Engineering Papers⌕ Search

SEARCH · Engineering Papers

Results for “active data”

Search indexed NASA NTRS and DOE OSTI research on propulsion, heat transfer, battery materials and energy systems. Follow report and document links to the original sources.

Quote a phrase for an exact phrase match. Source license links do not imply unrestricted reuse.

At least 1,297 records · Page 72

Intercalibration and Cross-Correlation of Ace and Wind Solar Wind Data

This report covers activities funded from October 1, 1998 through September 30, 2002. Two yearly status reports have been filed on this grant, and they are included as Appendix 1. The purpose of this grant was to compare ACE and Wind solar wind parameters when the two spacecraft were near to one another and then to use the intercalibrated parameters to carry out scientific investigations. In September, 2001 a request for a one-year, no-cost extension until September 30, 2002 was submitted and approved. The statement of work for that extension included adjustment of ACE densities below wind speeds of 350 km/s, a study of shock normal orientations using travel time delays between the two spacecraft, comparison of density jumps at shocks, and a study of temperature anisotropies and double streaming to see if such features evolved between the spacecraft.

Source record↗

Enhancing Radiative Transfer Models for Optimized Assimilation of Microwave and Radar Observations

Radiative transfer models are extensively used for the assimilation of satellite observations into NWP models as well as retrieving geophysical products from satellite measurements. The Community Radiative Transfer Model (CRTM) is a community model developed by NOAA JCSDA and widely used for different purposes requiring RT calculations. CRTM requires bulk optical properties of hydrometeors in the form of lookup tables in order to perform all-sky RT calculations. However, the current cloud scattering lookup tables in CRTM assume spherical shapes for all frozen hydrometeors, whereas actual clouds contain frozen particles with diverse shapes. The first part of this talk presents the implementation and validation of a comprehensive Discrete Dipole Approximation (DDA) cloud scattering database into CRTM, specifically targeting microwave frequencies. The DDA technique proves effective in simulating the optical properties of non-spherical hydrometeors in the microwave region. The original DDA database assumes total random orientation in calculating single scattering properties. To generate the required mass scattering parameters for CRTM, the single scattering properties and water content dependent particle size distributions are used. The evaluation of results involved a collocated dataset comprising short-term forecasts from the Integrated Forecast System of the European Center for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts and satellite microwave data. The findings demonstrate that the DDA lookup tables significantly reduce discrepancies between simulated and observed values when compared to the Mie tables. Passive instruments lack the ability to provide vertically resolved measurements of clouds and precipitation, which can be obtained by active radar instruments. However, incorporating these active measurements into data assimilation systems presents challenges due to the absence of fast forward radiative transfer models and difficulties in error modeling. The second part of the talk focuses on the development, evaluation, and sensitivity analysis of a forward radar model integrated into CRTM. The forward radar model utilizes scattering properties obtained from hydrometeor lookup tables generated using the discrete dipole approximation. By utilizing CRTM instrument-specific coefficients, the model can calculate both reflectivity and attenuated reflectivity for any given radar instrument and zenith angles. Evaluation using CloudSat measurements demonstrates a strong agreement between simulations and observations when the input profiles of hydrometeors align with the measured reflectivity profiles.

Isaac Moradi↗

Optimizing Assimilation of Microwave and Radar Observations in the NWP Models

Radiative transfer models are extensively used for the assimilation of satellite observations into NWP models as well as retrieving geophysical products from satellite measurements. The Community Radiative Transfer Model (CRTM) is a community model developed by NOAA JCSDA and widely used for different purposes requiring RT calculations. CRTM requires bulk optical properties of hydrometeors in the form of lookup tables in order to perform all-sky RT calculations. However, the current cloud scattering lookup tables in CRTM assume spherical shapes for all frozen hydrometeors, whereas actual clouds contain frozen particles with diverse shapes. The first part of this talk presents the implementation and validation of a comprehensive Discrete Dipole Approximation (DDA) cloud scattering database into CRTM, specifically targeting microwave frequencies. The DDA technique proves effective in simulating the optical properties of non-spherical hydrometeors in the microwave region. The original DDA database assumes total random orientation in calculating single scattering properties. To generate the required mass scattering parameters for CRTM, the single scattering properties and water content dependent particle size distributions are used. The evaluation of results involved a collocated dataset comprising short-term forecasts from the Integrated Forecast System of the European Center for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts and satellite microwave data. The findings demonstrate that the DDA lookup tables significantly reduce discrepancies between simulated and observed values when compared to the Mie tables. Passive instruments lack the ability to provide vertically resolved measurements of clouds and precipitation, which can be obtained by active radar instruments. However, incorporating these active measurements into data assimilation systems presents challenges due to the absence of fast forward radiative transfer models and difficulties in error modeling. The second part of the talk focuses on the development, evaluation, and sensitivity analysis of a forward radar model integrated into CRTM. The forward radar model utilizes scattering properties obtained from hydrometeor lookup tables generated using the discrete dipole approximation. By utilizing CRTM instrument-specific coefficients, the model can calculate both reflectivity and attenuated reflectivity for any given radar instrument and zenith angles. Evaluation using CloudSat measurements demonstrates a strong agreement between simulations and observations when the input profiles of hydrometeors align with the measured reflectivity profiles.

Isaac Moradi↗

Assimilation of Spaceborne Microwave and Radar Observations

Radiative transfer models are extensively used for the assimilation of satellite observations into NWP models as well as retrieving geophysical products from satellite measurements. The Community Radiative Transfer Model (CRTM) is a community model developed by NOAA JCSDA and widely used for different purposes requiring RT calculations. CRTM requires bulk optical properties of hydrometeors in the form of lookup tables in order to perform all-sky RT calculations. However, the current cloud scattering lookup tables in CRTM assume spherical shapes for all frozen hydrometeors, whereas actual clouds contain frozen particles with diverse shapes. The first part of this talk presents the implementation and validation of a comprehensive Discrete Dipole Approximation (DDA) cloud scattering database into CRTM, specifically targeting microwave frequencies. The DDA technique proves effective in simulating the optical properties of non-spherical hydrometeors in the microwave region. The original DDA database assumes total random orientation in calculating single scattering properties. To generate the required mass scattering parameters for CRTM, the single scattering properties and water content dependent particle size distributions are used. The evaluation of results involved a collocated dataset comprising short-term forecasts from the Integrated Forecast System of the European Center for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts and satellite microwave data. The findings demonstrate that the DDA lookup tables significantly reduce discrepancies between simulated and observed values when compared to the Mie tables. Passive instruments lack the ability to provide vertically resolved measurements of clouds and precipitation, which can be obtained by active radar instruments. However, incorporating these active measurements into data assimilation systems presents challenges due to the absence of fast forward radiative transfer models and difficulties in error modeling. The second part of the talk focuses on the development, evaluation, and sensitivity analysis of a forward radar model integrated into CRTM. The forward radar model utilizes scattering properties obtained from hydrometeor lookup tables generated using the discrete dipole approximation. By utilizing CRTM instrument-specific coefficients, the model can calculate both reflectivity and attenuated reflectivity for any given radar instrument and zenith angles. Evaluation using CloudSat measurements demonstrates a strong agreement between simulations and observations when the input profiles of hydrometeors align with the measured reflectivity profiles.

Isaac Moradi↗

Endpoint-based parallel data processing with non-blocking collective instructions in a parallel active messaging interface of a parallel computer

Endpoint-based parallel data processing with non-blocking collective instructions in a PAMI of a parallel computer is disclosed. The PAMI is composed of data communications endpoints, each including a specification of data communications parameters for a thread of execution on a compute node, including specifications of a client, a context, and a task. The compute nodes are coupled for data communications through the PAMI. The parallel application establishes a data communications geometry specifying a set of endpoints that are used in collective operations of the PAMI by associating with the geometry a list of collective algorithms valid for use with the endpoints of the geometry; registering in each endpoint in the geometry a dispatch callback function for a collective operation; and executing without blocking, through a single one of the endpoints in the geometry, an instruction for the collective operation.

97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING↗

ROSAT Science Data Center

This report provides a summary of the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory (SAO) ROSAT SCIENCE DATA CENTER (RSDC) activities for the recent years of our contract. Details have already been reported in the monthly reports. The SAO was responsible for the High Resolution Imager (HRI) detector on ROSAT. We also provided and supported the HRI standard analysis software used in the pipeline processing (SASS). Working with our colleagues at the Max Planck in Garching Germany (MPE), we fixed bugs and provided enhancements. The last major effort in this area was the port from VMS/VAX to VMS/ALPHA architecture. In 1998, a timing bug was found in the HRI standard processing system which degraded the positional accuracy because events accessed incorrect aspect solutions. The bug was fixed and we developed off-line correction routines and provided them to the community. The Post Reduction Off-line Software (PROS) package was developed by SAO and runs in the IRAF environment. Although in recent years PROS was not a contractual responsibility of the RSDC, we continued to maintain the system and provided new capabilities such as the ability to deal with simulated AXAF data in preparation for the NASA call for proposals for Chandra. Our most recent activities in this area included the debugging necessary for newer versions of IRAF which broke some of our software. At SAO we have an operating version of PROS and hope to release a patch even though almost all functionality that was lost was subsequently recovered via an IRAF patch (i.e. most of our problems were caused by an IRAF bug).

Murray, Stephen↗

Metatranscriptomics reveals a shift in microbial community composition and function during summer months in a coastal marine environment

Abstract Temperate coastal marine waters are often thermally stratified from spring through fall but can be dynamic and disrupted by tidal currents and wind‐driven upwelling. These mixing events introduce deeper, cooler water with a higher partial pressure of CO 2 (pCO2) and its associated microbial communities to the surface. Anecdotally, these events impact shellfish hatcheries and farms, warranting improved understanding of changes in composition and activity of marine microbial communities in relation to environmental processes. To characterize both compositional and functional changes associated with abiotic factors, here, we generate a reference metatranscriptome from the Strait of Georgia over representative seasons and analyze metatranscriptomic profiles of the microorganisms present within intake water containing different pCO 2 levels at a shellfish hatchery in British Columbia from June through October. Abiotic factors studied include pH, temperature, alkalinity, aragonite, calcite, and pCO 2 . Community composition changes were observed to occur at broad taxonomic levels and most notably to vary with temperature and pCO 2 . Functional gene expression profiles indicated a strong difference between early (June–July) and late summer (August–October) associated with viral activity. The taxonomic data suggest this could be due to the termination of cyanobacteria and phytoplankton blooms by viral lysis in the late season. Functional analysis indicated fewer differentially expressed transcripts associated with abiotic variables (e.g., pCO 2 ) than with the temporal effect. Microbial composition and activity in these waters vary with both short‐term effects observed alongside abiotic variation and long‐term effects observed across seasons. The analysis of both taxonomy and functional gene expression simultaneously in the same samples by environmental RNA (eRNA metatranscriptomics) provided a more comprehensive view for monitoring water bodies than either would in isolation.

Sutherland, Ben J. G.↗

Characteristics of RF Lightning Emission at 2 Ghz and 250 Mhz

Radio frequency emissions in the S-band and VHF range from lightning discharges are recorded by a facility developed at MSFC as part of a feasibility study of a satellite-based lightning mapping system. The recording facility receives RF emissions in both vertical and horizontal polarization and stores the data on magnetic tape. Output from any one antenna may also be selected for high speed digitization and disk storage. Improvement in both hardware and software have enhanced significantly the accuracy of data characterization and the speed of data collection. Emission records at VHF have higher signal strength than the S-band as expected. The records of cloud-to-ground discharges obtained so far give a 7-33 V/M peak equivalent signal strength (1 KHz at 10 kilometer) in the S-band range. The CG discharge structure is recognizable in most of the data collected. Considerable RF activity is present throughout the VHF records. The S-band data shows signals associated with limited portions of discharge history. The records obtained are from lightning activities within a 10 mile range.

Jalali, F.↗

Analysis of MGS TES Data over Acidalia Planitia and Cydonia Mensae: Compositional Evidence for Hydrovolcanic Activity?

For this study, Mars Global Surveyor (MGS) Thermal Emission Spectrometer (TES) emissivity data for Acidalia Planitia and Cydonia Mensae (Figure 1) were assembled and used to examine the surface mineralogy of these areas. Analyzing TES data for high latitude locales such as Acidalia presents a challenge since the surface temperatures over these regions is inherently lower than for equatorial locales. In this report, analyses of TES data are described and results are evaluated for potential compositional evidence for hydrovolcanic activity in Acidalia and Cydonia.

Farrand, W. H.↗

Activity coefficient acquisition with thermodynamics–informed active learning for phase diagram construction

This work explores the use of thermodynamics-informed Gaussian processes (GPs) and active learning (AL) to model activity coefficients and construct phase diagrams. Relying on synthetic data generated from an excess Gibbs energy model, GPs were found to accurately describe the activity coefficients of several binary mixtures across large composition and temperature ranges. Moreover, GPs could estimate their own uncertainty and identify composition/temperature regions where activity coefficient data provide the most information to the models. This was leveraged to build AL algorithms targeted at modeling phase equilibria. In many cases, a single active-learning-acquired data point was sufficient to describe the phase diagrams studied. Lastly, the ability of AL to greatly reduce the amount of data needed to obtain accurate models was further verified on experimental case studies, namely individual ion activity coefficients, the solid–liquid and vapor–liquid equilibrium of deep eutectic solvents, and phase equilibria in ternary mixtures.

25 ENERGY STORAGE↗

Seismicity and recent faulting in eastern California and western and central Nevada: A preliminary report

The author has identified the following significant results. ERTS-1 imagery covering the eastern California-Nevada seismic belt were utilized to study the fault pattern in relation to the distribution of earthquake epicenters and Quaternary volcanic rocks. Many suspected faults not previously mapped were identified. These include several suspected shear zones in Nevada, faults showing evidence of recent breakage, and major lineaments. Highly seismic areas are generally characterized by Holocene faulting and Quaternary volcanic activity. However, several major fault segments showing evidence of recent breakage are associated with little or no seismicity. The tectonic pattern strongly suggests that the eastern California-Nevada seismic belt coincides with a major crustal rift associated with zones of lateral shear. New data on potentially active fault zones have direct practical applications in national and local earthquake hazard reduction programs. Positive contacts have been made with Kern and Ventura Counties to make results of this investigation available for application to their earthquake hazards definition projects.

Abdel-Gawad, M.↗

Application-driven Privacy-preserving Data Publishing with Correlated Attributes

Recent advances in computing have allowed for the possibility to collect large amounts of data on personal activities and private living spaces. To address the privacy concerns of users in this environment, we propose a novel framework called PR-GAN that offers privacy-preserving mechanism using generative adversarial networks. Given a target application, PR-GAN automatically modifies the data to hide sensitive attributes - which may be hidden and can be inferred by machine learning algorithms - while preserving the data utility in the target application. Unlike prior works, the public's possible knowledge of the correlation between the target application and sensitive attributes is built into our modeling. We formulate our problem as an optimization problem, show that an optimal solution exists and use generative adversarial networks (GAN) to create perturbations. We further show that our method provides privacy guarantees under the Pufferfish framework, an elegant generalization of the differential privacy that allows for the modeling of prior knowledge on data and correlations. Through experiments, we show that our method outperforms conventional methods in effectively hiding the sensitive attributes while guaranteeing high performance in the target application, for both property inference and training purposes. Finally, we demonstrate through further experiments that once our model learns a privacy-preserving task, such as hiding subjects' identity, on a group of individuals, it can perform the same task on a separate group with minimal performance drops.

97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING↗

Passive/active Microwave Soil Moisture Change Disaggregation Using Smapvex12 Data

The SMAPVEX12 (Soil Moisture Active Passive (SMAP) Validation Experiment 2012) experiment was conducted during June-July 2012 in Manitoba, Canada with the goal of collecting remote sensing data and ground measurements for the development and testing of soil moisture retrieval algorithms under varying vegetation and soil conditions for the SMAP satellite. The aircraft based soil moisture data provided by the passive/active microwave sensor PALS (Passive and Active L-band System) has a nominal spatial resolution of 1600 m. However, this resolution is not compatible with agricultural, meteorological and hydrological studies that require high spatial resolutions and this issue can be solved by soil moisture disaggregation. The soil moisture disaggregation algorithm integrates radiometer soil moisture retrievals and high-resolution radar observations and it can provide soil moisture estimates at a finer scale than the radiometer data alone. In this study, a change detection algorithm was used for disaggregation of coarse resolution passive microwave soil moisture retrievals with radar backscatter coefficients obtained from the higher spatial resolution UAVSAR (Unmanned Air Vehicle Synthetic Aperture Radar) at crop field scale. The accuracy of the disaggregated change in soil moisture was evaluated using ground based soil moisture measurements collected during SMAPVEX12 campaign. The results showed that soil moisture spatial variabilities were better characterized by the disaggregated change in soil moisture estimates at 5 m / 800 m resolution as well as good agreement with in situ measurements. It also showed that VWC (Vegetation Water Content) did not have a big impact on disaggregation algorithm performance, with R2 of the disaggregated results ranging 0.628-0.794. The 5 m and 800m resolution disaggregated soil moisture did no show significant difference in statistical performance variables.

Radar Backscatter↗

Reduced In-Plane, Low Frequency Helicopter Noise of an Active Flap Rotor

Results from a recent joint DARPA/Boeing/NASA/Army wind tunnel test demonstrated the ability to reduce in-plane, low frequency noise of the full-scale Boeing-SMART rotor using active flaps. Test data reported in this paper illustrated that acoustic energy in the first six blade-passing harmonics could be reduced by up to 6 decibels at a moderate airspeed, level flight condition corresponding to advance ratio of 0.30. Reduced noise levels were attributed to selective active flap schedules that modified in-plane blade airloads on the advancing side of the rotor, in a manner, which generated counteracting acoustic pulses that partially offset the negative pressure peaks associated with in-plane, steady thickness noise. These favorable reduced-noise operating states are a strong function of the active flap actuation amplitude, frequency and phase. The associated noise reductions resulted in reduced aural detection distance by up to 18%, but incurred significant vibratory load penalties due to increased hub shear forces. Small reductions in rotor lift-to-drag ratios, of no more than 3%, were also measured

Sim, Ben W.↗

Characterization of the Pulsed Radiation Environment in FREC-II at the ACRR

Ongoing tests at the Annular Core Research Reactor (ACRR) at Sandia National Laboratories aim to measure temperature and strain in materials exposed to a transient neutron-photon environment. Radiation transport and finite element analysis codes are used to predict the thermal-structural response of test articles exposed in the reactor. Strain and temperature sensors fielded on test articles provide validation data for finite element models, while active and passive radiation dosimetry provides data for MCNP models. The ACRR is able to provide pulse energies of 40 - 300 MJ per pulse with pulse times of 7 - 100 milliseconds. The pulse power is higher than many of the other research reactors due to its unique high heat capacity UO{sub 2}-BeO fuel in the central reactor. Additionally, the Fuel Ringed External Cavity (FREC-II) contains U-ZrH fuel. Future tests at the ACRR plan to field test assemblies in the Fuel Ringed External Cavity (FREC-II) and expose the test articles to the transient anisotropic radiation field experienced in the cavity. The FREC-II is coupled with the ACRR core and is used to test larger specimens, and the radiation environment can be shaped/modified to the needs of the experiment. The FREC-II was designed to provide an irradiation cavity with a strong flux gradient favoring the central cavity side. Neutron fluence also varies by height in the cavity, with a peak level slightly below the fuel rod vertical centerline. Tests were conducted in 2014 to measure the thermal-structural response of test articles exposed in the central cavity. Those tests in the central cavity fielded Nickel activation foils to record the neutron fluence at various locations around the test assembly. Foil data was later used to highlight uncertainties between thermo-structural response models and the measured temperature and strain. Studies performed in 2015 exposed large arrays of activation foils and thermo-luminescent dosimeters (TLD) in the FREC-II cavity in order to map out the neutron and photon spectrum at many locations. This type of passive measurement was shown to be too simple for performing thermo-structural simulations of a test article in response to multiple pulsed-reactor exposures. The Depleted Uranium Strain and Temperature - Enhanced Response (DUSTER-II) experiments will expose test assemblies to reactor pulses in the FREC-II cavity. To prepare for these experiments, the MCNP model will be compared with June 2016 experimental results from the pulses with the FREC-II coupled with the ACRR. These comparisons will provide an accurate model to be implemented in further studies. (authors)

21 SPECIFIC NUCLEAR REACTORS AND ASSOCIATED PLANTS↗

Genome dependent Cas9/gRNA search time underlies sequence dependent gRNA activity

Abstract CRISPR-Cas9 is a powerful DNA editing tool. A gRNA directs Cas9 to cleave any DNA sequence with a PAM. However, some gRNA sequences mediate cleavage at higher efficiencies than others. To understand this, numerous studies have screened large gRNA libraries and developed algorithms to predict gRNA sequence dependent activity. These algorithms do not predict other datasets as well as their training dataset and do not predict well between species. Here, to better understand these discrepancies, we retrospectively examine sequence features that impact gRNA activity in 44 published data sets. We find strong evidence that gRNA sequence dependent activity is largely influenced by the ability of the Cas9/gRNA complex to find the target site rather than activity at the target site and that this drives sequence dependent differences in gRNA activity between different species. This understanding will help guide future work to understand Cas9 activity as well as efforts to identify optimal gRNAs and improve Cas9 variants.

59 BASIC BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES↗