Results for “distributed collaboration” — Page 23

NASA NTRS2014

Multilateral Biomedical Data Sharing in the One-year Joint US-Russian Mission on the International Space Station

The One Year Mission (1YM) by two astronauts on the International Space Station (ISS), starting in March 2015, offers a unique opportunity to expand multilateral collaboration by sharing data and resources among the partner agencies in preparation for planned space exploration missions beyond low Earth orbit. Agreements and protocols will be established for the collection, distribution, analysis and reporting of both research and clinical data. Data will be shared between the agencies sponsoring the investigators, and between the research and clinical medicine communities where common interests are identified. The assignment of only two astronauts, one Russian and the other American, to the 1YM necessitated creativity in bilateral efforts to maximize the biomedical return from the opportunity. Addition of Canadian, European and Japanese investigations make the effort even more integrative. There will be three types of investigations: joint, cross‐participation and data‐exchange. The joint investigations have US and Russian coprincipal investigators, and the data acquired will be their common responsibility. The other two types must develop data sharing agreements and processes specific to their needs. A multilateral panel of ISS partner space agencies will develop policies for international exchange of scientific information to meet their science objectives and priorities. They will promote archiving of space flight data and will inform each other and the scientific community at large about the results obtained from space life sciences studies. Integration tasks for the 1YM are based on current experience from the ISS and previous efforts on the Russian space station Mir. Closer coordination between international partners requires more common approaches to remove barriers to multilateral resource utilization on the ISS. Greater integration in implementation should increase utilization efficiency to benefit all participants in spaceflight human research. This presentation will describe the overarching principles for multilateral data collection, analysis and sharing and for data security for medical and research data shared between ISS partners prior to release in public forums.

Charles, John B.↗

NASA NTRSDate not supplied

TPSAS-NF1676L-11456-DND

NASA’s precision scheduling and spacing research has matured to show the high potential of merging efficient flows in high density operations - Precision scheduling and efficient delay distribution minimizes early descent from enroute altitude and low-altitude vectoring - Precision merging and spacing control improves throughput - Enables the extended use of flight path optimization based procedures FAA/NASA/Industry collaboration is needed to accelerate implementation of ADS-B applications in a way that achieves the full benefit of NextGen operations to those that equip in high density airspace Integrated precision scheduling and spacing will to offer immediate and systematic benefits to airlines in many environments, even with different equipage levels and traffic densities

Harry Swenson↗

NASA NTRS2004

Controlling Distributed Planning

A system of software implements an extended version of an approach, denoted shared activity coordination (SHAC), to the interleaving of planning and the exchange of plan information among organizations devoted to different missions that normally communicate infrequently except that they need to collaborate on joint activities and/or the use of shared resources. SHAC enables the planning and scheduling systems of the organizations to coordinate by resolving conflicts while optimizing local planning solutions. The present software provides a framework for modeling and executing communication protocols for SHAC. Shared activities are represented in each interacting planning system to establish consensus on joint activities or to inform the other systems of consumption of a common resource or a change in a shared state. The representations of shared activities are extended to include information on (1) the role(s) of each participant, (2) permissions (defined as specifications of which participant controls what aspects of shared activities and scheduling thereof), and (3) constraints on the parameters of shared activities. Also defined in the software are protocols for changing roles, permissions, and constraints during the course of coordination and execution.

Clement, Bradley↗

NASA NTRSDate not supplied

The Completion of a Geosynchronous Earth Orbit Survey with the Eugene Stansbery-Meter Class Autonomous Telescope

The Eugene Stansbery-Meter Class Autonomous Telescope (ES-MCAT) is the primary optical sensor used by the NASA Orbital Debris Program Office (ODPO) to statistically characterize the geosynchronous Earth orbit (GEO) debris environment and support future Orbital Debris Engineering Model (ORDEM) releases. The ES-MCAT completed its first optical survey of the GEO region from 2020 to 2022. The primary goal of this survey was to autonomously collect and process GEO data with calculated photometric and astrometric uncertainties. A pointing plan was developed to provide uniform sampling within the region of interest (ROI) while accounting for predicted downtime due to insufficient observing conditions. Detections are autonomously correlated to the Space Surveillance Network (SSN) catalog to determine if objects are correlated targets (CTs) or uncorrelated targets (UCTs), the latter of which are of interest for modeling the GEO orbital debris environment. To assess the size detection sensitivity over time and monitor the general performance of the telescope’s optics and software, the optical throughput of the system and limiting magnitudes are evaluated on a routine basis. While the telescope’s ability to operate autonomously and remotely allowed for the GEO survey to continue throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, travel restrictions hampered routine cleaning of the optics during this time, and the primary mirror degraded enough to require recoating. The mirror was removed in 2022, concluding the first GEO survey. The primary mirror received a new coating designed to be more robust against the harsh environment surrounding the ES-MCAT’s location on Ascension Island, accounting for experience gained during operations over the first GEO survey. In early 2023, the recoated primary mirror was reinstalled, and the second GEO survey was initiated. The primary goal of the second GEO survey is to characterize the evolving GEO debris environment with updated optics, software, and pointing strategies while allowing for the inclusion of non-GEO regimes or those that are outside of the ROI. While the pointing method implemented in the first survey allowed for adequate coverage of the ROI over two years, it has been improved to include pointings that avoid the Moon’s position and the galactic plane to reduce software processing time and maximize the detection capabilities of fainter objects. This method also accounts for the changing weather patterns throughout the year and reduces coverage gaps in the ROI. Provided the success of the first two-year GEO survey using autonomous operations, the ODPO is actively collaborating with the United States Space Force (USSF) to make the ES-MCAT a contributing sensor to the SSN. This paper presents results from the first GEO survey including magnitude distributions and orbital parameters for CTs and UCTs. Details are provided for the automated processing pipeline and the optical system throughput for the previous and current primary mirror coatings. In addition, an updated strategy for the second GEO survey to optimize coverage over the ROI is discussed, as are preliminary results from the ongoing second survey.

Corbin Cruz↗

NASA NTRSDate not supplied

The Completion of a Geosynchronous Earth Orbit Survey with the Eugene Stansbery-Meter Class Autonomous Telescope

The Eugene Stansbery-Meter Class Autonomous Telescope (ES-MCAT) is the primary optical sensor used by the NASA Orbital Debris Program Office (ODPO) to statistically characterize the geosynchronous Earth orbit (GEO) debris environment and support future Orbital Debris Engineering Model (ORDEM) releases. The ES-MCAT completed its first optical survey of the GEO region from 2020 to 2022. The primary goal of this survey was to autonomously collect and process GEO data with calculated photometric and astrometric uncertainties. A pointing plan was developed to provide uniform sampling within the region of interest (ROI) while accounting for predicted downtime due to insufficient observing conditions. Detections are autonomously correlated to the Space Surveillance Network (SSN) catalog to determine if objects are correlated targets (CTs) or uncorrelated targets (UCTs), the latter of which are of interest for modeling the GEO orbital debris environment. To assess the size detection sensitivity over time and monitor the general performance of the telescope’s optics and software, the optical throughput of the system and limiting magnitudes are evaluated on a routine basis. While the telescope’s ability to operate autonomously and remotely allowed for the GEO survey to continue throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, travel restrictions hampered routine cleaning of the optics during this time, and the primary mirror degraded enough to require recoating. The mirror was removed in 2022, concluding the first GEO survey. The primary mirror received a new coating designed to be more robust against the harsh environment surrounding the ES-MCAT’s location on Ascension Island, accounting for experience gained during operations over the first GEO survey. In early 2023, the recoated primary mirror was reinstalled, and the second GEO survey was initiated. The primary goal of the second GEO survey is to characterize the evolving GEO debris environment with updated optics, software, and pointing strategies while allowing for the inclusion of non-GEO regimes or those that are outside of the ROI. While the pointing method implemented in the first survey allowed for adequate coverage of the ROI over two years, it has been improved to include pointings that avoid the Moon’s position and the galactic plane to reduce software processing time and maximize the detection capabilities of fainter objects. This method also accounts for the changing weather patterns throughout the year and reduces coverage gaps in the ROI. Provided the success of the first two-year GEO survey using autonomous operations, the ODPO is actively collaborating with the United States Space Force (USSF) to make the ES-MCAT a contributing sensor to the SSN. This paper presents results from the first GEO survey including magnitude distributions and orbital parameters for CTs and UCTs. Details are provided for the automated processing pipeline and the optical system throughput for the previous and current primary mirror coatings. In addition, an updated strategy for the second GEO survey to optimize coverage over the ROI is discussed, as are preliminary results from the ongoing second survey.

Corbin Cruz↗

NASA NTRSDate not supplied

On the Interaction Between a Flow Instability and Inertial Particles in Supersonic Jet Plume-Surface Interaction

Extraterrestrial landings often require spacecraft to deploy supersonic jets directed at dusty planetary surfaces to ensure controlled descents. This interaction, termed plume-surface interaction (PSI), critically influences crater formation and the dynamics of ejected particles, which can obscure vision, damage onboard sensors, and impact nearby infrastructure with significant particle velocities. The physics of PSI remain poorly understood due to the complexities in simulating the involved multiphysics and experimentally replicating reduced atmospheric pressure conditions. This article discusses a collaborative effort to investigate PSI in reduced atmospheric pressure environments using a Mach 5.3 jet impinging on a granular bed. The results highlight observations of an azimuthal pattern in the ejecta distribution, characterized by alternating ejecta streaks of varying particle concentrations. This phenomenon suggests the presence of a low Reynolds number instability, a notable discovery given the supersonic nature of the jet.

PSI↗

NASA NTRS1993

A search for energetic ion directivity in large solar flares

One of the key observational questions for solar flare physics is: What is the number, the energy spectrum, and the angular distribution of flare accelerated ions? The standard method for deriving ion spectral shape employs the ratio of influences observed on the 4-7 MeV band to the narrow neutron capture line at 2.223 MeV. The 4-7 MeV band is dominated by the principal nuclear de-excitation lines from C-12 and O-16 which are generated in the low chromosphere by the direct excitation or spallation of nuclei by energetic ions. In contrast, the narrow 2.223 MeV line is produced by the capture of thermal neutrons on protons in the photosphere. These capture neutrons are generated by energetic ion interactions and thermalized by scattering in the solar atmosphere. In a series of papers, Ramaty, Lingenfelter, and their collaborators have calculated the expected ratio of fluence in the 4-7 MeV band to the 2.223 MeV line for a wide range of energetic ion spectral shapes (see, e.g. Hua and Lingenfelter 1987). Another technique for deriving ion spectral shapes and angular distributions uses the relative strength of the Compton tail associated with the 2.223 MeV neutron capture line (Vestrand 1988, 1990). This technique can independently constrain both the angular and the energy distribution of the energetic parent ions. The combination of this tail/line strength diagnostic with the line/(4-7) MeV fluence ratio can allow one to constrain both properties of the energetic ion distributions. The primary objective of our Solar Maximum Mission (SMM) guest investigator program was to study measurements of neutron capture line emission and prompt nuclear de-excitation for large flares detected by the Solar Maximum Mission/ Gamma-Ray Spectrometer (SMM/GRS) and to use these established line diagnostics to study the properties of flare accelerated ions.

Vestrand, W. Thomas↗

NASA NTRS2016

Unlocking the Full Potential of Earth Observation During the 2015 Texas Flood Disaster

Intense rainfall during late April and early May 2015 in Texas and Oklahoma led to widespread and sustained flooding in several river basins. Texas state agencies relevant to emergency response were activated when severe weather then ensued for 6 weeks from 8 May until 19 June following Tropical Storm Bill. An international team of scientists and flood response experts assembled and collaborated with decision-making authorities for user-driven high-resolution satellite acquisitions over the most critical areas; while experimental automated flood mapping techniques provided daily ongoing monitoring. This allowed mapping of flood inundation from an unprecedented number of spaceborne and airborne images. In fact, a total of 27,174 images have been ingested to the USGS Hazards Data Distribution System (HDDS) Explorer, except for the SAR images used. Based on the Texas flood use case, we describe the success of this effort as well as the limitations in fulfilling the needs of the decision-makers, and reflect upon these. In order to unlock the full potential for Earth observation data in flood disaster response, we suggest in a call for action(i) stronger collaboration from the onset between agencies, product developers, and decision-makers;(ii) quantification of uncertainties when combining data from different sources in order to augment information content; (iii) include a default role for the end-user in satellite acquisition planning; and(iv) proactive assimilation of methodologies and tools into the mandated agencies.

Texas↗

NASA NTRS2003

Continual coordination through shared activities

Interacting agents that interleave planning and execution must reach consensus on their commitments to each other. In domains where agents have varying degrees of interaction and different constraints on communication and computation, agents will require different coordination protocols in order to efficiently reach consensus in real time. We briefly describe a largely unexplored class of realtime, distributed planning problems (inspired by interacting spacecraft missions), new challenges they pose, and a general approach to solving the problems. These problems involve self-interested agents that have infrequent communication but collaborate on joint activities. We describe a Shared Activity Coordination (SHAC) framework that provides a decentralized algorithm for negotiating the scheduling of shared activities over the lifetimes of separate missions, a soft, real-time approach to reaching consensus during execution with limited communication, and a foundation for customizing protocols for negotiating planner interactions. We apply SHAC to a realistic simulation of interacting Mars missions and illustrate the simplicity of protocol development.

planning↗

NASA NTRS2003

Shared Activity Coordination

Interacting agents that interleave planning and execution must reach consensus on their commitments to each other. In domains where agents have varying degrees of interaction and different constraints on communication and computation, agents will require different coordination protocols in order to efficiently reach consensus in real time. We briefly describe a largely unexplored class of real-time, distributed planning problems (inspired by interacting spacecraft missions), new challenges they pose, and a general approach to solving the problems. These problems involve self-interested agents that have infrequent communication but collaborate on joint activities. We describe a Shared Activity Coordination (SHAC) framework that provides a decentralized algorithm for negotiating the scheduling of shared activities in a dynamic environment, a soft, real-time approach to reaching consensus during execution with limited communication, and a foundation for customizing protocols for negotiating planner interactions. We apply SHAC to a realistic simulation of interacting Mars missions and illustrate the simplicity of protocol development.

coordination↗

NASA NTRS2013

Web Based Prognostics and 24/7 Monitoring

We created a general framework for analysts to store and view data in a way that removes the boundaries created by operating systems, programming languages, and proximity. With the advent of HTML5 and CSS3 with JavaScript the distribution of information is limited to only those who lack a browser. We created a framework based on the methodology: one server, one web based application. Additional benefits are increased opportunities for collaboration. Today the idea of a group in a single room is antiquated. Groups will communicate and collaborate with others from other universities, organizations, as well as other continents across times zones. There are many varieties of data gathering and condition-monitoring software available as well as companies who specialize in customizing software to individual applications. One single group will depend on multiple languages, environments, and computers to oversee recording and collaborating with one another in a single lab. The heterogeneous nature of the system creates challenges for seamless exchange of data and ideas between members. To address these limitations we designed a framework to allow users seamless accessibility to their data. Our framework was deployed using the data feed on the NASA Ames' planetary rover testbed. Our paper demonstrates the process and implementation we followed on the rover.

CSS3↗

NASA NTRS2016

Harmonizing Landsat and Sentinel-2 Reflectances for Better Land Monitoring

When combined, Landsat and ESA Sentinel-2 observations can provide 2-4 day coverage for the global land area. A collaboration among NASA GSFC (Goddard Space Flight Center), University of Maryland, and NASA Ames has developed a processing chain to create seamless, "harmonized" reflectance products using standardized atmospheric correction, BRDF (Bidirectional Reflectance Distribution Function) adjustment, spectral bandpass adjustment, and gridding algorithms. These products point the way to a "30-m MODIS (Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer)" capability for agricultural and ecosystem monitoring by leveraging international sensors.

GEO-GLAM↗

NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Openet: Applications of Satellite-Based Evapotranspiration Data for Water Resources Management in the Western United States

Advancing water security in overallocated river basins globally requires consistent and reproducible information on consumptive use of water that can anchor the development of data-driven solutions to the challenge of balancing water supply and demand. OpenET is a fully automated system for field-scale (30 m), satellite-based mapping of evapotranspiration (ET) at daily, monthly and annual timesteps. OpenET currently provides spatially contiguous data throughout the 23 westernmost states in the continental US, and includes both current information as well as multi-year timeseries of ET. The OpenET consortium has implemented an ensemble of satellite-based ET models (ALEXI/DisALEXI, eeMETRIC, PT-JPL, geeSEBAL, SIMS and SSEBop) on Google Earth Engine, which provides a shared computing platform for collaboration on processing of data from Landsat and other satellites, land cover and meteorological inputs, leading to increased consistency and accuracy across the ensemble of models. Earth Engine also facilitates hosting and distribution of data via open data collections and an application programming interface. We provide updates on the OpenET framework, open data services and data access tools, approach to geographic expansion, recent accuracy assessments, and describe how a user-driven design approach has facilitated successful applications of OpenET data for a wide range of water resource management activities. Applications to date include: use of ET data to improve quantification of ET and consumptive use in Oregon, Utah and the Upper Colorado River Basin; streamlining of water use reporting requirements in the California Delta; support for calculation of water budgets for the implementation of the Sustainable Groundwater Management Act in California; and integration into decision support tools for irrigation management. The use cases demonstrate how satellite-derived ET data that are easily accessed and seen as broadly accepted can accelerate adoption of innovative water management practices at scale, and support advances in the sustainability of water supplies. Uptake and use of data by the OpenET science community has also led to advances in our understanding of the impacts of landcover change, irrigation intensification and wildfire events on hydrology and the water security.

Applications↗

NASA NTRS2009

An Intelligent Archive Testbed Incorporating Data Mining

Many significant advances have occurred during the last two decades in remote sensing instrumentation, computation, storage, and communication technology. A series of Earth observing satellites have been launched by U.S. and international agencies and have been operating and collecting global data on a regular basis. These advances have created a data rich environment for scientific research and applications. NASA s Earth Observing System (EOS) Data and Information System (EOSDIS) has been operational since August 1994 with support for pre-EOS data. Currently, EOSDIS supports all the EOS missions including Terra (1999), Aqua (2002), ICESat (2002) and Aura (2004). EOSDIS has been effectively capturing, processing and archiving several terabytes of standard data products each day. It has also been distributing these data products at a rate of several terabytes per day to a diverse and globally distributed user community (Ramapriyan et al. 2009). There are other NASA-sponsored data system activities including measurement-based systems such as the Ocean Data Processing System and the Precipitation Processing system, and several projects under the Research, Education and Applications Solutions Network (REASoN), Making Earth Science Data Records for Use in Research Environments (MEaSUREs), and the Advancing Collaborative Connections for Earth-Sun System Science (ACCESS) programs. Together, these activities provide a rich set of resources constituting a value chain for users to obtain data at various levels ranging from raw radiances to interdisciplinary model outputs. The result has been a significant leap in our understanding of the Earth systems that all humans depend on for their enjoyment, livelihood, and survival. The trend in the community today is towards many distributed sets of providers of data and services. Despite this, visions for the future include users being able to locate, fuse and utilize data with location transparency and high degree of interoperability, and being able to convert data to information and usable knowledge in an efficient, convenient manner, aided significantly by automation (Ramapriyan et al. 2004; NASA 2005). We can look upon the distributed provider environment with capabilities to convert data to information and to knowledge as an Intelligent Archive in the Context of a Knowledge Building system (IA-KBS). Some of the key capabilities of an IA-KBS are: Virtual Product Generation, Significant Event Detection, Automated Data Quality Assessment, Large-Scale Data Mining, Dynamic Feedback Loop, and Data Discovery and Efficient Requesting (Ramapriyan et al. 2004).

Ramapriyan, H.↗

DOE OSTI2024

Pion valence quark distribution at physical pion mass of N f = 2 + 1 + 1 lattice QCD

Abstract We present a state-of-the-art calculation of the unpolarized pion valence-quark distribution in the framework of large-momentum effective theory (LaMET) with improved handling of systematic errors as well as two-loop perturbative matching. We use lattice ensembles generated by the MILC collaboration at lattice spacinga≈ 0.09 fm, lattice volume 64 3 × 96,N f = 2 + 1 + 1 flavors of highly-improved staggered quarks and a physical pion mass. The LaMET matrix elements are calculated with pions boosted to momentumP z ≈ 1.72 GeV with high-statistics ofO(10 6 ) measurements. We study the pion PDF in both hybrid-ratio and hybrid-regularization-independent momentum subtraction (hybrid-RI/MOM) schemes and also compare the systematic errors with and without the addition of leading-renormalon resummation (LRR) and renormalization-group resummation (RGR) in both the renormalization and lightcone matching. The final lightcone PDF results are presented in the modified minimal-subtraction scheme at renormalization scaleμ= 2.0 GeV. We show that thex-dependent PDFs are compatible between the hybrid-ratio and hybrid-RI/MOM renormalization with the same improvements. We also show that systematics are greatly reduced by the simultaneous inclusion of RGR and LRR and that these methods are necessary if improved precision is to be reached with higher-order terms in renormalization and matching.

Physics↗

NASA NTRS1986

Access control and privacy in large distributed systems

Large scale distributed systems consists of workstations, mainframe computers, supercomputers and other types of servers, all connected by a computer network. These systems are being used in a variety of applications including the support of collaborative scientific research. In such an environment, issues of access control and privacy arise. Access control is required for several reasons, including the protection of sensitive resources and cost control. Privacy is also required for similar reasons, including the protection of a researcher's proprietary results. A possible architecture for integrating available computer and communications security technologies into a system that meet these requirements is described. This architecture is meant as a starting point for discussion, rather that the final answer.

Leiner, B. M.↗

NASA NTRS1986

Access control and privacy in large distributed systems

Large scale distributed systems consists of workstations, mainframe computers, supercomputers and other types of servers, all connected by a computer network. These systems are being used in a variety of applications including the support of collaborative scientific research. In such an environment, issues of access control and privacy arise. Access control is required for several reasons, including the protection of sensitive resources and cost control. Privacy is also required for similar reasons, including the protection of a researcher's proprietary results. A possible architecture for integrating available computer and communications security technologies into a system that meet these requirements is described. This architecture is meant as a starting point for discussion, rather that the final answer.

Leiner, B. M.↗

NASA NTRS1997

A Preliminary Investigation of Hall Thruster Technology

A three-year NASA/BMDO-sponsored experimental program to conduct performance and plume plasma property measurements on two Russian Stationary Plasma Thrusters (SPTs) has been completed. The program utilized experimental facilitates at the University of Michigan's Plasmadynamics and Electric Propulsion Laboratory (PEPL). The main features of the proposed effort were as follows: (1) Characterized Hall thruster (and arcjet) performance by measuring ion exhaust velocity with probes at various thruster conditions; (2) Used a variety of probe diagnostics in the thruster plume to measure plasma properties and flow properties including T(sub e) and n(sub e) ion current density and ion energy distribution, and electric fields by mapping plasma potential; (3) Used emission spectroscopy to identify species within the plume and to measure electron temperatures. A key and unique feature of our research was our collaboration with Russian Hall thruster researcher Dr. Sergey A Khartov, Deputy Dean of International Relations at the Moscow Aviation Institute (MAI). His activities in this program included consulting on and participation in research at PEPL through use of a MAI-built SPT and ion energy probe.

Gallimore, Alec D.↗