Engineering topics
Publications and source records attributed to Green, A. A..
MEMS-based microchannel heat sinks are being investigated at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory for use in micro/nano spacecraft thermal control.
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This paper presents background on the need for pumped liquid cooling systems for future micro/nano spacecraft and results from this ongoing numerical and experimental investigation.
The success of NASA's future space missions and the development of portable, commercial instrument packages will depend greatly on miniaturized components enabled by the use of microelectromechanical systems (MEMS).
This article evaluates three techniques developed to extract emissivity information from multispectral thermal infrared data. The techniques are the assumed Channel 6 emittance model, thermal log residuals, and alpha residuals. These techniques were applied to calibrated, atmospherically corrected thermal infrared multispectral scanner (TIMS) data acquired over Cuprite, Nevada in September 1990. Results indicate that the two new techniques (thermal log residuals and alpha residuals) provide two distinct advantages over the assumed Channel 6 emittance model. First, they permit emissivity information to be derived from all six TIMS channels. The assumed Channel 6 emittance model only permits emissivity values to be derived from five of the six TIMS channels. Second, both techniques are less susceptible to noise than the assumed Channel 6 emittance model. The disadvantage of both techniques is that laboratory data must be converted to thermal log residuals or alpha residuals to facilitate comparison with similarly processed image data. An additional advantage of the alpha residual technique is that the processed data are scene-independent unlike those obtained with the other techniques.
Analysis of Airborne Imaging Spectrometer (AIS) data acquired in Australia has revealed a number of operational problems. Horizontal striping in AIS imagery and spectral distortions due to order overlap were investigated. Horizontal striping, caused by grating position errors can be removed with little or no effect on spectral details. Order overlap remains a problem that seriously compromises identification of subtle mineral absorption features within AIS spectra. A spectrometric model of the AIS was developed to assist in identifying spurious spectral features, and will be used in efforts to restore the spectral integrity of the data.
The Airborne Imaging Spectrometer (AIS) was flown over granitic, volcanic, and calc-silicate terrain around the Mary Kathleen Uranium Mine in Queensland, in a test of its mineralocial mapping capabilities. An analysis strategy and restoration and enhancement techniques were developed to process the 128 band AIS data. A preliminary analysis of one of three AIS flight lines shows that the data contains considerable spectral variation but that it is also contaminated by second-order leakage of radiation from the near-infrared region. This makes the recognition of expected spectral absorption shapes very difficult. The effect appears worst in terrains containing considerable vegetation. Techniques that try to predict this supplementary radiation coupled with the log residual analytical technique show that expected mineral absorption spectra can be derived. The techniques suggest that with additional refinement correction procedures, the Australian AIS data may be revised. Application of the log residual analysis method has proved very successful on the cuprite, Nevada data set, and for highlighting the alunite, linite, and SiOH mineralogy.
Spectra from airborne systems must be analyzed in terms of their mineral-related absorption features. Methods for removing backgrounds and extracting these features one at a time from reflectance spectra are discussed. Methods for converting radiance spectra into a form similar to reflectance spectra so that the feature extraction procedures can be implemented on aircraft spectrometer data are also discussed.
There are no author-identified significant results in this report.
There are no author-identified significant results in this report.
There are no author-identified significant results in this report.
There are no author-identified significant results in this report.
The author has identified the following signficant results. An experiment was conducted to evaluate the feasibility of using ERTS-1 MSS imagery for spot transmission measurements on selected sites. Using the 15-unit gray scale on the 70 mm positive imagery as the base of comparison, a correlation was made between the transmittance measured at each site on the imagery and the radiance values (counts) recorded on CCT tape by the spacecraft over the same sites. The imagery was enlarged by a 750-watt projector and focused on a white cardboard screen 6 meters from the screen. Observations were made on 30 sub-sites which were pre-selected for their differing image brightness and total area; all are dried pond beds. Observations were also made on average gray backgrounds and a small lake. There was a very good correlation between the density values obtained from projected imagery and radiance values received by the detector on the spacecraft. A shorter experiment time and closer integration of gray scale and site readings would avoid the variation in lamp intensities that occurred.
If the outputs of the two channels are spacially registered and combined to generate a third variable which reflects the differences between the two outputs, then this variable can then be redisplayed in image form and its magnitude should be relatable to the silica content of the rocks imaged. Two methods were proposed for generating this third variable, the first is to take the difference in apparent temperature between the two channels and the second is to ratio the voltage outputs of the two channels. The responses of the two channel high resolution surface composition mapping radiometer and the thermal channels of the MSDS scanner were calculated from data recorded with the NASA IR pallet and simulate the output of these systems had they been flying over the same targets as the IR pallet.
There are no author-identified significant results in this report.
There are no author-identified significant results in this report.
Methods for infrared radiance measurements from geological materials were studied for airborne use over terrains with minimal vegetation. The tasks of the investigation were: (1) calculation of emittance ratios, (2) comparison of IR spectral emittance data with K-band scatterometer data over Pisgah Crater, and (3) standard infrared spectral file. Published papers reporting the research are included.