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Results for “variational inference”

Search indexed NASA NTRS and DOE OSTI research on propulsion, heat transfer, battery materials and energy systems. Follow report and document links to the original sources.

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NASA NTRS1973

Variations in the stratospheric ozone field inferred from Nimbus satellite observations.

The ultraviolet earth radiance data from the backscatter ultraviolet experiment on Nimbus 4 have been inverted to infer ozone profiles using a single Rayleigh scattering model. Two methods of solution give essentially the same results. Comparison of these profiles with simultaneous rocket sounding data shows satisfactory agreement at low and middle latitudes. Vertical cross-sections of ozone mixing ratio along the orbital tracks indicate that while the gross characteristics of the ozone field above 10 mb are under photochemical control, the influence of atmospheric motions can be found up to the 4 mb level.

Krueger, A. J.↗

NASA NTRS1985

The seasonal variation of the D region as inferred from propagation characteristics of LF radio waves

The propagation data of JG2AS 40 kHz (Japanese Standard Frequency), Loran C 100 kHz radio waves, and meteorological data were analyzed to study the association of propagation characteristics of LF radio waves with the atmospheric circulation in the mesosphere. The monthly averaged electric fields were depicted on the complex plane for typical summer and winter months, June and November. The locus traced out by the electric field vector during daytime is nearly circular. This is because during daytime the amplitude of the sky wave remains nearly constant while its phase changes in accord with the height change of the reflection layer, and thus the electric field vector traces out a circular locus with its center at the tip of the supposed ground wave vector. The locus has a loop during the sunrise or sunset period, which seems to arise from interference of two waves reflected by two different layers. In June the amplitude of the sky wave decreases rapidly before the dawn or increases after the dusk. In November such rapid change is not observed. During nighttime, the sky wave phase changes in such a way as to suggest that the reflection height moves upwards with time before midnight or lowers after midnight in November. In June it changes similarly before midnight, but after midnight it varies erratically. These characteristics are closely related to the structure of the D region, which is clearly shown by simulating the loci traced out by electric fields.

Ishimine, T.↗

NASA NTRS1985

Variation of tidal winds in the ionosphere inferred from geomagnetic SQ field

The geomagnetic Sq field is mainly generated by the dynamo action of tidal winds in the ionosphere, and therefore some information can be derived from the variation of the Sq field. The geomagnetic Sq field was analyzed during March 1 to 18, 1980, when the geomagnetic activity was exceptionally low, and the equivalent Sq currents calculated every 2 hours by using the spherical harmonics method. Then additional Sq currents were extracted by subtracting the currents averaged through all days in the period from the original currents at each UT. The change of the instantaneous Sq current system by the above-mentioned method is discussed.

Takeda, M.↗

NASA NTRS1984

Latitudinal and altitudinal variation of size distribution of stratospheric aerosols inferred from SAGE aerosol extinction coefficient measurements at two wavelengths

A method of retrieving aerosol size distribution from the measured extinction of solar radiation at wavelengths of 0.45 microns and 1.0 microns has recently been proposed. This method is utilized to obtain latitudinal and altitudinal variations of size distributions of stratospheric aerosols from the Stratospheric Aerosol and Gas Experiment data for March 1979. Small particles are found in the lower stratosphere of the tropical region, and large particles are found at higher altitudes and latitudes in both hemispheres. Results of this study are consistent with the suggestion that the upper troposphere in tropical regions is a source of condensation nuclei in the stratosphere, and they become mature as they move to higher altitudes and latitude.

Yue, G. K.↗

DOE OSTI2021

Optimal Bayesian supervised domain adaptation for RNA sequencing data

Abstract Motivation When learning to subtype complex disease based on next-generation sequencing data, the amount of available data is often limited. Recent works have tried to leverage data from other domains to design better predictors in the target domain of interest with varying degrees of success. But they are either limited to the cases requiring the outcome label correspondence across domains or cannot leverage the label information at all. Moreover, the existing methods cannot usually benefit from other information available a priori such as gene interaction networks. Results In this article, we develop a generative optimal Bayesian supervised domain adaptation (OBSDA) model that can integrate RNA sequencing (RNA-Seq) data from different domains along with their labels for improving prediction accuracy in the target domain. Our model can be applied in cases where different domains share the same labels or have different ones. OBSDA is based on a hierarchical Bayesian negative binomial model with parameter factorization, for which the optimal predictor can be derived by marginalization of likelihood over the posterior of the parameters. We first provide an efficient Gibbs sampler for parameter inference in OBSDA. Then, we leverage the gene-gene network prior information and construct an informed and flexible variational family to infer the posterior distributions of model parameters. Comprehensive experiments on real-world RNA-Seq data demonstrate the superior performance of OBSDA, in terms of accuracy in identifying cancer subtypes by utilizing data from different domains. Moreover, we show that by taking advantage of the prior network information we can further improve the performance. Availability and implementation The source code for implementations of OBSDA and SI-OBSDA are available at the following link. https://github.com/SHBLK/BSDA. Supplementary information Supplementary data are available at Bioinformatics online.

Biochemistry & Molecular Biology↗

NASA NTRS1999

A Combined Length-of-Day Series Spanning 1832-1997

The Earth's rotation is not constant but exhibits minute changes on all observable time scales ranging from subdaily to secular. This rich spectrum of observed Earth rotation changes reflects the rich variety of astronomical and geophysical phenomena that are causing the Earth's rotation to change, including, but not limited to, ocean and solid body tides, atmospheric wind and pressure changes, oceanic current and sea level height changes, post-glacial rebound, and torques acting at the core-mantle boundary. In particular, the decadal-scale variations of the Earth's rotation are thought to be largely caused by interactions between the Earth's outer core and mantle. Comparing the inferred Earth rotation variations caused by the various core-mantle interactions to observed variations requires Earth rotation observations spanning decades, if not centuries. During the past century many different techniques have been used to observe the Earth's rotation. By combining the individual Earth rotation series determined by each of these techniques, a series of the Earth's rotation can be obtained that is based upon independent measurements spanning the greatest possible time interval. In this study, independent observations of the Earth's rotation are combined to generate a length-of-day series spanning 1832-1997. The observations combined include lunar occultation measurements spanning 1832-1955, optical astrometric measurements spanning 1956-1982, lunar laser ranging measurements spanning 1970-1997, and very long baseline interferometric measurements spanning 1978-1998. These series are combined using a Kalman filter developed at JPL for just this purpose. The resulting combined length-of-day series will be presented and compared with other available length-of-day series of similar duration.

Gross, Richard S.↗

DOE OSTI2022

Monitoring Seasonal Shear Wave Velocity Changes in the Top 6 m at Garner Valley in Southern California With Borehole Data

Abstract Subsurface structures play important roles in seismic ground motion, crustal hydrology, stability of the built environment, and more. Constraining temporal changes of subsurface shear wave velocity ( V S ) can provide useful information to all these topics and the growing field of hydrological monitoring with seismic velocity. Using borehole records at Garner Valley, CA, we estimate seasonal subsurface V S variations from impulse response functions (IRFs) of earthquake data (2005–2018) along with IRFs and cross‐correlation of cross‐hole experiment data (2015–2018). The inferred V S variations are up to ∼25% in the top 6 m and ∼10% at 2–5 m in depth. The V S variations correlate strongly with the water table depth changes, suggesting that the changes are mostly due to fluctuations of pore pressure in the shallow material. The shallow velocity changes alter the near‐surface conditions, can affect seismic hazard estimation, and may be improperly attributed to deeper processes without careful analysis.

58 GEOSCIENCES↗

DOE OSTI2020

Spatiotemporal variations of albedo in managed agricultural landscapes: inferences to global warming impacts (GWI)

Albedo can be used to quantify ecosystem and landscape contributions to local and global climate. Such contributions are conventionally expressed as radiative forcing (RF) and global warming impact (GWI). We contextualize our results within landscape carbon production and storage to highlight the importance of changes in albedo for landscape GWI from multiple causes, including net ecosystem production (NEP) and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. Objective To examine the spatiotemporal changes in albedo (Δα) in contrasting managed landscapes through calculations of albedo-induced RF (RF Δα ) and GWI (GWI Δα ) under different climatic conditions. Methods We selected five contrasting landscapes within the Kalamazoo River watershed in southern Michigan USA as proof of concept. The daily MCD43A3 MODIS (V006) product was used to analyze the inter- and intra-annual variations of growing season albedo. In addition, the variations of RF Δα and GWI Δα were computed based on landscape composition and climate. Results The RF Δα (-5.6 W m -2 ) and GWI Δα (-1.3 CO 2eq ha -1 year -1 ) were high in forest-dominated landscapes, indicating cooling effects and CO 2eq mitigation impacts similar to crops. The CO 2eq mitigation of cropland-dominated landscapes was on average 52% stronger than forest-dominated landscapes. In the landscape with the highest proportion of forest, under dry and wet conditions CO 2eq mitigation was reduced by up to 24% and ~ 30%, respectively; in one cropland-dominated landscape wet conditions reduced CO 2eq mitigation by 23%. Conclusions Findings demonstrate that quantifying spatiotemporal changes in albedo in managed landscapes and under different climatic conditions is essential to understand how landscape modification affects RF Δα and GWI Δα and thereby contributes to ecosystem-level GWI.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗

DOE OSTI2018

Photometric Characterization of the Dark Energy Camera

We characterize the variation in photometric response of the Dark Energy Camera (DECam) across its 520 Mpix science array during 4 years of operation. These variations are measured using high signal-to-noise aperture photometry of >10 7 stellar images in thousands of exposures of a few selected fields, with the telescope dithered to move the sources around the array. A calibration procedure based on these results brings the rms variation in aperture magnitudes of bright stars on cloudless nights down to 2–3 mmag, with <1 mmag of correlated photometric errors for stars separated by ≥20''. On cloudless nights, any departures of the exposure zeropoints from a secant airmass law exceeding 1 mmag are plausibly attributable to spatial/temporal variations in aperture corrections. These variations can be inferred and corrected by measuring the fraction of stellar light in an annulus between 6'' and 8'' diameter. Key elements of this calibration include: correction of amplifier nonlinearities; distinguishing pixel-area variations and stray light from quantum-efficiency variations in the flat fields; field-dependent color corrections; and the use of an aperture-correction proxy. The DECam response pattern across the 2° field drifts over months by up to ±9 mmag, in a nearly wavelength-independent low-order pattern. Here, we find no fundamental barriers to pushing global photometric calibrations toward mmag accuracy.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗

DOE OSTI2016

Spatial and temporal variations in plant water-use efficiency inferred from tree-ring, eddy covariance and atmospheric observations

Plant water-use efficiency (WUE), which is the ratio of the uptake of carbon dioxide through photosynthesis to the loss of water through transpiration, is a very useful metric of the functioning of the land biosphere. WUE is expected to increase with atmospheric CO 2 , but to decline with increasing atmospheric evaporative demand – which can arise from increases in near-surface temperature or decreases in relative humidity. We have used Δ 13 C measurements from tree rings, along with eddy covariance measurements from Fluxnet sites, to estimate the sensitivities of WUE to changes in CO 2 and atmospheric humidity deficit. This enables us to reconstruct fractional changes in WUE, based on changes in atmospheric climate and CO 2 , for the entire period of the instrumental global climate record. We estimate that overall WUE increased from 1900 to 2010 by 48 ± 22 %, which is more than double that simulated by the latest Earth System Models. This long-term trend is largely driven by increases in CO 2 , but significant inter-annual variability and regional differences are evident due to variations in temperature and relative humidity. Here, there are several highly populated regions, such as western Europe and East Asia, where the rate of increase of WUE has declined sharply in the last 2 decades. Our data-based analysis indicates increases in WUE that typically exceed those simulated by Earth System Models – implying that these models are either underestimating increases in photosynthesis or underestimating reductions in transpiration.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗

NASA NTRS1994

An estimate of the momentum deposition in the lower thermosphere by the observed diurnal tide

This paper reports a calculation of the acceleration of the zonal mean flow induced by dissipating tides in the equatorial lower thermosphere. Estimates of the gravest symmetric gravitiational Hough mode (1,1) of the migrating diurnal tide are obtained from monthly composites of global winds observed by the Upper Atmosphere Research Satellite (UARS) High Resolution Doppler Imager (HRDI). Using the principles of classical tidal theory, the tidal momentum flux divergence is computed for a series of monthly mean (1,1) fields from January 1992 to May 1993. The contribution to the mean flow by the leading mode of the migrating tide ranges between -5 and -20 (easterly) m/s/day in the equatorial lower thermosphere. A semiannual variation is noted in the tidal amplitudes and the inferred tidal accelerations. These variations are consistent with observed trends in the zonal mean flow of the lower thermosphere.

Lieberman, Ruth S.↗

NASA NTRS1998

Phase Inversion: Inferring Solar Subphotospheric Flow and Other Asphericity from the Distortion of Acoustic Waves

A method is proposed for analyzing an almost monochromatic train of waves propagating in a single direction in an inhomogeneous medium that is not otherwise changing in time. An effective phase is defined in terms of the Hilbert transform of the wave function, which is related, via the JWKB approximation, to the spatial variation of the background state against which the wave is propagating. The contaminating effect of interference between the truly monochromatic components of the train is eliminated using its propagation properties. Measurement errors, provided they are uncorrelated, are manifest as rapidly varying noise; although that noise can dominate the raw phase-processed signal, it can largely be removed by low-pass filtering. The intended purpose of the analysis is to determine the distortion of solar oscillations induced by horizontal structural variation and material flow. It should be possible to apply the method directly to sectoral modes. The horizontal phase distortion provides a measure of longitudinally averaged properties of the Sun in the vicinity of the equator, averaged also in radius down to the depth to which the modes penetrate. By combining such averages from different modes, the two-dimensional variation can be inferred by standard inversion techniques. After taking due account of horizontal refraction, it should be possible to apply the technique also to locally sectoral modes that propagate obliquely to the equator and thereby build a network of lateral averages at each radius, from which the full three-dimensional structure of the Sun can, in principle, be determined as an inverse Radon transform.

Gough, Douglas↗

DOE OSTI2012

SYSTEMATIC CENTER-TO-LIMB VARIATION IN MEASURED HELIOSEISMIC TRAVEL TIMES AND ITS EFFECT ON INFERENCES OF SOLAR INTERIOR MERIDIONAL FLOWS

We report on a systematic center-to-limb variation in measured helioseismic travel times, which must be taken into account for an accurate determination of solar interior meridional flows. The systematic variation, found in time-distance helioseismology analysis using SDO/HMI and SDO/AIA observations, is different in both travel-time magnitude and variation trend for different observables. It is not clear what causes this systematic effect. Subtracting the longitude-dependent east-west travel times, obtained along the equatorial area, from the latitude-dependent north-south travel times, obtained along the central meridian area, gives remarkably similar results for different observables. We suggest this as an effective procedure for removing the systematic center-to-limb variation. The subsurface meridional flows obtained from inversion of the corrected travel times are approximately 10 m s{sup -1} slower than those obtained without removing the systematic effect. The detected center-to-limb variation may have important implications in the derivation of meridional flows in the deep interior and needs to be better understood.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗

NASA NTRS2012

Systematic Center-To-Limb Variation in Measured Helioseismic Travel Times and Its Effect on Inferences of Solar Interior Meridional Flows

We report on a systematic center-to-limb variation in measured helioseismic travel times, which must be taken into account for an accurate determination of solar interior meridional flows. The systematic variation, found in time-distance helioseismology analysis using SDO/HMI and SDO/AIA observations, is different in both travel-time magnitude and variation trend for different observables. It is not clear what causes this systematic effect. Subtracting the longitude-dependent east-west travel times, obtained along the equatorial area, from the latitude-dependent north-south travel times, obtained along the central meridian area, gives remarkably similar results for different observables. We suggest this as an effective procedure for removing the systematic center-to-limb variation. The subsurface meridional flows obtained from inversion of the corrected travel times are approximately 10 m s−1 slower than those obtained without removing the systematic effect. The detected center-to-limb variation may have important implications in the derivation of meridional flows in the deep interior and needs to be better understood.

Sun: oscillations↗

DOE OSTI2015

Variational Bayesian Blind Image Deconvolution: A review

In this study, we provide a review of the recent literature on Bayesian Blind Image Deconvolution (BID) methods. We believe that two events have marked the recent history of BID: the predominance of Variational Bayes (VB) inference as a tool to solve BID problems and the increasing interest of the computer vision community in solving BID problems. VB inference in combination with recent image models like the ones based on Super Gaussian (SG) and Scale Mixture of Gaussians (SMG) representations have led to the use of very general and powerful tools to provide clear images from blurry observations. In the provided review emphasis is paid on VB inference and the use of SG and SMG models with coverage of recent advances in sampling methods. We also provide examples of current state of the art BID methods and discuss problems that very likely will mark the near future of BID.

97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING↗

DOE OSTI2021

An x-ray penumbral imager for measurements of electron–temperature profiles in inertial confinement fusion implosions at OMEGA

Hot-spot shape and electron temperature (T e ) are key performance metrics used to assess the efficiency of converting shell kinetic energy into hot-spot thermal energy in inertial confinement fusion implosions. X-ray penumbral imaging offers a means to diagnose hot-spot shape and T e , where the latter can be used as a surrogate measure of the ion temperature (T i ) in sufficiently equilibrated hot spots. We have implemented a new x-ray penumbral imager on OMEGA. We demonstrate minimal line-of-sight variations in the inferred T e for a set of implosions. Furthermore, we demonstrate spatially resolved T e measurements with an average uncertainty of 10% with 6 μm spatial resolution.

47 OTHER INSTRUMENTATION↗

DOE OSTI2013

SIGNS OF ACCRETION IN THE ABUNDANCE PATTERNS OF THE COMPONENTS OF THE RS CVn-TYPE ECLIPSING BINARY STAR LX PERSEI

We present spectroscopic observations of LX Per carried out using the Korean Bohyunsan Observatory Echelle Spectrograph (BOES) with spectral resolving power R = 80, 000. The spectrograph was attached to the 1.8 m telescope. The fit of synthetic spectra to the observed spectrum of the system allowed us to find the component parameters and the abundances of chemical elements in the atmospheres of the components. The strong Ca II H and K emissions are confirmed; we also found emission lines in the Ca II reversals' triplet absorptions at the wavelengths of 8498, 8542, and 8662 A in the spectrum of the cooler component of LX Per. A unique photometric solution using the distorted light curves of three different epochs was made. The spot model light curves were fitted to the 1981, 1982, and 1983 observations successfully by adjusting only spot parameters. We could infer that the variation of spot location and size was the main reason for the changing shape of light curves. The main feature of the abundance patterns of both components was the apparent deficiency of heavy (Z > 30) elements. Only elements with strong lines, namely Y and Ba, were detected. Correlations of relative abundances of chemical elements with condensation temperatures and second ionization potentials of these elements, which can be explained by the accretion of dust and gas, were found.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗

DOE OSTI2011

CHANDRA EVIDENCE FOR EXTENDED X-RAY STRUCTURE IN RY Tau

We report results of a sensitive Chandra ACIS-S observation of the classical T Tauri star RY Tau. Previous studies have shown that it drives a spectacular bipolar jet whose blueshifted component is traced optically along P.A. {approx} 295{sup 0} at separations of 1.''5-31'' from the star. Complex X-ray emission is revealed, including a very soft non-variable spectral component (some of which may originate in shocks), a superhot flaring component (T {approx}> 100 MK), and faint extended structure near the star. The structure is visible in deconvolved images and extends northwestward out to a separation of 1.''7, overlapping the inner part of the optical jet. Image analysis suggests that most of the extension is real, but some contamination by point-spread-function-induced structure within the central arcsecond may be present. The predicted temperature for a shock-heated jet based on jet speed and shock speed estimates from optical measurements is too low to explain the extended X-ray structure. Either higher speed material within the jet has escaped optical detection or other mechanisms besides shock heating are involved. Alternative mechanisms that could produce higher temperature plasma at small offsets to the northwest of RY Tau include magnetic heating in the jet, hot plasmoids ejected at high speeds, or X-ray emission from a putative close companion whose presence has been inferred from Hipparcos variations.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗