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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 73 records · Page 4
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NASA NTRS1986

Geomorphology from space: A global overview of regional landforms

This book, Geomorphology from Space: A Global Overview of Regional Landforms, was published by NASA STIF as a successor to the two earlier works on the same subject: Mission to Earth: LANDSAT views the Earth, and ERTS-1: A New Window on Our Planet. The purpose of the book is threefold: first, to serve as a stimulant in rekindling interest in descriptive geomorphology and landforms analysis at the regional scale; second, to introduce the community of geologists, geographers, and others who analyze the Earth's surficial forms to the practical value of space-acquired remotely sensed data in carrying out their research and applications; and third, to foster more scientific collaboration between geomorphologists who are studying the Earth's landforms and astrogeologists who analyze landforms on other planets and moons in the solar system, thereby strengthening the growing field of comparative planetology.

Short, Nicholas M.↗
NASA NTRS1994

The Experimental Cloud Lidar Pilot Study (ECLIPS) for cloud-radiation research

The Experimental Cloud Lidar Pilot Study (ECLIPS) was initiated to obtain statistics on cloud-base height, extinction, optical depth, cloud brokenness, and surface fluxes. Two observational phases have taken place, in October-December 1989 and April-July 1991, with intensive 30-day periods being selected within the two time intervals. Data are being archived at NASA Langley Research Center and, once there, are readily available to the international scientific community. This article describes the scale of the study in terms of its international involvement and in the range of data being recorded. Lidar observations of cloud height and backscatter coefficient have been taken from a number of ground-based stations spread around the globe. Solar shortwave and infrared longwave fluxes and infrared beam radiance have been measured at the surface wherever possible. The observations have been tailored to occur around the overpass times of the NOAA weather satellites. This article describes in some detail the various retrieval methods used to obtain results on cloud-base height, extinction coefficient, and infrared emittance, paying particular attention to the uncertainties involved.

Platt, C. M.↗
NASA NTRS2013

An Elevated Reservoir of Air Pollutants over the Mid-Atlantic States During the 2011 DISCOVER-AQ Campaign: Airborne Measurements and Numerical Simulations

During a classic heat wave with record high temperatures and poor air quality from July 18 to 23, 2011, an elevated reservoir of air pollutants was observed over and downwind of Baltimore, MD, with relatively clean conditions near the surface. Aircraft and ozonesonde measurements detected approximately 120 parts per billion by volume ozone at 800 meters altitude, but approximately 80 parts per billion by volume ozone near the surface. High concentrations of other pollutants were also observed around the ozone peak: approximately 300 parts per billion by volume CO at 1200 meters, approximately 2 parts per billion by volume NO2 at 800 meters, approximately 5 parts per billion by volume SO2 at 600 meters, and strong aerosol optical scattering (2 x 10 (sup 4) per meter) at 600 meters. These results suggest that the elevated reservoir is a mixture of automobile exhaust (high concentrations of O3, CO, and NO2) and power plant emissions (high SO2 and aerosols). Back trajectory calculations show a local stagnation event before the formation of this elevated reservoir. Forward trajectories suggest an influence on downwind air quality, supported by surface ozone observations on the next day over the downwind PA, NJ and NY area. Meteorological observations from aircraft and ozonesondes show a dramatic veering of wind direction from south to north within the lowest 5000 meters, implying that the development of the elevated reservoir was caused in part by the Chesapeake Bay breeze. Based on in situ observations, Community Air Quality Multi-scale Model (CMAQ) forecast simulations with 12 kilometers resolution overestimated surface ozone concentrations and failed to predict this elevated reservoir; however, CMAQ research simulations with 4 kilometers and 1.33 kilometers resolution more successfully reproduced this event. These results show that high resolution is essential for resolving coastal effects and predicting air quality for cities near major bodies of water such as Baltimore on the Chesapeake Bay and downwind areas in the Northeast.

ozone↗
NASA NTRS2017

Characterizing DebriSat Fragments: So Many Fragments, So Much Data, and So Little Time

To improve prediction accuracy, the DebriSat project was conceived by NASA and DoD to update existing standard break-up models. Updating standard break-up models require detailed fragment characteristics such as physical size, material properties, bulk density, and ballistic coefficient. For the DebriSat project, a representative modern LEO spacecraft was developed and subjected to a laboratory hypervelocity impact test and all generated fragments with at least one dimension greater than 2 mm are collected, characterized and archived. Since the beginning of the characterization phase of the DebriSat project, over 130,000 fragments have been collected and approximately 250,000 fragments are expected to be collected in total, a three-fold increase over the 85,000 fragments predicted by the current break-up model. The challenge throughout the project has been to ensure the integrity and accuracy of the characteristics of each fragment. To this end, the post hypervelocity-impact test activities, which include fragment collection, extraction, and characterization, have been designed to minimize handling of the fragments. The procedures for fragment collection, extraction, and characterization were painstakingly designed and implemented to maintain the post-impact state of the fragments, thus ensuring the integrity and accuracy of the characterization data. Each process is designed to expedite the accumulation of data, however, the need for speed is restrained by the need to protect the fragments. Methods to expedite the process such as parallel processing have been explored and implemented while continuing to maintain the highest integrity and value of the data. To minimize fragment handling, automated systems have been developed and implemented. Errors due to human inputs are also minimized by the use of these automated systems. This paper discusses the processes and challenges involved in the collection, extraction, and characterization of the fragments as well as the time required to complete the processes. The objective is to provide the orbital debris community an understanding of the scale of the effort required to generate and archive high quality data and metadata for each debris fragment 2 mm or larger generated by the DebriSat project.

Shiotani, B.↗
NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Enabling Simulation Interoperability between International Standards in the Space Domain

Today, the design and development of space systems are conducted cooperatively by historical space agencies in this area such as NASA, ESA, Roscosmos, and JAXA together with their industrial partners. The space system lifecycle is characterized by high costs, uncertain conditions, and dangerous scenarios. To mitigate these issues, space agencies rely heavily on Modelling and Simulation as a key technology to support the analysis, design, and operation of space systems. To support large-scale distributed simulations, the scientific community has developed several standards to support the reuse and interoperability of simulation models such as IEEE 1516 High-Level Architecture (HLA), Real-time Platform Reference Federation Object Model (RPR FOM), Simulation Model Portability (SMP), and the novel Space Reference Federation Object Model (SpaceFOM). While the SpaceFOM standard has been specifically conceptualized for handling space systems, the other ones are more general-purpose and can be used to design and simulate generic complex systems. As a consequence, there is a lake of rules and guidelines to enable interoperability among these standards. The paper presents solutions and experiences for enabling interoperability and transferability of HLA, RPR FOM, and SMP simulation models with SpaceFOM.

Simulation↗
NASA NTRS2014

A Flight Research Overview of WSPR, a Pilot Project for Sonic Boom Community Response

In support of NASAs ongoing effort to bring supersonic commercial travel to the public, NASA Dryden Flight Research Center and NASA Langley Research Center, in cooperation with other industry organizations, conducted a flight research experiment to identify the methods, tools, and best practices for a large-scale quiet (or low) sonic boom community human response test. The name of the effort was Waveforms and Sonic boom Perception and Response. Such tests will go towards building a dataset that governing agencies like the Federal Aviation Administration and International Civil Aviation Organization will use to establish regulations for acceptable sound levels of overland sonic booms. Until WSPR, there had never been an effort that studied the response of people in their own homes and performing daily activities to non-traditional, low sonic booms.WSPR was a NASA collaborative effort with several industry partners, in response to a NASA Aeronautics Research Mission Directorate Research Opportunities in Aeronautics. The primary contractor was Wyle. Other partners included Gulfstream Aerospace Corporation, Pennsylvania State University, Tetra Tech, and Fidell Associates, Inc.A major objective of the effort included exposing a community with the sonic boom magnitudes and occurrences expected in high-air traffic regions with a network of supersonic commercial aircraft in place. Low-level sonic booms designed to simulate those produced by the next generation of commercial supersonic aircraft were generated over a small residential community. The sonic boom footprint was recorded with an autonomous wireless microphone array that spanned the entire community. Human response data was collected using multiple survey methods. The research focused on essential elements of community response testing including subject recruitment, survey methods, instrumentation systems, flight planning and operations, and data analysis methods.This paper focuses on NASAs role in the efforts logistics and operations including human response subject recruitment, the operational processes involved in implementing the surveys throughout the community, instrumentation systems, logistics, flight planning, and flight operations. Findings discussed in this paper include critical lessons learned in all of those areas. The paper also discusses flight operations results. Analysis of the accuracy and repeatability of planning and executing the unique aircraft maneuver used to generate low sonic booms concluded that the sonic booms had overpressures within 0.15 pounds-per-square-feet of the planned values for 76 of t he attempts. Similarly, 90 of the attempts to generate low sonic booms within the community were successful.

sonic booms↗
NASA NTRS1994

Reevaluation of the NOAA/CMDL carbon monoxide reference scale and comparisons with CO reference gases at NASA-Langley and the Fraunhofer Institut

The carbon monoxide (CO) reference scale created by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration/Climate Monitoring and Diagnostics Laboratory (NOAA/CMDL) is used to quantify measurements of CO in the atmosphere, calibrate standards of other laboratories and to otherwise provide reference gases to the community measuring atmospheric CO. This reference scale was created based upon a set of primary standards prepared by gravimetric methods at CMDL and has been propagated to a set of working standards. In this paper we compare CO mixing ratios assigned to the working standards by three approaches: (1) calibration against the original gravimetric standards, (2) calibration using only working standards as the reference gas, and (3) calibration against three new gravimetric standards prepared to CMDL. The agreement between these values was typically better than 1%. The calibration histories of CMDL working standards are reviewed with respect to expected rates of CO change in the atmosphere. Using a Monte Carlo approach to simulate the effect of drifting standards on calculated mixing ratios, we conclude that the error solely associated with the maintenance of standards will limit the ability to detect small CO changes in the atmosphere. We also report results of intercalibration experiments conducted between CMDL and the Diode Laser Sensor Group (DACOM) at the NASA Langley Research Center (Hampton, Virginia), and CMDL and the Fraunhofer-Institut (Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Germany). Each laboratory calibrated several working standards for CO using their reference gases, and these results were compared to calibrations conducted by CMDL. The intercomparison of eight standards (CO concentrations between approximately 100 and approximately 165 ppb) by CMDL and NASA agreed to better than +/- 2%. The calibration of six standards (CO concentrations between approximately 50 and approximately 210 ppb) by CMDL and the Fraunhofer-Institut agreed to within +/- 2% for four standards, and to within +/- 5% for all six standards.

Novelli, P. C.↗
NASA NTRS1973

Mapping northern Atlantic coastal marshlands, Maryland-Virginia, using ERTS imagery

The author has identified the following significant results. ERTS-1 data provides repetitive synoptic coverage for DC 00000 of wetland ecology, detection of change, and mapping or inventory of wetland boundaries and plant communities. ERTS-1 positive transparencies of Atlantic Coastal wetlands were enlarged to different scales and mapped using a variety of methods. Results of analysis indicate: (1) mapping of wetland boundaries and vegetative communities from imagery at a scale of 1:1,000,000 is impractical because small details are difficult to illustrate; (2) mapping to a scale of 1:250,000 is practical for defining land-water interface, upper wetland boundary, gross vegetative communities, and spoil disposal/dredge and fill operations; (3) 1:125,000 enlargements provide additional information on transition zones, smaller plant communities, and drainage or mosquito ditching. Overlays may be made directly from prints.

Anderson, R. R.↗
NASA NTRS2014

A Flight Research Overview of WSPR, a Pilot Project for Sonic Boom Community Response

In support of the ongoing effort by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) to bring supersonic commercial travel to the public, the NASA Armstrong Flight Research Center and the NASA Langley Research Center, in cooperation with other industry organizations, conducted a flight research experiment to identify the methods, tools, and best practices for a large-scale quiet (or low) sonic boom community human response test. The name of the effort was Waveforms and Sonic boom Perception and Response (WSPR). Such tests will be applied to building a dataset that governing agencies such as the Federal Aviation Administration and the International Civil Aviation Organization will use to establish regulations for acceptable sound levels of overland sonic booms. The WSPR test was the first such effort that studied responses to non-traditional low sonic booms while the subject persons were in their own homes and performing daily activities.The WSPR test was a NASA collaborative effort with several industry partners, in response to a NASA Aeronautics Research Mission Directorate Research Opportunities in Aeronautics. The primary contractor was Wyle (El Segundo, California). Other partners included Gulfstream Aerospace Corporation (Savannah, Georgia); Pennsylvania State University (University Park, Pennsylvania); Tetra Tech, Inc. (Pasadena, California); and Fidell Associates, Inc. (Woodland Hills, California).A major objective of the effort included exposing a community to the sonic boom magnitudes and occurrences that would be expected to occur in high-air traffic regions having a network of supersonic commercial aircraft in place. Low-level sonic booms designed to simulate those produced by the next generation of commercial supersonic aircraft were generated over a small residential community. The sonic boom footprint was recorded with an autonomous wireless microphone array that spanned the entire community. Human response data were collected using multiple survey methods. The research focused on essential elements of community response testing including subject recruitment, survey methods, instrumentation systems, flight planning and operations, and data analysis methods.This paper focuses on the NASA role in the logistics and operations of the effort, including human response subject recruitment, the operational processes involved in implementing the surveys throughout the community, instrumentation systems, logistics, flight planning, and flight operations. Findings discussed in this paper include critical lessons learned in all of the above-mentioned areas, as well as flight operations results. Analysis of the accuracy and repeatability of planning and executing the unique aircraft maneuver used to generate low sonic booms concluded that the sonic booms had overpressures within 0.15 lbft2 of the planned values for 76 percent of the attempts. Similarly, 90 percent of the attempts to generate low sonic booms within the community were successful.

community response↗
NASA NTRS2016

Overview of the SMAP Applications and the SMAP Early Adopters Program - NASA's First Mission-Directed Outreach Effort

Satellite data provide global observations of many of the earths system processes and features. These data are valuable for developing scientific products that increase our understanding of how the earths systems are integrated. The water, energy and carbon cycle exchanges between the land and atmosphere are linked by soil moisture. NASAs Soil Moisture Active Passive (SMAP) mission provides soil moisture and freeze thaw measurements from space and allows scientists to link the water energy and carbon cycles. In order for SMAP data to be best integrated into decision support systems, the mission has engaged with the stakeholder community since 2009 and has attempted to scale the utility of the data to the thematic societal impacts of the satellite product applications. The SMAP Mission, which launched on January 31, 2015, has actively grown an Early Adopter (EA) community as part of its applications effort and worked with these EAs to demonstrate a scaled thematic impact of SMAP data product in societally relevant decision support applications. The SMAP mission provides global observations of the Earths surface soil moisture, providing high accuracy, resolution and continuous global coverage. Through the Early Adopters Program, the SMAP Applications Team will spend the next 2 years after launch documenting and evaluating the use of SMAP science products in applications related to weather forecasting, drought, agriculture productivity, floods, human health and national security.

SMAP↗
NASA NTRS2004

Development of a Dynamically Scaled Generic Transport Model Testbed for Flight Research Experiments

This paper details the design and development of the Airborne Subscale Transport Aircraft Research (AirSTAR) test-bed at NASA Langley Research Center (LaRC). The aircraft is a 5.5% dynamically scaled, remotely piloted, twin-turbine, swept wing, Generic Transport Model (GTM) which will be used to provide an experimental flight test capability for research experiments pertaining to dynamics modeling and control beyond the normal flight envelope. The unique design challenges arising from the dimensional, weight, dynamic (inertial), and actuator scaling requirements necessitated by the research community are described along with the specific telemetry and control issues associated with a remotely piloted subscale research aircraft. Development of the necessary operational infrastructure, including operational and safety procedures, test site identification, and research pilots is also discussed. The GTM is a unique vehicle that provides significant research capacity due to its scaling, data gathering, and control characteristics. By combining data from this testbed with full-scale flight and accident data, wind tunnel data, and simulation results, NASA will advance and validate control upset prevention and recovery technologies for transport aircraft, thereby reducing vehicle loss-of-control accidents resulting from adverse and upset conditions.

Jordan, Thomas↗
NASA NTRS2018

Using Remote Sensing to Assess of Growth and Distribution for Floating Invasive Plants and Growth Response Times to Altered Environments

Management of aquatic weeds in complex watersheds and river systems present many challenges to assessment, planning and implementation of management practices for aquatic invasive plants. The Delta Region Areawide Aquatic Weed Project (DRAAWP), a USDA (U. S. Dept. of Agriculture)-sponsored area-wide project, is working to enhance planning, decision-making and operational efficiency of invasive plant management in the California Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta. Satellite and airborne remote sensing are used to map area of plant coverage and estimate biomass density to aid operations and assess management impacts on plant communities. Modeling at local and watershed scales using the SWAT (Soil Water Assessment Tool) modeling tool provides insight into land-use effects on water quality. Environmental variability in the Delta occurs across a range of time scales from long-term climate and seasonal trends to short-term water flow mediated variations. Controlled environment growth studies have been conducted to quantify the growth response of invasive aquatic plants to water quality and other environmental factors. Response time for invasive species response are examined at time scales of weeks, day, and hours using a combination of study duration and growth assessment techniques to assess water quality, temperature (air and water), and light effects. These provide response parameters for plant growth models in response to environmental variation and interact with management and economic models associated with aquatic weed management. Plant growth models are to be informed by remote sensing and applied spatially across the Delta to balance location and type of aquatic plant, growth response to altered environments and phenology. Initial utilization of remote sensing tools developed for mapping of aquatic invasive plants improved operational efficiency in management practices. These assessment methods provide a comprehensive and quantitative view of aquatic invasive plant communities in the California Delta.

Floating↗
NASA NTRS2020

Environmental factors driving spatial heterogeneity in desert halophile microbial communities

Spatial heterogeneity in microbial communities is observed in all-natural ecosystems and can stem from both adaptations to local environmental conditions as well as stochastic processes. Extremophile microbial communities inhabiting evaporitic halite nodules (salt rocks) in the Atacama Desert, Chile, are a good model ecosystem for investigating factors leading to microbiome heterogeneity, due to their diverse taxonomic composition and the spatial segregation of individual nodules. We investigated the abiotic factors governing microbiome composition across different spatial scales, allowing for insight into the factors that govern halite colonization from regional desert-wide scales to micro-scales within individual nodules. We found that water availability and community drift account for microbiome assembly differently at different distance scales, with higher rates of cell dispersion at the smaller scales resulting in a more homogenous composition. This trend likely applies to other endoliths, and to non desert communities, where dispersion between communities is limited. At the intra-nodule scales, a light availability gradient was most important in determining the distribution of microbial taxa despite intermixing by water displacement via capillary action.

microbiome extremophile, desert, heterogeneity, Me↗
NASA NTRS2010

Projecting the Local Impacts of Climate Change on a Central American Montane Avian Community

Significant changes in the climates of Central America are expected over the next century. Lowland rainforests harbor high alpha diversity on local scales (<1 km2), yet montane landscapes often support higher beta diversity on 10-100 km2 scales. Climate change will likely disrupt the altitudinal zonation of montane communities that produces such landscape diversity. Projections of biotic response to climate change have often used broad-scale modelling of geographical ranges, but understanding likely impacts on population viability is also necessary for anticipating local and global extinctions. We model species abundances and estimate range shifts for birds in the Tilaran Mountains of Costa Rica, asking whether projected changes in temperature and rainfall could be sufficient to imperil high-elevation endemics and whether these variables will likely impact communities similarly. We find that nearly half of 77 forest bird species can be expected to decline in the next century. Almost half of species projected to decline are endemic to Central America, and seven of eight species projected to become locally extinct are endemic to the highlands of Costa Rica and Panam . Logistic-regression modelling of distributions and similarity in projections produced by temperature and rainfall models suggest that changes in both variables will be important. Although these projections are probably conservative because they do not explicitly incorporate biological or climate variable interactions, they provide a starting point for incorporating more realistic biological complexity into community-change models. Prudent conservation planning for tropical mountains should focus on regions with room for altitudinal reorganization of communities comprised of ecological specialists.

Gasner, Matthew R.↗
NASA NTRS2022

Potential impacts of climate change on agriculture and fisheries production in 72 tropical coastal communities

Climate change is expected to profoundly affect key food production sectors, including fisheries and agriculture. However, the potential impacts of climate change on these sectors are rarely considered jointly, especially below national scales, which can mask substantial variability in how communities will be affected. Here, we combine socioeconomic surveys of 3,008 households and intersectoral multi-model simulation outputs to conduct a sub-national analysis of the potential impacts of climate change on fisheries and agriculture in 72 coastal communities across five Indo-Pacific countries (Indonesia, Madagascar, Papua New Guinea, Philippines, and Tanzania). Our study reveals three key findings: First, overall potential losses to fisheries are higher than potential losses to agriculture. Second, while most locations (> 2/3) will experience potential losses to both fisheries and agriculture simultaneously, climate change mitigation could reduce the proportion of places facing that double burden. Third, potential impacts are more likely in communities with lower socioeconomic status.

Climate change↗
NASA NTRS2012

Satellite-Based Evidence for Shrub and Graminoid Tundra Expansion in Northern Quebec from 1986-2010

Global vegetation models predict rapid poleward migration of tundra and boreal forest vegetation in response to climate warming. Local plot and air-photo studies have documented recent changes in high-latitude vegetation composition and structure, consistent with warming trends. To bridge these two scales of inference, we analyzed a 24-year (1986-2010) Landsat time series in a latitudinal transect across the boreal forest-tundra biome boundary in northern Quebec province, Canada. This region has experienced rapid warming during both winter and summer months during the last forty years. Using a per-pixel (30 m) trend analysis, 30% of the observable (cloud-free) land area experienced a significant (p < 0.05) positive trend in the Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI). However, greening trends were not evenly split among cover types. Low shrub and graminoid tundra contributed preferentially to the greening trend, while forested areas were less likely to show significant trends in NDVI. These trends reflect increasing leaf area, rather than an increase in growing season length, because Landsat data were restricted to peak-summer conditions. The average NDVI trend (0.007/yr) corresponds to a leaf-area index (LAI) increase of ~0.6 based on the regional relationship between LAI and NDVI from the Moderate Resolution Spectroradiometer (MODIS). Across the entire transect, the area-averaged LAI increase was ~0.2 during 1986-2010. A higher area-averaged LAI change (~0.3) within the shrub-tundra portion of the transect represents a 20-60% relative increase in LAI during the last two decades. Our Landsat-based analysis subdivides the overall high-latitude greening trend into changes in peak-summer greenness by cover type. Different responses within and among shrub, graminoid, and tree-dominated cover types in this study indicate important fine-scale heterogeneity in vegetation growth. Although our findings are consistent with community shifts in low-biomass vegetation types over multi-decadal time scales, the response in tundra and forest ecosystems to recent warming was not uniform.

McManus, K. M.↗
NASA NTRS2005

Human Planetary Landing System (HPLS) Capability Roadmap: Wrap Up

When and how does the full scale system and subsystems need to be qualified & Human-rated for flight? Answer: No later than 29. Full scale AEDL Flight Tests can and should be done at Earth (need to get fast turn around between multiple tests). Do we need a Full Scale Validation Flight Test at Mars? Answer: Not, specifically, but the AEDL community is very uncomfortable with the notion of the very first full scale AEDL being piloted. The full scale unpiloted AEDL advance cargo mission that immediately precedes the human landing could do the trick. What kind of precursor AEDL Flight Tests are needed at Mars? Answer: We need to validate our performance & aerodynamic models by flying a scaled (1/10th?) version of the Full Scale Mission by 22. When and how do we decide on the AEDL system to fly? Answer: No later than 2015 (earlier is harder). We need to do multi-path full scale flight simulations and subscale / component development testing starting ASAP. If we find an AEDL for a landing mass of 40 MT, will this same architecture and technology paradigm extend to landing 80 MT? 120 MT? Is there another break point? Answer: We do not know yet.

Manning, Rob↗