Search NASA⌕ Search

SEARCH · Search NASA

Results for “Community Assessment”

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.

At least 289 records · Page 16
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
NASA NTRS1992

Overview of NASA human response to sonic boom program

For some routes the ability to fly at supersonic speeds over land as well as over water would greatly enhance the time benefit to the passenger. It would also increase the productivity and economic viability of the aircraft. There are no reliable guidelines which can be used to determine a sonic boom exposure which would be acceptable for overland supersonic flight. In addition to the peak pressure of the sonic boom, the detailed shape of the signature will also influence the perception, and therefore the community response, to sonic boom exposures. Initially, the program aims to develop the capability to predict human response to individual sonic booms. This will enable a quantitative assessment of the benefit of 'low boom' aircraft configurations and will also serve to guide the design of the aircraft and its operating conditions. This capability will form the foundation of studies to determine the relationship between sonic boom exposure and community response. Only then will it be possible to assess the feasibility of acceptable overland supersonic flight.

Shepherd, Kevin P.↗
NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Retrospectives: Current State of Knowledge on the Intersection of Spaceflight Stressors and Microbial Risks to Crew and Craft

OVERVIEW The spaceflight environment has several unique stressors that affect the health of both the crew and the spacecraft. An area of continued, albeit incomplete, study is the interaction of these stressors on microbial populations inherent to both astronauts and spacecraft surfaces and systems. A primary concern is the potential for the spaceflight environment to perturb the phenotype of these populations towards negative outcomes for crew and craft. In order to effectively mitigate these potential risks, they must first be characterized. We performed a retrospective literature analysis to assess the current state of knowledge regarding the affects of ionizing radiation and elevated CO2 on relevant microbial populations. The results of these retrospectives will guide next steps in the decisions of what (if any) further studies should be pursued and to guide decisions of the need for countermeasures. STRESSORS Ionizing radiation. The health risk involved with increased exposure to cosmic radiation has been studied in crew for 35+ years, with human health and cancer risk being the main focus. However, space radiation could also affect both the resident microorganisms aboard the ISS and the normal, healthy astronaut microbiomes that are of direct concern for crew health. A retrospective review of over 250 publications was accomplished looking at the impact of cumulative ionizing radiation doses lower than 3 Gy (chronic or acute) on microbial populations. Elevated CO2. The health risk involved with elevated atmospheric CO2 in spacecraft, primarily focusing on human toxicological risks, is understudied. The current Spaceflight Maximum Allowance Concentration for 24-hour average CO2 is 0.4% (3 mm Hg), which is significantly higher than terrestrial levels (0.04%). Whether these elevated ambient CO2 levels aboard spacecraft influence the diversity and phenotypic responses of the resident microbial communities from both the spacecraft environment (air, surface, water) and crew members (gut, nasal, skin microbiomes) is not known. A retrospective review was accomplished looking at the impact of chronic CO2 exposure up to 0.7% (5 mm Hg) for up to 6 months and acute exposure up to 2.6% (20 mm Hg) for up to 24 hours. CONCLUSIONS: MICROBIOME OF THE BUILT ENVIRONMENT The microbiome of the built spacecraft environment has been sampled consistently over the course of human spaceflight and significant advancements have been made in identifying microbial populations on the ISS. The dominant source of microbes on spacecraft surfaces are human-derived. Once in the spacecraft built environment, the extreme environment selects for features that enhance survival. While efforts to understand potential antibiotic resistance and pathogenicity of ISS isolates is robust, there is little to no understanding of which spaceflight environmental stressors, to include ionizing radiation or elevated CO2, drive the evolutionary trajectory of spacecraft-associated microbial populations. CONCLUSIONS: MICROBE-HOST INTERACTIONS The host-microbiome field has emerged as an important factor in human health on Earth as well in spaceflight. The field is struggling with the complexity of the system under investigation as there is substantial taxonomic and functional heterogeneity in these communities, making it difficult to establish clear stimulus-response dynamics. Taxonomic characterization is the norm; however, the functional role of each community member is key to linking environmental perturbations to potential dysbiosis. For both ionizing radiation and elevated CO2, the likely target of the perturbation is the host tissue, not the microbes themselves.. Any resulting changes to the microbial community composition and/or function is likely a result of adapting to those changes in the host physiology. RECOMMENDATIONS Emphasize functional characterization as opposed to taxonomic characterization of microbial communities. Increase the number of investigations using chronic, spaceflight-relevant doses of ionizing radiation. MoBE studies should move away from observational studies towards predictive modeling of community dynamics. Continue to develop scale-down models, such as tissues-on-a-chip & defined microbial communities. Focus on the crew response to elevated CO2 over MoBE considerations. Assess how direct contact with the hypercapnic environment affects skin microbiome dynamics.

retrospective↗
NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Retrospectives: Intersection of Spaceflight Stressors and Microbial Risk to Crew and Craft

OVERVIEW The spaceflight environment has several unique stressors that affect the health of both the crew and the spacecraft. An area of continued, albeit incomplete, study is the interaction of these stressors on microbial populations inherent to both astronauts and spacecraft surfaces and systems. A primary concern is the potential for the spaceflight environment to perturb the phenotype of these populations towards negative outcomes for crew and craft. In order to effectively mitigate these potential risks, they must first be characterized. We performed a retrospective literature analysis to assess the current state of knowledge regarding the affects of ionizing radiation and elevated CO2 on relevant microbial populations. The results of these retrospectives will guide next steps in the decisions of what (if any) further studies should be pursued and to guide decisions of the need for countermeasures. STRESSORS Ionizing radiation. The health risk involved with increased exposure to cosmic radiation has been studied in crew for 35+ years, with human health and cancer risk being the main focus. However, space radiation could also affect both the resident microorganisms aboard the ISS and the normal, healthy astronaut microbiomes that are of direct concern for crew health. A retrospective review of over 250 publications was accomplished looking at the impact of cumulative ionizing radiation doses lower than 3 Gy (chronic or acute) on microbial populations. Elevated CO2. The health risk involved with elevated atmospheric CO2 in spacecraft, primarily focusing on human toxicological risks, is understudied. The current Spaceflight Maximum Allowance Concentration for 24-hour average CO2 is 0.4% (3 mm Hg), which is significantly higher than terrestrial levels (0.04%). Whether these elevated ambient CO2 levels aboard spacecraft influence the diversity and phenotypic responses of the resident microbial communities from both the spacecraft environment (air, surface, water) and crew members (gut, nasal,skin microbiomes) is not known. A retrospective review was accomplished looking at the impact of chronic CO2 exposure up to 0.7% (5 mm Hg) for up to 6 months and acute exposure up to 2.6% (20 mm Hg) for up to 24 hours. CONCLUSIONS: MICROBIOME OF THE BUILT ENVIRONMENT The microbiome of the built spacecraft environment has been sampled consistently over the course of human spaceflight and significant advancements have been made in identifying microbial populations on the ISS. The dominant source of microbes on spacecraft surfaces are human-derived. Once in the spacecraft built environment,the extreme environment selects for features that enhance survival. While efforts to understand potential antibiotic resistance and pathogenicity of ISS isolates is robust, there is little to no understanding of which spaceflight environmental stressors, to include ionizing radiation or elevated CO2, drive the evolutionary trajectory of spacecraft-associated microbial populations. CONCLUSIONS: MICROBE-HOST INTERACTIONS The host-microbiome field has emerged as an important factor in human health on Earth as well in spaceflight. The field is struggling with the complexity of the system under investigation as there is substantial taxonomic and functional heterogeneity in these communities, making it difficult to establish clear stimulus-response dynamics.Taxonomic characterization is the norm; however, the functional role of each community member is key to linking environmental perturbations to potential dysbiosis. For both ionizing radiation and elevated CO2, the likely target of the perturbation is the host tissue, not the microbes themselves.. Any resulting changes to the microbial community composition and/or function is likely a result of adapting to those changes in the host physiology. RECOMMENDATIONS Emphasize functional characterization as opposed to taxonomic characterization of microbial communities.Increase the number of investigations using chronic, spaceflight-relevant doses of ionizing radiation. MoBE studies should move away from observational studies towards predictive modeling of community dynamics. Continue to develop scale-down models, such as tissues-on-a-chip & defined microbial communities. Focus on the crew response to elevated CO2 over MoBE considerations. Assess how direct contact with the hypercapnic environment affects skin microbiome dynamics.

Countermeasures↗
NASA NTRS2010

Quantitative Measures of Immersion in Cloud and the Biogeography of Cloud Forests

Sites described as tropical montane cloud forests differ greatly, in part because observers tend to differ in their opinion as to what constitutes frequent and prolonged immersion in cloud. This definitional difficulty interferes with hydrologic analyses, assessments of environmental impacts on ecosystems, and biogeographical analyses of cloud forest communities and species. Quantitative measurements of cloud immersion can be obtained on site, but the observations are necessarily spatially limited, although well-placed observers can examine 10 50 km of a mountain range under rainless conditions. Regional analyses, however, require observations at a broader scale. This chapter discusses remote sensing and modeling approaches that can provide quantitative measures of the spatiotemporal patterns of cloud cover and cloud immersion in tropical mountain ranges. These approaches integrate remote sensing tools of various spatial resolutions and frequencies of observation, digital elevation models, regional atmospheric models, and ground-based observations to provide measures of cloud cover, cloud base height, and the intersection of cloud and terrain. This combined approach was applied to the Monteverde region of northern Costa Rica to illustrate how the proportion of time the forest is immersed in cloud may vary spatially and temporally. The observed spatial variation was largely due to patterns of airflow over the mountains. The temporal variation reflected the diurnal rise and fall of the orographic cloud base, which was influenced in turn by synoptic weather conditions, the seasonal movement of the Intertropical Convergence Zone and the north-easterly trade winds. Knowledge of the proportion of the time that sites are immersed in clouds should facilitate ecological comparisons and biogeographical analyses, as well as land use planning and hydrologic assessments in areas where intensive on-site work is not feasible.

Lawton, R. O.↗
NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Mars Sample Return (MSR) Sample Receiving Facility (SRF) Assessment Study (MSAS)

NASA, in partnership with the European Space Agency (ESA), is seeking to return Martian geological and atmospheric samples to Earth for scientific study in the early 2030s. Due to the possibility that the samples could contain extraterrestrial life, Mars Sample Return (MSR) is classified as a Category V: Restricted Earth Return mission by the NASA Planetary Protection Office. As a result of this classification, a MSR Sample Receiving Facility (SRF) must not only provide a pristine environment to ensure samples are protected from terrestrial contamination for scientific investigations, it must also provide high-containment (biosafety level 4 [BSL-4]-equivalence) to isolate the samples from Earth’s biosphere until the samples are deemed safe for release and/or sterilized. The nominal utilization period for a SRF is anticipated to be 2-5 years and is intended to enable curation activities, biohazard assessment, select early science activities, and the rapid release of samples to the scientific community. However, to account for possible delays in schedule or the identification of extant life, this anticipated period of time must be flexible to accommodate schedule extensions and contingency plans. Due to requirements for high-level biological containment and cleanliness, a traditional receiving/curation facility cannot be utilized for MSR. Therefore, beginning in 2022, NASA Johnson Space Center is performing a MSR SRF Assessment Study (MSAS) to investigate the most optimal facility modality for a MSR SRF, as well as start to define programmatic early estimate of costs and schedules before the initial design phase begins. NASA is partnering with industry contractors (architectural and engineering firms with BSL-4 and cleanroom technology experience, as well as other contracted infrastructure and construction specialists) along with selected experts from NASA, ESA, existing U.S. BSL-4 facilities, and other U.S. government agencies, to carry out the assessment study. The MSAS should also aid in the future refinement of the science requirements (e.g., contamination control, equipment accommodations) before site-specific design would commence. As part of the MSAS, NASA is planning to assess an array of possibilities for a MSR SRF. One of the main considerations is the facility modality and whether an existing BSL-4 facility can be utilized (for some or all functions); or, if new constructure would be required, would a traditional fixed facility or a modular facility the best choice. MSAS will also investigate the ability of the modalities to accommodate two different facility capability endmembers: 1) a minimal facility focusing on biohazard assessment and curation tasks with a small footprint, and 2) an enhanced facility with additional capabilities to enable expedited processing and the completion of time-sensitive and (some) sterilization-sensitive science. The assessment is intended to generate information that will inform the selection of facility modalities for high-level conceptual design development. While the assessment study will focus on SRF requirements for accommodating curation, science, and sample safety assessment infrastructure, it will also consider an array of other factors, such as ease of access for international users, decommissioning, repurposing, future sale or lease following MSR’s use of the facility, and uncontained preparatory laboratory spaces. Upon completion of the study, the preferred modality and refined requirements would be utilized for site-specific design but will not be finalized until NASA’s completion of the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) process.

A.D. Harrington↗
NASA NTRS2018

The Importance of User Feedback in Sustaining Trusted Repositories

The NASA Earth Observation System Data and Information System (EOSDIS) has been operating since 1994 and is serving a global user community with well-managed Earth science data in a variety of scientific disciplines. EOSDIS processes, archives and distributes data and information products resulting from spaceborne and airborne instruments as well as in situ measurements from field campaigns. The Earth Science Data and Information System (ESDIS) Project at the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center manages EOSDIS with its 12 Distributed Active Archive Centers (DAACs) located across the United States. During the entire life of EOSDIS, the ESDIS Project and the DAACs have deployed many different mechanisms for user feedback, which have proven extremely valuable to their evolution and performance in their service to user communities. Some of the inputs from our user groups have resulted in fundamental changes in the architecture, design and operations of EOSDIS, while others have provided novel ideas for incremental changes. The EOSDIS DAACs have User Working Groups (UWGs) that represent broad user communities in the Earth science disciplines served by the DAACs. The UWGs meet periodically to assess and provide feedback on dataset and service priorities. As regular users of the data and services of the DAAC and experts in the scientific disciplines, the UWG members provide valuable inputs for planning and prioritizing the services, as well as addition of new datasets, for the benefit of the community. The EOSDIS is evaluated annually through an independently administered survey of its users resulting in the American Customer Satisfaction Index (ACSI). The survey provides an ACSI score as well as free-text suggestions from users, which are also helpful in making specific system improvements. In addition, each of the DAACs has a user services group that address on-going requests for help and other comments from users. The ESDIS Project has established a mechanism through the "earthdata" website (http://earthdata.nasa.gov) for users to provide feedback of any kind and these questions/comments are routed to the appropriate individuals in the Project or the DAACs. These various forms of receiving user feedback and responding to them continue to be extremely valuable in evolving and sustaining our Earth Science repository.

Behnke, Jeanne↗
NASA NTRS1994

Microbial community structure at the U.S.-Joint Global Ocean Flux Study Station ALOHA: Inverse methods for estimating biochemical indicator ratios

Modeling biogeochemical fluxes in the marine plankton requires the application of factors for extrapolation of biomass indicators measured in the field (chlorophyll a, adenosine triphosphate, bacterial counts) to biomass carbon or nitrogen. These are often inferred from culture studies and are poorly constrained for natural populations. At least squares inverse method with a simple linear model constrains the values of several common indicator ratios, giving self-consistent solutions that provide useful information about the structure of the microbial community at our North Pacific Ocean study site (Station ALOHA (A Long-term Oligotrophic Habitat Assessment)). These results indicate that the fraction of the microbial biomass that is autotrophic (pigmented) is greater in the mixed layer than at the deep chlorophyll maximum layer and that heterotrophic bacteria are a significant but not necessarily predominant component of the microbial community in the euphotic zone.

Christian, James R.↗
NASA NTRS2018

Performance Metrics for the Assessment of Satellite Data Products: An Ocean Color Case Study

Performance assessment of ocean color satellite data has generally relied on statistical metrics chosen for their common usage and the rationale for selecting certain metrics is infrequently explained. Commonly reported statistics based on mean squared errors, such as the coefficient of determination (r2), root mean square error, and regression slopes, are most appropriate for Gaussian distributions without outliers and, therefore, are often not ideal for ocean color algorithm performance assessment, which is often limited by sample availability. In contrast, metrics based on simple deviations, such as bias and mean absolute error, as well as pair-wise comparisons, often provide more robust and straightforward quantities for evaluating ocean color algorithms with non-Gaussian distributions and outliers. This study uses a SeaWiFS chlorophyll-a validation data set to demonstrate a framework for satellite data product assessment and recommends a multimetric and user-dependent approach that can be applied within science, modeling, and resource management communities.

remote sensing↗
NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Assessing Urban Heat in the Cincinnati and Covington Area to Inform Local Decision-Makers and Environmental Justice Initiatives

The Urban Heat Island effect is a phenomenon characterized by urban areas experiencing temperatures that are, on average, warmer than surrounding suburban and rural regions. Urban Heat Islands are fueled by expansive impervious surfaces, vehicle emissions, and insufficient urban green space. Densely populated urban centers like the Cincinnati, Ohio and Covington, Kentucky area can experience negative health impacts due to the Urban Heat Island. NASA DEVELOP partnered with Groundwork USA and Groundwork Ohio River Valley to combine environmental education and outreach with technical capacity building in NASA Earth observations. The DEVELOP team used Landsat 5 TM and ISS ECOSTRESS to calculate daytime and nighttime land surface temperature anomalies. The team found that the Cincinnati and Covington area was 8.32°F warmer during the day and 4.97°F warmer at night compared to non-urban areas. The team also ran the Natural Capital Project InVEST Urban Cooling Model to map a heat mitigation index for the study area. The heat mitigation index models the cooling capacity of each pixel and the effect of green spaces on the pixel’s ability to mitigate heat. Results show which communities are most vulnerable to impacts of increased urban heat. The team also assessed alternative tree canopy scenarios with the InVEST model to better understand the effectiveness of potential heat mitigation strategies. Increasing tree canopy cover by 25% in urbanized land cover types was found to reduce mean temperature across the study area by 0.87°F. Combining these results with work from Groundwork’s Climate Safe Neighborhoods program highlights the relationship between extreme heat and historical-race based housing practices in the region. Results provide partners at Groundwork with refined methodologies to support future education and outreach, as well as increase future capacity to NASA Earth observations.

Celeste Gambino↗
NASA NTRSDate not supplied

On the Modeling of UAM Aircraft Community Noise in AEDT Helicopter Mode

In contrast to most commercial air traffic today, vehicles serving the urban air mobility (UAM) market are anticipated to operate within communities and be close to the public at large. The approved model for assessing environmental impact of air traffic actions in the United States, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) Aviation Environmental Design Tool (AEDT), does not directly support analysis of such operations. Prior work focused on modeling UAM aircraft within AEDT under fixed-wing mode. This paper addresses the modeling of UAM aircraft under helicopter mode, using requisite noise-power-distance data generated through analysis. Results are compared with those from the fixed-wing approach and a hybrid approach. The latter models some flight segments in fixed-wing mode and others in helicopter mode.

aircraft community noise↗
NASA NTRS2014

Sao Paulo Lightning Mapping Array (SP-LMA): Network Assessment and Analyses for Intercomparison Studies and GOES-R Proxy Activities

A 12 station Lightning Mapping Array (LMA) network was deployed during October 2011 in the vicinity of Sao Paulo, Brazil (SP-LMA) to contribute total lightning measurements to an international field campaign [CHUVA - Cloud processes of tHe main precipitation systems in Brazil: A contribUtion to cloud resolVing modeling and to the GPM (GlobAl Precipitation Measurement)]. The SP-LMA was operational from November 2011 through March 2012 during the Vale do Paraiba campaign. Sensor spacing was on the order of 15-30 km, with a network diameter on the order of 40-50km. The SP-LMA provides good 3-D lightning mapping out to 150 km from the network center, with 2-D coverage considerably farther. In addition to supporting CHUVA science/mission objectives, the SP-LMA is supporting the generation of unique proxy data for the Geostationary Lightning Mapper (GLM) and Advanced Baseline Imager (ABI), on NOAA's Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite-R (GOES-R: scheduled for a 2015 launch). These proxy data will be used to develop and validate operational algorithms so that they will be ready to use on "day1" following the GOES-R launch. As the CHUVA Vale do Paraiba campaign opportunity was formulated, a broad community-based interest developed for a comprehensive Lightning Location System (LLS) intercomparison and assessment study, leading to the participation and/or deployment of eight other ground-based networks and the space-based Lightning Imaging Sensor (LIS). The SP-LMA data is being intercompared with lightning observations from other deployed lightning networks to advance our understanding of the capabilities/contributions of each of these networks toward GLM proxy and validation activities. This paper addresses the network assessment including noise reduction criteria, detection efficiency estimates, and statistical and climatological (both temporal and spatially) analyses for intercomparison studies and GOES-R proxy activities.

Bailey, J. C.↗
NASA NTRS1974

Social cost considerations and legal constraints in implementing modular integrated utility systems

Social costs associated with the design, demonstration, and implementation of the Modular Integrated Utility System are considered including the social climate of communities, leadership patterns, conflicts and cleavages, specific developmental values, MIUS utility goal assessment, and the suitability of certian alternative options for use in a program of implementation. General considerations are discussed in the field of socio-technological planning. These include guidelines for understanding the conflict and diversity; some relevant goal choices and ideas useful to planners of the MIUS facility.

Lede, N. W.↗
NASA NTRS2005

Verification, Validation, and Solution Quality in Computational Physics: CFD Methods Applied to Ice Sheet Physics

Procedures and methods for veri.cation of coding algebra and for validations of models and calculations used in the aerospace computational fluid dynamics (CFD) community would be ef.cacious if used by the glacier dynamics modeling community. This paper presents some of those methods, and how they might be applied to uncertainty management supporting code veri.cation and model validation for glacier dynamics. The similarities and differences between their use in CFD analysis and the proposed application of these methods to glacier modeling are discussed. After establishing sources of uncertainty and methods for code veri.cation, the paper looks at a representative sampling of veri.cation and validation efforts that are underway in the glacier modeling community, and establishes a context for these within an overall solution quality assessment. Finally, a vision of a new information architecture and interactive scienti.c interface is introduced and advocated.

Thompson, David E.↗
NASA NTRS2008

New Geologic Map of the Argyre Region of Mars

The new generation of Mars orbital topographic and imaging data justifies a new mapping effort of the Argyre impact basin and surroundings (-30.0deg to -65.0deg lat., -20.0deg to -70.0deg long; Fig.1). Our primary objective is to produce a geologic map of the Argyre region at 1:5,000,000 scale in both digital and print formats. The map will detail the stratigraphic and crosscutting relations among rock materials and landforms. These include Argyre basin infill, impact crater rim materials and adjoining highland materials of Noachis Terra, valleys and elongated basins that are radial and concentric about the primary Argyre basin, faults, enigmatic ridges, lobate debris aprons, and valley networks. Such information will be useful to the planetary science community for constraining the regional geology, paleohydrology, and paleoclimate. This includes the assessment of: (a) whether the Argyre basin contained lakes [1], (b) the extent of reported flooding and glaciation, which includes ancient flows of volatiles into the impact basin [2-4], (c) existing interpretations of the origin of the narrow ridges located in the southeast part of the basin floor [2,5], and (d) the extent of Argyre-related tectonism and its influence on the surrounding regions. Whereas the geologic mapping investigation of Timothy Parker focuses on the Argyre floor materials at 1:1,000,000 (MTMs -50036, -50043, -55036, -55043; see Fig. 1 for approximate corners of the area), our regional geologic mapping investigation includes the Argyre basin floor and rim materials, the transition zone that straddles the Thaumasia plateau, which includes Argyre impact-related modification [6], and the southeast margin of the Thaumasia plateau using important new data sets (Fig. 1). Our mapping effort will incorporate the map information of Parker if it is made available during the project.

Dohm, J. M.↗
NASA NTRS2006

Evaluation of Mesoscale Model Phenomenological Verification Techniques

Forecasters at the Spaceflight Meteorology Group, 45th Weather Squadron, and National Weather Service in Melbourne, FL use mesoscale numerical weather prediction model output in creating their operational forecasts. These models aid in forecasting weather phenomena that could compromise the safety of launch, landing, and daily ground operations and must produce reasonable weather forecasts in order for their output to be useful in operations. Considering the importance of model forecasts to operations, their accuracy in forecasting critical weather phenomena must be verified to determine their usefulness. The currently-used traditional verification techniques involve an objective point-by-point comparison of model output and observations valid at the same time and location. The resulting statistics can unfairly penalize high-resolution models that make realistic forecasts of a certain phenomena, but are offset from the observations in small time and/or space increments. Manual subjective verification can provide a more valid representation of model performance, but is time-consuming and prone to personal biases. An objective technique that verifies specific meteorological phenomena, much in the way a human would in a subjective evaluation, would likely produce a more realistic assessment of model performance. Such techniques are being developed in the research community. The Applied Meteorology Unit (AMU) was tasked to conduct a literature search to identify phenomenological verification techniques being developed, determine if any are ready to use operationally, and outline the steps needed to implement any operationally-ready techniques into the Advanced Weather Information Processing System (AWIPS). The AMU conducted a search of all literature on the topic of phenomenological-based mesoscale model verification techniques and found 10 different techniques in various stages of development. Six of the techniques were developed to verify precipitation forecasts, one to verify sea breeze forecasts, and three were capable of verifying several phenomena. The AMU also determined the feasibility of transitioning each technique into operations and rated the operational capability of each technique on a subjective 1-10 scale: (1) 1 indicates that the technique is only in the initial stages of development, (2) 2-5 indicates that the technique is still undergoing modifications and is not ready for operations, (3) 6-8 indicates a higher probability of integrating the technique into AWIPS with code modifications, and (4) 9-10 indicates that the technique was created for AWIPS and is ready for implementation. Eight of the techniques were assigned a rating of 5 or below. The other two received ratings of 6 and 7, and none of the techniques a rating of 9-10. At the current time, there are no phenomenological model verification techniques ready for operational use. However, several of the techniques described in this report may become viable techniques in the future and should be monitored for updates in the literature. The desire to use a phenomenological verification technique is widespread in the modeling community, and it is likely that other techniques besides those described herein are being developed, but the work has not yet been published. Therefore, the AMIU recommends that the literature continue to be monitored for updates to the techniques described in this report and for new techniques being developed whose results have not yet been published. 111

Lambert, Winifred↗
NASA NTRS2016

Simulation Credibility: Advances in Verification, Validation, and Uncertainty Quantification

Decision makers and other users of simulations need to know quantified simulation credibility to make simulation-based critical decisions and effectively use simulations, respectively. The credibility of a simulation is quantified by its accuracy in terms of uncertainty, and the responsibility of establishing credibility lies with the creator of the simulation. In this volume, we present some state-of-the-art philosophies, principles, and frameworks. The contributing authors involved in this publication have been dedicated to advancing simulation credibility. They detail and provide examples of key advances over the last 10 years in the processes used to quantify simulation credibility: verification, validation, and uncertainty quantification. The philosophies and assessment methods presented here are anticipated to be useful to other technical communities conducting continuum physics-based simulations; for example, issues related to the establishment of simulation credibility in the discipline of propulsion are discussed. We envision that simulation creators will find this volume very useful to guide and assist them in quantitatively conveying the credibility of their simulations.

Simulation Credibility↗
NASA NTRS2015

Simple Tool for Aircraft Noise-Reduction Route Design

The design of arrival and departure routes from an airport has to balance the conflicting requirements of fuel efficiency, airport capacity utilization and community emission and noise considerations. The commonly used tools for aircraft noise assessment are the FAA’s Integrated Noise Model (INM) and Aviation Environmental Design Tool (AEDT). These tools are suitable to generate precise noise contours. However, they are harder to use with other tools for route design optimization involving evaluation of a large number of aircraft trajectories. A simplified aircraft noise computation tool, named AIRNOISE, is developed for preliminary aircraft noise-reduction route design in this paper. AIRNOISE computes aircraft noise based on the same SAE-AIR-1845 procedures used by INM and AEDT. AIRNOISE does not consider components related to terrain and atmosphere adjustments. As a result, it is not only computationally efficient but also flexible to use for customized aircraft profiles. The aircraft noise results are compared with the FAA’s AEDT2b and show that the level of accuracy achieved by AIRNOISE can be used to reduce the number of route design options to a small number from a large pool for subsequent accurate analysis by INM.

Li, Jinhua↗
NASA NTRS2019

Benchmarking CME Arrival Time and Impact: Progress on Metadata, Metrics, and Events

Accurate forecasting of the arrival time and subsequent geomagnetic impacts of coronal mass ejections (CMEs) at Earth is an important objective for space weather forecasting agencies. Recently, the CME Arrival and Impact working team has made significant progress toward defining communit yagreed metrics and validation methods to assess the current state of CME modeling capabilities. This will allow the community to quantify our current capabilities and track progress in models over time. First, it is crucial that the community focuses on the collection of the necessary metadata for transparency and reproducibility of results. Concerning CME arrival and impact we have identified six different metadata types: 3D CME measurement, model description, model input, CME (non)arrival observation, model output data, and metrics and validation methods. Second, the working team has also identified a validation time period, where all events within the following two periods will be considered: 1 January 2011 to 31 December 2012 and January 2015 to 31 December 2015. Those two periods amount to a total of about 100 hit events at Earth and a large amount of misses. Considering a time period will remove any bias in selecting events and the event set will represent a sample set that will not be biased by user selection. Lastly, we have defined the basic metrics and skill scores that the CME Arrival and Impact working team will focus on.

Verbeke, C.↗