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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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At least 505 records · Page 28

Description and availability of airborne Doppler radar data

An airborne, forward-looking, pulse, Doppler radar has been developed in conjunction with the joint FAA/NASA Wind Shear Program. This radar represents a first in an emerging technology. The radar was developed to assess the applicability of an airborne radar to detect low altitude hazardous wind shears for civil aviation applications. Such a radar must be capable of looking down into the ground clutter environment and extracting wind estimates from relatively low reflectivity weather targets. These weather targets often have reflectivities several orders of magnitude lower than the surrounding ground clutter. The NASA radar design incorporates numerous technological and engineering achievements in order to accomplish this task. The basic R/T unit evolved from a standard Collins 708 weather radar, which supports specific pulse widths of 1-7 microns and Pulse Repetition Frequencies (PRF) of less than 1-10 kHz. It was modified to allow for the output of the first IF signal, which fed a NASA developed receiver/detector subsystem. The NASA receiver incorporated a distributed, high-speed digital attenuator, producing a range bin to range bin automatic gain control system with 65 dB of dynamic range. Using group speed information supplied by the aircraft's navigation system, the radar signal is frequency demodulated back to base band (zero Doppler relative to stationary ground). The In-phase & Quadrature-phase (I/Q) components of the measured voltage signal are then digitized by a 12-bit A-D converter (producing an additional 36 dB of dynamic range). The raw I/Q signal for each range bin is then recorded (along with the current radar & aircraft state parameters) by a high-speed Kodak tape recorder.

Harrah, S. D.↗

Atomic and molecular data for space astronomy - Needs, analysis, and availability; 21st IAU General Assembly, Buenos Aires, Argentina, July 23-Aug. 1, 1991, Selected Papers

The present volume on atomic and molecular spectroscopic data for space astrophysics discusses scientific problems and laboratory data needs associated with the Hubble Space Telescope, atomic data needed for far ultraviolet astronomy with HUT and FUSE and for analysis of EUV and X-ray spectra, and data for observations of interstellar medium with the Hubble Space Telescope. Attention is also given to atomic and molecular data for analysis of IR spectra from ISO and SIRTF, atomic data from the opacity project, sources of atomic spectroscopic data for astrophysics, and summary of current molecular data bases.

Smith, Peter L.↗

JPL Physical Oceanography Distributed Active Archive Center (PO.DAAC) data availability, version 1-94

The Physical Oceanography Distributed Active Archive Center (PO.DAAC) archive at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) includes satellite data sets for the ocean sciences and global-change research to facilitate multidisciplinary use of satellite ocean data. Parameters include sea-surface height, surface-wind vector, sea-surface temperature, atmospheric liquid water, and integrated water vapor. The JPL PO.DAAC is an element of the Earth Observing System Data and Information System (EOSDIS) and is the United States distribution site for Ocean Topography Experiment (TOPEX)/POSEIDON data and metadata.

Source record↗

Mode shape analysis using a commercially available peak store video frame buffer

Time exposure photography, sometimes coupled with strobe illumination, is an accepted method for motion analysis that bypasses frame by frame analysis and resynthesis of data. Garden variety video cameras can now exploit this technique using a unique frame buffer that is a non-integrating memory that compares incoming data with that already stored. The device continuously outputs an analog video signal of the stored contents which can then be redigitized and analyzed using conventional equipment. Historically, photographic time exposures have been used to record the displacement envelope of harmonically oscillating structures to show mode shape. Mode shape analysis is crucial, for example, in aeroelastic testing of wind tunnel models. Aerodynamic, inertial, and elastic forces can couple together leading to catastrophic failure of a poorly designed aircraft. This paper will explore the usefulness of the peak store device as a videometric tool and in particular discuss methods for analyzing a targeted vibrating plate using the 'peak store' in conjunction with calibration methods familiar to the close-range videometry community. Results for the first three normal modes will be presented.

Snow, Walter L.↗

RAID-S Technical Overview: Raid 4 and 5-Compliant Hardware and Software Functionality Improves Data Availability Through Use of XOR-Capable Disks in an Integrated Cached Disk Array

The purpose of this paper is to provide a technical description of redundant array of independent disks - Symmetrix (RAID-S). It is intended to give the reader an understanding of how RAID-S is architected and implemented in the EMC Symmetrix 3000/5000 series integrated cached disk array. Topics include RAID-S taxonomy, configuration considerations, operational characteristics, performance, and implementation guidelines.

Quinn, Brett↗

Announcing the Availability of the MIT SMASS and SMASSIR Data Sets

We announce the release of visible and near-infrared reflectance spectroscopy measurements for nearly 2000 asteroids obtained by the MIT Small Main-Belt Asteroid Spectroscopic Survey (SMASS) program. Data are being released via http://smass.mit.edu. Additional information is contained in the original extended abstract.

Binzel, R. P.↗

GSSR Mars Delay-Doppler Data Available for MER Landing Site Assessment

Goldstone Solar System Radar (GSSR) observation of Mars made over the past 10 years are tabulated. Some of these are two station interferometric data that can now be processed using Mars Orbiter Laser Altimeter (MOLA) aided altimetry to provide North/South separation and higher resolution. New 2001 observations are targeted at Mars Exploration Rover (MER) sites. Additional information is contained in the original extended abstract.

Jurgens, R. F.↗

Resources Available for Hazards Analysis of Aerospace Fluids

In recent years, the legislative and executive branches of the federal government have pushed to make government more efficient and responsive to the needs of the marketplace. One of these initiatives, Public Law 104-113, also known as the National Technology Transfer and Advancement Act of 1995 (NTTAA), is designed to accelerate technology transfer to industry and promote government-industry partnership. Summarized, NTTAA states that '... all Federal agencies and departments shall use technical standards that are developed or adopted by voluntary consensus standards bodies, using such technical standards as a means to carry out policy objectives or activities determined by the agencies and departments. Government agencies must now determine if their in-house requirement-setting activities are sufficiently unique that no public interest is served by having them adopted by a voluntary consensus organization (VCO), or if not, to use or develop voluntary consensus standards. The Office of Management and Budget (OMB) is chartered by the law to monitor federal agency progress and report the results to Congress. In response to NTTAA, agency-wide oxygen and hydrogen safety standards sponsored by the NASA Headquarters (HQ) Office of Safety and Mission Assurance (OSMA) were obvious choices for early adoption by VCOs. In 1996, HQ sought assistance from the Johnson Space Center (JSC) White Sands Test Facility (WSTF), the technical lead for development of these safety standards, to evaluate their adoption by VCOs. At that time, WSTF-developed propellant hazards manuals were likewise identified for possible VCO adoption. Subsequently, WSTF was asked to represent NASA for development of an international ISO safety standard for hydrogen use. Concurrent with these WSTF standards activities are related efforts to develop and publish propellant hazards analysis protocols and safety courses for the industrial, propellant use of oxygen, hydrogen, and hypergols. This paper reports on these efforts and describes WSTF's overall voluntary consensus standards program to coordinate the interchange of NASA's propellant hazards and safety information with industry.

Woods, S. S.↗

The Inventory of Interstellar Materials Available for the Formation of the Solar System

Dr. Derek Sears, the editor of the journal Meteoritics and Planetary Science, has established a policy of having each issue of the journal contain an invited review of an area that he deems to be of special cur-rent importance. Typically 20 to 25 pages of the beginning of the journal are devoted to each review. He has asked me to prepare such a review summarizing what we know about the composition and structure of interstellar materials. The attached paper is the result. This is a good time for such a review since tremendous progress has been made in the field of interstellar dust in recent years through the use of telescopic observations, theoretical studies, laboratory studies of analogs, and the study of actual interstellar samples found in meteorites. It is increasing clear that the interstellar medium (ISM) contains an enormous diversity of materials created by a wide range of chemical and physical processes. This understanding is a far cry from the picture of interstellar materials held as recently as two decades ago, a picture which incorporated only a few generic types of grains and few molecules. In the paper I review our current knowledge of the more abundant materials thought to exist in the ISM. The review concentrates on matter in interstellar dense molecular clouds since it is the materials in these environments from which new stars and planetary systems are formed, although materials in circumstellar environments and in the diffuse ISM are also discussed. The paper focuses largely on solid materials since they contain a major fraction of the heavier elements in clouds and because solids are most likely to survive incorporation into new planetary systems in identifiable form. The paper concludes with discussion of some of the implications resulting from the identification of these interstellar materials. I also present some new thoughts, the most intriguing being that meteoritic 'microdiamonds' may be the same material that modelers of the interstellar extinction call graphite! If my suggestion is correct it will help resolve the dilemma associated with the current over-subscription of cosmic C and should lead to some new approaches to both extinction models and the study of meteoritic interstellar microdiamonds.

Sandford, Scott A.↗

Analysis of EIT/LASCO Observations Using Available MHD Models: Investigation of CME Initiation Propagation and Geoeffectiveness

The Sun's activity drives the variability of geospace (i.e., near-earth environment). Observations show that the ejection of plasma from the sun, called coronal mass ejections (CMEs), are the major cause of geomagnetic storms. This global-scale solar dynamical feature of coronal mass ejection was discovered almost three decades ago by the use of space-borne coronagraphs (OSO-7, Skylab/ATM and P78-1). Significant progress has been made in understanding the physical nature of the CMEs. Observations show that these global-scale CMEs have size in the order of a solar radius (approximately 6.7 x 10(exp 5) km) near the sun, and each event involves a mass of about 10(exp 15) g and an energy comparable to that of a large flare on the order of 10(exp 32) ergs. The radial propagation speeds of CMEs have a wide range from tens to thousands of kilometers per second. Thus, the transit time to near earth's environment [i.e., 1 AU (astronomical unit)] can be as fast as 40 hours to 100 hours. The typical transit time for geoeffective events is approximately 60-80 h. This paper consists of two parts: 1) A summary of the observed CMEs from Skylab to the present SOHO will be presented. Special attention will be made to SOHO/ LASCO/ EIT observations and their characteristics leading to a geoeffectiv a CME 2) The chronological development of theory and models to interpret the physical nature of this fascinating phenomenon will be reviewed. Finally, an example will be presented to illustrate the geoeffectiveness of the CMEs by using both observation and model.

Wu, S. T.↗

An Overview of the Earth Observing System Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) Data Products Status and Availability for Environmental Applications and Global Change Studies

The Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on the Earth Observing System (EOS) Terra Mission began to produce data in February 2000. 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 spacecraft, instrument, and data systems 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 exceed or, at a minimum, match 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. The MODIS instrument on the EOS Aqua mission should also be expected to be in orbit and functioning in the Spring of 2002. The Aqua spacecraft will operate 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. Subsequently the Aqua MODIS observations will substantially add to the capabilities of the Terra MODIS for environmental applications and global change studies.

Salomonson, Vincent V.↗

An Overview of the Earth Observing System MODIS Instrument Performance, Data Systems Performance, and Data Products Status and Availability

The Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on the Earth Observing System (EOS) Terra Mission began to produce data in February 2000. Now, approximately 2 years from that time, the instrument is operating well. All subsystems of the instrument are performing as expected, the signal-to-noise (S/N) performance meets or exceeds specifications, band-to-band registration meets specifications, geodetic registration of observations is nearing 50 meters (one sigma) and the spectral bands are located where they were intended to be pre-launch and attendant gains and offsets are stable to date. The data systems have performed 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. The remainder of the MODIS products exceed or, at a minimum, match 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. The MODIS instrument on the EOS Aqua mission should also be expected to be in orbit and functioning in the Spring of 2002.

Salomonson, Vincent V.↗

Effects of Interannual Climate Variability on Water Availability and Productivity in Capoeira and Crops Under Traditional and Alternative Shifting Cultivation

Regenerating forests play an important role in long-term carbon sequestration and sustainable landuse as they act as potentially important carbon and nutrient sinks during the shifting agriculture fallow period. The long-term functioning of capoeira. is increasingly threatened by a shortening fallow period during shifting cultivation due to demographic pressures and associated increased vulnerability to severe climatic events. Declining productivity and functioning of fallow forests of shifting cultivation combined with progressive loss of nutrients by successive burning and cropping activities has resulted in declining agricultural productivity. In addition to the effects of intense land use practices, droughts associated with El Nino events are becoming more frequent and severe in moist tropical forests and negative effects on capoeira productivity could be considerable. In Igarape-Acu (near Belem, Para), we hypothesize that experimental alternative landuse/clearing practices (mulching and fallow vegetation improvement by planting with fast-growing leguminous tree species) may make capoeira and agriculture more resilient to the effects of agricultural pressures and drought through (1) increased biomass, soil organic matter and associated increase in soil water storage, and nutrient retention and (2) greater rooting depth of trees planted for fallow improvement. This experimental practice (moto mechanized chop-and-mulch with fallow improvement) has resulted increased soil moisture during the cropping phase, reduced loss of nutrients and organic matter, and higher rates of secondary-forest biomass accumulation. We present preliminary data on water relations during the dry season of 2001 in capoeira and crops for both traditional slash-and-burn and alternative chop-and-mulch practices. These data will be used to test IKONOS data for the detection of moisture status differences. The principal goal of the research is to determine the extent to which capoeira and agricultural fields are susceptible to extreme climate events (drought) under contrasting landuse/clearing practices.

Guild, Liane S.↗

An Overview of the Earth Observing System Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) Data Products and Availability for Environmental Applications and Global Change Studies

The Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on the Earth Observing System (EOS) Terra Mission began to produce data in February 2000. 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 spacecraft, instrument, and data systems 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 (DAACs) or through Direct Broadcast (DB) stations. The EOS Aqua mission was launched successfully May 4,2002 with another MODIS on it. 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. Subsequently the Aqua MODIS observations will substantially add to the capabilities of the Terra MODIS for environmental applications and global change studies.

Salomonson, V. V.↗

Perceived orientation in physical and virtual environments: changes in perceived orientation as a function of idiothetic information available

Two experiments examined perceived spatial orientation in a small environment as a function of experiencing that environment under three conditions: real-world, desktop-display (DD), and head-mounted display (HMD). Across the three conditions, participants acquired two targets located on a perimeter surrounding them, and attempted to remember the relative locations of the targets. Subsequently, participants were tested on how accurately and consistently they could point in the remembered direction of a previously seen target. Results showed that participants were significantly more consistent in the real-world and HMD conditions than in the DD condition. Further, it is shown that the advantages observed in the HMD and real-world conditions were not simply due to nonspatial response strategies. These results suggest that the additional idiothetic information afforded in the real-world and HMD conditions is useful for orientation purposes in our presented task domain. Our results are relevant to interface design issues concerning tasks that require spatial search, navigation, and visualization.

NASA Center ARC↗