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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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NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Overview of Lightning Science at NASA Marshall Space Flight Center

NASA Marshall Space Flight Center (MSFC) is a recognized world leader in the science of lightning. To date, MSFC has led three space-based global lightning observing missions and has helped lead multiple suborbital field campaigns involving lightning observations. Recently, the MSFC Lightning Team is closing out the recently completed International Space Station Lightning Imaging Sensor (ISS LIS) mission, including developing a nearly three-decade global climatology of lightning from space. This work also includes integrating lightning observations with data from NASA precipitation missions. The Team is also busy analyzing data from a recent airborne field campaign that observed dozens of terrestrial gamma-ray flashes (TGFs) from intense tropical thunderstorms. Lightning Team members are also leaders in validation of the Geostationary Lightning Mapper (GLM) operated by NOAA, and in developing lightning safety applications and studying the relationship between lightning and wildfires. The Lightning Team also studies chemical production by lightning and contributes to the National Climate Assessment (NCA). Finally, the Lightning Team is busy developing the next generation of spaceborne lightning sensors to broaden our understanding of the relationships between lightning, weather, climate, and atmospheric composition.

Timothy Lang↗
NASA NTRS1992

Science applications of the Mars Observer gamma ray spectrometer

The Mars Observer gamma ray spectrometer will return data related to the elemental composition of Mars. The instrument has both a gamma ray spectrometer and several neutron detectors. The gamma ray spectrometer will return a spectrum nominally every 20 s from Mars permitting a map of the elemental abundances to be made. The gamma rays are emitted from nuclei involved in radioactive decay, from nuclei formed by capture of a thermal neutron, and from nuclei put in an excited state by a fast-neutron interaction. The gamma rays come from an average depth of the order of a few tens of centimeters. The spectrum will show sharp emission lines whose intensity determines the concentration of the element and whose energy identifies the element. The neutron detectors, using the fact that the orbital velocity of the Mars Observer spacecraft is similar to the velocity of thermal neutrons, determine both the thermal and epithermal neutron flux. By combining the results from both techniques it is possible to map the depth dependence of hydrogen in the upper meter as well. These data permit a variety of Martian geoscience problems to be addressed including the crust and mantle composition, weathering processes, volcanism, and the volatile reservoirs and processes.

Boynton, W. V.↗
NASA NTRS2016

An Efficient Ray-Tracing Method for Determining Terrain Intercepts in EDL Simulations

The calculation of a ray's intercept from an arbitrary point in space to a prescribed surface is a common task in computer simulations. The arbitrary point often represents an object that is moving according to the simulation, while the prescribed surface is fixed in a defined frame. For detailed simulations, this surface becomes complex, taking the form of real-world objects such as mountains, craters or valleys which require more advanced methods to accurately calculate a ray's intercept location. Incorporation of these complex surfaces has commonly been implemented in graphics systems that utilize highly optimized graphics processing units to analyze such features. This paper proposes a simplified method that does not require computationally intensive graphics solutions, but rather an optimized ray-tracing method for an assumed terrain dataset. This approach was developed for the Mars Science Laboratory mission which landed on the complex terrain of Gale Crater. First, this paper begins with a discussion of the simulation used to implement the model and the applicability of finding surface intercepts with respect to atmosphere modeling, altitude determination, radar modeling, and contact forces influencing vehicle dynamics. Next, the derivation and assumptions of the intercept finding method are presented. Key assumptions are noted making the routines specific to only certain types of surface data sets that are equidistantly spaced in longitude and latitude. The derivation of the method relies on ray-tracing, requiring discussion on the formulation of the ray with respect to the terrain datasets. Further discussion includes techniques for ray initialization in order to optimize the intercept search. Then, the model implementation for various new applications in the simulation are demonstrated. Finally, a validation of the accuracy is presented along with the corresponding data sets used in the validation. A performance summary of the method will be shown using the analysis from the Mars Science Laboratory's terminal descent sensing model. Alternate uses will also be shown for determining horizon maps and orbiter set times.

Shidner, Jeremy D.↗
NASA NTRSDate not supplied

EXCLAIM: The EXperiment for Cryogenic Large-Aperture Intensity Mapping

The EXperiment for Cryogenic Large-Aperture Intensity Mapping (EXCLAIM) will constrain star formation over cosmic time by carrying out a blind and complete census of redshifted carbon monoxide (CO) and ionized carbon ([CII]) emission in cross-correlation with galaxy survey data in redshift windows from the present to z=3.5 with a fully cryogenic, balloon-borne telescope. EXCLAIM will carry out extragalactic and Galactic surveys in a conventional balloon flight planned for 2023. EXCLAIM will be the first instrument to deploy µ-Spec silicon integrated spectrometers with a spectral resolving power R=512 covering 420-540 GHz. We summarize the design, science goals, and status of EXCLAIM.

Thomas Essinger-Hileman↗
NASA NTRS2011

The Primordial Inflation Explorer (PIXIE): A Nulling Polarimeter for Cosmic Microwave Background Observations

The Primordial Inflation Explorer (PIXIE) is a concept for an Explorer-class mission to measure the gravity-wave signature of primordial inflation through its distinctive imprint on the linear polarization of the cosmic microwave background. The instrument consists of a polarizing Michelson interferometer configured as a nulling polarimeter to measure the difference spectrum between orthogonal linear polarizations from two co-aligned beams. Either input can view the sky or a temperature-controlled absolute reference blackbody calibrator. Rhe proposed instrument can map the absolute intensity and linear polarization (Stokes I, Q, and U parameters) over the full sky in 400 spectral channels spanning 2.5 decades in frequency from 30 GHz to 6 THz (1 cm to 50 micron wavelength). Multi-moded optics provide background-limited sensitivity using only 4 detectors, while the highly symmetric design and multiple signal modulations provide robust rejection of potential systematic errors. The principal science goal is the detection and characterization of linear polarization from an inflationary epoch in the early universe, with tensor-to-scalar ratio r < 10..3 at 5 standard deviations. The rich PIXIE data set can also constrain physical processes ranging from Big Bang cosmology to the nature of the first stars to physical conditions within the interstellar medium of the Galaxy.

Kogut, Alan J.↗
NASA NTRS2020

Ellicott City Disasters II: Enhancing a Statistical Flood Risk Model to Continue Improving Early Warning Systems and Public Safety in Ellicott City, Maryland

As flooding events in the United States grow in frequency and intensity, the use of technological advancements and applied science are increasingly necessary for effective flood monitoring and warning systems. The NASA DEVELOP Ellicott City Disasters II project investigated the use of machine learning for applications in flood risk detection to support the improvement of early warning systems. To strengthen the efforts of the Howard County Office of Emergency Management (OEM) in building a more robust flood monitoring system, the project improved the original statistical flood risk model, FLuME (Flood Learning Model Environment), programmed by the first DEVELOP term. The enhancements incorporated an additional six years of precipitation and soil moisture data from the North American Land Data Assimilation System (NLDAS), modeled using Aqua Advanced Microwave Scanning Radiometer for EOS and Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM) Microwave Imager. These Earth observations were supplemented by stream gauge data from the OEM and the US Geological Survey. The resultant flood risk model FLASH (Flood Learning Environment and Severity Assessment Hub) was trained to evaluate input variables and predict stage height in Ellicott City in real time. The addition of an advanced deep learning framework known as long short-term memory improved the model’s ability to capture relationships between variables. To assess the effectiveness of the new model, FLASH produced a model efficiency metric of 0.99, a significant improvement over the 0.85 value produced by the previous model. The project assisted the OEM in pursuing the integration of open data and NASA Earth observations into a threat matrix capable of informing near real-time decision making.

Disasters↗
NASA NTRS2020

Ellicott City Disasters II: Enhancing a Statistical Flood Risk Model to Continue Improving Early Warning Systems and Public Safety in Ellicott City, Maryland

As flooding events in the United States grow in frequency and intensity, the use of technological advancements and applied science are increasingly necessary for effective flood monitoring and warning systems. The NASA DEVELOP Ellicott City Disasters II project investigated the use of machine learning for applications in flood risk detection to support the improvement of early warning systems. To strengthen the efforts of the Howard County Office of Emergency Management (OEM) in building a more robust flood monitoring system, the project improved the original statistical flood risk model, FLuME (Flood Learning Model Environment), programmed by the first DEVELOP term The enhancements incorporated an additional six years of precipitation and soil moisture data from the North American Land Data Assimilation System (NLDAS), modeled using Aqua Advanced Microwave Scanning Radiometer for EOS and Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission TRMM Microwave Imager. These Earth observations were supplemented by stream gauge data from the OEM and the US Geological Survey. The resultant flood risk model FLASH (Flood Learning Environment and Severity Assessment Hub) was trained to evaluate input variables and predict stage height in Ellicott City in real time. The addition of an advanced deep learning framework known as long short-term memory improved the model’s ability to capture relationships between variables. To assess the effectiveness of the new model, FLASH produced a model efficiency metric of 0.99, a significant improvement over the 0.85 value produced by the previous model. The project assisted the OEM in pursuing the integration of open data and NASA Earth observations into a threat matrix capable of informing near real-time decision making.

Disasters↗
NASA NTRS2000

Ion Mass Spectrometer for Sporadic-E Rocket Experiments

NASA grant NAG5-5086 provided funding for the William B. Hanson Center for Space Sciences at the University of Texas at Dallas (UTD) to design, fabricate, calibrate, and ultimately fly two ion mass spectrometer instruments on a pair of sounding rocket payloads. Drs. R.A. Heelis and G.D. Earle from UTD were co-investigators on the project. The principal investigator for both rocket experiments was Dr. Robert Pfaff of the Goddard Space Flight Center. The overall project title was "Rocket/Radar Investigation of Lower Ionospheric Electrodynamics Associated with Intense Mid-Latitude Sporadic-E Layers". This report describes the overall objectives of the project, summarizes the instrument design and flight experiment details, and presents representative data obtained during the flights.

Heelis, R. A.↗
NASA NTRS1996

The fragmentation of 510 MeV/nucleon iron-56 in polyethylene. I. Fragment fluence spectra

The fragmentation of 510 MeV/nucleon iron ions in several thicknesses of polyethylene has been measured. Non-interacting primary beam particles and fragments have been identified and their LETs calculated by measuring ionization energy loss in a stack of silicon detectors. Fluences, normalized to the incident beam intensity and corrected for detector effects, are presented for each fragment charge and target. Histograms of fluence as a function of LET are also presented. Some implications of these data for measurements of the biological effects of heavy ions are discussed.

NASA Center HQS↗
NASA NTRS1984

New Zealand SIR-B science investigations

It is proposed that shuttle imaging radar (SIR) data be used to study unusual geological features of New Zealand. Particular attention is planned for geological faults. SIR-B imagery is to be compared with LANDSAT multispectral imagery. Three other investigations which are to use SIR data are discussed. An ocean eddy is to be studied from a correlation of SIR-B and advanced very high resolution radiometer imagery. Timber volume is to be assessed by determining the age and size of pine forests from SIR-B data. Soil moisture is to be investigated by comparing SIR-B data with simultaneous gravimetric data. Land cover in a region already subjected to intensive investigation using LANDSAT and aircraft scanner data is to be discriminated by SIR-B data.

Collins, M. A.↗
NASA NTRS2015

The Two-Column Aerosol Project: Phase I - Overview and Impact of Elevated Aerosol Layers on Aerosol Optical Depth

The Two-Column Aerosol Project (TCAP), conducted from June 2012 through June 2013, was a unique study designed to provide a comprehensive data set that can be used to investigate a number of important climate science questions, including those related to aerosol mixing state and aerosol radiative forcing. The study was designed to sample the atmosphere be tween and within two atmospheric columns; one fixed near the coast of North America (over Cape Cod, MA) and a second moveable column over the Atlantic Ocean several hundred kilometers from the coast. The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Atmospheric Radiation Measurement (ARM) Mobile Facility (AMF) was deployed at the base of the Cape Cod column, and the ARM Aerial Facility was utilized for the summer and winter intensive observation periods. One important finding from TCAP is that four of six nearly cloud-free flight days had aerosol layers aloft in both the Cape Cod and maritime columns that were detected using the nadir pointing second-generation NASA high-spectral resolution lidar (HSRL-2).These layer s contributed up to 60 of the total observed aerosol optical depth (AOD). Many of these layers were also intercepted by the aircraft configured for in situ sampling, and the aerosol in the layers was found to have increased amounts of biomass burning material and nitrate compared to aerosol found near the surface. In addition, while there was a great deal of spatial and day-to-day variability in the aerosol chemical composition and optical properties, no systematic differences between the two columns were observed.

aerosols↗
DOE OSTI2024

Uncertainty Quantification of Fatigue Behavior of Rough AM Surfaces and Microstructures to Enable Hydrogen Gas Turbine

Modifying fossil-fueled industrial gas turbines to utilize low or zero-carbon fuels, such as hydrogen or hydrogen-natural gas blends, is a complex endeavor. The successful implementation of this technology hinges on three key design criteria: (1) developing new fuel injectors capable of efficiently burning alternative fuels, (2) ensuring manufacturability to meet cost and time-to-market goals, and (3) achieving component durability in the demanding environment of an operating gas turbine. Additive manufacturing (AM) accelerates product development, yet concerns persist regarding the durability of parts with rough AM surfaces. A fully experimental approach to quantify the fatigue performance of rough AM microstructures is both costly and labor-intensive. To address this, ORNL and Solar Turbines Incorporated (Solar) employed a crystal plasticity finite element (CPFE) model to identify the factors influencing AM surface fatigue behavior. These CPFE findings, combined with targeted experimental data, were used to develop a computationally efficient surrogate model suitable for assessing the lifespan of gas turbine engine components.

08 HYDROGEN↗
DOE OSTI2026

Kent Island Boundary Layer Field Campaign Report

Understanding the mechanisms governing the urban atmospheric environment is critical for informing urban populations about the impacts of climate change and associated mitigation and adaptation measures. The U.S. Department of Energy Atmospheric Radiation Measurement (ARM) User Facility’s Coast-Urban-Rural Atmospheric Gradient Experiment (CoURAGE) was conducted to study the interactions among the earth’s surface, the atmospheric boundary layer (ABL), aerosols, atmospheric composition, clouds, radiation, and precipitation at each experimental site, and to examine how the spatial gradients across the region interact to create the climate conditions in Baltimore. In this activity we performed weekly soundings, alternating between day and night from Kent Island, to get low-frequency, long-term observations of ABL/lower tropospheric thermodynamic structure. However, during the CoURAGE intensive operational period (IOP), we performed high-frequency sampling (2x/day), at times coinciding with CoURAGE IOP soundings at the main site. The short-term, high-frequency sounding information that was launched at 12Z and 18Z was to complement the longer-term data set.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗
NASA NTRS2001

MODIS Observation of Aerosols over Southern Africa During SAFARI 2000: Data, Validation, and Estimation of Aerosol Radiative Forcing

Aerosol properties, including optical thickness and size parameters, are retrieved operationally from the MODIS sensor onboard the Terra satellite launched on 18 December 1999. The predominant aerosol type over the Southern African region is smoke, which is generated from biomass burning on land and transported over the southern Atlantic Ocean. The SAFARI-2000 period experienced smoke aerosol emissions from the regular biomass burning activities as well as from the prescribed burns administered on the auspices of the experiment. The MODIS Aerosol Science Team (MAST) formulates and implements strategies for the retrieval of aerosol products from MODIS, as well as for validating and analyzing them in order to estimate aerosol effects in the radiative forcing of climate as accurately as possible. These activities are carried out not only from a global perspective, but also with a focus on specific regions identified as having interesting characteristics, such as the biomass burning phenomenon in southern Africa and the associated smoke aerosol, particulate, and trace gas emissions. Indeed, the SAFARI-2000 aerosol measurements from the ground and from aircraft, along with MODIS, provide excellent data sources for a more intensive validation and a closer study of the aerosol characteristics over Southern Africa. The SAFARI-2000 ground-based measurements of aerosol optical thickness (AOT) from both the automatic Aerosol Robotic Network (AERONET) and handheld Sun photometers have been used to validate MODIS retrievals, based on a sophisticated spatio-temporal technique. The average global monthly distribution of aerosol from MODIS has been combined with other data to calculate the southern African aerosol daily averaged (24 hr) radiative forcing over the ocean for September 2000. It is estimated that on the average, for cloud free conditions over an area of 9 million square kin, this predominantly smoke aerosol exerts a forcing of -30 W/square m C lose to the terrestrial surface and -10 W/square m at the top of the atmosphere (TOA). While cooling the surface and Earth system, the difference of 20 W/square m is energy that heats the atmosphere.

Ichoku, Charles↗
DOE OSTI2024

Event generators for high-energy physics experiments

We provide an overview of the status of Monte-Carlo event generators for high-energy particle physics. Guided by the experimental needs and requirements, we highlight areas of active development, and opportunities for future improvements. Particular emphasis is given to physics models and algorithms that are employed across a variety of experiments. These common themes in event generator development lead to a more comprehensive understanding of physics at the highest energies and intensities, and allow models to be tested against a wealth of data that have been accumulated over the past decades. A cohesive approach to event generator development will allow these models to be further improved and systematic uncertainties to be reduced, directly contributing to future experimental success. Event generators are part of a much larger ecosystem of computational tools. They typically involve a number of unknown model parameters that must be tuned to experimental data, while maintaining the integrity of the underlying physics models. Making both these data, and the analyses with which they have been obtained accessible to future users is an essential aspect of open science and data preservation. It ensures the consistency of physics models across a variety of experiments.

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗
NASA NTRS2016

Geocam Space: Enhancing Handheld Digital Camera Imagery from the International Space Station for Research and Applications

Handheld astronaut photography of the Earth has been collected from the International Space Station (ISS) since 2000, making it the most temporally extensive remotely sensed dataset from this unique Low Earth orbital platform. Exclusive use of digital handheld cameras to perform Earth observations from the ISS began in 2004. Nadir viewing imagery is constrained by the inclined equatorial orbit of the ISS to between 51.6 degrees North and South latitude, however numerous oblique images of land surfaces above these latitudes are included in the dataset. While unmodified commercial off-the-shelf digital cameras provide only visible wavelength, three-band spectral information of limited quality current cameras used with long (400+ mm) lenses can obtain high quality spatial information approaching 2 meters/ground pixel resolution. The dataset is freely available online at the Gateway to Astronaut Photography of Earth site (http://eol.jsc.nasa.gov), and now comprises over 2 million images. Despite this extensive image catalog, use of the data for scientific research, disaster response, commercial applications and visualizations is minimal in comparison to other data collected from free-flying satellite platforms such as Landsat, Worldview, etc. This is due primarily to the lack of fully-georeferenced data products - while current digital cameras typically have integrated GPS, this does not function in the Low Earth Orbit environment. The Earth Science and Remote Sensing (ESRS) Unit at NASA Johnson Space Center provides training in Earth Science topics to ISS crews, performs daily operations and Earth observation target delivery to crews through the Crew Earth Observations (CEO) Facility on board ISS, and also catalogs digital handheld imagery acquired from orbit by manually adding descriptive metadata and determining an image geographic centerpoint using visual feature matching with other georeferenced data, e.g. Landsat, Google Earth, etc. The lack of full geolocation information native to the data makes it difficult to integrate astronaut photographs with other georeferenced data to facilitate quantitative analysis such as urban land cover/land use classification, change detection, or geologic mapping. The manual determination of image centerpoints is both time and labor-intensive, leading to delays in releasing geolocated and cataloged data to the public, such as the timely use of data for disaster response. The GeoCam Space project was funded by the ISS Program in 2015 to develop an on-orbit hardware and ground-based software system for increasing the efficiency of geolocating astronaut photographs from the ISS (Fig. 1). The Intelligent Robotics Group at NASA Ames Research Center leads the development of both the ground and on-orbit systems in collaboration with the ESRS Unit. The hardware component consists of modified smartphone elements including cameras, central processing unit, wireless Ethernet, and an inertial measurement unit (gyroscopes/accelerometers/magnetometers) reconfigured into a compact unit that attaches to the base of the current Nikon D4 camera - and its replacement, the Nikon D5 - and connects using the standard Nikon peripheral connector or USB port. This provides secondary, side and downward facing cameras perpendicular to the primary camera pointing direction. The secondary cameras observe calibration targets with known internal X, Y, and Z position affixed to the interior of the ISS to determine the camera pose corresponding to each image frame. This information is recorded by the GeoCam Space unit and indexed for correlation to the camera time recorded for each image frame. Data - image, EXIF header, and camera pose information - is transmitted to the ground software system (GeoRef) using the established Ku-band USOS downlink system. Following integration on the ground, the camera pose information provides an initial geolocation estimate for the individual film frame. This new capability represents a significant advance in geolocation from the manual feature-matching approach for both nadir and off-nadir viewing imagery. With the initial geolocation estimate, full georeferencing of an image is completed using the rapid tie-pointing interface in GeoRef, and the resulting data is added to the Gateway to Astronaut Photography of Earth online database in both Geotiff and Keyhole Markup Language (kml) formats. The integration of the GeoRef software component of Geocam Space into the CEO image cataloging workflow is complete, and disaster response imagery acquired by the ISS crew is now fully georeferenced as a standard data product. The on-orbit hardware component (GeoSens) is in final prototyping phase, and is on-schedule for launch to the ISS in late 2016. Installation and routine use of the Geocam Space system for handheld digital camera photography from the ISS is expected to significantly improve the usefulness of this unique dataset for a variety of public- and private-sector applications.

Stefanov, William L.↗
DOE OSTI2025

AI-powered exploration of molecular vibrations, phonons, and spectroscopy

The vibrational dynamics of molecules and solids play a critical role in defining material properties, particularly their thermal behaviors. However, theoretical calculations of these dynamics are often computationally intensive, while experimental approaches can be technically complex and resource-demanding. Recent advancements in data-driven artificial intelligence (AI) methodologies have substantially enhanced the efficiency of these studies. This review explores the latest progress in AI-driven methods for investigating atomic vibrations, emphasizing their role in accelerating computations and enabling rapid predictions of lattice dynamics, phonon behaviors, molecular dynamics, and vibrational spectra. Key developments are discussed, including advancements in databases, structural representations, machine-learning interatomic potentials, graph neural networks, and other emerging approaches. Compared to traditional techniques, AI methods exhibit transformative potential, dramatically improving the efficiency and scope of research in materials science. The review concludes by highlighting the promising future of AI-driven innovations in the study of atomic vibrations.

Han, Bowen [Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL), ↗
NASA NTRS2005

Generating Mosaics of Astronomical Images

"Montage" is the name of a service of the National Virtual Observatory (NVO), and of software being developed to implement the service via the World Wide Web. Montage generates science-grade custom mosaics of astronomical images on demand from input files that comply with the Flexible Image Transport System (FITS) standard and contain image data registered on projections that comply with the World Coordinate System (WCS) standards. "Science-grade" in this context signifies that terrestrial and instrumental features are removed from images in a way that can be described quantitatively. "Custom" refers to user-specified parameters of projection, coordinates, size, rotation, and spatial sampling. The greatest value of Montage is expected to lie in its ability to analyze images at multiple wavelengths, delivering them on a common projection, coordinate system, and spatial sampling, and thereby enabling further analysis as though they were part of a single, multi-wavelength image. Montage will be deployed as a computation-intensive service through existing astronomy portals and other Web sites. It will be integrated into the emerging NVO architecture and will be executed on the TeraGrid. The Montage software will also be portable and publicly available.

Bergou, Attila↗