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The WMO’s World Weather Research Program (WWRP) Research and Development and Forecast Demonstration Projects (RDP/FDP). Taken place during the Winter Olympics (February-March) of 2018. Focused on the measurement, physics, and improved prediction of heavy orographic snow in the Pyeong Chang region of South Korea.
One of the main difficulties encountered in the design and implementation of control systems for spacecraft is the interaction between the control system and the flexibility of the vehicle. This difficulty has resulted in problems for a multitude of spacecraft including the earliest U.S. spacecraft, Explorer I; the Orbiting Geophysical Observatory III; Mariner 10; Galileo; and the Hubble Telescope. Recognizing the importance of the issue, NASA has an ongoing Controls-Structures Interaction (CSI) technology program to develop the methodology to design optimally and simultaneously both the control system and the structure. The CSI program is a multicenter program involving research teams from NASA's Langley Research Center (LaRC), Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), and Marshall Space Flight Center (MSFC). JPL's area of interest is in optics-class vehicles and MSFC's in astrophysics vehicles. The aim of this paper is to explain the ongoing activities at LaRC, which are of a theoretical, ground test, and flight test nature, with focus on applications to spacecraft with multiple experiment-pointing mounts, large space radiometers, Space Station Freedom (SSF), and the Space Shuttle Remote Manipulator System (RMS).
Among the most productive ecosystems on earth, salt marshes provide crucial ecosystem services including water filtration, shoreline protection, storm surge buffering, and flood mitigation. Marshes are largely dependent on their sediment budget which can significantly vary across a region and can be used to determine the life span of the marsh. Upstream land use change near Charleston, South Carolina, along with rising sea levels, are expected to alter sediment budgets and threaten marsh stability and long-term health. The unvegetated-vegetated ratio (UVVR), developed by researchers at USGS, is a scalable and efficient method to assess vulnerability. The NASA DEVELOP National Program collaborated with the South Carolina Department of Natural Resources, the South Carolina Department of Health and Environmental Control, and the United States Geological Survey Woods Hole Coastal and Marine Science Center to apply the UVVR method within Google Earth Engine. Marsh vulnerability was analyzed using UVVR derived from clustering and manual interpretation of National Agriculture Imagery Program (NAIP) high-resolution aerial imagery. NAIP derived UVVR was aggregated to Landsat 8 Operational Land Imager (OLI) and Landsat 7 Enhanced Thematic Mapper (ETM+) resolution and projection. A Random Forest Regression between Landsat derived data and UVVR was modeled to estimate a potential relationship. The estimation of this relationship was used to produce temporal change analysis maps of salt marsh vulnerability back to 1984. The NAIP imagery processed through Google Earth Engine allowed us to make detailed UVVR maps for 2009, 2015, 2017, and 2019 for decision making within South Carolina. Google Earth Engine scripting provided a novel approach to UVVR methodology that will allow decision makers to input new marsh regions and easily calculate marsh vulnerability without external data downloading. These results were used to understand what areas of the marsh need most resource allocation in the future.
The City of Bainbridge Island (COBI) applied for and received technical assistance from the Energy Transitions Initiative Partnership Program (ETIPP) in part to achieve their goal of 100% renewable electricity generation by 2040, five years ahead of the Washington State goal, and to increase its energy resilience in the face of natural disasters. To help address these goals, the City of Bainbridge Island (COBI) applied for and received technical assistance from the Energy Transitions Initiative Partnership Program (ETIPP) during 2022-2024. Supported by the U.S. Department of Energy, ETIPP provides technical assistance to remote coastal and island communities interested in approaches to renewable and resilient energy transitions. Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) completed the technical analysis aspects of the project, supported by the community partner Spark Northwest and the program administrator, the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL). This report begins by describing the approach to technical assistance in the ETIPP project, followed by the development of future scenarios for electric demand based on current use. Potential pathways to 100% renewable energy are identified and analyzed by technology contributions from solar energy, anaerobic biodigestion, distributed wind, and marine energy. The combinations of these technologies and contributions to meet demand are discussed, along with potential policies and programs for implementation of the most relevant technologies moving forward. The report concludes with recommendations for next steps for COBI to meet the goal of 100% renewable energy generation by 2040 on- and off-island, and key caveats to consider.
A kill curve for Phanerozoic species is developed from an analysis of the stratigraphic ranges of 17,621 genera, as compiled by Sepkoski. The kill curve shows that a typical species' risk of extinction varies greatly, with most time intervals being characterized by very low risk. The mean extinction rate of 0.25/m.y. is thus a mixture of long periods of negligible extinction and occasional pulses of much higher rate. Because the kill curve is merely a description of the fossil record, it does not speak directly to the causes of extinction. The kill curve may be useful, however, to li inverted question markmit choices of extinction mechanisms.
Vibrations from experimental setups and the environment are a persistent source of noise for low-temperature calorimeters searching for rare events, including neutrinoless double beta ( 0νββ ) decay or dark matter interactions. Such noise can significantly limit experimental sensitivity to the physics case under investigation. Here, we report the detection of marine microseismic vibrations using mK-scale calorimeters. This study employs a multi-device analysis correlating data from CUORE, the leading experiment in the search for 0νββ decay with mK-scale calorimeters, and the Copernicus Earth Observation program, revealing the seasonal impact of Mediterranean Sea activity on CUORE’s energy thresholds, resolution, and sensitivity over four years. The detection of marine microseisms underscores the need to address faint environmental noise in ultra-sensitive experiments. Understanding how such noise couples to the detector and developing mitigation strategies is essential for next-generation experiments. We demonstrate one such strategy: a noise decorrelation algorithm implemented in CUORE using auxiliary sensors, which reduces vibrational noise and improves detector performance. Enhancing sensitivity to 0νββ decay and to rare events with low-energy signatures requires identifying unresolved noise sources, advancing noise reduction methods, and improving vibration suppression systems, all of which inform the design of next-generation rare event experiments.
Preparation and objectives of Mariner Mars 1969 and 1977 projects
Viking discovered a Mars that was very different from the Mars found by Mariner 4, 6 and 7. The new, exciting, more Earth-like Mars was hinted at by the Mariner 9 orbiter and confirmed by Viking. Viking discovered some very fundamental things about Mars. Viking discovered the presence of nitrogen in the atmosphere. A key ingredient needed for life. Viking made the first measurements of the isotopic composition of carbon, oxygen, nitrogen and the noble gases in the atmosphere of Mars. The ratio of 15N to 14N suggested that Mars may have lost more than 99% of the total mass of its atmosphere. The denser atmosphere in the past may explain the presence of flowing water earlier in the history of Mars first discovered by Mariner 9 with additional and higher spatial resolution examples provided by the Viking Orbiters. Viking did not measure organics or life at the surface of Mars. But, Viking did discover a surface unlike any other on the Solar System--a surface exhibiting very high chemical reactivity, most probably formed by the deposition of chemically active atmospheric gases, like hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) and ozone (O3), onto the surface of Mars.
Mission and status of Mariner Mars 1969 and 1971 and Viking projects - Sep. 1 to Oct. 31 1969
The Seasat Program was initiated as a proof-of-concept mission to evaluate the effectiveness of a study of remotely sensed oceanographic phenomena from a satellite platform. From its inception the Seasat Program has been user-oriented. The user comprised three major segments of the ocean community, including academic users, users within various government agencies, and commercial users. Commercial users represent a broad spectrum of commercial marine industries. The commercial users proposed to NASA to carry out a pilot demonstration to assess the utility of Seasat data in the private sector. The commercial users' program is considered along with case studies that utilize Seasat data, and aspects of real-time system operation. Attention is given to the potential value of an employment of synthetic aperture radar, the altimeter, the scatterometer, and the scanning multichannel microwave radiometer.
Remote sensing oceanography at Oregon State University is part of a multidisciplinary research program: (1) to learn more about nearshore oceanographic processes and how they affect the production of marine life and the availability of albacore tuna; and (2) to provide fishermen with information in near real time that will be useful in scouting for albacore concentrations.
Judicious choice of radiation dose and parameter change acceptance criteria, absence of anomalous anneal phenomena, and absence of anomalous reirradiation effects are recognized as essential for a successful irradiation-anneal (IRAN) screening procedure to ensure that no device will fall, upon reirradiation, above parametric limits assigned for the worst case application. Reirradiation and irradiation-anneal behavior of various semiconductor devices are compared and those that do not lend themselves to IRAN screening are singled out. Information needed to judge the suitability of an IRAN type screening program is detailed. Reasons for success of the limited IRAN screening of flight parts for the Mariner Jupiter/Saturn (MJS '77) spacecraft are indicated.
FIRE (First ISCCP Regional Experiment) is a U.S. cloud-radiation program that seeks to address the issues of a basic understanding and parameterizations of cirrus and marine stratocumulus cloud systems and ISCCP data products. The papers describe research analysis of data collected at the 1986 Cirrus Intensive Field Observations (IFO), the 1987 Marine Stratocumulus IFO, and the Extended Time Observations. The papers are grouped into sessions on satellite studies, lidar/radiative properties/microphysical studies, radiative properties, thermodynamic and dynamic properties, case studies, and large scale environment and modeling studies.
Five years ago NASA selected the Planetary Plasma Interactions (PPI) Node at UCLA to help the scientific community locate, access and preserve particles and fields data from planetary missions. We propose to continue to serve for 5 more years. During the first five years we have served the scientific community by providing them with high quality data products. We worked with missions and individual scientists to secure the highest quality data possible and to thoroughly document it. We validated the data, placed it on long lasting media and made sure it was properly archived for future use. So far we have prepared and archived over 10(exp 11) bytes of data from 26 instruments on 4 spacecraft. We have produced 106 CD-ROMs with peer reviewed data. In so doing, we have developed an efficient system to prepare and archive the data and thereby have been able to steadily increase the rate at which the data are produced. Although we produced a substantial archive during the initial five years, we have an even larger amount of work in progress. This includes preparing CD-ROM data sets with all of the Voyager, Pioneer and Ulysses data at Jupiter and Saturn. We will have the Jupiter data ready for the Galileo encounter in December, 1995. We are also completing the Pioneer Venus data restoration. The Galileo Venus archive and radio science data from Magellan will be prepared early in the next period. We are assisting the Small Bodies Node of PDS in the preparation of comet data and will be archiving the asteroid data from Galileo. We will be moving in several new directions as well. We will archive the PPI Node's first Earth based data with data from the International Jupiter Watch and Hubble data taken in support of Ulysses particles and field observations. We will work with the Cassini mission in archive planning efforts. For the inner planets we will begin an archive of Mars data starting with Phobos data and will support the US and Russian Mars missions in the late 1990's. We will restore the Mercury data from Mariner 10 and prepare the lunar data from Clementine in time for the lunar data analysis program in 1995. We will work with the Discovery mission teams to plan their archive and have already started with one, NEAR. Finally we will begin archiving our first heliospheric data from Voyager, Galileo, and Mars observers. We will continue to serve the science community by providing access to the data products. During the past 19 months we have filled nearly 6000 requests for on-line and CD-ROM data. The data delivered directly by the PPI Node has been - 5 x 10(exp 11) bytes. In addition to providing the data, we have provided users with software tools to manage and read the data which are computer, operating system and format independent. We have developed scalable systems so that the same software we use to manage and access the data for the entire PPI Node can be used by individual investigators to manage the data on a single CD-ROM, thereby greatly reducing the software development effort for both the PPI Node and users. We deliver this software with the disks. Recent technical advances have made it possible for us to serve a broader community than before. In the next five year period we plan to extend our outreach to the general public and in particular to increase our support for education. Since planetary plasma data are varied and require expertise in many areas the PPI Node will continue to be distributed. In addition to the primary node at UCLA, the PPI Node has three subnodes with an Outer Planets Subnode at the University of Iowa, an Inner Planets Subnode at UCLA, and a Radio Science Subnode at Stanford University. During the first two years of the renewal period there will be a Radio Astronomy Data Node at GSFC. These organizations will provide scientific expertise on the data, participate in node data selection activities and help with data restoration and mission activities.
Engineering and scientific work on Mariner 4, Mariner Venus, Mariner Mars 1969, Voyager, and Surveyor projects
Assembly and subsystem testing for Mariner Mars spacecraft model and advanced planetary mission technology
We describe the sources of stray light and thermal background that affect JWST observations; report actual backgrounds as measured from commissioning and early science observations; compare those background levels to pre-launch predictions; estimate the impact of the backgrounds on science performance; and explore how the backgrounds probe the achieved configuration of the deployed observatory. We find the observatory is limited by the irreducible astrophysical backgrounds, rather than scattered stray light and thermal self-emission, for all wavelengths λ<12.5 micron, thus meeting the level 1 requirement. This result was not assured given the open architecture and thermal challenges of JWST, and is the result of meticulous attention to stray light and thermal issues in the design, construction, integration, and test phases. From background considerations alone, JWST will require less integration time in the near-infrared compared to a system that just met the stray light requirements; as such, JWST will be even more powerful than expected for deep imaging at 1--5 micron. In the mid-infrared, the measured thermal backgrounds closely match pre-launch predictions. The background near 10 micron is slightly higher than predicted before launch, but the impact on observations is mitigated by the excellent throughput of MIRI, such that instrument sensitivity will be as good as expected pre-launch. These measured background levels are fully compatible with JWST's science goals and the Cycle 1 science program currently underway.
The National Science Foundation (NSF) initialized a new phase of exploration last year, a 10 year effort jointly funded by NSF and several major oil companies, known as the Ocean Margin Drilling Program (OMDP). The OMDP requires a ship with capabilities beyond existing drill ships; it must drill in 13,000 feet of water to a depth 20,000 feet below the ocean floor. To meet requirements, NSF is considering the conversion of the government-owned mining ship Glomar Explorer to a deep ocean drilling and coring vessel. Feasibility study performed by Donhaiser Marine, Inc. analyzed the ship's characteristics for suitability and evaluated conversion requirement. DMI utilized COSMIC's Ship Motion and Sea Load Computer program to perform analysis which could not be accomplished by other means. If approved for conversion, Glomar Explorer is expected to begin operations as a drillship in 1984.