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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.

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NASA NTRS2004

The Development of Two Science Investigator-led Processing Systems (SIPS) for NASA's Earth Observation System (EOS)

In 2001, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center's Laboratory for Terrestrial Physics started the construction of a science Investigator-led Processing System (SIPS) for processing data from the Ozone Monitoring Instrument (OMI) which will launch on the Aura platform in mid 2004. The Ozone Monitoring Instrument (OMI) is a contribution of the Netherlands Agency for Aerospace Programs (NIVR) in collaboration with the Finnish Meteorological Institute (FMI) to the Earth Observing System (EOS) Aura mission. It will continue the Total Ozone Monitoring System (TOMS) record for total ozone and other atmospheric parameters related to ozone chemistry and climate. OMI measurements will be highly synergistic with the other instruments on the EOS Aura platform. The LTP previously developed the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectrometer (MODIS) Data Processing System (MODAPS), which has been in full operations since the launches of the Terra and Aqua spacecrafts in December, 1999 and May, 2002 respectively. During that time, it has continually evolved to better support the needs of the MODIS team. We now run multiple instances of the system managing faster than real time reprocessings of the data as well as continuing forward processing. The new OMI Data Processing System (OMIDAPS) was adapted from the MODAPS. It will ingest raw data from the satellite ground station and process it to produce calibrated, geolocated higher level data products. These data products will be transmitted to the Goddard Distributed Active Archive Center (GDAAC) instance of the Earth Observing System (EOS) Data and Information System (EOSDIS) for long term archive and distribution to the public. The OMIDAPS will also provide data distribution to the OMI Science Team for quality assessment, algorithm improvement, calibration, etc. We have taken advantage of lessons learned from the MODIS experience and software already developed for MODIS. We made some changes in the hardware system organization, database and software to adapt the system for OMI. We replaced the fundamental database system, Sybase, with an Open Source RDBMS called PostgreSQL, and based the entire OMIDAPS on a cluster of Linux based commodity computers rather than the large SGI servers that MODAPS uses. Rather than relying on a central I/O server host, the new system distributes its data archive among multiple server hosts in the cluster. OMI is also customizing the graphical user interfaces and reporting structure to more closely meet the needs of the OMI Science Team. Prior to 2003, simulated OMI data and the science algorithms were not ready for production testing. We initially constructed a prototype system and tested using a 25 year dataset of Total Ozone Mapping Spectrometer (TOMS) and Solar Backscatter Ultraviolet Instrument (SBUV) data. This prototype system provided a platform to support the adaptation of the algorithms for OMI, and provided reprocessing of the historical data aiding in its analysis. In a recent reanalysis of the TOMS data, the OMIDAPS processed 108,000 full orbits of data through 4 processing steps per orbit, producing about 800,000 files (400 GiB) of level 2 and greater data files. More recently we have installed two instances of the OMIDAPS for integration and testing of OM1 science processes as they get delivered from the Science Team. A Test instance of the OMIDAPS has also supported a series of "Interface Confidence Tests" (ICTs) and End-to-End Ground System tests to ensure the launch readiness of the system. This paper will discuss the high-level hardware, software, and database organization of the OMIDAPS and how it builds on the MODAPS heritage system. It will also provide an overview of the testing and implementation of the production OMIDAPS.

Tilmes, Curt↗
NASA NTRS2006

The Echoes of Earth Science

NASA s Earth Observing System Data and Information System (EOSDIS) acquires, archives, and manages data from all of NASA s Earth science satellites, for the benefit of the Space Agency and for the benefit of others, including local governments, first responders, the commercial remote sensing industry, teachers, museums, and the general public. EOSDIS is currently handling an extraordinary amount of NASA scientific data. To give an idea of the volume of information it receives, NASA s Terra Earth-observing satellite, just one of many NASA satellites sending down data, sends it hundreds of gigabytes a day, almost as much data as the Hubble Space Telescope acquires in an entire year, or about equal to the amount of information that could be found in hundreds of pickup trucks filled with books. To make EOSDIS data completely accessible to the Earth science community, NASA teamed up with private industry in 2000 to develop an Earth science "marketplace" registry that lets public users quickly drill down to the exact information they need. It also enables them to publish their research and resources alongside of NASA s research and resources. This registry is known as the Earth Observing System ClearingHOuse, or ECHO. The charter for this project focused on having an infrastructure completely independent from EOSDIS that would allow for more contributors and open up additional data access options. Accordingly, it is only fitting that the term ECHO is more than just an acronym; it represents the functionality of the system in that it can echo out and create interoperability among other systems, all while maturing with time as industry technologies and standards change and improve.

Source record↗
NASA NTRS1991

Workshop proceedings: Information Systems for Space Astrophysics in the 21st Century, volume 1

The Astrophysical Information Systems Workshop was one of the three Integrated Technology Planning workshops. Its objectives were to develop an understanding of future mission requirements for information systems, the potential role of technology in meeting these requirements, and the areas in which NASA investment might have the greatest impact. Workshop participants were briefed on the astrophysical mission set with an emphasis on those missions that drive information systems technology, the existing NASA space-science operations infrastructure, and the ongoing and planned NASA information systems technology programs. Program plans and recommendations were prepared in five technical areas: Mission Planning and Operations; Space-Borne Data Processing; Space-to-Earth Communications; Science Data Systems; and Data Analysis, Integration, and Visualization.

Cutts, James↗
NASA NTRS2003

The NASA Earth Observing System (EOS) Terra and Aqua Mission Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS: Science and Applications

The Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on the Earth Observing System (EOS) Terra Mission began to produce data in February 2000. The EOS Aqua mission was launched successfully May 4,2002 with another MODIS on it and "first light" observations occurred on June 24,2002. The Terra MODIS is in a sun-synchronous orbit going north to south in the daylight portion of the orbit crossing the equator at about 1030 hours local time. The Aqua spacecraft operates in a sun-synchronous orbit going south to north in the daylight portion of the orbit crossing the equator at approximately 1330 hours local time. The spacecraft, instrument, and data systems for both MODIS instruments are performing well and are producing a wide variety of data products useful for scientific and applications studies in relatively consistent fashion extending from November 2000 to the present. Within the approximately 40 MODIS data products, several are new and represent powerful and exciting capabilities such the ability to provide observations over the globe of fire occurrences, microphysical properties of clouds and sun-stimulated fluorescence from phytoplankton in the surface waters of the ocean. The remainder of the MODIS products exceeds or, at a minimum, matches the capabilities of products from heritage sensors such as, for example, the Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer (AVHRR). Efforts are underway to provide data sets for the greater Earth science community and to improve access to these products at the various Distributed Active Archive Centers (DAAC's) or through Direct Broadcast (DB) stations.

Salomnson, Vincent V.↗
NASA NTRS2002

A Virtual Mission Operations Center - Collaborative Environment

Development of technologies that enable significant reductions in the cost of space mission operations is critical if constellations, formations, federations and sensor webs, are to be economically feasible. One approach to cost reduction is to infuse automation technologies into mission operations centers so that fewer personnel are needed for mission support. But missions are more culturally and politically adverse to the risks of automation. Reducing the mission risk associated with increased use of automation within a MOC is therefore of great importance. The belief that mission risk increases as more automation is used stems from the fact that there is inherently less direct human oversight to investigate and resolve anomalies in an unattended MOC. The Virtual Missions Operations Center - Collaborative Environment (VMOC-CE) project was launched to address this concern. The goal of the VMOC-CE project is to identify, develop, and infuse technology to enable mission operations between onsite operators and on-call personnel in geographically dispersed locations. VMOC-CE enables missions to more readily adopt automation because off-site operators and engineers can more easily identify, investigate, and resolve anomalies without having to be present in the MOC. The VMOC-CE intent is to have a single access point for all resources used in a collaborative mission operations environment. Team members will be able to interact during spacecraft operations, specifically for resolving anomalies, utilizing a desktop computer and the Internet. Mission operations management can use the VMOC-CE as a tool to participate in and monitor status of anomaly resolution or other mission operations issues. In this paper we present the VMOC-CE project, system capabilities and technologies, operations concept, and results of its pilot in support of the Earth Science Mission Operations System (ESMOS).

Medina, Barbara↗
NASA NTRS1985

EOS - The earth observing system of the 1990s

Attention is given to the deliberations of NASA's Earth Observing System (EOS) Science and Mission Requirements Working Group, which has addressed the requirements and prospects for low earth orbit sensor platforms in the 1990s. The proposed EOS network would link data users with mission data repositories. Three EOS instrument packages have been chosen on the basis of synergistic instrument groupings for making simultaneous observations of selected phenomena over a variety of wavelengths.

Arvidson, R. E.↗
NASA NTRS2001

Lessons from Adaptive Level One Accelerator (ALOA) System Implementation

The Adaptive Level One Accelerator (ALOA) system was developed as part of the Earth Science Data and Information System (ESDIS) project. The reconfigurable computing technologies were investigated for Level 1 satellite telemetry data processing to achieve computing acceleration and cost reduction for the next-generation Level 1 data processing systems. The MODIS instrument calibration algorithm was implemented using reconfigurable a computer. The system development process and the lessons learned throughout the design cycle are summarized in this paper.

Patel, Umesh D.↗
NASA NTRS2016

Evolving a NASA Digital Object Identifiers System with Community Engagement

To demonstrate how the ESDIS (Earth Science Data and Information System) DOI (Digital Object Identifier) system and its processes have evolved over these years based on the recommendations provided by the user community (whether the community members create and manage DOI information or use DOIs in the data citations). The user community is comprised of people with common interests and needs for data identifiers who are actively involved in the creation and usage process. Engagement describes the interactive context wherein the community provides information, evaluates the proposed processes, and provides guidance in the area of identifiers.

Identifiers↗
NASA NTRS2009

Integrating and Visualizing Tropical Cyclone Data Using the Real Time Mission Monitor

The Real Time Mission Monitor (RTMM) is a visualization and information system that fuses multiple Earth science data sources, to enable real time decision-making for airborne and ground validation experiments. Developed at the NASA Marshall Space Flight Center, RTMM is a situational awareness, decision-support system that integrates satellite imagery, radar, surface and airborne instrument data sets, model output parameters, lightning location observations, aircraft navigation data, soundings, and other applicable Earth science data sets. The integration and delivery of this information is made possible using data acquisition systems, network communication links, network server resources, and visualizations through the Google Earth virtual globe application. RTMM is extremely valuable for optimizing individual Earth science airborne field experiments. Flight planners, scientists, and managers appreciate the contributions that RTMM makes to their flight projects. A broad spectrum of interdisciplinary scientists used RTMM during field campaigns including the hurricane-focused 2006 NASA African Monsoon Multidisciplinary Analyses (NAMMA), 2007 NOAA-NASA Aerosonde Hurricane Noel flight, 2007 Tropical Composition, Cloud, and Climate Coupling (TC4), plus a soil moisture (SMAP-VEX) and two arctic research experiments (ARCTAS) in 2008. Improving and evolving RTMM is a continuous process. RTMM recently integrated the Waypoint Planning Tool, a Java-based application that enables aircraft mission scientists to easily develop a pre-mission flight plan through an interactive point-and-click interface. Individual flight legs are automatically calculated "on the fly". The resultant flight plan is then immediately posted to the Google Earth-based RTMM for interested scientists to view the planned flight track and subsequently compare it to the actual real time flight progress. We are planning additional capabilities to RTMM including collaborations with the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in the joint development of a Tropical Cyclone Integrated Data Exchange and Analysis System (TC IDEAS) which will serve as a web portal for access to tropical cyclone data, visualizations and model output.

Goodman, H. Michael↗
NASA NTRS2010

Heliophysics 2009 Roadmap and Global Change: Possibilities for Improved Understanding of the Connection

Heliophysics is the science that includes all aspects of the research needed to understand the Sun and its effects on the Earth and the solar system. Six science targets: 1. Origins of Near-Earth Plasma - to understand the origin and transport of terrestrial plasma from its source to the magnetosphere and solar wind. 2. Solar Energetic Particle Acceleration and Transport - to understand how and where solar eruptions accelerate energetic particles that reach Earth. 3. Ion-Neutral Coupling in the Atmosphere - to understand how neutral winds control ionospheric variability. 4. Climate Impacts of Space Radiation - to understand our atmosphere s response to auroral, radiation belt, and solar energetic particles, and the associated effects on nitric oxide (NO) and ozone. 5. Dynamic Geospace Coupling - to understand how magnetospheric dynamics provides energy into the coupled ionosphere-magnetosphere system. 6. Heliospheric Magnetics - to understand the flow and dynamics of transient magnetic structures form the solar interior to Earth.

Spann, Jim↗
NASA NTRS2013

Scalable Adaptive Graphics Environment (SAGE) Software for the Visualization of Large Data Sets on a Video Wall

The use of collaborative scientific visualization systems for the analysis, visualization, and sharing of "big data" available from new high resolution remote sensing satellite sensors or four‐dimensional numerical model simulations is propelling the wider adoption of ultra‐resolution tiled display walls interconnected by high speed networks. These systems require a globally connected and well‐integrated operating environment that provides persistent visualization and collaboration services. This abstract and subsequent presentation describes a new collaborative visualization system installed for NASA's Shortterm Prediction Research and Transition (SPoRT) program at Marshall Space Flight Center and its use for Earth science applications. The system consists of a 3 x 4 array of 1920 x 1080 pixel thin bezel video monitors mounted on a wall in a scientific collaboration lab. The monitors are physically and virtually integrated into a 14' x 7' for video display. The display of scientific data on the video wall is controlled by a single Alienware Aurora PC with a 2nd Generation Intel Core 4.1 GHz processor, 32 GB memory, and an AMD Fire Pro W600 video card with 6 mini display port connections. Six mini display‐to‐dual DVI cables are used to connect the 12 individual video monitors. The open source Scalable Adaptive Graphics Environment (SAGE) windowing and media control framework, running on top of the Ubuntu 12 Linux operating system, allows several users to simultaneously control the display and storage of high resolution still and moving graphics in a variety of formats, on tiled display walls of any size. The Ubuntu operating system supports the open source Scalable Adaptive Graphics Environment (SAGE) software which provides a common environment, or framework, enabling its users to access, display and share a variety of data‐intensive information. This information can be digital‐cinema animations, high‐resolution images, high‐definition video‐teleconferences, presentation slides, documents, spreadsheets or laptop screens. SAGE is cross‐platform, community‐driven, open‐source visualization and collaboration middleware that utilizes shared national and international cyberinfrastructure for the advancement of scientific research and education.

Jedlovec, Gary↗
NASA NTRS2011

Near-Earth Objects: Targets for Future Human Exploration, Solar System Science, Resource Utilization, and Planetary Defense

U.S. President Obama stated on April 15, 2010 that the next goal for human spaceflight will be to send human beings to a near-Earth asteroid by 2025. Given this direction from the White House, NASA has been involved in studying various strategies for near-Earth object (NEO) exploration in order to follow U.S. Space Exploration Policy. This mission would be the first human expedition to an interplanetary body beyond the Earth-Moon system and would prove useful for testing technologies required for human missions to Mars and other Solar System destinations. Missions to NEOs would undoubtedly provide a great deal of technical and engineering data on spacecraft operations for future human space exploration while conducting in-depth scientific investigations of these primitive objects. In addition, the resulting scientific investigations would refine designs for future extraterrestrial resource extraction and utilization, and assist in the development of hazard mitigation techniques for planetary defense. This presentation will discuss some of the physical characteristics of NEOs and review some of the current plans for NEO research and exploration from both a human and robotic mission perspective.

Abell, Paul A.↗
NASA NTRS1994

Telecommunications issues of intelligent database management for ground processing systems in the EOS era

Future NASA earth science missions, including the Earth Observing System (EOS), will be generating vast amounts of data that must be processed and stored at various locations around the world. Here we present a stepwise-refinement of the intelligent database management (IDM) of the distributed active archive center (DAAC - one of seven regionally-located EOSDIS archive sites) architecture, to showcase the telecommunications issues involved. We develop this architecture into a general overall design. We show that the current evolution of protocols is sufficient to support IDM at Gbps rates over large distances. We also show that network design can accommodate a flexible data ingestion storage pipeline and a user extraction and visualization engine, without interference between the two.

Touch, Joseph D.↗
NASA NTRS2019

Improving Earth Science Data Literacy

The improvement of scientific literacy across the public can take on a myriad of forms and activities. The vast archives of NASA’s Earth science data, as one example, reflect the agency’s ongoing commitment to producing the highest quality data, services and tools intended for enabling the public to understand the complexity of Earth systems. The focus of this presentation is to explore and reveal the specific strategies the NASA Earth Science Data and Information System (ESDIS) Project uses to support our very large and diverse user communities access to and understanding of these science data and services. The diversity of our subject matter, spanning the whole Earth science domain, is mirrored by our user communities which are equally as broad in their needs and abilities. ESDIS and the supporting Communication Team leverages an array of internet-based tools and communication strategies to both understand actual user needs and develop optimum pathways for improving our users’ knowledge and understanding of the data. We will focus our limited time on a few of the high-impact activities including Webinars, or video-based, on-line, interactive discussions and presentations that since their introduction in 2013 have become a staple for user-instructor interaction via the internet. Here we discuss the types of content we produce and many lessons learned on how best to use this medium for improving user literacy on the subject at hand. In addition, we include discussion of our approach to using various social media platforms and tools to bolster the awareness of our users for data and services that are likely of interest. The ESDIS project remains active in various social media campaigns where our particular blend of science, data and tools engages new users curious of how to get their science or application started using NASA-available data. We anticipate that these examples may prove to be novel in their application to improving science literacy and skill development among the public.

Lindsay, Francis↗
NASA NTRS2008

Enhancements and Evolution of the Real Time Mission Monitor

The Real Time Mission Monitor (RTMM) is a visualization and information system that fuses multiple Earth science data sources, to enable real time decision-making for airborne and ground validation experiments. Developed at the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Marshall Space Flight Center, RTMM is a situational awareness, decision-support system that integrates satellite imagery, radar, surface and airborne instrument data sets, model output parameters, lightning location observations, aircraft navigation data, soundings, and other applicable Earth science data sets. The integration and delivery of this information is made possible using data acquisition systems, network communication links, network server resources, and visualizations through the Google Earth virtual globe application. RTMM has proven extremely valuable for optimizing individual Earth science airborne field experiments. Flight planners, mission scientists, instrument scientists and program managers alike appreciate the contributions that RTMM makes to their flight projects. We have received numerous plaudits from a wide variety of scientists who used RTMM during recent field campaigns including the 2006 NASA African Monsoon Multidisciplinary Analyses (NAMMA), 2007 Tropical Composition, Cloud, and Climate Coupling (TC4), 2008 Arctic Research of the Composition of the Troposphere from Aircraft and Satellites (ARCTAS) missions, the 2007-2008 NOAA-NASA Aerosonde Hurricane flights and the 2008 Soil Moisture Active-Passive Validation Experiment (SMAP-VEX). Improving and evolving RTMM is a continuous process. RTMM recently integrated the Waypoint Planning Tool, a Java-based application that enables aircraft mission scientists to easily develop a pre-mission flight plan through an interactive point-and-click interface. Individual flight legs are automatically calculated for altitude, latitude, longitude, flight leg distance, cumulative distance, flight leg time, cumulative time, and satellite overpass intersections. The resultant flight plan is then generated in KML and quickly posted to the Google Earth-based RTMM for interested scientists to view the planned flight track and then compare it to the actual real time flight progress. A description of the system architecture, components, and applications along with reviews and animations of RTMM during the field campaigns, plus planned enhancements and future opportunities will be presented.

Goodman, Michael↗
NASA NTRS2001

Simple, Scalable, Script-Based Science Processor (S4P)

The development and deployment of data processing systems to process Earth Observing System (EOS) data has proven to be costly and prone to technical and schedule risk. Integration of science algorithms into a robust operational system has been difficult. The core processing system, based on commercial tools, has demonstrated limitations at the rates needed to produce the several terabytes per day for EOS, primarily due to job management overhead. This has motivated an evolution in the EOS Data Information System toward a more distributed one incorporating Science Investigator-led Processing Systems (SIPS). As part of this evolution, the Goddard Earth Sciences Distributed Active Archive Center (GES DAAC) has developed a simplified processing system to accommodate the increased load expected with the advent of reprocessing and launch of a second satellite. This system, the Simple, Scalable, Script-based Science Processor (S42) may also serve as a resource for future SIPS. The current EOSDIS Core System was designed to be general, resulting in a large, complex mix of commercial and custom software. In contrast, many simpler systems, such as the EROS Data Center AVHRR IKM system, rely on a simple directory structure to drive processing, with directories representing different stages of production. The system passes input data to a directory, and the output data is placed in a "downstream" directory. The GES DAAC's Simple Scalable Script-based Science Processing System is based on the latter concept, but with modifications to allow varied science algorithms and improve portability. It uses a factory assembly-line paradigm: when work orders arrive at a station, an executable is run, and output work orders are sent to downstream stations. The stations are implemented as UNIX directories, while work orders are simple ASCII files. The core S4P infrastructure consists of a Perl program called stationmaster, which detects newly arrived work orders and forks a job to run the appropriate executable (registered in a configuration file for that station). Although S4P is written in Perl, the executables associated with a station can be any program that can be run from the command line, i.e., non-interactively. An S4P instance is typically monitored using a simple Graphical User Interface. However, the reliance of S4P on UNIX files and directories also allows visibility into the state of stations and jobs using standard operating system commands, permitting remote monitor/control over low-bandwidth connections. S4P is being used as the foundation for several small- to medium-size systems for data mining, on-demand subsetting, processing of direct broadcast Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) data, and Quick-Response MODIS processing. It has also been used to implement a large-scale system to process MODIS Level 1 and Level 2 Standard Products, which will ultimately process close to 2 TB/day.

Lynnes, Christopher↗
NASA NTRS2015

Bridging the Technology Readiness "Valley of Death" Utilizing Nanosats

Incorporating new technology is a hallmark of space missions. Missions demand ever-improving tools and techniques to allow them to meet the mission science requirements. In Earth Science, these technologies are normally expressed in new instrument capabilities that can enable new measurement concepts, extended capabilities of existing measurement techniques, or totally new detection capabilities, and also, information systems technologies that can enhance data analysis or enable new data analyses to advance modeling and prediction capabilities. Incorporating new technologies has never been easy. There is a large development step beyond demonstration in a laboratory or on an airborne platform to the eventual space environment that is sometimes referred to as the "technology valley of death." Studies have shown that non-validated technology is a primary cause of NASA and DoD mission delays and cost overruns. With the demise of the New Millennium Program within NASA, opportunities for demonstrating technologies in space have been rare. Many technologies are suitable for a flight project after only ground testing. However, some require validation in a relevant or a space flight environment, which cannot be fully tested on the ground or in airborne systems. NASA's Earth Science Technology Program has initiated a nimble program to provide a fairly rapid turn-around of space validated technologies, and thereby reducing future mission risk in incorporating new technologies. The program, called In-Space Validation of Earth Science Technology (InVEST), now has five tasks in development. Each are 3U CubeSats and they are targeted for launch opportunities in the 2016 time period. Prior to formalizing an InVEST program, the technology program office was asked to demonstrate how the program would work and what sort of technologies could benefit from space validation. Three projects were developed and launched, and have demonstrated the technologies that they set out to validate. This paper will provide a brief status of the pre-InVEST CubeSats, and discuss the development and status of the InVEST program. Figure

Earth Science↗
NASA NTRS1995

Future Technologies for Earth Science with Spaceborne GPS

Spaceborne Global Positioning System (GPS) receivers will one day make important contributions to atmospheric, ionospheric, and solid Earth science. A number of GPS microsatellite missions are already in preparation in several countries. These missions require GPS flight receivers with capabilities well beyond the needs of most space missions. Receiver and microsatellite future technology is discussed.

remote sensing geodesy geophysics microsatellites ↗