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NASA NTRS2011

Applying Geospatial Technologies for International Development and Public Health: The USAID/NASA SERVIR Program

Background: SERVIR -- the Regional Visualization and Monitoring System -- helps people use Earth observations and predictive models based on data from orbiting satellites to make timely decisions that benefit society. SERVIR operates through a network of regional hubs in Mesoamerica, East Africa, and the Hindu Kush-Himalayas. USAID and NASA support SERVIR, with the long-term goal of transferring SERVIR capabilities to the host countries. Objective/Purpose: The purpose of this presentation is to describe how the SERVIR system helps the SERVIR regions cope with eight areas of societal benefit identified by the Group on Earth Observations (GEO): health, disasters, ecosystems, biodiversity, weather, water, climate, and agriculture. This presentation will describe environmental health applications of data in the SERVIR system, as well as ongoing and future efforts to incorporate additional health applications into the SERVIR system. Methods: This presentation will discuss how the SERVIR Program makes environmental data available for use in environmental health applications. SERVIR accomplishes its mission by providing member nations with access to geospatial data and predictive models, information visualization, training and capacity building, and partnership development. SERVIR conducts needs assessments in partner regions, develops custom applications of Earth observation data, and makes NASA and partner data available through an online geospatial data portal at SERVIRglobal.net. Results: Decision makers use SERVIR to improve their ability to monitor air quality, extreme weather, biodiversity, and changes in land cover. In past several years, the system has been used over 50 times to respond to environmental threats such as wildfires, floods, landslides, and harmful algal blooms. Given that the SERVIR regions are experiencing increased stress under larger climate variability than historic observations, SERVIR provides information to support the development of adaptation strategies for nations affected by climate change. Conclusions: SERVIR is a platform for collaboration and cross-agency coordination, international partnerships, and delivery of web-based geospatial information services and applications. SERVIR makes a variety of geospatial data available for use in studies of environmental health outcomes.

Hemmings, Sarah↗
NASA NTRS1997

Alternative Perspectives on Risk

The goal of the commercial air transport system is to provide air transportation to the flying public at an acceptable cost with minimal risk. in an ideal situation these three goals would support each other. In fact, it is sometimes the case that the goals conflict: getting passengers to their destinations on time may conflict with fixing a minor mechanical malfunction that may or may not impact safety; flying a route that will avoid turbulence, thereby providing passengers with a more comfortable ride, may consume more fuel; managing traffic density may mean aircraft are delayed or must use an approach that will result in a long taxi to their gates, costing time and fuel. Various players in the system--pilots, dispatchers, controllers, as well as managers in the airline carriers and traffic management system--make decisions every day that involve trade-offs of benefits and costs. The prospect of revisions in the air traffic management system, with shifts in responsibilities from controllers to users, including airline operations center personnel and pilots, means that individuals may be performing either new jobs or old jobs under new guidance. It will be essential to know how the various players (a) perceive the risks and benefits associated with the decisions they will make under the old and new control structures, and (b) how much risk they are willing to accept in making decisions. Risk is here defined as the probability and magnitude of negative events (after Slovic, 1987). Of primary interest are risks associated with traffic, weather, and operational factors such as schedule, fuel consumption, and passenger service. Previous research has documented differences between groups in perceptions of risks associated with both everyday and aviation related situations. Risk perception varies as a function of familiarity with the situation, degree to which one is potentially affected by the risk, the level of control one has over the situation, and one's level of experience and responsibility in the situation. In our presentation we will consider several factors that may influence differences in risk perception, risk tolerance and risk management among the three major categories of participants in the aviation system (pilots, dispatchers, and controllers). Primary factors that may affect risk attitudes (the collective term we will use for the three components of risk) include: expertise or job-specific knowledge or training, personal involvement or vulnerability to consequences, goals, time horizon (imminence of consequences), span of control and type of control, and information or technology support. These will be considered in the context of five different types of risk (physical threat, economic, social, legal, and ethical). A study designed to study differences between pilots and controllers in their perceptions and responses to traffic risks under the present and a user-preferred control situation will be described. Future studies involving dispatchers' risk perceptions regarding various types of risk will be discussed.

Davison, Jeannie↗
NASA NTRS2007

Emergency Preparedness for Catastrophic Events at Small and Medium Sized Airports: Lacking or Not?

The implementation of security methods and processes in general has had a decisive impact on the aviation industry. However, efforts to effectively coordinate varied aspects of security protocols between agencies and general aviation components have not been adequately addressed. Whether or not overall security issues, especially with regard to planning for catastrophic terrorist events, have been neglected at the nation's smaller airports is the main topic of this paper. For perspective, the term general aviation is generally accepted to include all flying except for military and scheduled airline operations. Genera aviation makes up more than 1 percent of the U.S. Gross Domestic Product and supports almost 1.3 mission high-skilled jobs in professional services and manufacturing and hence is an important component of the aviation industry (AOPA, n.d.). In both conceptual and practical terms, this paper argues for the proactive management of security planning and repeated security awareness training from both an individual and an organizational perspective within the general aviation venue. The results of a research project incorporating survey data from general aviation and small commercial airport managers as well as Transportation Security Administration (TSA) employees are reported. Survey findings suggest that miscommunication does take place on different organizational levels and that between TSA employees and airport management interaction can be contentious and cooperation diminished. The importance of organizational training for decreasing conflict and increasing security and preparedness is discussed as a primary implication.

Sweet, Kathleen M.↗
NASA NTRS1995

Mission to Planet Earth. Strategic enterprise plan, 1995-2000

Mission to Planet Earth (MTPE) provides long-term understanding of the earth system needed to protect and improve our environment, now and for future generations. This MTPE Strategic Enterprise Plan states how NASA intends to meet its responsibility to the Nation for developing a long-term, integrated program of environmental observation in support of informed decision-making. This plan implements the NASA Strategic Plan for the MTPE Enterprise; it is the first version of a rolling 5-year plan that will be updated annually. It is consistent with the interagency program developed by the Committee on Environment and Natural Resources of the National Science and Technology Council and implemented in large part through the U.S. Global Change Research Program. This report consists of the following sections: (1) introduction; (2) scientific foundation; (3) mission (destination and purposes); (4) principle of operation (ethical and quality assurance standards); (5) customer base (to ensure that the right products and services are delivered); (6) internal and external assessments; (7) assumptions; (8) goals, objectives, and strategies; (9) linkages to other strategic enterprises; and (10) summary.

Source record↗
NASA NTRS1995

SEDAC data and applications development plan V(1)

This Data and Applications Development Plan describes how the Socioeconomic Data and Applications Center (SEDAC) at the Consortium for International Earth Science Information Network (CIESIN) is responding to SEDAC's mission to develop new applications and information products that synthesize earth science and socioeconomic data in ways that support decision making. The SEDAC data and applications development effort is a primary means by which the Earth Observing System Data and Information System (EOSDIS) program can help to ensure that the scientific investment embodied in NASA's Mission to Planet Earth (MTPE) program leads to tangible benefits to the American people. The Plan describes the major issues concerned with global climate change, identifies important decision makers and other users who would benefit from improved data and information, and assesses key opportunities for responding to the needs of these users and the scientists who work with them. It then details specific plans for developing selected integrated data products and services and for making them available to the target users on an operational basis. This report provides a summary of the activities performed in connection with NASA/GSFC Letter Contract NAS5-3263 for the period shown.

Chen, Robert S.↗
NASA NTRS2013

Severe Weather Tool using 1500 UTC Cape Canaveral Air Force Station Soundings

People and property at Kennedy Space Center (KSC) and Cape Canaveral Air Force Station (CCAFS) are at risk when severe weather occurs. Strong winds, hail and tornadoes can injure individuals and cause costly damage to structures if not properly protected. NASA's Launch Services Program and Ground Systems Development and Operations Program and other KSC programs use the daily and weekly severe weather forecasts issued by the 45th Weather Squadron (45 WS) to determine if they need to limit an activity such as working on gantries, or protect property such as a vehicle on a pad. The 45 WS requested the Applied Meteorology Unit (AMU) develop a warm season (May-September) severe weather tool for use in the Meteorological Interactive Data Display System (MIDDS) based on the late morning, 1500 UTC (1100 local time), CCAFS (XMR) sounding. The 45 WS frequently makes decisions to issue a severe weather watch and other severe weather warning support products to NASA and the 45th Space Wing in the late morning, after the 1500 UTC sounding. The results of this work indicate that certain stability indices based on the late morning XMR soundings can depict differences between days with reported severe weather and days with no reported severe weather. The AMU determined a frequency of reported severe weather for the stability indices and implemented an operational tool in MIDDS.

Bauman, William H., III↗
NASA NTRS2014

Life Cycle Analysis of Dedicated Nano-Launch Technologies

Recent technology advancements have enabled the development of small cheap satellites that can perform useful functions in the space environment. Currently, the only low cost option for getting these payloads into orbit is through ride share programs. As a result, these launch opportunities await primary payload launches and a backlog exists. An alternative option would be dedicated nano-launch systems built and operated to provide more flexible launch services, higher availability, and affordable prices. The potential customer base that would drive requirements or support a business case includes commercial, academia, civil government and defense. Further, NASA technology investments could enable these alternative game changing options.With this context, in 2013 the Game Changing Development (GCD) program funded a NASA team to investigate the feasibility of dedicated nano-satellite launch systems with a recurring cost of less than $2 million per launch for a 5 kg payload to low Earth orbit. The team products would include potential concepts, technologies and factors for enabling the ambitious cost goal, exploring the nature of the goal itself, and informing the GCD program technology investment decision making process. This paper provides an overview of the life cycle analysis effort that was conducted in 2013 by an inter-center NASA team. This effort included the development of reference nano-launch system concepts, developing analysis processes and models, establishing a basis for cost estimates (development, manufacturing and launch) suitable to the scale of the systems, and especially, understanding the relationship of potential game changing technologies to life cycle costs, as well as other factors, such as flights per year.

modeling↗
NASA NTRS2005

Middleware Evaluation and Benchmarking for Use in Mission Operations Centers

Middleware technologies have been promoted as timesaving, cost-cutting alternatives to the point-to-point communication used in traditional mission operations systems. However, missions have been slow to adopt the new technology. The lack of existing middleware-based missions has given rise to uncertainty about middleware's ability to perform in an operational setting. Most mission architects are also unfamiliar with the technology and do not know the benefits and detriments to architectural choices - or even what choices are available. We will present the findings of a study that evaluated several middleware options specifically for use in a mission operations system. We will address some common misconceptions regarding the applicability of middleware-based architectures, and we will identify the design decisions and tradeoffs that must be made when choosing a middleware solution. The Middleware Comparison and Benchmark Study was conducted at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center to comprehensively evaluate candidate middleware products, compare and contrast the performance of middleware solutions with the traditional point- to-point socket approach, and assess data delivery and reliability strategies. The study focused on requirements of the Global Precipitation Measurement (GPM) mission, validating the potential use of middleware in the GPM mission ground system. The study was jointly funded by GPM and the Goddard Mission Services Evolution Center (GMSEC), a virtual organization for providing mission enabling solutions and promoting the use of appropriate new technologies for mission support. The study was broken into two phases. To perform the generic middleware benchmarking and performance analysis, a network was created with data producers and consumers passing data between themselves. The benchmark monitored the delay, throughput, and reliability of the data as the characteristics were changed. Measurements were taken under a variety of topologies, data demands, and data characteristics, using several middleware products. All results were compared to systems using traditional point-to-point socket communication. By comparing performance results under Merent settings, inferences could be made about each middleware's ability to meet certain requirements of the GPM mission. The second phase simulated a middleware-based mission operations center. Actual mission support tools were either used or simulated to create real world demands on the middleware. Network and computer demands were watched closely to verify that no specific idiosyncrasies of mission operations activities would prove unsupportable by the middleware. In our presentation, we will address some commonly accepted misconceptions concerning middleware in mission support architectures. Specifically, we will focus on the perception that middleware solutions are too slow or impose too much overhead for real-time mission operations, and that middleware solutions are too expensive for small

Antonucci, Rob↗
NASA NTRS2014

Life Cycle Analysis of Dedicated Nano-Launch Technologies

Recent technology advancements have enabled the development of small cheap satellites that can perform useful functions in the space environment. Currently, the only low cost option for getting these payloads into orbit is through ride share programs - small satellites awaiting the launch of a larger satellite, and then riding along on the same launcher. As a result, these small satellite customers await primary payload launches and a backlog exists. An alternative option would be dedicated nano-launch systems built and operated to provide more flexible launch services, higher availability, and affordable prices. The potential customer base that would drive requirements or support a business case includes commercial, academia, civil government and defense. Further, NASA technology investments could enable these alternative game changing options. With this context, in 2013 the Game Changing Development (GCD) program funded a NASA team to investigate the feasibility of dedicated nano-satellite launch systems with a recurring cost of less than $2 million per launch for a 5 kg payload to low Earth orbit. The team products would include potential concepts, technologies and factors for enabling the ambitious cost goal, exploring the nature of the goal itself, and informing the GCD program technology investment decision making process. This paper provides an overview of the life cycle analysis effort that was conducted in 2013 by an inter-center NASA team. This effort included the development of reference nano-launch system concepts, developing analysis processes and models, establishing a basis for cost estimates (development, manufacturing and launch) suitable to the scale of the systems, and especially, understanding the relationship of potential game changing technologies to life cycle costs, as well as other factors, such as flights per year.

nanolaunch↗
NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Automatic Dependent Surveillance-Broadcast (ADS-B) In-Trail Procedures (ITP)

Aircraft in oceanic and remote non-radar airspace frequently fly for extended periods of time in the same direction, at the same time, along similar flight paths as other aircraft. Since there is no radar surveillance, controllers use procedural separation to ensure that aircraft remain separated. Procedural separation distances are typically larger than radar separation distances and as a result aircraft operating in oceanic airspace are sometimes held at non-optimal flight levels due to conflicting traffic at intervening flight levels. Automatic Dependent Surveillance-Broadcast (ADS-B) In-Trail Procedures (ITP) were developed to enable flight level change maneuvers that would otherwise not be possible with current procedural separation standards. Aircraft operators choosing to equip with an ADS-B transceiver and an appropriate onboard decision support system would be able to take advantage of these procedures when operating in proximity to aircraft equipped with a suitable ADS-B transmitter (“ADS-B Out”). The ability to perform in-trail maneuvers to achieve more time at optimum altitudes could result in more efficient and predictable flight profiles thereby saving fuel and in some cases allowing operators to make beneficial operational decisions. NASA first began developing ADS-B ITP in 2003 as a result of a desire to develop methodologies, concepts, and procedures to reduce separation requirements for future air transportation systems using airborne ADS-B. The objectives were to provide insight into the details necessary to reduce separation requirements for the future and to develop applications that could provide incentives for operators to voluntarily equip with transformational technologies. From 2003 to 2008, NASA conducted research that supported the development of ITP including batch simulations, human-in-the-loop experiments and avionics and separation standards development. This research showed enough maturity and benefit that in 2008, the FAA Surveillance and Broadcast Services (SBS) program adopted ADS-B ITP as one of their three key, near-term applications to make use of ADS-B-In. The FAA developed an agreement with NASA to transition the technology and established an FAA project for the purpose of performing an operational trial of ADS-B ITP in revenue service in the summer of 2011. The objectives of the project are to a) validate the operational performance and economic benefits of ITP; and b) develop and validate ADS-B ITP Minimum Operational Performance Specifications (MOPS) material. As a part of this project, the FAA established agreements with United Airlines and Honeywell. The agreements include the work necessary for the development, certification and installation of onboard systems for twelve United Airlines 747-400s. ITP system development is nearly complete and certification activities are underway. The FAA project has also been working with Oakland Oceanic Control Center (ZOA) and the FAA’s Oceanic and Offshore Operations Office to develop controller procedures and safety analyses that are required to support the flight trial. The FAA has also been working on the development of an ITP Operational Specification that should be approved this April. The presentation will cover some of the key aspects of the development, challenges, and integration required to successfully transition ADS-B ITP from a concept in 2003 to flight trials in revenue service in 2011.

Kenneth M Jones↗
NASA NTRS2004

The GOES-R Lightning Mapper Sensor

The Lightning Mapper Sensor on GOES-R builds on previous measurements of lightning from low earth orbit by the OTD (Optical Transient Detector) and LIS (Lightning Imaging Sensor) sensors. Unlike observations from low earth orbit, the GOES-R platform will allow continuous monitoring of lightning activity over the Continental United States and southern Canada, Central and South America, and portions of the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. The LMS will detect total (cloud-to-ground and intracloud) lightning at storm scale resolution (approx. 8 km) using a highly sensitive Charge Coupled Device (CCD) detector array. Discrimination between lightning optical transients and a bright sunlit background scene is accomplished by employing spectral, spatial, and temporal filtering along with a background subtraction technique. The result is 24 hour detection capability of total lightning. These total lightning observations can be made available to users within about 20 seconds. Research indicates a number of ways that total lightning observations from LMS could benefit operational activities, including 1) potential increases in lead times and reduced false alarms for severe thunderstorm and tornado Warnings, 2) improved routing of &rail around thunderstorms, 3) support for spacecraft launches and landings, 4) improved ability to monitor tropical cyclone intensity, 5) ability to monitor thunderstorm intensification/weakening during radar outages or where radar coverage is poor, 6) better identification of deep convection for the initialization of numerical prediction models, 7) improved forest fire forecasts, 8) identification of convective initiation, 9) identification of heavy convective snowfall, and 10) enhanced temporal resolution of storm evolution (1 minute) than is available from radar observations. Total lightning data has been used in an operational environment since July 2003 at the Huntsville, Alabama National Weather Service office. Total lightning measurements are obtained by the North Alabama Lightning Mapping Array (LMA) and have successfully been used in warning decisions. Every 2 minutes, total lightning counts in 2 km by 2 km horizontal, 1 km vertical grids are available to forecasters on an AWIPS (Advanced Weather Interactive Processing System) workstation. Experience with the LMA total lightning data is used to illustrate the potential use of LMS data that would be available to forecasters across the US. This abstract is for submission as a presentation to the National Weather Association Annual Meeting to be held 16-21 October 2004 in Portland, OR. This abstract will be published in the conference proceedings.

Buechler, Dennis↗
NASA NTRS1989

Control of intelligent robots in space

In view of space activities like International Space Station, Man-Tended-Free-Flyer (MTFF) and free flying platforms, the development of intelligent robotic systems is gaining increasing importance. The range of applications that have to be performed by robotic systems in space includes e.g., the execution of experiments in space laboratories, the service and maintenance of satellites and flying platforms, the support of automatic production processes or the assembly of large network structures. Some of these tasks will require the development of bi-armed or of multiple robotic systems including functional redundancy. For the development of robotic systems which are able to perform this variety of tasks a hierarchically structured modular concept of automation is required. This concept is characterized by high flexibility as well as by automatic specialization to the particular sequence of tasks that have to be performed. On the other hand it has to be designed such that the human operator can influence or guide the system on different levels of control supervision, and decision. This leads to requirements for the hardware and software concept which permit a range of application of the robotic systems from telemanipulation to autonomous operation. The realization of this goal requires strong efforts in the development of new methods, software and hardware concepts, and the integration into an automation concept.

Freund, E.↗
NASA NTRS1995

Effective Transition Management: The Seamless System

In this age of shrinking resources, cost avoidance has become as critical as direct cost savings. There is no doubt that Effective Transition Management (ETM) achieves this aim. What then, is ETM and how does it achieve its goal? It is the introduction and use of a hierarchical decision model and computerized tracking system which successfully integrates capital acquisition into the support base. You will discover that because this proven system is generic, compatible and flexible, its applications are virtually unlimited. It is this highly dynamic process which I would like to share with you. Skilled specialists are now rotated rapidly through acquisition programs on a requirements-driven basis. Managers continue their quest for inefficient areas to trim, slash or cut. However, there is one area of operations in every major corporation and government department that, as yet, has not received the attention it deserves. This essential element is Transition Management. Capital acquisitions, at some point, must be handed off to a support matrix for the 'in-service' phase of their life cycle. Most of us who have been on the receiving end can usually cite outrageous examples of adjustment, recovery or disaster. This means buying what amounts to a second initial sparing package, re-aligning the range and depth of inventory to match a changed maintenance concept, interpreting contractor-developed configuration control data or ensuring that the latest information is contained in the technical publications. This list is endless. For major purchases, this 'in-service' phase is often fifteen, twenty or more years. The least desirable, yet most common condition, is to suffer up to five years of recovering from errors or omissions after the transition to the support matrix occurs. Without ETM, making new equipment fully operational may thus become a long and costly process.

Burke, Marty↗
NASA NTRS2004

Manufacturing Bms/Iso System Review

The Quality Management System (QMS) is one that recognizes the need to continuously change and improve an organization s products and services as determined by system feedback, and corresponding management decisions. The purpose of a Quality Management System is to minimize quality variability of an organization's products and services. The optimal Quality Management System balances the need for an organization to maintain flexibility in the products and services it provides with the need for providing the appropriate level of discipline and control over the processes used to provide them. The goal of a Quality Management System is to ensure the quality of the products and services while consistently (through minimizing quality variability) meeting or exceeding customer expectations. The GRC Business Management System (BMS) is the foundation of the Center's ISO 9001:2000 registered quality system. ISO 9001 is a quality system model developed by the International Organization for Standardization. BMS supports and promote the Glenn Research Center Quality Policy and wants to ensure the customer satisfaction while also meeting quality standards. My assignment during this summer is to examine the manufacturing processes used to develop research hardware, which in most cases are one of a kind hardware, made with non conventional equipment and materials. During this process of observation I will make a determination, based on my observations of the hardware development processes the best way to meet customer requirements and at the same time achieve the GRC quality standards. The purpose of my task is to review the manufacturing processes identifying opportunities in which to optimize the efficiency of the processes and establish a plan for implementation and continuous improvement.

Gomez, Yazmin↗
NASA NTRS2018

Temperature Anomalies from the AIRS Product in Giovanni for the Climate Community

The Atmospheric Infrared Sounder (AIRS) mission began with the launch of Aqua in 2002. Over 15 years of AIRS products have been used by the climate research and application communities. The NASA Goddard Earth Sciences Data and Information Services Center (GES DISC), in collaboration with NASA Sounder Team at JPL, provides processing, archiving, and distribution services for NASA sounders: the present Aqua AIRS mission and the succeeding Suomi National Polar-Orbiting Partnership (SNPP) Cross-track Infrared Sounder (CrIS) mission. We generated a Multi-year Monthly Mean and Anomaly product using 14 years of AIRS standard monthly product. The product includes Air Temperature at the Surface and Surface Skin Temperature, both in Ascending/Daytime and Descending/Nighttime mode. The temperature variables and their anomalies are deployed to Giovanni, a Web-based application developed by the GES DISC. Giovanni provides a simple and intuitive way to visualize, analyze, and access vast amounts of Earth science remote sensing data without having to download the data. It is also a powerful tool that stakeholders can use for decision support in planning and preparing for increased climate variability. In this presentation, we demonstrate the functions in Giovanni with use cases employing AIRS Multi-year Monthly Mean and Anomaly variables.

Giovann↗
NASA NTRS1990

Spaceport operations for deep space missions

Space Station Freedom is designed with the capability to cost-effectively evolve into a transportation node which can support manned lunar and Mars missions. To extend a permanent human presence to the outer planets (moon outposts) and to nearby star systems, additional orbiting space infrastructure and great advances in propulsion system and other technologies will be required. To identify primary operations and management requirements for these deep space missions, an interstellar design concept was developed and analyzed. The assembly, test, servicing, logistics resupply, and increment management techniques anticipated for lunar and Mars missions appear to provide a pattern which can be extended in an analogous manner to deep space missions. A long range, space infrastructure development plan (encompassing deep space missions) coupled with energetic, breakthrough level propulsion research should be initiated now to assist in making the best budget and schedule decisions.

Holt, Alan C.↗
NASA NTRSDate not supplied

The Future of NASA Earth Science in the Commercial Cloud: Challenges and Opportunities

NASA produces a large volume and variety of data products that are used every day to support research, decision making, and education. The widespread use of NASA’s Earth Science data is enabled by NASA’s Earth Science Data System (ESDS) program, which oversees the archiving and distribution of these data and invests in the development of new data systems and tools. However, NASA’s current approach to Earth Science data distribution — based on distributed institutional archives with individual on-premises high-performance computing capabilities — faces some significant challenges, including massive increases in data volume from upcoming missions, a greater need for transdisciplinary science that synthesizes many different kinds of observations, and a push to make science more open, inclusive, and accessible. To address these challenges, NASA is aggressively migrating its Earth Science data and related tools and services into the commercial cloud. Migration of data into the commercial cloud can significantly improve NASA’s existing data system capabilities by (1) providing more flexible options for storage and compute (including rapid, as-needed access to state-of-the-art capabilities); (2) by centralizing and standardizing data access, which gives all of NASA’s institutional data centers access to all of each other’s datasets; and (3) by facilitating “analysis-in-place”, whereby users can bring their own computational workflows and tools to the data rather than having to maintain their own copies of NASA datasets. However, migration to the commercial cloud also poses some significant challenges, including (1) managing costs under a “pay-as-you-go” model; (2) incompatibility with existing tools and data formats with object-based storage and network access; (3) vendor lock-in; (4) challenges with data access for workflows that mix on-premise and cloud computing; and (5) standardization for highly diverse data as is present in NASA’s data archive. I conclude with two examples of recent NASA activities showcasing capabilities enabled by the commercial cloud: An interactive analysis and development platform for analyzing airborne imaging spectroscopy data, and a new collection of tools and services for data discovery, analysis, publication, and data-driven storytelling (Visualization, Exploration, and Data Analysis, VEDA).

Alexey N Shiklomanov↗
NASA NTRS2003

Concept of Operations for the NASA Weather Accident Prevention (WxAP) Project

The Weather Accident Prevention Concept of Operations (CONOPS) serves as a decision-making framework for research and technology development planning. It is intended for use by the WxAP members and other related programs in NASA and the FAA that support aircraft accident reduction initiatives. The concept outlines the project overview for program level 3 elements-such as AWIN, WINCOMM, and TPAWS (Turbulence)-that develop the technologies and operating capabilities to form the building blocks for WxAP. Those building blocks include both retrofit of equipment and systems and development of new aircraft, training technologies, and operating infrastructure systems and capabilities. This Concept of operations document provides the basis for the WxAP project to develop requirements based on the operational needs ofthe system users. It provides the scenarios that the flight crews, airline operations centers (AOCs), air traffic control (ATC), and flight service stations (FSS) utilize to reduce weather related accidents. The provision to the flight crew of timely weather information provides awareness of weather situations that allows replanning to avoid weather hazards. The ability of the flight crew to locate and avoid weather hazards, such as turbulence and hail, contributes to safer flight practices.

Green, Walter S.↗