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At least 127 records · Page 7

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NASA NTRS1973

Mapping coastal vegetation, land use and environmental impact from ERTS-1

The author has identified the following significant results. Digital analysis of ERTS-1 imagery was used in an attempt to map and inventory the significant ecological communities of Delaware's coastal zone. Eight vegetation and land use discrimination classes were selected: (1) Phragmites communis (giant reed grass); (2) Spartina alterniflora (salt marsh cord grass); (3) Spartina patens (salt marsh hay); (4) shallow water and exposed mud; (5) deep water (greater than 2 m); (6) forest; (7) agriculture; and (8) exposed sand and concrete. Canonical analysis showed the following classification accuracies: Spartina alterniflora, exposed sand, concrete, and forested land - 94% to 100%; shallow water - mud and deep water - 88% and 93% respectively; Phragmites communis 83%; Spartina patens - 52%. Classification accuracy for agriculture was very poor (51%). Limitations of time and available class-memory space resulted in limiting the analysis of agriculture to very gross identification of a class which actually consists of many varied signature classes. Abundant ground truth was available in the form of vegetation maps compiled from color and color infrared photographs. It is believed that with further refinement of training set selection, sufficiently accurate results can be obtained for all categories.

Klemas, V.↗

NASA NTRS2003

Quantum Search in Hilbert Space

A proposed quantum-computing algorithm would perform a search for an item of information in a database stored in a Hilbert-space memory structure. The algorithm is intended to make it possible to search relatively quickly through a large database under conditions in which available computing resources would otherwise be considered inadequate to perform such a task. The algorithm would apply, more specifically, to a relational database in which information would be stored in a set of N complex orthonormal vectors, each of N dimensions (where N can be exponentially large). Each vector would constitute one row of a unitary matrix, from which one would derive the Hamiltonian operator (and hence the evolutionary operator) of a quantum system. In other words, all the stored information would be mapped onto a unitary operator acting on a quantum state that would represent the item of information to be retrieved. Then one could exploit quantum parallelism: one could pose all search queries simultaneously by performing a quantum measurement on the system. In so doing, one would effectively solve the search problem in one computational step. One could exploit the direct- and inner-product decomposability of the unitary matrix to make the dimensionality of the memory space exponentially large by use of only linear resources. However, inasmuch as the necessary preprocessing (the mapping of the stored information into a Hilbert space) could be exponentially expensive, the proposed algorithm would likely be most beneficial in applications in which the resources available for preprocessing were much greater than those available for searching.

Zak, Michail↗

NASA NTRS1977

A mini/microcomputer-based land use information system

The paper describes the Multipurpose Interactive NASA Information System (MINIS), a data management system for land-use applications. MINIS is written nearly entirely in FORTRAN IV, and has a full range of conditional, Boolean and arithmetic commands, as well as extensive format control and the capability of interactive file creation and updating. It requires a mini or microcomputer with at least 64 K of core or semiconductor memory. MINIS has its own equation-oriented query language for retrieval from different kinds of data bases. It features a graphics output which permits output of overlay maps. Some experience of the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the Tennessee State Planning Office with MINIS is discussed.

Seitz, R. N.↗

NASA NTRS1989

Methods and decision making on a Mars rover for identification of fossils

A system for automated fusion and interpretation of image data from multiple sensors, including multispectral data from an imaging spectrometer is being developed. Classical artificial intelligence techniques and artificial neural networks are employed to make real time decision based on current input and known scientific goals. Emphasis is placed on identifying minerals which could indicate past life activity or an environment supportive of life. Multispectral data can be used for geological analysis because different minerals have characteristic spectral reflectance in the visible and near infrared range. Classification of each spectrum into a broad class, based on overall spectral shape and locations of absorption bands is possible in real time using artificial neural networks. The goal of the system is twofold: multisensor and multispectral data must be interpreted in real time so that potentially interesting sites can be flagged and investigated in more detail while the rover is near those sites; and the sensed data must be reduced to the most compact form possible without loss of crucial information. Autonomous decision making will allow a rover to achieve maximum scientific benefit from a mission. Both a classical rule based approach and a decision neural network for making real time choices are being considered. Neural nets may work well for adaptive decision making. A neural net can be trained to work in two steps. First, the actual input state is mapped to the closest of a number of memorized states. After weighing the importance of various input parameters, the net produces an output decision based on the matched memory state. Real time, autonomous image data analysis and decision making capabilities are required for achieving maximum scientific benefit from a rover mission. The system under development will enhance the chances of identifying fossils or environments capable of supporting life on Mars

Eberlein, Susan↗

NASA NTRS1992

Real-time processor for staring receivers

The design, fabrication, and testing of a state-of-the-art, high-throughput on-focal plane IR-image signal processor is described. The processing functions performed are frame differencing and thresholding. The final focal plane array will consist of a 128 x 128-pixel platinum-silicide detector bump-mounted to an on-chip CCD multiplexer. The processor is in a 128-channel parallel-pipeline format. Each channel consists of a pixel regenerator (charge differencer), 128-pixel frame store CCD memory, pixel differencer, second pixel regenerator, thresholder (analog comparator), and digital latch. Four parallel analog outputs and four parallel digital outputs are included. The digital outputs provide a bit map of the image. All analog clock signals (128 KHz, 256 KHz, and 5 MHz) are generated by on-chip TTL-input clock drivers. TTL clock driver inputs are generated off-chip. The technology is low-temperature surface and buried channel CCD/CMOS/indium bump. The design goal was 8-bit resolution at 77 K and 1000 frames/s. Applications include point- or extended-target motion detection with thresholding. Design trade-offs and enhancements (such as on-chip detector gain compensation and a simple window processor) are discussed.

Hanzal, Brian↗

NASA NTRS2009

High-Performance Algorithm for Solving the Diagnosis Problem

An improved method of model-based diagnosis of a complex engineering system is embodied in an algorithm that involves considerably less computation than do prior such algorithms. This method and algorithm are based largely on developments reported in several NASA Tech Briefs articles: The Complexity of the Diagnosis Problem (NPO-30315), Vol. 26, No. 4 (April 2002), page 20; Fast Algorithms for Model-Based Diagnosis (NPO-30582), Vol. 29, No. 3 (March 2005), page 69; Two Methods of Efficient Solution of the Hitting-Set Problem (NPO-30584), Vol. 29, No. 3 (March 2005), page 73; and Efficient Model-Based Diagnosis Engine (NPO-40544), on the following page. Some background information from the cited articles is prerequisite to a meaningful summary of the innovative aspects of the present method and algorithm. In model-based diagnosis, the function of each component and the relationships among all the components of the engineering system to be diagnosed are represented as a logical system denoted the system description (SD). Hence, the expected normal behavior of the engineering system is the set of logical consequences of the SD. Faulty components lead to inconsistencies between the observed behaviors of the system and the SD. Diagnosis the task of finding faulty components is reduced to finding those components, the abnormalities of which could explain all the inconsistencies. The solution of the diagnosis problem should be a minimal diagnosis, which is a minimal set of faulty components. The calculation of a minimal diagnosis is inherently a hard problem, the solution of which requires amounts of computation time and memory that increase exponentially with the number of components of the engineering system. Among the developments to reduce the computational burden, as reported in the cited articles, is the mapping of the diagnosis problem onto the integer-programming (IP) problem. This mapping makes it possible to utilize a variety of algorithms developed previously for IP to solve the diagnosis problem. In the IP approach, the diagnosis problem can be formulated as a linear integer optimization problem, which can be solved by use of well-developed integer-programming algorithms. This concludes the background information.

Fijany, Amir↗

NASA NTRS1991

Effects of partitioning and scheduling sparse matrix factorization on communication and load balance

A block based, automatic partitioning and scheduling methodology is presented for sparse matrix factorization on distributed memory systems. Using experimental results, this technique is analyzed for communication and load imbalance overhead. To study the performance effects, these overheads were compared with those obtained from a straightforward 'wrap mapped' column assignment scheme. All experimental results were obtained using test sparse matrices from the Harwell-Boeing data set. The results show that there is a communication and load balance tradeoff. The block based method results in lower communication cost whereas the wrap mapped scheme gives better load balance.

Venugopal, Sesh↗

NASA NTRS1972

Coordination and establishment of centralized facilities and services for the University of Alaska ERTS survey of the Alaskan environment

The author has identified the following significant results. Specifications have been prepared for the engineering design and construction of a digital color display unit which will be used for automatic processing of ERTS data. The color display unit is a disk refresh memory with computer interfaced input and a color cathode ray tube output display. The system features both analog and digital post disk data manipulation and a versatile color coding device suitable for displaying not only images, but also computer generated graphics such as diagrams, maps, and overlays. Input is from IBM compatible 9 track, 800 BPI tapes, as generated by an IBM 360 computer. ERTS digital tapes are read into the 360, where various analyses such as maximum likelihood classification are performed and the results are written on a magnetic tape which is the input to the color display unit. The greatest versatility in the data manipulation area is provided by the minicomputer built into the color display unit, which is off-line from the main 360 computer. The minicomputer is able to read any line from the refresh disk and place it in its 4K-16 bit memory. Considerable flexibility is available for post-processing enhancement of images by the investigator.

Belon, A. E.↗

NASA NTRS1986

Identification of nonlinear system parameters in joints using the force-state mapping technique

A procedure is presented for identifying the potentially strong nonlinear properties of structural members, such as joints, by expressing the force transmitted by the member as a function of its mechanical state. By explicitly including position and rate dependent effects, the surface of transmitted force versus state, the force-state map, has distinct, unique, superposable features for common structural nonlinearities, even those which appear to indicate hysteresis on a force-stroke presentation. An analysis is performed on the influence of true memory effects, transient response, and uncertainty in the measurements and system mass on the precision of the procedure. The successful identification of simulated data verifies the accuracy of the identification algorithm. Tests are then conducted on three actual joint models, with incomplete state measurements typical of an actual testing environment. The ability of the procedure to estimate the complete state vector and to analyze and reconstruct the measured nonlinear characteristics is demonstrated.

Crawley, E. F.↗

NASA NTRS1990

Tracking algorithms using log-polar mapped image coordinates

The use of log-polar image sampling coordinates rather than conventional Cartesian coordinates offers a number of advantages for visual tracking and docking of space vehicles. Pixel count is reduced without decreasing the field of view, with commensurate reduction in peripheral resolution. Smaller memory requirements and reduced processing loads are the benefits in working environments where bulk and energy are at a premium. Rotational and zoom symmetries of log-polar coordinates accommodate range and orientation extremes without computational penalties. Separation of radial and rotational coordinates reduces the complexity of several target centering algorithms, described below.

Weiman, Carl F. R.↗

NASA NTRS1994

Non-Reflecting Regions for Finite Difference Methods in Modeling of Elastic Wave Propagation in Plates

Solution of the wave equation using techniques such as finite difference or finite element methods can model elastic wave propagation in solids. This requires mapping the physical geometry into a computational domain whose size is governed by the size of the physical domain of interest and by the required resolution. This computational domain, in turn, dictates the computer memory requirements as well as the calculation time. Quite often, the physical region of interest is only a part of the whole physical body, and does not necessarily include all the physical boundaries. Reduction of the calculation domain requires positioning an artificial boundary or region where a physical boundary does not exist. It is important however that such a boundary, or region, will not affect the internal domain, i.e., it should not cause reflections that propagate back into the material. This paper concentrates on the issue of constructing such a boundary region.

Kishoni, Doron↗

NASA NTRS1995

Image applications for coastal resource planning: Elkhorn Slough Pilot Project

The purpose of this project has been to evaluate the utility of digital spectral imagery at two levels of resolution for large scale, accurate, auto-classification of land cover along the Central California Coast. Although remote sensing technology offers obvious advantages over on-the-ground mapping, there are substantial trade-offs that must be made between resolving power and costs. Higher resolution images can theoretically be used to identify smaller habitat patches, but they usually require more scenes to cover a given area and processing these images is computationally intense requiring much more computer time and memory. Lower resolution images can cover much larger areas, are less costly to store, process, and manipulate, but due to their larger pixel size can lack the resolving power of the denser images. This lack of resolving power can be critical in regions such as the Central California Coast where important habitat change often occurs on a scale of 10 meters. Our approach has been to compare vegetation and habitat classification results from two aircraft-based spectral scenes covering the same study area but at different levels of resolution with a previously produced ground-truthed land cover base map of the area. Both of the spectral images used for this project were of significantly higher resolution than the satellite-based LandSat scenes used in the C-CAP program. The lower reaches of the Elkhorn Slough watershed was chosen as an ideal study site because it encompasses a suite of important vegetation types and habitat loss processes characteristic of the central coast region. Dramatic habitat alterations have and are occurring within the Elkhorn Slough drainage area, including erosion and sedimentation, land use conversion, wetland loss, and incremental loss due to development and encroachnnent by agriculture. Additonally, much attention has already been focused on the Elkhorn Slough due to its status as a National Marine Education and Research Reserve and as part of the Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary. These destinations have resulted in a rich collection of prior spatial and temporal habitat data.

Kvitek, Rikk G.↗

NASA NTRS2000

Incremental Parallelization of Non-Data-Parallel Programs Using the Charon Message-Passing Library

Message passing is among the most popular techniques for parallelizing scientific programs on distributed-memory architectures. The reasons for its success are wide availability (MPI), efficiency, and full tuning control provided to the programmer. A major drawback, however, is that incremental parallelization, as offered by compiler directives, is not generally possible, because all data structures have to be changed throughout the program simultaneously. Charon remedies this situation through mappings between distributed and non-distributed data. It allows breaking up the parallelization into small steps, guaranteeing correctness at every stage. Several tools are available to help convert legacy codes into high-performance message-passing programs. They usually target data-parallel applications, whose loops carrying most of the work can be distributed among all processors without much dependency analysis. Others do a full dependency analysis and then convert the code virtually automatically. Even more toolkits are available that aid construction from scratch of message passing programs. None, however, allows piecemeal translation of codes with complex data dependencies (i.e. non-data-parallel programs) into message passing codes. The Charon library (available in both C and Fortran) provides incremental parallelization capabilities by linking legacy code arrays with distributed arrays. During the conversion process, non-distributed and distributed arrays exist side by side, and simple mapping functions allow the programmer to switch between the two in any location in the program. Charon also provides wrapper functions that leave the structure of the legacy code intact, but that allow execution on truly distributed data. Finally, the library provides a rich set of communication functions that support virtually all patterns of remote data demands in realistic structured grid scientific programs, including transposition, nearest-neighbor communication, pipelining, gather/scatter, and redistribution. At the end of the conversion process most intermediate Charon function calls will have been removed, the non-distributed arrays will have been deleted, and virtually the only remaining Charon functions calls are the high-level, highly optimized communications. Distribution of the data is under complete control of the programmer, although a wide range of useful distributions is easily available through predefined functions. A crucial aspect of the library is that it does not allocate space for distributed arrays, but accepts programmer-specified memory. This has two major consequences. First, codes parallelized using Charon do not suffer from encapsulation; user data is always directly accessible. This provides high efficiency, and also retains the possibility of using message passing directly for highly irregular communications. Second, non-distributed arrays can be interpreted as (trivial) distributions in the Charon sense, which allows them to be mapped to truly distributed arrays, and vice versa. This is the mechanism that enables incremental parallelization. In this paper we provide a brief introduction of the library and then focus on the actual steps in the parallelization process, using some representative examples from, among others, the NAS Parallel Benchmarks. We show how a complicated two-dimensional pipeline-the prototypical non-data-parallel algorithm- can be constructed with ease. To demonstrate the flexibility of the library, we give examples of the stepwise, efficient parallel implementation of nonlocal boundary conditions common in aircraft simulations, as well as the construction of the sequence of grids required for multigrid.

VanderWijngaart, Rob F.↗

NASA NTRS1926

Pressure Distribution Over Thick Tapered Airfoils, NACA 81, USA 27c Modified and USA 35

At the request of the United States Army Air Service, the tests reported herein were conducted in the 5-foot atmospheric wind tunnel of the Langley Memorial Aeronautical Laboratory. The object was the measurment of pressures over three representative thick, tapered airfoils which are being used on existing or forthcoming army airplanes. The results are presented in the form of pressure maps, cross-plan load and normal force coefficient curves and load contours. The pressure distribution along the chord was found very similar to that for thin wings, but with a tendency toward greater negative pressures. The characteristics of the loading across the span of the U. S. A. 27 C modified are inferior to those of the other two wings; in the latter the distribution is almost exactly elliptical throughout the usual range of flying angles. The form of tip incorporated in these models is not completely satisfactory and a modification is recommended. (author)

Reid, Elliott G↗

NASA NTRS1987

Particle simulation of plasmas on the massively parallel processor

Particle simulations, in which collective phenomena in plasmas are studied by following the self consistent motions of many discrete particles, involve several highly repetitive sets of calculations that are readily adaptable to SIMD parallel processing. A fully electromagnetic, relativistic plasma simulation for the massively parallel processor is described. The particle motions are followed in 2 1/2 dimensions on a 128 x 128 grid, with periodic boundary conditions. The two dimensional simulation space is mapped directly onto the processor network; a Fast Fourier Transform is used to solve the field equations. Particle data are stored according to an Eulerian scheme, i.e., the information associated with each particle is moved from one local memory to another as the particle moves across the spatial grid. The method is applied to the study of the nonlinear development of the whistler instability in a magnetospheric plasma model, with an anisotropic electron temperature. The wave distribution function is included as a new diagnostic to allow simulation results to be compared with satellite observations.

Gledhill, I. M. A.↗

NASA NTRS1992

Real-time processor for the Danish airborne SAR

A real-time processor for the Danish high-resolution SAR is presented in terms of its functional performance, algorithm, architecture, and implementation. The real-time processor is mainly intended to assist the operator in using the SAR system, but since the processor has been designed to produce high-quality images, it is expected to make off-line processing superfluous in many cases. The range-Doppler algorithm is adopted and supplemented with an extensive motion compensation, considering the special conditions related to the real-time strip mapping of large scenes. The processor is a pipeline of about 20 elements interconnected by a dedicated data path and a control bus. Only three different types of elements are involved: a programmable signal processing element, a multipurpose memory element, and a multipurpose interface element. The prototypes of these three elements have been tested with satisfactory results.

Dall, J.↗

NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Exploring the Capabilities of a Machine Learning Algorithm to Detect Space Weather-Significant Emerging Active Regions

Active regions are a source of various phenomena responsible for Space Weather disturbances; therefore, developing a technology for early warning about upcoming magnetic activity is crucial to mitigate its impact. However, observational limitations and the high nonlinearity of processes associated with the accumulation of magnetic flux and its interaction with the surrounding plasma during the emergence through the convection zone make early activity detection a challenging problem. To address these challenges, we developed a physics-driven machine learning model that allows us to detect active regions (ARs) before they become visible on the solar surface by analyzing the power spectra of acoustic oscillations observed by the SDO/HMI instrument. This study is based on a time series of Doppler shift maps of 31x31-degree areas tracked with the Carrington rotation rate for four days before and after the emergence. The Doppler shift time series are processed into the oscillation power maps for four frequency ranges and accompanied by line-of-sight magnetograms and the continuum intensity maps from SDO/HMI. The resulting data are converted into a 1D time series representing the mean temporal variations of these quantities. The redacted time series are used as input to predict AR emergence using the Long Short Term Memory (LSTM) method. The training of the LSTM model is based on 40 ARs, which includes an independent analysis for each sub region that exhibits AR emergence or remains quiet. The emergence of magnetic flux (defined as a decrease of the continuum intensity) was detected with the developed LSTM algorithm from 5 to 48 hours before the reported time by NOAA. The developed model is capable of pointing to the time and location of active region formation. In this presentation, we discuss reasons that impact how early in advance the model can identify the upcoming activity and the possibility of improving the current predictive skills and steps to transition to the operational forecast.

Heliophysics↗

NASA NTRS1985

Acousto-optic techniques for real SAR imaging

Recent advancements in the development of the Real Time Acousto-optic SAR Processor are presented. In particular, the technique for introducing the azimuth reference function into the processor via an acousto-optic Bragg cell is discussed. This approach permits the reference function to be stored in electronic memory, thus giving the processor the flexibility needed to adapt rapidly to changes in the radar/target geometry. The architecture is described and results are presented which show the applicability of the technique to both spot-light and strip-map SAR.

Haney, M.↗