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At least 1,351 records · Page 75

Geosynchronous Environment for ORDEM2008

The new version of the NASA Orbital Debris Engineering Model (ORDEM2008) requires accurate populations as input template files to be used in the calculation of orbital debris fluxes on chosen spacecraft or within telescope/radar fields-of-view. Populations in ORDEM2008 are derived from a consortium of data and modeling. Geosynchronous (GEO) satellites and debris form a distinct ORDEM2008 population that is applied to the distinct analysis of GEO fluxes. Low Earth orbit (LEO) populations are derived by combining modeling results with ground-based data, primarily from radar systems and in-situ data. In contrast, the GEO region has not been as well observed. The distance between orbiting objects and ground-based instruments precludes the wide usage of radar as a means of observation. Instead, optical instruments dominate in the study of GEO. Of these, the NASA sponsored Michigan Orbital Debris Survey Telescope (MODEST) has provided 4 years of surveys of the region detecting cataloged objects (correlated targets) and non-cataloged objects (uncorrelated targets) to an estimated minimum size of 30 cm. This paper describes the methods of combining NASA launch database and satellite breakup and orbital propagation modeling with MODEST 2004-to-2006 uncorrelated target data to attain a GEO environment to 10 cm. Assuming that MODEST uncorrelated targets are breakup debris allows for the extension of the debris survey data to smaller sizes with the NASA Standard Breakup model. Each orbit within the total resulting GEO population is marked by a random argument of perigee and nearly constant mean motion, eccentricity, inclination, and node over the nearly 3 years of observation. Lack of published references of past breakups in GEO is mitigated by the orbital propagation of MODEST extended data to 1995 (the beginning epoch of ORDEM2008).

Krisko, Paula H.↗

The Geosynchrous Environment for ORDEM2010

The new version of the NASA Orbital Debris Engineering Model (ORDEM2010) requires accurate populations as input files to be used in the calculation of orbital debris fluxes on chosen spacecraft or within telescope/radar fields-of-view. Populations in ORDEM2010 are derived from an amalgam of data and modeling. Geosynchronous orbit (GEO) satellites and debris form a distinct ORDEM2010 population that is applied to the distinct analysis of GEO fluxes. Low Earth orbit (LEO) populations are derived by combining modeling results with ground-based data, primarily from radar systems, and in-situ data. In contrast, the GEO region has not been as well observed. The distance between orbiting objects and ground-based instruments precludes the wide usage of radar as a means of observation. Instead, optical instruments dominate in the study of GEO. Of these, the NASA sponsored Michigan Orbital Debris Survey Telescope (MODEST) has provided 3 years of surveys of the region detecting cataloged objects (correlated targets) and non-cataloged objects (uncorrelated targets) to an estimated minimum size of 30 cm. This paper describes the methods of combining NASA launch database and satellite breakup and orbital propagation modeling with MODEST 2004-to-2006 uncorrelated target data to attain a GEO environment to 10 cm. Assuming that MODEST uncorrelated targets are breakup debris allows for the extension of the debris survey data to smaller sizes using the NASA Standard Breakup Model. Each orbit within the total resulting GEO population is marked by a random argument of perigee and nearly constant mean motion, eccentricity, inclination, and right ascension of ascending node (RAAN) over the nearly 3 years of observation. Lack of published references of past breakups in GEO is mitigated by the orbital propagation of MODEST extended data to 1995 (the beginning epoch of ORDEM2010).

Krisko, Paula H.↗

Transitioning from Stage-III to Stage-IV: cosmology from galaxy×CMB lensing and shear×CMB lensing

ABSTRACT We examine the cosmological constraining power from two cross-correlation probes between galaxy and cosmic microwave background (CMB) surveys: the cross-correlation of lens galaxy density with CMB lensing convergence 〈δgκCMB〉, and source galaxy weak lensing shear with CMB lensing convergence 〈γκCMB〉. These two cross-correlation probes provide an independent cross-check of other large-scale structure constraints and are insensitive to galaxy-only or CMB-only systematic effects. In addition, when combined with other large-scale structure probes, the cross-correlations can break degeneracies in cosmological and nuisance parameters, improving both the precision and robustness of the analysis. In this work, we study how the constraining power of 〈δgκCMB〉 + 〈γκCMB〉 changes from Stage-III (ongoing) to Stage-IV (future) surveys. Given the flexibility in selecting the lens galaxy sample, we also explore systematically the impact on cosmological constraints when we vary the redshift range and magnitude limit of the lens galaxies using mock galaxy catalogs. We find that in our setup, the contribution to cosmological constraints from 〈δgκCMB〉 and 〈γκCMB〉 are comparable in the Stage-III data sets; but in Stage-IV surveys, the noise in 〈δgκCMB〉 becomes subdominant to cosmic variance, preventing 〈δgκCMB〉 to further improve the constraints. This implies that to maximize the cosmological constraints from future 〈δgκCMB〉 + 〈γκCMB〉 analyses, we should focus more on the requirements on 〈γκCMB〉 instead of 〈δgκCMB〉. Furthermore, the selection of the lens sample should be optimized in terms of our ability to characterize its redshift or galaxy bias instead of its number density.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗

Identifying TeV Source Candidates among Fermi -LAT Unclassified Blazars

Blazars, in particular the subclass of high synchrotron peaked active galactic nuclei are among the main targets for the present generation of Imaging Atmospheric Cerenkov Telescopes (IACTs), and they will remain of great importance for very high-energy γ-ray science in the era of the Cerenkov Telescope Array (CTA). Observations by IACTs, which have relatively small fields of view (~few degrees), are limited by viewing conditions; therefore, it is important to select the most promising targets to increase the number of detections. The aim of this paper is to search for unclassified blazars among known γ-ray sources from the Fermi Large Area Telescope (LAT) third source catalog that are likely detectable with IACTs or CTA. We use an artificial neural network algorithm and updated analysis of Fermi-LAT data. We found 80 γ-ray source candidates, and for the highest-confidence candidates, we calculate their potential detectability with IACTs and CTA based on an extrapolation of their energy spectra. Follow-up observations of our source candidates could significantly increase the current TeV source population sample and ultimately confirm the efficiency of our algorithm to select TeV sources.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗

Influence of precision inertial systems on astronomical observations

The incorporation of precision inertial control on LST could exert a strong influence on the philosophy of and techniques for carrying out astronomical observations. In conjunction with a fine guidance star sensor, the inertial reference unit (IRU) described herein could easily expand LST capability to include observations such as (1) tracking of solar system objects, including specific points of interest on the planets; (2) rapid repositioning of scanning sensors on distributed objects such as nebulae and galaxies; (3) carrying out unified star catalog measurements to eliminate the overlap problem which exists in all ground procedures; and (4) carrying out various astrometric measurements with 'real time' data reduction capability.

Ouellette, G. A.↗

Analytic modeling of aerosol size distributions

Mathematical functions commonly used for representing aerosol size distributions are studied parametrically. Methods for obtaining best fit estimates of the parameters are described. A catalog of graphical plots depicting the parametric behavior of the functions is presented along with procedures for obtaining analytical representations of size distribution data by visual matching of the data with one of the plots. Examples of fitting the same data with equal accuracy by more than one analytic model are also given.

Deepack, A.↗

Data indexing techniques for the EUVE all-sky survey

This poster describes techniques developed for manipulating large full-sky data sets for the Extreme Ultraviolet Explorer project. The authors have adapted the quatrilateralized cubic sphere indexing algorithm to allow us to efficiently store and process several types of large data sets, such as full-sky maps of photon counts, exposure time, and count rates. A variation of this scheme is used to index sparser data such as individual photon events and viewing times for selected areas of the sky, which are eventually used to create EUVE source catalogs.

Lewis, J.↗

High-energy spectra of active nuclei. 1: The catalog

This paper presents a catalog of high-energy spectra (E is greater than or equal to 0.01 keV) of active galactic nuclei (AGNs). The catalog contains 209 objects (140 Seyfert galaxies, 65 quasars, and 4 objects otherwise classified), for a total of 1030 spectra. Most of the data have been collected from the literature over a period spanning more than 20 yr starting from the early 1970s up to the end of 1992. For a numbner of objects (17), EXOSAT/ME data have been extracted and analyzed, and the 27 spectra obtained have been added to the database. For each object we report individual observation spectral fit parameters using a power-law model corrected for cold gas absorption along the line of sight (photon index, 1 keV intensity and hydrogen column density), plus other relevant data. It is hoped that this database can become a useful tool for the study of the AGN phenomenon in its various aspects.

Malaguti, G.↗

A Complete Public Archive for the Einstein Imaging Proportional Counter

Consistent with our proposal to the Astrophysics Data Program in 1992, we have completed the design, construction, documentation, and distribution of a flexible and complete archive of the data collected by the Einstein Imaging Proportional Counter. Along with software and data delivered to the High Energy Astrophysics Science Archive Research Center at Goddard Space Flight Center, we have compiled and, where appropriate, published catalogs of point sources, soft sources, hard sources, extended sources, and transient flares detected in the database along with extensive analyses of the instrument's backgrounds and other anomalies. We include in this document a brief summary of the archive's functionality, a description of the scientific catalogs and other results, a bibliography of publications supported in whole or in part under this contract, and a list of personnel whose pre- and post-doctoral education consisted in part in participation in this project.

Helfand, David J.↗

The Extragalactic Gamma-Ray Background from Core-Dominated Radio Galaxies

Recent radio surveys have discovered a large number of low-luminosity core-dominated radio galaxies that are much more abundant than those at higher luminosities. These objects will be too faint in γ-rays to be detected individually by Fermi. Nevertheless, they may contribute significantly to the unresolved extragalactic γ-ray background. We consider here the possible contribution of these core-dominated radio galaxies to the diffuse extragalactic γ-ray background. Using published data available for all 45 of the radio galaxies listed as detected counterparts in the Fermi FL8Y source list update to the 3FGL catalog, we have searched for radio maps that can resolve the core flux from the total source flux. Using high-resolution radio maps we were able to obtain core fluxes for virtually every source. We then derived a relation between core radio flux and γ-ray flux that we extrapolated to sources with low radio luminosities that are known to be highly core-dominated. We then employed a very recent determination of the luminosity function for core-dominated radio galaxies in order to obtain the contribution of all possible γ-ray-emitting radio galaxies to the unresolved extragalactic γ-ray background. We find this contribution to be possibly non-negligible, 4%–18% of the unresolved γ-ray background observed using the Fermi-LAT telescope.

Stecker, Floyd W.↗

Development and Validation of a High-Vacuum Thermal Conductivity Testbed for Aerospace Interface Materials

Spacecraft thermal margins depend on the temperature penalty of installed interfaces, yet catalog conductivity omits bondline thickness, mating surfaces, preload, and environment. The Testbed for Advanced Interface Materials in Vacuum (TAIMV) addresses this engineering-data gap by converting ambient/vacuum temperature fields from a four-coupon stack into quantities usable in spacecraft thermal models. Its 17-node steady-state model resolves axial conduction, parasitic fixture paths, grease-filled contact, radiation, and ambient convection. Four monolithic checks gave axial heat-rate ratios of 0.90–1.02, and Braycote calibration self-recovery gave 2.20% casewise mean absolute percentage error (MAPE) and 2.85% maximum difference. With transferable fixture terms frozen, Krytox LVP tested cross-material transfer against a manufacturer-derived external relation. The six Krytox cases gave 2.28% MAPE, 5.10% maximum difference, and full-field residual root-mean-square values of 0.553 °C ambient and 1.306 °C vacuum. Installed-joint resistance spanned 6.39–7.15 × 10⁻⁴ m²·K/W for Braycote and 4.09–4.49 × 10⁻⁴ m²·K/W for Krytox, corresponding to 2.33–6.66 K per modeled interface over the tested heat-flux range. TAIMV therefore supplies directly usable installed-joint resistance and conductance, plus apparent installed conductivity and explicitly model-conditioned grease conductivity/contact terms.

heat transfer↗

GALAXY CRUISE: Spiral and ring classifications for bright galaxies at z = 0.01–0.3

Abstract This paper presents a morphology classification catalog of spiral and ring features of 59854 magnitude-limited galaxies (r < 17.8 mag, and additional 628005 subsamples down to r = 20 mag) at z = 0.01–0.3 based on the Third Public Data Release of the Hyper Suprime-Cam Subaru Strategic Program. We employ two deep-learning classifiers to determine the spiral and ring structures separately based on GALAXY CRUISE Data Release 1, which is dedicated to Hyper Suprime-Cam data. The number of spiral and ring galaxies contain 31864 and 8808 sources, respectively, which constitute 53% and 15% of the sample. A notable result of this study is the construction of a large sample of ring galaxies utilizing high-quality imaging data delivered by the Subaru Hyper Suprime-Cam. However, the accurate identification of ring galaxies remains difficult at a limited seeing resolution. Additionally, we confirm that most spiral galaxies are located on the star-forming main sequence, whereas ring galaxies preferentially reside in the green valley at stellar masses of 1010.5–1011 solar mass. Furthermore, decreasing fractions of spiral and ring galaxies are observed toward the centers of the galaxy clusters. The obtained morphology catalog is publicly available on the GALAXY CRUISE website.

Shimakawa, Rhythm (ORCID:0000000344422750)↗

The Transition from Complex Crater to Peak-Ring Basin on the Moon: New Observations from the Lunar Orbiter Laser Altimeter (LOLA) Instrument

Impact craters on planetary bodies transition with increasing size from simple, to complex, to peak-ring basins and finally to multi-ring basins. Important to understanding the relationship between complex craters with central peaks and multi-ring basins is the analysis of protobasins (exhibiting a rim crest and interior ring plus a central peak) and peak-ring basins (exhibiting a rim crest and an interior ring). New data have permitted improved portrayal and classification of these transitional features on the Moon. We used new 128 pixel/degree gridded topographic data from the Lunar Orbiter Laser Altimeter (LOLA) instrument onboard the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter, combined with image mosaics, to conduct a survey of craters >50 km in diameter on the Moon and to update the existing catalogs of lunar peak-ring basins and protobasins. Our updated catalog includes 17 peak-ring basins (rim-crest diameters range from 207 km to 582 km, geometric mean = 343 km) and 3 protobasins (137-170 km, geometric mean = 157 km). Several basins inferred to be multi-ring basins in prior studies (Apollo, Moscoviense, Grimaldi, Freundlich-Sharonov, Coulomb-Sarton, and Korolev) are now classified as peak-ring basins due to their similarities with lunar peak-ring basin morphologies and absence of definitive topographic ring structures greater than two in number. We also include in our catalog 23 craters exhibiting small ring-like clusters of peaks (50-205 km, geometric mean = 81 km); one (Humboldt) exhibits a rim-crest diameter and an interior morphology that may be uniquely transitional to the process of forming peak rings. Comparisons of the predictions of models for the formation of peak-ring basins with the characteristics of the new basin catalog for the Moon suggest that formation and modification of an interior melt cavity and nonlinear scaling of impact melt volume with crater diameter provide important controls on the development of peak rings. In particular, a power-law model of growth of an interior melt cavity with increasing crater diameter is consistent with power-law fits to the peak-ring basin data for the Moon and Mercury. We suggest that the relationship between the depth of melting and depth of the transient cavity offers a plausible control on the onset diameter and subsequent development of peak-ring basins and also multi-ring basins, which is consistent with both planetary gravitational acceleration and mean impact velocity being important in determining the onset of basin morphological forms on the terrestrial planets.

Baker, David M. H.↗

Fermi-Lat Observations of High-Energy Gamma-Ray Emission Toward the Galactic Center

The Fermi Large Area Telescope (LAT) has provided the most detailed view to date of the emission toward the Galactic center (GC) in high-energy gamma-rays. This paper describes the analysis of data taken during the first 62 months of the mission in the energy range 1-100 GeV from a 15 degrees x 15 degrees region about the direction of the GC. Specialized interstellar emission models (IEMs) are constructed to enable the separation of the gamma-ray emissions produced by cosmic ray particles interacting with the interstellar gas and radiation fields in the Milky Way into that from the inner 1 kpc surrounding the GC, and that from the rest of the Galaxy. A catalog of point sources for the 15 degrees x 15 degrees region is self-consistently constructed using these IEMs: the First Fermi-LAT Inner Galaxy Point SourceCatalog (1FIG). The spatial locations, fluxes, and spectral properties of the 1FIG sources are presented, and compared with gamma-ray point sources over the same region taken from existing catalogs. After subtracting the interstellar emission and point-source contributions a residual is found. If templates that peak toward the GC areused to model the positive residual the agreement with the data improves, but none of the additional templates tried account for all of its spatial structure. The spectrum of the positive residual modeled with these templates has a strong dependence on the choice of IEM.

cosmic rays – Galaxy: center – gamma-rays: gen↗

Improving Neural Network Generalization Ability Using Outlier Analysis and Voronoi Tessellation

The data used in this study was obtained from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS), which provides astronomers with what is currently the most extensive mapping of the universe, covering 25% of the sky and cataloging the spectral properties (e.g., luminosity, color, surface temperature) of over 100 million celestial objects. Images generated by the SDSS are collected through 5 filters named u, g, r, l, and z that have respective wavelengths of 3540, 4750, 6222, 7632, and 9049 A. By measuring the photometric redshifts of the aforementioned wavelengths of a galaxy, astronomers can ascertain the extent to which galaxy is receding from which the distance to the galaxy can be calculated. Data collected for a small select group of galaxies (approximately 30, 000) contains accurate measurements of the galaxies' redshifts, in addition to measurements of their spectral properties. The above dataset containing both redshift measurements as well as spectral properties of the selected galaxies served as the training set for the purposes of this study; the data set containing only the spectra properties of a separate group of galaxies served as the test set.

Ho, Michelle↗

Modeling of LEO Orbital Debris Populations in Centimeter and Millimeter Size Regimes

The building of the NASA Orbital Debris Engineering Model, whether ORDEM2000 or its recently updated version ORDEM2010, uses as its foundation a number of model debris populations, each truncated at a minimum object-size ranging from 10 micron to 1 m. This paper discusses the development of the ORDEM2010 model debris populations in LEO (low Earth orbit), focusing on centimeter (smaller than 10 cm) and millimeter size regimes. Primary data sets used in the statistical derivation of the cm- and mm-size model populations are from the Haystack radar operated in a staring mode. Unlike cataloged objects of sizes greater than approximately 10 cm, ground-based radars monitor smaller-size debris only in a statistical manner instead of tracking every piece. The mono-static Haystack radar can detect debris as small as approximately 5 mm at moderate LEO altitudes. Estimation of millimeter debris populations (for objects smaller than approximately 6 mm) rests largely on Goldstone radar measurements. The bi-static Goldstone radar can detect 2- to 3-mm objects. The modeling of the cm- and mm-debris populations follows the general approach to developing other ORDEM2010-required model populations for various components and types of debris. It relies on appropriate reference populations to provide necessary prior information on the orbital structures and other important characteristics of the debris objects. NASA's LEO-to-GEO Environment Debris (LEGEND) model is capable of furnishing such reference populations in the desired size range. A Bayesian statistical inference process, commonly adopted in ORDEM2010 model-population derivations, changes a priori distribution into a posteriori distribution and thus refines the reference populations in terms of data. This paper describes key elements and major steps in the statistical derivations of the cm- and mm-size debris populations and presents results. Due to lack of data for near 1-mm sizes, the model populations of 1- to 3.16-mm objects are an empirical extension from larger debris. The extension takes into account the results of micro-debris (from 10 micron to 1 mm) population modeling that is based on shuttle impact data, in the hope of making a smooth transition between micron and millimeter size regimes. This paper also includes a brief discussion on issues and potential future work concerning the analysis and interpretation of Goldstone radar data.

Xu, Y.-L.↗

Anomaly Detection and Approximate Similarity Searches of Transients in Real-time Data Streams

Abstract We present Lightcurve Anomaly Identification and Similarity Search ( LAISS ), an automated pipeline to detect anomalous astrophysical transients in real-time data streams. We deploy our anomaly detection model on the nightly Zwicky Transient Facility (ZTF) Alert Stream via the ANTARES broker, identifying a manageable ∼1–5 candidates per night for expert vetting and coordinating follow-up observations. Our method leverages statistical light-curve and contextual host galaxy features within a random forest classifier, tagging transients of rare classes ( spectroscopic anomalies), of uncommon host galaxy environments ( contextual anomalies), and of peculiar or interaction-powered phenomena ( behavioral anomalies). Moreover, we demonstrate the power of a low-latency (∼ms) approximate similarity search method to find transient analogs with similar light-curve evolution and host galaxy environments. We use analogs for data-driven discovery, characterization, (re)classification, and imputation in retrospective and real-time searches. To date, we have identified ∼50 previously known and previously missed rare transients from real-time and retrospective searches, including but not limited to superluminous supernovae (SLSNe), tidal disruption events, SNe IIn, SNe IIb, SNe I-CSM, SNe Ia-91bg-like, SNe Ib, SNe Ic, SNe Ic-BL, and M31 novae. Lastly, we report the discovery of 325 total transients, all observed between 2018 and 2021 and absent from public catalogs (∼1% of all ZTF Astronomical Transient reports to the Transient Name Server through 2021). These methods enable a systematic approach to finding the “needle in the haystack” in large-volume data streams. Because of its integration with the ANTARES broker, LAISS is built to detect exciting transients in Rubin data.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗

Improving Cosmological Constraints from Galaxy Cluster Number Counts with CMB-cluster-lensing Data: Results from the SPT-SZ Survey and Forecasts for the Future

Abstract We show the improvement to cosmological constraints from galaxy cluster surveys with the addition of cosmic microwave background (CMB)-cluster lensing data. We explore the cosmological implications of adding mass information from the 3.1 σ detection of gravitational lensing of the CMB by galaxy clusters to the Sunyaev–Zel’dovich (SZ) selected galaxy cluster sample from the 2500 deg 2 SPT-SZ survey and targeted optical and X-ray follow-up data. In the ΛCDM model, the combination of the cluster sample with the Planck power spectrum measurements prefers σ 8 Ω m / 0.3 0.5 = 0.831 ± 0.020 . Adding the cluster data reduces the uncertainty on this quantity by a factor of 1.4, which is unchanged whether the 3.1 σ CMB-cluster lensing measurement is included or not. We then forecast the impact of CMB-cluster lensing measurements with future cluster catalogs. Adding CMB-cluster lensing measurements to the SZ cluster catalog of the ongoing SPT-3G survey is expected to improve the expected constraint on the dark energy equation of state w by a factor of 1.3 to σ ( w ) = 0.19. We find the largest improvements from CMB-cluster lensing measurements to be for σ 8 , where adding CMB-cluster lensing data to the cluster number counts reduces the expected uncertainty on σ 8 by respective factors of 2.4 and 3.6 for SPT-3G and CMB-S4.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗