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At least 1,513 records · Page 84

A study of high alpha dynamics and flow visualization for a 2.5-percent model of the F-18 HARV undergoing wing rock

Free-to-roll experiments and flow visualization studies have been conducted for a 2.5-percent model of the F-18 undergoing unsteady wing rock oscillations. Data have been acquired in the form of roll angle time histories as well as video recordings and 35 mm photography of the forebody and leading edge extension vortices. The time histories were differentiated to produce angular velocity and angular acceleration. From this the roll moment as a function of time and/or roll angle could be estimated. A thorough analysis of the data has revealed a genuine wing-rock phenomenon. Off-surface flow visualization was used to identiify the forebody and LEX vortex core positions and their interaction in both static and dynamic configurations. A direct correlation between the dynamic data and visualized vortex activity during the wing-rock motion has been made.

Quast, Thomas↗

Data Cube Application Algorithms For The United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (UN-SDGS)

In 2015, all United Nations (UN) Member States adopted the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. The Agenda provides a shared blueprint for peace and prosperity for people and for the planet, considering our current situation and helping to create a plan. The core of this agenda is a set of seventeen Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), which represent an urgent call for action by all countries -both developed and developing - in a global partnership. The Committee on Earth Observation Satellites (CEOS) Systems Engineering Office (SEO) team has recently developed and released a set of innovative notebooks addressing UN SDGs 6.6.1 (spatial extents of water-related ecosystems), 11.3.1 (ratio of land consumption rate to population growth rate), and 15.3.1 (proportion of land that is degraded over total land area). These notebooks empower users by providing features that will assist with streamlining analysis ready data retrieval, processing, and visualization. The main contributions in this paper are: (1) briefly describing the framework of the UN SDG notebooks, (2) enumerating the notebooks’ salient features, and (3) discussing current limitations and proposing approaches to overcome these limitations.

Open Data Cube↗

Comparison of visualized turbine endwall secondary flows and measured heat transfer patterns

Various flow visualization techniques were used to define the secondary flows near the endwall in a large heat transfer data. A comparison of the visualized flow patterns and the measured Stanton number distribution was made for cases where the inlet Reynolds number and exit Mach number were matched. Flows were visualized by using neutrally buoyant helium-filled soap bubbles, by using smoke from oil soaked cigars, and by a few techniques using permanent marker pen ink dots and synthetic wintergreen oil. Details of the horseshoe vortex and secondary flows can be directly compared with heat transfer distribution. Near the cascade entrance there is an obvious correlation between the two sets of data, but well into the passage the effect of secondary flow is not as obvious.

Gaugler, R. E.↗

Comparison of visualized turbine endwall secondary flows and measured heat transfer patterns

Various flow visualization techniques were used to define the seondary flows near the endwall in a large heat transfer data. A comparison of the visualized flow patterns and the measured Stanton number distribution was made for cases where the inlet Reynolds number and exit Mach number were matched. Flows were visualized by using neutrally buoyant helium-filled soap bubbles, by using smoke from oil soaked cigars, and by a few techniques using permanent marker pen ink dots and synthetic wintergreen oil. Details of the horseshoe vortex and secondary flows can be directly compared with heat transfer distribution. Near the cascade entrance there is an obvious correlation between the two sets of data, but well into the passage the effect of secondary flow is not as obvious. Previously announced in STAR as N83-14435

Gaugler, R. E.↗

Development and usage of a false color display technique for presenting Seasat-A scatterometer data

A computer generated false color program which creates digital multicolor graphics to display geophysical surface parameters measured by the Seasat-A satellite scatterometer (SASS) is described. The data is incrementally scaled over the range of acceptable values and each increment and its data points are assigned a color. The advantage of the false color display is that it visually infers cool or weak data versus hot or intense data by using the rainbow of colors. For example, with wind speeds, levels of yellow and red could be used to imply high winds while green and blue could imply calmer air. The SASS data is sorted into geographic regions and the final false color images are projected onto various world maps with superimposed land/water boundaries.

Jackson, C. B.↗

Low-Amplitude Topographic Features and Textures on the Moon: Initial Results from Detrended Lunar Orbiter Laser Altimeter (LOLA) Topography

Global lunar topographic data derived from ranging measurements by the Lunar Orbiter Laser Altimeter (LOLA) onboard LRO mission to the Moon have extremely high vertical precision. We use detrended topography as a means for utilization of this precision in geomorphological analysis. The detrended topography was calculated as a difference between actual topography and a trend surface defined as a median topography in a circular sliding window. We found that despite complicated distortions caused by the non-linear nature of the detrending procedure, visual inspection of these data facilitates identification of low-amplitude gently-sloping geomorphic features. We present specific examples of patterns of lava flows forming the lunar maria and revealing compound flow fields, a new class of lava flow complex on the Moon. We also highlight the identification of linear tectonic features that otherwise are obscured in the images and topographic data processed in a more traditional manner.

Moon↗

Visual interface for space and terrestrial analysis

The management of large geophysical and celestial data bases is now, more than ever, the most critical path to timely data analysis. With today's large volume data sets from multiple satellite missions, analysts face the task of defining useful data bases from which data and metadata (information about data) can be extracted readily in a meaningful way. Visualization, following an object-oriented design, is a fundamental method of organizing and handling data. Humans, by nature, easily accept pictorial representations of data. Therefore graphically oriented user interfaces are appealing, as long as they remain simple to produce and use. The Visual Interface for Space and Terrestrial Analysis (VISTA) system, currently under development at the Naval Research Laboratory's Backgrounds Data Center (BDC), has been designed with these goals in mind. Its graphical user interface (GUI) allows the user to perform queries, visualization, and analysis of atmospheric and celestial backgrounds data.

Dombrowski, Edmund G.↗

Modification in drag of turbulent boundary layers resulting from manipulation of large-scale structures

The effects of placing a parallel-plate turbulence manipulator in a boundary layer are investigated by means of flow visualization and hot-wire measurements. The manipulator was found to be effective in inhibiting the intermittent large scale structure of the boundary layer, and the effect persists for at least 70 boundary-layer thicknesses downstream of the manipulator. With the removal of the large scale, there was an observed reduction in the streamwise turbulence intensity levels near the wall. The downstream distribution of the skin friction coefficient, determined from the stream wise change in fluid momentum, was also altered by the introduction of the manipulator. The data from both the visualization and hot wire studies are provided.

Corke, T. C.↗

2-D and 3-D oscillating wing aerodynamics for a range of angles of attack including stall

A comprehensive experimental investigation of the pressure distribution over a semispan wing undergoing pitching motions representative of a helicopter rotor blade was conducted. Testing the wing in the nonrotating condition isolates the three-dimensional (3-D) blade aerodynamic and dynamic stall characteristics from the complications of the rotor blade environment. The test has generated a very complete, detailed, and accurate body of data. These data include static and dynamic pressure distributions, surface flow visualizations, two-dimensional (2-D) airfoil data from the same model and installation, and important supporting blockage and wall pressure distributions. This body of data is sufficiently comprehensive and accurate that it can be used for the validation of rotor blade aerodynamic models over a broad range of the important parameters including 3-D dynamic stall. This data report presents all the cycle-averaged lift, drag, and pitching moment coefficient data versus angle of attack obtained from the instantaneous pressure data for the 3-D wing and the 2-D airfoil. Also presented are examples of the following: cycle-to-cycle variations occurring for incipient or lightly stalled conditions; 3-D surface flow visualizations; supporting blockage and wall pressure distributions; and underlying detailed pressure results.

Piziali, R. A.↗

Out-of-Core Streamline Visualization on Large Unstructured Meshes

It's advantageous for computational scientists to have the capability to perform interactive visualization on their desktop workstations. For data on large unstructured meshes, this capability is not generally available. In particular, particle tracing on unstructured grids can result in a high percentage of non-contiguous memory accesses and therefore may perform very poorly with virtual memory paging schemes. The alternative of visualizing a lower resolution of the data degrades the original high-resolution calculations. This paper presents an out-of-core approach for interactive streamline construction on large unstructured tetrahedral meshes containing millions of elements. The out-of-core algorithm uses an octree to partition and restructure the raw data into subsets stored into disk files for fast data retrieval. A memory management policy tailored to the streamline calculations is used such that during the streamline construction only a very small amount of data are brought into the main memory on demand. By carefully scheduling computation and data fetching, the overhead of reading data from the disk is significantly reduced and good memory performance results. This out-of-core algorithm makes possible interactive streamline visualization of large unstructured-grid data sets on a single mid-range workstation with relatively low main-memory capacity: 5-20 megabytes. Our test results also show that this approach is much more efficient than relying on virtual memory and operating system's paging algorithms.

Ueng, Shyh-Kuang↗

Facilitating Navigation Through Large Archives

Automated Visual Access (AVA) is a computer program that effectively makes a large collection of information visible in a manner that enables a user to quickly and efficiently locate information resources, with minimal need for conventional keyword searches and perusal of complex hierarchical directory systems. AVA includes three key components: (1) a taxonomy that comprises a collection of words and phrases, clustered according to meaning, that are used to classify information resources; (2) a statistical indexing and scoring engine; and (3) a component that generates a graphical user interface that uses the scoring data to generate a visual map of resources and topics. The top level of an AVA display is a pictorial representation of an information archive. The user enters the depicted archive by either clicking on a depiction of subject area cluster, selecting a topic from a list, or entering a query into a text box. The resulting display enables the user to view candidate information entities at various levels of detail. Resources are grouped spatially by topic with greatest generality at the top layer and increasing detail with depth. The user can zoom in or out of specific sites or into greater or lesser content detail.

Shelton, Robert O.↗

Effects of simulator variations on the fidelity of a UH-60 Black Hawk simulation

The validity of the vertical motion simulator used to simulate the UH-60A Black Hawk helicopter is evaluated. Aircraft simulation of bob-up, hover turn, and dash/quick stop manuevers are compared to actual flight data. The effects of variations in the simulator's visual and motion characteristics on the simulation data are investigated. Data obtained with the nonintrusive parameter identification procedure and optimal control measures are applied to the helicopter math model used for real-time aircraft simulation. Analysis of the model reveals that the simulated aircraft is underdamped, and the changes in the visual reference have the greatest effect on the ability of the pilot to perform the maneuvers.

Cleveland, W. B.↗

Modelling parallel programs and multiprocessor architectures with AXE

AXE, An Experimental Environment for Parallel Systems, was designed to model and simulate for parallel systems at the process level. It provides an integrated environment for specifying computation models, multiprocessor architectures, data collection, and performance visualization. AXE is being used at NASA-Ames for developing resource management strategies, parallel problem formulation, multiprocessor architectures, and operating system issues related to the High Performance Computing and Communications Program. AXE's simple, structured user-interface enables the user to model parallel programs and machines precisely and efficiently. Its quick turn-around time keeps the user interested and productive. AXE models multicomputers. The user may easily modify various architectural parameters including the number of sites, connection topologies, and overhead for operating system activities. Parallel computations in AXE are represented as collections of autonomous computing objects known as players. Their use and behavior is described. Performance data of the multiprocessor model can be observed on a color screen. These include CPU and message routing bottlenecks, and the dynamic status of the software.

Yan, Jerry C.↗

Optimizing tertiary storage organization and access for spatio-temporal datasets

We address in this paper data management techniques for efficiently retrieving requested subsets of large datasets stored on mass storage devices. This problem represents a major bottleneck that can negate the benefits of fast networks, because the time to access a subset from a large dataset stored on a mass storage system is much greater that the time to transmit that subset over a network. This paper focuses on very large spatial and temporal datasets generated by simulation programs in the area of climate modeling, but the techniques developed can be applied to other applications that deal with large multidimensional datasets. The main requirement we have addressed is the efficient access of subsets of information contained within much larger datasets, for the purpose of analysis and interactive visualization. We have developed data partitioning techniques that partition datasets into 'clusters' based on analysis of data access patterns and storage device characteristics. The goal is to minimize the number of clusters read from mass storage systems when subsets are requested. We emphasize in this paper proposed enhancements to current storage server protocols to permit control over physical placement of data on storage devices. We also discuss in some detail the aspects of the interface between the application programs and the mass storage system, as well as a workbench to help scientists to design the best reorganization of a dataset for anticipated access patterns.

Chen, Ling Tony↗

An investigation into the flow behavior of a single phase gas system and a two phase gas/liquid system in normal gravity with nonuniform heating from above

The fluid behavior in normal gravity of a single phase gas system and a two phase gas/liquid system in an enclosed circular cylinder heated suddenly and nonuniformly from above was investigated. Flow visualization was used to obtain qualitative data on both systems. The use of thermochromatic liquid crystal particles as liquid phase flow tracers was evaluated as a possible means of simultaneously gathering both flow pattern and temperature gradient data for the two phase system. The results of the flow visualization experiments performed on both systems can be used to gain a better understanding of the behavior of such systems in a reduced gravity environment and aid in the verification of a numerical model of the system.

Disimile, Peter J.↗

The SSABLE system - Automated archive, catalog, browse and distribution of satellite data in near-real time

Historically, locating and browsing satellite data has been a cumbersome and expensive process. This has impeded the efficient and effective use of satellite data in the geosciences. SSABLE is a new interactive tool for the archive, browse, order, and distribution of satellite date based upon X Window, high bandwidth networks, and digital image rendering techniques. SSABLE provides for automatically constructing relational database queries to archived image datasets based on time, data, geographical location, and other selection criteria. SSABLE also provides a visual representation of the selected archived data for viewing on the user's X terminal. SSABLE is a near real-time system; for example, data are added to SSABLE's database within 10 min after capture. SSABLE is network and machine independent; it will run identically on any machine which satisfies the following three requirements: 1) has a bitmapped display (monochrome or greater); 2) is running the X Window system; and 3) is on a network directly reachable by the SSABLE system. SSABLE has been evaluated at over 100 international sites. Network response time in the United States and Canada varies between 4 and 7 s for browse image updates; reported transmission times to Europe and Australia typically are 20-25 s.

Simpson, James J.↗

Analysis and visualization of single-trial event-related potentials

In this study, a linear decomposition technique, independent component analysis (ICA), is applied to single-trial multichannel EEG data from event-related potential (ERP) experiments. Spatial filters derived by ICA blindly separate the input data into a sum of temporally independent and spatially fixed components arising from distinct or overlapping brain or extra-brain sources. Both the data and their decomposition are displayed using a new visualization tool, the "ERP image," that can clearly characterize single-trial variations in the amplitudes and latencies of evoked responses, particularly when sorted by a relevant behavioral or physiological variable. These tools were used to analyze data from a visual selective attention experiment on 28 control subjects plus 22 neurological patients whose EEG records were heavily contaminated with blink and other eye-movement artifacts. Results show that ICA can separate artifactual, stimulus-locked, response-locked, and non-event-related background EEG activities into separate components, a taxonomy not obtained from conventional signal averaging approaches. This method allows: (1) removal of pervasive artifacts of all types from single-trial EEG records, (2) identification and segregation of stimulus- and response-locked EEG components, (3) examination of differences in single-trial responses, and (4) separation of temporally distinct but spatially overlapping EEG oscillatory activities with distinct relationships to task events. The proposed methods also allow the interaction between ERPs and the ongoing EEG to be investigated directly. We studied the between-subject component stability of ICA decomposition of single-trial EEG epochs by clustering components with similar scalp maps and activation power spectra. Components accounting for blinks, eye movements, temporal muscle activity, event-related potentials, and event-modulated alpha activities were largely replicated across subjects. Applying ICA and ERP image visualization to the analysis of sets of single trials from event-related EEG (or MEG) experiments can increase the information available from ERP (or ERF) data. Copyright 2001 Wiley-Liss, Inc.

Non-NASA Center↗

HelioSwarm: The Swarm is the Observatory

HelioSwarm will transform our understanding of space plasma turbulence by being the first-of-its-kind simultaneous, multiscale observatory comprising multiple spacecraft. HelioSwarm was competitively selected under the Heliophysics Explorers Program 2019 Medium-Class Explorer (MIDEX) Announcement of Opportunity. The central powered-ESPA hub spacecraft is co-orbited by eight SmallSat Node spacecraft, together moving through a High Earth Orbit to obtain data in various solar wind regimes. The mission architecture is that of hub-and-spoke, with the larger hub serving as a communications relay between the nodes and DSN. Mission operations, management, and technical oversight are provided by NASA Ames Research Center; the spacecraft are provided by Northrop Grumman and BCT. The instrument suite includes foreign-contributed instruments and U.S. ones, all under the oversight of University of New Hampshire (which is also the Principal Investigator’s home institution and Science Operations Center). The mission timeline from launch through conclusion of the one-year science mission is provided along with a summarized concept of operations, with particular emphasis on placing the nodes in their proper relative orbit loops to form the geometry needed for science collection at apogee. A brief discussion of how a combination of legacy tools and custom-created swarm analysis tools are used to design the swarm and sort and visualize the collected science data and telemetry in context is provided. Finally, an exploration of the pathfinding nature of HelioSwarm and some implications for future large scientific swarms is offered.

Heliophysics↗