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NASA NTRS2010

Definition of the Flexible Image Transport System (FITS), Version 3.0

The Flexible Image Transport System (FITS) has been used by astronomers for over 30 years as a data interchange and archiving format; FITS files are now handled by a wide range of astronomical software packages. Since the FITS format definition document (the "standard") was last printed in this journal in 2001, several new features have been developed and standardized, notably support for 64-bit integers in images and tables, variable-length arrays in tables, and new world coordinate system conventions which provide a mapping from an element in a data array to a physical coordinate on the sky or within a spectrum. The FITS Working Group of the International Astronomical Union has therefore produced this new Version 3.0 of the FITS standard, which is provided here in its entirety. In addition to describing the new features in FITS, numerous editorial changes were made to the previous version to clarify and reorganize many of the sections. Also included are some appendices which are not formally part of the standard. The FITS standard is likely to undergo further evolution, in which case the latest version may be found on the FITS Support Office Web site at http://fits.gsfc.nasa.gov/, which also provides many links to FITS-related resources.

Pence, W. D.↗

NASA NTRS2022

Bryce Canyon Water Resources: Monitoring Vegetation Health and Water Availability in Bryce Canyon National Park for Drought Stress Mitigation Planning

Bryce Canyon National Park is home to groundwater-dependent ecosystems (GDEs) that are threatened by a multidecadal drought and increased groundwater extraction due to a spike in tourism. These ecosystems contain unique species that are only found in areas where near-surface groundwater is present, such as aspen groves and fens. These species contribute to the high biodiversity found in Bryce Canyon, which boosts an ecosystem’s productivity and the services it provides to the park. Unfortunately, many of these GDEs are too small to identify with traditional Earth observation platforms and are difficult to physically reach for monitoring purposes. This project partnered with the National Park Service to identify springs and seeps as a proxy for GDEs within Bryce Canyon from 2013–2022. Furthermore, this project tested the feasibility of various methods to detect and monitor springs and seeps and therefore facilitate the partner’s efforts to conserve these ecologically valuable GDEs in Bryce Canyon. The team mapped groundwater discharge with high resolution National Agriculture Imagery Program (NAIP) and assessed park vegetation trends with Landsat 8 Operational Land Imager (OLI) and PlanetScope imagery. In-situ precipitation data and the Western Land Data Assimilation System (WLDAS) were used to produce time series of climatic variables. Seeps and spring locations were predicted using random forest classification and maximum entropy machine learning models.

Groundwater dependent ecosystems↗

NASA NTRS1975

Hydrologic land use classification of the Patuxent River watershed using remotely sensed data

The Patuxent River Watershed is located in central Maryland between Baltimore and Washington, D.C. and is approximately 2330 sq km in area and 175 km long. This region is now at a critical point because of major concerns such as water management and quality, flooding and land use within the watershed. Data from the NASA-directed LANDSAT and Earth Resources Aircraft Programs were used to provide a new dimension in information collection and processing for the management of watersheds. Digital data from LANDSAT-1 were analyzed along with selected IR photography from U-2 flight number 74-060B taken 28 April 1974, which was digitized in three channels. Processing of the data was accomplished using a multispectral analysis system. Land use themes consisting of surface water, wetlands, forest, residential, cropland/pasture, urban, and extractive were developed and delineated through the watershed. Area measurements of watershed themes were obtained and will serve as a calibration input to a deterministic hydrologic model on a sub-watershed. Using the derived residential and urban theme areas from LANDSAT an estimated basin imperviousness was also calculated. Thematic maps were produced at 1:62,500 scale. Floodprone areas were also classified and delineated at a scale of 1:24,000. Comparison with standard floodprone area maps at the same scale have indicated a few areas of discrepancy. Such information can be used for updating or checking floodprone area boundaries as well as monitoring changes in floodplain areas.

Dallam, W. C.↗

NASA NTRS2017

Satellite-Based Drought Reporting on the Navajo Nation

The Navajo Nation (NN) is the largest reservation in the US, and faces challenges related to water management during long-term and widespread drought episodes. The Navajo Nation is a federally recognized tribe, which has boundaries within Arizona, New Mexico, and Utah. The Navajo Nation has a land area of over 70,000 square kilometers. The Navajo Nation Department of Water Resources (NNDWR) reports on drought and climatic conditions through the use of regional Standardized Precipitation Index (SPI) values and a network of in-situ rainfall, streamflow, and climate data. However, these data sources lack the spatial detail and consistent measurements needed to provide a coherent understanding of the drought regime within the Nation's regional boundaries. This project, as part of NASA's Western Water Applications Office (WWAO), improves upon the recently developed Drought Severity Assessment Tool (DSAT) to ingest satellite-based precipitation data to generate SPI values for specific administrative boundaries within the reservation. The tool aims to: (1) generate SPI values and summary statistics for regions of interest on various timescales, (2) to visualize SPI values within a web-map application, and (3) produce maps and comparative statistical outputs in the format required for annual drought reporting. The co-development of the DSAT with NN partners is integral to increasing the sustained use of Earth Observations for water management applications. This tool will provide data to support the NN in allocation of drought contingency dollars to the regions most adversely impacted by declines in water availability.

Satellite-based↗

NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Florida Water Resources: Assessing Coastal Resiliency Across Florida's Aquatic Preserves Response To Hurricane Forces

Intensifying weather events, sea level rise, and extensive coastal development in Southwestern Florida are escalating the need for Florida’s mangrove conservation. These mangroves are imperative for coastline stabilization, habitat provision for native species, and water quality management. Our partner, the Florida Department of Environmental Protection (FDEP), Office of Resilience and Coastal Protection is tasked with monitoring and conserving the Charlotte Harbor, Estero Bay, Rookery Bay, and Pinellas County Aquatic Preserves. We developed the Growth, Resilience, and Optical Vegetation Evaluator (GROVE) Google Earth Engine toolset for partners to determine mangrove forest extent through time, analyze mangrove forest health, and collect several water quality parameters within the preserves from January 2002–August 2022. The toolset provides easily accessible data from Landsat 7 Enhanced Thematic Mapper Plus (ETM+), Landsat 8 Operational Land Imager (OLI), Landsat 9 Operational Land Imager 2 (OLI-2), and the Shuttle Radar Topography Mission (SRTM). Using training datasets of known mangrove forest locations, we also established a machine learning approach to create mangrove extent maps. Maps from all four preserves indicated migration of mangrove forests inland as the greatest areas of change were transitional zones. Additionally, normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI), normalized difference turbidity index (NDTI), and chlorophyll-a maps were generated for the partners. This project provides decision makers with a useful tool for understanding temporal changes in Florida’s aquatic preserves, identifying areas of ecological stress, and providing actionable data to make informed plans for mangrove preservation.

Samuel Perrello↗

DOE OSTI2024

Quantitative trait locus (QTL) mapping and transcriptome profiling identify QTLs and candidate genes associated with heat stress response during reproductive development in Camelina sativa

Camelina sativa (L.) Crantz is a low-input oilseed crop that has great potential in providing sustainable feedstock for biofuels and bioproducts. Climate change is threatening production of camelina with rising global temperatures. Elucidating the genetic response to high temperatures is essential for successful breeding of heat-tolerant camelina varieties. Here, we report a combinatorial approach to identifying candidate genes associated with heat stress by quantitative trait locus (QTL) mapping and comparative transcriptome profiling. A population of recombinant inbred lines (RILs) was grown in a controlled growth chamber under the high-temperature regimes for 14 days beginning at the onset of the reproductive stage. Several traits related to seed production were evaluated at maturity. The QTL analysis identified several regions with co-located traits on chromosomes 8, 10, and 12. Two RILs with contrasting phenotypic responses to heat stress were chosen for gene expression profiling via RNA sequencing. Multiple pathways and genes were found to be strongly affected by heat stress, and many genes expressed differently between the two RILs. Several genes identified within the QTL regions were considered strong candidates that may control heat tolerance during reproduction in camelina. These studies provide resources for future studies that may assist in improving the heat tolerance of camelina.

60 APPLIED LIFE SCIENCES↗

DOE OSTI2020

The Relationship Between Dose Rate and Decay Heat for Spent Nuclear Fuel Casks

Decay heat and dose rate are two important limits used for determining the allowable contents of spent fuel (SNF) in dry storage systems and transportation packages. While the decay heat limit is used to maintain fuel cladding integrity and ensure retrievability, dose rates are used to demonstrate compliance with regulatory requirements on radiation protection. Because both dose rate and decay heat result from decay of radioisotopes in SNF, this study is an attempt to examine the relationship between dose rate and decay heat for a given cask design. Dose rates were evaluated for 198 cask configurations, that include various SNF system designs (e.g., storage, transfer, transport), SNF characteristics (e.g., fuel types, burnup, cooling time), and loading maps (e.g., uniform loading, zone loading), while a constant decay heat was maintained. The decay heat was calculated using US Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) Regulatory Guide (RG) 3.54, Revision 2, and verified using ORIGEN sequence within SCALE code system. The ORIGEN outputs were used as source terms in the dose analysis using 198 different configurations. A computer script was developed to calculate the cooling time necessary to achieve a given decay heat for a given enrichment, assembly average burnup, assembly mass, and in-core history using a rootfinder algorithm. Initially the computer script was developed to provide cooling time and burnup calculations directly to the analysis of dose rates and decay heats, so a comparison between Used Nuclear Fuel-Storage Transportation and Disposal Analysis Resource Data System (UNF-ST&DARDS) results and RG3.54 data was made; results are included in the appendix to this document. However, an iterative approach was used to compute cooling time, and its accuracy did not depend on the results of the RG3.54r2 algorithm, although the algorithm was still used. The results of the evaluation presented herein clearly demonstrate that a given decay heat does not correspond to a unique dose rate for a variety of cask and package designs. There is no clear pattern to develop a correlation between decay heat and the source terms. Depending on burnup, enrichment, cask type, and loading pattern, dose rates varied for the exact same decay heat—in some cases by 400% for a given cask. For cases in which decay heat was held constant through selection of the appropriate cooling time, dose rates would decrease with increasing burnup, and in other cases, dose rates would increase. The large variation in dose rates for a constant decay heat indicates that casks loaded based on decay heat—that is allowing any burnup, cooling time, and enrichment combinations that yield the qualified decay heat limit(s) —cannot ensure that an Independent Spent Fuel Storage Installation or a spent fuel transportation package will meet the regulatory limits set forth by the respective regulations, i.e., 10 CFR 72 or 10 CFR 71.

12 MANAGEMENT OF RADIOACTIVE AND NON-RADIOACTIVE W↗

NASA NTRS1974

New theoretical models and ratio imaging techniques associated with the NASA earth resources spectral information system

Four independent investigations are reported; in general these are concerned with improving and utilizing the correlation between the physical properties of natural materials as evidenced in laboratory spectra and spectral data collected by multispectral scanners. In one investigation, two theoretical models were devised that permit the calculation of spectral emittance spectra for rock and mineral surfaces of various particle sizes. The simpler of the two models can be used to qualitatively predict the effect of texture on the spectral emittance of rocks and minerals; it is also potentially useful as an aid in predicting the identification of natural atmospheric aerosol constituents. The second investigation determined, via an infrared ratio imaging technique, the best pair of infrared filters for silicate rock-type discrimination. In a third investigation, laboratory spectra of natural materials were compressed into 11-digit ratio codes for use in feature selection, in searches for false alarm candidates, and eventually for use as training sets in completely automatic data processors. In the fourth investigation, general outlines of a ratio preprocessor and an automatic recognition map processor are developed for on-board data processing in the space shuttle era.

Vincent, R. K.↗

NASA NTRS1979

Central atlantic regional ecological test site: A prototype regional environmental information system, volume 1

The Central Atlantic Regional Ecological Test Site (CARETS) project was a demonstration project for introducing data from Landsat and high-altitude aircraft sensors into regional land planning and management. This report summarizes the CARETS project results and describes its output of maps, reports, computer tapes, and other products. CARETS used a geographic information system model under which land use maps were prepared from sensor data, then digitized, processed, and linked to other environmental and social data sets, and to environmental consequences such as air pollution, stream runoff, local climatic factors, and coastal erosion. Landsat data showed the test region in 1972 to be nine percent urban and built-up land, 38 percent agriculture, 50 percent forest, three percent nonforested wetlands, and less than one percent barren land, exclusive of water-covered areas. User surveys, conferences, and workshops involving 65 agencies facilitated widespread distribution of data products and produced evaluations concerning their usefulness. We found a heterogeneous user community with diverse information needs largely preferring aerial photographs rather than satellite multispectral scanner data. Among project recommendations are establishment of a network of regional land resource information centers, working toward improved compatibility of Federal, State and local information programs supportive of land use decisions.

Land use↗

NASA NTRS2022

Florida Water Resources: Assessing Coastal Resiliency Across Florida's Aquatic Preserves in Response to Hurricane Forces

Remote sensing↗

NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Lunar Instrument Data Integration Into the Virtual Reality Mission Simulation System for Decision Communication and Situational Awareness

In situ resource utilization (ISRU) technologies are a key advancement required to make human habitation on the Moon and Mars viable. The upcoming Volatiles Investigating Polar Exploration Rover (VIPER) mission will provide crucial correlations between volatiles and lunar geology to understand the water content available for ISRU on the moon. The mission will require the coordination of multi-disciplinary teams across the country making real time decisions based on rover instrument data. The virtual reality Mission Simulation System (vMSS) is a virtual reality platform designed at MIT by the Resource Exploration and Science of our Cosmic Environment (RESOURCE) team to provide teams with a collaboration interface for planetary missions like VIPER. Herein we determine the integration pathway for analog based datasets that are examples of VIPER's two main instruments, the near-infrared volatile spectrometer subsystem (NIRVSS) and the neutron spectrometer subsystem (NSS), into vMSS to provide the most valuable visualization tools. Focusing on improving situational awareness, decision making, reducing task load and incorporating comments from scientists working previous analogs and on the current VIPER mission, we recommend critical elements to implement into vMSS and the best approaches for data visualization. We present a review of relevant analogs and state of the art mission software. We have developed a design concept and path to flight of analysed instrument data integrated with data maps that allow for virtual manipulation and annotation between non-co-located team members. We focus on pre-mission mapping of a priori data for improved situational awareness, layering of analysed instrument data, correlative mapping and interactive capabilities for in-mission decision making, as well as archiving and annotation tools for post-mission analysis. Finally, we lay out the roadmap for the future development of immersive sample site visualization capabilities and the use of integrated instrument data in vMSS with automated temporal and geospatial planning.

Cody Alison Paige↗

DOE OSTI2024

The Arctic Plant Aboveground Biomass Synthesis Dataset

Plant biomass is a fundamental ecosystem attribute that is sensitive to rapid climatic changes occurring in the Arctic. Nevertheless, measuring plant biomass in the Arctic is logistically challenging and resource intensive. Lack of accessible field data hinders efforts to understand the amount, composition, distribution, and changes in plant biomass in these northern ecosystems. Here, we present The Arctic plant aboveground biomass synthesis dataset, which includes field measurements of lichen, bryophyte, herb, shrub, and/or tree aboveground biomass (g m -2 ) on 2,327 sample plots from 636 field sites in seven countries. We created the synthesis dataset by assembling and harmonizing 32 individual datasets. Aboveground biomass was primarily quantified by harvesting sample plots during mid- to late-summer, though tree and often tall shrub biomass were quantified using surveys and allometric models. Each biomass measurement is associated with metadata including sample date, location, method, data source, and other information. This unique dataset can be leveraged to monitor, map, and model plant biomass across the rapidly warming Arctic.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗

NASA NTRS1974

Identification of geostructures of continental crust particularly as they relate to mineral resource evaluation

The author has identified the following significant results. New mineral deposits have recently been discovered in eastern Alaska through application of a hypothesis very similar to one developed in interpretation of Nimbus and ERTS-1 imagery in this investigation, that mineral deposits may be spatially related to a set of crustal linears. The discovery affirms the validity of this hypothesis and provides an additional exploration rationale to the mineral industry. A regional lineation in lakes near Umiat in northern Alaska, suspected to reflect structures in basement and suggesting areas of possible potential for new petroleum exploration, is found to cover a much larger area than previously suspected east of the Colville River, increasing the area of interest. Further application of this same imagery exists in that environmental scars to the tundra resulting from previous ground exploration, if of large size, can be recognized and their natural revegetation monitored by use of ERTS imagery. New geologic data obtained from ERTS-1 images of lowland areas of western northern Alaska facilitates assessing the petroleum potential of this area. Use of the images in field mapping permitted extrapolation of field observations. Mosaics of ERTS-1 images have provided additional data on regional linear sets and on other regional fault trends possibly related to mineralized areas.

Gryc, G.↗

DOE OSTI2020

US East Coast synthetic aperture radar wind atlas for offshore wind energy

We present the first synthetic aperture radar (SAR) offshore wind atlas of the US East Coast from Georgia to the Canadian border. Images from RADARSAT-1, Envisat, and Sentinel-1A/B are processed to wind maps using the geophysical model function (GMF) CMOD5.N. Extensive comparisons with 6008 collocated buoy observations of the wind speed reveal that biases of the individual systems range from -0.8 to 0.6 m s -1 . Unbiased wind retrievals are crucial for producing an accurate wind atlas, and intercalibration of the SAR observations is therefore applied. Wind retrievals from the intercalibrated SAR observations show biases in the range of to -0.2 to 0.0 m s -1 , while at the same time improving the root-mean-squared error from 1.67 to 1.46 m s -1 . The intercalibrated SAR observations are, for the first time, aggregated to create a wind atlas at the height 10 m a.s.l. (above sea level). The SAR wind atlas is used as a reference to study wind resources derived from the Wind Integration National Dataset Toolkit (WTK), which is based on 7 years of modelling output from the Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) model. Comparisons focus on the spatial variation in wind resources and show that model outputs lead to lower coastal wind speed gradients than those derived from SAR. Areas designated for offshore wind development by the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management are investigated in more detail; the wind resources in terms of the mean wind speed show spatial variations within each designated area between 0.3 and 0.5 m s -1 for SAR and less than 0.2m s -1 for the WTK. Our findings indicate that wind speed gradients and variations might be underestimated in mesoscale model outputs along the US East Coast.

17 WIND ENERGY↗

DOE OSTI2026

A path to intelligent watersheds: coordinating the data to decision pipeline

Operations of multi-reservoir systems are challenged in-part by the interplay of complex physical processes functioning within the watershed. The employment of intelligent systems can be of aid by linking environmental sensing, information technology, data analytics, simulation and decision support to achieve a data-to-decision flow of information. A further challenge is that watershed resources are managed for multiple purposes requiring some level of coordination among numerous resource managers, asset operators and users. System intelligence in this context relies on shared community platforms (data portals, community models), and coordinated communication between decision makers. Opportunities to enrich watershed intelligence has been the subject of a roadmapping exercise for the Department of Energy’s Water Power Technologies Office which has relied on broad stakeholder engagement. Initial phases of engagement involved personal interviews and a series of virtual group meetings, which focused on identifying opportunities to improve the intelligence of the physical infrastructure within our watersheds—examples of feedback include improved sensing of snowpack and runoff, data standards for facilitated data sharing, and better forecasting tools. The latter phase of engagement involved the conduct of a case study in the Upper Colorado River basin where key stakeholders were interviewed to map how their decisions are informed by intelligence from other basin stakeholders. Our presentation will highlight the interdisciplinary flow of information in complex watershed systems and identify physical and institutional opportunities toward the strategic operation of water infrastructure.

Colorado River↗

NASA NTRS2021

Argentina Food Security & Agriculture: Crop Monitoring and Forecasting for Argentina using NASA Satellite Observations

Early harvest information helps guide agricultural commodity assessments in Argentina, providing valuable planning information to identify potentially food-insecure regions, anticipate transportation and storage demands, predict price fluctuations, and project commodity trends. However, crop yield estimates are currently subjective, based on interviews with qualified informants (i.e., farmers, agribusiness actors). In partnership with the Buenos Aires Grain Exchange, we leveraged Terra Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS), Soil Moisture Active Passive (SMAP), and Integrated Multi-satellitE Retrievals for Global Precipitation Measurement (GPM IMERG) NASA Earth observations to develop a Google Earth Engine (GEE) toolset to monitor vegetation growth. The first component of the toolset produces spatial and temporal maps of temperature, precipitation, soil moisture, and the Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI), allowing users to visualize the influence of the region’s climate and weather. Next, we developed an autoregressive model to predict NDVI several months in advance. Lastly, we created a linear regression model of crop yield and NDVI for soybeans, corn, and wheat, and input the forecasted NDVI to generate a predicted crop yield output. The NDVI forecasting model produced accurate predictions at two, four, and six months when examining the most recent growing season. In the crop yield model, soybeans exhibited moderately strong correlation, wheat had consistent weak correlation, and corn varied from weak to strong correlation depending on zone. This information is vital for vegetation growth monitoring by identifying areas of high growth and allocating resources to areas of lower growth to efficiently maximize crop yields.

DEVELOP Tech Paper↗

NASA NTRS1973

The world surveyed in eighteen days

There are no author-identified significant results in this report. Earth Resources Technology Satellite 1 was launched on July 23, 1972, on a polar orbit at an altitude of approximately 900 kilometers. The satellite circles the earth fourteen times a day, and its multispectral scanners produce complete coverage of the world every 18 days. The scanning system of the satellite is designed to provide simultaneous images if the earth's surface, each in a different spectral band-green, orange/red, red, and infrared. This data is telemetered to stations on earth where it is processed from its digital form into corrected photographic images. A single photographic exposure covers an area of 185 square kilometers. Results of ERTS-1 have far exceeded all expectations and confirm the belief that the imagery obtained will be of wide-ranging value in the study and mapping of the earth's surface. The knowledge and experience gained from the ERTS-1 data will be applied to a further study based on the much more ambitious Skylab. The improvement in the material recovered from Skylab should mark a leap forward in technical quality and in the corresponding/potential of the imagery.

Mott, P. G.↗

NASA NTRS1992

The Split Window Microwave Radiometer (SWMR) for hurricane wind speed measurement from space

The monitoring of hurricanes demands considerable resources each year by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Even with the extensive use of satellite and airborne probing of those storms, there is still much uncertainty involved in predicting landfall for timely evacuation of people subject to the threat. The concept of the Split Window Microwave Radiometer (SWMR) is to add an additional capability of remotely measuring surface winds to hopefully improve prediction capabilities or at least define the severity of the storm while it is far from land. Some of the present science and observational needs are addressed in this report as are remote sensing limitations which impact the design of a minimal system which can be launched into low earth orbit by a low cost launch system. This study has concluded that wind speed and rain rate maps of hurricanes can be generated with an X-Band radiometer system with an antenna whose aperture is 2 m on a side.

Swift, Calvin T.↗