Search NASA⌕ Search

SEARCH · Search NASA

Results for “stream networks”

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 361 records · Page 20

NASA Tech Briefs, December 2009

Topics include: A Deep Space Network Portable Radio Science Receiver; Detecting Phase Boundaries in Hard-Sphere Suspensions; Low-Complexity Lossless and Near-Lossless Data Compression Technique for Multispectral Imagery; Very-Long-Distance Remote Hearing and Vibrometry; Using GPS to Detect Imminent Tsunamis; Stream Flow Prediction by Remote Sensing and Genetic Programming; Pilotless Frame Synchronization Using LDPC Code Constraints; Radiometer on a Chip; Measuring Luminescence Lifetime With Help of a DSP; Modulation Based on Probability Density Functions; Ku Telemetry Modulator for Suborbital Vehicles; Photonic Links for High-Performance Arraying of Antennas; Reconfigurable, Bi-Directional Flexfet Level Shifter for Low-Power, Rad-Hard Integration; Hardware-Efficient Monitoring of I/O Signals; Video System for Viewing From a Remote or Windowless Cockpit; Spacesuit Data Display and Management System; IEEE 1394 Hub With Fault Containment; Compact, Miniature MMIC Receiver Modules for an MMIC Array Spectrograph; Waveguide Transition for Submillimeter-Wave MMICs; Magnetic-Field-Tunable Superconducting Rectifier; Bonded Invar Clip Removal Using Foil Heaters; Fabricating Radial Groove Gratings Using Projection Photolithography; Gratings Fabricated on Flat Surfaces and Reproduced on Non-Flat Substrates; Method for Measuring the Volume-Scattering Function of Water; Method of Heating a Foam-Based Catalyst Bed; Small Deflection Energy Analyzer for Energy and Angular Distributions; Polymeric Bladder for Storing Liquid Oxygen; Pyrotechnic Simulator/Stray-Voltage Detector; Inventions Utilizing Microfluidics and Colloidal Particles; RuO2 Thermometer for Ultra-Low Temperatures; Ultra-Compact, High-Resolution LADAR System for 3D Imaging; Dual-Channel Multi-Purpose Telescope; Objective Lens Optimized for Wavefront Delivery, Pupil Imaging, and Pupil Ghosting; CMOS Camera Array With Onboard Memory; Quickly Approximating the Distance Between Two Objects; Processing Images of Craters for Spacecraft Navigation; Adaptive Morphological Feature-Based Object Classifier for a Color Imaging System; Rover Slip Validation and Prediction Algorithm; Safety and Quality Training Simulator; Supply-Chain Optimization Template; Algorithm for Computing Particle/Surface Interactions; Cryogenic Pupil Alignment Test Architecture for Aberrated Pupil Images; and Thermal Transport Model for Heat Sink Design.

Source record↗

Computer Program Recognizes Patterns in Time-Series Data

A computer program recognizes selected patterns in time-series data like digitized samples of seismic or electrophysiological signals. The program implements an artificial neural network (ANN) and a set of N clocks for the purpose of determining whether N or more instances of a certain waveform, W, occur within a given time interval, T. The ANN must be trained to recognize W in the incoming stream of data. The first time the ANN recognizes W, it sets clock 1 to count down from T to zero; the second time it recognizes W, it sets clock 2 to count down from T to zero, and so forth through the Nth instance. On the N + 1st instance, the cycle is repeated, starting with clock 1. If any clock has not reached zero when it is reset, then N instances of W have been detected within time T, and the program so indicates. The program can readily be encoded in a field-programmable gate array or an application-specific integrated circuit that could be used, for example, to detect electroencephalographic or electrocardiographic waveforms indicative of epileptic seizures or heart attacks, respectively.

Hand, Charles↗

Classification and Localization of Fracture-Hit Events in Low-Frequency Distributed Acoustic Sensing Strain Rate with Convolutional Neural Networks

Summary Distributed acoustic sensing (DAS) has been used in the oil and gas industry as an advanced technology for surveillance and diagnostics. Operators use DAS to monitor hydraulic fracturing activities, examine well stimulation efficacy, and estimate complex fracture system geometries. Particularly, low-frequency DAS can detect geomechanical events such as fracture hits because hydraulic fractures propagate and create strain rate variations in the rock. Analysis of DAS data today is mostly done post-job and subject to interpretation methods. However, the continuous and dense data stream generated live by DAS poses the opportunity for more efficient and accurate real-time data-driven analysis. The objective of this study is to develop a machine learning-based workflow that can identify and locate fracture-hit events in simulated strain rate responses correlated with low-frequency DAS data. In this paper, “fracture hit” refers to a hydraulic fracture originating from a stimulated well intersecting an offset well. We start with building a single fracture propagation model to produce strain rate patterns observed at a hypothetical monitoring well. This model is used to generate two sets of strain rate responses with one set containing fracture-hit events. The labeled synthetic data are then used to train a custom convolutional neural network (CNN) model for identifying the presence of fracture-hit events. The same model is trained again for locating the event with the output layer of the model replaced with linear units. We achieved near-perfect predictions for both event classification and localization. These promising results prove the feasibility of using CNN for real-time event detection from fiber-optic sensing data. Additionally, we use edge detection techniques to recognize fracture-hit event patterns in strain rate images. The fracture-hit location can be identified using recognized pixels in the image. The accuracy of edge detection-based location identification is also plausible, but edge detection is dependent on the assumption of pattern shape and image quality, hence it is less robust compared to CNN models. This comparison further supports the need for CNN applications in image-based real-time fiber-optic sensing event detection.

Engineering↗

A Data-Agnostic, Continuous Machine Learning Framework for Application in High Energy Physics and Beyond: Phase 1 Final Scientific/Technical Report

This Phase 1 effort has focused on the development of continual learning frameworks for use in machine learning, specifically in the applied context of High Energy Physics (HEP). Machine learning (ML) is a transformative technology by which computers, typically through the use of neural networks, are able to perform tasks with proficiency that rivals or surpasses that of human users. Model Degradation & Catastrophic Forgetting are two undesired phenomena which can occur in ML where the performance of a model degrades when either deployed on novel data streams, or trained on novel data which are sufficiently different than the data the models were initially trained on. A natural example where these sorts of effects can be observed is in the performance of detectors in harsh environments, where the detector signature may change over the lifetime of the detector as it ages and deteriorates — precisely what occurs in the experiments conducted in HEP. Real world HEP data is therefore an excellent test-ground and use-case for Continual Learning paradigms, which are techniques used in ML to counteract these problems. Ensemble learning is one such technique, where multiple smaller models are trained on subsets of the overall data and are ensembled together during inference. The intuition behind this technique is that, although there are shifts in the distributions which govern the incoming data streams, these shifts are not expected to be homogeneous or global. If a sufficient diversity in solutions within the various sub-models has been achieved, then at least one sub-model is expected to retain its performance within the overall ensemble. One further strength of this approach is that the architectures of the various models do not need to be identical, and in fact even different modalities of data can naturally be combined in this way. This work focused on applying ensemble learning techniques to derive results using two main datasets, anomaly detection in HEP data & time-series forecasting in semiconductor manufacturing data. Semiconductor manufacturing involves data with surprising similarity to that of HEP (e.g. wafer maps look very similar to digi-occupancy maps) and Cerium Lab’s prominence within the semiconductor industry makes semiconductor manufacturing a natural opportunity for commercialization of this work. Our efforts have led to two strong results. The first is that we evaluated the proposed ensembling techniques using previously proposed machine learning architectures for use in anomaly detection, namely AutoEncoder based models and their derivatives. We also developed new architectures which have not been evaluated in this context before. In fact, this work marks the first use of Vision Transformers for anomaly detection in HEP. Second, we demonstrated that ensemble learning significantly improves model performance in scenarios prone to degradation, validating its effectiveness across both HEP and semiconductor datasets. These results further support ensemble learning as a powerful strategy for mitigating catastrophic forgetting and maintaining robust performance in evolving data environments.

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗

Improving an Acoustic Vehicle Detector Using an Iterative Self-Supervision Procedure

In many non-canonical data science scenarios, obtaining, detecting, attributing, and annotating enough high-quality training data is the primary barrier to developing highly effective models. Moreover, in many problems that are not sufficiently defined or constrained, manually developing a training dataset can often overlook interesting phenomena that should be included. To this end, we have developed and demonstrated an iterative self-supervised learning procedure, whereby models are successfully trained and applied to new data to extract new training examples that are added to the corpus of training data. Successive generations of classifiers are then trained on this augmented corpus. Using low-frequency acoustic data collected by a network of infrasound sensors deployed around the High Flux Isotope Reactor and Radiochemical Engineering Development Center at Oak Ridge National Laboratory, we test the viability of our proposed approach to develop a powerful classifier with the goal of identifying vehicles from continuously streamed data and differentiating these from other sources of noise such as tools, people, airplanes, and wind. Using a small collection of exhaustively manually labeled data, we test several implementation details of the procedure and demonstrate its success regardless of the fidelity of the initial model used to seed the iterative procedure. Finally, we demonstrate the method’s ability to update a model to accommodate changes in the data-generating distribution encountered during long-term persistent data collection.

22 GENERAL STUDIES OF NUCLEAR REACTORS↗

MESA: Message-Based System Analysis Using Runtime Verification

In this paper, we present a novel approach and framework for run-time verication of large, safety critical messaging systems. This work was motivated by verifying the System Wide Information Management (SWIM) project of the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA). SWIM provides live air traffic, site and weather data streams for the whole National Airspace System (NAS), which can easily amount to several hundred messages per second. Such safety critical systems cannot be instrumented, therefore, verification and monitoring has to happen using a nonintrusive approach, by connecting to a variety of network interfaces. Due to a large number of potential properties to check, the verification framework needs to support efficient formulation of properties with a suitable Domain Specific Language (DSL). Our approach is to utilize a distributed system that is geared towards connectivity and scalability and interface it at the message queue level to a powerful verification engine. We implemented our approach in the tool called MESA: Message-Based System Analysis, which leverages the open source projects RACE (Runtime for Airspace Concept Evaluation) and TraceContract. RACE is a platform for instantiating and running highly concurrent and distributed systems and enables connectivity to SWIM and scalability. TraceContract is a runtime verication tool that allows for checking traces against properties specified in a powerful DSL. We applied our approach to verify a SWIM service against several requirements.We found errors such as duplicate and out-of-order messages.

Message-based System↗

Online Distribution System State Estimation via Stochastic Gradient Algorithm

Distribution network operation is becoming more challenging because of the growing integration of intermittent and volatile distributed energy resources (DERs). This motivates the development of new distribution system state estimation (DSSE) paradigms that can operate at fast timescale based on real-time data stream of asynchronous measurements enabled by modern information and communications technology. To solve the real-time DSSE with asynchronous measurements effectively and accurately, this paper formulates a weighted least squares DSSE problem and proposes an online stochastic gradient algorithm to solve it. The performance of the proposed scheme is analytically guaranteed and is numerically corroborated with realistic data on IEEE 123-bus feeder.

distribution system state estimation↗

Numerical Modeling of No Vent Filling of a Cryogenic Tank with Thermo-dynamic Vent System Assisted Injector

This paper presents a multi-node finite volume model of No Vent Filling (NVF) of a cryogenic tank with Thermo-dynamic Vent System (TVS) assisted injector, using the Generalized Fluid System Simulation Program (GFSSP), a general purpose flow network code. NVF tests were conducted in a CRYOgenic Orbital Testbed (CRYOTE) tank which was filled by liquid nitrogen using a TVS assisted injector with vent valve closed during the entire filling process. In TVS assisted injector, the liquid flow splits into two streams: one stream is routed to a Joule-Thomson (J-T) orifice where the flow immediately flashes from liquid to vapor or two phase mixture because the downstream to J-T leg is maintained at vacuum level.; the other stream is injected into the tank after being cooled by cold vapor of J-T leg in a heat exchanger. The flow through J-T leg is also used to cool the outer metal matrix of the injector which in turn cools the vapor in the tank ullage. The cooling of vapor in the ullage by cold injector surface reduces ullage pressure that allows liquid to enter and fill the tank. An integrated numerical model of the test set up was developed. The model included the dual lines of TVS assisted injector, tank and tank wall. The tank was discretized into multiple fluid nodes and branches to represent the ullage and liquid nitrogen and multiple solid nodes to represent the tank wall and structure. The heat transfer between solid to fluid was calculated from pool boiling correlations which include film, transition, and nucleate boiling, as well as natural convection during pre- and post-boiling. The model also accounts for the condensation of vapor at ullage-injector interface and when it comes in contact with the liquid spray. The predicted pressure, resident mass, wall temperature in the tank were compared with the test data.

Alok Majumdar↗

Network of Modified Portable Optical Particle Spectrometers Instrument Handbook

The U.S. Department of Energy Atmospheric Radiation Measurement (ARM) user facility’s portable optical particle spectrometer (POPS) network (Figure 1) provides an aerosol size distribution spectrum from 150 nm to 5 μm in 16 logarithmically spaced bins. The data emanating from this network of up to four matching POPS in weatherproof enclosures comprises one-minute averages of the aerosol size and number spectrum and the co-located temperature and relative humidity. The total particle concentration and sample flow rate are also provided. The sample stream is not dried before its measurement. Two size spectra are provided: the default size distribution corresponds to the calibration using polystyrene latex spheres (PSL), while the second size distribution corresponds to the calibration using size-selected dry ammonium sulfate aerosol. The principal scientific application of the data provided by the ARM POPS is to determine the aerosol size distribution across a region in three disparate locations – the size distribution is broadly relevant to studies of pollution and of conditions in the boundary layer. A high particle concentration can be an indicator of unhealthy levels of pollution; the dispersion of particles in the atmosphere is a predictor of long-range visibility; and particles serve as collectors of condensing gases including water vapor, and thus are a factor in the formation and properties of fogs and clouds, and in the initiation of precipitation.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗

Extended Range Communications Support for the X-33

Communications support for the X-33 requires addressing several interesting challenges to meet program and range safety requirements. In addition, the heavily cost driven program has provided concessions to the communications support to reduce the cost of networking the extended range. Cost trade-offs showed that by lowering the telemetry data rate from 2 Megabits per second to 1440 Megabits per second that significant cost avoidance could be realized. Also, by adopting standard telecommunications data rate for the uplink data stream, an efficient and integrated solution for the extended range communications could be supported. Meeting the program requirements as well as range safety requirements for this effort are critical to the success of the program. This paper describes some of the important requirements driving the design of the extended range communications support and the design of the system to meet those requirements.

Eslinger, Brian↗

HyspIRI Intelligent Payload Module(IPM) and Benchmarking Algorithms for Upload

Features: Hardware: a) Xilinx Virtex-5 (GSFC Space Cube 2); b) 2 x 400MHz PPC; c) 100MHz Bus; d) 2 x 512MB SDRAM; e) Dual Gigabit Ethernet. Support Linux kernel 2.6.31 (gcc version 4.2.2). Support software running in stand alone mode for better performance. Can stream raw data up to 800 Mbps. Ready for operations. Software Application Examples: Band-stripping Algiotrhmsl:cloud, sulfur, flood, thermal, SWIL, NDVI, NDWI, SIWI, oil spills, algae blooms, etc. Corrections: geometric, radiometric, atmospheric. Core Flight System/dynamic software bus. CCSDS File Delivery Protocol. Delay Tolerant Network. CASPER /onboard planning. Fault monitoring/recovery software. S/C command and telemetry software. Data compression. Sensor Web for Autonomous Mission Operations.

Mandl, Daniel↗

Sampling Technique for Robust Odorant Detection Based on MIT RealNose Data

This technique enhances the detection capability of the autonomous Real-Nose system from MIT to detect odorants and their concentrations in noisy and transient environments. The lowcost, portable system with low power consumption will operate at high speed and is suited for unmanned and remotely operated long-life applications. A deterministic mathematical model was developed to detect odorants and calculate their concentration in noisy environments. Real data from MIT's NanoNose was examined, from which a signal conditioning technique was proposed to enable robust odorant detection for the RealNose system. Its sensitivity can reach to sub-part-per-billion (sub-ppb). A Space Invariant Independent Component Analysis (SPICA) algorithm was developed to deal with non-linear mixing that is an over-complete case, and it is used as a preprocessing step to recover the original odorant sources for detection. This approach, combined with the Cascade Error Projection (CEP) Neural Network algorithm, was used to perform odorant identification. Signal conditioning is used to identify potential processing windows to enable robust detection for autonomous systems. So far, the software has been developed and evaluated with current data sets provided by the MIT team. However, continuous data streams are made available where even the occurrence of a new odorant is unannounced and needs to be noticed by the system autonomously before its unambiguous detection. The challenge for the software is to be able to separate the potential valid signal from the odorant and from the noisy transition region when the odorant is just introduced.

Duong, Tuan A.↗

The evolution of dam induced river fragmentation in the United States

It is established that dams decrease river connectivity; however, previous global scale studies of river fragmentation focused on a small subset of the largest dams. In the United States, mid-sized dams, which are too small for global databases, account for 96% of major anthropogenic structures and 48% of reservoir storage. We conduct a national evaluation of the evolution of anthropogenic river bifurcation over time that includes more than 50,000 nationally inventoried dams. Mid-sized dams account for 73% of anthropogenically created stream fragments nationally. They also contribute disproportionately to short fragments (less than 10 km), which is particularly troubling for aquatic habitats. Here we show that dam construction has essentially reversed natural fragmentation patterns in the United States. Prior to human development, smaller river fragments and less connected networks occurred in arid basins while today we show that humid basins are the most fragmented due to human structures.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗

Galileo mission planning for Low Gain Antenna based operations

The Galileo mission operations concept is undergoing substantial redesign, necessitated by the deployment failure of the High Gain Antenna, while the spacecraft is on its way to Jupiter. The new design applies state-of-the-art technology and processes to increase the telemetry rate available through the Low Gain Antenna and to increase the information density of the telemetry. This paper describes the mission planning process being developed as part of this redesign. Principal topics include a brief description of the new mission concept and anticipated science return (these have been covered more extensively in earlier papers), identification of key drivers on the mission planning process, a description of the process and its implementation schedule, a discussion of the application of automated mission planning tool to the process, and a status report on mission planning work to date. Galileo enhancements include extensive reprogramming of on-board computers and substantial hard ware and software upgrades for the Deep Space Network (DSN). The principal mode of operation will be onboard recording of science data followed by extended playback periods. A variety of techniques will be used to compress and edit the data both before recording and during playback. A highly-compressed real-time science data stream will also be important. The telemetry rate will be increased using advanced coding techniques and advanced receivers. Galileo mission planning for orbital operations now involves partitioning of several scarce resources. Particularly difficult are division of the telemetry among the many users (eleven instruments, radio science, engineering monitoring, and navigation) and allocation of space on the tape recorder at each of the ten satellite encounters. The planning process is complicated by uncertainty in forecast performance of the DSN modifications and the non-deterministic nature of the new data compression schemes. Key mission planning steps include quantifying resource or capabilities to be allocated, prioritizing science observations and estimating resource needs for each, working inter-and intra-orbit trades of these resources among the Project elements, and planning real-time science activity. The first major mission planning activity, a high level, orbit-by-orbit allocation of resources among science objectives, has already been completed; and results are illustrated in the paper. To make efficient use of limited resources, Galileo mission planning will rely on automated mission planning tools capable of dealing with interactions among time-varying downlink capability, real-time science and engineering data transmission, and playback of recorded data. A new generic mission planning tool is being adapted for this purpose.

Gershman, R.↗

A tale of two towers: comparing NEON and AmeriFlux data streams at Bartlett Experimental Forest

Long-term ecological data are essential for detecting impacts of climate change and other global change factors, and for making informed predictions about future change. However, long-term measurements are rarely replicated at the site level, which raises questions about their representativeness. We used a multiscale approach to evaluate the agreement of parallel observations from AmeriFlux and NEON (National Ecological Observatory Network) towers at Bartlett Experimental Forest, New Hampshire, USA. The two towers are separated by a horizontal distance of 93 m. Here, we focused our analysis on standard meteorological variables; fluxes of CO 2 , sensible heat, and latent heat measured by eddy covariance; and phenology derived from PhenoCam imagery. Results suggest excellent agreement between AmeriFlux and NEON in meteorology and phenology, and good agreement in fluxes at the half-hourly scale. However, large disagreements in CO 2 and latent heat fluxes occurred at the annual scale, with implications especially for the forest carbon balance. The AmeriFlux tower measurements indicate a site that is close to carbon-neutral (-8 ± 65 g C m -2 y -1 , mean ± 1 SD), whereas the NEON tower measurements indicate a forest that is a carbon sink (-137 ± 10 g C m -2 y -1 ). Causes of this disagreement may include measurement height (26 m vs. 35 m), which resulted in different flux footprints being measured by the two towers, and differences in the flux measurement systems. Our results suggest the need for caution when attempting to merge long-term flux data from two different measurement platforms, and when using measurements from any one measurement platform to inform decision-making on issues related to carbon accounting or natural climate solutions.

Carbon cycle↗

Artificial intelligence-driven municipal solid waste sortation and its significance on downstream waste valorization in the United States: Techno-economic and life cycle assessment

Municipal solid waste (MSW) generation is quickly increasing due to population growth, industrialization, and urbanization. Current sorting technologies, e.g., optical sorters have low sortation efficiency and produce contaminated sorted materials unsuitable for downstream valorization. This study evaluates a novel artificial neural network (ANN)-based MSW sortation system through sorting efficiencies, economic performance, and environmental impacts. ANN system can sort up to 8 plastic types and all organic waste (i.e., food, yard, and paper waste) with 99% and 93% recovery efficiency, respectively, compared to optical sortation which could separate only polyvinyl chloride (PVC) plastic ultimately producing mixed plastics (except PVC) and organics streams as products. Nonetheless, their sortation costs are similar, $28.7 for ANN-based sortation and $28 for optical sortation per metric ton (Mt) of MSW at processing capacity of 94,860 metric tons (Mt)/yr of MSW in the United States. Additionally, ANN system produced high purity feedstocks for downstream valorization. A biochar pyrolysis plant modeled to process 3.6 and 14 Mt/h of sorted yard waste outperformed biochar production from mixed organic fraction (MOF), achieving 8% lower production cost and 34% lower global warming impact (1.37 kg CO 2 eq. per kg) compared to biochar derived from mixed organic feedstock (2.08 kg CO 2 eq.).

09 BIOMASS FUELS↗

Actin microfilaments in presumptive statocytes of root caps and coleoptiles

Rhodamine-phalloidin was used to determine the distribution of actin microfilament bundles (mfb) in cells thought to be the site of gravity perception (statocytes) in coleoptiles and root caps of Zea mays and Hordeum vulgare. In coleoptile cells, amyloplasts were usually observed in close proximity to thick mfb, which often appeared to divide into finer mfb adjacent to individual amyloplasts. The nucleus in these cells was surrounded by an extensive network of mfb, which were connected to thicker transvacuolar mfb. Columella cells of the root cap contained an extensive reticulum of fine mfb throughout the protoplast, but lacked the much thicker mfb seen in coleoptile cells. The distribution and extent of mfb observed in fixed cells correlates with patterns of streaming and amyloplast movement seen in living cells. A possible role for actin mfb in the perception of gravity is discussed.

NASA Discipline Plant Biology↗

Instrument Remote Control Application Framework

The Instrument Remote Control (IRC) architecture is a flexible, platform-independent application framework that is well suited for the control and monitoring of remote devices and sensors. IRC enables significant savings in development costs by utilizing extensible Markup Language (XML) descriptions to configure the framework for a specific application. The Instrument Markup Language (IML) is used to describe the commands used by an instrument, the data streams produced, the rules for formatting commands and parsing the data, and the method of communication. Often no custom code is needed to communicate with a new instrument or device. An IRC instance can advertise and publish a description about a device or subscribe to another device's description on a network. This simple capability of dynamically publishing and subscribing to interfaces enables a very flexible, self-adapting architecture for monitoring and control of complex instruments in diverse environments.

Ames, Troy↗