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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

Finding the forest in the trees. The challenge of combining diverse environmental data

Development of analytical and functional guidelines to help researchers and technicians engaged in interdisciplinary research to better plan and implement their supporting data management activities is addressed. An emphasis is on the projects that involve both geophysical and ecological issues. Six case studies were used to identify and to understand problems associated with collecting, integrating, and analyzing environmental data from local to global spatial scales and over a range of temporal scales. These case studies were also used to elaborate the common barriers to interfacing data of disparate sources and types. A number of lessons derived from the case studies are summarized and analyzed.

Source record↗

IMAGE Mission Science

Simultaneous, global measurement of major magnetospheric plasma systems will be performed for the first time with the Imager for Magnetopause-to-Aurora Global Exploration (IMAGE) Mission. The ring current, plasmasphere, and auroral systems will be imaged using energetic neutral and ultraviolet cameras. Quantitative remote measurement of the magnetosheath, plasmaspheric, and magnetospheric densities will be obtained through radio sounding by the Radio Plasma Imager. The IMAGE Mission will open a new era in global magnetospheric physics, while bringing with it new challenges in data analysis. An overview of the IMAGE Theory and Modeling team efforts will be presented, including the state of development of Internet tools that will be available to the science community for access and analysis of IMAGE observations.

Gallagher, D. L.↗

Rotating Pressure and Temperature Measurements on Scale Model Fans Using Luminescent Paints

Pressure and temperature sensitive paint (PSP, TSP) technology is a rapidly developing measurement technique that is widely accepted in external aerodynamic wind tunnel measurements. Almost all quantitative full field measurements have been on stationary surfaces. Rotating pressure and temperature measurements were successfully acquired during scale-model fan tests in the NASA Lewis Research Center 9 foot by 15 foot low speed wind tunnel at speeds as high as 9500 RPM. The use of PSP and TSP on rotating surfaces presents additional challenges to data acquisition. This paper describes in detail the techniques used to acquire global rotating pressure and temperature measurements and overcome the problems associated with this type of measurement. These include illumination and detection problems associated with moving surfaces, temperature dependence of PSP and limited emitted light available from short duration illumination sources. Solutions to these problems as well as pressure and temperature results will be discussed.

Bencic, Timothy J.↗

Finite Element Simulation of a Space Shuttle Solid Rocket Booster Aft Skirt Splashdown Using an Arbitrary Lagrangian-eulerian Approach

Explicit finite element techniques employing an Arbitrary Lagrangian-Eulerian (ALE) methodology, within the transient dynamic code LS-DYNA, are used to predict splashdown loads on a proposed replacement/upgrade of the hydrazine tanks on the thrust vector control system housed within the aft skirt of a Space Shuttle Solid Rocket Booster. Two preliminary studies are performed prior to the full aft skirt analysis: An analysis of the proposed tank impacting water without supporting aft skirt structure, and an analysis of space capsule water drop tests conducted at NASA's Langley Research Center. Results from the preliminary studies provide confidence that useful predictions can be made by applying the ALE methodology to a detailed analysis of a 26-degree section of the skirt with proposed tank attached. Results for all three studies are presented and compared to limited experimental data. The challenges of using the LS-DYNA ALE capability for this type of analysis are discussed.

Melis, Matthew E.↗

TIGER: Development of Thermal Gradient Compensation Algorithms and Techniques

In a wind tunnel facility, the direct measurement of forces and moments induced on the model are performed by a force measurement balance. The measurement balance is a precision-machined device that has strain gages at strategic locations to measure the strain (i.e., deformations) due to applied forces and moments. The strain gages convert the strain (and hence the applied force) to an electrical voltage that is measured by external instruments. To address the problem of thermal gradients on the force measurement balance NASA-LaRC has initiated a research program called TIGER - Thermally-Induced Gradients Effects Research. The ultimate goals of the TIGER program are to: (a) understand the physics of the thermally-induced strain and its subsequent impact on load measurements and (b) develop a robust thermal gradient compensation technique. This paper will discuss the impact of thermal gradients on force measurement balances, specific aspects of the TIGER program (the design of a special-purpose balance, data acquisition and data analysis challenges), and give an overall summary.

Hereford, James↗

Ground System for Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO) Mission

NASA s Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC) has recently completed its Critical Design Review (CDR) of a new dual Ka and S-band ground system for the Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO) Mission. SDO, the flagship mission under the new Living with a Star Program Office, is one of GSFC s most recent large-scale in-house missions. The observatory is scheduled for launch in August 2008 from the Kennedy Space Center aboard an Atlas-5 expendable launch vehicle. Unique to this mission is an extremely challenging science data capture requirement. The mission is required to capture 99.99% of available science over 95% of all observation opportunities. Due to the continuous, high volume (150 Mbps) science data rate, no on-board storage of science data will be implemented on this mission. With the observatory placed in a geo-synchronous orbit at 36,000 kilometers within view of dedicated ground stations, the ground system will in effect implement a "real-time" science data pipeline with appropriate data accounting, data storage, data distribution, data recovery, and automated system failure detection and correction to keep the science data flowing continuously to three separate Science Operations Centers (SOCs). Data storage rates of approx. 45 Tera-bytes per month are expected. The Mission Operations Center (MOC) will be based at GSFC and is designed to be highly automated. Three SOCs will share in the observatory operations, each operating their own instrument. Remote operations of a multi-antenna ground station in White Sands, New Mexico from the MOC is part of the design baseline.

Tann, Hun K.↗

Recent Project Experience Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO)

This viewgraph presentation reviews the experiences of the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO). It includes an overview of the MRO mission; the challenges of data Management and Transport; a representation of the end-to-end flow for the telemetry data; a review of the data issues, and Coherent File Distribution Protocol (CFDP) uses and issues.

Mars Exploration Rover (MER)↗

Air-Loads Prediction of a UH-60A Rotor inside the 40- by 80-Foot Wind Tunnel

The presented research extends the capability of a loose coupling computational fluid dynamics (CFD) and computational structure dynamics (CSD) code to calculate the flow-field around a rotor and test stand mounted inside a wind tunnel. Comparison of predicted air-load results for a full-scale UH-60A rotor recently tested inside the National Full-Scale Aerodynamics Complex (NFAC) 40- by 80-Foot Wind Tunnel at Ames Research Center and in free-air flight are made for three challenging flight data points from the earlier conducted UH-60A Air-loads Program. Overall results show that the extension of the coupled CFD/CSD code to the wind-tunnel environment is generally successful.

Chang, I-Chung↗

X-Ray Polarimetry with GEMS

The polarization properties of cosmic X-ray sources are still largely unexplored. The Gravity and Extreme Magnetism SMEX (GEMS) will carry out the first sensitive X-ray polarization survey of a wide range of sources including; accreting compact objects (black holes and neutron stars), AGN, supernova remnants, magnetars and rotation-powered pulsars. GEMS employs grazing-incidence foil mirrors and novel time-projection chamber (TPC) polarimeters leveraging the photoelectric effect to achieve high polarization sensitivity in the 2 - 10 keV band. I will provide an update of the project status, illustrate the expected performance with several science examples, and provide a brief overview of the data analysis challenges

Strohmayer, Tod↗

Data Analysis And Polarization Measurements With GEMS

The Gravity and Extreme Magnetism SMEX (GEMS) mission was selected by NASA for flight in 2014. GEMS will make the first sensitive survey of X-ray polarization across a wide range of source classes including black hole and neutron star binaries, AGN of different types, rotation and accretion-powered pulsars, magnetars, shell supernova remnants and pulsar wind nebulae. GEMS employs grazing-incidence foil mirrors and novel time-projection chamber (TPC) polarimeters leveraging the photoelectric effect. The GEMS detectors image the charge tracks of photoelectrons produced by 2 - 10 keV X-rays. The initial direction of the photoelectron is determined by the linear polarization of the photon. We present an overview of the data analysis challenges and methods for GEMS, including procedures for producing optimally filtered images of the charge tracks and estimating their initial directions. We illustrate our methods using laboratory measurements of polarized and unpolarized X-rays with flight-like detectors as well as from simulated tracks. We also present detailed simulations exploring the statistics of polarization measurements appropriate for GEMS, and make comparisons with previous work.

Stohmayer, Tod↗

Analysis of Aviation Safety Reporting System Incident Data Associated with the Technical Challenges of the Atmospheric Environment Safety Technology Project

This study analyzed aircraft incidents in the NASA Aviation Safety Reporting System (ASRS) that apply to two of the three technical challenges (TCs) in NASA's Aviation Safety Program's Atmospheric Environment Safety Technology Project. The aircraft incidents are related to airframe icing and atmospheric hazards TCs. The study reviewed incidents that listed their primary problem as weather or environment-nonweather between 1994 and 2011 for aircraft defined by Federal Aviation Regulations (FAR) Parts 121, 135, and 91. The study investigated the phases of flight, a variety of anomalies, flight conditions, and incidents by FAR part, along with other categories. The first part of the analysis focused on airframe-icing-related incidents and found 275 incidents out of 3526 weather-related incidents over the 18-yr period. The second portion of the study focused on atmospheric hazards and found 4647 incidents over the same time period. Atmospheric hazards-related incidents included a range of conditions from clear air turbulence and wake vortex, to controlled flight toward terrain, ground encounters, and incursions.

Withrow, Colleen A.↗

A Global Capacity Building Vision for Societal Applications of Earth Observing Systems and Data: Key Questions and Recommendations

Capacity building using Earth observing (EO) systems and data (i.e., from orbital and nonorbital platforms) to enable societal applications includes the network of human, nonhuman, technical, nontechnical, hardware, and software dimensions that are necessary to successfully cross the valley [of death; see NRC (2001)] between science and research (port of departure) and societal application (port of arrival). In many parts of the world (especially where ground-based measurements are scarce or insufficient), applications of EO data still struggle for longevity or continuity for a variety of reasons, foremost among them being the lack of resilient capacity. An organization is said to have resilient capacity when it can retain and continue to build capacity in the face of unexpected shocks or stresses. Stresses can include intermittent power and limited Internet bandwidth, constant need for education on ever-increasing complexity of EO systems and data, communication challenges between the ports of departure and arrival (especially across time zones), and financial limitations and instability. Shocks may also include extreme events such as disasters and losing key staff with technical and institutional knowledge.

shocks↗

Automatic Anomaly Detection with Machine Learning

This presentation will discuss the following topics: Understanding the benefits of automatic anomaly detection Identifying precursors with algorithms. Overcoming the challenges of data issues in automation.

Data Science↗

Assembly of the IXPE Mirror Modules

Expected to launch in December 2021, the Imaging X-ray Polarimetry Explorer (IXPE) is a NASA Astrophysics Small Explorer Mission with significant contributions from the Italian space agency (ASI). Three identical x-ray telescopes combine to form the IXPE Observatory. Each is comprised of a 4-m-focal length mirror module assembly (MMA, provided by Marshall Space Flight Center) that focuses x-rays onto a polarization-sensitive, imaging detector (contributed by ASI-funded institutions). This paper describes the now-completed assembly process for the 3 flight and one spare mirror modules, and compares as-tested calibrated performance with as-built metrology data. Unexpected challenges and lessons-learned are also discussed.

X-ray optics IXPE polarimetry↗

Assessment of Retrieved GMI Emissivity Over Land, Snow, and Sea Ice in the GEOS System

Directly assimilating microwave radiances over land, snow and sea ice remains a significant challenge for data assimilation systems. These data assimilation systems are critical to the success of global numerical weather prediction systems including the Global Earth Observing System-Atmospheric Data Assimilation System (GEOS-ADAS). Extending more surface sensitive microwave channels over land, snow and ice could provide a needed source of data for Numerical Weather Prediction particularly in the Planetary Boundary Layer (PBL). Unfortunately, the accuracy of emissivity models currently available within the GEOS-ADAS along with other data assimilation systems are insufficient to simulate and assimilate radiances. Recently, Munchak et al. (2020) published a 5-year climatological database for retrieved microwave emissivity from the GPM Microwave Imager (GMI) aboard the Global Precipitation Mission (GPM). In this work the database is utilized by modifying the GEOS-ADAS to use this emissivity database in place of the default emissivity value available in the Community Radiative Transfer Model (CRTM), which is the fast radiative transfer model used by the GEOS-ADAS. As a first step, the GEOS-ADAS is run in a so-called “stand-alone” mode to simulate radiances from GMI using the default CRTM emissivity, and replacing the default CRTM emissivity models with values from Munchak et al, 2020. The simulated observations using Munchak et al., 2020 agree more closely with observations from GMI. These results are presented along with a discussion of the implication for GMI observations within the GEOS-ADAS.

GPM↗

Observation impacts in the lower troposphere and challenges of Planetary Boundary Layer data assimilation

The Goddard Earth Observing System (GEOS) developed by the NASA Global Modeling and Assimilation Office assimilates a wide range of observations to support various NASA Earth Science missions. To set the stage for follow-on Planetary Boundary Layer (PBL) science and prepare for future observing systems of the next decade, we have assessed the effectiveness of the use of existing observing systems in the lower troposphere in GEOS, and analyzed model responses to the incremental analysis update (IAU) forcing. With a better understanding of the GEOS data assimilation algorithms in the PBL, we have developed strategies for improved PBL data assimilation in GEOS. The strategies to enhance data usages in both the data assimilation system and forecast model will be presented, and the utilization of PBL height data from multiple observing systems will be discussed as well.

Yanqiu Zhu↗

Near 40 Years MERRA-2 Data at NASA GES DISC -Opportunity and Challenge to Support Extremes Study

To the end of 2019, 40 years NASA climate reanalysis data sets from the Modern Era Retrospective-analysis for Research and Applications, Version 2 (MERRA-2) will be available at NASA Goddard Earth Sciences Data and Information Services Center (GES DISC). MERRA-2 consists atmosphere, land, and ocean data, which may be used for the studies ranging from the short scale weather events to the large scale decadal vulnerabilities. The hourly products, such as precipitation, soil moisture, temperature, and aerosols etc., have been used widely to study extreme events.In supporting users from broad communities, GES DISC have developed various data access services, including subsetter for downloading only data of interest with preferred format; OPeNDAP - for machine-to-machine data access; and Giovanni- for online visualization and analysis, etc. A big challenge for extreme study is to downloading and processing long-term hourly or daily data. The data downloading performance is not very satisfied by many users with current services and the native archived data structure. Late June 2019, many people in Europe had experienced extreme heat waves. The temperatures in several countries exceeded 40°C (104°F). For example, MERRA-2 shows that the near surface daily maximum temperature of June 28 2019 over Marseille, a city in southern France, reached 41.1 °C (106°F), which is the record breaking temperature in the last 40 years. GES DISC is working together with domain science experts to improve the performance of long time series access, making analysis ready data sets in supporting application researches, such as extreme study. In this presentation, using Europe heat wave as an example, we will show prototype of the in developing service for finding extremes from near 40 years MERRA-2 data at a given location. MERRA-2 data can be accessed from NASA GES DISC(https://disc.gsfc.nasa.gov/ ) by search keyword "MERRA-2".

Shen, Suhung↗