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At least 541 records · Page 30

A model for the evolution of on-orbit manmade debris environment

Man-made debris in low-Earth orbit (LEO) and the conduct of operations/procedures which leave debris in orbit are discussed. With continued deposition and larger vehicles and longer times on orbit for LEO operations, the probability of collisions between such vehicles and some member of the debris population becomes large. Because the collisions will occur at very large relative speeds, a small object which would not normally be considered a hazard might pose a lethal threat to an operating spacecraft. Future debris states must be deduced from an evaluation of many models using a Monte Carlo method for future deposition events. A model for the population evolution is presented and results of model calculations are discussed. Contributions to the population which may be expected to arise from on-orbit collisions and explosions are examined. Results are presented as models for future space usage as an extrapolation of usage in the past, for an era of enhanced space usage, and for an era in which antisatellite tests provide a debris contribution.

Reynolds, R. C.↗

MEASURE: An integrated data-analysis and model identification facility

The first phase of the development of MEASURE, an integrated data analysis and model identification facility is described. The facility takes system activity data as input and produces as output representative behavioral models of the system in near real time. In addition a wide range of statistical characteristics of the measured system are also available. The usage of the system is illustrated on data collected via software instrumentation of a network of SUN workstations at the University of Illinois. Initially, statistical clustering is used to identify high density regions of resource-usage in a given environment. The identified regions form the states for building a state-transition model to evaluate system and program performance in real time. The model is then solved to obtain useful parameters such as the response-time distribution and the mean waiting time in each state. A graphical interface which displays the identified models and their characteristics (with real time updates) was also developed. The results provide an understanding of the resource-usage in the system under various workload conditions. This work is targeted for a testbed of UNIX workstations with the initial phase ported to SUN workstations on the NASA, Ames Research Center Advanced Automation Testbed.

Singh, Jaidip↗

Advanced main combustion chamber program

The topics presented are covered in viewgraph form and include the following: investment of low cost castings; usage of SSME program; usage of MSFC personnel for design effort; and usage of concurrent engineering techniques.

Source record↗

An Analysis of MSFC Public Affairs Television and Target Audiences with Suggestions for Future Growth and Directions

Because of profound changes in government and the space program, this may be an ideal time to evaluate MSFC's Public Affairs television efforts. The changes are continued downsizing of government programs; reduction in research and development; changes in the space program from periodic manned launches to a full-time presence in space with Space Station; and greater emphasis on science and communicating science information. At the same time that NASA is undergoing change, the media and society are also undergoing substantial upheaval. Twenty-five years ago, the three main over-the-air television networks (ABC, CBS and NBC) had a 93 share of the television audience. We now have four popular over-the-air networks (ABC, CBS, NBC and Fox) who maintain a 52 percent share of the television audience. Technological development, competition, and changing consumer tastes have created specialized media and audiences. This media fragmentation is part of a normal maturation cycle of use or adoption. While phases in the cycle vary in length due to many factors, the cycle has been consistent and reflects patterns of adoption. The cycle is: (1) Elite Media usage, (2) Popular or Mass Media usage, and (3) Specialized Media usage. Another factor that affects the media development and adoption cycle is the creation of new and competing mass and personal mediums. While television remains the dominant and most popular mass medium, it is declining and we see (via cable television) specialized networks catering to small audience segments. Because of changing technology and consumer behavior, we may not see a dominant mass media like television again.

Smeyak, Gerald P.↗

General Overview of the ODC Elimination Effort of the RSRM Program

The purpose of the ODC Elimination Program of the Space Shuttle RSRM Program is to eliminate the usage of 1, 1, 1 trichloroethane (TCA) in all RSRM (Reusable Solid Rocket Motor) manufacturing processes. This program consists of the following phases and objectives: Phase 0 - Convert to greaseless shipping of metal components. Phase 1 - Eliminate TCA vapor degreasing and usage in propellant cleaning operations. Phase 2 - Eliminate TCA usage for hand cleaning operations. Each phase reduces peak TCA consumption (about 1.4 million pounds in 1989) by about 29, 61, and 10 percent, respectively. Phase 0 was completed in 1992, Phase 1 in 1997, and Phase 2 is in progress (about 75% complete). TCA replacement objectives are accomplished by are a series of subscale, full-scale, and static testing outlined by the NASA-funded, ODC Elimination Program.

Evans, Kurt↗

Accounting and Accountability for Distributed and Grid Systems

While the advent of distributed and grid computing systems will open new opportunities for scientific exploration, the reality of such implementations could prove to be a system administrator's nightmare. A lot of effort is being spent on identifying and resolving the obvious problems of security, scheduling, authentication and authorization. Lurking in the background, though, are the largely unaddressed issues of accountability and usage accounting: (1) mapping resource usage to resource users; (2) defining usage economies or methods for resource exchange; (3) describing implementation standards that minimize and compartmentalize the tasks required for a site to participate in a grid.

Thigpen, William↗

Satellite Communications for ATM

This presentation is an overview on Satellite Communication for the Aeronautical Telecommunication Management (ATM) research. Satellite Communications are being considered by the FAA and NASA as a possible alternative to the present and future ground systems supporting Air Traffic Communications. The international Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) have in place Standards and Recommended Practices (SARPS) for the Aeronautical Mobile Satellite Services (AMSS) which is mainly derived from the pre-existing Inmarsat service that has been in service since the 1980s. The Working Group A of the Aeronautical Mobile Communication Panel of ICAO has also been investigating SARPS for what is called the Next Generation Satellite Service (NGSS) which conforms less to the Inmarsat based architecture and explores wider options in terms of satellite architectures. Several designs are being proposed by Firms such as Boeing, ESA, NASA that are geared toward full or secondary usage of satellite communications for ATM. Satellite communications for ATM can serve several purposes ranging from primary usage where ground services would play a minimal backup role, to an integrated solution where it will be used to cover services, or areas that are less likely to be supported by the proposed and existing ground infrastructure. Such Integrated roles can include usage of satellite communications for oceanic and remote land areas for example. It also can include relieving the capacity of the ground network by providing broadcast based services of Traffic Information Services messages (TIS-B), or Flight Information Services (FIS-B) which can take a significant portion of the ground system capacity. Additionally, satellite communication can play a backup role to support any needs for ground replacement, or additional needed capacity even after the new digital systems are in place. The additional bandwidth that can be provided via satellite communications can also open the door for many new applications that generally will enhance the standard services provided. All of those possibilities were investigated and comments, as well as descriptions of those analyses are put forward, as well as suggestions for future areas of study.

Shamma, Mohammed A.↗

Vibration Testing of Stirling Power Convertors

The NASA John H. Glenn Research Center (GRC) and the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) are currently developing a high efficient, long life, free piston Stirling convertor for use as an advanced spacecraft power system for future NASA missions. As part of this development, a Stirling Technology Demonstrator Convertor (TDC), developed by Stirling Technology Company (STC) for DOE, was vibration tested at GRC s Structural Dynamics Laboratory (SDU7735) in November- December 1999. This testing demonstrated that the Stirling TDC is able to withstand the harsh random vibration (20 to 2000 Hertz) seen during a typical spacecraft launch and survive with no structural damage or functional power performance degradation, thereby enabling its usage in future spacecraft power systems. The Stirling Vibration Test Team at NASA GRC and STC personnel conducted tests on a single 55 electric watt TDC. The purpose was to characterize the TDC s structural response to vibration and determine if the TDC could survive the vibration criteria established by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) for launch environments. The TDC was operated at full-stroke and full power conditions during the vibration testing. The TDC was tested in two orientations, with the direction of vibration parallel and perpendicular to the TDC s moving components (displacer and piston). The TDC successfully passed a series of sine and random vibration tests. The most severe test was a 12.3 Grms random vibration test (peak vibration level of 0.2 g2/Hz from 50 to 250 Hertz) with test durations of 3 minutes per axis. The random vibration test levels were chosen to simulate, with margin, the maximum anticipated launch vibration conditions. As a result of this very successful vibration testing and successful evaluations in other key technical readiness areas, the Stirling power system is now considered a viable technology for future application for NASA spacecraft missions. Possible usage of the Stirling power system would be to supply on- board electric spacecraft power for future NASA Deep-Space Missions, performing as an attractive alternative to Radioisotope Thermoelectric Generators (RTG). Usage of the Stirling technology is also being considered as the electric power source for future Mars rovers, whose mission profiles may exclude the use of photovoltaic power systems (such as exploring at high Martian latitudes or for missions of lengthy durations). GRC s Thermo-Mechanical Systems Branch (5490) provides Stirling technology expertise under a Space Act Agreement with the DOE. Additional vibration testing, by GRC s Structural Systems Dynamics Branch (7733, is planned to continue to demonstrate the Stirling power system s vibration capability as its technology and flight system designs progress.

Hughes, Bill↗

Intelligent Life-Extending Controls for Aircraft Engines

Aircraft engine controllers are designed and operated to provide desired performance and stability margins. The purpose of life-extending-control (LEC) is to study the relationship between control action and engine component life usage, and to design an intelligent control algorithm to provide proper trade-offs between performance and engine life usage. The benefit of this approach is that it is expected to maintain safety while minimizing the overall operating costs. With the advances of computer technology, engine operation models, and damage physics, it is necessary to reevaluate the control strategy fro overall operating cost consideration. This paper uses the thermo-mechanical fatigue (TMF) of a critical component to demonstrate how an intelligent engine control algorithm can drastically reduce the engine life usage with minimum sacrifice in performance. A Monte Carlo simulation is also performed to evaluate the likely engine damage accumulation under various operating conditions. The simulation results show that an optimized acceleration schedule can provide a significant life saving in selected engine components.

Guo, Ten-Huei↗

Leasing as a Source of Finance by the Major US Airlines: Hidden Debt and its Changes Over Time

This paper updates prior research on aircraft leasing and contrasts the findings of current data with prior results. Usage of leases by air carriers is a means to lessen the impact of financial obligations from fleet purchases. The study revisits two previous studies, one in 1969 and one in 1991, which is analyzed the incidence of leases by major air carriers. The current study updates these past studies to consider air carriers current usage of leases. Additionally, since operating leases are not reflected in the balance sheets of airlines, operating lease information was capitalized using a present value of future operating lease payments. Then, financial debt burden ratios were computed to determine the impact from the capitalization of lease information. The usage of operating leases increased, significantly from the first study to the 1991 study, and this trend continues. The incidence of leasing, the classification of leases as operating, and the percentage of operating leases to total fleet have all increased for the majority of the airlines reviewed. When operating lease data were capitalized, debt ratios weakened, providing further evidence of deterioration in the financial health of air carriers.

Gritta, Richard D.↗

Probabilistic Study Conducted on Sensor-Based Engine Life Calculation

Turbine engine life management is a very complicated process to ensure the safe operation of an engine subjected to complex usage. The challenge of life management is to find a reasonable compromise between the safe operation and the maximum usage of critical parts to reduce maintenance costs. The commonly used "cycle count" approach does not take the engine operation conditions into account, and it oversimplifies the calculation of the life usage. Because of the shortcomings, many engine components are regularly pulled for maintenance before their usable life is over. And, if an engine has been running regularly under more severe conditions, components might not be taken out of service before they exceed their designed risk of failure. The NASA Glenn Research Center and its industrial and academic partners have been using measurable parameters to improve engine life estimation. This study was based on the Monte Carlo simulation of 5000 typical flights under various operating conditions. First a closed-loop engine model was developed to simulate the engine operation across the mission profile and a thermomechanical fatigue (TMF) damage model was used to calculate the actual damage during takeoff, where the maximum TMF accumulates. Next, a Weibull distribution was used to estimate the implied probability of failure for a given accumulated cycle count. Monte Carlo simulations were then employed to find the profiles of the TMF damage under different operating assumptions including parameter uncertainties. Finally, probabilities of failure for different operating conditions were analyzed to demonstrate the importance of a sensor-based damage calculation in order to better manage the risk of failure and on-wing life.

Guo, Ten-Huei↗

Experiments Advance Gardening at Home and in Space

Aeroponics, the process of growing plants suspended in air without soil or media, provides clean, efficient, and rapid food production. Crops can be planted and harvested year-round without interruption, and without contamination from soil, pesticides, and residue. Aeroponic systems also reduce water usage by 98 percent, fertilizer usage by 60 percent, and eliminate pesticide usage altogether. Plants grown in aeroponic systems have been shown to absorb more minerals and vitamins, making the plants healthier and potentially more nutritious. The suspended system also has other advantages. Since the growing environment can be kept clean and sterile, the chances of spreading plant diseases and infections commonly found in soil and other growing media are greatly reduced. Also, seedlings do not stretch or wilt while their roots are forming, and once the roots are developed, the plants can be easily moved into any type of growing media without the risk of transplant shock. Lastly, plants tend to grow faster in a regulated aeroponic environment, and the subsequent ease of transplant to a natural medium means a higher annual crop yield. For example, tomatoes are traditionally started in pots and transplanted to the ground at least 28 days later; growers using an aeroponic system can transplant them just 10 days after starting the plants in the growing chamber. This accelerated cycle produces six tomato crops per year, rather than the traditional one to two crop cycles. These benefits, along with the great reduction in weight by eliminating soil and much of the water required for plant growth, illustrate why this technique has found such enthusiastic support from NASA. Successful long-term missions into deep space will require crews to grow some of their own food during flight. Aeroponic crops are also a potential source of fresh oxygen and clean drinking water, and every ounce of food produced and water conserved aboard a spacecraft reduces payload weight, decreasing launch costs and freeing room for other cargo.

Source record↗

Modeling Guidelines for Code Generation in the Railway Signaling Context

Modeling guidelines constitute one of the fundamental cornerstones for Model Based Development. Their relevance is essential when dealing with code generation in the safety-critical domain. This article presents the experience of a railway signaling systems manufacturer on this issue. Introduction of Model-Based Development (MBD) and code generation in the industrial safety-critical sector created a crucial paradigm shift in the development process of dependable systems. While traditional software development focuses on the code, with MBD practices the focus shifts to model abstractions. The change has fundamental implications for safety-critical systems, which still need to guarantee a high degree of confidence also at code level. Usage of the Simulink/Stateflow platform for modeling, which is a de facto standard in control software development, does not ensure by itself production of high-quality dependable code. This issue has been addressed by companies through the definition of modeling rules imposing restrictions on the usage of design tools components, in order to enable production of qualified code. The MAAB Control Algorithm Modeling Guidelines (MathWorks Automotive Advisory Board)[3] is a well established set of publicly available rules for modeling with Simulink/Stateflow. This set of recommendations has been developed by a group of OEMs and suppliers of the automotive sector with the objective of enforcing and easing the usage of the MathWorks tools within the automotive industry. The guidelines have been published in 2001 and afterwords revisited in 2007 in order to integrate some additional rules developed by the Japanese division of MAAB [5]. The scope of the current edition of the guidelines ranges from model maintainability and readability to code generation issues. The rules are conceived as a reference baseline and therefore they need to be tailored to comply with the characteristics of each industrial context. Customization of these recommendations has been performed for the automotive control systems domain in order to enforce code generation [7]. The MAAB guidelines have been found profitable also in the aerospace/avionics sector [1] and they have been adopted by the MathWorks Aerospace Leadership Council (MALC). General Electric Transportation Systems (GETS) is a well known railway signaling systems manufacturer leading in Automatic Train Protection (ATP) systems technology. Inside an effort of adopting formal methods within its own development process, GETS decided to introduce system modeling by means of the MathWorks tools [2], and in 2008 chose to move to code generation. This article reports the experience performed by GETS in developing its own modeling standard through customizing the MAAB rules for the railway signaling domain and shows the result of this experience with a successful product development story.

Ferrari, Alessio↗

High-Throughput, Adaptive FFT Architecture for FPGA-Based Spaceborne Data Processors

Exponential growth in microelectronics technology such as field-programmable gate arrays (FPGAs) has enabled high-performance spaceborne instruments with increasing onboard data processing capabilities. As a commonly used digital signal processing (DSP) building block, fast Fourier transform (FFT) has been of great interest in onboard data processing applications, which needs to strike a reasonable balance between high-performance (throughput, block size, etc.) and low resource usage (power, silicon footprint, etc.). It is also desirable to be designed so that a single design can be reused and adapted into instruments with different requirements. The Multi-Pass Wide Kernel FFT (MPWK-FFT) architecture was developed, in which the high-throughput benefits of the parallel FFT structure and the low resource usage of Singleton s single butterfly method is exploited. The result is a wide-kernel, multipass, adaptive FFT architecture. The 32K-point MPWK-FFT architecture includes 32 radix-2 butterflies, 64 FIFOs to store the real inputs, 64 FIFOs to store the imaginary inputs, complex twiddle factor storage, and FIFO logic to route the outputs to the correct FIFO. The inputs are stored in sequential fashion into the FIFOs, and the outputs of each butterfly are sequentially written first into the even FIFO, then the odd FIFO. Because of the order of the outputs written into the FIFOs, the depth of the even FIFOs, which are 768 each, are 1.5 times larger than the odd FIFOs, which are 512 each. The total memory needed for data storage, assuming that each sample is 36 bits, is 2.95 Mbits. The twiddle factors are stored in internal ROM inside the FPGA for fast access time. The total memory size to store the twiddle factors is 589.9Kbits. This FFT structure combines the benefits of high throughput from the parallel FFT kernels and low resource usage from the multi-pass FFT kernels with desired adaptability. Space instrument missions that need onboard FFT capabilities such as the proposed DESDynl, SWOT (Surface Water Ocean Topography), and Europa sounding radar missions would greatly benefit from this technology with significant reductions in non-recurring cost and risk.

NguyenKobayashi, Kayla↗

Ares I-X Ground Diagnostic Prototype

Automating prelaunch diagnostics for launch vehicles offers three potential benefits. First, it potentially improves safety by detecting faults that might otherwise have been missed so that they can be corrected before launch. Second, it potentially reduces launch delays by more quickly diagnosing the cause of anomalies that occur during prelaunch processing. Reducing launch delays will be critical to the success of NASA's planned future missions that require in-orbit rendezvous. Third, it potentially reduces costs by reducing both launch delays and the number of people needed to monitor the prelaunch process. NASA is currently developing the Ares I launch vehicle to bring the Orion capsule and its crew of four astronauts to low-earth orbit on their way to the moon. Ares I-X will be the first unmanned test flight of Ares I. It is scheduled to launch on October 27, 2009. The Ares I-X Ground Diagnostic Prototype is a prototype ground diagnostic system that will provide anomaly detection, fault detection, fault isolation, and diagnostics for the Ares I-X first-stage thrust vector control (TVC) and for the associated ground hydraulics while it is in the Vehicle Assembly Building (VAB) at John F. Kennedy Space Center (KSC) and on the launch pad. It will serve as a prototype for a future operational ground diagnostic system for Ares I. The prototype combines three existing diagnostic tools. The first tool, TEAMS (Testability Engineering and Maintenance System), is a model-based tool that is commercially produced by Qualtech Systems, Inc. It uses a qualitative model of failure propagation to perform fault isolation and diagnostics. We adapted an existing TEAMS model of the TVC to use for diagnostics and developed a TEAMS model of the ground hydraulics. The second tool, Spacecraft Health Inference Engine (SHINE), is a rule-based expert system developed at the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory. We developed SHINE rules for fault detection and mode identification. The prototype uses the outputs of SHINE as inputs to TEAMS. The third tool, the Inductive Monitoring System (IMS), is an anomaly detection tool developed at NASA Ames Research Center and is currently used to monitor the International Space Station Control Moment Gyroscopes. IMS automatically "learns" a model of historical nominal data in the form of a set of clusters and signals an alarm when new data fails to match this model. IMS offers the potential to detect faults that have not been modeled. The three tools have been integrated and deployed to Hangar AE at KSC where they interface with live data from the Ares I-X vehicle and from the ground hydraulics. The outputs of the tools are displayed on a console in Hangar AE, one of the locations from which the Ares I-X launch will be monitored. The full paper will describe how the prototype performed before the launch. It will include an analysis of the prototype's accuracy, including false-positive rates, false-negative rates, and receiver operating characteristics (ROC) curves. It will also include a description of the prototype's computational requirements, including CPU usage, main memory usage, and disk usage. If the prototype detects any faults during the prelaunch period then the paper will include a description of those faults. Similarly, if the prototype has any false alarms then the paper will describe them and will attempt to explain their causes.

Schwabacher, Mark↗

Risk of Adverse Health Outcomes & Decrements in Performance due to Inflight Medical Conditions: ExMC Pharmacy Research Plan

The Exploration Medical Capabilities (ExMC) Element of NASA's Human Research Program is charged with identifying medical capabilities that can address the challenges of prevention, diagnosis, and treatment of disease and injuries that could occur during exploration missions beyond Earth's orbit. Faced with the obstacle of access to in-flight medical care, and limitations of vehicle space, time, and communications; it is necessary to prioritize what medical consumables are manifested for the flight, and which medical conditions are addressed. Studies of astronaut health establish the incidence of common and high risk medical conditions that require medical intervention during long-duration exploration missions. In 2000, the Institute of Medicine (IOM) convened a committee of experts, Committee on Creating a Vision for Space Medicine during Travel beyond Earth Orbit, to examine the issues surrounding astronaut health and safety for long duration space missions. Two themes run throughout the committee's final report: (1) that not enough is known about the risks to human health during long-duration missions beyond Earth's orbit or about what can effectively mitigate those risks to enable humans to travel and work safely in the environment of deep space and (2) that everything reasonable should be done to gain the necessary information before humans are sent on missions of space exploration (IOM, 2001). Although several spaceflight focused pharmaceutical research studies have been conducted, few have provided sufficient data regarding medication usage or potency changes during spaceflight. The Du pharmaceutical stability study assessed medications flown on space shuttles to and from the International Space Station (ISS) from 2006 until 2008; of which some medications were still viable beyond their expiration dates (Du et al, 2011). However, as with many spaceflight studies, the small 'n' associated with this study limits the ability to draw strong conclusions from it. Dr. Wotring and others have recently published articles containing information regarding medication usage, indications, and efficacy gleaned from spaceflight records (Wotring et al, 2015, 2016; Barger et al, 2014; Basner and Dinges, 2014). Although some conclusions can be drawn from these studies, the inability to fully quantify medication usage, indications, side effects, and effectiveness, limits insight as to which medications should be prioritized for further research.

Antonsen, Erik↗

Building Climate Resilience at NASA Ames

NASA Ames Research Center, located at the southern end of the San Francisco Bay (SFB) estuary has identified three primary vulnerabilities to changes in climate. The Ames Climate Adaptation Science Investigator (CASI) workgroup has studied each of these challenges to operations and the potential exposure of infrastructure and employees to an increased frequency of hazards. Sea level rise inundation scenarios for the SFB Area generally refer to projected scenarios in mean sea level rather than changes in extreme tides that could occur during future storm conditions. In the Summer of 2014, high resolution 3-D mapping of the low lying portion of Ames was performed. Those data are integrated with improved sea level inundation scenarios to identify the buildings, basements and drainage systems potentially affected. We will also identify the impacts of sea level and storm surge effects on transportation to and from the Center. This information will help Center Management develop future Master Plans. Climate change will also lead to changes in temperature, storm frequency and intensity. These changes have potential impacts on localized floods and ecosystems, as well as on electricity and water availability. Over the coming decades, these changes are going to be imposed on top of ongoing land use and land cover changes, especially those deriving from continued urbanization and increase in impervious surface areas. These coupled changes have the potential to create a series of cascading impacts on ecosystems, including changes in primary productivity and disturbance of hydrological properties and increased flood risk.The majority of the electricity used at Ames is supplied by hydroelectric dams, which will be influenced by reductions in precipitation or changes in the timing or phase of precipitation which reduces snow pack. Coupled with increased demand for summertime air conditioning and other cooling needs, NASA Ames is at risk for electricity shortfalls. To assess the anticipated energy usage as climate changes, the Ames CASI team is collecting historical energy usage data from Ames facilities, historical weather data, and projected future weather parameters from the CASI Climate subgroup. This data will be incorporated into the RETScreen model to predict how energy usage at Ames will change over the coming century.

climate↗

Application of ML/AI for Identifying Earth Science Datasets in Research Publications

NASA Data Active Archive Centers, or DAACs, ingest, store and distribute data acquired from satellites, ground systems as well as modelling data. These data are organized by the datasets, each presenting collection of files usually associated with the certain mission, instrument, processing level, parameter(s), algorithm and/or model. The number of datasets offered by a single DAAC to the public varies. GES DISC, for example, currently offers for public use approximately ~1,300 datasets. While each publicly offered dataset comes with supporting documentation, it is challenging for novice and even experienced scientists to navigate among the datasets that offer similar parameters to find the datasets for their particular research application. Supplying dataset documentation with the scientific paper citations that refer to that dataset provides means for the dataset users to educate themselves with the application research that dataset is being used in. Collecting citations of the papers that use the datasets for their research yield valuable insights into application areas of those datasets, information about usage of the dataset groups for specific applications and those application topics. It also gives insights into the “deep metrics” of the dataset usage, as opposed to the common metrics of the dataset usage such as number of users who downloaded the dataset files and volumes of downloaded data. Association of a certain scientific paper with the dataset(s) presents a challenge because most of the paper authors do not properly cite the datasets, datasets usually have cryptic names and Digital Object Identifiers (DOIs) that are used for dataset identification were assigned to the datasets only few years ago. Simple Google or online library search do not provide even meaningful fraction of the results when performed by the dataset name or DOI, however they provide too many results when the search is done by more broader terms such as mission and instrument names. Attempts to create an AI system capable to identify dataset in the scientific papers have already been made using neural networks classifiers on the basis of the dataset mission, instrument and variable name. This method was applied to NASA SEDAC, which has 41 datasets in total. In GES DISC there can be as many as ~100 datasets per mission/instrument with some of the datasets consisting of multiple variables so there is a need for more differentiating parameters for dataset identification in the paper. The approach we are currently investigating is creating AI classifiers that are based on multiple dataset features, or keywords, extracted from the NASA Earthdata Common Dataset Repository (CMR). The features are weighted based on how precisely they can identify a dataset. The classifier uses preprocessed paper text as input and searches for the CMR datasets whose feature sets are the closest to the feature sets contained in the paper. The challenges of dataset identification include variety of ways the paper authors describe the datasets in their papers and incomplete tagging of the CMR dataset description (DIFs).

Irina Gerasimov↗