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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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429 records · Page 24
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
NASA NTRS2000

Far Ultraviolet Imaging from the Image Spacecraft: Wideband FUV Imaging - 2

The Far Ultraviolet Wideband Imaging Camera (WIC) complements the magnetospheric images taken by the IMAGE satellite instruments with simultaneous global maps of the terrestrial aurora. Thus, a primary requirement of WIC is to image the total intensity of the aurora in wavelength regions most representative of the aurora] source and least contaminated by dayglow, have sufficient field of view to cover the entire polar region from spacecraft apogee and have resolution that is Sufficient to resolve auroras on a scale of 1 to 2 latitude degrees, The instrument is sensitive in the spectral region from 140- 190 nm. The WIC is mounted on the rotating, IMAGE spacecraft viewing radially outward and has a field of view of 17 deg in the direction parallel to the spacecraft spin axis. Its field of view is 30 deg in the direction perpendicular to the spin axis, although only a 17 deg x 17 deg image of the Earth is recorded. The optics was an all-reflective, inverted Cassegrain Burch camera using concentric optics with a small convex primary and a large concave secondary mirror. The mirrors were coated by a special multi-layer coating, which has low reflectivity in the visible and near UV region, The detector consists of a MCP-Intensified CCD. The MCP is curved to accommodate the focal surface of the concentric optics. Tile phosphor of the image intensifier is deposited on a concave fiberoptic window, which is then Coupled to the CCD with a fiberoptic taper. The camera head operates in a fast frame transfer mode with the CCD being read approximately 30 full frames (512 by 256 pixel) per second with an exposure time of 0.033 s. The image motion (file to the satellite spin is minimal during such a short exposure. Each image is electronically distortion corrected using the look up table scheme. An offset is added to each memory address that is proportional to the image shift due to satellite rotation, and the charge signal is digitally summed in memory. On orbit, approximately 300 frames will be added to produce one WIC image in memory. The advantage of the electronic motion compensation and distortion correction is that it is extremely flexible, permitting several kinds of corrections including motions parallel and perpendicular to the predicted axis of rotation. File instrument was calibrated by applying ultraviolet light through a vacuum monochromator and measuring the absolute responsivity of the instrument. To obtain the data for the distortion look up table the camera was turned through various angles and the input angles corresponding to a pixel matrix were recorded. It was found that the spectral response peaked at 150 nm and fell off in either direction. The equivalent aperture of the camera, including mirror reflectivities and effective photocathode quantum efficiency, is about 0.04 sq cm. Thus, a 100 Rayleigh LBH aurora is expected to produce 23 equivalent counts per pixel per 10 s exposure at the peak of instrument response.

Mende, S. B.↗
NASA NTRS2015

The Solsticial Pause on Mars: A Planetary Wave Reanalysis - Part 1

Large-scale planetary waves are diagnosed from an analysis of profiles retrieved from the Thermal Emission Spectrometer aboard the Mars Global Surveyor spacecraft during its scientific mapping phase. The analysis is conducted by assimilating thermal profiles and total dust opacity retrievals into a Mars global circulation model. Transient waves are largest throughout the northern hemisphere autumn, winter and spring period and almost absent during the summer. The southern hemisphere exhibits generally weaker transient wave behavior. A striking feature of the low-altitude transient waves in the analysis is that they show a broad subsidiary minimum in amplitude centred on the winter solstice, a period when the thermal contrast between the summer hemisphere and the winter pole is strongest and baroclinic wave activity might be expected to be strong. This behavior, here called the 'solsticial pause,' is present in every year of the analysis. This strong pause is under-represented in many independent model experiments, which tend to produce relatively uniform baroclinic wave activity throughout the winter. This paper documents and diagnoses the transient wave solsticial pause found in the analysis; a companion paper investigates the origin of the phenomenon in a series of model experiments.

Lewis, Stephen R.↗
DOE OSTI2021

Accurate prediction of protein structures and interactions using a three-track neural network

DeepMind presented notably accurate predictions at the recent 14th Critical Assessment of Structure Prediction (CASP14) conference. We explored network architectures that incorporate related ideas and obtained the best performance with a three-track network in which information at the one-dimensional (1D) sequence level, the 2D distance map level, and the 3D coordinate level is successively transformed and integrated. The three-track network produces structure predictions with accuracies approaching those of DeepMind in CASP14, enables the rapid solution of challenging x-ray crystallography and cryo–electron microscopy structure modeling problems, and provides insights into the functions of proteins of currently unknown structure. The network also enables rapid generation of accurate protein-protein complex models from sequence information alone, short-circuiting traditional approaches that require modeling of individual subunits followed by docking. Here, we make the method available to the scientific community to speed biological research.

59 BASIC BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2025

WHONDRS River Corridor Sediment and Water Geochemistry and In Situ Sensor Data from 7 Perennial and 7 Intermittent Streams across San Antonio, Texas (v3)

This dataset supports a broader study examining the effects of intermittency on sediment respiration. The dataset provides sediment and surface water geochemistry and in situ sensor data from 7 perennial and 7 intermittent streams in San Antonio, Texas. Each stream/site was visited both in summer during base flow (July-September 2023) and winter during peak flow (January-February 2024). Related data were collected and will be published separately in collaboration with A. Veach. The data package was originally published in April 2025. It was updated in June 2025 (v2; modified and new files) and September 2025 (v3; modified files). See the change history section in the readme for more details. For details on how to navigate data packages generated by this project, see https://data.ess-dive.lbl.gov/portals/PNNLRiverCorridorSFA/About. This dataset is comprised of two folders of field photos and videos, one folder of raw Fourier transform ion cyclotron resonance mass spectrometry (FTICR-MS) data and one main data folder containing (1) file-level metadata; (2) data dictionary; (3) field metadata; (4) readme; (5) international generic sample number (IGSN) mapping file; (6) field protocol; (7) a subfolder with sample data; and (8) a subfolder with sensor data. The sample data subfolder contains (1) surface water and sediment dissolved organic carbon (DOC, measured as non-purgeable organic carbon, NPOC) data and averages; (2) surface water and sediment total nitrogen data and averages; (3) sediment grain size data; (4) sediment iron (II) data and averages; (5) wet sediment mass, dry sediment mass, water mass, and wet sediment volume in incubation and sediment ICR vials; (7) sediment incubation respiration rate data and averages; (8) normalized respiration rate data and averages; (9) methods codes; (10) sediment percent carbon and nitrogen; (11) sediment X-ray diffraction (XRD) data; (12) gravimetric moisture and averages; (13) a subfolder with sediment incubation respiration data, scripts, and plots; (14) surface water and sediment FTICR methods; and (15) a subfolder of 9.4 Tesla (9.4T) FTICR-MS data. This folder contains five subfolders, one containing the sediment .xml data files, one containing the water .xml files, one containing the sediment CoreMS output files, one containing the water CoreMS output files, and the other containing instructions and scripts for processing the files in CoreMS (https://github.com/EMSL-Computing/CoreMS). The sensor data subfolder contains (1) a subfolder with miniDOT dissolved oxygen and temperature data and plots; (2) miniDOT dissolved oxygen and temperature summary data; and (3) miniDOT installation methods. All files are .csv, .pdf, .R, .xml, .d, .html, .Rmd, .py, .cal, .json, .jpg, .jpeg, .png, .mov, or .mp4. CORRECTION: The data processing methods for FTICR described in “v3_WHONDRS_AV1_Methods_Codes.csv” mistakenly indicate that users should process the data in Formultitude. The corrected description should read: “Both unprocessed and processed data are provided to allow users flexibility in data processing. Instructions and scripts for processing the data using CoreMS are included.” CORRECTION: Carbon and nitrogen content are reported as percentages. The current column headers "01395_C_percent_per_mg" and "01397_N_percent_per_mg" are incorrect. These should read "01395_C_percent" and "01397_N_percent" and will be corrected in the next version of this data package.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2025

Data from: 'Abiotic influences on continuous conifer forest structure across a subalpine watershed'

This package archives the core data used for analysis and inference in 'Abiotic influences on continuous conifer forest structure across a subalpine watershed' (Worsham et al., 2025). All data were collected in the East River, Washington Gulch, Slate River, and Coal Creek watersheds of Colorado. In the paper, we quantified the relative influence of climate, topographic, edaphic, and geologic factors on conifer stand structure and composition, and their functional relationships, at the watershed scale. We used waveform LiDAR data to derive spatially continuous stand structure metrics. We fused these with a species-level classification map to estimate tree species abundance. We applied generalized additive and generalized boosted models to evaluate the covariability of structural and compositional metrics with abiotic variables. The package contains the essential products required for reproducing our analysis and the tables and figures reported in the publication. The products comprise four classes: (1) geospatial data, (2) tabular data used for inferential analysis, (3) tabular data describing analytical results and performance statistics, and (4) a data user guide. (1) includes discretized waveform LiDAR data, locations and attributes of individual tree crowns, sampling locations and domain boundaries, a canopy height model, and raster files of estimated forest structural and compositional metrics at 100 m grid scale. (2) includes all response and explanatory variable values applied in inferential models. Response variables include conifer forest stand density, basal area, 95th percentile height, quadratic mean diameter, and others. Explanatory variables include climatic water deficit, actual evapotranspiration, elevation, heat load, soil available water content, and others. (3) includes results of training and testing several individual tree detection (ITD) algorithms, as well as inferential modeling results. (4) is a PDF user guide for this data package, including detailed descriptions and data dictionaries for all files. The data package root contains 17 assets: 8 compressed tape archive (.tar.gz) files, 5 comma-separated values (.csv) files, 3 Geographic Tagged Image File Format (GeoTIFF) (.tif) files, and 1 Portable Document Format (.pdf) file. The compressed .tar.gz archives contain ESRI shapefiles (.shp) .tif, compressed LASer (.laz), and .csv files. The archives must first be decompressed using the widely distributed command-line software utility TAR. All other files, including constituent files within the .tar.gz archives, can be opened in the open-source R statistical computing environment. Alternatively, .csv files may also be read in any simple text editor software or Microsoft Excel. Geospatial files including .shp and .tif files can also be opened in GIS software, such as QGIS (open-source) or ESRI ArcGIS (proprietary). The .pdf Data User Guide can be read with Adobe Acrobat Reader or other compatible readers.

2018 NEON and 2025 CHESS Campaigns↗
DOE OSTI2023

Accelerating crystal structure determination with iterative AlphaFold prediction

Experimental structure determination can be accelerated with artificial intelligence (AI)-based structure-prediction methods such as AlphaFold . Here, an automatic procedure requiring only sequence information and crystallographic data is presented that uses AlphaFold predictions to produce an electron-density map and a structural model. Iterating through cycles of structure prediction is a key element of this procedure: a predicted model rebuilt in one cycle is used as a template for prediction in the next cycle. This procedure was applied to X-ray data for 215 structures released by the Protein Data Bank in a recent six-month period. In 87% of cases our procedure yielded a model with at least 50% of C α atoms matching those in the deposited models within 2 Å. Predictions from the iterative template-guided prediction procedure were more accurate than those obtained without templates. It is concluded that AlphaFold predictions obtained based on sequence information alone are usually accurate enough to solve the crystallographic phase problem with molecular replacement, and a general strategy for macromolecular structure determination that includes AI-based prediction both as a starting point and as a method of model optimization is suggested.

59 BASIC BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2023

WHONDRS River Corridor Sediment and Water Geochemistry and In Situ Sensor Data from Machine-Learning-Informed Sites across the Contiguous United States (v6)

This dataset supports a broader study examining hyporheic zone respiration rates to improve predictive models at a contiguous United States (CONUS) scale. The CONUS-Scale Model-Sample Study (CM) was designed following ICON (integrated, coordinated, open, and networked) principles to facilitate a model-experiment (ModEx) iteration approach, leveraging crowdsourced sampling across the CONUS. New machine learning models were created every month to guide sampling locations. Data from the resulting samples were used to test and rebuild the machine learning models for the next round of sampling guidance. Sampling began in April 2022 and ended in October 2023. In addition to the widely distributed CONUS sites, a more spatially focused sampling occurred in the Yakima River Basin, WA in summer 2022. Data from this more spatially intensive sampling occurred under the label “Second Spatial Study (SSS)” and were also included in the machine learning models. Other data types collected from SSS that were not part of CM were published in a separate data package (https://data.ess-dive.lbl.gov/view/doi:10.15485/1969566). This data package was originally published in February 2023. It was updated in June 2023 (v2; new and modified files); December 2023 (v3; new and modified files); June 2024 (v4; new and modified files); April 2024 (v5; new and modified files); and September 2025 (v6; modified files). See the change history section in the readme for more details. For details on how to navigate data packages generated by this project, see https://data.ess-dive.lbl.gov/portals/PNNLRiverCorridorSFA/About. This dataset is comprised of two folders of field photos and videos, one folder of raw Fourier transform ion cyclotron resonance mass spectrometry (FTICR-MS) data and one main data folder containing (1) file-level metadata; (2) data dictionary; (3) field metadata; (4) readme; (5) international generic sample number (IGSN) mapping file; (6) field protocols; (7) a subfolder with sample data; and (8) a subfolder with sensor data. The sample data subfolder contains (1) surface water and sediment dissolved organic carbon (DOC, measured as non-purgeable organic carbon, NPOC) data and averages; (2) surface water and sediment total nitrogen data and averages; (3) surface water major cations and anions and averages; (4) sediment grain size data; (5) sediment iron (II) data and averages; (6) wet sediment mass, dry sediment mass, water mass, and wet sediment volume in incubation and sediment ICR vials; (7) sediment incubation respiration rate data and averages; (8) normalized respiration rate data and averages; (9) methods codes; (10) sediment specific surface area; (11) sediment percent carbon and nitrogen; (12) sediment gravimetric moisture and averages; (15) sediment X-ray diffraction (XRD) data; (16) sediment adenosine triphosphate (ATP) and averages; (17) a subfolder with sediment incubation respiration data, scripts, and plots; (18) surface water and sediment FTICR methods; and (19) a subfolder of 9.4 Tesla (9.4T) FTICR-MS data. This folder contains five subfolders, one containing the sediment .xml data files, one containing the water .xml files, one containing the sediment CoreMS output files, one containing the water CoreMS output files, and the other containing instructions and scripts for processing the files in CoreMS (https://github.com/EMSL-Computing/CoreMS).The sensor data subfolder contains (1) a subfolder with miniDOT dissolved oxygen and temperature data and plots; (2) miniDOT dissolved oxygen and temperature summary data; and (3) miniDOT installation methods. All files are .csv, .pdf, .R, .xml, .d, .html, .Rmd, .py, .cal, .json, .jpg, .jpeg, .png, .mov, or .mp4. CORRECTION: Carbon and nitrogen content are reported as percentages. The current column headers "01395_C_percent_per_mg" and "01397_N_percent_per_mg" are incorrect. These should read "01395_C_percent" and "01397_N_percent" and will be corrected in the next version of this data package. We thank the United States Forest Service, Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife, Washington Department of Natural Resources, Cowiche Canyon Conservatory, Washington State Parks and Recreation Commission (Scientific Research Permit #210901), and the Confederated Tribes and Bands of the Yakama Nation for access to field locations where the samples labeled “SSS” were collected. We also thank the Yakama Nation Tribal Council and Yakama Nation Fisheries for working with us to facilitate sample collection and optimization of data usage according to their values and worldview. WHONDRS consortium members were asked to provide any acknowledgments for the collection of samples labeled “CM” and the following is a list of acknowledgments that were submitted with their corresponding Site IDs: (MART) Research activities were conducted in part on the Wind River Experimental Forest within the Gifford Pinchot National Forest; (MP- 100379) Philadelphia is part of Lenapehoking, the ancestral homelands of the Lenape peoples; (MP-102398) Land surveyed is the ancestral homelands of the Nookhose'iinenno (Arapaho), Tsis tsis'tas (Cheyenne), and Nuuchu (Ute); (MP-100749 and MP- 100747) Georgia Coastal Ecosystem LTER, OCE-1832178; (SP-70 and SP-72) Eastern Shoshone, Shoshone-Bannock; (MP- 102944) Funded by Oregon Watershed Enhancement Board. On the traditional lands of the Confederated Tribes of the Siletz, Confederated Tribes of the Grand Rhonde, and the Clatsop-Nehalem Confederated Tribe; (MP- 100607) Holiday Creek is located on the traditional territory of the Monacan Indian Nation; (SP-45) Lafayette Blue Springs State Park; (MP-102420) NSF DEB-2016749; (MP-100019) New Hampshire Agriculture Experiment Station; (SP-35) Rayonier (land owner; https://www.rayonier.com/); (MP- 101276) US Department of Energy, Office of Science, Biological and Environmental Research, Subsurface Biogeochemical Research, Watershed Dynamics and Evolution SFA at ORNL; (MP- 103224) Watershed Dynamics and Evolution SFA at ORNL; (MP- 101584) Traditional lands of the Oceti Sakowin (Dakota, Lakota, Nakoda) and Anishinaabe Peoples.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗
NASA NTRS2018

The Imaging X-ray Polarimetry Explorer (IXPE): Technical Overview

The Imaging X-ray Polarimetry Explorer (IXPE) will expand the information space for study of cosmic sources, by adding linear polarization to the properties (time, energy, and position) observed in x-ray astronomy. Selected in 2017 January as a NASA Astrophysics Small Explorer (SMEX) mission, IXPE will be launched into an equatorial orbit in 2021. The IXPE mission will provide scientifically meaningful measurements of the x-ray polarization of a few dozen sources in the 2-8 keV band, including polarization maps of several x-ray-bright extended sources and phase-resolved polarimetry of many bright pulsating x-ray sources.

O'Dell, Stephen L.↗
DOE OSTI2013

The E4 protein; structure, function and patterns of expression

The papillomavirus E4 open reading frame (ORF) is contained within the E2 ORF, with the primary E4 gene-product (E1{sup ∧}E4) being translated from a spliced mRNA that includes the E1 initiation codon and adjacent sequences. E4 is located centrally within the E2 gene, in a region that encodes the E2 protein′s flexible hinge domain. Although a number of minor E4 transcripts have been reported, it is the product of the abundant E1{sup ∧}E4 mRNA that has been most extensively analysed. During the papillomavirus life cycle, the E1{sup ∧}E4 gene products generally become detectable at the onset of vegetative viral genome amplification as the late stages of infection begin. E4 contributes to genome amplification success and virus synthesis, with its high level of expression suggesting additional roles in virus release and/or transmission. In general, E4 is easily visualised in biopsy material by immunostaining, and can be detected in lesions caused by diverse papillomavirus types, including those of dogs, rabbits and cattle as well as humans. The E4 protein can serve as a biomarker of active virus infection, and in the case of high-risk human types also disease severity. In some cutaneous lesions, E4 can be expressed at higher levels than the virion coat proteins, and can account for as much as 30% of total lesional protein content. The E4 proteins of the Beta, Gamma and Mu HPV types assemble into distinctive cytoplasmic, and sometimes nuclear, inclusion granules. In general, the E4 proteins are expressed before L2 and L1, with their structure and function being modified, first by kinases as the infected cell progresses through the S and G2 cell cycle phases, but also by proteases as the cell exits the cell cycle and undergoes true terminal differentiation. The kinases that regulate E4 also affect other viral proteins simultaneously, and include protein kinase A, Cyclin-dependent kinase, members of the MAP Kinase family and protein kinase C. For HPV16 E1{sup ∧}E4, these kinases regulate one of the E1{sup ∧}E4 proteins main functions, the association with the cellular keratin network, and eventually also its cleavage by the protease calpain which allows assembly into amyloid-like fibres and reorganisation of the keratin network. Although the E4 proteins of different HPV types appear divergent at the level of their primary amino acid sequence, they share a recognisable modular organisation and pattern of expression, which may underlie conserved functions and regulation. Assembly into higher-order multimers and suppression of cell proliferation are common to all E4 proteins examined. Although not yet formally demonstrated, a role in virus release and transmission remains a likely function for E4. - Highlights: • E4 gene products have a modular structure, and are expressed from the E1{sup ∧}E4 spliced mRNA. • E4 proteins are modified during epithelial differentiation by phosphorylation and proteolysis. • The E4 proteins contribute to genome amplification-efficiency and virus synthesis. • E4 proteins are abundantly expressed and may facilitate efficient virus release and transmission. • High-risk E4 proteins are deposited as amyloid fibres and can be used as infection biomarkers.

60 APPLIED LIFE SCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2022

Epitaxial growth, magnetoresistance, and electronic band structure of GdSb magnetic semimetal films

Motivated by observations of extreme magnetoresistance (XMR) in bulk crystals of rare-earth monopnictide (RE-V) compounds and emerging applications in novel spintronic and plasmonic devices based on thin-film semimetals, we have investigated the electronic band structure and transport behavior of epitaxial GdSb thin films grown on III-V semiconductor surfaces. The Gd 3 + ion in GdSb has a high spin S=7/2 and no orbital angular momentum, serving as a model system for studying the effects of antiferromagnetic order and strong exchange coupling on the resulting Fermi surface and magnetotransport properties of RE-Vs. Here, we present a surface and structural characterization study mapping the optimal synthesis window of thin epitaxial GdSb films grown on III-V lattice-matched buffer layers via molecular-beam epitaxy. To determine the factors limiting XMR in RE-V thin films and provide a benchmark for band-structure predictions of topological phases of RE-Vs, the electronic band structure of GdSb thin films is studied, comparing carrier densities extracted from magnetotransport, angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy (ARPES), and density-functional theory (DFT) calculations. ARPES shows a hole-carrier rich, topologically trivial, semimetallic band structure close to complete electron-hole compensation, with quantum confinement effects in the thin films observed through the presence of quantum-well states. DFT-predicted Fermi wave vectors are in excellent agreement with values obtained from quantum oscillations observed in magnetic field-dependent resistivity measurements. An electron-rich Hall coefficient is measured despite the higher hole-carrier density, attributed to the higher electron Hall mobility. The carrier mobilities are limited by surface and interface scattering, resulting in lower magnetoresistance than that measured for bulk crystals.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗
DOE OSTI2025

Auroral and Non‐Auroral H 3 + Ion Winds at Uranus With Keck‐NIRSPEC and IRTF‐iSHELL

Abstract To date, no investigation has documented ionospheric flows at Uranus. Previous investigations of Jupiter and Saturn have demonstrated that mapping ion winds can be used to understand ionospheric currents and how these connect to magnetosphere‐ionosphere coupling. We present a study of Uranus's near infrared emissions (NIR) using data from the Keck II Telescope's Near InfraRed SPECtrograph (NIRSPEC) and the InfraRed Telescope Facility's iSHELL spectrograph. H 3 + emission lines were used to derive dawn‐to‐dusk intensity, ionospheric temperatures and ion densities to identify auroral emissions, with their Doppler shifts used to measure ion velocities. We confirm the presence of the southern NIR aurora in 2016, driven by elevated H 3 + column densities up to 6.0 × 10 16 m −2 . While no auroral emissions were detected in 2014, we find a 14%–20% super rotation across the planet's disk in 2014 and a 7%–18% super rotation in 2016.

Thomas, Emma M. [Department of Mathematics Physics↗
NASA NTRS2018

Electrodynamic Dust Shield (EDS) Preparation for MISSE-11 Launch

The dusty surfaces of the Moon, Mars, and various asteroids present a significant challenge to NASA’s manned and unmanned space exploration efforts. The fine, electrostatically charged dust is difficult to remove and has resulted in vision obscuration, false instrument readings, contamination, elevated temperatures, performance reduction, and equipment failure. To alleviate these problems, NASA KSC’s Electrostatics and Surface Physics Laboratory (ESPL) is developing active dust mitigation systems for solar system exploration and in situ resource utilization (ISRU). Part of KSC’s Swamp Works system, the lab emphasizes fast-paced, hands-on, cost-effective, and collaborative innovation. The Electrodynamic Dust Shield (EDS) is an ESPL technology being developed to prevent dust accumulation on space components. It consists of a dielectric substrate embedded with parallel electrodes which, when applied with high voltage out-of-phase waveforms, produce a traveling electric field wave that scatters dust particles from its surface via dielectrophoretic and electrostatic forces. The EDS is currently fully functional and has been tested for scalability and endurance in reduced gravity/pressure flight. Next, it will be part of the May 2019 Materials International Space Station Experiment-11 (MISSE-11) payload, which will test small shield samples for performance durability with exposure to the harsh space environment. The summer objective was to test EDS functionality before active and passive dust shield samples launch on MISSE-11, in order to screen for good flight/control samples as well as to compare pre-flight and post-flight clearing efficiencies. I imaged glass and Kapton shields of 2-phase and 3-phase electrode configurations with the Keyence VHX-5000 digital microscope to check for damage before and after all testing for a qualitative pre-flight baseline; helped with vacuum testing of high-voltage shield breakdown; assembled shields and wires using Electrobond 004 silver epoxy; and helped with vacuum and cryogenic dust clearance testing of assembled EDS systems. I learned CAD (computer-aided design) and 3D printing skills to create parts for a shaker table/motor assembly, which will allow for repeatable experiments by evening out EDS dust distribution in a consistent manner prior to dust scattering testing. I will also be improving the interfacing with Alpha Space’s prototype Data Communications Unit (DCU), a payload component to control power to the EDS and store data, by mapping the DCU structure upon power-up and writing shell scripts to improve various processes. Finally, I also CADed and 3D-printed plastic supports for three different geometries of the Electrostatic Precipitator (ESP), a project that aims to use high voltage electrodes to charge and filter out dust from the Martian atmosphere drawn for ISRU devices. This work on dust mitigation technologies will help to support future robotic and human space exploration missions, including NASA’s Journey to Mars; the EDS has especially significant applications to spacecraft solar panels, thermal radiators, viewports, and astronaut visors. This opportunity has also allowed me to become more familiar with various lab equipment and hardware testing, develop key modeling skills in SolidWorks, explore past and present components critical to America’s space program, work with inspiring peers and mentors, and ascertain my dream of working permanently for NASA.

space↗
NASA NTRS2011

Validating Phasing and Geometry of Large Focal Plane Arrays

The Kepler Mission is designed to survey our region of the Milky Way galaxy to discover hundreds of Earth-sized and smaller planets in or near the habitable zone. The Kepler photometer is an array of 42 CCDs (charge-coupled devices) in the focal plane of a 95-cm Schmidt camera onboard the Kepler spacecraft. Each 50x25-mm CCD has 2,200 x 1,024 pixels. The CCDs accumulate photons and are read out every six seconds to prevent saturation. The data is integrated for 30 minutes, and then the pixel data is transferred to onboard storage. The data is subsequently encoded and transmitted to the ground. During End-to-End Information System (EEIS) testing of the Kepler Mission System (KMS), there was a need to verify that the pixels requested by the science team operationally were correctly collected, encoded, compressed, stored, and transmitted by the FS, and subsequently received, decoded, uncompressed, and displayed by the Ground Segment (GS) without the outputs of any CCD modules being flipped, mirrored, or otherwise corrupted during the extensive FS and GS processing. This would normally be done by projecting an image on the focal plane array (FPA), collecting the data in a flight-like way, and making a comparison between the original data and the data reconstructed by the science data system. Projecting a focused image onto the FPA through the telescope would normally involve using a collimator suspended over the telescope opening. There were several problems with this approach: the collimation equipment is elaborate and expensive; as conceived, it could only illuminate a limited section of the FPA (.25 percent) during a given test; the telescope cover would have to be deployed during testing to allow the image to be projected into the telescope; the equipment was bulky and difficult to situate in temperature-controlled environments; and given all the above, test setup, execution, and repeatability were significant concerns. Instead of using this complicated approach of projecting an optical image on the FPA, the Kepler project developed a method using known defect features in the CCDs to verify proper collection and reassembly of the pixels, thereby avoiding the costs and risks of the optical projection approach. The CCDs composing the Kepler FPA, as all CCDs, had minor defects. At ambient temperature, some pixels look far brighter than they should. These ghot h pixels have a higher rate of charge leakage than the others due to manufacturing variations. They are usually stable over time, and appear at temperatures above 5 oC. The hot pixels on the Kepler FPA were mapped before photometer assembly during module testing. Selected hot pixels were used as target gstars h for the purposes of EEIS testing. gDead h pixels are permanently off, producing a permanently black pixel. These can also be used if there is some illumination of the FPA. During EEIS testing, Dark Current Full Frame Images (FFIs) taken at room temperature were used to create the hot pixel maps for all 84 Kepler photometer CCD channels. Data from two separate nights were used to create two hot pixel maps per channel, which were cross-correlated to remove cosmic ray events which appear to be hot pixels. These hot pixel maps obtained during EEIS testing were compared to the maps made during module testing to verify that the end-to-end data flow was correct.

Standley, Shaun P.↗
DOE OSTI2016

Outcome of the First wwPDB/CCDC/D3R Ligand Validation Workshop

Crystallographic studies of ligands bound to biological macromolecules (proteins and nucleic acids) represent an important source of information concerning drug-target interactions, providing atomic level insights into the physical chemistry of complex formation between macromolecules and ligands. Of the more than 115,000 entries extant in the Protein Data Bank archive, ~75% include at least one non-polymeric ligand. Ligand geometrical and stereochemical quality, the suitability of ligand models for in silico drug discovery/design, and the goodness-of-fit of ligand models to electron density maps vary widely across the archive. We describe the proceedings and conclusions from the first Worldwide Protein Data Bank/Cambridge Crystallographic Data Centre/Drug Design Data Resource (wwPDB/CCDC/D3R) Ligand Validation Workshop held at the Research Collaboratory for Structural Bioinformatics at Rutgers University on July 30-31, 2015. Experts in protein crystallography from academe and industry came together with non-profit and for-profit software providers for crystallography and with experts in computational chemistry and data archiving to discuss and make recommendations on best practices, as framed by a series of questions central to structural studies of macromolecule-ligand complexes. What data concerning bound ligands should be archived in the Protein Data Bank? How should the ligands be best represented? How should structural models of macromolecule-ligand complexes be validated? What supplementary information should accompany publications of structural studies of biological macromolecules? Consensus recommendations on best practices developed in response to each of these questions are provided, together with some details regarding implementation. Important issues addressed but not resolved at the workshop are also enumerated.

59 BASIC BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES↗
NASA NTRS1998

Effects of 1997-1998 El Nino on Tropospheric Ozone and Water Vapor

This paper analyzes the impact of the 1997-1998 El Nino on tropospheric column ozone and tropospheric water vapor derived respectively from the Total Ozone Mapping Spectrometer (TOMS) on Earth Probe and the Microwave Limb Scanning instrument on the Upper Atmosphere Research Satellite. The 1997-1998 El Nino, characterized by an anomalous increase in sea-surface temperature (SST) across the eastern and central tropical Pacific Ocean, is one of the strongest El Nino Southern Oscillation (ENSO) events of the century, comparable in magnitude to the 1982-1983 episode. The major impact of the SST change has been the shift in the convection pattern from the western to the eastern Pacific affecting the response of rain-producing cumulonimbus. As a result, there has been a significant increase in rainfall over the eastern Pacific and a decrease over the western Pacific and Indonesia. The dryness in the Indonesian region has contributed to large-scale burning by uncontrolled wildfires in the tropical rainforests of Sumatra and Borneo. Our study shows that tropospheric column ozone decreased by 4-8 Dobson units (DU) in the eastern Pacific and increased by about 10-20 DU in the western Pacific largely as a result of the eastward shift of the tropical convective activity as inferred from National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) outgoing longwave radiation (OLR) data. The effect of this shift is also evident in the upper tropospheric water vapor mixing ratio which varies inversely as ozone (O3). These conclusions are qualitatively consistent with the changes in atmospheric circulation derived from zonal and vertical wind data obtained from the Goddard Earth Observing System data assimilation analyses. The changes in tropospheric column O3 during the course of the 1997-1998 El Nino appear to be caused by a combination of large-scale circulation processes associated with the shift in the tropical convection pattern and surface/boundary layer processes associated with forest fires in the Indonesian region.

Chandra, S.↗