SEARCH · Search NASA

Results for “Model interpretation and visualization”

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.

SourceResearch connectionFrom yearThrough year

Quote a phrase for an exact phrase match. Source license links do not imply unrestricted reuse.

At least 73 records · Page 4

All sources NASA NTRS DOE OSTI

NASA NTRS2014

Exploring NASA OMI Level 2 Data With Visualization

Satellite data products are important for a wide variety of applications that can bring far-reaching benefits to the science community and the broader society. These benefits can best be achieved if the satellite data are well utilized and interpreted, such as model inputs from satellite, or extreme events (such as volcano eruptions, dust storms,... etc.). Unfortunately, this is not always the case, despite the abundance and relative maturity of numerous satellite data products provided by NASA and other organizations. Such obstacles may be avoided by allowing users to visualize satellite data as "images", with accurate pixel-level (Level-2) information, including pixel coverage area delineation and science team recommended quality screening for individual geophysical parameters. We present a prototype service from the Goddard Earth Sciences Data and Information Services Center (GES DISC) supporting Aura OMI Level-2 Data with GIS-like capabilities. Functionality includes selecting data sources (e.g., multiple parameters under the same scene, like NO2 and SO2, or the same parameter with different aggregation methods, like NO2 in OMNO2G and OMNO2D products), user-defined area-of-interest and temporal extents, zooming, panning, overlaying, sliding, and data subsetting, reformatting, and reprojection. The system will allow any user-defined portal interface (front-end) to connect to our backend server with OGC standard-compliant Web Mapping Service (WMS) and Web Coverage Service (WCS) calls. This back-end service should greatly enhance its expandability to integrate additional outside data/map sources.

Aura↗

NASA NTRS1993

Development of visual programming techniques to integrate theoretical modeling into the scientific planning and instrument operations environment of ISTP

The goal of this project is to investigate the use of visualization software based on the visual programming and data-flow paradigms to meet the needs of the SPOF and through it the International Solar Terrestrial Physics (ISTP) science community. Specific needs we address include science planning, data interpretation, comparisons of data with simulation and model results, and data acquisition. Our accomplishments during the twelve month grant period are discussed below.

Goodrich, Charles C.↗

NASA NTRS2019

Virtual Reality and Oceanography: Overview, Applications, and Perspective

With the ongoing, exponential increase in ocean data from autonomous platforms, satellites, models, and in particular, the growing field of quantitative imaging, there arises a need for scalable and cost-efficient visualization tools to interpret these large volumes of data. With the recent proliferation of consumer grade head-mounted displays, the emerging field of virtual reality (VR) has demonstrated its benefit in numerous disciplines, ranging frommedicine to archeology. However, these benefits have not received asmuch attention in the ocean sciences. Here, we summarize some of the ways that virtual reality has been applied to this field. We highlight a few examples in which we (the authors) demonstrate the utility of VR as a tool for ocean scientists. For oceanic datasets that are well-suited for three-dimensional visualization, virtual reality has the potential to enhance the practice of ocean science.

Noah L Walcutt↗

DOE OSTI2025

MoRE-Brain: Routed Mixture of Experts for Interpretable and Generalizable Cross-Subject fMRI Visual Decoding

Decoding visual experiences from fMRI offers a powerful avenue to understand human perception and develop advanced brain-computer interfaces. However, current progress often prioritizes maximizing reconstruction fidelity while overlooking interpretability, an essential aspect for deriving neuroscientific insight. To address this gap, we propose MoRE-Brain, a neuro-inspired framework designed for high-fidelity, adaptable, and interpretable visual reconstruction. MoRE-Brain uniquely employs a hierarchical Mixture-of-Experts architecture where distinct experts process fMRI signals from functionally related voxel groups, mimicking specialized brain networks. The experts are first trained to encode fMRI into the frozen CLIP space. A finetuned diffusion model then synthesizes images, guided by expert outputs through a novel dual-stage routing mechanism that dynamically weighs expert contributions across the diffusion process. MoRE-Brain offers three main advancements: First, it introduces a novel Mixture-of-Experts architecture grounded in brain network principles for neuro-decoding. Second, it achieves efficient cross-subject generalization by sharing core expert networks while adapting only subject-specific routers. Third, it provides enhanced mechanistic insight, as the explicit routing reveals precisely how different modeled brain regions shape the semantic and spatial attributes of the reconstructed image. Extensive experiments validate MoRE-Brain’s high reconstruction fidelity, with bottleneck analyses further demonstrating its effective utilization of fMRI signals, distinguishing genuine neural decoding from over-reliance on generative priors. Consequently, MoRE-Brain marks a substantial advance towards more generalizable and interpretable fMRI-based visual decoding.

Wei, Yuxiang [Georgia Institute of Technology]↗

NASA NTRS1974

OAO-2 observations of the helium spectrum variable a Centauri

Ultraviolet photometry and spectrometer data are presented for a Cen, which exhibits large variations in the strength of its He I lines. The photometry indicates that the star becomes brighter at the helium-weak phase by 0.05 mag throughout the ultraviolet and visual region. A model atmosphere analysis indicates that the photometric variations are not due to flux redistribution from back-warming effects, but can be interpreted as due to the rotation of a distorted stellar disk in the shape of a prolate spheroid.

Molnar, M. R.↗

NASA NTRS1977

Investigation of remote sensing techniques as inputs to operational resource management models

The author has identified the following significant results. Successful operational applications of LANDSAT data were found for level 1 land use mapping, drainage network delineation, and aspen mapping. Visual LANDSAT interpretation using 1:125,000 color composite imagery was the least expensive method of obtaining timely level 1 land use data. With an average agricultural/rangeland interpretation accuracy in excess of 80%, such a data source was considered the most cost effective of those sources available to state agencies. Costs do not compare favorably with those incurred using the present method of extracting land use data from historical tabular summaries. The cost increase in advancing from the present procedure to a satellite-based data source was justified in terms of expanded data content.

Schmer, F. A.↗

DOE OSTI2025

SigTime: Learning and Visually Explaining Time Series Signatures

Understanding and distinguishing temporal patterns in time series data is essential for scientific discovery and decision-making. For example, in biomedical research, uncovering meaningful patterns in physiological signals can improve diagnosis, risk assessment, and patient outcomes. However, existing methods for time series pattern discovery face major challenges, including high computational complexity, limited interpretability, and difficulty in capturing meaningful temporal structures. Here, to address these gaps, we introduce a novel learning framework that jointly trains two Transformer models using complementary time series representations: shapelet-based representations to capture localized temporal structures and traditional feature engineering to encode statistical properties. The learned shapelets serve as interpretable signatures that differentiate time series across classification labels. Additionally, we develop a visual analytics system—SigTime—with coordinated views to facilitate exploration of time series signatures from multiple perspectives, aiding in useful insights generation. We quantitatively evaluate our learning framework on eight publicly available datasets and one proprietary clinical dataset. Additionally, we demonstrate the effectiveness of our system through two usage scenarios along with the domain experts: one involving public ECG data and the other focused on preterm labor analysis.

97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING↗

DOE OSTI2025

Isochronous and period-doubling diagrams for symplectic maps of the plane

Symplectic mappings of the plane serve as key models for exploring the fundamental nature of complex behavior in nonlinear systems. Central to this exploration is the effective visualization of stability regimes, which enables the interpretation of how systems evolve under varying conditions. While the area-preserving quadratic Hénon map has received significant theoretical attention, a comprehensive description of its mixed parameter-space dynamics remain lacking. This limitation arises from early attempts to reduce the full two-dimensional phase space to a one-dimensional projection, a simplification that resulted in the loss of important dynamical features. Consequently, there is a clear need for a more thorough understanding of the underlying qualitative aspects. This paper aims to address this gap by revisiting the foundational concepts of reversibility and associated symmetries, first explored in the early works of G.D. Birkhoff. We extend the original framework proposed by Hénon by adding a period-doubling diagram to his isochronous diagram, which allows to represents the system’s bifurcations and the groups of symmetric periodic orbits that emerge in typical bifurcations of the fixed point. A qualitative and quantitative explanation of the main features of the region of parameters with bounded motion is provided, along with the application of this technique to other symplectic mappings, including cases of multiple reversibility. Modern chaos indicators, such as the Reversibility Error Method (REM) and the Generalized Alignment Index (GALI), are employed to distinguish between various dynamical regimes in the mixed space of variables and parameters. These tools prove effective in differentiating regular and chaotic dynamics, as well as in identifying twistless orbits and their associated bifurcations. Additionally, we discuss the application of these methods to real-world problems, such as visualizing dynamic aperture in accelerator physics, where our findings have direct relevance.

43 PARTICLE ACCELERATORS↗

NASA NTRS1989

Low level remote sensing: Orographic winds

The orographic flow data set was obtained from a flight program to measure the influence of orographic features on turbulence momentum, heat, and moisture fluxes. The NASA B-57 aircraft instrumented with probes for measuring the three fluctuating wind speed components, temperature, and humidity was the primary measuring vehicle. Ancillary measurements were made with several ground-based sensors. These include the NOAA radar wind profilers, the Boulder wind network, the PROFS mesoscale surface network, the Boulder Atmospheric Observatory 300 m tower, special rawinsonde observations, and the NOAA/WPL Doppler lidar. The major objective of the flight program was to provide planetary boundary layer parameter information for new and current general circulation computer models. A numerical code, WINDER, based on a discrete element technique was run to numerically model the water tunnel simulated flow. Comparison of the analytical model with the experimental results is very good. Physical fluid dynamic principles embedded in the computational model and visual and hot wire anemometer measurements from the simulation are being rationalized to develop a physical understanding of the vortex flow. The results will be interpreted as they pertain to full scale atmospheric flows.

Frost, Walter↗

NASA NTRS2015

Spherical Coordinate Systems for Streamlining Suited Mobility Analysis

Introduction: When describing human motion, biomechanists generally report joint angles in terms of Euler angle rotation sequences. However, there are known limitations in using this method to describe complex motions such as the shoulder joint during a baseball pitch. Euler angle notation uses a series of three rotations about an axis where each rotation is dependent upon the preceding rotation. As such, the Euler angles need to be regarded as a set to get accurate angle information. Unfortunately, it is often difficult to visualize and understand these complex motion representations. It has been shown that using a spherical coordinate system allows Anthropometry and Biomechanics Facility (ABF) personnel to increase their ability to transmit important human mobility data to engineers, in a format that is readily understandable and directly translatable to their design efforts. Objectives: The goal of this project was to use innovative analysis and visualization techniques to aid in the examination and comprehension of complex motions. Methods: This project consisted of a series of small sub‐projects, meant to validate and verify a new method before it was implemented in the ABF's data analysis practices. A mechanical test rig was built and tracked in 3D using an optical motion capture system. Its position and orientation were reported in both Euler and spherical reference systems. In the second phase of the project, the ABF estimated the error inherent in a spherical coordinate system, and evaluated how this error would vary within the reference frame. This stage also involved expanding a kinematic model of the shoulder to include the rest of the joints of the body. The third stage of the project involved creating visualization methods to assist in interpreting motion in a spherical frame. These visualization methods will be incorporated in a tool to evaluate a database of suited mobility data, which is currently in development. Results: Initial results demonstrated that a spherical coordinate system is helpful in describing and visualizing the motion of a space suit. The system is particularly useful in describing the motion of the shoulder, where multiple degrees of freedom can lead to very complex motion paths.

Benson, Elizabeth↗

NASA NTRS1992

SAVS: A Space Analysis and Visualization System

We propose to develop, test, demonstrate, and deliver to NASA a powerful and versatile data acquisition, manipulation, analysis and visualization system which will enhance scientific capabilities in the display and interpretation of diverse and distributed data within an integrated user-friendly environment. Our approach exploits existing technologies and combines three major elements into an easy-to-use interactive package: (1) innovative visualization software; (2) advanced database techniques; and (3) a rich set of mathematical and image processing tools. Visualization capabilities will include one-, two-, and three-dimensional displays, along with animation, compression, warping and slicing functions. Analysis tools will include generic mathematical and statistical techniques along with the ability to use large scale models for interactive interpretation of large volume data sets. Our system will be implemented on Sun and DEC UNIX workstations and on the Stardent Graphics Super computer. Our final deliverable will include complete documentation and a NASA/NSF-CDAW/SUNDIAL campaign demonstration.

Szuszczewicz, Edward P.↗

NASA NTRS1993

SAVS: A Space Analysis and Visualization System

We propose to develop, test, demonstrate, and deliver to NASA a powerful and versatile data acquisition, manipulation, analysis and visualization system which will enhance scientific capabilities in the display and interpretation of diverse and distributed data within an integrated user-friendly environment. Our approach exploits existing technologies and combines three major elements into an easy-to-use interactive package: (1) innovative visualization software; (2) advanced database techniques; and (3) a rich set of mathematical and image processing tools. Visualization capabilities will include one-, two-, and three-dimensinal displays, along with animation, compression, warping and slicing functions. Analysis tools will include generic mathematical and statistical techniques along with the ability to use large scale models for interactive interpretation of large volume data sets. Our system will be implemented on Sun and EC UNIX workstations and on the Stardent Graphics Supercomputer. Our final deliverable will include complete documentation and a NASA/NSF-CDAW/SUNDIAL campaign demonstration.

Szuszczewicz, Edward P.↗

NASA NTRS1980

Appendix E: Research papers. Manual versus digital LANDSAT analysis for modeling river flooding

The comparative value of manual versus digital image analysis for determining flood boundaries is being examined in a study of the use of LANDSAT data for modeling flooding of the Black River, in northern New York. The work is an extension of an earlier study in which Black River flooding was assessed through visually interpreted, multi-date LANDSAT band 7 images. Based on the results to date, it appears that neither color-additive viewing nor digital analysis of LANDSAT data provide improvement in accuracy over visual analysis of band 7 images, for delineating the boundaries of flood-affected areas.

Philipson, W. R.↗

NASA NTRS1981

Manual versus digital Landsat analysis for modeling river flooding

The comparative value of manual versus digital image analysis for determining flood boundaries is being examined in a study of the use of Landsat data for modeling flooding of the Black River, in northern New York. The work is an extension of an earlier study in which Black River flooding was assessed through visually interpreted, multi-date Landsat band 7 images. Based on the results to date, it appears that neither color-additive viewing nor digital analysis of Landsat data provide improvement in accuracy over visual analysis of band 7 images, for delineating the boundaries of flood-affected areas.

Philipson, W. R.↗

NASA NTRS2024

Interpretable Machine Learning for Molecular Biosignatures: a Novel Single-Sample Feature Importance Method That Is Sensitive To Statistical Interactions

Isotope ratio mass spectrometry (IRMS) of volatiles (e.g., CO 2 ) promises to be a powerful tool for potential biosignature detection for future missions to ocean worlds (OW) such as Europa and Enceladus. Machine learning (ML) methods for IRMS data could enable science autonomy by onboard prediction of seawater chemistry and biosignature presence. However, ML models are likely to be complex and involve statistical interactions between features (variables), which can make predictions seem opaque and enigmatic. For ML predictions as significant as extraterrestrial biosignatures, we must place extraordinary confidence in models. It is therefore essential that these models make interpretable predictions (i.e., human-understandable) and include false-prediction diagnostics. We achieve high accuracy and interpretability in ML biosignature and seawater chemistry models for OW through a nearest-neighbors feature selection tool that detects statistical interactions between predictors, constructs interaction networks for visualization of selected features working together to make a prediction, and reports single-sample feature importance scores for false-detection diagnostics. Here we develop a novel single-sample nearest-neighbors projected distance regression(ssNPDR) feature selection method that improves upon existing single-sample algorithms through the inclusion of statistical interactions while providing false-prediction diagnostics for ML models.

geochemistry↗

NASA NTRS1998

MAPS of Cancer

Our goal was to produce an interactive visualization from a mathematical model that successfully predicts metastases from head and neck cancer. We met this goal early in the project. The visualization is available for the public to view. Our work appears to fill a need for more information about this deadly disease. The idea of this project was to make an easily interpretable visualization based on what we call "functional maps" of disease. A functional map is a graphic summary of medical data, where distances between parts of the body are determined by the probability of disease, not by anatomical distances. Functional maps often beat little resemblance to anatomical maps, but they can be used to predict the spread of disease. The idea of modeling the spread of disease in an abstract multidimensional space is difficult for many people. Our goal was to make the important predictions easy to see. NASA must face this problem frequently: how to help laypersons and professionals see important trends in abstract, complex data. We took advantage of concepts perfected in NASA's graphics libraries. As an analogy, consider a functional map of early America. Suppose we choose travel times, rather than miles, as our measures of inter-city distances. For Abraham Lincoln, travel times would have been the more meaningful measure of separation between cities. In such a map New Orleans would be close to Memphis because of the Mississippi River. St. Louis would be close to Portland because of the Oregon Trail. Oklahoma City would be far from Little Rock because of the Cheyenne. Such a map would look puzzling to those of us who have always seen physical maps, but the functional map would be more useful in predicting the probabilities of inter-site transit. Continuing the analogy, we could predict the spread of social diseases such as gambling along the rivers and cattle rustling along the trails. We could simply print the functional map of America, but it would be more interesting to show meaningful patterns of dispersal. We had previously published the functional map of the head and neck, but it was difficult to explain to either patients or surgeons because that view of our body did not resemble anatomy. This discrepancy between functional and physical maps is just a mathematical restatement of the well-known fact that some diseases, such as head and neck cancer, spread in complex patterns, not always to the next nearest site. We had discovered that a computer could re-arrange anatomy so that this particular disease spreads to the next nearest site. The functional map explains over 95% of the metastases in 1400 patients. In a sense, we had graphed what our body "looks like" to a tumor. The tumor readily travels between adjacent areas in the functional map. The functional map is a succinct visual display of trends that are not easily appreciated in tables of probabilities.

Gray, Lincoln↗

NASA NTRS1980

The visual accommodation response during concurrent mental activity

The direction and magnitude of the human visual accommodation response during concurrent mental activity are investigated. Subject focusing responses to targets at distances of 0.0 D, 3.0 D and an indeterminate distance were monitored by means of an optometer during the performance of a backwards counting task and a visual imagery task (thinking near and thinking far). In both experiments a shift in accommodation towards the visual far point is observed particularly for the near target, which increases with the duration of the task. The results can be interpreted in terms of both the capacity model of Kahneman (1973) and the autonomic arousal model of Hess and Polt (1964), and are not inconsistent with the possibility of an intermediate resting position.

Malmstrom, F. V.↗

NASA NTRS1993

Relating ground truth collection to model sensitivity

The importance of collecting high quality ground truth before a SAR mission over a forested area is two fold. First, the ground truth is used in the analysis and interpretation of the measured backscattering properties; second, it helps to justify the use of a scattering model to fit the measurements. Unfortunately, ground truth is often collected based on visual assessment of what is perceived to be important without regard to the mission itself. Sites are selected based on brief surveys of large areas, and the ground truth is collected by a process of selecting and grouping different scatterers. After the fact, it may turn out that some of the relevant parameters are missing. A three-layer canopy model based on the radiative transfer equations is used to determine, before hand, the relevant parameters to be collected. Detailed analysis of the contribution to scattering and attenuation of various forest components is carried out. The goal is to identify the forest parameters which most influence the backscattering as a function of frequency (P-, L-, and C-bands) and incident angle. The influence on backscattering and attenuation of branch diameters, lengths, angular distribution, and permittivity; trunk diameters, lengths, and permittivity; and needle sizes, their angular distribution, and permittivity are studied in order to maximize the efficiency of the ground truth collection efforts. Preliminary results indicate that while a scatterer may not contribute to the total backscattering, its contribution to attenuation may be significant depending on the frequency.

Amar, Faouzi↗