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At least 1,441 records · Page 80

Support for global science - Remote sensing's challenge

Advances in remote sensing techniques are discussed. The benefits possible to remote sensing with the new Earth Observing System, which is composed of the Space Station and coorbiting and polar satellite platforms, are examined. Current changes in the remote sensing field, which involve a change from an industrial society to an informational society, force technology to high technology with high touch, short term to long term, centralized to decentralized, hierarchies to networks, and either/or to multiple option systems are studied. The explanatory and objective types of analyses for investigating biophysical, geochemical, and socioeconomic processes are described; the procedures include: morphometric, cause and effect, temporal and functional and ecological system analyses, inventory, mapping, monitoring, and modeling.

Estes, J. E.↗

Canopy reflectance modeling in a tropical wooded grassland

Geometric/optical canopy reflectance modeling and spatial/spectral pattern recognition are used to study the form and structure of savanna in West Africa. An invertible plant canopy reflectance model is tested for its ability to estimate the amount of woody vegetation cover in areas of sparsely wooded grassland from remotely sensed data. Dry woodlands and wooded grasslands, commonly referred to as savannas, are important ecologically and economically in Africa, and cover approximately forty percent of the continent by some estimates. The Sahelian and Sudanian savanna make up the important and sensitive transition zone between the tropical forests and the arid Saharan region. The depletion of woody cover, used for fodder and fuel in these regions, has become a very severe problem for the people living there. LANDSAT Thematic Mapper (TM) data is used to stratify woodland and wooded grassland into areas of relatively homogeneous canopy cover, and then by applying an invertible forest canopy reflectance model to estimate directly the height and spacing of the trees in the stands. Since height and spacing are proportional to biomass in some cases, a successful application of the segmentation/modeling techniques will allow direct estimation of woody biomass, as well as cover density, over significant areas of these valuable and sensitive ecosystems. Sahelian savanna sites in the Gourma area of Mali being used by the NASA/GIMMS project (Global Inventory Modeling and Monitoring System, at Goddard Space Flight Center), in conjunction with CIPEA/Mali (Centre International pour l'Elevage en Afrique) will be used for testing the canopy model. The model will also be tested in a Sudanian zone crop/woodland area in the Region of Segou, Mali.

Simonett, D.↗

Earth resources: A continuing bibliography with indexes (issue 51)

This bibliography lists 382 reports, articles and other documents introduced into the NASA scientific and technical information system between July 1 and September 30, 1986. Emphasis is placed on the use of remote sensing and geophysical instrumentation in spacecraft and aircraft to survey and inventory natural resources and urban areas. Subject matter is grouped according to agriculture and forestry, environmental changes and cultural resources, geodesy and cartography, geology and mineral resources, hydrology and water management, data processing and distribution systems, instrumentation and sensors, and economic analysis.

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Earth resources: A continuing bibliography with indexes (issue 52)

This bibliography lists 454 reports, articles, and other documents introduced into the NASA scientific and technical information system between October 1 and December 31, 1986. Emphasis is placed on the use of remote sensing and geophysical instrumentation in spacecraft and aircraft to survey and inventory natural resources and urban areas. Subject matter is grouped according to agriculture and forestry, environmental changes and cultural resources, geodesy and cartography, geology and mineral resources, hydrology and water management, data processing and distribution systems, instrumentation and sensors, and economic analysis.

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Satellite servicing mission preliminary cost estimation model

The cost model presented is a preliminary methodology for determining a rough order-of-magnitude cost for implementing a satellite servicing mission. Mission implementation, in this context, encompassess all activities associated with mission design and planning, including both flight and ground crew training and systems integration (payload processing) of servicing hardward with the Shuttle. A basic assumption made in developing this cost model is that a generic set of servicing hardware was developed and flight tested, is inventoried, and is maintained by NASA. This implies that all hardware physical and functional interfaces are well known and therefore recurring CITE testing is not required. The development of the cost model algorithms and examples of their use are discussed.

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Life Sciences Laboratory Equipment Catalog

A composite inventory of equipment available from the Ames Research Center for microgravity experiments using the Shuttle Transportation System (STS) Middeck and Spacelab is provided.

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Earth resources: A continuing bibliography with indexes (issue 53)

This bibliography lists 604 reports, articles, and other documents introduced into the NASA scientific and technical information system between January 1 and March 31, 1987. Emphasis is placed on the use of remote sensing and geophysical instrumentation in spacecraft and aircraft to survey and inventory natural resources and urban areas. Subject matter is grouped according to agriculture and forestry, environmental changes and cultural resources, geodesy and cartography, geology and mineral resources, hydrology and water management, data processing and distribution systems, instrumentation and sensors, and economic analysis.

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Shatter cones in Illinois: Evidence for metoeritic impacts at Glasford and Des Plaines

Shatter cone fragments were recovered from rock cores at two previously suspected, but heretofore unverified, impact structures in Illinois. Both sites are buried features known from geophysical surveys and drill holes. Shatter cones are accepted widely as field criteria of meteoritic impact. Detection of these shock indicators in both the Glasford Structure and the Des Plains Disturbance upgrades these sites in Earth's inventory of known and suspected impact structures from possible impact sites with compatible structure and morphology to probable impact structures which possess also evidence of shock metamorphism.

Mchone, John F.↗

Earth resources: A continuing bibliography with indexes (issue 54)

This bibliography lists 562 reports, articles, and other documents introduced into the NASA scientific and technical information system between April 1 and June 30, 1987. Emphasis is placed on the use of remote sensing and geophysical instrumentation in spacecraft and aircraft to survey and inventory natural resources and urban areas. Subject matter is grouped according to agriculture and forestry, environmental changes and cultural resources, geodesy and cartography, geology and mineral resources, hydrology and water management, data processing and distribution systems, instrumentation and sensors, and economic analysis.

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Contributions of numerical simulation data bases to the physics, modeling and measurement of turbulence

The use of simulation data bases for the examination of turbulent flows is an effective research tool. Studies of the structure of turbulence have been hampered by the limited number of probes and the impossibility of measuring all desired quantities. Also, flow visualization is confined to the observation of passive markers with limited field of view and contamination caused by time-history effects. Computer flow fields are a new resource for turbulence research, providing all the instantaneous flow variables in three-dimensional space. Simulation data bases also provide much-needed information for phenomenological turbulence modeling. Three dimensional velocity and pressure fields from direct simulations can be used to compute all the terms in the transport equations for the Reynolds stresses and the dissipation rate. However, only a few, geometrically simple flows have been computed by direct numerical simulation, and the inventory of simulation does not fully address the current modeling needs in complex turbulent flows. The availability of three-dimensional flow fields also poses challenges in developing new techniques for their analysis, techniques based on experimental methods, some of which are used here for the analysis of direct-simulation data bases in studies of the mechanics of turbulent flows.

Moin, Parviz↗

Instrumentation for remote sensing from space

The design options available for satellite-based remote sensing are discussed. Emphasis is placed on the process of fitting the instrumental capabilities to the scientific goals of a particular program, to the payload capacity of the launch vehicle, and to the operational envelope of the satellite. Various materials and instrument configurations are inventoried for imaging systems for, e.g., detecting and mapping particles, X-rays, visible and IR radiation. Numerous examples of instruments on Voyager, Mariner and Landsat satellites are cited, along with the discoveries which they permitted.

Hanel, R. A.↗

International Symposium on Remote Sensing of Environment, 19th, Ann Arbor, MI, October 21-25, 1985, Proceedings. Volumes 1 & 2

The technology and applications of terrestrial remote sensing (RS) are discussed in reviews and reports. Topics examined include the future of the NASA earth-sciences program, NOAA plans for earth observations in the 1990s, space RS in France, international coordination of RS satellite programs, and applications of geocoded imagery. Consideration is given to spatial and tabular databases for order-three soil surveys, an AVHRR and Landsat regional inventory of irrigated agriculture, classification of wetlands, microwave radiometry of ocean surface winds and sea ice, and floodplain land-cover mapping with Thematic-Mapper data.

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Mass fractionation in hydrodynamic escape

In mass fractionation during the hydrodynamic escape of gases from an inner planet's atmosphere, the readier escape of light gases generates a linear or concave downward line in a plotting of the log of remaining inventory against atomic mass. Just as such an episode of hydrodynamic escape during Mars' early history could have led to the mass-dependent depletion of the noble gases that has been noted in the Martian atmosphere, in the event that the Martian atmosphere was initially hydrogen-rich, an early earth-history episode may have resulted in a mass-dependent fractionation of the xenon isotopes.

Hunten, Donald M.↗

Space Station galley design

An Advanced Food Hardware System galley for the initial operating capability (IOC) Space Station is discussed. Space Station will employ food hardware items that have never been flown in space, such as a dishwasher, microwave oven, blender/mixer, bulk food and beverage dispensers, automated food inventory management, a trash compactor, and an advanced technology refrigerator/freezer. These new technologies and designs are described and the trades, design, development, and testing associated with each are summarized.

Trabanino, Rudy↗

Life Sciences Research Facility automation requirements and concepts for the Space Station

An evaluation is made of the methods and preliminary results of a study on prospects for the automation of the NASA Space Station's Life Sciences Research Facility. In order to remain within current Space Station resource allocations, approximately 85 percent of planned life science experiment tasks must be automated; these tasks encompass specimen care and feeding, cage and instrument cleaning, data acquisition and control, sample analysis, waste management, instrument calibration, materials inventory and management, and janitorial work. Task automation will free crews for specimen manipulation, tissue sampling, data interpretation and communication with ground controllers, and experiment management.

Rasmussen, Daryl N.↗

Monsoon flood boundary delineation and damage assessment using space borne imaging radar and Landsat data

Space-borne synthetic aperture radar (SAR) data acquired by the Shuttle Imaging Radar-B (SIR-B) Program and Landsat Multispectral Scanner Subsystem (MSS) Data from Landsat 4 were used to map flood boundaries for the assessment of flood damage in the Peoples Republic of Bangladesh. The cloud penetrating capabilities of the L-band radar provided a clear picture of the hydrologic conditions of the surface during a period of inclement weather at the end of the wet phase of the 1984 monsoon. The radar image data were digitally processed to geometrically rectify the pixel geometry and were filtered to subdue radar image speckle effects. Contrast enhancement techniques and density slicing were used to create discrete land-cover categories corresponding to surface conditions present at the time of the Shuttle overflight. The radar image classification map was digitally registered to a spectral signature classification map of the area derived from Landsat MSS data collected two weeks prior to the SIR-B mission. Classification accuracy comparisons were made between the radar and MSS classification maps, and flood boundary and flood damage assessment measurements were made with the merged data by adding the classifications and inventorying the land-cover classes inundated at the time of flooding.

Imhoff, Marc L.↗

Development of a prototype two-phase thermal bus system for Space Station

This paper describes the basic elements of a pumped two-phase ammonia thermal control system designed for microgravity environments, the development of the concept into a Space Station flight design, and design details of the prototype to be ground-tested in the Johnson Space Center (JSC) Thermal Test Bed. The basic system concept is one of forced-flow heat transport through interface heat exchangers with anhydrous ammonia being pumped by a device expressly designed for two-phase fluid management in reduced gravity. Control of saturation conditions, and thus system interface temperatures, is accomplished with a single central pressure regulating valve. Flow control and liquid inventory are controlled by passive, nonelectromechanical devices. Use of these simple control elements results in minimal computer controls and high system reliability. Building on the basic system concept, a brief overview of a potential Space Station flight design is given. Primary verification of the system concept will involve testing at JSC of a 25-kW ground test article currently in fabrication.

Myron, D. L.↗

Atmospheric distribution of Kr-85 simulated with a general circulation model

A three-dimensional chemical tracer model for the troposphere is used to simulate the global distribution of Kr-85, a long-lived radioisotope released at northern midlatitudes by nuclear industry. Simulated distributions for the period 1980-1983 are in excellent agreement with data from six latitudinal profiles measured over the Atlantic. High concentrations of Kr-85 are predicted over the Arctic in winter, advected from European sources, and somewhat smaller enhancements arising from the same sources are predicted over the tropical Atlantic in summer. Latitudinal gradients are steepest in the northern tropics, with distinctly different seasonal variations over the Pacific, as compared to the Atlantic. The global inventory of Kr-85 is reconstructed for the period 1980-1983 by combining the concentrations measured over the Atlantic with the global distributions predicted by the model. The magnitude of the Soviet source is derived. The interhemispheric exchange time is calculated as 1.1 years, with little seasonal dependence.

Jacob, Daniel J.↗