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NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Mineralogical, Elemental and Tomographic Reconnaissance Investigation for CLPS (“METRIC”)

METRIC comprises a suite of two instruments in a Lunar lander that perform X-ray diffraction (XRD) for mineral structure, X-ray fluorescence (XRF) for elemental composition, and X-ray Micro Computed Tomography (XCT) for 3D internal micromorphology. The instruments are accompanied by optical-near IR cameras to provide local geologic context. The Honeybee Robotics PlanetVac pneumatic sampling and transfer system [1],positioned on a lander footpad, will deliver sieved regolith to the X-ray instruments for analysis. The instrument suite is intended for delivery to the lunar surface on a Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) lander. The METRICXRD/F instrument draws on heritage from the Mars Science Laboratory CheMin instrument [2] and improves upon the design in multiple ways [3]. Like CheMin, Rietveld refinement and full-pattern fitting of METRIC XRD data can identify minerals at a detection limit of ~1 wt.%, quantify their abundances when present at >3 wt.%, and determine mineral composition (e.g., Fo#in olivine) from lattice parameters for minerals present at >5 wt.%[4,5]. An optimized XRF geometry provides for improved detection and quantification of major, minor and trace elements. The METRIC XCT instrument is a miniaturized X-ray Computed Tomography scanner[6]. Lunar regolith is delivered to a 3 mm diameter, 10 mm long graphite tube inside the instrument. The tube is rotated through 360°in 0.9deg.incrementsand a divergent point source X-ray beam is directed through the material. A Charge Coupled Device (CCD)records attenuation images whose brightness and contrast area function of average atomic number and density. Quantitative data, including particle and void sizes, 3D particle shape parameters, modal volumes and pore geometry can be derived from the resulting 3D reconstructions(voxel resolution: 30 μm). Crystal morphologies derived from METRIC XCT data complement the bulk mineralogy determined by the METRIC XRD/F and provide a measure of grain size distribution for the different phases. Taken together, the METRIC instrument suite determines crystal structure, elemental composition and morphology, three principal characteristics of geological materials that are highly useful in determining the origin and subsequent processing of lunar regolith.

Moon↗
NASA NTRS2002

Flexible polyacrylamide substrata for the analysis of mechanical interactions at cell-substratum adhesions

We have described a powerful tool for the study of mechanical interactions between cells and their physical environment. Although the approach has already been used in a variety of ways to measure traction forces and to characterize active and passive responses of cultured cells to mechanical stimulation, it can be extended easily and combined with other microscopic approaches, including fluorescent analog imaging (Beningo et al., 2001), photobleaching, calcium imaging, micromanipulation, and electrophysiology. This method will be particularly useful for studying the functions of various components at focal adhesions, and the effects of mechanical forces on focal adhesion-mediated signal transduction. In addition, the method can be extended to a 3D setting, e.g., by sandwiching cultured cells between two layers of polyacrylamide to create an environment mimicking that in the tissue of a multicellular organism. Whereas chemical interactions between cells and the environment have been investigated extensively, many important questions remain as to the role of physical forces in cellular functions and the interplay between chemical and physical mechanisms of communication. The present approach, as well as other approaches capable of probing physical interactions, should fill in this important gap in the near future.

NASA Discipline Cell Biology↗
NASA NTRS2012

Coordinated STEM/FIB/NanoSIMS Analyses of Presolar Silicates in Comet Dust and Primitive Meteorites

Silicate grains were among the most abundant mineralogical building blocks of our Solar System. These grains were the detritus from earlier generations of stars that have been recycled in the early solar nebula. Rare sub-micrometer survivors of this processing have been identified in meteorites, micrometeorites and interplanetary dust particles (IDPs). These silicate grains are recognized as presolar in origin because of their extremely anomalous isotopic compositions that reflect nucleosynthetic processes in their stellar sources (evolved stars, novae and supernovae). We perform coordinated chemical, mineralogical and isotopic studies of these grains to determine their origins and histories. We examine the complex mineralogy and petrography of presolar silicates using imaging, diffraction and chemical data obtained from thin sections with the JSC JEOL 2500 field-emission STEM equipped with a Noran thin window energy dispersive x-ray (EDX) spectrometer and a Gatan Tridiem GIF. Quantitative element x-ray maps (spectrum images) are acquired by rastering a 4 nm incident probe whose dwell time is minimized to avoid beam damage and element diffusion during mapping. Successive image layers are acquired and combined in order to achieve approx 1% counting statistics for major elements. The IDP samples are prepared by ultramicrotomy of particles embedded in epoxy or elemental sulfur. After EDX mapping, the sections are subjected to C, N, and O isotopic imaging with the JSC NanoSIMS 50L ion microprobe. We prepare sections of some meteorite grains using the JSC FEI Quanta 3D focused ion beam (FIB) instrument. The specimen surface is protected from the FIB milling process by layers of electron beam-deposited C and Pt followed by an ion-deposited Pt layer. We also use the FIB to preferentially remove surrounding grains to reduce the background in subsequent NanoSIMS measurements. For mineralogical studies, we again employ the FIB instrument to deposit a protective cap over the grain of interest and then extract the grain and thin it to electron transparency for TEM analysis.

Keller, Lindsay↗
NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Upcoming Lunar Mission Landing Sites: Viewing and Analysis with Celestial Mapping System

The Celestial Mapping System (CMS) is a powerful software platform designed to create virtual 3D globes for celestial bodies within our solar system, with a specific focus on lunar mapping. CMS offers a rich array of functionalities, including high-resolution imagery visualization, precise measurement tools, and analytical capabilities that cater to the needs of planetary scientists and mission planners. This abstract explores how CMS has been leveraged to conduct in-depth analyses of 12 lunar missions to the South Pole, including missions like Chandraayan 3, Russian Space Agency's Luna 25, Xelene 1, and Intuitive Machines Nova-C lander I. Moreover, the integration of HORUS (Hyper-effective nOise Removal Unit Software) into CMS enhances its capabilities, allowing for the rendering of images in a 3D globe format and providing visibility into permanently shadowed regions. CMS represents a cutting-edge tool for lunar surface awareness, equipment placement planning, and traverse path optimization

Moon↗
NASA NTRS2001

A new light on caloric test--what was disclosed by three dimensional analysis of caloric nystagmus?

For better understanding of caloric nystagmus, this phenomenon will be reviewed historically in three stages. 1) The first light on caloric nystagmus was thrown by Barany 1906. Through direct observation of eye movements, Barany established the caloric test as an important tool to determine the side of lesion for vertigo. 2) The second light is shed by electrooculogram (EOG) from the late 1950th. EOG enabled qualitative analysis of caloric nystagmus, and proved Barany's convection theory, but resulted in neglect of vertical and roll eye movements. 3) The third light is gained by 3D recording of eye movements started from the late 1980th. 3D recordings of eye movements enabled us to analyze the spatial orientation of caloric nystagmus, and disclose the close correlation of the nystagmus components in the head vertical and the space vertical planes, suggesting a contribution of the velocity storage integrator. The 3D property of caloric nystagmus will be explained in detail.

Caloric Tests/history↗
NASA NTRS2017

Development of Multi-Sensor Global Cloud and Radiance Composites for DSCOVR EPIC Imager with Subpixel Definition

The Deep Space Climate Observatory (DSCOVR) enables analysis of the daytime Earth radiation budget via the onboard Earth Polychromatic Imaging Camera (EPIC) and National Institute of Standards and Technology Advanced Radiometer (NISTAR). EPIC delivers adequate spatial resolution imagery but only in shortwave bands (317-780 nm), while NISTAR measures the top-of-atmosphere (TOA) whole-disk radiance in shortwave and longwave broadband windows. Accurate calculation of albedo and outgoing longwave flux requires a high-resolution scene identification such as the radiance observations and cloud properties retrievals from low earth orbit (LEO, including NASA Terra and Aqua MODIS, Suomi-NPP VIIRS, and NOAA AVHRR) and geosynchronous (GEO, including GOES east and west, METEOSAT, INSAT-3D, MTSAT-2, and Himawari-8) satellite imagers. The cloud properties are derived using the Clouds and the Earth's Radiant Energy System (CERES) mission Cloud Subsystem group algorithms. These properties have to be co-located with EPIC pixels to provide the scene identification and to select anisotropic directional models (ADMs), which are then used to adjust the NISTAR-measured radiance and subsequently obtain the global daytime shortwave and longwave fluxes. This work presents an algorithm for optimal merging of selected radiance and cloud property parameters derived from multiple satellite imagers to obtain seamless global hourly composites at 5-km resolution. Selection of satellite data for each 5-km pixel is based on an aggregated rating that incorporates five parameters: nominal satellite resolution, pixel time relative to the EPIC time, viewing zenith angle, distance from day/night terminator, and probability of sun glint. To provide a smoother transition in the merged output, in regions where candidate pixel data from two satellite sources have comparable aggregated rating, the selection decision is defined by the cumulative function of the normal distribution so that abrupt changes in the visual appearance of the composite data are avoided. Higher spatial accuracy in the composite product is achieved by using the inverse mapping with gradient search during reprojection and bicubic interpolation for pixel resampling.

Khlopenkov, Konstantin V.↗
NASA NTRS2018

Multi-Scale Modeling of Low-Density Carbon-Phenolic Ablators

Protecting a spacecraft during atmospheric entry is one of highest risk factors that needs to be mitigated during design of a space exploration mission. At entry speeds from space, air turns into high-temperature plasma, and spacecraft Thermal Protection Systems (TPS) are needed to protect the vehicle payload. Modern successful material architectures of spacecraft shields use a porous carbon fiber substrate impregnated with phenolic as an ablator material. In the lecture, efforts to build a Predictive Material Modeling framework for porous ablators from micro-scale to macro-scale will be presented. Several numerical methods and techniques will be summarized that use voxelized images to compute geometrical properties of the porous substrate. These computed properties include porosity, specific surface area and tortuosity that are otherwise indirectly measured through experimental techniques. Direct simulation Monte Carlo (DSMC), a particle-based method for approximating the Boltzmann equation, is used to compute the permeability coefficient of the porous substrate based on its digitized representation. The method computes the flow within the microstructure, where the size of the pores may approach the mean-free-path of the flow. Finally, a high-fidelity model implemented in PATO (Porous-material Analysis Toolbox) is discussed, and some examples of ablative material response are presented, including for the first time 3D simulations of the full tiled heat shield for the Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) capsule.

Ablators↗
NASA NTRS1999

NASA/NOAA: Earth Science Electronic Theater 1999. Earth Science Observations, Analysis and Visualization: Roots in the 60s - Vision for the Next Millennium

The Etheater presents visualizations which span the period from the original Suomi/Hasler animations of the first ATS-1 GEO weather satellite images in 1966, to the latest 1999 NASA Earth Science Vision for the next 25 years. Hot off the SGI-Onyx Graphics-Supercomputer are NASA''s visualizations of Hurricanes Mitch, Georges, Fran and Linda. These storms have been recently featured on the covers of National Geographic, Time, Newsweek and Popular Science. Highlights will be shown from the NASA hurricane visualization resource video tape that has been used repeatedly this season on National and International network TV. Results will be presented from a new paper on automatic wind measurements in Hurricane Luis from 1-min GOES images that appeared in the November BAMS. The visualizations are produced by the NASA Goddard Visualization & Analysis Laboratory, and Scientific Visualization Studio, as well as other Goddard and NASA groups using NASA, NOAA, ESA, and NASDA Earth science datasets. Visualizations will be shown from the Earth Science ETheater 1999 recently presented in Tokyo, Paris, Munich, Sydney, Melbourne, Honolulu, Washington, New York, and Dallas. The presentation Jan 11-14 at the AMS meeting in Dallas used a 4-CPU SGI/CRAY Onyx Infinite Reality Super Graphics Workstation with 8 GB RAM and a Terabyte Disk at 3840 X 1024 resolution with triple synchronized BarcoReality 9200 projectors on a 60ft wide screen. Visualizations will also be featured from the new Earth Today Exhibit which was opened by Vice President Gore on July 2, 1998 at the Smithsonian Air & Space Museum in Washington, as well as those presented for possible use at the American Museum of Natural History (NYC), Disney EPCOT, and other venues. New methods are demonstrated for visualizing, interpreting, comparing, organizing and analyzing immense HyperImage remote sensing datasets and three dimensional numerical model results. We call the data from many new Earth sensing satellites, HyperImage datasets, because they have such high resolution in the spectral, temporal, spatial, and dynamic range domains. The traditional numerical spreadsheet paradigm has been extended to develop a scientific visualization approach for processing HyperImage datasets and 3D model results interactively. The advantages of extending the powerful spreadsheet style of computation to multiple sets of images and organizing image processing were demonstrated using the Distributed Image SpreadSheet (DISS). The DISS is being used as a high performance testbed Next Generation Internet (NGI) VisAnalysis of: 1) El Nino SSTs and NDVI response 2) Latest GOES 10 5-min rapid Scans of 26 day 5000 frame movie of March & April 198 weather and tornadic storms 3) TRMM rainfall and lightning 4)GOES 9 satellite images/winds and NOAA aircraft radar of hurricane Luis, 5) lightning detector data merged with GOES image sequences, 6) Japanese GMS, TRMM, & ADEOS data 7) Chinese FY2 data 8) Meteosat & ERS/ATSR data 9) synchronized manipulation of multiple 3D numerical model views; etc. will be illustrated. The Image SpreadSheet has been highly successful in producing Earth science visualizations for public outreach.

Hasler, A. Fritz↗
NASA NTRS2015

An Imaging System for Satellite Hypervelocity Impact Debris Characterization

This paper discusses the design of an automated imaging system for size characterization of debris produced by the DebriSat hypervelocity impact test. The goal of the DebriSat project is to update satellite breakup models. A representative LEO satellite, DebriSat, was constructed and subjected to a hypervelocity impact test. The impact produced an estimated 85,000 debris fragments. The size distribution of these fragments is required to update the current satellite breakup models. An automated imaging system was developed for the size characterization of the debris fragments. The system uses images taken from various azimuth and elevation angles around the object to produce a 3D representation of the fragment via a space carving algorithm. The system consists of N point-and-shoot cameras attached to a rigid support structure that defines the elevation angle for each camera. The debris fragment is placed on a turntable that is incrementally rotated to desired azimuth angles. The number of images acquired can be varied based on the desired resolution. Appropriate background and lighting is used for ease of object detection. The system calibration and image acquisition process are automated to result in push-button operations. However, for quality assurance reasons, the system is semi-autonomous by design to ensure operator involvement. This paper describes the imaging system setup, calibration procedure, repeatability analysis, and the results of the debris characterization.

Moraguez, Matthew↗
NASA NTRS2022

Quantifying Mangrove Canopy Regrowth and Recovery After Hurricane Irma With Large-Scale Repeat Airborne Lidar in the Florida Everglades

Hurricane Irma caused significant damages to mangrove forested wetlands in south Florida, including defoliation, tree snapping, and uprooting. Previous studies have used optical satellite imagery to estimate large-scale forest disturbance and resilience patterns. However, satellite images alone cannot provide measurements of vertical mangrove structure. In this study, we used dense point cloud data collected by NASA Goddard’s LiDAR, Hyperspectral, and Thermal (G-LiHT) airborne imager before (March 2017) and after (December 2017 and March 2020) Hurricane Irma to quantify the recovery, or lack thereof, of the three-dimensional (3D) mangrove forest structure. Recent resilience and vulnerability models developed from Landsat time series following the storm were used to group the lidar data into distinct disturbance-recovery classes. We then analyzed lidar-based forest canopy within each of the recovery classes to test a suite of forest structural characteristics. Our results indicate that 77.0 % of the survey area experienced canopy height loss three months after Hurricane Irma, whereby the majority of canopy height loss occurred in areas with the tallest mangrove forests (i.e., 15–25 m tall). Our analysis shows that the mangrove canopy height in South Florida increased by an average 0.26 m from December 2017 to March 2020, with most of the forest (84.7 % of the survey area) experiencing canopy height regrowth. However, only 38.1 % of the survey area has recovered to pre-storm canopy height. The distribution of canopy height was significantly altered by Hurricane Irma in the low and intermediate resilience classes, but were not significantly different 2.5 years later. Indeed, in areas of low resilience, little to no vertical change has occurred suggesting the absence of canopy regrowth and natural regeneration. Conversely, mangroves in high resilience class, which are dominated by shorter canopies (<5 m), were not heavily damaged by the storm and have maintained the same structural attributes as those before Hurricane Irma. Our findings highlight that hurricane disturbances significantly alter mangrove forest canopy structure, but recovery of vertical structure varies by resilience classes, species composition, and canopy height.

Lidar↗
NASA NTRS2008

Full-field Strain Methods for Investigating Failure Mechanisms in Triaxial Braided Composites

Composite materials made with triaxial braid architecture and large tow size carbon fibers are beginning to be used in many applications, including composite aircraft and engine structures. Recent advancements in braiding technology have led to commercially viable manufacturing approaches for making large structures with complex shape. Although the large unit cell size of these materials is an advantage for manufacturing efficiency, the fiber architecture presents some challenges for materials characterization, design, and analysis. In some cases, the static load capability of structures made using these materials has been higher than expected based on material strength properties measured using standard coupon tests. A potential problem with using standard tests methods for these materials is that the unit cell size can be an unacceptably large fraction of the specimen dimensions. More detailed investigation of deformation and failure processes in large unit cell size triaxial braid composites is needed to evaluate the applicability of standard test methods for these materials and to develop alternative testing approaches. In recent years, commercial equipment has become available that enables digital image correlation to be used on a more routine basis for investigation of full field 3D deformation in materials and structures. In this paper, some new techniques that have been developed to investigate local deformation and failure using digital image correlation techniques are presented. The methods were used to measure both local and global strains during standard straight-sided coupon tensile tests on composite materials made with 12 and 24 k yarns and a 0/+60/-60 triaxial braid architecture. Local deformation and failure within fiber bundles was observed, and this local failure had a significant effect on global stiffness and strength. The matrix material had a large effect on local damage initiation for the two matrix materials used in this investigation. Premature failure in regions of the unit cell near the edge of the straight-sided specimens was observed for transverse tensile tests in which the braid axial fibers were perpendicular to the specimen axis and the bias fibers terminated on the cut edges in the specimen gage section. This edge effect is one factor that could contribute to a measured strength that is lower than the actual material strength in a structure without edge effects.

Littell, Justin D.↗
NASA NTRS2022

The Coronal Veil

Coronal loops, seen in solar coronal images, are believed to represent emission from magneticflux tubes withcompact cross sections. We examine the 3D structure of plasma above an active region in a radiativemagnetohydrodynamic simulation to locate volume counterparts for coronal loops. In many cases, a loop cannot belinked to an individual thin strand in the volume. While many thin loops are present in the synthetic images, thebright structures in the volume are fewer and of complex shape. We demonstrate that this complexity can formimpressions of thin bright loops, even in the absence of thin bright plasma strands. We demonstrate the difficulty ofdiscerning from observations whether a particular loop corresponds to a strand in the volume, or a projectionartifact. We demonstrate how apparently isolated loops could deceive observers, even when observations frommultiple viewing angles are available. While we base our analysis on a simulation, the mainfindings areindependent from a particular simulation setup and illustrate the intrinsic complexity involved in interpretingobservations resulting from line-of-sight integration in an optically thin plasma. We propose alternativeinterpretation for strands seen in Extreme Ultraviolet images of the corona. The“coronal veil”hypothesis ismathematically more generic, and naturally explains properties of loops that are difficult to address otherwise—such as their constant cross section and anomalously high density scale height. We challenge the paradigm ofcoronal loops as thin magneticflux tubes, offering new understanding of solar corona, and by extension, of othermagnetically confined bright hot plasmas

A Malanushenko↗
NASA NTRS1999

NASA/NOAA: Earth Science Electronic Theater 1999

The Electronic Theater (E-theater) presents visualizations which span the period from the original Suomi/Hasler animations of the first ATS-1 GEO weather satellite images in 1966 to the latest 1999 NASA Earth Science Vision for the next 25 years. Hot off the SGI-Onyx Graphics-Supercomputer are NASA's visualizations of Hurricanes Mitch, Georges, Fran and Linda. These storms have been recently featured on the covers of National Geographic, Time, Newsweek and Popular Science. Highlights will be shown from the NASA hurricane visualization resource video tape that has been used repeatedly this season on National and International network TV. Results will be presented from a new paper on automatic wind measurements in Hurricane Luis from 1-min GOES images that appeared in the November BAMS. The visualizations are produced by the NASA Goddard Visualization and Analysis Laboratory (VAL/912), and Scientific Visualization Studio (SVS/930), as well as other Goddard and NASA groups using NASA, NOAA, ESA, and NASDA Earth science datasets. Visualizations will be shown from the Earth Science E-Theater 1999 recently presented in Tokyo, Paris, Munich, Sydney, Melbourne, Honolulu, Washington, New York, and Dallas. The presentation Jan 11-14 at the AMS meeting in Dallas used a 4-CPU SGI/CRAY Onyx Infinite Reality Super Graphics Workstation with 8 GB RAM and a Terabyte Disk at 3840 X 1024 resolution with triple synchronized BarcoReality 9200 projectors on a 60ft wide screen. Visualizations will also be featured from the new Earth Today Exhibit which was opened by Vice President Gore on July 2, 1998 at the Smithsonian Air & Space museum in Washington, as well as those presented for possible use at the American Museum of Natural History (NYC), Disney EPCOT, and other venues. New methods are demonstrated for visualizing, interpreting, comparing, organizing and analyzing immense HyperImage remote sensing datasets and three dimensional numerical model results. We call the data from many new Earth sensing satellites, HyperImage datasets, because they have such high resolution in the spectral, temporal, spatial, and dynamic range domains. The traditional numerical spreadsheet paradigm has been extended to develop a scientific visualization approach for processing HyperImage datasets and 3D model results interactively. The advantages of extending the powerful spreadsheet style of computation to multiple sets of images and organizing image processing were demonstrated using the Distributed image SpreadSheet (DISS). The DISS is being used as a high performance testbed Next Generation Internet (NGI) VisAnalysis of: 1) El Nino SSTs and NDVI response 2) Latest GOES 10 5-min rapid Scans of 26 day 5000 frame movie of March & April '98 weather and tornadic storms 3) TRMM rainfall and lightning 4)GOES 9 satellite images/winds and NOAA aircraft radar of hurricane Luis, 5) lightning detector data merged with GOES image sequences, 6) Japanese GMS, TRMM, & ADEOS data 7) Chinese FY2 data 8) Meteosat & ERS/ATSR data 9) synchronized manipulation of multiple 3D numerical model views; and others will be illustrated. The Image SpreadSheet has been highly successful in producing Earth science visualizations for public outreach. Many of these visualizations have been widely disseminated through the world wide web pages of the HPCC/LTP/RSD program which can be found at http://rsd.gsfc.nasa.gov/rsd The one min interval animations of Hurricane Luis on ABC Nightline and the color perspective rendering of Hurricane Fran published by TIME, LIFE, Newsweek, Popular Science, National Geographic, Scientific American, and the "Weekly Reader" are some of the examples which will be shown.

Hasler, A. Fritz↗
NASA NTRS2010

Application of a Near Infrared Imaging System for Thermographic Imaging of the Space Shuttle during Hypersonic Re-Entry

High resolution calibrated near infrared (NIR) imagery was obtained of the Space Shuttle s reentry during STS-119, STS-125, and STS-128 missions. The infrared imagery was collected using a US Navy NP-3D Orion aircraft using a long-range infrared optical package referred to as Cast Glance. The slant ranges between the Space Shuttle and Cast Glance were approximately 26-41 nautical miles at point of closest approach. The Hypersonic Thermodynamic Infrared Measurements (HYTHIRM) project was a NASA Langley led endeavor sponsored by the NASA Engineering Safety Center, the Space Shuttle Program Office and the NASA Aeronautics Research Mission Directorate to demonstrate a quantitative thermal imaging capability. HYTHIRM required several mission tools to acquire the imagery. These tools include pre-mission acquisition simulations of the Shuttle trajectory in relationship to the Cast Glance aircraft flight path, radiance modeling to predict the infrared response of the Shuttle, and post mission analysis tools to process the infrared imagery to quantitative temperature maps. The spatially resolved global thermal measurements made during the Shuttle s hypersonic reentry provides valuable flight data for reducing the uncertainty associated with present day ground-to-flight extrapolation techniques and current state-of-the-art empirical boundary-layer transition or turbulent heating prediction methods. Laminar and turbulent flight data is considered critical for the development of turbulence models supporting NASA s next-generation spacecraft. This paper will provide the motivation and details behind the use of an upgraded NIR imaging system used onboard a Navy Cast Glance aircraft and describe the characterizations and procedures performed to obtain quantitative temperature maps. A brief description and assessment will be provided of the previously used analog NIR camera along with image examples from Shuttle missions STS-121, STS-115, and solar tower test. These thermal observations confirmed the challenge of a long-range acquisition during re-entry. These challenges are due to unknown atmospheric conditions, image saturation, vibration etc. This provides the motivation for the use of a digital NIR sensor. The characterizations performed on the digital NIR sensor included radiometric, spatial, and spectral measurements using blackbody radiation sources and known targets. An assessment of the collected data for three Space Shuttle atmospheric re-entries, STS-119, STS-125, and STS-128, are provided along with a description of various events of interest captured using the digital NIR imaging system such as RCS firings and boundary layer transitions. Lastly the process used to convert the raw image counts to quantitative temperatures is presented along with comparisons to the Space Shuttle's onboard thermocouples.

Zalameda, Joseph N.↗
NASA NTRS2013

Wind Retrieval Algorithms for the IWRAP and HIWRAP Airborne Doppler Radars with Applications to Hurricanes

Algorithms for the retrieval of atmospheric winds in precipitating systems from downward-pointing, conically-scanning airborne Doppler radars are presented. The focus in the paper is on two radars: the Imaging Wind and Rain Airborne Profiler(IWRAP) and the High-altitude IWRAP (HIWRAP). The IWRAP is a dual-frequency (Cand Ku band), multi-beam (incidence angles of 30 50) system that flies on the NOAAWP-3D aircraft at altitudes of 2-4 km. The HIWRAP is a dual-frequency (Ku and Kaband), dual-beam (incidence angles of 30 and 40) system that flies on the NASA Global Hawk aircraft at altitudes of 18-20 km. Retrievals of the three Cartesian wind components over the entire radar sampling volume are described, which can be determined using either a traditional least squares or variational solution procedure. The random errors in the retrievals are evaluated using both an error propagation analysis and a numerical simulation of a hurricane. These analyses show that the vertical and along-track wind errors have strong across-track dependence with values of 0.25 m s-1 at nadir to 2.0 m s-1 and 1.0 m s-1 at the swath edges, respectively. The across-track wind errors also have across-track structure and are on average, 3.0 3.5 m s-1 or 10 of the hurricane wind speed. For typical rotated figure four flight patterns through hurricanes, the zonal and meridional wind speed errors are 2 3 m s-1.Examples of measured data retrievals from IWRAP during an eyewall replacement cycle in Hurricane Isabel (2003) and from HIWRAP during the development of Tropical Storm Matthew (2010) are shown.

atmospheric winds↗
NASA NTRS1998

Earth Science Multimedia Theater

The presentation will begin with the latest 1998 NASA Earth Science Vision for the next 25 years. A compilation of the 10 days of animations of Hurricane Georges which were supplied daily on NASA to Network television will be shown. NASA's visualizations of Hurricane Bonnie which appeared in the Sept 7 1998 issue of TIME magazine. Highlights will be shown from the NASA hurricane visualization resource video tape that has been used repeatedly this season on network TV. Results will be presented from a new paper on automatic wind measurements in Hurricane Luis from 1 -min GOES images that will appear in the October BAMS. The visualizations are produced by the Goddard Visualization & Analysis Laboratory, and Scientific Visualization Studio, as well as other Goddard and NASA groups using NASA, NOAA, ESA, and NASDA Earth science datasets. Visualizations will be shown from the "Digital-HyperRes-Panorama" Earth Science ETheater'98 recently presented in Tokyo, Paris and Phoenix. The presentation in Paris used a SGI/CRAY Onyx Infinite Reality Super Graphics Workstation at 2560 X 1024 resolution with dual synchronized video Epson 71 00 projectors on a 20ft wide screen. Earth Science Electronic Theater '999 is being prepared for a December 1 st showing at NASA HQ in Washington and January presentation at the AMS meetings in Dallas. The 1999 version of the Etheater will be triple wide with at resolution of 3840 X 1024 on a 60 ft wide screen. Visualizations will also be featured from the new Earth Today Exhibit which was opened by Vice President Gore on July 2, 1998 at the Smithsonian Air & Space Museum in Washington, as well as those presented for possible use at the American Museum of Natural History (NYC), Disney EPCOT, and other venues. New methods are demonstrated for visualizing, interpreting, comparing, organizing and analyzing immense Hyperimage remote sensing datasets and three dimensional numerical model results. We call the data from many new Earth sensing satellites, Hyperimage datasets, because they have such high resolution in the spectral, temporal, spatial, and dynamic range domains. The traditional numerical spreadsheet paradigm has been extended to develop a scientific visualization approach for processing Hyperimage datasets and 3D model results interactively. The advantages of extending the powerful spreadsheet style of computation to multiple sets of images and organizing image processing were demonstrated using the Distributed Image SpreadSheet (DISS).

Hasler, A. F.↗
NASA NTRS2008

3D Position and Velocity Vector Computations of Objects Jettisoned from the International Space Station Using Close-Range Photogrammetry Approach

Measurement of the jettisoned object departure trajectory and velocity vector in the International Space Station (ISS) reference frame is vitally important for prompt evaluation of the object s imminent orbit. We report on the first successful application of photogrammetric analysis of the ISS imagery for the prompt computation of the jettisoned object s position and velocity vectors. As post-EVA analyses examples, we present the Floating Potential Probe (FPP) and the Russian "Orlan" Space Suit jettisons, as well as the near-real-time (provided in several hours after the separation) computations of the Video Stanchion Support Assembly Flight Support Assembly (VSSA-FSA) and Early Ammonia Servicer (EAS) jettisons during the US astronauts space-walk. Standard close-range photogrammetry analysis was used during this EVA to analyze two on-board camera image sequences down-linked from the ISS. In this approach the ISS camera orientations were computed from known coordinates of several reference points on the ISS hardware. Then the position of the jettisoned object for each time-frame was computed from its image in each frame of the video-clips. In another, "quick-look" approach used in near-real time, orientation of the cameras was computed from their position (from the ISS CAD model) and operational data (pan and tilt) then location of the jettisoned object was calculated only for several frames of the two synchronized movies. Keywords: Photogrammetry, International Space Station, jettisons, image analysis.

Papanyan, Valeri↗
NASA NTRS2005

NASA Tech Briefs, August 2005

Topics include: Hidden Identification on Parts: Magnetic Machine-Readable Matrix Symbols; System for Processing Coded OFDM Under Doppler and Fading; Multipurpose Hyperspectral Imaging System; Magnetic-Flux-Compensated Voltage Divider; High-Performance Satellite/Terrestrial-Network Gateway; Internet-Based System for Voice Communication With the ISS; Stripline/Microstrip Transition in Multilayer Circuit Board; Dual-Band Feed for a Microwave Reflector Antenna; Quadratic Programming for Allocating Control Effort; Range Process Simulation Tool; Simulator of Space Communication Networks; Computing Q-D Relationships for Storage of Rocket Fuels; Contour Error Map Algorithm; Portfolio Analysis Tool; Glass Frit Filters for Collecting Metal Oxide Nanoparticles; Anhydrous Proton-Conducting Membranes for Fuel Cells; Portable Electron-Beam Free-Form Fabrication System; Miniature Laboratory for Detecting Sparse Biomolecules; Multicompartment Liquid-Cooling/Warming Protective Garments; Laser Metrology for an Optical-Path-Length Modulator; PCM Passive Cooling System Containing Active Subsystems; Automated Electrostatics Environmental Chamber; Estimating Aeroheating of a 3D Body Using a 2D Flow Solver; Artificial Immune System for Recognizing Patterns; Computing the Thermodynamic State of a Cryogenic Fluid; Safety and Mission Assurance Performance Metric; Magnetic Control of Concentration Gradient in Microgravity; Avionics for a Small Robotic Inspection Spacecraft; and Simulation of Dynamics of a Flexible Miniature Airplane.

Source record↗