Idaho & Oregon Agriculture: Monitoring Vegetation Impacts of Livestock Management Practices Used to Reduce Predator Conflicts on Idaho and Oregon Grazing Allotments
Explore the source record for details and available documents.
SEARCH · Search NASA
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.
Quote a phrase for an exact phrase match. Source license links do not imply unrestricted reuse.
Explore the source record for details and available documents.
The practice of night penning, which involves corralling livestock into a fenced, secure area overnight, aims to safeguard animals from predators. Although this method has proven successful in minimizing interactions between livestock and wildlife, the extent of its impact on vegetation communities is still being explored. This project examines the feasibility of using Net Primary Productivity (NPP) values from the Rangeland Analysis Platform (RAP) to quantify the impacts of night penning on rangeland vegetation communities. RAP provides spatially distributed values of vegetation composition, cover, and productivity, and is derived from imagery from Landsat 5, Landsat 7 & Landsat 8 at a 30m resolution for rangelands across the United States. Our DEVELOP team partnered with Alderspring Ranch, Krebs Livestock, and the U.S Department of Agriculture Animal & Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) to analyze the impacts of night penning on vegetation communities. We identified control sites that captured the topographic characteristics of night pen sites used by our partners. We then quantified and compared changes in annual NPP between night pen and control sites. Our analysis of RAP NPP data, using a control-treatment design did not find impacts of night penning on vegetation. However, this was a preliminary analysis, and does not conclusively quantify the impacts of night penning on rangeland vegetation. Our analysis indicated that RAP may be a feasible tool to study livestock management impacts on rangeland vegetation; however, future studies could further validate these findings through ground observations.
Explore the source record for details and available documents.
The practice of night penning, which involves corralling livestock into a fenced, secure area overnight, aims to safeguard animals from predators. Although this method has proven successful in minimizing interactions between livestock and wildlife, the extent of its impact on vegetation communities is still being explored. In this study, we used the Rangeland Analysis Platform (RAP), which aggregates spatially distributed values of vegetation composition, cover, and productivity from the Landsat missions, to quantify the effects of night penning on rangeland vegetation communities. We identified control sites that had similar topographic characteristics to night pen sites used by ranchers in Idaho and Oregon. We then quantified and compared changes in annual net primary productivity (NPP) between night pen and control sites. Our study found that RAP NPP data did not show a noticeable difference between control sites and night penning sites. When analyzed quantitatively, night pen sites showed variability in NPP before and after night penning; however, there were few discernible differences between night pen sites and control sites, suggesting that climate conditions can have more of an effect on NPP measurements compared to land management decisions. In the summer of 2024, field crews from the Natural Resource Ecology Laboratory collected biomass data from these rangeland sites, and this will be used to compare and validate RAP products while continuing to investigate the effects of night penning.
Explore the source record for details and available documents.
Explore the source record for details and available documents.
Explore the source record for details and available documents.
Explore the source record for details and available documents.
Explore the source record for details and available documents.
Explore the source record for details and available documents.
Explore the source record for details and available documents.
The optimization of trajectories for coplaner, aeroassisted orbital transfer (AOT) from a high Earth orbit (HEO) to a low Earth orbit (LEO) is examined. In particular, HEO can be a geosynchronous Earth orbit (GEO). It is assumed that the initial and final orbits are circular, that the gravitational field is central and is governed by the inverse square law, and that two impulses are employed, one at HEO exit and one at LEO entry. During the atmospheric pass, the trajectory is controlled via the lift coefficient in such a way that the total characteristic velocity is minimized. First, an ideal optimal trajectory is determined analytically for lift coefficient unbounded. This trajectory is called grazing trajectory, because the atmospheric pass is made by flying at constant altitude along the edge of the atmosphere until the excess velocity is depleted. For the grazing trajectory, the lift coefficient varies in such a way that the lift, the centrifugal force due to the Earth's curvature, the weight, and the Coriolis force due to the Earth's rotation are in static balance. Also, the grazing trajectory minimizes the total characteristic velocity and simultaneously nearly minimizes the peak values of the altitude drop, dynamic pressure, and heating rate. Next, starting from the grazing trajectory results, a real optimal trajectory is determined numerically for the lift coefficient bounded from both below and above. This trajectory is characterized by atmospheric penetration with the smallest possible entry angle, followed by flight at the lift coefficient lower bound. Consistently with the grazing trajectory behavior, the real optimal trajectory minimizes the total characteristic velocity and simultaneously nearly minimizes the peak values of the altitude drop, the dynamic pressure, and the heating rate.
Current aircraft engine nacelles typically contain acoustic liners consisting of perforated sheets bonded onto honeycomb cavities. Numerous models have been developed to predict the acoustic impedance of these liners in the presence of grazing flow, and to use that information with aeroacoustic propagation codes to assess nacelle liner noise suppression. Recent efforts have provided advances in impedance education methodologies that offer more accurate determinations of acoustic liner properties in the presence of grazing flow. The current report provides the results of a parametric study, in which a finite element method was used to assess the effects of variations of the following geometric parameters on liner impedance, with and without the presence of grazing flow: percent open area, sheet thickness, sheet thickness-to-hole diameter ratio and cavity depth. Normal incidence acoustic impedances were determined for eight acoustic liners, consisting of punched aluminum facesheets bonded to hexcell honeycomb cavities. Similar liners were tested in the NASA Langley Research Center grazing incidence tube to determine their response in the presence of grazing flow. The resultant data provide a quantitative assessment of the effects of these perforate, single-layer liner parameters on the acoustic impedance of the liner.
The experimental characterization of acoustic liners applied for turbofan engines has been in the spotlight of the community for the last few decades. In general, such characterization is done by measurements of the liner acoustic impedance using different techniques in conditions as close as possible to those encountered in turbofan engines. Although a great amount of work has been published related to these techniques, few comparisons between different experimental setups using identical samples are available. The goal of the present study is to provide a comparison between educed acoustic impedances for two nominally identical liner samples in theUFSC Impedance Test Rig and the NASA Langley Research Center Grazing Flow ImpedanceTube (GFIT). Due to the geometrical differences between the test rigs, it is possible to consider the effect of different grazing flow profiles on the educed impedance. Impedance measurements between the two facilities show similar results in absence of grazing flow, while different ones when the grazing flow is present. Results are presented with both test rigs targeted to two different conditions: (i) same centerline Mach number and; (ii) same average Mach number.Both comparisons suggest a higher acoustic resistance obtained with the UFSC Impedance TestRig. A comparison using semi-empirical predictive models was also conducted. The results suggest that the main source for the observed difference is the grazing flow profile, represented by its boundary layer displacement thickness.
The experimental characterization of acoustic liners applied for turbofan engines has been in the spotlight of the community for the last few decades. In general, such characterization is done by measurements of the liner acoustic impedance using different techniques in conditions as close as possible to those encountered in turbofan engines. Although a great amount of work has been published related to these techniques, few comparisons between different experimental setups using identical samples are available. The goal of the present study is to provide a comparison between educed acoustic impedances for two nominally identical liner samples in theUFSC Impedance Test Rig and the NASA Langley Research Center Grazing Flow ImpedanceTube (GFIT). Due to the geometrical differences between the test rigs, it is possible to consider the effect of different grazing flow profiles on the educed impedance. Impedance measurements between the two facilities show similar results in absence of grazing flow, while different ones when the grazing flow is present. Results are presented with both test rigs targeted to two different conditions: (i) same centerline Mach number and; (ii) same average Mach number.Both comparisons suggest a higher acoustic resistance obtained with the UFSC Impedance TestRig. A comparison using semi-empirical predictive models was also conducted. The results suggest that the main source for the observed difference is the grazing flow profile, represented by its boundary layer displacement thickness.
Range rate errors due to specular and diffuse multipath are calculated for a tracking and data relay satellite (TDRS) using an S band Goddard range and range rate (GRARR) system modified with a phase-locked loop transponder. Carrier signal processing in the coherent turn-around transponder and the GRARR reciever is taken into account. The root-mean-square (rms) range rate error was computed for the GRARR Doppler extractor and N-cycle count range rate measurement. Curves of worst-case range rate error are presented as a function of grazing angle at the reflection point. At very low grazing angles specular scattering predominates over diffuse scattering as expected, whereas for grazing angles greater than approximately 15 deg, the diffuse multipath predominates. The range rate errors at different low orbit altutudes peaked between 5 and 10 deg grazing angles.
Tests were conducted to validate a two-dimensional shear-flow analytical model for determining the acoustic impedance of a liner test specimen in a grazing-incidence, grazing-flow environment. The tests were limited to a test specimen chosen to exhibit minimal effects of grazing flow so that the results obtained by using the shear-flow analytical model would be expected to match those obtained from normal-incidence impedance measurements. Impedances for both downstream and upstream sound propagation were generally consistent with those from normal-incidence measurements. However, sensitivity of the grazing-incidence impedance to small measurement or systematic errors in propagation constant varied dramatically over the range of test frequencies.
Radar cross section (RCS) prediction of several rectangular plate geometries is discussed using high-frequency techniques such as the Uniform Theory of Diffraction (UTD) for perfectly conducting and impedance wedges and the Method of Equivalent Currents (MEC). Previous reports have presented detailed solutions to the principal-plane scattering by a perfectly conducting and a coated rectangular plate and nonprincipal-plane scattering by a perfectly conducting plate. These solutions are briefly reviewed and a modified model is presented for the coated plate. Theoretical and experimental data are presented for the perfectly conducting geometries. Agreement between theory and experiment is very good near and at normal incidence. In regions near and at grazing incidence, the disagreement between the data vary according to diffraction distances and angles involved. It is these areas of disagreement which are of extreme interest as an explanation for the disagreement will yield invaluable insight into scattering mechanisms which are not yet identified as major contributors near and at grazing incidence. Areas of disagreement between theory and experiment are identified and examined in an attempt to better understand and predict near-grazing incidence, grazing incidence, and nonprincipal-plane diffractions.