Engineering topics

Chambers, Lin H.

Publications and source records attributed to Chambers, Lin H..

At least 19 records

NASA NTRS2011

Measuring Total Column Water Vapor by Pointing an Infrared Thermometer at the Sky

A 2-year study affirms that the temperature (Tz) indicated by an inexpensive ($20 to $60) IR thermometer pointed at the cloud-free zenith sky provides an approximate indication of the total column water vapor (precipitable water or PW). PW was measured by a MICROTOPS II sun photometer. The coefficient of correlation (r2) of the PW and Tz was 0.90, and the rms difference was 3.2 mm. A comparison of the Tz data with the PW provided by a GPS site 31 km NNE yielded an r2 of 0.79, and an rms difference of 5.8 mm. An expanded study compared Tz from eight IR thermometers with PW at various times during the day and night from 17 May to 18 October 2010, mainly at the Texas site and 10 days at Hawaii's Mauna Loa Observatory (MLO). The best results of this comparison were provided by two IR thermometers models that yielded an r2 of 0.96 and an rms difference with the PW of 2.7 mm. The results of both the ongoing 2-year study and the 5-month instrument comparison show that IR thermometers can measure PW with an accuracy (rms difference/mean PW) approaching 10%, the accuracy typically ascribed to sun photometers.

Mims, Forrest M., III↗

NASA NTRS2009

Monitoring Top-of-Atmosphere Radiative Energy Imbalance for Climate Prediction

Large climate feedback uncertainties limit the prediction accuracy of the Earth s future climate with an increased CO2 atmosphere. One potential to reduce the feedback uncertainties using satellite observations of top-of-atmosphere (TOA) radiative energy imbalance is explored. Instead of solving the initial condition problem in previous energy balance analysis, current study focuses on the boundary condition problem with further considerations on climate system memory and deep ocean heat transport, which is more applicable for the climate. Along with surface temperature measurements of the present climate, the climate feedbacks are obtained based on the constraints of the TOA radiation imbalance. Comparing to the feedback factor of 3.3 W/sq m/K of the neutral climate system, the estimated feedback factor for the current climate system ranges from -1.3 to -1.0 W/sq m/K with an uncertainty of +/-0.26 W/sq m/K. That is, a positive climate feedback is found because of the measured TOA net radiative heating (0.85 W/sq m) to the climate system. The uncertainty is caused by the uncertainties in the climate memory length. The estimated time constant of the climate is large (70 to approx. 120 years), implying that the climate is not in an equilibrium state under the increasing CO2 forcing in the last century.

Lin, Bing↗

NASA NTRS2007

Bridging the Gap between Earth Science and Students: An Integrated Approach using NASA Earth Science Climate Data

Under the auspices of the Department of Education's No Child Left Behind (NCLB) Act, beginning in 2007 students will be tested in the science area. There are many techniques that educators can employ to teach students science. The use of authentic materials or in this case authentic data can be an engaging alternative to more traditional methods. An Earth science classroom is a great place for the integration of authentic data and science concepts. The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) has a wealth of high quality Earth science data available to the general public. For instance, the Atmospheric Science Data Center (ASDC) at NASA s Langley Research Center houses over 800 Earth science data sets related to Earth's radiation budget, clouds, aerosols and tropospheric chemistry. These data sets were produced to increase academic understanding of the natural and anthropogenic factors that influence global climate; however, a major hurdle in using authentic data is the size of the data and data documentation. To facilitate the use of these data sets for educational purposes, the Mentoring and inquirY using NASA Data on Atmospheric and Earth science for Teachers and Amateurs (MY NASA DATA) project has been established to systematically support educational activities at all levels of formal and informal education. The MY NASA DATA project accomplishes this by reducing these large data holdings to microsets that are easily accessible and explored by K-12 educators and students though the project's Web page. MY NASA DATA seeks to ease the difficulty in understanding the jargon-heavy language of Earth science. This manuscript will show how MY NASA DATA provides resources for NCLB implementation in the science area through an overview of the Web site, the different microsets available, the lesson plans and computer tools, and an overview of educational support mechanisms.

Alston, Erica J.↗

NASA NTRS2006

The MY NASA DATA Project

On the one hand, locating the right dataset, then figuring out how to use it, is a daunting task that is familiar to almost any scientist or graduate student in the fields of Earth system science. On the other hand, the ability to explore authentic Earth system science data, through inquiry-based education, is an important goal in US national education standards. Fortunately, in the digital age, tools are emerging that can make such data exploration commonplace at all educational levels. This paper describes the conception and development of one project that aims to bridge this gap: Mentoring and inquiry using NASA Data on Atmospheric and Earth science for Teachers and Amateurs (MY NASA DATA; mynasadata.larc.nasa.gov). With funding from NASA's Science Mission Directorate, this project was launched in early 2004 with the aim of developing microsets and identifying other enablers for making data accessible. A key feature of the project is a Live Access Server, the first educational implementation of this open source software, developed by NOAA, that makes it possible to explore multiple data formats through a single interface. This powerful tool is made more useful to the primary target audiences (K-12 and amateur scientists) through careful selection of the data offered, user-friendly explanations of the tool itself, and age-appropriate explanations of the parameters. However experience already shows that graduate students and even practicing scientists can also make use of this resource. The website also hosts teacher-contributed lesson plans, and seeks to feature reports of research projects that use the data.

Chambers, Lin H.↗

NASA NTRS2005

The Effect of Environmental Conditions on Tropical Deep Convective Systems Observed from the TRMM Satellite

This study uses measurements of radiation and cloud properties taken between January and August 1998 by three Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM) instruments, the Clouds and the Earth's Radiant Energy System (CERES) scanner, the TRMM Microwave Imager (TMI), and the Visible and InfraRed Scanner (VIRS), to evaluate the variations of tropical deep convective systems (DCS) with sea surface temperature (SST) and precipitation. This study finds that DCS precipitation efficiency increases with SST at a rate of approx. 2%/K. Despite increasing rainfall efficiency, the cloud areal coverage rises with SST at a rate of about 7%/K in the warm tropical seas. There, the boundary layer moisture supply for deep convection and the moisture transported to the upper troposphere for cirrus-anvil cloud formation increase by approx. 6.3%/K and approx. 4.0%/K, respectively. The changes in cloud formation efficiency, along with the increased transport of moisture available for cloud formation, likely contribute to the large rate of increasing DCS areal coverage. Although no direct observations are available, the increase of cloud formation efficiency with rising SST is deduced indirectly from measurements of changes in the ratio of DCS ice water path and boundary layer water vapor amount with SST. Besides the cloud areal coverage, DCS cluster effective sizes also increase with precipitation. Furthermore, other cloud properties, such as cloud total water and ice water paths, increase with SST. These changes in DCS properties will produce a negative radiative feedback for the earth's climate system due to strong reflection of shortwave radiation by the DCS. These results significantly differ from some previous hypothesized dehydration scenarios for warmer climates, and have great potential in testing current cloud-system resolving models and convective parameterizations of general circulation models.

Lin, Bing↗

NASA NTRS2004

The GLOBE Earth Day 2004 Contrail Count-a-Thon

Early in 2004 the GLOBE Science team suggested a contrail count activity to celebrate Earth Day 2004, which was held this year on April 22nd in the United States and some other countries around the world. The GLOBE contrail team embraced this idea and developed a simplified data collection sheet for this special project. Information about the event was shared through the GLOBE site, UCAR and NASA press releases, the NASA portal (http://www.nasa.gov) and the CERES S'COOL Project (http://scool.larc.nasa.gov). On Earth Day, about 120 observations were received through the GLOBE Contrail Count-a-Thon website, about 70 contrail observations were received through regular GLOBE data reporting, and 19 contrail observations were received through regular S'COOL data reporting. Only observations between 11:00 and 13:00 local time were included in the Count-a-Thon. The event was reported in the Boulder Daily Camera beforehand and in the Oregon Register-Guard after the fact. It was also reported on National Public Radio s Day-to-Day show; whose host even submitted an observation. This poster discusses the Count-a-Thon experience and reports the results.

Chambers, Lin H.↗

NASA NTRS2004

K-12 Students as Ground Observers of Contrails in Support of Scientific Research

Scientists are very interested in the formation of contrails, both the type and the coverage. To be detected by a satellite-born instrument, the contrail must be of a certain size, which means that some contrails go undetected. The K-12 education community is assisting with the study of contrails by participating in a network of student observers. To provide a venue for student contrail observations, the GLOBE Contrails protocol was developed as part of the GLOBE Atmospheric Science protocols. The first year of observations has provided a rich resource for researcher.

Chambers, Lin H.↗

NASA NTRS2004

Making NASA Earth Observing System Satellite Data Accessible to the K-12 and Citizen Scientist Communities

The Atmospheric Sciences Data Center (ASDC) at NASA s Langley Research Center houses over 700 data sets related to Earth s radiation budget, clouds, aerosols and tropospheric chemistry. These data sets are produced to increase academic understanding of the natural and anthropogenic perturbations that influence global climate change. The Mentoring and inquirY using NASA Data on Atmospheric and earth science for Teachers and Amateurs (MY NASA DATA) project has been established to systematically support educational activities at all levels of formal and informal education by reducing these large data holdings to microsets that will be easily explored and understood by the K-12 and the amateur scientist communities

Moore, Susan W.↗

NASA NTRS2004

NASA's S'COOL Project: Bridging the Divide Between the 'Real' World and the Classroom

In an effort to bridge the gap between scientific research, teacher instruction and student learning, the CERES Students Cloud Observations On-Line (S'COOL) Project offers a unique perspective on how to narrow the divide between the real world and the classroom. Reality-based learning has become a staple in the education of our youth and the S'COOL Project has taken this concept one step further.

Sepulveda, Roberto↗

NASA NTRS2004

Students as Ground Observers for Satellite Cloud Retrieval Validation

The Students' Cloud Observations On-Line (S'COOL) Project was initiated in 1997 to obtain student observations of clouds coinciding with the overpass of the Clouds and the Earth's Radiant Energy System (CERES) instruments on NASA's Earth Observing System satellites. Over the past seven years we have accumulated more than 9,000 cases worldwide where student observations are available within 15 minutes of a CERES observation. This paper reports on comparisons between the student and satellite data as one facet of the validation of the CERES cloud retrievals. Available comparisons include cloud cover, cloud height, cloud layering, and cloud visual opacity. The large volume of comparisons allows some assessment of the impact of surface cover, such as snow and ice, reported by the students. The S'COOL observation database, accessible via the Internet at http://scool.larc.nasa.gov, contains over 32,000 student observations and is growing by over 700 observations each month. Some of these observations may be useful for assessment of other satellite cloud products. In particular, some observing sites have been making hourly observations of clouds during the school day to learn about the diurnal cycle of cloudiness.

Chambers, Lin H.↗

NASA NTRS2002

New CERES Data Examined for Evidence of Tropical Iris Feedback

New data products are available from the CERES instrument, a part of the NASA Earth Observing System. The Single Scanner Footprint (SSF) product combines radiative fluxes with extensive information on the cloud conditions in the footprint, which are retrieved using the co-orbiting imager instrument. These data have been analyzed to more accurately define the radiative properties for the various regions of the recently-proposed adaptive infrared Iris. A variety of ways of defining the cloudy moist region were examined. According to CERES, the net radiative flux for the cloudy moist region ranges between 28 and 54 W/m2 depending on the specific definition used. This is in contrast to the value of 123 W/m2 which was somewhat subjectively assigned by LCH. This simple model may miss many feedbacks in the climate system, but it should provide a rough range of the climate variations if the physics of the Iris is correct. There is some question whether the change in cloudy moist area with cloud-weighted SST actually represents a useful quantity, and whether extrapolating it from a regional variation to a global response to warmer climate is appropriate. Regardless, the current results show that the proposed Iris feedback is very much weaker when objectively-determined radiative properties are used in the model.

Chambers, Lin H.↗

NASA NTRS2000

The Ceres S'COOL Project: Two Years After First Launch

The idea for the Students' Cloud Observations OnLine (S'COOL) project as an outreach and education element of NASA's Clouds and the Earth's Radiant Energy System (CERES) research program was conceived in late 1996 during a conversation with a middle school science teacher. S'COOL was implemented in a series of increasingly developed test phases during 1997, as the launch of the first CERES instrument approached. Even before launch, the reception of the project in schools far exceeded expectations. After several delays the first instrument, on the Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM) spacecraft, was launched on Thanksgiving Day, 1997. Since the first launch, development and expansion of the project has continued with expectations for launch of Terra carrying two CERES instruments into a polar orbit in mid-1998. That launch is now expected in fall 1999, and will finally provide overflight of all participating schools. In two years, the project has grown from three initial test participants to over 300 schools now participating in 23 countries on five continents. Students from first grade through university level are involved (most participants are ages 10-15). S'COOL is also being used by a few education professors to teach about Internet use in the classroom. The project continues to grow through word of mouth, presentations at teacher workshops, and now increasingly through teachers who find it during web searches. Participants in the S'COOL project are part of the CERES validation team. They provide ground truth measurements at the time the CERES instrument flies over their location, to be compared with the retrieval of cloud properties by remote sensing from CERES. Quantities reported include cloud type, height, fraction and opacity; information on contrails; surface temperature, pressure and relative humidity; and ground cover (snow/ice, wet, dry; leaves on trees or not). in addition, a comment field on the report form serves as a catch-all for all kinds of interesting observations, including similes written by some classes to describe more exactly the clouds they see. Several not totally unexpected complications with the CERES instrument and processing software mean that the CERES team has not yet reached the point of computing the cloud properties, a high level product at the end of the processing stream. However, progress is being made and we anticipate that we will soon be populating the S'COOL database with a large number of satellite retrievals for comparison with the students' observations. Some satellite retrievals from the initial test phases are already available in the database, The CERES instruments are planned to operate at least through 2006, and the S'COOL Project is planned to continue at least that long, providing motivational learning to as many students as possible. This paper reports on the first several years of the S'CCOL project. It further reports on some of the noteworthy observations and comparisons made possible by this project. Schools are often located in interesting places, in terms of the clouds found there and the satellite's ability to observe these clouds. The paper also reports on the learning opportunities delivered by this project, and on new questions about the planet and its climate which arise in the students' minds as a result of their active participation.

Chambers, Lin H.↗

NASA NTRS2000

What is Success? Evaluating S'COOL, an Educational Outreach Project Focused on NASA's CERES Program

The Students' Cloud Observations On-Line (S'COOL) Project involved students in K-16 as ground truth observers for a NASA Earth-Observing satellite instrument. The Clouds and Earth's Radiant Energy System (CERES) instrument allows scientists to study the Earth's energy budget and how clouds affect it. Student reports of cloud conditions help scientists verify their algorithms and allow students to be involved in obtaining and analyzing real scientific data. The presentation contains 23 slides.

Chambers, Lin H.↗

NASA NTRS2000

SHDOM

SHDOM is a general purpose, publicly available, three-dimensional atmospheric radiative transfer model. SHDOM is an explicit method, which means it solves for the whole radiation field, as distinct from Monte Carlo methods which solve for particular radiative outputs. SHDOM is particularly well suited for remote sensing applications, where it can compute outgoing radiances at many angles from a cloud field at virtually no extra cost. SHDOM is not appropriate for calculating domain average quantities for which Monte Carlo methods excel. The I3RC intercomparison offers an opportunity to explore the pros and cons of SHDOM and Monte Carlo models on some real world inhomogeneous cloud fields. Specifically, we wish to determine the computer resources required to achieve a particular accuracy for a certain number of outputs using SHDOM and Monte Carlo models. This will help guide modelers on the appropriate choice of SHDOM or Monte Carlo for their applications. To emphasize the importance of this accuracy versus CPU time tradeoff, we are submitting two SHDOM entries (low and high resolution) in the I3RC.

Evans, K. Franklin↗

NASA NTRS1999

The Ceres S'Cool Project: Operational but not Routine

The first Clouds and the Earth's Radiant Energy System (CERES) instrument has been returning useful data on Earth's radiation budget from the Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM) spacecraft since late 1997. Validation of the initial data is now intensively underway. As one component of this validation, the CERES Students' Cloud Observations On-Line (S'COOL) project has been operational since April 1998 - the 2nd CERES validation month. S'COOL involves school children in over 140 schools in 15 countries on 5 continents in making and reporting observations and measurements which they and CERES scientists can then compare to the satellite retrievals. The project is planned to continue through the life of the CERES Project (nominally 15 years), and new participants are invited to join on a continuous basis. This paper will report on the first year of the operational phase of the project, during which a number of exciting events occurred (a demonstration of the project to First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton, and visits by CERES personnel to participating schools, among others). It will further report on some of the noteworthy observations and comparisons which have been made possible by this project. We have found that schools are often located in interesting places, in terms of the clouds found there and the satellite's ability to observe these clouds. The paper will also report on the learning opportunities delivered by this project, and on new questions about the planet and its climate which arise in the students' minds as a result of their active participation.

Chambers, Lin H.↗

NASA NTRS1999

S'COOL Provides Research Opportunities and Current Data for Today's Technological Classroom

NASA's Students' Cloud Observations On-Line (S'COOL) project, a hands-on educational project, was an innovative idea conceived by the scientists in the Radiation Sciences Branch at NASA Langley Research Center, Hampton, Virginia, in 1996. It came about after a local teacher expressed the idea that she wanted her students to be involved in real-life science. S'COOL supports NASA's Clouds and the Earth's Radiant Energy System (CERES) instrument, which was launched on the Tropical Rainforest Measuring Mission (TRMM) in November, 1997, as part of NASA's Earth Science Enterprise. With the S'COOL project students observe clouds and related weather conditions, compute data and note vital information while obtaining ground truth observations for the CERES instrument. The observations can then be used to help validate the CERES measurements, particularly detection of clear sky from space. In addition to meeting math, science and geography standards, students are engaged in using the computer to obtain, report and analyze current data, thus bringing modern technology into the realm of classroom, a paradigm that demands our attention.

Green, Carolyn J.↗

NASA NTRS1999

The CERES S'COOL Project: Operational but not Routine

The first Clouds and the Earth's Radiant Energy System (CERES) instrument has been returning useful data on Earth's radiation budget from the Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM) spacecraft since late 1997. Validation of the initial data is now intensively underway. As one component of this validation, the CERES Students Cloud Observations On-Line (S'COOL) project has been operational since April 1998 - the 2nd CERES validation month. S'COOL involves school children in over 140 schools in 15 countries on 5 continents in making and reporting observations and measurements which they and CERES scientists can then compare to the satellite retrievals. The project is planned to continue through the life of the CERES Project (nominally 15 years), and new participants are invited to join on a continuous basis. This paper will report on the first year of the operational phase of the project, during which a number of exciting events occurred (a demonstration of the project to First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton, and visits by CERES personnel to participating schools, among others). It will further report on some of the noteworthy observations and comparisons which have been made possible by this project. We have found that schools are often located in interesting places, in terms of the clouds found there and the satellite's ability to observe these clouds. The paper will also report on the learning opportunities delivered by this project, and on new questions about the planet and its climate which arise in the students minds as a result of their active participation.

Chambers, Lin H.↗

NASA NTRS1998

The CERES S'COOL Project: Development and Operational Phases

As part of NASA's Mission to Planet Earth, the first Clouds and the Earth's Radiant Energy System (CERES) instrument will be launched on the Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM) spacecraft from the Tanegashima launch site in Japan in November 1997. The instrument will measure the radiation budget incoming and outgoing radiant energy - of the Earth. The major feature of interest is clouds, which play a very strong role in regulating our climate. CERES will identify clear and cloudy regions and determine cloud physical and microphysical properties using imager data from a companion instrument. Validation efforts for the remote sensing algorithms will be intensive. As one component of the validation, the S'COOL (Students' Cloud Observations On-Line) project will involve school children around the globe in making ground truth measurements at the time of a CERES overpass. They will report cloud type, height, fraction, and opacity, as well as the local surface conditions. Their observations will be collected at the NASA Langley Distributed Active Archive Center (DAAC) and made available over the Internet for educational purposes as well as for use by the CERES Science Team in validation efforts. Pilot testing of the S'COOL project began in January 1997 with two local schools in Southeastern Virginia and one remote site in Montana. National testing in April 1997 involved 8 schools (grades 3 to high school) across the United States. Global testing will be carried out in October 1997. Details of the S'COOL project, which is mainly Internet-based, are being developed in each of these phases according to feedback received from participants. In 1998, when the CERES instrument is operational, a global observer network should be in place providing useful information to the scientists and learning opportunities to the students. Broad participation in the S'COOL project is planned, both to obtain data from a wide range of geographic areas, and to involve as many students as possible in learning about clouds and atmospheric science. This paper reports on the development phase of the S'COOL project, including the reaction of the teachers and students who have been involved. It describes the operational state of the S'COOL network, and identifies opportunities for additional participants.

Chambers, Lin H.↗