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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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At least 199 records · Page 11

High Performance Input/Output for Parallel Computer Systems

The goal of our project is to study the I/O characteristics of parallel applications used in Earth Science data processing systems such as Regional Data Centers (RDCs) or EOSDIS. Our approach is to study the runtime behavior of typical programs and the effect of key parameters of the I/O subsystem both under simulation and with direct experimentation on parallel systems. Our three year activity has focused on two items: developing a test bed that facilitates experimentation with parallel I/O, and studying representative programs from the Earth science data processing application domain. The Parallel Virtual File System (PVFS) has been developed for use on a number of platforms including the Tiger Parallel Architecture Workbench (TPAW) simulator, The Intel Paragon, a cluster of DEC Alpha workstations, and the Beowulf system (at CESDIS). PVFS provides considerable flexibility in configuring I/O in a UNIX- like environment. Access to key performance parameters facilitates experimentation. We have studied several key applications fiom levels 1,2 and 3 of the typical RDC processing scenario including instrument calibration and navigation, image classification, and numerical modeling codes. We have also considered large-scale scientific database codes used to organize image data.

Ligon, W. B.↗

Coding for Electronic Mail

Scheme for coding facsimile messages promises to reduce data transmission requirements to one-tenth current level. Coding scheme paves way for true electronic mail in which handwritten, typed, or printed messages or diagrams sent virtually instantaneously - between buildings or between continents. Scheme, called Universal System for Efficient Electronic Mail (USEEM), uses unsupervised character recognition and adaptive noiseless coding of text. Image quality of resulting delivered messages improved over messages transmitted by conventional coding. Coding scheme compatible with direct-entry electronic mail as well as facsimile reproduction. Text transmitted in this scheme automatically translated to word-processor form.

Rice, R. F.↗

Information, entropy and fidelity in visual communication

This paper presents an assessment of visual communication that integrates the critical limiting factors of image gathering and display with the digital processing that is used to code and restore images. The approach focuses on two mathematical criteria, information and fidelity, and on their relationships to the entropy of the encoded data and to the visual quality of the restored image.

Huck, Friedrich O.↗

Combining image-processing and image compression schemes

An investigation into the combining of image-processing schemes, specifically an image enhancement scheme, with existing compression schemes is discussed. Results are presented on the pyramid coding scheme, the subband coding scheme, and progressive transmission. Encouraging results are demonstrated for the combination of image enhancement and pyramid image coding schemes, especially at low bit rates. Adding the enhancement scheme to progressive image transmission allows enhanced visual perception at low resolutions. In addition, further progressing of the transmitted images, such as edge detection schemes, can gain from the added image resolution via the enhancement.

Greenspan, H.↗

A high quality image compression scheme for real-time applications

Many image compression or coding techniques have been developed to reduce the amount of bits of information needed to represent digital images. Among these, Vector Quantization (VQ) seems to have the edge; its theoretical distortion is lower than that of other block coding techniques at comparable bit rates. However, the application of Vector Quantization remains limited due to its high computational complexity. Presently, it is limited to low to medium quality image compression. In this paper it is shown that VQ can be mapped onto VLSI implementation via systolic type architecture, making real time application possible. In addition, it is shown that using multistage or cascade VQ high quality images can be obtained at very low bit rates for real time applications while using smaller codebooks than is necessary in single stage VQ. Examples of processed images are presented.

Ramamoorthy, P. A.↗

Stereo-DIC Challenge 1.0 – Rigid Body Motion of a Complex Shape

Background Stereo-DIC is a widely used optical measurement technique that provides a dense full-field 3D measurement of the shape, displacement, and strain of a solid sample. When compared with 2D-DIC, Stereo-DIC provides greater flexibility and expands its use beyond flat, planar specimens. Furthermore, the widespread availability of commercial systems has led to the adoption of the technique throughout industry, academia, and government research labs. Objective Even though some research has been done to understand the effects of different experimental and stereo-DIC parameters, no reference is available to benchmark and compare the performance of current stereo-DIC algorithms to each other. Methods This paper provides the description and analysis of a carefully controlled 3D experiment and associated images used to compare the results from five subset based DIC software packages. Both the images and analysis codes used in this paper to compare the results are described here and are available for download and use for continued research. Results We show that over a very large range of motion, the 3D errors are very small, less than 80μm over a travel of ±20 mm out-of-plane and ±20 mm in-plane. While all codes performed similarly, there are important differences noted in the paper. Conclusion The image sets and results comparison software are hosted by the International DIC Society (www.iDICs.org) and are freely available for download and analysis for comparison with results in this paper. Furthermore, it is hoped that this set of images can be used for future research in improving stereo-DIC by future authors.

Algorithms comparison↗

Recovery of reflectance from imaging spectrometer measured radiance using a radiative transfer code

Radiance data were acquired over part of the Clark Mountain Range, California in 1990 by the Airborne Visible Infrared Imaging Spectrometer (AVIRIS). From these calibrated radiance data, the lateral distribution of water vapor in precipitable mm was recovered through analysis of the 940 nm water absorption. Surface pressure height was calculated from the 760 nm oxygen absorption band in the AVIRIS data. Surface slopes are estimated from relative elevations derived from the equivalent water vapor elevation for a standard atmosphere. Atmospheric optical depths measured at the Mountain Pass site in these data are extended to the entire region and varied based on the calculated surface pressure elevation. These parameters, derived from every AVIRIS spatial element, are used to constrain the LOWTRAN 7 radiative transfer code for the recovery of surface reflectance. Once transformed to reflectance, the imaging spectrometer data may be analyzed quantitatively for determination of surface composition, and compared with reflectance measurements acquired from different locations, times, and instruments.

Green, Robert O.↗

Infrared imaging - A validation technique for computational fluid dynamics codes used in STOVL applications

The need for a validation technique for computational fluid dynamics (CFD) codes in STOVL applications has led to research efforts to apply infrared thermal imaging techniques to visualize gaseous flow fields. Specifically, a heated, free-jet test facility was constructed. The gaseous flow field of the jet exhaust was characterized using an infrared imaging technique in the 2 to 5.6 micron wavelength band as well as conventional pitot tube and thermocouple methods. These infrared images are compared to computer-generated images using the equations of radiative exchange based on the temperature distribution in the jet exhaust measured with the thermocouple traverses. Temperature and velocity measurement techniques, infrared imaging, and the computer model of the infrared imaging technique are presented and discussed. From the study, it is concluded that infrared imaging techniques coupled with the radiative exchange equations applied to CFD models are a valid method to qualitatively verify CFD codes used in STOVL applications.

Hardman, R. R.↗

Method and System for Producing Images of an Object

A method and system are provided to produce images of an object. A receiving station is positioned in view of a range-coded signal emitting satellite and the object. The receiving station is sensitive to direct transmission of the range-coded signal and reflections of the range-coded signal from the object. Both range from the receiving station to the object and a Doppler frequency shift history between the receiving station and the object is determined using the direct transmission and reflections of the range-coded signal. An image is formed using the two-dimensional record provided by the range and the Doppler frequency shift history.

Katzberg, Stephen J.↗

Temperature, Pressure, and Infrared Image Survey of an Axisymmetric Heated Exhaust Plume

The focus of this research is to numerically predict an infrared image of a jet engine exhaust plume, given field variables such as temperature, pressure, and exhaust plume constituents as a function of spatial position within the plume, and to compare this predicted image directly with measured data. This work is motivated by the need to validate computational fluid dynamic (CFD) codes through infrared imaging. The technique of reducing the three-dimensional field variable domain to a two-dimensional infrared image invokes the use of an inverse Monte Carlo ray trace algorithm and an infrared band model for exhaust gases. This report describes an experiment in which the above-mentioned field variables were carefully measured. Results from this experiment, namely tables of measured temperature and pressure data, as well as measured infrared images, are given. The inverse Monte Carlo ray trace technique is described. Finally, experimentally obtained infrared images are directly compared to infrared images predicted from the measured field variables.

Nelson, Edward L.↗

Fusing 4D coded thermoacoustic, electromagnetic, and acoustic/seismic wavefields for subsurface characterization and imaging of fluid flow in porous media

This research program aims to address critical challenges in subsurface exploration and monitoring of anthropogenic CO 2 storage by advancing quantitative dynamic sensing and imaging technologies. Two primary applications—petrophysical assessment of hydrocarbon reservoirs (C1) and CO 2 storage monitoring (C2)—require significant innovation to overcome three barriers (B1-B3). These barriers include the need for enhanced understanding of interactions between physical wave fields (thermoacoustic, electromagnetic, acoustic/seismic, and X-ray) with fluid-filled porous media, the development of multi-sensor data fusion for real-time imaging, and upscaling microscopic quantum effects for macroscopic observations. The project’s objective was to establish a unified 4D coded sensing and imaging approach, integrating EM, AC/S, and TA fields for multi-scale and multi-physics material characterization and subsurface imaging.

58 GEOSCIENCES↗

Coarse-coded higher-order neural networks for PSRI object recognition

A higher-order neural network (HONN) can be designed to be invariant to changes in scale, translation, and inplane rotation. Invariances are built directly into the architecture of a HONN and do not need to be learned. Consequently, fewer training passes and a smaller training set are required to learn to distinguish between objects. The size of the input field is limited, however, because of the memory required for the large number of interconnections in a fully connected HONN. By coarse coding the input image, the input field size can be increased to allow the larger input scenes required for practical object recognition problems. We describe a coarse coding technique and present simulation results illustrating its usefulness and its limitations. Our simulations show that a third-order neural network can be trained to distinguish between two objects in a 4096 x 4096 pixel input field independent of transformations in translation, in-plane rotation, and scale in less than ten passes through the training set. Furthermore, we empirically determine the limits of the coarse coding technique in the object recognition domain.

Spirkovska, Lilly↗

Channel coding and data compression system considerations for efficient communication of planetary imaging data

End-to-end system considerations involving channel coding and data compression are reported which could drastically improve the efficiency in communicating pictorial information from future planetary spacecraft. In addition to presenting new and potentially significant system considerations, this report attempts to fill a need for a comprehensive tutorial which makes much of this very subject accessible to readers whose disciplines lie outside of communication theory.

Rice, R. F.↗

High-spatial resolution and high-spectral resolution detector for use in the measurement of solar flare hard X-rays

In the areas of high spatial resolution, the evaluation of a hard X-ray detector with 65 micron spatial resolution for operation in the energy range from 30 to 400 keV is proposed. The basic detector is a thick large-area scintillator faceplate, composed of a matrix of high-density scintillating glass fibers, attached to a proximity type image intensifier tube with a resistive-anode digital readout system. Such a detector, combined with a coded-aperture mask, would be ideal for use as a modest-sized hard X-ray imaging instrument up to X-ray energies as high as several hundred keV. As an integral part of this study it was also proposed that several techniques be critically evaluated for X-ray image coding which could be used with this detector. In the area of high spectral resolution, it is proposed to evaluate two different types of detectors for use as X-ray spectrometers for solar flares: planar silicon detectors and high-purity germanium detectors (HPGe). Instruments utilizing these high-spatial-resolution detectors for hard X-ray imaging measurements from 30 to 400 keV and high-spectral-resolution detectors for measurements over a similar energy range would be ideally suited for making crucial solar flare observations during the upcoming maximum in the solar cycle.

Desai, U. D.↗

High-resolution imaging gamma-ray spectroscopy with externally segmented germanium detectors

Externally segmented germanium detectors promise a breakthrough in gamma-ray imaging capabilities while retaining the superb energy resolution of germanium spectrometers. An angular resolution of 0.2 deg becomes practical by combining position-sensitive germanium detectors having a segment thickness of a few millimeters with a one-dimensional coded aperture located about a meter from the detectors. Correspondingly higher angular resolutions are possible with larger separations between the detectors and the coded aperture. Two-dimensional images can be obtained by rotating the instrument. Although the basic concept is similar to optical or X-ray coded-aperture imaging techniques, several complicating effects arise because of the penetrating nature of gamma rays. The complications include partial transmission through the coded aperture elements, Compton scattering in the germanium detectors, and high background count rates. Extensive electron-photon Monte Carlo modeling of a realistic detector/coded-aperture/collimator system has been performed. Results show that these complicating effects can be characterized and accounted for with no significant loss in instrument sensitivity.

Callas, J. L.↗

Development of Tiled Imaging CZT Detectors for Sensitive Wide-Field Hard X-Ray Surveys to EXIST

Motivated by the proposed EXIST mission, a "medium-class" space observatory to survey black holes and the Early Universe proposed to the 2010 NAS/NRC Astronomy and Astrophysics Decadal Survey, we have developed the first "large" area 256 sq cm close-tiled (0.6 mm gaps) hard X-ray (20-600 keV) imaging detector employing pixelated (2.5 mm) CdZnTe (CZT) detectors, each 2 x 2 x 0.5 cubic cm. We summarize the design, development and operation of this detector array (8 x 8 CZTs) and its performance as the imager for a coded aperture telescope on a high altitude (40 km) balloon flight in October. 2009, as the ProtoEX1STl payload. We then outline our current development of a second-generation imager, ProtcEXIST2. with 0.6 mm pixels on a 32 x 32 array on each CZT, and how it will lead to the ultimate imaging system needed for EXIST. Other applications of this technology will also be mentioned.

Grindlay, J.↗