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At least 343 records · Page 19

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

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

Bauman, William H., III↗

A Sounding-based Severe Weather Tool to Support Daily Operations at Kennedy Space Center and Cape Canaveral Air Force Station

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

Hail↗

Washington Health & Air Quality: Quantifying Air Quality Parameters and Validating Air Pollution Sources Impacting the Health of Puget Sound Residents Through the Use of NASA and ESA Remote Sensing Data

In the Puget Sound region of Washington, high levels of air pollutants put residents’ health at risk by increasing their likelihood of developing critical respiratory conditions. This project used remotely-sensed data to investigate aerosol optical depth (AOD) from NASA satellite sensors including the Terra and Aqua MODerate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) and European Space Agency Copernicus Sentinel-5 Precursor TROPOspheric Monitoring Instrument (TROPOMI). The team visualized the most recent data in Google Earth Engine (GEE) API to display air pollution trends in Washington State, which will support the Puget Sound Clean Air Agency’s (PSCAA) decision-making processes. The team performed linear regressions using the Multi-Angle Implementation of Atmospheric Correction (MAIAC) algorithm to form a relationship between ground-level microscopic particles (PM2.5) and AOD in the Puget Sound region, validating the relationship using concentration readings taken from Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) air quality monitors. The team utilized estimated PM2.5 and other satellite data to produce a web-based tool and to evaluate the effectiveness of using such a tool for near real-time air quality monitoring within a particular region. The team found that the tool provides useful supplementary data that fills in the gaps of the PSCAA’s air monitoring network.

Health & Air Quality↗

Washington Health & Air Quality: Quantifying Air Quality Parameters and Validating Air Pollution Sources Impacting the Health of Puget Sound Residents Through the Use of NASA and ESA Remote Sensing Data

In the Puget Sound region of Washington, high levels of air pollutants put residents’ health at risk by increasing their likelihood of developing critical respiratory conditions. This project used remotely-sensed data to investigate aerosol optical depth (AOD) from NASA satellite sensors including the Terra and Aqua MODerate resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) and European Space Agency Copernicus Sentinel-5 Precursor TROPOspheric Monitoring Instrument (TROPOMI). The team visualized the most recent data in Google Earth Engine (GEE) API to display air pollution trends from Northern California to British Columbia, which will support the Puget Sound Clean Air Agency’s (PSCAA) decision-making processes. The team performed linear regressions using the Multi-Angle Implementation of Atmospheric Correction (MAIAC) algorithm to form a relationship between ground-level microscopic particles (PM2.5) and AOD in the Puget Sound region, validating the relationship using concentration readings taken from Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) air quality monitors. The team utilized estimated PM2.5 and other satellite data to produce a web-based tool and to evaluate the effectiveness of using such a tool for near real-time air quality monitoring within a particular region. The team found that the tool provides useful supplementary data that fills in the gaps of the PSCAA’s air monitoring network.

Health & Air Quality↗

Methods for Recording and Documenting Ambient Environmental Sound for use in Listening Devices

The potential for implementing Advanced Air Mobility (AAM) vehicles as a viable new transportation system into communities will likely be significantly affected by the psychoacoustic impact of these new noise sources into the existing ambient soundscape. This document addresses a need within the research community for a consistent means of documenting recordings of the ambient soundscape via a metadata framework (Rizzi, et al. 2020). Such recordings can provide a cognitive context for AAM vehicle sounds, as well as a fixed condition or independent variable against which experimental manipulations of vehicle sounds can be evaluated in listening tests. This document also provides recommendations for recording and reproduction techniques of ambient sound. A brief review is made of the use of ambient recordings in prior aircraft noise studies, and of psychoacoustic motivations for its implementation is reviewed from the fields of soundscape, auditory scene analysis, and time-varying partial specific loudness research.

urban air mobility↗

Brief Communication: An Empirical Relation Between Center Frequency and Measured Thickness for Radar Sounding of Temperate Glaciers

Radar sounding of the thickness of temperate glaciers is challenged by substantial volume scattering, surface scattering and high attenuation rates. Lower-frequency radar sounders are often deployed to mitigate these effects, but the lack of a global synthesis of their success limits progress in system and survey design. Here we extend a recent global compilation of glacier thickness measurements (GlaThiDa) with the center frequency for radar-sounding surveys. From a maximum reported thickness of ∼ 1500 m near 1 MHz, the maximum thickness sounded decreases by ∼ 500 m per frequency decade. Between 25–100 MHz, newer airborne radar sounders generally outperform older, ground-based ones. Based on globally modeled glacier thicknesses, we conclude that a multi-element, ≤30 MHz airborne radar sounder could survey most temperate glaciers more efficiently.

Joseph A MacGregor↗

Identifying Large Transients within ARTEMIS Solar Wind Data for Nightside Time Domain Electromagnetic Sounding

Mysteries regarding the Moon’s internal composition persist. By studying the induced magnetic fields produced by the Moon in response to changes in the magnetic field of the surrounding solar wind, inferences can be made regarding the associated eddy currents and thus regarding the electrical conductivities of the lunar regions hosting these currents. In this manner, a greater understanding of the Moon’s inner geophysical properties can be garnered. This investigative strategy, known as electromagnetic sounding, can be employed using magnetic field data from the ARTEMIS satellites. In particular, data taken from time intervals in which one satellite is within the lunar wake and within 500 km of the surface while the other is relatively far from the surface immersed within the pristine solar wind. Per Faraday’s Law, the steeper the magnetic transient from the solar wind, the greater the current induced within the Moon, and per Ampère’s Law, the greater this induced current, the larger the magnetic field it produces. Larger signals generally feature higher signal-to-noise ratios (SNRs). Thus, larger transients tend to produce more valuable data in terms of sounding. The enhanced separation between source signal and reaction signal via the aforementioned positioning of the probes during time intervals of interest augments the SNRs as well. Here we discuss tools developed in Python (making use of the PySPEDAS package) that expedites the task of identifying large magnetic transients within these time frames of interest. These exceptional changes in magnetic field are then evaluated for use in electromagnetic sounding as described above. We have identified 51 major transient events (during times of interest) from 8/1/2011 to 7/31/2021. One key hurdle we overcame was identifying and navigating data gaps. These data gaps would often interfere with our time intervals of interest, necessitating an algorithm to avoid them.

Moons↗

Improving the Time Resolution of Hyper-Spectral Infrared Sounding Observations With Trajectory Enhancement

Low Earth orbit (LEO) hyper-spectral infrared (IR) sounders have significant potential for characterizing the complex evolution of thermodynamic environments favorable for convective initiation and ongoing convection. The snapshots at fixed local times are unable to provide the temporal resolution needed to resolve the rapidly evolving convective environment. A novel methodology using trajectory modeling coupled with satellite soundings was developed to create proximity soundings near NCEI Storm Events to investigate differences in severe weather environments (Kalmus et al., 2019, https://doi.org/10.1175/MWR-D-18-0055.1). This methodology was recently extended to entire satellite swaths forward in time up to six hours into the future and was evaluated during NOAA’s Hazardous Weather Testbed (HWT) in a quasi-operational setting (Kahn et al., 2023, https://doi.org/10.1175/WAF-D-22-0204.1). This methodology is based on parcel forward-trajectory calculations from the satellite observing time to recreate future soundings of temperature and moisture at regularly gridded intervals in space and time. Using coincident Multi-Radar Multi-Sensor (MRMS) rainfall estimates, we show that convective available potential energy (CAPE) is increased and convective inhibition (CIN) is decreased at times and locations where convection initiated. This methodology was evaluated with ERA5 data sampled to mimic the satellite observing swaths (Richardson et al., 2023, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2023-97). Approximately 60–90% of the temporal and spatial variability in temperature and humidity is explained by parcel advection using trajectory modeling. This method will be applied to the multi-decadal LEO satellite record and could be used to examine capabilities of future satellite missions such as the GeoXO mission.

Emily Berndt↗

Enhancing Nasa Sounding Rocket Capabilities Through Composite Material Adoption

Sounding rockets are a suborbital research platform employed by NASA for heliophysics, astrophysics, and geospace science investigations, and for technology development. They follow semi-parabolic trajectories and are launched using surplus military, and commercial, solid-propellant rocket motors. NASA sounding rocket payloads are comprised of standard, modular subassemblies, designed to perform specific functions critical to achieving mission success criteria. Since the program’s inception, payload length and mass have trended upwards, limiting the capability of the platform to reach exospheric apogees and decreasing the time above critical altitudes to observe solar and celestial targets. To offset this trend, composite materials may be of use in payload and subsystem design to decrease payload mass. This investigation seeks to understand if there is a practical benefit to introducing composite materials on the NSRP by assessing mission specific impacts to those missions conducted in fiscal year 2024. To accurately estimate the mass of a composites-based payload, a standard subsystem (NIACS) underwent structural reconfiguration. Materials were selected that align with NSRP design, manufacturing, and testing standards. NIACS reconfiguration resulted in a mass reduction of 19.6% which was then applied to the payload system in entirety. Using vehicle performance carpet plots, delta apogee and time above the Kármán line were determined. Performance improvements were then evaluated against that mission’s success criteria to determine if that mission would have benefitted from using composite materials. On average, each mission would have gained 59.8 kilometers apogee and 62.9 seconds above the Kármán line. However, only nine of the seventeen missions would have benefitted from these performance improvements. Two of the missions could have used a lower-impulse launch vehicle to achieve mission success. Upleg stability met programmatic criteria; downleg instability and dynamic pressure improved, showing that ballast would not offset the mass reduction of using composite materials. Cost analysis showed that production costs will increase 39%. For the two missions that could have used a lower-impulse launch vehicle, the cost of the launch vehicle would have offset payload production costs. In summary, composite materials are not recommended for universal use on NASA sounding rocket payloads due to unclear programmatic benefits and added cost. However, they are justified for optical astrophysics and heliophysics missions, high-apogee (exosphere) requirements, or when they reduce payload costs versus higher impulse launch vehicles. Reflown, recoverable subsystems should use composites to enhance apogee and observation time.

Robert Henry Burth↗

The Effects of Wind on Sounding Rockets

A theory to account for the effects of wind on sounding rockets is developed and discussed. A rapid method for calculating the effects of wind is presented. The results of a series of calculations are compared with experimental values. Several suggestions are made to reduce the sensitivity of sounding rockets to winus and to provide better predictions.

SOUNDING ROCKET↗

Resonance sound absorber with yielding wall

A single-sheet resonance system for normal incidence of sound was investigated to study in detail the effect of sympathetic vibration of the resonator front wall on sound absorption.

INSTRUMENTS - RESONATORS↗

Second Sound Measurements Very Near the Lambda Point

The sound was generated by wire-wound heaters embedded in the end opposite the sensor in each cavity. The superfluid density was determined from second sound measurements and the critical exponent v was obtained from fits to the data. The results from the exponent were found to be very sensitive to the treatment of systematic effects in the data.

sound measurements Lambda point superfluid↗

Global navigation satellite sounding of the atmosphere and GNSS altimetry : prospects for geosciences

The vast illuminating power of the Global Positioning System (GPS), which transformed space geodesy in the 199Os, is now serving to probe the earth's fluid envelope in unique ways. Three distinct techniques have emerged: ground-based sensing of the integrated atmospheric moisture; space-based profiling of atmospheric refractivity, pressure, temperature, moisture, and other properties by active limb sounding; and surface (ocean and ice) altimetry and scatterometry with reflected signals detected from space. Ground-based GPS moisture sensing is already in provisional use for numerical weather prediction. Limb sounding, while less mature, offers a bevy of attractions, including high accuracy, stability, and vertical resolution; all-weather operation; and exceptionally low cost. GPS bistatic radar, r 'reflectometry,' is the least advanced but shows promise for a number of niche applications.

occultation↗

Tomographic Observation and Bedmapping of Glaciers in Western Greenland with IceBridge Sounding Radar

We produced the high resolution bedmaps of several glaciers in western Greenland from IceBridge Mission sounding radar data using tomographic sounding technique. The bedmaps cover 3 regions: Russell glaciers, Umanaq glaciers and Jakobshavn glaciers of western Greenland. The covered areas is about 20x40 km(sup 2) for Russell glaciers and 300x100 sq km, and 100x80 sq km for Jakobshavn glaciers. The ground resolution is 50 meters and the average ice thickness accuracy is 10 to 20 meters. There are some void areas within the swath of the tracks in the bedmaps where the ice thickness is not known. Tomographic observations of these void areas indicate that the surface and shallow sub-surface pockets, likely filled with water, are highly reflective and greatly weaken the radar signal and reduce the energy reaching and reflected from the ice sheet bottom.

IceBridge missions↗

A History of GPS Sounding

The roots of GPS sounding go back to the first days of interplanetary flight. Today we have the almost concurrent emergence of the very element vital to a new global enterprise in GPS sounding: copious high beacons at ideal frequencies bathing the globe; a profusion of low obiters carrying GPS receivers and designed for real-time global data transfer; low-cost microelectronics of unprecedented power; and the occultation techniques itself the most precise and arguably the simplest atmospheric probe yet devised.

occultation↗

Understanding Atmospheric Absorption Effects on UV Spectra from Sounding Rockets using a Spherical-Shells Model

Our team is working on building and calibrating the FURST sounding rocket, with an expected launch in mid-2023. The goal is to image the most complete and highest resolution UV spectra to date. To do this, preciseradiometric and wavelength calibration techniques have been developed. We describe below our model of O2 atmospheric absorption and couple that with simulated FURST images. With a high-enough SNR, we canestimate our ability to use absorption peaks for calibration, or for back-calculating atmospheric properties. If data is available, this method could be applied to older sounding rocket data to find hidden science.

MSFC, NASA, UAH, CSPAR, FURST, MSU, SHINE, Aeronom↗