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At least 685 records · Page 38

Design and implementation of robust decentralized control laws for the ACES structure at Marshall Space Flight Center

An experiment was conducted to design controllers that would provide substantial reduction of line-of-sight control errors. The satisfaction of this objective required the controllers to attenuate the beam vibration significantly. Particular emphasis was placed on controller simplicity (i.e., reduced-order and decentralized controller architectures). Complexity reduction in control law implementation is of paramount interest due to stringent limitations on throughput of even state-of-the-art space qualified processors. The results of this experiment successfully demonstrate active vibrator control for a flexible structure. The testbed is the ACES structure at the NASA Marshall Space Flight Center. The ACES structure is dynamically traceable to future space systems and especially allows the study of line-of-sight control issues.

Collins, Emmanuel G., Jr.↗

A Vehicle Management End-to-End Testing and Analysis Platform for Validation of Mission and Fault Management Algorithms to Reduce Risk for NASA's Space Launch System

The engineering development of the new Space Launch System (SLS) launch vehicle requires cross discipline teams with extensive knowledge of launch vehicle subsystems, information theory, and autonomous algorithms dealing with all operations from pre-launch through on orbit operations. The characteristics of these spacecraft systems must be matched with the autonomous algorithm monitoring and mitigation capabilities for accurate control and response to abnormal conditions throughout all vehicle mission flight phases, including precipitating safing actions and crew aborts. This presents a large and complex system engineering challenge, which is being addressed in part by focusing on the specific subsystems involved in the handling of off-nominal mission and fault tolerance with response management. Using traditional model based system and software engineering design principles from the Unified Modeling Language (UML) and Systems Modeling Language (SysML), the Mission and Fault Management (M&FM) algorithms for the vehicle are crafted and vetted in specialized Integrated Development Teams (IDTs) composed of multiple development disciplines such as Systems Engineering (SE), Flight Software (FSW), Safety and Mission Assurance (S&MA) and the major subsystems and vehicle elements such as Main Propulsion Systems (MPS), boosters, avionics, Guidance, Navigation, and Control (GNC), Thrust Vector Control (TVC), and liquid engines. These model based algorithms and their development lifecycle from inception through Flight Software certification are an important focus of this development effort to further insure reliable detection and response to off-nominal vehicle states during all phases of vehicle operation from pre-launch through end of flight. NASA formed a dedicated M&FM team for addressing fault management early in the development lifecycle for the SLS initiative. As part of the development of the M&FM capabilities, this team has developed a dedicated testbed that integrates specific M&FM algorithms, specialized nominal and off-nominal test cases, and vendor-supplied physics-based launch vehicle subsystem models. Additionally, the team has developed processes for implementing and validating these algorithms for concept validation and risk reduction for the SLS program. The flexibility of the Vehicle Management End-to-end Testbed (VMET) enables thorough testing of the M&FM algorithms by providing configurable suites of both nominal and off-nominal test cases to validate the developed algorithms utilizing actual subsystem models such as MPS. The intent of VMET is to validate the M&FM algorithms and substantiate them with performance baselines for each of the target vehicle subsystems in an independent platform exterior to the flight software development infrastructure and its related testing entities. In any software development process there is inherent risk in the interpretation and implementation of concepts into software through requirements and test cases into flight software compounded with potential human errors throughout the development lifecycle. Risk reduction is addressed by the M&FM analysis group working with other organizations such as S&MA, Structures and Environments, GNC, Orion, the Crew Office, Flight Operations, and Ground Operations by assessing performance of the M&FM algorithms in terms of their ability to reduce Loss of Mission and Loss of Crew probabilities. In addition, through state machine and diagnostic modeling, analysis efforts investigate a broader suite of failure effects and associated detection and responses that can be tested in VMET to ensure that failures can be detected, and confirm that responses do not create additional risks or cause undesired states through interactive dynamic effects with other algorithms and systems. VMET further contributes to risk reduction by prototyping and exercising the M&FM algorithms early in their implementation and without any inherent hindrances such as meeting FSW processor scheduling constraints due to their target platform - ARINC 653 partitioned OS, resource limitations, and other factors related to integration with other subsystems not directly involved with M&FM such as telemetry packing and processing. The baseline plan for use of VMET encompasses testing the original M&FM algorithms coded in the same C++ language and state machine architectural concepts as that used by Flight Software. This enables the development of performance standards and test cases to characterize the M&FM algorithms and sets a benchmark from which to measure the effectiveness of M&FM algorithms performance in the FSW development and test processes.

Trevino, Luis↗

Registration of human skull computed tomography data to an ultrasound treatment space using a sparse high frequency ultrasound hemispherical array

Purpose: Transcranial focused ultrasound (FUS) shows great promise for a range of therapeutic applications in the brain. Current clinical investigations rely on the use of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) to monitor treatments and for the registration of preoperative computed tomography (CT)-data to the MR images at the time of treatment to correct the sound aberrations caused by the skull. For some applications, MRI is not an appropriate choice for therapy monitoring and its cost may limit the accessibility of these treatments. An alternative approach, using high frequency ultrasound measurements to localize the skull surface and register CT data to the ultrasound treatment space, for the purposes of skull-related phase aberration correction and treatment targeting, has been developed. Methods: A prototype high frequency, hemispherical sparse array was fabricated. Pulse-echo measurements of the surface of five ex vivo human skulls were made, and the CT datasets of each skull were obtained. The acoustic data were used to rigidly register the CT-derived skull surface to the treatment space. The ultrasound-based registrations of the CT datasets were compared to the gold-standard landmark-based registrations. Results: The results show on an average sub-millimeter (0.9 ± 0.2 mm) displacement and subdegree (0.8° ± 0.4°) rotation registration errors. Numerical simulations predict that registration errors on this scale will result in a mean targeting error of 1.0 ± 0.2 mm and reduction in focal pressure of 1.0% ± 0.6% when targeting a midbrain structure (e.g., hippocampus) using a commercially available low-frequency brain prototype device (InSightec, 230 kHz brain system). Conclusions: If combined with ultrasound-based treatment monitoring techniques, this registration method could allow for the development of a low-cost transcranial FUS treatment platform to make this technology more widely available.

60 APPLIED LIFE SCIENCES↗

Maintaining Trust in Reduction: Preserving the Accuracy of Quantities of Interest for Lossy Compression

As the growth of data sizes continues to outpace computational resources, there is a pressing need for data reduction techniques that can significantly reduce the amount of data and quantify the error incurred in compression. Compressing scientific data presents many challenges for reduction techniques since it is often on non-uniform or unstructured meshes, is from a high-dimensional space, and has many Quantities of Interests (QoIs) that need to be preserved. To illustrate these challenges, we focus on data from a large scale fusion code, XGC. XGC uses a Particle-In-Cell (PIC) technique which generates hundreds of PetaBytes (PBs) of data a day, from thousands of timesteps. XGC uses an unstructured mesh, and needs to compute many QoIs from the raw data, f.One critical aspect of the reduction is that we need to ensure that QoIs derived from the data (density, temperature, flux surface averaged momentums, etc.) maintain a relative high accuracy. We show that by compressing XGC data on the high-dimensional, nonuniform grid on which the data is defined, and adaptively quantizing the decomposed coefficients based on the characteristics of the QoIs, the compression ratios at various error tolerances obtained using a multilevel compressor (MGARD) increases more than ten times. We then present how to mathematically guarantee that the accuracy of the QoIs computed from the reduced f is preserved during the compression. We show that the error in the XGC density can be kept under a user-specified tolerance over 1000 timesteps of simulation using the mathematical QoI error control theory of MGARD, whereas traditional error control on the data to be reduced does not guarantee the accuracy of the QoIs.

Gong, Qian↗

The Wind Forecast Improvement Project (WFIP): A Public–Private Partnership Addressing Wind Energy Forecast Needs

The Wind Forecast Improvement Project (WFIP) is a public–private research program, the goal of which is to improve the accuracy of short-term (0–6 h) wind power forecasts for the wind energy industry. WFIP was sponsored by the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), with partners that included the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), private forecasting companies (WindLogics and AWS Truepower), DOE national laboratories, grid operators, and universities. WFIP employed two avenues for improving wind power forecasts: first, through the collection of special observations to be assimilated into forecast models and, second, by upgrading NWP forecast models and ensembles. The new observations were collected during concurrent year-long field campaigns in two high wind energy resource areas of the United States (the upper Great Plains and Texas) and included 12 wind profiling radars, 12 sodars, several lidars and surface flux stations, 184 instrumented tall towers, and over 400 nacelle anemometers. Results demonstrate that a substantial reduction (12%–5% for forecast hours 1–12) in power RMSE was achieved from the combination of improved numerical weather prediction models and assimilation of new observations, equivalent to the previous decade’s worth of improvements found for low-level winds in NOAA/National Weather Service (NWS) operational weather forecast models. Data-denial experiments run over select periods of time demonstrate that up to a 6% improvement came from the new observations. Ensemble forecasts developed by the private sector partners also produced significant improvements in power production and ramp prediction. Based on the success of WFIP, DOE is planning follow-on field programs.

17 WIND ENERGY↗

Dimensionality Reduction Library v 0.2

Dimensionality Reduction Library is a C++ library for dimensionality reduction. In the context of this library, dimensionality reduction is considered to consist of 1)estimation of the intrinsic dimensionality using sampled data, 2) Finding maps that reduce the dimensionality of data (forward map) or increase the dimensionality of data (reverse map) and 3) mapping arbitray coordinates to high and low dimensionalities. The library is intended to provide a consistent interface to multiple dimensionality reduction algorithms with an efficient C++ interface that runs efficiently on multicore architectures. A few routines have been optimized with an option for GPU acceleration or distributed computation. Currently the library offers intrinsic dimensionality estimation using point-PCA reconstruction error and/ residual variance. The following dimensionality reduction methods have been implemented: Principal Component Analysis Multidimensional Scaling Locally Linear Embedding IsoMap Autoencoder Neutral Networks An executable is also supplied that can be built to allow for command-line access to the library routines. A description for an application of the library for molecular structure analysis has been published.

BROWN, WILLIAM↗

Uncertainty quantification and optimization of precipitating hydrometeor parameters for winter precipitation in a cloud microphysics scheme

The precipitating hydrometeor parameters used in cloud microphysics schemes carry inherent uncertainties. The quantification of these uncertainties, together with parameter optimization, can significantly improve precipitation forecasts. This study investigates the effects of 13 parameters in the Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) Double-Moment 6-class (WDM6) microphysics scheme, which define the hydrometeor characteristics such as fall velocity–diameter and mass–diameter relationships, as well as the shape parameter of the drop size distribution for precipitating particles such as rain, snow, and graupel on simulated winter precipitation. A comparison between the model's pre-defined parameters and observations from the International Collaborative Experiments for the PyeongChang 2018 Olympic and Paralympic winter games (ICE-POP 2018) field campaign reveals that the fall velocity–diameter relationship for rain, the mass–diameter relationships for snow and graupel, and the shape parameters for all precipitating particles in the WDM6 scheme deviate from the median values observed by the two-dimensional video disdrometer (2DVD). To quantify parameter sensitivities, a perturbed parameter ensemble (PPE) of 256 simulations was conducted within parameter ranges constrained by 2DVD observations for three winter precipitation cases. Bayesian optimization was then applied to identify parameter sets that minimized the root mean square error (RMSE) for each case, achieving reductions of up to 30.2 %. These results demonstrate that ensemble-based uncertainty quantification and parameter optimization can help identify key parameters and provide a pathway to improving precipitation simulation performance. In addition, measurement sites can be strategically selected based on regions that show high sensitivity to variations in hydrometeor characteristic parameters.

Bayesian optimization↗

Multifidelity methods for uncertainty quantification of a nonlocal model for phase changes in materials

This study is devoted to the construction of a multifidelity Monte Carlo (MFMC) method for the uncertainty quantification of a nonlocal, non-mass-conserving Cahn-Hilliard model for phase transitions with an obstacle potential. Here, we are interested in estimating the expected value of an output of interest (OoI) that depends on the solution of the nonlocal Cahn-Hilliard model. As opposed to its local counterpart, the nonlocal model captures sharp interfaces without the need for significant mesh refinement. However, the computational cost of the nonlocal Cahn-Hilliard model is higher than that of its local counterpart with similar mesh refinement, inhibiting its use for outer-loop applications such as uncertainty quantification. The MFMC method augments the desired high-fidelity, high-cost OoI with a set of lower-fidelity, lower-cost OoIs to alleviate the computational burden associated with nonlocality. Most of the computational budget is allocated to sampling the cheap surrogate models to achieve speedup, whereas the high-fidelity model is sparsely sampled to maintain accuracy. For the non-mass-conserving nonlocal Cahn-Hilliard model, the use of the MFMC method results in, for a given computational budget, about an order of magnitude reduction in the mean-squared error of the expected value of the OoI relative to that of the Monte Carlo method.

97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING↗

Revealing EDL-driven reduction mechanisms in binary, ternary, and quaternary fluorinated electrolytes via an integrated MD–DFT–ML framework

Accurately predicting solid electrolyte interphase (SEI) formation requires explicitly resolving the electric double layer (EDL) structure, which deviates significantly from that of the bulk electrolyte. Although an established molecular dynamics (MD) and Density Functional Theory (DFT) framework can model SEI formation by evaluating reduction reactions of local clusters in the EDL, it suffers from a combinatorial computational bottleneck. To overcome this limitation, we introduce a machine-learning-accelerated simulation workflow (MD–DFT–ML), integrating a gradient-boosted regression model trained on EDL composition data to efficiently predict reduction potentials. We apply this framework to seven fluorinated electrolytes comprising fluorinated anions, a fluorinated ester solvent, two types of diluent (ion-solvating ester vs. non-solvating ether), and an FEC additive. The analysis shows that the EDL selectively accumulates cation-binding species; consequently, the non–cation-binding ether diluent rarely enters the EDL and makes minimal contributions to SEI formation. DFT calculations on statistically representative EDL clusters provide reduction potentials and fluorine-release pathways, while the ML model, which substantially reduces the DFT workload, predicts cluster reduction energies with a mean absolute error of 0.1 eV. The combined MD–DFT–ML approach also quantifies contributions from different sources to LiF formation in the SEI. This methodology establishes a generalizable route for multiscale modeling electrolyte and interphase design for next-generation electrochemical energy-storage systems.

DFT-MD-ML workflow↗

Multiredshift limits on the 21 cm power spectrum from paper

The epoch of the reionization (EoR) power spectrum is expected to evolve strongly with redshift, and it is this variation with cosmic history that will allow us to begin to place constraints on the physics of reionization. The primary obstacle to the measurement of the EoR power spectrum is bright foreground emission. We present an analysis of observations from the Donald C. Backer Precision Array for Probing the Epoch of Reionization (PAPER) telescope, which place new limits on the H i power spectrum over the redshift range of 7.5<z<10.5, extending previously published single-redshift results to cover the full range accessible to the instrument. To suppress foregrounds, we use filtering techniques that take advantage of the large instrumental bandwidth to isolate and suppress foreground leakage into the interesting regions of k-space. Our 500 hr integration is the longest such yet recorded and demonstrates this method to a dynamic range of 10{sup 4}. Power spectra at different points across the redshift range reveal the variable efficacy of the foreground isolation. Noise-limited measurements of Δ{sup 2} at k = 0.2 hr Mpc{sup −1} and z = 7.55 reach as low as (48 mK){sup 2} (1σ). We demonstrate that the size of the error bars in our power spectrum measurement as generated by a bootstrap method is consistent with the fluctuations due to thermal noise. Relative to this thermal noise, most spectra exhibit an excess of power at a few sigma. The likely sources of this excess include residual foreground leakage, particularly at the highest redshift, unflagged radio frequency interference, and calibration errors. We conclude by discussing data reduction improvements that promise to remove much of this excess.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗

THE HUBBLE SPACE TELESCOPE TREASURY PROGRAM ON THE ORION NEBULA CLUSTER {sup ,}

The Hubble Space Telescope (HST) Treasury Program on the Orion Nebula Cluster (ONC) has used 104 orbits of HST time to image the Great Orion Nebula region with the Advanced Camera for Surveys (ACS), the Wide-Field/Planetary Camera 2 (WFPC2), and the Near-Infrared Camera and Multi-Object Spectrograph (NICMOS) instrument in 11 filters ranging from the U band to the H band equivalent of HST. The program has been intended to perform the definitive study of the stellar component of the ONC at visible wavelengths, addressing key questions like the cluster initial mass function, age spread, mass accretion, binarity, and cirumstellar disk evolution. The scanning pattern allowed us to cover a contiguous field of approximately 600 arcmin{sup 2} with both ACS and WFPC2, with a typical exposure time of approximately 11 minutes per ACS filter, corresponding to a point source depth AB(F435W) = 25.8 and AB(F775W) = 25.2 with 0.2 mag of photometric error. We describe the observations, data reduction, and data products, including images, source catalogs, and tools for quick look preview. In particular, we provide ACS photometry for 3399 stars, most of them detected at multiple epochs; WFPC2 photometry for 1643 stars, 1021 of them detected in the U band; and NICMOS JH photometry for 2116 stars. We summarize the early science results that have been presented in a number of papers. The final set of images and the photometric catalogs are publicly available through the archive as High Level Science Products at the STScI Multimission Archive hosted by the Space Telescope Science Institute.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗

Chemical evolution of local post-starburst galaxies: implications for the mass–metallicity relation

ABSTRACT We use the stellar fossil record to constrain the stellar metallicity evolution and star-formation histories of the post-starburst (PSB) regions within 45 local PSB galaxies from the MaNGA survey. The direct measurement of the regions’ stellar metallicity evolution is achieved by a new two-step metallicity model that allows for stellar metallicity to change at the peak of the starburst. We also employ a Gaussian process noise model that accounts for correlated errors introduced by the observational data reduction or inaccuracies in the models. We find that a majority of PSB regions (69 per cent at >1σ significance) increased in stellar metallicity during the recent starburst, with an average increase of 0.8 dex and a standard deviation of 0.4 dex. A much smaller fraction of PSBs are found to have remained constant (22 per cent) or declined in metallicity (9 per cent, average decrease 0.4 dex, standard deviation 0.3 dex). The pre-burst metallicities of the PSB galaxies are in good agreement with the mass–metallicity (MZ) relation of local star-forming galaxies. These results are consistent with hydrodynamic simulations, which suggest that mergers between gas-rich galaxies are the primary formation mechanism of local PSBs, and rapid metal recycling during the starburst outweighs the impact of dilution by any gas inflows. The final mass-weighted metallicities of the PSB galaxies are consistent with the MZ relation of local passive galaxies. Our results suggest that rapid quenching following a merger-driven starburst is entirely consistent with the observed gap between the stellar mass–metallicity relations of local star-forming and passive galaxies.

Leung, Ho-Hin (ORCID:0000000304865178)↗

Physics-Guided Machine Learning for Prediction of Cloud Properties in Satellite-Derived Solar Data

With over 20 years of high-resolution surface irradiance data covering most of the western hemisphere, the National Solar Radiation Database (NSRDB) is a vital public data asset. The NSRDB uses a two-step Physical Solar Model (PSM) that explicitly considers the effects of clouds and other atmospheric variables on radiative transfer. High-quality physical and optical cloud properties derived from satellite imagery are perhaps the most important data inputs to the PSM, representing the greatest source of radiation attenuation and scattering. However, traditional methods for cloud property retrieval have their own limitations and are unable to accurately predict cloud properties outside of nominal conditions. We introduce a physics-guided neural network that can accurately predict cloud properties when traditional methods fail or are inaccurate. Using this framework, we show reductions in relative Root Mean Square Error (RMSE) for Global Horizontal Irradiance (GHI) up to 13 percentage points for timesteps that previously had missing or low-quality cloud property data. We expect that this methodology will be effective in improving the quality of cloud property and solar irradiance data in the NSRDB.

cloud properties↗

Fast HARDI Uncertainty Quantification and Visualization with Spherical Sampling

In this paper, we study uncertainty quantification and visualization of orientation distribution functions (ODF), which corresponds to the diffusion profile of high angular resolution diffusion imaging (HARDI) data. The shape inclusion probability (SIP) function is the state‐of‐the‐art method for capturing the uncertainty of ODF ensembles. The current method of computing the SIP function with a volumetric basis exhibits high computational and memory costs, which can be a bottleneck to integrating uncertainty into HARDI visualization techniques and tools. We propose a novel spherical sampling framework for faster computation of the SIP function with lower memory usage and increased accuracy. In particular, we propose direct extraction of SIP isosurfaces, which represent confidence intervals indicating spatial uncertainty of HARDI glyphs, by performing spherical sampling of ODFs. Our spherical sampling approach requires much less sampling than the state‐of‐the‐art volume sampling method, thus providing significantly enhanced performance, scalability, and the ability to perform implicit ray tracing. Our experiments demonstrate that the SIP isosurfaces extracted with our spherical sampling approach can achieve up to 8164× speedup, 37282× memory reduction, and 50.2% less SIP isosurface error compared to the classical volume sampling approach. We demonstrate the efficacy of our methods through experiments on synthetic and human‐brain HARDI datasets.

97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING↗

Technical Note: Method to correlate whole-specimen histopathology of radical prostatectomy with diagnostic MR imaging

Purpose: Validation of MRI-guided tumor boundary delineation for targeted prostate cancer therapy is achieved via correlation with gold-standard histopathology of radical prostatectomy specimens. Challenges to accurate correlation include matching the pathology sectioning plane with the in vivo imaging slice plane and correction for the deformation that occurs between in vivo imaging and histology. A methodology is presented for matching of the histological sectioning angle and position to the in vivo imaging slices. Methods: Patients (n = 4) with biochemical failure following external beam radiotherapy underwent diagnostic MRI to confirm localized recurrence of prostate cancer, followed by salvage radical prostatectomy. High-resolution 3-D MRI of the ex vivo specimens was acquired to determine the pathology sectioning angle that best matched the in vivo imaging slice plane, using matching anatomical features and implanted fiducials. A novel sectioning device was developed to guide sectioning at the correct angle, and to assist the insertion of reference dye marks to aid in histopathology reconstruction. Results: The percentage difference in the positioning of the urethra in the ex vivo pathology sections compared to the positioning in in vivo images was reduced from 34% to 7% through slicing at the best match angle. Reference dye marks were generated, which were visible in ex vivo imaging, in the tissue sections before and after processing, and in histology sections. Conclusions: The method achieved an almost fivefold reduction in the slice-matching error and is readily implementable in combination with standard MRI technology. The technique will be employed to generate datasets for correlation of whole-specimen prostate histopathology with in vivo diagnostic MRI using 3-D deformable registration, allowing assessment of the sensitivity and specificity of MRI parameters for prostate cancer. Although developed specifically for prostate, the method is readily adaptable to other types of whole tissue specimen, such as mastectomy or liver resection.

61 RADIATION PROTECTION AND DOSIMETRY↗

SU-G-BRC-17: Using Generalized Mean for Equivalent Square Estimation

Purpose: Equivalent Square (ES) is a widely used concept in radiotherapy. It enables us to determine many important quantities for a rectangular treatment field, without measurement, based on the corresponding values from its ES field. In this study, we propose a Generalized Mean (GM) type ES formula and compare it with other established formulae using benchmark datasets. Methods: Our GM approach is expressed as ES=(w•fx^α+(1-w)•fy^α)^(1/α), where fx, fy, α, and w represent field sizes, power index, and a weighting factor, respectively. When α=−1 it reduces to well-known Sterling type ES formulae. In our study, α and w are determined through least-square-fitting. Akaike Information Criterion (AIC) was used to benchmark the performance of each formula. BJR (Supplement 17) ES field table for X-ray PDDs and open field output factor tables in Varian TrueBeam representative dataset were used for validation. Results: Switching from α=−1 to α=−1.25, a 20% reduction in standard deviation of residual error in ES estimation was achieved for the BJR dataset. The maximum relative residual error was reduced from ∼3% (in Sterling formula) or ∼2% (in Vadash/Bjarngard formula) down to ∼1% in GM formula for open fields of all energies and at rectangular field sizes from 3cm to 40cm in the Varian dataset. The improvement of the GM over the Sterling type ES formulae is particularly noticeable for very elongated rectangular fields with short width. AIC analysis confirmed the superior performance of the GM formula after taking into account the expanded parameter space. Conclusion: The GM significantly outperforms Sterling type formulae at slightly increased computational cost. The GM calculation may nullify the requirement of data measurement for many rectangular fields and hence shorten the Linac commissioning process. Improved dose calculation accuracy is also expected by adopting the GM formula into treatment planning and secondary MU check systems.

60 APPLIED LIFE SCIENCES↗

Machine learning-based inversion for acoustic impedance with large synthetic training data: Workflow and data characterization

Where wells are sparse or training data are difficult to label with high-quality wireline-derived impedance logs, machine learning (ML)-based inversion of acoustic impedance typically depends on small training data sets, leading to biased prediction. We have advanced a novel workflow that applies large synthetic seismic training data to reduce facies-related bias. Using a geologically realistic model as the truth model, we randomly select sparse seed wells to perform sequential Gaussian simulation (SGS) for impedance models of the same geometry and simulate facies variability. We implement random forest regression on 30 features extracted from the synthetic volume. We observe that more seed wells tend to reduce facies-induced bias by sampling more types of facies, resulting in a better prediction. We then focus on the responses of SGS models to facies changes, the number of seed wells necessary for a useful synthetic model, and how much a synthetic model can help ML-based inversion. Here, we observe that the SGS synthetic training model outperforms well-direct training in general. For modeled clastic shore-zone systems in Miocene Gulf of Mexico, two or more seed wells are necessary for a significant reduction of root-mean-square error and outliners, and improvement of facies imaging. In a field-data test, we apply a similar workflow to quantitatively predict acoustic impedance, which is then converted to a sand-volume map at a high-frequency sequence (10–100 m), revealing detailed facies and sandstone patterns. Such results are valuable in many geologic and engineering applications, such as hydrocarbon and CO 2 reservoir prospecting, reserve estimation, simulation, etc.

3D seismic↗