-Atmospheric Test Site - Hamilton- Clean Closure. The purpose of this CR is to provide justification and documentation supporting the recommendation that no further corrective action is needed for CAU 573 based on the implementation of the corrective actions. Corrective action activities were performed at Hamilton from May 25 through June 30, 2016; and at GMX from May 25 to October 27, 2016, as set forth in the Corrective Action Decision Document (CADD)/Corrective Action Plan (CAP) for Corrective Action Unit 573: Alpha Contaminated Sites; and in accordance with the Soils Activity Quality Assurance Plan, which establishes requirements, technical planning, and general quality practices. Verification sample results were evaluated against data quality objective criteria developed by stakeholders that included representatives from the Nevada Division of Environmental Protection and the DOE, National Nuclear Security Administration Nevada Field Office (NNSA/NFO) during the corrective action alternative (CAA) meeting held on November 24, 2015. Radiological doses exceeding the final action level were assumed to be present within the high contamination areas associated with CAS 05-23-02, thus requiring corrective action. It was also assumed that radionuclides were present at levels that require corrective action within the soil/debris pile associated with CAS 05-45-01. During the CAU 573 CAA meeting, the CAA of closure in place with a use restriction (UR) was selected by the stakeholders as the preferred corrective action of the high contamination areas at CAS 05-23-02 (GMX), which contain high levels of removable contamination; and the CAA of clean closure was selected by the stakeholders as preferred corrective action for the debris pile at CAS 05-45-01 (Hamilton). The closure in place was accomplished by posting signs containing a warning label on the existing contamination area fence line; and recording the FFACO UR and administrative UR in the FFACO database, the NNSA/NFO CAU/CAS files, and the management and operating contractor Geographic Information Systems. The clean closure was accomplished by excavating the soil/debris pile, disposing of the contents at the Area 5 Radioactive Waste Management Complex, and collecting verification samples. The corrective actions were implemented as stipulated in the CADD/CAP, and verification sample results confirm that the criteria for the completion of corrective actions have been met. Based on the implementation of these corrective actions, NNSA/NFO provides the following recommendations: No further corrective actions are necessary for CAU 573; The Nevada Division of Environmental Protection should issue a Notice of Completion to NNSA/NFO for closure of CAU 573; CAU 573 should be moved from Appendix III to Appendix IV of the FFACO.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2018

Annular Core Research Reactor Pulse History Report: 2003-2017

This report documents and describes the tabulation and analysis of historical pulse operation data from the Annular Core Research Reactor (ACRR) at Sandia National Laboratories (SNL). The pulse data was obtained from a combination of pulse log files generated at the control console and pulse diagnostics system data. The pulses presented were performed within the time period of April 2003 and December 2017. A brief analysis of the data is included to characterize the aggregate behavior of ACRR pulses with respect to theoretical treatments based on the point reactor kinetics model. It is expected that the data presented will provide an organized and consolidated resource to reference historical pulse data at the ACRR for use in analyses, verification and validation, and general understanding of the machine. A comprehensive set of data is presented to the reader in the appendices.

21 SPECIFIC NUCLEAR REACTORS AND ASSOCIATED PLANTS↗
DOE OSTI2025

Creation of a Weather Drivers Test Suite for Inclusion in ASHRAE Standard 140

Weather conditions are an important boundary condition for building performance simulation (BPS) calculations. For existing test cases in ASHRAE Standard 140 "Method of Test for Evaluating Building Performance Simulation Software" (ANSI/ASHRAE 2020), it was assumed that the software being tested could adequately read and interpret the weather data in the provided standard weather files. As differences between the programs have been reduced and as more programs have shifted to sub-hourly time steps this assumption has become more stretched. To address these concerns a new test suite testing a program's ability to read and interpret the data from a standard weather file was developed. The purpose of the test suite is to test the use of the typical data used from standard weather files.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗
NASA NTRS1972

Automatic computer subprogram selection from application program libraries

The program ALTLIB (ALTernate LIBrary) which allows a user access to an alternate subprogram library with a minimum effort is discussed. The ALTLIB program selects subprograms from an alternate library file and merges them with the user's program load file. Only subprograms that are called for (directly or indirectly) by the user's programs and that are available on the alternate library file will be selected. ALTLIB eliminates the need for elaborate control-card manipulations to add subprograms from a subprogram file. ALTLIB returns to the user his binary file and the selected subprograms in correct order for a call to the loader. The user supplies the alternate library file. Subprogram requests which are not satisfied from the alternate library file will be satisfied at load time from the system library.

Drozdowski, J. M.↗
NASA NTRS1980

The Mark 3 data base handler

A data base handler which would act to tie Mark 3 system programs together is discussed. The data base handler is written in FORTRAN and is implemented on the Hewlett-Packard 21MX and the IBM 360/91. The system design objectives were to (1) provide for an easily specified method of data interchange among programs, (2) provide for a high level of data integrity, (3) accommodate changing requirments, (4) promote program accountability, (5) provide a single source of program constants, and (6) provide a central point for data archiving. The system consists of two distinct parts: a set of files existing on disk packs and tapes; and a set of utility subroutines which allow users to access the information in these files. Users never directly read or write the files and need not know the details of how the data are formatted in the files. To the users, the storage medium is format free. A user does need to know something about the sequencing of his data in the files but nothing about data in which he has no interest.

Ryan, J. W.↗
NASA NTRS1981

Timeline Resource Analysis Program (TRAP): User's manual and program document

The Timeline Resource Analysis Program (TRAP), developed for scheduling and timelining problems, is described. Given an activity network, TRAP generates timeline plots, resource histograms, and tabular summaries of the network, schedules, and resource levels. It is written in ANSI FORTRAN for the Honeywell SIGMA 5 computer and operates in the interactive mode using the TEKTRONIX 4014-1 graphics terminal. The input network file may be a standard SIGMA 5 file or one generated using the Interactive Graphics Design System. The timeline plots can be displayed in two orderings: according to the sequence in which the tasks were read on input, and a waterfall sequence in which the tasks are ordered by start time. The input order is especially meaningful when the network consists of several interacting subnetworks. The waterfall sequence is helpful in assessing the project status at any point in time.

Sessler, J. G.↗