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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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All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Lowering Barriers to Science and Space Weather Research at the Community Coordinated Modeling Center (CCMC)

The Space Weather and Heliophysics research and modeling community has been pushing the limits of our ability to understand and predict space weather events. The Community Coordinated Modeling Center (CCMC, https://ccmc.gsfc.nasa.gov) supports the community by providing a convenient collaborative platform hosting space weather models, model simulation data, curated datasets of solar events, and associated value-added services. Using these services, researchers and other end-users may exercise, evaluate, and intercompare contributed models, triage designated R2O models, as well as collaborate on a continuously updated archive of model run results. We will focus on CCMC’s ongoing commitment to the principles and guidelines of the Open Science initiative. Particularly, we will discuss our work towards making our services more transparent and our library of model simulations more accessible, open, and reproducible. We will introduce our recent tools for data discovery and correlative analysis designed to further increase the value of the user-generated data and metadata. We will also present our recent work on making heliophysical models more accessible and open to the community, particularly through simplified user experience and expert domain support. We will report on our progress in establishing an inter-center infrastructure with the ESA Virtual Space Weather Modelling Centre (VSWMC), designed to cross organizational boundaries and provide streamlined access to a joint palette of the models.

space weather↗
NASA NTRS2004

Library Services Funding Assessment

The Glenn Technical Library is a science and engineering library that primarily supports research activities at the Glenn Research Center, and provides selected services to researchers at all of the NASA research centers. Resources available in the library include books, journals, CD-ROMs, and access to various online sources, as well as live reference and inter-library loan services. The collection contains over 77,000 books, 800,000 research reports, and print or online access to over 1,400 journals. Currently the library operates within the Logistics and Technical Information Division, and is funded as an open-access resource within the GRC. Some of the research units at the GRC have recently requested that the library convert to a "pay-for-services" model, in which individual research units could fund only those journal subscriptions for which they have a specific need. Under this model, the library would always maintain a certain minimum level of pooled-expense services, including the ready reference and book collections, and inter-library loan services. Theoretically the "pay-for-services" model would encourage efficient financial allocation, and minimize the extent to which paid journal subscriptions go unused. However, this model also could potentially negate the benefits of group purchases for journal subscriptions and access. All of the major journal publishers offer package subscriptions that compare favorably in cost with the sum of individual subscription costs for a similar selection of titles. Furthermore, some of these subscription packages are "consortium" purchases that are funded collectively by the libraries at multiple NASA research centers; such consortia1 memberships would be difficult for the library to pay, if enough GRC research units were to withdraw their pooled contributions. cost of collectively-funded journal access with the cost of individual subscriptions. My primary task this summer is to create the cost dataset framework, and collect as much of the relevant data as possible. Hopefully this dataset will permit the research units at the GRC, and library administration as well, to make informed decisions about future library funding. Prior to the creation of the actual dataset, I established a comprehensive list of the library s print and online journal subscriptions. This list will be useful outside the context of the cost analysis project, as an addition to the library website. The cost analysis dataset s primary fields are: journal name, vendor, publisher, ISSN (International Standard Serial Number, to uniquely identify the titles), stand-alone price, and indication as to the presence of the journal in current GRC Technical Library consortium membership subscriptions. The dataset will hopefully facilitate comparisons between the stand-alone journal prices and the cost of shared journal subscriptions for groups of titles.

Lorig, Jonathan A.↗
NASA NTRS1992

The IDL astronomy user's library

IDL (Interactive Data Language) is a commercial programming, plotting, and image display language, which is widely used in astronomy. The IDL Astronomy User's Library is a central repository of over 400 astronomy-related IDL procedures accessible via anonymous FTP. The author will overview the use of IDL within the astronomical community and discuss recent enhancements at the IDL astronomy library. These enhancements include a fairly complete I/O package for FITS images and tables, an image deconvolution package and an image mosaic package, and access to IDL Open Windows/Motif widgets interface. The IDL Astronomy Library is funded by NASA through the Astrophysics Software and Research Aids Program.

Landsman, W. B.↗
NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Automated Collection of Scientific Publications Linked to NASA Earth Science Datasets

NASA's Earth Observing System Data and Information System (EOSDIS) began dataset Digital Object Identifier (DOI) registration in 2012. The number of dataset DOIs registered as of January of 2023 exceeds 11,000. As the research community becomes aware of the importance of sharing data through Open Science and optimizing data reuse through Findability, Accessibility, Interoperability, and Reuse (FAIR) data management principles, datasets are increasingly being cited in scientific publications. When datasets are cited explicitly by DOI within published works, automated methods can be developed for collecting these published works from a variety of bibliometric sources. The coverage of the sources varies, so each source can collect citations that are only available within it. Using major citation databases such as Scopus and Web of Science, the Google Scholar search engine, the CrossRef Open Citation Index, and the dataset DOI registry DataCite, we present an automated workflow for dataset citation collection. By harvesting citations automatically, a citation library is created explicitly linking EOSDIS datasets to publications that cite them. Using Zotero, a free and open-source citation manager, we demonstrate how to access and browse this library by the tags indicating bibliometric sources, dataset DOI, and the dataset archive center. We also demonstrate temporary trends in the number of publications harvested from bibliometric sources.

Infometrics↗
NASA NTRS2010

Math Description Engine Software Development Kit

The Math Description Engine Software Development Kit (MDE SDK) can be used by software developers to make computer-rendered graphs more accessible to blind and visually-impaired users. The MDE SDK generates alternative graph descriptions in two forms: textual descriptions and non-verbal sound renderings, or sonification. It also enables display of an animated trace of a graph sonification on a visual graph component, with color and line-thickness options for users having low vision or color-related impairments. A set of accessible graphical user interface widgets is provided for operation by end users and for control of accessible graph displays. Version 1.0 of the MDE SDK generates text descriptions for 2D graphs commonly seen in math and science curriculum (and practice). The mathematically rich text descriptions can also serve as a virtual math and science assistant for blind and sighted users, making graphs more accessible for everyone. The MDE SDK has a simple application programming interface (API) that makes it easy for programmers and Web-site developers to make graphs accessible with just a few lines of code. The source code is written in Java for cross-platform compatibility and to take advantage of Java s built-in support for building accessible software application interfaces. Compiled-library and NASA Open Source versions are available with API documentation and Programmer s Guide at http:/ / prim e.jsc.n asa. gov.

Shelton, Robert O.↗
NASA NTRS2021

VESIcal Part I: An open-source thermodynamic model engine for mixed volatile (H2O-CO2) solubility in silicate melts

Thermodynamics has been fundamental to the interpretation of geologic data and modeling of geologic systems for decades. However, more recent advancements in computational capabilities and a marked increase in researchers’ accessibility to computing tools has outpaced the functionality and extensibility of currently available modeling tools. Here we present VESIcal (Volatile Equilibria and Saturation Identification calculator): the first comprehensive modeling tool for H 2 O, CO 2 , and mixed (H 2 O-CO 2 ) solubility in silicate melts that: a) allows users access to seven commonly used models, plus easy inter-comparison between models; b) provides universal functionality for all models (e.g., functions for calculating saturation pressures, degassing paths, etc.); c) can process large datasets (1,000’s of samples) automatically; d) can output computed data into an excel spreadsheet for simple post-modeling analysis; e) integrates advanced plotting capabilities directly within the tool; and f) provides all of these within the framework of a python library, making the tool extensible by the user and allowing any of the model functions to be incorporated into any other code capable of calling python. The tool is presented within this manuscript, which is a Jupyter notebook containing worked examples accessible to python users with a range of skill levels. The basic functions of VESIcal can also be access via a web app (https://vesical.anvil.app). The VESIcal python library is open-source and available for download at https://github.com/kaylai/VESIcal.

K. Iacovino↗
NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Open Innovation for a NASA Architecture Library

NASA’s Center of Excellence for Collaborative Innovation (CoECI) uses open innovation, or “crowdsourcing”, to access the global public to find ideas, concepts, designs, or solutions that meet a previously unmet need possibly resulting in significant advances in performance. The Center of Excellence for Collaborative Innovation was launched at the request of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy. This is both a non-traditional method of innovation and a non-traditional method of outreach to the public to involve them in space technologies and programs. It has been used often for software development and new hardware technology. In this case we applied it to innovate with systems engineering tools for creating space architectures. The challenge was sponsored by NASA Engineering and Safety Center Systems Engineering Technical Fellow as part of a program for NASA’s adoption of MBSE. It was a trial to see if there would be as much participation or quality submissions with this more specialized topic and skill. The challenge sought space architecture representations and decompositions to create a library of modeled parts in a system modeling language (SysML). Mission architects mostly start from scratch to build model elements representing the functional and physical architecture of a system in SysML. There are a few beginning libraries, but these are also local to a program or group. A common library will save system engineers a large amount of time, will allow project stakeholders to recognize common graphics and quickly understand the architecture options. The challenge was promoted internationally, especially through professional organizations and universities with a systems engineering focus. It was open for 4 months, purposefully over the winter holiday break time to allow participants extra time outside of work or school. The challenge was designed so that expertise in space hardware was not necessary but getting to play with models of space architecture could provide motivation to participate. We did not receive as many entries as other broader outreach challenges, but the ones we received were extremely thorough and high quality. Solutions came from individuals and teams, students and professional consultants from the United States and Europe. We learned a few lessons about how to engage with the public and what characteristics of a problem result in good crowdsourcing results. The outreach challenge produced several useful ideas and modeled space elements, and the group will be engaging the winners to learn more about their new approaches.

innovation↗
NASA NTRSDate not supplied

pyQuARC: Preparing for Full Release

Metadata holds the contextual information about data and is the underlying structure for many data search portals. High quality metadata optimizes search results, allowing users to quickly retrieve the data they need. With the abundant volume and diversity of Earth observation datasets, data discovery and metadata quality are critical for end users. The Common Metadata Repository (CMR), for example, currently hosts metadata for over 9,000 Earth observation data products archived across 12 NASA Distributed Active Archive Centers (DAACs). The Analysis and Review of CMR (ARC) Team, located at Marshall Space Flight Center, assesses the completeness, correctness, and consistency of these metadata records to ensure they are accessible, usable, and discoverable. In 2021, ARC began developing pyQuARC, an open source library for Earth Observation Metadata Quality Assessment to automate this effort. The tool uses ARC’s existing metadata quality framework to provide prioritized recommendations for metadata improvement. During initial testing, pyQuARC automatically identified 58% of metadata findings when compared with a sample of manually reviewed records. Using the results from initial testing, this presentation will focus on recent advancements and improvements of the tool as the ARC team prepares for pyQuARC’s full release. It will also demonstrate pyQuARC's enrichment value, not only for the ARC team, but the broader EOSDIS metadata community as well.

Essence Raphael↗
NASA NTRS2010

Lunar and Meteorite Sample Education Disk Program - Space Rocks for Classrooms, Museums, Science Centers, and Libraries

NASA is eager for students and the public to experience lunar Apollo samples and meteorites first hand. Lunar rocks and soil, embedded in Lucite disks, are available for educators to use in their classrooms, museums, science centers, and public libraries for education activities and display. The sample education disks are valuable tools for engaging students in the exploration of the Solar System. Scientific research conducted on the Apollo rocks reveals the early history of our Earth-Moon system and meteorites reveal much of the history of the early solar system. The rocks help educators make the connections to this ancient history of our planet and solar system and the basic processes accretion, differentiation, impact and volcanism. With these samples, educators in museums, science centers, libraries, and classrooms can help students and the public understand the key questions pursued by many NASA planetary missions. The Office of the Curator at Johnson Space Center is in the process of reorganizing and renewing the Lunar and Meteorite Sample Education Disk Program to increase reach, security and accountability. The new program expands the reach of these exciting extraterrestrial rocks through increased access to training and educator borrowing. One of the expanded opportunities is that trained certified educators from science centers, museums, and libraries may now borrow the extraterrestrial rock samples. Previously the loan program was only open to classroom educators so the expansion will increase the public access to the samples and allow educators to make the critical connections to the exciting exploration missions taking place in our solar system. Each Lunar Disk contains three lunar rocks and three regolith soils embedded in Lucite. The anorthosite sample is a part of the magma ocean formed on the surface of Moon in the early melting period, the basalt is part of the extensive lunar mare lava flows, and the breccias sample is an important example of the violent impact history of the Moon. The disks also include two regolith soils and orange glass from a pyroclastic deposit. Each Meteorite Disk contains two ordinary chondrites, one carbonaceous chondrite, one iron, one stony iron, and one achondrite. These samples will help educators share the early history of the solar system with students and the public. Educators may borrow either lunar or meteorite disks and the accompanying education materials through the Johnson Space Center Curatorial Office. In trainings provided by the NASA Aerospace Education Services Program specialists, educators certified to borrow the disk learn about education resources, the proper use of the samples, and the special security for care and shipping of the disks. The Lunar and Meteorite Sample Education Disk Program will take NASA exploration to more people. Getting Space Rocks out to the public and inspiring the public about new space exploration is the focus of the NASA disk loan program.

Allen, Jaclyn↗
NASA NTRS2017

A Generic Software Architecture For Prognostics

Prognostics is a systems engineering discipline focused on predicting end-of-life of components and systems. As a relatively new and emerging technology, there are few fielded implementations of prognostics, due in part to practitioners perceiving a large hurdle in developing the models, algorithms, architecture, and integration pieces. As a result, no open software frameworks for applying prognostics currently exist. This paper introduces the Generic Software Architecture for Prognostics (GSAP), an open-source, cross-platform, object-oriented software framework and support library for creating prognostics applications. GSAP was designed to make prognostics more accessible and enable faster adoption and implementation by industry, by reducing the effort and investment required to develop, test, and deploy prognostics. This paper describes the requirements, design, and testing of GSAP. Additionally, a detailed case study involving battery prognostics demonstrates its use.

Software Framework↗
NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Tracking Magnetic Perturbations, dB/dt and Geomagnetic Indices for Geospace Storms on a Routine Basis at the CCMC

The first comprehensive assessment of geospace model skill to specify magnetic perturbations (delta-B) on the ground and their time derivative (dB/dt) was performed at the Community Coordinated Modeling Center starting in 2010. This study resulted in the addition of the Space Weather Modling Framework to the suite of operational models run by the NOAA Space Weather Prediction Center (SWPC). Since then, magnetic pertubations have been made available on a larger scale for Run-on-Request simulations in geospace at the CCMC. We will demonstrate recent additions to the suite of analysis tools and model results including magnetic perturbations at more stations and on a grid of positions from both, original model outputs (SWMF using preset run configurations) and post-processed calculations using CalcDeltaB and their analysis and visualization using the open-source Kamodo data access and analysis suite and the Comprehensive Assessment of Models and Events using Library tools (CAMEL) application.

Lutz Rastaetter↗
NASA NTRS2014

Robot Task Commander with Extensible Programming Environment

A system for developing distributed robot application-level software includes a robot having an associated control module which controls motion of the robot in response to a commanded task, and a robot task commander (RTC) in networked communication with the control module over a network transport layer (NTL). The RTC includes a script engine(s) and a GUI, with a processor and a centralized library of library blocks constructed from an interpretive computer programming code and having input and output connections. The GUI provides access to a Visual Programming Language (VPL) environment and a text editor. In executing a method, the VPL is opened, a task for the robot is built from the code library blocks, and data is assigned to input and output connections identifying input and output data for each block. A task sequence(s) is sent to the control module(s) over the NTL to command execution of the task.

Hart, Stephen W↗
NASA NTRS2020

A Generic Software Architecture for Prognostics

Prognostics is a systems engineering discipline focused on predicting end-of-life of components and systems. As a relatively new and emerging technology, there are few fielded implementations of prognostics, due in part to practitioners perceiving a large hurdle in developing the models, algorithms, architecture, and integration pieces. As a result, no open software frameworks for applying prognostics currently exist. This paper introduces the Generic Software Architecture for Prognostics (GSAP), an open-source, cross-platform, object-oriented software framework and support library for creating prognostics applications. GSAP was designed to make prognostics more accessible and enable faster adoption and implementation by industry, by reducing the effort and investment required to develop, test, and deploy prognostics. This paper describes the requirements, design, and testing of GSAP. Additionally, a detailed case study involving battery prognostics demonstrates its use.

Prognostics and Health Management (PHM)↗
NASA NTRS2011

Performance Evaluation of Block Acquisition and Tracking Algorithms Using an Open Source GPS Receiver Platform

Location technologies have many applications in wireless communications, military and space missions, etc. US Global Positioning System (GPS) and other existing and emerging Global Navigation Satellite Systems (GNSS) are expected to provide accurate location information to enable such applications. While GNSS systems perform very well in strong signal conditions, their operation in many urban, indoor, and space applications is not robust or even impossible due to weak signals and strong distortions. The search for less costly, faster and more sensitive receivers is still in progress. As the research community addresses more and more complicated phenomena there exists a demand on flexible multimode reference receivers, associated SDKs, and development platforms which may accelerate and facilitate the research. One of such concepts is the software GPS/GNSS receiver (GPS SDR) which permits a facilitated access to algorithmic libraries and a possibility to integrate more advanced algorithms without hardware and essential software updates. The GNU-SDR and GPS-SDR open source receiver platforms are such popular examples. This paper evaluates the performance of recently proposed block-corelator techniques for acquisition and tracking of GPS signals using open source GPS-SDR platform.

Ramachandran, Ganesh K.↗
NASA NTRSDate not supplied

pyQuARC: Open Source Library for Earth Observation Metadata Quality Assessment

Metadata quality is essential to effective data discovery and has become increasingly vital as more Earth Science data sets become available. The Common Metadata Repository (CMR) hosts metadata describing NASA’s Earth Observation data products, which are archived across 12 Distributed Active Archive Centers (DAACs). The Analysis and Review of CMR (ARC) Team, located at Marshall Space Flight Center, conducts metadata quality assessments to ensure that these data products are discoverable, accessible, and usable. To achieve these goals, the ARC team has developed a metadata quality assessment framework to evaluate metadata completeness, correctness, and consistency. ARC uses a combination of manual and automated methods to assess these three components and identify areas of improvement; the team then collaborates with the DAACs to resolve any findings. To streamline this process, ARC is currently developing a host of scripts, known as pyQuARC, to automate metadata quality assessments as much as possible. pyQuARC is an open source library for Earth Observation Metadata Quality Assessment, and the tool utilizes ARC’s metadata quality assessment framework to make basic validation checks, pinpoint inconsistencies between dataset-level (i.e. collection) and file-level (i.e. granule) metadata, and identify opportunities for more descriptive and robust information. Since pyQuARC is also customizable, other users can make modifications as needed, and future metadata standards can also be implemented. Once pyQuARC is fully developed, it will support multiple schema types to serve the broader EOSDIS metadata community. This presentation will provide an overview of pyQuARC and its process of development while showcasing the tool’s valuable features and uses.

Jenny Wood↗
NASA NTRS2012

WMS Server 2.0

This software is a simple, yet flexible server of raster map products, compliant with the Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC) Web Map Service (WMS) 1.1.1 protocol. The server is a full implementation of the OGC WMS 1.1.1 as a fastCGI client and using Geospatial Data Abstraction Library (GDAL) for data access. The server can operate in a proxy mode, where all or part of the WMS requests are done on a back server. The server has explicit support for a colocated tiled WMS, including rapid response of black (no-data) requests. It generates JPEG and PNG images, including 16-bit PNG. The GDAL back-end support allows great flexibility on the data access. The server is a port to a Linux/GDAL platform from the original IRIX/IL platform. It is simpler to configure and use, and depending on the storage format used, it has better performance than other available implementations. The WMS server 2.0 is a high-performance WMS implementation due to the fastCGI architecture. The use of GDAL data back end allows for great flexibility. The configuration is relatively simple, based on a single XML file. It provides scaling and cropping, as well as blending of multiple layers based on layer transparency.

Plesea, Lucian↗
NASA NTRS1994

Fourth Annual International Acquisitions Workshop: Access to Multiple Media Worldwide

Topics discussed during the workshop include: (1) Multinational-Multiple media collections and activities spanning many countries; (2) Multiple media in North American trade and commerce; (3) African spotlight; (4) Europe-Multiple media in national libraries and services; (5) Scandinavian spotlight; (6) Internet update; (7) Multiple media in US federal agencies; (8) Open-source multiple media in US federal agencies; and (9) Multiple media at US federal technical agencies-NIST and NOAA.

Source record↗
NASA NTRS2019

2018 NISAR Applications Workshop: Agriculture and Soil Moisture: Workshop Report

Monitoring and measurement from earth observing satellites have been a means for understanding the natural resources of our planet for over 40 years. However, in the last 10 years, with the development of innovative signal processing techniques, the ability to measure changes in moisture content and structure to the survey quality required by land managers opened a new frontier for the monitoring and assessment of agricultural lands from space. NASA’s upcoming NISAR mission will be unique in providing comprehensive and frequent imaging of nearly all lands globally twice every twelve days with open access to the data. This is potentially a game-changer for planning and management of agriculture globally, particularly in areas with dense cloud cover or at high latitudes. The NISAR Agriculture and Soil Moisture Applications Workshop was held on June 26-28, 2018 at the USDA National Agricultural Library in Beltsville, Maryland with representative members from the broader agricultural community including non-profits, private, and government agencies to determine how to best leverage the NISAR mission for monitoring agricultural lands globally.

Stavros, Natasha↗