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At least 127 records · Page 7

Corrosion testing of candidates for the alkaline fuel cell cathode

Current/voltage data have been obtained for specially made corrosion electrodes of some oxides and of gold materials for the purpose of developing a screening test of catalysts and supports for use at the cathode of the alkaline fuel cell. The data consist of measurements of current at fixed potentials and cyclic voltammograms. These data will have to be correlated with longtime performance data in order to evaluate fully this approach to corrosion screening.

Singer, Joseph↗

VHF Radar Measurements of Tropical Forests in Panama: Results from the BioSAR Deployment in Central America

A synthetic aperture radar sensor operating in 5 bands between 80 and 120 MHz was flown over forested areas in the canal zone of the Republic of Panama in an experiment to measure biomass in heavy tropical forests. The sensor is a pulse coherent SAR flown on a small aircraft and oriented straight down. The doppler history is processed to collect data on the ground in rectangular cells of varying size over a range of incidence angles fore and aft of nadir (+45 to - 45 degrees). Sensor data consists of 5 frequency bands with 20 incidence angles per band. Sensor data for over 12+ sites were collected with forest stands having biomass densities ranging from 50 to 300 tons/ha dry above ground biomass. Results are shown exploring the biomass saturation thresholds using these frequencies, the system design is explained, and preliminary attempts at data visualization using this unique sensor design are described.

Imhoff, Marc↗

Low Frequency Radar Sensor Observations of Tropical Forests in the Panama Canal Area

A synthetic aperture radar sensor operating in 5 bands between 80 and 120 MHz was flown over forested areas in the canal zone of the Republic of Panama in an experiment to measure biomass in heavy tropical forests. The sensor is a pulse coherent SAR flown on a small aircraft and oriented straight down. The doppler history is processed to collect data on the ground in rectangular cells of varying size over a range of incidence angles fore and aft of nadir (+45 to - 45 degrees). Sensor data consists of 5 frequency bands with 20 incidence angles per band. Sensor data for over 12+ sites were collected with forest stands having biomass densities ranging from 50 to 300 tons/ha dry above ground biomass. Results are shown exploring the biomass saturation thresholds using these frequencies, the system design is explained, and preliminary attempts at data visualization using this unique sensor design are described.

Imhoff, M. L.↗

Ares I-X Range Safety Trajectory Analyses Overview and Independent Validation and Verification

All Flight Analysis data products were successfully generated and delivered to the 45SW in time to support the launch. The IV&V effort allowed data generators to work through issues early. Data consistency proved through the IV&V process provided confidence that the delivered data was of high quality. Flight plan approval was granted for the launch. The test flight was successful and had no safety related issues. The flight occurred within the predicted flight envelopes. Post flight reconstruction results verified the simulations accurately predicted the FTV trajectory.

Tarpley, Ashley F.↗

Modelling above-ground biomass stock over Norway using national forest inventory data with ArcticDEM and Sentinel-2 data

Boreal forests constitute a large portion of the global forest area, yet they are undersampled through field surveys, and only a few remotely sensed data sources provide structural information wall-to-wall throughout the boreal domain. ArcticDEM is a collection of high-resolution (2 m) space-borne stereogrammetric digital surface models (DSM) covering the entire land area north of 60° of latitude. The free-availability of ArcticDEM data offers new possibilities for aboveground biomass mapping (AGB) across boreal forests, and thus it is necessary to evaluate the potential for these data to map AGB over alternative open-data sources (i.e., Sentinel-2). This study was performed over the entire land area of Norway north of 60° of latitude, and the Norwegian national forest inventory (NFI) was used as a source of field data composed of accurately geolocated field plots (n=7710) systematically distributed across the study area. Separate random forest models were fitted using NFI data, and corresponding remotely sensed data consisting of either: i) a canopy height model (ArcticCHM) obtained by subtracting a high-quality digital terrain model (DTM) from the ArcticDEM DSM height values, ii) Sentinel-2 (S2), or iii) a combination of the two (ArcticCHM+S2). Furthermore, we assessed the effect of the forest- and terrain-specific factors on the models’ predictive accuracy. The best model (,i.e., ArcticCHM+S2) explained nearly 60% of the variance of the training set, which translated in the largest accuracy in terms of root mean square error (RMSE=41.4 t/ha). This result highlights the synergy between 3D and multispectral data in AGB modelling. Furthermore, this study showed that despite the importance of ArcticCHM variables, the S2 model performed slightly better than ArcticCHM model. This finding highlights some of the limitations of ArcticDEM, which, despite the unprecedented spatial resolution, is highly heterogeneous due to the blending of multiple acquisitions across different years and seasons. We found that both forest- and terrain-specific characteristics affected the uncertainty of the ArcticCHM+S2 model and concluded that the combined use of ArcticCHM and Sentinel-2 represents a viable solution for AGB mapping across boreal forests. The synergy between the two data sources allowed for a reduction of the saturation effects typical of multispectral data while ensuring the spatial consistency in the output predictions due to the removal of artifacts and data voids present in ArcticCHM data. While the main contribution of this study is to provide the first evidence of the best-case-scenario (i.e., availability of accurate terrain models) that ArcticDEM data can provide for large-scale AGB modelling, it remains critically important for other studies to investigate how ArcticDEM may be used in areas where no DTMs are available as is the case for large portions of the boreal zone.

space-borne imagery↗

ARC Software Validation Work for the FFTF Reactor

Extensive efforts have been carried out at ANL for the verification and validation of the Argonne Reactor Codes (ARC) software package currently used for the design of Versatile Test Reactor (VTR). The ARC software package consists of steady state neutronics and thermal hydraulics modeling capabilities which are being used by the VTR program to develop most of the VTR reactor design details which will be part of the licensing application. It is anticipated that this software will continue to be used for the design work and for initial operations although additional software may be introduced at a later time. The validation work was focused primarily on obtaining validation data consistent with VTR and usable for the ARC software. Because no critical facilities or operating fast spectrum reactors are available to do experiments for the VTR, the next best option is to identify historical experimental data that can be used as validation data. Early on in VTR, the ZPPR-15 set of experiments was identified as good validation data because of 1) the availability and quality of the data, 2) existing staff that are already familiar with the experimental machine and measurements, 3) most of the ZPPR-15 loadings of interest have already been processed into ARC models, and 4) a full uncertainty quantification has already been done for several loadings of ZPPR-15. The FFTF startup and operations data was identified as the most consistent reactor type that has validation data usable for VTR. Finally, the EBR-II fuel depletion measurements were identified as the best available validation data for VTR. It is important to note that both the FFTF and EBR-II reactors typically come with higher uncertainties than the ZPPR. In the frame of the discussed verification and validation efforts, the present document discusses the analysis of selected FFTF measurements included in the benchmark specifications of the International Reactor Physics Experiment (IRPhE) handbook. The FFTF reactor core configurations from the benchmark specification are presented in Section 2. The analysis is performed with the use of the ARC code suite available at ANL for fast reactor studies and is discussed in Section 3. The reactor parameters from the benchmark include criticality, neutron spectra, effective delayed neutron spectra, control rod worth, isothermal temperature coefficient and low energy gamma-ray spectra. The calculated values and the comparison with the experimental data is discussed in Sections 4 to 9 for each considered reactor parameter. Finally, conclusions are presented in Section 10.

22 GENERAL STUDIES OF NUCLEAR REACTORS↗

Characterization of throughput on the AXI DMA bus for burst data transfer over Ethernet

cThe Xilinx AXI Direct Memory Access (AXI DMA) module is an efficient solution for medium-speed data transfer in Xilinx SoC FPGAs, supporting data rates greater than 1000 Gbps even in very suboptimal operating modes. It facilitates direct transfer of AXI stream data into processor memory without constant software intervention, which reduces overhead and ensures consistent data logging. By utilizing the FPGA's available memory, large circular buffers (1-5 GiB) are used to buffer data and accommodate network limitations, enabling high-rate data bursts. In this study, we measured the performance of AXI DMA under conditions simulating its lowest practical data transfer speeds. The Arbitrary Length Data Sender was used to transmit AXI stream packets at 32-bit width and 100 MHz frequency, a narrow width and slow speed. Results show that the AXI DMA can transfer up to 3192.76 Mbps with large packet sizes but experiences reduced performance for smaller packets, as low as 2.6 Mbps for 4-byte packets. For Ethernet-limited applications, packet sizes between 8,000 and 16,000 bytes provided optimal transfer speeds of 874 to 1600 Mbps. These findings suggest that the AXI DMA is not the limiting factor in systems where packet sizes exceed 8,000 bytes.

43 PARTICLE ACCELERATORS↗

Enhanced Sea Ice Concentration and Ice Temperature Algorithms for AMSR

Accurate quantification of sea ice concentration and ice temperature from satellite passive microwave data is important because they provide the only long term, spatially detailed and consistent data set needed to study the climatology of the polar regions. Sea ice concentration data are used to derive large-scale daily ice extents that are utilized in trend analysis of the global sea ice cover. They are also used to quantify the amount of open water and thin ice in polynya and divergence regions which together with ice temperatures are in turn needed to estimate vertical heat and salinity fluxes in these regions. Sea ice concentrations have been derived from the NASA Team and Bootstrap algorithms while a separate technique for deriving ice temperature has been reported. An integrated technique that will utilizes most of the channels of AMSR (Advanced Microwave Scanning Radiometer) has been developed. The technique uses data from the 6 GHz and 37 GHz channels at vertical polarization obtain an initial estimate of sea ice concentration and ice temperature. The derived ice temperature is then utilized to estimate the emissivities for the corresponding observations at all the other channels. A procedure for calculating the ice concentration similar to the Bootstrap technique is then used but with variables being emissivities instead of brightness temperatures to minimizes errors associated with spatial changes in ice temperatures within the ice pack. Comparative studies of ice concentration results with those from other algorithms, including the original Bootstrap algorithm and those from high resolution satellite visible and infrared data will be presented. Also, results from a simulation study that demonstrates the effectiveness of the technique in correcting for spatial variations in ice temperatures will be shown. The ice temperature results are likewise compared with satellite infrared and buoy data with the latter adjusted to account for the effects of the snow cover.

Comiso, Josefino C.↗

Medium scale gravity waves in the thermosphere observed by the AE-C satellite

It is pointed out that the measurements of the Atmosphere Explorer (AE) have made it possible to detect large- and medium-scale waves in neutrals and ions in the thermosphere. Gross et al. (1983, 1984) have reported on large-scale waves throughout a major portion of an orbit of AE-C with scale sizes from hundreds to thousands of kilometers. The present investigation is concerned with a more limited portion of the same orbit, taking into account a part in the Northern Hemisphere from about 10 deg to 54 deg latitude. The data consist of 1.0-s samples for ions and 1.5-s samples for neutrals. The data indicate fluctuations of oxygen, nitrogen, helium, and electron density, and temperature fluctuations. The structures formed by the fluctuations appear to be made up of waves having wavelengths in the range from 100 to over 400 km. The cross-correlation function demonstrates strong association between N2 and O with a peak value of 0.88 for waves of wavelengths on the order of 250-300 km.

Gross, S. H.↗

Development of a funding, cost, and spending model for satellite projects

The need for a predictive budget/funging model is obvious. The current models used by the Resource Analysis Office (RAO) are used to predict the total costs of satellite projects. An effort to extend the modeling capabilities from total budget analysis to total budget and budget outlays over time analysis was conducted. A statistical based and data driven methodology was used to derive and develop the model. Th budget data for the last 18 GSFC-sponsored satellite projects were analyzed and used to build a funding model which would describe the historical spending patterns. This raw data consisted of dollars spent in that specific year and their 1989 dollar equivalent. This data was converted to the standard format used by the RAO group and placed in a database. A simple statistical analysis was performed to calculate the gross statistics associated with project length and project cost ant the conditional statistics on project length and project cost. The modeling approach used is derived form the theory of embedded statistics which states that properly analyzed data will produce the underlying generating function. The process of funding large scale projects over extended periods of time is described by Life Cycle Cost Models (LCCM). The data was analyzed to find a model in the generic form of a LCCM. The model developed is based on a Weibull function whose parameters are found by both nonlinear optimization and nonlinear regression. In order to use this model it is necessary to transform the problem from a dollar/time space to a percentage of total budget/time space. This transformation is equivalent to moving to a probability space. By using the basic rules of probability, the validity of both the optimization and the regression steps are insured. This statistically significant model is then integrated and inverted. The resulting output represents a project schedule which relates the amount of money spent to the percentage of project completion.

Johnson, Jesse P.↗

GeoNEX: A geostationary earth observatory at NASA Earth eXchange: Earth monitoring from operational geostationary satellite systems

The latest generation of geostationary satellites (Himawari 8/9, GOES-16/17, FY-4, GK-2A) carries sensors that closely mimic the spatial and spectral characteristics of widely used polar-orbiting, global monitoring sensors such as MODIS and VIIRS. When combined, data from various currently operating/planned geostationary platforms provide a geo-ring of hyper-temporal (5-10 minutes), multispectral observations at spatial resolutions as high as 500 m. These high frequency observations offer exciting new possibilities for monitoring our planet, including better retrievals of geophysical variables by overcoming cloud cover, enabling studies of diurnally varying phenomena in the atmosphere, land, and the oceans, and support operational decision-making in agriculture, hydrology and disaster management. The NASA Earth Exchange (NEX) team, in collaboration with scientists from JAXA, KARI, NOAA and other international institutions, created the GeoNEX (www.nasa.gov/geonex) pipeline to integrate data from all available geostationary platforms and produce and distribute spatially, temporally, and radiometrically consistent data for the earth science community. We envision various institutions adapting the Geo component (e.g., GeoNOAA, GeoKARI, GeoChiba, GeoJAXA, GeoCMA) and customizing the pipeline and downstream products to serve the local/regional research and applied science communities.

Ramakrishna R Nemani↗

GeoNEX: A Geostationary Earth Observatory

The latest generation of geostationary satellites (Himawari 8/9, GOES-16/17, FY-4, GK-2A) carries sensors that closely mimic the spatial and spectral characteristics of widely used polar-orbiting, global monitoring sensors such as MODIS and VIIRS. When combined, data from various currently operating/planned geostationary platforms provide a geo-ring of hyper-temporal (5-10 minutes), multispectral observations at spatial resolutions as high as 500 m. These high frequency observations offer exciting new possibilities for monitoring our planet, including better retrievals of geophysical variables by overcoming cloud cover, enabling studies of diurnally varying phenomena in the atmosphere, land, and the oceans, and support operational decision-making in agriculture, hydrology and disaster management. The NASA Earth Exchange (NEX) team, in collaboration with scientists from JAXA, KARI, NOAA and other international institutions, created the GeoNEX (www.nasa.gov/geonex) pipeline to integrate data from all available geostationary platforms and produce and distribute spatially, temporally, and radiometrically consistent data for the earth science community. We envision various institutions adapting the Geo component (e.g., GeoNOAA, GeoKARI, GeoChiba, GeoJAXA, GeoCMA) and customizing the pipeline and downstream products to serve the local/regional research and applied science communities. To facilitate collaborative work among the partners, we have established the OpenNEX platform on the public cloud. OpenNEX provides researchers, developers, educators, and ordinary users with easy access to an integrated Earth science computational and data platform, enabling citizen scientists and application developers to realize the full value of GeoNEX data assets and software tools.

GeoNEX↗

A stochastic-dynamical approach to the study of the natural variability of the climate

A method, suggested by Leith (1975), which employed stochastic-dynamic forecasts obtained from a general circulation model in such a way as to satisfy the definition of climatic noise, was used to validate assumptions accounting for the effects of external influences in estimating the climatic noise. Two assumptions were investigated: (1) that the weather fluctuations can be represented as a Markov process, and (2) that changing external conditions do not influence the atmosphere's statistical properties on short time scales. The general circulation model's simulation of the daily weather fluctuations was generated by performing integrations with prescribed climatological boundary conditions for random initial atmospheric states, with resulting dynamical forecasts providing an ensemble of simulated data for the autoregressive modeling of weather fluctuations. To estimate the climatic noise from the observational data (consisting of hourly values of sea level pressure and surface temperature at 54 U.S. stations for the month of January for the years 1949-1975) use of the short time-scale assumption is made. The simulated and observed data were found not to be consistent with either white noise or a Markov process of weather fluctuations. Good agreement was found between the results of the hypothetical testing of the simulated and the observed surface temperatures; and only partial support was found for the short time-scale assumption, i.e., for sea level pressure.

Straus, D. M.↗

Survey Data for Geomagnetic Field Modelling

The survey data discussed here are based on observations made relatively recently at points on land. A special subset of land survey data consists of those made at specially designated sites known as repeat stations. This class of data will be discussed in another part of this document (Barton, 1991b), so only the briefest of references will be made to repeat stations here. This discussion of 'ordinary' land survey data begins with a description of the spatial and temporal distributions of available survey data based on observations made since 1900. (The reason for this rather arbitrary choice of cut-off date is that this was the value used in the production of the computer file of magnetic survey data (land, sea, air, satellite, rocket) that is the primary source of data for geomagnetic main-field modeling). This is followed by a description of the various types of error to which these survey data are, or may be, subject and a discussion of the likely effects of such errors on field models produced from the data. Finally, there is a short section on the availability of geomagnetic survey data, which also describes how the data files are maintained.

Barraclough, D. R.↗

Summary of Airfoil Data

Recent airfoil data for both flight and wind-tunnel tests have been collected and correlated insofar as possible. The flight data consist largely of drag measurements made by the wake-survey method. Most of the data on airfoil section characteristics were obtained in the Langley two-dimensional low-turbulence pressure tunnel. Detail data necessary for the application of NACA 6-serles airfoils to wing design are presented in supplementary figures, together with recent data for the NACA 24-, 44-, and 230-series airfoils. The general methods used to derive the basic thickness forms for NACA 6- and 7-series airfoils and their corresponding pressure distributions are presented. Data and methods are given for rapidly obtaining the approximate pressure distributions for NACA four-digit, five-digit, 6-, and 7-series airfoils. The report includes an analysis of the lift, drag, pitching-moment, and critical-speed characteristics of the airfoils, together with a discussion of the effects of surface conditions. Available data on high-lift devices are presented. Problems associated with lateral-control devices, leading-edge air intakes, and interference are briefly discussed. The data indicate that the effects of surface condition on the lift and drag characteristics are at least as large as the effects of the airfoil shape and must be considered in airfoil selection and the prediction of wing characteristics. Airfoils permitting extensive laminar flow, such as the NACA 6-series airfoils, have much lower drag coefficients at high speed and cruising lift coefficients than earlier types-of airfoils if, and only if, the wing surfaces are sufficiently smooth and fair. The NACA 6-series airfoils also have favorable critical-speed characteristics and do not appear to present unusual problems associated with the application of high-lift and lateral-control devices. Much of the data given in the NACA Advance Confidential Report entitled "Preliminary Low-Drag-Airfoil and Flap Data from Tests at Large Reynolds Number and Low Turbulence," by Eastman N. Jacobs, Ira R. Abbott, and Milton Davidson, March 1942 has been corrected and included in the present paper, which supersedes the previously published paper.

LOW-DRAG↗

Globular cluster photometry with the Hubble Space Telescope. 3: Blue stragglers and variable stars in the core of M3

This paper describes Hubble Space Telescope (HST)/Planetary Camera-I images of the core of the dense globular cluster M3 (NGC 5272). Stellar photometry in the F555W (V) and F785LP (I) bands, with a 1-sigma photometric accuracy of about 0.1 mag, has been used to construct color-magnitude diagrams of about 4700 stars above the main-sequence turnoff within r less than or approximately equal to 1 min of the cluster center. We have also analyzed archival HST F336W (U) images of M3 obtained by the Wide Field/Planetary Camera-I Instrument Definition Team. The UVI data are used to identify 28 blue straggler (BS) stars within the central 0.29 sq. arcmin. The specific frequency of BSs in this region of M3, N(sub BS)/N(sub V less than (V(HB)+2)) = 0.094 +/- 0.019, is about a factor of 2 - 3 higher than that found by Bolte et al. in a recent ground-based study of the same region, but comparable to that seen in the sparse outer parts of the same cluster and in HST observations of the core of the higher density cluster 47 Tuc. The BSs in M3 are slightly more centrally concentrated than red giant branch stars while horizontal branch stars are somewhat less concentrated red giants. The radial distribution of V-selected subgiant and turnoff stars is well fit by a King model with a core radius r(sub core) = 28 arcmin +/- 2 arcmin (90% confidence limits), which corresponds to 1.4 pc. Red giant and horizontal branch stars selected in the ultraviolet data (U less than 18) have a somewhat more compact distribution (r(sub core) = 22.5 arcmin). The HST U data consist of 17 exposures acquired over a span of three days. We have used these data to isolate 40 variable stars for which relative astrometry, brightnesses, colors, and light curves are presented. A Kolmogorov-Smirnov test indicates that, typically, the variability for each star is significant at the 95% level. We identify two variable BS candidates (probably of the SX Phe type), out of a sample of approximately 25 BSs in which variability could have been detected. Most of the variables are RR Lyrae stars on the horizontal branch. All of them have periods P greater than or approximately equal 8 h.

Guhathakurta, Puragra↗

Ocean Color Optical Property Data Derived from OCTS and POLDER: A Comparison Study

We describe our efforts in studying and comparing the ocean color data derived from the Japanese Ocean Color and Temperature Scanner (OCTS) and the French Polarization and Directionality of the Earth's Reflectances (POLDER). OCTS and POLDER were both on board Japan's Sun-synchronous Advanced Earth Observing Satellite (ADEOS-1) from August 1996 to June 1997, collecting about 10 months of global ocean color data. This provides a unique opportunity for developing methods and strategies for the merging of ocean color data from multiple ocean color sensors. In this paper, we describe our approach in developing consistent data processing algorithms for both OCTS and POLDER and using a common in situ data set to vicariously calibrate the two sensors. Therefore, the OCTS and POLDER-measured radiances are effectively bridged through common in situ measurements. With this approach in processing data from two different sensors, the only differences in the derived products from OCTS and POLDER are the differences inherited from the instrument characteristics. Results show that there are no obvious bias differences between the OCTS and POLDER-derived ocean color products, whereas the differences due to noise, which stem from variations in sensor characteristics, are difficult to correct. It is possible, however, to reduce noise differences with some data averaging schemes. The ocean color data from OCTS and POLDER can therefore be compared and merged in the sense that there is no significant bias between two.

Wang, Menghua↗

Major Optical Depth Perturbations to the Stratosphere from Volcanic Eruptions: Stellar-Extinction Period, 1961-1978

A revised chronology of stratospheric aerosol extinction due to volcanic eruptions has been assembled for the period 1961-1978, which immediately precedes the era of dedicated satellite measurements. On the whole, the most accurate data consist of published observations of stellar extinction, supplemented in part by other kinds of observational data. The period covered encompasses the important eruptions of Agung (1963) and Fuego (1974), whose dust veils are discussed with respect to their transport, decay, and total mass. The effective (area-weighted mean) radii of the aerosols for both eruptions are found to be 0.3-0.4 microns. It is confirmed that, among known tropical eruptions, Agung's dust was unique for a low-latitude eruption in remaining almost entirely confined to the hemisphere of its production. A new table of homogeneous visual optical depth perturbations, listed by year and by hemisphere, is provided for the whole period 1881-1978, including the pyrheliometric period before 1961 that was investigated previously.

Stothers, Richard B.↗