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NASA NTRS2010

The Significant Incidents and Close Calls in Human Space Flight Chart: Lessons Learned Gone Viral

This presentation will explore the surprising history and events that transformed a mundane spreadsheet of historical spaceflight incidents into a popular and widely distributed visual compendium of lessons learned. The Significant Incidents and Close Calls in Human Space Flight Chart (a.k.a. The Significant Incidents Chart) is a popular and visually captivating reference product that has arisen from the work of the Johnson Space Center (JSC) Safety and Mission Assurance (S&MA) Flight Safety Office (FSO). It began as an internal tool intended to increase our team s awareness of historical and modern space flight incidents. Today, the chart is widely recognized across the agency as a reference tool. It appears in several training and education programs. It is used in familiarization training in the JSC Building 9 Mockup Facility and is seen by hundreds of center visitors each week. The chart visually summarizes injuries, fatalities, and close calls sustained during the continuing development of human space flight. The poster-sized chart displays over 100 total events that have direct connections to human space flight endeavors. The chart is updated periodically. The update process itself has become a collaborative effort. Many people, spanning multiple NASA organizations, have provided suggestions for additional entries. The FSO maintains a growing list of subscribers who have requested to receive updates. The presenters will discuss the origins and motivations behind the significant incidents chart. A review of the inclusion criteria used to select events will be offered. We will address how the chart is used today by S&MA and offer a vision of how it might be used by other organizations now and in the future. Particular emphasis will be placed on features of the chart that have met with broad acceptance and have helped spread awareness of the most important lessons in human spaceflight.

Wood, Bill↗

NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Lunar Instrument Data Integration Into the Virtual Reality Mission Simulation System for Decision Communication and Situational Awareness

In situ resource utilization (ISRU) technologies are a key advancement required to make human habitation on the Moon and Mars viable. The upcoming Volatiles Investigating Polar Exploration Rover (VIPER) mission will provide crucial correlations between volatiles and lunar geology to understand the water content available for ISRU on the moon. The mission will require the coordination of multi-disciplinary teams across the country making real time decisions based on rover instrument data. The virtual reality Mission Simulation System (vMSS) is a virtual reality platform designed at MIT by the Resource Exploration and Science of our Cosmic Environment (RESOURCE) team to provide teams with a collaboration interface for planetary missions like VIPER. Herein we determine the integration pathway for analog based datasets that are examples of VIPER's two main instruments, the near-infrared volatile spectrometer subsystem (NIRVSS) and the neutron spectrometer subsystem (NSS), into vMSS to provide the most valuable visualization tools. Focusing on improving situational awareness, decision making, reducing task load and incorporating comments from scientists working previous analogs and on the current VIPER mission, we recommend critical elements to implement into vMSS and the best approaches for data visualization. We present a review of relevant analogs and state of the art mission software. We have developed a design concept and path to flight of analysed instrument data integrated with data maps that allow for virtual manipulation and annotation between non-co-located team members. We focus on pre-mission mapping of a priori data for improved situational awareness, layering of analysed instrument data, correlative mapping and interactive capabilities for in-mission decision making, as well as archiving and annotation tools for post-mission analysis. Finally, we lay out the roadmap for the future development of immersive sample site visualization capabilities and the use of integrated instrument data in vMSS with automated temporal and geospatial planning.

Cody Alison Paige↗

NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Open Science for Life in Space: Data Sharing and Tools for Knowledge Discovery

The fast-growing array of space biological data, which in the past was simply archived after minimal analysis, holds great potential if it can be reorganized and formatted for Open Science. Organizing the data for such analysis is a challenge because of its diverse nature (molecular, cellular, tissue, whole organism, behavior; tabular, imagery). Open Science is the concept that the more people have access to scientifically curated data, the more knowledge will be gained. This led NASA to start the development of GeneLab in 2015. GeneLab houses spaceflight and space-analog multi-omics datasets from plant, rodent, small animal, and microbial experiments. The success and knowledge gained from GeneLab led to a new alliance of NASA “Open Science Data Repositories” (OSDR), which include the Ames Life Sciences Data Archive (ALSDA) and the NASA Biological Institutional Scientific Collection (NBISC). Both are adopting the GeneLab data system, so data are more findable, accessible, interoperable, and reusable (FAIR). OSDR systems provide users the ability to upload, download, search, share, analyze, and visualize. Open Science also needs strong confidence in the data, which is gained through building science communities. With ~400 current members, GeneLab and ALSDA formed Analysis Working Groups (AWGs) to provide feedback on processing pipelines, metadata curation standards (for ‘omics and phenotypic-physiological-behavioral assays), and to collaborate in effectively reusing data. The AWG also led to the development of the Radiation Biology Ontology (RBO), ensuring radiation metadata are efficiently captured, connected, and interoperable. Feedback from the AWG provided design input toward the new single point-of-entry data submission portal for all investigators to submit, curate, and share their research data. Space biological data is now maximally open access, collected-curated with rich metadata, and formatted for interoperability to enable systems biology, meta-analysis, knowledge graphs, machine learning, modeling, and other reuse approaches. With potential for further federation of OSDR for data mining with traditional biological and medical databases (NIH, NCI, EBI, etc.), a new era for space biology has begun to support the knowledge discovery necessary for Lunar and Martian missions.

Ryan T Scott↗

NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Flow Boiling & Condensation Experiment (FBCE): Flow Boiling in Earth Gravity and Onboard the International Space Station

Two phase thermal management systems that capitalize on both latent and sensible heats of the working fluid can yield orders of magnitude enhancements in flow boiling and condensation heat transfer coefficients and reduce size and weight of future space systems. Because the understanding of microgravity influences on two-phase flow and heat transfer is quite limited, there is presently an urgent need for a new experimental microgravity facility to enable investigators to perform long-duration flow boiling and condensation experiments in pursuit of reliable databases. This presentation will discuss results from the Flow Boiling and Condensation Experiment (FBCE), a collaborative effort between Purdue University and NASA Glenn Research Center. Experiments have been performed using the final system with the Flow Boiling Module (FBM) in vertical orientation in Earth gravity (Mission Sequence Tests, MST) and in microgravity onboard the International Space Station (ISS). High-speed-video flow visualization, heat transfer, and critical heat flux (CHF) results from the MST are presented for both subcooled liquid and saturated liquid-vapor inlet conditions. CHF predictions made using the Interfacial Lift-off Model are compared with a consolidated database made by compiling FBM datasets obtained in prior years for different orientations in Earth gravity and on parabolic flights. New explicit correlations for CHF and subcooled flow boiling heat transfer coefficient are developed and shown to be excellent in their predictive accuracies against consolidated experimental databases. Computations are performed for flows in microgravity and horizontal flows in Earth gravity, the results of which show a good predictive accuracy for both void fraction and wall temperature. Finally, similar preliminary results from the recent ISS experiments are presented.

Issam Mudawar↗

NASA NTRSDate not supplied

UTM: UAS Traffic Management

NASA is working with industry, public operators, and FAA to enable beyond visual line of sight (BVLOS) unmanned aerial systems (UAS) operations wherever it is needed. The purpose of this presentation is to widen NASA's reach of public operator involvement in the UTM BVLOS space and inform them of the fundamental principles of the UAS Traffic Management (UTM) project. Collaboration between NASA and public operations is needed to help define how services can be approved and applied to enable BVLOS operations in the Key Site and beyond.

UTM↗

NASA NTRS1995

Bringing "Scientific Expeditions" Into the Schools

Two new technologies, the FASTexpedition and Remote FAST, have been developed that provide remote, 3D, high resolution, dynamic, interactive viewing of scientific data (such as simulations or measurements of fluid dynamics). The FASTexpedition permits one to access scientific data from the World Wide Web, take guided expeditions through the data, and continue with self controlled expeditions through the data. Remote FAST permits collaborators at remote sites to simultaneously view an analysis of scientific data being controlled by one of the collaborators. Control can be transferred between sites. These technologies are now being used for remote collaboration in joint university, industry, and NASA projects in computational fluid dynamics (CFD) and wind tunnel testing. Also, NASA Ames Research Center has initiated a project to make scientific data and guided expeditions through the data available as FASTexpeditions on the World Wide Web for educational purposes. Previously, remote visualiZation of dynamic data was done using video format (transmitting pixel information) such as video conferencing or MPEG movies on the Internet. The concept for this new technology is to send the raw data (e.g., grids, vectors, and scalars) along with viewing scripts over the Internet and have the pixels generated by a visualization tool running on the viewer's local workstation. The visualization tool that is currently used is FAST (Flow Analysis Software Toolkit). The advantages of this new technology over using video format are: 1. The visual is much higher in resolution (1280xl024 pixels with 24 bits of color) than typical video format transmitted over the network. 2. The form of the visualization can be controlled interactively (because the viewer is interactively controlling the visualization tool running on his workstation). 3. A rich variety of guided expeditions through the data can be included easily. 4. A capability is provided for other sites to see a visual analysis of one site as the analysis is interactively performed. Control of the analysis can be passed from site to site. 5. The scenes can be viewed in 3D using stereo vision. 6. The network bandwidth used for the visualization using this new technology is much smaller than when using video format. (The measured peak bandwidth used was 1 Kbit/sec whereas the measured bandwidth for a small video picture was 500 Kbits/sec.)

Watson, Val↗

NASA NTRS1990

Silicates and variability in comets Okazaki-Levy-Rudenko (1989r) and Austin (1989c1)

Comet Okazaki-Levy-Rudenko (1989r) was studied over a wide range of wavelengths from the UV to the submillimeter. Using visual magnitude estimates from the IAU Circulars and reported submillimeter fluxes in conjunction with the thermal infrared spectroscopy and filter photometry, the nature of the grains and the behavior of the comet can be assessed and compared to other comets studied under this program. In addition, preliminary results from a collaborative infrared study of Comet Austin are presented which address the nature of the dust in that comet. Progress on a model for cometary properties and brightness behavior is discussed.

Russell, Ray W.↗

NASA NTRS2012

Compilation of Abstracts for SC12 Conference Proceedings

1 A Breakthrough in Rotorcraft Prediction Accuracy Using Detached Eddy Simulation; 2 Adjoint-Based Design for Complex Aerospace Configurations; 3 Simulating Hypersonic Turbulent Combustion for Future Aircraft; 4 From a Roar to a Whisper: Making Modern Aircraft Quieter; 5 Modeling of Extended Formation Flight on High-Performance Computers; 6 Supersonic Retropropulsion for Mars Entry; 7 Validating Water Spray Simulation Models for the SLS Launch Environment; 8 Simulating Moving Valves for Space Launch System Liquid Engines; 9 Innovative Simulations for Modeling the SLS Solid Rocket Booster Ignition; 10 Solid Rocket Booster Ignition Overpressure Simulations for the Space Launch System; 11 CFD Simulations to Support the Next Generation of Launch Pads; 12 Modeling and Simulation Support for NASA's Next-Generation Space Launch System; 13 Simulating Planetary Entry Environments for Space Exploration Vehicles; 14 NASA Center for Climate Simulation Highlights; 15 Ultrascale Climate Data Visualization and Analysis; 16 NASA Climate Simulations and Observations for the IPCC and Beyond; 17 Next-Generation Climate Data Services: MERRA Analytics; 18 Recent Advances in High-Resolution Global Atmospheric Modeling; 19 Causes and Consequences of Turbulence in the Earths Protective Shield; 20 NASA Earth Exchange (NEX): A Collaborative Supercomputing Platform; 21 Powering Deep Space Missions: Thermoelectric Properties of Complex Materials; 22 Meeting NASA's High-End Computing Goals Through Innovation; 23 Continuous Enhancements to the Pleiades Supercomputer for Maximum Uptime; 24 Live Demonstrations of 100-Gbps File Transfers Across LANs and WANs; 25 Untangling the Computing Landscape for Climate Simulations; 26 Simulating Galaxies and the Universe; 27 The Mysterious Origin of Stellar Masses; 28 Hot-Plasma Geysers on the Sun; 29 Turbulent Life of Kepler Stars; 30 Modeling Weather on the Sun; 31 Weather on Mars: The Meteorology of Gale Crater; 32 Enhancing Performance of NASAs High-End Computing Applications; 33 Designing Curiosity's Perfect Landing on Mars; 34 The Search Continues: Kepler's Quest for Habitable Earth-Sized Planets.

HPC↗

NASA NTRS2021

The Salinity Pilot-Mission Exploitation Platform (Pi-MEP): A Hub for Validation and Exploitation of Satellite Sea Surface Salinity Data

The Pilot-Mission Exploitation Platform (Pi-MEP) for salinity is an ESA initiative originally meant to support and widen the uptake of Soil Moisture and Ocean Salinity (SMOS) mission data over the ocean. Starting in 2017, the project aims at setting up a computational web-based platform focusing on satellite sea surface salinity data, supporting studies on enhanced validation and scientific process over the ocean. It has been designed in close collaboration with a dedicated science advisory group in order to achieve three main objectives: gathering all the data required to exploit satellite sea surface salinity data, systematically producing a wide range of metrics for comparing and monitoring sea surface salinity products’ quality, and providing user-friendly tools to explore, visualize and exploit both the collected products and the results of the automated analyses. The Salinity Pi-MEP is becoming a reference hub for the validation of satellite sea surface salinity missions by providing valuable information on satellite products (SMOS, Aquarius, SMAP), an extensive in situ database (e.g., Argo, thermosalinographs, moorings, drifters) and additional thematic datasets (precipitation, evaporation, currents, sea level anomalies, sea surface temperature, etc.). Co-localized databases between satellite products and in situ datasets are systematically generated together with validation analysis reports for 30 predefined regions. The data and reports are made fully accessible through the web interface of the platform. The datasets, validation metrics and tools (automatic, user-driven) of the platform are described in detail in this paper. Several dedicated scientific case studies involving satellite SSS data are also systematically monitored by the platform, including major river plumes, mesoscale signatures in boundary currents, high latitudes, semi-enclosed seas, and the high-precipitation region of the eastern tropical Pacific. Since 2019, a partnership in the Salinity Pi-MEP project has been agreed between ESA and NASA to enlarge focus to encompass the entire set of satellite salinity sensors. The two agencies are now working together to widen the platform features on several technical aspects, such as triple-collocation software implementation, additional match-up collocation criteria and sustained exploitation of data from the SPURS campaigns

ocean↗

NASA NTRS1993

Visualization techniques to aid in the analysis of multi-spectral astrophysical data sets

The goal of this project was to support the scientific analysis of multi-spectral astrophysical data by means of scientific visualization. Scientific visualization offers its greatest value if it is not used as a method separate or alternative to other data analysis methods but rather in addition to these methods. Together with quantitative analysis of data, such as offered by statistical analysis, image or signal processing, visualization attempts to explore all information inherent in astrophysical data in the most effective way. Data visualization is one aspect of data analysis. Our taxonomy as developed in Section 2 includes identification and access to existing information, preprocessing and quantitative analysis of data, visual representation and the user interface as major components to the software environment of astrophysical data analysis. In pursuing our goal to provide methods and tools for scientific visualization of multi-spectral astrophysical data, we therefore looked at scientific data analysis as one whole process, adding visualization tools to an already existing environment and integrating the various components that define a scientific data analysis environment. As long as the software development process of each component is separate from all other components, users of data analysis software are constantly interrupted in their scientific work in order to convert from one data format to another, or to move from one storage medium to another, or to switch from one user interface to another. We also took an in-depth look at scientific visualization and its underlying concepts, current visualization systems, their contributions, and their shortcomings. The role of data visualization is to stimulate mental processes different from quantitative data analysis, such as the perception of spatial relationships or the discovery of patterns or anomalies while browsing through large data sets. Visualization often leads to an intuitive understanding of the meaning of data values and their relationships by sacrificing accuracy in interpreting the data values. In order to be accurate in the interpretation, data values need to be measured, computed on, and compared to theoretical or empirical models (quantitative analysis). If visualization software hampers quantitative analysis (which happens with some commercial visualization products), its use is greatly diminished for astrophysical data analysis. The software system STAR (Scientific Toolkit for Astrophysical Research) was developed as a prototype during the course of the project to better understand the pragmatic concerns raised in the project. STAR led to a better understanding on the importance of collaboration between astrophysicists and computer scientists.

Brugel, Edward W.↗

NASA NTRS1998

BioSIGHT: Interactive Visualization Modules for Science Education

Redefining science education to harness emerging integrated media technologies with innovative pedagogical goals represents a unique challenge. The Integrated Media Systems Center (IMSC) is the only engineering research center in the area of multimedia and creative technologies sponsored by the National Science Foundation. The research program at IMSC is focused on developing advanced technologies that address human-computer interfaces, database management, and high-speed network capabilities. The BioSIGHT project at is a demonstration technology project in the area of education that seeks to address how such emerging multimedia technologies can make an impact on science education. The scope of this project will help solidify NASA's commitment for the development of innovative educational resources that promotes science literacy for our students and the general population as well. These issues must be addressed as NASA marches toward the goal of enabling human space exploration that requires an understanding of life sciences in space. The IMSC BioSIGHT lab was established with the purpose of developing a novel methodology that will map a high school biology curriculum into a series of interactive visualization modules that can be easily incorporated into a space biology curriculum. Fundamental concepts in general biology must be mastered in order to allow a better understanding and application for space biology. Interactive visualization is a powerful component that can capture the students' imagination, facilitate their assimilation of complex ideas, and help them develop integrated views of biology. These modules will augment the role of the teacher and will establish the value of student-centered interactivity, both in an individual setting as well as in a collaborative learning environment. Students will be able to interact with the content material, explore new challenges, and perform virtual laboratory simulations. The BioSIGHT effort is truly cross-disciplinary in nature and requires expertise from many areas including Biology, Computer Science Electrical Engineering, Education, and the Cognitive Sciences. The BioSIGHT team includes a scientific illustrator, educational software designer, computer programmers as well as IMSC graduate and undergraduate students.

Wong, Wee Ling↗

NASA NTRS1998

BioSIGHT: Interactive Visualization Modules for Science Education

Redefining science education to harness emerging integrated media technologies with innovative pedagogical goals represents a unique challenge. The Integrated Media Systems Center (IMSC) is the only engineering research center in the area of multimedia and creative technologies sponsored by the National Science Foundation. The research program at IMSC is focused on developing advanced technologies that address human-computer interfaces, database management, and high- speed network capabilities. The BioSIGHT project at IMSC is a demonstration technology project in the area of education that seeks to address how such emerging multimedia technologies can make an impact on science education. The scope of this project will help solidify NASA's commitment for the development of innovative educational resources that promotes science literacy for our students and the general population as well. These issues must be addressed as NASA marches towards the goal of enabling human space exploration that requires an understanding of life sciences in space. The IMSC BioSIGHT lab was established with the purpose of developing a novel methodology that will map a high school biology curriculum into a series of interactive visualization modules that can be easily incorporated into a space biology curriculum. Fundamental concepts in general biology must be mastered in order to allow a better understanding and application for space biology. Interactive visualization is a powerful component that can capture the students' imagination, facilitate their assimilation of complex ideas, and help them develop integrated views of biology. These modules will augment the role of the teacher and will establish the value of student-centered interactivity, both in an individual setting as well as in a collaborative learning environment. Students will be able to interact with the content material, explore new challenges, and perform virtual laboratory simulations. The BioSIGHT effort is truly cross-disciplinary in nature and requires expertise from many areas including Biology, Computer Science, Electrical Engineering, Education, and the Cognitive Sciences. The BioSIGHT team includes a scientific illustrator, educational software designer, computer programmers as well as IMSC graduate and undergraduate students. Our collaborators include TERC, a research and education organization with extensive k-12 math and science curricula development from Cambridge, MA.; SRI International of Menlo Park, CA.; teachers and students from local area high schools (Newbury Park High School, USC's Family of Five schools, Chadwick School, and Pasadena Polytechnic High School).

Wong, Wee Ling↗

NASA NTRS2014

Assessment of the Pseudo Geostationary Lightning Mapper Products at the Spring Program and Summer Experiment

Since 2010, the de facto Geostationary Lightning Mapper (GLM) demonstration product has been the Pseudo‐Geostationary Lightning Mapper (PGLM) product suite. Originally prepared for the Hazardous Weather Testbed's Spring Program (specifically the Experimental Warning Program) when only four ground‐based lightning mapping arrays were available, the effort now spans collaborations with several institutions and eight collaborative networks. For 2013, NASA's Short‐term Prediction Research and Transition (SPoRT) Center and NOAA's National Severe Storms Laboratory have worked to collaborate with each network to obtain data in real‐time. This has gone into producing the SPoRT variant of the PGLM that was demonstrated in AWIPS II for the 2013 Spring Program. Alongside the PGLM products, the SPoRT / Meteorological Development Laboratory's total lightning tracking tool also was evaluated to assess not just another visualization of future GLM data but how to best extract more information while in the operational environment. Specifically, this tool addressed the leading request by forecasters during evaluations; provide a time series trend of total lightning in real‐time. In addition to the Spring Program, SPoRT is providing the PGLM "mosaic" to the Aviation Weather Center (AWC) and Storm Prediction Center. This is the same as what is used at the Hazardous Weather Testbed, but combines all available networks into one display for use at the national centers. This year, the mosaic was evaluated during the AWC's Summer Experiment. An important distinction between this and the Spring Program is that the Summer Experiment focuses on the national center perspective and not at the local forecast office level. Specifically, the Summer Experiment focuses on aviation needs and concerns and brings together operational forecaster, developers, and FAA representatives. This presentation will focus on the evaluation of SPoRT's pseudo‐GLM products in these separate test beds. The emphasis will be on how future GLM observations can support operations at both the local and national scale and how the PGLM was used in combination with other lightning data sets. Evaluations for the PGLM were quite favorable with forecasters appreciating the high temporal resolution, the ability to look for rapid increases in lightning activity ahead of severe weather, as well as situational awareness for where convection is firing and for flight routing.

Stano, Geoffrey T.↗

NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Developing a Vision for Maturing the Heliophysics Infrastructure towards Open Science: The DIARieS Analysis Ecosystem

In the dawn of open science and the upcoming requirements, we speak about the existing state of Heliophysics infrastructure and detail the evolution required to address capability or interconnection shortcomings. Such a daunting barrier calls for an analysis ecosystem with multi-faceted capability. We propose such an ecosystem, called DIARieS, to be built upon five conceptual pillars: Discovery, Implementation, Analysis, Reproducibility, and Sharing of results. The combination of these concepts in a single platform will enable users to more intuitively combine recent advances in technology to create ‘DIARieS’ of their workflows, which can be easily made open to others in the community. The DIARieS ecosystem will also increase our efficiency by streamlining our various workflow processes, including automatic incorporation of the impending requirements of open science. The various components of the ecosystem will simplify software installation and data implementation, including automatically generated citation lists based on the components included. Automatic containerization and version control of the ecosystem will make the custom workflows easily reproducible. Employing widget technology will ease the difficulty of producing publication and commercial quality visualizations and applying common analyses techniques. Incorporating multiple technologies will streamline the various sharing methods common in our work environments today. Overall, the totality of capabilities to be offered by this analysis ecosystem will drastically simplify the application of open science principles to our work in addition to improving our efficiency and ease of collaboration. This talk summarizes a vision of the proposed ecosystem, which is described in more detail in Ringuette et al. (2022: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.asr.2022.05.012).

infrastructure↗

NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Developing a Vision for Maturing the Heliophysics Infrastructure towards Open Science

Infrastructure↗

NASA NTRS1989

Automatic speech recognition in air-ground data link

In the present air traffic system, information presented to the transport aircraft cockpit crew may originate from a variety of sources and may be presented to the crew in visual or aural form, either through cockpit instrument displays or, most often, through voice communication. Voice radio communications are the most error prone method for air-ground data link. Voice messages can be misstated or misunderstood and radio frequency congestion can delay or obscure important messages. To prevent proliferation, a multiplexed data link display can be designed to present information from multiple data link sources on a shared cockpit display unit (CDU) or multi-function display (MFD) or some future combination of flight management and data link information. An aural data link which incorporates an automatic speech recognition (ASR) system for crew response offers several advantages over visual displays. The possibility of applying ASR to the air-ground data link was investigated. The first step was to review current efforts in ASR applications in the cockpit and in air traffic control and evaluated their possible data line application. Next, a series of preliminary research questions is to be developed for possible future collaboration.

Armstrong, Herbert B.↗

NASA NTRS2009

Developing New Coastal Forest Restoration Products Based on Landsat, ASTER, and MODIS Data

This paper discusses an ongoing effort to develop new geospatial information products for aiding coastal forest restoration and conservation efforts in coastal Louisiana and Mississippi. This project employs Landsat, Advanced Spaceborne Thermal Emission and Reflection Radiometer (ASTER), and Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) satellite data in conjunction with airborne elevation data to compute coastal forest cover type maps and change detection products. Improved forest mapping products are needed to aid coastal forest restoration and management efforts of State and Federal agencies in the Northern Gulf of Mexico (NGOM) region. In particular, such products may aid coastal forest land acquisition and conservation easement procurements. This region's forests are often disturbed and subjected to multiple biotic and abiotic threats, including subsidence, salt water intrusion, hurricanes, sea-level rise, insect-induced defoliation and mortality, altered hydrology, wildfire, and conversion to non-forest land use. In some cases, such forest disturbance has led to forest loss or loss of regeneration capacity. In response, a case study was conducted to assess and demonstrate the potential of satellite remote sensing products for improving forest type maps and for assessing forest change over the last 25 years. Change detection products are needed for assessing risks for specific priority coastal forest types, such as live oak and baldcypress-dominated forest. Preliminary results indicate Landsat time series data are capable of generating the needed forest type and change detection products. Useful classifications were obtained using 2 strategies: 1) general forest classification based on use of 3 seasons of Landsat data from the same year; and 2) classification of specific forest types of concern using a single date of Landsat data in which a given targeted type is spectrally distinct compared to adjacent forested cover. When available, ASTER data was useful as a complement to Landsat data. Elevation data helped to define areas in which targeted forest types occur, such as live oak forests on natural levees. MODIS Normalized Difference Vegetation Index time series data aided visual assessments of coastal forest damage and recovery from hurricanes. Landsat change detection products enabled change to be identified at the stand level and at 10- year intervals with the earliest date preceding available change detection products from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and from the U.S. Geological Survey. Additional work is being done in collaboration with State and Federal agency partners in a follow-on NASA ROSES project to refine and validate these new, promising products. The products from the ROSES project will be available for aiding NGOM coastal forest restoration and conservation.

Spruce, Joseph P.↗

NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Motion Magnification to Visualize the Modes of Space Structures

Traditional structural testing involves using accelerometers and strain gages to measure the motion. While this traditional instrumentation suite has proven accurate, it is limited to capture data only in the discrete locations where the transducers are placed. Additionally, applying the instrumentation can be a difficult and labor intensive task. By using video cameras, the motion of the test article – such as a launch vehicle or launch vehicle payload – can be easily captured at any location in the field of view and easily visualized using a post-processing technique called Motion Magnification. It is also much easier to place video cameras to measure motion rather than having to place contact sensors, especially when placement locations can be limited on final flight hardware. Recently, a team of MIT Lincoln Laboratory (MITLL) and NASA Marshall Space Flight Center (MSFC) have been collaborating to use Motion Magnification to measure the dynamics of large space structures. This presentation will detail some of the results of this collaboration.

Eric Colby Stewart↗